Not nearly as good as the Baseball or Basketball Prospectus, though part of it might be that this kind of book is just harder for football.

Perhaps the authors meant the first half of the season, not the first half of the game.

Following in the footsteps of the Baseball Prospectus series of books comes the Pro Football Prospectus. I think it's a good first try but I can't tell if it will grow to be as strong as BP, which covers each major-league team and presents new and interesting research in each annual. If you're buying PFP for a fantasy football draft it will be useful to get the rankings at each position and see the trends of all the skill-position players' rate stats (although not that much better than one of the newsstand fantasy mags). It's also nice to see the authors go back several years in grading the drafts of each team.

The research does not, however, stack up to the corresponding analysis in Baseball Prospectus. Of course this is an unfair comparison for a couple of reasons: baseball research has been going on for far longer, and BP has been publishing for seven years now and has gotten a lot of framework in place for studying the game; and even more fundamentally, football is a much harder game to analyze. Each play in baseball involves primarily the batter and the pitcher and usually one fielder; it is relatively easy to assign credit or blame on each play. (Rating fielders is difficult, but play-by-play data and new techniques are helping to improve fielding metrics.) Each play in football is affected by the majority of the 22 players on the field -- even, say, wide receivers on a running play are throwing blocks or acting as decoys to stretch the defense. As a result, the authors' rankings of each team's offensive line, front seven, and defensive backfield seem pretty dicey when just calculated from raw stats. For instance, they rank offensive lines just by looking at the allowed-sacks-per-pass-attempt rate and the team's yards-per-rush, which is a good start but leaves out the QB's mobility, the RBs' quality, and about 50 other things that affect these stats. Analysis of these nearly stat-less units is long overdue and much appreciated, but there is so much noise in the numbers (from different styles of play, strength of schedule, interaction with other units, etc.) that you have to take these relatively simple rankings with a large grain of salt.

On the other hand, if I recall correctly the authors said that over the off-season they reviewed every play from every game from last year. Between compiling their own play-by-play data and initiating a statistical framework in which to build on, they've got the potential in future books to break new ground. Admittedly though, I don't remember reading anything exciting in PFP 2002. (I might also be biased against the book because they panned my team, the Browns. Certainly many fans were way too optimistic before the season started, but I think PFP's 6-10 prediction went too far the other way.)

I bought this book because I was impressed by its counterpart on German armor. I was disappointed to notice that it doesn't live up to that standard. Where the 'German' book covered each version with technical data, this book often simply summed up all known versions, with a very brief description, often not even mentioning in service date (year) and production numbers. For example, the 24 pages long M4 Sherman section only contains 2 'technical' specification listings.... Same goes for the British Churchill tank section, only a single technical spec list. On the positive side are the sections on more obscure models and prototypes, almost all with illustration(s).

I guess my expectations for this book were too high, especially when you compare it against its German counterpart [both by Chamberlain and the prequel by von Segner]. As an armor historian, I wanted a thorough breakdown of technical data, like the German work, along with a more thorough explanation of different marks and variants.
4 pages of line drawings at the end only makes you want more.
This is a good work if you are starting off in the field, or needed someone to explain certain details for ASL. However, it is way too cut and dried and much of this information is available on the internet.
Wish it was much better.

In many ways not up to standard with its German partner, Encyclopedia of German tanks of World War Two. Armor is not given section by section breakdown, but maximum and minimum. Allied armored cars, which were quite numerous, are not listed, unlike their German equivelent.

But on the positive side, an appendix of british and American tank armament is included in the back that is in far more detail than the one provided in the German one which is excellent reading. And the same can also be said of engines.

A good refurence in regards to the British, American, Canadian and Australian tanks and their sub types.

I thought Mr. Schulz's lawyer said "no" to any depiction of his characters ever to be done by the other artists after his death? As a result, this is a rather pale copy of the original art style and thus it looks a bit weird. So I think I'll go tell the lawyer on Paige Braddock.

I don't know, the book is a bit too wordy to read to a class, but it gives me memories of a wonderful TV special. I like the book for that reason.

This delightful book successfully adapts the wonderful, classic television special of A CHARLIE BROWN CHRISTMAS to the page. The book is filled with many pictures from the special and most of the televised story remains intact in written form (about the only thing missing is Snoopy winning the decoration competition). The words and text to "Hark! the Herald Angels Sing" are even printed on the inside back cover. Children of all ages love this book and it is sure to be a family holiday favorite to read every year.

I was pleasantly surprised when I started to read this book. I thought it would be a cheesy rehash of study tips. It is more than that. Although it does slide into a touchy-feely "what do you want to do with your life" kind of solitary soul-searching advice, it does have some good tips for studying, time management, and advice especially targeted for specific types of students (like how to study with children running underfoot, returning to school, etc).

I have used this text for the past 4 years in grades 9-12 as a primary text for a study skills course for students with moderate learning disabilites and have met much success with it. It is varied, easy-to-read, concree and has tons of suggestions. It also provides a journal component whereby students can document previous patterns/perceptions and present attitudes and integrate suggested study tips within their study habits. We haven't finished all the chapters, but we have covered most of them.

Have you spent endless hours in class and studying at home with less than desireable effects? Maybe you are a terrific student but would like to know some tips for getting the facts to stick a little better? Perhaps you're lacking a few basic easy skills that will help you master your mind.

"Becoming a Master Student" is a great book for students of all skill levels and ages. The pages are filled with brief 'articles' describing techniques that if applied can help with everything from having your study area designed correctly for you to basics in note takeing and preparing for exams. This can be used in an instrutional setting or as a self-paced learning guide at home.

I first encountered this book in a college prep course in high school. Now working in the 'real world' I've found this book has great practical applications to the working world as well.

Buy this book for yourself and everyone you know. Students can use this to build great skills for the future and those already in the workforce can learn some new tricks to old problems. Check it out!

If you want to read about Saudi Arabia, then this book is not for you. It is a story about an Englishwoman who goes to S.A.
to make a living as a governess. It is not especially intersting or well written, sadly lacking in descriptions of both the country and the palace.

Don't expect another "Priness"!!

While this book is an interesting story, and provides a good look into a fascinating culture, it is not well written. The writing is hard to read, doesn't always make sense and is very choppy. It is also i little hard to follow at times because the paragraphs jump all over the place. Considering the unusual opportunity the author had, this could have been a fascinating book, but unfortunatley the mechanics bring it down and make it rather irritating to read. Also the author seems to be a little confused regarding some facts about Islam.

Unfortunately, this writer needed an editor, BADLY. As someone one lived in Saudi Arabia for 17 years, I wished for this writer to really describe the country and the people well.

If you're a person truly interested in the lives of women in Saudi Arabia, then I suggest you buy the Princess books by Jean Sasson. I don't make this suggestion lightly. I lived there and I KNOW the lives women live and it was wonderful to read books that were not only exceptionally well written but gave vivid and accurate descriptions of Saudi Arabia and the women who live behind the veil--both royal and non-royal...

I'm sorry this particular book didn't reach further... It's a great subject for the time...

This is probably one of the worst books I have read in a long time. Mr. Ellis travelogue fails to on so many levels it is difficult to list them all here. He provides little historical context, his opinions are pompous, his anecdotes are trite, his personal life stories are self-absorbed, and his grand attempt to define what it means to be 'Southern' fails. I can only attribute it to my Yankee's perseverance that I did manage to make it through this tripe. I believe that if General Sherman wanted to inflict true pain on the South, rather than burning his way to the sea, he should have forced the rebels read this book.

On his 1994 attempt to re-trace William Tecumseh Sherman's trek from Atlanta to Savannah, Jerry Ellis searches for vestiges of that traumatic time reflected in the people he meets along the way.

This book is an unsuccessful hybrid of social history and an "on-the-road" travelogue. Ellis uncovers no previously undiscovered traces of the effect of Sherman's journey in the New South and after a while it appears he loses sight of his goal. This book has one saving grace: Ellis's natural story-telling ability which captures the spirits of the people he encounters. However, this bright spot isn't enough to compensate for Ellis's failure to achieve his original objective; it just turns this into a passable diary of someone's hike.

In 1864, General Sherman, Union general, began his infamous (or famous) trek through Georgia, vowing to make Georgia howl. Howl it did. And still does. More than a hundred years later, Jerry Ellis walked the same path. It was a trek in search of his own Southerness, and an homage to his father who had died not long before. Along the way, he met people who still remember Sherman and the devastation he and his army left in their wake as though it were yesterday. He found Southern hospitality. He found a South that finds it hard to forget.

This is a personal story, not meant to simply tell the history of the places and people he finds along the way. Their histories are interwoven with his own, their presents forming a framework for Ellis' coming to terms with the possibility of losing the woman he loves because of the journey, and with the death of his father. It adds to what he knows about himself and who he is, a Southerner with ties to the War Between the States, and part Cherokee with ties to a past unrelated in many ways to that war.

This is an interesting view of history and how it affects people's lives, even generations later. At times, Ellis becomes too bogged down in his own problems and we wonder if he misses telling about other things we might have found interesting. But all in all, this is a book for Southerners who know and understand their ties to the South, or who are still trying to find those ties and weave them back into their lives.

Readers who like this book might also want to read other of Ellis' journeys. Also "Womenfolks: Growing up Down South" by Shirley Abbott might be interest. They might also like to read an account of Sherman's march to the sea, such as those included in the nuemrous Sherman biographies, or sets of histories of the war, including the Time Life Civil War volume "Sherman's March."

This comic marks the end of the Stormwatch series and the beginning of the The Authority.

Throughout it's brief, bright lifespan, Stormwatch introduced us to brand-new heroes, cut from a far different cloth than the "silver age" Supermen of yesteryear. This was an admirable attempt at bringing superheroes up to date with the global politics of today, infusing it's characters with a wry wit and a jaded outlook. No longer were superheroes going to be aloof, intervening only for the benefit of mankind against the usual cavalcade of supervillians and extiction-level events, these guys played politics and played it rough.

Of course, in retrospect, this series just seems to be a warmup to the Authority, who take the superhero-as-politico two steps further, with far more violence and in my opinion, even better stories and artwork. But Stormwatch is still a great series, well written and lavishly colored and it's diehard fans will be disappointed at the cavalier and laughably cliche way in which their favorite heroes are shuffled off the stage to make way for The Authority (A few make the cut, I won't give away who). Fans of the series should buy it for the closure it represents and use it like the bridge it was intended to be.

This volume reprints the final two issues of Stormwatch vol. 2 as bookends for the Wildcats/Aliens crossover. The Stormwatch bookend stories in and of themselves are pretty slow, serving as bread for the "meat," the gory and destructive invasion of the Stormwatch team's orbital satellite by the critters from the "Aliens" movies.

Most intercompany crossovers have no bearing on the characters' regular series. Although entertaining, the intrusion of the Aliens on superhero worlds usually result in a clear-cut victory for our heroes, who then conveniently forget that they ever ran into the beasties who can usually kill anyone but Sigourney Weaver (e.g. Superman/Aliens and Batman/Aliens--don't Supes and Bats ever compare notes?).

But of course Warren Ellis would not be satisfied by playing the superhero game safe. Basically, the Aliens kill half of Stormwatch. Thankfully, Ellis spares the more interesting characters, who then go on to form the core of The Authority, one of the best superhero titles running. But the moral issues concerning the exercise of power by superhumans that forms the common thread linking Ellis's run on Stormwatch with The Authority are completely missing from this storyline. Too bad.

So the bottom line: the Stormwatch/Aliens crossover is a good one, and should be picked up by anyone who is a fan of The Authority. Let's not forget the art by the always-dependable Chris Sprouse (Tom Strong). Just don't expect too much.

Reading Final Orbit is like coming into a great movie halfway through.....I'm a big Warren Ellis fan, and I own all of the other Stormwatch trades, as well as his whole run on The Authority, but for a good portion of this story, I was lost. A brief "Story so far" and character bios would have been invaluable. As it was, I had a hard time feeling anything upon seeing the Stormwatch team being ripped apart by the Aliens. The characters are pretty generic; we don't even get to see their deaths onscreen.

The Alien sequence in the middle of the book is very cinematic, and zips along briskly. The rest of the book had me scurrying to my back issue collection to get some answers..What did Bendix have in that tube in his apartment? What did he do to honk off Jenny Sparks? Why did I.O. want The Weatherman's brother dead? To say nothing of the never-explained starship the Aliens are aboard....

If you can suspend your disbelief, and go with the flow, you'll enjoy Final Orbit. Be sure to check out The Authority trade paperbacks, too.

This book is the tabloid version of an Elizabeth Taylor biography, reading like stiched-together daily exposes in such a newspaper. It displays in endless detail the sexual orientation of virtually everyone she ever spent time with, any arguments she ever had where someone else was present, and any unladylike things she may have said or done. Her movie work is discussed in terms of how it related to her marital relationships and financial problems. Occasionally, the book also criticizes her for having a healthy sexual appetite.

Normally, biographers either like the person they write about or want to create a more accurate account of the person. Mr. Amburn did not seem to fall into either of these categories. His objective seems to be to portray some of the other people in Ms. Taylor's life more sympathetically.

The book's main thesis is that Ms. Taylor has had loving relationships in her adult life with people who are gay or bisexual and unloving ones with everyone else. This connection is also made to Ms. Taylor's relationship with her father, despite the fact that she did not have a good relationship with him. But the book doesn't get beyond that into much of the motivation. Many men were attracted to Ms. Taylor like moths to the flame, and this attraction did nothing to bring out their better qualities. She seems to have lived in a world where her physical attractiveness made her a target for fans, men, and exploiters of all sorts. Little is made of the potential to see her as victim of peoples' perceptions of someone who is physically attractive. She also doesn't seem to get enough credit for generally being an open-minded person, which may explain her lack of sexual-orientation prejudice.

According to press reports and this book, Ms. Taylor has had more than her share of illness, injury, and physical and emotional pain. Yet she has led a generally productive artistic life, and has played an increasingly important role in bringing sympathy and support to the cause of overcoming AIDS. It would have been natural to have focused on these positive reflections of her underlying character, and the difficulties involved in overcoming ceaseless, searing pain addiction. No one is going to be perfect under such circumstances. Yet the book wallows in her use of drugs and drinking to soften the pain, in endless tales that add little to the biography.

Naturally, Ms. Taylor is famous in part for her marital difficulties. Those should have been in the book, but they became too much of the book to be rewarding to the reader.

As someone who was a working actress for most of her life, another aspect of the book you might expect would be extended dicussions of her work. You will find relatively little of that. It is as though the author thinks that her work is of virtually no importance. I certainly was moved by her performances in National Velvet, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Giant, and Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? I liked her performances in many other movies. I would have liked to have read much more about her work in these roles where she was more successful.

The best part of this book is the beautiful color photograph of Ms. Taylor on the cover.

If you are wondering why I did not give the book a one star review, it is because the photographs are good and the writing style is perfectly adequate. The three star downgrade is for misfocus, exploitation, and a hidden agenda.

After you finish looking at Ms. Taylor's cover photograph, consider what you would like to know more about public figures. Then when you are thinking about reading a biography about that person, check to see if the biography focuses on the areas you care about before reading them. That will save you a lot of time.

Also, ask yourself how we should consider someone's life. To what extent should we consider good deeds? Bad deeds? Repentance? Motives? Physical appearance? Obstacles to progress? Ms. Taylor's life raises these issues rather nicely.

By the way, if you find a biography of Ms. Taylor that you like, please do write to me. I'd like to read it.

As another reviewer said, I have read most ot the biographies written about Elizabeth Taylor, and I am usually disappointed! They seem to never capture the woman; the authors tend to rehash old news clippings, or scandal sheet gossip.In doing this, the authors never do this woman justice. Not only is Elizabeth an icon of our time, but she has become one of countries greatest AIDS activists.This in itself took tremendous courage! There is more to this woman than celluloid, and ex-husbands. Face it, she's one great dame! I wish to some day read a biography of her that truly celebrates the woman that is Elizabeth Taylor!

It's not the author's fault, but unfortunately the subject of this book is extremely boring. Two words describe Elizabeth Taylor's life, at least prior to her involvement with AIDS funding and research: WRETCHED EXCESS. This is not a fun read, not because the author didn't try, but because he wrote about a person that just wasn't very interesting.

I like the story on how this family made it to the upper middle class. The author was insightful of the attitudes they had to overcome and that was interesting. However, the book was slow reading. It was difficult to stay focused and follow at times. I found that the book just ended. Kind of left one hanging. I felt the author should have told about what happened with the twins and Tommytwo.

Good Fences is a well-written and provocative debut novel from Erica Ellis. The reader is introduced to an African American family where the father, Tom Spader is a successful attorney and his wife, Mabel, is a stay-at-home mom. When Tom wins a big case he decides to move his family to the 'snooty' suburbs of Greenwich, CT. Ellis has a great premise and one that I thought was long overdue regarding an overlooked African American group-the upwardly mobile, affluent individuals who move to the predominantly white suburbs to attain the American Dream-two story home with the white picket fence, two car garage and 2.5 children. However, somewhere around the middle of the storyline, the message sort of fizzled. The characters became unrealistic and weren't very plausible and the storyline was quite choppy. Events would start or happen but never be resolved. The narrative really got in the way of the telling of the story...I think maybe if the characters were allowed to tell the story their voices would have given more life and realism to a poignant and provocative subject matter. One a positive note, the book was short and I was able to read it in one sitting...although it fell short of my expectations.

I appreciated Ms. Ellis' style from the moment I began to the book. The story unfolds not so much as story driven but as character driven, snippets into the lives of those she writes about.

At points brave, bold, humorous and poignant I never knew what to expect from page to page and that is what made this read so good for me. It takes real talent to pull such a work off and Ms. Ellis has done that.

Every book is not for everyone but if you're looking for food for the brain then this is the book for you and in my opinion that is the best kind of writing. Make us think, catch us off guard, surprise us, enlighten us.

There's only one word for this debut novel --- YES!

Erika Ellis is on my 'author's to watch' list and I will be keeping my eye out for any future works. You go girl...

The original Trimpey cult item, now disavowed. But it's just as valuable as it ever was. Very amusing take on AA ... having almost nothing to do with the facts ... Jack don't like facts ... Jack does love his opinions. Don't bother to purchase. Just step over to the nearest bar ... and don't drink. Try it again and again. Just say no. Just don't drink. Now wasn't that easy?

Like the person from Anchorage implies, The Small Book has been superseded by Trimpey's book, "Rational Recovery..." Trimpey has disavowed The Small Book, because he added new concepts and abandoned others (e.g., the Rational Recovery system no longer has support groups). In fact, Trimpey states on his website that he wishes he could pull The Small Book from publication, but he is powerless to do so. Buy the Rational Recovery book instead.

This book has done more to save my son, who has been a drug addict for the last 10 years, than all three of the rehab clinics and AA meetings combined. For the first time in years, he is actually thinking positive and feeling good about himself. He also encouraged me to read it too. It is a great book for anyone, whether you are an addict or not.