After checking out many books from the library and pouring over glossy photos of rooms as large as my whole house, I felt more discouraged than inspired. If you can get past the name of this series of books, this particular "Dummy" book has all the same information about interior design as the books that cost three times as much. Get those out of the library and look at the photos for free. There are only a few photos of rooms in this book. It is mostly just the basics of what you need to understand very basic interior design concepts. Is everyone but me living in a house with 12 foot ceilings, rooms that are 400 square feet and windows looking out on the ocean!

Like all the "handbook for Dummies" series, this is good, basic, straight forward information for the novice, written in a very friendly, unintimidating style.

Good,Solid advice on actually furnishing your home stylishly and comfortably instead of just fantasizing about the unaffordable and unattainable. I found a lot of helpful information to get me through each stage of a project. I really liked the way the authors wrote...very down-to-earth and friendly, unintimidating and real. I only wish there were loads of pretty pictures too!

I read with great interest Mr Hart's contention that the founding fathers philosophy was essentially drawn from the Bible. Through select uses of quotations Mr. Hart leads the reader to believe that the American Revolution, Declaration of Independence, etc. are essentially a product of a Christian world view. His use of quotes to support his suppositions are not based in the context in which they were written. For example, he quotes from Thomas Jefferson extensively to support his position that the founding fathers used the bible to form their ideas of liberty and freedom for the individual. I am assuming that Mr. Hart is an Evangelical Christian who believes that the Bible should be the only source to inform the morals and laws for society. He ignores the fact that Thomas Jefferson was a deist, which is the very opposite of what he believes. He uses the term from Jefferson of "God's Nature." Mr Hart you need to know that Jefferson did not believe in the deity of Jesus Christ or the Bible as the Word of God. He draws parallels between the Old Testament and a supposed relationship to the Declaration of Independence. He fails to give hard evidence of this connection. This book is at best a diatribe against what Mr. Hart sees as the destruction of America's "Christian Roots." Check your sources Mr. Hart and admit that America's "Christian Roots" is at best laced with historical fabrications and misleading assertions.

The logic this book uses is bad. For example, Hart states that everyone, not just members of one religion, should have a say in how government works. In a different chapter he says that it's O.K. for a majority to make the entire decision (as long as it's a Christian majority, of course). As a secular humanist who believes that religion should be tolerated but not encouraged, I recommend this book as a way to gain understanding of why fundamentalists often suffer from brain atrophy. The reason why I gave it two stars instead of one is that despite its lack of logic, it is well written, and the history itself is very interesting, particularly the section on the Quakers.

Faith and Freedom is an excellent history of the ideological roots of American Government. Mr. Hart has done a masterful job of identifying the sources of those ideas that influenced the Founding Fathers and the charters which they wrote. This book defuses the revisionist's arguements that posit that America is a child of the Enlightenment in the same vein as France. Mr. Hart shows that America, unlike France, adopted the Protestant Christian principle that freedoms came from God and not government. Government within this structure was charged with the protection of those God given freedoms. France on the other hand virtually excluded God from discourses that proceeded their revolution, and by doing so, put government in the position to give and take freedoms as it saw fit. Our war for Independence was successful while France's was a bloodbath that failed by all measures. I would highly recommend this book to anyone who is interested in an accurate, concise history of this very important episode of the American story.

I find this book lacking in details and jump from one event to another thus making it VERY difficult to follow. Anyone wants to buy a partially read book ??! Dull dull dull.

Perhaps I was spoiled a bit by reading Liddell Hart's book "Strategy" before I read the "Great Captains Unveiled." "Strategy" is the work of a mature military polemicist and a master stylist. In "Great Captains," Liddell Hart hasn't reached the peak of his skill yet, but it is certainly an enjoyable and informative read nonetheless. In demonstrating the applicability of historical lessons to the modern art of war, Liddell Hart lays the groundwork for his theory of the indirect approach; i.e. never attack your opponent, or do anything in war, along the the line of natural expectation. This theory, so clear and explicit in "Strategy," in buried here. But one can see the kernels of the theory in the author's choices of generals to profile and battles to highlight.

While certainly weak in the use of primary sources and complete perspective, as recognized in the foreword to the most recent edition, "Great Captains" is effective as an essay rather than straight history.

This book is amazing. I really like this book. Because it explains not only strategical and tactical thoughts but also gives lessons about them. For example, Sabutay always leaded his armies in a security circle. He always believed the importance of the security. If you really investigate the maps in the books and listens to Sir Hart, you can understand that easily. Above all, you can apply these thoughts to your military, business or personal life. Without a doubt, Hart doesn't generalise that. Because he was a fascinating military theorist not a self-help or a business-self book writer. However, If you deeply thinks the book(when you are reading that), you can gain many skills and get in to the minds of genius'.

I have to think that this book was a cop-out. The premise, excellent: we die for real when we are forgotten. The novel starts in a very promising way. A recent widower cannot seem to enjoy life anymore. His wife's mother is going through similar grief. While it would have been fascinating to see how these two people struggled through their pain, the author sticks a "play" in the middle of the novel to explore her theory of how oblivion equals true death. The space dedicated to that pseudo-play would have been better utilized showing how the two main characters recover (or not) from their grief and how Hart's theory proves to be valid (or not).

I still think Josephine Hart is an excellent writer, and recommend Sin as proof. This book did not do it for me.

Oblivion is the story of how a family (namely mother and husband) is coping with the death of a woman. At least, part of the story is. The middle half of this book is actually a play, written by a woman Andrew, the husband of the dead woman, is interviewing. Andrew goes to a reading of this play, which is made up of the monologues of dead people. The premise of the play is that it is not when people die that they disappear, rather that when we stop remembering them is when they slip into oblivion

If any author should have the prose to deal with subjects like death, love and oblivion, it is Josephine Hart. But reading this book is like listening to discordant music that you think you are meant to like - you try to find something in this to enjoy, but realise by the end that it was just annoying, and trying too hard to be clever. The play in the middle of the book simply does not work. There are no characters in this book that you can truly empathise with. The writing is spare, but not elegant, as in other Hart books (Damage is an example that comes to mind). Rather, every sentence feels like a stilted, over-written construction.

I don't expect to enjoy a book to like it, but when that is the case, I do want what I read to move me. Oblivion, despite the fascinating topic and previously proven skill of the author, did not move me in the slightest. It was simply a very boring book.

the opening and closing chapters of this book were beautiful and chilling. but the large middle section of a play-within-the-book was less satisfying... which i suppose means it worked.

The style did not appeal to me the way she injected useless information and in doind so breaking dialouge into segments. This weakened the dialouge and the flow of the book. The ending seemed unimaginative after the creative beginning. I had high expectations for this book but the book fell far short.

Max Darling receives a panicky phone call from his client, Courtney Kimball. She urges him to meet with her immediately but when he arrives at the agreed-upon place, she does not show up. When they do some investigating Max and his wife Annie find that Courtney has just discovered that she is part of the wealthy and powerful Tarrant family. She wants Max to find out who murdered her father and grandfather in 1970. Max and Annie figure that it has to be either a family member or one of the servants, since they were the only ones with motive and opportunity. They travel to the family home and interview each of the suspects, finding that each person has a motive for the murders. Max and Annie discover many secrets in the Tarrant family and that wealth and prominence do not make them immune from tragedy, greed, and deceit. This is a page-turner that will keep you guessing until the very end.

Southern Ghost was one of the stronger books in the Death on Demand Series. It seems the characters and the stories get stronger as the series progresses. This story includes a large number of local ghost stories that add a real flavor for the past to the mystery at hand. The story has Hart's usual references to a multitude of mystery authors and books, as well as some of the more colorful characters from past books in this series. Including characters like Miss Dora and Sybil added zip to what was already a well planned mystery and gave readers a deeper sense of the area that the books are set in.

Since milieu is such an important part of a mystery novel, avid mystery readers will like Hart's Death on Demand book store and the cozy little island community in which it is located. Most of the characters are mystery novelists, and if the crimes and solutions are not brain teasers of the first order, mystery fans will enjoy the familiar references.

Overall, I felt that this book was fun and clever, but certain elements of it, like the literary name-dropping, could be annoying at times. What got me, though, were all the little errors, even when they didn't really have anything to do with anything. Just as an example: In 1987, when this book came out, School of the Ozarks had not yet changed its name to College of the Ozarks, and it is located south of Branson, *not* in the town of Ozark, which is some distance *north* of Branson. I know, minor errors in the grand scheme of things, but if those are the easy facts to check, I have to wonder what all else Hart screwed up.

Annie Laurance runs a mystery book store, Death on Demand, which she inherited from her beloved uncle. Once a week she has a meeting of the Sunday Night Regulars, local mystery writers from the South Carolina island where she lives. One of the writers, Elliot Morgan is a disagreeable fellow who threatens to reveal things about his fellow writers which they would prefer to keep quiet. Before he has a chance to do so he is killed, presumably by one of the Sunday Night Regulars. The local police suspect it is Annie herself but with her friend Max Darling, she sets out to find the real murderer. Max and Annie discover that each of the Regulars has avoided a brush with the law and each has something to hide which Elliot could have known about. There are lots of wonderful references to classic mysteries and mystery writers as Annie and Max work to solve the case. This is the first book of a justly popular series.

This book gets ZERO stars from me and is, in fact, dangerous because it is SO outdated and negative! It kept me from even considering ABA therapy which, once I FINALLY got my son to see a development specialist from Children's Hospital, was the Doctor's strongest recommendation. ("ABA has been proven to work, and it is NOT experimental. I've been successful in getting some insurance companies to pay for it by writing a medical letter of neccessity," the doctor told me.) Re: ABA, Hart cites outdated negative reinforcements and aversion techniques NO LONGER USED vs. the positive reinforcements--tickling, favorite toys, etc-- that are now used by ABA therapists. The book discourages parents in every chapter with the basic message being "lower your expectations." Again, though parents are reporting vast improvements with dietary intervention and vitamin supplements, he discourages it says it just makes austic kids even more "different" and hides behind the lame "is not accepted by most in the medical community." Meanwhile, while not ALL doctors agree, the head of the childhood development department at Children's Hospital in DC DOES recommend that parent's try the casien-free, gluten-free diet. While I know I should feel the same sympathy and kinship with Hart that I feel for every parent of a child with autism, I don't. I'm angry at him for his closed mind and for the direction his book might mistakenly send parents. Especially since ALL the literature agrees that every moment counts and early intervention can make ALL the difference. I wish I had NOT read it. ...

This was the first book I read when faced with the possibility that my son might have autism. Unlike other reviewers I cried all through the reading of it. Granted, that would be a normal reaction to facing my child's diagnosis at the time, but frankly this book made it worse. I felt the book highlighted all the devastating things about the disorder and accented the "weirdness" of it.Particularly hurtful to me was how each form of therapy or treatment was profiled. The last paragraph of the section always told why that treatment could never work for long if at all. I remember the question "Is there hope?" being asked with the answer "Absolutely." However,this book did not make me feel hopeful and in fact compounded my grief. I have since come to learn that there is indeed great hope and documented scientific proof of some therapy's efficacy. I believe the author's intentions were to be helpful and informative, but I could never recommend this book.

I have read this book before and decided to re-read it now that it has been 5 years since my son was diagnosed with autism. It is interesting to note how my perceptions and understanding have changed in that time, and that obviously changed the way I read the book this time around. I still feel that this is an important book to read for any parent of a child with an autism spectrum disorder. The book is basic and straightforward and deals with issues like "What are People with Autism like?" , "What Can Medication Do for People with Autism?" and
"What's the Best Approach to Education?"

What is really interesting to me is the background that the author brings to the book, his brother had autism (long before it was even a word) and his own son was later diagnosed with autism as well. I heard the author speak at our local autism conference at the end of October and I found him to be refreshing and absolutely fascinating. I wanted to include a few of the highlights of his presentation to share here.

Mr. Hart gave an detailed history of autism and how it came to be known by that name. Although it is believed that there have been people with autism since the beginning of time, there
was not an actual term describing the symptoms until the 1940's when Kanner and Asperger both published papers on a strange combination of talents and disability that seemed to be present in some people. At this time, parents were blamed for their child's disability. Mr. Hart's brother was in his twenties during the 1940's and his family had no knowledge of these published papers. His brother was not allowed to attend school and he talked a lot about how people with disabilities have gone through their own civil rights movement for the right to obtain an education. The 1960's brought a growing belief that autism must be caused by something organic or biological and many new approaches in treatment were developed such as TEACCH, Lovaas, and Applied Behavioral Analysis. The 1970's brought great strides in genetic research and it is his belief that we currently know about as much as we possibly can about the genetics of autism and the mystery will still remain. There were a few breakthroughs in the 1980's and 1990's but they were disappointments (fragile x, secretin, etc.)

His experiences in growing up with a sibling with autism had a great impact on him. His brother was completely dependent on their mother for everything and when she died, he had to be institutionalized. This had an enormous impact on how he has raised his own son with autism. He was very sensitive to the needs of his non-disabled child and has tried very hard to give his autistic son as much independence as possible. His son is now in his thirties, works in the public library, successfully uses the public transit system, lives in his own apartment, and has an impressive collection of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. (I had to chuckle when I saw the slide of his son's
Ninja Turtle Collection in the living room of his apartment, because I can envision my son with a living room full of Happy Meal Toys!) He and his wife decided when their son became a
teenager that they were going to have to let him take some risks to learn to be independent. He figured early on that the best way to survive was to "hang loose" and "enjoy what he could" with
his son. He stopped worrying about if it was "appropriate" for his grown son to obsess over Ninja Turtles because it really was his son's choice. He reiterated several times that "the fewer
things you have to worry about and battle over, the better your life will be." He says the most important things we can teach our children with autism is community living skills; how to tell
time, spend money, use the transportation system and develop vocational abilities.

I realize that this is not really a book summary, but I think it is a great glimpse into the author's mindset and that helps to explain the tone the book is written in. The book is an encouragement for parents that something CAN be done to help their child, and also a warning to not fall prey to every new whim in treatments. Consider the quality of your child's life and the whole family before risking everything on some unproven course of action.

Another reviewer did not like Mr. Hart's conservative approach and I can understand that also. This book does have some sections that might seem dated but it is still very good and basic advice which is what parents need when faced with the news of this diagnosis.

This "review" is to thank the others who've read and reviewed the book. If "Arch" recommends medications for anxiety, then his title has no credibility. Most medications for anxiety are highly addictive, and the one or two that aren't, don't really work very well. But most importantly, these pills AREN'T CURES for anxiety. They're TREATMENTS. When you stop the pills the anxiety comes right back. And as for the Christian perspective -- don't get me started. All I can say is thanks for the warnings!

I bought this book based on the back cover which reads: "...Then he offers practical proven steps you can take to change your lifestyle, without relying on medication and psychotherapy." I found as I was reading the book, however, that Dr. Hart is a huge proponent of the use of medications. There are also many absolutes in the book. He claims that if you don't do certain things or let certain things go too long, you may never get rid of anxiety or worry. This book is definitely not for everyone.

I read Adrenaline and Stress first and I liked that book too. This book is different although it does reference Adrenaline and Stress several times. I would suggest reading both books for a more complete view of the issues of Anxiety, Stress, etc.

As for this book, I have taken away several suggestions (many are common sense) and am putting them into practice. What makes this book so good is Arch Hart's descriptions of why certain suggestions will work and how they affect the brain, body.

Thank you Arch for another great book.

I expected much more from this book, specially if its title says "Mastering." Although the author claims he will be hands-on and practical, in fact he elaborates on only few examples preceeded by interminable explanations. For example, the first 100 pages contain only 4 very simple and concrete cases using macros and the rest is an agonizing explanation on each and all of the components of several menus. No concrete examples that would enable the reader to cement his knowledge on solid ground.
On ocassions the author explains VBA for an specific application, say Word, but then he changes to give general explanations for all applications at once, disorderly mentioning exceptions for Excel, Word, Project or PowerPoint, what makes the reading difficult.
No, this book is not for me. I need principles and theory handsomely applied in concrete cases.

This book should be called "Programming 101 with VBA". The author spends pages discussing inefficient sorts and searches that can be found in any other book.

If you don't know anything about programming, and what to know how to get the most of your applications - this may be for you.
Don't buy this if you already know VB and want to learn some of the andvanced features of VBA.

Have read the other reviews, and feel the need to counter a few points. This is a great book for nonprogrammers who are proficient with an application such as Word or Excel and want to take the next step to getting their application to "jump through hoops." (Or who just want to get a taste for programming.)

Background: I'm a tech writer with no programming education or experience other than some minor html and scripting I've picked up on the job. This book enabled me to self-educate myself to a fairly proficient level with VBA in a matter of two months. Out of all the "learn this skill quick" books that I've bought, this one has delivered the most value by far.

A few counterpoints: The reader from Naskayuna says the author spends pages discussing techniques that can be found in any other book. Those pages of discussion are what make this book invaluable to a beginner. Every code example the author gives (I didn't count, but I'd say there are scores) is followed by a thorough, step-by-step explanation of what each line of code means.

For the experienced programmer (apparently this reviewer is one), this probably gets old. But for the inexperienced user it does several things. Your confidence goes up each time you can look at a coded procedure and understand everything that is happening from the first step to the last. Your VBA lessons get driven in by repetition. And you don't spend as much time flipping back trying to locate previous concepts, because the code you are looking at is explained right there. I own another VBA book and have checked out two others from my employer's training library. There is no comparison! This author's approach to explaining sample code is by far the best for VBA novices without a programming background.

The reader from Walnut CA complained that there weren't enough examples and that the first 100 pages offer only an agonizing explanation of all the menu components in the VBA editor. The reviewer is basically right about the first 100 pages, but missed a very important point. My experience differed in that I read some of the introductory stuff up front, then skipped right over most of those 100 pages to dive into the practical, hands-on stuff. Then I just used the first 100 pages or so as a resource when I needed to know more about how something worked. In fact, I think the author actually recommends this strategy early in the book! It worked like a charm for me. Maybe the reviewer didn't get past the first 100 pages, because if there's one thing this book definitely does NOT lack, it is hands-on examples.

Last counterpoint: The first reviewer (March 2000) says there's a lot of stuff you won't see here. I don't think it's possible in a single book to cover all the concepts of a huge topic like VBA and still give plenty of hands-on practice. I liked the balance of conceptual explanations and hands-on practice. I also liked the fact that the author spends a lot of time telling you how to get help beyond the book. He spends pages explaining how best to use the online help. He may not cover everything, but he points you toward plenty of other tools that will fill the gaps.

Some caveats: Learning VBA on your own from a book is somewhat akin to learning a foreign language using only audiotapes and a textbook. It might not be for everybody. I give this book five stars, but it ain't a magic bullet!! This book worked for me because I was already proficient with a particular tool (MS Word) and had some specific goals in mind for what I wanted to accomplish with VBA, and was willing and able to put in a lot of time at the computer to meet those goals. If you don't have a tool and some goals of your own in mind, or don't have the time to devote to learning this stuff, your mileage may vary. But if you've got all that going for you, I don't think you'll find a better starting point than this.

I found this book sadly lacking in substance and quality activities. Spend your money on Days of Knights and Damsels by Carlson.

This book has many interesting arts & craft ideas which kids find fun. However, one must endure numerous unsympathetic interpretations of the times which present the Church and Christians in general as ignorant and superstitious people. For example, the book states that Joan of Ark "heard voices in her head that helped her do battle and led her to victory." Such a statement would lead one to believe that she was really schizophrenic and not a saint of the Church. There are simply too many examples of this kind of smug, retrospective arrogance towards Christians of the past to list in this review. In every chapter, Christians are painted as stupid, blood thirsty, narrow-minded, etc. Their anti-Church bias is just too blatant to overlook.
One would be better off checking out Martha Stewart's kid magazine for craft ideas and pick up a less biased history book to read to children. Any Christian educator will want to avoid this book.

This book is an excellent tool to use. The projects: Build your own castle & catapult was LOVED by my 9 & 7 yr olds. The information was in a way that kids could read & understand it all. Very useful for all.