I hadn't actually heard of the Hildebrandt brothers,but got this book for the simple fact that it bore the name of Tolkien.I opened it up and there it was,scenes I pictured in my head were now right in front of me,in richly painted acrylic colors,with moods of sadness,fear,peace,and courage.I recommend this book and give it five stars!Get it come on you know you want to....

The Bros. Hildebrandt were *the* Tolkien artists of my youth, and even today, when I find my own artistic interpretion of the scenes varies so much from theirs, I still deeply appreciate what they did, and am thrilled to see their calendar work -- with the associated sketches and model photos -- reproduced here.

The childhood anecdotes by the author -- son of one of the Brothers -- are occasionally interesting, more often annoying. But the art itself remains glorious.

this book cotains hundreds of photo's of paintings, drawings and refrences photo's of tim hildebrants artwork. It also cotains the original sketches of the paintings of lord of the rings paintings. highly recommended.

There are no words to describe what an amazing book this is. I read this book when I began my journey down the road of grief and healing over my dad's death. I wept. I laughed. Sometimes at the same time,but God ministered to me through the openeness of this family. They allow you into such a private, intimate time and let you see that you can grieve with hope. There is no doubt that you will be blessed by their courage, strength, faith, and unending devotion to the Lord. May God bless them for their willingness to be used by him in such a vulnerable way.

Gregory Floyd writes from the heart - and what he has to share is compelling not just from the perspective that he is sharing the depths of his grief - and how his faith in God helped him to deal with that grief. His insights are for ALL Christians, and will benefit the non-Christian as well. Gregory shares poignantly about the world - wanting to provide only worldly comfort, some Christians who only wanted to offer "spiritual" consolation, and how the most precious who reached out to him and his family were those who BLENDED the heavenly and earthly realities. He gained insights into how all Christians are called, albeit in different ways, to bear their share of the suffering of Christ to ultimately experience the true JOY of Jesus. I can't say enough how every Christian will benefit from reading this book: it will help men to see the need to not be afraid to show their feelings (after all - "Jesus wept"), and will enable them (through reading of Gregory's many examples with helping his wife and children deal with the death of John Paul) better husbands, fathers, and spiritual heads of their households; it will speak to all of how to deal better with catastophic personal suffering, or improve their consolation and compassion on those around them who are in the throes of some form of suffering. Don't think twice about getting this book!

In High Schools, the students watch "Schindler's List", a difficult but important film, in order to learn from the tragedy. This book is the "Schindler's List" for marriage prep. Without it, "For better or for worse" is a glib statement, by two egotists who are unprepared when that "worse" (whatever it may be) inevitably rears its head. Because I'm reading it before my wedding, I have a firmer grasp (like cement) of the importance of the commitment, the experience of a family (albeit a large family), and confirmation of that ever-present presence of grace, God's grace, still flickering while nearly everything else is in shambles.

While the story is agonizing to tell, Gregory Floyd handles such impossible material with grace. There's great potential for the book to be a dual threat: to be emotionally draining, and repetitive. Granted, it's both, but it's never boring. The book grabs you by the jugular and causes personal introspection to take over. I was reminded of how a child can have a dual personality, angelic wonder intermixed with a carnal longing for playtime and candy, all within a half-hour. I was encouraged by his friends and large family, and reminded of the blessings of what a family could mean. I was floored by the powerful words of wisdom of Fr. Philip Merdinger at the funeral mass, the stunning reassurance that where Johnny-Paul was, he would never want to leave. All this and I'm still not halfway through.

Most people wouldn't consider getting a book like this until (God forbid) this sort of tragedy strikes home. Don't wait until then... you will not have the strength to read this. Don't be intimidated by the material... it's easy to read, it flows, it goes down easy (if easy is the best word). Though it all, my hope in families are invigorated, and my faith in God is reassured (like fire).

Greg Haun is a master of Photoshop special effects techniques.
I was fortunate enough to take several of his classes at the Pacific Northwest College of Art here in Portland
back in '94 and '95 when 3.0 Photoshop was just out!
Greg always showed personal interest in what you were doing.
Greg is a professional among professionals, yet you would never know his level of expertise unless you asked him point blank! He was a very humble guy and believed you could learn techniques from even a novice.

Because of those early years of study, I recently achieved my expert certification in Photoshop. I doubt that I could have done it had I not had the advantage of Greg's tutelage.
He made a difference in my life. I can't thank him enough...

This book is a must for the professional Photoshop user.

I was fortunate to take several classes from Greg during the early 90s when he still taught at the Pacific NW College of Art. He was very patient, very knowledgeable and a great guy. He always made time for you and always had an answer. This book is invaluable for Photoshop students of all levels! Buy it!

Mark Simon, Graphic Artist, US West Dex

This is one of the best "how-to" books on computer imaging that I ever read. Each example is complete in itself -- they can really hold my interet throughout. The steps cross-reference accompanying pictures precisely. Everything is Thoroughly and methodically laid out -- no missing pieces or glibbed over details to stump readers.

The amazing thing about this novel is that the plot is simple and clear, no twists what so ever, and yet it was captivating in that their romance is so pure.

Wow! This book is not only well-written, it is also one really HOT love story! The sexual tension and build-up between the main characters is incredible (can you say anticipation??!). I absolutely fell in love with Luke's character. He is the quintessential gorgeous, haunting, tortured man that only the love of a woman can save and redeem. Thank you Lisa Gregory!!!

What is so unique about this book is that it is a good old-fashioned believable love story. The main characters are flawed, as in real life. Another unique aspect of this book is that the hero is just as vulnerable as the heroine. He is not described as an emotional "rock", always there to save the day. Lisa Gregory, aka. Candace Camp has shown in this novel that there are no social barriers in love and that everyone deserves a chance to live down a bad reputation. I have read this novel four times. I believe anyone who reads it will end up reading it again and again. Truly a tasteful, sensitive, well-written novel.

If you love basketball at it's purest form you want to read this book.A must read for anyone who call themselves basketball junkies.

The layout and slickness of the book leaves a little to be desired, but for the hardcore fan of high school basketball, this is an excellent book. If you're like me, and growing up your favorite part of Street & Smiths College Basketball Previews were the High School Seniors to watch pages hidden in the back, this is your Bible. Although it claims to list every major high school star from the last 25 years, I'd say the book is most heavily loaded for those players who graduated from 1985 to 1995 or so. Any nationally known name from those years is in here, except for maybe Tracy McGrady and a few other rare exceptions. The book was published in 2001 so it won't contain players like Lebron James or Sebastian Telfair, but those guys are overpublicized anyway and you can read about them in any magazine. This book profiles players who never lived up to their high school potential (Shawn Bradley, Damon Bailey, etc.), to those who are current NBA superstars (Jason Kidd, KG, etc.) Each player has a 2 page review, including a photo or two and some interesting quotes about them during high school. This book is highly recommended.

If you spent even a part of your childhood pouring over Street & Smith's high school All-American list, this is the perfect book for you. It answers the "whatever happened to" question for dozens of former can't miss prospects. Of course, as this book reveals, many of them did miss. The book is full of stats, insights and stories. For every Michael Jordan and Jason Kidd, there was an equally touted Tom Lewis and Jamie Brandon. I hope all of the players profiled in the book had as much fun playing basketball as I did reading about them. If there is a hoops fanatic on your shopping list, I promise they will be thrilled with this gem of a book.

...I'm not a big reader but I heard about this book and decided to take a look. The suspense is great. It kept me on the edge of my seat all the way through. Just when you thought it was headed in one direction, it sends you spinning off into another. It was like a Tornado, it sucks you up and you don't know where you're going to land. A very good read.

I don't know how else to describe it. Pretty Woman meets the Sopranos just about does it. It is a thrilling page-turner that kept me on the edge of my seat to the end. A Romantic Suspense with a facinating and surprising twist. And just when you think you have it figured out - it sends you spinning in another direction. And the end? Whoa!... If you haven't read this book you have got to get it!

I read this book in two days. I couldn't put it down. I just enjoyed it so much. It was great! And it just kept me on edge and kept me reading. I just can't believe that I couldn't put it down, I finished it at 1 o'clock in the morning. Book two is a definite must have.

With choices come sacrifice, and in Dick Gregory's book CALLUS ON MY SOUL, he tells the story of his life and shares with readers both the positive things he gained and the things he has had to forego as a result of his decisions. He tells of his childhood, which included a life of poverty, racism, and an absentee father. But more importantly, Gregory shares how he learned as a child to use humor as a way to transcend his difficult life experiences and gain peer acceptance. This would serve as an omen for the important role that comedy would play in his later life. As Gregory tells of his developing career as a comedian, readers quickly see the sacrifices that he and his family made in order to achieve the level of fame that he ultimately became known for. A great portion of the book is dedicated to Gregory's experiences and commitment to social causes. He relates to readers his experiences in the civil rights and human rights struggles, and tells of his personal experiences with both noteworthy and little known social activists. He tells of how he and other activists sacrificed their careers, physical safety, and time with family in order to stand up for what they believe in.

Because Dick Gregory has played such an integral role in so many historical events relating to civil and human rights, this book is so much more than a memoir. Anyone who picks this book up receives a new insight into many of the events that shaped the history of the United States. In addition, Gregory shares his own political views and opinions with a boldness and clarity that makes it evident that he is indeed an activist at heart. He also tells of the unwavering support of his wife and ten children as he fasted, went on cross country marathons, and even traveled the world leaving them at home. CALLUS ON MY SOUL is a political, historical, and personal account of a man who has dedicated much of his life to a number of worthy causes.

Reviewed by Stacey Seay
The RAWSISTAZ Reviewers

Brother Greg believes O.J. is innocent. That is hard to believe, and there is some paranoia with his thinking. Conspiracy theories make for good fiction, but some of it is enlightening and believable. Mr. Gregory is a great man, and has a lot of knowledge. He is very smart. He is very funny, but he is also obsessed. If he calms down, he would do better. I love him. He is trying so hard to stop world hunger, and wants people to be slim and trim, and not fat as a pig. He wants justice. If people were more like Mr. Gregory, the world would be a much better place.

I am so awed and inspired by reading Dick Gregory's latest book. His life reads like an adventure through the most turbulent times of the 20th century. Friend to presidents, civil rights leaders, and industry giants, Dick Gregory doesn't fail to enlighten, inspire and fascinate the reader. He has been there done that for over 35 years. Now that our country faces a crisis, I hope Dick Gregory will be there for us with his commentary, his insight and wisdom.

I wish he would have written more about his successes in the '80's with his weight loss programs, his work with the National Organization of Circumcision Information Resource Centers (NOCIRC) and his circumcision trauma, the Black Panther party, Tupac Shakur, the Bush family, and his vision for the future.

Ah, but hopefully his next book will include that! I recommend this book highly. I only wish I could hear him lecture in person.

I am a grown daughter with a father who is very hard to shop for. When I saw this book I knew I had found something that would express how I feel about my dad as a father figure and main male influence in my life. Since my father also has a mild case of dyslexia, I usually steer clear of books as gifts because they generally just frustrate him. However, this book, with its many beautiful photographs and short "tidbits" of text, proved to be just right for even the most hard to shop for father. This is a great "advice" book for new fathers and "thank you" book for those well-seasoned Dads.

Gave it to him for Christmas, and he talked about it for 2 months afterward. It is a great gift book, for a new father or an experienced one!

Every daughter born on the face of this earth needs a father or father-figure of some type. Grown women are no exception. I have no daughters (yet!), but am very much looking forward to it. My personal research into the father-daughter relationship has led to my growing collection of books on this subject, as it is one that I am intensely fascinated by (actually, I could probably listen to females talk about their fathers for hours on end). This and other books like it are highly recommendable.

Amado's literary output falls rather neatly into two periods. His early work is imbued with a strong sense of social responsibility, a fact for which he had some difficulty under the Vargas regime, and I believe he may have even done a short stint in jail over. The second period, the post-"Gabriela" books, are a lot more laid back and anecdotal.

Sorry to say that in general the second period is the one that's more fun to read, and the books he wrote in the second half of his life are what established his international reputation. A lot of his earlier stuff is not that great, with one exception - this book.

The story is about the kids on the street in Fortaleza, back in the 1930's. To say that they're poor doesn't do justice to it - they live on the street. By necessity they're thieves, but you can't help liking them. They have aspirations of their own in life.

Explaining it in a few words like that may make the American reader think that he's dealing with some "Angels with Dirty Faces" sort of story. It's not. This is not a sentimental novel. It's a reflection of some of the hard realities of Brazilian life, like the urban poverty that never seems to disappear. But it also reflects some of the inherent optimism and the very un-American concern with each other that Brazilians manifest - features of their society that make Brazil such a wonderful place.

hey, I know that this book is awesome, but is old too, the reality of Brazil is not that anymore, some people tend to form opinions about things that they don't know, that they have never seem with their own eyes. But the best thing is that it still is a really interesting novel, and if you read you won't forget, it is just the best book I ever read.

I would recommend this book to anyone as an absolute must read. I read it in the original Portuguese at the suggestion of a friend and if you have the ability, I suggest you do the same. The translation simply doesn't portray the magnificence and beauty of Amado's original. After living in Brazil for sometime, this novel is, to me, the most incredible portrayal of these youth and the circumstances in which they live. The book may be 70 years old, but it is certainly as applicable today as anything else I've read.

This is an excellent book for anyone intersted in the engineering possibilities of interplanetary and interstellar spaceflight. I read this book years ago as an aerospace engineering undergrad and it helped inspire me in my dream to help make starflight a reality. As can be found here, the technologies for limited interstellar flight have already been investigated, and in some cases, could be implemented today with sufficient funds. The books provides background on all types of rocket based propulsion, covering chemical, nuclear, anti-matter, electric (ion), solar sail, and solar thermal propulsion systems. It also provides an introduction to astrodynamics, space power systems, and the inherent problems encountered by long duration spaceflight over vast distances. As wonderful as this book is, it is badly in need of an update. It barely touches on more recent ideas like long range laser power transmission, as well as more "out-of-the-box" concepts like propellant-less propulsion. Granted there is alot of controversy surrounding notions of artificial wormholes and warp drives, but I'd like to see such ideas at least included as possibilities. As mentioned before, this book is not exceptionally mathematically rigorous, but that could be beneficial to those interested in these concepts without having to possess a background in differential calculus. These ideas stir the imagination and perhaps, someday, we may see these dreams become reality as mankind reaches out to the stars.

This is a very, very good book. It covers the basics of space flight, and covers specifics such as different types of propulsion methods and possible interstellar missions.

However, this book is not mathematically rigorous. Although I suggest everyone buy THIS book, anyone who wants a better mathematical treatment of the topic should try to find a copy of the out-of-print _Prospects for Interstellar Travel_, by Mauldin.

This subject is too important to bring up in a review. Like a game of Risk the post-MAD political order has limited pre-thought in respect to Western economic development. Whence the website Astronautix brought me to review this book, so too am I in accordance with their Orion project summary and conclusion : we lost our way with a journey to the moon. In so far as the only the human species exists with a consciousness to express religion and hence evolution, any planet "anywhere" is surely at a disadvantage in a post-MAD structure to have rejected flight to the stars in favour of cold war moon bravado. Indeed the excess military products of this cold war rather than point to our preparation to travel to the stars as hypothesized by Orion project devotees, only threatens our imminent vaporisation at the end of interstellar fuel pellets misunderstood or at least not even recognised by their "any planet - anywhere" evolutionary poise. Of course the fundamental problem with Orion is the failure to counterbalance the goal of physical containment with the true size of explosion. Hence the continual attempts of academic studies to reduce the reaction size considerably or to place it outside any necessary direct containment pressures e.g. somewhere behind the craft. Most telling in this whole sorry evolutionary period of this plant is the repetition by the leading nation America of China when it encountered gunpowder. Not only did the Chinese fail to develop "physical containment" in the form of the cannon but they masked secret of the reaction in a science of alchemy. Hence any reader of this who did not actually participate in The Manhattan project is a product of this deliberate obscurity of fact and likely to misunderstand even the basic applications in space and interstellar travel. The safest education strategy is to remain within the historical limits of the application of the project's fruit, the surrender of Japan and not to go further along the development timeline. At least in my opinion! Draw your own historical analogy, but China in failing to physically contain gunpowder failed to initiate the longest technical development path in history: cannon - musket - rifle - machine gun. Interstellar space travel starts and finishes with physical containment.