T Books

I'm very satisfied with my purchase of this cookbook. Being of Norwegian decent, it was very nice to see recipies from my fathers homeland. I've already made 2 things out of the cookbook, and can't wait to go home and make something for my father to bring back some memories to him.

I've purchased and read a variety of cook books over the years and have always had an interest in European traditions and cooking. This is one of the best baking books I've come across! Its definately the best european cookbook I've come across to date. Its got U.S measurements, easy to read recipes, a good variety of recipes, and interesting notations about the cultures.


I give it 4 stars instead of 5 because some of the intricate braiding recipes could have had better illustrations/instructions and I'm overwhelmed by some of the recipe sizes. (For example, Some recipes make 3 loaves of bread, or 4 dozen cookies.)

This is the best most complete Scandinavian baking book that I have ever come across that is published in English. It has many recipes that my Great Grandmother brought over from the old country (Denmark), just not all her familie's special variations. The recipes are easy to follow and always come out tasting great. Many of them taste just like you were sitting at a Cafe in Kopenhagen and any of the recipes in this book will enrich your gifts of Christmas cookies and make you a big hit at the holiday parties.

The Great Scandinavian Baking Book is an addictive collection of recipes from author Beatrice Ojakangas. From Cardamom Coffeebread (Pulla) and Sweet Cream Waffles to Danish Strawberry Scones (Kraemmerhuse) and almond glazed Swedish Tea Rings (Vetekrans), once you start baking from this book you'll have a hard time putting it away. I was delighted with everything I made and appreciated how Ojakangas introduced me to the many delectable ways Scandinavians use cardamom in their baking. Her recipes are easy to follow and accompanied by conversational intros that share cultural tidbits or serving tips. Although there are no photos in this book, when more complicated steps are required to complete a recipe the how-to portion is frequently illustrated with helpful diagrams. The lack of photographs is really the only thing about it I didn't absolutely adore about the book, which will make a welcome addition to any kitchen and is appropriate for beginner and experienced bakers alike. You'll revel in the heavenly aromas emanating from your oven, not to mention the baked goods you'll soon be enjoying with a cup of hot coffee or tea.

Chapters: Breads for Meals, Breads for Coffeetime, Cookies and Little Cakes, Cakes and Tortes, Pastries and Pies, Savory Pies and Filled Breads. Chapters about mail order sources, baking tips and ingredients are also included.

BUY THIS BOOK!!! Everything turns out! Everything is delicious! You will be the star of all of your family gatherings! We are always asked to, "bring the buns." Our nieghbors wait each Christmas morning for us to drop off their Swedish Tea Rings. The magic of Beatrice Ojakangas is that she has researched, tested, and refined her recipes so thoroughly that they are not only authentic, beautiful, and delicious but absolutely foolproof.
This is a FABULOUS cookbook!

Wow, this must have been quite a few hours of work for Joshi! The fonts are below even standard book-fonts, AND I hear it's an abridged version but still the book is almost 700 pages. But don't get me wrong, in many ways I wish it was longer. The book is a fine introduction to Lovecraft's life, and to most Lovecraft-readers, probably quite enough in itself. It chronicles on an annual basis, highlighting and describing any interesting incidents or activities revolving around Lovecraft and his circle of friends and family that happened over the years. There's not much to say about this, its very good and solid biographical work by a fine devotee of Lovecraft; S.T Joshi. Its not often reading a biography makes me sad, but reading the final chapter on Lovecraft himself "The end of one's life" made a certain Norwegian man quite sad. Apart from some points I'm about to take up, I have no doubt that this is a biography that Lovecraft himself would have approved of. It could have been more detailed in its description of how the various fiction came to be, and more analysis of this area, but it IS after all a biography, so that was of course Joshi's prerogative.

Now to the bad; as a little background to the author of the book, he is in fact an immigrant; an Indian living with a miscegenating Euro-American female. This explains why he constantly abuses Lovecraft for his conservative and racialist views. He conjures up non-sense frequently when talking about this subject; somehow concluding that theories about race and miscegenation etc were definitively debunked by the "scientific work" of Franz Boas. This is of course complete nonsense, like Kevin MacDonald has shown in his excellent work "The Culture of Critique". Franz Boas had specific racial reasons himself for carrying out his campaign against the use of "race" in academia, and the reasons for this were far from what the Western standard of science represents.

So even though I highly recommend the book, I wish Joshi could have been so intellectually honest that he admitted in the book that his status as a non-European immigrant himself has biased him, and made him write the book with an extreme liberal and secular slant. So if you manage to ignore this part of Joshi's book; you'll have on your hands an excellent and well-written account of Howard Phillips Lovecraft and a good introduction to his writing.

Joshi is the foremost student of Lovecraft, and in this volume he has written the unsurpassable biography of the man whom Stephen King himself called "the twentieth century's greatest practitioner of the classic horror tale."

For myself, I can only say it's been a long wait. I first discovered Lovecraft at my local library in eleventh grade. I picked a book decorated with some macabre illustration off a twirling bookstand, checked it out, and rode my bike home with the volume tucked under my arm. That evening I sat with it in the big white reading chair in our home's living room. The first story I read was "The Picture In the House."

I was hooked.

Within the year I'd read every story Lovecraft wrote excepting one--"Herbert West: Reanimator". (I finally got to that earlier this year.) I became, in a way, obsessed with Lovecraft. I wanted to know who he was, so I read Frank Belknap Long's Howard Phillips Lovecraft: Dreamer on the Nightside. The stories and poetry I was writing at the time became increasingly colored by (or downright imitative of) my hero. Somehow, the man infected my consciousness in a way no other writer--before or since--ever has. I guess it's because in so many ways my inner life has been--with some important exceptions--a parallel to Lovecraft's. I see him as a kindred spirit.

That being the case, it's hardly surprising I relished--nay, wallowed in--this biography. It is detailed beyond imagining. Here we follow Lovecraft on his walking tours, street by street. We see his grocery lists and menu items. We read his letters and amateur publications. By the end of this text you will feel you have lived and breathed right alongside the old fellow and slung arm-in-arm with him through his nightmare worlds. No one could have done it better than Joshi, and it is doubtful anyone ever will. If you are a fan, this is a must read. If just curious, the lengthy detail might be off-putting, but you may find yourself a convert by the end.

Unlike De Camp in his earlier biography, Joshi doesn't consider HPL to be a failed version of what he might have been had he at various key points in his life been just that little bit more commerce-minded: instead he accepts Lovecraft as he was and goes on from there. I think Joshi brings out what it is about Lovecraft & his work that continues to fascinate today: the curious fact that an erudite, scholarly autodidact should, from an early age, have been so caught up in a melodramatic 'pulp' aesthetic that for the rest of his life he focussed the entirety of his self-expression - emotional, intellectual and philosophical - through that aesthetic. Hence Lovecraft's stories have, even at their most garish & mechanical, an (admittedly sometimes near-subliminal) intellectually rich underpinning, and it is this bleed-through of a higher aesthetic that lifts them above the acres of hackwork that surrounded them when first published in Weird Tales, (try reading even a 'best of' by those other writers today!), gives them a psychological curiosity, and has given them their unexpected longevity.

Joshi's analysis of the 'Cthulhu Mythos' is, I think, exactly right: he defines the Mythos (not HPL's coinage, of course), as 'a fictional technique' for presenting Lovecraft's philosophy - which Joshi defines astutely as 'an anti-theology' which makes manifest (as we see with the cultists in Call of Cthulhu) the delusive nature of all religious belief, and asserts the meaningless of human existence in a vast, uncaring, mechanistic universe.

This analysis justifies what would otherwise be an excessively lengthy exploration of Lovecraft's political and philosophical beliefs, given that he published no significant writing on those subjects, and was only considered a great thinker by his friends and epistolary correspondents. It also highlights the unalloyed perversity of August Derleth in imposing a Catholic-inflected cosmology onto Lovecraft's atheistic vision. How strange that he was so fascinated by HPL & his work, but couldn't accept what Joshi rightly points out is its absolute core!

Joshi manages to address various differing opinions in the world of Lovecraft Studies without becoming pedantic or petty, and takes trouble to credit other researchers and academics for their insights.

As a biography this book is full of interest, and Joshi's pursuit of detail is relentless - occasionally to the point of obsessiveness, it has to be said, but some of the details he uncovers are highly revealing. His account of Lovecraft's death I found surprisingly moving, but I did not, as I did on finishing the De Camp biography, regret his life - except in the single matter of his clinging on to racist beliefs and self-diminishing prejudices.

I have very few criticisms. There are no photographs, and I think the cover is horrid - & certainly is not a good likeness of HPL. Occasionally Joshi is so aesthetically aligned with his subject he indulges him (as he does with certain of his amateur endeavors); occasionally Joshi is over-definitive in his judgment of the merits of various yarns. I think he slightly misses the mark at various points when he comments of (eg the denoument of Herbert West) that HPL must have been sending up his own style to *intentionally* comic effect. This, I think, is not quite right: rather, it seems to me, he allowed his discipline to slip, and reverted to the garish style of the Argosy yarns that he had read as a child, the style of which had so fundamentally informed his entire notion of the form of aesthetic and psychological self-expression that he could never quite discard it. Lovecraft knew it was a failing on his part, but sometimes let it off the leash regardless. I'm sure he never thought of his verbal pyrotechnics as anything other than, on sober reflection, accidentally funny.

Aside from those very modest quibbles, I found Joshi's judgments & assessments at all times perceptive and thought-provoking, and his 'Life' a highly-readable achievement in biography.

The good: Until S.T. Joshi's book, the only serious, widely-available biographical information on HPL apart from his letters was 'H.P. Lovecraft; A Biography' (1975) by L. Sprague de Camp, which left many gaps and open questions. Joshi's book fills in the gaps and then some. It is the closest thing we have to a definitive Lovecraft bio, and if you're a Lovecraft scholar of any seriousness, you'll eventually need to read it.

The not-so-good: While Joshi's book reads like a rigorously well-researched first draft, I wish he'd consulted a manuscript editor before publication. This massive, expensive and ponderous 708-page book could perhaps be edited into a more readable and reasonably-priced 300-page book, with another 100 pages of small print endnotes, merely by removing Joshi and his scholarship from the foreground and replacing them with Lovecraft. For example:

- Joshi includes himself in the story, using the first person pronoun on nearly every page. "I..." this and "I..." that. While Joshi is likely the world's foremost Lovecraft scholar, and I appreciate his excellent and exhaustive efforts as a researcher, I did not plunk down such a hefty cover price to read about his adventures in scholarship. Easily 200 pages of this 708 page book are about the adventures of Joshi, Lovecraft scholar. That information belongs either in a short appendix or separate article. He'll print a quotation and then add, "To this analysis there is really very little to add...," or "I don't think I can add much to this," or "That last remark may be a little sanguine, but let it pass," seemingly for no other purpose than to firmly return the spotlight, which had momentarily alighted on Lovecraft, to himself. On nearly every page I felt that trapped "captive audience" feeling you get with professors who use class time to speak at length about their personal lives. Surely by now it has become standard practice for biographers to not include the personal "I" in their biographies, at least when they've never met the subject.

- While most biographies focus on the subject and relegate sources and disputes to footnotes and endnotes, Joshi foregrounds the sources and points of contention, which has the odd effect of almost burying the subject. You'll often read four paragraphs of sources and conjecture containing a single sentence of actual biographical information. If Lovecraft did X, but there's some dispute, I'd prefer the main body to say "Lovecraft probably did X," with a small-print footnote citing sources and contentions. I paid to read about Lovecraft, not Lovecraft scholarship. I often feel like I'm being punished, forced to read 708 pages to get 300 pages of information.

- As another reviewer pointed out, Joshi frequently expresses his personal opinions in a tone suggesting that he believes them to be indisputable fact. Especially disconcerting is Joshi's careful habit of never missing an opportunity to denigrate Lovecraft himself. A tiny sampling of Joshi's descriptions of Lovecraft and his work includes: clownish error, clumsily, embarrassing, paranoia, pompous, pseudo-philosophical, trying to do too much, moping, overly given to histrionics, painfully inept, pitiable wish-fulfilment [sic], a pretty sorry excuse for a story, offensive, dubious and pathetic. It's almost as though, while Joshi must have some respect for Lovecraft, he is careful to constantly place himself "above" Lovecraft emotionally. I can sympathize with Joshi, who as a serious scholar must sometimes find himself exasperated by uninformed intellectuals who still underrate Lovecraft's genuine contribution. However, I feel that the body of a biography is not the best place for Joshi to distance himself from Lovecraft's sillier decisions. If Joshi dislikes something, surely he need not bolster his personal opinion by inflating it into a grandiose pretend-fact by pompously lecturing the reader as to what we ought to despise or where to place our "well-deserved contempt."

Why are Joshi's opinions in the book at all? Doesn't he trust his readers to form our own opinions? Almost once per page I felt some resentment at being forced to play captive audience to Joshi's unwelcome editorial opinions and emotional self-positioning in order to gain access to his excellent scholarship. Toward the end Joshi finally provides his editorial rationalization, introducing the topic by slamming previous Lovecraft biographer de Camp with: "[de Camp]'s schoolmasterly chiding of Lovecraft [is] ...galling." Talk about the pot calling the kettle black! Joshi goes on to claim that "passing value judgments... is the proper function of any biographer." Excuse me? As with all of Joshi's most dubious assumptions, he provides not a single citation or justification for this opinion, but merely states it as fact. Many (perhaps most) professional biographers would strongly disagree. I couldn't help bursting into incredulous laughter when Joshi finally declares, "...on occasion one feels as if Lovecraft is having some difficulty shutting up."

In closing, I hope this book is re-released soon with S.T. Joshi's presence as a character, editorial opinions, emotional self-positioning and research experiences either cut entirely or summarized in an appendix or endnotes. Then it wouldn't hurt to have a professional book doctor rewrite with an eye to smoother prose and readability. THAT edition will be the definitive Lovecraft biography.

Clocking in at 654 pages, this sprawling biography will teach you everything you ever wanted to know about the horror scribe -- along with some things you'll wish you hadn't discovered, like how Lovecraft was a more zealous racist than was the norm in his day. Joshi is long-winded, for sure, like the grandfather who, when you ask him how the light switch turns the lamp on, proceeds to tell you the history of electricity, starting with two sticks being rubbed together. You'll be hard-pressed to remember all the details afterward, but the story of Lovecraft's life is smartly woven, divulging the world as viewed through the writer's eyes and those around him. Like a criminologist apt at identifying with a killer, Joshi truly seems to understand his subject down to the crumbs on his coat.

If you are considering any sort of nasal/sinus surgery, you owe it to yourself to read this book first. I don't think there is much general awareness on turbinates and the important functions they provide, which is why many (including myself) get talked into over-aggressive turbinate reductions.

In this book, Chris does an excellent job of covering what your turbinates do, the problems he has experienced, ways to cope, surgical techniques to consider, home remedies and more. I think it should be required reading for all ENT's and Plastic Surgeons that perform turbinectomies.

Aside from the medical information, the book is also well written, and Chris's story is inspirational. Again, I would highly recommend reading this book before considering any nasal surgeries.

Dear Chris and Family,
Thank you for this most telling account of your journey through the maze of ENS; your efforts in providing comprehensive information about ENS and your personal account of the roads that have lead to finding hope is inspiring. It has been a companion when I have felt alone and has been the platform through which I find the strength to advocate strongly for informed consent and knowledge of ENS for any person who is entering into nasal surgery.
Warmest wishes to you.
Jackie G.
Patient of Reconstructive Nasal Surgery

This is a must read for anyone that has had or is considering sinus surgery!
If it has been suggested to you that sinus surgery can correct your problems you absolutely need to read this book and do your research! Complications to sinus surgery can be life-altering and the damage permanent. As a victim of aggressive sinus surgery I can attest that these symptoms are very much real and can alter your reality in ways that I never imagined. I believe a great many ENT's do not fully understand the extreme importance the nose and sinuses play in the quality of life. With good intentions they can often remove too much tissue and bone in effect leaving the nose with the inability to function normally with regards to nasal cycles,moisture control,airflow and the health of the lungs. Chris does a wonderful job in explaining the importance of a healthy nose and sinus and the roles each structure plays in nasal health. If you do not know what a Turbinate is or what it does READ THIS BOOK!

Chris has put alot of time and effort in detailing everything a sinus suffer should consider before having surgery. Thankfully the ENT field is slowly beginning to understand that a very conservative approach should be applied when doing surgery. Chris explains each option a patient should discuss with the doctor performing the surgery. Each method is reviewed and rated for the possible outcomes and the conservation of important nasal tissue and structures.

If you have had sinus surgery done and are having problems Chris has outlined things you can do to help relieve some of the symptoms. For those having ENS type symptoms there are things you can do to help improve your sinus health. Chris describes things that he has personally tried that work and what others have used to find relief. Those that suffer from ENS type symptoms can find some comfort in the new methods Chris discusses in his book, to help rebuild important turbinate structures that have been removed in previous surgeries. Chris has first hand knowledge of how Alloderm implants may help improve the quality of life of ENS patients. With research into stem cell therapy and tissue regeneration the future is brighter. The important point that Chris makes is that ENS can be prevented if a conservative approach is used. Once removed, turbinates do not grow back. Conservation of nasal tissue is essential!

I can't recommend this book enough. I think it should be required reading for all those practicing ENT's that perform sinus surgery. Anyone suffering from sinus problems can find solutions that may make surgery unnecessary. Those that have had surgery and find their problems even worse than before surgery can also benefit from therapies and techniques Chris has outlined in the book. If you are considering having sinus surgery and have spoken to others around you that have had surgery it's important that you ask what was actually performed. Chances are they can't go any further than to say hey had a deviated septum corrected. It's of utmost importance that you go into surgery knowing EXACTLY what will be preformed and by what method. I went in for deviated septum and came out with an EMPTY NOSE!

Bravo to Christopher Martin for bringing the devastating problem upfront for discussion and sharing his personal story so that we can learn and hopefully prevent this devastating problem.

Tom

Chris has written a compelling and comprehensive account of his own personal experience with a relatively unknown affliction known as Empty Nose Syndrome (ENS). ENS is basically a surgically ruined nose that does not properly humidify and sense air flow, preventing it from performing its basic functions of smell and controlled, natural breathing. I can attest to the reality of this condition, as I have experienced many of the symptoms outlined in this book, as a result of nasal surgery involving my turbinates. If you are experiencing undefined, or hard to explain nasal dryness and crusting, loss of sense of smell, and uncontrolled breathing through your nose, this is a valuable and singular resource for gaining important insight that may not be provided from your local ENT. The complications and potential side effects of nasal surgery are not completely understood by many in the medical community (otolaryngology included), and as a patient that contends with sinus difficulties or is contemplating surgery, this book will serve as an enlightening introduction into the complexities of the nose. I know that I took for granted this amazingly complex organ and Chris's book will make sure that you don't repeat other's mistakes or suffer the potentially devastating effects of nasal surgery.

I truly wish that this book had been available prior to my nasal surgeries. I did research, but nothing that would have prepared and informed me like Chris Martin's book. It is very detailed and heartfelt. For those who have already rolled the dice and lost with a nasal surgery, this book offers hope, support and many helpful suggestions. ENS is real! Even with a "conservative" surgery, it is still possible to experience a myriad of debilitating symptoms. Doctors are often dismissive and unhelpful. Hopefully this book will begin to turn that tide.

Excellent compilation of all the fundamental texts necessary to cover this area of esoteric enquiry. Convenient in content and presentation, provides easy reference between texts. Anyone seriously exploring Crowley and/or Thelema, this is a must buy.

Appart from the fact that the texts within are written in a poetic style, and the fact that they make no literal sense, this book is somewhat enlightening. After reading one or two of the texts you feel like you've made progress on whatever journey you had started. It's as if, even though you don't comprehend the meaning, the words say something to you that you would never understand if it was said to you in a direct way. I would suggest that anyone who is interested in a higher level of education beyond the material world purchase this book.

The Holy Books of Thelema contains the essence of the magical system of Aleister Crowley. These books were 'inspired' or Class A material, which means they were meant to be transmitted to the public in the form in which they were originally written. Any student of Thelema or the Occult should get their hands on this book NOW and study it's meaning.

I was disappointed recently to find this paperback edition of Holy Books in a bookshop, only to find it perfect-bound, on dubious paper. ah well - perhaps it was just a single bad printers' run. . .

A book such as this would be read and re-read again, if only for its sheer beauty of such marvelous pieces as Liber 65, Liber Seven, and Tzaddi. This would lead to the destruction of the book, bound as I had found it. At twenty-plus dollars, this is a tall price to pay.

Earlier, I had found this paperback Smyth-sewn, durable, on good paper. I hope somehow, it is back to being sold this way.

Still, it would be worth getting this book at Amazons' low price, whatever the binding and paper quality is right now. Of course, one can always read these on the 'net, and even print and bind your own copies. Hard to Smyth-sew your own copies on vellum, or other book-quality paper, however...

My salute with pleasure, by the way, to those who are coming to the beauty and pleasures of reading Liber 65 and such for the first time.

How these poetic gems manage to elude the readership of a populace tolerant of some fairly poetic, picturesque and even bizarre reading material, is beyond me. ACs Holy Books even manage to elude any kind of regular quotation by essentially eclectic, eccentric and marginalized writers, who affect to 'wow' us with out-of-the-way resources. How odd.

This is a compendium of Aleister Crowley's Class A inspired writings. Included in the book is a chapter containing The Book of the Law, which remains Crowley's most enduring works because it is the holy scripture of the Thelemic religion. When I joined people thought it was a cult wheras now it is more properly understood as a more legit religion. The Class A writings are similar to those of what would recieve a grade of an A in a school. Some of the later works by Crowley were Class B, or even D. They looked bad compared to these inspired holy scriptures. Most of these lesser works were a cash in and just that- looking for some cheap earned cash on the name of Aleister Crowley. This is one of the only works by Crowley I would recommend if you just want to practice the religion of Thelema. Personally I am more into the magick and philosophy of Crowley and even that disappointed. I would recommend trying to practice the goetia and tarot. Most of the actual rituals Crowley left to the public were done as a show of faith to the religion which I am not really into. So it leaves me wondering why they call it "magick" if it is just a morally questionable religion, questionable on the grounds of Crowley's moral character which included having intercourse with members of the same sex which is why he was expelled from the Golden Dawn.

my son is 7 months old and when i got a book version of twinkle twinkle little star, he loved it! when i found this book at the bookstore, it reminded me of my sesame street days! he loves the song and the pictures and now we'll both have grown up with this song!

What a wonderful book based on the great Sesame Street song! My twins love the song and book!! Beautiful pictures and easy to follow for toddlers.Pricey, yeah.... But well worth the money!!!Best money I spent in a long time!!!

We have enjoyed singing this song to our son almost since he was born, and when we got the book recently, it was an instant hit with him! It makes a wonderful bedtime story. I wish we had known about it a long time ago! Great gift idea, too.

My 22 month old loves this book, as do I. We sing it together every night, and she loves to see her friends Ernie and Bert in the beautifully illustrated pages. Its a wonderful song, and a lovely story about taking adventures but always coming home.

I can't read this book to my children without singing. The song is a lovely little lullaby we heard on Sesame Street, sung once by Aaron Neville. It is so beautiful, if you buy this book and don't know the tune, do yourself a favor and get a CD, too! You'll want to "sing" this book! It doesn't matter if you think you don't sing well -- the tune is so simple and your toddler loves your singing voice, anyway.

Even if you don't know the tune, don't sing the song, and don't ever care to "sing" a book with your baby, this little board book catches a lovely, lilting rythym (even without music) that's perfect for bedtime. Read softly with lots of cuddling. The point of the story is that "home" is the best place to live, and other spots are great "just for visiting."

I was getting to know a song by Charles Trenet, one about a rained-out fairground populated by semi-human monsters, and it flashed on me that it reminded me of one of the Moomintroll stories that had made a fine, somewhat creepy, impression in childhood. Turned out I was remembering "The Hemulen Who Loved Silence" from "Tales from Moomin Valley". That story, proved to have indeed featured a rained-out fairground -- well, not just rained out but spectacularly destroyed by flooding, something that happens frequently in Tove Jansson's books. that story proved to be just as great as I'd remembered, and maybe better as it had psychological insight and satirical wit that I suspect I didn't entirely grasp as a kid. I soon found myself reading one Moomin book after another.

They all have wickedly funny moments, they're all fanciful, they're all subtle in some way. But some of them are really aimed at kids and, despite their considerable charms, can wear thin at times.

Moominpappa at Sea is a really great one for the adult reader. Yes, it has all the fancy and fun of a children's book, but....good lord! it is wonderfully complex. very funny, psychologically perceptive, at times very creepy. Where, say, Moominvalley Midwinter is a series of loosely connected episodes, everything in Moominpappa at Sea fits together very cleverly, from the first sentence to the last.

the plot hinges on Moominpappa's vain, poignant quest to have his family feel like they still need him. Moomintroll on the other hand is making some kind of adolescent transition, getting away from the family, bonding in the dark on the beach with a strange creature.

Jansson is one of the only authors I've ever read, for either child or adult, who can so deftly put her fingers on life as we experience it - the mood shifts, the disappointments and inner worlds and longings, the quirks and kindnesses, the tangible atmosphere of the seasons and the weather and the seaside... by God, she's got it, and with a few flicks of the pen, she can realize them fully and make us feel them too (even when her protagonists are fictional, round little "Moomintrolls" off for a month on a mysterious windswept lighthouse island.) Astonishing. A book to read and reread by anyone in grade 4 and up, especially in August and September (though anytime will do.)

My parents used to read the Moominbooks when to us when we were young, and they made a lasting impression on me. For me, Moominpappa at Sea was probably my favourite, along with Comet in Moominland.

Given that the books were originally written in Finnish the translator has done a fantastic job to make the stories incredibly readable and finely nuanced in English. It's possible that the books appealed to us kids so much because they come out of a European culture quite distinctly different from most of the English and American stories we were used to.

The chapters are the right length to read aloud one at a time to kids. (Good for bedtime stories in the summer holidays, I seem to recall!)

I was fortunate enough a couple of years ago to take a ferry across the Gulf of Finland from Stockholm in Sweden to Turku in Finland, and the little rocky islands in the Gulf are almost exactly as I imagined them from the book...

I first discovered this book at the age of about 12 or 13, already older than the average moomin reader, but having read most of the others. It was obvious that this was no ordinary moomin book, and neither was it strictly a children's book. In fact it is a masterly observation of family dynamics, mid life crises and the human condition, but mixed with a mysterious and fantastic magic that leads to spine tingling excitement and making one question how we know what is real.

Every psychology student has something to analyse in every character, and anyone who ever had a moment of doubt about the meaning of their life has something to ponder. What father with a teenage family would not relate to Moominpappa's melancholy, feeling that his life is without purpose now his family appear to be independent, his urge to be needed, to be able to protect them? What homesick traveller could not understand Moominmamma's longing for her garden, (and its magical transformation which you will have to read for yourselves). The description of her homesickness brings tears to the eyes. And what put-upon mother could not identify with her delight in being able to disappear from her family just long enough to stop them taking her for granted? The glimpses of the fond, but no longer passionate relationship between Moominmamma and Moominpappa, and Moominmamma's endless patience for Pappa's foibles, their need for their own roles, and his inability to understand her own needs says more about the maried state than plenty of far more learned texts. We will all be able to identify the same dynamics in our own families and relationships.

Meanwhile Moomintroll's adolescent emotional awakening must bring nostalgic memories of first love to we adult readers, but must surely mystify the average 8 year old. Younger children do not usually have a developed enough sense of other people's individuality to understand the complexities of what is driving the Moomin family to their peculiar dispersal.

The allegory of the frozen Groke could represent so much - I feel a thesis coming on - but I think represents how people get into a vicious cycle;cut off emotionally because no one interacts with them, and becoming ever more reclusive and antisocialin a vicious cycle. She makes us think about how we subconciously excuse ourselves for avoiding the lonely, scared, mentally ill, etc among us, for fear we may be "tainted" them.

Although I'm sure children will enjoy it at one level I recommend it highly to everyone, particularly if you are in a life crisis. I have lent it to nearly all my close friends and no one has yet not enjoyed it thoroughly.

Anyone who enjoyed this book should also enjoy Moominvalley in November with a similar selection of odd characters who we will all recognize among our own aquaintance.

The good news is you don't have to be a child to be enchanted by the Moomins. The bad news (for me) is missing out on these delightful stories when a child. I always try to begin the Moomin tales in the middle of the day because I know I won't stop until the end of the story.

Moominpappa decides they all need an adventure, and he is most desirous of "taking care" of everyone so Moominmamma can rest and all can be safe and protected. They set sail on an evening in late August to a small island in the Gulf of Finland planning to live in a wonderful lighthouse. The island is strange, bleak and barren. The lighthouse appears abandoned and is locked. The Moomin family consisting of Mamma, Papa, little son Troll, and Little My all go about practical tasks of settling in, first a search to locate a key. The living quarters in the lighthouse are at the very top only to be reached by a rickety spiral staircase. Much to Pappa's dismay, the light is out, and he cannot make it work. The fall storms begin (Pappa never explains why he didn't begin his adventure in the spring) and the life on the island becomes terrifying as well as bleak.

Though the Moomins get angry at one another, they are unfailingly polite and cooperative with the exception of Little My who is a cheerful, cynical pragmatist. Mamma & Pappa are very permissive parents, but always interested in what Troll and Little My are thinking and doing. The author very gently shows how perhaps there is a downside to sleeping and eating when you want, sleeping where your fancy takes you, and going on any adventure that occurs to you. There is delightful comedy where the Moomins throw a birthday party for The Fisherman, and he discovers all his "presents" belonged to him in the first place.

Come, enter the world of the Moomins! You might want to stay!

I could not find this book anywhere until I ordered it through amazon. And when I say no one had the NOAA dive manual I mean no one, my favorite dive shop listed it as out of stock so did Barnes and Noble and Hastings where all out of stock with no definitive stocking date.But as soon as I looked at Amazon.com for the publication they had it and shipped to me very quickly.I was very impressed, so thanks again Amazon.com for your professionalism.

This book not only outlines diving processes and procedures, but also the scientific principles behind them. It is by no means light reading, but it you are looking to enhance your knowledge about diving, this is an excellent reference point.

I purchased this book to give me more information on the science of scuba diving for my Dive Con and Dive Instructor courses.

The book gives detailed information on the gas laws, decompression theory as well as information on various forms of diving from contaminated water, tri mix, nitrox etc. The book is very well written and very clear.

If you are interested in get truly advanced knowledge of the effects of scuba diving on the body, I would highly recommend this book even though it is a little on the expensive side.

You can find all the explanations you need for those difficult issues related to diving. Excellent presentation, Beautifully illustrated. Easy to understand. If you want or need to go farther in your understanding of diving, you should get this book.

I sincerely feel that the NOAA Diving Manual should be a required text for anybody who is a diving professional. The information presented is valuable to all divers: recreational, technical, scientific, and commercial. I refer to this text often and bring it to all classes I work.

This is one of my all time favorite picture books for all ages. Peter Spiers beautiful illustrations need no words to tell this story. The possibilities for interacting with a child are endless as you wander through the familiar and find the surprising! My granddaughter is 2 years old and loves animals. What could be a better birthday gift?

The happy and humorous tone of this book will make it appealing to any child, whatever the family's religion.

The only text is at the beginning and it is a charming translation of a poem that summarizes the story of Noah. The poem is delightful in and of itself- Spier did a great job of translating.

The illustrations are then left without text, which is very refreshing, since there are so few picture books nowadays. I enjoy leisurely paging through this book with my young daughter, talking about the pictures in and of themselves, as pieces of art and as pictures that tell a story. I feel that the pressure is off in terms of trying to finish a sentence or a story when there is no text there.

In addition, this book is appropriate for Muslim families as well, since the illustrations (and beginning poem) are sufficiently vague as to accommodate for the small differences in the telling of the story in the Qu'ran and the Bible.

My first Peter Spier book. Not saccharine, wonderful details (including Noah mucking out the ark). Great to have a child read to YOU.

This is an excellent picture book - my three year old really loves it. My only "complaint" is that it takes a long time to go through all the pictures and talk about each one making it less than ideal right before bed unless you want to spend 20 minutes on just one book! Seriously though - the book is just wonderful and allows parents to go into whatever level of detail regarding the Noah story as they feel is appropriate for the age of their child. It is a softcover and the pages and cover are not of the highest quality - it would be lovely to have in hardcover with larger pages.

This book really does not need any words. It is so well illustrated that you can understand every part of the story. His detailing is stunning. Every time we read this book, we find new details. This is the best book of Noah's ark story!

I used this text in the 80's as an undergrad in Brazil, and am now a chemistry professor. Although my research is in computational chemistry, and organic chemistry seems a lot like fantasy to me, I still love Morrison and Boyd's textbook. I remember my experience with it, and my awe in finding that someone could actually put a textbook together that was enjoyable to be read, and easy to understand - and mind you, I was not fluent in English back then. I have just recently realized that all my organic texts have been "borrowed" by students, and that I should really get Morrison's. And this time make sure nobody will take it out of my office. If you want to learn organic chemistry with no struggle, this is the book.

it is a great textbook for those who need organic chem. i am a chemical engineering undergraduate and the way the book is set up in problems and exercises is also great. after every section a question , that may seem difficult at first, is really a restatement of that section. but don't get it twisted into thinking that it is a pick up and go book. the solutions manual is a must if you want to fully grasp an understanding for this difficult subject. i also got a copy of the wade series to complement the book when i wasn't sure of the full chemical reactions that took place but overall, it's a great book to use.

Due its ambitious purposes and powerful transcendence, the whole understanding of this fundamental branch of the Science seems to be in an authentic crescendo day after day.

This book illustrates and clarifies such just a few, the most relevant aspects of this dynamic and expansive scientific discipline.

Recommended for students and teachers of Chemistry, Chemistry Engineers and Bio analysts.

O.K. Let's face it: what could be more boring than Organic Chemistry - right? WRONG! Morrison and Boyd's Organic Chemistry takes the pallid and dry subject of Organic Chemistry and imbues it with a vitality and interest that will stupefy you. Trust me, you cannot begin to fathom how effective this book is at making its subject interesting and more importantly understandable. The authors are brilliant at introducing a complex and arcane topic, incrementally building slowly and confidently a framework of knowledge and information that nearly makes, of all things, intuitive sense when they are through.

Every educator should study Morrison and Boyd in an attempt to appreciate how it works its magic. I can say without reservation, this is the text book against which all others should be measured. You will not be disappointed.

I used this book as a supplement for Ege's organic book. It helped me do well in my class and prepared me for the chemistry GRE. This book is older but well worth the cost. I think it should be on any chemists' shelf of literature. The reactions it tells you are easy to understand and the mechanisms make sense. The only problem I would have is the spec. section for infared is a little weak. But it does everything else well so it makes up for it. Buy this Book for undergraduate study you won't be disappointed!

This book features some excellent beat writers and includes informative blurbs on their history and style. Each artist has a little chunk of their writing for you to sample, and the material is everything from stories to letters to classically bad prose.

What impressed me were the essays by each other, on the actual generation hype.

"Young people seemed more intense, clutching, and I couldn't help feeling they took themselves too seriously... 'good, clean fun' appeared to be a thing of the past. Or perhaps the aura of suspicion and defensiveness was merely a reflection of my own fears..." --Carylon Cassady

It's a great book for deciding which authors you want to read more of.

This reader is a good overall introduction to beat literature. While I could have done with a few more examples of writing from the women in the movement, that probably would not have kept the book as "portable" as its title promises.

An absolute wonder, a perfect selection of Beat writings: Poems, fragments of novels, essays, history, mythology, philosophy... The Portable Beat Reader is one of the most essential books in my collection and rarely leaves my side. And it is, thankfully, portable, and much easier than bringing everything with you all the time. Aquire it, open it, and just start reading.

Simply put, this is what I turn to when I need inspiration for reading, for creating, for anything. It combines wonderful bios of everyone from Kerouac to Bob Dylan, and their poems, book excerpts, and lyrics galore. Absolutely enjoyable, absolutely essential. Thank god for Ann Charters.

After riding the whirlwind of On The Road and Howl, many readers will acquire an appetite for Beat literature that will lead them to this book. Ann Charters serves up some of the best pieces of Beat Literature in this anthology. However, some inclusions, such as excerpts from On The Road, could be considered sacrilege, as the texts were never meant to be cut up, and suffer as a result. The Bob Dylan lyrics included by Charters indicate that she was no Dylan scholar, as other tracks would have been more suitable. However, with inclusions such as Neal Cassady's letters, William S. Burroughs adventure narratives, and the lesser known Beat poetry, this anthology is indispensable.