This is an awesome book for both the first-timer and anyone looking for a little more detailed information about improving your life with feng shui. It covers the philosophy and concepts of feng shui, along with how to determine who you are, where you are, and where you are going. It has a self-assesment section which addresses possible health problems you may have and how to remedy them. Part 4 is all about feng shui in the home. I started reading this book and couldn't put it down until 2 in the morning. Then I got right up the next morning and finished reading it. It is easy to understand but not so simple to make you feel like a "dummy." It is wonderful as a straight read-through and also will work as a reference to come back to many times. I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in learning about feng shui and what it can do for you.

This open-ended journal is great because parents can journal thoughts to the child.

Gleaned from more than 450 hours of live radio interviews, Fly Fishing Is Spoken Here is a handsome volume that belongs on the bookshelf of every literate fly fisher. Interviews with the likes of James Prosek, Ernest Schwiebert, Valerie Haig-Brown, Joseph Humphreys, Robert Linsenman, Fen Montaigne, and ten others provide a unique perspective not only on these individuals but on the sport they clearly love.

Credit editor Stephen Sloan, perhaps best thought of as the Larry King of the fishing world, for recognizing the unique vitality of the spoken word and capturing its essence in these interviews collected from his weekly nationally syndicated radio show, "The Fishing Zone." That this collection originated as dialogue, with all the spontaneity and flow of conversation intact and preserved, ensures that each of the interviews captured bears an immediacy and honesty seldom retained in conventional narrative about the sport. It's surely no accident that the effect of reading this book bears no small resemblance to the sport it explores: it's somewhat like immersing oneself in a trout stream, fly rod in hand, and enjoying the unpredictable process of discovering the treasures that lie within.

And credit publisher William Trego with creating yet another beautiful limited-edition volume from his Meadow Run Press. The heir apparent to the Derrydale Press of an earlier generation, no other publisher of sporting titles today produces books of such consistently high quality and beauty, and this volume certainly adds to that well-deserved reputation. Slipcased and with original paintings and drawings by the subject of the book's opening interview, James Prosek-a young artist hailed by The New York Times as "a fair bid to become the Audubon of the fishing world"-this is a book with, believe it or not, heft and beauty significant enough to outweigh and obscure its hundred-dollar price tag. Each of the 750 copies is signed by Sloan and Prosek, ensuring that this book is certain to remain in high demand.

A in-depth social history of English football. Looks at not only the on-field but also social changes. But primarily about England only.

Despite the fact that the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-1871 had major repercussions for later European history, there has been very works written about in the last forty years except for Michael Howard's excellent The Franco-Prussian War (1871) and Alistair Horne's The Fall of Paris (1967). Thankfully, Sandhurst professor Stephen Badsey has written an excellent summary of the Franco-Prussian War that is not a condensation of those previous works and which constitutes a fresh look at this neglected subject. Foremost in value, is the fact that Badsey's volume looks at the war in its entirety, rather than just the first action-packed month. Overall, Badsey's Franco-Prussian War 1870-1871 is an excellent synopsis and reference source for this critical phase in the development of European military thought and weaponry.

After some brief sections detailing the background to the war, followed by equally brief sections on the opposing sides and the outbreak of war, Stephen Badsey moves into his main 24-page narrative of the war. This narrative is supported by ten maps: Europe in 1870, the main campaigns of the war, the battles on the frontier, the situation at Metz on 14-15 August 1870, the Battle of Mars-la-Tour, two maps on the Battle of Gravelotte-St Privat, the Battle of Sedan, the siege of Paris, and Europe after the war. The illustrations throughout the text are also excellent. Additionally, the concluding sections, such as Portrait of a Soldier, are also quite good. Overall, The Franco-Prussian War 1870-1871 probably packs more into the Osprey Essential Histories format than any other volume to date.

Badsey notes that the French performance in 1870 was so poor that it surprised both sides. Despite possession of superior weaponry (early machine guns, better breech-loading rifles), the French army was handicapped by sloppy staff work and a primitive reserve mobilization system. In essence, the French war machine was brave and well equipped, but totally disorganized. French senior leadership, including the Emperor Napoleon III, was so terrible as to defy rationale explanation. Amazingly, the French declared war on Prussia then had no plans or preparations for an offensive war. Furthermore, the French were diplomatically isolated and had to face an undistracted and increasingly unified German nation-in-being. Badsey notes that, "within a week of the fighting starting, two French armies ...were in full retreat." While the French army performed well at the tactical level - and came close to winning the major Battle of Gravelotte-St. Privat - it was clearly out-performed on the operational level and the two French armies always found themselves outmaneuvered by the Prussians. After a month of war, both French field armies and the Emperor were surrounded and combat ineffective.

Badsey's approach to this subject differs from the conventional interpretation, which tends to see the war as decided in the first four weeks. In particular, Badsey notes how naval power shaped the rest of the conflict, "but critically for this stage of the war, Prussia had no effective navy. French maritime trade and commerce were largely unaffected by the end of the Second Empire and so was French credit overseas; the French economy did not collapse, and the war continued to be financed, in part by borrowing on foreign money markets. French troops were brought back from garrisons overseas and weapons shipped in from other countries." While the newly raised and poorly trained armies of the Third Republic achieved few successes on the battlefield, Badsey notes that they did succeed in protracting the war far beyond what the Prussians had expected. Furthermore, the specter of revolution that appeared in Paris during the Communard scared the Prussians sufficiently to actually assist in rebuilding the French army in order to suppress that political cancer, lest it spread to other European countries. Thus, in Badsey's approach, the reader is presented with a more comprehensive look at the conflict than just a discussion of the frontier battles.

The Franco-Prussian War was also important for several changes in the western manner of warfare. The first Geneva Convention agreements had been signed just prior to the war by both Prussia and France, and the conflict was the first where prisoners and enemy wounded were treated much better than had been heretofore the case. Although war correspondents had appeared in the Crimean War and the American Civil War, their role increased in this war and the telegraph allowed them to report on the fighting in near real-time. While Badsey claims that the Prussian "terror" bombardment of Paris was an innovation in that it targeted civilians to achieve the city's surrender, in fairness, the French should get credit for that "innovation" when Louis XIV's army used mortars to devastate the German city of Koblenz in 1688.

However, Badsey's conclusion is a bit less sure, when he asserts that the result of the war was "the replacement of France by Germany as the dominant power in Europe." France before the war, which lacked any allies, was certainly not the "dominant power in Europe" that Badsey suggests, nor did Prussia's victory and German unification reduce Russian, British or Austrian influence in Europe. While there is no doubt that the war enhanced Germany's military reputation, it did not alter the essentially multipolar balance of power that had been prevalent in Europe before the war. Indeed, in the long run, the victory may have hurt Germany because France realized the need for alliances and assiduously went about coalition building for a future war. Germany on the other hand, which fought and won the war without allies, spent much less effort on cooperative diplomacy and paid for that mistake in 1914-1918.

Gladiators 100BC-200AD is an excellent addition to the prolific Osprey series of military books. A nice summary of the superb (but a tad costlier) Gladiators and Ceasars, Gladiators 100Bc-200AD combines much of the latest information on these showmen of the arena with magnificent illustrations by the legendary Angus McBride. The descriptions of training and living conditions of the gladiators is nice and concise, with some good asides based on grafritti findings and written records. The descriptions of the various fighters are good, with the illustrations doing much to imprint the differences in the reader's mind. Probably the only real failing of the volume is the lack of photographs of either actual gladiatorial armour, especially the helmets, or the excellent reproductions done under Dr Marcus Junklemann's supervision. An image of the myrmillon helmet described with the "scale-like" pattern on the bowl would have been really appreciated. All-in-all, an excellent addition to my growing gladiator library. Now, if only someone would translate Junklemann's Das Spiel mit dem Todt into English and make it available to purchase.

The big old oak in the farmer's field was many things to many people. The children of Dimpole had played under the great tree for many generations. The farmer himself was fond of telling tales of ancient murders and hidden treasure under its branches. When an officious pillar of the community decides to take offense to the lurid tales, she plans a parade and public gathering at the tree.

At the same time, two neighborhood boys plan revenge on a local bully under the tree. Two shy adults gradually find some common ground, and the possibility of love. And an Indian swami sees the tree in a dream, and begins a pilgrimage. All come together under the beautiful old tree, with a surprising twist to the ending.

This little book is beautifully written, with clean, rhythmic prose. It begins with deceptive simplicity, but ties its many story lines together with a satisfying and poetic beauty that brings Louis Sachar's "Holes" to mind.

I bought this book for my daughter, but, once I began reading - and laughing - I had to continue to the warmly enjoyable end. This is very readable for all ages.

In this installment of the excellent "Elements of" series, Cross concisely summarizes the sometimes bewildering varieties of Hindu religion. Cross traces the historical and philosophical development of Indian spirituality, with due attention given to the major gods and goddesses, the philosophical schools of Vedanta, Sahnkya and Yoga, as well as modern developments.

Throughout, Cross explains complex symbolism and mythology in an elegant style which conveys the spiritual power of these symbols and stories without ever oversimplifying. This volume is one of the best concise intoductions to Indian spirituality I have seen.

This is a beautiful story about reconciling different creative interpretations of something. The animal characters have differing opinions about what the moon is made of, and when they cannot agree they ask a scientist. His answer is unsatisfactory and disillusioning, but the animals continue to have faith in their beliefs, this time without antagonism for the others. I loved it because it uses beautiful metaphors and shows the value in upholding your own interpretation of the world--the illustrations are some of the best I've seen and are the true crowning glory of the book.

The author, Stephen Regan, has done an excellent job of summing the book. Admiral Frank Jack Fletcher is a an integral figure in the Pacific War, WW II and has received much harsh criticism, relegating him to the category of mediocrity at best. Other authors have not investigated the facts as has Mr. Regan. In my opinion, This book is essential to those studying the naval war with Japan. The book explains much beyond just the admiral's personal situation, too, including naval politics of the day, an essential element of the picture.