Lois Faye Dyer writes about sexy men and modern women, and she gets it right every time! Cullen and Nikki share a bittersweet past and an uncertain future, and they come together for the sake of a child. This is a wonderful romance, told with sweetness and sensitivity. Excellent trilogy--I can't wait for the next one!

The Chalet Girls in Camp follows the Chalet School during the summer break, when they go camping with their Guide patrol (similar to Girl Scout camp or Campfire Girls in the US). The adventures that happen in this book are referred to humorously throughout future books; The middles get into trouble as usual, Joey falls into a pit and they pull up something very odd from the bottom of the lake.... Old girls Juliet Carrick and Grizel Cochrane come back to help with the Guide camp before going to start the school at the Sonnalpe, so it's nice to see them again before they become official mistresses and while they still act like schoolgirls. A great book.

Your review should focus on the book's content and context. The best reviews include not only whether you liked or disliked a book, but also why. Feel free to mention related items and how this book rates in comparison to them.

I like this book. This book is funfilled and interesting. Chalet School fans would enjoy reading about the trials and tribulations of Gay Lambert and her freinds. This book also introduces Annis Lovell and her difficult relationship with her guardian. I think the plot of this book is good especially for its flow and also its ability to capture and develop characters of different group of individuals in earlier books. It also manages to capture the scenes without having the reader having to read previous book to know who is who. i feel that this boook should be in the 10+ age group mainly because they will develop the individuals mind and character

This book is one of my favourites. The Nazis occupy Austria and the Chalet School has to relocate.Many kids are pulled out of school. This is also the book where Joey gets married and becomes a Mommy. Read this book you will enjoy it too.

Changing Fortunes makes a solidly researched, reasoned, and documented case that large economic institutions-manufacturing corporation in this case-have a skewed bell-shaped curve of evolution. Each curve emerges almost unnoticed out of the debris of a fading economic institution-frontier agriculture in the case of the medieval Church, religion in the case of the Enlightenment, and piecework in the case of manufacturing. It rises rapidly to previously unimaginable heights of power and prestige (as peas in a pod, cathedrals and high rises are separated only by centuries), and then begins a long decline that never quite ends in demise (Christmas and Easter are relics of paganism, not the progency of a new religion).

The reasons for the decline are varied and many, but several threads seem ever present: selfish interest replaces collective interest (American politics), accountability shifts from external to internal (American business), the network effect grows too inwardly dependent (Japan), and the life support of the whole thing-the everyday Joes and Joannes-feel more and more betrayed as they watch corruption replace commonweal. The shabby little personal deals these days between CEOs and Congressmen reminds one of the commerce in Church offices during the 14th through 16th centuries, which led to unprecedented levels of disproportion between principle and practice. The book Silent Theft by William Bollinger comes to many of these same conclusions from the commonweal-holder's point of view.

Changing Fortunes documents its case very well. It is so lucidly written that typically leaden case studies are polished into brilliance by blunt, often witty assessments of corporate goofs. No softening the blow with genial dollops of well-wishing comes from this trio. And of goofs, boy are there some dandies. The sequence of awful decisions that took Xerox from poster-child of TQM (Total Quality Management) revolution of the 1980s to the blunderer of 2000 that shredded both their billing system and customer loyalty makes one chortle, but behind management's arrogant imbecilities are unemployment lines.

The book is a goldmine of facts. Between 1982 and 1992 the number of U.S. business consultants went from 30,000 to 81,000 (if you can't do it, teach it). In 1998 102,171 MBAs graduated from American universities (enough to populate a medium-size city, and wouldn't that be a dull place). Such statistics hint at the explosion in business information and expertise now revolutionising U.S. corporate life. Yet how many bright young things lust for life at a widget factory? The authors cite many examples of manufacturing sector decline, but in the end the example they don't cite is the most telling of all: employment in the manufacturing sector is at its lowest point since 1961, and out-of-work statistics have risen every month for the last 27. Somebody's hurting, and it's not the guys at the top. Now recall that every seismic shift in thinking in the West since Rome has happened because the Joes and Joannes have become ill-served to the point where they no longer believe what they are told.

Changing Fortunes certainly has its virtues. For one, its procedure is sound. The authors examine the Fortune 100 lists from the turn of the 20th century up till today. They find a scowly mask behind the veil with the smile: American industrial companies may be turning out more products than ever, and many of them may have healthy balance sheets, but their relative importance in the economy is inexorably declining in favor of firms based on technology, finance, and services. Classic Schumpeter creative destruction. Wonderful, until you realize that corruption is far easier in a service economy than in a manufacturing one. Enron, WorldCom, and the Wall Street analysts didn't manufacture a thing.

For another, the authors' analysis is impressive. The companies they study are household names-General Motors, Xerox, Merck, Kodak. It's not hard to relate to those. These companies have survived some bad shakes-the 1974 oil price shocks, the rise of an information economy that sucks up the best brains, a compliant but aging workforce, and globalization that hurts as much at home as it does abroad. In search of lifebuoys corporations spent 13 years trying to convert to TQM, six years to soak up Business Process Re-engineering, and three years to embrace network technology. The first two had inward effects: management got better. IT, on the other hand, made for better informed and therefore more footloose customers. Despite all these stopgaps, the decline continues.

In addition to its analytic interest, Changing Fortunes is a formidable resource of interpretive history. One detects the hands of dozens of grad students busily scrabbling together the raw material. The authors' main point-that industrial companies are on the way out-has a flaw, however: It is very US-centric. Offshore, manufacturing is still an extremely important engine of global wealth. Asia and Latin America set the pace in steel, cars, computers, televisions, and so on. If the authors had examined the top 100 global corporations instead of the Fortune 100, quite different conclusions might have turned up. One is that globalization has brought sovereign nations to grovel for the blessings of corporations the same way corporations grovel for the blessing of consumers.

The ultimate penalty for the regressive thinking that congealed over the great corporations analyzed in Changing Fortunes is the inspiration it gives to the tiny little lumps on the next bell curve-the inspiration to respond to a brick wall by walking around it.

Normally known as Dyer's Compendium, this is a massive digest of all Union organizations that served in the US Civil War. The Compendium is divided into four major sections. The first section surveys all corps, divisions, brigades and other higher-level organizations of the US Army throughout the Civil War. Each is listed with its component units, when those units joined and when they left, as well as commanders. The second section lists all officers of general rank and their command assignments in chronological order. The third section lists all battles, engagements, skirmishes and other affairs on a state-by-state basis, with participating Union units and casualties. The final section lists all Union units, their organizational history and a narrative of service.

While the Compendium is sometimes inaccurate, it forms an invaluable starting point for research on the Civil War.

This is a beautifully illustrated book, with a fetching cast of characters. It is so nice to see a little girl in books who has short dark hair and is so competent in her abilities. We should all dress and entertain like this.

This is probably the most useful single book a student in military history or psychology can have in his, er... arsenal. Dyer explores and analyzes the origins, social, political, and psychological impacts of war, as well as the political realities and shortcomings which fuel modern conflict. Of course, Dyer had neither the time or space to delve too deeply into the myriad variables that fuel human conflict- and the one shortcoming of the book is that it can occasionally be shallow or simplistic- but Dyer's refined critical eye more than makes up for his lack of data- he draws conclusions that are both logical and, to some degree, revolutionary. I would strongly recommend this book to a student of military history, social psychology, politics, or philosophy. In fact, I would recommend this book to anyone who would read it- it could change your outlook on life.

"Digital Play" critically analyzes the video and computer game industry and theorizes about its significance in contemporary postmodern society. The book is somewhat unusual in that it is the collaborative product of three authors, but the writing seems to blend perfectly making for a consistent and high-quality read. The end result is an accessible and entertaining book that could serve to introduce a wide audience to critical postmodern analysis.

Nick Dyer-Witheford of "Cyber-Marx" fame is one of the authors. Mr. Dyer-Witheford's influence is discernable in at least several sections where the post-Marxist themes of corporate control versus freedom that are evident in "Cyber-Marx" are used to very good effect. First, he deflates the wildly optimistic claims of techno-utopians such as Alvin Toffler, reminding us that technology remains in service to corporate profits and therefore narrows and limits the possibility of "choice, interactivity and empowerment" that are euphemistically claimed by many. Second, Mr. Dyer-Witheford points to piracy and hacking as evidence that freedom from corporate control and a return to "play" in its purest sense may yet remain possible.

The authors contend that video games are worthy of serious study because they represent the "ideal-type" postmodern commodity. So whereas the automobile is closely associated with the "industrial capitalism" of the Fordist era, the video game embodies the "information capitalism" of today's "perpetual innovation" society.

The ideal-type commodity does not mean that it avoids crisis, however. The authors posit that the accelerating "circuits" of technology, culture and marketing that drive postmodern society in general and the video game business in particular "can be broken or come into contradiction" in numerous ways. The authors go on to critique each of these three circuits and produce very thoughtful analysis throughout.

Probably the most stinging critique is the close connection of games with Cold War research and development. The "militarized masculinity" that characterizes so many games originated here and has been perpetuated by endless corporate profit-making. But the authors point out that if the industry fails to find successful alternative game genres and graphic violence continues to escalate, future interest in gaming may be jeopardized even as the potential damage to children exposed to such psychic intensity remains unknown.

In short, "Digital Play" is highly recommended to everyone interested in deconstructing the increasingly fantastical world that has been brought to us by the "military and entertainment" complex.

Books on electronic gaming and video game culture predominantly concentrate on the history of the industry or on nostalgic returns to retro gaming, often punctuated with coloured photos and screenshots. Digital Play is one of the few books currently available that provides an insightful look into the social, cultural, and economic relationships between game players, and the engaging game texts, technologies, and market forces of the information age. As interactive gaming continues to establish itself as a major global media business, it becomes increasingly important for us to employ a critical perspective of the blossoming industry. Kline, Witheford, and Peuter's Digital Play couldn't have arrived at a better time.

Digital Play is cleverly divided into three segments, each focusing on different bearings of interactive gaming but effectively converging into a single conclusive "coda." Discussion begins with a theoretical approach to analyzing gaming and its industry as it relates to circuits of interactivity including culture, technology, and marketing. Theoretical concepts collected from media theorists Marshall McLuhan and Raymond Williams, are successfully transferred to the medium of the videogame. What follows is a look at the existence of interactive gaming in a post-Fordist, and postmodern society of information technology and hyper-reality. This facilitates the understanding of historical circumstances of developing circuits of interactivity outlined in earlier chapters. While the first segment may seem theoretically and linguistically intense, it remains deeply involving and is ever mindful of the topic at hand: video games.

The second segment of Digital Play covers the historical background of games from their early beginnings in the military-industrial complex to the relentless corporate firefight known to many as the "console wars." However, unlike previous electronic gaming texts, the historical accounts are retold stressing the importance of technology, culture, and marketing. Digital Play thus provides a fresh and extremely entertaining parade through electronic gaming's past. What readers may find most absorbing in this stretch are the political-economic struggles endured by the gaming companies (Atari for example) who pioneered the industry only to meet with fierce competition and an unstable market for interactive entertainment.

The initial chapters of Digital Play concentrated on technology and communication studies, and the following chapters zeroed-in on history and marketing practices. However, this theoretical triad could not be complete without the presence of one more area of study: game culture as an industry and practice. In a chapter entitled "Workers and Warez" the authors examine gaming technologies on global levels of production and consumption, such as the exploitation of off-shore labourers and increasing levels of hacking, console "modding", and software piracy. Subsequent chapters provide studies in branding and licensing, violence and gender, and my personal favourite...political economy. Chapter 12 assembles the major themes of Digital Play, suggesting that Electronic Arts' best-selling game "The Sims" can be viewed as a microcosm of our own capitalist society, wrought with consumerist ideology. While we manipulate the digital Barbie dolls of our virtual technology, so too does a system of communication technologies, global enterprise, and postmodern digital culture manipulate our symbolic relationship with the logic of a capitalist system.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading Digital Play and wouldn't hesitate to purchase any game-related books that any of the authors might publish in the future. Digital Play offers an engaging critical look at the gaming world's industry, technology, and culture, and should not be ignored by those looking to study interactive games from an academic viewpoint or by those simply looking for enjoyable reading.

Earl Nightingale has been one of the biggest and best of all motivational speakers.This book is full of the inspiration and wisdom that has made him the classy, brilliant man that he was.