None of the guides to Laos are perfect. This one was at least helpful and the writing tolerable. That's all you can ask, apparently. It doesn't matter, though. If you make it to Luangphabang and stay for a while I don't think you'll care which guidebook was "best". You'll be too busy enjoying one of the most beautiful, romantic cities I've ever had the joy of setting foot in. If you're French visit the Dao Fe creperie, if you speak English, try to find the owner of the Duang Champa, and whatever you do, wherever you go, learn a little Lao so you can talk to people in their own language, like a proper human being. You can get away with speaking English in Vientiane and Luangphabang, but it's rude; in the villages they aren't going to be very interested in what you have to say if you can't at least speak a little Lao. So your choice of guidebook will quickly become an afterthought once the first few days have passed.

I traveled to Laos in January, 2001 and found that the Rough Guide to Laos enhanced my experience tremendously. The writing is much more thorough and intelligent than Lonely Planet's guidebook for Laos. About 95% of independent travelers depend on the Lonely Planet book, but I think Rough Guide does a much better job. Laos is changing quickly so there are oftentimes many additional restaurants and hotels in a town that were not around when the book was researched, but that is not a major problem. I highly recommend this book.

Unlike another reviewer, I did not have to benefit of travelling to Laos with the authors. But after reading this guide book, I felt as if I knew them, like they were old friends who were jotting down their travel notes to help me on my journey. By halfway through the book, i felt i could read between the lines to tell the good from the better, the bad from the horrible. As someone who generally hates guide books, I can honestly say, this one is all good. I only wish i could someday travel to Laos with Jeff Cranmer and Steven Martin. Such a fascinating read clearly could only come from fascinating people.

This is the second year I have used Martin Smith's book at Lent His profound insights into the psyche of persons and his practical applications to Christian living continue to deepen my own ability to "walk the walk" with Christ. His extraordinary spiritual insights, especially his explanation of the self as a group - the "selves of the self" - likening each of us to the demoniac that Jesus heals. I would recommend this book to anyone seeking a deeper understanding of the self/selves that God loves. A book for all seasons.

This book helped my Lent to be very powerful and profound. I felt that it had been written just to answer my questions and to challenge me to grow in my spiritual life. I highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to have a prayerful Lent.

I have used this book for my Lenten devotions over a number of years. I discover something fresh and wonderful every time I read it. Fr. Smith's journey in and with the Holy Spirit is not an exercise in escaping from the world around us, but an invitation to become more aware of how the Reign of God is active here and now. Although geared towards Lent, the readings are well worth perusing any time of the year.

I Love this book. It is written in a subversive style, unlike almost anything I've read! The author throws convention away and has freed his imagination to ruminate about all the disparate threads in the life of an author most American's don't know. I'm originally from South Africa and Joe DiMona is regarded as one of the giants there, especially in old Durban and at University.
When I came to the states he was little thought of and hardly remembered. That has changed with this fabulous story about DiMona and America and all their points of intersection! I get it I get it, and love the way the author highlights each chapter with rock idioms and crazy swings from high art to a kind of street sensibility. It is rare I think that a funny book is written abour a funny man, rarer still that a brilliant book is done about a brilliant man; but the author is right on in both cases...Though I take exception to some of the political rhetoric I fully grasp the expose' of political charlatans, a problem incidentally not indigenous to America (or democrats).
This is a book as populist as the "Soprano's" and as wonderfully ornate in its' ambition. It's as if all America opened up to the author through Joe DiMona.

Joe DiMona finally has a recognition and appreciation worthy of his unique talent.

This is a sensational read

The author, whose works we have admired previously, captures the essence of 20th century media and the strangeness therein throughout his elegaic Shadows, Angels and Joe Dimona.

The contributions of Dimona and his kind might be understated or underappreciated but many but they are central to the latter half of the 20th - a truly American century.

I had the privilege of meeting the late Tom Lahey, whose obituary in the NY Times did not do justice to his contributions so young Mr. Nirschel's work must suffice.

This is a different kind of biography. It is at once an analysis of an interesting literary career, a witty remembrance indeed, but also a politcal tome', a kind of paen to the lost world the author Joe DiMona knew. In the best parts of the story the writer, Martin Nirschel, laments the passing of DiMona and everything he embodied, while celebrating all that is enduring in the life of the artist, "His sphere expands even as the world he knows contracts". I enjoyed the story best on that level, Nirschel has a wonderful, elegaic style. He makes you feel a world long ago and his grasp of it is exquisite! Also, the book was written before the death of Tom Leahy, the president of CBS. The writing about Leahy, on the conflicting strains of power and success and his rather plain awe in being in Leahy's company stands as some of the most revealtory writing I have seen in a long while. This is a rare book about rather extraordinary people. A chronicle I think of the last days of the 20th century, even as the author wrote it I don't know that he envisioned how quickly and profoundly the world would change. The vantage point on DiMona, Leahy and the "end of the century" is breathtaking and informative.

Shoemaker Martin wins my 2nd Annual "best book read this year for the first time award." This little children's adaptation of a story by Leo Tolstoy blows away all the other books I read for the first time this year. There is no book that I have reviewed this year that I recommend more highly.

This is the story of Martin. Martin is a Russian man who spends his days mending shoes and his nights in the pleasurable reading of the Bible. One night, after reading how a rich man invited Jesus to stay at his house, Martin wishes that he could invite Jesus to his house and wonders what he would do if Jesus actually showed up.

The rest of the book is the story of what happens when Jesus comes. It is a story told with wonderfully spare language. Mrs. Watts' beautiful illustrations add to the warm feeling of this wintery tale.

There are few things I have ever reviewed that I recommend more than Shoemaker Martin--get this book!

Martin the shoemaker reads the scripture passage about an "unimportant" woman washing Jesus' feet while he was at dinner at an "important" person's house. Martin wonders how he would welcome the Lord if he came to Martin's house. That night Martin wakes up to see Jesus standing in the room and saying "tomorrow I am coming." Martin thinks its just a dream. The next morning Martin encounters several people that are in need in one way or another. That night Martin hears a voice that says something like - see, I did come just as I said I would. I was the woman that needed clothing and the man whom you fed and the boy to whom you were kind... etc. So, the message of this book is: Whatsoever you do to the least of my brother, that you do unto me.

This is a wonderful book. I've used it often in Sunday school and vacation bible school classes. I highly recommend it.

Somebody read this book at a Christmas party were I was invited a few years ago and it made that Christmas gathering very meaningful. I could not remember the entire title to buy it but with the amazon search I was able to track it down! I am so excited, I'm geting ready to order so I can add it to my Christmas family reading collection.

While going through the book in1986, I often wondered if a more comprehensive, lucid and well-researched book could ever be written on the subject. My conviction still remains strong after all these years. This book is quite different from the usual introductory books on sociology meant for college fresher, which come packaged with pictures, photographs, case studies, box items and rather oversized glossaries of terms. Here, the whole gamut of sociology is presented by placing relevant theories side by side, which are often in stark contrast with each other. For example, the liberal perspective which hopes that `the expansion of education will also reduce inequality in society,' is followed by a jarring Marxian argument that the educational system is a `gigantic myth-making machine which serves to legitimate inequality.' These contradictions and shifts in the theories provide adequate clarity to the reader, rendering unnecessary any further intervention by the author.

All the seminal contributions of pioneers like Durkheim, Weber, Redcliffe-Brown, Parsons, Merton and Marx, and modern perspectives of sociologists like Michael F.D.Young, Edmund Leach and R.D.Laing are explained in a succinct manner. Apart from the various sociological perspectives, vital areas like social stratification, power and politics, poverty, education, organisation, family, religion and women and society are discussed threadbare. The final two chapters namely, methodology ans sociological theories are, to my mind, the final words on the subjects. I strongly recommend this book to anybody who wants to make any headway into the subject of sociology.

To close on a personal note - I found the chapter on religion the most absorbing in this book. As the functionalists' perspective of Durkheim, Malinowski and Parsons is decimated by the sharp but convincing Marxian standpoint, the chapter reads like a thriller, that is dominated by courtroom arguments.

This must be the Bible to sociology students around the world - i don't know an A level student who's lived without it. Buy it!

Everyone who wants to get a little bit deeper knowledge about sociology will find this book very helpful. It's main virtue is perfect balance between simplicity of language used and complexity of sociology itself. It is obvious that it is writen for someone who is only starting to dig into social science - but don't underestimate it for this!

I wish I had discovered this book sooner. Having read Rossi, Bandler, Grinder, Gilligan, etc., and struggled to get through their overyly analytical obfuscations of Erickson's methods, I was delighted with this simply written, clear, and easy to follow text. The reason I didn't buy it sooner was that I had read his other book "Taproots" and found it too abstract and disappointing. What a long way the author has come since he wrote Taproots! He presents Ericksonian ideas in a way that is delightful to read, down-to-earth, and effortless to follow. O'Hanlon is an excellent teacher, especially for those of us who are jargon-ically challenged. My only gripe is the high cost of this rather brief volume.

This is an engaging and extremely readable introduction to Ericksonian Hypnotherapy. Profoundly less "technical manual" than the Grinder Bandler stuff, yet is certainly not dumbed down.

Written with humor and undertanding in the informal style of a seminar in a manner that anyone could learn from.

I would recommend this to anyone interested in Ericksonian Hypnosis.

Very good introduction to Ericksonian approach, useful for a beginner and helpful for an experienced practitioner.

The basic content of this book is excellent. It provides a readily accessible introduction to the principles of engineering. This book could easily be used as the text for a first year course in a unified engineering curriculum including Computer Science. The one flaw with this book is that it appears to have been rushed out by the publisher. Many of the page references are to the wrong pages and some of the pictures are rather blurry. Finally, the instructions for creating and downloading ICB files to incorporate assembly language modules for interrupt side programming and similar purposes needs to be reworked in a future edition. I hope that a future edition will also have a chapter on electrical design and construction techniques to compliment the chapter on mechanical techniques. I also look forward to a third chapter on sensing and possibly a second chapter on control theory. Regardless, this is overall an excellent book and should be acquired by anyone interested in small robots.

This book presents an introduction to various aspects of robot building and planning. It is written as an undergraduate textbook, and contains numerous exercises throughout the text. The book assumes that students and other readers will have access to Handyboards and LEGO Technic equipment, as well as a desktop PC and hobbyist-level soldering equipment. The book walks the reader through analyzing a Handyboard, how to use it, how to build custom sensors and motors, and how to write programs in assembly language. All of this information would be very useful to first-year engineering students as it would help them put theory from many of their other classes into practice. Nevertheless, most of the tasks and programs described in the book could actually be built with a standard LEGO RCX brick. On the other hand, a person who masters the material in this book would be able to take advantage of the extra sensors and motors that the Handyboard supports and build far more sophisticated robots than would be possible with LEGO Mindstorms equipment. Anyone who builds robots using LEGO equipment, whether with a Handyboard or an RCX, will find information in this book about Braitenberg vehicles, LEGO design, control theory, and robotics contests quite useful. The introduction to Assembly language in Appendix A is also presented in an easily accessible style.

I found this to be an excellent introduction to how to build a fully functional, autonomous robot. This book covers everything you need to build robots using LEGO Technics (think LEGO blocks plus gears, motors, etc.) and a Handyboard, a robot brain developed to get the hard digital electronics out of the way so you can concentrate on putting together a good design with motors and sensors and software intelligence.

As someone looking for how to break into robotics without first getting bachelors in Electrical Engineering or Mechanical Engineering, this book was for me. I got the basics of the two topics covered and was able to dive right into the interesting "what can I do with my robot" scenarios.

This book also goes into some detail on inexpensive sensor components out in the electronics market and how to use them in robots. I found this to be a great source of ideas and instructions even when not creating robots using the Handyboard brain.

For those looking to dabble, be aware that this is a book best used in conjunction with real, live robot parts. (...)

Just bought this book today and it looks concise and helpful in installing and maintaining NT 4.0 Workstation.

If you use NT much you probably want this on your shelf, well organized, easy to follow, and fairly complete instructions on numerous NT topics

I found lots of good explanations in this book of many of the NT features. Good reference book to have -- it even tells you how to add a harddrive, setup networking, RAS, optimizing, and security. Good book to have around

Laurelynn Martin's book beautifully documents and illustrates her personal journey through life, and her amazing recovery from a near fatal series of events. During this time she encounters a Near Death Experience. The vision she shares of her NDE can help comfort many people who lack support and understanding. Her intention to find meaning through her illness promotes an incredible spiritual connection. She receives and shares many guided messages that are very uplifting and inspiring. The subject matter in her book can enlighten and warm the hearts of those who read it.

A must read! If you have had an NDE or are just interested in the subject please read this book.

Searching For Home continues to be sold to interested parties. However, finding those interested parties continues to be a challenge. The process of marketing a book and letting people know about its existence is no easy task. I believe this book is reaching people who it is supposed to. My publisher is well intentioned and a very dear man. However, with a small publishing and marketing budget, consumer awareness is low. Yet, the consumers who know about this book send rave reviews. I suppose every author's dream (and publisher's dream, too!) is to have a best selling book. My dream was to write down my personal story and share it with others. I've done that, and hope by sharing my story, others will be inspired to share their story too. Sending Blessings. Laurelynn Martin, author

Many managers feel uneasy about organisational politics. I knew it
could be helpful to understand but was never very sure how other managers across many organisations feel about politics. This book is great to read! It shows how
politics is central to being a manager. Positive Politics is all about
reconciling different interests and positioning causes. Once you realise that companies are
full of competing interests, lots of people who sometimes work together to produce
something worthwhile, well you can really start to make things happen.

This book will change your behaviour (like it describes in
chapter five!), you will build alliances and coalitions to get real work done
but in a constructive way. It does make a difference.

I think the book is really interesting. There is no management fad
stuff here-just good honest plain speaking about the reality of
management. Politics can be constructive!

I was recommended this book by a friend who'd been on a course at Cranfield where these guys teach. I've been in management for years, and haven't read anything like it. It really got me going, I tell you. It was like a lot of common sense, but put in a way that gets you thinking. I mean, I've been using politics and all that stuff for years, but this got me to think about it, to understand why. Hoping to get on one of the courses next!(using the techniques they suggest, of course)

Wow - this is a real find. Read how to understand politics and make it work for you because you have to! Gets past the 'dirty dealing' stuff to show you just why management is all about politics and becoming powerful. Tell your friends - but not your enemies!!