Boyd Books

From a creative thinking/problem solving standpoint, this is a excellent resource. From a opportunity finding viewpoint, it's quite disappointing, personally speaking. Although the coverage on the aspect of creative thinking is very broad and somewhat deep in many respects, with good, useful strategies/techniques and examples to follow, it does not offer much in terms of opportunity finding approaches for the business reader. For that, you need to buy and read Michel Robert's "Innovation Formula", and/or Edward de Bono's "Opportunities", and/or & Nigel MacLennan "Opportunity Finding." Neverthesless, this book is still worthwhile to be bought/read and kept in your personal library. Reading it is like reading many creative thinking books in one go. The author drew a lot - I mean really a lot - of creativity stuff from other books.

All of the books I have read by Georgia Heard are very creative and fun and easy. These poems just flow from the beggining to end. They are simple to read yet bring on complex thoguhts. I recommend this book to anyone who'd like to read poems and just relax.

A Croft in the Hills is a must read book for anyone interested in the highland crofting way of life. Writing with vivid memory and great skill, Katherine Stewart draws on her many many years working a croft, and infuses the text with a passion and interest which keeps you turning the pages, something which is a rare commodity in many books these days. An incredible woman, now at the age of 92, she is still writing and publishing books full of life and much gathered wisdom. Top class.

Ive just been lent a copy of Cruising the Movies from a friend who found a copy in the Sydney City Library. The chapter on Nick Nolte is enough for me to buy a copy from Amazon whatever the price. And this description of Italian westerns says it all:

"The main problem was probably that Italian westerns were made by cast-offs of all nations and dialogue was dubbed after filming, seemingly by any old cab driver or telephone operator who happened to be passing by the dubbing studio when a little speech was needed."

The articles are mainly from Christopher Street pre 1985 by Boyd McDonald and are definitely politically incorrect and hilarious.

My daughters, ages 4 and 2.5, are big fans of the books written by Lorianne Siomades. The bright colors are eye catching, the rhyming text featuring large font is easy to read. As a parent I am constantly searching for books that are not only fun to read but educational as well. In this book, I encourage my girls to "help Cuckoo and his friends find the things they are looking for." For example, "Stork can't find his fork." My girls are thrilled when they find the green fork "hidden" in the green swamp grass. Cuckoo can't find you? Surprise! The last page has a shiny plastic mirror in which the reader can see her own reflection. Definitely recommended reading!

This has been one of the most requested bedtime-story books at my house. It's a great tale and is wonderfully illustrated. Daisy, tired of the humdrum farm life, seeks adventure in the big city and lands a job as a fire cow. But only temporarily. As soon as a dalmation shows up, Daisy is to be fired! That is, until Daisy proves to the fire chief that she's got what it takes in a most heroic adventure. We look forward to more Daisy adventures!

Emily Howard wasn't having a particularly good day. She tried on her older sister's bonnet only to have it snatched by her brother's goat. Then, the dogs chased a cat through the house creating a trail of mess that included the spilling of Emily's guaranteed freckle remover.

So Mama, in order to try to have a little peace and quiet, sent the youngsters out to pick blackberries (not a chore they enjoyed). It seemed like the day wasn't improving until a brightly painted wagon carrying a photographer arrived.

Now, taking a photo of the Howard family was, to say the least, a challenge for the photographer. However, it's a lot of fun to read about.

Faye Gibbons has done a worthy job of recreating life on a farm during the turn of the 20th century. Sun washed illustrations enhance the text, especially the portraits of red-haired, freckle faced Emily.

- Gail Cooke

From front jacket:

"Rolling Thunder is an American Indian medicine man -- spiritual leader, philosopher, and acknowledged spokesman for the Cherokee and Shoshone tribes. As medicine man, or shaman, he is guardian of a wealth of secret and mysterious knowledge that has been passed down through countless Indian generations. This knowledge includes the power to cure disease and heal wounds, to find and use medicinal herbs, to make rain, to perform exorcisms, to transport objects through the air, to communicate with other medicine men unaided by telephones. These awe-inspiring powers come out of the medicine man's unique and special relationship with nature, with what can only be called a 'spirit of the earth.'

This remarkable book is a record of an attempt to learn something about the sources of the medicine man's powers. With Rolling Thunder's full cooperation, Doug Boyd, a researcher with the prestigious Menninger Clinic, watched a healing ceremony in which a a man's deeply infected leg wound was cured in full view of an international audience of scientists and doctors; got caught in a violent desert thunderstorm which was apparently caused by Rolling Thunders' poking a certain kind of beetle with a stick; participated in an herb-gathering where bees were clearly seen to leave the flowers before they were picked so as not to get in the way; and learned how to avoid being bitten by mosquitoes. Boyd is absolutely convinced that Rolling Thunder's powers are real.

While research scientists at Menninger and elsewhere are trying to establish rules by which powers like these can be measured and evaluated, Rolling Thunder and other Indians are responding to an ancient prophecy which declares that 'when the children of the white men dress like Indian's it would be time to reveal some of the secrets. Rolling Thunder knows that much healing science, as well as the spiritual values that westerners have been seeking (so far unsuccessfully) in the Orient, are concealed within traditional Indian culture. In this book Doug Boyd offers himself as a bridge between the scientists and the medicine men to convey the Indians' message that the key to our very survival on earth may be in the hands of this culture that white American has tried so mercilessly to destroy."

Have you ever been asked a question by a kid, to which you did not know the answer, or weren`t sure how to answer? Anyone who has or works with children will answer, "Yes!" This is an excellent place to find those answers, plus a few more for those questions they have not asked... yet. I even learned a thing or two: like why wheels appear to be rotating backwards, when the vehicle is going forwards. There are colorful illustrations and easy to understand but not over-simplified answers, as well as a helpful index at the end.

Doll is a deceptively simple book: the writing is direct and elegant, the narrative immediate and page-turning, and before you know it, you are knee-deep in a disturbing, yet rich and emotionally challenging place. The subject matter is taboo and yet the main character, Thea, is so strongly drawn that you catch yourself finding her situation sympathetic, even momentarily natural. It is an ambitious topic for a first novel, but also funny (if you have a bit of a dark sense of humor) and weirdly romantic.

The title actually gives a great sense of how the book mixes genres and emotions. Dolls are cute and childish, but we've all seen enough films to know that they're also uncanny, somehow creepy. That mixture of the familial and the unfamiliar, the safe and the dangerously awry, plays out in a sophisticated and satisfying way here.