Barry Books

The simple wisdom of this story is timeless. It reminds us of the abundant circle of life. I was given this book as a gift in 1997 by the dearest of friends and display it as art, read it as heart truth and cherish it because I know the inspiration of the message and the spirited author. This book is for people of all ages and is a beautiful and must have for anyone's collection.

When I was given The Little Stream by Barry Ellsworth as a gift, I didn't know that I was in for such a treat. I don't believe I have ever read a book that makes me feel so good - that just speaks to my heart, assuring me that everything will be okay no matter what. The story itself is healing and every time I read it I find a deeper meaning. I didn't know that so much could be learned about life simply from viewing life from the perspective of a small stream. What a gift Mr. Ellsworth has given the world. This is a book that all parents should read to their children as often as they can. It is more than a story, it is a philosophy for living a happy life

This book addresses the worth and goodness of all of us, not just the Little Stream. It addresses the process all of us go through to realize our goodness and to share those gifts. Some of us because of abuse or non-recognition of our goodness stay in that process a little longer.

In the tradition of "The Giving Tree," this story is a powerful metaphor on the joy that comes from sharing our strengths and talents with all that surrounds us. A "children's" book that teaches altruism to a selfish world. The natural water cycle serves as an analogue to life, from infancy to old age, as the stream contributes to a world lacking (nearly devoid) of life giving love. The story is touching, and the illustrations are beautiful. This is a book that could, and should be read over and over to children and adults alike

I teach children, ages 6 months to 6 years water safety and survival swimming lessons. I rate this book very high. The author does a great job in touching upon the emotions a child has when learning to swim. Start your child in water safety & survival lessons early, before the age of 4! Read this book over and over to your child before and during swim lessons - it gives you an opportunity to talk with your child about his emotions in swimming. This book is a must for every home.

I read this charming, encouraging book to two unrelated neighbors - a 5 year old girl and a 7 year old boy. Before we put the book down, both children said that they wanted to take swimming lessons! The art work is delightful and the message is positive and easy to digest. I highly recommend this book to relatives and friends of young children.

This smartly written and lushly illustrated book is a genuine winner. Luca is a book for parents and children who are just getting their toes wet (ha ha)by beginning swimming lessons. The drawings are beautiful; crisp and detailed. While the text is written to allay much of the anxiety little ones have in the water. There aren't any other books like this one. A truly lovely book for the whole family.

Our 4-year old son loves this book. It mirrors a lot of what he went through when he was learning to swim. It gives positive reinforcement and encouragement to children if they are anxious about swimming. The pictures are beautifully drawn.

I was slightly disappointed with this book, as it is really a compendum of Gifford's previous books: "A Good Man To Know," "The Phantom Father." "Wyoming," "The Stars Above Veracruz." There is very little that is actually new here. It's semi-autobiographical memoir about his childhood growing up in the south and mid-west in the absence of his father (who died when he was 12). Having said that, I liked the stories here all the same, as I am an avid Gifford reader. Reading these stories a second (or third time in my case) reminds me what a genius he is.

Most enjoyable! On a recent road trip, a friend and I listened to the entire 2-CD recording and put many a mile behind us while absorbed in the growing-up experiences of Roy, a kid in 1950s-era Chicago. People are what they are in Roy's world -- no apologies, just the facts, and Roy is watching every move. As the stories take Roy from age five to 17, what he observes and expeirences is sometimes sad; sometimes it's hilarious. It's told in Mr. Gifford's clean and direct style, and in a way that's unsentimental but essentially kind. If, as other reviewers have said, this book repeats material that is in other books (much of it autobiographical, it would seem), this is the one to get. Or maybe it's time to hear them in this context, where each story stands on its own, and at the same time all are linked in tone and chronology to form a single narrative.
Some authors are better than others at reading their own work aloud, and Barry Gifford is one of the good ones. He avoids putting an emotional spin on the material, in keeping with the unjudgmental way the stories are written. Instead, his calm, matter-of-fact tone lets the listener decide how to think about the stories.
The production is seamless. One thing I'm really curious about is the snippets of wonderful music beween the stories. They are most evocative and my friend and I agreed we'd like to hear a compilation of the complete songs. The liner notes say it's all original music from producer Oscar Bucher, so next I'll have to find some of his recordings.

I've been a fan of Barry Gifford's work since I was introduced to the beautiful "Wyoming" and "The Phantom Father" some years back. Both of these had a tone and tenderness I don't come across very often, though I read a lot of new fiction. Gifford's new collection, "Memories from a Sinking Ship", was just released this year, and if you liked the two earlier books, you'll be happy to slip back into Gifford's childhood world of 1940's and 50's America. As far as I know, this is the first time an audiobook of Gifford reading his stories has been released, but it's a great companion to the novel. For people familiar with the stories, it's a real treat to have, and if you're new to them, this is a unique introduction.

Memories from a Sinking Ship
Wyoming
Phantom Father: A Memoir
The Stars Above Veracruz
The Rooster Trapped in the Reptile Room: A Barry Gifford Reader

This collection of Barry Gifford's stories from his "Memories from a Sinking Ship," is a perfect introduction to Gifford's work and a must for his many fans. The double CD, excellently produced by Oscar Blucher, has Gifford reading his own work, a treat since we can hear the nuances of tone and timing and the continual dead pan humor straight from the author's mouth. The stories were always alive but now they seem almost to have been made to have been read aloud. Of all of Gifford's books, this is the best. We follow Gifford's alter-ego Roy as he attempts to grow up in a world that Frank Sinatra would have been perfectly at home in- gangsters, ballpayers, blues singers, hip hotels, Chicago, New Orleans, Havana, Miami, Key West, a world of loneliness, violence, and surprising tenderness. ("Say hello to Mr.[i.e. Meyer] Lansky, Roy.") Between driving around the country with his mother as she goes from one boyfriend to another, Roy sometimes attends school, but his education comes mostly from other arenas, movie theaters, hotel lobbies, Wrigley Field, cheap paperbacks and classic novels- Ernie Banks and Ernie Hemingway. Joseph Conrad and Joseph Cotten. In paintings from the middle-ages children are portrayed as miniature adults and Roy is treated this way by the adults in the stories. They confide in him, speak to him like an adult, and are forever leaving him waiting alone in theaters and hotel lobbies or at his grandma's rat infested house, while they go off to their crooked businesses and assignations. Yet somehow we see that Roy is going to make it out of this world, he will grow up on his own, and all these crazy and violent and touching street people will become a rich source of characters and life experiences for him (and perhaps for his stories if, like Gifford, he becomes a writer.) Gifford began by telling Chicago stories and we have reason to be grateful that he has come full circle, for, to paraphrase T.S. Eliot, now he knows the place for the second time. He's an excellent reader as well as writer and all I can say is: Move over Nelson Algren, Barry Gifford is back in town.

It is a good book, but not great as his another one: Rock and Royalty, Versace/Avedon. If you are a fan of Versace, then it's worth to buy one.

was supermodel Marcus Schenkenberg on the cover. That's why I brought it home! But when I opened it up, I was thrilled to see that every photo was marvelous and artful. Kudos and love to the late Versace, who created this brilliant piece of art.

If you're a female (or well, at least a gay), better brace yourself and get ready for a glossy, eye-filling page after page of the finest young men ever born and bred in the whole world! Those sexy studs are very artfully depicted here in a stylish vein by a very creative fashion designer like Gianni Versace and most of them are quite scantily-clad and some of them even completely naked. A very bold and unconventional piece of art that you can find on any coffee table! Too bad this handsome album is just plain too expensive for me to merely pluck right off a bookstore shelf!

Okay, the males are stylish and handsome both--possessed of muscles, adorned with Versace's jubilant, expressionistic attire. But there's more expressionism in the photos themselves. I know of no other book where visual images (here, photos) are not just presented 1-2-3 in static procession, but where portions are repeated--echoed later on--blended with following photos--in a creative interweaving which can only be "art" in the definition of "dynamic combination of symmetry or order, and asymmetry or tension." A beach scene appears, then is blended with another scene later. And interblended with the written text, too. Rare is this twin-starring of word and image, plus this permutation-and-combination of images. Only in comics do word and image so vitally interact. So check out this book for its design-artistry, as well as its aesthetic dudes.....

I work in an analytical lab and usually borrow my texts from the Univ. of WA library in Tacoma rather than have my corporation buy them. This text is easy to read and comprehensive. I showed it to our senior scientist asking if our company should buy this text instead of borrowing it. He looked through it and said yes, that it's always good to have good references.

This book is an excelent reference source for all aspects of modern GC analysis. It covers topics in great depth but is still easy to read for less expirienced chromatographers. The important parameters are covered in depth (column, optimization, inlet systems) providing enough information to solve most problems. The end of the book has several chapters on application specific techniques such as pharmaceutical or petrochemical analysis. You will probably learn more from this book then you would taking a short course on the subject, and the cost is much less.

One of the most useful reference book in gas chromatography. The book is written in a fashion that is easy to understand by novice and experienced chromatographers. Wonderful details about mechanism of separations, valuable information on flash vapourization process, and the utilities of the various detectors. All in all, a must have book for those who seriously like to be good in gas chromatography

This book is comprehensive and comprehensible. The information presented is quite current. An excellent job was done updating for the latest edition. The references listed appear thorough, allowing for further investigation of a particular subject of interest. Good balance of theoretical explanation, and also inclusion of commercially available technology. Highly recommended

A few years ago I was able to visit Mustique on assignment and lived there for two weeks. I have lost count of how many Caribbean countries and islands I have visited over the years, but Mustique is simply different. Yes, we all know that many of the rich and famous have holiday homes there but that is largely all we know about this small island with its air of mystery.

What we don't tend to appreciate is that those rich and famous people are not able to visit Mustique as often as they might otherwise wish and that their homes are let and managed for them during those long absences. A percentage of the income from these lettings is then channelled back into the island. Consequently, Mustique is not only well kept, has pretty decent roads but the local inhabitants have schools and medical facilities not seen elsewhere.

In this book, Roger Vaughan sets out to explain the island by simply telling the reader all about it. It is a large, thick "coffee table" book full of the most beautiful photographs one might ever wish to see about a single place. As a professional photographer, may I say, the images are stunning. Not only are they of the highest quality, the underlying theme for all seven contributing photographers was surely "colour." Their approach has succeeded in portraying a very colourful image about a very bright place.

This is a great book about a fascinating island. When one considers that one of those photographer was the late, and very much missed, Patrick Lichfield, you start to get some sort of idea about what went into producing such a worthwhile product as this book.

And, by the way, Mustique does have its own shipwreck. The Antilles was a cruise liner - well it would have to be wouldn't it, this is Mustique, after all!

NM

This book is a wonder. And I mean just that. It's about people who have second or third or fourth homes on an island that has been purposefully developed to house them in privacy and various definitions of splendour. Not exactly appealing to all, right? But this book IS appealing, it's the embodiment of the capitalist dream: get the money and THEN what do you do with it? Build or buy a house on Mustique. BEST is the text, a well-written account of how this all happened. And the PHOTOGRAPHS are lovely, chosen to evoke the mood. Yes, the book is expensive (no where nearly as the real estate!), but it's worth every penny. May not be my dream, but it a serious chronicle of some important other dreams in the late 20th/early 21st century.

This is an excellently written book about one of the world's most expensive "developments," a scrub island turned into a multi-millionaires' paradise. Mr. Vaughan has done a masterful job of capturing the whimsy and the vision (albeit sometimes slightly cock-eyed) of the man who dreamed this all up, as well as bits of the lives of those who are now availing themselves of the private, secure, and demonstrably exquisitely beautiful end result. The photographs are lovely, this is an altogether great book to have lying around on any cofee table; it's sure to spark conversation ("is that really Mick Jagger?" et cetera).

I think this book captures the true essence of the island of Mustique. It shown all the wonderful beaches and the beautiful water. I believe that the photos of the people that live on the island and the photos of their town make Mustique a place I would want to visit for years to come.

Anyone who has children and cats should easily relate to the tribulations of Nick and Nora, two much put-upon felines who somehow are able endure regular humiliation at the hands of two well-intentioned little girls who, fortunately, are oblivious to the frayed nerves of their furry playmates. My daughter loves the great pictures of the cats and their expressions of exasperation and disgust. It is not at all unusual to see the same expressions on our own persecuted kitties, sometimes only minutes later, as a result of Helen's carryings on. This book never fails to bring a smile to my face.

This is the cute story of two little girls, Emmie and Isabelle, and their adventures with their reluctant playmates, the cats Nick and Nora. The children's activities include playing school with the cats and dressing the cats in doll's clothes. After deciding that today is the cats' "birthday", Isabelle and Emmie give them a party -- including some big dogs as the guests! It isn't until the children take the cats out for a walk in a doll carriage that a neighbor's nasty cat, Fluffy, decides to chase Nick and Nora. The cats take off! But Emmie and Isabelle know how to get them to come back.

This book is hilarious. The little girls' innocent unawareness and the cats' long-suffering attitudes makes this book funnier at every reading. My daughter loved this story when I first bought for her years ago, and even though she's now in middle school, I still have this book. It's a keeper.

A book this wonderful should never go out of print -- but yes, it's out of print so buy one quick! My toddler daughter loves this book and so do I. Both text and illustrations are excellent, humorous, and lovingly done. Isabelle Harper and Barry Moser wrote/illustrated another book we love -- "Our New Puppy" (cat lovers will enjoy the cat "subplot" in this book). It's also out of print now -- grab a copy while you can. (We have the other Harper/Moser book in this little series, "My Dog Rosie", but we don't like it quite as much. The little girl in that book is younger and that might appeal to some toddler "readers", though.)

I'm ordering this book after checking it out of the library 4 times. It is my daughter's favorite book, and it's so beautiful I don't mind reading it over and over (at least not as much as other books).

It's a very simple narrative, but I have seen my daughter play with our cats in the same ways Isabelle and Emmie play with Nick and Nora--I think that must be some of the appeal. The illustrations are simply beautiful--they capture the mood of both girls and cats, and the use of light is sublime.

Thank you, Lynda, for sharing your talent and emotion with us. This book let me know I was not insane when I felt like crap and let me (no MADE me) cry about it. I also shared Maybonne's recovery and continued confusion and frustration with the jerks of the world. Read this book and everything else Lynda Barry does!

Much like the content of her "ernie pook's comeek", Lynda Barry's "My Perfect Life" is more than just a cartoon, it is literature. The book sucks you into the lives of its complex and appealing characters until you are experiencing and caring about what happens to them. Sometimes hilarious and sometimes sad, this is a wonderful book.

Lynda Barry comics are the best. That's it. This whole book (and also Come Over, Come Over) blew my mind when I read them and made me really happy that someone could make the horible crap I was feeling seem actually funny, sometimes in a kind of sick way, but I read the books over and over and they never failed to please

You will think that Lynda has been reading your diary, when you were sure you had the key in your locket. You will see that she understands your every whim because she has been through childhood as her reincarnated self so many times that she can see the inside of your skin and learned how to draw all the veins, the fascinating glorious horror of them, of popping pimples and peeling glue from your palms, falling in like and off your bike, she will make you shudder as earwax, scabs, and floating fish, with the same feeling as the urge you get to colour everything around you in, even in your office pants. In this way reading her work is like being becoming absorbed in a page of someone's first scribbles. You will know that Lynda has been reading your diary, and then you might actually smile, at how she deserves access to it becuase you just have to admit that she can make more out of it than you can

I appreciated your quick service, and your kind consideration of the distance. The book was in marvelous shape. I sure recommend your service.

This is by far the finest and most well-organized of all the Negotiations books I've seen over the past 5 years. I teach Negotiations at a graduate business school, and my students have consistently raved about how well the book mirrors real life for them in their companies - and how accurate the cases are.
When I use the cases for teaching, the dynamics bring out major teaching points, and (here's that word again) consistently provide additional discussion among them ... as well as put them in artificial situations that elicit genuine emotions - making the negotiations "real-world".
I hope the author (Lewicki) continues with future editions. His book makes my job easier, and helps educate the students with narrative and cases far better.
It's NOT just for teaching ... others have read it as "just" a book talking about Negotiations ... and they enjoy it as much as I do.
I have recommended him (and this book) to anyone who's asked.
John Baxter, Adjunct Professor of Management
Aquinas College,
Grand Rapids, Michigan
written August 2007

In my work as an attorney and mediator, and as a lecturer in negotiation and negotiation competition coach, I have read all of the "great" negotiation books written since "Getting to Yes". This 5th edition of "Negotiation" is head and shoulders above the rest of the crowd in a very crowded field.

The book is well-organized and well-researched, with and exellent bibliography and index. Of probably the greatest interest to most readers is Part 1, consisting of separate paragraphs treating in depth the nature of negotiation, the strategy and tactics of distributive bargaining, the strategy and tactics of integrative bargaining and negotiation strategy and planning. By looking at distributive and integrative bargaining as separate processes with their own goals and preparations, the authors have given us a useful diagnostic tool in appraching a negotiation situation.

I also appreciated the excellent treatment given to negotiation subprocesses and contexts and insights into rezolving the inevitable differences that arise in a negotiation.

Even though it is only 526 pages, this is a negotiation tome. I have read the entire book and re-read many portions. There is so much interesting and useful information that unless the book is read deliberately and without undue delay it will be easy to forget most of what is covered. For a refresher, the reader should consider "Essentials of Negotiation" by the same authors.

Currently taking a Negotiation course at Northwestern U. in Chicago. This book was the required text and a favorite of the professor. It covers more ground than most, giving a comprehensive look at the process of negotiation. It teaches you the importance of preparation and how to go about it. It covers negotiation strategies and what you need to consider when developing yours. Lastly, it covers the different problems that can arise with people and situations and how to best handle those.

Overall, a good book for someone wishing to learn more about negotiation and bargaining.

Barry Neil Kaufman has written many inspirational and moving books and this one is no exception. In this one, he provides readers with descriptions of his life with his father and how he would later apply Option approaches in his own life. I just love this book.

It is about moving mountains; building bridges; inspiring hope and reinforcing joy. This book is like a beautiful sunrise - bright, new, fresh and hopeful. It might even make you cry. It makes me think of Mike & the Mechanics' 1989 hit "The Living Years" which is about a father and son who initially don't see eye to eye. This book is about how a father and son converted a strained relationship into an openly loving one. As a father, Barry Neil Kaufman is, from all accounts an extremely loving person. That comes through in his writings and in the things his family says.

This book generates new hope of the possibilities and options available in restoring and repairing relationships. The entire tone of the book is gentle and positive. If you are looking for a good place to take away some life lessons, then this book is for you.

No Regrets is Barry Neil Kaufman's best book yet. It not only tells the story of he and his father, it is full of Option life lessons. I love it. An inspiring story of the transformation of a once distant and difficult relationship into a warm and loving bond between an adult son and his father. Struggle and discord are replaced with openness, kindness and ease. No Regrets teaches by example and thoughtful reflection the possibility of building bridges and deepening relationships which might have once seemed impossible. In his embrace of core positive and powerful beliefs, Barry Neil Kaufman truly imparts remarkable life lessons that are a fabulous gift to us all.

No Regrets has moved me in so many ways. I loved being part of Barry Neil Kaufman's experience, through this book, as he reconciled with his estranged father at the announcement of his dad's terminal illness. I really appreciate how he turns challenges into opportunities, how he models that one can change beliefs in an instant, and how and why to give control to our aging, ill, or dying parents.

I'm so glad I read this book before I have to face the same experience. Now I know I'll be with my parents in a way that is honoring to them, honoring to me, and I know that it will be an opportunity to deepen our relationship. But why wait? I'll put these principles to work right now.

I highly recommend this book.

This books emphasizes the opportunities presented when the challenge of facing the death of a loved one knocks at your door. Instead of focusing on the need to grieve, the Author explores the beautiful relationship that can develope in the final years, months, weeks or days between family members that can serve to heal the wounds of life. This book is a must for anyone who is either approaching or going through the illness or death of a loved one. I will recommend it to every single person close to me as a must read!