Bungee's voyage is a wonderful read for adults and children alike. Peter Dudley's amazing illustrations and Sally Ford's charming narrative combine to make a childrens book that I hope will become a classic. I really deserves that honor. I'm an adult (and a sailor) and I found myself enjoying Bungee's adventures and day dreaming of my own sailing trips; those already completed and those still being planned. My son is 15 months old and I secretly hope that he will become a sailor (like his Dad). Bungee's Voyage is my secret weapon to inspire him into the wonderful world of boats and far away places. If you know anyone with children whose day needs brightening, buy this book and give it as a gift.

This charmingly written and beautifully illlustrated book should become a classic for readers who day dream about sailing around the world, or who care about just messing around in boats. Ostensibly a children's book, Bungee's Voyage tells the story of a dog who sails from New England to Tahiti. Sailing in a wonderful wooden boat, Bungee has a series of adventures which are artfully described by Sally Ford and beautifully illustrated by Peter Dudley. Ford and Dudley know sailing, boats, and ocean waters and it shows. Children will love reading or hearing this story and adults will love reading it too. I loved reading about how Bungee faced adversity. The illustrations show that Dudley also knows his way around boats -- down to the rigging.

Absolutely enchanting and I cannot stop smiling from the pleasure !! Thank you for the most favourite book any sailor could read . Well done Bungee with lots of love.

After the owner of our store read the book all employees read it . Then the owner flew to meet Mr Tasca at his store ,he spent 3 days there, wa sgiven the tour of his store, he spent quite a bit of time meeting with Mr Tasca and his sons talking about his philosophy and way of doing business .What a place !! upon returning we have instatuted The same 7 day return policy that Mr Tasca has as well as putting 3month 3000 mile waranties on our cars.it took some faith in our selves and our business to go all the way but we have and we have not regreted it one bit,, Great Book

This book, through anecdote and exposition, tells the reader flat-out how to sell, without violating integrity. It covers why the "lowest price" game is one you can not win. It tells what the customer really wants. While it discusses these topics in relation to selling cars, it explains how these ideas can be used in other industries.

When I first saw this book, I picked it up because the name was familiar, since I used to live in southeastern Massachusetts, and I wondered what Bob Tasca had to say. Now I know, and I feel that I got good value from the book. And that's his point, in part. But it's -his- book, so let -him- say it to you.

Would I buy a car from this man? You bet. (review from reading the hardcover edition)

Bob does a great job of showing his winning formula to build a successful dealership. Although any business person can learn from his book, it's a must read for dealership managers. I have recommended it to my dealership clients.

The theft of a precious artifact results in a thrilling dual between the Australian Auborigines who owned it and the highroller who stole it to add to his collection. Beautiful descriptions bring the Australian outback and Ayers Rock dramatically to life. spellbinding! Based on authentic aboriginal belifs and practices. Read it. You won't be dissapointed

This tale simply draws one into the world of the Outback. I've read several fictional accounts of life among the Aboriginal peoples of Australia, but this one is truly beautiful. I read it in an afternoon; I simply was entranced with the lush prose and depth of character portrayed. I look forward to the next novel from this author!

This story is a real page turner, I couldn't put it down (very sticky binding). I really enjoyed Fords writing style, the way he developes his charecters and his attention to detail. I highly recomend this book to anyone who likes what I like.... (A good book)

Hi there. I'm Frank, and I'm fillin' in for Zaggy in the reviews department while he gets a bit of a rest from it all. My latest review is on this here Pinto repair manual. I've been drivin' my 1979 Pinto hatchback all around town (mainly from home to work and back) ever since I bought it brand-spankin'-new way back in... um... well, I don't recall exactly what year it was that I bought it. I do know, however, that it's only one more smog check away from smog exemption in my state! And five years after that, it'll be considered a classic! Yep, I can just see it now-in five years I'll be cruisin' the main drag and ALL the mad hotties will be swoonin' in the presence of my classic Pinto! I might even let my good buddies Zaggy and Ro'y tag along with me so we can REALLY get down! Ya know what I'm sayin' down on the G-Funk, dawg?

Oh wait... I'm supposed to be talkin' 'bout the Pinto repair guide, ain't I?Well, lemme start it off by tellin' you the story of how I got my copy of it It was given to me for free by the supervisor of a local repair shop where they replaced a worn flywheel-thingy on my rear-end detonator. The guy said that I should learn to do my own repairs more, and then mumbled something about my presence in the shop 'creeping out' alla' the mechanics working there. They were really good mechanics, too-one of 'em said the repair time would run about four-and-a-half hours, but it only took 'em three! And I should know, 'cuz I was in the waiting room the whole time, watchin' 'em doing the fix-up! Talk about service!

But anyway, after looking through this neat-o book, I was quite amazed by how many parts there are in a Pinto! And I don't just mean the radio dial knobs and the window-roller knobs either! Heck, the motor and other stuff under the hood is made up of all sortsa things! Heck, there's even things inside the things, according to the cross-section illustrations I looked at! From the alternator to the universal joint, you got a whole lotta pieces with really weird names that I have a tough time tryin' to understand! Heck, I'm even thinkin' of takin' my Pinto completely apart and then-- with the aid of this manual-- put it all back together again! Now I know what I'll be doin' on my next vacation break-- all three hours of it!

G'Bye

This omnibus publishing of the Hitchhikers Quartet contains the first four books of the Hitchhikers Trilogy, considered the only true Trilogy by many purists. The series starts with the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, then continues with The Restaurant at the End of the Universe, Life, the Universe and Everything and rounds out with So Long and Thanks For All the Fish. This is considered me many the core of the Guide's story, and that "Mostly harmless" takes the story in an unwanted direction and prematurely ends the series with the elimination of 3 of the main characters. Most hardcore Adams purists prefer to leave the story hanging with the possibility of the infinite possibilities possible in an infinite universe.

I have read a lot of "vanilla" books on the Internet and technology. This is the first book with some excitement to it and some very interesting issues addressed by these CTOs. A great book for both techies and business executives....

"Sparky's Excellent Misadventures" is a wonderful little "journal" by Sparky, who takes us into his life at school and home as he copes with ADD. Sparky's misadventures acquaint us with those events which sometimes get him into trouble. After visiting the doctor, Sparky learns about ADD and discovers how the "little pills" help him to do better in school and control his behavior. This "journal" will help children and parents understand ADD from a child's point-of-view both before and after treatment. An easy-to-read, humorous approach to appreciating each child's unique qualities.

My son was recently diagnosed with ADHD and I wanted to get him some books so that he realized he wasn't one in the world with ADHD. He loved it. He has started writing a journal -- red pencil and all.

I bought this book along with several others when my 8 year old son was diagnosed with ADD. Along with the ADD came depression and anxiety, due, of course, to a high IQ and stresses in school. I wanted to buy some books for children about ADD to donate to his classroom, to better help my son's peers understand why he acted "goofy" sometimes. This book is absolutely fabulous. I read it first, and I had to laugh. My son read it next and he laughed and laughed. He was delighted to see his own personal thoughts and feelings, expressed by another kid (Sparky), written about in a journal format. He was joyous!! He thought Sparky was awesome! He couldn't wait to bring it to school! I can promise you that your ADD child will be so happy to read this book, as will you. I even gained alot of knowledge and insight into my son's FEELINGS and thoughts! YOU NEED THIS BOOK!! You absolutely will not regret it!!

'Tis true my form is something odd
but blaming me is blaming God,
Could I create myself anew
I would not fail in pleasing you.

If I could reach from pole to pole
or grasp the ocean with a span,
I would be measured by the soul -
the mind's the standard of the man.

I bought this book many years ago, unfortunately I made the mistake of lending it to someone and I never got it back. This is a remarkable book. I was touched by Joseph Merrick years ago. For the past nine years, I have been running the Joseph Carey Merrick Tribute Website. It is a site dedicated to Joseph, the person - not Joseph, the disability. I'm presently heading a London and Leicester (UK) campaign to have a commemorative plaque erected in his honour. He deserves to have a permanent tribute. He has done a great deal to advance medical science, through his skeleton, and thanks to him, there will one day be a cure for Proteus Syndrome. It's time the world said 'thank you'. Please give your moral support by visiting the site. I'm not sure if web addresses can be mentioned here, so simply type the following in your web browser: Joseph Carey Merrick Tribute Website

I inherited this book from a deceased family member. I had heard about David Lynch's movie about The Elephant Man, but I never saw it. Reading this book made me cry and empathize with Joseph Carey Merrick for his condition and the ostractize he received from the world based on his looks and not his soul.

Joseph Carey Merrick was the real Elephant Man not a fictional character. Joseph had a loving mother that died when he was a child and his father moved and remarried. His step-mother didn't like him and scorned him for his looks and his inability to find work due to his lameness, telling him that what she fed him was more than he earned. Eventually he refused to return home for meals because he didn't want to listen to step-mother barate him anymore. His father stopped looking for him, but did get him a hawker's license to hawk wares on the street. But people were afraid of him and would not buy his wares, and he acquired a gathering of curious people around him. His uncle gave him shelter for a while, but Joseph left there too. He worked in the workhouse a place of refuge and work for the poor and destitute for 3 years, but hated it and left. He ended up being exhibited as a sideshow freak under the name of "The Elephant Man" because his congenital deformity made it so that he resemble that of an elephant (or so the posters showed him to resemble). When he was at Whitechapel Road, across the street from the London Hospital Dr. Treves saw him for the first time and brought him to the hospital to examine him. Over the next few years Joseph was exhibited, his managers robbed him of his life savings and left. Joseph went back to Whitechapel Road and to the care of the only friend he knew . . . Dr. Treves. He spent his remaining years under the friendship and care of the staff at the London Hospital.

I loved this story. Michael Howell and Peter Ford told a true and compassionate account of Joseph Merrick's life. A man who was like any other human being with hopes and dreams with one setback.. His congenital deformity that prohibited his ability to be like, and experience and sleep lying down on his back like other people. Through all of years and hardships, Joseph was scared, but kind and kept a calm serenity inside himself about his condition. He had so much gratitude for the staff and his new friends who helped him, he made cardboard models and sent these things to those people who saw to his care in his appreciation for their help. The book also includes pictures how Merrick looked when he was admitted to the London Hospital, and a display of his skeleton after death.

I first read the original article on the elephant man Joseph Merrick by Dr Treves in a magazine in the mid 1970s. I then saw the movie in 1980. The movie peaked my interest for further info so I bought the book. The book not only goes into extensive detail of the disease but goes also extensively into Joseph Merrick's life as well as life in the Victorian era as it effected the common man. The imagery of the period was brought out by the writers: the London Hospital, the surrounding area, the showmen and their lives, etc. The research was very detailed, although later after the book's publication we learned of the possibility that Merrick suffered from Proteus and not pneumofibromatosis. This book should be read by anybody interested in these diseases as well as anybody interested in this time period.

This book althought set in a world very different than my own, can be seen as universal. The trials of Zahra before the war and after the war show how a troubled woman with psychological disorders manages to survive in a somewhat difficult world. As an Arab woman with a psychological disorder, she is an outsider.

As Salwa Bakr notes in The Wiles of Men women are often seen as silly and crazy when they have psychological disorders.

Although the depiction of the war may not be as detailed or accurate as many wish, that is not what Al-Shaykh is trying to convey with this novel.

She is showing how the war is a catharsis for poor Zahra. While everyone's attention is towards the gory and war fears, Zahra is not pointed out as crazy and strange, she is able to live her own destiny.

This book is a page turner...highly recommended

No one claimed that the book depicts the truth about Lebanese culture but it is a GREAT story. The author had be hooked by the third page and I couldn't wait to finish it.

This book is NOT meant to give an accurate picture of Lebenese life during the war, but of the life of a girl who has physcological problems.

Bob Dylan used to introduce his drummer as "the only drummer better than no drummer at all". That pretty well sums up this John Ford book.

What you can't see from home is that the book is truly tiny, about a quarter inch thick and six inches square. It's only 144 pages long; the last 35 of those pages are a John Ford filmography and the first 35 are a Bogdanovitch essay.

The interviews in between are similarly miniature, and in typical Bogdanovitch fashion they revolve more around anecdotes and personalities than film making and theory. For instance, here's what Ford says about my nominee for his best film, My Darling Clementine:

"I knew Wyatt Earp. In the very early silent days, a couple of times a year, he would come up to visit pals, cowboys he knew in Tombstone; alot of them were in my company. I think I was an assistant prop boy then and I used to give him a chair and a cup of coffee, and he told me about the fight at the O. K. Corral. So in My Darling Clementine, we did it exactly as it had been. They didn't just walk up in the street and start banging away at each other; it was a clever military maneuver."

And that's it. A good story. But a short one. Not much about the film itself, though, is there? The longest statements go on for about one full page.

Ford's thoughts on film making are scattered throughout, and it's good stuff:

-On his dislike of close-ups: "We've got this big screen - instead of putting a lot of pockmarked faces on it...play a scene in a two-shot. You see people instead of faces."

-On actors: "If you get the first or second take, there's a sparkle, an uncertainty about it; they're not sure of their lines, and it gives you a sense of nervousness and suspense."

-On film music: "I don't like to see a man alone in the desert, dying of thirst, with the Philadelphia Orchestra behind him."

Ford talks about almost every film he ever made, including most of the silents that no one's ever seen. You can read the book in one sitting, and by the end you'll have a sense of who John Ford was and what he was all about. Since Ford hated giving interviews, but was very patient with Bogdanovitch, this one is something of a standout.

It's a good book, I just wish there was more of it.

(A poster below slags the Hitchcock/ Truffaut book; don't listen to him, that book is marvelous.)

I love film interview books. There has become a great tradition of directors interviewing directors for all of posterity. Bogdanovich was successful at getting a great number of the leading directors on the record. This was his attempt at debriefing John Ford.

John Ford was quite an elusive character. He was considered a great artist inside and outside of Hollywood during his life. This short book isn't a bad attempt to have him comment on those films most precious to him and to us. Unlike Orson Welles, who made only a few films over 40 years, and spoke on them extensively with Bogdanovich, Ford speaks just a sentence or two or maybe a paragraph on some of the greatest films of all time. Grapes of Wrath? "I liked the idea of a family going out and trying to find their way in the world." She Wore a Yellow Ribbon? "I tried to copy the Remington style there." The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance? "I think they were both good characters and I rather liked the story."

I hope I haven't made it sound too simplistic, because Ford actually reveals the most important parts of his films with very few words. Just reading a sentence or two and watching the film gives you the idea of what Ford was trying to convey. It may even give these films new meaning.

This book by Bogdanovich is the first attempt to portray the art of this truly great poet in cinema. If you are looking for the facts about his life, just forget this book. But if you are REALLY interested in what kind of person he was, this classic book still remains one of the most poignant portrait of a great filmmaker. Ford rarely tells the truth, and many things that he said in this book is now considered or confirmed to be untrue by biographers and scholars. But it is not only the facts that makes a man. Through the "lies" (if you may called it), you learn a lot about his great sense of sarcastic humour, and his way of capturing people's heart: in many occasion, Ford makes fun of Bogdanovich, yet without hurting his feelings. How many people can talk to somebody like this? I, personally, have never met. Telling stories is itself an art, for somebody like Ford. And through him telling stories, you can feel the poet inside him. Actually, Ford is more honest than most of the directors of his generation. Think of Alfred Hitchcock's self-glorification as he was interviewed by Truffaut. Ford doesn't do that. He is humble and never tries to boast about his "art". He says, he just put the camera before something he found interesting. He never tells about all the difficulties he had to go through to achieve that, but you if you are a careful reader, and somebody who knows his films, you can just feel it. Bogdanovich's introduction, describing the great artist at work during the shooting of Cheyenne Autunmn is so beautiful and sad it will bring tears to your eyes.