Works Books

Excellent reference book on the latest cosmetic surgery procedures for face and body. Does not include reconstructive procedures.

Beauty in the Balance is a wonderfully written book covering a wide range of topics in cosmetic surgery and treatment. Dr. Rosen and Dr. Ablaza reveal the many options available using every day language. The decision to select cosmetic surgery is often confusing and frustrating, this book tackles the many issues and answers the questions those considering surgery often have. This is a must read for anyone considering cosmetic surgery.

Karla L. Hall
National Organization of Vascular Anomalies
[....]

I was truly impressed with "Beauty in Balance". It gave me a clear understanding of the procedures and this in turn helped me to have realistic expectations. I would recommend this book for anyone contemplating cosmetic surgery.

I'm so impressed with this book. It contains clear-detailed information in a professional yet easy to undestand manner.

I found this book to be most helpful in researching cosmetic surgery and the various procedures I am considering. The information was succinct and easy to read. I feel much more confident about the process as a result of reading this book. I recommend this book with great enthusiasm!

My initial reason for ordering this book was to learn more about mediation. From front to back, it was like a blossoming lotus. Not only did I learn about meditation, I learned that it is a staple of the Buddhist Faith and why it is just that. The concept of cleansing ones mind sounds like a good intention that actually unfolds into a replenishing and rebirth of our mind and body. It is a message of hope and love with instructions.
Meditation is not just merely sitting on a pillow and chanting, it is a skill that is learned and brought forward to our thinking and speaking. She so eloquently words this process of how it flows into our daily lives as mindfulness of everything around us. We so often look at a landfill of details that really are of no consequence to the quality of our lives whatsoever. We can learn to be the inertia of wholesomeness and peace that will automatically radiate to all living things around us with skill!!
I would recommend this book to the most enlightened of people, to those in a recovery process, and also to those who are balancing life in and out of a mental (depressive)condition. Seriously, I believe not only what she was teaching, but how she taught it could actually alleviate the need for all of these medication that are being prescribed because of our run-away, chaotic world and in turn our seemingly unmanageable, stressful lives.
I DO not like the term "New Age" here. The teachings of Buddha are anything but.

I used to always recommend Walpola Rahula's "What the Buddha Taught" as the best first read for someone looking to get started with Buddhism but now I think I'd recommend this instead. Rahula's book seems better for those with just an intellectual interest in Buddhism, but this book seems better for those who are ready to start changing their life. An absolute gem.

A book that transcends the page and leaves the reader with insight long after putting it down. It is written in a style that is easy for Western Bhuddist readers to comprehend. Well worth the time and money to read.

Ayya Khema's book is a summary of lessons at a Bhuddist retreat in Sri Lanka, but it reads like an overview of the most important Bhuddist teachings in one volume.

I've read many books about meditation, but for me this is the best. I highly recommend it for both beginning and experienced meditators.

There are thousands of books out there for people interested in Buddhism, but few of them get to the core of what it's all about and why it's so important to practice, practice, practice. This is undoubtedly the best. Just the first chapter alone is perhaps the best summary I've ever read of what Buddhism really is.

This is a good book, with clear instructions. It is a good starting point for learning about mini-books and paper folding. I found going through the book thinking of different ideas in addition to those in the book. Some of the illustrations provided inspiration for subjects to cover. In all, it is a good jumping point to start from.

This is a great book for teachers!!! #Exspecially if you are short on money and time. Dinah Zike has helped those teachers that need some motivating activities for students without the cost! I love the book and so do my co-workers. We will be using it for years to come!

This book has many useful tips on how to incorporate construction paper into a variety of lessons for a variety of grade levels.

Dinah Zike makes paper folding easy and education fun with her creative methods of writing and instruction. The students enjoy the lessons just as much as I enjoy teaching them! The photos and instructions are easy to follow and personalize to your own classroom needs. This is a must for all ages/grades!

This is a creative and helpful book. It really helped my kids know their material better. They would use big or small books to elaborate on topics they had learned. They love to look back through the books they made, reinforcing the information over and over.
They were able to remember so many more details of the topics we covered from the ideas in this book.
--Michelle L.

Blackbelly is a novel of unexpected depth from an author who understands how to tell a morality story without beating a dead horse--or sheep, in this case. Heather Sharfeddin's prose is straightforward, non-judgmental and honest from first word to last. And her characters, Chas McPherson, the proud loner who wants to do right by his dying father, and Mattie Holden, an unassuming nurse looking for a chance to start fresh, ring as true as any I've encountered--on or off the page--in recent memory. Blackbelly is a story of loneliness, repressed needs, and bigotry in a small town. Sprinkled with a hint of the supernatural, a few bible quotes and a layer of underlying tension, it resonates like a clanging cow bell. We haven't heard the last from this outstanding wordsmith. Salmon Run

I read Sharfeddin's book between Hemingway and Terry Kay. She more than held her own against these two great writers. From the first chapters I was drawn in and felt like I was a part of the story. I was impressed with Sharfeddin's ability to capture the lead male character so well. How did she get into the mind of a male so well? Maybe I don't want an answer.
This is an enjoyable book that reaches deep to capture emotions we all face but often hide from. Through this book we can learn a little more about ourselves, our society, and others. I recommend this novel.

I know Heather Sharfeddin personally. I raise Blackbelly Sheep. I grew up in rural Idaho just a few miles from where Heather grew up. With all that being said, I loved this book. I read it in one day just days after it was released. I didn't want it to end. I still think of the characters and wonder how they are and what they are doing. As I was reading the first few pages, I kept thinking how amazing it was that Heather was the writer and that I knew her. It was not long before she took me away from that and led me into the lives of her characters. I am buying this book for almost everyone on my Christmas list. One of the best reads ever--and I read a lot!!

Have you ever hit a dry spell with the books you read? When everything you pick up is missing that special something that hooks you in and holds you until the last word?
I was in just such a dry spell when I picked this book up after having seen in reviewed in the Idaho Statesman. I am so glad I did!
I will wait as patiently as possible for this author to write another novel.

This book is a real page turner that is masterfully written. I am eagerly awaiting a second novel from this author.

_The Book of Questions_ defies easy description. Neruda composed over 70 poems in quatrains, two questions per quatrain - yet the depth of the questions and the variety of interpretations the reader can take from the questions is limitless. That the book contains English translations of the Spanish original is an added bonus.

The images are surreal, as if a Dali painting put to words. Further thought (and the poems ARE thought provoking) yields a different answer with each reading. There is a pervading sense of sadness to them, perhaps because Neruda was dying of cancer while he wrote them; but there is hope, here, too - and a wisdom that only a master poet can communicate. For example:

Where is the child I was,
still inside me or gone?

Why did we spend so much time
growing up only to seperate?

Neruda's _Book of Questions_ haunts and provokes, much like life itself. Highly recommended.

The BOOK OF QUESTIONS was written in 1973, a few months before Neruda's death to cancer. Troubled by the knowledge of his impending death, as well as by a U.S. backed coup threatening the Allende government in Chile (Leftist regime 1970-73), Neruda wrote several small books of brief poems, comprised simply of unanswerable questions, in the koan tradition (question/statement in the form of a paradox that disciples of Zen ponder). They are enigmatic, at times surreal, leaving you lost in labyrinths of deep thought, or in abstract bewilderment.

My favorite questions include:

Why do leaves commit suicide
When they feel yellow?

and

When the convict ponders the light
is it the same light that shines on you?

--ross saciuk

Pablo Neruda's BOOK OF QUESTIONS is one of those books that simply cannot be read just once. Though the poems are short, they are questions that make you ponder and think about through out the day. Neruda covers just about everything, such as politics, society, nature, and life in general.

The most enlightening thing about poetry, especially Neruda's style of writing poetry, is that it lends itself to much interpretation. Anyone that reads this book will have their own answer and interpretation of what they think Neruda was trying to convey. For example, Neruda has a knack for covering politics. He writes:

"How did the grapes come to know
the cluster's party line?

And do you know which is harder,
to let run to seed or to do the picking?

It is bad to live without a hell:
aren't we able to reconstruct it?

And to position sad Nixon
with his buttocks over the brazier?

Roasting him on low
with North American napalm?" (p.18)

For the most part, the book has a zen-like quality, which suggests a complexity to the poems -- the sense of not-knowing, and moving towards intuitive perceptions, beyond rehearsed patterns of thinking and feeling (viii). In a way, it appears complex, but at the same time liberating. Neruda's poetry is simple in its structure.

Beyond analysis, BOOK OF QUESTIONS is also helpful for anyone trying to refresh their memory to read and write in spanish. The translations are wonderful and practical. I recommend this book as well as other books by Neruda because of this added bonus.

Pablo Neruda is much missed as a poet and thinker. Since his death in 1973 there has been an even stronger growing of appreciation for his unique style of writing. During his last days he composed this strange little collection of some 300-odd questions and a number of poems all dealing with the life cycle as only one who sees his end at hand can write. The subjects are death, rebirth and nature in as complete a marriage of intention as any poet has created. They are beautifully translated by William O'Daly.

Intending his reader to be stimulated by his words to create a visual image that is personal, his questions from this volume so aptly titled 'The Book of Questions' open our eyes and our minds to some rapturously beautiful experiences. Examples:

'Why don't inanimate things
do something?

Where did a celestial body
leave something tonight?

Why don't they train helicopters
to suck honey from the sunlight?

Where did the full moon leave
its sack of flour tonight?'

Warmly humorous, touching and eventually elevating, the questions remain on the backs of our eyes awaiting reentry into our brains for relish at needy times. Neruda is a poet for all seasons. Just read this book and discover. Grady Harp, December 06

With this book, Pablo Neruda takes the universe and turns it inside out; in doing so, he brings forth questions for which there are no answers, and which, at the same moment, lead us toward the questions and vibrations of our own souls. The questions may appear as nonsense, but in truth, they are of another language, that of the poet, and they are neither meant to be answered nor translated into the realms of the logical and linear. He embraces humor: "What will they think of my hat, the Polish, in a hundred years?" and "Is there anything sillier than to be called Pablo Neruda?" Yet he also delves into mystery of life and living: "Is 4 the same 4 for everybody? Are all sevens equal?" and "In the end, won't death be an endless kitchen?" While perhaps never having read C.S. Lewis' "A Grief Observed," Neruda picks up a thread from two lines of this short memoir of grief: "Is yellow square or round? How many hours are in a mile?" But while Lewis searches for answers in a prosaic realm, Neruda remains the poet of questions. His work also brings to mind a poem by American jani johe webster, "the color of august": "what is the sound of a shadow / how do you say a hope / can you see time in a dream". For a truly amazing experience, read William O'Daly's translation of "The Book of Questions" side by side with Ben Belitt's: it is an amazing study of words, meanings, translation, and most of all, questions.

I was a math/chemistry major and have a PhD in Biochemistry. I was looking for a review book to teach my son after being away from Calculus for 30 years. This is the Best Calculus book - Ever!! It is written in plain English as if you had your own personal tutor. There are many many examples of problems solved for you with step by step explanation and some real world examples. This book is must if you are taking Calculus for the first time or reviewing it. This book is Awesome!

This is the best book I found for single variable Calculus. It should cover all or most of the topics from what is offered at school as Calculus 1 and Calculus 2. However, the book does not offer any or much information about Calculus 3, or Multivariable Calculus. However, most calculus help books do not offer much information about multivariable calculus. In addition, this book just came out. Maybe the author is working on or will work on that talks about multivariable caclulus. This book is a definite buy, however. Buy it, it covers all or most of single variable Calculus and is written in very understandable words. I was just writing this review to point out my problems with trying to find a multivariable book.

I am currently in Calculus 2 and have bought and been through countless other supplemental texts on calculus. The most helpful ones that I have gone through are The Calculus Lifesaver (it really is a lifesaver with clear cut text and specific examples and stratgies to accomplish all of your goals), The Humongous Book of Calculus Problems (another wonderful book full of examples and very specific guidance to give you a real idea and way to go about the problem even if you aren't a real math person), and REA Problem Solvers Calculus (a text full of problems and worked out examples). I have tried other books incluting The Calculus Tutoring Book, and the gambit of Schaum books and none of these helped much (unless you already know the math they are talking about). However the three books I have described before (calc. lifesaver, etc.) are the very best I have seen yet and I expect to be getting A's in my Calc. class in very short order.

An outstanding job by the author in explaining the complex subject of Calculus in a simple step by step manner. The narration and graphic detail is impressive. Students of the subject need this book as a supplement to any course textbook because it does a much better job of explaining everything in detail. Many Calculus textbooks are notorious for leaving out details thus leaving many students confused and frustrated. This book is really a gem and deserves the best rating available - five stars.

Before I even start talking about the actual book, let me just tell you that this is a steal. I don't know what the publisher was thinking, but a 750 page, recently published book on Calculus never sells for such a low price. On Amazon it sells for $16, which is a ridiculously low price for this 5 star tome. The average Calculus book is far from cheap, so this excellent guide is a pure bargain. Now, let's talk about the content of the book.

I'm very exigent when it comes to Calculus books and usually like a very formal and rigorous style. Most people don't. Many tend to like accessible books that speak to them in plain English. And this book is marketed as such. This is supposed to be an extra aid, on top of a regular textbook, to make Calculus more accessible. However, it stands on its own, thanks to its comprehensiveness and clarity. If commonly adopted Calculus books puzzle you, or if you are studying on your own, this is the book for you. Every step is clearly explained and it doesn't fail when it comes to covering all the pre-requisites/fundamentals. Thanks to its style and approach, pretty much anyone who's willing to learn, will. I'd even recommend it to high school students who wish to learn more about this subject, because I don't think they would have any trouble following along. The tone is informal, friendly and often even funny, making it one of the least boring math books I've ever read. I highly recommend it to those who are struggling and would like to really understand the subject.

I love this book and the Talisman Magic Workbook as well. It gets down to basic and ensures that you have an understanding of what you are doing, why you are doing it, and how to utilize it.
If you are looking for someone to hold your hand, tell you where to stand,what to recite and give you a bunch of spells that mean nothing to you personally, then don't bother with this book.
If you want a book that gives you all the info and then allows you to personalize it, then I recommend this book.
My only complaint is that the authors only wrote two books.

This book is the best book on candle magick that one could own. I have read several and this one is my favorite. Easy to follow, lots of great information. It is the ONLY one I actually bought and I have NO desire to buy any others on this subject. Great book, great price, and you cant go wrong.

But please understand that candle magick is not for everyone. We all have our own skills and gifts and some people are better at other things..Like me, I just cannot skry! Its not something I have been able to do yet, however it does not mean I wont, some things just take longer to learn, so remember that when you are studying candle magick.
~Blessings~

I was hoping for a grimoire of different spells, but this definatly doesn't cover all of that. It does however cover the basics of using candles as a part of magick, and also covers several other topics like Creative Visualization and other great things like that.

This book is for anyone thinking of joining a Coven, is a Solitary Practitioner of Magick, or is really serious about their Magick Work.

It is not a book of meaningless recipes where you have to trust that the author knows what they are doing and is not a rehash of light flowery vague information.

The book teaches Why and How Magick really works, and why it can fail. A Fabulous Book!

I have been looking for a book to teach my beginning students how to safely perform magick and spells, and this book is beyond words.

It is so rare to really find an author that knows what they are talking about and is willing to share their secrets with the world.

A friend, that belongs to a Bay Area Coven, had raved about the book and that it was exactly what I needed for my students.
He was right . . .

If you want to really understand how and why magick works, and want to customize your own spells . . . I highly recommend this book.

It is one of the rare books that deliver and all the covens that I know of in my area make this book required reading.

I was hoping for a grimoire of different spells, but this definatly doesn't cover all of that. It does however cover the basics of using candles as a part of magick, and also covers several other topics like Creative Visualization and other great things like that.

This book is effectively an ABC for kids. Published in the 1960s it still provides a valuable teaching aid to get young children learning their alphabet. Each letter has anassociated series of words and story attached to it. With characters such as "Aaron" the alligator, and Abigail a girl, simple sentences are conveyed with quirky illustrations to help children learn various concepts. From "Abigail crosses the road" to "Aunt Ada likes Lions" the book leads the young reader from A through to Z where we learn that "Zero is very cold for zebras". A fun way for any child to learn to read.

I got this book 32 years ago when my first daughter was born. We began "playing with" the dictionary when she was around 1, and it was such a source of laughs for both of us. She did learn her letters. At 18 months , while walking through a marked parking lot, she surprised my friends by saying "Mommy, standing on "A". I gave the dictionary full credit!

Now this same person is expecting her first child. The Dictionary is on it's way to her house right now.

Excellent book. My three-year old learned all of her letters in a fun and amuzing way. She was intrigued by the pictures and the activities the characters were perfoming. I highly recommend it for any preschooler.

Kristina, Mother of Tiffany

While all of the books with the Dr. Seuss label can be considered essential reading for children, this one is more essential than most of the others. In terms of books used to help children learn to read, I found it to be unequaled in value. I still have the copy my daughter read and it is worn to the point where the spine is falling apart. Not through misuse, but from being opened and the pages flipped over and over again.
In the beginning, I read it to her, but it did not take long until she was sitting by herself looking through the pages and saying the words. Each word is accompanied by an illustration and in most cases a brief sentence where the word is used. Many of the illustrations incorporate the usual Seuss silliness, such as the green alligator carrying a sign stating, "I am a horse." All of which is designed to give the meaning of the word "true."
One of the best books I have ever seen to help children learn to read, I cannot include enough superlatives to express my opinion of it.

This dictionary is in my book box of Seuss favorites.It really is a PD Eastman book.In March schools led by the NEA selected to promote Dr. Seuss on his birthday. A literacy celebration to promote reading.That is why I had my classroom Suess box out and re-found this book.


("Ten years ago, NEA started a reading revolution. From a one-day celebration of Dr. Seuss's birthday to a year-round literacy campaign reaching nearly every home, school, and community, NEA's Read Across America is building a nation of readers. " Or so their site reads.)

It's a kind of teachers uniting to read with children and take a literacy stand yearly shout out. Now it's had ten years to blossom and expand and be a part of Spring in schools. I assumed at its start that each year they would broaden this to another author until years later we found ourselves focusing National Attention on a wide variety of authors, but that was an incorrect assumption as Dr. Seuss remained the primary focus.
And that's cool too. The program does encourage literacy generally. It's worth checking their site to find out more about Read Across America.

Somewhere inside of this it seemed the NEA was finding a phonics answer to promote reading to sidestep whole language, which I found a sad nod to those with limited views, but who cares really? It's worked in schools and it makes March more pleasant as you cook up Green Eggs and Ham or read the story of Horton or think about the Lorax, put on your big Cat in The Hat shoes, or wonder about the "differences" in our world as you read "Red Fish, Blue Fish" and how "from here to there and there to here funny things are everywhere," yeah no kidding. And I don't think Dr. Seuss really meant ha, ha funny. I really don't.

In my book boxes, as I said, is a 1964 copy of a Seuss/Eastman dictionary. I'm going to order several. Children in my room at the five group reading tables enjoy reinforcing their ABC order, reading the short and funny entries and they are beginning to grasp the construct of a dictionary by using the clever text and looking up things. Dr.Seuss or rather Eastman buries good jokes in his pictures and words too for added fun. There's lots of alliteration. A "blackbird is at the blackboard" under the entry for "black". "Drops are dripping" under "drip". "James at the jam jar" under "jam". Oh...none of that sounds as funny as it is, you need a copy to see.

Right now things are coming together for my readers but there needs to be a little motivational push to get them inside a book. Because at first reading is work. So when they read his little twists and turns, or the pictures have funny little almost naughty sneezers and loud, louder, loudest concepts it tickles them pink. And then I can begin the process of putting very young children into alphabetical order contextualized inside dictionaries and then move them from this into their child dictionaries and resource materials. Those really are so much drier and not as accessible. This helps.

As I said, this taught my brother to read and I remember for a time that he would recall words he knew were in here and then go put them in his writing using the dictionary to spell them in order to write better sentences. You can't ask much more than that. Excellent then and 43 years later this old lady teacher recommends this as a classroom resource. Too bad it is not reprinted in hardback as classroom sets. I'd get it in a blink of an eye.

I struggled with my weight especially after having a child 16 years ago. I am a registered dietitian so that made it even more humiliating--knowing what I should be doing, but not being able to do it. I picked up an earlier edition of this book 13 years ago and it changed my life. I walked 6 days a week religiously. I felt the diet was very easy to follow and loved some of the recipes in the book. After 3 years and 40 pounds later, I started running and have been running ever since. Thank you Choose to Lose for transforming my life. I love who I have become.

This is the only plan that has ever worked for me. I had always been vastly overweight and tried every diet. Just do it..it works even without salads and exercise and you are not hungry. You choose your weight with every decision on what goes into your mouth. Just do it.

I read this books years ago, and when I found out the book was revised I had to have it. This book teaches you how to make a healthy eatting change for life, or just to lose those unwanted pounds. It tells you the importance of why you should not avoid carbohydrates, and it is very easy because you choose what you eat to loose weight, as long as you dont exceed your daily calorie or fat intake per day. It also teaches you why on 1000 caloried diets dont work because your body think it s starving and you dont loose weight because of so few calories. You can also save up for splurges. I think the hardest part in following this diet is eatting more than I am use to, when most diets you hardly eat. If interested in a positive eatting change where you can eat what you want, lose weight, drop your cholesterol level, and make this change for life, this is the book for you, I just love it, and the new me, because of it. Thank you Ron & Nancy Goor M.D. and Katherine Boyd R.D. for writing and sharing this book.

This is a great book, I've lost about 15 pounds using the techniques outlined, and have gone down from a 38 inch waste to a 35!!!! And I'm Still loosing. I'ts simple, keep count of those pesky fat calories, you will see results!!! This Book is a way of life for eating.

Having been on every diet in the world,I finally came to my own conclusion that diets simply don't work. I was delighted to find that "Choose To Lose" not only agrees, but encourages you not to weigh yourself and simply eat generous amounts of good, whole, naturally low fat nutritious food. Since I threw my scale out and began following the basic guidelines of "Choose To Lose", I've lost weight, gained back my self-respect and have enormous energy with a steady stable mood throughout the day. Throw out all your diet books and choose to live right now!!

It is so refreshing for a Christian author to shed the facades and pretense and get down into the real nitty-gritty of this thing we call life. Human beings who pretend they don't struggle (doubt, temptation, etc.)are both liars, and fools.(**My words, not the author's.**) Thor skillfully intertwines biblical truth, hilarious insight, and the reality of the difficulties of our existence. He's "real", and I can relate. I have a feeling more will feel the same...if they read it that is.

First, let me say that I know that more than 10 people agreed to write a review when they bought Thor's book at one of his shows......where is everyone? :)
Although I haven't finished the book yet, I already have a lot of pages marked with great quotes. Thor puts in writing what some are afraid of saying - it's about time!
Thanks for the laughs, Thor......hope there's more in the future!

Comedian. Theologian. These word appear antithetical but Thor narrows the gap in this book. Thor defends historical, orthodox Christianity and brings to light some often overlooked theological undertones of the emergent church. The unique perspective of Thor's comedic mind kept me engaged from beginning to end. I found myself tracking with a theological point one moment and the next moment being "slapped upside the head" by a joke I never saw coming. Good stuff. Any book that causes multiple "hey, honey listen to this..." moments is a keeper. Don't borrow it, buy it.

This book is so worth the time! It is enjoyable and funny, but Thor hits home with what seems to be simple Biblical teaching and truths that we make hard to live by. I truly enjoyed it and appreciate its challenge to live its message.

This book is hilarious!! He has no problem touching the hard subjects and because he does it with humor it hurts less. We saw him live last night and he is so funny! I was so glad I purchased this!! With chapter titles like "The Sexual Life of a Nun"; "My God is bigger than your god"; and "Damn Theology" you know there must be something good in the pages. I giggled from the preface thru the end and I had to come write a review. *nevermind that I also got a deal on the price if I promised to write one* I mean it really was good.