My sister and I visited Israel for 2 weeks in June and I bought this book and she bought the Lonely Planet guide. After a few days we realized my book had better information, the details were more accurate, and it was generally more useful. If you only want to buy one book, at this point in time I'd recommend the Let's Go over the lonely planet.

The editorial staff of this fine work made my vacation in Israel a success. For the first two days I used Let's Go Middle East as my guide book. I figured I might want to venture beyond Israel so why limit myself by an Israel only travel guide. That was a mistake; those first two days were mediocre. Fortunately I found a copy of Let's Go Israel while in Israel. This book saved my vacation. Not only was it an enjoyable read (particularly the history) Let's Go Israel offered countless great ideas for things to do. After investigating why Let's Go Israel was so helpful, I learned that the book was a success due to the outstanding efforts of Editor Laura Weinrib.

Thank you Laura Weinrib and the let's go staff, you made my vacation one I will never forget!

The researchers and everyone else who contributed to this book did a mediocre job at best, but everything was pulled together so incredibly well by the head editor that you should buy this book even if you never intend to travel. I used to wonder how the beautiful Ms. Weinrib ever got into Harvard, but the reasons are obvious with this truly landmark work. Without question, this volume will change the face of travel guides forever. I was deeply moved, and on the edge of my chair the entire read. Thank you, Laura Weinrib, from the bottom of my heart.

This book is about a flower who is neglected and then brought to a new home where it can be safe. The simple story is a powerful metaphor. This book is a wonderful resource which offers a non-threatening story to which foster children can relate. -Cynthia Miller Lovell, author of The Star: A story to help young children understand foster care, and Questions & Activities for The Star: A handbook for foster parents

Little Flower: A Story for Children was a exceptionaly good book. It gives children a understanding about what some children have to go through in order to get a home with loveing people in it. It also has beatiful illustrations and it written in a very unique way. I think that everyone should read this book because it is just overall GREAT!

Little Flower is an excellent tool to use with abused and neglected children who have been placed away from their family of origin. This delightful story presents a metaphor young children can relate to and understand. The story helps children identify feelings of sadness and grief, and provides an more understandable context for their separation and loss. Reading this book with a child and doing some of the activities listed at the end are great ways to help a child in his/her healing process.I highly reccomend this book to social workers, foster parents and other caregivers for young children who have experienced loss.

I got this book for my almost 5-year-old son about a month ago
and he's been asking me to read it to him every night.
He likes to look at the colorful pictures and ask questions
about the characters. The story is a little overly simplified
for the pre-K kids, so I usually go into a little more details
to satisfy his curiosity. However, I like the style of the
writing. Its use of rhythms and repetitive phrases makes the
message easy for the kids to memorize. I'd like to get another
bible with more story telling for him.

This book has been a great blessing to us. We use it as a birthday gift etc whenever possible. It has always engaged the interest of our son, even though we have gone through the whole book at least three times. In fact he likes it so much that he remembers much of the content...what more could you want...!!

This is an excellent way to share the bible with a child. The stories are great and the pictures wonderful. The lessons and prayer at the end are easy for even a young child.

It is a great way to end the day together.

This is one book that is needed on everyones shelf. Truly an entertaining and creative read. Great gift for that hard to buy for person. I was unable to put it down this summer until I realized I was getting a sunburn! Looking forward to a sequel.

This book is an excellent source for classrooms, from English to History to Science. The stories of words is fascinating and a part of our culture. Students find the information interesting and they end up learning along the way. Ms. Lee's presentation style keeps the reader engaged, so they want to keep reading. My students end up talking about what they learned from her book, and look forward to my posting the next story each day. I also enjoy the book on my own as a source of entertainment as well as knowledge. Her writing style is fun and she has obviously done her research. I look forward to her next book.

I met Laura Lee in Michigan when she was doing radio. I knew then that she was going to do great things. She has a great mind for trivia and facts and of course, music. Love her...loved her book. In fact, later I'm ordering 2 more copies.

A beautiful book. Learned all about cheese, what to do with it, how to choose the right ones, how to serve it, how to store it, and even what to do with it when it gets to almost the point of no return.Wish I had been able to read it 60 years ago, never knew what I was missing.

I saw this author and cookbook on FoodTV. Have a wonderful gourmet store nearby which carries some of these cheese producers. Wonderful that this book showcases and promotes these talented producers who further America's cheese industry.

Maybe like what our wine producers have become, this book will aid the aritsan cheese community.

Besides all the wonderful knowledge of types and production, etc., what I am about is taste. This book has delightful recipes using these producers. To date the Goat Cheese, Apricot, and Sage-stuffed Chicken Breasts, Spinach and Fromage Blanc-Stuffed Chicken Breasts, Goat Cheese Cake with Peaches and Blueberries, and Herbed Sugar Snap Peas with Goat Cheese.

In support of these wonderful cheese producers!

If you are wondering who would think to write a book about cheese, just read the Introduction written by Ms. Werlin, and you will see her enthusiasm for cheese is quite real. She isn't the only one with an infatuation for cheese. I found the New American cheese to be a fabulous book stuffed full of information about our American cheesemakers along with some scrumptious, tempting cheese recipes, and if that isn't enough, she has also included some vivid, delicious-looking photos by Martin Jacobs to tempt us even more.

The book begins with the evolution of cheese. It goes into the types of cheese, such as cow's milk, sheep's milk, and goat's milk cheese. She explains to us where cheese came from and how it grew in America. Then she follows through with a page of descriptions and even lets us in on how to pair the right cheese with the right wine. On the informative side, there is a reference guide pertaining to the types of cheeses presently being made from the fresh to the very hard. She also includes a glossary and a list of cheesemakers around the country. The author, with pictures of the different cheesemakers' labels, briefly tells of each one and includes some mouth-watering recipes. Some of the recipes are new to me, and I definitely plan to try them. My favorite recipe is the colorful and delicious "Marinated Pepper Goat Cheese and Roasted Tomatoes".

It's a fresh, wonderful book, and I encourage you to include it in your kitchen library.

Carisa @ MyShelf.Com

There is a reason photographers get equal billing! McElroy's photos are breathtaking. The text becomes secondary as the Big Easy springs to life. Whether as a treasured memory of a vacation, business trip, or a visit to the gulf's most famous city, this coffee table book should be front and center on everyone's table or shelf. McElroy has captured the true essence of the City and her people. I purchased six copies for customers and friends. Whether born and bred, adopted, or just plain passing through...New Orleans is hard to forget. A great reminder of a great city!

Laura McElroy's photography is outstanding. I've been to New Orleans on several occasions, and she has captured the city just as I like remembering it. Her splendid photography inspires me to return in the very near future to one of my favorite U.S. city's. If a city can have moods, she has certainly captured them. The light, colors, and facial expressions enhance the experience of thumbing through this wonderful book. I'll be doing it again and again.

Laura McElroy's photographs are beautiful and perfectly capture the feel and essence of New Orleans. You almost forget to read the text because you are so caught up in the pictures. I recommend it highly for anyone who loves New Orleans or just appreciates fine photography.

If you run an IPX/SPX network and want to know what is really going on, you need this book. The most complete IPX/SPX book I have seen out there. A must for anyone that needs to troubleshoot or fine tune their Netware network.

This book to me is the third or fourth edtion of this book with a different title each edition packing more information and topics than the first. Chappell in this book provides very detailed information on how IPX works from client to server. She provides excellent examples of packet traces of how things should appear and what to look for when things are not working right. The CD has a runtime version of Novell's Lanalyzer product, note you should own this product if you work alot with Netware it's one of Novell's best hidden products. Her books are excellent, I buy most of them; however, her presentation skills are out standing, just do not be a Fred (you'll have to attend a session for ture understanding or read about Fred in the book). If you are not able to attend a lecture/instruction/presentation of hers the books are the next best thing. The book is from the ground up (no rocket scientist understanding assumed). If you are involved in troubleshooting an IPX Netware network then you must have this book.

Laura Chappell makes a difficult subject fun and easy to understand. There are thousands of computer related books out there that are practically unreadable. Here is a book on a very dry subject that you can read on your living room sofa,comprehend, and not fall asleep. The book takes you step-by-step on how to troubleshoot and monitor your IPX/SPX network. If you have anything to do with Novell networks and want to know how it communicates, look no further.

THis book is different from the other two books in the series in that it takes place in the country at a camp instead of the Bronx. Sisters Amy and Laura, following a terrible accident and a family emergency, wind up at summer camp (for like, ALL SUMMER! 8 weeks! WHOOA! Good Lord: what a nightmare!) I had a sad camping experience as a kid and like Laura, i was a quiet bookworm who was close to my folks and hated summer camp. It freaked me out to think of being sent to camp for that long since i could not even handle 1 week when i went! I read this book at age 11 when my social life spun out of control. I became very insecure about a lot of things and could relate to Laura. However, i think Laura was, well, sort of a crybaby. I didn't like the way she was always down on herself (then again, i guess i did the same thing to myself at that age) and i didn't like the way she complained about her braces; I mean, she should be thankful for what she's got. Braces are expensive and I wanted them bad at her age and was happy to get them; they are worth the money and pain. Also, my dad says when he was a kid in the 1940's they didn't normally put braces on kids. I think Laura should have considered herself lucky that she was on the way to having straight pretty teeth and not gripe about it, but I guess braces in the 40's were retched-looking compared to now so I don't know. There are a few parts in this book that irritated me. I thought that Laura and her other bunkmates let that chick Betty (an annoying character) push them around too much. I would'nt have. But it shows you how peer pressure works among kids, and all in all it's a neat book and I really would'nt change a thing about it, and in the end the author ties up all the loose ends and Laura is a more confident young lady who made a true friend, Anne, and some other friends. Interesting thing to note: the Apple Paperback copies of these books have no illustrations but when I was in grade school the school library carried hardback copies of the three Amy and Laura books and they were illustrated!

The trilogy of Amy and Laura books were my absolute favorite when I was a kid. I read and reread them until my copies were destroyed and falling apart. Whenever I want to revisit my childhood and escape into a simpler and better time, I pull out my copies I have bought as an adult and read them again. I can not explain why these books created such an impression but you just have to read them to know. I recommend all mothers of pre-teen girls to go out and buy these wonderful books that are back in print.

Give me a beach chair, blue sky, calm rushing waves and - most importantly - the exact book fair gray Apple paperback bearing "Laura's Luck" and an illustration of girls around a campfire except for two just talking (one Laura, no doubt)-and I am TOTALLY free. This book was my absolute "fave" back in elementary school and junior high. Who needs hard books when you've got Marilyn Sachs's story of a girl struggling to like Camp Tiorati, THE camp for city children in the 40s'? While most kids now reading Marilyn Sachs will never hear of this book plainly because of the fact (sadly) it's out-of-print, I LOVED LOVED LOVED this book and unfortunately as soon as I bought it: it would soon be out of print. Don't ask me how: I just had a thing for this book. I would loan it to my friend, who would in turn loan it to someone else. My entire 5B year I worried who could have my book at the moment. I got it back. Since then I promised "I'll never loan you, Laura" (I told you I loved it too much! ) But all in all I still I have that book fair copy. Too good to be true!

When Janis' lips opened the world fell at her feet due mainly to the fact that the emotion and power which her voice conveyed spoke numerous volumes to many of her listeners. I was three years old the night Janis' life ended and the power of her music speaks as much to me now as I did to so many people so many years ago. This book shows the best and worst of this music legend. It reveals her misgivings, her heartbreaks, her worries, her sorrows and her emense joys. It shows you Janis from the inside, and in her very own words. You can feel her world rumble and rattle from her early beginnings as a blues singer in Texas and feel the earth give way underneath her only to create the mountain which pushed her up to the pedestal where many now see her. This is a heartfelt and moving biography by someone who knew more than Janis the icon; she knew Janis the loving sister. These insights into her thoughts allows for a deeper understanding of the woman behind THE VOICE

This book by Laura Joplin explained Janis' true life, not just her attitude on the stage. This book is definitely wroth reading!

I was born long after the days of Janis Joplin and her brand of hippie rock and drugs. But her music, once I discovered it, moved me in ways previously unimaginable. I found this book, written by her sister, to be touching and real. Janis was an extraordinary person, this book proves that. It also brings you behind the scenes, to her secert life that caused her so much pain.This book made Janis real to me. Laura Joplin did a fantastic job of educating the world about the one of a kind Janis Joplin and her turblent life. Her talent, like this book, will never be forgotten!

The verse of Ligurian poet Giuseppe Conte is finally available to an English-language audience with THE OCEAN AND THE BOY, Laura Stortoni's translation of his 1983 book "L'oceano e il ragazzo." Conte is one of the most striking poets in Italian literature of the second half of the 20th century, and he has fused Ligurian hermeticism with a deep concern for the natural world.

Giuseppe Conte's poetry is always aware of the fact that Nature remains the foundation and background for any civilization, even though she may be easily forgotten. He writes of how Mediterranean civilizations are all intricately linked with their common setting of sand and ocean, and the "I" in Conte's poetry is often linked to flora and fauna. In "After March" he writes, "I want only to bloom, to live again,I,/no longer I, but hibiscus, acacia." Conte's fascination with how Man remains connected to the land makes him an interesting European counterpart to the Native-American poet Ray A. Youngbear.

Giuseppe Conte is learned in English literature and admires the works of D.H. Lawrence and Walt Whitman. As he writes in his introduction to this English edition, his thoughts have often been directed west to the Americas, and in fact he has travelled to the U.S. several times after the publication of "L'oceano e il ragazzo." In several places here, such as "The Conquest of Mexico," his poetry deals with the Aztec gods, metaphors for a natural world that remains even after the religion that personified its aspects has become extinct.

I can't comment much on Stortoni's translation of Conte's Italian, as I read the Italian text in this facing-page translation. However, I have glanced at her translation and it seems relatively faithful, although as a non-native speaker of English she does make occasionally idiosyncratic choices of phrase. Nonetheless, she deserves praise for making the work of the fascinating poet accessible to the English-language reader. She has also translated Maria Luisa Spaziani's SENTRY TOWERS into English and is certainly doing a great service for English speakers.

While not as intensely sublime as the poetry of Giuseppe Montale, a much more famous Ligurian who won the Nobel prize in 1975, and not as influential as the works of Quasimodo or Ungaretti, the poetry of Giuseppe Conte is certainly worth a look. His use of modern style while reaching back to the dawn of Mediterranean civilization is truly moving.

Book Review: "The Ocean and the Boy"

"The Ocean and the Boy" is a wonderful compilation of Italian poetry written by Giuseppe Conte and translated by Laura Stortoni. Conte's poems touch on many themes, from pre-Colombian Mexico, to his childhood, to Greek mythology. My favorite theme, though, one that runs consistently through Conte's poetry, is the theme of Nature. Conte spends many lines either intricately describing the flora and fauna that surrounds him, or defining himself in terms of Nature: "I want only to bloom, to revive, I,/ no longer I, but hibiscus, acacia. . ." Of particular interest to me were his poems about the sea, including "What Was the Sea?", "You Should Have Heard the Wind", and "The Ocean and the Boy Walk...." I love the way Conte describes the ocean of his childhood: "It had/ tails and paws of water among the/ rocks, it polished the pebbles, it made. Cyphers of light on the sand: it was/ deep but unfeeling, they said, and celibate, individual, sterile." and "the wind/ of the sea, lifting the waves, tearing up/ the clouds and reweaving them. . ." These poems spoke to me because as a child that had the good fortune to grow up near the sea, Conte made me recall my own experiences: warnings of the oceans unpredictable behavior and the terror I felt (and still sometimes feel in my nightmares) that the huge mass of blue would swallow me up if I waded in too deeply. Yet, one does not have to have had to experience the sea as a child to appreciate these poems, only an understanding of the ocean as a metaphor for incomprehensible and seemingly endless vastness. In "The Ocean and the Boy Walk" Conte presents the ocean as a metaphor for his mind or unconscious, Conte IS the ocean, the ocean (his unconscious) even speaks for him when he cannot "The Boy is mute, the Ocean cries/ far-off cries,...the Ocean does not keep silent, no,/ the Boy descending, knows/ there is a voice, deeper than the darkness. . ." The layout of this book is as equally as impressive as the poetry contained within. Each original poem is presented with the English translation on the opposite page, giving the reader the opportunity to reference as they please. Having the poems side by side makes this book perfect for those interested in learning Italian or learning how to translate from Italian to English, or vice versa, regardless of the reader's level. Printing the Italian is also a credit to the translator, Laura Stortoni, for this forces her to be extremely true to the original poem. That aside, credit is due to her just for the simple fact that now those who are not literate in Italian have the opportunity to enjoy Conte's poetry. When I was studying for my B.A. in Spanish Literature I came to realize just how important it was to experience the literature of other cultures. And of course no translation, no matter how accurate, can compare with the original, but reading a translated version is better than nothing at all. I also began to understand that what makes a good novelist, playwright, or poet, are those can reach an audience beyond their own culture. This is the type of poet Conte is: universal. This book of poetry is filled with poems that can speak to any human once the barrier of language has been broken down. I highly recommend it.

A poetry lover from Santa Barbara, CA

Translator's Comments By Laura Anna Stortoni

Translating, From the Latin, transferre, means, in simple words, to carry something from one place to another. The literary translator carries words, the heaviest of all burdens, from one language to another. But the very act of choosing a certain poem is, first of all, a profession of identification. A remote, often arcane, reason strikes a special inner chord in the translator's soul, giving him/her no peace until the original poem is eaten, chewed, absorbed and finally regurgitated in the other language, having become fiber of the fiber, flesh of the flesh, of the translator. After translating a poem, I often think of it as mine. If I wanted to translate it in the first place, it was a poem I should have written myself. Giancarlo Pontiggia says that the literary translator should simply go where the text orders him to go, letting himself be carried away. I have always trusted my mysterious illuminations far more than the painstaking thirteen drafts that some have recommended for literary translators. While translating Giuseppe Conte's poetry, the "carrying" of the verses was light, spontaneous, with the English words magically appearing to my mind while I was reading the Italian text. This probably happened because Conte speaks of places I have seen, of feelings I have felt. The sea he describes was the sea where every summer I would roam those vast beaches, burnt by the sun and vexed by the winds.

Conte is as possessed by the sea as I am. The sea invades us, pervades us, in the same way that it pervades the poetry of Salvatore Quasimodo and of the Greek poets Elytis and Seferis. As I read Conte's poetry, I saw; and as I saw, the images translated themselves into English without any apparent effort on my part. This is the magic wrought by the poetry that strikes our arcane inner chords. The sea described in this volume is seen with the wonder of a child's eyes, a wonder akin to that of Homeric heroes. It is the "wine-colored sea" described by Homer, a sea fighting and loving, with unpredictable alternation, the earth and the beach, a sea that attempts to conquer, to devour, to attack, to then retreat in peace and soothing calm. The landscapes and seascapes described here are mythical and yet precise: for myths are never general, rather, they emerge from a complexity of details. Conte mentions specific names of local flora and fauna, describes the lush, precarious hills sloping towards the sea, attracted to the waves and yet threatened by them, just as we humans are attracted to danger. This landscape/seascape, sketched with the detailed technique of a naif painter, is a precise childhood memory acquiring the haunting proportions of myth. These memories deserve to be carried and be recorded into another language, so that they can also affect those who cannot read the original. And so I translated them. As a translator, I often feel, humbly, that I have opened a door so that others can enter. Please come in.