Akers Books

Wow! What a deal! Hemp is worth much more than this. Uh... I forget... what are we reviewing here? Ummmmmmmmmmmmmmmm. pffffffffffftt. exhale.

Fun and easy. Although it does smell a bit, but the smell is of....hemp!

The knots are easy to learn and usually described clearly except for every twist of the spiral on the bracelet (about four separate knots) then the braiding cords start to twist, too. You can essentially change direction every 4 knots to take out the difficulty in the braiding cords. If this doesn't make sense, just try to do the spiral as described in the book and you will find the braiding cords get twisted up. Also there were definitely *not* enough beads. Right after getting the book, I bought a bag of plastic pony beads to practice more. I really enjoy making these bracelets, but overall I expected more out of this book. I recommend it as a decent introduction to hemp beading which is an exceptionally enjoyable craft.

I have to say that I love this book! I'll admit that it did not come with enough beads or hemp, but you can buy those cheaply at any craft store!! This book has so many patterns to try, and gives the simplest directions! I would definately reccomend this book to people, because it is fun and easy. *I would reccomend it for kids 9 and up*

This was a good book, and I loved doing all the knots and especially not having to go buy everything for it. All you have to do is get a pair of scissors and begin. Out comes professional jewelry that you will love. So, I guess you are wondering why I gave it 4 stars. Because the knots don't stay. Several times the knots came out on the bracelets. If you want the bracelet to just stay on, it won't. If you plan to take it off all the time, the loop and knot idea is cool. Secondly, there are two designs that you have to used your own judgment on how big the loops should be and if it's straight. I'm a perfectionist, so that was a challenge for me. All in all, I am harsh just giving it just 4 stars,butI will still recommend it to my friends.

THE WRITING WAS INCREDIBLY WEAK. HOW CAN ALL THESE PEOPLE GIVE IT GOOD REVIEWS?

I have read both published titles in Akers' The Souls of Aredyrah Series. I was thankful that I bought them both at once because once I started I couldn't put them down. I enjoyed them immensely and have recommended that our school librarian purchase them as soon as possible. I think our high school students will really enjoy the story. As a teacher, it's refreshing to see a good story with some excellent teaching/talking points. There's so much to work with in these stories to help our students explore issues such as tolerance, understanding, compassion, and forgiveness. I highly recommend these books and anxiously await the third in the series.

I loved this book. It was just one of those books you wanted to keep reading and reading and reading. I am excited to read the next one. All of the characters are well-written and interesting. Great work for this author

Written by teacher Tracy A. Akers, The Fire and the Light is book one of The Souls of Aredyrah series. A fantastic adventure set in a world where nothing is as it seems, The Fire and the Light follows an ordinary boy and a prince, bound together by bonds of blood and prophecy, in a land cursed by darkness, ignorance, and fear. Both boys crave only a normal life, but the shadowed world around them is desperate for transformation, even though sparking a rebellion could well bring about their own destruction. A poignant epic fable, highly recommended for all ages.

Dayn is a freak and scorned in his world. Ruairi is the betrothed crowned prince and heir in his until a fiery accident renders him "unpure". What future events will bind their destinies together?

THE FIRE AND THE LIGHT (the first of five books in THE SOULS OR AREDYRAH series) begins the epic tale of these two young men and Dayn's sister, Alicine. Dayn is tall and fair and persecuted in a land of people who are shorter and dark, and who believe they are the only survivors of a Purge by the Gods. Ruairi's family and people have banished him to be a third class member of society when his hands are badly burned - a requirement in a land where perfection of body and mind is demanded by the Gods. Neither knows the other lands exist until Dayn and Alicine flee their village, travel through the forbidden mountains and wind up in Ruairi's world. Their meeting is by chance, but soon the secrets of the ties between them are revealed. Dayn, Ruairi and Alicine begin a journey to uncover the past, and find themselves on a dangerous path that will lead them to question both societies, and the customs and religions that rule their lives.

Akers' creates a wonderfully developed world that you are swept into, with a plot that immediately demands your attention. Her characters are richly developed, their personalities and emotions clearly depicted through their words and actions. The descriptive writing style is never overdone, with just enough flavor to immerse you in the surroundings. The dialog is crisp and concise, makes you believe in the characters and leaves the impression that you are right in the story with them.

This is a must read for fantasy lovers of all ages, although with good news and bad news. The good news is that you will be hopelessly spellbound with this wonderful story. The bad news is you will not be able to stop turning the pages, and then must twiddle your thumbs until the next book comes out.

I tried not to buy this book for a long time. It seemed like I could figure it out myself, and I have a lot of craft books already. There is something so wonderful, however, about having crystal clear instructions and all the right supplies right in front of you. With this book, there's nothing to "figure out" (unless you want to vary the patterns). You can just relax and make some adorable jewelry. These are quick to make and look quite nice. This is another Klutz book that I'll take to the craft class I run with teens. My complaints about the book: the bead wheel doesn't work well--beads get stuck and shoved into other compartments or fall out the sides. The bead colors are mixed together in color families, which is a real pain when you're trying to get all one color. There is variety in colors, but not in beads. A flower bead or two (like the one in one of the book's pictures) would have been nice. Still, the patterns are pretty, quick, and do-able. The variety of representative designs (butterfly, flower) and pretty patterns (chain)is good. It's a fine little book.

My dds gave these as gifts to their friends recently, and EVERYONE loved them! They have all spent hours making rings, and I must admit, they were really cute! The directions were easy to follow, and my 10 yr old had no problem making them on her own.

...BR>This is an awesome book made by real people ... and by an awesome company! My cousin has this book and I have done three of the rings already. They are easy to do and the directions are well explained and not too complex.
The rings include: simple ring (you should learn to do this first), twisted ring, chain, vine, butterfly, starburst, and daisy chain. This book has plenty of beads so you can do your favorite rings over and over!
The only complaint I have is there's this stupid bead wheel (you've seen it on the front picture) and the colors get mixed up if you take it on a car trip, or when you're flipping through different colors.
Otherwise, this is a great book and I highly reccomend it for someone who is interested in making bead rings!

I must say, this is another awesome klutz book. The instructions are clear and well illustrated and easy to follow. The rings are nice, and range from very simple to quite complex. And of course, you can always make bracelets and neclaces as well, just use more wire.

The whole idea behind these books is just so well executed. The seem a little expensive, but they come with everything you need to get started, so really, they aren't. And it saves you that part where you buy the book and then run around spending all sorts of money to make sure that you have everything you need. Or worse, never making anything from the book because you can't be bothered to go out and get what you need. This book, or any of the other klutz books, make excellent gifts for the young or young-at-heart, just for this reason.

One word of warning with this one. I dropped it, and the bead container top popped off. It could have been nasty, this book comes with a lot of beads, and they're tiny! Luckily, only a few were spilled, and I transferred the beads to something a little more secure.

Buy this one and enjoy it. I also recommend hair wraps and hemp bracelets from the same series.

this great book provides materials for doing all the rings.the instructions are clear and easy to follow and there are great designs of rings too , like a beautiful butterfly on the ring , a vine... this book is affordable and those who are interested in this, you can start on this book! It's gonna be fun!

This is a nice gift with a pretty selection of paper. However, I was overconfident and started with the advanced 'frog'. It turns out that our only success came with the beginner 'paper airplane'. And they were the BEST paper airplanes I have ever made. They flew beautifully. (FYI: My babysitter was able to make anything in the book).

Want to learn origami?? Start with this Klutz book for sure! Detailed instructions with pretty paper included to get you on the road to paper- folding fun. KLUTZ does it right and this is a must for the young person (or older) for this creative craft.

Great fun for my granddaughter and her mother. Couldn't get all the folds just right but enjoyed trying them.

I was assigned the task of teaching 2nd graders an origami project, which seemed reasonable...until I tried folding one piece of paper into something recognizable myself! I had several origami books to reference and this one was hands down the best. The instructions and pictures were clear and easy to read, using simple terms (not the "official origami terms," or whatever, that the other books used that I had to continually Google to somewhat understand). It also has a lot of great projects that appeal to kids of all ages. A great learning tool!

I bought this book to help me entertain children at a large family gathering. The diagrams and directions are, indeed, clear enough for any klutz.
The 10-year-olds mastered the frog and other projects very quickly. Younger children needed more help, but their successful jumping frogs delighted them, and they were eager to try again.
I gave the book away to entertain a child on the long ride home, and now I miss it and have ordered another for myself!

I truly think this is the saddest romance novel I've ever read.There was hardly a page that I turned on which I didn't read of some atrocity committed by the English against the Irish.It was almost unbearable for me to read it at times.But I managed to get through it.The romance between Neville and Eleanor oftentimes took a back seat to the story of Ireland and the Irish.The stories and the poems were enjoyable and entrancing but they took alot away from the development of the romantic aspect of the story.I do like the story and I will be keeping it but I will never read it again because I cannot read the heartwrenching way in the author writes about the inhumane treatment of the Irish again.

Once again Nancy RIchards Akers has done a supurb job of telling the Irish story. A stunning and wrenching picture of the true atrocities committed by the English against the IRish. Scores of English soldiers comb the IRish countrysides, in this case the Wicklow Mountains, destroying homes and forcing women and children into concentration camps. RIchards-Akers weaves the poignant life story of Eleanor Archebold and Sir Garrett Neville and their families into the rich Irish tapestry of those times. Will Eleanor ever see her orphaned, young siblings again? DOes Sir Neville solve the mystery of his past? And what of the Archebold family estate....can Eleanor defend it against the raids by English soldiers? Readers will be swept up and away by this captivating tale of Irish love, patriotism, and courage!

This fabulous book is a treasure. Picked it up at post office, took a peak in the parking lot and then when straight home to read through the night; kids had to survive with Chinese. SO WILD A KISS is sensual, original, fast-paced, and like a trip to another time and place. Once I heard Nancy Richards-Akers talk about writing historicals. She said something about being a tour guide, and let me tell you, she guided me into the hearts and souls of Eleanor and Garrett and into Ireland and the Irish people during the time of Oliver Cromwell. This is a splendid romance and a joyous, hopeful read which is a pretty amazingaccomplishment since I have read some Irish history and know how dreadful it really was at that time, but Nancy Richards-Akers knows how to make love triumph over darkness and despair. I highly recommend this book.

Not being a fan of romance novels I found this to be refreshingly different. The historical references were interesting and informing. The characters were realistic, often times funny and warm. I found I could not put the book down and I look forward to more works from Ms. Akers. She has won over another fan.

I want to like this book, but there are many problems. The book has beautiful, lyrical writing, but still...

Well, the heroine prostitutes herself to the hero on their first meeting. If that doesn't rest easy on you, it gets worse. The heroine has NO backbone whatsoever. Whenever situtation requires her attention, she feels faint. She protests and sputters that she is in control, but the sad thing is that nobody in the novel really cares.

I'll reread Wild Irish Skies, which is a keeper to me, and I suggest giving this one a pass.

Slash is the software that runs sites like Slashdot and use.perl. It's all written in Perl using the Template Toolkit with MySQL at the back end. Despite it being based on a number of my favourite technologies, I'd never really the time to get to know how it worked. Reviewing this book finally gave me the excuse to spend a few hours looking at it. I decided the best way to "test" the book would to be to try and set up and configure a Slash web site whilst reading the book.

The book starts by giving an overview of Slashdot - the site that the Slash code grew out of. This is followed by an overview of how a Slash site looks to the user and a brief look at the architecture of Slash. All very interesting, but it didn't get me any closer to setting up my Slash site.

That started in chapter 2, which is a guide to installing Slash. During this chapter I became aware that the book (or, at least, this part of it) wasn't really aimed at me. By this I mean that the chapter assumed that the reader knows less than I do about installing Perl modules, setting up MySQL databases and configuring Apache. I was fast coming to the conclusion the the book's target audience was people who wanted to run a weblog using Slash, but didn't really know very much about Apache, MySQL or Perl. This made reading this chapter very quick and in an hour or so I had a basic Slash site up and running.

The next five chapters look at the nuts and bolts of running a Slash site. They describes the processes of setting up authors, editing and updating stories, reviewing and approving submissions, dealing with comments and managing topics and sections. Again, I read all of this pretty quickly as the chapters were going over in some detail processes that I was finding pretty easy to work out from the layout of the Slash administration pages. One section stood out. In the middle of chapter 6 there is a discussion on how Perls's regular expressions can be used to filter comments. I found myself wondering how easily my assumed target audience would deal with this material.

Chapter 8 changes direction completely. This chapter discusses ways to manage the community that builds up around a successful Slash site. It was almost completely non-technical but, building on their ideas of what has made Slashdot so successful the authors present some interesting ideas on the nature of web communities. To me, this chapter alone justifies reading the book.

In chapter 9 we're back with customising your site, with sections on setting up Slashboxes (little areas of content that go down the side of a Slash site), exhanging headlines with other sites using XML and managing user polls. Again there's not much comlpex technical content in this chapter.

In the last two chapters we suddenly get very technical, looking at advanced site customisation and administration issues. In particular, when the advanced customisation chapter looks at plugins, it gives an example of how to write a plugin and this may well all be a bit confusing for the target audience I discussed earlier. This is aimed at someone who knows what they are doing when it comes to Perl and MySQL.

The five appendices act as a reference to the Slash codebase. They contain much in depth information about the database tables and the API exposed by the various Slash modules. Appendix C contains a useful introduction to the Template Toolkit, which Slash uses to create all of the actual HTML pages. There's a lot of information in this pages and they take up about a third of the book.

I suspect I've come across a little more negative that I intended in this review. I do think it's a very useful book and should be read by anyone running (or thinking of running) a site using Slash. My only problem is that is seems to be two half books joined together. The second half seems to be aimed at a far more technically literate audience than the first half.

But the bottom line is that I got my Slash site up and running and I know a lot more than I did about how to configure and administer it - so the book does what I wanted it to.

I would have loved a 'type these commands to install' type thing in the book. Even with the book's help it took me a while to install.

"Slashdot" is one of the busiest sites on the internet. Part newspaper, part bulletin board, part personal journal - just a casual mention on Slashdot has been enough to bring major web sites to their knees. Slashdot has lead the way in the high-traffic mass-participation web, and the software is free to download. This book is about the ideas, challenges and designs which keep Slashdot working. Although the slash software is written in Perl, you don't need to read Perl; there's hardly any source code in the book.

When I first saw this book, I thought it would be dull. Who wants to read documentation for a bunch of Perl scripts? As it turns out, the book is mostly case study and installation/configuration guide. Although obviously aimed at people considering using the open-source "slash" engine for their own sites, reading about how the Slashdot administrators evolved their software to cope with such astonishingly high traffic is quite inspirational. There is a lot of solid wisdom for anyone involved in maintaining web applications on the internet.

If you are designing or improving a public collaborative web application and want to be able to scale to massive traffic, this book is an important addition to your bookshelf. If you are curious about the growth and internals of Slashdot, it's worth a read. If you want a theoretical discussion, code listings, or product comparisons, look elsewhere.

Slashdot is, of course, the original community weblog: "a moderated list, in reverse-chronological order, of timely items, with links to further discussion on-site, or to further information off-site.".

What David, chromatic, and Brian have done here is write a manual for Slash, the open-source code that underlies Slashdot and dozens of other communities. Slash is by far the most powerful community weblog technology out there, so a how-to manual is especially important.

If you're looking into setting up a community weblog that members can use to share links and stories, Slash is the power tool of choice. With the publication of "Running Weblogs with Slash," David, chromatic, and Brian make it much more likely that your Slash installation and management will go seamlessly!

As a former student, I was witness to Mr. Akers ability to register information in a reasonable fashion that was not recondite. As a student with interest in Ethnomycology ,these texts present a clear fundamental knowledge base, with regards to the historicity of the subject. I would recommend this book to any one with interest in Ethnomycology. Although R Gordon Wassons findings have been widely publicized, the majority of other essays accompanying in this book were not available. For the first time to many, these esoteric texts can now be read. "The Sacred Mushrooms of Mexico"
is a must read for any beginner who finds mycology a wondrous field.

"The Sacred Mushrooms of Mexico: Assorted Texts" is a must-have for mushroom fanatics wild about finding obscure Spanish-language reference papers now translated into English for the first time. Edited by Brain P. Akers, "Sacred Mushrooms" sets out to fill holes in bibliographies dating back to the sixties and seventies, digging out newly re-found scholarship on the Matlatzinca, Mixtec, Mixe, and other Central American sacred mushroom rituals from papers that are widely credited but (until now) never read. While some of the content in these rediscovered texts goes over territory well documented in Wasson-era accounts, the cultural richness of these obscure references reveals a vast depth of real shamanic knowledge, and demonstrates full breadth of Central American mushroom spirituality.

While listing the collection of texts in this volume might be enlightening to some, I think it would be more fitting to reprint some of the more tasty bits I came across, in no particular order. The first is from Walter S. Miller's research on the Mixe tonalamatl, a sacred calendric text, and its relation to the lore of sacred mushrooms. Here is a nice snippet:


"Another type of mushroom puts one to sleep, causing visions. The vision induced is always the same: two dwarfs or elves (dos enanitos o duendes), a male and a female, appear to the one who eats the mushrooms. They speak to him and answer his questions. They provide him with information as to where lost things can be found. If he has had anything stolen, these dwarfs or elves identify the thief and the location where the stolen item is hidden. If one plans a trip, he is told what kind of luck he will have."

This is just one mention of the hombrecitos, or the little men, who pervade mushroom mythology. While these little tikes may have been turned into cartoon characters by McKenna et. al., they are treated with the respect of gods and angels, for it is they who deliver the power of wisdom and healing to the curanderos. From a translated account by Luis Reyes G.:


"14. If something inside of you hurts, then with their little hands they will massage you. You feel as though "they settled your stomach." Your stomach and innards will make noise while they are extracting the sickness from you."

From a scientific point of view, I find it fascinating how the physiological effects of the mushrooms (hallucinations, visions, tremors, sickness, purging) are treated with such mystical reverence in these cultures. To hear them tell it, a visit with these santitos (little saints) can cure any disease, help you find lost objects, let you see who's talking smack behind your back, and reveal your future. And if all you see is "snakes and jaguars" and other frightening things, it is because you have disrespected the mushroom spirits and are not worthy of their gifts! It is a totally airtight ontology: If the mushrooms don't work, it's your fault for not believing enough. How's that for priming the experience?

Even though the material "Sacred Mushrooms of Mexico" may seem like a refresher course (another visit with Maria Sabina? Really?), I found myself glued to the accounts in these papers as if I was reading it all for the first time. Why? There's a freshness here that comes with finding anthropological material in it's original form, not cribbed and re-worked by scholars trying to service their own agenda. These rediscovered texts are not only a great addition to any library of mushroom lore, they are essential to understanding the Central American culture and ritual that came to define modern mushroom mythology.

[...]

As a former department mate of Dr. Akers, I had the pleasure of anticipating this book as he relayed bits of the tales within it. I was witness to his mighty effort to acquire the texts and permissions, and to work through the translations in order to assemble this unique collection of articles about the discovery and research into the phenomenon of hallucinogenic mushrooms. I began to read, prepared to find a collage of interesting pieces on mushrooms and rituals. I was taken instead on a journey, beginning with the first whispering accounts of the existence of these mushrooms and their uses, and culminating with their story rupturing through the TV screens of America and into the common culture. Dr. Akers' multidisciplinary background allows him to approach this topic from a variety of angles. His introduction escorts you gently into the world of the mushroom, the people and the cultures involved. The seven chapters are coordinated together into a delightfully cohesive work. It creates in the reader an evolution of understanding that perhaps parallels in some form what the researchers and public experienced over the decades spanned by the various publications. This is a book that will take a long time to properly sample and consider, with its multiple layers of story, backup fact and supplementary information. It is a fascinating foray for experts and laypeople alike.

I have now read both of this author's books, and I must say her first book "The Fire and the Light" was by far my favorite. The first book I could not put down and read in 2 days. This second book was good, but it did tend to drag (especially in the middle) and took me much longer to read. It did not seem to have the same excitement and intensity as the first. However, I did enjoy it, and I am anxious to read the next book in the series.

I have read both The Search for the Unnamed One and The Fire and the Light (book one in the Souls of Aredyrah series). Book two does not dissappoint at all. It develops the characters further along adding even more excitement and love interests. The Search for the Unnamed One has both, but also includes battles and personal, political, religious strife. There's a pretty big ending involved as well.

Book two includes a character index complete with pronunciations, character portraits by the same artist who did both beautiful covers for books one and two (Annah Hutchings), and an equaly exciting tidbit from the third book to come in the series. After reading the final chapter, I thought, wow, everything has come to its conclusion, how could book three possibly compare. But wow-wow, the excerpt included in book two from book three seems to turn things up another notch (if that is possible). Now, I can't wait for it!

Years from now, the Souls of Aredyrah series is going to be a must-have for ALL fantasy readers (yes, ALL).

I have read both published titles in Akers' The Souls of Aredyrah Series. I was thankful that I bought them both at once because once I started I couldn't put them down. I enjoyed them immensely and have recommended that our school librarian purchase them as soon as possible. I think our high school students will really enjoy the story. As a teacher, it's refreshing to see a good story with some excellent teaching/talking points. There's so much to work with in these stories to help our students explore issues such as tolerance, understanding, compassion, and forgiveness. I highly recommend these books and anxiously await the third in the series.

My daughter received this book as a gift when she was a year old. She is now almost 3 and still really enjoys reading this one. The great thing about this book is how it teaches your child to see counting and numbers in familiar objects, but does it differently than the other five million counting books out there. I'd recommend it!

This book is great when teaching number concepts to young children. It has a predictable text, which makes it easy reading for children.

This book is great when teaching number concepts to young children. It has a predictable text, which makes it easy reading for children.

I've just started collecting Double Eagles and this book offered many interesting details and excellent photos of all Double Eagles. There is good historical background offered also.

Dave Bowers has shown us all once again his superb writing skills and in-depth Numismatic knowledge with this fairly new release on what just may be the worlds most popular gold coin, the US Double Eagle. All that is missing from this superb date by date analysis of the US double eagle gold coins guidebook is up to date pricing information, which of course has seen many changes ( most to the upside) since the release of this book.
Whether you are investing in these coins or collecting them , this is one of the guidebooks you need to study this facinating and important series of US gold coins. As a professional coin dealer and specialist in double eagles, I recommend this book to anyone with an interest in these coins. Buy the book before you buy the coins!