I love this book. Although it is rated for ages 9-12, I am a graduate of an Ivy League school and I find that it quickly refreshes as well as adds to my (already good) knowledge of world history.

Its point of view is commendable: the author writes as if he were an extra-terrestrial just visiting Planet Earth, thus can write about all peoples--American, Europeans, Hispanics, Polynesians, Africans, Japanese, Chinese, Asian Tigers--in a neutral but interested and caring way, for his people out there in the stars to read.

He touts the amazing achievements of several peoples but also pokes fun at their faults and confusions in a breezy but not overblown style. He tells us of nationalism and the rise and fall of individual empires and nations including their feats, truths and dreams as well as their lies, illusions, and exaggerations. Even Science is shown as a rising God that blesses us with favors but also punishes us with headaches.

The book is illustrated in full color, comic-book style, and peppered with delightful stories in virtually every page. It is a good first book or refresher for anyone wishing to start, or again get going at, delving deeper into world history, from the Big Bang several billion years ago to the present. The readers ends up both appreciative and skeptical of humanity, in short with the truth.

I noticed a couple of typos at the end of the book, but they are minor blemishes in a truly excellent book of about 120 pages.

Anyone who's ever visited Arrows Restaurant in Ogunquit, Maine, knows the owners are sticklers for exquisite detail. From the views of the lush and meticulous one-acre garden out the freshly painted farmhouse windows, to the seasonal food artfully arranged on the plate, the experience is a treat for the eye as well as the palate. With the garden full of flowers, herbs, vegetables and heirloom tomatoes for inspiration, the food is creative and bursting with bright and subtle flavors.

The owners' first book reflects this with a balanced presentation of recipes, gardening advice and personal details. Organized seasonally, the authors showcase Maine staples such as lobster, Maine shrimp and cod and halibut, fiddleheads and blueberries. But the fiddleheads come served in brown butter with Bundnerfleisch, a German cured beef (you could also substitute prosciutto or smoked salmon); the lobster comes in an Asparagus Soup with Lobster, Morels and Chervil, and the lobster salad is served, not with mayonnaise, but with Tomato-Tarragon Vinaigrette.

The authors cross cultures freely and do not mind a little extra effort for a spectacular result. The skewers for the Chinese-inspired Grilled Lamb Brochettes on Basil Skewers with Spicy Basil-Cilantro Marinade, for instance, are basil stems left to dry over the winter.

Each chapter opens with a short essay on the season and state of the garden (which provides 90 percent of the restaurant's produce) and business, then moves on to feature appetizers, main and side dishes, sauces and desserts. Recipes are prefaced with short, useful notes on growing (even in Maine, "tomatillos grow like weeds"), selecting (the best piece of bluefin tuna, for instance), variations, accompaniments, and cooking tips.

Interspersed with the recipes are short gardening pieces - how to grow tomatoes or peppers, growing and using herbs, watering with soaker hoses, using up zucchini, making the most of a small space, edible flowers, saving seeds and lots more.

But the food is what Arrows veterans are looking for here. For a tantalizing taste of summer, try a Sweet and Sour Fennel Salad or a simple plate of Marinated Tomatoes or a Sugar Snap Pea and Rock Shrimp Salad. Then maybe some Maine Sweet Clams with Risotto and Arugula, or Grilled Rib-Eye Steak with Herbs and Caramelized Onions. Accompanied perhaps by some Thai-Style Corn-on-the-Cob (soaked in coconut milk, grilled), or Yam and Leek Gratin, and your own Onion and Rosemary Focaccia. Topped off with Cinnamon Basil Shortcakes with Peaches or Blueberry Ice Cream or Steamed Raspberry Pudding.

This is an attractive, personable, conversational book, as much fun to cook from as to browse. The recipes are not difficult, though some are time consuming and many feature ingredients you can find, but not necessarily at the local supermarket (but isn't a new discovery half the fun?). A delightful book and a kitchen inspiration.

This book contains miscellaneous information about the Mythos collectible card game. It contains: the rules of the game, a FAQ, a short play and deck construction guide, a sort of designer's notes on the game, background information on selected cards, rules for solitaire play and creating your own adventures, a complete spoiler list for the limited edition of the game and lists of card attributes and requirements for completing adventures.

As a collector and player of the game, I found the designer's notes on the history of the game and the design philosophy to be especially interesting. Also useful to me are the short notes on the background of selected cards and the rules for creating and scoring your own adventures. The pictures of the selected cards are black & white with a paragraph of background info. Buyers should also note that there is an updated version of the rules of the game at the Chaosium website.

This book covers 5 (or 6) of the main theorists from Ruskin on and provides indepth understanding and analysis. This book will be of interest to anyone researching the influence of secialist theory in 19th and early 20th centruy England. It covers Ruskin, The Arts and Crafts and Unwin (part of the Garden City Movement). Apart from being a critical history-of-theory book it also offers an intelligent critique of the movement as a whole in the conclusion

This soft cover book is the best collection to date of Bacon's instinct's on photo's as "a record" for motion and emotion, which led, as far as I am concerned, to his "violent colours and form's" that produce an "incredible, emotional charge which is "an impressive sort of violence".People often speak of Bacon's work's as violent, but Bacon said himself that he never saw any violence(in terms of a negative, painful meaning) in his work's.Bacon did see a violent execution in Picasso's work's through colour and form.
Bacon did state his work's were positively charged with incredible emotion's through his colours and forms which might be veiwed as violent ,but in the positive.I also feel, as Bacon did, that word's diminish an artist's work's, so that is why I am qouting him so often from the book "Francis Bacon In conversation with Michel Archimbaud".Bacon's Eye is full of photo's, some of his early unseen work's, and his use of colour and form after veiwing the photo's in the book.There is also an interview with Barry Joule, a close friend of Bacon, at the end of the book.
Bacon gave Joule a thousand never seen work's on paper before his death.This book has only some of them, and I would love to see the remainder if ever published some day, but you will get a much indepth look at Bacon's work from the one's supplied.This book is not to be passed by if you want something rare and intimate of the artist.If you were to compare this book to the one other book featuring Bacon's drawing's, which name I can not recall right now, Bacon's Eye is ten times better.It also has different textured paper for the plates and the interview section.

This book is unbelievable. It give stats from every single baseball player in 1997. Whenever your bored and need something to read, just sit down and read a few biographies, Itll increase your baseball knowledge, and most of them are very interesting.

What is there to say....but if you are a person who has read anything and everything by Mark Twain then it can't hurt to have this. It is a fun little collection of witty and intelligent observations from what I consider to be one of the greatest writers to have graced print. For those who are only familiar with something like Tom Sawyer or Huckleberry Finn, I would still recommend this - it is but an all too brief introduction to Twain the genius who in some respects tackles far more of the world (particularly his political and religious views) than most serious authors. Most of his views are still relevant to the 21st century - this man was way ahead of his time! This little gem serves as both an introduction and a reminder of how timeless his views are. The unfortunate aspect is that just by continuing to show us how relevant his criticsm of religion and racism was and is, we are reminded that this is because sadly our society has not changed much in 150 years or so.

Get this book! - then get everything else by this man (not all bookstores like to keep these for too long)! . It sure beats a lot of the other "Little Books of Wisdom" that are out there!

Although I do not own this book "yet" I have borrowed it from a friend. Every page I turn I smile, laugh, or am in awe of a story that tells about God's grace. This is a book for mature 16 year olds and on I think. I think possibly younger children may not appreciate some of the humor, but it is definatly a great buy.

The Franconia, New Hampshire, farm of the American poet Robert Frost was turned into a museum and center for poetry and the arts in 1976. From that time, "The Frost Place" has been annual event wherein an emerging poet has been invited to spend the summer living in the house where Frost once lived and wrote some of his greatest poetry. The Breath Of Parted Lips: Voices From The Robert Frost Place, Volume One is a remarkable anthology of twenty-four poets, each of whom won that honor of a summer's residency and document the success of the original concept as a means of generating outstanding poetry while nurturing the poet's muse in the rooms and views that were once the inspiration of the great Robert Frost. Poem At 40: Windwashed--as if standing next to the highway,/a truck long as the century sweeping by,/all things at last bent in the same direction./An opening, as if all/the clothes my ancestors ever wore/dry on lines in my body:/wind-whipped, parallel with the ground,/some sleeves sharing a single clothespin/so that they seem to clasp hands,/seem to hold on.//And now that I can see/up the old women's dresses,/there's nothing but a filtered light./And now that their men's smoky breath/has traversed the earth,/it has nothing to do with them./And now that awkward, fat tears of rain/slap the window screen,/now that I'm naked too,/cupping my genitals, tracing with a pencil/the blue vein between my collar bone and breast,/I'll go to sleep when I'm told.

When you are in marketing, you have to stay on top of every aspect all of the time. So many business/marketing plan books are either not complete, current, too technical or not technical enough! I took this book out from my local library, and I like it so much, I am purchasing it. I find it easy to read -- the layout is wonderful including special tip boxes throughout that address everything from plan pitfalls to buzzwords. (One does need to learn the current lingo after all -- it is changing so fast.) There are also solutions to basic questions like: Should I go for venture capital or look for strategic partnerships? Top all this off with a helpful listing of Small-Business Friendly Banks. Like I said, this book is a pleasant surprise.