5 comments about 365 TV-Free Activities You Can Do with Your Child.

1. I was wondering what my wife and kids could do this summer that wouldn't break the budget. Boy am I glad I found this book. Great customer service too. Thanks for the ideas!



2. My granddaughter is with me during part of the summer. When the books arrived, she was almost six.
   We found some interesting things to do. I monitor her tv and computer viewing. So when she got bored and it was not tv time, she would say: get the book! And we always found some fun things to do.



3. This book is great for days when your board. You need almost nothing to to all the activities. We use it much more than our other craft books! You must by it!



4. I tripped across this book at my local library and I am here looking for my own copy, as we are limited on how long we keep it. I brutally removed the kids from their TV addiction, and the transition has been difficult on the older ones especially. This book has been my salvation. The prereader like to pick out things by picture, my beginner read has no problem understanding the direction and my toddler and teen get involved too. We have used this to fill the huge void of television and to stave of the "mom I am bored..." routine. This is a small book it fits in my purse and we take it with us everywhere. Breaking the index down by activity type means I can have a Doctor's waiting room idea or a park idea up in running in 2 minutes. The materials list is in the margin for easy access and all the material are everyday every house items, half of which are in my purse any way... This book is a keeper!



5. This book was recommended in the book Living the Simple Life. I'm so glad I took the time to get it. It's a wonderful resource for busy families looking to spend some quality time together. So turn that TV off and buy this book. Encourages you and your child's imagination and they learn through playing with simple things around the house and the bonus is that by not watching that TV, you've spent memorable time with each other...what could be better?

No comments about The Methuen Book of Contemporary Monologues for Women (Monologue and Scene Books).

No comments about Goodnight Children Everywhere and Other Plays.

No comments about Memoirs from the Beijing Film Academy: The Genesis of China's Fifth Generation (Asia-Pacific).

No comments about Theorizing Diaspora: A Reader (KeyWorks in Cultural Studies).

No comments about Albee: Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (Plays in Production).

1 comments about Ballet Dancers Stained Glass Coloring Book (Dover Pictoral Archive Series).

1. Good or bad, I was surprised to get this and realize the "stained glass" bit refers to the TRANSLUCENT PAPER, not the ease/large size of the areas to color. The pictures are lovely, but I was expecting something a bit simpler (that might be executed in stained glass, for instance) for my kindergarten princess to color.
   
   I'm sure she'll like it anyway, and at least she can use her markers without them bleeding through the paper, but still a little surprised.

5 comments about The Complete Avengers: The Full Story of Britain's Smash Crime-Fighting Team!.

1. In my dedicated and often fruitless search for the perfect Avengers reference guide, I have discovered that The Complete Avengers, the first ever reference book dedicated to The Avengers, stands alone as the closest to perfection you will find. The format, unlike The Avengers Files, is very reader friendly, breaking down each segement of The Avengers era, from the Steed-David Keel first season to The New Avengers, with an overview of the season followed by a complete episode review/synopsis guide. The overview of each segment details the characteristics of each of the main cast, and accounts important details of the seasons as they occurred. The episode guide is very easy to follow, lavishly illustrated with over 200 photos, albeit black & white. Unfortunately, no color pictures exist in this volume, therefore The Avengers Companion would be the book to recommend if you're looking for the best photos.
   
   Even the supposed flaw of The Complete Avengers should not really be considered a flaw at all. In critical reviews of this book, many people complain that the synopses of each episode vary with the finished product. Some differences are minor, while others alter entire plot twists, yet keeping the main plot resolutions true to the televised version. Rogers opted to give us the synopsis as it appeared in the script rather than the final televised version, perhaps showing great forsight, as most fans of The Avengers have seen the episodes, possibly own the DVD sets, having every story at their disposal to view at their leisure (Rogers in this case predicts the advent of VHS/DVD by taking the "script" route)... They know what happens in the televised final edit. If you know the story, why do you need to read it? In this regard, the episode variations are not mistakes, but how they were scripted. It is great to be able to read about how the episode was originally intended, so you can spot the differences between script and final version with ease. Besides, these synopses go into such great detail that often the only alterations are mere details, with the resolution remaining intact.
   
   The book concludes with an Avengers memorobilia guide. Unfortunately, since this book is 20 years old, this guide is two decades outdated. This is the only problem in The Complete Avengers, through no fault of its own. A victim of the passage of time. Perhaps Dave Rogers can write an updated version, since there has been much more memorobilia released in the last 20 years, not the least of which DVD sets, and trading cards.



2. I am giving this book 3 stars because of all the long and tedious work put into it, and all its great pictures, most of which cannot be found elsewhere. Also, the list with details about all the memorabilia available is very useful. But I found that the episode descriptions were not very accurate. If I remember correctly, this is because the summaries are based on the scripts and not the actual episodes (as they were broadcast) of the show. I recommend buying it if you are a huge fan of the show; just don't rely on the book for accuracy.



3. Peters book covers all the material of The Avengers, his earlier book, and the New Avengers 1970s shows. The photographs are wonderful. There are textual errors in the Avengers Steed and Emma snopsis, story after story.Peters' excuse is that people would prefer the original scripts' not how the show was filmed.

   The wittiest book is Paul cornell's Avengers Dossier which rates each episode by: wit, kinkiness, champagne, fight scenes, suspense, direction. Peters' book is good but since I own most of the Rigg/MacNee videos I found his many errors jarring. Didn't the publisher care that the book, like Peters predecessor, is riddled with errors? What the Butler Saw-in that episode Steed closes jauntily with "The butler did it!" Peters eroneously says Emma says it. There are many other examples of wrong methods of death. Peters writes that Emma stabbed Cartney with a spear in A touch of Brimstone. Cartney causes his own death by cracking a whip at Emma,his whip curls around a walled item, yanking the secret passage open below him so that he falls to his death. Those are only two of many so the same errors may permeate the Cathy Gale/David Keel episodes as well.




4. This is a wonderful book for Avengerphiles. It has marvelous pictures as well as complete episode descriptions.



5. As a fan of the avengers who did not manage to see all the episodes, this book gives the most complete guide to all the seasons and stories that were screened. It has beautiful pictures and has been very thoroughly researched. It provides a lot of information such as how certain actors or characters became what they became on screen. What it lacks is some authors comments on how the individual episodes performed in the ratings. It would have been more complete if the author had commented on how good some of the individual episodes were

2 comments about Mnemonic.

1. I don't think that the text of this play really captures the experience of seeing the Theatre De Complicete production. I like to think that I know my theater, modern and otherwise, but I left the show in a state of shock. This play made me completely reconsider what the medium of theater could accomplish. Reading this play is not the same thing as the ephemeral, mystifying experience of a live production, but I suppose it's the next best thing.



2. this is anotherone of complicites masterpieces. a travel through our imagination-full of miracles

5 comments about Babel: A Film by Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu (Photo Books).

1. The story told by the extraordinary collection of photos is destined to be classic. The images are fit for any Magnum or National Geographic publication. It is certainly one of my favourite photography books, even after a year.



2. Wonderful book, great price and great shipping time. Book is worth a lot more than the selling price.



3. Powerful first class photography around a film that was equallly well shot and deeply moving. Even if you don't care for the celebrity angle (Brad and Cate), these are strong images in and of themselves. Classic B&W in Morocco, psychedelic color in Japan.



4. If like me, you were dazzled by the diverse imagery of director Alejandro González Iñárritu's most recent film, "Babel", you will likely take particular interest in this handsome coffee-table book that compiles an impressive gallery of stills within the context of his recollections of the filming. Four superb photographers - Mary Ellen Mark, Patrick Bard, Graciela Iturbide, and Miguel Rio Branco - are responsible for the vital, often seductive photos presented here, both production stills and behind-the-scenes shots. The combination gives a sense of the deep cultural immersion and the bold visual palette in capturing the lives in three distinct locales - Morocco, Tijuana and Tokyo. The result is comparable in quality to any National Geographic photography retrospective.
   
   Iñárritu's perceptive writing effectively reflects off the images to paint the broad political and emotional landscape of the film, while coming back to the common ground of people who are unable to communicate in some finite way but somehow find a bond with one other. What is most striking is how the film's story seems to mirror much of what went on with the real people during the production. There are illuminating essays by novelist and poet Eliseo Alberto and Gonzalez Iñárritu included in the introduction. As he has already proven with his first two films, "Amores Perros" and "21 Grams", Iñárritu shows an intractable grasp of loss and grief in familiar settings. That he is able to address the same themes and make them resonate even more on a global plain in "Babel" is quite astonishing. Fortunately, this book is a powerful testament to his talent as an imagemaker.



5. When a motion picture of such impact as Alejandro González Iñárritu's BABEL is released, then books such as this fine one become additive to the experience. The four stories that are so integrated into the whole become a bit more individually understandable with the time it takes to perruse this photography book. Together with cogent remarks about both the technical aspects of making this film as well as anecdotal comments about the locations, the cast and the crew that add to the pleasure are some stunning photographs both form the film and extra images.
   
   Still photographers Mary Ellen Mark, Patrick Bard, Graciela Iturbide, and Miguel Rio Branco add scenes from the film as well as images of the sets and creation of the film that make the experience live again. Yet as with the impact of the movie, the lasting impact of this addendum to the experience dwells in the mind after the covers are closed. BABEL is n important film: this book heightens the experience for those who have seen the movie and assists those who have yet to experience it. Grady Harp, November 06