The danger of non-peer revieved data but worth a read

I recommend this book. However read below.<br /><br />My PhD supervisor told me that data which could not pass the peer review process might make it if published in a book. On reading this publication one feels that this is precisely what has been done. To be sure, peer reviewers can sometime ask too much of their authors and (from bitter experience) can be very blinkered - a book is often the only way in which data may be published free from the shackles of the peer review process. On the other hand a peer reviewed paper does give the reader more comfort and, it must be said, less cause for the exercise of caution.<br /><br />The central thesis is that inequality leads to"societies doing better". Whilst one can see a good social argument for reducing inequality so that those who are worse off become better off (though in a Pareto efficient way so that those who are better of do not become worse off) the proposition is only meaningful if it can be proven - what the book attempts to do. Whether it achieves this is another matter. This reviewer, for one, is not sure that it has been achieved. Further, and this is perhaps the main criticism of the book, an equally good book could be written showing that such a proposition could not be proved or indeed suggesting further, better measures for social welfare or inequality.<br /><br />The first measure seems to be income inequality and not inequality per se and the second seems to be some sort of vague unexplained measure which can mean many things to many people. Correlations are established so that on one view, on one planet, in one mind it could be said that there is a relation between income inequality and social welfare. Although necessarily subjective, in this reviewer's view the authors fail to provide a convincing argument that there is any causal relationship between social welfare and income inequality.<br /><br />However, that said, I would recommend this very readable book. You certainly come away thinking about the issues more clearly. Whether you agree with them is ultimately up to you and not for a reviewer to decide.

The Secret

I think this is a good book and some of it is common sense. Will read it through and then go through it again. Keep an open mind.

Memoirs of a Political Hypochondriac

Mandelson should have called his book"Memoirs of a Political Hypochondriac", as his main concern throughout the 566 pages is his own role.<br /><br />This must read for any inhabitant of the Westminster pressure cooker confirms what most of us during the New Labour years suspected:<br />- That New Labour was all spin and no substance, run buy a clique of political busybodies around"Tony" whose primary concern was media appearance to create a semblance of policy. It seems that seldom in the history of humankind has so little been achieved by so few.<br />- That despite consistent denial during New Labour's reign, the relationship between Tony Blair and Gordon Brown - perhaps New Labour's only man of substance - was thoroughly dysfunctional. The cogs were broken. <br /><br />Tony Blair's memoirs due out soon will undoubtedly read as another attempt to document the lasting legacy from New Labour, however his years in office will be marked primarily as a period in which Britain's future was mortgaged by Gordon Brown piling up unsustainably high debts and Blair himself taking the country to war on entirely the wrong premises.

good, but...

...ive never been the type that can sit and concentrate on something so dull! its good value for money but i bought this in conjunction with the Driving Test Success dvd rom and it kept my interest a bit better than this book.

North Korea

I thought this was an excellent book. Given that entering North Korea is difficult for anyone, let alone US journalists, Barbara Demick has done the best anyone could to understand this bizarre state, through the device of talking to exiles.<br /><br />She befriended and talked to 5 or 6 people, men and women of different ages and backgrounds. Their stories reveal the oddity, not to say brutality, of North Korea and, by inference, the personality of the Dear Leader, Kim Jong-Il, who even now rules the country as his own personal fiefdom.<br /><br />What you don't learn is why it has proved so difficult for the rest of the world to bring North Korea out of the darkness. Perhaps if there were giant oilfields there, something would have been done...<br /><br />Other strange and autocratic states have improved over the years: some close to home, such as Albania, others further afield. There are plenty more to go: Uzbekistan and one or two others in Central Asia, Belarus on the edge of Europe, and of course Burma, which still rules its people cruelly and remains a blot on the conscience of the EU, which has done little to change the situation apart from make pious statements. Books like this one are vital components in the quest to bring such human rights abuses more into the public consciousness.

An entertaining and informative book.

The Game is the first book I decided to buy about pick up artists. I found it well written, informative and entertaining. I recommend it as a first read before you decide to buy in to the whole Pick Up Artist scene because this book tells you about bad stuff along with the good. If you're looking for tips on how to be a pick up artist this book really isn't it. It isn't that there aren't any, there are, but this book is more Neil's story about how he gets in to the scene and how for a while at least it almost takes him over.<br /><br />The Game can become an obsession and if you get in to it, especially if you start attending and paying for boot camps and seminars, it will change you. These changes can of course be good but there are also pitfalls and this book mentions these in perhaps more detail than most other books, seminars and boot camps on the subject.<br />

apt: THE SKY OUTLIVES EVERYTHING.

Little did I guess how apt this choice of book would be. 'Three Cups of Tea' by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin, centred on Pakistan, not simply brought back some poignant memories of my visit there quite a few years ago but its message of hope, inspiration and depth of feeling was particularly apt, as reading it coincided with the ghastly tragedy of the floods. <br /><br />In Chapter 16, the Balti poet, Bowa Johar is quoted as saying 'All is temporary. The sky outlives everything. Even suffering.'<br /><br />Food for thought, indeed.<br /><br /><br />Jack Lynes. Pinner. Middlesex UK.

Prescription for moving into action

This is not just a read - albeit an essential read as other reviewers have said. This book is a call to action. Forget the Book Club format of just sitting around discussing and socialising, this book requires action. Direct accounts of life experiences, often shocking but always inspiring, means that our lives and the lives of those in this book directly connect and these are presented in such a way that we cannot ignore the connection, nor can we remain passive.<br /><br />It is a call to action where individuals can respond at the local level or the global - you choose. But for those of us privileged to have choices in our lives - we must choose what from of action to take in response to this inspiring book.<br /><br />The implications are too great, the potential change too profound. <br /><br />Indeed, not just an amazing read...

Like it!

Its a nice way to learn!<br /><br />Not useful in case you want to rush and finish the Theory test asap!<br /><br />I like realising where I go wrong while driving, must mix-n-match the book lessons with practical driving :)<br /><br />Never imagined it to be a 400 page one though :O<br /><br />(I'm still reading it though, will edit the review after Theory Test!)

Voice over option does not work

Be careful! The voice over option does not work as mentioned. Tried it on XP as well as Vista.

Bomb Disposal: Is PTSD the inevitable cost of surviving this role?

I was interested to read this book having seen the author speak in a short TV programme in a very clear, modest and detailed way about his experiences in Iraq as a bomb disposal officer. The book did not disappoint. It gave a very clear explanation of his interest in following his father into the Army and showed how his upbringing prepared him so well for such a career. His father showed him how important commitment and thoroughness were as values to live by.<br /><br />His own interpretation of commitment to his career was to volunteer for what was the most dangerous role on offer. It is also the most protective role, of others, that a serviceman can volunteer for. In that regard Captain Ivison's book shows how the protective bond that soldiers develope leads some to that capability of taking on the most dangerous job going, even when the odds are so heavily stacked against you, that some might be tempted to say"you are mad to do this".<br /><br />But, what do we, who look on as civilians from afar know about this? It is hard for us to understand it when we are befogged by political controversy over the Iraq and Afghan wars. We can learn in this book that the Services give their 100% and more in the tasks they are set by Politicians. We will realise when considering this account that they deserve the same degree of scrupulous honesty in the decision making that preceeds the order to go to war. Likewise we realise that they deserve to be supplied appropriately and to do less is damaging and hurtful to their best efforts.<br />Above all this book is a very personal account of one man's suffering of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. How it developed in the author is outlined in a gripping and frightening account of the run up to the most challenging task he faced in Iraq. You are left exhausted by his description of how he felt psychologically after he left his colleagues, to whom he had been so inextricably joined. His story shows that despite the Services and their Medical Teams awareness of PTSD there remains a hesitancy to respond to a hero's cry for help. We come away from this book and ask"Could I ever risk myself for others as this man did?" No, will be our reply.

Traffic Signs

A really useful and mandatory handy guide that all drivers new and old should read.

Freakonomics

I found the book interesting in it's approach to solving everyday questions by using data that is in the public domain. The part dealing with the sale of estate agents own property is worth the cost of the book on it's own. <br /><br />A good read, it's American origin is obvious but it's content enjoyable and thought provoking nonetheless.

Huge disappointment

My company sent me to a management course of 3 sessions, each 2 days long, based on this book. The course was very good, and consequently I bought the book. This was a huge disappointment. It is amazing how the author managed to write 370+ pages, where most of it are, in my opinion, irrelevant personal reflections (e.g. on his relation with his daughter) that can hardly be translated in some useful advise to others. The book could be condensed in 100 pages, to become, well ... more effective.<br />After 50 pages I started to jump ahead, soon I got tired of it, and now I will donate it to the local library. I do not consider it worth to take a place on my shelf.

Gibberish

To an extent I would agree with some comments that the book may be an aid for those who need to understand how to study, but, I believe that it would only be of real assistance to those who have been out of education for a while and are returning perhaps as mature students<br /><br />My only reason for buying this nonsense was due to it being on my reading list at University. It is filled with common sense extensively padded out by hollow psychobabble gibberish about personal development. Essentially, making good notes is good, revising is good; you don't need this patronising text to realise this and be a good student.<br />

Things you always knew

Excellent summary of all aspects of modern life, contrasted by extensive reference to historic philosophers and modern research. Very dense, have read it once, and am now dipping into it again to remnd me of all the issues. Read it if you like a challenge to conventional wisdom.

The Mindful Way through Depression: Freeing Yourself From Chronic Unhappiness

I have read quite a few books on mindfulness recently and for someone suffering from depression who doubts reading any book will really help them, think again. The book explains exactly why 'thinking' about depression, only makes the depression worse and rather than offer a 'cure' for depression, this shows how mindfulness is a tool for sufferers of depression to make it possible to live with and control it, rather than let the depression control them (and how they live). Just remember to read this book MINDFULLY!

An Intriguing and Unique Look at Berlin During WW11

Roger Moorhouse's latest book, Berlin at War, is a fascinating new look at what life was like for the citizens of Germany during the Second World War. Unusually, rather than focussing on the devastation inflicted on the allied countries, or the horrendous actions of the holocaust, Moorhouse has here examined the suffering experienced by the everyday German people living in Berlin during the war. Some of the experiences are tragic and heartbreaking, some are downright horrific. For me, having studied history at school and been interested in the events of World War Two on an amateur level, I was startled to think how little we question what the Germans experienced, so caught up are we in the sufferings of the persecuted Jews and the war-ravaged allied cities. In fact, they are more often than not bundled into a box with the leaders of the Third Reich and labelled"the enemy" in our minds. This book is a much needed documentary of the experiences of war time Berliners. It forces the reader to reassess our attitude of what we constitute as `the Germans' in World War Two.<br /><br />

Wonderful

A wonderfully written and insightful account of the life and work that went on at Bletchley Park, before and during the war. <br /><br />It is doubtful - in this day and age - that such work - in such basic circumstances would ahve survived un-noticed - although obviously things have brown and become much more complex these day - per GCHQ.<br /><br />The people, the thoughts and the hard work involved in these earlier days of code breaking come off the page as living memories. These people were - until comparitively recently - he unsung heroes and heroins of WWII. The hard work and endeavour that they put in - with little or no public support - is outstanding. The long hours, the shifts. Dealing with 'intellectuals' who were - in modern day terms at least - on the brink of a nearvous breakdown and liable to have 'eureka' moments at the drop of a hat. The un-nerving knowledge that these people had at their fingertips, the secrecy adn absolute hush-hush atmosphee that surrounded the place.<br /><br />What come across most tho' is the pride - in the correct sense of the word - that these people had in the work that they were doing. From the typists and messangers up to the cryptographers and academics. They were not only doing it for Britain, but they were doing it for the people of Britain, and for the Soldiers, Sailors and Airmen in whose hands their lives sometimes depended.<br /><br />There are storie of pure luck, of leaps of ingenuity. Stories of love and fierce fallouts and anger between friends of longstanding.<br /><br />Stories of people arriving at a small railway station, seemingly in the middle of nowhere, in the pitch black, no-one arround and only brief directins of how to go from the station to the house. Stories of people travelling from as far afield as Inverness - having never left Scotland before - to people of more 'respectable' circles. Deutauntes, Oxbridge scholars, chess champions. Wrens and other military personnel put to a use which they never thought possible.<br /><br />Yet there is an informality which comes from the story also. no uniforms were worn - whcih - at least initially - seemed to bamboozle the more died-in-the-wool milatary people. People met their future wives and husbands. People who would not have met at all had it not been for Bletchley Park.<br /><br />This is a book about love and about hardwork. A book brilliantly written about those to whom we must for ever give our thanks. Without these people we might not have the freedom(s) we so readily take for granted these days.<br /><br />Very much recommended to those who enjoy a good yarn, and to those who are fascinated with Bitish history. Even if you are not a historian or find hostory dry and dull - this book will pull you along with the real-life happenings of these ordinary - and sometime extraordinary - people who did all the codebreaking in secret and never told a soul about it.<br /><br />Wonderful.