Cleaning Books

Did you know that thorough preparation is the key to a good paint job? Are you never quite sure whether you are watering your potted plants correctly? Do you want to set up a home office, but don't know where to start? Do you know what the experts say is the perfect hairstyle for your hair texture and face? Let Consumer Guide's 10,000+ Practical Hints and Tips help out!

This book was the best I have ever seen of its kind (not that I necessarily collect these books). Just browsing through it, I picked up several useful tips; simple things, but I hadn't thought of them. For example, using a comb to hold tiny nails or brads (p. 24). Another example, filling the bathtub with water before caulking between it and the wall, to eliminate the tub's movement which would crack the caulk (p. 127).

We borrowed the book from the local library; I can't seem to get the book away from my wife, and she isn't usually given to reading such books.

Illustrations are excellent. Projects are described in a step-by-step manner, making it easy to follow.

We all face the problem of clutter;only some are better at solving it than others.If you are anything like me,you need all the help you can get.
I have read several books on the subject and on December 29,2005;I wrote a review on one of the best books I have ever seen on how to de-clutter your life;that being "Clutter's Last Stand" by Don Aslett,and has to be the all-time Classic. Most of these books cover esentially the same things; and where one stands out over another, is whether or not they motivate you in making changes.
This book by FC&A Publishing is also excellent in all respects and covers every aspect of clutter; and even though we all have worked at controlling clutter;we can still learn tricks, methods and new ways to get a handle on it.
Obviously; the first thing you have to learn and practice is avoiding adding more to what we already have. This book excells in covering the ways to avoid getting more stuff.
Another area where this book excells in is in tips and methods that can be used to store and organize our stuff;particularly for those who "just hate to get rid of something that is still useful".
One of the best ways I learned to determine if something is useless or junk is to just try giving it to someone.If they and a few others won't take it...then why are you keeping it? Also ,when you look at something and hate to get rid of it,ask yourself;"who's keeping stuff for me?".
It's a shame that there is no author associated with this book;but don't let that influence you in thinking that is a medoicre book. This book is excellent in every way;and if you read it and adopt some of the ideas in it,you'll surely improve your chances in winning "The War on Clutter".You will not only rid yourself of stuff you don't need;you'll save a lot of time and yes,money; gain a lot of space that has been lost to you,be able to find anything you own with ease,and feel a lot better about everything.
What more can you ask for from a book?

You name it, it's in here. This goes beyond the Grease-On-The-Tie type stains, it actually gave some great advice on scratched up wood, stained mattresses and grease marks on books! And a deal at this price.

This short book provides a good overview of classical Greek literature from its very beginning to the end of antiquity in the 6th century A.D. It discusses not only epic and lyric poetry, tragedy and comedy, but also prose genres: historiography, oratory, philosophy and science.

The book was written to replace Maurice Bowra's Ancient Greek Literature from 1933 and it is not an untimely replacement of Bowra's classic book since scholarly views on various aspects of Ancient Greek literature have changed - in some ways even fundamentally - since the 1930's, due to both the work of classicists and philologists as well as to different approaches of scholars of literature and literary theory. But one of the most fundamental difference is probably the scope of the book, for this book reflects the wider interest of today's scholars in that it takes more account of the literature of later periods. That is to say, this book does not end after - or indeed at the beginning of - the Hellenistic period, but discusses also e.g. Greek literature of the Roman republic. If I can find any fault with the book it might be that it does not go far enough in this direction; perhaps the last chapter, which deals with Ancient Greek literature after 50 B.C. could have been split up into two chapters, covering (a) the period from 50 B.C. to 200 A.D. (discussing at greater length such authors as Lucian, Plutarch, and Dio Chrysostom among others), and (b) Ancient Greek literature after 200 A.D., thus adding maybe around 20 pages or so to the book.

Nevertheless, this book does give a good overview of the history of Ancient Greek literature from Homer to the end of antiquity. This is very helpful and anyone interested in Ancient Greece or classical studies would do well to read this book. It is lucidly written and quite accessible to any reader. A serious student of Ancient Greek literature will, naturally, need to consult a more detailed and scholarly work. And yet, I think that even a graduate student preparing for general exams in Ancient Greek literature would benefit from this book, precicely because it presents in a clear manner the broad outlines of the history of Greek literature and does so in only 176 pages. The chronological table and suggested further reading at the back is of some help too.

I, therefore, recommend this book to (a) students of Classics, who either focus on other things, such as Ancient History or Ancient Philosophy, and need a good but short outline of the history of Ancient Greek literature, or any students of Classics who require a starting point on which they can later build a more in-depth study of Greek literature; and (b) to anyone interested - although "uninitiated" - in Greek literature or Classical Studies, for whom a broad outline of the history of Ancient Greek literature suffices.

Having made extensive use of his Greek/English 2nd edition, this 3rd edition translation of the Apostolic Fathers is a great resource for pastors or interested laypeople. The translations are lucid, clear, and contemporary (without being at all "trendy"); newly expanded footnotes and biblographies for each work make full use of the most recent scholarship. The scripture-reference footnotes for Polycarp's Letter to the Philippians are particularly dense, given that Holmes makes full use of Berding's and Hartog's studies on Polycarp's use of the NT.
If you have more academic interests, the 2nd edition Greek/English is still a very good translation and has a host of technical footnotes not included in this edition. If you just want to read the Apostolic Fathers in clear English, this is the one for you.

What a gem this book is! One might doubt that a Buddhist nun could have anything useful to say about having too much junk in our lives. Yet the Venerable Yifa writes simply and elegantly on junk relationships, junk food, junk communication, junk emotions, etc. in this slim volume. The ideas she discusses are not new, particularly not to anyone familiar with Buddhism. However, one need not be familiar with Buddhism or even care about Buddhism in any way to benefit from what she has to say. While her ideas are not ground-breaking, her discussion of them is refreshing. This is a book that would be a welcome text for anyone looking to live a more authentic life, no matter what one's spiritual path is. I was impressed with her writing style, particularly her clarity and her conversational and friendly tone; it does not sound like she's preaching or being judgmental. This is a nice change from other texts about 'improving' one's life that start by telling the readers just how horrible and pathetic their lives are.

This book is a fast read, but it also seems the sort of book that I will be happy to read again, if I feel I need a little pep talk sometime in the future about ridding myself of more junk.

These days it seems that energy advice is available on every street corner--"turn down your thermostat", "caulk your house" or "buy a solar panel". Unfortunately, most of this "common sense" is either massively expensive or based on "cut back" and save. It's hardly inspiring or practical for real people.

This book restores my confidence in practical energy solutions. It's not "preachy" or "environmentalist"---it simply lays out how energy works and options to cut energy waste. It's easy to read, yet packed with information. I haven't seen technical writing this good in years.

The content is fairly evenly divided between discussions on preventing energy loss, recapturing lost energy, and obtaining "free" energy. The explanations are lucid, logical and cover the major energy options. The book also includes worksheets for calculating energy use in your own home.

Overall, what I appreciate most is this book doesn't preach/promote a specific energy solution. Instead it simply explains the options and lets you decide what will give you the most gain for your specific house/lifestyle. Once you read this book I guarantee you won't think about energy the same way again.

Any who would understand the life and influences of artist Judy Chicago must have BECOMING JUDY CHICAGO: A BIOGRAPHY OF THE ARTIST. Where other art titles focus on a pictorial representation of her achievements, BECOMING JUDY CHICAGO, in contrast, provides an in-depth study of her life and is the only biography to offer such depth and details, considering not only Chicago's influences and contributions, but how her works helped transform society. It's a survey all American artist reference collections must have.

Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch

Most books about houses dwell on country house parties and the upstairs life, while this one is especially interesting when it covers parts of the household that you would not think of, such as the dairy. Perhaps a complaint would be that the book concentrates only on grand houses instead of on houses lived in my middle and lower class people, but I had bought the book realizing that so I didn't care. In addition to being very well researched and well written, the photographs were absolutely georgous and make me want to live in such a grand estate. Untill I think about how hard it was to live in such a grand estate!