Jane Freeman works mainly from found materials and transforms them into wonderful miniature worlds, mainly roomboxes. Many of her works are in private collections as well as museums. I've learned many techniques from her earlier publications in miniature magazines and this book was a bonus, both for her ideas and I wondered why she wasn't publishing anymore in what used to be known at Nutshell News, now Dollhouse Miniatures. I believe her artistic ability transcends miniatures and as one reviewer said "this book is candy for the eyes". Yes, I am interested in miniatures and this is a "must have" for the miniaturist.

Even if you're not into dollhouses or miniatures (which I'm really not), you should check this book out. It's amazing what the artists in this book have come up with--scenes elevated to extraordinary. There is a room box for every taste, from recreated and reinterpreted Van Gogh and Matisse paintings to office cubicles and Chinese restaurant facades. There are more traditional rooms like kitchens and bathrooms, but there are also diners, dentists' offices and even a funky Frida Kahlo house. Are the projects intimidating? Mostly. Are they inspiring? DEFINITELY. There are fantastic things that spark ideas in here, even if you have no intention of ever making a room box yourself. It's a great book to peruse if you're interested in collage and assemblage, and if you like miniatures there are all sorts of directions and ideas for how to make something out of virtually nothing. When I bought this and showed it to a friend, she looked at it and said, "That's...creepy." She meant it in the best possible sense--this stuff is so realistic you can't imagine someone made it. BUY THIS BOOK! It's a lot of fun, even if it is sort of creepy.

This is everything a book ought to be -- wise, thoughtful, well-written and inspiring. What a pleasure to make the author's acquantance and learn from him. He writes insighfully not only about the student takeover but also about Harvard arrogance, the sad individualism of its undergraduates, and its place in American culture. Though I disagree with his politics, I am most impressed with his wisdom. Particularly telling are the statements from the faculty members who were refugees from Hitler's Europe and who watched with despair as a new generation of arrogant storm troopers (their words, not mine) began to destroy a fragile institution. Unlike the other reviewer, I was not there. In April-June 1969, when most of the events in the book occur, I was a first lieutenant serving in Vietnam. However by September 1969 I had arrived in Cambridge to go to Harvard Law School, and I saw the aftermath of the takeover and the strike at first hand. The author got the tone exactly right. Buy this book and read it even if you have absolutely no knowledge of the events described and no interest in them. You will re-read this book with pleasure and gain much from it.

Roger Rosenblatt's concise autobiographical take on a few critical months in 1969 at the monument that was Harvard supplies a refeshingly different perspective on that period. Caught in a virtual no man's land between student and academic sage, Rosenblatt's ill-fated journey avoids revsionist, populist, and reactionary classification. Instead, what emerges is a provocative tale of personal growth and self-realization. I loved the book, but the, I was there, and that probably makes all the difference

As a minister, I often use this work to write embellished obituaries highlighting the main evnets in a persons life when I conduct a funeral(e.g., "...when John Smith was born in 1914, Woodrow Wilson signed into law...while Al Jolson's new hit, "You Made Me Love You" topped the charts...")

This volume can be useful to writers seeking to set a tone, historians, or those interested in popular culture or gaining a perspective of America's changing times.

It is definitely a reference book, interesting to thumb through, but not a book for standard reading.

Hymning & Hawing About America is an engaging, challenging, occasionally iconoclastic, and highly recommended collection of forty-two essays by Frank Trippett on American culture, politics and history. The pieces range from the psychology of gambling to an analysis of flag-burning. Trippett writes with an easy wit and an engaging wisdom that readers will find as informed as it is informative, as thoughtful as it is thought provoking.

This book may be one of the most criticized of all time, but there is no denying it's importance. Mein Kampf is the written thought of Adolf Hitler and we can know him no better than by reading this book. I gave the book itself 5 stars...

Reeve provides a well-organized account of his life, with an emphasis on relationships, in Still Me. Relationships, he claims, is the way through. He indeed explains how he has been affected by both familial and professional relationships, and he includes many people who have been his benefactors before and after his accident. The book is replete of the author's relationships with insurance companies, politicians, physicians, institutions, and the beautiful people of Hollywood. These and his fans are his audience, for whom he seems brave, even when discouraged. Disabled persons will look for and not find, in Still Me, their misery articulated for the world. However, the Christopher Reeve Foundation, for which the author has raised much money, will surely benefit most if not all who suffer spinal cord injuries in succeeding generations. Some readers might get bogged down in the sections dealing with science and politics. The reader gets a glimpse of the life of a high-level quadriplegic and a long look at the routines of a relatively wealthy one who has many connections and much fame. But if readers are looking for Reeve's thoughts and feelings about his disability, to be shared in soul exposing-candor, they will be disappointed. His descriptions of events and people are often as sterile as new catheter.

Chris Reeve is no literary genius, but he can certainly spin a tale. As difficult as it already is for someone to write a good, engaging auto-biography, Reeve manages it while paralyzed from the neck down, and yet without self-pity.

The earlier parts of his life provide great insight to his character, and to why we all admire him so much as an oasis of class in an otherwise often smarmy business. I particularly enjoyed his recounting of his Cornell and Juilliard experiences.

But it was his description of the accident and its aftermath that moved me greatly. To be able to write about these experiences must have been helpful for Reeve emotionally, but I feel like throwing the book against a wall when I realize that he still can't get up and walk. I can only imagine how many thousands of times more frustrating it is for Reeve himself.

There is of course information on how to help the Foundation he started to fund spinal cord regeneration studies, and I think - though I'm not positive - that some of the profits from every book purchased go towards that fund as well.

Simply put - when you're picking a role model, or even someone to be curious about on a rainy day or an airplane flight, you could do a whole hell of a lot worse than Christopher Reeve.

I bought this books since I was simply interested in Christopher Reeve's fate. I knew him from his films when he was still healthy, then I heard about his accident and, then, I saw his performance at the Oscar's Night some years ago. This impressed me very much so that I wanted to know more. Well, and what I got to know was a person who has my deepest sympathy and admiration. The way he describes his own story is very honest, full of emotions but also very clear like a report. He reflects all part of his former and current life with all the nuances he experienced it. I'm full of respect for Christopher Reeve who had this incredible power of belief to find back into life. I cannot imagine that I had this power, I hope I'll never need it, but his book even helps to overcome some daily trouble, to gain a realistic perpective when the world seems to be against me. I wish Mr. Reeve all the best for his future and hope so much that the science will increase his chances to recover more and more.

This book jumped out at me because 1) It sounded funny, 2) I believe I had read something by Roger Rosenblatt before and liked it, 3) It's short, and 4) There's a comical recommendation by Jim Lehrer of all people on the back.

I was very satisfied. It probably didn't take me more than a couple of hours in total to read, but I literally laughed out loud a number of times, and grinned throughout. His introduction is "This little guide is intended for people who wish to age successfully, or at all....... What follows then, is mainly a list of "don't"s and "not"s, not unlike the Ten Commandments, but without the moral base."

He has 58 short 1-3 page chapters with titles like "If something is boring you, it is probably you," "The unexamined life lasts longer," "Just because the person who criticizes you is an idiot doesn't make him wrong," and "Live in the past, but don't remember too much."

After you're done this is a good book to have around to read to friends, or to pick up when you realize you are taking things too seriously and want to laugh at life.

Excerpt: "A long happy life last five minutes. One would think that this rule would go without stating, but many people actually believe that a long life of uninterrupted happiness is a real possibility. And they act on this belief! They change families, careers, the structure of their faces, countries, everything, for no more substantial reason than they recall five minutes of uninterrupted happiness in the past, and now they wish to re-create the moment in perpetuity. They even convince themselves that the five-minute period they recall was really five years and giddily substitute the exception (bliss) for the rule (confusion, doubt, misery, fear, confusion, and confusion). Happiness is wonderful, but if you have had more than five consecutive minutes of it, it means you weren't thinking."

It would be: Read this book!

My favorite was #2--"Nobody is thinking about you. They are thinking about themselves--just like you." That rule alone saves years of stress.

Or, perhaps, #15--"Pursue virtue, but don't sweat it." As he explains: "The pursuit alone is sufficient to establish your qualities, and if you fail once in a while, your guilt will remind you of the path you didn't take." Comfort for all good intentioned fallible people--which most of us are.

Or #31--Do not attempt to improve people, especially when you know it will help." He points back to Rule #2 and adds: "Nobody is thinking of you--unless you tell them about their faults. Then you may be sure that they are thinking about you. They are thinking of killing you."

If I have any quibble, it would be with the title. A person of any age can profit from it. Perhaps a better title would have been; "Rules That Give You a Fighting Chance to Reach Old Age Without Succumbing to Stress or Having Someone Kill You."

Perhaps he had the better idea after all.

This is a really fun book, with lots of wisdom, much of it humorous. Despite the title, it really is a book for all ages as I am only 12, and can still apply many of Rosenblatt's rules. Rosenblatt takes his rules seriously, but doesn't take himself too seriously. Ideal for a X-Mas Stocking Stuffer -- I've already bought copies for both of my parents. Really easy read!

This is a compilation of hundreds of photographs taken that capture the spirit and liveliness of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. There is an excellent introducation by Roger Rosenblatt and an essay by Gordon B. Hickley, the President of the Church. The style and flow of the book is very much modelled on the "Day in the Life..." series of books.

This book is truely a work of art. It shows the dedication and love that those people must have for their church and beliefs. Just seeing much they love what they're doing was really inspiring and did at some points bring tears to my eyes.

"The Mission" provides an excellent high-level overview of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. While the book doesn't address doctrinal-related issues (nor should it, as that's not its purpose), it does provide the reader with a foundation of some of the Church's key teachings.

I found the book thoroughly enjoyable to read and re-read, as many pictures prompted a recall of my own experiences.

Never was a good political commentator. Still isn't. Full of himself. Should stick to "the personal."

Dr. Rosenblatt is a gifted writer. To read some magnificent prose, to see the characteristics of well-crafted sentences, by all means look to this book.

Be advised that this book is a study in the art and science of politically correct thought. For this reason, liberals will love it. Conservatives, on the other hand, are warned to keep the digitalis nearby. At the very least, find something to take for apoplexy -- you will need it!

It its own way, this is a frightening book, and, I am afraid, not as uplifting as its full title suggests (...30 reasons for loving our country). Instead of rekindling my spirits in the aftermath of 9/11, I found this book to be little more than a specious fence-straddling, have-my-cake-and-eat-it-too effort by the author. He makes a pretense at fairness, but I do not find the attempt credible. Here is a man who believes that the goal of absolute loyalty is "unachievable" (p.24), an author who has no problem labeling John Rocker a "nutcase" (p.9) while at the same time he simply describes the behavior of Mahmoud Al-Rauf, who refused to stand up for the playing of the National Anthem. (By the way, you will find no footnotes in this book to document historical references, so you must accept his claims on faith.)

Yes, I am probably as unabashedly conservative as Dr. Rosenblatt is liberal. No problem there -- reasonable people can disagree. But in my opinion below the wonderful prose of these essays encountered on the first floor of the house Dr. Rosenblatt has built, something very unsettling is growing in the basement.

There is nothing wrong with being liberal. Being liberal means putting people above political dogma no matter which country it is in.

There is nothing sneaky about Rosenblatt's prose. His poetic style carries his ideas across clearly and with grace.

What suprises me is that people are actually threatened by this book. How absurd! It is a wonderful book and a joy to read.

But hey, maybe everyone who didn't like this book can burn it along with "Catcher in the Rye".

This book assesses the changes that have occurred in the world as a result of the dropping of the atomic bomb from four different perspectives: the story of a person who experienced the bomb, the account of a physicist, the view of a U.S. President, and the outlook of the American people. For Yoshitake Kawamoto, who was in school only a half mile from the bomb's hypocenter when it detonated, it took nearly forty years to tell his story, but he is now the director of the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum in Japan. The physicist, Harold Agnew, flew over Hiroshima on that fateful day as a passenger on the Great Artiste, the plane that measured the size of the blast. The third perspective is that of former President Richard Nixon who believes that dropping the bomb was a major step in the process of maturation for the United States. Moreover, he argues that having the bomb quickly became a means of diplomatic negotiation for the U.S. Finally, the author provides a summary of the changes in American thought and culture after the bombing.