I sell computers as a profession for a prominent retail store. As such, I am expected and asked to give out helpful information to customers and colleagues alike. WIN 98 Optimizing & Troubleshooting provides valuable information for everyone and has helped me do my job to a fuller extent of my capabilites. I recommend this book for beginners and professionals alike. I also recommended it to my associates with whom I work. It is quick, clear, concise, and easily referenced. Two thumbs up!

Being a book lover and a computer buff, it's not always easy to distinguish which grabs me most. But here is a book accomodation that leads by the hand into what otherwise can be a morass of intrigue into a hefty complex world of developing technology. This is a friendly work, it presumes nothing except that the reader wants to learn about what the subject is: Windows 98. For that reason there is a 1-2-3 attitude: do this, then do that, for an expected result. Simple, direct, and with a purpose. Even a dumb-dumb can understand, if you fall down, you pick yourself up. It is called "learning to walk" and the author and editors, the publisher, have made it all possible not only to enjoy reading how-to-do-it, but also by imparting a refreshingly natural style in describing "it's really not that difficult to learn", and proving it. Not only that, the reader will experience instantaneous results, not an experiment into a dark tomb filled with speculation. This book is a must-read for anyone desiring to exploit the hidden benefits of Windows 98, enabling anyone who reads it to smugly acquire an edge on better performance and outstanding accomplishment that makes a difference.

This book has the best format for finding answers quickly. You don't have to read an entire chapter to find the answer. It is easy to understand and covers most of the problems a Win98 user may encounter.

I am a professional business writer and editor, and I decided to purchase this book to gain a fresh look at what I do for a living. What I found was a slim book filled with tired old words of advice. If you have any writing background, this book will be of little use to you. However, I can see that it could be of use to people who don't have a grasp of the basics. Those people would probably be better served by a more intensive reference book, though.

The book does just what the title promises: it tells you how to move your reader to action. Chambers' advice is focused, organized, and, most importantly, sound. Examples are clear and memorable. Like many people who have to write a great deal, I know the basic ideas (any rhetorician will tell you that most of them go all the way back to Aristotle); still, this is a painless--even enjoyable-- refresher. If you're an experienced writer, or if you teach writing, Chambers' examples are worth the price of the book.
Who will find the book most valuable? If you wish all your communication could be in person or via e-mail, you'll be surprised to learn how easy it is to translate your face-to-face communication skills into good, effective writing. (The book doesn't deal specifically with e-mail, but following Chambers' advice could help you avoid a lot of the "tone of voice" problems e-mail is prone to.) No matter what your comfort level with writing, if you've ever suffered "brainlock" as you faced a deadline on an important document, this is the book you want on your desk.

This is as much a response to hbckelly as it is a book review. The critic writes that s/he is a professional writer and did not get much benefit from this book because it is simple and basic. I am also a professional writer and I got tremendous benefit from the book. And the reason for this benefit is that it DOES discuss the basics.

Good writing is simple. It is organized. It speaks clearly to the reader. And that is exactly what this book teaches.

While the book targets business people, not "professional writers", the fact is that pros should listen to the same advice as beginners. If hbckelly would check his/her ego, s/he might find that s/he would learn something valuable from the book. I did.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.

I am wondering why this book contains some jazz solo transcriptions of "hard-to-find" recordings. Does the author think light of listening to/learning from actual recording stuff? For example, Woody Shaw's "Child's Dance" is not a good example to learn pentatonic usages in jazz. Why did not the author use Coltrane's "Pursuance" or any McCoy's solo (available from CD market)? Where can students get the "odd-choice Woody Shaw" recording? Never heard of it. I do not buy the author's concept: learning from written solos without listening to recordings. It is stupid!

I do not know why, but there is no copyright agreement notice under the excerpted solo transcriptions. Does the publisher pay for the copyright? I would appreciate if the publisher could show the due-respect for jazz artists by listing the copyright publisher notice.

On the surface, this book seems like a well-organized book; however, most materials of this book text have been repeatedly discussed in the previous jazz books (usually available from Charles Colin, Jamey Aebersold, Hal Leonard, Sher Music, Down Beats articles, Alfred music, etc). In other words, it's well-organized but it's NOT original. For these reasons, I would give only two stars to this book.

This is an excellent text when used in a classroom environment, accompanied with audio examples from a teacher and selected recordings, annotated throughout the text (mostly references to J. Aebersold's Play-Along series). The high-level classification of important jazz innovators in the "Whom to Listen To" section alone is worth a long read. Coverage of the scales, progressions, rhythms and structures is well organized. I can't think of a better single book on which to base class-room teaching of jazz improvisation. Any criticism that this book is "unoriginal" is misplaced; that's not the purpose of the book.

It is definitely less useful as a self-learning tool. For this purpose I believe there is no way around a few book-cd combos such as Ferrara's Jazz Piano and Harmony. Unless you want to spend time tracking down the recordings referred to by this Reeves book.

This book is for any instrument, and the only qualification is that you must know how to play chromatically in two octaves on your instrument. Each chapter is organized around learning a single scale/mode, or on common progressions (ii-V-I) and song forms such as the blues, rhythm changes, and sectional forms. The emphasis is on building proficiency in playing all scales and modes in all twelve keys, and in building a vocabulary (also in all twelve keys) through the practice of licks and by learning the transcribed solos. I think anyone serious about learning jazz would benefit from this book; at a minimum, it will provide explanations of scales and their use for reference, and as a source of exercises and patterns for years to come.

This book is indeed very helpfull. Lots of advice for reporting, I also found it of use when structuring the examination. I does not get full score since the pediatric perspective is missing.

the most important part of echocardiography is the accompanying report. no amount of color photos and doppler tracings can compensate for a poorly written report. reports have to be written disease wise from management and prognosis point of views. different diseases merit different reports. this book is all about how to write correlative and interpretative reports for varying cardiac conditions. thus anyone wishing to master this art of reporting, this small book is a must.

If you are sick of textbooks that describe various conditions but don't show you how to interpret echos, then this book is for you. A truly great book that is very easy and simple to read. I have recomended it to many others who have also loved it. It is not an introductory text, but tells you how to report echos. Good for the cardiology trainees and someone who is still finding his way with reporting.

Tommy's review put it plain. If you are into high-minded art and can fully appreciate the complexities, this is great for you.

Among the treasures of the 20th Century's greatest and most important composer, The Firebird is a lush and colorful work.

The first of three ballets written for the Ballet Russes (the subsequent being Petrushka and the importan Rite of Spring), Stravinksy produced a score of such imagination and ingenuity. Stravinsky's teacher was Rimsky-Korsakov, the unequivicol master of orchestration during his time, and one can see how he employed his education into this work.

The Firebird is based on a Russian Folktale describing an adventure of a young man who frees the mystical Firebird and defeats the evil King Kaschei. The work premiered in 1910, performed by the famed Nijinsky, Sergey Diaghilev the impressario. This is truly and brilliant work and is so colorful. It is much longer then the suite as it is presented as the full ballet.

The score is large and easy to read. Text is included with English translation as well as a brief sonopsis. It lies flat on a desk or music and is inexpensive -- ideal for the starving music student. I highly reccommend this score for the serious musician or listener alike.

If you have ever heard any of the firebird, or if you are interested in composition, compositional make-up or instrumentation, this is the perfect book for you. Quite possibly one of the greatest ballets of all time (not to mention one of the greatest orchestral pieces), it's a welcome addition to any connection. If you like the rites of spring or petrushka, this is a great score to own NOTE: this is not the 1919 Firebird Suite that is most popular - this is the full score - it has probably a half hour more of music and some much more interesting orchestrations! It is well worth the very low price (only 12.95!)

A reader's unfamiliarity with jazz does not detract from the value of this book. As a neophyte jazz listener I was introduced to Morton, Coltrane, Monk and Coleman from reading Williams' descriptions of their work and wondering "what does that SOUND like," then buying the records to hear (and decide) for myself. This is one of the most focused introductions to pre-1965 jazz you will find, because it is about the music, not sociology, biographical trivia, or amusing anecdotes.
Williams' preoccupation is with form, both in composition and improvisation. He shows how great jazz musicians demonstrate a strong sense of structure, (whether consciously or unconsciously), in their work, and how later musicians have built on the work of earlier players. In other words, these guys aren't just up there blowing a bunch of notes, they are creating art based on form and tradition in a similar and equal way to "classical" music.

Published in book form in 1970, Williams's study now seems critically unfashionable by arguing that jazz develops through the work of its composers (eg. Morton, Ellington, Monk) and its improvisers (Armstrong, Young. Parker, Coltrane, Coleman); it also concentrates on formal changes in the music rather than offering cultural, sociological or biographical analysis. But this is still the most intelligent, instructive, readable and stimulating book on jazz from New Orleans to free jazz to date. If you want to read superb, no-nonsense descriptions of individual jazz sides and get a meaningful sense of how musicians, individual tracks and the main movements of jazz inter-relate, this is the book for you.

I have found Williams to be a very perceptive guide to a wide range of composers and musicians. His judgments usually seem to be right on the money and his writing is quite clear and not at all aimed at some elite of jazz initiates (not that there's anything wrong with assuming your audience knows something - there's no imperative for authors to pitch every book at tyros, as much as certain readers seem to think that it's an outrage when they don't understand something they've read).

This encylcopedia was a huge and expensive dissapointment. If you are not a jazz freak with 1 million cd-s, you wan't find this peace all that very usefull. I mean, the article about chet baker is only twice as long as the article on chave baker, cheese baker and other non relevant bakers. This is advanced guide for real experts. On the top of it, all articles are dull written, not even close to a readable and interesting biographies of people but only as a list of information, many of which is not very usefull. Some hints about nightclubs are good, but that could

Avoide it.....

This is a valuable jazz reference source, and a good companion book to the Penguin guide to jazz. It is particularly useful for looking up the biographies of artists that you're interested in. Less useful are the lists of jazz club venues - likely to be quite out of date by now.

What I liked especially about the dictionary, is its comprehensiveness. Artists from all continents are covered - although musicians from far-flung places (as in not-in-the-USA)are more likely to be missing. On the negative side, you'll find that the book is now out of date when it comes to contemporary musicians.

I have for example compiled a list of all artists born in African, Australia and New Zealand from the book. While a number of well-known musicians are missing, the youngest person on my list was born in 1947 - 55 years ago - not good for a book that was reviewed in 1994. One would suspect that the contemporary jazz renaissance of the 1990s is totally absent.

So in summary, this is a well-written, well edited, good reference source, but badly in need of an update. I would also enjoy more personal details about artists in the next edition.

If you love Jazz, you MUST GET THIS BOOK! Completely awesome!

After reading the first Angela Bivens book I had high hopes for this one. For the most part the book works but there is just too much in it. The story goes off in so many directions it's like looking at a pot of spaghetti thrown against the wall. The heroine is essentially Cleopatra Jones with serious emotional issues and some of the stuff she does makes not a lick of sense but if you give this book time you'll find a pretty good read for a rainy afternoon.

In A Prayer for Deliverance, Christopher Chambers resumes where the debut novel, Sympathy For the Devil, ended. FBI agent, Angela Bivens, is back in action as an inspector called in to investigate the murders of prominent African American leaders. While her superiors think the murders are the work of a well-known hate group, we find Angela dallying in the supernatural to solve the murders and bring the true assassins to justice. Specifically, she is pulled into a dark underworld of Zulu "magick" to substantiate her theories and enlists the help of a rookie sidekick (and Wicca witch) to assist in the investigation. As in the first novel, she is both supported and hindered by the FBI staff and must deal with the political powers of the agency and the bureaucracy of the Washington elite. To complicate things further, she stumbles through a newfound romance while struggling to overcome the emotional scars from her last boyfriend, a psychotic sociopath who was the evil perpetrator of her last case.

As one can imagine, this book is multi-dimensional and filled with numerous plot twists and turns. There are so many characters with ulterior motives that this reviewer literally had to keep notes on who was who, their relationships to one another, and their relationships within the FBI hierarchy.

This novel is extremely well written and very well researched as evidenced in the passages about South African culture and politics. However, this reviewer felt that at times the plot tangents obscured the essence of the mystery. In an attempt to make this a well-rounded novel, the author repeatedly lost this reviewer in the minutia and the surreal, dreamlike episodes that were scattered throughout the book. Angela Bivens, earmarked as an FBI super sleuth, seemed bewildered and clueless at times which elongated the story and damaged her characterization as an ingenious, diehard super agent. There were some segments in which she appeared to be as much of a victim as the targets. Perhaps this was intentional, to show her vulnerabilities, however it came off as Angela being the luckiest detective alive instead of one of the sharpest. Nonetheless, this reviewer persevered to see how the novel would conclude and was not disappointed. Overall, this was a compelling mystery and proved to be entertaining.

Phyllis
APOOO BookClub, Nubian Circle Book Club

I first have to say that this review may be a little skewed, because I am a personal friend of the author. Howevere, I have read both books, and I must say that they are excellent. I never read fiction, and to get me to read fiction is like pulling teeth. These two Angela Bivins novels have been so suspenseful and so well written that they have whetted my appetite for more. Chris- when they start making movies of your novels and you really get big, don't forget the old crew. PEACE.

Since I have read a lot of praises about this book I bought it and was astonished to find out that the font size is so small that I have needed a good magnifying glass to have been able to read it. Its other disadvantage is that it's lacking the English-Latin part, so what then, if someone needs to translate from English to Latin s/he should buy another dictionary. It's not a good bargain and I would not recommend it to anyone.

I ordered this dictionary after reading the reviews. I agree with the reviewer from Little Rock; the dictionary is very useful and contains a wealth of information on Latin words. It has been a great help for me in translating poets like Martial and Statius. I have difficulty understanding why the reviewer from Israel did not know this was a Latin to English only dictionary; the title clearly explains the purpose of this book. Also, the entries are a standard dictionary size font; they are not unusually small. Unless you want to buy a copy of the Oxford Latin Dictionary... then this dictionary will suit the needs of translating from Latin into English.

As a teacher of Latin for over 30 years, I highly recommend this dictionary. It is the most complete resource for the money available!! Since serious scholars do not need English to Latin transfers, this should not be a concern. Not only are the number of English meanings for Latin words of large and complete extent, but there are quotations from ancient writers to support how the Latin is used in context. My students from grades 7 through graduate school have used this dictionary with success. The only better one is the large Lewis-Short hardback dictionary.

This book shed light on the northan art of shaolin kung fu. For a book written nineteen years ago it is packed full of knowledge, but admittidly some was irrelavent. I would recommend this book to the buyer however martial knowledge on the subject from the buyers behalf would be useful befor as it can be complexed in termanology in places.

This is an excellent presentation of a form and style not seen much outside of China. The form is over 70 moves long and has a number of very complex sequences, so it is quite an impressive kung fu set. The photos are a little dark in the later editions of the book that I've seen in book stores in recent years, but in my nearly 25-year old copy it's okay.

This very dynamic and athletic form, and the somewhat more sedate, but much longer (at about 150 moves) Tiger/Crane form from the Hung Gar style are two of my favorite kung-fu forms/sets.

The author also includes a section showing the practical self-defense application of some of the form sequences. Overall, a fine little book with much good information, and we owe Draeger, Chambers, and master Prakarsa a debt for documenting this unusual and rare kung-fu form and style for posterity.

This book is great. Well written in English and illustrated with both photos and line drawings. The book goes over history through applications in modern times. The basics...stances, arm/leg applications/strikes are illustrated by line drawings (with an area that has the exact striking area shaded). So no guessing. Traning methods on how to train, including conditioning. And a form is included as well as partner training. There just seems to be more information in this book than the size would lead you to believe. Highly recommended.