Hand Games Books

The best thing about this book is the birds-eye-view photos of each step. The projects use only very basic stitching. I think this would be ok for a beginner, but I still think the best way to use how-to books like these is to take a class first; otherwise the steps can seem overwhelming.

The information provided is informative for a beginner. However, the MAJOR drawback was that the pictures illustrating the techniques were much too small. Hence, it was difficult following the instructions cause I couldn't see exactly what the author was doing.

This is a great book for any beginning bookbinder. The entire book features full-color photos with easy to follow, step-by-step instructions for many simple, but beautiful and impressive looking projects.

First, materials and how to use them are covered. There are clear photos of all the materials. Then, the author demonstrates how to make corners for 3 different types of paper.

Next, instructions are given for making several accordion books, a pamphlet stitch journal with either a soft or hard cover, a tied-binding album, & a post album. Two gorgeous box books, & a scroll are also demonstrated.

There is a wonderful gallery in the back that really helped spark my creativity. Contact information on all the contributors is also included. A resource list and other suggested readings are a great bonus.

As an experienced bookmaker, I was anxious to try some of the projects in this book. BE VERY CAUTIOUS! I found many errors in measurments in this book, which can cost you valuable paper and time! This book can be very vague about what size your papers should be and exactly how much of it you need. If you simply rely on what the author says, you may find yourself frustrated with a project that didn't work out.

Other than that, there are some nice inspirational pictures in the book, but I don't know if that justifies the purchase. So, unless you're prepared to do some serious math/measurment checking, I'd go with a book that the editors actually took time to edit.

The collaborative effort of self-employed book artist Mary McCarthy and educator/writer Philip Manna, Making Books By Hand: A Step-By-Step Guide is a direct, to-the-point, "user friendly" instructional guide to the art and craft of creating beautiful and useful scrapbooks, photo albums, diaries, blank books, and more. Full-color photographs illustrate each part of the process of crafting accordion art books, photo albums, box books, scrolls, etc. Making Books By Hand is commended as being first-rate guidebook for those interested in cultivating their skill in a unique and satisfying hobby, or who want to make exceptional and memorable gifts for friends and loved ones.

I found it difficult to understand and found myself reading the same paragraph over 3 times on many occasions. I had to stop reading it half way through because It seemed to become tedious to read. The advice about counting outs is ok, but often it assumes you are up against a top hand, hardly taking into account a bluff which is very common on online limit poker.
Also the mathematical difference you can make to your bankroll is of little significance unless your playing very high limit poker. Even if you perfected what the author is trying to teach, you probably wont have the time or energy to apply it to online poker.

if you are into poker like me.. invest in this book is worth it...
this is comming from a poker head that has over 15 books.....
If you think you know how to play yours draws....Raad this book... n you wil learn thing or two..... I did.! ! special when to foldem...lol
Good luck on the tables.

Nutty Rabbit

For less experienced players, this is a thorough exploration of drawing hands in limit hold'em. However, the play system he advocates is very intricate and unwieldy, in my view. To take into consideration all the factors that can weaken a draw, the author uses fractions of outs. Count 'em up, let's see, we've got 4 1/2 outs, but need 5 to draw, that's a fold.

I'm sure Slotboom is a math head who does this effortlessly, but for most of us, I think the return is not worth all the effort. Most decisions are clearcut -- you have 8 outs, that's always a call, even if it really is 7.5 outs. Certainly figuring by tenths of outs would give only an illusion of precision, and I really doubt that 1/2 outs provide better resolution. It is a rare hand that might be decided by 1/2 an out. In such close situations, you are almost always going to decide according to how the opponent has been playing, what your image is, what happened last hand, etc.

You will understand draws after this book. The system of discounting outs will help you understand the complexity that effects the quality of a draw, but I doubt many people retain the scoring system. Discounting outs is important, but can be simplified. If you've got a pair and an inside draw, that's six outs to improve, but since two of those cards (that make trips) could give him a full house, you only count one of them, for a total of five outs. Slotboom will figure 'there are only 3.5 clean outs to a straight, because you might tie, and the villain might make a runner-runner flush, so that discounts another half, plus the two halves discounted for a fullhouse, which adds up to 4.5 outs, but he's a bad player who will keep raising the river, so add a half, for a total of five, so call.' Or something like that.

Bill Haywood
HoldemTight

this book was a very good read to familiarize yourself with counting outs.
the only thimg that was really surprising, was the fact that with all the explantions of outs and draws, i cant believe the author did not include any thourough discussion comparing your outs to the odds against making your hand. ie. u have 9 outs, therefore you ars 4 to 1 against making your hand, now compare that to size of pot, and you see to call a $10 bet you need the pot to contain at least $40. none of this was in the book.
if i hadnt known how to calculate my odds,(4 to 1) etc. i would have never understood how the author came to a conclusion that he needed 4 outs to stay in a hand.
really strange.

If the reader is anything like me then they probably play a lot of no limit hold `em, and probably, at some point, have come to the realization that no limit ring games aren't going to last forever. This is particularly true if the reader happens to be a fellow American whose government recently declared war on our perfectly civilized habit of playing online poker. The long and the short of it is that we may well find ourselves in a brick and mortar casino playing whatever game is available with a reasonable buy in, which often, is a limit game (unless you're in Vegas where they have NL 100 and 200 live--by me it's NL 300 only). Therefore, brushing up on, or learning limit for the first time is advisable. With Hold' Em on the Come, Slotboom and Mason only do one thing, but they do it well which is to analyze and proscribe when draws should be played after the flop. The book issues lengthy discussion on this subject, but it is more diverse than you think as it includes low pairs, two pairs, and overcards along with the obvious mix of straights and flushes. From what I can gather, most of the text is really Dew Mason's with additional insight provided by Rolf "Ace" Slotboom. His sections are boxed off and titled "Ace Speaks." The great Ace's commentary enriches the work tremendously, and, personally, I'll buy anything he puts out because I loved his DVDs and still watch them. Overall, I found this offering invaluable.

My husband has been in the carpentry trade for over forty-five years and spiral stairs has been one of his specialities. He reviewed the book and has found several items of real interest after all these years to assist him in the building of stairs.

I bought this book looking for something to help me design a simple staircase. After browsing this archaic reference text for about 5 minutes I determined it would of no practical value to 99.99% of anyone not already an expert. I threw it in the trash.

honestly, if you are halfway through a curved handrail at sort of a sticky point and think "I'll order this book, it looks like it might help", well, you are probably wrong.

Lots of info, like a lot of the other stair books, but not put together in a way that will be useful in the short term. I'd say it's more like a text book. Also the term "Simplified" in the title...I guess if you are Stephen Hawking, then perhaps. But why would Stephen Hawkings want a book about building stairs?

A lot to get your head around, not going to help you out of a bind, unless your bind is something like "how do I find the vertex locations of a rake-to-level section"

This is the only book available that one can actually use to learn tangent handrailing, and classical stair design. This is an advanced text for the architectural woodworker with some grounding in stairbuilding. If this describes your situation, buy the book, glue up some practice blanks out of construction lumber, and begin your exploration of a fascinating craft. Mowatt is a great conversation piece on the bookshelf, but the only reason I know what he's talking about is owed to the time I spent with DiChristina's book. My copy is somewhat beaten-up due to the time it has spent on the workbench. I am grateful to the author for the clearest and best organized book on this subject.

The title and even the example pages that are viewable are very misleading to the actual content of the book. I did not pay close enough attention to the chaper/page breakdown. Only a third of the book has anything to do with the construction of the stairs, and the rest is covering handrail design construction. The information in the first two sections did not provide me with any usable info on how to build a staircase. If you are building a very complex railing system, this may be a good purchase, otherwise, save your money.

In 2006, Todd Brunson was contacted regarding participating in a book that would outline 52 individual hands played by the Legendary Stu Ungar.
Also contacted was Mike Sexton, Barry Greenstein, etc, etc... The overall theme was that the concept would be a "brand" that could extend to other players having a book of their own, outlining their most memorable hands.

After the conceiver of the concept outlined the idea via an email to Todd, communication ended with a comment that he (Todd) would "talk to his publisher about it". Shortly thereafter, the exact same concept was utilized here, only using Doyle Brunson (Todds father) as the focus. Expect to see the same brand used on other players as well, precisely as conceived before the idea was stolen.

You'll be hearing more on this very, very soon...

A two-time world series champion poker player and winner of ten bracelets from the World Series of Poker (as well as the winner of a 'Legends of Poker' tournament on the World Poker Tour), Doyle Brunson is a universally acknowledged legend of the game who brings more than half a century of experience to bear in "My 50 Most Memorable Hands". Doyle began playing as a young man in Texas when poker was an illegal pastime involving dodging the cops and avoiding being robbed, all while constantly moving on the road from town to town and city to city in search of a game. In this fascinating little book Doyle offers a collection of terrific stories combined with practical advice connected to some truly remarkable poker hands he's played out against some of the finest poker players to ever play the game. Each poker hand cited begins with a biographical anecdote providing an historical context, then follows Doyle's hand along with a paragraph or two of description as to how it was played out. Very highly recommended reading and a simply superb addition to the growing library of books about poker, each of these individual hands will be read with interest border on fascination by both novice poker players and those with more seasoned experience at the game.

In his 50+ years as a professional poker player Doyle Brunson has played the game almost everywhere you can imagine, from seedy pool halls, to home games on the "Texas circuit", to the biggest cash game in Vegas, to the final table of the WSOP. He recounts all of his adventures here with 50 colorful and interesting tales of the greatest hands he has ever played and some of the personalities he played them against. The mere fact that Brunson can even remember 50 hands out of all the millions he's played is quite an accomplishment, especially when you consider that one of the standard poker dictums is that you should try to forget the hand as soon as you've played it. There's no doubt that Doyle's phenomenal memory is one of the tools that separated him from his competition and has enabled him to stay at the top of the game for more than 30 years. Players expecting in-depth hand analysis should look elsewhere. You basically get pre-flop-flop-turn-river followed by a few anecdotal comments about the hand. I do have to say that the graphics are very high quality, among the best I've seen in a poker book. Although this book is not essential to your continuing poker education, it is a fast and very enjoyable read, one that will only increase your esteem for this living legend.

From the title you can tell that Doyle is going to give an acount of his most memorable hands and that is exactly what he does. He gives about a 2-3 page description of each entailing why the hand is memorable. Sometimes it is Doyle laying a bad beat on someone or someone dying at the table. I guess that would make a hand memorable for me too!

Obviously, this book is not technical. There is no hand analysis or percentages listed. Just a first hand account of some interesting poker hands from one of the legends of poker.

As always, I hang on ever word that doyle writes, and he writes precious few. The book ends abruptly after the last hand. Too bad Doyle isn't half the writer that he is a poker player, otherwise this would be an outstanding book.

All-in-all this is a very light book and an easy read. I laughed a couple of times, and gained a little more respect for the legend... About a 2 hour read.

This is a review of _My 50 Most Memorable Hands_ by Doyle Brunson.

This book consists of a series of very short chapters (typically 2-3 pages) describing hands from all over Brunson's career, from a family game to the WSOP Main Event final table. Brunson says that the hands are not in any particular order (p. 9). Some readers will enjoy this book an immense amount, but others will find it completely uninteresting. Do you know who Doyle Brunson is? Have you heard of Johnny Moss, Stu Unger AND Phil Ivey? Are you amazed that anyone would re-raise pre-flop and then bet out on the flop, turn and river with 22 and a board of KK767 (hand no. 30)? Do you even understand what that last sentence meant? If you answered "Yes" to all these questions, you will probably really love this book. (If you answered "No" to any question, don't even bother finishing this review.)

I have to admit that, prior to reading this book, I had a sort of romanticized image of the life of Doyle Brunson. I guess I really bought into the persona he projects in televised games. I assumed that he was born into some Bible-belt community where gambling was frowned upon, and had to hide his new profession from his family. I imagined that he had gambled in seedy places where people did things like pull a knife on him for having a higher flush. I fantasized that he had seen people literally drop dead of exhaustion at the table during marathon multi-day gambling sessions. I even supposed (don't laugh at me here) that Brunson had seen someone shot dead right at the poker table. Yes, that was my silly, unrealistic vision of the gambling career of the man known as "Texas Dolly."

Well, guess what? That's all true, and much more equally amazing stuff. (For the particular stories I just adverted to, see hands no. 22, 24, 10 and 2.)

But true poker fans will be even more interested in the details of the hands that Brunson played. The famous hands are certainly here, including Brunson's stunning back-to-back 1976 and 1977 WSOP Main Event wins with the same hand: 10-2 (nos. 3 and 6). He also includes his second-place finish to Stu Unger in 1980, a hand he admits he misplayed (no. 17). But for me, the single most spectacular hand was the one in which Brunson had AA, the board was A4224, no flush (hence no straight flush) was possible, and he folded to a bet on the river. Did you get that? Brunson had the nut full house, aces full of fours, he folded on the river - and it was the correct laydown! (See no. 7 for this one.)

This book is not perfect, even for its target audience. Sometimes I would have liked more information about the details of each hand. How large was the pot? Who bet how much pre-flop, and on the flop, turn and river? Sometimes this information is provided, but not always. But overall this is a terrific book for any big poker fans you know.

My son is really into these games. He always has to have the guides to go with them. I ordered this from Amazon and not only got a better price than anywhere else I looked, it also shipped very quickly.

This book,as with any other Prima book is fantastic. It shows you every secret, character and layout so that you get the most from your game.

Pretty terrible guide for the Wii version of the game - none of the controls they list for the special moves are correct. They list all the items you can get, but don't say what any of them do. They don't even list seperate moves for the different forms of the characters, which account for nearly half the characters in the game.

OK, to hand it to you, this guide stinks. The author was too lazy to put the other forms of some characters like Super Buu's absorption forms. The strategies they offer don't really halp you use the character. Also, the illustrated super moves' pictures aren't in the right place. For instance, The pictures for Goku's kaoken attack are in the boxes that his kamehamaha are supposed to be and the kamehahama is where the kaoken attack is supposed to be shone. They say that there are tips for customizing but they didn't offer any tips. The storymode strategies were basically the same. On survival battles hug the border until time runs out and for regular fights, use air combos. Heck they don't even tell you how to effectively use an air combo. Air Combos are quite hard to pull off but the guide didn't help me at all and I finally figured them out in the training mode of the game. The game guide's move lists for every single character as the guide's back cover says doesn't include all 120+ characters. It totally skips characters like Gogeta SS and Vegeta Monkey so you don't know what moves they have and how their air combos are performed. They include an items list which is probably the only accurate thing in the book. It tells you where to get the items to fuse into what characters. It tells you things like where to get the power ball potara to use it to fuse into any monkey form as long as you have the character like turles. The game guide says something about customizing but doesn't tell you how or which modes to do so. They don't tell you what you need to do to customize. I'll give you a hint, you need to play in Ultimate Battle Z and equipt at least one item in the character slots for that item to level up when you finish each of the ladder matches. The game guide didn't even say this. They just expect you to find out yourself. Many of Prima's guides are like this. The screenshots flipflopped into the wrong place. I believe Prima doesn't give too much accurate info. Brady Games on the other hand does. Too bad they don't have a Brady Games guide for this game. If you have any games that have a Brady Game guide, get the guide with Brady Games instead of wasting your money on a Prima Guide. Those guides are a lot more accurate that Prima.

Overall: very bad guide. Doesn't offer any game help.

Good: Item list that tells you where to find each item

Bad: Everything Else: Moves lists don't cover all characters, Strategies in story mode are the same for every battle, The screenshots for different moves aren't in the right places, Too lazy to put strategies down for the forms of different characters-just puts strategies for the standard form, The strategies are not helpful, and don't include any information on how to raise power levels (customizing) or where to level up, and don't include character weaknesses and strengths like Brady Games does.

Great project ideas for weavers who wish to extend their repertoire beyond plain weave to incorporate stripe and block effects. This technique is particularly useful for tablewear as it creates a sturdy fabric. Great ideas for colour combinations too!

The title Rep Weave and Beyond led me to think that this book would be advanced. It is very basic and unhelpful to weavers who are familiar with Rep Weave.

I was very eager to learn to weave rep, and very excited that there was a brand new book out on the topic. However, I was somewhat disappointed in this book. It definitely has beautiful pictures, many inspiring projects, and offers alternative ways of doing the projects, for example, alternative wefts. But the long chapter on how to warp a loom was, in my opinion, not necessary, as that topic is covered in many other weaving books. I think a few hints about her special techniques would have sufficed.

I would have preferred more coverage of block theory to provide a broader basis for understanding the structure of rep weave. The chapter on designing your own rep weave projects was particularly disappointing since there was no discussion of blocks or how to design block weavings. It is basically a list of rules which are somewhat helpful but very thin in explanation.

A major problem I encountered is typos in the project notes. The project I am doing (the blue and white table runner) has a typo in the profile draft and the shafts are reversed in the treadle tie up.

I would still buy this book, and I would suggest anyone interested in rep weave consider buying it, mainly because I can't find any other books on rep weave. However, in my opinion, it is incomplete and doesn't serve up its promise.

A weaver.

Rep Weave and Beyond is a joy to look at and read. As a weaver of many years, this is at the top of my list of inspirational books. First of all, it's visually beautiful, being filled with full-color photographs of the author's work, which is gorgeous. Ms. Tallarovic lives in Arizona, and she draws inspiration for her elegant color ways from the hues of the southwest: ecru, gold, bronze, terra cotta, reds, greens, dusky purples, and turquoise. She seems to be comfortable using both earth tones as well as more vibrant colors. She has based many of her designs on Native American weavings and pottery patterns. These are sensitive interpretations done with respect for the traditions she borrows from, and her incorporation of the patterns into a European weave structure works very well aesthetically.

Second, the book is filled with projects which are clearly explained down to the last minute detail, along with color photos of each finished piece. The author lays a good foundation for these project recipes in the first section of the book, where she outlines her method of winding a warp, dressing the loom, tying on, weaving a heading, in short--all the preliminaries every weaver should know. Beginner weavers should find the instructions manageable.

Ms. Tallarovic wrote this book for weavers who want to explore rep weave, but for whom the traditional Scandinavian technique might be out of reach. Due to the very close warp setts used in the traditional version of this weave, getting a good shed on a jack loom can be a problem. In addition, weaving rugs with setts of 90 ends per inch might be beyond the patience level of many people.

To make rep weave more "weaver friendly," the author has spent years experimenting with using thicker threads at lower setts. All of the projects in this book can be woven using Maysville cotton carpet warp, which comes in over 40 colors. Using the Maysville cotton, her designs can be warped using setts of between 16 and 40 ends per inch. These warps do not completely cover the weft, which ends up, as she notes, "producing a livelier, more dynamic surface." From what I could see in the photographs, she is correct in that regard.

Also, as she uses printed fabric for many of her thick wefts, a layered effect happens when the block patterning of the warp threads floats over the printed pattern of the woven fabric strips. A further innovation she has come up with is using many colors in the pattern warp, rather than the traditional two colors.

Perhaps what I like most about this book is seeing how someone can bring a traditional weave forward into the present. Ms. Tallarovic has furthered the evolution of this ancient weaving form. She has added to its visual excitement, made it more accessible to the average weaver, and shown how patient experimentation can add new life to a tried and true technique. There are so many directions each individual weaver can go with this method of weaving once s/he has mastered what the author offers in the book. I can envision using painted warps and/or hand-dyed or painted wefts. I can also see using oriental papers as wefts as well. That would be only a beginning.

There were several activities in this book which I enjoyed..."Stomp Out Run-Ons" and "Fragment Puzzle." However, many of the activities were not creative and required long paper trails and lots of floor space. I think I would use the noun tree next year, but I received the book after having already covered that topic next year. Overall, I didn't think the book was "hands-on" enough to call itself "awesome."

This book is okay, but there are a lot of references that students today will not get because they are a bit dated. This was probably an excellent book in the 1980's.

This book was extremely helpful to us in a 6th Grade Language Arts unit. this is filled with GAMES and ACTIVE ways to explore nouns, verbs, sentences - types, fragments, and run-ons.

Using the student's multiple intelligences, you actually make language interesting! You read the lesson idea beforehand, gather materials, and then lead the child or class through an activity.

I found it the perfect program to mix with dry sentence diagramming from elsewhere - to lift up the lesson. Afte such creative fun, my son didn't mind getting in front of a blackboard with me to diagram a few sentences.

Also, instead of just deciding if a verb was a verb, we now decide if it is "vivid" and look at nouns as specific or general - great for strengthening creative writing...and with activities across all learning styles, not lecture. That is hard to find in middle school language arts.

As a homeschooler, I did notice two teacher terms used (perhaps this is what the earlier reviewer was referring to) - mnemonics (rhymes for teaching) and rubric (like a short chart explaining something) - and some of the activities have to be adapted as they were designed for a group - still most activities didn't need any adaptation and I was totally pleased with the way my child responded to these active lessons.

As a fourth grade teacher looking for easy, engaging, hands-on activities, this resource did it! I loved this book! I had colleagues asking to borrow it!

I am a math teacher always looking for new activities to use in my classroom. I bought this book thinking I would be able to use the activities, but I really couldnt use any of them!!

This is an excellent resource book for middle school classes. The projects are cheap, using items you probably have in your classroom. They are hands-on,yet well organized. I have 33 students in one class and almost all of these projects can be done in this environment. Great for your kinesthetic and visual spatial learners.

The information on chisels is brief but complete as to angles metal and
how to sharpen,it get better when you get to Planes design of and angles of blade I have bought this book to make my own Planes and it gives all the information to do just that.This is a good first book for the new person in wood working and all the woodworking books are great for that.
I have just added another book to my collection and I am happy with the information inside..

This book presents a lot of interesting information on planes and on various methods of sharpening cutting edges. Despite the title there is not much on chisels here. There is a lot on out-of-the-way types of planes and also a lot on different views on sharpening, including a report of a direct comparison between sharpening devices, like vertical and horizontal rotary devices, wet and dry (vertical) rotary devices, etc. Also stones, natural and artificial, Japanese and American. The last two pages present an, at the time of publishing, unorthodox way of sharpening which looks very interesting, particularly for turners. As the other review says this book no longer presents the very latest in technology, but it is not true that it has fallen very far behind the times, as yet.

This book by Fine Woodworking is focused more on planes than chisels. Most articles deal with handplanes and how to tune them for use. There are many articles on sharpening but using diamond stones or sandpaper on glass were not included, probably because of the books age. Overall this is a good book for someone wanting to learn about bench planes of different types and basic chisel use. An updated edition including recent developments in the resurrgence of hand planes and traditional methods would help this book.

This book was not quite what we were hoping for. Pictures are okay but we wanted more direction in how to do the rhymes.

What a wonderful blast from the page! I so enjoyed reacquainting myself with many of the childhood rhymes from my double dutching days. This will be a great gift for me to share with my nieces as they too will be introduced to such famous childhood rhymes. Even the illustrations made the rhymes stand out fully engaging one to try them out on the playground.

Nice book. Has lots of rhymes ... some I knew, some I didn't ... some had more lines than I remember... This book just has the words to the rhymes, so if you are looking for the rhythms or the hand clapping sequence (as I was) this isn't the book for you.