There was one another 50's icon who rivals Marilyn in popularity today--Bettie Page. True, she didn't make any A-movies, but like Marilyn, embodied that woman who drew a fine line between good girl/bad girl and crossed the lines as easily as one drank Coca-Cola. Unlike Marilyn, Bettie survived, but like Marilyn, her legend lives on for one simple reason: she dropped out of sight in 1957 following the fall of Irvin and Paula Klaw by the Kefauver Committee on indecency and pornography and refused to have herself be photographed as she is now. Thus, she is remembered as she was back then. And as her life has become simpler, she values her privacy. She says so as much in the hand-written foreword, at the same time surprised and honoured that so many people are interested in her.Karen Essex and James L. Swanson book is a great place to start for those curious about Bettie Page. Basically, it's a biography accompanied by lots and lots of colour and b&w photos, many of them topless. There are two of them which has her completely nude. She also posed for countless magazine covers and photographers. Art Amsie's photos are the best of the lot here. Bunny Yeager is touched on briefly, but that woman has a book on herself so... Looking at the early Bettie, before she became a pin-up from 1947, is also quite a revelation. She is still beautiful, but in an ordinary way, like a typical girl growing up in 1940's America.There is clearly a dualism going on here. There's the pretty wholesome girl in the bathing suit or maybe not, and then there's the darker leatherbound fetish girl, be she receiver or giver. That latter half led to her downfall. The point also was that she enjoyed her work, mainly the lighter beach stuff. You can see it in those twinkling eyes and smile of hers.The last section of the book features models who have been influenced by her, be they in clothes or just looking like her. Of the lookalikes, Eva Herzigova, Debi Mazar, and Janice Dickinson have got it down to the bangs, (it's the bangs that did it for Bettie, after all), long black hair, and prominent eyebrows.Apart from being one of fantasy artist Olivia's favourite subjects, Bettie's images appear on album covers by My Life With The Thrill Kill Kult and the David Lee Roth Band. Her three videos, Teaserama, where she acts opposite stripper legend Tempest Storm, Varietease, and Strip-O-Rama have come out. She'll live on, no doubt about it.Anyone interested in Bettie Page-start with this book. You won't be disappointed.

This is the ultimate book on Bettie Page. This book is for every true Bettie fan. Even contains an introduction from Bettie herself.

If you really want to follow the history of legend, this is the ultimate book on Betty Mae Page!

So said one of her photographers. What a marvelous book. If you're like me, and have been a Bettie fan for years, you've been waiting for this book. For years one could find stuff on her only in comic shops and the like, dealing in old memorabilia from the Fifties, or in various "alternative" shops that sold her image on T shirts. As a teen that's where I learned about her, thanks to "The Rocketeer," the comic "The Bettie Pages," and psychobilly trash-punk band the Cramps, who for a short time had a bass player the spittin' image of our fair maiden. Now that we've finally opened our eyes, we can buy several books on her, this being by far the best. It is the ne plus ultra of Bettiebooks, of pin-up books in general. What a trend-setter; a humble, troubled, open and honest woman who was not exploited, who has not turned herself into a PC victim--she's idolized by smart, hip young women who see in her freedom, sexuality, playfullness, life itself. This book had better be reprinted--it's an absolute crime to be unavailable. Get this book by any means necessary!

Superb Job! Thanks for conveying easy to follow steps and techniques guaranteed to improve golf skills. This audio provides the tools on how to play and respond to situations out on the golf course. It gave me the internal focus to drive out distractions and key into making things happen in my golf game. A Must Buy for Golf Enthusiasts.

This audio is full of wisdom on how to develop golf-confidence, and enhance your EVERYDAY CONFIDENCE! These authors quote top LPGA instructors on how to STAY-IN-THE-PRESENT, PLAY WITH CONFIDENCE, AND HOW TO FORGIVE YOURSELF FOR ANY MISTAKES OR ERRORS YOU MAKE ON THE COURSE. This audio inspired me to be more committed to my passion--the game of golf!

I love the integration of golf-psychology and golf-instruction in one place. This audio has real people who provide useful tips and strategies to improve your golf game. A great gift for corporate women golfers.

This is the book to buy for little kids of all ages. The story is so sweet, the words so engaging, the illustrations and the colors so vivid and soothing at the same time. I'm delivering yet another copy to the smartest three-year-old I know in just a little while, and I can already imagine Nick holding this book and reading it to one of his kids. It's a classic, it's a work of art, it's a very wonderful teaching tool, but, best of all, it's got heart, and what more can you hope to show kids? Take a bow, Kel.

"I Bought a Baby Chicken" is a cute story and a subtle counting book. During a family trip to the general store, the narrator sees a little chick and decides to buy it. Her sister picks up two black chicks, her dad likes three striped ones, and before you know it, the whole family - cousins, grandparents, great-grandparents - has gone cuckoo for chickens. "I guess my family's lucky that I didn't want a cow," concludes the narrator, who'd better hope her family doesn't suddenly develop a hankering for friend chicken or buffalo wings. Karen Stormer Brooks' google-eyed illustrations are as silly as the story. (by Claire Martin).

This little counting book in charming verse by Kelly Milner Halls is exactly the sort of thing to brighten up a child's day or your own. Kelly gives the little story gentle excitement which will stimulate a child and charm an adult. It is the kind of little morsel I would want to grace a coffee table forever. I also thought the illustrations unusual and darling.

Many will ask just what can one do with a counting book, but Kelly has managed to do something new while staying within comfortable and familiar bounds.

As someone who has loved dolphins her entire life (when I was little I wanted to be a dolphin trainer), this book intrigued me just because it was about dolphins and written by a dolphin trainer. I was pleasantly surprised on how much I was actually able to learn by reading it. Not only is it a great wealth of information about cetaceans (dolphins), it is also a very interesting read on training. It is full of anecdotes, making the book entertaining, and scientific data and fact, helping to lend a bit of seriousness. The unique training ideas that Karen Pryor discovered by trial and error can be, and are, used on every animal from a dolphin to a cat to a human. I highly recommend this book.

This book provided a great insider's look to what is means to be a dolphin/marine mammal trainer. I would recommend this book to anyone who is considering this for a career path. I know I am and that this book has helped me gained a great perspective and tips on dolphin training. The stories are really touching and before you know it, you're feel like standing right next to the author feeding and playing with the dolphins. This book is a definite must-have!

This book was great!!! Karen Pryor is a great writer and a wonderful scientist!!! I have never read a more inciting book! It was great, it gave me different perspectives on dolphin training and even some insight on careers!! Buy this book, you won't regret it!!

Brought to us by the good folks at Ace Hardware this is a must have for any home owner. Mr. Fix-it is, indeed, the man to go to with any home related question. Here in this book you will find the answers to all your home needs. Lou Manfredini tells you how to fix that leaky faucet, how to put in that new over head track lighting, what to do if your walls need some touch up, what kind of caulk to use in that crack along the outside wall and how to take care of just about every other project you may consider. There is even a chapter on how to find a good contractor for those jobs you just can't do on your own.

The book is separated into chapters concerning interior repairs, exterior repairs, plumbing jobs, electrical jobs, mechanical system maintenance, and choosing a contractor. Each chapter contains commonly asked questions and Lou's answers to those questions. His writing is short and to the point. Each answer is given in easy to understand language and leaves the reader with no doubt as to how to go about solving the problem at hand. Where needed there are easy to follow diagrams but most of the explanations in this book are so clear the no further information is required.

This is, by far, the best do-it-yourself book I've found and I've been working in the hardware and home improvement industry for over ten years. I've read them all and this one stands well above the rest. Simply put, if your questions aren't answered by this book then the task at hand is probably one which you should leave to a professional anyway. Having said that I will still say that 99% of your home related troubles will be solved right between the pages of this book. You wouldn't go sky diving without a parachute and, likewise, you should not own a home without this book.

I was always looking for a book that told me what to do in easy to read language about my home. This is that book. Lou Manfredini has a new book coming out I cannot wait to get that one as well.

I'm a single woman homeowner and my mother got me this book for all the questions I have around my house. It's easy to understand, no muss no fuss. It's like having a big brother who's a home builder. You're going to love this book too.

This is about the best book we have that deals with how we became a family - hands down! Our daughter was born in China as is our Number #2 daughter who we are expecting any day now. I found alot of the "classics" in the "how we became a family" to be not my cup of tea or piece of crazy cake, as it were."Over the Moon" approaches the "how you were born" subject so beautifully that we felt comfortable reading it to our 3 year old (over and over and over........) and would have felt comfortable reading it to her 2 years ago! A very gentle, happy, gorgeous book!

As the mother of a 3-year old adopted from China, I've bought quite a few adoption-related children's books, and I like many of them. But this one I love! Although it's not directly tied to Chinese adoptions, the story is similar to ours (we're a 2-parent family; we adopted a baby; we traveled to get her). The illustrations are lovely and the story captures the happy anticipation we felt as we waited for our child. Most importantly, the author gave me words to use in explaining my daughter's birth to her: "You grew like a flower in another lady's tummy until you were born. The lady couldn't take care of you so Mommy and Daddy came to adopt you and bring you home." I just love those 2 sentences and feel grateful to have them. And my daughter asks me to read this book just about every day!

As we await the finalization of the adoption of our daughter from Guatemala, I read this book over and over again! I feel as though it tells our story. The illustrations are bright and appealing. I cannot wait to share it with my daughter. A must have for any adoptive family.

I loved this book. It dares, which is more than I can say for most of the novels I've read in the last few years. Fiction has become all the same thing, seemingly meant to make both writer and read feel good about themselves. This novel isn't about that. McKinnon's writing is alive, her characters are vivid and her story is wickedly fun. Reading the other reviews, it is clear that the author's refusal to tell the reader what to think has [upset] some readers and perplexed others; the smart ones, though, know that she purposely encloses you in the suffocating point of view of a narcissist--here's what it's like to live in the skin of a vain, short-sighted, self-glorifying young woman 24/7--as if to say you'd better watch out, world, or this is what we'll all become. But Becky is not a mouthpiece, she is a character whom McKinnon embodies fully and without flinching. I can't wait to see who and what she'll take on next.

Narcissus Ascending, the initial novel offering by transplanted New York psychologist and writer Karen McKinnon is exactly what you expect it to be when you first see it on the bookstore shelf. And it is things you never expected it to be.

The title of the work and its modest size (214 pages) may lead you to believe it contains the usual dose of pretentious self-indulgence that often accompany a first novel, which this one does. Two of the first four words in the opening paragraph are "I" and unless you are among the most voracious and academic of readers, not a few times will you find yourself reaching for the Roget's to get a handle on the sometimes reachng vocabulary. But don't let that keep you from picking it up. This look at the relationships between a group of late twenty-something friends that don't spend their lives huddled in a New York City coffeehouse immediately grabs hold of your interest and rarely lets go.

Written in a unique "diary-like" narrative from the perspective of the main character, Becky, McKinnon's writing structure here is perfect for the subject matter and is a large part of what makes this such an enjoyable read. The lack of dialogue punctuation and the often combined thoughts and sentences make the reader have to work a little harder, but helps to stay atuned to the story line and each of its subjects.

The story is centered around four friends wrapped up in the melieu of New York's East Village who, aside from the day-to-day travails of Manhattan life are each dealing with the mental residue deposited by a fifth character, Callie, whom, though we don't actually meet until the last 80 pages of the book, we come to know and loathe...and fear, but are anxious to meet. The setting is well written and through the interaction and thoughts of each character, we are given a look into four distinct lives and points of view; neurosis, desire, ambition and all. McKinnon walks us through their relationships, individually and collectively, and as we progress, have no choice but to make comparisons with our own lives. Their private thoughts, personal battles and betrayals and the rationalizing of sexual indiscretions and desires are upfront and honest, to the point we are left to wonder how many of the characters and experiences are autobiographical or if the writer is just this good.

McKinnon does deserve a little slap for not reaching further into the character Dahlia and how her life as an incest survivor fuels her thoughts and actions, but should be highly praised for her research into modernist artist Becky. If we didn't know the writer was a psychologist, her depth of detail regarding her artist's struggle for professional self-definition and the art world itself would have us looking forward to her next show at the MoMA.

The storyline focuses largely on the angst and fears of its main players and their shallow, adolescent need to acquire revenge for past deeds done them by the protragonist Callie. But there is an unspoken subtext you can not help but delve into, questions about the foundative solvency in today's society you can not help but ask. Because most of the character development is so thorough and well defined, we can't help but wonder if present-day adults are really this [messed] up and whether we fall into one of two categories; those as equally disfucntional and in need of therapy as the characters we're reading about or those who are fortunate enough to have grown up.

A quick-paced, cozy-up-on-the-sofa-for-an-evening novel, Narcissus Ascending is a fun read that takes an naked, revealing look into the self-centered aspects of the human condition we all enjoy...or suffer from. But don't believe for a second that after you close the cover, it won't have you thinking.

Perhaps more than you'd like to.

Recently, we've been bombarded by the fiction publishing industry with woman characters that are ambivalent about their independence and obsessed with the desire to be all things to everyone (especially to men). The women of Narcissus Ascending cannot be reduced to these banal caricatures. Instead, Karen McKinnon, in her darkly ironical first novel, gives us two rivalrous characters - Becky and Callie - whose complex, obsessive, self-delusional personalities jumps off the page. The seeming authenticity of these characters makes them fascinating to read about. This is a unique and wonderful book that I highly recommend.

I got this book about one month before my daughter's mare foaled. I found it to be very informative and well written. I must have read it all the way through twice, and read other sections many more times. When the foaling time came I knew what signs to look out for and was confident, with what I read, that I knew when and if the vet needed to be called out. There were sections covering what to look for in the foal several days following the birth so that if the foal was in trouble very little time would be wasted in calling the vet. I would recommend this book to any first-time broodmare or foal owners. Although I think no book will calm the nerves of an expectant horse owner, it will explain the process enough so that when the blessed event does occur you could more enjoy it.

This is the best work I've read on foaling. Dr. Hayes completely covers every aspect of foaling. The book is far more than I could have hoped for. A must read.

I would like to thank the author of this book for saving the life of a mare and a beautiful bay filly foaled on 3/28/2002. The foal was presented upside down and was unable to be delivered without corrective action. My veterinarian was on vacation and I knew that we were on our own. I remembered reading about this particular dystocia in The Complete Book of Foaling and I grabbed the book and had my assistant read the instructions on how to correct the presentation to me while I carefully followed them. I am happy to report that we were able to correct the presentation and deliver the foal without further incident. This book contains a practical, hands-on approach to foaling and is a must for every foaling attendant. Buy this book. It saves lives.

As a college placement counselor in a highly-competitive preparatory school for many years, I have found this book to be most valuable in preparing parents for dealing with the angst of a young adult who is going away to college. It also tells you what to expect during their first years away. Buy it early in a student's senior year for the greatest benefit. This is a classic and a jewel!

This book is very easy to read and provides useful information to parents of new college students. I am the author of The ABC's of College Life, a hip street-smart guide for college bound students and I give Letting Go two thumbs up!!

This book and When Your Kid Goes to College were worth many hours of therapy during the late summer and early fall of my son's first quarter at college, especially around the time we took him down to school. I preferred Letting Go because it was more comprehensive, but other parents might prefer When Your Kid...There is a wide array of situations to learn from and to place your own experience in context. The authors provide trend material from their long-term research to help parents distinguish their child's college context from their own. I observed other parents coping with this transition unaided. Some were fine but others were having trouble and personalized the experience. Facts do help mitigate emotions. I recommended this book to one overwhelmed mother whose prodigy had gone far away to pursue her talent. Her response was "Thank you, I'll let you know when I am ready for a book (ital.)" as if this would be cold comfort for her personal loss. But the fact is, the authors know way more than most of our friends and relatives do; and the number of parents going through this experience is very large (check the book for figures). There is a great deal to learn both from the academic analysis and from the many examples of parents' experiences. Well researched, well written, logical and helpful.

Tulchinsky's account of a lesbian at large is an enjoyable, easy-to-read page-turner, but it too often becomes exaggerated and/or predictable, and the theories regarding the origins of AIDS come too late in the book. The similarities to the stories of Leslea Newman are uncanny; one wonders whether they are intentional. All in all, though, a good read.

I bought this book on a whim, and was half expecting another boring lesbian novel. Was I ever wrong. This book had everything, stories of love, stories of deception, stories of conspiracy, and all in all was a page turner. I highly recommend this book for anyone out there who has suffered from a breakup and needs a little material to read to cheer them up, or to anyone who just wants something to read that they will never wonder when the story is going to end. BUY THIS BOOK! ENJOY :)

This was a fabulous read! It was a very realistic page turner that people like us can relate to! Encore Tulchinsky!