Wood Books

You'll get you're money's worth if you buy any carving book by Mary Duke Guldan. Unlike many other carving books this lady gives you wonderfully artistic and accurate patterns showing top, side, back and front views. In addition she gives you detailed drawings showing feet and facial characteristics of animals. Plus, this author shows you how to piece together 1" thick planks of wood to make a good size carving. (This is a great help to people who can not find, or afford huge blocks of good wood, like basswood.) I also appreciate the author's suggestions of how to vary the poses of animals, and other ways of using her patterns, like for mantelpieces. This book may be a little over the head of brand new wood carvers, but if you're beyond the very beginning stage and interested in carving something besides birds, this is the book for you!

I found "A Woodcarer's Workbook" to be an excellant source of inspiration to my carving. The patterns set forth in this issue are well laid out and easily explained. Although the author assume's that the reader has some experience with woodcarving, I found the emphasis the author puts on the most critical parts of carving (eyes, ears, feet, etc.)to justify the lack of concentration on the body. Thumbs up to Mary for a wonderful book, I'll defininately be buying the follow-up to this book.

If you're owners of wooden boats this is a great calendar to have and if you don't own a boat and love boats whether their wooden or not this is still a great calendar to have. Try the new calendar for 2008 the pictures are fantastic.

We have purchased the Wooden Boat Calendar for years. The pictures are alway great and the quality of paper used is a nice heavey stock.

If you can never remember the words to the classic carol, this is a great book. It is wonderfully illustrated depicting two bears in the woods. Everyday they dance and move thru the 12 days of Christmas until they eventually marry. The pictures have all the classic characters in the song, ex. lords-a-leaping, swans-a-swimming etc. It will leave you singing all day, "And a partridge in a pear tree!" Great for reading aloud and getting into the holiday season.

Frances Tyrrell has created a beautiful Christmas book using the Twelve Days of Christmas song as her inspiration. The captions of the bear couple are endearing as they proceed through the courtship ritual and eventually marry. These are exquisite illustrations - delicately drawn and painted - and the whole captures the joy and celebration of the season - here, appropriately set in the North Woods. I love this book for its details (I'm constantly seeing new things in the pictures), its spirit and warmth. Highly, highly recommended.

One of my children found this book in the library and it turned out to be a beautiful surprise.

We have a keen interest in woodworking and turning and want to pass this appreciation on to our children. The rhymes and pictures in this book will please most children.

Even if you don't have children, but appreciate fine wood work, this book should be on your shelf. Each page is made up of beautiful art work drawn on wood and framed with finely crafted wooden frames. And the end pages are covered in illustrations of the different sorts of trees and tools used in the book.

Sadly, this book is out of print--we are hoping to find a used copy--our woodworking library won't be complete without it.

One of my children found this book in the library and it turned out to be a beautiful surprise.

We have a keen interest in woodworking and turning and want to pass this appreciation on to our children. The rhymes and pictures in this book will please most children.

If you don't have children, but appreciate fine wood work, this book should be on your shelf. Each page is made up of beautiful art work drawn on wood and framed with finely crafted wooden frames. And the end pages are covered in illustrations of the different sorts of trees and tools used in the book.

Sadly, this book is out of print--we are hoping to find a used copy--our woodworking library won't be complete without it.

"Woods Wisdom-Troop Program Features" is a complete resource for organizing and planning your troop meetings, patrol meeting, courts of honor, and troop calander. Every merit badge and activity is covered. A must have for the seriour scouter.

This wonderful book is a must-have for every Boy Scout troop, the Bible for the youth leadership of the troop. It has everything the boys need to plan their activities for the year, and even their individual meetings and outings. Activities are covered, as are games, and ceremonies. I could take pages talking about all of what is in here, but instead let me just say that it is everything a troop needs!

So, if you are a part of a Boy Scout troop that does not have a Woods Wisdom book, do whatever it takes to get them one. It is a resource that will help the troop for many years to come. My Scouts and I highly recommend this book!

This, the sixth in Underhill's Woodwright series, is more tool and process oriented than the others. I really like this one for its practical teachings.

I do have an axe to grind, however. The Product Description above says "A special concluding section contains detailed plans for making your own foot-powered lathes, ...." Aah, I thought, I'll finally get plans for building that treadle lathe Underhill has been teasing me with for five books. If you, like me, think "detailed plans" will give you true shop drawings, lists of materials, and instructions that, if you follow them will give you a working lathe at the end; then you, like me, will be very disappointed. He does give you more than in the past, but be prepared for much head scratching and trial and error. If I do go ahead and try to build one, I'm going to make sure I have at least three of everything on hand.

Over all, this is perhaps his best book yet. I just don't understand why he's so stingy with his plans.

"It's just a piece of wood, but let's see what your axe handle has to say." (p.4) From the opening sentence of St. Roy's latest tome exudes the essence of Underhill, both myth and man. As a young boy, my grandfather had me chopping wood for my breakfast, and the only thing I remember my axe handle saying were words not fit to use here, but when Roy visits an axe handle, it suddenly springs to lively discussion, relishing it's job in the Feller's hands. And therein is the first thing I learned from this book; he (historically speaking) who is a "Feller" is not necessarily the good old boy on the next bar stool at some back-road greasy spoon diner, but is in fact he who fells trees. Aha!

Underhill's most recent work is self-admittedly a re-visitation of his prior books (of which I have all, somewhere in a box...) It is organized in such a way that we follow woodworking from the forest all the way through the joiner's work with stops along the way to learn the tools of the craft and to take surveys of the bodger's art, timber framing, ship building, and wood turning. Written in Underhill's inimitable and inevitably right-brained style, it is laced with the imagery and humor we've come to be addicted to. The reader finds himself mired in nostalgia, picturing himself in colonial breeches and turning the spiral auger to drawbore a mortise and tenon joint in huge oak beams, while the author himself is chipping away at a nearby beam with an adze and explaining, "Of the 23 known woodworking puns, a fair share involve the adze." (p. 19.)

We work wood because we love wood and we love making things with it. Underhill has given proper acknowledgment to the fact that most of what is covered in this book is not hobby, but mankind's way of life not so long ago. For Underhill, the Wooden Age hasn't quite come to an end, and as I read this latest Woodwright's episode, I begin to feel that perhaps it hasn't ended for me, either. For any of us who find any joy at all in transforming wood, this is mandatory reading. I defy you not to let your imagination wander!

This is a great book for anyone who loves cars made with wood. It covers everything from the earliest Pre-World War One cars to Ninties vehicles with fake trim; from beautifully restored originals to hot rods and even custom-built one-offs; and not just wagons, but sedans and convertibles, too. If you want to know how to build or restore a Woody, this is not the book to by (although it's great for inspiration), but if you just want to enjoy looking at these beautiful cars, and finding out more about them, it's a definate must-buy.

If you enjoy looking at vintage woody automobiles this is the book to read. There is even a 1951 Chevy wagon that has painted wood that is so good you can't tell the difference between the real thing.

If you love cars, buy this book!

David Berona has been studying wordless books for 20 years, but only in the past couple of years has the "graphic novel boom" of the industry allowed him to publish his research. In this handsome book he presents an introduction and sampler of the form's greatest works and artists in a clear, useful, and unpretentious manner. The images included are crisp and beautiful. This is a must-purchase for any fan of comics or narrative art.

Wordless Books: The Original Graphic Novels by the prolific writer David Beronä is a gem filled with informative serious content for the novice and well seasoned in the woodcut novel genre. This beautiful book is a visual treat to read with images around every turn of a page. In Beronä's past articles on the topic and now in this book, it is always interesting to read his interpretation on these masterful wordless books. Many familiar with this genre have seen the illustrations from his book, however there is freshness in seeing these pictures in this new context. Increasing the print size on some of the pages is a nice touch and lets the viewer see things in the prints that they more than likely have missed in the past. Numbered specific references in the text allow the reader to be deeply taken into important parts of the books described in separate chapters. The conclusion convincingly points to the role these wordless masterpieces have shaped current graphic novels. Having scans of dust jackets from many of the original editions in the ending section is a very exceptional way to end the book. Many have looked forward to David Beronä's book for a long time and there is no disappointment in any way, shape or form! It has it all!

From the moment I started reading I was spellbound.

The greatness of this writer is being hidden. Everyone need to read this book. I can't wait for part 2. Read this book ASAP. You will not be able to put it down.

Words in the Wind, by Demon L. A. Wood.

Words in the Wind Demon L. A. Wood

Adult Fiction Fantasy Adventure Published 1996, Part 1 of 2 ISBN # 0-9648402-2-7 5.5 x 8.5 Soft Trade 414 Pages

This book claims to be an African fantasy, a work of fiction based on the mythology and legends of the ancient Cushites and Nubians of Abyssinia (North East Africa) but, you won't believe it because it all seems just that real. It is engrossing and entertaining. A must have for the library and your state of mind, that is, if you want to be enlightened and uplifted, as well as entertained.

The story's action runs steady in all the races, and the adventure is ever changing and unpredictable. You won't be able to put this book down once you get into it, but it does take some getting into because you've got to learn the lingo, like "feeder" for woman, and "slave" for a child, and "hanging dangle" for an old man, get it?

The book has two main and seemingly separate stories, one based here in the near future and one from the far ancient past. It opens up in the House of Mandara with a kidnaped victim, Ebbie Farmer, a vanilla- fudge beauty, whose being forcibly indoc- trinated into a secrete society of world renown women called the Pagangenearchs - something like the Eastern Stars, with fewer secret hand signs and more determined to bring Africans back into their full glory.

There are a variety of fascinating characters in this first story surrounding Ebbie Farmer, like the elderly oracle, Cleopatra Mandara a'la Hedrin, a true queen bee who tends to be a little too dangerous for her age. She's the type of woman who'll make the most effeminate man dig down deep for some more manhood. Then there's Michael Blackamore, who has a real problem with having to stay chase during his initiation, and an even bigger problem with the homosex- uality in the history he must learn. But the one to watch out for is Feegarmardar, who I see as a lusciously dark and deadly mix of Pam Grier and Grace Jones, now you know that combination truly has the killer kiss. She's the Assistant Regent Ambassador and Special Agent to Ethiopia, who likes to tease men with her magnificent body as well as beat them down with it.

The ancient story, which is the much larger and definitely more alluring tale, is where we meet the real stars of the book: Shhaha, Mah, Odrak, Keishlee and Ramaa, all of whom I got to know and care for as if they were close friends. Mah and Odrak, who are at the focus, are two young students bound together in spiritual love and physical danger. Soul mates, who are also the last of three surviving apprentices of the deadly science of "blood-keeping." Under the tutelage of Shhaha, the clan's Keeper of the Blood, who can cure or kill with only the power of his voice, they must pass the deadly "Test of Blood" in order to save their clan from total extinction which Shhaha has foreseen.

Chosen by Shhaha to go with him on a long overdue journey to a "Great Sharing," a meeting of all the great elders, these five characters encounter a clan of mystical giant snakes, a wild dog tribe made up mostly of discarded children, a tribe of female warriors whose company they survive only because of Keishlee, who has to become one of them to keep the others from being killed. Later they run into another really interesting character, "She Who Has No Name," who I can't stop thinking of as Whoopi Goldberg, even though I'm sure this character is going to be one of the great villains.

The whole scene at the Kamituian Village where they met her is a turning point for the reader, because it is here that I began to understand some of the many clues Demon provides as to who these people are in real history. Loving history the way I do, the book, which was already a truly magical fantasy, now became an enticing historical mystery as well. I don't want to give anything away, but one of the easy clues is that Mah's name is Ham spelled backwards.

The book seemed like it was going to be a bit long at first, but once you get pulled into its totally realistic cultures and all its wonderful characters, it becomes more like a movie than a book. Demon's writing will transport you to another time and place, to a world so real and compelling that it will truly come to life around you. I was enraptured being at the lake of oil and meeting the human-like birds, the Great Mahs, and it was a real thrill to fight alongside the courageous women of Tuk Village, and even bargaining over the slimy spice seeds with the business like Obeys was one of the most hilarious scenes in the book, not to mention the seduction of the hermaphrodites and the black male nymphs of the Misty Mountains, and I was even enjoying the regrettable Timbutikata, but then before you know it your only a few pages from the end and you curse the author, promising yourself his head if he ends this story before reaching the Valley of Names, and he does, with an ending that means you have to buy another book. But trust me-you will buy it.

... And you think YOUR worklife is the stuff of nightmares ... Simon Wood's WORKING STIFFS puts all that in perspective. I loved this collection of stories, and I'm not, in general, a fan of short stories. But Simon's a great writer: Read one short from this collection, and you'll just have to read another (rather like a box of chocolates... you can't stop after just one).

WORKING STIFFS by Simon Wood
Review by Nickolas Cook

Crime anthologies have enjoyed a great tradition in American literature. For a genre fiction, they get a heck of a lot less grief from publishing than horror or science fiction, and don't suffer from the ghetto slap from critics. Some of crime literature's best anthologies were the old Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery. Well, Simon Wood has single handedly channeled the ghosts of that fine old series of books with his newest collection, WORKING STIFFS.
The stories are quick and mean, edited down to the bone, like the best noir fiction. His characters are believable, work-a-day (pun definitely intended) types who find themselves facing shifts in their simple lives as violence intrudes. The prose is tight, clean, and gives that sense of balance that only damn good writing can provide. Wood's humor comes through in the most peculiar ways, in dialogue and descriptive passages akin to the Mathesons, Blochs, or Hunters of old. His style will seem effortless to the reader and turn every writer green with envy. Wood's years of writing tirelessly for the short story markets can be seen in this new collection.
Each of the stories has to do with the work we do- the thing that takes up a significant portion of each of our lives. But Wood examines the idea of a job as something more than punching the clock for our daily bread. There are jobs we love and jobs we hate; jobs we never see as work, and those that grind chunks of our souls away each day. He knows this and digs under the surface of his characters to expose their worn souls and lost dreams.
"Old Flames Burn the Brightest" is something MacDonald would have loved. Femme fateles can never be trusted, can they?
"My Father's Secret" could easily have been an episode of "The Sopranos", it's that good.
"A Break in the Old Routine" had me all the way to the end slap in the face.
"Parental Control" examines the desperation of the parenting gig in modern society, and just how far a father is willing to go to keep his son alive and safe. Some people have the taste for violence and learn its power.
"The Real Deal" has a nice twist ending, even if you can see it coming from a few miles away.
"Officer Down" is a peculiar revenge story that leaves the reader unsure how to feel about the protagonist; but this is yet another example of Wood's brilliant craftsmanship.
While the whole collection is great reading, the novella, "Fall Guy", is its best offering. It all starts innocuously enough with a minor fender bender misdeed, but quickly spirals out of control for the intrepid protagonist. Todd just can't seem to stay out of trouble, and the harder he tries to wriggle out of his new life of crime the worse it gets. Wood writes this tale with a sense of fun and humor, but don't let that fool you into thinking the danger isn't real. It's an examination, as the best crime fiction usually is, of the criminal mind. Todd has no direction or aptitude for the straight life, and only finds satisfaction and vigor in being a criminal. Before long he's as comfortable with his new role as a seasoned pro. The supporting characters he meets along the way are as quirky as those found in a Tarantino film. While Wood leaves plenty of ambiguity about a life of crime compared to a life of dead end jobs and weekly paychecks that don't stretch nearly far enough, he helps Todd seek redemption by tale's end. The denouement is very satisfying meat upon which to chew.
For a novice reader of Wood's work, this is an excellent place to start.

--Nickolas Cook