Wood Books

I really liked this book because it took place in the "old days" which was fascinating to read about. I could actually put myself in Rosemary's place. The ending leaves you dreaming so you can decide what you want the ending to be. It's a story of dreaming and believing in yourself. It taught me alot about growing up!

I thought this book provided insight into "the mysterious" and was very enjoyable. Despite its rating as young adult or children's literature, I feel it can easily be read and enjoyed by anyone with an open mind.

It's 1790, Rosemary is 12, and although on the surface her family fits perfectly into their North Carolina farming community, beneath that surface they're a little magical. This is a spellbinding novel about becoming who you are, featuring vivid characters and an enchanting heroine. A very satisfying read.

This is one of the best beginning blues instruction books I've found. It teaches a bit of blues theory and provides the basic framework for the blues, but Tricia also provides the beginner with a few blues tunes to play. You can find books with advanced blues songs (from established performers) and you can find books with blues "riffs"....but you won't find many bookes for beginners that have good sounding, playable, blues tunes. Ms. Woods delivers on all fronts.

I'm new to the piano but not to music (guitar). I can read music (a little... but not in 'real time'). This book is excellent. It keeps the techinical music score to a minimum but still gets across the basic of the Blues plus loads of tricks that can be strung together when improvising (as you'd expect). This the way I taught myself rock / blues guitar and it suits me... learn the basics (chords, structures), learn some sacles and add on a few finishing touches. Perfect!

I was very rusty, having played piano for over 30 years but not touching a keyboard in a long time. I had just bought a new modern keyboard and needed something to jog my memory with a little theory and yet was interesting and fresh to keep me going.
The DVD is well done and easy to follow and stop. The book is all I could ask for and I appreciate the bits of blues history just as a side note.
There are extra exercises, if you choose, to modulate to different keys and to strengthen your skills along the way, which is something the other books didn't have.
I did a lot of research and comparisons before I picked this set. It's not for a rank beginner. You do need to know how to play some, but if you have played at least a year, get this book and have a good time.

My daughter really loved this book because having started kindergarten this past year, she related to the relationships between the little girls. It also has a good resloution and a neat twist with the girls being at Witch school. A definite book for Halloween and for anyone who loves magic.

My niece loved this book! We read it together and enjoyed the misadventures of Bella and the other little witches. This book is a real treat and has a positive message for little girls that it is okay to be different, because there are a lot of "Bella's" in this world.

I purchased this book for my six year old daughter, and it has become her favorite book. The main character Bella, is cute and determined that despite being different she is capable of succeeding. The illustrations are funny and kid friendly, and along with the memorable characters of Tai Tai the nervous witch, Frazzle Dazzle the kitty with a short tail, Ms. Beehaven the stern headmistress, and of course Bella, a little girl that all girls can relate to; Bella, The Crooked Hat Witch is a book that parents and kids can enjoy at quiet time, before bedtime, or just any time at all!

Copyright 2005 Gamison Evans

One of the treasured delights from my childhood, this book is still on my shelves. With the aid of a watermelon, long-suffering Benjamin finally comes to grips with his nemesis, Tulip.

Every time Benjamin meets Tulip she says "I'm gonna beat you up" and she does. Tulip is a little horror, gleefully dropping from the trees to mess up Benjamin's new suit with mud, an unruly, fearsome girl, as different as can be from the little goody-goody Ruby of the Max and Ruby books. Max eventually finds a watermelon helpful in taming the tyrannical Tulip and the book has a happy ending. Very amusing and much less bland than Rosemary Wells' other books.

I adore this book! It was one of my favorites when I was small, and my very dog-eared copy still sits on my shelf. My dad would read it to me, and although I felt very sorry for Benjamin, I lived vicariously through Tulip! This is a darling book!

My son (22 months) absolutely loves this book. We read it about 10 times every day. He's always so excited to get to the last page with 10 butterflies. The pictures are beautiful.

All of Maurice Pledger's books are beautiful, and his Billy Bunny books are no exception to the rule. I'm a mom of 5 who homeschools using a literature based curriculum. Our home is overflowing with books. Pledger's stand out with the best for their beautiful artistry and their ability to educate as they entertain.

My seven year old, artistically creative daughter enjoys them as much as my book-chewing, 1 year old baby girl. My 3 year old son is an action hero in training---always on the go fighting pretend fires or climbing trees---and even he will sit still for Maurice Pledger's wonderous books!

Hooray to Maurice Pledger! We are so glad that we discovered your world!!!

Maurice Pledger's illustrations are beautiful. Board pages are good- children cannot rip or tear out. I also recommend 'An Adventure with Polly Polar Bear' and 'Bobby Bear's ABC's'.

If you have ever dreamed or wondered about what it must have been like to travel cross-country to California in the days of the gold-rush, you will enjoy - and learn from this book. The story is filled with bits of history, some of the heartbreaks and lessons of life, and the challenges and dangers of travel in a covered wagon - with a feel of the huge achievement of crossing the vast west. The story is flowing with human interest, offering young readers the opportunity to identify with Billy's experiences.

A good yarn about the old West
Reviewed by: Pearl Nancarrow (9/21/2005)
History comes alive in this well-researched tale of a young man heading West. Billy becomes part of the vanguard of all that is western when he signs on to help lead a wagon train from Missouri to the gold fields of California. This gem of a story is historically accurate from the wagons and their contents, the place names along the way, to the names of some of the people involved. The story wends its way from adventure to hardship, from pride of achievement, the thrill of new life and to the heartbreak of death along the trail. Billy not only grows up on this trek, he gains wisdom and matures into responsible adulthood. Walter Wood spins a "good yarn", in that a young reader can also learn a great deal about the movement west,and the 1870s in general. As a former teacher, I'd recommend this book for children from grade 3 on up through middle school.

A "must read" adventure story

This was a wonderful book to read,it was very entertaining. It held my attention and I coldn't put it down until I finished!! I live in Wisconsin and love reading about the west. I have lived in Wisconsin my whole life and have never been out west so this book made me feel like I was there. I live in Amery Wisconsin and I'm in the 8th grade. I really enjoyed this book and would recommend it to anyone.

As with all of the Pro Lighting series of books, this latest edition adds insightful tips and tricks into the world of "pro" level B/W photography. Especially helpful are the detailed shot elements that allow you to very closely achieve results like those you see in print.

A must have to complete the collection. Do not miss this title.

This book is one of the best in studio photography. you can even use the lighting and diagrams for color portrait.
I love this book, it's the best among all the other books i have in this field.

I am a serious, pro-amature who's been away from photography for quite a few years. When I treated myself to a Nikon N80 for my birthday this year, I knew that black and white photography was where I wanted to focus. Black and White Shots is an invaluable source for me for staging as well as lighting for black and white photography. I was able to look at pictures that caught my eye and read both description and a diagram of how the photographer put the shot together. Film type, f/stops, lighting types, positioning and notes about the shoot -- this book had it ALL!!! It told me the basics and allowed me to add my own creative touch to a photo session. Definitely a reference KEEPER!

Wow. I can't believe that every South Park fan and Canadian aren't rushing out to buy this! It's a great read, informative but not boring, a fascinating pop culture history.

This is a great book about South Park and its relationship to contemporary culture. Many of the insights end up surprising. There are three parts to this book. The first part mentions the impact of South Park on culture and how it became popular and widespread. The second part is about the show itself: the dialogue, sounds, characters, and visuals. The third part deals with the issues presented in the show. There was an extensive amount of research done for this book and it shows. The author is also not a fan, so the insights come from a more neutral perspective, which makes the book an even better read.

The author also spends a lot of time on the impact and popularity of the show, which is unlike most book about tv shows and culture. The characters chapter is long but still unusually short for a tv show and culture book. Most books about TV shows and culture devote and entire unit and at least 40 pages to talk about the characters. Because she only devotes a chapter, there could have easily been more said about the characters.

All in all, if you are a fan of South Park or like reading about popular culture, then you should read this book. It is entertaining, insightful, and enjoyable.

Just when I began to despair about finding a real fan resource for South Park, along comes "Blame Canada". The various edited volumes about South Park and philosophy (Arp and Hanley) seem to be collections of scholarly opinions that I am sure are important to some obscure university lecture series on philosophy, and Anderson's "South Park Conservatives" is really only of interest to militant Log Cabin Republicans. "Blame Canada" is well constructed, well written and thought provoking. As a fan, I find it a fascinating resource, more so because the author is clearly NOT a fan herself. Neither a sycophantic piece nor a knee-jerk condemnation, "Blame Canada" is accurate and dispassionate.

My favourite chapter in "Blame Canada" is the chapter on South Park and the internet. It documents a period of internet history that had nearly been lost, in which South Park featured uniquely as a pop culture window into the infancy of the internet. I myself, who came late to the South Park phenomenon, had been unable to track down the grass roots fan information that should have been available on the internet for any pop culture icon as important as South Park. Now I know that it is a result of the engulf-and-devour policy of Comedy Central towards "unauthorized" South Park content on the web, which is somewhat ironic considering the libertarian content of the show. I am left to wonder how much more of internet history is being lost forever as technology changes, web pages are updated without being archived, and corporate America exerts more and more control over internet content.

The most interesting aspect of "Blame Canada", however, is the theoretical framework in which Johnson-woods places the show. South Park is nothing if not carnivalesque, so it is an apt analysis. But more than that, through the Baktine analysis South Park fandom becomes legitimized, and South Park becomes as much (and as normal) a pop culture influence in its time as Star Wars or I Love Lucy were in theirs. It is refreshing to know that fan attraction to fart jokes is as old as fandom itself, and not some new aberrant form of entertainment that is a result of (or even responsible for) the moral decay of our society.

I thoroughly enjoyed "Blame Canada", and I am happy to recommend it highly to any South Park fan. It is a worthy read.

Throughout this book, Wood stresses the fact that there is absolutely no way to truly apreciate the severity of slavery through recollection, but that it is important to try. It is important to understand just how widespread the phenomenon was, and how this tragedy in human history still resonates loudly within our psyches. One major point of the book is how populations who had been heavily involved in the slave trade, starting with the British and extending to the US North, began to sugar-coat their involvement by airing opinions of moral superiority over others. The best and most famous example being Harriet Beecher Stowe's "Uncle Tom's Cabin", where Africans who were enslaved actually end up better off than their free African counterparts due to the fact that they become Christian. The slaves were redeemed through their brush with western cutlure (ie slavery). Other examples of visual evidence include the middle passage slave ship diagrams, runaway slave reward notices, inhuman iron helmets and shackles. Each area examined is brought to life by Wood's seemingly unending arsenal of background information and nontrivial ties to art history.
The book's real strength lies in how it can in fact bring the reality of slavery back, to confront western culture with it as something that still lingers, but with an almost Freudian degree of mass-denial. Slavery in the US existed longer than it hasn't, the economic ripple-effect alone should be self-evident. We are still in the wake of this dark era in our culture; Wood puts us on the therapist's couch and makes us remember, rather than suppress, these memories.

this book is incredibly interesting and engaging. Wood is insightful and it is not at all tedious to read. it was throught-provoking and i actually looked forward to reading it. plus, he's a really cool guy.

Dozens of images of archives across Britain and North America on Atlantic slavery are presented in Blind Memory, which provides an artful blend of images and words reflecting 19th century Afro-American slave experiences. Woodcuts, paintings, diaries, short stories and artifacts are examined in this study of visual representations of slavery.

Linscott's spirited suffragette, Nell Bray, finds herself explaining to the police how she discovered a body in the course of a midnight robbery as this latest mystery of murder and politics in early 1900s Britain gets underway.

It all happened because a valuable painting, bequeathed to the Women's Social and Political Union, turned out to be a fake - commissioned after its owner's death by her husband, Oliver Venn. So, when a splinter group of the Fabians - the Scipians -gathers to camp at the Venn's, Nell decides to kill two birds with one stone, so to speak, by sounding out the Scipians' commitment to women's suffrage while confronting Venn about the painting.

It's the younger Venn son, Daniel, a collector of folk music, who comes up with the plan that Nell should steal the picture that's rightfully hers. Daniel has also just got himself engaged to a silent, abused member of the agrarian classes, no matter that he's already engaged to quite a nice woman of his own sort. It's the downtrodden waif who turns up dead during Nell's quasi-sanctioned theft.

The historical detail, from ladies' fashions to radical politics, merges unobtrusively with the mystery through the likable and entertaining voice of the intrepid Nell. Her sleuthing skills emerge naturally from her forthright personality, as do her well-reasoned forays into the woods in the dead of night after a killer. A delightful series.

Suffragette Philomena Venn donates to the Women's Social and Political Union a valuable painting by renowned French artist Boucher in her will. Member Nell Bray goes to collect the painting so that the group can sell it for a needed influx of cash. When she receives a forgery from the deceased's family and the widower refuses to do the right thing by his wife, Nell takes it upon herself to steal the real one and replace it with the fake.

Breaking and entering Mr. Venn's house in the middle of the night proves rather easy. However, the switch is deferred when Nell finds a corpse. Someone murdered the victim and as Nell explains to the constable why she was in the house, she vows to herself to uncover the identity of the culprit so can clear her name.

BLOOD ON THE WOOD is an engaging historical mystery that brings to life the early struggles of the suffragette movement in England. The fine amateur sleuth theme is cleverly enhanced by unpretentious looks at early twentieth century society mostly by the extended Venn family, suffragette sisters, or the heroine. Nell as the center of the tale is the real deal so that the audience obtains a wonderful novel that showcases a bygone period in a delightful way as does the previous Bray books do (see DEAD MAN RIDING and PERFECT DAUGHTER).

Harriet Klausner

It started with a painting. When a dying suffragette leaves a painting to the 'movement,' activist Nell Bray is sent down to the Cotswolds in rural England to pick it up. The suffragette's family tries to foist off a counterfeit and Nell end up cast into an adventure that starts with a plot to steal the real painting--and ends up with broken engagements and murder. Everyone in the Venn family seems to be hiding something. At first, Nell is willing to believe that they are simply trying to protect the fiancee--but could their motives be darker? Could her revolutionary acquaintance, Harry Hawthorne be right that the family was willing to kill to protect their property--and kill again if necessary?

Set in the early twentieth century when woman's suffrage is still a distant hope, when revolutionary socialists are filled with hope for the worker's utopia, and when women still need to be concerned about their social standing and their chances of being 'ruined,' BLOOD ON THE WOOD is a strangely powerful mystery. Nell Bray is an entertainingly complex character--hard-working for suffrage but realistic enough to know that it will take time and compromise. Her moral dilemma over how much to tell the police rings true. Author Gillian Linscott does a fine job depicting those turbulant times and the characters who lived through them. The suspects--song-hunting dilitante, Daniel; widower Oliver; jilted fiancee Felicia; and too-clever lawyer Adam are all worth looking at--all have motives, all could have benefitted through murder.

If you're looking for a cerebrial mystery with a charming early-twentieth century setting, BLOOD ON THE WOOD is a can't miss opportunity. I enjoyed this one a lot.