"Crazy Fingers" suffers from a disease in common with most unauthorized biographies, in that endless personal gushes combined with magazine interview snippets don't make up for the lack of in-depth access to the subject. However, it is a comprehensive look at Jeff's career, and fortunately gives equal press to early, mid-year and recent history, all the way up through Guitar Shop. Nice binding, too.

Having been a massive fan of the great one since 1965, I was pleasantly suprised to read the many stories behind his more published achievements and musical milestones. A nicely assembled biography with a good balance of interview clips (many humorous), technical guitar talk and tons of tales surrounding sessions, performances, misunderstandings, artistic dilemas and so on. Annette has done a good job of focusing on what's important about this treasure of a guitarist. A discography and many good photos round out the book. What came over most strongly was just how much this man is respected and how he has largely avoided compromise. Most fans will find new and little known facts in this book.

This is the best book on Jeff Beck. Annette Carson is a most excellent writer, and she brings us down to the music. No sex, no drugs. It's about the guitar.

This book is a very good read and a must for any fan of the greatest guitarist ever: Jeff Beck. You have to read it a few times to be able to absorb all the info! The pictures included are also a very nice touch. If you read nothing else this year, or on Jeff Beck, read this.

Eileen Goudge has captured me with this trilogy. Carson Springs is a place that I would want to live. In this second installment, the story focuses on Gerry Fitzgerald and her family. It is a wonderful story of a mother meeting her daughter that was given up for adoption, the struggle to help her children understand, and of a woman wrestling with the idea of falling in love again. The characters from the first book are all present. The story picks up right where Stranger in Paradise left off. I can't wait for the third book.

Gerry Fitzgerald, a feisty, independent divorced mother raising two children in the beautiful valley of Carson Springs, California, has decided to find the daughter she gave up for adoption 28 years ago. She was impregnated while in the convent by the parish priest, and for many years has been consumed by guilt and emptiness. She finds her long lost daughter, Claire Brewster, who is now an attorney in northern California, engaged to be married to her childhood sweetheart, Byron, who is in his medical residency at Stanford Hospital.

When they finally meet, Gerry finds that Claire is more beautiful and successful than she could have imagined, but Claire is bewildered and conflicted because of the smothering parents who adopted her and are fearful of losing her to her real mother. Gerry's younger teenage daughter is jealous of the attention that Claire is getting from her mother. Justin was also shocked at hearing the news that he had another older sister and angry at his mother for keeping her a secret for so long.

After her brief introduction to her new family, Claire returns to her home and Gerry doesn't hear from her again for more than 6 weeks. She is afraid that Claire doesn't want to be part of their family. However, Claire was so impressed with Carson Springs and the people there that she decided to quit her job as an attorney, and go into partnership with her best friend by opening a tea shop in Carson Springs in a quaint Victorian home that she had spotted when she was in town.

Taste of Honey is filled with interesting and realistic characters, including the nuns at the convent where Gerry works, her current lover, Aubrey who is a world-class symphony conductor, her best friend, Sam who is having a late-in-life baby, Claire's contractor, Matt, and many other colorful locals. Claire is torn between two lovers, Gerry is denying the fact that she is falling in love with Aubrey, and Gerry and Claire are trying to forge a new relationship after many years apart.

I was thoroughly absorbed and engaged by this heart-warming story and look forward to more in this series set in Carson Springs.

Eileen Goudge has a gift of seeing into people's hearts and in this second book of the Carson Springs series she takes us back to this serene little town in California to visit with people who feel as real as our own friends.....Gerry Fitzgerald seeks a grown daughter she was forced to give up at birth. Even though she has two other children she always felt a void in her life.....After she found her daughter, Claire, she struggled to meld her family with Claire. Claire Brewster agreed to travel to Carson Springs to meet her "new family" and fell in love with the town and the people she met there......With the help of her friend, Kitty Seagrave, Claire left her "safe" job to start a new career in Carson Springs to the dismay of her adoptive family and her longtime love. She became torn between two loves.....This move has made her birth mother, Gerry very happy, but caused mixed feelings with her two other children......Gerry has been having a relationship with a famous symphony conductor, Aubrey Roellinger. Aubrey is a widower with loving feelings for his late wife. Gerry is divorced from her husband after a disappointing marriage. Both Aubrey and Gerry do not want to remarry, but agree to have a non-commited relationship....Gerry finds herself falling deeply in love with Aubrey and he with her. It took the near death of their freinds Sam, Ian, and their unborn baby in a car accident to make them realize that they need to give up their obsessions of the past and start to live in the present and go on with each other in the future for a full complete life......I can hardly wait for next book in this series.

Paraplegic and former movie actress Monica Vincent is dead. Her sister, Anna Vincenzi, is arrested for murder. The residents of Carson Springs are shocked--not because of Monica's death; she was a cruel, vindictive woman who played the pity card to manipulate others. Anna's friends are shocked because they don't believe she is capable of such a heinous crime. WISH COME TRUE, the third book in the Carson Springs trilogy, begins with Anna's arrest, then takes the reader back six months to view the events that led up to the murder.

Anna cares for her Alzheimer's-afflicted mother, Betty, as well as assists Monica many hours each day. Monica is an alcoholic and makes Anna's life a living hell. Things finally reach a breaking point, and Anna and her other sister Liz convince Monica to enter rehab. During family week, Anna gets to know Marc, a counselor with troubles of his own. The two grow closer, and over the next few months forge a relationship. Marc joins Anna in the search for Monica's killer. Will they fall in love or just remain close friends? Will they find Monica's true murderer, or will Anna go to jail?

WISH COME TRUE also revisits some favorite characters from Eileen Goudge's previous novels. Finch is on a mission to find out more about her birth family. Laura and Hector proceed with the adoption of a baby. Sam, Claire, Gerry, and many others are also featured. Who is the mysterious woman with the same name as Finch, are they related?

Eileen Goudge has a talent for creating believable characters who overcome obstacles for love. I enjoyed getting to know Anna in the previous two novels in which she was a peripheral character. In WISH COME TRUE, she has a voice and comes to find herself in the midst of the needs of others. Marc is an ideal match for Anna, although he is not without faults. The cracks in his armor are what make him a believable and interesting person. Ms. Goudge writes in such a way that the transitions between past and present flow smoothly. In the end, she paints a seamless picture with a conclusion that even most mystery lovers will not figure out in advance.

One issue that really bothers me about this book is the treatment of the characters from past books. The previous novel, TASTE OF HONEY, featured Gerry finding the daughter, Claire, she had given up for adoption thirty years before. Most of that book is a struggle of choices for Claire--between Gerry and her adoptive parents, between her new love in Carson Springs and her hometown boyfriend. In WISH COME TRUE, it is mentioned almost as an aside that Claire is now married, and that Claire's mother had passed away. I felt cheated that this was only worthy of one sentence when I had grown to know and care for these people.

I hate to see this trilogy end. There are so many more stories to tell in Carson Springs, hopefully Ms. Goudge will revisit it again someday. Although WISH COME TRUE is the third in a series, Ms. Goudge gives the reader enough background that it can stand alone. I recommend reading all three books: STRANGER IN PARADISE, TASTE OF HONEY, and now WISH COME TRUE, to get to know the special people of Carson Springs. The idyllic scenery and warm residents will make you wish to live in this corner of heaven on earth, or at least visit for a little while.

First off, I'm a fan of this author, have been since GARDEN OF LIES. Having said that, though, I've had a few problems with this series. I don't like the overuse of similies, for one thing. The only other major problem I found was the inconsistincies that cropped up throughout the series: she's said the age gap between Sam and Ian is 14-15 years--but if Sam is 48 and Ian is 31, that's 17 years. She gave Wes' age as, alternately, 53 or 54. In TASTE OF HONEY, she said once that Ian's dad was married to Sam's eldest daughter--but Laura is the eldest! She wrote about Sam being the devoted wife/mother and told of her baking, etc.--but her sister couldn't see her sewing curtains? She gave Sam attributes that didn't quite come through in the character's actions. She said that Claire had gonein search of Gerry, when it was the other way around. She said Finch's room was off the barn--in another place, it was Hector's. She tends to repeat certain phrases and actions--s esx scene in this novel is very similar on one in the first book (apparently, both Sam and Anna taste like exotic fruit in the you-know-where). She tends to jump the gun--Ian knew Sam had borrowed the dog from a male friend before she told him, and here Finch knew the baby on the way was a sister before Laura told her. Apparently, the copyeditor was asleep at the wheel. But what Ms. Goudge does best--relationships--comes through in spades here. I didn't buy Sam and Ian together--too much of their realtionship took place off-camera, so to speak (ironically, she's a more interesting charecter in the subsequent books that she was in her own tale)--but I loved Gerry and Aubrey and Anna and Marc. This is a rich, totally believable story.

There were times when Anna Vincenzi might have thought that even Cinderella had better breaks then she did. As the caregiver and secretary to her sister, the dazzling but disabled movie star Monica Vincent, Anna was more often than not regulated to the background and constantly berated for her hard work. It didn't help that Anna was overweight and less than confident about herself.

When she took a little incentive to change her life and begin to lose some weight, Anna never dreamed that she would soon be charged with the murder of her famous sister. Talk about a weight loss plan!

Best selling author Eileen Goudge mixes up an intense murder mystery into her latest novel, "Wish Come True," the final book in her Carson Springs trilogy.

Carson Springs is a tranquil community that prides itself on the closeness of its community. So when one of their beloved residents finds herself charged with murder, everyone rallies to her support. Anna's neighbors Laura and Hector find a lawyer to help clear their friend's name, and Laura's sister Alice and her husband provide the bail money. Teenager Finch and her high school pals go door to door to raise money for the defense fund, and organize a rally to sway all the reporters who have gathered to cover the sensational murder trial.

But all their hard work could be in vain unless an important piece of the mysterious puzzle can be found before the trial ends in disaster.

Goudge also takes time to update her readers on the lives of her characters who were featured in the previous Carson Springs novels. Sam and Ian are happily married with their beloved baby, Jack. Gerry and her new husband Aubrey are singing along, and her oldest daughter Claire's new business venture, the Tea and Sympathy teashop is hit with the town. Weddings, first loves, and new babies round out the endearing stories found within the novel.

"Wish Come True" is lively and emotionally charged, with a dollop of sensuality to make it sizzle. A perfect read for the summer. Goudge's writing style is cozy and heartwarming, and readers will find themselves sorry to see this charming series coming to an end. But you know that she will have something wonderful waiting in the wings for the next book.

Sharon Galligar Chance
Times Record News, Wichita Falls, Texas

This book contains very well topics as input and output analysis, verification and validation, random number generation etc. I strongly recommend this book as an introduction of theoric simulation.

Banks revised his great book with updated simulation package and information. Several new issues, such as, tools/softwares, random-variable generation, simulation termination, how to use Simulation to analysis and design computer system, many downloadable examples. Sufficient theories, to understand Simulation, are given, for instance, the Statistics and Queueing theories. Two chapters are dedicated for random-number generation. One chapter is dedicated for verification and validation of simulation models. Although it's only one chapter, several references are given for further study. IE or logistic practioner will enjoy since one chapter is for manufacturing and material handling system (wow!). Very good reference and practice.

This book brings a very complete explanation about what Discrete Event System Simulation is. From the very beginning, they introduce what Simulation is by means of simple examples that you can manage by hand. They also give a comprehensive explanation about how to determine the apropiate distribution functions to use in the simulation. And how to statistically analyze the simulation results. The book also include a comprehensive brochure of different simulation languages.

These cards are very beautiful and can tell you the story of the card just by looking at them. ... The book is not a guide or learning tool for tarot. It only gives you a brief history of tarot and gives you and describtion and explanation of the cards which comes with the cards in a little book. If you buy the cards it comes with a little book that tells you everything the big book tells you. If you want to learn how to read tarot cards, don't buy this book, but if you want beautiful and easy to remeber cards, this is the way to go!

This set of cards and the accompanying book makes dealing with the tarot easy. The cards are beautiful with plenty of detail to catch the viewers eyes. The book does not talk over your head or under your head. It is especially useful for a new tarot user. Before describing the the divinatory meaning it gives detailed descriptions of the cards. The book also gives a basic outline of the Major Arcena for quick reference. The set also includes a Celtic Cross layout spread sheet for card readings which I found useful in the beginning. This is definately my favorite deck and the brightness of it calls to me.

I have had my Hanson-Roberts deck for at least 12 years now, and I still use it quite frequently. When I bought it, I knew little or nothing about the Tarot, and chose it simply because I liked the illustrations; they have a 'Renaissance' feel to them, and the clear, harmonious colors are lovely. Unless they've changed, the cards are also on the small side, making them easy to shuffle and handle for those of us with smallish or clumsy (or both!) hands. The imagery is strongly based on the Rider-Waite deck, but the illustrations have a charm all their own. A very pretty, appealing deck overall; I would definitely recommend this one for beginners as well as old-timers.

I really do like New Bible Commentary (NBC) for years. It has been my favorite one volume commentary thus far. So naturally, I was excited when they decided to update (or revise) the 3rd edition of NBC to 21st century edition. But when I got it, I was little disappointed. Compare to the previous edition, it lacked the devotional and spiritual emphasis. In review:
1. This NBC is more updated due to recent archaelogical findings and newer intepretations.
2. NIV version of the Bible has been used as main text. This can be pro or con depending on individual's preference.
3. Type-setting is actually more bothersome to the eyes than the previous edition.
4. While it is updated in scholastic area, but it has lost the devotional character of the 3rd edition.

I gave away my 21st century edition, because I still use the 3rd edition. Since the 3rd edition is out-of-print, you have to find it in used books. Amazon.com actually carries sellers who sell used NBC.

First published in 1953, the New Bible Commentary has been revised and updated 4 times. It has been and still is, the best one volume Bible commentary available. To cover all 66 books of the bible means that some detail must be sacrificed, but the authors capture the flow of the argument in each book well, and also have time to discuss important and controversial issues.

Many of the articles are written by people with best-selling full-length commentaries on the books they were assigned. So you get G J Wenham on Genesis and Peter O'Brien on Colossians, for example.

Highly recommended.

If you would like this book at a bargain price, with 17 other helpful books, including the Dictionary of Biblical Imagery, Sinclair Ferguson's New Dictionary of Theology, the New Bible Dictionary and the New Dictionary of Biblical Theology, Amazon also sells the Essential IVP Reference Collection CD ROM.

Unless you have a commentary on every book of the bible including Obadiah and Esther just for general life you need a commentary that covers the whole bible. They have their disadvantages and advantages because of their size but every Christian should have one. A good bible and the new bible commentary are the basics you need.

This is the best one-volume commentary by far (in the UK, at least, nobody even considers buying another), with an stunning list of evangelical contributors. Purposely concentrates on the flow of a text, which is always sensible, especially when space is so limited, as it inevitably is with just one volume. Most of the New Testament is verse by verse and in the OT bigger chunks are taken at once. The scholarship is very up to date and they rarely dodge difficult questions, although as would be expected they don't have enough space to be thorough. There is, however, so much information in this book that it is worth several times the list price. There are a few articles with titles such as: 'the Pentateuch', 'reading the letters', 'approaching the bible' etc. which are all very good, and all the books have introductions dealing with authorship, date, etc. The editors also recommend single commentaries for each book of varying difficulty which is very useful when you need to have a commentary with more detail than any one-volume can supply.

Please, for the sake of your spiritual growth, buy this book, and now not tomorrow.

Great drama. I'm not a huge "classics" fan and yet I enjoyed this. If you're into Greek mythology and like flowery language and prose (and lots of melodrama) you will enjoy this. HINT: don't read these plays line-by-line like a poem - I find that it's more difficult to follow them that way. Read this like you would a novel.

The murder of Clytemnestra by her son Orestes is unique in Greek mythology in that it is the one story for which we have extant versions by all three of the great tragic poets. Consequently, it is insightful to notice how each tragedy privileges different parts of the story. In "Choephoroe" ("The Libation Bearers") by Aeschylus, the middle part of his "Orestia" trilogy, Orestes is obedient to the gods in avenging the death of his father and the pivotal scene is the confrontation between mother and son when Clytemnestra begs for her life. In "Electra" by Euripides the title character has to persuade Orestes to go through with the deed and the dramatic confrontation is now between mother and daughter. In the Sophocles version of "Electra" the emphasis is on the psychological dimensions of the situation; after all, it is from this play that Freud developed his concept of the Electra complex.

Towards that end Sophocles creates a character, Chrysothemis, another sister to both Orestes and Electra. The situation is that Orestes is assumed to be dead and the issues is whether the obligation to avenge the death of Agamemnon now falls to his daughters. There is an attendant irony here in that Clytemnestra justified the murder of her husband in part because of his sacrifice of their oldest daughter Iphigenia before sailing off to the Trojan War (the curse on the House of Atreus, which involves Aegisthus on his own accord and not simply as Clytemnestra's lover, is important but clearly secondary). The creation of Chrysothemis allows for Sophocles to write a dialogue that covers both sides of the dispute. Electra argues that the daughters must assume the burden and avenge their father while Chrysothemis takes the counter position.

Sophocles does come up with several significant twists on the Aeschylus version. For one thing, Sophocles reverses the order of the two murders and has Clytemnestra slain first, which sets up an interesting scene when Aegisthus gets to revel over what he believes to be the corpse of Orestes and makes the death of the usurper the final scene of the play. This becomes part of the most significant difference between the Sophocles version and the others. Whereas Orestes emerges from the skene distraught after the murder of his mother in "Cheophoroe" and is repentant in the Euripides version of "Electra," Sophocles has Orestes calmly declaring that all in the house is well.

Electra is not as central a character to the drama as she is in the Euripides version, mainly because she does not have a functional purpose in this tragedy. Her main purpose is to lament over the death of the father and the supposed death of her brother. She does not provide Orestes with a sense of resolve because in this version he does not consult the oracles to learn whether or not he should kill his mother but rather how he can do the deed. Still, the part of Electra has enormous potential for performance. Ironically, this "Electra" is the least interesting of the three, despite the fact Freud made it infamous: by his standards the Euripides play speaks more to the desire of a daughter to see her mother dead, but since Sophocles wrote "Oedipus the King" it probably seemed fair to point to his version of this tale as well.

this play,i.e., Electra is literally an electtifying tradgedy about revenge. One can almsot say that it is in a way a precursor to Shakespeare's Hamlet.

this collection contains a good deal of good stories like daoine domhaine and the church in high street. stories by campbell, lumley, copper, sutton..... not the most inventive stories i have read, but good storiess, well written. this is in fact one of the finest pulp collections

H.P Lovecraft, while unappreciated in his own time, is now widely regarded as one of the true masters of horror fiction. His proficiency at creating deeply unsettling locales and creepy atmosphere is legendary, while his imagination is viewed as limitless in its breadth. He was also very giving when it came to other authors and his personal inventions; his Cthulhu mythos, centred on beings of hideous visage and infinite age (the "Old Ones"), has been taken up by countless authors since, at his own bequest.

It is only natural, then, that his other stories also be used as fertile ground for the imaginations of others. Stephen Jones has commandeered this challenge, corralling an impressive group of authors to edit together homages and emulations to one of Lovecraft's most redoubtable tales, "The Shadow over Innsmouth." The result is much in keeping with Lovecraft's own writings; they are by turns gripping, frustrating, brilliant, and overall, unforgettable.

"The Shadow over Innsmouth" leads off the collection, an atmospheric yarn of a tiny Massachusetts hamlet which harbours a dark secret. Into this town comes a curious young man with an interest in architecture; what he discovers is a village who claims allegiance to the Esoteric Order of Dagon, a strange religion with more than simply surface connections to the sea. In what is essentially a chase novella, Lovecraft weaves an atmosphere so dank and damp, you can practically feel the sea breeze on your skin, and smell the unpleasant aroma of rotting fish.

Lovecraft has penned an exercise in suspense, a unwholesome tale of insanity and beings beyond imagination. It also displays some of Lovecraft's lesser traits; he has a prevailing habit in his writings of describing entities which "cannot be described"; things of such loathsome natures that his protagonists cannot bear to remember their features, much less describe them for the reader. As well, his dialogue, minimal though it is, is rather stilted. Stephen King, in his memoir/treatise ON WRITING, states that, in all the millions of words Lovecraft put to paper, only five thousand or so were spent on dialogue. It shows. (King has also dabbled in Lovecraft's world; see his short fiction "Jerusalem's Lot" in NIGHT SHIFT, and "Crouch End" in NIGHTMARES AND DREAMSCAPES.)

That aside, "Shadow" is a marvellous tale of the macabre, and lends itself easily to other writers's themes and styles. Nonetheless, a severe fault with this compilation is that some author's follow Lovecraft's style too lavishly. Basil Copper's "Beyond the Reef," an almost direct sequel to "Shadow," is rather confusing in its melange of Lovecraftian wordplay and Copper's plot. This is not to mean that it is worthless, far from it. It has moments of true terror and mystery; it simply doesn't hold together in the end. However, Ramsey Campbell's "The Church in High Street" manages the feat of successfully combining both Lovecraft's expressions and Campbell's ideas.

Of the stories that can trace direct themes and atmosphere to "Shadow," Michael Marshall Smith's "To See the Sea" is the most accomplished. Transferring the basic plot to the English shores, Smith tells of a tragic love story, family mystery, and horrors from beneath the waves. It is mesmerizing in its balance of the sanity of an outsider and the insanity that religion can provide. Brian Lumley's "Dagon's Bell" is almost Smith's equal, in its telling of archaeologists, hidden monsters, and local customs for dealing with said monsters. (Lumley has some experience in this area; he's used Lovecraftian themes and characters in his writings for years.)

Despite the inclusive quality of these stories, the least of them suffer somewhat through a necessary knowledge of their forefather. Reading the tales on their own, without the fortuitousness of familiarity of the original, lessens their impact. More striking and memorable are stories which take certain aspects of Lovecraft's prototype, and venture forth into new dimensions of fancy.

Neil Gaiman's entry, "Only the End of the World Again," benefits from his unusual take on the denomination of Dagon. He almost repeats the tale, but adds the unforeseen element of lycanthropy to the mix. Like the best of Lovecraft, it is eerie, confusing, and sticks in the mind long after the pages are closed.

Arguably the most entertaining piece is Jack Yeovil's "The Big Fish," which goes in a direction Lovecraft likely never dreamed of; detective fiction. In Southern California, a private eye gets enmeshed in a case involving a sultry yet off-putting screen siren, a missing child, mobsters, and human sacrifice. Yeovil conjures up a mix of Dashiell Hammett and Poppy Z. Brite, resulting in sheer enjoyment. It would make a good duo with Clive Barker's tales of his supernatural investigator Harry D'Amour.

H.P. Lovecraft is not an author for every taste; his style is far more esoteric than, say, the mundane horror fiction of Dean Koontz or Bentley Little. Yet there's no denying the influence he has had on a generation of authors. SHADOWS OVER INNSMOUTH is a prime starting place for anyone who craves more than Koontz can provide.

...and it's all right here.

Lovecraft's own inspirational story, "The Shadow Over Innsmouth" - curiously, one of his own least favorite, but one of his best - leads off this terrific collection of clever spin-off tales by contemporary authors on the same theme: namely, that there are isolated seaside places around the world where the inhabitants not only pray to, but interact with, ancient subaqueous demon-gods from other worlds.

Many of the tales are more or less sequels to Lovecraft's seminal story, set in and around Innsmouth itself, the fictional Massachusetts town the author first "sailed" the concept in. Each of these reads very well as its own stand-alone piece, successful entirely independent of Lovecraft's story, but all the more entertaining for being one way or another connected to it. Other tales, such as Ramsey Campbell's "The Church In High Street," are set in other locations, like the decayed, dockside areas of Great Britain, where similar interbreeding with noxious hellspawned water-gods also is occurring. One especially good story, Kim Newman's "The Big Fish," actually reads like a credible direct sequel to Lovecraft's original, and is all the more perfect for essentially performing like a 1930s noir-horror film. Even Neil Gaiman gets in on the act, with a skin-crawling little bit of nastiness about an Innsmouth descendant coming to terms with his gruesome genetic heritage.

One thing you can count on, in this collection: something in it will definitely appeal to your Lovecraftian tastes - so long as that taste is for fish.

In the story of Puss In Boots, a miller dies and leaves one of his sons nothing but the cat. This cat turns out to be quite clever and earns the favor of the King for his master. The cat also obtains land and a castle for his master and gives him the title of the Marquis of Carabas. The King becomes so impressed by the Marquis that he offers his daughter's hand in marriage, and the simple miller's son becomes a prince. The use of clever illustration makes this book an effective piece of folk lore. "Narrative Expectations: The Folklore Connection" discusses the basic pattern of a folktale. The article states that every folktale begins with the main character of the story being no different from or more special than any other character. Then, out of nowhere, the character is boosted into a "supernatural world" and all of a sudden he is moved up to higher society and viewed as a hero (67). This resembles the plot pattern of Puss In Boots, with the Marquis being the average character who becomes a hero. This jump to a higher level of society out of luck is strangely enough realistic in the twenty-first century. With things like inheritance, lotteries, and the stock market, a person of today could easily go from the poor miller's son to a "prince." However, this is not a common occurrence. The article also states that folklore "functions in part as an informal system for learning the daily logic and worldview of the people around us (71)." The author chooses not to use human characters to represent Master Slyboots and the rich ogre. He could have done this easily with illustration by making Master Slyboots a servant boy and the ogre a Marquis. Instead, he uses an informal style, placing animal characters in the book. This represents a higher level: Using animals in contrast to humans in order to show the differences in people as a whole.

This new translation of the "fairy" story first presented by Charles Perrault (1628-1703) in his Tales of Mother Goose in 1697 was illustrated by Fred Marcellino and translated by Malcolm Arthur. It was a 1991 Caldecott Honor book (that is, a runner-up to the Medal winner) for best illustrations in a book for children. The youngest son of a recently deceased miller receives a cat as his inheritance. He feels that he will soon die of starvation (after he has eaten the cat) since he has no other possessions. But, the cat convinces him to get him boots. The cat proceeds to find a fortune and a position for his young master.

I regularly visit school classrooms and read aloud to children from Kindergarten through eighth grade. Finding books that appeal to more than one grade level is a challenge.

I have found that the pictures in this version of 'Puss' appeal immensely to kindergartners through third graders. (Fourth and Fifth grade children also like it, but are often embarassed to say so in a classroom setting!). Children who often have a hard time sitting still for a story have sat transfixed as I read this book, holding the pictures in front of them all the time and giving them lots of opportunities to check out the wonderful use of light and color. The illustrator uses a lot of wonderful yellow that is very appealing to young children and seems to draw them into the book. I love reading this book out loud both to see children's reaction and also because I love the detail and color in the pictures.

Reading this book aloud has also sparked some beautiful art work from young children.

David Carson is undoubtedly one of the best graphic designers and a revolutionary typographist ... but unless you understand the angles and complexity of photography, I don't think you'd really want to get this book. Sure, Carson does have a wonderful eye for color, balance, and emotional insight, BUT if you're looking for a photography book with more text and a better composition, you might want to extend your search.

David Carson first made a name for himself debunking high-brow design aesthetics with a decidedly impulsive and intuitive approach to the printed page. Here he similarly debunks high-brow photography, with this collection of obscured, abstracted and often out-of-focus photographs. These lo-fi photographs are then elevated to another level by Philip Meggs's typically lofty writing... be sure to check out Carson's grungy photograph of an empty chair, which Meggs decides is a study about "the absence of people." (That put a smile on my face, at least.) Aside from the almost farcical nature of the writing that accompanies these images, they are still effective on a purely emotional, visceral level, that same base that Carson has operated so well at as a designer for so many years. Who knows, you might even want to use it as a coffee table book... although you might confuse your company.

David Carson, editor of RAYGUN magazine has yet another book for readers. This book shows not only visual asthetics, but also a fair amount of writing, given by Carson himself of what exactly his appraoches are to certain spreads. He also explains his experiences in designing, and has a very unique way of looking at things. He has done work for David Bowie in the past, and many images used for Nine Inch Nails' "The Fragile" are found in this book as well. David Carson is an intellegent person, and it can clearly be seen in the 'not what you'd expect from a designer' look of this book, with photos he took only with a standard 35mm camera and developed at a nearby one hour photo. Also keep an eye out for a soon to be released Nine Inch Nails DVD, which was designed and packaged by David Carson, along with some other contributions.