Adrian Paul Books

This is a wondeful book on all things mammoth. With both a fact-filled and readable text and a wealth of excellent illustrations, it is a great resource for young and old. Though the main star of the book is the famous woolly mammoth, other mammoths are covered, such as the dwarf mammoths of Wrangel Island, the California Channel Islands, and of Malta and Sicily; the Columbian Mammoth; the Steppe Mammoth; and the ancestral mammoth, Mammuthus meridionalis.

All aspects of mammoths are covered, anything you could ever want to know about them (that is known to scientists I should say). Mammoth evolution is covered, with discussions and illustrations showing the relationship between the various types of mammoths as well as mastodons and elephants. The entire Proboscidean family tree is detailed, tracing back the evolution of the group to trunk-less Moerithierum over 40 million years ago. The history of mammoth discoveries in Siberia is discussed with many great illustrations, showing many of the famous finds such as the Beresovka Mammoth and baby mammoth Dima, both well preserved frozen mammoths. The mammoths (Columbian Mammoths) that were trapped in the infamous La Brea tar pits of modern Los Angeles are reviewed, with an illustration of a typical scene at the tar pits and discussion of paleontology there. All aspects of mammoth natural history are delved into; what they ate, what preyed upon them, how they aged, the nature of their hairy covering, what habitats they favored, along with detailed discussions of mammoth anatomy and physiology, even analysis of mammoth molars and how they chewed and electron microscope images of mammoth blood cells. Mammoths and human culture is well covered, with ample illustrations of cave paintings and carvings of mammoths, early man hunting and eating mammoths, mammoth bone tools, even mammoth bone huts! The final section of the book is devoted to mammoth extinction and the various causes, primarily climatic and human hunting. Also included are a useful glossary, an appendix discussing how what is known about mammoths came to light, several maps detailing mammoth finds around the world, and a bibliography.

Great popular science writing and lavishly illustrated, this all one could ever want on mammoths.

I have studied Mammoths for a long time now and this book was the best source of information I have seen in a long time. It is soo good I built a web site dedicated to the book and it's authors. Check it out at http://www.angelfire.com/tn/mamoths/index.html

This book captivated both me and my 12-year-old. It has a million years of mammoth history. The photos of fossil bones and frozen preserved mammoths are excellent. I had not realized mammoth fossils were so common, and that they existed throughout the U.S. If all you know about are the frozen wooly mammoths of Siberia, then you must read this book to get the whole story. The book clearly covers the different types of mammoths, including the dwarf mammoths that survived until only 4000 years ago! Now I want to know where I can find info on what's been learned since this book was published in 1994.

It is one thing to hear the words being sung, but to read them is a completely different experience! It's almost like being able to see inside Paul's head and feel his feelings and emotions, think his thoughts and touch his life and experiences. To anyone else, it would be a book of lyrics, but this is without a doubt the true essence of modern poetry. Well done!

I love this book, even though alot of the poems are songs that I've heard before, like "yesterday" and "maybe I'm amazed". I especially liked the poem he wrote for John (the title escapes me at the moment) and another called "jerk of all jerks". Overall, it's great, and I especially like the gold signature (on the normal version of the book).

This lovely book was shipped swiftly in perfect condition and provided many
nice photographs from these quirky and talented French craft masters.

"Dinosaur Tracks and Other Footprints of the Western United States" written by Martin Lockley and Adrian P. Hunt is a gem of a text book covering dinosaur tracks left by dinosaurs millions of years ago. It not only tells you how to observe and record the trackways, but gives you the areas in which trackways have been found throughout the Western United States.

"Dinosaur Tracks" names the trackways, gives an explaination as to how the tracks are preserved and where are the tracks...incorporating interpretation of fossil footprints along with track assemblages is found with the pages of this book. We see tracks throughout time and the book touches on conservation and preservation of trackways.

There are 7 major chapters in the book and they are as follows:

An Introduction to Fossil Footprints
Ancient Tracks: The Paleoxoic Era
Archosaur Ascendancy: The Triassic
Days of Dinosaur Dominance I: The Jurassic
Days of Dinosaur Dominance II: The Cretaceous
The Age of Birds and Mammals: The Cenozoic Era
Tracks Galore, and What They Can Tell Us.

The footprint sites and exhibits in the Western United States covers the following states. Arizona with Lake Powell, Museum of Nothern Arizona, and Tuba City. California with Raymond Alf Museum and The University of California at Berkley. Colorado with Dinosaur Ridge, Dinosaur Valley, Purgatorie Valley, Rancho Rio, and University of Colorado at Denver. Nebraska with Toadstool Park, Ogallalla National Grassland. New Mexico with Clayton Lake State Park and the New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science. South Dakota at Hot Springs Mammoth Site. Texas with Dinosaur Valley State Park. Utah with The Molab Vicinity, Prehistoric Museum, College of Eastern Utah, The Vernal Vicinity, and The Warner Valley. These sites are covered well within the pages of this book.

There are diagrams and pictures of the actual footprint trackways and the explaination as to what type of dinosaurs or animal make the tracks. There is adequate discussion as to why they are what they are.

I found the book to be written like a text book, but with a style that keeps you interested about the subject at hand. The is excellent discussion and the book is well reasoned out. "Dinosaur Tracks" is a book for the serious dinosaur enthusist... this is a college text and reads like one, for an audience that is either taking geology or paleontology. I gave "Dinosaur Tracks" a solid 5 star rating for an excellent presentation of the subject and an interesting book about dinosaur footprints and their interpretation.

Death is a very difficult subject for many of us to think about, let alone read an in-depth book about its existential meaning and the spiritual issues involved. I recently lost a dear friend, and I found the chapter, "Construction of Meaning in the Face of Mortality" by Gloria Nouel, PhD, very comforting. Although she writes about the bereavement of women who lost their children, I was able to hear Dr. Nouel's words speaking to my grief-stricken heart over the loss of a 62-year-old woman who was my self-less and kind friend. Dr. Nouel also opens the door to reflections on our relationship with loved ones after their leaving this plane of existence. This book will help you work through your grief, and learn how to create meaning when all you are feeling is meaninglessness.

This beautifully produced coffee-table size (mammoth) book is full of pictures, maps, drawings and text detailing the origins, natural history, interaction with humans and eventual extinction of the Mammoth. It's aesthetically on par with something produced by National Geographic or the Smithsonian Institute. The actual content however exceeds that, it is a labor of love written by someone who obviously has a lifetime of experience and knowledge about mammoths. Nor has it been dumbed down for a general or younger audience - the science is clearly explained and accessible. What do we know? How do we know it?

I read it cover to cover in under 4 hours and with all the visual aids (pictures, maps, drawings, graphics) carefully tied into the text, it is a multimedia joy, I only wish more science books could be this effortless. We know more about the extinct Mammoth than some living species because there are so many well preserved frozen in the ground, and the close relation with living elephants tells us a lot about behavior.

This is a third edition (1994, 2000, 2007) and some of the information is extremely recent, for example the best preserved Mammoth ever found was in early 2007, and there is a picture included!

Not only does this book contain the original articles that comprise one of the great intellectual debates of the last century, it also has very helpful contextual commentary by the editors.

One can substitute terrorism for Stalinism and the debate is, if you will forgive the cliche, as current as the headlines. But it most certainly is not at all like the sound bite debates of Cross Fire. Great breath and depth in the arguments of the participants - anguished arguments about the relationships between means and ends, justice and freedom; and finally personal responsibility.

Camus corectly sees Stalinism, read terrorism, an an unmitigated evil. Yet, he sought to live as neither victim nor executioner. That caused him no end of grief, especially as he confronted the Algerian situation. Nevertheless his arguments call to mind the views of the Polish and Czech dissidents in the 80s. An anti-politics, a living "as if" one were free. No crusade to eliminate evil from the earth, no war; rather a third way.

Sartre on the other hand saw Stalinism as an understandable, even necessary, response to the injustice inflicted on the wretched of the earth. His understanding of human nature, dare one use that term in discussing Sartre, was such that chioce was required in all circumstances. By this time, in Sartre's thinking, no third way was possible. If the choice is between victim or executioner, he would choose executioner.

Sartre is correct, one must choose. Camus is correct, there is a third way. Enter the debate if you dare. There is no easy exit.

Further developing themes laid out in earlier works, specifically truth and ignorance as it relates to Being. The prose is dense at times, and you can tell in many places that this book was published unfinished-once in a while the ideas meander or are not clearly defined. Nevertheless, I found it to be a highly interesting read containing ideas that are both philosophically intriguing and personally relevant. A companion piece to Baing and Nothingness.

I don't speak French so I cannot personally evaluate the translation job, but the English here flows well enough. Highly recommended.

Nice collection of McCartney's writings. Some of the works gathered in this anthology are actual poems Paul McCartney wrote with the intention they be read or recited, but this book also presents the lyrics to many of his most famous and beloved songs, and showcases these oft-heard sentences as poetry. What impressed me was how well so many songs stand up as poems. A nice side effect of reading this book is we can see which among the many "Lennon/McCartney" songs done during the Beatles' era were actually the product of McCartney's authorship. Some of the compositions were obvious choices, others less easy to spot and these contained a few surprises. Arguably the most famous Beatles song "All The Lonely People" (aka "Eleanor Rigby" etc.) is perhaps even more moving devoid of its musical accompaniment, simply in the stark naked form of the written word. This is a nice collection from the mind and pen of one of the foremost figures of our time, and aside from pleasing the "must have" urge in hardcore McCartney fans, this book should find favor with anyone who gives it a chance.

GOOD BOOK...........READ IT

Sir Paul McCartney as musician, songwriter, actor, producer, knight, yes. How about poet as opposed to songwriter? Most definitely, as his school teacher turned him on to Shakespeare and Chaucer. And as "Blackbird" is one of my favourite Beatles songs, I thought it appropriate a title for this collection of poetry and even songs by the Beatles, Wings, and his solo material. However, I also learned in the intro that he was inspired by a message he was giving to a black women during the civil rights movement. The song was transformed from literal to symbol, so the words changed from "Black women living in Little Rock" to "Blackbird singing in the dead of night."

The book is divided into nine thematic sections:

1. Playing at Home
2. Yesterday
3. Friends And Enemies
4. The Business
5. The World Tonight
6. All The Lonely People
7. Standing Stone
8. Home To Love
9. Nova

Sections 3 and especially 6, taken from a lyric in "Eleanor Rigby," hit home to me. Some of Nova has odes to Linda and shows how devoted a couple they were and the devastation he felt at her passing, such as "Lost" and "She Is..."

However, some poems show McCartney as social critic on the issues of nuclear war, pollution, the legal system, and public safety. In "Jerk of All Jerks", written from the point of view of the title people, he writes "I'm the man that disposes/of nuclear waste/There's no need to worry/it's perfectly safe." And he imparts great wisdom in describing the follies of going for the top is written in the refrain of "Chasing The Cherry": "And say, are you chasing the cherry?/The merry-go-round of the roses/If so, you must know/that the down side/is to sink like a ferry." And reading "Looking For Changes", on the horrors of animal experimentation really got my dander up because Sir Paul told it like it was.

And some of his poems are whimsical and amusing. In "Trouble Is", he writes "Rabbit running in circles/chasing his tail/because it looks like candy floss/Trouble is--rabbits don't eat candy floss." The punchline to this poem is funny.
Where the songs are placed in a poetry format, some of them reveal themselves when read rather than being listened to. "Yesterday" for example, is one, as is "Here Today" from the Tug Of War album (1982), dedicated to John Lennon. And "The Song We Were Singing" from Flaming Pie shows Sir Paul commenting on how we all fall back to our usual selves after undergoing something deep: "Take a sip, see the world through a glass/and speculate about the cosmic solution/to the sound, blue guitars/caught up in a philosophical discussion." But alas, "we always come back to the song we were singing."

Compilation of this book was done by 60's activist/anti-war/counter culture poet Adrian Mitchell under Linda McCartney's guidance. There is also an index, and for the songs, there is a listing telling which album it's from. Helpful, that. And this book, not only reminds people that McCartney is a great songwriter but reveals his inner personality as well.

Blackbird Singing is a wonderful book. I always like Paul's music. After I read this book, I like his words, too. People
always say John wrote good lyrics and Paul wrote good music.
But I found out Paul could write very good lyrics and poems.
They are just simple and beautiful, such as "Ivan", "Dinner Tickets", "Eleanor Rigby", "Yesterday", and etc. They are just
fantastic words no matter you read or sing them. One thing I only can say is Paul should include more his poems and song lyrics in this book, such as "All My Loving", "Get Back", ......
I recommend everyone likes music or literature should read this book - "Blackbird Singing". What a wonderful book! Thanks Paul!

This book looks like very little on the surface, especially if you know by heart (or own) the lyrics to many Beatles/McCartney songs. But this anthology is more than just lyrics, because the short selection of lyrics that were edited into this are ones that look and sound like poems. Actually there are many new (and many ones I had never read) poems in here, and most are not even songs ("Mother Nature's Son", "Here, There, and Everywhere", "For No One", and "Helter Skelter" aren't to be found in this). Therefore, it is a moving collection of poignant, amusing, and insightful poetry by a master lyricist with feeling. Although Lennon may have written the most notorious Beatles compositions, McCartney proves that he was the Beatle with the gift of both words and emotion.

this book is great for inspiration and to find out "how they did that"!!!

There is really not much to add to the positive comments already posted. This book really is extremely useful. Whatever level you are you can find some inspiration here. There is an assumption you have an intermediate-level knowledge of the app, but that's ok, cos even if you dont you can just pick up your manual/power PS up and work it out. The key to this book is its insight into the processes of seasoned, acclaimed, professionals. If you aint any of those right now, or even if you are, you will benefit from this book.

NB - I'd drop it a half-point as the CD is pretty useless. But that would be unfair - think of the CD as a candy accompanyment. The book is worth its weight alone.

I could write a book on how bad this book is. It REALLY is not worth it. It would be a better deal to buy your neighbours garbage.
Basically, many of the images seem like they were pulled off the web and are therefore BAD (duh.) The text is poorly formatted and written. The designers mumble to an excrutiating level (like a bad high school essay.) Oh and the cd that accompanies it, why is it sooooooo useless?
I need to go find maalox.

This is one of the best books available for PhotoShop users. Not only is it full of inspiration, you can actually read it ! I hope this style is a beginning and I can't wait for the next volume ! I have a collection of Photoshop, design and photography books, I have to say this is one of the few I keep on my desk.

This book is very helpful to people who know something about Photoshop already. What makes it different is that you are designing through the eyes of a usually good designer and learning step by step how to acheive interesting results by recreating their own works. Each designer is different so you learn to attack the same type of problems from different angles. Some of the designers ramble on in their introductions, but once you get past that it's smooth sailing. This is not your usual tutorial book so try to do 2 to 3 exercises per week. I leaned alot about Photoshop from this book and I use it as a reference for techniques quite often.