Green Books

This book won't teach you how to design games, but what it will do - and what it does very well - is to give you an insight into what the Games Industry is really like. The lifestyle, terminology, how it works, how it's changing with the sudden mainstreamification (yeah, I know that's not a real word!) of Games.

By various measures, the Games Industry has or will soon overtake the Film and TV Industry in terms of turnover. And yet, the infrastructure, the job descriptions, the career paths - all of these are just evolving.

Issues like the increasing age of the average gamer (around 28) and the impact that's having on games design are discussed by a wide variety of experienced Industry veterans.

Appendices include real-world examples of flowcharts, storyboards, case treatments, status reports and other everyday documents that will really help a newcomer to the Industry not feel completely clueless on Day One in the office. For all they teach you in a Games Development course at college, this is the kind of practical information that is often overlooked.

I would highly recommend this book to anyone considering entering the Games Industry. It will give you a really good insight into what it's like to work in this crazy, rapidly growing field. And then, when you hit your first 'crunch' time and end up working 18 hour days and sleeping under your desk - you can't say no-one warned you ;)

Deb Todd has been a leading force in game design for 15 years (or so) and this book echoes her profound knowledge of it. The recent explosion in interest in game design has brought many parvenues to the field. This book is the opposite: solid advice from a proven expert. She also interviews many key people whose advice is valid and worthwhile.

From the initial blue-sky sessions to pitching for a green light, Deborah Todd's guide uses exercises and examples for all kinds of games to build a working knowledge of the game design process, from brainstorming and character design to content, testing, and flowcharting. Interviews with top game producers supplement the author's position as an award-winning designer and writer, with exercises and a puzzles checklist at book's end for maximum learning and reinforcement. Any college-level collection strong on games development needs this.

The Gayellow Pages is an indispensable guide for me as a traveller and as a writer. In it I can find connections to gay resources all around the US and Canada. Information lines, accommodations, and other gay businesses are listed in a convenient way and are easy to reach using telephone numbers or Internet addresses. In addition, there are gay-friendly listings which are very useful. I always take the guide with me as I travel for business or pleasure. I have been able to locate any number of useful connections for research purposes in some of the work that I do and that is, in itself, an important reason for me to own this guide. Using the Gayellow pages I have been able to pinpoint reasonable accommodations, find bars that cater to my tastes, and get information on events and other goings on using the various telephone numbers listed for each location. I highly recommend this guide to anyone.

This latest edition is as informative as all the previous editions. I find Gayellow pages to be the easiest guide to use for all gay searches. It is invaluable for travel arrangements and for finding local bars/meeting places/and organizations no matter where I happen to be.

I've always found Gayellow Pages an invaluable guide and source. Whether I'm traveling or home in NY, I find clubs/restaurants/bars and even gay twelve step meetings. Any Gay owned or Gay friendly listing has turned out to be up my alley. Easy to use too. The original is still the most comfortable for me.

A Delightful and wonderful read for women and girls of all ages who would like to journey back into time and live WWII through the eyes of Ms. Green Robinson's experiences as a lady in the armed forces.

This is a delightful memoir from an overlooked point of view, a young woman in the Army in the 1940's. Ms. Green has a remarkable memory for details and tells her story with honesty and unconscious humor. Enlightening to the many readers for whom this period is history.

Impossible to put down! This autobiographical account of a young woman's call to duty during World War II, is a testament to the true "pioneer spirit". Sure to spark a feeling of patriotism in all who read it, "The Gaylord Wacs" is witty, inspiring, and informative. The author's personal account affords the reader an interesting and often overlooked perspective of WWII, that of a woman.

A touch of todays language somehow gets the point across a little more....and sometimes paints a better picture. I am a youth pastor and use it not only for my lessons (in addition to my NIV) but find that I like to read it for my own personal growth as well. It is a very appropriate and close translation. I bought a load for my youth group. I wish there was more of this translation around and still on the shelf.

This is a Bible written with youthful readers in mind. It is written in modern English and in paragraph form that kids are used to. It helps them to put their religious beliefs into action. There is an index that allows the kids to look up topics of interest (ie. dating, drinking, popularity) and to find out what the Word of God has to say about it.

The first thing a teenager sees when they look at a Bible is how long and boring it is. Actually, that is not true. I once thought the same thing until I bought the God's Word for Students Bible. This book inspires a close relationship with God by including 365 devotionals (one for everyday of the year). When I got the Bible and began to do the devotions, I found myself trusting Jesus more and more. Reading His word is a key to a successful walk with Him.

The translation is also extremely easy to read and is written clearly, so you arent' overwelmed by the looks of it. It is a "must-have" for any on-fire-for-God teen.

This book provides a provocative inside view of the extremist environmental movement, and the many unseen factors that make it tick. Anyone interested in protecting our environment (or our right to use it responsibly) will definitely be interested in reading this book, which contains much never-before-released information about the politics behind the environmental movement. The author is clearly a journalist with high values who dares to tell it like it is. Although I do not always agree with Duncan, I feel sure that the controversy created by his well-researched book will bring about many important, proactive discussions.

Anyone interested preserving our environment (or using it responsibly) will be interested in the provocative book. Although I do not always agree with Duncan's take on the extremist environmental movement, he is clearly a brilliant journalist who is not afraid to tell it like it is. The author reveals some little-known facts about the political machine behind our nation's largest environmental groups. This book is sure to ignite some heated debates about the next steps we need to take to preserve our planet. This is not just another book about environmentalism. Duncan has taken it upon himself to shake out the rugs at green organizations across the country, and I must say he has done an excellent job.

Duncan sets an historical account of the environmental movement in the context of grassroots involvement primarily in one of the hotbeds of national environmental and political controversy - the chemical corridor of South Louisiana. From the twin perspectives of researcher and environmental news reporter, Duncan provides a colorful expose' of agenda-setting and resource co-opting by national environmental groups including Greenpeace, the Audubon Society and the Sierra Club. Duncan's work is important in two ways: first, in documenting the disintegration of grassroots interest and involvement in the environmental movement per se, and secondly, in providing another piece of evidence to evolving theories of collective action. Reminiscent of movement analyses of the 1960s and 70s, Duncan's work focuses on the fatal flaw of large scale movement-building: changes in the purpose and message that inspire grassroots involvement, and eventually, corruption and even abandonment of the "cause" in favor of a quest for resources and manpower simply to keep organizations alive. The inevitable theft of power from the ordinary citizen by competing environmental oligarchies signals a brief rise in momentum followed by the death of the grassroots movement. As such, Duncan's work is in good company - falling squarely into the camp of such notables as Piven and Cloward (Poor People's Movements, 1979) and Doug McAdam (Freedom Summer, 1988). As an updated account of the often treacherous ground of mass movements, collective opinion and environmental journalism, the book is recommended for students of political science and mass communication.

Through his impressive example, Grandpa teaches an older boy how to love the beach as they feel the water and smell the sea air. Indeed, Grandpa loved the wind, the woods, the city, the people, the animals and all things that inhabit those spaces. With his grandpa, the boy learns to listen, to feel, and to love his world, too.

Featuring the distinctive, water colors of illustrator Maureen Hyde,GRANDPA LOVED will touch the hearts of the young, and the young at heart. The spectacular illustrations reveal the illustrator's impressive technique with surprising detail and realism, seeming to glow on the page as they accompany the simple message of love and memory. With a creative appeal to the senses and to the heart, author Josephine Nobisso shows how the love of grandpa lives in the lessons he shared. Simple yet wise, GRANDPA LOVED is destined to become a classic. Very highly recommended.

As a boy looks back on the times he spent with his grandfather, he discovers that what grandpa loved are the things he now loves too...the beach, the woods, the city and most of all family and friends. Josephine Nobisso has written a very special, gentle and sensitive story that could easily be maudlin, but instead is uplifting and full of wisdom, as this youngster begins to understand that even though grandpa has died, he's not really gone and will always be there in memories, places and people he loved so much. Maureen Hyde's expressive artwork enhances this simple and straightforward story and together the winning combination of Nobisso and Hyde help children start to understand the circle of life. A lovely book and a sure classic in years to come, Grandpa Loved is a wonderful addition to all bookshelves.

Grandpa Loved and Grandma's Scrapbook (they are companion volumes) are so poetic and simply charming! When you read one read the other!

Boyer's poems are well crafted. She has a particularly skillful way of looking at the world with resiliant optimism. I think the series of poems written in the voice of a character called "Jake" are very special. I will look for more of this poet's work and hope it is not long before there is another of her books available. I have purchased several copies as gifts for friends.

I recommend this moving new collection to anyone wishing to see the world in a fresh way. Boyer moves gracefully from one subject to another, from a father with Alzheimer's in Worm Moon and Elephants Never Forget to the experience of swimming in the dark or wry observations about the natural world. Her confident voice is perfectly paced. She takes us in unexpected directions and then convinces us of her vision.

Whether she's writing about her father's Alzheimers disease, or how the world changed forever on September 11, 2004, Marion Boyer consistently finds the true poetry of our inner landscape as we deal with today's world. Her honest, exquisite voice rings true and brings you to new awarenesses of the range of the human spirit.

This book is a call to action. Makes you want to run to the kitchen with it's beautiful images and interesting stories so you can read while you're waiting for the oven to heat up. With so many unique recipes-not just chocolate cake, it's a bargain!

Wow! I've made perhaps half of the recipies in this book, and whilst I have my favorites (the brownies are just to die for), there's not one I wouldn't make again. Most recipies do require good, dark and generally expensive chocolate, but it's well worth the extra expense.
If you love chocolate and don't mind cooking, you'll love this.
If you don't love chocolate yet, this might just convert you.

This is a great bargain, as the first reviewer states. There are a plethora of beautiful and inspirational photos, but the recipes are achievable. Many fancy chocolate cookbooks have fabulous looking recipes, but they require half a day, or more, to complete.
My daughter and I just made the Guiness Stout Cake and were very happy with the results.
I haven't tried their easy way of tempering chocolate, yet, but it looks quick and fairly foolproof.
One of the trends in chocolate cookbooks recently, see Chantal Coady's book, is savory dishes. This book includes a variety of tempting fare in that department, too.

Green As a Garden Hose is another sweet mystery which takes place in the town of Martinsville, Georgia. In the same subgenre of small town whodunits as The Cat Who mysteries, the mystery itself takes a backseat to the interplay of continuing characters and new denizens of Martinsville that are introduced to us in this third book in the series. Biscuit McKee and her cat Marmalade, who speaks in italics, are attractive characters that we care about as they get caught up in the mystery of who killed Diane Marie. I found the plot device of having the unlikely fact of three women named Diane Marie in such a small town more than a bit unlikely, but I liked the back-and-forth chronology that the author uses in each of the books in this series. Especially useful is the list of characters and the map of the town of Martinsville that is provided in the book, and I often refer to these pages as new characters are mentioned. If you like to immerse yourself in the lives of a familiar group of characters in a setting that is more like Leave It to Beaver than The Untouchables, you will really enjoy this series by Fran Stewart.

Putting three women with the same name in a small town at one time may sound quirky, but Stewart manages to make it work. The eerie proposition of three husbands who could quite possibly be willing to commit murder kept me guessing until near the end. Marmalade, the library cat, manages to save the day and still stay a completely believable feline throughout the book.
I'd say this one is a definite to put on your reading list, even if you're not a cat person.
And don't forget to read the other colors in the series, too. Fran Stewart is a winner.

Fran Stewart does it again. I'm beginning to sound like a broken record, but each of her "Rainbow" series delights and entertains. I was introduced to her novels recently, and they've simply charmed my socks off. Or if I were wearing socks, they would. As far as what I think of the series as a whole?

Fran Stewart has created a thoroughly endearing character in Biscuit McKee--fallible enough to be undeniably human and feisty enough to be thoroughly lovable. Biscuit wants nothing more than to live quietly in the small Georgia town of Martinsville with her husband and her Marmalade cat, but fate and family don't always cooperate. Biscuit faces each challenge life throws at her--and there are plenty of those--with determination and a little help from her cat.

Fran Stewart's Biscuit McKee stories are beautifully written, incorporating a blend of down-home wisdom and humor guaranteed to both charm and entertain.

Thank you, Fran, for your wonderful Biscuit McKee series!

The Green Beach was mesmerizing. Each chapter made me want to read more.I could not put it down.

This is the story of one woman's journey searching for her roots in Israel. She leaves her empty nest, flings herself into a violent Israel and finds herself embroiled in politics, deception and the Israeli workforce. A torrid love affair feeds the frenzy to find herself. In these years, she moves back and forth between both worlds (the US and Israel) for art, for love and for lust.

Reaction To The Book

The Green Beach grabs the reader from the start. The main character, referred to as "she" throughout the book, threw herself into the world of Israel, sometimes beautiful, sometimes sinister. Her drama plays out in the context of a self-destructive love affair and some tense political episodes that point out the discrimination of Jews against Jews. The main characters are complex in personality and memorable because of their distinct, not always agreeable, actions. "She" shows her complexity with her loyalty and compassion to family, friends and sometimes strangers in need. Yet, she can be blunt and self-absorbed. I found the sequencing of events confusing at times, because of the flashbacks. Nevertheless, I got the story holistically and read the book straight through.

Conclusion

The Green Beach shows the best and worst of human nature. It is a gripping story of a woman's fight for survival, emotionally and physically. The author tells a story that needs to be heard as she paints an historical and political picture of Israel from her unique perspective. Catherine Hand's vivid writing style laced with her own poetry and love interests is a great read.

The Green Beach is a passionate and historical account of an American woman's relationship with Israel as she moves in and out of the art world to the Israeli underworld. A shocking story of lust, love and politics.
Linda Payne Smith - Editor, Creative Writing Instructor