This is one of the best magic books a beginner could buy. Just as he does in his other books, Bill Tarr teaches in a way that is so easy to understand and follow. These are some of the best classic magic tricks; every magician should know them. I recommend this book to even advanced magicians. If you don't have it on your shelf, you're missing out.

This book was absolutly great! All the magic tricks were so easy to do! I loved enterraining my two younger sisters with these tricks.

this is a really good work for someone just starting in the field. The text is clear and interesting, and the explainitory art leaves nothing to be desired

Volume Two of The Americans trilogy covers the period between the Revolution and the Civil War when America was shaping a national identity with boundless faith in the future. Like the young Mark Twain in Roughing It, many Americans felt that westward movement alone would give them purpose and that the future would somehow take care of itself.

History books which have bored me have relied excessively on the indiscriminate accumulation of detail. While this obsessive desire to be thorough might be necessary for the education of students, quantity of detail alone fails to give the complete, balanced view of reality that I look for in all kinds of reading. One reason I like Boorstin is that he writes narrative history, favoring theme over chronology, thus allowing the continuities and significance of history to emerge. His American story comprises many smaller stories. What I thought were signs of the times often turned out to be peculiarly American characteristics.

Boorstin writes, for example, that government paid for railroads and colleges in order to serve the growing community. Spencer's dichotomy of "The Man Versus the State" in 19th century Europe was meaningless in 19th Century America because distinctions such as public and private were often blurred. It is fitting that Boorstin divided his book into "Community" and "Nationality" because community preceded government. Contrary to the myth of the rugged individual explorer, Americans traveled in groups. Settlers who headed west, regardless of motive, wrote their own Mayflower Compact before loading the wagons. Venturing into lawless areas, they formed laws for their protection. Even vigilantism was a way of maintaining order rather than flaunting it.

The second half of the book examines vagueness as a source of strength. The country grew and prospered before its geographical boundaries had been explored. Here are also passages on American ways of talking, the creation of myths and legends, the establishment of the national holiday, and the importance of political parties.

Nearly every page of Boorstin's history contains some nugget of Americana which in isolation appears to be trivial but in historical context emerges to reveal something profound about American life.

Both this book and its counterpart, The Democratic Experience, offer an anecdotal and entertaining approach to American history. In The National Experience, Boorstin focuses on the development of a national character and national customs. Rather than trying to force history to fit into a deterministic and logical mold, Boorstin shows just how the disconnectedness of American history has contributed to American development.

I find Boorstin's works very readable, and the style enjoyable. My only concern is that sometimes it seems that some complexities are ignored in favor of developing an overall theme. However, this remains one of very few histories I pick up for fun to read a few chapters.

This really is a great book. From the American Industrial revolution to the western expansion, this book opened my eyes to many factors in the building of our nation. In lectures, I often quote Boorstin and his observations.

I also found it amusing when he exploded some common myths concerning our history. You really should read this book.

This is truly 'the book' for the New Millenium. If you ever wondered what is the nature of God, what 'the soul' really is, if there will be a second coming of Jesus on earth,what were the actual events surrounding the death and resurrection of Jesus (the account of the events of Easter are like nothing I'd ever imagined) ,and more, much more...this 'is 'the book for you. I had been a biblical scholar for over thirty years when I was fortunate to stumble across this wonderfully powerful and most believable book. The contents, even if they are read as fiction, will astonish most readers. I feel I have been given a real account of the Gospels by those who were actually there. This book offers no shortage of attempts to correct the many errors and interpolations of the Gospels as well; something most open-minded biblical scholars will embrace. As an ordained Christian minister,I cannot give a higher recommendation...read this book!

I thank my lucky stars every day that this book (& volume II) came into my life. As a very dubious & cynical atheist, I approached these books with considerable skepticism... and to my utter amazement, found that they contain the Truth. My life is entirely transformed & I've seen others' lives transformed also, thanks to the Truths contained in "The Angelics".

Do yourself a favour, read this book... God's Divine Love is waiting for you & this book tells you how to receive it.

Quite simply, this is the single most important, life-altering book I've ever read or will read. The messages ring with truth, beauty and authority. For all those seeking the Truth, this book should be read, reread and treasured. In it can be found "the pearl of great price."

Georg Trakl is the greatest German poet most english readers have never heard of. Most of his best poetry dates from the period just before and during his service in the Austrian Army during the First World War and this makes him a brief contemporary of Rilke. However, while Rilke's verses are each a world of incandescent beauty and spiritual profundity, Trakl's are intimations of death, decay and expressions of a world trapped in a cycle of hell. His poems are intensely expressionistic, dark and powerful. Simko's translation is excellent; though he makes a few word choices from the German that might be open to debate, he does an excellent job of preserving the poems' structure while transmitting their power in English. My only quibble is that I would have liked it if the selection of poems was broader.

This is a very fine book of translations. To read Georg Trakl in German, of course, is far better. His German is extroadinarily beautiful. Trakl was a magnificent poet; I would say one of my absolutely favorite poets. His techniques are marvelous. He comes from, and surpasses, the lineage of such master technicians as Edgar Allen Poe, and Charles Baudelaire. He wrote poetry as if he were composing music, modulating colors and emotional content rather than tones and harmonies. One has the sense that he was divinely inspired. His work is miraculous.

In 1914, my great uncle died in a Cracow sanitorium--the causeof death was overdose on narcotics, most probably a suicide. Throughmy earlier years, I was read my uncle's poetry at bedtime and warned of the danger that awaits the poet in this cruel heartless world. As a teenager, I experimented with poetry yearning to transcend the souless quest for social mastery that is adolescence. Finally, upon the eve that I was to lose my arm in an effort to attain a Villonesque apprehension of the reality of the gallows, I was approached by the ghost of my great Uncle, Georg Trakl, who recited to me his last poem, Grodek--whereupon my desire to versify became a crest of shame. . .for I was a player of games where he was a player of the sacred flute of pan. . .My silence is a song in reverence to the author of the poem Grodek

I bought this book as a present for my husband. I agree with many of the positive reviews that have already been written. This is indeed a book with wonderful pictures rich in detail, and there is quite good explanation to the meaning behind the symbols. However....when I had viewed the excerpts on Amazon, I expected the book to be larger in size. The pictures are indeed beautiful, but they turned out to be quite small. In addition, the text is so small and difficult to read (geez, 6 pt font???). This book is approximately 21cm x 16.5 cm (8.2 x 6.5 inches).

Indeed, this is a good book. But to get even more out of it, read The Illuminati Manifesto.

While MacNulty's "Freemasonry: A Journey through Ritual and Symbol" may be more comprehensive and more directly related to Masonry as it exists in England and the USA, this lovely book makes a much nicer gift. This is a miniature version of an earlier coffee-table-sized version, which is worth the extra price if you can find it. The essays and very informative and are written from the perspective of French Masonry--a system working under what we in the USA call the Scottish Rite. Thus, many symbols of the Scottish Rite are discussed alongside the blue lodge symbols, with no particular line of division drawn between them.

This volume is especially eye-opening to students of esoteric symbolism who have not previously considered Masonic plant and animal symbolism grouped as such.

Non-Masons may find this book difficult to read unless they are already experienced in Masonic jargon, but all will find the photography beautiful to look at.

this book's purpose is to demonstrate taijutsu for the uninitiated and to describe the differences in its training and more well known martial arts. If you think you've seen ninjutsu in the movies I should mention I have never seen anyone in a "ninja suit" do even one taijutsu move. If you want to see the real stuff get this book.

This about 150 pages book brings a fine review of ninjutsu applied to a popular streetcombat and not only (defending against sword) situations. Well prepared, short descriptions but photos instead of'em are very informative. In my opinion this is great book, but not for the beginners. But anyway, if you have a little practice in any martial art you'll find this as very valuable addition. As I've found.

This book gets right to the core of ninjutsu's total-body skill. A must read for any serious martial artist or ninja student.

This book was not quite what I expected when I bought it. My first thought when I saw it on the shelf was, "Oh, a new Daniel Pinkwater novel! I better get that." About halfway through the first story, though, I began to be suspicious. "This isn't a novel. . .or is it? Is he kidding, or is he serious? Is this nonfiction?" This is one of the great things about Daniel Pinkwater--he keeps you on your toes, always trying to guess what is next to come. By the time I'd finished the book, I'd learned some neat dog-training tips (in case I should ever need them). I'd laughed guiltily and hysterically at the idea of a parrot being frightened to death by the misconception that it was being cooked, and I'd thought a lot about how funny life can be. This book is good for reading over one long sitting or for digesting one anecdote at a time.

Daniel Pinkwater is a very smart and funny writer -- one who knows the value of not taking himself too seriously. This thoroughly enjoyable book points out what most perceptive dog-lovers know: that dogs have a lot to teach us, about them and about ourselves. Pinkwater's dogs have taught him, among other things, that having the capacity to be both silly and dignified enriches a life.

I ended up reading this book one chapter at a time before bedtime, and each night I'd go to sleep with a smile.

If you loves dogs, you'll enjoy this book -- which also makes a great gift for the dog-lovers in your life.

Anyone who knows Daniel Manus Pinkwater's work is destined to buy this book for the sheer pleasure of carefully digesting every syllable he writes, as always. In this autobiographical book he bears his huge soul, his comical side (that we all know and love) and his uncanny, campy, unusual way of looking at the world, all as it relates to his many relationships with Canines.
Buy it! You will not be disappointed.

A fun read, this book caught my attention with its clever hero and suprise ending. Overall, it is an excellent book which starts a lovely fantasy series. Read it, I think you'll like it.

Wizard's Heir continues the tale of the adventures of Liam Rhenford and his dragon familiar, Fanuilh. Liam awakens one morning to find that three of the magical artifacts left to him by the wizard Tarquin have been stolen - but how? and why? He reports the theft to his friend, the Aedile (the Sheriff), but he has his own problems. Someone tried to rob the temple of one of the new gods in town. Liam decides to investigate his own theft because the Aedile is too busy. Little does he know that this will lead to infiltrating the Thieves' Guild, a ghost wandering around in search of his body, a master swordsman with an incurable disease, and a caged gryphon...

This was a fabulous book in that Daniel Hood continues his excellent development of characters and beautiful writing style. The story was easy to follow (maybe a little too easy...), but full of fascinating characters and descriptions. Buy the book A Familiar Dragon and get the first three books in one hardbound edition (available used online for about half the price of a normal hardbound) - it is well worth your time and effort!

Before starting this series (this is the 2nd book) I had expected an amusing light fantasy. I didn't get it but that's ok because I got something better! Hood is crossing genres with a vengence and I thoroughly enjoy it. In the first book (Fanuilh) he weaves fantasy and hard-boiled-detective. A tricky combo but well done. When I started this book I expected more of the same. Surprise! This time he whipped together fantasy and Sherlock-Holmes-style mystery! (What was so unusual about the behaviour of the Gryphon? The Gryphon DIDN'T bark in the night) I hope he continues the genre-crossing in the other books in this series. Perhaps fantasy and police-procedural is next?!?

I love the countdown books!! April was the last 1 I read and now I'm going on 2 May. I think Harold is such a fake and that George is right about him. My favorite character is George and i hope he convinces people that Harold is running a scam and I cant wiat 2 see what happens with Sarah because she knows who the chosen one is.........

I first found this book by mistake. I was looking for another so I thought I might as well get this until the store gets the book I was looking for. so I bought it and went home and read it. Now every month i can't wait until the next one comes out. I took the book to school and I got all my friends reading it now. It's the main topic of conversation every morning in class. " Oh, you have October already?!? Where did you get? What Happened in this book?? Can I borrow it when your done? " are just a few of the questions asked every morning. I would just like to say to Daniel that keep on going with the books even after the end on the year. I don't know what other books to read after the end.

extreamly awasome book, Ive bought up to june..and i just finished april today!! incredable series.. KUDOS TO DANIEL!! Im glad im not the only on in the country reader the book. read the book.. awasome series.. un expected things happen.. greta if you love science fiction or judgement day.. great book for teens.. adults persih and gives you and idea of how life would be if they did... makes ya think....

This is a very welll written book but I feel it is not for someone who has just started exploring aromatheray. The summaries are very helpful. This is not a book you could read in one day for sure. It is full of interesting facts but at times one wants to just get into the healing sections quicker. I would suggeast this book to others but they would do better to get intro books on aromatheray if they are new to the field.

I had read several books on essential oils and aromatherapy. Some were filled with anti-Western medicine rhetoric, others were focused on cosmetics, while others contained good anecdotes with recipes interspersed. I use these, but was looking for something else, which I couldn't really articulate.

I haven't finished reading this, but it is exactly what I was looking for. It combines practical application with reasonable science while focusing on healing.

The book is written in the context of the UK medical system, which doesn't match the US system very well, but it isn't hard to generalize the concepts to a different venue.

In the back are several appendices listing the recommendations and summarizing the findings.

Definitely worth the time and money.

As a Health Education Specialist it is my job to work with clients in finding ways to improve their health. It is also my job to provide the most acurate health information. I make a point to check and double check any informational source that I might use as reference in considering possible avenues.

I have found this book to be extremely helpful in making such decisions pertaining to aromatherapy. It is full of actual case studies, physicians reference notes, reasonable scientific methodology, and sound references. This is one of the only books that I know of that successfully convinced me of the possible use of aromatherapy with more traditional allopathic methods.

If you should choose to pursue aromatherapy as a means to improving your ailments, I do stress that you address your concerns and your plans with your physician to ensure not only the best possible outcome but, your safety as well.

T.Schmenk, M.Ed.