There are a hundred reasons why I love this book and would recommend it to anyone. 1...It has the notes, the chords and best of all it has the easy numbering system where c is 1 ; d is 2; e is 3 ; f is 4; etc........2...don't let the easy numbering system discourage you.....the opposite is true......if you have some initial success playing show tunes and old favorites you will continue playing music.........3.....Your success will motivate you to practice without noticing how much work you are doing....it will be fun..........4.......You will do songs like THE WAY WE WERE, I LEFT MY HEART IN SAN FRANCISCO, STARDUAST, SEPTEMBER SONG, FLY ME TO THE MOON, APRIL IN PARIS, DIXID, THIS LAND IS YOUR LAND, GOD BLESS AMERICA, ARE YOU LONESOME TONIGHT AND SO much, much more.......5......the idea with music is to have fun.........6......to be able to gather around the piano and play some tunes is a real confidence builder.......7......like exercise equipment, language courses and so many other activities, if you don't have success along the way you will give up.......you have success which motivates even more success............8....even more remarkable is that from playing these show songs you develope a feel or style of your own and you get a "sense of music" that is invaluable..........9.......I like the idea that with a few hours of practice on a song you can have fun with it.........10......maybe your classical music teacher will shake his head, but you will make more progress on the time put in than with so many of the other courses or books......11....Here is the sad and funny part to the whole review....something this wonderful is out of print.......it shows you that people in our society often fail to appreciate wonderful and simple pleasures............It was written in 1991........12.....the reason I would buy and own one or more of these books is that they will help you in family and social situations.....suppose you want to meet that cute girl or handsome guy........being able to sit down and play EMBRACEABLE YOU, FOOLS RUSH IN , GREENSLEEVES, I CAN'T STOP LOVING YOU OR IN THE MOOD can be very useful............it is great to be able to teach others to play, to share this book, for romantic moments, .......it is useful to play the piano the way knowing how to dance is useful...........13....nearly all of us have taken a few piano lessons and we learned dumb, go no where songs.....when we see someone who can play great show tunes, great film memories, look back fondly tunes or inspiration, country or special songs at Christmas a sense of fun, envy and wanting to hang with that person happens.........14.....In several instances when I sat down with this book, girlfriends were impressed, wanted to hear more or we just had fun with the words and melodies.......15............In today's rushed world where time is at a premium, learning 100 old standards can be a priceless tool...........Instead of spending weeks learning Topcatta and Fuge in D minor which is great, learning a half dozen or two dozen show tunes can be priceless.........16.....not only does the book have words, but a little history of each song..............17.....finally, for the serious musician you will appreciate the fact that you can do blending......by that I mean you can effortlessly shift from THE WAY WE WERE to AS TIME GOES BY..... and then back again.......18.....also I found that as I learned these songs I learned a lot about logical chord progressions that make the songs work.......19....they picked easy to play but hard to forget melodies.....20.....once you mastered the melodies you were doing amazing chordal changes and fancy fingerwork............21.......I think of Liberace and other musical masters like Elvis and this book lets you build your own style...........22.......this book is great for situations where you sit down, play the piano and have nice relaxed songs that help people feel mellow.........MUSIC SHOULD NOT BE TORTURE ....MUSIC SHOULD NOT HUMILIATE YOU....... this book allows you to make the progress necessary to have fun and feel that future learning is worthwhile...........I was so happy with the book that I called the publisher and wanted to buy all the other easy way to play books and discovered it was out of print.............the old joke that the really great books are always out of print is true..............don't let that discourage you.......this book is great

This book has several levels to play from, two hands, one hand notes, and one hand numbers, all together. This makes it easy to advance with both hands. For the more experienced player the tunes have the chords and enough changes in key to play a lot of nice songs quickly. Has sections for whatever mood you may feel like playing that day, such as show tunes, hits, and seasonal favorites. Large for easy reading and well worth adding to your collection.

If you like the classic songs from popular music to show tunes in an easy to read format, this is for you. It gives suggested settings for keyboard and melody line with chords. It also has easy to play treble and bass, but experienced musicians will be able to fill in as desired.

This book contains the great old country-western songs, from back when country-western was truly country-western and not just another rock n' roll mutant. These are the songs that are fun to sing, and that you CAN sing, with simple yet fun arrangements for the musically challenged. After only one exposure to this book, I was belting out a fairly good rendition of "Back In The Saddle Again," and a couple of friends even joined in, looking over my shoulder at the pages. The most fun is being able to read all the words that you didn't always catch when you first heard the song. Great for singing around the campfire, piano, or even the dinner table. I hope Readers' Digest decides to bring this one back, because it's a valuable reference and a lot of enjoyment.

Unfortunately, this terrific book has been out of print for a while, but it is prime time to bring it back. Old time and classic country bands are experiencing a huge resurgence. If the Reader's Digest Publishing Company is listening... Please reprint!

This is the first person account of the founder of the Quakers (Society of Friends), George Fox, and it is the best resource for the life and testimonies of Quakers. It is an exciting read full of action, truth and common sense living.

This immaculate collection is a must-read for all. Featuring intricately crafted tales from today's most gifted writers, including Utah's Kate Boyes ('I Hold To Those Who Favor Fire'), this intelligently written mélange is, refreshing, enlightening, and entertaining.

This book is a wonderful compilation of many unavailable
children's songs and now makes my collection complete. My only
reservation is the lack of a CD or cassette as accompaniment to the book. This would be a fantastic aid for those of us who don't read music, but would like to use the book as a classroom teaching tool.

In this book William Fox writes about maps, the Great Basin desert, Native American Rock Art, ecology, ranchers, the many dimensions of water in the desert, Michael Heizer's landscape projects and history. The book is unique for the tone he strikes and the desert that he writes about. This is a detailed and articulate book that never bogs down.

He writes with a naturalist's eye and a poet's heart. The blurb on the dust jacket compares his writing to Barry Lopez. The comparison is apt and Fox has put together something here I will remember and re-read for a long time to come. He examines why deserts charm us and explores the Great Basin on foot and with eloquence. I loved it from the Introduction to the detailed Bibliography at the end. Read it!

This is a well written look at 8 artists in Nevada. Most interesting is how these artists and their work reflects and interacts with the desert landscape in a variety of ways.The artists respond in a variety of ways using abstraction, collage, installation and mixed media. The book is well illustrated and shows examples of the artists' work. Fox has an obvious affection for the artists in this book and strikes a tone that is balanced and enthusiastic. It is an interesting look at 8 specific artists but also delves into the creative process, culture in the Western US and how the landscape impacts all of that. Definitely worth the time!

If one has not read the three earlier histories of the Supreme Council, SJUSA (1801-1861, 1861-1891 & 1891-1921) then this work will be a very good look into many aspects of the development of the Scottish Rite and the birth of the Southern Jurisdiction. I have to wonder, however, why the author needed to spend as much time as he did on the earlier years of the SJ when it gave so very little new material (and actually less than the earlier works). In short, if you have no history of the Southern Jurisdiction, then this well written and easy to read work will be of value to you and wet your appetite for more information concerning the earlier years of Scottish Rite Masonry in America. If you already have the earlier histories of the SJ, then this will provide you with, at the very least, a nice coffee table book with some good information on the later years of the Southern Jurisdiction.

You need to know that there are NO color pictures in this guide. This book has small b&w photos of what must be nearly all of R.A. Fox's prints with a price guide. It's great to know all the names of the pictures that I have, and the one's that I've seen that I would like to have. However, this book is better for someone with better eyes than I have. For me, the b&w photos are too small to distinguish much of the detail.

Last November, I flew into las Vegas for the first time on a bright, sunny day. I had my nose pressed to the window most of the way, and was in awe of the what lay below. I followed the roads through the desert that led to Vegas and vowed to make the drive myself some day. I couldn't believe my luck when I happened across this book. But, the book left me bored and disappointed. Maybe I was expecting too much, but even the author's reader-friendly prose could not make this an interesting read.

What a letdown. Yes, the prose is decent, and the premise is undeniably attractive but, for anybody who holds the drive to Las Vegas close to their heart, these 3 separate tales of driving across the desert toward that glittery focal point called Sin City will all leave you feeling cheated. Why? Well, most of all, the author TURNS OFF THE HIGHWAY BEFORE GETTING TO VEGAS! How can you leave out the final 5 miles!? If you have to be dragged, kicking and screaming, into a casino, what in the world are you doing writing a book with Vegas at its center? Yes, the author shows that he knows the road, and what the various mountains are called, etc., but he obviously has no understanding of what compels most of us to take that road so many times in our lives. Skip this book and spend the money on a tank of gas yourself. This book has no Elvis.

Though published by a university press, this is no dry academic tome. It's an unusally creative attempt to capture the spirit and the meaning of the drive through the desert. Fox writes of three approaches to the archetypal desert city, Las Vegas: from Sante Fe, from Los Angeles and from Reno. His writing is personal, captivating and will make you see the desert (and our paths through it) in entirely new ways.