If only everyone in the fashion world were like A.L.T.! This book is interesting, well-written, and a great summer read. Mr. Talley is truly a gentleman who has class, dignity, and style. For anyone who reads Vogue and knows about StyleFax, this is a must!

The Devil Wears Prada will get more attention than A.L.T. which is too bad becuase this is the real thing. ALT's memories of NYC, and the world of fashion are just too good to pass up. In this book you have a facinating person talking about his life and his love for two equally amazing women, Diana Vreeland and his grandmother. Buy this one. It's a keeper.

i loved this book because a.l.t. made you feel everything he was going through and cared about so deeply. i could actually feel as though i was right there with him on his family's porch or dancing at a disco with him. i'm the same age as a.l.t. and went to alot of the same places as he did growing up in the city, so it was really exciting to have that nostalgia surface again. mostly, i just loved what a beautiful and caring person he is; so unaffected. it's true, because i attended a class at nyu and a.l.t. was the guest speaker. he was so charming and easy to listen to and not a snobby moment; just pure joy.

I just got my hands on this book and can't wait to get some rope and try knots and hitches. The drawings are great and it is easy to make sense of what many other books try to put into words. The drawings are skillfully done to illustrate exactly what is being taught. It says in the back of the book, that this manual was originally intended and used as a textbook for people taking packing classes. Therefore it was designed for practical learning. I'm sure once I finally get out into the woods, that this valuable reference book will be muddy, tattered, dog-eared, but well packed into my mules panniers! I HIGHLY recommend this book for anyone interested in packing, especially those just starting out!

I use "Packing in Pictures" as a text book for the horse packing course I teach at Casper College each year. It provides easy to follow drawings on each hitch, knot and procedure. My past students tell me that it a great brush up after not using the various hitches for some time. Best book out on the market!!

St. Francis is almost untouchable as a saint. His miracles, his link to the common person and his love of animals (all God's creatures) makes him a hugely popular and well-loved saint. This book allowed me to get beyond all the hype and other worldliness of St. Francis. It took me to his heart and let me feel what he felt as his spiritual journey evolved. His love for God and the world was huge.

I now know that St. Francis is most like us, the most human of all the saints. He lived beyond the average but he loved the simpleness and ugliness of life. This book does not ram religion down your throat and it does not put St. Francis on a pedestal that is unreachable. It puts his heart and mind in focus and attempts to give the reader a view of Francis as a friend might see him today.

Wonderfully rich and full of spirituality. You will feel closer to the saint no matter what other books you have read on his life.

The Simple Peace of St. Francis of Assisi is remarkable because it actually catches the heart of this incredible saint, his spiritual development, his formation from troubadour to holiness. I strongly suggest this book for anyone who enjoys books about spiritual transformation or St. Francis. You can actually feel St. Francis as his heart widens and grows into perfect joy!

By far the best surveying text available. It covers both basic concepts and more in-depth topics with equal clarity. This text is a must for surveying students, and practicing surveyors alike.

Good book and reference.Lots of examples and exercises with lilustrations and up to date theory. A great buy for the surveying student.

I always look forward to Davis's essays in 'The Atlantic.' He goes his own way and he's open to a lot of music that the neo-classical crowd shrugs off, such as John Zorn and Don Byron. His takes on musicians like Benny Carter and Art Pepper are unique and well thought out. More important, he's a great prose stylist. Sometimes I disagree with him, e.g., his opinions about hip-hop, but even then I find him pretty thought provoking. Check out his essay on Michael Jackson and Prince--Davis is a sharp observer of pop music, too. I wish they'd bring the rest of his books back in print.

It' was a wonderful, wonderful world. I like very much Mrs. Joan Wulff. She was a master of fly casting and has been deepened by meet Lee Wulf. In this book, she is talking about everything of fly casting, so easily for novice with perfect theories. I specially impressed at section for handicapped person. I have never seen like that in any casting books. It was little short, but enough to make her thoughtfull person. It is small disappointment that there are few real photos, but so many illustrations cover it. I think, it would be better to buy a Joan's casting video tape with this book.

Having read and loved Kael's work for years, it was a pleasure to see a final publication of her thoughts published a year after her death. While I enjoyed reading her thoughts on the state of contemporary films - including a few final digs at Kubrick (cf. Eyes Wide Shut: "I thought it was preposterous from the start") - I often wanted more of her and less of Francis Davis' at times lengthy interjections. Moreover, at ... list, its almost as [costly] as her compendium "5001 Nights at the Movies" and would only probably take up about 30 pages in a normal magazine (the book's dimensions are rather small and the typeface a bit large - indicating a layout editor's struggle to get this to a publishable length).

This little book is well worth the read. Pauline Kael is not someone you feel lightly about - you either love her or hate her (there's a website called die-critics-die that gets my blood boiling...). I adore Kael; she is quite simply my favourite writer, and the wonder of her interviews (there's another book containing a whole pile) is that she wrote how she spoke, so a conversation with her is like discovering a new review. Sure enough you get to find out which recent movies she likes ("Three Kings"), but the book is intellectual and moving as well. Few writers ever fused analytic thought with passion the way Kael managed - reading her made you more fully human, made you expand.

This book, slight as it is, gives fresh insight into her writing methods, her tastes, and her wit. It's not as flowing as it might be; Davis's questions seem sometimes to be deliberately elaborate for the unknowing reader (like the explanation about Richard Stark). This is a problem because the fun of Kael is a sharp and fast mind, so a conversation should be a break-neck brain tease among other things. Still, Davis's introduction is wonderful, and he's a fine writer (one I'll look up now I know about him). If you're a Kael fan, read this soon. If you don't know who she is, she's the most important commentator on the popular arts there's been. And she's great, great fun.

Afterglow: A Last Conversation With Pauline Kael by Francis Davis (Contributing Editor of Atlantic Monthly magazine) is an absorbingly written memory of the wit, wisdom, and wonder of a truly great actress, and the memorable chat she had with author Francis Davis shortly before her unfortunate death. Written in question-and-answer format, Afterglow preserves this remarkable woman's keen insights on movies, television, literature and much, much more in her own words.

A strong theme throughout this book is that our knowledge of blues history has been tainted by popularization and hastily drawn conclusions that have been repeated but never challenged. The author sets about telling the history of the blues by examining the "known" information within the historical context of other social events, and critically examines the conclusions that can be drawn. If you don't like hearing that there is no Santa Claus then you may be happier with another book. Since the author is examining blues history within the broader context of social history, it reads like a textbook, and is not a light and easy read. Here, again, some readers may prefer a book with more pictures. Personally, I bought a second copy to give to my brother-in-law for Christmas (he doesn't believe in Santa either).

History of the Blues is criticized for the author's "cynicism," but the author is justified in seeking to modify or correct much of the last century's "blues scholarship." The book is more valuable because Davis doesn't accept the suppositions and theories of earlier writers, and in the first chapters the author establishes that "the blues" are far more complex, socially and musically, than we've been led to believe. He writes with wit and plenty of feeling - but the feeling expressed is one of annoyance with blues and folk "scholars" who have either not researched very thoroughly, or who have deliberately ignored facts that subvert their simplistic theories. What are the blues? Where did they come from? What's happened to the blues since mid-century? Davis examines all of these questions and comes up with some reasonable and provocative answers. The book isn't meant to be a study of individual blues musicians; such works have already been written (by Samuel Charters, Peter Guralnick, Pete Oliver) and they were well-done. The History of the Blues is a very readable account of a century of confusion, best approached with an open and attentive mind.

Finally, an "historian" who doesn't pretend to be an objective, impartial documenter of facts. This is Davis' version of the blues, and he lets you know it. Thankfully, he has the skill of a consummate wordsmith, an encyclopedic knowledge of the subject matter and a fan's love and appreciation for the music. This reads like a conversation with an old, knowledgeable friend and I, for one, find that refreshing. Definitely worth the time for anyone who's interested in something more than simple facts, dates and names

Loaded with case studies and statistics.
Little or no practical applications.