Games Books

I have over 50 Tarot decks and this is the best symbology I have yet to see. I especially love the Death card with the pregnant mother and her having to exert some gentle force with her foot on the previous child to remind him that going back into the womb is not a possibility. It really gets to the nature of the Death card being permanent, can't go back, can only go forward change - change with or without our initiation. I love how most of the characters have more than one layer to their face - it invites you to ask, "How deep do you want to go?". The Lunatic Spread is great for getting to the meat of a matter and is an added bonus. The LWB is adequate but the real prize is the thought provoking scenarios on each of the cards. Well done!!!!!!

It's been a long time since a really great deck has come along but it's worth the wait for Patrick Valenza's, "Deviant Moon" . By that, I mean one that isn't just gimmicky like so many in the past 10 years But a deck that is so well thought out and beautifully laid out as well. It walks skillfully between the most difficult of lines: that of tradition and transition, while still remaining balanced. Having read Tarot for many years now, It is quite easy as well as delightful to do readings with this deck. Destined not only to become a collector's item but a treasure to have and to pass down to future generations. High marks all around and a big note of thanks for all of Mr. Valenza's efforts in putting this together.

I was very impressed with this product. These cards are amazing. The pictures are so crazy. They really help tell the story in my reading. I find most people are a little freaked out by the pictures, but after a while, they really get into the images. I high recommend this dack! =)

The Deviant Moon Tarot deck is easy to read, even for beginners. The cards are well-detailed. They seem very dark and urban at first glance, or even at a second, but the lightness and variations in expressions allows fuller meaning to each card. You'll want to try these cards just to see if these slightly insane pictures will add a little depth to your readings, and you'll love them if you are a tarot collector!

Well, if you're a tarot collector / lover like me, or just a reader with a sense of humor... be ready for a fun ride. This is indeed a unique deck, a piece of art, and a wonderful representation of the darker side f our nature. I just got this deck a few weeks ago and I still can't put it down. It's vibrant and full of character.
I highly recommended it.


Blessings,
www.shakticonjure.com

As much as I really love this book, I'm afraid that I could only give it five stars, since that's all Amazon allows for it.

I had this book when I was a kid of about 8 or 9, and I'm finding just as much pleasure in coloring the pages in it now as I did back then.

When I was a kid, I never cared for coloring books featuring well-known cartoon characters, or characters from children's shows like Sesame Street, Blue's Clues, or Barney. To me, those kinds of coloring books came with restrictions on how to color. Bugs Bunny is always to be colored grey. Oscar was colored green. Barney was to be colored purple. You could color other items in the pictures any color you wanted. If the character was playing with a ball, as long as the ball had no distinct features identifying it as a tool used in a specific sport (like baseball or basketball), then you could color it any way you liked.

With this coloring book, and others like it, there are no rules. You can color it any way you feel comfortable coloring it. I remember spending countless hours coloring in it, while listening to an audio cassette tape recording of a movie I liked, that I recorded from the TV. Sometimes when I look at the pages in this book, I can picture myself back to when I was 8 or 9, sitting at the little desk we had in the dining room for me, listening to the cassette tape.

A lot of the mandalas are great for coloring again and again. I may order another copy or two, just to recolor some of the mandalas I've already done. I also have a program on my computer that allows me to draw my own mandalas, and sometimes I'll turn to this coloring book, as well as the other three in the series, for inspiration or ideas.

I highly suggest getting this coloring book for anyone who still likes to color, or if you have kids who are like I was, and really don't care for coloring books featuring cartoon characters. This book is really more of a challenge to the imagination than any coloring book featuring a specific set of characters. It's an easy, yet difficult book to color. The spaces in the mandalas are big enough for children to color, with a few smaller areas that might be hard for children, yet not so for adults. The real difficulty here is deciding which color to choose.

Very few Mandalas to color for $10.00. I bought this as a gift but I would be embarrassed to give it. Way overpriced!

This book completes the series of Mandala coloring books by this author. Well worth the money spent.

I teach an alternative high school class and these designs have helped my students focus and relax at the same time. Anyone who works with troubled teens should have these at their disposal...one more item to add to your bad of tricks!

I think this will be fun to color with my granddaughter. We love to color things together, and we love designs. Thanks.

With the exception of "Royal Flash" and two of the stories in "Flashman and the Tiger", I give all the Flashman stories 5 stars. They are that great. However, for sheer twisted brilliance of plot, I rank this one up there with "Flash for Freedom". In those two books, George MacDonald Fraser puts his protagonist through the most hilarious, yet unbelievably sadistic situations you could possibly imagine, and just when you think our (anti) hero has finally escaped the jaws of death, GMF delightfully trips him up and throws him back to the wolves. This ending of this particular novel is pure genius and would alone be worth the price of the book, even if it weren't preceded by some of the greatest historical fiction and humor ever written. Who ever thought the Indian Mutiny could be so much fun?

All of the Flashman novels have a great many things to recommend them in terms of witty asides, sardonic observation, historical accuracy,and (what would now be considered PG-13 rated) erotic escapades, but this is the most engrossing and plot driven novel of an already exceptional bunch. Flashy gets into and out of a lot of bad situations throughout his campaigns and career, but this is the first novel where I felt a personal identification with our spineless "hero" and the lengths he would go through just to come out alive on the other side of the tunnel.

'Flashman in the Great Game' takes our man Flash to India just as the Great Mutiny (aka Sepoy Rebellion) was about to get under way in 1857. Flashman soon goes to ground to hide from the arch-fiend Ignatieff. The readers gets something of an insider's view of the rebellion, albeit through Harry Flashman's eyes. Harry finds himself in an unsual number of tight spots and even falls in love, well, as much as Harry can do.

Fraser is really in top form here. I've read about half the Flashman books and this one is topped only by the original.

Highest recommendation.

Flashman novels so uniformly entertain that it's hard to single one out as the best. But the unremitting action and focused detail of "Flashman in the Great Game", set in India during the Sepoy Mutiny of 1857, might qualify it. American readers may know as little about this as they do about the Crimean War, the subject of Flashman's immediately prior adventure. But there is no better way to fill in our gaps of understanding about the British Age of Empire, than to accompany Flashman on his escapades.

Unwilling as always, Flashman is sent to India by Lord Palmerston as a secret emissary to the troublesome Queen Lakshmibai of Jhansi. Flashman is mesmerized by the beautiful and powerful queen, one of the most memorable of Flashman babes, but an assassination attempt sends him into hiding. Disguising himself as a tribesman he enlists in the colonial army, where troops are tense with rumors that they will be given taboo rifle cartridges. They revolt with horrifying violence against British cut off in remote areas with small garrisons. Flashman repeatedly escapes from a frying pan only to find himself in a hotter part of the fire. He witnesses events as synonymous with "atrocity" to the British public of the 19th century as September 11 or Beslan are to us today. Flashman escapes one incident more harrowing than the next. He never loses hope that soon he'll be able to lay low and shirk the rest of his mission, but his hopes are repeatedly dashed until he suddenly finds himself back before the intoxicating Lakshmibai, wondering, with his life on the line, if in fact she actually loves him.

Scrupulously showing colonialism's warts, Fraser depicts brutal British reprisals and suggests with postmodern egalitarianism that each side's violence somehow offsets the other. But in my old-fashioned, post-9/11 opinion the savagery provoking those reprisals was far greater, with barbaric atrocities committed against women, children, surrendering soldiers and the like. Executing a rebel is not the same as hacking a child up with a sabre.

Throughout the Flashman series our antihero's cowardly and bigoted selfishness provide black humor in all manner of grim situations, yet the gravity of the Mutiny necessarily mutes that side of Fraser's writing. The unrelenting violence of this episode limit even Flashman's capacity to be a jerk; he is forced, more often than usual and despite his best intentions, to be noble. As Fraser recreates the Raj in all its glory and inequity, we sense the surreal quality of a few English soldiers controlling a subcontinent with hundreds of millions of residents, and what happens when the resulting powder keg explodes.

Midway through his memoirs of the Indian Mutiny of 1857, Harry Flashman ruminates: What beats me is the way people take it to heart -- what do they expect in war? It ain't conducted by missionaries, or chaps in Liberal clubs, snug and secure. But what amuses me most is the fashionable way views change -- why, for years after Cawnpore, any vengeance wreaked on an Indian, mutineer or not, was regarded as just vengeance. Now it's t'other way round, with eminent writers crying shame, and saying nothing justified such terrible retribution as Neill took, and we were far guiltier than the n-gg-rs has been. Why? Because we were Christians, and supposed to know better? -- and because England contains this great crowd of noisy know-alls that are forever defending our enemies' behaviour and crying out in pious horror against our own. Why our sins are always so much blacker, I can't fathom...

Sound familiar? It's exactly the sort of rant that we hear every day in reference to Iraq, and that coming from a sputtering red-faced right-winger makes me gnash my teeth. But wait? How are we to take this, coming from Flashman, by his own account the most selfish, self-centered, self-justifying scoundrel in British annals? And then, although we tend to forget, Flashman is a made-up character, a figment of his author's whimsy. Can it possibly be that Flashman's cynicism and racism express George MacDonald Fraser's own thoughts?

Flashman is the ultimate in "undependable narrators" of his own life, precisely because he maintains such a mask of candor. Is his self-mockery sincere, or another of his many poses? Was he really such a craven coward, or is he pulling our legs in some cantakerous old man's jesting? If he was really as indifferent to the suffering of others, so narcissistically lacking in empathy, then why did he suddenly choose to liberate the unknown mutineers, at the end of the book, telling them to scurry home and not get caught again? Is Flashman lying about his lies?

It's a tribute to Fraser's art that I ponder the true nature of his fantasy poltroon. This book, the fifth in the narrative, portrays the Flash as a far deeper psychological enigma than the earlier volumes, in which he was merely a comic blaggart. It's in this book that Fraser truly hits his stride as a descriptive writer, also. The depiction of mayhem and slaughter is vivid to the point of horror. Whatever the overlap between the author and his creature, this ranks as one of the most powerful anti-war novels I've ever read. Human nature is senseless slaughter, and those who release it, from whatever motives, are guilty of hellish crimes.

Harry's erotic adventures in The Great Game are less bawdy, less laughable, than in previous volumes. His tryst with the Rani of Jhansi is almost a perfumed love affair. In that way, I suppose some readers might be disappointed. Fraser's humor is spotted more stingily in this tale, also. What humor there is is rippingly funny, but the ghastliness of the Mutiny overshadows it. I have to take sides here, and declare my faith that Fraser fully intended this book as a resounding condemnation of the British Empire and its ravaging of Indian humanity. I hope I'm right. I'd hate to enjoy his writing so much if Fraser meant what Flashman says.

The product was great and Woody's book store communicated great through email about the purchase and ordering information. The only thing is the number of days that it took to ship was confusing; I thought it would get to me sooner, but what the number of days meant was when it would be shipped as opposed to it arriving to me.

This is a great book. Inspiring, entertaining, hilarious, and real. Mark doesn't pull any punches in this. It is not a self-pity book nor does it try to lecture the reader. It is a real account of someone who is very inspiring, yet doesn't pretend to be what he isn't.

Once I started reading this I couldn't put it down. Awesome!!!

Mark Zupan makes you think about what you have, not what you do not have.

He may be in a chair, but he is not handicap. Mark Zupan speak frankly and openly about his life before and after. He does not blame anyone for his injury.

Make you think you life is O.K. and despite what happens you can survive and go on.

Life is not so bad.

Sometimes, people who have been "handicapped" in some manner end up withdrawing into themselves. A few of them are downright miserable. Mad at the world for being stuck in the situation they're in... the best they can hope for (because they're depressing to be around) is to have people feel sorry for them.

Mark Zupan (who, hopefully, you know from the astoundingly-good, and deserved-to-win-the-Oscar documentary, MURDERBALL), is NOT one of those people. He doesn't WANT anyone to feel sorry for him. (In fact, he doesn't even want to be seen as a "role model," or an "inspiration," though [sorry Mark!], to a lot of people, he is.)

Mark was an athletic, fun-loving 18-year-old, having a blast in South Florida when everything he knew changed in an instant. Sleeping off a night of heavy partying in the back of his buddy Chris Igoe's parked pickup, he had no clue when his friend got in and (also drunk) drove off. Not too long thereafter, Igoe swerved off the road and Mark ended up flying out of the truck-bed, over a fence, and into some dense foliage overhanging a small lake. (Igoe had no idea Mark was in the truck bed, so when the police came, they never looked for him.)

Mark regained consciousness, only to find himself unable to move (he didn't know it yet, but he was paralyzed from the neck down), hanging upside-down from a branch with his nose just inches from the water... and getting closer by the moment. He hung there for 14 hours, before a workman heard him yelling for help.

And that's just the START of the story!

In the years that followed, he has not only become one of the star players of the sport known as Quad Rugby (a.k.a. Murderball), his attitude about his "situation" (whether he likes it or not!) has helped untold numbers of others* to better cope with their own situations.


* I know of what I speak. My young and lovely wife has been in a wheelchair for several years due to Multiple Sclerosis. After seeing the movie MURDERBALL --and *especially* after meeting Zupan at a tournament, her attitude went from "good" to fantastic. She's no longer "the girl in the wheelchair." She's simply my wife, who's fun to be around, and who's interested in doing the things she CAN do, rather than fretting about the things she can't.

-Jonathan Sabin

A fast paced, gritty look into an Athlete's brush with death and the long road to recovery. If you are looking for the next inspiration for a cheesy After School Special on overcoming adversity...don't read this book. If you are looking for a well written, insightful look into how one guy copes with tragedy and disability, then this is an excellent read. To say Gimp has texture is an understatement thanks to its subject, Mark Zupan, a quadriplegic athlete who was made famous by the documentary Murder Ball. Gimp details how this proud, perhaps arrogant athlete dealt with a tragic accident that cost him the full use of his limbs thanks to drunken night that resulted in a brush with death and a debilitating spinal cord injury.

Gimp does not spare us the details that are often left out of such stories including the uglier side of human emotion. The books subject faces Zupan's denial, doubt, guilt, fear, despair and loss as a result of his tragedy. While he ultimately comes to terms with his injury and recovery, it is not without some serious setbacks, some self inflicted. It is this part of writer Timothy Swanson's writing that really sets Gimp apart. He does not spare Zupan some hard looks into his darker nature to include arrogance, self indulgence and outright self destructiveness at times. If there is a villain in the book, it is Zupan himself and his own feelings of despair and anger. It is Swanson's description of Zupan's struggle with his own dark feelings and fears that give the story its power.

The book is not without its own sense of humor and offers a dark amusement that Zupan has for the hand life has dealt him. Gimp deftly shows Zupan's outlook on life which is headstrong and confident but not without his fair share of hidden frailty in the face of a near death experience. In fact, the description of the actual accident that describes Zupan clinging to life, literally perhaps, is the book's strongest section. I have many friends who suffer from war wounds, especially brain injuries from IED's or "danger close" air strikes and I can say from personal experience that Gimp does an excellent job at looking at how proud warriors (in Gimp's case a world class athlete), deal with injury and recovery. I recommend this book without reservation to certainly anyone who knows someone who suffers from a disability or who has seen the documentary Murder Ball. The book has broader appeal to fans of sports writing as well since the book leaves no doubt that Zupan is an athlete. The fact that it is an easy read and has a brisk pace is no small feat given that other works of this genre tend to drag on, lack direction and are often burdened with sappy and clichéd, touchy-feely housewife book club nonsense. Zupan's force of will as described by Swanson carries the book along as does the suspense of how he will cope with each stage of his recovery and his entrance into the world of quad rugby aka Murder Ball. I thought it was a great read and recommend it without reservation.

This is a great book for boosting morale on any campus at any level. The ideas are fresh and enlightening for building relationships and team building. This book would be a great way to boost staff development, and active participation from all staff members.

This is a wonderful resource for Staff Development. If you are tired of having teachers yawn through your important presentations, this is a book full of ideas to help add fun to your work. The activities keep the audience involved, listening and learning throughout your presentation.

This book gives the administrator and anyone who supports the teachers in a school some great things to think about and ways to help the teachers on a day to day basis.

thanks for a wonderful job, the book and the service is excellent. well done

I had the honor to see Ms. Connors speak at a teacher conference this past week. I was feeling a bit jaded over the profession of teaching after completing my second year of teaching and after completing a research study proposal on the sad state of teacher retention due to low administrative support. I was at an oh-too-typical low point...

Ms. Connors' words (both in spoken and written form--I flew through her book after listening to her speech) really hit home. This is a book that every teacher and every administrator should read. It gives simple solutions that could and would make a big impact upon the current state of education today. I encourage every person involved in teaching students to read this book and think about the roles they currently play and the role they could play. THANK-YOU MS. CONNORS for humorously yet seriously pointing out both the problem and the necessary solutions.

Enjoyable story but the author should've utilized a better spell-checker... I know some of the words were spelled incorrectly on purpose at the author's discretion but there were many that were not...

Reading "It Takes One to Catch One" by Steven A. Knutson, was like being in the high Sierras near the John Muir trail under stars spread across the bowl of night like a crowded field full of blooming flowers sitting around a camp fire chased by wisps of smoke swapping stories with friends now gone. I've done that and more. But I haven't hunted and fished like this author has. I haven't been close to a grizzly with two cubs--so close that Knutson felt the touch of death as he tensed waiting for the claws and teeth to slash and bite.

The author of "Catch One" will tell you that this is fiction. It's not fiction. It's captured memories that are like a wild beast, and the story meanders as the author travels back through the years. Sure, there are flaws, but those flaws make this work perfect in the way it captures a wild, dying world most of us will never experience as we are tamed and conditioned to fool ourselves that we are free in noisy, crowded, smelly cities shared with graffiti, gangs and gray CO2 skies. What most of us breathe is not the pure air of Knutson's world.

Every sentence; every fragment and every run-on or intended, misspelled word along with happy or unhappy faces in places of periods, sculpt a unique image of the author and the world he grew and lived in--a place most of us will never see as corporations and greed pave nature and turn it into a parking lots surrounded by condos, casinos and strip malls.

Knutson's style is like `sitting around a wilderness campfire' with bears, moose, dear and bobcat lurking nearby in the brush waiting. As you read, you might find yourself wondering what kind of rifle or pistol you have or should have and is it ready. If you want the rivers and mountains and forests of this world to stay wild, don't tame this book. If you love to fish, Knutson's stories will send you places you may only dreamed about.

To tame this precious beast that Knutson calls "It Takes One To Catch One" would be a crime. I'm sure some editor or grammar maven with a corn cob stuck up his `you know what' would do it because of short sighted stupidity. If you are one of those `stuck in the mud' editorial types, you might not like what a home-spun, wilderness artist does with the written word. To bad, your loss--our gain. Before I go any further, I want to point out that I taught English grammar and literature for thirty years. I also edit my wife's novels (printed and sold in more than thirty languages and countries) before her manuscripts go to her publisher. I feel strongly that a style that goes with the character and voice of the artist are more important than a missing comma or quotation mark; fragment or run-on sentence.

I love to read books that take me places I have not been. "It Takes One to Catch One" was one of those books. I watched Knutson fish and trap not only wild animals for food and fur along with criminal types that would ruin what's left of nature for a profit but also the car of a neighbor trying to run down another neighbor's dog.

If you are a Bambi lover (a person that doesn`t know what living in the real world means), someone that thinks squirrels and bears and deer are cuddly and cute creatures created by a Disney cartoon, this book is not for you. It will probably give Bambi lovers nightmares. On the other hand, if you miss being out in the wilderness and understand that `wild' means danger of another type and you embrace that danger, don't miss out on the adventures in "It Takes One To Catch One". There are two-hundred-and-seventy-eight pages of laughter and `seat-of-the-pants' adventure waiting.

Reviewed by Debra Gaynor for [...] 5/08
I love this book! Throughout It Takes One To Catch On,e I found myself trying to separate fact from fiction. I've always heard that "life is stranger than fiction," so I suspect there is a lot of truth in this narrative. Steven Knutson writes from a personal perspective. He shares memories of his younger years from a "seasoned" perspective.
Knutson's personality shines through in his book. He easily laughs at himself and invites the reader to join in. I do want to make one tiny suggestion. Please removed the smiley faces. You do not need them, and they distract from the story. Reading It Takes One To Catch One is like sitting on the front porch with a dear friend while listening to him reminisce. Mr. Knutson, please tell me another story. For a lighthearted look at life, rush out and buy It Takes One To Catch One.

Was sharing with a friend that this book is a great read in these economic times, if for no other reason that to show that a person with an adventuresome spirit can survive and enjoy the process.

Be it Minnesota, Montana, Washington State, Alaska or parts of Canada, the stories make you feel as if you are with the author.

And in some ways they also reminded me of the TV show Northern Exposure, as well as some great songs from Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings and Johnny Cash. Alas its fiction, and I rarely ever read fiction.But its great fiction.

My husband, Brian and I have long known Steve and through those years he shared snippets of his vast and colorful past. Those stories and tales were always telling in his unique sense and style of humor. His stature and demeanor places one in awe and wonder as to how this guy survived his youth of sometime deliberate acts in his quest for adventure and his lust for life. I read the manuscript first and all who know Brian knows he has no sense of humor; but I'd hear gut-busting laughter from down the hallway and knew he was reading It Takes One to Catch One. Steve will take you on a journey into his world of adventure from his early youth into his (almost grown-up years). He grew up during a time of not so much plenty but turned it into a time of growth and change for himself. He could have easily turned out to be the original and true Real Bandit, but his lessons of life revered him to become the man we all came to know and admire. By no means should you allow yourself to think he's old as he would have you believe. That zest for life burns bright this day and I cannot wait to get my hands on his sequel. I purchased his paperback for our Alaskan library and recommend it HIGHLY. It's filled with his humorous tales and stories of life lived to its fullest....sometimes on razor's edge (that's the prepetural kid in him) yet always focused. How else could he have survived it all?

I love these Unicorn cards & their messages. There are several with more than a single Unicorn & a few of Pegasus--who is my totem animal. There were some startling & beautiful pictures. I plan to give a set to a male friend who likes Unicorns & am glad that they represent the Unicorn as a strong animal. I gave him Doreen's Archangel cards last year. I have all of Doreen's decks & use them for morning devotions. They really start my day off in a blessed way.

I use Oracle Cards for professional readings and I love this deck. The cards are beautiful to look at and suitable as gifts for children. The accompanying guide book is easy to read and filled with positive and uplifting messages. If you like the idea of magical enchantment and are in sync with your own Inner Child, you will instantly form a connection with this deck.

I bought this because: 1) I like Doreen Virtue's material 2) I used to think about unicorns a lot as a young child. I think I might have either played with them or imagined that I did. 3) These card decks are fun. They give the child within you a chance to play, and 4) "Toys" like this can provide insite. 5) They certainly provide positive experiences.

As a child I absolutely LOVED unicorns and Pegasis, the winged horse. Both the unicorns and Pegasis were always all white. Even now, I have a poster size picture of Pegasis in my office. He is running in the sand and along the beach, while the ocean waves are breaking on the shore. Wings are up and open and she's ready to fly. And there's a place for me, on her back.

This is a 44-card deck and guidebook. The guidebook gives you the steps: 1) Prepare the deck, by holding the cards and tapping away the old energy 2) shuffle them 3) ask a question 4) lay out cards and read them.

Let's say you are guided to pick out 3 cards, and they are:
1) "One Step at a Time"--"Lots of little steps make big dreams come true"
2)"Decide"--"It's Time to clearly make a decision about what you want"
3)"Talk About Your Feelings"--"Tell a friend how you feel"

OK, so now you go to the book and look up each of these cards for additional guidance. #2, above "Decision" talks about being at a time of crossroads in your life, where you could go in a few different directions and you need to make a decision. Then it suggests how you might ask friends, ask angels for help, etc.

By the way, the art work on both sides of each card is very pretty. A standard picture of a white unicorn is on all cards. The other side contains an individual picture with the words as shown above.

Of course, you have to decide if there is an "answer" which means something to you. Then you have to decide how that "answer" relates to you and what you are or are not doing in your life.

I am a fan of Doreen Virtue and possess almost all of her oracle decks... they are all unique with great, uplifting messages, and the art work is simply wonderful. This deck does not disappoint.

This deck gets five stars for several reasons. First of all, the cards are very beautiful. The cards are gilded on the sides, the back of the cards depict a unicorn with long flowing hair, and the layout for the front of the cards is very appealing. Each card depicts a unicorn on it, of course, though some are with humans, animals, water, clouds, etc.

This is a very fluffy card deck, so to say. There are no dark cards in here as the goal of it is positivity. Also, while this deck is fine for adults, it is also perfect for children. In fact, out of all of Doreen Virtue's Oracle Card Decks, this one is the best for children as there aren't any themes that are specifically for adults (such as issues involving careers, etc) and there are many pictures that depict unicorns in a cute way, such as the "Curiosity" card which depicts a kitten rapidly interested in the unicorn's shining horn. If you are someone who is trying to introduce a child into the realm of reading Tarot/Oracle cards, this deck is wonderful as a starter.

While this deck is excellent for children, it also works very well for adults as well. For anyone seeking cards that will give a good source of inspiration, these cards work very well. Also, the themes of the cards are more broad, therefore making these cards great for beginners.

I have always received accurate readings from using these cards and the only reason why I don't use them that often for readings is because I always get so distracted by how beautiful the pictures are. So even of you are not into reading cards, this deck makes a great collector's item.

The book is clumsy to handle, due to its thickness and small pages. Nonetheless it contains innumerable card tricks, and a few mind-reading and illusion tricks as well. Unfortunately, it doesn't cover anything you're likely to see in Las Vegas.

Mark Wilson is certainly a name in magic and has been around for a very long time. It was on the strength of that name alone that I bought this book, but it wasn't really as comprehensive as I would have liked. Many of the presentations are useful to beginning and intermediate performers as they are. A full time professional like me can fall back on these presentations as well, but over all this is second string material for me.

[...]

This book is not good, great, or awesome, but it's UNBELIEVABLE. The illustrations are very descriptive. When I first got this book I could learn a trick just be looking at the illustrations. (Though you should still read). There are over 17 types of magic listed and taught in the book. Some of these are, Sponge ball magic, Card magic, Cups and balls (the FULL routine), Stage magic, illusions, and more. This is the book to start up on for beginning magic. If you had to get only ONE book of magic, I would suggest purchasing this one. God bless you, and may your future in magic go well.

Mark Wilson is no doubt a master magician and a master of all magicians. This is reflected in this volume. The tricks in this book are a mixture of classical as well as new tricks....both entertaining and mystical. Mark Wilson has dealt with every possible branch of close up magic, conjuring and some basic stage illusions.They are easy to do. Some close up tricks require basic sleight of hands which are worth learning. If you are really serious about magic as a hobby, then this book should be in your book shelf. And if you are planning to take it up as your profession, then nothing can be a good book to start with. Some of the basic sleights are still used by many magicians. The illustrations are really gems. The copy which I got from Amazon was a brand new copy though I purchased a used one.
I wish I got this book when I started out on the mystical world of magic 15 years ago.

I recommend without hesitation this book for beginners or intermediates alike. It contains card tricks, sponge balls, cups and balls and even some stage illusions that you might find suitable with a little creativity or modification. It has card tricks that are pretty much already 'public knolwedge' to layman, but you might use them too using the way Mark Wilson teaches you to present them. However, there are also some advanced sleights on cards that beginners can learn easily because of the illustrations and the amazingly, EASY to understand text. Mark Wilson's Cylopedia of Magic. 5 out of 5.

Why is Tiger's swing so different to Furyk's yet both "get the job done"? But don't just stop at that comparison - look at all the pros and there are just so many variations.

So it's very refreshing to see a PGA pro discuss different aspects of the swing and explain what is negotiable and what isn't, but more importantly, WHY, and what to look at and correct if you want to hit the ball better.

There's a reason why out of 20 reviewers so far, all have given this book a 5 star review. And why some of those reviewers, like myself, have been compelled to write their first review to give others the assurance that, yes, this book is good. Well, actually, the book is brilliant! The best part, after all the $$$ spent on equipment and lessons over the years, is that the book is only about the cost of a bucket of balls. Great value for money! Now if only I can find a pro who'll guide me through the minor changes that I need in my swing, rather than the latest "perfect" swing model...

Okay, yes, the book is a bit "light" on chipping and putting. But guess what? There's more variation in these by pros (eg. putting - stance & grip; chipping - Pelz open stance, Utley parallel) that the same non-negotiable principles for the swing, apply to these. So it doesn't take much to figure it out.

This book is for a golfer at any level and experience.

Now, if Joe would only write a book about "Your Consistent Golf Swing"...

This book helped move me from and 11 handicap to a 7 virtually overnight.As a bookstore owner I am privy to any golf book I desire.This one ranks right up there with Hogan's famous 5 LESSONS... in the impact it had on my golf game

I stopped trying to do things "perfectly' and instantly loosened up and began to listen to what my own body was telling me.No more tieng my self up into a Leadbetter pretzel

This book is a must for both the beginner and the serious golfer.Bravo!

Bob Klein,co-owner-Book Revue)

This book is for you. I belong to the former group and I suspect many golfers are in the latter. After reading the book it became clear to me once and for all which swing elements are non-negotiable, and which ones I can live with and work around, the negotiable. I heeded the author's advice and went through the whole book instead of skipping around and that vastly improved my understanding of the swing. The best thing about the lessons in the book, they work!

I have been playing golf for six years and have taken numerous lessons. Additionally, I have read countless instructional articles in Golf Digest and have had limited success. It always seemed like every time I tried a new move to "correct" my swing, I would improve for a few days and then fall back to my old habits and get very frustrated.

I purchased Joe's book, "The Negotiable Golf Swing" from Amazon about two months ago and read the book from cover to cover, rather than just glancing over the areas I thought would help my golf swing. I am glad that I read the entire book before I decided to try some of his drills and exercises.

After reading the book, I now understand why the golf ball slices, hooks, pulls and pushes. So when I am practicing on the range, I can now take the necessary steps to correct my ball flight, instead of just hitting ball after ball and hoping to correct my problem.

I suffer like most golfers do, with the over the top move, and hitting the ball from outside to in. Joe's simple explanation of how to correct the over the top move has helped me immensely. I am now able to hit the ball from the inside and I am using less effort then before and I am hitting the ball solid.

The book is very well illustrated which has really helped me understand how to correct my swing path and to have me swing from the inside to out instead of outside to in. Once I corrected my swing path, I was able to hit the ball straight and also gain some distance. The illustration and explanation on page 129 is my favorite, it shows you that "from a player's prospective, it appears that it would be impossible to hit a ball if the angles are maintained this late in the downswing. This lag creates clubhead speed and power." This illustration and explanation has helped me convince myself to trust his advice and to maintain the angles and lag.

I would recommend this book to golfers who have become frustrated with their golf swing and have considered quitting the game. Read the book from start to finish and do not jump from chapter to chapter. Also, have an open mind and try his drills and exercises on the range for a month or two. It will be well worth the time and effort you put in at the range, before you try it out on the course.

Thanks Joe for making golf fun again.

Most of my comments have been said elsewhere, but as the dubious owner of dozens of golf instruction books (including the excellent Pelz putting and short games tomes) I can say that this book is in the top tier. The ball flight description alone is worth the price of admission. If, over the course of your golfing life, you buy five instructional books - this should make your list.

The Treasure Tree: Helping Kids Understand Their PersonalityMy 8 year old son had this book read to him at school by his teacher and he desperately wanted it for himself to read at home so of course I bought it from amazon (anything for him to read more)he has been reading the book every night before bed, it is a beautiful book with gorgeous characters who have different personalities that work together, it helps kids understand different kinds of personalities and become more tolerant of others. Loved it!

This is a good book for preschoolers through 3rd graders. We have read it aloud in the preschool, kindergarten, and 3rd grade classrooms, and children love to identify with the animal characters in the book. It teaches a good message about how personality differences are to be valued by ourselves and others.

The Treasure Tree: Helping Kids Understand Their Personality

This book was bought for my son when he was around 7, he is now 17 and refuses to give this book away. It's message was and still is wonderful. Great book and highly reccomended.

MY DAUGHTER LOVES THIS BOOK. IT'S GREAT FOR STORY TIME!!! I LOVED READING THE BOOK TO HER AND ALLOWING HER TO ANTICIPATE THE NEXT ADVENTURE WAS EXCITING FOR BOTH OF US.

This colorful book is written to kids, but adults will learn as well. You will see yourself in at least one of the characters and laugh at your extremes. You also will hopefully come to understand the strengths of your own personality tendencies and be encouraged to work on them. Another great thing about this book is it helps you to understand those around you and to see strengths in them, rather than being annoyed with the extreme side of their tendencies. I highly recommend this book to anyone with children ages 5 and up.(though it can be read earlier, the personality traits are maybe seen better after age 5.)