101 Ways to Spoil Your Grandchild

Book Description

Plant a tree upon the birth of each grandchild, and then take a picture of it each year to mark your grandchild's birthday.
Devise a secret handshake with your grandchild
Watch a sunset with your grandchild and listen to his or her thoughts
Encourage grandchildren who live far away to write to you by sending them stamped and addressed postcards.

Vicki Lansky's bestselling books include 101 Ways to Make Your Child Feel Special, 101 Ways to Tell Your Child "I Love You," 101 Ways to Be a Special Dad, 101 Ways to Be a Special Mom, and the Practical Parenting Series, which together have sold more than three million copies.

Customer Reviews:

a wonderful gift!.......2006-11-10

This little book has the most wonderful ideas for building a very special relationship with a grandchild. A wonderful gift for the grandparent who wants to focus on a quality, not quantity, relationship with their grandchild.

Good gift, just make sure your grandparent can read!.......2005-12-15

This is a great gift! I would recommend it for any grandparent, here's why:

Cute: grandparents love cute things

Cheap: even if it's not used for information, it's cheap enough to make the cute factor pay off the whole of the price

Useful: it really does have good ways to spoil your grandchild

I bought this book for my grandma, and she loved it because it's cute...the only problem is she hasn't really been spoiling me with it...I think it's because she must not really know how to read. I KNOW she loves me and we all know love = money, so it must not be that, so I think it's a reading problem. I also think that's why she laughed when she opened it, now I know it was a Nervous laugh! because she can't read. Some of you reading this may think it's mean to say all this about my grandma whom I love, but just don't tell her (Jeanette Ross), we all know she won't be able to read it herself anyway. Maybe someday she'll learn her "letters." Which makes me wonder, if when you die, you go to heaven, if you couldn't read before, do they teach you? Do you magically know? What about Chinese people? Can you talk to them in heaven? Do they get taught English or do you get taught Chinese? Or is there a "Heaven Language?" If there is a "Heaven Language," what is the closest one on earth to is? Is the "Heaven Language" the one Adam and Eve spoke, or did they speak something different? I can't wait to die and find all this out!

Fun!.......2005-09-01

As a grandparent, this is a fun book to have...quite enjoyable and a great gift to give to a new granparent.

Great Gift.......2002-08-30

Gave this book as a gift and Nana loved it!

A California Grandmother's Reaction.......2000-01-07

This book is really cool! (to use California Grandmother Speak.) As a grandmother who lives where the surf meets the turf, I thoroughly enjoyed reading ideas that I can easily use to enhance my joie de vivre approach to grandparenting. This book offers imaginative suggestions and a full bag of tricks-it's fabulous!

Book Description

A Choice Magazine "Outstanding Academic Book for 1995"

"Jonathan D. Rosenblum's history of this one strike reveals to us, in chapter and verse, the barbaric use of power by the corporate big boys. It is a stunning metaphor for labor's trouble today."--Studs Terkel

"Rosenblum writes with the verve of a good journalist and the empirical precision of a fine scholar. He is as deft at sketching brief portraits of key executives, union officials, and rank-and-file strikers as he is at untangling the legal skein in which the miners got fatally ensnared."--Michael Kazin, New York Times Book Review

(from a review of the first edition) In this new edition, Jonathan D. Rosenblum describes the resurgence in 1996 and 1997 of union activism at Local 890 in Silver City, New Mexico, the famous "Salt of the Earth" union. Phelps Dodge obliterated all the unions at its Arizona properties in the devastating 1983 campaign of permanent replacement documented in Copper Crucible. The company later acquired the Chino mine in western New Mexico; with the copper ore came the elements of union rebirth. When Phelps Dodge officials argued that "while unions may have had a purpose in the past, that time is gone," they rekindled the union's fighting spirit, according to Rosenblum. Local 890 beat back Phelps Dodge's 1996 decertification campaign, handing the company its first major setback against unions in fifteen years.

Customer Reviews:

Killing a Union -- Phelps Dodge v. the Miners.......2002-10-19

This history of a bitter Arizona mining strike in 1983-86 is a top-notch case study of how unions were mugged by American corporations in the 1980s. To judge by the endnotes, Rosenblum interviewed every player in the strike -- from Phelps Dodge executives and union leaders to ex-Governor Babbitt and undercover cops -- and the result is a vivid narative that weaves together labor history and political and legal analysis. The sections on pro-management bias at the NLRB and the use of undercover police to spy on strikers are gems of investigative reporting. Rosenblum is pro-union but he presents management's case at length and doesn't hold back from sharp criticism of the United Steelworkers leadership. If you're interested in labor history or labor/management relations in the US, read this book.

An work of fiction........2002-10-09

In Copper Crucible, Jonathan D. Rosenblum sets out to grind his ax and bash the evil "big business & Corporate giants". Too bad he didn't tell the rest of the story,... As he fell all over himself demonizing Phelps Dodge and raising Union organizers to sainthood, he conveniently omits the fact that a fully loaded beer truck was the drawing card the union used for its strike meetings. Alcohol just set the stage for the violence to come. And beleive me there was plenty & encouraged by the union. "Lets get the miners drunk & they will vote how we say" after all,... its all about power & money -on the union side as well. Copper Crucible may be based on true events, but it certainly does not paint a full true picture.

The destruction of workers' lives despite union membership.......1999-07-10

This book focuses on the destruction of individuals' lives when they cross paths with a powerful corporation, Phelps Dodge, when that company has the leverage to do so. This book reveals clearly how thin was the veneer of the labor-management accord after WWII. Phelps Dodge saw an opportunity to bust their unions and aided by labor law, labor law officials, and law enforcement departments did so. This book is strongest in its depiction of personalities but is weakest in putting this entire episode in a larger perspective. Rosemblum casts doubt on the unions understandings and strategies in this strike of 1983. But what is missing is any broad attempt to frame this labor conflict in context of the political understandings and power of the American working class in general. Why are the anti-labor biases of labor law officials, judges, and law enforcement officials tolerated in this country? Do most working poeple support these biases? Do they not know that they exist or consider them to be irrelevant? Do they support union-busting? If not, are they powerless to elect pro-worker Congressmen and change labor laws? Union actions and community understandings take place in these unanswered contexts. The book is highly readable but one is left primarily with sympathy for the mostly Chicano workers who had their lives uprooted and not with a broader understanding of labor relations other than the obvious capability of a company with an extreme anti-union animus to carry out its will.

No Retreat, No Surrender: Concessions, Resistance, and the End of the Postwar Settlement. (Review Essays/Notes Critiques).(four books on labor relations)(Book ... review): An article from: Labour/Le Travail

Average customer rating:

No Retreat, No Surrender: Concessions, Resistance, and the End of the Postwar Settlement. (Review Essays/Notes Critiques).(four books on labor relations)(Book ... review): An article from: Labour/Le Travail
Alan Draper
Manufacturer: Canadian Committee on Labour History
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital

General | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

Management | Management & Leadership | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

Book Description

This digital document is an article from Labour/Le Travail, published by Canadian Committee on Labour History on March 22, 2003. The length of the article is 6362 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: No Retreat, No Surrender: Concessions, Resistance, and the End of the Postwar Settlement. (Review Essays/Notes Critiques).(four books on labor relations)(Book Review) (book review)
Author: Alan Draper
Publication: Labour/Le Travail (Refereed)
Date: March 22, 2003
Publisher: Canadian Committee on Labour History
Page: 251(14)

Article Type: Book Review

Distributed by Thomson Gale

Customer Reviews:

A solid addition to the literature.......2002-12-02

After "The Tourist", by Dean MacCannell and Valene Smith's edited book titled "Hosts and Guests", in the mid-1970s, the field of the Anthropology of Tourism was flung wide open. A large number of writers focussed their attention on this topic which rapidly increased in importance. In this `new wave' of anthropological writing, Picard and Wood's edited volume on tourism, ethnicity and the state in various societies in Asia and the Pacific stands out for its quality. Wood's introduction is followed by seven well-written, informative chapters, each written by different authors. There are a number of maps, charts, and even black and white photographs, all of which enhance the text. The areas covered by the book include Guizhou in southwestern China, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Bali and Sulawesi Selatan in Indonesia, and Hawai'i /Western Samoa. The authors chose their own directions and followed their own interests, but unlike many other such compilations that I have read, this one really hangs together in excellent fashion.

In China, Singapore and Indonesia, "ethnic tourism" both reflects state policy towards national ethnic groups and is used by the state to further policy. Tourist development does not operate outside state controls, so we read about showcase visions of ethnic diversity in which ethnicity itself is commodified according to government guidelines. In Bali, tourism has become so much part of the culture that it can no longer be considered an outside force. The author can write of the "culturalization" of Balinese society in which the arts emphasized by cultural tourism have become crucial to Balinese identity. In Thailand, neglect of national minorities and their culture reflects the state policy of trying to `iron out' differences between small ethnic groups and the large Thai majority (to the detriment of the former). The Malaysian case reflects not so much on ethnic policy in the country as on using tourism and tourist `precincts' to foster a particular view of national history and culture. The study of Hawai'i and Samoa may be the most diffuse of the seven, plus, the capitalist environment of the "50th State" precludes the state interference found in China and parts of Southeast Asia. Thus this final chapter does not mesh so neatly with the others, yet the author also introduces useful points to show how tourism is intimately linked with ethnicity and how the state used a certain image to foster both tourism and domestic harmony (despite the patent untruth of that image). In short, this is a most useful book for those interested in the anthropology of tourism, in politics (state interference in tourism, state manipulation of ethnic images, ethnic rivalries over tourism receipts), and in the constant revision of what "culture" and "history" really mean in any one society. If I were teaching a course that touched on any of these issues, I would definitely use this book. If I were writing a paper on some aspect of tourism, I would have no qualms about turning to this book for its excellent case studies.

Customer Reviews:

An expression of the right of free speech.......2004-06-20

It is an honored tradition in America that we hold our presidents up to ridicule while in office and no group does more to uphold that tradition than political cartoonists. This collection of cartoons was selected from that held in trust by the national archives, with the goal being to choose some of the best. The 130 cartoons are grouped into the following categories:

* War and Peace
* Political Corruption
* Presidential Caricatures
* Race for the White House
* Balance of Power
* Domestic Issues

While there are a few captions from earlier times, the concentration is on presidents Hoover through Bush 1.
This book is a history lesson in some of the major and minor issues of the last century. It is also a lesson in the American democracy at work. A joy to read, it encapsulates one of the greatest strengths of America, the right to question the President without fear of retribution. Some of the cartoons are also very funny, but it is often necessary to understand the historical context to get the joke.

Book Description

This book is about one musical work, the popular Quartet for the End of Time by the great French composer Olivier Messiaen. Like virtually all of his works, the Quartet combines the striking technical achievement of Messiaen's rich and attractive musical style with a deeply felt theological inspiration. Anthony Pople's book provides an introduction to Messiaen's style through an examination of this great work, showing how it came to be composed while Messiaen was a prisoner-of-war and premiered under extraordinary conditions in Stalag VIIIA in 1941. He gives an in-depth assessment of each of its eight movements.

Customer Reviews:

An exceptional overview of one of Messiaen's most characteristic works.......2007-03-12

Olivier Messiaen's Quatuor pour la Fin du Temps is, in many ways, a textbook example of all of the techniques he had consolidated up until 1941 (and is still a characteristic "textbook" up until 1950). This explains the profusion of examples from this work that find their way into Messiaen's literal textbook dating from this period, Technique de mon langage musical.

Considering this, Anthony Pople's handbook on Quatuor pour la Fin du Temps is an excellent entry into the world of Messiaen. Pople amply extracts the most prevalent techniques in this music directly from Technique de mon langage musical (A publication relatively hard to find outside of the university or conservatory library), and elaborates on them.

Due to the length and space (as well as the presumed targeted audience) provided for Cambridge Handbooks, some of the analysis is rather glossed over: the rhythmic and harmonic pedals in 'Liturgie de cristal', for example, do indeed have variation, contrary to Pople's explanation of these cycles. To Pople's credit, he points out one of the instances of this in the rhythmic pedal of the cello.

As this may only occur in the first printing of this book, the following may be excused if it has been corrected in subsequent editions. In the Appendix that cites the modes of limited transposition, there is a mistake in the example of Mode 7. The correct version in C transposition is C, Db, D natural, Eb, F, F#, G, Ab, A natural, B (enharmonically spelled). Although this may seem like nitpicking, The suggestion will surely be helpful to the frustrated student trying to realize the 6 proper transpositions to no avail. This is obviously a misprint, as Anthony Pople correctly cites the mode in his paper "Messiaen's Musical Language: An Introduction", in The Messiaen Companion.

Overall, this is a wise place to start in any study or appreciation of Olivier Messiaen's music, and Anthony Pople should be commended for this exceptional work.

A heady musicological analysis that reveals a work of great cleverness.......2005-11-14

Anthony Pople's work on Olivier Messiaen's war-time masterpiece "Quatuor pour la fin du temps" is, like all entries in the Cambridge Music Handbooks series, a rigorous musicological examination.

The introduction of the work gives some background on Messiaen, speaking about his life and earlier works (useful for understanding where some of the material of the fifth movement came from). The the Quatuor's creation, within the Stalag prisoner-of-war camp in Nazi Germany, is legendary and receives some discussion here, although those hoping for even more information on the setting should turn to Rebecca Rishin's "For the End of Time: The Story of the Messiaen Quartet" (Cornell University Press, 2003).

Each of the eight movements of the Quatuor has its own chapter, and the analysis differs based on the special properties of each. For example, form and colour are the focus of the second movement ("Vocalise..."), while birdsong is the major topic of the third ("Abime des oiseaux"). The quartet was written as Messiaen was conducting the experiments that led to his early book "Technique", and Pople carefully charts the innovations of rhythm and pitch that Messiaen was developing at this time. As with all entries in the CMH series, quotations from the score abound.

If you have some musical training, Pople's book will vastly expand your appreciation of the "Quatuor". I went from thinking it a juvenille work compared to "Des canyons aux etoiles" or "Eclairs sur l'aux-dela" to seeing it as a piece of marvellous ingenuity.

Average customer rating:

Music For the End of Time
A children's picturebook based on the true story of French composer Olivier Messiaen

Music For The End Of Time
Jennifer Bryant
Manufacturer: Eerdmans Books for Young Readers
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Music | Entertainment | Subjects | Books

Holocaust | History & Historical Fiction | Children's Books | Subjects | Books

General | Ages 9-12 | Children's Books | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

ASIN: 0802852297

Book Description

Detained in a German prison camp, Olivier misses his family, his friends, and his home — but most of all he misses music. A chance encounter with a nightingale and a German officer, however, provides Olivier with a small miracle — the opportunity to write music again.

Jen Bryant's poetic biography of French composer Olivier Messiaen, coupled with Beth Peck's evocative pastel illustrations, captures both the desolation of a World War II prison camp and the transforming power of music. This book will stir readers of all ages to seek hope in the things that inspire them.

Customer Reviews:

Music For the End of Time.......2006-10-13

This story is based on the experience of Olivier Messiaen, a Christian French composer. In 1941, he is detained in a German prison camp, but he is granted permission to play a piano and compose his music. A German officer leads him to the piano and he eventually becomes inspired by the song of a nightingale, which he translates into a sonata. Two new prisoners arrive carrying their instruments in cases and before long, voila!-- chamber music for a camp concert in front of 5,000 prisoners. The camp is described as desolate, and the first illustration does show a dejected line of khaki-clad prisoners being guarded through the gates by German guards and a dog. The prisoners are sent to their barracks where they receive non-striped khaki uniforms and mattresses made of straw, but the lovely pastel illustrations down play the harshness of the surroundings. There is no Jewish content.. The now-famous piece Messiaen composed there, is: Quartet for the End of Time. For ages 8 and up. Reviewed by Marcia Posner

A children's picturebook based on the true story of French composer Olivier Messiaen.......2006-02-11

Music for the End of Time is a children's picturebook based on the true story of French composer Olivier Messiaen, who was captured by the Germans during World War II and sent to a prison camp in Gorlitz (now part of Poland). Despite the bleak living conditions, he received the gift of a small miracle - the opportunity to write music again. With the aid of three fellow musicians also taken prisoner, the song of a beautiful nightingale, and the permission of a German officer, he was able to compose and play the now-famous "Quartet for the End of Time", in a performance appreciated like no other by his fellow prisoners. The emotionally touching pastel illustrations add the perfect quality to this simple story about keeping hope alive in the darkness.

For the End of Time: The Story of the Messiaen Quartet

Average customer rating:

Rather insubstantial and repetitive, but may be of interest
Remarkable research on an overlooked subject
A revalation about Messien's Quartet For the End of Time

For the End of Time: The Story of the Messiaen Quartet
Rebecca Rischin
Manufacturer: Cornell University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Music | Entertainment | Subjects | Books

History & Criticism | Music | Entertainment | Subjects | Books

All Titles | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books
Similar Items:

ASIN: 0801441366

Book Description

Olivier Messiaen (1908-1992) was one of the great composers of the twentieth century. The premiere of the French composer's Quartet for the End of Time on January 15, 1941 at -4 degrees Fahrenheit in Stalag VIIIA, a Nazi prison camp, has been called one of the great stories of twentieth century music. A devout Catholic with an interest in mysticism and the supernatural, Messiaen was also a poet and an accomplished amateur ornithologist. He mixed sounds as a painter mixes colors, associating specific shades with certain modes and chords.

This book is the first comprehensive history of the composition and premiere of Quartet for the End of Time. Based on testimonies by the musicians and their families, witnesses to the premiere, former prisoners, and documents from Stalag VIIIA, For the End of Time examines the events that led to the Quartet's composition, the experiences of the musicians in the camp, the contradictory accounts, the composer's interpretive preferences, and the musicians' problems in execution and how they affected the premiere and subsequent performances. Rebecca Rischin explores the musicians' life in the prison camp, their relationships with each other and with the German camp officials, and their intriguing fortunes before and after the momentous premiere.

For the End of Time is distinguished by Rischin's extensive interviews and intimate correspondence with survivors of the Quartet's premiere and members of the Messiaen circle, including the cellist Etienne Pasquier and the violinist Jean Le Boulaire, relatives of the clarinetist Henri Akoka, and Messiaen's widow, Yvonne Loriod. The book is generously illustrated with photographs of the musicians, press releases from the premiere, autographs, letters, and pen-and-ink drawings of the camp's layout. Included are wartime photos of the camp and its prisoners along with present-day views of the camp site, which Rischin visited in 1995.

Customer Reviews:

Rather insubstantial and repetitive, but may be of interest.......2005-10-15

FOR THE END OF TIME is Rebecca Rischin's story of Olivier Messiaen's piece "Quatuor pour fin du Temps", written mainly when the great French composer was imprisoned in Stalag VIII A as a prisoner of war in 1940-1941. While many people connected to the quartet are now deceased, Rischin was fortunate to interview Etienne Pasquier, the cellist, and Jean Le Boulaire, violinist. Since Henri Akoka, who performed clarinet, passed away in the early 1970s, she interviewed his family.

There is little analysis of the music, and nary a score sample can be seen. For those wishing to know more about the actual music, I'd recommend Anthony Poole's work (Cambridge University Press, 1998) in the Cambridge Music Handbook series. Rischin is concerned with the environment in which the piece was written. She begins with the composer's meeting Pasquier and Henri Akoka on military service in early 1940. It is there, Rischin shows, that the quartet began. Messiaen had already begun to compose the "Abyss of the Birds" movement, and Akoka performed it for him in the middle of a field after the trio had been captured by the Germans and were awaiting transport to the camp.

The description of Stalag VIII A and the various characters and events there makes up the middle portion of the book. Rischin tracks the writing of the quartet, but notes again that not all of it was written on the spot, as two movements are based on earlier compositions. The story of the work's premier is generally in line with what Messiaen has stated: a freezing makeshift concert hall, an out-of-tune piano whose keys stuck, and an audience of all walks of life who, because of their shared suffering, understood him perfectly. She doesn't stop there, however, but tells of how the four musicians left the camp (Akoka daringly escaped) and what they did after the war. The final chapter, "Into Eternity" attempts to describe how the piece continues to touch the hearts of listeners when the generation in which it was composed passes away. Two appendices are provided, one begin Messiaen's own preface to the work, and the second a discography.

The book attempts to correct some of the distortions spread by Messiaen himself about the piece's origins, including that it was played "before thousands" (the barracks serving as concert hall held only around 400 people). However, I find it strange that she relied so much on the testimony of the composer's widow Yvonne Loriod, for Mrs. Loriod did not meet the composer until after his liberation and wouldn't know anything about the writing of the piece beyond what the untrustworthy Messiaen had told her. Beyond that, I found that Rischin's book contained enormous amounts of repetition, which is very noticiable in a work of hardly more than 100 pages. It could have used tighter editing and review by other scholars; there are some mispellings and a non-standard transliteration scheme for Sanskrit which could have easily been ironed out. There is also a hero-worship which is inappropriate in an academic work.

If you love Messiaen's quartet, a great work which served as a basis for the much greater works which were to come over the following fifty years, I'd recommend first the book by Poole, which will expand one's appreciation of the piece greatly. Rischin's history can be left to those who want to read everything possible about the quartet.

Remarkable research on an overlooked subject.......2004-04-30

By illuminating the personalities and circumstances of the Quartet's composition, first performance, and eventual place as a seminal 20th Century work, the author increased my appreciation of it as no amount of musical analysis could have. This story needed to be told, and perhaps what is most surprising is that no one had conducted research on this level or interviewed the participants before. In the end, the Quartet is about the incredible richness and beauty of life. This book is indispensable for anyone interested in Messiaen or the Quartet.

A revalation about Messien's Quartet For the End of Time.......2004-01-13

Rebecca Rischin masterfully describes the terrible ordeal that confronted Messien when he wrote and presented his Quartet -The End of Time while he was a POW in a German camp.
She gives musical insights into the complexity of Messien and his music. She also brings to life the differing personalities of the three musicians-violints, cellist and clarinets who performed the quartet on January 15 1941 in barracks of Stalag V!!!.

Messiaen: Quatuor pour la fin du temps (Cambridge Music Handbooks)

Average customer rating:

Messiaen: Quatuor pour la fin du temps (Cambridge Music Handbooks)
Julian Rushton Anthony Pople
Manufacturer: NY
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000MU6OFI

Average customer rating:

Hot and interesting

Jane: A Pin Up at War
Andy Saunders
Manufacturer: Pen and Sword
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: 1844152928

Book Description

Jane was a wartime phenomenon. A sensation. She was also an important feature in the morale of Britain's fighting forces around the world and to those left behind on the "Home Front". So important, in fact, that her fame extended to the House of Commons where one wartime MP referred to our troops as "Jane's fighting men!"

Until now there has been no published study of Jane or the woman who inspired her. This book fills the gap with a publication which will have a wide appeal. Combining words, photographs and selective cartoons, an in-depth look is taken at the Jane story and, in particular, the beautiful real life model behind that story, Christabel Leighton-Porter.

A wealth of pictorial and photographic material exists to illustrate this highly visual story. Much of it has never before seen the light of day. All of it is of high quality and a considerable quantity falls into the "glamour" category which will appeal to both male and female readers in what is an interesting study of wartime Britain and of Jane's historical and sociological importance of those times.

Customer Reviews:

Hot and interesting.......2004-04-06

This book is about Christabel Leighton-Porter, the model for 'Jane' the pin up who helped many an Englishman make his way through the war. This wonderful little read is complete with many pin up drawings, cartoons, news clippings, and best of all many exposing nudes of the model Christabel. A very sexy read that bares all for the reader. (...)

Book Description

Research Paradigms, Television, Social Behavior is a unique book that is designed to provide an understanding of television research from both the quantitative and qualitative perspectives. The volume provides a systematic analysis of the various research paradigms used in the study of television, and focuses on the integration of quantitative and qualitative methodologies as a means for understanding the complexities associated with this medium. The book is useful for both undergraduate and graduate students because it presents information in a straightforward and engaging style, as well as provides concrete step-by-step examples of how to conduct major research and evaluation projects involving this medium. The book is also important for seasoned scholars and researchers, as well as professionals in the media industry.

Book Description

There are many programming hobbyists who write 2D games but there are far fewer that grasp the concepts of 3D programming. Although there are also quite a few ¿game development¿ books on the market, few deal with 3D game development. Those that do are mainly aimed at advanced readers. This book will provide a practical, example driven approach to learning the unique art of 3D Game Development that even the beginner can grasp. It won¿t get bogged down in page after page of boring theory but instead will teach through many interesting hands on examples. Tom Miller brings years and years of 3D game programming to the table and couples that with an engaging writing style to mentor readers in the intricacies of game development. The book starts out with a crash course in game programming concepts and then progresses into developing 3 different types of games with many useful tips, notes, and cautions along the way. This title will serve as a useful guide to either current 2D game developers or programmers that want to learn to program games.

Customer Reviews:

Book is chock full of errors.......2006-06-13

This book is a decent learning tool, especially if you make sure to use the included CD. However, without the CD, you would find yourself completely lost, because the code written in the book is chock full of errors. It's almost as if nobody ever bothered to actually read the book prior to publication. The code on the CD compiles just fine, though, so if you want to learn from this book, you just have to double-check all of the code against what's on the CD.

Poorly written.......2006-05-07

This is not a book for beginners. It's way above beginner level. And the sample code doesn't work.

I was conned into buying this book by the title and the fact that it uses C#. Unfortunately, it's totally incomprehensible.

Would be 5 stars but marred by errors.......2006-03-20

I cannot proceed because of the errors and there is no place to go to get answers. The author needs to offer tech support before I can recommend his book. Except for the errors, I find the book to be easy to follow and I think the examples of 3D games are relevant, understandable, and interesting. The source code and DirectX Managed Code would make it easy to quickly get something running if it weren't for the above mentioned errors. It would have been just what I need for my plans to teach 3D Game Animation to Middle School students. I want them to have working models that they can tweak. A spinning teapot is an excellent place for them to start. The Blockers game is a good next step. The Tank will appeal to many students. The explanation of multi-player games is essential to my curruiculum. A word of warning - Visual Studio is required, don't try it without.

"Beginning" 3D games programming......?.......2006-02-06

Personally none too impressed with this effort. Tom Miller obviously has the ability to create 3D games, but his attempt at allowing the book buying public the chance to learn some of his skills didn't help me a bit!

Explanations were introduced at a far higher level than I would have liked, and the learning curve seemed to go from 0-200 mph within around 5-6 pages.

Examples didn't work, and I actually had to scour the internet for solutions from other readers, in order to progress with the book!....

Save your money!!!!!!

Hands-on books require hands-on review prior to publication.......2006-01-04

I see that some readers had good results from this book while others were frustrated. I'm afraid I'm in the latter category. Being new to the whole .NET world, I lack the experience to fill in the blanks regarding details the author omits. I have been unable to see any of the sample meshes, or to get the compiler to locate the DirectX classes. Based on other reviewers' comments, it's clear that these things are possible, but one cannot achieve them by following the instructions in the book.

I don't question the author's qualifications. I think the difficulty lies with the publisher. For hands-on tutorial material, especially when it is aimed at beginners, it is important to do a real hands-on review prior to publication. It isn't sufficient to edit the text for grammatical errors and leave it at that. Had the publisher actually tried to use the book, they would have encountered the same problems as I and others have encountered within the first 15 minutes. It is not acceptable to approve tutorial material for publication unless and until it has been verified accurate and usable by the intended audience. I will be very cautious about purchasing books from Sams Publishing henceforth.

Average customer rating:

Beginning Direct 3d Game Programming

Manufacturer: Prima Tech
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000FMKJUO

Beginning Direct 3d Game Programming [Game Development Series] Cd Included

Average customer rating:

Beginning Direct 3d Game Programming [Game Development Series] Cd Included

Manufacturer: Prlima Tech
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000FMOROI

Books:

Books Index

Books Home

Recommended Books