Christopher Finch does a great job of detailing Jim Henson's life. He includes colorful pictures and stories about Henson from his colleagues and friends. "Jim Henson The Works" always keeps your interest by containing interesting and fun sidebars. Every Muppet fan should read this book.

I am so sorry that I could not put in 5 million stars. I go to the library everyday and read this book while awaiting to be picked up, and I never get tired of it, this is the BEST book there is, it tells you everything with awesome pictures to go with it, I can't say enough about this book, its the BEST. I am hoping to join the Muppet clan ASAP. I can't wait, the Muppets are the best invention anyone has ever come up with. Jim Henson is the best person in the world, and I only wish I could thank him for all the things he has done for me and everyone else.

This book is absolutely incredible! Every page is bursting with the zany creativity that Jim Henson inspires in us all. This book is well-worth the price for the photos alone -- everything from early obsure works to Sesame Street to my hero, Kermit the Frog. The text is engaging, informative and full of interesting stories behind the movies and tv shows that have made so many of us laugh. If you are part of the Muppet generation like me you will especially appreciate the fond memories this book brings back.

First off, I'll just say that I think the wake has the finest art of all the SANDMAN collections, save for maybe Season of Mists.

The Wake is a story about death and endings and farewells, and it is an end to the series, but only in the sense of the Death tarot card: representing transformation, rebirth, the closing of a door and the opening of a window. As Dream told Orpheus: "You attend the funeral. You bid the dead farewell. You grieve. Then you go on with your life." That's what the characters are doing in this book. It also contains the story of another wanderer in the shifting zones, (a parallel to "Soft Places"), and the writing of Shakespeare's last play (a parallel to "Midsummer Night's Dream.") All told, The Wake is a graceful coda to the bittersweet symphony (so shoot me for the reference) that is SANDMAN.

The king is dead. Long live the king.

This was the only way to wrap up the Sandman series - a wake. Morpheus is dead, driven by a complex set of events ending with the Furies decending apon the Dreaming.

Characters from the series collect in the Dreaming to share memories of Morpheus. The first few books of this collection are exactly what the title implies - a wake. The stories of the Sandman collection receive their final detailing and a new Dream (yet, oddly the same Dream) assumes the throne.

The final two books are my favorites, though. Hob, Dream's human friend of the past few hundred years, tries to deal with the loss of his friend while attending a Renissance Fair with his girlfriend. Combined with the sorrow of the loss, Hob is also starting to feel his age and is wracked with guilt about his past. At the height of this, he gets drunk and has a conversation with Dream's older sister.

The last story stands on its own: a wise man's journey through a Shifting Zone, done in a style unique to the story.

This collection gives a sense of closure, and is probably the best installment since "Doll's House" or even "24 Hours". A must-own.

That quote comes from the end of an earlier Sandman book, but it applies to "The Wake" as well.

"The Sandman" has always been about change, about those who can and those who cannot. This, the last in the Sandman series, ties together the ending threads of the story, and in the process reaffirms how wonderful a writer Neil Gaiman is. Never the showman, his prose quietly and powerfully speaks for him and his characters.

The artwork is, as always, brilliant. Michael Zulli's work on the main "Wake" storyline is amazing, and Charles Vess outdoes himself again for the very last story, "The Tempest." But most remarkable in this writer's opinion is Jon Muth's work for "Exiles", a quietly powerful piece that manages to express best what "The Sandman" was about; his art is a perfect match for it.

There are precious few proper endings, and ones that bring a tear to your eye are even rarer. This is one of the few books that accomplishes both.

If you are interested in The Creator's grand design and how mankind fits into it well then this is the book for you.Give it a chance you won't be sorry you did.

Topical study of the Bible at its best! Timely chapters that aid in viewing world events against the topical framework within. Chart of the Ages helps the reader comprehend where different scriptures belong on man's timeline. This is one of seven books in a series that reveal aspects of God's plan for man and explains questions that have plagued inquiring minds for ages. Included are: Why God permits evil, Jesus' return (it's object and manner), the Day of Judgement, the Kingdom of God and other Bible related topics. The author asks the reader to prove, with Bible in hand, the Divine plan presented within.

The writer takes the words of God in the scriptures as a whole and harmonizes them to bring out what God's design is for mankind. If you wonder why God allows what He does right now in the world, read this book. Read this book with your Bible in hand and see those scriptures unfold in a way that simply makes sense.

"Powers of Ten" is one of the most influential science books ever printed. It taught me, and tens of thousands of other children, that a "sense of wonder" is something you can get from science, as well as from science fiction. I found it in a bookstore seven or eight years ago, and was immediately transported back to when I first read it, in my school library, at the age of ten. I was swept off my feet at ten years old, and the book can still sweep me off my feet today.

The original film was potent too; more so in the directness with which it expresses the scale of the world. But the book, with its annotations and additional pictures, has its own power. You can flip back and forth, and take as much time as you want absorbing the incredible range of scale in the universe.

The book's first picture is scaled at about a billion light years across--ten to the twenty-fifth metres. On this scale even super-clusters of galaxies are just clots of dust on a black background. The right hand side of each page, as you go through the book, zooms in by a factor of ten, and we dive into galaxy clusters, into our galaxy, our spiral arm, our solar system, through the moon's orbit and into the earth's atmosphere, down into North America, and then Chicago, and a picnicker asleep in a park. After twenty five pages we're at a human scale; the pictured scene is a metre across. But the camera continues to zoom in; to the picnicker's hand, through his skin to a lymphocyte, and on down through the cell nucleus to coils of DNA, to a carbon atom and through its electron cloud, and down to the nucleus and beyond. Sixteen pages from the picnicker have brought us to the quarks.

The left hand side of each page provides companion pictures and comments, some drawn from the history of science. For the nanometre picture there's a copy of John Dalton's two-hundred-year-old models of simple molecules; at the millimetre and tenth-millimetre scale there are pictures of radiolaria, seeds, and other microscopic beauties. All are interesting and informative.

I can't recommend this book too strongly--it's a fundamental work of scientific culture, and should be in every house. However, I particularly recommend that you buy this for any nine-to-fourteen-year-old child in your life; it's the best way I know to introduce a child to a love of science.

This is a great book. Believe it or not, I walk my 5 year old son through the pictures. I am sure it is not meant for youngsters but it can be used like I am am doing.

The idea behind the book is on its smallest scale it is inside a qark inside an atomic nucleus, inside an atom, attached to a DNA molecule, inside a nucleus of a white blood cell, slightly below the skin on a hand of a man asleep at a picnic on some grass in Chicago....all the way to the scale of the universe. My son and I will transverse the middle 1/3 or 1/2 of the journey. He gets to pick his own bedtime books and he chooses this one out of hundreds once or twice a week.

The pictures make a great way to explain the concept of scale and various aspects of science. On the facing page of the main picture underconsideration are objects of the same scale. You can really see that the tail of a dinosaur is 10 times longer than a man.

For the adult, it is an easy introduction to various aspects of science all at different scales. It is not a super serious book - no math - simple explanations. But as a practicing scientist, I view it as vary factual.

I've seen this book for the first time in 1985, when I was kid. It is still my all-time favorite.

Although the book does have lots of textual info pages, the core of the book is a series of 42 full-page pictures which depict the an ordinary picnic photo in different scales.

Starting from an ordinary dude resting on the grass, each page turn shows the scene from 10 times farther away. First we see the park he is picnicing on, then the entire city, and before you know it we are in deep space racing towards the outskirts of the Universe.

On the other side of the journey, each page turn magnifies the last picture tenfold. First by viewing a close-up view of the picnicing guy's hand, you quickly find yourself probing deeper and deeper through the realms of biology and chemistry right into the core of a single atom.

The really cool thing about the whole deal, is that all the images are centered at the same object: a single atom on the picnicing dude's hand.

In short, the idea is absolutely brilliant. The images chosen for the presentation is not perfect, but they are still amazing. Of-course, the film is much more impressive then the book, but you can't take a film with you to a camping trip...

I keep a 30 gallon reef aquarium in my apartment and I am blessed with having a considerable amount of success for my first attempt at the hobby. I have purchased a couple of clams in the past, both of which turned out to be failures. Through word of mouth this book was recommended to me for the animals that I currently keep and the animals I would like to keep (SPS corals and clams). This book is full of information ranging from algea control to water quality to even identifying different species of SPS corals and clams. My only dissappointment was that I was hoping for a very detailed list of compatible organisms. I understand that certain corals tend to send out stinging tenticles that can harm recessive corals. Although this phenomenon is mentioned in the book it fails to give the specific list that I was hoping for. But don't let this negativity dissuade you from this purchase. There is so much other information in it I feel that it is critical for everyone who is new to the hobby to regard this book as their bible. Even the experienced may have something to learn from this literature.

This is a very good book on reef aquarium keeping, I just wish that I would have known before hand that volume one is clams and stony corals, and that volume two is soft coral. This fact alone would have been helpful in determining which volume I needed first.

Delbeek and Sprung's knowledge and experience is evident in this up to date guide to mini reef keeping. The basics of reef keeping are explained, as well as coral biology and aquarium nutrient regulation. They describe various methods of filtration and lighting and their benefits/drawbacks. They explain how to construct and attach live rock and coral aquascapes in the aquarium. The text is also beautifully produced with many color photographs. Volume 1 focuses on stony corals and clams. There are many pictures of the different species, and they describe each species natural environment and needs. The book also covers coral disease, how to collect and transport corals, and several pictures of outstanding reef tanks are shown to give you something to shoot for. This book is the best I have seen for reef aquariums, and I have seen just about all of them. Volume 2, still in the works, will cover soft corals and gorgonians, from what I hear

Many of Schulz's detractors are quick to point out how much Peanuts seemed to decline over the years; by the end, things were rarely funny and became so repetitive that more than a few columnists accused Schulz of "running on fumes."

Regardless of your opinion, there's no arguing with the strips presented in Peanuts Treasury, originally published in 1968 during what was arguably Schulz's prime. Schulz had spent most of the 50's gradually developing the cast as well as his technique, and by the dawn of the 60's, he was running full steam; it's no wonder that the strip was also at the height of its popularity.

This hardcover collection presents the cream of the crop between 1959 and 1964, and at just $9.98, it's a steal. A rather bare-bones book (the cover is very sparse and the only addition is a brief introduction written back in August of 1968), I was surprised at how funny and sharp Peanuts could be. If you're a big fan of Calvin & Hobbes, you'll definitely see the huge inspiration Schulz served on Watterson. Calvin isn't anything like the Peanuts characters, but a lot of his world views, sarcasm, and humor feel like they evolved from these strips.

The presentation isn't perfect: some of the stories running through a few strips feel like they aren't in correct chronological order, and the Sunday strips aren't in color (a small complaint, though, since the artwork, particularly the use of color, was never that elaborate). Nevertheless, if you're looking for just one Peanuts collection to own, or if you just couldn't understand what the fuss was over this strip, check this collection out.

This book first came out a few decades ago and its republication will be welcomed by all Peanuts fans. Unless you are a fanatical collector, it is unthinkable to try to collect *all* Peanuts books ever published, and so some selection is necessary. _Peanuts_Treasury_ collects a large number of strips from the heyday of Peanuts (the late 1950's to the early 1970's) into one 250-page volume. Along with some of the "anniversary" books (e.g., Around the World in 45 Years, Peanuts Jubilee), this is the book to buy if you want a lot of bang for your buck.

Warning: do not confuse this book with the "Peanuts Treasury" *series* of books that reprint strips from the early 1990's.

This is a series of black and white reproductions of daily and Sunday newspaper strips of Peanuts from the late 1950s through 1968 when this collection was first published. The strips are not put into any sort of chronological sequence, except within some story segments. I did denote an attempt to assemble them in chronological order across a year, as the collection begins with New Year's resolutions and ends with perspectives on the old year.

This collection missed the chance to have a detailed introduction about Charles Schulz and the Peanuts characters. Such an introduction would have added value far beyond its cost.

The printing is so poorly done in places that it is hard to identify Charlie Brown as himself. It felt like reading a comic strip on a light colored paper bag in places.

But, the price is amazingly low. While a quality version of this book would have undoubtedly retailed for ... or more, this one is priced as though it has only 40 pages in it.

So if you want lots of Peanuts for very little money, this is your edition.

You'll find Snoopy, Charlie Brown, Linus, Lucy, Schroeder, Sally, Peppermint Patty, and Violet in these strips. Some of the strips are classics that you have not seen in many years. There are some good ones of Lucy and her lemonade stand/psychiatric clinic, Charlie Brown trying to kick the football while Lucy holds, Snoopy dreaming of being the Red Baron, Halloween and the Great Pumpkin, and Charlie Brown playing on and managing the kids' baseball team.

One of the benefits of this book is that you can read through extended sequences of strips to see their connections in ways that you could not do when you only saw them daily. It helps you appreciate Charles Schulz's narrative ability more. For example, the book starts with Lucy burying Linus' blanket. Separate story lines develop as Linus searches for it, tries to get along without it, Snoopy finds it for him, and Linus deals with the after effects. I remembered the sequence, but not all the ins and outs of the story. That probably means that I had missed some of the strips at the time. Perhaps you did, too.

You will definitely relive your younger days with these strips. If you only know the later Peanuts strips, I think you will like these better. They are fresher and more direct in their stories.

After you have finished reading all about Peanuts, I encourage you to think about all of the ways that we can make life easier or more difficult for each other. If we are like Lucy, we will add more complications than benefits. If we are too trusting and hard on ourselves like Charlie Brown, less will happen than the best also. I suggest that you reframe Lucy and Charlie Brown into one character who is both more aware and more caring than the average of the two. Then imagine how these stories would change.

Next, compare what you did today to what that new character would have done. What opportunities for improvement does that comparison present to you, for your life? Act on them!

Laugh at Peanuts, then at yourself, and then improve!

The first of Michael Lesy's books, 'Wisconsin death trip' is as harrowing and breathtaking today as when it was first published, back in the early 1970s. Utilizing a veritable treasure-trove of miraculously preserved glass negative plates taken in rural Wisconsin during the period of the 1880s-early 20th Century, and combining them with newspaper clippings and other snippets of local news from the area and era, Lesy has pieced together an amazing (if bleak) view of life in that day and age. Times were hard, and the challenges faced were many and daunting -- anyone bemoaning the state of life in America today should read this book...anyone who wants a truer sense of American history should read this book. You will never forget it.

On a related note, readers might be interested to know that this book inspired Stewart O'Nan's great novel 'A prayer for the dying' (also available through amazon.com).

The author discovered a huge cache of old glass photographic plates belonging to the town's photographer and writer, who, along with his son, published a local Wisconsin paper. One is struck by how such a simple collection of photographs and articles, offered without editorial comment, can be so powerfully affecting. Perhaps it is the haunted, mad eyes of some of the subjects, or the babies in coffins, their images preserved for posterity, or the intermittent reports from the state mental hospital, or the subtle way in which some of the photographs have been altered to emphasize some quality of the image. There is something powerfully haunting about this book - all the moreso since one gets the impression that small-town America of this time must have lived the same way.

There is relatively little I can say about this book.

The book is essentially photographs and news clippings from a newspaper in Wisconsin from about 1890 to 1910. Interspersed are snippets from novels dealing with life during the period.

Turning the pages, reading the articles, and looking not at the pictures but into the eyes of the people in the photographs, one gets a sense not of some sterilized, backward glance at these people as some great societal force, not as a band of pioneers, but as very human people, who die in childbirth, die as children, die of diseases that sweep through whole towns and infect the entire state with fear, go insane, murder, and still maintain enough inner dignity to be able to look into the lens of a camera and mask most of their emotions long enough for the half-second exposure but not long enough to pierce the heart of people living a century later. It is pain. It is a death trip.

The book speaks for itself. Actually, it doesn't. The people in word and image speak for themselves.

The In-Touch Ministries version of the NASB is a welcome addition to the NASB Update family of Bibles. I have the Top Grain leather edition, and I have not found a Bible on the market that can match the leather quality of this Bible. The top grain leather is extremely soft and thick. Even the inside of the covers are made of the leather resulting in a Bible that literally "fits your hands like a glove." The paper is of high quality- easy to turn and it does not allow bleed through of ball point pens and some markers. There are extra pages in the front and back for extended note taking. The concordance and maps are standard NASB/Foundation additions. The print is a good size for reading and clear on the page. The Bible should receive a five star rating except for two things: 1) the lack of cross-references is limiting to Bible study; and 2) there have been some quality problems in the printing process that results in page-fold errors throughout the Bible. Lockman and Foundation Press are aware of these problems and they are working to correct these shortfalls. In summary, if you're shopping for a Wide Margin NASB Update, and cross-references are not important to your method of Bible study, this is the Bible for you. The investment in the Top-Grain Leather is worth it just to hold it in your hands as you "taste" the word of God.

I just received my NASB Wide Margin Edition. To me, the aesthetic qualties of a Bible are important. And in terms of the aesthetic qualities of this Bible--well, the leather is a delight to the eyes and feels wonderful as it just lays in your hand like a well-worn baseball glove. The paper is wonderful. [One of the things that bugs me about so many Bibles on the market today is the flimsiness of the paper--with all the attendant problems--bleed through, etc.] The text itself is nice and clean. A comfortable size font that is easy on the eyes and uncluttered in appearance. In short, IN TOUCH MINISTRIES and LOCKMAN FOUNDATION have produced a product that is an absolute delight to the senses.

I have used many translations over the years. But I find myself always going back to the NASB. I just know that when all is said and done, I "trust" it. I use the NIV also, but there are just too many passages in the NIV that, upon closer examination, add or subtract from the text of the original Greek. For example, in Luke 9:62 the NIV translators add two words to the text that are not in the Greek "...no one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for SERVICE IN the kingdom of God." The NASB simply translates what the actual Greek text says--"...look back IS FIT FOR the kingdom of God." If I did not know Greek, I would not have known that the NIV adds words that are not in the Greek text. In short, the NAS does not supply so much "interpretation" to the actual Greek text. It sticks to "translation." I just find over and over again, that when I read my NIV I either have to pull out my Nestle Greek text or my NAS to see if that is what the verse REALLY says.

The NIV is a great translation in many ways, but for serious Bible study, the NASB is, I believe, the most trustworthy translation on the market. And so, if you are going to go with the NASB text, why not get one with the best aesthetic qualities as well? This Bible has it all!!!

Only 3 drawbacks: I wish this Bible had included:
1. the cross-references found in most editions of the NASB
2. ALL of the footnotes that appear in most editions of the NASB (this one is pretty bare-bones), and
3. a little more margin space on the inside margins (not a whole lot of room to write on the inside margins).

But on the whole, I love it and am glad I purchased it. It's my favorite Bible (and I have many Bibles).

The In-Touch Ministries edition of the NASBU is a gorgeous, one-of-a-kind Bible, with buttery-soft calfskin leather in your choice of navy blue, burgundy, or black. It even excels the Cambridge editions. It is smyth-sewn, and has quality paper.
Unfortunately, all the Bible has is text and concordance with coloured maps in the back, and wide margins. No helps whatsoever.
I would even hesitate before I marked up the Bible, that's how beautiful it is. However, if all you want is a pretty cover, buy it. Otherwise, forget it. Other NASBU reference or study Bibles in genuine or top-grain leather are available at lesser cost. So, save yourself a few bucks and get yourself something that has more information.

This book is, quite simply, a fabulous trilogy of novels. It deals, of course, with the two-year voyage of HMS Bounty from England to Tahiti, the captaincy of Captain William Bligh, the mutiny against him, and the aftermath. This is an unforgettable story, beautifully told, well-written, and fast-paced.

I have read reviews here and there that claim this book is written at a "young adult" level. Not so. This is a complex story that only seems to be easily told because the author has mastered the ability to write with utter clarity, and without sacrificing style. As one who reads all day for a living (attorney) I have learned to appreciate authors who can write well. Nordhoff does this--the reader never loses the storyline because it is well told. The novels proceed with the precision of a laser beam but with a poetic, wistful, thoughtful tone that is a delight to read. This book has class.

The story of the trip to Tahiti and the mutiny which takes place early on the return voyage are wonderfully told. The ONLY possible criticism is that this story is not terribly true to the facts of the actual mutiny. The protagonist, Roger Byam, is an imaginary person. By the way, this novel is the source for the first of the Mutiny on the Bounty movies starring Charles Laughton.

The other two novels in the trilogy deal with the voyage by Captain Bligh and those of the crew who remained loyal to him, and the aftermath of the mutiny when the mutineers settle on Pitcairn Island. Both stories are first-rate.

Persons interested in a somewhat more accurate depiction of what happened on the Bounty voyage, as well as a ripping good movie, will want to see "The Bounty" starring Mel Gibson (Fletcher Christian) and Anthony Hopkins (Captain Bligh).

The Bounty Trilogy is a book anyone who enjoys adventure will want to read and own.

I read these stories while at sea on a British research vessel. If you've ever been to sea, or have ever wanted to, you'll probably enjoy reading this trilogy. Nordhoff and Hall write in plain, unelaborate English, so the phrasing never gets in the way, and you can concentrate on all the colorful characters and incredible events. The first two (and half of the third) books are written in first person, putting you right into the action and events, making you think about what you would do in the situations as they arise.

This trilogy has it all: adventure, drama, comedy, history, life at sea, love and loss. It's hard to believe this all really happened. I've given this book to two of my friends already, and they both liked it. You'll probably like it, too.

I give my highest praise to these books. They are far better than current "adventure" stories because of the struggles they had to endure. I found all three books in the trilogy to be excellent (Mutiny on the Bounty, Men Against the Sea, and Pitcairns Island). My favorite one was Pitcairns Island. In all the books I have ever read, this is the first book that ever actually sent a chill up my spine. I won't give the story away, but you will not believe what happens in that book. It's absolutely thrilling and fascinating!