Titles Books

I recently picked up the book at a friends and i was pleased to discover a great story with stunning artwork, even as an adult i was able to fall in love with the story,the illustrations by Jeremy Downie were especially moving and really made the story come alive ...an excellent buy in the world of children stories.

Antoinette and the Wolf is a great story for children of all ages. The illustrations by Jeremy Downie spoke to me as they remarkably complemented the wisdom of the story. Everything about them seems to be magical and breathtaking. There is a certain undertone to his paintings, which is so enchanting and that's what makes this book so special and different. When I was little I always enjoyed more the books where the illustrations were almost more colorful than the story itself. I think that Jeremy Downie succeded in doing so and I cannot wait to have my children read this book and appreciate the illustrations as much as I do, and I am sure they will.

This great children's book can be used for storymapping or to compare the storylines of Red Riding Hood with Antoinette and the Wolf. The absolute best part however, is the discussions about the "bully power" of the wolf, and what happened to make the wolf change. To address violence is very important and this book opens the avenue for the discussions about bully behaviour.

I bought this book at the store and loved it.I am so glad this book is out in stores. It's great.

A wonderful and eloquently written story book with truly breath taking illustrations. Good old fashioned story telling is back. My children loved the plot and understood the underlying messages. I also caught some of the metaphors in the illustrations as well. -Thank you Stephanie Macina.

As a war veteran myself, I have never found a more absorbing, accurate and sincere attempt to capture the true emotions of combatants, their loved ones, and all others involved in the major conflichts of the ninteenth, twentieth and twenty-first centuries. A must read for anyone interested in getting an unbiased glimpse into the thoughts of those who were affected by war.

I purchased this book recently and could not put it down.Who better to tell a story than the ones who lived it?The letters are not only from the soldiers who fought on either side of a conflict,but from the very people who lived through them.The accounts are graphic in many cases and I now have a better understanding of the horrible reality of it all.The historical quips help with the insight as to what was going on at the time of the letter.Its a great read by an outstanding author who has done so much for our troops.

BEHIND THE LINES is a powerful collection of fragments of thoughts that were initiated over the past two hundred plus years of war scars. Andrew Carroll continues his commitment to bring the reality of war to the forefront of our attention and I know no better manner for anti-war statements than the words found in this illuminating and horrifying book.

Carroll approaches war as a panacea - an evil that has been with us around the globe for centuries and just continues unabated. Many poets and writers are struggling to make the public cognizant of the horrors of war, but Carroll scans American involvement in wars from the Revolutionary War to the present and in doing so he demonstrates the madness that we must learn to stop.

Letters, documents, memos, soldiers' notes as well as civilians' responses fill these pages, some eloquent, some simply pitiful, and some stoic as well as some encouraging. The messages are not skewed in a way that makes Carroll seem like he is ranting. Rather he lets the words of the living and the dead speak truths far larger than fiction.

This is a beautifully conceived volume that for the sake of the survival of civilization belongs on the reading desks of everyone. Tough reading, this, but enormously informative and important. Highly recommended. Grady Harp, August 05

Andy Carroll's last book - War Letters - showed what war is like by reprinting letters of American combatants who had ac-tually fought those wars. (I should confess that one of my letters about Vietnam was reprinted in that book.)

Andy's new book - Behind The Lines - shows what war is like with reprints of letters from both combatants and non-combatants - civilian women and children. This book also in-cludes letters written by non-Americans as well as Americans.

Andy limited the letters to those from the wars in which America was involved. Thsee wars range from the Revolutionary War (there's a great letter from a Hessian soldier [Hessians were German soldiers "leased" to Great Britain to fight as mer-cenaries] giving his impressions of America and the poor fighting ability of the rebels), the Civil War, World Wars I and II, Korea, Vietnam (there's a good letter from a soldier asking his parents to forgive him for having killed a man in combat), Kosovo and Gulf Wars I and II.

While many letters deal with combat, other letters show the many faces of war. At times, war can be terrifying, funny, ab-surd, touching and hilarious. (You know you've been fighting too long when the same incident strikes you as both terrifying and hilarious.)

One letter was a love letter written by a California woman to a Swiss national. In fact, the letter was complete fabrication. The Swiss national actually was a German spy traveling in Great Britain during WWII. The letter was created to make his cover seem more believable.

One letter was from a brother who had enlisted in the Union army in the U.S. Civil War. He wrote to berate his brother for having enlisted in the Confederate army.

One letter was from a German wife to her husband's company commander. She requested that her husband be given a leave "because of our sexual relationship." She wanted her husband to come home so they can have sex. The commander's sym-pathetic reply is included in the book.

One letter writer came up with a list of "The Army's Ten Commandments," which should bring a smile to anyone who served in the Army. Commandment number four is, "Thou shall not laugh at second lieutenants."

One writer came up with a letter filled with multiple choice op-tions. By checking various options, he could either proclaim his undying love or write about an upcom-ing/imminent/current/recent military offensive.

Several letter writers tried to warn their families that they should prepare for a slight adjustment period when the men come home. One Vietnam writer warned, "If it should start raining, pay no attention to his joyous scream as he strips naked, grabs a bar of soap, and runs outdoors for a shower." (As a Vietnam veteran, I found that letter puzzling. Doesn't everybody shower that way?)

The book is divided into several themes that illustrate the dif-ferent faces of war: friendship; combat; laughing though the tears; civilians caught in the crossfire; and the aftermath of war.

As a Vietnam Infantry pointman and squad leader, I view a book about war differently from most people. Andy's book showed me a side of war I had never considered - its impact on non-combatants - who could neither run away (what any sane person does when people are trying to kill him) nor fight (if you're going to die anyway, why not die fighting?).

The book also showed me what I already knew from my own experience: that war changes forever those touched by it.

One Vietnam veteran was haunted by the fact that several of his comrades had died rescuing him after he was seriously wounded. So decades after the end of the Vietnam war, he left a letter at the Vietnam Memorial thanking those men for their sacrifice. That letter is included in the book.

Don't buy this book if you are looking for stories about triumphant soldiers marching in victory parades in front of cheering, grateful crowds. That's not the side of war that Andy wanted to show. Instead, the book shows the side of war that doesn't make the 5:00 TV news.

You will need to read this book in small doses because the emotional impact of the letters can be overwhelming. In Los Angeles I attended a reading of selected letters from the book. One of the speakers read a letter he had written as a Jewish teenager while riding in a sealed railway car on his way to a German concentration camp. The letter told his sister how much he loved her. He pushed the finished letter through a hole in the side of the railway car and hoped that a kind peasant would find and mail it to his sister. One did.

This is a great book!! I really enjoyed reading it, and found myself unable to put it down. The book gives readers a better understanding of what soldiers and their families go through. After reading this book, I believe I have a better appreciation for our Veterans and our troops serving our country. Definately a recommended book in my opinion.

Blue Eagle Meets Double Trouble
By
Steven E. Jones

Steven E. Jones introduces young children to light suspense in this second addition to his popular Blue Eagle series.
Blue Eagle leaves Peaceful Valley for the day and the animals encounter two wolves who try to eat them. The small community of characters come together to defeat the hungry wolves. Blue Eagle comes back and takes the wolves away from his friends.
A fun to read book that teaches children the values of teamwork, determination, pride in oneself and that we are all unique and should be proud of our accomplishments.
The beautiful, vivid, water color illustrations guide you through this tale and bring the animals in Peaceful Valley to life. Steven E. Jones Jr. is a very talented illustrator who has captured the essence of the characters whose lives we are allowed to share.
The Blue Eagle books will have long life on the shelves in children's libraries teaching them moral values for our time. This is a book that parents will also love to read with their children. Another great, must have book.

This author, Steven E. Jones, has done it again!! His Blue Eagle series is absolutely one of the best I have read. His second book,Blue Eagle Meets Double Trouble, is a wonderful story of the animals in Peaceful Valley and Blue Eagle who watches over them. The story is written in rhyme and the vocabulary is excellent. There is so much in this book to use in the classroom! I have taken this book and made a number of lessons from it. I expecially like the moral of the story. I can use the story line to bring up all kinds of discussions of the right and wrong things to do and the trouble you can get into if you do not work together. The characters all work together when there is trouble and Blue Eagle is always there to help them. I use this book in my classroom library and I had read it to my grandchildren. I brings me great satisfaction to know we have such a good author of children's books. I look forward to the next book in the Blue Eagle series. My students continue to look for blue feathers on their desks when they do a good deed.

I loved reading this book to my five year old grandson who was already familiar with Blue Eagle(we have the FIRST Blue Eagle book!) The book flows smoothly, the colors are vivid and beautiful and the story itself keeps a youngster completely interested. The characters all have their own personalities which makes them likeable. The Blue Eagle books are not only amusing but educational with a wonderful message for people of all ages!

As the BLUE EAGLE series continues we begin to see how the environment of Peaceful Valley is very much like the communities that we all live in. We can feel peaceful and protected by those who watch over us, but there are times when that peace can be shaken.

Blue Eagle is a friend to all and when his help is needed farther up the valley he gives his Peaceful Valley friends a few words of wisdom and then heads off. He secretly knows that they will do fine without him but he probably never suspects he'll come home to find a turple has saved the day!

Now coyotes have their place in the world as we all do, but they have a way of being mischievous and causing havoc and harm at times. And as they approach the valley a meeting is called and it's suggested that everyone should find safe places to retreat until peace returns.

Three residents decide that their built-in protection systems might help when their unwelcome visitors show up. Picking their spots they patiently wait and what happens next turns the tide in the valley's favor.

Blue Eagle returns to help clean up and hear the tale that has all his friends laughing and dancing while one resident learns the value of standing up for others even if it involves a little turpleization!

Blue Eagle meets Double Trouble gives us another treasure of family folklore. Once again this talented father-son team provide children ages four to eight with an engaging tale of suspense that in the end teaches values we hope to instill in our children. The virtue of community and teamwork, determination and willpower, and taking pride in one's own uniqueness shine through in the actions of the animals in Peaceful Valley. You and your children will love the bright watercolor drawings and the fun-to-read-aloud rhyming text. Bravo, the originator of these tales has to be smiling down on you two!

Great picture book with a wonderful story! I purchased it to share with high school students to show them how visualization is important when you read.

It's a great childress book, but adults will enjoy it also. Soon to be a collectors item.

If you want to know what the book is about and the feel of it,
take a look at the cover. It says it all - the scariness, the
unutterable sadness, the awfulness of the slavery & then the segregation in the South from which the Blues developed.

I just read this book and even as I write this review I'm feeling reluctant to continue. This isn't one of those books that you quickly glance through then immediately write your response on. It's that rare kind of book that you read, and stop, and then think about for long periods of time. It's the book you carry with you to quiet places, like park benches or sloping green hills, just to read it to yourself. It's a book that sings without straining, that ropes you in with its words and then traps you with its images. I shouldn't be writing this review now. I should stop and think more about this book, ponder it a while, and when I figure out what to make of it THEN I'd write this review. But I'm afraid that if I wait to puzzle this book through completely, I'll never get around to writing anything at all. And that would be the worst response to something this good, I suppose. So it is with great reluctance that I'm going to try to convey to you what this book feels like to read.

A little background first. Written by young adult book god Walter Dean Myers, the author switches his focus from long prose to picture book form. Accompanied by Christopher Myers (an artist in the sense that what he draws drips into you) the two have concentrated on the blues. There's a fabulous author's note at the beginning explaining what the blues is and how it was born. From the call and response singing form, found on the continent of Africa, this type of music mixed with European English to create the final product, the blues. Myers puts it this way, "When art from two cultures comes together, the result is often an exciting new experience". He goes on to explain a couple terms and how the blues moved from the fields to the cities. Then the book begins.

I don't know enough about the blues personally to be able to tell if all the different lyrics found in this book can be individually assigned to a particular singer or situation, though I assume that this is the case. Likewise, I'm not certain if the illustrations in this book are based on photographs, but again, I assume so. After all, I recognized the reference to "strange fruit" one one page, and on another I remembered seeing the photo of the two boys sitting on the street curb, one turning his head away to sob. The book does something near impossible. It conveys misery without depressing. Reading through these stanzas, it's almost as if the book is one multi-veined blues song itself. The illustrations compliment this perfectly. The book is black and blue, brown and white. But mostly blue, to be honest. My favorite two-page spread features women hanging their sheets to dry on one page, and a woman reaching towards a flying blackbird on another. I could sit and stare at these pages for hours, if I had a mind to.

The books ends with a timeline of significant moments in the blues as well as a glossary of terms. Y'know, there are hundreds of books out there today about jazz and the importance of the jazz musicians. Why have the blues been so ignored? I can only assume because jazz is the easier subject to write about. Writing about blues, you're in danger of only showing the depressing aspects of the genre, and not the art. It takes an artist to convey this particular form well. We are fortunate that not one, but two artists took it upon themselves to do just that. This is the book that took my breath away.

Father-son, writer-illustrator team Walter Dean Myers and Christopher Myers have produced a masterpiece. W. D. Myers's text is made up of poetic blues lyrics, the "call and response" depicting the African-American experience. The poetry is beautiful, unsettling and evocative; it is perfectly complemented by C. Myers's art. The artwork is done entirely in white paint, warm brown paper bags, and blue ink -- every blue tone from navy-black blue to ice-white blue. It is not at all obvious at first glance that his palette was so limited; C. Myers is astonishingly creative, using a wide variety of artistic techniques and tools, and his spreads are richly textured and diverse. The images are moody, haunting, and tense. Sorrow and pain are the dominant emotions, though hope, joy, tenderness and celebration make appearances as well.

As the title indicates, the book is a journey, and the verses and images progress forward through the timeline of the blues, from the end of slavery through the beginning of the civil rights movement. The pictures also show the gradual movement from country to city, the black migration from South to North. The blues timeline is printed at the end of the book, along with a glossary of symbolic terms used in blues lyrics. This back matter, in addition to the opening author's note giving an explanation of the history and meaning of the blues, provide a necessary key to understanding the layers of meaning in the verses and accompanying illustrations.

Several of the spreads are visually breathtaking, evoking deep feelings of grief and sympathy. A man stands facing away from the viewer, knee-deep in a gorgeously painted blue ocean, holding onto a fishing net. The verse speaks of "casting my love out to the sea;" the illustration speaks powerfully of loneliness. Another spread depicts two young boys sitting on the curb, one with his face buried, turning away from the other child, who is holding his hand in comfort. The very adult look of concern and hopelessness on the boy's face is striking. Coupled with the verse, which says "despair will scrape the bone/ misery loves company, blues can live alone," the illustration speaks of abuse and misery visited upon children helpless to protect themselves; a similar illustration shows two children sleeping on the same mat, head to toe, by a verse that describes their poverty. One of the strongest images in the book is a furious boy at the back of a crowd holding up a sign that says YESTERDAY A MAN WAS LYNCHED, which explicates the accompanying verse ("Strange fruit hanging high in a big oak tree") and summons an image that, while shocking, is an important part of blues history.

"Blues Journey" is neither upbeat, nor easily accessible; it a sophisticated, layered work that expands with every re-reading. Perhaps it is not the sort of book a parent will take home to read to a toddler, but it has a great deal to offer older children; in particular, the book would be an invaluable classroom tool for the study of African-American history and blues music. The Myers have expanded the boundaries of what a picturebook can do. The combined effect of the text and art is to create a visual metaphor for the music of the blues, and a powerful evocation of the black experience.

We bought this book after purchasing a greeting card by Pamela Silin-Palmer for our Aunt. She loved the card so much that we thought she would love the book even more. Once we recieved the book we read the whole thing and it is simply stunning. The story is great and you could spend hours just looking at the beautifully detailed pages. This is a great purchase for a rabbit lover!!

Disney has nothing on this. This book has such wonderfully rich, fabulously detailed illustrations! Every illustration has so many wonderful details, you spend more time looking at the pictures than reading the tale. The story is not the same as the Disney version - much gentler and simpler. The Beast is much kinder and not scary like the Beast of the film. The book is one that will enchant most children and the illustrations are worthy of framing.

I am 27 years old and I collect "Beauty and the Beast" books, and have about 60 books in my collection. It is my favorite fairy tale, and the story is timeless. I love to see it told in all different ways, especially with wonderful illustrations like these. I don't have any children, but will get this for my godchildren! "Bunny and the Beast" is my most recent acquisition, and it's an outstanding addition to my collection. I love it!

This is not only a great childrens book but also a beautifully illustrated book for bull terrier collectors! The illustrations of the bull terrier are true to form and will add to any collectors library.

Okay, so I just checked this out from the library yesterday and my kids (two daughters, ages 4 &6) were fighting over it! I don't usually do this so soon, but I ran out... and immediately bought a copy of it for my personal (keepsake) bookshelf. These honestly have to be the best illlustrations I've ever seen in a book -- period! Even my husband leafed through it and said, "Oh, you've got to BUY this book -- as soon as possible!" :) I enjoyed the story and pictures as much as my children did. This is bound to become a new "classic". My 6 y/o is an aspiring author and illustrator and seeing this book really inspired her to continue her efforts. Great book! Someone please give these ladies a medal. This is the kind of stuff kids should grow up on. Thank you Molly Coxe for a super re-telling of a classic and Pamela Silin-Palmer for your glorious artwork! :)

The entire "Busy" series is engaging and fun for kids and parents alike. A great way to introduce your child to books, nature, language.

This Board Book is beautiful colour glossy photographs of busy penguins, doing what penguins do, like:

penguins splashing

penguins dashing

penguins sliding

penguins diving

penguins drooping

(and the anti - Freudian)

penguins pooping.

It's great fun in the Tundra for all ages! Reviewed by TundraVision, Amazon reviewer

"Busy Penguins" is one of my 18-month-old daughter's favorite books. The photographs are incredible, and the text has a gentle rhythm that she finds engaging.

The fascinating photos and playful text will surely make your kid smile as they get a closer look at penguins doing various things. Penguins are so cool!

This book was highly recommended to me by a clerk at a small children's bookstore who told me that for some reason toddlers seem to find it very captivating. I bought it for my daughter for her first birthday, and she loves it. The photographs are beautiful and there's something about the penguins that seems to really grab my daughter's attention. At 14 months she seeks out this book and will "read" it to herself. I agree with the reviewer below who said that the "penguins pooping" page is a real attention-grabber for the toilet training set, and though it could be gross, something about the fact that it's a penguin who's pooping is strangely charming and humorous (if you can stomach that type of thing!). Overall five stars for a book that my daughter and I both love - a great thing for a parent who has to read it over and over.

A great book, but Johnathan Barnes, the editor, must be the living embodiment of Aristotle's philosophy: Lean, uncompromising yet humorously and unknowingly pompous in the extreme. Please Please read his introduction. It reminds me of my college days when we were all so insufferable know-it-alls.

Again, if you want to see Aristotle live and breathe, get this book

This is the best introduction to one of the most - if not the most - important philosophers in human history.

Aristotle's body of work is extremely wide-ranging as well as dense in detail, and often extremely complex and subtle. This Cambridge Companion simplifies and explains - without the loss of fidelity to the complex and subtle and innovative nature of his teachings - the most important of his teachings.

This Cambridge Companion to Aristotle has essays by preeminent scholars in the field. The book focuses on the most important and influential of Aristotle's philosophical thinking.

It includes essays on Aristotle's logic, metaphysics, ethics, philosophy of science and science generally, and psychology, poetics, rhetoric, and politics. These are the core subjects in Aristotle's canon. It is generally believed among scholars that most all of the work of Aristotle that has survived and come down to us today, consists of copies of lecture notes that his students took at his school (known as the Lyceum). Thus, much of his "writings" - though copied for generations and then edited by translators - often seems disjointed or unnecessarily complex in terms of its clarity and organization.

If you are new to studying philosophy, I suggest you start with this Cambridge Companion or the one on Plato. If you start with the one on Aristotle, I suggest you read this Companion and then either at the same time or right after, begin reading the primary texts. You can read all the secondary and ancillary texts you want on philosophers and philosophy, but they are never a substitute for the primary texts. The primary texts are infinitely more rewarding, provided you are able to understand them - and that is where guides like this one come in hand.

To start off on some of his most readable and understandable works (yet still highly important), I suggest you start with poetics (which is about the construction of and study of drama and story (think "plays" or stories like the Illiad by Homer), and narrative structure. What we have of poetics is short, excellent, and is generally believed to be only one part of a larger teaching that has been lost to humanity. I then suggest you read Aristotle's Rhetoric and then Politics. These are easy to understand, but you will gain tremendously by re-reading them over time in greater detail. You can then move on to his Logic (which Aristotle is known as the founder of logic, he invented, or depending on your view, discovered, the tri-partite syllogism and syllogistic structure and logical argument. You can then move on to his Metaphysics, but I suggest that you read and study Plato before embarking on Aristotle's Metaphysics, as you will understand Aristotle better by first reading Plato, as Aristotle was a student of Plato, and Aristotle's Metaphysics takes into account, is a reaction to, and is an extension and modification (or overturning of most aspects- depending on your viewpoint), of Plato's metaphysics (Plato's Ideas vs. Aristotle's Universals). The Cambridge Companion to Plato is also excellent. If you are embarking on a serious study of philosophy for the first time, you may want to read Plato and the Cambridge Companion to Plato before embarking on Aristotle. You will understand Aristotle better if you understand Plato's works first. These are the two most important philosophers in Western civilization, and in my view - and depending on your viewpoint - world history and civilization.

In any event I highly recommend this Cambridge Companion to Aristotle. This is the first one I purchased and read, and I have subsequently enjoyed and found extremely useful other Cambridge Companions for other philosophers.

The 'Cambridge Companion' to philosophy series has put out some great products. In my opinion this may be the best. Absolutely splendid articles that help the reader understand Aristotle rather than some philosopher's interpretation of him. For such a polymath as Aristotle, the authors did a good job of focusing on key facets of his philosopy that adequately prepare and stimulate the reader to investigate other of Aristotle's writings, which the Companion could not cover for lack of space. The bibliography and subject guides to the secondary liturature are well done.

The Cambridge Companion to Aristotle edited by Jonathan Barnes is a is an excellent book. If you are studing Aristotle or just reading him, you've probably gritted your teeth and started to put the reading down for later. Being that most of us do NOT read Greek, we rely on someone who can and the translations do vary. We also need a way to study and a plan to organize our reading in a logical manner.

This book is an excellent choice for that purpose. This book helps to alleviate some of the fears one has in reading a great thinker who is not only difficult and challenging but also complex. The content of this book are as follows: Logic, Metaphysics, Philosophy of Science, Science, Psychology, Ethics, Politics, Rhetoric and poetics. There is an introduction and a suggestions for reading section which are invaluable and help the reader to understand and comprehend what is trying to be said.

If you need help with Aristotle... look no further than this book to help you get organized and to better understand Aristotle. Approach and methods vary from person to person, but if someone has proceeded you in understanding it is prudent to follow those footsteps... then make your interpretation.

The editor has written an excellent chapter on Metaphysics. Metaphysics is one of Aristotle's most difficult books to understand. Here the editor helps the reader to understand it and also how to read Aristotle with a logical approach.

Remember the best aid to reading Aristotle is Aristotle himself. Aristotle is difficult so read him slowly, very slowly, then he is inspiring and gripping. But, it helps to have someone to rely on and this book will help.

Barnes' interpretation of big A's "Metaphysics" in this book is the best I have seen. It really was right on que, and a very easy read, which if you know Aristotle, is as hard to imagine as saying Dr. Seuss is complex. The section on Psychology interprets "De Anima" quite nicely. Barnes also edits "The Complete Works of Aristotle, Vols 1&2", so if you are looking for an excellent commentary on Aristotle, want to read Barnes' work, but don't feel like reading over 2000 pages, get this.

(My review is on Thoreau's Cape Cod rather than this specific edition).

While some literary critics seem to slight this work by Thoreau, saying that it is not as "powerful" as his other works, etc., I personally find this one very enjoyable. Sure, it does not have as much "philosophizing" as other books by him, but it is full of humor and very fun to read. The part where he describes the old man spitting into the hearth is particularly hilarious. The part about him sleeping in a lighthouse is also very funny. It lets us experience the more jovial side of Thoreau. This is probably one of the easiest to read among Thoreau's books.

Published posthumously, this volume is surprisingly consistent and complete (unlike "The Maine Woods" which is chopped into three different parts), it gives one the feel of walking along the entire cape, although the materials are quarried from several different trips. One only wish Thoreau had lived longer and had seen the West, imagine him taking a trip in the Sierra! Oh, well, meanwhile, we still have this one to enjoy.

Thoreau visited Cape Cod in 1849, 1850, and 1853. These trips formed the basis for a series of essays, several of which Thoreau published in magazines. After Thoreau's death, the essays were gathered together and published as "Cape Cod" in 1865.

Thoreau's "Cape Cod" is different in tone in theme from his earlier books. The tone is leisurely and light. Instead of solitude or the wild woods, the picture that remains with me from this book is that of a long walk, or, as Thoreau puts it, a "ramble" through the sand and dunes of Cape Cod. The book is picturesque, full of humor and wry observation. Thoreau unforgettably describes the ocean, in its storms, vicissitudes, and moments of peace, the fish and the fishermen, the sands, birds, plants and lighthouses of Cape Cod, and the people. I have visited portions of the Masachusetts coast, but I have never been to Cape Cod. Thoreau took me there in his book.

The book is arranged into ten chapters. It opens with a description of the shipwreck of the St John on a rock off the Cape. Thoreau then describes a ride by coach across the Cape. But the heart of the book lies in the following chapters in which Thoreau with a companion walks the 30 mile beach from Nauset Harbor to Provincetown with many stops and diversions along the way. I felt the salt air and saw the fishermen and the sandy beach as I walked with Thoreau.

The most vivid characterization in the book is in the chapter "The Wellfleet Oysterman", as Thoreau describes a grizzled, taciturn, and ancient native of Cape Cod and his family who offer him hospitality for the night. Another memorable chapter involves the description of the Highland Lighthouse, no longer standing, and its keeper. The stops with the Oysterman and the Lighthouse punctuate Thoreau's long walks through the day over the beach and his meditiations about and descriptions of what he finds there.

Thoreaus walk ended at Provincetown, on the northernmost portion of Cape Cod, with its wood walkway, shanty houses, and ever-present scenes of fishermen, boats, and drying fish. Thoreau offers what I found an affectionate portrait of these hardy fishermen and their families. Following a description of what he found at Provincetown, Thoreau offers a great deal of historical background on the exploration of the Cape, from the Pilgrims reaching back to earlier French, Icelandic, and English explorers.

Thoreau's "Cape Cod" is a worthy companion to his books describing his experiences inland, on Walden Pond and on the rivers and woods of New England and Maine. It is beautifuly written with unforgettable descriptive passages. It made me want to get up and go from my life in the city, and over 150 years after Thoreau wrote, wander and walk for myself along the dunes and sands of Cape Cod.

This hardcover edition from Peninsula Press is unquestionably the best available edition of Thoreau's Cape Cod, for these reasons:

1) While all other editions are based on Thoreau's journal entries from only his first three visits to the Cape, this edition includes an epilogue compiling Thoreau's notes from his fourth and final visit, in which he traveled south to Chatham and Monomoy.

2) This is the only edition to translate the many, many Greek and Latin phrases Thoreau includes throughout the work, and it is also the only edition to provide illustrations, maps, and sidenotes in-text.

3) This is the only indexed edition ever created.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED for fans of both Cape literature and Thoreau in general.

This book details the flora, fauna and people that Thoreau found in Cape Cod in the 1850s. Thoreau organizes the book around a single trip to Provincetown, although much of the material that he uses in the book came from various visits to the Cape, and to the ocean in general. He starts with a description of a shipwreck at Cohasset, then a stagecoach ride from Plymouth, then a walking trip with a companion along the outer shore to Provincetown. Along the way, he describes not only the plants and animals he encountered, but also the people who he met. The book finishes with a lengthy academic historical account of the discovery and mapping of the Cape.

I found this to be the most humorous of all Thoreau's work. The character sketches he provides in this book, sharpened with his trained eye for observation of natural phenomena, are legendary. The cultural description of the Cape and its environment is quite fascinating for those interested in the history of daily life in 19th century Massachusetts. As Thoreau describes the desolate, treeless desert that made up the far reaches of the Cape, one begins to comprehend what it meant for an economy to be based on wood and whale oil for fuels. Thoreau stresses how valued driftwood was for residents of the Cape, as one of their main sources of heating and cooking fuel. Doubtless, he would not recognize the Cape today with its lush new forests. Or its Wal-Marts--switching to an oil economy has brought mixed blessings for the Cape. For those who think Thoreau to be a humorless didactic philosopher, this book shows a very different aspect of Thoreau as a writer.

You will forget about the outside world when you read this; nothing but sand, wind, and water. Plus some natural history, local folklore, a few shipwreck tales. Typical Thoreau; he finds beauty, interest, detail in the wilderness. The desolate landscape will help to clear your mind. Highly recommended.

Really, you should own it.
It's such a beautiful book. The text, the content, the structure, the exercises, the solutions, the tricks and insight, and it's soft and handy.
What a book. It's modern, rigorous, gives you references to more advanced texts, and teaches you a lot! A pleasure.
If you're interested in inequalities you should really buy it, but even you if don't want to, it's available on the internet (peer-to-peer or torrents..)
Have a very very nice reading.

this book deals in a friendly fashion with inequalities (and therefore) with the elementary use of convexity and integrals.
Famous inequalities bear the name of famous mathematicians, e.g: Tchebychev, Hilbert, Cauchy, Hardy, Rademacher...This is one way to understand their significance in maths. This book is about those ones and others such as 3/2 < a/(b+c) + b/(c+a) + c/(a+b) and the many ways to tackle with the fact of proving and using them. Study of this book should be seen as a good and rewarding path towards improving one's mathematical skills .

Prof. Steele has done a great job in providing an "entertaining" (if I may say) book on inequalities. Along with Cauchy-Schwarz inequality the book provides very "lively and problem oriented" (adjectives from the first page of the book) chapters that are insightful and enjoyable. For example, the way you are introduced to Cauchy-Schwarz inequality involves attempting it as a "problem" - first looking at cases n=1 and n=2 trying to use induction. After that you get into fancy approach using quadratic expression. Such an approach throughout the book makes this book really enjoyable. Solutions provided make it ideal for self learning as well as a book to entertain yourself when you get bored :)

Professor Steele has done a wonderful job in developing the theory behind the Cauchy-Schwarz inequality. He starts off with the basic theory and then through the course of the book he teases out the limitless ways the inequality can be used. There is a breathtaking sweep of applications. What is interesting and valuable about his approach is that as he develops the building blocks he explains why or why not a particular approach might not work. I think there is quite a bit of Polya's inspiration in his approach. For instance, he gives Polya's proof of the Carleman inequality which, on it face, is almost outrageously unbelievable ( where does the "e" come from?) but by that stage you worked through the challenge problems and the other material and it is possible to see why the "e" makes sense.

The challenge problems are excellent and his solutions sometimes skip over some important steps which a teacher could get students to fill in so that they can demonstrate that they understand the material.

There is a lot to learn from this book and it should be read by everyone who is seriously interested in mathematics. The classic Hardy-Littlewood-Polya book on inequalities is a quite different beast but the two together provide the serious reader with a depth of understanding that is hard to surpass.

The classic work in this field is Hardy, Littlewood, and Polya's "Inequalities", but as much as I admire these authors for their other works, I have never gotten much out of their inequality book. Steele's book is different: extremely clear, erudite, and thorough, it almost makes everything obvious. The subject of inequalities is something of a hodge-podge, and Steele isn't able to change that, but he helps tie it together with lots of forward and backward references and with returns to problems after we have learned new methods. A good example is Carleman's inequality (easily the most startling result in the book); Steele provides three different proofs spread out through the book, plus a continuous analog.

Despite the title, the book is not primarily about the Cauchy-Schwarz inequality, although it (and the Arithmetic-Geometric Mean inequality and Jensen's inequality) do recur throughout the book.

The book is structured as a problem book. The body consists of a number of "challenges", each followed by an exploration of how to solve it. Each chapter ends with a copious selection of exercises; they are not as hard as the challenges, but they are hard enough and they will build your mastery of the material. All exercises are worked out in full in the back of the book.

I love Sheila Lukins style of writing......it's engaging, entertaining and informative. This book is a joy to read cover to cover. Wonderful range of recipes.

I love this book! I love to celebrate holidays and milestones with close friends, loving family and delicious food! I truly enjoy preparing food for others. This book is going to go a long way in helping me feed and celebrate with those I love! I can't wait to try entire menus, complete with music and beverage/wine recommendations! The menus in the book are fresh and bright and easy enough for a novice cook like me. The pages come alive with incredible pictures of both food and celebration! This is the first cook book I own that I can't put down ... I want to read it, not just duplicate a recipe from it! I have a feeling I'll be celebrating holidays and occasions I never did before, just so I can make these scrumptous menus! I can't wait to Celebrate!

In one word...perfect! This book is great, every recipe I have made from it has been fabulous. (Try the coconut cream pie :)) And more importantly all the foods kind of meld together so each dish is distinct but not so diffrent as to not blend. This book has become my party reference! The parties are creative and go into details like flowers, recommended wines and music. And there are so many parties, from summer pool parties, a kentucky derby party, and big promotions to the standards like Christmas, and Easter! Buy this book you will NOT be disappointed!!!

This cookbook covers a nifty range of special occasions--much better than that in any other cookbook I've seen! It includes traditional holidays, non-traditional holidays, and things that aren't holidays at all (the "congratulations on a new job" menu, the "Saturday night with friends" menu, the "Springtime bridal shower" menu, a menu for a big family reunion, a birthday bash, a housewarming, a cozy dinner for two, and more).

Many of the dishes are traditional, or have been around for many years, but Ms. Lukins brings her own flair to them. She never gets too outrageous, but she's also never boring. I think she walks the perfect middle ground to ensure that this cookbook will appeal to as many people as possible, which is a tough thing to do!

What's most impressive to me, however, is how uniformly delicious and painless these recipes are. Every single one we've made has come out absolutely perfectly, without a hitch or confusion. Every single one has been completely delicious. The haroseth was fantastic, with its subtle blend of honey and a little bit of spicing. The Irish soda bread rolls beautifully contrasted the tang of buttermilk with the sweetness of raisins. The barbecue sauce is, quite literally, the best I've had, and the sesame noodles have a surprisingly complex and delightful flavor--the kind where with every bite you taste something new. The raspberry sauce, which we made to go with a cheesecake from another cookbook, was heavenly.

This is an outstanding cookbook, and I can't wait for an excuse to make more out of it. We're already planning which special occasion we'll take advantage of next!

This is simply creative, well done and inspirational. From the unique concept to the exciting layout to the fab recipes, this is one to have and use and celebrate and enjoy.

The author is a cookbook all-star, having done The Silver Palate series and New Basics and several of her own. She branches out now with this one which provides a whole thematic culinary event including recipes, music, wine suggestions, serving and decorating ideas. All centered around great food.

There are 43 themed events with 350 recipes all showing color photos organized into two main sections: A Year of Celebrations, with a dozen of the more classic events e.g. New Year, Seder, Mother's Day, etc., and the second: Celebrating Our Lives, bridal shower, graduation, cuisine & culture outings, e.g. India, morocco; and ingredient feasts such as a blueberry breakfast. There are also adequate sources, bibliography, conversion tables and a nice index. The servings are hefty, sometimes for 24, 8, 2, 16. Buffets, pool party, sit down dining room, beach, etc. venues well covered as well.

While so many could be singled out to inspire you to add this to your collection, let me tempt you with two samplings: A Toast To New Year for 8, with a Celebration Coktail ( Grand Marniew and champagne and more), Sparkling Crab Salad, Frisee Folie with Tangerine Vinaigrette, Mahogany Squabs, Fancy New Year's Pilaf, Carrot-Ginger Whip, Beet and Apple Whip, Frozen Lime Souffle, Chocolate Truffles. All of this decked out in an ambience of Old Painted Hookahs holding apricot-hued roses, with votive candles amid floating white orchids, set upon table of paisly fabriic, with pink linen napkins set off with gold wire-ribbon ties. Suggested music: Rimsky--Korsakov's Scheherazade or John Coltrane's My Favorite Things.

Anytime Sunday Brunch for 8 with Leek Frittata, Roasted Tomatoes and Onions, Rustic Chicken Salad, Tomatoes a la Tapenade, Blackberry Sorbet, and Rich Pecan Squares.

As she suggests, one doesn't have to do all the recipes, and mix and matching of them is allowable and encouraged. She has a good idea too, that of trying a more difficult recipe ahead of time as a dish to gain confidence before preparing as part of a bigger spread.

This is lush, well thought out and executed and a marvelous resource for entertaining, whether one follows it to a tee, some of it, and use for inspiration to dream up your own. This is wo well done and has something everyone can find exactly what you're into. Explore, dine and wine, bon appetit.