Breton Books

Toiled over by Zavatsky and Rogow, this book provides the reader a peek into the window of the surreal. The images that Breton creates are brilliant and pulsating, and completely accessible. At times I laughed out loud, other times I wanted to cry, Breton was speaking so close to my heart and mind. I highly recommend it especially on trains and planes.

It's the 1950s in a declining coal town on Nova Scotia's Cape Breton Island. Roddie Gillies, his parents dead, is being raised by his grandfather Calum, a dour carpenter who "walks like a funeral." Nothing is stable: Roddie becomes a young man, the mine closes, and Calum sees the fading not only of the town, but of the Gaelic-speaking world that surrounded it.

Macdonald writes as though telling you the story at his kitchen table, tea in the kettle and oatcakes on the plate. You don't read about the town of Shean, you move through it... and you're moved by it.

Calum's old friend Taurus MacLeod, a hard-drinking miner, is also a poet, and his Cumha nam Méinneadairean ("Lament for the Miners") not only honors those killed in the mine but creates a unique bond between Roddie and his grandfather. The nature of Calum's forest will surprise you, and its fate -- well, for that you have to read the book.

If you need further encouragement, the Toronto Globe and Mail said (12/24/05) that if there's any justice at all in the world, A Forest for Calum will become a Canadian classic.

There's no reason to limit it to Canada.

John McMurry wrote an excellent text book for those that need to or wish to study organic chemistry. The text book goes into detail, citing numerous methods for deriving equations and figuring out reactions. Full color pictures and applications for real life usage also make Organic Chemistry a little easier to understand. Please consider this textbook when shopping for possible methods of studying the PreMed busting Organic Chemistry. Also, one of my Professors is quoted in this book. Really cool!

It would be hard to overpraise this exceptional book. Written by two people who are master practitioners of our grandparents' ways of living as well as master gardeners, this book is a gem!
It is at once a book on gardening (flowers, herbs, fruits & vegetables) and independent living, a book of recipes and remedies, and an arresting narrative of thirty years of work creating a self-sufficient life (and all manner of wonderful gardens) on the bare bones of an old, abandoned farm on Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia. It is also a book of considerable visual beauty, being generously illustrated in vibrant watercolors by Champlain Valley artist Elayne Sears.
I found Gardens of Use and Delight not only meaningful and enjoyable reading, but also a very useful reference for many aspects of flower, herb, fruit and vegetable gardening, and for all manner of things "homemade." The recipes in the chapters, "The Kitchen Garden," "The Contained Garden," and "An Old-Fashioned Fruit Garden" are mouth-watering gems often rescued from the cookbooks of yesteryear (the Herb Salt and Apple Ginger recipes to name two favorites!) And the wisdom and humanity distilled from the lives of these two people who decided to truly live their beliefs is instructive and inspiring.
Perhaps more importantly, though, the book is a reminder of the elements of a rich and healthy life that have been forgotten, if not lost, in these times.
I recommend it highly!

The seller was very understanding when I purchsed the incorrect book and gave me a full refund. The book was sent in a timely matter despite my mispurchase.

When someone visits Los Angeles for the first time one notes many historical landmarks often associated with Los Angeles are gone, The Brown Derby restaurant, Ciros & Trocadeo Nightclubs, Pan Pacific Auditorium, and most recently the tragedy of the destruction of The Ambassador Hotel. This book is priceless as we can see Los Angeles in it's glory days of the 1930's and 40's before a tidal wave of baby boomers in the 1960's and 70's followed by mass arrivals of very poor Mexican and other Latin American migrants and very rich Iranians after the overthrow of the Shah of Iran in 1979 in the 1980's. which over crowded and soiled this once beautiful city, everything in Los Angeles seems dirty now due in large part of the speculative nature of the real estate market making it un necessary for land owners to keep building in good condition as they appreciate any way. A shame that the city did not treasure these Art Deco masterpieces more than the bland strip malls, and fast food restaurants that were built in their place. Anyone who loves Los Angeles must have this book.

I discovered this book at Arizona State University's, Hayden Library when I was in school in 1993 and it totally changed what I thought about literature. Its absolutely intoxicating freedom of creation was like nothing I had ever read except maybe Arthur Rimbaud. This book, I believe, points in the direction of pure human creativity not constrained by logic, form or anything that disconnects us from existence itself. On these roads maybe we can get back to the beginnings, not writing stories but why we write stories, why we scratched on cave walls.

This is a great fiddle book. I've been playing the violin for 9 and a half years and I love playing her tunes. The fun part for me is playing them fast along with Natalie on the CD. I got it for my Mom who plays the violin as well. We are both having so much fun with it. The thing that's great about fiddle is there's no right way to play the music. I like putting my own style into it while other songs, I copy what Natalie does. Guitar chords are also nice addition in this book. You can find more of her music that you can print at, [...]
I recommend this to violin players from 5 to 10+ years.

Deguinet is a truly unique, first person voice. His descriptions of life in Brittany, the families, the survival and the bleakness are worth reading the book in themselves. But there are two other aspects to this man that make the book a treasure.

One is his ability to self-educate. His mastery of language and learning is astonishing. He is a gifted story teller and retained a detailed memory of the most seemingly insignificant moments of his life. He weaves them into a tale that is interesting and relevant.

Additionally, he was an adventurer. Students of the French experience in the Crimea, Morocco and Mexico will enjoy the observations of a "simple" soldier. His descriptions of everyday army life, the appearance and pretension of Napoleon III and Bazanine, among others, is superb reading.

That he ended his life unpublished, alone and destitute adds a dimension to this story. The creativity and ability to understand and form a critical framework with which to explain one's life is rare.

The translation is outstanding. This is gem of a book. It is no wonder that it has been such a success in France.

This wonderful book is the second in the now-classic survey of historic New Orleans architecture. Distinguished by the same painstaking attention to detail as the other volumes, this book concentrates on the sections of the city now known as the Central Busisness District (or CBD) and the Warehouse/Arts District. Given the dramatic changes this section has undergone since the 19th century, this volume is both more valuable historically and perhaps a bit less interesting to the casual reader.

One section of the book is fortunately out of date. A special section highlights the row houses on Julia Street in the Warehouse District, then in sad disrepair, but now gems in that area's redevelopment.

Despite the towering skyscrapers lining Poydras Street and the gleaming hotel towers down by the river, this book calls our attention to what remains: the exuberant architectural display of a Victorian bank building or the shockingly vibrant facade of a Canal Street storefront. Through its thoughtful scholarship and careful display of maps, historic images and contemporary photograph, this book (likes its sisters in the series) is an inviting glimpse into the past for the careful reader.