This is a rather thin, over-sized, hardcover book. My first impression was "This is it? This is all there is?" The text is intersting but I was looking for good photos of the individual or groups of diamonds. What you get are pages of uninspired face-on photos (256 in all, I think) of the diamonds in the collection, cropped to the shapes of the stones, with nothing else to make them look remotely interesting. Next to each small (less than an inch) photo is a brief description. The book is mainly a catalog color names with an occasional colorful description or story about a particular diamond. Two stars because it is somewhat interesting to read and the pictures and descriptions are somewhat informative. But if you are looking for nice photos, look elsewhere.

Mr. Hofer's book is wonderful to read or actually wonderful to look at. The photos are absolutely stunning and the text of this catalogue is fairly easy to read (compared to his masterpiece "Collecting and Classifying Coloured Diamonds"). The so-called "common names" for the coloured diamonds are sometimes quite funny and I wonder whether they are recognised the gemworld over. But the book/catalogue is superbly written and a big compliment to the photographer, who has done a fantastic job! (it explains in great detail how the diamonds were photographed). All in all, a gem of a book!!!!

I've never seen a book repeat so many of its images. Page after page of the same photos repeated over and over. I wasn't expecting that. The book is just okay. Nothing really new.

what a great ide to put together in a book the two most modern trends in residential design: minimalism + lofts. the result is impressive

Most people who speak about military secrecy are kooks who believe that the government is in cahoots with "the Visitors." But Bill Sweetman isn't one of them. His "Aurora: The Pentagon's Secret Hypersonic Spyplane" examines the best available evidence and draws a logical conclusion: the military has at least one high-speed aircraft.

Sweetman overviews operations at Groom Lake from the U-2 to the A-12 to the Have Blue and F-117. He also looks back at most major hypersonic research programs that were carried out over the years. From there he talks about air-breathing rockets and arrives at the general shape of the aircraft known as Aurora.

My complaints? The book was such good reading that I was disappointed when it ended. It was too short (but the government has done a good job keeping the program secret, so we're lucky that Sweetman was able to write a book at all.) And I felt that Sweetman was holding some information back. He mentions that someone got a head-on view of Aurora at Groom and said that the intake 'resembled an evil smiley face.' I want to know more about this informant and if they had any more information.

Aviation fans, go out and read this book now. Just watch out for the black helicopters:-)

This book makes a decent case about the existence of a hypersonic spyplane developed under the black budget. It describes the history of hypersonic flight from the X-15 to present and demonstrates how these programs are froth with budget cuts and lost interest. A large part of the book is also contributed to IF the Aurora were built, how would it operate? This book gives details about ramjets and other hypersonic engines. The only problem I had with it was that I sometimes had to read paragraphs twice before they were absorbed completly. You do not have to be a conspiracy theorist, or a military fanatic to get into this book. You just have to have to be curious about what kind of technology we have out there.

Hey, this is a "fun" book! Sure, Sweetman doesn't have a lot of hard evidence, but he pieces it together well. You will note that in Ben Rich's book on the Skunk Works, he dismisses an Aurora-type project and changes the subject very quickly. Rich states that the materials and technology to build a Mach 6 air-breathing plane simply don't exist. I find it hard to believe that the quest for speed ended with the SR-71. I also experienced some unusally tooth-rattling sonic booms in the California desert in the early '90s. All of which leads me to believe that Sweetman may be on to something here.

While I found this book informative, considering that this edition purports to be the "revised 3rd printing" and its author is apparently the founder of a magazine, it's an absolute publishing travesty. There are several misspelled words, pages 3 and 4 are duplicated in part, and silly errors such as "by 1989, Aurora stopped producing new figure kits" abound(Aurora folded in the 1970s). Spacing problems, captions that don't correctly identify illustrations -- the whole gamut of what constitutes poor proofreading and slipshod publishing can be found here. Hire a good editor -- or even a marginal one! A pity that what could be a very good book is made almost unreadable by errors. Color pictures, such as one finds in some other books of this type, would be nice too -- this volume is entirely in black and white. Overall, a real disappointment.

This book is not only very informative, but was enjoyable to read and easy to read. The pictures of both what boxes the model came in what the completed model looked like was great. Pick this book up if you are a model collector, BUY IT!

This book has nice pictures, just not enough of them. It gives no insight into Aurora or the rationalization of the pricing valuation structure. After attending Slot Car Swap Meets for the past several years, the book is not even close to the valuation criteria used by diehard collectors. If you use this book to valuate your cars, you will invariable over value common cars, and under value the true rare ones. By the way unless the car is extremly rare, it must be in new condition (not just mint for the age), to have any true collector value at all. Mint for age cars are worthless.

The work of Mr. Graham is one of the most complete works that I have read to date.

Graham begins the work with an excellent review of the beginnings of slot cars. The progression into the history of Aurora Plastics Company is a smooth and flawless transition. Graham holds no punches in this book when reviewing mistakes that Aurora made during its years. There are numerous pictures depicting almost any "Vibrator", "ThunderJet", "AFX", and large scale cars (1/32, 1/24) that Aurora produced while owned and operated primarily in the U.S.

This book also has a fair price guide in the back of the book. I think some information is outdated as far as value is concerned, but it is still a good baseline.

Overall, this book is a handy tool to identify your Aurora vehicles and to use as a collectors guide. It is well worth the money to purchase and would even make a good gift for that "slot-head" in your family.

I also recommend getting John A. Clark's book mentioned in the reference to this book. Together you couldn't ask for better information on Aurora!

El jardín secreto trata de una niña de la India que sus padres le brindaban poca atención. Mientras sus papás estaban en una fiesta hubo un terremoto, que hizo que hubiera un incendio, La niña quedó huerfana y la llevaron donde su tío político. Este tenía un hijo al que ocultaba ni tampoco veía, por que su esposa murió cuando nació, el niño era impedido. La tía de la niña tenía un jardín, el cual su esposo mandó a cerrar cuandó murió. Ella encontró la llave y en este jardín su primo aprendió a caminar y de nuevo hubo unión familiar.

This book isn't as insightful as it could be regarding lesbian love. It give just enough information to get your attention, and then it fades. For a basic view, this book is alright, but if you want depth, it's not advisable.

Yo lei este libro en el verano de 1999 y la verdad no le encontre algun significado, es decir este libro no es lo que promete. En cambio recomiendo que lean un libro de Charles E. Sellier with Joe Meier llamado UFO. este libro si que se profuindiza en el tema OVNI y pone a la luz fenomenos que han estado pasado recientemente en nuestro planeta.

As she does in Medicine Stories, Morales involves an innovative form in her writing. While following a chronological timeline, she weaves together many historically based stories. What at first seems confusing, eventually melds to show that Morales is writing about the women left out of history. She presents personal stories about each woman and crimes of history. Then she adds herbs used in healing to supplement her intent to be a historic curator, helping to heal the problems in history.

Being a huge fan of the Aurora "Roe" Teagarden mystery series, I was anxious to read the latest book in the series. However, I was extremely shocked by the outcome of this book and kept waiting to find out that Roe was having a bad dream or something similar. This series has always been on the tougher side of the cozy mystery genre, but I was blown away by the darker edge to the plot in this book. When a book makes your heart stop for a moment and your eyes well up with tears, you know that you really "care" about the characters. Caring about what happens to the characters is one of the aspects that makes a good book, and if the reaction of readers is any indication, this must be one to look at. Ms. Harris definitely took a chance with this plot, and I have to say that it was indeed a shock. Like other readers I have had a hard time picking up subsequent books in the series, but am determined to find a reason as to why Ms. Harris chose the ending that she did.

Saying all of these things, I would highly recommend all of the previous books in this series. Roe is a great character, and the relationship that she has with her husband was a big reason that I loved the previous books. If you enjoy a bit of a darker cozy, this might just be the series for you.

The first book in this series is "Real Murders". Enjoy!

A Cozy Mystery Lover

Ok, this is not the best book by Charlaine Harris I have read but I really have to admire her daring. I have read so many authors-- best selling genre authors,too, state that they would like to write something different but darnnit their editors won't let them because it might upset their fans. So some series continue down the same paths dragging all of the baggage with them. Other series just relegate the boring significant other to the background.

I think we can see here that the editors are partly right, some people are going to be upset, but it appears an equal number are willing to go along for the ride. This book is well written, well plotted, and well worth reading.

The Aurora Teagarden books have always been something tougher disguised as cozies. In the first book in the series the author went to some trouble to show the difference between the intellectual pursuit of true crime and the reality of murder in your own back yard. While not as dark as her Lily Bard books apparently her use of humor lulled some readers into thinking the author was a harmless cozy writer.

Then BANG, she jumped out from behind a door and stuck a pin in a balloon. Ms. Harris, I salute you-- and promise to buy all of your future books in hardcover!

I read A FOOL AND HIS HONEY when it was first published. I was disconcerted because the content was so different from Charlaine Harris's usual upbeat Aurora Teagarden mystery. I was disappointed at the unhappiness Aurora had to face. Still, Charlaine Harris is one of my favorite authors, so I decided to give the book another chance. Reading the book two years later and knowing in advance how everything turned out, I can better appreciate how well-written this story is. It's still a page-turner even though it's more somber than usual. Maybe it's more realistic.