Games Books

As a Players Guided in General this is a good product. I also like it cause it gives me some thing to let my players read seanse most the Planescape Products our really only worte for the DM.

Besides being a very beautiful book (marvelous drawings in full color by DiTerlizzi), it is the perfect complement for the Campaign Setting. I would say the 3 basic things you need to run a planescape campaign are the setting, a monstrous compendium (preferably the first one) and the planewalker's handbook. Among other useful information, it explains the "dark" of portals, gates, vortices, conduits, pools,etc. on a chapter that deals exclusively with planetraveling. Maybe they should have called it The Complete Book of Planescape.

[English]
The Planewalker's handbook is an invaluable resource for those enthusiasts who want to play or mastering PlaneScape. It describe and unveils so many details and aspects about characters creation not previously mentioned in the basic box.. besides show new concepts, races, environments, intrigues, opportunities, adventures hooks and magic. This book together with Factol's Manifesto and the basic box ARE the ELEMENTAL tools to understand, perceive and feel in the right way the multiverse.

[Spanish]
The Planewalker's handbook es un complemento indispensable para quienes quieran arbitrar o jugar PlaneScape, menciona y esclarece muchos detalles respecto de la creación de personajes que antes no habian sido mencionados (en la caja básica) e introduce nuevos conceptos, articulos, magia y razas. Este libro junto con The Factol Manifesto y el Set box (la caja básica) constituyen las herramientas elementales para empezar a entender correctamente el multiverso.

I am a budding DM for AD&D, and really needed some help with getting the Planescape campaign started. I bought this book, and it helped me incredibly. All the spells I thought the players should have, and new items, and options! If you ever intend to play Planescape, get this book. Sooner or later, you are going to need it!

It's the book with the usefullness of the Player's Handbook. It's informative, beautiful and for the Player and DM. It's got charts, new spells, kits, a guide to the races, planes and factions. Tips for DMs and Players and some new magic items. Plus, all-book (almost) illustrations from DiTerlizzi. A highly reccomended book.

This book was a favorite of my two daughters, and now my 18 month old son loves it as well. The rhythm of the text, and the realistic illustrations, are very appealing to toddlers. Although my son can't say the words yet, he tries to "sing" along. This is one of those books that a child will consistently bring back to you again and again!

My 7 month old LOVES this book. The pictures are beautiful and the words are lyrical. They really keep him captivated!

This is a favorite of my daughter's! When we sit to read, it is one she reaches for again & again! The rhyme makes the book a joy to read & my daughter gets into the "beat"! Now that her vocabularly is expanding (2 yrs old) she loves to "read" the book herself, exclaiming in excited tones the "boom, boom, bang" clatter of pans! A "must-have for a toddlers library, you won't be sorry about this purchase!

This book can be read very quickly for the impatient baby, or savored for the older toddler. The pictures are cute, and the main adult in the story is the father. My toddler liked the presence of the dog and cat. She enjoyed the book since she was 8 months old. It is not one of her favorites now at 2 1/2 but we still read it occasionally since it only takes about 2 minutes to get through. The rhythm and rhyme flow well.

This would make a great baby gift!

Jennifer Clauson

We just received this book as a gift a few days ago and my 2-year old son has asked Mommy to read it no fewer than twenty times already! The sing-song rhyme pattern is lots of fun, somewhat similar to Boynton in Barnyard Dance, another of our favorites. We get loud and crazy when we read this one! The illustrations are lovely and provide lots of scope for discussion and I Spy games. This is a terrific book and I would be surprised if your child didn't enjoy it tremendously!

A great book for paper enthusiasists. No matter you're a novice or an expert, you'll find challenges in this wonderful book. Mr Montroll is really brilliant in this book, the illustration and step-by-step explaination is easy to follow and yet challenging. Take out a piece of square paper and begin folding to appreciate his creation. It's not simply origami, it's truly paper engineering.

This book contains some wonderful models. Being a dinosaur enthusiast (what kid isn't?) in my younger years, this book provided a great amount of fun and challenge.

My sole complaint with these models are their relatively dated perspective on dinosaurs. These greatly resemble older views of dinosaurs where sluggish lizards lumber through swamps and marshes with their tails dragging on the ground. Of course, this gave me ample opportunity to try diversifying my skills by "improving" the final result.

I would highly recommend this book to both beginner and advanced folders. While the models might not be as challenging as those produced by Lang and Brill, the final results are well worth it.

I had the honor of proof reading the diagrams in this book before it went to print. (I'm the second Mark in the dedication). John Montroll is a brilliant author. His style is amazing, achieving maximum model size from the paper. This is a great book for everyone who enjoys dinosaurs and origami.

When i saw a dinosaur origami book i didn't think twice before buying it! I was bored with simple books making kitties and ducks, but these designs are very ORIGINAL! They are tricky and i often get frustrated with the complicated folds, but when i get a folded dinosaur all of my own in the end, I am so happy!! (No, I'm not a child either i just love dinosaurs!) I own a few origami books and have found this one is a favorite pick, besides the dinosaurs, i just love complicated folds! If you love dinosdaurs, origami, and a stiff challenge this book is for YOU!

A book about dinosaurs folded from paper, a simple idea, really. But take a deeper look, and this is one of the most engaging origami books on the subject ever-for that matter, perhaps it is one of the best origami books ever. I know it is one of my top ten books. Enough praise, you want to know what's in it. Well, as Montroll usually does, the beginning models are so easy, I think you could fold them from sheet metal...an egg, mountain, and tree. Soon though, the dinosaurs begin, and slowly but surely the difficulty rises, until culminating with a Stegosaurus. Other dinosaurs include, T-rex, a bunch of gliding dinos, and others such as Dimetrodon and Spinosaurus. I would recommend this to any Dinosaur fan, and/or origami fan. However, a true beginner would find this book to be boring, because after the three 'sheet metal' models, the difficulty rises 2 or 3 fold. If you can make the first 4 or 5, you can probably learn to make them all. In short, a great buy!

If you have not read a book by Danielle Girard this is a good time to start and "Ruthless Game" is the book to buy. It is well written, with the perfect mix of mystery, suspense and even some romance. Alex Kincaid is an appealing heroine and her story is so compelling that I guarantee you will not put this book down until the final page.

I don't read much but when I picked up this book I couldn't put it down. Danielle Girard keeps you turning the pages.

This was my first Danielle Girard book and it will not be my last. The story moves along at a good pace, the main character is very likable, and I did not guess who the "bad guy" was.

Girard's second book is even better than her first. The plot is intense, fast paced and kept me guessing until the end. The conclusion blew me away. You will stay up past your bed time to finish this page turner!

I can't wait for another book from Girard!

THIS BOOK WAS AMAZING.SHE KEPT YOU AT THE EDGE OFYOUR SEAT.I COULDNT PT T DOWN UNTIL I READ THE LAST PAGE.I ONLY WSH THERE WAS A LITTLE ROMANCE BETWEEN ALEX AD GREG.OTHERWISEA GREAT READ.IAM EAGERLY AWAITING HER NEXT BOOK.

One of the better chess books that I've read and I've read alot of them. Well, I've bought a lot, haven't gotten around to reading them all :). Probably not much use to Master level players. I'm a "B" player and learned a lot from this book, particularly in organizing my thoughts during a game. The biography of Purdy in the first part of the book isn't terribly compelling. A nice addition to any collection of chess books, especially for players below 2000.

this book is a classic just like " MY SYSTEM " by NIMZOVICH. EVERY SERIOUS PLAYER OF CHESS MUST READ IT

AUTHOR (1906-79) was an international master,first correspondence world chess champion ,many times australian national chess champion and editor/writer in chess magazines(mostly australian chess magazines).this book of about 300 pages has three parts .his detailed biography (about 25 pages),his excellent chess articles(about 39 in number consisting of 184 pages)and annotation or commentry to his 50 games(about 83 pages).main strength of this book is his excellently written chess articles.in my humble opinion there are few chess teachers/authors of his strength.this book is not for beginners but for intermediate strength chess players (uscf rating 1300 and above )with at least a couple years of chess playind experience

If this book were Juliet, I'd be it's Romeo. There aren't enough superlatives I could lavish on Purdy's writing. There were so many "AHA!" moments when reading that my wife thought I was having an epileptic fit! Purdy's prose is superior yet completely comprehensible. The reader immediately sees his point. Beg, borrow or steal this book, it IS that good. The only negative (and it is a very small one) is the publisher's annoying advertisements spread throughout the book.

This is for me the first book on chess I have encountered that really puts first things first and explains a systematic method for thinking about any chess position. Even though the author makes very interesting remarks about strategical points he never forgets to remind you about the tactical problems on the board and a systematic way of taking care of these. For me definetely the most helpful book on chess that I ever read.

My daughter loves this book! Don't have time to write more, but it's great.

Once upon a time many years ago I watched my daughter Emma play with her cousin Brian, whom Emma lovingly referred to as Meatball, and I wondered how long it would take before he began to cry. At eight years old Meatball looked like a smaller version of Rhett Butler, he talked with a squeaky voice that was struggling to mature, and his blondish hair oddly matched the color of his skin. Every game between the two kids eventually turned sour--a bump of the head, a twisted arm or even harsh words would send the boy reeling into the kitchen looking for comfort. While I admired his theatrics, I did not acknowledge them. Emma, on the other hand, like to pretend he was her plaything, a doll she collected. Take, for example, the afternoon she dressed him up like a pirate and sent him out into the yard with a steak knife searching for the neighborhood tabby cat. Florence, the woman that lived across the street and spent most of her days with her nose between the blinds of her front window, knocked on my door and demanded that I do something. I invited her in for coffee but she ranted and raved, cluck-clucking about manners and responsibilities and child-rearing, none of which I particularly cared to hear about. Meatball ran inside and tugged at Florence's blue polyester pants. "Don't worry," he said. "I buried the knife in the backyard." Florence grabbed his wrist and told him that he needed to dig it back up. He sighed heavily, stared at the ground and then began to cry. I pulled the cigarettes from the pocket of my robe, lit it, and waved him inside.

Charlotte, Meatball's mother, picked him up every day at 5 o'clock. She sat on the couch with Meatball on her lap and listened as he recounted his day. She disregarded any of Emma's attempts to defend herself when Meatball claimed she had harmed him. But who would believe an eight-year-old boy that said his cousin had instructed him to hunt for prey and bring back souvenirs?

A real hit with our six year old. The illustrations are wonderful and the educational aspect is not totally obvious. A very entertaining book that's he took to share with his class at school.

Cute way of having students know how they use math in their everyday lives. Great explanation of the mathmatical idea behind the book.

I read this book to my sister's kids (ages 4-8) and they all really enjoyed it. They had a lot of fun with the story (and didn't even know they were learning). This book is great for kids.

This is an excellent reference work. The layout of the book is easy to use and the pictures are first class. This book surpasses many of the standard reference works available. Makes a great addition to a reference library on Lionel Trains.

this is the only book you will ever need if you collect older lionel trains it covers all the bases and lets me remember everything I forgot many years ago when I got my first train set extremely informative thanks I only wish there was a book to cover later years

Excellent amount of information on post Lionel trains. The catalog contains the highest amount of information on Lionel trains, the value and rarity for each model. Plenty of photos to provide visual reference for your research.

Now in a newly expanded and updated second edition, David Doylle's "Standard Catalog of Lionel Trains' showcases Lionel toy trains made from 1945 through 1969. Surveyed in an authoritative collector's reference this new edition packs over a thousand color photos with its expanded catalog , which includes variations on Lionel cars and accessories. Many collectors of Lionels will find come to consider this a major 'must have' bible of information, packing in color photos and charts of values for Lionel trains in all conditions.

The best or one of the best Lionel guides to postwar Lionel trains. The only guide that authoritatively lists all production variations over the years covered.

This is a book I picked up on a whim, and it blew me away. It seems to me more than just a lesson in dogs and ratting; it is a lesson about mind over matter. Here is a guy who made reading about rat hunting as exciting (to me) as stories I've read about big game hunting in Africa. Maybe it was just his indomitable spirit; either way it is a good, short read.

I'vebeen involved with terriers for 25+ years and have hunted with terriers for the last ten years. Brian Plummer is one of the true "characters" of the terrier world. A Great read!

I read of this book in a Forbes magazine some years ago, and was fascinated. I don't hunt at all, but was very diverted and horrified by the details of this sport, as well as an illustration of a side of Great Britain I never expect to see. Remarkably well written and enjoyable, but not for the squeamish.

Being new to the world of rat-hunting,I borrowed an old yellowed copy of this book from a friend.
I just couldn't put it down!
I own two terriers (but i'm still trying to persuade my better half to allow some ferrets into our family)
I learned some very valuable tips from this book that will save me hours of heartache when training my dogs.
Whilst being absolutely rivetting reading it is also a mine of information.
Written in plain English, a true classic.
Ihave'nt read anything on this subject that comes even close.

This book is a favorite of mine. It is one of the best books on hunting ever written. Despite its apocalyptic setting, "Tales of a Rat Hunting Man" contains more wildness and freedom than the vast majority of books and magazines on hunting. That description doesn't do it justice. This is a fun book, one that you won't be able to put down. The descriptions of rats and terriers and rat hunts will take you to a world you never knew existed. Rat hunting is a weird pursuit, and Plummer conveys it with humor, adventure and passion.
The introduction by Steve Bodio is worth the price of the book.
Read this book. You won't be disappointed.

There is a lot to like about "Tennis Confidential II". It consists of three parts - - The Great Debates, People and Trends That Change the Sport, and Compelling Characters Hold Court. I took my time reading this book because the topics discussed were not only interesting, but some were controversial and near and dear to my thoughts regarding tennis as a lifetime sport. Where else can you find current information on subjects such as: Is on-court coaaching good for tennis?; Tennis versus golf - - which sport is tougher?; How America can produce tennis champions again. Paul Fein not only gives his personal opinion, but also obtains feedback from diverse tennis sources.

One of my favorite chapters was "Tennis for the Bloody Fun of It", which is all about the Australian dynasty, such as Rosewall, Hoad, Laver, Emerson, Newcombe and many others. These players were extremely competitive on the court, but could have lunch or drinks together when not "doing battle".

I especially liked the interview section that included conversations with Noah, Edberg, Wilander, etc. The questions that the author asks, and the responses, reveal so much about the players. For me, these interviews were the highlight of the book. It shocked me to find out during an interview with Gene Scott, that in l977 the only research done to change the surface at the US Open from clay to hard was to ask the three top US players (Ashe, Smith and Connors) which surface they preferred. After the US Open became hard courts, every major college switched from clay to hard courts and the impact is still being felt today.

Throughout the book, the "Fascinating Facts" sections at the end of most chapters are so interesting. Example: Boris Becker once asked his wife to shoot him. You can expect to be entertained by this book!

Steve Sudarsky, A Nationally Ranked Senior Tennis Player

Here is another great book by Paul Fein! This book is for everyone not just tennis enthusiasts. It has stories in it that are very funny, very emotional and often opens your eyes to the inner feelings of a player. So often we watch a player play tennis and form an opinion about the player. This book showed me many other sides of many players.

One of the many chapters that I enjoyed was. "Tennis for the Bloody Fun of it." Paul tells about Roy Emerson, known to everyone as "Emmo," how he called everyone "Blue" because he often forgot their names -- and, win or lose, sang enthusiasticaly in the showers with his shorts on. For one of his favorite hits of the week, he crooned: Many a tear has to falllll But it's alllllll In a game All in that wonderful game.

Throughout the book there are fascinating facts that will surprise you!!

This book has so much in it that is enjoyable, anyone would enjoy reading it. I highly recommend this book!! I learned so much from it.

Tennis Confidential II provides a great window into all things tennis, covering a wide-range of tennis topics in a concise, entertaining manner.
This book has a bit of something for everyone, due to the breadth of the essays and interviews, and will likely satisfy readers whether they are serious tennis players/fans or simply general sports fans looking for an introduction to the sport.

As a youngish tennis enthusiast, who was introduced to the sport during the prime of the American "greatest generation"(Chang, Courier, Agassi, and Sampras), I especially enjoyed learning about players from previous generations that I was not aware of. Fein does an especially good job of tying these players of different generations together, connecting and comparing "old-time" and modern players seamlessly

The interviews that conclude this book are particularly strong. Fein has a knack for asking the right questions to his subjects that bring out their personalites. The interviews with the likes of Mats Wilander and Michael Chang (who I always perceived as being very bland) are fascinating.

This is an excellent book mixing current day tennis with tennis past, the light with the serious. Player profiles and background are quite interesting. His observation and points of view are well thought out and cogent with the exception of his infatuation with Pete Sampras. As much as I personally detest the stuff, to a lot of the world, playing tennis means playing on clay. Pete Sampras (like John McEnroe) was not an all time great all court player. Overall, a real FEIN book!

Paul Fein has done it again. He has written an excellent sequel to his earlier tennis books. This new book provides both an insightful history of the game of tennis, from its origins to the present, as well as in-depth interviews with many of the game's luminaries. He rates both men and women champions,giving impeccable reasoning for his choices. (The only quibble this reviewer has with the list of male champions is Fein's exclusion of Lew Hoad among the top ten.) Bringing his analysis right up to the present, Fein asks the questions of Roger Federer's place among the tennis greats. The author will have to write Tennis Confidential III to address the issue of Raphael Nadal's place in history after the latter's stunning victory over Federer in the Wimbledon 2008 finals.

Among the many fascinating topics in the book, Fein covers the skills peculiar to doubles and the incongruity of doubles which is favored by recreational players, but relegated far below singles by tournament directors. Another interesting point is Fein's comparison of tennis to golf. Tennis, he asserts, requires a much higher degree of athleticism (hand speed, reaction time, conditioning), as evidenced by the fact that tennis players such as Althea Gibson and Ellsworth Vines have been successful at golf, while no golfers have been successful at tennis at the highest levels. The book is replete with fascinating details on such subjects as the history and progress of women in tennis, the decline of the serve and volley game, feuds between players, and the direction that the U.S. must take to produce the game's elite, as it has in the past. Even tennis fanatics will wonder where Paul Fein got all of his information, including the priceless anecdote of Art Larsen,U.S. Open champion in 1950, being excluded from a tournament and then hiring a plane to create rain over the tennis courts as a way to gain revenge by forcing a rain-out.

Fein is quite strong in his opinions about the future direction of tennis (such as the use of tiebreakers and the place of doubles in the game). As a lifelong player and lover of tennis, Fein gives valuable tips on how to "fire up" the game such as bringing back serving and volleying, connecting players and fans more closely, and stopping the persistent stalling in major matches.

All in all, very highly recommended.

If you are interested in the art of embroidering with metalic threads, this book has what you need -- fab illustrations, ideas, how to information.

This book inspires me to take some steps further in quilting. I like the traditional quilts, but I always look for something new, for me this is new and so beautiful! I hope I can learn a lot from the pictures and the stories in it. So much detail! Practice, practice, practice!

I love this book it is very informative and love her techniques it is worth every penny

Ellen Anne's book is much like the class she teaches, this book reinforces the principles she uses in her daily work. If you want to thread paint like a pro, this is the book for you.

This book is in the process of being reissued by the publisher. Expected release is sometime in September.