Wood Books

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!

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.

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.

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.

My 2.5 year old LOVES this book. I was amazed at the beautiful illustrations and the quality of the stickers. Each page includes a short story and stickers are provided to enhance the learning experience. For example, the first page introduces Bobby the Bear and tells of his life in the forest. It goes on to tell of Bobby's forest friends. Stickers of his forest friends are provided and the reader is able to put them on that page so that they become acquainted with other animals that live in the forest. This book also teaches/enhances matching and sorting skills. I'm planning on buying all of these sticker books. You can't beat the price.

My 2 1/2 year old just loves this book. It combines the things kids this age love - a story book and stickers and it's educational too! She needed adult supervision to do the stickers properly but it was alot of fun to do with her since the book is well written and so beautifully illustrated. I would recommend this book for toddlers and older. The stickers can be reused up to a point and given the quality the price is a value. Highly recommend it.

I have all of Maurice Pledger's sticker books: Bobby Bear, Billy Bunny, Olivia Owl, and Oscar Otter. I think they are well written, beautifully illustrated, and through the very generous number of stickers noted to match particular pages in the story, offer a tremendous interactive experience. I have four children between the ages of 2 and 7 and they all enjoy them at their own level. I have also probably bought more than 25 copies as birthday or other occasion gifts and they are always a hit with both children and parents. I definitely recommend this and any of these books.

Perhaps, the planets are aligned improperly or his hair is the wrong texture or people prefer the taste of Coca-Cola to RC.... Who knows why Russel Like has not gotten the attention he deserves? The only question we can really answer is, should we read his books? If you didn't answer with a resounding "yes," it can only be because you haven't read one. In a genre where humour is generally laid on in a lumpy layer of slapstick and puns, Like's books are in a class by themselves. Funny, wicked, clever, thought-provoking, and wildly imaginative -- A BOWL OF FRUIT, just like AFTER THE BLUE, is a comic delight. His characterss would seem absurd if they weren't so much like the people you sit and the dinner table with on holidays. Or, maybe they are more like the people you pass on the street and feel an urge to follow, merely because of something they were mumbling. Like's books give off the same kind of allure, and, if you are smart, you'll follow wherever they lead.

I feel as if I've gotten in on the ground floor of something that's going to be huge! When Russel Like inevitably collects his first "best book" or "best movie" award, I'll be able to say, "I read him when."

If you like science fiction and/or humor, then you MUST read, "A Bowl Of Fruit, A Whale in the Woods." If you don't like science fiction and/or humor, you should read it anyway, because Russel Like simply uses the genre as an opportunity to look at - and more important, to show his readers - everyday occurrences in delightful new ways.

Image what Dave Barry would be like in a slightly awry alternate reality, and you have a glimpse of what Like is like in "A Bowl of Fruit."

Enjoy!

His career uninspired and his personal life unrelentingly tedious, Greg Fisher started to mess around with a special device that would embroil him with alternative realities. Author Russel Like has an original, somewhat quirky, and always entertaining flair for writing the kinds of stories that are so easy to pick up and so hard to put down! A Bowl Of Fruit, A Whale In The Woods is especially recommended for science fiction and fantasy fans who like their tales wild, whimsical, eccentric, and uproariously funny!

This is an outstanding book, for professionals and casual readers alike. Dr. Woods breaks down the taboo of teenage suicide with personal anecdotes and a truly engaging style. She shows us that this subject, which might make us cringe, is a very real part of our world, with impacts ranging from the quiet lives of individual families to headline-grabbing events such as the Columbine massacre. Rock music lyrics, a teenager's internal tug-of-war between pressure to achieve and desire not to disappoint, gender- all these aspects and others are brought into the open and discussed in a way that is both interesting and scientifically sound.
The entire book is solidly supported with references from medical and scientific journals, yet the author's writing style makes this book completely engaging and a truly absorbing read. It is an empowering book: it not only lists signs that can indicate a greater risk for teen suicide, but goes on to describe ways of addressing them- some original and logical "do's" and "don'ts". Overall, I loved this book because of the undeniable importance of the subject and the author's terrific writing style.

A subject rarely talked about in public and even less in schools. Teenage suicide is a problem that we must actively deal with. Dr. Woods gives insight into the many ways that we as individuals can make a difference in another person's life and possibly prevent another person from taking their own life. Dr. Woods explores many cases of teenage suicide showing many different view points of triggers that can lead to suicide - signs to look out for and possible approaches to handle them. It is commonly believed that depression is the sign to look for in a person who is considering suicide. Often this is not the case as Dr. Woods illustrates.
The book does not cover all the reasons for suicide such as side effects of a medication, nor does it claim to be the definitive encyclopedia on the subject. More importantly it sheds a light on an epidemic that is prevalent in our society and should be discussed towards prevention and positive action.
This is an important book that parents and adults who work children with should read.

A subject rarely talked about in public and even less in schools. Teenage suicide is a problem that we must actively deal with. Dr. Woods gives insight into the many ways that we as individuals can make a difference in another person's life and possibly prevent another person from taking their own life. Dr. Woods explores many cases of teenage suicide showing many different view points of triggers that can lead to suicide - signs to look out for and possible approaches to handle them. It is commonly believed that depression is the sign to look for in a person who is considering suicide. Often this is not the case as Dr. Woods illustrates.
The book does not cover all the reasons for suicide such as side effects of a medication, nor does it claim to be the definitive encyclopedia on the subject. More importantly it sheds a light on an epidemic that is prevalent in our society and should be discussed towards prevention and positive action.
This is an important book that parents and adults who work children with should read.

A great book for boaters of all types (sail & power) Make your baby shine with the tips in this easy to carry volume. I also have the larger version of Brightwork by the same author. It contains the same information but this compact version fits into your ditty bag and a handy quick reference at the marina.

Excellent step by step. Don't start your project with out this book!

I have owned the Brightwork book for many years and always find myself checking back with it when I do a project. I bought this book as an update for the original but have found it invaluable as an adjunct to the original text. This is the perfect reference to have aboard or in the shop with you while you are doing the project. It effectivly updates the original text in a couple of critical areas and I highly recommend it. Thanks to these two books, no one need fear varnishing again! It is gospel!

As a big fan of John Michne's website, I became very interested when I heard this book was coming out. I ordered it right away and I was not disappointed. The are a few books out today on the subject of boatbuilding for the home hobbyist that are really fantastic and this ranks right up there along with Ted Moore's Canoecraft, John Brooks' Glued Lapstrake Boatbuilding. The author's combine boatbuilding skill and documentation skill which is not an easy or common feat. They have done a great job in documenting the build of the H. Dwight Grant design 16' Guideboat "Virginia" so home boatbuilders like me can follow right along. I would not have considered building a boat like this without this book. The book includes all of the steps and precise details on how to reproduce this great craft. Many tips and techniques are shown that will insure high quality if carefully followed. The authors approach is one of setting a very high standard instead of mass appeal simplicity. The sanding stick idea is ingeniously simple for sanding rolling bevels on stems and ribs but I had never heard of it before. The sections on seat caning and brass metalwork clearly illustrate that it is something within my reach. I particularly liked that the authors were faithful to the Grant design "Virginia" lines as precisely documented by John Gardner. It is a great tribute to Grant, Gardner, Kenneth Durant and anyone who appreciates this special piece of history. I am sure they would be happy that new guideboats will continue to emerge from workshops and garages and be used all over the world rather than slowly fading away as museum pieces only. The Adirondack Guideboat design is really not for a beginning boatbuilder who is looking to build a first boat. It will turn out much better if you have already built a few boats. Don't miss out on this book though just because you are not ready to build one. No other type of book exists that I know of on how to build this remarkable boat.

im no expert on any type of boat,nor a writer.

i enjoyed this book quite a bit. its amaizing what you learn that you never ever heard of before.
i would definatly like to build one of these boats,, but,i must first build a smaller less complicated dinghy type first. to get a bit of practice. after all, thats alot of money in wood and epoxy,FG so,, id want to be a little more confident before i begin one of my own.
the book has great pictures,and the text..... well you begin to admire the builders that came before us.. (i always do) the craftmanship of these boats is truly amaizing. and they did alot of it with old school tools.

i cant recomend this book enough. i buy two types of boat books.
one type shares building information with me,techniques,tips,ect,ect..,so i might build a beauty of my own somday.
the second reason i buy boat books,,is for the history of boating in general. and this book has a full load of both kinds of information.

its nice to have it on the shelf.

roy

This is an absolutely excellent book! If you have any interest in Adirondack guideboats or in strip building canoes, you owe it to yourself to buy this book. The authors do a masterful job of explaining - in excrutiating detail - how to build a reproduction of a guideboat that is currently in a museum. They leave no stone unturned and describe the process very clearly with lots of photographs. They do a great job as well of weaving throughout the chapters the history of guideboats and their construction. Much of what they describe can be used for building other boats as well. This is a must have if you're into boat building or guideboats or the Adirondacks. It's probably the best book available on this topic!

This book is an excellent overview of the history of civil aviation, terminals, and airfields. The attention to detail, both photographic and linguistic, is marvelous and provides a wonderful account of airport design. The faithfulness to the original traveling photo exhibit allows readers the opportunity to experience the cultural presentation alongside the historical reconstruction. All in all, a wonderful book for any aviation fan.

BfAT is one of the most intriguing books you'll find about airports. It covers a lot of airport design aspects- but it is not an engineering book. In other words, you won't have to face boring charts and graphs. All you get is interseting texts, divided into differnt issues, and many rare and beautiful pictures. If you really like airports- you should have this book.

A truly comprehensive book, enjoyable to both read and look through. It covers the history and scope of air travel, including airport and aircraft design, corporate identities and marketing in a thorough, extensive and compelling manner. It is distinctive in how it successfully melds a global scope and a focused perspective.