i think this book was very good, but the subject/problem just kept on changing. I would reccomend it only to those who have read all the books beforehand and plan to read the ones afterward, just so they would know what is going on. For those who only have read a few, i would reccomend something else (especially "The Secret Voice of Gina Zhang").

I think this is my second fav TB book next to #2. In this book Serria the orenary colt is the horse star. Serria is a dismal faliure at flat racing and everyone just about given up hope. Everyone but Smantha Mclean that is. She's loved the liver chesnut colt since he was born. After Serria jumps a paddock fence and a huge fallen tree at Whitebrook, Samantha and Tor ( her boyfriend) set out to trian Serria as a steeplechaser. They really begin to work hard when Mike annoces that Serria may be sold to a breeder in florida. Another big twist is put on the story when Tor, hte colts jockey, breaks his arm and can't ride Serria in his first race. Samantha who knows alomst nothing about jumping must ride the colt to victory or he will be sold (If you're wondering where Pride is he was injured and all this is happening while he is recovering. He does race again though.). Will this unlikely couple make it to the winners circle? REad to find out. I highly recomend this series to all horse lovers. I have all TB books and have been reading this series since 3rd grade.

Sierra is a three-year-old colt that just doesn't seem to be cut out for flat racing. He seems like he could race, but he just won't stay interested. Everyone at Whitebrook Farm has just about given up on him-except for Samantha McLean, and the stablehand, Len. When Mike is thinking about selling Sierra, Tor, Samantha's boyfriend, steps in with an idea. Why not try turning Sierra into a steeplecahser? Together, Tor and Samantha get Sierra ready for his first 'chase, but a few weeks before, Tor, who was going to ride him in the 'chase, falls and breaks his arm. Samantha, who is unsure of her abilities as a jumper, must ride Sierra. Can she and the intelligent colt make it to the winner's circle? You have to read it to find out!

I liked this book alot! I think that Stardust was a good horse for Ashleigh. Ashleigh had to work hard to win Stardust's trust because Stardust's old trainer looked like Ashleigh and the trainer used to whip her. This book was good book about earning a person's trust and believing in yourself and others. Because Ashleigh believed in Stardust and wouldn't give up on her. I think it was one of my favorite books and I think you should read it!

This book was so fun and interesting to read! I really want to get the next book! I probably like this book alot because I know how Ashleigh is feeling because I had sort of like the same problem!

After Ashleigh had made the difficult decision about Lightning, she realizes that she was very jealous at Mona, who had gotten a beautiful mare...while Ashleigh herself only had a small pony(Moe). Some troubles rise as she hurts Moe when she had angrily raced down the hill because Mona had been rather showing off her horse Frisky.

But hip hip hooray! Ashleigh finds out that she was going to get her own horse! She names it Stardust and promises herself that she and Stardust were going to be the best of friends. Unfotunately, they don't at first. Stardust seems to hate her! Mr. Griffen reassures Ashleigh that it was because Stardust's former owner, a girl, had whipped her so Stardust was still uncomfotable with girls who looked like Ashleigh. But Ashleigh is still worried. Stardust throws her three times and for no particular reason! (or so it seems)

Ashleigh's spirits are even more dampened as her parents decides that Stardust was too violent and jumpy for Ashleigh and that the horse was going to go back. Ashleigh suddenly feels that she HAS to keep Stardust.

Will Ashleigh get Stardust only to lose her now? And what will happen to her friendship with Mona?

I liked this book (and this series) because they tell about Ashleigh's life before Thoroughbred and all the horses aren't perfect. I also like the fact that it when Ashleigh gets Stardust, she doesn't come already perfect and ready to go. I also like how Joanna Campbell doesn't always apply what happens in "Ashleigh" to what happened in Ashleigh's hope. I, however, think that Ashleigh is too much of a jerk to Mona when she gets Frisky. It's not Mona's fault that Ashleigh doesn't have a horse!! But overall, I think that this was a good book.

I loved this book. It's well-written, fast-paced, and fascinating. The true stories of people reunited with their families are uplifting. Even though I wasn't adopted, I was inspired by the way these people overcame their loneliness, feelings of alienation, and challenging situations. Reading this book is a great way to relax and feel good.

This book reveals all of the emotions in the roller coaster of adoption reunions. From the longings of search, to the determination of hope, to the euphoria, healing and validation of finding one's roots, this book has it all. It was written by an author who has experienced reunion herself, in collaboration with professional searchers who are from three generations of adoption. This book offers unique understanding and empathy into the reunion situation and beyond

This book reveals all of the inherent drama and heartfelt emotions that are part of adoption. It includes the roller coaster of feelings that adoptees and birth parents experience by revealing the real-life reunion experiences of actual families who have been there.

This book is not just a book of great layouts, though it certainly has those! And it's not just tips on journaling either. Joanna Campbell Slan does an outstanding job of teaching you how to tell the stories behind your pictures.

The layouts are wonderful, and not as impossible-looking as so many layouts are in other books! But what's important is that she shows how scrapbooking can be used for SO many situations. It's not just a hobby for moms with young children.

I really enjoyed reading this book, and looking at her layouts. She shares a lot of her own scrapbook pages and by the end of the book, we get to know her son Michael and we feel better equipped to scrapbook the stories of OUR lives.

There was a poignant section about scrapbooking the not-so-good memories. Joanna uses her photos and journaling to create a memorial page for her nephew Josh who was killed just before his 5th birthday.

Probably the most helpful part of the book is all the journaling/storytelling tips! The author even includes questionnaires to fill out as you interview your family members. I enjoyed the fact that the layouts are graded by how easy/difficult they are. You can look that up in the index and also see what materials are necessary.

By the end of the book, I really feel that I had gotten to know Joanna quite well - and isn't that the goal of our scrapbooks, to share ourselves with future generations?

Also, Joanna has a website ... where you can download templates, access helpful hints, and link to other scrapbooking websites.

Happy Scrappin'!

As a scrapbook professional, I meet many scrapbookers all over the country. One common thread I have found is that we all wish we had more time to do what we love. This lack of adequate time causes us to sometimes not give enough attention to the really important things. Scrapbook Storytelling, by Joanna Slan, offers the tips and techniques to get you started preserving the two most important parts of scrapbooking: Your Photos, and Your Stories. The ideas clearly delineated in this book, allow even those of you with a chronic case of writer's book to be able to start recording more of the story behind the pictures.

One of my favorite sections in the book, Preserving Family Values, encourages the reader not to go at scrapbooking from a position of "panic." This overwhelming need to be "caught up" is the persistant driving factor leading scrapbookers to neglect their journaling. Joanna says, "Start from a place of joy. What is important? What would you like to preserve? What seemingly ordinary parts of your life make each day extrodinary and beautiful?" These are the things to scrapbook and to use to tell your family's story.

If you are like most scrapbookers and just need a little more encouragment to add to the journaling side of your craft, then don't pass up this book!

Slan has great ideas about journaling and the subjects we choose for our pages. She illustrates with her own work, which is at the level of a good, real scrapbooker, not a Cynthia Hart (whose book I also love but for the inspiring visuals). She has pages on reading her son to sleep, the cat getting lost in the move, a hand-drawn picture and its connection to two sisters, funny little remarks of her son and lots more. A moment without photos is not lost to Slan's scrapbook, like the moment they finally discovered the cat mewing in a roomful of boxes. During the frantic rescue, no one took pictures, but she shows a clever scrapbook page for this moment anyway. There are dozens of fabulous ideas in here for scrapping our whole, real lives. I recommend it heartily.

I found the book to be an entertaining introduction to the bible. You start by taking your Bible IQ, which introduces you to the overall structure of the bible as well as providing some tantalizing hints of what lies within the Bible's covers. The bible is then covered in its entirety, which of necessity makes it less than thorough, but also not nearly as daunting as picking up the real thing. The book is well organized. Each chapter begins with a brief overview of the content, and then breaks up the book(s) of the bible covered within the chapter into easily digestible sections. Side bars offer interpretive comments, as well as citing notable verses. Chapters conclude with a summary of what you need to understand in order to continue with the next chapter. The authors cite Book, chapter and verse, so if you're curious, you can go to the real thing. They try very hard to explore a variety of topics, and to lead you into some "primary source" material. It is a very good, low-brow introduction. Don't expect to be overwhelmed by its scholarly value. It is closer to entertainment.

I quite liked The Complete Idiot's Guide to the Bible. It gave me a nice overview of where to find things, and had a nice amount of humor without overdoing it or being sacreligious. I didn't agree with everything they said, but I'd still give it four stars.

I found this book to be very educational and easy to read. Definitely must reading for anyone who wants an overview of the Bible.

People interested in this book will also enjoy: The Complete Idiot's Guide to Biblical Mysteries and also Don't Know Much about the Bible.

This is probably the one we've been looking forward to for a long time - a moving, no-holds-barred, enriching, open-hearted account of coming of age in America in the late 60s and early 70s. Jeff D and Ruth C W bring the times to life in a hundred ways, smells and sights and the half-forgotten names of politicos and rock bands and faded belief systems and hopes that were crushed or altered by the weight of time. In its own way it is an epic journey, personal and private, and public too, dealing with the small things in life as well as the big issues. Sad and funny, with whacky characters and eccentrics and originals and sweethearts, it's not a book to miss, if you remember the Steve Miller Band and Credence - and even if you don't, read it anyway for its humanity.

Younger Than That Now was, for me, a personal journey with kindred spirits back to the fire of my youth. Ruth and Jeff have generously opened up their most impressive friendship to the reader describing with both poignant earnestness and incisive humor their personal success at transcending differences. If they had merely focused on the amazing accomplishment of a heterosexual male and female managing a platonic friendship over time and space, it would have been newsworthy. But they wove in familiar names of our generation who have combined the social ideals of the 60's while honing entreprennurial savey reflective of our times (is there anyone who has NOT succumbed to the lure of Ben & Jerry's ice cream?) coupled with a delicious recounting of the regional idiosyncratic differences between northerners (ok, Yankees) and southerners, and threaded with the yarn of historical perspective. The writing reflected rich, descriptive prose that hung sensuously like the moss on a live oak coupled with clean, crisp journalistic insights. This book was a sheer delight to read. As a (yes, I admit it) born and raised Yankee--and middle-aged baby boomer--who has lived my entire adult life in the South, I felt like I had truly come home in the pages of this book both in the people that I met there and the places they inhabited.

Some books burn themselves into your brain like acid through metal, and this is one of them, a sweet-sour, moving, good-hearted, soulful account of a long friendship, complete with warts and blisters, and partings and loss and reunion. It takes us through the comet-like end of the sixties and through the profane years of the Vietnam experience and up to time present, a story so stuffed with accurate observation there are times you'll think - Yeah, this is what I remember from those days, this is what it was like, I remember when people felt strongly about politics and had a vision of America, and how easily this vision was discarded in the cynicism that culminated in the callous administration of GW Bush. This book shows you the curve, the way we fell from those hippy-happy days, days of promise and light, and love. But this is an upbeat book, this isn't some diatribe against the dark: this is a song about love and friendship and what these things really mean - politicians come and go, thank the stars, but friendship and love endure...Read this lovely work and remember that the heart is what matters.

Alright, I love this series and I have all the books in it but some people need to get the facts right! Towsend Pride is not one of Wonder's foal's, he is her sire! Also, Townsend Prince is not Townsend Pride's sire, he is Townsend Pride's son! Also Cindy is just too fake! No 13 year old can control a full-grown racehorse, I have ridden a few retired thoroughbred racehorses myself and I know that they are not a piece of cake! Else the book is pretty good except for the fact that no horse can be as fast as Glory, and everyone looses a few! Well, I wish someone would change the facts in this book!

This was a really original book. No other books in the series was ever like this one. I loved how Cindy went to great lengths to protect her beloved horse. Who the person was that was injecting Glory with lethal shots was even better! It was really unique and I will always read this book over and over again.

I really loved this book because I love horses and mysteries. But, it seems that Joanna Campbell has changed her writing style. I like it, though. I have read all the books in this series and I just ordered this one. It was fantastic!
This book was about how Glory, a wonderful horse that Cindy McLean calls her own, is on a race winning streak. But, after he wins a race by an impressive 10 lentghs, people start getting suspicious. Then Glory tests positive for drugs and when Cindy and her friend Max stay in his stall one night Cindy AND Glory almost lose their lives. This was book and great book about the very special bond between Cindy and Glory.

Joseph Campbell, the foremost authority on mythology, shows us that symbolism is the key to understanding and experiencing religious mystery. Along the way he criticizes the clergy for not enlightening followers to this fact, and more significantly he shares his own interpretation of many Judeo-Christian symbols. I especially enjoyed the last chapter titled "Question Period." It is a collection of Campbell's responses to various questions taken after many of his lectures over the years. He seems to shine in this type of forum and demonstrates a depth of knowledge and a clarity that sometimes gets buried in the preceding chapters. The Appendix is a reprint of "Earthrise - The Dawning of a New Spiritual Awareness," which was a Campbell interview that appeared Easter 1979 in the New York Times Magazine. Chapter notes, a bibliography, and an index are also included in this wonderful little book.

This is a wonderful taste of the large, unpublished work of Campbell yet to be shared. I would recommend this book to those who want a good introduction to Campbell's work. Hopefully it will inspire them to read more about mythology and deepen their knowledge. This book is concerned mainly with mythos (meaning) versus logos (symbol) and how many people get caught up in symbols, thus missing the meaning (the mistake most fundamentalists are trapped in). As always with Campbell, his explanations are so eloquent and educated that one cannot help but want more. The only complaint I have about this book is its size--only 100 pages of Campbell's writing (mostly from lectures and notes). It certainly could have been expanded to twice that with very little effort. However, for those used to Campbell's written work, they will be pleasantly surprised how different his lecturing is.
One mistake the editor, and many a reviewer, make is to try and say that Campbell focuses on the Judeo-Christian aspect of symbol abuse. If one were to read all of Campbell's work, they would find this to be quite wrong. Campbell is not so shallow. His concern is mythology, all of it, world-round. In fact, the majority of his work focuses on primitive mythology. He certainly spoke and expounded on the Judeo-Christian aspect much in his lecturing, but this is mostly because that is what his audience was interested in, especially the new-agers who desperately clung to Campbell in the last decades of his life.
But I encourage those interested to dig deeper than this book into Campbell's work where can be found a rich, scholarly depth and breadth of mythos/logos study.

"Mythology may, in a real sense, be defined as other people's religion," Joseph Campbell observes in this first volume of his Collected Works. "And religion may, in a sense, be understood as a popular misunderstanding of mythology" (p. 8). Campbell abandoned the Roman Catholic Church at age 25 when, as a student of mythology, "he felt the Church was teaching a literal and concrete faith that could not sustain an adult" (p. xvii). At his death in 1987, he left a significant body of unpublished work: uncollected articles, letters, diaries, notes, as well as recorded lectures (p. ix). This new volume is derived from that material and may be read as "an extended lecture" on finding new meaning in the metaphors of the Judeo-Christian tradition (p. xvi). Campbell examines the biblical myths, "not to dismiss them as unbelievable but to lay open once again their living and nourishing core" (p. xv).

"If we listen and look carefully," Campbell believed, "we discover ourselves in the literature, rites and symbols of others, even though at first they seem distorted and alien to us. Thou art that, Campbell would judge, citing the underlying spiritual intuition of his life and work" (pp. xii-xiii). Campbell makes a compelling argument in this book that the language of religion is metaphorical (p. 19), and that religious symbols "point past themselves to the ultimate truth which must be told: that life does not have any one absolutely fixed meaning" (pp. 8-9). He encourages us to search out the "deeper, vital meanings of symbols whose surfaces are so familiar that they have become static and brittle" (p. 43). For instance, the Virgin Birth may be viewed as a rebirth of spirit that everyone can experience, and the Promised Land may be viewed as the geography of the heart anyone can enter (p. xvii). The Kingdom of God is spread upon the earth, Campbell says, only men do not see it (p. 19). When they realize that, the end of the world as they know it has arrived (p. 83).

This book covers some familiar territory, which will provide readers new to Joseph Campbell with a good introduction to his work. Mythology, he writes, serves four functions. Myths awaken us to the mysteries of the universe (pp. 2, 24). They present us with a consistent image of the order of the cosmos (p. 3). Myths validate and support a specific moral order (p. 5), and they carry us through the passages and crises of life (p. 5). He encourages us to find our own paths through the forest, and to reach for the transcendent by studying poetry (p. 92). One must "search out one's own values and assume responsibility for one's own order of action and not simply follow orders handed down by some period past" (p. 30). "The heart," he tells us, "is the beginning of humanity" (p. 99).

Revisiting Campbell's ideas through this book reminded me how reading his HERO WITH A THOUSAND FACES (1949) and POWER OF MYTH (1988) were life changing experiences for me. My only real criticism of this book is that at just over 100 pages, it is too short. But as an inauguration to the Collected Works of Joseph Campbell, it should not be missed.

G. Merritt

What this book lacks for the advance max user, it more than compensates for the begining user. The layout of the book is based on the completion of a single production, outlining pre-production, storyboarding, modeling, texturing, rendering and post-production along the way. Duane Loose does an excellent job of not only explaining the animation process involved with using 3DS Max but also takes the time to explain the why, the story. After all if a picture is worth a thousand words at 30fps that adds up to a lot of words really fast.

This book is a great introduction to beginners and intermediate max artists. I find it easier to learn something when it is connected to some sort of theme that gives it purpose. This makes it easier to remember things you have learned. It brings you through the process of creating something and making it whole. It offers great encouragement and a sense of seeing something through to the end. Those of you, who have worked in a studio before (and for many years) should not be surprised at your disappointment when you find the book covers things you have done. However, if you have never seen a full project through before and have not had much experience working with the max interface, (and like aliens) will enjoy the book! The one major down side, however, was that the book's illustrations are all grayscale. But it does come with a cd that has the nice finished projects.

After reading some of the reviews of my latest book 3ds max 4 Workshop I decided that it was time to write and address some of the questions and responses that have been appearing. Let me first say that I enjoy and appreciate the critical reviews as well as the favorable ones. Cordial and constructive criticism is always welcome. The book was written for the beginner to intermediate level max user with the idea of presenting as many of the basics of max as possible in the shortest time. All of that in the context of a singe cohesive project. Ambitious and hard to do and very experimental, especially in terms of the scope of the project. The book doesn't show you how to do everything...you'll have to do a lot of the basic work yourself and study the max documentation. But hopefully the most important principles are there and with the content on the CD you'll benefit from the book. The errors in the book (there are a few) are mine and although they are unintentional I can understand the frustration for those of you who get stuck and can't figure out why. So, it's important to get feedback from you the reader so that I can make the necessary revisions to the next print run. To that end, and in response to the reader who said that my publishers at QUE didn't know who I was (I'll be talking to them about that) I have set up an email address that any reader is welcome to use to get in contact directly with me. I will be very happy to receive your questions and comments. Please write to me at Duane@duaneloose.com. In many ways I am just like those of you who are buying max books in an effort to master 3ds max. I buy too many of them myself striving to learn more about this amazing tool and the more I learn the more I realize that I don't know very much at all especially when compared to the amazing artists who, along with myself, are lucky enough to work with max creating the stuff we create. I don't know if I feel lucky or cursed to have the opportunity to write the books I have...depends on the day and time. All I know is that when I read that what I've written has helped an artist to grow in their skills or learn something new...that feels great and makes my feeble efforts to explore max with you worthwhile. Here's to a great 2002 for all you insane max artists out there. Max rules...no doubt.
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Perfect Challenge was a really good book. Not as good as some of the other ones but it was good. I kept reading it until I was done! It totally shocked me that Melanie's dad was in danger of losing his business. I don't blame him for entering Image in a different race but I would've asked Melanie first. I liked the way that they fit Alexis (the manager from Tall Oaks farm) into the book again. She trys to make trouble but Melanie always came out on top. I also thought it was cool that Melanie and Jazz are starting to have something between them. It is about time! The end of the book was totally not what I thought but I was glad it ended the way it did. I won't give it away like some people do though! You have to read it for yourself. Definitley a good book. I recommend it to any Thoroughbred fan.

I loved this book! Melanie is my favorite character ever in the Thoroughbred series. I love Image too! She has a lot of spirit and is fun to read about. I love this series because it's not realistic. If it was realistic it would be boring and there would be no series! I think the authors are doing a fantastic job and they should keep up the good work!

This book is about Melanie taking Image down to Florida to race in the Bonnie Miss. However, her father changed her race to the Florida Derby against colts to save his dying business. Melanie and Jazz (I love Jazz!) work hard to prepare her despite the problems that keep occuring. I loved this book and recommend it to everyone who understands the true meaning of this awesome series and don't just look to see if its realistic or not.

Perfect Challene is such a cool book! Melanie, her dad, and Jazz are taking Image down to Gulfstream Park in Florida to race her in the Bonnie Miss stakes. but melanie's dad has entered Image in the prestegious Florida Derby where the country's best colts will be running in instead.he didnt even tell Melanie until they got 2 Florida! but Melanie cant be mad at her dad because his business is in trouble and he needs the money from the Florida Derby's purse. that is, if Image can win............
Everything seems 2 be going perfect fot Melanie. she has a budding relationship with Jazz, a famous rock star. Image is being kept at Pine Haven,the house and paddocks Jazz rents for him and his band when he is in Florida,and she has her own field. (image hates being kept in a stall at the track all day.)
But Melanie is worried. Alexis, who put Image's previous owner in serious debt with the bank, will do anything to keep Image from beating the colt she is training, Speed.com , in the Florida Derby. How far will Alexis go to stop Image from winning? Can Image and Melanie still rise to the challenge of beating some of the best colts in America? can they win it for Melanie's dad? Or will the evil, plotting Alexis smash their dreams of victory to the ground? To find out, read this book!