Vincent Reviews

If you love the 1990's GI Joe Hall of Fame figures, by all means purchase this book. Half of the color section of this book is devoted to those figures. If you are looking for a good overview of the entire GI Joe era, buy John Michligs book and skip this one.

An excellent resource for anyone collecting GI Joes past or present. I can finally be sure that the vintage Joes I'm collecting are coming with ALL their accessories! The price guide in back is the first place I start before I buy a figure and helps me budget for future additions. BTW, the color section is 6 pages of vingage Joes, 4 pages of 3 3/4" Joes, and 6 pages of the Hall of Fame 90's Joes. I hope you do another edition and pick up all the great new Joes too.

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I tracked this book down because the author was Robert "Prince of the City" Leuci's neighbor. He was allegedly recruited into the IAB/Federal operation because Leuci didn't trust the feds to watch his back the way a fellow cop would. After months of looking for the book and finally reading it, I find he only mentions the whole episode in passing. He goes into detail on his other cases though, so if that is what your looking for it's an OK book.

I found this a good read but was disappointed more examples weren't given. The scope of Murano's recounting is somwhat narrow.

One can only suspect police and law enforcement nationwide is greatly corrupted from reading this.

the depiction is so mesmerizing. It gives you the notion that not all cops are corrupt even though at times it seems to be.

Unfortunately the authors have no idea what the word ATLAS means (this seems to be the case with most recent so-called atlases that I have seen). Although there are a few maps, anyone who was hoping for an extensive series of interesting and detailed maps will be sorely disappointed.

This book is excellent. It is exactly what it says it is, a cultural atlas (map of culture). The book gives an refreshing survey of Iberian history. The book covers the Phonicians, Greeks thru the death of Franco. The book abounds with topographic and cultural maps. A must buy!!!!

This book offers an interesting, non-textbook style cultural and socio-political history of Spain and Portugal, well illustrated by plenty of excellent photographs. The special sections on cultural, architectural features and the great artists of the countries, like "paella", "The Great Mosque of Cordoba" and "Dali" are excellent. Another good thing about this book is that you can start reading from anywhere because the sections are self-contained. Unfortunately, not enough is mentioned about Portugal, at least not to the proportion it deserves. It is good book for those planning to visit the countries as well as those who have been there and just want to sppreciate more the history and culture of the Iberia.

this book is exemplary of an aristocratic book that has no tangible value for anyone who reads it. As a Financial Analyst I found some of the reading very dull and and unrelated to the topic of financial analysis.

I bought this handbook based on a review by another customer. I found it to fit my purpose and I'm glad to had made the purchase. The handbook is a practical source guide for financial analysts. It is not another academic regurgation found in other texts. The author, Vincent Muro, had brought his diverse experience, knowledge & innovativeness to bear in this practical guidebook for the busy financial practitioner who could use it as a constant reference guide. The text blends well the theory with the practice and offered numerous illustrations. The charts & diagrams in the front & back cover as well as in the text itself puts into perspective how the various financial analysis techniques could be applied. Apart from the traditional techniques, new measures & analytic were offered as well, making this handbook a must-have & a good buy. I think this handbook should have a quick summary at end of each chapters and probably should make use more of visual aids for the busy practitioner, which would make it even better. Nevertheless is deserves a 5-star rating !!!

I am happy to have found a book like this. Its explanations have a surgical precission and are superbly structured, leading you to very sofisticated financial analysis tools with easiness. It is completely useful for the professional and the student who want and need to learn about corporate finance with the maximum rigour and depth but also want to avoid losing time in unpractical stuff. I wish I had discovered this book before!!

Tolstoy has the aesthetic/philosophical insight of a thin-lipped Puritan. His conclusions are dogmatic and authoritarian. What is art, according to Tolstoy? That which gives communal emotional expression in glory of God. All else is vanity, alas: mere self-indulgent Hedonism. Follow the precepts in this book and watch your horizons begin to narrow. The fact that Tolstoy was a distinguished novelist and that he spent so much time thinking about these matters is of no consequence. As many have said before, Tolstoy was a very good novelist but a very bad philosopher.

Tolstoy was a great writer, and his late period of "saintly" simplicity and "solidarity" with the Russian peasants (whom he continued to use on his land) is important to understand as an example of something--I'm not sure what. Maybe as an example of the contradictions of that kind of utopianism (see Isaiah Berlin's great essays on Tolstoy). Also, What is Art?, which dates from this last period, makes some important reminders about the social context of art. BUT ...

It is also the classic example of Philistinism, casually dismissing great works of art because they don't conform to St. Leo's late ideal of simple, straightforward form and content. The previous reviewers make clear the dangers of this kind of attitude--when they don't understand a painting or poem, it couldn't possibly be because there's something lacking in their response. It must be because the work is decadent or wrong. Such an attitude ultimately leads not to the simple purity Tolstoy envisioned, but to the sort of dumbing down we have in American television, cinema, and "beach" novels. "I know what I like" has become the manifesto of boorishness, adding self-righteousness to poor taste.

Tolstoy's What is Art? is worth reading, but keep in mind that his descriptions of music by Wagner or Beethoven, various novels, etc., are ridiculous caricatures that have little to do with the real thing. Furthermore, it's difficult not to see "St. Leo" as incredibly hypocritical, staying in all summer reading the latest novels while his peasants work in his fields, and then criticising the novels because they're remote from the common life of the peasants.

If...you've ever been baffled by a Monet exhibit or a Beethoven sonata, it doesn't mean that these are no good and you may as well go back to your sitcoms and soaps. It means you need to look and listen again, and maybe think a bit. The rewards are there if you're willing to get off your intellectual butt.

Do you have thoughts like "well, maybe it's just me... They say Monet is great, but perhaps I just don't understand it..." I say, maybe it's your own gut that tells you what is the true art and what is not!

This work by Tolstoy is a summary of his 15 year spiritual journey and research of art and what it's all about. And who is the author! A genius himself! In this piece he tells us in plain language that the whole art of his century (with a few exceptions) is a product of a rotten class of people, a select few, whose main concerns were far from being common with the feelings of any normal human being. "Art, nowadays, is for pleasure, not for bringing moral values in the form of genuine feelings to a reader". This is basically the general idea of the work. At first, you feel dumbfounded reading this, but after a few pages, his statements start to make sense. Only a true moral feeling expressed in the right form, not necessarily beautiful, but understandible and to the point, is a true piece of art.

Now, let's go back and think for minute: do I really like Sheakspeare or is it the literary criticism the makes me feel that I am not a fully cultured person unless I acknowledge Sheakspeare as the greatest of all, or at least one of the greatest writers (playwrights) ever? Even if I think that he was too verbose and vague to begin with? That sometimes you read him and whole paragraphs go by without you fully understanding what he's talking about? Mind you, he wrote for the theater, which means characters' sentences need to be pretty concise and clear, so that the audience could follow them. Anyway, Tolstoy will help you understand this problem.

His main idea, again, is for art to convey the feelings of fraternity and love to the reader, not sexual desires, fake patriotism, shovinism or those exquisite feelings of the upper class. Art is about compassion, love, oneness of all people and good healthy humor. I totally agree with that.

One more thing: in this work, Tolstoy confronts the idea of goodness with the idea of beauty, saying that for the sake of beauty, the contemporary artists disregard goodness. This a very controversial statement, in my opinion, but there is a point there...

Also recommended: of course, War and Peace, Anna Karenina, Resurrection, Childhood, Boyhood & Youth, as true standards of literature, by which you can judge the works of others. All other fiction by Tolstoy is just as great and easy to read, especially his short stories, such as "Master and Man", "The Forged Coupon", etc. His other less known works that are revolutionary by their essence, are "My Confession", "What is My Belief (Religion)" and especially (really hard to find) "Critique of Dogmatic Theology", where he expounded his views on religion and traditional Church Christianity with all its absurd, useless dogmas, which only divert your attention from what Christ really taught. This is a very controversial work, which was prohibited in Russia of his day, but which is certainly worth reading. By the way, why doesn't Everyman's Library publish it?

This book would be best used as reference index to supplement a variety of publications. It has a diversity of material that can help point to areas of specific interest for further research. The core areas of interest to the teacher and student can then be studied in more depth using publications that are specific to that area.

Despite the claims of the editor/publisher, it is unrealistic to expect that a single volume can be "comprehensive" in sufficient detail to satisfy all questions and demands for knowledge. As described in the promotional text on the back cover, this book limits itself to the "Basic Skills". It is up to the teacher and student to pursue knowledge in other areas of interest.

A useful addition to most educational library collections.

This is a good book to use with homework assignments. My son does a page a day along with his homework and I see a difference in his grades. Great practice for the State Grade Tests. If your child needs to sharpen his basic skills, this is the book.

I have found that this book, although, not deep in instruction, is fine for review for children over the summer, so as not to forget skills learned in the previous school year.

I had a reason for wanting to read this book. Every time the name of Vince Foster is mentioned in the media, there continues to be a shroud of mystery surrounding him. The last time I heard someone mention Foster's name, it was Lucianne Goldberg who was commenting on Hillary Clinton's LIVING HISTORY. Lucianne was observing that there are so many events and issues to which Mrs. Clinton could have addressed herself but Mrs. Clinton never even mentioned most of them. And then Lucianne wondered if we all wouldn't like to know what happened to Vince Foster. What makes it interesting for Lucianne to ask that question is that Lucianne was or still is close to Linda Tripp. Linda Tripp was one of the last people to see Vince Foster alive. She gave testimony on what she observed about him as he left the White House for the last time. So, if Lucianne is wondering what really happened to Vince Foster, does that mean that Linda Tripp is not satisfied with the result of several investigations including that of the DOJ's Special Prosecutor? I decided it was time to find out more about Vince Foster, and Dan E Moldea was my source of choice. What I didn't want was a book written by someone who was up to the eyeballs in conspiracy theory. I wanted to know the facts insofar as anyone apart from Vince Foster himself could provide them. Moldea's book was purported to be a factual assessment of the event. Whoever it was who did this purporting was correct for most of the book's 388 pages. And then with one final sentence Moldea made me want to hurl his book at the pre-selected spot on the wall I reserve for books that infuriate me.

For anyone who has a curiosity about why the death of Vince Foster created so much controversy, this is a straightforward account of the step-by-step investigation of his suicide. In my opinion, Moldea's research on the various investigations as well as the people who conducted them, along with his attention to detail, provide a great deal of support for the conclusions reached by the Special Prosector. Moldea depended upon the public record for the information he collected for his book, and to the extent that my interest was in just knowing the facts, this account provides them in as much entirety as an author can provide. For anyone wanting a more detailed account complete with personal interviews of what Vince Foster was really all about, this is not the book from which to draw that kind of information. Actually Moldea is rather short on details about some matters that should have been better explained. It was interesting to me that while Moldea provided a more than adequate explanation for the Whitewater mess, he backed off on a more thorough accounting of the Travelgate matter. Since Vince Foster was up to his eyeballs in Travelgate, it seemed to me that should have been the focus of more detail. Especially when Travelgate was cited as a possible cause for Foster's mental state.

For 388 pages Moldea makes a case for the facts and what conclusions may logically be drawn from them. And then with one final sentence, Moldea decides what did and did not contribute to Foster's decision to kill himself. He just spent an entire book taking apart the conspiracy theories and the bits and pieces of the case upon which those theories depend. And then with one final sentence he blows his whole case right out of the water by passing judgement on something it is in no one's power to know but Vince Foster's. And Foster isn't talking.

For me, A WASHINGTON TRAGEDY is proof of the fact that a situation cannot be understood merely by researching public records and reading details of reports and investigations. While it's true that I didn't want an account of Foster's death that was riddled with gossip and inuendo, overall Moldea's book raises more questions than it answers. However, this book is also titled "How The Death Of Vince Foster Ignited A Political Firestorm". The "how" is more than adequately addressed. It's too bad Moldea violated his own chosen format to muck it up with that one last sentence.

Don't let his detractors on labor's loony left or the hard right fool you. Dan Moldea calls them as he sees them -- and his years of investigative and journalistic experience propel "A Washington Tragedy" at the top of the pile of books about the high-profile suicide of Vincent Foster. Moldea's critical eye, rigorous thinking and fair, balanced analysis of the facts make this book the essential read for anyone seeking the truth surrounding the most tragic sideshow stemming from the Whitewater business scandal.

Dan Moldea does an outstanding job of presenting the entire record of the Vince Foster tragedy in context. Unanswered questions posed by the conspiracists are answered, with significant referencing to the forensic record.

But this book does much more. It reviews the various articles written by Scaife funded activists, like Chris Ruddy and Reed Irvine, and demonstrates how the conspiracists twist the story to suit their agenda. This book is a must read to anyone studying the vast right wing conspiracy.

This book lists 27 tricks (including a pickup line and a short story), many of which I had known. I was just not very impressed when I read through it.

Stupid Bar Tricks is not for magicians. This is a book for people who want to be entertainers! You don't have to be a professional to realize ways in which you can use tricks like "The Cigarette Up The Nose" or "The Texas Star" to win free drinks, impress members of the opposite sex or even break the ice with that new client. These are easy to learn tricks, stunts and comedy bits that can be performed with items that can be found in any bar or restaurant. You will not only be percieved as the "life of the party" but you will be seen as someone who is fun to be around. This book is not for everyone, just those with imagination and personality.

I have a friend who is a bar tender and he always baffled me with his clever little stunts he could do with common, house-hold objects.

Now... I'm the one who is baffling him!!! The tricks, jokes, and other bits of wonderment that are simply explained in "Stupid Bar Tricks" are fun, easy to learn, and are always a big hit when I try them out on friends!

I found the book fun to read because the explainations were easy to understand and the humorous illustrations really gave life to the content.

The New York Mets of 1969 are forever etched into images of sun dappled youth. I cam to baseball through the mets, and 1969 was just that special year, like falling in love the first time. So for mets fans[who have had far more to moan than cheer] this team is emblamtic of all that was, and was good. this book,which I frevently wished was good, is not. The sports writing form that era in the NY daily news{from whose morgue these writings and mostly photos are culled]was not bad,though not nearly enough is presented. No Boxscores, very little on what was going on around the city[which,after all, was one of things that made the mets so much fun]and alot of skimming. For $30, the publishers could have done much,much more. The portraits of some mets done by Bruce Stark,and the wonderful Bill Gallo cartoons almost make up for the disappoinment.I left wanting more,much more.

This book is enough accurate in information and stats. But most photos published there are too dark and with texture like they were photocopied from newspapers.
I found photos with... details turned inverse... lefty people turned to righty people. :o(
The '69 Mets deserved a very well crafted book. This book here clearly isn't.

This is a simply wonderful trip down memory lane, and the forward by the always classy Ed Kranepool only adds to the fun. Miss this one at your own risk!

Mr. Coppola seems significantly more concerned with promoting his own "bravado" for simply talking with those in the far right movement. He provides no insight into how and why the movement survives.Basically a superficial and self-promoting book of little consequence. Don't waste your time and money.

This is a great book for one who wants a brief overview of the far-right extremist groups out there. Many of these groups are very scary but their strength comes out in numbers and there are so many philosophical differences between them that chances are slim of a wide scale uniting of forces. Still, the Oklahoma bombing is an example of what just a couple of them can do. The author gives a nice overview of these groups in a 185 page book that's written in a quick-read style that gives away his background as a newsweek reporter. For an in-depth analysis you must go elsewhere.

This book doesn't grasp many of the issues that have driven many Americans into periferal groups in order to magnify their voice in the system. The book also fails to outline the fundamental causes which alienate many Americans from the mainstream method of political discourse. In order to understand the Militia phenomenon, one must assume that their is a current threat to the survival of our personal freedoms eminating from the government that is supposed to protect our civil rights.