I bought this book as a souvenir on a trip to Colorado. Not only is it a great memento of a wonderful trip, I've just enjoyed flipping through it many times reading the recipes. The "Apple Salad" made with yogurt, cheese, raisins and nuts has brought rave reviews and demands for the recipe each time it's been served. Considering I prepared it twice for 130 people, I'd say it's a winner. This is a delightful book to own and to give as a present. A definite step above the traditional "community cookbook."

I don't cook much. I don't like to cook. I don't cook well.

People always give me cookbooks "to help". I would try one or two recipes, but they were always mediocre or I would eventually make a recipe that tasted awful.

... and then I got this book. EVERY dish I've made from this book has gotten rave reviews and people photocopying my book. I've tried at least a dozen recipes and they are outstanding. It is the only cookbook I use.

My sisters and I have this book and we all have given this as a gift. The no-fail recipes are very simple and delicious. Everyhing I have tried turns out wonderfully...great book to have in your cookbook library.....

Anne Graham Lotz has taken the Book of John and turned it into an understandable, inspiring book of her own. She explains familiar Bible passages with a fervor and faith which sheds new light on old passages. Whether you are a mature Christian who needs a little refreshing of your faith or someone who is on the fence and has not made a decision for Jesus, this is a wonderful book to read. The author's faith shines through every page and makes you want to have what she has. Through it all, she shares wonderful stories of herself and others which bring the Bible down to earth and show its relevance to today's world.

This book is fantastic! I have a very deep relationship with Christ and even so, this book brought me deeper! Mrs. Graham Lotz has a profound gift for bringing Jesus to your life through John's Gospel. I felt like I was there with Jesus during His earthly ministry. She brings the human side of Jesus alive on the pages.....it is just a fantastic book! I highly recommend it for fellow Christians to get a fresh look at our Savior, AND for those who are not believers, this book is it!

This is a great book for Christians and non-Christians! I finished it and immediately started it again. Ms. Lotz uses the Gospel of John to help us gain insights about Jesus. The book really convicted me to establish a daily time of prayer, study and meditation with Jesus. It is clear Ms. Lotz is a very gifted Bible teacher! God Bless Her

This is a must read for any Oceanliner or ship fan. It will transport you back to the days when the steamship was truly the only way to cross. After reading this book you'll realize that those floating barge-hotels that Carnival and the other Megalines call ships will never be Luxury liners! Long live the SS Norway!

I had the pleasure of meeting John Maxtone-Graham aboard the SS Norway in 1985. He autographed a copy of "The Only Way to Cross" and I have read it at least 3 times. I'll never tire of his detailed accounts of the ships and the people that made that era.

What I found really wonderful about the book was not only learning about the best parts of transatlantic travel but the worst as well. The section on Steerage as well as on the Boiler rooms show you every side of what life was like aboard the grandest ships to ever ply the oceans of the world.

If you buy only one book in your life buy this one!

If you like Ocean Liners, if you've ever dreamed of the days when crossing the North Atlantic meant 4 or more days at sea and not 5 or 6 hours in a cramped, fetid, airplane, this is the book for you. Maxtone-Grahm simply reaches into the past and makes a wonderful era come alive again. After you read it you'll swear you've voyaged on the Queens, the Mauretania or the Isle D' France...even if you were born in an era long after those ships went to the breakers.

This is book is the MUST READ for anyone who claims the title "Liner Buff."

This book is one of the best books on investing I've read yet. It does not give you chart patterns and indicators, but it shows you how the great ones made their fortunes. As I said, "They are legends for a reason."--They set a standard for investors. A definate read.

I have to admire any investment author who starts with the premise that the past is just as worthy of study as the future. We are fortunate to have among us, though not for much longer, a number of living legends in the world of finance -- Fisher, Templeton, Buffett, Tisch and others -- who will one day take their habits, idiosyncracies, and wealth-building secrets to the grave. When they are gone, there will be no one to take their places, or enrich us with their wisdom.

For years, we have been deluged with repetitive texts on how to become a millionaire like your neighbor. Isn't it better to have a manual on how to emulate the titans? There's an old saying in the school yard that if you are going to cheat on an exam, copy off the person who gets the A+, not the C students. Nikki Ross' book has been sorely needed and will prove just as pertinent today as it will in 20 years -- when the memories of these legends grow more faint.

What I liked most about Nikki's work is its translation value -- her ability to condense the lingering, sometimes philosophical synapses of these great men into lingo that lay investors can use practically. She avoids the temptation of delving at length into their biographies (which are rich enough and worthy of a sequel) and instead presents us with step-by-step instructions (almost as if she was taking dictation from Fisher and Buffett themselves).

A savvy stock-picker will quickly pick out the common threads that run throughout the book. All of these titans boiled down investing to a few core principles:

1) They view stocks as pieces of businesses and put all their efforts into determining the value of their prospective purchases. 2) They focus on price but understand that the real value of an investment is procured over time as the company grows. 3) They shun convention and believe today's dissertations on portfolio modeling are recipes for mediocrity. 4) They don't give a hoot about day-to-day fluctuations in the stock market. 5) They are all humble men who delighted in increasing clients' net worth just for the sake of proving it was possible.

It helps that Ms. Ross is a certified financial planner and a columnist. Her experience in giving real-world advice to individual investors lent itself to an easy-to-read, well planned book that any investor -- sophisticated or otherwise -- can use to their advantage. This book successfully bridges the gap between stock-picking and financial planning without coming off as self-serving, as many financial planning books are.

Nikki Ross presents a common sense three-step approach to investing. This approach is based on applying time-tested strategies that five successful giants have applied. Their experience through market crashes and the market highs demonstrate that their strategies are time-less and will be as valuable tomorrow as they were yesterday.

The first step is gathering the information. She shows where the information can be gathered using Internet resources (over twenty-five are listed), SEC reports, annual reports, magazines, and newspapers.

The second step is the evaluation process. Here she brings to life some of the insightful questions applied by Warren Buffett, Benjamin Graham, Phil Fisher, T.Rowe Price, and John Templeton. The quantitative aspects of the evaluation are addressed (such as the company's sales, profit margins, and earnings). In addition the qualitative aspects (the company management's abilities, products and policies, market position, and company life cycle) become part of the investigation that leads to the third step, making a decision. In reading Nikki Ross' "Lessons from the Legends of Wall Street" I found questions of these legends most valuable and applicable in the evaluation of my own portfolio.

The third step, making the decision, requires that the investment meet a personal set of criteria before making a purchase. This also would be applied when making the decision to hold or sell the investment.

Nikki Ross presents these same strategies of the legends (that are used even today by mutual fund managers, money managers, and investment counselors) in an useable format that can be applied by the reader. In comparison to some other investment type books, this one cuts through the complex theory and offers common sense strategies for investing.

This interesting book is well written and timely. I would recommend this book for reading to help develop a solid investment strategy.

Philip Boudreaux, MBA

This book is one of the 2 most desirable and collectible books on classical guitars (the other one is: Collection of Fine Spanish Guitars from Torres to the Present by Urlik, Sheldon). The figures are superb and the text informative. The hard cover edition is better in the following senses:

1. The hard cover edition is a limited edition (6000 copies only).
2. It is like a textbook which can be opened fully on its back. Easy for reading and scanning.
3. It's got a hard protective slipcase

However, getting the softcover edition might be your choice for its price and availability.

If you are a lover of guitars, specifically classical guitars, you owe it to yourself to purchase this book. There is nothing else like it. Great photography, details on some of the best guitars from some of the best makers...Romanillos, Smallman, Bernabe...They are all here. Inclusively, the book covers players (Williams, Bream, Segovia) as well as an in depth look at wood and the guitar market today. Great stuff and at ..., an incredible bargain.

Any lover of the classical guitar cannot help but appreciate this gorgeous collection of instruments, as well as the way in which they are displayed on the pages. Filled with information about the guitars and their construction, the luthiers, and which players'CDs you can hear them on, I highly recommend this fine edition. I take issue only with the subtitle "A Complete History", as the guitars are based on a single collection of instruments, owned by Russell Cleveland, and not necessarily what any other person would consider "Complete". That fact does not diminish my enjoyment of this exquisite book one bit.

We are using John Graham-Pole's book in the adult art therapy classes at the Lombardi Cancer Center at Georgetown University Medical Center, Washington, DC. Patients and staff participants alike have found inspiration and encouragement from the practical - and cheerful - application of creative self-expression to increase patient-staff communication and to reduce stress. I recommend it highly.

This is a unique, easy to read, well written self-help book that teaches the reader practical ways to use "art-making" to achieve greater health and happiness. It is written primarily for the person with a serious health problem, but it is useful reading for professionals caring for seriously or chronically ill persons. It teaches both groups of people how to bring art and self-expression into their lives.

The author has developed exercises to bring out the creative self-exppression each person possesses and to teach people to live for the moment, let go of negative thoughts or the pressure to achieve, and to enjoy the hidden artist within. The author's writing style is appealing because it is so rhythmic, flowing, and conversational that one feels as though one is sitting across from him and conversing. His style is direct and warm,and as one becomes engaged with the text and its exercises for self-expression, one comes away with a deeper understanding of,and a renewed appreciation of, the creative self-expression we all have hidden within us.

The author's writing is optimistic, hopeful, sensitive, and empathic. It is as if he has crawled into the skin of the person with an illness and is able to feel or think what he or she feels and thinks. He presents a holistic, integrated approach (using artistic or self-expression exercises) to help people take hold of theis lives, and in the face of serious illness, to feel in command. It is a moving and absorbing book with special insights into the world of people with serious illness.

John Graham-Pole, M.D. is authentic. His writing will be most beneficial for those (and their families) who are just now or will or perhaps already have learned what it is to be "ill". Listen, Read, Believe.

I believe everyone can benefit from this book because during our lives we will experience pain and grief in many and different ways. This book takes me back about 13 years. I recognize much of what I learned then, and (now) understand more fully some of what I didn't. G-P's subject is real. Understanding allows Peace, Thankfulness, and Blessings. God is Good.

When going through dread disease; chronic/acute;life-threatening, devastating illness; and/or depression, we often feel totally alone. We feel that others simply don't understand what we're thinking, experiencing, or feeling. Dr. G-P's authenticity shows he does understand. We are also shown another choice: Creativeness from within (and we all do have something to "say").

G-P listens and learns, observes and acts. I personally know he cares very much for his patients and his work, and I'm grateful every day of my life that Dr. G-P was our daughter's attending physician some 13 years ago. Today, I'm grateful for learning of this book and having the opportunity to read it, to share this book with others who want to be a creative, self-expressed person regardless of the circumstances of their lives or the lives of those they hold dear. This book is authentically written, gratefully received, and will be beneficial to all who read it.

This book told the of the accounts of a man dedicated to One. This is no ordinary account of a missionary in a foreign land. We read of his good days and bad days. We see John pouring out himself to the people of Norther Afghanistan. We see him at times fustrated and angry. John came accross as just a regular person with an irregular call on his life. He is God's man in Northern Afghanistan.
This book will brings both laughter and tears. It will have you cheering and booing.

I hope many will have a chance to read this book. You will get a glimpse of a life changed by God, and how this young man in his desire to serve the underprivileged found himself serving in a Northern Afghanistan refugee camp. The description and stories from the refugee camp are quite interesting and some are inspirational. For those of us who struggle with the question of why God allows all the problems we see in our world, perhaps the reader will find some answers. Hopefully, we will all be motivated and driven to serve and give to those who are less fortunate.

Not only is this book an interesting and insightful picture into John Weaver's experience, it also reveals the true motive behind so much of the work going on all over Central Asia. I am so grateful for John's gift of articulation and his committment to be honest and bold about the commission we have all been given--to use our blessings and resources to bless and help others in the world. This book is certainly not one meant only for religious readers! Definitly an important read for secular as well as Islamic background people. It gives insight into the heart of relief and community development work ... and it, more importantly, unveils the often misinterpreted heart of love and compassion that many Western aid workers have for peoples who are different than them!

The Viking Critical Library's version of Graham Greene's "The Quiet American" is an indispensible text for full appreciation of Greene's perceptions of Indochina, France's war there, and America's budding involvement. The editor, John C. Pratt carefully selects criticism of Greene's TQA that creates a complete and rich discourse on Greene's life and writings that serves as a backdrop to his novel. Added to that backdrop are histories, such as Frank Futrell's thirteen-page explanation of how the United States became involved in Vietnam, and official documents from the State Department, to interviews with former South Vietnamese generals and Ho Chi Minh.

TQA itself a wonderful book that,to an American, probes at our treasured notion high-minded idealism and our "can-do" spirit that has served us well at times and not so well at others. Greene's symbolism is telling and insightful, given that it was published well before the United States' full-blown involvement in that region of the world. While Greene relates many things that he experienced or felt in Indochina as a journalist, the book is not solely a "war novel". TQA, like many of Greene's books, takes the readers on the author's journey of personal morality and matters religious.

(This review refers to the Viking Critical Library edition, edited by John Clark Pratt)

Graham Greene's novel of Pyle, the "quiet American", employed by a barely-disguised fronting organisation of the CIA, narrated by Fowler, a British journalist who comes across by turns as weary and worldly, is immensely interesting. In it, Greene offers up perhaps his most incisive and insightful political commentary, treating the danger of allowing people guided solely by ideology and schools of academic thought to be responsible for intelligence fieldwork. Pyle, a graduate of Harvard, goes into Indochina, believing intensely in the necessity of enabling a "third column", General The's men, and employing them as an American proxy force.

Whether or not Pyle himself sees the implicit incompatibility of this abstract idea and reality is never quite clear: certainly Pyle plays witness to the destruction that his attempts to mobilise a third column bring about. He is not subject, though, to the gross revulsion at the wanton destruction of life that Fowler is. Equally certainly, Pyle's political views cost him his life: open to question, still, is whether or not Pyle himself was ever conscious of his fallacies, or if he remains blinded throughout. Rather than being a novel of a man's moral revelations, or telling of his relationship with the Divine, "The Quiet American" is far more a parable.

Greene's structure, his combined simplicity and complexity, and the thematic relevance of this novel, render it a deserving read. Additionally, the chronologies and commentaries upon foreign involvement in Indochina/Vietnam are both valuable and blessedly concise, and the collected reviews and critcal commentaries upon the novel serve as valuable tool for understanding.

In what is really the grandfather to all noir, foreign intrigue novels, Graham Greene produces not only one of the greatest novels of the 20th century, but also provides a scathing look at American and French policy in Vietnam. It is strange to read The Quiet American now, so long after the disastrous wars that killed millions of people and tore American apart. I would call it an almost tragic read, for in the pages of this provocative novel, Greene provides the roadmap for future disasters. The story is so scathing, so insightful, that one cannot help but to be forever affected. Greene?s tale is made even more effective in this wonderful volume, which provides the reader with numerous criticisms, defenses, and background documents.

Greene?s main character in the epic tale is Fowler, an amazingly interesting and complex British journalist covering the endless civil war in French Indochina. Fowler is one of the most engrossing literary characters I have ever read, as he is both worldly and horribly cynical. As if his own inner politics and views were not enough, his personal life also provides intriguing details. His wife back home in England is distant, foreign to him. In the meantime, Fowler has fallen in love with Phuong, a young Vietnamese woman. He finally feels some degree of happiness, of stability, even as the world rages on around him. The inquisitive Fowler is our eyes and ears as we watch a decrepit and corrupt colonialist system fight a hopeless war against ruthless insurgents. All the intricacies of French life in Indochina are described in picturesque detail, giving the book a beautiful travel book element to it.

The wartime peace Fowler has found is shattered with the arrival of Pyle, an American consulate official. Pyle is young, Ivy League, and idealistic to a dangerous degree. He is way over his head, as he knows little of the country or of its politics. The ?Quiet American?, as he is known, is a timid young man looking for the ?third way?, a way out of the civil war between communism and colonialism. Although known for his good heart and his boyish enthusiasm, Pyle hides a much darker side, revealed in a shocking way later on in the book. He strikes up a kind of friendship with Fowler, and, to Fowler?s dismay, falls in love Phuong. The book progresses, weaving the amazing story lines of war and love together in an unbelievably interesting book. The message Pyle gives us is a haunting reminder of American innocence about to be eaten alive in the confusing and shadowy jungles of Southeast Asia. The conclusion is just stunning, and it really stays with you.

Not only does this version include the wonderful novel, it also contains other samples of Greene?s writing concerning Indochina. The editor, Mr. Pratt, did a really marvelous job compiling a lot of disparate documents into a really effective overview of the war and the story itself. This edition should be the first and last volume any Greene fans need, as it amazingly thorough and respectful of Greene?s brilliant work.

This book is filled with lots of hillarious song lyrics, ranging from the witty to the weird and silly and is useful if you feel the need to sing along to some of your favourite Python songs while listening to a Python* CD, especially when you come across parts where it is difficult to understand what they are singing. Otherwise, I wouldn't recommend buying this book. The artwork is interesting**, but is not worthwhile in itself, and just reading the lyrics is less rewarding than listening to the songs. And none of the songs are new. So if you just like LISTENING to Python CDs and don't feel the need to join in***, there is no point in buying the book. Furthermore, if you want it for playing the songs on the piano, as some of the other reviewers point out, it is often difficult to read, and it is also impossible to prop up properly without causing some damage to the spine (of course if you don't care, you could just cut out the pages, etc.).

*Not recommended for singing along to death metal bands...

Wow. I have the big box set of Monty Python's Flying circus, and had basically memorized all of the songs. I also have most of the movies. So finding this little jewel was a real treat! Now I can play them on my trusty piano, and have the background music. This will make for some weird family reunions :)

This is a book for every Monty Python fan out there! It is really excellent, and includes almost all the songs, excluding a few of the lesser ones like "Sgnt Duckie's Song" and "The Window Cleaner Song" but just about everything else is in there. Admittedly, it's a bit annoying about some of the music being illigeble, such as "Eric the Half A Bee" appearing in a sphere shape, and "Bing Tiddle Tiddle Bong" being flipped totally around. However, it's still a great book, and the foreword, afterword, and middleword by Elvis and God are very funny. There's nothing better than to sit down at the piano sometimes and just play magnificent songs like "I've got a Ferret sticking up my nose..." This is a super book!

A tender story of a boy who contemplates his love: The book is a sequence of short vignettes, each with a different animal. In the first, he imagines being a mouse and making a furry nest with another friendly mouse, nibbling on cheese together. At the story's conclusion his father describes the love he has for his boy.

Graham's accomplishment is to show the full range of love, and emphasize the complex and wondrous relationship between parent and child.

Almost 22 years ago this book was given to me when I was a baby, and it soon became my favorite book. My mother and I would read it nighlty. The book is about a parents love, "I love you Kitten, and if I were a cat..." I also loved that hidden on each page is the animal that will be on the next page. For Christmas this year I took a chance and ordered this book for my sons, who are 4 1/2 and 3, and it instantly became a favorite. My 3 year old has a hard time sitting through stories, but he will sit through this one, he even has it memorised. We have read this book at least once a night since it was purchased, my boys sometimes fight over who gets to chose "I love you mouse" as their bedtime story. This is a must have for ANY story collection, and a great book to say "I love you".

This is a sweet, heartfelt book about loving and taking care of whom you love. The black-and-white illustrations by Tommy DePaolo suit John Graham's gentle text just perfectly. We first read it to my son at about the age of 1 or 2, and it's still one of his favorite "comfort" reads now that he is 8.