Games Books

I saw this book on the shelf and opened it ever so gently and reverently. Those beautiful pictures of Lionel Trains reproduced from the old catalogs graced the pages. I went back in time for a few moments and tried to recall those days so long ago. I relived for a very fleeting moment that era and in a blink of the eye it was gone. But I savored the moment and put it away somewhere special to take out again perhaps on a rainy day as I gaze out my window in a bit of melancholy and think how long ago it was when I held my first Lionel Train. Flipping through the pages of this book is a moving experience if you grew up with Lionel Trains as I did. Collecting Lionel Trains and the catalogs was truly a family affair and one I will always cherish. This is an important book for me. I don't have to take out my Lionel catalogs with their yellowing and brittle pages or pull out streamlined passenger cars or boxcars from my closet in orange boxes now crumbling at the edges. I can sit down and open this book and gaze into the past and just remember. Just remembering is good enough these days. Just remembering when.

A "must have" for Lionel Train enthusiasts. I'm not sure who enjoys it the most, my 60 year old husband or our three year old grandson! Ours is getting so dog-eared from hours of enjoyment that we might need to think about a repalacement!

Officially licensed by Lionel itself, The Art Of Lionel Trains: Toy Trains And American Dreams by Roger Carp is more than just a simple showcase of promotional art that the Lionel company used to advertise their classic model locomotives; its informed and informative text follows the journey and evolution of the internationally famous model railroading company and its various products that inspired hobbies and dreams in households across America. Illustrated throughout in full color and a highly recommended addition to any personal or community library Railroading History collection, The Art Of Lionel Trains is as much a trip down memory lane for model train buffs as it is a peek to an era when advertising art was lively yet simple.

The book is a beauty (as a graphic arts product) but as the review title reads I am a little bit disapointed. Don't get me wrong. I like Roger Carp and his writting. In fact, he is almost the only reason I am suscriber to TCC magazine. However the book, in my humble opinion, falls short in the two aspects one could possible focus on: the Lionel art and the information about it. The illustations though as nice as we expect from Lionel history are pretty much common for Lionel enthusiasts and very well known from long ago. One could think that being this a book about Lionel art something special would appear.

The text did not contribute much to the common knowledge of Lionel aficionados. Commom places such as the bond between fathers and sons and the search for security during rough times, fill most of the space in the book. Not even short biographies of artists as important as Robert Sherman appear in the text. Carp's great sense of humor is also pretty much absent.

In short, I think the other superb books by Roger Carp left me expecting more than real life provides. Everyone has the right to some "failure". In the case of Roger Carp I think this book fills the bill for that.

"Saying 'Lionel' to anyone over the age of 40 brings forth nods of recognition and stories of smoking, whistling trains chugging around Christmas trees."

"The Art of Lionel Trains" is a showcase of familiar images, famous pictures and the artwork from catalog covers, newspaper advertising and other marketing pieces. Some of the pictures are sentimental and show the dreams of children.

When my mother bought my husband his first Lionel Train, I think he spent most of one afternoon putting the track together and then would amuse our cats by running the train at least once a day, complete with smoke billowing about in our mostly empty room. I kept wondering what was burning. My memories of Lionel Trains now include cats jumping across tracks to avoid the impending doom. They were actually quite fascinated for weeks.

This book highlights classic Lionel trains, helps to revive memories of toy trains from the past and analyzes art and its relationship to dreams and values.

The Chapters Include:

Dreams of Ambition 1900-1923
Dreams of Consumption 1920-1933
Dreams of Authority 1931-1947
Dreams of Security 1946-1964
Dreams of Nostalgia 1963-1993
Dreams of Tomorrow 1990-2003

This book is a history of Lionel Trains from 1900-2003 and is the perfect gift for Lionel Train fans everywhere. Each chapter contains detailed information on all things train through an analysis of advertising.

What I noticed, is a sense of family unity throughout the pictures. It also seems that a Lionel Train looks best with a Christmas tree. Artists actually started promoting this idea back in the1920s. The text in the advertising is readable in most cases. You have to love the pictures of the poor kids watching while "grandpa and dad" took over the train tracks.

Roger Carp has been a member of the editorial staff of Classic Toy Trains magazine since 1988. You might want to look for additional selections by Roger Carp:

The World's Greatest Toy Train Maker: Insiders Remember Lionel

Classic Lionel Display Layouts You Can Build

~The Rebecca Review

I read this book as a teenager many years ago and assume it's been out of print for many years. Don't know how historically accurate it is, but as a story, it totally rocks! The author brings the days of the Caesars to life with poignancy and humor. A must-read!

Mannix' "Those About to Die" combines a historical and sociological view of the Games of the Roman Republic and Empire. With the title taken from the traditional gladiators' greeting, "Hail Caesar! We who are about to die salute you!", this book traces the history of the Roman games from Anchises' funerary games in Vergil's Aeneid to the inevitable coarsening and excess of Imperial Rome. Along the way, we learn about the engineering of the Circus Maximus, the training of the gladiators, the orgiastic response of both plebs and patricians in the audience, and even the horrific cruelty inherent in such a scene. Mannix' "Those About to Die" provides tremendous insights into a cultural and sociological ritual the likes of which have never been seen before -- and, hopefully, will never be seen again.

This is an update after actually receiving the book. Read first, then go to the end for the update.

Almost 50 years have passed since I first read this shocker and I've found it again. Before pushing "go to checkout" this is my memory:
Absolutely incredible book on Roman life. By "incredible," I really do mean "unbelievable" details of Roman excesses, not just in the killing arena, but in raising and eating rare foods: hummingbird tongues, fish that changed colors as they were boiled alive, unborn calves and other animals cooked inside their mothers, and on and on.
In the arena, there were specialists in animal as well as human destruction called "bestiarii" who could kill a lion with their bare hands. The author said the bestiarii hated and feared only leopards because of the animals' blinding speed.

The Roman Colosseum arena could be flooded in minutes, not only for mock sea battles, but for imaginary paradise islands populated by luscious women and handsome men singers and musicians--who were fed to crocodiles to the delight of the crowd.

So out of hand did the "Bread and Circuses" of Rome become that shipments of sand for the Colosseum floor were given priority over shipments of food, according to that author.

I read this shocking book as a very young teenager--it was a paperback book belonging to an uncle. If I can remember this much after nearly 50 years, this is a book that stays with you--whether totally true or not.

UPDATE---Well, I was half right, because this is about half the book it was. Not Amazon's fault. The book arrived in less than a week in surprisingly good condition for a paperback.
No, the 1960 publisher "reverse Bowdlerized" the original I read. Thomas Bowdler gave his name to heavy editing by taking out "indelicate" parts of Shakespeare for a family edition.
This publisher left all the indelicate parts in, resulting in 153 pages of blood, guts and sex.

My guess is that 100 pages of the original are missing. Nothing on the raising and eating of rare foods except a brief mention of thrushes' tongues (not hummingbirds)and baby mice. Very little on the daily lives of Romans and the rich. Probably considered too boring.
Still a helluva read by Daniel Mannix. He put together an exciting and only partly imaginary account of the horror and spirit of the "games" of ancient Rome. Today's "Mortal Kombat" types of computer games and popularity of "reality" TV shows are a perfect reflection of old bloodlust, proving Mannix right in saying in 1958 that America would revel in actual fights to the death today.
But I wanted more than blood and guts, and miss the "boring" parts. Instead of Bowdlerized, the original was disemboweled--with glee.

I read this book over a decade ago and even today, now that I do not have the copy anymore, I still remember the title and the impact it had on me then. It has been on my wish-list for years and plan to order it again soon. I have had many occasions to refer to it in conversations with friends and aquaintances, be it toward politic themes, animal training, or in college. This book gives a fascinating insight into mankind, the beast.

when I was given this book, I thought it would be a laborious read; I was wrong! Daniel Mannix has done an excellent job of bringing dimension & depth to a subject that few of us really understand. It's a real pity that this piece of literature is now out of print because every student of history should have this narrative in their personal library. I now watch 'SPARTACUS' from a totally different perspective!

If you are a trained statistician, you will probably love this book. For each major leaguer, it takes his actual numbers and washes out park effects. Then it compares the value (in runs) of the player's production to the league average. There are fielding and pitching "stuff" statistics invented by Baseball Prospectus that attempt to account for all the variables that contribute to performance. For minor leaguers, it calculated "major league equivalencies"--i.e., what numbers the player would have put up if he had played in the majors.

The problem is that the bewildering array of new terms and statistical explanations will mean little to the casual fan. Even an experienced roto player who has a healthy respect for such methods, such as myself, will have an extremely difficult time putting it all together.

Fortunately, the player write-ups are as compelling a reason to buy the book as the statistical analysis. They are hilarious--inventive, creative, and full of oddball references. Baseball Prospectus can be a little too opinionated at times, and a little subjective for a group of people that professes to believe only in the data, but that's part of what makes them so funny. It's unbelievable how many different ways Joe Sheehan & Co. can find to say that a player is worthless.

The revolution in baseball analysis in the 1980s, led by the works of Bill James and Pete Palmer, spawned a boom in baseball writing. Unfortunately, most analytical baseball books begin and end with the measuring of player value, which is great for fantasy baseball players or who-should-be-in-the-Hall-of-Fame discussions, but ultimately leaves me feeling hungry.

The folks at Baseball Prospectus put the focus on the "team", stressing that focus even within the player comments. Arguing about whether someone is the sixth best second baseman in the National League, or merely the eighth best, is refreshingly missing here. Instead, the discussion rests on whether the player is advancing the cause of contending for a championship, what he has to do to contribute more, how likely he is to improve, how long he is likely going to continue contributing, what the team needs to do to be prepared for his decline, etc. The team comments focus on where the team is in the development cycle, what it has to do to advance to the next stage, and whether the people in charge are likely to do it. The essays in the back of the book challenge us to understand how this game works.

This annual has made me a better fan and has made my own conversations around the hot stove much more interesting. As a baseball researcher, what I wouldn't give for a complete set of BPs, beginning about 1871.

I stumbled upon the Baseball Prospectus website about a year and a half ago and after reading the articles they frequently publish there, my view of baseball has totally changed. Basically, the BP team laughs in the face of traditional yet very lacking statistics such as batting average, RBIs, saves, wins and losses. They include several mathematicians who have created very comprehensive systems to evaluate batters (equivalent average), starters (Support-Neutral Wins Above Average), and relievers (Adjusted Runs Prevented). While they value the sabermetric approach to baseball, they also provide commentaries on less quantifyable aspects of the game.

While BP is occasionally prone to making sweeping exaggerations regarding a subject, they provide generally objective analysis of baseball in a very entertaining manner. BP 2002 is well-written and contains paragraphs on about 50 players per organization, organization reviews and assorted other articles along with each players translated (meaning adjusted for AAA, AA, etc or parks) statistics. I highly recommend it.

I forgot to mention in my lengthy review below that one of the best properties of Baseball Prospectus 2002 is the humor ... it adds to the readability a lot knowing that some funny and off-the-wall statements crop up in the player comments. I inadvertantly found myself up way past my bedtime recently reading about minor-leagues for the Tigers when I hit this note on Brandon Inge: he "does less damage at the plate than Lara Flynn Boyle". Good stuff. Keep it up, boys.

I hope you have alot of time on your hands because you will not be able to put this great book down.

Provides totally honest and intelligent team reviews, explaining why transactions were made and what were the good/bad ramifications.

Excellent and witty player insight, brutally honest at points.

Found myself laughing out load many times.

You won't believe what you've been missing.

Great book if you ever wanted to know how and where the names of some of the most popular booze came from. ie. tanqurey, capn morgans, JD, Vermouth, ect

This is a great book especially for those of us in the industry; i.e. THE BARTENDERS! If you are always looking for trivia to present to your guests at the bar then buy this book and hit them with some fun facts about what they are drinking. I always wondered why BEEFEATER gin got that name and how the character on the label came to be called a "Beefeater".
The book is wriiten in down to earth lingo without a lot of tech talk. It is a thoroughly entertaining addition to a mixologists' reference library.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I found the contents informative and entertaining. I have expanded my liquor cabinet greatly due to reading this book. In fact, it made me want to run out and buy a bottle of Booker's at 1:00am on a work night. This book is an excellent way to learn more about the origins of your favorite spirits.

What a great read. Educational, humorus and really informative. Sometimes with the PR, you aren't always sure what's what, but Baime gives you all the good stuff. I ended up purchasing 5 copies for gifts for the holidays.

Take equal parts history, humor, and mixology. Shake well and pour liberally into a slim paperback. The result is "Big Shots: The Men Behind the Booze" by magazine editor A.J. Baime. More than just another bartending book, "Big Shots" details the lives of colorful characters such as Jim Beam, Jack Daniel, and Johnnie Walker, whose 19th-century exploits laid the foundations for today's corporate behemoths.
According to research by Adams Beverage Group, Americans consumed 153 million cases of distilled spirits in 2002. Yet few know the history behind their favorite drinks. Despite barroom legend, the Martini evolved from an 1880s concoction invented in Martinez, California. The French monk Dom Perignon didn't discover bubbly wine, he just made it popular. True tequila never has a worm.
Baime reveals the liquor industry's dirty little secrets (Smirnoff brand vodka is actually as American as apple pie) and answers some practical drinking questions (Just what the heck is vermouth anyway?). He also offers little-known nuggets of knowledge, some of which are surprising (Jack Daniel began making whiskey at the tender age of nine), others less so (Captain Morgan was a murderer and a rapist who drank himself to death). The book's snappy narrative has an irreverent, lighthearted tone that betrays Baime's editorial background with magazines such as "Maxim" and "Playboy."
The impact of Prohibition on the liquor industry is a recurring theme, and stories of moonshiners and rumrunners abound. When the Eighteenth Amendment was finally repealed in 1933, American distillers had to play catch up with their Canadian and European counterparts, who for a decade had quietly grown rich encouraging the smuggling of their products. A British gin maker even used packaging designed to float, so if a few cases "accidentally" fell overboard near the American coastline, they could be easily recovered by thirsty Yanks. Baime explains that thanks in part to this little trick, Tanqueray is still the bestselling gin in the U.S. today.
"Big Shots" is not a comprehensive bartender's guide. Drink ingredients are listed as a sidebar only when relevant to the main text. Differences in related liquors, such as Irish whiskey versus Scotch whiskey, are clarified for the social drinker. The author also gives a crash course on cryptic liquor terminology, such as the strange markings found on cognac bottles.
Even teetotalers will appreciate this clever little book. After all, where else can you find corporate history sharing the page with a recipe for Irish Coffee?

The Everlasting is a great game for both beginning roleplayers and those playing since time began. There is not much you can't do with this game, and you can literally use it for many different kinds of gaming adventures from the medival dungeon crawl to a modern day war with a group of fallen angels. This game literally has everything.

I discovered The Everlasting back when it first came out. Back then, they were great, and I was sad to see the game fold. A few years ago, the game came back, and that was joyous news, but something subtle was missing: the books were still in black and white while most of the big games had switched over to color.

This is fantastic. The game is excellent, the book is beautifull, and the layout is a big improvement. Sample characters have been included and the magick rules are greatly expanded. If you like gaming, get this book. If you like mythology, get this book. If you like modern fantasy or horror, get this book. In general, get this book . . . even if you have the old black and white version, get this book!

The Book of the Unliving, Color Edition, is, as the name implies, a revamp of an earlier book put out by Visionary Entertainment Studios.

The full pictures utilize an etheral style that fully compliments the content of the book. I was especially enchanted with the pictures in the Ghul section, as they manage to be both horrifying and strangely beautiful.

The content is on par, if not better, than the art. The book's set in the modern era. Magic is every where, but hidden from the eyes of mortals, save for a few Fantasts and Magicians. In this world there are the eldritch, the magical races of the world. The Book of the Unliving details the Vampires (Immortal blood-suckers that everyone should be familiar with), Ghuls (Mortals who drank Annecro and earned immortality as zombie like creatures who must feed on the flesh of dead humans or face physical and mental degeneration), Revenants (Dead souls who returned from the grave and possessed another's body), Dead Souls (Ghost's who, for whatever reason, do not rest quietly), and Re-animates (think Frankenstein's monster), as well providing barebones statistics for 10 other Eldritch (which are more thoroughly explored in the other three core books).

Like the other Foundation books of the Everlasting series, the Book of the Unliving can stand on its own, having rules (With variations for freeform, dice, or card draw methods of play), advice for GMs (Or DMs, Or STs, as you prefer), supernatural powers for the various undead, information on the setting, and a flexible magic system (Fans of the Everlasting system will no doubt rejoice at the all new break down of magickal effects by category and magnitude).

This is an all around excellent RPG and should be in any modern fantast fan's collection.

For years the "World of Darkness" has dominated the market in terms of Urban Fantasy but Everlasting, the new contender has everything that it takes to topple that Throne, and more.

I found the rule system light and flexible but still with enough meat to give you a solid idea about your character and what he can do.

The system itself offers several dice and character creation systems, a card based (Tarot or other) system and also instructions for gameing without a game master.

Included is also a way to directly reward or punish players for their actions and also personal Ethos, Beliefs ,Outlooks, Passions and Relations to further define the Character.

The overall Background is a world in between our "normal" World, called the "Reverie"(along with several other Planes of Existance) where supernatural beings of all kind and color dwell and carry out age old conflicts among each other. What appears to us a spooky abandoned house might be a huge Victorian Manor, the palace like dwelling place of a Revenant in the Reverie, a small patch of forest to us is a primeval forest where creatures straight from a fairytale live...

Each of the four foundation books provides an entirely different tone of play, with a set of supernatural creatures described in detail, magic paths and planes of existence that belong to the topic the book aims at.

All the Beings from the other Foundation Books are described
with their basic traits, enough to give the Gamemaster an idea how to describe and play those beings.

The Book of the Unliving introduces you to the dark, bleak, "gothic" world of all things Undead:

Vampires (Predators out for blood who can run the whole range from the beastial to the smooth and refined upper crust "party animal") and many of their "Bloodlines"

Revenants (ghosts that one way or another made their way back from the afterlife by takeing over bodies, living or dead, they sustain themself by draining the life force of others, ageing mortals, withering plants...)

Dead Souls (Spirits of the Dead,Ghosts) and the societies they created in the Underworld

Ghuls (people that drank from an ancient elixir that provided them with both, immortality and a decaying body and/or soul, who must feed on raw flesh to keep their bodies from Degenerating) dwelling in Tunnels and Crypts, living their unlives as outcasts even among the other supernatural beings.

Reanimates (Artifical Beings, crafted from Bodyparts, a fusion of dead flesh and metal, or entirely inorganic like Clay or Stone)

The plane of existence described (beside the Reverie) in this Book is the Underworld, dwelling place of the Dead Souls, with its most important places, rules and basic politics.

To sum it up:
With about 20 years of role playing experience under my belt I am delighted by the style of The Everlasting. The system supports many tastes, rule and background wise, without being too thin on one and too thick on the other. I can only recommend that you give it a try with the foundation book that most suits your taste.

When I received this book in the mail, I was astonished. The artwork alone elevates this product above any of the new World of Darkness material. But the approach to roleplaying is genuinely innovative.

The rules system is either card/tarot based or dice based (which is presented side by side rather than stuck at the back of the book like a forgotten step child).

The presentation and layout is fabulous. The artwork is breathtakingly dark and atmospheric, and the setting is what I've come to expect from modern horror/fantasy: grounded in real world beliefs. As opposed to the attempts made in the new World of Darkness, it has much greater strength IMO.

In addition, the messageboard at Visionary Entertainment is quite active with the publishers interacting with fans. I have since come to find out this is the way it has ALWAYS been. That kind of product support is heartfelt and always useful. This game, in it's first edition, so inspired one fan that he bought the company and has been hard at work helping produce more material.

Highly recommended!

I bought this for my granddaughter "princesses!" They will love all of the references to the fairy tales they love.

If you like I Spy books and looking for things this book is great. The pictures are very imaginative. I really enjoyed it. Great for children and adults.

Has Walter Wick ever done one of these books that is anything other than fabulous? If he has, I've never found it!

In this Once Upon A Time book you'll have a ball searching for the right images that you are hunting for. I promise that the whole family will enjoy this lovely book!

Go, Walter!

My 6 year old daughter and I loved this book. We had a lot of fun looking for the list of hidden objects in the pictures and identifying other everyday objects in the pictures. The pictures are amazing. My husband and I even found it challenging to find some of the objects, but it was a lot of fun.

I love this author and illustrator. Wonderful series of books. Very vivid pictures; the manner in which it's written allows the books to be enjoyed by a wide age range. I bought all books by this author!

If you like I Spy books and looking for things this book is great. The pictures are very imaginative. I really enjoyed it. Great for children and adults.

I bought this book for my 4 year old after he had smashed his finger unusually badly in the door. This book was at the doctor's office and it helped him to focus on something besides what was happening with his finger. It was such a plesant experience, I thought it would be fitting to get one for his own library as a souviner. (We inscribed it with his name and the incident with the date.)

If you are a doctor or work in a doctor's office, with patients of any age, this would be a fabulous idea to have instead of yucky magazines.

We have all of the "I Spy" books and it looks like we'll be starting to collect these too.

I love this author and illustrator. Wonderful series of books. Very vivid pictures; the manner in which it's written allows the books to be enjoyed by a wide age range. I bought all books by this author!

My 4-year-old grandson loves this book. He needs to have someone read the list of things to look for, but he will happily try to find the objects. He turns the page before it gets tedious so we finish the book quickly, but he will go back to it time and again. I believe that the mental effort is good intelligence training.

Great book for kids & adults will enjoy too. Not as difficult as "I Spy" but still has some challenges. Addictive - Fun!

Finally, the circle is complete. After the formative years when RPGs were simple and young, thru the past few years of more, more, more, which included money and rules. Full circle...this is a simple fun game, loaded with freedom and nostalgia. Thank you Troll Lords!

This is beautiful. Buy flowers for your wife. Take your kids out for ice cream. Howl for joy. This is the true successor to AD&D.

And if you're too young to remember, come feel the kiss of what it was like to roll up your first Dwarven fighter. Feel what it was like to realize that here is the magical world of heroes of which you've always dreamed.

I can only echo what the other reviews here have said... this game is a well done rules light version of 3rd Edition Dungeons & Dragons. This system lets you create a character and be off on your first adventure in just minutes -- no cumbersome combat system to worry about, no feats and skills, etc... just lots of fun old school gaming. Definitely worth buying if you're interested in a flexible, fast game. Buy the books and the modules, you won't be disappointed.

I began gaming in 1987 on Star Frontiers by TSR. I soon got into AD&D 1st/2nd edition and played them until 1997. Career, etc... took over and I didn't actively game again until early 2006. I found some guys at work who wanted to get into it, so I went to the bookstore and found that a fascinating new version of D&D (3.5) had come out and I quickly bought a ton of the books. A couple of months into playing, something just didn't seem right. The game seemed to be too much of a tactical board game... it just didn't feel like the AD&D I remembered playing years before. Looking around the web, I discovered that many other people felt the same way and I stumbled onto C&C very recently. I have since bought the Player's Handbook as well as Monsters and Treasure. This is it! This is the something that was missing. It takes roleplaying back to it's roots and throws out the boardgame feel. Playing C&C is just like the good old days. I can't believe how a simple, elegant system like SIEGE can replace 50 million skills and feats, but it does so brilliantly. This game runs like AD&D, but takes advantage of the positive side of d20 (unified mechanic). I find it superior to the new D&D in every way.

This is exactly the system I was looking for... after buying many Star Wars RPG books from Wizards of the Coast, and becoming completely frustrated with the taxing rules & combat system. I realized that when I had gotten the itch to get back into a Fantasy RPG, that D&D 3.5e (that uses the same systems as Star Wars pretty much), wasn't going to cut it. I thought about going old school back to the original D&D Boxed Sets... Remember The Red Dragon Box Set? But that was really taking a step back in many ways. Then I found out about Castles & Crusades. Oh glorious day... it takes advantage of the unified and logical d20 dice element, but it takes out all the extra stuff that burdens down the D&D 3.5e system. What you are left with is a really clean system, that gives you enough rules to guide the game and play it fair and fun, but let's the DM or Castle Keeper as they call it, really run the show with very little need to ever slow down and check rules in the book to run the game. Heck... you don't even need miniatures to run combat... let your games come alive and use your imagination the way RPG's were meant to be! I'm free... I'm FREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!

The majority of the pages in this 350-page book are loaded with color photos and information on the Ideal dolls manufactured from 1907 up through the 1980s. Most dolls are pictured in their original outfits and some photos are packages of the original outfits. Also included are photos of ads for specific dolls. The book starts with a short history of the Ideal Toy Co., while the back of the book gives more information on issue dates, characteristics, and current prices.

This book is a must have for those doll collectors that want to restore a doll to original condition.

The Collector's Guide to Ideal Dolls ID & Values 2nd ED by Judith Izen is another great book by this author. I have been looking for information on a Miss Revlon doll for years and I opened the box and right on the cover is the information I have been looking for. I am thrilled! Any doll collector or lover would love this book. Thanks Judy for another great job! Very fast shipping and a signed copy, it doesn't get any better than this!

Enjoyed this book and also the prompt manner in which it was delivered to me by userbro128. It was a used book and let me tell you it did not look used at all. Highly recommend the seller and the book to any one intrested.

I truly recommend this book, not merely for finding out your Ideal doll's monetary value, but more as a walk down memory lane. Being 56 years old, I remember growing up with many of Ideal's dolls. I especially enjoyed the brief mention of the Snuggles' doll and rocking horse(which many books on dolls leave out). So, if you are tired of reading dribble..., then snuggle up with this pictorial walk down memory lane.

Fabulous color pictures of all the dolls in the book- tons of dolls you will recognize and some you won't. Also features the manufacture marks you will find on dolls to identify them. Most of the dolls are shown in original outfits- some with original packaging and a small percentage are shown redressed. Complete with price guide.

So, as a native Hoosier having the pleasure to read Day's book, I have to say first that it was highly helpful to those of us that aren't rabid football fans (yes, believe it or not there are a few of us in central Indiana.) She explained the passion behind the sport in a way that I could relate to as a single - love. As a person who fully understands the plight of the young urban single professional, Day also does a great job of presenting what is a challenge for many young, bright, professional talented singles - struggling to find Mr. or Ms. Right. Although I'm not convinced there is a Mr. or Ms. Right for each and every one of us, I enjoyed reading Professor Day's plight, which many can fully understand. Every single should read this book (and also all those marrieds out there) to fully understand the challenges. And WAY TO GO for Day to hold out for Mr. Right instead of Mr. Right Now!!!

Cathy Day's "Comeback Season: How I learned to Play the Game of Love," offers a fresh and sophisticated examination of modern society. If you are looking for a run-of-the mill, cliche, quest for love story, than this is not the book for you. However, if you are someone looking for a great, character-driven story that seeks to examine what life is all about, particularly our sometimes troubling, virtual life of the 21st century, than this is definitely the book for you. With her smart and witty, but down-to earth, midwestern voice, Cathy Day serves as an excellent guide for all readers who are attempting to traverse through their own labyrinth of love. Without a doubt, you'll be cheering for Cathy Day, play-by-play, in this incredibly, well-written book. A must read for any individual who seeks to understand both 21st century life and its complex dating structure.

What a wonderful book this is. Cathy Day's search and struggle to find "the right one", like the fight of the Indianapolis Colts, is told so honestly, and in such beautiful prose, that it's impossible not to be beguiled by this book. The portraits of men, friends, and family members are precise and perfectly rendered. I'm not given to reading about dating, but this book is about so much more than that: it's about the desire and the need to--to steal a line from an old coach--"make something happen" in life.

"Comeback Season" made me vaguely uncomfortable at first, for which I blame this simple fact: I'm a man. I don't read books about dating, especially women dating, not even if they have a catchy football angle. And to be utterly truthful, the last time I did any reading about football, I was thumbing idly through a year-old Sports Illustrated while waiting to get a cavity filled. So one would not think that I would even countenance reading a book such as this.

However, after hearing a radio interview with the author, I was moved to check it out, in part because I, like Ms. Day at the beginning of her book, am 37, educated, and single, and I would be hard pressed to think of a single acquaintance of my own age who is stil, well, single. Like Ms. Day, I have spent an inordinate amount of time wondering what's wrong with me, not out of unhealthy self-absorbtion, but genuine concern.

The difference between me and the author is that she decided to take action to change her life. And then she wrote this book. I assume you've read the synopsis already, so I won't dwell on the plotline, other than to say it is by turns funny and profoundly thought-provoking, a performance-art journal and a diary of 3 a.m. despair. It showed me a situation quite similar to my own, but from the perspective of a member of the opposite sex. And, no, guys, you'll find no feminist rants here, no man-hating or man-baiting. The most refreshing thing about the book, considering its subject matter, is its almost total lack of ideological or gender-based rancor and its refusal to indulge in victimology. Like her earlier novel, this memoir is peopled by fully-realized human beings, both women and men, who are by turns weak and courageous, despicable and generous; no heroes or heroines, nor blameless victims, nor mustache-twirling villains. Nor are there quick and easy self-help solutions: Cathy does not get a makeover, a new wardrobe, and a frontal lobotomy and immediately find the love of her life; nor does she halfheartedly embrace a bitter compromise. Instead, she finds her own core and an unknown strength of character with the help of her loving family and friends and the virtues she's learned from her sports heroes. She comes to terms with the past decisions she's made, and finds grace and meaning in her present life, without earth-shattering calamity, divine revelation, or Oprah. Rather, she finds that the simple, sometimes hackneyed, often maligned influences in our lives - football, family, friends, silly 70's rock songs - can lead us to our better, greater selves.

This is a wonderful book that's fully of humor and humanity. It's a title I've recommended to my friends and family as a (true!) story that hits close to home for any intellegent person looking for their soul mate. The book has resulted in a lot discussions about relationships and the many dating moments that we've all experienced trying to find the right one. Cathy - don't give up!