Brian Books

Reclaiming the Commons is an excellent read for anyone interested in the natural history of New England, community farming, open space issues, and the value of farms in the landscape. This is a well written, thoughtful book that offers an inspiring vision for a future of locally produced food, protected farmland, and community involvement that farms help to create.

OUTSTANDING!Very impressive! Pointed, engaging, and inspiring from the get-go. And extraordinarily well-written -- my innate and involuntary tendency to mentally edit anything I'm reading was off in another county someplace.

This book,written by a newcomer in the environmental landscape, will become a landmark. It points the way to transform the suburban way of life into one that is sustainable.This it would do by converting suburban open spaces into community sanctuaries for agriculture,husbandry and forestry, administered by suburbanites themselves,especially by their youngsters.The great strength of the proposals is that they have been demonstrated to work by the author and his associates in the upscale Boston suburb of Weston. Another plus is the grace and humor with which the book is blessed.

In Reclaiming the Commons, Brian Donahue has given us a remarkable portrait of a thriving community farm in Weston, Massachusetts called Land's Sake. In 1980 the nonprofit organization Land's Sake was formed in Weston, a suburb of Boston, to work closely with the town's Conservation Commission on managing and using the town's growing public land. Its three founding principles were to care ecologically for Weston's land, to involve the community and especially young people with the land, and to be as self-supporting as possible through the sale of products and services. By thinking of the land as a rural space that could "benefit from our presence, rather than need to be protected from us," they opened the possibility that they could engage suburban youth with the land and produce high-quality natural products for local sale, offering ample educational and recreational activities while striking "a balance between protecting natural ecosystems and making sustainable, productive use of the land."

Land's Sake sends about one-fifth of their fresh organic produce to Boston's homeless shelters and food pantries, as well as sponsoring a Harvest for Hunger every September, thus ensuring that their surplus finds an assured wholesale market (the town pays the price to send the food to the inner city) which benefits the disadvantaged and disenfranchised in the nearby urban areas. Donahue shows that suburbia "is the condition of residing outside the city proper with little functional connection to one's neighbors, aside from the schools, and almost no functional connection to the land," and he shows that community farms on common land offer a vibrant opportunity to keep farmland from being lost to development, and to transform the suburban condition from alienation to connection. This is a surprisingly powerful and exciting book that will show suburban and city readers how to become more connected to their land and to their source of food.

Pascoe and Ellie arrive in Thorton Lacey for a reunion with four old friends. They discover three of their friends brutally murdered and the fourth gone missing. Is he dead also, or a suspect in the murders? Hill's descriptive powers are exceptional and they put you squarely into each scene. One of my favorites was, "Above the thatched roof a flock of television aerials parted the morning breeze and serenely sang their triumph over charm and Tudory". Intelligence and subtle humor infuse the whole story. The mystery spins irresistibly to the final pages and the ending leaves you with a smile.

Reginald Hill has the English detective genre locked up, and that is apparent with this, the third book in the Dalziel and Pascoe sereis. This is a complex book, and it has a lot of characters, so it's sometimes hard to keep them straight as well as all the plots and counterplots. The book is an example of two separate plot strings that come, ineveitably together. Make no mistake. Hill is a clever writer, and his books need to be read a little differently than a lot of others in this genre. Otherwise, you will get lost in the complexity. This book gives us an up-close and personal look at Peter Pascoe as murder touches him and the ones he cares about. I highly recommend this book.

Reginald Hill's detective stories are always an enjoyable combination of complex plots, well-developed characters, and lots of gossipy details of contemporary English village life. The only thing that keeps this from being a 5-star rating is that Pascoe is so closely linked to the victims and suspects that it is darker and lacks some of the humor of other books in this series. It's probably not the best of Hill's books for someone new to his detectives. Read another Reginald Hill first (you can't go wrong with any of them), then come back to this one when you know the main characters a little better.

Having renewed his relationship with college girlfriend Ellie Soper, Detective Peter Pascoe re-establishes contact with other school friends, who invite Ellie and Peter to spend a long weekend in the country with them. Work detains Peter, so that when Ellie and Peter arrive at the cottage, they find all their frinds brutally murdered, except for their host, who is missing.
Peter is out of his jurisdiction and on the other side of the witness table, trying desperately to convince his colleagues that his friend can't be the murderer.
Meanwhile Ellie does some investigating of her own, in which she finds an unexpected ally, the cop she detests, Superintendent Andy Dalziel.
If you have enjoyed later Dalziel and Pascoe books, don't miss this earlier effort. There are some great character developing scenes in this book, especially for Ellie and Dalziel.

For starters I bought this book used from Amazon. Slight tears on the cover but a $50 book for $3, I couldn't pass it up. I'm glad I didn't. Even for $50 I would think the book would be worth it, but that is my opinion.

The pictures and the explanation of the history behind this car are very detailed. Almost 200 high quality pages full of great pictures and information from the very history of the rotary motor to the prototype Rx-8. This book was written in 2001, so the Rx-8 was a fairly new idea. The book goes through and explains every rotary powered car Mazda produced and explains a bit about the motorsports aspect as well.

Like in some of the older reviews, They could have spent a little more time in the buyer's guide section. Even though they explained a lot of good points, there is much more to know before purchasing this car.

For any Rx-7 enthusiasts out there, I would recommend this book for their spare time (when they are not out driving).

This book is a MUST HAVE for any RX-7 enthusiast! There is a wealth of new information that is ONLY in this book and nowhere else, and I have 'em all :).

If you've read the Mazda RX-7: Sports Car Color History book, this book is along the same lines and format. Where the big difference lies is the non-US specific focus of the information; model changes and lineups for Japan, the US, and the UK are covered, along with TONS of color photographs, reproductions of ads, and more.

The information in the book is VERY well researched and extremely accurate, which is asking quite a lot due to the breadth of the subject.

This is a fine reference work on the history of the RX-7. The "newness" of the book is a plus, since it covers the newer 3rd generation cars that are only for sale in Japan as well as photos and information on the upcoming RX-8. This information is not in *any* of the other RX-7 books.

Get it now!

Great book, all of the history is there. Worth geting, also makes a cool table book. lots of pics, and info on the Wankle rotary. only thing is it lacks a longer buyers guide. oh well, still A+.

An absolutely amazing book. Some of the most in-depth insight into this superb production automobile. It covers the inception of Mazda (and the effects of WWII on the company - based in Hiroshima) to the modern developments of the RX-8 and the Renesis engine (and a wealth of RX-7 facts in between).

If you have ever wondered about the history, evolution, and the future of this impressive sportscar... Here is the source of your answers (has great photos, too!).

Essential book if you want to visit sacred sites in Wisconsin. It's organized by region and religion or type of site. They give brief accurate description of the location and why it is important, along with contact info. I'd especially recommend it to anyone living in Wisconsin or neighboring states. It's great for weekend road trips.

Sacred Sites of Wisconsin will remind people of childhood trips to Holy Hill or the Dickeyville Grotto. What a great opportunity to think back on churches and other places that mean so much to us. And what a great opportunity to visit them again!

In Sacred Sites Of Wisconsin, John-Brian and Teresa Paprock effectively collaborate to profile over 400 places around the state of Wisconsin that are known for worship and pilgrimage, ranging from churches, temples, and synagogues to cemeteries, effigy mounds, and retreat centers. Each location has its history described, along with what makes it sacred and all the information a traveler will need to find and enjoy it, such as contact hours, location, and phone number. Sacred Sites Of Wisconsin contains nearly 80 photographs of its many destinations, and maps of each reason. A superb reference for anyone seeking to take a spiritual journey within Wisconsin, no Wisconsin community library state reference collection would be complete with the inclusion of John-Brian and Teresa Paprock's Sacred Sites Of Wisconsin.

Sacred Sites of Wisconsin is a complete guide to buildings, places and natural areas that are or have been considered sacred in Wisconsin. Inclusive in its approach, it showcases the diversity of beliefs that are a part of Wisconsin heritage.

This guide will be of interest to spiritual seekers, historians, and those who might want to expand their knowledge of their own faith and its heritage in the state.

Best of all, Sacred Sites is a guidebook, meant to be kept in the car for quick reference. It includes contact information, hours and directions for the sites.

Sacred Sites would also make a great holiday gift for those with an interest in the sacred.

Since receiving this book as a gift, I have bought many more to pass on as gifts. The words are poetic and the pictures are beautiful as the author tells the wonderful story of St. Francis (and a bit about St. Clare, too)!

Prolific author and illustrator, Brian Wildsmith, presents a beautiful book for children of all ages. The lavish art work is beautiful and extremely detailed for a young persons book, so therefore, people of all ages can appreciate this rich story of St. Francis. The author tells how St. Francis gave up his worldly possessions and dedicated his life to helping the poor, his love of God and all it's creatures. His repair of the church at San Damiano(at God's suggestion), his various soujourns preaching the word of God, his meeting with the Pope and his time in prison are all included in this abbreviated biography of the great St. Francis of Assisi. The Franciscan Order later took his message of love to all parts of the Earth. Naturally his special relationship with animals is a highlight of the book and children will undoubtedly find this particularly interesting. The art work is just marvelous and may be shared with the young reader to discover all the intricate details on each page. For those children just establishing a vocabulary it is especially useful for playing the "what do you see" game with the art work. Recommended for personal, community, grade school and church libraries.

A beautiful book that tells about a man who has so much love to give. Just what the world needs now, an antidote to hatrid and war and the evildoers that push them.

I could tell that the author and illustrator, Brian Wildsmith has a special affection for this saint. Indeed, Brian's appreciation for St. Francis comes through every picture he has painted for this book. The paintings take up the whole of the pages. The cover of the book is a good example of the detail and joy which is throughout the paintings of this book. I am not one for enjoying art, but I could not help but look at the art of each page before I read the words on it. Brian then has added about 4 lines of story to each of his 9" by 12 inch pages. It is as though the words on the page - the story - serves as a label for the painting of the page, rather than the painting simply illustrating the words. Unique to this book is the fact that the words are written in the first person "I" rather than the third person and it tells a story that children, as well as adults, are sure to love as much as they love the pictures. It is a wonderfully beautiful book.

This book was valuable as an aspiring educational leader. The 21 responsibilities were extremely valuable in understanding the role that an educational leader must take on. The down side was the statistical calculation which without having had stats in some time made understanding the rationale behind some of the data more challenging. I would still recommend though!

I had asked to borrow this book from friends and was turned down. So I finally picked up my own copy and I was not disappointed. It is a good book, practical, short and concise for us busy administrators. I recommend it.

In this book, Robert Marzano, the most effective force in educational reform today, continues his efforts to promote excellence in schools. Here, he and his colleagues turn their attention to defining school leadership behaviors and actions that raise student achievement. They blend practical advice and research to come up with specific steps that school leaders can take to see that students improve academically.

Marzano et al found that there are 21 leadership responsibilities that have a statistically significant relationship with student achievement. All are important, but the three most correlated with achievement are (1) Situational Awareness (of the specific school situation and good use of this information), (2) Flexibility (to adapt to the specific situation and to handle dissent), and (3) (tied) Discipline (to protect teachers from undue distractions), Outreach (as advocate and spokesperson for the school), and Monitoring/Evaluation (creating a system that provides feedback on effectiveness).

They classified previous efforts at school change into two types. First-Order Change is incremental, a step-by-step pattern. Second-Order Change is sudden reversal of pattern or direction, anything but incremental. Both change processes can be effective, and both require different behaviors by school leaders. The three most effective behaviors for First-Order Change are (1) Monitoring/Evaluating, (2) Culture (building a positive culture that influences teachers), and (3) Ideals/Beliefs (leader's well-articulated ideals and beliefs). The three most important behaviors for Second-Order Change are (1) Knowledge of Curriculum, Instruction, and Assessment, (2) Optimizer (optimism as a critical characteristic), and (3) Intellectual Stimulation (of Staff).

The third component Marzano et al looked at was the importance of the leader's ability to select the right work or issues for the school staff to tackle to improve achievement, whether through the use of models of site-specific or of comprehensive school reform. Both models are effective if tailored to the needs and context of a given school.

But hold on. Don't be discouraged from reading this book because you fear that this is just another text full of education theory and cliches. Or don't succumb to thoughts of "been there, done that" and been burned too many times before. Marzano and company offer a thorough, five-step plan that works for experienced or novice leaders. They recognize that no one person can do all they suggest, and they show how to share leadership with other educators and community members. This book is the most clearly defined, research-based plan for improving student achievement you can find today; and everyone, educator or not, who is interested in better student academic growth should read it.

If there were educational awards equivalent to the Congressional Medal of Honor given for service beyond the call of duty for the promotion of student academic excellence, Robert Marzano should receive the first.

Robert Marzano and his colleagues translate the knowledge base on effective school leadership into a clear and precise format applicable to 21st century schools. It is a great gift to both successfuil veterans and aspiring leaders. Students and the nation are better off for this work. Education professors and school board members will use Marzano's meta-analysis to understand and articulate the qualities we need in today's leaders.

Brian Campbell was my 5th grade teacher also, and he is a great teacher and a great person. When he taught science, we had to log things into our science notebooks, and sometimes we had to draw what we looked at. We would record our observations, questions, thoughts, and the results of our tests. Mr. Campbell used some entries from his previous students and put them into this book. Science Notebooks will show you what science notebooks should look like, and it will help teachers teach science to their students.

AWESOME book by a great teacher, for great teachers.

GET IT NOW

I love Science Notebooks. I wanted to do a notebook this year with more inquiry type investigations. This resource helped me to figure out what I wanted the kids to record and how to organize it. It is easy-to-read and understand.

Brian Campbell was my fifth grade teacher. He worked long and hard gathering information from STUDENT NOTEBOOKS! This is not just any old book, this is THE BOOK! If you are looking for some inside information on science notebooks look nowhere else because you have found the book! This book is for teachers young and old. SO what are you waiting for?!? Go out and buy this book now!

This book was extremely informative and I would recommend it highly for any scotch whisky aficionado. The book allows you to create a vivid mental picture of how old distilleries must have been, plus the illustrations are great. Scotch Missed will further your knowledge on the history of this fascinating industry.

....when did Brian Townsend change his name to Michael Jackson? Is it possible that "magellan359" got a wee bit off course from one wee dram too many? Other than that, it's an ok review except for the fact that it's more about him than about the book, not what one would expect from one of Amazon's "top" reviewers. Oh, well...

Highly informative paperback on scotland's lost whisky distilleries, including those which have closed in recent years and whose whiskies can still be found in specialist shops or the occasional liquor store that doesn't realise the gems it has on its shelves. Definitely a must for the whisky enthusiast looking for a dram of a book.

Many of Scotland's distilleries had closed in recent (and not-so-recent) decades, and I thought I'd mention some of my favorites, which Townsend discusses in his book.

Some, like the heavily peated Islay, Ardbeg (which I understand has been re-opened, fortunately), were justly famous; others, like Dallas Dhu and Millburn, were more obscure, but their closing was still a loss. People used to make jokes about the Dallas Dhu name (which means "black glen" in Scots Gaelic), but it really did produce a fine malt, and I had fun doing tastings of it with friends back in the late 80's, when it was still readily available in independent bottlings at different ages and from different independent bottlers. It was notable for some semi-sweet chocolate notes, a rare flavor and essence in scotch whiskey, and I used to enjoy it very much. The only other malt that comes to mind with a chocolate flavor to me right now was a 25-year-old bottling of Scapa, a 1968 or therabouts issue, if I remember correctly. But anyway, it certainly was a fine malt and worthy of comparison with the Dallas Dhu. One time I put on a tasting for other single-malt afficianado friends and acqaintances of almost nothing but "vanished malts," of which I had bottles of about a dozen at the time, and we all had a great time tasting their whiskies and talking about single-malts and whatever.

Although bourbons and cognacs are impressive spirits too, if there is one thing that separates single malts from the others, it's the sheer spectrum of diversity and intensity of the many qualities that they possess. The intense, crystal-clear essences and flavors of this great distillate are unique, and in truly appreciating a fine dram of one of the great single malts at the end of a day, even life's more pressing problems seem to themselves vanish for a moment. As someone once wrote, life is still worth living as long as there is a good single-malt available. And perhaps that's why it translates from the Gaelic as "the water of life."

But getting back to Townsend's book, here he gives a nod to the history and scotch of the many famous and more obscure distilleries and whiskies of Scotland that are no longer with us. I consider myself pretty knowledgeable about all the different distilleries, even the defunct ones, but I still learned some new things from this enjoyable book, and I would recommend it to any and all single-malt enthusiasts who are looking for something different in a book about scotch.

A good intro that is well illustrated. Almost all the tutorials work like they are supposed to. Much better than the Official Guide.

I love this book!! It rocks!! It really helps you get around in Second Life (SL) as a struggling "Newbie" those first few days and weeks. The book is beautifully presented, with high quality illustrations, great tips, and the author's Avatar; "Ansel Gasparini" is a cool dude : ) It really enhanced my whole SL experience.
After you read the book and get on Second Life, go visit the in-world site where you can see some of the stuff in Brian White's book. I highly recommend this book to anyone wanting to start their Second Life adventures..! Let's get this party started... let the adventures begin!!

See you in Second Life!! : )

This is a superbly done, informative, beautifully illustrated (and printed), densely packed yet easy-to-understand, highly informative, tour-de-force introduction to everything you want or need to know about Second Life. They don't get any better than this. If you are interested in SL, you've got to get this book!

All the best,

will

Basically, I did the same thing a lot of other people did in Second Life. I registered, then walked away after not getting the fun of it right away. I came back to it because I needed a new creative and social outlet. Mr. Whites book approaches the problem that the Second Life folks are only now getting a handle on and solves it. By going through the chapters in whatever order, at your own pace, You can get a handle on this experience and use it to help remake your world. First and Second. Now my Second Life is all about making new friends and doing and making things with the tools and talents I can muster.... and talking to people who like dancing....while talking, and making things....
The best game engine is another human being.
Thank you Brian White.

Often we encounter new insights that some if not most people will resist immediately. This may happen with this book because of the relationships being made between what is often refered to as objective biological science and subjective religion. However, insight, especially divine insight, is often a result of finding a relationship between two concepts that seem completely unrelated, and yet in this books case, you will find are vastly related and perhaps a holy grail. Like it or not, open your mind and heart and when Brian's inspired understanding settles in your heart, it's truth will set you free.

The Seed is definitely a book that will make you ponder deeply about the interpretation of the Christian Bible (the Qa'ran, the Torah and every religious bible considered holy today). Salvation and what you consider to be "the truth" will be challenged immensely.

For those who tend to question everything spiritual in life (and the afterlife), The Seed offers a fresh perspective regarding salvation and one's destiny. You'll either agree with the message of The Seed or you won't, but you're not likely to put it down before you've finished it.

And trust me, after reading it you'll want to share a few words with Brian Fox, the author! He's either blessed by God with spiritual insight or he's crazy as a fox! I'm not sure but I am going to read it again with a Bible next to me so that I can verify everything he cites. After all, how else can I judge his reasoning! Wait, judging is bad, right!? Either way, good book! Would recommend.

The book was very powerful, and I related to the revelation by which Brian Fox was given by the Holy spirit.The Seed has uplifted my understanding of mankind in another way.Genetics play a big part in a persons future, good or bad.And the Holy Bible concured w/ The Seed scripturedly,mind blowing.

This book is both brilliant and challenging. Author uses common language to explain complex and profound biblical concepts. I never read a book that combines biblical truth with human reproduction. He writes it in a way that common man can understand it. The book draws you in and keeps you intellectually stimulated.