General-Order

This book does what it sets out to do admirably well, although the reaction of certain readers makes it clear that its approach is lacking in certain areas.

This book is a comprehensive but well-focused review of the current political and economic system of China, recent trends in US-China relationship, and the emerging currents in Chinese society that will shape the country in the next quarter century. The book is written primarily from a business perspective, focusing on China's economic and market potentials (forecasted to match the US in total GDP by the 2020's though still much poorer in per capita terms) and the impact of political developments on the business environment. For those readers not yet familiar with contemporary China, this book is a remarkably well-informed primer. But even old China-hands will find the authors' detailed discussion of the probable future of China (some 100 pages are devoted to the section titled "Geomancing the Dragon") thought-provoking even if their own conclusions may vary.

However, the authors sought to instruct as well as inform. And their recommendations for improving US-China relationship - although perfectly sensible - may not persuade the human rights hawks in the US, who may consider arguments on strictly mercantilist terms immoral. But it's no accident that most of those intimately familiar with China are "pro-China" in the sense defined by a previous reviewer. China has plenty of human rights problems, but it has also come a remarkably long way in a amazingly short time. Progress cannot be measured without the context of history, and it's this area that did not receive sufficient treatment. The general normalcy of China today is an accomplishment that cannot be adequately appreciated without greater understanding of 20th century Chinese history.

There are issues of fundamental human rights and there are issues of political organization. While one is certainly entitled to avidly avocate the political system of his or her choice, one should refrain from waging moral crusades when we are all equally human and fallible.

Another one of my highly recommended books is Big Dragon: What it means for Business, the Economy, and the Global Order. Overall, the authors have a good comprehension of China's economic and political structure. However, Big Dragon has one important omission. Although the authors casually mention the economic impact of FDI on China by overseas Chinese, I would have devoted at least one entire chapter to the subject. In fact, the vast majority of foreign investment continues to flow from overseas ethnic Chinese around the world (over 80% of FDI). Along with Taiwan, there are significant ethnic Chinese communities across Southeast Asia. Inspite of the war of words, Taiwan has over $40 billion and growing invested in China. The chances of a hot war between China and Taiwan are minimal. The overseas Chinese FDI permeates throughout China's economy in almost every sector including agriculture, biotech, services, high tech manufacturing, etc. Many Chinese officials that I have spoken to would disagree, but I would argue that China's economic renaissance can primarily be attributed to the skills, technology, and capital provided by the overseas ethnic Chinese across East Asia. The growing informal structural ties between the Chinese communities across East Asia and China illustrate the development of a Greater China with Beijing at its core. China's current government is similar in many respects to the earlier dictatorships of the Park regime in South Korea or the Chiang regime in Taiwan.

It's been estimated that only 4% of Americans can tell the difference between People's Republic of China & Republic of China. (one of them is Taiwan). only 16% of them know Jiangzemin & Deng XiaoPing are the leaders of China. I've personally known quite a few Americans who think Hong Kong is part of Japan. Yet, they have been brainwashed by the western mass media about the image of China, they think they know China well, whenever a Chinese leader goes to Europe or US, they always raise the free Tibet signs. In this book, the writer, despite being an American , is able to help to point out the common misconception of China.

I agree 200% with what the author says. the writer is right to point out that China has always been peaceful, in late 19th century The Western powers all came here to China to get a slice of cake from the then weak Qing Dynasty. Britain sold us opium, took Hong Kong by force, (some looted National treasure from the Qing Dynasty is still on display in the British Museum. 4 of them were even sold back to China for billions the other week.), Japanese did the nanking massacre, France looted Vietnam, Spain took Phillipine, various inland of China was "rent" to Portugal, Germany, Austria, America, Russia, Italy...etc . Now, when the Communist party took back Tibet which was part of china during Qing & Yuan dynasty, those westerners robbers now get the thick face to tell China to free Tibet and respect human right? If you are Europeans, you'll definitely find this enlightening book. The author tells the fact.

The author also point out that China was centuries ahead of Spaniards and British in exploring the oceans, we were the first one to land in Mexico, but we were peaceful and never took other's land, it's the Westerners who did the expansion. Now, China have every reason to expand the army for self defense, this single act make the guilty/sneaky Westerners nervous. The author also show his confidence in China's peaceful nature.

Another great point the author made is on Hong Kong's return to China Once I met an American woman who told me that she's worried about the future of Hong Kong. she said that so proudly, as if we Hong Kongist all need their help. In this book, the writer dymistified this myth. Western robbers now say China is not democratic enough and will keep watching China's behavior to protect us the Hong Kongist. What they don't know is that Hong Kong has been ruled by several tens of governor of Britain, and only one Primier or Queen was responsible for choosing them, the current Chief Executive of Hong Kong Tung Chee Wah was chosen by several hundreds of people in Chinese government, and now the Westerners think that this is the end of Hong Kong's democracy. the last Governor of Hong Kong did made lot of democratic reform in his final 2 years, China of course have no reason to take that "tradition". I've always known this fact, but in this book, it's logically organised to form a powerful argument against the Western's non-democratic China theory.

Hats off to this American writer who dares to tell the truth and not to follow what everyone else is saying. I think this is the first step to enlighten the American people. You may be surprised to knwo that there are more biased people in the land of freedom USA, than in China when the news are controlled. (In fact, most Americans only care about the pop stars, and while voting, they only vote for the handsomest president. However, in China and India, people read more about politics and history, they are in general more educated and know better what's happening in the world (including the news the Chinese government intends to cover).

I sincerely recommend this book to all Americans and Europeans whose only impression and knowledge of China is from their government propaganda or from the Hollywood movies " 7 years in Tibet", Air Force one or " Street Fighter". China is light years away from what you think. In Hong Kong majority of people welcome the Chinese takeover, while (from this book) only about 10% of American think that the HongKongist like it. majority of Chinese I know in China knew about the June 4th incident, yet majority of them is on the side of the government. (though the use of real bullet raise some debate), This book is closer to what the reality is. If you want to knwo China, read this book, or better learn Chinese and come here to see for yourself. Don't rely on your government's propaganda...

I can't say that I've finished the book because it's INCOMPLETE! There are many references in the book to a "companion web site," but it doesn't exist! Actually, the site is there, but none of the content that the book refers to. It's either "coming soon" or "under construction." I've tried called the publishing company twice (NOT toll-free, and long hold times) only to receive a response of "we'll check into it." The e-mail address in the book is also incorrect--it bounced back! Finally, I tried to contact the owner of the web site, but the phone number had been disconnected! The "company" the site is owned by doesn't have it's own web site and/or can't be found in the Yellow Pages. I can't believe a book that was published so long ago, with an incomplete web site, is still on the shelves selling at full price. I wonder how this even got past the editors! ONE STAR: Because the companion web site should have been finished by now. What an embarrassment.

This is the 3rd book I've read on Dreamweaver, and so far the best. However, it's *not* for beginners! No tutorials that walk you through lessons are to be found here. It's more of a reference book, but I read it straight through and highlighted the useful tidbits.

Don't purchase this book without a good basic working knowledge of HTML and some experience of Dreamweaver, even if it's only with the demo version. Otherwise, much of this stuff will go over your head (hey, some of it even went over *my* head!)

I think this book will come off my shelf again when I've got a better handle on Dreamweaver, and I'll gloss through it again to reinforce what I picked up the first time... and fill in the missing bits that I didn't.

Oh, and there are some really insightful "Tips" and "Notes" on each page, a few of which addressed the exact problem I was having! I was quite pleased to see the author mention what I considered to be an obscure point that only related to my own situation. Almost felt like he was there beside me!

Only drawbacks: there are no tutorials, no CD-ROM, and because of it's brevity (279 pgs) it doesn't cover everything you need to know, but that's a minor point I suppose. The book doesn't set out to tell you everything you need to know -- just the highlights. And even though he refers to his "companion website" to the book in every chapter, the web site doesn't exist! (or else doesn't work!) Major complaint, and the reason he only gets 4 stars.

Other than that, possibly the best Dreamweaver book at this price on the market.

I found this book in a bargain bin and figured what the heck, and I have yet to need another book on the program. It does not cover topics any more advanced than customizing menus, but it does make "short order" of the programs most often used features.

If you a war gamer this work will do just fine. However, if you
are a professional soldier or military scholar you will find a
big topic of information missing. Military order of battle contains detailed information on unit commanders and key (general officer) staff. Dinackus should have provided at least the names - rank - branch of commanders down to battalion and
similar data on all Generals. The one time he looks at General Schwarzkopf in the form of a bio sketch it is very light. All in all this is not a work that should have gotten by the editor.

Order of Battle : Allied Ground Forces of Operation Desert Storm, is a pretty concise order of battle book on the larger units that were deployed during DESERT STORM. Army, Air Force, Navy, Marines and Reserve components are listed here. Additionally there are summaries regarding the conflict and the weapon systems involved. ... The price is very reasonable for this published resource and can be a point of departure for future study.

Most order of battle books merely provide a listing of units participating in a specific war or campaign. Tom Dinackus' Gulf War order of battle study goes far beyond that. He not only covers US Army and Marine Corps combat units, but addresses Allied units. For a conflict so recent it is surprisingly difficult to locate detailed information on the units involved. Even the Army's and Marine Corps' records and campaign participation lists are sometimes in error. Tom Dinackus by far provides the most comprehensive work on this subject. Another area in which this book excells is the analysis of the types of combat units deployed, which allows one to examine the build-up of Allied forces. It also provides the task organization for combat of these units, or how they were cross-attached and reassigned to different commands for the actual conduct of the 100-hour ground war. This makes it a particulary valauble research aid.

Read this book from the library as ongoing market research. The book hit on many good points for where to begin, following effectiveness, etc., but felt somewhat outdated in other parts - the author places a lot of emphasis on using the fax versus email/online. Also would have liked to see more about sending mail for different types of services & products.

We are implementing some of the author's ideas at Anchor Digital - we'll be using the same messages found at anchordigital.com and putting them into direct mail pieces. Hopefully they will have the same effectiveness as the ones on the website.

I recommend this book as part of research for mail-order businesses, but be sure to include other, more varied books as well.

Barry Rosenstock
Anchor Digital Inc.
anchordigital.com

How to Start a Home-Based Mail-Order Business is, at its core, a how-to. But, it is not satisfied with providing the basic bones and goes on to provide excellent elaboration and detail that helps answer questions. Well-written and researched. It covers all the basics--marketing, sales, promotion, etc, without getting bogged down into details that could lead Fiumara away from her basic thrust of the book. Given how much today's world relies on the Internet, her chapter on Success in Cyberspace is especially helpful. While it has its own chapter, using the Internet to promote your business is so critical that I would recommend Guerilla PR: Wired, which covers that same subject far more in-depth.

Most books on starting a mail order business are written by men who claim you can make $100,000 or more at home. This book is different.

How To Start a Home-Based Mail Order Business is written by a woman who gives you all the information you need to succeed in a mail order business -- but without all the bull. Georganne Fiumara takes you by the hand in the very first chapter and leads you to success, step-by-step. Thanks to the author, my home business dream has come true.

I especially appreciated the chapter called Success In Cyberspace because most successful mail order businesses now include web promotion. The author's web site, HomeWorkingMom.com, shows that she knows what she is talking about.

I took her advice and put my business online at MoneyandShopping.com and have not looked back since.

If you are looking for a straight-forward, insider's guide to mail order, this is the book to buy.

Angela Smith

If you are interested by magic squares and their history, then you will be interested by this book.
It describes with a lot of nice illustrations the history of the first known magic square 3x3, constructed by the Chinese, a very very long time ago.
Well documented book, with probably long hours of research done by the author.
New valuable information, never published before.
I wish a great success to this new Swetz's book.

Frank Swetz has done it again. In plain language he has given
the best description of the luoshu magic square that I have read.
The first half of his book is a detailed explanation of
how the magic square is an outgrowth of Chinese philosophy. Swetz very carefully explains the connection of the square
to the concepts of Yin/Yang, I Ching and Feng Shui. One can easily understand the cultural and mystical significance of
the square and its relation to cosmology and astrology.The
book contains excellent diagrams which are well documented
and copious endnotes.
The third quarter of the book gives an decent explanation
of why the square was not first developed in Europe. The
last quarter of the book discusses various miscellana about
the luoshu magic square. In all the Legacy of the Luoshu is
a fascinating read and a must for anyone who would care to
give a detailed explanation of its meaning.

In the Legacy Of The Luoshu, Prof. Swetz combines history with mathematics and culture to take the reader on a particular journey of understanding. He shows how mathematics evolves from human needs and provides insights into early scientific thinking.

The book is well researched and contains many interesting illustrations. Chinese beliefs concerning yin-yang forces and cosmological theories are explained and their connections with mathematics revealed. Swetz has spent many years exploring Chinese mathematics and I have enjoyed and employed his earlier research in this field.

In this latest book, he documents the Chinese discovery of the magic square of order three and traces the influence of this number square on other cultures. It is a masterfully told story by a skilled story teller.

If you are looking for straightforward tips on how to get organised, this is NOT the book for you. Self-indulgent, unresearched - Sandra Felton babbles on about women like her with no idea or interest in the reality of ther people's lives. Aboslute drivel.

I've read so many books on housekeeping that this book really didn't offer anything I hadn't seen elsewhere. Also, after perusing this book I realized that I'm not the messie I used to be.

If you are a major messie and haven't read many books about it then you may like this. Personally, I've received more motivation studying feng shui. Now that I know *why* I should clean up, it's easier to feel motivated to do so.

This is a great little uplifting, inspiring read for the chronically disorganized & messy (particularly women with ADD). This is NOT a how-to book that will send you out to the Organized Living store to buy shelves & closet cubes & spice organizers & the like. It IS a book about messiness and depression, disorganization and self-esteem. Felton, founder of Messies Anonymous, offers many practical tips to help you learn how to tackle clutter & mess systematically. She also discusses the self-esteem issues that often lead to messiness. Felton describes a "messie personality" -- it sounds alot like ADD to me.

If you're just looking for a few low-level organizational tips, I'd recommend that you skip this book. If you're chronically messy and you're not sure why & even worse, you're not sure how to deal with it, this may be just what you need.

The pictures are stunning.

But it is only a coffee-table book, and there it will remain, because pictures is all it is. You get no sense of place; it is impossible to orient yourself ... a nice picture of an elephant is just that, and this book provides no context whatever.

But, it does have nice pictures.

The pictures are fine, but this book won't show anyone interested in wildlife anything new - & it doesn't explain anything...

These images bring the Serengeti to you. This being largely a pictoral tour of the Serengeti, words do it little justice. If you are an intelligent animal lover with a pulse, you will pay twice the cover price for this book.

A previous reviewer mentioned he disliked this new series because it does not fit with the original series... I have to disagree. Last Order begins one year after Alita dies at the hands of a bomb and Nova collects her brain matter. The original ending came about quickly due to medical and stress related problems on the part of the creator, and as a result, there are far too many questions left unanswered.

Last Order attempts to remedy this by filling out the universe in which this story is set.

Admittedly, LO #2 is rather high in battles and low on plotline. LO #1 itself places the reader in a whole new world that is largely left unexplained amidst outright chaos. LO #2 continues this for a short while as it deals with the problems of Tiphares. The most important thing to be learned from this volume is that it serves as a transitional space and motivation for Alita & co. to make their journey through Ladder to Ketheres in Volume #3. However, if you felt this book lacking, I highly recommend hanging in and checking out #3, as the Battle Angel universe starts a whole new ball game.

I don't believe it. The series is getting better and better. As are the story lines. Little by little, we get to know more about Alita's past, as she discovers herself in battles. As usual with the series, there are occational humors to keep us light hearted. Don't get me wrong, this is a very serious stories. It draws you in with the rich characters and griping story lines. I can't wait for the next one.

I liked this book alot. It has excellent artwork; the story, as usual, was excellent, and I found it just as exciting as the first series. It continues the Alita Legacy quite nicely.

I was pretty disappointed with this book, because I was expecting a thorough investigation of Paul's Pharasaism, use of rabbinic exegesis, keeping of the law, etc.

Instead, Young spends most of his time simply asserting that Paul was a Jew and remained a Torah-observant Jew his whole life. There is hardly any attempt at establishing an exegetical foundation. He does not look in any detail at Phil 3, Rom 9-11, or any of the other obviously important texts.

This is such a fertile area in scholarship right now that Young's book truly pales in comparison with the work currently being done by others, not to mention even the previous contributions of Davies and Sanders, etc.

Dr. Young has a generally interested premise. One which is important and obviously must be considered when dealing with Pauline literature - namely that Paul always, to his dying day, considered himself a Pharisee and identified his theology with that of the Pharisees.

The major downfalls are twofold. The first problem is that he doesn't have a lot of interaction with contemporary scholarship. I realize that among Messianic Jews, or even gentile Christians interested in Jewish roots, Bultman is a menace. It doesn't follow that we throw out the research and scholarship of more liberal schools, rather we should interact with them. ... Regardless, of the positioning of his opponents, the only area in his book that he even attempts to interact with other scholars is in the end notes. Kind of leaves a dry taste in you mouth.

The second problem is the lack of discussion of problem texts. Young interacts with Matt. 5:17 (which isn't even Pauline, the subject of the book) acceptably, and has some interesting points on occurances in Acts, but leaves out discussing problem texts in Galatians, Colossians, Romans, and 1 Corinthians.

Dr. Young's thesis is by no means original, so it would have been nice if he had made some contributions to the discussion, but the book was generally just restating the same arguments that have always been presented from the Jewish roots supporters. In the future I'd like to see Dr. Young write a more technical book such as other Jewish roots scholars are doing (alla Nanos) and actually make contributions to the discussion instead of restating the same ol' arguments.

All of Dr. Young's books are wonderful, and great for reading as well as for in-depth Bible study groups. This book is more then interesting, its a must read! Too long has the Church looked with "Greek eyes" at "Jewish things." Dr. Young teaches that the allegorical interpretations of the parables of Yeshua (Jesus) as taught by early Church fathers are far from the Roots System, Judaism. Jesus was a Jewish Rabbi, His means of teaching was indeed Hebraic, and not Greek as so many believe it to be. When He returns, He will still be Jewish, Dr. Young's books all point to this fact. We at Mayim Hayim Ministries rate this book 5 stars, and our prayer would be that it would be read by many many more pastors and teachers. Great book for home schooling.

I cannot begin to express my disappointment in this book. First it is very difficult to find, extremely expensive, and not worth the price. When one becomes interested in magic, more precisely Golden Dawn magic, one of the earlier things that one must do is to create working tools. These tools are not easy to create, and finding clear instructions and helpful hints for their creation is very difficult. This book might be helpful to someone who is quite advanced, but not to a beginner or even someone who has some knowledge of the system but needs more information to move forward. The book is touted and promoted as one that will assist anyone in creating magical tools. Here, maybe if you are a carpenter or a welder. How many ordinary people do you know who work with wood saws and metal cutting implements? There must be easier ways of creating these tools, or at least more user-friendly instructions. The instructions make some steps appear more complicated that they need to be. I have seen people like Donald Michael Kraig give simpler instructions on creating some of these tools. My point is that if you are going to write a book about creating tools that is aimed at a general audience, as opposed to welders and carpenters, then try for more simplicity. For example, I made an altar by having the sections cut by the local Home Depot, and then putting them together. I personally did not have to work with a table saw or circular saw, nor a jigsaw or coping saw (whatever those are). This book was not helpful to me, so I would like to give it no stars at all or minus stars. I encourage you to purchase it anyway, if you have the skills of a carpenter, or you know how to effectively cut metal.

This is typical Llewllyn pablum.
Having read through the book, I quickly realized why the sense of deja vu - I'd read this all before, in other books, where the publisher was not trying to set his own agenda of what is -and what isn't - acceptable use of magick.

Cicero does indeed have a good writing style, and attempts to be as clear as possible as to the consecration and uses of ritual tools. What is most noteworthy, however, is not what was written, but what was missing.

I can't help but wonder whether the results are simply the product of the author, or the product of the whitelight fluffbunnies at Llewellyn.

If you're working Cicero's self-initiation, buy this book. It's clear, accessible, and gives you ideas that you can put into practice, while reminding you that your own ideas will work too.