This text is a marvelous book for students trying to get a handle on all of the pressures of college life - setting goals, learning to study, knowing who you are and where you're going. The language is simple, inviting and straightforward.

Read this to be good, live this to be great. There are daily practice sessions and there is meaningful guitar playing. How do you get there? If your decision is to accomplish mastery of the guitar, then it starts with very basic instruction. Rockin' Jimmy says if you want to be a serious guitar player, then practice the lessons in the book every day. The Daily Guitar Workout gives you the details of how to do just that. It is compact and packed full of details. It fits easily with your sheet music and is a very handy resource. Start with this book and your playing will naturally improve. Even if you've been playing for a long time there are benefits from incorporating these methods into your routine. It's like stretching before you exercise. Don't do it and you'll always wonder what if. Do it and you'll understand. From someone who has been doing it since it was published.

Felt by many to be the Gold standard in orthopedic fracture care. The text is comprehensive, providing in-depth literature reviews and the authors prefered method of treatment. The text formatting style makes it difficult to quickly/easily obtain the "need to know" information regarding a particular topic. Overall, well worth it.

The Roswell Report produced by the headquarters of the united states airforce, once and for all debunks all the crazy and wacked theories flying around (yepp, flying...stelthing...you name it they are out there) that there was an alien spacship that crashed at the famous location, i.e., Roswell. There are plenty of documents here that not only debunk these wild theories, they substanitiate the governments claim of testing military baloons. Highly Recommended.

The footnotes in this standard King James Bible are plentiful and lucid. Many people will also find the extensive thematic index very useful. I am disappointed that Ryrie didn't include a major Topical Concordance, but I'm about to purchase Strong's, which I believe will perfectly compliment Ryrie's exceptional study Bible.

While my reading of Mr. Mulvenon's book was rather on the short and quickish side, having studied with this avid student of all things Chinese, I can highly attest to the interest of the past scope of the author's work. He also moshes pretty good and drinks a mean Tsingtao down.

C. A. Wagner

Reading this book is an cheerful thing.it is fit for all kinds of people.

This book was incredible: helpful, cohesive, and stunningly written. However, the most attractive part of the collection has to be the photography. Each photo not only captures the spirit of the image shot, but captures the imagination as well. Mayer does a fabulous job of grasping the essence of Trulove's verbal images in his work. This book is a must-have, not only for the coffee table anthology, but as a feast for the eyes.

Les Miserables will be a tough read for some. Victor Hugo, in typical Nineteenth Century prose, is exceedingly verbose. His character introductions go on literally page after page, covering minute details that some modern readers will find tedious. Not only are they long, but they break the modern writing rule of "show rather than tell." When he presents new characters, we don't hear them converse or see their actions to form our own opinions. Hugo simply regurgitates a ten or twenty-page biography on them.

But this was how books were written then, and he did it as well as it could be done. The language is marvelous and rich, the characters interesting and complete, and the story sweeping and classic.

Jean Valjean, freshly released from a French prison, is caught stealing silver from an extraordinarily pious Bishop. Amazingly, this Bishop denies the silver is stolen, allowing Valjean to go free. Valjean, brutalized by nineteen years of life in "the galleys" and suffering poverty and maltreatment as an ex-convict, is so affected by this merciful act that he vows to reform. Seven years later he has changed his name and transformed himself into a righteous and contributing member of society, now a prominent factory owner and town Mayor. Life is good as he shares his profits and kind heart with the poor and unfortunate--until his past catches up with him. Valjean is then faced with an incredible predicament whose genius and complexity can be appreciated only by plowing through the full text.

Historically, this is an important literary work. Much of its political and religious sub-text may be lost, however, on those unfamiliar with the basics of the French Revolution. Like Valjean, readers will be better people for making the journey through this book. --Christopher Bonn Jonnes, author of Wake Up Dead.

pLease ingnore the reviewer who sed to read the abridged version of Victor Hugo's masterpiece LES MISERABLES. As you com e to appreciate literature and all of its finest writers, you begin to realize that you are selling yourself short if you ever read the abridged version of anything. Abridged books should be banned as well as Cliff Notes. It is not what the author intended for you to read and that is what a true lover of books goes by. Now, with that out of the way, on with this marvelous book. There is no character in literature to compare to the noble and saint-like Jean Valjean. He is my hero and the man doesn't even exist. That is how powerful Hugo's prose is. Through this 1,400 plus page book, the reader is entranced with his story and with all of the other characters that his life touches: The street urchin Gavroche, the crafty Thenardiers, the Bishop who gives Valjean the silver candlesticks he stole, and the greatest tragic hero of literature ever, the amazing Police Inspector Javert. The plot, the story, and the amazing way the reader is given an inside view to not only these characters lives and the Student Rebellion that is the climax of the novel, but to the 100 page detail on the life of the Bishop, the history of the battle of Waterloo, and the Inside View of a nunnery of the strictist order in Paris, all of these make this book like no other that has ever been published. It is up ther with the dictionary, the Bible, the Koran, and Darwin's Origin of the species, as the most important books ever made. Read it and be moved to tears. It is simply the best

It's pretty common knowledge that this is one of the best novels ever written, and I totally agree. Hugo has a keen eye, a passion for the human situation. But what sets Hugo and Les Mis apart is his ability to manage so much so well. This novel is massive, and I'm not talking about the number of pages. It envelopes life, and death, heaven and earth, love and hate, good and evil, and all else under the sun. Les Miserables is truly epic, which is truly remarkable. The plot is absolutely compelling, from beginning to end. The story of Jean Valjean is a universal story, and his transformation should resonate with every spirit. The characters swirling around him are deeply poignant, passionate, and complete. Like Dickens (and few others), Hugo knows how to pull characters' plights together in a huge and complex world without pushing the envelope of believability. When Thenardier seeks to blackmail a rich man, you want it to be Valjean. And when Marius goes for the police to capture Thenardier, you know he will meet Javert. And as each character's thread spins out toward its end, the endings are complete and satisfying, perhaps inevitable. Funny how life is like that. Having said that, I would recommend an abridged version of the novel to any but a devoted French historian. Hugo is in love with France, and carries an encyclopedia in his brain. For this (fairly well-read) layman, many of his 30-70 page long tangents into such topics as the details of current events of 1817, battle strategy at Waterloo, the history of the Parisian sewer, and the street language of Paris, are all but indecipherable. I'm definitely not a fan of abridged editions of anything, but in this case, I have to make an exception. I hope that there is a good one out there that cuts none of the plot and description, but declares, "Death to the Tangent!" That would be beautiful.

A sample of Hugo's writing:

"Algebra applies to the clouds; the radiance of the star benefits the rose; no thinker would dare to say that the perfume of the hawthorn is useless to the constellations. Who could ever calculate the path of a molecule? How do we know that the creations of worlds are not determined by falling grains of sand? Who can understand the reciprocal ebb and flow of the infinitely great an the infinitely small, the echoing of causes in the abyss of being and the avalanches of creation? A mite has value; the small is great, the great is small, all is balanced in necessity; frightening vision for the mind. There are marvelous relations between beings and things; in this inexhaustible whole, from sun to grub, there is no scorn; each needs the other." If you would like to discuss this book with me, e-mail me at williekrischke@hotmail.com. But be nice.

If you have to choose the story among the Christmas stories I think you should have Ch.Dickens' "A Christmas Carol" among your finalists and many of us might find it as the final choice. Some characters of the story even expand the spheres of Christmas; in the first place we will probably mention Ebenezer Scrooge, who has inspired e.g. Walt Disney quite a lot. It might be that his feathered equivalent, even more prosperous than the (finally) good Ebenezer,is today better known than Dickens' original. One more reason to read the book! Among the rest I'll only mention "Tiny Tim", who has lent his name at least to a tasty species of minitomatoes. The author mixes cunningly facts concerning the social contrasts in 19th century England, rich owners and poor workers, with fictitious ghosts. The latter allow him to move in time, these moves are more related to personal and moral matters than to possible changes in the social frames. The social frames of the story are as well international as English, and they cover - mostly and luckily in a more lenient form - all the ages. The darkest time of the year might make it easier to believe in ghosts or at least accept easier the ones who do so? We can follow how Mr Scrooge's opinions about the members of his staff change, he realizes that he has got some duties towards the people working for him, not just rights to use their skills and time. A kind person is easy to deal with all the year around, one of the wonders of the Yule Tide is that quite a lot of the naughty ones start to behave themselves rather humanly, too. Stories like "A Christmas Carol" might not just bring the reader the right Christmas feeling, but also make some people to change their attitudes - at best not just till Boxing Day Eve but till the next Christmas!

Well, I finally read it (instead of just watching it on the TV screen).

This is what you can call a simple idea, well told. A lonely, bitter old gaffer needs redemption, and thus is visited by three spirits who wish to give him a push in the right direction. You have then a ghost story, a timeslip adventure, and the slow defrosting of old Scrooge's soul. There are certain additions in the more famous filmed versions that help tweak the bare essentials as laid down by Dickens, but really, all the emotional impact and plot development necessary to make it believable that Scrooge is redeemable--and worth redeeming--is brilliantly cozied into place by the great novelist.

The scenes that choke me up the most are in the book; they may not be your favourites. I react very strongly to our very first look at the young Scrooge, sitting alone at school, emotionally abandoned by his father, waiting for his sister to come tell him there may be a happy Christmas. Then there are the various Cratchit scenes, but it is not so much Tiny Tim's appearances or absence that get to me--it's Bob Cratchit's dedication to his ailing son, and his various bits of small talk that either reveal how much he really listens to Tim, or else hide the pain Cratchit is feeling after we witness the family coming to grips with an empty place at the table. Scrooge as Tim's saviour is grandly set up, if only Scrooge can remember the little boy he once was, and start empathizing with the world once again. I especially like all Scrooge's minor epiphanies along his mystical journey; he stops a few times and realizes when he has said the wrong thing to Cratchit, having belittled Bob's low wages and position in life, and only later realizing that he is the miser with his bootheel on Cratchit's back. Plus, he must confront his opposite in business, Fezziwig, who treated his workers so wonderfully, and he watches as true love slips through his fingers again.

It all makes up the perfect Christmas tale, and if anyone can find happiness after having true love slip through his fingers many years ago, surprisingly, it's Scrooge. With the help of several supporting players borrowed from the horror arena, and put to splendid use here.

Charles Dickens writes this story in such detail that you almost believe you have just enjoyed Christmas dinner at the Cratchits home. The characters have so much depth. The made for t.v. or movie screen renditions do not truly depict what Ebenezer Scrooge witnesses with the three spirits that causes such a change in his outlook on life. Such as Scrooge's emotions being quickened by the past heartache in his childhood; seeing how his bad choices caused the hardening of his heart and how deeply it cost him in the end; seeing what could have been his to enjoy and then thinking it could still be his with the Spirit of Christmas Present only to find out the future does not hold any love or joy for him by the Spirit of Christmas Yet to Come and instead his actions leave him robbed at death and no one left to grieve for him. Read the book to hear how this story was really written. Even if you have seen every Christmas Carol movie every made, the book will offer so many gold nuggets that you will think you are hearing it for the very first time. Pictures are beautifully detailed throughout the book. Excellent!!!