Forget doctrine and dogma; documentation is communication. Find better, clearer ways to communicate the extreme complexities of software engineering and you will increase your odds of success. Mike Ward's message is loud, clear...and fun! Must read...

I remember during the early 60s lending my new copy of the Blues Project's first album to a friend in return for the first Butterfield album (an unknown band to me). There was a wicked instrumental on the second side called "Screamin'" which just floored me. WHO WAS THIS GUY!! Like many guitar players, I wore many copies of that album out in a futile attempt to capture Mike Bloomfield's magical tone, touch and feel. Nuff' said about his impact on me. To put it simply, there never has been, and there never will be, (if you exempt Jimi Hendrix), an American blues rock guitar player as important and influential as Mike Bloomfield. His playing is frankly present in almost every blues rock player up to the advent of Stevie Ray Vaughan. He pioneered blues rock, raga rock, jazz/brass combinations in rock (Electric Flag) and played with a raw punk attitude (in the real sense). To boot, he was an accomplished musicologist with a thorough knowledge of American music.

Ed Ward's book is a good overview of Bloomfield's life story. There are many interesting pictures, particularly of the early chicago days (including players such as Otis Rush)and his later period in California. It does lean more toward the biographical than some would have liked. However, until now its been the only resource available (and a good read). NOTE: Bloomfield's classic recordings "IF YOU LOVE THESE BLUES, PLAY 'EM AS YOU PLEASE" are available on Laserlight CD under other titles (ROOT OF BLUES and GOSPEL BLUES?).

One question, why hasn't anyone written a comprehensive musical analysis of his music? I can't understand why.

When I came upon this book,I was interested in Bloomers because
my (late)friend and associate Roger "Jellyroll "Troy had told me many first hand Bloomfield stories,
and I was intrigued by all of the things I heard about him, and was curious to know more.
I bought the book to read, and loved it! It covers his career in some detail, and some about his personal life as well.Ithought it to be an excellent summery of Michaels achievements ,and ups & downs .
Although I never got to meet Mike while he was alive,I did get to hear allot about him, and his antics through my old friend "Jellyroll", in fact I lent the book to "Roll" and he managed to leave it somewhere,and I never got it back! I cant believe how much I saw a used one going for! I hope they go into print again sometime so I can replace it!--I'll leave you with one funny note; Jellyroll told me that when they used to fly back&forth to gigs, Michael would'nt board the plane if there was a crippled person,or a nun aboard, because Michael said "god takes them first"!

Now that a more heralded book is about to be published, a tip of the hat to the first. Although friends and musical partners have disputed parts of this book, it is nonetheless the only thing available up until now, with many interesting session dates in the back. For those who aren't familiar with Mike, a few notes of my own: Richard Thompson mentions Mike as on of his faves and influences; Mike may well be Bob Dylan's favorite electric guitarist; Santana began as a Bloomfield imitator when his band was called the 'Santana Blues Band' in the sixties....Robben Ford, famed session guitarist, began as Bloomfield imitator...The infamous 'Grateful Dead' jams were originally based on the 'Paul Butterfield blues Band' with Bloomfield on guitar playing 'East-West',(the name of their second album and the full-side-of-the-LP length jam on same). Dylan,Santana and Grateful Dead fans need this book to root their knowledge of their faves , and need to hear 'East-West'.

"Boy Toy" is the second book I've read in the Mark Manning mystery series and they keep getting better. I consider myself a fairly new fan to the Gay Mystery genre and with authors like Michael Craft, I'm sure I'll be a fan for a long time to come.

'Boy Toy' is written so well that it would allow for a first time reader of the series to pick up this one and fit right into the story line. The first one I read was "Name Games", which is the 4th addition to the Mark Manning series. Initially, I was worried that I'd feel like there was a disconnection with the characters since I started midway through the series. However it was quite the opposite. All the pieces of the puzzle were there to hook me into the story line and conjure up my anticipation for more. This 5th addition to the series would easily keep a first time reader spellbound. I'd go as far to say that it would convert a non-fan of this genre into a returning fan.

This new story is woven closely around Mark Manning, his partner Neil and their nephew Thad who is more like their son. Thad has been living with the couple since his mother past away. We also get to visit some of our other favorite characters from past volumes and even get introduced a few fun, new ones. This is definitely a mystery that hits close to the Manning household. Since I felt connected to a lot of the characters from reading 'Name Games', I found 'Boy Toy' was difficult to put down until I had completed it. I couldn't wait to find out what was going to happen next with these endearing personae.

Michael Craft has me anxiously waiting for the 6th addition to his Mark Manning mysteries. I may have to go back and get some further background on Mr. Manning and his past mystery exploits. Consider it done.

Mark Manning's adopted son Thad becomes the prime suspect when the fellow lead in a local play is found murdered. Mark, with the help of his friends and lover Neil, must untangle the complex motivations to find out who actually killed the boy Jason, and clear Thad before the community acts on its popular opinions. The strength of the Manning series is the relationship between Mark and Neil, as well as the parent-child relationship they have with Thad. There's just nothing else like it! It's not often where we get to read about a male couple's love, emotionally and physically. Meanwhile, the mystery plot twists and swerves to an unexpected conclusion. Leave it to Michael Craft to continue surprising his fans and raising the bar for modern mysteries and gay fiction.

"Boy Toy" is the first book by Michael Craft I've read and my first experience of his amateur sleuth, newspaperman Mark Manning. I loved the characters and found the plot intriguing as well as the small town Wisconsin location. I was gratified to discover that this is the latest book in a series by this author featuring the same main character, who functions as narrator of the story. This one had me guessing! I'm from Los Angeles originally, have lived in San Francisco for 22 years, and spent a year in Dubuque, Iowa going to school in the mid-1970's. The midwestern setting of this book wasn't a problem for me, even if it's where I don't want to live.

My one quibble -- and it is a quibble -- is that more than once Manning describes his prairie house as having come from one of Frank Lloyd Wright's students at Taliesin in Wisconsin. Sorry, but the Prairie School was founded by Wright and his associates who worked out of Wright's original studio in Oak Park, Illinois. By the time Wright moved to Taliesin, the prairie house was on the way out and by the time Taliesin established its program of architectural apprenticeship, it was the 1930's and Usonian houses -- prairie houses were long gone by then.

... I would have never purchased this book.
I love the idea of giving my little 2 and a half year old a universal approach to tales and stories from all over the world. I new Rudoph qualified. I had no idea that there was a monster in the story; note that it was the one thing that impressed her, and she asked me what it was.
I wouldn't suggest it to anyone that wants to introduce the idea of Santa Clauss to their child.

I was very impressed with this book . . . a beautiful book, wonderfully illustrated, containing the original story, which did not have the Abominable, or Herbie, or Yukon Cornelius, like the later movie. I remember as a child in 1951 listening to the original story on 78rpm records put out by RCA and have attempted for years to find the original story. Although I did notice some subtle differences in the words . . .the original referred to Rudolph's, er, "forehead" (Santa was too polite to call it a big red nose) . . most of the text stayed true to what I had memorized. Definitely a book not only for children, but for us baby boomers who remember the original. A must-have to hand on from generation to generation.

Yes, the other reindeer make fun of Rudolph's red nose. (I would hardly call this bigotry.) That is the point of the story: Rudolph overcomes adversity and the other reindeer learn to accept differences. Even the elves learn to accept a dentist and the misfit toys are given to boys and girls who love them. Maybe the USA reader should have watched (or read) until the end of the story instead of making snap judgements like all of the other reindeer.

Micheal ward has done an excellent job by explaning all the key topics under managing strategy, marketing, pricing, finance, operations, decision making, statistics, people, learning, change and managing yourself.

Essential handbook for practicing mangers and students of M.B.A course.

Learn 50 essential management techniques including Zipf's law, pareto analysis, priority grid and Ivy Lee method all in one consise book

It is a beautiful book with very interesting informations. I liked to know the history of many plants, but the autor doesnt't know almost anything about South American flowers. All the flora of Atlantic forest was forgotten.There is almost nothing about the great family of blomeliads and orchids. It could be a great book. . There is a book written by Loerenzi de Souza who has a great knowledge about brasilian flora, Harri Lorenzi (plantarum@plantarum.com. br) that could help the next edition.

This is a great botanical history. I was impressed with the little vignettes of the great plant finders, many of whom lost their lives trying to find great new plants. I happened to be reading the book while driving through the Smokey Mountains and seeing the Lobelia cardinalis at the same time I was reading how the Queen of Spain named it because it was such a brilliant red it reminded her of a Cardinal's robe. If you love plants, you will love this book.

The book is orgainized roughly by plant family, which is fine. I was a bit annoyed that there were pictures of period gardens stuck everywhere throughout the book (in the middle of the plant family organization). Rather than being in the middle of the chapters, I think these wonderful pieces could have been between the chapters. Actually I was so interested in what I was reading, I didn't appreciate the also wonderful interuption.

By the way, I passed by a whole hillside of Tradescantia in the Smokey Mountains while reading about the Tradescants (father and son) who brought that great plant to Europe.

The only thing I would caution is that the book is great reading, but for history, not how to grow the plant in your garden, especially if you are in the US, since the author is from England and cultural requirements are not his strong point.

I think this is a very interesting book.

I don't like this book. I wish I never got it. I'd rather have the official one for Duke3d Atomic by Sybex. This book by Prima didn't have any shots of the game when they told you how to beat the level. It was very hard for me to defeat levels because it had no shots and the only way to get to the next place was to look at the map. It only told the description of each area but not how to get to the next. Some of the info in the book were totally wrong. I liked the way they made the maps and the steps (not what the steps tell though) overall.

I tottaly didn't agree with the instructions and the writer did not let us understand it ( because he probably wrote it while he was sleeping ) Two thumbs down

...hits the streets with a resounding "thud." It's amazing to me how Prima can keep pumping out this garbage. I guess the only thing more amazing than the low quality of Prima's "strategy guides" is the fact that we keep buying their cruddy books.

The Gex 3 Strategy guide from Prima is very useful, and very fun to use. It shows every tip and trick you need to destroy the evil Rez and save Xtra from the depths of a media dimension! Plus, it has secret codes that you can use in the GEX Vault to make yourself a Gexcellent (excellent) player! Displaying maps of every theme, translating Alfred the turtle's misunderstandable quotes of wisdom, and showing full-color snapshots of the tricky environments is what this great book has to offer! WARNING N64 OWNERS: One secret level, one bonus level, and the Mythology (Greek) Channel level are the only three backgrounds/settings that were made only for the Playstation (Teen rated) version, and are much different from the Nintendo 64 version (rated Everyone). But don't get discouraged, N64 users. This book can still be fun for you!

I think if people need hints for gex 3, well they prety much got what they were looking for. This book is great for me.

This book is not as funny as my initial expectations. I was dissapointed beyond recognition

This is a wonderful book to read along with your kids.There are truly 1000 knock-knock jokes and they are all appropriate for children of any age.The book is divided into sections that have fun themes, so you can begin with some sort of reference if you prefer. My daughter and I went straight through by page. We liked this book because it's creative, easy to read, and can keep you busy ofr hours.

Every game has a companion book that is only for the GM or in this case the story teller. While this book can be useful and add a few cool little items to the mix it isn't really necessary to get into the game. Those that are only semi-into the game shouldn't bother with this, but hard core gammers and those that want to finish off a collection should pick it up.