Ball Books

Ball and Hammer is a like a six-hand piano piece. Seated at the bench are the long deceased founder of Zurich Dada, Hugo Ball; the contemporary artist, Jonathan Hammer; and the well-regarded critic-scholar, Jeffrey Shnapp. The piece they play is built around Ball's visionary novella-memoir, Tenderenda the Fantast, which is a bit like trying to build a temple around a hallucination.

Hammer and Schnapp brilliantly riff in and around Ball's memoir: the former with his zany illustrations, a provocative essay and his translation of Ball; the latter with a razor sharp-edged introduction and an array of learned notes. The mix works. It's hard to tell where one takes over and the other leaves off.

This is no conventional university press book from the standpoint of production values. It's graphically dazzling, has twenty-plus splendid color illustrations, and is at least as much fun as a ride on one of those Twister roller coasters.

I recommend it highly for yourself or for that distinctive gift to an eccentric friend or loved one who loves Dada.

It makes nice in your brain and looks just as nice on your coffee table.

Produced by the company that make the cans most of us use this is a good book to have on hand especially for beginners. It has good recipes and plenty of illustrations to follow that are exceptionally helpful.

A classic that needs to be on your shelf for reference. Some forgotten information in the book that is useful and not available elsewhere.

Each sentence in the text consists of a noun and a predicate verb in the past tense.
This is a simple pattern for students of English as a second language to follow.
Furthermore, this is a valuable book for a lesson on the past tense.

Whether you're a home grower or beginning a commercial/retail greenhouse you'll find this book to be one of the best tools at your disposal. The tabled information is clear, concise, consistantly conveyed, and very easy to understand. Information includes germination temperature, light requirements, grow-on conditions, days to finishing/sales, and much more. I have used this book as my sole reference for production and have had great success, even with the more difficult seeds to germinate.

Wow! Pricey! But all plants in this "greenhouse" book are yard plants in zone 10/11. If you are way south and a gardener, you want this book in your libraby.

Brigitte Weninger and Eve Tharlet, author and illustrator of the popular "Davy" series, have brought us yet another book in the Max Mouse series.

This book is about Max Mouse and his friends trying to play a fun game of ball. They're having a good time, but then Rico the Raccoon shows up and takes their ball, apparently for no reason.

The kids are all convinced that Rico is bad, but Max has a different idea. Find out what he does to solve the problem.


The illustrations are soft and cute, as always. The text probably works best for readaloud to younger readers. A nice story about friends playing together.

Books about sports stars can be dated in two ways. BBF (Before Ball Four) and ABF (After Ball Four). Before this book came out, sports stars were mythologized in print and the books had a cardboard-style sameness to them. According to the BBF books baseball stars such as Mickey Mantle, Babe Ruth and Ted Williams did nothing but pull for their team and engage in some occasional boyish antics. In other words, heroes through and through.
The reality was quite different, Babe Ruth was an incorrigible woman chaser, heavy drinker and was verbally cruel to people. There is the classic story of a group of baseball writers playing a game of cards on a train taking the Yankees on a road trip. A naked woman followed by an equally naked Ruth ran past them. One writer remarked, "It is a good thing I didn't see that because otherwise I would have to write about it." Mickey Mantle was a heavy drinker; he often played so heavily hung over that he had trouble keeping his eyes open. Williams was not a team player, he was at times an indifferent fielder and he refused to enlarge the strike zone by even an inch in order to drive in a run that would tie or win a game. There is a classic story that he once hit a home run that got his team back in the game. However, rather than accepting the accolades of his teammates, he sat in the dugout cussing himself for swinging at a pitch that was a ball.
Bouton's book changed all that. He described the players as human, with all their faults. In the early sixties Bouton had one of the best fastballs in the game, his pitching helped propel the Yankees to the American league pennant and some argued that in 1964, he was the best pitcher in baseball. However, in 1965 he hurt his arm and could no longer throw the heat. In 1969, he made a semi-comeback throwing the knuckleball for the expansion Seattle Pilots. Even on a marginal team he was at best a marginal player. This book is a combination of his actions with the Pilots as well as a reflection of his time with the Yankees. Therefore, it is easy to detect a strain of bitterness at the loss of the glory days of the 1964 Yankees. Nevertheless, while many people have decried the book, no one has ever come forward to disprove his statements about the escapades of the players. Many drank heavily and took drugs, most were sexually promiscuous, and at times they were contemptuous of the fans.
Since "Ball Four" came out, the books about sports stars have been more honest. This, in my opinion, is good for the fans, the games and even the players. The nation has become much more knowledgeable and realistic in how it views heroes. It would have been impossible to continue the artificial presentations of the people who so fascinate us when they play for pay.

This book is one of "THE" book that would certainly excite you and glue your eyes to it. A definite recommendation to anyone who wants to know more about BGAs. An all round coverage on PBGA, CBGA, TBGA, CCGA - their design, process parameters, inspection, reliability and rework. Everyone who started browsing this book just couldn't let go. Nonetheless, I think the author should further elaborate on how to inspect the BGAs, like the sample preparation parameters needed to produce a good microsection sample for each types of BGAs, the passing criteria for each of the inspection parameter, more photos on each means of inspections showing the defects, etc.

This is an incredible little book that will teach your children that they can "escape" and talk with Jesus whenever they want to. It's great for adults as well. I use it for myself and it's quite relaxing.