Baker Books

Having him for a principal wasn't all that bad. I can't think of anything that he could've improved on. He's wise, and his wisdom shines through this book. Ask him to tell you about how he picked his College.

A book to keep on your night stand. If you teach, attend, or send children to high school, you'll appreciate Baker's insights. A must read.

This book is a beautiful work of art and informative too. The photographs are lovely and the gardens chosen as material here are to-die-for. I've already used one of the projects included in the text...it was really fun...and it worked! Anyone interested in gardening (or just some wonderful photographs of some incredible places) would love this book...

East Coast-Centric - this is a stylish guide to garden ornamentation. From rooftop terrace gardens overlooking Manhattan's Central Park incorporating bas-relief fountains festooned with putti, designated to help filter noise - to philosophers' busts arranged totem-style in old Philadelphia.

An overly exuberant South Beach garden is a carnival of color and kitsch, and some might say questionable taste. A large statue of Venus ala Bottacelli - Birth of Venus - is embellished with hand painted eyelashes. Similarly, the statue of Neptune's trident has skewered a plastic lobster. Some of this garden's whimsy works more successfully than others do.

South Beach aside, most entries are staid East Coast establishment estates that most likely shop for their trinkets at Barbara Israel. Symmetry is a requisite in the classic tradition, with enough of an occasional incongruity to keep the eye refreshed.

Those of us without architectural elements recovered from 18th Century castles outside Paris, can look and marvel at the beauty, collect a myriad of fresh ideas if we are creative faux artists, and enjoy the exceptional photography. This is now a discount book. I recommend it.

THIS IS A GREAT COLLECTION OF RECIPES,GATHERED FROM AROUND A NOT SO POLITICALLY CORRECT WORLD.EXCELLENT VARIETY OF SELECTIONS.THTRE WERE ACTUALLY THREE TWO VOLUME BOXED SETS. THERE WAS AN ORIGINAL SET, A REVISED SET AND A "SOUTH AMERICAN SET". EACH RECIPE HAS A STORY ABOUT THE ORIGINATOR AND HOW AND WHERE THE RECIPE ORININATED.STORIES OF EATING MUSHROOMS SMETANA IN A BAR IN SHANGHI,WHILE SIPPING ON AN ICE COLD MARTINI,FOR EXAMPLE.VOLUME I IS TRADITIONALLY FOOD; VOLUME II IS STRICTLY LIBATIONS.TWO EXCELLENT SELECTIONS ARE ST.CECELIA SOCIETY PUNCH AND FISH HOUSE PUNCH. SOMETIMES THE CONTENTS CAN BE A CHALLENGE IE. "WALNUT KETSUP" OR A "PONY" OF PEACH BRANDY. ALL IN ALL A TERRIFIC READ AND THE RECIPES WORK.

I first chanced upon this two-volume collection of recipes almost thirty years ago when I was a student at the University of South Florida, and I became immediately enamoured of it. The author, one Charles Henry Baker, Jr., describes anecdotally how he (seemingly) spent the better part of the 1920s and 1930s drinking and eating his way around the world - several times, rubbing elbows with the likes of Ernest Hemingway, Frank Buck, Douglas Fairbanks and other adventurers of the time.

In his far-ranging travels, Baker ferreted out the most intriguing and exotic restaurants and watering holes of the time from Shanghai to Key West, assiduously recording and compiling receipts (as he calls recipes) and concoctions galore. Baker shares these recipes with the reader in the form of well-detailed and often amusing remembrances of his first and sometimes subsequent encounters with the dish or drink. Many of the establishments he visited and chronicled are now legendary or nostalgically remembered. From the Raffles Hotel in Singapore to Shepperds in Cairo to the Grand Bretagne in Athens, Baker paints the reader an epicure's picture of a very different time and world long lost to us.

Although his prose were probably somewhat tortured even in the 1930s when the book was first published, they make for interesting if not amusing reading today. In fact, Baker's style as a raconteur amplifies and potentiates his narrative of those long-ago experiences, and his sheer enjoyment of life pushes through even the most obscure verbiage. This man was a giant among bon vivants. He lived life to the fullest and with such flair and conviction that one cannot help but be envious - if not in awe - of his exploits and adventures.

Baker, an interesting character, was born in 1895, and when not travelling, hung out down in Coconut Grove - way back when it really was a Bohemian artist's place to be. He was at various times a writer for the old Town and Country and Esquire magazines, penned a few other collections, once even tried his hand at a novel, and he is still quoted in the drink-crafting tomes. But first and foremost - without a doubt - Baker was the Grand Bon Vivant

Reading this book is like taking a trip back to a long lost past when people still dressed for dinner at Raffles and Shepheard's Hotel and when the Orient and the South Pacific were still very exotic and romantic destinations that few had visited. I don't know anyone who has ever regretted buying this book or the companion volume of food recipes which is equally marvelous.

Are you lucky enough to come accross a real bottle of Absinith?
Want to know what to do with it? Think you do already? Well do you know how to fix a "Fripo's Balloon"? They call it that because after a couple, your head just floats right off your sholders. You do want to know how to prepare potatoes by boiling them in a kettle of pine resin, Right! My Aunt was one of the wealthiest women in the world during the 1920's-40's. She gave me her set, Vol.I&II. God bless her. You know Earnest H. once said "If you're feeling bad chances are you either haven't had enough to drink or need some spicy food" These editions have it all, told in the quaint "ivy-liege-vernacular" of Fitzgearld's day. Hell, I'm a baby boomer, but I still appreciate Hemingways cure for a hangover....a beaker of cruched ice filled with Holland Gin..etc..etc.. Do your self a favor BUY THIS BOOK! I really shouldn't be telling you all this as I want every copy out there for my friends. By the way, there's even advice on how to revive a person who has hung themselves, either because they were weary of life, or had followed Hemingways advice.

"It is better to foresee, even without certainty, than not to foresee at all", writes Linus Pauling in the preface of this book, which has become a bible for chemists.When I first read this book, I thought that it was unnecessarily detailed.But then, as I patiently went through the chapters, I realised that Pauling has truly "foreseen with certainty" in his career and discoveries, which is slowly but surely revealed in this book.I would recommend this book to anyone who is interested in how a few simple scientific ideas lead to the explanation of literally hundreds of phenomena.In this book, the two times Nobel Prize winner has beautifully demonstrated how his classic 'Valence Bond Theory' can be applied to explain the bewildering array of atoms, molecules and crystals around us.In each chapter, the author introduces certain classic principles like resonance, electronegativity,partial ionic character of bonds, partial double bond character, and hybridization.These concepts are today the cornerstone of the description of thousands of simple molecules. It should be noted that the valence bond approach has its drawbacks, which Pauling does not discuss.It is also true that the Molecular Orbital Theory has replaced his theory in making quantitative calculations.However, Pauling's masterly style of writing and the insights which almost each and every page of this book give the reader, are unparalleled.Even though the book would perhaps not prove useful as a modern chemistry book, I think it should be read by each and every chemist and chemistry student as the ultimate example of simplicity,variety and beauty.It is one of the finest examples of how one extraordinary scientist tries to explain diverse chemical phenomena with a few simple ideas.

This book is one of the Masterpiece in Chemistry.
You simply can not rate this book in stars values. It is one of the EPIC in Chemistry.
I should say it is a bible or Bhagavad-Gita for chemists,

I enjoyed this book very much, I recommend it to anyone interested in the Paranormal!!!

This is a great book to read on a rainy evening, not least because it is not necessarily fictional. The stories are simplified and well presented, with several plausible cases. I myself happen to believe in ghosts, but even someone who doesn't will find these stories believable. It kind of makes you wonder what is beyond death...

Block has come out with his second edition of _Gods of the Nations_ in which he proposes that peoples in the Ancient Near East saw themsleves as members of a national state. Members of a national state were ones who saw themselves as related not just as members of a certain territory but related by other factors as well. Foremost among these latter was kin relationship.

Block proposes that there was a relationship between the deities of the ANE, the land, and the people which was similar to a feudal system. The land was given to or reserved by the deity who gave it to the people. Each member of this triad had responsibilities which Block investigates. Thus the conduct of the people was subject to the accounting of the deity.

Too bad this book is so short. Block spends too little time addressing the fact that political realities in the ANE shaped theological documents. For example on page 118, Block notes the titular deity of Ur is forced out because Ur has been destroyed.
Block could use these political realities to explain the religious syncretism of ancient Israel as known from the archaeological record. Rather than do that, Block concentrates upon biblical texts to explain the rights and demands of the deity upon the people, and then he uses extra-biblical texts to explain the end of the deity-people relationship.

A fascinating thesis worthy of a second edition. I will refer to this book often during future reading.

Dr. Block takes us on a tour of the Ancient Near East, comparing Israel and Yahweh to the neighboring gods and religions.

Using this book, one will be able to gain a working familiarity with some of the more common religious thought forms of the Bronze and Iron ages. A major conclusion of his work is that Yahweh is distinct from all the other gods in that he cares for a people while all the other gods care only for their lands. Yahweh is the electing God of love and mercy.

For gaining a better understanding of the Old Testament world, books such as this are indispensable. Block is a master teacher who knows how to systematically present ancient texts and beliefs. In the end he arrives at a profound restatement of Yahweh and His relation to Israel, resulting in a summary exposition of Ezekiel 8-11. In that text we discover how the Glory of Yahweh leaves the temple and heads east to leave Jerusalem and depart from Israel. This movement is explained in the Babylonian context where gods often leave temples when they are dragged away by captors. Yahweh, however, is unique in that his departure is voluntary and under his own power, for he is doing with the other gods can not and do not do. My summary can not do justice, you really need to get the book and read all the details for yourself.

The book is divided into five basic chapters that can each be read in one sitting. As a result, I found myself reading this book in less than a week -- and with little effort, which is good for me being that I am slowest of all readers. That is, I did not find myself spending all my free time reading, but the pages evaporated into the past as quickly as they appeared: the reading was over before I realized what hit me.

I have spent a good amount of time reading Ancient Near Eastern material, and I feel like this treaties has been the most pleasant and enjoyable. One critique I would give, which is really a wish and not a critique, is that it would be nice if there were a chapter on the New Testament. I would like to see Block develop his theme in relation to Jesus, who is the Lord of the New Exodus. Jesus is the "Yahweh-Saves" Man, and it would be wonderful to see how Block would incorporate this into his overall scheme (in my mind, the idea is perfectly complimentary to Blockýs present thesis, and Iýd like to read the good professorýs take on the matter). Where Block does not develop the theme, I recommend reading "God Crucified" by Richard Bauckham (available on Amazon), or "The Challenge of Jesus" by N.T. Wright, esp. chapter 5, also available on Amazon.

The author of this book has done an excellant job of providing detail descriptions of life in the 1940's for this particular family. Interesting story about traveling to Alaska and all the humorous and sad experiences they had. Makes you really appreciate the ease of travel today. A book all high school students should read to obtain a better perspective on the true American History.

I really enjoyed reading this book. It is one of those you find difficult to put down once you start it. Many funny parts and a true glimpse of what life was like in Alaska during this time period.

Absolutely fantastic book that logically and systematically rips the foundation out from under the Arminianistic position. This is single most important book I have ever read on this topic. It answers most of the objections to Calvinism head on in a scholarly and highly readable fashion (assuming you at least got through a college education). Just check out who these authors are! The finest minds in the reformed field today! Piper and Ware are particularly convincing in their respective chapters. As I noted in the heading, you can still get most of the contents of this book as "Still Sovereign" in paperback -- it was recently reissued under that title. So read it, digest it, then rip apart the Arminianists!!! Have fun...

To many people today, Calvinism is an anachronism. How can 20th century people take a teaching seriously which proclaims that God is good, and yet completely in control of the world? Could a good God really be all-powerful, and yet allow (or even ordain) some of the atrocities that have been perpetrated in our own century?

The 10 contributors show that a proper understanding of the Bible involves believing that God is indeed sovereign, yet also loving, just and good.

John Piper's helpful chapter asks the question "Are there 2 wills in God?" And then seeks to show that God does indeed "fulfil all his will" and yet "is not willing that any should perish."

S.M. Baugh discusses the meaning of "foreknowledge" in the Bible, and argues persuasively that God's foreknowledge must mean a lot more than knowing what is going to happen in the future.

Jerry Bridges shows that a belief in the sovereignty of God has practical implications for everyday living, while Samuel Storms explains how it is worth praying to a God who has already decreed "the end from the beginning." In fact, he argues that there is not much point in praying to a God who is not in complete control of his world.

This book has been one of the most helpful explanations of Calvinism which I have read. Highly recommended.

Winnie the Pooh's The Grand and Wonderful Day is about how Pooh wakes up and forgets something really important that was going on that day. He walks to all of his friends house's, Piglet, Rabbit, Eyeore but they were all gone so he decides to go to Christopher Robins house to see if he is home. I think that this book is good fer ages 12 and under.

This was a favorite of my son and I when he was little. It's predicated on two mysteries: What "grand and wonderful thing" is going to happen today, and just why are Pooh's friends all away when he visits them? The text is very Pooh-oriented ("Although the honey was yummy in Pooh's tummy, it did nothing to jog his memory".... "being a bear of very little brain"... and a song that ends, "rum tiddly tiddly tum,") and the whole book has a ring of authenticity. There's even a mention of the mildly scary "heffalumps and woozles." All turns out well: "...I just remembered that no bear ever had such grand and wonderful friends." The book has 25 pages, with simple, uncluttered pictures on each page.