Customer Reviews (3)

Excellent Book!
This book has now been split into two volumes and all Reed's books are only available through his website. This book is heads and tails above most other real estate books. This is probably the most comprehensive and yet concise book on various ways to buy real estate cheap. While a couple of the examples are dated all of the strategies in the book should work except maybe for doing tenancy in common conversions of apartments in rent-controlled areas.

John T. Reed knows what he is talking about and he frankly discusses the risks and benefits of each strategy as well as the number of opportunities to use each strategy and the success rate of each strategy.

Rather than mindlessly following conventional wisdom and believing that real estate only goes up, read this book to find ways to get real estate cheap. If you buy 20% or more below market value it is very easy to make a satisfactory profit.

Good ideas, but very outdated
Great topic, but the book was outdated. Most of the information cited in the book were for events that took place in the 1980's!That is 20 years ago!A couple of examples that he mentions took place in the early - mid 90's.Nothing recent.

The material contains good comments and ideas, but don't kid yourself to think that this book contains up-to-date examples.Save the money and buy this book used (yes it is available plenty of places online used, even though the author denies it).

Surprisingly good
I found this book to be a refreshingly straightforward treatment of the subject.Mr. Reed thoroughly examines a couple of dozen approaches to buying real estate (and a couple of money-making programs not directly related to real estate), including an analysis of ethical and legal considerations.

Getting a really good deal on *anything*, not just real estate, involves either or both of the following factors:

1) Finding something nobody else knows is for sale (there are people out there who are incredibly poor at marketing), and/or
2) Finding something nobody else wants (for a reason that can be remedied for a cost that still leaves you adequate profit).

That's the whole philosophy.Mr. Reed supplies many case studies and analyses showing how to find and evaluate those two factors.

You should be aware that the author of this book currently refuses to deal with any other bookseller, and will sell only through his own website.IOW, you won't be able to get this book from Amazon.I read the copy I obtained from interlibrary loan. ... Read more

Amazon.com
The situation in St. Petersburg was growing more and more tense.The People's Revolution had begun by overthrowing the corrupt Tsarist regime in March 1917, but the workers and the peasants felt the revolution had much farther to go. Tired of fighting a war that meant little to them, the soldiers also grew restless: "When the land belongs to the peasants, and the factories to the workers, and the power to the Soviets, then we'll know we have something to fight for, and we'll fight for it!"

Lenin pressed the Bolsheviks to seize power. On the night of October 24, an organized mass of workers, soldiers, peasants, and sailors stormed the Winter Palace. On the following day, at the opening of the second Congress of Soviets, Trotsky announced the overthrow of the provisional government. Counterrevolutionary forces marched on the capital, but the Revolutionary Army triumphed. After all, "[t]his was their battle, for their world; the officers in command were elected by them.For the moment that incoherent multiple will was one will."

In Ten Days That Shook the World John Reed tells the story of Red October and the Russian revolution from a unique, firsthand perspective. Reed, an American journalist, was on assignment in Russia for The Masses--then the principal radical journal in the United States--and spent his days walking the streets, reading and collecting handbills, newspapers, and posters, and talking to people. As a result, Ten Days crackles with energetic immediacy. At its best moments it reads like a novel: Reed recounts conversations and arguments, details political machinations, and speculates on personal motives. Though this is no mere piece of propaganda, Reed's enthusiasm for the revolution infuses the text (some readers may be put off by Reed's florid prose), casting each counterrevolutionary act in a negative light. Helpful notes flesh out the background for those less familiar with the preceding events and render this a solid work of history. Ten Days That Shook the World is a stirring account of a stirring event. --Sunny DelaneyBook Description

Customer Reviews (25)

Don't forget what we know now
It should be pointed out that since the 1980s new information about Reed has come to light through access to Soviet archives. These sources reveal that Reed wasanother in a long line of influential Americans who were paid agents of one of the deadliest totalitarian forces in human history. This doesn't tend to get mentioned when the NY Times and academic establishments praise this book's greatness.

One of a kind
This book is one of the most biased books ever written, but this shouldnt be taken as a criticism. This is one of the those history books that was written by someone that was actually there at the time things were happening, and the author made it clear that he was not trying to present "both sides" of the story. He was going to present the "people's side" (at least at that specific time). You dont have to be a communist to enjoy this book. In fact, you can compare the dream the people had at that time with what they actually got later. Beautifully written, this book makes you live the revolution. As you read it, you find yourself walking down the same street with the people at that time and listening to them talk and argue and even fight. Thanks to Reed's amazing style you can visualize the whole thing.

THE HEROIC AGE OF THE BOLSHEVIK REVOLUTION
John Reed, Harvard Class of 1910, epitomized the best of the pre-World War I bourgeois radicals. Unlike the vast majority of his Class and class he cast his fate with the working people and oppressed of America at a time when the dominant left bourgeois movement- the Progressive movement- was busy applying band aids to the increasingly inequitable capitalist system. The radical movement is always in need, sometimes desperately in need, of intellectuals to tell its side of the story. Despite some exceptions, like Reed, the intellectuals then, as now, either stand on the sidelines or at most acted as `fellow travelers' to the movement. Reed on the contrary put all his energies into the movement. As a journalist he sought out all the radical hotspots of his time starting with his coverage of the Mexican Revolution, through the various workers' strikes of the 1910's in America culminating in his coverage of the heroic period of the Russian Revolution. His journalistic account of the Bolshevik seizure of power, Ten Days That Shook the World, stands even today as one of the best eyewitness accounts of that turbulent time in Russia. Reed had access to many elements of Russian society, from the revolutionatry workers quarters in Vyborg and Kronstadt to high society in the shadow of the Winter Palace, and mined those sources for his material. He brings the passion of the partisan in the best sense to his work.

If you want insights into the struggle for power from a central character in the fight then Leon Trotsky's History of the Russian Revolution is must reading. If you want to know what the Bolshevik Revolution meant for the configuration of world geo-politcs them E.H. Carr's three volume study is for you. If you want to know what the various parties were up to in the period prior to the Bolshevik seizure of power then Sukhanov's Notes on the Revolution will provide a rather insightful guide. However, if you want to know how the revolutionary developments in 1917 affected various layers of society (and how they responded) then Reed is for you. Enough said.

How to get the most out of this great book
To appreciate this book, you have to understand what it is and what it isn't.

This is top-notch journalism, by someone with a lot of insight into what he was seeing, and a knack for turning up in all the right places. It gives you a vivid, unparalleled *flavor* of the Russian revolution of 1917, the first victorious working class revolution.

But it's still *journalism*. It's not an organized chronicle of what happened, beginning at the beginning and introducing events and ideas in a logical order. On top of that, Reed arrived in Russia at the climax of the revolution, after seven months of intense activity by an overwhelming cast of characters. If you read it too casually, it's like starting a textbook by reading the last chapter.

To get the most out of the book, I suggest reading Reed's introductory material carefully, probably returning to it more than once as you read the book. If you need more help, there's a good summary in the last two chapters of "Revolutionary Continuity: the Early Years" by Farrell Dobbs.

Your efforts will be well-rewarded. It really is great journalism.

For a definitive history, I highly recommend the widely acclaimed masterpiece, "History of the Russian Revolution" by Leon Trotsky. If you like one book, you'll like the other. I promise. Please read my review. (Click on "See all my reviews" above.)

Some reviewers complained that Reed doesn't explain the revolution's shortcomings -- the Russian revolution obviously turned out badly in the long run. But not everyone agrees that the revolution was fatally flawed from the very beginning. I don't. It's hard to read Reed's book and believe it was anything but an authentic popular revolution. For what went wrong, I recommend "The Revolution Betrayed" by Leon Trotsky and "Lenin's Final Fight", a collection of Lenin's last writings.

Eye Witness Account - Recommended by Lenin
This is an excellent account of the Russian Revolution told in story form and should be included in your study of the Revolution. The author was an American journalist and active participant in the American Labor movement aiding strikers in Paterson, NJ. In 1919 he chaired the meeting which founded the Communist-Labour Party, later the Communist Party of the U.S.A.. There is no such thing as an "objective" and neutral study, all sides are bias, so this book should be read with the so called anti-communist accounts to balance this study out.

There are a lot of details and yet it is told in story form. I think the other book to read on this subject is the History of the Russian Revolution written by the source itself, Leon Trotsky. Also Trotsky's book, The Revolution Betrayed. Then you can go to writings of Lenin. I found a short book on a couple of essays by the German Socialist and contemporary of the Socialist movement, Rosa Luxemburg, is very significant as an analysis. In this she criticizes much of Lenin and Trotsky's centralization as opposed to opportunism and the disbanding of the Duma and so forth, an excellent read! There are also quite a few modern books on the Russian Revolution as Richard Piper and others. This book is an excellent place to start and should not be excluded in this study.

This book as scores of statements Reed took from the many of the Bolshevik - proletarian and the bourgeois newspapers, documents, announcements and decrees of Kerensky and the provincial government, short conversations with Bolsheviks, Cadets, Cossacks, Mensheviks, proletarians and bourgeois alike. What I found so helpful is that Reed, as an sort of neutral in between person, was able to interview many of the opposing sides. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (11)

What ho?
The future of Animal Farm is sub-prime home loans for all and sequined mangers--Animal Fair! Need I say more? I do. John Reed is wicked smart. He's wicked. And smart. And not wrong. When every young girl dreams of becoming the next big dancing chicken, and the pigs are still running the show, it's time to be very afraid and seriously funny.

MUST READ
This book simply must be read. After being force fed animal farm in highschool, this is just what the doctor ordered. Oh, and it's damn funny.

Good work Mr. Reed

Where do Snowballs go.......?
Snowball turns up again years after the Animal Farm debacle . Reed's bristling animal characters weave a symphony of ironies. We surrender ourselves to the unwinding economic distopia.Exciting reading.

strong satire of a strong satire turning Orwell on his head
After being exiled from Animal Farm, a contrite Snowball returns insisting that he learned his lesson of excess and abuse of power and will harm no one.He slowly begins his means of taking over through "democratic" processes by promising if elected in charge he will reform the farm so that the animals will have plenty of pie and the stables will be heated and well lighted.No one will want under his enlightened leadership.

Snowball's reform succeeds so that newcomers from the surrounding areas begin to flock to Animal Farm for a taste of the good life.These refugees are given the jobs none of the old-timers want to do and live in the oldest dilapidated barns.The original loyal followers of Snowball move into choice property outside the crime ridden center.Snowball continues to expand Animal Farm bringing prosperity to his inner circle.

Winning a court case, Snowball gains control of the water rights.This leaves the Beavers with nothing but anger and frustration that leads to counterinsurgency with an opportunity to a better afterlife if they die for the cause of freeing the beaver woods.

John Reed provides an intriguing ironic follow-up to George Orwell's superb satirical personification of communism by applying the same cast to the personification of capitalism.Some diehard Orwellian fans will loathe what might seem as an assault on the author, but this reviewer believes that Mr. Orwell on THE WHOLE would have done something similar if he lived today.Mindful of a Jay Ward Fractured Fairy Tale involving Sleeping Beauty, SNOWBALL'S CHANCE is a strong satire of a strong satire turning Orwell on his head.

Harriet Klausner

Parody and Homage in one work...
This was a book that was placed on the required reading list of my college English class, along with Orwell's Animal Farm. I found it an incredibly intriguing piece that both capitalized (no pun intended) on the uniqueness of Orwell's writing style (paranthetical phrases, etc) and pokes fun at it (there are quite a few silly songs and poems that the animals make up).

I think that it can be viewed from many different angles, especially if you see their Ferris Wheel as the Pentagon...think about it. ... Read more

Book Description
In this guide for youth baseball coaches, experienced coach John T. Reed demonstrates how he has achieved extraordinary results by focusing on players' innate skills in areas such as base running, waiting for a good pitch, and fielding. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (8)

The Truth Hurts
After coaching youth baseball for sixteen years, after reading numerous books on the subject, I can now say that it's refreshing to read a book that tells it like it is! Mr. Reed identifies the coaching incompetence in us all and tells us how to correct it. I personally can accept this, many other youth coaches may not. If you are a youth coach and have a high opinion of your coaching talent, I do not recommend this book. However, if you are opened minded and seek to greatly improve not only your coaching abilities but also overall enjoyment of the game, I strongly suggest this literature.

There is better material out there
I just wanted to let readers know that there are several other books and resources out there with much better content and organization for less money

Having been involved with my own kids in different facets of kids baseball I am always on the lookout for new or original material. Unfortunately this very pricey book does not fill the bill.

Thumbs Up from Mom of Four Boys
I found this book recommended in the Amazon review of ANOTHER BOOK!I'm so glad I did.I've had kids in youth baseball for 6 years, and have had my various complaints regarding coaching and league rules.Everything Reed writes is extremely logical, reasonable, and practical.All well-organized, well-written, and with just the right amount of wry humor. He suggests ways to bring out the best in players. He outlines exactly how to prepare players for each position.He explains why it doesn't make sense to spend a great deal of time practicing things you aren't likely to improve (like batting) but to spend a lot of time working with players on things they can improve, such as intelligent baserunning and correct understanding of rules.His emphasis on safety is terrific.I bought this book for my husband, but I read it cover-to-cover myself.It makes me want to coach a team next spring.But even if you weren't interested in coaching, the information in this book could help you be a better "baseball parent," too.

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
This is a very helpful book and I will be a better coach for reading it.The most valuable points concern the limited time for practice and what to focus on. There are many interesting concepts in the book that are full explained.

However, the book was tarnished on several accounts.It was filled with details of Mr Reed's dubious adult baseball career that I really didn't need.His constant negativity and bitterness towards the players, fellow coaches, league administration, volunteer umpires,etc.... got to be too much by the end.All of this complaining done while reminding the reader it is for the kids.I ended up questioning why Mr. Reed spent so much of his time doing something that caused him so much unhappiness.

Read this book it is worth it.But, be very careful of adopting the attitudes and feelings conveyed in it.

"Amen" from the Chorus
I knew that this was going to be a good one as soon as I saw the authors' name on the cover (check out John T. Reed's *football* coaching books, excellent!).Based on my personal journey of 10 years coaching youth baseball, and associated 100+ books read & scores of clinics attended over that time - *this* is the best take on what constitutes effective 12 & under baseball coaching that I have seen to-date.Finally, a reasoned and thoughtful delineation of the differences between "real" baseball and "youth" baseball - and how to effectively coach to those differences.John T. Reed does it again!

My plug for the best companion coaching book out there - Positive Coaching, by John Thompson (a fuller exploration of the emotional side of effective youth coaching, IMHO).Utilizing these 2 books, you have all of the tools that you need to be an effective youth coach.Go get 'em! ... Read more

Book Description
American journalist John 'Jack' Reed writes, on the scene, describing the Mexican Revolution of 1914.He gives an excellent and realistic account of the Mexican Indians and peons that have suffered under a brutal dictatorship.He writes about the time he spent in Northern Mexico with Pancho Villa and the war in the desert.It was hard for him as a Gringo as most Americans had only gone to Mexico to pluner the enviornment.Read "The White Rose' by Bruno Traven and his other 'jungle' series books about the exploitation of Indian Mexican's.Many would say that Jack Reed took over from Jack London in his war reporting, since Jack had just died in 1914.Jack Reed's other famous book "Ten Days That Shook The World" is about the Red October (Boleshvik) Russian Revolution - the movie "Reds" by Warren Beaty is Jack Reed's story.A Collector's Edition. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

If only there was more
this book lives up to its underground billing as we are drawn into the Mexican Revolution in a way that makes us seem to be riding with Pancho Villa and living with the villagers along the way.It reminds one of a Hemingway report except with added detail.The only complaint is that it is not longer for it leaves you the urge to read more Reed.

Smoke Gets in Your Eyes
In this account of his adventures in the advance to Mexico City with Pancho Villa's armies, John Reed gives an excellent account of what it was like to have been there. Luckily enough for him, historians, and adventurelovers alike, he was on the winning side and survived to tell his tale. Histale is his aspect of the venture among the soldiers who fought thebattles, rode the trains, suffred the hardships of civil war, and tastedthe glow of victories won on the way to the capitol city. It's gritty,putrid, rough and tumble and the food isn't great but at the end you get aheck of a kick from surviving it all.

John Reed's writing style is great
This book was written over 80 years ago, so as military journalism it is quite dated.However, the author's portraits of people and places are so vivid that the characters and events seem to come alive.The authordisplays a novelist's talent for description.It is a very sympatheticportrait of Pancho Villa.I don't know how historically accurate it is,but it is certainly interesting reading.

Classic Work on its Era
This book has been notorious since its publication in 1914. The authorm a reporter for the American radical press, did not go to Mexico Cityriding in relative comfort on the press train accompaning theDivision del Norte General Francisco "Pancho" Villa during rhe successful Constitutionalist southward campaign against the Federalista forces of the usurper General Victoriano Huerta, he who had murdered president Madero and his vice president, and siezed power in Mexico City.
Reed, instead in accord with his common man leaning, lived among the "grunts", Mexican campesinos who made up the bulk of Villa's forces.
There are incisive pen portraits of the Constitutionalist leaders, descriptions ofthe wretched living conditions of the people, and observations on the siege of Torréon, N.L.. and nearby Gomez Palacio, neighboring key strategic cities on the railroad south from Juarez to Mexico City.
This is not history or reporting but a collection of impressionistic and justifiably biasedessays. Still very valuable for the feel of the times and has beentranslated into many languages. The author later went to Russia and wrote"Ten Days That Shook the World." (c.f.) about the October Revolution. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

excellent book.
i was surprized to learn the author has a harvard MBA. i'd read his website johntreed.com and always thought of him as a bitter person. but this book has NO FLUFF and is full of sound practical advice. he explains the 3 year payback rule for everything from light bulbs to renovations and has calculations to back it all.
must read for anyone thinking of, or already managing property. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Like Most Reed Books...Nice Ideas...Poorly Written...
John Reed always has something interesting to share, but its too bad it gets lost in an overload of anecdotes (do we all really care to hear about his days of youth coaching for the 5th time???), and poor organization. If the man would hire an editor, I think his books would improve. Reed is to be commended for tackling a subject that is not talked about, but he does it so poorly that the book is not worth buying. ... Read more

Product Description
High goals are fine. Author John T. Reed reached several high goals in his life like making a million dollars, getting degrees from West Point and Harvard, being listed in Whos Who in America, appearing on TV shows like 60 Minutes, writing over two dozen well-received books, as well as celebrating a 30-year marriage and raising three fine sons. His experience has also been varied from being the son of an alcoholic father to living in the country, suburbs, and big city to serving a tour in Vietnam to working for a large corporation to successful self-employment and extended bachelorhood. He also failed significantly in various pursuits and thereby learned many important lessons. Succeeding will tell you how to achieve high success, but it will constantly remind you to go for enough, not more; and to pursue what suits you, not just some goal chosen solely based on how much you think it will impress others. Strategies, tactics, tips, and tricks on how to succeed. Lessons learned by one man in his 50 plus years. The book focuses on choosing the right spouse and career. Unlike most success books that encourage you to choose whatever extremely high goals your heart desires, this book emphasizes the importance of choosing the right goals. If you choose your goals carefully, you are far more likely to achieve them and far more likely to be happy when you do. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Much Ado About Nothing
I must say that I'm a little bit disappointed with "Succeeding" by John T Reed. The book reads more like an autobiography than a "how to" book. The author spends too much time describing his own (and his family's) experiences, rather than emphasizing the principles that made him successful. Also, the author's constant talk about his sons (in particular "Dan")and how great they are grew to be a little bit irritating. I didn't pick up this book to hear how wonderful Mr Reed thinks his sons are (though that is a good quality, and I'm sure he must be a great father).

On a positive note, the book does pick up a little bit in the second half, and there is some useful advice stuck in there between all the biographical aspects. Also, from the little that Reed talks about real estate in the book, he comes across as being very knowledgeable in that field.

To conclude, I would say that if you are looking for real estate advice you should definitely pick up one of his other books and give him a try. I'm sure they will be great and information packed (this is something I plan to do in the near future). However, I would leave "Succeeding" firmly off your list of what to read.

Excellent book
Mr. Reed recommends you read this one first.The reason is sound.One should be clear on one's objectives, capabilities, ethics and character before starting on a demanding project with large financial risk if not executed with skill and diligence.Reed describes his life and how his views on several things including real estate developed.At one time he overreached because of unclearly understood objectives (what is enough) only to get wiped out by the Texas meltdown and the 1986 tax changes that dropped income property values by about 25% overnight.He recovered, and did so without cheating anybody or running a shady series of infomercials with deceptive and deceptively priced products. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

Romantic Revolutionary, Indeed!
John Reed, Harvard Class of 1910, epitomized the best of the pre-World War I bourgeois radicals. Unlike the vast majority of his Class and class he cast his fate with the working people and oppressed of America at a time when the dominant left bourgeois movement- the Progressive movement- was busy applying band aids to the increasingly inequitable capitalist system. The radical movement is always in need, sometimes desperately in need, of intellectuals to tell its side of the story. Despite some exceptions, like Reed, the intellectuals then, as now, either stood on the sidelines or at most acted as `fellow travelers' to the movement. Reed on the contrary put all his energies into the movement. As a journalist he sought out all the radical hotspots of his time starting with his coverage of the Mexican Revolution, through the various workers' strikes of the 1910's in America culminating in his coverage of the heroic period of the Russian Revolution. His journalistic account of the Bolshevik seizure of power, Ten Days That Shook the World, stands even today as one of the best eyewitness accounts of that turbulent time in Russia.

John Reed's political development also offers today's militant leftists an insight into how the swirl of events drives the best militants leftward. Reed started out in the typically Bohemian milieu of New York City's Greenwich Village and imbibed its avante guarde cultural offerings and its pretensions. However, as the United States lurched into participation into World War I he grew stronger as an anti-war advocate and placed himself on the line to oppose that war. This was the great dividing point in the radical movement of the time. This separated the dilettantes and mere reformists from serious revolutionaries. Not an unusual political development, but an important one.

Under the influence of the Russian Revolution Reed led the left wing of the American Socialist Party on a program of opposition to the war and defense of the Bolshevik Revolution. When the left wing was forced out of the Socialist Party he formed a communist organization based on the centrally of the native American working class as the vanguard of the American Revolution. Opposed to that were left-wingers, mainly foreign born elements based on the various language federations of the old Socialist Party, who essentially wanted to act as cheerleaders for the Russian Revolution-and no much else. The result was the creation of two communist organizations that caused no end of problems both in America and in the Communist International. But the fights to lead the Socialist party leftward and later between the communist organizations are stories for another time, and worth separate space. Read this book for starters.

by the author of "The Dream of the Decade"
The last full biography of Reed was published in 1967. The Lost Revolutionary was a Cold War attempt at character assassination. Apart from a psychoanalytical epilogue that dismisses his subject as naive, Rosenstone's account is remarkably fair. Reed, brought up in Babbit-style Oregon, was educated at Harvard and at 26 left Greenwich Village's burgeoning bohemia to cover the Mexican Revolution. His political awakening came just before he left for the land of Villa and Zapata, while covering a story on the Paterson silk strike. 'In Paterson,' writes the American biographer, 'Jack had smelled, tasted and felt the spirit of radicalism, and found it good.'

After Mexico and reporting from the Western Front, came romance in the shape of Louise Bryant the sole justification for the title of the book. All this time Reed was writing articles, plays and stories, but for all his worldly experience, they were mediocre against the work of contemporaries such as O'Neil, Yeats and Pound. Reed's greatness would be established by reportage published only a year before his burial at the foot of the Kremlin. Ten Days That Shook The World not only illuminates the trials of revolution, but also shows up the caprice of the winds of change.

An exceptional examination of an exceptional life!
An epic tour-de-force which examines the fascinating life of John Reed, the only American to be buried in the Kremlin Wall.An ecclectic mix of personalities - from Lenin to Gertrude Stein, from Lincoln Steffens toTeddy Roosevelt - pass thru the tapestry which was Reed's life, each havingtheir own unique impact on the art which remains.From his childhood instoic Portland Oregon to his years in Harvard and New York to his coming ofage in Mexico covering the Villa revolution, Reed absorbed experience andreflected his concept of justice and equality in his writing.Each stopalong the way was preparation for Reed's ultimate mission - to report onthe earth-shattering 1917 Russian Revolution.The book "Ten Days inOctober" is still the seminal work on the topic, and this book delvesinto the evolution of Reed from middle-class dabbler to full-blownSocialist commentator.Mr. Rosenstone does the man justice -well-documented, fair, and without overt "gushiness".Anexceptional read.

The book the academy-award movie "Reds" was based on.
This is the book the academy-award winning movie "Reds",starring Warren Beatty and Diane Keaton, was based on. An epic (buttrue)love story, you finish reading it in awe at how much life was packedby these people in such a short time. ... Read more

Book Description

Customer Reviews (4)

Disappointed
I thought this was going to be a book of funny and interesting items about the south and southerners. What it turned out to be is a text book! I tossed it into the trash, but pulled it back out so I can donate it to Goodwill.

It's So True!
I am from Brooklyn, New York and spent four years in a rural Virginia town. I was informed I was the third Jew to have lived in the town. Too bad, this book didn't exist when I lived down there. I just read it and couldn't put the book down and stop laughing. I learned about Professor Reed from the book Culture Shock USA, The South.An invaluble book for those who want to do business with Southerners, or move down there and become "Damn Yankees" (as my Alabama cousins call them). (You know you are liked, when you are promoted to Damn Yankee). To the reviewer from Birmingham, England. Explore the South and enjoy!

Popular scholarship
A Brit like me needs all the help he can get when it comes to understanding the South - and John Shelton Reed is the man to supply it. Readers may find the review from a reader in Vermont a little misleading - this book is not written for laughs although it is often very amusing. Reedis no Bill Bryson - but neither is Bryson a John Shelton Reed.

The bookis a wonderful collection of short esssays that illuminate and explain"Southern-ness". Pinning down Southern characteristics - orindeed even where "The South" begins and ends - is like trying tonail Jell-O to a wall. However, that does not prevent Reed making theattempt with humor and considerable scholarship.

Most of the chaptershave previously appeared in journals or are based on such papers. Reed'stone is light and entertaining even though the underlying purpose isserious. Perhaps the most overtly scholarly is the opening chapter thatdeals with the geographical extent of "The South". It is welladorned with plates taken from a very wide range of academic journalsshowing the incidence in the contiguous states of various factors suspectedof reflecting Southern-ness. All the usual suspects are here:self-perception, cotton cultivation, incidence of lynchings, members ofBaptist chruches, and 'Southern Living' readers. However, Reed has otherless familiar indicators of Southern-ness such as where kudzu grows, ratioof active dentists to population, states mentioned in country-music lyrics,ratio of homicides to suicides, or chapters of the Kappa Alpha order.

Itmakes for fascinating reading and a shifting pattern of where the South is.Other chapters deal with such disparate issues as the depiction of Southernwomen in Playboy magazine, violence in country music, the Southerndiaspora, and life and leisure in the New South. Reed's real achievement isto disguise his scholarship as an entertaining and informative read.

Thisis a very different kind of book from Reed's 1001 Things Everyone ShouldKnow About the South. That was more an eclectic collection of facts, bothfamiliar and unfamiliar, grouped loosely around broad themes. It was morefor dipping into than reading straight through. The present book is morelimited in its aims and obliquely explores a few specific questions ingreater depth.

All in all, this is an immesely enjoyable book that isfull of surprising revelations about the nature of Southern-ness. Some ofthe material on which it is based is getting a little dated (the bulk ofsources are from the 1970s and early 1980s) and we can only hope that Reedis moved to bring out a new edition.

I LAUGHED THE ENTIRE TIME AND ANNOYED MY IN-FLIGHT NEIGHBORS
John Shelton Reed does it again in this hilarious book.I have finally become addicted to his writing which is some of the most accurate and funny I have seen in quite some time, since I have been in academia for most of my life now.Anyone living in the South or those who have left and remember it well (like myself) will love this gem of a book. ... Read more

Product Description
Ethical, legal, practical, profitable ways to buy real estate for 0% to 5% down. Government and private programs designed to enable home buyers and investors to buy for 5% or less down. How to use your own strong credit or that of willing others to buy for 5% or less down. Using seller financing to buy with little or no money down. Buying for bargain prices (80% or less of market value) then borrowing 100% of the purchase price, albeit 80% or less of the market value. Taking over high-loan-to-value existing mortgages.How to save for a down payment. Myths about nothing-down purchases. Wrong ways to try to purchase real estate with little or no money down. Most nothing-down techniques are unethical, illegal, immoral, impractical, and/or unprofitable. Don't lose your money, your credit, or your freedom following dangerous advice. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Worth it for Insurgent Mexico/War in Eastern Europe
John Reed lived a short and adventurous life. This three part compilation of his works was excellent to read because of Insurgent Mexico, and the War in Eastern Europe. Both are excellent, and are worth buying this book for its historical importance and for our modern experience in these regions. If Mexican history and Eastern Europe interest you, this is a great read. I enjoy journalistic accounts, and this book really fits the bill. 10 Days that Shook the World is interesting as a period piece and to see that the Commies perhaps duped him butis not as fascinating as the first two works.

The original of Reds
I have to say that John Reed's Ten Days That Shook The World works more as a period piece today than as history.Still, you might look at the guy as an early example of what Hunter Thompson called, "GonzoJournalism." Reed was reporting history as he saw it happen.There isalways something to be said for that. ... Read more

Product Description
This cook is a compilation of articles from Real Estate Investors Monthly on the subject of fixers, rehab, renovation, whatever you want to call it. Also includes an improved version of the chapter on renovation that was in the first edition of How To Increase the Value of Real Estate. ... Read more