I ordered this book for my baby brother. I enjoy cooking and often entertain. As an experienced cook I could prepare these dishes but even I am put off by anything that requires me to zest three lemons. I've found that my husband is much more daring in the kitchen and he admits some of the recipes would be fun. The book offers witty commentary and the "dudes and don'ts" of entertaining are terrific. If you are looking for wit and special meals for the weekend this book would be fine. For everyday survival, this is not what you want.

At first, I was turned off by even receiving this book as a gift. I am 22, green behind the ears, and fresh out of college. Yes, I've had my fill of Ramen and Mac & Cheese, but thought that this book was, well, beneath me. I thought that until I actually made some of the recipes. My dinner companion (girlfriend) was astounded by the food--I'm sure it helped that I made her faves! As soon as she walked in she commented on how great my place smelled. The dinner was fabulous, and made me love Dude Food. Dude Food is the only cookbook I own, granted it is not by any means thourough, but it is a great starter for guys like me. The recipes are simple to follow and every possible pitfall is laid out for you and explained. One of these days, when I stop ordering in, I'm going to try some more recipes.

With bookstore shelves -- virtual or otherwise -- loaded with volumes on cooking and style, the Brooks-Bosker-Darmon team is in a class by itself. Dude Food, their latest treat, is filled with wit and substance. Each chapter is a unique blend of nifty -- and easy -- recipes, social commentary and dynamite graphics. I've made some terrific meals with this book, laughing all the way.

There are thousands of arts and cultural organizations in the USA, including museums and other exhibition spaces, orchestras, dance companies, zoos, choruses, jazz ensembles, theater companies, and botanical gardens. Yet the income earned from sales of tickets, merchandise, and services typically covers only 50 to 60 percent of their operating expenses, according to authors Karen Hopkins and Carolyn Friedman. Hopkins, the executive vice president of the Brooklyn Academy of Music in New York, and Friedman, the chief development officer of the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago, further point out that the budget for the National Endowment for the Arts has of recent been dramatically reduced by Congress. "Fundraising for arts and culture in the United States today is a challenging and increasingly complex process," state the authors at the outset. "Because of the uncertain economic climate, Americans are reexamining their charitable contributions and are tightening their belts in all areas of support for nonprofit institutions, including those dedicated to arts and culture." Clearly, arts and cultural organizations facing the challenges of the next century are in need of new strategies and more effective fund development programs if they are to make up the budgetary shortfall with charitable contributions. Successful Fundraising for Arts and Cultural Organizations provides fund raisers a clear-headed, workable blueprint for better and more effective fund raising. This book presumes little or no prior knowledge of fund raising, and yet is thorough enough to provide even experienced fund raisers an opportunity to reassess their own strategies and beliefs, and test them against those of two very experienced fund raising professionals. Steel sharpens steel. The authors proceed step-by-step, right from the beginning: institution building. "The first step . . . in preparing to raise funds is for management to articulate clearly the artistic or programmatic purpose of the organization," they state. Basic? Very. But a step neglected at the peril of the Organization. And far too many arts and cultural organizations fail to construct the kind of dynamic board called for by Hopkins and Friedman. As expected, the authors cover board leadership, focusing on the board of trustees, especially its composition, structure, and even recruiting of the right members. A central premise: that board members must lead in a fund development campaign. Again, hardly revolutionary. But far too many arts organizations stumble in recruiting the right trustees - with disastrous consequences. Senior staff roles are not neglected, either. The authors describe the roles of such positions as artistic or program director, managing director, marketing director, finance director, and development director. A useful section on volunteers is included, as well. Perhaps most useful is the author's comprehensive and pragmatic treatment of the various modes of fundraising, including the annual fundraising campaign, as well as raising funds from businesses, from foundations, from individuals, and from government. Under the chapter covering the annual fund, for example, the authors guide the development director in determining the goals for a fundraising campaign by considering potential projects, estimating income and expenses for each project, and then selecting the programs to be promoted that have both artistic or cultural merit and financial viability. As they do throughout, the authors provide a useful chart to rate the programs to be promoted. Other charts include an outline of the steps toward accomplishing a long-range goal; board members' spheres of influence; material for a board orientation manual; campaign support plan; campaign status report summary; hypothetical corporate research profile; hypothetical individual research Profile; organizational budget, program budget; sample customer track; telefundraising results report; how to fill out an NEA application form; gift tables (gifts required/prospects needed for either a $2.5 million or a $6 million capital and/or endowment campaign); and glossary of giving opportunities. Importantly, the book places each mode of fund raising against the backdrop of the "big picture" in terms of which methods can be expected, statistically speaking, to raise funds most effectively. As if to underscore the practicality of this book, the authors include 13 appendixes (see table of contents below). Especially interesting is Appendix D, "Web Resources for Non-Profit Fund-Raising," a particularly relevant topic these days. TABLE OF CONTENTS: Chapter 1. Institution Building Chapter 2. Leadership Chapter 3. The Annual Fundraising Campaign Chapter 4. Business Chapter 5. Foundations Chapter 6. Individuals Chapter 7. Government Chapter 8. Special Events Chapter 9. Capital and Endowment Campaigns Appendixes: A. Basic Fundraising Books B. Keeping Up: Magazines, Newsletters, and Newspapers C. Research Resources D. Web Resources for Non-profit Fund-Raising E. State Foundation Directories F. State Arts Councils and Regional Arts Organizations G. State Humanities Councils H. Fundraising and Management Organizations I. Arts and Cultural Service Organizations J. Sponsorship vs. Advertising: Comparing Return K. Fundraising Materials L. Capital Campaign Materials M. Teaching Ideas for Arts Administration Students

This is both a great introduction for those who want to learn more about this field, and a wonderful fresh perspective for development professionals and executives in the arts. Lots of practical info for those seeking funding, but also a great overview on the current climate of funding for the arts. It should be required reading for board members of arts organizations.

I am preparing to teach a graduate-level course on fundraising for the arts, and plan to use this as a basic text.

When a crow steals a hen's (Ethel) egg and drops it in an eagle's nest, a chick (Dylan) is hatched to an eagle alongside two eagle chicks. Named E-awk, Dylan, like a vegetarian born to a carnivorous family, eats corn while his siblings eat fish, bugs, and snakes. Dylan proves his mettle by saving his mother, like a chicken-hawk-eagle, from the clutches of a fox, proving that not all chickens are chicken. The illustrations are clear and enjoyable, but the text has peculiar asides, such as twice mentioning that the mother eagle's name is too hard to pronounce (is this some sort of hip inside joke?)

The Music! Words! Opera! series published by OPERA America, the national service organization for all professional opera companies in North America, is a true treasure for teachers who wish to introduce students to the wonders of opera. This complete curriculum provides easy-to-use lesson plans breaking down the complexities of the art form into fun, student-centered activities. Also included are copy-ready materials, musical excerpts from the operas being studied, list of participatory drama games, and teaching tips on creating and presenting an original student work. The Music! Words! Opera! methodology can be applied to any classroom and includes every discipline in its approach.

At over 500 pages, this book would certainly seem to have a lot about the animal kingdom. However, one immediately begins to be wary when the first 100 or so pages are about the environment -- dwelling heavily on Africa's many parks, describing their sizes, briefly discussing the animals, and going into flora, and showing many pictures of nature. Even more daunting is the text -- which may stop mid-sentence before continuing three pages later, thanks to a two-page spread. And the photo captions -- in some cases, the description for the two page spreads are at the end of the SECOND page following it, or in some cases (page 344-5, for example) they have no caption at all.

With that being said, most of the photos are excellent: A leopard descending a tree, or how an elephant dwarfs the other wildlife at a watering hole. Some aren't as crisp as you'd expect from a book calling itself "A Visual Celebration", and in some cases there are five of one animal and none of the animal following it. Yet all in all the photos are splendid to look at.

A breakdown, out of a four star projection (without the one guaranteed star that all books get):
Photos (out of two stars): 1½ stars. The large majority are a pleasure to look at, though the variance in amount of photos from one animal to another loses a half star.
Text (out of one star): 0 stars. Oftentimes relying on detailed specs in the middle of a sentence describing an animal's size (or a National Park's, for that matter) makes reading cumbersome. Perhaps a spec list at the start of each animal would have made more sense.
Layout (out of one star): 0 stars. How the text appears on the pages, as well as the poor setup of captions and how one animal's photos may continue pages into the description of another animal was bad enough to take a half star from the photos. Thus why I gave it just two stars.

Overall, there is a good many better books as a photographic look out there than this one. Not really worth the money. Unless you need to learn how NOT to do a book layout.