Having just met Debra Marlin this weekend in Carmel, I was introduced to a colorful, warm, person who photographs and paints with love. She took the time to open her shop so that I could buy a print with hopes of a painting in the near future. We too, have a golden retriever and it was wonderful sharing the passion we each have for them. "River" was in the studio and greeted each person who came in, ("Lake" was napping in the back of the studio) with a happy smile that is shown in her paintings. It is an artist and photographer like Debra Marlin, that I would definately return to purchase one of her paintings. She will return to Martha's Vineyard soon and with her busy schedule not be able to come to Carmel as often.(someone else will manage her shop) Somehow I know that no matter where or how hectic life might be, Debra will always take the opportunity to talk to you about the joy that her retrievers have brought her. She captures that in the beautiful colors of her paintings. I would encourage anyone and you don't have to be a "golden lover" to check out her paintings. You can feel the passion in her work! Debra anad "River" have a special place in my heart. :-) By the way, I bought "Joy" and that it is!!

First,I must admit that it took an extreme amount of courage to complete my review. The flood of tears and my own experiences took me back in another time and place with my own Golden retriever dog, Cody who has been deceased since February 3, 1998. As you might suspect, I am still not over his death.

Debra Marlin's Golden retriever, Sonny was so very much like Cody. Read and enjoy this wonderful book that Debra Martin has given to the breed. Although it was an emotional journey for me I still give Debra and Sonny 5 BIG Stars!

I enjoyed Debra's first volume, YellowDog, but like many, found it to be a highly emotional journey flipping through the pages. YellowPup, on the other hand, is a thoroughly upbeat collection of images and thoughts attesting to her love of these incredible canine creatures. She has captured the very essence of a dog's innocence, loyalty, dedication and fun-loving nature in a format rarely seen, black & white photography.

I love the concept. 10 Disney Little Golden Books in a slipcase. I always liked my Disney Little Golden Books when I was growing up. I have this in my bookcase. Whenever I glance at it I just reminisce.

Excellent set of books for any age of children. Beautiful illustrations and stories, just like the videos but in a condensed version. Good variety of stories for both boys and girls. My 18 month old daughter enjoys them as much as my 4 year old niece. Also the price through Amazon is much cheaper to buy the books as a set then to buy the books seperately. Some of these books we have found extremely difficult to find on their own, especially Alice in Wonderland and the Sorcerer's Apprentice.

I remember all of these books from when I was a child, and when I saw them as a set, I couldn't resist! Almost all of the very most classic Little Golden Books are included (though The Little Red Caboose is not). They are a bargain as a set, and are classic American children's books. They are well-written, with beautiful illustrations. It is hard to find the little Golden Books individually; the newer "Big" Golden Books are easier to find, but more expensive, and do not include some of these classics. I figured out that I could buy this set for the price of two Big Golden Books. Great buy!!!

This collection is a treasure and one that will melt the iciest heart! The collection includes 6 of the most beloved titles from the Little Golden Books library as well as a book with blank pages for creating your own Little Golden Book.

In 'The Saggy Baggy Elephant', a pachyderm considers various ways of changing his saggy-bagginess at the urging of a mischievous parrot but finds true happiness when a herd of elephants accepts him just the way he is.

'Tootle' is the story of a little locomotive who applies himself to his studies at train school but disappoints Old Bill the Engineer when he leaves the tracks to frolic in a meadow with the butterflies.

Time and again, 'The Poky Little Puppy' digs a hole under the fence to explore the world with his siblings and returns home late to gobble up the desserts denied his wandering brothers and sisters.

In 'The Shy Little Kitten', we follow a kitten as she meets one adventure after another and ends her day with a farmyard picnic.

'The Tawny Scrawny Lion' is always hungry and ill-tempered until he meets a friendly rabbit family making carrot stew.

'Scuffy the Tugboat' wants more out of life than in a tubful of water but changes his mind when he is nearly swept out to sea.

This collection comes packaged in an attractive slip-case and will make the perfect gift for anyone on your shopping list. We sincerely hope the publisher will share some of the other classic Little Golden Book titles with us in the very near future!

This book covers railroad advertising from the early 1900s to the late 50s. All color art and a few B&W pictures showing the real trains that influenced the advertising. It shows examples of railroad advertising from posters, timetables, brochures and luggage tags as well as railroads in the US, Canada and Europe. There is a breif history introducing each chapter and the captions for each picture are descriptive and accurate. At the end of the book, there are a few pages explaining how to collect railroad art, which I found very informative. An easy read and very entertaining. An excellent coffee-table book.

As always, Chronicle Books beautiful graphic series has captured a wonderful look back at riding the rails. Johnson and O'Leary have compiled a romantic collection of railroad commercial art.

I inherited this book in a box of used books that someone brought over when they left Belize. As such, it sat on my shelf for a while before I reluctantly started it. It didn't take long to hook me.

First of all, it is a history of the selling of TV news; with all of the familiar and unfamiliar names in that business. Stories of now major star when they were first starting out. The sequences of presidents and vice-presidents in the Networks. This may be turget prose to soap-opera fans attracted to the book by the beauty on the cover, but it was interesting to me.

Secondly, it is the agonizing history of Jessica Savitch, obsessively driven to be the queen of Network News, privately anguished by memories of her father, who let her down by dying when she was 12 (he was 31), and more publically tortured by a long distructive co-dependent relationship with Ron Kershaw, another TV news luminary, and the scorn of her co-workers, who hated her self-centered focus on her success.

A young ambitious wannabee in showbiz can learn a lot from this book. I learned:
1. It takes incredible drive (even obsession) to be successful in a competitive business like Network News.
2. You will probably lose all your friends and your life (figuratively, if not literally)
3. Altho you may look happy and successful in public, you may actually be miserable in the midst of it all.
4. Whether you deserve it or not, success is probably more a matter of fortune. In the long run -- scum as well as cream rises to the top.

I already knew these things from a lifetime of living in the very competitive computer business (full of smart, ambitious, driven people) but it underlined an old cliche' -- "The bigger they are, the harder they fall."

Though out of print, this bio can be found in used bookstores everywhere. Because once you read it, you'll want rid of it. Way depressing. Beautiful Jessica Savitch had everything: looks, verve, charm, talent, a personality...she even anchored the NBC evening news (she was actually the White House correspondent, but NBC exploited her in every way imaginable) at age 30! Co-workers considered her a prima donna, but the ratings gods loved her - even when she apologized to the viewership for being absent for a couple of days (it was already well known she'd had an abortion). Her cocaine and alcohol addiction not-with-standing, she was the charter representative of the Baby-Boom generation. After appearing on a "Newsbreak" during which she was so thick tongued one couldn't understand what she was saying, Jessica suffered a nervous breakdown, and retreated from public view.During her recovery, she died in an automobile accident. Her life's chronicle bears an eerie resemblance to another blonde heroine - Princess Di. Remarkable, and deeply troubling.

This is a set of 52 cards: half are capital letters and the other half are small letters. The pictures are of ordinary household objects, and they are simple and boldly drawn.

My daughter, age 2, is already learning to recognize the shapes of some of these letters. We had intended to use these just with the pictures and object names initially, but she is fascinated by the letters on the back, and already recognizes some of the more distinctively-shaped letters: z, c, and a.

I highly recommend this set of cards for parents who would like to help their toddlers with vocabulary development, or parents who would like to help their preschoolers recognize shapes. Nothing fancy, but sometimes the simplest, most easy to use things, are very valuable.

There's not much to review about flashcards, but I got these ones for my son and taught him all of his letters before he turned 3 using some of the ideas that came with them. He's now 4 and we're using them to learn spelling and letter sounds. They were the only ones available when I was looking for flashcards and I've been very happy with them overall. In fact, I'm here to replace my very worn-out ones.

I must agree with the other reader who insisted you ignore the Kirkus review. I found this book to be incredibly moving and fascinating in its exploration, not of various conspiracy theories (as the Kirkus reviewer wrongly says), but of the different ways the Kennedy assasination myth affects Americans, even those of us who were not alive when it happened.

As far as I'm concerned, who ever wrote the Kirkus review above is even more of a hack than the worst potboiler scribblers, of which Mr. Thomas is definitely not one. Come to think of it, who else but the lowliest hack would review for Kirkus? Forget the dumb, ad hominem Kirkus attack and read the book. It's well worth your time.

This is one of my favourite Asterix books.
Asterix and the Golden Sickle was first published in French in 1962 and in English in 1975.
Asterix and Obelix journey to Lutetia (Ancient Paris) to buy a desperately needed Golden Sickle for the Druid Getafix.
On the way there they easily deal with the mobs of bandits that attack them on the road , and also cannot find lodgings at Sundinium (Ancient Le Mans )
because they are there during the great-Ox-Cart race -The Sundinium 24 hours.
When they get to Lutetia they find that finding a sickle will not be so easy and that Obelix's cousin , the great sickle maker Metallurgix is missing .
To get to the bottom of this they must battle against the Lutetia underworld as well as the Roman authorities (and make a journey through the forest that will later become the Bois de Boulogne).
I wont spoil the ending but we all know that every Asterix adventure ends with a feat under the starry sky to welcome our heroes back to the village.

I have been reading about the adventures of Asterix and Obelix for years. I first learned about them while living in Europe and I still have all my copies with me back here in America. It's really hard to rate one over the other. They are all so much fun to read. All their names crack me up. I recommend any Asterix book to anyone of any age! They are all great!

What can I say? You are sad at the end of the book because you hate to say good-bye to the characters. A fresh, original (avoiding the usual cliches)book. You will want to read this one again and again!

Can you imagine being good for nothing but marriage? Henrietta can't imagine, and decides to take her pittance of an inheritance and turn it into a fortune... but opening a London Sweet Shop? Soon, she and her beautiful partners are in business, working day and night to make lovely pastries,etc, to entice the passersby to patronize her shop. Her unseemly business is a success until the Earl of Carrisdowne catches his young brother and friend ogling the pretty girls behind the counter. A look at Henrietta made the Earl determined to put the place out of business and have her for his own! Says Henrietta..."I DON'T THINK SO!"

Gail Golden's book of poetry, Awaiting Creation, provides a powerful emotional reading experience. As a psychotherapist and a woman, I found this book validating, inspiring and enlightening. Ms. Golden's understanding and exploration of relationships moved me deeply. Her poems capture the richness of life thoughtfully lived. She speaks beautifully about love, passion, family, friendship, politics, feminism and religion. Ms. Golden's poems reflect her enduring commitment to peace and justice.

Perhaps part of the art of good poetry is to speak few words, while telling us a memorable story and touching us deeply.....no small feat. Each poem in the Awaiting Creation collection could be read aloud to enjoy the beauty in the words, or silently, to be selfish in the reading and to savor the feelings. As a musician, I loved 'Cello Suite' particularly and all of 'Music' (Section III) in general. This book has something for everyone. I will be giving Holiday gifts of it!