I used this book with a 7th grade class of "reluctant learners" and was completely delighted by their enthusiasm. All of the projects we tried (about 3/4 of those offered) were successful. As I was operating on a low budget, I appreciated being able to use the easily found materials and ingredients listed in the procedures. The Faux Marble project results were especially astounding. Get this book and enjoy!

A review of this book will appear on our web site: The Dinosaur Interplanetary Gazette www.users.interport.net/~dinosaur after December 1. You are welcome to quote it if you'd like and we'll have a link to the book. Thanks! E. Summer dinosaur@interport.ne

This is an excellent anthology of Whittaker Chambers' writings from his moonlighting as a communist journalist to the period after his fall out with the Reds. He follows his subsequent migration to Time and his days penning for the National Review. If you've read and enjoyed his autobiography, Witness, than you will probably enjoy this book.

For forty years the accepted establishment view of Whittaker Chambers was that of a fat, rumpled weirdo, obsessed, presumably for some kind of degenerate sexual reasons, with the destruction of Alger Hiss, a man who was in every way his better. Even the publication and excellent sales of his extraordinary memoir, Witness, could not erase that caricature from the minds of the elites. I remember a PBS miniseries about the Hiss case, which must date from the late 70's or early 80's (I checked; it looks like it was, fittingly, broadcast in 1984), which portrayed Hiss as a victim, if not an outright innocent. But then the pendulum began to swing :

-First came the 1978 publication of Allen Weinstein's authoritative book, Perjury : The Hiss-Chambers Case, which convinced most of the holdouts of the guilt of Alger Hiss.

-Then, in 1984, Ronald Reagan posthumously awarded Chambers the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

-Five years later came this collection of the journalism of Whittaker Chambers, Ghosts on the Roof, which began the process of restoring his literary reputation.

-The fall of the Soviet Union unleashed a flood of government secrets from both US and Russian files which exposed both the extent and success of Soviet efforts to penetrate the US government, media and Hollywood in the 30's & 40's and peace groups in the subsequent decades.

-In 1995, the VENONA intercepts were revealed, with their decoded messages confirming that the Rosenbergs and Hiss, among others, had been Soviet agents.

-Finally, the publication in 1997 of the first serious biography, Whittaker Chambers : A Biography by Sam Tanenhaus, and the truly bizarre moment on Meet the Press when Clinton CIA nominee Tony Lake could not bring himself to declare Alger Hiss guilty, even fifty years after the fact, forced a major re-examination of Chambers, his legacy, and the legacy of those who were simply unable to accept his charges no matter the evidence (like Lake and like CNN in their Cold War series).

After all of that, it is perhaps now possible to contemplate Chambers the writer in a somewhat more neutral, less partisan, light. This collection includes everything from political essays to reflections on the Hiss case to movie and book reviews to a set of historical essays on Western Culture written for LIFE. Among the best pieces are a review of Finnegans Wake and a tribute to Joyce on his death; a review of the movie version of Grapes of Wrath, which Henry Luce said was the best film review ever published in TIME; a really scathing review of Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged; and the prophetic title essay.

...

The outstanding piece though may well be the one that Teachout chose for the title. Ghosts on the Roof ran in TIME on March 5, 1945, shortly after the Yalta Conference, when the Allies were still basking in the glow of having cooperated to defeat Hitler. With admirable foresight, Chambers pricked this gonfalon bubble. The essay fantasizes that the ghosts of Nicholas and Alexandra and the other murdered Romanovs descend upon the roof of the Livadia Palace at Yalta to watch the goings-on. There they meet Clio, the Muse of History, who has likewise come to observe the Big Three Conference. When History expresses her surprise at finding the Romanovs there, they reveal that they have become fans of Stalin and have converted to Marxism, actually Stalinism. The Tsar and Tsarina explain that Stalin is achieving conquests which even Peter the Great never dared and now come Britain and America as virtual supplicants, unwittingly giving him the opportunity to grab more land in the East in exchange for entering the war with Japan. They share the Marxist belief that in the years following the war, England and the U.S. will collapse because of the internal contradictions of capitalism. Clio tells them that this will not happen, that the years to come will see a conflict between two opposing faiths, leading to "more wars, more revolutions, greater proscriptions, bloodshed and human misery." The Tsarina asks why she does not intervene to avert this, and Clio answers that humans never learn from History and :

Besides, I must leave something for my sister, Melpomene to work on.

Melpomene, Clio's sister, is the Muse of Tragedy. Here, years before he became embroiled in the Hiss case, long before the Cold War started, before the Atomic Age had even dawned, is Whittaker Chambers warning the West of the future it faces and forecasting it uncannily.

These essays, and the many others included here, make for really interesting reading. They reveal Chambers to be both a gifted and a prescient writer. His opinions on the Arts stand up extremely well. His assessments of political situations were as much forty years ahead of their time; particularly perceptive in this regard is one ("Soviet Strategy in the Middle East" [National Review October 26, 1957]) in which he predicted how the Soviets would foster Arab radicalism in the Middle East. All in all, the book serves to add depth and heft to a man who spent almost half a century as a caricature, who was more an undeserving victim of Anti-Anti-Communism than any of those who were blacklisted were "victims" of Anti-Communism. It is altogether fitting that the 20th Century, which Chambers did so much to redeem, ended with his reputation ascendant and those of his opponents in rapid decline.

GRADE : A

Girl Wonder is the winner of a 2003 Parents Choice Gold Award. As a teacher and parent, I rely on the Parents Choice award books. This is a great book to read aloud. If your daughter plays ball, read her this book. The photograph of the real Alta Weiss on the back cover is awesome.

My daughter began playing ball in third grade. She loves this book. The illustrations are fun yet convey a sense of the time period. And the story is great for reading aloud. The best part is seeing a photograph of the real Alta Weiss, the Girl Wonder, on the back cover. That seems to make it real for kids. I am a teacher and I do a unit on women's history every March and will definitely include Girl Wonder on my list of books to read to my students.

This is a very good book for those who fear close relationships. The author emphasizes that to be human is to want and need to feel connected to others. Yet, often our ambivalence toward ourselves, those in our lives, and life itself makes it difficult to reach out to others to love and to be loved.

Through reading this book, I came to understand that relationships involve enormous risk and feelings of vulnerability. The results of taking risks can be both painful and pleasurable. However, both are a necessary part of life. Without pain, we would not enjoy pleasure. The author points out that we sometimes live life as though we're fending it off or simply getting through it. He suggests instead that we think of life as an invitation, including an invitation to be loved. There are not necessarily rational reasons others may love us. We simply are loved.

The author is a Christian but the book does not come across as overly religious. I have taken books back to the store because they emphasize religion too much. This book only has some sprinklings here and there. He deals far more with the feelings and emotions his readers struggle through.

Terry Hershey's Go Away, Come Closer could be one of the most unsettling books you'll ever read, yet it's also one of the best gifts you can give yourself and your identity. --Bookstore Journal

An excellent follow-up to Book I. I really enjoyed the way Brother Nance focuses on sticking to the work and not the position.

This is a very simple and easy reader. If you feel you've been called into the true service of GOD, then this book will definately satisfy a lot of your concerns while leading you into the unique and powerful walk with the LORD.

Having bought the book before a dog , reading this gives the novice dog handler an insight into the pit-falls of dog training before you make them.I,ve had my copy for 15 years and still refer to it .

fantastic what else can i say i will have to buy my own cop

I's quite a pleasure to see again some shadow world books.
But it's also a true surprise, as the overall quality is exceptionnal (and well beyond the quality of old iron crown enterprise books0.
The book is clear, concise and complete.
The writing skills of the author are simply impressive.
I think the cities described is this book can be used in any serious fantasy game. Personnally, I plan to use it in my DD3 campaign.

One of the latest entries in Terry Amthor's Shadow World setting for the Rolemaster roleplaying game (though really it could fit nicely into any fantasy game), Haalkitaine and the Imperial Court of Rhakhaan is an in-depth look at the capital of a troubled empire.

Articulate writing, slick design and the obvious feeling that this work is a labor of love make this a purchase well worth the money. My only disappointment was that I was under the impression there would be extensive maps of the sewers in the book, but I have yet to find any, though there are hints for slogging around under the city. This is a niggling complaint, however, when weighed against the overall richness of the offering, which includes detailed histories, 3,000 years of royal lineage, profiles of the nobility, maps of representative buildings, laws, price lists, a four-page full color map of the city, a guide to the inhabitants and interesting locales in the city, and much, much more.

As with all Amthor's products, Haalkitaine and the Imperial Court of Rhakhaan is well worth the price of purchase.

I bought this book when I found it in a local sheet music store, even though it was quite expensive. The first half of this book is about Sonny's life. He tells the story and it is quite interesting. I would think this is the most valuable thing about the book. After this, Sonny's technique is briefly explained, and then there are some songs tabulated for the reader to play them. I found this tab very hard to understand, IT DOESN'T HAVE STANDARD MUSIC NOTATION, and that makes it very hard. Besides, Sonny's style is complex. It comes with a vinil recording. I FOUND THE BOOK VERY INTERESTING, AS LONG AS YOUR MAIN FOCUS IS TO LEARN ABOUT SONNY. If you want to learn to play harp I wouldn't recomend it. There are better books for beginners (look for peter pickow).

If you want to do it the way Sonny did this is the book for you. Of all the harp books I have this one is the most clearly laid out and easy to follow. Clear annotation shows which holes to blow/suck bends etc. No substitute for practice but it get you well on the way.With the aid of a few cd's or better still vinyls you can follow what Sonny does. An addictive book.

I bought both the Shintani books, though this is really not necessary because they're almost identical. The diet works so well that I was astonished when the results were almost immediate with regard to my blood sugar and my blood pressure. A type II diabetic for over five years, my blood sugar dropped into the normal range within one week allowing me to eliminate 500mg of Metformin. My blood pressure came down to low normal instead of high normal.

Almost all recipes tried have been quite good, not at all boring. After 14 days I have lost about 8 pounds, but my main concern had been my sugar and BP, not my waist! A couple of recipes have been a bit unrealistic portion-wise ("serves 8"? Eight elves, maybe!) but one soon learns to understand better the theory behind the diet and one can do a bit of label-reading and make minor changes. And, once learned, it's just so much common sense!

Try it... You might love it. But you still have to work hard and be careful about the fat, salt and sugar. (After reading closely all labels on cans you may learn to shudder at what is being put into those cans....) And let's not forget that old hated word EXERCIZE. Also remember that one must remain on this diet forever with only an occassional juicy hamburger! Good luck!

Once again Dr. Shintani gives us the benefit of his knowledge and experimentation. Hawaii Diet Cookbook takes Dr. Shintani's Eat More Weigh Less Diet into a tropical paradise and provides us with a book of wonderful Polynesian and Asian meals. Each recipe is easy to fix and very tasteful. In this book, Dr. Shintani offers testimony from people who followed this diet and decreased their blood pressure, were able to discontinue medications for diabetes and dropped weight. It is a great book for those who love to cook and eat. I have recommended this book to friends and relatives. Thank you, Dr. Shintani.

I'm just ordering this book because oysters are my earlier memory. I live on pure-oyster beaches in Dabob Bay. So my friend who's a marine biologist got the book at Anthony's Oyster Olympics last weekend (an annual event) and says she sat up and read it straight through.

So, as oysters are an obsession for my parents and their 55 years of marriage and life on this beach, I'm buying it for Mom's upcoming birthday.

This is the first complete history of the oyster industry. Within the covers is a story that could have been lost had it not been for the research done to preserve the origins of Oystering in the Northwest.Congats to the authors.
It is a fun read taking you from the early days of the Willipa Bay oystermen to the present time.Love of the oyster continues to grow.
Yes, NW oysters have pearls, and this book is a Pearl as well.