Kings of the Hellenes: The Greek Kings 1863-1974

Book Description

This engaging book presents the lives of the Greek royal family between 1863 and 1974, during a period of turbulence, and shows both the benefits and disadvantages of the dynasty's close ties to the other royal houses of Europe.

Customer Reviews:

very dry and uninteresting.......2002-08-12

As a 1st generation greek-american I was initially very excited to read this, but found it very difficult to get through. I waited chapter after chapter, hoping it would flow better but found it difficult to get through. It's such a shame as I've got every reason to read it.

The Hellenic monarchy: if it's Greek to you, read this book........2000-11-14

This book provides an excellent overview of the history of the Greek monarchy.

How exactly did the Greek people come to be reigned over by a Danish prince and his heirs? Did a King of Greece really die from a monkey attack? The story of the Greek monarchy has a good mixture of everything that intrigues the typical royal-watcher, and Van Der Kiste tells it well.

You might find it refreshing that, in the chapters dealing with World War One, Van Der Kiste doesn't take a typical (jingoistic) pro-Allied stance. He presents the Hellenic involvement in that war from a Greek royalist perspective.

If the book is lacking, it's in the final chapters. As the author points out, a historian can only do so much justice to a topic as fresh as the royal family's current standing. The subject of the Greek monarchy in the past 60 years could fill another book.

Overall, this is a fine addition to Van Der Kiste's body of work, and a good starting point for anyone researching the subject.

Book Description

Relive the excitement that only Alabama Football can deliver with 1990s Alabama Flashback, The Stallings Era. When Gene Stallings returned to Alabama as football coach in January 1990, critics said his losing record as a head coach would be to UA's detriment. But Stallings not only became a winner, he took Alabama back to the top. Crimson Tide stars of the '90s such as Jay Barker, David Palmer, John Copeland, Antonio Langham and Shaun Alexander led the way to glory as the Tide rolled to 70 victories under Stallings.

Other Alabama legends are also featured in a chapter devoted to the Tide's Top 25 players of all-time, Alabama's Team of the Century. From Sington to Namath to Bennett, Alabama is the home of football's greatest players. And the legendary contributions of Paul 'Bear' Bryant, on and off the field, are also showcased.

Customer Reviews:

Not bad.......2004-05-04

I found a few things I didn't like in this one, but if you are a Gene Stallings fan it's worth it. Bama fans would kill to have another coach like Stallings back at the helm. This book proves why. I recommend it highly along with "A Tailgater's Guide To SEC Football". Die hard football fans will love both. Especially SEC fans.

Book Description

"This book represents a real addition to our shared knowledge of video, film, and media history, and I have no doubt that it will receive much acclaim. There is no [other] comprehensive history of the video industry, and Wasser's book offers just this in a clear and very useful manner." --Justin Wyatt, author of High Concept: Movies and Marketing in Hollywood A funny thing happened on the way to the movies. Instead of heading downtown to a first-run movie palace, or even to a suburban multiplex with the latest high-tech projection capabilities, many people's first stop is now the neighborhood video store. Indeed, video rentals and sales today generate more income than either theatrical releases or television reruns of movies. This pathfinding book chronicles the rise of home video as a mass medium and the sweeping changes it has caused throughout the film industry since the mid-1970s. Frederick Wasser discusses Hollywood's initial hostility to home video, which studio heads feared would lead to piracy and declining revenues, and shows how, paradoxically, video revitalized the film industry with huge infusions of cash that financed blockbuster movies and massive marketing campaigns to promote them. He also tracks the fallout from the video revolution in everything from changes in film production values to accommodate the small screen to the rise of media conglomerates and the loss of the diversity once provided by smaller studios and independent distributors.

Veni, Vidi, Video: The Hollywood Empire and the VCR

Average customer rating:

Veni, Vidi, Video: The Hollywood Empire and the VCR
Frederick Wasser
Manufacturer: Univ Texas
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000GR4FJY

Average customer rating:

Good for basics

40 Intermediate Snare Drum Solos: for Concert Performance

Manufacturer: Hal Leonard Corporation
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
Similar Items:

14 Modern Contest Solos for Snare Drum

Secret Weapons for the Modern Drummer DVD

4-Way Coordination: A Method Book for the Development of Complete Independence on the Drum Set

ASIN: 0634049127

Book Description

This book provides the advancing percussionist with interesting solo material in all musical styles. It is designed as a lesson supplement, or as performance material for recitals and solo competitions. Includes: 40 intermediate snare drum solos presented in easy-to-read notation; a music glossary; Percussive Arts Society rudiment chart; suggested sticking, dynamics and articulation markings; and much more!

Customer Reviews:

Good for basics.......2007-03-15

This is a good book to open up, play without review, and practice sight reading. There is enough variety with dynamics and time signatures that you are bound to make mistakes here and there... especially a beginner. I would reccommend that you add this to the requesite Anthony Cirone and Wilcoxen books that serve as the foundation for Concert Snare Drum and Marching solos. 10 minutes a day with this book and a metronome will turn you into a drumming BEAST. Good luck! And have fun! (And pick up a guitar--don't forget there is more to music than rhythm drummer buddies ;-)

Customer Reviews:

cards 14 and 16 printed wrong in miniature set.......2004-10-03

Hello, I bought the 1999 copyright of the miniature cards about 2 years ago, my first set seen and bought out of curiosity. Just last week I laid out all the cards, Major and Minor, in numerical order and found the TEMPERANCE and TOWER cards sharing the same number: XVI, TEMPERANCE should be XIV. An obvious printing error, I have not personally brought this to the attention of the authors but am hoping others like myself realize its numerical misprint. All The Best.......

Very cute basic set.......2001-08-13

They only show you one very basic card layout in the booklet but you can look up more complex ones online. The palm book left something to be desired but did a pretty good job giving the basics. Good for beginners. I really like this card set, it is simple but colorful and full of meaning, rather like me.

Worth the Money.......2001-05-27

I got this set for 15 bucks at a local store cause I wanted to start fortune telling. It was worth the money, it comes with a little palm reading book that tells you the basics, a full set of tarot cards and a booklet that tells you what they mean and a very nice, durable (and pretty) cardbord box with little indents to store it all in. I got the set for lack of anything better around I thought "hey a tarot cards a tarot card," later I learned I was wrong, you're suposed to pick a set that calls to you. After seeing a few sets of cards, I like this one the best, it's not the most detailed (The backgrounds are black) but the colors are bright and vivid, really lively and the art style is very fun. It suits me well, however if you want to get really good at reading I sugest you buy another book, "The Illustrated Guide to the Tarot" by Naomi Ozaniec is helping me out a lot (though I haven't finished it yet)...

Fortune-Telling: Reveal Inner Truths With the Tarot Nova and.......1999-12-10

This was a disappointing kit. You should know that you get a copy of Palm Reading : A Little Guide to Life's Secrets (Miniature Edition), which can be bought separately a couple of dead presidents. The description of the kit does not explain that you only get the miniature book on palms and the tarot deck and a pamphlet to describe the cards. The palm book is very basic and very limited in its graphics, which you need to explain palms. The deck is cute but very basic in its illustrations. This could be of interest to someone who knows nothing about either palm reading or tarot but don't bother if you want something with meat to it.

Great for beginners, creative art, great advice........1998-11-03

I've taken much good advice from this Tarot Nova deck(my first Tarot deck) and Palm Reading guide. Not to mention how impressed my friends are with the beautiful deck. The set comes wonderfully displayed and it has been well worth my money.

Average customer rating:

Great Lessons for Anyone In...or Going Into...Advertising

Essential but flawed

Lots of tangents, still relevant

Turf Wars a plenty

Best Advertising Book

Where the Suckers Moon: The Life and Death of an Advertising Campaign
Randall Rothenberg
Manufacturer: Vintage
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
Advertising | Marketing & Sales | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
Look Inside Business Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books
Look Inside Fiction Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books
Similar Items:

Truth, Lies and Advertising : The Art of Account Planning

Art of Client Service

Hey, Whipple, Squeeze This: A Guide to Creating Great Ads, Second Edition

Hoopla Hoopla

Grande Expectations: A Year in the Life of Starbucks' Stock

ASIN: 0679740422
Release Date: 1995-10-31

Book Description

Rothenberg chronicles the brief, turbulent marriage between a recession-plagued auto company and an aggressively hip ad agency (whose creative director despised cars), capturing both the ad world's tantalizing gossip and the broader significance of its creations. "Simply the best book about advertising I have ever read."--Neil Postman (Technopoly).

Customer Reviews:

Great Lessons for Anyone In...or Going Into...Advertising.......2007-07-08

The entire advertising world -- scratch that -- the entire world has changed immensely since this book was written. Many of the assumptions of this book, such as the overall business importance of network TV to an ad campaign, are simply no longer true. Technology changed it. Corporate buyouts have changed it. Energy and wars have changed it. Yes, the Internet changed it. And so on.

But guess what? ANY book about an ad campaign yesterday is old news the moment it's printed as far as that particular campaign is concerned. What's important is the processes that created, sold, and produced the campaign -- and the forces that can keep it going or kill it dead. If you don't learn those, after all, you won't learn advertising as a career.

This book delivers on several important things that ad agency people should still learn from, including:
* Insider, quote-by-quote looks at highly-regarded New York agencies making pitches...and mistakes.
* A Kirisawa-like view of people from two or more companies being in the same meeting, yet walking away believing it had two different outcomes.
* The importance of ego -- and managing it well -- whether you're on the agency side or the client side.
* The importance of always knowing who REALLY holds the decision-making power in what you're trying to achieve.
* Inside looks at the thinking of key corporate marketing personnel in the throes of an ad agency search.
* Reassurance that even multi-national corporations sometimes don't realize that it's better to emphasize your true strengths than to try to invent strengths no one believes exist.

It's also a great inside look at the car business as it's done in the US. At least how it used to be done. That, too, has changed a lot, but as long as their are human beings making a ton of money at power plays, it will change slowly.

Lastly, when you get to the chapter about the Japanese auto industry - skim. It's moderately interesting overall, but not very meaningful to the outcome, and Rothenberg doesn't tell it particularly well. It's the biggest snore in the book. Aside from that, this book is a great read and, again, if you are young in the ad industry -- take notes.

Essential but flawed.......2006-01-22

"Suckers" is one of the best books ever written about advertising. The only element that stops this book from greatness is the author's pseudo-intellectual thumb sucking and his need to find social meaning in every crack and crevice of the culture.

While there is nothing wrong with trying to do either, Rothenberg's analysis is so banal (and now dated) he sabatogues his own narrative drive.

When Rothenberg sticks to the story of a failed advertising campaign, the book takes flight. He has a wonderful eye for detail and backstage manuerverings. You truly feel like you are "in the room."

If you are interested in advertising or pathological corporate culture, buy this book.

Lots of tangents, still relevant.......2005-08-15

Let's get this out in the open now: this is a book about an ad campaign that's now over 10 years old. It wasn't a successful ad campaign that "changed the world" or is remembered all that fondly, so if you're looking for beach reading, this probably isn't it. Also, I found the style somewhat overwraught - the author had a tendency to lose the core narrative in order to provide lengthy asides, mini-history lessons, musings on the tao of advertising, and comprehensive lists when summaries would do (yes, yes, we know, you were THERE. That doesn't mean we need a word for word transcription!).

That said, this is still a brilliant book. By example, it shows what advertising can and cannot do. The real crux of the story is something most books of this ilk gloss over: the internal politics at the agency and struggle between pleasing themselves (and retaining their sanity) and pleasing a client that essentially could not be pleased; the conflict between a manufacturer and its foreign parent; the conflict between a manufacturer and its dealers. All this may be old, but it is still relevant, and quite compelling. It also is underscored throughout by the unresolved conflict between product-based selling (if you have the right product, will it sell itself?) and image-based selling (can advertising drive sales, or just reinforce them?) -- which is as timely as always.

The hardcover version I read desperately needs an updated Epilogue discussing the success of the Paul Hogan Outback campaign in relation to the failure of the SVX. Was it just a better product at a better point in the economic cycle? Did S.O.A. finally create products targeting broader U.S. consumer tastes? Or did the spokesman model work better than W&K's anti-advertising spin?

-avi

Turf Wars a plenty.......2005-02-02

One the best books I have ever read with regards to the managing of advertising campaigns within a company. Few other books have provided such an insight into the realities of the pitch process, getting agencies on board, the client/agency relationship and the palava of producing an ad campaign.

But where this book truly strikes home is in the laying bare of the internal politics - Agency vs Marketing vs Sales vs Dealers vs Operations (production). Local company vs Off shore Parent. And even more enlightening/entertaining is the strife within each divisional silo.

It is set within the Automobile world but the actions and truths to be found are equally applicable to many businesses but especially to the Client/Agency interface. I squirmed when I recognised situations that I have faced as an FMCG marketeer and when things hit home that way you know you are reading a book with true insight.

Best Advertising Book.......2005-01-12

Simply the best, most sophisticated book ever written on advertising. At least that's the opinion of one guy who's read them all.

Customer Reviews:

Very Enjoyable!.......2003-12-17

I enjoyed this book immensely. A behind the scenes view of what life was really like for your favorite Beat personas. The book was easy to read and hard to put down.

Not bad overview.......2002-08-26

This book is all right, I must say that I enjoy the fact that Carolyn owns up to her own faults, such as her jealousy and such. I think that it is easy to judge her from 50 years down the line because so much has changed socially. She fell in love with Cassady at a time where women didn't just get up and leave their men if they were cheated on. Divorce was not as common as it is now. The women of the beat generation lived life on the edge of suburbanism. Most of them found themselves in the unusual and yet somehow liberating situation of being the primary breadwinner. I found Carolyn Cassady's biography to be an interesting account of an intelligent and talented woman who walked the line between her own more old fashioned sense of morality and the life Neal Cassady introduced her to. She mostly seemed to want his friends to go away. I think that he still would have been as wild if they did go away, he would have just found new friends. I don't blame her bitter attitude toward a lot of his friends though. It is a frustrating experience when someone's friends see only the party side of them and don't see what it does to the person's family.

Carolyn did, unfortunately, hang tight for a while to her belief that she could hold onto her husband. Hard to say if her version of their relationship is accurate or not. I do believe her account of what happened, but I also believe that he was a smooth talking guy who probably had similar conversations with his other two wives as well as all those other women. This obviously has to be a biased book, it involves the woman's marriage, I should not expect her to be able to look at things too objectively.

I guess the reason I call this book only "all right" is in part for selfish reasons (I like Neal Cassady, I like Allen Ginsberg, I like the Grateful Dead, I like Ken Kesey), the same things I appreciate about the book, such as her bitterness and jealousy, are the same things that kept me from fully enjoying it. The other reason I call this book merely "all right" is because Carolyn is not a writer. Joyce Johnson's memoir "Minor Characters" blows Cassady out of the water. While Cassady's life seems to have revolved around her husband, Johnson's somewhat brief affair with Kerouac is not her only claim to fame. She is an author in her own right and quite a good one. So Cassady's book reads more like a biography and Johnson's more like a novel. Which is all right. But still kept the book from being the sort of thing I would reread over and over.

And for the record, to respond to someone's questions about the author's facts - I don't believe Carolyn states that Kerouac died on Oct. 31, but rather that is when she found out about it. Also, he did not die on the 20th, but rather the 21st.

great portrait of cassady and kerouac.......2002-03-02

As great as the Beat fiction is, and life-changing as On the Road is, we get too caught up with the fictitive personas of the Beats. It's nice to see the side of Kerouac, Cassady, and Ginsberg that didn't make it into the novels. I'm sure Carolyn's viewpoint is skewed a little, but so is what we read in On the Road. Between her work and their work we can get a picture of what they were like, not as legends, but as men.

There are times when Carolyn bogs down with too much detail, or too much whining, or patches that just aren't great writing, but all in all it is a good biography, autobiography, and novel.

If you want to know more, here is a good place to start, along with these books, though you probably have read them by now: Kerouac's On the Road and The Dharma Bums; Cassady's The First Third; Perry and Babb's On the Bus; Ginsberg's Howl

Another Party Heard From.......2002-01-20

It was interesting hearing about Kerouac & Cassady
from a woman's point of view, especially a woman who
was so intimately connected to the dynamic duo. She
dwelt on the negative ramifications a bit too much for
my taste, but then again, these have never been really
examined in much detail prior to this books release.
For those of you who have at least a passing interest
in the beats, I would recommend this book.

Why don't you whine a little more, Carolyn?.......2001-11-13

I read near-obsessively, and this is one of the few books from the past four years that I've started and not been able to finish.

When Carolyn Cassady isn't attempting to elicit readers' sympathy for her as the poor, neglected wife of beat luminary Neil Cassady, she's trying to claim that Neil's genius excuses said neglect. Ultimately, neither pity nor admiration for Carolyn is possible.

Book Description

Neal Cassady was a living legend, his dauntless, wild spirit immortalized in the bible of the Beat generation, Jack Kerouac's On the Road. In this vivid account, Neal's wife captures the turbulence and raw excitement of her years with Cassady, with Kerouac (her sometime lover), and with poet Allen Ginsberg—an intense rival for Neal's affections. The love triangles, nomadic lifestyles, and feverish creative impulses of those at the forefront of this explosive movement are recalled with the clarity that only Carolyn Cassady can offer. Reverberating with all the intensity of the legendary era it chronicles, Off the Road is the authentic story of the people who brought this country into the 1960s.

Average customer rating:

Excellent book on the origins of the Pacific War

Readable

Empires in the Balance: Japanese and Allied Pacific Strategies to April 1942
H. P. Willmott
Manufacturer: Naval Inst Pr
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Japan | Asia | History | Subjects | Books
General | Europe | History | Subjects | Books
General | Military | History | Subjects | Books
General | World War II | Military | History | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

The War with Japan: The Period of Balance, May 1942-October 1943 (Total War Series, Number 1)

A Gathering Darkness: The Coming of War to the Far East and the Pacific, - (Total War:New Perspectives on World War II, 3)

Shattered Sword: The Untold Story of the Battle of Midway

Touched with Fire: The Land War in the South Pacific

The First Team: Pacific Naval Air Combat from Pearl Harbor to Midway

ASIN: 0870215353

Customer Reviews:

Excellent book on the origins of the Pacific War.......2003-12-30

Superbly well written book on how the Pacific War orginated and the basic thought pattern of the Japanese military thought prior to their attack on Pearl Harbor. I thought the author did an very good job in analyzing and thinking through the military, economic and political situation prior to the Pacific War. The book also goes into what the allies were thinking as well and their strategies in responding to the Japanese moves. The book covered the period up to April 1942. By then, allies strategic plans have gone down the wastebasket with Singapore and Bataan falling to the outnumbered Japanese. When I initially read this book, it was one of the first time I realized that the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor may not have been a big as success as we Americans often thought it was. I realized now that Admiral Yamamoto's objective at Pearl Harbor should have been the naval base at Pearl Harbor instead of the ships. In many ways, the battleships were unimportant element in the overall scheme of thing. The base, was far more important then any group of ships! Interesting insight such as this can be found throughout this book which make it somewhat a necessary for any one interested in the Pacific War to read.

Readable.......2002-06-14

This is basically a book which examines Japan's rise to Empire, its motives for attacking the United States and starting the Pacific War, and the first six months of the course of the conflict.

The book's author is a reasonably prolific writer whose style is easy to read and unlike some popularisers he has a good grasp of his topic.

Japan's history is interesting as it opened up to the West and modernised at the time that the European Powers had carved up most of Asia and Africa as their private fiefdoms. The gospel of the time was a book written by Admiral Mahan called the Importance of Sea Power in History. Japan caught up in the fashions of the time decided to embark on the quest of Empire. They built a large army and navy to assist them. The basic problem was that to gain an empire they would have to divest someone else of it as most of the known world had been carved up.

Japan initially attacked China and Russia. By allying with Britain and fighting in the First World War it was able to gain a number of pacific Islands. During the 30's it embarked on a series of wars with China which gave it a huge amount of territory. The problem was that this antagonised the United States who imposed an oil embargo to try to stop the Chinese war. Japan was a country which was totally dependant on imported oil to supply its war machine. The embargo meant that it had about one years oil for its ships and about six months aviation fuel. Faced with either giving in or attacking, Japan decided on the later.

In reality this was a stupid decision. The Japanese by declaring war immediately started to have problems. It was reliant on imported raw materials for its industry and it imported food. The basis of its trade system was the use of foreign ships as well as its own. By declaring war Japan immediately lost the ability to use foreign ships. With its existing merchant marine Japan was barely able to transport essentials. In addition it had to conquer the oil rich areas of Indonesia within six months to be able to keep its economy going. It did not have enough Tankers to move the oil from the conquered regions if it was successful.

The reality of course was that Japan had stopped operating as a state in the early 1920's. Since that time authority had fragmented so that the decision to invade China rather than being the result of some considered policy was undertaken by army units which did not recognisee the central civil authority. Japan limped along with the real power being located in the various armed services but in reality even this power was fragmented.

The miracle was of course that in the first six months the Japanese were victorious everywhere. Of course after that they never won a battle.

This book is interesting as it explains the process. It is strongest in talking about the Japanese history and motives prior to the war. The coverage of the early campaigns is very readable but falls into some traps of previous histories.

For example the Japanese invasion of Malaya was against numerically superior forces. The numbers in favour of the defence was 5:2. For the British to lose required massive incompetence. In this campaign the British command effectively was hopeless dispersing its armies allowing them to be defeated in detail. Even at the point of surrender the Japanese had run out of ammunition and were about to withdraw. The author however accepts that there was some inevitability to what happened.

In much the same way, although he is critical of MacArhur in the Philippines, he again seems to accept the inevitability of Japanese victory. This is despite the fact that the American forces again were about twice that of the invading army, that the defending forces had tanks and aircraft and that the Japanese were poorly supplied.

Despite these minor criticisms the book is well researched and readable.

Average customer rating:
Empires in the Balance Japanese and Allied Pacific Strategies to April 1942
H.P. Willmott
Manufacturer: Naval Institute Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000OFIWJW

Average customer rating:
EMPIRES IN THE BALANCE. Japanese and Allied Pacific Strategies to April 1942.
H.P.: Willmott
Manufacturer: Pan
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000W2S7BK

Book Description

In practically all the peacekeeping operations of the 1990s, a postconflict reconstruction gap of almost one year separates the end of military peacekeepers' mission of halting mass violence from the start of removing mines as well as rebuilding and repairing the host country's physical infrastructure: roads and bridges, public utilities, and buildings.

In this timely work, Colonel Garland Williams analyzes the postconflict reconstruction gap in three case studies—Bosnia, Kosovo, and Afghanistan—and shows how military engineering brigades accompanying peacekeeping contingents can be put to use immediately after the conflict ends to restore vital infrastructure and social institutions. In the book's concluding chapter, Williams proposes changes in U.S. national security decision making to integrate military engineering brigades into postconflict reconstruction, thus making U.S. military officials less wary of "mission creep" and nation-building.

Book Description

A comprehensive, clearly structured and readable overview of the subject, Introduction to Environmental Impact Assesment quickly established itself as the leading introduction to EIA. The second edition introduced and developed many issues of growing importance to the student and practioners of EIA are introduced and developed, for example:
* The ammendments to the EC EIA Directive
* Best Practice in the EIA process
* Major reviews of EIA effectiveness
* Comparative EIA systems worldwide
* Changing Prospects for EIA

The third edition, includes all the latest thinking on EIA and in particular, brings in the most recent changes to the UK legislative context in chapter three.

The book includes comprehensive appendices with a wealth of important reference material. Written by three authors with extensive research, training and practical experience of EIA, this book brings together the most up-to-date infornation from many sources.

Introduction to Environmental Impact Assessment, 3rd Edition not only provides a complete introductory text but will also support further studies. Students on undergraduate and postgraduate planning programmes will find it essential as a course text, as will students of enviromental management/policy, enironmental sciences/studies, geography and the built enviroment. Planners, developers and decision makers in government and business will also welcome the new edition as a very effective means of getting to grips with this important subject.

Books:

Books Index

Books Home

Recommended Books