Compared to other Crawford biographies "Joan Crawford: The Last Word" is a slender volume. However the facts of Crawford's life move along in a steady fashion and the photos are lovely. The author refrains from waggling a scolding finger at Christina Crawford and gives weight to both sides of the Joan the Monster, Joan the Queen of Kindness images that Crawford summons.

Frederick Lawrence Guiles' intention in 'Joan Crawford: The Last Word' is to liberate the real Joan Crawford from the maniacal control freak enshrined in the public mind by her daughter's hatchet-job biography 'Mommie Dearest' and its subsequent shlock movie adaptation. It's a noble aim which is becoming very fashionable of late - especially with the recent publication of 'Joan Crawford: The Essential Biography' - but it's also a difficult one. Paint the subject in too negative a light and Christina's claims seem justified; too positive a light and, to paraphrase Shakespeare, it appears you are protesting just a little too much.

Guiles does quite a good job of walking the line in between, but what results inevitably remains little more than a short biography with infrequent interjections about Christina's inaccuracies and misinterpretations. Admirably, he resists the temptation to demonise Christina herself, although her distortions of the truth are manifestly obvious as Guiles explains. Perhaps the most potent example is the fact that, while 'Mommie Dearest' gives the impression of having been written as a reaction to having been left out of her mother's will, Christina actually began the book while Joan Crawford was still alive. Guiles conjectures that it may well have been Joan's horror at the venomous portrait her daughter was painting that prompted her to leave her out of the will in the first place, not the other way around.

What really comes across here - and in 'Mommie Dearest' itself - is that Joan and her daugher did not get along simply because they were too similar to one another, their personalities so strong that a clash was inevitable. Christina even grew up to take on many of the characteristics she hated most about her mother, including professional competition. Neither woman was perfect but, as Guiles attempts to emphasise, Crawford does not deserve to live on only in the guise of shrewish mother-from-hell. She was an emotionally crippled person, but not the cartoonish monster most people see her as today.

If you have read 'Mommie Dearest' and taken it as gospel, I definitely recommend giving this book a read, to learn that the truth was more complex. If you're after a straight biography of Crawford, leave this one for later.

Imagine this: a consultant that sells project management offices writing a book to tell us about how great they are. Kind of like a 1990s stock analyst boasting about how great a telecom company's stock is just after his buddy in the investmant bank did the IPO.

This book is nothing more than a white paper selling PMOs. The findings paint a rosy picture for project managers, but it does not actually approach strategy credibly from a VP's point-of view, let alone that of a CEO (i.e. the people who develop strategies).

Furthermore, this book has no substance nor credible analysis behind its findings. Just because a company puts credence behind its PMO does not make it "strategic," regardless of where it's located in the corporate hierarchy. Strategy is the material of Michael Porter, Clay Christensen, Peter Drucker, Dave Teece, etc., and they're not talking about PMOs. The material presented in the book may be of some interest for rank-and-file project managers, but it's definitely not a book about developing and executing strategy.

I thought I had a pretty complete library on Project Management and the PMO. However, this is the most authoritive volume I have encountered. There are step by step instructions and direction on establishing a PMO and best practices within that organization. There are also many of the pitfalls and minefields associated with starting this type of office. The chapters are easy to read, and concise. The information is well organized and presented best suited to a mid-level professional involved in PMO or Project Management activities.
I wholeheartedly recomend this to those who have never setup a PMO or best practices organization. Those who have much experience in this fields may be looking for other specialized topics.

This short book is mostly composed of self righteous lectures about how to improve the world or one's own life. There is very little detail or anecdote. I believe only a die hard fan of the sailing era could derive any value from this.

Anyone who enjoys Patrick O'Brian's novels, the Hornblower series, or the like, will be fascinated by this true-life autobiography that reads like a novel. Leech joined the Royal Navy at age 12, and was in the crew of the Macedonian when she was captured by the frigate United States during the War of 1812; his account of that battle is worth the price of the book all by itself. This book was a best-seller a century and a half ago and ought to be one again today. The fine intros add that much more, and the Naval Institute's "Classics" format makes a solid, handsome volume. (Disclaimer: I edited one of the early volumes in the series myself-- but this is an unsolicited testimonial; the book is a good read.)

Even though the store clerk lied to him about Rachel being a "soiled dove". He gave her a chance to get used to life on a farm and the idea of sharing his bed. The worst part of this book was when Jake decided to string the men along after they bought him another bride to view. The feud went on far too long between the two of them, which slowed the book down a little. But the dream sequences abou a raiding viking seemed to fit the story quite nicely.

I just wrote the following email to DK Books about this book:
We got this book for Christmas and have used it a lot. My kids (aged 7 & 5) are able to do everything themselves now except turn on the oven and the stove, which Mommy does. But still, there are some typos in the book that are frustrating my kids. There is a recipe in the book for "fruity tarts" which definitely has errors in it. It calls for only 2 TBL of butter, which is impossible! You can't make tart dough that way! But what is the correct amount? My kids have been increasing the amount every time they make it (we are now up to 8 TBL) but the tarts still don't turn out. Can you tell us what the right amount should be? And if there are any other typos in the recipes, we'd like to know aobut them too. Otherwise, we love the book! We've made just about every recipe except the soup one.
Peace and good
Regina Schmiedicke
Caleb, Rose, Marygrace, Joshua

I think this book is average by all means, quite giving details about some historic ,american history, events , but not fluent reading one..

The book is set at the tail end of the 20th century and the first couple of decades of the 21st. Kilian presents us with a bleak dystopian vision of a decaying society on the brink of collapse. At the last moment a technique for absorbing and processing huge amounts of information was discovered and human computers called 'trainables' were born. Trainables were used to prop up the tottering fabric of society, but even they couldn't stave off the inevitable collapse. The world was saved by a freak lab accident which led to the discovery of alternative earths occupying different positions in time, both past and future. The idea of accessing these separate earths is a good one (if a bit clichéd) and the idea is well implemented in the story.

The books main character is Jerry Pierce, a highly trained special agent for the Intertemporal Agency. He specialises in the 'Black Ops' projects such as assassination and 'punitive' expeditions. At first sight he seem to be as ruthless and soulless as a cyborg. Later on in the book you learn the reason why this appears to be so and he is revealed to be a (marginally) more sympathetic character.

One of the core premises of the book is slightly suspect. Being a 'trainable' will surely allow a person to absorb a great deal of information quickly, but this doesn't mean that the information can be used intelligently. At least two additional skills are required to do this, the ability to cross reference the information and the ability to form opinions based on this collated information, without these skills all you have is a huge mound of undigested data. Kilian glosses over this in the book and as a result the trainable are seen as near genius figures.

This book was originally published in 1978 well before the first PCs were created. As a result some of the technology used (microfiche) is a little dated. The plot flows well and does manage to hold the readers interest and would probably make a great action film ( along the lines of 12 Monkeys and Terminator 2). I enjoyed this story and look forward to reading more chronoplane adventures from the same author.

My first note is that the editorial reviews attached to this book by Amazon seem to apply to a different illustrated volume of Hansel and Gretel, not the one illustrated by Monique Felix.

I ran across this on a search for the perfect edition of Hansel and Gretel. The illustrator does an excellent job, but her illustrations are far too frightening for young children. At times, Hansel and Gretel's eyes seem to glow, and the witch is horrifying... her long tangled hair has bones in it. You can almost hear shrieks and groans as you look at the pictures. I showed the picture to a friend of mine (a graphic artist), and she found it very disturbing.

I cannot give the book fewer than three stars, because it is so well done. But I cannot give it more than three, because I think it would scare the daylights out of young children. Granted, Hansel and Gretel is a scary story, but I remember coming across less frightening versions when I was a kid.

Katy Steele Mystery No. 1: Tracks of Deceit & Katy Steele Mystery No. 2: Imperial Intrigue

"Tracks of Deceit" is the first mystery story in a series about the 19th century American detective Katy Steele. After her father is murdered, Katy's determination to find her father's killer brings her to the construction site of the transcontinental railroad. With her partner Sam Bronte, Katy uncovers a ruthless plot to sabotage the railroad project, and finds herself faced with murderous and money hungry villains who will stop at nothing to achieve their aims, even if it means Katy and her companions need to be "eliminated."

"Imperial Intrigue" is the second volume in the series, and describes Katy and Sam's new assignment in protecting an Austrian prince and princess who are settling down on a ranch in the American West. Katy soon shares in the struggles faced by the foreign royal party: adjusting to ranch life, befriending the ranch family, facing the murderous attempts of a greedy neighbouring rancher to take over the property, and avoiding death at the hands of a skilled assassin.

What NOT to expect:

1. Solid theology and a thought provoking message..... Typical of much evangelical thinking, this book offers only shallow theology. Typical are the ideas that heaven will be "enriched" by a wonderful Christian ("Tracks of Deceit" p.45), a false contrast between an Old Testament God of justice and the New Testament God of love (p.129), the idea that it is entirely wrong to judge someone even from their lifestyle (p.195), the pop-psychology assessment that an evil self-centred life is not really sin but rather indicative of being "seriously sick...insane." (p.216), the secular notion that Christians must learn to love themselves more ("Imperial Intrigue" p.178), and that it is possible for an unbeliever to be "basically a good person." Despite the fall into sin, the authors have rather too much faith in human nature, which is probably not surprising considering their Arminian theology (p.50,142). Such shallow thinking was evident throughout, and results in a grinding down of the gospel of Christ into a super-sweet sugar coating and sprinkling it over the story-line. Also of concern is the Biblical thinking that is missing from these books. Instead of focussing on the "unseen" heavenly promises, the authors focus with nauseating regularity on the "seen" qualities of physical beauty and physical attraction ("Tracks of Deceit" p.76,164, "Imperial Intrigue" p.32,47). When this secular focus was combined with a liberal dose of sappy romance ("Tracks of Deceit" p.125, "Imperial Intrigue" p.81) where characters habitually wind up kissing at their first meeting or soon afterwards, at times I could hardly believe I was reading a Christian book.

2. Strong characterization..... Katy herself is rather one-dimensional. While barely shedding a tear over her father's death, she immediately goes off to play detective and find his murderer. Although the characterization does improve in "Imperial Intrigue" (especially the attention devoted to the internal relationships of the ranch family), on the whole the characterization leaves much to be desired. Even the unbelieving "good guys" are surprisingly unselfish or else become Christian at the tip of a hat, whereas the "bad guys" have no redeeming qualities whatsoever, and are nearly always presented as "human monsters" that are always evil all the time.

3. A surprising and unpredictable plot..... The authors left so many clues that one of the surprising plot twists at the end of "Tracks of Deceit" came as no surprise whatsoever, but was instead entirely expected. When there are surprises, in both books they are frequently the result of most remarkable coincidences that are hardly credible, and thus hardly satisfying. Although "Imperial Intrigue" was certainly more credible and convincing than "Tracks of Deceit", weaknesses are still evident - among them an incident where the authors resort to having one of the characters have an unexplained urge to visit a grave in the middle of the night (p.195) in order to get three of the characters out of the house. Oh please!

What to expect:

1. Lots of action, intrigue and murder..... There is constant riveting action and intrigue, as Katy tumbles from one hair-raising situation to another. There is action aplenty, and by the end of the "Tracks of Deceit" there are several corpses, gun battles, kidnappings and sabotage. "Imperial Intrigue" also features constant action and intrigue, and probably even surpasses the effort of the first book. Despite the lack of realism at times, it is really the story-line that gives these books any measure of success.

2. An informative historical picture..... Despite the presence of a few questionable anachronisms (such as Katy's strong anti-discrimination and pro-feminist sentiments, as well as the frequent portrayal of minority groups as Christian), both books give interesting historical information without being tedious. "Tracks of Deceit" passes on many interesting and accurate historical details about the construction of the transcontinental railroad project - without allowing the novel to degenerate into a history lecture. Especially the conflict between two rival railway construction companies and the conflict between the Irish and the Chinese laborers is finely portrayed. Similarly, "Imperial Intrigue" gives a fascinating portrait of the prairie setting, and the trials and triumphs of ranch life.

In short, if you are willing to overlook the over-sweetened sugar-coating of shallow soap opera theology, you can enjoy these books as mediocre mysteries. But at best, these books offer little more than a so-so story-line, shoddily dressed in a rather poor-quality garment of thin Christian content.

This book 2 of a trilogy about the romantic adventures of several Christian families during the American revolution. Since my library didn't have book 1, I didn't find this book as good as I thought it would be. Follow Emily and Jane as they flee separately with two deserters of the Royal Navy and the British army.