I was disappointed in this book right from the start. To pay [the money I had to pay], I expected to get a hardcover book. Instead, what I found was a flimsy paperback which was as thin as a magazine. Instead of showing scenery from the time Laura lived in places, there were a lot of pictures of plain grasslands of the present time. I turned the page only to find a big picture of a piece of grass! How boring! To my dismay, there were no pictures of Mr. Edwards, Nellie Oleson, Mr. and Mrs. Boast, Mary Power, Reverend Alden, and absolutely no mention of the beloved bulldog, Jack. One advantage in owning this book is that it is much more detailed informative than the "Little House" books. We learn about Laura's younger brother, the fact that the Ingalls once owned a hotel, how Rose Wilder also had a son and died, and shockingly, that Rose obtained a divorce. If you are a hardcore enthusiast for Laura Ingalls Wilder things, then one reason you might want to get this book is because of the pictures from the Ingalls family album. There are lovely pictures of all of Laura's sisters, Ma, Pa, Rose, and Almanzo. The family portrait of the Wilder's is also a plus. Overall, this book was OK. The pictures of Laura and Almanzo's farm, homes, car, horses, and family settings are all good and the information is refreshing. However, the author fails to mention numerous important people in Laura's childhood as well as pictures of them. Instead of putting pictures of friends and family, he puts in way too much scenery from which the pictures were taken in the 1990's, and not from the 1880's.

A beautifully photographed book that gives the reader an idea of what the places in Wilder's books really looked like. These sights are what Laura was envisioning when she wrote her childhood memories.

My favorite picture is the wedding photo of Caroline and Charles Ingalls. Since they are always seen from Laura's perspective, it's easy to forget that they were once a young couple just starting out on their married life together, with no idea of what the future would bring. It was just a thought that occurred to me when I saw the picture. You just know they never expected that millions of people in the 20th century would fondly know of them as the Ma and Pa Ingalls.

I expected a lot from this book, and I got even more than expected. Besides a lot of beautiful color photos, some two pages wide, there is a wealth of family photos. Not only pictures of Laura's immediate family, but the aunts and uncles, and even their Minnesota neighbors, the Nelsons. This book solves the mystery of what the China Shepherdess looks like as well as Laura's China Box. There is even a photo of Dr. Tan's grave. If you can't visit the places in Laura's books, this book will take you there, and also take you where you can no longer go with photos taken by Garth Williams and other photographers of places that no longer exist. There are even photos of paintings done by Harvey Dunn, Grace's husband, based on Laura's family and a painting done by Laura to explain to Grace what a tree looked like. You can see Pa's cottonwoods that survive today as well as the remnants of Almanzo's tree claim. And just as wonderful, the book fills in details not in Laura's books, so you can find out about her baby brother. The only thing lacking is a photo of Nellie Oleson. You won't be disappointed!

I thought this book was wonderful. Leslie is a talented author that has a rare and insightful literary offering in this book. Life as a Girl is a beautiful revelation.

After a terrible back seat encounter with a high school senior, Leslie is sent to boarding school. Her parents are under the mistaken impression that Leslie's life will run smoothly at an all girls' facility. However, Leslie's experience in boarding school is anything but smooth. Her sexual identity develops in enormous proportions as she tries to come to terms with certain areas of her life. The aforementioned changes aren't easy to overcome in the nineteen-fifties, and Leslie's struggles with her sexual identity have just begun.

As mentioned earlier, Life as a Girl is a wonderful and insightful tour de force. Even though I don't share some of the author's thoughts on female sexuality, her takes on the aforementioned subject are thought provoking and - in a disarming manner - logical. I look forward to reading the second part of this five book series.

Leslie rocks. I grew up in the fifties, but never found a woman like her. Les uses sex as a metaphor, however unaccustomed, for the time and place. She recreates the comic horror of growing up and becoming sexually aware at a boarding school.

I liked the honesty and edge of the book and look forward to visiting Les in college in some later work. /s/ Jose

Wow, Les, were you ahead of your time or what?! As a member of your generation, I never would have dared to embark on your sexual journey of self discovery -- but sure would have liked to. Your lack of inhibitions and thorough descriptions of each and every encounter are liberating, if only to my prurient imagination. Thank you for allowing me to live out my fantasy life through you and your friends.

Les doesn't let an opportunity pass her by. She grabs on to the moment and goes with it. The only thing I missed out on is what was she feeling? I look forward to knowing Les better in Book Two.

This text is used as a college textbook in my Bible and Theology Batchelor of Science program. As such, I expect a college level text to be challenging reading. However, even for the best reader this book is tedious, unless reserved strictly for use as a resource. Unfortunately to use it as a resource, a good index is necessary. This book has only an index of names and an index of authors available, making the indices hardly worthwhile.

It does have some great charts as sidebar content but without an index to them they may be missed. Illustrations are in black and white or blue and white. Color photos are reserved for the book jacket only.

The book, while maintaining a fairly conservative theological approach holds rather closely to a JEDP theory regarding the formulation of the Old Testament. This may be confusing to some who were taught to believe that Moses wrote the books of the law. No alternative theory is given that I could find.

If you are purchasing this book for a resource, there may be one which is better indexed and more visually appealing. If for casual reading or basic instruction in Old Testament history or literature, please choose something written for this purpose. You will not be satisfied by this book. My readability score for this book is zero!

This is a wonderful text for the student of the Old Testament. The authors are very detailed in their descriptions of each Old Testament book. Not only do they provide a fairly lengthy section in each chapter about the historical setting of the book, but they also provide a review of the message, certain criticisms, theology, date and composition, and certain scholarly events surrounding the text (i.e. hypothesis, theories about the text, etc.). Moreover, the book is filled with photographs, maps, charts, and many other visual aids. The authors have also provided the reader with geographical aids via descriptions, maps, etc. Another important element about this book is the authors' handling of Hebrew poetry. The authors give a description of what Hebrew poetry is, how it works, how to read it, and what its purpose was in context. So as you can see this is a very detailed book. If you are wanting a text that focuses solely on the Old Testament, is detailed and very descriptive, then I don't believe you will find a better text than this one.

Old Testament Survey quotes the New Revised Standard Version in order to take advantage of the most recent biblical scholarship. While previously scholars thought there was a first, second and third Isaiah OTS makes a stong case for the unity of Isaiah (chapter 22). OTS follows the general modern consensus that Ecclesiastes was written 700 years after King Solomon died and thus was not written by Solomon. The comments are interesting and accompanied by photos and maps. If you enjoy this book you may also like THE COMPLETE GUIDE TO THE BOOK OF PROVERBS by Cody Jones. Many of the mysteries and riddles of Proverbs are explored with some surprising new answers. Among them is the identity of King Solomon's ghostwriter who was one of the "officials of Hezekiah" mentioned in Proverbs 25.1. Six translations of Proverbs in parallel aid understanding and numerous drawings and photos give you a sense of the culture of the time.

I collect Blenko glass, and I got this book with the expectation that it would help me distinguish Blenko from the other WV glassmakers. The book is full of wonderful photographs, but there is only so much to be learned from a two dimensional object. There is a brief history of each glassmaker, and therein lies the problem. The history is much too brief, and there is very little if any discussion of what distinguishes each glassmaker from its competitors. The pictures are great, but the book left me wanting more information, and I came away from it unsatisfied.

Subtitled "Color Along the River," this book features handcrafted glassware produced in the 1950's and 1960's along the Ohio River Valley, an area in West Virginia famed for its glassmaking. The book contains over 400 color photos of glassware, plus labels, catalog page reprints, company histories, and a price guide. Featured companies include Blenko, Pilgrim, Kanawha, Rainbow, A.F. Bischoff, Fostoria, Viking, and Morgantown. There is also a chapter on cased and satin glass from international sources, such as Italy and Scandinavia.

This book is a wonderful source of information on glassware that was poorly documented elsewhere in 1995: crackle glass, all those colorful decanters with pointy teardrop stoppers, cased glass, pinched vases, and oversized bud vases. (Many of these items were not marked, but carried paper labels which quickly wore off.) There is also a chapter on figural glass, featuring the fish, birds, and elephants that were so popular during these decades.

Much of this type of glass is definitely an aquired taste. People seem to love it or hate it: currently it doesn't seem to have the mass following of, say, Depression glass or Fenton. Colors range from the garish (orange) to the gloomy (brown, gray), and items range from the delicate to the downright clunky. Some of the styles are just too recent for people to get too excited about. Having said that, Blenko in particular is seeing quite an upswing in popularity: some of its large decanters--especially amberina--are currently selling for well over $100. And crackle glass has a lot of afficionados. There is no doubt that glass of the 1950's and 1960's will be highly collectible in the near future. This is a unique book, which highlights "a pronounced awareness of color, form, and texture" which took place during these decades.

I am a collector of viking glassware. This book is the single most helpful book I have found. It has great color photos and, what I find most interesting, actual pages from original viking glassware catalogues. It also has a great section reviewing the different labels from different series. Additionally, it contains a rather descriptive and detailed table of estimated values of the different pieces today. The book does a good job of giving histories of the companies inside as well. There are other types of glassware from the same geographical area (New Martinsville, WV) covered in the book as well. I, however, can not list them for you as my original copy of the book was recently destroyed in a fire so I am online today to order my new copy of the book!

Margaret Leslie Davis, it must be said at the outset, is a gifted writer and, personally, a nice lady as well. However, her effort to popularize an admittedly complicated, sometimes dry (pun intended) history in Rivers In The Desert causes her to publish a story that, though ESSENTIALLY true, is filled with factual inaccuracies. Sometimes they're little, such as saying one could view the entire St. Francis floodpath from the dam clear to the ruined Bardsdale Bridge from the hill above Powerplant #2 (impossible, as Bardsdale is over 15 miles away) to major, such as the scene in her book where H.A. Van Norman goes to Mulholland's home at 1:30 AM to tell The Chief that the dam had gone out (in fact, Van CALLED The Chief on the phone at about 1:14 AM, and Mulholland drove over to Van's house to pick him up). These might seem like silly little details, but when one sets out to write of recent history, there's no excuse for journalistic sloppiness, or for the chaging of facts and even fabrication of certain events such as Ms. Davis has done here. This book is a fine novel, but that's all is... a novel, not a true historical account, and liberally embellished with the author's own editorializing. Too bad; with her fine writing style, she could've done much better.

This is the real story behind the movie "Chinatown." If you're interested in Los Angeles's history, this is an entertaining way to get it.

The water we drink in Southern California still comes from the aqueduct built by Irish immigrant Mulholland. What is amazing is how Ms. Davis brings Mulholland to life; from his stubborn fights with politicians when building the Owen Valley aqueduct to his last tragic days after the St. Francis dam disaster (when he literally pulls out all his teeth with a pair of pliers)! Ms. Davis proves that Mulholland was not responsible for the St. Francis dam collapse. Culpability lies with politicians and graft which forced Mulholland to pick a reservoir site not to his liking. This biography shows that this entirely self-educated Irishman was one of the greatest engineers of his time. The men and women of the East coast get plenty of print; this book is about the American West and specifically about one the engineering marvels of the 20th century--an aqueduct still in use, the largest and longest in the country. Mulholland is more than just a scenic drive. Without him there would be no Los Angeles (for better or for worse!) It is impossible to even begin to understand Los Angeles without first reading this book. By the way, Ms. Davis writes marvelously.

Hard to understand language, interesting ideas

overall I liked this book quite a bi

This book is excellent both as an introduction to the subject of radical ecology and as a thought-provoking collection of ideas for those already familiar with deep ecology and other radical environmental thought.

Evernden argues that the conception of "nature" is a social construction. Nature as we conceive of it is simply a name given to a collection of entities and webs with no direct correlation. The problem is that such naming of complex natural events, lives, beings, etc. reduces, even eliminates, our ability to interact with what truly is natural.

The central manifestation of this dilemma Evernden refers to is the obsession our culture has created with the idea of saving nature, saving endangered species, etc. It is precisely the conception of nature which presumes that humans can identify certain "endangered species," name them, categorize them, rank them (save the whales, but don't save the rats? why? well, whales are cuter, right?) only re-inforces the attempt to dominate and control which is at the root of the environmental crisis.

Evernden advocates the shattering of what we assume nature to be, and such movement away from commonplace thinking comes from the words we speak. When we can stop thinking of certain species in need of being "saved," we may finally be able to simply wonder at the beauty of that which we can't name.

Leslie Gourse and her team have done a book of merit, an investigation of true achievements, but one that lacks passion, and previous knowledge about the central theme: the life and music of Thelonious Monk. Nevertheless, this book is as close as one can get to the personal life of the high priest of bebop, but not to his musical perspectives. The author misses her point absolutly in avoiding a serious treatment of the music of one of the true geniuses of american music.

This book has gotten unjustified bad press. The author accurately captures the "real" T. Monk. She traces Monk's development and commitment to jazz over his career. The author had access to Monk's family (e.g., Toot his drummer son), friends, supporters, and the musicians that knew him. What I particularly like about the book was her treatment of Monk's mysterious pathology. Monk was a very strange guy. Various psychiatrists discounted him being schizophrenic and bipolar. The concensus was that he chemically ruined his brain over the years. He also cultivated an image of eccentricity. During the last six years of his life, he got up, put on a suit and tie (he was always sartorially snappy) and then laid in bed all day. This is a very good book and provided an insightful picture of this eccentric musical genius.

Attention T.Monk fans! This book has lots of info on Monk. It is written in a very interesting way. Much of the info is from personal interviews, which means that there are many interesting and funny facts and stories. There are some great photographs of Monk with other jazz pioneers such as Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie etc. It also has a sessionography, index, list of compositions, and videography. A must read.

As is typical of many of the current trough of poorly written "true crime" books, Sudden Fury begins by almost immediately letting you know "who done it". After that, it becomes just a dry recitation of the facts, including the background of the "abused" murderer. It leaves the reader wondering why she would bother writing a book when a simple magazine article could give almost as much factual information.

Of course, in the author's view, the victims' requiring their adopted sons to make decent grades, not steal, and obey society's rules is "abuse". The constant whining theme of "he just needs love" conveniently whitewashes the fact that the parents, though flawed themselves, adopted the children with the idea of doing just that, and the boys continually and willfully did wrong, often for no purpose other than to just show they could. Although it sounds like the father had a bad temper, even a patient parent would eventually get sick and tired of the antisocial behavior they were dealing with from two kids who, typical of adopted children, wanted "unconditional love" and continually pushed the limits to make their adoptive parents "prove" their love. (If you believe in "unconditional love", try cheating on or stealing from your spouse repeatedly, and then demand it.) These kids had free will, a great 2nd chance in life, and they stupidly threw it away with their selfish and sociopathic behavior. Not once does the author bring up the topic of "evil" or even mention in passing that perhaps if the young lad were so unhappy, he should have asked someone at his school to get him removed from that house.

Other incidents of "abuse" the author describes are: 1. not paying for his drivers ed class, and not letting him drive unless he passed all his courses. (Oh the horror!) 2. discouraging him from dating any girl more than once at 15-16 years of age to avoid problems with sex. (with over 60% of births now out of wedlock, not such an unwise idea at his age, and certainly not "abuse") 3. The father getting angry the night of the murder because the boy and his friends had ruined a computer disk containing countless hours of his father's accounting work and programming. I wonder what the author would say to her 16 y/o child if he had trashed her only copy of this book's manuscript after months of work. I'm sure she'd just smile and buy him an ice cream cone.

This "boy" will be getting out of jail before he's 30, probably, and god help the people who come accross him then. Unlike the theory of one person in the book, his problem wasn't his adoptive parents, it was his inability to understand that being adopted and having a tough childhood isn't carte blanche to vicimize the rest of us. If you want to prevent tradgedies like this, start making people who recklessly have children out of wedlock pay the price.

The victims' families should sue the author for libel, if they already haven't. Though perhaps overly rigid and imperfect, they were trying to help these kids, and the author used primarly the MURDERER'S point of view and that of their INSTITUTIONALIZED CRIMINAL older son to assasinate their character.

The final fact is, this "boy" CHOSE to murder two people because he didn't like their rules and "felt bad". Society is better off without such people and their excuse mongers as well.

Coming from someone who grew up in the neighborhood where this crime happened and knowing the murderer, I found this book chilling. For those of us who knew him, Larry was anything but antisocial. He tried hard to please. I think the book depicted the case in very factual details. It's difficult to read even now many years after the incident.

Not your typical whodunnit, Sudden Fury is one of the better true crime books I've read. It's an emotional whodunnit of sorts, a chilling account of a boy abandoned into the foster care system who grew up to be violent. I especially liked the alternating story lines--the present-tense crime investigation alternating with the child's upbringing. I found the writing style objective in a way that made it compelling. The tragedy, I felt, was heightened by the fact the adoptive parents were so well meaning, however misguided they may have been. I felt the author struck a delicate balance between blaming the adoptive parents, the boy and the social welfare system for the horrible outcome. While depressing, I would recommend this book to anyone interested in the psychology of violence.

Leslie provides a good view of childfree living that is more personal than statistical. For the most part, the book is very positive, although there are parts where it's clear she feels that childree couples are victims and are somewhat slighted in society.

WDYHK is a book that covers the pros and cons of parenting and non-parenting. Should be required reading for all people of reproducing age. The facts of the villainization and pressure on those who willingly chose to not reproduce are frightening. I found this book a fantastic support for the subject that is not often discussed or even thought of.....that biology is no longer destiny, and parenting is a choice that should be taken seriously.

Having survived 10 years of infertility treatments and the social ostracism, the financial burden, the emotional scarring that come with it I wholeheartedly recommend this book. If you are beyond the treatment stage and are beginning to look at adoption vs living childfree you need to read this book. The author doesn't gloss over anything. She doesn't use flowery phrases or give pat answers. If you want to really think about your decision, this book is for you!

While some of the photography was beautiful, there were a couple of things that I disliked about the book.

The first was the fact that I felt like I was intruding. It didn't seem that the people photographed had always consented. [Many Amish do not like to have their photographs taken, because of a Biblical passage.] Some of them seemed like they had allowed the photographer in, but in some photos I just couldn't help feeling that something wasn't right.

The second was the layout. I thought the book was very poorly layed out and could have been much more effective if it had been properly laid out. There is a lot of interesting information held within the pages of this book, if you know where to look. [It is difficult to find captions for pictures, etc.]

It is, however, an informative guide to the Amish.

America's Amish Country II is a beautifully photographed, survey of Amish areas spread out through twenty-two states and Ontario, Canada. Each of the 376 full color photographs depict some aspect of the Amish way of life including close knit families, self reliance, strong work values, barn raising, threshing rings, field plowing, hog butchering, deer hunting, pea shelling, clothes washing, vegetable garden work, young scholars, youth group activities, fishing, family picnics, sports, baseball, volleyball, horse shoe pitching, ice skating, and more. Leslie Kelly's text and captions serve to enhance Doyle Yoder's spectacular photography. America's Amish Country II is a splendid, highly recommended example of a photo essay volume showcasing a very special way of life in America.