I liked it, but it could have been more colorful. The best part was the cheats, they really help when you get stuck. It could have gone into more detail of each mission. They also could have shown pictures of the ships, when they describe them in the back.

This strategy guide was great, except it takes a little time to get used to. It told you how to beat the stages with ease.

Marina Warner is an amazing scholar and teacher. In this book, she begins with the Metamorphoses of Ovid, and continues with other changes in the human spirit, in both literary and natural history. The chapter on zombies is particularly relevant to her novel Indigo; the explication of the Greek psyche is familiar ground, but well done. The only flaw in this brilliant work is the continual return to Hieronymus Bosch's Garden of Earthly Delights as an allegory of life. Her enthusiasm for the painting does not match her vast knowledge of classical and popular literature. However, I recommend this book highly as a helpful tool to any student of the humanities.

The book tackles the idea of metamorphoses as a theme in art and literature. Stirred into the mix are mythology, encounters between Europeans and tribal peoples in the New World and how those encounters affected art and literature produced in the Western tradition, meanwhile relating all these to the idea of personal identity. Among the works discussed in detail are Ovid's Metamorphoses, Apuleis' The Golden Ass, Hieronymous Bosch's painting The Garden of Earthly Delights, some Renaissance-era graphic sexual depictions of Leda and the Swan, Maria Merian's late 17th century natural history studies of butterflies, and then onto a discussion of zombies, Coleridge, Jean Rhys, Kafka, Nabokov, photography, Lewis Carroll and more. This may all sound like heavy going, but Warner writes for the layperson, and you need not have read the primary sources to follow her reasoning. (But her discussion and excerpts made me want to check out a copy of Ovid and read it for myself!) The artwork is illustrated by plates, some in color.

The book is an ambitious attempt to raise issues more than come to sweeping conclusions, with chapters titled Mutating, Hatching, Splitting, Doubling. Those interested in Joseph Campbell, Carl Jung, and other writers on comparative mythology should find it interesting. The chapters on Mutating and Hatching were more compelling to me as someone with a special interest in art and mythology. Fans of 19th century literature, especially Gothic literature, may prefer Splitting and Doubling. And it is blessedly free of any type of academic jargon. Indeed, Warner also conveys the sheer enjoyment of reading or looking at the material she discusses.

This is an excellent book for quick reference of your trip. I use it alot in the cockpit, but find more detail would be better. The layout is good for going north to south, but I find the backwards reading (South to North) a little difficult to follow. I recommend this as a companion book along with others, but not as a stand alone book unless you are the casual boater (weekender)

When Margaret and I took our trip from Cleveland, Ohio to the Florida Keys and back we took and used a large collection of charts and guides, including this book. Of all the resources we had available on board, this book was the one we used constantly. It is arranged mile-by-mile as you proceed down or up the Waterway and tells you what to expect as you go. It is an excellent planning tool. We wouldn't do the Waterway without it!...

_Wonder Tales_ is a small and expensive collection of French courtly fairy tales, most written by upper-class women. Their themes seem frivolous now, but the stories were actually quite subversive for their time; in them, the authors promoted female autonomy, true love, and marriage by choice rather than by arrangement. (The authors themselves often were the victims of terrible arranged marriages. In these stories they dream of a better world.)

The stories are not the succinct tales we are used to; they can be byzantine and winding. Just when you think it's time for "happily ever after", in comes another twist. But the tales are for the most part both funny and romantic, and I enjoyed them.

This might even be considered essential reading, if you're reading _From the Beast to the Blonde_. As I read Warner's scholarly study, I kept wishing I had access to the obscure stories she was constantly quoting. When I found this, it helped a great deal; I only wish _Wonder Tales_was sold in paperback as a companion volume to Beast/Blonde.

As one of the editorial reviewers comments, this book is intended for gift-giving. It is a charming, diminutive hardcover containing six French fairy tales from the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, translated by some prestigious modern writers and translators, with an introduction, biographical notes, and bibliography by Marina Warner. These tales (and those in future volumes which Warner says she hopes to bring out) are especially interesting to read after Warner's From the Beast to the Blonde, which examines the French salon society and its members (mostly women) who used the writing of these tales as a form of social protest as well as entertainment and even escape. But three of these six tales, as well as a number of others from the same milieu, appear in translations by Jack Zipes in his inexpensive paperback "Beauty and the Beast and Other Classic French Fairy Tales." If you are interested in a broad selection of these tales, including some famous ones like "Little Red Riding Hood" and "The Sleeping Beauty" (complete with Perrault's violent episodes that are often left out in children's versions), Zipes is a good choice. The texts are there, along with some scholarly introductions and biographies of the authors of the tales in a mass-market format.

Warner's book is more aesthetically pleasing. Its elegant, whimsical design and first-class literary translations invite the reader to escape into stories that are part magical fantasy and part social commentary. These tales are longer than the usual children's fairy stories, and they tend to have more elaborate adventures and quite worldly descriptions of clothing, decoration, and other amenities of aristocratic life. Most of the plots resolve themselves through the intervention of fairies, whose actions may seem unmotivated (deciding not to help a heroine on one page and then suddenly turning up to save her from being eaten by an ogre a couple pages later). I personally find this easier to take in this charming little hardcover than in the no-nonsense mass-market format of the Zipes collection.

Warner's book is also significant in that, in addition to the three tales that overlap with Zipes, it contains some genuine rarities in the genre. According to Warner's introduction, two of the six Wonder Tales, "Bearskin" and "Starlite", have never been translated into English before, and Charles Perrault's tale, "The Counterfeit Marquise," has never been included in previous Perrault collections (perhaps because, having no supernatural characters, and taking cross-dressing as its theme, it would not be considered appropriate for the juvenile audience that these collections have historically targeted).

Regarding the translations themselves, I compared at random some paragraphs in the stories that appear in both books. The quality of the prose is not miles apart, since both books strive for accuracy in translation. Nevertheless, if you admire the writing of John Ashbery, Gilbert Adair, Terence Cave, Ranjit Bolt, and/or A. S. Byatt, that could be another reason to choose this book.

A lot of people may be put off by the idea of an "African Tarot Deck," thinking that it must involve voudou, arcane tribal symbolism, or just be for black people. Well, I'm a black woman who has shown this deck to white friends -- this deck is completely accessible.

The "African Tarot: Journey into the Self" is a teeny little deck based on Rider-Waite symbology. It also looks like it was drawn by a child with talent -- the sort of art that you'd *want* to put on your fridge. The people are brown and have kinky hair, and they live in an African village -- after that, and a few liberties with the suit cards -- it's a standard deck.

The suits, by the way, are traditionally named. However, the art shows Swords as spears, Cups as gourds and Pentacles as coins or disks. The art is rich and perhaps a tad dark for some, perhaps it's best not to read this one in low light -- but then, it's far from a gothic deck. The back design is equally darling -- two colorful tortoises in the sun, reversed from each other so you can see one of them upright as long as you're holding the card lengthwise. According to the South African author, the Shangaan culture considers this animal a symbol of "the slow coming of justice" -- appropraite enough considering its country of origin.

The cards are approximately 3" x 2.5" and covered with what I assume is a standard, slick coating. This makes them easy to shuffle, but I have a habit of dropping some cards if I'm just going through them while holding them in my hands.

I even find the package a total keeper: a brown, corregated cardboard box with descriptive cards glued to the back and front. A rubberband to keep the box closed and you could probably drop this deck into your backpack and only have the box take damage. However, the box is so cute, why would you want to?

The little booklet inside confirms the image that this is a feel-good deck -- many of the interpretations are positive or at least encouraging of growth. So, while this isn't an all-ocassion deck, I certainly think it's worth a look!

The beautiful quilt on the cover sold the book to me. Since Amazon.com's listing doesn't have a photo, let me describe it. The cover quilt features a sampler of 12 different heart motifs. The designs are different enough to make this sampler quilt constantly interesting to sew but the heart motif and the fabric selection unify the quilt much more than many samplers I've seen.

Featured in the sampler are the Checkerboard Heart, pieced from small squares; the Log Cabin Heart, with a small heart applique added to this traditional design; Crazy at Heart, a planned crazy patch; Heart Turnaround, which has a simple Amish feel; and Star of My Heart, an Ohio Star variation with hearts. Creating this sampler will require the quilter to practice skills in intricate piecing, learn to make Prairie Points (little trianges that stick out from the quilt surface), work with curved seams on (appropriately) Curved Heart, and do a fair amount of applique.

In addition to the sampler quilt, "Celebration of Hearts" contains scores of other projects, each based on one of the blocks featured in the sampler: a variety of throw pillows, stuffed animals, an apron, slippers, a sewing bag, etc. Don't be deterred by the '80s looking colors of the cover quilt. As the quilts depicted inside prove, hearts are a timeless motif that can be incorporated into many looks. Among the ideas depicted in the book are ways to change the look of the sampler blocks for a southwestern theme, Christmas colors, an Amish look, and many Victorian florals.

One weakness of "Celebration of Hearst" is that it didn't have a lot of basic tips for a beginning quilter. Since this was the first quilt book I ever bought (fortunately not quite the first quilt I made), I was a bit at a loss to figure out the mechanics of putting my quilt together. I found that making my borders turn out the right length, based on the measurements provided and how I cut them, was frustrating. I've since discovered that many more recent quilt books suggest cutting them extra long--something these authors didn't mention.

Overall, however, a "Celebration of Hearts" was an absolute delight to make. (Okay, everything EXCEPT piecing the Ohio Star block was an absolute delight.) I absolutely loved the embellishments that they suggested, including the wandering ribbons and hodge-podge sprinkling of buttons that adorn several of the blocks. Since I was making the sampler from leftover fabric from my bridesmaids' and flower girls' dresses--and was divorced by the time I got around to actually making the quilt--I added one last embellishment that wasn't in the book: I tied my wedding ring to the final block, and was happy to be done with it.

I have found this book very useful on 3 cruises through the San Juans and Vancouver Island. Information on each marina includes: area map, harbor layout, address, phone #, VHF channel, Marina services, photographs and a general discussion of the marina and surrounding area.

Being an avid fan of the game, I thoroughly enjoyed reading this. It gives a little history of the game and it gets you through the whole game. The book also has cheats you can use. So, this book takes you through the game step by step. I wouldn't tell anyone to read this, though, before you can explore the territory a little because it's a really amazing land. Hope you have fun with this!

Documentato e
facilmente leggibile paperback sulla storia tragica della Marina
Italiana nella Seconda Guerra Mondiale. All'inizio del conflitto la
flotta è la quinta del mondo, ma alla prova dei fatti rivela tutta la
propria inesperienza e inadeguatezza. Rocca mette il dito su varie
piaghe, che dovrebbero far riflettere anche oggi: l'assenza di una
direzione politica realistica, la permeabilità dei comandi
all'influenza del potere politico, le meschine gelosie dei vertici. E
poi l'assenza di una mentalità interforze, che priva la Marina del
sostegno dell'aeronautica, la scelta suicida di non sviluppare un
proprio autonomo potenziale aeronavale, nella Guerra che vide il
trionfo della portaerei, l'uso antiquato dello strumento sommergibili,
quando i tedeschi avevano già colto brillanti successi con la tattica
dei "branchi di lupo". Infine il coraggio individuale degli
incursori, da Teseo Tesei a Durand de La Penne, che regala all'Italia
successi e vantaggi che gli alti comandi non avranno la capacità di
sfruttare. Un grande patrimonio di uomini e mezzi mandato allo
sbaraglio. Avvincente lettura sul filo degli scontri navali, degli
eroismi personali, degli intrighi e delle gelosie tra alti gradi delle
forze armate, della diffidenza e rivalità con l'alleato tedesco. Un
vivido affresco che si apre e si chiude con il sangue degli ammiragli
Campioni e Mascherpa, fatti fucilare nel 1944 al termine di un
processo farsa, capri espiatori di un regime che cerca di allontanare
da sé le colpe della guerra perduta.

Well, I won't waste your time. The bottom line-- is this book is worth buying. Its got great insight on many of Gauguin's paintings, and even discusses his background and influences. A must for any art student, or art buff. Your money will not be wasted! For ten bucks, you'll be buying a book you'll use time and time again. Good luck, and happy book buying!