If you're going to cook southwest, this is the one and only way to go about it! Tips from The Master of Southwest Cooking. You can't go wrong with the wide variety of unique and interesting recipes to "wow" your family and guests. EXCELLENT!

This is an excellent compendium of Robert McGrath's favorites. His Roaring Fork in Scottsdale has gained a wonderful reputation and deservedly so. Now this book shows how many of his magic tricks are performed. In addition to the recipes, it is beautifully illustrated with western scenes.

This book is one of the best biographies I have read in years. Mainly because it captures Sarria not as a dry historical figure, but captures who he is and the way he remembers his life and his rich and eccentric personality as well. Gorman tells about his personal struggles and views while writing this book in an article that can be found at http://www.angelfire.com/ca3/mattsmind/gorman.html

This semi-autobiographical story of Jose Sarria, the founder of the Imperial Court System in San Francisco CA in 1965, is a remarkable read. Jose has been aware of his Gay identity since childhood and never had a problem with it. In this book we learn of his many experiences from World War II to several World Fairs to the history of the Imperial Court system. Throughout the book, Jose's voice is clear and to the point. Reading his quotes is like having tea with him. You laugh and cry and learn to love a remarkable man. He's Gandhi in a dress and still going strong! Perfect reading for the beach or for gift giving.

Princess DaisyMae Imperial Court of New York

I could really relate to this book because when I first read it, I was in a new environment too. The story is really real, and Munsch is one of my favourite authors.

I am a teacher in a daycare and I work with children who come from different backgrounds and cultures all over the world. I have probably read this book fifty times and it still makes me cry. The kids think I'm nuts

Dreams. Visions. Wealth and Power. Within the pages of this book you will learn about the lives of 100 extraordinary people and their amazing accomplishments. Coming from all walks of life, many were brought forth with very little to their name, and yet each one has possessed an overwhelming desire to be the best. In many cases, they pursued a vision and achieved unimaginable success. Their empires and ideas have revolutionized society and their names will forever be etched in stone with their legacies. If you have ever been inclined to command wealth, here is where you will find out how it was done by those before you.

--Taking Notes

Let me start by saying that I would never have picked up a book on this topic were it not for the fact that one of its authors is my brother. I am so repelled by the "get rich" mentality that is exhibited by a certain segment of our population that I would have avoided the book for fear of being lumped in with them by anyone seeing it open in front of me. Before buying the book, I had prepared myself to dislike it, and had already fired off some ironic messages to my brother by electronic mail on the aspiring Rockefellers who I supposed would be flocking to buy it.

Finally, I got the book home, and, after drawing the shades and closing the blinds, furtively looked inside. A wealth, not of money, but of biographical detail, emerged immediately from the first few pages of text. It became immediately clear that, whatever its political slant, this was a profoundly well-written and researched work. What's more, it painted realistic and, in many cases, quite damning portraits of its 100 plutocratic subjects.

The book orders its collection of mini-biographies according to the wealth of their subjects. Still, the bite-sized pieces are too irresistable to be consumed in a linear manner, and so I found myself jumping from one disciple of mammon to another some chapters away, devouring several at a sitting over a period of many days. I remember the sense of mild surprise that I felt at the time that someone who I have known on a personal level for years had produced something that could truly be appreciated by the greater world (and evidently has been, from the reviews and interviews that have followed).

The reason that this book "only" gets a nine (for me, a 10 would be reserved for a great classic like Howard Zinn's "People's History of the United States," and maybe one or two other titles), is my perception that it pulls its punches slightly on some of its more contemporary subjects. The facts are all there, but there is a sense that the kid gloves are on when examining the negative consequences of more recent fortunes, such as Sam Walton's, on the broader community. Walton's Wal-Mart stores, for example, have been criticized as vacuum pumps that suck money out of small communities, destroying local shops that pay decent wages and recycle their earnings to local economies, while offering only low-paying jobs and marginally lower prices in return. The book brushes this aside as "protests from small rivals," and says nothing more on the subject.

Despite these issues, the book remains one of the most informative and interesting ones that I have read. And if the authors' point of view seems to favor, or at least accept, the system that created these Matterhorns of money, that view isn't imposed upon the reader, and there are plenty of facts and figures from which to derive a competing perspective.

--Carl Gunther

Now in a newly updated, revised, and expanded edition, Disinherit The IRS by chartered financial consultant E. Michael Kilbourn (President of Kilbourn Associates and Chairman of the Wealth Protection Network, Naples, Florida) is a very practical and "user friendly" guide to minimizing or eliminating personal estate taxes in order to ensure that the money and possessions left to the people and causes intended is not unfairly or unnecessarily eroded by estate taxes or any other form of taxation. Solid and practical advice for protecting personal finances against claims from lawsuits and divorce actions also fill the pages of this useful and informative compendium. Other chapters address such financial planning issues as life insurance, the usefulness of trusts, and sound steps anyone can take to protect their assets. If you have amassed a lifetime of wealth and wish to lawfully minimize the tax man's demands upon it, then acquire and carefully give a serious reading to Michael Kilbourn's Disinherit The IRS!

This is a must read for anyone interested in the history of monetary unions or alternatively interested in the development of Economic and monetary Union in Europe.

Published by the London based Institute of Economic Affairs this small but insightful book looks at selected monetary unions and draws on the experiences to put forward some lessons for policy-makers to draw upon as the Eurozone countries move inexorably towards a single European currency.

Almost as good as the original text are the contributions by way of commentaries from six luminaries from the world of economics who serve to place the original paper in a broader context of the greater EMU debate.

The result is a well balanced, thoughtful and well-argued book which I am sure will generate much debate and discussion about economic and monetary union. In a typical cogent and lucid way with a breezy style I would highly recommend this book to students and policy-makers alike from both sides of the Atlantic.

Spider Spins a Story connects Native American tribes together with 14 various tales, all involving a spider. Preceding each legend is a brief history and description of the tribe associated with each story. Muskogee, Cheyenne, Kiowa, Hopi, Cherokee, Navajo, and Osage tribes, as well as others, are mentioned in the book.

Full of colorful, gorgeous illustrations by 6 Native American artists, the book is also endorsed by tribal authorities.
It appeals to both children and adults with its wonderful storytelling of Native American customs and lore. It is also a great reference to the past history and beliefs of Native American life.

The brilliant colors used in the illustrations are particularly appealing and remind the reader of fine Native American art. The Gilcrease Museum, located in Tulsa, Oklahoma, was an excellent choice for the detailed research needed to write this spectacular book. Spider Spins a Story is a perfect gift for all ages.

Sumner-Gearing Class Destroyers by Robert Sumrall

Try: www.batsford.co.uk/brassey/maritime [search] Title = Sumner Seems to still be available

NEW YOUR TIMES SUNDAY BOOK REVIEW JUNE 6, 1999

The new rush-to-the-stoves book is Parisian Home Cooking: Conversations, Recipes and Tips From the Cooks and Food Merchants of Paris......a collection of recipes lovingly and cannily collected from Parisians young and old-- a concierge, a hip friend and his mother, a fellow American in Paris, the butcher at the street market and many other garrulous vendors. Roberts, a longtime Los Angeles restaurant chef and (with Barbara Kafka) one of the country's few truly original thinkers about cooking, returned to Paris 20 years after receiving his culinary schooling there, armed with a student's enthusiasm, an anthropologist's curiosity, a born schmoozer's way of eliciting cooking secrets and a sensational sense of taste. He rediscovers techniques born of Parisian practicality in the face of minimal burners and unreliable ovens: duck cooked and defatted in a pressure cooker before being finished in the oven, chicken roasted in a closely covered casserole, steak seared in a cast-iron skillet over high heat. Techniques and recipes like this will make cooks who cut their teeth on Julia Child and then moved on to Italy fall in love with French cooking all over again.

Book and Author: "Parisian Home Cooking: Conversations, Recipes, and Tips from the Cooks and Food Merchants of Paris," by Michael Roberts. Roberts pioneered California cuisine at his Los Angeles restaurant, Trumps, and is the author of "Secret Ingredients," "Make-Ahead Gourmet" and "What's for Dinner." Details: William Morrow, $25; 352 pages, 175 recipes, black-and-white photographs of Parisian markets and habitues throughout.

Description: Roberts starts off with advice on how to shop Parisian style in your hometown (frequent small markets; develop relationships with purveyors), then launches into recipes for every course, which are appended with kitchen tips and trenchant tales of marketing and cooking in Paris. Assessment: During this vogue for all things Italian, Roberts clearly wants to rescue French food from its current reputation as fussy and outdated. He absolutely succeeds with this well-written collection of vigorous, straightforward recipes. The book also paints a vivid picture of Roberts' Parisian crowd, urbane professionals who happen to whip up fabulous meals in their tiny kitchens. -Erica Marcus .

...everything I make from this book is truly delicious and , may I add, nutritious. Parisian Home Cooking teaches us that the value of fresh and diverse ingredients, simply prepared is the core of true health; dishes that yearn to be enjoyed amoung friends and actually leave you energy to enjoy their company! I just love the woman who refuses to spend more than fifteen minutes at her stove yet serves up divine dinners; the butcher's timeless admonition that for the body to work it must have some fat - how avant; the tips that coax real flavor from simple foods - to "sweeten" the vinegar for the perfect vinaigrette by adding a splash of wine (just one tip of many). As the diet gurus duke it out for your dollars, look at the slim, healthy Parisians in the photographs, read what they eat at home, and you will toss out the crazed American diet fads with relief. This book will feed you. It's also a good read. Move over Dr. Ornish and Monsieur Pepin - the secret is out!