I shouldn't be commenting on this, since I have not read the book. I don't know if I'm repeating information from the book, but as a Gout sufferer, I feel compelled to mention that black cherry juice or concentrate helped relieve the pain in my toe and ankle. Your mileage may vary, but Google it and there seems to be plenty of anecdotal evidence that it works.

This is an excellent concise but comprehensive book on the gout for the lay reader. It would be better not to have gout, but if you do need to manage it, this is the best book I've seen. The size, title and the photo on the cover gave me the impression that the book was likely to be simplistic and wrong. In fact, it strikes a good balance between readability and detail. It also turns out that Dr Emmerson has published quite a few papers on gout in serious peer reviewed journals.

If you have gout then READ THIS BOOK ASAP - This is the only comprehensive guide to GOUT I could locate. Excellent reference if you want to understand all aspects and possible causes. I ask lots of questions and this book answered 99 percent of my concerns. Buy your doctor one also - I am new to this condition but now have a definitive plan of action to determine the cause and cure it - not just treat the symptoms. DR. Emmerson if you read these THANK YOU! My TOE wishes I would have found this book 9 months ago.

Of all the cooking books out there, this would be the one book I would recommend for anyone who wants to learn to cook, but has no kitchen experience at all. It explains basic kitchen terminology and methods in very basic terms....even a child could understand them. If you have much kitchen experience at all, you probably won't learn a whole lot from this book, but it does serve me well as a reference book. For example, if I can't remember exactly how long or how hot to bake a potato, I turn to Cooking for Dummies. It's recipes also serve as a wonderful jumping off point for developing your own cooking creativity. The recipes are very basic, and can always be changed or doctored up to your own tastes.

There is alot of good information and good simple recipes in this book but the key word is *simple*... Anyone past a novice is going to already know alot of this information. Not that everyone cant use the occasional booster or reference guide. Its just that if you have any knowledge of cooking basics alot of this will be redundant. If you are looking for a general knowledge cook book there are better ones.

I can see this being a good book for the beginning teen cook, someone going away to college, getting a first apartment (or dorm room) or even a shower gift for the very uninitiated to cooking.

Okay. I have your attention. Several years ago, I searched and searched for ANY book that would simply tell me how to cook. ANY! Finally I found a Godsend, "The New Cook Cookbook" by Raymond Sokolov. But, well, the book deserves five stars in it's own right, but it's not really written for, well - all right - DUMMIES! Then I found this book. It is simply incredible! It sits you down. Lies and tells you that you are not a "Dummie". Then proceeds with a graphic survey of the elements of simply...learning...how to cook! I would also advise those who are expert cookers (or whatever the name- culaniasts maybe) to buy this book as well. We need the basics before we can go ahead. But then we have to go back to the basics time and time again. THIS book goes with me if I'm ever on the Titanic!

I've read the reviews to date and beg to differ: this "home cook" likes the book; it is not just for "foodies". This book is like "adult education"--the teacher may not be perfect but there is much to learn and to think about and to react to in "Elements of Taste." The authors teach some basic principles for balancing flavors, for adding texture and an undaunting amount of complexity, using some very interesting sample dishes to illustrate their points.

Readers who just like fine dining can use the book's approach to step up their appreciation of good restaurant food. Home cooks like me, who may be ready to improvise on "set" recipes can find a way to think about adding flavor to a dish when "something seems to be missing." If you have ever thought that you liked the basic ingredients in a dish but..."I want to do it my way," this book can extend your ability to change recipes to suit your liking. Just the idea of thinking about and looking for layers of flavors is an important step forward for many of us and this book makes a very useful beginning for that.

Cooks who don't like to think about ingredients might do better to look elsewhere since they are not really looking for inspiration or extension of technique. If you are ready to reach out a bit; just want to produce a "different" dish for your family or for a holiday or for a dining group of friends, many of these recipes will do very well. The book represents good value, giving more than its price would indicate.

Not only is it full of WONDERFUL recipes, it is also full of a lot of taste commentary and other information that will help you to design your own wonderful recipes. If you like to cook, or like to eat, this is the book for you!!!!

This is an especially great book for meat-eaters, who have over 70 amazing recipes to choose from. It's not so great for vegetarians (25 recipes), pretty poor for vegans (9 or 10 recipes), and downright bad for "no-honey" vegans (5 recipes). Still, the book is about more than just recipes: it is about taste, and the factors of taste.

Please note that the recipe count above does NOT include items in the chef's larder: a section filled with 43 recipes for things used to make other things, such as ginger confit, bourbon mustard brine, floral herbal aioli, tomato fennel broth, almond milk broth, bulby citrus butter topping, orange spice mix, cranberry glaze, and crispy rice flake breading.

All in all, an excellent book. One of the things I dig about it most is that it considers TEXTURE as a part of taste, and this is apparent in the recipes. The very first recipe in the book, PAN ROASTED SALMON WITH AROMATIC SALTED HERBS, had me convinced. The thing that really says something about this particular recipe is that both my father and I like it. My father adores salmon; I can't stand the stuff, but I like this. Seriously: try the recipe even if you don't like salmon, and especially if you do; it's easier than it looks and tastier than it sounds. Either way, I believe you will be pleasantly suprised.

Each recipe includes a section on taste, called "taste notes". These help you to hone in on the different tastes in the mix, and why they taste the way they do together.

i have been frustrated when trying to learn more about, i have to say it, the elements of taste. what makes a dish taste good? what ingredients compliment each other, which do not? i am a novice cook but i have reached the point where i want to be able to understand why i am cooking something the way the recipe calls. or why i am using certain ingredients. i am shocked at the lack of books out there about this topic. if you want to learn to appreciate and develop your taste buds, this is a prefect starting point.

the book discusses the many elements of taste. it then delves into recipes specific to those aspects of taste. and then, the best part, it sums up what you should look for when eating the dish (salty taste at first, giving way to sweetness from the aroma of caramelized onions, the texture, etc. etc., then the finish).

this book explains taste, allows you to create a dish, then explains what the dish does to your mouth. i am very satisfied with the book and believe this is an excellent launching pad for me to learn to create my own dishes.

i would also recommend "culinary artistry". it is more textbook-like, however, it has a HUGE appendix telling you what foods compliment one another.

Having just returned from Chile with this book as my primary reference guide, I found myself continually borrowing other guidebooks. Simply put, it contains too little information. I also found some of the authors' opinons a bit stronger than what I care to have when travelling an unfamiliar country. The two standards, Footprints and Lonely Planet, remain for me the best guides to South American travel. I regretted carrying this one along enough to have donated it to a hostal in Punta Arenas.

Admittedly, the guide takes a fun approach, and has interesting and readable content. However, because it lacks the depth of more veteran sources, I recommend this guide only as a supplemental reference.

Of all the guidebooks I read to prepare for a two week trip to the southern part of Chile - this one had me the most enthused about going. The descriptions in the book compel you to go to out of the way places I would have missed otherwise. It is not as detailed as the Rough Guide - but sometimes the zen for travel can be lost in the details. These authors have an obvious enthusiasm and love of this country. This feeling did not come across in many of the other guide books.

I bought a number of books for my trip to Chile and found this one to be the most helpful by far. I only had a few weeks and I needed some good input on how to spend my travel time. I appreciated this guide because it gave opinions and recommendations.

I think the authors and I have the same expectations for travel -- we seek out interesting places but also good food and comfortable (not necessarily fancy) lodgings. I'm definitely an indepedent traveler who likes to seek out new experiences. This guide led me perfectly along the way.

More `adult' re-imagination of the formation of Marvel's premier super team The Avengers, which begins with the final World War II mission of Captain America and touches on the ups and downs of the founding members, Giant Man, The Wasp, Iron Man, The Hulk, and Thor, throwing in Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury.

The art is quite good, and while the story moved well, I had some problems with a few of the characterizations (though these could be a matter of personal taste). The author plays around a bit with established canon for the sake of this new universe, and that is understandable, but changing the Hulk into a raging, oversexed skirt-chaser was a little bit...well, dumb to me. I also didn't care for Nick Fury's recasting. The art and the writing SO made him look and seem like Sam Jackson that it kind've didn't ring true for me that this was supposed to be Nick Fury. He was too suave and cool. The authors of The Ultimates seemed to have a good time casting their characters with real life actors (there is one sequence where the newly discovered by the media team sits around and speculates on who would portray each of them in a Hollywood adaptation.), but personally, I didn't care for all the pop references (reverences?). I'd like to think that a molecular biologist and the leader of Shield would be a little less like fanboys. Fury's supposed to be this grizzled cigar chomping ex-GI a la Sgt. Rock, but he comes off more as Tony Stark with an eyepatch here (for the record, Tony Stark doesn't look anything like Johnny Depp in his rendering, either - he looks more like Jonathan Frakes from Star Trek). Most of the other characterizations didn't bother me. Portraying the Wasp and Giant Man as having such extensive, violent domestic troubles went a long way to humanize them, and turning Jarvis, Tony Stark's faithful butler into an aging homosexual (wearing a colorful vest to gain Thor and Cap's attention...) was pretty daring. Didn't like Tony Stark's Iron Man armor though - he looked like a Micronaut. I would have liked to have seen more of Thor, but I'm not sure I cared for his reinvention as a hippie pacifist eco-warrior - the Norse god of Thunder??? At Ragnarok this guy drowned in the venom of a giant serpent he slew, and here we find him hanging out with that guy with the guitar on the stairs in Animal House...

But these are minor quibbles, again, possibly a matter of my own personal taste. There is a lot to like about The Ultimates - a lot to make it stand above the normal superhero fare. The rivalry between Dr. (Giant Man) Pym and Bruce (The Hulk) Banner is very well played out - the frustrations and the pettiness of these two in their race to perfect the next big superhuman for the team is like watching Dr. Jekyll try to outdo Dr. Frankenstein. Pym comes off as a selfish egomaniac who will posture and fabricate to protect his reputation, whereas the more honest Banner is something of a maladjusted loser. Both are well realized and interesting to watch. Its a great juxtaposition when you consider that Pym is something of a monster (which is apparent in the final pages - that scene with him wearing the ant helmet `You shouldn't have made me look small...' creepy!) trying to be a good man, and Banner is a good man who wants to be a monster. The motivation for Tony Stark's desire to join the team as Iron Man is revealed in a touching manner (possibly the best dramatic scene of the book, toward the end where Thor, Stark, and Cap are sharing dinner at Stark's penthouse apartment) and goes a long way in making me like the playboy, who I will confess never interested me much in the past. Captain America and his story arc comes off the best (which as an ardent fan of ol Winghead, is fine by me) - the reunion with an elderly Bucky (I know, I know, Bucky's dead!... But it didn't bother me) near the beginning of the book is heartfelt and nicely done. There's a good sense of humor to this story too - Giant Man's embarrassing habit of growing beyond the capacity of his clothes (and the dismay of his colleagues), Cap's mistaking Fury and Stark and the Marines for Nazi agents when he awakes, The Hulk's rage at Freddy Prinze Jr. (go get him, Mr. Fixit! Captain America, indeed. I, along with Millar, see no one but Brad Pitt behind the big round shield), and those few panels where George W. Bush meets Steve Rogers made me smile (the Prez's expression is hilarious - `Cool or Uncool?').

In closing, an interesting read, but I was put off by The Hulk and Sam -I mean Nick Fury. And all the pop culture references can be done away with. Underneath the foil and hologram is a good read, that interested me enough to want to see where these characters are going. Keep in mind that this is more of an adult read - at least age fourteen and up. Oh, and in spite of my dislike of casting, I can't resist - Valdmir Kulich (Buliwyf from The 13th Warrior) as Thor...

The Ultimates is as original as a "re-imagining" of characters can get. This TPB collects the first six issues of the series and re-introduces us to the characters of: Captain America, Iron-Man, Thor, Giant-Man, and the Wasp. Each of the characters is handled well and Mark Millar does a good job of setting the tone of the series...which starts off slow and then powers forward to the conclusion of Issue #6.

On the weakness front we have Millar's usual M.O. of rushed storylines and too many characters. Unlike his run on Authority or Ultimate X-Men he has just enough characters to juggle without too much confusion (Thor is the only lacking character in the TPB). The only other problem that readers may face when diving into The Ultimates is that it does not tell a complete tale. This TPB was rushed out while the title is enjoying an immensely popular run so there is no 'end' to the stroyline...but there is one heck of a set-up for what will undoubtedly unfold in the second TPB.

But let's look at the strengths of the Ultimates:
1) A great WWII intro with Captain America as well as a new take on the Cap - Bucky friendship.

2) A great twist on why millionaire Tony Stark would want to be Iron-Man.

3) The strong use of SHIELD and Nick Fury in setting up the Ultimates...and then the hilarious idea that..."Now that we have a superhero team...what happens if we never have any villains to fight?"

4) A good battle with The Hulk (who is much more enjoyable to read when instead of saying "Hulk Smash!", we get..."I'm gonna rip off your head and #@!& down your neck!" It scared me.

5) Domestic violence between Giant-Man and the Wasp which was handled more powerfully than anything I'd read in a long long time. Rereading the scene and reading between the lines only helps demonstrate that these are heroes with "real world" troubles.

All in all I recommend The Ultimates. While not as strong as Brian Michael Bendis run on Ultimate Spider-Man, it does outshine the Ultimate X-Men and 95% of the comics and TPB's being published today.

I cant see how anybody doesnt like this book, its really a great accomplishment in restructuring the marvel world. Opposed to the squeaky clean, and thus boring Avengers, the Ultimates actually have humanity behind the tights and primary colors. As for the complaint that the book is rushed in its plot, I dont really agree with that either. Most people reading this book already know the standard marvel histories for these characters, and so dont need the full Captain America origin for about the millionth time. Discovering the differences in this world from the Marvel universe I am used to is what keeps me interested in the book, I think the book wouldn't be nearly as interesting if they did a regular "origin story". Ultimate Spiderman I think really suffers from the fact they are just exploring his origin, a story most readers know all too well. Not to say Ultimate-Spidey is a bad book in any way, I am just more intrigued with Ultimates and Ultimate-Xmen because not everything is completely reavealed.

I think that this ("Advanced Life Support for the USMLE Step 2") is an
excellent text for last minute review. It is not intense enough to study
for subject area boards, but is still useful when you don't have enough time
for a more expansive text. I used this and "Prescription for the Boards" as
my study resources and was able to increase my Step 2 score more than 20
points over my Step 1 score.
The pictorial discussions of disease processes is the best memory aid I have
found in texts like this one. I highly recommend this book for anyone about
to take the step. I can't find anything that compares to this book for
board
review. I give it 5 stars and 2 thumbs up.

This book is one of the best step 2 review books out there...much better than the Prescription (though I guess there's a new edition out) and First Aid. While it doesn't cover every single topic, it's nice and short and has plenty of high yield stuff that actually appeared on the exam.

A very high yield review for Step 2. Certainly not suitable as a sole review book, but as far as step 2 books go, definitely worth the investment.

When I first read AUTHORITY, I was blown away but just......how darn cool everything in it seemed. Its a masterpiece of style and force. And Frank Quietly is a suberp artist.

I dunno, its not for everybody. It really could be, this book is so close to be a masterpiece it hurts. But it really doesn't seem to want to dig beneath the surface. Its just about action and truly incredible violence. But thats really about it. We dont get much of an idea of the characters, or really that the Authority does much else than wreack havoc on anyone that steps out of line.

But jeez, if the story would just slow down, add some more details, really let us into its world, you'd be hard pressed to do better. Seriously, this book is ready to explode, there is so much there. It just feels like its content to burn out quickly.

The first half of this book finishes up Warren Ellis and Bryan Hitch's run on the book and in their final storyarc we can really see why they made the Authority great. After this the new team of Millar (also a good writer but not as good as Ellis) and Quitely take over. Quitely is a good artist, I just feels that he draws his people too chunky. Overall still a great read and though I was sad to see Ellis and Hitch leave the book, Millar and Quitely do an excellent job.

This volume is made up of two stories, "the Outer Dark" representing the end of the Warren Ellis/Bryan Hitch first year run of the book, and "the Nativity" the start of the controversial Mark Millar/Frank Quitely run on the title.

While it isn't quite the breathless trip that the first two Authority story arcs were (collected in the see "the Authority: Relentless" trade paperback), it represents a fine ending to the Ellis/Hitch run and features the last bow of a memorable character, one after my own ex-leftie heart. (By the way, they take on God, but not the diety you're thinking of,...)

"The Nativity" starts off with the Authority lashing out against the government of Indonesia, which had hired "irregulars" to brutalize East Timorese into sanctioning their abusive regime in an upcoming election, and sending a message to the governments of the world: "we will not tolerate the human rights abuses by anyone, be they invaders from other worlds, "supervillains" or even, soveriegn states",... and this triggers the first of a series of counter strikes, this one launched by the ultimate cold warrior, a creative genius with his own plans for humanity. Both a satire of the conventions of the comic book superhero genre; the culture of celebrity in the this country; and an indirect indictment of abusive governments everywhere; "The Nativity" made both Mark Millar and Frank Quitely's careers in the US, and both rapidly moved onward and upward to far more lucrative assignments; but to date this remains some of thier finest work for American publishers, and its well worth a read.

Content Studio would be a good book if it went into more depth on the topics detailed inside. Dynamic Studio tries to do too much. You will find that the book will give you a general understanding of a topic but this will then need to be followed up with some more detailed research (which to me defeats the purpose of buying the book in the first place!).

I have also noticed that all the 'Friends of Ed' publications are rather repetitive of each other. If you buy the whole set of books you will see recurring examples, explanations and ideas frequently, especially in regards to the Action Scripting Topics. Again, as detailed in my review on 'Foundation Actionscripting' by Sham Bhangal in the same series, I would suspect they are selling more on appearance rather than content.

Do not even attempt to buy Dynamic Studio if you think it will help you design a fully functional dynamic Flash site. All the book will do will introduce technologies that you could use to build such a site and give brief examples on their use.

While the idea behind the Friends of Ed series is admirable and useful - that is, to cover the broad and expansive areas of Flash development that are not so well documented elsewhere - the books so far have been spoiled by the inconsistent quality of their ActionScript.

Too often, I get the feeling that authors that have been invited to contribute have simply re-worked a pre-existing project - and this all too often includes (the usual) hacks and workarounds which all of us use when faced with deadlines. Bits and pieces of Flash4 ActionScript creep in every now and again - and occassionally the authors seem to be entirely unaware of new methods introduced in Flash5 that make their workarounds obsolete (the onClipEvent for loaded data is one example - see Chapt 9 of this book to learn how to do it the *old* way).

Furthermore, the tutorials often lack focus - as though the editors can't decide where to pitch the level of instruction: so that some hard-core ActionScript is often mixed-in with superfluous detail about how to build the interface for the tutorial example.

Anyway, my advice if you really want to *learn* ActionScript for yourself - and also avoid the mistakes, hacks and workarounds that plague the Friends of Ed books - put Phillip Kerman's excellent "ActionScripting in Flash" together with Colin Moock's "ActionScript: The Definitive Guide" on your desk - you'll never look back.

I am a graphic/web designer by design. Programming of any type is a struggle for me. Just as I started getting Flash 4 ActionScripting down pat they went and changed the syntax on me. Ive been through the whole collection of "Friends Of Ed" books yet none have been as clear and easy to understand as Dynamic Content Studio. This book covers all the important topics in a way that makes it easy for the logically challenged, such as myself, to understand. The examples are, for the most part, simple but offer a lot in the way of showing you what can be done and how to do it.

I have been using ASP to create dynamic Flash content for about a year now, and have struggled the whole way. This book makes everything a little clearer and offers you logical solutions for common procedures to help streamline your code, making life a little easier.

Great book, I highly recommend it!

I found out that the book that most of us recall from our youth is actually called: "The Hodgepodge Book - an almanac of American folklore" and was written by Duncan Emrich. It was published by Four Winds Press and copywrited in 1972. Good luck in your searches.

I too recall a wonderful hodgepodge book from my childhood filled with rhymes and folklore, but the this is NOT the same book! Mr. Bryan has written a book of hodgepodge for adults. It was published in 1986 and contains many wry observations from boring adults for boring adults. Half of which are not attributed to anyone in particular and leaves this reader wondering how much was invented by Mr. Bryan.

Evidently this book isn't my favorite childhood reading. However, I still remember why fire engines are red (there are 12 inches in a ruler. Queen Elizabeth is a ruler. Queen Elizabeth is a ship on the ocen. Little fishes swim in the ocean. Little fishes have fins. The Finns fought the Russians. The Russians are called Reds. Fire engines are always rushin')

I found this to be a pretty good book about bipolar disorder- practical, well written, and easy to use. The book is up against some heavyweights since it is a practical guide to living with the illness- Torrey's "Surviving Manic Depression" and Miklowitz's "Bipolar Disorder Survival Guide" are formidable, excellent books on this subject. I like to get my information from a variety of sources however, so I think this book is a worthy addition to any small library on bipolar disorder, even though it doesn't provide the level of detail or expertise that the other two books bring to the table. Nonetheless, I learned quite a bit from this book. Avery Z. Conner, author of "Fevers of the Mind".

In this book, the author says that the right medication is the key to relief from symptoms of bipolar illness. His statement is completely true.

When others, like Elliot who wrote a review here, say that therapy is the key, THEY ARE WRONG! Elliot does not see that the illness is a biological one resulting in mood disturbances. If Elliot could rid himself of bipolar symptoms through therapy, he DID NOT HAVE BIPOLAR DISORDER, but had symptoms from other origins.

This bipolar book has the answers and they are backed up by countless people who have a bipolar disorder. I say to Elliot and all people ignorant of the truth, get your facts straight and quit giving your misguided, twisted advice or experience.

Buy the book and avoid going down the desolate road that Elliot is on!

BIPOLAR PUZZLE SOLUTION is a book that patients and families both need to read. It is presented in question and answer format, and offers basic advice, therapy almost, on how to live with manic-depressive illness. It covers the everyday problems, such as how to deal with diet and food additives, exercise, drug use and abuse, that may affect one's moods.

It also talks about what to do when feeling "down", how to handle possible daily mood fluctuations, how to be, make and keep friends, sexual difficulties due to medications and how to keep ignorant people and their thoughtless remarks about your "craziness" from getting you down. In short, this book has much advice for staying healthy, as a book about diabetes and well-being would have advice about that illness.

What surprises me is that I'm the first to review this book, and I have not yet seen it on any of sites devoted to bipolar disorder. Perhaps there is too much space devoted to the "memoirs" of so-called celebrities, that people have forgotten that bipolar disorder is not a glamorous disease suffered only by beautiful, elegant, brilliant people. It is a harrowing disease that wrecks the lives of many smart people just trying to make a living and enjoy life. It has quotidian (everyday) implications such as mood fluctuations that subject their sufferers to a skewed vision of the world and the people in it, and diet, exercise and sleep problems that can throw a person into a serious episode.

This book has a religious component; those who don't adhere can skip those questions and go onto the other things, because there is much of value here for everyone!

I think this book should be in every public and medical library!