Hart Books

The story of one man's search for paradise. Bernard Gorsky (from France) was attracted to Polynesia, but he found "civilization" already rampant there. Tahiti swarmed with tourists and cars, the Wallis Islands were already pre-occupied with political development....

But, as he travelled, the natural world gradually assumed precedence. On Kunie he joined the local equivalent of a fox-hunt (the fox is a turtle). On Lifou, at the women's Saturday's cricket match (cricket taught them by English whalers) the applause of the watching men is underscored by the slapping tails of a school of whales off shore.

Eventually he reached Mouli. The natives were amazed at his request to stay...the first European ever to stop more than a few hours. They accepted him and built him a hut. They gave him a great banquet (and fed him the great local delicacy...the yellow fat from the ventral sac of the coconut crab).

To a European the community of Mouli presents a surprising contrast of social maturity and primitive habits: there are pigs trained as pets like dogs, giant crawfish, large enough to take a man: men fish like sea eagles, leaping from a cliff with a trident.

Gorsky tells a moving and fascinating story of a year spent with good and simple people, and it is illustrated with more than 60 wonderful color photographs that he took on his journey.

First off, as in all my reviews of Dickey's work, or work on Dickey's work: a disclaimer. I knew Dickey from 1991 until his death, and thus my opinion of him must be biased in some way, though I'm not sure in which direction, if any. I simply consider him now, after his death, as I did before our meeting in 1991 and our many phone conversations following our meeting, as the last great poet in America. Hart has done a good job of editing and my hat, if I had one on at the moment, would be off to him.-I don't want to belabor the point. Either you get great poetry or you don't. Hart's selection of the best of Dickey's poetry is exquisite. In particular, "The Sheep Child" a poem written from the perspective of the few seconds of life of a product of bestiality is what Dickey is all about:

"...In the summer sun of the hillside, with my eyes Far more than human. I saw for a blazing moment The great grassy world from both sides, Man and beast in the round of their need,

And the hill wind stirred in my wool, My hoof and my hand clasped each other, I ate my one meal Of milk, and died Staring. From dark grass I came straight....."

This is Dickey at his best, in perfect tune with the wondrous and terrible insights combined with the visionary traumas of what we call "Nature," but which we are tremblingly unsure about, just like the sheep child in his (her?) moment of existence.

A must for lovers of true poetry.-A rarity in these days.

I'm 22 and I have a 3 year old nephew. I went to the library to pick up some books for myself and this book caught my eye, why? The bunnies! They are not "drawn" pictures, but actual PHOTO'S of REAL bunnies! They photography is wonderful and the story line is adorable!

It's about a family of bunnies, 2 of the baby bunnies being "twins". Everyone keeps calling the one bunny by his brothers name and he just wants to be himself! The book goes through all the suggestions from the other bunnies and in the end...well, I won't tell you how, but he becomes himself.

In the back there is reading tools for your children, that are great. Although my nephew isn't to that state, I read through the back and if your teaching your children to read, it has some great lessons and fun games to go with the book to help teach.

If your children love rabbits, buy this book!

This book is not a new translation, but it does have a foreword by the esteemed Orthodox theologian David Bentley Hart and extensive notes by the translator Boris Jakim (who has also translated works by Pavel Florensky and Sergius Bulgakov). The range of subjects studied by Solovyov in this book are numerous. He talks about shame, just war, and morality. A definite must-read for those interested in Modern Orthodox Theology or Russian Philosophy.

This is a good starter to the authors' series of oral history books on Kennedy, Nixon, and Reagan. I hope to see one on GW Bush and Clinton 20 years from now when people can speak more candidly.

Anyway--I think the other two books are far better, simply because JFK wasn't a very interesting person. But there is some great historical insight here.

The Reagan and Nixon books give you way more detail on how the presidency works, and how each respective president ran his White House. Plus, the scandals were juicier and they had more time to leave their mark.

I'd rate this book a high four or a low five. The reason being that the illustrations in this book are big and cluttery and sometimes the fonts used are big and cluttery. I find I have a hard time reading the directions for the activity because my eye is roving around the page so much. Maybe others don't have this problem?

Otherwise this is an excellent book full of great ideas for how to make the weekends fun. There are a wide range of activities that will appeal to a wide range of kiddos: Music, planting, magic and rainy day activities. Glass chimes, clay recipes, cooking ideas, pretend play and science are all included in this book. Some require more than one person or mom's help, others are good for young kids to do on their own. Excellent resource book for when you need an idea fast. Most of the ideas use around the house supplies.

My only other thought is that I also have Boredom Busters by the same authors and some (NOT a lot, but a few) of the activities are repeated in both books. However there are enough differences in the two books that it might well be worth getting both books.

I thought that I could not draw until I got this book and now I am the best drawer in my class!!

Excellent book and highly recommended. Both of my children love this book. They are both very interested in animals and this book covers this better than any I've seen. This book covers many animals with very interesting poses - don't hestitate to pick it up.

This is one of the books we use in class. The children like the subject of cats. I have them add a quote to their pictures using 516 Sensational Cat Quotes, Proverbs, Quips and Jokes for Scrapbooking, Crafting and Fun.
The students are happy with their projects. We make cards and save the originals.
Everyone says it is a fun class and that they enjoy this drawing book.

This book is teaching me how
to draw dogs very well.