Brooks Books

This is our favorite Great Search book by Usborne. It has a few puzzle within a puzzle activities for older users, though it is still a simple and enjoyable search book for toddlers. Unless you plan to do every page with your child (all day, every day!), it may be best to give this to a toddler or child who can read. My four year old reads well enough to do the searches, but has not yet read the rather complicated instructions for the auxiliary puzzles. An average six to eight year old would probably get the most out of this book.

The best thing about this, as well as the Great Search books, is that kids "accidentally" learn while searching for the hidden pictures. My daughter has learned a few interesting things about other cultures from this book. Other books in the series present factoids about history, animals, habitats, etc. which promote curiosity and thoughtful questions. Nice "busy work" for home-schoolers or other bright kids.

Happy hunting!

I've actually been to Greece 3 times, and have never found a book - even over there! - that shows the beauty of these islands. This book is perfect, text is fine, but the pictures are exceptional - well worth the price!

There are a lot of different kinds of losses we all must face at one time or another. Each one can put us onto an emotional rollercoaster whether it is the loss of a loved one, a job, a friendship, or a multitude of other possibilities. In "Grief Steps" author Brook Noel discusses the ten normal steps for working through grief. For some people one step may be so short that it is unnoticed as they pass through, others may spend a great deal of time in that particular place. We are all different and while we handle grief differently in many respects we also go through it in similar stages. This book is about those stages and moving through the progression to healing.

Each of the grief steps has its own chapter, with extensive information on what to expect in that particular step. For each stage there are also exercises, activities, or goals to help you work through that step and on to the next stage of healing.

"Grief Steps: 10 Steps to Regroup, Rebuild and Renew After Any Loss" is a strong treatment of grief associated with any type of loss and is well done. However, if your loss were the loss of a person very close to you I would recommend her other book, "I Wasn't Ready to Say Goodbye". That is not to say that this book would not be valuable if you lost a loved one, just that the other one is better for that particular type of loss. On the other hand, if you are experiencing loss and grief due to the loss of a job, empty nest syndrome, divorce, or similar situations then this book may be your better bet. "Grief Steps" is well done and highly recommended.

It's such a shame that this beautiful book is out of print, and that there is no picture here even of the cover. Organized through a year of grieving, each month shares the personal reflections of the author's grieving her dear doctor husband's death.

There are no "how to" instructions here--simply reflections on feelings and the hard work of going through the grief process. You may disagree with the author's feelings, but her openness and candor are helpful. I find myself reflecting on her feelings, and somehow they help me label my own. There is no pressure here to conform to a timetable of grief, but I find my ability to identify with the author's pain invaluable.

The black-and-white drawings accompanying each month's prose are a wonderful reflection of the text, and a wordless comment on grief in their own right.

A beautiful, well done, and sensitive book.

I tried one of the cookie recipes for the first time tonight. I baked the chocolate fudge semi-sweet cookies. The cookies were perfect, delicious, and easy to make. The pudding really helps the cookies to have a nice texture and taste. I love to bake and the No Burnt Bottoms cookbook is a wonderful addition to my collection.

I have read and re-read this book. It's a great story about the courage of women who are captured by the Japanese in WWII, their humanity, and survival.
I highly recommend the book.
Mine is about worn out because I bought it, used. I will be ordering a new one!

I picked up the book awhile back and set a goal to ride every trail within. The trails vary widely and as such it seems that anyone with a mtn bike would benefit by having a copy on hand. I've done all of the rides in SE Fla in the guide and plan to ride the SW trails asap. Anyhow, safe cycling to all and I give this guide a high rating!.... Seth, Coral Gables

I am extremely impressed with "Places of Mystery," and for several reasons.

First, the writing is excellent. Many GURPS supplements (and supplements for other RPGs for that matter) contain excellent material but are poorly reason. That's not the case here. Phil Masters and Alison Brooks are very good writers, so the text itself is enjoyable to read. The sentences are lucid and entertaining, one paragraph follows the other in reasonable succession, and the arc of each chapter leaves me deeply satisfied.

Strage thing to say about a book that lists a bunch of weird places.

But it's true. These writers have applied their skillful pens to elucidating many of the most interesting historail, fantastic, and natural places on Earth.

Here's my second reason for loving this book: they've clearly done their research. I've read a lot about many of these places, but they've read more, and they've distilled what they've read to provide the reader with that which the gamer will find most useful.

They've explored the histories and legends of all the places they examine--and similar places. They examine these places as they appear in fiction, new age writing, or wherever they may have shown up. They offer theories in support of rumors, but also provide the skeptic's point of view.

My third reason for loving this book is the excellent job the authors have done in suggesting game applications for these sites. They offer extensive suggestions for each of the sites, and a lot of the suggestions are really very good.

This book is useful for any GM of any game in any genre. I'm not kidding. Even if you're running a strictly realistic campaign set on a planet that never had anything to do with Earth, you'll find absolutely terrific inspiration here.

I'd give it more than five stars if I could.

(The chapters, by the way, are: Atlantis, Stone Circles, The Pyramids, Desert Cities, The Far East, The Near East, Darkest Africa [a chapter title I do find mildly offensive], The Mediterranean, The British Isles, Europe, Australia & Oceania, The New World, and Using Mysterious Sites. There are more than thirty maps, most of them quite useful. To list the actual places they examine would make this review too long. Do check it out!)

One of my pet peeves with many biographies written for young adults is how they tend to mythologize their subject matter. I've read this book and 2 others from Morgan Reynolds (William Grant Still and Thurgood Marshall) and I'm delighted to see that while the accomplishments of these great Americans are presented accurately, they also come off sounding like real people, not icons. For example, when Brooks visited the White House for the first time, she wore an elegant evening gown, unaware that guests would be dressed casually. Embarrassed, she left early (before the President) committing another faux pas. Mixing that story in with her vast accomplishments would have been very heartening to me as an insecure teenager!

Racial issues within the black community are also clearly addressed. Too often it's presumed that "all black people think alike" and these books clearly present some of the range and variety of opinion their subjects encountered during their lifetimes.

I am a student of Dr Lavender's and the book was on the reading list for his course at the Central School of Speech & Drama. I purchased the book tentatively considering selfish factors such as sales and authorial royalties. However despite this initial reticence and cynicism this is a thoroughly researched and crafted piece of theatrical commentary.

Lavneder focuses on three of the great contemporary theatrical visionaries and places their working methods under a sharlply focused scholarly microscope. His remarks on Brook's working methods are particularly insightful when reading The Shifting Point concurrently.

This is a fine piece of work and one that any student of directing, contemporary theatre practice or indeed Shakespeare would do well to read.

Andy didn't pay me to say write this. Go buy it!