Really jumbled with interesting information
354142
that they rehash over and over again to get to their 256 page press minimum.  VERY IMPORTANT information about state of the art resuscitation that you should be sure are implemented in your local hospital.  VERY TENTATIVE (don't want to be written off too fast by conventional doctors) regarding our consciousness's connection to our bodies.  They dip their toes into those scary waters a dozen times with out ever jumping in.  I guess the author is trying to insinuate un-western consciousness paradigm's without jeopardizing his career.
4320932
Lots of detail, but also lots of wrong information and unchecked details.  Enough sloppy work to make me doubt what I read in this account.
2056520
The topic was interesting but many things just didn't make sense, mostly with timelines. Background information on the women was sparse or confusing.  The whole book just reminded me of a first draft of a history project by a middle school student.
2198149
Extremely disorganized. This information might be ok, but it's so badly presented it doesn't matter because it's almost incomprehensible. Where is the editor?
1695487
This book had lots of nuggets of interesting information but it is poorly written and edited and can be a very confusing read.  The author skips around and repeats herself making this book hard to follow.  I would  recommend you read the author's second book "Dear Companion..."  about her incarnation as Thomas Jefferson's wife.
3247111
The book seems disorganized and anecdotal in some respects. Almost a steam of consciousness approach for a topic which, in my estimate, does not lend itself to this kind of narrative.
2050242
This book was not what I expected, so I agree with the other review it should be called "history of syracuse china".  I was looking for patterns, but decided to take the challenge, keep the book, and read on.  I did, and there was some surprisingly good information in it.  However, it was very confusing because the author and editor must believe the reader knows as much as they do.  It should have started with a step-by-step description (with pictures) of pottery making and definitions of all the terms used.  Coopers, saggers, glost kilns, etc., were brought into the text with no idea of what they were.  Also, people were introduced into the story with no idea of who they were, explanation or introduction.  It may have come later, but it really takes the flow out of the reading process.
895817
I had to read this book for a graduate level course in 1970's politics; I'm not sure if this is definitely not the book for people who were not alive during this time, or if it was just me. But being as I was born in 1984 I was really feeling out of the loop while reading this. I also kept finding the authors writing to be very jumpy and he really moves very quickly from 1974 to 1968 and then to 1972 in a couple of paragraphs. It's just very disjointed writing. I suppose it would be interesting for someone who was there but for myself, not having lived through this time period, I did not find this particularly interesting or well put together.
3254595
Not easy reference and too much information for me.
Kind of a mumble jumble order.
I have already put it in my yard sale items.
4404439
This book has a great deal of valuable information in it, but it is so hard to follow. The author obviously did a great deal of research, but jumps back and forth in time, location, and characters. I really wish it was presented in a more continuous fashion with some kind of storyline instead of a list of dates and facts.
784004
There is a lot of very useful content but also a lot of fluff added to this book. I am not sure why authors include entire legal acts that are available easily in the public domain into a book. Such public domain information contributes to nearly 50% of the book volume. The author has also included several articles written - though useful is also available in the public domain on his website. There is a lot of analysis that is very useful.
3394348
Book contains much interesting information but is almost impossible to make sense out of it due to many, many misspelled words .  The book is also full of words sprinkled with dollar signs, slashes, ampersands, etc. in between the letters of the words.
2564496
There is a lot of fluff and un-necessary information here just for the sake of filling pages. If you manage to go through all the fluff there are some good info as well.
2525549
Some really interesting stuff in this book - generally all of the biographical information.  However, this material could be condensed down to about 5 - 6 pages, and then wrapped up with a nice, neat page conclusion.  Instead, it spirals out of control into a list of, "then this group from Guatemala played it, and it was like Jeff Buckley's version, then this guy from Estonia played it and it was like John Cale's version but with Cohen's lyrics, then a group from Finland played it, then another Scandinavian group, and a couple more Scandinavian groups after them - Northern Europeans are SO ahead of the curve..."  ad nauseum.

Honestly, I was really excited for some critical analysis, but it reads more like an AP English paper or Rolling Stone article that drones on 200 pages too long.
647714
I did enjoy this book - the amount of information was astounding!

However, it was extremely disjointed in places - jumping from cousin to cousin to cousin without even much warning. I've studied Queen Victoria's family (though mostly Alix of Hesse/Russia) for quite some time, but I found it difficult to keep track of who was whom. (Particularly when marriages were entered into the story....God, trying to sort out who was married to whom was...interesting.)

I have to agree with several reviewers about the favoritism; there was far too much about Marie of Romania and not enough about the others.

All in all, I thought that the story (and by story I mean 'biography') could have been presented better, and more organized, than it was.
4895260
There was some good information especially if you're not familiar with the positive training mode. It would have been a really good book if someone had sat down and organized the material before going to print. The book reads like a collection of random thoughts not put into any type of chronological or systematic organization. For instance, a section on house training the dog was near the end of the book after sections on how to train your dog to complete a blind retrieve.
1157856
While using this book in American History I found that is contained a lot of information(some that I really did not want to know.) The chapters are very long and tedious.  It does not go in chronological order but rather spends about four chapters going over the different aspects of a certain  time period in American History.