I own a massive library of books on every imaginable collecting subject and none has given me more joy than "Chasing Rainbows". Barry Friedman has intertwined his vast knowledge of Indian blankets, American history, the antiques business and garnished the result with a unique sense of humor and breathtaking photos to create a book that is an absolute gem. This is a great book from a very gifted man.

It's time a female voice chimed in on this amazing book. There is almost no point comparing previous works on Indian blankets with Barry Friedman's "Chasing Rainbows: Collecting American Indian Trade & Camp Blankets" because there is no comparison. This book trumps the competition on every level. If anything, it's almost too beautiful for its own good. The pictures of the blankets are so dazzling that I fear people will just see it as a colorful adornment for a coffee table and neglect to read the text.

That would be a tragedy, because I wholeheartedly agree with the Amazon reviewer from San Francisco who proclaimed this the best book he has ever read on any collectible subject. I have NEVER read a book on antiques or collectibles written by an author with Friedman's combination of knowledge, enthusiasm and remarkable comic sensibility.

This is not to say he doesn't take his subject seriously. It's doubtful anyone takes it more seriously. The previous books on the subject read like Cliff's Notes compared to Friedman's penetrating portrait. So while I repeat that there is no comparison with earlier stabs at this topic, the differences must be mentioned to understand why this book is the new gold standard.

Robert W. Kapoun's worthy "Language Of The Robe: American Indian Trade Blankets" came out in 1992 and has been the reference in the field until now, but in the wake of Friedman's effort it is offically dethroned. Virtually all of the blankets Kapoun listed as manufacturer unknown in his book are conclusively identified here and Friedman offers histories of blanket manufacturers Kapoun doesn't even know existed.

The Kapoun blanket collection obviously was acquired by the glass artist Dale Chihuly and the result was the book "Chihuly's Pendletons". Chihuly also acquired Charles Lohrman, the writer that co-authored Kapoun's book. Chihuly's unfortunate introduction reveals he knows less than nothing about Indian blankets and Lohrman takes over from there with a rehash of the Kapoun text that is so abbreviated you'd think it was commissioned by Reader's Digest. The book consists of photos of 60 or so blankets (some misidentified and most already seen in Kapoun, but photographed much more beautifully by Chihuly) along with some exceptional historic photos of Native Americans wearing trade blankets. This is followed, inevitably, by a section that is the real reason for this book: a cavalcade of Chihuly glass vessels called Blanket Cylinders which the glassmeister states were inspired by the blankets. Chihuly may well have a genuine passion for the blankets, but he is overreaching here. Assuredly, glass photos are no doubt lusted after by his legions of fans, but their presence here makes the blankets appear to be nothing more than colorful excuses for yet another Chihuly glass book. While Chihuly may clearly see the historic link between his glass and Indian blankets, blanket collectors will find his book a self-serving contrivance.

Neither Chihuly or Kapoun bother with cotton Indian style blankets, but the subject is handled amiably in Jerry and Kathy Brownstein's "Beacon Blankets Make Warm Friends", a study of the leading maker of cotton camp blankets. Many vintage Beacon blanket catalogs are reproduced in their entirety (although in pictures so small that magnification is definitely recommended). Some attractive Beacon blankets are shown, but picture quality is fair at best. The Brownsteins know their subject, but they also attempt to be a price guide and their prices are often ridiculously low.

So that's the competition and brings me full circle to our Mr. Friedman, who is the real deal as both as a blanket expert and a writer. One senses he would be compelling writing about any subject. His is a unique voice that can be completely serious one moment and then instantly launch into inspired silliness a la Bill Murray the next. He mentions in his Author's Note that he is a professional comedy writer by trade and obviously his humor even extends to his book jacket photo. He states he's been immersed in the Indian blanket hunt for more than thirty years, but he appears to be 25 in his photo. Vanity may well be an issue here. Whatever his age, I don't think he will outlast the shelf life of this book. Young or old, Barry Friedman has produced a classic.

The long-rumored book by the rather legendary authority on Indian blankets is finally a reality and the result is one of the great surprises of my reading life.I was expecting superb photos of spectacular blankets.I was expecting the hard data collectors love - label information and the like.These things the author serves up in spectacular helpings and blows the previous books on the subject completely out of the water.
What I was NOT expecting was masterful storytelling and towering wit. A relatively dry subject in ordinary hands becomes a riveting and often hilarious joyride here.Friedman's take on the antiques business and wickedly clever asides are worthy of Dave Barry on DB's very best day.Moreover, his grasp of history is sure and thought-provoking.It isn't necessary to be a blanket collector to love this book.It's the author you'll come to love and he will make you love and understand these beautiful blankets.THIS is the book I'll be buying for friends this year!!

There is lots to love about this book: its tiny size, the quality printing and illustrations, and the first-rate outdoor living information throughout. It uses color especially well in the plant and insect identification section. It's loaded with improvisational survival tips. For example, I palm sap from young stalks is an easy source of essential water and sugar; a baited cloth bag can catch eels unattended overnight. One nit: the tome lacks an index, and given it's 380 pages, one is definitely needed. Still, I give it five stars and consider this book essential for any outdoors person.

I just bought this book the other day and it is amazing. It gives you the facts you need for survival. If I get caught in a situation from the book and I don't know what to do, I will be suprized.

This book has to be the best survival guide available aside from the original full-size version, both of which I own and find invaluable. Lofty Wiseman answers all survival questions clearly and thoroughly in this guide, and due to it's compact size (about the same dimentions as my wallet), it has earned a place in my knapsack/ backpack/ carry-on bag anytime I travel. Aside from a knife and matches, this is THE MOST ESSENTIAL piece of survival gear one can own. Highly Recommended!

Susan Collins has become a bedtime friend. This doesn't just feel like I'm reading a book, it feels like I know her. I look forward to spending time with her each night. She makes me feel her successes can also be mine.

The day this book arrived I read 6 chapters in 3 hours! This is a very inspirational book about leadership and success and is not just about your children. It would apply to anyone, any age, stay-at-home mom to CEO. I especially liked her personal stories, I felt like she was writing about me. I am living my dream and have never lost sight of my goals. After reading her book I feel like I have been more of a success than I had thought previously. This is a must read book for anyone. M. Craig - Successfull Internet Entrepreneur

Dear Susan, my husband is a busy physician who never has time to read anything but medical journals. Every night he brings home a briefcase full of paperwork. Typically when I read aloud to him from an interesting book, he listens politely for two mintues and then goes back to his work. I began reading aloud to him about your dream house. After a page or two, I asked, "Isn't this interesting?" He siad, "Yes, please keep reading." And he listened while I read twenty more pages. This is a first in our relationship!"

This book reads as a gripping fiction story rather than a history book. The setting is WWII Paris just before and during the Allied liberation of the city. The authors follow the activities of dozens of characters who played a role in the liberation. I got very engaged with the characters as well as the plot. Excellent book.

I bought this book, started reading it on the way home from the store, and finished it all in the same day. The author's style of writing is eminently readable. The book introduces you to many of the people involved in saving Paris, makes you love some and loathe others and keeps your attention glued to the end.

The book is based on interviews with as many of the key players in the liberation of Paris as possible, including the German commander of the city. The facts are laid out clearly, and the differing points of view are based on the actual opinions of the people involved, unlike some histories which seem to attempt telepathy.

The only (minor) problem I had with this book was a lack of footnotes, although there is a good bibliography some explanation in the text of where some of their information comes from. I could have used a bit more support for some of it, but on the whole I was pleased with and enjoyed the book.

If Hitler had his way, there would be no Notre Dame, none of Paris' beautiful bridges, no Eiffel Tower. The Allies didn't stop him, a brave German general did. At a tremendous personal risk, he resolved not to be the man to destroy the most beautiful city in the world.

The story is told with the in-your-face realism of two journalists. Yet it's full of humor and even downright silliness. Would-be soldier Enrnest Hemingway captured a German soldier and relieved him of his pants. Why? He figured no man would escape half-naked. He was right.

This isn't about troop movements, it's about real people risking their lives (and those of their families) to liberate Paris. After all, Eisenhower didn't think he had enough fuel or time to fight a mini-war for Paris. He desperately needed to push east to Germany.

So how did it all happen? Read the book, in Paris if you can, but whever you can find a good lamp. Is Paris Burning? will keep you up late at night.

I bought this Collins Unabridged German dictionary in order to fulfill my need for a complete desk German dictionary with a lot of new words as compared to the medium-sized ones I already have, more appropriate for couch or sofa reading.

As a matter of fact, the Collins Unabridged is a very good dictionary but doesn't go the extra mile for ALL the words I was looking for and which are found in contemporary books and magazines. This may be explained by the characteristical feature of the german language which allows us to construct composite words from basic words, thus making a kind of word competition to see the largest german word avaiable (the greatest I have read is 34 letters long).

But, in fact, the medium-sized ones from Langenscheidt (German/english), with some 120.000 entries and the one from Editora Porto (portuguese/german), with 60.000 entries, that I have cover some 99% of the words found at Collins, both in entries as in content. The 1% left which is found in Collins is for me justifiable enough for having bought the Collins Unabridged dictionary, but I don't know if anybody would feel the same as I do, given the fact that I love to study words and its minimal variations.
Also, some more explanations on the meaning of the words would be helpfull, but, in all, is a pretty good dictionary.

I bought this book because of all the wonderful reviews on Amazon. I had a smaller German dictationary but as I am reaching the advanced stage of German, I want an unabridged dictationary. This one is great because it has a large reference in the back of all the changes of the Rechtschreibreform. So many words are now spelled differently, and one can simply look in the back to see if a particular word is different. There's just so much information in this dictationary that it's well worth the money, and the price on Amazon.com can't be beat. This dictionary is completely bilingual and can be purchased by a German speaker wishing to use it for English as well.

For any serious German/English language learner. It's the best.

Mine has a different cover... and mine looks even better... I live in Hong Kong and learn German as a third langauge in the university. I've bought a pocket Langenscheidt and this Collins. Wow, it's collosal and it has everything you want to have. Very clear and detailed, with millions of examples of word use. One must thank his stars to have found this valuable reference.
For me, the example phrases are very important because for two words, one in German and one in English, even if they have one or two definitions in common, they have some definitions that is not copied in the each other, so there are no straight translations. The same word in English can be differnt words in German when we are using different definitions of the English word, and vice versa. That's why the phrases are so useful. This dictionary has the most numerous such practical usage examples, and really, it beats the Duden.
The Oxford Duden lacks pronunciation symbols for its entries and has few usage forms for each word as guidance to usage.
That's why I bought Langenscheidt and Collins but not the Duden. By the way, I didn't buy them from Amazon.

This book is a great miniature lexicon for those who need a quick and physically handy reference for Latin. It goes beyond the "basics" and is adequate for more advanced perusal. However, the book _is_ printed on a type of "pulp paper" and its pages are merely "glued in" (so-call "perfect binding").

All things considered, for the money, it is a bargain and you can't go wrong.

Such a wealth of information in such a portable size. It's very nice to see that this 2nd edition has corrections of some minor errors from the 1st (I still have that one, bought for Latin class a few decades ago), such as a "habemamini" in the conjugation tables now being the correct "habebamini", and the gender of the noun "mare" now given correctly. But they still don't show the long vowels in the tables for the perfect subjunctive active, which would have been handy for distinguishing some of those from the corresponding future-perfect indicative active forms. Anyhow, the main thing is the very well-chosen entry words, many with typical idiomatic phrases included. This little dictionary is a *great* value.

The COLLINS GEM LATIN DICTIONARY by Professor Kidd remains a treasure for students of many stripes and disciplines. Language, law, Theology, History, philosophy, literature and even contemporary journalism benefit from "conversational" access to this most living and vibrant of "dead languages". The "tiny" COLLINS opus is genuinely MAGNUS in providing authoritative access in the well-known "pocket-book" format of about 675 pp. Besides dual translation of Latin-English; English-Latin; there are grammatical review features on Noun declensions, and Verb conjugation. There is a brief but informative foreword describing Classical sources of respective entries with proper caveat concerning "modern" translations from English into Latin.

This is a wonderful book for serious students and academics who,lacking Classical scholarship,need...or would enjoy..."user friendly place" to seek dependable Latin translations and sense of proper usage.THE COLLINS LATIN GEM DICTIONARY has been recognized as authentic gem since its first publication in 1957. It set the precedent as a linguistic milestone to rival any Once-or-Future Latin tome or trot. STARE DECISIS: Let this precedent stand...

The poetry of Tonya Marie Evans, collected in Seasons of Her, reflects the complexities of a woman who came of age in the 1990's. Sensual, spiritual, thoughtful, the work explores many of the "selves" that a woman encompasses. Tonya Marie is ferociously honest and fearlessly frank in her discussions -- the reader feels as though they have looked at the author's soul -- and found it is not so different from her own.

In reading Seasons of Her (as well as seeing the Diva perform LIVE in Atlanta), Tonya Marie Evans' ability to touch my inner spirit through her God given GIFT eased many of my fears and doubts about my own gifts as a WOMAN and as a writer. Tonya relates to the woman, striver, achiever, nurturer and lover in all of us.

Although a complex species... (WOMAN) Tonya simplifies it all by proving through emotional and reverrant poety, that love of self, finding that place within YOU and creating that 'space' of love, peace and creativity in this world is what we are meant and were created to do.

Whether I wanted to Find My Own Shine or not, the fire that her poetry starts within, and her ability to paint pictures of her soul as well as the readers, will illuminate a light so brightly that even YOU won't be able to stop or stand it!!!

BUY this book, read it... and FIND YOUR OWN SHINE!

Seasons of Her deals with topics ranging from AIDS in the African-American community to love relationships (good and bad) in an intelligent, and most importantly, "real" and heartfelt manner. Any woman who reads Ms. Evans' poetry will know exactly what the author was feeling at the moment she birthed these exquisite lines of verse. And to think....this only the beginning.... =0)

A friend bought this book (which comes with a CD) last Christmas for my daughters (then 2 1/2 yrs and 1 yr). They absolutely love this book! They both sing along to this catchy and humorous version of the 12 Days of Christmas and laugh every time at the surprise ending. I recommend this book highly and am purchasing it for gifts this year. Warning: Be prepared to read it throughout the year! This makes an enjoyable gift for dog lovers of any age!

When I passed by this book on display at the store I thought, how cute, so I bought it for my mom who is an absolute dog lover. We listened to the CD before we were going to ship it to her. Well my 3 kids and I were roaring with laughter, and we liked it so much that we are keeping her copy. So here I am at amazon to buy her another book and 2-day it to her so she won't have to wait to start enjoying it. The book is well done and the song is upbeat and easy to enjoy. There is nothing nicer to the ear then kids singing. You won't be disappointed with this book even if you don't like dogs.

I bought this book yesterday, thinking my daughters would like the doggie pictures. My 2-year old concentrated very hard while I was reading/singing, and after the second time through, grabbed the book and began trying to sing it to her little sister! The pictures and illustrations are funny and the song is fun to sing. I highly recommend it for this holiday season!

Cemetery Dance has become THE leading publisher of horror fiction. They put out great books by famed horror authors, but also a great magazine of short stories and articles from the leaders of the horror field. This collection of short stories reunites some of the best stories to have been featured in the Cemetery Dance magazine. And although the second tome is a little less interesting than the first one (which held 2 AMAZING Jack Ketchum stories, a good Stephen King yarn and one of the most amazing stories I've read in years by author Gary Raiser), The Best Of Cemetery Dance Volume 2 still offers some great, chilling and, at times, disturbing stories.

This tome is more concerned with detective stories/ serial killer stories. Plainclothes and The Pattern are two of the best. One of the most interesting stories in this volume is Barry Hoffman's Trial By Fire, a twisted tale of revenge. Matthew Costello's Vacation is one of the most terrifying and twisted tale I've read in a long time. And Dick Laymon's Desert Pickup is a good little story with a neat twist.

But I was disappointed that the story by Poppy Z. Brite is only the prologue to her novel Lost Souls. And Melanie Tem's contribution is very disappointing - she is able to do much better than this.

Overall, this is a great book that any horror fan should get. I am a devoted fan of Cemetery Dance and this book only reminds me of why.

Reviewer: ripperboy from San Francisco, CA USA This is it, gang. BEST OF CEMETERY DANCE, when printed in hardcover, was the best anthology ever of short horror fiction, even outdoing DARK FORCES, DARK DESCENT, and even BEST OF WHISPERS and BEST OF SHADOWS. It's got everyone under the sun in horror. Unfortunately, it was such a big book that they had to split it into two volumes in paperback, of which this is the first. No matter -- both halves are absolutely essential, and nearly every story here is a winner. Reading this anthology is the best way to introduce yourself to the dozens of horror authors out there whom you're not currently reading.

This is it, gang. BEST OF CEMETERY DANCE, when printed in hardcover, was the best anthology ever of short horror fiction, even outdoing DARK FORCES, DARK DESCENT, and even BEST OF WHISPERS and BEST OF SHADOWS. It's got everyone under the sun in horror. Unfortunately, it was such a big book that they had to split it into two volumes in paperback, of which this is the first. No matter -- both halves are absolutely essential, and nearly every story here is a winner. Reading this anthology is the best way to introduce yourself to the dozens of horror authors out there whom you're not currently reading.

Of the many books writen in the 19th, 20th and early 21st century, this book has to be one of the most completely reasearched and comprehensive accounts of history and theoritical history.

Forget about its research on the theory of Atlantis in which it provides the most comprehensive of historical associations and threads on world legends that allude to the reality of Atlantis. Andrew Collins goes way beyond defining a gateway to Atlantis by showing ancient history through many real historical accounts, including the Bible and other religious documents, and linking both real documented facts with many legends from around the entire world.

If you ever wanted to better understand who so many past races and peoples were, how they thought and lived and how we all appear to be linked together from a unified source, read this book.

The ever elusive Atlantis has never failed to arrest the imagination of many throughout the ages. In this latest and impressively researched work, Andrew Collins traverses the evidence available in order to unravel the 3 prime mysteries - whether Atlantis indeed once existed, its probable location in the modern world, and how it all came to an end.

Starting with Plato's Timaeus and Critias, Collins ploughs through a formidable mass of ancient and not-too-ancient literature to garner evidence about the lost land and its probable topography. He then applies the result with meticulous care (and with much erudite discussion in the process) to all the prime contenders for the location of Atlantis to determine which in fact is the most likely candidate for the legendary realm. He then seeks to corroborate the findings with legends from both sides of the Atlantic (in particular those from central America) as well as other more scientifically verifiable facts, such as information gleaned from ancient relics, the presence of tabacco in Egyptian mummies and some distinctive method for dyeing cotton. Having established the location of the lost Atlantis, the author completes his theory by examining the sort of catastrophe that brought about the end of the advanced civilisation there as well as the possible fate of those who managed to escape from it.

What makes this highly readable book doubly commendable is that the author has at all times followed the available evidence instead of making wild guesses and unsubstantiated propositions in order to advance his theories. Such a scholarly approach has made the discourse much more convincing than many other books written about lost civilisations. And if Collins's conclusions are not absolutely compelling, they nevertheless are very well argued and presented and warrant serious consideration by ancient historians. Besides, all those materials amassed by Collins for the book are already by themselves of great value to those interested in the subject. David Rohl's Introduction is also very illuminating and provides enlightening remarks about the methodology used by many alternative historians. A most enjoyable work on a fascinating subject. Highly recommended!

There's no doubt to me that this is THE book about the many theories and explorations concerning Atlantis. If Atlantis did exist, the author's conclusion about its location sounds more reasonable than the other theories. If Atlantis did not exist, this book is more than worthwhile as a look into ancient history, a study about ancient trade routes, the fascinating premise that ancient Europe and Africa knew about the American continents, and the most complete coverage of the main Atlantis theories of any book I've seen. This book is extremely well researched and written. It should be part of the library of anyone interested in ancient history as well as anyone interested in Atlantis. It's a Landmark book on its subject.