The Leatherfolk Anthology is full of valuable information and first person accounts from within the BDSM community. This book goes beyond the scope of a how-to-manual with more theoretically based essays designed to inform people not directly involved with BDSM and challenge people in the leather community itself. This book is probably not for anyone who doesn't know what "vanilla sex" means or is other wise sexually non-deviant.

This book sat on my bookshelf for quite a while before I finally sat down and read it cover to cover. I was amazed and impressed by what I read. This anthology features essays by some of the most well-known authors in the leather community including Dorothy Allison, Geoff Mains, Mark Thompson, Guy Baldwin, Pat (now Patrick) Califia, Gayle Rubin, and Joseph Bean. The essays offer a "glimpse" into what "is" the leather community. Topics covered include leather history (from the 1940's through the 1990's, including an excellent essay on the Catacombs, a now legendary San Francisco male fisting and SM playspace), scene politics, spirituality, and numerous other topics about consensual power play.

As other reviewers have pointed out this book is not a "how to guide," but it is of equal value to "SM teaching manuals" in that it gives the reader a "feel" of what this community is about. Those looking to get a better idea of what it is to be in the leather community should read this book, not just for the historical and/or sociological essays here, but just to get the sense (that this anthology conveys) of what the leather scene is about.

The stories in this book communicate the history and a chronology of the SM and Leather community through various individual's experiences, thoughts and impressions. After reading Thompson's compilation I felt I had a deeper understanding and curiosity for the intricacies of the leather/SM community. The voices are from all over the spectrum and give insights into various multi-layered identities. The editor's determination to portray the chronology and the ancient origins of SM give important foundations for the contemporary commentaries by members of the community. I am a student in a Gay and Lesbian Ethnography class and this was my favorite book over the entire semester and I learned so much through the varied perspectives and historical foundations. It inspired discussions and reflections on sex and how it tends to function socially and personally outside of the SM community and how there is a lot to be learned from that community regarding communication and respect. I must also mention that the piece by Dorothy Allison was one of the most passionate, poetic and evocative excerpts I have read from a lesbian perspective!

I really liked this book. Disregard the storyline teaser about the handyman who's good with his hands. This book was much more than that. The focus was kept tight on a few main issues, rather than stuffing the story full of plots and subplots which can never be fully developed in such a restricted format. More importantly, the lead characters were just really nice people - easy to identify with and wish the best.

The author allowed us into the thought processes of both characters, giving both equal value. Suzanne and Greg were both interesting people who had unexpected depth. The gradual unveiling of their true natures and dreams was done nicely. The dialogue was well written. The sex was graphic and inventive, rather than the standard euphemistic presentation. Their romance was lovely. It was a nice story, worth reading.

This was a very steamy read!!! Good solid book!

I really liked THE NIGHTS BEFORE CHRISTMAS. Not necessarily because it was a hot, erotic book, but because it was different from other books out there. Usually the hero is well to do and has a successful career. The hero in this story is a handyman. You need something fixed, Greg will fix it.
Suzanne, the heroine in the story, has something that needs fixing...her heart. She has broken up with her boyfriend and needs a jump-start. Her friend suggests Greg, hinting that he is very good in bed. Suzanne has been secretly attracted to Greg anyway, and the suggestion to have an affair with him proved too hard to resist. Greg, also secretly attracted to her, can't resist either.
The resulting affair is hot and very sensual. The book lives up to the Heat logo for the Temptation line. Along the way, Greg and Suzanne fall in love with another, but don't admit it to each other. The resulting break up and reunion is typical fare, but up until then, this story was fast paced and hard to put down.
Vicki Lewis Thompson is a veteran writer for Harlequin Books, but she is fairly new to me. She is fast becoming an auto buy author for me.
For a hot book to warm you on a cold night, pick up THE NIGHTS BEFORE CHRISTMAS. Just be sure your guy is close by. You may want to try out some handyman techniques on him.

As others have said, definitely read other Thompson books first ("The Killer Inside Me" or "The Criminal" would be excellent choices), but this is a great book. By modern standards, it's tame. The title seems an exageration, given Thompson's self-censoring repression of anything truly ribald, profane or shocking ... though maybe this is more a reflection of where pop culture has come today than of Thompson. That said, the book is extremely funny in places & a great insight into the writer. For the truth behind Thompson's stories, try Robert Polito's excellent biography, "Savage Art," which is a must for anyone who gets really interested in Thompson anyway. If you read many Thompson books, there's a good chance you'll get seriously interested.

This is a good book, but you get more out of it if you've read a couple of his other novels before this one. It's kind of slow paced in the beginning(his childhood)but picks up with his bellhopping and bootlegging.Solid.

I don't think anyone could dispute that Thompson has taken many liberties in retelling his own story. Even so, the stories are well-written and wildly entertaining. The fabrications don't detract from the overall enjoyment, they enhance it. You find in these pages the roots of many Thompson characters. That is a large part of the fun. The chapters are very short, giving Bad Boy an addictive quality. You'll likely finish it quickly and wish that there was more(there is: Rough Neck). Bad Boy is funny, twisted, ugfly and occasionally tender.

Jim Thompson created an image for himself. This is merely the autobiography of that self-made image. If you want more fact than fiction you should check out one of his biographies. I wouldn't recommend this as a first Thompson book. Get familiar with him first...and then check out this wonderful book.

This book is a bit outdated, given the gender mix in the press corps now. But it still provides a good insight into the minds of reporters, especially those covering national politics.

This book is an account of the 1972 presidential campaign. Crouse's account set the standard for books about presidential campaigns; a standard that has not yet been beaten.

The 1972 campaign involved the first real attempt by campaigns to spin-doctor the press and American people during a campaign. Previously, we left that to the already elected.

The 1972 campaign also marked the first real attempt by networks to create stars out of reporters. This network tactic has continued unabated until the present. In fact, recent studies have reported that reporters now receive much more air time than the actual candidates.

Crouse's book is essential reading for political junkies as well as history buffs. The 1972 election was truly a watershed event which continued through the Watergate era.

Crouse's groundbreaking book on the 1972 Presidential campaign was reveolutionary in the way it covered the reporters who covered the election. This was the first step in to turning these reporters into "stars" in their own right. Who can doubt today that the visibility one gets from being a reporter on a successful Presidential campaign can transform you into a highly paid and visible "talking head." Crouse's book is well written, informative and quite amusing, which is appropriate since he spent the campaign hanging out with the immortal Hunter S. Thompson. A must for political junkies.

Because of the title The Femme Fatale, Famous Beauties Then and Now, I was expecting a sort of photographic history book. I would be very interested in seeing how the image of a Femme Fatale has changed over the years, from the glamourous pencil browed vixens of the 1920's to the much more volupt modern beauties. (Think pulp fiction novel cover vs. Catherine Zeta Jones) I would have liked to read up on how even though what is considered beautiful (and dangerous) has changed, the character of the Femme Fatale predominates our culture, in literature and film.
I really got the wrong book. Instead of what I was expecting, this book features celebrities made over to appear like they would in different time periods, and the photos are high quality, oversized and printed on slick glossy paper. Some of the transformations are very well done (the girl on the front cover is Julia Roberts, believe it or not) So the book is not without merit, but they could have done a lot more.
If I wanted to see pictures of Britney Spears, I'd just read People magazine.

Much, if not all this material has been published elsewhere, so you may have seen it. However, it has not been presented together organized around the interesting concept that Julia Roberts, Elizabeth Hurley, Susan Sarandon, Britney Spears and a host of beautiful women are paying homage to women of a previous age. (Yes, that Britney Spears).

In an interview with a French magazine, the photographer described himself as awed or intimidated when Susan Sarandon showed up. He only relaxed when she took charge and he just responded to what he saw. The mutual respect shown by the professionals on both sides of the camera is what makes these images good.

This is not just a catalog of beatiful pictures of contemporary icons playing dress up. If it is authentic it makes a convincing statement about the power and stature of these famous modern women and a lot of not so famous all around us.

If you know a young woman who wants to be in the next book like this, show it to her. I have handed it to several young women I've photographed recently. "Oh, my God! Britney Spears is beautiful." "That can't be Claudia Schiffer." "Elizabeth Hurley scares me!" Isabella Rossellini as Betty Page is the show stopper, however.

The photography is as good as it gets, but the material added to hang it all together weakens the book. Some of it is completely contrived and bogus.

Next time let the women and the photographer do their work and let the readers draw the conclusions. Meanwhile a lot of wannabe photographers and young models have some catching up to do.

I have been a fetish model for almost two years, and a close photographer friend and myself are kicking off a new project which showcases high end fetish photographs. While my husband was searching for a poetry book in a Barnes and Nobles store, I snuck to the photography section to see if I could be inspired for this new peoject. My eye fell on this book immediately. I looked at no other book! The photographs are simply too beautiful for words, and I was heartbroken by the cover price... Reluctantly, I put it back on the shelf. When I came home however, I searched your site immediately and found a used copy in mint condition .... Obviously, I was nothing less than thrilled!

This book is based on the photography of hair, and showcases original photographs from the 1800's as samples. Serge Normant then re-creates these by using well known models and celebraties of today, dressing them in period clothing, changing their looks dramatically.

If you are a hairdresser, model, or photographer, you MUST own this book!

This book serves as only a general intro. to film, but even at the level of general intro., Bruce Kawin's How Movies Work or Louis Giannetti's Understanding Movies is better than this one in many respects, particularly Kawin's.

Bordwell is often hailed as the giant of cinema studies. Yes, the guy has watched literally a lot of movies, but apart from his Narration in Fiction Film, which is a respectable work in its deployment of Russian Formalism, his other stuff is just commonsensical view. I personally don't find his books argumentative enough. Planet Hong Kong, for instance, although well-researched, is an extremely limited view of Hong Kong cinema and pays no attention to understand the philosophical complexities of Wong Kar-wai's movies, not to mention his ignorance of some truly innovative directors such as Fruit Chan, whose postcolonial sensibility has yet to be acknowledged.

His recent book Post-theory is anti-psychoanalytic, a move that is a disgrace to students/lovers of film theory. I am not saying that only psychoanalysis (if you read Joan Copjec's essay Orthopsychic Subject in Read My Desire, you will know that a lot of people thinking they use psychoanalysis properly to "do" film studies are wrong) and other structural / poststructural discourses are the only ways to understand films, but they are more academic and serious ways to make an argument that would expand our horizons. The film world is now more interested in Deleuze and perhaps other Lacanian concepts such as the real, Bordwell's work is really dated and anti-intellectual.

This book is useful as a university textbook, but is also excellent for filmgoers who would like to understand a bit more than the average audience.

Teaching film requires you to look at film. The second week of my film course (they are always night classes that meet once a week so that you have enough time to actually screen something) I always drag in about 50 videotapes to work through the basic vocabulary of the cinema, covering everything from the close-up ("Queen Christina") to the crane-shot ("Gone With the Wind"), from tracking shots ("Touch of Evil") to the jump cut ("2001: A Space Odyssey"). Film textbooks face an inherent limitation in turns of what they can present on the printed page. However, "Film Art: An Introduction" by David Bordwell and Kristin Thompson is the proverbial exception to the rule. This is the preeminent introductory film textbook because it has literally hundreds of frames from classic and lesser known films, used to illustrate the key concepts of mise-en-scene, cinematography and editing.

"Film Art" is divided into five main sections: (I) Types of Filmmaking, Types of Films" covers how films are produced and the basic types/genres of films. (II) "Film Form" examines both narrative and nonnarrative formal systems in film, using "Citizen Kane" as a case study for narrative form. (III) "Film Style" is the main section of the textbook, dealing with the shot in terms of both mise-en-scene and cinematography, how editing relates shot to shot, and the function of sound. This section concludes with an analysis of film style in five diverse films. (IV) "Critical Analysis of Film" provides four distinct critical frames of reference and analysis of various films: Classical Narrative Cinema in "His Girl Friday," "North by Northwest" and "Do The Right Thing"; Narrative Alternatives to Classical Filmmaking in "Breathless" and "Tokyo Story"; Documentary Form in "High School" and "Man with a Movie Camera"; and From, Style and Ideology in "Meet Me in St. Louis" and "Raging Bull" (and if that last combination does not give you an indication of the breadth of the examples used by Bordwell and Thompson, nothing will). The textbook concludes with a bibliography, glossary and list of helpful websites.

There are two major strengths to this textbook. First, its complete coverage of cinematic concepts. I think that everyone learns how to "read" a film, but the vast majority of people would not know that the baptism sequence in "The Godfather" is a prime example of "American montage." You read this textbook and you will become aware of things you already understood on a more abstract level. Additionally, they do not stop at first or second level terms, but get into the absolute nuts and bolts of cinema. Second, the use of specific examples from numerous films to demonstrate these concepts. Unless you have a film textbook that has a CD-Rom with miniature film clips, you cannot find one superior to what Bordwell and Thompson offer up here. Furthermore, their use of examples clearly demonstrates their formidable knowledge of the field. The only downside to using this textbook in your film class is that you might have a problem convincing your students you know half as much as this pair.

This book is about a little girl named Maria Isabel.She came from Puerto Rico. There were two girls named Maria in her class so her teacher called her Mary. When her teacher called her Mary she didn't pay attention. Her teacher got mad and she wouldn't let her be in the play. Maria tells her parents that she is going to be in the play. What will her parents say when they don't find her in the play? Will Maria still get in trouble? I like the book because it has a happy ending. The author is trying to tell us that if you have a wish and you believe it,it may come true.

I read this book in college as a part of a book club required by the school. I loved this book as soon as I read it. It can teach teachers how to be culturally sensative to all their students. A name is a very important possession to most of us. It is an only possession to some children. It is also good for those teachers who are stuck thinking that children "should just learn our language" when in reality it is a long process. I would like to recommend this book to those who are teaching children ESL and those regular classroom teachers who have ESL students in their rooms. I loved it!

This book is about a girl named Maria Isabel that came to the United States from Puerto Rico to a new school.She doesn't like her class because there are two Marias so her teacher calls her Mary.That name gets her in trouble because Maria thinks that the teacher is calling on someone else.The teacher gets mad and Maria can't be in the play. She gets to write about her greatest wish. What will her wish be? I liked this book because it was cool and fun. It was cool because I liked Maria's imagination. She said a trash can full of snow looked like an enchanted tunnel. I think what the author is trying to tell you is that teachers should call you by your real name, not the name that they want to call you.

Soul Feast may be wonderful for Sunday School or other group studies, but readers who are looking for a resource for truly deepening their spiritual lives will find this book long on nice-sounding ideas and warm fuzzy feelings, but short on real content and suggestions for practice. It is a watered down version of Richard Foster's seminal work Celebration of Discipline.

Soul Feast can be helpful, but don't think you're getting a meaty guide. Every time it starts to seem meaty, there's a footnote to Foster. Buy the real thing.

Countless books have been written on Christian spirituality from a theological, intellectual and historical perspective. All of them have strengths which deepens our appreciation of spirituality. Spirituality, however, is to be lived and practiced in the lives of believers. Thus these books fall short in emphasizing spiritual practice. Soul Feast corrects this by inviting the reader to enter the spiritual through the practice of the spiritual disciplines. It is through these disciplines that we can live out a spiritual life. This is a balanced text which thouroughly integrates theory and practice with a greater emphasis on the latter. Protestants, whose background doesn't include the spiritual discipline will be greatful in rediscovering them. Spiritual direction and hospitality are just a few of them discussed in this valuable work.

Soul Feast is one of the few books I've had to read for a class that really captured and held my interest. I loved it so much I didn't sell it back at the end of the semester. It is wonderful for someone like me who wants to explore a deeper prayer life but is afraid to or doesn't know quite how to go about it. With this book, it becomes easy to explore many different kinds of prayer. I found it to be richly fulfilling, and it is good for reading over and over.

This series of books on motorcycles and cars tends to be pretty good for the money. It has color and black and white photos. Ducati in particular is a bike best seen in color, though, and the book could have used more color. The text is short, sweet, and useful. The book will give you a good education and is a worthy addition to your Ducati library.

... it's all illustrated beautifully in color. I bought it used here for $$$ and would gladly have paid new price. Of all the books I've read on Ducati, this one was the only one to tell it like it is regarding the poor business practices of the Italians and the shoddy build quality of Ducati motorcycles. A fresh perspective that wasn't sugar coated or mired in myth. Truly a great read, or worth it for the pictures alone.

This book is an excellent addition to the library of any motorcycle enthusiast, especially Ducati. But anyway, it has very good photos and very interesting text.

Buyers beware of the hardback version of E. P Thompson's classic work The Making of the English Working Class. Firstly, note that the hardback is a 1966 edition. This means that is does not have Thompson's 1968 postscript, nor his 1980 preface (it probably also misses the author's 1968 revisions, but I have not checked this). Secondly, this is not an organically produced hardback: the picture on the cover is glued on, and the spine does not have the author's name (instead, it has the name 'Peter Smith" - so who the hell is Peter Smith?). All in all, a shocker for the purists, or any serious scholar.

One of America's best small independent publishing houses is---Peter Smith of Gloucester, Massachusetts! The individual's name is also the name of the company, which explains the incorrect ID by the earlier reviewer.

For many years Peter Smith (man & company) has provided reprints of essential scholarly and other works in affordable hardcover editions. The only way to continue this helpful service is by keeping production costs low, which occasionally leads to the regrettable results detailed below. The resulting profit margins are too low to interest the goliaths of the book world, but scholars and other customers (not to mention libraries with tight acquisition budgets) are profoundly grateful for what is perhaps as much a public service as a business decision. Why not order their catalog and give 'em some much-needed business? You'll probably spot other worthwhile classics....For instance, my library includes James Malin, "Grassland of North America" and Wesley Frank Craven, "Soil Exhaustion as a Factor in the Agricultural History of Virginia & Maryland," two fine early environmental histories that are virtually impossible to find apart from Peter Smith's editions.

I hope this isn't being too hard on the earlier reviewer, but I thought the matter needed clarification. The earlier reviewer's disappointment surely reflects his admiration for EP Thompson's work, which I certainly share---it's arguably the greatest history of the 20th century.

Thompson's book is THE ground-breaking work of social history for our century, pioneering in the "history of everyday life" (also taken up by Foucault, de Certeau, Davis, etc.); the history of working people; and the consideration of culture in the past. Unlike most other social history it is also brilliantly written and accessible. Buy it.