this book is one of pine's best. the ending is very good but i guessed it pretty early because i am an excellent detective. the characters are drawn out very good.

A great mystery, unlike most young adunlt mystery books, I never guessed the ending. I recommend it for all young mystery lovers like me!!

Soul Theology causes you to think about what you believe and how your belief system influences everything you say and do. It is groundbreaking as it is a guide into the heart and soul of a people who have survived against the odds and continue to triumph. The definition of "core belief" has become the foundational piece for our health ministry. For we need to know what a healthy core belief is, to possess it, then use it as a point of reference in how we see ourselves in relationship to God and others. This book will be especially helpful for counselors who counsel persons who possess deep religious convictions. In general, it is an easy reading book for anyone interested in the subject matter.

This book broke ground becaused it identified and demonstrated that certain African American core belief could uplift and heal. Soul Theology showed that what was positive and healthy in one culture could be of benefit to others. African Americans can be proud and others can be glad. I may have a small bias. Thank you for reading the book. Nicholas Cooper-Lewter, Ph.D. Expect to read about Black Grief and Soul Therapy in the future. Peace, Health and Soul.

This book is the classic introduction to cave sciences. Written for the lay person, but with plenty of scientific specifics. Caving is a very young science. This book was written many years ago, and much has been added to our knowledge of caves. Every serious caver starts with this book, though.

Anyone interested in learning more about caves will want this book. It is easy to read, yet introduces cave science (Speleology) in a clear and logical way. Even a layman like me can understand it. It is beautifully illustrated with detailed diagrams and striking drawings.Both cave geology and cave biology are covered. You will find answers to questions like how caves are formed, why some caves breathe in and out, how stalactites and stalagmites develop, what kind of animals live in caves, and why some cave animals are blind. The authors were pioneers in modern cave research. They have spent a lifetime studying and exploring caves, and write about the subject with style and authority. Main sections are: Caves as Natural Laboratories, Origin of Caves, Characteristics of the Underground Atmosphere, Growth of Stalactites and Other Speleothems, Behavior and Products of Cave Microorganisms, Habits of Cave Animals, Evolution of Blind Cave Animals, Uses of Caves, References and Related Readings, Caves in the U.S. Open to the Public, Index. David McClurg, author of Adventure of Caving, a how-to book on cave exploration.

This is an AWESOME book! I definately recommend you read it. Jody is one of the most popular girls at Central. When she was 15 (she's now 17), her boyfriend was attacked. The attacker who's name is Bubba, was sent to a Juvenile Hall for 5 years -- but he's let out after only 2 years! He swore revenge against Jody -- and now he's out to get her! Will she live! Get the book and find out! :o)

If you want to chat, e-mail me: goddess_marissa1@hotmail.com

This book is absolutly fabulous. The plot is tightly weaven, each character is given a background, and there is no need to kill anyone in the story to inhance the fear. If you are a child or a adult, read it. You'll be glad you did, I bet.

This edition is now fully revised and updated. Already half a million copies of this book have been sold worldwide. Now they have included an extra 64 pages of innovative suggestions on how to improve your home with unique decorating discussions.

This book is written in a step-by-step style and is a contemporary and practical guide to beautiful adventures in home decorating.

The contents include:

Soft Furnishings
Basic Sewing techniques
Curtains and Draperies
Shades
Bed Furnishings
Pillows and Cushions
Simple Upholstery
Table Linens
Lampshades
Decorating
Painting
Wallpapering
Tiling
Hard Floors
Carpets and Rugs
Shelving
Lighting
Care & Maintenance

A discussion on the types of fabrics is followed by a pictoral guide to the basic sewing kit. Then you enter the world of hand sewing and machine techniques. It is reminiscent of home economics courses in high school, but they go into slightly more detail.

If you are thinking of putting up curtains, there is a section on hanging systems. While curtains take a bit of work, if you have a sewing machine and a bit of patience, you can create exactly what you imagine. The sewing sections in this book are a real highlight. It seems that most of this book is about sewing!

For the adventurous new decorator, there is a visual list of what you need for a household tool kit. Already I see I should purchase a few more items if I'm going to get any of these projects completed. Yes, I have a wire brush on my "to buy" list now.

Bagging is an interesting technique for painting. Sponging and glazework is also explained in detail. The painting section is less detailed than the sewing section, but
equally useful.

Once you get to the "tiling" section, you have to ask yourself if you really want to attempt this yourself? The flooring and tiling sections look quite advanced and perhaps these sections are more to help you decide on which types of flooring or tile you would prefer to install.

Shelving is not that difficult to install in reality and this section was short, sweet and practical.

If you are up for the challenge or are just looking for more
inspiration, this is your book.

I have read just about every book that our public library carries on home decorating. I never found one book that could address the issues in such detail with visual aids for every step of a project, until I came across "Step-by-step Home decorating book" by Nicholas Barnard. This is the best decorating book that I ever read. My search for the most satisfying decorating book has ended. It makes very good reading. A must for your library.

This book, is soooo great! I love the story. It's a beautiful, exciting story of girls and boys around 16 years old, who are about to graduate from Central Academy. It's about love, hate, friends, murders, fights, and lot of other stuff.. You must read it!! *Haha*
I wish there was a MOVIE of this book *GREAT IDEA* ;)
The way I found out of this story, is because whe had to read an English book to make a book-review, and I borowd this book from a friend. It rulezzz hahahaha...

This book was just awesome. It was suspenseful and had you guessing the whole time. I couldn't put it down. I think Nicholas Pine is one of todays better horror novelists.

Thresholds is about a group of urban twenty-somethings who are smart, well-educated, well-informed and well-read in the liberal arts sense, make good money or are connected with someone who is making good money, but who are disenchanted and depressed by the world they think they know. I call the people of this generation the "lost souls of the good times" and am acquainted with enough of them to know that Mr. Barnes has, with ruthless honesty, described and dissected them quite accurately. The ones in Thresholds have all fled what they believe are their staid family and social backgrounds in the west and midwest and taken refuge in New Orleans which they naively believe to be a place enchanted enough to rescue them from their ennui and boredom. They have rejected both the desire to reform the world that seemed to possess the children of the sixties and seventies, and the single-minded desire to make money that seemed to possess the children of the eighties and nineties. As Mr. Barnes portrays them, they are, by their own admittance, a rather pitiful lot who live in urban apartments, work mostly in office compartments or eke out a few dollars trying to be writers or musicians, while leading lives, as Thoreau put it, of quiet (and sometimes not so quiet) desperation. Their idea of a good time is to indulge in drink, drugs, and sex while they sit around and talk, and talk, and talk about the mystery of existence.

What saves this novel from becoming just another angst-ridden bout with nihilism is the marvelous, hilarious sense of humor with which the author imbues his characters. Some people will he offended by some passages in the book, especially those pages that ridicule Christianity, but the language is no worse than Nixon's, nor the sexual escapades much worse than Clinton's. Mr. Barnes is courageous enough to risk the condemnation of the righteous by writing honestly about what is going on in the world he chooses to investigate. But he does more: he uses that behavior to dissect and examine human nature in minute and brilliant detail. The result is a book that in its own unique way is a morality play, not an adventure into permissive licentiousness as it seems for a while to be headed for.

The plot of the book begins simply enough: one of the main characters decides that he is going to quit bowing to the nice little lies of life and say exactly what he is thinking. That's hardly a new idea, but he and the ten friends who join him decide, mostly in jest, to organize a "revolution of honesty." The effort eventually backfires. Their safe, secure little world in the womb of their safe secure little apartment community begins to disintegrate. The book chronicles that disintegration. What happens is often hilarious, but as in all good books, tragedy lurks in the wings and comes leaping upon the stage when least expected.

What blows my mind is the brilliance Mr. Barnes shows in discussing human behavior. His characters not only criticize what they perceive as the insanities of life, but then proceed to criticize each other for their criticisms. The book is almost entirely dialogue raised to a high art, and it suggests an author of enigmatic genius. So finely-wrought are the criticisms of human behavior, pro and con any given position, that one's intelligence is challenged to its limits, sometimes numbed beyond comprehension. This is a book you might want to read certain parts of a second time. My favorite dialogues are those that point out the fraud in so much of art and poetry today, in institutional religion (he invents a new word: one who acts self- righteously is acting "jesusly"), in education, in philosophical treatises, in sports, and in music. I think of Thoreau who can take a commonplace human situation and show, with brilliant logic, just how inane can be the standard assessment of 'truth' that most of us live by and never think to question. Mr. Barnes does the same thing, and in a somewhat surprising resolution to the story, shows his commonality with Thoreau in a very real but novel way.

Just imagine what might happen if suddenly people decided to actually
speak their minds instead of mouthing those insipid, inane phrases of
the masses (i.e., "Have a nice day!"). Do any of us have
the intestinal fortitude to say what we REALLY think or feel to those
we come into contact with throughout a typical day? Not likely.
Well, that's exactly what Nash Falstaff, frustrated
musician/philosopher, does one morning when he steps from his New
Orleans apartment elevator and confronts his eye-appealing landlady.
Thus begins the REVOLUTION for truth and honesty, spearheaded by Nash
and his faithful, motley band of Apostles.

But THRESHOLDS is so much
more. This is a character-driven, complex, cornucopian work of art.
It's ribald and philosophical, hilarious and serious, enlightening,
and at times, a bit confounding. Barnes isn't afraid to break new
ground with his stylistic writing. He challenges the reader to pay
attention and keep up. His dialogue jumps off the pages, but his
sparse "tag lines" and innovative use of elipses for
conversational pauses "..." "..." do require you
to stay focused. I've read this novel three times, and with each new
reading have come away with more.

Nick Barnes is a gutsy, fresh new
voice in the literature of America. I predict we'll hear a lot more
from him in the future, especially if the "bottom line =
$$$" New York publishing world ever opens its jaded eyes to the
real wealth of talent waiting in the hinterland.

My son constantly wants me to read this book to him. The illustrations are beautiful and the story is a classic. I'm sure this book will become a family heirloom.

This artist's pencilwork is stunning! If you don't have a version of "'Twas the Night Before Christmas," make sure this is the one you buy. The pencil drawings are absolutely luminous and bring a new element to the story. Even if you have several versions of this classic story, this version is a must have!

Despite the volumes of material that have been written about her, Maria Callas remains a fascinating enigma both as a person and as an artist. Nicholas Petsalis-Diomidis has taken an important step in filling in some of the gaps that remain in our understanding by tracing in exhaustive detail the singer's early musical life in Greece, where she moved with her mother and sister in her early teens and remained until returning to the United States in 1945.

The perception that her Greek sojourn was a relatively unimportant preamble to her "real" career was in part propagated by Callas herself. Petsalis-Diomidis shows that the eight years she spent there were, on the contrary, an essential part of her musical development. It was in Athens that she received her first formal vocal training from Maria Trivella and Elvira de Hidalgo (the author is careful to give the former due credit in Callas' education), and sang her first leading roles onstage with the Athens Opera. Among her credits there were operas that would form the core of her later repertory, such as Tosca, and others that she would never sing again, such as Fidelio.

Perhaps even more fascinating than her musical history is the multitude of detail about Callas' personal life during this difficult time. Though he tries to be evenhanded, Petsalis-Diomidis is ultimately unsparing in his condemnation of Litsa, Callas' mother, whom he regards as an amoral and destructive parent. His collection of anecdotes about the hardships of war and the professional difficulties encountered by the young Callas make for fascinating reading. Occasionally his passion for research makes the narrative seem fussy and overburdened with detail (was it really necessary to give the diva's exact weight at various times in her career?), but in the main this carefully researched volume is an essential addition to the already voluminous collection of Callas writings. Credit must also be given to the fluent and readable English translation.

"The Unknown Callas" is uniquely devoted to Callas' early life as a child, student, and young professional in Athens during the 1930-1940s, and is without question, the finest biography of the singer ever. This powerful intimate portrait is essential to understanding the complex woman and musician of the climatic years in the 1950s and 1960s.

Petsalis-Diomidis researched this work like an archaeologist seeking every surviving document and artifact, but presents it in biographical form as a psychologist with a deep understanding of human nature. The whole is framed by discussions of the politics of the time and the harsh realities of daily life during the war. Though this is the work of a scholar, it is also that of an artist, where every care has been taken to paint a three-dimensional backdrop and recreate the atmosphere for each scene.

While much of the original research for this book consisted of interviewing every surviving person associated with the family, conservatory, neighborhoods, etc. in those years; the author never accepts statements mearly at face-value, always examining every angle. The search for truth is ever apparent, and though his devotion to Maria is unquestionable, he never gives her unearned benefit of doubt.

Beautifully typeset and printed with copious photographs, the book unfortunately does not include the many photographs of programs for school concerts and early opera performances that were featured in the original Greek version. Albeit many of these programs were in Greek, some were also printed in German and Italian during the war, and afterwards in English. Likewise, the index does not present proper names in their original Greek alphabet, so the original version is now a nice scholarly cross reference for this new English book.

But for those intimidated by scholarship, this book tells a moving story with just enough gossip to keep things interesting. For fans and detractors alike, it's a story of a girl with modest gifts and very modest beginnings, fighting to survive adolescence and make a name in the world of opera, a fight that would continue throughout her life.

If you've ever wanted to see the full vocal arrangement for "Since You've Been Gone", it's here! Play/sing along with your favorite videos and cds. This is more fun than humans and hamsters should be allowed to have!

The "Weird Al" Yankovic Anthology is the long-awaited sheet music of Al's most popular songs. The quirky satire of family vacations is profiled in "The Biggest Ball of Twine in Minnesota." The agony of love gone very, very bad is the theme of "One More Minute." "Weird Al" Yankovic has a marvelous talent of bringing out the kid in all of us while putting a smile on our faces. If you like Al's music, you'll love to play it on the piano and sing it in the shower.