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very interesting it had a lot of new material but not what im looking for. i want to find out more on possible gambeling on college football 1925 1940. more information on jake lingle and his killer leo v brothers and notre dame football.

Gene Carney has done a first-rate job not only mining previous research but finding new material on baseball's blackest moment. While he concedes that not everything will ever be known about the scandal, given the difficulties of time and memory, this book reads with authority. Its special strength, as the title hints, is in the detail about organized baseball's attempt to bury the scandal. Thanks to Carney, more of this part of the story is now known than ever before. Highly recommended.

Author Gene Carney carefully examines the sordid doings of players, gamblers, and baseball officials in the 1919 Black Sox scandal. The players include the guilty (Eddie Ciccotte, Lefty Williams, Chick Gandil, etc.), the essentially innocent Buck Weaver, and the possibly complicit Shoeless Joe Jackson. But Carney is more concerned with the scandalous activities of White Sox owner Charles Comiskey and other self-serving baseball officials. To begin, Comiskey inspired the scandal by under-paying his talented athletes. Carney shows that Comiskey almost certainly knew that the World Series was fixed while it was ongoing, covering it up for nearly a year before the story broke. Readers see how Comiskey and his attorney manipulated events and even illegally hid court documents. Finally, we see how after the eight players were acquitted in trial, newly-appointed commissioner Kenesaw Landis banned them from baseball, thus neatly diverted attention from the many sordid ties then existing between gamblers, players, and baseball officials. As many know, the players were punished (at least one unfairly), while the gamblers and baseball officials got off practically unscathed.

Carney has done an impressive and scholarly job, though his prose never attains the poetry of EIGHT MEN OUT, Elliot Asinof's also-impressive 1963 effort. Still, there is much to learn here from an author who did his homework and answers as many perplexing questions as seems possible.

I have been a regular reader of Gene Carney's online column for some time, though my reading his column was one of the casualties of the circumstances of my overly-busy life for a while. So I was glad when the book came out and purchased it as soon as was convenient. I almost literally couldn't put it down. I knew from his column that he was making every attempt to give all parties the fairest treatment possible from the distance of 85+ years, so no aspect of the book surprised me much. Still, the depth of the research is impressive, and it was nice to have it all in one place rather than spread over dozens of online columns. Kudos to Carney for putting the finishing touches on this new, fresh look at a controversy that far too many people think was settled with Landis's "eight men out" verdict. Yet, I also am aware that Carney's research continues even beyond the book. If a second edition comes out at some point that includes things that Carney has learned since the publishing of this volume, I'll be up for purchasing that, too.

After reading "Eight Men Out" many years ago and participating in the movie production, what a treat to have this and Susan Dellinger's book to answer some of the questions left unanswered by Asinof's classic.

It's compelling reading with a few new twists that boggled my mind. It's simply a must read for any followers of the Scandal. It further cemented in my mind that Comiskey's and Ban Johnson's induction into the Baseball Hall of Fame is a scandal in itself.

Charlie Anderson is a wonderful book that should be in every elementary school library and in the home of every child who has parents who don't live together. Charlie Anderson is a cat, who like the little girls in the story has two homes, two beds, and two families who love him.

I thought this book was about cats and friendship with cats, until I read further and realized this book had an underlying message. The message is that Charlie is a lucky cat just like Elizabeth and Sarah. Elizabeth and Sarah are children of divorced parents and have to spend half of their time with each divorced parent. I understand that this is a fact for many children and they must make the best of it, but I wouldn't exactly say they were "lucky"! I quickly made up my own words when I was reading this story to my own child , so that she wouldn't be subject to the underlying theme of the book. How sad, that the author feels that she must tell children they are lucky if their parents get divorced. Children of divorce know it's not true and this book is very patronizing in my mind. Skip it.

This book was recommended to me by a teacher friend. I like this story to teach predictions while teaching comprehension strategies.

Having to trudge back and forth between parents into different worlds can be very upsetting to a child of a divorce. The transition is emotionally charged and sometimes bringing the child to depression - especially if the child cannot identify their life with any other children. The mix of personalities and a happy life that Charlie Anderson leads transitioning between two families is something any young child can identify with and derive comfort from. I know my child did.

Although the story should be a great read for children having difficulties with split families. The page where Elizabeth ask "Who do you love the best," could plant in a childs mind that one must make a choice as to which parent do you love the best, or even cause the child to wonder if he/she is loved the "best". The book would have been excellent had it not been for this one page. I suggest it be re-written.

This meaty (in more ways than one) trade paperback collects all six issues of Marvel's "Fury" mini-series of a few years back. From its adult "Max" line, the story initially presents to us a morose, depressed Nick Fury who misses the glory days of blood-and-guts violence and bosses who didn't worry about politics all the time.

But then he gets involved in a mission just like the old days and we learn a little bit about Nick Fury. Mostly, we see that, though personally capable of committing violence- and I'm talking extreme violence- without batting an eyelash, Nick Fury always (no pun intended) has an eye towards avoiding larger violence. So, if he has to destroy every soldier in a small battalion (and destroy them in the most colorful ways) to avert a world war, especially a needless one, he's there.

So, throughout this bloody, profane, and (I have to admit) extremely readable story, we see a Fury who despises weak men with no stomach for violence when it's called for, yet also a man who has no patience for the kind of wars that waste lives for some marginal political benefit. Just on an engaging, story-telling level, I found that notion interesting: a personally violent man who nevertheless abhors needless violence and wasted lives.

If you occasionally enjoy a good blood-and-guts tale laced with take-no-prisoners profanity and over-the-top action, then "Fury" is for you. Be warned, though, there's some genuine thoughtfulness and complexity among the spurting blood and frequent F-bombs.

Lazy, lazy work from everyone involved.

Ennis first portrayed Nick Fury in his Steve Dillion-partnered run on the Punisher: Welcome Back, Frank Premiere HC (Punisher) and this is an uninspired, insipid spin-off. The gags are dull and plot is recycled. Even the patented ultraviolence (and the deliberately offensive dialogue) feels watered-down and off-key. The slapstick goofiness is a sour note as well - this miniseries feels like something crafted from Ennis's cutting-room floor.

Not even worth it for the Ennis/Robertson completist - read The Boys Vol. 1: The Name of the Game instead.

I bought "Fury" because I've always liked the character of Nick Fury and because Garth Ennis did some good work with the Punisher. The idea of a hard-core warrior like Fury having to deal with the Big Game (the Cold War) being long dead and SHIELD having gradually turned into a bureaucracy was, or could have been, interesting. Too many straw men were created, too many superfluous sidelines included. For instance, the addition of a geeky 'nephew' for Nick to put up with was unnecessary, silly and added nothing to either story or character development. The defaced (pardon the pun) Russian giant was also silly. Ennis seemed to undermine himself at every turn.

The art could have helped salvage the book but didn't. Darick Robertson's style is too slick. The pencils needed to be rougher, more in line with what appeared in most of the Punisher MAX comics (apart from the ones that Robertson did). His work on the character F*ckface was just bad.

Overall, this was a good idea poorly done.

Whew. Now I know what the MAX label means when it's placed on the cover of a Marvel graphic novel. It means harsh, bloody, brutal action, as well as foul, filthy language. And nauseating gore (yes, I already mentioned bloody, brutal action, but you have to add nauseating gore--the bloody, brutal action is during the quieter parts of the story, usually before, and leading up to, the gory nausea, sorry, nauseating gore, whatever. The blood and intestines).

The word MAX is a warning; NOT for kids!

Nick Fury, on the outs with the new, red-tape laden S.H.I.E.L.D. as exemplified by the smart-mouthed, smooth-dressed and so young Mr. Li, sits down at a bar to drown his sorrows, only to bump into an old enemy of the USA and democracy, Rudi Gagarin. Not too long after that--after Fury has fantasized about feeding his loser nephew to tigers, after he has entertained several prostitutes at his apartment, after he has visited old warhorse pal Dum Dum Dugan's humble suburban abode and insulted his friend's quiet retirement from govt.-approved murder, after he has bullied S.H.I.E.L.D. in their new HQ, after his home has been invaded by a cadre of Gagarin-appointed assassins in preemptive-strike mode (can you say "dogmeat once you pick out all the guns and put what's left in a big bowl"?)--Fury goes to war against Gagarin, on a small island, between mainland USA and Hawaii.

Gagarin seems to have invaded the island purely to manufacture a useless war that will bring Fury and a fresh, hand-picked team of crack soldiers into glorious battle. But his plan to shoot down a plane full of Chinese military advisors while making it look like the work of a US Taskforce gives him a shot at an added bonus: possibly starting a major global conflict.

Fury and his intrepid team execute a clever plan to arrive on the island undetected, and Fury's initial operation involves stopping Gagarin--and making US plans to bomb the island into flaming oblivion unnecessary--with minimal bloodshed. But then everything goes crazy, Fury's team gets smaller by the minute, and a final deadly confrontation with Gagarin and his main muscle, a giant, hideously-disfigured killer with a name that's mostly a swear-word and so I can't give it to you here, is inevitable. Amid the hellish flames of battle, Fury and Gagarin square off for the last time. The ensuing combat is disgustingly over-the-top, and that's just the foul language, never mind the gut-wrenching gore.

This isn't for kids. Honestly, this isn't even for me. I give this a reluctant four-star review, because, well, I was riveted. Nick Fury is a juggernaut here, commanding allies and enemies alike to bend to his will, strafing political correctness, and detonating previous notions of how comics should behave. I know all this is old-hat for Garth Ennis fans, but it's all new to me, and I'm shocked but entertained. Risk-taking is appreciated, and I don't have to read graphic novels like this all the time. And I won't. But the vicious humour, the cynical worldview, and the vile characters--including perhaps Fury himself--make this a strangely satisfying nightmare. I didn't delight in the graphic violence--I discovered that, just like I still close my eyes at the gory moments in a movie, I move my eyes swiftly over the bloody panels of Fury without lingering--but the carnage, and the foul language, does make reading Fury a memorable experience. War as a result of some kind of macho bar bet, war as a way to make the world exciting--what a terrible concept. But, in this tale, we're still left hoping the good guy wins, even if the good guy worries that he's not much different than the bad guy.

I kind of wish I was young enough to give this a one-star review, but I confess I did like it. Now back to comics that don't leave me feeling so nauseated.

Sherman may very well have been right, and War may be Hell---but Peace can be boring.

That goes double if you're Nick Fury, aging, semi-retired from S.H.I.E.L.D., playing nanny for his not-too-bright nephew Wendell, and fallen from a state of bloodthirsty grace that included killing for Queen & Country (and President & Congress) to hiring a battalion of hookers to slake your thirst for a little excitement, to getting nixed from SHIELDs more interesting real estate---Well, if you're Nick Fury, Peace can be Worse.

What's a former roving government super-operative to do?

How about start another war?

Our man Nicky is drinking---alone---in a Manhattan bar, lamenting the fallen state of the world. He can't even smoke his trademark stogie in NYC---because he's "offending other patrons", even though it's 10:30 PM, and the bar is cleared out, and he's the only patron. Dig? It's post-9/11, the City has suffered a brutal attack that left its trademark Twin Towers a smoking crater, and the city government says---Hey! let's ban smoking in bars!

It's that kind of petty tyranny Nick Fury was designed to fight, you know?

Anyway, the other guy in the bar that night happens to be his old Nemesis Yuri Gagurin (or somethin' like that, JEEZUS)---big former Soviet killer, KGB, Spetsnaz, Russian Murder Society, the works. Real horror-show, baby, you know it. And Yuri, well, he's feeling the lull, just like Nicky, peacetime ain't pleasant, it's like an ex-con his first few months out of the joint, craving the action---you know where I'm going with this?

No? Well, the ex-con would wanna pop a Burger King, or a small backwater bank, just to get the juices flowing. Gagurin wants to fly down with some Boyz to a small Caribbean Island, help the little tinpot Despot there seize total power, start importing arms and nukes and microwave weapons and ASATs into this little offshore Tyranny, and start World War III. The Big One.

Hell, it's something to do, and beats the hell outta waiting for the Oakland Raiders to turn things around. Right?

Except Fury is still the Good Guy, so he doesn't accept. I mean, Yuri was gonna split it right down the middle, which is pretty damned decent for a Rooskie, yeah? Anyway, a month later and Fury gets the news about Napoleon Island, and the coup, and the Russian and Chinese advisors, and---well, he's gotta do *something*, right?

So it's on!, and you're invited: Nicky gets wind that something's up, pulls together the best squad he can muster, and bludgeons his way through the new S.H.I.E.L.D bureaucracy and gets his island hopping pass and baby!---have 9MM FN Browning (with laser-scope sight, UV/night-vision), will travel!

Note: a few critics have said this is "not your Father's Nick Fury"---but that's not right: this *is* you Daddy's Fury, it's just the world ain't. It has passed Fury by. It has become peaceful, fat, indolent, safe, secure in its high walls bought and paid for by the blood of stogie-chomping patriots.

Sound familiar?

Garth Ennis writes & directs, very cynically, just fine. Darick Robertson illustrates, plenty bloody, very "Preacher", lots of brains and gore and popping eyeballs, the works. If that's what you dig, you'll dig it.

In the meantime, it's about that time, and I've got a cigar. And a 9MM FN Browning. Mind if I light up?

Smoke 'em if you got 'em, Gentlemen.

JSG

My 9 year old, who used to dread his required 20 minutes of reading each night for homework, started reading these and became hooked after the first book! He has gone from book 1 through book 16 in less than 2 months, and now wants to read them for more than an hour at a sitting. I never thought I'd hear him complain about putting a book down to do something else, but he really enjoys them. Problem is, what do I do when he gets to the end of the series??? I really recommend this set if you have a 3-4th grade child who doesn't look forward to reading - these are a nice way to get them interested in chapter books because they can move quickly through chapters and finish the books in about a week.

No one slays a dragon in present. Where the heck is dragon, you might say. Wiglaf is a young timid future dragon slayer, but he faints when he sees a blood. Wiglaf, his princess friend Erica, and goodie lover Angus make a great trio in Kate McMullan's new try for fantasy book, Dragon Slayers' Academy, which won the Best Picture Book in The New York Times. Just because his parents want him to bring the gold, Wiglaf Accidentally slays two dragons, rescues the best knight of the world, goes field trip to dungeon and even meets a ghost.
With simple and kiddish, but new and fun story of McMullan can be weird. Kids' chants and easy story, and characters' antics are basically for the children. But new ideas always come up with new book is never boring. Bill Basso's freaky but funny illustrations greatly match the funny mood of D.S.A. Well, this book requires readers to take some sick jokes like crazy knock-knocks. Also short but thick subplots will make readers to naturally guess the next story, even they didn't want to.
Yet there are little problems within it. Sometimes too short and fast story might not be satisfying. But in some cases, this will be helpful, like for kids who can't read fat books like Harry Potter. Other one is that kiddish story wouldn't really fit for people over 13 years old.
Fun, freaky, and weird, this is a book for kid readers or readers who want to read "something odd". It might not fit to people who are fans of serious books, since D.S.A. is a book that is very far from serious.

I'm six and I enjoyed this book. This book was very funny in different types of ways. It was about 3 children who go through adventures in a school for young dragon slayers. It reminds me of how it feels to be a new student. My favorite character is Angus who is always hungry and only hates eel but thats what they are served usually. I also like the pig that speaks pig latin!This is the first in a series. I have read 10 of them and plan to read them all.

I enjoy reading the volumes in this series almost as much as my 5-year-old son enjoys hearing them read. Kate McMullan is a talented writer who displays wonderful wit and skill but also a great deal of heart. The Dragon Slayers' Academy books are a mixture of Harry Potter, Roald Dahl, and even (dare I say it?) the old Harvard Lampoon parody, "Bored of the Rings".

I should warn that my son does occasionally have difficulty following some of the dialogue and narratives (at which points, I simply pause to offer quick explanations or glosses). Also, there have been a couple of spots where gore becomes a concern (for example, the executioner's song in book 3).

The lively illustrations as well as the humorous "DSA Yearbook" (including a "campus" map) are great bonuses.

I think that this book (and the series) is an excellent step along the path toward, say, Harry Potter or the Hobbit, but will also be treasured (and re-read) on its own right.

Like Harry Potter, Wiglaf starts off in a less than favorable existence with surrogate parents and gets the fortuitous chance to leave home for an unconventional medieval-like school. The humor mostly centers around the headmaster of this Dragonslayer's Academy being greedy and saving money by feeding the kids eels, the absentmindedness of a wizard that Wiglaf meets along the way, and Wiglaf's fear of dragons and violence in general. The plot is mostly Wiglaf trying to figure out the weakness of a dragon that Wiglaf has to fight, and the revelation at the end that the weakness is no magic item or weapon but something rather silly and midly amusing. The books are basically modern style weekly cartoons in written form, which might be a good thing to start out reluctant readers on who have not yet tackled chapter books. However, I found the illustrations a tad low quality for the amount of focus placed on them and the 9 to 12 age group is kind of stretching it. It's better suited to maybe the 6 to 10 crowd.

As a vet tech student, I find this dictionary invaluable, with it's complete listings and light weight in my backpack. On the down side, as others have said, the book offered no pronunciation at all...so how do we pronounce these big, new words? That part was HUGE for me. Overall, a great purchase.

Can't complain.I always keep it with me as quick reference... found it better than any other in the market.Will find almost every term in Veterinary terminology.

Two thumbs up!!!
Great for my Anatomy and Veterinary Terminology classes!!

San Antonio, TX

received in a timly matter. Very help book. Not interested in getting to know the sendeder. thank you

I am enrolled in a veterinary assistant class and this book has been a great tool for my classes. It has great photos to make the understanding of certain diseases more understandable. I recommend for anyone who is or want to be in the veterinary field.

Great for those needing guidance on how to write a good IT resume. I recommend it.

Ace the IT Resume does exactly what it sets out to do, provide knowledge and examples towards building a great IT resume. I got this book when I was getting no response to the numerous resumes I had submitted. After reading this book, and applying its lessons, I got hired into a great job with a great company. I also know what book I am picking up from my shelf if and when it comes time to dust off my resume again.

Powerful Package. To find the jobs too - I recommend Information Technolgy Jobs in America 2009: Corporate & Government Career Guide (Information Technology Jobs in America: Corporate & Government. ITJA explains the industry as marketplace. It shows you salary charts for the IT jobs in U.S. Federal, States and Cities, and pension estimates, and how precisely to go government IT AND the specialized IT service sector companies to go to. Computer Jobs with the Growing Information Technology Professional Services Sector 2009 IT Staffing Firms; and Computer Jobs With the Growing Information Technology Professional Services Sector 2008: Midwest States, provide company and recruitment contacts in each U.S. region hiring for contract labor and permanent. Put the resources together and you have a powerful package.

The books is organized into small chapters with great example resumes and a list of key words. It allow you to improve you IT resume in a short amount of time and even have suggestion on where to start if you are new to IT.

I read this book so fast, the way it was written was so interesting and easy, evey single question I had in mind was answered, nothing is left! I loved the book, unfortunately I cannot get the Ace the IT INTERVIEW book, because it is not available in my area, but I would definetly the interview book too! by the way there is a very good chapter about interview in this book!
four little things i hated about this book:

- much more of network than software development ! but it is ok coz most careers are in Network administration.
- in a resume there was: Modem Software!!, this is called Browser...!
- adding Norton AntiVirus in an IT resume is something stupid!
- PHP and C-Sharp: top programming lanuges not mentioned in the book!

I have been playing golf for 2 months (took lessons,pored over videos on internet,read many books including Hogan's,Hank Haney's,Leadbetter's, read golf magazines such as Golf Digest and Golf Tips) and I would say this book is one I take to the practice range. At the end of each practice session,I write down a list of what went right and what went wrong. I then flip through the section that covers my problem (the book is well organized for that),learn the drill,fixes and comments on that. Next session,I implement it. It almost always helps.
2 points:Since still pictures and wording can leave a few things unclear, you might have to look up additional sources such as another book/video/professional once in a while. Secondly, as another reviewer noted, in one or two places in the book (of nearly 150 pages),there is what seems to be contradictory advice (one instructor says start high, another says low). In a few other places where you think the same thing's happening,upon careful reading,the shots are slightly different.
Overall, an excellent bargain. You can buy the book alone without DVD for less than 12 bucks. Even better deal as the DVD is limited.

Excellent book with beautiful illustrations on high quality paper. Like having a teacher with you.

Graphics oriented book; very easy to read; good mechanical instructions; guarantee to improve golf game and lower your handicap.

This is another well-made book by DK Publishing. Extremely well illustrated and well written. It covers all the basics of golf technique and makes it easy to understand. This is one of three books by DK that I would buy for anyone beginning golf. It is one of the few books I keep on the shelf and refer back to often for review of the basics.

My first impression of the book is MULTI-FUNCTIONAL. The book has very clear text, diagrams, pictures and written in an easy to understand language. Diagrams in various sizes with clear notations to make any student "marvel in amazement" at this organized book.

A big WOW from me.

The book is NOT a narrative story that just happens to have some basics thrown in, as a requirement. Nor does it try and show off a professional life and times. This book is for students of the game.

The book has a disciplined fundamental approach to golf with key tips on the grip, the swing, addressing the ball, understanding why a ball hooks, chipping, putting, and so on. Teaching in building blocks that are strongly supported by images, diagrams and text descriptions.

The book goes into level two golf, talking about acceleration of ball, reading the green, correct allignment for various shots. This is like a handbook for those in the first year beginner to fifth year of playing golf. It shows advanced techniques such as the push and pull shots. Swing play from an angle on a hill, etc.

The book is NOT a story of golf jokes. Nor does it dwell on past times and memories of a guy or gal playing back in the good old days. If you want a fiction book, or a good bed side read -- forget this. You need to be a student, and want to learn.

The book also talks about buying the right equipment. Wow, this is great information. Also about golf etiquiette and golf rules. If I am to ever
teach golf, this would be a required reading. If I am to take any courses in golf, I hope they teach from this book.

But wait, I am just an "amazon" kind of guy. So, there you have it.

Have a nice day. And, enjoy this book.

Overall the book gave good advice. I especially like the special sections to homemakers, ex-convicts, veterans, and people in recovery. We all have to learn to sell ourselves to employers if we want to have work we'll enjoy. I also like the idea of short cover letters. 4 paragraphs is just too long for today's hiring manager.

The one thing I disagree with is not using bullets in your resume. The resume examples in the book are very text heavy. They're not the best ways to use the reader's time. I think it's good to use bullets to make the resume easier to read. I also wish he made a section for people who've been laid off or fired since that happens to so many people nowadays.

Despite my criticisms, I still think it's a good book. One bit of advice I really like is for lines with no text, you can choose an 8-point font to save space. I tried it and it works with my resume.

The only thing that I found helpful in this book was its lists of action verbs, which is found on the web for free. The rest of the reviews on this book are misleading. I follwed all of the recomendations of this book, and had several HR professionals blast my resume, telling me that that it was too hard to read. Luckily these weren't people who work for organizations I applied for. I did land interviews with my resume, which follows the guidelines in this book, but I don't think it's because of the resumes unique format, it was because of my content.

The author of this book offers suggestions that are completely opposite of what employers want to see. For example this book states that bullet points should be avoided in describing your job, and complete sentences should be used instead. This is wrong because employers want to be able to scan a resume quickly.

This book would probably be helpful to someone who is applying for a job as a professional writer, but for people applying for all other jobs, avoid this book, save your money and visit the web.

What's so good about this book is that is more than just a "how to" for creating a resume. More importantly, it helps to guide you through the thought process of choosing a direction,where you are headed careerwise, what you want out of a job, etc. In this sense it is as much a career book as a resume book. And no parachute is required.

This book is a must have for the job hunter. Bennett provided much needed guidance, as well as support and humor, to help me navigate what can often be a painful, disheartening, and time-consuming process. He writes exceptionally well, gives excellent advice, and points out the common job hunting mistakes that most people, including myself, make.

I found the author's advice to be instrumental in helping me craft a resume that has gotten results. In turn, I have given this book to several high school and college students. They all told me it was one of the best gifts they received and agreed how great it was to have this amount of information in one handy portable no-power-supply-needed reference.

book was recieved within 2 days when I didn't even special ship it. Prime condition.

My background in Excel is pretty weak, but I'm pretty determined to do some really neat stuff in our office with it. I've read through the first two chapters and started working some examples and I'm able to understand it with just a little work. It's written as clearly as could be, taking into account the subject matter. I'm getting pretty excited about what I'll be able to do. This book seems like it's just what I need to update some old, broken down workbooks that have been hobbling along for years.

On a side note: when I went to the CD to work some samples, I was unable to install the program on my computer due to restrictions on my work computer. I emailed the address from my book and asked if there was a way to access the Excel files without installing the program. Mr Abduzeler emailed me back and he had set up a web page for me to download the files and also wrote a lengthy explanation on how to use them. I was impressed.

I'll update this when I get closer to the end of the book.

Anyone who uses Excel on a regular basis will find ways to get more out of the product and to improve their spreadsheets by reading this book.

I found some chapters to be of more interest than others, but that is a function of the type of work that I do. The examples for viewing large data sets were particularly helpful to me. I have long been frustrated at the amount of time that some of my Excel-based reports take to run because they relied heavily on constructs which are computationally intensive. After reading this book, I was inspired to rework a number of those reports using OFFSET as described by the author. That one change alone will save me hours of time staring at the screen watching the recalculation progress indicator. On the other hand, incorporating uncertainty into my models is a once-a-year type of need for me. If you need to (or should) incorporate uncertainty into your models, that chapter will get you started.

Which brings me to the frustrations of the book. In many instances, the author takes an approach of "I am going to make you aware of the possibilty that this can be done rather than show you in detail how to do it." This manifests itself either by directing you to more authoritative external sources in cases like the information on uncertainty or by giving you a very brief overview and then suggesting that you dig into the file on the accompanying CD. Browsing the files on the CD is very helpful. Still, I like to read in lots of situations where I don't have a PC handy. I would have liked more description in the text and less reliance on the CD.

Finally, this book commits a cardinal sin which is why I rate it only three stars. In order to view the sample spreadsheets, you need to run an installation program that copies them to your hard drive. These files are less than 30 MB, and they shoud be available as uncompressed files in a normal directory on the CD so they can be browsed at will. If you don't have administrator rights on your PC, you won't be able to look at the sample spreadsheets unless your IT department comes to run the installation routine. Not to mention that you end up also installing the author's add-in, which you may not want, and that by default the sample files get installed way down in the programs subdirectory. All of this is particularly irritating since the files are so necessary to getting value out of the text. Which raises a question for the author. Does this constitute a "best practice?" I don't think so.

By changing the cell reference scheme this book requires the reader to completely re-orient in order to understand
Some of the principles might be good ideas but it seems as of each one had to be translated into the row-column appraoch to be appreciated

Excel Best Practices for Business is one of those rare books that teaches you in depth after you think you have mastered its topic. I am so happy that I bought it because both my husband and I have benefited immensely from the book's insight and extremely useful information.
My husband is a user who has looked at almost every and bought most new significant books on MS Excel since version 5, and he hardly expected the eye opening learning opportunity he encountered with Loren Abdulezer's Excel Best Practices for Business. He had successfully completed a number of Excel consulting assignments and had an earned reputation as a user who could make Excel solve a very broad range of difficult problems. Further, he had been blessed with a major gift from his heavy investment of time to master the ability to program Excel when its out-of-the-box capabilities needed to be extended. However, even though he is at the top of his game as an Excel user, reading this book has still been a serious skill-enhancing event.
What I personally find memorable about the book as one whose skills in Excel pale in comparison to my husband's is that Abdulezer's book is very useful to people at my end of the skill spectrum as well. If you want to get up and running with Excel skills that will help you improve your productivity on your job or for your business, this book has much to offer. It teaches you street smarts that help you drive Excel to resolve recurring business challenges. Additionally, Abdulezer has the instincts of a coach who forces mastery of the basics upon those of who think they understand and helps to instill more confidence in those who know they do not. Both my husband and I wish these insights had been available to us when we first began with Excel.

Excellent book. Our English teachers uses it in her classroom. Sweet and sad story of a young boy who looses both of his parents.

Before she's through, Pat Cunningham Devoto may take her place along side Harper Lee as one of the premier novelists of the South.

This is outstanding work, sharing with keen insight and experience, the emotions, personalities, loves, hates, fears, prides and joys of life in the South at the beginning of the Civil Rights Era.

It was a complicated time, but Pat Devoto distills it down into a wonderful read with likeable, even loveable characters. Much more than a "coming-of-age in the Civil Rights Era" book, this is one of the books that is truly about life in the Soutn at that time, its goodness, its horrors, its hopes, its dreams, its fears, with people of all races and social strata caught up in something they didn't understand, feared, yet sensed it was right and inevitable.

Pat Cunningham Devoto has a gift, and she shares it in this book.

(FYI: The Judge is a real person...msking the story even more remarkable...)

After being captivated by My Last Days As Roy Rogers and passing it along to a chain of avid readers hungry for good fiction, I was thrilled to see another offering by Pat Cunningham Devoto. When I find an author who knows how to weave narrative and dialogue expertly so that I am swept into the story, I clamor for more. I devoured this book within 2 days and sent it on it's way down the reader chain of freinds.
Treat yourself and escape into Out of the Night That Covers Me.

I rarely write a review, though I read many. The review that takes the book almost page by page is not a helpful review to me. I would rather see that the reader was totally captivated by the book, the words, the story. "Out of the Night That Covers Me" is such a book. Ms Devoto's first book "My Last Days as Roy Rogers" was the same. A delicious read.

The name put me off and I still do not understand the title in relationship to the book and titles are important. But when I saw it was the same author I knew I wanted it.

Stories of the south are interesting because of the different lifestyles that southern's seem to have had (or so it seems to me) It is a thought provoker. I personally like a book that has substance that stays with me, one that makes me think not only of the past but of the future.

When I have a book that I don't want to end, I know I have read a book that I would recommend. This one is that and then some!

I have read many best selling and award winning novels and found them wanting. One wonders sometimes - "Why did this book get an award." My question about OUT OF THE NIGHT.... is "Why didn't it get an award?" As a student of the South, this book gives an interesting look at the South of the 1950's and the changing social norms. Change is a major theme in the book and it would be interesting to discuss with a book club or with students the examples of change. The characters are well developed, although I thought some of the black characters were not as well developed. It would be interesting to do a comparison of Aunt Nelda and Mrs. Vance. Although they appear much different, they have much in common. And likewise between John and Little Luther. The book is magical and a wonderful read and would be excellent for a book club. It could give rise to great discussions and the edition I have has questions included. Don't start it unless you have time to read the whole thing. For those who liked TO KILL A MOCKING BIRD it's a must read.