Party The Books

I purchased this book for my sons first birthday and he just loved it. It had many vibrant colors and lots of textures he could rub his fingers on.

Bright and colorful pages make this book loads of fun for any little one's special day. Elmo celebrates his birthday with the whole Sesame Street gang from Bert and Ernie to Zoe and Cookie Monster. Each page has a touch and feel texture, i.e. Elmo's nose is soft and velvety, Ernie's box has "straw" inside. The pages are large and sturdy, a great board book to have in your child's library or give as a birthday gift to a Sesame Street fan!

Like all of Ms. Barstow's books, this is a well-researched, well-written study of a fun and interesting topic.

SHe chronicles the rise and fall of the Country House party, from the Georgians to the post World War period, describing the who, what, when, where, and why of it all. This edition is also filled with pictures, which really adds to the story: it is always more interesting to be able to see what the author is talking about.

This would be an invaluable book for anyone who reads fiction from the period... Austen, Bronte, James, Trollope, etc... and wants to find out more about the social conventions of an even that these authors considered to be a given. It's also a great book for anyone interested in social history of the English, particularly the upper classes.

Ms. Barstow wrties an authoritative, well-researched handbook that is a must-have for anyone interested in high-society Victorian and Edwardian England. She details every aspect of the country house party- from the different types of parties to the habits of those attending them to the types of houses and the servants who ran them. It's an excellent resource for those even mildly interested in the subject.

Though it's rich with information, I found it very easy to read, unlike other books on this subject. Ms. Barstow interspersed the text with rare pictures that really bring to life the words on the page.

I love this calendar, its the right size, so cute, just perfect. I bought last years too. Im looking for 2007 ?

I purchased this for my mother for Christmas, she loves Lilly Pulitzer and her clothing. The illustrations are great, lots of cute quotes and interesting dates to remember, too.

This is a truly excellent account of ethnic mobilization in south India. Through the detailed and absorbing examination of a case, the author explores the nuances of ethnic identity and mobilization and the sustained importance (contrary to the dominant view) of populist politics in today's world. This is an important contribution to understanding Indian democracy, which shows the limits of most contemporary accounts. By drawing on strands in political science, sociology and historical anthropology, the book provides an innovative approach to theorizing in the social sciences.

Subramanian's text is the definitive work on Dravidian politics. Tightly woven and finely nuanced, "Ethnicity and Populist Mobilization" is a vital addition to the Indian social science canon. The text shall be of immense value to historians, social scientists, students, and professionals working in the field of Indian politics or seeking a thorough introduction to it.

I work in an office where four women are pregnant or recently given birth. I've painfully attended two showers that made me wonder what else I could be doing with my time. The games were old and tired and I felt like I was attending a shower my mom would have attended 39+ years ago.

I've recently taken up planning the next baby shower at the office. The first place I turned to was the Everything Baby Shower book. I wanted fresh idea and a more progressive party. Joni and Sabrina are masters at making parties fun with an interesting and forward thinking flair. I'm grateful for the suggestions in the book and planning guides. These women prove that parties can be as fun to plan as to attend. The baby shower was a success - Joni and Sabrina made me look like a star.

Diane, Santa Clara CA

The Everything Baby Shower Book: Throw a Memorable Event for Mother-to-Be (Everything: Parenting and Family)

In December, I started obsessing about planning my daughter's baby shower. We have a large family and quite a few friends; the task seemed daunting. Should the event be held in a home or at a restaurant? What kind of theme should we have? What type of food, favors, centerpieces, games, gifts, invitations, decorations...in my mind, this event was blossoming into a second wedding.

Fortunately, a friend (who was probably tired of the phone calls) presented me with The Everything Baby Shower Book by Sabrina Hill and Joni Russell. Filled with helpful, creative ideas, this easy-to-read guide has saved me hours of thinking, organizing, decision-making...and anxiety. Actually, now, preparing for Diana's baby shower has become lots of fun! Thank you Sabrina & Joni!

I really found this book helpful and full of information. I used it for a class that I was taking called family violence and abuse. Wallace does an excellent job outlining indicators of child abuse and he also provides different catergories of abuse such as elder abuse and alternative life style abuse. I often find myself struggling to use books assigned to each class because sometimes they are just not useful. I have spent lots of money on class texts that I have not opened once. THIS WAS NOT THE CASE WITH THIS BOOK. IT WAS VERY USEFUL.

Harvey Wallace's text book, which is being used in my Seminar:Domestic Violence Course, is a wonderful source of information about all types of domestic abuse. The extensive coverage on the many forms of child abuse is an excellent source of information for all careers, especially social workers, teachers, school psychologists, and future or current parents. I am also very glad to see that Wallace includes Elder Abuse and Gay and Lesbian Abuse in his book, types of domestic violence which often go overlooked.

If you are interested in the way that politics drives (in some cases distorts) how government accomplishes what it has to accomplish, or you're interested in how government actually works (not what flacks, spinners, and headlines would have one accept on faith), you're cheating yourself if you do not read everything that Elizabeth Drew publishes. This book is no exception.

Of the cataclysmic changes that The New Yorker magazine went through starting in the early 1990s, one of the earliest and worst (and that's saying something) was parting ways with Drew, who until then had been writing the Letter from Washington column, and publishing a book every couple of years, it seemed. Her reporting was and is unparalleled: factual, addressing in detail questions that actually matter, not polemical (unless one considers disappointment with the corrosive effect of money and political fund-raising polemical); its equivalent or even a reasonable substitute was and is not to be found elsewhere.

Her current periodical gig is with The New York Review of Books, and this book reprints 3 of her columns (2 are also book reviews) published in NYRB in May and June 2003 and February '04. They cover key aspects of Bush's political side (particularly Karl Rove); the current Congress (which doesn't present much contrast to the Bush Administration); and Bush's Iraq-focused side (the "neocons"). The Rove and Congress pieces are the latest dispatches in Drew's long-term effort to report on how the profession of political strategy affects policy outcomes.

The neocons piece is quite different, and it is important because its subject is one of the more successful projects in the history of American policy entrepreneurship. A few friends/colleagues with ideas about the Middle East, not one an elected official (except Dick Cheney), convince the world's current great power, led by a man who campaigned against "nation building," to wage a major war that fulfills their dreams. Most entrepreneurs would be satisfied if they convinced investors to put up money and start a successful business; in the policy world it's a coup if a ground-breaking law is enacted (maybe even an agency created). But a war--billions invested (with a vague up-front price tag), thousands dying and sacrificing--and the conquest of a sovereign nation: for that you have to give the neocons their due. And study them. Drew's report is a fascinating short account of a subject that has generated several books and will continue to do so.

Elizabeth Drew, courageous journalist and scholar long based in Washington DC, here republishes a series of articles originally presented in the American intellectual journal New York Review of Books between May Day 2003 and Saint Valentine's Day 2004. Altough it reads with journalistic immediacy, the historical importance of the events described and of the larger issues addressed makes this collection essential reading for us now today, as we approach another election cycle.

Ms. Drew completely covers the ins and outs and hidden agendas of the first WBush regime. The first article in this collection in fact reports the doings and bio of Karl Rove, as it ostensibly is a review of the books Bush's Brain: How Karl Rove Made George W. Bush Presidential and Boy Genius: Karl Rove, The Architect Of George W. Bush's Remarkable Political Triumphs. This article remains important for us to consider now, as it exposes the nefarious strategies of this powerful man, who recently claimed to join the rats abandoning the sinking ship of state, but who remains firmly in power.

Among those who have been lost since the publication of this book is of course General Colin Powell, who here emerges as a noble and even heroic figure of integrity, but a tragically heroic due to his honesty, integrity, diplomacy (over war, which he experiened first hand, unlike the civilian saber rattlers involved) and his wisdom, and thus not one long to endure within the darkening regime of the W.

The second article republished comes from June 12, 2003, and mostly focuses on the neocons in power, inclduing Perle and company, and thus of course the corrupt, embezzling proposed puppet Iraqi president Chabadi. This article gives us further insight into how and why things went horribly wrong in Iraq.

The third article entitled Hung Up in Washington examines the Tom Daschle book Like No Other Time: The 107th Congress and the Two Years That Changed America Forever with many realted issues. It examines the shifts of power at that time, and includes insight into 9/11/01 on Capitol Hill. It includes the interesting insight that no one ever revealed the source of the anthrax envelopes sent to Democratic congressional leaders's offices. One wonders (although not Drew) what happened there while their offices were evacuated for cleaning for weeks and what partisan bugs were installed.

Despite the slim size of this volume, at seventy pages, the substantial and well researched and elegant writing of Ms. Drew makes these important articles for us to re-read at this point in time. The excellent and measured preface by PBS's Russell Baker makes it even more valuable, and at this current price we cannot afford not to read it.

Know your history. Read this book.

MLR Smith did an extrodinary job of portaying the military history of the IRA. He explicates the Anglo-Irish Treatry and implores the pragmatic achievments of Michael Collins. From the Civil War and hencforth, Smith examines the lapse of political ends in the IRA or the irregulars. He compares the fallacies in the bombing campaigns throughout the fifties to the philiosophies on Von Clausewitz' "On War." Never were there any political motives in the campaigns led by Sean Russel. Furthermore, One cannot expect to be victorius in limited warfare in Northern Ireland where the Protestants make up two-thirds of the population. An excellent military analysis of the IRA. Recommended to all readers.

An interesting, dispassionate analysis of IRA strategy from 1969 onwards. Smith is not concerned with moralizing, and takes no position on the justness of the IRA's campaign. Rather, he looks at the methods and strategy of the IRA and how well they have (or haven't) advanced the IRA's interests. He doesn't seem to consider the IRA's goal of a united and free Ireland as realistic, and continually evaluates the IRA's position in the most pragmatic terms possible. This can be somewhat off-putting for someone wrapped up in the principles of Irish Republicanism, but it is thought provoking and these are probably the kind of arguments that were used to bring the IRA's campaign to an end by pragmatists within it and within its political allies in Sinn Fein. For this reason it is a valuable book for Irish Republican supporters to read.

For people not very familiar with the struggle in the north of Ireland, this book is probably not the best place to start. I would suggest reading a broader and more general history first, such as "The IRA" by Tim Pat Coogan, which is excellent for those with no previous knowledge of the subject (and even for those of us who do have some). Then come back to this book.

It's hard to believe that Sam Arkoff wrote this over a decade ago because all of his words of warning are still true. He points out that what made AIP last 25 years was because they didn't want to become a major studio. Oddly enough this is the exact lesson the guy who made Veggie-Tales didn't get taught till he tanked his studio when he tried to become the next Disney. AIP made movies - not productions. And if you pick up the MGM Midnite Movie collections, you'll discover that they made so many kind of films.

Sam does an amazing job of balancing his tales of how he got in the business, AIP's history and tips for anyone who wants to make low budget films.

Recently both Dreamworks and Miramax fell off the horizon as active "indies." Neither of these two studios rate up to AIP. Miramax went from a lowbudget indie wonderland to a bloated entity that just wanted to make $100 million epics. This was a company that died when they passed up on "Company of Men" because they couldn't figure out how to market it. While Sam didn't hesitate to edit or dub a film - he didn't hide under "but he loves film" guise that covered Harvey Weinstein. Sam cut up a foreign film cause he didn't want butts to leave the seat. He wanted to be entertained and didn't care about winning Oscars. Dreamworks set itself up as a place for artists. In the end, it treated its talent like every other studio. Sam always let his "artists" know that they had to make a film he could follow in 15 days or less.

The biggest revelation in the book is how Sam hated movies that preached to the kids. No teenager wants to hear an authority figure babble on about the right thing to do - they'd hear enough about that when they got home from the Drive-In after midnight.

If you decide to skip film school, read this book as a Master Class. Sam knows what hes' talking about when it comes to filmmaking. Remember - the audience needs to be entertained.

Mr. Samuel Z. Arkoff is indeed a ground-breaking movie producer, and this is his story. It's loaded with insights about a Hollywood we shall never see again. His company, American International Pictures, allowed directors like Scorsese, Demme, Stone, and countless others to cut their teeth, and gave the then-untapped teenage market "a lot of enjoyable Saturday nights."

Above all, the book is great fun. Mr. Arkoff is a master storyteller, and is as amazed at his own success as anyone else. I couldn't recommend the book any higher. By the way, the movie mentioned in the title is MUSCLE (not "music") BEACH PARTY.

I just finished Stephen Linn's "Tailgaiting Handbook". In addition to complete tailgating info on all the D1 and Professional Football venues, the book also provides some good recipes from the top tailgating chef's across the country. Further, Linn provides very handy checklist for required tailgating items (which would almost be worth pulling out to carry to the venue since last minute forgets are always an issue). I also liked the resource index which highlights the websites containing many of the best products available for a tailgate event.

Stephen Linn has really done his homework. This handbook is everything you need to know about tailgating at college and professional football games. The Fox Sports Tailgating Handbook is packed with information about where to go and what to bring. He even includes recipes so that even folks who've never lifted a spatula before can look like pros at their first tailgate parties. The gear section is especially helpful with tips on the best grills to buy (Freedom Grills are my favorite), the best coolers, and even which vehicles are best for tailgating. Even professional tailgaters can find something useful in this book. You have to go to a lot of games to get this much information.