Ball Books

This is a very insightful book... it gives you a view of the world from a different prospective...surreal with suttle subtiles hinged in reality... Republicans beware, life takes a turn where a lottery ball is better then sperm poisioning

This is a great collection for Alan Ball fans. It starts out with an interview with Ball, and that is followed by essays about Six Feet Under (the entire series), American Beauty, and his play Five Women Wearing the Same Dress.

These are interesting, smart essays, and they draw connections among all his works. A great read for fans of Ball's work!

To develop a new drug product an immense of time and money is spent testing for safety, effectiveness, and reliability. This book presents all aspects of the subject.

After class my crush always wanted to football but I was not good and never knew where to go. It has good tips to help you learn and great tips so you can know what your talking about,when he asks you about how to score a touchdown and so on...

This is the second of John Ball's books featuring his most famous creation, Virgil Tibbs, the Black homicide investigator from Pasadena, California. Ball, who was a nudist, explores that life style when a body is found in the pool of a nudist resort. "Cottontail" is a person who covers their genitals when sunbathing, hence a white streak about the hips. "Cool" means "dead". The victims tan lines make it clear that he is not a nudist, but great lengths have been taken to obscure his identity while making sure that the body is found promptly: a seeming contradiction.

Ball not only spins an interesting tales about a well-developed character, he explores issues of race, as well as conformity and individuality. Virgil generally gets along with most people, but struggles to keep his calm when racism faces him again. At several points, characters must decide whether to stand by Virgil and face the anger or disgust of racists, or whether abandon him to avoid friction. First published in 1966, the book has held up well. And alas, the racial issues are still alive today.

The one weakness in the story is that Ball does not give all the clues to the reader. Since I read mysteries as novels, rather than attempting to solve them, this doesn't bother me, but may be annoying to some readers. At the end of the (first two books at least), Virgil assembles the cast to explain the solution.

A series that deserves to survive as a classic.

I want to know what is cricke

Maeebsef and O'Grady are living together but the faerie is getting worse everyday. Maeebsef needs to feed on sex with human and O'Grady is no more able to satisfy him. But then arrives Lyre, another of the Gianes that maybe can help Maeebsef. And Lyre, searching for Maeebsef, meets Seamus Brady, a gay cop who resembles a lot to Joseph, the lost lover of Lyre.

Another tale where magic mix with real world and where love is a vital force for the fey world. This story is centered on Seamus, on his quest to find the true love in the human world, but maybe he has to search among the faeries. Seamus is a cop but he is not tought and rough like the NYPD cops we are used to read. He is a lonely soul who has gripped the love where he can find it, even if it's not true love. And now he clings to a new possible lover, even if this one slips away after every encounter.

Once upon a time Lyre has loved and lost, and now he fears to love again. He is not the classical fairie, he is not lithe and ethereal like Maeebsef, but even if his body is stronger, his soul is scarred and, in the end, the weaker in body Seamus, will be the stronger in soul.

The story is a little more complicated then his prequel "Of the Clan O'Grady" and I strongly reccomend to read them in order: even if Maeebsef and O'Grady are supporting characters in this sequel, you can't fully understand the whole meaning of it if you have not prepared yourself with the previous book.

CUTTING PROPAGATION: A GUIDE TO PROPAGATING AND PRODUCING FLORICULTURE CROPS is for the serious college-level horticulture collection: it covers vegetatively propagated varieties and provides the latest information on cutting and rooting for optimum results. From stock plant management and nutrition to insect management, equipment and postharvest, CUTTING PROPAGATION's chapters hold all the technical specs the full-time serious grower needs.

Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch

This is an informative and well-photographed look at U.S. railroads during the war decade of the 1940's. Authors Don Ball and Rogers Whitaker provide an excellent view of this once-mighty industry. Readers see what it was like to be a railroad engineer ("hogger") at the controls of a powerful steam engine on a mile-long freight train. We see the coal-shoveling fireman and ever-watchful brakeman that joined him up front, plus the rear brakeman and the conductor ("old man") in the copula. The book also teaches about passenger train crews, plus ancillary personnel such as switchmen, station masters, porters, roundhouse workers, rail crews, and telegraph operators. This superbly photographed book shows how vital railroads once were to the nation's economy and how much work it took to run one. We also sense the pride that rail workers feel about their craft, although their number has dwindled from nearly 1.5 million in 1945 to perhaps 250,000 at this writing.

This book should be of interest to both rail buffs and casual observers. You can read it straight through or merely peruse the photographs for reference. Either way you'll sense what transport was like in the years before jet travel and interstate highways, and you'll know why so many youngsters (and others) dreamed of being railroaders.

This book has excellent colour photographs of historic and modern glassware painting from teapots to champagne glasses to windows ; a comprehensive guide to materials and techniques - all accompanied by photographs. The step by step instructions for projects are easy to follow - again, photos all the way plus templates. The projects involve readily available items - bottles, jars, mirrors, glasses, small windows, photo frames, baubles, boxes, candlesticks. Simple to do and impressive when finished. I am always going back to this book.