This is a book that will most likely change your direction in life. It's highly researched information on what's really happening on our planet and with our environment.

Because the economy is strong most people think everything is going great. But it's like having a very high interest credit card that your using to live off of. It may appear that all is well, but when the card is maxed out the consequences are going to surface and will be very painful.

Read this book if you care about your life, your children and the sustainability of our planet. Time is running very short...

Nothing is more important.

The main intention of the book is to show the world's standing last year. It has not changed much since then, yet we still have the same goals and duties, as citizens of the earth. The authors provide scientific evidence that we ourselves are destroying Mother Earth and that our responsibility is to take care of it and improve ecology today.

I have read other books on the subject of the world's state today and it is interesting and frightening at the same time, to see that they were all proffessing the same message.

Each chapter provides statistics and facts from history in introductions and throughout chapters. Stunning information made me realize how we ourselves have caused deterioration in ecology and society. We, as citizens of the earth have polluted the air, causing global warming, shortage of resources and water, that has led to starvation and other disasters. It is comforting that each chapter does not end on a sad note, after presenting disturbing statistics. Instead, authors provide solutions and steps we could and should take to save the world. We have to work together to willfully stop the degrading cycle. Great book!

Reading State of the World 22 took me out of my cushy frivolous life and made me really think. I used to be of the frame of mind that sources of energy and the aids problem were nothing to do with me and someone else could deal with it and anyway to tell the truth it sort of bored me.Each time I read this book I would find myself crying as I turned the pages, it really is sad how down the world has gone and how much further it still has to fall if we dont change our ways of thinking. This book puts all the information on sustainable issues and world problems in straightforward english with interesting graphics and statistics in easy to read graphs so that even I (not quite a brain surgeon) can grasp the information.State of the world is not just a book moaning about what we have done wrong it also explains the solutions and what each person can to do help after all we are the cause and we can help be the cure.

Once considered the best of the North American field guides, this book is rapidly losing ground. With the impending release of the new National Geographic Society (NGS) field guide, Western Birds is showing its age. This book was last updated in 1990 and is missing many of the recent species splits, renames, and taxonomic changes. Its other major drawback is the many missing eastern vagrants included in guides like the NGS, which covers the entire continent north of Mexico. Carrying Western Birds instead of NGS during fall migration will leave the west coast birder at a disadvantage.

I found this book to be typical of all Peterson guides. It's a useful book to have but not the best available. In typical Peterson fashion the book shows illustrations of birds instead of photos. While some find this more useful for showing details all too often I've found that the drawings like little like the actualy birds.

However this book does contain the bird's comman and scientific name for each species. In addition it has a physical description of coloration and markings, a description of the habitats where they are likely to be found, their geographic distribution, notes on their song and any similar species when applicable.

I find that this is a nice addition to the Stoke's Field Guide which shows pictures instead drawings.

Definitely a nice addition to your library.

Often called the birdwatcher's "bible," Roger Tory Peterson's Field Guides revolutionized bird identification and started a series of books on everything from Atmosphere to Wildflowers. It is still one of the best tools for bird identification, especially for those just learning how to recognize different birds. Its text is straightforward, consistent, and well-organized, and the illustrations are unsurpassed. Taxonomic (name and species) changes will come and go, and no book is going to be able to keep up with all of them for very long. Fall birding will always be challenging, but this is still the best book to have if you only want to carry one.

Rath & Strong's Six Sigma Pocket Guide is an easy to use, handy reference book for anyone starting out with Six Sigma. It is extremely well organized with an overview chapter and seperate chapters for Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, and Control. It is packed with useful forms, charts, and examples that help the new Six Sigma Practitioner quickly recall information from his or her training. Each chapter ends with a very handy "Completion Checklist" that helps the reader understand what should be completed at the end of each phase of a Six Sigma Project.

I plan on making this book a standard handout in my Green Belt training classes.

Don't let the small size of this book fool you!! It is packed with great information. It gives a brief review of the tools used for Six Sigma. They are organized along the DMAIC model. A chapter covers each of the phases of the model. It covers the tools that are commonly used in each phase of the model along with why it is useful in this phase and a short synpopsis on how it works.

For example tools covered in Define are: Project Chater, Stakeholder analysis, SIPOC, Rolled Throughput Yield, Voice of the Customer,Affinity Diagrams, Kano Model, Critical to Quality Tree etc.

The chapter on Measure covers things like Control Charts, Frequency plots, Gage R & R, Pareto Charts, FMEA etc.

This book is an excellent introduction to the tools used in Six Sigma or problem solving techniques. It is also an excellent pocket reference for trained practioners to use to set up problem resolution steps!!

I don't due encomiums very often (check out the rest of my reviews); but Rath & Strong's pocket guide simply floored me.

I bought a dozen several months ago to try out on my black belts and green belts. They snapped them up and refused to return them. My own copy is already dog-eared and tattered from overuse.

This is a wonderful tool. It breaks down the methodology in clear, concise steps and provides a desperately-needed matrix showing which tools are typically employed at each phase. It offers short, effective descriptions of the most commonly-used tools.

As someone who'd been given to lugging Breyfogle's "Implementing Six Sigma" to meetings, Rath & Strong's guide has been a welcome relief.

Pick yours up today.

Here's an original thought - you can't judge a book by its cover. On the surface, "The French Culinary Institute's Salute to Healthy Cooking" would appear to be just what the doctor ordered - a beautiful book of health conscious recipes compiled by perhaps the four most prominent French chefs living in the US. With glossy photographs of many it's 150 recipes and a layout that emphasizes seasonal menu planning over individual dishes, the book gives a wonderful first impression. But things grind to a halt quickly when you start to cook. I'm sure there are many wonderful creations contained in these pages (and low fat versions of all the big hitters in the French lineup are here). And, honest, I promise to keep trying. But even in experienced hands, so many are outright clinkers that one rapidly looses faith in the entire collection. The recipe for asparagus soup (pg.60) illustrates the book's underlying central theme: if you're going to reduce the fat, you'd better concentrate the flavors. The recipe calls for 5 cups of white chicken stock -- not unusual until you look at the book's recipe for white chicken stock (pg.37). Eight pounds of chicken bones plus mirepoix and herbs yields just 4 cups (yes, cups, not quarts) of stock. At that concentration, the soup would require the 10 lbs. of bones just to made the base. That's one concentrated stock. OK, then skip the recipes that call for chicken stock. Unfortunately, in true French style white chicken stock is required for fully 22 recipes. Fortunately, brown stock is required for only four, and the formulation is a little more reasonable. But even this recipe requires hard-to-find veal bones and yields a demi-glace strength stock. Best to own a butcher shop. I won't comment on the health claims except to ask a question. If French cuisine is so inherently healthy, why have all the recipes been changed from their classic origins? Frankly, if it's healthy high cuisine you're looking for, I'd suggest either of Graham Kerr's first two Mini-Max cookbooks before this one. Kerr's recipes are at least executable and often produce astonishing results. If you insist on traditional French, it's difficult to beat Richard Grausman's "At Home with the French Classics."

My wife has a demanding job - so demanding in fact that I have started cooking. And with bathing suit season coming, she's concerned about her weight - so I've glommed onto The French Culinary Institute's Salute to Healthy Cooking. It's a lifesaver because it gives menus - I've never been good at figuring out what to serve with what. And the food is so delicious, we can't believe it's pretty low in calories and fat. The Warm Chocolate Tortes on page 101 is amazing - although I don't use a pastry bag to make it. Just spoon it in. Now we don't order in pizza so often!

This is a book everyone who enjoys cooking and eating healthy should have. While some of the dishes are a bit on the bland side, many of them are not. The wine steamed salmon is fab. The garlic soup is a favorite! Even if you don't make a single recipe just the information in the front of the book is well worth the price.

I cannot even begin to describe how fantastic this book is. I've been working in gourmet restaurants for about three years now and have checked out many books on wine to try and understand every nook and cranny of wines; most of the time I still felt a little confused. The way the book is organised helps you to easily understand every aspect of wine including the varietals (grapes), laws of appellations for each country and so much more. It's so easy and detailed to understand (studying is still required, trust me) and also uses graphs, maps and tables to make the information even more clear. Yes, the book can be considered a bit pricey, but if you are a student, in the industry or want to know more about your hobby, I can't think of a single reason why this wouldn't be a worthwhile investment. There are cheaper books out there, but the information they provide is no where near the quality you can get with this book; believe me, I've got a mini-wine library where most of the books will now be collecting dust because all the information I need is in this book.

Also recommended: The Oxford Companion to Wine (detailed definitions to wines, regions, etc...); Wine Lover's Companion (nice pocket guide for quick definitions to wine)

This book is successful on several different levels. First, it is just a great book to have lying around the house. Very relaxing to sit down for a few minutes, leaf through the pages and take a look at all of the beautiful and warm areas that produce wine (especially nice on a cold winter's day!) The layout is outstanding and the photography is excellent. However, this book is more than just pretty pictures. If you want to learn something about the process of making and developing great wines, this book delivers. I cannot pretend to understand all of the technical detail dealing with soil contents, acid levels, appellations, etc., but I am trying to learn. And I know I will have many interesting nights ahead as I settle in to learn about the various grapes and the various wine growing regions of the world. One slight annoyance--there are too many sidebars dealing with the personalities in the wine world. However, this is more than made up for by keeping the foofy wine jargon ("peach undertones" or "texture like cashmere") to a minimum.

It is a very good value for the price.

This is a fabulous book that belongs in the libary of anyone even remotely serious about this broad and beautiful subject. The authors have surveyed the wines of the world, and include accurate information, maps, and engaging "insider" viewpoints. The chapters on wine and food, wine and health, and wine in restaurants are particularly helpful. A fabulous reference now used in the wine programs of dozens of colleges and professional wine societies, Exploring Wine is accessible to all with an interest in enjoying wine. Well done!

I bought the cassette version and found it to be the best investment in Spanish that I've made. As stated in some of the other reviews, there isn't a lot of English spoken (one of the features I was looking for). I've had 4 years of Spanish prior to this (but it's been about 7 years since my last class). I bought the tapes for a trip to Spain and found them to be incredibly helpful. If you do have a grasp of the spanish language, I would recommend about a year (just the fundimentals of verb tenses), I think that you'll find these tapes the best on the market (yes better than Pimsluer). If you don't have a grasp and are looking for a basic tourist phrases etc, I would recommend ultimate spanish basic intermediate or Pimsleur 1. Some other great additions to this set are 501 Spanish verbs.

These cassettes can at first be off-putting: there's almost no English heard, and the Spanish is spoken quickly. But that's the way real Spaniards speak and as your ear gets used to the language as it's really spoken, it is truly exciting. With frequent repetition, your confidence and fluency grow rapidly. These tapes were made by the State Department in the late 50's, and some of the dialogue is hilarious: the men go out to the airforce base to review the bombers, while the women fret about their dresses and clean out the ashtrays. But if some of the social customs are dated, the rigor and clarity of the tapes are classic. For the committed learner, I don't think there's anything out in the market that compares.

I didn't start with Barron's. For the first month or two, I worked with the Learn in Your Car series -- excellent for basics. I switched to this for greater fluency -- and found them to be a superb combination.

This 12-cassette series is a fairly comprehensive course in Spanish grammar and usage for those with a slight familiarity with the language. I spent about 3 months of commuting time, 1-1/2 hrs/day, going through the tapes (at least twice each), and felt it was equivalent to a second or third year high school course. This is not a course for expanding one's vocabulary, although of course some new vocabulary was introduced. For vocabulary, I would recommend the Vocabulearn series of cassettes by Penton Overseas. My only complaint is the accompanying book, which was much bigger than it needed to be, since all of the text was duplicated in a phonetic version which I felt was of little or no use. I have spent about nine months now learning Spanish in my car, and have tried out a number of cassette series, and can certainly rate this as one of the best. The time allowed for the student's response was just right, unlike other series which push one too fast or too slow.

I started word processing with good old Word Perfect for DOS - which was the "Cadillac" of its time. It had a fine Thesaurus utility. Alas, my printer died and when I got a new one, it would not "speak" to my old Friend WP DOS. So I was forced into Billy Gates' Microsoft Word - and the Thesaurus just isn't as good.

Tardily, (one could argue from my previous reviews,) I broke down and got this "Library Binding" (good choice! Durable, but not as expensive as hard cover) book. It combines the best of both approaches - Dictionary and "concept" groupings. I have perused the beginning and end and parts in-between, but have found no symbol key. It appears, though, that an asterisk* after a suggested replacement cautions slang, for instance - "affront: ... dump on*" But how then to explain:
"good: acceptable, ace*, admirable, agreeable, bad, boss*,..." Note that there is no asterisk appearing after "bad," which is properly not accepted as a synonym for "good."

Nonetheless, if one is savvy ("acumen, awareness, comprehension...") enough to avoid potential pitfalls and detrimental reliance, this is a pretty good book. The bad news is that, in order to fit all this good stuff into a portable 957 pages, the print/font is reduced to "I'm old enough to remember the entire uncut first release of Inna Godda Da Vida and I gotta squint and move the page in and out to read this" size.

I've bought several thesauri over the years, including good ole Roget's International, but this one by Barbara Kipfer is by far my favorite because it strikes just the right balance between ease of use and comprehensiveness. Roget's International is undoubtedly the king still for comprehensiveness. Unfortunately, Roget's International is also the most onerous to use, so much so that I rarely ever touch it anymore. Other thesauruses on the market in dictionary format, such as Roget II or Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Thesaurus, are very easy to use, but unfortunately they have few synonyms under each entry. This thesaurus by Kipfer, on the other hand, is just right. I give it five stars.

then the world will be well ordered, is what Confucius thought. This idea was so dear to his heart that he said the first thing he'd do if he were to rule a state was the rectification of words: "Let the ruler be ruler, the minister minister, the father father, and the son son".

Mr. Roget surely did not think the influence of his work would go that far. But his thesaurus, available now in the second edition of "Roget's 21st Century Thesaurus", is a very useful tool nevertheless. On over 950 pages it lists 20,000 words from ABACK (meaning "taken unawares", which is what I was when I found this treasure in the Shanghai Foreign Languages Bookstore for the equivalent of just 3 US Dollars) to ZOOM (meaning "move very quickly", which is absolutely not recommended when indulging in this book). As a decent thesaurus should do, the Roget gives you a 'meaning cluster' for every listed word. In addition, for every listed word there is a reference to the unique Concept Index at the end of the book. The Concept Index is an extension of the original idea of a thesaurus, which basically groups words according to idea. That is, the thesaurus leads you from a single word to a group of related synonyms. The Concept Index, on the other hand, shows you the semantic ocean in which the word floats. Or, to quote the editors: "The Concept Index not only helps writers to organize their ideas but leads them from those very ideas to the words that can best express them." (remember: "the rectification of words"). How does that work? The Concept Index is grouped in ten categories. One of my favorites is called "Fields of Human Activity". Under this category one finds the sub-category 'communicative', for example, which contains all the useful words for book reviews from 'abusive' to 'zany'.

If you love words, this is your book. If you want to have fun with words, this is your book, too: where else would you learn that the idea of a BUSINESSPERSON (concept no. 348, for those who want to look it up) contains not only the banker but also the cyberpunk?

I found the Barren's Mastering German a good first level course in German. The compact disc's ability to pause, repeat, loop through a series of tracks and jump straight to a given track/lesson makes it far superior to the cassette. Barron's did an excellent job of breaking the course up into lots of small tracks on the CDs. This allows you to set-up the CD player to constantly repeat a track until you successfully complete the unit. My only two complaints are 1. The CD's do not include the words/phrase in both English and German. This requires you to read the book while listening to the CD. 2. The drills are spoken very fast. While this may be normal speed for a conversation, it makes it difficult to understand for the beginner.

This 15 CD program provides all the necessities for becoming competent in the german language.Native speakers provide the opportunity for pronunciation and listening comprehension practice.Grammar essentials are also present. However,I do have two criticisms,one major,one minor. First,the accompanying book is RIFE with spelling and typeset errors,which can be confusing. Secondly,some of the phrases in the drills are rather silly. Would one ever REALLY say"I have many pretty french newspapers"?

Of course, everyone learns a bit differently, but I, for one, like the fact that all the dialogue is spoken quickly from the get go. Having lived abroad (France & Russia) I can attest that hearing the language spoken slowly during your studies only handicaps you severely later on. Much better to dive in and get used to it. The object is to communicate with Germans, regardless of their accents, speed of talking or diction.

Also, there is plenty of English during the oral translation drills. It is just that the tape does not waste your time doing a spoken English translation of the initial dialgue. Again, it is better to just listen in German and not let English become a crutch.

My only complaint is that the book is rife with typograpical errors. Intitiallly, when you do not know the language, you can get a bit confused. Later on, it is just annoying.

However, this program is so good, that I still feel it warrants five stars. Alright, maybe four and one half.

I was excited about an encyclopedic cookbook, but have been disappointed again and again when I couldn't find recipes, or looked up recipes and found that they weren't the least bit authentic. The book also tends to skip to the very basics, often making a dish very bland, difficult to decipher and sometimes not as healthy as if they had put more time into the recipe. I have a library of cookbooks and I highly recommend "How to Cook Everything" by Mark Bittman as closer to a true encyclopedic cookbook. Every recipe I've tried in that book has been excellent.

This was one of three cookbooks that were in our house as I
was growing up.It was my fave.My mom owned this one&the other two
major cookbooks of the era i.e."The Betty Crocker Picture Cook-
book"&"The Better Homes&Garden Cookbook".In fact after my moms
copy disintegrated,another copy came into the house&yet another
that I found at our friends of the library store.

Everything from how to set a table to how to dress out and butcher a beef or build a root cellar. A most wonderful book, much more than just a cook book- a design for living really.

If you live in New York or you are fascinated by its architecture, you really should buy The AIA Guide to NYC. It is a remarkable tome, including more than 5000 buildings and 3000 stamp album style photos of structures in all five boroughs, ranging from Brooklyn to far Queens and from Staten Island through Manhattan and up to the extreme Bronx. It will hit your coffee table with a serious thunk, and provide endless browsing enjoyment. If you're visiting New York on a quick trip or want a selective overview, I discovered a new book that makes a good companion volume: The Architecture Traveler, by Sydney LeBlanc, which covers 250 American buildings. The author is evidently a New Yorker. About 60 of the buildings are in and around the city. It presents fewer buildings but presents a full page story on each of them. I bought both books: the AIA guide for comprehensiveness, the more selective Architecture Traveler for it's intriguing stories and for the rest of America, which it also includes.

This book is amazing in its depth of analysis and thoroughness of its study of the vast amount of architectural treasures in all five boroughs. As a native New Yorker (born in The Bronx, raised in Queens, high school in Manhattan) I was pleasantly surprised to find so many buildings that I admired to have a history behind them. A lot of little tid-bits are included in the book, for example did you know the park benches in the Battery Park Promenade are from the 1939 NY World's Fair? I didn't! Did you know that the same Guastavino tile vaulting found outside the Oyster Bar in Grand Central can be found at the Municipal Building at Centre Street? And at the NY Telephone Building at 140 West Street?

A must-have for anyone who loves New York. A true walker's handbook that includes suggested walking tours all over the city. Find out the story behind that old building you walk by on your way home to your Flushing apartment! I also found it fascinating to compare this third edition with the earlier "revised" edition of 1978 to see how much had changed and been lost. The 3rd edition was almost twice the size by the way! I hope a 4th edition is in the works by now.

This is a wonderful guide to many of the thousands of buildings in New York City. It is not, however, strictly an architectural piece. A study of the significant edifices in Manhattan this is not, since the photographs are mostly the size of postage stamps, and the text is limited. What it is is likely the most complete guide to the significant and not-so-significant buildings and monuments in New York's five major boroughs (Manhattan, Queens, the Bronx, Brooklyn and Staten Island). The most surprising aspect of this book is its sheer size and complexity. There are hundreds of small photographs (all in clear black-and-white) of nearly every building mentionned, and dozens of others of a more substantial size. There are also over 100 maps of each area, in sufficient detail to be useful for navigation, and a compehensive glossary and index.

Overall, this is a monumental book, and one which is definitely worth the price for anyone who is interested in the landscape of one of the most exciting cities in the world - New York. For the type of book it attempts to be, The Forth Edition AIA Guide to New York City is virtually without flaw.