Living Things Books

I love throwing parties and was looking for some clever and easy ways to dress up my table. I did get some ideas. It's not the best entertaining book out there but I do think it was worth the money.

This book is so much better than Martha's very first entertaining book (called MARTHA STEWART ENTERTAINING). The ideas are up to date and follow the same format as most of Martha's "GOOD THINGS" series.

The reason I give this book four stars instead of five is because of the price.This book is a soft-cover book and in my opinion should have been priced lower by the publishers. I paid full price for this book and probably should have waited until it went on sale. However, if a reader is interested in a book as soon as it first comes out, then thy will have to pay full-price. But, possibly, now that the book has been out for a while, you may be able to find this book at discount, and if so, then it's worth a SALE price.

The photos are inspiring and amazing. The photos themselves will inspire the reader to organize a party. The ideas are seasonal, from Winter to Summer. The recipes are easy to duplicate(in my opinion), although some are not for the average novice.

The art projects are very clever. There are enough craft ideas shown in this book that a reader could find at the very least a few useful and doable projects.

Gift - recipient was excited and pleased.

Martha Steward is a classic. She is a strong woman that I admire. This book however is lacking substance. I flip through it and so just couple of nice advices.

"Try The $50 Dinner Party" by Sally Sampson. Sally's book is super and we used for a very elegant party at our large beautiful home.

This book was okay, but not great. Stoddard's books on interior design are her true forte, and I will stick to reading those in the future.

Stoddard's work is a mess of contradictions. In advocating "paring down" to get to what is really important to us, she encourages more buying! Her suggestions and examples are drawn from her life and the lives of her friends - extremely wealthy and very similar to her. If you're looking to find yourself in a way that's inexpensive, non-elitest, and grounded in reality, this isn't the way.

Of the thirteen books I've read by Ms. Stoddard, this is my favorite (although I've loved them all). When you read this book get a notebook and answer the questions she asks and when you are finished you will understand YOUR personal style. This book encourages readers to find out what they love as opposed to what is popular or trendy at the time. Have you ever gone into a friends home that perfectly expresses the lifestyle, hobbies, interests and loves of that person? This book is about having what you want with the help of the best decorator ever and the fee is very reasonable! I used to think that the title was kind of cheesy until I talked with several friends who decorate in beige because it's safe-even though they really love purple, lime or raspberry. If you are a purple loving, beige sofa-ed chicken, you really need this book!

I think Alexandra Stoddard is one of the best writers! She discovers little things and small details that we don't even take the time to perceive!!!!!! Her books make us feel connected with us and the world and give us a sense of belonging.

Alexandra Stoddard is one of my favorite authors and over the last four years since I dicovered her I have been able to collect and enjoy 20 of her books. This one continues to be a favorite. It talks about having the courage to be yourself in aspects from decorating to travel to gift giving. Every chapter is beautifully written and includes Alexandra's tradmark -favorite quotes by some of her favorite authors. (this one made me smile, "Beware of all enterprises that require new clothes." -Henry David Thoreau) This is a book that is so helpful and wonderful to have that I can't believe it is out of print and difficult to get. Luckily, Amazon offers Zshops and auctions. If you love, flowers, travel, decorating, gift giving, hosting parties, or clothes and would like to hear valuable insight on all of these topics - this is a book your library shouldn't be without.

Great, fun book for young children. Wonderful way to introduce young ones to the ideas of eating right and staying fit so they can be healthy and strong. I will be using it in a preschool age classroom but my own children would have really enjoyed this one.

Some really important messages in this Seuss style beginner book including
the importance of hygiene, exercise, good nutrition, body safety, recognising and talking about own feelings, everyone is special and unique.
Sometimes the rhymes lose a bit of their rhythm, but overall I think it is a fair adaption of Seuss style, but most importantly it is a fun way to begin concepts of taking care and valuing yourself with young children.

The book is great and has wonderful healthy positive messages. My kids love it and ask to read it over and over. The only dissapointment is that it still has one page with the old food guide pyramid.

I like this book because it taught me all different things when i was littler. Like how to brush my teeth, floss, wash my hands, wash my hair, get exercise,how to deal with a cold, the right food to eat, and how its important at the end of the day to get your rest. This book taught me so much and im thankful for that.
Alyssa Seifferly

My kids (boys 8 and 5) still ask to hear this book at bedtime at least once every couple of weeks, so obviously the intended audience enjoys this. My own objections -- having read the thing aloud to said kids at least 100 times -- are largely aesthetic. The rhymes in this book are either strained

It can travel five feet
and blasts out with great power
at speeds over one hundred
miles an hour!

or facile (the Garoo in Fadoo tell me true, they do - just like you!) to a degree that bugs me as a Seuss fan.

To be fair, this problem turns up throughout the Learning Library series, not just in the volumes written by Tish Rabe. When you have to cover every health issue under the sun short of cancer and addiction (or every dinosaur or aspect of plant reproduction), it's probably pretty rough to hold a rhyme scheme and use words that kids can understand. Rabe does a respectable enough job at it that -- well, guess what the little Dinos want to hear again tonight?

This book covers a great many zoological issues connected with scale as succinctly as possible offering a fairly comprehensive treatment. It includes scalar descriptions in terms of physiology, intelligence, lifespan, flight and swimming (among others) and whearas the style may be staid, palaeontologists will find much to refer to in this book which is based on solid foundations rather than guesswork and opinions. A must for students, researchers and communicators on the subject.

The book is about muscles and skeletons, hearts, fluids and brains. Quite a large chunk of the book is about flight. I found the most captivating chapter was "Tiffany wings and kite strings". It is all about tiny fliers: microfilm model airplanes and microscopic flying insects. It reveals that the mechanism that insects use to fly is different to birds. After reading this, you may think twice about squishing the next harmless little insect that flies right by you. The section on drag was surprisingly very interesting.

Although it introduces familiar animals, it goes into enough detail to provide substantially new and rewarding information about these creatures, which you almost certainly won't be aware of. There are loads of great diagrams, which really make this book very enjoyable to read. The book is straightforward and I relished reading it.

A very very similar book is called "Cats' Paws and Catapults". It also contains many examples of design, although it is from an engineering perspective, and the focus is on comparing the design of evolution with that of technological invention. I think Diatoms to Dinosaurs is a much more interesting read - it is predominantly concerned with nature, not with technology. This book is simply more profound, but both books are very good.

An excellent exploration of the mysteries of living things.

We are surrounded by wonders. From the tiny phytoplankton with 7.5 micrometers in size, to the giant brachiosaurus weighing 78 tons, life manages to find its way, showing us facts that are just almost impossible to believe.

This is one of those books you can trust because is written for somebody who knows what he is writing about. Explores quite interesting subjects ranging from the movement of the wings doves and bats, to the heart rate of mice, and the naps of elephants. There are also very good illustrations in it.

Definitely, a very nice and productive reading for everybody, especially for those Lovers of Nature.

We need a wide mind to understand the wide wonders of Life.

McGowan has put together a nice book about basic limitations that physics sets on animal size, e.g. how insect respiratory system limits insect size, or how big a bird can fly, or how body shape, swimming speed and Reynolds numbers compare with plankton and whales. Even though the subtitle claims that the book is about "living things", there is nothing about plants, which is a pity because e.g. trees are extreme in size. McGowan's writing is lucid and the level is good for reading: there are a couple of equations and about hundred simple charts and figures (B&W, nothing fancy) which give good extra information to the text. You might also want to check Knut Schmidt-Nielsen's book "Scaling: Why Is Anaimal Size So Important".

This book almost repays the drudgery of reading it. It should be a case-study in poor editing. Apparently, no one ever quite decided who the audience was, and so it falls between any: though aimed at the general reader it is in essence a summary of technical literature - complete with maths, graphs, equations (more than a couple), and citations of authority in quasi-academic style. The text is at least one or two drafts from being finished; there are inadvertent repetitions, important points blurred or glossed over, paragraphs broken badly, and several discussions (including an entire chapter) that are off-topic and mostly pointless. McGowan's personal stories and asides are not well-integrated, as if an afterthought tacked on simply to soften his rather dry style. The illustrations are small, the photographs few and not directly relevant to the text.

McGowan seems to know what he is writing about; he needs an editor firmer and more adept and a publisher willing to put more money into the production.

I bought this book with a lot of eagerness to learn new and exciting secrets to boost the immune system, however, all I found was the same basic information that has been touted by millions and millions of doctors (and quasi-doctors) for many years; namely: eat right (fruits, veggies, whole wheat, more fish, less bad fats, more good fats, etc.,)exercise, and live a happy, stress-free life. I guess I shouldn't be surprised, I mean, if there had been any new, fascinating advances in this area, I'm sure it would have been all over the news, so why I expected to find anything but recycled advice is beyond me. Quite frankly, I catolog these among my light and fluffly collection. Not much depth to it at all!

"The Immune Advantage" should be required reading for anyone embarking on a diet or lifestyle change. The information is presented in an easily readable, conversational format and stresses commonsense knowledge we often ignore in our fast-paced world: good foods are often the simplest foods; sleep heals; exercise sharpens not only our bodies but our brains.
Ellen Mazo's information is solidly researched and well organized. And the recipes are a major plus!

Great format, great info, very readable. I've been doing my own personal health research for a year or two now, and this book seems to incorporate the best of everything I've come across. It gives equal weight to diet, exercise, complementary/alternative medicine, stress reduction, etc. It even has a section of recipes. This will be a book I refer back to for many years to come.

Part One of this detailed study deals with the structure of the immune system, the immunity-aging connection and the balance of the system.

Part Two provides the keys to a strong immune system. These include techniques for enhancing immunity with mind power. The top 5 of the authors' Top 20 Immune Boosters consist of: 1.Eating 9 to 10 fruit and vegetable servings per day; 2.Taking supplements regularly; 3. Working out; 4. Getting 8 hours' sleep every day; 5. Ensuring psychological health via balanced emotions.

Part Three deals with the prevention and treatment of immune-related diseases like colds and flu, allergies, cancer, HIV & AIDS, infectious diseases and auto-immune diseases.

The MaxImmune Plan is given in Part Four; it consists of diet, supplementation, exercise and stress relief techniques.

Part Five, Immune Resources, includes 50 delicious recipes, discusses super-immunity ingredients and foods to avoid and provides safe use guidelines or supplements, essential oils and herbs.

There are black and white illustrations in the exercise section and the book includes an index and a list of resources with the details of relevant organisations and their websites.

This is an important topic, handled in a very readable easy to follow style. The book provides a blueprint for achieving optimal health. I know the author, and I know that a lot of excellent research has gone into this book.

This sprawling and fascinating book explores biology, technology, agriculture, neurology and economics, among other disciplines. It contends that systems and ways of thinking based on the machine age must and will change in light of new discoveries in biology. Robert Frenay provides prodigious research and some impressive reporting. One caveat: His discussion of economics and the monetary system seems to be based on somewhat arguable information about the workings of the Federal Reserve and the Eurodollar market. The author's passion for the subject of biology is clear, and we find that much of what he says is interesting. The book is not so much a narrative as a catalogue of facts, experiments and initiatives in various fields, with an accompanying argument against today's corporations and monetary systems that will challenge executives and economists.

Although this book does explain some things well in basic terms there is a serious problem in that the author doesn't know what he's talking about. I found his basic wrap-up of AI worthwhile because it's a subject that no one seems to be able to explain, but when he tries to do details he's plain wrong. He spends a lot of time on parallel computers which he calls pdp and he bunches in with AI and neural nets. Most parallel computing is simply dividing up large problems into identical smaller problems which is not AI. He gives all sorts of examples of systems that use parallel computers but most of them are not AI either. Neural nets in terms of computing are math rather than biology.

more exhaustive and more exciting read than any book on the subject of biology and complexity. esp, it can play a role of a guide for those who are seriously interested in those subjects. also, it shed an insight on what'll be the next new tool for advancing the knowledge in a variety of academic disciplines.

Can genes challenge machines? Author Robert Frenay is a former contributing editor of Audubon magazine and in PULSE: THE COMING OF AGE OF SYSTEMS AND MACHINES INSPIRED BY LIVING THINGS, he charts the shift from machines to biology bolstered by computers: a type of 'new biology' in which human systems and machines meld to form new possibilities. From robotics to materials science he considers industrial ecosystems in which waste products from manufacturing become the new materials for another endeavor, considering the changing relationships between mechanism and biology in the process. Supporting these observations and contentions is a history of such relationships and their changes, areas in which biology can be seen at work, interviews with scientists and researchers, and observations of mechanisms actually produced which support his positive visions of future industrial endeavors. His single idea comes from a researcher's perspective and reflects on the cultural philosophy and pressures shaping technological change.

Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch

Frenay is an excellent writer when it comes to his coverage of technology and his linking of the philosophy behind complexity to other fields, but he takes a polemic view of politics devoting nearly 300 pages to far leftist rhetoric that isn't popular even in Europe. This book would have been better marketed as a treatise on politics and also Frenay would have been better recommending the anti-wto, anti-corporate, media which he heavily qoutes from than trying to summarize and paraphrase it. The first 150 pages are nice and some of the better tech reporting I can think of, the rest is interspersed with good ideas, but depicted in skewed arguements with few accurate summaries of the opposition and often a looping repetitive prose that seems more like an attempt of the author to convince himself of the validity of his views than a proper arguement. Frenay quite rightly notes the WTO's rules are universal and including human and environmental rights would mean everyone would be on the same playing field and the world shouldering environmental and moral costs they'd probably be more than happy to pay also seems like a good idea along with many of Frenay's numerous political points, however he then goes on to espouse Europe as a norm to emulate and while Europe has high GDPs and Denmark is very environmental, it's important to remember many of the problems Frenay is rallying against affect European business and society too, while most American businesses obey UN human rights charters for instance, Ikea has refuysed all human rights inspections, etc. It's not a balanced arguement, but it catches many of the world's major problems quite easily.

I have been on the Four Corners diet since August 2002. During that time I have lost 45 lbs. and have experienced no side effects of any sort. I have always battled with my weight and I have personally tried every diet on the market with no success. This book made me realize that I needed to completely change what I eat as well as my eating habits. This diet has changed my life and I have passed it on to friends, family, co-workers, basically anyone who asked me about my significant weight loss. After reading one of the customer reviews posted on Amazon, I was deeply troubled when someone questioned Drs. Goldberg and O'Mara's research and then shamelessly promoted a competing diet. I have known the O'Mara family personally for several years and I know first hand the extensive research and hard work Dr. O'Mara has put into this book. Her entire family follows this diet and her son, who started the diet the same time I did, has lost 85 lbs. and has kept it off to this day and also experienced a significant drop to his high blood pressure. I will continue to recommend this book to anyone who wants to lose weight in a healthy way.

Not only have I lost weight on this diet, I also lowered my cholesteral. I originally took on this low carb lifestyle after my doctor hit me with the high cholesteral news about 5 years ago (which was long before the low carb craze of today). The original "go diet" was recommended at that time and I'm staying with the program with this book. Bottom line, simple reading, simple to implement into your life, simple to maintain. This diet works!

I have been on this diet since it was called the GO diet. Not only did I lose all the weight I desired without starving myself to death, I have also managed to keep it all off!! This diet is so simple it's a wonder everyone isn't on it. Easy changes to my eating habits has resulted in a permanent change in not only my weight but also my overall health. The sleepy feeling halfway through the day is no longer there. I do not need to sleep as many hours at night as I used to either. I love this diet!! It's given me more energy and at least a couple more hours a day of "awake" time. To me that is priceless. My 29 year old son went on it and his triglycerides were improved by it. He remains on it to this day as he too believes it is a life style change and not just a weightloss diet. I am wondering if the "reader from Alabama" even read this book or is perhaps confusing the Four Corners diet with another diet, because coffee is a "pharmafood" and is NOT discouraged on this diet. It is, in fact, specifically included in the diet. I should know because I drink at least 3 or 4 cups of coffee a day - a habit I've had for 20 plus years now. I love this diet and I love this book. I will remain on this diet for the rest of my life.

[...] I purchased this. What a disappointment.
There's a chapter that tells you what to do if the diet doesn't work. One suggestion is to count the carbs in black coffee! Because you're probably eating too many carbs. I don't think so! I'm not kidding, it actually says that...I mean are we morons?
I'm going back to Atkins.

I love Makeup; Things to Make and Do, because it's very helpful and tells me how to keep my face looking fab without me having to spend a lot of money on makeup I don't even know about. You can even make stuff at your own house, so you don't even have to spend any money at all! I would definitely recommend this book if you're a beginner or need to get back on track with your "skills." Just check it out!

This book was a good learning tool for tool for me. If you are learning to do makeup or you are a pro it is a good investment. I really like different styles that it shows you and the recapies for the lip gloss so it gets a 5 from me!

This book is very helfpul for beginners. It tells you what colors are good for your complexion,which is NOT always obvious when you're just beginning. With basic pointers on achieving a Healthy Glow to Screen Queen look. It's a very fun book, and although it's obviously old news to an old pro, It's called Crafty GIRL for a reason. It's for beginners who don't know how to put on make-up in a way that looks nice.So if your wondering how to look as natural as possible, or be Cleopatra's double,(see Cleopatra look, page 97) This book is for you!

This book might be OK for beginers, but for everone else it is not worth buying. it repeats things a lot of stuff and states the obvious (like if you are using a powder blush you don't need to dust loose powder all over your face. duh). Also some of the things it suggests you make are little more than common sense and for the lip gloss recipies they sugest that you can use an empty film canister for a constaner. DO NOT DO THAT!!! There are chemicals in film canisters that can hurt you, even if you wash it out first. Some of the looks ideas it gives you are obivous and similar. With the natural looks, they only change 1-2 things, like eye liner or no eye liner.

I thought this was a terrible book. There are some interesting parts where he actually mentions his father and his father's passing, but they are few and far between. I thought the book was going to be more about his dying father and their relationship, but Jim Huber throws in random things about his career and he once wanted to be a minister, etc... I kept thinking, "Okay...what's your point?" I have to admit, I only read about halfway through the book, so maybe he really pulls it together at the end...I don't know because I decided that finishing it would be a waste of my time. The breaking point for me was when I read, "The words likely fell on deaf eyes" (p. 85). DEAF eyes? For an award-winning essayists Jim Huber really disappointed readers with this one.

Jim Huber is our foremost essayist on sports and its contribution to society. His book, "A Thousand Goodbyes," is a compelling, moving, beautifully written account of the passing of his father and how that affects their relationship, which, of course, continues. It also gives us a fascinating look into the making of "This Spoting Life," Jim's Cable Ace and Emmy award winning TV show. This book makes you think about the people you love and how deeply they are a part of you. A courageous book.

This book is powerfully written, stirring up deep feelings and emotions in my role as both parent and child. In fact it has already started me on a path to a better relationship with both of my parents.

Jim Huber is a gifted storyteller. I've caught him on CNN and now TNT spinning his tales and offering his commentary. Here he shows the same depth of character he always finds in the subjects of his stories, only this time the depth of character comes from Jim and his family.

While many may compare this book to Tuesdays with Morrie, I liked this book better. While Morrie Schwartz set out to teach the world about death in that book, Jim Huber's father never intended to teach anything, yet that's exactly what he did. He taught his son (and then us) the value of being a good person with strong character...and that when death comes knocking, watch out for the pick-up truck.

Thanks for allowing us into your private world.

This is a book that is easy to read, and its easy to understand. The book is broken down in 5 sections; Questions that Should Come First, Questions about Food and Good Health, Quesitons about When Things Go Wrong, Questions About Food Safety, and Questions about Food as Medicine. This book is not written from a perspective such as a health food book might have, but its more middle of the road.
The book uses pictures as well as illustrations when certain topics are discussed. The book answers questions about lactose intolerance, caffine in sodas, food poisoning, and much more. Its actually very informative on many different subjects. If you are looking for this book for one particular area, this isn't the book for you. While it has an appendex that is large and full of other sources this book is best at giving small analysis on many different areas.