I thought this was a big waste of money. If it didn't cost to return it I would but why throw good money after bad. The jokes are stupid!

It is a great book for everybody who needs a good joke book around the house. Mine sits on the porcelain book shelf!

I saw a car drive by today with duct tape all around it, holding together the rusted front of the car and it reminded me of this book. This book made me laugh because it's true, people will use duct tape as their lazy way of repairing anything these days. The cartooning style is really funny.

This book is a review of a very successful real estate company in Canada. My more then exciting introduction is about how I felt about the book. There were facts, lots of them but overall no real excitement or much to get the normal reader interested in the book. I got through about 175 pages before I gave up. The author tried to punch up the book, but the subject matter did not lend its self to it, there is just noting scandalous or exciting about a well-run company. This is more of a 400-page case study best left to a university class on management. Unless you work here or are related to some on that does I doubt you would find much value in this book.

This is the unvarnished history of the Hudsons Bay Company. Extremely well researched and a pleasure to read this is the story of the founding of the company that opened up Canada and the Artic to trade. Filled with stories of exploration, adventure, hard headed business and hardship on the frontier. This isn't just the story of the founders, but the nuts and bolts of survival at the edge of the known world. If you enjoy history and adventure this will be hard to put down. Vol. 2 is Caesers of the Wildnerness.

Lovers of adventure, I implore you;read this book! I picked this one up on a whim several years ago and was completely awestruck! I could not put this one down to save my soul! Believe me, my friends, I would not steer you wrong on this one.

Following on the heels of her first book, I was anxious to get my copy and continue the story of the Canadian submarine service. I was greatly disappointed. The text meanders through politics and policy and only covers those in passing. The references are minimal and nowhere near in depth as her first book. There are grammatical and spelling errors throughout, and maps that cannot be read (too small and not in colour even though some of the legends describe coloured routes/borders etc.) I ended up only reading the material that may be directly related to the vaunted submarine service. She should have waited a further 5 years, doing more research, before publishing this one.

Well researched, well argued, and well written. Another excellent book from this author.
A must for everyone interested in Canadian naval history.

Once again, an excellent book from Julie Ferguson on the submarine branch of the Canadian navy.

This in no way represents the true life of anyone but another lost breed cashing in on his C-31 mom he grew up in toronto and occasionally came to CURVE LAKE

HEY DREW have another glass of stereotype pal

This book was great! Loved it. It was witty and full of humor laced with truth. I can't wait for the second volume.

This book was so interesting and funny, I didn't even stop at the typo! I just 'flew' over it! Give me 10 stars please. Or just 'give' me the missing star of Heather Zenone and make it an 11. I enjoyed this book from the beginning to the end. And wanted some more. I'll tell the whole world to buy this book, so he HAS to write some more!!

The author's name need not be displayed on the cover of this novel, so much in evidence are the standard Brooknerian themes and features: the professional invalid, whom one suspects of being desperately in need of wide open windows and a good brisk walk; the eternal cups of tea, ever being brewed in cozy kitchens as substitutes for life; the divining eye of the narrator, which eerily registers the thoughts and desires of characters without often resorting to illustrative dialogue and action. It would be difficult to like many of the characters in this novel; they are far too autistic for friendship, far too myopically bent on crashing their luxury liner selves into the shimmering icebergs of life. But in Fay Langdon we have a particularly puzzling person. On Hallowe'en she would have to go out dressed as a gigantic question mark, for her whole existence poses a problem: what happens to people who choose dedication to mediocrity instead of actively pursuing things that really matter to them? Fay spends all her years waiting for someone to come along and make her happy, and the idea never seems to occur to her that she might actually come up with meaningful activities and goals of her own. In addition to being an especially enjoyable way to pass some time, this book is also a provocative and cautionary tale. Its message? The person who settles for kissing frogs may turn into one herself, and never find that prince.

I was warned before I started on "Brief Lives" that in Anita Brookner's novels, nothing much ever happens. I guess I was prepared for the brooding pleasure that one might expect to derive from reading a sad contemplative piece but the experience totally surpassed my expectations. Brookner's facility with words is simply masterful. Her writing is precise, unpretentious, honest and true. Her characters are vividly drawn and always memorable. Contrary to the blurb, this novel is not about a friendship between two women. It is a tale of a thwarted and unfulfilled life, that of Fay's. Her relationship with the monstrous Julia cannot be considered a friendship by any imagination. With friends like Julia, who needs enemies ? Fay is bound to Julia only by a sense of obligation born of low self esteem and guilt pangs stemming from a midlife affair with Charlie. Julia, on the other hand, is a totally self-centred and imperious caricature of the former movie star she was and treats everybody including her husband, her household staff and her "friends" like Fay exactly the same way. There is no evidence of any valid basis for friendship between the two women, not that I can discern anyway. As seen through the eyes of Fay, the three men in Fay's life (Owen, Charlie and Alex) are all vapid and colourless characters deserving of the fate that awaits them - two of them get bumped off unexpectedly. The recurring question in the reader's mind is whether all men in Fay's world are as inherently remote emotionally as they seem or are they simply reacting to Fay's insecurity and inability to articulate her own needs. She is among the last of that dying breed of women from the old world who depend on their menfolk for self definition. She realises in time (but more from fortituous events than from the dawn of self enlightenment) the futility of this condition. As the men drop off like flies, she recoups a measure of resolve and dignity from within herself to lead the rest of her twilight years in a state of modest independence. Even the bullying Julia gets packed off to Spain. So the story ends on a note of hope as Fay contemplates a solitary life but this time without the people who have unconsciously conspired to make her feel undervalued. Brookner has produced a near masterpiece in this introspective study of a woman's life. Unless you're allergic to this genre of novels, I would highly recommend "Brief Lives" to all lovers of literature. It is truly a beautifully crafted piece of work.

I am a long time fan of Ms. Brookner's books. Brief Lives is a fine step in her exploration of the way people get along with one another. Her heroines are often lonely and cerebral yet never weak. I suggest this book to anyone who wants more than the danielle steele fare so prevalent these days.

Though this book does get off to a slow start, it can be credited to the mood being established by Gibson. 19th-Century Ontario is a slow moving place, and Gibson's lack of break-neck action serves well here. However, I do agree that the book never does pick up the pace. Instead, we are treated to seemingly random vignettes of strange occurrences in and around the Fraser homestead in southern Ontario. There are certain gothic elements to this tale: family dysfuncion, madness, violence, and a perpetual feeling of uncertainty. That's what this book left me with: I was uncertain about where it would eventually lead. When it got to the end, the feeling persisted. A strange work, but not worth high praise.

I'm currently only half-way through this book because I like it so much I can't bear to finish it. I keep going back and re-reading, even out loud, as one would with poetry. I love the language, the descriptions and, especially, the humor. I started this book immediately after an action-mystery and at first found it slow going as well; descriptions of people, places, things aren't fill-ins--they're the book. So I started over and adjusted myself to the pace. It lit up.

This book does a very good job of informing the reader of a neat idea. I found it to be quite fascinating and would recommend it to anyone interested in engineering.

One must hope that there are better writers in the over seventy-five Masters programs listed as participants at the back of this volume. The stories selected are almost universally dull with characters that while real, lack nuance. The prose in most of the stories is functional, but never lyrical, and there is not one original idea in the lot. Even the titles, excepting "A Few Fish and Anonymous Spaniards," are completely lacking in imagination. If this is the best our universities have to offer, then the outlook is truly dismal. The blame thus belongs to Ms. Hoffman, a writer of some imagination and skill, but apparently a terrible reader based on this volume and her effort as editor of The Best American Short Stories 1994, the weakest of the series in decades. Hoffman apparently finds interest in stories that are closer to sketches and offer few delights of language or plot. It is as if Ms. Hoffman endeavored to find future stars that were sure to glimmer none too brightly

Many of these stories are set in the San Francisco Bay Area, so particularly if you are from the area, you'll want to pick this book up. At their best the stories tackle uncomfortable subject matters (heroin addiction amongst the privileged and formerly successful, and child-by-child accidental murder) in clear and concise writing. At their worst the writing is muddled and the themes a mystery (if someone can explain the train story, I'll give you a dollar). Still, if you'd like some light reading by your bed on a week's vacation, this is worth buying.

I've started something. I work at a book store and we always have a bunch of discounted books in the front. One of the books was this one. I picked it up thinking for $2.99 I was getting a glimpse into the short story I have never tackled. Every night I read one story from one of the three (I bought the other two years '98 and '99) and every night I fall asleep feeling completely at peace. I go along on the journey with the characters and my internal conflict is solved as theirs are solved. It's a lovely feeling. I highly recommend this and the other two Scribner's books for the writers, readers, and non-believers who want inspiration, humanity and understanding.

This book made it point in the first 3 chapters. They also add useless software to drive the price up. Their coverage of basic marketing and the 4 P's is done ok but the book just drags on and on. Their readable examples are great. What they need is minimal theory, lots of examples and NO SOFTWARE in a 200 page book for $19.95. Then this would be a good book.

You know this book could have been nothing more than a glossary of definitions, a few summarys and outlines of the 4 this or 8 thats and it would have been much more interesting. The material in here is so basic and simple that I do the reading and don't feel that I have actually learned anything that wasn't fairly obvious to begin with. The examples are relevent if you happen to be a really slow learner and need 3 page explainations of 2 sentence definitions.

This is a fairly comprehensive fundamentals of marketing book. It is laid out well. It begins with an elementary explanation of the marketing discipline and its relationship to society. This is followed by an explanation of the ingredients in marketing strategy planning. Following this section, the author addresses the external factors that affect marketing decisions. This is followed by a discussion of demographic and behavioral deminisons of the customer. Then, the author catergories different type of customers. The next chapter presents an elementary review of marketing research. The most of the remainder of the text focuses on the 4 Ps--Product, Place, Promotion, and Price. This is probably the strongest part of the text. Throughout the text the author incorporates global and ethical issues that relate to the subject matter of each chapter. This is an excellent text for a principles or fundamentals of marketing course.

Proulx openly admits in her intro that she didn't choose the stories blindly, and the bias shows (compared to other Best American anthologies). It's possible to still choose the best stories while knowing the names of the authors, but that kind of objectivity is extremely difficult, for anyone-- literary master or not, and the fact that she chose to not select blindly makes me suspicious: makes me wonder just how many excellent "amateur" stories had been discarded in favor of the blander stories of bigger names.

Annie Proulx has assembled a collection of current American short stories from the few slicks that publish them, and the many little magazines that offer the true home of realistic short fiction nowadays. Like John Edgar Wideman (who edited last year's BASS) she continues with cultural pluralism: stories set in China (Jin), Southeast Asia (Eugenides), the Carribean (Cliff and Stone), and Europe (Davis and Michaels) appear here. A mixing of social levels and cultural influences is "in" these days in the short story. I think it has invigorated the form. Now for the bad news: the current trend in the realistic short story is finally clear to me. I am calling it the "dysfunctional story"; in it, horrible people do terrible things to each other (or animals) for an extended period of time, and then the story ends. Woe to the reader who "identifies" with such characters. I have developed a thicker skin while reading such a story, because it's dangerous to get too close to its emotions. Sometimes irony effectively modulates the work, as it does in Michelle Cliff's "Transactions" (TriQuarterly), a shrewd parable of cultural invasion set on an island with a slave history; or Leonard Michaels's "A Girl with a Monkey" (Partisan Review), where an aging American tries to buy the affections of a German prostitute as he tries to escape a collapsed life back home. Fine traditional narratives that let us "like" the characters include Junot Diaz's "Fiesta, 1980" (Story), a beautiful rendering of a misunderstood youth in a New York barrio; and Michael Byers's "Shipmates Down Under" (American Short Fiction), my favorite in this book, which handles the complex problems of a "typical" American family with Updikean aplomb. You'll notice I didn't mention any slick magazine stories as notable this year. Based on this collection, the "littles" had better material. My students also liked work by Carolyn Cooke, Karen E. Bender, Tim Gautreaux, and Jeffrey Eugenides (although some hated the last one). Overall, the impression I get from these stories is a far reduced faith or interest in humankind. Authors seem to trust style and plot more than people, at times seeming to take enjoyment in showing characters in their worst possible light. This Tarantino-ization of the current short story does not bode well for the form, IMHO (in my humble opinion).

Now that "Story" Magazine has tragically folded (I forgive you, Lois), the annual "Best of" series is just about my only source left for finding a large number of really high-quality short stories in one place. "Atlantic," "The New Yorker," "Playboy," and all the other standard fiction venues are nice occasionally, but they each publish two or three stories per month at the most.

Just as I used to do with "Story," I try with these "Best of" compilations to ration the stories out, one per day, to make them last. A sure sign that the collection is truly wonderful is that I fail at this rationing, and devour it in much larger chunks. Perhaps the only reason I never finish them in a single day is that the really fine stories will make me think, or feel, so deeply that I cannot bear to continue immediately.

This collection, the 1997 edition, is one of those; perhaps the 1994 was better, and I'm already enjoying the 1998 thoroughly. But every fan of the modern American short story should have a copy of the 1997.

Comments on the previous review and the book. Overall it should serve as a warning to check the author of the book carefully. While Canadian by birth, having lived in the USA for most of his life, skews his perspective to say the least. That he didn't know the size of "his" country is one such example. The obtaining alcohol from a store clerk that is distributed via conveyor belt?? That I would have to see in person to believe. I lived most of my life in Canada and have never witnessed such a thing!

Regarding comments about the Canadian psyche - it is amusing how some people assume that aggressiveness equates competitiveness or pride. Mr. Malcolm commits a cardinal error in assuming that his Americanized interpretation of events, characteristics and values is the same for Canadians. That is not necessarily the case. For instance, that Canadians do not go around bragging about their country does not mean they have an inferiority complex or that they don't love their country - just that they don't feel the need to get in someone's face about it. They are much more aware and tolerant of the existence of other countries and customs in the world and realize that, while they love their own country, others may enjoy theirs just as much. This is something Americans seem to find difficult to understand and assume it means they have no pride or are unpatriotic. The 'defensiveness' he refers to is not an 'inferiority complex' but an annoyance of American assumptions. It's rather funny actually since it is the pot calling the kettle black. Having lived in the USA for a couple of years now I have noticed that Americans are the least likely to accept any kind on negative observation about their country whether it's true or not. But here it wouldn't be called defensiveness, it would be called patriotism!! :-) (and in many cases, rightfully so!)

The list of examples could continue but shouldn't be necessary. The bottom lines is that while there are great similarities between the two countries, there are fundemental cultural differences that are not often apparent at first glance, but they do exist. There are pro's and con's to each. Don't make assumptions about motivations or belief's and everyone will be just fine.

My hopes for this book centered primarily around history. I wanted to get a good introduction to Canadian history from the earliest times to recent developments. Alas, 'tis not so with this Andrew Malcolm book. Malcolm makes it known to all that he is of Canadian ancestry, although he spent most of his life here in the U.S. He mentions in the text that he taught history at a university and that he was a "Canadian Bureau Chief" at the New York Times. Despite his association with anything New York, he is still eminently qualified to do some serious work on Canada and the Canadian mentality. "The Canadians" is the result.

This is more travelogue than history. Malcolm spent four years rattling around Canada trying to get a feel for the country. The scope of the book is impressive. Malcolm examines geography, people, and economics to show his readers where Canadians have been, and where they are going. The chapter on geography is definitely illuminating. Most of us, especially here in the U.S., probably don't have an adequate idea of how huge Canada really is. Almost the entire population of Canada lives right along the border. Behind them stretches an amount of territory that is amazing to behold. Even all of the provinces of Canada are enormous. Most of the provinces could hold several major U.S. states within their boundaries with room to spare. The northern regions, namely the Yukon and the Northwest Territories (isn't it known as Nunavit now?) are almost beyond description, with many areas unexplored by man. The task that Canada has had since its inception has been making use of the vast resources within these regions while preserving the fragile environment. Most of the natural gas mined here goes to other places, such as the U.S. Actually, most of the stuff scraped, panned, cut or dug goes other places, as Canada's main source of economic livelihood is trade. Of course, the U.S. is Canada's biggest trading partner, with billions of dollars of goods flowing across the border. The U.S reciprocates this trade. This trade and emphasis on Canada's economic condition is detailed by Malcolm in his chapter on Canadian economics. Malcolm spends a huge amount of page space showing how Canadian business has moved into the U.S., buying up real estate and companies with impunity. The Canadian banking system is discussed in detail (it's monolithic) as is the growing trade relationships with Japan and the Pacific Rim. The best factoids from this section: Canadian beer. Most of the Canadian beer we see in the U.S. isn't even available in most of Canada due to strict production laws at the provincial level. Buying alcoholic beverages in Canada is a bit different, too. Special stores are set up strictly for alcohol. People go in and order what they want from the clerk. The drinks then come through the wall on a conveyor belt. I laughed when I read this because I remembered the scene in "Strange Brew" when Bob and Doug went to the liquor store and tried to claim they found a mouse in a beer bottle.

Malcolm spends a lot of time discussing the psychology of Canadians. It seems that most Canadians suffer from living in the shadow of the U.S. Canadians are quick to criticize the United States, even though they benefit from our presence. They also seem to suffer from an inferiority complex. Canadians are less competitive and less willing to attempt new things for fear of failure. They don't want to toot their own horn, but they hate criticism of their culture and country. Malcolm also makes much out of the regionalism of Canadians. Due to the vast geography and inclement conditions, Canadians tend to stick closer to home and have not developed the type of national unity that the U.S. or other countries have come to take for granted.

Malcolm has a great love for Canada, although some of his writing has an "aw, shucks" mentality to it that can be annoying at times. His descriptions of life in the Arctic Circle are fascinating and informative. I give this book three stars, not because it isn't good, but because it wasn't what I was looking for. To be fair, that's more my fault than his.

I,WE BOUGHT THIS BOOK IN HOPES THAT WE COULD LEARN SOME BASICS ON CANADIAN WAYS BEFORE VENTURING INOT CANADA TO START, SHARE SOME INCREDIBLE BUSINESS OPPORTUNITES WITH THE CANADIANS AS NOW PARTNERS WITH THE USA IN A GROWING INTERNATIONAL MOVEMENT.