I found Tom Mangelsen's gallery in Jackson a few months ago, and while I was there, I had a chance to see many of his just downright stunning images.

As an aspiring wildlife photographer, I truly appreciate the superb work of Tom Mangelsen. Also, while in his gallery, I had the chance to talk to as well as meet Mr. Mangelsen himself.

This book is just simply stunning. I cannot think of any other description. The many different images of the polar bear in its natural environment has to be seen to be appreciated.

What I like the most about this book over so many other "nature" books is that we get to see the many facets of the polar bears life, from the tender side with a mother and her babies, to the savage nature of these beautiful animals...not just some glossy expose that says nothing.

I would encourage anyone who loves nature photography, whether you are a "couch" photographer/explorer or are planning on a career in wildlife photography.

Heartily recommended!!!!

I discovered the work of Thomas Mangelson about ten years ago in Jackson, Wyoming, when I stumbled across a gallery devoted to his work. The most famous image there, the one of two grown polar bears "dancing," is on the cover of this book.

The book encapsulates all the artistry of this outstanding photographer. As difficult as it is to capture wildlife images, it's doubly so when you are photographing white animals against snow! Mangelson spends some four months a year in the Arctic, enlarging his huge repertoire of images. I can't begin to imagine the patience and meticulous attention to detail that is required to gather these pictures, but I'm glad Mangelson can!

I love the fact that this book shows the chronological sequence in the life of a bear family, and also that it doesn't have captions on each page. That allows you to follow the sequence of images undisturbed by human intrusion - you become a part of the life cycle, so to speak. Mangelson's work enables the viewer to see the bears as a complex family unit in addition to their usual portrayal as hardy predators. It cannot fail to move the viewer; this is a book to savor again and again.

I'm a huge fan of just about every image this photographer has ever published, and this book is, to me, the culmination of his work. I recommend it to everyone, bear fan or not!

This is an essential book for polar bear and nature photography lovers alike. There are over 250 photos of polar bears, and arctic wildlife captured in the beautiful frozen world they live in.

I found the photography truly captivating. The adorable bears are shown splashing in the water, dancing, taking afternoon naps & wandering through the snow. There is even one of the mother making friends with a sled dog.

I was deeply touched by the many images of the cubs snuggling close to their mother. I found the other wildlife photos featuring many foxes and birds equally impressive. The captions for all the images are in the back of the book.

Along with the pictures, there is a wonderful story of a year in the life of a mother polar bear & her 2 cubs. The author switches pleasingly between factual accounts of the arctic world, folklore, & the personal story of the bear family.

If you have to choose just one book each year to give you as much information about the coming year in baseball: who the players are, who all the teams' prospects are, what they all did last year and a forecast of what they will do this year -- then this is THE book you should buy. Featuring analysis from some of the leading writers and analysts in the game this book has it all including situational stats and diagrams showing batter/hitter tendancies. Whether you are a ROTO-nerd, a Fantasy junkie, or (and I know there are some of you out there) a genuine baseball fan, you WILL love this book. It has it all!

For anyone out there who loves hard core baseball this book is for you. Every player from every team has a biography and a scouting report. If you did not know him before the season you will definately know him by spring training. This is a must for baseball fans.

The Scouting Notebook is an excellent book and a must-have for each new year for the true baseball fan. This book contains in-depth analysis of all regular major league players and many top prospects. It can give the reader an idea of what to expect based on past tendencies. A wonderful book!

This book pulled me in the moment I opened it. It is incredibly easy to read and is a very good introductory guide to Traditional Chinese Medicine. I would recommend it to anyone who is curious about TCM but does not want to read large books on the topic. This book is written without lots jargon or unnecessary details. It is easy to follow and understand.
Read it, you won't regret it, especially if you are a beginner such as myself.

This book is a little gem. It sets out the basis of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), the theoretical framework and types of treatment (acupuncture, acupressure, moxibustion, cupping, herbal medicine and Qi gong) in an amazingly easy to understand way. It also includes additional information on the history of TCM, accreditation in the US, and safety aspects. If you want to get to grips with what TCM is all about, but don't want to be bogged down with a tome, this is the book for you.

Voices of Qi is a pleasant way to obtain a great deal of TCM information in a short amount of time. Mr. Holland has the skills and talent to present some very new ways of thinking in some very familiar ways of thought. The book bridges the Eastern concepts with the Western mindset and does so with ease. With the rise in public and private interest of acupuncture this book should be read by all. It is one of those books that makes one say, "I wish I could write like that". Also, the book has very beautiful illustrations and design from cover to cover. I highly recommend and suggest this book for everyone, from M.D.s to massage students.

We used this book in a college class I took called "Book Art". This book is written in a straightforward manner with clear and simple illustrations where needed.

Among its explanation of book binding techniques, it covers specific stitching, and has directions for making archival paste (wheat paste).

The benefit of two expert authors is that whenever they differ in techniques, they describe both and you can choose a method to fit your style.

True to the synopsis of this book, it gives full instructions in how to perform bookbinding without any special tools. This book, in spite of avoiding custom tools, gives the best treatment I have seen on techniques for leather binding. It also goes into quite a bit of depth on sewing, knocking down the spine (for rounded spines, folks), repairing old books, hinging techniques, etc. In fact, this is one of my favorite books on bookbinding and I refer to it frequently. Definitely a must have on any serious bookbinder's library shelf.

This is the one book that all people interested in bookbinding should read. Other books are more colorful and flashy, but Kevin Smiths' Bookbinding for Book Artists is the best book on the fundamentals of bookbinding on the market today. The book is clear, concise, challenging, and creative. A beginner can understand and implement every project described, and Mr. Smith shows you how to make and, as important, how to THINK about making books simply, artfully, and beautifully.

When I was first introduced to The Urantia Book a number of years ago, I was encouraged to look beyond the obstacle of authorship and judge the validity of it's message on it's content. The idea that the truth would "ring true" deep within my being was often expressed. I took this advice to heart, and as I immersed myself in it's pages, I was rewarded by a whole choir of bells ringing true within me. It pains me to think how many people out there are depriving themselves of this amazing message just because they can't deal with the possibility that the papers were authored by "superhuman beings". It really doesn't matter who wrote the papers at all, what matters is the message. I, for example, am writing this review. Very few people who read this actually know me, so the majority of you will have to ponder what I have written and take from it what you will. Why should any other message be any different?

That many people will choose not to read The Center Within because of the source of it's teachings pains me as well. Many of the same Urantians who will encourage those reading The Urantia Book to look at the message and not judge the book by it's authorship will do exactly the opposite to this book. And as with The Urantia Book, those who choose to ignore this book are depriving themselves of a beautiful, uplifting, and even practical message. I would encourage everyone, Urantian or not, to open themselves to this message. I know that you will not be dissappointed.

This is a wonderful addition to the Urantia Book. It gets down to the nitty-gritty of some of the teachings and adds practical advice to each of those teachings. You may not agree with all of its advice or with all of its explanations of the teachings, however, you will agree that it is a must have for anyone on a spiritual journey.

The Urantia Book is one of the most inspiring books in print today. It's teachings are timeless and life giving. The Center Within takes a look at these teachings and brings them to the practical level of experience. From meditation (stillness) to social interaction, The Center Within is complete and full of loving insight!

I had to post a review before I even read it, I just looked over the first chapter descriptions, read the back cover, and have to tell you I am shaking, over a period of many years of intensive reading, i know this book is the last one I need to read......it ties all of the pieces together, "know thyself", this book is soaked in TRUTH and LOVE, or should I say TRUTH IS LOVE!

I've loved every one of the Alex Reynolds mysteries, not least because I grew up in Chicago and can relate to all of the scenery (it seems to me that "Charlene's" is actually Carol's Speakeasy, which did have big neon lips on the walls and has been long, long gone - too bad for that). Get off the boat, Publisher's Weekly - I'm going to be the fourth Amazon reader to give this book a good review. I did have to wonder, though, what the author thought on September 11. There's a reference to the World Trade Center in the book - a "World Trade Center amount of explosives". There's a great deal that reads differently now, after 9/11, than it would have before then. But that just makes the author prescient, albeit tragically so. "Chicken Asylum" is the first of the mysteries that doesn't use a letter play in its title - ..."National Nancys", etc., but it's none the less wonderful for it. I'm glad to join Amazon's No. 1 reviewer, Harriet, in recommending this book - and if you haven't read the other ones, they're all available here!

I think Publisher's Weekly must've written that review on Sept. 12. The book is not perfect, but it's a very enjoyable read and a worthy addition to the series. I won't bother repeating the summary, since all the other reviews cover the plot, but the book's timing is uncanny. I highly recommend it.

Once again, author Fred Hunter delivers the laughs and more with his new Alex Reynolds mystery. In this one, Alex, his love Peter, and his irrepressible mother Jean are asked to take in a defecting Iraqi soldier. Little do they know, not only is the soldier merely 18 years old, he's also gay and entranced by his new country.

But there are several wrinkles -- unbeknownst to the family, their new charge, James, is suspected of having connections to a terrorist group called the Red Jihad, and the CIA's real aim in bringing him to the states is to flush out the terrorists--and Alex and company take it upon themselves to discover the truth about the young man.

Though this book is more serious in tone than the other Alex adventures, there are still plenty of laughs -- and the story is probably a bit more timely than even Hunter expected it to be. And that's one of the things that makes this effort so important. It manages to put a face on a people that many of us now see as the enemy, and that face is more human than anyone expected (including me). A truly wonderful book.

Fred Rezazadeh's Collectible Silver Jewelry provides excellent-quality color photos of selected pieces and sets, with introductory sections covering major silver jewelry marks and makers and later sections outlining identification feature and price.

Mr. Rezazadeh "strikes gold" AGAIN with yet another sumptuous book about jewelry. His latest is replete with comprehensive, instructive text and a wide array of detailed photographs of silver jewelry items from virtually every decade in the 20th Century, including the many countries in which silver jewelry is hand-wrought or manufactured. I purchased this book about a month ago, and have yet to read about the many manufacturers and techniques which Mr. Rezazadeh has included. This book is WELL worth the price. Every true SILVER jewelry afficionado will add this "gem" to his/her collection with sheer delight!

Fred Rezazadeh must be an authority on the subject & the book shows it. Notions are simple and clear, treatment of the subject matter is balanced and professional, and it is all well documented. With the exception of a few, the color pictures-- & there are 100's of them-- are appropiately dimensioned & are of high quality. This book is a must for silver jewlery collectors & those who may have any interest in the subject matter.

Review: REX, by Fred Yager

REX is the story of a boy, his dinosaur, and their efforts to outwit an evil paleontologist bent upon selling Rex (the dinosaur) to a collector of rare animals. In the middle of this action is the underlying mystery of what really happened to Davy's parents (also paleontologists) on the slopes of Mt. Kilimanjaro.

REX is Fred Yager's first young adult novel, and is really more of an adventure than a mystery. It's fast-paced and enjoyable - I laughed out loud several times while reading it. Once the reader has accepted the premise of a dinosaur living in New York (this is not very difficult) and the theory that dinosaurs were smarter than I was raised to believe (a LOT smarter, in fact), this story will move you right along.

Mr. Yager is a screenwriter, and that is sometimes evident in his writing. There are a few passages, especially when Rex the dinosaur first appears, that don't so much create a mental picture for the reader as attempt to describe what's going on, in a way that doesn't really help you see it. However, other parts, like Davy's wrestling matches between WWF action figures and dinosaur figures, work extremely well. My favourite part involvs the villain, a rogue paleontologist known mostly as "the Professor," who interrupts his pursuit of Davy and Rex to correct factual errors in an exhibit of mechanical dinosaurs.

Underlying the adventurous fun of the story, which naturally escalates as Rex gets bigger and harder to hide (it's no picnic trying to keep your grandmother from finding out about the Tyrannosaurus in your bedroom), is Davy's conviction that his missing parents are alive somewhere and trying to get home. That longing is loosely tied to the story of another character, Gretchen, whose family life is also pretty lonely. Eventually, of course, the various threads of the story are drawn together in a compelling conclusion, in which All Is Revealed. Good triumphs and evil is punished in a satisfactory fashion.

REX would probably be best introduced as a read-aloud. A good dramatic reader could act as an intermediary in the places where the story reads like a screenplay instead of a novel. And young readers will certainly want to illustrate their favourite parts. The discussion of dinosaur family life alone should make for lively sessions in classrooms and living rooms. I am looking forward to the next novel by Mr.Yager.

A sudden earthquake sends paleontologists into a crack in the earth, leaving the scientific community and loved ones to presume their death. Their eleven-year-old son Davy is staying with his grandmother when he receives the unwelcome news. But without proof, Davy refuses to believe his parents are dead. Then his parent's personal effects arrive, including an unexpected surprise.

Author Fred Yager pens an exciting adventure young readers will revel in REX: A NOVEL. This dinosaur in New York achieves a comedic success even as Rex and Davy outrun evil scientists in a quest for survival. The dinosaur is surprisingly intelligent and loyal, giving him a unique characterization among young adult fiction. A fast paced read filled with friendship and danger, excitement and surprises, REX comes very highly recommended.

Rex: A Novel by Fred Yager is an exciting adventure for young readers about a unique friendship and childhood bonding experience between a young boy named Davy, and Rex - a creature that has been long thought extinct on our world. A charming and heartwarming story, that belies a lifelong love of dinosaurs, Rex is a true joy to read and a welcome addition to family, school, and community library collections. Rex is also available in a trade paperback format...

This is my very favorite book, and I have been reading it about once a year for the past 15 years or so. I still laugh out loud at every reading. The very complex plot deals with Pongo Twistleton and his Uncle Fred, who visit Blandings Castle as imposters (Sir Roderick Glossip and his secretary, to be exact) in an effort to prevent the Duke of Dunstable from stealing the Empress of Blandings, Lord Emsworth's prize pig, and to keep him from smashing the drawing room furniture with the fireplace poker. Polly Pott (daughter of private investigator Mustard Pott) is also in attendance, pretending to be Sir Roderick's daughter. The story also involves the Duke's two nephews and their romantic problems: It seems Horace Davenport has hired a private investigator (none other than Mustard Pott) to tail his fiancee Valerie (Pongo's sister) and she has called off the engagement as a result, and Ricky's jealousy of his fiancee's attention to cousin Horace has landed him in the onion soup. Money won and lost at Persian Monarchs, the slipping of mickey's into people's drinks, and a Duke who throws eggs at people who whistle The Bonny Bonny Banks of Lock Lomand outside his window add to the hilarity. Of course, Mr. Wodehouse's unique turn-of-phrase doesn't disappoint in this delightful novel. I recommend this book to anyone who seeks diversion from reality. A must-read.

A complete Wodehouse fanatic, I would have trouble giving less that five stars to anything I have read so far. Uncle Fred is a particularly good one to add to the guest room bookshelf----incredibly funny and nice light reading for a few days away from home.

If you have ever read "Elements of Style" by Strunk and White (and if you haven't, then you should be legally prohibited from writing even so much as a thank-you note), then this book, like all Wodehouse books, is a perfect example of how to violate almost every rule in the book.

Consider the following: "The ninth Earl of Emsworth was a man who in times of stress always tended to resemble the Aged Parent in an old-fashioned melodrama when informed that the villain intended to foreclose the mortgage. He wore now a disintegrated air, as if somebody had removed most of his interior organs. You see the same sort of thing in stuffed parrots when the sawdust has leaked out of them."

How's that for failing to "omit needless words"? And how's that for vividly portraying the feeble-minded Lord Emsworth, one of Wodehouse's most memorable of his many memorable and hilarious characters?

The plot here is typical Wodehouse: a few love-stricken young people see their dreams of eternal wedded bliss threatened by either misunderstandings or lack of cash or both, and a young ne'er-do-well has run up some gambling debts, a circumstance which puts him in danger of some painful bone-crushing. Enter Uncle Fred, an aging playboy with a manipulative mind and a sense of adventure. He orchestrates a plan involving a visit to Blandings Castle (the Emsworth estate) which results in everyone living happily ever after.

But, of course, that plot outline is pretty much the plot outline of every Wodehouse novel. What makes it (and every Wodehouse production) a 5-star novel is the delicious phraseology, the preposterous and yet believable characterizations, and the continuous twinkle in the author's eye. You either "get" Wodehouse or you don't. If you don't, then go to a doctor and get it fixed immediately!

I was told of this book in a meeting at of the company I work for.
We Provide Care to MR/DD people. This book is very disturbing and also enlighting. It makes me feel good to know that we, as a society have for the most part worked to change what these poor souls went through. A must read.

I was introduced to Christmas in Purgatory in 1996, when I took a course at Western Washington University called Introduction to Execeptional Children. There was no introduction to the essay, it was simply named in an assignment. Needless to say, I was horrified. I'm placing an order for it today as I feel that students taking courses related to people with disabilities need to see this. The book cannot be found on the national library system (in Norway), and therefore I've decided to buy a copy and donate it to my local university.

Those who would dismiss this book as overgeneralized and flawed forget that institutions were originally established not to protect disabled people from society, but society from disabled people.

Popular notion of the time held disabled people would be much more of a hindrance than help to society, and looked odd. Thus, if they were locked up, society would know where they were at all times while being able to pretend that they did not exist to begin with. Indeed, when Blatt and Kaplan's expose appeared, it set off controversy from those who had the audacity to defend the charges against very quickly turning public sentiment.

Although they are certainly free to articulate what they consider flaws with the book, it is difficult to believe that critics of this work would actually want to downplay the seriousness of these (and other) investigations if they were in those instutitions. Indeed, I strongly suspect they would want to be treated like human beings and given adequate care and a stimmulating environment.

As a diabled person myself, the contents of the book hit very close to home. Fortunate enough to be born in 1979, I realized that had I been born 20 years earlier, I most likely would have been one of the unfortunate people in the institutions investigated in this essay. While I previously had been aware of the disability rights movement's work in this area, reading this book gave me a whole new perspective on my work as a disability rights activist.

Because this book was never positioned as an indictment of all facilities, I am suprised by the rather hostile nitpicking and the blanket statement allegations. I believe this says more about the individuals reviewers than the quality of the authors themselves, and should not be weighted when looking at this book.The institutions in this essay were picked because the actual practices stood in sharp contrast to the "help and loving environment" they promised parents and relatives that patients would get. Woe is the person who even suggests that this was not as bad as people have made it out to be.

If it is difficult to believe the conditions doccumented in this book, it is because of the continued ease with which society is encouraged to view disabled people as helpless children, rather than potential Supreme Court nominees, doctors, lawyers etc...Ironically, baby and bath allegories demonstrate the urgency with which this book should be designated as required reading for anybody considering a degree in social sciences or a job in a related field.