An in depth and comprehensive strategy guide. Very good.

An essential reference book for the transcriptionist, proofer, auditor or anyone who reviews dictated surgical reports on a regular basis. As with all of Stedman's books, this speciality specific volume contains the correct spelling of surgical words listed in alphabetical order. In the back of the book, it contains wonderful pictures of anatomic positions, patient positions, types of anesthesia and Dermatones. There is a pain glossary, example op reports and a listing of drugs by indication. A must-have reference!

This CD enabled me to learn a great deal about what to expect when going into a job interview. I have used this CD over and over again. Each time I interview I can guarantee that I have looked over the contents at least twice. I enjoyed the video content.. the videos were short but concise and the humor made it enjoyable to watch over and over again.

In his poem Ash Wednesday, T. S. Elliot wrote, "Teach me to care and not to care." As one of the pioneers of the hospice movement and as a parish pastor, Bill Blaine-Wallace has discovered the power of this divine attention and indifference. As Bill says, "I became indifferent to some of the religious norms of the dominant culture and paid attention to various rituals of a marginalized society." This is but one of the themes in a collection of essays that explore Christian spirituality with unusual insight and understanding.

I sat down to read one essay at a time but quickly devoured all 21 in one sitting. I basked in the warm glow that emanates from these heartfelt stories. I will read them over and over to draw sustenance from such insights into depression and healing like; "The movement from depression to sadness is the movement out of darkness into light on the trail of a modest relation. A little light can slay the darkness. A lot of light violates eyes that have become dilated in the dark."

Blaine-Wallace could only write such prose after years of trying to walk in the footsteps of "brother Jesus" as he cared for wounded souls on our journey through life. In example after example, Bill reveals his "brother Jesus" in stark comparison to the Jesus in the sweet bye and bye who jealously guards eternal life for a wrathful God.

This book is one that will become dog-eared and worn with use. It is a book I will pick up when I need a boost or nourishment or when I need to come down from my high horse.

I was flabergasted at the sheer amount of information found not only in the book itself, but in the bonus available on their private website called "webpendix" which is a collection of downloadable charts, lists, etc., plus additional information not included in the book, and a plethora of ANNOTATED web links.

The book goes from A-Z about construction and contractors, and has a positive approach that helps you find a legit contractor and then work WITH that person to achieve your building goals with the least amount of surprises. Truly, Mr. Bershad serves as a coach throughout, sharing his experience and advice and watch-out-for's.

I have one other book on this topic, and it is not nearly as thorough as Bershad's, and more importantly the other book assumes that contractors are out to get you. WHereas, Bershad shows that contractors are human and gives techniques to communicate successfully with them.

I don't often recommend things this highly: Working With... has taught me a lot and saved us many hassles during our renovation.

The "YES ANXIETY" book was the one source that I turned to when trying to make one of the most important decisions in my life - whether the man I was dating was right for me and if I should marry him. Again and again, whenever I had doubts creeping in, I'd pull this book out and re-read certain sections to help me focus in on a particular discomfort area. I also read the title through many times over my 9 month engagement period. It gave me so much to think about. The most important advice that I got from the title is that one can never be absolutely sure about any decision he/she makes - we start out at partial certainty and then gain confidence with experience and time. We will never be 100% sure - if we're 80-85% certain, then we're doing well. In spite of my reservations, uncertainty and lingering doubts, I married my now husband. Things really changed - I still have some doubts from time to time, but my love for my husband just grows and I've realized that I will not feel "head over heels" in love with my husband all the time - it does not mean that I don't love him, however. All it takes is to hang in there and the "mood swing" shifts to positive feelings again. The book suggests to overcome in spite of these types of feelings and that we each have strength and the power of God to help us do this. Any woman contemplating marriage who is experiencing a lot of confusing feelings and doubts absolutely should be reading this book - she'll find that she'll go to it many, many times, just like I did. God Bless You, M. Blaine Smith!

This book, turned me off so bad, I did not read any other books in the series.

This author took such a stretch it was near unbelievable. The path the the Clan home world is the most closely guarded secret the clans have. The clans have seen some True Blood Clan Warriors turn into traitors for the Inner Sphere, yet they allow a disgraced soldier to return to the home world, with a female prisoner of war, and then return the the front. How convenient.

With the recent release of MechCommander, I am tempted to read the latest book in this series, so that I might understand the game's back ground more thoroughly. However the memory of this book, makes spending money on the next book, a very hard pill to swallow.

I liked this book, both as a fan of the Battletech series and as a science fiction fan, but I do have to say Pardoe should have tried a little character development. Truly you could see a turning point in which Trent has the final straw broken about Jag morality during his fight to prevent the razing of Chinn. However, in the next scene he agrees to betray his clan in a conversation of less than a page, but without any seeming internal transformation.

Also, the love story came out of nowhere, on one page near the end Judith and Trent reveal their love, then they kiss on the last page, with no internal development from either of them.

Otherwise the book is excellent as per most Battletech fiction. With political wheelings and dealings both in the rigid Clans and the chaotic Inner Sphere, plenty of mech showdowns, and a couple good old fashioned fistfights for good measure.

For all you Smoke Jaguar fans, that feel you havent gotten enough from FASA, or that they simply forget them, this book is for you. This book is 100% Smoke Jaguar Authentic:)

Blaine Lee Pardoe will always have my respect for this book. In a series of novels dominated by Inner Sphere biased authors, only one other author has dedicated his work to the Clans, Robert Thurston. We need more authors like Thurston who bring us the Clans, for he cant do it alone. Now, Blaine Pardoe has for at least this one book, brought us that.

To Jaguar fans, the circumstances of the book might not be so well with you, though I hate the circumstances, it is my absolute favorite book. We start with Star Captain Trent of the 267th Battle Cluster, a Smoke Jaguar veteran of the bloodbath of Tukayyid. Deeply scarred and humiliated, he defeats a ComGuard named Judith, and claims her as his Bondsman, making her a Smoke Jaguar. Trent loves his honor, and values honor and the Way of The Clans more than anything else.

One day, he ends up transfered to the 3rd Jaguar Cavaliers, of Star Colonel Paul Moon, a bitter and skilled Elemental infantryman. Moon hates Trent unlike anything else, and will do anything he can to get rid of Trent.

Trent's honor and his obedience to the Clan Way is suddenly interrupted by political maneuvering and corruption all the way to the Khan of the Clan, making Trent wonder where his Clan is going. Meanwhile, Trent's new friend and tech, Judith, though now loyal to the Smoke Jaguars, offers Trent a new way, also benefitting her own goals. Trent now has to chose between two extremes: Loyalty to a Clan that hates him and who he feels has betrayed the Clan Way, OR seeking his own honor and still adhering to the Clan Way, just not in his own Clan....

Finally through this book i got a first hand look at the future of battletech.....yes!!! This book is good although it is not nearly as good as Pardo's book on the northwind highlanders.....but i do like the main character...archer. i don't want to tell u too much, but suffice to say this is the book battletech fan are waiting for....because most of us are sick of capellan confed story....we want to know about VICTOR and KAI and that damned Katherine.although this book is not about victor, but once u get through 1/3 of the book u'll know what will happend in future battletech books, and u'll hate Katherine more than u hate her before. Pardo did good with this book. i like the news report at the beginning of every chapter. and it is through the news...most of us learned the later plot of the battletech universe and action else where in the inner sphere...let's just say this book is the quiet wind for the big storm that will come later.

At first I thought this book would be another "localized" story about specific people and events. Little did I know that the book slowly explodes from Archer Christifori (did I spell that right?) and his rise as a hero for Thorin, to being part of a chain of events which may spell the end of relative peace in the Inner Sphere once more. The news clippings are an excellent "appetizer" to events happening outside of the main character's control.

This book is indeed refreshing compared to the down-and-dirty Cappellan grudge-match stories. Those books really showed how unglamorous and complicated the St. Ives war was. This book sets the tone for the unsettling times ahead. You end the book worried but energized, will the Federated Commonwealth survive? The long awaited answer to the whole Katherine Steiner sham is about to be revealed.

Okay....strap in, turn off the phone, the tv, and get set for the ride of your life! The Davion/Steiner bloodfeud erupts full force. Caught in the middle is a hero of the clan war, Archer Christifori, who becomes leader of the rebellion on the planet Thorin. News snippets in the front of each chapter give hints about what is happening in the Inner Sphere, looks like bad news for the Lyran Alliance and the Federated Suns, but good news for us!
This is the first book in this series in a long time that I have been seriously amped about after setting it down. Way to go Mr. Pardoe, come back soon!

Pardoe presents a novel based on Clan Ghost Bear that has everything you'd expect from a book about Clan warfare. He features well outlined characters (for btech novel standards), a grim competetion between 2 Clans/2 mech forces/2 elite clan mechwarriors, and a plot with intruiging twists and interesting informations about the long neglected Ghost Bear Dominion.

The fighting scenes are solid, and both sides receive ample credit, and not the typical 'one side rox, one side blows' clichees found in so many btech novels. Personally I especially liked the fight ensuing from the ambush laid by SCom Constant Tseng's star, cuz it showed in a brilliant manner how clan RoE works and can be used to own advantage.

With this book, Pardoe rejuvenated the true spirit of clan society, and I only hope, that whoever is responsible for the Btech story and timeline plot, doesnt erase this amazing aspect of the btech universe.

Last, but not least, I woulda given this book 5 stars, if not for some blunt errors bout CGB... Goddam, CGB didnt accomplish a draw on Tukayid, they WON their separate campaign against ComStar...(okay, I admit, I'm a long time CGB fan *grin*)

The new defenders on a planet in the Ghost Bear territory is a small, green unit,with freebirths. But they get thrown in a battle with the toughest Clan Wolf unit ever made. This is a great book with, nonstop action that doesnt get u time to breath. Pardoe shows the clans in a way never been shown before. Ive been reading btech for a long time and this is my first mechwarrior book but is as good as stackpole's old books in btech. I recomend this book to everyone that can read! LOL!

Angela Bekker a Ristar from Clan Ghost Bear, is order by the Khan to form a trinary to defend the front line world of Toffin. With such inadequate defenses on such an important world, the Wolf Clan takes the opportunity and launches an assault. With an elite cluster of top notch assault 'Mechs, the Angela and her green unit is out classed in technology and experience.

This book was written with fantastic skill and detail. Only the most experienced writers such as Michael Stackpole and Carl Deuker. Every battle is described so well that I felt the temperature rise as the Wolves were surrounded by the horrific cane fire. The plot twists and turns and you never know what is going to happen next. If you're in need of some serious entertainment (for example you've beaten all your Xbox games) then this book is exactly what you want.

Michael Blaine's "The Desperate Season" is one of those books that will last with the reader a long time after they put it down. Unfortunetly the book lost more stars as I started to think about after I finished. The book is written in a great narrative, with each chapter written in a different character. The characters however are very unlikable from the mentally inbalanced son, too the daughter who just wants to get away from it all.

The story is about the Coleman family whose son Maurice is released from a mental institution too early. He goes to his home town and purchases a gun and then starts looking for his family. The family consists of a covering up Father, an ignoring Mother and a distant Sister. The story jumps back in forth in time and you learn little side sins that all the characters have committed, the reader must try to put all the pieces together to get the true message of the novel.

In total the more I thought about I realized that I missed the message. I didn't understand why Maurice is the way he is, and what crimes have the other familiy members committed to be put into this terror. Even the non-family characters are non-likable and sleazy in there own way. I believe the novel would of been much better if Blaine expanded a little more, for me it just was not enough.

Michael Blaine's The Desperate Season would disturb any reader at any time, but in post-Columbine America, its story of a disturbed young man with firearms unsettles even more. The richness of the book, however, lies not only in the story, but in how it is told. In addition to creating the point of view of this disturbed young man (Maurice Coleman), Blaine makes us privy to the first-person views of the half-dozen or so characters made up of family and friends who have touched Maurice's life in one way or another, and who will pay a heavy price.

By alternating these points of view in different time frames via flashbacks, ranging from minutes to years, the book builds an almost unbearable tension within the reader. If conflict is the stuff of drama, then this book has it in spades; the intricate variety of conflicts we witness in the characters is underscored by a conflict created within ourselves as readers! By deftly exploiting these shifts in time and points of view, the author pits two over-riding narrative desires against each other: the reader's desire to know what happened with the reader's desire to know why it happened. The book is something of the literary equivalent of the Cyclone roller coaster. Hang on for a wild ride.

The Desperate Season is at once both timely in its details of character and place, and timeless in its portrayal of a large and colorful palette of human frailty. Although not without humor, this book breaks your heart, as you cry out, "Oh, No!" in response to the inexorable path its characters must take to tragedy.

Neat, clean, beautifully sculpted prose, richly drawn characters revealing their deepest secrets, desires and fears, and a narrative that moves you to a gripping climax, make The Desperate Season that rarest thing: a new novel that will be around for a long time. A classic.

I loved the way the words of Mr. Blain's nove flowed. I could see, feel, and sense the conflicts of his characters. The subject matter of the book was disturbing to say the least, however, these are desperate times for our teens. And so much of what we see today in our culture is based upon violence. Mr. Blain's novel takes us on a journer through a highly volitile landscape. And the wintry landscape he sets his story in does much to enhance the sheer power of it's rather complex exposition. Truely a great read. Try it.