As a Clinical Massage Therapist at a hospital, I use these books almost daily. In fact, I just ordered my second set. . . The first is so threadbare it's barely usable. ANYTIME I have a patient with a pain that I can't immediately identify I grab my Travell's. This set is an absolute BIBLE for anyone in the health care industry. Travell and Simons have esentially written "The Instruction Manual" for elliminating myofascial pain by going to it's source!

Janet Travell, MD and David Simons, MD were absolute pioneers when it came to myofascial pain and it's treatment. What makes these books even more amazing is that they were written a full quarter of a century before doctors even acknowledged that myofascial pain actually exsisted. . . What makes them interesting is that, in this, the most current edition, they have re-evaluated about 65% of the sites that before would only be considered for cortizone or saline injection and now recommend these areas be attended to by a Massage Therapist. They even go into strong detail as to stroke, direction and stretching. There are still plenty of sites that they recommend for injection, but only in a last resort situation.

The chapters are laid out in an incredibly easy to understand manner, though that's not even the beauty of the book's design. If you know the name of the muscle in question, you simply look inside the front cover; the muscle are all listed with their coresponding page numbers next to them. Don't know the name or not sure which muscle it is in the group? No problem. You again open the front cover and there, in 5th grade simplicity, are charts for all the areas covered in the book. Flip to the area in question and look through the diagrams. When you find (in the super well drawn diagrams) the pain you are trying to treat, you are given, not only several treatment plans, but etiology and most likely direct verve aggravation associated with the pain.

My only problem with the set is that the book are not as well bound as maybe they could be for the price. You'll notice, however, that it didn't have enough of an impact on me to give it any less that a perfect score.

I STRONGLY recommend this book for ANY health care practitioner that deals with pain control and alleviation.

Janet Travell MD and David Simons MD spent a lifetime studying the patterns and treatment of muscular and soft tissue pain in patients. It is a specialty in itself, and provides an amazingly detailed review of anatomy. These books are the bible on the subject written by the "mother" and "father" of the specialty. There will hardly be a day in the professional life of a busy primary care practitioner, rheumatologist, orthopedist, neurologist, physiatrist or physical therapist when these books will not be used. The more one knows of this field, the more revelations one gets into those difficult chronic pain patients. The etiology and muscular complexity of the huge field of "tension headache" syndromes now become clear. With these books you will have the tools to diagnose and treat effectively (usually dramatically) the entire spectrum of myofascial pain from head to toe, muscle by muscle. Why do so few physicians know of this vital area of medicine?

The Trigger Point Manual is a two volume set detailing the current state of knowledge of trigger points and myofascial pain for both the upper body, vol. 1, and the lower extremities, vol. 2. It also contains fascinating analysis of how muscles work in different situations, offering insight into aspects of human movement. These wonderful books are essential reading for all manual therapists.

about brain mysteries and learning. Her book helps to make a dent in that pathway of mystery. She gives practical advice as well as personal stories to support her point of view. This is a must have for any teacher.

This book is a fantastic resource for activities on right-brained learning. Vitale's format is very easy to follow. The lessons are practical and easy to use. I have used this book in my classroom and have found that the lessons engage students and help them to understand difficult concepts.

I read this book twelve years ago. As a homeschool mom it helped me understand the ways I needed to work with my child. Now, as he approaches graduation...he is a musician and speaks two languages fluently. I will never forget the day this book fell into my hands!

I think dthe book is great. It has wonderful ideas and great teaching methods. Its a fine teaching tool and it a great project to work with.

It was a pleasure not just to read but also to be in the audinance. I think all of the teacher did a great job. Not only did the kids learn but they found out how the system works. We can look forward to alot of great kids when teachers like these go out of their way not just teach but make things almost life like.

This is an excellent book. The tools and origantially of it is amazing. If you are a teacher and are looking for a group project to do with other teachers, get this book.

"Daniel's Gift" is a very unique read that will surely tug at anyone's heartstrings and there is enough romance and plot twists to keep the readers interested. As a result, I couldn't put the book down even if I wanted to, which I most certainly did not. The only thing that it was lacking was an epilogue. I would have loved to see Danny and his two parents a year later from when Danny wakes up from his hospital bed. It would have been nice to see them as a whole and complete family. Other than that, "Daniel's Gift" was perfect.

This book has a special place in my heart, Nine months ago my son also was in the wrong place at the wrong time. And he died of brain trauma. At the time we recieved a lot of books of how to cope with the loss of a child. But Daniel's gift has helped me more to come to term with my loss than anything else I have read. Thank you Ms Barbara Freethy

Unknowingly to me, there were tears flowing down my cheeks as I held my breath reading rapidly in order to learn if Danny lives or dies. The unique gift Danny brings to his mother, Jen, who has raised him since birth without alerting Danny's biological father, Luke, of Danny's existence, is VERY touching. Having children on the brink of teenage years myself and not knowing how they really feel, was accurately depicted in Freethy's development of Danny, a teenage boy who goes in search of his father. Upon returning to his mother from his first glimpse of his father's lavish life, Danny is hit by a car and slips into a coma. The tragedy brings his mother and father face to face. Luke, thinking the baby, Danny, had been aborted, is astonished to learn that he has a son. The devotion and love Jen has for her son makes Luke realize the loss he will have if he isn't given the opportunity to know Danny and re-acquaint himself with his soul-mate, Jen. I am now on a mission to read other books by Barbara Freethy.

This book is so well written and would be such a great
commercial success if it were made into a movie. This
writer expresses what is going on in our society and how
it feels to be a single mother and what one encounters and
she expresses it like poetry........fantastic.....beautifully.
THIS SHOULD BE MADE INTO A MOVIE.

I borrowed this book from my sister because I wanted an easy read for my beach vacation. I ended up reading it in one sitting! I was surprized I was so quickly absorbed into the lives of the characters and related so well to them because I'm not a single mother nor a mother at all. It was much better then the usual vacation book not only because I enjoyed it more but I was thinking about the characters afterwards. I recommend it highly. I hope they make it into a movie and I look forward to reading another of her books!

I am not a single mother nor a mother of any kind but I loved this book. I bought it for a beach vacation because a friend of mine told me about it. I ended up reading it in one sitting because it was such an easy and entertaining read. I was surprized because I was really absorbed by the characters (a teenage girl and even the older woman with AID's)and there were moments where my eyes filled with tears which I didn't expect. It would make a great movie. I hope she writes another one!

I am one of the generation of New Yorkers that have grown up with the ghost of the old Penn station - and its unfortunate replacement. We have been forever robbed of this stately thing, which was so much more than a building. Watching it's slow death in these haunting pictures makes me hope this is the last time we have used our imagination to destroy rather than build. (This is an especially painful irony in light of our recent tragedy.) Get this book, and look at it with your children. And may we never treat the human-made beauty around us with such contempt again.

I remember as a kid in the mid-70s taking the train to NYC and having to endure the commuter's nightmare known as "modern" Penn Station.

In the late 80s, I learned what once was on the site of the current MSG/Penn Station monstrosity and became appalled that people could let a beautiful work of art be dismantled and replaced with a horrible building. In the early 1990s, I learned about the 1950s and 1960s and how Americans were obsessed with all things modern and new, rejecting anything with a hint of age or ornament.

Moore & Moore take a pictorial look on how the McKim, Mead and White's neoclassical masterpiece was dismantled over a multi-year period in the mid-1960s. While they really don't go into detail on why the old Penn Station was demolished, the spooky, B & W photos tell more than how an architectural gem was demolished. On a deeper level, the photos tell the tale of how an entire city was becoming irrelevant to suburban America and was sinking into massive decline (the years of municipal bankrupcy and burning neighborhoods in the South Bronx are only a few years away).

It was a very sad book that gets more depressing with each turn of the page, as more and more of the beauty of the old Penn Station gets stripped away. I guess that was the power of the photographs working on me.

Pair this book up with Robert Caro's _The Power Broker_ to get a good picture of New York in the early Baby Boom era.

This is an extraordinary, heartbreaking, must have book for anyone who loves New York and/or McKim, Mead & White's work.

Photographer Peter Moore and his wife Barbara moved into the Penn Station neighborhood in the early sixties. They used the building every day, whether they were passing through to the subway or catching a bite in the cavernous coffee shop.

With the railroad's permission, they documented its slow dismantling over the four years from 1963-1967. This book is the first appearance of that work. The black and white pictures are arranged chronologically, showing the faded but still magnificent station from its last days of active use through to its ghostly presence as a metal shell. The photography is beautiful and lyrical and sad beyond words, like a mournful love song to a love lost. The picures of the rubble-filled waiting room, its shape still intact but its side walls gone, are especially hard to take.

One note: this is not an exhaustive review of the building and its various spaces. It is a chrono picture of the concourse and waiting room through through their destruction. For more pics of the station in use, try "The Late, Great, Pennsylvania Station."

There are very few biographies out there for young children that capture their interest. My 8 year old daughter chose this book for her biography book report, was entranced by it and by the subject -- Bejamin Waterhouse Hawkins.
Surprisingly I was also intigued by the book, found the illustrations magnificent and the story "stranger than fiction". Kudos!

I purchased this as a gift for my four year old Grandson and found myself fasinated with the book. The story, although true, was new to me. I was entranced with not only the narrative but also the great and colorful art work. This is a book for all ages and I predict it will become a classic for those of us who marvel at the number of and various sizes of the different dinosaurs. A perfect gift for that Dinosaur-loving Child in your life.
Beverly J Scott author of Righteous Revenge

"Can you fathom a time when almost no one in the world knew what a dinosaur looked like?" Well, back in the mid-eighteen hundreds, that was just the case. Archeologists and paleontologists had found dinosaur fossils and bits and pieces of their skeletons, but no one had actually drawn or created a model of what one might have really looked like. Enter Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins. He had always had a passion for drawing and sculpting animals, and now as an adult, realized his dream project, commissioned by Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, of building life sized dinosaur statues for all the world to see..... Take a little biography and science, add some mystery, history, humor and suspense, and you have the makings of one intriguing and captivating story. Barbara Kerley and Brian Selznick take us from England to America and back with this thrilling and unique story about this special man of vision. Ms Kerley's detailed text is exciting, thoughtful, and inspiring, and beautifully complemented by Mr Selznick's dazzling and intricate illustrations. Together word and art create a vivid and lasting picture of a man who followed his dream through both triumph and disaster. Fascinating end notes are as entertaining as the story, enhance and augment learning and should open the door to interesting lessons and discussions. Perfect for youngsters 8-12, The Dinosaurs Of Waterhouse Hawkins is a treasure to be savored and enjoyed each and every time it's read.

I am new to gingerbread houses and this book is the best! I was lucky enough to have chosen this one as my first guide to gingerbread construction. I am absolutely hooked and hope to make projects for Valentines, Easter and on through the year. The instructions are clear and easy to follow. You won't be disappointed with this book!

If you like making gingerbread houses, this is the book for you. Absolutely beautiful designs, full patterns and clear directions. The great pictures give you a preview of the results and make it hard to decide which one to make first. The many details she put into her desings make everything extra special. I'm looking forward to trying them all, and am determined to buy the author's next book with designs!

If you are serious about making Gingerbread houses, this is the book for you. The designs are wonderful and included in the book are full-sized patterns with which to copy on a photocopier for use. The only problem I have is deciding which house to make first!

Well Barbara Vine or Ruth Rendell is one of those authors I read occassionally, once or twice a year which means she is neither my favorite nor one of those authors I don't like at all. In general I would give her books three or four stars so for me she ranges somewhere in the middle.

Asta's book is one of her better books. The story is a mixture between Asta's diary, Swanny's story and finally Ann's search for the truth. But there is also a mistery involved. At the time when Swanny was born a woman was murdered and her one year old daughter misteriously dissappeared and never could be found. Towards the end of her life Swanny started to believe that she was this girl instead of Asta's daughter. Unfortunatly Asta takes this secret into her grave and when Swanny dies it is up to Ann, Asta's granddaughter and Swanny's niece, to find out the truth. With the help of Asta's diary, the things Swanny has told her and some research on the murder case she does not only solve the case but also finds out on the very last page who Swanny really was.

What I liked about this book was the idea of giving pieces of the diary, Ann's memory, facts about the case and Ann's present life to the reader but never in a way that it got too complicated. The part I didn't like about the book was Ann's private life. The fact that she found the love of her life really wasn't interesting at all. As a reader I always wanted her to move on with the case. So these parts I found quite boring. It's the same at the end of the book. I really wished the author would make a point and come up with the solution. The dialogues and thoughts on the last few pages seemed to be endless. About the end itself I could accept that Ann solved a mistery that happened almost 90 years ago but the truth about Swanny was too good to be true.

Anyway if you do like Ruth Rendell I'm sure you'll love this book. If you want to read one of her books for the first time start with this one. From all of her books this one is my favorite so far and next year my search for a five star Ruth Rendell book will go on.

This is a beautifully written, well nuanced novel of mystery and suspense that seamlessly moves between the past and the present. The past is told through the diaries of a Danish immigrant named Asta, who went to live in Edwardian England with her husband, Rasmus, and two young sons at the turn of the century. Settling down in East London in 1905, her loveless marriage and loneliness drove Asta to keep a journal of her innermost thoughts and experiences.

Though married to a man who spent a great deal of time away from home on business and with whom she seemed to have little in common, Asta added two more children to her family, daughters, Swanny, her favorite, and Maria, the youngest. Asta's lyrically written journals would chronicle of her life, her struggles as an immigrant, her hopes and dreams, and her adoration of Swanny. They would also tantalizingly hint at a secret that would, ultimately, impact on her daughter, Swanny, later in life.

Over seventy years later, those diaries, all forty nine of them, would be discovered and become a publishing sensation and a bestseller. Within its many pages would lie the missing pieces to a turn of the century murder mystery and the leads to the whereabouts of a missing child, as well as tantalizing clues to the puzzling circumstances surrounding Swanny's birth. This information would lie dormant until nearly a century after Asta first put pen to paper, when Asta's granddaughter, Maria's daughter Ann, would review the diaries and discover not only the secret of Swanny's birth, but the identity of a missing child, as well as that of a killer, who nearly a century earlier had butchered two women.

This is a book well worth reading, and one that will command the readers attention until the very last page is turned.

One of her very best and that's saying a lot. Rendell is my favorite alltime author, and I'm a constant reader. The format of her mysteries changes constantly and this one has the peculiar focus of a niece editing the famous diaries of her deceased aunt. What she finds develops into a fascinating story with Rendell's usual diverting subplots and surprising finale.

This slim,80-page, 5" X 8" paperback carries a big punch. It doesn't waste space, it's well organized, the finished bags are shown in detail in a color section. Instead of the popular peytote stitch, these bags are worked in brick stitch, a technique that creates a comfortable, flexible weave. Elbe doesn't leave you hanging for details. The instructions include fringe and strap directions, too. The book is mainly about bags, but it does include earrings, ornaments and bracelets.

In today's world where "intuitive" is often overused and overrated, Elbe delivers a traditional table of contents. It's clear and concise. The TOC is followed by a list of material, complete with illustrations.

In addition to basic brick stitch, Elbe also shows herringbone weave, right-angle weave and bead crochet. The diagrams are exceptionally clear. When the going gets rough Elbe makes suggestions how to get through the difficult section. Even experienced beaders need that kind of help.

Elbe shows how to decrease herringbone weave, but not how to increase. She does the same for right-angle weave. It's not clear why increasing is left out.

On the technical side, the instructions are in black and white. Each pattern is shown twice: once to show the shape and entire fringe and once to show the body of the purse in detail. Different colors of beads are represented by black and white patterns. Some of the patterns are hard to distinguish, even in the larger detail drawing. It's a hard problem to solve in black and white. It may have been easier to code using letters or numbers instead of small-scale patterns.

The book is a strong addition to any beading library..

Back to Beadin' contains so much more than delightful new designs for amulet bags and earrings woven with the brick stitch. You'll find interesting fringe treatments, different neckpieces, instructions for crocheting cords and herringbone and right-angle weaves, as well as a discussion of various beads and tools. A wonderful place for a beginner to dive into beading, as well as new water for those of us who weave our bags with peyote stitch.

With the easy to follow graphs and instructions, Back to Beadin' is the perfect book for all beaders from beginning to advanced levels. The excellent color charts allow you to easily make bead substitutions, if you so prefer. I have made several of the projects from this book and found that the graphs and instructions were very clear and easy to follow. I highly recommend this book to anyone who would like to make an exceptional piece of beadwork.