Powell Books

This is got to be one of the best guide books I have ever seen featuring over 350 different species of parrots on our planet. Being the bird lover that I am, and that includes domestic as well as wild birds, I own almost every book out there on birds, and I really love this edition by Tony Juniper & Mike Parr. It should really be called an encyclopedia because there is just so much information in these almost 600 pages. The 88 superb color illustrations of all the species by 5 different artists are so beautiful & true to life. As you already know by reading the editorial & other reviews, this book includes range maps of the species locations, their vocalizations, life expectancies, and much more fascinating information.

Remember, this is not a book about parrots in captivity, its information about birds in the wild. If you don't own a parrot and are thinking about one, this book is a definite help in learning about all the different species that are out there. The more knowledge you have the better it will be when you do decide to pick out that perfect companion parrot for yourself & family. Owning a companion parrot is a lifetime commitment that shouldn't be taken lightly. I know I researched many months before I found the perfect parrot for us. The love you receive in return from your parrot will amaze you. I wish I could give this book more than 5 stars. Highly recommended!

This book belongs in the library of any naturalist or bird lover. The plates are wonderful with vivid colors that serve to identify the various species. The text provides concise information on natural history, a map of each species' range in the wild, its conservation status and other information. This book could be used in the field or as a comprehensive reference book on these remarkable birds. The authors must have poured a phenomenal amount of work into researching and writing this book. Buy one for yourself and another for a friend.

I own parrots, I have friends who own parrots, and I have a brother who breeds parrots. I feel I can knowledgably say that this is not a good guide to parrots. It is full of mistakes both in the text and in the illustrations. I was very disappointed when I went through this book and, fortunately, I did not buy it but got it through the library. If you want info about this group of birds buy the standard, Forshaw's Parrots of the World, and just realize that the information about ranges and scientific names might be out-of-date but overall this is the better book by far. It deserves no stars.

This is the first book I bought on Parrots and it is the only I would ever need to learn about the different types of Parrots in the world. It contains information and pictures on every type of Parrot from the African Grey to the rare Kakapo. I only wish they had an indication on the price range of each bird on the market for those who breed and sell. I would definitely recommend this book to the serious Parrot collector. A definite must on a Parrot lover's bookshelf and worth every dollar.

I was long wondering whether to buy this book or not, but it was well worth getting.
The species accounts are incredibly detailed and it must have been hard work to collect all that data.
I have field experience regarding parrots in Eastern Indonesia, and found this book to be amazingly up to date about the status of species occuring there - so I trust it is similarly accurate about parrots in the rest of the world, too!

Helpful in understanding the concept of diminished hunger using Glycemic Index as a dietary guide.

This book is very helpful and is a straight forward approach to better understanding the GI and how it affects your body. I previoulsly read the Glycemic Revolution and was deeply disappointed by the info, and the lack of everyday application.

I do like that there is a glossary of the questions in the front so you immediately know where to skip.
From questions about prickly pear cactus and more, this book covers a lot of corners, and it explains things very well- breaking down the GI book stigma.

this book is a must for the diabetic. it helps you literally with what to and not to eat and WHY! it explains the GI and GL system. this is a easy to read and understand book. get this book and it will help lower the (tryg) numbers.

Read it in 2 hours. I have got more than 25 books on Diabetes, but this book is THE BEST. It is the best investment. Please buy this book, if you have diabetes, you will not need any information after that.

Eat lots of green peppers and cucumbers.

This was a great book for my mom who thumbs through the book and finds excellent information about her diabetes. If you have to take your blood readings on a daily basis, this book is a must have.

A bleak city in a bleaker setting, Aum is known as the 'City of Gates'. Surrounded by perpetual mist and deprived a view of the sun and stars by a jealous, forgotten god, Aum is a threshold for travel between worlds, and perhaps eras. At any time of day metaphysical gates in the city are opening and closing, bringing strange travelers with desperate quests into a city where one can buy anything. The point to remember here is that nothing in Aum is freely given; even the smallest favors come with a price, usually paid in pain and suffering.

Throughout the excellent tales in this book, Aum is the constant and most compelling character. A city rendered in beautiful sepia writing, Aum is a place of shadow and desperation. The stories are best described as dark fantasy or horror, but the book conjours up movements of bleak beauty all the more delightful for their fragility.

Houarner writes with simplicity. His characters are very rarely nice people, but the reader understands the motives of each. It is the bleak settings and tangible sense of emptiness and loss throughout that makes this book soar. A decaying boatman riding a river of death and decay or a beautiful princess determined to usurp her father's throne at any cost might not strike the reader as original characters, but trust me, you don't know where these stories are headed.

Read this book. It certainly made a lasting impression on me. If you enjoy this sort of dark horror/fantasy sort of setting, where the city itself seems to be the most important character, also check out "The Trial of Flowers" by Jay Lake.

Mr. Houarner can write fairly well, but I didn't enjoy this book as much as I expected to enjoy it. I expected a 4-star book.

The last two stories about Jeloc were fine and I might have given the book that rating if all were like them. However, the rest of the book just seemed to incarnate "life sucks and then you die." Some books are grim but the power of the writing keeps you enthralled. Some are grim but you have a sense of moral satisfaction or completeness. Some are grim in part, but are relieved by the other side of the coin in places. This was just grim.

by TT reviewer Anita Jo Stafford [full review on our website]

The Black Orchid from Aum is an anthology of stories by Gerard Houarner. "In the City of Aum anything can be bought. But you must always pay the price." All of the stories focus on the inhabitants and travelers through Aum, the reason they have journeyed to Aum and the price they pay for their desires.

All travelers must pay for Aum's tongue, a parasitic bug that works as a universal translator. Without the translator the travelers to Aum cannot communicate and are destined to become less than the human population. People can only travel to Aum when their planets are aligned. When the convergence occurs, travelers can leave Aum for the planet that is aligned with the gateway. The city is dark, violent, decadent and in many ways beautiful. It is a multifaceted world in which danger lurks on every corner.

The first story involving the debt collector draws the reader into the heart of Aum. It is an excellent way to introduce the reader to the realities of Aum. Cray's story shows the reader the first of several stories that provide the reader an excellent view of life in Aum. As collector, Cray settles unpaid debts. After suffering through an abusive marriage, she no longer desires love. While she collects debts for others she is accruing one of her own. As the debt collected from Cray is revealed, the reader is drawn deeper into the book just as travelers are drawn to Aum. Kings, Princesses, rulers of all shapes and form pay for their desires in Aum. The title story, Black Orchids from Aum is riveting. Like the rest of the stories the Princess gets what she desires most. However, the price that Aum takes as payment again has a profound impact.

The Black Orchid from Aum is an excellent anthology and an insightful look into the human condition. The stories are well written with excellent imagery and plotting. This book is a good one to start with as a sampling of the work of Gerard Houarner. It catches the reader's attention. I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Aum is a place where anything within the imagination is possible for a price. The price that the inhabitants pay is often everything. This book is unique and ingenious. Depending on what the reader wants to take from the stories, they can be anything from dark fantasies to warnings of what could be in a world with too much excess. This book is highly recommended.

This was recommended to me as an introduction to Gerard Houarner's noir fantasy. I found it an extremely interesting example of of what I think of as 'city of adventure' fiction. This has been around for some time - the first use of the form that I encountered was Moorcock's Tanelorn, which weaves in and out of his stories. Other efforts in this sub-genre include Lynn Abbey and Mary Gentle. And, more recently, Mieville's New Crobuzon and Simon Green's Nightside have appeared. The themes are wide ranging, the only requirement being that the city and its culture be just as important as the story itself.

Aum is one of the bleaker metropolis's in in what is usually a dark landscape. Condemned for some unknown since to exist separate from everywhere else under permanently dark skies, Aum is a dangerous waystation for interdimensional trade and barter. Countless gates to elsewhere open in the city, watched over by the gate mothers and their attendants. Even to enter Aum requires bartering - the traveler must acquire a parasite that serves as a language translator. To be without language or livelihood in Aum is an invitation to disaster lost in a city where you can buy anything - if you have the price.

And the price in Aum is never something as simple as wealth. In this collection every story presents a grim sort of justice - those that abuse love have it torn from them, those that bargain for kingdoms skirt empty thrones, Gods die and leave two edged artifacts. Rarely is there even a glimmer of hope, and every tiny victory contains the seeds of its defeat. This is Aum's curse and the bane of those who chose to come to it.

Houarner's style is straightforward narrative with little embellishment. With the exception of the final tale, each story stands by itself with no shared cast. Whch is only to be expected from a collections drawn from a a number of trade publications and written over nearly a decade. I would have liked to see more details of Aum and its workings. Houarner, a minimalist, introduces only what he needs to further his story. This works well for each story, but leaves the reader feeling there is something lacking when trying to read the tales as a body of work. There is enough here to whet one's interest, but not enough to completely satisfy.

I liked this book so much I even thought about starting out my review by saying a few trite and cliche phrases like, "Couldn't put it down!" and "Mind bogglingly intense!", but I...oh wait...I just did.

Seriously, if I could give this book 10 stars I would. Houarner has created one of the creepiest and most despairing worlds I have ever visited in my lifetime of perusing the written word.

Aum is a city banished into isolation even from its own world, as punishment for offending its Gods long ago. Surrounded by a high wall and covered by perpetual mists, those who dwell here never see sun or stars or moon. Only the swirling, cold mists.

Houarner's descriptions of Aum, with its polluted canals, continual gloom, dank temple cellars, tight and shady streets, and hopeless futility amongst both the locals and the traveler's is the centerpiece of this collection.

Aum is also known as the "City of Gates", for Aum is the center nexus of many portals to uncountable universes. When a world "aligns" with Aum, a gate will open and you may pass in or out of the city. Many different worlds align each day at every Gate in the city, and only the Gate Mothers and the GateKeepers know their schedules. The Gate Mother's are needed to sell you "Aum's Tongue", a parasite that is swallowed and lodged into your throat in order that you can speak the language of Aum. Without it, you cannot bargain. Without bargaining, you cannot live.

Aum the city is the constant here, with just the characters changing from chapter to chapter and adventure to adventure; a city painted in such marvelously vivid shades of pale that when Houarner writes of his mists, you can actually feel the sting on your flesh and taste the vaporous tendrils as they float by. The greed and the despair of its visitors and citizens is so palpable that you can feel your teeth sinking into their very flesh.

In the stories we will see a Collector of Delinquent Accounts who must pay the price of her own transgressions, a plague ridden girl bargain for the life of her homeworld with a discontented God, a homeless member of the Bridge-Folk despairingly cast himself at the feet of Gohul The Gondolier, a King from another world finding that his greed will make him powerless, a father suffer from the consequences of abusing his daughter, watch ambition destroy a predatory race, visit a whorehouse, see a tragic play, and most of all...strike a bargain.

For in Aum, anything can be bought; love, power, dreams, revenge, or even hope. But be ready to pay the price, for once your bargain is struck, you are bound to honor it; and the price must always be paid.

My favorites of the chapters are the title chapter, Black Orchids From Aum, Shing Of The Bridge Folk, Cure For The Plague, The Collector of Delinquent Accounts, and The Face Of The Messenger.

This is truly one of the most chillingly eerie books I have ever come across; not the grossest or the strangest, but one that left an aftertaste in my mouth both delicious and disturbing. If your taste buds are craving a sample of something creepy and slimy-cold, pick this book up and read. Enjoy!

I know first hand the remarkable place that Northridge Church is and the remarkable changes that occurred due to Brad's vision and leadership. I never really felt at home in church until I attended Northridge and truly realized that God could be revelant to my life and the way I live it. If you care about growing your church and making it relevant to the masses you MUST read this book.

Are you in a church with a 175 year history? Traditions that are blocking the spread of God's word. Is your church in decline or simply not growing? This book builds on Rick Warren's concept of purpose driven. Our church is currently going through some major transitions. Pastor Powell's book has been a great encouragement.

I read this book and have attended Northridge dozens of times. I grew up in Temple Baptist and spent 3-4 days there until 1982. My parents met at Temple Baptist in the early '60's. My grandmother attended in the 1940's. Needless to say, I know a lot about the history of Temple Baptist.

It was indeed culturally irrelevant by the time I left in 1982 as it was stifling and ultra conservative. Northridge is now transformed into a place where new Christians and seekers of God, Christ & the Spirit will be able to connect and find God, healing & worship. It is definitely a place to launch into Christianity although the waters can be shallow.

There are only two items I do not like about the book. One is that it is poorly written. It reads as if Brad dictated it. It needed better editing.

The other item I do not like is the information that the membership declined since 1955. This "fact" has been picked up all over the web. Although this is true, the contextual information that is left out is that this was partly intentional by Temple Baptist.

In 1955 Detroit had virtually no suburbs. As the suburbs began to spring up, Temple Baptist financially launched and encouraged dozens of suburban churches to support neighborhoods. It was understood that their membership numbers would decline due to losing members to the new churches that Temple launched. This was the primary reason for losing membership from 1955 - mid 1970's and not cultural irrelevance. I think that this was important information which was left out of the book.

Otherwise, this book is an important guide for how churches can attract people seeking or needing Christ that would otherwise never set foot in a church. They can't find Christ if churches don't try to reach them by connecting with our modern culture.

I just finished reading this book and highly recommend it to anyone that cares about their church, and the mission of THE CHURCH. God, through Brad, changed a dying and irrelevant church into Metro Detroit's most dynamic and effective church body. This was only possible because the members caught his vision for reaching the lost, and offering them the hope and healing that can only be found in Jesus Christ. For those that know of NorthRidge, it is an opportunity to see what happened behind the scenes in those turbulent years of transition, and to see the spiritual and emotional struggles that Brad and his leadership team endured. For those that are new to the story, it is an opportunity to learn from their struggles to move your church to where it should be. If we are not reaching the lost, we are not obeying Jesus' command. To reduce the book to a few sentences: most churches are ruled more by tradition and customs than by the Word of God., are directed more by illogical fears and selfish motives than by Christ's Command to "Go into the World", and are more focused on insiders than on the outsiders, erecting walls to hold out the "undesirables" rather than trying to desperately pull them from the flames. The book is a solid Eye openener that will have you re-evaluating everything your church does to see if it is done because it makes us feel comfortable, or if it is done to pull in as many of the lost as possible "without compromising God's Word." People are hurting everywhere. No one is exempt, and the Church needs to be the one offering the "One" that provides true healing. Brad and NorthRidge are getting it right, that is why I now go there, and why so many thousand others go each week. If every church had the heart and drive of NorthRidge, this world would be a much better place.

Brad Powell, Senior Pastor of North Ridge Church in Plymouth, Michigan has written a new book about how to take your tired, old church and make it new again. Change Your Church for Good: The Art of Sacred Cow Tipping (W Publishing Group, February 2007) is 316 pages of church transition strategy illustrated by Brad's own success at transitioning the historic Temple Baptist Church of Detroit, Michigan into North Ridge Church of Plymouth, Michigan.

The principles Brad articulates for team building, vision casting, and making progress toward change are positive and valuable. They aren't necessarily biblical, however. But that isn't to say they are necessarily unbiblical either. Except maybe for the rather bizzare story of God almost speaking audibly to Brad and telling him to transition the church to fit himself and then to relocate the church from Redford to Plymouth, "a community that will then be a perfect fit for both of you [Brad and Temple]." I haven't been able to locate a verse for that one.

The formative years of my spiritual life were spent at the Temple Baptist Church of Detroit. In his book Brad variously characterizes the church that formed my spiritual life as "irrelevant," "bound by tradition," "declining," "unhealthy," "dying," "Southern-cultured," "defensive," and possessed of "a lot of anger and conflict."

From 1976 when I first began riding the bus to Temple, to 1989 when I left to take my first pastorate in northern Michigan, this irrelevant, bound by tradition, declining, unhealthy, dying, Southern-cultured, defensive church with a lot of pent up anger and conflict faithfully proclaimed the word of God from its pulpit and in its Sunday School classes, faithfully trained teenagers and young adults in soul-winning visitation, and remained committed to the timeless truth of God's word in the midst of a changing culture and declining city. I owe my spiritual life to a church Brad Powell dismisses as "irrelevant." Temple Baptist Church was certainly relevant to me. And history bears out that prior to 1991 Temple was significantly relevant to many who owe their spiritual lives to its ministry.

Brad has always dismissed the history of Temple Baptist Church as irrelevant, which is surprising since his own success at North Ridge is due in large measure to the foundation laid by others throughout Temple's long history. For 40 years Dr. G. B. Vick labored as the faithful pastor of Temple, yet Brad can only say of this great leader and pastor that "he managed the ministry with consistent excellence and relative success," (italics mine) even though, as Brad characterizes Dr. Vick, he was not the communicator or innovator the previous pastor was. Brad has spent his entire ministry at North Ridge building on the foundation other men laid, especially those of this mediocre leader, Dr. G. B. Vick.

There is no question that Temple was in decline and dying when Brad arrived in the early 90s. Brad and I fundamentally disagree as to why. He points to "banjos playing in the basement" to illustrate the church's cultural irrelevance. I would point to the failure of the church's leadership to biblically deal with sin, both among themselves and the members of the congregation. Temple died because the Spirit abandoned it, not because the culture found it irrelevant.

I would argue that Temple's problem wasn't its inability to connect with the culture. It had succeeded in connecting with the culture for 70 years before Brad arrived. The gospel has always been and always will be foolish to the culture, but that doesn't make the message irrelevant. It's not preaching, or hymns, or traditional Sunday School, or soulwinning visitation, that kill a church. It's sin left unconfronted that kills a church. The pastor who immediately preceded Brad resigned because of a "moral failure." God knows, plenty of others should have hit the altar that day with confessions of failures, moral and otherwise, of their own. But rather than point to spiritual decadence as the source of Temple's decline, Brad blew past that and focused on "banjos in the basement" as the culprit. And, of course, if indeed the decline were due to "banjos playing in the basement" and stern looking "arms crossed ushers," it would be easier to convince the people that the problem was "relevance" rather than sin.

But if the problem is spiritual, well the answer to that problem is a different one altogether. Dealing with a spiritual crisis doesn't require abandoning the historic biblical principles that got you where you are by throwing them into the same pile with banjos playing in the basement. A spiritual crisis requires repentance and confession and a recommitment to those historic principles. But if your goal is to tip sacred cows (like banjos, organs, and arms-crossed ushers) into a Golden Calf, some things that really aren't sacred cows (like expository, evangelistic preaching and worship music with a solid theological foundation) get labled sacred cows so as to faciliate your goal of Golden Calf forming.

Brad diagnosed cultural irrelevance as the disease that killed Temple and he presecribed a heavy dose of cultural capitulation as the remedy. It worked. And in a culture that values quantity more than quality, relevance more than spiritual depth, the fact that it worked is all that matters. For Jesus' attitude toward quantity over quality see Matthew 7:21-23 (note the words `many' and `knew' and you tell me what Jesus values more: what you produce or who you know - numbers or relationship?).

Thanks Ms. Bates for another Alex Powell mystery. I absolutely fell in love with Alex in Plain Brown Wrapper and had to read this one to see if it would be just as good - I was not disappointed! I was glad to see Alex still up to her old tricks, and with her man Paul firmly by her side. Alex is still as smart and no-nonsense as she was in the first novel and you can't help but root for her. As in Plain Brown Wrapper, this book gave a peek inside the upper echelon of Black society that is not always seen. It was nice to see how the other side lives, and easy to see why they don't want everyone to know (as Simp and his 'folks' weren't the nicest people you could meet). Anyway, if you are looking for a good book, and a good mystery, check out Ms. Alexa Powell. You won't be sorry!!!

I couldn't wait for this book to come out after reading Plain Brown Wrapper and I can honestly say I wasn't disappointed. I can't wait to read more about Alexa and crew.

We last met protagonist, Los Angeles Standard columnist, Alex Marshall, using her sleuthing skills to solve a murder at the National Association of Black Journalists in Plain Brown Wrapper. Author Karen Grigsby Grant unleashes Alex's expertise again with her latest release, Chosen People.

Alex, who has her pulse on the black community of Los Angeles, is assigned to write an article about James Simpson Lee Hastings Jr., the self-proclaimed authority on the Black Bourgeois and author of Chosen People, a book that, depending on who you ask, is either uplifting rich black folk or putting down poorer black folk. Alex knew Hastings had enemies but who would slit his throat at an Eso Wan Book Store signing? She finds herself right smack in the middle of another murder case much to the chagrin of Paul Butler, her out-of-town beau, and her landlady, wealthy matron Sally Ferguson, who have continually admonished her to stay out of trouble, but it seems it just ain't going to happen. Why do these things happen to her? When Alex makes the connection of Hastings' murder to that of an alleged suicide of a wealthy white philanthropist and the vicious attack murder by pit bulls of a prominent African American woman, the plot thickens. All of these victims are only separated by the proverbial six degrees of separation.

From the horse country in Norco of San Diego County, to the streets of South Central Los Angeles to swanky homes in Hancock Park and the Los Feliz Hills and the churches of the Black middle-class, Alex searches for answers. The cast of characters include a pro-black, militant activist turned horse trainer, old money black L.A. and a Jewish socialite. Not only is it a "small colored world", it is a small world, period.

Grigsby Bates peppers her book throughout with phrases, some familiar; some newly coined, a sort of insider's secret language. Besides "small colored world", there is her code for white people, "WP", and the Black Bourgeoisie, "Nigwazeez" and other witty terms. The book, Chosen People, featured in the storyline was an excellent parody of Our Kind of People by Lawrence Otis Graham, the controversial account which took the middle/upper class African American community by storm several years ago. Indeed, as in her last book, Grigsby Bates gives you a glimpse into the black elite of Los Angeles; the class schisms in the African American community, the divisions and tension that exist and how they are exploited. I can hardly wait to see what Alex gets into next.

Dera Williams
APOOO BookClub
www.apooo.org

I found the first Alex Powell book by accident, but I immediately liked her. Smart, opinionated, intelligent - this was a Sista I could like reading. And, I liked all the rest of the supporting characters, both Black and White. Having a Sistafriend who was a journalist for many years, Alex and her fellow journalists' travails about the newsroom were not unfamiliar to me. I think I liked this second book better than the first one because I already knew so many of the supporting cast. I hope Ms. Bates writes a third and fourth Alex Powell book. There are so many good Black mystery writers...I totally wish that BET or TVOne would do a series with them. ..

Bates has written another well-paced, well written novel starring Alexa Powell, which I think that many people will like even more than PLAIN BROWN WRAPPER.

CHOSEN PEOPLE is about the upper crust of black society and the african american elite, aptly called the "Chosen People" in some circles. In the book, as in real life, many people think that talking too much about money and class and social status is considered vulgar. Simp, a man who is obsessed with chronicalling the status of the black elite, is unsurprisingly murdered. But no one knows who, among the many people who were clearly disgusted with Simp, could have committed the murder. Alex Powell, reporter turned detective, is trying to write an article about this murder and two others that she intuitively thinks are related.

Perhaps the best thing about this novel is that one of the connections among the characters is their understanding of and committment to improving the black and minority communities and helping those in need. The novel is just as much about political power, cultural identity, ethnic awareness, and community service as it is about social status and violent murders. (After all, there are four murders in the novel!)

I don't want to give away any more of the plot, because I was so surprised and intrigued about the way that the murders were and were not related. I didn't anticipate it at all. Although I am not especially fascinated about this particular segment of black society (I actually find it a little annoying), I honestly think that this angle will make the book more interesting to a lot of people, because most people can only read about the Chosen People, and generally enjoy doing so. I really enjoy reading about Alex, although I got tired of reading about what she was wearing, and I like her. I relate to her, and I look forward to reading about her again.

This is a great summer read, I finished it in about 3 days or so. I really hope it goes to the top of the Essence bestseller list and stays there!

Very useful book. Even though I majored in art in college, I didn't learn all that's in this book. It's changed the appearance of my paintings totally. I love it. I'm already ordering the one for portrait colors too. Very easy to use, with quick, exciting results. Someone mentioned that the colors were "out of date," referring to Hansa Yellow in particular. Hansa Yellow is a pretty standard color in the artist's palette, and not out of date. Colors may go out of date in fashion, but not on an artists palette.

I do like spiral-bound books which feature either brushstrokes or in this case, recipes, as the pages lie flat (there is no spine to flatten or pages which keep flipping at a vital stage). The book starts with a general overview of color theory but doesn't get obsessive about it. Then come the recipes which are clear, easy to understand and there is a plastic color mixing grid at the back to help get the proportions accurate. The book deals with Oils but there is a conversion chart for Acryllics included. At 49 pages and with a hardcover, it is compact and easy to carry. I liked the over all format of the book which also includes a small section on Portrait Colors.

This book is great for anyone who loves to paint, but struggles with getting just the right tone...just the right shade...even just the right color! While I've noted that a few "recipes" contain errors (it's pretty clear that mixing one part white with four parts cadmium yellow medium will not yield a "pumpkin" orange), I still find the book useful because it allows one to see what combinations and proportions of colors will result in a desired hue, value, or intensity. While Powell acknowledges in the Instructions that paint colors vary somewhat among brands, I have noted one or two colors that are significantly different from the paint I usually buy (Windsor-Newton oils). Even so, I have been quite pleased with the results, and I believe my painting is all the better for using this guide. I certainly recommend it to anyone who has experienced the frustration of having mixed selected colors only to discover that the end result is totally wrong for its intended use!

This is an excellent book for painters just starting out, or painters in general.
Mixing recipes for more than 450 colour combinations. This book is a Must.

Very good quality printing, so you can get a good read. It was helpful, but I ended up making my own charts with the current colors that I keep. Who uses Hansa Yellow?

Author Lisa H. Farber-Silk bares her life and soul in her book "Giving My Heart: love in a Military Family". She shares her very personal tale of love, frustration, pain and rejection by her lover - a PTSD veteran - for whom she gave up her long-standing marriage and home for. She truly made one of those life choices that follows the heart but leaves so many unfilled emotional and spiritual needs. This book does not have a lived happily ever after ending, or really any ending at all - much like real life for all of us.

Lisa allows the readers to fully view her self-admitted flaws and shortcomings in an effort to promote the understanding of a much bigger issue and problem - that of PTSD veterans. She reaches out to the public to give their loving support not only in the book but in her personal life as well. She opens the door to the kind of problem that families of returning veterans are finding. There is much to learn from her book as it presents a different view of the PTSD problem to a public that little understands, or even knows, how huge of a concern it has become.

I have been helping PTSD veterans for over 30 years and have seen how it can and has destroyed so many families. The problem is only growing worse. This book calls attention to those destructive behaviors and hopefully, will become a catalyst for some families to seek out help.

If you are a military family (or have a relationship with a PTSD veteran) this book might be a good insider look at what you might not even be aware of. The book is a sincere attempt to build a bridge of understanding between the returning veterans and those who are trying to love and help them.

Reviewed by Sylvia Del Toro for RebeccasReads (4/08)

Having been part of military life in my married years I can relate to many of the inferences that are made, as well as the heart-wrenching losses that the family endures during challenging times.

Military life is hard enough without having to endure the painful loss of your partner. I don't necessarily mean physically, like death, but emotionally. Death may be better to some people because of the emotional stress that PTSD causes. PTSD, if not handled properly and professionally, will escalate to a whole new level.

My ex-husband was in the military and part of the whole Desert Storm thing. It was difficult for him to readjust to normal life after what he saw and had to do. He did two short tours; the second tour was harder than the first. He had many sleepless nights and times of emotional outbursts and anger. He never talked about it and eventually broke up our marriage.

I have had a few family members, a couple of acquaintances, and a couple of friends that died in Iraq and a couple that came back. It is not the same for them and they, too, have had a hard time adjusting. However now, we know more about PTSD and how we can work with them.

The author is very descriptive and touches the heart of the reader in "Giving My Heart." She brings the book to life and you almost feel as if you are there living it through her eyes.

This book does not have a happy ending yet so if you want one it may disappoint you ,but for families and friends having problems with the people they love ,it shows you never never to give up in what you believe in even if it costs you . I think it is a powerful message of the book ,what if you let it go . What happens when soilders are taking it out on the people they love and how you as a loved one has to be strong and stop at nothing to get help , get information .
I have seen Lisa get the word out about PTSD .I have seen her do good helping and doing for the military for the last 25 years .She is blunt and honest and honest to a fault even if it cost her which it has been alot .But everyone loves and respects her .
For her to open up her feelings and share them with you so you can find the help you need ,the strength ,the courage ,this woman is remarkable ,not only that all the proceeds goes to Vermont Vet to Vet which is a Non -profit that help Veterans have their weekly meetings to talk about with other vets who are having issues .
I hope that if you have a service member that you and love and care about you will pick up the book , and realize you are not alone ........ this can happen to anyone .

As a military wife and mom for almost 25 years, Lisa has seen it all from Desert Shield to Desert Storm and back again. In 2007, she organized the Vermont Veterans Combat Stress Symposium to bring information and help for soldiers and their families. With this book, she lays it all on the line -- including personal failures and the whole nine yards. You can judge her by what she does but you do not have the right judge her by who she loves. This book is for anyone who has a loved one returning from Iraq and Afghanistan who is not the same person as who left.

Reviewed by Vicki Landes for Reader Views (12/07)

First-time author Lisa H. Farber-Silk releases her autobiography "Giving My Heart: Love in a Military Family." Open, honest, and full of details, the book gives a glimpse into one woman's connection to the armed forces.

"Giving My Heart: Love in a Military Family" details Farber-Silk's personal journey from childhood to marriage and motherhood, then on through businesswoman, mistress, and divorcee. The three men in her life - her husband, his friend, and eventually her son - are all in the military. As her story progresses, she describes how it felt to see them off to war and how it felt to transition them back. She concludes with her unsuccessful attempt at helping her lover adjust and deal with his Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).

"Giving My Heart: Love in a Military Family" isn't your typical `military wife perspective' book. Instead, the story is an autobiographical account of Farber-Silk's love affair with two military men. Further, the book ends on a rather sad note as she never did get through to her second love as he struggled with PTSD. The book seems to be a last attempt to get him to see what he's put her through and how he can help himself.

As a military wife myself, I expected to read more of her activities on the home front and less of her background or affair with another man (something obviously frowned on by the US Army). I also expected to read about more PTSD experiences. Farber-Silk doesn't note the first hints of PTSD behavior from her lover until page 62; her entire story is only 89 pages. Further, the story has a bit of a juvenile tone; phrases such as "NOT!" and "I was so pissed" really don't read well in a book meant for mature adults dealing with post-war trauma. "Giving My Heart" is not for those looking to read the more traditional `triumph over PTSD'-type book.

Farber-Silk does write from her heart. She lives and loves from deep within and her book serves as a historical account of her life and her experiences as a military family member. She holds a strong devotion to her country as well as her fellow spouses enduring the separation of loved ones deployed to war zones. "Giving My Heart" is simply Lisa Farber-Silk's life story.

The novels of Dawn Powell (1896-1965)have an autobigraphical tone. Powell grew up in Mt. Gilead, Ohio, but left this small midwestern town to seek her career in New York City. She wrote "The Wicked City" in 1938, and the novel captures both the allure and the disappointment of fast-paced sophisticated New York. Although the satire is sharp and biting, Powell shows considerable ambivalence for both the small town she left and the cosmopolitanism she adopted.

"The Happy Island" opens with its protagonist, Jefferson Abbott, arriving in the New York City bus terminal from Silver City, Ohio to make his career as a budding playwright. Jefferson is serious, stodgy in character and is taken aback by what he sees as the frivolity and shallowness of the New York cultural and entertainment community on which he hopes to make his mark. In New York, he meets another transplant from Silver City and an old flame, Prudence Bly. Prudence has survived the and mastered New York show business to a degree. She is a successful nightclub singer with many contacts. As adolescents in Silver City, (16 years before the story begins) Jefferson and Prudence had a teenage romance. When the pair was caught necking behind the railroad, Prudence received the sobriquet "Tracks" from the mocking young men of Silver City. In New York, Jefferson remains attracted to Prudence but dismayed by the life she is leading as a nightclub singer and socialite.

The plot of "The Happy Island" centers around the relationship between Jefferson and Prudence and in the contrast between New York City, New York and Silver City, Ohio. But as elsewhere in Powell, the plot of the book is the least of its attractions. The value of the book lies in its depiction of the places and people of New York City, in Powell's writing style, and in her sharp, caustic one-liners. There is an underlying sense of morality lost.

The book features a plethora of characters from the New York entertainment and literary scene. In particular, this book is somewhat unusual because several of the characters in the book are gay or bisexual, and Powell presents these characters without any particular moralizing. The moral tone of the book, though, is sharp and critical. In general, the characters in the book exhibit the morals of the barnyard. Infidelity, promiscuity, and double-crossing are the rules of the day. Together with the sexual double and triple dealing, Powell emphasizes parties and alcohol. She is good at describing party scenes and even better at emphasizing the dependence of her characters on booze. One can sympathize with some of Jefferson Abbott's reaction to this environment.

With all its sharpness, irony and satire, New York City is presented with a certain magic and allure. It is the dream of a new life and of opportunity, for Powell and for many others. Inflated hopes and ideals too often lead to cynicism, as I think this book and other books by Powell suggest. In the introduction to this book, Tim Page concludes that "The Happy Island" is a relatively minor novel of Dawn Powell. That may be, but there is still much in the book to reward the reader.

Resoundingly fresh despite its age; this story of New York's fast set is less a tale of the era of Dawn Powell and her circle than of modernity. These characters are no more dated than Warhol, Jackie O or current cast of post modern successors. Powell includes with a frank and unapologetic intimacy characters and relationships that are straight, homosexual, freakishly over and under-sexed, effette, misers- that is desperate, complicated and flawed people in a mix of transplants and liars.There are no true heroes here, and the louts can become the worshipped with as much predictability as the inevitable pace to the grave. Prudence Bly is a self-made, hard drinking, no talent beauty whose last desperate plea for a soul becomes a renunciation of all her success and stature for a subordinated relationship with a brutally anti-New York playwright, an egoist himself, but of the country-is purer variety.
Prudence, like Powell, one suspects, was not blind to the limitations of her future and her own aged and unheralded part in it, but it is her humor and her going along for the fun, that renders her a well-developed, vulnerable and ob so modern, heroine. This book is one of my favorites in the Powell repetoire- I rate it more highly than other reviewers. Its real, informed and ageless.

This novel captures the time when CAfe Society ruled the Greenwich Village scene. Ms Powell captures the nuances and slang of that time marvelously. As always, her wit and style shine through every sentence.

For every person who comes to New York from a small town or suburb and makes it in their chosen profession, there are a thousand others who don't. What happens to them? What are they like? Dawn Powell describes them all. This book is a wonderful literary read and a fine corrective to the notion that every transplanted provincial is either interesting or deserving of sympathy. Powell's characters are wonderfully drawn and fleshed out with fine prose: here's the business wife "bragging in a dozen beds of her perhaps old-fashioned chastity." Here's the "new society reporter from the largest and worst newspaper in New York." Here's a young playwrite freshly arrived from the sticks mortifying a seedy arty-professional crowd and their "shrill insistence on fun" by exclaiming, "New York, eh? What a dump!" And her is the (not so) young kept woman who "with considerable care placed her head in her hands as if it were a very fine melon." Powell is a treat; there are memorable lines on every page. Her novels came out between the 30's and the 60's and all the New York books are very fine, literary reads. She is considerably more on the mark in terms of wit and irony and quality of prose than her well-meaning editor, Tim Page (actually a music reviwer by profession) seems to realize, and in satire can hold her own with Saul Bellow, Gore Vidal, Sinclair Lewis, Joan Didion, etc. Check out Vidal's essays on her (they're much better, less aenemic, than Page's comments, I felt, after reading her books). Angels On Toast, The Wicked Pavillion, The Golden Spur, The Locusts Have No King, And A Time to Be Born are all also very fine, sharp witty novels of New York; both its fascinating side and in all the balderdash of its aspiring provincials.

I found this to be one of Dawn Powell's most entertaining books, deliciously dark and vicious. If you liked the cult classic film "The Women" you should find this delightful. This book is of particular interest to Gay readers as many of the main characters are realistically drawn Gays, something very rare in a book from the 1930's.

I've collected the Hulk for well over twenty years, but I've never read the Tales To Astonish stories. Now I can read the early adventures of this classic icon in a wonderful format!

i just finished reading this and felt a few different things. if you're a hulk fan and want a great reprint of the old stuff then you can't go wrong with this. my only problem i have is that so many of the stories are cookie cutter. i know that that was the norm back then but they don't seem to have aged well. i loved seeing how all the old villians came out though, it was just getting there that was tedious.

What can I say this was a good book. I was excited to hear this was coming out in light of the new Incredible Hulk movie. I also have the Essential Hulk but this is good because the pictures are in color. I also love the art work from Alex Ross. Anyone who is a fan of the Hulk or wants to learn more about him this is a must read.

Aside from it being a great collection of stories and because of these original tales we now have the amazing character of today, this collection isn't for light or even moderate fans of the current Hulk. Yes, he goes green, and yes, he gets angry.

Yet, the intensity has faded over the years. Science Fiction fans rejoyce at the genre storytelling, marvel fans of Planet Hulk enjoy blissful ignorance.

This review's title is a line that the mighty Hercules happily shouts as he does battle with the Hulk and finds it much to his liking.

This huge volume of early Hulk stories is a blast.

I'm not sure it would appeal to kids or people who've seen the movies and want more. But for comic readers/collectors who've always been curious to read the early Hulk stories, I highly recommend it.

You really get a feeling that Stan Lee and his collaborators were trying to get a handle on who the Hulk was. So, instead of 50 issues of the calcified "Hulk Smash!" character we know from the 70s, here we get stories with a nocturnal Hulk, a cunning Hulk, a brutish Hulk, a savage Hulk, a Hulk-with-Banner's-Brain-who-sorta-talks-like-The-Thing, and so forth. These experiments in trying to define the character and his relationship with Dr. Banner -- and the fact that the bulk of the stories are only 11 pages instead of the usual 22 -- make for a surprisingly unexpected experience and a load of fun. It's a much different experience than the first two Fantastic Four Omnibuses in which Stan Lee/Jack Kirby on all the stories. Those have a much stronger continuity: these Hulk stories lurch all over the place.

The artwork is done by a Who's Who of the 1960s Marvel Bullpen and it's fascinating to look at the variations and compare inking styles:

Ditko inks Kirby
Ayers inks Kirby
Romita inks Kirby
Everett inks Kirby (a great combo!)
Roussos inks Ditko (and it looks oddly like Chic Stone's work)
Coletta inks Ditko
Gil Kane, Frank Giacoia, Marie Severin, Herb Trimpe and John Buscema all show up for several issues as well.

NB: Normally I'd say support your local comic book store, but Amazon offers 37% off, which which means you can buy this on Amazon and then STILL have $37 left over to go spend at your local comic book store. 'Nuff said!

A beautifully written account of a life dedicated to the making of films by a true Master of the medium. This book together with the other volume of his autobiography, Million Dollar Movie, gives the reader a wonderful insight into a very creative personality. Michael Powell recounts his life with charm, whimsy, wit and voluptuousness: a perfect picture of the man himself.

Meet Michael Powell! The great and iconoclastic film direcotr of such classics as 'The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp"; "The
49th Parallel"; "The Canterbury Tales: "Black Narcissus": "Peeping Tom" and countless others tells the story of his long,productive and adventurous life (1905-1990).
Powell grew up in bucolic middle class farm life in Canterbury, Kent. His father divorced his mother moving to France following World War I. It was while staying with his father that Powell became involved in moviemaking as he joined the company led by director Rex Ingram on the French Riveria.
Powell later became associated with Alfred Hitchcock, Arthur
Rank, Michael Balcon and J. Arthur Rank . He made his first hit with his eccentric view of life in the Orkney islands in "The
Edge of the World."
Powell knew many of the great actors, directors and technicians who made the movies the folk tales of the 20th
century.
Powell's closest associate was the Hungarian writer Pressburg with whom he organized Archer Film Studios.One classic from this association was "The Red Shoes" which is arguably the finest ballet movie ever made!
Among other things Powell was:
a. A womanizer who wed several times and romanced the likes of actresses Deborah Kerr and Pamela Brown.
b. A novelist and a director who actually read books! His writing style is anecdotal and very readable!
c. Powell's love for film is manifest Even though British film culture turned its back on him following his controversial "Peeping Tom" in 1960 he never gave up his love for film, storytelling and art.
Powell is sadly little known on our side of the pond. He deserves to be better celebrated as one of the best film directors of the 20th century.
With the TCM cable channel's recent festival of his best movies the hope is that Powell will become better known and his
imperishable films enjoyed by a new generation of film fans.
This was a fine book to spend several hours perusing in the company of a grand old man of British and world cinema.

No other biography i've read places the man himself before me, so evocative is it. In his films he chased and captured the wonder in all things, but his own writing does this more directly, a wonderful book. The life of the film maker from the 1920's onwards, and one who can fully express himself descriing the life, and equally great on his growing up towards film. The maker of wonders like A Canterbury Tale, Small Back Room, The Spy In Black and Peeping Tom achieved as much in this book.

Michael Powell, partnered by Emeric Pressburger, made some of the finest films of the forties. Films like The Red Shoes, A Matter of Life and Death and The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp, are startlingly original. These two men, known as the Archers, formed one of the great creative teams. His description of this partnership forms the heart of Powell's autobiography A Life in Movies.

Powell's book is long and takes a while to get going. He spends rather too long on his childhood in Kent. It is an interesting description of a long lost world and provides some insight into the development of Powell's character, but eventually one becomes rather impatient for him to get onto his film career. This he does with a brilliant description of his start in silent movies. Powell's story from this point onwards becomes gripping. He is a good writer, clear and readable. This book is full of interesting anecdotes and, on the whole, is very candid. There are times when he is circumspect and he sometimes withholds a name, but normally he is very open and honest. This is especially so in perhaps the most heartbreaking story of the whole book, his affair with Deborah Kerr. Powell's description of this is warm and loving and full of feeling. It is quite clear, even after more than forty years, that he never got over it. Thus Powell comes to resemble Roger Livesey's character in Colonel Blimp, and the film somehow seems all the more poignant.

In any long story there are dull bits. Powell's account of his struggles in the early thirties making obscure films which have been all but forgotten is not especially interesting, although it does contain some fine material regarding his interaction with the young Alfred Hitchcock. Furthermore, he dwells at times overly much on the politics of the British film industry. However, when he discusses his great films starting with The Edge of the World and finishing with The Red Shoes, this book is as good a description of making films as I have read. Fans of the Archers cannot fail to learn something new about their favourite films from this book.

This is a good read written by and about the life of one of the truly great movie directors. Along with Emeric Pressberger, Michael Powell created The Archers, whose movie productions were and are breathtaking in their daring cinematography and scoring. If you're not familiar with Powell's movies, you're in for a treat. I urge you to design your own Michael Powell film festival: Be sure to include The Thief of Baghdad, Stairway to Heaven (A Matter of Life and Death in Britain), The Red Shoes, Black Narcissus, The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp and my personal favorite, I Know Where I'm Going. These are stunning works of art. Consider that they were filmed in cash-strapped postwar England, and you come away all the more amazed. Powell lost his career when he filmed Peeping Tom, a Hitchcockian thriller that upset critics with its psychosexual theme; his reputation was only rehabilitated by the intercession of such luminaries as Michael Scorcese during the 1980s. Powell lived a brash, full and vigorous life spiced with affairs with the likes of Deborah Kerr and the fascinating Pamela Brown. He dared the new, often endured hardship and even danger to catch what he wanted on film. He envisioned original and groundbreaking ideas, and then assembled teams that made them happen: A Himalayan garden in Kent for Black Narcissus, awesome outer space animation and the world's largest staircase for Stairway to Heaven, shooting I Know Where I'm Going without the leading man ever being on location. This book has been out of print for some time in hardcover. I've seen copies selling for hundreds of dollars. There is a reason! Now is your chance to enjoy the best words there are about Michael Powell--his own.