Grant Books

The book was in good condition but could tell that this was on older edition but overall in excellent condition.

This books is, in my opinion, the most accurate souce of information ever written on Hawaii's Japanese community. Other authors, such as Takaki, have also written excellent historical guides; however, they are usually mainland-born and don't/can't understand life in Hawaii. "Kodomo No Tame Ni" is a virtual encyclopedia of many lesser-known aspects of the Issei generation, and illustrates the past which has created the atmosphere of modern Hawaii.

Anyone interested in discovering the true past of Hawaii's Japanese (as well as Hawaii's other ethnic groups) should definitely get their hands on this collection of stories, which-- due to the growing mainland-ish "Americanization" of Hawaii-- will soon be forgotten.

In this day and age, I don't think another book of this sort will ever be written.

This is an extraordinary book dealing with the pervasiveness of U.S. culture in Canada, and how Canadians have seemingly allowed their own culture and politics to be subsumed into American versions. Although written from a small-c conservative point of view, and in the 1960s, it remains an extraordinary book that will intrigue any person interested in Canada and US relations. In addition, Mr. Grant is a gifted writer; his fluent use of words in a serious political work such as this one, only accentuates his poetic capabilites.

In the light of September 11th, many Americans are asking the rhetorical question 'Why do they hate us so?' This essay from 1965 brilliantly outlines the forces, in modern liberalism, that are antagonistic to local culture. The lament that it describes is a lament for a local nationalism that has been abandoned by its population in favor for the attractions of a global culture based on American values. These American values are the values of the modern culture, in which traditional values which provide meaning to life are abandoned for the ease which modern technology can bring. Traditional values which provided meaning but also constraints to human life and action are being abandoned according the this book view for a shallow notion of human freedom. This shallow freedom is the freedom to enjoy temporary conveniences at the expense of the ability to live life in compatibility with eternal principles. What meaning that modern life can provide are rationalizations of self-indulgence which will be adjusted to fit the needs of technology as it evolves in its self-defined way.

The book describes how Canadians have abandoned their traditional 'conservative' values in favor of the easy continentalist option of acquiring American wealth by accepting American values. The author describes how 1960s Gaullism in France was a reaction to the same forces. The same observations can be made today about the knee-jerk anti-Americanism in Europe and France in particular that is paradoxically based on the inherent attractiveness of American values. The American culture is becoming the world culture. It is dispossessing all other cultures that it encounters. This provokes a reaction among 'conservative' (which includes the globalization protestors who in this book's terms are conservative in respect to culture although they would see themselves as anarchistic, radical etc.) who fear that the cultures that they value are going to be lost to the forces of technic- `the one best way'.

I cannot do justice to this book which links these ideas into the flow of Western ideas. It shows the conflicts that of these differing sets f ideas in the works of philosophers and theologians. it does so in a manner that is very accessible to the general reader but has also provided a basis for research by professional philosopher's, political scientists etc. for the 37years since it was published.

This book is on a par with Jacques Ellul's 'The Technological Society.' It is a book that will be remembered and studied for hundreds of years. It uses as its starting point the issue of Canadian nationalism but its implications are universal. I wish that I could give it six stars.

I ordered the LGCR because they were saying good things about it on
the literary blogs (Maud Newton, Elegant Variation, etc.) and I
thought the cover was cool, but I didn't really know what to expect.
I've picked up literary journals before, but they've always bored me.
This one's different. It's got really great-looking artwork and the
stories are unusual and dark and interesting. I'm pretty picky when
it comes to short stories, but the ones they chose impressed me a lot.
I'm glad I bought it.

After reading Issue 1, I had high expectations for number 2. It didn't let me down. In fact, I liked this issue even more than the first. Issue 2 contains a colorful selection of "fish in a bucket" (as printed on the cover). The stories share a subdued disquietude that left me unhinged, but not without a bemused smile. They are smart and meaty with lots to chew on, like Murder Journal, about an imaginative "existential hero." I recommend this Issue, along with Issue 1 for those seeking a solid variety of stories that reflect absurdities and inner-conflicts we are all familiar with, but don't always acknowledge.

This is the funniest, cleverest, most enjoyable book I have ever read. I recommend it unequivocally.

Read it, Loved it, Saw Others do the same! Want more from Wallace

Aside from an authoritative account of The historical basis for San Diego county's present land boundaries and surveys, Lay of the Land gives you an in-depth look at the real, often neglected history of what really happened with the settlemement of the Southwestern United States. If you are a history buff who wants to go beyond they typical biased veneer that you get in many college courses, Lay of the Land will give you the facts about what really happened.

The sightings on a surveyor's transit are far more powerful than those found on a soldier's rifle; the professional Land Surveyor has conquered more land than the world's finest militia.

The Lay of the Land presents an informative history about the development of San Diego. The story begins with the liberation of Texas and continues with the subsequent war with Mexico. The book follows General Stephen Kearny and his corps of surveyors as they mapped and marched their way westward to California. I also cover the controversial actions of The Great Pathfinder, John Charles Frémont along with early encounters between military Surveyors and Native Americans. The book also covers the challenges involved with locating the International Boundary Line between the United States and Mexico as specified by the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. I also discuss the creation of the government townships and section lines that govern the location of land throughout Southern California. Additional subjects include the impact of the land squatter movement on San Diego, the influence of the contentious No-Fence Law upon land settlement, the establishment of the San Bernardino Baseline and Meridian, and determination of the county boundary lines.

The Lay of the Land also examines the confusing land grant process and the obstacles involved with validating these claims before the United States Land Commission. Another important subject I covered is the expansion of the transcontinental railroad and its impact upon San Diego. A number of the county's most important engineering projects are also explored, including the relocation of the San Diego River, the transformation of False Bay into Mission Bay and the development of San Diego Harbor. Considerable coverage is provided on the subjects of land fraud, water boundaries, corrupt government Surveyors, and the Great Land Boom of 1887.

The Lay of the Land is a must for Professional Land Surveyors, Civil Engineers, Title Officers, Land Planners, Land Use Attorneys and anyone interested in the development of California. This book represents the culmination of nineteen years of research conducted across the State of California.

I trust my own commentary is helpful to the reviewer. I also hope my awarding of five stars is supported by subsequent reviews.

Michael J. Pallamary, PLS
November, 2003

Alan Weiss tells it like it is. If you want to learn from one of the best...read EVERYTHING Alan Weiss writes! Alan's insights and experience are second to none. I personally own just about every book Alan Weiss has written. He is not only a consultant's consultant, but he is also a gifted writer as well.
Alan Weiss's advice, insights and knowledge will take years off your learning curve. This book is a must for your library.

Lenny Laskowski, Author of National Best Selling Book:
"10 Days to More Confident Public Speaking"
President of LJL Seminars(tm)

Despite all of Alan Weiss's books, consulting, workshops, newsletters and the rest of his success, or perhaps because of it, a couple or bitter reviewers seem to follow his listings to plant a single star where everyone else plants five. But that my be the price of success when bitter people are upset at their own failings.

This is a wonderful book which deals with escaping from tasks and deliverables. There are several sections on how to create more discretionary time. Weiss includes formulas for stress relief and establishing personal rewards. And he talks about personal mastery. The book is dvided into work, rest, and relationship sections. It is based on his popular newsletter, Balancing Act, and his workshops on life balance. (And I noted that it's published by a major publishing house, so the criticism of the size of the font is hardly relevant to the author or the quality of the material.)

Buy this book if you want to give yourself permission to succeed and enjoy life.

What a great book for those parents entering into the Little League playing field. The camp suggestions are great and helpful for parents trying to navigate through what is good for their child. The behavior rules for parents were my favorite part though. Every coach should mandate parents reading it so there would be less trouble out on the playing fields. Great Book!!!!!

If you have a young child playing baseball, BUY THIS BOOK! My young son wanted to go to baseball camp and I found a great one in my state using this book. He's so excited to be going to a college for baseball camp this summer. The Little Book of Baseball has the most comprehensive listing of summer camps I've found anywhere. Without it I'd still be looking!

This book is wonderful for all parents of young baseball players! After seeing the book I bought, our coach plans to buy one for all the parents on the team. It has rules, diagrams, bleacher and umpire etiquette, important advice from coaches and lots more. My kids especially loved the jokes and trivia that is sprinkled throughout the book, and the websites. Next year, we're going to plan our vacation around one of the baseball hotspots listed in the book.

A great find! Nothing else like it out there!

This book has the best most diverse photos of bicycles of any ever. Also some fine writing and insights. The only big photo spread I've ever seen on road-side emergency repairs. Bravo! Also plenty of coverage of bicycle alternatives, which diversity is what bikes are all about in the first place. Bravo again! This book should be kept in print, in libraries nationwide. Richard's Best Book, 2nd ed, should also have never been let go (it has the best bike ART in any book).

If there is only one book about cycling you should own - then this is it!

Everyone who owns a bike should get this, especially if you're just starting out. It is really what got me started off, now I own my ultimate dream machine and I still refer to it now and then. You see so many riders out there with incorrectly set up bikes. The three things I can notice from about 100 feet away are: their seat is too low; their chain is insufficiently lubricated; and the derailleurs are not adjusted properly. This book will teach you how to set up your bike correctly, and provide you with essential knowledge on cycling.

This has all the info in it for beginners and intermediates alike. The main sections are: mountain bikes, racing bikes and touring bikes, future bikes and cycle maintenance. Within these pages, you'll find info about bike set-up/positioning, sizing of frames, clothing, riding techniques, racing and stretching. Plus more info on other specific bike parts, such as: frame construction, types of wheels, gears/brakes, etc. Also specific info about various types of bikes used in: observed trials, the tour de France, criterium races, time¨Ctrials, triathlons, track racing (& classic bikes).

The maintenance section is quite extensive, and will generally be adequate for most people's needs. It covers tools (and there's a lot!), wheel truing, fixing flat tires, adjustments for comfort, brakes, chains, pedals, derailleur adjustment, and cleaning/lubrication.

There are plenty of good colour photos, it is well written and very informative - what more could you ask for? If you haven't actually flicked through this book and you're still having doubts about getting it, go to your local bookshop and just have a look through it, you'll see what I mean. All in all a very comprehensive guide to cycling - HIGHLY RECOMMENDED for youngsters and/or beginners.

I had the privilige of hearing Diane Di Prima read recently, and discovered a new found appreciation for this collection. Many of her volumes have been published as a smaller collection previously, and then expanded to include the later works. 'Loba' is an amazingly, deceptively layered collection weaving together many themes and images over a length of her life. I highly recommend this, among others!

"It is the Word that is the Ground of Love..."

Diane di Prima is one of the most talented twentieth century American women poets, and the most important female figure of the Beat literary movement. She has authored thirty four books, including the two that have appeared in 1998, Loba, and the re-issued edition of Memoirs of a Beatnik, a classic of Beat narrative-a witty chronicle of the cultural conditions from which it grew. When the first part of Loba first appeared in 1978, it was hailed as the female counterpart to Allen Ginsberg's Howl. Loba is a series of poems forming a compact whole, presenting in a visionary manner all forms of the female experience. Anyone who knows Diane di Prima and her work knows that she is Loba, the protagonist of the work and the focal point of the poems. Loba, meaning she-wolf in Spanish, is an archetypal figure, fusing qualities that are both human and animal, terrestrial and divine. Diane di Prima's poetry has been essentially lyrical, even in its most radical aspects, but she has chosen to define this work of her maturity as an epic, inasmuch as an epic is a narrative poetic work about a quest. As in all epics, di Prima starts in a present time that echoes the past and that clearly foreshadows the portion of the journey to come: the conclusion. The poem opens with an invocation to the "lost moon sisters", to whom di Prima's poetry is addressed, who all partake of the divine multiplicity of the wolf-goddess. As poet Marge Piercey commented, di Prima, in this book, has taken from many mythologies to create her own. Loba is not just one figure, rather, it is a conglomeration of the re-incarnations of many personae within one character. We see the Loba under many other masks: in Flanders, we see her in the soft light of a Vermeer painting; in the exquisite Kali-ma versions, she is "as fresh as jasmine", but also bloody and ferocious; we see her also as the Maternal Principle, singing to her children or making an amulet for her daughter; we see her as the principle of Female Creation, Lilith; geographically, we see her in the most diverse places, from Brooklyn to the Bardo; we see her young, ageless and as an old hag. Born in Brooklyn in 1934, having lived in Manhattan for a period of time, Diane di Prima moved to Northern California where she has lived for the past thirty years. She has studied Zen and Tibetan Buddhism, and has delved in the science of alchemy and in the western magical traditions. This work summarizes her life and work, presenting to us her poetic itinerary. In Loba di Prima deals with mythical figures from the native American mythology to the heroes of Western medieval romances (from Tristan and Iseult to Guinevere), to the figures of the Judeo-Christian religion in The Seven Joys of the Virgin, to the acclamations to Lilith, to the personal re-creation of the myths of classical antiquity (such as Persephone, Ariadne, Helen, et al.), to the saga of the Sumerian Goddess Inanna, and finally to the hymns in honor of the Goddess Kali. Loba lives her own eclectic myth and encourages all of us to create our own magical reality. The superiority of the Female Principle permeates the whole volume, as openly declared in one of the Inanna poems: "The king is expendable, but not the Queen." Di Prima has evolved from a poetry that was essentially a poetry of protest and denunciation to a poetry that is meditation in motion, and that includes, comforts, teaches and soothes, rather than confronts. The style is fresh, crisp, and abounds with startling and powerful images. But there is a new, hieratic, classical tone in many of the poems in this volume. The volume is replete with teachings, reflections and musings on life that di Prima wants to share with her readers, and that come forth as brief and powerful aphorisms, as in the first verse of poem "He Who Was Not Born from a Lotus": "It is the Word that is the Ground of Love. . ." In many poems, di Prima speaks like a Hermes-like messenger come down to speak to men: "I come to speak of the long & slender vase / of the goblet like a sphere laid open / of the vessel with two handles, the one with none. . ." The epic properly ends with a poem entitled "Persephone: Reprise", a poem about severance and rebirth. Every great poem is a descent to what di Prima calls "the fluid boundaries of Hades," from which "we spring continuously into life & death." It is apparent that under the persona of Loba, the poet is talking about herself, the woman "with broom and pen," describing herself in a remarkably objective way, as if she were on the outside, looking at herself: "There is a woman who is full of grace / her lap is ample & empty / she is not abstract or sheepish / ... I warmly recommend this volume as one of the most important books of poetry of the twentieth century.

A Reader from Berkeley, CA

THIS IS A WONDERFUL BOOK, MY FAVORITE OF JULES VERN'S. EVEN THOUGH IT ISN'T VERY WELL-KNOWN, I WAS LUCKY ENOUGH TO READ IT WHEN I WAS ABOUT TWELVE. IT HAS BEEN MY FAVORITE EVER SINCE. EVEYBODY WHO LOVES ADVANTURE WILL LIKE THIS BOOK! ENJOY!

I read a Polish translation of this book when I was 9 years old, re-reading and re-re-reading it many times. Many years later, having migrated with my parents to Australia, thanks to that book I was very familliar with Australia's early history, seeing me well into high school. As well as that I became very familliar with new Zealands history of white settlement, as well as some history and geography of South America. This book is Verne at his best.