Might be a good first book, but that's about it
593845
If you know nothing about the Adjustable Gastric Band, then this MIGHT be a good book for you to start with.  Personally, after doing much research myself already, I found this book to be a waste of time.  I bought it at the recommendation of my surgeon, but I am going to tell him about the other book that I read (which I DO recommend - see later note).

Reading this book made me feel like the author thought that I was stupid.  The information in the book is based so much on common sense and tells about information that you will pick up in your first visit to an online site or a gastric banding seminar.

The organization of this book seems random too.  It seemed to basically be a list of random questions, with little organization.  It jumped from a description of the scars after surgery to what a pre-op diet might be like to whether you should talk to your friends and family about the surgery.

As I said earlier, I got much more useful information from the book:  Weight Loss Surgery with the Adjustable Gastric Band: Everything You Need to Know Before and After Surgery to Lose Weight Successfully by Robert Sewell and Linda Rohrbough.  I would recommend this book 100% over the Jessie Ahroni book.  And the good news is - they both cost about the same amount!
2663360
I've never written a review here before, but I was moved by just how bad this book was to write one now.

While 'Discover Your Inner Economist' does contain some interesting material, it doesn't come close to delivering on its promises.

This book has a number of serious flaws--not in the writing style, which was good.  The biggest is that it is NOT about your Inner Economist.  It just isn't.  Several times, I thought the author was finally heading in that direction and then he didn't.  Mostly the book seems to be an in cohesive collection of his opinions on diverse topics, like eating out and why you shouldn't bribe your kids to do household chores.

Also, he needs an editor, badly. The chapters wander off topic.  One discussion ends and another begins with little transition or apparent reason.  If you pulled almost any chapter out of this book, gave it to a friend to read and asked what the overall book might be about, there would be a different set of answers for each chapter.  And, none of those would involve an Inner Economist.

There are two specific things that really bother me about the book.  In one chapter he talks about signaling and how a great deal of our time and effort is spent signaling our status to others. Later in the book, I really started to wonder if he wrote the book to signal to me (the reader): He writes that he has been to over 100 countries; he eats in the most expensive/fanciest restaurants, etc.

The second is this. The author included a section on books and authors, carefully explaining why not all books are written for the benefit of the reader.  He cited cookbooks written by famous chefs, as an example. After reading the book, I concluded that this is exactly the same situation.
4508375
Nice first book, but the don't bother spending good money on the rest of this series unless you want a repeat of the first book with one different scene.
1456481
Some books provide insight, clear examples, interesting anecdotes, or helpful ways for people to extract meaning from the topic that would have been hard to acquire through simple internet searches. This book does NOT achieve these goals. This book feels like the effort of someone who was told that "to build their personal brand" it would be good if they had written a book and out popped this book. As just one such illustration of its comparative worthlessness, it has code examples which are immediately caveated as not really ready for use in a real environment and then the code -- which was likely cut and pasted from some non-book related source -- is not commented nor explained. It's as if the author is suggesting that by just staring at one more uncommented example (to which there are many on the Internet) the lights are suddenly supposed to come on? Very unlikely. In some cases there does seem to be a recognition that something is missing and the author states that those things left unexplained here will be explained later on as we get further along. Further along never comes.

Anyway, my strong suggestion is save your money. This book will get you less mileage at greater cost than your browser pointing to a few well honed google searches. I recognise that a topic as narrow and with such a small audience as NGINX isn't going to attract nobel laureates but even with diminished expectation this book came up short for me.
2622420
Ruby is a short and sweet novel that could be a promising start to an intriguing series. However, the novel felt very unfinished and could definitely use some key pointers.

PLOT:

To me, Ruby was a non-plot kind of book. Not much happens in the book in my opinion, and I considered it an introduction to a series rather than, well, the first book of a series. However, the synopsis did intrigue me enough to agree to join the blog tour, and the idea was original enough for me to want to continue reading.

A large portion of the novel was predictable. For example, I knew exactly who Ruby would consider as a romantic interest as soon as he was described. Perhaps it's my knack for seeing things, but I sincerely think that I wasn't the only one who caught this as soon as it passed by.

This novel definitely lacked in action and romance. There are few action scenes in the novel, and they certainly weren't very well-described nor realistic-probably because there's usually more resistance to the protagonists when they're fighting. (They can't win everything, you know.) In addition, the romance felt very one-sided: Ruby seemed to have an insane crush (yes, notice that I wrote the word "crush," not "love" or "obsession") for the guy, but he seemed to be entirely impassive. But in the last chapter, he suddenly had a change in heart. This simply is not realistic; there was no build-up in the romance, and I felt incredibly disappointed because of that.

CHARACTER:

Ruby is certainly a Mary Sue. She is the granddaughter of a wealthy witch, she is uber nice times ten billion, she's gorgeous, and she has powers greater than any others'. However, she feels very flat. She never considers her friends (if she even had any) in her previous hometown of Phoenix, Arizona, nor does she dwell more on the fact that her father was murdered. She obediently follows strange requests from letters written from her father, and she is surprisingly willing to accept her role as a powerful white witch. All of this that I'm listing? Unrealistic. Human beings freak out. Big time.

Blaine is the epitome of a bad boy sweet inside. Because he drives a motorcycle and has a bad reputation of being a murderer, he could be considered a literary "bad boy," but he has the guts of a teddy bear. He might act all tough, but when it comes to a girl that he likes (coughcoughRubycough), he melts like chocolate.

WRITING STYLE:

There were numerous grammatical mistakes in the novel, and they unfortunately distracted me from the overall plot and writing. Spelling typos and forgotten punctuation marks abounded in the book, and every time I found an error (which probably happened every page), I cringed inwardly.

I will give Amanda Burke some credit for being great at description. Her incredible detail helped me picture the scenes in my mind clearly, and I was able to follow along easily. Her diction was also superb.

I would like to note, however, that teenagers like Ruby tend not to speak so formally. (Sure, some do-coughcoughmecough-but they are rare exceptions.) Most people don't speak in that fashion if they're from the twenty-first century.

Another problem that bothered me was the frequent change in point of view. I assume that the author was using limited omniscient point of view, but she often shifted into another person's thoughts without warning. I would definitely recommend breaking into different scenes if the author wished to change perspectives.

Overall, Ruby was a promising book that might interest me in the future, but it felt raw and unfinished. Perhaps through a few more edits, I might be more excited to read it.
2359118
I was hoping for much more. There are some interesting aspects to be found in the book. But that's not enough of a reason to go for this book. Anyway, the Authors fatally lack practical experience and that's why they can't contextualize such points. And that's not all that makes it a non-read ...
4824655
The "title" of this book claims that it is "beautifully illustrated" - it's not.  And I don't mean that in the sense that art is personal taste and maybe I just don't like it.  Nope, with a couple of exceptions, it's simply not very well-drawn.  The title also says it's "funny" but unless the author means that in the sense of being highly strange, then nope to that as well.

Starting with a good, basic story concept, this "book" has clearly not been edited at all.  It's full of typos that actually DO make the book a bit funny - like when the brother thinks of his sister as a "sacredly cat" (should be scaredy cat?).  At one point, we learn that she's "not a coward ad Ted thought" and "Amy's shoulder's shaking" ("oh he had to comfort her he thought") is par for the course in a book where punctuation is sprinkled around like pepper, perhaps in the hope that it will land in the right places (for the most part, it hasn't).

The cover of the book - really just a picture to which the author has crudely added the name of the book - implies that the children will be outdoors with all sorts of scary critters.  In reality, they never leave the house and the scariest thing that happens (spoiler alert!) is that they bump into their own family dog.

So if you're looking for that sort of book (which my kids love!) look elsewhere - just one more example of what this book is NOT.

I wish the writer had put more time and attention into this book, which might have succeeded if she had.  But I suspect that the entire purpose of this "book" is to direct readers to the author's so-called "personal blog," which seems to be a dummy site designed to collect email addresses to receive Kindle freebie spam.  Clever marketing tactic?  Maybe... just don't call it a children's book.
4342155
The first book ("Murder on the Menu") was OK, but this was a let-down.

The first book (finished last night & haven't had a chance to review yet) had some errors, but this one was notably worse, particularly given its very abbreviated length.  I hopped online to check because this very short "book" is over at 50% and then it jumps (with no warning or explanation) into an Amber Reed story.  (And, from looking at the author's page, the story inserted is Amber Reed 1.5 [why can't authors just count their stories in whole numbers?] - so why throw someone into what isn't even the first book in another series?)  I see where the first book has an update available, so that may have addressed some of the issues with it.  This one doesn't show that.  (Nor does the description even address that it contains another book or preview of a book.  Even inside the "book" it doesn't say, "Hey, here's a preview of...")  Then, to discover that the author is supposed to be an editor?  Well, that's rather disappointing.  Her work could benefit from a good editor, or at the very least a proofreader.  (No, I'm not talking about differences in Brit. vs American English, either.)

I don't have high expectations of cozies, but I do expect basic spelling and grammar to be correct.  If you don't care enough to go back over your work, why should any of us bother reading it?

The "plot" of this story was simplistic, even for a cozy.  It doesn't seem as if any effort were put into this work.  The first book was decent.  There were some errors, but at least there was a little something to the story.  "Holiday Heist" was more of an afterthought.  If I didn't already have the third book (thankfully free), I wouldn't bother purchasing it.

Why does society accept such sloppiness?
3915023
i liked his first book, i thought i would learn something new, but mistaken, your money is better spent elsewhere
2166281
I'm new to PHP and thought this book might serve as a decent introduction. Up until Chapter 6 on Objects, I was right. Then things got very hairy very quickly.

Since I'm a beginner, it might be best to take my review with a grain - or several - of salt. But immediately after introducing the basic concepts of OOP, the author launches into four pages of very dense code. It includes some very sparse comments intended to be helpful. However, the code continues on and concludes without much in the way of explanation. The author does say that he only intended a brief introduction showing the power and simplicity of OOP. I was left feeling mostly clueless; luckily I know from other languages just how powerful OOP can be.

I'd be interested to see what the author has to say about this and update the review then. After looking through the final chapters, it's clear that the book returns to its good form, so at least worthy of four stars for doing what it set out to do. I just feel that this chapter interrupted the stride of the book and could use some improvement in future editions.
3011393
Rob Rogers clearly has a love for the superhero genre.  A lot of affection was put into this book but that, sadly, isn't enough to save it.  This is clearly Rogers's first book, and it shows in his amateurish writing.  I get the feeling that Rogers wanted this to really be a movie, or a graphic novel, something that uses visuals.  People and places are overly described, dialogue ranges from decent stuff to cheesy one-liners, and tedious scenes are liberally peppered throughout.  While he has several good ideas and uses many conventional superhero tropes well, the story takes a long time to get rolling (the first 100 pages are backstory, most of it unnecessary), and the rest is a slow buildup.  The story doesn't set into a good pace with real action until the last quarter, and by then it's too late.  The anticlimactic final battle doesn't help matters either, and in the end the whole 400-page story feels like a long-winded and rather unsatisfying origin story.  What Rogers has done here is write a prequel no one wants to read to a potential story that might be decent, but at this point I wouldn't pick up anything else set in the Devil's Cape universe, or, more likely, anything else he writes.

2 stars for being a fairly fast and easy read with a few good moments.  If you like superheroes and have nothing else to read, it might entertain you for a while, but overall I cannot recommend Devil's Cape.
933269
For my full review, check out my blog: [...]

This book had lots of potential and there are areas where I feel like it's interesting and well-done. However, as a whole, I just wasn't feeling it. Perhaps because this is supposed to be the beginning of a series, the author felt the need to shoehorn in some things and leave out others that I felt needed more explanation. In the end, I found it a bit lacking. I don't regret reading it, and it was a surprisingly fast read, so I'll say this: check it out from the library or get a cheaper e-book version. I don't think this is a full-price read.
3099219
I accepted a free copy of this book in return for an honest review, and an honest review is what I'll give.
The good points:  The book started off with an interesting not-quite-murder, that left an ancient Egyptian sorcerer entombed in a stone Sphinx. So far so good.  Fast forward a few millennia and we have a 14-year old protagonist with a penchant for mystery and skipping school to visit an ancient stone sphinx at the local museum. The plot had potential and could have developed into some interesting trails.
The bad points: This book is touted for middle grade readers, but the writing style is all over the place.  When writing about the trapped sorcerer, Neb, the style is more in an adult tone, sharper and more interesting to read.  When writing about Jon, the young adventurer, the tone drops down to about 3rd grade level.  Lots of adverbs, as though there aren't enough good descriptive words to convey the message - or maybe the reader couldn't understand anything more mature. Jon is 14, but the tale of his adventures would suit an 8-year old.  Discoveries are abrupt and some of the entanglements don't really have a purpose, such as Neb's confrontation in the desert with his evil adversary. What was that about?
I like middle grade books and many YA books because the plots can be crisp or complex, but the writing is almost always clean - unlike the majority fare that's offered up to adults these days.  I REALLY wanted to like this book, it was short and a fast read, and it had potential. but it just didn't evolve into anything interesting. The resolution was choppy.  If you're looking for something for your middle grade readers, try The Seven Wonders series, or anything written by Brandon Mull, or Rick Riordan's hero novels.
Mr. Bavli, hang in there and try again, but choose your audience next time and stick with it.
110830
I just finished this book and I can't decide whether it was worth the time or not. Lawrence and Nancy Goldstone tell stories about their trips to rare book stores and auctions. They present some really interesting information about rare books they saw, tips about books from dealers, and the intricacies of what makes books rare. Unfortunately, most of this information is rather terse and quite amateur. The Goldstones seemed to have stumbled into the rare book world and they never manage to advance too far within it.

They drive to a bookstore, talk to its owner, look at books they can't afford and almost never buy. They always seem to be broke or unwilling to shell out the dough required to build a valuable library. For them, almost anything over $80-$100 is out of the question. I'm sure they have ticked off a few dealers in their day. They even talk about one dealer who never allowed them to view her books, despite several different attempts to come to the store at a good time for browsing. The dealer must have spotted them the instant they walked through the door. Various excuses were given as to why they couldn't look at the collection including a lunch break that was never taken and an "appointment downtown." After the Goldstones were turned away, they noticed the dealer leaning back at her desk, taking a personal phone call. Obviously, they were being blown off. If you were hoping to read a story written by someone who invested $100,000 in rare books, this is really not it. They buy a couple of $700 books, but mainly stick to the $10 bin.

There are many amusing anecdotes in the book and it is really very well written; it became hard to put down by the halfway point. This may not be the case for everyone. You have to really be interested in books to enjoy this. I felt like I learned a little about the rare book world, and I feel this is a good introduction to the subject, but I would by no means say that this is an in-depth study of the trade. Jargon is well defined and the plot is very approchable, but I felt it was a little lacking in content. There was a lot of interesting information about Dickens books, some talk about bindings and trade information, but it just wasn't deep enough.

It was a good book, but not great.
2417234
When I picked this book up at Target it really looked promising (who knows it might be a great book).  As always, before I embark on a lengthy book, I check out the reviews on Amazon.  Usually I take the good with the bad.  I was prepared to give this book a chance but after the first 100 pages, I was still asking myself "what is this book about".  Words used to describe the book was anger, pain, thriller, mystery, espionage, etc...  I am sorry but if after the first couple of chapters a book does not pull me in, then I pull out.  This might be a great book, I am not saying that it is not, all I am saying is that it gets off to a very SLOW start.  I would also have to agree with some of the reader's comments, the German, French or whatever language the author dispersed throughout the book did nothing to enhance the book, it only served to further annoy me.  Again, this is my opinion and does not reflect on the book as a whole, since I was not able to move past page 102.
2558686
This little book starts with some promise but then it declines into very simple basics. If this is your first book on the subject maybe it's a good start.
1000503
One might say that this book sucks... that's a good thing.