Game Studies Books

Easy to follow art projects for elementry grades. I wish the authors had included pictures of the masterpieces, a line drawing of the artists and a short, kid-oriented biography. Nice variety of art vocabulary and artists.

This a great book if you are looking for lesson ideas on introducing art terminology and practice into your classroom. This book offers 9 lessons per grade from k-5th. The only thing that I found lacking was a print of each masterpiece--I was unfamiliar with some of them and it would have been good to see.

The projects in this book are clear and simply explained. The concepts are appropriate for the grade levels. You will need to find a source for the prints needed for study before you can do the art projects.

A great book, pictures would have made it perfect. Her "Month by Month Masterpeices" sounds like it has addressed this issue, with 10 poster sized pictures. Do not be put off by Pollack's drip paintings being 1st or 2nd style presented, if you can not handle the thought of a mess, move to the next one.

This book has made it into my bathroom bookcase. We all know where the best books are kept. Whether you are a beginner at metal smithing or a pro looking for inspiration, this is an excellent book. There are some wonderful projects with detailed instructions. The projects range from tin can jewlery to cosmic copper table tops. I highly recommend this book to anyone who is or wants to be creative.

It is a measure of the depravity of industrial culture that "craft" -- which once connoted such things as blacksmithing and making violins -- has taken on the connotation of making trinkets.

I once knew a welfare slattern who lived in a trailer and kept the windows shut. She spent the day sticking beads and sequins into styrofoam shapes with pins to make things she said were "cute". This book is her, but on glossy paper.

The closest you'll come to making anything at all functional is a picture frame -- rectangular. The whole book really drips with violent prejudice against anything except decorative whimsy.

Look around your house -- look how many crummy things are made of metal that you could make much better, and much more attractive, yourself -- but not with this book.

Why the retreat into trinketry? Are you afraid to make the things you use? How, exactly, did you come to believe that industry and technology have legitimately confined your creative impulses and abilities --- which would otherwise produce objects which give some of YOUR character to YOUR environment -- to that which merely decorates? The creative urge seeks to supply that which your soul perceives to be lacking in your surroundings. Do you really believe the longing can be filled with baubles?

How about a doll made out of a spoon with steel wool for hair? A bracelet made out of a tin can? Or -- I swear to God -- a coin purse made out of a cough drops tin?

If that's your idea of metal craft, look no further. If you want to learn hand tool techniques, joining, and all that "masculine" stuff -- i.e. the low down on how to craft metal into something ...USEFUL ... forget it.

I thought this book had alot of very good information for someone new to metal work. I loved the instructions for how to achieve different patinas. Most of the 50 projects were very good, and the instructions were easy to follow. All in all it is a fun craft book.

Making jewelery, sometimes limit imagination at only looking for a way to make metal wearable... Opening this book was for me a revelation about a wide possibility of using metal in other kind of crafted objects.Awesome presentation and pictures. A reference book.

The text is a thoroughly researched body of work, yet not for the faint of heart to read. The text is so well researched that the reader occasionally loses understanding if not interest in what the author is writing about. I'm curious why all of the family names of people who sailed to the colonies was so important to include in the text? This text is written for historians and is not a light read.

A Ph.d. dissertation by Alison Games "that turned into a book," Migration and the Origins of the English Atlantic World introduces a novel approach to studying English Colonial history. Insisting that migration played a more significant role in early Atlantic regional and national settlements than previously thought, the author explores and amalgamates common threads to modify previous notions on the origins of English cultural norms in colonial America. Based heavily on the 1635 London Port register, the author chronicles the migration patterns of over 7500 Englishmen and women who moved to the New World.

After establishing a rather dense narrative in the introductory chapters, we learn, in depth, about the travel patterns and challenges of those who braved the Atlantic world. "A spectrum of experience," notes Games, "characterized early colonial settlements, and the intent of my approach is to delineate both the variety of colonial societies and the common processes by which they were formed." (10) The discussions of the aforementioned vignettes are dispersed successfully among several geographic regions such as New England, the Caribbean, and the Chesapeake.

The author provides extensive research of church registers, court records, and other primary sources to advance a careful argument that "common processes" of Old World travelers established the foundations of early American family life. She also correctly highlights the fact that movement between the New and Old World was hectic, and in constant motion, with migrants moving several times once they entered colonial America. The only exception to this argument, which Games downplays, is the large contingent of migrants who moved directly to New England from the Old World and settled there.

In a peripheral exploration, Games expounds on colonial Puritanism and discusses the rise of church membership in the New World. The former focuses on spiritual modifications, or simply changes, that distinguished colonial Puritans from Old World Puritans. These arguments, however, seem more suited, and appropriate, for a study of colonial religious practices and developments. The marriage that Games makes between Puritanism and migration is not explicitly clear to the reader. In fact, these arguments would contrast nicely with Barry Levy's study of Quakerism and the relationship of the modern American household.

Another distraction in this work is the overabundance of statistics that tend to bog down the reader. While useful and relevant to advancing secondary arguments, the author seems to deploy statistical evidence in way that negates her main themes about migration. Along the same lines, the work would have benefited from more research on the geographic origins, and familial ties, of travelers prior to their departure from London in 1635. The author does touch on this some, but the reader is left wondering if there was a more pronounced historical connection between familial origin in the Old World and settlement in the new World.

Nonetheless, this work provides a new paradigm, and a neglected approach, to studying early English migration and its impact on the New World. The author also provides clear evidence that travel patterns played an important, sometimes subtle and other times dramatic, impact on travelers' destiny in colonial America. The work, however, falls short of convincing the reader that migration patterns were the main historical ingredient for determining settlements in the Atlantic region. This work is most appropriate for those who have a keen understanding of colonial history and an interest in migration history.

This book by Alison Games, based on her PhD dissertation if I am to understand correctly, is an outstanding piece of original research. Games successfully combines her torturous mining of the archives of the UK, Bermuda, US & elsewhere, with a good understanding of statistics, with intellectually honest speculations about the data (where it exists & where it does not, carefully showing where each hold), with a comprehension of the sweep of history in which this work fits, with a fine writing style. This book is denser than most colonial history, but it is worth pushing through that density for the unique insights the history carries with it & the stimulation of mind the book provides to the reader. Fundamentally, as Games shows, history is about ordinary human beings. The aggregation of their actions is what makes something worthy of the historians attention. In Games work, we can see the individual actions of UK "citizens" in the 1500s & 1600s in making the trek to colonies. This book should be on anyone's required reading list for understanding what happened in the British colonies early-on.

A scholarly investigation into the Atlantic voyages and destinations of those listed in the 1635 London Port Register. The author follows their careers in the extant colonial and English records before and after their voyages. Excellent insights into the English colonies in New England, Virginia, Bermuda, and Providence Island in the Caribbean.

Questions of why these travelers left, how they traveled, what they found when they arrived, how they prospered or failed, and those that returned to their homeland or traveled to other colonies are all dealt with. Excellent sections on the age and sex compositions of the different destinations under study and the effects of this on their colonial development.

Lots of information on the flight of the puritans from Archbishop Laud and the different gathered church societies they established in the puritan colonies. The continuous migration over the life cycle of these English travelers within England, to London, across the Atlantic and within and between colonies is the ongoing theme of the book.

after reading these reviews, I was really excited for my New Maters of Flash vol3 to arrive. I really liked volume 1 when it came out years ago. But I ended up returning this book because I was disappointed. Most of the animation "tricks" here are about character animation - mostly how to use flash's drawing tools to make the characters look 3D, and how to use code to make them move. Being a motion graphics animator, the only things i found which were relevant to me (maybe 3 projects) were frankly somewhat boring and predictable.

If you're an intermediate/advanced flash animator/programmer looking for really clever motion graphics tricks, there may be only 1 or 2 projects of interest here to you.

If you are somewhat of a novice and want to make really cool characters and scenes in flash and become expert with the drawing tools for this type of usage, you will probably get something out of it.

Even if you never plan to use Flash this is an amazing resource to some really cool sites. The book is full of animations, and explanations of cutting edge Flash projects. Unlike most Friends of Ed, you get a CD with the book. The CD has a menu system to highlight each of the Authors in the book. You get bios, info, and direct links to great sites. If you are into Flash, there is lots of information and ideas to help your work be more creative. You will also see a variety of viewpoints on how to use Flash, and some very personal insights. There are four artists whose work alone would be worth the price of this book. Adam Philips provides a great chapter on lighting, and his website shows a real animation master at work. The Jared Tarbell chapter shows a design project from start to finish on pattern making. Anthony Eden's work is very inspirational, but Olga Bergner's chapter provides lots of information on good character design and again provides lots of details on how he makes Flash magic. These are my favorites, but I am sure you will find your own in this Book and CD. What really makes this book work, is each author has concentrated on the part of Flash they enjoy, and show how they have used Flash to further their own creativity.

Well...it's okay but not worth the time I waited for it's release. The first time I heard about Vol. 3 was at the Flash Forward 2004 Conference in San Francisco. I really looked forward to Billy Bussey and Shane's Chapter's but when I read them they did not have the substance I thought it would pack. Shane gave a few nuggets as far as techniques but it was mostly philosophical garbage (as with many other contributors of the book) that could have been left for an autobiography rather than a book that is geared towards actually teaching the customer something. I would say get the book for some decent tidbits but you would probably get more out of the first volume.

If i wasn't better than that, I would keep this book a secret... But i know that the flash world evolves because of the beauty of sharing. I felt that this book was priceless. Each and every author is a living phenomenom. If you are not even interested in flash, this book is still worth your while. The people who wrote this book are truly inspiring and have wonderful insights and theories about design/art/interactiivity... For flash designers: this book is a must. This book describes tricks of the trade as well as must-know actions, animations, drawing techniques. The difference between this book and all the others is that this book is the real deal; meaning, that the world's leading designers are showing you their award winning web sites and take you step by step on how to create them. Not simplistic boxy case studies; but the actual stuff that amazes you when you explore flash kit's winners of the month.-------Priceless

Michael Laughlin has written a terrific book. It's amusing, fun to read, and teaches you not only how to cut strokes from your game, but also how to increase your enjoyment of the game. Most golf books are too technical, discuss the mechanics of the golf swing, and want you to improve by changing your swing. For the vast majority of players, this simply doesn't work well. You are pretty much stuck with the swing you now have, unless you take lessons from a golf pro and practice a lot. You might as well make the best of the swing you have. Michael teaches you the quick way to improve your game - by using course management and working smarter, not harder.

As an example, I played a lot of golf as a kid, and always assumed that it made sense to hit the ball as far down the fairway as possible on each shot. On a 410 yard hole with an elevated green, and an out-of-bounds all the way down the right side of the fairway, I would hit a driver, then a long iron. Sometimes I would be on the green, but more often I would hit into a greenside trap or hit the slope near the green and bounce 30 yards away, into the rough, with a difficult pitch shot to follow. Michael shows that it might make a lot more sense to hit a smooth 5 iron off the tee, then another safe 5 iron down the middle, to set up a simple 80 yard wedge shot onto the green. His point is that the 80 yard full-swing wedge shot from the middle of the fairway may well be easier to get close to the hole than the 30 yard finesse shot from the rough, even though you are hitting the full-swing wedge shot from 50 yards farther away from the hole. Thus, he puts great emphasis on planning, before you tee off, where you want to hit your approach shot from. He even has some great tips about planning your entire round before you tee off, simply by looking at the scorecard. Some sample chapters are titled: "Thinking Your Way Around the Course", "When To Play Short? When To Hit It," and "How To Break Down A Course For Playing A Round."

Michael appears to be a character. He is a writer, producer and director of several Hollywood films, as a kid knew Dean Martin, and was evidently married to Leslie Caron (according to Imdb.com)! I don't know about you, but I just instinctively trust someone with that pedigree. Needless to say, he charms as he goes along, advising the reader to "Dress well - play well," eat chocolate and fall in love. He even has a helpful, very short chapter on how to evaluate your fiancé based on her opinion about the game of golf. This is in addition to his sage advice about how to cure hiccups and "What To Do When You're Not Playing Golf."

The bottom line: I've read a lot of golf books. This is a terrific book. It is fun to read, but make no mistake -- there is plenty of extremely useful information here that will help you improve your score immediately. I believe that for most players, even those who already shoot in the low 80's or high 70's, Michael's approach will immediately lower your score and increase your fun quotient. If you feel the need for a more serious book, pair Michael's book with David Pelz's Short Game Bible, and you have an unbeatable combo.

The book is so good, I would like a lesson. any information you can supply about Michael Laughlin, I would appreciate. I'm sure he's a good player. I'll bet he plays tennis as well.

The premise behind this book is simplicity and it is written so anyone can implement its system. The basic idea is to manage the course and not the other way around. Put yourself in position to hit a short wedge into the green as many times as you can (your free throw shot) and practice your free throw often. The book challenges your traditional thinking of the game (i.e. hit the ball as far as you can). I was a little hesitant at first to try it out but found that while my buddies teed off with woods on every hole, I hit a 3 iron and was in play consistently while they consistently scattered around the course to play their shots. The simplicity of the radical golf concept is to play the ball rather than just hit it. Plan your game so that you are in position to hit failiar shots.

This book is for the average golfer who watches tournaments on TV and thinks (erroneously) that he/she can duplicate what they see on the screen. They can't and end up hacking around the course muttering about their clubs or what ever else they want to blame their game on. You can do more for your golf game with this $12 book than spending hundreds of dollars on oversized clubs and space aged putters. After finishing this book you really begin to realize that golf is 90% between your ears.

I've read at least 100 golf books, and I rate this book among the worst 5 I've ever read.

The premise of Radical Golf is to give high handicap golfers a strategy to shoot 79.

This book is 167 double spaced, half sized pages with huge top and bottom margins. There are about 10 real sized pages worth of real information. The rest of the book is full of the uncoordinated ramblings and anecdotes of an average golfer, and even worse writer. You can expect insights such as "Tom Kite is too short to wear a big straw hat with something written all over it. I think he'd win more tournaments with a nice tweed hat, or even sunscreen." That was a tidbit from the "How to Dress for Golf" chapter. There are other dazzling pontifications on the subjects of golf and marriage, smoking and drinking on the course, and (de)mental side of golf. Although some of the book is intended to be humorous, I felt the humor was bettor suited to the over 65 gang - which I am not in.

To save you time (about 2 hours to read) and money here's the radical advice.

1) Don't use woods. 2) Don't use a putter, use a 2 or 3 iron instead (hey Bobby Jones did with Calamity Jane). 3) Find a "Free Throw" golf shot - like a 60 yard wedge - and lay up to that shot as much as possible. 4) Practice your short game and putting. 5) Love your wedge.

That's not bad advice, but now that you know it, go buy a real short game book by Tom Kite, Corey Pavin, Tom Watson, Ray Floyd, or one of the teaching pro's - Toski, Flick, Leadbetter, Kostis, John Jacobs etc. Better yet, get a video!

I found this book to be very entertaining and a great read for any youngster who has any interest in piping and/or Nova Scotian culture, as well as just a good children's novel. Not many people know where/what Nova Scotia is, and this book brings an accurate description of what life and her people were like back 50 years ago and also much what it is like today. Seems like I've heard alot of the tales before - perhaps from my mother who grew up in the next county over, played in a pipe band, and endured many a snowstorm, walking both directions uphill, to school, during the same time frame. I especially liked the indirect mention of Fraser Holmes and my mom's pipe band - very nostalgic! A great and very entertaining read! I enjoyed it very much!

"Sandy Chisholm's Chanter Lesson" is at the top of our novel study list in my classroom. Several years ago I was looking for a new novel study for my Grade Five class and came across the book, "Sandy Chisholm's Chanter Lessons." It stirred my interest immediately for two reasons, I'm from Nova Scotia and I play in a Pipe Band. So I bought the book, read it and when I finished, I knew this would be a great read for my students.

It tells a story of Sandy Chisholm and the many adventures that he and his friends have. Students can relate to Sandy and his friends and get involved in the story right away. As well, my students learn some interesting facts about bagpipes and the dedication it takes to learn how to play the Great Highland Pipes.

Not only does Scott Williams take the reader on many childhood adventures, but he also describes nicely what it takes to be a great piper. Anyone who is interested in learning to play the pipes and the hard work that you must go though, will have an idea having read this novel. This to me is worth the read in itself.

This is the second year that we have used "Sandy Chisholm's Chanter Lessons" as our novel study. It just keeps getting better and better for me because my students are so into it. Last year two of my students actually took up chanter lessons.

The worksheets and activities certainly relate to our Grade Five curriculum by introducing students to Nova Scotia and the regions around Antigonish. It also gives the students some insight into Scotland. The ideas that your class can come up with for other projects, is only limited by what you want to do yourself.

The story shows students how if you are determined to do something, you can achieve anything, even how to play the Great Highland Bagpipes. We have a Character Education Program at our school and this story relates to many of our "Word of the Month" themes that we have put into practice here.

Each year as soon as we complete this novel study, the question is asked, " When does Sandy's next adventure come out?" I would like to see this novel included in the Scholastic Book Club series so that every student out there has the opportunity to experience an adventure with Sandy Chisholm.

I bought this book to read to my young son who is learning to play the bagpipe (chanter lessons).

The book went into too many areas of the family that were not only unnecessary, but not for the younger reader. For instance, why did we need to hear about Protestant vs. Catholic issues in the classroom, as well as Sandy's parents financial condition, other than having to sacrifice to pay for lessons and a chanter. Although set in the 50' or 60's, the end was so syrupy that I couldn't stand it.
I read this myself , and upon finishing it, I threw it away, something I've never done before.

I'm 57 years old and a long-time piper. I've just completed reading "Sandy Chisholm's Chanter Lessons" by Scott Williams for the fourth time and being perfectly honest, I must say I enjoy the story more each time I read it through. Having grown up in the late 40's and early 50's in a small, rural town I was able to identify with Sandy, his friends, (and enemies), and the town itself. Then, kids were kids, and not subjected to pre-adolescent grooming by "concerned" parents who strive to boost their offspring's GPA and "self-esteem" by forcing them into so many extracurricular activities, appointments must be made in advance just to play with friends. Sandy and his friends enjoy the reality of being kids. Their entertainments are active, created by themselves (e.g. the car top rafts, stomach surfing through the snow banks) and their imaginations are nurtured by King Robert's Men constantly on the outlook protecting the disembarking train passengers from the clutches of the evil Black Prince. No passive sitting in front of the TV or mindless video games for Sandy and his friends. Their playground is the great outdoors and all the wonders it holds. Sandy's parents both have to work but everybody makes do with what they have (there's no whining or cronic complaining or need for professional counseling). Affection between parents and children is quite obvious. Sandy's fears are real (in the guise of the evil Andy Gillis) but revenge is sweet (who hasn't longed to dance a victory dance following a successful mudball fight)? Add to all of the above the challange of learning to play the Great Highland Bagpipe and you have a recipe for an entertaining and heartwarming story. I highly recommend "Sandy" and am anticipating, perhaps, a "Sandy II". "Sandy Chisholm's Chanter Lessons" is definitely worth the read and you don't have to be a kid to enjoy it - just a kid at heart. In fact, I enjoyed the book so much, it inspired me to write and publish a book of my own.

Author claims to have used "4 collegiate dictionaries" to find
words in puzzle - but he should have been using the Scrabble
dictionary.

*Many* words are not in Scrabble dictionary - useless to players.

Joe Edley is a respected and feared inside-the-beltway Scrabble champ. His book brings you one step closer to the hem of the master. Whether you're a pro or just want to put your friends and loved ones in their place, get this book. And let the REAL games begin.

Once again, 3-time US Scrabble Champion has produced a book to please Scrabble enthusiasts of all abilities. The puzzles are all based on the Official Scrabble Players Dictionary and the vocabulary and Scrabble knowledge you learn from this series transfer directly to skills needed to compete in Scrabble clubs and Tournaments or on-line at Scrabulous (facebook.com) or ISC.ro, the popular crossword game sites.

Contrary to what the first reviewer said, all the words shown in this book are valid. The author is a three-time National Scrabble champion - I think he should know.

The puzzles in this book, which actually number more than 303, are presented in three sections according to the author's assessed degree of difficulty. The difficulty is generally determined by using the "ply" method. In chess a "ply" is a half move so two ply is a full move. The author's conclude, which I generally agree with, the more ply, the more difficult the puzzle. Moreover, for each puzzle there is a hint as to the dominant tactical theme such as "Mating Attack" or "Deflection". I found that these categorizations were generally accurate, although there were a number of errors. Moreover, there were errors in a few of the problems, where although a solution was suggested by the authors, it was not the best line. One example was problem #107, which was listed as a mating attack, but the authors missed a refutation of the mate. Overall, this is a worthwhile puzzle book that is reasonably priced. However, as the accuracy is questionable at times, I only gave it three stars.

What makes this book (and others in the same series) different from most tactics / puzzle books, is the puzzles are arranged by difficulty not by tactical motif. In my opinion this makes much much more sense. There are three sets of problems, each containing 101. The first is for the Advanced Beginning, the second for the Intermediate Player, and the third for the Tournament Player. How to proceed is very obvious: first work through the first set, then either repeat it or continue to the next. This method or working through a set of tactical problems of increasing difficulty and then repeating it (7 times to be exact) is the method advocated by "Rapid Chess Improvement". Other puzzle books in which problem difficulty seems to be random are extremely annoying to me, since I obviously need to practice the easier ones before moving on to the hard ones!

This is the first chess puzzle book I've tried to work my way through, so I don't know how to compare it to others. but I have found it useful so far. It is essentially 100% positions and solutions, with very little explanatory text, but the puzzles themselves seem appropriately graded, and I've only found one error in the solutions (a pretty good error rate from what I've heard about puzzle books). I'm not a very advanced player, so I find myself wishing for a bit more explanation in the solutions sometimes, but generally I can understand them. The book is divided into three sections based on difficulty, and for me, some of the puzzles in the first section were easy, some hard, but all more or less at my level. The other two sections, from the few puzzles I attempted in each, seem much more challenging.

This was an excellent decision, and from Amazon, it was cheaper than buying it from some school-related stores. There are many activities that students can enjoy, and some a teacher might. Great buy!

I bought this to homeschool my 1st grader. The activities all seem to either be way too easy for him, or way too difficult. I have ended up just using the sections as little fun activities to go along with more in-depth material that I am finding at the library.

Appropriate for about grades 1-4. Includes numerous mini-units, on American history & geography. Includes hard to find material such as famous African-Americans.

The only good ones were the expert ones, and even they were too easy. If you want a challenge, not something mindless, then get the NY Times Acrostics, or the NY Times Sunday Variety Puzzles, which includes acrostics, diagramless, etc.

Great for keeping the cobwebs out during spring break. Several of us passed it around and turned the puzzles into a 'group' effort. They were great. Not stuffy, not so academic that no one cared, but challenging and difficult--fun to work. And relevant. Great fun, good for competition and full of surprises. I'm not an acrostic nut, but really enjoyed this collection.

This is a fairly good set of acrostics. The clues require a fairly broad knowledge of pop trivia of the 20th and 21st century, as well as a number of SAT words. They *don't* require knowledge of things like "The fifth in the line of Plantagenet kings," or "Scholarly volume outlining the history of Sri Lanka," which some of the Middleton acrostics need. I could solve these puzzles without having to access reference books, but also could not get more than 60% of the answers to any one puzzle's clues on my first pass. In short, they can be completed, and take a reasonable amount of thought and knowledge.