Lions and tigers an bears? Oh my! Add Munchkins and Winged Monkeys and a Horse of a Different Color to the list. This is Oz Country, and things simply don't get better than this. To celebrate the centennial of the publication of L. Frank Baum's novel (and the 60th anniversary of the classic MGM flick), preeminent Oz historian John Fricke has written a glorious homage of all things fun and fantastical. Not only does the book offer a fascinating chronicle of the Ozian phenomenon, but the illustrations, culled from Willard Carroll's priceless collection of more than 10,000 museum-quality pieces, are breathtaking. Oh Auntie Em, there's no place like home . . . provided you're snuggled up in front a fire with this gem.

With Willard Carroll's Oz collection as a backdrop, John Fricke has cataloged the fabric of Frank Baum's stories of Oz. I am certain that Frank Baum could not have been aware this fabric would become a great tapestry upon which the world could identify what it meant to be human. Oz has permeated our society with its influence. It is found in our languages, our politics, human behavior, and is probably used more often as a simile than any other imagery in our language.

From the opening pages of this book to the last, the book is a compelling journey through Oz. The collection of Mr. Carroll's Oz memorabilia is so large that it is like trying to comprehend the distance between stars or that a few people actually have a billion dollars. This colligation of Oz collectibles somehow unites every civilization, geographic location, and human condition. It is one of the few things that have true universality.

After reading John Fricke's take on Oz, of course, based on Willard Carroll's collection, I am left wondering how history would be different were it not for Frank Baum's Oz?

The pictures are glorious, the layout intelligent and thoughtful-I will never see Oz in quite the same way again. John Fricke's writing is stellar. Willard Carroll's collection ---what can I say, WOW! 100 years of Oz is entertaining, educative and provides a new look at Frank Baum's Oz through the other end of the spyglass. This is a visit to a museum with a very knowledgeable guide through an unforgettable exhibit. Thanks for the tour. I'll be back again.

This book is a must for all collectors.

"100 Years of Oz" is a delight for everyone who has ever fallen in love with "The Wizard of Oz" (which includes just about everyone.) The success of the book lays in John Fricke's capabilities as a writer. His words are consise, thoughtful, and honest. The photographs, likewise, catch the eye like flashes of brilliant light. It is not easy to take one of America's most chershed series of books, its favorite film, and 100 years of mechandising and condense it all into one volume. Thankfully, Mr. Fricke has done that- impeccably. Buy this book today. I highly recommend it to everyone as an example of first class research. Above all, it is a time capsule of memories. Fricke will long be heralded as "Oz"'s best friend. Congratulations to all who made this book such a beautiful addition to my library.

I have not had the opportunity to put any of the recipes to use. But I am a fan of Williams-Sonoma products and own many of his easy to follow and tasty recipes. The book is in good condition and free of foul mildewy smells! Such was not the case with another used book Chuck Williams Thanksgiving and Christmas. The recipes and pictures look attractive but the smell keeps me from using it.

I've made a few recipes ou tof this cookbook and so far my family has loved them all (and some of them are fussy eaters that never like to try anything new). The marinades are so simple to make and from there the meat just needs to sit and marinate before throwing it on the grill - very easy!! At my fourth of July BBQ I was able to very easily assemble three of these recipes in a very short period of time in the morning for an afternoon celebration while still having time to prepare a bunch of other things. So far I've tried: Teriyaki Chicken, Lemon Chicken Breasts, Curried Pork Sate, Scallop and Mushroom Brochettes - all very good!!

This cook book has to be one of the best. I have made several dishes and everyone has been a hit by my family and friends. The recipes are easy to follow and alot of the prep work can be done ahead of time. I definetly would recommend this book to others and I have...enjoy.

this is the first book i ever purchased about ghost hunting exclusively in texas. i was impressed with the detail that the author included in her book. every bit of information that you need in order to conduct ghost hunting trips in Texas is included here. i have purchased a couple of books after this one that dealt with texas ghosts but they fall short of Haunted Texas Vacations.

This is a fun-to-read, informative book full of interesting ghost stories. It can be used for informative, historical reading or for pure enjoyment.

After reading "Haunted Texas Vacations," my husband and I set out on our own ghost hunts in San Antonio, Spring and Jefferson and, I'm happy to report, we were privileged to experience first-hand a couple of unexplained phenomena mentioned in Ms. Farwell's writings because we knew exactly where to look.

Please give us more, Ms. Farwell!

This was my first really good book on haunted places. Anyone who is interested in local (Texas) ghost stories just has to read this one. I am planning my vacation around some of these towns and I am very excited.

This book is so well written that it held my interest for hours and gave me quite a chill more than a couple of times. The way the author put Texas in sections made it even easier to find a particular area I was looking for. Although I was looking for San Antonio, I found there are all kinds of interesting places in between and beyond. I intend to eventually visit them all.

I would recommend this book to anyone interested in our haunted history or just a great ghost story.

Easy-to-read, straightforward discussion of all that matters in life. The Dating and Relationship chapters (my particular areas of interest) are full of common sense advice that is, in my opinion, right on target. A refreshing antidote to the stupid dating book, The Rules!

I'm 60years old, and learned alot about life and living from this well written book !! It is full of humor and wit, made me laugh out-loud !! Fortunately I learned about these secrets through my own 60 years of living, but the book will help one to avoid mistakes and save time by choosing the right path on this bumpy road called LIFE, and sail one's ship on the calmest of seas !! Thank you William Trautwein and John Alkalay !!

An insightful, easy-to-read book, The Secrets of Life, offers great ideas on how to improve your relationships, health, finances and other importants areas of life.

What I most enjoyed was the chapter on dating in which the authors describe in point-blank language the various personality types that one should avoid. Among the more colorful categories are "sluts," "losers," and "professional daters." I have already lent the book to a few friends who don't always make the best choices in the people they date.

In this section, the authors describe some fictitious couples who stay together despite being wrong for each other. The examples are so true to life that you will think you know the people, and they are well-chosen for the points the authors are making about relationships.

Overall, a worthwhile purchase.

One day I had to go to the library to get a book from my 7th grade reading list and I saw this huge book of comics and I just had to take it out. I read it probably 100 times .It became my favorite book.My favorite comics were Popeye, Gasoline Alley, The Smythes,and Krazy Kat. I love this book and you will to. So my advice to you is if you love comics you will love this book!

I've always been a huge comic strip fan going back to the days when my dad was the press foreman and he let me (as a little kid) watch the "Sunday Funnies" get printed. Awesome! Fast forward to my high school years. I was bored and killing study hall time in the library when I stumbled upon this book.

The book is broken down by period going back to the first comic strips and working their way up to the early 70's. There's some text where the authors write to explain the different styles or comment on various strips but the real gem here are all of the comic strip samples in this book. Some strips (like Mickey Mouse) get many pages as they tell a whole story. Others don't get but a single sample strip, especially strips after the 1950's.

I love this book and will break it out from time-to-time just to read all of the classic strips like "Yellow Kid", "Buster Brown", "Katzenjammer Kids", "Mutt and Jeff", "Little Nemo in Slumberland", "Thimble Theater", "Mickey Mouse", "Krazy Kat", and many, many more.

It's a shame this book hasn't been re-published with new sections to include modern classics but oh well. If you can find it, it's well worth having!

Growing up in the 60s & 70s, I wasn't much enamored of comic strips appearing in the newspaper with a scant few exceptions. Newspaper comics were awfully stale if not comatose at the time; they smell even worse now. In light of this reality, thank God I found this book 20 years ago. To me, this mammoth oversized anthology of color and b/w strips (mostly vintage 1895-1950) was and is an education, a revelation and a door to a separate reality. Who knew that such fully realized, utterly compelling and unique works of art were once commonplace features in our daily and Sunday newspapers? Compiler Bill Blackbeard provides minimal but insightful commentary, which only underscores his good taste as the majority of SMITHSONIAN is devoted to the actual comics themselves. Wherever possible, he provides continuities of strips to give the reader not only a fuller flavor of the individual storylines and the era they appeared in, but each strip's particular dynamic with its audience. What's also impressive is the sheer number of titles sampled. Among the weightier excerpts are Popeye, Moon Mullins, Wash Tubbs/Capt. Easy, Barney Google, Polly and her Pals, Krazy Kat...but many of the lightly-skimmed properties are just as good. Set aside their enormous entertainment value and what you may find most impressive is how starkly individual each strip creator is; what ends up on the page is the sum total of one man's creative & emotional being, distorted through a prism of fantasy or slapstick or melodrama. Your net gain as reader: 336 pages of the kind of joyous, crazy, all-elbows-and-graceful-despite-it art that can only emerge from forms that the Arbiters of Taste don't take very seriously. Splendid as this book is the first time 'round, it continues to enrich you, always revealing more with every subsequent re-reading. Out of print for a while but readily available through the online auction services; I also hear it's being reissued soon. By the way, the other mandatory strip anthologies are the 'sequel' to this one (COMIC STRIP CENTURY), an important predecessor (Robinson's THE COMICS) and the entire run of Rick Marschall's NEMO magazine; happily, there is next to no duplication of strips reprinted between all of them (apparently the archivist's code of honor). If this book floors you like it did me, seek them out and flabbergast further.

50 years and this is still a great book in a great series. Unlike so many popular Christian books that become dated over time, William Barclay's Daily Study Bible just seems to get better. He has excellent historical material. He offers valuable insight that will apply to your life as we begin the third millenium. You will be glad you bought this book, or any of the others Barclay wrote in the New Testament Series.

I find that William Barclay's "The Gospel of Mark" is an excelent book to learn more about what is the true meaning of what the Gospel of Mark is all about. It is fairly easy to read and it puts what is written into historical contexts. It let me know a lot more about what was going on during the life of Jesus Christ. so that I could understand the Gospel in much greater depth than I ever had before.

I would greatly recommend this book for use as a suppliment to the Bible for study groups or individual study of the Scriptures. I also think that this book is good for both a historical and/or a theological study of the life of Jesus Christ. It really helps to make sense of what Mark had to say by reviewing what the people knew and thought during the time that Jesus was among them so that we could view the Gospel from that perspective as well as what it means to us today.

I think that every Christian will find that they will learn a great deal from this book. As a Christian I feel that this book should be on everyone's must read list.

Reading this commentary was like having a daily conversation with a deeply learned companion. Barclay's remarks are always insightful. Without being dogmatic, he brings Mark's prose alive. His understanding of the original Greek and of the customs and mores of the ancient world provides helpful context to the story. What a wonderful personal tutor! I now am reading his book on the letters to the Corinthians and will read the entire series.

I haven't read a book in a long time that I actually really enjoyed every chapter. Biling's doesn't confuse the reader with battlefield strategy or complicating the obvious. He doesn't reflect on battle scenarios with upmost detail after 20 years either. This is a great book for anyone looking to learn about daily soldier life. Bilings captures the daily grind and life of being a Federal soldier while offering humor and straight forward realities that get the mind ticking. The stories make truth stranger than fiction and is a welcomed charge of quick information. It is easy to suggest this book to younger readers as well as the information is clean,concise and well written. I would definately recommend this book for all as many ages can benefit from this educational and entertaining book of soldier life.

There are numerous histories of the Civil War and some have become classics. Most of these focus on battles and great heroes. Billings, however, a Civil War veteran, writes about the daily life of the average soldier. We learn about the soldier's motivation to fight, camp discipline, diet, housing, medical care, recreation and just about everything else that comprised the life of the Civil War era soldier. Billings' book is serious yet he manages to write in a lighthearted tone, replete with levity. This is a great book to round out a Civil War buff's study of the great conflict.

I would have loved to had this book when I was a child. The non-linearity of the chapters makes it a perfect "browser's book" -- a book which you can pick up and flip open to any page and read interesting, amusing and humorous accounts of day to day life in the Civil War army. This is one of the most fun books I've picked up in a long time.

I have always loves Blake - in particular the facsimile editions with Blake's watercolor designs bordering the beautiful copper-plate text, but nowhere have I been struck by the power of his writing to the extent that I have by this volume. The layout that Dr. Diamond has chosen adds immeasurably to the force of Blake's words. The imagery in these passages leaps off the page, and the reader is given a compelling sense of the creative visions that must have inspired Blake to write.

This is a wonderful collection of Blake's later poems is specifically edited to enhance their therapeutic power and comprehensibility. This anthology, more than any other I have come across, helps to make these obscure works accessible; and the layout and punctuation has deepened my experience of them.

I love this book. I keep it by my armchair and open it when there's a quiet moment. And when I do, the power of Blake comes to me and helps me throughout my day. Only Blake speaks with such passion and strength, and his poetry is presented here unadulterated by titles, footnotes or page the poetry in landscape format so that Blake's long lines need not be broken. Whatever your previous experience of poetry, this book will enhance your life in a way that only such a distillation of Blake could achieve

This book was excellent, a few pages were torn out when I read it in a local liobrary in Australia but I was still able to understand it. I love the Wizard of Oz and this books was absolutely thrilling it was extremely enjoyable. This book explains how the producers cast all the actors and includes information on the films and books. It is a great book.

There have been a few books that have given us all a look into the making of MGM's movie version of "The Wizard Of Oz!"? But The Jay Scarfone,John Fricke manuscript surpasses all of the other books.Because it's filled with wonderful photos and info that takes us beyound the making of the film and gives us a look into the continuing popularity of the Oz characters.Using rare photos,extensive research and interviews from the people.Who were involved with the project.Messers Scarfone And Fricke.Show us the early stages of the making of the film.From the many drafts of the script..to the problems with the changes in cast,storylines,music,mishaps with props and special effects.To the promotions of the film on radio(NBC Radio's "MaxwellHouse Coffeetime")and at stage shows to the many other interpretations of the story that appeared on tv,in the movies,on radio, in the theater and at parades and theme parks.The book even gives some more biographical info about the cast and crew and some more insight into the man.Who created this legendary tale:Mr.Lyman Frank Baum.For the fans of this classic story.Who want to know the full extent of it's geniss? This is the one book to have.Kevin S.Butler.

There are many, many books out there about the making of everyone's favorite film, "The Wizard of Oz". There aren't any I've seen that I wouldn't recommend, but if you are looking for pictures, pictures, and more pictures, this beautiful coffee table size book is a great place to start. Pictures, both in color and black and white, of every aspect of the making of the movie fill this attractive volume from cover to cover, and the text, by Oz authority John Fricke is all-encompassing. Although released for the 50th Anniversary of the film's 1939 release, it is still relevant 13 years later, and a great book for the collector or casual researcher. It has yet to be topped.

For once, there is something wrong with rich, popular Lila Fowler. I think that more people should have had more faith in Lila, and not gone against her. It had a lot of suspence, and irony. You don't expect this to happen to Lila, maybe one of the other characters, but not Lila. This book is a little different than the othes, and its a nice change.

I thought that everyone's reaction to Lila's story wasparticularly truthful. Especially since some of her closest friendsrefused to believe that it really happened. It seems such a shame that Lila had to get another girl as evidence. I mean, if these so-called friends of hers had believed her in the first place, then she wouldn't have had to suffer. I definitely recommend this book to others. It also questions the notion of friendship as well as date rape.

One of a rush of SVH books dealing with adolescent issues. Snobbish flirt Lila's romance with wholesome John turns nasty when he tries to force himself on her. Shattered, Lila falls into deep depression, made far worse when she finds the courage to speak up about the attack, only to find her peers turn against her. The lightweight series deals surprisingly well with the difficult issue of date rape, depicting it in ways that should move and affect its audience of young girls without distressing them too much. The surprising choice of having manipulative bad-girl Lila attacked by long-time "good guy" John, hero of a volume or two of SVH himself, works very well.