There aren't many things cooler than tips... and there is nothing cooler than photoshop. Put them together and you have this stroke of genius. Felix is a wizzard, Scott is an amazing teacher. If you want to pick up tips that will speed up your work and make you more money get this book.

But buy this book - the concept is fun (sidebar book), it is well written and easily understood. Photoshop 7 is a monster of a program and unless you are one of those that was born knowing computers or are some kind of Photoshop Rainman, well, you need some help. This book is like having a friend to ask everytime you get stuck in Photoshop or wish you knew a shortcut for something. I don't need to know how everything works, I just want to do my work faster and better and this book helped!

All we can say for Photoshop 7 Killer Tips is... GET IT NOW! Do not hesitate, do not wait. Just go out and buy it now - PERIOD!

This book will teach you tips that will save time on your very next project. The book is for both beginners and advanced users, however advanced users will be heard frequently saying "DOH!" while reading, as the book covers things we now do the hard way (aka bad habits) every day in Photoshop.

... While it does have some valid points regarding sexism in sports and sexism of male athletes, it takes things a little far. Reading for any prolonged period tends to give one a very negative view of men in general and athletes in particular. In addition, the author underestimates the strength of women, and discounts the possibility that being viewed as a sex object can be both stimulating and empowering to them. Her depiction of cheerleaders and topless dancers, among other things, were very shallow. The whole book is very one-dimensional, and seems to be written by the kind of rabid feminist that gives feminism a bad name. Not everyone out there believes that all men conspire to bring women down and subjugate them.

This book does a great job of describing many of the obstacles faced by female athletes. It has greatly helped me redefine my athletic goals and understand what I may encounter as I continue my athletic pursuits.

This book is truly enlightening. While i know some of her claims are contestable (as all theory is), i still want to sew her thoughts into my brain so they will be available for instant access and referral. I have always been wary of our sports culture; Nelson tells me why. Nelson in no way condemns athletics or sports, but rather the sexism that has evovled around American sports culture, and the possible reasons for this evolution. Unfortunately i know that this book would not be palatable for many sports fans; for that reason it is so utterly poignant.

This is a great book about not just helping people find a job, but helping them find themselves and fulfillment in their career. For the job seeker this book is also a great tool for understanding both yourself and the career counsel you may seek.

As a rookie in the field of Career Development I was in for some major surprises. As many Americans in today's society, I thought that the most frequently utilized tools of any professional career counselor would be assessment tests and occupational forecasts. Instead, I learned that these tools should be be used sparingly and with caution. Although still frequently used, the the highly skilled and professional career counselor makes it his/her mission to help the client use introspection, and ultimately, assume the responsibility for her/her own career development. I learned a lot about the field of career counseling, material which can not only be used when working with clients but also material that will be beneficial to my own career development. My two least favorite aspects of the book were the last chapter which dealt with "Hanging it up as a Career Counselor". Not that this Chapter shouldn't have been included, but I felt as that it was a downer of an ending. Also, it was recommended that the Counselor be ready to bring God and sprituality into the counseling session(s) if the client seems ready to do so. Maybe it is because I am new, but I find religion and spirituality to be so personal and unique to the individual, that I would be uncomfortable doing this. Religious values and beliefs are so varied that I think one would have to be highly knowledgeable about both world religions and the world of work.

When I purchased this book, I found myself inspired, refreshed and enlightened by the contents. After doing career counseling for over 20 years, I am delighted to be caught up anew in the possibilities. I called up four colleagues and started a book discussion group. We are working our way through the ideas herein, beginning with the authors' distinctions between information, knowledge, and wisdom. Brilliant, and very helpful! I recommend this to career practitioners who wish to sharpen their skills and focus. Bravo!

I picked up this book, interested in some of the photographs on the front cover. Immediatley, when I opened it, I was drawn into the book. It had fabulous graphics and layout. I paged through first, reading little bits of information that interested me. That was really the extent of my experience with the book, until I recently sat down with it and decided the read through it all. I found it absoulutely intriguing. I read every "mini-biography" and after I was done, I went to find out more information about the amazing women I had just been introduced to. My curiousity lead me to fantatic discoveries, but what displeased me was the short extent of people that this book covered. Only briefly did it cover the suffragist movement, and other important events in AMERICAN WOMEN'S HISTORY. Although I know that Americans are not everything, we were pioneers in freeing women from cultural and social restrictions.
This was a great introduction to a broad topic. I reccommend it to young girls that do not realize the extent of what their great sex can do, but also to boys. I believe that they,too, should be introduced to the fact that men and women are equal. It doesn't cover everything, but it may lead you to great things.

I purchased this book as a Christmas gift for the youngest daughter of a friend of the family. I was looking for something I knew her mother would never buy her, something that would make her learn about women as unique and wonderful human creatures.

I stumbled across this book and was attracted to its magazine-style layout, with photos and blurbs in sidebars as well as a main, brief narrative on each of the diverse women profiled. It drew me in immediately - in fact before I wrapped it, I had read it myself! It also offers, in the sidebars, ways for girls to start imagining themselves in roles like those of the women written about, but without that cheesy condescending tone of voice that so many educational books written by adults for kids take.

The book offers women throughout history, many of whom may not be known to adults (!), who achieved much on their own. Artists, politicians, soldiers, writers, inventors and businesswomen all are represented. The text avoids serious revolutionaries, which is, I think, age-appropriate. The book is targeted for girls and boys ages 12-14, and it fits well within those age groups, using colorful layout and a conversational tone to talk about these "cool women."

This isn't the text to choose for your burdgeoning Socialist, as many of the women celebrated within its pages are female entrepreneurs and monarchs (all, arguably, quite rightly chosen by the editors). However, many of the stories also chronicle women who rise from adversity, giving it a real sense of balance. One might also argue that there is a smattering of racial and ethnic tokenism at work, but I choose to view it as merely an attempt to speak of at least one woman from each group as promotion of multiculturalism (of depth) rather than tokenism (for appearances only).

All in all, this book is an excellent tool for teaching young women about the valuable contributions their sisters before them made, and what they too can hope to accomplish. Highly recommended.

This book bridges the gap in educational books for young readers. It helps young girls specifically to understand that women have been achievers throughout history and in doing so can serve as inspiration for modern young women who may be short on confidence or direction. This book is a "must" for the 12-18 year age group, and adults like myself will also find it interesting and educational.

Richard Bolles has a delightful writing style and a light touch for addressing some of the most profound issues of our lives. I bought this book because of how much I enjoyed Bolles' treatment of job hunting in "What Color is Your Parachute?" Unlike "What Color," which has been constantly updated and revised to reflect the changing realities of the job market, "The Three Boxes" was written for a mid-70's audience and does not address the new realities faced by people in the 21st century. When Bolles wrote this, his (younger) audience was likely idealistic college students ready to join the Peace Corps and forgo material gratification for the sake of larger social issues. Today's college grads seem to be bent on amassing huge fortunes very quickly, even at the expense of their social and personal lives. This book is written for people of all ages, but this is just an example of how far priorities and attitudes have changed. I hope Bolles updates this book since it hits on very important life issues, but I find this edition has lost much of its relevance as our society has changed dramatically.

Bolles' What Colour is Your Parachute? has, in the short time since its release, become a classic in how to find a job. The Three Boxes is a related but rather different work. The author takes on the broader issues of life planning, which includes not only career, but also educational and personal planning. In some ways, this book is a rebuttal to the traditional college/career/retirement paradigm by showing that people don't have to (and,for that matter, won't even if they wished to) live their lives in the traditional career path straitjacket. The tone of the work is thoughtful but practical.

A lot of self-help oriented material nowadays seems to focus on mustering your potential to achieve your dreams. These works have their place, but they fail to answer a preliminary question--how does one know what one wants from life?

The Three Boxes is about the task of actually figuring out what you want, and then implementing what you want. It's remarkably free of needless fluff about the inner person, while filled with practical ideas on "breaking out" of the "traps" of modern career life.

This is a book to own. It's an easy and thought-provoking read, presented in light style with interesting graphics.

I first read this book when it had been out only a few years, and it turned my head around. I had been brought up, like most children of the 'fifties, to think of life as a series of rigidly defined serial roles: first you were a student, then you were a worker, and finally you retired and got to do all the fun things you'd been putting off for the past 40-odd years. Having worked my way through graduate school, and done a bit of traveling in the process, I of course knew how artificial these distinctions were -- but I still tended to feel vaguely guilty about my "immature" lifestyle and rebuke myself for not "settling down" like a Real Grownup was "supposed to." Bolles set me straight -- in fact I was doing a pretty good job of balancing growth, work, and leisure in my life, and had nothing to be ashamed of. My subsequent work history has borne out the wisdom of his advice: I've been happiest and most productive when my life achieves that same balance; the most miserable time of my life was the nine-year period when I succumbed to the siren song of Silicon Valley and became a money-obsessed workaholic. This is a terrific book, and one that bears rereading every few years, especially when you feel your life slipping out of balance.

First I have to say that Marilyn Nelson is a wonderful person. And I think she is one of the best poet's of her generation. Her poetry is great, and her book, _The Homeplace_ is one of those books that everyone should own. But even great poets can write mediocre poems. This collection is a series of short poems, usually a dramatic monologue of some sort, that together are supposed to make up the story of George Washington Carver's life (it includes pictures and little biographical footnotes). Pretty much the same thing she did for The Homeplace. It worked in The Homeplace, but not here. The problem isn't so much Nelson's skill as a poet (few are better than her), rather it is Carver's life. It just doesn't make good poetry, or at least not 60 poems. I understand Marilyn wants to tell us about Carver, but perhaps prose would have been a better way to go about it (that and this book seems to be marketed for young children--I don't think they can fully appreciate the nuances of Nelson's poetry or Carver's life). That said, there are several good poems in the book, "Clay" and "Cafeteria Food" being my personal favorites. Well, not every collection is going to be great (look at Frost's later books), so I eagerly await the next book from Marilyn Nelson, be it poetry, essays, or fiction.

This biography that won both a Newbery Honor and a Coretta Scott King Honor is an awe inspiring book. Nelson tells the story of George Washington Carver's life through a series of poems that act like snapshots in a photo album. She begins with a poem about Carver and his mother being stolen from their owner when they were slaves. John Bentley is sent after them but can only find baby George who he returns to the Carvers who raise him with his brother Jim. The poems go on to tell of Carver's search for education, his resourcefulness, and his spirituality. Different poems describe his artistic abilities, his studies of botany, his appreciation for all of nature, his artistic nature, and his dedication to his students and all of his people. The book traces his life from its beginning in slavery to his years in college and as an instructor at the Tuskegee Institute. Nelson's poems describe the life of an amazing genius who is too often overlooked as simply the inventor of peanut butter. Each poem acts as frame in the film of Carver's life. The poems work together to tell the story, but each poem can also stand on its own as a photograph of a moment from an amazing life. The historical footnotes in the text help to clarify the poems and the photographs of Carver, his family and friends, his creations, etc. help to create a better understanding of this incredible man.

i really enjoyed this collection of poems by george washington carver! i have plans to be a teacher when i finish college and i think that i will use this book in my teaching plans! the poetry is basic at times so that most any student will be able to understand and yet it has a deepness that will require some thought on behalf of the students. i recommend this book to anyone who enjoys poetry, history, or teaching. i have put this book on my wish list with hope that someone will but it as a christmas gift for me. that is how much i liked carver's work. kudos to mrs. nelson for putting the collection together and getting it published. i can clearly see why carver a life in poems won the newberry award.

Antonya Nelson's collection of short stories, "Female Trouble", revolves around just that: women who are having trouble, often because of their womanhood or one of its attendant issues. Nelson manages to explore this over-exposed territory with enough insight and originality, and little enough shrill Bridget-Jones-ripoff whining, to make her stories worth reading.

And they're good stories. Nelson does everything a writer of short stories should do. She's skilled at crafting character and plot, her command of language is unwavering, and each story is self-contained, unique, and distinct from the others in the collection.

Still, something is missing. This is a good book, but not a great one. Nelson pulls her punches. Her subtlety and sense of balance - characters who are odd but not crazy, plotlines that are curious but not implausible - is what makes the collection worthwhile, but Nelson doesn't seem to know when to be direct. Her writing is good, but too muted to be powerful, and it's frustrating to read. She has great ideas, well-developed characters, the perfect setup, and then you turn the page and it's over. The stories all end in the proper story-ending way, with a climax and resolution, but there's no bang. Nearly every story left me wishing for just one more paragraph - that perfect event or line of dialogue or turn of phrase - something to push me over the edge from interested to affected, something to make her stories less strange and more profound.

Antonya Nelson's stock in trade is her laser-like understanding of and her affinity for the foibles and miss-steps of we mortal human beings. Anyone familiar with her "Nobody's Girl" or in particular "Living to Tell" can attest to that.
In "Female Trouble" she sets her sights on a close to her heart, I would assume subject, women: Professional women, divorced women, suicidal women, mother-earth women, young women and old women, pregnant women and the men who are fortunate enough to cross their paths.
"Female Trouble" is a short story collection. And I know I am going to get a lot of grief for this but it is a form of which I am not particularly fond. Ideally, a short story should be all of a piece. You should not crave for more. The author has to quickly create a world, inhabit it with interesting characters and resolve the story so that the reader is satisfied at it's resolution. The first story of this collection, "Incognito" is very well written and the premise is unique: a close group of three high school friends create an imaginary person, one Dawn Wrigley and use this persona as a means to act out all of their adolescent fantasies. The problem is at this story's end I craved for more, wanted loose ends tied, needed more information, felt cheated.
On the other hand in "One Dog is People," Nelson creates a world in which the basic premise of the story is tied up in a logical fashion with no lose ends hanging. This story also includes some of her most incisive writing: "A few days later I was sitting in traffic after dropping the children off at school. I relied on their disappearance every day; I could not stand such thorough neediness. And yet, as soon as they'd been swept into their buildings...I missed them. I fell under the heavy weight of guilt: how could I not be grateful? How could I not cling to what was left to me, cling and cherish?"
"Stitches" is in part about the relationship between a college-age girl (Tracy) and her mother (Ellen): "It was unnerving to be this girl's mother. She was so forthcoming. So frankly healthy...how had she gotten this way? Ellen felt somehow excluded from the process. She (Ellen) kept secrets---not in drawers or closets or diaries, but in her heart, behind her eyes, on her lips. Tracy's admirable openness seemed not to have been inherited from Ellen, so it must have come from her father."
As with most story collections, the quality here is variable. But what does not vary is Nelson's obvious love for her characters and her unflinching desire to get at the heart of things through the use of her gorgeous, even voluptuous writing style.

These stories are wonderful, very well-written, sharply observed. Nelson has an eye for detail that is so right on, so observant, filled with an underlying snappy wit. All of these stories are very strong and will motivate the reader to explore her novels. Enjoy.

Luvas' book provided an excellent itinerary for those who would visit the Antietam battlefield. However, it fails to help the reader understand the context of the given part of the battle to the whole. After positioning you at strategic points he simply reprints copies of the official reports from officers involved in the components of the battle. Since many officers' reports were comprehensive reports of the entire battle, and Luvas takes only a small section of the report for a given area of the battlefield, even the reports lose the perspective of context.

Another thing missing is a comprehensive map of the battlefield with his selected stops, again helping show the context of a given part of the battle with the whole.

If you are interested in the Maryland campaign of 1862, this is the book for you! It includes South Mountain, Crampton's Gap, Harpers Ferry and a good bit of detail on Shepherdstown.

Unlike the Gettysburg guide this book outlines the campaign on an "operational" as well as "tactical" level. Both of which are easy to understand and follow along if you desire to use this book as a battlefield guide.

The driving directions along with detailed maps, historical photos, and reports taken from the Official Records make this book a complete tour and reference package!

If you require an outstanding volume of work detailing nearly every aspect of the campaign, then look no further. I highly recommend this book as "must read" for anyone interested in Marse Robert's Maryland Campaign of 1862. It will also make an excellent reference tool for anyone who cannot make it to the battlefield. It brings the fields of battle to you!

These series of books from the U. S. Army War College are the best available resource for conducting ACW battlefield tours - assuming that your purpose in touring battlefields is to study and understand the applicable tactics, strategy and terrain and to develop an appreciation for the objectives and efforts of the participants. If you go to ACW battlefields to gawk and gossip as an everyday tourist then an investment in these guides is unnecessary. If you have an active interest in ACW history, military history in general or fascinating chapters in human history, then these guides are remarkable values, "Best Buys". Helpful maps illustrate troop engagements and key terrain features, excerpts from the Official Records provide first person commentary from the participants at each "Stop" on your tour and concise analysis is provided to tie the story together. Thorough but not intimidating, insightful and objective, with no deficiencies noted. This particular guide is especially insightful in that the tour includes the Battle of South Mountain preceding Antietam and includes "Stops" in backwoods areas of western Maryland and West Virginia which are otherwise unrecognized as significant to the Battle of Antietam. A great way to tour a beautiful area of our country and understand in detail a significant chapter in our history.

This is nothing more than a long puff piece, probably written to indoctrinate Honda employees. Alternately cryptic and jejune, it provides little insight into the workings of Honda's touted BP management system. Reflecting the American/Japanese duality in Honda culture, the book preaches in tones that are part Knute Rockne, part Zen Master. The overworked prose reaches its fawning heights in the section on Honda's racing team:

"All Honda team members share a fierce competitive spirit and an intense dedication to the task at hand."

"Under the stresses of racing, the driver, his vehicle, and his support team experience their greatest performance peaks. Each race, every lesson, and every failure are treasured."

"The company's leadership has consistently been drawn from the ranks of engineers who love engines and who share a passion to drive well-designed, robust, high-speed vehicles to their limits and beyond."

Yeeks!

Powered by Honda is for every leader's desk. If managers apply what they read in this book, their organizations will be dynamically improved, and their customers along with their associates will be delighted. Robert A. Kemp, PhD, CPM Former President, National Association of Purchasing Management President, Kemp Enterprises Former Professor Emeritus, Management, Duke University

Powered by Honda tells the story of what Honda does by the people who do it. You can hear the belief and commitment behind their actions. With this book you experience the power of a unifying vision, unswerving support, deep human understanding, and the guts it takes to implement effectively. I knew they were good - but now I know why. Rick Dove, Chairman, Paradigm Shift Incorporated

When I was looking at books on the topic of adoption, this one caught my eye. There is a big mistake, and it's in the title. The parents that prospective adoptive parents write this letter to are NOT birthparents. In fact, they may never be. They are people who are considering an adoption plan. They may choose to parent. Additionally, the father may be quite involved in this process. To ignore him completely by writing a dear birthMOTHER letter seems a little insenstive at best. However, my biggest complaint is with the assumption that the pregnant mom is already a birthmother. For anyone involved in adoption (birthparents, adoptive parents, counselors, attorneys, facilitators) to fail to recognize this important fact leads me to, quite honestly, question their understanding of this process. She is a mother, plain and simple, until the papers are signed.

The "reader from San Jose" has unfortunately never read this wonderful and sensitively written book. In the Foreword, the author clearly explains the use of the term "Dear Birthmother Letter" as the common reference term for these very important letters of introduction. He also directly acknowledges that expectant parents are not properly termed "birthparents" until after they make a placement, and speaks supportively of the expectant father's role in adoption decisions.

This is an extraordinarily helpful book, full of authoritative research, clear guidance, warm humor, and genuine sensitivity to everyone involved in the adoption triad. It was highly recommended to me by both my attorney and my adoption counselor. In the process of helping me write a letter that truly reflected my heart, it also dispelled many of the fears I had, born of misconception. To judge it without reading it does this book, and the adoption community, a grave disservice.

This book was the best I have seen when it comes to writing the Dear Birthmother letter. It gives you very practical advice on how to put this letter together. The author does a wonderful job describing how the birthmother feels based on the words that you are using. A must have for anyone faced with the task of writing a Dear Birthmother letter. I have recommended it to many.