If you like tabloid trash - you'll love this book. While it does give a good bio on the (already published) life of Costner, the author also goes on to speculate on the intimate details of Costner's personal life, future, and career. One plus...it has pictures.

Unfortunately, Kevin could never distinguish any truth between his love for a movie and that of his love of himself. The films never were about anything but, you guessed it, Kevin. It is sad...a little less self absorption...a little more talent....who knows...maybe a film that would actually recover some production costs.

Amazing insight comparing Costner to major stars and films from Hollywood's Golden Age. Further, the book accurately predicts Costner's career would start to decline if he began having enough power to choose films he thought people wanted to see instead of ones they did. He has and his career has stalled. The book also accurately predicts his divorce two years before the fact. All around good job!

This book is a rambling bunch of garbage with no true criteria to help a technician. With jumble facts to find utilization of repair and upgrading computers, it is hard to make sense of it all. I a recommend all of Bigelow's books

Even though this is the 4th edition and was just published this January, I still found there are a lot of out-of-dated information in this book. The author has referred a lot on the very old system, such as 8086, 80286... but give very little information about the new systems. For example, the author even didn't mention the use of DIMMS in the memory chapter but solely mentioned EDOs or previously released memory.

A generally useful text that is like a supplement to this series' Complete Guide to Upgrade and Repair, and though it rates a general five stars, in my opinion, it is more like a slightly outdated manual for the rapidly advancing industry. I don't know how any large books can keep up with this field, because by the time they are written and published most of the equipment they cover will be outdated. This is like a background text and you have to go to the web sites to view the latest information and changes. You have to do your own work, at some point, and can't have it spoon-fed to you. I'd recommend the book for this price and don't agree with the fellow who gave it two stars, which is a very harsh rating and speaks of superiority in a way. All of us regular guys will find the book useful.

This book was not very helpful in trying to plan a New Year's Eve party. Rather than compiling useful information about the holiday (histories and traditions), this book is mostly poorly written personal opinion.

Haven't readers had enough of these cute little compendiums full of trite tidbits on trendy topics? Lo and behold here's another, on the rituals and customs of New Year's Eve. What have we done for all these years until this came along? When will publishers figure out that we, the general public, are not totally incapable of throwing our own celebratory gatherings without the guidance of another self-proclaimed hipster?!

Hmmm. Is there something burning? I seem to be smelling flames here. I found this book after reading the author's "Domain" book, and found both to be charming. Reader criticisms of books are extremely useful; personal vendettas against authors aren't.

As a final year medical student (at Queen's University Belfast) I would strongly recommend against the use of this text. The attempts at humour interfere with the already sketchy descriptions of human anatomy which the diagrams do little to help clarify. This text was universally slated by the students in my year. I cannot overemphasise how deeply I regret wasting my money on it.

I am a Final Year student at Queen's University Belfast and I'd just like to correct the horrific error my colleague has made.

This is a poorly written, hard to understand Anatomy text, which lacks sufficient detail to actually be understandable, and which contains attempts at "humour" which are, at best, weak. The book is an appalling waste of money, and provides no useful grounding in Anatomy. The diagrams are poor, the explanations vague and the whole book simply not useful for the purpose which it is meant to serve. Do not under any circumstances buy this travesty.

This book is excellent, maybe you can't get the jokes if your from Belfast but as a medical student in NY I found the jokes, as well as the clinical insights to be excellent. This is an excellent [supplementary] text for a first year medical student. Way more clinically relevant than Baby Moore's essential clinical anatomy, and way more fun to read.

The book as a preparation for the CID is sparse in the depth of content and I found it difficult to navigate through. The book functions well as the last resource to jog one's memory of the most basic of concepts. However, as with any resource, there's a time investment involved and I found this one more time consuming to work through that outweighed the benefit I received from it. The CID test covers a very wide array of topics and requires much more indepth understanding of the core concepts and terminology than the scope of the 'trigger' concepts covered in this exam notes publication. I would consider the book a Test Objective and Concepts/Glossary review on modified steriods. Where I found the most value out of the book was after I took the exam and reviewed for those areas that I scored lower in.

The official Cisco Press CID book was by far the best resource in terms of money and time invested in studying for the exam. You need to integrate the many different desktop, LAN, WAN, remote protocols and configurational aspects, and apply these concepts as concrete design elements in order to move beyond the CID functioning as a review for these areas. Therefore, integrating the 'nitty gritty' details becomes an important strategy in preparing for this test.

The other book I would recommend is the Cisco Press CID Exam Guide. As with all exams, a good test preparation technique is to pay special attention to the sections pertaining to notes, diagrams, tables, graphics, and foundational key concepts. The 'official' Cisco exam guidebook was better in presenting these areas along with the questions included in the book. I'm not tryping to push Cisco Press but as with any vendor-centric test, this is a Cisco test and does require Cisco specific answers and design solutions. "When in Rome, do as the Romans do". The two Cisco books seemed to do a better job at helping me prepare for and passing the test. Good Luck!

I have been using the Sybex books to study for Cisco exams for a couple of years. The original CCNA book by Lammle was excellent, but subsequent books (while still including Lammle's name) have not lived up to the earlier standard. The CID 3.0 is a fairly tough test due to the vast amount of material covered. This book can be used as an outline, but I certainly recommend using additional sources to study. The Cisco Press CID book (Birkner), along with this book, should suffice as long as you read and fully understand the material. Good Luck!

I normally swear by the Exam Cram series. I used the CCNP series (all four books) and passed all four tests the first time. So when I went to order a book for my next test - Network Design, I got the Exam Cram one. Errors abound, half the questions don't make sense, some of the explanations are flat out wrong - The author states that a test-taking guideline is to not include anything not specified as a requirement in the case studies, then proceeds to break it in the answer to the next test case study with no explanation. This was going to be a key study, because with the Microsoft tests you have to learn the Microsoft way of viewing the topic. How MS designs networks is alien to any other network design, so what they believe is the key to passing their tests. This book failed to be clear on what MS wants their network design to be. The book covers all the topics, but it needs more explanations as to which design rules MS follows and less errors and inane questions.

I passed the exam 70-221 on the first try by using this book among others, it gives a fairly good preparation it covers all the topics of the exam, but I found the exam very difficult and need a lot of experience and of course this book is not enough to pass, I frequently buy exam cram for my preparation for certification exams but I found this book below average, not enough in depth in some areas, have errors and I didn't like the wording of the questions (not enough details to make a choice between 2 right answers) . I gave 3 stars for the material but this book could be done better.

The original Creative Dating was fabulous- and had some great ideas for group, single, and "married couple" dating. I got this book out-of-print on amazon, and found it was 100% humor. If you read Creative Dating (a GREAT BOOK), please know that this book is humor only.

Hilarious to read straight through. Some of the ideas are interesting and can lead to good ideas for actual dates, but at least half the book contains ideas or other material that can't be considered as real dating suggestions. As a humor book 5 stars, as a guide to creative dating only 4 stars (although I don't know of any better book)

Walsh's account of the Todd-Dickinson affair is probably the most unbalanced work in the name of scholarship I have read so far. Unabashedly biased and judgemental, this book reeks of the author's personal issues with matters of adultery, while no effort is expended in trying to understand the complicated dynamic between all the adults involved in the affair.

Among other ludicrous and reductive explanantions for the behavior of Dickinson and Todd, Walsh asserts that Dickinson's participation in an almost fifteen-year affair was driven by a desire for "revenge against the fate" that had taken his son, who died as a young child. Walsh's grip on the psychology behind this stops here as does the supporting evidence. However, a great more effort is made to "justify" Austin's role in the affair while Todd, according to Walsh, is guilty of the deliberate "wrecking" of the reputation of Austin's wife, Susan, assuming that for her, malice toward others was the driving force behind her participation in the affair.

Apparently, Walsh is joining the ranks of a long line of historians and scholars who see fit to crucify their female subjects for deviant sexual behavior, while ignoring or justifying the same behavior in men. It is also interesting to note that Todd's sexual behavior is the just about the only aspect of her life mentioned in this book; her numerous accomplishments as a musician, author, painter, seasoned travelor and lecturer are dismissed or ignored. Once again, with Walsh's help, the historical representation of an ambitious, successful female is reduced to that of a conniving, malicious "hussy" whose sexual behavior exclusively defines her.

It seems odd that Walsh or any other investigator on this topic feels the need to "justify" or blame anyone's actions, well over a century after the fact. Susan and Austin Dickinson and Mabel and David Todd were all strong, creative personalities who created their own complex dynamic which in turn created the behaviors we have evidence of today. Understanding what happened between them as a group is nearly impossible, but reducing their individual motivations to a series of quick explanations is simply foolish and unrealistic. No individual is this easily explained through biography, historical research or other speculation. Even Walsh's attempts to portray Susan as the "victim" in the affair are reductive and insulting. That she should be viewed historically as a passive martyr, who "endured" the events around her, sacrificing her own accomplishments and reputation is ridiculous. Given her intelligence and social dexterity, it seems her role must be given a more complex motivation than this.

If nothing else, Walsh's account raises some important questions about just how much social attitudes toward women have changed over the years. Do we still consider successful, ambitious women who challenge the sexual status quo to be threats to society? Mabel Todd extended the notion of "ownership" in a nineteenth-century marriage to include more than one partner, and partners of her choosing. Mr. Walsh's aggressive condemnation of her suggests that if an educated woman were to suggest such a radical definition of multiple partner marriage today, she too would be considered deviant and perhaps malicious. Have attitudes toward women evolved to the degree where women might be able to criticize the accepted social dynamic of marriage without fear of castigation? Mr. Walsh's book suggests not, but I hope his view is an anomaly and that Mrs. Todd was not ahead of our time as well as her own.

John Evangelist Walsh's books explore murky literary corridors, sweeping aside rumor, innuendo, and distortion. In 'This Brief Tragedy', he examines the last days of Emily Dickinson, with particular emphasis upon the affair between her older brother Austin and the young wife of his colleague, Mabel Todd. Walsh brings a fresh and critical eye to this relationship, using their own letters and diaries to reveal the truth of this celebrated 'love affair'. Neither Austin or Mabel are well-served by their own words.

Walsh also argues for a new study of Austin's long-suffering wife, Susan. Susan was Emily's closest friend and supporter, but she has suffered through a century of bad press largely because of Mabel Todd's peculiar place in Dickinson scholarship. Todd was asked to type copies of Emily's poem for publication because the Dickinson family did not wish to risk mailing the original manuscripts. She did so, and from that humble beginning, managed to fashion herself into the authority on all things related to Emily Dickinson. In truth, the two women never met and Emily had a low opinion of the woman who willfully toyed with the emotions of both her nephew and brother.

But all lovers of great literature were desperate for information about the reclusive poet from Amherst. As various Dickinson relatives died in rapid succession, Mabel rewrote her own place in Emily's history. She found a receptive audience and few scholars have questioned her true motives. For this reason alone, Walsh's book is a necessary companion piece to Richard Sewall's celebrated two-volume biography of Emily. Sewall accepted Mabel's version of events so thoroughly that it mars his otherwise fine work. Neither Emily or Susan Dickinson left behind journals or diaries regarding the tumultuous events of the 1880s and '90s. But Mabel did. As a result, she has been given too much influence upon Dickinson scholarship. Read Sewall, but pick up this book immediately afterwards.

This book was awful. Passing itself off as "The Acid Novel," it details the hidden side of the 1960s: Ken Kesey, Jack Kerouac, Neal Cassady, and Alan Ginsberg were all Government dupes, whether they knew it or not. The CIA is behind them all, trying to create a superman through LSD. An interesting idea, maybe, but Fahey destroys the entire concept with his incredibly ham-fisted and labored writing. Luckily though, he keeps the book short. Rumor is that this book was turned down by nearly every major publisher because they feared it might be incriminating; Fahey uses the real names of all the dead personages, such as John Kennedy and Jack Kerouac, etc, but uses fake names for those who are still alive (save for Hunter Thompson): Ken Kesey becomes Franklin Moore, Alan Ginsberg (who was alive when this was published) becomes Carlo Marx, etc. But it's still obvious who these characters really are, and therein lies the reason behind the publishers' supposed worry. I think the real reason this book wasn't picked up by a major publisher, though, is because it's atrociously written. Fahey uses the most hackneyed metaphors and descriptions, and his grammar isn't the greatest either. Commas appear to break up sentences where they aren't even needed, and I feel like I'm reading something by a junior high student who's really, really trying. As the book progresses, what happened in real history is changed around, with Kesey's character spending time in jail before being abducted by Government operatives whom intend to erase his existance; a rescue maneuver right out of some lame action film ensues. And that's another thing: Fahey throws in these useless action scenes throughout the book, obviously trying to spice things up (as if his concept wasn't interesting enough), but these action scenes just come off as forced and unecessary. And finally: the About the Author page, at the very end of the book, which is very obviously written by Fahey, claims that the author doesn't submit his material to writing contests because that's not the sort of thing he does, so this is why he's never won a writing award. Sure. Maybe he should start submitting to them, and when he doesn't win, he can suspect yet another conspiracy, one which is laboring to keep him out of print, to keep his wild ideas away from the public eye. Now, that's my kind of conspiracy!

This is, firstly, an entertaining read. Secondly, it's funny. Thirdly, the subject matter has had just about every other kind of treatment at the hands of writers over the years, so why not find room on your "drug shelf" for this? File somewhere between "The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test" and "Acid Dreams". There's more than one way of getting a feel for the era covered by this book, the "Acid Age", and there'll be more "facts" available in other works. So do you want to be entertained while getting a slightly screwy version of what happened? Buy this book! And don't take the brown acid, man.

These cards are essentially worthless. If you are expecting to learn anything from them, be prepared to be disappointed. They look like someone went through a medical dictionary and put words on one side and the definitions on the other, which I suspect is what happened. Only very marginally useful as a quick review of material you already know. Very low yield, and unfortunate, as they had so much potential.

The accompanying pathology review book in the BRS series is excellent, as is generally the case for all of the books in the series, so I had high hopes for the flash cards (which are not prepared by the same authors as the pathology book). Unfortunately, the content of the flash cards is very minimal and superficial. As a result, I anticipate that almost no one will find the flash cards to be of much use, which is unfortunate since the concept of pathology flash cards seems to be a good one. Oh well ...

I think the cards are a unique approach to studying the subject. Many "Flashcards" out there are not really flash cards at all, rather textbooks on small pieces of paper. These cards help me quickly refresh material before an exam in an active manner rather than reading the material over and over again. Though I think the cards are a rather poor way to learn the material, they are a great way to review.