This new book by the authors Smith and Wafford picks up where the old "blue" book stops. This book contains practically all new pictures and items which were not in the old book. Based on the title "The Book of Wagner & Griswold" the majority of the book contains information about Wagner. There is 124 pages which deal with Wagner Ware. The information contained is solid and not to be found anywhere else. Once again, this book becomes the Bible for collecting old cookware. The information on Griswold is not nearly as as long as Wagner. It is only 75 pages. There are many new items in this book which was not in the other books. There is quite a bit of information about aluminum Griswold items which is very helpful if you are collecting this type of cookware. Finally the sections on Martin Stove, Lodge, Axford, Vollrath and Excelsior(G.F.Filley) is great! For each manufacture it gives the history along with photo's/prices. Super information which I have not found anywhere else. I think this book is a "must have" for the cookware collector. It is a good companion book to "The Book of Griswold & Wagner." To be fully informed you really need both books. I have found these books by Smith and Wafford to be pretty close in the values of various items. Although variances do exist I have found these to be the closest out of all the cast iron collectable books available. I keep both of these books next to my computer and refer to them almost daily when shopping the internet for cast iron. A++++

This is absolutely a wonderful book. It does an excellent job in depicting the life, culture, and history of rural Corfu. The food recipes are wonderful. However, I have to emphasize that this is not just another recipe book. It is more of an inside look into the life of rural Corfu.

Having spent 4 years of my life in Texas I was introduced to the wonders of Creole and Cajun cuisine. Generally, Creole developed in the city of New Orleans using local produce but influenced by the multicultural nature of the city. Cajun (or Acadian) cooking is food from the country.

I am partial to the simplicity of one-pot cooking offered by Cajun cooking. These are wonderful hearty and spicy meals (gumbo, red beans & rice, etoufee, jambalya) that I often cook to serve large groups of people. In fact, Chef Jamie includes many of these recipes in the "crew" section of the cookbook since he used them for staff meals.

This cookbook really is incredible. It's not only filled with many wonderful recipes from the famous New Orleans restaurant, but also with stories about the history of the legendary restaurant as well.

The recipes are just what you would expect - the best. Everything from appetizers to drinks to mouth watering desserts are included. What I love most though is along with most of the recipes are little stories behind the recipes. Where they came from. How they came to the restaurant. There's also some short tales about the history of the restaurant itself. That's what I love most about the cookbook - the little stories that make the recipes that much more special.

Overall the book is incredible and I highly recommend it. The only reason I didn't give it five stars is I thought it could have had some more pictures and illustrations.

As a longtime fan of Commander's Palace (and creole and cajun cuisine in general), I found the book as much fun to read as the dishes were to prepare. The beautifully presented recipes and well written preparation tips were made all the better by the inclusion of tidbits of New Orleans and Brennan family history. This book is a must have for both veteran and novice cooks interested in preparing great Louisiana style food.

Every recipe that we have tried from this book has been a hands down home run with our friends and family. The recipes are scaled for truly generous portions. For Christmas Eve dinner we prepared the Venison Stew and the Jalepeno Corn Bread for family in the upper midwest. They liked the meal so much that we left them the recipe book and I have just ordered another for myself!

I had to use this book for a class on German history. Although it was not required material for the class, the wealth of information helped me keep a handle of the flow of the nation's history. This book is rich in pictures and is one of the best books that I have ever seen on German history. Highly recomended.

The latest addition to the outstanding "Cambridge Illustrated History" series, Martin Kitchen's Germany presents a lavishly illustrated, integrated, chronological history of Germany from the era of Charlemagne down through the end of the twentieth century and German reunification. Here is a compendium of the culture, society, political organization, national tragedies and personal triumphs of the German people. Special illustrated boxes and panels enrich the informative, "reader friendly" text throughout and provides a superbly presented, single volume history that is a welcome addition to academic and community library world history collections.

This text should not be demoted to decorating a living room's coffee table because of its "Cambridge" denomination and fancy pictures. Some of these "decoration" books do contain excellent write ups. Ignoring Mr. Kitchen's dissertation on the history of Germany would be at your own peril if you own the book already and, except for martini stains and dust, choose to ignore it. This history of Germany explains in a fascinatingly succint style key aspects of the German nation and German ethos: the Holy Roman Empire, the Hanseatic League, the Reformation, the Industrial Revolution and, inevitably, the Third Reich and the Holocaust. There are excellent art and culture sections describing anything from Goethe's Romantic world and the Grimm Brothers' fantastic tales to the Bauhaus. If you want to own a book to impress your friends, buy it, but buy it mostly to be impressed by it.

A MAYAN ASTRONOMER IN HELL'S KITCHEN by Martín Espada

A Mayan Astronomer in Hell's Kitchen is the title of Martín Espada's new book. The title reflects the cultural and linguistic mix in which Espada lives, shuttling from his Puerto Rican heritage to Old Guard Connecticut.

The book begins in Puerto Rico with the poet's relatives. These include a dying grandmother and a cousin whose stock of miracle cookware fails to heat the family dinner. About his father in Brooklyn, the poet writes:

Sometimes I dream

my father is a guitar,

with a hole in his chest

where the music throbs

between my fingers

("My Father as a Guitar")

Espada also writes about a magically real politician ("The Governor of Puerto Rico Reveals at His Inaugural That He Is The Reincarnation of Ponce de Leon") and the mixture of foreign birds in a luxury hotel in San Juan:

The White cockatoo from Australia

twirls tricks with a hostess

. . .

the scarlet macaw of Brazil

yammers a joke about pina coladas

. . .

the peacock of India

skitters around the koi pond

. . .

the frostbitten turkey from North Carolina

thaws in the kitchen

("Ornithology at the Caribe Hilton")

These poems range from the deadly serious to the comic. "The Carpenter Swam to Spain" is about the Spanish Civil War and "The River Will Not Testify" is about a Colonial massacre of Indians. Espada also speaks about the Rosenbergs and Mumia Abu-Jamal. Other poems can make you laugh out loud such as "Anarchism and the Parking Meter" and "Why I Went to College":

If you don't,

my father said,

you better learn

to eat soup

through a straw

cause I'm gonna

break your jaw.

The book's best combination of social commentary and humor, as well as the most intense cultural conflict, occurs in Connnecticut where Espada's in-laws have been resident since 1680. At Thanksgiving, he silently compares the New England fare to the "turkey with arroz y habichuelos and plátanos" he grew up with. Later, his father-in-law hauls out a small cannon and fires it at some old tombstones; "This way, if I hit anybody, / they're already dead." The poet concludes: "When the first / drunken Pilgrim dragged out the cannon at the first Thanksgiving - / that's when the Indians left." ("Thanksgiving"). With humor, Espada compares the father-in-law's lack of value for his cultural heritage with the poet's own sense of the past.

Espada has serious things to say, but he is not preaching. His language is direct and pulls the reader along through images of both personal and political history. This book shows that Mr. Espada is a mature poet who continues to offer readers a great variety.

Martin Espada's tumultous language rushes forward in this unforgettable sixth collection of firey work: white heat surrounded by the cooler, blue streaks of history. Rather than hold a mirror up to the broken time-barrier of his people's seemingly eternal struggle, he captures it by the hair of its head and drags it onto the page where it still lives, thrashing. Emotive and layered with textural surreal images, his words continue to carry the torch through the subterranean tunnels of fresh consciousness, where the shadows first cast by Neruda still dance. He is a worthy carrier of that kind of genuine magic. His is a poetry of sharp blades that cuts through the toughest-rooted dream territory, as we see in "The Shiny Aluminum of God:" "The scar carves her husband's forehead/ where the doctors scooped the tumor out,/ where cancer cells scramble like a fistful of ants." No other present-day Mayan, or present-day prophet, for that matter, writes with such warp and texture. Warning: the poet talks texture at the table: the communion table of collective consciousness. Because he seems to hear more and see more than other spiritual chroniclers, his readers can be with "the preacher who first heard the savior's voice/ bleeding through the plaster of the jailhouse." He is one who has a gift to let the blood speak-- to let the truth seep through. The title is appropriate; he may well chart the stars of the past and future, and his poems are our hotline to his vision in Hell's Kitchen. Espada never shies away from the drama of his subject matter. Each poem is loaded with the special energy that only he can impart. The message is usually violent, requiring a sizeable talent which has yet to let us down.

We are working on our 2nd kitchen remodel and found this book just too basic which means it might be right as a basic book for a first timer. Just a few kitchens were used to illustrate principles and I would have liked to see a larger portfolio represented. "Great Kitchens, At Home with America's Top Chefs" had the ideas that I was looking for.

Before I purchased this book, I read the other reviews and I am so glad I did! I have purchased loads of books, magazines...anything "kitchen" and found this to be the most informative. Everything that isn't covered in the others IS covered in this. This is the only book you need, if you just want to look at ideas, or if you really want to KNOW what you need actually need to know. All I can say is...you need this book if you want to be informed about a new kitchen!!!!!

There are so many kitchen design books on the market. If you want the best one, buy this. Why? Because it forces you to think about how you want to function in your kitchen before you even begin to select cabinets, appliances, fixtures and fittings. What good does it do you to install attractive features like professional ranges and refrigerators, expensive cabinetry and lighting if, in the end, you have to walk clear across too long an area to get from your refrigerator to your sink? This book guides you to examine how you work in your kitchen, e.g., whether one or two people cook, whether you entertain, whether you have special needs for children, etc. There is a great section that teaches you about the hidden systems in your walls, like plumbing and electrical, in a way you can understand, so you can be informed about these hidden elements and aren't a total dummy when talking to your contractor and when determining whether what needs to get done as far as plumbing and electrical work is in fact being done. Might prevent the old "being taken to the cleaners" problems we've all experienced as, say, when dealing with auto mechanics. The section on construction scheduling and contractors is invaluable. The chapter entitled "Designing with the Physical Space" is terrific. This book is worth every penny and probably a lot more in terms of making yourself aware of all aspects of your kitchen remodeling project, what you want and what you don't want in terms of the functionality of your finished kitchen. As it is an expensive remodeling project to undertake, it seems worthwhile to make yourself as knowledgeable as possible. After reading this book and knowing I have it as a reference, the task of remodeling the kitchen seems much less overwhelming.

This book is an OK place to start for anyone planning to remodel their kitchen. It tells you about the basic materials. Dream Kitchen also makes you start thinking about how you want to use your kitchen. It's worth a look.

Dream Kitchen Planning is a terrific tool for anyone who's thinking about remodeling a kitchen or planning one from scratch. It's easy to read and follow; chock full of useful, practical information; and written with a wit and easy, conversational style that you do not often find in books of this genre. It's obviously written by someone who knows what they're talking about, someone who knows what good kitchen planning and design is first hand. After reading the book, you can almost imagine sitting down and having a cup of coffee with the writer -- in, where else?, a beautifully designed, warm and welcoming kitchen straight out of Petrowski's book. I recommend it heartily.

DREAM KITCHEN PLANNING walks the reader through every step of the design and renovation process. An experienced kitchen and bath design writer, Petrowski has produced a well-organized planning guide that is both informative and a pleasure to read. With lovely line drawings throughout, this simple guide helps readers shape their dreams by determining exactly what kind of kitchen they want based on their lifestyles. A must-read for anyone remodeling their kitchen.

Did you know that biodiversity is a matter that affects the plant and vegetable kingdom? Once there were many different kinds of apples, now it seems there are only a few kinds grown in great numbers for mass consumption. Because consumers demand perfect looking produce, growers are encouraged to use pesticides and other artificial methods to make produce look appealing. This practice is ecologically dangerous. This is an informative and practical book, with suggestions about how the average shopper can turn the tide of the potentially harmful demand for non-diverse, uniformly and artificially appealling produce

Martin Kitchen's The German Offensives of 1918 is a tedious but comprehensive account of the final, desperate German efforts to achieve a military victory in the First World War before the American Expeditionary Force arrived in strength. The main value of this book is that it covers all the German offensives from March-July 1918; most accounts only cover Operation "Michael" in March 1918 and the US action at Belleau Wood. Kitchen's account fills in the gaps between the beginning of the offensives and the final German realization that they had lost the initiative. On the negative side, a lack of adequate maps, a plodding writing style and poor editing weaken this book. Nevertheless, the German Offensives of 1918 is a valuable addition to a First World War library.

The German Offensives of 1918 consists of thirteen chapters, beginning with a summary of the strategic situation on the Western Front from February 1917 to February 1918. This introductory chapter is a near-disaster and spends several pages mired in discussing obscure German labor union unrest before awkwardly veering back toward a military discussion of the Western Front. While the authors hits the highlights of Germany's strategic position in the winter of 1917-1918, he really only scratches the surface concerning the doctrinal transformation that made the 1918 offensives possible. The second chapter, discussing the plans for the offensives, is useful for illustrating the diverse opinions in the Army High Command (OHL) about the paths to victory, but taxes the reader's patience. Opinion in the OHL was split over whether Germany should mount one large offensive, or several smaller attacks, or finish off Italy or even to stay on the defensive and just defeat the inevitable Allied attacks. Kitchen has written other books on the OHL and this is clearly where he is comfortable, but it makes for an overly high level discussion of the campaign where a few decision-makers like Ludendorff and Hindenburg appear in individual dramatic roles but the vast majority involved are cast as ciphers. The remaining chapters cover each of the nine German offensives and the British counterattack at Amiens on 8 August 1918. The author provides only a terse order of battle for the Germans on 21 March 1918, but does not list even corps or divisions. The maps provided are also totally inadequate, with virtually no detail concerning dispositions or movements. Given these weaknesses, this book is difficult to use for a campaign study.

Kitchen's conclusion is that Ludendorff was able to utilize a formula for tactical breakthroughs to end the trench deadlock, but that he was unable to translate these local successes into an operational level victory. Essentially, Ludendorff allowed his storm troopers to take the path of least resistance that provided for dramatic advances, but failed to seize key towns like Amiens, Arras or Reims. Germany's new doctrine used in the offensives of 1918 succeeded in integrating firepower and maneuver, but was undermined by a "chronic lack of manpower and a desperate shortage of horses and motor vehicles." Furthermore, the OHL's refusal to consider a compromise peace severed the link between the offensives and the pursuit of Germany's greater political objectives. Kitchen writes that, "they [the OHL] were blinded by their conviction that the alternatives facing Germany were world power or extinction." Ultimately, the failure of the offensives was due to, "the overbearing hubris of a military elite that refused to abandon its fantastic ambitions and denied the bitter fact that for all their professional skill and tactical brilliance their ingenuous plans had come to nothing."

The German offensives did score two major accomplishments: the rout of the British 5th Army and storming the French-held Chemin des Dames ridgelines. Both these actions resulted in heavy Allied manpower losses and significant German advances, yet the Germans failed to capture any significant communication hubs or to split the Anglo-French front. German losses were also very heavy and more difficult to replace. Kitchen fails to appreciate the great assistance provided by fog and mist to the German infiltration tactics, but he is closer to the mark in his evaluation of tanks. In Kitchen's view, tanks allowed the Allies to launch counterattacks without assembling so much artillery, but they were not decisive in themselves. On the other hand, Allied air supremacy was a significant impediment to German freedom of maneuver on the battlefield.

Kitchen's book also serves to expose the base falsehoods presented in the recent revisionist account, The Myth of the Great War by John Mosier, which claims that it was the minor American action at Belleau Wood that stopped the German offensives and thereby turned the tide of war. Kitchen account clearly indicates that the German offensives had reached their culminating point weeks before Belleau Wood and that the final attacks were futile gestures born of frustration to break the Anglo-French front. Indeed, the Americans played no part at either Arras or Reims, where the British and French stopped the German offensives dead in their tracks. Even as far as the so-called Second Battle of the Marne, it is clear that the French counterattack at Soissons and their tenacious defense of Reims far out-shadowed the efforts of the solitary US division in ending the final German offensive. Furthermore, Kitchen clearly details the decline of the German army's strength and morale, all of which began well before the Americans arrived in strength at the front. In fact, Kitchen notes that the OHL promised that the U-Boat offensive of 1917 would win the war but this failed, and then promised that the 1918 offensives would win the war but these also failed. In promising victory twice to a war-weary nation and then failing to deliver, the OHL fatally compromised German morale.