I had to purchase this book for an independant study in modern operas for my senior year as an undergrad. My professor is a friend of Gilliam, and I must say his writing and research is very well done. I knew nothing of Strauss, and after I was done reading the few Chapters that I had to read, I was pretty much satisfied. It was easy to follow and just a delight to read!

I found the book to have very good study questions for students taking either microeconomics or macroeconomics. They're about at the difficulty level of the principles of microeconomics and macroeconomics that I took.

Also has good explanations of many of the answers. A very good study guide and reader friendly book.

My youngest child received a copy of this book as a birthday gift. We looked at it together, talked about the art, the suggestions. He has been using the book for five months now. Sometimes he shows me what he has written.

Congratulations to the authors and illustrators! My Journal includes Bible passages, some appropriate questions about the Bible passage, some contemporary connections, and prayer suggestions. It also includes plenty of space for writing, responding to questions, even drawing a response. Space is included to write the names of people (and animals) that my son wants to pray for. This is a neat neat book. I hope that keeping a spiritual journal will become a part of my son's life. My other children are a little old for this book (the art seems for 7-10 year olds), but they are learning about keeping a journal from the youngest one and from me.

THIS BOOK WILL MAKE YOU READ IT OVER 10,000,000 TIMES! WHEN i GOT THIS BOOK I LAUGHED SO MUCH! MY SUGGESTION IS IF YOUR A PYTHON MANIAC YOU MUST BUY THIS BOOK.(NEE!)

I heard about this little gem through a relative of mine who is personally acquainted with the subject heroine. An amazing thing about this book (though not critical to the story), is that it is supposedly actually true. It is a story about a woman who is grieving the death of her mother and loses all hope. Then, while playing a seemingly innocent game, she comes to 'contact' her mother and other beloved relations through the personification of an 18th century playwright, who discloses stunning news about her previous life.

Christian in concept but woven with charming spiritual beings, the story shows us how important it is that we understand how precious life is and we should live each day as if it were our last.

This is a wonderful book and the writing is exquisite. Never preachy and distanced from the characters, the writer lets the story tell itself and wraps it up with his own thoughts on the incredulity of what he knows himself to be a true story. Buy this book.

how does one descibe the one man vineyard that is the master in so few words. what can i say ,the man does it again; mental illness,fanaticism,poetry and recognition ------- a sideway`s humanitarian

This is the perfect book for Terry Gilliam fans. It traces his history as an animator and director through the early years, into the Monty Python legacy and all the way to his feature films. This book is filled with color pictures from all of his projects, and even discusses some of the projects that never got off the ground. Very informative, but dated as this book came out right after the release of 'Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas'. Still, a great book if you truly enjoyed this innovative directors work!

A fantastic art book about the work of Terry Gilliam. Some of his art has been reprinted elsewhere, but never in large format and never, in many cases, in full color. It is quite thourough, for what it is. The text and Bob McCabe's interviews give the reader the facts about what is being covered in each chapter. However, the artwork is the star of this book. If you want to know about Terry Gilliam, the artist, then this is the book for you. As Gilliam says in his intro 'you can write about them (the movies) all you want but these movies are basically there to be seen.'
If you want to know about Terry Gilliam in detail, then the book Gilliam on Gilliam, which is basically a book length interview with Gilliam, is the book for you. I think the books compliment each other nicely: 'Gilliam on Gilliam' for everything you could possibly want to know about Terry Gilliam and 'Dark Knights & Holy Fools' for Terry Gilliam's quirky, beautiful, humorous art.

Dark Knights & Holy Fools is a portrait of director Terry Gilliam expressed through comment, interviews with the great man, and his work itself. A descriptive thread goes through each stage of his work, from before his first public beginnings as a cartoonist, to each of his films, made and unmade.

It's a biography, a reference, a wonderful collection of illustrations and photographs, and a celebration of a cinematic genius. If you enjoy Gilliam's work, I suspect this ought to be on your bookshelf.

This book is real. There is something "vintage" about it, like its a heirloom, tried and trusted, some fragment of some past. It feels as if its your own past instantly, which is why you wont regret buying it...quite the opposite. It'll set up camp in your heart. It's really the first book I've bought for spells and when I saw it in the shop it didnt exactly jump out at me but I looked at it closer and it drew me in. I had to buy it. I love that book. Its practical and simple. Even though these spells come from the root of gypsy magic, they are really practical and for this time and era. The book itself is beautiful and its an inspiration. The only thing I found a bit over the top was all the superstitions as im not particularly superstitious. But it doesnt really take from the book, it makes it more true to the Romany culture.

This is a nice book for quick & simple spells. Sometimes you are looking for something to quickly help an particular aspect of your life, and this book is full of ways to achieve your desire. I was already familiar with some of the spells, and there are many which are 'new.' Includes areas devoted to love, health, pets, wealth, and happiness. That about covers the bases! An added plus: it is also very attractive. It's printed to look like an old spell book which has been passed down through a family, and it succeeds.

For along time I have been looking for a spell book that is practical and easy to use. Well I found it with this book. Not only are the spells in this book very usefull, but the book it self is fun to read and very well laid out. I also love the fact that the spells in it are from the Romavs them selfs, a race of people that deserve's to be reconized. I recommened this to any person who is into magic witchcraft and the occult. This is a great buy

I use this book at the gym while I'm exercising. That forces me to see the patterns without thinking too much. I am trying to see the solutions as quickly as possible. Chess is pattern-matching (i.e. tactics) first, strategy second, and MAYBE memorization of opening lines a distant third.

This is the method suggested in Rapid Chess Improvement. After you've completely mastered these positions, so that you solve them instantly, you can proceed to a harder set, maybe something by Reinfeld.

The format is designed for children, but that doesn't bother me at all. If it makes you feel better, donate it to a child after you've read it 5 times.

As a long-time casual chess player who recently decided to take his chess to the next level and begin to learn more about this wonderful game, I found this book simply outstanding.

The layout of the book is uncluttered, with two problems per page and the answers to these problems listed at the bottom of the page. This feature adds greatly to the "user-friendly" nature of the book and avoids repeated excursions to the back of the book, which in a book of this nature (with over 400 problems to solve) would be a major headache.

There is instructional content in this book, but it is clear, concise and doesn't detract from the purpose of the book: to impart an understanding of basic mating concepts in chess and a recognition of these patterns in gameplay.

I would still consider myself a beginner to intermediate level player but it has helped me immensely in my understanding of this aspect of chess.

This is one of the first books to use to learn chess. After you or your child know how the pieces move, the object is to look at the diagram and find a checkmate.

Most books of this type have problems that are over the heads of beginners. This book is on target.

Part of learning how to do checkmate in two moves is to know checkmate when you see it, and to be able to later back up a step and find that same mate again one and then two moves away. In this light the book starts with checkmates. It shows you positions that are checkmate. You will see some patterns you haven't used yet. Even if you are an adult player, do not underestimate this. If you keep the book somewhere that you will have a moment or two to stare at it, ( like by your phone, ) you will discover that over time you get familiar with many patterns. Then you find the checkmates in one and the ones later in two come a lot easier.

Another advantage to this book is because it is light material, it is suitable for times when you just want something really light, such as right before sleep.

If you dont own the book, get the book. It is very inexpensive.
I own 2 copies.

I also like the fact that the answers are at the bottom of the page which keeps a student from having to flip through the book to check their answer.

BR>yes real girls play chess

Even if you don't agree with Luttwak's point of view, you'd have to agree that he makes a good argument. Many people feel that the Roman army of the glory years (i.e. 100-300AD) was a front line frontier garrison force that ended up being too thinly spaced to defend so huge a territory. Luttwak argues that what it was, in fact, was a set of frontier picket forces set up to warn the REAL army units, which were set up as "rapid deployment forces" in rear staging areas to react to danger from any direction. As a result, the Roman empire was able to defend itself with a ridiculously small standing force.

While the book is very thin and very readable, I think it would help if the reader learned a bit about the basics of the Roman army and empire first. Graham Webster's excellent volume, 'The Roman Imperial Army,' comes to mind. Still, it is a good read on its own, and from a broader standpoint, a good illustration of how the academic mind works to prove and illustrate an idea. I know I certainly felt a little smarter after reading it!

Luttwack's thesis, that late Republican and early Imperial Rome had a deliberate long-range grand strategy that dictated the siting of its frontier defenses, was challenged in 1991 by Israeli classicist Benjamin Isaac's The Limits of Empire. Isaac, in essence, claimed that Roman frontier defenses were not set in accordance with a phased plan of conquest, but in order to control ambivalent populations along the fringe areas and to ensure non-interference from the outlanders. The debate, unusually heated for classicists, has on the whole tended to bolster Luttwack somewhat in arguing for a rational "forward defense" policy. Luttwack's original thesis (1976) was written with contemporary US defense planning in mind; how to spread sparse post-Vietnam American assets so as to most efficiently check Soviet agressive designs. Although Luttwack has generally declined to revisit his Roman tour de force, (he is currently working on a strategical analysis of the Byzantine Empire), it is still a thought-provoking handy review of how Rome pursued a containment policy in the teeth of severe budgetary restraints.

In a field that still remains open...and, in fact, in many ways, depends on the contributions of knowledgeable and dedicated amatures, Luttwak's work stands out as truly original contribution in the field of Roman military history. His thesis, that there was, in fact, a coherent, centrally controlled and over-arching and outwardly directed, military strategy that was actualised through an evolving empire-wide frontier policy that is both traceable in and understandable through, the archaeological record is a singularly original contribution that has potentialy major implications for our approach to and understanding of, roman socio-political, military, economic, and governance mechanisms. Luttwak has implicitly reinterpreted the conventional understanding of the roman world and in so doing he has opened the door to a broader, more coherent and,ultimately, more satisfying understanding of the functioning of the empire.

It is the kind of contribution that perhaps only someone with the background and ability to apply a strategic vision and strategic frame of reference, could possibly make. As far as I know, it has never been done before in this field.

Its now 25 years since Luttwak published Grand Strategy and the work continues to resonate in the field. Judging from the rate of continuing citations, it would appear to be virtually impossible to write on the subject of roman military history, frontier policy, or even imperial governance without dealing,in some way, with Luttwak. His contribution simply won't go away.

Much time has passed since Luttwak wrote and, in the interim, Isaac has published his exhaustive, excessively detailed and, ultimately, convincing, refutation of Luttwak based on his review and analysis of the roman southeast frontier. But I don't think it matters...and besides, Isaac himself may be wrong...because what Luttwak has really achieved is to force a decisive shift in the frame of reference that we use to think about, analyse, and understand the Empire. Luttwak has reminded us, emphaticaly, that not withstanding the absence of a coherent body of written source material,we can and should think about the forest once in a while instead of endlessly pursuing counting and identifying only the trees that make it up. He shows us that such an approach can be highly rewarding.

In my opinion this is NOT a dry work and, more than anything, it simply requires an interest in the roman empire and its functioning in order to be read and understood. Luttwak does not take the relentlessly scholarly approach that Isaac does but he does do his homework and he is familiar with his topic. Because he's not Isaac, he's infinitely more readable...and my copy, which I bought in soft cover about 5 years ago, had virtually all of its pages out of order...and I still got thru it!

I