Based on some of the other reviews, it looks like some people actually enjoy reading about Ed Greenwood's invincible characters. I find them predictably boring. It takes much more than mindless hack and slash to tell a story. Greenwood's vocabulary must be limited, since I see the same words repeated again and again <"rueful" sigh>.

I too, believe it was a little overdone and the odds were definitely against them. However, it did a good job describing the places in the Realms as well as it provided the history of some of the characters and Gods, I.E. Mystra and Elminster. Overall, it was very enjoyable.

I really enjoyed this book, the characters were engaging, the story was good, and the descriptions were wonderful. Action and humor were the two words I'd most likely assign to this book, and in reality the whole series. The Two Harper Lads that travel with Sharantyr, youngest of the Knights of Myth Drannor, are just hilarious. I spent most of my time laughing, I think that's why it took me so long to finish. I recommend this series, especially if you're a fan of the realms. The only thing I found lacking, really, was the odds. Three rangers and Elminster versus that many Zhentilar? And El hardly casts because Magic is unstable? That's my only complaint.

Leigh Greenwood started us off with a great story in the series the Cowboys, with Jake she has created wonderful characters, with the potential of some great reading. I liked Ward, Buck, Chet, what happened to Sean? She made a buffoon out of him. Come on if your just going to mass produced books to keep on with the series stop now...The boys all have wonderful strong personalities but you would never know it with Sean. Also his closest friend Pete you'd never know from this story they were, or the strong family ties with the Maxwells and all the boys. Read the first chapter and the last two chapters and you'll have the story such as it is. Leigh Greenwood owes her readers an apology for this one.

Sean's characerter is one any woman would love. But to match him with someone like Pearl was a real disappointment. You have to wait six months for these books, and I really felt let down. I really felt like Sean deserved a better woman and story than what he got. Jake and the Randolph series was a lot better. I hope Leigh Greenwood goes back to his old style of writing for the next book.

After reading a dozen inane romance novels, how wonderful it was to stumble across Leigh Greenwood's Cowboys series! He uses tight plots, interesting characters, balanced couples, and the atmosphere of the West seems to spark every scene. They are a delight to read -- with one caveat. Space out your reading, for apparently they all have the same general plot, even the same sex scene. After reading three at once, I was able to point to sections in the fourth book and say, "covetous neighbor introduced here," "first sex scene here," "kidnapping here," and know that the woman would say "please" during the sex, which seems to consist of the same foreplay each time. It's fine to have a formula if it works well, and Mr. Greenwood's formula certainly does! Again, I emphasize how exciting and well-written (and crafted) his books are. But just don't read them all together or you'll get a serious case of deja vu.

The recipes have milk and cheese -- IBD makes many people lactose intolerant. Also, recipes include nuts and mayo and beans, etc. Virtually no recipes I can have. This book may work for someone, but it was a big disappointment for me.

The Heather Van Vorous book, Eating for IBS, is great.

I could tell right away that the author, a general nutritionist, knew little about IBD before being commissioned to write this book. There's a little text (rather stiffly written) at the beginning that sounds like the boilerplate stuff you'd find in any introductory book on IBD. Most of the book, though, is made up of recipes, which don't sound much different from recipes you'd find in any cookbook. All in all, not a good match between writer and subject.

Unlike Dr. Scala's book, this book actually does address the topic of inflammatory bowel disease as it pertains to nutrition and Greenwood does a good, if technical job, of outlining the major issues of nutrition in the role of IBD. She outlines numerous diets for different IBD situations and has many recipes available (pretty much the bulk of the book). My criticism centers around two points: 1) for me as a vegetarian, many of the diets were inaccessible due to their reliance on meat (a common occurrence in IBD books since meat is very low-residue) and 2) the recipes are very hard to read since she has detailed metric and standard measurements (which are laid out oddly) and each recipe is followed by a very technical breakdown of its elements - even to the kilojoule of energy! If you are a carnivore, I think this could be a very useful book to have - or at least to read.

Although a fantasy novel can never be described as "unrealistic" without evoking much-deserved laughter, I found that the events in this book/anthology went contrary to the Forgotten Realms genre. The seven sisters seemed to lose the individual personalties and depth of character previously established in other works. Here they were nothing more than the seven sisters, each running around saying "yup, I'm a chosen of Mystra." Further, the events of the book made the characters seem very shallow, two-dimensional and empty. They were more representations of their archetype, not characters. It seemed as if the author was far more interested in writing the book than developing the characters or story. As a big fan of the Forgotten Realms world, I wish that this book had not been written. The author was clearly trying to evoke emotional responses of fear and potential loss (the deaths of the chosen) in inapropriate ways. With or without the power of Mystra, none of the chosen would have lived that long or risen to those levels of power by throwing themselves carelessly into such danger. Mages of such tremendous power and resources would not have come so close to death in that manner. While I have enjoyed many of Ed Greenwood's contributions to the Forgotten Realms universe, this one I consider a dismal failure.

This is really just a novel, in which each of the seven sisters passes on the baton to the next as part of a connected story. The device is a bit thin, but the book is perfectly readable, and fine as light relaxing fiction. I'd like more, as ever. Greenwood isn't a particularly good writer, but the work is edited competently and flows easily enough. It's no worse than the Elminster stories.

The only gripe I had was with the physical format and cost. It's hard to hold so big a volume, and I object to paying extra for something that won't fit on my shelves.

But if you like the Forgotten Realms setting, and have liked other Greenwood novels, I think you'll be happy with this one.

Ed Greenwood gives us the definitive stories to the seven sisters, no matter how differently they are protrayed in other books, after all, Greenwood is the creator of the Forgotten Realms, so there is no arguement there.

The storyline is a complicated and carefully constructed plot, but it is not the essential reading for beginners in the Forgotten Reals world, Greenwood sometimes mentions things that needed to be looked up, and also does not explain other things fully. The scenery changes fast and furious, and this could cause some confusion for the not-so-careful reader, it is a book to be studied over. These are some of the reasons why it is not one of Greenwood's best publications.

Other than that, the characters are fine themselves, although one or two of the Sisters may seem a little "odd" at first (for example, Sylune and the Simbul.), but the reader quickly adopts to the style of the story and is "assimilated" neatly into it, this I have to give Greenwood credit for.

All in all:

Readability: 9 out of 10 Style: 10 out of 10 Storyline: 8 out of 10 (a bit corny in some places)

This manual is a waste of your money. You can buy both the actual book and the movie on Amazon for less than $25 combined, and they're both worth every penny....

I first read "To Kill a Mockingbird" when I was 13 -- I had no trouble understanding it then and, not surprisingly, I still don't. Truth be told, while it more than deserves to be held as a "classic" (usually meaning insipid and torturous, though not the case here), Lee's novel is pretty straightforward.

You should have no problem determining how well Atticus Finch made his case, or how African-Americans were treated in 1935, or the history of the town that is so well-described it becomes like another character in the book.

The only reason to buy a book about understanding "To Kill a Mockingbird" is because you are a teacher who likes to beat the meaning of such things into the ground, or a student who has unfortunately been forced or advised to purchase an unnecessary guide to one of the most enjoyably down-to-earth books ever written.

As a participant in this year's "One Book, One Chicago", I have read the "REAL DEAL", which is the book selected for the program's inaugural year. I thoroughly enjoyed it, and also felt I had no problems understanding the critical issues illustrated in the book. I then made the forunate decision to attend a lecture by Ms. Durst Johnson at the Chicago Public Library; a lecture based primarily on information contained in her commentary. My time was not wasted: for as much as I had indeed GRASPED about the novel, there were still many more interesting things to learn that I had not even considered. While some may consider it "beating a subject to death" (or some such nonsense), your reading experience will definitely be enhanced by referring to, but not relying on, this book's contents.

Burn, Missouri, Burn is the first historical novel of a trilogy. It is an action packed read of the true battles and campaigns fought in Missouri, Arkansas, Kansas, and Texas during the American Civil War. What happened during the war west of the Mississippi has been largly ignored, yet the war there was more violent and vicious then in any other portion of the South. The war, is seen through the eyes of a fictional family. I am the author and I hope you'll give my book a try. Thanks Randal L. Greenwood

I have just finished reading this novel set in the Civil War in the Arkansas, Missouri area. While the story is fictional about one family, the battles described were real. My interest in my great grandfather's participation as a "Damned Yankee" in an Arkansas Union infantry unit made this book a real find.
The personal story of the fictional family clarifies the anguish created by this war. The cruelties to both civilians and soldiers were horrible and Mr. Greenwood has described everything as if he were actually there, making the story come to life on a gut level. The book is easy to read but I could only read for a short period at a time because of the anguish I felt for the people involved.

This is a fast-paced, fact-based book about the Civil War. If you are looking for a great war drama, this is it. The detail is amazing. It is almost as if the author lived during this war. The main characters are Southeners and I began to root for the Rebels, hoping that there was some way they might actually win this war. It is just that good. The ending feels very abrupt, as if the author wanted to tell more but ran out of space. I definitely recommend reading the next book of the trilogy right after the first. It helps finish the story. Some questions you have at the end of this book are answered in the next book. Overall, a great book!

This book not only consists of bad nutritional advice but dangerous suggestions. Ms. Kleiner calls herself a nutrition consultant, but believes that peppermint patties are a good way to end a meal and that blue sports drinks are good for you. This book not only can kill a hypoglycemic with its high-carbohydrate suggestions, but is proof of how ignorant the educated can be. Ms. Kleiner and Ms. Robinson are not herbalists, yet they discount every herb that Eastern civilizations have thrived on for thousands of years- while ignoring the fact that prescribed drugs kill 100,000 individuals a year in this country alone. The authors easily condemn Ginseng, a Chinese adaptogen used for thousands of years, and sanction the use of Ephedra which has been shown to be life threatening in many cases. The authors concern themselves with the illusion that blue sports drinks, candy, and refined carbos are the best fuel for a healthy body, but they are themselves a product of an ignorant, drug-generated-for-profit country. Too bad their illusion is in print for the uninformed and unaware. As the old saying goes, don't believe all that you read- especially this book. Maybe the authors should go back to school and learn something and then attempt to take people's lives and diets in their hands. Wasted trees to make this one.

There are enough books on nutrition to make your head spin. This book breaks it down nicely and gives you all the information you'll need. It helped me to put together a great nutritional program to help me lose the fat and gain lean muscle. I'd recommend it to anyone who'd like to change their lifestyle for the better.

The title of this book should be, "Weight Loss Gimmicks That Could Be Miracles If You Had Unlimeted Time And Money". Ms. Greenwood-Robinson presents these products as the answers to everyone's problems: just pop a pill and you're on your way to a healthy body. But she only briefly addresses the fact that in most of the research she cites, the subjects took doses that are probably just not feasible. For example, in her chapter on pyruvate, she mentions that the subjects in the research studies took doses in the range of 8-36 grams. Most pyruvate supplements come in doses of 500-750 MILLIGRAMS per tablet! So to supplement your diet with this stuff would cost you a LOT of money. Some of the supplements in this book would indeed be good additions to a healthy lifestyle, but if you're looking for an easy way out, this isn't it. Unfortunately, there's still no substitute for good old-fashioned exercise and a balanced diet.

...Several of [the] supplements Ms. Greenwood-Robinson refers to in
her book are not that expensive when you realize that they also have
many other positive effects other than just promoting weight loss.
They re-build. They fight the effects of aging. They preserve the
precious functioning of out brains and organs. Ms.
Greenwood-Robinson's book has good information for wholeness of our
whole body, not just weightloss "pills."

I'VE READ THE OTHER ELMINSTER BOOKS AND THOUGHT THEY WERE A PRETTY GOOD READ. THIS LATEST ONE HOWEVER, WAS VERY CONFUSING AT TIMES. ELMINSTER SEEMED ONLY A SHADE TO BE SPOTTED HERE AND THERE, THE VILLANS IN MY OPINION SEEMED COMPLIMENTARY. THE WHYS AND WHEREFORES OF THE STORY WERE NOT CLEARLY EXPLAINED. THE PASSAGE OF TIME OF THE STORY WAS ALSO CONFUSING. THERE WERE A LOT OF THINGS GOING ON AND IT LEAVES ONE ASKING TOO MANY QUESTIONS. THE BOTTOM LINE IS IF YA GOTTA KNOW WHAT HAPPENS TO ELMINSTER IN HIS PRE-SHADOWDALE DAYS BY ALL MEANS READ THIS BOOK,BUT..... IF YOU'RE LOOKING FOR AN INTERESTING STORY THIS ONE MAY LEAVE YOU WANTING.

It was an excellent book, and one of the better Forgotten Realms Novels that I have read. I would suggest it if you like fantasy books at all. The only things that I didn't like about were that the title is a bit misleading, as the only "temptation" of Elminster's that happens is somewhere near the end, and even that's debatable. Also, it seemed like Ed Greenwood couldn't find a thesauraus, for he kept using "motes of light" in the book. Repeatedly repetitive is how it seemed. Then again, maybe it's just me, since I prefer the books I read to have a variety of different words.

You must take the appropriate prospective. This book is NOT a valiant tale of Elminster performing a harrowing task to save all the Realms; nor is it a story of a great struggle between the Sage and a dreadful, tangible enemy. Instead, Ed Greenwood has written a book that focuses on the great effect that Elminster has on the people and places of Faerun by simply being Elminster. As a result, the primary plot of Elminster (his "temptation" if you will) does not take full precedence. In fact, much of the book delves off on sub-plots featuring a multitude of third-party characters with few clear connections to Elminster's storyline. However, to declare these divergences pointless baggage would be premature. All of these alternate lines are related in that they portray people on whom Elminster has had or is having a strong effect. In the end, we are left with great sense of how someone with as much power and grace as Elminster can change the lives those around him, for both the good and the bad. In that, I felt that I learned a lot about Greenwood's perception of not only Elminster, but also the collective peoples of the Forgotten Realms. Much like R.A. Salvatore's "Spine of the World", this book "rounds out" our knowledge of the world by detailing people who aren't heroes or villains but are intriguing none-the-less. Of course, as the title suggests, Elminster himself also has a bit to play himself in the novel, but I'll leave the details to the book. Coming in, I, like most people, expected this to be a book of the continuing life and deeds of Elminster. While that isn't what I got, I felt that this look at the "other" people was very worthwhile and, surprisingly, gave me the insight into Elminster's effect on the Forgotten Realms for which I had been looking. Given this, I must reiterate my warning; this is not book of epic adventure like Tolkien's tales. Neither is it in actuality a hard and fast biography of Elminster himself as was Greenwoods first Elminster book: "Elminster: The Making of a Mage". It is instead a book of Elminster's interactions with his world and their effects. So, if you understand this going in, then I truly believe that you will enjoy this book for what it is instead of being disappointed by what it isn't.

This is not the book that you search for if this is your first course in dynamics or even your first graduate course! . It was my text book in a dynamics grauate course, and I really found a hard time understanding the topics. I used to read other books searching for the idea of the topic and I really found it easier in other books.In my opinion,the only advantage of this book that it has wide range of problems (actually..most of them are very tough)which is suitable to study for a Ph.D exam!. HERE IS MY RECOMMENDATION....There is a new graduate level book called ANALYTICAL DYNAMICS by H. Baruh. I found Baruh's book the best and the most amazing book ever been & will be, in the history of dynamics! every single topic related to the world of dynamics has been introduced easily with very useful example(s). it also includes detailed advanced subjects with nice illustrations and examples...Do yourself a favor and go to Baruh's book..you will never forget my advice.

Don Greenwood's "Principles of Dynamics" is definitely NOT one for the faint at heart. Reason why many frustrated readers/students balk so much at it, bash it so furiously.

What most readers -- especially students -- fail to realize is that the book, despite being in its second edition, retains a lot of the flavor of the first edition, written in the mid-sixties, using a language and references that most present-day computer-minded students really aren't prepared to appreciate...

Actually, even -- especially -- from the conceptual standpoint, it is a very difficult book to read. Greenwood's long "text-only" expounding of many topics throughout the book are hard to follow. One really requires some getting used to it. As a matter of fact, the extensive derivations -- which naive students complain so fiercely about -- are indispensable, since, without those, one can have little hope of grasping the full content of the discussions.

Unfortunately, regardless of its problem-solving approach, the book doesn't quite tell the reader "the whole story"... For instance, it does not teach how to address nonlinear dissipative effects via the Lagrange-equation formalism.

Nevertheless, the author's assumption (see the Preface) that "students using this text will have the academic maturity of first-year graduate students or of well-prepared undergraduate seniors" is a little too optimistic, at best. The book is written at a level which requires a great deal of abstract reasoning, which is by no means a characteristic of today's students, who are far more into computer stuff than into reasoning. Some previous, solid academic experience is needed before one can start to benefit from the book in all earnest.

Having taken several of Prof. Greenwood's courses, I still remember RATHER VIVIDLY how sore my first experience with the book was!... By and large, however, today, I must say, through being so precise, so accurately and scholarly written, it is proving one very valuable asset.

People who criticize this book are people that have not yet learned dynamics. Though this book is not easy, neither is the subject matter. This book gives it straight. It covers certain subjects rarely found in other intermediate textbooks, such as the correct analysis of nonrelativistic systems with variable mass, and nonholonomic systems. The homework problems are perhaps the best intermediate-level collection ever assembled.