The authors had a way of inflating what they're capable of writing. It reads just like any other so so old texts. Much of the academic discussions can be found in most other finance books. Beyond that, real business insight? Forget about it. You learn much more by watching evening news.

This book is outdated. The coverage was mostly corporate finance, not investment banking. In addition, I heard and confirmed that the materials covered in this book are close to 100 percent identical to another book by the same authors under slightly different title. A big disappointment.

This book is a good though outdated overview of the investment banking business. I would also strongly recommend instead or in addition
the Vault Career Guide to Investment Banking.... The Vault guide includes more
detailed overviews of all the departments and functions of an investment
bank including corporate finance, M&A, sales, trading, private client
services, credit, etc. If you are a job seeker in investment banking
also try the Vault Guide to Finance Interviews, which contains actual
investment banking finance interview questions and answers and which I
found to be enormously valuable in my Wall Street job search.

The Gift of Magi is an O. Henryfs classic Christmas story that is about a couple, Jim and Della, who loved each other. They were very poor people, but they wanted to buy a Christmas gift for each other. They did not have enough money, so they decided to sell their important things to buy a gift. Della wanted to buy a gold chain for Jimfs gold watch, but she didnft have enough money. Instead, she cut her hair that was her pride, and sold it. And Jim, whose watch was great and really expensive, sold it to buy the combs that Della had wanted for a long time. So as a result, their Christmas day was not happy at all. This storyfs ending is not happy, but I like this storyfs classic theme and plot. I think that this book has good theme and plot though they are simple. This is interesting and a well organized story. We can learn cultures of American from reading O. Henryfs short stories about Americanes.

The Gift of the Magi is heavily laced with details, but has a good plot. The plot is easy to follow, and is beautifully detailed in just the right parts. The plot has been adapted in different versions, so it isn't the BEST idea in the world, but it has good morals. I would give this 4 stars out of a possible 5.

The Gift Of The Magi is a magnificent "radio theater" production of O. Henry's classic story of young love at Christmas time. A young couple just beginning their wedded life and of very limited means want more than anything to give each other a gift that will reflect and celebrate their devotion, one to the other. The gifts they select, and at the cost to each of them, all result in one of the most endearing, heartwarming, and humorous of conclusions. This highly recommended, multicast production is a flawlessly performed and recorded, totally engaging, wonderfully entertaining dramat-ization.

Unscientific, uncorroborated, invalid and completely discredited by various forensic experts in various papers. Just do a quick Internet search for "bullet stopping power" and I'm sure you'll come across one of these articles.

The main purpose of this book is to determine which handgun calibers are the most effective, and which cartridges are the best in a given caliber, and to determine how this stopping power can be prediceted. There is also some related information, created as a by-product of the study.

Let's begin by examining the main issue: defining the stopping power of given cartridges. The authors have reasoned that to really be able to define the effectiveness of a bullet, one has to examine the real shooting cases. That is sound reasoning, and I believe that the authors are absolutely right about that. Unfortunately, that creates a problem that is very hard to overcome: The problem of adequate reference material.

In a shooting case, there are numerous variables, which all contribute to effectiveness of a bullet, and most of the variables are not dependent of the bullet itself (like the size of the subject, physical condition of the subject, mental state of the subject, the beliefs of the suspect, whether the subject is under the influence of durgs or alcohol, what kind of clothes the subject is wearing, and so on). You can safely say that there are dozens of such variables, and some variables have more profound effect than the others.

The authors have tried to overcome this problem by limiting the shooting cases eligible for the study by stating that only torso hits have been counted, and those cases have been omitted where there have been more than one bullet hit to the subject. But this is hardly a solution at all, because the authors have stated themselves that "it's not important that you hit something, it's important that you hit something important". In this book they have counted only torso hits, but in reality there are no "torso hits", because it has a tremendous difference, if a bullet hits heart or spine, or if the bullet goes just into abdomen not hitting anything vital. But still these variables are not taken into consideration in this book.

As I stated, there are dozens of variables in a shooting concerning "stopping power". When one considers that most of the one-shot stop -percentages are calculated based on just couple of dozen shootings, how can these values be considered statistically reliable? You can determine the unreliabliness of this data yourself by comparing this data from 1992 to a newer data, with more shootings. In some cases there is substantial difference between old and new street results. And the one-shot stop percentages are calculated to an accuracy of 0,01 %. This is ridiculous considering the fact that in some cases there are more variables than there are shootings! The biggest number of shootings for a given round is 462, which might just be big enough of a sample, but in majority of cases there has been less than 100 shootings, which is a way too little database to achieve reliable results consirering the vast amount of variables. And in some cases the calculations are based on just eleven shootings!

So it's clear that these one-shot stop calculations are not statictically reliable. A fact that is emphasized by the fact that there is no reference material in this book. A surprising feature in a book that is supposed to be a "study".

However, there is also some useful information, and this is where we get to the by-product part of the book. The authors have collected information about exotic handgun ammo, like exploding bullets or sabot rounds. And there is also some important considerations about tactical penetration.

There is also some information that is not so useful, but can be of interest to the reader, like presentation of different ways to determine the effectiveness of a bullet used in the past. Also, the authors have included some shooting cases, arranged by the caliber of the gun used. These stories are interenting to read, but they are just anecdotes, and they can't be used to proof anything.

The authors have also created a way to predict the effectiveness of a given bullet before there are any street results available for that round. This formula ís created by comparing known bullet performance on the street to tests conducted in ballistic gelatin. This is a very interesting way to predict the effectiveness of bullets, but the reliability of these formulas suffer from the same thing than the "street results": There is not sufficient data available.

In conclusion I would say that paradoxally, the portion of the book that handles the main issue (stopping power) is of questionable value, and the support material is the most valuable part of this book. I believe however that this will change as the authors get more data from new shooting cases.

Comprehensive research. Opinions are grounded in the assembled data. The conclusions will not make everyone happy. Those with a favorite caliber might be surprised with the data in the tables in the back of the book.

An excellent book for someone with previous sewing experience, especially hand sewing. (You don't need a machine to make these garments, in fact, it's better to do it by hand.) I very much appreciated the background on Japanese sewing, however, the stitches are not as clearly illustrated as they could be, and would probably be very difficult to understand for a beginning sewer. As for the other illustrations, arm yourself with patience and re-read the explanations several times through.

Overall I'm happy with this book after looking everywhere for traditional Japanese kimono patterns. I was able to successfully complete a kurotomesode (formal black kimono) thanks to it.

I take it from some of the critical reviews of other shoppers that... some of us might be confused about the definition of Kimono... anyway, with that said, this book is great for costumers or experienced sewers that would like to use this information to design/improve other outfits, or make their own Japanese formal-wear. Anyway, I will agree that the illustrations in this work had me laughing outloud in the middle of the bookstore. Also, why is this in the cookbook section?

Just glancing at some of the previous reviews, I can see this wonderful book is not receiving the respect it deserves. Since it is one of my bibles of garment design, I choose to write a review in its defense.

If you want easy pre-fab Japanese clothing, buy it from an import store or make it from the myriad patterns commercially available. Some of those patterns were created by the author of this book, but others come with all the cheater Western shortcuts, for people in a hurry to waste a lot of time and money. If you want to understand how to make custom Japanese clothing using authentic sewing techniques, this book will show you the way in the most economical fashion. Commercial patterns of all the garments in this book would run over $100. The book includes history and illustrations to fuel your creativity with potential design and fabric choices.

Give this book a chance to impress you. It's a bargain at any price.

Such a pleasure to read a book by an academic. Eakin is a historian who understands Brazil. The book is not perfect, but it is solid, useful, and interesting. First, it is well-organized: before offering thematic chapters of deeper insight, Eakin provides a quick 60-page history from the fifteenth century to 1997. This is useful both for newcomers to become familiar with the Brazilian context and for others to review the legacies of colonization and peaceful independence, the strange tales of Kings Joao and Pedro, slavery and abolition, the tragi-comic Vargas, and the military regimes. Brazil has a rich and fascinating history, and Eakin does well to place its recent iterations in a long-term context.

Next come four thematic chapters on the land, people, politics, and economics, each divided into useful essays so a reader can quickly read about topics from soccer and carnaval to the convoluted political machinations of the 1980s. Broad themes underlie the discussion: the sheer magnitude of the slave trade (that dwarfed that in the U.S.) and how it shaped society, the social trends that created the most unequal distribution of wealth in the world, and the series of export products (gold, sugar, rubber, and coffee) that contributed in waves to social development.

On the other hand, readers will occasionally stumble over clunkers, particularly when comparisons are drawn with the U.S: "Much like New York City, Rio is a city whose era has passed"; "To be considered white in the United States, one cannot have any non-white ancestors"; the claim that an "estimated" 90 percent of Brazilian adults play the lottery. The economic analysis is helpful, but never profound, and there are occasional head-shakers: "In both [Brazil and the U.S.] deficit spending and foreign debt have made it difficult to marshal the resources to address fundamental social ills."

The discussion of race relations -a deeply complicated subject that Eakin navigates with some success- is thoughtful. "Brazilians discriminated, but on the basis of color, and there were many shades. North Americans discriminated on the basis of race, and there were but two"; "How is it possible to build a movement around consciousness of being black when most non-whites do not see themselves as black and do not wish to be considered black?"

As other reviewers have noted, the book is in need of a real update. Most of the research ends about 1995, although there are a few references to events as late as 1997. The decade of the 1990s has been a fascinating period for Brazilians, with the FHC administration, the Real Plan, the Argentine collapse, and the effects of globalization. A good book, in need of a some new text. It could also benefit from a few more maps and some historical photos.

Oh yea, Brazil!!!!!!! Great for the student interested in Brazil civ.

if it only had been more recent, it would be excellent. A shame that it was written just before the '99 crisis. Great book. The author makes a conscious effort to document the historical and economic reasons that shaped Brazil's evolution.

After reading this book, I read someone else describing another book by Evan Marshall as a "paint by numbers" attempt to imitate Sue Grafton. This book falls into the same category.

I was very disappointed with this novel. Mr. Marshall is a well respected agent, with a popular book on writing novels, which he should have used while writing this book. The dialogue is poor and unrealistic, he blatantly uses the Kennedy assasination and Jackie Kennedy's actions without even trying to disguise it. Jane was boring, annoying and it was hard to believe that she and Stan were really a couple. The paranormal aspects came out of nowhere. It was an interesting premise but not carried through in the execution. By the way, the back cover copy description of the book wasn't even accurate. I'm glad I didn't waste my money but took it out of the library instead.

Probably most famous for his helpful book, The Marshall Plan for Novel Writing, Mr. Marshall has also created a very enjoyable series featuring Jane Stuart and her cat, Winky. These characters were first introduced in Missing Marlene, which was followed by Hanging Hannah. As this is the third in the series with a forth novel, Icing Ivy due in November, it isn't possible to review this novel without giving away some background detail. In you have not read the series, I would encourage you to skip this review and instead read the books in order, as you won't be disappointed.

As this novel opens, Jane Stuart is exhausted. Her literary agency is still struggling but seems to have turned the corner financially speaking. Because of the events in the two previous novels as well as the simple strain of being a widow with a small child as well as running a business she needs a vacation. The problem is that Thanksgiving is just a few days away and she plans to be gone by then and still has not decided what sun drenched island she is going to. Not only is the cold weather of winter blowing into New Jersey, but so too is cousin by marriage, Stephanie.

Stephanie was related to Kenneth, (Jane's deceased husband) so she feels a tremendous obligation when Stephanie calls her. Stephanie is moving to the same village as Jane Stuart, Shady Hills. She is moving from Boston after she lost her job there to join a publishing company that also happens to be moving to Shady Hills at the same time. Carson and Hart happens to be run by a quite famous now college roommate of Stephanie's who has helped her out by hiring her. But she needs a place to stay temporarily while she looks for a place of her own and with much reluctance; Jane finally agrees that she can move in with her.

Stephanie arrives and soon has the house in an uproar. Apparently racist, she dislikes Jane's assistant, Daniel as well as Jane's nanny, Florence. While she seems to be able to tolerate, Nick, Jane's ten year old son, she certainly does not like Winky the cat, her accommodations or just about anything else in Jane's world. But, reminding herself frequently that Kenneth would have wanted her to help her, Jane tries to tolerate Stephanie's problems and appalling attitude. After all, it won't be long before she has her place of her own and Jane is going to go on vacation, if she can just pick the spot.

But her plans keep getting derailed as strange things begin to happen in her small little town with Stephanie's arrival. Break-ins, a rather rare event in the past seem to surge in numbers and then people start dying. At the same time, Stephanie seems to be having more and more problems at work and desperately begs Jane to go undercover at the publishing company and snoop to see if things are really running right. Jane eventually agrees and discovers that strange things are indeed going on with one heck of a twist.

This series is very enjoyable. Clearly Mr. Marshall is drawing on his own experience as head of his own literary agency as well as his own advice to writers. He cleverly weaves some of that advice again in each one of his novels without coming across as heavy-handed or preaching. At the same time, each novel reveals a little more about the main characters while having plenty of action with numerous twists and false clues. Clearly, no major character is totally safe in this series, which also adds to the enjoyment factor.

This is a series that should be definitely started with the first book, Missing Marlene. This series is well worth the read, for writers and mystery fans, alike.

I eagerly dove into this book when it arrived, but... While Roger Marshall's book has some good general information about choosing a cruising sailboat, even that information is better addressed in Nigel Calder's "Cruising Handbook," or for serious interest in offshore cruising, John Vigor's "The Seaworthy Offshore Sailboat." Marshall's book will be a dissapointing read for anyone that aspires to acquire a cruising sailboat with reasonable offshore capabilities at a cost that's affordable. Of course if you're wealthy, you don't need this book either, just hire Roger to design the perfect sailboat for you.

Marshall develops concept boats for five categories. The first boat is a "Weekender" of 20 to 26 feet with "sail in the bay" kinds of systems. The second category is the "Cruiser" that is 34 to 36 feet long that doesn't range beyond 30 miles from the coast. The third boat Marshall talks about is the"Voyager" that's a very comfortable 45 to 47 feet long (Are we beginning to sense the missing bits?). Then we encounter the "Single Hander," a 45 to 50 foot boat that seems specifially designed for the Around Alone racing crowd. And finally, the "Racer/Cruiser" with a design of 32 to 36 feet and seems to be a reasonable assessment of the kind of boat that will be appreciated by those that want to race with the yacht club and still enjoy some coastal journeys.

The missing chunk relates to blue water cruising or offshore sailboats of less that 45 feet. It's a disappointing omission. Especially if you consider that the average size of a sailboat that cruises away from the coast is getting larger, but only from about the 35 or 36 feet range to about 38 or 39 feet. If you are looking for a cruising sailboat that has offshore and passage capabilities and can't afford the 45' or larger "Voyager" category, you'll have to do a lot of interpolating between Marshall's design categories to glean the knowledge you're hoping to find.

Written in a clear and beautiful style, lots of helpful diagrams, BUT... I am interested in single-handed ocean cruising, and I want a 26-30 foot boat. Yep, it would be more comfy if I could afford a 45-50 footer, but that's just not realistic for the average person with a dream. If you could afford a boat that size, you can probably afford a designer of your very own and thus wouldn't need this book.

Naval architect Roger Marshall provides a substantive guide for the cruising sailor who chooses his boats based on their suitability to his purposes. In plain language and with clear supporting diagrams, Marshall explains the fundamental principles of seaworthiness, the elements of good design, and the ever challenging balancing act between speed, comfort and cost.

I disagree with the reviews that say this book is only for cruising sailors with a large budget. I think this book is for sailors of any budget who take sailing seriously and who want to own boats that fit their exact needs. Considering how many boats are left to sit idle by their owners, it makes sense to realistically think though how one intends to use their boat and just what features are worth paying for. Frankly, most sailors will find they do not need the boat to end all boats if they only intend to putter close to shore on sunny weekends. At the same time, considering there is always the potential for a sailor to face the elements at their harshest, and considering some cruisers will want to push the envelope to its fullest, it makes sense to understand what exactly makes a sound, seaworthy boat and a worthwhile investment. I found that Marshall covers all these bases and more and I heartily recommend this book to readers.

This book provides a fair description about modeling for basic business components. However, it fails to be useful for specifying a buildable or testable system and does not address enterprise issues. The models in chapters 4 and 5 are useful only for coffee discussions - they are far from practical for business analysts, requirements engineers, testers, and OO designers.

Furthermore, it misses the mark by representing OO design as ontology under the disguise of UML diagrams. I was disappointed and expected more from a book that is published in the Object Technology Series.

I bought this book by seeing its title. But, when I finished reading it, I did not learn anything new. The book is written as a novel instead of a technical book. Bottom line, I did not get the worth of my money back after reading this.

As a Management Consultant with an IT company, I have always been compelled by ideas to improve communications between the "top" consultants and the actual analysts and programmers. This is a very hard exercice indeed as everybody seems to speak his own language.

UML can certainly improve on this and more, but beware, it is not a panacea as it is only a way to express situations. There are still a bunch of loopholes like uniform B-IT patterns that have to be developed (in-house).

So, yes indeed, this book gives you more than a few kicks in the butt, but we still have to walk a long walk.

This is an example of Christian "scholarship" at close to its worst. In fact, there are so many problems with this book that it is hard to know where to start. The authors presume to know God's will for America -- a pretty big assumption in itself -- and try to use evidence to support it. The problem is, they disregard anything that can't fit into their nice New England Calvinist box. For example, there is little or no discussion of the slavery question and the Constitutional Convention, even from a Christian perspective. In addition, the ramifications of Manifest Destiny to the Native Americans and the future of America are ignored.

Even worse, the authors try to squeeze in their own political views by trying to draw a straight line from the Federalists of Washington's era to the Republicans of today and Jefferson's Democrat-Republicans to the modern Democratic Party. This especially came out when they described the Federalists as "pious." Unfortunately, from a historical standpoint no such straight line exists.

On top of that, the book has way too many factual errors and the writing is uneven at best. They spend only three pages on ratification of the Constitution and five on the pork-eating habits of settlers on the frontier.

Unfortunately, this book has been and will be used in many Christian schools and with many Christian homeschool parents. However, I would say skip it. Read Mark Noll instead.

"The Light and the Glory" is a beautifully written, well-researched book -- which I cannot recommend, especially as a primary homeschooling text, without serious caveats.

The positives: The authors, Peter Marshall and David Manuel have done enormous research. They have demonstrated that what is taught in the typical history book doesn't necessarily tell the entire story. They have acknowledged the role of faith, and religion have played in our nation's early history. They have the gift of making characters "come alive" in a way that would interest a student -- even one who didn't care much for history.

HOWEVER: The authors have a fixed thesis firmly in mind and head toward that thesis without swerving -- and that thesis is one with which even most persons of faith would struggle. The thesis? A staunch Calvinist view of the role of America in the mind of God. As a believer -- who is adamantly NOT a Calvinist -- I cannot accept the particular (and peculiar) methods of exegesis which somehow create America as the new "Promised Land". Neither can most other Christians.

I'm also a bit concerned that the authors attempt (on the one hand) to analyze the state of the soul of Andrew Jackson (no "benefit of the doubt there!") while labeling John Quincy Adams -- a member of the Unitarians -- as "the last Puritan".

I fear that in their struggle to demonstrate their thesis, certain elements are glossed over; certain facts are whitewashed, etc. While it could certainly be argued that Calvinism played a major role in the establishment of the Colonies and in early America, it can also be argued that such did not have the salutory benefits which the authors suggest are there.

My advice to homeschooling parents, especially those who are not Calvinists, is to use this book with care, as a secondary source -- or not at all. The presentation given is far too biased to be reliable.

A very cautious three stars.

Like my review of Marshall and Manuel's earlier book "The Light and the Glory", I admire the clarity of the authors' thesis, and the forthright way with which they attempt to demonstrate that thesis.

Unfortunately, to accept their thesis, one must adhere to a very particular view of philosophy, theology and history -- a view held largely by Calvinist Christians. Thus, other Protestants, as well as Catholics (to say nothing of members of other religions) will find some of the authors' presuppositions very difficult to accept.

The greatest use for this book would be to be used in conjunction with another text written from a different perspective.

I figured this was a more appropriate title than "Gatherings". So much of this novel is a description of the places and things this family owns. Let me say that the author is a very talented writer, with wonderful ability to evoke images and scenes. But she squanders her talent on this silly idealization of the preppy life. You can practically hear her lock jaw in some passages. Also, the things I am really interested in, mainly the narrator's mother, who goes off the rails to become a damaged hippie, the author barely touches on, while the things I am not interested in, namely the character Pearce (a thorougly unlikable, effeminate character who seems locked in the closet for now), she delves into in tedious, pointless detail. I have high hopes for Marina Rust's future as an author of books, but I think one day she will see how young she was with this effort, in which we know more about the place settings than the characters' motivations.

I got this book from the library and fell in love with it's poetic writing and interesting relationships. I am disappointed that the first time author did not write more! The protagonist is both sympathetic and realistic, although her situations are not always so. I found this book so fascinating that I went through an extensive search to acquire a copy for my home library! If you can find it, it is worth it. I've read it five or six times over.

This is a lovely book - a subtle, psychological drama that charmingly references "the princess and the pea." While the characters are startlingly rich, their dilemma of having too much freedom and comfort in life is a modern American affliction. Scratch many a suburban family and you'll find a princess (or prince) who, when confronted with a pea-sized problem, simply can't cope. But ultimately, the book is about the most basic of themes - the existentialist idea that life is a choice; you choose to live. I eagerly await more books by this author.