If you and your child (or even if you don't have a child) love the song and story of the Teddy Bear's picnic, then you will adore this book.

The text is pretty straight forward - as well all expect it to be. But the illustrations are just delightful - full colour on every page, teddies everywhere you look and getting into all manner of interesting things. This is what is so charming about this book - the sheer delight of finding a bear and seeing what it is doing - is it eating cake? Climbing a tree? Falling asleep? Avoiding the children in disguise?

It may be a difficult book to find, but it is just lovely, and well worth the effort.

Good book with good illustrations to accompany familiar song.

"If you go down in the woods today You're sure of a big surprise If you go down in the woods today You'd better go in disguise For every bear that ever there was Will gather there for certain because Today's the day the Teddy Bears have their picnic."

This is such a fun book to read to my kids! The rhyming verse has a nice rythem to it, but its the pictures we enjoy the most. They make you feel like you are peeking through the trees at this wonderful picnic! This book is a treasure!

This is not a book for beginning cooks. Most of the recipes are arduously complicated, but I've been using it for years with great results. I use Mexico the Beautiful more because it's a little more realistic in terms of how long one is willing to spend making a "simple" dish.

Mrs. Kennedy reminds me a lot of Rose Bernbaum of The Cake Bible in slavish dedication to detail.

Apart from the time required to make some of these dishes, they are indeed quite authentic. I've lived in Mexico for years and all my Mexican friends enjoy these recipes. If you're serious about graduating from Taco Bell sludge, get this book. It will make an expert out of you.

I keep renewing this book from the library...can't wait until it's in stock so I can finally own it. I lived in Mexico for a year, fell in love with the food, and now have discovered that I never even ate as well as Diana Kennedy must cook. Now I'm obsessed and force my boyfriend to eat homemade Mexican every single night (not really a punishment.)

My idea of heaven is a meal with savory black beans, fresh tortillas, a couple of chile rellenos in a tomato/garlic/cinnamon broth, finished off by a curdy sweet flan for dessert. Diana Kennedy steps you through the processes of each dish, and adds all the little touches to get it JUST right! Some will dispute my choices, I suppose, and prefer a turkey breast and thighs in a chile/ chocolate mole sauce, or maybe the traditional September treat of chiles en nogada (ground pork inside freshly roasted green chiles, covered with a white walnut sauce, sprinkled with persimmon seeds). She has all the recipes, they're all great.

This book gives you a very good taste of all the natural alternative building techniques, and also where to find out more information on them. This is an excellent book for you to start researching all the different alternative building techniques or if your already well read on the subject it may introduce you to some new techniques or be a good refresher on the subject.

This is a great place to start your research if you are interested in natural building. Web sites, resorce books and organizations are listed at the end of each chapter. This book started my career in natural home building.

Today, around 5 million people on Earth work and live in buildings made of adobe, stone, rammed earth, straw bale, cob, wattle and daub and so forth. That is, most of our planetary brothers and sisters live in earthen houses that rely on renewable human labor and local resources like mud, straw, rock and tree. These houses are less energy intensive, more durable, and are often more esthetically pleasing than so-called "modern" homes, as this book shows.

"The Art of Natural Building" questions the environmental responsibility of a 5,000-sq-foot, 500,000-dollar house. As more and more people begin to make the kind of money it takes to buy their own American Dream house, we must question the feasibility our of contemporary building practices. Would it be possible cover the globe with modern homes? Building companies certainly think so, but aside from what a project of this immensity what mean environmentally, the resources are simply not available.

There is simply not enough lumber, brick, cement, and processed material to go around. Our building industry would gladly sell us into oblivion if it meant a buck or two in the short-haul, but we need to get away from this kind of thinking. We also need to consider the environmental impacts of our current practices. What are these impacts?

As this book reminds us, buildings already account for one quarter of the world's wood harvest, two-fifths of its material and energy use, and one-six of its fresh water usage. In the past 100 years the level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has risen 27 percent, one-quarter of which has come the burning of fossil fuels just to provide energy for buildings. During the same period, the world lost more than 20 percent of its forest. Quite simply, our building philosophy is not sustainable; and with a populaiton of 6 billion rising at an incredible rate every year, reconstruction of this philosophy becomes all the more timely and important.

We can start by dropping out of the rat race and getting our hands dirty. Natural building is much more affordable, durable, environmentally responsible and estheticly pleasing than the track homes and skyscrapers advancing on the horizon. We can also avoid the loan-mortgage game which weds us to unfulfilling job and Sisyphus-like existence. We can create spaces that are non-toxic, unique, and ecologically sound. And perhaps most importantly, we can reconnect with Earth and the spirit of artisanship.

Along with the philosophy, you will discover a veritable treasure trove of natural building styles and ideas, from the radically new and innovative - like concept "earthship" - to the ancient and elegant, such as the living roof pictured on the cover. Architects need not apply, nor must you be good with your hands to fashion your own natural house. I consider myself very fortunate to have seen this book before investing in a home of my own. Like many people, I might have ended up working the rest of my life to pay for "a house without a clue."

By far and away, this is one of the most important books I have ever read. Philosophers dabble with theories of justice, beauty and truth, but with this book you will discover how all of these ideas can be BUILT into the very structure and fabric of your life. You will discover the ethics and aesthetics of building design and ecological living.

Filled to the brim with great references, links and some amazing photographs to stimulate your right brain, "The Art of Natural Building" is a must for anybody interested in saving the planet and saving a little money at the same time. The ultimate ecological building encyclopedia! A must read for all dwelling creatures.

I've read seemingly every 14er guide available. Much of the information overlaps as one can imagine. However, what really sets this (and the companion volume as well) one apart is the truly four season information that it provides. Louis gives you ratings for summer and snow climbs as well as ski descents. None of the other 14er guides I've read give you that. These volumes are often compared to Gerry Roach's books which are excellent in their own right. However, in my mind the information in Louis Dawson's guides is better as many of us climb in seasons other than summer!

I own many trail guide books and this one is far and above all of them. The book is logically structured, maps and photos are very helpful and directions are clear. Dawson has obvioulsy dedicated a great part of his life hiking Colorado and has documented his travels well in this book. All routes are rated and shown in pictures of the mountain. If you buy one Colorado 14er guide book, buy this one.

Finally, a book that is worth its weight in your backpack. Lou Dawson has done it right. Great photos, incredible maps and route descriptions that make sense and are easy to follow. All you have to do is compare Lou's book to any other title to the shelf to see that his book is the one to have.

The Jesus Meditations: A Guide For Contemplation by Michael Kennedy (Pastor, Dolores Mission Parish, East Los Angeles) is a unique book enhanced an accompanying audio CD narrated by Emmy Award-winning actor Martin Sheen. Simple black-and-white line drawings of Jesus administering to the needy appear in this contemplative book, divided into many meditations. Each brief section features a statement of grace for which the reader may strive, the setting and story of a given excerpt of scripture, the scripture itself, a poetic meditation, and an offering of reflective questions as to how one can better understand and improve oneself and one's soul. The Jesus Meditations are highly recommended as a profound and deeply faithful guide to offering worship and embracing Jesus Christ.

The message of this book is simple. By focusing on the stories of the Gospels and trying to visualize the original location, people, sounds, and so forth, we can bring ourselves into the stories more fully. Then we can see how being right there with Jesus, as he heals, preaches, and proclaims the Good News, changes our hearts and gives us a different way to relate to Him.

This book is not the first to use this kind of visualization (which was also used by early Christians and elaborated by Ignatius Loyola), but it is the best. The author understands that visualization isn't about scholastic theology and persuasion -- it involves bringing Jesus into our hearts and being aware of -- and grateful for -- the transformation that occurs. For this reason, the appearance of actor Martin Sheen is a stroke of genius. There's a reason Sheen is always cast as the adviser, wise man, or (as in the West Wing) President of the U.S.A. -- his voice is soothing and easy to relax to, but is never gooey. He manages to convey intensity and relaxation at the same time. So on the CD accompanying the book, Sheen reads the imaginative portions, interspersed with Gospel readings and light (very unobtrusive) guitar in the background.

The publisher is promoting the CD as a great one to use during a busy day -- pop it into your car while stuck in traffic and so forth. But why sell yourself short? Go all out with this book. Take an afternoon off, by yourself or with friends who are also open to the experience. Sit silently for a little while to clear your mind of anxieties, then go through one or two of the meditations, using the CD, and take several minutes afterwards to let the experience sink in. Once you finish, you might want to have everyone write down a few thoughts that come to mind about the experience -- what did they notice about the Gospel story they had never noticed before? How does the story speak to them in ways they didn't expect?

However you use this book, you'll appreciate and cherish it.

Where do we find true happiness? This is probably one of the most debated questions in our lives. Father Michael Kennedy gives us in his new book, "The Jesus Meditations" a simple guide to find the answer to this fundamental question. Through this meditation book Father Kennedy introduces us a person that has always known the response: Jesus. But he does not presents us a biblical Jesus, lost in events that occurred millenniums ago, rather Father Kennedy gives us a Jesus, that is alive and working in our neighbor, in the persecuted, in the insecure, in our own selves. This Jesus is found in the hardest place, the last place we dare to look for him. Father Michael's Jesus is found in the deepest place, that place where we hide our emotions, our true selves. You can find Him in the first contemplation and become his partner, his traveling mate in the journey through his most jovial times to his most trying days. If we find and we want to become his partner, he tells us that us that now that we know the answer, our problems do not disappear -as an act of magic. Instead Jesus discloses that we will be exposed to bigger and more trying problems, but now -that we have found a truly loyal friend- we can face them with a much better resolve.

The stories before each meditation describe this encounter with the real Jesus. The persons who share his or her story express, in a simple and concrete manner, how they were able to go down to that deep place and how this encounter has changed their lives. When reading this book be prepared to drift away from the text. You might find yourself smelling the rich oil that cured Sarah, gazing at the sun over the lake of Galilee, watching Jesus curing the lepers or even seen yourself helping him to heal others. Personally, I was deeply touched by the whole book, specially the meditation of a possessed man who, after talking with Jesus, is able to comprehend that his vices, his "demons" can be spelled out by recognizing them and facing them with his new friend.

The CD accompanying this book is an extra reward. Martin Sheen's voice and the melodic background music soothe whatever stress is caused by the bumper to bumper traffic of Los Angeles' freeways. On the balance this is a must have book.

I'm an emotional intelligence coach with an international clientele, not a realtor, but this book helped me tremendously. I would recommend it to anyone with a multicultural clientele or consumer-base. Concisely, and with great empathy, Mr. Lee describes cultures in a way that saves you reading tons of others books to get the same information. It saved me a lot of grief as I coached my first Pakistani client to know the difference between Pakistani and Indian, and explained to me why clients from certain cultures never seem to quit negotiating. Since emotional intelligence involves social skills, relating and empathy, it's crucial that I have a working-knowledge of how other cultures differ. One culture's "love of negotiating" is another culture's "pushy." One culture's "affiliative" is another culture's "not-sticking-to-business." And now I know not to cross my legs with a Middle-Eastern client. It's broadly applicable. If you have an international clientele, or do business on the Internet, you can't afford not to read this book. Really outstanding.

This is an incredible book to read, well worth your time and money.

The author goes into detail of what makes the various ethnic groups unique and how you can apply this knowledge to being able to deal with your clients and customers most effectively.

I would highly recommend this to anyone that would like to be more knowledgable about other cultures and their ways of life.

This is a well-researched and insightful book for anyone in real estate, related fields or home sellers who find themselves doing business with buyers from outside the American culture. This book helps you understand people from other cultures and their beliefs as they relate to real estate. The author not only explains what multicultural people do differently but also the reasons behind their unique practices and superstitions.

I found the sections on beliefs and negotiation to be particularly valuable. I always wondered why some groups continued to negotiate after a purchase contract had been signed or which were lucky addresses -- now I know.

Also, the background information on people from Asia, Mexico, Latin America, the Middle East, and Europe was extremely enlightening. Get this book if you have any contact with people from other cultures - it will save you not only time but frustration as well. It could also be useful reading for people in industries outside real estate which do business with other cultures.

Enthralling poems for young and old. You are touched, amused, startled, and may be moved to tears at the musings of the beasts who witness the birth of the Babe.

Here it is, October, and my children are begging me to read from "The Beasts of Bethlehem". Even though the poems don't follow a typical children's poem meter, they love it just the same. They enjoy picking out their "favorite" animals and having me read that animal's poem. Wonderful book!!

Eyes on Jesus is a wonderful book, especially for those looking to deepen their sense of spirituality and relationship with Jesus. The meditations following each Bible passage depict the experiences and miracles of Jesus in a way that allows the reader to relate and enter into the experience themselves. When I pick up the book and read a section, I have a greater sense of the humanity of Jesus, while at the same time feeling more amazed at his words and works. Through the meditations I have a clearer sense of Jesus' mission, a mission which I am then able to contemplate in relation to my own life. While Eyes on Jesus challenges me to answer Jesus' call (a very exciting feeling), it also leaves me with a sense of peace. I am left feeling the strength of Jesus and the power of faith. This is a book I would highly reccomend to anyone, but especially to those looking to grow closer and develop a personal relationship with Jesus.

Michael Kennedy's Eyes on Jesus is a wonderful way to meditate on and contemplate about everyday struggles and joys. I have used this book in private and on retreats. The best part about it is that his words and reflections on the Gospel passages really bring you into the scene. The Gospels are immediate because you are there, you are taking part, you are the one Jesus is talking to. I have never felt "a part of the Gospel". In fact, the readings were always very distant and disconnected from my life. Eyes on Jesus, has allowed me to connect with Jesus, the Gospels, and my inner self through its creative imagery and poetic nature. Thank you, Father Kennedy.

This is a massive (700 page), comprehensive, if not especially analytic, study of the United States' relationship with the Soviet Union at the height of the Cold War, told from the perspectives of the superpowers' leaders, John Kennedy and Nikita Khrushchev. At the beginning of his administration, Kennedy may have had sincere desire to improve relations with the Soviets, but his famous inaugural address was interpreted by many as a committed cold warrior's call to arms, and, as Beschloss's title implies, a series of foreign policy crises followed. Often in minute detail, Beschloss discusses the disastrous invasion of Cuba by opponents of Fidel Castro at the Bay of Pigs, the construction of the Berlin Wall, the proliferation of nuclear weapons, and the Cuban missile crisis. For those who enjoy narrative history liberally sprinkled with portraits of colorful personalities, this is a fascinating book.

There is little in this book which is new, but much of it bears repeating, especially for readers too young to remember the early 1960s. However odious Castro's dictatorship was to become, the attempt to topple it in the spring of 1961 was destined to fail. According to Beschloss, one of Kennedy's advisers warned him that "he could not recall a single case in history when refugees returned and successfully overthrew a revolutionary regime." The Berlin crisis that summer did not escalate into a nuclear confrontation because, as Kennedy observed: "A wall is a hell of a lot better than a war." And Beschloss writes about the missile crisis that the 39 hours' warning of the naval quarantine that Kennedy gave Khrushchev "demonstrated the President's wisdom in starting his response not with an irreversible air strike but with milder pressures that gave Khrushchev time to ponder his move."

Some of Beschloss's observations about the leaders border on gossip. He lends credence to reports that Khrushchev could be a buffoon who occasionally drank too much and that Kennedy's enthusiastic womanizing continued while he was president. But personal traits and predilections often could not be separated from matters of substance. For instance, the author reports that Kennedy was regularly treated by a medical practitioner with "vitamin shots" which "also contained amphetamines, steroids, hormones, and animal organ cells." Beschloss proceeds to explain the importance of this revelation: "Even in small doses, amphetamines cause side effects such as nervousness, garrulousness, impaired judgment, overconfidence, and, when the drug wears off, depression." Beschloss implies that Kennedy may have been under the influence of amphetamines at his summit meeting with Khrushchev in the spring of 1961, when the Soviet leader, by Kennedy's own admission, "just beat hell out of me." Beschloss concludes that Kennedy "should have been vastly more careful in pursuing his medical experimentation than he had been as a Senator. The stakes now were not one political career but literally the fate of the world."

This book is not without its limitations. As I implied above, it is much stronger on narrative than analysis, and some passages give the impression that Beschloss was more interested in the personalities of Kennedy and Khrushchev than in the substance of the policies they devised and pursued. Beschloss's discussion of Kennedy's approach to the growing conflict in Vietnam is brief and generally superficial. The book's organization is quirky: The role of Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara in the development of Kennedy's national-security policy is barely mentioned until page 400. And the index is not entirely reliable. (For instance, the index's listing for Gen. Lyman Lemnitzer, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, inexplicably omits reference to Beschloss's description of a critical briefing Lemnitzer gave to the President in September 1961 in which the "bottom line" was that "the United States enjoyed vast nuclear superiority.")

While I was preparing this review, I discovered that this book, which was published in 1991, is already out of print, and that surprised me a bit. Some aspects of it clearly have been superceded by more recent scholarship, such as Lawrence Freedman's Kennedy's Wars: Berlin, Cuba, Laos, and Vietnam, which I reviewed here shortly after it was published last November, but I believe that Beschloss's book continues to be of value. The magnificent 19th-century English historian Thomas Carlyle once wrote: "The history of the world is but the biography of great men." Few eras provide more validation for Carlyle's perspective than the crisis years of 1961 and 1962, dominated as they were by the intensely personal diplomacy of Kennedy and Khrushchev. Beschloss's coverage of that aspect of U.S.-U.S.S.R. relations during this period is superb.

Interesting to note that Castro came to the UN after the Cuban revolution in the hope of normalising relations with the US but was rebuffed. There then followed the Bay of Pigs. If cooler heads had prevailed and approachement made at that point, we may have been living in a totally different world today. A banal observation, admitedly. Certainly, US intransigence led to a more absolutist and repressive Castro.
Kennedy indeed felt that Khrushchev had outclassed him when it came to discussing political ideology on first meeting, but Kennedy did focus on the crux of the whole matter. The nation that could provide best materially for it's people would be the winner of the cold war. Krushchev ended up in a hut in the country somewhere, an 'expendable hero' as Harry Palmer once joked to an old Bolschevic in the film 'Funeral In Berlin'.

Michael Beschloss has done what every history writer should aspire to...make complex history telling "readable". Even though this book is very long, it flows very smoothly without missing any of the details of that "Crisis" era. I love books on the Cuban Missile Crisis and have found very few that would be characterized above the "textbook" level, but this one surely meets that tough standard. This book should be included in every "Crisis" historians library.

As a twenty-something, I really don't know much about John or Robert Kennedy other than the vague "Camelot" fantasies tossed around. I acquired this book as part of my recent appetite for understanding JFK/RFK.

I found it to be a light-weight overview of the major periods of JFK's life, along with some information on RFK and Jackie. While it revealed a few new things I hadn't heard before, this book is really of interest primarily as a coffee table book for ocassional perusal, and not for study. It's a great combination of stories you will have heard and pictures you have already seen.

The accompanying CD, however, is particularly interesting in what it reveals about JFK the man and his way of being. Overall, I enjoyed it.

there are over 250 pictures ans documents, it's very complete. the texts are interessing, not boring.
there is a cd also.
we can hear a few dialogues,. there is one with rfk and on the 14 tracks we can hear young caroline.
there is part to rfk and jbk too.
so I enjoyed it.

John F. Kennedy: The Presidential Portfolio features more than 250 photos and documents from the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum that capture the essence, style, and excitement of the Kennedy presidency. Included in these pages are the artifacts from a lifetime young Jack's letter requsting to be made Godfather to his brother Teddy, a handwritten fragment of the inaugural adress, correspondence from Nikita Khrushchev, Martin Luther King, Jr., Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy, Robert F. Kennedy and many others. Providing the backdrop for these images is a carefully rendered narrative highlighting the many remarkable events of Kennedy's life and his presidency: the tremendous physical ailments JFK had to overcome on a daily basis, his privileged chilhhood, transformation from reluctant student to Pulitzer Prize - winning author, dramatic political campaigns, struggle over the Cuban missile crisis, and his efforts to end segregation as well as counter nuclear proliferation, are all recounted here.

To Enhance The Experience of reliving the Kennedy years, a riveting 60 - minute audio CD of JFK'S phone conversations and personal dictations is packaged with the book. The following is a list of the recordings.

- An undated memoir entry concerning JFK'S entrance into politics.

- A dicated letter (circa 1959) to Joseph P. Kennedy on election and poll results.

- A dictated letter (circa 1959) to Jacqueline Kennedy on weekend in Rhode Island.

- Phone Conversation with Sargent Shriver recorded on April 2, 1963 regarding keeping CIA out of the Peace Corps.

- Three phone conversations with Ross Barnett recorded on September 30, 1962, regarding the University of Mississippi crisis.

- Phone conversation with Richard J. Daley recorded on October 28, 1963 regarding the civil rights bill.

- Phone conversation with Charles Halleck recorded on October 29, 1963 regarding the civil rights bill.

- An undated phone conversation between JFK and RFK concerning articles in Newsweek and Time magazines.

-Phone conversation with Dwight D. Eisenhower on October 22, 1962 regarding Cuban missile crisis.

- Phone conversation with Dwight D. Eisenhower on October 28,1962 regarding Cuban missile crisis.

-Phone conversation with Lincoln White on October 26,1962 regarding comments to the press concerning Cuban missile crisis.

- A dictated memoir entry dated November 1963.