No comments about Janice VanCleave's Scientists Through the Ages.

5 comments about Luck Factor, The.

1. Though based on academic research, this book has the kind of self-help pop psych style that I personally find extremely annoying. It compares people who self-describe as lucky or unlucky, and shows this is associated with a range of other aspects of positive or negative attitudes to life. Well duh. Their concluding principles? Maximize chance opportunities, listen to your intuition, expect good fortune, see the positive side of misfortune. Is this an improvement over fortune cookie philosophy?



2. If you want to read a book that would increase your luck in casinos or lotteries, please give this one a pass. However, if you want some reinforcements for your positive thinking and doing, it's readable. Personally I agree with the power of positive thinking and doing. My reservation about this book, as you can sense it, primarily comes from the illogical and unscientific research methodology the author adopted to prove the luck principles he himself brought forward, not to mention that the principles in themselves are quite broken and ill defined. In short, acceptable for leisure reading on psychology, but definitely not to be treated as a work of serious science.



3. I bought this book because I heard an interview with Dr. Wiseman on my local National Public Radio station, and I was fascinated with just the idea that luck can be looked at in a scientific study. And he came across as clever, articulate and funny. So, what's not to like, right?
   
   Overall, it's a decent book and a quick read. Although it is written colloquially with a self-help focus, he does seem to have done real scientific studies. I was left with a few nagging doubts, however, about how statistically significant really were the differences between those self-defined as lucky and unlucky. And, in one of the early examples he gave contrasting the behavior of a lucky man and an unlucky woman, I wondered if he could account for possible confounding factors that also could explain some behavior differences (like gender).
   
   On the plus side, I was reminded of studies done a few decades ago by Pauline Bart (See Stopping Rape: Successful Survival Strategies (Athene Series)). One of her findings was that women who successfully fought off potential rapists tended to have very proactive, problem-solving attitudes. Likewise, Wiseman found that self-described lucky folks had that same approach to solving their problems. As a self-defense instructor, I would likely consider recommending some of Wiseman's exercises for some of my students to help themselves change their attitude about "luck."



4. This is one of the most amateurish books I have ever come across. The content as well as the writing style are just bad and almost childish. A highschool student would write better than this. I was totally dismayed at such a poor treatment of the subject especially by a professional doctor.



5. Having read the reviews and recently only having read the book myself, one cannot help but think that this book is a good thing. It is light reading, anecdotal and not full of all the psycho nonsense and political correctness we seem to have forced down our throats these days. To the wingers out there, of course, there is always room for further experimentation when it comes to scientific research, this is only one perspective. This is a positive book, having a good attitude can only help in times of adversity and it appeals to all people from all walks of life to lighten up and look at life in a more positive (but not dillusional) light. So what if it doesn't meet some people's scientific elitism. It satisfied me because it was direct and simple and full of common sense - something that isn't common these days.

2 comments about Super Heroes: A Modern Mythology (Studies in Popular Culture).

1. This book forever changed the way that I read superhero comics. Reynolds discusses the factors that are present in virtually every superhero comic since Superman was created. Some are apparent (devotion to justice, secret identitities), and some are subtle (lost parents, accountability only to one's own conscience). Virtually all factors are recapitulations of the developmental struggles of the primary audience of these comics: adolescent males. Reynolds continues by illuminating the grand, mythical nature of the comic-book universes, all stories blending into one vast "canonical" story, each comic becoming part of a larger continuity. This continuity shares several features of classical mythologies, which Reynolds explores in depth, citing the X-Men, the Watchmen, and the Dark Knight Returns series (among others) as evidence. Read this, it's great.



2. In Superheroes: A Modern Mythology, Richard Reynolds does an excellent job of dissecting some of the origins of the superhero genre. Beginning in the 1930s and 1940s, he lays bare some of the prevailing ideas and iconography and puts superheroes in context. Reynolds also does an able job of analyzing The Dark Knight Returns and Alan Moore's Watchmen, as well as certain superhero origin stories. This book's only disappointment comes from the fact that his analyzes of superheroes' mythic origins don't go far enough - those looking for explicit comparisons to assorted mythic pantheons or full-throated examinations of how superheroes fall into legendary templates (except those of the Joseph Campbell variety) will be disappointed. However, an excellent and important read for anyone interested in comic books.

5 comments about The Address Directory of Celebrities in Entertainment, Sports, Business & Politics, Second Edition.

1. I am an autograph collector and I was happy to see how complete this book is. I collect astronauts who have walked on the moon, hi-tech business people such as Bill Gates, movie actors like Tom Hanks and baseball sluggers like Sammy Sousa and Mark McGuire. They are in this books with thousands more. It is well organized and I liked the extra features of sample letters and questions & answers about autograph collecting. It is a very good reference for autograph collectors.



2. The reader and reviewer who wrote this book is the ULTIMATE has it right. This book is everything an autograph collector needs. Besides the thousands of celebrity addresses, this book backs up the names with celebrity facts. If you want a complete history of actors it is there under the website named in the book, if you want other facts to write to the celebrity about it is there. (the book has celebrity hobbies, celebrity charities, celebrity birthdays, celebrity hangouts and a lot of useful facts about celebrities)This is the only celebrity directory I will ever need. The price of this book is well worth it!!



3. After I purchased this book I contacted the author, Mr. Moore to ask him about collecting autographs by index cards or by photographs. He was prompt and very informative with his reply. If you want questions answered about auotgraph collecting, get in touch with him, you will be happy you did.



4. I have known David Moore for many years and he is the only author of celebrity directories that uses and updates his address list on daily basis. For me, here is a list of celebrities who I have contacted and received autographs through the mail. They are: Sarah Jessica Parker, Bill Gates, Roy Clark, Gillian Anderson, Nicholas Cage, Bill Cosby, James Garner, Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, Gary Trudeau, Olivia Newton-John, Brandi Chastain, James Watson, Sandra Day O'Connor, Harmon Killebrew, George Bush, Betty Ford, Jimmy Carter, Leann Rhimes, Muhammad Ali, Angela Landsbury, Reba McEntire, Jay Leno, Faith Hill, Tommy John, Tom Hanks, Michael Eisner, Nolan Ryan, Tony Bennet, Colin Powell, Robert Duvall, John Mellencamp, Whoopi Goldberg and many others. If you want excellent results and great customer service, I highly recommend David Moore's book.



5. I e-mailed the publisher to ask for an update of a celebrity address. He was fast with an answer. He also mentioned he has started a new service to autograph collectors. He will answer any question on the subject of autoghaph collecting for FREE!
   I will use the e-mail address for finding out autograph prices, how and where to buy and sell autographs plus anything else I can think of. A great offer!

5 comments about Strange Piece of Paradise.

1. In 1977, Yale undergrad Terri Jentz and a school friend began bicycling across America, starting from the Oregon coast. Seven days into the trip, over the Cascades and into the desert, an axeman ran over their tent and nearly killed them both. How both women survived, in very different ways, is the core of "Strange Piece of Paradise", an epic-length personal journey and exploration of the criminal underside of a small Western town.
   
   Jentz spends the first 200 pages of the paperback edition on her life story and the next 500 on her return to Oregon as she belatedly uncovers the would-be killer's identity. She spent most of the 1990s interviewing witnesses, law enforcement, private citizens, and finally, the alleged attacker's inner circle -- a parade of victimized women. Although she never directly confronts her attacker, he's memorably described (although his pseudonym in the book is not quite as evocative as his real name).
   
   There's much political activism, too. Jentz presents herself as both liberal and tough on crime. I think it would be hard for anyone to disagree with her conclusions. She's particularly hard on the overloaded misdemeanor branch of American criminal justice. As this is where I began my legal career just after law school, I'm impressed by her points -- she figured this out a lot faster than I did!
   
   Jentz's personal journey is just as moving. Even before the attack, her feelings about her traveling companion are well preserved on page. The women drift apart quickly after the attack; Jentz' quiet devestation is stunningly portrayed.
   
   About the only complaint I can muster about the book is the same I had with Aron Ralston's Between a Rock and a Hard Place. For a book that tells such an important, personal story, it really could stand some editing. Jentz's repeated epiphanies and similes and metaphors pull away from the narrative and wear down the reader. Witness this typical aside, late in the game on page 613:
   
   "Along with flying TV pictures and radio waves, something else that connected us was vibrating in the air, as though our minds had reached out in a field beyond ourselves, pulling us with invisible rubber bands toward those who shared our preoccupations."
   
   Huh?
   
   That said, "Strange Piece of Paradise" is exhaustive but not exhausting, full of wit and outrage, and will stay with you for a long, long time.



2. The random 1977 crime horrified all who heard about it, although the girls survived. I even read about it when I lived in Chicago. Yet after days, months & decades though the Cline Falls community knew who'd done it, authorities never prosecuted anyone. Why? In this extraordinarily eloquent & riveting memoir of the author's life & times before & after that innocent bicycle trip that ended a hair's breadth shy of murder, she records her emotional reality & her 20 year search for the man who devastated her young self. I thought it quite unsentimental & engagingly intense. Sit back & immerse yourself in this writer's record of her quest for the rest of her soul, of her return to Oregon & the leads to who knew & helped her back then, who investigated the crime & why it was closed. With her you'll meet all sorts of people who could connect the dots of the perpetrator's violent life before & after he attacked her &, incidentally, you'll be at her side when he is at last brought to some semblance of justice, although not for his crime against her. A haunting & satisfying read by someone who knows how to write well & has an astonishing tale to tell. Very well done.



3. Imagine being 20 years old, on the first real adventure of your young life, sleeping soundly after a strenuous bike journey...only to be awakened and find yourself under a truck, staring at the well-dressed torso of a cowboy yielding an ax. That is what Terri Jentz, the author of this amazing book, asks us to envision.
   
   She and her friend, renamed Shayna, process the aftermath in two different ways. Shayna has selective amnesia based on her injuries, and is unable -- and unwilling -- to confront what has occurred. Terri, on the other hand, after several years of ennui and fear, decides to courageously confront the episode and to try to make some sense of it in order to fully heal.
   
   This journey is what comprises this book. Interestingly, the individuals she meets again -- ranging from the teenage couple who helped save them to the nurses who were there when they reached the hospital -- were all permanently affected by this senseless act. Together again, they all help heal each other. The would-be murderer himself is larger than life and also so much smaller than life. One of the tragedies is that most of the town knew who did it, and yet, thanks to the bungling of three overlapping law enforcement agencies and overprotective parents, his act would never have been totally revealed were it not for Terri's perseverance.
   
   This is a courageous book from a tenacious individual, and it spans 700 pages. I truly understand why Terri Jentz needed to write this book in its entirety, but I believe she needed a better editor. It lags in the middle pages, as Terri meets up with one after another lead (some true, some false); the momentum of the story begins to drag as a result. There is also very little reflection on her personal life -- the key focus is outward, not inward. We know that Terri is gay and she had an unrequited crush on Shayna. There is certain anger that Shayna is unwilling to be the "perfect listener" and to explore the ramifications of that June 22 night. I also wonder how Terri's sexual orientation played out in a conservative, cowboy town, when young women were blamed for their own independence. But these are minor points: all in all, I greatly admire Terri Jentz's courage and her larger observations on our society's passion for violence. She has important things to say.



4. A lot of reviewers stated that this was too redundant, that the author tended to go on and on over the same territory, and that the story could have been completed in a lot fewer words. After reading this story, I have found that I was "hooked" and that this story lingers on long after the final page is turned. It is a haunting story made all the more engrossing by the fact that it is a totally truthful accounting of one woman's attempt to identify her attacker - to identify the person who hacked her and her friend up with a hatchet and left them both for dead. I understand completely her need to do so, as well as I understand completely her friend's need not to do so. This was a catharsis for the author, and a much needed one. I can identify with this. I believe had I been the one this happened to, I would also want to know the who and the why of this terrible crime. My hat is off to this very brave lady, and I feel that this book is well worth the read! You cannot truly be a critic of this manuscript unless you yourself have experienced the same as this author.



5. The story of what happened to Jentz is horrible and makes for great drama. The aftermath -- her search for her still-unknown attacker, which is the main subject of the book -- could have made a decent story as well. Unfortunately the drama of it is oversold, and the story is wildly overwritten, both in length and in tone. Jentz's discovery of a prime suspect is unfortunately larded over with melodramatic writing -- those of you who've waded through the book know the title of this review is a reference to the dozens and dozens of "In Search of"-like rhetorical questions -- and a level of self-obsessiveness that, while understandable in a person's diary, should not have made it into the final version. Perhaps the editor wanted to provide an open window into how messed up Jentz became as a result of the attack; perhaps only the actual publication of far too much detail could provide her with the catharsis that she absolutely deserves. Anyone with a heart would wish Jentz peace after what she went through. But her story lost much of its power in the telling.

2 comments about Friedrich Becker: Kinetic Jewellery.

1. This retrospective volume is so immense and impressive in scale and quality it is hard to describe. Becker's influence on modern jewelry design is so far reaching that many take many of his trademarks (geometric aesthetic coupled with his obsession with movement and kinetics) for granted in modern metals design. While this book may be a bit expensive for private ownership, it is a must have for any art focused library collection or jewelry school.



2. Whether you're interested in kinetic jewelry, or you just like beautiful photos of jewelry, this book is fantastic. I've never seen work like his anywhere. For him, kinetic is not just a matter of adding some hinges or dangles, but designing hidden devices that allow the jewelry to change its shape, or to move in surprising ways.
   
   Get it as a fabulous coffee table book, or an invaluable reference work. It can be difficult to obtain, but is well worth the wait.

No comments about Warman's Hummel Field Guide: Values and Identification (Warman's Field Guides).

5 comments about Film Posters of the 70s: The Essential Movies of the Decade (Film Posters).

1. back in the day this was the best visual present.if the poster was cool then the movie would get Love.a picture can tell a thousand words.and the 70's had the coolest posters and arguable the best films in Movie History.before video tape you walk to the movie house and see the poster and the reaction you felt led you or back the other way.a solid must have book.



2. Excellent... add it to your book collection! If you are a Star Wars fan check this out!



3. Like the other decade books in this series Film Posters of the 70's is a sensational buy. You could either keep it intact as a collection of posters in a book to show and discuss with friends, or cut the book up and actually have a vast number of posters up on your wall. This book is about a third the size of your standard film poster and most movies are full page colour. Any of them would look great up on the wall.

   The 70's gave the world Star Wars, Grease, The Godfather, Mad Max, Alien, Taxi Driver, Texas Chainsaw Massacure, Halloween, Rocky and a very blood thirsty shark who changed human perception of sharks for decades to come named Jaws. These films along with other greats fill this book. Roger Moore also took over from Connery as James Bond and Clint Eastwood made a heap of Westerns. Find them here as well.




4. When I first looked at this book, it was like going back to my childhood, well, sort of, it was so neat to see posters of some of my favorite films from back then and a lot from movies that I never knew they made. The artwork on those posters is most certainly something to see and admire!!! If you love art and or movies this is THE book to get you won't be disappointed!



5. This is a wonderful book in the series with wonderful reproductions of the posters of the decade. Makes a wonderful gift for someone who loves movies as well as a great coffee table book. Highly recommended

1 comments about Bakelite Jewelry: The Art of the Carver.

1. THESE GIRLS HAVE MADE AN OUTSTANDING BOOK,AND IT IS A MUST FOR THE BAKELITE COLLECTOR...WONDERFUL INFORMATION AND OUTRAGES PHOTOS.....DO NOT HESITATE TO BUY THIS

No comments about Jewelry International (Tourbillon International).