As a nephrology fellow I found the concise tabular format in this book very useful and reassuring while beginning my consultation months. I still like the basic idea behind its publication, but am increasingly disappointed. Much of the dosing information is readily available now for free, and it is frequently more accessible on palmbased programs such as epocrates and medscape that avoid the need for carrying multiple pocket references. I would like to see the text regularly updated, go beyond data available in existing palm programs, such as including recommendations/cautions regarding drug combinations for transplant recipients, discuss intraperitoneal dosing for CAPD patients on relevant medications, include critical liver metabolism pathways (i.e. P450 enzymes systems) so interactions with other meds might be better predicted. I would enthusiastically support adding a palmtop version to the appropriately updated text.

After completing a residency in internal medicine/pediatrics and using many other sources to decide on renal drug dosing I have been most delighted with the introduction to this one at the beginning of my nephrology fellowship. The very rapid accessible concise format of key essentials I need for patients with temporary or chronic renal failure are also adjusted for types of renal replacement therapy. Only suggestion I have is: please update with new addition and more meds included as soon as possible. Wish I had known about this book from the first day of my internship.

Very helpful, quick reference for Physicians, Pharmacists and Nurses to determine possible effects of renal disease on drug disposition.

This book is basically a textbook, as it contains a lot of the details that are common to incorporation in any state. While the authors have stayed general enough to remain in an interstate appeal, they have still covered almost every legal aspect of incorporating, WITHOUT giving advice as to what you should do. Also covered are: sole proprietorships and limited liability coporations/partnerships and more. Good buy if you want a good cursory understanding of business vehicles. I recommend it. Please vote if this did help you.

It's really helpful in that it covers a bunch of the basic points. Ironically, I wish it focused on the tax implications of losses (to be expected in startups) as much profits :). I also found some of the writing confusing -- like in covering LLCs, it compares some facets of them to other corporate before really explaining how they work. But I liked the book, thinking it basically helps me have a more informed conversation with a lawyer, which I think is essential (since regulations change so fast, and can be state-specific).

This book is excellent! I have a Ph.D. and an MBA and have taken a lot of courses and read lots of books, business and otherwise. This text summarizes a lot of important information into a small book. This is not for simpletons, rather it gives important information for anyone wishing to incorporate.

I was very disappointed by William Golding's novel The Spire. Golding, whose most famous book is Lord of the Flies, tells in The Spire the story of an Dean Jocelin's obsession to add a 400-foot tall spire to his English Cathedral. All, including the builder, tell Jocelin that this is impossible, as the building lacks adequate foundation. Nonetheless, Jocelin persists, going mad in the process. While much of the writing and language of this book is first-rate, I found it difficult to either pay attention or follow the plot. I found myself rereading many parts of the book with no greater comprehension than the first time through. For me, this was one of those books which I was thankful was short.

"The Spire" manages to brush up against the successful elements of Golding's best work. Although it never reaches the heights of the brilliant "The Lord of the Flies," it does paint vivid and fragmented pictures of man come undone.

William Golding, after seeing the horrors of war firsthand, rejected the foundational thought of humanism that "man is basically good." In "The Lord of the Flies," he used concise language and haunting symbolism to validate his thoughts. And, by creating sympathetic characters, he drew us into his viewpoint. Few of his other novels create such sympathy. It is as though he bought into his own philosophy so deeply that he no longer found value in his fellow man. "Pincher Martin" and "Free Fall" left me impressed with his skills, but intellectually unmoved.

In "The Spire," he moves me again. At first, his protagonist--an anti-hero in every sense--is hard to sympathize with in any fashion. The man, Dean Jocelin, is driven to the point of obsession and insanity by his need to serve God, or, ultimately his need to feel worthy in God's sight. He demands obedience and servitude from those around him, driving them to complete his vision of a 400 ft spire above his cathedral. In the process, some will die, others will lose faith, hope, and love. Only as Jocelin comes to terms with his fallibility do we begin to care about the doomed outcome of his dream. Only as he admits his own pride and stubborness do we hope for his absolution, deserved or not.

This book is an ode to all those who become obsessed by religion and love, who strive for something to the point of sacrificing everything of true value along the way. Here, finally, Golding once again finds a way to show the madness of humanity while still proferring a glimmer of hope.

William Golding's reach in this novel is prodigious. Not only does he demonstrate that the one historical constant is human nature, he also manages to flesh out the scope of behaviour admitted in one particlar human being. The novel takes the reader back in time and to an historically, as well as geographically, foreign place. It deals with how human beings cope with pain, loss, ambition, vision and the tenderest of feelings. The novel is a tour de force.

The 1999 edition that I read is a collection of 34 Harvard Business Review articles, class discussion papers and case studies written by the four authors (all business school professors) and a few others over the 1980s and 90s.

The chapters written by the four professors have a strong academic/pedagogic orientation. Dealing with basic issues in extreme analytic detail, they frequently belabor the obvious and often come across as though they have all the answers (chapters written by Sahlman were especially bad for this). The book does, however, provide some thought-provoking discussion and a reasonable introduction to the issues of assessing viability, planning and managing a new business, and of attracting resources. Some of the chapters not written by the professors provide a good "textbook" reference for subjects such as patent law, raising venture capital, and management technique in checklist style.

I give the book three stars for its rigorous analysis but not five because of its presumptuous tone and the fact that too many of the chapters lean toward the hypothetical. It lacks the genuine, practitioner-based input this subject deserves.

Sahlman provides a very comprehensive volume on the current stage of knowledge of entrepreneurship as a field. In the articles, which are mainly written by a limited number of professors, all important topics related to entrepreneurship are addressed, such as finance, personality, marketing, strategy, culture, and many more. From an academic perspective, it is a 10.

However, I often felt that it was missing more on the practical side. For example, there are a few case studies, but only on certain topics. It was missing more of the "been there, done that" perspective. Definitely there were stories, but in those there was more of a strategic analysis rather than visionary or inspirational.

Overall, this is a very good book to use as reference to certain topics, especially in an academic environment.

As an MBA student at Harvard six years ago, I had the opportunity to learn under Professor Sahlman. His class and his books are worth their weight in gold if you intend to either start companies or invest in them. This book brings together some of the best ideas from his colleagues.

My colleagues and I selected this book for a team-taught course on the 20th Century, reasoning that multiple authors would give us multiple perspectives. Alas, it also gave us multiple standards of quality, and an overall lack of focus. The students voted with their feet and gave up on the book perhaps half way through. We stuck it out to the bitter end & concluded that the students were probably right, although there are periodic flashes on insight & interest throughout. The second time around we used Roberts' 20th Century history & both we & the students were much happier.

I remember that history was one of my least interested and weakest subjects when I was in junior secondary school. It's not until recently that I started to realize I should know more about what's going on in the world. And I bought this book.
This 450-page book consists of 27 chapters, grouped in 5 parts, namely The Framework of the Century, The Eurocentric World 1900-1945, The Cold War 1945-1900, The Wider World, and finally Envoi.

Part 1 is an overall review of the century from different points of views, science, technology, economy, politics, culture and art. This gives you a very brief yet concise idea of what the century is like, what happened, and what were eventually the consequences.

Part 2, a very exciting part, tells about the politic and military situations in the two world wars.

Part 3 is on the post-war period after the second World War. This tells you about the Cold War between the U.S. and the Soviet Union, and its influences.

Part 4 is dedicated to the development of areas other than Europe and the U.S. If you are interested in the history of a specific area other than those dominant countries in the century, or if you would like to look wider than just those countries, this part surely gives you what you want.

And finally Part 5 concludes the 20th century and looks forward to the 21st century.

This book did a very good job in trying to gather different opinions. The 27 chapters were actually written by 26 leading professionals, including Nobel prize winner Steven Weinberg. As each chapter is dedicated to one particular interest, you can easily jump to where you are interested - if that's what you prefer.

In conclusion, this book is a very good choice for anyone, who want to widen their world view and know more about the 20th century, a remarkable century in human history that makes today's world the way it is.

I enjoyed reading this one-volume survey of the events of the 20th century, whose stated editorial objective was to provide a literate and understandable survey of the panorama of change and tumult that so characterized these last hundred years. Given these very real limitations, this essay-driven approach featuring a whole drawer full of celebrated historians is a very satisfying and entertaining way for a reader to gain an interesting, thematic, and absorbing overview of the events of our century. This is a useful reference book that provides authoritative historical sources describing the momentous events as well as significant themes of the 20th century.

It is organized both by period and by geographical areas, and commences with an excellent social, economic, and political snapshot of the world as the new century dawns. By employing a number of different essayists to describe various aspects of the unfolding drama, it provides the reader with relatively concise overviews of salient topics without having to muck about in the mind-boggling details some more expansive histories would. In essence, the text neatly describes the major events and phenomena of the century, discussing the various aspects of each, and analyzing the particulars of both social disruptions via shifts of power as well as the remaining elements of social cohesion and continuity. As the reader soon discovers, however, the former far outweigh the latter in the events and trends characterizing the times.

Indeed, when one considers the radical departure between what existed throughout the world at the onset of the century as opposed to what prevails at its close, one is moved by the sense that the world had been literally transformed over the hundred-year span. Where once proud and autocratic kings, tyrants and potentates ruled with despotic indifference, now indifferent democracies, uncertain dictatorships, and benignly ignorant despots rule the stage. We've moved from unreliable telegraphs to instant wireless phones, from horse and buggy to space travel, and from death to an early age to whole societies of seniors planning to live well into their eighties and nineties. Where once people lived in splendid isolation from the outside world in a sphere only painfully connected from one community to another by mail, telegraph, and slow travel, we now have instant awareness of all that happens around the globe. So, if some of us are not entirely convinced of the progressive nature of this change, even we have to admit that W. B. Yeats captured the kernel of the times by warning things had "changed utterly".

As I mentioned above, this book provides the reader with a quite handy reference tool and a terrific overview, and is organized both in terms of time periods, geographical area, and also thematically around several key master processes that were instrumental influences in the century. It is expressly not the sort of expansive, detailed, and authoritative source for understanding or researching particular events such as the Depression or the Cold War. For those kinds of discussions one must turn elsewhere. But for its intended purpose of providing the serious student with an approachable, readable, and useful guide to understanding the main currents and highlights (or perhaps low points) of this explosive century, this is a wonderful book that belongs on every 20th century history student's bookshelf. Enjoy!

Bill Quandt's volume on the American role in the Middle East peace process reads more as a chronology of events than a real analytical piece of history. The author devotes an extradinary amount of detail to minor events and actions without really explaining the motives of the players behind the actions. The strongest part of the book is the Presidential Crisis decision making model, in which he explains how he feels US policy on the issue is molded. There is little to judge against, however, since the author does not really do justice to the other theories of US decisionmaking on the middle east. Whether or not he agrees with them, he could at least tell us why he thinks they are incorrect. And finally, the amount of minutia the author goes into ends up leaving the reader wishing he would just decide to highlight a few important events and motives.

This detailed account of the American peace process in the Arab Israeli conflict is written by William Quandt, who has served Nixon and Carter on the National Security council.
Quandt tells what diplomatic moves the United States made to bring peace between Israel and the Arabs.

The account begins with the Six Day war. After the Six Day war the Arabs wanted Israel to give back land they had taken and justice for the Palestinians. The Israelis wanted peace and the Arabs to recognize Israel's right to exist. But the Israelis had no intention of giving up land, and the Arabs were not likely to recognize Israel's legitimacy

Tension existed in the Middle East until war broke out again in October 1973. Kissinger had ignored the Middle East until then, after which he negotiated continually in the Middle East under Nixon and Ford to bring peace to keep the Soviets from exploiting the chaos.

Carter started negotiations in the 70s, after Begin began construction of settlements on the lands captured in the Six Day war, indicating that the lands would be permanently held by Israel, making peace with the Arabs much more difficult. Carter worked hard to gain peace between Israel and Egypt which cost him in domestic politics. Carter mentioned the Palestinians for the first time in the negotiations

Under Reagan there were a lot of plans, but little was accomplished. After the Gulf War Bush restarted peace negotiations, hoping that the Palestinians support of Saddam Hussein would weaken them, and the collapse of the Soviet Union would remove support for the Arabs. Quandt ends with an account of Clinton's attempts at peace in the Mideast.

Quandt concludes that certain conditions must be met to gain success. There must be a realist appraisal of the regional situation, presidents like Johnson, Nixon, and Reagan considered Mideast policy as part of US Soviet relations. The President and his top advisors must work together in the negotiations, not like in the Rogers plan. There must be domestic support for American policy, a problem for Carter. Success as a mediator depends on a feeling for both process and substance. There must be quiet negotiation and preparation for negotiations. Pressure only succeeds if carefully exerted. Timing is crucial for successful negotiations.

Because this book is about the peace process between America and Israel,
there is almost no information about the domestic politics of any countries, especially the Arab countries. This book includes a good bibliography, and some good maps.

I feel that this book deals beautifully with the issues it tries to attend to. Quandt manages to bring a fresh perspective to the middle eastern situation, which is a good change from most other books of this source. This is by far one of the best books on the middle eastern peace talks i have ever read and i would strongly recommend it to anyone who wants to learn more about it.

I read this book in college 25 years ago. Now we know that it doesn't work. But Samuelson ought to be read in self defense so that one knows what the statists in government believe their economic role to be. It's like you ought to read Dr. Spock to learn how NOT to bring up children if you want them to be happy and responsible adults.

This book is updated every few years and is kept current. Since it is the most widely used survey book on Economics, any person that would like become more economically aware should read this book. Some concepts, like Capitalism, are pretty humpty-dumptish in that the word means whatever someone choosed it to mean. However, for those who are not trying to politicize economics and are willing to look at it for what it is, a social science studying an aspect of human behavior, this book is essential. That is because it is so widely read that most people with some economics training are familiar with the way it uses terms and it provides a common ground for discussion.

The book is excellent in that it takes complex mathematical relationships and by using graphs instead of the formula that create the graphs it is easy to see what is happening with demand curves, marginal utility and other concepts.

The question of whether economics "works" or does not work is silly. It is an attempt to describe an aspect of human behavior and like psychology, sociology, linguistics or an other such attempts, it is incomplete. This book provides a good introduction to the terms, the concepts and the issues of Economics. It is no accident that it is still the most widely used introduction to Economics text.

I got this book for my Marketing 101 class and is not that bad. It used real like cases of all sorts of companies to explain the concepts outlined in the book. I personally am not a fan of reading, especially for school, but this book is pretty good. The only reason it doesn't get 5 stars is because I HAD TO buy it.

It has very good chapters. Cases are related to real life with topics about actual companies and their marketing strategies.This book contains the best knowledge for a biggener

That is, Bloomfield should have stuck to guitar playing, as Mailer should stick to writing. This effort in my view is basically just a ... of the Bloomfield name. Wofully lacking in content or a story line. Save your money for his recordings.

Most of this book is kind of annoying - for much of the first part of it you wonder why Bloomfield, who was by all accounts just a brilliant guy, couldn't manage to write any better. The ending of the book on the other hand is great - featuring two pages that Mike might well have taken a mouthful of.

Bloomfield's Me and Big Joe is a wild little book. It's a drunk and dirty account of Bloomfield's attempt to "live the blues" with Big Joe Williams, one of the stars of the Rediscovery period of the blues back in the early 60s, and the discovery that he may be able to learn how to play the guitar by watching Williams play, but there was no way he was ever going to be able to live in Williams' manner. The anecdotes are extemely funny adn poignant, and Bloomfield takes great joy in presenting his and Williams' very, very different lives and expereinces. The music pulled them together, no doubt, but Bloomfield never descends into cliches about bridging cultures and becoming soul-mates and so on. He stays on the ground, and in the process writes one of the few interesting works of blues auto-biography. If you want lots of PC uplift stories about Williams as a musical genius, go elsewhere. This is a book about musicians, not role models, and the picture ain't always pretty, even if it's enlightening, fun and defintitely wierd.

As a new Shakespeare reader, I can not compare it with his other plays, but I can say that A mid Summer night's dream is a light and enjoyable play. The characters are interesting, the setting is wonderful and the telling of the story is very visual. The aspect of the fairy world was particularly nice as well as the every so often witty lines. By using Shakespeare made easy, I was able to "translate" Shakespeare's language into plain English. By doing so I was able to better understand and get more of a feel of the play on the long run. I will use the "made easy" books again in my further Shakespeare readings I enjoyed them very much.

On the first read, I thought this was really silly stuff, but on the second read I thought it had some of Shakespheare's best romantic poetry in it.

This story contains yet another authoritarian father of Shakespheare's creation, Egeus, telling his daughter Hermia who she will marry (Demetrius) and not marry (Lysander). There is also her sister Helena who is in love with Demetrius, but Demetrius does not love her. Enter the fairies, mainly Oberon and his servant Puck who muck things up further by enchanting Lysander and Demetrius into falling in love with Helena instead of their previous darling girl Hermia. Tension ensues as Helena thinks that she is being mocked and Hermia thinks that Helena has stolen away her men. Puck and the fairies eventually right things by enchanting Demetrius to match up with Hermia and Lysander with Helena.

There is a subplot with working class rustics who try to put on a play of Pyramus and Thisbe, two lovers that die tragically. (Imagine construction workers putting on a romantic play, for modern day comparison.) The leader Snug and his company of Bottom, Quince, Flute, Snout, and Starveling prepare a play at night in the woods and the mischievous fairy Puck attaches a donkey's posterior to Bottom's head and makes the queen fairy Titania fall in love with him and his fine feature. Eventually, Puck reverses this predicament before the night is over.

Bottom and company put on the play in the last act for the nobles of city who are Theseus, Duke of Athens, and his company of the soon to be married nobles Demetrius and Hermia and Lysander and Helena, among others. The play is so bad it's comical. The usual tragic romantic deaths in plays like Romeo and Juliet are parodied in this act. In fact, this play seems to be what Romeo and Juliet would have been if it were turned into a comedy.

As with most Shakespheare's plays this is better seen than read. The love rectangle is confusing at first given the similar names of Helena and Hermia and the switching match-ups. Not much mentally to chew on here, other than the observation that one can often love someone, but they don't love you back and it's frustrating.

A Midsummer Night's Dream is certainly one of the most popular Shakespearean plays. Few other dramas display such a combination of theatrical appeal: comedy and dance, music and fairies, rustics and the moonlit woods. This unit examines the enchanting play and its theme of love and love's folly. A Midsummer Night's Dream contains some wonderfully lyrical expressions of lighter Shakespearean themes, most notably those of love, dreams, and the stuff of both, the creative imagination itself.
I believe that Shakespeare wrote A Midsummer Night's Dream as a light entertainment to accompany a marriage celebration.