I've built quite a few stone walls, picket and lattice fences, but lacked the inside tips and foundation provided by a mentor. This book has righted all the wrongs and helped me construct professional-quality pieces that last! This AHS guide is just another example of how generous gardeners, in partnership with the astonishingly talented DK publishing group, help fellow gardeners achieve their unique and very personal visions. We also own the AHS Great Plant Guide, an immensely handy little pocket reference.

Now in a fully updated, expanded, and profusely illustrated second edition, Lar Hothem's Indian Axes & Related Stone Artifacts: Identification & Values continues to be the premier reference for collectors, dealers, archaeologists, and museum curators, as well as students of Native American culture and artifacts. Beginning with an informative chart (Prehistoric Periods in North America) and introduction, individual chapters are dedicated to: Axe Development in Prehistoric America; Materials Used For Axes; How Axes Were Made; The Full-Grove Axe; The Three-Quarter Groove Axe; The Half-Grove Axe; Fluted Axes; Barbed Axes; Trophy Axes; Salvaged Axes; Celts - Ungrooved Axes; Spatulas and Spuds; What Axes Were Used For; Axe Facts; The Adz; Archaic and Woodland Adzes; Chisels; Gouges; Other Prehistoric Tools; Hematite Artifacts; Copper Artifacts; Trade-Era Artifacts; Axe Value Factors; Fake Axes - The Problem; Axes As Art Objects; Acquisition Guidelines; Finding Axes - How, When, and Where; Axe Collecting - The Future; and Axes In The Past.

Charles Dickens wrote a detailed log of his trip to America--from the boat in England to his travels on early American trains. His style is very light and entertaining. If you are familiar with his novels about the dark side of London and the social problems that Dickens himself grew up with, this book is quite a contrast. He is writing the book as an Englishman for other Englishmen.

I was expecting to find a lot of satire against Americans. (His comic piece "Martin Chuzzelwit" had this). However, Dickens was very positive toward the social reforms that he saw in America. He also makes some interesting comments on seeing black slaves for the first time.

Unfortunately, he wasn't able to travel far, so his impressions of America are limited. Nonetheless, this is a book that I enjoy reading and re-reading.

I've looked high and low for a good textbook to use for the class I will teach on "Women & Politics" in the fall at Samford University. I was thrilled when I came across this book at a book fair. Many of my students are quite conservative, and anything titled "feminist" is likely to scare them. I have found that the best way to get such students to start questioning some of their ingrained gender role stereotypes is to slap them upside the proverbial head with statistics on women in U.S. society. This book is chock full of powerful statistics that tell no lies about what it means to be a woman in U.S. society, and also how one's racial identity affects one's experience of womanhood. I plan to assign the statistics (which are in a separate section of the book)for the first week of class. Then the students will have to interpret the statistics themselves. Why is it that there are so few women leaders in academia, in the military, in the corporate world? Why is it that there are more girls than boys entering college now? Why do women earn less than men do? These questions will then be the starting point from which we can explore theory. In sum, other professors out there -- this is a perfect book to assign for college students with no prior exposure to women's studies.

This book is an excellent resource. Everything is laid out in so that it doesn't take a lot of time to do a lesson plan.
The activities are excellent for grades 3 and 4. The practice with observing, recording, and making predictions alone makes this book valuable.
The lessons in life cycles, habitat, and animal adaptations are excellent for any teacher. Easy for teachers who do not have a background in science to teach fresh water ecology.

A very bold title "Archaeology of Mesopotomia", but the author does an excellent job examing Mesopotomia from the twilight of the Neolithic to the Neo-Babylonian period. Seton describes almost every aspect of interest in all the periods of Mesopotamian Archaeology including the written history, perhistoric and historic sites in northern and southern Iraq, The Sumerian Dynasties, Akkad domination over Sumer, The Assyrians,and lastly the Neo-Babylonians. I throughly enjoyed the detail of the book even though the huge degree of coverage that the title suggests is hard to overview in a single volume. A magnificant out-of-print book recommended for anyone interested in Mesopotamian archaeology. A classic!

I am continually amazed by the quality of Harlequin Historical Romances. Each one I've read has been marvelous and Lyn Stone's _The Arrangement_ is of the same high quality that has impressed me before. Her characters are three dimensional and have such depth that they come to life right before your eyes. Kathryn has a Lois Lane-like impetuosity and tons of tenacity mixed with a vulnerability that touches your heart. Jonathan is without a doubt a musical genius -- thus he is exceedingly arrogant, perplexing and exasperating. He has an underlying sensuality that fairly seeps from his pores and he is quite mysterious. I adored the aspect of Jonathan's musical gift, it was a wonderful plot device that I'd never seen before. It added feeling to the story while bringing the characters closer together. The passion between Kathryn and Jonathan is explosive and is immediately evident when they meet. You'll be quite dazzled by these two characters who are so perfect for each other. Ms. Stone has written a gem of a book that will call for repeated readings. _The Arrangement_ is an absolutely delightful, beautiful story -- I savored every word!

This is an excellent overview of native Andean artform the earliest perod through Chavin, Paracas, Nasca, Moche, Tiwanaku, Wari, to Incan. Covers architecture, textiles ,pottery and metallic arts. Looks at the main themes of religious and secular art in these various mediums. Text is accompanied by many black and white photographs, drawings and plans. Some photographs are in colour.

I found this work most interesting for the way it brings out the Andean worldview through the artistic artifacts remaining of those cultures. The work is also reasonably priced and up to date.

My review for JCK Book Club: You say the name Arthur J. Stone doesn't ring a bell? You're not alone. This is the first book that has gone into depth on the subject of a single silver workshop operating during the Arts & Crafts period.

The Stone shop created the finest silver of the time, and it is ironic that America's finest silver workshop was owned by an emigrant from Sheffield, England. Stone's shop, and Stone specifically, is know by museum curators, knowledgeable collectors, and antique dealers of which two or three specialize in Arts & Crafts silver.

Stone, a master silversmith, inspected all finished pieces leaving his shop and made certain that since his name was stamped on every piece they were up to his uncompromisingly high standards. Stone specialized in the design and chasing of the handwrought holloware and flatware. His delicate and totally controlled flat chasing was to become a trademark along with his sense of floral design and simplicity of form. Every piece produced was handmade at a time when Charles Ashbee deplored the use of machinery-made products for there inferior quality.

The book illustrates the breadth of Stones talent in the pieces he designed and smithed before expanding his shop. Most impressive were the talented craftsmen he employed as evidence in the wide range of products pictured. Those who put the most handwork into a piece was rewarded with his maker's mark next to the Stone workshop mark; an unusual and unselfish token of respect for his craftsmen. A section is reserved as a maker's mark reference which is helpful in identifying these craftsmen and for dating their work.

As a hands-on silversmith specializing in restoration, I have had the good fortune of handling many exceptional pieces of Stone silver. Its functional design and outstanding craftsmanship can still be used as a standard for all silversmiths. Elenita Chickering, the book's author and Stone descendent, has the distinction of knowing first hand, and through shop records, how the business functioned and the interpersonal goings-on between Stone and the other workers.

Arthur J. Stone, 1847-1938, Designer and Silversmith illustrates the intimate world of the last great Arts & Crafts silver workshop--anywhere.

This is the only audiobook exposition and analysis of Schopenhauer's works I've encountered (if you know of another please e-mail me!). It was done in the mid-1990's by Knowledge Products, and I've gathered that many of these titles (I believe there are 12, each one an approximately 2.5 hour affair covering major philosophers from Plato to Sartre) are going out of print. They are all narrated by Charlton Heston, but don't think you'll be stuck with the gravelly-voiced Moses for the entire two cassettes. The producers utilize a revolving cast of actors to bring to life the thinkers themselves-- in this one we hear them "play" Kant and Nietzsche as well as the anonymous reviewer in Britain who brought Schopenhauer to the public's attention in his piece on Arthur's final publication, _Parerga and Paralipomena_. You will think the vocal imitation (including heavy accents) of history's greatest minds either cheesy or effective; I am of the latter. There is a biographical portion, to my mind heavily borrowing from the opening chapter of perhaps the finest book on Schopenhauer in English, Bryan Magee's _Philosophy of Schopenhauer_, followed by an exegesis of Schopenhauer's thought. Schopenhauer was that most darkly cast of philosophers, despite being highly influential on artists, poets, and musicians of every sort. Many believe (and I among them) that his adaptation and extension of Kantian philosophy outclasses Hegel's, Fichte's, and Schelling's. The background and context to Schopenhauer's work is well represented, and the presentation is liberally peppered with selections from his writings. There are also reactions to Schopenhauer and a short criticism of his work to wrap things up. If anything, the reading of the final lines from Schopenhauer's central work, _The World As Will and Representation_, are worth this audiobook alone-- not to mention Heston's voicing (via the scriptwriter I assume) that Schopenhauer's view of life as purposeless touches on the "appalling." (!) (hilarious!)