Scooby Doo and his friends are invited by Santa Clause to the North Pole where they are told of Santa's missing sack of presents. Of course, the gang sents out to find the missing sack, where all clues lead to Santa's Bake shop, a very tempting bakery for all who love sweets. In the end, the story does a good job convincing kids that too much candy can get the better of you! My 4 1/2 year old, who is big on sweets, loves this book and its attractive scratch and sniff stickers which keeps kids involved throughout the story. I highly recommend this one!

Many English versions of the Lotus Sutra are translated from a Chinese translation of the original Sanskrit version. Regardless of how well they were translated into English, the quality of these versions depends heavily on the quality of the Chinese translation. As many such translations were either done by merchants who didn't know that much about religion or by monks who didn't know much about the other language, there are quite a few bad versions of the Lotus Sutra.

This is not one of them. Not only was it translated from the best known of the Chinese versions (that of Kumarajiva), but Hurvitz also consulted the original Sanskrit to see where the versions differed. While the main text comes entirely from the Chinese, there are nearly 70 pages of endnotes on the Sanskrit, in which Hurvitz either comments on differences between that and the Chinese, or gives a translation of Sanskrit passages that don't appear in Kumarajiva's translation.

What this means for the text is that it is one of the most readable versions of the Lotus Sutra and, at the same time, one of the most informative.

I thought this was going to be some refined story of the Bard through the eyes of his dog. Instead, I got a randy romp of domestic fights and love, told in "canine Elizebethan" form. Wow what fun ! Some of the lines Mr Hooker (Bill's dog) I still like to use. This is a fun book

When I first heard about this book from a friend I had my doubts about it. Could it really teach me to sight read with accuracy? The answer is yes. I recommend this book to anyone who wants to sight read with ease. It was so simple. All I did was follow the exercises in the book and within a few weeks i was sight reading.

Monumental
(In the sense that Walcott's eternal busy-ness is a monument to human endeavour and achievement. And it's a loooong book.)

A necessary first biography
(In the sense that it sets out the chronology of a life, but in no way sufficiently addresses any one of Walcott's multiplicity of interests. This biography is data for other biographers, historians and historians of science to use for reference.)

Unfulfilling
(In the sense that a casual fan of the Burgess Shale fossils will be unsatisfied with respect to the explication of their significance to science, and to the history of science.)

Tearful
(In the sense of having read 1022 pages [including the first volume of Walcott's early years] of what is essentially a daily diary, and knowing that those diary entries would ultimately cease with his death. The day-by-day, season-by-season chronology develops a rhythm and momentum--a stateliness--into which the reader finds himself or herself drawn. Speaking for myself, I was unprepared for any of it to end. [Thank you, Dr Y!])

Readers need to be patient with Yochelson. He explicitly discusses his approach (page 435) in this first full biography of a truly huge life-Yochelson felt compelled to choose between chronology and theme. He opted for the (thankless, lifeless) former. Some readers will find this approach to be unsatisfactory.

Having now read both volumes I feel replete, as well as depleted. I have two wishes:
1. That others (not excluding Ellis Yochelson himself) will take up the themes of Walcott's interests (geology, paleontology, conservation, forestry, photography, aviation, business, art) and treat each of them in a dedicated way.
2. That the Smithsonian takes steps to return to the Dominion of Canada all of its fossil collections made by Charles Doolittle Walcott. (Yep, that's my wish.)(disclosure: I am a US citizen and taxpayer)

(apologies for length)

Says the University of Nebraska Press:

When Vince Mendoza began to write his life story, he turned to his memory of visiting the deathbed of his great-grandmother, a Creek Indian who embodied the history and dauntless will of her people. The memory inspired both sorrow and boundless pride.

Son of Two Bloods, Mendoza's vibrant and candid account of his life, is full of such grief and rejoicing. Born in Tulsa, Oklahoma, in 1947, Mendoza was the child of a Creek mother and a Mexican father. In this book he vividly portrays his Mexican and Indian relatives and his confusing, often painful, childhood interactions with the dominant white society. He left childhood behind when he was sent to Vietnam. There he found hatred, terror, and camraderie in equal measures.

On returning from Vietnam Mendoza faced a professional, economic, and personal struggles but found consolidation in love, family, and friendship. His moving account of his first wife's courageous, losing battle with cancer ends with renewal as Mendoza remarries and decides to explore his past, and his people, in writing. "Endure, then weep," he writes at last, "endure, and be rewarded, endure and rejoice, endure and learn."

Son of Two Bloods is his first book

Leon McBeth adds his Sourcebook for the Baptist Heritage as a larger extension of footnote material for his "Baptist Heritage: Four Centuries of Baptist Witness" (Broadman, 1987) The student of Baptist history will certainly appreciate this extra volume because of the effort that McBeth has included in its pages to carefully illustrate not only the genuine scholarship that he has put into his work, but also the 'human' side of the people about whom he is writing. (There are some personal letters included within the Sourcebook to give the reader some glimpses into the lives of the people or the events connected with the materials presented in the BH.) Furthermore, this book gives the readers the chance to read the primary materials for themselves and to dialogue with McBeth's conclusions.

This is an excellent book for those who have heard the various lies put forth about Trotsky by Stalinists and their ilk. It corrects the history of the Russian Revolution, tossing out the fumbling falsifications brought by it's second leader, Joseph Stalin. Trotsky's commentary is quite informative and intelligent, and it gives insight into why the "comrades" of the Soviet Party against Trotsky behaved in the matter in which they did. Great book for those who want the truth; Stalinists won't like it.

The Stolen Art Triangles held my interest from the very beginning and the book got stronger as I went along. I couldn't wait to find out how it was going to end. The research that went into the historic parts of the book was obviously very extensive. It remainded me, in many parts, of things I already knew, but other parts provided me with information of which I was not aware, but found very interesting. The characters were all life-like, and I learned to care for all the major characters. In my mind, I cheered the heros and hissed the villains. As you can tell, I enjoyed the book very much and am recommending it to all my friends.

No, this is not a cookbook. Rather, it is a collection of stories about interesting characters linked by food and cooking. In part it is autobiographical, because pieces of the author's own life can be found there.

I've tried to select my favorite chapter but can only narrow it down to two: "The Early Times" and "The Catfish Chowder Event".

"The Early Times" chapter is autobiographical and spans the '20s and '30s, whence the author grew from a toddler to a college student. This chapter is rich with the flavors of life and living in rural Texas. I found myself nodding and smiling at those pages as I recognized the people and the language and the customs portrayed there.

"The Catfish Chowder Event" chapter recounts a single event in the author's later life, which results in his second marriage. As a Leon Hale fan and faithful reader of his column in The Houston Chronicle, I found the description of his wife's (in his column he refers to her only as his "Partner") background and education and social standing fascinating because it is so different from his own. He has never shared this information with readers of his column.

There are, of course, recipes for dishes that you will surely want to try. When you finish this book, you will put it down, lean back in your chair, close your eyes, and smile as you savor all of the passages you have tasted.