GoldMind was the best gift I received when I was pregnant. I needed a little inspirational journal to encourage me to take the time to reflect on each and every day. The daily quotes are fun, thought-provoking, inspiring. Every day holds a quote and questions that prod you to look a little deeper. A gratitude journal is the perfect gift for anyone undergoing a personal journey of some kind but Goldmind is so rich in look and content that it is the only journal I've actually been able to keep.

Tatyana's put together a wonderful inspirational gem of a journal. I find myself turning each day to that day's journal entry, to see what quote of wisdom Tatyana has chosen for the day. One of my favorites quotes is on October 23 (I peeked ahead), by Francois Voltaire... "The ability to do mischief can be found a hundred times a day". Perfect!

This journal is so different from any I have seen. Not only are the quotes unusually thought provoking -- the way the book is designed to open and lay flat like a notebook makes it so comfortable and inviting to write in. A gold star for GOLD MIND!

Her writing is like nothing else "without boarders of fences," the inocences of childhood and the sorrow, boringness of life comes a live like the sun at dawn through her words which blow like the wind across her pages.

Magical!!

This is a book that expands the mind of what to expect from literature.

The book was given to me by my writing teacher who I respected greatly. She rarely makes gifts of books; yet I soon understood why she selected it. It is a quiet book with no pretense of art or gallery; for this reason it contains great art and a wonderful gallery of images. To be sure my even reviewing it stikes one with a terrible mistrust--as even now I mistrust what I say. It is the lyrical authority of T.T. which makes me happy to praise it, and I do. Its tastes in subject and angle are supurb. (Thank-you to Lucia Berlin for the present of T.T.)

Intellectuals have problems fitting in with the big buddies in the world. This might be more true in Russia during the last few centuries than elsewhere, but PUSHKIN'S CHILDREN by Tatyana Tolstaya does not have an index, in which to look up Lenin, for his opinion on the intelligentsia, to illustrate the point. The intellectual freedoms which literary people in Russia had been seeking since the time of Herzen were finally granted by Gorbachev. But then the Partocracy, "accustomed to doing nothing concrete, to producing a lot of empty talk, they were shaken from their usual rut by the very mystery of what was happening. They were so baffled that it was easy to sweep them from their posts. When someone has fainted, you can quickly throw them out the door." (p. 44). People who live in democracies should recognize the ability of voters to do this to rulers on a regular basis, if the voters have enough reason and are given the opportunity.

In the case of Gorbachev, the larger question of how he managed to preside over the collapse of an empire and an economic system is of unusual interest for people in democracies whose outlooks for wealth are not stable. Tolstaya pictures the intelligentsia as being too moral to grasp the downside of what would happen when "Gorbachev made his first, and perhaps his most serious, mistake. He forbade the people to drink.
"The intelligentsia forgave him for this (they were `moved by their own perdition'). The Partocracy was happy. Here was a concrete task, and a familiar one: to fight, to root out, to fire people from their jobs. They set to tearing out grape vines, paving over rare vinyards in the Crimea, uprooting muscat so fine and expensive that `the people' couldn't get near it. They only counted the monstrous losses when the campaign was over. During the campaign, however, people cursed Gorbachev, bought up all the sugar, perfected their knowledge of moonshine manufacture, and most important of all, grasped that they could do everything their own way and not get caught or punished. An epidemic of hoarding began. Sugar, soap, matches, and lightbulbs disappeared, and then sheets and pillows, and then clothes, shoes, eggs, and finally bread." (p. 45).

Most of the people in the world live in countries where they do not need to depend on their government to supply them with such items, and even the United States, rich as it is in so many ways, might expect to be able to conquer anyplace it chooses without having to furnish such items to everybody. Even the current road map might appear to create a state for the Palestinians in an area in which Jewish settlements are the hoarders of anything they might really want. Long before, this book, PUSHKIN'S CHILDREN, starts with a book review of SOVIET WOMEN: WALKING THE TIGHTROPE, by Francine du Plessix Gray, in which reality conforms to the old maxim, "Women can do everything, and men do all the rest." (p. 3). War and prison camps kept men away from homes and jobs in the first half of the twentieth century. "An honest person tried his or her best not to participate in this `official' life. Those who did get involved in the hellish machine were broken: either it destroyed all traces of individuality and compromised them morally and ethically, or--if a person rebelled--it threw him out of society, sometimes sending him as far as Siberia." (p. 11).

Things change as the essays in this book were written. "In January 1994, no one talks about politics and no one explains anything, no matter how much I ask. No one understands anything. No one believes in anyone or anything." (pp. 127-128). With incredibly high prices, "But there are happy surprises, too: a medicine that I bought in America for $50 turned out to be so cheap in Russia that I bought fifteen jars and paid only five cents for it. (I should have bought thirty jars.)" (p. 128).

Another explanation for the collapse of the Soviet Union was in the personality conflict between its primary leaders. "In February 1991, Yeltsin was dying to speak on television and Gorbachev wouldn't let him. . . . Many people understood that the conflict between these two strong personalities did in fact threaten the country with collapse--and with unforeseen consequences." (p. 147). Then, "Having rushed to `seize' Russia, he didn't know what to do with it." (p. 151). Yeltsin is pictured as dreaming that things would be better for him if he were in America. "(I wonder whether, somewhere in the depths of Yeltsin's subconscious, he is remembering the last house of the last Russian tsar, given to Nikolai II by the Bolsheviks, which Yeltsin himself had blown up on orders from Moscow.) In any event, I rather think that if an American president willfully decided to get rid of California, Nevada, Florida, Georgia, Alabama, Texas, the two Virginias, both Carolinas, Maryland, and Pennsylvania, the grateful American people wouldn't build him anything more than a hut in Alaska, at best, and wouldn't give him any sled dogs either." (pp. 151-152).

This book is really too good. Even if you know a lot of what this book covers, the point of view is unusual and witty enough to make it entertaining. But in our times, even PUSHKIN'S CHILDREN has to admit, "Recently Americans have not shown much interest in what is going on in Russia." (pp. 185-186). The final paragraph, dated 2000, includes the kind of things that feed current fears. "Russians began to remove everything they possibly could from institutes and factories, and to sell everything they stole, including state secrets--actual, not imagined ones. They stole poisons, mercury, uranium, cesium, and vaccines. Even, in one instance, smallpox virus." (p. 242). Take it from an author who "used to buy meat patties at some tank factory. No one ever stopped me." (p. 242).

This is a wonderful collection of essays. Tolstaya is sharp, opinionated, and savvy. Full of insight into contemporary Russia -- its leaders and its people.

I lived in Moscow for some of the time Anthony photographed there. I saw his exhibit in New York. And I, too, am a photographer. His images capture the time and place beautifully. He makes the ordinary into something special. The prints he made were stunning. I saw the book that day and knew I would get home to Puerto Rico and order it from Amazon

This book is very entertaining reading with beautiful illustrations. My 2 yr old daughter loves to hear it, but I think I enjoy it even more. The book is about 4 girls who need to make it in the world. They do not want to be dependent on anyone, but know that being women will make it difficult to become successful. It explains how they learn their trades & land great jobs. In the end, they marry men who love them for who they are and the skills that they have (but marriage was not their only goal in life). In addition, the words of the princess bride can teach a lesson for the next generation.

Russian literature has always been about ethics. I really can't find any other universal feature that makes Russian prose, both classical and modern, so singular a phenomenon. Command of language? Incredible as it is in the works of Russian classics, it's not unique among the world literatures, and anyway is mostly lost in translations. Universal comprehensibility? Not at all; unlike Shakespearean plays that are set in some vague pan-European context, Russian novels are always tightly bound to Russia's very own religion, mentality, and history that are scarcely known in the West. What remains, and what really sets Russian literature apart, is its moral imperative---the impossibility for a Russian writer to show any disdain or ridicule towards those dispossessed, fragile, or helpless. Deep thrilling compassion and frantic pursuit of justice are characteristic of both the Russian classic novels of XIX century and the modern short stories by Tatyana Tolstaya.

"Breathing" is perhaps the best one-word description of Tolstaya's prose. It's not the suffocated gasping of Dostoyevsky, not the gentle crystalline air of Chekhov, not even the powerful storm of consciousness of Leo Tolstoy (whose great-grandniece is Tolstaya). Winds, airs, puffs are transfusing the fabric of these delicate pieces of prose; words and images are streaming, curling, twisting in long yet weightless sentences. Tolstaya's winds smell like sea, like childhood, like love; she makes us remember that the word "spirit" is derived from the Latin stem meaning "air." Reading this book is like breathing freely outdoors after endless hours in a stuffy room...

I have yet to travel the Trans-Siberian, but when/if I do, I will take this along. It is well organized and has good basic info on both the planning particulars of the train (visas, tickets, weather) and points of interest along the way. My only complaint is that it has quite a few grammatical and spelling errors, which make me wonder about their attention to detail on more important facts.

I found this book to be of great help in planning my Trans-Siberian trip. It is organized and contains information that will definitely be indispensible along the way: basic translations of common terms, general info on departure cities other than Russia and things I would never think of adding to a travel guidebook.
I would recommend this guide to anyone aspiring to travel by train in Russia.
J

It does not cover adequately the dangers of the Mongol/Russian boarder that I'm told is a paradise for the bandit hybred race of bandit/Khan/Slav comprising the area that I will be visiting in seven days. Good luck fellow travlers! May you find what I hope to.

The Revolutionary Guide to Qbasic is by far the best book out there for programming games in basic. It is filled with chapters on sound and graphics that nearly every other book on the market neglects to include. I make games in my spare time and until now have been picking apart other games and asking more experienced programmers how to write complex sections of code. Well, no more! This book has it all: 3-D scrolling, tile based gaming, creating music, and more. Why buy another book about how to make a loop or print data to the screen? This book it truly the best way to advance your hobby in Basic programming.

Wow! I never knew how much you could do in QBasic. I learned that text games are just fine and now I specialize in them. Once I learned the PLAY commands, I was brought into the world of music programming. I now write rap and all sorts of music. I recommend this book to anyone who wants to know the best BASIC programming.

This book is one of the most useful programming refernces that one could ever hope for. It outlines procedures that I never knew were possible for QBasic such as 3D, advanced data sorts, and sub-operating systems.

Knowing QBasic is an essential part to learning any other Microsoft programming language (e.g. Active Server Pages, which I also have Wrox book for), and what better way to do it than with this book.

A must have for any serious programmer, but not targeted for the newbie programmer. It assumes that you already know a fair amount about QBasic, but will push your programming to new highs.

This is an inspirational and often moving biography of one of the great mathematicians of our century. Hadamard was not only a brilliant mathematician, but a stimulating mentor, a man of wide-ranging knowledge, insatiable curiosity, humility, and most of all, great humanity. When Japan invaded Manchuria, he proposed that the League of Nations send peace-keeping forces there, only to face ridicule from the French press. Hadamard, more than most of us, deeply felt the tragic wastefulness of war. He lost two beloved sons in World War I. Of his son, Etienne, he once said: "what I did in mathematics is nothing compared to what he could do if he were alive today." (Half of the brilliant graduates of the Ecole Normale were killed in that war). I finished this book with feelings of gratitude and regret--gratitude to Hadamard for sharing his remarkable gifts with such generosity, and deep regret that "fate" was so grievously unfair to him.

This is an inspirational and often moving biography of one of the great mathematicians of our century. Hadamard was not only a brilliant mathematician, but a stimulating mentor, a man of wide-ranging knowledge, insatiable curiosity, humility, and most of all, great humanity. When Japan invaded Manchuria, he proposed that the League of Nations send peacekeeping forces there, only to face ridicule from the French press. Hadamard, more than most of us, deeply felt the tragic wastefulness of war. He lost two beloved sons in World War I. Of his son Etienne, he once said: "what I did in mathematics is nothing compared with what he could do if he were alive today."(As the book points out, half the brilliant graduates of the Ecole Normale were killed in that war). I finished this book with feelings of gratitude and regret--gratitude to Hadamard for sharing his remarkable gifts with such generosity, and deep regret that "fate" was so grievously unfair to him.

This was my first book on soap making, and although the pictures are beautiful I didn't learn enough to feel comfortable trying the recipes. I think this is a good book for getting your creative juices flowing, but unless you are experienced in soap making, you won't get much from this book. There is no in-depth explanation of oils, scents, colors, or anything. Actual instruction in soap making was two pages. No saponification tables, no rebatching instruction, and no discussion of different types of soap making (only cold process). Very vague about many things. I would not recommend this book for a beginner. For ideas and pretty pictures get this book.

Handmade Soap by Tatyana Hill
There are three basic soap recipes given in this book and 14 variations. Measurements are in both metric and American Standard.
-Note: while I have not tried any of these variations, some of them do sound interesting.

Ms. Hill has a listing of nine natural colorants, but she does not explain what these colorants will do in a finished soap.

Safety issues are dealt with fairly well, but I personally wouldn't recommend using vinegar to clean lye flakes off of your skin. Rinse well with running water, but using vinegar in a lye flake that is sitting on naked skin will hurt more that the lye bead by itself. Use the vinegar to clean up lye on your counters, not your skin.

In the back of the book there is a short list of suppliers in the UK, USA, and Australia. It is not a big list, but it is a place to start.

Overall, an ok book, but it is a bit lacking in information.

This is the most unique and interesting book on handmade soap I have read. The recipes are all innovative and original and the pictures are the best. The book also successful in providing helpful step by step how to pictures that none of the other books I have seen provide. Hill's book is a welcome change from the various others that are copies of one another or seem to take one recipe and duplicate it from one page to the next with a few slight changes on sent or colour. The recipes are also 100% natural which I found refreshing. I would also like to refute another review from a soap maker from San Francisco that is more of an attack on the style of soap that Hill produces than a valid criticism. Hill's soap is a specific original style placing emphasis on natural ingredients as well as high emphasis the decorative presentation of the soap. As a soap maker I have produced soap successfully with even more botanical matter than Hill suggests with great skin conditioning results. If soap is dried and cured properly bacteria will not result any more than it would in a basic soap. The comment about clogging up drains from botanical matter is preposterous! Only small amounts of additives (oatmeal for example) come off of a bar of soap with each use and can wash easily down the waste pipes (far greater amounts of solid waste go down our kitchen and toilet waste pipes every day.) Perhaps the Californian just is not used to this innovative style of English soap making? As Hill is in a position as a professional soap maker with her obviously successful soap company Savonnerie that most of us would love to be in, she must be doing something right! BRAVO