Despite its title, this book really works as an introduction to opening play for players of all ages. It's not as simplistic as you might think. The only real concession Walker makes to juniors is in introducing a few characters with silly names, such as Mr. Woodpusher, Bobby Blunder, and Count Alberic O'Kelly de Galway.

The first two sections explain the principles of development, space, and controlling the center. Walker uses full games to illustrate his points. I have to admit, I've never been a fan of this method because it seems to imply that sound opening moves automatically lead to checkmate by move 30, which is an oversimplification. Still, these sections nicely (re-)enforce the basic principles of opening play.

In the next section, Walker surveys the openings by showing the main lines of about 25-30 different openings. The lines go about 10-15 moves deep, but probably do not include enough explanation for you to actually play them without other sources.

In the final section, Walker provides a full repertoire to use as White (Giuoco Piano) and as Black vs. e4, d4, c4 and Nf3. Here he shows you more than just the main line. I think any player below Class C can probably use this repertoire in actual play. I know people will complain that he doesn't give you enough options as to what to play, but I think you pay the price if you want a book that shows you detail on every opening.

I'd recommend this book as a first opening chess book and perhaps the only opening text you'll need until you reach at least 1400, provided you utilize Walker's repertoire advice.

I have not seen much better on the subjects of space, development, and time. I have used this book to coach many chess players and they quickly become much harder to beat. I think it is a great buy.

Text book openings are described move-by-move including justification and capitalizing on error

This book is great for reading as you are driving out West. There are so many stories that saturate our folk history of the Old West, it is hard to know what is true and what is legend. This book systematically takes a look at what is true and what is bogus, and what is grey in the areas of many old legends from the Old West.

My Dad made our family stop at every historical marker in the entire West, well at least that is what it felt like, but in doing this he instilled in me an interest in the West and how it was won, etc. This book gave me a fun, entertaining look at what is true and what is not true, I would recommend it for enjoyable reading.

What makes _Legends & Lies_ so attractive is that, as the book's foreword points out, it avoids the two traditional pitfalls of Western historical writing. Typically what we get is either fanciful types whose mantra is 'I don't care if it's true or not, that's the way I want it to have been' or cold-hearted sorts who assume that if it's being repeated as a legend, it could not possibly be true. It's hard to find authors who truly love the West and respect both legend and fact, with no desire to tear down either, and Walker is that rare type.

I like the breadth of the sources he considers. He blindly accepts no one, always putting effort into evaluating the source's credibility. The stories in the book (Sacajawea, Billy the Kid, and Custer to name a few) are ones known to anyone with a nodding acquaintance with Western history; in some cases I hadn't even realized there was a question as to what happened. He doesn't pander to political correctness, but he does recognize that it took two genders and a lot of colours to make the history of the West, and writes accordingly.

Highly recommended (by a lifetime Westerner, if it matters) to anyone interested in Western history.

This is an absolutely fascinating book. Walker brings massive research to his task, which is to look at all facets of some unsolved mysteries. For instance, did Davy Crockett survive the fight at the Alamo, at least for a brief while? Was Meriwether Lewis's death murder or suicide? And whatever became of Ambrose Bierce, the author who ventured into revolutionary Mexico and never returned?

Walker gathers evidence from surprising sources, some of them overlooked by historians, and leaves it to his readers to draw conclusions.

I heartily recommend this book to anyone who is interested in the history of the American West.

Basic essential knowledge for chess players ! for intermidiate players ( 1600 - 1800 ) to improve their attacking skills .

I'm not a newbie at chess, but I got lazy for awhile. I started at World Chess Network.com , and was a measly 400. However, within two weeks I've jumped to 1000+, and have beaten people as high as 1300! If you practice with this book anything is possible.

Goes over classic games and explains what's going on after every couple of moves to keep your interest. Some of the sweetest games ever are in this. Especially Anderssen vs. Lierskitzky!

This book is not aimed at people who don't know how to play, try weapons of chess by bruce pandolfini for that.

The story of John Quincy Adams is hard-to-believe. Congress truly ridiculed this man. I won't tell anymore you have to read it to believe it.

John Quincy Adams gave us a gift- the diary he left us. Beginning as a teenager and lasting until his death, what we see here is the spirit of this man who opposed slavery, advocated equal rights in the face of fierce opposition and argued the first civil rights case before the Supreme Court. Here are the words of the man who did so much for us. Read them.

This book offers a wealth of information on a whole range of diving related medical subjects and provided the information at a level that even non medically trained readers could follow clearly and concisely. This reference offered me a great starting point to begin to understand many of the medical considerations facing divers and their doctors.

This book appeals to me for a few reasons.....

It is a concise no nonsense approach to diving medicine for everyone from diving novices to hyperbaric physicians (I have seen both groups use this book). I think it is a must for all doctors who treat or do medicals for divers. The main problem with this book is that it comes in paper back and my personal copy is now deteriorating from overuse. Its that kind of book that you just keep going back to.

For the price and breadth of knowledge (including venomous fish/shark attacks the facts as well as decompression illness and medical conditions that preclude diving) there is no book than can come close.

This book would be especially useful to science students engaging in a predominantly practical-based biological course.

This book is an invaluable source of information not only for those studying about various practical techniques but even those engaged in experiments in a lab environment. Written more as an overview, it works to familiarize the reader with the principles of both experimental protocols and the equipment that might be used, for example centrifuges. It's very useful to go back to it from time to time to get a refresher on techniques that I might use on a regular basis but might not remember all the details of. Highly recommended. It's also written quite simply, which unfortunately is not the case for all biology texts.

The entire book is very short and can easily be read by anyone in just a couple of days. By the end I was thinking to myself "that's it?". In all those pages, this is all they can come up with, after all the years of experience? The book could have been a little more deep and went a little further. To be really honest, I could pretty much describe to you what the entire book tells us in just a few sentences. I guess I don't know what I was expecting. All of this to me is common sense information most everyone already knows. Like, if you want to swim, you've got to just jump in the water. I wouldn't expect anyone to agree with me, but this is just one person's opinion. I'm sure it might be very useful for some people.

This is a very good & new contribution to the American self-help tradition of 'conquering shyness' ... But there are other approaches that might be considered by shy people -- approaches which actually dare to question the anti-shy ideology of American popular culture. Three I see on Amazon currently are: "My Shyness, My Self" ... "The Gift of Shyness" ... and "The Highly Sensitive Person" ...

Shy people, and friends and family of the shy, might want to explore these books for their "shy-positive" outlook. Self-acceptance and a proper understanding of individual temperament are, after all, among the criteria for positive mental health.

This book get 5 stars from me. It is very well written and offers great advise on how to work through this crippling disorder that affect so many. As a mother of child who suffers from selective mutism, I appreciate the authors touching breifly on this issue in the book. I love the authors' sense of humor as well, throughout the book. I will recommend this book to many others.

Being a huge noir detective fiction fan I found it a little difficult to muddle through this installment in the Amos Walker series. The plot starts out in typical fashion and then goes on to become Walker out for revenge, sort of like Walking Tall or something along those lines. The ending went back to a typical hard-boiled style of ending with the detective confronting the person behind the mayhem which was nice. Unfortunately this one just didnt do it for me. Estleman is definitly an accomplished author and all the other reviewers of this novel are right on target with most of their reviews but the revenge angle just didnt work for me.

It's an overworked phrase to be sure but Loren Estleman really is 'the legitimate heir to Raymond Chandler'. And even that's an injustice because Estleman is no mere imitator. His voice is his own - tough, poignant, as gritty as the streets he writes about, and with a killer ear for dialogue.

The Amos Walker series has matured over sixteen novels from it's breezier, almost pulpish beginnings to one of the finest detective series in print. The sheer skill of his writing and his deftness of phrasing makes you gasp in wonder. I find myself constantly re-reading sentences just to savor them.

Other reviewers have gone into the plot of Sinister Heights in some detail so I won't bother repeating it. The real magic here is the writing. This may not be the best Walker novel (Never Street and Sugartown are possibly better) but then I can't think of a bad one either.

While other good PI writers have seen their glory days Estleman goes from strength to stregth with each new book. For those that still wish there were more Philip Marlowe novels, who've given up on Spenser and his clones or who just like the best in PI fiction available, don't go past Estleman and Walker.

And, as other reviewers have noted, his western novels bout Marshall Page Murdock are well worth picking up too. They're really PI novels of the old west. Or his Sherlock Holmes pastiches. Hell, anything the man writes.

Have I made my point? Don't miss Estleman. He's the real deal.

After fifteen episodes, Loren Estleman's tough private investigator Amos Walker is still a very unpredictable and interesting character. He has the mind of a scholar, the fists of a prizefighter, the wit of a comedian, and the heart of a Saint. You never know just what he might do but you're sure that it will be the right thing.

Sinister Heights takes us to the world of billionaires who built their fortunes on the backs of American labor. Leland Stutch, the last remaining pioneer of Detroit's auto industry and over a century old, just died leaving his vast fortune in the hands of his very young widow.

Rayellen Stutch has hired Walker to trace the illegitimate offspring of her late husband so that she can settle any claims against the estate before they become a legal issue. It should be a simple assignment, handled in a day or two and then forgotten.

But things get complicated in a hurry when Walker discovers that Stutch's illegitimate daughter now has a son of her own and is on the run from an abusive husband. The closer the detective gets to heirs, the more dangerous his mission becomes.

It is soon obvious to Walker that someone would rather kill him than let him discover the truth. A high speed encounter on an Interstate Highway results in the death of an old friend of Walkers and the abduction of Leland Stutch's young grandson. Circumstances force Walker to make a bold and unique move to rescue the young boy and uncover the identity of the killer.

I won't reveal any more of the plot but I highly recommend this novel. It's characters are lifelike, the dialog clever and fresh, and the story is told with Estleman's magic use of the language. It seems like the terms, Noir and Hard-Boiled were created to describe a story like this.

An easy to understand basic machining book. Good for introducing the various types of machines and associated tooling. Written for the classroom, with questions at the end of each chapter to reinforce what you have read. No techniques or how to stuff.

This is an excellent resource for someone who is just getting into machining work. I come from a CAD design background and wanted to know more about the actual processes of production, as well as tools used, etc. The book does a really solid job of covering everything from the proper use of a hammer to giving an overview of modern "high-tech" machining processes using lasers, water saws and so on. Many pictures and exceptional diagrams help to explain the text quite clearly. Done in textbook format with questions at the end of each chapter. It should be noted that while this is an overview of an immense amount of information, I though it did a pretty good job of being detailed and thorough on each subject.

Dear: Mr. Walker I am an instructor of Machining Technology and have used and studied your textbooks for a long time I wish to complimnet you on the latest edition of machining fundamentals, the text is super with the color illistrations and layout this was exactly what I was looking for in a textbook. the student workbook is also of good quality. however the instructors guide is beyond compare it is one of the best instructors guides that I have ever seen including the masters. the only complant that I have is with the testing software it is far better than nothing but is far below what I would have expected from you. you could have at least made it a Windows based program that is more user frendly and flexable for the instructor to use and edit to their pacific needs. Their is too many limits on the abilities of the software to use fonts, printers, layout of the test.ect. What I would like to see in the future editions is an improvement on the software maybe even include the text, illistrations, text questions, and a lot more project prints that relate to the text and program that will allow the students to be more compedent in the shop. Thank you for your time and effort. Thomas C. Leckey

Margaret Mitchell's own love story accentuated the movie. She was able to create such a romantic story because she was leading such a romantic life herself.

I felt that Margaret Mitchell's family was part of my own, and hated to see the book end. Am reading it now for the second time. Would love to communicate with Marianne Walker, direct. Just finished reading Darden Asbury Pyron's SOUTHERN DAUGHTER and it has made me so MAD. There are so many contradictions in it with the Walker version and I choose to believe Marianne! As you can see, I am a devoted Margaret Mitchell fan and have tried to read every thing I could throughout the years. I look forward to learning if Marianne Walker is available to the "general" public, like me.

I have been a GWTW fan since I was 12. This book is a must for GWTW fans and anyone else as well. This book gives us a peek into the writing process and what instant fame and forture can do to a person. It also tells us of interesting facts about Margaret Mitchell, her husband John, and their families. This story is told partially through letters saved by friends and families. A wonderful insight to that era of GWTW's initial popularity.