This beautifully produced book of 170 black and white photos by David Plowden, taken between 1956 and 1992, captures everyday man-made America before it vanishes, railroads, steamboats, farmland, small towns, bridges and the subject I like best, the grittyness of the US industrial city. Each page photo has a generous border and a caption centred below.

All the photographs are wonderful compositions, many of them divided into threes, horizontally, some land in the foreground, then a freight train and finally the sky. This is interesting because they show things that could not be moved, unlike studio photography, here the photographer had to move the camera to get the best shot. David Plowden seems to know instinctively when he sees something that it will make an interesting photograph. If you want to have a keepsake of slowly disappearing man-made America get this book.

Imprints is a wonderful representation of the America of our fathers and grandfathers that will soon exist no more, for better or worse. The photographic record in Imprints speaks wonderfully of the articulate and experienced eye of David Plowden. His images depict the unglamorous parts of life that most of us grow up with. Yet, at the same time, his keen vision shows us that there is beauty and art in everything. I grew up in the American Midwest in the 1950's and this book elicits nostalgia, sentimentality and a sense of loss. I wish I had been more observant, aware, appreciative at that time. Plowden has given me a second chance.

David Plowden has spent a lifetime taking his camera into small towns and down the backroads between them trying to capture an America that has almost completely vanished. We are fortunate that he arrived in time with a wonderful sense of composition that invests his black and white photographs with grace and beauty. This retrospective collects the best of these images into a cohesive photo essay of small towns, lonely farms and abandoned railroads. Placed against these small and quiet images are Plowden's photos of brutal industrial and mechanical structures. These nightmare images of factories and elevators and rail yards, draped in smoke and soot, make us as uneasy in turn as the rural photos made us nostalgic for the old ways. Plowden can cross between these two worlds so easily because they are really two sides of the same American coin. His brilliant photograph of a dark, brooding steel mill at the end of a grimy residental street combines the best and worst of the American dream. Plowden clearly would return to the simple small town days, but he has seen enough to understand that we are too far down the other path to turn back now. The photographs in this book are heartfelt. Some are very sad, and some impart a terrible sense of unease - as though we have stumbled onto an ugly secret. Plowden can take his place next to Walker Evans and Wright Morris with this book. He has captured our lost America and, for better or worse, marked the way into the new century.

This is an incredible book we used for a guys small group. Every chapter has been highlighted an re-read many times, and I continue to get more from it every time I read it. I can't recommend this book any higher.

Alan Redpath gives precious insights in his study of the life of David and relates them to modern day Christian life extremely well. An excellent book for serious Christians!

This book is not for those who enjoy shallow relationships. But this is a MUST READ for anyone who desires an intimate and fulfilling relationship with God. Although this book is not necessarily written for ministers, every minister should have one and read it over and over. Mr. Redpath helps us understand how God takes us from a salvation experience and trains us through various processes, eventually forming us into faithful and effective soldiers for Jesus Christ. You can believe it: there are no better books on the subject!

This book is a visual map of the castle that is a must for every history/romance/medieval buff. It can be too conplicated to imagine all of the inner and outer structures of a working castle. Lee's work can give the reader a firm foundation to build on with his fantastic illustrations.

Amazing! Alan Lee is an incredable painter/illustrator. His work in this books brings to life not only the Castles he paints, but the people and the time in which these castles are located. The work spans historical as well as fictional locations, all of which make me wish that there was a print store right next door. This book is perfect for children and adults alike. Awesome, in the truest meaning of the word.

When I first read this book when it came out way back in 86, I was blown away. The artwork was the best I had ever seen in a book like this, and the retelling of different myths to go along with each castle presented read like a fantasy story for history buffs. It covered classic celtic strongholds, all the stories surrounding the Arthuranian mythos, faerie castles, and those fortresses of the likes of Ghormenghast and Edgar Allen Poe's House of Usher. I would have to reccommend this book for all those lovers of fantasy and of great art.

For a "first" book on wild mushrooms I found this one to be very good. The pictures show the top, bottom, stems, colors and different parts of each mushroom. There are "warnings" on those that are ediable, but make some people sick, and the NO-NO"s are equally shown and written about. We're just new at this, and for a "starter" book this was just the ticket.

For those interested in preparing and eating the more common and easily-recognized species of edible mushrooms, this book is a must-have. In-depth species descriptions, including dangerous look a likes, make positive identifications much easier. Lush recipes (with photos) in the back of the book inspire mycophagists to get out in the woods and hunt their quarry. Buy the book -- you'll love it! Suggest using this book in conjunction with Audubon or other field guide.

This books is a wonderful collection of fantistic color photographs. Each recipie is a new journey into an exciting and tasty world of foods under our feet. Highly recommended to scientist and amatuer alike!

My mother gave my a copy of "Faeries" for Christmas 1980, when I was 11. I was instantly enchanted with the idea of faeries as real beings, and accepted much of the text as truth. I fantasized about spotting faeries in the woods and rocks surrounding my childhood home, and made many (sophomoric) attempts to copy Brian Froud's illustrations. As an adult I even had a flower faerie tattooed on my ankle in homage to his art

My origional copy of "Faeries" is tattered and dog-eared, most of the pages have fallen out, and are hopelessly out-of-sequence, but I can't bear to throw it away. I count "Faeries" as one of the most influential books I had as kid growing up, and I wholeheartedly recommend it to any child (or adult) interested in faeries or mythology. The book is incredibly well-researched, and beautifully illustrated. The hand-written text can be difficult to read at times, but adds to the wonderful illusion of illicitly reading someone's journal

Bravo for reissuing this book, I am ordering my new hardcover copy today

When you imagine a fairy, the first thing that comes to mind is a pretty little girl with wings, maybe long hair, sitting on a flower, singing a song, or dancing....well, the world of fairies is MUCH more than that! There are ugly fairies and pretty ones, there are small fairies and big ones, some live underwater, some in trees. There are goblins, dwarfs, cluricauns, leprechauns, brownies, kelpies, pucks, witches, primroses....you see, its a whole different world filled with interesting little inhabitants that you may have never imagined! The illustrations are great, fun to stare at. Good folk tales and descriptions. I was skeptical about the world of Faeries but after reading (and looking) thru this book, I am forever drawn to them!

I have never seen such gorgeous and detailed art with faeries! The entire book is fascinating. There's some regular handwriting along with typed text, so it gives the reader a break from uniform letters. A lot of the faeries have some sort of folk-tale to them. Some are simply described. The pictures come in such variety! There are paintings, extraordinarily detailed drawings... drawings that look inked. As an 18 year old aspiring fantasy artist (who loves to draw faeries ;o) ) Brian Froud's work is an incredible inspiration! I adore this book so much. It's something you can read over and over... read out of order... I could spend hours alone just looking at the pictures! This is the best faery book I have ever had the pleasure to come across! (So far anyway...:o) )

This book is a well-written and enjoyable summary of what we know about Pluto and its relatively huge moon Charon. However, the fact of the matter is we don't know much because we have yet to send a spacecraft to this fascinating double planet! Stern and Mitton do a great job presenting the timeline of our discoveries about Pluto as well as the latest theories on the compositions and origin of these bodies.

I was especially impressed with the discussion of Pluto's atmosphere changing as a result of the planet's greatly elliptical orbit around the Sun. In addition, the authors give a great detailed breakdown of the discoveries gleaned from the mutual occultations in the late 80s. Also, this book was written several years ago but we have since indeed found many more Kuiper Belt objects that lend great credibility to the theory of Pluto simply being one of the largest of that family.

Too much time was spent on describing the birth and continuing struggles of the Pluto Express project. This discussion would have been more appropriate if the spacecraft had even launched, let alone successfully completed its mission. But the fact is that NASA's funding issues have kept the project grounded for now. Hopefully it'll fly in the next couple years. If it doesn't, much of the mission may be compromised because Pluto is getting farther from the Sun each day and as a result its atmospheric activity is dying.

Overall a great effort and worth your time. Don't expect incredible revelations and photographs though, because we still have yet to visit the place!

If you don't know much about the "King of the Kuiper Belt", read this book, and you will have a very clear scientific description of this "massive comet"...

This book is complete, starting from the historic discovery (blind luck, really) of Pluto, the subsequent observations that kept on shrinking the planet, then the suprising discovery of Charon, the fortuitious Pluto/Charon occultation, and the latest HST results.

Easy to read, and yet technical enough, this book will probably make you love this planet, even though it's only a big comet saved from destruction by its orbital resonance with Neptune... and will make you hate NASA (or the US Congress) for not going forward with their Pluto Express probe.

A well written historic perspective on our outer-most-planet that by books' end will change your view of our solar system.

A thoroughly enjoyable easy-to-read book. More hard science/discovery books should be written this way.

It's not just the facts that are amazing but the proven-wrong theories we use to have on Pluto. Too bad we're still waiting for our first encounter with this mysterious planet. If history proves right, the Voyager probes were just another step in our discovering the 'real' solar system.

This is one of the best cosmetics books I ever bought. Theauthor did not hold anything back on how to make wonderful cosmetics.The recipes are easy to follow. You will be working with the bestingredients nature has to offer when making recipes from this book.There is a section at the end of the book giving instructions on basictechniques for making a variety of different formulas. Ingredients inrecipes can be substituted--you can create personalize cosmetics. Imodified recipes and the product turned out wonderful. I especiallylike the face creme recipes. My skin feels healthy and wonderfulusing these cremes. This book focuses on the most important herbs,essential oils, and natural ingredients specifically used for makinghealthy cosmetics. The author shared her knowledge on how to make thebest cosmetics. I'm thankful she wrote this book.

This book is AWESOME! It is one of the better books I've read on the subject of natural skin/hair/body care with homemade products.

It's very informative,very well organized according to sections (Face Care, Body Care, Mouth Care, Hair Care, Healing Salves and Balms)with special attention given to men, women and different life stages. It's very thorogh.

Dina Falconi provides countless recipes for creams, oils, balms and lotions as well as what those products can do for you and for whom they're most useful (i.e. mature/dry skin etc.)

Not only are recipes provided, but basic recipes for salves and creams are also provided so you can incorporate oils, butters and waxes that you particularly like. Say you don't want to make a beeswax and canola oil based lip balm (which is one of the recipes) you can flip to the back of the book and learn the proper oil/wax proportions for balms and you can try something else instead.

Falconi also explains the benefits of certain essential oils, herbs, butters and oils which is also very beneficial to those just beginning to make personal care products.

A great book!

I've recently gotten into making my own lotions and potions because so much of what is on the market to buy is full of ingredients that are harmful for a body. Some recipes and procedures take more time than others but are so well worth it. I found this book quite by accident but now thank the powers that be for it. The ingredients and methods for mixing and fixing are simple enough for a beginner like me, but indepth enough to let me know why and how it all works. Herbs and oils are explained as well and as extensively as anyone could ask without going into too much detail and added information that I can't and probably won't use. I'd suggest this wonderful and informative book to anyone that in interested in making alternative products for body and hair care. They are truely wonderful. Out of the many books I own on this subject, this is by far the most comprehensive and concise one to have.

It's really hard to rate _Behind the Mask_ without dividing it into two categories: as a book about gay life, and as a baseball book. I found it interesting and valuable in both areas.

Pallone, it must be remembered, came of age in the seventies, when the idea of being 'out' was difficult for anyone--much less a professional sports official. His story has the ring of truth and honesty, and would in particular be a good read for young people wrestling with sexual identity issues: it does not contain explicit sex scenes. Probably PG-13. Of special value is Pallone's own self-analysis; he has come to understand why he handled life the way he did, and the picture we see is of a man who has regrets about some things but is at peace.

With regard to baseball, we get a lot of closeups of Pallone's colleagues. Like anyone else, some good, some not so good; some competent, some not so competent. The degree to which umpires will engage a vindictive streak to the detriment of the game truly stunned me, and I'm generally a defender of the officials. The politics and union/management wangling that go into deciding just who gets to be a big league umpire are laid bare. Pallone contends that he was fired for being gay, and I don't think he necessarily makes the case for this very well; while I wouldn't put it past the league owners, it's also possible that he was fired for being controversial, and that his revelation of his sexuality was simply the one more bit of awkward press that baseball didn't want. Either way, it took a lot of courage for him to pursue his career in the face of a lot of adversity, and I'd proudly shake his hand.

A good read from either standpoint.

This book should be on the shelf of every gay person in America who is in doubt of his or her sexuality. For you baseball fans, there is the inside story of the famed "Pete Rose" incident, but you don't have to be a baseball fan, or gay to enjoy this well written book. It's out of print, but well worth the time and effort to hunt it down or check it out of your local library.

A well-written, honest, insightful book. Dave Pallone should be congratulated on his work, both as a professional in the baseball world and as a first time author. In the same "boat" as Dave Kopay, Pallone rises above and allows the reader to feel and to be ok with being who you are.

The financial concepts are explained very nicely. Though it is my first finance book i can go through it without much difficulty or extra help. However there are still some drawbacks need to be noticed:

1. Need more charts and graphics to explain the concepts, ie: when explaining the DU PONT System, i think the pyramid structure can be illustrated so as to state a whole concept, not only fragments

2. Too many examples

3. This book is too detailed in both relevant and irrelevant matters

Still, I think it is a good book.

If possible, please tell me the difference between this book (Fundamentals of Corporate Finance by Richard Brealey) and Principles of Corporate Finance by Brealey and Myers. I currently own the 5th edition of Principles; having worn the book down with constant thumbing, I am looking for a replacement.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

I and my friends(with no business background) are studying corporate finance by ourselves using this book and all of us are very satisfied with the book so far.

The concepts are explained very clearly(even kindly) and sample tests with complete solutions are very useful. The book also has solutions for selected end-of-the chapter problems and I enjoy mini cases which help me apply the concepts to the practice in detail.

I had tried other finance books before and most of them were not clear in explaining concepts and a bit difficult for me(my major was chemistry). I think that this book is probably the easiest and the best book to begin with for starters in finance.