Beginners Books

There are several problems with most cookbooks. First, they are written primarily for those already knowledgeable about cooking- neophytes or casual chefs need not apply. Second, they require absurd fractions of ingredients- once one adds one half a can of cream of mushroom soup to a dish, what is one supposed to do with the other half? Third, the recipies are written in densely packed text and with often vague and confusing instructions. A person who goes to a cookbook with the best will in the world will all too often be turned away to flee back into the arms of Swanson TV Dinners, frozen pizzas, and Hamburger Helper.

Wolf in Chef's Clothing is a cookbook for idiots. No, worse than idiots: bachelors. Using simple diagrams and amusing cartoons, supplemented with a bit of humorous writing, the cookbook presents dozens of recipes ranging from breakfast to after-dinner cocktails. The recipes have been greatly simplified- no 1/3 teaspoons or 3/4 cups, no 1/2 cans or 1/4 onions. The resulting dishes, while perhaps not up to the exacting standards of a three-star restaurant, definitely delight the senses. Even the simple hamburger evolves beyond a mere meat patty into a taste delight!

The only flaw in this book is that it's a reprint- it was first published in 1950. Certain social attitudes, especially towards the fair sex (this book was written for single men on the make by a writer for Esquire, remember), are extremely dated. So are a few of the dishes- I for one don't know of ANYONE who puts grape jelly in an "American" omlet! Despite this, the book rises head, shoulders, and bushy tail above the standard run of cookbooks. It's only a shame there aren't more modern cookbooks with the charm and simplicity of this book.

No bachelor pad should be without a copy!

I recently acquired an original version of "Wolf in Chef's Clothing" and had to pick myself up off the floor, where I happened to be rolling around in laughter. It's a great concept, and what fun to use!

First published in 1950, Robert H. Loeb, Jr.'s Wolf In Chef's Clothing is a unique "picturebook" approach for educating men on how to prepare basic recipes for breakfast, lunch, dinner, midnight snacks, and barbecues. From omelets to Shrimps Cobra, from canapes to Martini's, the step-by-step picture-based instructions are fool proof and will instruct even the most basic male novice to the mysteries of food and drink preparation. Whether a married man seeking to give his spouse a break in the kitchen, or a bachelor seeking to impress friends and family, Wolf In Chef's Clothing is sure to enhance any meal time or special celebration event.

Yes, this book is a throw-back to the height of the original "lounge culture" era (all the way back in [gasp!] 1950!), but it still holds its own today. The main premise of the book is very simple...

You're a suave man-about-town, you know the difference between a Manhattan and a Martini, and will be entertaining friends, guests, or (especially) that "special someone" you want to be intimate with. Sparkling conversation and chilled beer will only go so far. They have to be fed, and delivered pizza isn't going to cut it! If all you know about the refrigerator is that it keeps beer cold and it's where you stick the leftover Chinese take-out, this book comes to the rescue.

The recipes are so simplified, as a female co-worker friend of mine likes to say, "even a man can do it!" But there are no quarter-teaspoon or third-ounce measurements here. Everything is either full cup, half cup, full tablespoon or half tablespoon. All the ingredients are drawn in easy to understand pictures, and the instructions are in comic strip format. If you can count, you can cook a meal. Guys, this cook book is for us!

If all you've ever made in the kitchen was macaroni and cheese or the occasional sandwich, you're in for a shock as to what you can do! There are ultra-simplified recipes for such dishes as Eggs Demi-Benedict, Sea Food Dorothea, Mignon et Bearnaise, Shrimps Cobra, Lamb Steak Figaro, Welsh Rarebit (spelled here as "Rabbit"), Spaghetti da Vinci, even Duck Vincent.

There are suggestions for breakfast, and even instructions on how to use something called a "vaculator" to make coffee (just in case you have one kicking around the bungalow, or find one at the thrift store).

If breakfast or the main course isn't enough, there's recipes for picnic lunches, cocktail canapes, salads and salad dressings, even four whole chapters dealing with drinks (Before, During and After-Dinner Drinks, and there's even a chapter entitled "Drinks That Have Nothing To Do With Meals").

On the Politically Incorrect side, there are suggested recipies for four different "types" of ladies; the athletic type ("who prefers a game a tennis to a shot of 3-star Henness[ey]"), the indoor type ("soft round and fluffy, who thinks Alexander the Great the best cocktail ever made"), the intellectual type ("more an I.Q. than a Q.T."), and the 3-B type ("brains, bonds and beauty").

The author of this tome was Robert H. Loeb, Jr., food and drink editor for Esquire magazine in the 1950's. The illustrations were by Jim Newhall, an ad agency director from Chicago. The men knew what they were doing. The fact that this book has been brought back in print after 50 years, and without a word or picture changed, holds testament to that! Some of the illustrations are a bit dated (the fashions & quasi-McCarthyesque references to Russia), but that just adds to the book's charm. It was even given a glowing review in the January 2001 edition of Playboy magazine!

After you've tackled this book, you'll be ready for other cookbooks. Yes, guys, there are other ways of getting food on the table than take-out, delivery or TV dinners from the microwave.

Be you lounge culture hipster, frustrated batchelor, or just someone who's sick of eating out a styrofoam clamshell, this book is a worthy purchase! Read it, use it, treasure it! You will not be disappointed.

I had trouble figuring out what to do to teach a multi level ESL class. In this book, the vocabulary is so diverse and detailed that even the higher level students have something useful to learn and it's still not over the head of the lower levels. However it is almost pure vocabulary learning with a bare minimum of dialog activity. You'd have to supplement this with something else like the Word by Word workbook for practice and reinforcement. Also may need a supplemental book that focuses in on grammar. If your class is level specific, the Side by Side book for your level or Foundations for ESL Literacy would be my advice. BTW both are by the same pair of authors. I think Molinsky and Bliss are demigods of ESL!

I tutor English to ESL students and combine this workbook with the Word By Word Picture Dictionary. This workbook is perfect to those between beginners and intermediate levels of English proficiency. The workbook has helpful exercises and helps the student apply the vocabulary learned in the dictionary. I especially like how the student is forced to visually associate words with meanings rather than jump to their native language for a definition. I highly recommend this book!

Un libro para hispanoparlantes muy util para comenzar nuestras primeras herramientas del ingles.

Excelente libro para comenzar a aprender el idioma Ingles y aumentar el vocabulario con dibujos y las palabras en nuestro idioma, ademas contiene un glosario de terminos en ingles y español donde podras encontrar muchas palabras facilmente.Tambien en cada pagina hay ejercicios para que comienzes a practicar tu nuevo idioma, muy util lo recomiendo para hispanoparlantes.

The story and illustrations are absolutely delightful. Children love the scenes of giant vegetables and pasta cooking out of control. But beyond the lively fun is a subtle but extremely important message: not everything worthwhile is immediately evident or comes new from the store. If you'd really like your children to appreciate second hand treasures, buy a USED copy of the book!

My 5 year old daughter loves this book. The story unfolds in a lovely way, with people buying innocent-looking items at a yard sale that turn out to have surprising, magical qualities. At first the staid townspeople dislike the surprising items and want to return them, but then with the help of the town's children, they learn to appreciate their newfound treasures.

The book is full of charming, warm watercolor illustrations that perfectly compliment the text.

Talk about caveat emptor! Mr. Flotsam decides to have a yard sale and everyone comes, curious to see the goods. People buy, they take their goodies home, and then it gets weird. Mr. Rotelli's yard sale pasta machine continually makes pasta without ever turning off! The typewriter Mrs. Milton bought is writing its own novel, with no assistance from her! The telephone Mrs. Applebee bought rings with calls from Mrs. Applebee's ancestors! Everyone is confused and nervous and quite out of sorts until they start helping each other figure out that this is actually all kind of fun.

Mitra Modarressi (daughter of novelist Anne Tyler) pulls together an unusually imaginative story with her own softly-colored but vividly rendered illustrations. All in all, a delightful book for all ages.

A must buy for elementary school teachers as this book is a perfect read aloud! So many great things happen in this page-turning story! The illustrations are vivid and lively! Outstanding! BUY IT!

My best friend and I have loved this since the third grade and we are now going into the seventh grade. In the third grade when we discovered this book we put a yellow paper clip on the page with the sweetest poem and since then we have both left the school that the book belonged to. The paper clip is still there today and most people in the school know about the paper clip so they don't move it. They all know the story.

I thought that this book was well thought out. Though, this book gears to middle and elementary aged children. If you want to have a cute little autograog signing inside a yaerbook or autogragh book, this is the book to use. Inside the book are 11 different sections such as, "I Love You, I Love You", and "Forget-Me-Not".I'd recommend this book to any middle school aged child to read.

I had this book in the fourth grade and was delighted to find it available used on Amazon.com! It was just as wonderful as I remembered it and my kids love it, too!

Let me start out by saying that my mother had this book when she was little. She loved this book and still remembers many of these little verses. Such as: "You love yourself, You think you're grand, You go to the movies and hold your hand, You put your arm around your waist, And when you get fresh, You slap your face!"

"Grandma has a habit, Of chewing in her sleep, She chews on Grandpa's whiskers, And thinks it's shredded wheat."

Let me tell you, my children read this book and the excitment that they recieved is out of this world! The characters, Ohff and Grote were absloutly amazing! The animation is fun and colorful! If my children loved it so will yours - Highly recommended!!!

I am a regular reader of the Chicago Parent Magazine, and just recently I read an article in the March 2002 edition that gives the Yuggs a great review! I purchased the book, and I could not even disagree a bit, I logged on and picked it up, absolutley amazing. This story is filled with great characters and very animated illustrations. This will definitly be able to fullfill the imagination of your children as it did for mine!

The illustrations were fantastic depicting a fun and goofy story! The story flows very well and the message is simple and understanding. A great book for all the young ones!

Ohff and Grote are halarious, and the illustration for this book was fantastic! This has really become one of my kids favorite books, and we cannot wait for another book in the Yuggs series to come out!

About a year ago a teacher/performer friend asked me who my first guitar teacher was. Larry McCabe, quite a few years ago. My friend looked surprised, and told me he uses Larry's books in his own teaching, and that Larry had written something like 80 books to date. I had no idea, as Larry was in the process of writing his first book when I had lessons with him. So when it came time to brush up on some basic blues licks for a band I'm in I ended up obtaining some of Larry's books.

This book of blues turnarounds is where I started. What a great book - full of excellent turnaround licks. At this point I've only played through about half of them note for note, but have used those as a basis for coming up with my own licks. And to me, that is the mark of a great book - lots of useful information if read note-for-note, but can also be used as a springboard for creating new ideas.

The licks I've learned from the book thus far are all in the key of C, but can be easily used in other keys if one has a basic knowledge of the notes on the fretboard. I'd highly recommend this book for a beginner wanting to learn stock blues licks, or intermediate players who need to expand their blues vocabulary.

An Excellent Choice for the Early Intermediate Blues Guitarist

A turnaround is a lick played at the end of a section of music. A blues turnaround would be played in measures 11-12 of a 12-bar blues, or measures 7-8 of an eight-bar blues.

Electric urban blues turnarounds are fairly easy to play, and the difference from one to another is subtle. Having the ability to play a variety of turnarounds is an important skill in blues guitar playing. This is the best book I know of that addresses exclusively the subject of electric blues guitar turnarounds.

This a book for a VERY ambitious beginner, or an early intermediate guitarist who has an interest in Chicago blues in the classic style of Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf, Jimmy Reed, etc.

The licks are all arranged in the key of C. This is for ease of analysis and comparison. The user is encouraged to transpose the licks to other keys - a worthwhile project for exploring and learning the fingerboard. Very, very good practice for learning the art of blues phrasing.

Great book from one of our leading authors. My students (and myself) have consistently benefited from the interesting instruction contained here.

My students and I work from several of Larry McCabe's guitar books and find that the books produce consistently high results.

This book, like the others, is exceptionally well crafted, specific in intent, and the guitar lines are accurately written exactly as they are heard on the CD. Larry McCabe books are the work of a dedicated teacher who has achieved a high level of respect nationally in the field of music education.

Larry asked me to write a review for this book, and I am happy to do so. The object of this book is to teach the art of playing blues guitar turnarounds to a guitarist who has some prior experience but is just beginning to explore electric blues.

If a student knows how to bend the strings and perhaps play slurs, slides, and hammers, blues turnarounds are not difficult to play. What is important is to play them authentically and with conviction. This book does a very good job in advancing those objectives.

A component of this book that is quite effective is that every phrase is written in the Key of C. The student should then transpose each lick to other keys, a desirable skill that encourages individual incentive and ability to solve arranging problems.

The turnarounds sound exactly like the ones played on classic blues recordings by the great artists from Chicago and other urban areas.

I know other teachers who swear by Larry's books, and I am one of them. Great book- effective in its aims, ambitious content, fun to work through, and a great value.

Anyone starting out to write should buy The ABC of POD, ..first! Clearly written, easy to understand, an informative guide to the road ahead. Highly recommended.

Dehanna Bailee gives hopeful authors the information they need in order to make one of their most important publishing decisions. If you are considering a fee-based POD publishing service, you must read this book.

Patricia Fry, author of "The Right Way to Write, Publish and Sell Your Book." http://www.matiilijapress.com/rightway.html

POD stands for "publish on demand" and is an industry that sprang up with the advent of desktop publishing to provide a service for authors seeking to publish their own work, but who could not afford the costs involved with traditional publishing practices. There are now dozens of POD companies offering a variety of services to transform a manuscript into a published book, and a variety of charges for these services. The key distinguishing feature of POD publication is the ability to print one book at a time as ordered by the buyers. This eliminates traditional minimum print runs, book storage costs and associated inventory costs overhead. The ABC's Of POD: A Beginners Guide To Fee-Based Print-on-Demand Publishing by POD expert Dehanna Bailee is an ideal introduction hallmarked with straightforward, easy-to-read chapters featuring "think spot" questions by section. There are more than forty additional exploratory inquires, a glossary, supplementary recommended reading selections, and invaluable lists of "Other tips and Ideas" and "Questions to ask present authors". If you are an aspiring author wanting to self-publish, then give a careful reading to Dehanna Bailee's The ABC's Of POD. Then visit Dehanna Bailee's online "POD Database" at http://dehanna.com.

Prior to reading this book I had only coached T ball. After this simple to read & instructive guide I was able to successfully coach a machine pitch team of young kids (7 & 8 year olds). The team I coached ended up with a losing record but provided a solid instructional format for practices and a great game day experience for all the kids & parents. The skills taugh in the guide to coach is great for young teams (probably T-ball through age 10) because if focuses on coaching the fundamentals & providing a healthy atmosphere for the kids & parents. I suggest this guide for any beginner coach.

Great book. Help guide our youth to play the game better. Will use as a reference many times in the future.

This book was exactly what I needed as a first time coach - with zero experience. It is an easy read with numerous photos of little leaguers performing the actions described. It not only covers the basic rules and offensive and defensive tactics, but goes into the psychology of what makes a positive coaching experience for both the coach, kids and parents. Most helpful were the numerous examples of drills for practices. Kids get bored and distracted easily and this book gives you numerous tips on keeping them focused on learning the game and still having fun.

I really enjoyed this book. It is a definite must for all expectant mothers, especially first timers, and anyone anticipating pregnancy. I also think it would be great for Dads as well. I found this book to be thorough, detailed and very easy to read and understand. It is an excellent source of reference for valuable information and answers any and all questions that I may have had. I couldn't think of a thing that wasn't covered in this book. Knowledge is necessary, beneficial and very comforting. To have a book that is this informative and enlightening at this most important time of our lives is truly strengthening. This book addresses all aspects of pregnancy in a user friendly, fun and lighthearted way. I highly recommend this book!

I wish I'd had a book like this around when I was an expectant parent. I'd have read it cover to cover, many times over (which I did, anyway, even though my youngest is now a teenager). That is simply how good this book is.

What makes it a standout:

1. It has sections on EVERY stage of pregnancy, from the very first days to the final trimester. As soon as that pregnancy test comes back positive, an expectant parent could use the detailed list in the first chapters to find the right doctor and hospital, as well as learn what separates one hospital from another. This helps maximize the chances of a good fit in all areas - parent, doctor and hospital.

2. There are case studies based on actual patients along with lively comments from the co-author, herself a mother of five. The combined medical and parental perspectives are a delight to read.

3. The book was co-authored by both a doctor and a parent. One author is a doctor who has delivered over a thousand babies, the other a publisher who is the mother of five children herself. As a result, there is plenty of medical detail combined with down to earth questions and answers, information that anyone can read and understand.

4. First-time parents will be prepared for the physcial and emotional changes that occur in each trimester of pregnancy, from morning sickness to mood swings . Reading this section made me realize yet again how much I could have benefited from this book (and how I could have saved my obstetrician from many a panicky phone call). There is much reassurance here for the first time expectant parent - and even experienced expectant parents may learn something new (I certainly did).

5. All the practical matters are covered, from finding great maternity clothes to dealing with work.

6. Finally, the glossary at the back of the book will keep you from shaking your head and muttering, "Uh-huh..." with a glassy stare when your doc starts throwing around medical terms like 'Rhogham' or 'Pfannestiel skin incision'.

In short, you can't do better than this one. Highly recommended!

There are many great milestones in a woman's life which are easily and happily expected and accepted. The memorable firsts may include first day of school, first dance, first date, first prom, first love and first pregnancy. Most of these rites of passage are joyful events but some are fraught with fear or dread.
Dr. John Q. Adams' Absolute Beginner's Guide to Pregnancy is written specifically to allay the fears of a woman's first pregnancy. Dr. Adams is a Board Certified Obstetrician-Gynecologist who has provided many years of women's health care. His book is a clear, concise, well written work which deals with all aspects of pregnancy and early motherhood. It is easy to read and deals with a plethora of information which is easily understood by the lay reader. All aspects of pregnancy and delivery are clearly explained. The chapters explaining prepregnancy preparation, hospital and caregiver selection are especially informative. Each of the three trimesters of pregnancy specifically provides information on maternal changes and development of the baby. Concerns such as exercise, circumcision, work, breast or bottle feeding anesthesia during labor are presented in a crisp and unbiased fashion. I especially appreciated the labor, delivery and cesarean section chapters
This book is a must for any woman who is pregnant and especially if it is her first time.
I am certain that this tome will become a classic of pregnancy, labor, delivery, newborn baby and after delivery information.

Well written and straight to the point. Quickly gets into "how to apply" mode with a good introduction. Has enough computer terminology & theory to let you know what's going on, and emphasizes practical side.

It is a good book and it may be quite useful for a beginner. It is little outdated on some subjects but by all means useful. Take a look on Linux and UNIX for a beginner training suite, 4DVDs + 2CDs includes 4 Unix Academy Certifications ed.2008 that is a real training class. For some reason the books is out of print. It deserves update and second edition.

This an extremely easy to read book. It is enjoyable. She uses our common language. She made UNIX an interesting thing to learn. Please read just 2 pages and decide for yourself.