This book provides clear step by step instructions. I have tried all the styles and was able to successfully make all but one. Many could be made by children too. The colour photography is artistic and eye catching. It is value for the money and I highly recommend it.

My friend Barbara gives wonderful dinner parties and her tables always look so beautiful that it's a joy to sit down to the delicious dinners that she and her husband prepare. She is always looking for new party ideas and I'm always trying to think of gift ideas for her because she seems to have everything. This book on napkin folding was the perfect answer. It's something she has never thought of but I know she'll have great fun with it, once she sees these lovely color pictures and follows the clear instructions. Her birthday is coming up soon and I can't wait to give her this book. As a matter of fact I would like a copy for myself and a few more for gifts to other people. Not a run-of-the-mill present and one that has lots of value for the price.

This is a very well-rounded book, giving insights into many facets of Viking life and history. It is well-written and very well organized. The index is a valuable resource for other materials relating to those subjects you would like to read more in depth. I highly recommend it!

The perfect book; this is the one and only book that could have ranked higher than Jones' "A History of The Vikings". There are two separate halves to this masterpiece: the first is a compilation of several different authors, each taking on a different aspect of the Vikings: from metalworking to settling to religion, it's all here. The second half is a massive catalogue of Viking artifacts, with tons of pictures and detailed descriptions of swords, pieces of boats, combs, etc.

But in addition to being incredibly well-formatted and informative, this is one of the easiest and most enjoyable books I've ever read. It's written in a way that an expert will get just as much out of it as a beginner, and, being loaded with pictures and text that varies from author to author, it's genuinely difficult to put this book down. You could spend hours just flipping through the catalogue at the end. This is more than just a book: more than any other, this one will take you back in time to the Viking Age. Very very highly recommended.

... fun escapist reading for a lazy Sunday. The collection is dominated by feel-good stories whose ideas and plot twists are familiar, often predictable.

Buoyed by a few charismatic selections (like Janet Kagan's "The Return of the Kangaroo Rex") which make up for their shortcomings by going at a good healthy clip and keeping the laughs coming in. William Jon Williams' "Prayers on the Wind" and George Turner's "Flowering Mandrake" offer moderately interesting twists on the tradition of the theocratic and the First Contact story respectively. I had been particularly interested in reading Vernor Vinge's novella "The Blabber," but it goes like the literary equivalent of a clip show: if you've already read "A Fire Upon the Deep" it's all too obvious, and if you haven't the story will probably seem pointless.)

For more consistently innovative picks but a bit more of a tendency toward name-brand authors, check out James Gunn's "Road to SF" series.

I started this book convinced that I don't really care for the adventure story/space opera genre of science fiction. Now, I strongly believe that ANYBODY interested in science fiction should read this book. Almost everyone of these stories pulled me into a world of wonder, adventure, and suspense. I had a great time.

Gardner Dozois's short essays for each story, with a short biography and book/story list for each author, are not to be missed, either. Now, I have a great listing of books that I can't wait to explore, to Amazon's benefit and the further depletion of my wallet.

Anyone who has ever gazed down into the immensity of the Grand Canyon has surely asked himself, "HOW in the world did this ever happen!"

If the standard "millions and millions of years" explanation leaves you with questions, read this book.

If you want a thorough, intellectually satisfying survey of the Grand Canyon, and the theories of it's origin, this book is for you. If you liked Whitcomb and Morris's "The Genesis Flood", you will like this book.

A man who believes the Bible, knows geology, and has carefully studied the Grand Canyon presents his findings in a very readable, interesting, and well illustrated book aimed at the general reader.

Standard geology textbooks teach us that, while individual events may be rapid, geologic change (such as erosion) is very slow overall. Austin deftly dispenses with the straitjacket of uniformitarianism, and shows how the Grand Canyon could have been eroded rapidly. Instead of a little river acting over a lot of time, we had a large body of water (Floodwater and its remnants) acting over a short period of time.

I have owned the 6th edition of this book for a number of years and was looking for an updated version - my copy was published in 1996 (not in 1998 as indicated in the Amazon description; unless this offering is a reprint) and covers Bordeaux to the 1993 vintage. Thus, the tasting notes (i.e. ratings) and recommended drinking times for the wines are at least 5 yrs old or more and newer Bordeaux vintages are not covered. The guide is an excellent choice if you have wines that predate the early 1990s or if you plan to buy wines from these earlier years.

This pocket guide gives an excellent overview of the grand cru rated wines since 1855. Per chateau, a short description of the chateau and its winemakers is given, as well as a rating of recent years. The book is extremely useful while shopping because of the list of recommended prices for each year per chateau.

Strongly oriented into leadershim fundamentals. Mike Davidson says directly what is going on. Are you planning new goals? OK compare your aproach with Mike's observations. It's very usefull and prepossing. No empty word, no details leads away , just only crystal pure ideas! It's up to you. You will read it at one bout!

In many ways, I consider The Grand Strategist to be a guide book - a vade mecum. You will not find a smaller but more powerful book on strategy.

Mike Davidson is perhaps the best in the line. The book is just about 100 pages long, and can be read in an hour. Based on a few pivotal principles which one can summarize even here (which I won't do and incur Davidson's wrath), the book is presented in the form of a series of meetings that a helpless and desperate new CEO has with a person called THE GRAND STRATEGIST, and how by following those principles he is told to follow, he himself ends up being a grand strategist.

Split into four 'major' sections, MISSION, COMPETITION, PERFORMANCE and CHANGE, this book is a must-read for any leader, or anyone who aspires to be one.

A most wonderful book.

I never have the PS2 version of this book, so I can't compare both version. Just wanted to ammend extra to Dr. Paul C. Graviano reviews, and personal point of view as I never seen the PS2 version.

This book is great, however, I still spotted many mistakes that should be fixed. Some of the hidden packages on the map are marked in wrong location. One of them is on the pier, when I went there but couldn't find it, actually it was on the OTHER pier further up. Some of the hidden packages discription & screenshots are misplaced. Don't rely too much or totally on this guide, use your imagination. it will be much more fun.

I use this guide to help me to locate hidden packages, rampages location, unique stunts, secrets and path for checkpoint-to-checkpoint missions. Which is very handy as reference.

Map arrangement could be improved, I hate to flip for description at the back of the page everytime I needs them. It would be better if the map placed on the left page; description on the right page.

However, the paper quality is kind of bad, which can easily peel off. And due to bad maps arrangement, causes too many flipping front and back vice versa, the pages actually peel off from book, and I actually forget about the main portion as I only need the map ;)

If you are buying this book, make sure you get it stamped before start reading.

Okay for anyone who thinks I may be writing an overly kind review, refer to the one I wrote for the Strategy guide for the PS2 version of this game! Needless to say I was somewhat underwhelmed by the book written for GTA 3 for the PS2.

HOWEVER!!! Everything that I conplained about and I mean EVERYTHING that was wrong with the PS2 version strategy guide was addressed and fixed in this version. Apparenly the guy who wrote this book played GTA 3 a lot and it showed in the incredibly detailed and powerfully enthusiastic manner in which the book was written. Where one map would have done okay as in the firt book, he gave you several, all with different colors and excellently labeled icons!

His depiction of mission levels including the Off Road missions (which by the way were all but completely ignored by his predecessor) were written with precision and step by step, easy to follow directions.

One example of the differences in the two books:

Hidden packages map: THe first strategy guide for the PS2 gives a map of each island and a little icon corresponding to the package location, and on the adjacent page a shore sentence telling you where each one is.

In this new book, there are not only maps and FAR MORE detailed explanations of the packages but little thumbnail screenshots showing EVERY package in it's "in game" location! Talk about going the extra mile!!!

While the first attermpt at a strategy guide is more of a glorified hints and tips manual that reads as if it were slapped together after the author went through the game once or twice quickly at most, this book is a bona fide walkthrough of every single facet of the game.

Oh and if you are buying GTA 3 on PS2 and not on the PC? BUY THIS GUIDE ANYWAY! Forget the PS2 version's guide, trust me! You just have to get used to the differences in the control scheme is all. But you will thank me for it later on. Hey if you need the control buttons, the game itself comes with a manual!

In short, while the PS2 guide did have its very limited usage, it becomes all but completely pointless in light of the bigger, better and far more enlightening strategy Guide that was written for the PC, and again this is true even if you only own the PS2 version and have no intention of buying the PC port of the game!

I can`t decide! this book is good and this book is bad! I think this book is moor like a file then a Nancy Drew Mystery. I think that if we wanted a file we could get a file. But, I have to say that this book really is quite good! ( sigh) I guess this book is a reall mix! I still recamend this! I hope you enjoy!

Nancy Drew's best friend Bess Marvin is an extra for the American Grand Opera company that has come to River Heights. Strange things begin happening when the sets and costumes are sabotaged. Enough of the summary, I'm sure you read the editorial above. Let me just say that this is the best paperback I've read in a really long time, and I have been reading Nancy Drew books since I was eight (don't bother to do the math! :) To the ghostwriter: Keep it up! You're the best Simon & Schuster has had in a long time! The plot was fantastic. There was suspense and romance, and a really interesting twist at the end. Actually, this book was more like one of the Files than a Mystery story. Buy this book! You won't be sorry!

Life in the eighteenth century for women was a strange mixture of education, enlightenment and restriction. The fact that some could travel so freely seems an anomaly given their general position in society legally - yet travel many did - and write about - they did too. Dolan has used mostly diaries and letters of female travellers for this large and well-researched book.

There is a lot of material which sheds new light (for me anyway) on the life of women travelling during this time but he tends to use the diaries and letters of those women who are already very well written about simply because there is such a wealth of material about them so Lady Bessborough, Lady Holland, Mary Montagu, Mary Wollstonecraft and Marianna Starke (to name the main ones) dominate the book. Perhaps there just isn't the same wealth of material about travel undiscovered and so the main writers are returned to. These women have certainly been used to define this age.

The advantage of this book is it really does illustrate (and very well) the life of the traveller, the difficulties and how they travelled etc - without getting caught up in all the other issues that litter their diaries/letters - so you have travel unadulterated. He has also split the book up into nine topical chapters including travel of Education and Improvement, Fashionable Society and Foreign Affairs - and my favourite chapter - Sea Breezes and Sanity.

There are also a number of good illustrations used - although I rather question some of the captions used - For instance using Vermeer's picture "Woman in Blue" - a picture of a woman reading a letter - to caption it "A woman absorbed in a letter from an absent lover..." seems to be both pushing the pathos and the aesthetic art interpretation a bit far.... couldn't it just as easily have been a note from the grocer? ...or her sister in the next town....or her mother?

Anyway - those niggles aside I think this is a great book to add depth to a library of anyone who is interested in this period.

As someone who is passionate about the 18th century France, I purchased Mr. Dolan's book with great excitement and many anticipations. I am happy to say, it was a purchase well made. Ladies of the Grand Tour is an interesting look into the minds and hearts of European Women living during a tulmultuous times. Mr. Dolan deftly weaves contrasting views on society (ex: Burke and Wollstonecraft sound off opposing opinions about my idol, Marie Antoinette) making for a well-balanced read.
Though I have never been a huge fan of the unctuous Wollstonecraft, I found her quotes in this book illuminating and thought-provoking.
Christopher Hibbert published a wonderful book titled THE GRAND TOUR which reads like an 18th Century Tour Book of several of the finest cities in Europe. As fantastic as that book is, it does not deliver the human drama, the emotions of the female travelers, that Dolan's masterpiece offers.
Bravo!

Leah Marie Brown,
Author of Willing Captive

This book is classic Lloyd Alexander -- funny, romantic, complicated and well-written, with likeable heroes and a fresh plotline. A lot of the stuff in it is in the mold of other books like the Prydain Chronicles and "Arkadians," but it never feels stale at all.

In the country of Hamelin-Loring, Sebastian is the fourth fiddler in the Baron's orchestra, and a mistake costs him his job and sends him wandering with nothing but his fiddle. He loses the fiddle to a gang of thugs, and gains a pet cat called Presto. When he tries to steal food he is rescued from death by a pleasant stranger called Nicholas, who takes Sebastian under his wing.

But they end up rescuing a girl dressed as a boy, who happens to be the Princess Isabel, who has run away from her castle so that she will not have to marry the Regent. To save themselves they will have to dodge the Regent's ruthless spies and soldiers, the disgruntled citizens of Hamelin-Loring, and possibly the mysterious rebel Captain -- with a ragtag circus troupe, a cursed violin, and a very smart cat as their allies.

"Marvelous Misadventures of Sebastian" is a charming, delightful story that shows Alexander at his best, with the exception of the Prydain Chronicles. Alexander keeps a good pace and storyline going while also including a few subtle lessons about pride, love, kindness, and a few things about music. (He himself plays the violin) He throws in a few twisting plot developments that will keep you guessing about the seemingly cursed violin, which plays for Sebastian as it did for no one else, and the mysterious Captain, whose identity is kept a secret for most of the book. His writing style is brisk and fast, with a lot of funny dialogue (especially Isabel's very verbose sentences) and charming characters (the various circus performers).

Sebastian is the nice-guy hero that Alexander does so well, while Isabel is a bit different from his other heroines, in that she has a major lesson to learn -- originally she's a bit snobby, naive and full of herself rather than full of common-sense. Nicholas is harder to pin down, since many of his actions really don't make sense at first; Presto is delightfully three-dimensional considering that he is a cat who never talks.

"Marvelous Misadventures of Sebastian" lives up to its title, and readers will definitely enjoy it. Especially if they play the violin.

The Marvelous Misadventures of Sebastian by Lloyd Alexander is a wonderful book by possibly the greatest children's author. This book has so much in it. It has a lot of adventure, romance, fantasy, humor, commentary on the human condition, and is even an allegory about the power of beauty on a persons life. It reminds the reader of classics like Anthony Hope's A Prisoner of Zenda and Raphael Sabatini's Sabatini (readers should also read all of Alexander's other novels). The Marvelous Misadventures of Sebastian certainly deserved its National Book Award and deserves to be regarded as a classic.

The story is really marvelous. It is about Sebastian who is an Eighteenth-Century fiddler in the imaginary kingdom of Hamelin-Loring. Unfortunate occurances force him to lose his place as a fiddler in a baron's personal orchestra. This starts the naive hero on his journey through life. Along the way, he joins a travelling acting troup and falls for a princess. Sebastian also comes across a magnificent fiddle which makes music beyond anyone's dreams. Sebastian also has the misfortune of gaining a large number of powerful enemies. Sebastian ends up having to face all of his difficulties with his friends and grow up along the way.

The Marvelous Misadventures of Sebastian is what all children's literature should strive to be. It presents a great story and contains depth. The reader learns countless lessons about life as Sebastian learns them in the novel. The novel speaks of love, growing up, evil, and even democratic governments. The novel also speaks of the power of beauty. In the novel, the supernatural fiddle almost brings Sebastian down as he is made drunk on its music.

I will end this review with Lloyd Alexander's own profound comments about the book. They might be irrelevent until after a person reads the novel, but I do not know if they are in new editions of the book and they should be read somewhere:

"The story isn't only about a musician. Fantasy should speak from and to the human condition, and I think each of us carries Sebastian's fiddle in one form or another. The question is: How closely dare we listen to it? How willing are we to commit ourselves to its music? Sebastian heard his own answer, as we must hear our own melodies."