Stamps Books

This is a great resource for any serious or novice collector. I've been waiting for this volume to arrive ever since I read Volume 1 and, let me say, this book was worth the wait. Like the first, this one is chock full of specific info and tons of pictures. It continues the narrative where Vol 1 left off and acts both as an easy reference guide that you can hop in and out of as well as a great beginning-to-end read that gives you a more complete picture.

At long last the second volume is on the shelves! Ever since I've read volume one I've been looking forward to the arrival of this book. I found it fascinating and very informative. I'm somewhat new to collecting stamps but this book provides all of the information I need and more. I plan on bringing it to my stamp club meetings as a reference for all of our members. Highly recommended for all!

Fresh off the presses, a great read- even better than Volume One!! Again, nearly a picture on every page, informative, easy to read, entertaining! Highly Recommended!!

Donald Evans was an amazing artist - well beyond just the watercolor and paint. He managed to create histories, cultures and insights into places that seem so real, yet never really existed. His work reminds visually of creativity and expression graphically that Rudyard Kipling gave us with words.

Donald Evans' world was an amazing artistic creation of fictional stamps, painted in watercolour (to scale), in painstaking detail often in the manner of the classic 19th century engraved stamps from the foreign lands he collected as a boy. Evans' tragic death in a fire in Amsterdam, robbed us of a blossoming talent. His legacy is still substantial - over 4,000 stamps, from which this book is compiled.

Evans' incredibly detailed, well-historied issues from his various "cinderella" countries are often so well rendered you'd think they were the real thing. If you were intrigued by the stamps on the letters and postcards in Nick Bantock's "Griffin and Sabine" trilogy, you're ready to enter the world of Donald Evans.

The art world seems to cherish the large; large works, large personalities, large prices. That's why it's good to see the small celebrated, and in the work of Donald Evans, it is celebrated with such elan, that it's impossible to read this book without smiling and even laughing out loud.

Evans was an artist whose work is almost entirely made up of faux postage stamps (postoids, as they're known in mail art circles) celebrating not only fictional countries, but the small things of everyday life: fruit, chickens, garlic, plants and flowers. His postal ephemera is vivid and dryly funny, and conforms to an internal logic and order that is awesome. Leaf through the book and enjoy the stamps from Achterdijk celebrating windmills, or the block of four pesto stamps from Mangiare. During his short life his output was prodigious, his imagination remarkable.

If you like the work of Nick Bantock, Donald Evans will be just your style.

I loved reading these poems over and over. As I read, I think of my own cats, the ones that share their lives with me now and the ones who touched my life over the the years. If you have shared your life with a cat, this book of poems is a must have!
Great book!
Marilyn Glover

I don't think anything I can say will do justice to this book, but...

If you don't read this book (or my favorite poem, "July 14"), you will miss "surrendering to happiness" and wind up "succumbing to sorrow." Stopping to smell the roses and feel the glory of the Divine is magnified a hundred-fold in Laura Stamps' poetry, as she opens your eyes to the beauty in the petal of a flower, the curve of a cloud, the chirrup of a bird, the whoosh of the wind, all provoked by the attitude of her kitties. Inspirational is an understatement.

Enjoy this book and fill your heart. Highly recommended.

Laura Stamps, in The Year of the Cat, manages to do some difficult things. She is spiritual, without being preachy. She is graceful, without being sugary sweet. Her poems, while focusing on our feline friends, go far beyond their subject matter to address life and the world in general. And in addition to these accomplishments, Stamps includes a refreshing dose of gentle humor, too. I thoroughly enjoyed this book.

Laura Stamps is a unique voice in today's literary scene. With the holidays drawing near, The Year of the Cat would make a great gift for the cat lover or poetry lover on your gift list.

I've been stamping for a few years, and I keep going back to this book and Read's other book, Rubber Stampers Bible, for inspiration. My other craft books are not as helpful and informative. It even lists suppliers from UK, USA, and Canada (including address, phone, and website). All pages are in color with numbered & illustrated steps. Includes 7 design templates in the back with corresponding project names and page numbers.

I've been looking around for a good book on how to use rubber stamps for beginners for quite some time.When I first saw this book,I told myself,'This is it!'Not only the designs are pretty,the instructions are simple to follow and they even show how-to by having pictures showing step by step.Not just on papers/cards,the book also mentioned how to stamp on other materials like glass and wood.There's even a section on how to make your own stamp! Get this book.You will not regret it!

I was delighted with this stamp catalogue.The layout is fabulous and stamps are in colour so much easier to catalogue.I would highly recommend this product.Price was terrific and delivery speedy what more could a person want.

It was very informative. I really like the color photographs of the stamps. it is much easier to identify the stamps.

I really like all of the color photographs of the stamps and how the series are grouped together. It makes it easy to find the stamps and country you are looking for.

Any one who has ever thought of collecting stamps in the US, is familiar with the Scott stamp catalogs, the backbone of the collectors world. Yeah, they're a bit pricy, but then look at the work that has gone and continues to go into them! NEW for 2007.....COLOR!!!!! OMG!!!!! Most of the illustrations are now in COLOR!!!!!

I am in the process of inventorying my Grandfather's massive stamp horde to try and sell it off. At ChicagoPex this year, I was drooling over the new catalogs, mumbling something about "color......". My sister wasn't overly impressed with the concept (she's since changed her mind!) and balked at spending that much money for a new set of catalogs. We've been working out of a 1999 set.

Needless to say, I won! Hallelujah! Especially for the "not so informed" or anyone with not so good eyesight, the color makes a HUGE difference! It is SO much easier to find a stamp that you're looking for! I can not thank Scott enough for their huge effort in rescanning every single stamp in existence (that they could get their hands on).

Bottom line......if you're thinking about it, but doing the "well, my catalogs aren't that old yet" or "boy, that's a lot of money to shell out", my advise is BUY THEM!

If that book was used, I would like to see your new ones. Every product I have purchased were excellent.

I am very pleased with eveything I got in this order and the timeliness of it's arrival. The price was good too.

As good as a coloring book can be - I plan to use it to draw pics on the wall of my daughter's room.

I bought this for my daugher who just loves Winnie th Pooh. It had cute pictures to color. My older daughter also liked the pictures

"An American Postal Portrait" is a visually engrossing cultural history of the postal service. My father, a letter carrier in Kansas, was fascinated. It renewed the pride he feels in his job. It was a positive reminder that despite our techno age's slurs against "snail mail," the image of the letter carrier remains a powerful cultural--human--image. The book is a reminder that "technological advances" are poor substitutes for the power of human interaction. This book would be the perfect gift for anyone you know who proudly labors to ensure that our country's mail will be delivered despite rain, or sleet, or snow....

This is a wonderful book that reflects society and postal history on a parallel through time. Check out the section on the dog that was a mascot and traveled all across the world via airplane and earned his own medals! I learned a lot about our postal system and the photos were great. This was purchased for my husband who collects stamps. He really enjoyed reading about the "other" side of stamps.

The Anchor is a compelling story that pulls the reader into the lives of the Moore family, living in Brunswick, North Carolina. The year is 1764, and fifteen-year-old Polly Moore finds herself in charge of the family's tavern---the Anchor---when her father, a gambler and alcoholic, deserts the family.
The tavern is aptly named for it is indeed an "anchor" for the town. As a bustling, central meeting place, it allows Polly the opportunity to observe, listen, and learn as the current political situation in the colonies is hotly debated and much discussed. At one point she finds herself dressed as a boy so she can serve an evening meal to the "Sons of Liberty" as they argue against the much-despised Stamp Act. Another time she sits perched in a tree as she looks down upon an armed rebellion at Governor Tryon's plantation.

Polly herself is an anchor of sorts. A spirited, likable, insatiably curious young woman, she is able to keep her family in tact while at the same time running the tavern, caring for her newborn brother, overseeing a turpentine operation as well as a sawmill.

Unlike many young women of the time, Polly is able to read. One of her favorite authors is John Locke, whose writings encourage her to think critically about the events swirling around her. Polly, with the help of Locke, begins to form her own, independent ideas about politics, slavery, and the role of women in society.

The Anchor is one of those "just right" works of historical fiction. The author includes just enough carefully researched historical detail so that the reader becomes immersed in the sights, smells, and sounds of pre-Revolutionary North Carolina. And so we are able to witness the making of soap and candles, the horrors of human bondage, the ebb and flow of everyday life in a colonial town.

The author does not, thankfully, give the reader a "happily ever after" ending with Polly being "saved" by marrying her beau, Daniel. Instead, we find her making the decision to move the family to Wilmington, which is becoming the new "center of wealth." It is a satisfying and fitting ending to a wonderfully told, perfectly paced tale.

Reviewed by the Education Oasis Staff

Set in America in 1764, The Anchor by Blonnie Bunn Wyche is a novel for young adults about 15-year old Polly Moore, a young girl caught in the middle of radically changing times in colonial America. As the recently passed and highly unpopular British Stamp Act makes life hard for her, Polly must come to rethink her opinions of slavery, freedom, and the treatment of women -- even as the American colonies comes closer to revolution. Written with an exuberant dash of impetus, willpower, and providing an informative and entertaining perspective on real historical figures and events, The Anchor is very highly recommended reading for teens and young adults.