Women, Art and Power and Other Essays (Icon Editions)

Book Description

Women, Art, and Power-seven landmark essays on women artists and women in art history-brings together the work of almost twenty years of scholarship and speculation.

Customer Reviews:

acute.......1998-11-19

Nochlin's collection of essays really hits the mark. Accessible to both the casual art lover and the afficionado, "Women Art and Power" is a truly stunning contribution to the canon of feminine art theory.

Average customer rating:

Women, Art, and Power and Other Essays.
Linda Nochlin
Manufacturer: Publisher Unknown
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000UYFMP4

Average customer rating:

Women, Art, and Power: And Other Essays
Linda Nochlin
Manufacturer: Harper & Row
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OEY2NS

Book Description

Yosemite: The Cycle of the Seasons is a magnificent collection of photographs which celebrate the beauty of this majestic landscape. Each of the four seasonal portfolios present the Park in all its glory; from the world famous landmarks to the subtlety of intimate details. In addition to the work of many of America's finest landscape photographers it also provides the reader with evocative poetic texts which accompany the seasonal portfolios and an excellent essay which will provide the reader with an overview of the Park's natural history. This newly revised edition of Yosemite: The Cycle of Seasons is part of Sierra Press' award winning Wish You Were Here Book Series. Each title in this series provides enticing suggestions of what first-time visitors may expect to experience and vivid memories to those who have already visited the Park.

Book Description

One of the funniest and most astutely observed works on the sexes since James Thurber, How to Make Your Man Behave in 21 Days of Less Using the Secrets of Professional Dog Trainers (over 207,000 copies in print) turns the often-expressed axiom "Men are dogs" into a howling little handbook on men for contemporary women. Doggie Dos and Don'ts: "Gentle strokes and playful petting techniques are positive motivational techniques for rewarding good behavior." And Flight and Chase Behavior: "If your dog is running away from you, the worst thing to do is chase after him . . . remain calm, act like you're having loads of fun without him, and soon he'll be trotting eagerly back." Doggie Dogmas: "Dogs like to eat out of your plate." "It's pointless to compete for the attention of a dog caught up in a ball game." And a quick primer on personality and temperament, from The Sporting Dog (requires daily exercise, gets bored easily, needs lots of attention) to The Hound (instinctually driven to chase and catch nearly anything that moves). With its tongue-in-cheek humor and illustrations that evoke an old Esquire magazine, How to Make Your Man Behave in 21 Days of Less assures that control will be yours forever, as behavioral problems vanish within twenty-one days. It's guaranteed.

Customer Reviews:

Fantastic book.......2007-01-29

So far, I've bought three copies of this book and given two to women friends. Between the writing and the elegant drawings of long-legged beauties and men with tails, one could see this as a tongue in cheek guide to female domination. For example: "From day one, you must seize the leadership role. Remain tough...You must refuse to pet or play with a disobedient dog, resisting the lure of his puppy dog eyes. He'll get the hint who's boss." "Dogs are known for begging and panting over things they're not allowed to have...Familiarize your dog with the following equation: Forbidden Temptation = Intense Emotional Pain." "The most effective method for making a dog do what you want is still the old-fashioned reward system. First, find out what you dog's favorite treats are. Then promise him one of those treats if he does what he's told. Make sure he begs a lot for it first. Note: The extra begging won't help train him any better, but it's fun to watch." I'm a guy who leaves paw prints when he walks, so I enjoyed Ms. Salmansohn's take on male-female relationships. Women hold certain advantages, and this book really plays on them. While this book can certainly be seen as humorous, it also has an unmistakably kinky flavor. Like good fairy tale, it contains a kernel of truth about life.

cracked me up - and I am a guy!.......2005-09-29

Sex in The city humor -- but oddly kinda true. I always kid with girlfriend that guys are dogs -- including me -- so she showed me this book! I definitely got a big laugh from it. Some of it is true about both men and women. The author discusses flight and chase behavior -- when your dog is runing away you dont chase after him because that only makes him run away faster. You just act like youre having fun without him -- and the dog just wants to be where the fun is - so he will return. Good counsel for both sexes.

Offensive Fluff.......2004-12-21

Can you imagine the feedback if this book were titled "How to Make Your WOMAN Behave...Secrets of Professional Dog Trainers"? Especially if it included the same illustrations of demeaning poses, but replaced by females. Think about it, and don't buy in to bashing the opposite sex. Some men may be dogs, but they're still our best friends. :-)

LOVE this book! Great for laughs! Great for a gift!.......2004-12-11

I got this book many years ago ...and still buy it for friends every time I need a gift. Freat give at showers or birthday parties where gifts are opend up in a group setting....everyone always winds up reading it aloud and cracking up! I've since bought a lot of Salmansohn's other books. I totally love her Mr. Right When You Need Him...the dolls that says htings like You look thin, did you lose weight. ...and Can I take you shoe shopping...THIS book/doll also makes a fun gift to give....!

How about..........2004-06-30

How to Make Women Put Out - by Professional Cat Breeders...

It's amazing what passes for PC these days. Laugh all you want, but at least we can fetch!

;-P

http://www.ShuttleLOUNGE.com

Book Description

Xena, Buffy, Lara Croft. WWF, The Sopranos, Witchblade, La Femme Nikita. The women of pop culture are center stage and as tough as ever. Action Chicks is a groundbreaking collection high-lighting the heroines we've grown to worship-and their impact on society. What can they tell us about women in 2003? How does popular culture depict women? Do the characters escape traditional gender role expectations? Or do they adhere to sexual, racial, ethnic, and class stereotypes? The essays in Action Chicks provide fans with a new look at their favorite icons and their relationship to the popular media machine.

Customer Reviews:

A very weak book.......2007-01-27

Personally I really didn't care for this book. To me it focused on the downside of the most popular, strong women charactrs such as Lara Croft, Wonder Woman, etc.
In Chapter 1 it talks about the character Lara Croft. Yes we know the character was designed by men and primarily for men but I bet more females started playing video games when they had such a strong kickass woman character. I know I did. Yes she has a thin waist, big boobs and she's pretty. I won't even get into the white arguement. I don't think her character would be so popular w/ men and women alike if she was 200 pounds, no boobs, and she wasn't pretty. Sexy thin women sell that's all there is to it! It might not be right but it's reality in this day and age.Men play for an entirely different reason than women.
Chapter 2 pretty much stays in th same vein now this time it's the character Barbwire, comic book character Lady Rawhide and Wonder Woman.
They must be Domanitrixs cause they dress in black leather or carry a whip or lasso. Give me a break.
Chapter 3 does have some merits it talks about girl action figures. How they started becoming more visible.
Chapter 6 made a good point why exactly did Max from Dark Angel, Buffy, & Xena all die around a two month period.
Chapter 9 about female friendhip in Xena and Buffy.
All in all I was expecting better!!!Just go to your local library if you still want to read it. Don't waste your money on this one.

A profoundly disappointing collection on an otherwise fascinating subject.......2006-06-07

When Susan Faludi published BACKLASH in 1991, one of her chapters was devoted to the regressive representations of women in TV and film. There was even the hint of resignation that this was not a temporary blip, but perhaps a permanent or long term situation. Luckily and in part thanks to Faludi calling attention to the backlash, instead we saw in popular culture an explosion of images of strong women. In TV alone we have seen the emergence of such characters as Dana Scully, Xena, Buffy Summers, Aeryn Sun, Sydney Bristow, Max Guevera, Kathryn Janeway, and Veronica Mars, not to mention those Gilmore girls. Even shows not specifically centered on strong women have them as a matter of course, such as Kate Austen on LOST or Samantha Carter on STARGATE SG-1. Indeed, a chasm seems to separate our situation and Faludi's in 1991.

Given the richness of the subject, it is simply shocking how weak this collection of essays is. All anthologies are uneven, but this one contains a higher proportion of weak or simply awful essays than most. I don't have a confident explanation for why these essays are on the whole so weak, though they do share some common characteristics. Let me highlight a couple of these. I do want to add, however, that there are a couple of very good essays, in particular Renny Christopher's marvelously insightful essay on Aeryn Sun in FARSCAPE as well as the essay by the volume's editor on female action figures. But most of the essays are deeply flawed. Let me explain my problems with them.

One very obvious problem with several of the essays is that they either misread the shows that they discuss or almost intentionally misrepresent their content. For instance, one essay guilty of this is Sharon Ross's essay about female friendship in BUFFY and XENA. Most of what she says is unquestionably true about XENA and if the essay had been merely about that show would have been one of the stronger additions to the collection. But it is a terrible reading of BUFFY. She reads BUFFY as largely concerned with the kind of discussion and reevaluation of matters that she views as uniquely true of female friendship. If you read the essay without having seen the show, you would imagine that Willow was nearly the co-lead character of the show, instead of a member of an ensemble cast. In point of fact, BUFFY is most decidedly not a show about female friendship. In fact, excluding Willow, Buffy is actually more heterosocial in her relationships. In fact, Willow aside, Buffy relates more easily to men than to women. Apart from Willow, all her closest friends and confidantes are men, including Giles, Xander, Angel, and Spike. Her relations with women are almost always uneasy and conflicted, including her mother, Faith, Dawn, Cordelia, and Anya. Moreover, even including Willow there is never a point in the series where she primarily or exclusively goes to Willow for advice instead of Xander or Giles. To read BUFFY as primarily as a show about female friendship is a travesty. Ross also states that the show is at its "most effective when" it "offer[s] stories of the primary female friends resisting men's attempts to keep them apart." She then cites several shows as examples, including "I Robot, You Jane," "The 'I' in Team," and "Yoko." These are not bad episodes, but they are far, far from the show at its most effective and none would make any reasonable list of, say, the top twenty-five or thirty episodes of the show's 144. In other words, only by distorting BUFFY to a remarkable and untenable degree can it be made to be a show about female friendship. There is no question that there is a strong female friendship as one of many major constituent parts of the show, but it is hardly privileged in the way that Ross states.

Another example is Sara Crosby's essay on three supposed instances of suicidal self-sacrifice among TV action heroines due to the forceful suppression of strong female heroes by structures of patriarchy: Max at the end of Season One of DARK ANGEL, Buffy at the end of Season Five of BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER, and Xena in her show's series finale. I won't argue with the Xena part, because that is fairly accurate, but the characterization of Max and Buffy's deaths is utterly baffling. First, Crosby characterizes Max's death as a suicide, which is absurd, unless being shot by one's clone, over which one maintains utterly no control and therefore no agency, counts as a suicide. Agency and not similar DNA (and the DNA is only similar and not exact, since one of the themes of the show in Season Two--and it would have been THE theme of Season Three had it not been canceled--was Max's genetic uniqueness, which would have enabled her to save the world from annihilation) is acknowledged in every day language as determinative of suicide. But Crosby barely hints at the radical departure from normal language use she is making. It also isn't clear what structures of patriarchy she is talking about in DARK ANGEL. In fact, Manticore, which is the entity that kills Max, is totalitarian, not patriarchal. Unless one can generate a convincing essentialist definition of totalitarian as patriarchal this is not at all the same thing. There is in fact a remarkable disregard for gender at Manticore and one of Max's more striking traits, despite being played by a very beautiful woman, is that she has never been feminized. We could debate the fact that Jessica Alba is beautiful, but the brute fact of prime time television is that we will never, ever have an unlovely young person playing a lead role in such a show. Similarly, in talking of Buffy's death at the end of Season Five, it is impossible to identify the structures of patriarchy. Interestingly she never mentions the fact that the Big Bad of Season Five is a goddess except in passing. Buffy sacrifices herself to close the hell portal to save her sister and her friends because of some supernatural rules. Are the rules patriarchal? If not, it is difficult to see how her death becomes gendered. In other words, the entire essay is a colossal stretch.

The fundamental problem with these two and several other essays is that the writers do not seem to understand the different from actual society and a television series. A TV series may reflect society in the way it is conceived, but it does not actually contain that society. In fact, most of the TV series of the past fifteen years with strong female leads actually imagine a society that is different from the actual one. In our real society, there truly are systems of patriarchy that repress women and attempt to relegate them in lessened roles. But that system may not be replicated in a TV series. In fact, there is a gender utopianism in many of these shows. If one watches BUFFY or FARSCAPE or VERONICA MARS one will be struck by how rarely the ability of these women to take care of themselves is questioned by the males around them. As Renny Christopher points out in her brilliant final essay of the volume on FARSCAPE (an essay that alone justifies the purchase price), FARSCAPE is a representation of a world in which patriarchy does not exist. The Peacekeepers may be ruthless and totalitarian and authoritarian, but he makes no distinctions based on gender. But what is true of FARSCAPE is largely true of these other shows. The writers try to make the shows about issues that are really excluded by the show. Now, one might argue with how realistic the shows are by excluding or minimizing patriarchal structures (they aren't realistic, but that is because they are utopian: they are trying to show us a world that ought to be, a world in which women are allowed to be as strong as men), but you can't escape the fact that they are fictional worlds. In BUFFY a man does not react with shock if Buffy kills a demon with her bare hands in front of a male as in "The Prom." I haven't rewatched all of BUFFY in a year, but the only moment I can recall when someone was shocked that she could do what she did despite being female was the beginning of "The Gift," when a boy she has saved from a vampire asks her how she "did that." "It's what I do," she replies. "But you're just a girl." But even here the point is that an unrealistic burden has been placed upon her, causing her to feel the weight of the world on her shoulders, leading her to answer, "That's what I keep telling myself." But this is the exception. Normally no one acts shocked if she clears the Bronze of vampires in "Welcome to the Hellmouth, Pt. 2" or overcomes a large gang of demons in "Anne."

I guess what I'm objecting to is an overall intellectual clumsiness in these essays. As a grad student I read countless bad essays along the lines of the ones here and I think at least many of them are a result of the "publish or perish" mentality dominating American higher education. And there is a push if you are in gender studies to take some of the central assumptions and apply them to a wide range of subject matter. It is as if they strive to understand their discipline first, and then only half-heartedly study that towards which they apply it. One example of intellectual sloppiness can be found throughout the first essay in the collection, Claudia Herbst's essay on Lara Croft. Throughout she makes one generalization after another about the actual mental or psychological states of gamers that could only actually be validated by statistical analyses of actual gamers. A large number of her "proofs" are actually anecdotes from postings on boards on the Internet. A good example can be found in this passage: Writing of Lara she says, "Men may interpret her toughness and her tiny waist as sexy. Many women find her figure disturbing and respond negatively to the nature-defying design of her body. Perhaps what women are responding to . . . " (p. 35). These are incredibly loose hinges upon which to build an argument. "Men may." Do they are do they not? And where is the polling data that indicates which. "Many women find . . . " Again, how many women, and where is the polling data. Two very dubious suppositions, but then after constructing these straw men and women she goes on to speculate "Perhaps what women are responding to . . . " She hasn't established any real women do so respond, let alone that women in general do. Yet the entire essay is built up on weak links such as that.

Not all the essays are bad. Though I question whether Sherrie Inness has done a good job as an editor, her introduction and her essay are both good. Jeffrey Brown's essay on BARB WIRE was interesting, though he hasn't made me want to see it. Charlene Tung's essay on LA FEMME NIKITA did, however, make me want to give that series a shot. So also with David Greven's essay on WITCHBLADE (currently unavailable on DVD), though I am suspicious of his depiction of the lead as a lesbian hero (it doesn't quite pass the smell test, though perhaps I am wrong). Dawn Henecken's essay on Chyna might be OK. I just have less than no interest in either Chyna or the world of fake wrestling, so it was a tough essay for me to get through. Marilyn Yaquinto's essay on women in gangster films was fun.

All in all, however, I cannot recommend the collection. Apart from Renny Christopher's very fine essay, I don't think there is much that one interested in the subject can't live without.

The challenge to patriarchal power.......2006-02-16

"Action Chicks" by Sherrie A. Inness (editor) is an outstanding collection of essays about depictions of tough women in popular culture. The ten contributors are drawn from the ranks of academia and write with considerable skill, originality and insight. The consistently high-quality analyses succeed in helping the reader gain a greater understanding of the myriad ways by which strong women are represented and evaluated in the media within the context of real-world social change. The articles are presented in a sophisticated yet entertaining manner, making for superb reading for anyone interested in an intelligent examination of pop culture and gender.

Ms. Inness' Introduction, "New Images of Tough Women" discusses how strong women have always existed within American culture but have proliferated in recent years in tandem with second-wave feminism and greater career opportunities for women. The action heroine's muscular body signifies the real-life challenge posed to patriarchal power structures; perhaps not surprisingly, female aggressiveness has subsequently been perceived by audiences as both a desirable and threatening development. For these reasons, Ms. Inness contends that the representation of the action heroine as a leading cultural symbol marks her as a subject who is worthy of serious study and reflection.

The book is divided into two sections.

Part I is about the "Changing Images of the Female Action Hero". Claudia Herbst's "Lara's Lethal and Loaded Mission" discusses the eroticized violence embodied by Lara Croft and the video game 'Tomb Raider' to contend that her obedience to male fantasy and control ultimately cannot serve to empower women. Jeffrey A. Brown's "The Bad Girls of Action Film and Comic Books" explores depictions of gender role trangressions in well-known movies such as "G.I. Jane". Ms. Inness' "Tough Female Action Figues in the Toy Store" discovers that toymakers' relatively conservative representations of strong women as expressed through female action figures has lagged behind the progress women have made in the real world. Charlene Tung's "Gender, Race and Sexuality in 'La Femme Nikita'" finds that while Nikita rebuts notions of female passivity and asserts her own independence, Nikita's "Westernized and white heteronormative superiority" serves to reinforce the TV show's restrictive notion of white female privilege and Western imperialism. David Greven's "Defiant Women, Decadent Men, Objects of Power and 'Witchblade'" discusses how Sarah's constrained aggression and opposition to homosexual and lesbian power ironically positions her as a Terminator-like figure in service to patriarchy. Sara Crosby's "Female Heroes Snapped into Sacrificial Heroines" suggests that strong female characters such as Xena the Warrior Princess have traditionally been self-actualized and then destroyed by their media creators in order to reclaim the liberatory political powers that otherwise might threaten the prevailing social order.

Part II is on the topic of "New Images of Toughness". Dawn Heinecken's "Gender, Transgression and the World Wrestling Federation's Chyna" is a fascinating study of how Chyna's muscularity heightened anxieties about homoeroticism and male privilege in the highly sexualized culture of the WWF. Marilyn Yaquinto's "Mamas, Molls and Mob Wives" surveys the gangster film genre and demonstrates how contemporary TV shows such as 'The Sopranos' have turned assumptions about the genre around by depicting women who in many ways are stronger than their male counterparts. Sharon Ross' "Female Friendship and Heroism in 'Xena' and 'Buffy'" contrasts the heroine's embrace of empathy and community with the traditional loner male hero to explain why Xena and Buffy can provide positive examples to young women. Renny Christopher's "'Farscape's' Inverted Sexual Dynamics" finds that the post-patriarchal world depicted in the TV show 'Farscape' suggests a possible "queer" universe wherein heterosexual and homosexual dynamics might mix freely to create a new and potentially liberatory world.

I highly recommend this exceptionally fun, provocative and enlightening book to everyone.

Product Description

Ninety-six tear-out pages attached to a heavy cover sheet to assist in easier writing. All sheets are printed on both sides and punched for three-ring binders. Printed in black ink on regular-wieght, white paper.

Average customer rating:

overlooked gem in poker books...

For the middle stakes players of medium experience

Excellent Refresher For Any Poker Player

'Caro's Secrets' are just that - secrets

There are better books for the casual player

Caro's Fundamental Secrets of Winning Poker
Mike Caro
Manufacturer: Cardoza
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Gambling | Card Games | Puzzles & Games | Entertainment | Subjects | Books
Poker | Card Games | Puzzles & Games | Entertainment | Subjects | Books
General | Puzzles & Games | Entertainment | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

Caro's Book of Poker Tells

Harrington on Hold 'em Expert Strategy for No Limit Tournaments, Vol. 2: Endgame

No Limit Hold 'em: Theory and Practice

Phil Hellmuth Presents Read 'Em and Reap: A Career FBI Agent's Guide to Decoding Poker Tells

Doyle Brunson's Super System II

ASIN: 158042080X

Customer Reviews:

overlooked gem in poker books..........2005-11-08

This is one of my early poker books and rereading it once or twice a year reminds me why I like it so much. It is a quick and easy read full of reminders and "fundamental" poker ideas that are part of every game. Unlike some of the other reviews, I think this is quite good and a useful compliment to any poker library. It is well priced too unlike the flood of Sklansky-wanna-be-overpriced "clone" books which have flooded the market lately. (don't confuse my comment-the Sklansky books are very good but he set the pricing bar pretty high and many hacks feel they can get the same money for lesser quality work)This book is geared primarily for the beginning to intermediate player but is useful as a refresher for anyone who wants to get better. It is a very general book and does lightly address many topics but that is what the title tells you- it is a book about fundamentals(read "basics") of poker not an advanced course. So if you love poker and are starting a poker book library, add this one you won't be disappointed.

For the middle stakes players of medium experience.......2005-04-02

Mike Caro--or "MJC" as he was known in the early days in the clubs in Gardena, California where he was the king of the rounders--has always been an enigmatic figure in the poker world. Never a world-class player like Doyle Brunson or Bobby Baldwin--to name two from the older generation--and never a great theoretician like David Sklansky, Caro nonetheless became one of the game's great celebrities mainly due to his fine talent for self-promotion.

I was once told by a middle level professional that Mike was "a terrible player." This guy ought to know since he propped the games at the California clubs and had played against MJC many times. However the truth is Mike was and is a very good player. His problem was one that often afflicts great minds in many different fields, that of boredom. One often had the sense when playing against the self-styled "Mad Genius of Poker" that the game was too slow for him and that the challenges weren't really challenging enough, and he had to do something to liven up the game or--and this was almost always his ultimate goal--to "take over the table," psychologically speaking.

And so Mike would make the most astonishing plays--good and bad--spectacular calls and lay-downs, such as calling with a skinny pair of jacks at the showdown or showing a seemingly winning hand and tossing it away without calling. His most famous play at draw poker was to raise the opener before the draw, stand pat, and then when the betting came around to him expose his worthless hand WITHOUT betting. I heard one of the regulars in the old twenty-straight draw game remark, "Why doesn't he just mail me a check?"

But she did not understand Mike's logic. Another player, a very good one, did understood very well what Caro was about, as revealed in his pointed comment: "I'll tell you one thing about Mike Caro. He always deserves a call."

With his talent for showmanship and his desire to do more than just play cards, it wasn't surprising that as the hold'em and seven-card stud games became legal in California in the eighties, Mike would become the preeminent entrepreneur of poker through his seminars and his assumption of the "Mad Genius" persona. He gave lectures, made poker videoes, wrote books and magazine articles, and found inclusion as the draw poker authority in Doyle Brunson's original SuperSystem book from the seventies. This book amounts to a collection of essays based on some of the seminar classes from what he eventually styled as his "University of Poker."

All in all, Mike has done well for himself at the game. The question is, has he done well for his students? My answer is a qualified yes. In this book (not to be taken as an introductory text, by the way) he offers excellent advice for the small and middle stakes player. His qualities as a motivational speaker come through very well. His booster-like enthusiasm and his self-help, psychological approach will benefit many. Contrary to what some other reviewers have written, this is an easy book to read with some worthwhile advice. Some examples:

"Calling as the big blind. It's much more profitable to play if your call closes the action." (p. 135) What Caro means is that either there was no raise or the raiser was to your immediate left so that no raise or reraise is possible. This is an important concept. If you call a raise from the button after a couple of other players have limped in from early seats you are not only in danger of a reraise after your call, but if it is reraised, the reraiser in an early seat probably has a big hand.

"When everyone checks on the flop, then again on 4th Street, you can steal a lot of pots from the last position." (p. 98) Actually if everybody checks twice, you might have the best hand with little to nothing. A more sophisticated observation on this situation is that if anybody in the last position bets, you can steal more than a few pots by raising that bettor!

On the same page there is this (written in large white letters in a black box as on a chalkboard--as though Mike IS giving a lecture, perhaps with baton in hand): "When you bet from the last position on the flop, you can often see your whole hand for free!" This is Mike's way of expressing the "how to get a free card" concept. Usually this is explained in a situation where it has been bet on the flop and you are last with a drawing hand. You raise so that everyone will check to you on 4th Street. Then, if you make your hand, you bet, and if you miss, you just check and give yourself a free card.

Mike is right though, in passive games (which he always loved) many players will check to you on 4th Street after you have bet the flop, and you can just check behind them and see the river card for free.

One more: "Many skilled players suffer from FPS (Fancy Play Syndrome). They'd rather impress weak opponents with unexpected plays than beat them with the obvious winning strategy. Avoid FPS." Here Mike could be self-analyzing. But he's right of course.

This is mostly about hold'em, but there is some tournament strategy in the book, and Caro has a chapter on seven-card stud and another on seven-card hi-lo. His chapter on the subject of money management (which I like to call "self-management," since it is all about staying in the game and not going broke) is excellent.

All in all this book is definitely worthwhile, but will be somewhat mysterious in places to the absolute beginner, and too fundamental for the experienced professional.

Excellent Refresher For Any Poker Player.......2005-01-07

This is not one of those how-to books for beginning players. It is, however, a good grouping of tips and other things you might have already known - just put in a different light. It includes all the information from Caro's seminar videos, plus all the stuff they cut out to make them 90 minutes long. If you liked the videos, you love the book.

'Caro's Secrets' are just that - secrets.......2004-02-15

Caro's secrets are still secrets to me. Actually there are very good points and ideas in this book, but the book is poorly written. It might take several reads per topic to figure each one out. Mike should keep his day job and let someone else do his writing for him.
Caro's other book, 'Poker Tells', has the same problem - good ideas but difficult to read.

There are better books for the casual player.......2003-05-03

I managed to read this book in detail in well under 2 hours with a deck of cards handy to check things out. However, I never needed the cards as this book doesn't go into descriptions of hands or offer me a chance to practice odds. Instead it felt like what it is: a transcription of a seminar delivered by a poker playing eccentric complete with big bold statements like "MOST of your profit in poker comes from borderline decisions" written on an chalkboard. Did it offer me some things to think about as a once a month casual player ? Sure. Did it improve my game ? I don't think so. I've gotten much more about reading early hand position and understanding my opponents behavior out of Steiners Thursday Night Poker than I did from this book.

Books:

Books Index

Books Home

Recommended Books