Finally, someone who understands that gifts are not about how much you spend or how much you can impress your friends. I love the way the book emphasizes simpler, but more loving offerings: homebaked goodies, fresh flowers, gifts of experiences rather than things (a round of golf, tickets to a play or movie, etc.). The book even shows inventive and personal ways that money can be given. Most of all, though, the beautiful photography and the passages about the philosophy of giving make this book a great resource for someone who wants to give meaningful and personal presents.

This book is a treasure. The ideas enable you to deliver the messages to the recipients that they are special for you. The memory of the gift giving stays with them for a long time. Try it. I have, and it works.

I love this book and have used many of the ideas to the delight of friends and family. I also own a gift business for professionals with personal clients and I use it for them too! I have given this book as a gift and can't tell you the thank you's I have received! If you buy this book you will never be at a loss for a thoughtful gift again!!!!

I found an old copy in a library book sale. It is full of old recipes for authentic Hungarian food. In other words, it's a pretty rare bird in the US; no one cooks like this any more with the advent of fast food, takeout, and three-career families.

I have so far used two of the dessert recipes. They aren't difficult, just time consuming. One cake took me close to three hours, clean-up time included. A big stand mixer is almost required for several of the cakes in here; I would NOT recommend trying some of these by hand unless you have very strong arms and a copper egg bowl.

OTOH, the results are delicious, and vanish rapidly.

All 3397 Medal of Honor recipients are listed, from the Civil War to Somalia, with all essential information given: name, both true and assumed, rank, service and unit, dates of birth and death, place of death and cemetary, date and place of action, and more.
Attractively presented in large format, in two volumes, with appendices, bibliography, and index, this is the essential reference for anyone interested in the Medal of Honor or American military history. Illustrations of the medals themselves are not provided, the only fault noted.
(The numerical rating above is a default setting within Amazon's format. This reviewer does not employ numerical ratings.)

Peter Bogdanovich has written a book that is for the movie enthusiast. I suspect the general reader may find some of the interviewees obscure, and the topics technical. I feel that is their loss. For the student of film or film history, this is a treasure trove of information, ideas, experiences, and feelings about films taken from interviews with some of the most distinguished directors in movie history. The author's selection is not encyclopedic, but the directors' experience spans from the earliest years of silent film to the present. These men are not just informative, but their strong and distinctive personalities show in each interview, giving the sense that one has actually met and understood many of them. Some of the interviews are brief, or even very idiosyncratic, but the best are delightfully personal. This is a long book, but affords many pleasant evenings of good conversation. It also makes one want to go back and see the films again!

Peter Bogdanovich pioneered the director interview in English, and this wonderful collection will give endless pleasure to film buffs. The book-length interview with Allan Dwan alone is worth the price of admission. Bogdanovich always did vast amounts of study before sitting down to talk with his subjects, and his expertise and enthusiasm encouraged them to open up in a way they usually did not with other interviewers. Anyone writing about the careers of the directors Bogdanovich interviews has to start with his work on them. A fitting companion piece is Bogdanovich's encyclopedic interview book "This Is Orson Welles."

The title was suggested by Howard Hawks who once observed, "...I liked almost anybody that made you realize who in the devil was making the picture...Because the director's the storyteller and should have his own method of telling it." Hawks is one of the 16 "legendary film directors" represented in this volume. It is important to keep in mind that these are conversations rather than interviews such as those conducted by Robert J. Emery in The Directors: Take One and its sequel, The Directors Take Two, as well as interviews conducted by Richard Schickel in The Men Who Made the Movies. It is also worth noting that Bogdanovich is himself a distinguished director of films such as The Last Picture Show, What's Up, Doc?, They All Laughed (a personal favorite of mine), and Texasville. As a result of his own background, Bogdanovich's questions and comments reflect somewhat different interests and perspectives than do those of Emery and Schickel.

I rate all of these books Five Stars but probably enjoyed reading Bogdanovich's book the most because the conversations ramble along somewhat messily, as most of my own conversations tend to do, and also because Bogdanovich is more actively involved in the interaction than Emery and Schickel are. As a reader, I feel as if I were really an eavesdropper as 16 directors casually share their opinions, information about specific films and actors, gossip, "war stories," and overall evaluations of their careers' various successes and failures. At no time does Bogdanovich seem intrusive or manipulative. Moreover, perhaps to an extent he did not realize when writing this book, he also reveals a great deal about himself...much of it endearing and some of it admirable. His passion for film making and his appreciation of the great directors are almost palpable. Readers' interests about various directors and their respective films obviously vary. I include myself among those who are die-hard film buffs and so I enjoyed reading every chapter and every word in each chapter. Indeed, each conversation was for this amateur "gourmet" a feast to be consumed with delight and, yes, gratitude.

This book about heaven and hell written by Emanuel Swedenborg is one of the 3 books I have read by Swedenborg. I like this book because of the short passages which I can take in and think about in small doses. Also the hope and beauty of the afterlife presented in this book touched me deeply. I WANT to believe the beautiful teachings here. The messages make sense to me about the journey to either place being totally up to me and how I live my life. I hope I can hang onto the pictures given me by this book so I can make those choices with the end in mind of what the Lord may offer me if I live my life in a loving way. I hope others can hang in through the sometimes awkward style to get the ideals. Happy reading.

The most remarkable thing about this book, is that its focus is on Heaven and Hell and yet it is primarily useful now...in this world! Swedenborg writes: "we have presented these matters to let people know that a heaven-bound life is not a life withdrawn from the world but a life involved in the world" (p443). Swedenborg talks about the qualities of Heaven, how we are connected to Heaven, the fact that anyone (of any religion) can lead a life to Heaven, marriage in Heaven, the wisdom of angels and so much more. This book and others by Swedenborg have had a profound impact on my life.

Swedenborg, who saw into the heavens and hells when the Lord opened his spiritual sight, describes the life of heaven and the life of hell in this book (one of more than 30 books he wrote under the Lord's direct guidance). When one dies, he or she lives to eternity in the place that best matches the loves he or she has fostered in his or her heart and mind while on earth. This book describes the places and the people! In heaven, people are married, go to work (work that they love), play (have recreation) and worship the Lord. They have spiritual bodies in the same form as earthly bodies, except there is no illness of any kind. Read this book (and other books penned by Emanuel Swedenborg) if you want a new perspective on God, life, faith and good works.

This autobiography covers the Jewish author in his native land, Hungary, just before, during and after WWII, and then after the Russians took over his country. His rendition of how he stayed alive when all the other Jews were being killed is grand reading. How he eventually came to the U.S. not knowing any English, and the multitude of jobs he secured to again stay alive, is interesting. He finally becomes a supremely successful restaurateur and his story keeps your interest throughout.

Amazingly rich in historical facts and reality.
Specialy visit the Budapesht and George Lang restorant "Gundel" in Budapesht
This gentelment is my hero. THANK YOU

I thoroughly enjoyed the book; the saga of his undaunted struggle to survive - and succeed - was a real page-turner. As a born-and-bred New Yorker of a "certain age," Mr. Lang's tales of old, familiar landmarks were an unexpected dividend, as was his demi-cookbook at the end, which, as an American of Hungarian extraction, solved many mysteries of my Grandma's cooking.

This is a wonderful book, full of quirky facts and Hungarian cooking history. The author is opinionated in the most delightfully Hungarian way.

Did you know, for example, that just as "the secret of the abundance of good Hungarian string instrumentalists is that they have a well developed "sound sense", it is most probable that Hungarian housewives and cooks are either born with or develop a keen "soup sense"? No?

Or what about this gem: "it wouldn't be too farfetched to say that Hungary specialises in winning international culinary battles and losing revolutions". Hmm. The French and Italians might have a thing or two to say about that.

To use it as a cookbook, you pretty much need to be an experienced cook. How about the soup recipe that begins, "first mince some meat"? Or the one that half way through instructs you to "make a roux" with no further hints?

I've made about 10 recipes from this book. With the exception of simple dumplings, none has taken less than an hour, most upwards of two.

Oh yes, the result is worth it. Yummm. It's just not for the fainthearted.

Buy the book for the history and other reading. For example, a list of actions Hungarian farmers were required to perform each month in 1674.

A sample:
February - Every fifth day you have to give kiln-dried beans to peacocks to make sure that they will lay eggs speedily enough.

March - Put three goose eggs under the stork and when they hatch take them away from the stork. You can catch crabs with frog's legs, and fish with your hands if you smear your feet and legs with a mixture of melted game grease and honey.

April - buy salt for the summer and put carp into the lake.

No explanation for why the eggs go under the stork! And where do you get the carp from?

There are examples of original recipes from an 1826 cookbook (cut out the bone from a piece of good beef...); a New Year's Day menu for a Count in 1603 - consisting of two 18 course meals; and a detailed account of different regions' traditions.

It's wonderful stuff.