Unlike the original Rambo, author Craig Thomas has brought his troubled Air Force Nam vet through four stories--this book, a sequel "Firefox Down" that continues the journey of Gant's stolen MiG out of Soviet airspace into Scandinavia, "Winterhawk" in which Gant uses a MiL chopper that the Israelis stole for the US to rescue a deep cover agent from their Baikonur rocket base, and "A Different War" which was never published for US release (I bagged a used copy of that one courtesy of rare book site Alibris). In that one, Gant is called upon to investigate an airline tragedy that ends up having corporate skulduggery at its roots--thus its title. The Gant of the printed page is a bit different from the Gant on the screen--in action roles, Eastwood always plays his characters as laconic and menacing. This Gant is more intense, more of an envelope-pusher. As such, he's a lot like David Morrell's Rambo--you'd never make the connection on the screen.

I enjoyed the book although I actually liked the movie better then the book, which rarely happens for me. I just wanted more of the book, more character development, more detail on the spy tradecraft. The story is great, the detail is there, and I just wanted maybe 50 more pages. The book moves very fast and because it does not have volume it is easily a weekend book. I would recommend the book; I just thought it needed more.

Though it may take American Readers a spell to get used to the British linguistics, Thomas has a captivating spy thriller here that is hard to put down and excitement galore. The epitomy of Thomas' fiction.

Unlike a George Carlin humorous rant at everything and everything, it's tough maintaining a high level when dealing with only one subject. That's why this book has its hilarious ups and somewhat tedious downs: from practicing your swing in elevators (I personally like bathroom mirrors while dripping wet) to the Bobby Jones chapter. But overall, well worth reading especially for AA members who have the double whammy of being hooked on the game and will really appreciate the tongue in cheek comparison.

Places this game from Scotland in the light of twelve step addiction programs. Highlights the borderline addict (at least) in everyone of us passionate about this great game. Why do we continue to toruture ourselves? This fun book delves into this, poking fun as would a standup comedian in a nightclub would take shots at the audience.

I teetered on this one--from two to four starts, likely because the book itself surges from good to average or slightly below. Reaching its high pint in chapter five, it then descends into the kind of cheap, over exaggerated category of humor we have come to in our times. Sex oriented with reference after reference to different items and people that I became saturated with this. Much of the talk about club throwing, gimmick helps, etc. seemed like they could easily have come out of a brainstorming session by a high school golf team holed up in the clubhouse waiting out a rain.

Sprinkled in the high-point chapters however are some great one-liners, e.g. "Golf if like a sting operation, setting you up at every turn."

Enjoyed more the creative side of books such as: Flatbellies, Enchanted Clubs, the Greatest Golfer who Never Lived and A Mulligan for Bobby Jobe.

Mark Twain once described golf as "a good walk spoiled." Accurate as Twain was in revealing the insidiously evil nature of this addictive pastime, he stopped short of explaining why so many people were willing to spoil their walks despite vowing at the end of each round never to touch another club.
Craig Brass, mercifully, has done what Samuel Clemens could not. He has exposed golf for what it is: a heroin derivative. What else could explain the shakes I get when the weather is nice, the grass is green, and I'm stuck in the office? What else could explain my need to sneak out on a weekend with the flimsy and transparent excuse, "I'm going to run some errands," as my wife gives me a shameful stare?
I admit it. I'm addicted. Author Brass has empowered me to face the problem and do something about it. Namely, quit the game.
No longer will I suffer the humiliating laughter of "friends" after gagging on an 18-inch birdie putt. No longer will I helicopter a 3-wood into the top of Indiana's tallest tulip poplar after worm-burning a brand new Titleist into a mosquito-infested swamp. No siree, not me. No more. I quit. I can do it. Just follow the 12 steps and keep the faith. I can quit.
Alright... well, no I can't. No one can. As Brass explains, we're all just puppets at the end of strings being pulled by the golf gods. We are at their capricious mercy, and they have precious little. Oh sure, they give you the occasional chip-in from off the green. But that's just to keep you coming back.
I read Craig Brass's book in one evening, and I laughed til I cried. I cried because a) the book is funny, and b) I recognized that Brass was describing me - and many of my friends. His writing is cynically witty (like Twain) and, thank heavens, he does not just resort to the same dried-up old golf jokes you've heard a million times. His approach is fresh. His evidence is convincing. More than a few golf widows will want to stuff their husbands' stockings with this gem. It's probably the next best thing to professional intervention.
In fact, I'm writing this review having just come in off the golf course. Now on a beautiful 55-degree December day in South Bend, Indiana (where it's normally closer to 55-below), I could have been stringing Christmas lights on my house, or finishing some holiday shopping for my wife. But no. I played golf. I pretzeled a driver around a yard arm after cold-topping a Nike Tour Accuracy into a lake. I vowed never to play again. But the weather report for tomorrow looks pretty good . . .

I think this book is ok - it didn't inspire me to get exercising, but I liked that with each exercise it gave directions on how to breathe.

This book provides a great ball workout. Once you have mastered the basics it is very easy to add the new exercises to your workout. After you've mastered the program the back of the book provides a quick guide to each area of exercise. Very helpful.
This is the one book I use for my ball workout.

This book covers a lot of ground in good detail. I like the arm excercises. The author gives breathing (to breath in or out) intruction for each excercise, which I find helpful. It is a helpful and enjoyable book to learn from.

Illogical to assume that a child's psychological and emotional development are not patterned as infants from the first day, and that his or her outlook and life attitudes of emotive responses are created by parental attention and attentive encouragement, this book is a long time overdue. Acknowledging this fact, and considering labor issues which remove parents from the household so much that this vital process is minimized threatens each infant born and promising to erode the value of human interaction and harmonious potential in all human resources areas. Valuable time, effort and progress which once lost is not recoverable is enormously important to America and to each country in the development of humans and their treatment of one another. Robotic clones without the emotions of compassion, guilt, empathy or sympathy can only promise a hard-hearted society, a direction of high risk detrimental to everyone of all ages in all capacities. This is a very much ignored area of human relations that addresses all of the social system involving mental health and the subsequent poor physical health that inevitably follows.

As the mother of a now nineteen-month-old, I highly recommend this book. For the first eighteen months, this and the AAP's book were all I needed. I liked the blend of research and advice explained in an easy-to-read and nonjudgemental format. While some may find the book overly general, frankly, I already knew how to change diapers and stuff, and I prefer the approach of being told what is happening developmentally with my child at a given moment and then letting me decide what to do with the information. There are some very good suggestions for what sorts of stimulation a child needs at various ages, and they're nice to use for launching points. Having made it all the way through the stages in the book, I can say that their advice helped my son become the happy, well-adjusted toddler he is today.

This is a fascinating and very readable guide on early learning and emotional growth for the parents of newborns through 18 months. Using the latest research, the internationally renowned Rameys discuss how infants adapt, learn and grow, both intellectually and emotionally. Right From Birth contains examples of proven benefits, the Seven Essentials, that parents can give to their children beginning at birth that will result in permanent developmental benefits. It also contains many practical suggestions on parenting that are easy to understand and apply. They are presented in simple formats such as What Parents Should Do. This book considers everything from an infantss personal style to elements of growth to what to expect. It covers teaching, daily routine, language development, outside care, appropriate activities, and a myriad of other important elements and milestones in an infants development. If you are the parent of a newborn, this should be must reading for you! Start Right From Birth to give your child the best head start for development!

Blomberg distills the findings of the six volumes of "Gospel Perspectives," a work of conservative scholars. Most of those on the left wing of Biblical scholarship would argue that "conservative Bible scholar" is an oxymoron, but Blomberg proves them wrong. He gives a masterful study of the Synoptic Problem, arriving at the two (or four) document hypothesis as the most satsifactory solution. Next he engages in a cogent critique of modern methods of Biblical criticism, pointing out the worth of such methods as well as their preconceptions and limitations.

He then undertakes a study of the historicity of the Gospel stories, and turns in the most compelling scholarly argument I have ever read for the historical reliability of the resurrection narratives. So far, so good. Five stars up to this point.

Unfortunately, it is in his assessment of Gospel historicity that he goes astray. Blomberg argues repeatedly for the "camcorder exactness" of the Gospel stories. If the Gospels say it, that's exactly the way it happened, and any discrepancies from one story to the next are merely "apparent" discrepancies, which can be ironed out with enough imagination. As one who has made a career of evaluating and presenting testimony, I find that discrepancies in testimony don't equate to falsehood, and that it is neither necessary nor wise to pretend that there are no discrepancies in testimony.

Blomberg appears to begin with the conclusion of historical accuracy and to sift the evidence for arguments supporting his conclusion. That's not the way you do it. You work the evidence to form conclusions; you don't form the evidence to fit conclusions. You begin with no firmly fixed preconceptions. You collect your evidence, form a hypothesis that explains the evidence, collect more evidence, modify your hypothesis, collect more evidence, modify your hypothesis, and keep doing that until your are satisfied that your conclusions are valid. Only after you have arrived at your conclusions in an unbiased fashion, do you then argue for your conclusions. When you argue for your conclusions, you don't defend the indefensible. Trying to defend too much weakens your argument as a whole. Blomberg tries to defend too much. Example: Blomberg acknowledges that even the majority of conservative scholars find it unlikely that John wrote the Gospel of John. After making the concession, he then argues vehemently for John's authorship of the Gospel. The Gospel never claims it was written by John, and authorship by John is not necessary to a finding of historical accuracy. Why, then, defend John's authorship so staunchly? Blomberg's zeal in defending questionable conclusions casts doubt on the sound conclusions he presents.

This book will probably not make a Christian of you, but it is certainly a good introduction to Gospel study. The primary focus is obvious in the title, and Blomberg makes an excellent case for it in this summation of the "Gospel Perspectives" series. All in all, I would recommend this book. It is hard going at times, but gave me a much better view of what is going on out there in terms of NT scholarship.

I had just previously finished a book by John Dominic Crossan, which threw me for a loop. Not only did my mouth drop about a foot, I had this empty feeling about all the things I have believed all these years. He and Marcus Borg seem to take a real liberal approach to interpretation of biblical history, to the point of invalidation.

This book was a refreshing alternative to that previous one. It was well written and captivated my interest. I could not believe how much I used my yellow highlighter. This author has a good writing style and I have since purchased a couple of other books by him (on their way, Amazon!)

He took a thorough approach (used for his doctoral thesis, I believe) and has cited numerous other sources, which gives the reader other options for purchasing books with similar or alternate views. He effectively invalidated what numerous Nay Sayers have posited about the validity of the historical gospels, or lack thereof.

He addresses concerns over the synoptic gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke) and how they interrelate, as well as how they relate to the gospel of John. The author addresses miracles and many other issues.

I came away from reading the book, with a new feeling of faith. I could see how the historical gospels could in fact, be truthful and still are applicable in today's age. I feel that I better understand the methods used by those Nay Sayers, who have drawn their own interpretations and precisely why their conclusions are not accurate.

While this book offers excellent photos of many McCoy lines, I find that the stated values of the pottery is optimistic ( they seem to be desired values of McCoy collectors more than actual market values). I also don't care for the order in which the pottery is presented. I would rather see all the vases, all the planters, all the cookie jars, etc.. presented together rather than in chronological order. It is much easier to find a piece with an unknown date of production that way.

All in all a good book for those who want to get a taste for McCoy, but not an excellent reference book.

This body of work is a richly detailed piece of reference that has become my source of insight and excitement ever since the moment of purchace. The authors have layed out the Mccoy lines in a chronological fashion, listing also their identifying namesake. These categories are then subdivided into year produced, description, size, mark, available glazes and value. Lines produced by the McCoy are also given a smart descriprion, so that we as collectors gain a little insight as to the backround behind different lines. The book also offers a full history on marks and labels, and will also describe differing values related to pieces with reference to other oddities. Finally we are given a sincere history of Nelson Mccoy Pottery, which is a true asset to the begining collecter. This book is a must have. I find myself consulting it before and after every purchase I make. I have always purchased pottery because it effects my on an aesthetic level. Yesterday I purchased a $10 McCoy jardiniere. My $10 investment turned into $75! because I read the book.

I really like this book. I recently added a few new pieces of McCoy pottery to my collection. This book has great photos and concise information. It is full of a variety of items that I did not know McCoy produced, but now I do know. I was able to accurately price some items that I have on the market and I was able to review items that I have seen for sale. I was hoping for a book with photos and prices only and that is what I got. There is very little time waisted in this book. The photos are well produced and labeled. Great for those of you who are looking for collectibles and wondering about the justification of their price. I highly recommend this book.

As a dedicated, longtime fan of the fabled Athens quartet, and a reader/owner of half a dozen other R.E.M. tomes, I thought I knew everything worth knowing. So when I saw it in a bargain bin at my local bookstore, I picked it up more on a whim than anything else. But I was pleasantly surprised at the wealth of information contained therein. Many factoids abound. The author clearly read virtually all of the worldwide press on the band. And his enthuusiasm for the subject shines through on every page. Anyone who has ever read interviews with R.E.M. knows that they are a good read. J.M. Stipe is often the source of many a memorable non-sequitir, such as the description of Fables of the Reconstruction sounding like "two oranges being nailed to a board." Peter Buck on the other hand, is what Rhino Records would call a music "geekus maximus," (albeit an extrememly cool one) who liberally sprinkles descriptions of his songs with references to cult heroes like Nick Drake, the Velvet Underground, Strawberry Alarm Clock and the 13th Floor Elevators. Occassionally we get a glimmer into their legendarily mysterious songwriting process as well. And the songs are divided by album with a nice overview of the sessions for said record, placed nicely in the context of their stunning evolution. To quote the Voice of Harold, a must.

I always find it fascinating to find out the whys a song was written and this book tells the whys. Very informative.

this book can be the bible of REM. it is THE book review of all the songs written by rem up till NAIHF. every song has a story behind it; why it was written, where it was created and for whom it was meant to be. the coverage is extensive and satisfying.buy it ..and u'll know who Maria Calais is.

A nice collection of artists, with some great examples of what they can do. But....
Paper stock is poor and some prints are a bit blurry.

This is a great artbook, featuring many famous furry artists. I love the art, and look at it regularly. If you're a fan of Michele Light, I recommend it.

This book started my physical collection of furry publishings, and still remains the best singal pice I have. Not only is it perfectaly published, but contains excellent examples of anthropomorphic artwork. Its my personal bible.

I can't say I've read the whole book for one reason, the advice is horrible. The technique that Mr. McNeil preaches, to keep your feet together, is simply wrong. It's sad that such poor advice is still being published and unknowing beginners are learning bad traits. Keep your feet apart and learn how to ski.

A terrific book! It's amazing how Craig can fit so much excellent information into such a small space.

I bought this book, not because of reviews, but because I've met Craig and seen him ski. I can assure you that he is among the most knowledgeable, thoughtful and skillful ski instructors to be found anywhere.

Buy this book, carry it with you on the slopes and try the techniques. Your skiing WILL improve. Better yet, buy it, study it, then contact Craig and sign up for lessons.

If you want to read about these superb, efficient skiing techniques in more detail you should also pick up Harald Harb's "Anyone Can Be An Expert Skier" books as well. (They're awesome and include more info but won't fit in your pocket.)

Craig has done skiers a favor. Many ask, how do I remember all the movements needed to become an Expert Skier? Now you have it with this great pocket guide. In addition, you have at your finger tips a North American ski resort guide, containing all the important information to compare resorts or make a reservation at a resort. This is truely a skier's dream. Don't leave home without it!!

There is such a huge difference between motivational and inspirational books. Craig's is truly inspirational. I have the honor of knowing Craig, and working with him on several occassions. His book is truly a great story that is also easy to read. I recommend it highly

This is one of the most amazing person I know. I am in the Air Force and recently met him at a professional Military Education course on Dec. 5, 2001. He has accomplished so much and is so successful because of his personality. He gives credit to his parents for his determination and will. He is so inspirational, that it makes him one of the best motivational speakers around. His life story alone is a good reason to buy this book. One thing that you people must understand is that this guy has everything.....he is very successful with two degrees. He is world known! he could easily just sit home and relax and just spend the day with no fear..but he doesn't. He would rather travel the world and share his story and give motivational speeches because that is his way of giving back to the community...or the world. The only thing he doesn't have is his eyesight. What makes him special and I will always remember what he said to my class when asked if he would dissappointed if he ever got his eyesight restored because things would maybe not seem the way he imagined them, He said,"No, because one of the good things aboyut being blind is that you don't see race, color of someones skin, or anything of the sort. I get to know the person and only the person. I do not know racism, or prejudice. That would probably be the only thing that would disappoint me. The way people judge by the outside first...and that is not possible for me." Take those words and use them. Apply them to your everyday life. Oh and to let you know....he has hit a hole in one on the golf course. I saw it on video. He can do anything!

craig is my uncle and his book is extremely good! people are always criticizing him for something or another but i think you people are just jelous that he has found great success in never giving up. I have been around him my whole life and found him to be more of a father figure to me than my own dad and that means a lot to me. if you would like to hear an amazing story about the worlds greatest blind athlete read this book