Clean Books

The Big Clean encompases a lot of things, inculding the most important bit of info--how to get started. Easy to use and easy to follow, this book has helped me start slow in the cleaning process and has given me hope that I can be as organized as anyone else.

The Big Clean is filled with lots of good information about cleaning and de-cluttering. It's also a very easy plan to follow--just pick one room or closet per time and go from top to bottom. I liked the easy to use, bulleted approach and the humor the author used throughout. It's helped me to understand how to tackle cleaning and how to keep my home clean once I've done the bigger jobs.

One reason I love this book enough to write a review is because I actually made some money because of it. The writer goes into detail about how to sell clothes on consigment. I never understood what consigment was nor how it worked. Once I finished the book, I rounded up all my old clothes, found a consigment shop and actually made some money off my "old junk". Being a shopoholic who spends way more than she should, this book helped me feel better about my purchases. Now I can wear something once, then sell it if I don't like it.

I also enjoyed the money saving tips as well as the declutting tips. The cleaning aspect is very detailed and infomative but I might just be a bit too lazy to do it all!!! But I loved the way the writer broke everything down into small, managable tasks.

I've read Dr Rosen's "Guide to Mold Toxins" on Amazon.com. That book gave me my first glimpse into why some of our employees were more sensitive to mold and allergens than others. And it provided some options and instruction on how to take care of problems.

"Chemical-Free Mold & Mold Toxin Clean-Up & Restoration" takes it from there. This new book is an extensive reference for professional property managers on all aspects of mold and water damage problems. How to properly fix the easy ones, and what you need to know to make sure contractors you might hire for complex problems don't leave things in worse shape than before they started ... which can happen.

This guide has given us confidence to do more work in-house. We are saving money and are getting better results.... fewer complaints.

Management is happy that we are following green building procedures "and" saving money.

I can't say the book is fun, but it is a lot more fun than attending those boring seminars where you maybe learn 1-2 things in a whole day. This book has the equivalent of 2 weeks of seminars logically layed out in an easy to follow reference format.

It is amazing what we can now do in-house with our maintenance people. And for every day problems we can do the work not only cheaper but better than so-called professional services.

What types of chemicals are used when you call in outside help? Do these chemicals leave residues that can affect some of our sensitive employees (including a certain V.P.)?

This guide has given us a great deal of comfort in this area.

As a property manager, I recommend this guide as an excellent source of information for anyone that has ever had complaints related to mold and/or allergens.

Prevention, remediation, assessment, water damage restoration, legal issues ... all covered in a well organized slide show format. Short explanations and full color pictures ... hundreds of them showing typical problems and cost effective ways to solve such problems.

After reading this book the property manager (or builder) will have a good understanding as to the types of problems to handle in-house and when to call in professional help.

As part of my research on environmental regs, Mr. Young's books were recommended to me. The author is clear in his expression, as well as providing food for thought on related topics. I would recommend it to others who are following similar lines of research to my own.

This is a good briefing on clean air regulation in the United States through 1995. The publisher is a diffircult company to get a hold of. However, the book is well work the investment

This book is written as a brief history of clean air regulation in the United States. It is not meant to be a professional compliance manual. Overall, it provides the reader with the opportunity to examine the legislative history of clean air regulation in the United States.

This book kept me going right until the end. It is well written and fast paced. I definately recommend this book to anyone who loves a mystery that is filled with intrigue. Mr. Carte has added just enough humor to make you laugh outloud. I can't wait until the next book!!!!

The world of business meets marriage-counseling 101, with a twist of mystery and suspense thrown in, in this book of multi-genres. Donald Carte has created a believable plot with likable characters and keeps the reader entertained throughout.

Big business sometimes means big scandals, if the plot of naughtiness is uncovered. When Mike Reynolds is hired on to an aggressive software company's sales team he is in for much more than he bargained for. The boost in salary and unbelievable benefits package is just the tip of the huge iceberg beneath the surface. Should a moral person turn a blind eye to the clearly unmoral goings on at his new place of employment? What harm could it do? A good deal unfortunately. Mike's old college buddy is brought into the picture and since he has been with the company for a number of years, he is shocked at Mike's findings.

Meanwhile, Mike and his wife Wendy are going through some marital changes. Having two kids has been a joy but something is missing in Wendy's life. Mike develops an understanding of this and the two work on their marriage together. Learning to see things from another perspective helps Mike out a good deal, in his partnership with Wendy and in his career, including the troubles he has at work.

Donald Carte knows the world of business and has a promising start in the realm of fiction writing. A handful of typos and misprints throughout the book do not detract from quality of writing here. A Clean Passing is a good read.

Review by Heather Froeschl of BookReview.com.

A Clean Passing is a thoroughly enjoyable read. Though a little long getting started, the story rolled once it got going.While set with a backdrop of a high tech software company, it could have been written in a hundred different settings. The connections between the characters - husband to wife and father to son - are so realistic I am convinced the author has been watching my own life for material. As a father, I was moved by ending. As a husband, I've decided to make some changes.

I bought this book because it was about New Orleans, a city recently devastated by hurricane Katrina. I did not expect a great literary work, just a book about a fascinating city.

Kiefer's New Orleans is different. Yes, we see the city and its people but we also see his search for contentment and it is well written. Another reviewer mentioned his introduction and it deserves being quoted here for this is what the book is really about. It is not just about New Orleans; it is about the people who dance there when times are good or bad. Even Katrina will not stop their dancing and Kiefer captures those remarkable people who chose to live and to live well.



"I remember New Orleans, that worn out, laid back, friendly whore of a city laying just north of where the Mississippi plays her last note but closer still to Europe in the way she smiled. I remember her when she was unique and had character, before she became a tourist theme park version of herself. The shadows of the years lengthen and selectively sifting through the tailing of what has gone before, I remember easiest the good times and the people who shared them. I remember New Orleans.



I remember the seductive movement of the French Quarter in nights so full they should have never ended and the muted light playing off the slate roof of the Cathedral moments before dawn. I remember summer afternoons and easy evenings touched by the heady mixture of oleander, hints of spilled bourbon and stale beer. Balconies, ancient frozen balconies, lined the streets on either side. Black painted or orange rusted wrought iron balconies stretched from Esplanade to Canal until they converged at the vanishing point and played out. Beyond those hard, cast metal vines and lovely flower-bedecked balconies waited soft young women with whom to share time. I remember too the sweaty black giant with arms of a fiddler crab. With one chiseled arm, shiny and ripped with muscle, the other withered and crippled, he'd watch my car parked behind the oyster shed where he worked while I played in the Quarter dives. After many of my nights of excess at Harry's, the Seven Seas and too much time trifling upon a bed, I'd return to the parking lot and we'd end the night, the black giant and I, pouring a bottle of Port and laughing at those few parts of the world which were common to us both.



I remember the unforgettable flavor of a Parkway Sandwich Shop roast beef, hurriedly put together by aproned, racetrack guys with boney, tattooed shoulders and cigarettes hanging from their lips. Lotus Street Bakery donuts, running over with sugar glaze, hot, straight from the dark and tumbling grease at midnight. Manuel's Tamales when you were hungry and half-loaded or the smell of Lucky Dogs on Bourbon Street after you blew all your cash. I remember too the love in my youth and soft nights along the lakefront lost in tenderness that crowned and then tormented. I remember the football, the drunken street fights, the politics and the pain."



I remember all that. And I remember clearest all the ways New Orleans had of laughing when we were young."



Read it. You won't be disappointed.

So how do I start this? You see, Buzzy Kiefer is a friend: a good friend; no, a really good friend. We even went to the same high school although Buzzy is a couple of years younger than me and so we actually never met in high school. But we did meet in college and have known one another since. We were fraternity brothers and, through the years, our friendship has blossomed to the extent that he is "Uncle Buzzy" to my children.

Having forewarned you, the reader, that this could be a biased review,I must tell you why it is biased. It is not because Buzzy is a friend, but because Buzzy has condensed the very essence of my (our) New Orleans of the late 1940s, the 1950s, and the early 1960s. If the reader wants a picture of how one middle class youngster grew up in those years in one of America's most unique cities, read the book. I know this for a fact because even though we did not know one another as youngsters, our childhoods mirrored one another in so many ways.

Sure, New Orleans has changed dramatically since the sixties as did our whole nation, and then Katrina possibly administered the coupe d'etat to our city. But if one wants a picture of "old" New Orleans, this is a book for you.

All you "yats" out there, read up and laugh....and then cry, both for what was and for what has happened to our beloved city.

George "Buzzy" Kiefer's book, whose title comes from a quote by Tennessee Williams in Orpheus Descending, is a beautifully written collection of his experiences growing up in one of the most unique cities of the world, New Orleans, Louisiana. It's a collection of short stories and vignettes of his personal life from childhood to adulthood in New Orleans, rounded out by a couple of fictional stories set in Tennessee, several Haikus, and Kiefer's own photography (black and white). Its richness lies in his characters, his poetic way with words, and his creative descriptions of things from the Mississippi River to a mood or emotion. Kiefer can draw a vivid picture simply by describing the way smoke curls up from a cigarette.
The introduction will bring tears to the eyes of anyone who has ever lived in and loved New Orleans. Released just before Hurricane Katrina, this book is now particularly poignant and meaningful. Those who have lived there will feel they know these characters and will relive their childhood in a city that could be gone forever. At the core of the book is Kiefer's search for the meaning of life and death. An ardent backpacker in the Appalachians, Kiefer finds answers in his observation of nature during his hikes on which the reader goes with him in a couple of chapters.
In "Jerry, Johnny, and My Season at Zatarain's" the reader feels he is working along side Kiefer during his college days, bottling the hot pepper sauce and feeling the sting of the peppers under his skin. But here again, it's the characters that add the spice to this and all his stories. Kiefer takes the reader on a journey with him in a city steeped in its own unique culture, traditions, and vernacular, with references to landmarks familiar to any New Orleanian. His "take" on Mardi Gras is bursting with humor and throughout the book his clever play on words and use of words expose another gifted talent to add to the roster of southern writers.
For a gambit of emotions, whether you are from New Orleans or not, I highly recommend this book.
Kiefer's award winning color photographs of nature can be found online:
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Paris in the Sixties - the last days of the Bohemian Paris of Joyce, Hemingway and the Left Bank. Soon the reaction to the student revolution of 1968 will lead to a conservative backlash and to a modernised, suburbanised Paris, but as yet it is still an escape from the cultural deserts of Australia and Northern England. A young couple are living on meagre earnings from teaching English in a run-down language institute; in their spare time Jane paints, Tom writes poetry. Their apartment, it turns out, has a direct connection to the rat-infested sewers of the city, but they are happy with their alternative lifestyle until they invite an unusual, but fascinating person to live with them. They are then made to realise what a really alternative lifestyle means. Are Tom and Jane a match or a mismatch? The novel, while showing the bitter-sweet quality of the young couple's relationship and giving a nostalgic picture of a now-vanished Paris, is full of comic episodes, notably the description of the language school and of the adventures of Sally, the couple's wild friend.

If you have visited Paris and loved it you will love this book. Its delicious weaving of the sights, smells, tastes and texture of Paris in the 1960's quickly gets you in and you are hooked.

Here you meet the principal characters, Tom, a truculent Englishman and his new wife Jane, an Australian girl from a far distant and contrastingly naive world of gum trees and koalas who have arrived to stake a claim at the fringes of the capital of culture.

Jane's heart sinks when she hears another Australian accent as Sally washes up in Paris and breaks in on her bohemian world. Tom, a confirmed "leg man" (its the implications of legs that attracts him)has to revise his scientifically precise scale of perfection to accommodate the "implications" of the beautiful new arrival.

How Tom and Jane end up getting both rather more and rather less than they bargained for in this triangle is the twist here and as they do so they learn a lesson in worldliness and win the reader's affection.

It is a great book for travellers (which by definition includes most Australians), those who are interested in the Paris of Sartre and anyone who likes a story about self discovery.

I loved this book! Vibrant, warm, clever, subtle, fabulous characterization, great atmosphere -- I felt like I'd lived in bohemian 60s Paris just through reading it. Her compassionate portrayal of these complex characters makes for a rewarding and sustaining read: you have to admire the author's skill at giving such lyrical and realistic expression to this all-too-human couple's dilemmas. Patricia Page allows the reader to see the world from the inside out, her manipulation of characters is so subtle as to be almost invisible. A particularly fine achievement for a first-time writer. The story involved, enthralled, delighted me -- and it was only long after I put it down that the magic dispelled, and I could realise fully Page's skill. Highly recommended. It'll make you think twice about wearing a skirt.

This book is a wonderful guide to cleaning all kinds of messes, using products that are generally less toxic (and less expensive) than most advertised options -- pet friendly, kid friendly ideas for taking excellent care of your home and belongings even when they are messed up by your pets and kids! My favorite is cleaning my brass bed with Worcestershire sauce. It *really* works, is much safer and certainly smells better than brass cleanser from the hardware store.

This book is great. It is full of cleaning secrets. It includes information about how to clean all areas of your home and keep them clean. It is organized according to area (bathrooms, kitchens, floors etc.). The best part about this book is that it focuses on new cleaning shortcuts to help you maintain a clean home. That way, you aren't constantly cleaning a completley messy home. This book also includes recommendations for great cleaning products and tools, a stain guide to help you get out almost any stain, and recipes to make your own safe cleaning products. The authors have also put a lot of fun cleaning facts, statistics, and poems in the book. This is a great book for every household!

This book makes those hard messes seem so easy. with time saving tech I am able to spend more time with the family and not have to morn over somthing as simple as a stain in the carpet. The Author Jill C. Major, and Eugenia Chapman are simply the best!

I like the authors' attention to defining words in the beginning of the book and think it picks up on a gut level, with more mass appeal, when individual cases are examined. Don't skip the appendix because there's some good practical stuff there. I know one of the authors and have met both here in Denver, so I might be biased on the positive side, but I think they offer some refreshing views of a subject that touches just about everyone's life. The ideas of social capital and of beating addiction without traditional forms of treatment are worthy of more attention, and I speak in the context of having seen treatment fail for others.

As a prevention professional, I found Coming Clean a breathe of fresh air on a topic graced with strong beliefs and passions. The book is particularly germaine for the person contemplating a tobacco cessation program! A must read for the prevention professional and for the treatment professional alike.

Can addiction be overcome without treatment? This confronts the disease model of addiction, providing a set of alternatives to treatment programs for overcoming drug and alcohol addictions. The words and experiences of recovering addicts are used to enhance a title focussing on alternative recovery processes.

Peter Wright is on a roll! I could say a lot about this book; things like, I laughed my butt off, the information was solid, he considered spelling "Mother" differently ... but I won't (past that, I guess). I'll give you two quotes from his book: "I want to provide you with the tricks and tools to either pull your own weight in the arena of cooking and cleaning or learn to be self-sufficient so you won't have to rely on the first gal that comes along with a nice set of casserole dishes -- and God knows how tempting that will be." This is from the Foreward! Nice start, eh? Another priceless observation covers cookware: He said, "Most guys would be happy with cookware they find at a garage sale, or handed down from relatives or friends. Bad idea. First of all, any protective coating will be a distant memory. Which means not only will things taste a little crappier than they should, they'll stick, and then make it difficult to clean" Has this guy got a handle on priorities or what? He has touched on things it took me years to learn the hard way. It's a keeper.

Do you know guys who know how to make cakes or can whip up a tasty seafood dish on the weekend when his kids come over. Well, this is a book for dads who are dads for the weekend or have the kids all week. It is also perfect for men who want to give their wives a night off from cooking for the family.

Personally, I'm very impressed by men who can cook. What woman isn't? A man who can cook is a kitchen god. I have so many memories of my father waking me in the morning and saying "breakfast is ready" or inviting people over on the weekend and making "pizza from scratch."

The Delicious chapters in this book include:

Stuff to Make it With - Shopping for the right ingredients
Stuff to Make it In - Tools that get you in and out of the kitchen fast
Fast Stuff to Make - Getting food on the table fast
Tasty Stuff to Make - Food to impress on weekends or when you have company
The Good Stuff - Company dinners
Stuff for Dessert - When a bag of Chips Ahoy won't suffice
Stuff To Clean It Up With - Quick and easy ways to clean
Stuff Worth Knowing
Stuff Your Kids Can Do - Getting kids involved in cooking

The recipes have creative titles like: "Take a Wok, Man!" This is a recipe that sounds good to me, I just need to buy a wok. I love the humor in the recipes and how the instructions are written. At the start of the recipe, there is a lot of good advice and then at the end of the recipe there are some "tips."

Some recipes include: Pete's Power Pasta Sauce, Hamburger Heaven, Pizza Night, Yer Traditional Roast Chicken and Chocolate Pancakes. Most of the Desserts are made with fast food items like Jell-O, frozen cheesecakes and Ice cream and sauces.

As far as cleaning goes, I have to agree with his ideas of a "dishwasher" being rather essential. I still haven't tried the Wetjet Swiffer, but now I'm about to go buy one. Crawling about on the kitchen floor is less and less appealing as the years go by.

Peter Wright shows a lot of wisdom in the last chapter where he discusses the pro's and con's of allowing children to help around the house. I had to laugh when I read: Show your children how to measure out the soap. He is referring to washing the clothes and let me tell you, that is one of the most important steps. I myself caused an entire room to be filled with bubbles when I was a child. I think we used half a bottle. Ahh, the days of youth.

Hey, this guy even makes Risotto, what's not to love? I doubt if he is still single, he will be single much longer. ;)

~The Rebecca Review

Cook Like A Mother! Clean Like A Pro!: The Single Dad's Guide To Cooking And Cleaning is a combination cookbook and homemaker skills "how to" instructional written by Peter Wright especially for men who are neophytes at the fine art of keeping an orderly home. Specifically intended for single fathers who need to quickly learn how to provide proper nutrition and a clean environment for their rambunctious offspring, Cook Like A Mother! Clean Like A Pro! offers simple, easy-to-follow instructions, parenting tips, excellent practical recipes, and solid general advice. Cook Like A Mother! Clean Like A Pro! is thoroughly "user friendly" and confidently recommended for fathers, uncles, and anyone else who is new to the necessity of food preparation and other homemaking skills.