I am a huge fan of the designers republic's earlier work and let me tell you, this is NOTHING like what I had expected. I purchased it right when it came out hoping to get a great book with great design and I must say that I was sorely disappointed. If you're looking for the old style TDR design with the fun icons and arrows this is not the book. Decent design, but nothing amazing by any means. Get the Futura book or a Ryan McGuinness book instead.

I don't want to go to deep into it, but a good design book is a book that makes you feel like crap, but at the same time, inspires you to do better things with your own work. I think this book definitely falls in this category. The Designers Republic have a definite style. If you don't like that minimal/techno/ computery/ clean style, then you won't like this book. If you appreciate nuances of type with some really nice page layouts that truly become fine art, then you'll like this book. I really can't believe how they do so much with so little in this book. They make it look easy. I love this book so much, I don't keep it outside of the shipping box I received it in unless I'm looking at it. I don't want it to get messed up.
I hope this helped.

FASHION DESIGNERS. Watson-Guptill Publications,2001

This series continues to be an enigma. The beginings are very good.Annabelle and Dave could be much more likeable.Are they business executives,brainy partners,or sexy buddies?Annabelles beauty continues to be emphasized,Dave remains eccentric. I enjoyed the references to Hemmingway and the mystery that story revovles around.I didn't like the misspelled reference to the town of Annapolis.I was so tired of the references to the sunset in the Key West,that I became very thankful that I live in the pacific northwest.The characters,the Florida setting,are sometimes fun and sometimes annoying.I will probably read more in this series to see if Annabelle and Dave become more human.

This is the second outing for Annabelle Hardy, the hearing-impaired owner of Miami's largest corporate security firm. One of the company's clients is the Hemingway Museum in Key West. When a murder occurs on the museum's grounds, Annabelle takes on the investigation herself. This series by the pseudonymous Jackson is well written, Annabelle and her employees are well drawn, and the plots unusual. This is a good series for those preferring their mysteries cozy.

I love mysteries but am often disappointed by mediocre writing -- that was not the case here! The characters were fascinating and the relationship between Dave, Roy, and Annabelle was moving. The plot was unusual as well.

First of all: I'm delighted that Tim used my map (the ITM/ERKAGeorgia) as the guiding line to reach all the sites he mentions,but... Reading the book I often was a little bored because ofunnecessary listings of items in museums (who cares if there's astatue you don't know anything about and only describe what you see?Better rate the museum, whether it's worth the effort or just a wasteof time), very specific ornithological and botanical descriptions(which I think have nothing to do in a general travel guide), and morethan once I had the impression that the author just didn't knowanything about a site and just invented stories... Nevertheless itstill is the most useful guide on the market...

This is the most detailed travel guide I've found so far on Georgia and for that I am eternally grateful. However, I only give it four stars because some of its directions are inaccurate (in one case, a road was washed out and impassable without a 4WD, though that may have occured post-publication). Double check with maps and the locals before attempting any serious cross-country journeys.

I have just returned a month's teaching in Georgia and found the Bradt guide amazingly accurate, current and very helpful. The author knows culture, birds, history and politics. Can highly recommend if you plan to visit.

Few biographies manage to avoid the perils of the genre, and this one is no exception. Mayer celebrates his subject, misunderstanding Henry as a fore-bearer of Jacksonian democracy and failing adequately to appreciate Henry's conservative commitment to social hierarchy, genteel leadership, and religious establishment. As a consequence, Mayer cannot convincingly explain Henry's espousal of Federalist politics in the 1790s, which makes sense only if we abandon any lingering neo-Whiggish inclination to find in Henry a self-conscious commitment to democracy.

There have been numerous other biographies of Patrick Henry. I would still recommend Moses Coit Tyler's 1887 PATRICK HENRY, which was reprinted by Chelsea House in 1980 with an introduction by Lance Banning. William Wirt Henry's three volume PATRICK HENRY, LIFE, CORRESPONDENCES, AND SPEECHES (originally published in 1891 but recently republished) should be used with care, since W.W. Henry incorrectly attributes a number of letters and other sources to Patrick Henry which more recent scholarship has established were written by others. Richard Beeman wrote a good analytic biography, PATRICK HENRY: A BIOGRAPHY, in 1974, which provides an excellent brief introduction to Henry's politics. The most comprehensive modern scholarly biography remains Robert Meade's two volume master-work, PATRICK HENRY (1959, 1967).

Mayer's prose is far more sprightly than Meade's, but Meade provides the more balanced and judicious treatment, and Meade's documentation of his conclusions is much superior. While Mayer updates Meade and Beeman in a number of places, his work does not supercede theirs, and should be read in conjunction with the earlier scholarship. Mayer's is a good book, especially as an introduction to a general audience. It is not, however, a work of historical biographical scholarship in the same class as, say, Drew Gilpen Faust's biography of James Henry Hammond, nor is it researched with the same meticulous care as Meade's account of Henry.

There's much more to Patrick Henry than 'Give me liberty or give me death,' the most famous line from his most famous speech. But if ever a one-liner summed up a man's philosophy, this was the line for this man.

Sadly, many of the great figures of America's early history have faded from public understanding. Maybe we remember the ones who became President, but truly great and influential men like Patrick Henry and George Mason are all but forgotten. Mayer's excellent book shows what a tragedy this is.

From his early career as a Virginia lawyer, to the way his beliefs and oratory were shaped by circuit-riding nonconformist Christian ministers, Mayer lays the foundations for Henry's later greatness. But most absorbing, to this reader, was Mayer's depiction of the fight in the Virginia Assembly over the ratification of the Constitution. Henry's prescient warnings of the growth of centralised power at the expense of the sovereign states leads one to wonder if maybe the anti-federalists weren't right after all.

Vital insights into a vital figure in a vital period of our history.

While Henry Mayer exaggerates the extent to which Patrick Henry was a democrat, he certainly does a brilliant job in portraying the key figure in Virginia politics from the decade before the Revolution to through ratification of the constitution. This book should be on the shelf of everyone interested in the period in which Henry lived.

This is not the sole extensive biography of Henry, but the other book that fits that description -- a three-volume work, including a volume of Henry's surviving letters, by Henry's grandson -- is over a century old. Since then, we've not had anything that competes with Mayer's book either in narrative style or in the accuracy with which it captures the true Patrick Henry. (Richard Beeman's brief anti-Henry, pro-Jefferson and Madison volume of thirty years ago, for example, completely misapprehends Henry's role between 1787 and 1799.) Read of Henry's stirring Revolutionary oratory, then consider that he used the same gift for stirring men's souls in opposition to the current federal constituiton's ratification in 1788. Mayer shows that it wasn't Henry, but the world around him that had changed between 1765, or even 1776, and 1788. To understand the reasons for Henry's opposition to the current constitution is to have an inkling of what was lost when it was ratified; our generally Whiggish national outlook on history does not allow us often to stop and contemplate what might have been.

One should note, too, that it is incorrect to claim unqualifiedly, as the reviewer above does, that Henry favored religious establishment. It is true that Henry opposed the severe disestablishment legislation written by Thomas Jefferson and successfully sponsored in the Virginia General Assembly by James Madison, but Henry's alternative legislation was only a pale immitation of a real establishment. Anyone who knows Henry's story will find this unsurprising, since Henry's was a very ecumenically minded version of Episcopalianism.

This is a truly outstanding book.

Actually.....nil stars.

Only buy it if you are the sort of person who buys timeshare, the Eiffel Tower, etc...

For those who are unaware, the "MacCathy Mor" discussed in the book was really an imposter.

The reality of an indigenous Irish nobility is not much understood or accepted inside Ireland itself, much less in the rest of the world. As the victors write the history, too much Irish history has omitted any reference to the fact that Ireland had its own kings and nobles well before the Norman-English intruded on the scene. To this day the claims of persons such as the MacCarthy Mor to royal status are met with skepticism; relevant to this book, one individual expressed this skepticism so openly as to warrent a suit before the Italian courts. This lawsuit offered the MacCarthy Mor to present to a court of experts his credentials as Head of the Royal House of Munster, as Chief of his Name, and as rightful bearer of the coat of arms of the MacCarthy Mor. The Court carefully reviews and expounds on the evidence presented, and the ruling presents in detail the Court's rationale for fully supporting the MacCarthy Mor's claims. This book is a must read for any student of Irish history, modern aristocracy, chivalry, or heraldry. A word of warning, though: this is a legal document, and it reads like one -- don't expect light reading, but do expect to be educated!

If you thought that the Gaelic Nobility died out in 1601, or even 1691, this book is for you. This book documents the present situation of one of the Royal lines of Ireland. It documents the present views of two European powers towards the rights and prerogatives of the current representative of the Royal Eoghanacht Dynasty. This Royal line ruled over the southwest quarter of Ireland for more than a thousand years. The last regnant King was Donal IX, King of Desmond, who died in 1596.

Yet the dynasty, with it's rights and priveleges, survives! Contained in the book are the transcripts of two Italian Court rulings, a translation of a Certification from the Kingdom of Spain, and copies of various supporting documents that were made available for the Italian and Spanish authorities. This book will be of special interest to those who study the Gaelic history of Ireland, and those who claim descent from the MacCarthy family.

This book seems hastily written without much research. We found much of the information in the book to be unclear, misleading, or just blatantly wrong. One of the most aggravating problems was the map of Varna, for which the side street grid does not conform at all to reality. Already the book is out of date as many museums and restaurants have closed, moved, changed hours, or downsized. There is no information in the book about tipping, and the information about hotel and restaurant costs is severely limited. Unfortunately, there are not many other guidebooks that include detailed information on bulgaria, and those are regional guidebooks and not country specific.

This is a great guide covering everything from the best places to eat and the best hostels to stay for cheap backpackers to cultural history. Everything is arranged in easy to find geographic regions. Especially enjoyable is the small sections scattered thoughout on major historical figures. The glossary of Bulgarian terms is a little short but who would really understand you with your thick accent anyway

The guide is good but don't expect everything to be exactly as it is in the guide. Bulgaria is a place of rapid change and many places close and open rapidly. Travelers beware many palces outside of Sofia close between 2 and 4.

I visited Bulgaria in 7/99 and travelled around for almost 3 weaks with a rented car. Before going there i have read everything I could find (books and internet) - this was the only book that gave good information, intersting details, and enlightments about Bulgaria. One must remember that a developing country such as Bulgaria rates change, places are being closed' and new open every days. However as for the hotels and restorants most of the details were pretty acurate as for the 'what to see' i have never met a better guide. I do recommand this guide to anyone who travels to Bulgaria, if he wants to know what to do there and to understand the country

I purchased this book because I am from the Dominican Republic and was hoping to read this novel for the familiarity of the country. Not only was this novel very hard to follow but the description of my homeland were not as detailed as I would have hoped. I still have the novel on my kitchen table waiting to finish reading it and it's been several months. This is very hard to consider because I am a very avid reader and have never left a book unread.

I loved this book. Though written in prose, there was so much written UNDERNEATH all of the words it was like reading poetry. It was beautifully elequent and the way she tied all three generations together was excellent. The women in this story were so intense and full of spirit, and selfish too. Both sexually liberated and aware, and intent on getting what they want out of life. These were not women to give in to anyone. I was exposed to a whole new striking culture, and I can't wait to read what else Nelly has to say.

Nelly Rosario has managed to do what so many other Latino writers fail miserably at: utilizing her heritage and knwoledge of her culture to write mesmerizing and inspiring prose. Rosario does not resort to caramelized stereotypes like so many mediocre writers who have found fame and fortune by explaning Latinoness to white readers via degrading and flat fictional recreations of their family's experiences in this country.

Instead, she digs into the rich history of the Dominican Republic to explore the complex and intertwined relationships that defined the island nation at the turn of the century when the U.S. invaded. Vibrant and determined women leap off the page as full characters, not leftovers from their men's or family's imposed notions of who they are.

A truly gifted writer, Rosario is assured a significant place in literarture for years to come.

Just returned from the Czech & Slovak Republics and found this book invaluable. Excellent, correct descriptions of localities. Useful to those of us who drove the country and trained too. The mini phrase section is all you need, so don't buy a separate phrasebook. Those going to Prague should also buy the DK travel guide for that city which is excellent and colorful.

Sadly, I ran out of time to explore the Slovak Republic, something I hope to do the next time I go into Eastern Europe. So I can only attest to the Czech republic portion of this book. I found it extremely useful, especially in planning my trips outside of Prague, though it does contain a good portion about Prague. One of the best suggestions was to include a visit to Litomerice after the somber tour of Terezin. I didn't take the advice on booking ahead on my trip to Cesky Krumlov and spent about an hour finding a place to stay and I went late May. Not speaking any Czech beyond hello and thank you, I had a lot of trouble with the Czech train system, especially outside of Prague. I found the bus system to be better than the Czech train system since you could buy a ticket on the bus as you boarded and the bus drivers were friendlier to me than the ladies at the ticket windows at the Main Train station in Prague and in Cesky Budjovice (where my train to Cesky Krumlov was early and I didn't understand when it showed up, so I took a bus instead) Either way, it is extremely inexpensive to travel around the country, so at the very least take a few day trips outside of Prague, if not longer trips. I was lucky this new edition came out months before my trip. Another great guidebook by Lonely Planet. As for an earlier review, Prague Castle counts as a museum, so its closed on Mondays.

I bought this book because I couldn't find the Prague book in time (I live in France). Plus I like more of a country history instead of just city history. As an experienced traveler, I can say that overall this book is good. It's hotel suggestions must have been good because they were all full. The maps were very nice. The restaurant suggestions were great. Only a few complaints: It didn't tell us that the castles are closed on Mondays (we found out when we saw the big CLOSED sign on the castle). Also there is not much info on tipping. The book said 5-10% yet EVERY restaurant added at least 20%. I got the impression the book hadn't been really updated since the previous version.

The book is a story of a bad neoliberal Poland and a good social democratic Czech Rep. During the transition. Author begins with the claim that the success of reforms depends on policies and not initial conditions. A poor comparative frame to prove this: Poland's initial conditions were much worse than those in Czech republic indeed. Take foreign debt and hyperinflation for example. The most important, what the author portrays as a social liberal approach in Czech Republic turned out to be a combination of short-term policies to avoid unpopular policies that caused a major economic downturn in Czech Rep. since 1996. Indeed, it was the first country in the region to go into the second post-transition recession! The author's scheme does not explain some obvious facts:
1) Poland experienced the lowest GDP decline and enjoyed the fastest and the most robust recovery in the whole post-Communist world.
2) The amount of social spending to GDP actually grew in Poland during first years of transition.
3) Czech privatization scheme turn out to be a disaster in terms of investment and corporate governance: the companies replaced FDI with acummulation of debts from the banks inside and outside the country, which put a pressure on Czech currency and caused its collapse in 1997.The lack of clear owners did not allow to turn around companies and profitability slipped - so did the employment (so much for socially-oriented policies).
4) "Social liberalism" in Czech Republic was financed from abroad and brought forward acummulation of foreign debt per capita much higher than it is now in Poland: in the beginning of transformation Czech was virtually debt-free.
5) After Czech government was no longer able to purchase social stability on credit card, unemployment soared.
6) Czech privatization worked the way to make the banking sector responsible for the liabilities of the rockbottom companies (Many banks controlled investment funds that acummulated vouchers). As a result, savings were hurt.
7) After bad liberals were removed in Poland, social democrats continued their policy course: for what reason?
8) The much-trumpeted "Strategy for Poland" of Kolodko, mentioned by Orenstein, proved to be a cosmetic alteration of the neoliberal policies. BTW, today it is the left again that imposes fiscal discipline in Poland.

Overall, the book gives an inadequate picture on what happened in the region during transition. It is, however, a good record of the basic misconceptions in the debate about transformation and neoliberalism in general. I would still recommend to read it because of this.

Orenstein's book provides a compelling critique of neoliberal strategies implemented in Poland and the Czech Republic emphasizing the underappreciated role of democratic change in policy reform. He clearly outlines his arguments for what he calls "policy alternation" providing substantial evidence of 1) its existence and 2) its effect on policy. As a student of East European studies I found the book to be extremely useful in painting a clear picture of the policymaking process in these two post-communist countries and in filling in many gaps in the relevant literature. The book is very approachable and I highly recommend it to those interested in post-communist democracies - scholars and casual observers alike.

The reviewer from New Brunswick, NJ is totally off base and shows remarkably little sign of actually having read the book. Out of the Red is not about "a bad neoliberal Poland and a good social democratic Czech Rep." Instead, the book argues that democratic policy alternation since 1989 has led to better economic performance in both countries, and that Poland has benefited more than the Czech Republic from policy learning as a result of more policy alternations in recent years. Moreover, democratic policy alternations have had such positive effects because the two countries share a common goal - membership of the European Union. Out of the Red offers a subtle and nuanced argument, with rich descriptions, and does not characterize either country as good or bad. In addition, the book is exceptionally well-written and provides a clear and comprehensive analysis of what has happened in these transition countries over the past ten years. It's a must read for anyone interested in the contemporary politics of economic reform.

Anita's like most girls her age, except she lives in the Dominican Republic under a bloody dictatorship. Not knowing anything about this time in history, I was excited to read this book. Anita learns her family in smack dab in the middle of the uprisings against El Jefe. However, I found the fact that things such as exclamation points being overused (there was like one every page!" sort of annoying. However, the author provided some very interesting and intense moments as well. I would have to stay it was believable for the most part. I only wish Anita had been a bit older, for a think it would have been more interesting to have a 15 or 16 year old telling it to us.

As a 6th grade teacher, I like to keep on top of recent novels published for young adults. I read this and found it to be one of the best novels to be written recently for teens. I have also recommended it to many of my students who in turn have read it and have thoroughly enjoyed it as well.
Full of suspense (what will become of Anita and her new love for Oscar? what will become of the family? what will happen to the country?), Before We Were Free keeps students' interest yet does not steer away from good writing. Beautiful writing, suspenseful action, and characters worth caring about make this a book every young adult should read.

Before We Were Free precisely tells us how it is like to grow up underthe dictatorship. It is so scary that they have to live surrounded by the secret police. Yet, the depiction of Anita, the protagonist, is so real that one can feel compassion sympathy toward her. The ending is somewhat sad, but I rather feel the power of human beings to survive.