Vans Books

The O'Sullivans are a family living in Ireland in the 1930s. Mother and Father and Michael and Brigid are often at their wits end dealing with the mischievous but loveable twins, Liam and Francie.

Hilda Van Stockum brings her characteristic wit, understanding of children and enchantment to the simplicity of family life. It is chock full of delightful adventures and sub-plots from a bygone era.

Brush up on your brogue and prepare for a delightful read-aloud for the whole family.

The sequels - *Francie on the Run* and *Pegeen* are wonderful too. *Pegeen* is our favorite.

Great story to read aloud to kids. Characters are spunky and positive. We went through the three books of this series non-stop.

I found the ColorCutters and the book at the Washington Scrapbook Convention and have used them both to create beautiful cards and scrapbook pages! The cutters are so easy to use with the directions and templates. There are pages you make copies of to use over and over, color, paint or just paste onto your project. There are templates for entire pages for wedding, baby and general use. I highly recommend it even is you don't have access to the ColorCutters---but buy them from the website! They are terrific! And the customer service excels as Sandy truly wants satisfied customers and helps with suggestions and tips! Order Now and you won't regret it!

As a big fan of Sandy's first 4 books, I was really curious to see this book as well. Although it is not as lengthy as her others, by no means let that stand in your way of getting this book.
The team at Crafty Secrets makes crafting so easy and better yet, for everyone. Her books spark creativity and promote the wonderful feeling of 'making something yourself'. The art of homemade gifts, cards, scrapbooks etc. comes alive in all of her books. This new one is no exception to that.

The ColorCutters are an 'incredible tool and a must have' for ANY crafter. You really will wonder how you ever got along without them in the first place.

I feel another thing worth mentioning is the quality of Sandy's stickers as well. They are printed on clear acid free paper which makes them safe for your scrapbooks ... I have stuck them to everything I can think of and they are just so cute and add instant charm to pictures, letters, windows and I have even used them to jazz up a balloon :0)

All in all, I am a 'very' satisfied crafter thanks to Sandy's books and stickers. I believe her products and books are going to be the future of crafting and are a must have for EVERY crafter, new or not.

C.

As a young professional living in Manhattan in NYC, I feel as if I know the characters in Crush Dot Com. I see them on the streets, in the coffeehouses, clubs, etc. This story is so authentic, I suspect that Leslie Van Newkirk must be as familiar with this setting as I am. In fact, in some ways it reminds me of a downtown version of The Devil Wears Prada or Bergdorf Blondes, two other novels about Manhattan. So here is my review, which many seem somewhat unorthodox, but by writing it in this format, I am able to showcase the voice of the writer, which, as far as I am concerned, is the strength of the novel.Whatever flaws I could find, they are so minor that they did not detract from the story.

The Characters

Brooke Hill, a web producer for The Stitch, a Manhattan fashion magazine, who is prodded into joining the online dating service, CrushDotCom:
"My picture. What can I say about my picture except thank God there's Photoshop. By the time we're done with it, I have exfoliated skin, perfectly arched eyebrows, a rosy glow on my cheeks and teeth so white they could guide an oil tanker through pea-soup fog. Once all of our artistic talents are exhausted with the touch-ups, we become wannabe literati and pen an ad that would impress both Bukowski and the Bronte sisters. Or so I hope."

Ashley, a Stitch Co-worker:
" I enter my workspace, fire up my computer, and print out copies of my re-write. I notice Ashley joking with Li Ming. She's got her bare tanning-bed legs kicked up on her desk, and she's wearing some sort of black frock that belongs in Breakfast at Tiffany's (most likely Club Monaco's sexy V-neck dress). Li Ming says hello, but Ash only winks at me and then goes back to her conversation. I don't have time to read her mood. I'm too busy to keep slinking around watching my back as if we're on the Serengeti and I'm the antelope, waiting for Ashley's cheetah claws to swipe at my back flanks."

Irene Pheester, a Stitch Editor:
"`Hi, Irene!' we hear from down the hallway. She's approaching, so we all stand as if she is the president or royalty, and as she walks by the glass walled conference room, she gives us a small wave. I feel as though we're not employees but fans behind a barricade and Pheester is the fifty-foot parade balloon, floating along. By the smirk on her face, I can tell she relishes the attention, even if we all look a little goofy. But she doesn't look bruised and bandaged as I had expected. Except for the new eyewear, no one can even tell that she's had a snip or a tuck anywhere. And she doesn't seem slowed down at all. She's wearing a shiny, new burgundy coat and looks ready-for-action."

Sara, another Co-worker:
"`This is Sara,'" she says, glaring. `She's the new Fashion Editor that's been hired to help you seamlessly incorporate the magazine content onto our web pages. There's been a lot of inconsistency with our style guidelines, and I won't name names but,' she says, pausing and looking at Ashley, `someone is taking editorial liberties with some of the articles. Sara is here to help correct this.'"

Then there are the men that Brooke meets through CrushDotCom, like Nightynight, the Trend Forecaster who claims that, "the city is my office":
"Just when I'm reaching for my cell phone to call him and cancel, he opens the door to the cafe and looks around for me. Bam! He's amazingly gorgeous, with beautiful, dark almond shaped eyes and thick lips. As I signal him with a wave, he smiles, and like a cowboy tipping his hat, he gives me a two-finger salute. As he heads toward me, I examine his attire. He's dressed in a leather bomber jacket, jeans, tennis shoes with his hair sort of messy, but not too long. Yes, it appears he uses products, but he has gone easy with them. His tee shirt says `Rump.' He kisses me on the cheek, giving me a flashback of Artboy, but something about his mannerisms are less practiced. He has an unfinished quality about him, like a teenage boy who still might grow a few feet."

And Crushedout, the creator of City Rats, a popular Village cartoon series:
"He smiles first, then chuckles. I realize that it's easy to make him laugh. It's not a challenge as with other dates who didn't seem to get my sense of humor. Crushedout not only gets it, but seems familiar with names like Gucci, although his own fashion taste runs toward downtown, functional chic. He's wearing a heavy wool pea coat with black pants and shoes."

And, of course, NYC:

As the city throbs in the background, CrushDotCom darts from one locale to another -- Times Square, Central Park, Cooper Union, Astor Place, Soho, Williamsburg, the East Village, NoLita, the Subway:
"The platform is packed with people, but due to their impatient sighs and tense scowls, it appears that they have been waiting a long time. I crouch down on my haunches, lean against the dirty, filth-stained wall, and prepare to wait some more. Sometimes the midnight train can take twenty minutes or more and in the city, that's an eternity. I scan over faces, trying not to stare too hard at anyone. There are people together and people alone. Young people, older people. All out looking, but looking for what? A good time, their next drink, another person to snuggle up close to on a cold, windy night like this one? I think about the online personal service that my co-workers are using and realize that this city is one big personal ad. The way people check each other out on the street. It's all faces and outfits and attitude."

Although CrushDotCom may attract a Chick Lit label, Leslie Van Newkirk's voice transcends the usual formulaic offerings:

She is adept at biting satire:
"After exiting the elevators, we fill extra large coffee cups with the French vanilla special. Then we sit at a table near a window that overlooks the blinking lights and signs of Times Square. To my immediate left is a giant, yet waif-like model in white, see-through underwear. I can't get away from these images of `the perfect woman,' even if I try. Like The Force practiced by The Jedi of Fashion, `it surrounds us and penetrates us. It binds the galaxy together.'"

"For awhile in City Rats, one of the rats named Moe had a drug problem. He was left out of the strip for a week while he attended a rehab facility in Vermont. His partner, Bugsy, was featured in the comic alone, updating the audience every so often about Moe's condition. Supposedly Moe is `cleaned up' now and goes to group therapy with Anne Heche, Matthew Perry, and Robert Downey, Jr. The whole thing was a parody of celebrity drug culture and was something we Stitch gals used to talk about at the coffee station."

" `You have the quintessential New York studio,' he says, looking around my apartment which is so small that it takes him all of ten steps to get from room to room.
`I thought the quintessential studio was a huge, light, airy loft with gigantic front windows and a bunch of half finished paintings leaning against the walls. You know, like a Soho loft.'
`That's new New York. Your studio is old New York. Everyone cramped into a little box.'"
And poignant observation:
" I pause. Look up at the screen. Deborah Kerr and Burt Lancaster are kissing passionately amid the surf in From Here to Eternity. But I realize their romance is only a hundred feet above us, in little points of light, beamed out of a contraption above our heads. That's what true romance is, I think. Tiny points of light that are scattered all over, and for only the luckiest people, those points of light come together to form recognizable shapes, heads, lips, hands, wedding rings, baby strollers. For the rest of us it's something more shattered. Like Crushedout and me. Or me, here with Nightynight and his octopus arms. A chipped mug. Cracked glass. A funhouse mirror."

She captures the "cat eat cat" fashion magazine milieu:
"So these are the photos we're going with. My favorite is the one of the girl in the silver jump suit with the virtual reality eyeglasses on her face. My second favorite is the row of fashionably dressed patrons at a cyber cafe."
Felicia stands and quickly scans the photos. "Number two," she says, picking the second. She turns to Therese who nods solemnly like a Mob don who is green lighting a hit.
"That was easy," says Sara. "Now let's talk about your article."
"Well, Li Ming did a great job with the research," I start. "Overall I think it turned out well...."
"Brooke," says Therese. "Your article needs more pep."
"It needs more flair," adds Felicia.
"It needs to be more... peppy," says Therese. I bite my tongue to remind her that she has just used the word pep in her previous sentence. And she calls herself an editor?
"It needs to read more like The Stitch and less like a newspaper article. Our readers expect a certain kind of language. Dare I say, more frivolous?"

Her descriptive style ranges from whimsical to visceral:
"All throughout January it snows. Big fat flakes pile up to six inches, and at other times, glittery particles dust the city in a feathery blanket. Cars, sidewalks, and windowsills become sublime objects covered in white powder. They sparkle in the night, until day comes and the snow is stained dark with city grime. Then everything turns to slush, all of my pants' hems covered in black spots from the dingy muck. That's how New York City is. One minute romantic like a movie set, the next minute - intolerable."
Indeed, CrushDotCom is much like a NYC cab ride -- wild at times, full of twists and turns, but, most definitely, one that reaches its destination.

Despite his exalted position among the titans of psychiatry, Sigmund Freud famously had no answer to the basic question, "What does a woman want?"

Now, I have a mother, three sisters, many close female friends, several ex-girlfriends and an ex-fiancee to my name. (Not that I'm a notches-on-the-headboard kind of guy, or anything. I'm just mentioning it to establish my credentials.) And despite all that experience, I'm no closer to an answer than crazy old Oedipus-Complex-inventing coke-sniffing Dr. Freud, which is part of the reason this book sounded so intriguing when I noticed it on the Kirkus website.

When I got my copy, I put it near the top of my reading list, and once it made it to the top, I ripped through it in no time flat. This is a delightfully fun little book, a fast and engaging read, and I'm very glad I took a chance on it.

The narrator, Brooke Hill, is trying her best to juggle an unsatisfying love life and an occasionally satisfying career. Never an easy task, that juggling, especially in the online age, when new work and new love--or at least tantalizing glimpses thereof--are just a few mouse-clicks away. Are those forays adventures into a new world or just distractions from the real world? It's always so hard to tell, and Brooke and her friends spend a fair amount of time just figuring out the answer to that basic question.

Eventually, Brooke's search for online romance leads her into a bit of a love triangle--not the most original of love's geometries, to be sure, but to Van Newkirk's credit, she makes the angles uneven enough and and the characters at the points realistic enough that the reader will keep reading.

Along the way, she provides a good look at the trials and tribulations of typical twentysomethings in the tech sector. (Another subject near and dear to my heart--I wrote a book of my own looking at such things from the male perspective.) Here, as elsewhere, her observations generally ring true; if there's a fault, it is that the book leans more towards entertainment than empathy. As the book jacket notes, it's a "cat-eat-cat" world, where bad behavior and backstabbing seem to be frowned upon only if they are done in a clumsy or self-defeating manner.

Still, I'm glad I picked it up, for I found it to be a charming, fun read. And as for Dr. Freud's question, I'm pleased to say that it satisfied my curiosity, in a roundabout way. It didn't provide any answers about what women want, but it furthered my suspicion that there is no answer.

This is a great book for any ancient historian. The author does a thorough survey of the methodology of ancient history and the nature of history itself. He presents a point of view on why we study ancient near eastern history that is very thought provoking. You don't have to be an Assyriologist to appreciate this book.

This is a fantastic survey of the problems (and joys) of writing histories of the ancient Near East. This book rewards both novices and scholars in the field! The author is obviously familiar with the most up to date scholarship in Assyriology. The treatment of issues relating to intellectual history and the role of women in antiquity are expecially satisfying. Accessible and brief, the editors of the series are to be commended for inlcuding this treatment of the cuneiform world!

"The pace of the world pushes us at breakneck speeds. Those in fast-track careers in corporate America are often overcome by stress." ~Bruce Eric Van Horn

Bruce Eric Van Horn is the author and CEO of Yoga for Business. This is a company dedicated to individual and organizational growth. Bruce is convinced he can offer society more as a writer than an accountant and I think he is corret.

The CD in this book starts with a Yoga Workout.

If you are used to yoga workout videos, this is quite a change. First, you might want to read through the book to become aware of the yoga positions. If you are very familiar with yoga, you will enjoy this "Daily Yoga Class" which combines Bruce Eric Van Horn's instruction with peaceful guitar music.

Some of the poses are:

Bending over Backwards to serve your customers (Camel Pose)
Change from the Top Down (Headstand Pose)
Firm Footing in a Changing Marketplace (Warrior Pose/Tree pose)
Global Vision (Spinal Twist)

This is all pretty creative!

There is a special section on the CD for meditation. I loved how he said that "your thoughts are leaves falling into a stream." How calming ...ahhhh. There is also a Sailboat Meditation. I love the visual pictures Bruce paints in my mind. I think I'd love to keep sailing and sailing forever.

The cartoons are also pretty hilarious. I think the one about Tantra would amuse David Deida although I don't think Bruce and David would agree on page 104.

I was actually looking for a book with most of the yoga positions, so this has been helpful. I would like to say that you might want to read through the book and take a look at the positions before attempting to follow along with the CD. In a way, some of the poses are easier to do while listening than viewing anyway. Who can see the TV screen when you are upside down!

The Contents Include:

1. Why Yoga?
2. Four Step Program for Individual and Organizational Wellness: Humor, Art, Music, Self Acceptance.
3. Tips for Beginning Yoga Practice
4. The Body
5. Basic Yoga Workout
6. Yoga Practices
7. The Mind
8. The Spirit
9. The Future: Sound Advice, Art Therapy, Humor Therapy, Pet Therapy.

I enjoyed reading the comparison of traditional exercise with the advantages of yoga. Already my workout shelf is brimming with more yoga workouts than ever. I have discovered the peace it brings me. I love the slow, dynamic movements instead of the more rapid movements in aerobics. Although at times my yoga workout can be rather intense depending on which level I'm practicing.

An Essential Yoga book for the Business executive or anyone who enjoys creativity and meditation.

Organized and Creative!

~The Rebecca Review
Author of Seasoned with Love: A collection of
best-loved recipes inspired by over 40 cultures

Daily Yoga Class is the most unusual introduction to Yoga that I have seen. Business is used as an analogy to explain the benefits of Yoga. The book will appeal mostly to male executives whose business lives are driving them slowly crazy while making them frantic. There's a lot of humor here about being divorced, so people who have been through that experience may find the book even more appropriate. Women can certainly use the book, but the content, examples, and illustrations are mostly from a male perspective. The author spares no element of imagination in making Yoga and meditation accessible. There are exercises involving humor, art, breathing and music plus a CD with supplementary material (including music), and advice on diet and healthy living. Other authors contribute in brief sections including world-renowned author and expert Dr. Bernie Siegel in a foreword.

The heart of the book contains detailed descriptions of how to do Yoga asanas (postures) with photographs of the poses. For those whose bodies need to be reshaped, there's lots of advice on how to get into the first accessible positions (and how to move on to more correct ones as your body changes). I thought that the descriptions were excellent. The photographs would have been better if shown from more than one angle per asana. If the models had included women, the book would have had a much better feminine appeal.

The book starts slowly. If you are pretty sure that you want to do Yoga and haven't done it before, you could probably start with chapter three and return to the earlier material after you've been practicing for awhile.

There are a lot of assertions in the book that are not specifically footnoted with "proofs." Unless you want to read the extensive bibliography listed at the end, you probably won't ever find out exactly what these assertions are based on. I suggest that you consider the value of those assertions from an intuitive point of view. If they make sense to you, go with them. If not, do something that makes more sense to you. I've read a lot of the research behind these kinds of assertions, and the research is more often suggestive than conclusive.

I liked the book's writing style and use of cartoons. There's a friendly, "let's get going" prod in every section that should encourage even the most lethargic to begin the gentle practice of Yoga.

As a long-time meditator, I found that the book's advice on meditation was sound. If you are attracted to meditation, you would probably get even more benefit, however, from exploring Transcendental Meditation (TM).

Whatever you think of the book, do start some daily Yoga. It will be very healthy, relaxing and energizing for you.

Most dance books are pretty lightweight. This one is a knockout. Highwater has this way of connecting things, and here he seems to be connecting the history of the human body with the social attitudes of different times and different places. The way we dance is the way we are. On the jacket choreographer Erick Hawkins tells us that this is "the most important book on dance ever published in America." He should know.

We know no other book on dance with the same passion and deep understanding that Highwater brings to this one. Even the fantastic illustrations give a sense of the movement and development of the power of this great art, and the text just as vividly explores dance's ritual, mythic, and subconscious elements, showing us at every juncture how, through the movement of the dance, our inner and outer lives meet.

This book and its sister publication Time Gate, though written two decades ago, STILL reads like a revolutionary view of the future. Pellegrino was one of the framers of the US/Soviet Space Cooperation Initiative, advocating and predicting an international space station, as a springboard to Mars and Europa, even before President Reagan announced the building of an American Space Station. He invented the dinosaur cloning recipe used in "Jurassic Park," predicted the discovery of oceans and the possibility of life inside the iceworlds circling Jupiter and Saturn, and even showed how interstellar flight at 92% lightspeed might be possible by the mid-21st century. In this brief history of life on Earth, we can see the first hints of the elegant writing style that we would come to love in his later books, both in his science and his gripping science fiction.

This book and its sister publication Time Gate, though written two decades ago, STILL reads like a revolutionary view of the future. Pellegrino was one of the framers of the US/Soviet Space Cooperation Initiative, advocating and predicting an international space station, as a springboard to Mars and Europa, even before President Reagan announced the building of an American Space Station. He invented the dinosaur cloning recipe used in "Jurassic Park," predicted the discovery of oceans and the possibility of life inside the iceworlds circling Jupiter and Saturn, and even showed how interstellar flight at 92% lightspeed might be possible by the mid-21st century. In this brief history of life on Earth, we can see the first hints of the elegant writing style that we would come to love in his later books, both in his science and his gripping science fiction.

Hilda Van Stockum was born in Rotterdam in 1908. Her father was a naval officer and her family traveled extensively. By the time she was seventeen she had visited the East Indies, Paris, Switzerland, and Ireland. As she grew up Hilda was always drawing and telling stories and as a child she made a book for her brother when she was five years old.

Her family moved to Ireland, where Hilda attended the Dublin School of Art. From there she went home to the Netherlands and finished her education with four years in the Amsterdam Academy of Art, where she developed a love for painting. Then it was back to Ireland where she taught art and became an illustrator for Browne and Nolan, publishers in Dublin in the late 1920s.

During her lifetime Ms. Van Stockum has had several shows in fine galleries in Dublin, Geneva, Canada, American and, of course, in the Netherlands. She was president of the Children's Book Guild in Washington, D. C. in the early 70s and received the Newbery Honor Award in 1935 for this very title, A DAY ON SKATES.

"This is a book which mothers and fathers will sit up to finish, after the protesting child has been dragged firmly to bed." So begins the forward by Edna St. Vincent Millay and is it ever the truth. My mother read me this delightful book when I was a little girl and I've just recently read it as an adult, because I've just passed the big three-oh and Mom found me a copy for my birthday.

The story is set in Holland before the Second World War and it's about a pair of nine-year-old twins, Evert and Afke, who go with their class on a day's skating picnic. Along the way we learn an awful lot about life in Holland back then. But it is the children who make the book so divine. I loved this book with I was a child. I love it now. It's a shame it's not still available.

As I said above, I'm thirty now, an adult, and I've studied a bit of art myself, so now I can appreciate Ms. Van stockum's illustrations and her fine color artwork. This book is a real joy and I'm glad I've had a chance to revisit it again and I'll treasure it always.

Sophie Cacique Gaul

This is a wonderful book for younger children, and their older siblings, too. It portrays the values and attitudes of days gone by when boys were masculine and girls were feminine and everyone was happy that it was so. The story is interesting, the action is well-paced and fun; you feel as if you have been on the picnic with the children! One of our favorite books!

This book is very interesting if you are interested in Carnap. You get a lot of the personality of Carnap, and some of his views. It is a real experience to read this after a long research in the philosophy of Carnap.

Other may find the correspondence also interesting just because it contains some views and personal experiences of a philosopher. If you are on such thing, you may buy it as well.

This book, edited by Richard Creath, is valuable both as a biographical work on the lives of Carnap and Quine, and as an resource for scholars interested in the Carnap-Quine debates (and the history of 20th century analytic philosophy more generally). The correspondence, which constitutes most of the book, provides a nice glimpse into the personal and academic friendship between Carnap and Quine: a friendship that developed from their first meeting in the 1930's till Carnap's untimely death in 1970. The book also includes a useful 43 page introduction by Creath focusing on the Carnap-Quine debates on analyticity. Previously unpublished manuscripts, i.e., Quine's "Three Lectures on Carnap" and Carnap's "Quine on Analyticity," are valuable resources for philosophers interested in the Carnap-Quine debates. The book concludes appropriately with Quine's "Homeage to Carnap," a personal tribute to his mentor. Overall, Creath does a superb editorial job and the resulting book is a pleasure to read.

In the aftermath of 9/11, we need words of comfort. I have never seen or read such a consoling report as this book offers. Rich insights!!!

"William R. Van der Zee is one of the best religious writers around today. His biblical commentary is always incisive and pragmatic, bearing a remarkable relation to life as people know it. [...] Rev. Van der Zee writes about these weighty subjects with theological exactitude, and occasionally with wit and humour." Paul Matthew St. Pierre, in The BC Catholic, July 5, 1998