Sports Books

Dr. Miller's and Rick Lamb's book is absolutely precious. High editing quality, precise information and brief and clear historical review on horsemanship. The shift in paradigm in what refers to man-horse relation could not be better described. This "Revolution" is indispensable to all those who need/want to research about horsemanship.

Dr. Miller has done it again with this book on the insight of why this training works. Excellent read.

I'm a recent horse owner, and I want to relate to and bond with my horse - because I believe that such bonding will improve our relationship. I was looking for specific techniques..for example, what specifically could I do to help my horse with three known problems - shying at running water - even if you reach into a trough and splash it, he shies. Also, panicking when tied, and panicking when taken to a rodeo area. Generally the horse, over 20 and a bit swaybacked, is not going to be ridden much, and he has scars from an ill fitting saddle. I'm mostly worried about ground handling.

Based on the title of this book, I was hoping that it would explain some techniques. It actually explains more techniques of so-called traditional horsemanship - as a negative exposition.

The book was well written in a conversational style. I'm actually convinced of the utility of natural horsemanship. After reading this book, were I in the horse business, I'd seriously want to reevaluate my methods to add more (or switch to) natural horsemanship, as I would believe that Natural horsemanship would create horses that would be easier to handle and would sell for more money or rent for more money or would be more likely to win me a ribbon...the point is that the book advocates for natural horsemanship both sensibly and effectively. My tendency, even before reading this book, was to handle my horse calmly, and with easy quiet methods, but this book laid out why clearly - and told me that I need to do even more things calmly.

What it did not explain was how. I still want to know how to do those things. I've had dog training books before, and they told me, "Hold your hands this way, correct the dog this way, offer praise when you see this cue, withhold praise when you see this cue." Sometimes you want more why from a book like that. This book was all why and no "how".

Maybe that is just not available - I have not found the book that does that for me yet. Maybe I did not recognize it. I still count this as a good book, worth reading. But not the book I needed at this point in my horsemanship education.

I've been negative, but I've still rated the book 4 stars. Excellent, well written. The only issue I have with it is the word "Explained" in the title. If it had been "Natural Horsemanship: The whys explained, from heart to hands" I would have rated the book five stars, despite my needs.

I own several excellent books on compass use and "orienteering."
The Army version "Map Reading and Land Navigation" is the simplest and most straightforward explanation of how to get around with just a compass and a map. If I were teaching teenagers (Scouts, etc.) how to use these tools this would be my choice of text.

Soldiers need to know how to read maps accurately, how to navigate, and how to understand all manner of maps, compasses, celestial navigation and more. So does the outdoorsman. For the military and the outdoors wilderness trekker, U.S. Army Map Reading And Land Navigation Handbook provides basic instruction on grids, scale and distance, reading overlays and using navigation equipment. A 'must' for any who might need basic survival skills.

Study orienteering with the handbook used by the U.S. Army. This guide is perfect for any outdoorsman or for teaching Boy Scouts how to use a compass.

Found this book confusing. Maps are illegible which makes the text irrelevant. It covers way too much detail all at once instead of progressing through steps. Covers alot of info and data useful only for those in the military. May work in conjunction with a lecture course, but by itself I would be surprised if anyone learned only from this book. I am new to this so maybe it's just not for beginners.

My boyfriends parents are going to be travelling to the Virgin Islands next spring, so for father's day, we bought his dad this travel guide. The book is packed full of information! They said they were glad that they got this book ahead of time because it will be great to use as a reference for their trip!

The Scott's Guides are the definitive authority on sailing in the Caribbean or anywhere a charter boat sailor may wish to go. Seriously, don't attempt a sailing vacation without consulting the Cruising Guides. CGVI is up to date information on every anchorage in the Virgin Islands.

Bob New, Author
"How To Bareboat, It's easier than you think"
www.howtobareboat.com

My wife and I sailed the BVI just last month and this little tome opened to us some very fine places to stay and some interesting sites to see. Whatsmore, it offered detailed instructions on how to enter ports-of-call and where to anchor or moor. Very valuable to those who don't know all the coves and inlets.
We were only a little surprised to see that at least one charter company places this booklet in all their fleet, it being the most authoritative book on the subject.
We also appreciated how easy to read and how well the book was laid out. I'd buy from this author again.

This guide only gives basic information about cruising the Virgin Islands. It's not much better than the free guides that are given out and supported entirely by ads. It only gives information on islands where a commercial interest has supported the write up. It only gives a mention of islands or anchorages where some one is collecting a fee, so if there is a secluded spot that is free you won't read about it here. It doesn't provide any critique on establishments so you won't know if you are walking into the best restaurant on the island or a complete dump. I don't know if there are better guides for the Virgin Islands but it is a poor example of a cruising guide.

Did not like the way the author designed the book, full of VI advertising. Artikels are shallow. Hope that the essentials are accurate as I am on may way to the BVIs.

I bought this for my two year olds birthday. She loves it. She loves Abby Cadabby and all of the Sesame Street friends, so it was a hit. This book is sturdy and withstands a two year old and her 4 year old brother.

My 20 month old loves this book and the flaps and pages are extra durable for her!

This is a must-read. Having grown up in the NYC area during that era, this valuable history of the Ungovernable City is a walk down Memory Lane, which, in 1977 New York, probably would've been half-burned down for the insurance money while the other half was busy promoting 25-cent "memories."

The Koch/Cuomo drama, Bella Abzug's big-hatted bizarreness, Abe Beame's inheritance of the Lindsay liberal nightmare and his own failure to wake up from it, possessed dogs, Reggie, Billy, Steinbrenner, graffiti'd up IRT cars... they're all in there!

I liked the ESPN miniseries "The Bronx is Burning" so much I decided to get the book, too. I liked the television series way better. I think the main reason is that the ESPN show, which of course focused on the Yankees '77 season, interspersed the mayoral campaign, the Son of Sam, and the blackout looting throughout the series to really demonstrate how crazy it was in NY in 1977. The book often focuses on topics in chunks.

The looting, for example, is concentrated in Part Two of the book. I understand that makes sense because it took place within a short period of time and didn't occur throughout the year. The Son of Sam, however, isn't mentioned until page 245 and he's caught 25 pages later and then the book shifts to the mayoral campaign. Sometimes, these events seem like isolated stories and it is easy losing sight that these things were taking place in the same year and in the same city--that "the Bronx was burning."

As other reviewers have noted, Mahler includes a lot of background info in his book. Some background is needed, of course, to set the 1977 stage, but how much do readers need to know about the history of the NY Post and Mario Cuomo's work in Corona and Forest Hills in the late '60s and early '70s to get a clearer picture of what was going on in 1977? When he discussed Bushwick's socioeconomic decline in the 1960s to explain why looting took place during the power outage, I lost interest. Strangely, although there is a lot of background information, the book ends abruptly with the Yankees victory celebrations. There is no information on what happened to the principal characters in the book. Thurmon Munson, for example, was killed in a plane crash only two years later. It would have been nice to know how Ed Koch's regime faired. Just some brief updates would have been nice (the miniseries included updates).

On a positive note, I enjoyed reading about Reggie Jackson. I liked Mahler's witty line "in vintage fashion, [Reggie] dedicated [his autobiography] to his biggest fan, God" (pg. 113). Some reviewers did not like the focus on Jackson, but the book is not just about the Yankees, it is about the "battle for a soul of a city," and the Jackson-Billy Martin-George Steinbrenner triangle was one of the big news stories of that year. The description of how the power outage happened was exciting to read, although I could not understand the technological part of it. The final tallies on the blackout lootings was eye-opening (pg. 218).

In summary, for as intriguing a topic as this book covered, I was surprised the book wasn't better. I think if Mahler better connected the events it would have improved the book. I was disappointed in the book, but at least there was an excellent miniseries that came out of it.

"The Bronx is Burning: 1977, Baseball, Politics and the Battle for the Soul of a City"
By Jonathan Mahler

I was intrigued by the title of Mahler's book, since it incorporates several of my interests-- politics, sports and journalism but I didn't expect such a good product. It was the Summer of '77: the end of Disco and the beginning of Punk Rock; a pivotal year in politics with the ascendancy of Mario Cuomo and Ed Koch; a monumental ego fight between Reggie Jackson and Billy Martin; and the paranoia of Son of Sam. Then the lights went out, leading to looting and anarchy.
Mahler manages to weave these disparate story lines into a cohesive whole. I was reminded of Tom Wolfe's "Bonfires of the Vanities," which did the same thing for the 'eighties. 1977, Mahler says, was the last year of indiscriminate,unprotected sex before the outbreak of aids, and it saw a devisive election pitting the City's ethnic and economic interests against each other.

Mahler has a good ear for dialogue and a keen eye for detail. His descriptions of the City I grew up in and love are memorable. Of Studio 54 he writes:

"Studio 54 took the escapist ethic of the disco scene to its absurd extreme. An outsize prop of the Man on the Moon shoveling a coke spoon under his nose, shirtless busboys in white satin gym shorts and sequined jockstraps, busty women hanging upside down from trapezes, a fifty-four-hundred square foot dance floor crowded with undulators, balconies crowded with fornicators - this wasn't about avoiding reality as much as it was about obliterating it." (Mahler, P. 168)

I particularly appreciated Mahler's account of the journalistic wars brought on by
Australian Press Lord Rupert Murdock, who took the city by storm and inhaled the New York Post . The Baseball part is a bit too much "Inside Baseball" for me...which may be the reason ESPN optioned the story and made it into a TV Miniseries.
I wish Mahler had spent a bit more time on the Son of Sam story...it's sort of an afterthought to the rest of the book. Here was a pudgy, nondescript postal clerk living in a walk-up efficiency filled with porno, who had the entire city on edge. Kind of like Jack the Ripper turning out to be a mild mannered grocery store clerk.
Mahler brings the style of a magazine writer and the immediacy of a sportswriter to urban history. It's a good read.

Jonathan Mahler has written an exceptionally well-crafted book about a single year (1977) in the history of New York City. The fascinating story alternates between the Yankees and mayoral politics. As the ball drops in Time Square to usher in the New Year, New York and the Yankees are far down in the standings, but the situation is about to get much worse.

In 1977, New York City goes bankrupt and nobody in the nation gives a hoot, the Yankees haven't won the World Series in years and everybody outside New York is delighted, the lights go out in the worst blackout in the city's history and the poor loot and burn, Reggie Jackson comes to the Yankees and his teammates yawn, and Mario Cuomo and Ed Koch slug it out to win the honor to run this disaster.

There is an old adage that a sports team eventually takes on the personality of the head coach. Can a city take on the personality of a sports team? Or does a sports team accommodate its home city. These parallel stories told in The Bronx is Burning make you wonder about the relationship between sports and politics and the value of heroes in our society.

The Bronx is Burning is really about leadership, or more specifically, a public's desperate search for leadership. In hindsight, 1977 was the bottom of an ugly cycle. Reggie Jackson, Mr. October, rose to heroic heights to deliver New York City another World Championship and Ed Koch will be remembered as the courageous mayor that started the turnaround of a once great city that still had its best years in front of it.
The Shut Mouth Society
The Shopkeeper

This is exactly what a journalistic history book should be. Fast, fun, and informative, as the book reviewers would say... Plus, it's about baseball, riots, tabloid journalism, politicians and serial killers. What's not to like? Its kind of hard to remember now, but New York in 1977 was a city on the verge of total and utter collapse. We're talking bankruptcy, massive civil unrest, serial killers. Oh, and Reggie Jackson.

Mahler does an excellent job of bringing all of this together to give a wonderful snapshot of period of New York history that was like no other. If you care about baseball, politics, or New York, this is a great read.

I've been working my way into lead climbing and this is my favorite book on climbing anchors. After taking many classes and climbing with "old schoolers", the book really solidified what I had already learned and taught me many new modern techniques and "tricks". I also appreciate that the book presents the science behinds all the various anchor setups. Although there are hundreds of B&W photos, on occasion they are hard to decipher when showing complex setups. Climbing Anchors (second edition) by Long and Gaines is also an excellent book and covers the same material. Having read both has helped me tremendously!

Luebben's experience, knowledge and research shine through in this informative, accurate book on rock climbing anchors. I found the book to be useful for beginner and expert alike. This work is a full step beyond any other literature that is out there regarding building and analyzing rock climbing anchors.

Very current and well organized book! Craig Luebben has obviously absorbed the new anchoring concepts that have cropped up recently and has helped me understand the advantages and disadvantages to each new method. A better book in my opinion than John Long's new anchor book. Nicely illustrated and un-biased, this is the book I am recommending to my immediate/advanced clients. -Dave Lottmann, EMS Climbing Guide

Craig breaks anchors down into clear concepts, some of which John Long made blurry. The only thing I would have liked were color pictures...simply because some of the anchors were hard to see in B and W.

I've read all the anchor building books and so far, I have found this one to be the best one. Easy to understand, backed up by testing, lots of pictures (a picture speaks a thousand words!), a well-written guide!

I highly recommend this to all climbers out there!

This is the best book I own and I own a few including DVD's. This is the book you want if you need a bike repair reference book. The only downside is the print is real small so make sure you have your reading glasses or young eyes.

Fine, complete and usefull book, medium to pro mechanic's recommended. It's not a Bible but helps a lot with new bikes and components.

I used this book for my bike. Its very useful and gives alot of tips and how toos. Would recommend this to common sense people though. If you can hold a tool right forget it. Save your money and go buy yourself a Britney Spears audio cd.

This is actually the second one of this book I have purchased. I bought mine over four years ago and still use it quite a bit. It is a very comprehensive maint guide that covers everything from hyd brakes to v-brakes and calipers. I liked it so much that I bought this one for my brother-in-law who knows road bikes, but is jumping into mtn biking. I am a big fan and highly recommend it. I will definitely replace mine when I eventually spill too much chain lube and smear too much grease on it to make it legible.

This is a great book for anyone interested in maintaining his mountain bike by himself. It is intended for someone starting out and the book also has recommendations for more advanced maintenance topics. There are lots of illustrations which is quite useful for a do-it-yourself book such as this one. The book even gives specific examples for some major brand item repair work. Highly recommended.

This collection is hard to beat--it represents a broad cross-section of authors and provides enough sailing yarns to relate around the barbie for months to come!

As a one-time sailor, I was taken back to the "old days" by many of these stories. Some are humourous, some awe inspiring, but I think most would be enjoyed by mariner and landlubber alike.

A broad selection of sea stories -- you have probably already read some of them -- combined as a collection of short stories. An enjoyable addition to an onboard library.

a nice intro to many different authors. Very enjoyable. The greatest?

Seems like the selection proccess of stopries was more what the publisher could get (probably cheap) than a good selection of really good stories. Sure there are some good ones (Like en excerpt from Pete Goss's book) but the continuity in the book totally lacks - and I haven't even finished the book yet after 4 months - and I love sailing books - normally cannot put them down if they are well written.

For those who enthusiasts of Sport Business and/or the financing of amateur, collegiate and pro sports, this is excellent

this book has been a great insipiration for my decision to get fit.. I read it avidely and now that I finished I have a better idea of how to actually get myself trained for a triathlon, but really It helped me to change my point of view regarding my ability to excersise... Great book Sally!

This book was a bit dissapointing and hard to follow. The writing style was straining and I felt it was a big advertisement for Danskin. I'm a newcomer to triathlons but have extensive competitive athletic experience and as much as I tried to appreciate the advice, I felt bound and gagged by repeated Danskin references.

Even as a beginner, I found it too simple for what it claims to be, and not well written enough to hold it high on a virtue other than information given.

I am a beginner triathlete in every sense of the word. Although I have swam biked and ran before I had never done any competitively until my first Danskin triathlon. I bought this book after that and have gotten some really great tips and realized a lot of the things I was doing wrong. Great How to's on all three sports as well as nutrition, training and gear. I love it!!

I was not impressed. Even as a newcomer to triathlons, the book helped very little. It had some motivation, but there are far better books for that out there, and very little useful training advice.
My definate advice is not to get this book--- I still regret spending my money on this one.