Carole has provided us with a clear and concise book on the sudject of Feng Shui that even your parents will understand. I am a Feng Shui Practioneer and give this book to beginners more than any other. It is orgainized well into catagories like Clarity and Abundance. The single page adjustments keep it from becoming overwelming. And there is a great Introduction to Feng Shui at the beginning of the book as well. I also love the small square shape, it just feels good to hold it in your hands!

I'm a complete novice to Feng Shui, so I am writing this review from that perspective. I had never even heard of Feng Shui until a friend gave me this book as a gift. I absolutely loved it! Author Carol Hyder's writing style is crystal clear and actually fun to read. She has broken the subject up into a mostly single page format, each page covering a different facet of the Feng Shui practice. Which makes it easy for a novice like me to start trying out the principles in bite-size manageable pieces. I am very inspired by Carole's writing and am looking forward to creating my home "sanctuary."

This book is wonderful - for the beginning student or for someone who has studied Feng Shui a bit and would like a Feng Shui quick referencebook. She is clear, concise and straightfoward in her approach. There is an uncluttered honesty present in her writing and the energy of the book. I have a dozen Feng Shui references and it is the one I use the most.

The sonnet is one of the more difficult-to-write forms of poetry, with very strict rules on rhyming and lines, and that makes Shakespeare's collection of sonnets all the more impressive. Shakespeare sprinkled his various plays with poetry and songs, but there is something of a different flavor to these works.

Titleless, identified only by numbers, these poems have vivid metaphors and imagery ("let not winter's ragged hand deface," "gold candles fix'd in heaven's air"). The tone of the poetry varies from one sonnet to the next; sometimes it focuses on old age, to love that "looks upon tempests and is not shaken," and simple expressions that can't really be interpreted any other way. Some of it is pretty well-known ("Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?/Thou art more lovely and more temperate") but most of them you won't have seen before.

Even if you're not normally a fan of poetry, the delicate touch of Shakespeare's words is worth checking into. Fantastic.

This edition of the sonnets is one of the most important and the description on Amazon is misleading - It is actually both volumes 24 and 25 bound together so you get the complete set It's hard to find this book so it is a great find in this version

Shakespeare's amazing Sonnets are compiled here in this wonderful volume, a great addition to anyone's bookshelf. If you love Shakespeare, then this is a must-have book.

The story begins with Nilambar Gautam, a forest university student who travels the country at the time when Buddhist ideas were sweeping through India, he mets Hari Shanker a Buddhist and falls in love with Champa, the time passes and the next Gautam, Hari Shanker and Champa surface in new era- this time it is Moghul era and the arrival of Islam in India. Abul Mansoor Kamaluddin arrives from Baghdad and meets Champa, Hari and Gautam. The characters depict the civilisational conflicts, the mingling of the two great religions and the shaping of the new nation. The third era begins with the Europian advent in Asia and with Cyril Ashley, an English, the fourth character arrives in the book. The four characters return in successive periods in different roles until the bloody partition changes the geographical boundaries of the country. The magnificent description, the vast continuum of time and the canvas of the novel places it at par with Gabriel Garcia Marquez's One Hundred Years of Solitude, if not above. Had the book translated when it had been written, the author would have been ranked above Kundera and Marquez today.

This is one of the finest pieces of literature I have read. There is history, philosophy, psychology and above all human relationship. I like the engaging style, the weaving of the events and the passion that can be seen through the pages.

This was my first time candle making.I went to my neighbourhood art store looking for something totally unrelated but when my eyes fell on this book, I made my boy friend "TOMMY" buy this book for me immediately.Candle making is a fun holiday hobby for the whole family and I made my candles for Christmas.This book is filled with wonderful step by step instructions on how to make candles for the novice.It also introduces you to some easy beautiful designs. A piece of advice for all beginners.Get the candle making kit as its cheaper.

Happy Candle Making !!!!!

I am a person who learns best from specific examples. This book is perfect! Rather than just reading lists of cures or adjustments, we are brought into the home/office/apartment of the clients, learn about their challenges, and find out what was recommended and why. Written in the simple, clear, direct style of her other book, WIND AND WATER, this book expands that information and deepens our knowledge.

If you're looking for authentic, simple to prepare, tropical East Africa and up-country recipes, this is the book for you. Recipe sections include fish; meat; chicken; vegetables; peas, beans, and lentils; bananas; desserts; rice; bread; egg; and accompaniment (salads). Traditional dishes contain ingredients such as cinnamon, coriander, and coconut, lending an exotic taste to the most common foods.

Praxy Fernandes has written a readable dual biography of Hyder Ali and his son Tipu Sultan who built up the south Indian state of Mysore in the mid 1700s. After the Mughal empire which ruled India collapsed in the early 1700s, a collection of warlords and princes including the Marathas, the Nizam, and Hyder Ali of Mysore took their place.

Hyder Ali built up the Mysore state by defeating his neighbors. But he lost the First Anglo Mysore war from 1767 to 1769 to the British who were beginning to take over India. Hyder Ali died in1782 during the second Anglo Mysore war and his son Tipu succeeded him. Tipu tried to keep his state viable during multiple attacks from his enemies, the British, and their allies the Marathas and the Nizam.

Fernandes shows how the British wanted to eliminate Tipu and eventually found an excuse to attack him in the Third Anglo Mysore war(1790-1792). The British defeated Tipu Sultan and he lost much territory. Fernandes shows the sometimes disreputable dealings of the British, first the East India Company, and later the British government.

The British have spread many lies about Hyder Ali and Tipu Sultan, which Fernandes attempts to correct. We see that even though Fernandes has no love for the British he tries to be fair.

This book is both a military account complete with battle accounts, and an account of some of their diplomacy. Fernandes included a bibliography, but should also have included maps and a glossary to make the book more clear. This book is an account of the politics after the fall of the Moghul empire and during the rise of the British presence in India.

a biography of Hyder Ali & Tipu Sulta

This book contains good information about the science behind nicotine addition. For someone sincerly trying to quit, it's useful - if you can get past the pedantic "sure it's hard, but aren't you worth it?" tone. Recipes are good.

This book has been immensely helpful in my attempt to quit smoking. It's only been 3 weeks, but I'm feeling lucky to have made it so far. Without the common sense guidelines & advice from this book, I doubt I would have made it through the first week.

It's a clear, concise, and factual approach to quitting smoking & staying smoke-free. The menu plans make sense, and are easy to follow. The recipes are great - haven't tried them all yet, but those I've had are delicious.

The information on nutritional values & supplements are also great. There's a lot to think about & take into consideration when you stop smoking, and the authors explain the rationale for managing each type of nutrient.

and as an added bonus, i've even lost 2 pounds =]

Are you smoking to avoid weight gain? If so, you are not alone. Forty percent of female smokers found do so as a way to manage their weight--25% would like to stop smoking but continue to do so because of fear of weight gain. In addition, 55% of female smokers report that they have little to no confidence that weight control is possible without the use of nicotine.

This book challenges conventional beliefs about smoking and weight, and is packed full of strategies for preparing to leave cigarettes in your past. The truth is, there may be a small initial rise in weight in the months immediately after quitting smoking, but in the long run, ex-smokers have NOT been proven to gain weight after quitting.

The authors of this book have created a series of self-assessments to evaluate your "smoking personality", or root reasons nicotine consumption can be a positive behavior. Is it habit? Or biochemistry? Each possibility will need a different approach. Once you know, you can use one of the many strategies provided to reduce the need for nicotine and greatly improve the chances of permanent success at quitting.

In my experience, understanding the cause for a behavior is always the starting point for changing that behavior; Donkersloot and Ferry do an outstanding job of building the foundation for kicking one of the most potent addictions known to man. And they don't stop there! The second half of the book is menus, recipes, and step-by-step strategies, so detailed and practical that if you REALLY want to quit, there is something for everyone who reads this book. There is nothing else like it currently available, which is why I highly recommend it as a must read.

Monika M. Woolsey, MS, RD

The book is a collection of short stories by a great novel writer Qurratulain Hyder. All the stories have Indian background with typical Indian characters and the early Indian society with Nawabs and Rajas(though some of them are set in the modern times) and typical Indian proverbs such as 'eating the air', 'qadambosi'.

Just to give you an idea of what is included in this book:

'Story of Catherine Bolton' is set in early times in the subcontinent and is about the life of a girl, who was born in the *untouchables*, and her survival. The end is though unpredictable.

'Guest House' is about the once famous and well-knowns (people, place, things) that lose their importance and value as time passes. 'Beyond the speed of light' is set in comparatively present time than the rest of the stories and is about time traveling. There are some which are not so easily understood such as 'Hyena's Laughter', and that is the reason of 4 star instead of 5.

The writer has also done some commendable work of explaining details of Indian culture, past and present in the beginning of every story to make it easy to understand. For example in 'The missing photograph', she goes on to explain the complexities arising out of marriages below one's caste/status, where the offspring do not inherit the same status as those who are from marriages within one's caste status.

It is in Persian, which then was still the language of the literati, that Hasan Shah penned his tale of a "Dancing girl". Hasan Shah was, as he himself says, a man of respectable even noble birth, although the family's fortunes had suffered somewhat in the political turmoil following the invasions of Nadir Shah and Ahmad Shah Abdali, the Rohilla and Sikh wars, and the decline of the Mughal empire. He took up a position as aide-de-camp to "Ming Saheb", described as "a nephew of the celebrated General Coote". Also in Ming's employ was a troupe of dancing girls and musicians, and it is with a member of this troupe, the nautch girl Khanum Jan, that Hasan Shah fell in love. His love is reciprocated, and though there is an enormous gulf between the courtesan and the clerk from a bourgeois Muslim family, they have a secret wedding. Such a transgression would have been unthinkable, but for the fact that the entire atmosphere of the camp was already conducive to the flaunting of social norms; even then, Hasan Shah is unable to inform Ming of the union he has contracted with Khanum Jan, and eventually the terms of his employment lead to their separation. When at last Hasan Shah is able to effect his departure from Ming's camp, so that he can join his wife, who had left with her troupe to seek employment elsewhere, he finds upon his arrival that Khanum Jan, unable to endure the pain of separation, has succumbed to her sickness.

Hasan Shah had available to him an indigenous genre, the masnavi, for the expression of romantic love and the pain of lovers, but The Nautch Girl goes far beyond the confessional mode. What makes The Nautch Girl an arresting work, in the first instance, is the mode in which it is written. The boat journey which Hasan Shah takes to join his wife is the flight of one soul in search of a like soul, the journey of the lover in search of the beloved, and as we know from the use of such imagery in bhakti poetry, a journey of this kind is fraught with hazards: the sea can be stormy, the navigator may be unskilled, the boat may sink from a leak; and when at all the boat appears to have reached the shore safely, at the very last moment it hits a rock. The path of love is just as tortuous as the road to God. All this is there, one might say, in The Nautch Girl, but Hasan Shah invests his account of the journey with fictional devices that have a most poignant effect. There is the love letter from Khanum, tied to a a bit of driftwood; then there is the loss of a shoe at Khanum's tombstone, where Hasan Shah, having gone into a frenzy, fell into a pit; and finally a conversation between Hasan Shah and his dead wife. Hasan Shah certainly appears to have understood some of the possibilities of the novel: dialogue assumes a centrality in The Nautch Girl, and the narrative is pushed forward by having incidents which took place in the narrator's absence recounted by other witnesses.

The figure and characterization of Khanum Jan, however, are what eventually make the Nautch Girl a compelling work. It is not insignificant that the heroine of the first Indian 'novel' should be a dancing girl, a member of a disreputable profession. In that capacity, Khanum Jan could indulge in behavior denied to women of other classes, and most emphatically to upper-class women. She did not, for instance, observe purdah, while admitting that she found it "distressing to go about unveiled". She is more compelling still as a woman of considerable wit and irony, resolute in her determination, mindful of her dignity and independence. Of course Hasan Shah places her squarely within the framework of patriarchy: thus Khanum Jan appears as the exponent of the view that men cannot be held to promises of fidelity, "because it is almost impossible for a man [and only a man] to remain monogamous all his life". As an Indian woman, she will tolerate such lapses on her husband's part as might take place. But Khanum Jan is not hereby compromised, for clearly Hasan Shah did not intend to depict her as a feminist; rather, she evokes certain possibilities and limits, and appears as the embodiment of a love that is freely chosen.