Arts Books

This book is a must-have for all needlework enthusiasts. Excellently put together it takes you through all aspects of making your stitches do what you want them to do. Project ideas throughout. This is a stitchers bible!

The book arrived early and in good shape. It was just what my daughter wanted for Christmas.

This is a must have for every stitcher's library. An excellent stitch guide with wonderful diagrams.

Whether you are a new or experienced stitcher this book gives easy to follow instructions for a wide variety of stitches along with ideas to combine different stitches. I have referred to it many, many times on my current project: a crazy quilt. Money well spent!

This book is a must for any crazy quilter. I love the size and the fact that it can lie flat open when using. The drawings are large, clear and easy to follow. Even has directions for left handed. The color photos are wonderful "eye candy". This book sparked so many new ideas for me. It is a MUST HAVE.

I have half a dozen machine quilting books and have taken just as many quilting classes from nationally known teachers but this book is really the foundation of it all. If you can only buy 1 book, buy this one! It covers all the basics like stabilizing IN DETAIL. Many books skip this or are so vague that they are not useful. This book covers everything in detail. Read this book cover to cover and then practice and that is all you will need.

Really appreciated the highlighted tips. The photos were sparse, but the instructions are clearly written. I would have given 5 stars, but there is a considerable amount of reading to do. If you are more of a "hands on" person, then taking a class would be better.

I found this book very informative and interesting. Harriet Hargrave explains almost everything in detail and is excellent at not confusing you along with giving you her opinions on what she found to be easy but lets you make a decision as to what will work for you. I will purchase other books from her.

A must have if you want to do machine quilting. Every aspect is explained well from the tools to the actual techniques. Also have wonderfull library of photo's for inspiration.

This is a basic must-have reference by an expert machine quilter, that puts information and help in one place.

This book is brilliant if you are a fan of horror movies or parody's (as I am of both). It is an ingenious and hillarious guide to surviving whichever horror movie you have found yourself in (which you will be able to determine from chapter 1). I can't recomend this book highly enough - PLEASE BUY IT!!

I myself was recently trapped in a horror movie, and if you are too, this book is a must have if you want to survive, letting you know all the tricks and traps to avoid the killer/monster/possesed thing.
Chapter One includes:
How Do I Know If I'm In A Horror Movie?
How Do I Know What Type Of Horror Movie I'm In?
C.R.A.V.E.N
The Seven Deadly Horror Movie Sins
How To Survive A Horror Movie High School

Once you know which horror movie you have become trapped in, each of the following chapters offers help for a particular type of horror movie.

FROM THE BACK OF THE BOOK:
. Are you reading this book at a summer camp?
. Are you reading this book in a cornfield?
. Are you reading this book at an abandoned mental institution?
. Does music crescendo every time you open a door?
. Are there any Japanese children in your bathroom?
. Do all of your "friends" look suspiciously like the cast members from "Smallville" and "The Gilmore Girls"?
. Have you, wthin the last twenty-four hours, accidently killed a hobo or a socially challenged classmate and then hid the corpse so that no one will ever find out?
If you answered "yes" to three or more of these questions, you are most deffinatly trapped in a horror movie - and you need to read this book.

27 reviews of this so far and NOBODY has given it less than 4 stars.

A brilliant book which I would recommend to anyone.

Ever since the Worst-Case Scenario Survival Handbooks stormed their way into bookstores, the selves have been flooded with humorous survival guides. While some of them, like The Zombie Survival Guide, were original and surprisingly in-depth, most managed to do nothing more than rehash old jokes and include cheesy illustrations to push the page count higher.

This book is one of the good ones. The humor at hand goes way beyond the expected cheap shots and post Scream cliches and actually delivers what the average horror fan wants to see. The author touches on stuff that even I missed the first time around, and I've been around!

Take it from me, this book is hilarious.

HOW TO SURVIVE A HORROR MOVIE: ALL THE SKILLS TO DODGE THE KILLS is, on the surface, a satirical look at horror movies and slasher films. But author Seth Grahame-Smith is not merely dismissing horror films as hackneyed dreck; rather, he is having a ripping good time by poking fun at the well-known cliches of a genre he obviously loves, and he's inviting other genre fans to come along for the joyride. Parodying those nuclear-holocaust, natural-disaster, and Y2K survival manuals that were ubiquitous in the 20th century, the book's format is simple: the reader is asked to put himself or herself in the position of a horror-movie victim, then the author offers "experienced" instruction on how to avoid the various perils the reader is likely to face in common horror-film scenarios. Admittedly, those who are not horror fans probably won't get all the jokes and gags, but this pseudo survival guide is a hilarious and nostalgic romp through the conventions of cinematic horror that is certain to delight and entertain hardcore fans of the genre.

Excellent parody of those military, natural disaster, camping survival guide books that by the end of it has you ready to survive when it suddenly dawns on you - hey this situation looks like I'm in a horror movie! Oh no what do I do? If you're not sure you are in fact actually in this situation a handy chapter at the front will allow you to be sure.

Various chapters that follow are Slasher Survival School, where you'll learn about the five types of slashers and how to defeat them. What to do if you did something last summer, how to survive a night babysitting and much more. Inanimate Evil - The Manmade Instruments of Death teaches readers how to survive a haunted house, an evil vehicle, killer doll and importantly how to tell if an object is indeed evil. Crypt-Ography-Ghosts, Zombies and the Reanimated basically teaches you how to survive against various undead foe. Plus this chapter makes a good point against those killing zombies not really being "big man" type heroes, pointing out how slow these things move, their minimum brain capacity meaning you could just run away instead of stupidly barricading an isolated house and so forth.

Fangs of Fury - Aliens and Beasts tackles space set movies, aliens, as well as animals back here on earth. Chapter 666 The Satanic Versus-Curses Demons and The Devil Himself teaches those rural readers amongst us what to do if your cornfield is infested with children. For everyone how to perform an exorcism, what to do if you've only got 7 days to live and the biggest task of them all, how to defeat Satan, where girls, you'll learn the male population, well if you come across Satan you'll be wishing you were a man.

If humorous human peril survival guides against what we hope we will only ever come across in the movies, is your type of thing, also get Max Brook's The Zombie Survival Guide: Complete Protection from the Living Dead as well as Daniel H Wilson's How To Survive a Robot Uprising: Tips on Defending Yourself Against the Coming Rebellion.

The Superman Handbook: The Ultimate Guide to Saving the Day and The Action Hero's Handbook: are also good tongue in cheek entertainment themed survival guides. Whilst not survival guides How to Rule the World: A Handbook for the Aspiring Dictator and Hardly Working: The Overachieving Underperformer's Guide to Doing as Little as Possible in the Office are also good and written in the same sort of tongue in cheek style.

Perhaps capitalizing on the zombie survival trend, this book attempts to cover ALL manner of horror films and tells the reader how to tell if you're in one and what to do next.

I found it humorous enough, but it felt like the author was rather stretched for material. He seemed to bounce back and forth between two vantage points - one being that there actually is a Horrorverse and you are in it, the other being that you are just on a movie set. The advice for what to do in the actual Horrorverse was funny and engaging, but it seemed that whenever he ran out of ideas the author started to write as though you are only on a movie set, and tailored his survival advice towards using this fact to your advantage. This seemed like a sloppy copout to me, and damaged the cohesiveness of the book. If you're just on a set, then you're not really in any mortal danger to begin with, so that whole shtick seemed to shoot the book in its own foot.

This book drove me crazy. But then, I have a really low threshold for Zen- and an even lower threshold for that peculiar style of reverent, whispery, needlessly flowery Japanese-to-English translation. Here's an example from the text- "Humanity is like a blind man who does not know where he is heading. He gropes around with the cane of scientific knowledge, depending on yin and yang to set his course." Now, the sentiment may very well be true-- but lighten up, Francis. That's the tone of the entire book, and it never lets up.

If you're already an adherent of real food, permaculture, and no-till, you won't learn anything new here. If you want a snapshot of how the real food movement got started in Japan, you might get something out of the book.

This is one of the more inspiring books I've ever read. If you have any interest in gardening you must read this book. It's also totally enlightening in exploring eastern philosophy/ culture and the scientific method. I cannot recommend this strongly enough.

I mentioned in In Search of Simplicity: A True Story that Changes Lives the inspiration I had received from Japanese scientist and farmer, Masanobu Fukuoka. He found through trial and error a number of secrets that nature revealed to those prepared to work with her and to observe keenly. This knowledge didn't come easily to Fukuoka. He openly revealed in his writing that he almost killed the existing citrus trees when he first took over his father's farm. But his wisdom, presented in books such as The One-Straw Revolution: An Introduction to Natural Farming (New York Review Books Classics) is a palpable testimony to the unswerving dedication of one man.

Fukuoka maintains that our society's motto seems to be that `Bigger is Better.' People want to feel important through `important' jobs. He saw that agriculture, in Japan and elsewhere in the modern world, has come to rely on chemicals and machines. In order to pay for the costs of these inputs farmers aim for higher yields and people get busier and busier.
Fukuoka suggests we can look at how plants grow in Nature--effortlessly. If man could work with Nature to grow his food he could live without much work and exertion.

After leaving his work as a trained microbiologist and research scientist, Fukuoka began to search for methods of growing that were more natural than the modern trends that surrounded him.

He developed a method of growing rice that involves no digging, ploughing or machines. He walks through his field(s) of high standing rice just before the time of harvest, hand sowing seeds of winter grain--usually barley--and white clover. After harvesting the rice, the rice straw is left lying on the ground as mulch and to return organic material to the soil. Some chicken manure is added.

In time the winter grain and clover seeds germinate and grow. Clover fixes nitrogen for the barley, reduces weed growth and its roots break up the soil.

Rice is usually sown in the spring, when heavy rains help it to germinate and discourage the growth of the clover. Barley straw is left on the ground, again as mulch and to improve the soil. Fukuoka hasn't ploughed his fields in decades. In that time the soil has dramatically improved. Microbes, worms and other creatures broke down organic material and, together with the roots of plants, aerated the soil. He experienced little insect and pest damage, hypothesising that the plants grew stronger and more resistant in the undisturbed soil.

He decided to plant a steep hillside with citrus trees, without resorting to the building of terraces. He started out by dynamiting holes in the rock-hard soil for mandarin and orange trees. In time, he found an easier and more natural way. Fast growing acacias were established to fix nitrogen. Within seven years each tree was the size of a telegraph pole and could be cut down for firewood. The citrus trees were under planted with comfrey, burdock and daikon (long white radish, a traditional Japanese vegetable). The soil is now richer and more manageable and it supports low care vegetables (even comfrey roots are eaten and are claimed to be delicious) and a nearly pest-free citrus crop. He plants a few acacias each year to ensure a constant supply of firewood for heating and cooking.

Fukuoka states that chemically-grown vegetables may be considered as foodstuffs but not as medicine, whereas organic, naturally grown plants can be considered to be both medicine and food. This sounds like Hippocrates saying 2400 years earlier, "Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food."

Fukuoka warns of the dangers of Europeans dedicating so much of their arable land to wine grapes and livestock. He says that an equivalent acreage, dedicated to the growing of grain and vegetables, could support many more people. He is concerned that the industrialization of society is wasteful and polluting. In Japan sulphur dioxide from factories changes into sulphuric acid in the atmosphere, and has resulted in the widespread death of native pine trees. He sees that the world is moving forward quickly and without regard for the consequences of rapid change. In the West, people are separated from nature and industrial agriculture is based on what he considers contempt for Nature. In Japanese philosophy God is in Nature, the wind and the rain and the plants, in everything. Since God is in rice, eating rice in a conscious way puts one on the same level as God. He urges everyone to turn back to Nature for solutions. He says anyone can use `Natural Farming'. What he calls The Great Way has no gates.

The One-Straw Revolution: An Introduction to Natural Farming (New York Review Books Classics) is Masanobu Fukuoka's manifesto about farming, eating, and life. In reading it I could see and feel that for Masanobu growing and eating food is indivisible from spirituality. What a contrast and challenge to the present global systems of food growing and procurement. Read this book and be inspired to be the change you want to see in the world.

John Haines: Author of In Search of Simplicity
In Search of Simplicity: A True Story that Changes Lives

As is apparent, not only from the abundance of rave 5-star reviews of his book, but also from the many organizations and websites stemming from his approach to agriculture, Masanobu Fukuoka (1913-2008) clearly has had a profound and lasting influence as founder of a grass roots "natural farming" movement and, more broadly, as a respected representative of the more interconnected way of viewing our place within the ecosystem.

Published in 1978, following more than 30 years of Fukuoka's hands-on experience farming in the Shikoku region of Japan, "The One-Straw Revolution" is both an exposition of the Fukuoka method of farming--direct seeding through broadcasting of pellets; no plowing or tilling; no chemicals fertilizers, insecticides or herbicides; seasonal grain/rice succession; mulching with clover and rice straw--and an extended discussion critiquing scientific values and their negative impact on commercial agricultural practices, our food, nutrition and lifestyle, instead advocating a "one with nature," Zen-influenced philosophy of life.

However much we can agree in spirit with Fukuoka's natural approach to farming and living, we should not overlook the irony in how his own application of scientific inquiry undoubtedly aided his discovery and innovation of natural farming methods: "I have made a lot of mistakes while experimenting over the years and have experienced failures of all kinds. I probably know more about what can go wrong growing agricultural crops than anyone else in Japan." Fukuoka's success can be attributed, at least in part, to his diligence and perseverance in following that very same, experiment-based, scientific method he learned in his formal training and prior research as a microbiologist, yet liberally criticizes in his book.

There is further irony in Fukuoka's writing regarding humans and work: "I don't particularly like the word `work.' Human beings are the only animals who have to work, and I think this is the most ridiculous thing in the world. . . . I think the way animals live in the tropics, stepping outside in the morning and evening to see if there's something to eat, and taking a long nap in the afternoon, must be a wonderful life. . . . To move things in this direction is my goal." I understand Fukuoka's sentiment in wishing to place humans on par with animals, but I would also contend that this view is much too simplistic. Hundreds of thousands of years ago, when the human brain evolved to a larger size and humans lost their coat of hair and found they needed to harness fire and invent clothing for warmth and survival, our evolutionary path diverged in significant ways from that of other animals--so that returning to the idyllic animal-like existence Fukuoka seeks is a practical impossibility.

Like it or not, we humans will never be content existing as animals do. Fukuoka's criticism of the detrimental impact that chemical-based commercial agriculture has had on humans and our environment is well taken; however, I cannot agree that humanity long-term will be better off if we stop attempting to reason, analyze and understand the world in which we live, for the inquiring mind (including Fukuoka's!) that evolution gave us when we acquired larger brains is inherent in our nature as human beings. Our only path ahead into the future is to accept being uniquely human and forge earnestly onward--in a "natural" spirit consistent with Fukuoka's teaching, but without subscribing to his overly simplistic goal of becoming one with animals.

This book will generally appeal to two types of people:1-those wishing to learn farming or gardening using the most sensible, natural methods known while also doing the least amount of work and being rewarded with bountiful harvests and 2-those seeking spiritual enlightenment through communion with nature. I am one of the first type mentioned. I pretty much skimmed over the Zen Buddhism/Taoism, slowing to study the parts where Mr. Fukuoka talks about his methods and experiences in farming the natural way.
I tend to write in my books, highlighting and underlining the passages that speak to me, instead of taking seperate notes. My copy of this book now has alot of added ink--sometimes I have underlined entire pages. The amount of useful information in this book is astounding. It's full. I'm not seeking enlightenment, or I would say it is full to overflowing.
While I don't have a farm, I do keep a backyard garden, and I have found the techniques Mr. Fukuoka teaches to be especially useful and time/energy saving for me. You don't have to have a green thumb for his methods to work either.
I highly recommend this book to anyone wanting to begin farming or gardening the natural way, especially if you want to get in on the now popular "Go-Green" trend, as his methods call for No Tilling, No Fertilizer, No Pesticides, and No Weeding.
Sounds like "No Work" right? Well, there is work involved, but it is minimal compared to the modern methods of farming and gardening.
You will want to check into this one. I did, and I have not once been sorry for it.
Five big, bright shiny stars from me to you, Mr. Fukuoka.

I loved this book! It has amazing photos and stories and tells all about each of the girls different walks of life. I loved it! Geri was always my fave and now I think I understand why she left. As one of her quotes goes "I'm a restless person and I'm not satisfied yet. I don't know what I'm to do yet but something else has to be coming my way." I think that was an amazing and brave thing to do so Cheers Geri!

I may not be a big book reader for my spare time, but I can tell you this is the best book I have ever read. I love the Spice Girls, and Ginger was always my fav, and to find out more about my favorite female in the world, well, is awesome. she is such a cool person and a great writter! I was talking about it at school once, and one of my classmates came up to me, and wanted to read it. she agreed, this is a good book! she couldn't put it down (as I couldn't, either!). it explains a lot, and fills in the holes as why Geri left the Spice Girls. this is her whole life story, and you also get to learn even more about the Spice Girls than you probably knew from before! oh, and if you have her solo album, you might not understand some of her lyrics- but once I read this, and listened to it again, the whole album made sense, and I could relate everything back to her book. it's awesome. a definte for spice girl fans.

Great book for all Spice Girls fans. It tells the real story, with in depth about their feelings and about their family, too

This book is wonderfully written. The Spice Girls are brilliant recording artists and now they're brilliant authors too! I definately think you you should read this if you're a Spice fan and even if you're not, you'll still enjoy the book. It is a real attention catcher. Tou won't be able to put your book down! Spice Up Your Life by reading this!

This book is undoubtedly the best book I've ever read. It tells the story of pop music's biggest phenomenon, the Spice Girls. Learn about Mel C's hundreds of awards, Emma's early modeling career, Victoria's many hair styles, Geri's Girl Power!, and Mel G's cute side. If you love the Spice Girls, this book is definitly for you. Also check out Geri Halliwell's new book If Only. Girl Power!

This is by far, one of the most interesting books I've ever read about WWII. I took it with me to Jamaica to read on the plane & on the beach. It has amazing pictures, and some very informative text, however, I found it striking that, while the media & most teachers always portray Hitler & the Nazis as a bunch of buffoons, they took a country that had lost just about everything in WWI, were bullied by the Soviets, & the rest of Europe afterwards, had practically no resources or money, had been living in a brutal recession for years & somehow with the genius of its leaders, almost single handily took over the world. If it weren't for the Grace of God & the United States being in a depression itself & needing a war to get us back on track, German would probably be the worlds official language today. While no-one can justify the brutality of their mission & a lot of their tactics, the current leaders of the world can hardly be held up as examples of genuine behavior themselves. This book is a great read, just read between the lines, these guys also had great taste in art! And they gave us the Volkswagon Bug!

Excellent book with many historical pictures and historical comments of the war's effect on the art of many countries.

"Rescuing Da Vinci" by Robert M. Edsel.
Subtitled: Hitler And The Nazis Stole Europe's Great Art, America And Her Allies Recovered It". Laurel Publishing, LLV, Dallas, 2006.

After borrowing this book from the Plymouth Public Library, I was initially disappointed when I opened the book. It seemed that the book was all pictures and NO text! The book has some 300 pages and I would estimate that there are some 25 full pages of text, including the index and bibliography in the back of the book. Having said all this, it is my opinion, after having read the book that all those pictures were required to tell the complete story.

Page after page, photo after photo, I would find a painting or sculpture that I recalled from my art history classes, which was a long time ago. The book would show the 1940s picture on one page, with a person, perhaps in a period German uniform, "collecting" the item. And, then, on the facing page, often in full color, would be a present day view of the object. See, for example, pages 204 and 205, were Jan Vermeer's "The Artist's Studio, 1665-1666" is displayed on page 204 in black and white and in full color on page 205. This mixture of historical fact and present day view is carried out throughout the book.

The book begins with an explicit condemnation of the Nazi conquest. It is shown that the Nazi Germans prepared rather extensive documents identifying the art works of various nations and earmarking those works for transportation to the Third Reich. This is an amazing example of the arrogance of the Teutonic thoroughness of Hitler, Göring and the rest of the Nazi leadership. Speaking of Göring, it would seem that at the height of the war, his country "cabin, called "Carinhall", probably had more and better art than most museums in the western world. Page 45 records that Göring had a collection of approximately 1700 paintings. Sadly, there are too many pages in the book showing or identifying works of art that had been destroyed or had been lost. Page 285 shows, for example, Raphael's "Portrait Of A Young Man, 1516", which is still missing.

Still missing is the so-called "Amber Room" which was once located in the city of Königsberg in what was once Prussia. There are entire books, available on Amazon, dealing with the lost Amber Room. With the emphasis on the sins of the Third Reich, little notice is taken of the fact that the Soviets stole the entire city of Königsberg, which is now called Kaliningrad. In fact, Kaliningrad is a tiny piece of Russia, (the so-called Kaliningrad Oblast) stuck between Poland and Lithuania. In Kaliningrad, Russian is the official language and the postage stamps are Russian. Interesting.

And, of course, on a more mundane, but very telling level, there are the 5000+ bells that were stolen and the Dutch trolley cars being prepared for reparation to the Netherlands.

I have always been a museum addict. If the Metropolitan Museum of Art would let me place a cot somewhere, I would probably take up housekeeping. So, it was extremely rewarding to read this story of how so much of the stolen art from WW2 was found, protected, recovered and finally returned to rightful owners. These "Monuments Men" should all have received medals. The world owes much to them for making so many artistic marvels again available.

The illustrations are quite good. Many are available in other sources but so many, at least for me, were viewed here for the first time. The attempts to protect many objects - e.g., St. Marks in Venice - were also interesting. When I visited there a few years ago I was very appreciative.

Mr. Edsel is to be commended.

I was really surprised by this book. I thought it was going to contain more text but it's really all about the art and the people who rescued it. The result is a very impressive, easily readable 'coffee table' style book that's beautiful and informative. Teachers should grab this up for the classroom and it also would make a great gift for anyone interested in WWII and it's aftermath. I can't say enough about the photos and the story they tell. Bravo!

...particularly if you are one of those people who think Shakespeare is boring or too difficult (most of us remember the NIGHTMARE of getting through one play at school, right?). Well, kiss boredom goodbye, banish your nightmares and prepare for a TREAT! This is funny, intelligent, fast-paced and heartbreaking, all at the same time - rather like Shakespeare, in fact!

If you're a sucker for Shakespeare, like me, I would defenately bye this book. I had a proffessor who told me once that people go to the movies to escape from reality. This movie supports that statement. When I watch this movie or read the screenplay I fall into another time were love is the object your heart longs for most. One thing I like about this movie is how it brings facts into a fictional affair. The "actors" portrayed in this movie really did exist and they played in the very theatres dipicted; I love that! Marlowe, Shakespeare's "enemy" was really stabbed in a bar fight and there are many more factual things about the movie. I also like how the writers made it so that Will Shakespeare gave Viola the sonnet Shall I Compare Thee To A Summers Day and incorporated Romeo and Juliet into the movie. Sheer genious! And a great tear jerker! Wonderfully acted and written. It makes you fall in love with a time period almost forgotten. I simply loved it!

This movie showed us what true love really is. One person said "Ryan should have gotten best pic". Well, Red Line was way much better than that pic becuase it explored emotions and showed the feelings of each character. Ryan...good effects. Shakespeare In Love is well written and well acted. It is a love story that is never told. Just like our own lives.

I truly love this book! It shows passion,love,comedy,and history.The movie, Shakespeare in Love is my favorite movie, so I loved this book!

Marc Norman and Tom Stoppard wrote the screenplay of Shakespeare in Love. The film is marvellous and so powerful that no one can resist that love drama. The story of Romeo and Juliet is itself so frightfully emotional that no one can resist the charm of the tragedy and the pain of the love story. So many artists, in so many genres and arts, have tried themselves at adapting this story, this play, this tragedy to their stages or screens or canvasses, and all have been inspired so deeply by Shakespeare's story that Romeo and Juliet have become a true galaxy of masterpieces and stars. The latest ever produced is Shakespeare in Love and the screenplay is richer, more poignant and freer than the images of the film. The screenplay is enriched with stage directions that are so brilliant, so precious that the text, the dialogue, what is going to become the words of the actors, is enhanced and beautified by them. After a while we don't even know what is the gem and what is the golden bed that carries the gem. The screenplay is by itself a work of art, a masterpiece, and the film, if you watch it again afterwards, finds tremendous new meanings and undeemable finesse in the recollections you may have kept of all those lines that are not said, that are not shown, that are at best translated into images, settings, flying visual impressions that the words of the stage directions anchor in your memory, your heart and your brain with delicate tendrils that cannot break anymore. Any lover of Shakespeare, any lover of literature, any lover of love dramas and hate tragedies must read that screenplay to see how laughter and tears can intermingle in an unbreakable alliance. Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, Universities of Paris, IX and II.

Jeanne taught herself how to solder with a flame and a blow tube while she lived in Norway. Now that she is back in the States, she can use regular equipment.

This book is straight forward and teaches a novice her method of
filligree soldering with fine (.999) silver and a chef's torch for a small initial expenditure.

This book is easy to understand and you can make your very first soldered jewelry with little anguish and capital.

I've been making jewelry for almost 20 years and was delighted to purchase this book. I was not disappointed. Jeanne not only has enormous talent for designing and creating filigree jewerly, but also for teaching. This book is a must have for anyone who is even the slightest bit interested in filigree, even if you dont intend to make it, the pictures alone are worth the cost of the book.

This magazine was the best. I would recommend it to everyone. I plan to try many of the examples, at this time I am working on one and it is coming out so beautiful.

Linda Nelson

This book is just wonderful. I own many books on jewelry making, especially for metalsmithing and precious metal clay. My son and I both make jewelry, and we were looking for a book to further our wire knowledge. This book more than fulfilled our need.

It will satisfy any wire folks out there, whether you do wire wrapping, sculpture, or like me, mostly use wire as a component in larger pieces. Filigree work is different enough from regular wire work to warrant a separate book. Unlike other wire, filigree pieces usually require soldering. (Never fear, it is beginner level soldering, and she tells you how!) Also, the wire used is completely different. Fortunately, Jeanne teaches you to make your own, if you wish. Or, you can buy nice quality filigree wire from Rio Grande's website.

The book begins with the basics - the history of filigree, the tools you will need, and basic skills. Then it has numerous projects, which progress in difficulty through the book. The basic projects are easy enough for a true beginner, but attractive enough to appeal to advanced wire artists. Some of the simpler projects could also be used as components in more advanced creations. It amazed me how, once I got the basics down, I was making really gorgeous jewelry that looked much more difficult and time-consuming than it really was! My friends are amazed.

Aside from having such great information, the book is very well-written. The step by step directions are easy to understand, so you always know what to do next. And there are lots of colorful pictures, which help you know if you're doing the next step right. You can tell the author really thought about how to make the information accessible to us.

If you're a first-timer, don't worry - by the end of the book you'll feel like a real artist! If you're an intermediate wire wrapper, you'll be pleased at how useful your skills are in this medium, but you'll still be learning something new! And for the advanced person - you will learn enough new patterns and techniques to find this book truly rewarding.

We've really enjoyed what we've learned so far, and I can't wait to do some more of the projects in here. This book is well worth buying, and its a deal on Amazon. Go ahead and get it - you won't regret it. And you'll get to amaze your friends with all of your beautiful new jewelry! (Or surprise them with a gorgeous gift!)

Wonderful book on the subject of producing what can be called silver lace by some. However, I encourage all newbies to metal out there to learn, practice and become confident in the soldering process in order to produce these designs on your own. Using other metals may be helpful, but as the author states, it is imperative to pickle after each soldering in order to remove the oxidation - critical. Otherwise you will produce pieces that do not have the shine, true metal appeal. Follow guidelines carefully and as these are copyright designs, practice on your own designs after thorough sketching prior to implementation so you don't waste the precious metal (especially with the cost of metal these days). I often wonder at copyright jewelry designs (and other art media - some acceptable others...to be debated in another forum) as her designs are based on old pieces from Norway, Egypt, Bali, Russia, Israel, Malaysia, Mexico, Portugal, Scotland, Morocco, etc...and so many of them have the same general designs incorporated. So perhaps look to the past (uncopyrighted designs) and use them as inspiration in making your own designs - just as the author did (although she focused primarily on Norway due to family). Vintage jewelry is another source for inspriration. Use this book to get the techniques down from an expert as Rhodes-Moean and become confident in your own abilities and then design away. And learn the safety and practices of good soldering especially with silver.

This book has been of inestimable value to me. As one lonely scribe, scribbling his first efforts of grafitti on the wall of life, I cannot say enough good things about it--- only "Thank you, Constance Hale!" Your book is a lone floating barrell to grab and hold on to for a writer drowning in a sea of disorienting grammar. My pencil-smudged renderings and crayolla marked pages have improved considerably, simply because you cared enough to write such a book. Though my pages still bear smudges and awkward fingerprints along the edges, the hope and promise of better writing is starting to show through.

Dangling modifiers. Loose pronouns. Mixed metaphors. Sentence fragments . . . aw crap.

Whatever your sin, Sin and Syntax is an all-purpose grammar guide that helps not only to improve your grammar but also to polish your prose.

Constance Hale divides her book into three sections: words, sentences, and music. In words, she defines the fundamental building blocks of grammar (nouns, verbs, prepositions, etc.). In sentences, she teaches sentence mechanics and variation. In music, she explains how to add verve to your writing by experimenting with techniques such as assonance, metaphor, and beat.

Her book, however, is not simply about correcting wrongs. Hale informs writers when you can break the rules and when you look illiterate when you do. Putting prepositions at the end of the sentence? Not a big deal. Peppering foreign words into your story? Sure, just don't go crazy. Nouning verbs and verbing nouns? We have a bit of a problem here.

Hale did her homework. She provides extensive examples from politicians and writers to illustrate her concepts. She references numerous other style guides and also provides a handy list of them in the appendix. Most importantly, however, anyone can benefit from reading her book. She writes at a level that's easy enough for the grammatically-challenged to understand, but she also explains advanced material that's still useful to experienced writers. She doesn't delve too deeply into grammar terminology; she focuses her energies on improving your style all-around.

Frank, clear, and amusing, Sin and Syntax is one of the best grammar guides when it comes to perfecting your craft.

This is a fine book about the mechanics of writing. Here's the rub. Appendix 1 and 2 were replaced by duplicates of chapters 14 and 15 in the book I read. Otherwise this book is worth 5 stars.

wow. this book is a must for any writer, experienced or novice. not only is it a useful tool, but it is a fabulous read with witty references and comments throughout.

My sister stole my first copy, my other sister stole my second copy, I gave my third copy to a friend (but only because I knew she would love it as much as I do). My fourth copy doesn't have the dog-eared pages and underlining that my first copy had (I fall into the category of people who think tattered edges and scribbly notes add character to books). And I gave a fifth copy to another friend who was frustrated drafting an admissions essay for grad school. One of the best books on writing (generally) on the market. Funny and entertaining, with excellent advice.

"Timmy's In the Well" is a VERY interesting and entertaining book that should appeal not only to nostalgia buffs but also to anyone interested in the psychological effects of fame on the famous as well as those close to them.

The book chronicles the life of child superstar Jon Provost, who shot to international fame in the late '50's and early '60's playing Timmy Martin on the long-running CBS series "Lassie." By the age of 14, Provost had tired of the never-ending grind of series production and voluntarily walked away from a lucrative contract extension offer to pursue the life of a normal teenager, a pursuit he found frustrated by his spotty education, his dysfunctional family life, and his own ambivalence to his fame.

Co-authors Provost and Jacobson have structured the book's narrative in a way that effectively allows Provost to establish some pungent observations while maintaining a pleasantly conversational, sometimes almost detached, tone; they do this by the clever and effective device of alternating between Provost's recollections and those of his parents and siblings, professional peers, co-workers, friends and fans.

The result is a revealing mix of often conflicting viewpoints on certain issues and events that draws the reader to some inevitable conclusions about Provost's work environment, relationships with his age-group peers, parents and siblings, and the effects of mammoth fame on a typical American family that was wholly unprepared to absorb its impact. The fact that all contributed significantly to this book seems a testament to the strength of their basic bonds, an advantage many of Provost's professional peers did not enjoy.

I am slightly bleery-eyed and a bit cranky this morning because I made the mistake of beginning to read Jon Provost's autobiography co-written with his authoress wife Laurie Jacobson, "Timmy's In The Well". I started reading this book an hour before bedtime but just couldn't put it down! I kept saying to myself just another two pages and lights out, but that cost me another hour of sleep on a work night!

From page one these two writers had my attention with a child's wide-eyed look at the waning days of Hollywood's golden age in the early 1950's. Jon Provost shows enormous respect and admiration for the many people he worked with over the decades, and even provides hundreds of photos underlining all the major events in his life and his show business career. He is never negative but always tells the truth for the discerning reader between the lines.

Laurie Jacobson has always been a compelling writer of Hollywood's many past scandals and hauntings, but here she takes Jon Provost's own words and pulls the reader directly into the story.

This book is much more than you will expect and be prepared to sacrifice your sleep finishing it! It's quite a journey.

Once I began reading "Timmy's in the Well: The Jon Provost Story" I could not put it down. Laurie Jacobson has done an outstanding job of writing this book and I applaud Jon for opening up and revealing so much of his life and experiences as a child actor and beyond for his fans.

Having grown up as a boy who couldn't get enough of the Lassie series, this was a real treat. Strongly recommended!

Two words - BUY IT!

Seriously, you will not be disappointed. A wonderfully
informative read and a thoroughly entertaining journey.

Highly recommended!

"Timmy's In the Well" is a really fun and informative read for anyone interested in how TV shows got made in the days before CGI, super-agents, and big budgets. I'm someone who rarely watched "Lassie" and knew Jon Provost more from his brief turn in "Country Girl" than as the titular Timmy...but I can nevertheless highly recommend this autobiography as a warm, well-written, and entertaining behind-the-scenes story. I received this book as a gift and completely surprised myself by not being able to put it down! Unlike so many whiny star autobiographies, Provost comes across as a funny, hard-working professional whose long career just happened to start at a younger age than most. Employing an unusual and engaging format, the authors turn to colorful comments from co-stars, crew, family members, fellow child stars and even fans to help tell the story of a child and a medium growing up together. Provost's candid examination of the impact his stardom had on his family and siblings is refreshing in its straight-forwardness...and he recounts his years of seemingly non-stop appearances at fairs, theme parks, and local parades with a fondness that is particularly endearing. Yes, there are some adult themes in the book, as the author recounts growing up in Hollywood in the 1960s and '70s, but all such passages are handled with maturity and sensitivity and won't be an issue for mature readers. This is a skillfully crafted story, but it isn't a kid's book; it's about a child who became a valuable commodity in a very competitive, hard-edged industry. In the end, the reader gets a portrait of the almost gypsy-like life of the working child actor in the early days of television, while also gaining an appreciation for an actor who seems to have survived both Hollywood and growing up in a turbulent era while retaining a kind heart and a sense of wonder at it all. I highly recommend this book!Timmy's in the Well: The Jon Provost Story (100s Visual)