This book stands out in the crowd for 3 reasons: (1)It was carefully researched and covers 20th century American cooking from head to toe. (2)Sylvia Lovegren writes simple, straightforward English prose with great style and a consistent, tangy sense of humor. (3)For anyone who grew up in America and cares about food, "Fashionable Food" solves many of the foggy mysteries of how our fads came to be (recipes included).

And it paints a portrait of our society: for example, when Lovegren covers the rise to popularity of gazpacho during the 1950s-60s, she notes that it was de rigeur to serve your gazpacho with sangria, paella, a bullfight poster on the wall, and a recording of Miles Davis'album "Sketches of Spain" playing on the hi-fi (stereo came later). When covering the post-WW II American diet of Wonderbread, Jell-O and Spam, she skewers "The Can-Opener Cookbook" (1952) by Poppy Cannon - whose recipe for Vichyssoise called for a can of condensed cream of chicken soup and a package of frozen mashed potatoes. Pity the folks who ate it.

But Lovegren does more than snicker at the past foibles of American cookery. To me, this book was an epiphany. Suddenly, I understood how and why American cooking developed the way it did. This book reveals how our cultural climate slowly evolved, and became fertile ground for growing the great American fusion cooking we enjoy today.

Lovegren's collection of 20th century food trends may not be exhaustive, but it's certainly enjoyable. It's also a nice blend of bedside reading and recipe book. She covers all the fashionable dishes from the 1920's to the 1990's, peppering the narrative with recipes to illustrate her points. Where else are you going to find recipes for Baked Alaska and Heavenly Tang Tea in the same book? It's great fun to leaf through old chapters and giggle at the taste combinations folks thought were delish. Nut-rolled cream cheese balls stuffed in a banana skin and dressed with French dressing and mayonnaise? Ugh! Lovegren covers American's fascination with aspic (I've always wondered!), and moves on to the more exotic trends of our post-war kitchens. She wraps things up with a great chapter on the Big Eighties, and makes mention of the "fusion" trends of the Nineties. A light-hearted addition to any foodie's cookbook library!

Dr. Sylvia Gearing's book could not have helped me more! This book is wonderful!

this book changed my life. It helped me so much! I recomend this book to everyone!

I'm fond of stories from Native American cultures that attempt to explain the facts of the world. In this story, we learn how Yellow Jackets got their black striping and why fire comes from wood. Coyote is sweet and knowlegable; less of a trickster than he often is, and more caring of the animal community than usual.

The illustrations are beautiful and remind me of Jan Brett's. They have good detail and personalities on the animals faces. My favorite aspect of each animal though, was the token clothing or jewelry. Coyote wears a hat, eagle wears a necklace, fox has earrings. None of the jewelry are blatent but are subtle and understated, appearing as though the animals are comfortable in their adornments.

I found this book by accident in a local bookstore, and was astounded by the beautiful illustrations, as well as impressed by the afterword by a well-respected Karuk individual. The story of the race will captivate younger children, while the pictures will keep their parents entranced.

If you are looking for a good art book that covers some of the best in Mexican Art than look no further. As part of an exhibition that toured Dallas, Phoenix and San Diego, where I was lucky enough to have seen the impressive collection, this book is full of varied works and styles. Although the emphasis is on Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera, there are many more artists featured, including Nahum Zenil, Rufino Tamayo, Carlos Orozco Romero, Agustin Lazo, Maria Izquierdo, Lola Alvarez Bravo, Gunther Gerzo and of course the others in the "Three Greats," David Alfaro Siquieros and Jose Clemente Orozco to complete the triad masters of Mexican Art. Some of the art is breathtaking ,original and shocking but all pleasing. There are many more artists featured, to numerous to name, but suffice to say that the broad spectrum of Mexican Art is covered, including the works of contemporary artists as Natasha continued to collect into the 1990's, a decade after her husbands passing. As beautiful and magical as the art is, so varied in form, subject and media matter, the text is one that teaches about how this collection came to be. The outstanding essays reflect on the intriguing lives of the art collectors, beginning with their meeting and becoming naturalized Mexican citizens from their European exile. The relationship between Jacques Gelman and the Mexican movie comedian icon Cantinflas, who he discovered, is discussed and the stuff of legend. Jacques Hollywood connections are also featured, both in essay and pictures. The personal relationships both Jacques and Natasha had with Diego and Frida is now legendary. Although they have European(not featured here) Art in their private collection, their real love was for Mexican Art. The Gelmans devotion and dedication to Mexican Art was their baby they never had. They have nutured and shared their gifts with the rest of the world by keeping their collection intact and it speaks for itself as a collective art piece. If you missed the tour than by all means get this book which features all the exhibitions art pieces, short biographies of the artists and an interesting bilingual text. Recommended for art enthusiasts interested in the evolving art of Mexico.

Where can you find a collection of the best of Mexico's artists of the 20th century? Contained in these pages spanning four generations in the 20th century are some of the greatest names in Mexican art. The Jacques and Natasha Gelman Collection presents for the first time a wide span view of the development of Mexico's greatest treasures in art.

Here you will find Frida Kahlo, Diego Rivera, Jose Orozco and the other older greats of the muralist and painting traditions of Mexico. The art of these "Masters" are rich in their expressions of presenting the indigenous art of the people before the public. You will also find these "Masters" experimenting with impressionism, cubism and surrealism but in the end they develop a style unique to their cultural heritage.

Just viewing the "Masters" alone would be enough but Mexico's artists are progressive in their style as we view the work of the younger artists who have made their mark on the artistic scene. Francisco Toledo, Cisco Jimenez and Marco Arce explode upon the scene with their framented narrative texts, irreverance for religion and interpretations of the myths and legends of their land. Their works are just as stunning, provocative and controversial as their elders.

Such a diverse collection shows the viewer the varied styles and development of Mexican art through the 20th Century. Nothing can match it. Art lovers everywhere will appreciate the styles represented in this collection and will gain a deeper appreciation of Mexico's artistic tradition.

My two little girls love these holiday rhymes. The book covers all the Jewish holidays. Lots of fun for kids learing to count.

I discovered this book when I found that two anthologies were using rhymes from Sylvia Rouss's book - so why bother with collections - I decided to go to the original! The holiday rhymes and activities are the best!!! My children love them -- they are sweet, memorable, and teach just the right amount about the holiday for my preschooler. EVERY PARENT SHOULD HAVE A COPY because every child will enjoy the book.

A wonderful book -- low key and well written. The stories speak for themselves without author intrusion or fictionalized "oo-wee-spooky" add-ins. The Hubbards obviously enjoyed this project, and it shows. If you want ectoplasm dripping from the walls and bloody apparitions, you won't find them here; but you will meet real ghosts and the people who live with them discussing the subtle, cumulatively unsettling experience of being haunted.

I own 300 or so nonfiction ghost collections, and wrote my own ("Mobile Ghosts, Alabama's Haunted Port City.")I've sent an awful lot of ghost books on to the library, but this is one I enjoy rereading, and have it on the "keeper" shelf. --Elizabeth Parker

This is an outstanding book. I was hooked on the first page and couldn't stop reading until I was finished. The photography is every bit as exceptional as the writing. I would recommend this book to anyone who has ever had even the slightest interest in ghosts. If you are from the south it is a must!

This book is amusing and painlessly informative, and the art is really great. But I like the recipes best. They work like a charm; follow them and you and your guests will be eating like the royalty of old.

GLUTTONY: More is More is for everyone who has ever eaten, dieted, binged or indulged a secret passion for Mallomars. Filled with stories of great banquets, diet fads and gustatory anecdotes of the rich and famous, it also includes recipes adapted from historical cookbooks, as well as some of the funniest and most gorgeous classical artwork of people enjoying their food. A sinful delight from cover to cover!

This is a challenging play which forces its audience to question the nature and meaning of love. Can love and shame coexist? Can love be given conditionally? Who defines what is normal? What is unacceptable? Welcome to the quagmire of human sexuality. "The Goat" places the audience in the jury box. The accused are Martin, his wife Stevie and their teen-age son Billy. Albee asks us to review the evidence. Who's right? Who's wrong? Who is justified? Who, or what, has been betrayed? Who is the injured party? Only after the case has been heard and the all the evidence been presented, when the issues and questions have all been debated, do we realize that this play isn't about bestiality as much as it is about intolerance, nonconformity and the absurdity and arbitrariness of societal standards. Does Albee provide any answers? No, he insists, as he always has, that you find your own. A truly great play.

When he accepted the Tony Award for Best Play in 2002, Edward Albee said he was grateful that there was room on Broadway for a play about love. In 2003 we can be grateful that Overlook Press has published The Goat, or, Who is Sylvia?

I was fortunate to see The Goat on Broadway both with the original cast (Mercedes Ruehl and Bill Pullman) and with the replacement cast (Sally Field and Bill Irwin). While both casts were superb, what was so satisfying was that the text allowed for two very different interpretations. Having now read the play, its greatness is even more apparent.

The story is a simple, though unusual, one: Martin, a successful and famous architect lives in domestic harmony with his wife Stevie and their gay son Billy. Then one day Martin falls in love with Sylvia, who happens to be a goat. Albee uses three scenes to tell his story: 1) Martin's confession to his best friend Ross about his new love; 2) Stevie's confrontation with Martin over Sylvia (whom she finds out about in a letter from Ross); and 3) the tragic, yet also hopeful (to me at least), conclusion.

In this play Albee has harnessed the wordplay of drawing room comedy to the intense emotions of tragedy. In their confrontations, Stevie and Martin switch from emotional outbusts to clever repartee and back again. They even have the wherewithal to compliment each other on their bon mots.

The audacity of this strategy and Albee's success in bringing it off, apparent on stage, become even clearer after reading the text. His intricate constructions and verbal virtuosity lend a musical feeling to the work, as if every shift of mood and emotion were part of a larger composition. Albee rings changes not only in the lives of his characters, but also in the perceptions and emotions of his audience. With this work Albee has given us a new hybrid form of drama: the drawing room tragedy. In this respect it reminds me of an earlier work, The Lady from Dubuque, which employed a similar strategy, albeit less effectively in my opinion.

This play also marks the debut "the son" as a speaking character. Sons have been part of Albee plays before: in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf he is imaginary; in A Delicate Balance dead and buried; in Three Tall Women he is a silent witness at his dying mother's bedside; and in The Play About The Baby, while he is both born and kidnapped, he is never seen (if he even exists in the first place).

But in The Goat Stevie and Martin's son Billy is a vital presence. For the first time an Albee family feels complete. The imaginary child has been given form and voice. Billy's coming to grips both with his own homsexuality and with his father's new love leads to a moment in the last scene that sent chills of delight and terror up and down my spine each time I saw it performed. Never less than theatrically potent, Albee achieves a new intensity here that was thrilling.

With The Goat Albee has given us not only one of his best works, but also one of the best plays of recent times. I must admit that I never thought any of his works could rival my affection for Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf. But The Goat is its equal and leaves me eagerly anticipating where Edward Albee plans on next going.

wow, i thank God for sylvia pennington. this book set me free. she covers each 'problem text' with such honesty and Godliness that you finish the book knowing that God isn't against you but that the salvation message really is open to all, black, white, yellow, straight or gay. A must read. I'm even letting my fundamentalist mother read it because i believe that God really moves through this book.

This is a great book for the lesbian/gay population that struggles so hard with their Christian background. It is written by an author who is not homosexual and really researched her findings. This book is truly spiritually uplifting. Stuggle no more with the love of God and your sexuality. God loves each and every one of us... For GOD is good ..... ALL THE TIME!!!

This book is truly for those dealing with the harsh realities of marriage, when your husband turns out not to be the perfect Prince Charming you thought you married. It is straightforward and gets to the heart issues of how such disenchantment can be dealt with. I'd like to buy 50 copies and give one to every woman I know!

It doesn't bash men. This book teaches about real life, it is smart and sweet unlike most books that claim to have truth.