We used this book in a college class I took called "Book Art". This book is written in a straightforward manner with clear and simple illustrations where needed.

Among its explanation of book binding techniques, it covers specific stitching, and has directions for making archival paste (wheat paste).

The benefit of two expert authors is that whenever they differ in techniques, they describe both and you can choose a method to fit your style.

True to the synopsis of this book, it gives full instructions in how to perform bookbinding without any special tools. This book, in spite of avoiding custom tools, gives the best treatment I have seen on techniques for leather binding. It also goes into quite a bit of depth on sewing, knocking down the spine (for rounded spines, folks), repairing old books, hinging techniques, etc. In fact, this is one of my favorite books on bookbinding and I refer to it frequently. Definitely a must have on any serious bookbinder's library shelf.

This is the one book that all people interested in bookbinding should read. Other books are more colorful and flashy, but Kevin Smiths' Bookbinding for Book Artists is the best book on the fundamentals of bookbinding on the market today. The book is clear, concise, challenging, and creative. A beginner can understand and implement every project described, and Mr. Smith shows you how to make and, as important, how to THINK about making books simply, artfully, and beautifully.

Sepia Dreams is definitely a MUST HAVE for one that has a great appreciation for art/photography. The affirmations are inspiring. The book is a great gift to give to loved ones.

Beautiful. Intelligent. Inspirational. Sepia Dreams is a work of art and aspiration! With so many stories of the people we love the most, you can't put it down. A great gift, and a must-have addition to your home library!
--LLOYD BOSTON, author of MEN OF COLOR

From the moment I first opened this book, I haven't been able to stop talking about it to my co-workers, friends, and family. Never before have I been so proud to own a book . At a time when we could all use something upbeat and positive, this book is inspirational, motivational, and uplifting. I hope you enjoy it as much as I am!

I thought that the book was a really good book to read one of the best that i have read in a while. i also thought that Joey was good at asking many questons to Skeeter about every thing. I was also interested in the part of the book in chapter four where Skeeter was helping Joey look for a dog to train to hunt with him. and that all the dogs that Joey liked Skeeter said that they wouldbe a pain or something other like that. I also like Steve as the quiet one that warmed up to Abraham Lincoln and Joey was jelous so Skeeter told him that orvel Fabous was his type of dog and to go take him for a walk. that was a very intersting and exciting part. over all i really liked and enjoyed the book.

Skeeter

Skeeter was a really fun book to read because you didn't know what was going to happen next. I think it was overall a pretty good book but some of the chapters bored me so I had to excuse those parts but other than that it was a great book. I give this book nine out of ten stars. I more liked the book than disliked it because it was about animals and the outdoors and I love the outdoors. This book I think is rare to find because not many authors like the outdoors and hunting. This is the first book I read from this author so I can't compare it to her other books but I am probibly going to read them soon. I think if your are involed with the outdoors or just like the outdoors you should get this book. Because in the story these two boys love to hunt and fish in the outdoors and then they run into a big time hunter that teaches them the importance of the outdoors and how to track and hunt. It has teached me some stuff I didn't even know how to do. Like if your lost in the woods and you don't know where to go it tells you how you can find directions on what side the moss grows on the tree. And how to build a fire without matches. I think if I had to put this book in a catogory it would be knowing how to hunt and surview in the outdoors.

This is an amazing Book and I have enjoyed it so much.
It is a great educational resource for African American History.

The poems in FOR APPEARANCES trace, with great precision and beauty, conflicts between the joys and bleaknesses of everyday life, where the latter, exquisitely described, seem to predominate. By the end of the volume it is hard to know if there is real despair or if there might be hope. The last poem, "Still," gives an intensely positive answer, though its appearance may at first seem otherwise. Here is the poem, with comments to follow.

Still

I fell in love with the Siberian Iris
In the garden catalog,
Slender-stemmed, indigo shading to violet,
As if such modest frailty
Might shape a border
Of grace, of felicity.

What does it matter where I speak from?
The dog lying breathless at my feet,
Torpid in this humid heat,
Kids calling beyond the fence,
An old song in the open book
Of nymphs and shepherds,comforted--

All comfort is by artifice
The world drawn, withdrawn into a garden,
The weeds and briars, by a beloved hand
Rendered as calm as a botanaical
Print, as still as
Someone's voice saying "enough, enough,
Be still now..." as I say to the dog,

Who is old and scrabbles
For purchase on the tile floor,
Then limps off to her bowl,
Still cheerful, still dutifully
Dogged by her appetite,
Then sleeps and runs still in her sleep.

The weeds are thick after a week of rain,
And around an oak stump, a clump
Of what look like (but can't be) morels
Nods, in pleasant imitation
Of what is good.
And how should I prefer the good

To the commonplace (a platitude,
A flat-voiced warning to a child about deceit,
About what's wild), whatever is enough.
These irises will spread,
The catalog promises, and who

Will tell the first bloom from the last, who
Will know, so sure
Their repetition, that time
Has even passed.

The poem starts with the speaker's falling in love with a beautiful Iris in a garden catalog, a flower of great feminine beauty ("slender-stemmed, indigo shading to violet") designed, perhaps, to shape a modest border "of grace, of felicity," as though it would contain an elegant pictured focus within boundaries as would the parameters of a poem. The everyday summer background in stanza 2 provides the pastoral milieu (shepherd-"dog", "heat" of passion, "kids" as shepherd boys). This scene correlates with the "old song in the open book/Of nymphs and shepherds" which comforts the speaker but also prompts him to a series of considerations about the relationship of art and passion.

The first consideration occurs in stanza 3. Here the speaker thinks of art, represented by the pastoral, as something that brings stillness by withdrawal "into a garden" where real-life force and pain, "weeds and briars," retreat into a safe refuge, urged "by a beloved hand" to calmness which transforms the garden catalogue into a "botanical print," a quasi-aesthetic moment "as still as/ Someone's voice saying 'enough enough,/ Be still now...' as I say to the dog."

In the second consideration (stanza 4), this calmness changes from the tranquility of stanzas 2 and 3 into fatigue, where the dog becomes a poet-figure "who is old and scrabbles/ For purchase on the tiled floor," leaving only scratches that do not hold, and who, though hungry, remains in a state of domestication, "still cheerful, still dutifully/ Dogged by her appetite". Her visions come not from passionate insight but from transient doggy dreams "still in her sleep." The poetic effort is restless, but there is no break-through beyond the hard surface, and the poetic visions are, at best, only replays of daily activity.

The third consideration recalls the gentle garden of stanza 1 and the botanical print of stanza 3. We see now what has been omitted in the garden and mentioned but repressed in the print, namely the "weeds" of stanza 3. These have grown and become in stanza 5 "thick after a week of rain," while around an "oak stump" there grows "a clump of what looks like (but can't be) morels," i.e. edible mushrooms with sponge-like caps. But the sexuality of this scene (springing from the "humid heat" of stanza 2) "can't be," and the clump collapses and "nods, in pleasant imitation/ Of what is good."

Nonetheless, life force has entered the poem, and in the next line the "good" seems to be more than an imitation, becoming, in fact, a genuine good. The poet here wonders how "he should ...prefer the good/[new stanza (6)]To the commonplace (a platitude,/ A flat-voiced warning to a child about deceit/ About what's wild), whatever is enough." The indignant, genuine good here stands in opposition to the false language of pastoral-religious cliche ("platitude") and the linguistically dead ("flat-voiced") indoctrination which warns children against "deceit" (poetic fiction) and "wildness" (passion), settling for a safe, calm "whatever is enough." Against such instilled, artificial morality, how should the poet, the maker of art, prefer the good?

The final consideration (stanzas 6 and 7) shows how he may do so as it presents the triumph of poetic (passionate rather than imitative) goodness. We return to the pastoral garden itself in the last two stanzas, and now there is confident movement and locomotion as "the irises will spread,/ the catalog promises" in an exuberant life of beauty and fecundity, now separated from the pages themselves, as the catalog/prophet "promises" their growth and extension. In this final burst hearkening back to the passion of stanza 1--"I fell in love with the Siberian Iris"--the irises bloom in "sure repetition" and self generation from seeds which revise the "Siberian" chill of Keats' "cold pastoral" and "still unravished bride" ("Ode to a Grecian Urn"), accomplishing a conversion of the hollow "Platitude" in stanza 6 to a passionate union of the Platonic triad, where Keats' Beauty and Truth join Smith's the Good in continual and indistinguishable celebration.

word count: 978

I found Mr. Smith's memoirs insightful and interesting. A true icon among those who mastered life in both the public and private sectors, Mr. Smith left a legacy of character, pragmatic behavior and reconciliation with the apparent facts surrounding race relations in our country. Had I to attempt what he did at the time it was done, I am not certain that I could have performed as admirably as he did. It is a story that many should know.

Certainly worth the price. Very approachable. I haven't reviewed many similar books -- this text is good enough that I haven't felt the need.

Covers: solution, characterization, and stability analysis, including bifurcation and chaos.

The new 3rd edition is much better and significantly longer than the earlier editions.

A decade after this book was written still proves that this is still the BEST book about Jordan out there. Reading through the book nowadays brings back memories of the Bulls and Jordan before they won a title. I recommend that all Jordan and Bulls fans read this book to learn what the infamous "Jordan Rules" are all about. This book tells a lot more of what happened in the 1990-91 to all members of the Bulls, not just Jordan. You get a look into a young Scottie Pippen's life, and learn where Phil Jackson and the rest came from. You'll feel sympathy for Cartwright and Paxson, and you'd wish Krause never had anything to do with the Bulls. I know that some parts of this book are exaggerated, but it still brings us the closest to the greatest athlete to ever walk this earth. Since it doesn't look like Michael is coming back this year, this may be as close as you'll ever get to him.

To me, the Bulls will always be the champs. I'm sorry, I grew up watching the Bulls and they were always dominant. Sam Smith's book takes the reader behind the scenes and shows what the Champion Bulls went through in 1990-91. There were things in the book that were a surprise and I saw how Michael Jordan really controls not only the ball, but to some extent, the coach as well. To get a behind-the-scenes look at the '90-'91 Bulls, read Sam Smith's book and see how Jordan Ruled.

If you like sports, basketball, MJ, you will love this book. Sam Smith had the opportunity to get behind the scenes with Michael, other players, management, and others in the Bulls organization. This allows us to be behind the scenes and see what is really going on.

Yeah, you learn about Michael's bad habits and some nastiness, but overall you find out what a great man he really is. Highly recommended.

The problem with this book is not the content; Chansky's stories are often interesting. The real problem is that Chansky has serious problems with the English language. Scarcely a page goes by without a mangled mixed metaphor or breathless cliche. If you're a Carolina fan though, you probably won't notice.

The Dean's List details every year of North Carolina basketball during Dean Smith's reign as coach. You get a brief commentary from Art Chansky, alot of good pictures and a team roster. The championship year of 1982 gets special attention, which is justified as it was a special team. You're not going to find any major revelations amongst these pages, but if you are a fan of Carolina basketball, this is an enjoyable read.

Great pictures, great memories, and great storie

MR. JORDAN GOES TO WASHINGTON is an insiders view of the NBA and the machinations that went on around the retirement of basketball legend, Michael Jordan. Part fiction, part truth, it delves into the inner workings of the NBA and exposes us to Jeanne and her staff who are responsible for keeping the seats in the arenas filled and the stars' faces in the news. While one jarring suspenseful section deals with Michael Jordan being followed on the freeway another deals with messy stories about his personal life showing up in the tabloids. Jeanne must find out who is doing it. Is it an inside job?

It is a well-written book with a rather slow plot but would be a great read for any basketball fan.

A little time had passed since Michael Jordan had retired from the NBA, but to his committed fans it seemed like an eternity. The league just didn't feel the same without him. Then low and behold he returned to the game of basketball to pose as the leader of the Washington Wizards. Michael Jordan in Washington D.C.!

From his amazing performances on the court, to his positive endeavors off of the court, Michael Jordan continues to add on to the support of his admirers. Though in this book we are also exposed to another side of Jordan... the "behind-closed-doors" side! Some things, such as his lectures and autograph sessions, may not be of a surprise while others, such as his off-the-court good times, may come as a great shock. Whatever the case may be, this is a remarkable story of the man who has taking the NBA by storm. The man that we've all grown to know and love.

This is a tactfully composed novel by Loretta Smith and if you love Michael Jordan, then you'll love this book!

If you don't read ANY other book on Michael Jordan this year, READ THIS ONE!!! You do not have to be a sports fan to enjoy this book.