Nothing is sacred. Donald Hays manages to offend everyone in this book about minor league baseball in the deep south. If this book doesn't make you laugh, you're dead.

If you are a baseball fan, player, or lover of the game, "The Dixie Association" is excellent reading material for enjoyment or inspiration. Donald Hays, author of the novel, enlightens the reader with a tale portraying a misfit baseball team in combination with the social issues surrounding this particular time. He used a variety of writing techniques to capture the focus of the audience and essence of the novel. The book gave an excellent account of an athlete's emotions or feelings toward their sport. For example, when Hog said, "I could've hit till dark," he expressed a love that all athletes share with their game. Some athletes feel their sport is life. Bullet Bob possesses this same feeling recognized in a quote saying, "Baseball mattered to him. Life on the other hand, was just something he had to tolerate between games." It also shows the athlete's warrior-like attitudes--"Eversole never gave up without a fight." I did not like some of the rude comments referring to Christianity. Obviously the author had a bad experience with religion or was not very religious in the first place. I felt some of these comments were unnecessary. I also felt that certain points of the book dragged. Some unnecessary information could have been excluded to keep the reader's undivided attention. The battles the characters in this book faced were both on and off the field. Society turned against them and their only source for self-assurance was from the team and their belief in themselves. Most players seek the fame and glory; however, the majority of the Reds sought the love for the game. Their love for the game was their escape from society. Overall, Ifeel it is a very enjoyable and entertaining book. The author did an excellent job with beautiful description illustrating a vivid picture for each scene of the book. If you are a sport fan or athlete you definately must read this book.

Hays' _The Dixie Association_ is by far my favorite baseball novel. The Reds (pun intended) are an Arkansas farm league team owned by a one-armed socialist and populated by ex-cons, American Indians, rednecks, Cubans, and fallen cheerleaders. Their battles are played out both on the field and in the streets, as the Religious Right tries repeatedly to run them out of town. While many baseball books are concerned with the glory of America and the game that has come to be held as its symbol, _The Dixie Association_ shows us the underbelly of that image. The members of the Reds, despite their fistfights, yelling matches, and general cranky demeanor, have one thing in common: each has been kicked around by America and left for defeated. Hays will have us know that baseball is for all Americans, as the Reds find salvation and self respect through the great game. _The Dixie Association_ is one heck of a book, about baseball, yes, but mostly about the subversive spirit of any country's people and the doors that a sliding fastball can open. Kinsella's _Shoeless Joe_ could be considered the National Anthem of baseball novels. Fine. _The Dixie Association_ is the taunts and jeers from the drunks behind the left field foul line. Much praise to LSU press for re-issuing this fine novel.

My son who is making a fortune in motivational work just told me this is a book not only you'll want to read but you'll want to recommend to anyone you are helping in any field.

Great companion piece to any of the 'greats' books. Tony Robins etc etc etc Or a stand alone.

Covers a teritory often missed!

This collection of a woman's journey through incredible odds to achieve a level of serenity that she has achieved is amazing. The pains as a mother, the Universe ripping her son from her and all the pain involved, cut to the quick of my own personal pain with my own son. The poetic structure and flow swept me down stream and kept me going and going until the end, and I wanted more. An excellent choice for a guide post to one woman's well journaled path to serenity, It was all about the journey, and that is what good writing is all about. This book is timeless.

In "My Journey to Serenity," Kiki Hays Faktor explores the inner workings of the mind and heart as she draws her emotional line in the sand. Through the author's humor and thoughtful reveries she shows us how crucial boundaries are in human relations. The book's poetic format made the reading enjoyable and easily digestible. I found myself reading pages before I went to bed at night--as a reminder and a comfort.

We returned from our trip to the States bearing this exciting, new cookbook. We love to cook and to read cookbooks, and have quite a collection. From several of them we return to use a handful of favorites each year. In this one, it reads like it will take a year to try all that sound so tempting. Shared the curried chutney spread on apple slices with friends to oohs and ahs! Our dinner of mushroom barley soup, peasant bread and batch of the fabulous brownies was a "winner"...as well as easy to prepare. Must now chose what to enjoy today. What a great gift for the holidays! Kudos to Hayday and Kim Rizk

This is a marvelous book for people who love to cook with fresh ingredients. I've been looking for a cold fruit soup recipe using yogurt for years that's similar to one we've had in our favorite restaurant, and there it was! Try the Chilled Strawberry Yogurt Soup -- it was wonderful! Also helpful are the hints on what to serve with recipes and other uses for them.

We returned from our trip to the States bearing this exciting, new cookbook. We love to cook and to read cookbooks, and have quite a collection. From several of them we return to use a handful of favorites over the year. In this one, it reads like it will take a year to try all that sound so tempting. Shared the curried chutney spread on apple slices with friends to oos and ahs! Our dinner of mushroom barley soup, peasant bread and fabulous brownies was a winner, as well as easy to prepare. Must now choose what to enjoy today. Kudos to Hayday and to Kim Rizk.

I absolutely adore this book--not only as a cookbook, but as good basic reading material! It is full of delightful stories, quotes, helpful hints, etc....The recipes are very straight forward, and call for loads of fresh produce, which makes for healthier eating. Granted, some of the recipes are a bit 'far out' for me, but seeing as how I am a native Georgian, it is only natural that foods from 'up north' be a little odd for me. But, I try them none-the-less--this book is a favorite of mine!!! Don't put it on a shelf--leave it out on the coffee table!

Hollyhocks & Radishes is a delightful journal that originated with Judith Chard's Summer roadside vegetable stand in the Upper Pennisula of Michingan. Not only were fresh-grown vegetables available, but also the delicious recipes that could be created with them. Soon customers became friends corresponding with their own recipes and anecdotes. The book is illustrated with handwritten letters and drawings along with Mrs. Chard's wisdom and advice about the season's, birds, flowers, and, of course, her recipes. It's a great book to read on a cold winter's day when you're longing for Summer. Out of our collection of probably 100 cookbooks, this is our favorite. It's always my gift for a Bride-to-Be.

The minute I started reading this cookbook it instantly became my favorite! It is full of the best recipies...practical ones that use the freshest ingredients. It is set up so that you can create favorites for each season using what is most readily available. Along with the recipies is a delightful story that is so heartfelt it brought tears to my ears many times. I intend to buy many more copies as gifts.

The authors were courageous enough to explore and depict the horrors of domestic violence, and conveyed it creatively through powerful characters and circumstances, making for both informative and interesting reading. Well done, ladies!

"Dark Justice" is a fast-paced suspense thriller that deals with contemporary issues sensitively, but simultaneously with a head-on attitude that will strike a chord of moral rightness in every reader's psyche. With vividly drawn characters it pulls you into the well-plotted world of Detective Alix Mendez. The tragic yet ultimately satisfying denouement proves this novel is one that is "can't-put-it-down" good. Don't miss it!

I thoughly enjoyed this book. Meagan and Alex came to life. This is a beautifully crafted book with lots of twists and turns. I couldn't put it down.

This calendar is a great way to keep positive affirmations in front of you at all times. I buy a new one each year because I cannot imagine being without it!

Louise Hay is wonderful at coming up with uplifting and positive affirmations in this calendar. I enjoy and look forward to reading these short thoughts for the day each and every day.

If everyone owned one of these calendars, the world would be a better place.

A lavishly illustrated new edition of the classic handbook for conjurers is designed to help magicians of all levels, from beginning to advanced, hone their skills at legerdemain and develop new and exciting illusions to baffle the mind. This book helps you prove that the hand is quicker than the eye, and that the ingenuity of a master magician can defy the most suspicious scrutiny.

This book is superbly well-written. It is as if a kind, patient, highly gifted uncle comes to visit. The reader is taken step by step, thought by thought, along the way to appreciating the beauty, skill, and effects of the practice of magic.

The writer's style takes the simplest observations and gradually builds them until, before you know it, you are quickly doing things of startling sophistication and skill!

This handbook not only informs and instructs, it enriches. The author converses with the reader, and this comfort in reading inspires confidence in doing.

This book is an invaluable addition to any magician's library...it is one of the three best I have read in thirty-five years of studying magic.

Yep! If I was on a deserted island... This book is ineffably valuable to me. So much so that I even went as far as to order two, not at the same time. The first one was paper back; the second one was, surprisingly, hard back. No, the price difference wasn't a "tip-off." Now I own two. Now I've come to find out it's purportedly out of print; I'm smiling like the Cheshire Cat. I look at this book as a condensed Tarbell series. I collect magic books. I even scored a Discoverie of Witchcraft, and still, the Amateur Magician's Handbook is my favorite.

"The Louisiana Houses of A. Hays Town" combines text by Cyril E. Vetter with photographs by Philip Gould. Together, they celebrate the classic houses designed by Town. The book is full of superb photos of both interiors and exteriors. The book ends with a short essay by Andres Duany, in which he declares, "The long, long career of A. Hays Town is like a bridge that brings forth the traditional architecture of Louisiana to the present generation of builders."

Many picturesque elements recur throughout the book: classical statuary, brick floors, exteriors with a look of natural weathering, 2-level exterior galleries, etc. Some particularly memorable images include the following: Hamilton House's interior courtyard overlooked by a second floor balcony; Westerman House's charming lily pond, made from an old sugar kettle; the rustic wood posts on the porch of the Bonnecaze House; the elegant white pillars of the Godchaux House; and more.

My only disappointment is that floor plans for the homes are not included; they would have, in my opinion, given readers a better sense of these houses. Still, if you love great American architecture, I recommend this book.

Town, a South Louisiana native and student of the South, offers a subtle salute to the region's heritage in the 25 homes featured in "The Louisiana Houses of A. Hays Town." Photographs by Philip Gould capture the subtle design and recurring patterns in Hays' design. The text by Cyril E. Vetter and a tribute by Andres Duany is reverential...It is tempting to pause over Gould's photographs of Town's work, treat them like Ken Burns treats Civil War photographs and follow the lines. An alley of crepe myrtles frames the brick archway entrance to a richly detailed courtyard...A weathered fence serves as foreground detail for a shot of a deep, brick-floored porch...These are elements of Town's style. His residences wear it well.

Brick Floors and Cypress Beams in Louisiana

Today, real architects don't do charm, but long before it fell out of style, A. Hays Town, born in 1903, was building Acadian cottages, Creole villas and Spanish courtyards in his native Louisiana. After retiring from his commercial practice in the 1960's, he designed even more of these houses, which are beloved by Southerners. Now everyone can visit 25 of the 500 he built in "The Louisiana Houses of A. Hays Town" (Louisiana State University Press; $39.95). The sparse text is by Cyril E. Vetter, and the 200 photographs by Philip Gould prove that good proportion and materials work. White-painted brick walls with red brick floors under high ceilings with cypress beams work even better. This is true regional architecture, handsome and useful.

Like so many people in these unsettled times I long for a sense of stability and certainty. What is solid and unchanging if not our love of life and nature and the inspired word. That is why I recommend 'Journeying through the days 2002' with beautiful photography by David Hay Jones. The book is a rock upon which to rest our weary and battered souls.

At last, a diary and calendar that's spiral bound so it lies flat when you write! The photographs from around the world are great; some can even be looked at and studied for as long as it takes to fill a page with text. What's good, too, is that the quotes and so-called inspiring texts are not from Oscar Wilde and other masters of the ironic one-liner but words that go deeper than that. OK, some of the photo and text combinations are obvious. It shouldn't always be necessary to match so literally. But of the hundreds, indeed thousands, of calendars on the market, this is in the Top Three.

Journal-writing is a liberating exercise in so many ways. We are freed from the notion that other people's "truths" will save us, freed from the dogma of accepting 10-point programs to salvation. Although 'Journeying' is published by a Christian outfit it resists the temptation to point a fundamentalist finger at us. Instead, we are encouraged to listen to our inner voice, reflect on the beauty of our surroundings and use the thoughts of others, such as Martin Luther King, to enlighten our minds. Thankfully, too, the pitfalls of New Age "anything goes" are avoided. At last, Christianity has understood the meaning and content of humility! The photographs by up-and-coming European photographer David Hay Jones are sufficiently subtle and atmospheric to match this sensitive approach to spirituality. They are rarely obvious, certainly not commercial. Rather, they encourage us to look at the world and find our own truths, whether they be Christian, Muslim, Hindu, New Age or agnostic.

Don't let the title fool you- The recipes are not at all diffucult to prepare, but the outcomes are by no means simple,nor do they look "fast". The photos that accompany the recipes are beautiful and highly motivating. I often purchase cook books of chefs of restaurants that I love, but this one caught my eye and I had to have it. I had planned on giving it as a gift and then 3 other friends got their hands on it and purchased more as gifts for friends who love to cook. I still love paging through and finding a new recipe to try. Most recently we had friends over to prepare the Nicoise salad ( must admit we have made it three times in a month! )The recipe works, tastes amazing, and looks almost as good as it does in the photograph. I will be soon buying another one of Hay's books!

This recipe collection is perfect for the gourmand who doesn't have a lot of time or energy to cook. The food is not only innovative and fast, as the title attests, it is also simple, fresh and healthy.

Hay has organized this collection down by cooking times: 10 minutes, 20 minutes, and 30 minutes. I am by no means a seasoned homecook, so these times are very approximate to me. But to be honest, these recipes are so fun that I don't really notice the time. Yes, that's right, I said *fun*.

I suspect that this book is most appropriate for someone who lives along the Pacific Rim. Asian cuisine has a significant influence on many of the recipes and a person living in the Midwestern United States might not have access to some of the ingredients. Otherwise, Hay has a global perspective: you will find innovations on Italian, French, Indian, and (even) Scandinavian cuisine.

I also feel that you will get the most bang out of this book if you shop at a market that offers gourmet foods. Rocket (or arugula), among other items that you will not find at a typical supermarket, is a prevalent ingredient here.

I don't mean to sound esoteric in my review, but as I stated early on, this is a book for gourmands, ie people who are heartily interested in food and drink. Speaking of drink, my only suggestion to better this book would be the addition of a section on table wines.

If you like simple ingredients, short simple steps, and pretty pictures of food, you have got to buy this book I love this book and her other book, flavours. They have a picture for every single recipe and the food is new, different and easy to make. I am a seasoned cook and I love new ideas and easy to follow recipes, two words for this book, Buy It!!!!