I used this guide on a recent vacation in Salerno. It is by far the best guide book I have seen for covering the really interesting, small towns south of Naples. It is also very interesting and frank about Naples' fading allure as a tourist destination itself. Highly recommended.

Another outstanding volume in this series. It is chock full of information. The book is accurate and up to date on major subjects including History, Culture, Sites and Attractions. The maps are superb. It is a must for all travellers who, like myself, are interested in the history of the destination as well as its must see sites. I highly reccommend this book to all prospective travellers to Naples and vicinity.

The book was listed in the Library Journal's Best Reference List 2002 and as one of the PSLA YA Top Forty Reference 2002 Titles.

In An Influential Fashion isn't for your casual home or art library collection, but will delight collections solid in fashion history and design. Over a hundred sixty fashion designers and retailers from many countries are profiled in entries that cover the personality's lasting influence on the industry. Commercial fashion, licensing agreements, and marketing are all explored in an exciting survey.

Buzzards Bay is a pocket of salt water on the southern Massachusetts coast line. Logs Of The Dead Pirates Society: A Schooner Adventure Around Buzzards Bay is an absorbing account of a routine cruise on Buzzards Bay that became a rite of passage and a deeply personal quest for Captain Randall Peffer. He ruminates on the bay's history, and presents unusually keen and articulate insights on the bay's islands, coves, towns and townspeople. Part travelog, part biography, part regional history, Logs Of The Dead Pirates Society is the memorable, engaging, highly recommended account of the schooner Sarah Abbot, her crew of high school students studying marine biology, and Captain Randall S. Peffer.

For anyone interested in Buzzard's Bay, Massachuesetts, whether a cruiser or landlubber, this is a must read. Peffer, and his crew explore the bay of today and yesteryear aboard a traditional sailing schooner. The historical perspectives of the bay were interesting, but even more engaging were his tales of the daily life of he and his crew of "dead pirates"(actually high school students seeing the bay for the first time), and the characters they meet on their adventures. In the final chapter Peffer manages to draw together beautifully his personal and historical exploration with the lives of his student crew. Stir it up!

This is a GREAT book! It's my personal favorite!! The main girl is Luna, and she lives on a beach in California with her parents, who own a surf shop. Luna's mom is a three-time surf champion of the world, and Luna feels pressured to get 1st place in a surf contest. Her family is also running a surf camp, in which Luna and her friends help with. Luna meets a guy, David, that she starts to really like... only he hates surfing! Luna tries to teach him how to surf, but throuhout the book has some major conflicts... This book makes you feel like you are really surfing with Luna! To find out if luna wins the contest and becomes friends with David, get this book! You won't beleive the ending!!!

Surprise! This book is primo not-on-your-summer-reading-list material! I mean, at first I'm like, A Roxy Girl book series? Give me a break. Maybe they make a T-shirt but what do they know about writing? But whoever Francess Lantz is, she knows how to write AND surf! So when she writes about chicks who rip and get tubed you feel like you're there getting your toes wet! It's also nice that the main character's love interest is a guy who doesn't surf instead of what you'd expect, like some buffed up, hard-drinking macho waterman. There are supposed to be a bunch more in the series so I know what I'm doing this summer when it's a closed out day.

This book is used in virtually every university and conservatory in the US, Europe, and S. America. Glise is the first to compile a "how to" for teachers. Has gotten brilliant reviews world-wide. As a professional guitarist/professor, this work is required for ALL my students.
Glise is one of the "Gods" of the classical guitar - on stage, on recordings and in the teaching studio.
Anyone who even PRETENDS to play the guitar MUST HAVE THIS BOOK!!!!

In the words of Les Cahiers de la Guitar (Paris), "...Glise is the first to propose many of these questions... this book is a goldmine of information and reflections and I strongly recommend it!" (Les Cahiers de la Guitare, Paris, no. 67, 1998).

This book is currently in use as the primary textbook for classical guitar pedagogy classes in the US, Canada, Australia, Brazil and France and has recieved praise by virtually every guitar magazine in the world.

The first textbook of its kind, it covers a vast wealth of subjects and information from anatomical information to performance and career develoment for the classical guitarist....

Gatley did an amazing job putting this book together. It is comprehensive, user-friendly and fun. One can tell from this book that Gatley is a remarkable TEACHER of the bass in addition to being a professional muscian.

when i got my first copy of cjbb i thaught that it would be just another beginners book with no indepth aproach to its contenents. i was totaly wrong this book aproaches the methode of playing jazz bass in a real creative way which will help many people who are intrigued by jazz to starts playing it without feeling confused. the book has an exellent layout and it chapters are very well organized to fully prepare you in this style.It covers walking bass lines chords theory soloing over chords how to play jazz prgoression and how to improvise on them.Earl Gately has put a mamoth job into one single book ,if you really want to play jazzbass this is the book to buy

After studying with Mr. Bredice for a few years, I can say hands down this is one of the best methods out there for mastering the fretboard. In his words, "If you can do all the exerscises in this book you are literally a virtuoso."

As a guitarist I have sought out various books to help me in my endevour to learn the guitar. This book is astounding!

I have always wanted to just pick up a guitar and play, or play lead while another person is playing rhythem.

I highly recommend this book for anybody seeking to learn scales, chords, and just about anything else!

I love it!

I'm sure you will too!

What an excellent book! I am so glad I bought it! Don't be put off like some people I've known by the fact that it is published by Mel Bay. This book most definitely will teach you plenty of banjo picking skills, music theory, techniques, scales, chords, roll patterns etc. When it says "Complete" the author and publisher weren't kidding. Mel Bay also offers an accompanying cassette or CD so you can actually hear the songs in book.

The book starts off explaining both traditional music notation and tablature. Every song and/or exercise throughout the book will have both traditional and tab notation. There are sections on how to tune, pictures explaining how to wear and use the thumb and fingerpicks, key signatures, time values of notes, chords, playing pinch chords and rolls as accompanyment to another instrument or singer, introduction of the various notes per each string on traditional music notation (with it's accompanying tab underneath) and various strum patterns.

The next section introduces the all important roll patterns for Scruggs-style bluegrass picking. So you get forward roll patterns (ex: forward roll during chord changes), backward rolls, thumb-alternating rolls, square rolls, combination rolls, etc. Mr. Griffin also gives tips on daily practice patterns and exercises. He gives advice such as, "I urge you to go over these patterns every time you pick up your banjo for the next six months, no matter what else you are working on. Many students learn one or two rolls really well but still slow down and struggle when others occur in solos. These patterns MUST become 'second-nature' or 'in-the-fingers,' so to speak, if you wish to become a good banjo player."

Later chapters introduce slides, hammer-ons and pull-offs, fills,endings and use of a capo. An entire section is devoted to solos although he advises not to learn this section until you have thoroughly mastered all the roll patterns from the previous chapter.

After this chapter there is a new major section to the book complete with its own introduction which suggests to me that at one time this one book must have been published in 2 smaller volumes. Anyway, Section 2 starts getting into more advanced banjo playing. It opens with various alternate tunings for the banjo then moves to chord studies and music theory such as the I,IV,V and I progression, moveable chord forms, dominant and diminished sevenths, etc. This is the section of the book that also begins teaching how to play higher up on the neck and also to my surprise and delight a detour into banjo playing for Blues,Boogie music and then into "melodic" or "chromatic" (aka fiddle-scale) picking styles . Mr. Griffin admits they are only brief introductions since entire books can and have been written that teach these styles of banjo playing. However he provides enough to broaden your playing skills and give you an idea to see if you like it enough to want to learn more elsewhere.

This second major section also introduces an "Advanced Solo Song Selection". He starts off with the advice, "Be sure to read the next four pages on chord diagrams, circled tab numbers, the choke, and chimes before you start playing the solos. This information will help you understand the solos much better. ..."Many of these songs have both high and low versions [i.e. high on the neck and low on the neck playing positions] with a mixture of "Scruggs" and "Melodic".

I've commented mostly about the lessons packed in this book but I would also like to mention the song selection. This book is chock full of traditional songs. Some I didn't recognize but many I did. Here are some of the songs included: Cripple Creek, Old Time Religion, When the Saints Go Marching In, Yellow Rose of Texas, Wabash Cannonball, She'll Be Coming 'Round the Mountain, Old Joe Clark, Oh Susanna, Ballad of Jesse James, Home Sweet Home, Battle Hymn of the Republic, Wildwood Flower, Will the Circle Be Unbroken, Salty Dog, Londonderry Air, Nuegrass, St. Anne's Reel and Buffalo Gals. As I said, that's only some of the songs included. In short most of them are traditionals that most people will have heard already many times before so they'll know how the songs sound even without the added benefit of the accompanying cassette/CD.

In my opinion those traditional songs sound great with fast banjo picking to back them up! It completely cast them in a new light for me once I started practicing them with the various rolls and chord progressions, solos and fills I learned from this book. Anyone interested in learning how to play the banjo should find this book helpful.

This book starts at the beginning and describes tuning and techniques and is interspersed with advice on what to practice. It explains both tabulature and normal music notation and has a variety of songs progressing from easy to difficult. There are many exercises on various rolls and accompaniment techniques. This is a good first book and will also challenge a banjo player for a long time.

In 1794, when Rosalie Stier was 16, her Belgian family fled the Terror and came to America. When her family returned to Europe after her marriage, she wrote direct, intimate letters--over 230!-- covering all aspects of her domestic circle, her house and garden, politics, and society.

She pulls no punches: she hated "Tommy Jeff" and "Queen Dolla lolla" Madison; thought American might benefit from a king; made major investment decisions for her family; described the "rockets' red glare," (glimpsed from her bedroom window); and oversaw her daughter Caroline's debut into society.

An inspiring figure from this often-overlooked period, she gives the lie to those who believe that plantation mistresses-or housewives-did nothing but take care of a house. Her letters give the true picture of the all-consuming details: addressing business cares (she taught herself bookkeeping), educating her nine children; looking after her many servants and slaves; and (despite the household) surviving her isolation.

Her letters were discovered in the 1970s, when her family's centuries-old manuscript collection was cataloged. Rosalie's voice, buried for almost two centuries, is heard again.

This book is the letters of Rosalie Stier Calvert, mistress of a manor house in Maryland in the early 19th century. She was an emigre from Antwerp who eventually came to feel herself American. She married into one of the first families in Maryland. In addition to running her household and bearing 9 children, she handled her father's and brother's not inconsiderable investments. In her letters home, Rosalie made interesting observations on the politics and social scene of the day, as well as telling her family about her day-to-day life. Rosalie almost comes alive in the pages of this book.

Great collection of characters and plot twists, headed by a private detective that most anybody can relate to. He's lost his partner, he's beaten up a lot, but he never loses hope, or his drive to solve this case (even if it means getting beaten up again).

Chandler also makes the setting come alive. I've never been to the Pacific Northwest, but his vivid descriptions put me there. This book sucks you in, and makes you keep turning the pages until the answers to all the puzzles are revealed.

An excellent first novel - I'm looking forward to the sequel already!

Excellent edge-of-your-seat fiction. I loved the setting. Somehow, placing the action in a small town (as opposed to Chicago or LA) made the drama a bit more real. Especially fun to read if you know the area in which the novel is set (southern Puget sound).