This is really a lovely little book. The photography is very nice. The information in the book is good as well, but it lacks depth. Wonderful little book to give as a gift, but not something that I would recommend for serious study.

This book is a great overview of different meditation techniques and subjects. It starts off at an introductory pace and then quickly spans several thousands of years instructions. A great book.

This book is a great for those who are new to meditation and want to start immediately. After a few minutes of reading this book, the reader can begin to meditate.

The book first explains the reasons why people meditate and gives some tips to get the most out of meditation ( i.e. keep a journal ). The book then explains how to meditate by using correct posture and breathing techniques. The next few sections then gives the reader ideas on what to focus on or what to think about when meditating such as symbols and imagery. There is also a section on the importance of colors and how different colors can invoke emotions. The rest of book then gives tips on how meditation can affect your life by producing change and reduce stress. Overall, this book is incredibly valuable and there is no reason not to get it considering its price.

Thanks to this book, I meditate at least 5 minutes a day when I wake up. It also provides me with ideas on what I can meditate on.

Most young kids who are interested in trucks will love Dig and Dug. They bumble through a variety of situations with different trucks trying to get Farmer Stubble's fruit to town. Unfortunately, Trouble with Trucks doesn't compare with toddler books like Dr. Seuss's, which parents tend to enjoy as much as their children. As a parent, the book became tedious. The Amazon Editor's review explains the shortfalls of the book aptly.

If you have children between 18 months and 3 years old that enjoy trucks, they will probably find Dig and Dug amusing. If you are searching for truck & farm books for your toddler, you might want to consider adding this to their collection. Reading it as a parent, the book may not engender the same silliness and fun for you as Green Eggs and Ham or other kid's classics. But if your kids like it, why not?

Isn't that what children love? My 2 year old son asks for this book by name and wants to read it at least once a day. He can tell you the story himself using the few words he knows. We've read it so much and enjoyed it that unfortunately our copy is beyond repair. Sad to see that it's out of print.

My son absolutely loves Dig and Dug! The book was a gift almost a year ago and not a day goes by where he does not ask to read it! At this point he has it memorized and he reads it to me! What a wonderful early reading tool. I am looking for additional "Dig and Dug" style books to add to his reading collection.

This book is so cursory and high-level that I got nothing out of it. For example, there's an entry on spider mite damage to cacti. It says to combat this use a predatory mite. It fails to tell me which mites are predatory, where I might find them, how to use them, etc. I don't know the purpose of this book. It's so short, vague, and imprecise that some one new to cacti won't find it useful. And it's so vacuous that some one who knows cacti will read it and say "Duh." And it's too little to be a good coffee-table book....

This little book has some pretty good tips, but if you already have Hewitt's Complete Guide to Cacti and Succulents you don't need this book. Virtually all of the information and photographs (as excellent as they are) comes right from the author's more complete book. So if you already have Hewitt's Comlete Guide... don't waste four bucks on 101 Essential Tips. If you want a good cacti/succulent book buy The Complete Guide to Cacti and Succulents not 101 Essential Tips.

This book is an excellent companion to "Complete Book of Cacti and Succulents" by the same author (Terry Hewitt).

"101 Essential Tips" has some information not included in the larger work. This reviewer recommends buying both books and consults both books on a regular basis.

This book is adequate on it's own, though. If one has a very limited budget, this would be the book to buy.

Reading this book will likely whet one's appetite for Hewitt's "Complete Book", but this book will get one started and might be all the book that one will ever really need. It contains every bit of basic information necessary to successfully grow these plants.

The format, of separately titled and illustrated "tips", also makes the book a very easy read. One can easily flip to some specific tip and never have to read the whole book end-to-end.

What it's not: This is not a book for identifying a just-purchased, unlabelled cactus. It's also not a coffee-table picture book (though it does have informative and useful photos) and it does not attempt to _thoroughly_ cover any aspect of cactus cultivation.

It is a small, inexpensive quick-reference with answers to common questions and solutions to common problems that arise when growing cactus. The photographs that it has are fully adequate for illustrating the techniques described.

The book shows implicitly, due to its small size and price, that growing cactus is neither difficult nor expensive.

This book is a very good value and makes a great starting book for those with a limited budget.

I keep this book right next to my watering can and refer to it for helpful hints every time one of my plant leaves turn yellow, or brown or another problem turns up.

It covers lots of information in few words. The illustrations are quite helpful. Love it, and wouldn't do without it

This is an great book for beginners plus it's cute and small and easy to read (this book would be especially appropriate for teenagers and older children). Chapters include: "Choosing Houseplants" including how to match plants to the growing conditions in your home and how to grow bulbs indoors; "Light and Humidity;" "Watering Know-How;" "Feeding Your Plants;" "Pots and Potting On;' "Pruning and Training;" "Propagating Houseplants;" "Tackling Pests and Diseases;" "Favorite Houseplants;" and "Display & Arrangement." The "Favorite Houseplants" chapter includes descriptions and growing requirements for 20 easy-to-grow plants including English Ivy, Philodendrons, Rubber Plants, Boston Ferns, African Violets, Cyclamens, Hyacinths, Poinsettias and Geraniums, etc. "Display & Arrangement" has instructions for container plants, hanging baskets and terrariums. The only reservation I have about this book is that some of the symbols used to designate humidity and amount to water are a bit confusing; in particular, I had a little trouble telling the difference between the medium drop ("water moderately") and the small drop ("water sparingly").

This book is an essential guide, just as the title says, for anyone interested in caring for house plants. Good photographs along with excellent tips make this a good starter before buying a plant. I found it particularly useful that it recommended plants according to my own lifestyle, location, as well as advice on what to look for when buying a houseplant.

I keep this book right next to my watering can and refer to it for helpful hints every time one of my plant leaves turn yellow, or brown or another problem turns up.

It covers lots of information in few words. The illustrations are quite helpful. Love it, and wouldn't do without it

This is an great book for beginners plus it's cute and small and easy to read (this book would be especially appropriate for teenagers and older children). Chapters include: "Choosing Houseplants" including how to match plants to the growing conditions in your home and how to grow bulbs indoors; "Light and Humidity;" "Watering Know-How;" "Feeding Your Plants;" "Pots and Potting On;' "Pruning and Training;" "Propagating Houseplants;" "Tackling Pests and Diseases;" "Favorite Houseplants;" and "Display & Arrangement." The "Favorite Houseplants" chapter includes descriptions and growing requirements for 20 easy-to-grow plants including English Ivy, Philodendrons, Rubber Plants, Boston Ferns, African Violets, Cyclamens, Hyacinths, Poinsettias and Geraniums, etc. "Display & Arrangement" has instructions for container plants, hanging baskets and terrariums. The only reservation I have about this book is that some of the symbols used to designate humidity and amount to water are a bit confusing; in particular, I had a little trouble telling the difference between the medium drop ("water moderately") and the small drop ("water sparingly").

This book is an essential guide, just as the title says, for anyone interested in caring for house plants. Good photographs along with excellent tips make this a good starter before buying a plant. I found it particularly useful that it recommended plants according to my own lifestyle, location, as well as advice on what to look for when buying a houseplant.

Very basic information with photos. OK for a novice, too vague if you have ever grown roses. The book seems aimed at novices in in a zone 6 or 7 growing climate.

I absolutely loved all of the gorgeous pictures! The photos also made pruning and planting instructions easy to understand. I have many other rose manuals, but this one has better care information than my other much longer books.

Although the section on Naples is extensive, the section on the Amalfi and Sorrento Coasts is disappointingly slim. There is scant information on how to get there and what to do there, given how popular these locations are with tourists. Also, the book (and most of the Eyewitness series) surprisingly doesn't include any relevant websites for further research. The pictures are great, as always, and the layout of the book is terrific, but disappointingly behind the times.

The Eyewitness guides are always the best available for any destination...nothing comparable. You can create your own tours with these guides.

My friend gave this to me on bday last yr & i guarrantee this is ABSOLUTELY GREAT! You get a lot of tips about microwave cooking & it's sooo easy! Enjoy this book & you'll enjoy cooking as well as EATING! Yummyyy!

my friend gave this to me on bday last yr & i guarrantee this is ABSOLUTELY GREAT! u get a lot of tips about microwave cooking & it's sooo easy! enjoy this book & you'll enjoy cooking as well as EATING! yummyyy!

As a Thai, I found this book surprisingly accurate to a certain degree. Even to some notorious aspects about Thailand, it provides some truthful information rather than worse-than-reality stuff for those potically correct issues. The graphics is amazing and precise in terms of Thai architecture (I'm an architect). Another compliment goes to some inside info e.g. shopping districts and local customs. I even decided to buy a copy myself even though it's my own country as a good intro to Thailand whenever my Ameican friends ask me to describe it which they usually do.

I recommend this book for people who search for cultural aspect rather than hotels and restaurants. I'm using some books from this very series to travel in Europ too.

Truly a wonderful travel guide. This is a must have for your adventures in Amazing Thailand. This book gives you all the information you need, when you pack for your vacation this will be the only travel reference you will need to take with you. A valuable tool in exploring Bangkok and the surronding regions. The maps inside helped us get back to our hotel on more than one occasion, a definate life saver and an essential necessity.

I found Eyewitness Travel Guide for Thailand very informative, and easy to read. It had tons of pictures, facts, FYIs, and did I mention pictures? Like Eyewitness I agree that a picture is worth a thousand words. I also bought Lonely Planet's Travel Guide for Thailand, but liked Eyewitness' much better. Lonely Planet's Travel Guide had a more standard layout for the abundant amount of facts, but was limited on the pictures. The phrase at the bottom of Eyewitness' book holds true, "The Guides That Show You What Others Only Tell You."

The photos are beautiful, and I love the organization by size, color, and season of interest, but good luck finding most of these at the nursery -- common names are provided for maybe one-fourth of the plants, and when a common name is given, it may not be the name you're familiar with. I would like to have lots of these plants in my garden, but I don't know what to look for at the nursery. And I don't think the workers at my local nurseries are going to know what, say, "phlomis russeliana" is, even if I tell them it's in the family "Lamiacae/Labiatae" (assuming I could pronounce half this stuff!)

Or let's say you want to look at a certain plant, maybe one you've spotted at the nursery, to see whether it's right for you. Let's use "yarrow" as an example. "Yarrow" is not in the table of contents or the index, but if you happen to know that yarrow is "achillea", you will find several different yarrows in this book. None of them list "yarrow" as a common name, but that's what all the nurseries around here call them. And even though there's a 7-page section on peonies, "peony" is not in the index (you have to know it's really "paeonia").

The sections on landscaping, propogation, planting, etc., are minimal -- the catalog of plants is the focus of the book.

In short, I think the presentation of plants in this book is a great idea that has not been implemented fully enough to be useful.

Eyewitness Handbooks are simply the best. I have several, including one on horses, aquarium fish and the annuals/biennials garden book. (I'm planning to purchase the other Eyewitness Garden Handbooks shortly.) There is just no substitute for seeing a full color picture of the adult plant. Although quite comprehensive (over 1000 photos and plants), it was organized by the size of the plant (large, medium, small) and then the season of bloom. I'm probably spoiled with computer CD ROMs that are searchable by any criteria: I wanted to find plants based on recommended sun exposure. But this wasn't really a big problem for me. Besides the beautiful clear photograhy, one of its best features was the index. It was basically organized by the scientific names, but the common names were also listed, with a "see ...." reference. This is not always the case in plant/animal books, and I appreciated it very much. I recommend that you buy this book. There's nothing better, unless Eyewitness comes out with a searchable CD ROM.

This is a workhouse reference, filled from cover to cover with solid information. Entries start with family name, common name where applicable, and botanical name of the plant under discussion. Each variety has a picture, a description of form, flowers, and leaves, plus notes on the plant's origins, growing requirements, and propagation. The pictures themselves are relatively small but well shot, a good percentage of them include leaves and/or clumps of plants as well the flowers themselves.

This book covers all of the basics normally found in a plant reference, including propagation, maintenance care, and basic planting principals. The layout, however, betrays its real focus, which is landscaping.

Landscaping and cultivation are so closely tied that many gardeners forget the difference. However, one focuses on growing a single plant to its maximum potential while the other concerns itself with presenting plants in a setting. Whereas a book on cultivation will present species either alphabetically or by color, this book presents flowers in terms of their 'social' attributes: Size, season, and color.

Bottom line: Excellent perusing material for people who like to plan ahead. It includes all the basics of cultivation, and pulls it together in a format designed to help you think in terms of beds rather than just flowers.