When I saw this well-priced Book which was originally published in two volumes, at higher cost with a slip cover, I had to have it. I am a collector of Dali Books and was hoping that this Book would be the Catalogue Raisonne of Dali's paintings I had been looking for for so long. In this respect the Book was no disappointment with a total of 1,648 illustrations, but a closer look at the book revealed some serious faults.

The worst fault by far is that the printing of the paintings is consistently too dark. Three examples: The blue colors of: "Myself at the age of Ten when I was a Grasshopper Child" (p.202) are much too dark. It is even worse with: "Ghost of Vermeer of Delft which can also be used as a Table" (p.222) Here the figure of Vermeer is in points indistinguishable from the backround and the sky is much too orange, instead of yellowish. The worst example is that of "The Last Supper" (p.488) where the apostles on the extreme left and right of the painting can barely be distinguished. There are many other examples of this. I made this comparison using several other books and exhibition catalogues, and have also seen the three paintings I mentioned as examples in person more than once.

A close examination also reveals that both paper and binding are not of high quality. I have a feeling this book will not stand the test of time. One way to tell a good Art Books when the paper is a higher weight. Judging from the paper, I have a feeling it will yellow in a few years. This is, incidentally, true for other Books that I own published by Taschen. Also, a book this heavy should really have a stronger binding.

Annoying also is that there is no alphabetic index of the paintings. Unless you know the year a painting was created, as they are in chronological order, there is no way to find it except by paging around.

Despite these complaints, I still like the Book because it includes paintings I have never seen before. If however, you want to see the paintings of Dali as they really look, get "Dali: The Work, the Man" instead. It suffers from none of the faults I have descibed, but is not as comprehensive. It's worth the extra money. In collecting Art Books I have found that higher quality Books stand the test of time.

Being the owner of many books based on the works of Salvador Dali, which includes "Dali The Work, The Man", I admit to being somewhat skeptical about yet another "complete" edition; that it would probably have pretty much the same information and reproductions of his art as my other books. I now admit to being incorrect, because this is a well made edition with a truly fantastic bargain price. I have paid well over a hundred dollars for what I'd hoped was a book containing all of Dali's paintings with detailed biographical information, when I found that this is the book with all of that for around ($).
You will not be disappointed with this book and I think you'll agree that the quality is excellent, with a solid binding and beautiful reproductions of all of his paintings in chronological order. There are also a great deal of photographs (and paintings) that I've never seen before, and I thought I was a huge fan of Salvador Dali.
"Dali, The Work The Man" is also a very well-made book, which may be printed on a slightly heavier grade paper, at the most. However, the Taschen book is far more detailed and also excellent quality. "Dali, The Work The Man" costs ten times as much and only has half the content.
I truly thought there must have been some mistake when I ordered it.I still question the price as being far too low, so I advise you to hurry up and get this before the publisher realizes their huge mistake. Perhaps we are dealing with a publisher who really isn't greedy at all--that's my impression here.
I couldn't be happier with my purchase of this book and highly recommend it.

This book is awesome! Dali is no doubt one of the greatest artists of the 20th century! Smoked some bud too no doubt!! hehe

Everyone thinks their own black is the blackest. Peretti is no exception. While they did go through lean times both physically and spritiually this story in no way compares to other Christian people who triumphied over tragedy. Possibly there is an untold story here that would explain the unlying tone of anger. All in all the basic teaching of realiance on God is neutralized by a pity story.

Frank and Barb Peretti are an inspiration and blessing to anyone who meets them. Their life and marriage, as told through this wonderful book, should be in the hands of every couple starting out their lives together. I know I have come to know the Lord through them, and have been inspired in every part of my life through this experience. Not every book can change your life. I pray this one will. I know that the chance to do the art work for Barb's writing, working with my husband and fine artist, Rick, has changed my life. Frank and Barb, I love you guys! -Carrie

The idea of writing "Seasons of My Heart" came when my husband and best-selling author Frank Peretti and I gathered all of our old diaries and photo albums together and began reviewing our twenty-five years of marriage. The diaries brought back many painful yet endearing memories that clarified for us just how much we had lived and how we had grown together in our life united in the Lord. It was Frank who encouraged me to share these memories. He thought we had something to give others and motivated me to write it down.

In "Seasons of My Heart" I share with you love letters written to one another during our dating years. I also share excerpts from our diaries when at times we poured our hearts out to the Lord questionsing the very direction our life was headed.

Christendom tends to put authors, artists, speakers and pastors on a higher plane than reality. They are just like you. They feel the joy in experiencing God's blessings but they also question His dealings, they go through seasons of gloom and dejection and find themselves crying out to the God of the universe only to hear silence echoing back.

"Seasons of My Heart" has been used as a devotional, a gift book, an art book and to my surprise, it has even been used as a reference for sermon material! I've been told it has touched lives and given others a new trust and reliance upon the Lord. If you've experienced spiritual burnout, despondency in not knowng God's will for your life or know what it feels to carry the heavy burdens of depression and despair then I think my book will bring hope and direction to your life in a special, personal way.

If you've enjoyed my husband's novels, "This Present Darkness", "Piercing the Darkness", "Tilly", "Prophet", "The Oath", or "The Visitation" or if you've enjoyed reading his children's books from "The Cooper Family Adventure Series" then I think you'll enjoy getting to know Frank Peretti on a more personal level.

The book has been divided into 40 short, two-page, easy-to-read stories from Frank and my life and each is beautfilly illustrated by my close friend Carrie Stewart Parks. Christians and fine art enthrusiasts alike have enjoyed the book. I call it my own "Cinderella Story." You'll find it to be a love story, a tale of passion, of heartache, of committment and hope.

If through this book I can be of any encouragement to you, then may the Lord Jesus use it! Blessings - Barbara J Peretti

This is a great book to refer to when you want to explain to the public in lamens terms or if you are a beginner this is the book for you. There are PLENTY of color diagrams to folow along with as well a detailed explanations...

A simply wonderful book to better understand (almost) all there is to know about weather. Large, clear graphics help illustrate some of the more difficult topics, occasional little weather tid bits thrown in for fun, and easy-to-read style makes this book a must have for anyone wanting to learn more about our atmosphere. I've even used this book to teach a "Weather for Non-Science Majors" college course.

A very exceptional book with regards to an introduction to weather and meteorology. Three dimensional drawings and plain language make understanding weather systems much more understandable. A great aid for weather chasers and pilots who want to understand more about the weather ;)

The Saracen Blade by Frank Yerby, follows Pietro Di Donati, his beloved, Iolanthe, and their burning desire and pursuit for each other. However destiny, callous to such feelings, pulls the strings of reality on these ill-fated lovers. This book encompasses humanities desires, passions, lusts, insatiable love, conflict and lastly, battle.

Set in Europe during the 1200s, Pietro is the son of a serf who lives for one purpose: to marry Iolanthe, a woman from a rich and powerful home. However, Pietro's class of uneducated, ignoble, and ill-mannered individuals makes this possibility bleak. Pietro, although not a knight or of noble blood, studied intensely as a child, setting his intellect far above those of his social class. The story follows Pietro's adventures, spanning from his birth to his early forties, his quest for knighthood, and the fair maiden Iolanthe. While this may seem like a gripping novel, brimming with passions that devour every human soul, despondently, it falls short of such grandeur.

Oftentimes, Yerby's extensive knowledge of history and continuous attempts to inform his reader, steal the main focus rather than enhance it. Through lengthy descriptions on attire, societies, geography, historical figures and battle strategy, comprising at least seventy percent of the novel, Yerby quickly looses the patience of his readers. The remainder of the novel displays a soap-opera of characters that are emotional disasters, acting upon their every whim. The ratio of soap-opera to history lesson is far to much for either a history junky, or conversely, a soap-opera aficionado to enjoy. Although small portions of this book were gripping enough to keep me wondering what was coming next, the majority left me yearning to close it. However, unlike the characters of this 1952 bestseller, I pushed my desire aside, perhaps, in spite of the characters who acted upon theirs or possibly, because my hope in Yerby was too great. So, if you find you are bored with quality literature, this novel will suit you well.

THIS BOOK COULD EASILY BE AS IMPORTANT AS ANY REQUIRED HIGH SCHOOL OR COLLEGE NOVEL. AS EASY TO READ AND EXCITING AS THE HOBBIT, BUT BUILT ON REAL SUBJECTS, REAL HISTORY, REAL HUMANITY. THE AUTHOR EXPLORES MORALITY, ANCIENT HISTORY, GEOGRAPHY, RELIGION AND EVEN MECHANICS OF WAR. A GREAT BOOK FOR ALL AGES. MY 80 YEAR OLD FATHER READ THIS BOOK IN 1952 AND RECOMMENDED IT IN 2002 TO HIS 40 YEAR OLD SON.

The Saracen Blade is definately the best novel I have read in my 21 years of life. I have read this book countless times and I am in the process of using it to write a research paper for my Literature class. Frank Yerby is a lesser known author that deserves much credit. Every one that has read this book has loved it and it has even made avid readers out of some that I know. This book teaches the reader about history, love, pain, war, and what our world used to be like in great detail. It is a book about two people in love set in the 12th and 13th century towards the end of feudelism. It is the tale of a gently born serf that falls for the daughter of a baron and how is life progresses. He becomes a knight, baron, the friend of the Holy Roman Emporor and much more. It is the tale of his life and how he overcomes the odds to become what he has always wanted and deserved. This is a MUST read for all people.

At the start, learning why Mr. Leo wrote this book, is what drew me into it. I found it very fascinating to meet a man through his book who began life as a privileged child, but whose life changed as he lived through the difficult times of tremendous change in his homeland (e.g., the Japanese invasion during WW II, the Communist takeover in the 1950s). It greatly enhanced the small amount of historical knowledge I carry with me of that part of our world history. It virtually came to life from the writer's perspective. Mr. Leo's mother often emerges as a hero, certainly Mr. Leo's hero. Nothing wrong with that. Most of us think of one or both of our parents as a hero. Much of what Mr. Leo writes about are his own memories, but without a doubt his mother fed him information over the years that stirred his memories enough to portray them so nicely in the book. Humor, fear, friviolity, trepidation, levity, innocense, love, glee, grief, these are some of the feelings I remember as being created so well by the author. It is to Mr. Leo's credit that he succeeded in finding a new life after leaving his family and his homeland. That took courage and hard work. Can you tell that I liked the book a lot!

A reflective personal account of the priviledged Chinese life changed forever by fluctuating political forces. In the spirit of Amy Tan, this author also demonstrates throughout his story the strength of his mother. She is revealed as a very modern woman for her time, not only taking charge of her husband's business interests but his "other" children as well.

Mr. Leo's Shanghai Remembrance is a worthy addition to the line of Chinese historical family sagas that would include Pearl S. Buck's The Good Earth. Mr. Leo shares with the reader his poignant and fascinating family history through the tumultuous times of the first and second World Wars together with the Chinese Communist Revolution and the subsequent Cultural Revolution. Mr. Leo's focus on his family history is expertly interwoven within the historical context. Mr. Leo's artful interplay of his family history against the backdrop of Chinese history is thematically refreshingly subtle. Clearly acknowledging the personal and social ill effect of the Chinese Communist Revolution and painting an unflattering portrait of the devastating Cultural Revolution, Mr. Leo does not overstate his points, which is a pleasant rarity amongst today's authors.

Mr. Leo's writing team paints a vivid canvas of scenery and settings fully availing themselves of the splendors of the English language. These illustrative descriptions combined with fully engrossing characters draws the reader into the novel and makes one feel like a surrogate family member throughout the course of the book. Mr. Leo's complex characters and characterizations are imminently believable and show a depth of perception and understanding. Even the characters which one gets a sense that Mr. Leo's views with disfavor are, nonetheless, also shown in the occasional balanced positive light.

If there is to be any criticism, it would be that the book is too short. One would have liked to read further as to how Mr. Leo's personal history is reflected in his subsequent professional endeavors since arriving in the United States. Such a criticism is indeed a larger compliment as one reaches the last page of his book with sadness wishing for additional chapters; much like not to come to the end of a marvelous read.

Though this book set out what it was meant to do, I was nevertheless disappointed after finishing it. Enright and Ryan do describe in good detail the stalking and sinking of Japan's secret "supercarrier." However, the writing style struck me as amateurish, filled with meaningless detail probably meant to provide a human touch but instead distracting. A tougher editor could have tightened this book up and increased the suspense.

I disgree with some of the previous reviewers. This is a great read for adventure and it is true. It competes well with fictional Tom Clancy novels. A small U.S. submarine under an unlucky Captain sinks the largest ship in the Japanese Navy.
Shinano was the sister ship to the battleship Yamato (A Glorious Way to Die) and converted into a carrier, the size of one of our nuclear carriers today. The Japanese intended to confront the U.S. Navy with the tremendous firepower of the Shinano. Instead a lowly submarine sinks the Shinano on her maiden voyage.
Regardless of whether the submarine captain Enright or Ryan wrote the story, it is great adventure. Enright is certainly frank in his views, even about his own shortcomings. Both the Japanese and American sides are presented here and this makes it good reading. One understands the fog of battle, after reading about the pursuit of the carrier. A good quick read which is not fiction.

During the years before the outbreak of World War II, the Japanese navy constructed two super-battleships, the Yamato and Musashi. There was a secret third ship, the Shinano, that was to be included in this class. However, with the rise of the aircraft carrier, it was decided to convert the Shinano from a battleship to a carrier. Measuring almost 900 feet in length, Shinano was the largest aircraft carrier in the world, and she held that distinction until the United States launched the USS Enterprise in the 1960s. Cloaked in secrecy, the conversion took place. Crewmembers were threatened with imprisonment or execution if they muttered even the slightest words about the existance of Shinano. Due to the extreme secrecy of her construction, many essential tests, which would later prove to be fatal, were not conducted on Shinano. For example, the watertight integrity of the bulkheads and seals were never tested properly.

An ocean away, Captain Joseph F. Enright and his submarine Archer-fish, were leaving for the boat's fifth war patrol. Captain Enright had been haunted by the memory of failing to sink an enemy carrier earlier in the war while serving as commander of the submarine Dace. Feeling inadequate as a commander, he asked to be relieved of command. After serving at the American submarine base on Midway island as a relief crewman, he finally got his chance to command his own boat again, and he was determined to make sure that he didn't repeat his earlier mistakes this time around. Taking up his patrol station along the main Japanese island of Honshu, Archer-fish awaited action. This particular area of ocean had become known as the "hit parade", due to the large number of sinkings by American submarines. On Tuesday, November 28, 1944, Archer-fish sighted a large enemy vessel with four escorts. This proved to be Shinano. Unable to run at maximum speed due to only eight of her twelve boilers being lit, and also suffering from a problem with her propellers, Shinano was limited to a speed of approximately eighteen knots. What ensued over the next several hours could only be described as a classic game of cat and mouse. Enright and Archer-fish desperately tried to keep up with the Shinano while trying to anticipate any course changes she might make. Finally, at 0300 hours on Wednesday, November 29, 1944, the Archer-fish was ready to fire.

A spread of six torpedoes leapt from her torpedo tubes, each being fired at eight second intervals. Four explosions rocked the Japanese carrier while Archer-fish dove for the safety of the depths. The ship was mortally wounded. Her protective bladder had failed to stop the torpedoes, and, in the words of Enright, they cut through the bladder "like a sword through butter". Later that morning, the Shinano, with her bow raised high out of the water, slipped below the surface of the Pacific Ocean. Her maiden voyage had lasted all of seventeen hours.

This is a very exciting book. The format is excellent, with the chapters alternating between the action on the Archer-fish to the action on the Shinano. The first-hand account of the action by Captain Enright leaps off the pages and places the reader directly at the conning tower during the attack. Loaded with action and adventure, this book is a must for submarine readers.

Not only is Conroy a woman hater, he also cannnot write worth a dime. Much of his work is nonsense,badly written, trite and boring. Use this as scrap paper!

Thirty-six years after it was first published, Frank Conroy's Stop-Time still holds up as a classic American memoir, and a great book to boot. Conroy's young narrator reminds me of Holden Caulfield, but he's less cloying. Conroy controls the writing beautifully -- this is a far better book than The Liars Club and, for my money, a better book than Angela's Ashes, too. Understated and haunting -- a must-read for any student of memoir, and a good book for anyone interested in what it was once like to grow up in America.

The memoir has become a particularly prominent literary form in the past decade, often blending fact and fiction in licentious literary exploration. I think, particularly, of Mary Karr ("The Liar's Club" and, more recently, "Cherry") and Kathryn Harrison ("The Kiss") and, of course, Frank McCourt's Irish ramblings, among others. But thirty or so years before all these candid, sometimes titillating, self confessions, Frank Conroy wrote a book titled "Stop-Time," a memoir that surpasses all of them in the beauty of its prose and the poignant and deep sensitivity of its feeling.

"Stop-Time" tells the story of Frank Conroy's first eighteen years of life, a life marked by the ordinary rather than the lurid or unseemly. But the ordinariness of the life is elevated by the dreamlike, sensitive, asynchronous wonder of Conroy's writing. As Conroy relates in the first chapter of his narrative, in a passage that gives you a feeling for his writing style and for the narrative to follow: "My faith in the firmness of time slips away gradually. I begin to believe that chronological time is an illusion and that some other principle organizes existence. My memories flash like clips of film from unrelated movies."

"Stop-Time" is a stunning example of how great writing can elevate even the most ordinary of lives. The facts of Conroy's memoir are not remarkable. He grew up in relatively poor circumstances, his father died of cancer when he was 12 and lived most of his life apart from Conroy's mother, he spent his time primarily between New York and Florida, and he was a bright boy who performed miserably in school. But while the broad outlines of his life are seemingly unremarkable, Conroy possesses the great gift of the writer: he can focus on the mote of dust floating in the sunlight and take the reader into a world of dreams and memories that are startlingly real, a world that the reader can feel and identify from his or her own recollections of growing up.

Conroy can lie down in a kennel with his family's dogs and dream that he, too, is a dog running through a field. He can relate the fear of being left alone in a cold cabin in the middle of winter while his mother and her boyfriend work the third shift at a state mental institution. He can recall a trip to the carnival with his best friend and how he was cheated and more by a seedy carnie hawker. He can precisely detail learning all the tricks you can do with a yo-yo, and learn them well. And he can recall the tumescent longings of early adolescence, of sneaking and peeking with his cousin and, as he got older, of experiencing, too. It is all related with a feeling, with a literary sense, that would be called "perfect pitch" if it were music.

"Stop-Time" is a remarkably written memoir that not only should be read, but also studied, as a stunning example of how the literary imagination can give vibrant life to the mundane.

The printing in the Amereon Edition of this book is poor. The pages look like faded xerox copies. This book contains no color plates, no dust jacket and is small in size. The book claims to be a limited edition. Well for a limited edition the four or so illustration plates are out of order and nowhere near the stories they belong to. If you want to buy this book, buy a better hardcover version. This book was copyrighted in 1903. It contains the roots of several ideas that really take off in Baum's OZ books. There are stories of changing heads, a large mechanical man and a little evil wizard guy who lives underground in a ruby mine ( a la the Gnome King). However none of the stories comes close to the OZ tales. The one story in this book that keeps me from giving a rating of one star is "The Land Of Civilized Monkeys". Has the Baum family sued that French guy who wrote Planet Of The Apes? If not they should. How about a story where a young man lands from the sky into a civilization run by apes. He is roped and caged as a wild animal. He is put on display and examined by ape scientists as the possible "missing link" from which the apes descended. Sound familiar?? Baum wrote it in 1903 or so.

Dover edition does have color plates, in fact "all 15 of the full-page color plates and all of the more than 100 line drawings prepared by Frank Ver Beck for the first two editions [1900 and 1903]." This is a collection of 14 "surprises." But Mo, the land where these stories all take place, is like Oz in many ways. It is a land of enchantment where marvelous tings hapen, where people do not die, and where animals can talk. The landscape of Mo abounds in things children love to ear, and everything anyone wants grows from its trees. It was published (as A New Wonderland) the same year as the original Wizard of Oz.

This was one of my favorite books as a child and having recently reread it, I must say it works on an adult level as well. It's very imaginative and funny and shows what Baum could do when he let his imagination run away with him. I think it's better than any of the Oz books.

This was the first Leonard novel I've read, and I was disappointed. Maybe it's his reputation as being such a great crime writer, but the plot seemed familiar (i.e. the movie "Ruthless People" and others) and it ran out of steam at the end. I liked some of the characterization and some specific scenes, but it wasn't a great book.

For anyone who saw "Jackie Brown" or read the Leonard novel on which it's based, "Rum Punch," try to get your hands on this far superior first-appearance of the loveable criminal trio, Ordell Robbie, Luis Gaza, and "that fine big woman," Melanie.

This simple story of a loveless marriage whose seams truly start showing when the docile, country club wife, Mickey is kidnapped by Ordell and Luis is good, solid, 70's era Leonard. Mickey's marriage is many ways a mirror image of the married couple at the center of Leonard's previous "marital troubles cum crim" novel, "52 Pickup." Her husband is a brute who flies to the Bahamas to dally with his street savvy mistress, Melanie, a day before he serves Mickey a divorce summons.

The husband's refusal to pay ransom becomes the epiphany for the mouselike Mickey's transformation into the smart, independent woman--in some ways, she is the chrystalis for a whole series of strong female Leonard heroines who appear in later novels.

If the story sounds like the movie "Ruthless People," you can bet that the movie was probably based in part on this novel. In fact, in the vastly inferior sequel, "Rum Punch," the characters allude to the movie when recalling the events that happened in "The Switch." Frankly, the criminal trio is much more appealing here than they were in "Punch," when they became more violent, more hardened, and more cliched.

While not the best of his classic 70's novels, "The Switch" is definitely top-drawer Leonard, filled with the same sharp dialogue that has been his stock in trade for more than forty years. If you like "The Switch," I recommend you seek out "52 Pickup" and compare the ways Leonard explores the "criminal" aspects of infidelity.

than Leonard's usual. But of course, that's still high praise, given that he's far and away the best crime writer of this or any other generation. The first two-thirds of the way through I was captivated, enthralled, wondering why this one, like so many others, hadn't already spawned a blockbuster movie. As the remaining pages grew thinner and thinner, though, I had my answer: an anticlimactic ending in which Leonard just seemed to run out of gas. Nonetheless, if you've read the others you should certainly read this--a 4-star effort from Elmore Leonard still beats the best that anyone else working in the genre today can muster.

I was never one to enjoy history much until my college history class used this book for the main text. I found this book great reading (interesting and kept my attention most of the time). I must say that after that class and this book, I have become much more interested in aspects of history. This book is wonderful and I would recommend it to any college professor of history or high school student with even a slight interest in history!

I used this book for self-study after many years away from any formal courses, and I was very pleasantly surprised to find myself engrossed in the lucid and engaging descriptions, the beautiful illustrations and photographs, and helpful index. It covers, at just the right level of detail, American History from the colonization of the Americas to Clinton's presidency. It gives a big picture without being condescending and simplistic, but also without assailing you with inessential jargon and names.

I looked at many different American History surveys and this is my favorite by far. On the other hand, if you already know the main outlines of American History, and want detailed analyses of particular periods, then this book will not be as helpful, as it is merely an overview and the bibliography is not very detailed or well annotated.

This book has been a great aid in writing my research papers! I really liked the way the book was broken down between chapters and sections, it made choosing a research topic much easier. The book was also very well written and to the point, it was not at boring at all!