Sally Goes to the Mountains is a book I would give as a gift to any dog lover from 4 to 94. It's colorful illustrations, charming and witty captions, subject matter and size makes it the perfect coffee table book. I'll cherish mine forever. I can't wait for the next "Sally" book and plan to visit the huneck.com website to choose a special framed print from this very special book.

In Sally Goes To The Mountains, author/illustrator Stephen Huneck draws upon his award-winning expertise to take young readers on a romp with a fun-loving black Labrador named Sally. Sally goes for a ride to the mountains where she encounters bears, moose, rabbits, and skunks! There are berries to pick, sticks to fetch, and a lake to swim in. Huneck's bright, superbly crafted woodcut prints perfectly capture the joy of a dog's outing in the mountains for young readers. Also highly recommended is the earlier volume of Sally's adventures, Sally Goes To The Beach (0810941864, [price]).

I bought this book for my mom as a present. She already owns the other "Sally" books and loved this one too. The illustrations are beautiful and very whitty. My favorite is the giant moose with Sally. The Sally books aren't just for Lab owners or children--any pet lover will enjoy them.

I purchased this book not knowing whether I would like it, but I loved it. It is a fascinating collection of stories from people who participated in WWII in numerous diverse ways. Recounted here are the experiences of bomber pilots, men on submarines, infantry soldiers from the wars in the Pacific and in Europe, POW's, and countless others. The author steps aside and lets the soldiers tell the stories in their own words, yet the narrative is consistently compelling. You get a realistic view of what WWII was like from the perspective of people who were there. I highly recommend this book.

``The Courage of Common Men: Texans Remember World War II'' is a must-read for Texans and World War II history buffs.

The book contains stories from 19 veterans across Texas and is thoroughly engaging. It's an extremely quick read. The stories are tragic and at times humorous. It's told in an interview-style, so you feel the emotions that the veterans are experiencing as they relive their personal accounts. One of my favorite chapters is of the Gibesons, a couple from San Antonio, who met during the War and are still married today. What a love story!

The names you'll find in ``The Courage of Common Men'' aren't those that you have read about in history books. They are your neighbors and family friends. Ordinary people who lived through extraordinary times. After reading ``The Courage of Common Men,'' you'll gain a greater appreciation for the sacrifices these brave men made.

I have read this book and the author, Stephen Manning, has done a great job of telling stories from men, who are still living, about their experiences while serving their county during World War II.

Mr. Manning has interviewed about 20 veterans from all branches of the service. He tell thier story just like they tell it to him useing their own words. You feel like you have talked to the men youself.

The author has incorperated pictrues of the men interviewd taken while he was in the service and a picture of them as of today.

If you are interested in World War II this is a must read book.

Sincerely, Charles B. Harper

This man isn't just a guided imagery specialist, he's a poet and a philosopher king! He understands suffering and he provides the tools to help people get through it in a most beautiful way!!

The meditations in this book are very helpful for healing from past traumas. By practicing these exercises, one can attain a greater degree of self-acceptance, forgiveness of those who have hurt us, awareness of the present moment, and love for all sentient beings.

We all need to envelop ourselves in the golden glow of love, to mother the parts of ourselves that have been grievously wounded in the past, and to let go of the pain. These meditations are designed to do that, to help us nurture ourselves and send positive energy back into the universe.

GUIDED MEDITATIONS is an excellent resource for anyone needing to contemplate and experience peace and healing. As a Spiritual Counselor for Hospice, I have used this book to help people who are dying find peace in the midst of one of life's most difficult circumstances. Each meditation is filled with words that guide one's soul through the mind and the emotions until one rests their awareness in the present moment. In the present moment, therein lies, infinity itself. -- Samuel Oliver, author of, WHAT THE DYING TEACH US: LESSONS ON LIVING.

This abridged and simplified version of the ancient Tibetan masterpiece makes the text accessible to the general reader. The authors carefully include all that is of intrinsic value from the original without the difficult, more advanced teachings. Beautiful photographs of the people and country illustrate the text.

A more accessible version for Westerners of the ancient Tibetan Buddhist philosophy, 'The Great Liberation Through Hearing'. The teaching takes you through each day of the bardo of death with a comprehensive commentary. For anyone with prior Buddhist understanding, the transition between life & death detailed in this book will not come as a shock. However, for those with no prior knowledge of Tibetan Buddhism it would probably be wise to start somewhere else like the 'Tibetan Book of Living & Dying' by Sogyal Rinpoche.

Do not be put off by thinking that this is a book just about dying. Although it is essentially a guide for the dead, it is also a guide for the living.

Many people engaged in serious spiritual practice have suceeded in indefinitely putting off a "confrontation" with the Tibetan Book of the Dead. After all it is very complex, loaded with esoteric Tibetan Buddhist teachings, and the subject is so -- well, shall we say not a light entertainment accompanied by an immediate warm glow of satisfaction.

Now there is no reason to put it off any longer! The beautifully produced new Illustrated Tibetan Book of the Dead(a new translation with commentary) by Stephen Hodge with Martin Boord fills a void with great success.

First the book is physically beautiful with absolutely splendid color photographs of the Tibetan people, colorful religious celebrations and ceremonies and the awesome scenery of this spectacular country.

Reading, absorbing and responding to this book is very much like participating in a several day retreat. The retreat is conducted by someone who really understands his topic. The text of the book is reduced in size from the original, eliminating much of the more obscure material and examples, but the central, essential elements are all here.

Those central elements, very well introduced, are presented in a fine new translation and accompanied by very helpful explanatory material by Stephen Hodge. The first time visitor to this esoteric spiritual classic can therefore come away from a several day "retreat" of reading feeling well satisfied that the book has been opened for him/her and explicated by a master.

As our life is truly for the sake of dying into an eternity of awareness and bliss, and since we can in fact become familiar with the process of dying through meditative reading and understanding of this book -- and since a major point of the book is to show how easy it is to be so unfamilar with the open doors to eternal bliss that we can move right past them out of ignorance, why not stop now and take the time to study and learn the lesson of lessons.

Whether a reader of this book will wish to follow it up by going to a complete text of the Tibetan Book of the Dead is of course an individual decision based on how satisfied one is with the book discussed here. Certainly, this superlatively planned, written and produced book is l00% more helpful and satisfying than never bothering with the Book Of The Dead at all. And it is probably equal to the task of satisfying most readers completely.

This work is a splendid example of the new emphasis of the publisher on producing comprehensive works in a handy cheap format compared with the earlier broad brush treatments which covered too much in too little detail.
The new emphasis is on sets covering various national armed forces in as much detail as is available, consistent with the current purpose of the works in the series, which have evolved from an original emphasis on serving the military miniature maker market into works intended to enlighten the general reader in enough detail to satisfy the merely curious and to point the way to further reading.
Most of us, including myself, have little need for, or the patience to read, voluminous studies, often in foreign languages, covering many eras and nations. My main interest is in the US forces, their allies and their enemies in the twentieth century.
That said, these works should be purchased as presented, in sets within the series. Since they are produced as a set, the volumes cover only relevent parts of the general history and the clothing and individual equipment is covered as it appears in each period. The French Army, US Army, British Army, and Italian Army series all have three volumes, covering the major theatres and time periods of the war. The German set has five.
If you want an introduction to the fascinating variety of clothing and equipment of the forces covered, this set is for you.

There isn't a lot of publication focussed on the Italian Army in WW2 and Osprey's Men-at-Arms series finally decided to include it in its latest book.

Philip S Jowett has done a good job in describing the uniforms and rank insignia of the Italian Army and Stephen Andrew's colour plates are of very high quality. An interesting book for WW2 historian and modelling enthusiats. Photos and colour plates are very rare references.

I am looking forward to volume II in this series.

Uggh!Finally!it took osprey to reach volume #340 before the Very signifigant contribution of the italian army in ww2 was acknowledged.This volume is wonderful with intense color plates and information of Italian units (fanteria)in stunning detail.i am hoping to see many volumes (at least 4 ) on the other fronts of the italian war effort.This is a definite buy for those interested in one of the most ,overlooked negatively stereotyped(as well as France),and ignored major power of WW2.

Of all the Serendipity books...if I had to choose (and I love them all) this is a classic, and probably my favorite. These books tel such great lessons and kids LOVE them too!

"Kartusch" is a short story about a blind little green snake named Kartusch and a group of small creatures called Furry Eyefulls, named for their fur-covered bodies and large blue eyes. The Furry Eyefulls are obsessed with watching beautiful things in their forest, so much that they can't sleep and soon grow extremely grouchy and short-tempered with each other. Kartusch helps them relax by telling them to close their eyes and listen to the beautiful sounds in the forest. Soon enough, the Furry Eyefulls begin to nod off and mercifully fall asleep.

The moral of the story:

"You may see all that is around you but you may feel nothing at all.
So try and close your eyes so tight and listen to the night time fall."

"Kartusch" is a great children's book and beautifully illustrated by Robin James. The reading level is for kids, but adults will love the story and pictures as well.

Kartusch has been a story I have read to all three of my children for almost 20 years. When I have a chance to read to different classes, I read this book. The message is so important I share it with adults. If anyone has a chance to find this book, please read it and pass it on to others. I feel very lucky to have a copy now that it is out of print. I plan to continue to share it with friends so that Kartusch will not disappear.

This book should be included as a standard accessory in any digital artist toolbox. I use this book as a desktop companion whenever I am working on images with Photoshop. JWoods@kodak.com

This book is tremendous for professional graphic artists using Photoshop for high end electronic pre-press production. It's full of useful techniques and guidance not only on how to color correct, etc., but also what to look out for. We are an electronic graphic arts production company in the Chicago area, and we learned a lot from this book

Taking you step by step from picking a computer system, through calibrating it, acquiring images, correcting them, and getting them on paper, Real World Photoshop 3 is a whirlwind introduction to pre-press production. As a photographer with no publishing experience, I was fascinated by some of the things that could be achieved with my images as I applied each chapter. I was also horrified at the bloopers I had unwittingly pulled and relieved to find ways to avoid them. David and Bruce share their personal approaches (and differences of opinion), which gave me a bit of reassurance. The humor interspersed is head and shoulders above that in "Photoshop for Dummies" and does not distract when you are struggling to grasp a hard concept.

As usual, Stephen E. Ambrose is flawless in this middle edition of the Nixon trilogy. The book is quite long and detailed to a fault. The detail includes huge quantities of actual quotes, painting a picture of Nixon about as clear as one can get on any man.

The picture I got was of a man not well suited for the presidency. Intelligent, clever, creative, bold, knowledgeable on world affairs, yes. But he also had character flaws. Over-sensitive almost to the point of paranoia, Nixon was driven by an obsession to be President more than the desire to be presidential. His statement in the later David Frost interview that, "If the President does it, it's not illegal," is very telling. The ends justified the means. He had the ability to rank goals above consequences, and almost everything he did was for the acquisition or preservation of political power.

The best example is Vietnam. He took four years to end a war he knew early on could not be won. His delays were to search for ways to avoid being the first American President to lose a war, and to prevent the staining of American honor. Both of which would have cost Nixon reelection in 1972. Ambrose makes the point that half the names on the Vietnam War Memorial are from the period of Nixon's futile attempts to foil Hanoi and fool America. People should never have to die to protect a politician's legacy.

I see Nixon and Clinton, representing both political parties, as two good examples of why character matters when we vote. For some reason, the presidency attracts extreme or narcissistic personalities whose motivations are more for glory than good. After reading Ambrose's book, the simple question, "Why does this person want to be president?" will rank higher in my mind.

Another eye-opener in the book was the lesson in political science. Nixon was neither an appealing candidate, nor a rallying ideologue. He scraped his way to the top because he was the consummate partisan politician. Ambrose shows a glimpse of the American political system's underbelly: maneuvering, manipulating, prevaricating, waffling, and backstabbing. He makes it easy to forget that despite the warts, our republican democracy is still the best system in the world.

The irony and enigma of Nixon is that he also opened up China, warmed the Cold War with the Soviets, began nuclear disarmament, and other worthy and statesman-like accomplishments. The book, like Nixon himself, will mean different things to different people. --Christopher Bonn Jonnes, author of BIG ICE

The second volume of Ambrose's three-volume biography of Richard Nixon covers the period from Nixon's defeat in the 1962 gubernational election in California to his re-election as US President in 1972.

In his refreshingly frank Foreward, Ambrose states that "I confess that I do not understand this complex man". And indeed that problem of assessment runs throughout the book - Nixon, and his first Administration were full of contradictions, big pluses and minuses, which make an objective view very difficult.

Ambrose's analysis of Nixon's time "in the wilderness" until his nomination as the Republican candidate for the Presidency in 1968 was particularly interesting: not so much a time of drift as of recovery and preparation. The man's sheer drive and ambition must have been huge.

The nightmare of Vietnam looms large in this book, quite rightly. Looked at in hindsight, Ambrose reveals the utter absurdity of US policy at the time - all the more tragic as lives were being sacrificed even though there was no clear goal and real hope of victory had long since gone (if indeed it had ever been a realistic ambition).

Ambrose takes care not to neglect domestic politics, US-Soviet and Sino-US relations, and describes the beginnings of Watergate. At the end, I reflected that whatever nostalgic image we are presented of the 1960s, society was in fact deeply divided. Ambrose writes with great unease about the duplicity of all of the politicians of the time and condemns equally the excesses of the protesters. The summer of love? Perhaps not.

Stephen Ambrose's second volume of Nixon:
"Triumph of a politician" is just as good as
volume one.
This is the heart and soul of presidential politics.
Surely we have the politicians we deserve, but some of them
are complex, confusing, ruthless, criminal, fascinating,
moving, grand and great - which kind of make it hard
for us poor voters. Nixon was all of that! as is so
clearly demonstrated in this
portrait of the Nixon presidency.

In 1962 Nixon held his famous last press conference
after losing the California gubernatorial contest.
The reporters wrote his political obituary.
Five years later he had held hundreds of press
conferences and was on his way to becoming president!

He won the presidency over Humphrey in 1968
partly by the not very statesman like behavior of
namecalling and allegations about Humphreys neglect of
national defense and his softness on law and
order and his willingness to spend the country into
bancruptcy. Or perhaps he almost lost because
of these wild charges?

I think the book explains how it all happened.
Even the parts that are really unexplainable.
Fascinating.

-Simon

What I liked about this book was it starts with the Japanese creation myth and seamlessly blends that into the begining of their history. The stories and ancedotes are very interesting reading and his analysis of of their history is enlightening. I've become a big fan of his work because it make the history interesting and enlightening. Highly recomended.

If you have ever had even a passing interest in the history of Japan from the perspective of the warrior class who played a major role in defining it, then this is probably the best choice of book on the subject. It approaches the topic from the earliest accounts of the samurai right though to the end of the samurai era, taking a fairly high level, "big picture" type view. The book looks more at the "why" something happened, than the "how" of events. This provides some fascinating insights into the history of Japan and allows the reader to grasp the overall history of feudal Japan with just the right balance of details and objectivity. That said, there is still quite a bit of detail of some of the more notable battles, but high level, campaign type information is not the purpose of this book. It is more interested in letting the reader understand what happened in Japanese history and why it unfolded as it did, with out bogging down in micro detail. The book is superbly researched and is very well written, and despite the fact that it is a "history" book, it is a very enjoyable, extremely informative read. It is thoroughly recommended.

Dr. Turnbull approaches this book as a loving historian. He blends the fact, mythology, and romance of the Samurai in a book dedicated to its accuracy. He understands the place the samurai holds in the minds of the japanese people and in others as well, and does everything he can to keep the legend alive, while telling the history the way it really was. It was very enlightening, and meticulously researched.

Stephen Knapp's book focus on eastern answers to the mysterious horizons explaining the theories about the universe, the souls, life after death and the ideas of the Absolute Lord. It's an indepth introduction to vedic teachings. The easter philosophy is well explained with Chapters one to four giving clear insights into who and what is your real identity and vedas give an understand as to what life really is. Chapters Two and three explain how vedas influence great men of the decade and the vedic background info of its compilation. Fifth chapter focus on Law of Karma and reincarnation. The sixth chapter is on reincarnation of different lives in different bodies. Chapter seven describes a little about universe structure and heaven n hell. Chapter eight reveals the evolution theory and vedic spiritual growth with a cycle of repeated birth and death. Chapter nine gives an insight of human existence. Tenth and eleventh chapter explain how God is Supreme Power whose influence should be recognized in our everyday Life.Chapter Twelve speaks of spiritual world which is found only in vedic literature.

I remember reading 'Our Daily Bread' booklets and having read Bible stories & Bhagwad Gita parts, do feel that Vedic Literature stands class apart when it comes to spiritual knowledge and it demands understanding and indepth reading.As most of vedic philosophy scholars know, originally refer original four vedas : The Rig, Yajur, Sama and Atharva Vedas. The book on Vedas refer to upanishads, Vedanta sutras, Brahmanas and aranyakas - all the texts revealing knowledge whereas the remaining parts of Vedic literature consists of the Mahabharata, Bhagwad gita, Ramayana and Puranas.Stephen's Book is must read for people who are trying to understand human evolution and existence and how to attain happiness, cause of suffering, real unity between us, how to achieve freedom, how to achieve individual and global peace, law of karma and incarnation, the Absolute - Supreme God realization and much more.

For too long, and for too many insidious reasons, the Vedas have been ignored, marginalised or just plain derided by Western scholars. They deserve far better treatment, and Stephen Knapp shows us why. Hidden in the Sanskrit texts of the ancient Vedic writings one can find sublime knowledge on every imaginable subject. The author is doing a great service by making this knowledge easily accessible, and anyone searching for answers to life's problems could much worse than start looking here. Well done Mr Knapp.

Indeed, this is a good book. But to get even more out of it, read The Illuminati Manifesto.
The Illuminati Manifesto makes public the secret of the Craft for the first time ever!