Holidays Books

This is a real treat: the classic story and a very talented man reading/performing in all its characters as if there were a whole host of different voices. A favorite to hear every year.

I bought this on audio cassette tape 15 years ago. I have also seen Mr. Stewart's one-man show in LA. I have listened to this 100's of times (literally) and it never fails to move me. I could listen to Patrick Stewart read the phone directory, and probably find it enjoyable, but his performance of this classic work is nothing short of amazing. I feel like I am in the story myself and it is so entertaining. My cassettes died the other day so I am happy to see that this brilliant work is still available in some form. Thank you, Patrick, for this wonderful gift, and thank you Amazon, for carrying it. I would have been heartbroken not to be able to replace it.

With the myriad excellent film and stage versions of "A Christmas Carol" out there, the enduring power of Dickens' prose is often overlooked. Mr. Stewart's reading puts they focus right back on the text itself (in his stage performance, he opens the prop-less, set-less show simply by holding aloft his script like a trophy). The pointed social criticism--still relevant after 150 years--and wry wit of Dickens' work comes through loud and clear in Mr. Stewart's commanding voice.

Sitting down and listening to this version is like hearing a beloved uncle tell your favorite story. A fine way to spend a quiet holiday evening.

Patrick Stewart performed Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol on stage as a one man show for several years during the holiday season. To my regret, I never saw that show. But he did record an audio version of the show, which is what we have here. I'm sure it's not as enjoyable as seeing Stewart performing live in person, but it's great in it's own right. There are some abridgements, but unless you have the book memorized, you aren't likely to notice. Stewart does different voices for different characters, including the women and children. It's a virtuoso performance which will be enjoyed by all.

Stewart does an amazing job reading the story. It must be an incredible one-man show. He does all the voices and the sound effects. For example, he just says "ding" for the ringing of the clock as it strikes the top of the hour, but in the way Patrick Stewart does it he pulls you into Scrooge's nervous anticipation of the striking of the final bell. Using different intonations and voices, Stewart draws you into the story. His enthusiam for the story is infectious. His voice is mesmerizing. I can not recommend this audio book enough.

This monster book is fun, not scary at all. It tells about all the loving things Mama Monster does for her Monster children. When I was an elementary school librarian I used it for Story Time. And now my grandchildren--ages 2 and 4, love this book too!

My kids (ages 3-7) all love this book. It has a great rhythm and after reading it regularly for five years, they still giggle through the entire book. Because of that, we have given this book to many friends who have loved it as much as us.

I bought this because my son has been waking up scared of "things" in his room at night. He has been waking up a lot less lately, since we started reading this and another book. I really think this among other things has helped. It insinuates that monsters are scared of little boys and girls which is just what he needed to hear!! It is also very cute and makes monsters seem just like people!

My little boy is 19 months old and this is one of his favorite bedtime stories. The illustrations are bright and colorful and the story makes us laugh every time we read it!

I loved this book and read it to my precious grandson, Connor. The book is written in rhyme and it is very sweet and interesting to kids.

Rick Rodgers is an expert! His best ever turkey and gravy recipes are hands down crowd pleasers. I let my sister borrow the book and now I have to buy a new copy because she "can't find it." Also take a look at his Christmas 101.

This was my 1st Thanksgiving and everything turned out wonderful! The receipes were very easy to follow. My mother in-law was a little worried how I was going to cook the turkey (she thought it would be dry) and it turned out to be PERFECT! What a great cookbook to have, I look foward to trying new receipes next year.

This gives good basic directions for T-Giving, plus enough for a veteran to find it enormously useful.

Have assisted Rick in many of his sold out cooking classes. He writes for the home cook. You can be confident when you do any of his tried and true recipes. Thanksgiving 101 is my go to book at the holidays. All dog-eared and Post notes thru-out. Go see him if you can!!! Fabulous

I have been using this book for Thanksgiving for 6 years and love it! I bought one for everyone I know and they all think it's great too. This year I made the Bread Rolls 101 and they were great. My turkey always comes out perfect using the writer's basic method. Everyone should own this book - I use it before and after the holidays and all thru the year!

The Christmas Alphabet Cards were almost a bigger hit for my Christmas gift recipients than their gifts! Simple in their theme, these cards provide a wonderful holiday surprise with a pop-up cutout inside. They are just the right size to attach to a box of homemade holiday sweets, put on a gift for under the tree or mail to your friends.

Some say 'Seasons Greetings' and others wish "Happy Holidays", and one says "Merry XMas" inside, but there is not writing on the outside of the cards. All are done in primary colors of white, blue, green, red and yellow.

I found these at 75 percent off the retail price last year, but I do think that considering the quality and enjoyment they provide... they are worth their retail price.

It is so much fun to send Robert Sabuda cards! People love them. I liked this series so much that I bought one set to keep for my family.
Each card is different, and unique. I love imagining how happy my friends will be when they open their cards.
You can't help but smile filling out each card. You will have as much fun sending these cards as your friends will have receiving them!
Happy Holidays!

These cards are wonderful, probably the prettiest cards I have ever sent for Christmas. I am having a great time choosing a card for each family member and friend. It comes with envelopes, which was a question I was unable to answer when I was reading the previous reviews. I ordered two boxes (rather, pretty reusable tins) based on the reviews and I may order a third to keep for myself. They are fun to look at and pretty to display at home. I wrote the messages on the back of the card so I wouldn't disturb the little work of art that pops out when you open it. My favorites are the Baby Jesus, the snowflake and the cat in the box. Wonderful.

I somehow felt that the product was a little less than I expected: maybe it's because few cards were actuallly dirty, or because I found the design to be more simple than I grow to expect from mr Sabuda.

But maybe I am just spoiled :-)

Only in a product of this high quality could everyone be right. I agree with each 4-star and 5-star rating given to these cards. Each card is precision cut, constructed from heavy paper, feels good in your hand, and is an imaginative expression of Christmas.

It is true the cards are on the smallish side, 3.5" x 5", but their impact upon opening them exceeds other greeting cards three to five times their size. For example, the pop-ups in quite a few of the cards burst forth to form a large display that just about fills the entire opened card with a flower, village, manger, or snowflake. There is even a candle that has a spinning halo around the flame.

Obviously, the cards delight me but they also appeal to my practical side: There is a card in the box for just about everyone, including the cynic who hasn't let his inner child out in a long time (see "T" is for toy). There are cards in the assortment for those who prefer a religious, traditional, or childhood theme. So, instead of buying two or three or more boxes of cards and storing the unused cards for next year, one box of these cards just might do it for the season.

Never read Barry before but after reading this book, laughing out loud, and sorry to get to the end, I will buy more of his books. Thoroughly enjoyed it.

Wow. Publishers Weekly didnt like this book? I love it. There isnt one sentence in it that isnt funny. It's a good book to have if you're on a long car trip and need something to keep people entertained.

This one was another "Busted-Gut/Soggy-Pants" one for me! Man! I really loved the Chapters on Europe & Going To Disney World (his map of Florida is hilarious) and his idea for "Dave World". He has a good point that the most popular Amusement Park rides are the crazy ones that make you puke ('The popularity of a ride is directly proportional to how horrible it is. There's hardly every a line for a nice relaxing ride like a Merry-Go-Round. But there's a huge crowd...consisting of mostly teenagers...waiting to go on something with a name like "The Dicer", where they basically strap you in a giant food-processor, turn it on and phone the paramedics'- DAVE BARRY). His messing with non-English phrases is loads of fun (and Canada's English-French system get a great 'Dave Barry Treatment' as well, not that I have anything against Canadians). Well, if you need some serious laffs whilst stuffed like a sardine on Flight 321 to Bangkok, Dave's your man!

Irreverent, "inaccurate" look at travel in the US and abroad. If you've ever traveled by car, flown in an airplane, visited foreign countries, camped with friends or family, you will find this book hilarious. Barry has a keen insight into the traps and pitfalls of modern-day travel and expresses it in an outrageously funny manner.

Many in America are familiar with Dave Barry. I don't know anyone in Ireland or the UK who's ever heard of him. i have introduced my mother to him. She is a writer and appreciates good humour. I think she wasn't expecting him to be quite so funny though. When I said he is hillarious, I was not over reacting. I was pleasantly surprised to see her nearly fall over in histerics. Humour is good for the soul. Dave Barry is good for the soul. This book covers travel across all of the states, many European countries, Scandanavia, some parts of Asia. For his own reasons, Dave has catalogued some countries together... either his summary of one was so similar to many others, or he was so unimpressed he was lost for words! Either way, you'll enjoy this. How could you not?!

Nice book for the history buff or old car collector. Purchased as a gift exchange item for our car club Christmas party. Great price compared to the book store.

I travelled the Mother Road in September 1960 in a 1956 Ford from Chicago to LA. The book refreshed many memories of this trip. I was quite happy to go through the pages and I will continue to do so.

I have really enjoyed this book, Route 66: The Mother Road..." It is very interesting and full of information that you probably have never known before. Also pictures of people along the way. I am not a collector of Route 66 things but we needed something for a Painting Reception and this fit in with our theme. I ordererd it and I'm so glad I did. I am planning to read it from cover to cover when our Show is over. The book was sent on time and packaged very well. All-in-all it was an excellent experience.

As a child my family traveled between Tucson and NW Missouri over a number of years to visit relatives. I vividly remember neon signs, interesting signs, gas stations and diners along the way. This book made those memories come alive. The author brings in the history behind place names and the stories of the colorful and interesting people who created the various attractions along Route 66. I don't know when I have enjoyed reading a book more than this one. Michael Wallis, thank you.

Everything you would like to know about Route 66. This book and it's author served as the main source of infromation & inspiration for the Disney/Pixar classic animated movie "Cars". A must have for the motoring history buff.

As a new wife and first time cook this cookbook is awesome. I love that recipes are unique but at the same time do not require exotic ingredients that are hard to find. Also it's very convenient that the nutrition information is listed to the side of each recipe.

This is a great cookbook for people who have a roommate or live alone. The recipes are healthy and delicious, and if you live by yourself, you don't end up eating the dish 4 nights in a row. The cookbook has a variety of recipes that incorporate many tasty ingredients, and is not necessarily for someone who is trying to lose weight.

I Love to cook but its only me and one other in the house, so I always had a lot of leftovers. I needed to get books for cooking for 2. so i found this book and had purchased it along with a few other and i really live this book. A lot of good recipes and easy to follow. I have made several things out of it already and plan on using this book a lot more.

fabulous cookbook i ordered two and will give them as christmas gifts they are wonderful.

This is a well-written book with very healthy recipes. The nutritional information is provided for each recipe, which to me is one of the marks of a good cookbook. The downside is that there are quite a few ingredients in most of the recipes, including some unusual ones, at least in my kitchen. This means that unless your pantry is really well stocked, you won't be able to make most of the meals without a trip to a really good grocery store. For example, do you regularly have miso in your pantry? Whole wheat orecchiette? Plum sauce? I have made some of the recipes for my husband and myself, and they always turn out wonderfully delicious, but I definitely needed to plan ahead for that trip to the store, and the dish wasn't prepared "in a hurry".

Great Book! Great pictures, great recepies, well written and it is dedicated to a great woman.

This book might not be perfectly edited, but it is beautiful just to page through and the recipes and clippings are very interesting.

Great history and stories re: Frida and Diego, fabulous pictures of their kitchen, great pictures of traditional mexican cookware. Education re: holiday's and special occasions Frida and Diego celebrated.

This is a fascinating book with gorgeous photographs of fiestas which would have been prepared by Frida for parties at home in Mexico. We all know that Frida was an extraordinary artist, but it's quite an eye-opener to find out that she was also an outstanding cook!

Since everyone has raved about this book, perhaps I'm looking at an old edition (1994). I agree that the photos are beautiful and the stories wonderful, but in the version of the book I have the instructions for the recipes are in the wrong order. For example, for Chiles en Nogada, the first sentence of the recipe's instructions are "Rinse the chiles and pat them dry. Spoon some of the filling inside each one..." Well, you have to go down the the second to last paragraph to get the instructions for making the filling. Obviously, the recipe should first tell you how to make the filling. Also in this recipes, it tells you to pour the walnut sauce over the chiles, BEFORE it tells you how to make the walnut sauce.

I have published a cookbook and these type of errors mean one thing: an editor who has not read the recipes and thought them through! (Much less tried to follow the recipes.) I noticed that in several of the recipes I've used, I have, with my editing pen, moved paragraphs around with arrows so that the instructions are in the right order.

ISBN 059006519x - Usually, when I come across a board book with a spectacularly illustrated cover, I'm let down when I open it up. David Kirk is absolutely fantastic and so, it turns out, is every single page inside.

Miss Spider would like to play, but all the other bugs are afraid of her. Rhyming text counts the bugs, from the two beetles who ran away to the eleven bugs who finally came to visit - bringing twelve flowers as gifts.

It's great, the chance to work on numbers with your child, but for me the illustrations are what knocks it out of the park. The details are excellent: the reflection in the teapot and the twelve cupcakes when her eleven bugs come to visit, for example. The colors are vivid and the images nearly 3D. Board book pages are sturdy and can take a bit of a beating. My single complaint is that the cover board seems to be coated with a rubbery plastic layer which peels fairly easily. The bugs aren't particularly creepy or scary, which works for me - I've got a shortage of Halloween-themed board books and this one is going to fill in. I hardly think anyone will mind!

- AnnaLovesBooks

Very good book that teaches counting and basic concepts. Great illustrations - clear and colorful. Quick read so keeps the attention of very young readers. I love reading it to my 16 month old and she loves to listen to the story as well as look at the illustrations.

My 13 month old *LOVES* Miss Spider, and I was getting really sick of Miss Spider's New Car (which is a great book, don't get me wrong, I was just tired of reading it 3x/night.) I went looking for the original Miss Spider's Tea Party in board book format (which you can't find, why is that?) and stumbled across this one and the ABC one. He likes both of them, I slightly prefer this one because frankly it's shorter. The artwork is still the classic David Kirk Miss Spider traditional stuff, not the computer-animated from the TV series stuff. And if you know the original Tea Party story, it's an abbreviated version of that, so it's kind of fun to see where they go with it for the Counting. So all in all, a decent alternative.

My 6 month old has liked this book since he was 4 months old. Now his face lights up with a big smile when I pull it out. Sometimes he even starts to fuss when I put it away! The illustrations are just so vibrant and colorful that he's mesmerized by it. I really really wish I could find more books like this. I've looked everywhere! This is definitely a best buy for parents who want to start reading to baby at an early age.

This book has some of the most beautiful artwork you will ever see in a children's book. My 17 month old took a few tries to warm up to the story, and it still isn't a favorite of hers. A lot of times we will just sit and look at the pretty pictures.

On The Loose is certainly one of the most beautiful and inspiring Books ever written. It is simple and short but packed with inspiration. This book should be taught in the schools as a nature primer...children would love it and then continue their journey into the wide world.

but encountering this book again after 35 years brings tears to my eyes.

(A note on the description: If you will examine the font in the text, it's "Tang-jar", not "Jang-jar." Tang is the orange flavored powder concentrate that the early astronauts drank in space. At least that's what the commercials said. Untold thousands of ordinary Americans drank it too.)

Excellent, quick read...wide range of quotes both poetry and proes...pics are breathtaking...these two young men have infected me with their philosophy of life.

What a treasure to find that On The Loose is still around. This book is full of wonder and joy on every page. On The Loose found me in 1967 when I was an undergraduate student. It is still with me. I was wandering and On The Loose spoke to me of the wilderness as something full of awe. This is truly a beautiful book. It continues to remind me over and over that, as I can see I will keep looking and as long as I can walk, I will keep moving. I am so happy that with the reprinting of On The Loose it will now find its way into my grown children's hands as they continue to make their way and look beyond the light and dark.

There are so many wonderful and amazing photographs and quotes in this book. This book is truly an invitation towards insights gained by looking outward and beyond. Let yourself go beyond where you can barely see. Buy this book. Always ride for the high points! This is the book to take with you.

D. Budd
Edmonton, AB Canada

If I had to choose 10 books that I would bring with me to a desert island, this would be one of them.