Combs Books

This is a literary confection to delight. Not only does voice/authority runs through the book, but the principal characters are all interesting, engage the reader--from Opal, the investigator of New Age phenomena, Geneva the unpragmatic intellectual, a Yeats scholar, with life skipping her by, and Poppy, a feminist idealogue to an extent, unbalanced, comic, but with real life issues (the tragedy over her ex-lover, her youth, her baby) that give depth. Of course, the heart of the book is Abel Moore (A play on words here, with this question for the reader: is he "more able" than the rest of us. The novel builds in tension for his arrival, and the climax of the novel, that is, the issue of whether he will be able to demonstrate his "special powers." Can one tell the history of an object from feeling it? Do such people exist? Here's a novel of ideas (a la Huxley?), but of the New Age sort. Hats off to Ms. Combs!

The Inner Life Of Objects is a tour through the lives and eccentricities of five memorable characters caught up in the Zoetic Society's exploration of the paranormal. Opal Kirshbaum is an aspiring actress; there's Opal's painter husband, Sol; Geneva Lamp is an English Ph.D.; Poppy Greengold is a single mother into reading Goddess books; and guest lecturer Abel Moore is a visiting psychic whose predictions are accurate 33 percent of the time. The Inner Life Of Objects is a novel drawing upon occultism and parapsychology, exploring our secret selves, seeking the hidden meaning of the objects in our lives, and revealing the extraordinary and sometimes surprising connections between our selves and our objects. Lyrical, poetic, engaging, embedded with insights, and the occasional flair of literary inspiration, The Inner Life Of Objects is recommended reading for anyone with an interest in a great novel arising from an exploration into the nature of belief and the human condition.

This book would be a good choice for anyone seeking to improve their written communication skills. Ms. Hall takes the reader step-by-step through the process of creating effective, professional communication at home or on the job. While she does focus primarily on writing clear, concise, and precise instructions and procedures, she also highlights basic formatting and design techniques that will make any document stand out in the crowd. Don't let the title fool you: not only will your written instructions and procedures "work," they'll sparkle.

I took several classes from Carole Hall through the UC Santa Cruz Technical Writing and Communication certificate program. This was the textbook for the Instructions & Procedures class. It was by far the most valuable of the required textbooks in the program, and my writing is better after having read it.

The book uses "before and after" examples to show the differences between poorly written and well-written instructions and procedures. It offers simple suggestions for clarifying any document in which you are trying to provide clear instructions, directions, processes, procedures, recipes, or any kind of steps. I highly recommend it.

It is the best book I've seen as an introduction to project management and the instructor material for the classroom is excellent! Makes for a great foundation book both in and out of a classroom. Exercises at the end of the chapter reinforce learnings and the use of case studies open up the readers abiltiy to practice and apply what they have read. I've used many other books while teaching project management but this is by far the most liked by students. The author has done an excelent job of writing for the novice on the journey to expert.

This a both a great textbook for the classroom as well as an easy to read reference book for the casual project manager. As an educator and PMP prep certification course instructor I have seen students gain a solid foundation of the terminology, process groups and knowledge area's they need before taking the next step in preparing to take the PMP exam. An excellent project management foundation book.

I use this book in project management courses at three universities/colleges.

DMS PMP

This book is much shorter than my best-selling Information Technology Project Management text, now in its 4th edition, but it's still packed with great information. It follows the processes used in the new PMBOK Guide, so it will definitely help you study for the PMP exam. The best thing about this book is that instead of just talking about a lot of the documents and tools you can use when managing a project, it shows you realistic examples of them as applied to a project that is described throughout the book. There are also lots of examples of what went right and wrong based on real projects in various industries and countries, media snapshots to show how PM is used in so many aspects of our lives, cartoons, quick quizzes at the end of each chapter, discussion questions, exercises, and team projects. The companion Web site also provides templates, lots of interactive quizzes, a detailed guide to using Project 2003 or 2003, and lots of other info. Great text for an individual and especially for a general course in project management at the undergrad or graduate level.

This is an excellent reference about your life's healthy journey. The easy reading with straight facts about your choices affecting your health have convincing ideas about keeping your health in your hands. The book includes facts about moral decisions people make but covers the subject fairly without persuasion - just obvious facts. Psychology, mental and physical health, exercise, diet, and life changing lessons fill the book in a no nonsense manner. This book does not cover AIDS because of its early printing, otherwise, it is "current" in relevance for 2000.

This book covers everything from diet and exercies to psychology and drugs. I first read it as a student about 15 years ago and have kept it at my side ever since because of its topical relevance and message: Your health is your responsibility and most of your emotional and physical health is decided by your own choices - that is why I guide myself by this book. As the paperback has worn and lost a few pages, I have been interested in a new copy, thus you find my review.

Having got this book for my wife's birthday (it's her favorite comic) we read it through over and over again. She loves the comic but we can't get it in our paper (and reading it online is tiresome). You can read Mark Heath every day and never get tired of it: the comic has a depth and humor that entertains and enlightens. Having it in book form (and FULL COLOR!) is a great way to spend an afternoon...no matter how old you are.

Disclaimer - Mark Heath is a good friend and I'm going to give this book a great review because it's great. So there.

It's Hard to Comb a Grass Toupee is my son's favorite book right now. He asks to go get it from my office every day and have it read to him over and over. When you consider the boy has memorized the complete Seuss canon, and is well into Pooh, this is no small compliment.

His favorite so far is the strip where Kiri eats the kleenex from the snow. He literally giggles himself off the couch.

OK, so a soon-to-be four-year-old loves it, but I love it too, And so does the Mrs.. In fact it's pretty much the hot book throughout the house right now. And if my one-year-old daughter could chew on it, I think she would.

Listen, Mark's latest is filled with the laugh out loud, goofy, and gently sweet cartoons that you just don't see often enough. And the art is just beautiful. Also, did I mention every cartoon is in full color?!

Go buy this right now and keep it hidden from the family until you're done with it. You'll thank me!

Jazz is recognized throughout the world as America's greatest art form and we who create this music owe a great deal to Jimmy Amadie for his ability to explain what we are doing and how it can be improved. His conception are exactly what is needed by student and professional to keep our music in step with the 1990's and beyond. He defies the old saying that jazz cannot be taught.

Amadea's approach to teaching Jazz improv is a major breakthrough. The book that precedes this and which you should read first (HARMONIC FOUNDATIONS FOR JAZZ AND POP MUSIC) is incredible. It presupposes you know NOTHING, yet after you work through this book it'll be like finishing 4 years of college in 6 months and graduating MCL. - - The one drawback of JAZZ IMPROV is that it requires a lot of thinking... meaning it ain't no magic carpet ride... ya gotta be willing to work at it and stick with it. To put the book in a nutshell, you think of scale tones numerically. You then learn concepts of how to target the tones. His concept of improv is based on TENSION and RELEASE. - - WARNING: Don't think just because you've read the chapter and understand it, you're ready to go on with the next. You have to internalize it. A neat book I used in conjunction with this is BERT LIGON's CONNECTING CHORDS WITH LINEAR HARMONY.

a rock during the holiday season--you are probably going to have to be involved in some kind of festivities. Whether the whole family shindig or the mandatory office potluck, let's face it we all have to grow up and face the music sometime. Sometimes that music is "Jingle Bells" and we're stuck. This book of the series I really like when I am too tired during the season. It has good "mixes" that can be created, packaged and make lovely hostess or office pal presents. It has a lot of good beverage ideas in general that are easy. Sometimes if you just break down and buy that 30 cup coffee maker for $, you can be the king/queen of the holiday potlucks with the delicious Wassail and hot beverages recipes
located here. This is the kind of book even old Scrooge should have for backup during the mandatory holidays at the end of the year.

I usually like to tab the pages of the recipes that I would like to try, but I would have to tab this entire book! I recently made the apple cinnamon bars for my daughters 5 k class and they were such a hit! ( They were for Johnny Appleseed Day 9-26)
I just cant say enough good things about this particular book! So many different ideas & recipes, so little time!

This is the splendid story of Wilbur and Orville Wright, brothers who shared equal glory in performing an amazing feat of constructing and testing the first powered airplane. Much of the story covers the period of time when they built and tested their gliders at Kitty Hawk, on the Outer Banks of North Carolina. Read how they uncovered the mystery of flight with gliders ! The author explains in clear detail the various principles of flight which the Wrights discovered. He defines aeronautical terms in a fairly straight manner. I have no background in flying or aeronautics and I was able to follow his explanations (for the most part !) He gives us a glimpse at their personalities and their intellects through their letters, their sister's and father's notes, and newspaper accounts of the day. These references bring these men to life. The reader learns to respect these men, and then adore them.

We learn to appreciate their courage in risking their lives in a machine the most prominent scientists of their day said would not succeed, at best, and kill them at worst ! We learn to appreciate that every time they got on the machine to fly they knew they might die or become permanently injured. Equally frightening was that the same might happen to the brother. Their devotion to each other and reliance on each other knew no bounds. They worked the problems together, often disagreeing, but arriving at a common solution. Their diligence and rejection of failure was constantly challenged by numerous obstacles in their pursuit of flight, and by their countrymen as well.

I am very pleased to have found this book. This is a story of the invention of the airplane. It is also the story of two remarkable men who never gave up, and accomplished what has to be a triumph for the ages.

This is the splendid story of Wilbur and Orville Wright, brothers who shared equal glory in performing an amazing feat of constructing and testing the first powered airplane. Much of the story covers the period of time when they built and tested their gliders at Kitty Hawk, on the Outer Banks of North Carolina. Read how they uncovered the mystery of flight with gliders !

The author explains in clear detail the various principles of flight which the Wrights discovered. He defines aeronautical terms in a fairly straight manner. I have no background in flying or aeronautics and I was able to follow his explanations (for the most part !) He gives us a glimpse at their personalities and their intellects through their letters, their sister's and father's notes, and newspaper accounts of the day. These references bring these men to life. The reader learns to respect these men, and then adore them. We learn to appreciate their courage in risking their lives in a machine the most prominent scientists of their day said would not succeed, at best, and kill them at worst ! We learn to appreciate that every time they got on the machine to fly they knew they might die or become permanently injured. Equally frightening was that the same might happen to the brother. Their devotion to each other and reliance on each other knew no bounds. They worked the problems together, often disagreeing, but arriving at a common solution. Their diligence and rejection of failure was constantly challenged by numerous obstacles in their pursuit of flight, and by their countrymen as well.

I am very pleased to have found this book. This is a story of the invention of the airplane. It is also the story of two remarkable men who never gave up, and accomplished what has to be a triumph for the ages.

I haven't cooked from this book yet but looked at it carefully and will comment that it seems very good to excellent for its category or type of cooking offered: old fashioned, daily cooking, with lots of casseroles (vegetable and meat and spaghetti) with items likely to be on hand from any grocery store. This is not a health food cookbook although one could substitute healthier ingredients for some used. The chapter on potatoes looks excellent with several good recipes for scalloped potatoes. If you are reforming your diet you should eat more raw foods than cooked for better health, alhtough some cooked vegetables are better for you than fresh or should be eaten in conjunction with fresh. And a lot of baked dishes with tons of butter, white flour, pasta as in this book is not recommended but, as I say, you can modify recipes and many are easy, good, daily recipes to use. Beyond the daily ease, what's especially nice about this book is it easy-to-read format. Recipes are in black print, nicely spaced, and stand out so you can follow them well. Really a great cookbook overall.

Louis Stotzfus was also involved in putting together a A Quilter's Cookbook which is equally as good as this one. I bought the Quilter's cookbook first and was so impressed that when I found out about the Lancaster County Cookbook I had to have it in my library at once. This purchase is for a friend. The recipes in both books use what most people have in their kitchen on a weekly basis and the family loves them. Each have their own favorite. The Chocolate Bash is to die for!! This book is like having a 1000 grandma's bring their best recipe to your pot luck! Roxane Hepker, Milton, WA

It was exactly what I expected. Promotes discussion with your kids about how time was kept back in the old days. First preview, for the little ones, of roman numerals. Overall a great study aid for kids that are learning to tell time. I also recommend that parents buy their kids an analog watch to help them practice their time telling skills.

This book was a gift for my niece, and she loved using it. She became the first child in her kindergarten class to know how to tell time using a clock face, and this book is definitely the reason why.