Rob Ellis, with his experience as a professional player and coach (as well as being a licensed clinical therapist) is as fine a writer on hitting as I have found. As a developer of a the largest website on the internet devoted totally to hitting (with members in all 50 states and 15 foreign countries) I can truly say that Rob's articles on this site have had a most positive effect on the members. There have been many good comments on Rob's articles - many of the articles taken from this book. The Online Hitting Academy takes pride in having Rob Ellis as a long-standing regular writer. I would advise anyone interested in developing their hitting skills or those of their team to definately study any of Rob's books. "The Mike Schmidt Study" should be a standard on any coach's or player's bookshelf. It's a 'must read' for anyone who is serious about learning the techniques and skills that have helped even seasoned professionals!

With over thirty years experience in this great game, I think I learned a little about hitting. The most concise and clear examples and explanation of how to become a great hitter is in this book. It is extremely well written and gives all hitters the necessary tools to improve their performance. If you could only purchase one book on hitting, this would have to be the one!

Hitting a baseball is considered one of the most difficult skills in sports. "The Mike Schmidt Study" is an excellent book on the subject of hitting. You cannot go wrong from reading and applying the content of this book. There are many theories and opinions on the science and art of hitting...from linear mechanics to rotational mechanics to combining both. This book is well written. Without wasting your time with lengthy text explanations it shows with clear illustrations and simple but effective drills how to learn and improve your hitting. The book covers all aspects of hitting, from theory to the swing and mental mechanics that are necessary to excel as a hitter. No one book is going to cover or satisfy completely all there is to know about hitting. But the Mike Schmidt Study, with its twelve-lesson format, is as good a study on hitting as you will come across anywhere. Excellent for coaches, hitters and parents who want to help their son or daughters master the skill of hitting. I have used a great deal of what I have learned here in my hitting clinics to youngsters ... I wish I knew just a fifth of what is in this book when I played "AA". You can't go wrong reading this book...anyone that says differently just do not know what they are talking about or and never played baseball, let alone try to hit a ball.

I just started blowing on a harp I picked up and wanted something to learn some simple blues by. Although the premise of the book is a story of some cave men who learned the harmonica, there is a great deal of information here. I even found it a bit inspirational. I would recommend to those of you with a sense of humor who want to start learning for fun. If you are looking for strictly technical don't buy it.

Great book to get you started goes through theory straight harp cross harp and slant harp. very good teaching book. Goes through some theory. A quick read that you'll be reading over and over again. Great blues riff to get you wailing. I would suggest getting the cassettes with this or any blues instruction book.

It was a birthday present from my sister and I use it all the time. I think if you want to learn to play harmonica, this is a great way to start.

Barely four weeks past Easter of the Year of Our Lord 1140, with Shrewsbury and all its region secure within the King's peace, the conventual peace of Matins within the great Abbey church of St Peter and St Paul is suddenly and most rudely shattered. Hunted and hounded by an angry mob into the comparative safety of sanctuary within the House of God, a terrified young man, accused of robbery and murder, and closely followed by his accusers and would-be executioners, disturbs the midnight office of the good monks of Shrewsbury. And so starts the seventh Chronicle of Brother Cadfael, in which the mediaeval sleuth finds himself with yet another wrong to right, by once more putting his mind to the solving of one of Shrewsbury's small mysteries.

In this particular case, the mystery is no greatly complex affair but it is, in any case, largely subsidiary to Ellis Peters' painting of a finely detailed picture of life in twelfth century England, and more especially here, within a moderately wealthy family household. There are some unexpected twists and developments along the way, though, and there is certainly nothing predictable about the way the story works itself out, although the ending is no particular surprise either.

In some respects, this is one of the best of the Cadfael books. Its opening pages contain some of Ellis Peters' finest writing, with her descriptions of the running to ground of young Liliwin and the reactions of Abbot Radulfus being quite hair-raising in their potency. The tale unfolds at a sure and steady pace thereafter, too, ensuring that it is always difficult to put the book down, right up until the final exciting, and rather tear-jerking, denouement.

The story line is full of surprises and excellent suspense. The ending isn't up to Peters' standards, though. Enjoyable reading none the less.

Ellis Peters, as always, creates a tense, yet delicately crafted, net of secrets and thoughts, and a solid and careful detangler of mystery in her beloved Brother Cadfael. I found the contrast of the pairs of the lovers in the end not syruppy, as one reviewer noted, but a fascinating study in the ribbons of pain and hate and even evil that can be woven through love. The two pairs are contrasts as clear as shadow and light, yet the source is the same - the flame of love is what creates the darkness of the shadows and the fire-glory of the light. You wish you could untangle them, give back the darkness to the night where it belongs, but in this book the heart turned awry cannot grow back, cannot untwist itself, and is thrown into the neverending dark. The reason I don't find it syruppy is that I think that while the focus seems to be on the fate of the two stubborn, delicate youngsters in love, Peters is really intent upon the other pair, the pair of lovers whose love brought them darkness instead of light. In any case, this book is like most of Peters' others - a finely texturized and woven tapestry of history and people in all the colors of blood and earth and that long-ago sky.

The Stalker is a good book but you have to really be into reading to really like this book.I mean it's boring in the first part but when yoou get depper into the book it gets a little more excitment.At the end you wont belive who the stalker is.

The book was fine, i guess. Not as scary as Baby Sitter, for exemple. It takes long to get into the story. Half the book, (the first half) was B O R I N G. Then there's a bit more exitement, and you star to turn pages a little faster. conclusion: read it, id you don't have anything better to do.

The stalker was a brilliant book. I found it really interesting and I would recommend it to anybody who loves scary books.

I was so excited to get this book! I thought: at last, new adventures with my favorite characters! What a disappointment. Not only is the premise ridiculous, but the characters are written as caricatures of themselves. Joel is only barely recognizable; do you really think he would close a letter with "Yours in Chutzpah!"??? Would Chris end a note with "Supremely Conscious"??? Please. Don't hit us over the head with it! Another irritant is the fact that whenever Joel, Maurice, or Holling sends a letter to a place of business, the personal address reads "Gentlemen." The Northern Exposure series was always exploring issues of gender with thoughtfulness and insight, but this book simply reiterates the cultural undertones of sexism. If you're a real Northern Exposure fan, don't waste your time on this book.

A must read for any Northern Exposure Fan! I thoroughly enjoyed every page. It is a shame it wasn't a script for a two hour movie.

I actually enjoyed reading this than I do watching the series. I don't have much else to say but thought I'd post this just to get my 5 stars in.
All I can say is I enjoyed it.

Actually.....nil stars.

Only buy it if you are the sort of person who buys timeshare, the Eiffel Tower, etc...

For those who are unaware, the "MacCathy Mor" discussed in the book was really an imposter.

The reality of an indigenous Irish nobility is not much understood or accepted inside Ireland itself, much less in the rest of the world. As the victors write the history, too much Irish history has omitted any reference to the fact that Ireland had its own kings and nobles well before the Norman-English intruded on the scene. To this day the claims of persons such as the MacCarthy Mor to royal status are met with skepticism; relevant to this book, one individual expressed this skepticism so openly as to warrent a suit before the Italian courts. This lawsuit offered the MacCarthy Mor to present to a court of experts his credentials as Head of the Royal House of Munster, as Chief of his Name, and as rightful bearer of the coat of arms of the MacCarthy Mor. The Court carefully reviews and expounds on the evidence presented, and the ruling presents in detail the Court's rationale for fully supporting the MacCarthy Mor's claims. This book is a must read for any student of Irish history, modern aristocracy, chivalry, or heraldry. A word of warning, though: this is a legal document, and it reads like one -- don't expect light reading, but do expect to be educated!

If you thought that the Gaelic Nobility died out in 1601, or even 1691, this book is for you. This book documents the present situation of one of the Royal lines of Ireland. It documents the present views of two European powers towards the rights and prerogatives of the current representative of the Royal Eoghanacht Dynasty. This Royal line ruled over the southwest quarter of Ireland for more than a thousand years. The last regnant King was Donal IX, King of Desmond, who died in 1596.

Yet the dynasty, with it's rights and priveleges, survives! Contained in the book are the transcripts of two Italian Court rulings, a translation of a Certification from the Kingdom of Spain, and copies of various supporting documents that were made available for the Italian and Spanish authorities. This book will be of special interest to those who study the Gaelic history of Ireland, and those who claim descent from the MacCarthy family.

"Silent Witness" by Carol Witness was an okay book. I thought it was going to be a lot better, but it could've been worse. The storyline revolves around a girl named Lucy. Recently, her friend Allen died. Allen's mother gives away some of his belongings and Lucy gets ahold of a video tape recorded by Allen. At first, Lucy thinks that the tapings were of fun encounters; the school car wash, a party, etc. It seems fine until she witnesses something deadly on it! Something that someone would kill to get back...

I thought that the book was pretty good. Maybe I've read a bit too many young adult thrillers, but this one wasn't one of my favorites. It moved a little slow but the ending was pretty cool. Overall, it wasn't bad.

Also recommended:
a.) "Someone at the Door" by Richie Tankersley Cusick
b.) "Starstruck" by Richie Tankersley Cusick
c.) "Vampire" by Richie Tankersley Cusick
d.) "Slay Bells" by Jo Gibson
e.) "My Bloody Valentine" by Jo Gibson
f.) "Secret Santa" by D. E. Athkins
g.) "The Invitation" by Diane Hoh
h.) "The Train" by Diane Hoh
i.) All R. L. Stine young-adult thrillers
j.) All books by Joan Lowery Nixon

The book Silent Witness was written by Carol Ellis. This book is a mystery about a girl named Lucy, Lucy's friend Allan died. He lived across the street from her. No one really knew exactly what had happend except that Allan was walking on a hill and fell and died. Allan's mom gave Lucy a box full of Allan's things, his mom wanted Lucy to give the things away to his friends so they would have something to remember him by. Lucy found a video in the box and desided to keep it for herself, but that video has evidence of a crime, and someone would do anything to get rid of it. The only problem was that because Lucy kept that video she was about to experience many difficult obsticles..her last obsticle was to find out if she was the next to die.

What I liked about this book is that it always found a way to keep my interest. It never got boring. I also like that it was a bit scary and always kept you in suspence, wondering what was going to happen next. I especially like how this book has a surprising and interesting twist close to the end. You would never suspect, even with to clues the author gives you, that this book was going to end the way it did.

I would certainly recommend this book to others. Especially if you like reading mystery books. You would also like this book if you like books that are light reads and that wont bore you at any point. This book is excellent and I'm sure anyone who reads it would think the same.

This book was a bit scary but very interesting. I thought it was so good that I decided to do my english essay on it and I got a really good mark.

I've heard a lot about Warren Ellis' "The Authority." I've been wanting to read it for a while, but I decided to pick up his Stormwatch work, as I know that is preceded Ellis' newer series. I this up the other day and read through it fairly quickly. If it is anything, it is slick and entertaining. I really love the art, cuz I'm a sucker for that slick superhero jazz. The characters and their powers are unique and interesting, to say the least. It is also clear that Ellis had a very definite plan for where to take this series. What it is lacking is a certain depth of storyline. Each issue is a completely self-contained story, which is fine, but they feel a bit rushed. They all probably could have been better served over a 2-issue story arc. Still, the characters are intriguing, as are the ideas of doing good at all costs and the ends justifying the means, two common themes with which the stories flirt. While I've read a lot of reviews bashing the pre-Ellis Stormwatch material, it would probably be helpful to get a bit of a summary of what went on before, just to acquaint yourself with the particulars of the characters and the world which they inhabit. Still, an altogether entertaining, if light, collection. I look forward to reading more Stormwatch, end eventually getting right into the thick of the Authority.

In the beginning, StormWatch was a monthly series from the WildStorm imprint of Image Comics - a creator-owned company all the flash & dazzle comics illustrators formed in the early Nineties. In the beginning, StormWatch was a blatant copy of The X-Men created by one of the most famous artists associated with the X-Men, Jim Lee. In the beginning, StormWatch was written and illustrated by Jim Lee. In the beginning, StormWatch sucked. A lot. For three years.

Then Jim Lee called Warren Ellis and said something to the effect of, "Please help me. I'll let you write it any way you want as long as it's good and people will buy it." Ellis probably replied something to the effect of, "That's such a stupid idea I'll do it just to surprise people. But watch out, I'm going to write it the way I want."

StormWatch: Force Of Nature collects the first six issues of Ellis's eye-opening run on the series. Picking up right after a member of the team turned traitor and almost got everyone else killed before being taken out himself, Ellis decides that this is a great chance for a new beginning. The group's leader, after finding out that StormWatch's charter as a U.N. sanctioned and supported emergency security force has become a decidedly more sinister arrangement, decides that if they are going to set up to fail, they might as well suspend all the "rules" of superheroic engagement and do some lasting good on the way down. "A band-aid on a cancer" is what he calls their previous efforts, and sets out to do something about it.

Ellis proceeds to throw out half of StormWatch's cliched superheroes in favor of three decidedly unusual characters of his own creation: Rose Tattoo, a speechless psychotic with superhuman weapons accuracy; Jenny Sparks, the alcoholic "Spirit of the Twentieth Century"; and Jack Hawksmoor, a multiple-abductee whose body has been genetically re-engineered by aliens as the perfect urban organism. Not your father's superheroes.

Ellis takes this book and these characters and places them in moral dilemmas out of one's worst nightmares and gives consequences to their actions. The results are ugly, ethically disturbing and riveting to read.

Tom Raney's art, while in keeping with Jim Lee's established visual style, is simply unsuited and unable to keep up with the whirlwind of intelligence, cynicism, and psychological subtlety that Ellis's scripts require. That's okay though, because you can almost see Ellis carrying the book on the writing alone -- and succeeding.

And this is only the beginning. Force Of Nature is more than StormWatch 2.0; it's the prologue to The Authority Ellis's truly ground-breaking evolution of the superhero team. This collection feels like the first act of a gripping performance.

It's the sort of thing that gives you faith in comics again.

I had never heard of Stormwatch before but I had heard of Warren Ellis that was enough for me to buy this book...It was also it seemed enough for me to love it. Ellis's take on the world of Stormwatch is not the touchy-feely world that is often associated with comic books. It is set in the dark near-future with the Stormwatch team carrying out international police actions under the authority of the UN. The writing is great clearly up to Ellis's standards but it is the characters themselves that make Stormwatch so memorible. Jenny Sparkes and Jack Hawksmooor were my favorites. It's an original work and as the first of four collections definitely worth reading.

I took the author to long to get to the point. She went all around in circles to get to the point

This is the first Brother Cadfael I have been talked into reading, and I loved it. The characters are compelling and touching and the perpetrator of the crime is understood by the Benedictine monks, and, thus, the reader. It's the mystery that sucks you in, but it's the character development and the way the author tells of Medieval life that are the value here, I think. At the end, I teared up a bit. I'm anxious to read more about Brother Cadfael and his colleagues!

I found this (unabridged audio) book at the library - knew nothing about the series or the author. What a pleasant surprise! Very well written, a meticulously crafted story that gently unfolds in a way that engages you from the start without any bumps or discrepancies, using a language and style that seem to come from the very times that it describes. Written with an obvious affection for the characters portrayed. And Stephen Thorne's narration is equally masterful. My recent joy at discovering that there are at least 17 other books in the series had my daughters rolling their eyes like crazy in the bookstore. Can't wait to read more!

Today, when you mention The Art of War, people refer immediately to the book by Sun Tzu. However, the only works published for the general public during Macchiavelli's life are the Decennale Primo, the Mandragola, and this one. The work being review was published in Florence by Macchiavelli in august 1521 and it had an immediate success and many reprints.
Having completed already The Prince and the Discorsi, and not foreseeing any possibility of returning to public service, Macchiavelli decided to write a book about warfare, in part as a result of his meetings and conversations with a group of young alumni and friends at the Orti Oricellari. Some of these were involved, in 1522, in a conspiracy to kill Cardinal Giulio de'Medici,Master of Florence.
The Art of War is not a textbook, but rather a humanistic treatise on the subject, written under the form of dialogues, divided in seven books. The interlocutors are Fabrizio Colonna, Cosimo Ruccellai and the young men Buondelmonti, della Palla and Alamanni. The first book deals with recruitment, the second with the weapons of infantry and cavalry, the relationship between this corps and military exercises. Colonna and Ruccellai are the protagonists of the dialogues here, while in the III book the role of interlocutor to Colonnais vested upon the younger Alamanni. Alamanni inquires about the role of the artillery and is substance Macchiavelli's judgement (through Colonna's words) is negative. In the IV book Buondelmonti inquires about the importance of military formations and other possible combat formations (different from the traditional roman and others).
The final three books deal with logistics, accommodations, military discipline, fortifications, sieges and defensive tactics.
The language of this opus is the most polished and conventional, opposed to the one in other works by the author. Modern critics, in spite of the original success of the book, have pointed out the wrong perception that Macchiavelli had about the growing importance of artillery and the role of military reforms that were enacted in France at the time. He also wrongly criticized, as a whole, the professional army alongside the mercenaries and Compagnie di Ventura. The admiration of M. regarding roman legions and classic institutions is also questionable, in view of the evolution of warfare at the time. So why was this book so popular, until the anti-M. revisionism took a clearer look at reality, discarding abstract and moralistic propositions about warfare?
Because the treatise provided a clear and fresh (at the time) view about the intimate connection between military art, politics, war and religion, in a global context.

Niccolo Machiavelli is commonly known as an abstract, political thinker, but this work shows an entirely different side, being a compendium of Renaissance military tactics and equipment.

If you were ever transported in time and place to 16th century Italy, this book would be an excellent guide in how to raise, train, and equip a citizen army that could fight for your city state. He also goes into some depth abvout military fortifications, as well.

Macchiavelli argues in the book for a citizen-army; given the troubles of Italy with roving mercenary armies in his day, one can see why his arguments make sense.

A profound work for a military historian to read, although a casual reader might find it too pedantic.

I like this book, even though, at times it was difficult for me to follow. I like the translation. I have read other translated books where I find it difficult to read the book. First, I want to say that this is the first military instruction book I have read, and second, that I read this book to find out how people fought before there were weapons of mass destruction. Therefore, I thought this book was an excellent tool in describing ancient military tactics. But even if you aren't interested in military tactics as much, this book was also interesting because I enjoy history. I thought it was going to describe how to march, train, and fight, which it did, but it also made numerous references to the actions of past military leaders. I enjoyed reading about the successes and failures of people whose names I recognized from history class. Additionally, I enjoyed the style. Niccolo uses a different style of writing then American authors, and on occasion I like to read something different. It is a good book that I would recommend to anyone who enjoys learning about history.