Specialized Books

Simply stated, this is the best book on bonsai. Amazingly, it has photo documentation of dozens of bonsai trees, and what techniques he used on them, over the 20 years of their development. It is a detailed and brilliantly planned how-to that other books just don't touch. It has advanced techniques and even instructions for concrete pot making. This book is chock-full of information. As the title of the book states, his trees have a natural, poetic look to them that will inspire you. The author is a true master artist. If you are serious about bonsai, this book is an absolute must-have.

This is one of the best books on creating and understanding Bonsai that I have ever read. The pictures are top class; the explanations are easy for the beginner, yet exciting for the advanced Bonsai keeper. A source of plenty ideas and inspiration.

If you want to become a Bonsai enthusiast this book is for you. Everything you could ever want to know on how to care for your little trees.

One can tell that Dave Joyce has given hundreds of lectures on Bonsai and I can not think of any question that is not answered in this epic work.

If you have been studying everything you can get your hands on and are looking for something beyond the basic "tree identification/how to prune" book, then this is the book for you.

This is a beautiful book that documents the author's many trees, from beginning to end, with beautiful photos and many pages of the author's tips, tricks, and experiences with each tree profiled.

I've learned more about the progression of bonsai growth from this book than all the websites/blogs/library books I've seen.

You will not regret buying this book.

As an avid gardener, but newbie to bonsai, all I can say is that this book is inspiring. I had been toying around with the thought of getting into bonsai for about 5 years. I have 5-10 books on the subject, but always felt that I didn't have all of the info. This book not only is a great how to book, but is also filled with photos of the author's beautiful trees. He does a great job showing his love for the art, and showing how you can do it also. The only thing that this book is lacking is a sequel, so I thank him and his wife for making the completion of this book a priority. It has given me the confidence to move forward!

This is the best gardening book I've ever read. It's written in very simple language so that it's easy to understand. I've already been able to do a few of the projects by myself and that's something.

Good basic garden book to doing your own garden projects. Now if we both could have the time to do them all!

Easy Garden Projects: 200 Do-It-Yourself Ideas To Help You Grow Your Best Garden Ever, knowledgeably compiled and expertly edited by Barbara Pleasant, is a simply outstanding collection of innovative projects and intelligent ideas for bringing greater ease to gardening in a good many of its diverse aspects. Including instructional details of objects and innovations such as a Long-Handled Watering Wand, fashioning a Flashy Scarecrow, and making a Twig Tower in a pot, to making a Light Box from a drawer, weaving a wheat Good Luck Charm, and building a Rock Swale, Easy Garden Projects is an invaluable and practical "how to" reference. Easy Garden Projects is very highly recommended to all gardening specialists, hobbyists, and enthusiasts for its wealth of fun and inexpensive tips and projects.

Easy Garden Projects: 200 Do-It-Yourself Ideas To Help You Grow Your Best Garden Ever, knowledgeably compiled and expertly edited by Barbara Pleasant, is a simply outstanding collection of innovative projects and intelligent ideas for bringing greater ease to gardening in a good many of its diverse aspects. Including instructional details of objects and innovations such as a Long-Handled Watering Wand, fashioning a Flashy Scarecrow, and making a Twig Tower in a pot, to making a Light Box from a drawer, weaving a wheat Good Luck Charm, and building a Rock Swale, Easy Garden Projects is an invaluable and practical "how to" reference. Easy Garden Projects is very highly recommended to all gardening specialists, hobbyists, and enthusiasts for its wealth of fun and inexpensive tips and projects.

Would you like to start a garden yet have no idea how to begin? Here's the answer.

Beginning with soil preparation, seeds and plantings on through to watering, fertilizing and pest control, the editors of Yankee Magazine provide new and creative projects as well, including a scarecrow, a slug jug and a squirrel spinner. Don't forget the compost pile!

A detailed guide for amateurs and experienced gardeners alike.

I received this book as a gift several years ago and I look at it for information and ideas every year. I have two other kitchen garden books but this one is the best. It is a gorgeous book full color with fantastic photos and ideas for every kind of space including tiny city balconies (perhaps the previous reviewer missed this chapter). Most importantly I have created some fantastic vegetable gardens using some of the ideas in this book over the years. My neighbors come over and take pictures.

I ordered this book from the library and after reading it, felt this was one I simply had to buy. Out of the seven "kitchen garden" books I've read or browsed recently, this one not only inspires with photos and drawings, but also provides extensive information on the variety of vegetables available today by seed and how to grow and harvest them. Then it goes one step further and provides suggestions on how to prepare them. As a seasoned flower gardener just now dipping my toes into the world of vegetable gardening, I found this particular book does the best job of guiding the new kitchen gardener from start (planning the garden) to finish (eating your results).

Anna Pavord is a celebrated Great Britain gardening author and editor. I share her philosophy that order coupled with profusion, is the hallmark of the best kitchen gardens. She believes that there is no reason for vegetables and fruits to provide any less drama in the garden than flowers.

This book offers advice on basic cultivation techniques, including sowing and thinning, crop rotation, and growing in greenhouses. The book presents more than 450 attractive color photographs, along with very well illustrated planting designs from a sophisticated potager to a rustic mixed hedge.

Colorists will find the excellent photographs are a font of inspiration, and will take note of her adroit ability to control shape, form, color, and textures to produce stunningly decorative kitchen gardens. One example is a large formal herb garden in Kinoith, Ireland. Massive buttresses of purple-leaved sage prop up a showy cardoon, and mounds of nasturtiums cavort at the feet of a monumental stand of lovage.

She displays designs that are not only decorative, but are indispensable to the avid cook. This was a discount table find for which I am greatly pleased to own and recommend to others as a valuable source of inspiration. It is a most delightful book.

The pictures and information in this book are gorgeous & informative. The only issue I had was that though vegetable gardens are meant to be useful & practical, in many instances the attractive aspects of her gardens neccessitated the plants going to seed, therefore becoming inedible. The gardens were also often quite larger than the average person might want to manage; but I enjoyed dreaming about having the energy & space to implement her designs.

This is my favorite gardening book. I put in a vegetable garden this year and THIS book was the basis of my handiwork. Beauty and bountiful harvests are the result of hard work. This book was an inspiration for me.

This book, as does most of her stuff, will turn your world view upside down. Do you feel secure in what you believe? How do you know? Like taking LSD in book form. Read 'Borderline', 'The Last Magician', 'Tiger in the Tiger Pit', for a similar experience. Janette - e-mail me

As is usually the case with Hospital, you start out slow and even a bit bored - but continue on and soon you find yourself saying "wow" at both the plot and the prose. "Spellbinding" is frequently used for alot of fiction in general, - for Hospital it fits. This is one you will sit down and read again as if taking a trip to a private magical place

There seems to be no end to the great stories that Mr. Hospital spins. In this, her fifth book, a young woman named Charade Ryan from the Australian rainforest travels to Canada, then to Boston in search of her English father Nicholas Truman. Her earthy mother, Bea Ryan, mother of ten children by as many men, at first offers little help in this young woman's quest as she advises her daughter to "let sleeping dogs lie." But as we have come to expect by now, in Ms. Hospital's stories things are seldom as they seem.

This writer's trademarks are all here: (1) the many references to other literary works and quotations from other writers: Captain Cook, Robert Oppenheimer, Primo Levi, Jorge Luis Borges, Claudine Vegh's I DIDN'T SAY GOODBYE: INTERVIEWS WITH CHILDREN OF THE HOLOCAUST and finally THE BOOK OF THE THOUSAND NIGHTS AND ONE NIGHT-- it becomes apparent that Charade is a modern day Scheherazade as she tells parts of her story night after night to the older MIT physics professor Koenig in an effort to make their affair last. (2) As always, Ms. Hospital writes about serious subjects: memory-- that the process of recollection is imperfect at best-- the Holocaust, a child's continuing effort to know her parents. (3) Of course, this author teases us with her prose-- "What quantumleaped me?"-- and (4) makes profound statements about relationships: ". . . a marriage has begun to end long before one partner moves out." "On the other hand. . . a marriage certainly does not end with the final decree of the divorce." And finally: "It is impossible to live with someone who is deeply and dangerously unhappy. And it is even harder to leave. . ."

This novel is at once cerebral but also deeply emotional. You won't be able to put it down.

If you want a trip to where the arcane world of new physics meets the tropical wonderland of northern Australia, Janette Hospital Turner will take you there. Her Australian character is in search of her father at a university in the United States and spins in and out of a professor's life like an electron knocked out of its orbit. The story also takes you into her past, and her family's past, to a dead man in the woods who she befriends, to rural Australia with all its toughness and lushness. A book to be savoured, not least for its kick-in-the-pants twist at the end.

Superb book. Guenon is a truly profound thinker and well-versed in spiritual philosophy. His philosophical exposition is subtle and masterly, drawing on a wide variety of knowledge and a real understanding of the trials of the mystical life.

This book discusses, in the first few essays, the nature, source and purpose of mystical symbolism in general. The rest of the book tackles many of the symbols of the Western tradition. Each symbol has its own short essay, previously published in journals, and every essay gives much food for contemplation. Guenon doesn't expound a personal philosophy so much as draw together a scholarly summary of the world's esoteric teachings and fill it with his penetrating insight. His approach shows a deep understanding of Neo-Platonist tradition. A fascinating and valuable book - not the easiest of reads, but certainly not dry or merely intellectual, and the shortness of the essays makes them digestible.

This book is a magnificent recompilation of studies of René Guénon about symbolism, accomplished with extreme dedication by his follower Michel Vâlsan, published originally in 1962, by Gallimard, in France. - But, actually, what is a symbol? - According to the tradition, the symbols make the intermediation between the spiritual world and the manifested world, where we are at present. It can be inferred then the transcendental role that the symbols represent for all the traditional forms without exception, from the Hinduism to Islam, including the Buddhism, Taoism, Judaism, Christianity and all the other authentic doctrines. It is important to mark that the work is not destined exclusively to studious or academics, but to all that have interest on the subject. Guénon demonstrates great domain and mastery, without being obscure or impenetrable. These are nothing less than 75 chapters distributed in 8 thematic parts, embracing a wide approach that contemplates several traditional aspects of practically all the religions and doctrines today existent. René Guénon in tells us of the symbols of " The Center and of the World ", in the ancient traditions (like Druids, for instance), dedicating to this theme 10 studies, among them, "The symbolic flowers", "The Guardians of the Holy Land", "The Zodiac and the cardinal points", and "The letter G and the swastika". Another general theme is the construtive symbolism, with 11 specific studies, among them "Lapsit exillis", "Black Stone and cubic stone", "The dome and the wheel", "The narrow door". About the axial symbolism, we have "The tree of the world", "The symbolism of the stairway", "The passage of the waters"; about the symbolism of the heart, we have "The heart and the brain", "The eye that sees everything" and much more. "Fundamental Symbols: the Universal Language of Sacred Science" is a very important and indispensable book to anyone who has true interest for this subject, of capital importance for all the religions and doctrines. Luiz Pontual IRGET

Este livro é uma magnífica recompilação de estudos de René Guénon sobre simbolismo, realizada com extrema dedicação por seu seguidor Michel Vâlsan, publicada originalmente em 1962, pela Gallimard, na França. - Mas, afinal, o que é um símbolo ? - Segundo a tradição, os símbolos fazem a intermediação entre o mundo espiritual e o mundo manifestado, onde nos encontramos presentemente. Pode-se depreender, por isso, a importância verdadeiramente transcendental que os símbolos representam para todas as formas tradicionais sem exceção, desde o Hinduísmo até o Islã, passando pelo Budismo, Taoísmo, Judaísmo, Cristianismo e todas as demais doutrinas autênticas. É importante assinalar que a obra não se destina exclusivamente a estudiosos ou acadêmicos, mas a todos que tenham interesse sobre o assunto. Guénon demonstra grande domínio e maestria, sem ser obscuro ou impenetrável, muito pelo contrário. Ao todo, são nada menos que 75 estudos/capítulos distribuídos em 8 partes/temas, abrangendo um amplo leque que contempla vários aspectos tradicionais de praticamente todas as religiões e doutrinas hoje existentes. René Guénon nos fala dos símbolos de "Centro e do Mundo", nas tradições antigas ( como os Druídas, por exemplo ), dedicando a este tema 10 estudos, entre eles, "As flores simbólicas", "Os Guardiães da Terra Santa", "O Zodíaco e os pontos cardeais", e "A letra G e a swastika". Outro tema geral abordado é o "Simbolismo Construtivo", com 11 estudos específicos, entre eles "Lapsit exillis", "Pedra negra e pedra cúbica", "Pedra bruta e pedra talhada", "O domo e a roda", "A porta estreita" e outros. Sobre o simbolismo axial, temos "A árvore do mundo", "O simbolismo da escada, " A passagem das águas", "Laços e nós"; sobre o simbolismo do coração, temos "O coração e o cérebro", "O olho que tudo vê" e outros. O Instituto René Guénon de Estudos Tradicionais há vários anos vem lecionando sobre temas tradicionais, e seu curso básico "Olhar Oriental", assim como os demais, são inteiramente fundamentados sobre a obra magistral de René Guénon. "Símbolos Fundamentais da Ciência Sagrada" é um livro importantíssimo e indispensável a quem tem verdadeiro interesse pelo assunto, de importância capital para todas as religiões e doutrinas.

LUIZ PONUAL IRGET

Este livro é uma magnífica recompilação de estudos de René Guénon sobre simbolismo, realizada com extrema dedicação por seu seguidor Michel Vâlsan, publicada originalmente em 1962, pela Gallimard, na França. - Mas, afinal, o que é um símbolo ? - Segundo a tradição, os símbolos fazem a intermediação entre o mundo espiritual e o mundo manifestado, onde nos encontramos presentemente. Pode-se depreender, por isso, a importância verdadeiramente transcendental que os símbolos representam para todas as formas tradicionais sem exceção, desde o Hinduísmo até o Islã, passando pelo Budismo, Taoísmo, Judaísmo, Cristianismo e todas as demais doutrinas autênticas. É importante assinalar que a obra não se destina exclusivamente a estudiosos ou acadêmicos, mas a todos que tenham interesse sobre o assunto. Guénon demonstra grande domínio e maestria, sem ser obscuro ou impenetrável, muito pelo contrário. Ao todo, são nada menos que 75 estudos/capítulos distribuídos em 8 partes/temas, abrangendo um amplo leque que contempla vários aspectos tradicionais de praticamente todas as religiões e doutrinas hoje existentes. René Guénon nos fala dos símbolos de "Centro e do Mundo", nas tradições antigas ( como os Druídas, por exemplo ), dedicando a este tema 10 estudos, entre eles, "As flores simbólicas", "Os Guardiães da Terra Santa", "O Zodíaco e os pontos cardeais", e "A letra G e a swastika". Outro tema geral abordado é o "Simbolismo Construtivo", com 11 estudos específicos, entre eles "Lapsit exillis", "Pedra negra e pedra cúbica", "Pedra bruta e pedra talhada", "O domo e a roda", "A porta estreita" e outros. Sobre o simbolismo axial, temos "A árvore do mundo", "O simbolismo da escada, " A passagem das águas", "Laços e nós"; sobre o simbolismo do coração, temos "O coração e o cérebro", "O olho que tudo vê" e outros. O Instituto René Guénon de Estudos Tradicionais há vários anos vem lecionando sobre temas tradicionais, e seu curso básico "Olhar Oriental", assim como os demais, são inteiramente fundamentados sobre a obra magistral de René Guénon. "Símbolos Fundamentais da Ciência Sagrada" é um livro importantíssimo e indispensável a quem tem verdadeiro interesse pelo assunto, de importância capital para todas as religiões e doutrinas. LUIZ PONUAL IRGET

This is an excellent guide for anybody who wants to learn HTML. Lemay does a wonderful job of thouroughly explaining every tag in HTML 3.2. The book does really live up to it's name, within a week I was comfortably writing web pages with links, images, tables, and frames. I highly reccomend this book.

The title of this book says it all--you CAN teach yourself HTML in a week using Ms. Lemay's step-by-step process. She begins with basics that any computer-literate user can apply, and she progresses through everything an HTML novice needs to know to construct a well-thought-out web site! My first pass through her tutorial took me a little less than a week, and now I keep this book beside me while putting my sites together. I was a COMPLETE HTML NEWBIE when I picked up this book...one month later I'm designing web pages as a sideline! That alone should make you read this book!

This book is divided into days, each day incorporating two chapters. Day one explains what a web page is, how to access it, the different types of layout for your web pages, and gives you information about the different types of browsers. By the end of day one you should have an idea of what you want on your web page and how you want it organized. Day two explains some of the basic HTML tags and also explains the anchor tag for creating links. Day three teaches you about lists, other formatting tags such as bold type and explains about HTML editors. Day four teaches you about Netscape and Internet explorer extensions and how to create tables. Day five teaches you about using images, sound and video in your web documents. Day six explains the Do's and Don'ts when creating web documents and gives you some examples of what type of information you may want to include on your web pages. Day seven helps explain how to find a web server and what it does, how to test your pages and advertise your site. You will also learn about what cgi scripts are and when to use them. This book also includes a bonus day. On the bonus day you will learn about forms and image maps along with what is to come in HTML 3.0. This book is a good starting place for someone who wants to learn to write web pages quickly and with good style and all the extras.

This book is very well planned out and is well illustrated, insightful and good for beginners to intermediate HTMLers. Laura Lemay helps you learn, discover and explore HTML. Anyone at all can learn HTML with this book. It covers HTML 3.0, HTML 2.0, Netscape and CGI in a single bound. Terfific book Laura, it helped me immensely.

Advanced Home Gardening: Cutting-Edge Growing Techniques For Gardeners is expert gardener and gardening instructor Miranda Smith is a beautifully presented and informative gardening guide enhanced with over 800 color photographs and illustrations. Featuring detailed instructions about growing flowers, vegetables, herbs, fruits, and just about anything one desires using expert means of raising the healthiest plants and coaxing the highest yield, Advanced Home Gardening is a solid, practical, "user friendly" reference covering everything from plant pests and hardiness zones to exposure requirements, blooming seasons, and propagation information. A first-class guide for the serious-minded home gardener, Advanced Home Gardening is enthusiastically recommended for personal and community library gardening reference collections.

Advanced Home Gardening: Cutting-Edge Growing Techniques For Gardeners is expert gardener and gardening instructor Miranda Smith is a beautifully presented and informative gardening guide enhanced with over 800 color photographs and illustrations. Featuring detailed instructions about growing flowers, vegetables, herbs, fruits, and just about anything one desires using expert means of raising the healthiest plants and coaxing the highest yield, Advanced Home Gardening is a solid, practical, "user friendly" reference covering everything from plant pests and hardiness zones to exposure requirements, blooming seasons, and propagation information. A first-class guide for the serious-minded home gardener, Advanced Home Gardening is enthusiastically recommended for personal and community library gardening reference collections.

This book is helpful to not only sophisticated gardeners, but also beginners like myself! I have a better understanding of what to plant and where, and what to do to make the best out of my garden. Superb!

I read this book when I was maybe 7 and thoguht it was really good...and now that I read it 8 yrs later I still love it! This book plays out so strangely. It's like a dream. You have to read it!

Do you like taking matters into your own hands, well if you do listen to this.
Ok theres a book I've been reading called The Big Bazoohley by Peter Carey.Its about a nine year old boy Sam.Sam's mom dad and of course him were down to there last twenty three dollars and fourty cents.So his family all went to a small town to see if they could make some money.Sam's Dad is a big gambler and his mom paints and sells art the size of match boxes but worth big bucks Sam was worried cause his big shot dad took his family to a huge hotel with a casino,buffet, and huge rooms.
The hotel was asking ....a night.Don't foreget they were broke, but sams mom was selling a .... piece of art so they supposed if she sold it theyed be able to pay rent.But it didn't work out how they thought,Sams mom didn't get the money and his dad was afraid to lose any more money by gambling it away.So Sam decided to go on a voyage for the thing his dad called the big Bazoohley.
I liked this story because a little boy thats 9 years old boy is going out to help his family.
I recommend this book to any body because it's usually hard for me to get into a book but I liked this one from the first chapter.

This kid needs more than ordinary luck to get himself and his parents out of a tight spot, but he isn't just going for a fix for the situation; he's shooting for the Big Bazoohley!

A book about guts and glory. A childhood adventure with a touch of magic.

Peter Carey brings his originality and poetic vision to a children's book with all the success he has had in adult prose. I loved it!

Alex was an amazing man. I was privileged to meet and get to know him during the last year of his life. His wisdom, his honesty and his heart will never be forgotten my me or, I dare say, anyone who knew him. He gave me an autographed copy of his book and I have read it several times. This is not just a story, it's a remarkable man opening his heart, to share his experience, even though it hurt. He was never afraid of that pain, but faced it with courage, hope and a powerful love of life and the world and the people around him.

I heartily recommend this book, do read it.


Do Svidaniya, Rest in peace, Child of the Kulaks.

this book is sort of sad but it is also very suspicious and breathtaking i think that it is really good but its sad how many people die. two brothers go to china then to australian from russia.one dies but the other then returns to russia for a visit sixty years later!!!!

Alex Saranin's story is a vivid description of the first lost generation of Soviet Russia, millions of children lost their parents into the civil war, collectivization and other soviet human mills and it's aftermath. The great suffering endured by them and the waste of lives and souls is great evidence of these terrible whirling years into which a whole generation was engulfed.

This book reads like a poem. Its fine in every way, a relaxing reading- experience and very fine photography. Gardening at its best.

After so many years of having, through necessity, to read only technical and quick reference gardening books. It was such a great pleasure to find a quite place in my garden and be totally engrossed in Beth Chatto's Gravel Garden. Billed by the publisher, Blooming Books as ' a book for Australian conditions ' which is true but this book pertaining to gardening with drought resistant plants will be of interest to anyone who gardens in an arid or low rainfall area, or to those who want to have 'a good read' about one gardeners' vision. Who, as she describes, gardens in the 'driest and most windswept piece of soil in England'

Beth's book has all the requirements of any good reference book but it is more than that. I can only describe it as a cross between a novel, diary and reference book. It is an autobiography of her garden, the trials and tribulations, if you will, of creating a specialised area. This is a great benefit to the reader as she has made all the mistakes and now passes on the right way and what to do, to avoid disappointment. We travel through descriptions of the garden as the four seasons come and go. Descriptions that could hold their own in any non fiction novel. Beth paints with words the obvious love of her garden and gardening.

Any great diva needs an equally great accompanist. Beth certainly is blessed, for the photography of Stephen Wooster compliments her book so well and any adjective I use to describe his images would not do him justice. They have to be seen to take in their beauty and his artistry. When I review books I have one main criteria in mind. What is on the front cover is delivered within. Beth Chatto's Gravel Garden past this one in the first 5 pages.

Finally, a book that lives up to, and exceeds, all expectations. Beth Chatto is one of a highly respected group of plantsmen and women in Britain who knows what she is doing, isn't afraid of making mistakes and doesn't mind sharing it all with us. This book is easy to follow, logically set out, and even the use of taxonomy in naming plants makes you eager to look them up to see what Ms Chatto is describing. The descriptions of plantings through the seasons are like the development of a symphony, from the debut of a plant in its season, through its performance and twilight, to the entrance of its successor in the drama, with punctuations and particular mention of any encore performances of which a plant is capable. Ms Chatto knows her stuff. Anyone living in similar conditions to Ms Chatto's in Britain, Australia or America should find this book a must.