I started reading this book with my son when he first learned to talk a few years ago. He's not tired of it yet (and neither am I). There are so many fun illustrations (I especially like the "pickle car"), and so much going on that this book can be read again and again. Now that my son is familiar with all of the vehicles, and able to point them out when we go driving in our car (although we have yet to see a pickle car in our area) we have fun not just reading the story, but looking for the tiny "Goldbug" on every page.

This was my husband's book as a child we pulled out of a box for my 19 month old daughter. It has become a ritual for her to read this book every night before she takes a bath, and sometimes several times during the day as well. When she wants this book, she will say Goldbug over and over again. It has helped her with many things from memory to learning names of trucks and cars. She loves airplanes and her favorite page is the airport with the mouse in the airplanes. My husband still loves to look at the book himself to look for Goldbug!

This book is so much more than a vocabulary builder! There are dozens of modes of transportation (from motor-scrapers to locomotives to doughnut cars), real and imagined, represented in the humorous illustrations. The settings take children through various seasons and parts of a community (a farm, a Main street, a campground, a beach, etc.). The questions from your child will be endless...How is a road made? What are the firefighters doing? Has Officer Flossy found Dingo Dog yet, so she can give him a ticket? And where, oh where is that Goldbug hiding? Inside the limousine? Behind the ambulance? Inside the broken-down car that is being towed by a small tow truck, which is being towed by a larger tow truck? This is so much more than just an entertaining story to be read, but an opportunity to ask and answer questions together, to find something new each time you read together, and to explore an imagined version of the world around us. My 3 1/2 year old son has loved this book for two years and hasn't stopped requesting it, even though we own many many quality books. Okay, maybe it helps that he is obsessed with cars, trucks, and things that go to begin with. Well done, Richard Scarry!

This is a wonderful book! It's not just for kids--I'm 25 and I read it for the first time yesterday.

Kate is a lady-in-waiting for Princess Elizabeth during Queen Mary's reign. Her sister gets Kate exiled to the Perilous Gard, a keep in the middle of the Elvenwood. Her new guardian, the sensible yet likeable Sir Geoffrey Heron is called away almost immediately, leaving Kate in the care of the menacing Master John. Christopher Heron, Sir Geoffrey's brother, is a myterious and intriguing shadow around the manor, and there are rumours in the castle that he killed his neice in order to protect his inheritance. The villagers have a different explanation, though: that the little girl was stolen by the Faerie people who tend the Holy Well. As Kate investigates these rumours, she and Christopher are swept into a terrifying and deadly adventure.

The characters of Kate and Christopher are wonderfully round and engaging. Kate is smart, curious, practical and sharp-tongued, while Christopher is honorable, guilt-ridden, and full of dreams. These are two people I wish I knew! Sir Geoffrey, Master John, and the minstrel Randal are also developed well. Kate's sister Alicia, and the old maid Dorothy aren't so well developed, but still serve their functions in the story. The Lady in the Green is a fascinating and mysterious character as the Queen of the Pople of the Hill.

I highly recommend this book - this book is definitely deserving of the Newbery Honor!

I've been interested in the Tam Lin legend since reading Jane Yolen's excellent version of it in "Tam Lin" with lush illustrations by Charles Mikolaycak (see my review). The next time I came across it was Pamela Dean's inventive adaptation of the legend for Terry Windling's Fairy Tale series (again see my review). The Perilous Gard is another fine reworking of this legend.

My email group was discussing fairy tales and fairy tale adaptations and a member mentioned this book after my post regarding the books above. I purchased it and read it. What a wonderful story. I'm always pleased to see strong female characters. For years while growing up, all I had the opportunity to read in school was books with male protagonists. That's not to say that I didn't enjoy these books, but the chance to read books with female protagonists, and strong, capable women or girls at that, is a pleasure.

It's funny, after purchasing this book, I found out that I had read another of Pope's books "The Sherwood Ring." I read it ages ago and enjoyed it very much.

You don't have to be familiar with the "Tam Lin" fairy tale (on which the Perilous Gard is based) to love this book. Part fantasy/adventure, part historical fiction, with a mild sprinkling of horror and romance, this is the story of quiet Kate, a lady-in-waiting to Princess Elizabeth (soon to be Queen Elizabeth I). When her younger sister inadvertently insults Queen Mary, Kate is (unjustly) punished and exiled to a gloomy castle ruled by a moody baron with tragedy in his past. Kate meets and befriends the lord's enigmatic brother, Christopher, and just as she learns of his role in his brother's misery, he disappears. Armed with only rumors of the strange folk who live beneath the earth, Kate sets out to rescue Christopher and uncover the mystery of this odd land, nearly sacrificing her life in the process.

Despite the Elizabethan setting, readers of any age will identify
with Kate's timeless adolescent insecurities and feelings of inferiority towards her sister, touted as "the pretty one." But she rises above these feelings in a time of need, and proves herself to be strong, smart, mature, and incredibly courageous, a great role model for young girls. This is a gripping, cleanly written, and sometimes harrowing story with a thoroughly satisfying ending. Its Newbery honor was much deserved.

"Star Wars, Episode I: The Visual Dictionary" combines text by David West Reynolds with a wealth of excellent full-color photographs. Rather than rely on shots from the film, the book primarily uses still shots that appear to have been purposefully taken for a project like this. This was, in my opinion, a wise choice, since I have noticed that the photos in other movie tie-in books can sometimes be a bit murky. The photos here are crisp and colorful, and really allow you to analyze and enjoy the details.

The text comes in the form of easy-to-digest nuggets. The book covers characters, ships, weapons, clothing, robots, animals, and other elements from the movie. The text offers intriguing little tidbits of info about the SW universe (although I imagine that more devoted fans may argue about how "canonical" this info is).

A nice aspect of the book is the fact that barely glimpsed elements in the film are given loving attention here. For example, you can "meet" the members of the Jedi Council more intimately. I liked the comparative size chart of Naboo sea monsters. And the fashion-oriented will have a great time exploring the ornate costumes worn by Queen Amidala and others. Overall, this book is a lot of fun.

The Dorling-Kindersley Visual Dictionaries are all top-notch products, fascinating not only for children, but for adults, as well. The STAR WARS, EPISODE I addition to this line does not disappoint, with page after page of wonderful, detailed photographs of the people, things and places featured in the film. Everything, from lightsabers to battle droids to Darth Maul, is examined closely and exhaustively labeled.

The fun doesn't stop with the photographs, however. Written in close concert with Lucasfilm, the book provides greater insight into the film by providing information about even minor characters with little screen time. As a result, the next time readers watch EPISODE I, they'll find themselves recalling these tidbits, and enjoying the movie even more than they did before.

Readers, adults and children alike, will find this Visual Dictionary a delight, and it will rarely stay on the shelf. Fun to read cover-to-cover, or just to leaf through, the book is an excellent addition to any STAR WARS fan's collection, and comes very close to being a must-have.

This slim volume, published in 1999 to coincide with the release of Episode I, is actually a treasure for Star Wars fans who are interested in the details of the characters, lifeforms, and technology from that "galaxy far, far away...." Lavishly illustrated and wonderfully written by David West Reynolds. Also worth getting are The Star Wars Visual Dictionary and the Star Wars Episode II Visual Dictionary.

Great book! "The Mental Edge" is the best book on the market. I have a degree in Sports Psychology and have read virtually every book published in the last twenty years. Ken Baum has the best working knowledge in Sports Psycology today. The difference between "The Mental Edge" and most other books is the application of the skills. Mr.Baum goes away from from classroom theory, to the real life world of athletics and teaches what actually works in competition. He is one of the first to identify that many people are taught to visualize the wrong way and that there is a lot more to training mental performance than visualizing. If you want to play your best read "The Mental Edge."

Begin like you want to finish, has helped sink more tough putts than any technique I've ever tried. The Mental Edge is full of useable techniques that improves your game quickly. THE BEST SPORTS PERFORMANCE BOOK ON THE MARKET AND AN ABSOLUTE FOR GOLFERS!

This is really a very book that overcomes an all too common presentation flaw:

Why is it good: The Mental Edge provides the clearest and most comprehensive program for developing metal training routines that can/will improve performance. And if you are good at some endeavor - you have already learned the base skills needed -- from there on it is mental. Again, of all the books (too many) on trying to understand and develop procedures .. this is the best

The all too common flaw: The constant digressions regarding annecdotes and exhortations of "you can if you only believe." The content is great but in many cases the presentation would embarrass Shirly McLain.

Nonetheless, I would encourage anyone with a sports objective to read (grit their way through). The specific recomendations are again the best compilation and application of mental training I know of

Those elegant downtown department stores that close at 6pm are getting fewer and far between, but this book takes you back to a time when a visit to one could fulfill a child's most fervent wish or dream. Corduroy is sitting on the shelf in the toy department when Lisa spots him and, of course, wants her mom to buy him. Her mother says no, because he's missing a button from his suspenders. Well, Corduroy goes looking for the missing button that night, thinking that's why he hasn't been picked to go home with someone yet.

This story is almost a primitive variation on "Toy Story," where the toys come to a life of their own when humans aren't around. . .and of course, like Woody, Buzz, and even the Misfit Toys from "Rudolph," Corduroy knows that his purpose in life is to love and be loved by a child. If your child watches the "Corduroy" shorts on PBS, get this book and let him or her see how he first found a home. I hate to say it, but I nearly always cry when I get to the last two pages. I just love happy endings:)

I first read(well, had it read to)this book when I was in pre-school(1984-ish) and I loved it! My favorite illistration was of Corduroy pulling the "button" off the matress and flying in the air!

Anyway, I saw this book in a child's consigment shop nearly two years ago(May 27th, to be exact). I didn't have any money to buy it, but my friend was willing to buy it for me(it was only a dollar)and I read it and enjoyed it all over again.

Since I was older, I understood the story more(and I paid closer attention to the drawings, even noticing that in the night after the store was closed, all the dolls had their eyes closed as opposed to their eyes being open during the day).

This teaches the lesson that every toy you buy for your kids doesn't have to be perfect. Kids and adults will appreciate this story(the adults moreso).

Cordoroy is the perfect children's book. It is a gentle, sweet tale of a little bear in cordoroy overalls waiting to be purchased in a department store. A real little girl sees him and falls in love with him, but her mother says she doesn't have money to buy him and he's missing a button. After the store closes, all the toys with faces close their eyes except Cordoroy. Instead, he travels the department store searching for a button because he didn't know he was not perfect. He does not solve his problem. Cordoroy is back on the toy shelf the next morning. The little girl, Lisa returns to buy him. She takes him home, sews on a button, and provides him with his own little bed right beside hers. "I've always wanted a friend!" he says. This beautifully illustrated book has a simple text and huge appeal to anyone with a heart.

Richard Russo hasn't published very many books, but he is quickly becoming one of the great authors of today. In Nobody's Fool, he writes another excellent tale of small-town life, a setting he revisits in his masterpiece, Empire Falls.

The main character in Nobody's Fool is Donald Sullivan, known more commonly as Sully. Sully is something of a free spirit, rarely thinking beyond the moment; now that he's sixty, he's feeling the effects of his short-sightedness; he has many friends but few real relationships, even with his son and his off-and-on again lover. Indeed, the closest relationship he has is with his landlady.

It's hard to describe this novel in terms of plot, since this is more a book about characters than a regular story. Russo is not interested in the standard beginning-middle-end structure of a novel; instead this book is almost pure middle. Plenty happens, but as in real life, few things are neatly resolved.

Russo is a brilliant writer and makes all his characters multi-dimensional. There are no good guys or bad guys here; even Sully, a likeable enough fellow, has some definite flaws. The way all these characters interact - Sully, his landlady Miss Beryl, his friend/worshipper Rub, his foe/friend Carl and the dozen or so others - is what makes this book so much fun. There is humor here, but this is not a comic novel; instead, it is a novel that does not fit well into any category.

For those whose tastes run beyond strict genre fiction, this is definitely a reccomended read. It just one indication of what a great writer Russo is.

Russo has written an exceptional series of novels, including The Risk Pool, Mohawk, and Nobody's Fool that peel back the layers of life in a small upstate NY town. His protagonist in Nobody's Fool, "Sully" (played effectively by Paul Newman in the recent movie), is a chronic underachiever, drinker, and working man hero whose trials and tribulations over the course of the novel are humorous and always true to life.

Russo writes the best dialogue of anyone I know, and he has a keen eye for detail. All of his characters, from Sully and his loyal sidekick Rub (who is terrified of his kleptomaniac wife), to the owner of the diner where he grabs his morning coffee and occasional meal, jump off the page and remain in your subconscious long after you forget the actual events of the plot. The story moves along in Russo's very capable hands, but it is not what makes this a great novel. Instead, you simply revel in the artistry of the author's storytelling technique, his accurate depictions of marriage and family relationships, and his obvious compassion for the lovable losers who reside in this little corner of upstate New York.

Even the throw away scenes, that have little to do with the overall plot, are brilliant. Russo writes about Sully's elderly landlady, (think Jessica Tandy), whose nosy neighbor is always calling her to try and bum a ride to the latest store grand opening or to a holiday buffet lunch, since the neighbor can't drive.

Sully always seems to try and do the right thing, and keeps ending up with the short end of the stick as a result. Not even his one legged shyster of a lawyer can set things right, as if there were any hope of a victory in court. Prosperity will always be out of reach for the cronies in this book, and for the town itself, but the story is nevertheless uplifting. Russo is a master, I loved Nobody's Fool and Straight Man and I can't wait for his next novel.

When is the rest of the country going to catch on to the numerous qualities of Russo's writing? If the reviews of his books here on Amazon are any indication, he is slowly but surely gaining fans every time someone picks up one of his books.

I picked up a copy of Straight Man at a bargain rack a while back, and to this day that book remains one of my favorite contemporary novels of all time. It pokes fun of academia, political correctness, family turmoil and greed with humor and compassion.

Nobody's Fool comes in a close second. I absolutely loved the character Sully, the principled loser and antihero of the novel who seems to keep begrudgingly doing the right thing and doing his best to maintain order in a chaotic town. His idiotic but loyal sidekick, Rub, is a perfect comic foil, and the scenes of them scheming to make a few bucks are outright hilarious. Every character in the novel, from Sully's old landlady and her busybody friends to the humorless bartender and the familiar group of losers at Sully's numerous stomping grounds, are dead on accurate and believable. Russo writes the best dialogue of any modern writer I know.

The book, like most of Russo's fiction, peels back the layers of a small town in upstate New York, a town that somehow missed out on prosperity when the interstate drew travelers away, but Russo writes about the town and its inhabitants with humor and compassion. This is not the stark, depressing realism of a Russell Banks novel like Affliction. You will laugh out loud at Sully's shameful flirtations, and at Rub's considerable problems at home with his perpetually angry wife, while recognizing the truth in Russo's small town mosaic. Read Nobody's Fool and Straight Man, and you will be a Russo fan for life.

I scoured the library looking for good MFC books and checked out about 5, before giving up. The other MFC books focused too much on the MFC AppWizard and ClassWizard. You ended up making contrived programs with no idea how they actually worked, this book starts from the beginning, showing you how to utilize MFC first in console programs, then moves on to actual windows programming. It jams the source code in to one page so you know exactly what to type and don't have to keep refering to the cd. One of the things I like most about this book is that he doesn't have 5 page long explanations about something you can figure out yourself, every time I had a question it was answered in the next sentence. This book is by far the best book covering MFC that I have had, I would strongly recommend it to beginners/intermediate of MFC

I was a bit sceptical about this book. Simply because I have no experience whatsoever with Windows Programming, I was looking for a book to introduce me to Windows Programming and I happend to find this book, which dealt with MFC.
The illustrations are wonderful, I did find a bug in a code listed in the book at a couple of places eg.Pg43 Function declared as CClient* GetAt(int idx) but defined as CClient& GetAt(int idx). However looking into the code in the CD-ROM solved all my problems. Another shortcoming which drove me crazy was why headers are sometimes included/not included in Chapter 3, there is no explanation to that, and the changes are not visible in the examples... once again CD-ROM to the rescue.
Despite these few shortcomings, this book seems well written, well explained and well illustrated. Wonderful book... my favorite chapter was Chapter 3 explaining Templates(despite the unexplanation of the headers). The effort the author took to show what templates actually are is truely praiseworthy.
But be warned, solid C++ experience is needed, note C++ not Visual C++. An understanding of pointers, linked lists, stacks, qeues etc is highly recommended in order to get the most out of this book. If you are a newbie to C++ then don't even bother buying this book, I doubt if you'll make it past chapter 1(rating on the back of the book says 'Intermediate programmer').
All in All, this book was great for me and I would recommend it to anyone with the proper background.
L8r

If you have a reasonable grasp of C++ (classes / objects, construction destruction, inheritance, overloading) and are ready for MFC, definiately get this book.

Now, ready for jump school, private? You will be on a plane, you will take off, and you will jump. No kidding, this is an MFC assault book for the beginner. You won't believe the ground you've covered in one week. Schedule yourself extra time to play around with the examples provided.

Luckily I read this before Prosise 'Programming MFC' and was glad that I did. This book basically outlined most of what you can do with MFC, Prosise provides the details of how MFC works and what the 'gotchas' are.

If you are shopping and buying TODAY, place this book and Jeff Prosise 'Programming MFC 2nd Ed.' in your cart.

Good luck.

Aushwitz - A Doctor's Eyewitness Account is not for the faint of heart. It is the memoirs of a doctor / prisoner of the infamous Nazi 'Death Camp'. I have personally read (at the time I write this) about a dozen memoirs on the Holocaust. Dr. Nyiszli's experiences cannot even be imagined. I am truly at a loss for words to articulate the feeling in my heart left by this accounting of evil. Under the direct supervision of the infamous 'Doctor' Mengele, Nyiszli performs, without question, some of the most horrific and scientifically useless 'experiments' on human beings. Truly, who among us could ever imagine trying to survive in a Death Camp such as Aushwitz? And yet the disturbing point over all in Nyiszli's book, is the fact that he VOLUNTEERED his services ! I will not judge anyone personally, however, was this author truly a victim or a conspirator with a 'better them than me' attitude? If you have the intellect and stomach for descriptions of horror, then I do acknowledge the importance of this 'Self-Damming' memoir, since it does offer a rare glimpse into the levels of mindset that was the sinister and the sadistic butchers that were the Nazi's...and their conspirators. Perhaps it is a confession of a repentant mind tortured with his actions of the past.

I have always had an interest in the Holocaust, but until I read this book some fourteen years ago, it had always remained at a distance.

A reputable colleague at work handed me a copy of this book and said 'this is worth a read'.

Having begun, I could not put the book down. The book gripped me from start to finish. The story is horrific but, nevertheless, it is a story that we all owe it to ourselves to be familiar with.

The story and the author's experiences were so profound and penetrating that I have spent the last fourteen years studying and reading as much about the Holocaust as I can. I have visited the Concentration Camps at Treblinka, Majdanek, Auschwitz, Birkenau and Plaszov, together with other areas in Poland directly connected with the Jewish Holocaust. I have seen the buildings full of human hair from the Jewish victims, the gas chambers, crematoria and the other hideous instruments of mass murder referred to in this book.

The book by Dr. Miklos Nyiszli will not take you long to finish. The voices of the victims referred to have long since disappeared. Many people today are not even aware of the Holocaust and others deny it's very existence. Books like these, written by people who were actually there, are essential if our this and forthcoming generations are to be made aware of "man's inhumanity to man" and to prevent such a horror from occurring again.

Miklos Nyiszli, a Hungarian Jew, was carted off to Auschwitz along with the rest of his family sometime in early 1944. He volunteered to be the assistant to Dr. Josef Mengele--the so-called "Angel of Death"--because he was a doctor and had very good insight into pathology. He was a Sonderkommando, a man of the living dead that did the disgusting job of disposing of the bodies of gas chamber victims. In Nyiszli's case, he was given a pathologist's job of performing autopsies on freshly killed cadavers. Miraculously, he survived the terrors of the camp because Mengele refused to have him killed (all Sonderkommandos were killed after four months and replaced by others, for the SS wanted no survivors to tell tales) for there were very few doctors who were as good and skilled as Nyiszli. Therefore, he wrote about all of his experiences in this book after he was a free man. However, I have found that Nyiszli's book is just another account of the sadistic ordeals that the inmates of Auschwitz went through. If you are well-read in the history of the Holocaust, then you too may find this statement to be true. In other words, there is not much in here that has already been written about it, even though this book was one of the first to come out on the subject. Aside from that, Nyiszli's book is excellently written: it reads like a fast pacing novel in which you find yourself at the start, and in the next moment, you are at the end.

This is actually a presentation on de Tocqueville's life and times, centered on a general analysis of Democracy in America, but including much background on his family's history, his political career and accomplishments and a look at the historical context of France, Europe and the US in the mid 19th Century. The themes of DiA are reviewed with many quotes from the book and from commentaries by de Tocqueville's contemporaries. He is presented in all his glory: his hits (the brilliant insights into social character, the nature of democracy and his devastatingly astute, timeless analysis of our American identity) and his misses (his advocacy of war and his surprisingly traditionalist views of society's class structure). An occasional cheesy French accent in some of the characterizations is the only flaw. This is a _great_ commute tape, I look forward to "reading" more in this series on other great writers!

Democracy in America by Alexis De Tocqueville is by far an in depth view of America as seen by the traveling Frenchman. It is written so well that even today almost one hundred and fifty years later it is still apropos.

The translation flows very easily and is not distracting. De Tocqueville has a wonderful writing style that could pass today even though it was written long ago... so well readable and quotable that you get the picture of American life, morals, and an astute view of politics all rolled into one.

You get a view and meaning of American civilization, for America herself, and also for Europe. You can tell from reading. that this view is ever-present in De Tocqueville's mind as if he is a comparative sociologist. Yet reading this book you get the impression that De Tocqueville had generations of readers in mind.

As De Tocqueville noted, "It is not force alone, but rather good laws, which make a new govenment secure. After the battle comes the lawgiver. The one destroys; the other builds up. Each has its function." So true even for todays war. After you defeat your enemy you have to build up the infratructure just as Marshall and Truman both realized.

Reading this book you see the skillful eye of the author noticing and recording what he sees and he is impressed. I found this book to be of great import for the observations of America and hope that our educators use this book for teaching our children about the great country we live in.

De Tocqueville is every bit as brilliant and insightful as he has been said to be. The book is as relevant now as when written and is a must read for every american who is serious about understanding his country. What one realizes in reading the book is how novel and radical was the american experiment in creating a state that was both a republic and a democracy. De Toqueville's research was amazing, as well, he read the laws and constitutions of the various states, he didn't just observe the manifestation of american government and society. His assessments of the plusses and minuses of our government forms was incredibly astute and it is interesting to reflect on the changes that took place in the government after his time and how accurately he foresaw the advantages and disadvantages of those changes, as well. Given the short period of time that he spent in this country and the distances that he travelled one stands in awe of his work. His writing style is, of course, dated but one gets accustomed to it and learns to follow the rhythm.

I've been researching metabolic individuality for 12 years. This is the most user friendly book on metabolism in the world. The research is solid and the facts are so clearly defined it makes a great argument for different diets for different people. As director of a corporate wellness program I'm using Metabolize as our main source of nutritional information. This is much more than a diet book. Metabolizet is a complete wellness book.

My husband had a special surprise for our 15th anniversary, a trip to the Bahamas! I was excited and nervous. Excited because it was my dream vacation, nervous because I was so fat. I started looking at bathing suits and just wanted to cry! Nothing looked good on me, NOTHING! First for Women magazine had an article about a new book that came out in Jan. of this year called METABOLIZE. I bought it out of desperation having tried everything else. The information is so good and easy to read. The diet is not a diet at all but a unique way of sensible eating for your body. I have lost 58lbs since Jan and the sexy bathing suits that made me cry now make me smile... because they fit! Our vacation turned out great and I didn't put the weight back on after we got home. Meatbolize is a wonderful book. Thank you for helping my dream vacation be all I ever hoped it could be.

I read Mr.Baums book The Mental Edge and it was so good I decided to read every book by him. Metabolize is excellent! I was never really overweight until I reached 32. Then I put on about 15 extra pounds. I followed the tips in the book and after 2 months the 15 pounds are gone! Motivation tips are right on. Diet is very healthy for the long term and has plenty of choices. I will continue to read every book by Ken Baum.