Signs Books

I bought the book because I found out my great grandparents were deaf and that my great grandmother was from Chilmark on Martha's Vineyard. The book was very interesting although I didn't learn much about my particular relatives.

This is the right attitude toward the deaf people in Martha's Vineyard back in the 17th and 18th centuries. I only wish it was true in USA and elsewhere today but it isn't.

This book also talk of people that aren't deaf, were using sign language to talk to each other - for example, from one boat to another or from the cliff down to the beach or because the high wind was drowning out their voices. I can think of many examples that people can use sign language today. Scuba diving sign language is so limited so why not use ASL? A person can tell a minister of an emergency problem quickly from the back of the church without having to go up to whisper in his ear. One could 'talk' to another person in the next building without opening windows. (Windows can't be opened in some office buildings) I could go on and on.

Today, parents are using sign language with their babies (not deaf). Some researchers are saying that it enhances language, cognitive, and social-emotional development. However, I am sure that at the same time, there are some parents of deaf babies, are being told not to use sign language. There are few schools that are pro-oral. Those deaf babies need sign language even more. Where are their language and social-emotional development?? This is irony and sharp contrast to this book. This book prove that all deaf babies need to be exposed to sign language everyday by comparing the Vineyard Deaf people to the Mainland Deaf people.

I am keeping this book to show others because it does support my view of point on the education for the deaf.

I read this book a couple of years ago after reading Oliver Sack's book "Seeing Voices". I read many books each year and I must agree with the other readers here in stating that this is one of the books that has stuck with me. The sense of community and integration encountered by the deaf people on Martha's Vineyard are truley lessons to us all on acceptance and normal treatment of disabilities. I only wish it had a follow up edition.

There are about 10 books I've read in my life that are vivid years later. This is one of those. We're given the chance to see what it might be like to live in a place without prejudices about people being different because of something like deafness. I learned a tremendous amount about deafness, sign language, and life on a New England fishing island community in bygone years. Don't miss this wonderful book.

"Everyone Here Spoke Sign Language" is a look at the effect of a large deaf population on Martha's Vineyard. Though a dry read at times, this book gives an interesting look at how for once in the history of deaf culture the *hearing* adapted for the deaf instead of vice versa. While most people might assume that the large deaf population would force a hefty amount of deaf people to adapt to hearing life, the opposite was actually true; the brilliance of Martha's Vineyard was that nearly all hearing people knew sign language to some degree.

The book analyses cultural impact of the large deaf population within the Vineyard's communities, which was biologically caused by the genetic predisposition for deafness. The book, largely written like an anthropological study, focuses on both physical and cultural aspect of the deafness in the communities. However, the most interesting implications within the book are those discussing deaf and hearing interrelations.

I use this book frequently, especially when studying art books of Christian art as well as during a recent Bible study of the Book of Exodus. This was an invaluable guide to the symbolism used in art and the various meanings. For example, when studying the symbolic meaning of the priests robes of the Old Testament, the meaning of the pomegranate for the OT and NT is significant. In the OT, the pomegranate stood for the 613 Mosaic laws (the pomegranate was thought to contain 613 seeds). In the NT, the pomegranate is the symbol for the resurrection of Christ. The Hebrews believed following the law led them to God. For the Christian, belief in Jesus' death and resurrection leads to God! Enjoy this read.

When I bought this book, I needed a quick and dirty reference to religious symbolism in western art--I was pleased and surprised to find out that it's small, lightweight, and therefore portable when I visit museums. (Why don't more publishers consider weight and size when they print books for travelers? Lonely Planet and DK, I'm looking at you.)

Its easy size belies the incredible amount of useful information it contains; there are fourteen sections covering everything from the significance of certain animals to religious garments to a brief hagiography for commonly portrayed saints. About one-third of the book is a set of reproductions (sadly b&w in this edition) of famous renaissance religious paintings. There's no discussion or explanation accompanying the paintings--which is the only thing I don't like about the book.

And if you read one of the earlier reviews and are wondering about the chocolate mouse in Rosemary's Baby, it's a reference to mice as a symbol of evil because of their destructiveness.

Although not encyclopaedic, this book, first published in 1954, is indispensable to the art history, religious art, iconographic, and religious lives student. The essays are of significant depth without excessive volume, and the illustrations, although of a limited period (Medieval through Renaissance), are pungent enough from which to learn. Two limitation I will remark:
There are no representations from Eastern- or Byzantine- iconography.
The illustrations are all black and white.

I study Art history, and christian art. This book primarily focuses in on Renaissance paintings and thier symbols. I found it to be useful and detail orientated. A very good reference book.

If you are an art history student, this book is an absolute must. While there are many books that contradict one another when it comes to symbolism, this book is one that commonly agrees with others I have read or consulted.
For as inexpensive as this book is, you cannot afford NOT to get this book!

I saw it because a fellow asl student had it the pictures are amazing i loved the book

I purchased this book for my six year old granddaughter because she has been showing an interest in sign. It is one of the most beautifully illustrated books I have seen and the picture associated with each letter is something she can identify with.

Laura Rankin's The Handmade Alphabet portrays the letters of the alphabet along with their manual alphabet counterparts in American Sign Language. Each letter receives one page on which the uppercase letter appears in a black, serif font in the upper-left corner of the page and is accompanied by a realistic illustration of a hand demonstrating the manual alphabet of American Sign Language as well as an object cleverly representing the letter. "G" is demonstrated by a gloved hand; "K" is demonstrated by a baby's hand holding a key ring; "X" shows an x-ray of the hand demonstrating the sign. The illustrations of the hands are done in softly luminous colored pencil on charcoal paper, with exquisite detail. The hands are of different races, sexes, and ages. This book focuses solely on letters, but does offer a key that lists the words for the objects portrayed with each letter. Of course this book will be useful for deaf children or children with deaf parents or friends who are learning the alphabet, but may be useful for other children as well to drive home the concept of abstract symbol systems and the different ways sounds and meaning can be represented.

I found this book in our school library and was stunned by the artwork. I work in a school where the deaf children are mainstreamed into the school. Sign language books are always checked out! This is a big hit with the young students. I give the author an A+ for an excellent book!

The beautiful illustrations - simple yet exquisite, worthy of framing. I first framed some of the pictures and presented them as gifts to some young deaf children with self esteem problems, but it was when I taught hearing adults and did the same thing that I really saw the great impact her illustrations had. It then became a "work of art"

I bought this to read for a class, but was taken aback by how good this book was. An excellent read for anyone.

Like a lot of university educated folks, I heard in Psych 101 that once you hit your teens, your capacity to learn languages takes such a nosedive that if you haven't learned by then, you'll never be better than "Me Tarzan, you Jane" no matter how hard you try. I'm not ashamed of accepting this "language expiration date" -- there was no reason not to, and besides, it tracked with my own frustration learning foreign languages. For decades, I accepted this Psych 101 nugget without question.

When I started reading A Man Without Words, I had no idea my old Psych 101 nugget's days were numbered. I heard about the book as something a fan of Oliver Sacks would enjoy, and I associated it with Oliver Sack's book The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat, about neurological dysfunction, not Sacks's Hearing Voices, about the deaf. I assumed until I started reading that the "man without words" was aphasic -- had brain damage that prevented him from understanding language. Turns out, though, the book's namesake is deaf and poor and had simply, at 27, never been taught any language. No one had ever bothered. Susan Schaller then proceeded to overturn the Psych 101 sacred cow I never knew I had by describing how she taught this young man the beginnings of ASL over the course of a few weeks. Then, so I couldn't think of him as a freak or fraud, Schaller goes on to show that many deaf people receive no language training and can also be taught to sign long after the Psych 101 "language expiration date."

Schaller claims that almost every deaf teacher, and most hearing teachers, of ASL know of adults who have grown up without language. While her book is anecdotal and therefore fundamentally unscientific, she makes a passionate plea for academic study of the acquisition of language by adults, which makes her more plausible than those who would brush science aside where it does not prove their case. A Man Without Words is a powerful request, and a strong basis, for further research in this area.

A Man Without Words is also very well written. Schaller is both artful and precise in her descriptions of sign idioms and grammar, to the point that I, who know little of sign other than what I read here and in Hearing Voices, felt I understood what I needed to and enjoyed learning it. Her narrative case study is better written than many novels, and besides being fascinated by the information Schaller imparts, I also became submerged in the story.

Learning that something I believed for decades may be dead wrong gives me a feeling of loss of equilibrium (I got the feeling a lot when I first started reading about urban legends). No matter how skeptical I try to be, I always seem to be assuming something. A Man Without Words is a convincing argument for skepticism about the "language expiration date," and it raises concerns that the "expiration date" idea may make us give up up too quickly on languageless adults. It is also a fascinating read as a story, which makes the loss of equilibrium easier to take. Now I just hope that since this book was published in the nineties, someone in academia has taken the hint and done some study on linguistic development in adults. I'm off to cruise the Web to find out -- which, I'm sure, is just the kind of reaction Schaller was hoping for.

This book really opened my eyes to the world of adults without a communication system. I just took for granted the fact that everyone had a way of communicating when in fact, this book shows clearly that there are many who don't have just that. In addition, this book is a real page turner and packs a lot of interesting information in just a little over 200 pages.

Wow! A must-read for parents of deaf children, linguists, and SLP's. The author expertly describes the isolating effects life without a shared language. She tells the story of a deaf man who grew up in a poor town in Mexico. The man was never provided any education and was never taught how to communicate. At the start of the story, the man uses only gestures and miming to express himself. He lacks the concept of "language" --a system of symbols (spoken words, manual signs, or written text) that can be used to express an individual's thoughts & experiences and be understood by a whole community of people. The author recounts her struggle to figure out how to teach language and the man's struggle to learn. In addition, she clearly articulates the need for social change, the need to develop resources & programs for teaching the many languageless deaf adults who exist today. While I thoroughly enjoyed the story, I found that the numerous quotes throughout the book detract from the overall story. In this respect, the book seems somewhat like a hybrid --it is a positive & triumphant story of two people embarking upon a difficult journey with no map to guide them, AND it is an informal dissertation on the needs of an overlooked segment of the deaf population. Either way, it is a great story and is well-worth reading.

I've read many of the previous case studies of languagelessness in children. We studied Genie and the Wild Boy of Aveyron in an education class on language and it's place in education. This was my introduction to this particular group of disenfranchised, neglected, and abused people...except I thought it was all children usually discovered in late childhood (around age 13). From my neuroscience classes I remember being taught that the brain continues neuronal growth (to targeted synapses in the brain) until about age ten, then begins to cut back. This was supposedly an explanation for why language learning is so difficult later in life. So coming across this book, with its story concerning adults with no obvious psychiatric problems (just a physical difference in lacking hearing) who had managed to survive to adulthood with no language, came as a complete surprise.

This book got put aside as I had to read other books for school and work, but I picked it up again and finished it. Schaller basically is providing a qualitative study, a case study, to draw attention to this apparent problem. This method of educational research is used more and more in writing dissertations, and I actually didn't recognize what it was until I took a qualitative research class myself. The writing and book tend at first to repeat itself. I am not sure what Schaller was doing in writing this way. Perhaps the book had to be a certain length or she felt readers might not pay attention to the seriousness of this problem for Ildefonso and other adults without language. This repetition caused the first half of the book to drag a bit.

After I picked the book up again, I finished it in two days. The addition of the search for other adults with no primary language, Schaller's introduction to other adults like Ildefonso, and then her search for Ildefonso really added to the pace of the case study.

This book throws a bit of a wrench in much of the things I have been taught in both neuroscience and education. There are a few things the book illustrates better than any other book I've read on this topic. First, given the amount of adults who were deaf and had no language that Schaller found in Southern California really illustrates this has to be a major problem internationally. If we are finding such a large group in our nation which pushes education and literacy, what about in countries such as China where there are many deaf (due to overuse of gentamycin) and there are many people with no access to education. Second, again, we obviously don't know everything there is to know about the pliability of the brain. Third, I am very concerned about discrimination against this group, and the possibilities that there are many of these people in psychiatric wards or prisons or other institutions, merely because they have no way to assert their rights. This possibility would be criminal.

I'd like to see more books by Schaller on this topic, and hope to learn more about this in the future. For the most part, this is a great book, and it definitely is a great story which needed to be told.
Karen Sadler
Science Education
University of Pittsburgh

Easy to use with the correct midpoint sort, which I was able to do in Kepler easily. Provides insight into the interpretation of midpoints, which ones are important and what the important ones mean.

"After teaching advanced students for more than a decade I have been continually disappointed and frus-trated by the lack of a comprehensive text on midpoints. Until now. Don McBroom's new book, "Midpoints" combines theory and application into an incredibly accessible synthesis of an otherwise complicated subject.

Reading this book is like sitting with a master astrologer who takes you by the hand and expertly guides you through every twist and turn that comes with learning this technique. Bountiful examples and illustrations provide visual explanations of this tool and blend seamlessly with Don's relaxed instruction.

Basic concepts including midpoint pictures are quickly dispatched and build the foundation for more ad-vanced applications including unaspected planets, the Aries point, and special aspect structures. Don then finishes the book with a basic introduction to how progressions, transits and solar arcs affect midpoints, per-haps laying the groundwork for a follow-up volume devoted to forecasting.

What more can one say about this book? Only that I will make it a required text for my intermediate and ad-vanced classes and will have it close at hand as I prepare my own client' charts."

I take this book everywhere. The layout of it is structured and easy to read. So many problems that I had with midpoints have now dissolved. It's a much-needed accessory to my learning astrology. I love the formula method for midpoints you use and I am now trying to use this method interpreting aspects such as Natal ones more accurately.

It is very easy to read and for a topic such as midpoints, it is crucially important to have a methodical and logical structure to understand midpoints. I feel certain that Don has achieved this.

I think this is really essential reading for astrolgers at all levels.

Coming from his former life as a pharmacist, Don McBroom carries the physician's caduceus into the alchemical world of planetary symbolism. With this beautifully written book he helps us to understand that we are who we become by responding to our compounds. Midpoints in astrology are little-understood amalgams, so much simpler in design than one would imagine. Every astrology student except the most elementary will surely shout a big "Aha!" after an enjoyable sit with Don's first book. I look forward to many more wonderful ideas from the McBroom closet.

Author Don McBroom presents a brilliant and easily accessible method integrating midpoint analysis into natal chart interpretation. He provides numerous examples of high profile celebrities to elucidate the value of this technique with amazing clarity, depth and detail. Midpoint analysis is the "icing on the cake" in horoscope preparation, providing a wealth of important and enlightening information in horoscope preparation. This accessible book should be on every astrologer's bookshelf, whether student, novice or advanced practitioner.

I received the book promptly and it is in wonderful condition. No complaints, would do business again.

I really enjoyed Anna Mindess's book Reading between the signs. I thought it was very informative and had read it once before when I first started taking ASL and didn't really understand it all that much but as of now I've been taking ASL for almost two years and have a better understanding and appreciatition for the Deaf and it's culture and the difference between the Deaf and the hearing world. What a great book for people who are just starting to take ASL and want to be come active in the Deaf community and one day maybe persue a career with it

This book entitled "Reading Between the Signs: Intercultural Communication for Sign Language Interpreters (2nd edition)" is the most indepth study of cultural mediation that I have ever seen. Anna Mindness does a wonderjul job of helping an interpreter to see where communication barriers exist, and then explain how to bridge those gaps. Why are cultures different? What is cultural mediation? How do you convey a message between conflicting cultures? What tools can effective interpreters use to empower the clients we serve toward better communication when obstacles exist? After reading this book, I found myself making adjustments in interpreting, and was able to see positive results in terms of faithfully communicating source language messages to the recipients. If one reads this book, and applies the principles learned toward their work, it will assist in making them a better interpreter, and ultimately a better communicator between cultures. I highly recommend this book to others and express my thanks to the author for putting the elements of intercultural communication together in one great volume.

i guess i expected this book to have pictures of signing for some reason...i don't know, but once i started to read it i saw how informative it is. i like the book a lot and i believe that Anna Mindess knows what she's writing about. if you want to understand the deaf culture more and are determined to become an interpreter, i think this book is essential.

In order to understand deaf culture, you need to understand what is standard American culture and then see how it contrasts with deaf culture. Anna Mindess does an excellent job of comparing and contrasting these cultures, with references to cultures from all over the world. She includes insights from respected Deaf members. This is an easy read, not a difficult textbook. I read this with many lightbulbs going "aha". She delves into values, presentation styles, and politeness in both worlds. She provides scenarios with cross cultural perspectives in the doctors' office and the job interview. I have a new understanding of myself as a hearing American and a new appreciation for the cross cultural obstacles that deaf people must face.

We had used signs with my daughter from about 5 months, only a few. She really started to use them back to us at about 10 months so we taught her more. For her first birthday a friend gave us this set and now she absolutely loves signs. She takes the flash cards out every day and really is so proud of herself when she gets them right. She's 13 months now and the cards in particular are definitely one of her favorite toys. I'm online now to buy two more for friends.

I really like this kit. I've had it for about a week now and have been learning the songs from the CD. My daughter is 10 months old so we've been signing for a few months but I had come to the point where I didn't know some of the signs I wanted, like "sheep" "ready" "cold" among others. The book is very helpful. It seems like signing would be obvious, just do it. But there are a lot of creative ideas in the book that I never would have thought of. So that's good, makes it more fun. The CD is good, has some really good original songs and a couple of traditional ones. Good quality. I didn't really need the flashcards but maybe we can use them or figure out something creative to do with them. I think it's a good deal because it's a good book and CD. Glad I got it.

I love this kit. My baby just turned 6 months old, and we are beginning to sign to her (she already recognizes milk). The flash cards are very easy to understand. My 10 year old memorized all the signs from the flash cards in a day, and loves teaching them to us. The CD is great, too. The music is very enjoyable, and the songs are simple, but very catchy; you won't get bored after listening to them several times. I love the songbook, too. It makes it SO easy to sign during the songs because you're not signing every single word. The sturdy cardboard box is a plus. The only reason I gave four stars instead of 5 is that there are two songs with "Mommy and Daddy" in them, and we all know there are many "non-traditional" families out there, and it would have been nice (and pretty easy, I think) to have words that include all children's families. Other than that, it's wonderful.

First of all, this kit is so complete. It's fun and easy to use. It comes with a great CD with beautiful and easy songs to pick up and sign to. It has a book of signs just for the songs. Then, it has great flash cards that are really easy to understand. And finally, it contains a main book of all kinds of signs which I've misplaced do to a move, but of what I remember, it was loaded with info and easy to decipher. I use the signs all the time and sing the songs and she always smiles in reconition when I do. She hasn't signed back yet, but hopefully one day I'll get my reward. If you want to teach your child to sign, this is a fun and easy place to start. It also has a great free website in it that you can refer to. I really enjoy using the kit and would give it a higher rating, but I misplaced the main book before I could use it and so I can't properly rate the entire kit, plus I don't know yet if it works.

I have been signing with my kids for 5 years now--and my kids now are 5, 3, and 1. I was looking for songs to use with signing besides the basic basics..and this book has it all. My 5 and 3 year old LOVE singing and signing the songs with me, and my 1 year old tries to sign along. My 3 year old will just start singing the songs on the cd so I see the songs as easy to remember, fun and appealing to kids. I see this as a GREAT activity to do in the car on trips and a wonderful way have fun together as a family. We have gotten through half the songs and I am saving the rest for our next trip! The signs are easy to figure out from the pictures and its just fabulous! I listened to Monta speak once and she is fabulous too! Definitely a great kit for moms that want to sign with their babies and toddlers. The cd is the best as well to add the music and fun into the whole experience! Definitely a great buy!

I found this Dell book in Boston in 1979 or 1980, and have never seen it in New York. A few years ago, I searched the Internet for Jefferson Andersen and found nothing. I am thrilled to see these favorable reviews and book offers today! It is a great book, and undeservedly unknown! The author is/was perceptive and terrific - did he write anything else? The well-known and properly revered Grant Lewi wrote a book on the same topic. That book is very good, but Jefferson Andersen's book equals it. Its quite different readings offer a terrific complement to the Lewi book, and often outdoes it. (It concentrates solely on the Sun-Moon combinations, unlike the Lewi book, Heaven Knows What, which also offers planetary aspects with an unusual code system instead of symbols - intended for ease of use or ease of printing, but unfortunately more difficult to use than the conventional symbols.)

I'm so glad that I don't have to scan my Andersen book - if it crumbles, I'll just have to pay $110 or $200 to replace it. But who will bring Mr. Andersen's work to the attention of major astrologers? I have never seen him referred to in any bibliographies or articles - I think he is really unknown.

Like the other reviewers, I have nothing but praise for this book. This was the first time I ever thought that any astrological information really matched me - I am another "Wolf in Sheep's Clothing," Libra with Scorpio moon. I have yet to be disappointed in the interpretations Andersen writes, and value my little, ancient paperback very much. It is a shame that the book is not more widely known, and available at reasonable prices.

This is a very accurate book which lists all the personality profiles for each of the twelve sun signs, with each moon sign taken into consideration: thus there are twelve personality profiles for each sun sign, making a total of 144 in all. I have been studying astrology for years, and I have to say that this is one of the most accurate books on the subject that I have found; there are only a handful of astrology books that I keep nearby at all times and this is one of them.

BTW, um...I just looked at the prices for this book used. Unbelievable. Is it really that rare? I bought this book a couple years ago in a used book store for about $2 in great condition. It is just a small paperback and I find it hard to believe it is rare enough to warrant such high prices for a used copy. Sheesh, truly exorbitant.

This book provided hours upon hours of fun with friends as we would analyze each person's profile for accuracy, with insightful, entertaining results. I was a skeptic about astrology before this book. I wrote to Bantam Dell with the request that the book be published again. Maybe if they received enough requests they would do it. The book deserves another run! (I'm Mr. Nice Guy-Taurus/Libra)

Great book! My copy bought new in 1978 is in two pieces and is only held together by my will. I was hoping to replace this with a new updated version as the moon sign tables only go up to 1978. It is remarkably accurate ( I too am "A wolf in sheeps clothing"). Jefferson Anderson, if you're out there how about updating this great little book? I highly recommend this to anyone interested in astrology.

I have only just caught up with this book 14 years after it was published. Kisor is very good on how he managed a life as a deaf person who operates orally in a hearing world, and manages to be quite tactful in dealing with the subject of the Deaf -- people who use sign language. He is perhaps more tactful than he really should be in discussing the ignorance of a lot of educators of the severely hearing-impaired and the rather patronizing "poor-you" attitude they often take.

I can say this because I have only a little more hearing than Kisor -- and for the same reason, meningitis at the age of 3. I am ten years older than he but remember well some of the stages he describes so accurately and honestly. Like him, I was lucky in my early teachers and in being kept away from schools for the deaf.

It does need to be said that cognitive psychologists and students of child language have learned a great deal about child language development since Kisor and I were children and even since his book was published in 1991. Their progress dates from Noam Chomsky's destruction of behaviorist notions of language almost 50 years ago. I hope very much that things have changed significantly in the education of the deaf and severely hearing-impaired.

With luck, students will recognize that Kisor is describing a bygone era. But it is an era that was and is still well worth describing.

I read this book for an ASL class in college and wow. This book is great. An amazing autobiography written by a deaf man, Henry Kisor who has managed to exist in a hearing world as a deaf man strictly by lip reading. He has been a journalist and this is amazing to me. A wonderful story written in the point of view of a deaf man and his lifelong journey to success and living in the hearing world. Reading this book has made me take a look at my life and made me feel as if I could do anything.

I read this book back in 93 when I had just lost my hearing. I was 14 and dealing with suddenly becoming deaf. Most books about Deafness are written by physicians, or parents of the deaf, or children of the deaf, and not by the deaf themselves. Kisor's stories about lipreading and growing up and just being Deaf were wonderful for me to read. It gave me hope... if he is totally Deaf and can accomplish that much, then I, with a little bit of hearing left, certainly should be able to. I would certainly recommend this book to anyone deaf who is oral, anyone late deaffened, or anyone just interested in reading about the trials and joys of a hearing loss.

What should our attitude be towards the deaf? Kisor gives us good insight with his memoir which is beautifully, sensitively and humorouly written. Some would term him an outcast to both the deaf culture and the hearing culture, since he lipreads and doesn't sign. Can't possibly be happy because he can't fully participate in hearing world, he's missing so much. But Kisor disagrees.

He achieved more than most hearing, having accumulated great English language skills. He demonstrates with the rare book written about deafness from a deaf author. His title is fascinating, since it is from story regarding his five-year old son and the nuances lipreading has trouble discerning.

Yes, improvements have happened and will continue with behavioral psychology and deafness, but here the spirit of the human inside is spoken of, something that no program can really guarantee success, but determination, help and support will aid.

This marvelous memoir contributes much to this cause. It is a most wonderful read for all interested in what a deaf person in a hearing world might be going through, especially the emotional strains deafness brings with it. Much to be gleaned here.

I read this book back in 93 when I had just lost my hearing. I was 14 and dealing with suddenly becoming deaf. Most books about Deafness are written by physicians, or parents of the deaf, or children of the deaf, and not by the deaf themselves. Kisor's stories about lipreading and growing up and just being Deaf were wonderful for me to read. It gave me hope... if he is totally Deaf and can accomplish that much, then I, with a little bit of hearing left, certainly should be able to. I would certainly recommend this book to anyone deaf who is oral, anyone late deaffened, or anyone just interested in reading about the trials and joys of a hearing loss.

Finally a book about astrology that doesn't turn the topic into pablum. None of those misguided proclamations like, "Sagittarius, honey, you will NEVER get along with a Taurus!"
I have a large library of astrology books, and this one is a welcome addition. It has that rare blend of in-depth information that will interest people who have studied astrology for years, but it is written in such a readable, accessible way that even novices will enjoy it. Tierney provides material that will benefit professional astrologers when they interpret charts, while it will also give lay readers lots of insight into what makes them tick.
The first section on sun signs goes much deeper than your usual sun sign descriptions in popular books, which often skim the surface. Tierney gives a rich description of each sign's abstract
essence, its archetypal aspects. As Tierney says, "Signs are as profound in their meaning as our self-awareness allows, yet they're also as superficial as our own ignorance permits." I had some real "ah-ha" moments reading this section; it truly helped me gain a fresh perspective on some of my unconscious tendencies.
The book's second section, which addresses how signs interact with one another, shed even more light on my inner self, especially some of the conflicts that rage within me when I'm making decisions (the mundane and important ones). Instead of just using this section to compare two people with different signs, you can also read it to learn how your sun sign relates with your moon, how it relates with your ascendant, and how your moon and ascendant interact. In this way, Tierney provides us with yet another tool to understand our psyche's workings---why we sometimes feel in sync with our actions and at other times like there's a tug of war going on within us. But for readers who aren't into introspection, this section is just as illuminating in terms of doing chart comparisons.
In the last sections of the book, Tierney enables us to dig even deeper by discussing the influence of planets in signs, as well as how signs on house cusps color our attitudes. So the insignts go on!
I love the author's way with words -- his wit and humor -- but most of all his clear explanations of "things astrological" that I've been confused about for years. I also like the way you can use this book on different levels; after I applied the information to my own chart I began using it to better understand my family and close friends.
This is one book that's going to be on my Christmas "give list" for sure. Without reservation (or inner conflict) I highly recommend it!

This is a book that is guaranteed to become a classic because it brings a provactive & thoughtful view of the ancient zodiac into modern usage and interpretation. Whether you are a long-time professional or a student just starting out, you are presented with a living picture of the zodiac - the circle of animals - in such an informative manner, it's hard to put down. This is not a cookbook text, but a masterful presentation by one of the finest astrologers in the world. What I personally liked best is that the material is laid before you so each thing flows effortlessly into the next. And the author saves the very best to the last! I'm recommending this book to my students and colleagues because when I spot a winnner, I've got to share! This is a great book I anticipate reading more than once just for the fun of it!

This book is well written, thoughtful, and informative. The author fleshes out the meanings of the twelve zodiacal signs and discusses their interrelationships. I read a lot of books on astrology and this one stands out for the clarity and enjoyableness of its writing. I would highly recommend it to beginners as well as advanced students. It is a model for how to present the horoscope symbols to those unfamiliar with astrology. My only regret is that I did not write it myself.

This book was wonderful!It gave great detalis about astrology without it being in the Zoidac/Astrolgical lanuge.It's easy for any one to understand.For beginers or older students of the craft alike.

Bil Tierney's latest book offers something seldom found in others: information about sign-to-sign detailed descriptions about sign pairings, like Taurus with Sagittarius, or Leo with Virgo. Yet such hard-to-find astrological material is here explained in ways that shed additional light on the qualities of both signs involved.

All Around the Zodiac is written in a clear and enjoyable style, and is loaded with insightful ideas. It is NOT a Sun-sign book, although parts of it could be used as such. The general influence of a sign on a house cusp (i.e., our "Leo" house) is discussed, along with samples of how natal planets may behave in every sign. I appreciated the author's effort to compare and contrast each sign with its ruling planet.

The introductory chapters on elements and modes are very informative. Each sign's main themes are also described, often in humorous, but thought-provoking ways. I feel this book is a major contribution to better understanding every sign's motivation. It's a practical, down-to-earth resource that should be read from cover to cover (rather than just for the parts that only apply to one's chart). Check it out, and get ready to learn a lot from a pro who apparently has been at it for a long time.