Ball Books

This low tech piece of equipment is one of the greatest things available for strength training and physical therapy...and so versatile.

This book was extremely helpful. I learned many new exercises to help strenghten my core. I recommended it to anybody looking for a new challenge to their workouts.

Awesome workout, very easy to customize the programs so that they are `sport- specific'. My diving went really well this year - my vastly improved core was a big aspect of my success. I didn't mind at all the more ripped abs I've got too;).

About two years ago my `spine popper' (chiropractor) taught me some new exercises for my back then got me to buy another book by this author to keep me doing them properly. This past winter I decided to try tri-athlon. I wanted to get stronger but not real bulky. I thought I'd try this new book because you could decide if you wanted to use weights with the exercises or not.

I like the progressions, photos and instructions and yes - some of the harder exercises are REALLY hard! I showed it to my training group and some of the others wanted it too. We're all fans of this core stuff now - we really seem to notice the biggest gains in the swim. I can go harder for longer distances thanks to an incredibly strong midsection. And I agree with AM from La Crosse - the six pack is pretty sweet.

I don't often rave about stuff but this book is pretty cool. I had the opportunity to go to the Athens games last year (rowing). I saw athletes from everywhere dong all this crazy ball and buozu (?) training. When I got home I went looking for a book that had that kind of focus. This is the book I picked and its been amazing about the increase in power I get now. We're just back on the water and I've never felt stronger at the start of the season. If you want a cutting edge source of core training, I'd say this is the book to get.

J.E. Gordon's book should be required reading for all engineering students as well as working engineers. It' s surprising how many have either not learned nor not appreciated the wisdom in this little book. This work has led to the development of composite materials and provided many insights that I rediscover each time that I read it. Philip Ball's new introduction is also very welcome.

I am a scientist, but not an engineer. Equations are not my forté. This book gives a great intuitive understanding of materials science, but goes beyond that to tell us how simple structures work. It's filled with great anecdotes and carries it all off with a sense of humor. I discovered it many years ago, and I'm reading it for the 3rd time just for the pleasure.

Good text for fracture mechanics enthusiasts- material failure, strength of materials.
Good reading, if you are an engineer, scientist, or not. Great examples. Dry british writing, but if you can get through it and the silly jokes, you can learn a lot.

Reading this before embarking on university studies was an inspiration and I still come back to it now, it has a lot to offer all ages and disciplines.

This book is part of the Princeton Science Library, the best collection of books on mathematics and science for the intelligent layman. Like other books in that series, it is succinct and clearly written. I read it and thoroughly enjoyed it. All of the positive reader reviews are right on.

Because I liked it so much, I purchased "Structures," also by Professor Gordon. As it turned out, that book covers the same material, but in greater breadth and depth, and with more illustrations. There's much to be said for reading both books, but if you're only going to read one, "Structures" is the one.

Oxford University press is currently undertaking the massive editorial work required to finish this ground-breaking four-volume set that was started more than 25 years ago. The third volume, covering the alphabetic range of P through Sk, is due to appear in March 2007. Volume IV, covering Sk through Z and including a bibliography of tens of thousands of items, is planned for two years later.(...)

I'm an American slang bug and that's why I'm just chafing at the bit to browse next volumes of this undoubtedly the very best and most comprehensive and authoritative complete on-going dictionary of slang. A lot has been already said and written 'bout this work hence I'm lost for new words of appreciation. On the other hand, however, dear editors, mercy on us, you can't just now dump this big project halfway thru editing thus leaving us, all American slang lovers throughout the English-speaking world in the lurch. There's a glitter of hope, as I heard, to cooperate with Oxford University Press. OK! Go ahead and good luck then but let these words be soon followed by real actions. Sincerely Alex

murdered by the media

These words are no longer in use, as we no longer converse truly and freely as a nation of English and slang speakers

This volume is little more than a nostaligic curio, like Dr. Johnson's dictionary, or the great Ambrose Bierce's better.

The only English slang currently in use is that receptive vocabulary emitted by our media, and not expressive nor creative as our one way media permits no conversation. We are made to listen, to hear, to receive, only. The internet alone allows literacy, and look at the level of written speech there. Yet even there the formerly great oral tongue is lost.

The most vibrant languages heard throbbing through our land are now those not dictated by our anglo media. There alone does the uniquely human aural ability live and breathe. And thus this massive dictionary properly fades away unfinished.

In any case, what anglo librarian would permit its presence in a library?

Intriguing for historical reasons alone. Not useful for comprehending the language one actually hears around oneself, as no living and present language is heard. Just dust off your old Lord Buckley collection instead, or the Mercury recording How To Speak Hip. Not even riding the city bus helps anymore.

Forty years ago our Amrican language was still richer, more diverse, more playful, more subtle. Now we have only whitely phosphorized talking heads bleating how we must speak and thus how we must think, and by limiting our vacabulary limiting our capacity for free thought. Our only hope is a healthy jolt of James Joyce and the trembling Twain.

I must agree with settimio biondi from Italy. Having purchased the first two volumes, we've been waiting for 7 years for P~Z. This is an excellent, comprehensive work. Hopefully, Oxford...or someone with a sense of responsibility...will finish the final volume.

We have been waiting for this dictionary for a long time. Specifically, since 1975 when Harold Wentworth and Stuart Berg Flexner issued their second supplemented edition of the "Dictionary of American Slang."
Editor J.E. Lighter, a researcher at the University of Tennessee, is somewhat disparaging of Wentworth and Flexner, the only previous lexicographers to take a healthy swing at American slang. (I don't count H.L. Mencken, who compiled many lists, but not in a format that a working writer can use.)
Lighter faults their "looseness of definition, unpredictable allocation of citations and a certain historical naivete." Maybe, but their book had, and still has, the most important merit a dictionary can have -- it is useful.
Also, theirs goes through Z, which is more than Lighter can say in 2006, 12 years after his Vol. 1 came out and many more years than that since he began.
Also, Wentworth and Flexner's volume is wieldy. Lighter's dictionary has many excellencies, but handiness is not one of them.
Wentworth and Flexner covered the whole of American English in a small volume of two pounds, six ounces. Lighter covers one-third the ground in a massive folio of six pounds, one ounce.
Lighter is often, but not always, more comprehensive. Take bum.
W&F give this useful word 26 definitions in a page. Lighter gives 29 in three pages, but three of his usages have earliest dates since W&F's last effort. It looks like a draw, but it's not, quite.
W&F give a nice little essay on the finer gradations of meaning of bum (in its sense of vagabond); Lighter is less preachy on usage, letting the extensive quotations do that work for him. This is the approved method for serious work, but although Lighter's citations often seem repetitive, their length does not always ensure completeness, as we shall see.
W&F derive bum from the German bummler, idler, but Lighter appears to think this an example of historical naivete, finding bum sprung full-blown in 1864, without any certain antecedents. (In its sense of fundament, it goes back in English to at least 1387.)
Turn now to cracker. Lighter gives it nearly half a page, in the sense of "a backwoods Southern white person regarded as ignorant, brutal, loutish, bigoted etc.," tracing it to 1766. W&F does not have it at all.
Lighter is clearly ahead here, but there are problems with this definition.
First, it is politically correct but lexically incorrect. A cracker is not a white person but a white man. Like its synonyms redneck and woolhatter, it is never used of a woman.
Second, not one of the 31 citations even hints at a usage that would explain how the Atlanta professional baseball team in the old Sally League (slang for South Atlantic League; I will be interested to see if this makes it into Lighter's Vol. 3, if I live long enough to see it) came to be called the Crackers. Or how Georgians' and north Floridians' own nickname for themselves came to be crackers, the way people from Indiana call themselves Hoosiers.
Lighter does also give five other definitions of cracker: beans, a remarkable individual, dollar, a poor skier who often loses control and a light-skinned Negro.
Taken in all, Lighter has lifted the compilation of American salng to a new, much higher level -- except for Hawaiian American slang.
Except for go for broke, which is listed as "apparently originally Nisei or Hawaiian English," I cannot find any slang words from the Hawaiian dialect of Standard American -- even though some words in Standard Hawaiian have migrated into Slang English, like kahuna.
There are many definitions in Lighter of grind, for example, but none for the ways we in Hawaii use it as noun and verb (for eating). Chance um is missing, too, and give um and blahlah.
The absence of Hawaiian American Slang (Alaskan, too) is a serious fault, but on the whole the book is a corker ("a person or thing of extraordinary size, effectiveness, quality etc.," originally English slang traced to 1882 but brought into American by Mark Twain in 1889).

Marianne {Mari} Cottons life soon turns from picture perfect to a nightmare in a heartbeat, after her grandfather's death. She loses her way, and replaces her mentor with musician Miles. He introduces her to drugs and Mari has a quick lesson in how easy it is to get hooked on heroine. As she struggles through bouts of drugs and sex, she spirals out of control and finally ends up in a drug treatment center at deaths door. Can she pull her life together, or will she surcome to the temptations.
This novel had me thinking back at my own vulnerbility as a teen, and the confusion and fears every teenager faces on a daily basis sooner or later. Life is hard enough, but a drug addiction is no laughing matter. Every teen should be required to read this novel and hopefully will learn a valueable lesson.

Petra Lozano
Founder, Author and Editor of
author2ubooks.ning.com

What we have here is a full-on rush of ambitious literary fiction. That it largely succeeds as such is no consolation to horny but bookish males hoping for a bit of fluff or a few chuckles while killing time in the airport departure lounge.

It all starts when seventeen-year-old Marianne's godlike grandfather, who is her chess master and father-substitute, croaks. No clean death, this. He suffers a devastating stroke (as she watches) and lingers on painlessly (for him) until his tormented daughter (Marianne's mother Lily) decides to pull the plug. Except she doesn't bother to ask Marianne. That's major life crisis number one (unless you count the time her natural father took a hike when she was three).

Propelled by her grief over the loss of the only sane man in her life, Marianne goes into socioeconomic free-fall. It seems all she has to do is set foot on the Long Island Railroad and inevitably she's spiraling down into the rock music and drug culture of lower Manhattan. A creepy-sexy harmonica player named Miles is her undoing, and he does a helluva job, deflowering her and getting her hooked on horse, not necessarily in that order (or maybe simultaneously--she doesn't seem to notice or care).

When she thinks about it, she blames the other men in her life--her father and her mother's subsequent string of loser lovers, along with the infamous Miles and an all-male cast of criminals, dope dealers, and sleazy employers. But all along, she realizes eventually, she's been disappointed by the lack of love and attention from her mother, a self-absorbed painter with a manic-depressive lifestyle.

So, relax, guys. You may be crass, sleazy, opportunistic, and inept. But you're not at fault. You'll have to let the women work it out this time.

Gerald Everett Jones is the author of the boychik-lit novel My Inflatable Friend: The Confessions of Rollo Hemphill and a contributor to Amazon Daily.

Life isn't perfect, but seventeen-year-old Marianne Cotton is blessed with a loving and devoted grandfather who carefully schools her in piano, the arts, and literature. An "A" student, Marianne basks in his attention while eclipsing memories of her deadbeat dad. Lily Cotton, Marianne's self-involved, bipolar mother, loves her daughter within her own limitations. The needy artist frequently requires tending when moods swing, forcing Marianne to table her own needs and emotions to care for her. A series of men has invaded their lives, providing a less than perfect environment for Marianne.

The brilliant young woman manages to survive until her senior year in high school, when just before finals, Eric Cotton collapses into a vegetative state. Although Marianne is convinced her grandfather is still alive inside, the decision to pull the plug is made by Lily and her current husband, Russell. Marianne interprets this act as a deep betrayal, and reels in shock when she's notified that her grandfather has been removed from life support.

Faced with spiritual solitude, Marianne starts to unravel. She falls for a handsome and charismatic street musician named Miles, who lures her into a world of sex, drugs, and smoky club blues. Marianne's pain is diminished with each fix she accepts from her new group of exotic and seemingly attractive friends. Armed with a fake ID, school recedes and her pending NYU scholarship seems unimportant. Marianne lands a job at a sleazy bar, serving drinks to overweight groping men and pushing through the motions with more mental lethargy as her craving for absolution and oblivion careens forward, driving her to a nearly lethal intravenous heroin addiction.

Magdalena Ball's writing, insightful and deep, engages the reader from page one. Her characters linger long after the story resolves to its perfect conclusion. Highly recommended for a glimpse into the motivations behind heroin abuse, as well as thoroughly alluring family drama, Sleep Before Evening is powerfully addictive in its own right.

I'm very impressed. I loved the relationship between the protagonist and her grandfather, and the mother, who's so obviously bi-polar. Really a good read!

A very readable and gritty book about the life struggles of Marianne, a young woman growing up in New York. While the book tells a compelling story set in 1980s new york, it also explores family dynamics and what can go terribly wrong with the best of intentions. This insightful and often painful story is definitely worth reading.

Tom, I cant even fathom to call him Thomas, has caught the essence of what it is to be a Guard "Bum". Guardsmen and Guardswomen from across the country can really relate to this book and the feel is Just right. As Tom's real life former First Sergeant, it is with pride I recommend this book. I read it from cover to cover in one day and went back to read it again just to enjoy it all over again.

I got this book on a recommendation from someone on one of the discussion boards I frequent. I can't say that I was disappointed by this book. It was very well written, although it would have been nice if he would have saved some of the stuff for the end of the book. It kind of ruined it knowing the end. Although, those things added to the book as it was being read and it did give a bit of tension to it.

But it was a different perspective on aviators.

Full disclosure -- Tommy Young (he will never be the more formal "Thomas W. Young" to me) is a good personal friend and former squadron-mate, and when we were activated and deployed to the desert as C-130 crewmembers in 2003 I spent many mornings on the porch of his tent, drinking his coffee and talking about life and literature. When we returned he told me he had written a book and that it had been published and was available on Amazon, but I bought it with some trepidation, wondering what I should say if I read it and didn't like it. I should not have been concerned. This book tells the story of a fictitious Air Guard C-130 crew and the intrigue they get caught up in on an airlift mission in South America. The characters are given great depth and the story has a wealth of detail about modern Air Guard airlift missions and the situations aircrews can find themselves in. Every detail is true to life and drawn from the many hours Tommy has spent on missions like the one he describes. The plot was suspenseful and made this book a page-turner. I highly recommend this book.

Tom Young has worked very hard to provide an inside view of the air crewmembers and maintenance support for the venerable C-130 Hercules. Tom is very acute in describing the overall mission of the C-130, and of her other military roles as well. An airplane is not an airplane unless the personnel factor is involved, and only Tom and his experienced writing career can provide this. Buy this book, and it will become a treasured piece in your library.

As a loadmaster on C-130s, this book is a must read for all flyers! Has a great storyline and true to the life of a flyer.

In this age of video games and cartoons, its wonderful to see a room full of 80 second grade students fascinated for a full hour by Matt Travares reading his old fashioned tale about baseball and describing the writing process. No technology can replace the power of a good book!

The plot of ZACHARY'S BALL is basic enough: it tells the story of Zachary and his father attending a baseball game, Zachary's father catching a ball, and the dream that the young man has when he falls asleep. Tavaraes accomplishes three things in this book. First, he beautifully tells the story of a touching father/son memory. He also writes about his love of baseball. Perhaps the book's greatest accomplishment is the way in which he brings Fenway Park and the Red Sox to life. The Red Sox are one of the more magical and mythical teams in baseball and fit well into Tavares' tale.

Young readers will love the book, but it will definitely touch a chord with Red Sox fans young and old.

Like all good baseball stories, this one is a little corny. The somewhat smarmy illustrations tell a story better appreciated by adults than by kids, about nostalgia and Fenway Park. This book is sure to be most popular in the Boston area, but all baseball fans may enjoy its hopeful tone.

Matt has captured the magic of attending a game at Fenway Park in splendid fashion. It brought back warm memories of attending my first Red Sox game with my father almost 25 years ago. With a sweet story and the amazing drawings, this is a must-read book for any young kid. It will surely start a love affair with the game of baseball.

I often read these reviews, but I've never written one before... I got this for my 4 1/2 year old boy and he loves it. I'm not a big baseball fan, but I get choked up every time I read "Zachary' Ball." I've just ordered more copies to have on hand for gifts. The sense of innocence, magic and timelessness remind me of "The Polar Express." I look forward to more from Matt Tavares.

I really enjoyed this book. It was a very easy going, good, clean book. I read it in one sitting. I can't wait for my 9 yr old to read this so we can discuss it and read the rest of the books. I also thought this had a good message of patience and obedience.

She is beautiful girl but she lost her gaze ball by her enemy lies. she saw her gaze ball before her time. she broke it by accident and she has to find the pieces. it give her advice of future. she learn lessons as she goes. she has shown her ability in early year, the ability to connect with plants.

I loved this book and i highly recommend this to any body looking for an exciting adventure!!! i just cant wait to pick up the next book every time i finsh the one before!!! it is easy reading and fun and always has me on the edge of my seat wondering what will happen next to Zenda!!!

This book was fantastic! What first attracted me to this series was the incredibly creative and colorful cover art. I was also in the mood for magic, and figured this book would be the perfect thing to satisfy me. The first few chapters were okay, but it wasn't until the end of the book that I was hooked. The author is so descriptive, and makes Zenda's world so easy to imagine! Zenda, herself, is a typical awkward pre-teen trying to get through each day. She is kind, but tends to be impatient, which causes her much trouble during the story. This book introduces pretty much all of the main characters, and is a good start for a great series. I would recommend it to anyone who loves good books, loves magic, or who is a creative person.

I bought this book for my daughter who is eight, and I often read her books to see whether I think that they are worth the money. This one was fantastic. Zenda is very well written, and intriguing. I have bought and read the next two and I will give them to my daughter on special occasions. This book has very strong moral lessons that are experienced rather than taught. It is very clever. The first book is all about the folly of impatience. I hope you and your familyenjoy it too!

Originally found this book lying around in a dusty drawer, but was thoroughly entertained by it from beginning to end. Very easy reading and it's fun going back to it over and over and over. Really makes me wish there was a Louise Gehrig out there somewhere.

This book was not only incredible but an inspriration to me, before I left for school and began playing college softball! This book isn't just for atheletes though, my best friend who is the polar opposite of an athelete love this book as well.I would suggest this book to anyone who loves sports,The Yankees, Billie Holiday, or even loves to read.

Where does he get it? Louise Gehrig is an amazing heroine, and the Manhattan Meteorites are my second favorite team, right after the Mets.

You can tell from "Balls" that Gorman Bechard is a New York Mets fanatic. But I'll forgive him, 'cause the guy writes one heckuva a novel. His lovably loopy story of the first female professional baseballer has a ring of truth, most notably in terms of his view of expansion; the league he concocted back in the early `90s bears a startling similarity to the overstuffed Major League of 1999. If only Mr. Bechard would accept the fact that the Cubs are infinitely superior to his beloved Metsies, I think he'll be just fine...

Not only did the author create an interesting set of characters, but he also created a fully realized vision of baseball in the year 2000 (this was written in 1995). Yogi Berra and Hank Aaron as league presidents; new teams added and others in different cities; standings for all of the teams; and best of all... Baseball Commissioner Dan Quayle.

The book mixes baseball with speculative fiction, a little romance, and some suspense.

A winner all around

Without a doubt, the very best guide to meeting the propoganda of the insurance industry with techniques that help the jury to focus on the case, rather than someone's irrelevant personal agenda. Required reading for all attorneys who represent injured people.

This book is amazing - doesn't matter if you are plaintiff or defense. Its an easy read, creative and entirely worth the money if you want to improve your trial techniques.

There is nothing more difficult for a plaintiff's attorney to do than to decide whether or not to ask the jury to return a specific dollar amount in damages or leave the decision up to the jury. The second most difficult question he/she has is determining how to motivate the jury to return as big a verdict as possible.

Ball does not disappoint in answering these questions. In short, he teaches plaintiff attorneys how to maximize the verdicts they get. For example, he devotes a whole chapter on describing jurors' motivations for giving and how you can get them to do so. Even if you are a defense attorney, this book is essential reading so that you can learn what jurors are interested in and what causes them to reach the decisions they do.

David Ball on Damages is the best book I have ever read on the subject. I have been practicing for 20 years. This book has changed the way I will approach personal injury trials in the future. Other lawyers in my area are just starting to use Mr. Ball's techniques with sucess.

This is one of the finest books written on the subject of obtaining fair and complete damages at trial in an atmosphere of "tort reform"

I waited for this book to be published for months and I wasn't disappointed! Barb gives detailed, clear instructions and drawings. Gorgeous pictures that are close-up to see the stitching. The book is of exceptional quality and very inspirational. A must have book for both the novice and the experienced temari stitcher.

I've been stitching temari, as well as other needle crafts for years. This is by far one of the loveliest instructional books I've ever read. The instructions are clear and concise, good for beginners and well as experienced stitchers. It is also lovely as a coffee table book...great photos and water color art.

I saw this book on display at my local library and checked it out on a whim. I wanted to renew it, but someone had a "hold" on it, so here I am at Amazon because I had to have my own copy! I had never seen or heard of Temari and now I am hooked. This book is beautiful and the intructions are clear enough for a complete beginner like me. The pages are durable and the book lays flat for easy access. I just finished my 7th ball and my sister and daughter made their own balls when they saw mine. I enthousiastically recommend this book, but prepare to be addicted.

This is a BEAUTIFUL temari book! For folks new to the art of temari this book is a complete introduction. For temari artists it is great inspiration! The temari shown are beautifully stitched. The photos are excellent. The directions are easy to follow. Give it a try and be prepared to be addicted to Temari.

This is a great book for the novice stitcher as well as the experienced one. Barb's directions are clear and easy to follow. Her sidebar comments about Temari are what set this book apart from the rest. Her passion for this art comes through with every word.