Excellent book with no peers
590761
This is a great book that is a good foundation in researching the how-to's in leaving the country. In a category where there are very few books to choose from, this book is timely and reasonable well written. If you are interested in leaving the United States and not completely sure of where to go, this is a good resource along with the CIA factbook & other well known websites.

Pros:

1) Great list of helpful websites in the back for each country.

2) Excellent group of countries considered around the globe.

3) Decent foundational info about each country considered (50 countries).

4) Very readable style.

5) Good cross section of short blurbs about various peoples rationales in leaving.

6) Fair price for the book.

Cons:

1) No specific info as to why certain countries were included and other excluded.

2) Many countries mentioned in passing (in a positive light) in various parts of text are not considered as possibilities (i.e.: not profiled).

3) No easy way to see how countries stack up against each other at a glance based on various factors.

4) Poor editing... Many typos.

5) Could have had much more specific info about each country for various factors to consider (e.g. Pet specifics for each, education system, etc...)

6) Would have been nice to have at least one person for each country cited. Although difficult to pull off, this would have been better than people telling their stories for a subset of the countries profiled.

In short, this book has very little dead weight material and is a must have if this topic is relevant to you.
4180531
This is probably my most favorite book of all time. I picked it up at a bookstore one day, recommended by a friend. I have never heard of the author and have not been able to find any information on him. Apparently this is his only book.

If you are into heavy characterization with a millenial, cyber-punk edge, then this book is for you. If you appreciate hard-edged, beat prose that will never slip into boredom, then you need to buy this book.
3671340
Fantastic book for those who don't have a computer science or electrical engineering background.  Very well written, conveying concepts in a way understandable to the layperson.  I was quite familiar with Boolean logic (AND, OR, NOT, etc. statements written in Excel IF statements or database queries), so that helped a bit, but Boolean is not at all hard to grasp.
2670895
I don't understand the negative reviews, this book is excellent, particularly for young gentleman. I learned plenty, and found it entertaining  as well.

Wish it had come out 40 years ago...

They can graduate to John bridges later
1864038
This is a great book, written very impartially with no favoritism.
3305199
Even though I have not yet finished reading this excellent book on football and the Ivy League, I already have enough tidbits to keep up a lively conversation at holiday cocktail parties. Before the end of the first chapter, I found out that there really is no Ivy League. And who could resist dropping on their friends from Cornell the fact that one of their college presidents refused to let "thirty men travel 400 miles to agitate a bag of wind". The tales are intriguing, and Bernstein's writing is engaging. If you have an Ivy League graduate or any other football fan on your gift list, this would be a great choice.
4671034
This book is so good that I can't understand why no one has reviewed it.  Finally, Western wisdom conquers the Nodes - this may be the first book that matches what Vedic astrology offers on the Nodes.  Astrology for the Soul established her reputation in the field, but Cosmic Love is a culminating work that will eventually get as much if not more use among astrologers.

The author does a wonderful job of making the nodes accessible to novices while managing not to water it down for the rest of us. Let the accompanying website cosmiclove.com to run the synastry calculations for you.  Even those who are used to spotting synastry connections among horoscopes will appreciate how much time and effort this saves.

Now what's so good about this book?  When I read Astrology For The Soul, I didn't really get the archetypes behind the Node in each sign.  Cosmic Love avoids this problem by showing how the nodes shape interactions among you and everyone you know.  Let's say you don't have enough self-awareness to get a real sense of the way a Node operates from reading a description of your own behavior.  You will grasp it a lot more easily when you can relate it to your interactions with your special love, siblings, friends, and parents.

The descriptions fit.  You find yourself thinking, "I always knew this friend or grandparent or nephew brought that into my life".  Particularly in cases where the Nodes of those you know overlap positions in your own houses, you will really spot some similarities in interactions that you might not have been aware of before.

Where does this book fall short?  Although Spiller describes the South Node as karmic issues carrying over from a previous life, the premise that people operate primarily from their North Node doesn't always ring true.  Some people really seem more strongly oriented to their South Node.  It may be more accurate to think in terms of an energy axis between the Nodes, with the "current" potentially accumulating at either Node, not just the North Node.  In terms of figuring out synastry, however, the North Node seems to work fairly consistently.

This book is a must-read for anyone who read Astrology For The Soul, and I think most will agree that the sequel is stronger.  You will use this book when you interpret horoscopes, even if you do the Nodes primarily from a Vedic standpoint.  It is astrology-lite, but Spiller's "pop" astrology can be pretty darn good.
376052
Clay Jannon is one of those people that rarely touch paper. Need news? He uses Google. Looking for a job? He scans the job openings online. Looking for something to read? He downloads books, magazine articles, blog posts to his laptop or his early version Kindle. He is a child of the internet and his job is at a startup, creating logos, web sites, administering a Twitter account. However, a severe downturn in the economy results in the loss of Clay's job. He's been out of work for a year, there is nothing in San Francisco for him; he is a dime a dozen.

It is paper that gets him a job.

Because he cannot concentrate on actually finding a job while he is online, one link sends him to another site, then to another until his entire day is shot and he is no closer to finding a job. What he does to combat the internet is to print out the want ads and take a walk around San Francisco while reading his printouts. Strangely, that does not help him land a job. But San Francisco is an interesting place, as he discards his latest printouts, he sees a "Help Wanted" sign in the window of Mr. Penumbra's 24 Hour Bookstore. "What the heck," he says, walks in and interviews for the job of the night clerk at the store. He is hired.

This is not an ordinary book store. While they have some popular books, the store is dedicated to different kinds of books, strange books. Which are loaned out to a wide variety of people who arrive at the store at all hours of the day and night. Curious, Clay takes a look at some of them; they appear to be written in some sort of code.

Mr. Penumbra's 24 Hour Bookstore is an incredible balance between "new" and "old." While books are the primary focus, Robin Sloan incorporates new technologies, such as Google, OCR, crowd sourcing, and more. Old Knowledge, that which is not indexed on a search server, has a definite place in the world and is very much relevant. In addition to the wonderful characters and excellent plot, it is this balance that allows the novel to soar. Sloan really shines when he focuses on Clay, a man who may live a technical world but, underneath his web-centric world, really likes pen and ink. The reader recognizes this early, but enjoys the ride as Clay discovers this for himself. And it's not because Clay is a Luddite at heart. He really has a deep appreciation of the glue, the feel, the smell of books (and bookstores) and ink. Mr. Penumbra's 24 Hour Bookstore is a fabulous page turner that is very appealing; it is very hard to put down. It is also one of those books what will remain with you long after you have powered down your e-reader or marked your place.

Disclosure:
Obtained from: Amazon
Payment: Purchased
3319361
This is an excellent book for self-improvement. Unlike other self-help guides that I have read, this book talks about improving inner characteristics of a person, rather than giving a list of things to do which will improve your effectiveness in certain limited situations. In other words, rather than telling you how you can change your public image through certain techniques, it describes how to change your actual character so that you naturally have a good public image just because of the positive character traits that you have built into you.

The book presents a logical flow of suggestions for how to improve virtually all aspects of your life and the lives of those around you. It starts with the 3 habits of "private victory", which are basically 3 ways to improve how you think internally and manage yourself. I could list those habits here, but they really wouldn't make sense out of context, and require reading their entire respective chapters to understand. Next are 3 habits about "public victory", which describes how to be successful with others. Finally, the 7th habit is about how to combine the first 6 to function very effectively with others while maintaining control of your personal self. As mentioned before, all 7 habits describe how to actually change yourself so that "effectiveness" just flows naturally from you, rather than listing specific ways to be effective in specific situations.

This book is definitely not an easy read for two reasons: it contains a lot of information that requires time to digest and practice, and it also makes you think quite seriously about your inner self and how you can improve your weaknesses. Some sections were actually quite hard to read because of how much they shook me to the core in terms of my weaknesses. For these reasons I would suggest reading it slowly while living out the suggestions that it provides. Then, read it again about a year later to see how you are doing.

I would recommend this book for almost anyone aged approximately 18 or older. Younger people simply won't understand how to apply the concepts discussed in this book in the real world. I would especially recommend it for anyone in a highly competitive job, as it is especially applicable to professional development.
836166
This is an excellent book--straightforward, open and fairly comprehensive, with thoughtful analysis and the voices of many women speaking on various aspects of this issue. The co-authors are intelligent and empathic guides. It is such a shame this book is out of print. It is the best book I have read so far on the topic. It has given much comfort. Bravo to the authors.
551533
Humphreys is the only person I know of who can work on nonhuman primates, write philosophy, and  edit a literary magazine.
The latter shows in this writing: I read this book in a single sitting. You may not agree with the ideas on consciousness (I don't) but you get a clear exposition of all the work from Descartes to McGinn. Also if you want to figure out what Dennett is saying it helps to read this book first.
4575203
I loved this book. Having a background in physics, I found the author's discussions both refreshing and nostalgic, i.e., most are a pleasant review of arguments that I had studied in detail many years ago. The paradoxes that the author has selected are: Zeno's, Olbers', Fermi's, Maxwell's Demon, Laplace's Demon, Schrodinger's Cat and a few from Relativity. In addition, the author's first chapter covers a few popular puzzles, including the Monty Hall Problem and the Birthday Paradox (more on this last one below). The author's prose is very clear, friendly, lively and captivating. The book appears to be aimed primarily at an audience that is not very familiar with physics; consequently, almost no formulas are used.

Coming back to the Birthday Paradox, I would like to point out a slight inaccuracy in Chapter 1. The last sentence at the bottom of page 8 should read: "And so the probability of any two OR MORE of the twenty-three people in the room sharing a birthday is  ..... 50.73%". This is because 1 minus the probability that no one shares a birthday is equal to the probability that 2 or more people share the same birthday. Similarly, in the middle of the same page where only three people are involved, the calculated value of 0.0082 is the probability of at least two of the three individuals sharing the same birthday, not just two.

This excellent book should appeal to interested general readers as well as science enthusiasts who would like to read a most engaging review of some of the trickier topics in physics, as well as current thinking on some of them.
2004117
This book is about being happy with yourself.  It addresses teasing from other kids and also indirectly addresses the value of having good friends who accept you as you are and who encourage you to celebrate your uniqueness. It also demonstrates a method for dealing with bullies.

The book is very teachable.  It has convenient questions at the end to spur discussion with your child. I thought that was a very unique attribute of the book.  The artwork is great and the book held the attention of a 6 year old and 3 year old through multiple readings.  If the other books in the series are this good, they might be worth a look as well.  I will definitely be looking at them.

I highly recommend this book, particularly for kids who are just starting school.
3884712
Book review of What to Do When You're New By Jason S. Ganz

What to Do When You're New arrived in my mailbox after a back-and-forth with Keith Rollag, its author.  When it arrived, I was at once enthused (I had never reviewed a book before) and a little pensive (was this going to be like every other self-help book I had ever read was it written in ATS, or in human) much to my surprise, it was written in human.  Additionally, Keith's book addressed an area commonly overlooked by many how to self-improve books: how to be a more adaptable introvert.  Why is this interesting?  Because I myself am an introvert of the highest order.  Keith's book explains in plain detail the necessity of escaping the Stone Age role of survivalist and accept that networking is a necessity in modern employment society.

As an introvert, networking is draining, dealing with large groups of people is more draining.  For me, the reason is because I perceive networking as having to deal with your competition and potentially dropping information tidbits that should stay to the individual.  (Due to my work experience and topics that I have researched, I am very protective of what I know.)  Most self-help books that I have read about being new have attacked introverts as being one step removed from reclusive, when in fact introverts tend to prefer making deep connections with only a few people; quality over quantity.  Keith approaches introversion for what it is, a stone age-era method that was good when we as humans were constantly fighting for survival, but not good for when connecting socially is a requirement not only to advance (and gain presence in one's field), but also to just get one's foot into the door.

One major thing I liked is that rather than dump you into the actual application, it walks you through the process.  It gets you ready at a pace YOU'RE comfortable at, and explains the importance of each step.  Too many books, seeking to balance extroverts who jump quickly into things, just jump in.  Introverts (the aimed demographic) need reasoning to thrive.  WHY should I do things this way.  Keith does this, and to great effect.  It makes the book more human, while accommodating those who just cannot jump into things without WHY.  It reduces my stress when things are done this way because I don't like surprises.  Sure, we can't have every iota of every bit of info, but having the knowledge available helps people like me reduce fears.  But above all, NETWORK!  Keith explains this.  It helps remove the attrition fear that many introverts have (introverts, again have a more survivalistic mentality) and provides a foundation for a pack with others who are like you  thus allowing for reducing the new feeling.

The book itself is going to be re-read on occasion when I feel a bit bleh about job hunting (or just in general).  It's an easy read, it's a personable read, but it's something that  because when I am in non-native (ie: I have to interact with extroverts in a personable way) applications, I sometimes wall myself up  I will have to read repeatedly to constantly remind myself of how to manage interaction when my mind is not programmed for it.  But that's not a strike against the book, that's just how my mind works due to both the work environments I've had, and what I've had to do to survive personally and academically.  Highly recommended if you want a read that approaches you as a person, and not as a sub-human, - in essence, go out and get it!

I may do a follow-up in 6 months' time.
2338240
This is the best sociology book I have have ever been forced to study.  It's easy to follow and interesting to read.  The glossary can be looked up either by chapter or alphabetically.  There are critical thinking questions at the end of each chapter to get you to think about what you just read.  There are also summaries at the end of each chapter to quickly explain the overview of the entire chapter.  The author is like a real person, not someone who writes/speaks in scientific jargon.  I am sad this semester is ending, because I know there are not a lot of books like this out there.  I hope you enjoy this book if you decide to purchase it.
1842779
It is no surprise some narrow-minded christians are rating this book with one star, this book speaks about religious fanaticism and its consequences in a small town full of naive, power-hungry, or narrowed people. People should be consequent and not consider teenagers as young adults, and then write an angry review due to moral issues. Then, some reviewers apparently forgot they were reading a horror story.

This is a very well written book with an interesting plot development and a fantastic variety of characters suited in a small town. I've enjoyed this book so much, I went and bought the second book (and that's my first Amazon buy, I'm a new Kindle owner). Some free books give self-publishing a bad name, this definitely makes things even, it's a good quality reading enjoyable by adults of all ages, I'm on my thirties and normally avoid YA books like pest unless the quality of the story is too great to belong to a single age rank.

Unless you get easily offended with everything involving religion, or wearing a purity ring, you'll love the story.

(English is not my first language, I wish I had been able to write a better review and give a full impression of how much I enjoyed this reading).
4792668
How can such a great book have such a low sales number? Or such a cheap price and only available used? I found it new for less than $4 in a book store during Christmas break in Cape May, NJ. Of all the books I was reading this one grabbed my attention and was most frequently the one I chose to read until I finished it. Gems! This book is loaded with them. Getting to know Sir Isaiah Berlin has been wonderful. An example: Teaching in an American University in January 1949 "His students didn't seem to know how to read or write, at least `not as these activities are understood at our best (British) universities'." (p. 190) His course was at Harvard! Now I can't feel a sense of connaissance since I was a student no sooner than a decade later. How do I know I know how to read?

Reading p. 188: "individuals must have secure cultural belonging if they are to be genuinely free." It occurs to me while reading the book that without such a book about Isaiah Berlin a great deal of what he thought would not be obvious in what he published. He often did not say what he thought. Was this because he was not very secure in his sense of cultural belonging? (Yes).

I had not realized how much Sir Isaiah was a philosopher of the sort I would like to be some day. Because of his experiences he was a polyglot. He spent time in the service of his country using his intellectual and social skills. His philosophical views bridged the Western analytic tradition, engaging Wittgenstein in argument for example, but at the same time applying the Continental philosophy of the Hegelian tradition, his excellent introduction to Marx for example. I personally find so much to like. I have found another soul mate.

I also thank those who took the effort to write such good reviews, often including other information to make the experience even more worth while, and leave me with little to do than mention a few quotes as a reminder for myself. This book ought to be read by more people than are apparently reading it.