Stone Books

"It seems that there are too many drumers whose work is of a rough-and-ready variety and whose technical proficiency suffers in comparison with that of the players of other instruments.

Of course, TECHNICAL PROFICIENCY CAN COME ONLY THROUGH CONTINUED, WELL-DIRECTED PRACTISE.
The more practise one does the more proficiency he acquires.

Many concert pianists practise hours and hours every day.
They continue practising after they graduate from the student period and enter into the professional field.
Violinists, cornetists and the players of other instruments do likewise.
Through regular and systematic practise they "keep in shape".....

"Stick Control" is a highly specialized practise-book, dealing with just one branch of the art of drumming....."
[from the book of the preface by George Lawrence Stone]

A wonderful book to study and learn from. If you wish to improve your stick control, or challenge yourself in rudiment training, then get this book.

First off: initially this book just looks like a purge of random Right and Left hand patterns. If that were the case, Stone could have easily listed 250-65,000 examples. However, Stone chose the most practical patterns from this large number of possibilities. Awesome :)

I used this book to teach my hands to work with my LEFT foot doing the 2-3 rhuma clave rhythm. (naturally, just from practicing like that, i am able to do the other claves). before working with this book, i could BARELY do the clave and with any other hand rhythms. Now, not only can practically solo around the kit with the clave -- yay! :D -- but now I have come up with so many ways to practice the book, that I should have plenty of practice material for years to come.

AWESOME book. if you're going to practice it with ONLY the hand patterns, you might just get bored and discouraged. mix it up! make sure you have a steady pattern going on with the foot while you play the patterns with the hands. practice all of the exercises on the first 2-3 pages... then move the hand from the snare to other places on the drumset (if you're using this book for drumset). or try playing the right foot with the right hand..... this book is limitless.

I'm a beginner, unfortunately without hours a day to dedicate to practice. I do like to sit down with my pad and some sticks whenever I get a chance though. That being said, this book is very easy to understand, with no super-technical text or music notation. It's something anyone can pick up and start using right away.

Coupled with my Korg MA-30 metronome, this book has helped me improve so much that I decided to keep a log of metronome speeds over the last few weeks. Every time I sit down to practice, I write down the metronome speed for each exercise that I can play at with no mistakes. I have gone up 10 beats per minute (as high as 14 on some simpler ones) over a few weeks, in just a few minutes a day! Well, it's a lot for me :)

The funny thing is, I haven't even made it past the first page of exercises yet. For a beginner like me, they are difficult enough for now. When I get good enough at the first page, I'll move on to the second, and so forth. This further cements the book's value, there is enough material in here for a lifetime of learning, and if you're already a pro, enough material to keep you conditioned.

I'm still very slow but I can see benefit every day in both speed and timing. If you get this book and stay with it, I bet you will too. I recommend keeping a log so you can track your progress! Positive reinforcement will only make you want to practice more!

I was told that this was the best book for drums, by my drum teacher, a drumming student, and by a drummer friend. I read it, and I bought it, and I worked through it. I now think this is the best book I had ever seen on drums. Of course I can not say drumS, but Drum. It is specifically about the snare but it can really help you see beats, and stick control. If you do not know exactly how to read the music here then this is not the book for you. If you have a person who may be able to help you, or you have experience reading drum notation (which is not hard to begin with) then you are all set. Buy this book and learn how to control your drumming.

The magic tree house is back, and with it is Morgan le Fay. She has a quest for Jack and Annie, they must solve a strange riddle. And so, the two youngsters are off to a tropical island, where they learn about the sea and its aquatic life.

This book is the ninth in Mary Pope Osborne's Magic Tree House series, and the first in a four-part mini-series. This is a fun book, richly illustrated, and teaching while at the same time entertaining. I think that this is a great book, and a fine addition to a great series. Give your young reader a treat, and get him or her this book!

My 1st grader hates to put it down, he would rather read Magic Tree House books, than play video games. He even reads them to his class and explains the story for show and tell. In his kindergarten class the teacher would also let him read the Magic Tree House books out loud, not to give her a break, but to promote reading out loud. Great books!

In this story, Jack and Annie go to the beach and find a mini-submarine. They explore the ocean and learn about coral reefs. Coral reefs are made of skeletons of tiny sea creatures. Jack and Annie look out the big window of the submarine and see two dolphins. Annie names them Sukie and Sam. When they look at the submarine's computer, they find out that the submarine is cracked. They are being squeezed by an octopus. They start to swim to shore because of the cracks, but when they look back, they see a fin and think that it might be a shark. When they realize they are looking at the dolphins, they ride on the dolphins backs. The dolphins take them safely to shore and they go back home in the magic treehouse.

I liked this book a lot because it has a happy ending. I like dolphins and I wish I could ride on one like Jack and Annie. I recommend this book to kids who like dolphins and who like to read about magic. This book is also good because it teaches you about the coral reef. This is a great book to read during the summer. -by JG.

If anyone is looking for a good book, here's one!
Feel the detail spray into your mind with excitement.

This book is very, very exciting!

Enjoy!

Dolphins at Daybreak takes place at the Magic Treehouse, on an island and out at sea. Morgan le Fay, the master librarian, sends Jack and Annie to an island to look for three riddles. They go there in the Magic Treehouse. The first riddle they found was a pearl inside an oyster. Jack and Annie need to fins the riddles because they want to be master librarians like Morgan. A mini-submarine takes Jack and Annie to find the next riddle. It has cracks init and begins to leak.There are two dolphins nearby that save Jack and Annie from drowning. They also save them from a hungry shark. When they returned to the Treehouse, Jack and Annie found out that the Oyster was the correct riddle that they needed. Jack and Annie were on their way to becoming master librarians. I like the book !



This review is by Maryrose Wintroath

My daughter got this within the past 1-3 years. She looked through it recently and enjoyed what she wrote at that particular age. She now is 13 and wants another one to fill out as her views have changed as she has gotten older. At age 13, she still likes Junie B. Jones books!

This is a neat book. Your Junie B. fan can read jounal entries that Junie B. has written about herself, which are very entertaining. Then, there is a space for her to write her own entry on the same topic that Junie B. just wrote. There are some places to draw and others that you just write. My 7 year old got this for Christmas and the first time she picked it up, she worked on it for more than an hour. It will make a great keepsake when completed.

I recently bought this for my daughter, it is supposed to be a Christmas gift however I am SO excited to give it to her that she just might get it early. If you have a child that has bonded with Junie B this is the PERFECT addition to their book collections. It is absolutly ADORABLE!!!

Oh my i go tthis for my birthday last year and as a JBJ book hater i LOVED this diary\book thing it was so cute and creativly written

My daughter loves this book and all the pics in it. She's a little young to write in it herself well (only 5) but she can't wait until she gets to fill it in with her details. Nice hard cover book too!

Thank you, Barbara Parks for letting America's favorite first grader learn a splendid Christmas lesson in Junie B., First Grader: Jingle Bells, Batman Smells! (p.s. so does May.)!

Even at holiday time, Junie is up to her expected tricks, and there's an awful rivalry with Tattletale May. But, alls well that ends well, with tons of laughs on the way to a heartwarming ending.

Brava, Barbara Parks!

These books are Christmas gifts for our granddaughter. She loves thenm and I was pleased with the quick delivery of them from the vendor.

I have never seen my child go through a book this fast!!! We got it for him last night at about 6:00pm, and by 9:00am this morning he was like, "Wow, that was a great book!" He couldn't put it down. He read it at dinner last night, before he went to bed, when he woke up he immediately grabbed this book, he read it through breakfast, and he finished it in the car on our way to the store this morning. I am SHOCKED! All this from a kid who refuses to read anything for more than 20 minutes (which is the amount of time his teacher requires all the students to read their assigned books for homework). I'm buying him the Junie B. Dumb Bunny book for Christmas. It is the only other one rated 5 stars on this website.

Junie B. does it again...she makes us laugh during one of the most memorable holidays in a young child's life!! We see a soft side of Junie B. which rarely shows itself, but allows us to get to know her that much more AND teaches us a life lesson! My daughter and I loved reading this together!

Another story in the series by Park! Keeps you laughing - and will take you down memory lane as Junie B. gets ready for Christmas & will remind you of ALL those "fun" lyrics we made up to Christmas songs! She's still irrepressible & even though her language is "becoming more adult" there are still enough "Junie B.-isms" to keep you in stitches. If you're collecting the series, get going to the cash register!

This a great collection of poems from the past! If you enjoy whimsy, this is for you!

with eliot, a maximum of content is achieved through a FORM worked with a
care and conciousness not seen perhaps since the greeks. he understood,
as he once wrote, that the novel form ended with flaubert. in the centuries after picasso and stravinsky there is no place for anything in
literature which makes people remain sitting, whithout standing and perhaps dancing. the same thing could be said about pound, very different though very twin.

The Eliot of despair, the Eliot of 'Prufrock' and 'Wasteland' is contended with and overcome by the Eliot of the 'Quartets'. The message of modern mankind's meaninglessness, the broken fragments ( of Tradition) shored against his ruin is replaced by the vision of sacred turning, a Christian vision of redemption. Eliot is a writer whose work and life break down into these two distinct periods each of which has its champions in defining what is best in him.
As one raised on 'April is the cruelest month, breeding lilacs out of the dead land' and 'Let us go then you and I when the evening is spread out against the sky, like a patient etherized upon a table' the most memorable lines are certainly of the first phase where it ends not with a bang but with a whimper.
Yet my admiration for the hypnotic power of Eliot's memorable lines is strongly qualified by my knowledge of his 'Burbank with a Baedaker, and Bluestein with a Cigar' with his all too fashionable literary anti- Semitism. Of course Eliot was not preaching death camps and extermination but he did connect his work to the tradition of Christian Anti- Semitism.
Thus I have always had difficulty being comfortable with my 'enjoying of Eliot's poetry. And I have never been able to sympathetically read 'The Quartets.' They have always seemed to me to be too impersonal characterless and abstract.
Eliot who for most of the century strode the English Departments as if he were a colossus did noble work in reviving interest in 'The Metaphysicals' but somehow failed in my mind to write a poetry humanly rich in the deepest sense.

When you think of the best poets ever, T.S. Eliot is one of those that comes to mind. His work is well crafted, intelligent, beautifully written, and has a flow to it that few poets can match. And this is a fine collection for the Eliot lover or for the reader unfamiliar with Eliot. It's divided into several sections. The first section is his Prufrock section, poems from 1917, which contains probably his finest poems: "Prufrock", "Preludes" "Rhapsody on a Windy Night", "Hysteria", among others. Then there is the Poems 1920 section which also contains many fine poems ("Sweeney Erect" and "The Hippopotamus" being my favorites). Then follows his masterpiece The Wasteland. Then The Hollow Men which is followed by the wonderful Ash Wednesday. Then the Ariel Poems (which contains "Journey of the Magi"). Then there are two unfinished poems, "Sweeney Agonistes" and "Coriolan" which I thought were weak. Maybe they would have been great had he ever finished them. Then there is a section called minor poems followed by the mediocre "Choruses from 'The Rock.' And then there is what I consider to be his true masterpiece, "Four Quartets." And the book finishes with some occasional verses, one of which is a sweet and touching poem to his wife. This is a great collection of poems.

Yep, this is a great collection of Eliot's works. I initially found out about Eliot throught the Movie 'Apocalypse Now' in which Brando is heard reciting the poem 'The Hollow Men'. The poem sounded so good I hunted it down and came across this little book.

My favourite poems would have to be 'The Hollow Men', 'Love song of Prufrock', 'Ash Wednesday' and 'Rannoch, by Glencoe (perfectly captured, drive through Rannoch and you'll see ;-)

Yep, definetly worth a read.

This is the best book for gemstone I ever have. It's very detail and compact information without too much bla... bla... bla...

I use this book constantly as a reference in my hobby. It not only has complete descriptions of the gemstones, but the color pictures are marvelous and include not just one, but MANY pictuers of the gemstones in the rough, polished and cut states. You will be glad you purchased this book.

A great travel guide for those buying/looking at gemstones, lots of visual id's...well worth price.

This book is excellent for everyone. Perfect combination of words and pictures. The things I found to be useful are the descriptions for each gemstone and they have a list of what each gemstone may possibly be confused with. They also give you alternative names for gemstones and the history of the name with its meaning. If you are interested in gemstones this is the book for you.

well, i knew about the book already. I decided to purchase it from Amazon marketplace because of its best service and best price offered. And no doubt, this book is one of the best available on the information of Gemstones

"Sticks & Stones" is a fantasy novel, in a world where most people have one of seven types of magic, and everyone else has no magical ability at all. A magical healer (A--) discovers an incredibly powerful baby (S--) with all seven types of magic -- where previously, everyone thought it impossible to have even two. Also, this baby's talent is significantly stronger than that of anyone else alive. Worried that guild officials might use this child for evil, A-- and S-- (and S--'s parents) go to live in the seculsion of a trecherous valley filled with giant cats. With the help of a small group of powerful mages, S-- grows to adulthood. Meanwhile, corrupt guild officials turn into dictators, and threaten all S-- holds dear.

"Sticks & Stones" is a light hearted novel, with a meandering feel at times, often exploring S--'s growing powers. The valley cats are delightful. This book will appeal very much to people who enjoy books by L.E. Modesitt. Also like Mercedes Lackey, but without all of the casual sex and liberal preaching. This book will especially appeal to sensitive readers who abhor dark and depressing topics; and anyone who enjoys a main character powerful enough to give their opponents what they deserve.

This novel is much better than most mass printing Fantasy novels I've read, and well worth the higher purchase price of a print-on-demand novel. The first chapter can be read online, at the publisher's (iUniverse) web site.

Absolutely wonderful. I didn't think it was possible to bring me to tears, but this book did it. Thank you Norm. Can't wait to read the sequel. BUY THIS BOOK AND AND THE SEQUEL!!!!!!!!!!

I'm a huge FAN of sci-fi/fantasy genre. Most of the sci-fi/fantasy genre usually grabs the reader's attention and sinks its hooks into the reader. This one tops the list!! As good as J.R.R. Tolkien of the Lord of the Rings series, Terry Brooks of the Shannara series, and McCaffrey's world of Pern series. Sticks & Stones would start slowly when Steef is being tested and as the book progresses, it becomes apparent that I cannot put it down long enough to take a break. This world will rip you away from your reality enough to make this world yours! If you need a book to take you away from your reality, then Sticks & Stones is the book! Trust me on this, this book will make you yearn for the next series! Look out Terry Brooks and Anne McCaffrey, Norm Thabit is coming up!!

I actually know both Norm & his wife. Norm put the lettering on the side of my dad's truck, and his wife works at my dentist. My mom picked me up the book when they were over at Norm's house one day, and when she brought it home, I finished it the next day. It was so intrancing I just couldn't put it down. It was supposed to be a Christian Harry Potter (that's what he said). But, it is so much more, it has become its own book. I highly recommend it! PS the new one is at the editor right now... so not much longer!

Our whole family loved this magic fantasy world. Social dilemmas, inter-species friendships, inner stregnth and outer power, intense relationships; are all a part of an enduring saga. I highly recommend this book for ages 7-13.

I used this book while leading a "history hike" for our local Y.M.C.A. We hiked through several old cemetaries using this book as our guide. It was easy to use and made our trip very enjoyable as we learned about the symbols we saw on the old stones.

An outstanding book about the symbolism of tombstone art. It shows an enormous amount of research and conveys the meanings in everyday vernacular. 5 stars for sure

This book is excellent for anyone interested in cemetery symbolism and/or genealogy. The photographs make it all the easier to understand. I highly recommend this book...it's one of the best of it's kind that I have found.

Need something to do? Grab this book and head towards the cemetery! Being more than just a final resting place, cemeteries offer so much more for the living than just a place to visit our dearly departed. There is so much history and symbolism in cemeteries and I can't think of a better tribute to those who lie beneath the stones than taking the time to understand who they were. Hanging out in a cemetery isn't creepy, it's a learning experience. This book is the perfect size and the photos and research really show the authors passion for this subject.

This is the book I've always been looking for, and just didn't know it. Not only is this a fabulous reference book for taphophile, but it's also just good reading. As much time as I have spent wandering and working in cemeteries, I've learned some interesting facts. The book is also quite lovely, and well organized. And the facts seem well researched, and gives quotes from the appropriate religious texts when appropriate. It also gives more than the Christian context for many of the symbols and seems well balanced for an overview of American cemeteries. I knew within seconds of browsing this book I had to have it, and it's been nothing but wonderful since.

I really recomend reading if your planning or avoiding pregnancy and I would even recomend it as basic sexual education for the stable couple.

It is wonderfull to be able to understand my body so much better and I got pregnant at the first try, following my charts, and aiming for a boy...we got him! An he's sooooo cute.

And also the contraceptive advise is great... I dont take the pill well and it allows for some freedom and some extra special dates with my husband, without risk of pregnancy

You can't read a history book without these two volumes. You get not only maps but a terse narrative (nearsighted people without their glasses only, please) of everything pivotal that ever happened. How could they take these (in paperback form, very portable, as someone else pointed out) out of print?????

'The Anchor Atlas of World History, Volumes I and II' are two references evey intelligent reader should have, as soon as they have gotten their unabridged dictionary. I am a real wonk for maps, and for me these volumes are like a free pass to the candy store.

This piece may really be more of an argument for why you really need these books than any critique, primarily because that for the average book buyer, there is very little with which to compare these books.

It should be no surprise that these volumes are translated from the German, as our continental cousins, especially the Germans, French, and Italians are ever so much better at compiling useful references to scholarly subjects. For some reason, the English and, by example, the Americans seem to have little talent or inclination to take on this kind of work. Although the English, especially the Oxford and Cambridge publishing arms do a very good job at some subjects, especially history.

One of the best things about these volumes is that they are 'pocket sized'. One of the worst things about these volumes is that they are pocket sized. While I really appreciate the freedom they give me from quarto-sized pages which catch on my clothing as I balance them on my stomach while trying to read them, they do have very small maps which, I suspect, were a lot bigger in the original German editions. These picture make the Roman Empire fit in a space not much bigger than my palm. Hispania and Jeruselam were never closer!

History is such a rich subject that it really cries out for some good guide to help you find your way, especially in those periods and lands which seem to be left out of my grammar school curriculum.

To take just two very unhistorical fields as examples, I am listening to music of 15th century from Arab Andalusia. A check of the spread of Islamic expansion up to the time of Columbus shows that it was not so much the Arabs (residents of the Arabian Peninsula), but Islamic northern Africans who probably colonized the Ibearean peninsula, so their music has a lot more in common with Morocco than it does with the Levant. Not that I can really tell the difference between 14th century Moroccan from 14th century Lebanese music, but If I were to explore this further, I would have been spared a few dead ends. Another example is the food of modern Spain which owes almost as much to the Berbers of North Africa as it does to its original Roman colonists or later colonial influences from the Americas and the far east.

In general, there is simply no way one can appreciate the complexities of, for example, the political divisions of central Europe from Charlamagne to Napoleon without a map as you will find in these volumes. And, there is much more here than political history, but I feel the authors have wisely concentrated on political history.

One does not even need the text, and I rarely read it, unless I happen to be looking at a time and place which is totally beyond my ken.

If you read any kind of nonfiction or historical fiction, do yourself a favor and buy these volumes!

I have worn out two sets of these atlases. Every time I read a book of history, historical fiction, alternative history, or one with historical references, or watch the history channel, this set of books has allowed me to envision the geographical aspects of what I was seeing or reading. It has satisfied my curiosity on countless occasions. No other historical atlas has been up to this standard. It reports the facts, ma'am, just the facts. Others have included politically correct opinions. I wish I could find another set. It is disappointing to find that they are out of print.

This excellent resource is no longer out of print. Penguin is publishing soon in Britain an updated two-volume, paperback version (see the Amazon.co.uk site). A one-volume, hardback French version is already available in Canada and France (cheaper in the Amazon.ca site). In both cases, search for the authors, Kinder & Hilgemann.

These enjoyable little pocket books take a Cliff Notes approach to history. In a highly abbreviated text, the authors summarize everything from the Cambrian explosion to the Stamp Act of 1763. No important detail is left out.

Now this level of historical detail is available in many formats. What really sets the Anchor Atlases apart is the superb maps and diagrams. The power structure of Byzantine Rome, the campaigns of Alexander and Hannibal, 16th century Indian internecine warfare, etc., are all finely laid out in easy-to-understand, surprisingly comprehensive, illustrations.

The book's major limitation is it's 1975 publishing date, leaving out not just the past 3 decades of history, but also the significant advances in historical learning that have been made in that time as well.

Nonetheless, wonderfully informative and enjoyable.