Smith Books

Picture book about historic homes and their owners is fun and well done but inconsequential. Interesting groupings lends organization, but reads like a PBS anthology retrospective.

Good pictures and great production values make the book an eyeworthy treat.

I had the pleasure of meeting the author on a flight from Frankfurt to Rome last summer. I bought and read this book with great enthusiasm. The author is brilliant and funny. The book takes us to various personalities, times and eras in the historical evolution of our country as these homes are used as the medium to demonstrate the message of the time and culture. It is eloquently written in unpretensious prose. I must read.

Through history, art, architecture and more, you journey through these extraordinary Americans lives, and their homes. Elizabeth Smith Brownstein takes you on a facinating tour of 26 homes including Presidential homes, Plantations, Haunted Houses, famous Women's homes, a home of the future and more. What a great book for treasured collections, book clubs, and anyone intersted in America, history and artchitecture.

This fabulous book contains interesting histories and illustrations of the homes of famous Americans. I especially liked the sections on the historical California homes, since my husband and I have visited several of them. As a student of both archicture and history, this book inspired me to plan future visits to each of the homes described. Highly recommended!

This book has immediately become a favorite of my wife and I. We jump from chapter to chapter, revisiting homes we have actually been to and learning additional tidbits about them. As well, we are delving into homes we now hope to visit in the future. The pictures are well-chosen and attractive and the author's choice of text brings these dwellings to life. We recommend this "work of historic art" to everyone, no matter their level of interest in this area.

Great book for anyone who loves cinema, starwars or special effects.
The whole history of George Luca's Industrial Light and Magic.

Thomas Smith was general manager of Industrial Light and Magic a year before he came to write this impressive book. The book is centred around the film special effects creations of ILM between 1975 and 1985. This includes the then "Star Wars" trilogy, two Indiana Jones movies and other lesser known projects. For the Star Wars fan theres plenty to learn about one of your favourite movies. This book is lavishly illustrated with full colour photos including triple page or gatefold images. The focus though is on how the effects are done and who did them at ILM. From the art work in developing concepts of storylines, through modelling, creature creation, the actual filming methods and matte image creation to the finishing touches of animation and optical compositing this book gives a gradual demonstration of the work of a special effects company. For someone with no knowledge what so ever of special effects this is a good introduction and to those involved it must be fascinating as well. As Thomas Smith points out, while film fans still love the movies from this era (1975-85), movie goers constantly seek new visions on screen. The digital era has brought movies like Toy Story etc but these were just figments of imagination at the writing of this book so its worth noting Thomas Smith's far-sightedness in the final chapter on digitized movies. The format of the book is to take each department of the special effects process and show what it does and where its part comes in the crafting of a movie. In each chapter there are short biographies of the leading people in each area of effects, this is a nice touch as it can serve as guide for those interested in getting involved. Its worth noting, many of those profiled have a long interest in their specialty going back to their youth and through the various twists and turns of working in an industry knew of other members of the ILM company before actually joining this now esteemed organisation. Thomas Smith by no means is setting out to sell ILM's considerable expertise though he tells the story of a company making dreams into reality, itself moving from an idea to a serious business proposition. (As a final note another book on movies of this period Paul Sammons "Future Noir: The Making of Blade Runner" contains insightful descriptions about the crafting of a movie not least its special effects.)

No one would ever have guessed that when Industrial Light & Magic opened its doors in Maren County that day way back in 1975 that they would produce the standard by which other special effects and other effects houses would be judged. ILM has formed the cornerstone of LucasFilm Ltd. a company that has spawned more spin-offs such as THX Sound, Skywalker Sound, all held neatly under the Lucas Digitial banner. Back in the days of Star Wars it was mostly using what was already known, and inventing everything else. ILM has been at the forefront ever since, from the early days of motion control cameras controlled by Apple computers the latest CG marvel like Galaxy Quest, Phantom Menace or Mission to Mars.

The Art of Special Effects deals more with the older films-those before 1986, illustrating a time when computers were not so large a part in the film-making process. It gives the reader a great look at the sheer amount of detail that went into the models, the props, costumes from Star Wars to Explorers, from Raiders of the Lost Ark to the some of the Star Trek films, ILM constantly and consistently proven to innovative. The book as a whole is on a level lower than, say, Cinefex magazine, assuming that the reader doesn't know how blue screening and rotoscoping works or how miniatures are lensed. It is light reading without getting itself bogged down in too much technicality, for those who want that, read Cinefex.

It also strikes me that this book is also best at presenting a dying era. A time when model makers kit bashed hundreds of plastic models just to build a Super Star Destroyer - few companies bother with that any more when everything can be rendered on a Silicon Graphics box and Maya and Soft Image software. Such films as Star Trek: Insurrection used few practical models and a completely CG Enterprise-E. The time of the supremely detailed, hand crafted model or set may be at an end, and I think the industry will be sadder for it. Partially because when I read Cinefex, a lot of what I see is the same-different movie, different space ship, but they're all rendered the same way and most use the same software, with only minor modifications or original code going into it to get a certain look or solve a certain problem.

I suspect the Digital Realm of the movies, while producing better special effects, lacks the mystique of knowing that several people labored for months to build that model. That instead it was modeled by a few people over a period of a week. (Though it should be noted that a lot of films, including the Phantom Menace, used practical models). I suspect their days are number.

Pér tutti quelli che vogliono sapere come fanno i film, per tutti quelli che amano Star Wars con tutti i suoi segreti, direi che questo è il libro che fà propio al caso vostro.Scritto in un inglese molto facile è un libro che può veramente appassionare

Years ago I longed for this book, as it sat on the shelf in the local book store(it was not cheap). I received it with much gratitude on my birthday. Now as a teenager I found a reinterest in this book, and was overjoyed when the next book "into the digital realm" came out. For anyone who is captured by the magic of special effects, this is for you.

on telling you that the author was on of the two to three collaborators of Einstein (The others being Valentine Bargmann and Leopold Infeld) on Unified field theories.

It is a beautifully written account of the gravitational theory. The monster mind himself has written the foreword.

Peter was able to give examples which made the complex easier to understand. The edges of the first sections in a copy in the Caltech library were black from use. I was privileged to be a guinea pig for the first edition.

Don't know of a superior first exposure to relativity. It starts with elementary situations and examines the conflicts with pre-relativistic kinematical viewpoints. This motivates the requirements for special relativities' postulates and their immediate consequences.

From here, the more complex issues of special relativity are dealt with in an orderly fashion; e.g. rigid body dynamics, relativistic hydrodynamics and electromagnetic theory from a relatavistic point of view.

General tensor analysis is covered in a separate chapter for pursuing the general relativity chapters of the book. Incidentally, this chapter is among the most clear expositions on tensors out there.

Finally, general relativity is covered in the same stepwise fashion as was done in the special relativity chapters. The natural introduction of more complex ideas which start from basics is perhaps, the single reason why this book is a hard to beat introduction to relativity.

After a thorough digestion of Bergmann, one is ready to spring up to the next level, the masterful Weinberg.

This book describes the foundations of relativity in a clear and concise way. The development of tensor analysis is especially clear. It is great for anyone who has studied calculus, differential equations, and classical physics. I highly recommend it.

This book is one of the first introductions to the theory of relativity that has the endorsement of the discoverer of the theory. Albert Einstein was alive when the book was first published, and writes the foreward to the book. Individuals who want to learn relativity should still take a look at this book, in spite of the somewhat outdated mathematical notation. In more contemporary textbooks and monographs the physical intuition is usually sacrificed and replaced with mathematical formalism. But here the author puts the main emphasis on the physics behind the subject. It is one of the few books still in print that discusses the relativistic mechanics of mass points and continuous matter.

The reader will also get an overview of early approaches to unified field theories. Historians of science will be interested in particular with this discussion. It is amazing how much has changed in this area since this book was published in 1942. The advent of superstring and M-theory has given physicists a view of reality that is set on a mathematical structure that is quite formidable. It now takes years for a student to obtain the necessary mathematical background to reach the frontiers of unified theories. In this book, it only takes the reading of the first two parts to be able to understand the author's overview of unified field theories. Particular attention should be paid to the treatment of the gauge-invariant geometry of Hermann Weyl, because of its relevance to the construction of gauge theories in elementary particle physics. The geometry of Weyl is constructed using a symmetric tensor representing the gravitational field and a pseudovector that represents the vector potential. When a gauge transformation is applied to this vector potential, it changes by a gradient, which, as the author remarks, is the historical reason for calling the addition of a gradient to the electromagnetic vector potential a gauge transformation. In addition, variational principles play a role in this discussion, and these principles have wide applicability to the quantization of gauge theories in modern developments. The role played by adding extra dimensions to formulate a field theory is summarized here by the author in his discussion of five-dimensional field theories and Kaluza-Klein theories. Ten- and eleven-dimensional theories now dominate modern unified theories. It would be very interesting to know what the author and Einstein would have thought about the theories of today, entrenched as they are in the most complex mathematical constructions ever applied to physical theory.

Writing an honest memoir of one's formative years is not for the faint of heart. In the case of J. Matthew Smith's Jailed By My Father, reading this one is not for the faint of heart, either. Smith takes a childhood full of desire, anguish, ambition, and bravery, and infuses it with hilarious insights on events like child incarceration, drive-through window chicken sandwiches, and roofing with a hangover. I couldn't help but laugh out loud and get teary-eyed, in turn, and I recommend Jailed to anyone who has ever experienced the fine art of "growing up".

Before this country made a veritable cult out of youth, being a kid sucked. If your teacher hit you in school, your parents yelled at you, not the teacher. Adults didn't care about what you "wanted" or "liked." They threw you in the back of a Ford Pinto without a seatbelt and smoked with the windows rolled up. There were no DVD players to hold your attention in the back seat, just whatever passed by the window and your own imagination.

Matt Smith's book captures all of this in hilarious detail, from renegade barbers to lunch room miscreants. It's a good read for anyone who wants to remember what growing up in the '70's and '80's was all about (from the perspective of the time, not VH1's retrofication of it), and an equally good read for kids who wonder what life was like before computers and lawyers took over the world.

Sit down, shut up, and read this book. It's good for you, whether you like it or not.

Why do we keep looking back at the 1950s and early 1960s with such cloying nostalgia and ignore the gritty stories of the American family buffeted by the changes and hard times of the late 1960s and early 1970s? These make for much more interesting, less-predictable reading--as well as have created a generation of people who are much more grounded and less self-absorbed as a result of surviving these childhoods.

This book is a hysterical collection of blue-collar "morals of the stories." If you were a kid alive in the late 1960s and early 1970s in any working-class American town, chances are you had this father or heard about him from your friends. Well, J. Matthew Smith has brought him back again from his vivid memory to remind us in these days of TMI, Jerry Springer, and battles over sex education in the classroom that sometimes a simple grunt of advice, a hard day's work, or a brief visit to the local jail can do more for a child than any touchy-feely family therapy.

Read it! Learn from it! Pass it on!

"Jailed By My Father" is a very sweet book. I read it slowly, savoring it while on the train to work each morning. I was struck by the shear honesty with which Smith shares vignettes from his childhood and teenage years, some of which are not terribly flattering. It would have been easy to become unsympathetic had those stories not been so well balanced with as many tender moments from his past. The result is a well-rounded glimpse into his character. The writing style is accessible and I was easily transported to the Buffalo of several decades past. It was truly a joy to read.

Jailed by My Father is one of the most honest autobiographies I have ever read. My childhood was no where near as interesting as Matt Smith's, yet I know that I could not describe even the most mildly embarrassing moments of my life with the brutal honesty that the author commits to paper. His tales are hysterical, poignant, and even a little bit sweet. If you are afraid of laughing out loud, don't read this book. With all the drivel that is out there about father and son relationships it's nice to read something that tells it like it really is, flaws and all, and somehow makes us closer to our own parents. The book is outstanding and I highly recommend it.

i have never owned a book like this before in my life, I am so glad I purched this book. I feel it has changed my life in some ways i never thought it could. Rose offner is such a talented person and the subjects to write about are so real life. This book is incredible.

I have been journaling for over 15 years and this has remained my most cherished one. I have had it for several years, working on it at various times and reviewing it whenever I need a reminder of how important MY story is. It is definately a window to one's soul, and it does it all in an affirming way. I am a therapist and reccommend it to clients often. It was through a client that I learned it was now out of print and scurried to find another. It is a wonderful gift to yourself. I am sure the teenage version is just at great!

I have a hard time just sitting down and writing...so this book was wonderful for me. Beautiful illustrations, gives great topics to write about, which helps you learn more about yourself. This book was very helpful to me in my recovery from anorexia.

Journal to the Soul has opened my life to the numerous possibilites of expressing my true self. I have participated in Rose Offner's workshops as well and have moved through a variety of emotions. This book has gently but powerfully assisted me in opening myself up to the power of my own heart; to the power of Spirit and Love. I have seen beautiful changes unfold in my life since I have fallen in love with journaling. More importantly, Rose Offner has enough love to change and heal this world; she speaks the truth and shares her own personal experiences with candor and joy. I recommend this book as the perfect gift for a loved one.

The pages are so beautiful and the artwork so inspiring that you almost hate to write on the pages. I went out and bought a special pen to write in it with. After all, our words and our memories are the true treasure. The author guides you with probing questions and thought provoking lists. I can't wait to write in it every day!

Rare is the book with such a perfect title. And look at the cover: A skydiver plummets head-first toward earth, his palms turned upward as if toward heaven, except he's upside down, so they're turned upward toward the earth below him. That's an actual photo of the author. And then there's the divining rod wiggling its way toward something hidden and sought, and it may well be the author's hands gripping it at the fork.

That pretty much sums up the book, but you're not going to know why unless you read it. There's a skydiver plummeting head-first down the drain, and when he pulls his ripcord, a divining rod pops out, and pretty soon, by the grace and miracle of the human spirit, he's on the trail of something hidden and mysterious. Does he find it? Apparently so. Does he tell us what it is? No. But how could he? What he finds is too big for words. But maybe you can use this book as your own divining rod. There really is something out there, behind the bushes and between the lines, and aren't we all upside-down skydivers palms up in confusion, our only hope a ripcord? Answer: Maybe. Frankenstein on the Cusp of Something

Dustin Beall Smith's first collection is by turns tender and searing, a memoir in linked essays written in blood with razor blades by a man who's life is both a cautionary tale and a triumphant one. Smith's stories take readers through two failed marriages, buckets of booze, dicey encounters with film stars and producers, Indian sweat lodges, and snapping turtles. When living on the edge doesn't satisfy Smith's peak-experience addiction, he finds perfectly good airplanes to jump off of. I'm being facetious, but not purely. The metaphors supplied by skydiving and sweat lodges work splendidly here. More than anything else what comes through these pages is a portrait of a man searching for his soul in all the wrong--or anyway the least obvious--places: on the wings of airplanes and at the bottoms of bottles. The pages of this slim volume hold more pain and loss than those of many a fat book James Frey's faux memoir springs to mind). But they also hold heaps of redemption, for as the writing aptly demonstrates, Smith has emerged from his losses with a ruthless eye for self-scrutiny and an analytic grasp that would make Freud blush. The cautionary tale is that of a reckless, thrill-seeking boozer; the triumph is that of a brilliant writer. KEY GRIP gripped me from page one and wouldn't let go.

Dustin Beale Smith's stunning new book of essays, Key Grip, will cut you, perhaps deeply, and do it while you are enjoying yourself, so thoroughly immersed in Smith's magnificently simple, straightforward prose, that you won't know what hit you. You may feel, in the words of the "young director, James Mangold" asking "Sly Stallone" to tone down his "sadness" in the early scenes of Cop Land (shot in 1997, Dusty Smith, Dolly Grip) " . . . lugubrious."

" . . . what you're really feeling right now is . . . lugubrious." (p. 102)

Say you're a writer. Unless you're a writer who really has made it, you may indeed feel a bit gloomy from time to time, struggling as you do to find an audience of more than one or two lovers and friends, especially if you've settled for the hollow gratification of the barroom rake who wants to live the writer's life, but never quite gets an actual career off the ground. In that case, Dusty may be too honest for you. The prospect of having someone truly eminent, like Annie Leibovitz, the photographer, come rushing up to you in your mid-fifties to gush about how much your work has meant to her, and you let her go on, knowing " . . . she'd confused you with someone who actually was talented and famous," may force you to ask, "(t)o what end, and for what purpose, have you lived this preposterous, imposterish life?" (p. 154)

"To what end . . .?"

Whatever answer you give yourself--reassuring or comfortless--you'll end up doing it with a smile when you get to the end of this book. No matter how badly you think you've failed to live up to whatever vision you started out with when you were young, you'll see that there is hope for you yet. Much hope, because in the end you may find that "(f)or an instant--and an instant is all you need--you know what you are going to be when you grow up." (p. 155)

In "Starting from the Bottom Again," the first in Smith's series of loosely connected essays, he leaves his home in New York City and his work in the film business with an enigmatic Lokota Souix from the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota, whom he calls "Arturo Has No Past," and arrives four days later at a ". . . a hand-lettered sign that read(s) END OF THE ROAD," He is fifty-seven years old, and at the END OF THE ROAD his life takes an irreversible turn. This is the home of "Mike Little Boy," Arturo's father, a ". . . toothless, weather-beaten Indian . . ." (p. 20), who is also a Medicine Man, where Smith, with no special preparation or planning, has come for ". . . a prayer ritual called hanblecheya, which translates as `crying for a dream' and is popularly known as a vision quest." (p. 3)

The spirit of Dusty's story might be summed up by Mike Little Boy's warning. Dusty is skeptical because of the dilapidated condition of the prefab house and the junk-strewn yard and because Mike will only agree to let him do part of the hanblecheya. Smith expects to "go up the hill" for the entire four-day ritual after coming all this way, and Mike will only let him do a day--sun up to sun down.

"It's different than what you read in books," said Mike. "A lotta guys can't even stay up that hill for two hours--even Indians. They start to see things. When you come to me, it's not like up in Bear Butte where they tell any white guy who comes along, `Okay, do four days, take water with you, whatever you want, you wanna be Black Elk, we'll make you Black Elk.' That's not the way I do things." (p. 22)

Smith's experience erases all his assumptions of who he is or was meant to be and transforms him, not into a shaman or a guru, but into an even more candid explorer of the hardy and the foolhardy sides of his life . . . into a writer of great wit and generosity. Nothing is like "what you read in books" (or see in the movies). When you, the writer (actor, seeker, sky diver, key grip, etc.), return from your own vision quest are you really transformed, or is everything still the same? The answer is, apparently, both. Will you, as a struggling artist, ever finish your "crying for a dream?" Yes and no.

Suppose you are a writer (actor, seeker, sky diver, key grip, etc.) of stature, who truly has made it . . . what of your dream? Well, perhaps I can ask one of my famous friends--among whom I may soon count Smith. I suspect, however, knowing that for the most part, the major difference between a true star and, say, someone like myself (or Smith, in his own words) is the audience, not the heart of the man or woman--at least among the people Smith describes.

Take his meeting with Susan Sarandon on the set of Compromising Positions.
"It is a fine summer day in East Hampton, new York, in 1984. Susan is sitting in the driver's seat of a car rigged with lights and cameras and diffusion frames. My crew is attaching the car to the tow vehicle, getting us ready to head out on back roads for a running shot. I knock on the driver's-side window to give Susan instructions about what not to do while we are on the road--don't use the brakes, let the car steer itself--but for some reason Susan moves over and beckons me to sit down next to her. I open the door, slide in beside her, and close the door behind me. The commotion outside suddenly sounds far away. Some of the guys take their tools and move away from the car. Susan sidles closer to me, hooks her arm in mine, then rests her head on my shoulder. She is four months pregnant with her first child and has decided not to marry the child's father. My second wife has recently discovered she cannot have children. Susan and I know these things about each other, but neither of us says a word. My left hand clutches the steering wheel, my right foot presses the gas pedal. For one long hallucinatory moment, we drive off into the sunset together." (pp. 102-03)

Key Grip has to be one of the finest collections of personal/lyric essays in print today.

It's a rare gift to write an essay collection that keeps you reading from the first page to the last. Dustin Beall Smith has that gift. This is not a book about the film industry (PUBLISHERS WEEKLY missed the point!), rather it is about the thing we'd rather not discuss in American culture, failure. In thirteen essays that move backward in time, Smith looks at failure from every possible angle--in work, family, and spiritual questing--and, instead of instilling doom, he uses humor, honesty, and humility to prove that redemption is possible should one decide to tackle failure head-on. Smith's narratives are edgy, insightful, and focused. He takes you from the sublime (the thin separation between this world and the world to come) to the tragic (the killing of a turtle) to the ridiculous (standing drunk and naked outside a locked hotel room door in Georgia) without missing a beat. This is a spot-on exposé, not of movie stars and their ilk, but of what James Baldwin called "the price of the ticket," where the ticket is what it means to be a man in America.
Buy and read this book: you won't regret it for a second.

Dustin Beall Smith pulls us down to the briny deep of fear, uncertainty and doubt about our personal authenticity.

From the beginning to the end, he sets off a profound introspection about the basic premises that underlie the formation of identity. Smith forces us to ask: "Do I know who I am and what I believe? Is it a false or manufactured self? How do I know it's authentic? Have I really experienced any authentic rites of passage that have shaped my identity? Have I lived a life of success by association, not of my own making? What have I DONE of any real consequence?

Unsparingly, Smith confronts us with his own most excruciatingly painful struggles---plunging us into a self-examination of our own deepest self-deceptions---very scary stuff.

We are forced to ask ourselves: How am I to actually ENGAGE in life? By one well-chosen life pursuit, all the way through? By a variety of pursuits, until I find the ONE that liberates my authentic self? Or a series of well-chosen pursuits valued in and of themselves as a more complete reflection of my authentic self? And, what, now, if I have never actually engaged in a real life pursuit?

Incredibly, Smith nurses us through this nightmarish soul-searching with fond, tender affection, mixed with world-weary good humor.

If you follow him down to the darkest depths of KEY GRIP, you may discover a rare form of emancipation.

I've made cauliflower and penne gratin, and I also made it with broccoli instead of cauliflower. I made tuna noodle casserole and balsalmic vinaigrette dressing. I love each one. I am going to check out his other book, too.

I love this cookbook. I found the recipes interesting, yet not so esoteric that I didn't have easy access to most ingredients. I loved the finished recipes - they were fun, and have received rave reviews from my friends and family. Love it! I count this among my top 3 favorite cookbooks. Highly reccomended.

`Kitchen Life' is personal chef Art Smith's second book, having won a James Beard award for his first, `Back to the Table'. The most important feature of this book is that it is about much more than just recipes. It would not be at all inappropriate to call this `Knowing Your Kitchen for Dummies', as it touches a bit on just about every aspect of ingredients, kitchen management, cooking equipment, pantries, techniques, and recipes. An experienced cook may easily find much in this book a little too basic, but for the average person who wants to improve their return their investment in refrigerator, oven, range, sink, and tableware in their kitchen, this is the book for them!

A paragraph on this book in a `New York Times' article on new cookbooks attracted me to the work in that it said the author wrote that you really don't need dumbed down recipes for cooking with kids. I had just finished reviewing some books on cooking with kids where I was put off by the cutsey tone adapted to appeal to kids. So, I suspected that Art Smith had something to say to me.

It turns out that people with a lot of culinary experience will probably find little that is new in this book, but a newbie in the kitchen will find a whole lot to orient them to what is essential and what is fluff. I can find no statements in this book with which I would argue; although there are several small differences in opinion which should have no impact on the value of the book to its best audience. For example, Smith does the novice a great service by providing a lot of very useful top five lists for pantry items. A symptom of how good these lists are is the fact that I have almost all these items in my pantry. Their biggest weakness is that his lists violate one of his best principles, which is to always shop with a shopping list based on recipes you will actually cook that week. For small households, there is a lot of potential waste in stocking up on things like bell peppers, fresh thyme, frozen shrimp, sweet potatoes, chocolate chips, and ice cream. Bell peppers are a really common ingredient but if they languish for a week in the crisper, you may end up with slime. I really find the cost of fresh thyme to be not worth the money, as dried thyme is an excellent product with a very long shelf life. As I buy a new bottle of dried thyme every three months, I have no problems with the herb's loosing its potency. And so on with the rest of these ingredients. Smith is not suggesting we run out and buy all these ingredients, but he is not warning against it either.

On kitchen equipment, the same rule should apply. Don't buy anything, no matter how strongly recommended, unless you actually plan to use the stuff. To those who will benefit from this book, I would amend Smith's recommendations with the recommendation to get BIG pots and pans. It is less of a problem to have a cook pot that is too big than to have one which is too small. Where Smith recommends both a skillet and a saute pan, I would trade in the skillet for an 8-quart Dutch oven and use sure to get the 10 or 12 inch saute pan. Get an 8-inch saute pan only if you definitely plan to make omelets or crepes.

On almost every point, I believe Smith is on the side of the angels. He warns against buying sets of pans, recommends washing prewashed produce, and makes excellent suggestions on when to use and when not to use the microwave oven. If I were to suggest any one thing he should be including would be a primer on knife skills. I believe good knife skills and a $100 premium quality knife will outperform a $300 food processor for every operation that uses a knife. And, it is so incredibly easier to clean a knife than to clean a food processor.

Smith's very best and most unusual suggestion is to keep a journal for menus, recipes, running shopping lists, and references to interesting cooking tidbits. While most of the audience for this book may be hard pressed to just bring their family together for a meal, let alone have the time to write things down, I really think this is a good idea, especially if it can be done on a laptop. Tying this into access to recipes from Internet sources creates a great synergy. The local newspaper simply cannot compete with the 50,000 recipes available from web sites such as foodnetwork.com and epicurious.com. Another good but uncommon suggestion is to simply label one's pantry shelves, so it is easier to see what you need and where your bottles and cans go when you get home from the grocery.

Until I saw the blurb in the `New York Times', I avoided Smith's books for the same reason I avoid books by Patty LaBelle, Al Roker, and Pat Conroy. I am sure these folks are all devoted foodies, but I prefer getting my expert advice from people who are culinary experts, not literary or TV celebrities. The fact is that Art Smith is a culinary expert who is actually paid to cook well and he has been doing it for quite a long time. So, there should be no surprise that he has a lot of very good ideas for a successful life in the kitchen.

This book does not cover everything, but it is the very best kitchen orientation I have seen for those who would like a basic roadmap for what to do in the kitchen.

Art you did it again! The book is an interesting and quick read. Loved the recipes for picky eaters. I made the cauliflower and penne gratin at the private boarding school where i am the cook. The kids loved it. I am your #1 fan.

This is a fantastic book for learning more about cooking, the kitchen and great recipes in general.

The best thing about this book is that there is a lot of extra knowledge that is very helpful, like tips on when to use regular garlic or garlic powder and other hints on what you should and should not do.

I've been cooking seriously for only about a year and I have to say that this book is teaching me a lot and I really enjoy it. Get a copy for yourself!

Engaging and throughly researched, this is a favorite in my Knitting library. The photographs are beautiful and the patterns are very easy to follow whatever your level of expertise. I recommend to any one considering knitting a blanket or throw. With this book you will create an heirloom.

Don't think this book is just for knitting bedspreads in white cotton like Grandmom had on her bed in Topeka. No indeed, though you'd be lucky to own such a heirloom and be even more lucky to decide to make one.

You can use these squares and edgings for so much more. For example, the squares can be made into frons of sweaters and tunics for very original textured effects. Of course they also make good afghans from thicker wool. Or pillows. You choose, there are so many options.

I like looking at the squares just for the inventiveness and incredible variety. This is one of my all-time favorite knitting books for getting design inspiration.

Want to knit some beautiful things? Only want some unusual edgings? This is your book. The patterns aren't difficult, either. This book makes me dream of the day I can retire and fool around with knitting patterns all the time.

I haven't started one yet, but I have every intention of knitting a counterpane from this book that I can pass on to my children and grandchildren. Yes, I have every intention of knitting an heirloom. This book is inspiring, and there is no other word for it.

The patterns in this book are beautiful, easy to follow (I haven't started my counterpane, but I have knitted singles of a few of these patterns), and full of tradition. And, really, you don't have to knit an entire counterpane. Knit six or eight and have a placemat, or just knit different ones to learn traditonal and beautiful stitches. This book can be fun too, as well as inspiring!

I bought this book a number of years ago. I have knit many patterns and projects from this book, to the point of having the book fall apart on me. :) It is a must have for every knitters book shelf.

My first book as a fledgling philosophy student was Cassirer's
work on the Enlightenment and I was in up over my head, but I stuck it out and learned a lot. So, when his book on myth and language came to my attention, I was familiar with the author and his reputation. I have not read the professional critiques on this work, but my personal opinion is that it is unique in every respect. I have not seen anything else that parallels the growth of myth (religion) and language as this does, nor have I seen anything that deals as effectively with the idea of epistemology that is quite apart from that of science and inductive probabilities. If you want to read what a brilliant man believes and substantiates about knowledge from a really different viewpoint, this may be the book for you. It is deep, but each page will grab you -- perhaps more than once.

This little book is a revelation in 99 pages. It is highly theoretical and while it is not an easy read it is not beyond the comprehension of a layperson either. Cassirer's arguments lead me to think about language and consciousness itself in ways which I never have before, but which seem so amazingly right that I experienced many moments of epiphany. This book is an excellent rebuttal to the argument that reason is the origin and culmination of human thought and that all myth is rooted in ignorance (take that, Carl Sagan). If you are interested in theories of mythology and/or theories of language/linguistics, this book is a must.

Language is such a basic part of our lives that we little stop to consider its origins or the signifigance of those origins.

All the more reason for the importance of this book which anticipated modern anthropological findings about the nexus between language and religion over fifty years later. Though the book is by no means an easy read it was first on the scene in at least two important ways.

One, as mentioned, was its connection between language and myth in the first place. One only has to review the Wade book, "Before the Dawn" to see the truth of the thesis about the connection between religion and the birth of language (now dated to about fifty thousand years ago).

Two, like the later Lakoff and Johnson book "Metaphors We Live By" Cassirer was keen to observe the metaphorical structure of language by pressing pre existing cognitive systems into service for understanding more -- otherwise theoretical -- constructs. Unlike Lakoff and Johnson, however, Cassirer was working well before the advent of modern anthropology.

And additionally, the book gives some sense of the original revolutionary nature of language. Just as printing and more recently the internet would have powerful social impact, so language itself originally established a dramatic new matrix.

How can such a small, easy to read, & to the point book reveal so much? Ernst Cassirer is a philosophical genius who writes to the common man without all the typical wasted German idealist wording. Help yourself to question the beginning, the history, & the continuing changes of how language & myth intertwine, & limit our human experience. Great starting book for the Philosophical beginner, & if you like this book, try Ernst Cassirer's other well written, but larger book: "Essay on Man".

I loved this book. If you are interested in linguistics and philosophy, this is the book. After reading this you may have a whole new perspective on the origins of language, that is if you are a student of linguistics. I highly recommend this to those interested in ancient texts and languages, myths, logic and the development of human intellect.

From my first connection to the Legacy Leadership® system, I was struck by its ability to leverage the best in individual leaders and their organizations. The publication of Sandstrom and Smith's thinking in their long awaited book, provides a powerful blueprint for leaders who are developing others. Of the many books on the market, this one will be the resource that stays within easy reach of leaders who want to consciously make a difference.

Carollyne Conlinn, Associate Faculty, Graduate Executive Coaching Program, Royal Roads University
www.greatquestiongame.com

In every group activity, even the most collegial and cooperative, there will of necessity be a need for leadership. It's simply a matter of how human beings are genetically and culturally hardwired. In "Legacy Leadership: The Leader's Guide To Lasting Greatness" co-authors Jeannine Sandstrom and Lee Smith (executive leader coaches and co-founders of CoachWorks International) draw upon their many years of experience and expertise to present '5 Legacy Practices' that are common to all great leaders. Readers are provided with a philosophy, a model, and a proven process for bringing out their individual best, for developing effective leadership, for establishing and nurturing an organizational leadership culture which will ensure personal and group success. Within its pages, "Legacy Leadership" provides its readers with a complete seminar and workshop for mastering the basic principles and practices that will insure leadership success, making it a very highly recommended addition to personal and community library Self-Help/Self-Improvement reference collections and supplemental lists.

Legacy Leadership is an essential resource for seasoned leaders and those who aspire to a leadership role. Jeannine Sandstrom and Lee Smith have done a masterful job of providing an effective framework and method for leaders empowering them to leave their mark professionally and personally. This book serves multiple purposes and is easy to navigate. You can open it to any page and find value. While it is directed at multiple levels, it is an especially worthwhile resource for senior organizational development professionals as well as people newer to the profession. It is evident throughout that these authors are extremely knowledgeable and have taken a complex topic and made it navigable and relevant. I recommend Legacy Leadership with confidence for anyone who seeks to influence and leave a lasting legacy.

Merry Marcus
President
Break Through Consulting, Inc.

Legacy Leadership is an incredible tool in developing the leader within you that is interested in leaving a legacy to others. By the time I had read the first chapter, I had many "action" notes written in the margins of the book. And then what a pleasant surprize to find a complete workbook at the end of the book that mapped out how to implement each of the items I wanted to work on! Dr. Sandstrom and Dr. Smith have given me the tools I need to be sure I have my plan of action organized and ready to go! Instead of just having great theories alone, I have a definite plan to follow that is challenging me to step up to the plate every day.

Whether you are an experienced, new or aspiring leader, or someone who coaches, develops or consults to leaders in any type of organization, this book is required reading! Leadership is so much more than creating a solid vision and enrolling engaged followership. Exceptional leaders also bring heart, soul, and a lasting legacy to the work they do and the change they inspire in the world. Books on leadership line bookshelves everywhere, but in this global economy it is not enough to be a good leader or even a great leader. Good to Great is an outdated concept. Drs. Sandstrom and Smith wrote the treasure map for the new future and teach us how to go beyond great to creating Legacy Leadership. This book will have lasting impact on the results you'll achieve as a leader, no matter what type of organization you are in.

-- Suzi Pomerantz
Executive Coach and Author
Seal the Deal: The Essential Mindsets for Growing Your Professional Services Business