No comments about Carchitecture: Frames, Fenders and Fins.

2 comments about Creative Suite 3 Integration: Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, Dreamweaver, Flash Pro, Acrobat, Bridge and Version Cue.

1. I had problems with this book from the first. I thought it was because I had insufficient background in most chapters - but thats why I bought the book. When it came to the Dreamweaver chapter, which I know somewhat, the deficincies became apparent.
   
   You have to have a good understanding of what the book covers. It goes over important matters very quickly.
   
   Bottom line - I gained very little by reading this book.



2. I love this book. It's very helpful and I would tell everyone to look in to buying this book if you want quality.

1 comments about Cloister Cats.

1. Knowing Richard Surman's work from his four previous books, I was looking forward to receiving this latest in the series. I was not disappointed. This picture book (fine photos) with accompanying commentary is an excellent addition to Surman's previous books each showing felines associated with various sacred and secular institutions throughout England.

3 comments about Bethlehem Steel.

1. Great photos of the now-defunct Bethlehem Steel plant in Pennsy. Photos are all shot in black-and-white format and capture the ghostly and grungy aspect of this abandoned site.



2. Andrew Garn's "Bethlehem Steel" offers a glimpse of a now-defunct steel plant, a plant once alive with power, energy and productivity. Garn's photos convey an ominous sense of the encroaching loneliness and desolation, as the mighty plant ceases production. After looking through the book I had this urge to enter the world of Bethlehem Steel, run around the grounds, and explore every mysterious alcove and dark corner. Personal favorites include "Baskets for workers' personal belongings, hung from the ceiling in the welfare room" (page 66); "The forge division at night" (page 73); "Monitor on the roof of the steel foundry," (page 79); "Open-hearth furnaces" (page 80); "Tool steel shop interior" (page 89); "Blast furnace at night with crows" (page 107).



3. This is a wonderful book of photographs of the now-closed Bethlehem Steel plant in Bethlehem, PA. The first part of the book provides a history of the company and plant. Beautiful black and white photos complete the book. If you enjoy industrial photography in general, or steel mills in particular, you will appreciate this book. My only complaint is the book format size. There are so many details in each photograph that you really need a larger page size to fully appreciate the subject matter. The book is fairly priced and well-worth owning.

5 comments about Tales of a Texas Boy - Large Print.

1. Tales of a Texas Boy took me home. I grew up in Texas on a large chicken farm with a grandmother who told me stories of the 'good ol days'. Marva captured for me a sense of peace and a longing for how things use to be. This is a great book for children of all ages. Marva, Hon would be proud.
   Sarah--Utah



2. Tales of A Texas Boy is a funny, charming, and bittersweet vision of a vanished time. Its host of characters include a jack mule from Georgia named Samson, a grandfather who fought in the Argonne, and (unbeknownst to Eddie) Mae West, encountered in a roadside café. The stories, narrated in Eddie's West Texas accent, perfectly capture his childlike perceptiveness. The sense of place is wonderful, whether we are passing the evening on horseback across the prairie, bone-hunting in the dry washes or watching Sophie the bear roll up to the county fair sitting in the back seat of a Studebaker. What a pleasure it must be to spend a day with the man behind these stories!



3. Ms. Dasef wrote a marvelous portrayal of America's history through stories told by a young Texan. She takes the reader into events such as World War I and The Great Depression. The photos add to the depth of this most enjoyable book!



4. Ms. Dasef has captured the essence of her father's life on the Texas prairies. These folksy, heartwarming stories bring to life endearing characters who were real, flesh and blood people struggling to farm the priaire lands of the Texas panhandle.
   
   The stories are enchanting, humorous and often contain a sort of morality tale. I especially liked the one about the grandfather taking on a hired hand he could not really afford simply because even though his family had little, the hired hand's family "had nothing."
   
   In this day of callousness and cynicism, Tales of a Texas Boy resonates with echoes of the real America. Kudos to Ms. Dasef and to her remarkable family. A great read for all ages.
   
   Barry Yelton,
   Author of Scarecrow in Gray, a Civil War Novel



5. Tales of a Texas Boy is a charming collection of anecdotes about life in Western Texas during the Great Depression. The author has related these stories through the narrative voice of Eddie, who is a slightly fictionalized version of her own father. These twenty vignettes are retold in first person, with an appropriate Texan dialect. I plan to use them in my fifth grade classroom as models for writing personal narrative. Each story is fairly short, the perfect length for a quick classroom reading, and will undoubtedly spark the students to respond with anecdotes of their own. ("That makes me think of the time ...") Although the historical setting of the tales provides an unfamiliar backdrop for most students, they will be able to relate to stories about Eddie meeting a bevy of skunks in a cornfield, briefly living his dream of becoming a cowboy, and watching an act of acrobatic derring-do from a sheep dog. Because each story revolves around one simple but charming episode of daily life, they provide perfect models for writing workshop.
   
   Dianne K. Salerni
   Author of High Spirits: A Tale of Ghostly Rapping and Romance

1 comments about Rocky Mountain Flora: A Colorado Mountain Club Field Guide (Colorado Mountain Club Field Guides).

1. This guide is very easy to use in the field. It is a soft cover, half page size so it stows easily in my pack. Flowers are categorized by color and easy to look up. It has additional sections on mosses, mushrooms, grasses, etc. A very user friendly guide.

5 comments about The Perfect Kitten: How to Raise a Problem Free Cat.

1. A wonderfully thoughtful and comprehensive book. This one goes beyond the usual healthcare descriptions and pictures of breeds that fill the pages of most such books. The most compelling part is the research presented into a kitten's early environment and the effects on its future personality. Great insight into cat behavior for breeders and cat lovers alike.



2. I bought this book expecting it to be about kitten care and it told entirely too much about breed and the 'evolution' of cats. It didn't explain how to care for and raise a kitten. I was not impressed with the content.



3. This book is wonderfully written and definitely will give many people a better understanding of their pets. It can teach you the basics of identifying behavior, training, life stages, as well as food and litter information. However, due to the vast topics covered the book is unable to spend a great deal of time on details. Consider this book a great read for someone just starting off with a cat, or who wants to understand them better, then grab something more in depth for whatever section you really wanted more in.



4. This book has helped me to understand the stages of development my new kitten, Princess Elizabeth Talker Mischief Wafer Fritter Gremlin Peekaboo, has just gone through, is going through and has yet to face. The author details everything from the various kinds of cat foods and litters to the minutiae of grooming (a soft toothbrush is helpful for the face and around the eyes) as well as body posture meanings and socialization requirements. There is a lot of good information, and I am sure I will refer to it again. Though I think some of the information, on dental care for example, could have been more in depth.



5. Chapter 1: The Raw Material
   Chapter 2: Cat Breeds
   Chapter 3 Finding the Right Kitten
   Chapter 4 Your Kitten's Development
   Chapter 5 Preparing For Your New Kitten
   Chapter 6: Bringing Your Kitten Home
   Chapter 7: Your Kitten's Lifestyle
   Chapter 8: Feeding and Litter Training
   Chapter 9: Health Care
   Chapter 10: Going on Vacation
   Chapter 11: Cat Behaviotr
   Chapter 12: Learning and Training
   Chapter 13: Preventing Behavioral Problems
   Chapter 14: Growing Up

   This book is easy to read and understand. The book is also packed with infomation on how to care for your new kitten. Some of the many topics covered in this book includes:

   How kittens learn
   Toys and games kittens like to play
   Introducing your kitten to a new baby or pet
   Preventing behavioral problems
   Basic equipment your kitten will need
   Giving your kitten medicine
   Feline communication

5 comments about Scene of the Crime: Photographs from the LAPD Archive.

1. I saw a story about the authors on a local PBS show in Los Angeles, they are preserving the LAPD photo archives and have picked some of their favorites for this book. It's a bit gruesome in parts (of course, they are crime scene photos!) but it is an interesting glance into L.A.'s past, and I'm glad these folks are doing what they can to preserve our heritage. The photo presentation is great - this is a nice, large format book that gives you good sized images. Recommended for fans of photo and/or the macabre.



2. Scene of the Crime is the latest in a recent influx of collections of crime scene photography, and it has added appeal in that some of the images are of famous cases, such as the Black Dahlia murder and the Manson Family slaughterhouse. The book is laid out in the same manner as most of these books, with black and white images presented in the first half of the book, and information for each photograph at the back. Unfortunately, many of the photographs piqued my curiosity, only to find a sad, unsatisfying, "case information unavailable" comment awaiting me in the back of the book. Still, many of the images are so well-composed and interesting that they could be seen in art museums rather than cold case files, so this is a minor quibble.
   
   However, there are also quite a few lesser and uninteresting images as well, which left me feeling a bit cheated given my suspicion that the LAPD coffers are overflowing with many more graphic, historic, and fascinating images. Comparing this book to the classic LA crime gallery Death Scenes: A Homicide Detective's Scrapbook serves to further point out this collection's shortcomings. There is nothing in here as punch-in-the-gut brutal as the image of the decapitated baby on the cutting board or as surreal as the peaceful head sitting in the middle of a road after a traffic accident, both from Death Scenes. Taken on its own merits, I might have given the book a five skull rating, but in comparison with its more amazing brethren I'd have to rate it a four.



3. I am sure everyone is aware that Scene of the Crime is not the first collection of police archive photos to be released. The past few years have seen the release of many collections of such photos; the most well known being New York Noir, Evidence and Death Scenes. New York Noir and Death Scenes have a common thread in their use of well-known writers in their introductions. Luc Sante the noted New York historian collected the photographs for Evidence and penned the introduction for New York Noir. Katherine Dunne, the author of Geek Love is responsible for the intro to Death Scenes. Scene of the Crime follows that tradition; drafting the modern master of Los Angeles noir, James Ellroy, to pen the introduction to this collection of archival Los Angeles crime photos. Much as Luc Sante was the ideal choice for New York Noir, Ellroy is perfect for this collection of photographs from the city that has been his muse.
   
   Some may be inclined to compare collected archival crime scene and police photos to the work of Weegee, but to do so would be a mistake. In his time Weegee photographed to satisfy tabloid papers and their readers. Don't get me wrong, I love the photographs he took, but the police photographer is not in it for the same thing. The crime scene photographer is there for documentation. It's his job, no different than taking portrait shots of unruly and unkempt children in a corner alcove at the local mall. However, there is art to be found in crime scene photos, it is not just point and shoot. The angles, the shadows, the composition of the photos, why some have the faces of the victims shown and why some do not, these are all aspects of the art behind the documentation of the crime scene.
   
   After the introductions and essays the photograph collection is shown with no documentation other than the notes of the photographer written on the image. This technique forces the viewer to look at the photos and imagine the stories behind them. How and why did all the subjects living and dead end up facing the lens of the Los Angeles Police Photographer? The two suited men shot over dinner. The man shot dead in an open doorway. An empty room with an open door. Bloodstains on the floor. Cheesecake photos pushpinned to a panel wall. Cigarrette cartons and bottles strewn across a wood floor. Heads resting in puddles of blood. Knife and razor cuts. Bodies laying in doorways, on steps, in cars, on streets, face down, on their backs, partially dressed, fully suited, naked and cut into pieces. Bodies lying in tubs, lying in shallow graves, shot, beaten. Dead and beaten women who would be beautiful if it were not for the blood that has run from their mouths, noses, and ears. Sharp dressed men, with their suits covered in their own blood. Ah, the good old days...
   
   After the collection an index tells as much of the story behind each picture as possible. It is interesting to look at the index and see how close your imagination was to the reality. How close were you to deciphering the scenes? Did you nail the stories behind the SLA note, the suicides, the lovelorn, the rejected, the beaten, the famous, the unknown, the riots, the drunks, the mobsters, the stars, the starlets, the starry eyed, or the Manson family?
   
   At first I did not appreciate the layout of the book, photos with no captions. Without the background you are forced to study the scene more intently than you would if all the details were given to you. What happened? What time did the crime take place? Why did the crime take place? Who would commit such a crime? Who's body are you looking at? In effect, you become a detective, arriving at the scene of a crime, knowing absolutely nothing other than what you are staring at. In the end, this is a perfect layout for a collection of crime scene photographs. A book that becomes more revealing and more interesting every time it is opened.



4. Scene of the Crime was a bit disapointing due to the fact that the readr must go back and forth from the photos, to the captions, which are compiled at the end. Quite a few of the cases have no information available at all, as the other reviewers have mentioned, and although the LAPD has done a great job maintaining paper on most of these cases, some details are bound to slip through the cracks.
   
   A few of the cases depicted in "Scene of the Crime" are also depicted in Huddleston's "Death Scenes", though nowhere near as graphic. Many of the locations found in the book are still standing, as a matter of fact, I often pass by the building shown on pgs 52-53 (traffic collision at 1st and Boyle) though now its an apartment building but still featuring the unique parapet up top.
   
   Overall a pretty good read.



5. Just a note on other reviews in regard to the lack of captions. The LAPD negatives are not kept with the case files. There are very few case files even available, as they have been destroyed due to lack of space. There is a normal descruction process within the LAPD for paper files. The cases researched in this book were taken from old homicide log books. Also newspaper databases were used. If you would like more details on the LAPD Archive please visit fototeka.com

5 comments about On Safari.

1. If you're thinking about a trip to Africa, this book is the best. David Anderson knows his stuff and I highly recommend this for anyone thinking about going on a Safari. Beautiful!!!!



2. David's book is a glorious account of average people spending time with nature's truly inspiring flora & fauna. If you're planning on going on safari, this is a must have. If you've been, this will bring back wonderful memories. Peter & Dana



3. We have been on two Safari's and "On Safari by David Anderson" tells it all for less than $100. It keeps memories alive and well...the joy of picking up this book and living the greatest vacations of our life is priceless! Everyone that looks at this book cannot believe how beautiful the animals, the people and the views are. The Lodges are especially suprising to all!
   
   If you can go on Safari with David Anderson, by all means go today...if not this book is a must have!!



4. I may be biased as I am one of the many contributing photographers to this book. I think that David Anderson did a good job putting this book together and that it is very informative to anyone wanting to go on safari. His knowledge, years of experience and a true love for Africa shows in this book.



5. This is a great book for anybody who is planning a trip to Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Rwands, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Malawi, Namibia, Botswana and South Africa. Great photographs, a pile of information that you simply just can't get anywhere else. Start you safari planning here!

1 comments about Luxury Airline Design (Luxury Books).

1. Fantastic, luxurious book. Great gift for dad's and boys who like expensive toys!