Lauenstein gives more facts than a schoolmarm.

This book is great! I gave it to my cousin who's on the high school baseball team, and he loved it. I would definitely recommend this book.

This book compiles information from a wide variety of resources - including excellent experts in the field - and presents it all in one place in an easy to follow, common-sense approach. Key principles for all aspects of life are discussed - financial, emotional, educational, not just how to throw a better curve. For any student athlete, male or female, in any sport, this author provides insights and keys to laying a foundation in school which will be of great benefit no matter what career path is eventually taken. This is an excellent guide which should be available in every school in the nation for every student. I wish this book had been available when I was in high school.

This treat of a book is unique in that it is not merely a collection of illustrations from Bradbury publications over the years, but seeks to document the whole spectrum of "visualizing" the rich prose of Mr. Bradbury, an almost impossible task! This includes films, stage productions, marginal doodles by Bradbury himself, books and films that inspired Bradbury in his early years, and much more - a rewardingly broad approach to crafting the book.
In addition wholeheartedly agreeing with the wonderful points noted by other reviewers, I would like to point out that the book features much rare material by Joseph Mugnaini, the definitive Bradbury artist, in the form of concept sketches for covers, stage backdrops, and some of the original paintings that inspired the Bradbury-Mugnaini partnership in the first place. The contribution of Mugnaini's works to Bradbury's success, as a visual carnival barker beckoning readers into Bradbury's world is tough to underestimate.
The book is beautifully printed, with one absolutely tragic exception - the reproduction of Charles Addams' original illustration for the story "Homecoming" is horrible! It is terribly blurry and there are some kind of liquid stains on the original work, which hung in the Bradbury home for many years. For comparison, look at the (reversed) reproduction used as the dust jacket for Bradbury's recent "From the Dust Returned" novel/collection. Just unfortunate that the one illustration botched - was the lone collaboration between two magnificent twentieth-century masters of the macabre. Still OVERWHELMINGLY worth owning however.

This coffee table book is a must have for Bradbury fans. Full of pictures and illustrations of his various stories and books are interweaved with text written by friends and associates of Bradbury's throughout his professional carreer. The book spends a great deal of time on his personal correspondance with William Gaines (comic book publisher and later MAD magazine). The correspondance shows a literary master who was truly fond of comics,then considered a trash medium during the 1950's. The book also spends a good deal of time on notes by Francois Truffaut, the french cinema genious who filmed farhenheit 451. Bradbury is also shown as a man who loved Hollywood from the time he was a small boy. This book is a great addition to have, both for the written word and the beautiful artwork.

Even when Ray Bradbury isn't writing, his friends and fans and disciples are writing about him. This book will give you a couple of hours of joy, and make you wish you had read all 500 of Bradbury's published works, seen all his movies and television productions, heard all his radio plays, seen his stage productions, heard all his recorded books and stories, attended all his lectures, seen all his media interviews. Once hooked on Bradbury, no-one goes into recovery. Ray Bradbury's works are written for future generations of optimal behaviorists who want to see the world and its people survive and thrive.

--Jim Reed, author, DAD'S TWEED COAT: SMALL WISDOMS HIDDEN COMFORTS UNEXPECTED JOYS. Learn more about Reed: jimreedbooks.com

I highly recommend this book to any fan of Ray Bradbury's work, or to anyone who wishes to introduce his classic works into their library. He is a passionate visionary that writes not only about sci-fi, but his colorful writing style encapsulates the sometimes ineffable feelings that each and every one of us have had about every possible situation in life, and dare I say, in death. I always feel like a kid again when I read his books, I am taken away to warm, sunny Saturdays when I was still in awe of the newness of life. I can hardly force myself to read the works of others as I am convinced that no one can do with words the magic that Ray Bradbury has done.

Ray Bradbury is a genius-pure and simple. He is a great. Proof is his power to affect the heart while engaging the intellect.

These stories are the most piognant I have ever read except in The Martian Chronicles. These stories are mind blowing. Bradbury is the greatest short story writer of our time and maybe all time.

We received the book as a gift. Thought it wouldn't be our type of book, but read it anyway. Couldn't put the book down and we both finished it in one day. Bought eight copies for gifts. Terrific non-stop action. Can't wait for his next book.

Clive Cussler made me adore Dirk Pitt, but Ray Mize made me love Reid Matthews. And how can you write about a strong man without a female to counterbalance him? This book had all the good stuff that kept me turning the pages. Even the dogs, Lips and Feet, were incredibly well developed characters! If you like to snuggle down with a good book, this is the one!

Author B. Ray Mize debut novel, The Comancheria: A Kill Line is a rapidly paced adventure novel that plays out on a modern Texas ranch and on the streets of New Orleans. The reader is quickly engaged with a series of memorable characters that range from Native Americans, Cajuns, and cowboys, to thugs and career women. The story is superbly crafted and thoroughly entertaining. The Comancheria is one of that class of novels that are so easy to pick up and so hard to put down!

An excellent book. The early chapters reveal solid solutions to oft-encountered COM problems - error handling, string manipulation, smart pointers, multiple-reader single-writer locks, streaming and marshal-by-value etc. The later chapters concentrate mainly on design techniques for building scalable applications. In my (humble) opinion, chapter 13: The MTS Revolution is worth the price of the book alone. This chapter describes the evolution of technologies for building scalable systems, introduces the single-concurrent-client model and explains how to write scalable systems keeping code maintainable and in the general case, lock-free. All would-be COM+/MTS developers should read this chapter! I've read both this and Tim Ewald's Transactional COM+ - both excellent books and compliment each other very well. In my opinion, Brown's chapter 13 is far superior to Ewald's chapter 1. Both attempt to acheive the same thing, coaxing the regular developer into the COM+ mindset, but Brown's offers logical facts and reasoning as opposed to Ewald's non-real-world convoluted IPerson examples.

This is an excellent book; a little pricey, but worth the money if you are serious about COM+. And I mean serious! This is not a beginners book, for that I would recommend "Inside COM+ Base Services" by the same publisher. This book is a little too biased towards MS development environments. For example they compare VC++, VB, and VJ++ and casually mention there are "other capable environments". Hmm. Then again, this is a Microsoft press book, and COM+ is a Microsoft technology, so its to be expected.

This book picks up where introductory COM books left off. The first chapter is about error handling in your COM+ objects - not a good place to start learning COM :)

Particularly useful to me was the last third of the book, the design patterns. Here, the authors give us a meaty example of a "real world" COM+ enterprise solution. What other book gives you this? Answer: none. Get this book!

This book, is without a dought, the best COM book ever done. In my seven years as a working COM engineer and some say expert, I have read and bought every single book on COM. And when you come right down to it, even Don Box's book, they are all the same: explaining IUnknown over and over again, rehashes of available documentation and books with esoteric and useless ICat and IDog interfaces. None of them deal with the real COM world and the problems we really face every day. This book does. This book assumes you are a working COM developer and focuses on the hard problems: Smart Pointers, Strings, Enumeration Interfaces, Streaming and trying to deal with the world of STL. It offers real solutions and real code that can be used today to bridge to the STL world and to deal with things like enumerations. It offers code to deal with COM enumerations and collections, a topic scarcely covered. This book has become my number one resource.

Destination: The Caribbean is one of those rare how-to-books which actually tells you something. It is the best sourcebook I know of which explains EXACTLY how to find employment in the Caribbean without being taken for a ride.

The best compendium of hard, factual information I've seen in any single book on employment in the Caribbean.

My desk is cluttered with books and pamphlets on the Caribbean. Of the hundreds NONE have addressed the issue of employment. If you are serious about working in the Caribbean, Destination: The Caribbean is a true gold mine!

I thoroughly enjoyed this book! The story keeps you tied to your chair from start to finish. I can't help but believe that if the author's ideas were put into effect the world would change, to everyone's benefit.

You get more than you bargain for--action, issues, and ideas that provoke a far greater reaction than most thrillers. I found myself thinking about this book long after the last page was turned.

This book has the best of everything! Great, fast-paced action, believable plot, and a great message. Presents a believable scenario for the not-too-distant future, as well as a feasable solution. A great, fast read, with nary a dull moment! Whether you just like a great action story, or if you're looking for something with meaning, this book's for you!

This book gives the basic blue print on how to be better stewards over our finances. The author puts a spirtual perspective on how God wants us to use our finances to advance his kingdom, as well as reducing financial worry. God has certainly annointed this man with the wisdom needed concerning this issue.

The world of Finance has been a subject that is complicated to me so I was wonderfully surprised to find Ray Linder's book not only interesting and understandable but a pleasure to read. I was especially pleased with his references to Scriptures. and "helps" for the different personality types. It was a joy to read and contains a wealth of information to help you to better understand the financial world.

Ray Linder writes a book that is not only interesting and at times humorous but is easily understandable by the lay person. He makes an often dull subject come alive and packs it full of practical advice on putting ones financial house in order and keeping it that way. Ray points out the common traps we all fall into and offers solutions that are "do-able". Acknowledging that conflicts surrounding money are often the greatest sources of friction between husbands and wives, Ray addresses this problem by explaining how different personalities handle money issues in very different ways. While using sound spiritual principles of money management, he also takes into account that we need to enjoy life and encourages making allowance for the things we like to do. I would recommend this book highly to anyone wishing to be free of the constant tyranny finances often play in our lives.

The story of William Ray's is not entirely unique to Civil War history although his personal account brought forth by four years of great diary keeping brings the soldier daily grind to the forefront. Ray's story is seldom full of action and captures the daily life of a young man of Wisconsin heritage fighting for the Union in the Army of the Potomac. What flavors this monotonous story is that it truly brings the hard lifestyle of 19th Century soldiering to 21st Century readers. This is an excellent book for historians looking to understand soldier thinking. Ray writes about camp life, rumors, gossip, money, family, drill, picket duty, sickness, friends and the "hurry up and wait" philosophy of being an infantry soldier for the Union during the Civil War. Ray's coverage of his fighting is brisk although many times his writing may have been tamed by the fact that he may have been writing with family in mind. He may have not wanted his family to know the hard battle details in the event of his death where his diary could be discovered and sent home with his belongings. Injured on several occasions such as the Battle of Gettysburg and The Wilderness, Ray enhances his story to give this book added information. He writes about his wounds, healing, being sick and helping his fellow soldiers. We are lucky to have such a large diary written which covers four years of the war. From his enlisting, re-enlisting and final discharge Ray offers us a priceless look at a common infantry soldier. His diary notes of the Siege of Petersburg and the mine explosion was very interesting. The ugly daily life of trench warfare certainly painted the struggle at hand. Ray also gives us a definitive look at how the South was truly struggling as of 1864 and when 1865 rolls around he writes about Confederate deserters coming across the lines on a daily basis. This information is seldom covered from a soldier's perspective and it is vital for those looking to understand the mentality of an everyday soldier who by 1864 was a proud Veteran of the boys of '61. This book is also an excellent and valuable reference tool for those trying to learn about the Iron Brigade and more importantly the 7th Wisconsin. A true historian could use a greatly documented book such as this in their library. 5 STARS!!!!!

Collaboratively edited by Lance Herdegen (Director of the Institute of Civil War Studies, Carroll College, Waukesha, Wisconsin) and Sherry Murphy (great-great granddaughter of William Royal Ray) Four Years With The Iron Brigade: The Civil War Journal Of William Ray, Company F, Seventh Wisconsin Volunteers is a powerful, personal testimonial of America's deadliest war as seen from a fighting unit thrust in the core of strife and horror. Drawn from a series of nineteen personal journals kept by Ray and begun just two days before he was to leave for the battlefield frontlines in 1861, this remarkable account offers an eye-witness depiction ranging from the daily boredom of camp life to the ravages of disease, shortages of food and clothing, and the gruelling bloodshed of battle. Four Years With The Iron Brigade is both a testimonial to the power of the human spirit to endure and as close a look at what war is truly like as is possible to find without putting oneself in physical danger. Four Years With The Iron Brigade is a very highly recommended addition to the growing number of primary source histories for Civil War Studies reading lists and academic reference collections.

This book based upon the wartime diaries of a common soldier in the Seventh Wisconsin Volunteers is a required read for anyone interested in the everyday life of the Civil War infantryman - especially good for re-enactors and living historians. Mr. Ray's daily entries highlight little known details of life in the Army of the Potomac throughout the entire war; he was one of the few soldiers who served at the front for all four years in spite of being wounded three times. The book reads as much as a human interest story as an historical document containing many fascinating bits of Americana.

This book has it all. It shows what types of materials are needed along with basic techniques. From drawing to mixed media, types of brushes, papers and art history - you can find it in here. A great volume for beginners. Loaded with information and lots of how to pictures.

I am nearly done reading this book and find it excellent, wonderful. I haven't painted in years and am looking forward to starting again. This book is very detailed in explanations of materials and techniques. Perfect for the beginner or intermediate painter. I think an experienced artist would already be aware of these techniques and would have done a great deal of experimentation already, but this is great for the rest of us!

I have wanted to learn more about art techniques for many years so that I could begin painting although I have no instinctual skills. This book provides step-by-step instruction with very good illustrations. For me, someone who could only draw stick men as art, can now paint something that I would hang on a wall. It was a wonderful investment for me and provides so much information that it will be quite some time before I will feel the need to buy another book to take me further - if ever. I hope that if you purchase this book that you will enjoy it as much as I do.