This is great if you want to expand your creativity. The book is easy to follow and makes sense of the cards. If you follow the directions you will find it to be very relaxing - and a little surprising. Whenever I see something new in the cards I feel like a little of my creativity is coming back. Hopefully, continued use will make me more creative and aware. In the meantime, it's just a lot of fun.

This book really gives the reader a sense of what Hamilton and Jefferson were REALLY like. They had disputes and were mistrustful of eachother. There wasn't any school-boy stuff going on here. I recommend this book if you're interested in history and are in college. Good book!

"Keepers of the Flame" is wonderful, telling the stories behind literary legends. How Shelley died, whether there were many or few witnesses at his cremation on the Italian shore, despite the various renditions. How twentieth-century researchers finally uncovered Boswell's vast hoard of papers, including parts of the Johnson biography ms, in spite of all his relations down through the decades exhibiting their best Victorianisms and disclaiming him and his papers. (After all, he had over a dozen cases of self-reported venereal disease.) The importance, other than historical curiosity, is that we learn Boswell edited the famous Johnsonisms, the conversations, etc. He was much more than an eavesdropper with a fine memory; he was an artist, just as he boasted. (And did he boast! Why not? He wrote the best biography ever written.) Hamilton's subjects range from Donne to Plath and Larkin. The only reason for the 4 rating is that Richard Altick covered much the same ground fifty years ago in "The Scholar Adventurers." But Hamilton is one of our best critical ears and eyes, not to be ignored.

This is a story of a poor but attractive and accomplished art historian who romps through the bedrooms and boardrooms of the art and entertainment establishments of Manhattan, with romantic side trips to Europe, Mexico and Brazil. The protagonist finds himself suddenly in the lap of luxury by the simple expedient of marrying a wealthy heiress. His world unravels when he cannot resist the allure of an alpha female who habitually brings men to ruin including the protagonist. The plot is minimal. The great fun of this book is found in the author's keen observation and description of the morals and mores of the book's predatory characters: social climbers, the landed gentry, and the people who serve them, from gay museum directors to streetwise apartment doormen. The scenes depicting them seducing, using, entertaining and abusing each other are delicious and funny. The exotic characters are rendered in sharp relief and with the instantly recognizable wit of a New Yorker cartoon. The novel's chief flaw is the unlikely sentimental ending, but it is entirely forgivable given the book's romantic bent, particularly toward the protagonist with whom the author seems to identify strongly. Great entertainment offering hours of forgetfulness.

This is a first rate book describing the lighthouses of this region. Each lighthouse is given a chapter with good descriptions of the station and it's history. There is also an very good explanation of fresnel lenses and modern optics which lighthouses use. I highly recommend it for any one who loves lighthouses.

J. Phillip Langelleir, the co-author has produced a slew of photo studies with incisive text on the life and times of the U.S. soldier, and his Spanish and Mexican californio predecessors also. His specialty is in gathering together contemporary source material for the illustrations. This method has the great virtue of showing what was what and when. But if no photos are available, then something may be omitted. All of these books are vertical studies covering a period of years. Though sometimes the illustrations serve to identify individual items of equipment, these works are not intended for that purpose. They are not catalogs intended for materiel collectors. They are of such a length and of such a level of detail that they will serve the purposes of the general reader with a curiousity about what grandaddy did in WW II or great great great grandaddy in the Civil War and what he looked like and how he lived. This is not to say that the specialist such as myself cannot find useful nuggets herein. I can. I use these for general surveys of periods I do not study in detail, such as the Civil War, and the War With Mexico, etc. And to look up the odd facts. I have yet to be disappointed with any of them.

Virginia Hamilton takes her readers on an adventure-filled ride in The Magical Adventures of Pretty Pearl. This book was quite enjoyable because of the mix of fantastic, mythological, and historical content. My imagination was immediately captured by Pretty Pearl's "voice" in black dialect as she described her wonderful life as a god-child. The story begins when she comes down from Mount Highness in Africa to live among the humans and use the four special spirits given to her by her brother, John de Conquer, to help mankind. She witnesses the trials of the American slaves, tries to combat Hunger, and lives in Promise, a hidden place for Native Americans and escaped slaves. Younger readers will like Pearl's willingness to try to fix "adult things" and older readers will enjoy recognizing Hamilton's frequent distribution of historical figures throughout the story. We can all find something to identify with in this story because it emphasizes that though we may all look different, we are still the same in our needs and beliefs. The ending of the story surprised me and left me with a great respect for Hamilton's storytelling skills. I strongly recommend this book.

"Poor Catherine Sturtevant! Widowed after only five months of marriage! [Now] she and her ten year old son are oppressed by her mother-in-law, who has guardianship over the boy. The boy meets their new neighbor, Robert Mandeville, just back from India, and Mandeville takes up their defense. Their story is heartwarming and exceptionally well told." --Rendezvous . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . "Gold Five Stars" --Heartland. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . "'The Oriental Garden'is a beautifully told story of the strength love lends to those who are willing to reach for it. . . A shining debut for Ms. Linton, and hopefully only a taste of more to come!" --Lori Wright, The Literary Times

The Creation Myth of the Zuni Pueblo is fascinating to say the least. This book begins with a short preface relating the current location and brief history of the Zuni. The introduction tells us of Frank Hamilton Cushing's life and research among the Zuni. The body of the Work sets forth Editor Barton Wright's versions of the original Myths. Mr. Wright also illustrates the Myths with original and descriptive scratchboard etchings. The original Myths were recorded by Frank Hamilton Cushing in the late 1800's, however, none of Mr. Cushing's particular style of writing is demonstrated in this book. An excellent modern interpretation follows the immediate Myths telling what the myths are describing and how they were formed. Because the Myths were recorded from Zuni Oral Tradition the possibility of misinterpretation is always present.

The book also includes two helpful appendices. In the first appendix Mr. Wright gives us a list of the sources of the Myths he has presented. The second appendix is a glossary of Zuni and Hopi names and terms. The Glossary falls short by not including some of the very basic terms and concepts used in the Myths. This might encourage an interested reader to use the bibliography at the end of the book, however, the lack of basic terminology could be frustrating for the casual reader. Although well done, the book is not for someone without a fundamental knowledge of the Southwest Native American history.

Account translated from a manuscript that was only discovered in the 80's. It records the descent of the Incas from the creation of the world through the conquest by the Spaniards. The focus is kept on the Inca's (kings) and their ceremonies and conquests from one of their descendents (whom the author used as his source), who also lived through the conquest. This is a good book to read after reading Discovery and Conquest of Peru, recently published, since you get behind the thoughts of the Spanish in the one and the Incas in the other. In this case we get those first impressions the natives had when they first encountered the Spanish and their horses. Contains maps, illustrations, and glossary.