This genial and practical book will teach you everything you need to know about baking with whole grains. Previous baking experience not required! The "Learner's Loaf" chapter contains the clearest instructions on breadmaking I've ever read.

The chapters on baking with wheat and rye will furnish you with an ample (though not exhaustive) repertoire of recipes for working with these two fundamental grains. There are also instructions for rice and potato breads, saltless breads, breads made with sprouted grains, and more.

So many beginner's baking books only provide a basic set of general instructions and then go straight into pages of little more than ingredient lists and suggested rising times. This book is filled with tips and specialized instructions for practically every single recipe. You learn to bake each loaf by the only method that can guarantee repeated success -- through explanations of the subtle points attending every step of the process.

Most breadmaking cookbooks, if they cover whole grain baking at all, have recipes which could best be described as "whole-grain flavored bread" since they use a lot of white flour in their recipes. Cooking with 100% whole grain flours is a bit trickier than baking with refined flours, but if you follow the instructions in this book you will end up with excellent bread. Quite simply, if you want to avoid using white flour in your breadmaking, you need this book. Excellent.

This is one of the three bread books to which I regularly refer (I'm on my second copy!). Grinding my own grains and baking has been a hobby for twenty-five years. I've never come across a book as well suited to a beginner. I wish it had been around when I started!

There are many whole-grain baking books out there. So many of them are too radical for the average person. I've had books that state that only sourdough can be used for leavening, that baking powder and yeast are 'dishonest'. I've had books that categorically state that the only way to produce whole grain flour is by stone mill or grinder (not true). I've had books that use esoteric ingredients for bread not available to the average home cook.

Laurel eschews dogmatic arguments about whole grain baking. She acknowledges that we all have busy daily schedules with families and work. Better than any whole grain book I've seen, she illustrates that whole grain baking can become an integrated part of a working person's life. Her recipes, particularly those for daily loaves, are reliable. As she states, in the 'old' days some of our loaves would work, some wouldn't. We've learned better, and she illustrates how.

In addition to her recipes, the writing style of the book reminds me of 'Laurel's Kitchen', her all-around vegetarian cookbook. For the beginner, there is a very useful guide to the different ingredients of bread, and the different utensils and appliances available.

Several years after its release, this cookbook remains the most practical and useful guide to whole-grain cooking. Highly recommended.

Joline Godfrey's book 20 Secrets to Money and Independence has been making me smile for years. It is an easy to understand guide to some of the more complex ideas of becoming a well rounded women. I first learned about investing, net worth, and even "embracing my wierdness" from Joline. Now I have a better foundation to pursue my dreams from. Independence is something I can have, now. I was about 20 years of age when I first started reading this book. I would recommend it to any young female. You can't be too young to enjoy the empowerment this book gives a girl. And as for the older girls, such as myself, you may enjoy this book even more.It touches on so many important qualities an independent woman needs to cultivate as an adult.Thumbs up for Joline Godfrey. She knows how to empower women of all ages.

20 $ecrets to Money and Independence is a FANTASTIC exemplar for today's do-it-all femmes. Joline Godfrey's humor and wisdom combine, making each page a valued treasure. She enlightens the reader on the originality of themselves and their ideas, both which can be utilized to empower the world. She stresses the importance of women's ideas as stepping-stones that make our dreams a reality. By thinking big and proving their ability, women flourish their potential, and shed the stereotypical naiveté` that hinders too many females in today's society. In addition to her insight, the author provides exercises for reflection and resources that unleash the interests of the curious explorer.
Godfrey's style is entirely motivating, and her tactics foster the active mind, fountain of creativity, and omnipotence within everybody. She emphasizes that belief in oneself can accomplish anything; being a leader, growing money, making passions pay, carrying oneself with poise and confidence, and making a difference are beyond no one. Progressing through this book is like an exciting journey, full of wonders and enriching experiences. The $ecrets within lead not only to physical freedom and wealth, but the inner development of qualities that generate from self-reliance and worldly experience. A pleasure to read for young and old alike, Joline Godfrey is impeccable.

This book was fun,inspiring, and helped me link money with my voice and values. I especially loved the chapters on "Embracing YOur Weirdness and Investing in Yourself. Who knew that being weird was a great path to finacial independence? Great perpective on life, money, and possibility!

This has the magnificence in knowledge that Shakespeare has in theatre. I have a hardcover copy, 1 of 1,000 published, I treasure.
Yes, the vocabulary is of the literati of 1800 - what else would it be? If you can accept it as friendly conversation of one who is comfortable with words, you will enjoy it!
It should be required reading for all who aspire to a broad knowledge of how the world came to be as it is today. Include some Campbell and Maszlow and your perspective will exceed your strongest desire. Familiarity with history is beneficial; familiarity with Higgins is vital for knowing where our ideas and ideals come from.
Yes, it can well be considered "deep", which gives it value. I am so impressed with Higgins' effort, I would invite anyone who has read it, or thinks they can read it, to communicate with me ... . Or perhaps not, that may mean I'd be compelled to read it a third time. Well, go ahead, I'll do it anyway. (No, my copy is not for sale. I'll give it up only when they pry it from my cold stiff fingers.)

The content is fabulous! The writing style is rather dense, typical of its original publishing date of 1832, but Higgins makes sense of the foundations of a lot of esoteric information that had previously seemed quite random and rather indecipherable.
My one criticism lies in the print quality. This is an exact copy of the nineteenth century original and it was apparently either a larger book or originally set in about 6 point type. Plan on investing in a good magnifying glass or risk serious damage to your eyesight.

A powerful and poignant work that is essentially a must,please get the original volumes 1 and 2 and not the condensed version. This book is not for the feeble minded individual who has problems concentrating but for the open minded,critical thinker who truly wants to delve into the mysteries of language and symbols and the origins of them.

(...)This book is just full of ideas, concepts, drawings, etc. all presented in a simple, colourful manner. This book would make a great gift for a child, to help them understand money concepts. The author has written some other great books on money and children, for adults to read.

The colorful pictures and easy to read diagrams make this a captivating book. Godfrey covers it all - from the history of money, government and taxes, credit and it's pitfalls to investing. Because the pictures tell so much of the story even young children will gain insights about money. This book should be a must read for all middle school students; it's a comprehensive lesson in civics that answers the questions "What are taxes?" and "How are your taxes spent?" in a way children can relate to.

A great book about money. A must if you are interested in stocks, bonds, credit, ATMs, mutual funds, the history of money or money in general. For ages 7-107, making it great for school, while humorous cartoons make it fun to read. Ideas for thought, and projects for the family. Crisp, clear writing makes it easy to understand, whle Word Banks is mini glossary. Makes a great gift!

Of all the bread machine cookbooks I own, this is the one I use the most. It's not just a cookbook, but full of hints and techniques that are useful for any machine. It tells of substitutes you can use. Such as applesauce for fats, etc. And the recipes are foolproof, as are any of the recipes in the "Magic" series. A must have for a beginning or advanced bread machine baker.

I am not a bread maker, but my son loves bread so I decided it would be worth it to get a bread machine. I was pretty lukewarm about the loaves it was turning out until I got this book. This book is amazing, just knowing about the "peek and poke" method helped my bread 100%. The recipes are fantastic and I can guarantee my loaves will turn out 98% of the time. I also own the "More Bread Machine Magic" which is fantastic, but if you just get one book get this one. For someone that didn't know beans about bread I can now turn out beautiful and tasty loaves. If you are an experienced bread maker you may already know a lot of the info in this book, but for the novice or previously disappointed bread machine owner this book is tops.

This little book is small but believe me it is one of the *best* books on baking bread in a bread machine you will ever buy, especially considering the price. The authors have covered everything here, and then some. A must have for the adventurous, and for the beginner too!

I purchased two bread machine recipe books, and this one is easily the best. The bread machine was a gift so I was a novice baker. Yet I am so satisfied with the breads I've been making, that I haven't purchased a single manufactured loaf.The introductory information was brief yet useful. Each recipe has come out just right, and each one lists ingredients for either a small, medium or large loaf. My other book gives recipes for different brands of machines (I wonder if this is just a gimmick), but only one size loaf, and the results are only so-so. I can easily recommend More Bread Machine Magic.

I started out with the first book, Bread Machine Magic and, great as it was, I just couldn't pass up another book by this wonderful author. As someone who uses a bread machine on a daily basis, I welcome new ideas and recipes and this book truly has it all. One of the best things about it (other than all the delicious recipes, of course) is the fact that the recipes are adaptable for all types and sizes of machines. If you own a bread machine, this book is an absolute must have. Along with Bread Machine Magic, it is the boest book for bread machine recipes ever written--bar none.

I purchased this book because I recently decided to start using my dormant 7-year-old Breadman breadmaker again. The recipe books I'd tried before were OK, but I was never overly impressed with the results. (Hence the unused breadmaker.) After reading reviews of this book, I decided to give it a whirl. I was not disappointed. Almost every recipe I've tried has been a winner, save for one (Rum Raisin Almond Bread) that has consistently turned out like a brick. I've tried the recipe twice with the same result. The best thing? My recourse is to e-mail the authors directly and ask for some guidance. They have a web site where you can contact them and get other information pertaining to their books. So far, this is the only breadmaker cookbook I can truly recommend. If you're looking for a variety of excellent recipes, the ability to make more than just rectangular loaves and some really helpful suggestions, then this is the book for you.

An excellent book, well-written, packed with vital information, highly analytical, and professorial. But not pro-African, I'm sorry to say, in spite of all its merits.

Why highly intelligent and educated people like Godfrey Mwakikagile and others of his ilk write books so critical of Africa, is beyond me. What they say is true. Rwanda made history - it was our Nazi Germany. So did Somalia, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Angola, Congo, Ethiopia and Eritrea, Sudan and many others, leaving indelible scars on our continent. We couldn't even hide that from the rest of the world, and still can't, I'm ashamed to admit. They all made history. And many continue to do so.

But why help our detractors and enemies make Africa look so bad? You can say - we already look bad! And we do. It's all on television, on the radio, and in newspapers worldwide, in all kinds of languages. But that does not mean we Africans should also harp on it, like these African writers and our enemies do.

Remember the old saying: Do not air your dirty laundry in public. Although you may not always want to keep it in the closet. But don't just toss it out there in the yard, either.

Say something good about Africa, even if it's not much. So nothing good comes out of Africa, just because we have all these wars, AIDS and other diseases, hunger, illiteracy, poverty and corruption? Come on!

If Mwakikagile had plenty of good things to say about Africa in the same book, in spite of all its negative aspects, I would have been tempted to give it the highest rating, five stars, for excellence. I'm sorry I can't.

Professor Mahmoud Mamdani, a leading African scholar who teaches at Columbia University, uses Godfrey Mwakikagile's book "The Modern African State: Quest for Transformation," as a textbook for graduate studies. Other professors use the book as an assigned or recommended text for graduate students in African and development studies and international affairs. It is also found in graduate school libraries across the United States like all the other books written by Godfrey Mwakikagile who, himself, is becoming an increasingly influential African scholar.

But that is not the only reason why his book, "The Modern African State...," got my attention. At a recent academic seminar on Africa, one of the participants cited George Ayittey's work, "Africa in Chaos," together with Godfrey Mwakikagile's "The Modern African State...," in his discussion of civil conflicts on the continent. Most of the participants knew or had heard about Ayittey. But that was the first time some of us heard about Mwakikagile, although quite a few had. His work, "The Modern African State...," equally trenchant as Ayittey's, is a great contribution to the growing literature about post-colonial Africa written by the Africans themselves.

It is interesting to see that more and more African intellectuals are taking an "internalist" approach to Africa's problems instead of always blaming external forces for her plight. Dr. Mwakikagile is one of them.

But such an approach must be balanced with an analysis of external involvement, including colonialism. Africa is still reeling from its devastating impact. However, this does not mean that all of Africa's problems should be placed entirely on the shoulders of her former colonial masters, as many Africans who take the "externalist" approach are fond of doing.

Most of the problems Africa faces today - rampant corruption, mismanagement, brutal repression, ethnic conflicts, hunger, illiteracy, endemic poverty and disease - are either caused or exarcebated by the Africans themselves; not by the former colonial masters who are now even being asked by some Africans to go back and rule them again. Things are that bad. And it is African writers like Mwakikagile who should be commended for taking up the challenge to tell the truth about their continent, however bitter.

It would be even more encouraging if their kith and kin here in the United States, African Americans, also faced this reality, instead of romanticizing Africa. Randall Robinson of TransAfrica is the exception, together with a few others; although their attitude is not the same as the attitude of black conservatives who are sometimes extremely hostile toward Africa and usually don't want to have anything to do with - "that place." Foregetting that white Republicans and others don't care about them either. They don't even want them in the Republic party. Alan Keyes knows that. Brilliant, highly articulate, he should have been the standard-bearer of his party, but still was not nominated as the Republican presidential candidate because he is black. And, yes, African!

But bad as their attitude is, one must not entirely ignore what black American conservatives - they hate to be called African Americans - say about Africa. Africa's problems can only be solved by Africans. We can help them, but the initiative must come from them.

It is also in this context that Dr. Godfrey Mwakikagile's highly acclaimed work, "The Modern African State: Quest for Transformation," must be viewed; although, unlike black American conservatives who hate Africa and by extension hate themselves, he writes out of deep concern for the well-being of his continent as much as his compatriot Professor George Ayittey does, as do many others.

With this work, "The Modern African State: Quest for Transformation," Godfrey Mwakikagile joins a list of African writers, including internationally renowned ones, who have written books highly critical of the continent's arrogant and corrupt leaders and crumbling state institutions; and who believe that solutions to African problems must come from the Africans themselves more than anybody else. They include Wole Soyinka, "The Open Sore of A Continent: A Personal Narrative of the Nigerian Crisis"; George Ayittey, "Africa Betrayed," and "Africa in Chaos"; Chinua Achebe, "The Trouble with Nigeria," and others. The author of many books about Africa, he's one of the most articulate spokesmen of the African Renaissance South African President Thabo Mbeki talks about.

This is not an entirely original work. The author relies heavily on secondary sources to advance his arguments and defend his thesis, as many writers do, of course. But this does not mean that his work is any less compelling. It is not a dissertation (he probably wrote one already for a PhD), requiring primary sources, and the author wanted to address a larger audience, not just members of the academic community.

Therefore, to get his message across to a much wider audience, which he obviously intended when one considers the multitude of problems Africa faces, he had to write it in a way that would make it accessible to members of the general public, without academic jargon and expounding abstract concepts; for example, about the nature and origin of the state, or discussing Hobbes' "Leviathan," which would be relevant in this context, given the nature of the modern African state as an
oppressive institution.

Therein lies the strength of this work: its simple, direct message; virulent but justified attack on the corrupt regimes across the continent and the modern African state as an institutional anomaly irrelevant to African realities; and its prescriptions for Africa's debilitating condition. There are brilliant insights in here, illuminating the African political landscape; for example, how to end ethnic conflicts on the continent which may require new solutions not yet tried in Africa, but coming from the Africans themselves.

Fellow Africans had better listen. And that includes African leaders themselves, and their advisers. They should read this book.

An impressive range of scholarship. The author's knowledge of the works of leading Western thinkers - from Kant and Fichte to Heidegger and Montesquieu and others - and of African philosophical traditions, is indisputable.

A lucid thinker of penetrating intelligence, Godfrey Mwakikagile is one of those Africans writing scholarly works to reclaim the dignity of the African personality that has been subjected to so much abuse since the imperial powers conquered Africa. Yet he is honest enough to admit Africa's mistakes, and shortcomings, including many in the glorious past of ancestral ways so much glorified by Afrocentric scholars.

This is a vital text in the study of African philosophy and identity, an area of abstract ideas in which the African mind is grossly underrated.

And the chapter on South Africa is a brilliant analysis of where this multiracial nation may be headed after the end of apartheid. The legacy of apartheid may be with us for generations to come; a bleak prospect for a country that is a beacon of hope on a troubled continent.

Mr. Kofi Akosah-Sarpong wrote an excellent review of "Africa and the West" by Godfrey Mwakikagile, an academic author from Tanzania who has written many books about Africa, seven to date.

It is a major African work in the African Renaissance tradition and dignifies Africa, especially in the author's philosophical discussion of the African personality and Africa as an organic entity, in a way many African writers don't. And as always, as in his other reviews, Akosah-Sarpong captures the essence of the author's work few reviewers are able to.

There is, however, one semantic detail that needs to be clarified. The reviewer says: "Meanwhile, though the book deserves to be taken seriously, Mwakikagile states in the introductory chapter as if he wrote the book with another person by stating 'we' repeatedly."

As a well-read person himself, I'm sure Mr. Akosah-Sarpong knows it's common for writers, especially for academic authors, to use the first-person plural 'we,' instead if 'I,' in their writings; for example, by saying, "in the first chapter we discussed...," "We are going to address in the next chapter..." May be it comes from the imperial "We," when British kings said "we" instead of "I," and probably still do. It's acceptable in King's English.

One renowned African academic author is Professor Ali Mazrui in his book "Towards A Pax Africana" and others. As he states in the introduction to "Towards A Pax Africana": "In general terms we are concerned in this book with...We do not propose to limit ourselves to..." In chapter one, he states: "In this book we define diplomatic thought to be..." In chapter two: "In the last chapter we discussed utilization..." In chapter four: "We hope to discuss..." In chapter five: "We pointed out in the second chapter that..."

It does not mean Mazrui wrote the book with another person.

Otherwise Akosah-Sarpong's review of Mwakikagile's "Africa and the West," is not only excellent, but one of the best I have read of a major African book by one of Africa's prolific authors.

To be a modern African is perplexing experience. Not only is Africa the only region with the most dominant of foreign values, but the African, more especially the elites, are confused, transmitting such confusion unto the entire African personality, and making the African not only misunderstand himself/herself but difficult to explain himself/herself to the world about his/her personality.

Godfrey Mwakikagile, a Tanzanian journalist who worked with Tanzania's leading mass circulation "Daily News," echoing a familiar rallying cry, argues passionately for Africans to return to their native roots for balance and order. "Africa and the West" is also a reflective treatise, especially in its philosophical discussion of the importance of African values, history and tradition, African philosophical concepts, and way of life in pre-colonial times as compared to the advent of colonialism. "Africa and the West" is also an uncompromising demand for dignity and respect for Africans which they have been denied by today's leaders, which was not the case in pre-colonial times and continuing, as the author says, though contentiously, under traditional rulers in most societies across the continent today.

The author says the traditional leaders ruled by consultation and direct mass participation at village meetings. How to transform such pre-colonial consultation and direct mass participation across Africa's 2,000 ethnic groups in order to usher in democracy that fits the African environment is missing.

Mwakikagile recognizes Africa's natural beauty and abject poverty, diseases and disturbing ignorance, but his thesis aims at Africa's weak unity - "That is one of the main reasons why they [Africans] were conquered by foreigners, and why Africa is still weak and poor today." Before Mwakikagile attempts to answer why Africa's weak unity is the root cause of all its crises, he reveals the contradictory nature of Africa: Africa endowed with numerous world-class natural resources but at the same time Africa as "the only continent where it has been so easy for foreigners to take what does not belong to them." Why this? Weak co-operative spirit among Africans, more markedly their elites.

For Mwakikagile, Africa's weaknesses can be located in its personality. So to understand Africa, there is the need to psychoanalyze the African personality in relation to the world, "especially to the West." Why especially to the West? Because the West, more than any other people, conquered Africa, colonized it, brutalized it, demeaned its culture and indigenous institutions, and a large number of Africans, especially those who have been to Western schools, "were brainwashed into believing that they had no history they could be proud of; that all their customs and traditions were bad, and that even their languages were bad. Nothing good."

More than physical brutality to Africans such as Belgium's King Leopold ordering the amputation of Congolese for not meeting working (quotas) as expected in rubber farms or Germans brutalizing and killing Namibia's Herero ethnic group, the author demonstrates that the West's capture of Africa has been more at the metaphysical plain through propagation of ideas that skillfully but quietly demeaned African values. While he acknowledges that not all foreign ideas are destructive to Africa, he also states that not all foreign values are good either. It is here that Mwakikagile takes a swipe at Africentrism, a courageous venture aimed against the excesses of Afrocentric scholars. For Afrocentrists, there is nothing wrong with African values, and in their zeal to recall Africa's glorious past, have distorted Africa's values in order to "inflate our achievements."

His prejudices are firmly on the side of African Renaissance thinkers who recognize both the negative and the positive values of African culture and how to discuss them for the health of Africa's progress. This reveals the balances of Mwakikagile who is honest enough to criticize his own kind regardless of the wrath which he may spark, and which the African intelligentsia need for the health of the climate of the African Renaissance process.

Mwakikagile's piece adds to the struggles being waged by the new generation of African thinkers, journalists, and media outlets such as "Expo Times" (Sierra Leone), "West Africa" and "New African" magazines to open up the African culture, its negative aspects as well as its positive aspects, for eventual policy formulation. The reason being that colonialism did not help the growth of African values in relation to Africa's progress, and African elites, ever weaker, have not been able to mix their colonial legacies with African values unlike other ex-colonies in the development game. Meanwhile, though the book deserves to be taken seriously, Mwakikagile states in the introductory chapter as if he wrote the book with another person by stating "we" repeatedly.

This book is truely entertaining, it covers music, culture, politics, drugs, ect... It was hard to put this book down, I was sucked into it and learned a great deal about the scene in Eroupe. I recommend this book to people who are looking for answers to questions they didn't know they were asking...

Excellent, informative history of the rave scene in England... everything is in here: how influential Ibiza was to the scene, MDMA and its history, smiley faces, baggy pants, all the main players and djs... it brought back a lot of happy memories of my raver days in NYC in the early 90s. A must read for those interested in this scene especially the beginning which shows that it all started in America: Larry Levan and the Paradise Garage, Frankie Knuckles's Warehouse parties, Dr. Shulgin and his MDMA studies... Britian took it to the next level in the 80s beginning with the Summer of Love and raves and was then past back to the US in the early 90s: Frankie Bones and the Storm raves, NASA, and the rest. This book tells you all about it!

Recommended to me by a friend. I have read all the books on our culture, and found this to be the most informative, historical, and unbiased description of the Rave culture. I was also quite suprised that the book dealt more with the actual culture of ravers, and didn't spend so much time on drug talk. Interesting discussion of the role the Alcohol industry played in the criminalization of ecstasy. Gives a lot of food for thought. A definite MUST HAVE.

If you love to read books that are exciting and different, than "Ledgend's Prophecy" is the book for you. This is a fantasy that takes you beyond the "normal stuff." I was thrilled and captivated by the entire story, and I'm sure you will be to. Read this book, i'm telling you, you can't go wrong. Definitly recommended.

A true master of his craft, talented writer Tyrone Godfrey has written himself one best selling fantasy fiction (mark my words!) This wonderful story will be picked up by some film maker in Hollywood--you can take that to the bank!
A wonderful story about wizards and magic...

I have read "Ledgend's Prophecy." This is a good book. There's action, adventure, and excitement. The entire story is good reading. I would highly recommend this book for those who love "fantasy and magic."