Thomas Frank Books

Anyone who loves Disney animation and anyone who is learning the process of animation needs to get their hands on this book. It is long, it is detailed, but it is well worth it. This book mainly covers the essential Principles of Animation such as Squash and Stretch, Anticipation, Follow Through, etc. Go get it!

This is a really inspirational book! It takes you through the history of Disney animation and how the founding animators discovered their secrets and modeled their craft. You will learn all about the fundamentals of great animation and how to apply proven techniques to form your skill. It is easy to read and is full of great imagery and references. Highly recommended!

Wow!..First of all, the presentation of the book is amazing. The cover, the paper, everything. And wen you open the book, is simply what you need for start to see animation as an art...no, in my case, an "excuse" for use a software (I sarting to go to 3d animation). Buy this book!

The love produces animation! That book exhibition that! That amazes of book! That fantastic thing is the friendship and the production of those two geniuses of the animation! The life and the those two men's art is a thing that contemplates in all us, impassioned by animation. They are my life examples, and one day I would like cannot at least to arrive close to what did. That book, and the dvd about the life of the two, is obligatory things in any school, or shelf peculiar of any person that has feelings and sensibility to understand the beautiful things of the life. Wonderful? Spectacular? Grandiose? I don't have as defining that book. He is more than any definition that somebody can create. It is the love transformed in cartoons overflowing for the pages of that wonderful book. I will buy more a, to be in the shelf without nobody opens it, and my descendants only can you make it for they know a time and such some brilliant people and magics as these highlighted in that spectacular book.

Any artist - animator or otherwise, should read this book. It's not only about the craft of animation, but about the passion of pursuit in illustrating life accurately and in an engaging way.

Told from the perspective of two legends.

Highly recommended.

This is my absulute favorite book. It may be labled for kids but I believe all ages will adore this thrilling mystery.

This book was definitely one of the best I've ever read!! I just couldn't put it down. Nightmare Academy was much different from the first book in the series, Hangman's Curse, in that this time, the Springfield twins had no backdoor. No way to escape if things got rough. They also had no clue where they were. But, as always, the kids used their talents and devotion to God to prevail. I loved how the twins stood up for each other countless times in this book, and also how they wouldn't let anything shake their faith. I would recommend this book to anyone!! It was FANTASTIC!

This book was a difficult one for me to read. Usually, I can sail through a Frank Peretti novel in one sitting, but this one I had to take in small doses because it had my adrenaline going so much. I think the reason it creeped me out so badly is because, unlike most of his other novels, which have somewhat of a science fiction element to them, this one is so much more in the realm of not only plausibility, but probability. (I have not read Hangman's Curse, so I can't compare it to that.) It would not surprise me one bit to find out that places like the Knight-Moore Academy actually exist, and I find that very scary. It is chilling for me to know that there are many people who really do believe the way the faculty at the Knight-Moore Academy does, and that is the reason we are seeing the current breakdown in our society. I believe this book is an eye-opener and a must-read for everyone.

This book is an awesome book. I don't want to give away the whole story but here is a little bit of it. This book is about two Christian kids and their parents struggle to discover the truth to the mysterious actions of a once was lost but now and found boy named Alvin Rogers. This is the second mission of the Vertias Project team. The first project was "Hangman's Curse". They track Alvin to a shelter that disappears and then end up at a place called Knight Moore Academy or as Alvin calls it "Nightmare Academy". They soon discover that the "mission" is going to be harder than they thought when the whole academy believes that there is no truth.

I thought this was an awesome book because I love mystery books. I also thought it was awesome because it really keeps you at the edge of your seat wondering what will happen next. This book also describes of what life would some what be like if no one believes that there was such a thing as truth. Frank Peretti is descriptive with the way he writes so you know what exactly what happens and when it happens. If you like mysteries you should read this book.

An entertaining adventure based on the tenets of Christianity and beliefs in good vs.evil. Can give younger people guides for leading an upright life.

I bought this book on a whim for my daughter who is interested, like most young people, in the amazing sequence of events that lead to the sinking. I am a sceptic about reincarnation but this book has got me wondering. As well as the interesting accounts from William Barnes it contains a good deal of specific information about Titanic and her construction, most gleaned from archival material, or is it?

I had a chance to talk with the author a few years ago and found his story to be a fascinating account of one man sharing the memories of another. Since reincarnation is not consistent with my own beliefs, I cannot explain these experiences, but I do find them compelling and worth the time to hear and read. Although the Andrews family and the Titanic Society adamantly denounce Barnes (not his real name) and his story, there is too much he should not have known, and even could not have known. Even if it were possible, I cannot imagine anyone willing to do a comprehensive study of a man only to be viewed as a demented nutjob by his peers. Even if you don't believe in reincarnation, I give Barnes' story an enthusiastic five stars. He used to have his own website, but alas, seems to have otherwise vanished. It's too bad as I think his story would make an excellent movie.

Having read a great deal about the Titanic, I find his hypnotic episodes very interesting, and very accurate, as we know the facts up to this date.
I do feel sorry for him having to live with this all his life, and no one to back him up. We purchased it immediately after seeing him interviewed on tv.
Well writen and interesting; if you care for either Titanic in general, or sunken ships at all. A good read, but even better on audio disc.

On a cold Saturday I sat to read this book without any expectations as to its ability to interest me.
As I began reading the unfoldment of Tommie's life, I was no longer sitting at home but rather sitting in a bubble of time watching the progress of events that presented themselves in movie-like clarity.
By the end of the book I finally noticed the sun had set and needed a reading light.
This is not so much a narrative of events past, but rather a re-enactment of a drama that uses the reader's mind as a stage to play out a story that even today captures the imagination and fascination of thousands.
To me, not so much because of the magnitude of the calamity that happened in mid-ocean, but because it is exemplar of the real-life battle between the integrity and righteousness of the soul and the barely concealed evil of ignorance and selfish blindness in materially obsessed ego.
Perhaps there are those that think the story has an unhappy ending, but the fact that it had to be written by the one who lived it, is proof positive the justice (karmic or Divine) is not an obscure concept, but a spiritual reality.
Time and the efforts of the unjust, do not destroy truth, they just delay its inevitable revelation.

I think the measure of readers liking this story or not, depends on their willingness to surrender their minds to be transported to a different time and to be shown a simple truth:

"This is what happened"

Half a century and all the learned men of the world could not hide it.
Did I forget to mention that I liked it?

W. Silva

Poignant. This book enables one to become acquainted with the life of a master shipbuilder whom had a promising life ahead of him. This book reaches deep and touches one soul beyond belief. A most valuable teacher resource. A classroom must for history in regards to Titanic and her builder. Highest of praise! This book leaves the reader/listener with a sense of them knowing the designer and understanding the trials and tribulations of one most determined man. I am eternally grateful to the author for his meticulous dedication on the life of Thomas Andrews Jr.

Denise D. Vanaria
Titanic "Ship of Dreams"
Orlando, Fla.

This little book is powerful. Mr. Peretti addresses an issue that all people experience, bullying. Mr. Peretti takes a hard look at the impact of bullying on both its victims and perpetrators, and then challenges the reader to make a change, a change in ATTITUDE! Instead of lamenting the negative changes in our society we need to take Mr. Peretti's challenge and make the positive changes happen. This book has sparked an idea to develope a group for youth to discuss the impact of bullying within my work place (a Residential Treatment facility for children 6 - 18 years of age) and get their insights on how to make positive change. So many of Mr. Peretti's words can be used as group discussion "starters." What I liked about the message is to not allow the bully to control your life any more! I also like the spiritual approach Mr. Peretti took to the problem. It would be great if schools, and work places, across the country took the challenge to make a change in attitude, confront bullying, offer comfort to those known victims instead of ignoring them, and then empower them.

In this book, Frank Peretti tells his story in his own words. This book is a "must read" for every junior high and high school student, teacher, counselor, and youth leader. I highly recommend it.

I realize that some of the views and solutions in this book could not utilized in today's "anti-religion" atmosphere at schools. But this book could help them SEE the ramifications of this problem from the horse's mouth. If you've never been the recipient of this discrimination of cruel treatment and words, you just don't have a clue! If you've been the one giving it, you don't understand how it can hurt you so deep inside and for so long..........
We all need to be made more aware of this bullying problem, so we can do what we can to stop it, because it just keeps on feeding itself generation after generation. There should be "student clubs" in schools addressing this problem.
I know an intelligent and sweet young girl who has been cruelly treated by classmates because of her over-weight condition. It has caused her such distress and hurt that she could not finish school and dropped out, hurting her entire future because she didn't get a high school diploma. Now she has an even more difficult time facing her future, ie. getting jobs, going to college, etc. I'm amazed that there are not more "Columbine" tragedies than there are. Sometimes this hurt and bitterness will eventually come out!

After hearing about this book for several years, I finally decided to get a copy. It's message needs to be heard by more people! When children and teenagers are picked on, teased, ridiculed, laughed at, made fun of, and tormented... the emotional wounds can go very deep. Some people just don't get it...they think that "picked on" kids just need to toughen up, and be less sensitive. Easy to think if you were a nice average kid that was rarely or never picked on... But imagine being "not average" in some way (having a disfiguring birth defect, having a speech impediment, having buck teeth, being painfully shy, fat, skinny, freckled...). Kids can be cruel. And the wounds can last a lifetime.

Frank Peretti shares his own personal story of being born with a rare and disfiguring health condition that led to years of torment from his peers at school. His response was to retreat into a world of fantasy - he was obsessed with monsters and monster movies. (1950's and 60's era). Thankfully he had a loving family, and a Christian faith that helped sustain him too. (For Frank Peretti fans, this book is a great mini-biography of his life!)

But the pain and inner rage felt by someone who has been mercilessly picked on can release itself in unhealthy ways. As he points out in the book, the teenagers responsible for Columbine were teens that had been picked on and mistreated at their school. They were time bombs waiting to go off, and they "went off" on that fateful day.

The book gives practical, constructive advice on what to do if you are currently a child or teenager being picked on... And it is also a rallying call for adults to step-in and stop bullying when they see it taking place. (It's amazing how so many adults can just stand by and do nothing when they see a child being tormented by his peers!) The strong should protect the weak. Our entire perspective about the value and worth of individuals needs to change. We are all precious in God's sight!

There is an emphasis on the importance of forgiveness. If we don't forgive those who have hurt us, we will only become bitter. The "wounded spirit" in us will never heal unless we forgive. And we also must seek the forgiveness of those we have hurt. If we are honest, we too have caused emotional pain to others...

More people should know about this book in general - as it is an issue that affects us all. But consider giving a copy to school teachers, sunday school teachers, and others that work with kids/teenagers - Bullying is not normal. Picked on kids can be emotionally wounded for life. Those who work with kids need to learn how and why to take a stand for the "different" kids in their class.

There is an old proverbial quote that says to whom much is given much is expected. We usually hear this in terms of the church and financial giving. Peretti opens our eyes to a new look at this quote...he lays out that even teenagers who have popularity and repsect have an obligation to stand up for those who aren't so fortunate...and the great impact this simple act can have in the lives of others.

If you have a teenager or just want a new insight for "the other side" for yourself, then this book is a MUST read. I have made sure that my pre-teen children read this book prior to their teen years...if for no other reason that to help understand what happens in the minds and lives of those people we might consider plain, odd or even marginal (both adult and teens).

Peretti mentions that he chose to share his very private story that he kept deep inside him and guarded for so long after the Columbine tradgedy. I beleive if more kids and adults would read this book, then the impact would be great in a very positive way for all of us.

I cannot recommend this small and easy-to-read book enough. You'll be glad you took the short time to read it.

Howard Frank Mosher did a great job of setting his book in New England. The characters were well rounded, the reader was given a lot of details on the area and the town was a small New England town. However with such great work on the back ground the book needed a little more umph. The book didnt actually start till about chapter 14. There was a lot of detail that the reader could have done without. Once it became a murder mystery in a small town it became quite good. It had a lot of twist and turns. People were betrayed and others learned the meaning of life. If you have a long weekend stuck in doors this is a great book. If you plan on a fast read think again.

This book was extremely boring to be honest with everyone who reads this review. It took FOREVER to pick up. It picked up after Chapter 14 which was basically TORTURE!! The trial though was great. The author did a well done job when he wrote the trial and all that. After that the book ended up drawing you in and you wanted to know more. The only thing is that it picked up in chapter 14 as I already said and there were only 21 chapters. But the little I enjoyed I loved. I believe most people would like this book due to the trial but they will suffer until they reach there. I think the author just wrote about a bunch of stuff that was irrelevant to us the readers. Prejudice though is one of the main topics of the book and it was greatly portrait and described by the author which I do give him 5 STARS on it. Just how he wrote about the racism I picture most of the New England states being racist back in the day and a little bit still today even though not to the point of killing. I name this novel a New England Novel because of the setting and the characters and the happenings. A+ on that Mosher, but sorry I will have to Give you a D+ for making me fall asleep!

I gave this book three stars because I found it was a dramatic tail taking place in a small upstate Vermont town. However the first half of the book seemed to drag and was spent on unnecessary character development. This is definetly a good book, just do your self a favor and start reading it from the middle.

I thought this book was a bit like getting on a roller coaster and taking the long slow clime and then suenlly you are set flying. For anyone who likes thrills such as a roller coaster I recomend this New England novel.

A very To Kill a Mockingbird-esque story about a small town in 1950s Vermont that is suddenly shaken by murder. The suspect is the town's new black preacher, Rev. Andrews. While traditionally pre-Civil War New England was a haven for escaped slaves, abolitionists, and of course advocates of freedom and equal rights (going all the way back to colonial America, which was New England), modern small New England towns, even today, tend to have a very minimal black population. Kingdom is no exception. So while most New Englanders pride themselves on their racial-tolerance and acceptance, it is very rarely tested.
Though be fore-warned it can be a slow-read.

T.S. Eliot is a genius. The Wasteland is, by far, the best poem I have ever read. It is a bit difficult to get through, but I'm sure if you are thinking of picking up this book you are not looking for light reading. Also, of all the editions I've read, I think this one is the best. The notes on the reading are helpful and explain the text fairly well.

I think perhaps the wasteland has been to long interpeted as a lament, our a lecture, or even a statement about disillusioment. To me it seems to be the story of a non commital spiritualist lingering on the edge Nihilism, confused in pain and feeling empty as if no philosophy has prover satisfactory in his thirst for truth. I have known the morbid and dark mindstates Eliot describes, and I think that is what the wasteland is: a portrait of intense mental and spiritual torment, embellished with symbolism and shifting voices. But that is essentialy what it is, though each voice is distinct it seems to me that the torment of one man leaps between changing but always hinting that they are all his. It is in a way a dramatation of the utimate feelings of man between rationalism and Nihilism and hating both. Feeling that they are frauds and that the only truth is in the empty tired nothingness.

The Waste Land

From the listing this item appears to be a recording of The Waste Land by T.S. Eliot, read by the poet himself; but it's not, it's a performance by another reader, and therefore it had (to me) no interest; it was not what I wanted or needed. I suggest that the product description should be made clearer, so that other customers do not make the same mistake.

This volume includes T. S. Eliot's Prufrock and Other Observations (1917), Poems (1920), and The Waste Land (1922), and thus provides readers with a fair introduction to the work of one of the twentieth century's greatest poets. The American expatriate was a genuine original, bringing forth a new Modernist voice at a time when the movement was at its beginning and Edwardian poetry still carried the day in England.

Clipped, dry, angular, and intellectual if still emotionally sensitive, Eliot's vision of deserted midnight urban streets, ever-present enveloping yellow or brown fog, doubt-obsessed social misfits ("Shall I part my hair behind? Do I dare to eat a peach?" "Do I dare disturb the universe?"), and city dwellers quietly ensnared in a mundane round of workaday routine had an enormous impact on the cultural scene of the period. If the poet doesn't strictly focus on the ugly, he does focus on the unadorned and mundane detritus of civilization in the immediate: "morning comes to consciousness / of faint stale smells of beer / from the sawdust-trampled streets." He speaks of "grimy scraps" of "newspapers from vacant lots," "broken blinds and chimney-pots," and of "raising dingy shades / in a thousand furnished rooms," as if the inexorable void of outer space was present in the next flat and steadily closing in. Even "the evening" "is spread out against the sky / Like a patient etherized upon a table."

Human consciousness and human nature are hesitant at best and deeply troubled, in any number of ways, at worst: sleep reveals "a thousand sordid images" of which the "soul" is "constituted," and the palms of "both hands" are "soiled." The poet states that "There will be time to murder and create," and 'Sweeney Erect' describes the act of sexual intercourse in desperate, awkward, unfulfilling, and bestial terms. In fact, nature in all its manifestations is largely repugnant to Eliot; 'Sweeney Erect' literally describes female genitalia as the vagina dentata: "This withered root of knots of hair / Slitted below and gashed with eyes / This oval O cropped out with teeth." Nor are the seasons a source of comfort: "April is the cruellest month, breeding / Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing / Memory and desire," he says, and suitably, most of the early poems speak only gravely of autumn and winter. The "soft October night" mentioned in 'The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock' startles, since the image it conjures slightly betrays traditional associations of comfort and perceived beauty.

During the period in which the poems were written, Eliot was in the throes of a very troubled marriage to the mentally unstable Vivienne Haigh-Wood, which explains much of the revulsion and guilt-ridden despondency expressed. Eliot was projecting and transposing: history has shown that the poet frequently acted without responsibility and integrity towards Vivienne and their severe personal problems, and thus the vengeful Furies that appear among the dramatis personae in a later Eliot drama were real forces in the poet's psyche. Eliot's inability to cope with Vivienne resulted in moral and ethical failures on his part: the real waste land was Eliot's own perception of his life and reaction to it.

But in his later work, Eliot's fervent religious beliefs would blossom to the fore; much of that poetry would be underscored by a starkly expressed belief in Christian salvation and the potential resurrection of the spirit.

Eliot was not an admirer of the Romantic school, and thus his urban landscapes are neither post-Romantic nor decadent environments, but simply sterile cityscapes devoid of any quality that genuinely support the promise inherent in human existence. However, though Eliot decried the solipsism of the Romantics, his own early work is often pinched, parsimonious, and reductive to the point of constriction.

'The Waste Land,' which is accompanied by five dense author-imposed pages of tedious explanatory notes (which ostensibly insure that the reader understands the poem contains dozens of references to the Bible, Ovid, Sappho, St. Augustine, Dante, Milton, Shakespeare, Baudelaire, Frazer, and even Herman Hesse, among others) is particularly obscure, and therefore solipsistic in its own fashion: its intended audience was not the common man on the street by any means, but the clever, educated, well read, and competitive armchair intellectual of the kind that populated the literary circles in which the author then moved. Aptly titled, 'The Waste Land' is a tedious academic game and a triumph not of poetry but of marketing, with multiple lines like "Weialala leia Wallala leialala" and "Co co rico co co rico" that are guaranteed to lock its audience out.

Eliot may have shunned Romanticism, but he never escaped the powerful romantic elements in his own nature; this is apparent right at the beginning of his published work with 1917's 'The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock,' which famously ends with "the mermaids singing, each to each" and Prufrock observing, "I do not think they will sing to me." "I should have been a pair of ragged claws / Scuttling across the floor of silent seas" can also be interpreted in terms of romantic, even rebellious, longing: the tone is different from that broadly found in Blake, Wordsworth, Shelley, and Byron, but the desire for unrestricted freedom, even oblivious freedom, is actively present nonetheless.

Even if intended ironically, 'Rhapsody On A Windy Night' is romantically titled, and the later 'Marina' ("What images return...O my daughter"), 'Ash Wednesday' (1930), and 'Four Quartets' would be thoroughly suffused with longing, desire, and sense of loss. In fact, some may interpret Eliot's fervent Protestantism as the final manifestation of this restless trend in his personality.

Since in his early work Eliot's poetry is more satisfying on a line by line basis ("Webster was much possessed by death / And saw the skull beneath the skin"), a more complete portrait of the poet and his work is available in The Complete Poems and Plays 1909 - 1950 (1971).

I found this edition by Penguin to be very useful for a casual reading. The notes on the poems, in particular "the Waste Land," are detailed enough to give the reader a perception of Eliot's vast literary knowledge and its effect on his poems. However, the notes are inadequate if your purpose is to deeply understand the background of Eliot's complex and difficult poetry. So if you are looking for deep insights, I would recommend the Norton Critical Edition. For the normal reader, this is satisfying and straightforward.

This workbook can help you work through issues and bring you closer to the person you want to be.

Want to transcend your own culture? A path to removing all the roadblocks to becoming what you were intended to be.

No matter where you are in your walk in life, no matter what your relationships with others is like, you will derive value in reading this book. A few pages may be challenging, but don't stop reading. The book is a good foundation for starting, repairing or building relationships at home, at work or wherever you interact with people. It is introspective, uplifing and perfect for a quiet weekend alone.

who threw a tantrum because this book included Christian principles and therefore gave it only one star. It's very easy to read and makes VERY CLEAR points. You can not read this book and fail to understand codependency (which most of us suffer to some small degree) and the solutions. If you don't agree with a few small points, don't whine and just skip them. Excellent, excellent book.

Awesome workbook! Hard work and difficult things to look at in your past and in your life, but very helpful in dealing with codependency and boundary issues. I highly recommend this for those wanting to work on codependency issues.....probably best to work through with a counselor or fellow struggler.

Excellent pictures of the frescoes, inadequate coverage of sculptures. This book is unrivaled for the sheer size of its reproductions. It is so huge that it is a bit difficult to read--one has to rest it on a table. Not suitable for reading in bed, to say the least. But the quality of the printing and colors in the main part of the book is first class. Its coverage is especially fine on the paintings. It comprehensively covers the Sistine Chapel with huge-size foldout prints of every fresco. There are fine close-ups of important areas, which are an amazing 2/3 of life size. One can examine these fresco details from a foot away--never before possible--instead of from 60 feet away with a craned neck. This can be breathtaking.

The sculpture photos are good too, but not numerous. I had been expecting several photos of each sculpture from various angles. Bacchus, Pieta, and David are well shown in multiple views but this is not the case for most works.

The text is on the whole well written and interesting.

The authors have extreme views on authenticity. This leads them to exclude very important sculptures because, it appears, the authors consider them unproven to be authentic. For example, the Santo Spirito wooden crucifix is shown only small, poor quality, and in black and white. (A far better, color, picture, can be found, free, in Wikipedia.) Even the Madonna and Child bas-relief that is his first work, the one selected to adorn the cover of the 100,000 euro La Dotta Mano book, and, worst of all, the four Slave sculptures, some of his most iconic works, are also relegated to poor quality black-and-whites at back of the book, as all are judged suspect by these authors.

Some paintings receive the same relegation: the Manchester Madonna (which is clearly at least in part by Michelangelo) is hardly visible in a tiny, dark, picture, and the Entombment.

A book claiming to be comprehensive should have a more detailed and thorough section on questioned works. Opinions change over the years and some of these will be authenticated later. In some cases it seems that the authors are among few people who dispute authenticity.

The book has a very large number of drawings, but the coarser paper in that section of the book, and the low contrast and low resolution and small size (even in this monster book) of their printing, makes them hard to see clearly. This section is a strange contrast to the wonderful beauty of the fresco reproductions in the first section of this book. It would have been better by far to show fewer drawings at a larger size, and illustrate the sculptures properly.

Nevertheless, this is an outstanding book for the frescoes and pretty good for the sculptures that are shown.

this book is extraordinary for the paintings; the drawings are documented, but its print quality is rather low, even the quality of paper they are printed on is inferior... and THIS IS A VERY DISAPPOINTING BOOK FOR THE SCULPTURES

Wonderful inside and out. No further commentes are necessary: by all means, buy it !!

This massive book is stronger on the paintings than on the sculptures. And after all, Michelangelo is one of the greatest (to me the greatest) sculptors of all time. Still, this impressive book is certainly worth purchasing. Try to find a copy of the William E. Wallace book published in 1998 to enjoy magnificent plates on the sulptures. You might still find copies online from remainder booksellers.

I received this book yesterday, and it is certainly a monumental work, weighing close to 20 pounds and superbly produced. But potential buyers should be aware that while this book is labeled as a definitive, complete guide to Michelangelo's work, its real focus are the paintings and drawings. There is probably no better book for the Sistine Chapel ceiling and the Last Judgment, with scores of extraordinary closeups of every part of each painting. The foldout of the creation of Adam is a joy to behold. Readers may or may not like the fact that probably 40% of the book is on Michelangelo's drawings, given that these are mostly preliminary sketches for sculptures or paintings, as opposed to complete drawings in their own right, as in the case of Leonardo Da Vinci. The book also covers Michelangelo's architecture very well.
But obviously many readers will buy this book because they want to see Michelangelo's sculptures, and this book is surprisingly, disappointingly weak in this area. Of course, the David gets its due and there is also good coverage of the Vatican Pieta and, oddly, the Bacchus. But many of the other sculptures, such as the Moses and the Risen Christ, get only one large and one small picture, despite the fact that the book, at over 700 pages, has space to spare. By contrast, the "Complete Michelangelo" by William Wallace provides multiple views of each and every piece of sculpture.
But most incredible, indeed inexplicable, of all, is that this book (unlike Wallace, or any other Michelangelo book that I know of) fails to provide any large pictures at all of what are, next to the David, the most iconic and powerful of Michelangelo's sculptures: his four "prisoners" in Florence. Having seen these in person, I can easily understand why artists for centuries have looked in awe at these amazing "unfinished" sculptures which show figures struggling to emerge from the marble-which is exactly what Michelangelo felt he was doing when he took his chisel to the rock. How on earth, in a book of this size and ambition, can the omission of these sculptures be explained? Indeed, no explanation is provided, and the only illustration of these four sculptures, which have so influenced modern art, is four tiny, poor quality pictures in the second section of the book that is a complete catalog of all of Michelangelo's sculptures. By contrast, the Wallace book has a four page foldout that shows the four sculptures next to each other.
In short, this book is fantastic for the paintings and drawings and a very disappointing missed opportunity for the sculptures. One can only wistfully imagine what would have been if the sculptures had been photographed as carefully and as thoroughly as the Sistine Chapel paintings. By all means get this book--and overall I am glad that I did, despite its high cost--but adjust your expectations and don't expect that this one book will suffice to fully cover all of Michelangelo's genius.

I was searching for a way to create magical items with a mage and picked up this book and found it defines this and more. I was able to hunt for magical components and this book helped with the research factor.

I wanted to find a few off-the-wall components and this book helped to define a good way to do that. It was helpful in answer magic related questions about Mages and what an Enchanter is good for or an Invoker. This book is a must if you plan of playing or running Mages, it is very helpful.

The new spells and the new rules of this book made the mechanics of the game more realist and more "playable". An important acquisition for every spellcaster and most adventurers.

Spells & Magic is a good, well-written, fairly well organized book packed with spells for both wizards and preists, along with numerous NWPs.

This book is a great source of information for any type AD&D game, this book includes detailed info about all types of Spellcasters and includes too the system of Character Point's already seen in the Player Option's:Skills&Powers but expanded and woth more option's this time for all Spellcaster. There is a system that you can create your own spellcaster type and almost create a new class, by choosing it advantages, disadvantages special powers and special traits. The books also include a system and a table of critical hit caused by magic. The book is very interisting and very good it worth the price you pay. Get it if you can.

Unlike "Skills and Powers" and "Combat and Tactics", "Spells and Magic" does not introduce a wholly new set of rules that the other two books in the series are infamous for. "Spells and Magic" so rarely deviates from the original rules and presents so much expanded materials ( rather than totally new), you will soon be immersed into the originality of the effort. While this is basically a second take on The Complete Wizard's Handbook, it accomplished its goals so much better and quicker that it has plenty of leftover space to introduce several new subdivisions of the magic-user class and many other useful innovations. My advise as for Spells and Magic? Opt for this rules expansion - steer clear of its comrades.

I really enjoy a well-written book that makes me laugh out loud, and this book is certinly that type. Right from the beginning the plot ensnares you, and you just go along with all of the strange and loony doings of the extremely well-drawn characters. The author plays fair with the reader: there are no hidden shocks that change the ending, or plotlines left unconnected at the end. It's unfortunate Mr. Thomas is deceased, for more new books from him would be quite welcome in my house!

This was the first of Thomas' Wu and Durant novels, and in my opinion, the best. Two things make this novel memorable. First, there is the remarkable array of supporting characters, many of them sleazebags, most of them bizarre, all of them memorable. Second, at some level, Los Angeles is the main character, especially the South Bay. Thomas' descriptions of the cities, the neighborhoods, buildings, the marginal businesses, are absolute gems. I have spent a great deal of time trying to match the places, especially the coastal cities, to actual locations in Los Angeles, without much success, but who cares. I don't know if the Los Angeles he described ever really existed, but it should have.

I've heard a lot about Ross Thomas, who is considered by many people to be one of the most underrated thriller novelists out there. Thomas died in 1995, and most of his books are either out of print or difficult to find. Many people consider CHINAMAN'S CHANCE to be Thomas' best novel, so I thought I would give it a shot.

In short, I liked this book but didn't love it. This is a book brimming with wit and intelligence. It was obviously written by a highly intelligent, perceptive man -- Thomas is a highly skilled wordsmith. However, I found the plot remarkably convoluted. The blurb from the NEW YORKER for this book states that CHINAMAN'S CHANCE has "enough plot to overwhelm a trilogy" and I agree with that statement. Unfortunately, too much plot is not necessarily such a good thing. I ultimately found the storyline confusing and the twist-filled ending kind of ridiculous.

Also, there are too many colorful characters in this novel to keep track of. Every couple of pages, Thomas changes the point of view. Virtually every character is eccentric and over-the-top. This can be fun, but I thought it was overdone here. There was no one in this book I related to, and I never found myself emotionally invested in the storyline.

In the end, CHINAMAN'S CHANCE is okay if you like witty, humorous caper novels. But if you're looking for a book with genuine thrills and characters you genuinely care about, you may want to look for something else.

Of the Ross Thomas books containing the Wu & Durant characters, this one is arguably the best. A great story with twists and turns that keep the pages turning with very little effort.
The characters are so well developed only a photograph would offer any more insight. If a picture is worth a thousand words, Thomas has the ability to modify that statement to paint a picture using very little wordage. If your a Thomas fan this book shoud definitley be high on your list of "next" reads.

I happened upon Ross Thomas by chance and not design. As my local library had only Out on the Rim and The Fourth Durango on its shelves, I read them first. I was hooked. Through the library's inter- library loan program I have now read from Cold War Swap through Chinaman's Chance. I'm only 50 and admittedly have a lot of reading ahead of me but I can not remember enjoying reading someone's work as much as I do reading Ross Thomas. I cannot imagine that he will ever be out of my top 10 favorites.