This is a very entertaining book, but I wouldn't want to cook (or eat) from it. While there are a couple of ok recipes, some of them are real stomach turners, e.g., cut up some Whoppers from burger king and mix with catsup, mustard & bbq sauce, put a puff pastry crust on it and bake. Scrape the condiments off the buns, toast and serve along with it. Puhlease!! Lots of this type of recipe--not nutritious cooking, not even appetizing. Did give it a couple of stars for entertainment value.

This book is not only entertaining reading from beginning to end, it is truly helpful in the kitchen. Sure there are a couple of recipes I don't care to try, but I've cooked most of them already and they've all been big hits. All the Ladies in my church group wanted the recipe for "La Pate". (Didn't give it to them) The "Crock Pot Baked Beans" went very fast at the last BBQ we attended. The "Blue Cheese Chicken Italiano" has turned into a family favorite and The "Chocolate Mousse" impressed several friends. Now people are inviting us over for dinner and requesting we bring certain dishes. This book is the sole reason my teenage son has started cooking! He cooked the "Wiener Schnitzel" for his grandparents and they loved it.

Pam Young and Peggy Jones have produced yet another wonderful book. This one, however, is less about organization and cleaning (although those are touched on) and more about producing good food when you're short on time. Their particular brand of humour makes this a great read for enjoyment even if you don't use the recipes -- although the recipes are great as well! Each recipe (with strange names like "Mucho Chicken Berserk" and "Aunt Peg's Five Bean Summit Meeting") includes approximate prep time, cooking time and number of servings as well as an often hilarious anecdote. Pam and Peggy focus on cooking in the real world. We don't always have the time to play Donna Reed and bake up a storm... we have to rely on Four Skor And Seventeen Pecan Pie and hope it tastes like scratch... and it usually does!

This is not "The Works" (10 stars**********) but a cute kids book. Hope to see more books published on Jim Henson and his works, past, present and future.

A great little book for kids about one of my heroes, Jim Henson. I, an adult, read it because it is one of the few Jim Henson biographies available...where is a full scale adult biography of one of the most important entertainers of our time? This is a sweet little book that the kids will enjoy. And maybe a few adults too...

A great way for kids to experience the magic that is Henson. Jim Henson has had many books written about him, but this one is the best way to introduce kids to the man behind the Muppets.

Another round of Flash stories written by Mark Waid, in this one. Wally West is trapped centuries in the future and he must use his great speed to get back to the present before the woman he loves, Linda, becomes the victum of a man named John Fox,who also has speed force powers, and whose less then honorable intentions explode when he and Wally at last meet.

In the wake of his epic battle with Savitar, the mad god of speed (In the Dead Heat storyline), The Flash finds himself propelled into the future by The Speed Force. Landing in the 64th Century, he tries to return home by using the love of his Girlfriend Linda as a beacon. The only problem is that Linda has been told (By future Flash John Fox) that Wally is dead. Fox is in love with Linda, and hopes to usurp Wally's role as the 20th Century Flash.

At their core, most of Mark Waid's Flash stories follow a bacic predictable plotline: Flash battles bad guy, gets lost in the Speed Force, comes back home with a weird new Power/Costume/Identity. But they're well told stories, and this one is no different. The relationship between Wally and Linda is totally believable, and in my mind is one of Comics great love stories. Race Against Time is a thoroughly enjoyable adventure, with great art and writing. Check it out.

This was the first book I read about postmodern ministry. As such, it was very useful. It is simple and pretty accurate in its descriptions. I would recommend it to someone with little knowledge about postmodernism and postmodern ministry. If you already have experience in the field and knowledge of the generation, then don't waste your time. You already know the stuff here. I would move on to Leonard Sweet's books. This book is good, just not too meaty. Accept what it is and use it accordingly.

Unlike most writers on the subject of "GenXers" and their (our) relationship to God and the church, Kevin Ford refrains from the condescending tone that characterizes so many books on the subject. He even suggests (gasp!) that some of the perspectives and strengths of this generation may have something to offer the church. Although the extensive narrative in each chapter was probably intended to illustrate one of Ford's points -- that personal narrative is the medium which will be most effective in communicating with Xer's -- I found the stories, particularly the dialogue, rather artificial at points. While it is important to remember that this is a generation that has had its share of neglect and abuse, resulting in subsequent dysfunctions of our own, we don't want ministry "to" us that doesn't also call us to ministry for others. We know the world is a messed-up place, and that we share in those faults. Give us hope. Give us a place and a purpose, and all the statistics will fade in contrast to remarkable narratives of our own

Night Terrors is about a grave digger who goes by the name of "Digger". Digger moves away from his hometown to find other graveyard jobs, and while working at these different jobs, people start telling him scary stories.

One of the stories in Night Terrors was about a kid whose dad had a mummy in the basement, and the kid wanted to bring it to life with an Egyptian chant.

I thought Night Terrors was a good book because the stories were well-written, and I could imagine what the people in the stories were going through. Night Terrors also had a drawback; I thought the stories could be scarier.

"Night Terrors" is a collection of twelve short horror stories for teens--well, five short stories told by Digger (the storyteller) and seven chapters that follow his drifter existence down the Atlantic coast. The first chapter, "Digger's Promise," is more of an introduction on how he got into the grave digger profession and received his first promotion before he ever learned to drive. This is a rather amusing tale, in a sick sort of way. Following this, an alternating pattern is set between Digger's life chapters and the stories he's heard over the years, as explained below:

"Just Say Yes" -- Two girls plan on stealing a biology midterm exam as one girl's way of getting the attention of a boy she likes. However, they stumble across a horrible secret of their teacher's in the process. Not too bad, but it's not the best in the bunch. The ending was just the tip of the iceberg.

"Good Night, Jon; Sleep Tight, Jon" -- A couple of guys plan on getting their new "friend" in trouble by involving him in a grave robbing prank, but it backfires on one of them. One of my favorite stories in here; good twist at the end. I especially liked the last sentence.

"Like Father, Like Son" -- A boy breaks into his father's basement office to perform a ceremony that will awaken the Egyptian mummy his archaeologist father keeps there--except he reawakens something else. Fans of Egyptian mythology should like this one since it scratches the surface of ancient rites, but it isn't tedious in a textbook sort of way.

"The Cat's-Eye" -- While cat-sitting for an old lady, two girls snoop around her house and find a closet full of old clothes--only the closet holds something far more fateful for one of the girls. This one has a "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe" feel to it.

"Something Always Happens" -- Three guys are stranded in the middle of nowhere when their car dies. One of them goes for help, but he finds more than he wanted in the marshes, as do his friends. Even though the dialogue of the old woman was a little boring, if you read between the lines, you can probably guess the ending ahead of time.

The second to last chapter, "Footprints in the Snow," returns to Digger's point of view, where he deals with the death of a close friend (his boss), who was killed by one of the wolves that lives nearby. Digger, once again, moves and finds himself full circle, back in his hometown. He also notices that the pack of wolves has followed him. In this chapter, he--as well as the reader--learns of his true identity, which is no big surprise really. If you take a close look at the picture on the front cover, you can probably figure it out beforehand.

All of the stories deal with either peer pressure, conspiracies, or pranks, which most young readers can relate to. The various locales--like empty school halls, tomblike basements, foggy cemeteries, or endless closets--create great atmosphere, as do the monsters that are involved: vampires, ghosts, mummies, witches, cannibals, and werewolves. This book is easy to read, fast-paced (I read it one sitting; it's just under 180 pages), and suspenseful without being gratuitously gory. Young horror fans should enjoy this one.

Set in the fifth season, 'False Memories' finds Buffy still trying to cope with the sudden acquisition of a younger sister. Not only is Dawn every bit as irritating as a sibling can be, Buffy keeps running into memories of Dawn's involvement in old episodes which weren't there all that long ago. Trying to keep her sister out of trouble and sorting out what is real and what is not are becoming major distractions for Buffy. It is bad enough that Buffy has one of the world's toughest night jobs - hellmouth cleanup patrol, now she has a nosy sister as well.

Once again, Sunnydale is visited by a new vampire menace, this time from Japan. Yuki Makimura and her companions, a group of vampire monks, are hardly tourists. While the vampire has no qualms about making sashimi out of our favorite slayer, her real agenda is another thing entirely. Yet when Dawn uncovers some clues to the mystery, but Giles goes all mysterious. Stymied by her watcher, Buffy is forced to turn to the [highly] unreliable help of Spike.

Once again, Tom Fassbender and Jim Pascoe have joined to create and interesting plot. Dawn is a welcome addition to the 'literary' Buffy world (I had an irritating younger sister of my own). I am at last getting used to the illustration style of the Dark Horse graphic novels. While the artwork is always of very high quality, I kept wishing the illustrated characters would look exactly as they do in the show. That is an impossible task, of course - just my inner perfectionist coming through. The truth is that Cliff Richards, Joe Pimentel, and Will Conrad have again turned out the spectacular artwork that makes good plot and dialogue into something memorable.

The Foot Soldiers: Volume I is a fairly standard coming-of-age/hero's-quest story, but Krueger makes it work by making the characters multi-dimensional; they all have faults, they're not quite sure what heroism is about, they don't always make smart decisions. One character starts a relationship with one of the enemy that could be redemptive, but could just as easily compromise the heroes - as it does a few times in this story. Krueger also does well by emphasizing the effect of the heroes - the Foot Soldiers - on the other previously-helpless citizens they try to protect; the Soldiers give people hope, but they also change the old order of things, which scares some people.

Each chapter is introduced by a short text piece, and it's actually those text pieces I found most compelling. That's no knock on Mike Oeming's art, which is different from the style Oeming uses these days on books like POWERS -- a little less inspired by current animation, but no less effective, especially on facial expressions. But the text pieces have a certain sense of dread about them, a heaviness of feeling; the narrator seems weighed down by failure and despair in a way that doesn't quite come through in the pages of the main story - it adds a layer of complexity that the comics chapters don't quite have. I hope that in future volumes Krueger works those elements into the story and starts paying off the hints he's dropping here. If he does, and I believe he will, FOOT SOLDIERS will turn out to be a comics saga well worth reading.

This is a very funny book and we liked it very much. The best thing about this book is that it was filled with surprises. We loved the ending the best. Read "Slime Time" by the same authors to find out what else Danny is up to.

Dick Perez does the cover painting of Johnny Bench making a play at the plate and the poster of the 20 Hall-of-Fame greats included in this second volume. Perez is pretty much the official artist of the Baseball Hall of Fame, however, the entries on the 20 players in this 1990 volume are illustrated with black & white photographs. As with the first volume, the collection of baseball greats covers old-timers like Grover Alexander, Willie Keeler and John McGraw to more recent stars like Hank Aaron, Johnny Bench and Brooks Robinson. It is nice to see that this time around they have included Oscar Charleston, one of the greats from the Negro Leagues. Each baseball immortal is given one or two pages of highlights from their career and their career statistics. These entries are just introductions to these Hall-of-Famers and a meant to just give you a sense for whey they were voted in at Cooperstown. I also have to admit I am slightly disappointed that something "official" like this from Cooperstown does not have better production values (and they should have included the photographs of the players's plaques like they did in the first volume).

the story is easy to read , and easy to understand. It shows a lot of details and it is important to black history because it describes the contribution of 12 people to black history