This book covers an amazing assortment of information, from how to install a lathe to how to turn rubber, do metal spinning, mill in the lathe, and lap cylinder bores. For a concise summary of all the assorted knowledge a home machinist is likely to need to know about, this book is hard to beat.

The frontispiece picture of the very English author in necktie and shop coat working at his lathe is alone worth the price of admission.

If you get seriously involved you'll want to know more about some of the topics, but this book will get you started.

If your are starting out as a model, steam engine,gasolineengine builder or maybe just want to learn how to use a metal lathe,this is THE book. Although focused on English equipment, it's all good stuff. Many ideas, lots of pictures and helpful tips.

Excellent book to use before you build a house! Deeply explores ancient principles of Feng Shui and how it relates to the geography around your residence. Not for the casual Feng Shui practitioner. Find out the best area to build your home, the best room layout, and the best site to locate a business. Essential guide for anyone who needs to improve his or her life or business

This is a fantastic book! It brings out the true story of feng shui the first time in English. Now I realize that true feng shui involves much more than furniture arrangement and mirror placing and what you have, and that why so many people have failed to benefit from feng shui when they assume that they understand feng shui. At best, they just see the surface of feng shui, while the truth story of feng shui is hidden in this book.

The author assumes right off that if you are reading this book, you have suffered an enormous tragedy in your life and he sets right out to help you deal with it. He explains medical terminology and hospital politics in a non-threatening and very practical way. He tells you what you CAN do and what you CAN'T do. And he gives you very constructive instructions about how to do the things that you can do. It is a nurturing AND realistic book that makes the process much more concrete and while it can't take the pain away, it does a wonderful job of lifting all the burden from your shoulders.

Professional and personal opinions of this book give the "thumbs up" as a practical reference for rehabilitation.

Mr Neil Brooks, Wellcome Neuroscience Group, University of Glasgow wrote this book has obviously been draughted for families of brain injury.

"It is a clearly written book with some excellent illustrations. It is a book which gives hope," Mr Brooks wrote in his review for the journal Brain Injury, 1989, Vol 3, No 1. "I would recommend this book to any family member of a brain-injured person, as well as those who are interested in the practice of coma stimulation," he concluded.

Dr Keith Andrews, Director of Medical and Research Services, Royal Hospital & Home, London reviewed Dr Freeman's book for the Autumn edition of Clinical Rehabilitation, 1989.

Dr Andrews wrote the book was extremely good and mused many hospitals will soon be under pressure, unable to live up to the proposals for rehabilitation which Dr Freeman addresses in his book.

Dr Clarke, Director of the British Life Insurance Trust for Health Education, London, wrote with praise and a practical proposal for the book in 1988. "It is a really excellent book. We are a registered charity ... and we have been raising money to distribute free of charge Coma Stimulation Kits to hospitals that request them. Dr Clarke proposed the inclusion of Dr Freeman's book in the kits.

Finally, a personal review from Ms Jeanette Moss, Director, The New South Wales Council for Intellectual Disability, Australia. She wrote: "I have spent many hours reading your book and then going back and rereading whole chapters."

Ms Moss further explained her opinion of the book, from her own experiences of brain injury. "The empathy I feel and the memories I will continue to hold close, come from that thread of 'close touching' which flows through every chapter. Not always the physical 'touching'; but the 'touching' from someone who cares and understands; a someone who understands how a family feels, who walks with them through their despair and confusion, through the inadequate crumbs of medical advice, through their frustrations at the coninuing lack of information; how to understand what is happening now, what to do next, what to aim for and look for in the future.

"I so wish your book had been around twenty five years ago when I was a confused and struggling young parent with a son whose intellect was impaired, lacking any of the supports which a parent looks to the medical and rehabilitative services to provide. If that 'close touching' of constructive and informed concern had been around then, what a difference it would have made to one family's future.

"For all families who have a loved one suffering brain injury, your words are a lifeline. For all families with a loved member of the family faced with other disabilities, what you have written can only be encouraging ... your book is a reinforcement of what love and encouragement can achieve."

"Many families continue to struggle with the reluctance or inability of the various professions to provide us with the information we need, given to us in an understandable and deliberate and compassionate way. I hope and trust your book will fall into the hands of every famnily and friend of aa person who is brain injured, and into the wider readership of families of people who are intellectually or physically disabled."

The book has alot of information. I own one of the old Machetes and it was quite interesting to read about it. I would highly recommend this bood to anyone owning a Collins Machete.

Since I appear many times in the text of this book as an observor, as a facilitator, and as a source, it may be considered presumptuous for me to review it. But since I am competent to do so, here goes. Ed and I knew each other from 1971 when we first met. Since I am in MD and he was in CA our face time was limited but we kept in close touch by snail mail and phone. He made many trips to the source at Collinsville and I dug a large amount of materials out of the National Archives, Smithsonian, and the Library of Congress. Since Ed focused strictly on Collins products and only on the sub lines of machetes and I am interested in all military edged tools and cutlery as well as axe work in general, we overlapped our interests. Is this the book I have written or would have? Certainly not, but I know for certain that it is all in focus and, unless there is a new vast discovery of documents, if there is anything more to be known about Collins machetes you can put in a very small pot. By focusing as he did Ed was able to find things that I never did nor even thought to look for. The ultimate test of this kind of book is is it interesting, and is it useful? I think it is so, and I wll be able to chop out all the corporate history which was in my original work and refer the reader to this one. Carter Rila

This isn't for kids or teens olds, but it certainly is fun for the rest of us. I've never seen a travel guide so raw and funny.

I'm not sure if I'd even want to go to some of these places, but they're fun to read about nonetheless. This is no literary masterpiece, I mean the guy's a gangster- but it's refreshing prose.

this thing is going on my coffeetable for sure!

This book truly represents a side amd mistery most normal people will never encounter. I thought was well written and extremely interesting.

The Goodfella's guide to New York is a truly facinating guide to New York's notorious Mob Haunts, unlike any other guide book, but it also gives an excellent real life New Yorkers view of Restaurants, Bar's and tourist attractions to visit.

Authors Henry Hill and Bryon Schreckengost, have obviously worked hard on creating a unique and informative tour of the 'real' New York. And with Henry's true life experiences, have delivered an exciting and nostalgic look at the infamous places where the mob hung out (and in some cases still do).

I thoroughly enjoyed it and can't wait to get back to NYC to check out some of the recommended eateries and other venues!

Although Miller's books are largely autobiographical, it is sometimes difficult to discern "Henry Miller" from "Henry Miller's world". In reading this book by Brassai, we learn some of the methods Miller used to construct his world-- thus providing a deeper understanding of the man. While this book is by no means exhaustive, it does provide a glimpse into the man. There are numerous descriptions of Henry Miller available, but to get an insider's view, it is essential to read this book written by a man who knew Miller as well as any person can know another.

This book is a must-read for Henry Miller devotees who want to understand the genesis of this great writer. Written by his close friend Brassai a fascinating story is told about Miller's down and out days in Paris during the 1930's and how his vision of writing developed. It is replete with personal anecdotes about Miller's views of Paris, his hatred (ambivalent as it was) of his homeland and his relations with the women in his life. It more than anything shows Miller as the writer refusing to sell-out by having the essence of his writing edited away by the censorius literary status quo of his day.

Okay, it's the middle of winter, Christmas is past, and now is the time to break out the gardening catalogs and begin plotting the new growing year. According to Henry Mitchell, we can enjoy the garden year-round if we plan strategically and the middle of winter is a good time to begin.

Mr. Mitchell wrote two weekly columns for the Washington Post for a number of years--one of them a garden column I never missed reading. His garden columns have been preserved in several books. ONE MAN'S GARDEN follows his first book THE ESSENTIAL EARTHMAN which spread his well-earned reputation as a garden guru far beyond the Post market area. These two books were published while he was alive so one must assume they were collections of his favorite essays. The essays are arranged by season and correspond to the months he wrote them.

Mitchell can be read by gardeners living anywhere. Although his essays contain information helpful to those working in Zone 7, the reader can glean sage advice applicable anywhere. He shares anecdotes about his experiences in his own backyard, and while that might seem far from novel as every other Tom, Dick, and Henrietta is writing a garden book these days, his essays are the best. His writing is funny, philosophical, useful, and a joy to read, especially on a cold winter day when you need to be reminded of irridescent dragonflies hovering over lily ponds (former horse troughs).

In his essay on dragonfiles (July) he informs us they require lily pads for landing, they can't just plop on the water like a pelican. This little item helped me understand I needed to do more to make my back yard friendly to butterflies, dragon flies, and their insect kin. I now have shallow spots in my birdbaths where they can dip their tiny feet.

Mr. Mitchell shares all sorts of interesting insights from his adventures with clinging vines--planting them where they will not grow, growing native variants such as the American Wisteria. The American Wisteria is often overlooked by those who grow the "Oriental" kind from China which Mitchell says if left untended can form a 20-foot clump in the middle of your yard. The Chinese Wisteria is very ornate, and the U.S. Park Service has planted it all over the National Gallery of Art on the Mall, but the American Wisteria is a pretty little thing better suited for the back yard. Mitchell says you can see this Wisteria in bloom at the Henry Botanical Foundation in Philadelphia.

Mitchell's essays range far and near, from Jefferson at Monticello to flower shows in faraway places. He writes in December of bananas, not a local plant in Zone 7 by any means, but one Mitchell considered a "great good plant" nevertheless and he grows one in his back yard in a pot. Although MItchell died several years ago, his essays are every bit as timely useful and funny as ever, and not to be missed.

This book is a delight and a pleasure to read aloud. The author has helped us focus on spring planting even though the wind chill factor has been -35 degrees most of the weekend. One Man's Garden helps "cure" the cabin fever that rages at this time of year in the northeast. Well worth the money it's a refreshing window into the love of gardening.

This book, edited by Philip Van Doren Stern, is a dream come true for diehard Thoreauvians (like myself). If you think you know everything about Thoreau's Walden, think again. This book is full of fascinating footnotes that shed light on particular turns of phrase and allusions that one thought one had grasped. The footnotes are particularly illuminating in re turns of phrases that have gone out of style. To learn, for instance, that train wrecks and such were commonly referred to as "melancholy accidents" in the papers of the time, lends an otherwise missing mordant wit to Thoreau's criticism of the railroad when he says that "it will be perceived that a few are riding while the rest are run over-and it will be called, and will be, 'A Melancholy Accident'."-Absolutely delightful! Why is this book out of print with so many purported lovers of Thoreau out there?!?

Henry Nelson Wieman is not everyone's cup of tea. As Creighton Peden said in his introduction to SCIENCE SERVING FAITH -- a collection of Wieman's essays, "The experience of God is not knowledge of God, and knowledge of God is what Wieman initially is seeking." Wieman is rational and empirical through and through and people seeking for a more moist approach to spirituality will find Wieman dry as toast. Yet, and this is a big yet, this dryness has the crystalline quality of a cloudless sky and the austere elegance of a single-malt Scotch. Wieman is not bloodless, rather relentlessly singleminded in his pursuit of conceptual clarity when it comes to what he calls The Source of Human Good.

Wieman's God is transpersonal but not supernatural, a process within the universe rather than the universal creator. God, for Wieman, is the character of the universe -- a creative, integrating, pushing and pulling into greater wholes of greater value. Not terribly touchy-feely, granted, but for those of us whose faith must be solidly grounded in intellectual clarity and credibility, Wieman is a faithful guide and a constant inspiration.

AT HOME IN CREATIVITY succeeds in presenting Wieman's thought in a concise and eminently readable form at the same time as it holds it up against such contemporary trends as theologies of liberation and creation spirituality. And while Wieman did not participate in these trends -- his writing spans the middle fifty years of the 20th century -- and he could legitimately be considered naive when it comes to his optimism about societal reform, Wieman still holds his own as a partner in today's religious dialogue.

Bruce Southworth was my pastor at the Community Church of New York (Unitarian-Universalist) for the year or so I was a member before moving to Kentucky. At the time my interest in Wieman was not as acute as today. Even so I recall Rev. Southworth's sermons, personal style, and integrity as every bit as committed to the value of human creative interaction as Wieman would have wanted to see in a religious leader of the newer generation.

There are several published books of letters and diaries written by American Civil War (ACW) soldiers --from both sides of the conflict.

Enriching our understanding of the human heart in impossible circumstances is "Dear Sarah: Letters Home from a Soldier of the Iron Brigade," edited with loving care by the soldier's descendant Coralou Peel Lassen.

In my opinion it goes without saying that this recent contribution is refreshing, of great value to not only the modern reader but to posterity, too, to those who want to know more about the men --and women; the real human beings, who lived through and endured the American Civil War. This volume also illuminates the nature of not only the American Civil War but all war.

The Iron Brigade Soldier who wrote to Sarah was a young Union soldier named John Henry Pardington. The intense personal nature of his letters, what he writes about and how, is more than touching. The letters left by John Pardington offer a glimpse into the mind and soul of a man in the midst of a terrible situation and how he copes with it, how it defines him, shapes him, and how he continues to triumph over adversity.

After reading several pages I already felt like I was becoming familiar with the people "back home" that this soldier wrote about 140 years ago. I began to feel the pain of his separation from his wife and daughter, the pain of every aching joint and privation he endured. The more I opened up to John Pardington and the realities of his life at war, the more psychologically invested I became --and the more I read. Knowing the inevitable outcome made some letters particularly poignant. And painful. Often, I found the book emotionally overwhelming and put it down, reflecting. Sometimes I re-read passages with a fresh insight --from John's point of view. It isn't too much to say the book is, at turns and by its nature, not only a body blow but also eye-opening. Reading firsthand accounts of how soldiers of the Iron Brigade's 24th Michigan Infantry lived and died day by day in 1862-63 can leave one feeling "beat" inside, symptomatic of the tremendous impact the reality of John Pardington's life.

I think Ms. Lassen has really done an excellent job editing John's letters. One would think any student of history (or humanity) would want to read this book because John's words are universal. He was a Union soldier of the American Civil War, but his triumphs and failures, needs and wants, yearnings and hopes, etc., are an insight into the psyche of men away at war of all times. Her triumph is bringing John's words to the modern reader and to posterity. If one wanted to know how a soldier might be feeling or what he/she might be thinking, from Marathon to the Persian Gulf, one can find the essence of the human spirit, a soldier's dilemma, distilled and evolving in the letters of John Pardington.

John Pardington's human face on a large historical event; his evident love and longing; his deeply human and often tender observations made me again wonder why there must be conflict, wars that kill far too many John Pardingtons and leave the world a poorer place. Is there such a thing as a tragic triumph? If so, John Pardington's triumph in expressing himself, in his very being, is all the more tragic because of his death at Gettysburg. He probably never imagined his words would one-day reach out across the years to so many people. He would probably be surprised. Rather than flustered or embarrassed to have his innermost thoughts laid bare, I like to think he would ultimately see how his own life matters today, and always.

Ms. Lassen has helped John Pardington speak after all these years and still we hear him. And will hear him.