...shake your 'tini?

I was pleased to receive this book recently as a gift and couldn't wait to peel back the front cover and begin seeing what it had in stock for me. The book was a perfect companion as I'd just gotten a set of 4 martini glasses and a shaker/strainer and was eager to put them to good use. But since my nose was too buried in this concise little text, I didn't have any need for the hardware yet. Since "Shaken Not Stirred" also offered conventional and more modern drink recipies - in an effective layout - I was perfectly willing to go back to it to look up a couple of drink recipes once I'd read up on my background info on the drink. I feel like I am now a true martini aficianado and much better informed!

The book was put together by the authors of a website by the same name, who launched their site on Halloween of '95. Soon, they had gotten many suggestions to put the book together - and it turned out to be an unqualified hit. There are many reasons to like this book, it's easy to read and the words flow, plus its something I'd want to read more than once. But perhaps my favorite part about this original idea for a book (it purports to be the first bar book expressly dedicated to the martini, and backs it up by research done by the publisher) is that it's not just a recipe book or just a list of bars. In other words, all you probably ever need to know in a tight little package. It was also neat finding out I'd already visited some of their best "martini lounges" in my city within the pages, but was eager to try the places I hadn't heard of. I'd recommend this volume to anyone interested in mixing their own drinks, or even wanting to learn a little bit more behind the whole martini or "Swingers" culture.

Now then, care for a cocktail? ;)

Oddly enough, I was looking for the novel '99 Martinis' when I came across this book and had to buy it too! I don't consider myself to be a big drinker, but the Martini is so cool and this book represents it in every aspect. It's just a really cool book to leave around the apartment so people can spy it when they drop by. I'm going to find one of those Martini lounges!

This is an excellent book about Martinis: mixology, preparation, history, style, and their unique place in literature. The guides to preparing each martini and its variations are well written, understandable, and insightful. If you're a James Bond or vodka martini fan, you'll find the information in this book to be top notch. This book also does the best job I've seen of putting the martini into context with other cocktails, and explaining important "dos and don'ts." The history of each martini and its creator makes you feel like you know them personally. You won't feel shy about asking for something unusual, and passing on your favorites to a bartender (without a hint of snootiness). The book's listing of state-by-state martini hotspots is less than complete, it could use a brief description of some rare or unfamiliar ingredients and their sources, and the index could be polished and expanded. Hopefully, these minor detractions will be corrected in th! ! e next printing, but in the mean time, this is a fantastic book for the novice or aficionado.

Just like everything else I ever wanted to learn about - Chinese astrology or fengshui, it took me ages to find a book like this that told me what I really wanted to know. It went far beyond the animal signs into real Chinese astrology - four pillars of destiny, etc. Thank you.

I had my chart done recently, but it didn't seem right. I bought this book and I was able to actually cast my own in Western and Chinese too! And I'm no math wiz.

Astrology exerts a profound influence on most of the world's cultures. Only in the west is it considered a gimmick or nonsense. This book is a first! It provides a historical context for the six primary systems in use today and enables the serious student to develop and expand his own knowledge and capabilities.

I spotted this little gem a few years ago in my local library. I had tried to order it in the past but was told it was out of print. I "scoured the countryside" looking for it, and I finally succeeded in getting this book in my hot little hands! I'll NEVER sell it or lend it out!

This book is intoxicating. The graphics are very bright, bubbly and cutting edge, along with all the fab pictures scattered throughout the text. I love all the recipes for various champagne cocktails,nibbles, quotes and all that great trivia about the "king of wines"...especially the chapters about taking baths in champagne. If I win the lottery someday, well I just might try it, but in the mean time, I'll just enjoy a glass with my book.

Another fabulous book for Anastasia and Jared. Full of "bubbly" fun and creative "sparkle" this book was also asthetically gorgeous. Chef Kathy Casey

Perfect Match: Discovering Your Soulmate by ISAR-certified professional astrologer Anistatia Miller, and her co-author husband Jared Brown is a comprehensive, "user friendly" manual to utilizing astrological wisdom drawn from Chinese, Hindu, Judaic, Celtic, and Western matchmakers when seeking divine guidance from the stars in personal relationships. Written in straightforward, ordinary language accessible to non-specialist general readers and astrology users of all experience levels, Perfect Match is an amazing astrological reference filled with a seemingly endless fount of metaphysical knowledge and lore.

You already know your subject but now you're stumped. You don't have a clue how to work into your speech the date, locale or you just need inspirational quips. This book has it all. Comparisons, dates, special occasions and all fully indexed. It doesn't take many words to say this is the essential book to own whether you are beginner or a pro

Great for beginners or, as the name implies, as a visual dictionary for clients. If you want to do a good job for your client, discovering *what* your client want is one of the major problems, and this book surely helps.

Nice to educate clients and staff about Design styles, and as a reference book, nice works, tremendous simplicity in the copy to easy understand the essence of the diferent graphic design styles.

I was disappointed in this book. As an earlier review notes, it _appears_ to be "thoroughly researched," but it's full of errors. Just leafing through the book, with no further research, a number of mistakes jump out.
Among the mistakes - the authors say "the US Air Force" dropped the bomb on Hiroshima; the US Air Force wasn't in existence yet - it was the Army Air Forces that dropped the bomb. The authors twice say the atomic bomb was "tested at Los Alamos"; no - the atomic bomb was developed at Los Alamos, but tested 175 miles away near Carrizozo NM. The authors twice, again, report that Nero was "the emperor who fiddled while Rome burned (in 37 AD)" - a neat trick, considering the violin wasn't invented for another 1500 years or so. The authors twice tell us that Tenzing Norkay accompanied Sir Edmund Hillary on Everest; the name is Norgay. The authors tell us that Edmund Hillary said he climbed "because it's there"; it wasn't Hillary, but George Mallory, some 35 years earlier, who gave that response.
Many of the entries gloss over, or over-simplify, the facts. For instance, the authors truthfully attribute "damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead!" to Admiral Farragut; however, they don't tell us that the "torpedoes" of that day were not self-propelled, but what we would call mines. Whitely's _The Teacher's Calendar_ fills in the missing relevant information.
On historical events such as Martin Luther King's "I have a dream" speech, Whitely gives more background than these authors.
On other events, such as the seizing of the Amistad, _This Day in History_ is silent, while Whitely's book gives a detailed discussion.
Another example of gloss is the authors' report that Galileo "created a telescope so he could observe the heavens." Galileo certainly improved the telescope, but he didn't invent it.
The unwarranted, even "cutesy," conclusions the authors frequently draw hamper the usefulness of this book. The authors tell us that at Hiroshima "we learned that man had no control over the terrible might of the microscopic atom." In fact, man showed his ability to control atomic forces at Hiroshima, and you can't see atoms through a microscope anyway.
The authors say that the USSR/Nazi Germany non-aggression pact was "the fuse that ignited the Second World War." Elsewhere the authors tell us that WWII "was ignited when Germany invaded Poland." The statements are contradictory and simplistic.
Of course, the book does have its moments - there are a number of stories which appear to be detailed, correct, and interesting. Yet these have limited use, since the reader has to verify every part of the story, in view of the authors' frequent errors on other entries. Am I being too picky? I don't think so - not with a book which certainly intends to be used as an accurate source of history.
You might consider this book for the limited use of knowing a few events that happened on each day, accepting that the book's facts may be wrong and its conclusions unmerited. This book could certainly use some good editing and fact-checking.
A _much_ better book for the classroom, or parent, is Sandy Whiteley's _The Teacher's Calendar: School Year 2001-2002_. Not only is Whitely much more accurate, but she includes many more events per day, and frequently more information on each event than these authors do.

I've never posted a review before, but when I noticed the errors in the previous review, I felt compelled to come to the defense of one of my favorite books. I found this book to be remarkably insightful, engaging, and accurate. Its day-by-day is a fresh way to look at history. Now, as for those errors:

According to Gregory Titelman's, "Random House Dictionary of Popular Proverbs and Sayings" 'Nero fiddled while Rome burned' refers to "...heedless and irresponsible behavior in the midst of a crisis." Legend has it that in A.D. 64 the emperor Nero (A.D. 37 - A.D. 68), last of the Caesars, set fire to Rome to see 'how Troy would look when it was in flames' and to serve as suitable background for a recitation of his poetry while accompanying himself on the lyre..." For the sake of acuracy, should all disctionaries of popular sayings be amended to: Nero lyred while Rome burned?

Norkay is not incorrect. If the writer were familiar with the differences between Wade-Giles and pinyin translations into English, he'd know that Norkay is Wade-Giles, Norgay is pinyin, and both are simply alternative translations from Nepalese which does not use the western alphabet.

As for the nuclear testing not occuring at Los Alamos, virtually every text on the subject correctly cites the tests as having occurred at Los Alamos. Of course they didn't do them in the lab. Of course they took them out into their back yard (way out into their back yard). However, the point is, the tests were conducted from the Los Alamos lab. They were analyzed in the Los Alamos lab. They we conducted by the Los Alamos Lab. Is it such a crucial piece of history that the actual explosion took place far enough away that it didn't obliterate the lab? Or is it simply a point of pride to the critic that he's aware of this inconsequential and obvious historical footnote. If every detail of every event were included in this book, you'd need a forklift to open it.

As for the US Air Force being the US Army Air Force prior to 1947, he's right. However, at that time, it was commonly referred to as the US Air Force.

According to the back cover, there are over 10,000 entries in this book. If those are the most glaring points this armchair critic could cite, it seems like he should have given the book five stars, as I did. I love this book.

As a home-educating mom, I am constantly on the lookout for non-textbook, non-traditional ways to introduce my children to historical events and people. This book fits the bill to a T! It is a simple and painless way to learn a little bit about a lot of things and has sparked some great discussions in the short time that we have been reading it. A must for all home educators!

Logo book with some concepts on great companies but lacks development stages and depth.

While this book provides some beautiful examples of current trends in logos, it offers much more. It provides a great overview of why logos are important to the products and services they represent as well as how well crafted logo concepts are developed. I recommend this book to all of my clients before I start logo projects for them.

I had to write after reading the reviews below (one was obviously written by Marc English's mother). I found this book gave me great insight into current design trends. It's not a history of design. It's more a present and future. Loads of examples with notations on what it is that makes them work.

This is one of the worst travel guides I have ever used. It is poorly organized, poorly researched, filled with misinformation, and riddled with gaps. Don't buy it unless you enjoy wasting your time with worthless information.

I used this book to plan my vacation to Vancouver and Victoria. It was GREAT! I found terrific B&B's, restaurants, sights, and a lot of interesting information I didn't see anywhere else. I had to order a new copy because the owner of a B&B in Vancouver liked the book so much I gave it to him.

Huge disappointment. One star for a nice but decieving cover (and there isn't a zero-star). In fact, I learned that the symbols on the cover were nothing more than a convention used by the authors to catagorize their 8th-grade-level passages into people, plants, animals, gestures/language, and shapes for a region/country.

However, the coverage of countries/cultures was quite sparse--they completely missed the Middle East. It's basically a portfolio of works done by their designer friends for foreign clients, as if a few (sometimes one) client's work represents a cultural reference.

I actually question whether the authors' understand the definition of a symbol or icon...
"A SYMBOL for untold riches during the fifteenth century, Australia and the surrounding islands were finally opened... But Australia, Tasmania, and New Zealand soon became ICONS of both refuge and desparation in the 1780's..." (p.172)

To her credit, Anastatia Miller's book, "What Logos Do and How They Do It" was good and useful, which leads me to believe the books lacking is due to the publisher or the Cullens.

(This is not my first disappointment with a Rockport published design book; I will be very hesitant before I buy another one.)

For a good book on symbols, try "Signs and Symbols..." by Adrian Frutiger.

Interesting concepts - to put together books on global colors (see: "Global Graphics: Color") and symbolism for the field of graphic design. This information is needed in this world of global messaging. After having my doubts confirmed on false data in the color book, however, red flags still want to wave in my brain with this book. At least the German flag is displayed correctly in the "Symbols" book. And both books are well designed and great eye candy. "Symbols" also gives various avenues for creative thinking. I would be careful with their facts, however. Check them twice or three times with other sources just to be on the safe side.