The book deals nicely with pieces that are mostly Russian enamels, silver, or icons. Very little jewelry is in the Kremlin collection. A couple Faberge imperial eggs that are seldom discussed elsewhere, but, they are not the most superb eggs (in my opinion).

The illustrator of this book is my aunt, who died suddenly many years ago. I just want everyone to know that I am trying to assemble a collection of her illustrations and artwork and if anyone has any I would be interested in acquiring or purchasing them. Contact me at firefly982@mediaone.net. Thanks, Beth Rodewig

The editors argue that music lies at the foundation of conceptions of race. Their contributions to this book make a case for that view, but the contention is sometimes more asserted than proven, and there are some crude generalizations that blunt the argument (e.g. "the European racial imagination", p. 27, as if there could be but one European way of thinking about race). In remaining unpersuaded, of course, I am not claiming that there is no connection between the ideas of music and race, rather that it may not be exactly of the kind the editors describe. The best contributions to this volume, then, are those that focus on more specific cases and those that deal also with music as music. (A few treat song lyrics without much sense of how the words are sung, which surely makes a difference to their expressive impact.)

Still, if the case feels sometimes overstated or a little unmusical, it is nonetheless very intriguingly put in some of the chapters, which are contributed by leading scholars in several fields.

A nice coverage of the proud history of a local area. Written in a lively and altruistic prose, Martin carefully regards the many aspects of her hometown. However, she has a peculiar habit of occasionally trailing off in ellipsises. A must read if one is a resident of Dothan, AL.

It's an obscure topic; I think Pam Houston my have just sent research she did for her doctoral thesis off to her publisher and said, "that's my next book." But I found some great writing in this collection and have used it to steer me toward some great writers. Pam Houston is passionate about writing and the outdoors. She's worked has a hunting guide, so her opinions carry weight. This is a collection of writers she found useful and I liked reading it. It's not however a first-class book. I got so annoyed with sloppy copy editing I began adding proofreader's marks in the margins. But if you have strong opinions on hunting you might learn something new from the collection. And if you are a complete Pam Houston addict, you'll want to add this to your collection.

I'd never had any accounting courses before. This textbook was required for my financial accounting course in an MBA program. The book does a good job of logically explaining all the important topics. Unfortunately, it takes a Herculean effort to sit down and study the material due to the dry subject matter.

The authors did a good job of using examples from real firms, which, I think, makes it more interesting. I've decided to keep this book after the course for a reference.

Many people get this book wrong. This is a book for graduate students, not for undergraduates. It introduces the concepts of financial accounting in a condensed way, which does require more time and patient to understand it, like the way we study in MBA program. Since this book assumes its reader as future statement readers, it introduces finanical statements, including balance sheet, income statement, and cash flow statement,in the first few chapters to let student understand the linkage among them. It is usually very difficult to understand for those without background, though. Plus, given the fact that this book is required by most of top MBA programs, like Chicago, Columbia, and NYU, I'd like to say that accounting professors have told us the quality of this book. For those who have a hard time on this, I would also recommend its accompanied study guide and solution manuals (used one available on amazon website ISBN 0030269695& ASIN: 0030182697; make sure get the right edition!!). After all, this is a good book, but requires more practices. Good luck.

I recently used this book for an accounting class. I am not really an "accounting head", having come from a computing background, and I had to do the course as a graduate degree requirement. I found the book to be very thorough and well written. The authors took their time to explain every new term throughout. The book also has numerous exercises [maybe too many]. I do not expect to "do accounting" in the future, but if I have to, I'll get a copy of this book again. In reading this book, I found my professor's advice quite handy: 1. start off with the learning objectives for each chapter; 2. read the chapter summary; 3. check all the diagrams in the chapter; 4. read the text; 5. practice as many exercises as you can; 6. finally, review your work. I did this and smashed the course [B+--not bad for a "non-accounting head"]. I found the accompanying study guide [By LeBronne Harris and James Moon] invaluable also. This is probably the best book out there on Financial Accounting.

HUH? Get me killed? How? Simple. If you are the kinda person who might try a technique you see in a book you could end up getting shot. The disarms in this book are shabby at best. The art itself has a strong backing in karate, aikido, jujustsu and other arts. But no backing whatsoever in Ninjutsu. Is this book a good martial arts book? Possibly...is it Ninjutsu? Absolutely not.

This book is rather small for the price. The book has some great techniquess (I would call Jujitsu)with the photos. These are very helpful. This is not a book on Ninjutsu as it is, but a good start. Lets hope a sequel covering the ninjutsu side and history follows.

I think it's the best book ever written on a new warrior style but then again it's my opinion and the whole Nindo ryu org. but still it is the best I have read.

Proceed with *much* caution if you are are depending on this book to give you up-to-date, accurate information in its listings. While this book has some good information, it is absolutely rife with errors in both the text and maps it contains. I can open the book to almost any page and find erroneous information in one form or another. Some of these errors could have been caught with a good proofreading job, while other of these errors *should* have been caught by the author(s) and/or editor with the slightest fact-checking effort, and other of these errors are just glaring problems with the book. For instance, there are several different listings and mentions of places that have been closed for at least two years (this book was just published in April 2001). There are also many inexcusable omissions. I give this book 1 star because there really is some good information in it (if you can tell which listings don't have gross errors). If only more of the information in this book were accurate and more complete, and appeared less likely to have come from the weekend section of the newspaper. However, the amount of errors and omissions casts a very negative, "proceed with extreme caution" pall over the book. I consider this product defective and wish you luck in navigating the minefield of errors it contains.

As a visitor, I found Houston to be an amazing, sprawling, quirky, fascinating city. Practically impossible to navigate-- the road maps seem to be printed upside down! Thus any guidebook has its work cut out for it. What I liked about this one, however, was it's enthusiasm. It seems to have been written by people who really love their city and are trying to convey some of the local flavor. It does try to be both a tourist's AND a resident's guide, but the casual visitor may not notice or be bothered by the misinformation and typos that upset my fellow reviewer. I particularly like the clean, modern design and the system of indicating where on the map grid the various places are located. At least this gives one a CLUE!

Surfing: A History of the Ancient Hawaiian Sport by Ben Finney and James D. Houston, which calls itself 'the first book to chart surfing's Pacific origins in the context of Polynesian culture,' has its juiceless roots in Finney's mid-Sixties master's thesis at the University of Hawaii. Written without apparent enthusiasm or verve, the book plods along, its undistinguished text style flattening what should be a colorful, vital, and fascinating history. For the 30th anniversary addition, the authors decided not to bring the book up to date, a strategy which might have worked had the original been stronger. But Surfing: A History of the Ancient Hawaiian Sport, at a slim 117 pages, could badly use some lively additional material. In its present form, it is no classic.

Though the book contains a variety of prints of traditional Hawaiian surfing practices and customs, there are surprisingly few historical photos, and less than a handful from the post-Forties period. Though most of the photos included are excellent, a vivid photo documentary Surfing: A History of the Ancient Hawaiian Sport is not.

The book may be useful to students or novice researchers, but most of the information contained here can be found elsewhere, and in brighter, more stimulating form. The book does include interesting maps of the most heavily-used surfing areas in ancient times, a pronunciation guide, an appendix of Hawaiian surfing terms, and observations of men and women surfing by Mark Twain and Jack London as they witnessed it in 1872 and 1911.

This is a great book with lots of awesome pictures, this book is great, I really recommend it!

Where are Jerry Bledsoe and Ann Rule when you need them? This story could have been turned into a great book - all the elements were there except a writer. The author took a mishmash of "facts" and called it done. I wanted to know the life stories of the characters, the dynamics of the marriage, more about the victim. I was extremely disappointed and don't plan on buying any more books by Carlton Smith.

Having known many of the people in this tragic story, I was shocked at the exaggeration and misquoting throughout the book. It was also very poorly written and difficult to follow. It is much more like trashy fiction than a respectable account of the truth.

I've read some of Carlton Smith's books and they have always been pretty well written, you can't blame an author if this is all the information he has to go on...Common sense will be able to put the loose ends together...Bob got away with Murder..no question..The author maybe could have dealt deeper into there childhood backgrounds but I don't always enjoy reading about there pasts...I think he got right down to the story although a very sad senseless death occurred here over greed and jealously mostly money from what i can tell...Bob's brother Roger seemed like a real loser anyway worth reading not one of the best true crime books but interesting