In this book's opition.....
345676
Guide is good and covers everything I've come across.  One frustrating thing about cacti is that different books have different names (common and scientific) for the same cactus.  I don't know which - if any - would be considered the "correct" one, but this book seems to include many of the slang names by which a lot of cacti are known.  Bought this book primarily to help ID some of the cacti we run across in west Texas.
3788401
Yes, the book, like others have mentioned, is not unbiased. You'd be advised to go into it knowing that you're going to have to read around the bias to get something out of this book. However, I imagine that if you already realize that this book is biased then you won't drink the Kool-Aid.

There are things I like about this book. It is straight forward and clear. I like the fact that the author has kept chapter lengths reasonable without a lot of unneeded fluff.
3858405
I like the premise of the book...lots of good points...but it reads like a story in many places...so not really a reference you can turn to for quick tips, you have to invest yourself in reading it from cover-to-cover.  Still the author brings up a lot of great points.  I would buy it again, however realize you will need to set some time aside to read it.
3393997
Daniel, I read your book with avid interest.
 If I were to summarize (as you so eloquently pointed our brains compartmentalize all information) this book, I would do so in a following sentence
 "Listen to what the other person states in a given moment about a particular question and his/ her emotional state when asked and don't think his or her opinion will be more off then your own imagination."

I did have an issue with us humans being the same...sure we all have arms, legs, breathe oxygen, BUT when it comes to morality, (some are more likely to help an old lady cross the street, and some over come by greed would  strip an old lady of her last cent.  How does that equate us humans on a large scale? Why some people are more prone to do random acts of kindness and some are more prone to violence? Where is the equality there if we are all just grapes on a vine?

 Thank you for your research and ideas!
1065233
This is an excellent book but not what I had expected.
2006727
I like the book. Althought it has some errors.
Organizing of this book is not as well as it should.
The practical elements should a little be changed.
But over all it is a very good book for some one like me to start with. I go to a class every week, where they teach this book. Everyday, my teacher comes to class with photocopies of some exercise, which were printed from other books, I mean this book should have more exercises.
1920139
this is a good book and mr silman is a good author ... above average actually and very helpful in tactics especially ... i think the other positive reviews here and with his other 'classic' tome, 'reassess your chess', he is a well-known and well-thought of author ...

however, a couple of problems for me ...

starting games in the middle and listing the moves as 1. .... ok i understand his explaination etc but seriously, it is not that difficult to list all the previous moves up to the move he was to start with and also frankly, this is confusing ... i know it shouldn't be but something that helps with competent consistent play is finding things as you expect them ... this only makes me look at the page a bit bewildered at the move numbers ... perhaps this is nothing to be listing but i found it confusing ... and why not list the moves leading up to the position? you're talking about an inch of page space ... seriously, considering how poorly most chess books are formatted, i don't think this makes a difference ...

and also, as i mentioned in a comment on another review, he mentions several times that he YELLED at students making a wrong move ... YELLED ... at a chess student ... seriously ... this put a serious damper on my respect for mr silman ... i have taught over several periods in my life including teaching chess ... NEVER have i YELLED AT A STUDENT ... EVER ... PERIOD ... first off, it is pointless ... the issue does not become whatever the issue might have been but becomes YOU YELLING AT A STUDENT, you letting yourself FEED ON YOUR EMOTIONS... BE AN ADULT ... my god, i just was turned off completely reading this and frankly, whatever he had to tell me in his book after that didn't reach me ...

sorry ... this is disgraceful behavior for a teacher and frankly for a parent or a coach ... unless you're coaching big time sports, stop yelling at kids ... it solves NOTHING ...

so two stars ... because after you start yelling NOTHING else gets thru ...
2719133
I like where the author is going with this and agree to most of it, but not ready to buy into all of it. I think it needs more study, but well worth reading and considering.
4215291
...but you are not another Ben Hogan when it comes to writing a Golf book.  Players seldom teach as good as they play.  Please don't get me wrong I enjoy the book and I refer to it a lot but it is kind of technical from a golf pro player and sometimes I don't understand.

Good book, I really like it
4538468
I disagree with the one poster's assertion that it offers "few facts".  For a work of fiction, it actually contains quite a number of facts (though I understand the quote often attributed to Pope Leo X both in this book and elsewhere is misattributed).

If you're a gung-ho, believe it all (or most) Christian, you wouldn't like this kind of book anyway ... and could have guessed that you wouldn't by reading the description of the book.
813388
...but, for people who is pretty visual this book may not be the best choice. For an important step as it is to change an eating habit to a healthier way pictures of each recipe its a must.
3876646
THis was a good book.  There are some interesting reads here, and certainly some parts of the book go faster than other parts.  It can get bogged down in some places.  There is some really good stuff here, and I do recommend this book, but it is not for someone who doesn't understand what Remote VIewing is or what it's potential is.  While there is a nice portion of the book that deals with these subjects, it is not filled with the "WOW" that would make a novice Remote Viewer reader to persue the issue any further...I THINK...But I could be wrong.  It is good and a worthwile addition to any book collection.
2779546
.... it's still worth a read. Some of the less favorable reviews have complained that the protagonist, Mae lacks depth, that the narrative is a bit facile, and these are actually reasonable criticisms. But as I read the book, I found myself thinking that these potential problems are actually part of the point. Is Mae a bit shallowly drawn? She is, because she's a creature of the modern age - assuaging doubts and fears with online interactions that provide a quick hit of relief from loneliness and doubts. If "The Circle" feels like it's skating on the surface all the time, I think it's intentional - Eggers is showing us a world where human interaction is forced into a simplistic model of "smiles" and "frowns" and "zings" and those who participate operate on that level - with uncomfortable flashes that something isn't right, which Mae has in spades. The preferred solutions of course is another round of "smiles."

This could easily go wrong and be incredibly trite but I think Eggers avoids that. His comic sense is right on the mark, and the scenes where Mae gets one new screen to watch after another are really funny; he's also got the Valley empty-speak down pat. The messianic tone of the Wise Old Men's speeches about the power of their online social world seem a bit ridiculous, but go to a social media conference (I've been!) and you'll hear very much the same thing.

It's funny. And by showing us Mae, the Everywoman of the brave new world, seeing her actual life crowded out and coopted by her new life at the Circle, Eggers makes it work.

Shortly before reading "The Circle," I happened across a Facebook post in which someone shared the death of beloved pet. I noticed that just below it someone "liked" it. It's the reflexive way of showing empathy within a weird construct like Facebook, and I was simultaneously appalled and yet understood what the person who clicked that little thumbs up button was trying to do. When human experience is mediated by a simplistic system but omnipresent structure, the results are both powerful and horrible.

That's what "The Circle" shows us, with dry wit and a bit of disgust. And the ending? It couldn't have any other ending, or it would pull its punches.

Read it, and think about next time you're "sharing" your life online.
1314351
For me it is THE book of the last few years.

My background is technical. Some reviewers have complained that it touches too much on biographies and too little on "complexity". There may well be a lot of "humanity" in it. The end result, the overall effect, though [for me, of course] was spectacular.
3586315
I'm finding it fascinating that folks are criticizing this book out of being offended that the author came to all these different conclusions and ideas based on the story of Ganesha. What does that say about the book? It says that it's controversial and a lot of people don't like having their religious ideas dissected, related to things they may not have thought of (that Ganesha is phallic) and turned into a dry study. Does that make this a bad book? No.

I am Hindu. I do worship Ganesha. I will say I did find the book in some parts fascinating and other times dry. I found the reading about all the variations of the Ganesha origin story not offensive but interesting because it makes you step back outside of yourself to look at the bigger picture. Yes, the author does seem phallically obsessed, though I wouldn't call it offensive for tone reason ... who says he's right? It's his opinion, yet so many of the comments here treat his opinion like it's high and mighty. It's just an opinion no worse or better than any other. Let alone, every other religion in the world gets dissected, so why can't Hinduism? No one has a problem when Jesus is turn from a real man to a myth, but yet to turn Ganesha into a study brings out the militia. For me, what the author does is push the story to the limit in every direction to try to uncover everything he can about the idea of Ganesha in all contexts.

Now, I will say that it is not the book I thought it was going to be when I bought it. I thought it would be more 'human', more 'real life', more 'actual practice' of the worship of Ganesha. I thought it would praise Ganesha through an in-depth study of the story and the facets of Ganesha. It doesn't. It discusses every type of incestuous relationship possible but it never discusses the life and soul of Ganesha that is what most of us turn to. It does not discuss the magic of Ganesha. Well, it does, but in a dry, abstract way that lacks in inspiration. This is not a book for someone who wants to deepen their belief and I think that's the problem with it and that's what folks are expecting. It's a textbook that isn't going anywhere that advertises it as something else.
4863133
This is a good book, not great!!
The introduction chapter is great to get an overview over the different resources and regimens.
The rest of the book is about the different techniques and many exercises.
I found most of the techniques to be a bit too theoretical and too simplistic. If you have an engineering background you have heard of most of these in one way or other.
Some of the techniques are powerful, however, the context and the exercises are to simple to teach the applied form of these techniques.

With that said, it is an easy/quick book to read, worth both the money and the invested time.

//Shahram
78630
As being an Azerbaijani, I also claim to the picture which is on the cover of the book. Azeri men don't wear this kind of dress which is called "turban" or whatever.

It shows that how much the author knows about Azerbaijan, its history, people and respectively, their culture and traditions. Standing from this point of view, in addition, i would say that his ideas given in the book more likely don't reflect the reality as the cover picture. It might not be truth (i wish), yet still i highly recommend the picture to be replaced by a picture, in next volumes, that represnts real Azerbaijan, Azerbaijanis and the culture, history and traditions that they possess.