Laure's writings which were previously only available in French (pub 1977) are now gathered in this spellbinding volume. Her sickly life and early death (aged 35) make for dark, tightly written meditations on mortality, life and love. her love affair with writer Georges Bataille makes for compelling reading as her desperation at being sick with TB makes her cling to him more. The biographical sketch also sheds light on a key unrecognised figure in the Paris / Surrealism 30s scene. This was a charismatic woman who not only appears in Bataille's fiction buut also on Blanchot's Death Sentence. A must have for any french literature fans. Beautiful stuff. Much loved by the late kathy Acker.

Reading the collected writings of Laure one can easily understand why Bataille loved her with such passion. Indeed, Laure lived and wrote with such passion that she shames everyone who is "content with a petty life" and who "abandons the ardor of living through fear of suffering."

I purchased this book unseen and was bissfully enthralled when I finally viewed it. WOW! The work showcased is diverse and thrillingly divine. Use of colour is totally inspiring - exquisite - a colour "hit" (for you colour junkies out there). For me this book evokes a great feeling of spontaneity, but also respect for true craftwomenship in colour and design - the artists make it look sooo easy!

The photos through out the book are very clear so the quilting can also be seen well on most pieces. Some of the photos could have been bigger (where there is more than one quilt per page), but generally the photo size has been chosen with great skill balancing maximum number of pictures per artist with maximum detail.

All the quilts are DEFINITELY contemporary ie not traditional, although I would have called Rennee Gosse's (France) "boutis" pieces more traditional. I have seen a similar technique called French trapunto.

It was the most wonderful surprise to discover that each artist provides a project and shares their secrets to recreate that fabulous project. All the projects are a joy to look at and are crying out to be started. In particular, Anne Woringer (France), Dorle Stern-Straeter (Germany) and Odile Texiers (France) projects are truly sensational and I thank them for being so generous in sharing techniques that can only be considered as THEIR OWN as they are the trademarks of each of the mentioned artists work. So, so amazingly exciting!!!

Beginners or unconfident sewers/quilters may not find the projects easy or detailed enough as the directions are brief, although, I consider them precise enough, enabling me to reproduce the particular technique I'm interested in. Personally I really like the layout with minimal, to the point text supported with diagrams. Again the spontaneity of the works shines through as many of the artists improvise as the work is created.

This "treasure" has not left my bedside all year and has been like a key opening creative floodgates. Numerous blocks and quilt designs have gushed forth from reading this fantastic book and realising the unending possibilities for the techniques demonstrated.

Anyone who likes contemporary works, consider this a MUST for your bookshelf. A true delight, a visual feast and high powered fuel for creativity. I can't wait for the next book in the series (yep, that IS a hint! - please I beg you!)

With one glance, I was pulled in and fascinated by this unique book that features a variety of contemporary European quiltmakers. Each quiltmaker is profiled and a gallery of exciting work is displayed. In addition, each artist shares a project. Each project is well-illustrated and many detail interesting techniques as well as insights into how other quilts were constructed. The layout of the book is stunning--beautiful, rich color and crisp, clear photographs. It's a joy to look at as well as to read. Quilts from Europe is a wonderful addition to any quiltmaker's library.

This Book Is A Great Book With Computer Anwsers. It Gives You A Question With A Anwser Following. This book is exclent for begining users. I recomend this book all the time. Leo Laporte is an exclent author and has two television shows, Call For Help, And The Screen Savers. Which both air at 7 and 9 eastern standered time on ZDTV. Over all this is an exclent book with a great author.

-I'm Brian

Now don't get me wrong--I enjoy Leo Laporte, and love "The Screen Savers," his nightly TechTV show. His shameless yet forgivable shilling of this book on his show made me rush out and buy it. Unfortunately, I probably should have glanced through it first.

There's a wealth of interesting tips in here (from beginning to geek), but as with all tips, there's only a handful I'll use (granted, those were pretty good). The "day by day" almanac format gives you a hint, tip, troubleshooting technique, problem-solver, or fun fact for every day of the year. There's tips for both PC and Mac users (I'm a Mac user), but there isn't one for *each* format every day, so some days I'm left high-and-dry...that's no matter, I can skim ahead; I'm not going to wait *all year* to read the book. But I do have the feeling that I've paid for a whole book and only getting half the use out of it.

Less useful are the "This day in computer history" tidbits that pad out each day. Interesting, maybe, but not what I buy a computer help book for. These smacked of padding the book and would have been more fun in a different format ("Leo's Page-a-Day Computer History Calendar"?).

My biggest complaint is that the tips are arranged rather randomly. Although some build on previous tips, there's no sense of continuity. Although the book is well-indexed to find subjects, this is *not* a general help manual--such a book would have been divided into different sections on specific topics. Leo *might* have overcome this by indicating "theme weeks"--this whole week, PC users will learn about such-and-such, Mac users will learn another things...etc.

Okay, to be fair: this is a fun to read book, and Leo's friendly and matter-of-fact style is most welcome in today's tech book world. I'm definitely on board for his next book, but I'm going to be grading him for format next time. This one gets five stars for Leo's writing style and range, but three stars for the hard-for-practical-use and seemingly random day-by-day format of the book: I'll average those out to four stars.

Leo Laporte does a great job each night hosting a show called the Screen Savers, on Tech TV. Now he has also done a great job writing a book. Poor Leo's Almanac is basically a calendar, with something useful written for each day. There could be a windows tip, a technology quiz, a mac tip, or just about everything. There is also handy reminders on backing up your data (something I need to do a lot more of). Leo writes in a very understandable way. Even though I think this book would be best for the newbie/novice computer user, anybody could really benefit from the information. I've ordered a copy to give to a family member that is just getting started in computers, with this book anybody can become a "geek."

"Poor Leo's 2002 Computer Almanac" is filled with tips and useful information in an easy to read almanac. Not only for beginners, this book written by the popular host of "The Screen Savers" on Tech TV, contains daily tips and brief essays about some of the most frequently asked topics concerning "Personal Confusers," as Leo likes to call them!

Having hosted TV shows like "Call for Help," an hour long TV program devoted to "newbies" and computers, and "The Screen Savers," a daily 90 minute live TV show for the more advanced computer and technology enthusiast, Leo has condensed his vast knowledge and expertise into an easy to read format of daily advice and tips.

Mac and Linux are covered, but mostly this book is for someone who has a PC and wants to demystify the computer experience and become more confident in using it. Leo covers a lot of ground in this book, and even delves into more "geeky" topics from time to time, like installing Linux; but if your Mom or GrandMOM just got a computer, this book will certainly help them become more adept at mastering the computer.

From a series of new offerings by Tech Tv and Cue Publishing, this is the book to get! For the more advanced user, the How-To videos are a more in-depth guide to building your own computer etc., but of the many books just published, this one is, by far, the most entertaining and useful.

Leo Laporte's 2003 Technology Almanac is a great book for people who want to get more from their computer and just don't know how to go about it. Maybe you've heard of a way to put your CD's onto an MP3 player and put hundreds of songs at your finger tips, but you don't know how to actually do it. This book is for you!

Or maybe you will get (or give) a digital camera this holiday season, and perhaps after you've taken the pictures you realize you'd like to email them to your friends, but you don't really know how to do that. This book covers all the fun things in technology and computers that you want to do, but need just a little help getting started. It isn't that hard to do, and Leo makes it all easy to learn by following the Downloads of the Day or the tips that are on each day of the almanac's pages.

(The only thing that I didn't like in this book was the inclusion of the "Twisted Lists" from The Screen Savers TV show, they seemed very silly and out of place, but maybe this brand of humor is your cup of tea.)

I've spent quality time with Leo Laporte's 2003 Technology Almanac and I must say it is one fine publication. I'm a librarian and I have to pass judgment on whether to buy or not to buy hundreds of books each year. I can't help myself; I always look at a book like this with a critical librarian's eyes even if I'm buying it for myself. Do you know how awful it is to have a book that is chock-full of wonderful information rendered completely useless because the aforementioned information can not be easily accessed? Believe me there are more of those than there are ones, like this, that is well arranged so you can get at the info you're looking for quickly and easily. This has an excellent Index (I love indexes!), Glossary (a great addition and a very good one too), Facts and Figures Section (nice touch) and Leo's Little Black Book (very useful). Each page is easy on the eyes and flows nicely. Over all just a nice, nice job!

There are three things I've found computer books to be in the past, complicated, boring and useless for my needs. None of those things can be said about this book. Not only is the information on how to do things like online security, wireless networking, and troubleshooting easy to understand, it goes one step further and makes you understand why you need to know some of these things. It never overwhelms you, it makes you feel you can do these things and with Leo Laporte's sense of humor shining through it makes it entertaining too. How many times has a computer book made me laugh? Cry maybe, when I become so frustrated I toss it across the room but laugh, never until now! Computers are complicated and frustrating enough, why can't computer books have fun to break up that frustration while they are teaching you? I've found the best way to learn is to have fun and this is one entertainingly, informative book. If there is a question in anyone's mind as to whether to buy this book I can highly recommend it from a personal and a librarian's point of view.

Being a fan of Leo Laporte on Tech TV for a couple of years now, I just had to go out and buy his book. This is the follow-up to the 2002 Technology Almanac, and what a great follow-up it is. It's clearly evident how much more work was put into this book, as there are is a lot more substance. For one, every day now is now dedicated one full page, full of tips and tricks. There is also a very extensive table of contents in the front, so it shouldn't be too hard to find something you're looking for right away. Also, Laura Burstein corroborated with Leo for writing this book; she has included important dates in computer/geek history all throughout. Finally, one more thing that I liked was a very extensive appendix with computer statistics. Maybe it's just because I love statistics, but I found some of the information fascinating.

All in all, if you are interested at all in computers, this is a great book to buy. It may not be best suited for the über-geeky, but for beginning or intermediate users, it is great. Leo writes with a very down-to-earth personality that does not treat as you as brainless computer user.

The book's major strength is that it gives specific wording to put into your contract that will try to ensure a healthy house. But some contractors will take one look at these specs and laugh "yeah, right!" Overall, I recommend John Bower's book "The Healthy House" over this one because it covers more topics and gives much more information.

The new edition of "Prescriptions" is the most complete of any book about Healthy Homes/Multiple Chemical Sensitivity. The combination of architect/doctor/building specialist as authors works very well.

The information is thorough and well documented. They can back up what they say. It is very well organized.

As a Home Builder, I find this to be the best resource available on MCS. On the down side, it is a little bit of a dry read.

If you want to stay healthy or have any health challenges, you should read this book. I recommend the book to most all of my patients. It is complete on what are the best products to use in your home to keep from making you ill.If you are building, or remodeling, this book will assist you in making healthier choices. The 3 writers should be congratulated for their extensive resource lists and efforts they put into the life saving information in their book.

This book is difficult reading, but this is NOT due to challenging material or scholarly finessing. There is no liquid ingredient in this dry mix. The author's style has a barreness, lacking any fluidity, profundity or depth. . . a bit like sitting through a company meeting on inventory and distribution (or some other banal task), complete with charts and graphs. Perhaps the author finds legitimacy and comfort in the data charade, but don't be fooled. There are no intuitive leaps or original creative thoughts in these pages that might weave the complex interrelationships of current events and trends into a potently abstract future. The author's attempts to instruct his readers in the fine points of interpreting and preparing for "wild card" events is far from wild and is, rather, highly predictable. Instead, his extrapolations are exercises in linear thinking that any avid reader of popular science and technology magazines could surmise. The book's style and layout seems choppy and disjointed with the annoying visual interruption of multiple "boxes" on the pages which serve neither to emphasize important material in the main text or elaborate on same. They appear to be more like attention grabbing "sound bites" that contrive to superficially keep the reader engaged. While this style may be appropriate for slideshow presentations, it is gimmicky in the context of a book. The author seems to lack the confidence in the text's ability to engage and stimulate, which is not unfounded. The author provides a number of uninspired wild card scenarios but lacks any comprehensive and cohesive vision of their impact. This faceless and disembodied grouping of scenarios leaves the chore of putting this jigsaw puzzle together to the reader without a picture guide. How does it all fit together? Life is wild, and we'll never tame it. This is what makes life interesting. Our own creativity is born in our responsiveness and connection to this natural, unpredic! table and multidimensional realm. And THAT's all she wrote.

An extraordinary view into a number of worlds. Clearly, Petersen is one of the best-informed Futurists in the world. He is a true "out of the box thinker." He reports on the most important break throughs in technology, business, science and space---and the critical breakdowns in human and environmental health; and in social, political and economic conditions. Most importantly, Petersen offers one of the most well-informed reports on the emerging realities that will redefine every aspect of our careers and personal lives---sooner than we might think.

Good heavens! What an awful title for a book. Hearing it for the first time, I dropped my monacle. Hearing the title for the second time made me do it again. I really should stop being so horrified.

Interesting, thought-provoking, sometimes even funny, but in the end, you're better off buying Kevin Kim's "Scary Spasms in Hairy Chasms," which deals with the subject more humorously and less (ahem) maturely.

Once I got past the unusual odor upon opening this book I couldn't put it down. The kind of book you want to put into the lavoratory for your guests to read when using the facilities The preforated tear out pages remind the old timers what Montgomery Ward and Sears catalogs were once used for.

This is a helpful and honest reference book for anyone wishing to move to Traverse City, MI. It helped me and now I'm moving there! Only fault I found was that some of the phone numbers given had changed. But this is common to reference materials of this nature. I enjoyed the history information given in the book.

It is designed as workbooks to help learners practice with discrete grammar points. These books claim to be structural and communicative and to provide contextualized exercises. However, all those exercises are controlled exercises, and there is no chance for problem-solving and opinion-negotiation in those exercises. Learners have no control over those fixed dialogues and fill-in-blank exercises. The exercises are actually designed for drills practice of discrete grammar structures, but there is no real communicative value embedded in these exercises. Still, the formate is pleasant. Each unit usually has only two pages, so it does not take much time to finish exercises in one unit.