Customer Reviews (4)

Great for the true PTA fan
I love being able to read P.T. Anderson's shooting scripts. His films are fabulous. I believe one of the negative reviewers partially misses the point when harping on the misspellings, the rambling monologues andhow PTA's scripts are saved by the actors. The whole point of a script is that it is the first rough draft -- the framework -- upon which a movie is built. Of course there are going to be improvements between the script and the final product. The reason to buy this, or any, shooting script is to see how the project evolved from script to screen. In the case of Punch-Drunk Love -- much more so than Boogie Nights or Magnolia -- it's fascinating to find that almost every important scene was tweaked, sometimes in a major way, before this wonderful film reached the screen. ... It's a great chance to get some insight into the stages of the creative process of one of America's finest directors. ... BOTTOM LINE: Does this book have all the bells and whistles of the Boogie Nights and Magnolia shooting scripts? NOPE. Is it essential for the PTA fan? YUP.

P.T.'s Masterpiece
One of my new favorites, "Punch-Drunk Love" is a unique and spectacular story about a man who doesn't know how the face the world around him.That man is Barry Egan.He has seven sisters who have verbally abused him since he was little, causing him to, now all grown up, get into violent outbursts.Barry's a quiet and shy guy, but if his button is pushed things can get out of control.He meets Lena, a very strange and peculiar girl herself.Love falls upon these two, but Barry's even facing more problems after being blackmailed by a phone-sex operator.But when all else fails, he knows that he has a love in his life in this very oddball and dark comedy.

I'm glad they came out with a script version of the film that you can buy.Paul Thomas Anderson has written a magnificent picture that's so easy to relate to , it's scary.The stuff that occurs you can see happening in real life.It's realistic and surreal at the same time.

This is the shooting script, on blue, pink, and yellow colored pages that symbolize when the revisions were made.Technical terms such as camera angels are included as well since it is a shooting script.Even little changes are mentioned as well.I love the dialogue that was written and you can tell that P.T. had Sandler in mind for the part, because nobody else would've been able to pull it off.While it's not your typical comedy, I thought it was hilarious.It pretty much follows the movie, although some things aren't there or changed due to changes that occurred during the shooting.It's pretty much all there for the most part.

"Punch-Drunk Love: The Shooting Script" is a great purchase for anyone who loved the film.It may not had been the most popular movie to come out of 2002, but it's #2 on my list.The pages fly by with ease, and when you're done with it you want to read it again.I can't wait for this movie to come out on DVD.I'm counting the days.A spectacular script for a spectacular film.

P.T. ANDERSON'S SCRIPTS ROCK!
Paul Thomas Anderson, writer-director of the absorbing Sundance fave HARD EIGHT (1997), the brilliant, sprawling 70s epic BOOGIE NIGHTS (1997) and the utterly enthralling, 3-hour mosaic of pain, sickness, death and loneliness in the San Fernando Valley MAGNOLIA (1999), returns to form yet again with his utterly bizzare and very fascinating sounding 90 minute dark romantic "comedy" PUNCH-DRUNK LOVE (2002). The film stars Adam Sandler and Emily Watson as two nearly insane people. Sandler plays Barry Egan, a lonely businessman (his only friend seems to be a co-worker named Lance, played by Anderson comic relief fave and ensemble lover Luis Guzman) with 7 abusive sisters. Watson plays Lena Leonard, a quirky young Englishwoman who is one of his sister's (Mary-Lynn Raksjub--love her!) friends from work. They get (jokingly) set up on a blind date (I believe they meet first, then go for dinner), and love is in the air. He plans to buy lots and lots (and lots yet again) of pudding for a chance to win frequent flier miles in a contest. This will lead to a Hawaii trip that would go right, but Barry's depressing recent past stands in the way. He was conned upon calling a phone ... line (to a woman named Georgia)--seems she wants more money than he should have to pay and this leads to a dangerous group of Utah thugs coming to the Valley to collect for their sleezy ...andleader (played by the great Philip Seymour Hoffman, the only actor yet to be in all 4 P.T. Anderson pictures). This all combines to what sounds like one of the best new films of the fall season, and possibly one of the best of the year. Ebert and Roeper loved it and it was a hit at many film festivals it attended. Sounds great. Anderson's script is shorter than MAGNOLIA's 194 pages or BOOGIE NIGHTS' 152, and even his debut HARD EIGHT'S (no script published yet--the running time was 101 minutes!). This (literal) change of pace for the Altman-Scorsese-Demme-influenced young auteur promises a "joy ride" of epic proportions, if not length. His scripts (including this) are published as "Shooting Scripts". This means it's gone through some changes since the "Reading Draft(1st draft)", but Anderson thinks visually, directs very much in that vein, and has been known to write very much like that. His scripts contain much camera description and as little scene description as possible. ...

P.T. ANDERSON'S SCRIPTS ROCK!
Paul Thomas Anderson, writer-director of the absorbing Sundance fave HARD EIGHT (1997), the brilliant, sprawling 70s epic BOOGIE NIGHTS (1997) and the utterly enthralling, 3-hour mosaic of pain, sickness, death and loneliness in the San Fernando Valley MAGNOLIA (1999), returns to form yet again with his utterly bizzare and very fascinating sounding 90 minute dark romantic "comedy" PUNCH-DRUNK LOVE (2002). The film stars Adam Sandler and Emily Watson as two nearly insane people. Sandler plays Barry Egan, a lonely businessman (his only friend seems to be a co-worker named Lance, played by Anderson comic relief fave and ensemble lover Luis Guzman) with 7 abusive sisters. Watson plays Lena Leonard, a quirky young Englishwoman who is one of his sister's (Mary-Lynn Raksjub--love her!) friends from work. They get (jokingly) set up on a blind date (I believe they meet first, then go for dinner), and love is in the air. He plans to buy lots and lots (and lots yet again) of pudding for a chance to win frequent flier miles in a contest. This will lead to a Hawaii trip that would go right, but Barry's depressing recent past stands in the way. He was conned upon calling a phone sex line (to a woman named Georgia)--seems she wants more money than he should have to pay and this leads to a dangerous group of Utah thugs coming to the Valley to collect for their sleezy pimp leader (played by the great Philip Seymour Hoffman, the only actor yet to be in all 4 P.T. Anderson pictures). This all combines to what sounds like one of the best new films of the fall season, and possibly one of the best of the year. Ebert and Roeper loved it and it was a hit at many film festivals it attended. Sounds great. Anderson's script is shorter than MAGNOLIA's 194 pages or BOOGIE NIGHTS' 152, and even his debut HARD EIGHT'S (no script published yet--the running time was 101 minutes!). This (literal) change of pace for the Altman-Scorsese-Demme-influenced young auteur promises a "joy ride" of epic proportions, if not length. His scripts (including this) are published as "Shooting Scripts". This means it's gone through some changes since the "Reading Draft(1st draft)", but Anderson thinks visually, directs very much in that vein, and has been known to write very much like that. His scripts contain much camera description and as little scene description as possible. As he said in the BOOGIE NIGHTS script book introduction, "I've come to realize that my function as a director is to be a good writer...My obligation as a director is to deliver the actors a good script, thus making my job as a director describable as 'hanging out' and watching them go. No good actor needs direction beyond 'Let's do another one' and 'Keep it simple.'...There is no flour and sugar...this is a script written for actors. An actor does not need a full description of their character...This is how most screenplays are written... This sort of thing must be written by writers who have no interest in meeting or socializing with actors. If you have written this and you can find an actress to play this part, as described, you will have a bad actress. Actors do not need this, they don't want it. Don't give it to them; they will not read it anyway. This is writing for studio executives. Studio executives do not make movies. They pretend that they make movies. This is a script written for the people who really make the movie, people who physically put it into existence, and all they need are the facts. Pure and Simple." This is a philosophy that is rare and much needed in Hollywood and Independent Cinema nowadays...Scripts rely too much on the "telling" of a story and not enough on the "making" of a story. People who know where their story is going before they pick up a pen, type one letter, or even think of an idea, will never write a great screenplay that way. You have to let it unfold for you and for the audience... ... Read more

Product Description
The only companion book to the much-anticipated follow-up to Paul Thomas Anderson's critically hailed Boogie Nights that "leaves you no doubt you are in the presence of a natural-born filmmaker."--David Ansen, Newsweek. The much-heralded writer-director deliberately withheld information about his new film during production because "I feel lately as if I know everything about a movie before I see it, and I really want the audience to discover this purely." Featuring an ensemble cast (see below), in, in an unbilled role, Tom Cruise (who called Anderson to express interest in working with him), the film is now described as "a story about family relationships and bonds that have been broken and need to be mended in one day...set in the San Fernando Valley on a day full of rain with no clouds." Magnolia: The Illustrated Screenplay includes the complete shooting script, introduction and script notes by Anderson, a photo section with about 40 photos in color, and interview with the writer/director, and complete cast and crew credits.

The cast:

The Dying Father--Jason Robards
His Young Wife--Julianne Moore
The Caretaker--Philip Seymour Hoffman
The Boy Genius--Jeremy Blackman
His Father--Michael Bowen
The Game Show Host--Philip Baker Hall
The Daughter--Melora Walters
The Mother--Melinda Dillon
The Ex-Boy Genius--William H. Macy
The Police Officer in Love--John C. ReillyAmazon.com Review
At three hours long, Paul Thomas Anderson's Magnolia qualifies as an epic, with a broad scope of characters whose lives become entwined over the course of a day in the San Fernando Valley. Despite its vast canvas, though, this is probably one of the most intimate epics you'll ever experience, because Anderson and his cast of actors delve into their characters so deeply that you feel you instantly know them. Anderson's screenplay of Magnolia is similar--a few pages in, you'll be hooked by the story and the characters. Numerous critics have derided Anderson's talents as a screenwriter while praising him to the skies as a director, but the screenplay for Magnolia shows a filmmaker at work with a keen eye for character development and a penchant for both brilliant monologues and amazingly deft one-liners. And unlike most published screenplays (which bill themselves as a "shooting script" but are in reality just a transcript of the finished product), this screenplay is truly the working script, complete with typos and scenes that didn't make it into the final cut of the film. Reading the screenplay, you'll see Tom Cruise's scenes with Jason Robards become more fleshed out, more scenes from Cruise's motivational workshop on "Seduce and Destroy," and most significantly, a subplot involving whiz kid Stanley Spector and the mysterious character known as "the Worm," who pops up only briefly in the film. Also included are some stunning color photographs and a great interview with Anderson, where you'll find out who gave him the idea of the rain of frogs, which character in the film is his favorite, and why he used a game-show milieu for a large part of the film. Truly a companion piece to the movie, a testament to the vision of a filmmaker, and, as Anderson puts it in his introduction, "an interesting study of a writer writing from his gut." --Mark Englehart ... Read more

Customer Reviews (27)

Offbeat , but wonderful
I really enjoyed reading this screenplay. It's the kind of screenplay you can read and I know this might sound silly, but I actually felt I was inside the book with them all. P.T Anderson , has created intense, interesting characters that engulf your curiousity. You'll read this in one sitting. It's the kind of screenplay you don't want to put down. Definately worth owning. I wish I wrote it.

"Magnolia: The Shooting Script" is Awesome!
Paul Thomas Anderson is a very vulnerable & giving author!He really nurtures the reader with secrets that aren't even revealed in the wonderful "making of" additional feature on the DVD. Get both & you will be powerfully inspired by a true artist, who went against the rules & won brilliantly. Thank God award season appreciated the wonderful work of art Magnolia was, and still is in my collection.

Excellent film but the script????
I have to say when I first read the script I was kinda of disappointed because there are changed lines in it like the scene where Frank meets his father for the first time its almost completely changed but I'm not mad its cool reading stuff from what Anderson wrote first But disappointing there are so many great stuff that are in the film but not in the script thats why I'm disappointed. Its a very well done script but changed.

See Magnolia first and then read the screenplay.

Matt

Gold
Anderson is brilliant and this is a great screenplay to buy for anyone interested in screenwriting and/or directing.The story, or stories, are so compelling that the suspense is there even when you read this book.Good stuff, good times.

Pure Excellence
Magnolia is the only film that made me cry last year. The way the characters fall apart bit by bit makes this an amazing look into the lifes of people who appear to be strong. Every character in the script is amazingly ordinary and fasinating , and the actors who played them did a PERFECT job. Also how the film builds in tenison of saddness makes you wonder what will happen next. And then something you forget and unexpected happens. It is brillant, moving film. ... Read more

Product Description
This digital document, covering the life and work of Paul Thomas Anderson, is an entry from Contemporary Authors, a reference volume published by Thompson Gale. The length of the entry is 1863 words. The page length listed above is based on a typical 300-word page. Although the exact content of each entry from this volume can vary, typical entries include the following information:

• Place and date of birth and death (if deceased)
• Family members
• Education
• Professional associations and honors
• Employment
• Writings, including books and periodicals
• A description of the author's work
• References to further readings about the author

Product Description
This book is the first full treatment of the life and cinema of American film director Paul Thomas Anderson. Beginning with his entry into filmmaking, this work spans each of his first four feature films ? Hard Eight, Boogie Nights, Magnolia and Punch-Drunk Love - and follows his rise to the pinnacle of the indie circuit. As a major filmmaker in the studio independent filmmaking scene of the 1990s, Anderson has proven himself to be an exceptional storyteller and technician in the art of cinema. This work examines the continuity and similarities that exist in each of Anderson?s films ? his themes, his vision of life and his depiction of the self. It focuses primarily on how the filmmaker uses structural elements ? e.g. cinematography, music, lighting, dialogue and tone ? as methods of communicating his vision. A must-have for anyone interested in his work, and a great read for those who like independent cinema! ... Read more

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One of a hand-picked selection of some of the most popular and cult-worthy titles on Faber and Faber's extensive list of film scripts. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (12)

A good read.
It's like the movie... but in book form.The font's a little small compared to other screenplay books, but it's still readable.

for the dumbass who likes the movie but doesn't like the screenpaly
Let me get this straight, you bought this cause you thought something called the Boogie nights screenplay was a novel or something other than the actual screenplay. you stupid idiot, who's fault is that? instead of realizing your ignorance you further prove how ignorant you are by saying you love the movie and that you don't like that he said she said [...] well guess what stupid, thats what movies are. here's an idea kill yourself. oh, by the way the sceenplay is obviously good if you liked the film, if not don't expect anything here that you didn't see in the film.

BOOGIE NIGHTS * * * *
Paul Thomas Anderson's "BOOGIE NIGHTS" is a sprawling masterpiece concerning many things. The subjects range from the 70s porn industry, to the journey from late teens to early manhood, from drugs to celebrity, from family to friendship. It's about lost souls in search of solace and young disenfranchized in search of a home. Mark Wahlberg (yes, Markey Mark) stars as Eddie Adams, the Torrance youth with a 13-inch...TALENT...who runs from his mother's house and into the arms of Jack Horner (Burt Reynolds in his Oscar-nominated--and robbed--performance), the finest director in the porn industry in 1977 California. What Eddie finds at Jack's fine home in the San Fernando Valley is an oasis on the outskirts of the real world, a wonderland of new experiences and hope-filled dreams, where celebrity is literally around the corner. He also finds a surrogate family of new friends: there's Buck (Don Cheadle) and Becky Barnett (Nicole Ari Parker), the resident black couple, and Buck's destined wife Jessie St. Vincent (Melora Walters of "HARD EIGHT" and "MAGNOLIA"). There's Scotty J (Philip Seymour Hoffman, fresh off Anderson's debut feature, "HARD EIGHT", later in both "MAGNOLIA" and as the villain in Anderson's 4th feature "PUNCH-DRUNK LOVE"), the enthralled young guy who "helps on some of the films" and Kurt Longjohn (Ricky Jay), the cameraman who "wants to give each picture its own look". There's Rollergirl (Heather Graham), who "never takes her skates off...NEVER". There's Little Bill (William H. Macy), the depressed AD whose wife (real porn star Nina Hartley) abuses him in public, and has sex with everyone around. There's The Colonel (the late Robert Ridgely; he had a bit part in "HARD EIGHT") who finances the films. There's Floyd Gondolli (Philip Baker Hall, from Anderson's "HARD EIGHT), who watches everything from behind the scenes and seems to pull the strings for everyone. There's Reed Rothchild (John C. Reilly, also from "HARD EIGHT") who becomes Eddie's best friend as he makes the transition from Eddie Adams to new hot porn star DIRK DIGGLER). There's Amber Waves (Julianne Moore, who would become, along with many of these actors, part of the cast of Anderson's follow-up "MAGNOLIA"), the mother figure to Dirk. We even meet Maurice t.t. Rodriguez (Luis Guzman, of "MAGNOLIA" and "PUNCH-DRUNK LOVE"), the Puerto Rican club owner who hangs out with the cast and crew. And finally Jack, of course. This ensemble cast of "NASHVILLE" size and ability is a remarkable group that works together like they've known each other all their lives -- many have. Anderson is a writer-director to watch, as he takes a pocket full of style and an unusual script structure and lays out a sprawling epic of unimaginable ambition and limitless talent. It's quite a masterwork. The screenplay to "BOOGIE NIGHTS", though it contains much camera description and is more technical than the average "screenplay" (a script tells a story of a movie, like a novel does), is one not to miss. Anderson's scripts for "HARD EIGHT" and "MAGNOLIA" are just the same...I'm sure the soon to be released "PUNCH-DRUNK LOVE" will carry on the tradition. This is great.

an engaging screenplay
i think the problem with *most* of these reviews is that the reviewers arebullheaded or egotistical. this isn't a novel, it's a screenplay/script, asthe title reads. in fact: it's one of the best screenplays I'VE ever readand i've read thousands (literally). the story is well developed, as arethe characters, and the dialogue is hilarious. recommended for paulanderson fans or boogie nights fans. not for book readers, necessarily. myonly regret is that the deleted scenes that are available on both dvdversions weren't included, because they helped showcase the cast's amazingtalent for improvisation, and allowed the characters to expand evenfurther.

Vastly overlooked for its real value
This movie is not just about the porno business. It is about the 1970s, from bellbottoms to disco and how a group of individuals who love sex butcome from dysfunctional families find community with each other.It toucheson how these people were caught up in substance abuse and had troubleraising their own families. It also touches on how the financial andbusiness sectors frowned on or discriminated against them. ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (1)

A Fascinating Career
When I thought of Robert Altman before reading this book, I typically thought of him as a "Seventies" director who had had a few hits in recent years.

This book shows how limited that view of Altman was.It is a wide-ranging interview that covers Altman's career from his stint as an extra in "Secret Life of Walter Mitty" (!!!) to directing "The Company."He talks about his involvement with the classic TV series "Alfred Hitchcock Presents" and "Combat" as well as directing Broadway plays and a couple operas.

And, of course, he talks about his films, the classics that everyone remembers and those that got buried by the critics.From it all, Altman emerges as a fascinating character who pursued his own vision and took advantage of changes in the media to be relatively successful.

Essential reading for anyone interested in recent American film. ... Read more

Product Description
This is nonfiction commentary.Chapters: Magnolia, There Will Be Blood, Boogie Nights, Punch-Drunk Love, Hard Eight. Source: Wikipedia. Pages: 64. Not illustrated. Free updates online. Purchase includes a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Excerpt: There Will Be Blood is a 2007 American drama film directed, written and co-produced by Paul Thomas Anderson. The film is loosely based on the Upton Sinclair novel Oil! (1927). It tells the story of a silver-miner-turned-oil-man on a ruthless quest for wealth during Southern California's oil boom of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It stars Daniel Day-Lewis and Paul Dano. The film received significant critical praise and numerous award nominations and victories. It appeared on many critics' "top ten" lists for the year, notably the American Film Institute, the National Society of Film Critics, the National Board of Review, and the Los Angeles Film Critics Association. Day-Lewis won Oscar, BAFTA, Golden Globe, Screen Actors Guild, NYFCC, and IFTA Best Actor awards for his performance. The film was nominated for eight Academy Awards including Best Picture, winning Best Actor for Day-Lewis and Best Cinematography for Robert Elswit. In late 2009, it was chosen by Lisa Schwarzbaum of Entertainment Weekly, Peter Travers of Rolling Stone, and Michael Phillips of the Chicago Tribune and At the Movies as the best film of the '00s. In 1902 Daniel Plainview (Daniel Day-Lewis), a mineral prospector, discovers oil and establishes a small drilling company. Following the death of one of his workers in an accident, Plainview adopts the man's orphaned son (his mother nowhere to be found). The boy, whom he names H. W. (Dillon Freasier), becomes his nominal business "partner". Nine years later, Plainview is approached by Paul Sunday (Paul Dano) who tells him about the oil deposit under his family's property in Littl...http://booksllc.net/?id=3213691 ... Read more

Product Description
The Newmarket Shooting Script® Sets offer a value-priced opportunity for screenplay lovers to build their collection. Each book within the set includes a facsimile of the film's actual shooting script, as chosen by the writer and/or director, notes on the film's production and history, selected movie stills, and complete cast and crew credits.

This boxed set includes:Magnolia: Academy Award® and Writers Guild nominee for Best Original Screenplay Punch-Drunk Love: Winner of the Best Director Award at the Cannes Film Festival. Includes multi-color script representing revisions over four months in the film's production. ... Read more

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Audiences: A textbook for undergraduate courses in sport law. A reference for libraries; sport administrators; sport officials; event, facility, and sport managers; and paralegals researching legal issues in sport.

A comprehensive text on legal issues in sport, Introduction to Sport Law delivers the information students will need and sport management professionals require in order to navigate liability issues, protect the legal rights of their employees and athletes, and manage legal risk in their professions. Filled with real-world cases and examples, the text provides students with timely and relevant information that will help build enthusiasm for their future careers.

The outstanding author team presents legal issues in sport using a topical approach that is easily understood by readers with little or no legal background. Using straightforward, jargon-free explanations, Introduction to Sport Law guides readers through the major legal areas specific to the sport setting--including the legal system, tort law, risk management, contract law, agency law, employment law, constitutional law, gender equity, intellectual property, and antitrust law. The text is designed for sport law courses within a sport management program and uses concise examples relevant to sport managers.

Introduction to Sport Law begins with an overview of the legal system and presentation of legal foundations to give readers a context in which to consider subsequent chapters. Through its focus on legal concepts with direct application to the sport manager's role and a straightforward presentation devoid of legalese, Introduction to Sport Law provides readers with a resource that is more approachable and relevant than other sport law texts:

• Within each chapter, a brief introduction places the topic within a practical context.
• Legal perspectives of each topic are presented with clear explanations of related concepts.
• Extended, sport-related examples obtained from case law provide application of legal concepts, stimulate discussion about the application of law to current events, and enable students and sport managers to recognize possible areas of liability.
• A running glossary provides convenient access to definitions of unfamiliar terms.
• Chapters conclude with a brief recapitulation of important points, discussion questions, and hypothetical sport law scenarios.

The slides in the presentation package can be used directly within PowerPoint or printed to make transparencies or handouts for distribution to students. Instructors can easily add, modify, and rearrange the order of the slides as well as search for content based on key words. ... Read more

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PLAYMATE: Julia SchultzCOVER: Daphne DeckersPICTORIALS: Couch Tomatoes - Juli Ashton and Doria of Playboy TV's Night Calls; Bonding With Daphne - 8 pages of Dutch actress and model Daphne Decker with shots from the 007 film, Tomorrow Never DiesINTERVIEW: Conan O'Brien 20 Q: Paul Thomas AndersonPLAYBOY GALLERY: Pete Turner's Personal Visions of the EroticPLAYMATE REVISITED: Victoria Valentino (September 1963)FEATURES: Wy Women Say Yes by Alison Lundgren and Tracey Pepper; Playboy's History of the Sexual Revolution: Part VI: Something Cool (1950-1959); The CEO of Margaritaville - Profile of Jimmy Buffett by David Standish; Bond's Little Black Book by Lee Pfeiffer, disects the world of James Bond - the gadgets, the girls, the guns, the cars; fiction, Down in the Bahamas by Paul Brodeur; Gloria Reuben, Marlene Redmayne, Katy Le, Monika Hajkova, Shirley Bassey and Natalie Merchant in On the Scene segment.PAGES: 172 ... Read more

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Written by seventeen of the world's leading researchers on alcohol problems, and produced in collaboration with WHO, this book presents a critical and highly informed perspective on alcoholism and its management. It provides an appraisal of the nature and extent of society's alcohol problems and then explores how scientific findings assist in the design of more effective policy responses. Topics covered include international trends in alcohol consumption, understanding the relationships between alcohol consumption and multiple types of harm, both as regards individual drinking and population consumption. With the epidemiological evidence established, the text turns to a view of the efficacy of different types of prevention strategy, including pricing, licensing and control of access, drunk driving counter-measures, public education, and the treatment contribution. A final chapter succinctly outlines how these analyses are to assist in the making of informed policy choices. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Suppressed review
Back when this book came out I was requested to write a review of it for Addiction Biology.

I wrote the review, but the editor refused to print it, and wouldn't explain why not.Here's the suppressed review:

"A 400 word review is too short to do justice to such a complex and interesting work, but dozens of pages of comment have already been published in `Addiction'.This short review takes a rather more critical look at a few chapters, but is in no sense an attempt to `rubbish' the work or its authors.The main aim of the book, to synthesise research on policy in the field of alcohol and public health, is eminently desirable, and the conclusion that policy should aim as far as possible to control alcohol problems is impossible to disagree with.

Chapter 3 deals with the relationship between alcohol consumption and various consequences, but with no indication of how the published material for review was selected and extensive citation of secondary sources without consideration of their quality.Figure 3.1 plots data from seven sources when there are at least twenty five studies which could be included.No indication is given of why these seven were chosen, or why they might be considered representative.No explicit mention is made of protection against cholelithiasis, benign prostatic hypertrophy and other conditions.Even in the discussion of liver cirrhosis, extensively researched in the alcohol field, Sorenson's work which argues against a dose-response model is not considered.

Chapter 4 is concerned to justify the single distribution hypothesis, by a mixture of analogy, ill-defined terms and straightforward error.Careful reading of this section shows that its conclusions are so hedged about with qualifications as to be nugatory. The ecological fallacy in connection with time-series analysis proves a temptation too strong for the authors to resist.There are other anomalies - Altman's devastating criticism of the work of Kendell et al. is described in Chapter 5 as indicating merely that that study `does not warrant absolutely confident conclusions'.In chapter 6, Mulford's strong reply to the criticisms of Wagenaar and Holder is ignored, and a continuing controversy treated as if settled in favour of the argument the authors wish to make.In the same chapter the adverse effects of Saturday closing of liquor stores in Norway which led to abandoning the policy are not mentioned.

These, and other, deficiencies in the review process constitute the book's major flaw, leaving it open to criticisms of partiality.It remains a useful summary of the dominant strand of thought on alcohol control originating in the Nordic countries.&quot.... ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Federal taxation of real estate
A comprehensive overview for tax practitioners by two experts in the field.While the 7th Ed.is somewhat dated,the main body of tax law has not changed much and so it remains a valuable reference for answering a variety of tax issues related to real estate. Chapters cover such diverse topics as "Real Estate Transfers incident to a divorce",REITS,Repossessions and Foreclosures, Section 1031 Exchanges,Foreign ownership of US real estate,as well as the common topics:"How to acquire Real Estate", Operation of RE,etc. ... Read more