Town Books

I had not seen this movie, but I was so glad that I bought it. It was wonderful!!!!!

I found this movie utterly predictable and Dennis Hopper's performance as the town drunk only tolerable. Gene Hackman is the new high school basketball coach in basketball crazy Hickory, Indiana in 1951. He is a man with a past, although it is not as dark as it initially appears. Hopper plays Shooter, the town drunk whose son is on the seven man team. Despite his sodden brain, Shooter has a superb understanding of the game and Hackman selects him to be his assistant coach. You know immediately that Shooter is going to sober up and become a real coach. The scenes where Hackman is thrown out of the game and Shooter must take over are forced and unrealistic; Hopper is unconvincing as a person stressed out over the combination of alcohol withdrawal and having to take charge.
Even the scene when Hackman is attending a town meeting where the purpose is to decide whether he should be fired lacks a great deal of tension. It is not out of the apparent politeness of the townspeople, there is a lack of passion among all participants. This is supposed to be a town passionate about basketball and a coach passionate about the game.
I was bored throughout the entire movie and struggled to watch it through to the end.

Love this movie! I love the flavor of Indiana more than anything. Visited that state and the area they speak of many times in my youth. Great inspirational story. Just a quick note...a joke is lost in the subtitles mid-way through the semi-national game. After being fouled out of the game, Coach glares at his player, for which the subtitles read "It was for the team". The line is actually "it was Dentyne", throwing back a joke Coach said in an earlier huddle. Being deaf helps with these things! Amazing movie still.

GREAT SPORTS MOVIE! INSTEAD OF REVIEWING MOVIE, WHICH WE ALL KNOW IS A GREAT SPORTS MOVIE, JUST WANTED TO SAY THE BLU-RAY PICTURE IS A HUGE IMPROVEMENT OVER MY OLD DVD. I'M ONLY REPLACING MY OLD MOVIES THAT I LOVE BUT LOOK BAD ON MY NEW HDTV. WAS VERY PLEASED WITH THE PICTURE QUALITY ON THIS. THE ONLY DRAWBACK TO THIS BLU-RAY IS THERE AREN'T ANY EXTRAS EXCEPT FOR A TRAILER. BUT IF YOUR LOOKING FOR BETTER PICTURE QUALITY, YOU WON'T BE DISSAPOINTED.

Hoosiers DVD

I don't know how I missed this film when it came out in 1986. It is a story of a middle-aged basketball coach and his last chance for redemption. It is suppose to be loosely based on a true story (whatever that means). Gene Hackman does a great job as the coach with Dennis Hopper as a supporting actor.

Of course every body knows that all Indiana boys play basketball, just nail a basket to the side of a barn and start shooting, right? Unfortunately basketball is more than simply shooting the ball through a goal.

The movie is set in Indiana in 1951, a little before my time as a high school basketball player. It does raise some questions with me such as how much difference can a coach make at the high school level? Mine made all the difference in the world, but I was fortunate to have Coach Jerry Wayne Shelton. I suspect they can make less of a difference at the colligate level.

Highly recommended for any one who played high school basketball.

Gunner March 2008

I had not seen this movie, but I was so glad that I bought it. It was wonderful!!!!!

I found this movie utterly predictable and Dennis Hopper's performance as the town drunk only tolerable. Gene Hackman is the new high school basketball coach in basketball crazy Hickory, Indiana in 1951. He is a man with a past, although it is not as dark as it initially appears. Hopper plays Shooter, the town drunk whose son is on the seven man team. Despite his sodden brain, Shooter has a superb understanding of the game and Hackman selects him to be his assistant coach. You know immediately that Shooter is going to sober up and become a real coach. The scenes where Hackman is thrown out of the game and Shooter must take over are forced and unrealistic; Hopper is unconvincing as a person stressed out over the combination of alcohol withdrawal and having to take charge.
Even the scene when Hackman is attending a town meeting where the purpose is to decide whether he should be fired lacks a great deal of tension. It is not out of the apparent politeness of the townspeople, there is a lack of passion among all participants. This is supposed to be a town passionate about basketball and a coach passionate about the game.
I was bored throughout the entire movie and struggled to watch it through to the end.

Love this movie! I love the flavor of Indiana more than anything. Visited that state and the area they speak of many times in my youth. Great inspirational story. Just a quick note...a joke is lost in the subtitles mid-way through the semi-national game. After being fouled out of the game, Coach glares at his player, for which the subtitles read "It was for the team". The line is actually "it was Dentyne", throwing back a joke Coach said in an earlier huddle. Being deaf helps with these things! Amazing movie still.

GREAT SPORTS MOVIE! INSTEAD OF REVIEWING MOVIE, WHICH WE ALL KNOW IS A GREAT SPORTS MOVIE, JUST WANTED TO SAY THE BLU-RAY PICTURE IS A HUGE IMPROVEMENT OVER MY OLD DVD. I'M ONLY REPLACING MY OLD MOVIES THAT I LOVE BUT LOOK BAD ON MY NEW HDTV. WAS VERY PLEASED WITH THE PICTURE QUALITY ON THIS. THE ONLY DRAWBACK TO THIS BLU-RAY IS THERE AREN'T ANY EXTRAS EXCEPT FOR A TRAILER. BUT IF YOUR LOOKING FOR BETTER PICTURE QUALITY, YOU WON'T BE DISSAPOINTED.

Hoosiers DVD

I don't know how I missed this film when it came out in 1986. It is a story of a middle-aged basketball coach and his last chance for redemption. It is suppose to be loosely based on a true story (whatever that means). Gene Hackman does a great job as the coach with Dennis Hopper as a supporting actor.

Of course every body knows that all Indiana boys play basketball, just nail a basket to the side of a barn and start shooting, right? Unfortunately basketball is more than simply shooting the ball through a goal.

The movie is set in Indiana in 1951, a little before my time as a high school basketball player. It does raise some questions with me such as how much difference can a coach make at the high school level? Mine made all the difference in the world, but I was fortunate to have Coach Jerry Wayne Shelton. I suspect they can make less of a difference at the colligate level.

Highly recommended for any one who played high school basketball.

Gunner March 2008

I only received this book a couple weeks ago.
The 3 recipes I cooked were okay.
I had reservations about the two chicken breast filet recipes:
cooking times requested are very short and your filets can come out raw.
-She should've been more specific on to tell when its done by detailing the weight of the breast filets to use.

However, other recipes, especially the pasta ones, look really good!
Looking foward to using this book more.

This is a good book for technique and ingredients; belongs on every Italian cook's shelf. I agree it's a little limited re recipes. But, her recipe for Minestrone is the BEST I've ever tried! Excellent technique for prepping and cooking all the veggies. I've been making this soup for years and it's a true winner!

This is one of the best cookbooks I own, and certainly the best Italian cookbook I own.

Like many people, I get many of my recipes online at sources like allrecipes, Food Network, Food & Wine, etc. It makes me wonder why I keep so many cookbooks cluttering up the kitchen. Then I open a book like Marcella Hazan's Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking, and it's crystal clear why it's allowed valuable shelf space in my cluttered kitchen.

Recipes as simple as tomato sauce made with only tomatoes, butter, onion and salt come alive with descriptions such as:

"There is nothing inherently crude about tomato sauce. Quite the contrary: No other preparation is more successful in delivering the prodigious satifactions of Italian cooking than a compentently execute sauce with tomatoes; no flavor espresses more clearly the genius of Italian cooks than the freshness, the immediacy, the richness of good tomatoes adroiitly matched to the most suitable choice of pasta."

Essentials is quite literally essential for anyone who wants to create authentic Italian dishes. The recipes focus on the quality of ingredients and the methods for preparing those ingredients to maximize the flavor and experience. Few recipes require more than 5 ingredients.

The instructions are comforting, as Marcella makes you feel as though she is in the kitchen with you. From her Bolognese Meat Sauce recipe, she instructs: "When the tomatoes begin to bubble, turn the heat down so that the sauce cooks at the laziest of simmers, with just an intermittent bubble breaking through to the surface."

Essentials is the perfect volume, for both seasoned foodies and beginner cooks alike. The introductions and recipes read as though you are cooking beside your Italian grandmother. Remarkable, given that I am only Italian in spirit!

I do love a lot of these recipes, but not all of them. I don't think I would've tried to make sauce with San Marzano tomatoes if it hadn't been for this cookbook. I am so glad I did. The recipe for the tomato sauce with butter is to die for. I put some in a small container to let my sister try, gave it to my niece to bring to her, and as soon as she tasted it, she called me on the phone to ask for the recipe. I also tried the Minestrone alla Romagnola soup recipe and was pleasantly surprised again. My brother happened to have a chest cold at the time that I made it, and I sent some home to him when his wife stopped by. Again, he called as soon as he ate it and asked how I made it. Needless to say I have bought several of this cookbook and sent one to my brother and one to my sister. Now we all cook some of the recipes that we each like.
Now my father was from Italy, and he came to the United States when he was a child. He opened several restaurants and was very successful. He passed away when I was very young, so I never had the chance to talk to him much about cooking. However, I do remember how good many of his recipes were, and he always insisted on making everything from scratch, even his chicken and meat stock. After trying the recipes in this cookbook for meat stock, I have to say that it is VERY similar to my dads.

The lemon Chicken recipe in this book is not only tasty, but it's easy as well. Everyone that has tried it agrees. The recipe for the pork braised in milk was just okay for me. I actually prefer making pork roast my way with garlic, rosemary, thyme and extra virgin olive oil processed in a mini chopper and smeared all over the pork roast and slow roasted in a 325 degree oven to an internal temperature of 170.
Eggplant parmesan seems like a good recipe, but again, I prefer my way of salting and draining it and dipping it in egg and milk mixture then flouring it and frying it. After letting it drain on paper bags, then layering it with sauce fried eggplant, parmesan cheese, sauce, eggplant, sauce, mozzarella cheese, eggplant sauce and then more parmesan, and baking it at a 375 degree oven for an hour. It comes out great every time. Now I haven't tried all the deserts, but I have to say that some of them don't look or sound very good, so I tend to look else where for those recipes.
As for the way the book is written and illustrated, I find it very good. I never had a problem reading or figuring out anything that was written, there are plenty of notes and illustration pictures for you to see so nothing is very hard. All in all I do like this book, just not all the recipes, and I do use it often.

If you found this review helpful, please click yes. Thanks!

Out to Canaan (The Mitford Years, Book 4)

Most wonderful fiction series I've read in many years! I love Jan Karon's Mitford Season, and can't wait until the next ones come out. The characters have become so real to me, I feel like I've known them all my life. It's hard to find good Christian fiction, which are loved even by those who do not usually read Christian literature, but these fit the bill! I give them for gifts to many.

I just loved this book. I am reading the Mitford series and getting to know the characters. It's great to have a respite from our busy world. This book had me laughing out loud in a few places.

My 97 year old grandmother is in love with Mitford. She has macular degeneration and can no longer read with her eyes so she "reads" with her ears. Whenever she is feeling blue or is sick in bed, she just puts Mitford in and says she feels comforted. This was the missing book of her series on CD and we sent it for her 97th birthday. A highly recommended series - the first book may seem a bit slow, but once you finish, you'll want to read the rest of the series.

This is a great book. It contains no violence or sex and still manages to entertain on every page.

I bought for a gift for my mother. She is thoroughly enjoying. I will read next as we both share the Jan Karon Mitford Series with equal compassion for this small town.

Time has not eroded the significance of this book's contribution to the world of architecture. Though it reaches back to timeless solutions to architectural problems, it is also a way forward. As we devour our social capital in a half century of indiscriminate urban sprawl, this book offers alternatives that will help us revitalize our urban centers.

This book is the quintessential book on the subject of creating authentic living spaces.
This book provides a near mystical approach to architecture in a very simplistic form that anyone can understand.

This book talks specifically about what works and doesn't work when building cities and towns and how to take the human element into consideration when doing so. However, I found its conclusions and most of its patterns applicable to software engineering. There are good books on software design patterns such as "Head First Design Patterns", and there are some good books on user interface design such as "Designing Interfaces: Patterns for Effective Interaction Design", but this book really helped me merge the idea of software design patterns with the user perspective in a way that other books I have read have not.

If you are a software designer, read the book all the way through, make notes as you go, and see if it doesn't help you write better organized code that is more responsive and coherent to a user who walks up to your user interface completely uninitiated in your method of design. I know it helped me.

This was an extremely helpful book in using to decide what house or town home to buy, why spaces might work, what needs to be added to them, etc. I am very glad I bought this book.

I bought this book after reading the glowing reviews on amazon. It was also an inspiration for Will Wright to make SimCity and the SIMS..... so I had high expectations.

I was shocked to find how opinionated and philosophical the book is. I expected the book to look at the history of cities, towns, etc. and describe patterns that already exist (much like the GoF's software design patterns book talks about patterns that people actually use). Instead the book presents a series of ideals about how the world should be structured.

If these ideals came from concerns I could identify with, I would take it more seriously. But instead they attack "problems" which I do not perceive to exist. For example, on p. 43 "The homogeneous and undifferentiated character of modern cities kills all variety of life styles and arrest the growth of individual character." This statement is contrary to my experience. I have met many great characters from cities, and seen profound cultural differentiation emerge from cities (e.g. jazz, abstract painting, hippie culture, punk, you name it). But the authors proceed as if cities killing character is axiomatic. I agree that there is a rural character that is not present in cities. But citydwellers have another type of character which is equally valid.

I have only made it through the first 100 pages. In these pages are so many naive ideas about mixing cityspace and vacant space. I live in Los Angeles so I know about sprawl & I also know a lot about cars -- while they are aiming for less sprawl then LA, they also neglect traffic congestion. They claim that making small roads in places make people reluctant to drive there.... the experience worldwide (worst in Malaysia, I hear) is that people use whatever roads are present, and if the roads are small, they then just end up sitting in traffic. The author's are naive in their structuring of space, nowhere do they cite any hard evidence of how these structures function.

I might make it the rest of the way through.... at least it's an easy read, with so many repetitions in how the models work you can kinda skim through it. I like the spirit of the book, it is reminiscent of P.M.'s bolo'bolo.... but where bolo'bolo comes from a purely emotional position, these authors take themselves seriously and believe what they are saying is objectively true. I give the book 3 stars because it is nice to see someone work through the ideas of bolo'bolo (which was actually written ~6yrs after alexander's book). I would give 5 stars to a book that did so by looking more at actual data of how spaces are utilized, and presented designs that didn't have obvious flaws in them.

My grandchild has known the "wheels on the bus" song since she was a baby. Now 2 1/2 I bought her this book because of that and because I know Paul Zelinsky's work. She absolutely loves it. It is clever and interactive, colorful and wonderful and fun.

This is a most beautifully illustrated book. It turns a song that can become boring for adults after singing it 100 times into a beuatiful story about a dog chasing a bus, a lost kitten, crying babies, soothing mothers, and wheels that literally turn round and round. There are hidden stories within the story. A wonderful investment for a child's library.

OUr 2.5 son received this for Christmas, we have read it several times each day since. He loves the moving parts!!

My 22 month old, loves this book. He actually is obsessed with it, demanding "BUS" several times a day. He laughs hysterically at the interactive driver saying 'move on back, move on back" and finds it exciting to spin the wheels on the bus.

I got this book originally as a baby shower book for my first son. He has loved this book since he was old enough to focus. He still loves it. And even better is that there is a story within a story through the pictures. Every child should have this book!

Have you ever encountered a book for young readers so good that it gave you goose bumps? This is such a book.

Told through the viewpoint of a twelve-year-old Jewish immigrant from Russia living on the Lower East Side of New York City, we see the very real struggle of people who came to America to find a new life, but struggle over giving up the old. Despite the fact that this is a fictionalized diary, the author provides us with an intimate look into the sometimes painful personal experiences that make up our history as a whole.

No matter what your own family's history might be, we can learn from the experience of Lasky's incredible characters.

Dreams in the Golden Country: The Diary of Zipporah Feldman, a Jewish Immigrant Girl, New York City, 1903 (Dear America) is a book to be savored and cherished.

I thought the book was awsome. I couldn't put it down there was no part that was boring. I recccomend this book to every one. i read it so fast and i want to read it again

Life's Roads as a Jewish Girl

Zipporah Feldman (Zippy) comes to America with her Jewish family. They came from Zarichka. This book was the diary of Zipporah. After coming to America they all have found some sort of dream in this new country. What was it about America that makes you like this, having big hopes and dreams. Her beloved sister has gone away with the guy she loves, who is not a Jewish boy. Mama gets mad ands pretends top mourn over her daughter like she is dead. The family has fallen apart. Zippy is sad. Something happened to one of her friends. She wants to fly an airplane like the first two brothers did. Or be an actress. She had dreams to look up to.

I really liked this book. Because it was a diary. It was interesting and I liked it a lot. Because she wrote in it almost all the time, it was like a story of her life. Another good diary book that I enjoyed was The Diary of Patrick Seamus Flaherty. I like diary books because they are like a life story and very interesting. These books are different diary's and people. But both are excellent books to read!

Have you ever wondered how long and painful a trip across the Atlantic, would be? Leaving your home, your customs, your whole life, all left in the waves. In the book, Dreams in a Golden Country by Kathryn Lasky, a girl named Zipporah Feldman, mostly known as Zippy struggles to adjust to the American way of life. Zippy would not even have had to come to America, but in her small town in Russia Jews were being persecuted. Zippy has a father who decided to come to America first, who is becoming more American everyday. Zippy has a mother who refuses to leave her old ways, and two sisters, one named Tovah who is obsessed with politics, and the other, Miriam who falls in love with a Catholic firefighter. Zippy has to start in 1st grade, since she had never gone to an American school before, but she eventually gets to the grade she should be in. Zippy is the only family member who was allowed to go to school. I like this book because you get to see the easy and difficult times in an immigrant girl's life during the 1800's. I recommend this book to someone who like stories in diary entry form.

Zippoah is a jewish girl coming to America to meet her Father in New York City. They come to New York City from A small village in Russia. They come for a new life away from all the attacks that are going on in Russia. Zipporah starts a diary of what is going on in the new country she is in. SHe Starts school, Makes firends, and new ideas come to her family that they would have never dreamed of thinking about in Russia. Some thoughts are good & some are bad & some frighten her mother. Her mother is a person who likes to stick to old customs but she starts to add some new ones once she is more comfortable with the New country she is in.
Her father is a very nice man who played the violin very well and was a photographer. Zipporah has two sisters Meriam & Tovah. Tovah is a more seriouse and political person she is also the oldest of the three. Mariam is a very romantic girl, she is the middle child. Mariam ends up falling in love with a cathlic boy and her mother is furious when she finds out that they got secretly married.In Zipporah, or Zippy as her firends call her, has to learn how to read & write in english. At School Zipporah recites poems and learns many new things at school. Zippora's life gets better at some points and bad at some points. But let me ask you how would you feel in her shoes?

This is a book that relates to designers, and city planners as well as the "un-educated". Reading this book will certainly inform one on the purpose and importance of city planning.

This book will give you a reason to want to go visit the city, or to go out and get into the city you already live in. Her reference to the "ballet of the sidewalks" gives a whole new twist to what is going on in a busy downtown. City planners, take note!

If you are interested in community building, urban planning, and city life in general, this is a must-read. Though the book is older, the themes and ideas stand the test of time.

WELL WORTH READING, TIMELESS IN HER LOOK CITY LIFE AND HOW THE PHYSICAL LAYOUT BOTH INFLUENCES HOW WE LIVE, WORK, PLAY. TERRIFFIC BOOK.

This is a classic book for any Planning student. Jane Jacobs has a different and valuable point of view of how cities work. In my opinion this is kind of a slow read but it's not technical. She provides many examples of her own experiences with city life in New York. The book gets you thinking about how your own city works. It's not a knock on Planners, but it comes pretty close. You have to read it with an open mind. It's also a good book for people who know nothing about Planning, she doesn't assume that everyone knows what she's talking about.

This was one of my favorites as kid. Then, sadly, I forgot about it until stumbling across it in the school library. It is once again one of my favorites. Cynics might roll their eyes at this tribute to good ol' days gone by, but I personally appreciate the nostalgia and the house with its subtle face parts is adorable. You feel so bad for the cute little house! It is also an observation at the change of time. I don't know how intense that is as a theme, but I found it touching and Burton tells the tale with such heart and care.

We live in a very old house in the country and this book was such a cute story about just that. We enjoyed it.

Another timeless classic by this author. It's an amazing story about appreciation. Completely entertaining and like the other books in this series, the artwork is phenominal!!!

This was my favorite book as a child and I am so happy to find it again!! Now I will enjoy it as I read it to my grandchildren.

It was my favorite book when I was little, now it's time for my children to get know bout little house story. I got today from Amazon with free shipping. Great story book delivered to the door. Saving time to seaching at book store with carrying 2 little childrens especially summer hot day!
Thank god Amazon... I'm looking forward to reading this book tonight ^0^/

The little boy I purchased this book for loved it. He had read it in the library first and was happy to have his own copy. He reads it over and over again.

I bought these books to give as gifts and the kids that recieved them just loved them. I am glad you had them in stock as it would have been months waiting for the book store to get them in otherwise.

My kids love this book! They love the stinky alphabet with the puppy poo and dirty diaper in the trash truck. They love the sounds that the truck makes and the pictures. I have to read it to them at least twice a week before bed. I highly recommend this book for young children and beginning readers. It is fun and interactive and educational.

My two year old son took this book out of the library. The third time he renewed the book, they would not let him renew it again. I ended up buying it.

My son has loved "trash trucks" since he was a baby,
this book is just plain fun.