Brian Books

It's great to find children's books that are different.
I love the play on words and the quirky illustrations. My 15 month old girl can read along to the first few pages as they are words she recognises my everyday - MOMA (mama), Da Da (Daddy) & Dali (Dolly).
My little girl has "Fashion" as well and both books are become well worn!
You're never too young to learn about art!

This visually stunning book fits perfectly in little hands and is filled with stimulating images that children love to look at over and over again. It's printing quality is exceptional and it's by far the best introduction to art for this age group that I've seen. This would make a wonderful gift for any preschool home.

Good for all art lovers not just children - but a very, very, good way to introduce your little ones early on to the beautiful and amazing world of art.

What a pleasure it is to find a book worth relishing again and again for it's clever use of words and graphics arts to foster in young children a love of modern art. Like a quick trip to MOMA snuggled up on your own sofa, your toddler may become familiar with concepts and visuals that can only enrich their love of color and (and simple words which they soon memorize and "read" along with you) and entertain their imaginitive spirits. For your budding Warhol or simply the art lover in you, here is a fantastic exposure to modern art that allows your child to explore, to learn and laugh all at once.

Al Blanchard has agreed to do a program for the Friends of the Turner Library in Randolph this April. Since I'd not heard of him as a mystery writer, it was clearly time to be introduced.
Murder At Walden Pond kept me interested from the beginning never quite figuring who was the culprit......so I stayed with it. All of a sudden 2/3 through the book, I found I could not put it down! Everything was happening so fast, I found myself reading faster. Al Blanchard now joins my library of Robert Parker and James Patterson! A great read.

Al Blanchard was my social studies teacher last year, and I just got around to reading his book. Wow. That's just about all I can say. This guy is good. Its amazing how much Asher related to Mr. Blanchard! I highly reccommend this book.

An easy read, and he kept the interest right to the end. He is a great author with an intriguing character. I can't wait to read the next book!!

A great read. Blanchard has created a believable, reluctant hero in Steve Asher. I judge mysteries by how much fun it is to hang out with the detective. Asher joins Spencer, Scudder, Gunther, Kinsey, and Carlotta as welcomed company. I look forward to the next time I can teach, listen to tunes, and escape danger with my new friend Steve Asher.

In 1998, writer Brian Preston received a call that would forever change his life...

The contents of that phone call were that, he was supposed to write a piece for Rolling Stone Magazine about the marijuana culture in Vancouver (the place which he called home for 9 years). Known as the west-coast stoner dude (by his editors) they saw Brian fit for this assignment.

In Vancouver he was able to obtain status of one of the marijuana judges at the first ever Cannibus Culture Cup. Merely a spec on the grand spectrum of his journey, nonetheless, it's still where it begins. His travels then take him to: Nepal - Southeast Asia - Austrailia - England - Amsterdam - Switzerland - Spain - Morocco - the Kootenays - and finally back to the ol' U.S.A..

The main theme portreyed throughout this book was Exploration - the need to search for greater understanding of something (in this case, pot). Although nowadays we no longer call people who are journeying around the world in the search of a broader explanation explorers, we call them tourists or fanatics, but in this case Brian Preston, is most definately the Christopher Columbus of marijuana culture (at least to me he is).

If you like reading about "HIGHER" travels then this is most definately the book for you. But if you are intolerant to marijuana and silly activists scoured throughout the world who all have the same goal - legalization, then perhaps this isn't the book for you...

Having just completed 'Pot Planet', I'd like to say how great this book is. Being an lover of all things ganja, I am so pleased to see someone finally writing about the truths behind the marajuana culture. The good, the bad, and the ugly.

This travelogue/cultural history study is a fast-paced peek into the history and hypocrises of this happy herb. Without being too much of a tour-guide, and more like a buddy you're bumming around the world with, Preston takes us from the sweet, sticky buds of Vancouver, B.C, to the opium-laced weed of the Far East, stopping at places like England, Switzerland, Spain, Austrailia and the marajuana mecca, the Cannabis Cup in Amsterdam on the way.

I recommend this book to anyone who is not able to vacation this year - see the world without leaving your couch!

The book itself read a little fast, with the stops he makes feeling all too brief. Having visited some of the places mentioned myself, I felt there is more that could have been said, but as always, time is a factor.

All in all though, this book is finally a true testament to pot-smoking throughout the world, and I recommend it to anyone who enjoys this natural plant, in all her splendor.

Thirty years ago, there were plenty of late night delirious conversations about how someday soon you could buy grass at your local supermarket. But pot somehow is a much bigger deal than anyone had thought, a world-wide obsession over a simple weed that millions find fun or useful, and others find perilous. So Brian Preston, a Canadian journalist, decided he would do a worldwide survey of the international marijuana scene. It was a perfect self-assignment: he likes vagabonding, and he likes getting stoned. The result, _Pot Planet: Adventures in Global Marijuana Culture_ (Grove Press) is a hilarious travelogue through smoke filled rooms, with a subtly serious message: "What's more likely to destroy the earth, pot or pollution? And there's a war on pot?"

Preston is a dedicated journalist, or at least he loves his subject so much that he is happy to go to enormous lengths to investigate it. "For much of the research and most of the writing of this book, I was high on marijuana. Now then - it can't be _that_ amotivating." He becomes a judge of the Cannabis Culture Cup, with the difficult task of rating all these strains, and more, in the categories of appearance, fragrance, texture, taste, aftertaste, and stone (and he remarks on the difficulties of evaluating that last category after you have already judged other entrants; he can't, like a wine taster, just spit it out). He has funny stories from all over. "If you want to score anywhere in Asia," Preston advises, "just find a place where they're playing Bob Marley music." In the town of Nimbin, Australia, there are "grass palaces," houses paid for by pot cultivation: "They were hippies; now they're middle class." One wants to franchise pot restaurants in the shape of a giant bong, the Big Bong Burger Bar. In Switzerland, searching out contacts, Preston asks a city employee, a tourist helper, "Do you know where I could by _hemp_ products around here? Like clothing and stuff?" She thinks a minute. "Hmmm. Hemp clothing... No... But we have three stores where you can buy grass!" In Morocco a shady tourist guide assures him about purportedly fine hashish, "Half a kilo, Brian! Very easy to hide in a suitcase for the flight home!" In Canada, backwoods growers have given death threats to those who wish to introduce hemp production for fiber, because of the fear that the low-stoning hemp will cross pollinate and ruin the intoxicant varieties.

In every chapter, Preston shows that American politics have affected global marijuana in ways that not even the most rabidly anti-pot politician would favor. Naturally, Preston knows just what the US and the world ought to do with marijuana laws, but he usually withholds proselytization on the issue. He is an amusing writer with clever comparisons; a stoner holds in his toke so deeply that he eventually disgorges "a cloud of smoke huge and heavy enough to show up on a satellite weather shot." He withholds most of his serious arguments until his last chapter, which is quite accurately titled "Pot Polemic." And he has graceful ambivalence about what legality might bring, having seen a bit of it in Amsterdam, pushed like booze and tobacco: "Is this what legalization would be like? Would pot become just another consumer product, marketed like any other line of goods in Babylon?" Maybe there would be disadvantages, yes, but this book is indispensable for anyone who wants an amusing survey of the current world marijuana situation. Americans, especially, would do well to catch this bigger picture.

Brian Preston documents his travels as he encounters the people, places and events that make up the core of the world's modern cannabis culture.

Preston's flobal ganja voyage begins in BC, at the first Cannabis Culture Cup in February 2000, held at Marc Emery's home on the Sunshine Coast. From there, Preston travels the world's weedy hotspots, sampling buds and meeting the locals in Nepal, Southeast Asia, Australia, England, Amsterdam, Morocco, BC, and the USA.

Cannabis Culture readers will recognize many of the people who Preston encounters on his travels. In Amsterdam he tokes with Sensi Seeds founder Ben Dronkers, in Australia he hangs at the Nimbin Hemp Embassy and attends their annual Mardi Grass, In California he discusses DEA raids with med-pot icon Dennis Peron. In Vancouver he gets high on buds from Marc Emery, and discusses activism with locals like David Malmo-Levine.

Pot Planet is a perfect snapshot of the people, places and events that make up the global ganja culture during the dawn of the new millennium. The book is written in a friendly, conversational style. It's an easy and enlightening read, and will be enjoyed by both chronic and non-toker alike.

I purchased Prevention's Your Perfect Weight: The Diet-Free Weight Loss Method By The World's Leading Health Magazine for my mother-in-law. I think it is the perfect gift for the older man or woman. In her case, she wasn't eating enough. We all forget a little as we age so a lesson in proper nutrition could do everyone good. She really loves the book! Being healthy is more important than being rail thin. This is a great book! It is not expensive and would be a good gift for any elderly parent. I can easily give it 5 stars.

Your Perfect Weight gives you a 52 week planner for your weight loss. Alot of questions that I never thought to ask are answered in this book. It gives charts that are easy to read, examples of how to plan your food each day, and motivative ideas for when you are in the middle of a plateau and not lossing weight. It gives examples of how to change your exercise routine when you get bored, and meal plans for when you are bored of the same foods. This is definitely the best book that I have bought to motivate me and to educate me all at the same time.

If slow weightloss is your goal, this book will do it. 52 weeks of how to's, what not to do's. There is 1 week of daily how to's and then its done weekly. Good reading. Good complement to any weight loss library.

This book is a must for those who not only want to lose weight but keep it off. I have had two copies, my first wore out, and I still use it all the time. I have writen notes in it, and used the guidlines.

Great reference. I work in oncology but have many patients who come to me with primary care questions (not to mention neighbors, friends, relatives, etc). This reference book has been so helpful in seeking more information on a variety of diseases. Comprehensive, readable, broad and yet inclusive of the data I needed.

book was in good condition as stated by the seller. fast delivery . I got it in 3 days.

Excellent text! Easy to read, complicated terms are defined in text as you read and each dianosis has complete etiology, pathophysiology, differential diagnoses, treatment, management and follow up, as well as information on when and to whom to refer.

This book provides not only the necessary components to meet AACN (CCNE) and NONPF guidelines for program curriculum, but provides wonderful clinical guidelines for practice. This book has replaced Uphold and Graham in our FNP program!

This book is great. Gives you the information you need to get autographs from race car drivers from many major series. Very well written.Very easy to use. A great book.

Great book and put together very well. A definate must have for any racing fan or autograph collector. Really enjoyed this book and it works.

Great book. About time someone wrote an address book for racing.

Addresses that really work. Have already gotten autographs. Good book. Highly recommended.

This is a wonderful little book that does a marvelous job of introducing the reader to the building and development of the rail tunnels from New Jersey, under the Hudson, into New York City. While it is not a detailed history of the work, it is very well written, engaging, and absolutely enchanting. I highly recommend it.

Rails Under The Mighty Hudson: The Story Of The Hudson Tubes, The Pennsy Tunnels, And Manhattan Transfer by author and transportation expert Brian J. Cudahy is the true history of the construction of railway tunnels linking New Jersey and New York. Black-and-white photographs enrich this meticulous, thorough accounting of a turn-of-the-century engineering marvel that helped transform America into the modern engine of transportation and mass production that it is today. Rails Under The Mighty Hudson is a meticulously researched and deftly written addition to any personal, academic, and community library railroad history reference collections.

This story begins in the final years of the 19th century, when the first attempts to build rail tunnels under the Hudson were ending. Two of the tunnels were built by one company, the other by a competing railroad company. Brian Cadahy's new edition of Rails Under The Mighty Hudson is updated with more photos and a new preface and chapter of recent events.

I have always enjoyed Brian J. Cudahy's books. "The Malbone Street Wreck" was a sobering look at the disaster that befell the subway line in 1918. And last year's "A Century of Subways: Celebrating 100 Years of New York's Underground Railways" was just the opposite: it was a joyful, admiring look at the making of the subway system in New York, and tracked its progress through the 20th century.

I eagerly picked up this reprint of his 1975 book "Rails Under the Mighty Hudson: The Story of the Hudson Tubes, the Pennsy Tunnels and Manhattan Transfer" and was not disappointed. Briefly, this book describes the historical need for these tubes, the technological requirements, the difficulties in construction, and the dramatic effects they had upon completion. Villains and heroes abound, as they will in any tale of expensive public works, but they are relegated to a second-tier, as Cudahy's obvious admiration for this effort takes precedence. Comparisons to the Erie Canal are not far-fetched when describing the success of these tubes, and it is not far-fetched to say that only Brian Cudahy's passion for his subject makes this book one of the greatest about railroads, in general. The smattering of gorgeous photographs are gravy!

Mr. Silver, in his book "Raising Kids in an Age of Terror," confronts
issues
that are new to parents in the 21st Century. He has written a very
informative book on weapons of mass destruction and their consequences,
and
gives us an excellent insight to the political, social and religious
preludes to why we are now engaged in attempting to preserve our way of
life. I would highly recommend this book to all families.

Ray Derby...

Being somewhat secluded as a 'normal' U.S. citizen (at least hat's what I realize now), I needed to get a better background on why terrorism exists (and why they dislike the U.S. so much), the reality of the threat, and what I could consider doing if I want to take steps for my family. This book answered those key questions for me and gave me many additional resources that I can further explore on my own. The book does not take political sides - it just present the facts and the reality. The book also offers positive life-oriented advice that is always good to follow - with or without this threat of terrorism - but the advice hits home more because of the threat.

I've always taught my children that knowledge conquers fear.
if your child is afraid of spiders,
help him find out all about them, so he'll know which are harmless
and which are not. Knowledge helps children develop reasonable
fears that will guide, rather than paralyze them. This same
rule applies to understanding terrorists. We need to know all
we can about the terrorists in order to prepare ourselves for
the war and the possibility of terrorism.

As you are well aware, perpetrators of terrorism do not think like us. In
order to anticipate their actions, we need to understand them
from the inside out, the way an FBI profiler understands the
mental landscape of a sociopath.

We are fortunate that one concerned father took this to
task and turned his desire to protect his children and provide
answers to their fears into a valuable resource. In "Raising
Kids in an Age of Terror," author C. Brian Silver reveals how
terrorists think, why they hate us and how we can protect
ourselves from terrorism, while turning fears into knowledge.

In a clear and balanced way, Mr. Silver investigates why
we find ourselves in this conflict, the ways in which our country
has contributed to it, how vigilance can thwart future attacks
and how to live with the threat of terrorism. Although these
subjects provide food for adult minds, the underlying premise
of the book is how to relieve adult anxiety through understanding
and preparation, so the parent can help children cope with
the fear of living under the constant threat of terrorism. Silver devotes
an entire chapter to this subject.

In "Raising Kids in an Age of Terror," Silver does more than
investigate the problem and how it was created, he offers
solutions as to what we, as individuals and as a country, can
do to help resolve the situation. At the end of the book, there
is an appendix that offers a disaster planning guide, a checklist
and the supplies that you will need in case of a terrorist attack.

If you or your kids have been plagued by uncertainty or
anxiety since the terrorism of 9/11 or if you don't fully understand the
conflict, I urge you to read this book. You'll come away with
a perspective on terrorism that will allay your fears, help
your children cope with theirs and prepare you and your
family for the uncertainties ahead.

So many of us feel impotent in the face of modern terrorism that we don't know where to turn. So what do we do? Turn nowhere! Instead, I highly recommend this concise and critical volume that not only explains the current terrorism cells for the layman or woman, but gives you step by step advice on how to protect yourself and, more importantly, your children. Highly recommended as a one-stop resource for busy, safety conscious Americans...

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.

This is essentially the material of Kazan's The Arrangement arranged to formulate a conception of theater derived from After The Fall, and it shows the fruits of having written that monumental play. It takes two thirds of the play's length to get its mechanism functioning, and when it does it's a poetic surrealism of great flexibility and subtlety, capable of shifting planes of thought instantaneously, and provided with a set of cinematic flashbacks and evocations which happen in full view of the mind's eye of characters onstage, in a story of Christ between two thieves.

The Ride Down Mt. Morgan is an engaging play, one that provides the reader (or viewer) with as much food for thought, as amusement. Is it a masterpiece? No. Not by any stretch. Death of a Salesman is a masterpiece.

Lyman Felt is certainly a colorful character from whom we can learn much, not just about bigamists, but also about ourselves. He is not, however, a Willy Loman, a character so strongly defined that he's entrenched in the American (if not the world's) psyche. Felt effectively represents and helps us to understand (if not forgive) a specific type of man; Loman effectively represents the sometimes overwhelming frustrations any of us endures in pursuit of the elusive American dream.

Miller does succeed in The Ride Down Mt. Morgan by prompting us to consider what might motivate a man who constructs an elaborate network of lies in an attempt to keep two wives. In his own mind, Felt is justifiably keeping both women happy and (again, in his own mind) he loves them both so much, he couldn't stand to let either one go. For some time, he is quite successful in living these two lives.

After surviving an accident (or was it an accident?), however, both women arrive at the hospital to take care of him. Now that the deception is uncovered, the real damage unfurls; both wives know they can't trust him; both feel they were never truly loved; both are forced to make swift decisions, none of which are surprising or irrational given the circumstances. Although Felt is charming enough to win our affection, we still come away believing he pretty much gets what he deserves. I might be wrong. Maybe Felt does represent us all. Sure, few of us are bigamists; but maybe Felt really represents the very damaging, but human desire we all have to have your cake and eat it, too.

In a number of ways, "The Ride Down Mt. Morgan" parallels "Death of a Salesman". Both plays include a man searching for something in the present with flashblacks spliced into the scenes. The greatest difference between the plays is that many people can identify with Willy Loman from "Death of a Salesman. It is harder to identify with Lyman Felt and his bigamy.

Lyman wants to find happiness and discover himself. After one successful marriage, he begins an affair that leads to a pregnancy. Rather than taking a more logical route, Lyman chooses to marry a second wife. He leads the second wife to believe that he divorced the first wife. Nine years later, a car accident on Mt. Morgan leads the two wives to meet at the hospital. It is there that Lyman explores his motivation for bigamy and the guilt for the pain he has caused. Ultimately, Lyman discovers his true self in loneliness. He is left to himself and the mess he created.

"The Ride Down Mt. Morgan" seems a bizarre premise for Miller to explore. The reader must wonder if bigamy is a more narrow divorce for Miller to explore extra-marrital affairs. While this aspect of the storyline seems distant, it is hard not to feel the emotion in this tale of love lost.

In Arthur Miller's splendid play, the main character Lyman Felt concludes that if you try to live according to your real desires, you have to end up looking like a s---. That's his explanation for never divorcing his first wife before marrying another. It's when his car crashes traveling down a snow covered Mt. Morgan that his double life is exposed. His two wives meet and the issues of fidelity, true love, deception and honesty are explored. Can a person remain true to himself and still always true to another? Arthur Miller poses wonderful food for thought in this witty, poignant masterpiece.