2 comments about Autumn: An Alphabet Acrostic.

1. These twenty-six acrostic poems are wonderful. I use this bookevery year in my third grade classroom. Each poem tells about anaspect of the autumn season with such detail. The pictures are amazing and very well done. This book is a keeper!



2. I got this book from the library - it is recommended in the book called "Books Children Love" - and I would add it to mine because I like it as much - if not more than - my 3 year old. Totally makes you experience autumn - pure poetry, and that includes the illustrations which are marvelous.

5 comments about There are No Problem Horses, Only Problem Riders.

1. .
   "With all of the great books for horse people and horses out there, there's no reason to buy this book." That's what respected trainers told me. I wish I'd listened and saved having to throw it in the garabage, but I liked the (misleading) title and it was on sale, so I learned the hard way.



2. The worst thing you could do to horses is to follow the advice of Mary Twelveponies. This book and her philosophies are based on the principle: eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth. She often refers to the holy book. Maybe she seeks an excuse when she hit horses with nails if they bite. She likes to punish horses with a whip if they don't obey. She says serveral times: you have to be the boss. So you whip a horse on the foreleggs firmly if he does'nt listen? When I finished the book I was alsmost shaking because of disgust. Unbelievable that these kind of people may spread their word in print. This book should be put into a huge bonfire. I am relieved that there are other authors like John Lyons and Pat Parelli. Those persons deserve respect.



3. I bought this book thinking it would be full of wonderful advice, but I really did not gain a thing from it. I get much better results from communicating with my horse, rather than threatening him. Also, the advice on mounting a tied horse is outright DANGEROUS! DO NOT DO THAT! When I started my horse, he was hard to mount, so I just taught him the verbal command of 'stand' (which I use for all kinds of other things too, not just mounting) and now he knows to stand quietly when I ask. I agree with another reviewer, Pat Parelli and John Lyons have much better advice.



4. Mary Twelveponies provides excellent advice to riders on all levels. Her approach is practical and takes into account the importance of respect in the relationship between a human and a 1,000 lb. animal. I sent a copy to my neice to help her learn the necessary assertivness skills to deal with her typical "new horse-owner" type problems. A well-behaved horse is a joy to ride. Getting and keeping one that way takes some work. This book will help. Those who have called these techniques harsh should note that John Lyons wrote the forward. I found her approach balanced and clearly that of an experienced horsewoman.



5. Twelveponies falls for the oldest mistake in the book. Since she is a trainer, she thinks all problems can be solved by training.
   
   I've "retrained" many problem horses. In many cases, the problem was not the former rider/trainer. It was a physical problem. I always start with a farrier and vet, and look for conformation problems that call for a specialty saddle. It is so rewarding to give a problem horse a rest and treatment to heal sore muscles, arthritic joints or a damaged spine. It's so easy to get proper corrective shoes, fit the right saddle, and then all is well. Once in a while the problem is more serious, but still is fixable by a vet. Example: a retained testicle. No amount of training will get an apparent gelding with a hidden testicle to stop acting like a stallion.[...]

No comments about Get Your Brain in the Fast Lane.

3 comments about The Seinfeld Aptitude Test: Hundreds of Spectacular Questions on Minute Details from Tv's Greatest Show About Absolutely Nothing.

1. This book has great trivia for your party games. I have used it at home and at work. I only wish there was an updated version with trivia past the 1994 episodes. For example, one of the questions asks "what is Kramer's first name"? The book's answer is "unknown", but we all know it is "Cosmo".



2. After my husband and I used the "SAT" to quiz each other about the show, we put it in our guest bathroom. Needless to say, many of our friends have enjoyed the book, as well. I wish Beth Golub would write a follow-up, since this book was published before the show ended.



3. This trivia book on "Seinfeld's" first four seasons is a lot of fun, but don't count on an updated edition anytime soon: Castle Rock Entertainment, which produced "Seinfeld," put the kibosh on the book five years ago when they won a copyright infringement lawsuit against the publsher.

   All unsold copies were ordered destroyed, which is why "The Seinfeld Aptitude Test" now commands almost 10 times its original selling price.

1 comments about SuperVisions: Topsy-Turvy Optical Illusions (Supervisions).

1. I bought this book for our 7 year old twins before we went on vacation. We had so much fun sharing this book. It is extremely clever. All of the illusions were fantastic. We have now become a family always lookng for illusions in the everyday things we see. If you are looking for a gift for a child of any age, they will enjoy wandering through the pages of this adventure in illusions.

5 comments about The Counting Game: An Accountant Reveals How to Win at Blackjack.

1. Alan Berg has given us a thrill ride through the world's casinos from the view of a high-roller. Even for a confirmed non-gambler like me, his well-crafted book provides hundreds of insights into winning at blackjack - and winning all the side battles as well. Most impressively, he often succeeded at keeping himself in the building and in the game through guile, brains and style - when most card-counters would long have been banished from casinos everywhere. Read - and enjoy - "The Counting Game."



2. The thing I liked about this book is that it was like having a one on one lesson with the author. He gives you the important factual skills you need to win the game. But also throws in personal experience and stories that make it very entertaining. You will like what he has to teach but at the end of the book feel like you could hang out and have a drink with him.



3. I've never played blackjack and probably never will, but I was absolutely fascinated by Alan Berg's book. Serious players must be blown away. I was amazed to learn so much about the game when I had always thought it was just a question of luck. NO WAY. It almost makes me want to take up black jack so I can reach the zenith of being barred from a casino. That isn't apt to happen since I got a bit bogged down in the intricacies of the numbers systems, but I LOVED the book. I especially enjoyed learning about Alan's gambling experiences and now have enormous admiration for his honesty in telling about himself in a thoroughly enjoyable and often amusing fashion. WONDERFUL book- I recommend it to players and non-players alike.



4. The Counting Game: An Accountant Reveals How to Win at Blackjack is different from an ordinary "how-to" gambling guide in that author Alan Berg is not only a skilled professional gambler (so good at winning money through card counting he's been banned in casinos across America), but also a certified public accountant. The Counting Game teaches the reader about the mechanics of card counting, the savvy acting skills needed not to get caught doing it, and especially about tax law, including how to take the government's due into account when calculating one's gambling profits. In particular, Berg notes that tax law is brutally regressive to recreational gamblers, effectively amounting to double taxation (and it's not much nicer to professional gamblers, who must adhere to stringent criteria to be considered such by the IRS). Taking the hypothetical example of a female recreational gambler who wins a $7000 casino jackpot and then amasses $7000 of losses in subsequent plays: "Her preparer explains that the $7000 win, even though wiped out by aggregate losses of roughly an equal amount, reduce her refund to the tune of $1475!" Although The Counting Game is the "must-have" blackjack counting book for anyone seeking to make money at casino tables, it effectively (and unintentionally?) is also one of the strongest exhortations not to gamble at all, simply because it spells out the unvarnished truth about what gambling for a living is really like, the severity of its risks, and the demands it makes upon a player. Highly recommended.



5. This is the second blackjack book I've read. It's very good and has a lot of interesting and useful information. It also only costs about 10 bucks, but there are two important points here: In Berg's view, one would need to start with about $150,000 to make serious money in blackjack. Second, he uses one of the most complex card-counting methods out there.

No comments about The New York Times A Cup of Tea Crosswords: 75 Light and Easy Puzzles (New York Times Crossword Puzzle).

1 comments about Photography Guide For Kids.

1. Photography Guide For Kids is a slim, informative, quick read for kids who like to take creative pictures. I bought this for my son who is ten years old and has been snapping shots since he got his first Fisher Price camera when he was five. I noticed his interest in photography when he would ask to go for walks to test out his new camera on fenced in dogs barking at him and the buses going by. He read this book front to back in two days and took from it a bit more of an understanding in capturing mood, speed and creative portraits in different ways. I read this book myself and found it easy to understand the explanations on different cameras, film speed and black and white photos. Although not really a learning tool, I do feel this is a helpful guide to open up the minds of children interested in taking pictures. And the fact it's not a large text book, and is written on an age appropiate level makes it a good start for children who may not think they can learn all there is to learn about photography and may motivate them to capture their own memories and feelings in a creative way. And maybe they'll give the Nintendo a break.

5 comments about StarCraft #2: Shadow of the Xel'Naga.

1. A number of other reviewers seemed rather worried about how this book explored a plot that wasn't part of the game. That didn't bother me much, whilst I shouldn't have minded if it had done so the original content was appreciated.
   
   However, most of the battle sequences, which make up a fair amount of the book, are incredably dull to read. The most interesting battle scene was the villagers Vs the Zerg, although completly unrealistic it used a variety of people with interesting and new weapons innovating, it at least started to feel like a real battle.
   
   Most of the other battle scenes didn't seem any more lifelike than the computer game. They were just as if I was describing what had happened in a game I had played recently rather than coming to life in thier own right. Long repeated descriptions of the units of Starcraft and thier armenants, with 'that shot this, then this shot that, than that shot this' does not make for good reading at all! Rather than inspiring me to think of a real three dimensional battle, as might go on a film, my mind ended up thinking of the battle as if I was watching it on my computer.
   
   I've played the computer game already, I've been in those battles first hand, if I'm reading a novel I need something more than that. You need to outdo the expierence of battles on the computer screen, and to be honest, if a book fails to do that (given that Starcraft is just a gods eye view strategy game at the end of the day, its not as if the visuals are that outstanding), then that's pretty poor going.
   
   The most enjoyable parts are the characters and thier interactions, but these appear to be the most undevoloped parts of the book.



2. I've read the first and second (this) StarCraft novels and I wish Blizzard would stop hiring lousy writers, as they do such good stories for the games that it's a great pity to waste the novels. Granted, I don't like Kevin J. Anderson ("Gabriel Mesta") anyway, but I didn't know it was his pseudonym at the time I read this book. It's even worse than his Young Jedi Knights stuff.



3. The second book of the 'StarCraft' series is different from the first one.
   
   It isn't as linear as 'Liberty's Crusade' and doesn't try to squeeze its story somewhere in the original game plot as the first book did unsuccessfully and irritatingly even.
   
   Some parts of 'Shadow of Xel'naga' are really not bad and entertaining but I found two annoying flaws.
   
   The first one is that the book very often tends to repeat itself. The chapters are very short and feature lots of different characters and therefore the author is constantly repeating what had happened and what someone had felt. On and on and on... Like a schoolmate crawling to write the required amount of words for an essay.
   
   The second minus - the very end is too fairy-talish. Too happy. Verdant meadows and reincarnated people? Come on... 'StarCraft' Is not a cartoon for children or a tale before going to sleep.
   
   And so, it's another average sci-fi book.



4. Now, I will say that I agree that this book does NOT follow the lore of Starcraft well. I noticed this within the first few chapters. So I pretty much pretended I knew nothing of all the lore of Starcraft. Most people seem to REALLY WANT it to be strict on this, and I think that hurts any enjoyment that can be had from this. Most reviewers seem almost emotionally hurt that it wasn't all that they wanted.
   
   
   Now as for the book itself. It was pretty much average in every way. It had a typical story line. It even had a fairy-tale ending that just kind of left me a bit bewildered as to why it HAD to be a happy ending; it sort of hurt the flow of the book (what little flow there was).
   
   There is some enjoyable chapters, mainly the first half of the book. But when the battle begins, it just kinda falls apart.
   
   It was good enough for me to finish, but that's about it.



5. This book is as bad as Stacraft can get in a written form.
   There is not much I can add to the other reviews here, however, I can only support their claims.
   
   This book is just written in such a way that discards anything remotely accurate about Stacraft. The whole 'epic' feeling about the three races fighting each other fails in such a way that makes me feel bad, and all I did was read the book--Seriously, there's only one interesting thing about this book, and it's the 'new alien created by the Xel'Naga' thing that appears at the end, which is, in fact, what the three races are fighting for.
   
   Yeah, that's it, so, I just saved you a lot of time--now don't read this book, stay away from it.
   
   Oh, I wish I had never bought it--or read it, for that matter.
   Lets just say it isn't even canon, or if it is, lets just forget about this book and keep the major raw facts of what happened in it.
   
   In fact, someone get me a Biohazard label to put it on the book.

3 comments about Mercenaries (Prima Official Game Guide).

1. The strategies are well put together, but the collectibles section have some errors with the locations. Also, the pages don't stick to the spine of the book well. Overall, it seems like an OK book.



2. Very awesome merchandise. Amazon is very awesome to do business with, and i will certainly be doing business again with amazon.



3. AN EXCELLENT STRATEGY GUIDE FOR AN EXCELLENT GAME.TELLS YOU EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW AND WELL WORTH PURCHASING FOR HELP WITH THIS EXCELLENT GAME.