Written by Joan Betty Stuchner and illustrated by Richard Row, The Kugel Valley Klezmer Band is the picture book story of Shira, a ten-year-old girl who excitedly watches a klezmer band (a group of traveling musicians who play at weddings and parties). Seeing potential talent, they bestow a toy fiddle on her. She practices as hard as she can, in hope of becoming worthy to play for the village. The Kugel Valley Klezmer Band is an engaging tale, steeped in Jewish folk tradition, and highly recommended for young readers ages 3 to 8.

Although this book qualifies as a typical coffee-table book, the photography and text provide an intimate, intriguing look at the many styles of architecture and decorating that can be found in LA. Especially interesting are the historical properties. I recently (and reluctantly) moved away from the City of Angels, and I miss the region immensely. I'm looking for a copy of this out-of-print book as a keepsake and an inspiration.

Zane Grey's first novels concerned his ancestors, the Zane family, and the Ohio frontier of the late 18th century. They are fairly authentic, historically, and heroic and romantic as well.

Betty Jean Craige is an integrative thinker who lucidly weaves together strands of information from many fields to create important insights about contemporary culture. Her subject here is "the emergence of cultural holism," and some of the various strands in her loom of information are philosophy (ancient, modern and postmodern), history, natural science (Darwinian, systems and chaos theory; ecology), literature and literary theory, education, religion, feminism, civil rights, and animal rights--to name only these. Craige's interdisciplinary research and writing, which she says is based on the assumption that "the understanding of any aspect of a culture requires an understanding of the whole," includes several very readable books. LAYING THE LADDER DOWN (a metaphor referring to the deconstruction--figurative and literal--of the hierachical vertical social order that has prevailed since prehistory) goes a long way in helping us to behold the larger design of the whole of the complex human tapestry we call culture

The rhyming in this story along with the flocked letters make it a great hit for reluctent readers. My children especially enjoyed memorizing the poem and tracing the letters. The opportunity to personalize their book with their name at the end helped reenforce the letters they just learned in the beginning of the book.

Betty Vogel, a former librarian at Seattle Public Library, really gets it right in her collection of short essays about librarianship, published in 1988. Her essays, many of which were written in the seventies, are both amusing and poignant as she relates her low pay, crazy working conditions, insane patrons and daily observations. She is a funny writer, a good librarian, and has a large heart. Treat yourself to a copy of this book.

As a result of illustrating this book, the publisher gave me some copies as part of the deal. Each went to a member of my family, with two remaining--one for the portfolio and the last up on the kitchen shelf. Over the years it's become one of the first books I turn to when looking for a recipe. Not because of the delightful drawings, but because of the superb recipes which lived up to what the publisher first told me about the manuscript: "Librarians are great cooks." However, he never took care of the lysdexic typo in the title, which as far as I'm concerned was always supposed to read "Bookcooks."

Many travel guides can tell you locations and the history of the monuments around Jerusalem. But this one tells you the histories of the various Christian communities who worship there. Its focus is not architecture but worship. It provides insights into their traditions as well. Most importantly perhaps, it provides contact information and tells the schedules of worship services.

The authors do not assume any prior theological or historical knowledge; everything is simple and straightforward. In the back of the book is a map of central Jerusalem on which most of the monuments can be located. There is a brief, helpful section on Bethlehem and Nazareth as well.

In short, most travel guides are not written for Christian worshippers, but this one is. This books purpose is to enable Christian travellers to find communities, learn about them, and join with them in worship. If you want that experience to be part of your trip to Jerusalem and Israel, this is exactly the book you need.

This book is great for those who suffer from multiple food allergies. It includes over 150 recipies for easy food preparation, as well as a list of food substitutes that can be used. Well worth the price of one or two recipies alone.

I think this book is perfect for kids who feel that they are "not perfect." Everyone has some downsides, and in this book 14 year old Rosalie had quite few. It shows kids that there are more things to life then just loking on. You should accept yourself the way you are, because if you keep trying to be someone else like Rosaile wanting to be Jill, your just going to keep hating yourself rather then doing something about what you can change.