Twenty Squares Books

This book, like Big Knits, has some really nice patterns. Many are easily adjustable lengthwise, and some are adjustable width-wise as well if you have some knitting experience.

Most, however, would require some serious adjustment if you wanted to knit them in a smaller size, because the larger motifs in these sweaters go completely from side to side (as opposed to the sweaters in Big Knits, where the larger motifs in some patterns had at least a couple inches on each side of plain bordering to work with), and it would be easy to distort the picture composition (unless you don't mind chopping off part of it).

Don't let the above discourage you, however--the larger picture motifs would also look great done up as a baby blanket, or afghan, or as a pillow.

Good book for anyone's knitting library.

Tired of calculating the changes required to knit a large size sweater from an "average size" pattern? You can actually sit down and knit immediately with this book of patterns...no more rewriting before you can begin. You'll love the many creative styles, done in everything from stocking stitch to cables and intarsia, to please beginners to advanced knitters. Clear, easy to follow instructions and witty text highlight a collection of classic sweaters, snappy pullovers, and gorgeous jackets. Your biggest problem will be choosing which one to make first! This book, presented by Dawn French (of t.v.'s "French and Saunder's" fame) and Sylvie Soudan, is a "must have" for those who love their "big knits"

This book, and "Big Knits" before it (very hard to find) has the best collection of sweaters REAL people want to wear. I am not a larger size but ajust the sweaters downward because they're so great. I have made more sweaters from these two books than the rest of my patterns/books combined. When are they going to publish another collection???

Knitwear with humor, bold colors and relaxed fit are within your grasp with this book. With an average finished chest size of 56" these sweater designs look good on everyone with full figures. The photos are superb, the diagrams and written instructions are easy to understand and information is provided to help you change the length and width of sweater parts to fit your figure. Dawn French (of the "French and Saunders" comedy team) adds her sense of mirth and models these bold sweaters with joy. A delightful book that's sure to inspire your own design creativity!

If you knit and are shaped more like a sheep before sheering than after -- the 2 Dawn French books (Big Knits, and Great Big Knits) are what you've been looking for.

The biggest regret is that they are all but impossible to find.

I do the math tricks on all kinds of patterns so they will adjust to fit ME and all those out there like ME -- but in these books, the design is actually intended for my shape -- and not for a 14-year-old 3/4" dowl-rod model. Not only are the patterns measured up to fit, but the patterns on the sweaters are measured up as well. Who wants to wear a 3X sweater with thousands of tiny 1/4" roses on it?

The artist-inspired sweaters are expecially noteworthy, as well as the open-work lace styles and the sailor stripes.

Too bad the publishers don't know a good thing when they've got it and put out a new edition!!!

It Was Good is a collection of twenty-one artists and their very insightful essays on art. The book isn't just a "write what you want about art" sort of book. It covers various subjects in an orderly fashion. Some of the topics are: Beauty, Substance, Presence, Mission, Community, Essence, Identity. Every chapter is very well written, well laid out and inspiring.

Color plates of some of the art help to crystalize the comments of the artist.

This book gives real meaning and purpose for the artist today. The book clarifies what it is to live life giving glory to God through art, not because it is "Christian" art or art that preaches but rather because you serve the triune God your art can have meaning and depth. Makoto Fujimoro states, "Such a Christocentric perspective on the arts can also release our creativity from being enslaved to a particular form, or style of art." And that is just one fully laden sentence in a book of 355 pages!

This book will make you want to get out your pencils, paints, paper and brushes and start expressing yourself through art again.

"It Was Good-Making Art to the Glory of God" brings forth many struggling topics and themes that Christian artists are challenged with. These essays are writing by some of the most important Christian artists today (i.e. Makoto Fujimura, Theodore Prescott, and Edward Knippers.) The book discusses issues looking at our fallen world with a realistic point of view. It teaches to face evil head on and to point towards the grace, the hope, and the glory, namely Jesus Christ. As God's children it explains our need for art in the church and in our communities. It also depicts the problems of Christian art, with topics such as GOOD, ("The efforts of most artists who attempt to present a picture of `good' tend toward dishonest, sugary sweet propaganda. They ignore the implications of the fall and paint the world as a shiny, happy place." -Ned Bustard, "Good"), EVIL, and IDENTITY. It is hard being both Christian and artist. It seems no one understands you in the art world and no one understands you in the Christian world. This book praises our gifts of creativity and imaginations, in which we learn to integrate both our faith and art, and return these gifts to praise Our Father. "It Was Good..." should be essential to your book collection. I once had a discussion with a friend of how we can meditate on a single passage for hours. These essays have been so inspirational that I have spent some nights restless, because I could not wait until the next day to work on my own art. It is such a blessing to know, in this generation (so full of narcissistic and meaningless art,) that this book is out there to help other Christian artists. I personally feel doubly blessed because I am still an undergraduate in art school. I feel a great comfort to apply and develop these ideas into my own critiques. But this book goes way beyond the ordinary art school critique and grows toward my relationship with God and towards his people.

I have been a mosaic artist for seven years and I would say this is a good book no matter what your level of experience. I also enjoy Martin's work and like to see what he is up to. Great resource and inspirational too.

I may be a bit predjudiced as a moaic artist myself, specializing in millifiori, but I loved Martin's extensive use of this wonderful material throughout the pages of his book. Used as accents and as full areas of pattern, he has shown the reader an exciting new direction that modern mosaics is moving using a very old traditional Italian glass but in adventurous new ways.
Now that being said, Martin offers a variety of interesting and inspiring projects for all levels, rating his projects on a difficulty scale of 1-5 and on a working scale of a few hours to several days required to complete each project. He also offers several different methods of working, including techniques such as direct, indirect, transfers, outdoor casted concrete and working over wood, metal and glass as a substrate.
Not all of it is for everyone, but I am sure there is more than one project in Martin's book that will inspire you to want to run to your craft table and start pulling down the tiles. For me, it was his wonderful Storm Lights and his 'Day of the Dead' Mosaics in smalti and millifiori.
Bravo Martin, you are one of todays' leaders in contemporary mosaics. Laurel Skye

First to review for such a brilliant book but I'm not surprised. This isn't the type of book many teens would read after reading the back cover. Which is sad and shows how much we judge with our eyes because this book really knows teens.

the first sentence: All of us here in this room are no more than 26 minutes from death.

this book is more than an anti nuclear war book. its characters are amazingly realistic and interesting. each chapter it switches between Jenny and Rich, 2 very inteligent, unhappy teens.

An easy read, an unforgettable story. this is a must read.

I got into fair isle knitting in my own sweet time and count this book as a major inspiration. I've never knitted any of the patterns here and never intend to. But who cares? I've spent hours admiring and analyzing how Alice Starmore handles background/foreground color changes and translates color patterns into knit and purl. The models (except for the kids) all look like deathless vampires but that's a small thing. In my life I hope to come up with something as drop-dead gorgeous as "Lindisfarne." You can bury me in it.

This book has been available for a long time, and the designs are truly timeless. I've knitted several Alice Starmore sweaters from this and other books, and each is a work of art. The detail, construction, fit and style are always the very best.

Don't be afraid to substitute yarns, as Starmore yarns are very difficult to find. Just be careful that you are exactly on gauge, and you'll do fine. I've found that the Aran weight patterns can be worked in worsted using a smaller sized needle and minor adjustments to the pattern, and still achieve a wonderful result.

The Fair Isle technique can be a bit daunting if you're not familiar with it. But, don't despair, there are many other books available, including Starmore's Fair Isle Knitting, that will assist you with any questions. My only caveat with any Alice Starmore pattern is to take time, really study the pattern, work out all the gauges and tension matters, and take your time when knitting. These aren't patterns to be rushed. With care and attention to detail, you will achieve greatness.

If you need to adjust a pattern, that is also pretty easy. Just plan it out beforehand. As the patterning is based upon repeated motifs, you have plenty of ability to adjust.

If you are knitting a cardigan from The Celtic Collection, don't try to save money on buttons either. Only the best will do, for these are sweaters that last a lifetime.

Every Starmore pattern I've knitted, and a few of those sweaters are ten years old, yet look as fresh and new as if they'd been designed last week. You simply cannot go wrong. I consider The Celtic Collection a cornerstone of my knitting library. The sweaters are treasures of my wardrobe.

Alice Starmore is truly a design genius. Don't be fooled by the visual complexity and subtlety of these designs. With few exception, they are all knit with two strands of yarn at a time. She uses between 6 and 20+ various shades in various color palettes and makes tapestry rich sweaters a knockout. Follow her color recommendations or design your own, you won't be disappointed in the results. Stranded on a desert island, I would take this book, my needles and a boatload of yarn!

This is my first Alice Starmore book. I heard about her on a knitting forum site. I believe this is the only Alice Starmore book that is still in print. It is a lovely book and lives up to the high expectations raised about Alice Starmore designs on the knitting site. The beautiful sweaters are photographed on models in breathtaking natural scenery. It's a knitting book and travel book under one cover.

Her designs are based on traditional motifs seen on Irish jewelry and in illustrations in old Irish manuscripts. The colors are either beautifully subtle or strikingly bold.

I have found out why this is the only one of her books in print. There is a controversy surrounding Alice and her daughter Jade (which I will not attempt to explain) which explains why her other books will probably never be reprinted and no new books of knitting designs will be written by her. So buy this beautiful Alice Starmore book for a great price from Amazon while you still can!

I actually have two copies of this book. The first was purchased more than 15 years ago, and is a much loved / slightly tattered hardcover. I recently received the paperback version as a gift to replace my much-used original.

I love patterns that have either lots of colorwork, or lots of texture. This is why I learned to knit in the first place. This book is heavily skewed towards color work. I have been making the sweaters from this book for various relatives for many years, and am currently working on a sweater full of celtic creatures for my daughter. You can also transpose some of the designs, such as the entwined dragons from the back of a child's sweater onto other projects as long as you keep the stitches even on either side.

If you look at the guages, you can substitute available yarns for the yarns listed in the book. Consider the colors and yarn selections in the photographs as "suggestions" and you will free yourself to make some personalized choices.

Warning: In the years since this book was published, some of the patterns have become dated. This is mostly due to the shape of the sweaters and ever changing fashion trends.

Have I mentioned that I love this book? I can't imagine not having it to reach for when the urge to knit something glorious strikes.

I am very satisfied of this book. This book is beautiful and the service is exceptionnal.

If you love the look of cables, textures and Aran Sweaters, you will love Alice Starmore for putting together this book. This book is a treasure.

If it's written by a Starmore, you can't go wrong. This book is full of absolutely gorgeous sweaters that will inspire even the novice knitter. I bought this book 10 years ago and it motivated me to learn to knit to a much more advanced level. It's a shame that Alice Starmore's books are out of print for the most part, as it deprives those new to knitting of some of the most beautiful books and patterns ever created (unless you can afford the ridiculous price for used).

After I read the reviews (all of them five stars) and after I saw that another book of Alice Starmore is out of print and you can get it for $200 I was really looking forward to getting this book! Well... I appreciate all the work the author put into producing those 20 sweaters. Yes, the instructions are very detailed. And the charts are very clear. But out of 20 models featured in the book only one caught my eye as being truly original and worth making.
Photographs of the models are very pretty - beautiful landscapes, lovely sailboats... But if you take a picture of a knitted dark blue sweater, don't put it in front of a dark boat - or fix the lighting, so the reader will be able to appreciate the knitted pattern.
The book did not live up to my expectations - so three stars it is.

This book goes from fairly simple to very challenging. There is something for every level of confident knitter. I love that there are patterns for men, women and children. This book is excellent for those that have been wanting to try a pattern that looks complicated, but is rather very straightforward. I am anxious to try knitting a sweater in the round instead of knitting in pieces and having to sew them together. I highly recommend this book

It is difficult to review this book without giving away too much but... June believes she escaped the clutches of a murderer and is led to learn more about the woman she thinks was murdered in her stead. She finds out more than she wants to know and learns her marriage isn't all its cracked up to be. In the process, she befriends, through a lie, the murdered woman's daughter and brother. When she learns her association with the child is more than the simple fact that Cindy (the dead woman's daughter) attends the elementary school she works at, she begins to unwravel the mystery.
I enjoyed the book, although I didn't appreciate the anti-war sentiments being tossed in for good measure. I didn't think they had anything to do with the story at all and were simply a means of the author making her opinions known.

I couldn't get away from this book. I live in New York City and normally do my reading on the hour-long trip to and from work on the subway train. This book is so engrossing I did not want the train ride to end so I could keep reading. I almost missed my stop a few times; it's that good. I genuinely wish it could have gone on; I wanted to keep reading about June Duvall! Hooray, Alison Clement!

When she saw the newspaper, Oregon elementary school cafeteria cook June Duvall knew instantly how fortunate she was. Yesterday her car broke down and Ronald Pruett offered her a ride; she considered accepting it as she hates saying no, but declined anyway. Pruett has been arrested for the strangulation murder of Vernay Hanks, a waitress at Darnay's Hamburgers, who obviously said yes to his ride offer.

Though not sure why she cannot stay out of this tragedy, June, rationalizing it as survivor's guilt, befriends the victim's daughter, ten years old student Cindy, and her newly named guardian, her crotchety Uncle Harlan. Though she loves her spouse Bill as she always thinks of the Nyro-Fifth dimension tune, she finds herself spending more time with the grieving duo. This leads her to wonder what is lacking with her relationship with Bill, but soon a bigger puzzle surfaces when Cindy wears a bracelet that belongs to June's mother-in-law; other evidence surfaces linking Bill with Vernay as June, applying the kids' game TWENTY QUESTIONS, inadvertently begins to disentangle the circumstances that led to the woman's homicide.

Though the anti-war stance seems out of place, this fine drama makes strong cases that justice is myopic when it comes to the unfair treatment of the disenfranchised poor and on a personal scale to be honest with yourself and others in relationships. June is a terrific protagonist struggling with deep feelings of guilt that ignite inside her when she realizes Cindy attends her school. She knows her lies to gain access is wrong though her intentions are honorable. The amateur sleuth elements augment a deep character study of personal and often overlooked societal responsibilities to one another.

Harriet Klausner

On Sunday, December 2, at the Oregon Book Awards ceremony at the Porland Art Museum, Alison Clement won this year's Ken Kesey Award for the Novel. I was pleased and gratified because "Twenty Questions" is one of the best novels I have read in a long time. I found myself helplessly turning pages, thanks to Clement's skillful development of plot, characterizations, and theme. Clement has a gift for revealing just the right amount of information a little at a time--keeping me reading to find out the answers. Her intriguing characters and their complex relationships made me sorry to finish the book, no longer able to enjoy the company of these folks who had become like good friends. And her adept treatment of "personal and political violence and the connection between the two" imbues the story with an important universal message that carries over into life. Alison Clement's magnificient novel has proved the solution my gift-giving for this year.

This has to be one of the best books I've ever read. The book description only scratches the surface of what it's about. It's an incredible story about a woman, June Duvall, and her relationships with other people and how she thinks and how she reacts to things that happen in her life, both directly and indirectly. Alison Clement is an immensely talented writer who has done an amazing job of developing the characters that make them seem so real, like you're getting to know them rather than just reading about them. Her use of dialog between June and the people in her life, combined with both subtle and vivid descriptions of June's thoughts and reactions, make this a book that's hard to put down. I also highly recommend the author's previous book, Pretty Is As Pretty Does. It's a completely different story, but just as enjoyable and well written.

The book I have is published by Pavilion Books Limited, 1996.
The size is optimal for a photographic book, being some 250x350mm and giving ample area for the photos. Most photos use all of the page and some are spread over both faces of the opening.

There is a one page foreword by Mr. Geldof and the rest of the unnumbered pages are categorized; fashion, nudes, landscape, portraits the latter being almost half of the book and the three remaining categories dividing the other half in equal thirds.

Of the 22 nude work several are Swannell classics, and all of the work in this book are printed excellently. All the landscape photos are tinted brown.
This book certainly complements an older book by the same author; "Fine Lines", 1982 which like this one will stay in my reference library of fine photographic art.

Spectacular pictures, black and white or lightly tinted..wonderful loving understanding of the human form and truly magical landscapes as well. Juxtaposition of landscapes and humans enoble both and enrich the viewers. And the portraits capture so much more than the physical....pieces of soul linger on these pages.

Having seen the movie a couple times this was the first time I read the book and was surprised to see a significant number of unexpected differences. Jules Verne's Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea is arguably the first technical thriller, launching a genre which has since grown wildly in popularity and includes most of Michael Chricton's work. It is a very imaginative book, the story of the mysterious Captain Nemo -haunted by an implied but never explained past - who has built for himself and his crew the submarine Nautilus to be free of the laws of man and to live successfully and sustainably on the bounty of the world's oceans, which he intrepidly explores in all its wonders. Inevitably he is chased by the main characters, Ned the Harpooner, Mr. Arronax the professor and Conseil his man-servant, in the frigate USS Abraham Lincoln. Unlike the movie the story is told entirely by Mr. Arronax and Ned is more a minor character, and a stolid Canadian as opposed to the boisterous and fun loving American in the movie. Also unlike the movie the Nautilus does not sink the Lincoln, but in a duel vents it with steam that throws our three main characters overboard whom are then rescued after the Lincoln, ignorant to the fact they are no longer onboard, retreats from the scene.

Thus begins a promising story of mystery and adventure, the possible drama of Captain Nemo being chased by worldly forces in his incredible Nautilus, the tension between the captives who are experiencing the amazing wonders of the ocean depths firsthand and their captor who cannot ever let them go without losing his own freedom, and the chance for exciting adventures. While all of these things are delivered in the book, they are done so very anachronistically (obviously), with the drama, tension and adventure being there - and being very creatively crafted - but also being very subdued and literally drowned in an ocean of Mr. Arronax describing the latin names of the sea life he sees outside the Nautilus's window. This captures the fascination of the age with Natural History versus today's focus on excitement and adventure in these types of novels. There are many times were the book gets very, very dry as the author rattles of names that you have no idea what they refer to, and even if you google them the only hits you will get are the passages in the book itself! Based on this, the fact that this translation cuts out some 20% of the book is probably not a bad thing.

Nonetheless there are some great moments of natural beauty and adventure. Jules Verne showed some incredible predictive power in describing the structural design, diving operations and maneuverability, and life support systems of a submarine, being basically spot on before anything beyond the Turtle of Revolutionary War heritage had ever been put to sea. The myriad undersea "terrains" the characters experience are particularly cool and fun. Relative to the movie the giant squid attack is underwhelming, but a much better scene that never made it to the film is one where after discovering the south pole (something Verne got wrong obviously) the Nautilus is caught in between two icebergs and must dig itself out before its air supply runs out. But there are some drawbacks too. There are some shockingly dark moments for a book aimed towards younger men from the 1860's which seem to imply they are leading somewhere and could have been great plot tension builders, but they are never fully fleshed out, and neither is the character they are supposed to be windows into, the reclusive, tortured yet brilliant Captain Nemo. The book ends quickly and inconclusively, feeling like a great set up for a story that ends as more travel log than character story or adventure yarn. Nonetheless the book is short and relatively easy to read despite it's older grammatical style which can sound very strange today.

The job the publisher did however is spotty. The cover design of the book is very well done, but the editing is poor with many glaring typos throughout the text.

All in all the movie is much better as a movie than a direct adaptation of the book would have been, with Ned Land turned into a main character that an American audience can connect with (unlike the highly intellectual and uninspiring Mr. Arronax as main character of the book or the turgid Canadian version of Ned Land), Captain Nemo is more explained as a character and pitted more against Mr. Arronax as two opposing sides of a moral coin, and the movie has a more solid story and conclusion. But the book has it's own advantages and overall is worth reading, especially for its historical significance.

There are a number of low-cost Kindle editions of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. Unfortunately the transcription quality varies, with one suffering from lots of spurious line-breaks and another suffering from awkward not-quite-in-place footnotes.

After reviewing three samples, I went with this one. The only weakness I've noticed is that there is no table of contents, but that isn't a major issue for a novel. The text itself is well transcribed, with the right paragraph breaks in the right places and no major typographical errors.

A very fine classic novel, at a very reasonable price!

There are several Kindle editions of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. Unfortunately some (including this one) suffer transcription problems. In this case the transcribed text is full of spurious line breaks so that each kindle page is full of broken line segments, which makes it unnecessarily awkward to read.

After sampling two other low-cost editions, I went with the BompaCrazy edition. That has a clean, well-transcribed text for the same 99 cents.

Five stars for the book, two stars for this edition.

It is really a shame that Amazon pushes so many editions together in the same group of reviews. This review is of the complete edition (not the bowdlerised children's version) and references the translation by Mendor T. Brunetti.

This was a reread for me. I read most of the Verne books when I was quite young, and lately wanted to revisit some of my favorites. When I was younger, I was very much (like Captain Aronnax) taken with the catalogue of undersea marvels that Captain Nemo and his Nautilus enabled us to visit. Reading it this time around, I was quite struck with the political picture of Captain Nemo. As a man from an unknown country who has lost everything at the hands of men, Nemo becomes what we would today call a terrorist. He funds freedom fighters. He takes his revenge on the men from the countries who hurt him and his. The portraits on his wall: John Brown, Kosciusko, Daniel O'Connell. I think that I'm going to add The Mysterious Island to my list. I had never read the sequel in the past, and I understand that it provides more background about the mysterious captain.

Readers who aren't familiar with this book are encouraged by this reviewer to rapidly amend this sad condition. I also have to say that I first read this when I was nine (the full version, not a children's edition) and I can't imagine what really needs to be cut to make it suitable for younger folks. I'd hand them the whole thing with a confident heart.

I loved this classic French novel by Jules Verne and found it to be very entertaining from start to finish! I was very surprised that I would enjoy this book as much as I did.... I figured "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea", like many classic novels, would be boring, but Jules Verne is a marvelous storyteller. He imbues this novel with lots of intrigue and mystery as you wonder how the story will unfold... There is lots of adventure and interesting predicaments, and of course, many unforgettable characters one comes to care about during the course of the novel. Also if you like science fiction then this is the novel for you! Jules Verne seems to be ahead of his time in terms of technology and creates quite a wonderful piece of classic literature that has stood the test of time.

The attention to detail that Jules Verne used to capture the readers attention is marvelous... This book is written in the 1st person through the eyes of Assistant Professor Pierre Aronnax of the Paris Museum of Natural History. Professor Aronnax unfolds the story to the reader of this novel about several sightings of a mysterious object seen around the world by many different people.... Some believe it to be an island, others seem to think the object is a floating reef, a large whale or other large mammal and so on. It isn't until Professor Aronnax and his faithful Flemish assistant, Conseil, take part on an expedition aboard the Abraham Lincoln to seek out this unknown object once and for all. Eventually, it is discovered that this unknown object is a submarine named the Nautilus, on which Professor Aronnax, Conseil and Canadian harpooner, Ned Land, spend the remaining part of the novel sailing on the Nautilus through the various oceans of the world along with the crew of the Nautilus. What adventures they have while sailing on the Nautilus!! And the exquisite detail in which Jules Verne imparts is wonderful. One feels like they are truly reading the actually travel journal/diary of Professor Aronnax. Professor Aronnax writes from a scientific/natural history perspective as he is very much interested in the under water world of the worlds oceans.

The only draw back I had with this novel was that some of the descriptions were a bit overdone or a bit too much to take in (like classification of animal species or various nautical terms).... These descriptions aren't overwhelming or occur that frequently, I'd just find myself skimming through these parts rather quickly.

After having read this five or six years ago, and going through yet another phase of revisiting my fascination with all things Grateful Dead, I decided to read this again. I almost wrote down all the historical inaccuracies I could find, and there were about a dozen or so, if not more. It could be said that Rock Scully could be given some slack for this, but I'm left with the feeling that this was a rush job to cash in on Garcia's untimely death. That may seem harsh, but considering Scully had been out of the scene for almost 10 years at that point, and he gives no indication what he'd been doing to make a living, it seems probable that he was in need of an infusion of cash.
This is the most 'kiss and tell' book I've read on the Grateful Dead, and so much of these accounts I have to actually question the creibility of what's written. I have very little sympathy for Scully because he was along for what must have been a very enjoyable ride, but in the end he allowed himself to be reduced to Jerry's flunky, helping enable his decline.
All in all this is some entertaining reading, yet sad. You get the sense that Scully cared much less about the music then the drugs, and true Dead fans always cared more about the music first. You'd also get the feeling that Scully alludes to Jerry having been in such decline by the mid-80's that he was just going through the motions in order to pay for his drug habit. True fans know that while the 80's by and large weren't their best decade, they still managed to play many great shows. It wasn't until the 90's that things really fell apart, and I'm surprised Scully doesn't suggest it was because they didn't keep him around.

My friend send this book to me as part of an ongoing thing we have with the san francisco 60's and general interest in music. i really liked the book. it was an easy read, say it was well narrated and also full of interesting little side stories about all the involved parties. i really liked that there was no attempt of pink shades, meaning that people came accross as people with short-comings, vanities, addictions and stupidity, all the while it was still funny and really, it pulled me right in and made me feel as if i had been there myself. plus, any book that makes the hippies look like the crazy people they were is fine with me. many books make this generation look like they invented the wheel and everything was all love/ peace and happiness and everybody got along and the times were so much better then. in reality the summer of love was launched by a bunch of greedy haight street shop owners and most of the kids in the haight were runaways, drug addicts and pityful homeless basket cases that were under the impression that they were going to shangri-la. which it wasn't! anyway, the book tells all the stories in a very funny and witty way, it has a good eye for details AND you get to know the grateful dead in a good way, even if you don't like their music (which i don't)(except of some songs and some live stuff)(whatever).
all in all, great read, be careful, you might want to read it in one sitting :)

This story is by turns wonderful (especially early on), depressing (especially toward the end), and hilarious (pretty much throughout), but always fascinating. Years of distance from the events allows Scully be as critical of himself as anyone else, and this gives the book an authentic quality. I only know the Dead's best-known songs, and I knew almost nothing about the band or Garcia before reading this book, yet it was a page-turner for me. Other musicians and cultural figures of the era make interesting appearances too.

If you are wanting to read the "back story" behind the music and are just now starting your homework, let me suggest you start here. Why? Why here, when this is obviously a flawed, overly subjective work seen through a prism of chemical distortions, bringing us what are probably broken and incorrectly reassembled memories? Because this is a book you will finish. You will read this from cover to cover and most likely love it, and because this book is (more than any other out there) about the FUN of the Grateful Dead. That part gets left out - a lot.

Other reviewers are not wrong - the last half of this book is largely about Scully and Garcia's drug addiction. But it isn't, as is made clear, like everyone else was a health food nut. (Well, Bobby was, but that's beside the point.) And there is also a ton of history going on during this time, too. (For one thing, we learn some of the reasons that Bob Dylan was so devoted to Jerry and said such gracious things about him later.) But what made it all work, the glue that held it together, was the fact that this music was just so much more fun than anything else going on. This book is about that fun, and this book is fun to read. There aren't many books that have made me laugh harder.

Where you go after this is your own business: if you want to read a superb biography and perhaps the most important book of the whole genre, read the Garcia biography. "Dark Star" is heartbreaking but very insightful, and much of it makes "Living With The Dead" seem tame by comparison, as it is all first person interviews of persons involved. The McNally book is probably the completest, but is often as dry as toast and completely disengaged from the joy this band dispensed. So start here for fun, and to get a taste for what the life was like, and put a little color in the cheeks of all those black and white photographs.

And as to why this book doesn't get much into the music, it's because no book could get in to the music and talk about anthing else. Scully was not a Dead head - he would probably rather have seen a Stones concert any night. He worked for the band, he didn't follow them for love of the music. If you want to get inside the actual music, that's a whole separate library you need to read. We aren't talking about the songs, we're talking about the band, and this is as good a place as any to meet them, and better than most.

Here, Rock Scully wrote the most straightforward, hilarious, and un-egotistical biography I've ever read: The story of the Grateful Dead.

Rock Scully was the manager for The Grateful Dead and he was particularly close to Jerry Garcia. This 60s San Francisco Free Love Society band made a LOT of money, most of which was converted to drugs of abuse and immediately consumed.

I was especially impressed with Rock's ability to size up situations (like when a band of Arabs tried to chase him down and he escaped by using his wits) and his penchant for launching grassroots justice when dealing with people of abrasive cultures (specifically, the stogy old German officials who got covertly "dosed" with LSD for their interference in the band's more harmless activities).

I was around and involved in music back in those days and I'm here to tell you that The Grateful Dead was NOT all that big in terms of popular rock bands; however, everyone had at least heard of them so they had clearly achieved a notable national status amongst The Woodstuck. In subsequent years, The Dead ultimately hung on into the 70s and beyond, and they were more popular later on than they ever were in their Genesis. Their big thing was THE WALL OF SOUND and I think, here, Garcia in particular was a real innovator.

In any case, it was clearly Garcia who held it all together, always pushing band members to write songs so they could eek out another album for much-needed dope money. That's another facet of The Dead -- they never played a song twice the same way, improvising on stage each time they performed. Given my personal life experience in bands, this mostly represents an aversion to rehearsals which was probably what kept this group submerged well below other period bands in popularity.

Still, it was a great hoot to read of their antics, their trials, and their tribulations. The period leading up to the death of Jerry Garcia was especially sad to read about as was the death of "Pigpen", (the keyboards player and occasional percussionist).

Anyway, I didn't know all these interesting details until I read Rock Scully's fine book.

I thought this was just a super read -- well done!