Don't let the title turn you off. This guide is complete. Read it, study it and be proud to carry it with you. It is just the best, full of honest reviews and recommendations. All of the info is current and up to date.

Marie Morris...I'd love to meet you. My husband and I LOVED this book. I found it to be better than most of the travelogue books because it was written with a personal, been-there-done-that attitude.

Going to Russia? Buy it. Interested in reading about contemporary Russia beyond what the newspapers tell you? Buy it. Taking a class on Russian culture? Buy it. I really can't recommend this book enough for specialists and novices alike. There's something to please everybody here.

This book has the rare quality of being a classroom text as well as a report. Today's Russia. Pyramid schemes, religion, rave parties,rock music, detective stories, cinema, pets, porn, graffiti, tattooing... the carnival of crazy New Russia to be read overnight. A shock.

This is an absolutely gorgeous book, loaded with pictures that make me want to quit my job and get a greenhouse in the country and grow beautiful herbs and flowers. This book covers a wide range of topics for each aromatic group, ranging from perfumes, to garden designs, to recipes. It is practical as well as it is beautiful. This is one of my favorite garden/herb picture books, in fact it is one of my favorite picture books, period.

The English perfumier Crabtree & Evelyn "nose" (knows) about the power of scent. Our reactions to a scent-experience can be powerful; This became apparent one day while sticking my nose into a fully-blown pink cabbage rose. The neurons that sense smell cut straight to the brain, immediately evoking thoughts and feelings related to past experiences. The scent of grandma's lilac soap may stir joy-filled memories experienced during a visit fifteen years ago. Crabtree & Evelyn's Fragrant Herbal is as enjoyable and informative as it is practical. There are recipes for making fragrant soaps and scented products containing essential oils and scented herbs grown in one's own garden. For those who are new to the growing of herbs for personal use, there is an A-Z section on growing and use of herbs. The photographs are of a high quality and display everything from beautifully crafted soaps and bath products to scenes of scented gardens abundant with roses and lavender. The artistic and writing style of this work is quite English, captivating those qualities of Britain found endearing by romantically-minded Americans. A well-done compilation that appeals as much to the heart of a gardener as to the mind seeking everyday uses for the season's bounty, Crabtree & Evelyn's Fragrant Herbal is a learning opportunity for both the seasoned gardener and the amateur maker of scented home and bath items. This comprehensive, powerful work is a tool for improving the quality of life through the use of scent, whether it be in the garden, bath or home.

I am a nut about French Literature and History and this volume is one of my prized posessions. Most of the important manuscripts and relics of French Culture, from the 8th century on, are on display in this one volume. They are all accompanied by insightful and erudite descriptions on the part of the American and French contributors. It is like being led on a grand tour through one of the most important cultural repositories of the world (La Biblioteque nationale). I have been re-reading Froissart's Chronicles recently and they are magnificently represented as item #39. The volume also includes splendid maps of French territories from the Carolingian era to the Napoleonic Empire. These have been particularly helpful to me in my recent re-reading of Froissart and Joinville & Villehardouin's Chronicles of the Crusades. This volume is not inexpensive, but it is well worth the $ for any bibliophile or literature lover. It is the sort of book one can spend many enjoyable hours with and can study at leisure, giving one countless returns on his/her original investment. The illustrations are uniformily magnificent and the print quality is excellent. It is the type of book that should remain as a vivid reminder of what culture truly means for past, present and future generations. My highest recommendation and my highest commendation for all involved in this magnificent enterprise.

A must-read if you love French culture and history.For the first time the Bibliotheque Nationale de France displays cleverly her own treasures, with wonderfully written articles- especially regarding the illuminated manuscripts. This is the kind of a book you want on your shelves!

Although this is a transcription from lectures it deserves the highest grade because M-L von Franz here combines here erudition and interpretative faculty to produce very thought-provoking interpretations of creation myths from all over the world. Von Franz introduces her own theories within the framework of Jungian psychology. C.G. Jung said that M-L von Franz was the one theorist that had accomplished the most congenial development of his own ideas. This book is no exception. It conveys some new ideas, while keeping the reader fascinated from cover to cover. Von Franz subdivides the myths into different categories like: "the first victim", "the two creators", "germs and eggs", etc. and interprets the different categories accordingly. She explains that the incipient of many creation stories seem to be a state of pre-conscious wholeness which is broken in two when "subject" and "object" are created. The book can be read by the layman without foreknowledge of Jungian psychology, but is equally interesting to the professional as creation myths often appear in the individual's unconscious. It also serves as a good mythological reference as particularly interesting creation myths are picked out. This is a fine piece which does not reduce the creation myths into grey two-dimensionality, but holds their mystery in high esteem. /Mats W

Marie-Louise von Franz is the most pre-eminent of Carl Jung's disciples, and one of the most respected expositors of Jungian psychology. This Jungian analysis of creation myths is one of her masterpieces. In the Jungian view, creation deals with the threshold between the conscious and the Unconscious. When we create a new "world" for ourselves (by a change in job, relationship, residence, life-status, etc.), we are at this inner threshold. This book uses images from ancient mythological systems to illustrate how a psychologically healthy person approaches the creative process. Although the theme may initially seem esoteric, the author is discussing issues that strike us all at our core.

This story was an unexpected delight, especially considering that it is a MacDonald book that does not take place in England. A great coming of age novel about a young women's search for identity in her family's heritage. A great book to curl up with on a cool fall night.

MacDonald really made a great book! This book is about a 19th century irish girl who wants independence from her mother and father. So she goes off to Sweden on her own. In the end she finds romance. This is one of the best books I've read. Finally a romance where the woman is not a lovestruck doll.

A must read for any technical manager who is responsible for a system that uses replication or is planning to do so. Technologists (DBA, SA, DA, Developer,..) will also gain valuable insight into the world of data replication that the vendor documentation does not provide. The decision tree (pg215) and the case study take this book over the top.

It's tough to find an entire book on the subject of replication. Most database books give only a chapter's worth of lip service to the topic, if that much, and then move on to the other "important" chapters. I can't even count how many "advanced" database books I have that devote an entire chapter on introducing SQL, yet skip this advanced topic. Distributed apps require distributed data and this book defintiely covers a lot of ground in the right direction.

The only thing that kept me from giving it a 10 is the hope that something better may come along. But even if it does, I'll still thumb through Buretta's some more. The Case Studies are a particularly good feature, and one actually applied to the situation I needed resolving when I picked this book up

I first recieved the book DAVID as a young child... too young maybe. I read the book from start to finish, and I could tell I had a different outlook on life. The things that David went through, and the things that Marie went through, gave me my own strength for my own life. The book shows excellent detail on everything from Marie's fear when she recieved the telegram, to her pride in her son when he went to the park for the first time since he got back. There is nothing I would like more then to read up on David, a sequel? Maybe? Thank you... Jessica, Michigan Please Write with your opinions...

Jabeb4me2u32@hotmail.com

Marie Rothenberg is an excellent writer, and in her book David, she describes her point of view on her son's terrible tragedy. This is an incredible book, and anyone should read it. David is a must-read book.

This book was loaned to me with the comment that I make a little report on it. After reading Chapter 4- "Greed" ...I realized how much I needed this book. I shall return it to its owner and purchase one for myself because it's the kind of book that calls for reading AND re-reading.

I purchased this book for my mother several years ago, thinking that as she turned 65 it might be helpful. Having never given it to Mom, I returned from an Emmaus Walk Weekend filled with the desire to GROW in spirit. Ms. Thibault captures the feelings and emotions of such a spiritual endeavor, both the ups and the downs. She provides concrete ideas of how to learn to open ourselves to onesness with the Almighty, the Holy Spirit, and the Son. Perhaps, even more uniquely, she shares the psychological aspects of the awakening. This gave me something to hold onto with my mind while my soul was savoring its flight. The Gift of God in Later Life portion of the title is the basis of her research. But I strongly advise those of all ages interested in the subject to hear her message.

Earlier this year, I attended a beginner's class on reading the tarot, and while this class helped me better understand Rider-Waite symbology, I still wasn't interested in the cards themselves. They seemed very dull to me, and the Rider-Waite I had stayed mainly unused even after the class.

So, I packed up several decks that hadn't made sense to me, took them to a metaphysical store that buys used decks, and went hunting. Then I saw the Diamond Tarot.

This deck could suck for a beginner, because while it uses Pamela Colman Smith's illustrations for the R-W, they are reduced in size and set into a fractal-like border. The border sometimes includes obvious symbols from the particular card it surrounds, but most often reflects an assumed mood from the card. Also, the colors of the cards have been, I presume, digitally enhanced a tad so they don't appear quite as flat. The whole deck just seems livelier without being painful to look at.

My reaction to this deck was "oooooooh," a reaction that I have not had before or since to any other R-W deck. Diamond is Rider-Waitey enough to feel familiar and like a good workhorse deck, but pretty enough for me to want to work with it. Whodda thunk?

So, if you've pretty much given up on Rider-Waite as not being able to call to you, go to a new-agey store that has deck samples on display and see if they have the Diamond Tarot. Or find a deck review website that contains pictures. I think you'll find the research worth your while.

This beautiful deck is a replica of the Rider deck -- but with several important differences and additions. The "replica" part is the center of the card, which is identical to the Rider card, but smaller and much more colorful. Unlike the flat and limited colors on the Rider cards, the colors on all the cards in the Diamond deck are lush and gorgeous! Surrounding the central picture is a large border, or frame, of what I can only term "mystical" design -- different on every card, and designed to enhance, by shapes and colors, the meaning of each card. These original designs give the effect of looking through a hallway of living color into the "room" of the card. They really must be seen to be appreciated. I must admit I was a bit put off at first by the "lights" on the borders of some of the cards, but as I continued to work with and meditate on them, I just fell in love with this deck. The backs are multi-colored, look the same upside down or rightside up ... I really don't know how to describe them, but they have many little petal-like parts that are also a bit like one of those shimmering, mirrored balls that sometimes hang from the ceilings above dance floors.