I teach theatre classes for kids from age 3.5 to 18 and thisbook is one of the few I've seen that gives a good number of ideas foreach age group, and it gives you an idea of which games are age appropriate. This is a valuable tool that I would recommend to anyone who teaches, or just those who are stay-at-home parents who need new ideas for playing with their kids in creative and dramatic ways.

You will use this book over and over. I teach gifted upper elementary and middle school drama students. This book is one of my favorites - it is likely to be one of yours too.

101 Drama Games for Children is a really excellent book! I highly recommend it for all parents and older children to buy if you deal with children in any way. I teach a drama class of 5-7 yr olds in our homeschool group and it's been a real lifesaver for me! I also have 3 children and I use it with them too. I consider it a must-have book! It's catagorized by the different age levels by a little picture in each corner of each new activity so you can flip through and find a game for the age group you need. It's excellent for birthday parties, or any group games: camps, Girl Scouts, etc. I highly recommend every parent get one of these books! B.J.O.

A worthwhile read with lots of realism, though perhaps a just a bit more of the 'hours of sheer boredom' and less of the 'moments of sheer terror' than I'd prefer. On the other hand, I felt like I new what fighting a serious war in a LID would be like and wasn't at all sure I wanted to be part of it.

One of the classic-generation cold-war techno-thhrillers.

I read this book when it first came out in paperback. I have really liked it and was disapointed to see it dropped from publishing. Good writing and technical considerations. This book also shows how some of the best military plans are reused over and over with the same results through out history.

A 2nd Korean War is unfortunately a scenerio that could very well happen. Red Phoenix and 38 North Yankee are two excellent fictional attempts at depicting this scenerio. If you like Military fiction, you will enjoy this book.

Practical advice for putting the book's ideas into practice in "real life" recalls the functional (and fun) style of a Rick Warren book.

A great, and quick, read that gave concrete examples, plans for action, and that little boost of inspiration that it often takes to get readers working toward the practices they read about.

I'd recommend the book, and offer criticism only to chapter 4, but overall a great few hours spent learning.

This book is amazing! It is very deep and can be very challenging at times but it is well worth the effort. If you think that you're ready for this type of emotional growth, I'm still praying that I am, then this book is for you.

This book teaches the reader how to create lasting relationships with each other, by "unlearning" the wrong views of Love we have learned over the years through rejection, abandonment, abuse and conditional love, and focusing on God's unconditional love. You will learn, after completing the exercises throughout the book, what has influenced your personal view of love. This book is full of practical ways of improving current loving relationships and mending hurting relationships. You are a few pages away from beginning the process of creating lasting "Unbreakable Bonds" with family and friends, and maybe even finding new love.

I think that this story would be suited to children 7-12 years of age.

In this story there is a very smart boy who always gets 100 out of 100 for Maths and English.
He teases people with pimples and other problems, but Peppi the ice-cream man fixes these problems with ice-cream.
There is a twist at the end that you couldn't guess. Read to find out.

This was an okay story. It is pretty short but has enough infomation to get the story line across. There were a few funny parts that make the story interesting.

This book is great, my favorite story is called "Without a Shirt". It is about a boy that cannot say a sentence or paragraph without ending it with the phrase - "Without a shirt". Of course there is more to the story, but I think it nice to with hold the ending for the reader.

Once I started reading this book I couldn't put it dowm because the stories were very interesting with a good sense of humor. I really like Paul Jennings and all of his books so I gave him 5 stars

Paul Reed novels always have an intimate feeling of San Francisco and a keen sense of time, and this latest captures familiar issues and emotions of the past decade. The narrator is no great hero and he knows it, but there is a quiet, understated, real-world heroism in his compassion and sense of duty toward others in his life. It's the sort of quality we often find in ourselves when things go wrong and our superficial concerns automatically give way to what counts. The characters in Verticle Intercourse are as vivid as friends and acquaintances passing on today's Castro Street, or in the neighborhood you know. Though entertaining, this novel is ambitious, and the real story is not the everyday drama but a community surviving after two decades of AIDS, and still putting trust in friendships and love. The ease of Reed's narrative fools you, the pace is quicker than you realize, and by the end you don't want to let go of these lives and their stories.

A very intimate book about a gay man living with AIDS. I found it realistic and close to home in a way much gay fiction is not. And a certain unresolvedness made it all the more realistic.

This is the best book by Paul Reed so far. I was truly blown away by the humanity, insight, and pure honesty of the characters and their lives. Rarely does a book in the "gay" genre delve into themes of aging in the community, or looks-ism, or the uncertainty of dating and all the pleasures and conflicts that brings. But not only are the characters intriguing, their stories are fascinating, and we can't wait to turn the page to see what happens next. Beyond this, the writing is exquisite. Reed is known already for his elegant prose, but in Vertical Intercourse, he has managed to grow beyond the elegiac poetry of his novel Longing and achieve something stylistically polished but that reads like a breeze, effortless. I don't know how he does it. This book should be a permanent part of every gay man's library. I can't recommend it highly enough.

It has been at least ten years since I read this book but I still remember it fondly. It is largely a thinly-fictionalized account of the turbulent life of Brian Wilson, not exactly, but he is obviously the prototype for the eccentric musical genius protagonist and former songwriter/producer/singer of a California-based brother act. I was insipred to try to track it down again after reading about an all-star Brian Wilson tribute concert. My dim memory of this book is that the narrator is the Wilson-based character, who also reminded me a bit of the hero of John Kennedy Toole's great rambling novel "A Confederacy of Dunces." There are some laugh-out-loud sequences in this book as well as the expected tortured-artist tales. I would gladly read it again.

Quarrington's Whale Music is as decadent and sincere as its main character. A touching story doused in an absurd fondue of drug abuse, money, rock and roll, and agoraphobia. Track this one down!

Anyone who has been semi conscious on Earth over the last 40 years knows that "Whale Music" draws it's inspiration from The Beach Boy's creative genius; Brian Wilson. As I recollect, Mr. Quarrington's book hit the shelves at about the same time as Mr. Wilson's autobiography. Having read both, I would choose to re-read 'Whale Music'. At it's worst, it's fictionalized take off on the man's life is extremely entertaining. At it's best, it's a great satire of the media's reporting of Mr. Wilson's every ingested cheeseburger. I love this book and, I especially love Brian Wilson's contribution to the world.

For those with a keen feeling for the 1960s, 70s, 80s - this is an enjoyable trip down memory lane. Although based on a small town perspective with big town results, the times and the family make you feel as though you are living their lives with them.

Bravo to a new novelist who makes the word 'whisper' a shout to our inner feelings and memories. With the exception of the first few chapters of old history to lay the foundation, the story moves forward with elegance and purpose. I couldn't put it down.

I eagerly await this new and talented author's next novel.

Set in America from 1963 to 1990, Whispered Words Of Wisdom is an engaging, deftly written, 577 page novel of hippies, drugs, homosexuality, HIV, the will of God, taking responsibility for one's own actions, and laced with familial memories of the Civil War. A tangled family longs for peace, which at last may come through wise whispers. Whispered Words Of Wisdom is Paul Stone's debut novel and a solid, provocative, rewarding read from cover to cover.

A semi-historic novel as told through the eyes of a family that loves and struggles with their own identies and those of people they love. As a nation comes of age through the stories of past generations, so do the characters grow and develop through their challenges, defeats and victories.

A well written book, especially for a first time author. I liked the character development and found myself drawn to Sarah, the matriarch of the family. Although the story is told through the eyes of a man, women are well represented.

The style of the book, with long chapters divided into short "snapshots" of the story, allow a reader with a busy schedule the ability to pick up the book for short bits of time and still feel connected to the story line.

The book is full of deaths, births, love and hate. I had a moist eye a couple of times as the writing pulled me into the emotions of the characters. History swirls around the generations, yet the story is not of a nation, but of a family rooted in tradition and love.

A must read for those interested in new authors with a talent for story telling.

I have been looking for a book to cover OOP in combination with Windows for a long time. I wanted something that gave more than short examples meant to demonstate the power of a certain API call. My desire was to create my own mini-library to complement the tools I use now. Windows++ seems to do all that by actually taking the reader through the process of writing a class library for Windows 3.1. Not only that but there was a Win95 code update available on the authors website.

If you are looking for something similar this may or may not be the book for you. On the good side the author does a terrific job of explaining his thought process on how and why a class library can and should be built. Many of the problems (i.e. call backs, messaging) are still relevent today but at the same time Windows has changed alot. For instance chapter four is on memory managment which is absolutely Windows 3.1 specific (Win95 and above does not have these problems). When I emailed the author he didn't even know what chapter four was about and suggested I learn MFC. In chapter two he begins by describing a better POINT structure and tries to employ inlining to keep it small. It is one of the basic lessons of the book. But the constructor calls a member function before the member function is declared inline making it non-inline. He also declares a copy constructor for a base type. Later in the book he makes extensive use of circular referencing and forward referencing which really creates a tangled web of code. Difficult to update and debug.

This book will give a definate roadmap to writing or developing your own API specific software library but use extreme caution and prejudice in using the authors code. Most of the time the class library that comes with my compiler is fine but there are many time when having a lightweight class library would be invaluable. Given the choice of transfering a large Exe or a small one across the Web most people would choose a small one. There really is a need for this kind of book. If the author ever decided to write an update to this I would be thrilled

Windows++ gave me the best a book can give, the courage to begin to write a library myself. It works! Hoever i hate to separate C++-code and dialog boxes code. So i hope that the author would show us how to avoid it and write easy dialog boxes in C++. P.S. I know that he has mentioned it in his book but i think its not enough

DiLascia's writing style is very readable, but you better know something about C++ and object-oriented programming. Personally, I had to learn about more before approaching the subject. Now I would place it next to Petzold's Programming Windows books for insight and value to my library. Published in 1992, the companion disk IS STILL available from the author: Paul DiLascia, 30 Duck Rd, Reading, MA 01867-1729 or email: dilascia@pobox.com. I wish there were a revised edition for Windows 95/NT.

On sunny afternoon towards the end of June 96 I met a famous Austrian-American psychoanalyst in a bookstore near St Stephan's Dome in Vieanna. I am almost a fan of this analyst/author,after introducing myself (a psychiatrist attending an international conference where he was lecturing),he asked me what I was reading from Austrian authors and I mentioned the only name I knew -Arthur Schnitzler, a contemporary of Sigmund Freud. He said it was OK but had I heard about Thomas Bernhard ? That was the beginning of my relationship with T.B.. The only English title from T.B.'s works was "On the Mountain"; I bought a copy and as soon as I started reading I was in touch with a conglomerate of emotions- anger,"boredom", pain, sorrow, "emptiness" and a very skillfull reflection of probing the realm of self and others in terms of various levels of self representations. As for W.'s Nephew, I should admit it is rather an easy reading title amongst T.B.'s works. Here we have the extremes; body and psyche, mental "disorder" vs medical disease, living upto all or none... W.'s Nephew tries to undo wrongs by helping paupers to the extent of becoming peniless himself (which leads to another episode of "institutionalization" with his relatives' more than willing consent) or is able to mark an opera work with his applause (or silence) as fabulous (or kill it) at the end of a premier. While W.'s Nephew might be perceived as pure emotionality the protagonist represents the "rational mind". Their relationship is based on a very true friendship and conveyed on a stage of Vieennese cafes (Sacher, Havelka..), suburbs and hospitals. I recommenf this book for those who are interested in reading about human relations in a cotext of self and others during post modernity.

Upon doing some background research on William Gaddis, while reading his Recognitions, I came across a number of sources describing Willy's appreciation for the work of Thomas Bernhard. Thus I decided to reacquaint myself with this Austrian writer after more than a decade.

Just like Borges and Natsume, Thomas Bernhard was a taste that I acquired due to Glenn Gould mania. Still in Holland Cornelis Hofman, then head of the Glenn Gould Society, offered Bernhard's Untergeher, the Loser, to the fans of the "oracle of Toronto". Hooked on Bernhard from page one, I next read alte Meister and Holzfallen, old masters and woodcutters, resp.

Thomas Bernhard was a person who often came close to the level of misanthropy. Yet, this writer followed in a line of the likes of Shopenhauer, Strindberg and Celine, who led the readers into the darkest recesses of the tunnel never to forget the pay off by the light at their metaphorical ends. Bernhard will always be defined for me by one short moment in a rare television interview. Bored by the interviewer he walked over to his record player and started a recording of Bach's 2nd Brandenburg Concerto. After the music had played for a while he asked his interviewing victim "Do you know what is happening here?" The victim remained mute, invoking a look from Bernhard that was a mixture of disbelief and disgust to the nth degree. After some more music, while shaking his head answered himself with "everything".

Wittgenstein's Nephew is an archetypical Bernhard novella, both in content and style. The book contains a detailed analysis of the relationship between the writer and his best (and only true friend) Paul Wittgenstein, nephew of the famed philosopher. The first part of the book focuses on Paul and the friendship, while Bernhard uses these ingredients in the final part of the book as a "mirror" for self reflection/analysis. The book begins when both Bernhard and Paul are treated, for cancer and depression resp., at separate but close institutions. At the climax of this part, the writer who was so much looking forward to meeting Paul, finally meets what is left of his friend, and is devastated. Next, Bernhard looks back at the history of their friendship and pays special attention to the support Paul gave him on the occasion of receiving two literary prices and the premiere of one of his plays. In the end, Thomas, gives a brutally honest description of him avoiding Paul around the end of the latter's life and not attending the funeral of the very person who was so important for Bernhard to overcome a longtime suicidal depression. In the act, Bernhard leaves a wide array of casualties: the charlatans of the medical profession, the Austrian press/government/writers/actors and last but not least himself.

The prose is of the vintage Bernhard style that is easily identifiable after the very first sentence. Especially at the start, there is the favorite technique of providing a statement that is cut to the "philosophical bone" to later become the vehicle of a spiral thought of "evolution". Later on the style becomes more linear, without losing any of its poignancy.
While I read the original version, get it at the German Amazon site, I did compare it with this translated version. I would give the translator a 7 on a scale of 10. David McLintock has chosen textual accuracy over a translation that puts more emphasis on delivering the same type of "punch" as the original. You could say he prefers the letter to the spirit of the law. While the resulting translation is precise and careful, it is definitely "Bernhard Lite". Thinking in musical terms, you get Weber instead of the original Wagner.

As a novice to Bernhard reading this review, you may wonder whether the late Thomas would really be your cup of tea. All his anger, gloom, doom and hatred. Yet, Bernhard's dark vitriolic virtuosity gives the short intermittent moments of happiness a striking serene beauty, not unlike like the little flower in Picasso's Guernica.

It has been said that Gaddis' Recognitions is a more mature version of Salinger's Catcher in the Rye. Extending this metaphor, this as many of Bernhard's books represents a version of Holden, who while severely doubting the sense of the act, still hasn't given up on catching all together.

I am once again reading _Wittgenstein's Nephew,_ after having read it ten or so years ago. Now, years later, this slim book offers an even richer experience. I started it tonight and regret that I didn't begin it earlier in the day. It's short enough to be read in a rainy afternoon, yet its brevity belies writing that is simply astounding and straightforward in its honesty and beauty. (By "honesty," I don't mean the cesspool of lurid detail that many of today's writers wallow in and which I find totally repugnant. Bernhard had too much class for that.)

Truth be told, the reader has to like Bernhard's style to get far with him. Bernhard's rephrasing of mundane thoughts and incidents may seem tedious at first to the uninitiated, but he turns the same phrases over and over as if assessing their content and structure. Is it better to write the thought *this* way? That way? Both? Neither? All? How many writers do *that*!?

Bernhard had a genuine love of words (which I share), phrases, sentences and the way they all form an imposing BLOCK that fills the pages (no paragraph breaks). It doesn't seem to matter much that his topics are mundane: I sense he knew that, despite the adventures most of us have, a large part of life is spent alone with our thoughts. Who was it that said, "The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation." Bernhard expands upon this bleak thought and comes up with art of very high order, indeed.

I have read all of Bernhard's work that has been translated into English, and I can recommend them all with 5 stars. I think this book (or perhaps _Concrete_) is the best starting point for those unfamiliar with this author. I especially love this book because the topic - friendship - is so touching and sensitively handled. Not a word seems wasted.

But you need to have a few comercial plug-ins and this means spend money, instead of this you can learn many tricks other people learn with experience and time. I really don't know if the book isn't good enoght or 3D Studio is very incomplete, filling the holes with expensive IPAS.

First of all, I want to say that I'm from Sweden, so please be indulgence with my language. I've read the magnificant book of 3d Studio & Hollywood Gaming Effects. I used both 3d Studio and 3D max for the tutorials, and I was quite impressed. The book is based on examples and tutorials, made by pros'. The examples in the book are very detailed, and are understandble, even for an amateur like me. And the best thing is that, if you dont understand what they're talking about, just put in the CD-Rom (that comes with the book) find the chapter for the example, and run it. There you have it, step by step, all the exaples in the book on the CD-Rom are explained on the CD-Rom too. A book for both amateurs and proffesionals, that increase the flexibilaty you need to become a graphic artist. And even if you're using 3d Max, the examples in the book - and on the CD-Rom - works properly. Since Max and Studio are based on the same system. The examples in the books are well illustrated, and the layout makes it very easy to find and read. You learn new things every time you browse through the book. And just by watching the exapmles on the CD-Rom, you can load a project - and go through it - see for your self how it's build. And in that way learn some useful hints & tricks. A low cost educational book, that you can get useful hints & tricks from, that you cant get from anywhere else. As I said, my English is bad. I sometimes can't find a way to express my feelings in words. But it is a good book. I rated the book with a 9. Now that, is self explained. Happy rendering, Your Friend In The Jungle Of 3D.

When I first picked this book up I was expecting it to be another book on teaching the beginner how to do simple effects. I could never have been so wrong. Starting at an advanced level, the book assumes you not only have lots of experience with 3D Studio, but some additional software tools as well. Then, it shows you, in detail, how to create certain effects, all of which can be easily adapted to your scenes. Some of the effects include overlaying your animation with video so that it 'fits' together, or extended use of 'Bones Pro' and 'MetaBall Modelers'(which are plug-ins for 3D Studio) to create organic models.

For beginners, I recommend "3D Studio Special Effects/Book and Cd Rom" while this book is more for users with a solid grip on 3D Studio.