This Multimedia Training CD-ROM (which was featured in Cadence Mag.)is the best on the market. I was able to teach my self AutoCAD in 3 days with the tool. AutoDesk has its own multimedia training CD but after comparing the two the Cadd Desktop Tutor contains a hundred times more content. If you want to be an Engineer, Designer or Architect this training tool should be a requirement.

This looks a small book, but the content is comprehensive. The authors clearly get to the point which other this type of books do not.

Allen Sharp's books are pure genius. And "Invitation to Murder" is no exception. Along with "The Stone of Badda", it sticks in my mind as one of the great books of my childhood. Highly recommended!

My husband and I spent six months in Ireland in late 1999-early 2000, and I wanted to learn how to make some of the dishes we were eating in restaurants. (Irish food isn't nearly as awful as we'd heard it was going to be!) So I bought this book, and it's a wonderful introduction to traditional Irish cooking. There's one section I completely avoided on recipes for -- ahem -- strange parts of cows and lamb, etc. But the rest of the book is lovely and very easy to follow with gorgeous photos. As I indicated in the review title -- a perfect introduction to Irish cooking.

Antonio's story evolves entertainingly as he plays off the behavior of his captors. His growing confidence builds the energy of the story. When our family read this together, we could just imagine it being great fun to stage the action for children. The interruptions of the brigands make the story lively, but a little confusing at times. It helps to use different voices for the primary characters (Antonio and the Chief) and the narration.

Every once in a while a novel is published that offers more than a good story. Such is It's Really a New Age. Author and visionary Allen Eric Firesong has written a page-turner that has major motion picture all over it.

Here is a story about peace, love, sharing and spiritual awakening. Imagine three groups of people who live their lives as seekers, bringing and sharing their dreams of a new millenium and a better way...to a nature festival. And then there is the government agent, so hurt, so angry and so hateful...he wants to destroy them, and all that they stand for.

Mr. Firesong offers a tale of transformation from hate to love---from darkness to light. This reviewer also found a cast of clearly defined characters whose lives and personalities are interwoven like a fine tapestry. One group lives on the land in harmony with nature. Add another of city folk involved in the holistic movement. And then add a group from a commune, immersed in healing and spiritual growth.

They all met at an annual nature festival intent on achieving an integration of their truths and a beacon for a new way of living. Will the government special agent succeed with his plan to poison them by going far beyond the dreadful plan authorized by his superiors?

This reviewer eagerly turned 201 pages to the conclusion of a well-written book, and a message of hope. It's Really a New Age is exciting, awakening, and consciousness-raising. Allen Eric Firesong has given us a special book, one that combines a great story with a message of enlightenment. Don't miss this one!

This book was long time in coming ! Nothing like it exists in the West, nor indeed Japan. The author (Gino Piovesana) an Italian Jesuit spent most of his studies in Japan. The book covers an important period of transitions in Japanese philosophical thought touching upon the influence of Western philosophy (including Marxism) upon the ideas which changed Japanese perceptions of thier modus vivendi.

It encapsulates all the key players and gives a synospis of their philosophies and the authors qualified opinion.... based upon the prevailing currents.

This is an updated rendition to bring the reader into modern thought and recent thinking.

16th.july 2000

The Kirkus review of James Whitcomb Riley: A Life is hardly a fair one. It criticizes the book because of two opinions of the reviewer that clearly the author had no hope of changing:

1. The facts about Riley are not as interesting as the myths about his life.

2. He was not the author of great literature.

It is, of course, the duty of the serious biographer to present the truest picture possible of the life of the biography's subject. To this end, Elizabeth Van Allen has done a prodigious amount of research in documents relating to the life of Riley. The result is a scholarly but readable and interesting book. She rightly puts to rest the myths about the poet, intriguing though they may be. Furthermore, as a historian, Van Allen discusses the significance of Riley's poetry but does not attempt to defend it as outstanding literature.

Certainly, the biography of Riley will be most popular in Indiana where he is still revered by many, but it also will be of interest to anyone who is interested in American cultural history. In presenting the context for Riley's early years, the author paints a clear picture of life in the Midwest in the second half of the 19th century. As Riley rises to national fame, the reader learns of the role of newspapers as a purveyor of literature in the late 19th century, the national importance of regional literature in that century, and the important role of the national lecture circuit as mass entertainment of the period.

As an immensely popular entertainer on platforms throughout the nation and later through the marketing efforts of his publisher and of Riley himself, before movies, radio, television, or rock and roll, Riley was the 19th century precursor of the 20th century pop culture celebrity. This fact alone makes him a figure worth reading about and the author's authoritative and entertaining book worth buying.

Another evaluation of the book that is recommended is the review by Rich Gotshall in the Indianapolis Star issue of Sunday, November 7, 1999.

To view the Minneapolis Institute of Arts current exhibit, "A Japanese Legacy: Four Generations of Yoshida Family Artists," is like entering into 100 years of modernization in Japanese art history. The catalogue for the exhibit, being sold here, conveys the same sense. What we see is not artists who repeat traditional cultural forms in spite of Japan's modernization. But just the opposite, members of a single family who step confidently into Japan's future, using their artistic genius to bring the modern world into Japan and Japanese sense of beauty to the rest of world. What an astonishing exchange and transformation takes place from one generation to the next. Maybe art history itself is on display in an exhibition like this. In any case this is a really interesting read.

In IVY DAYS, published in 1984, Susan Allen Toth remembers her student residence at the prestigious Eastern college for women, Smith, during the latter half of the 1950s, and her subsequent post-graduate time at UC Berkeley. It's also a sequel to her previous book BLOOMING, in which she recollects her experiences growing up in Ames, Iowa in the late 40s and early 50s. Taken together, the books are a coming-of-age story that might apply in some degree to any average American who grew up and went off to college during that period. It's a gently self-deprecating and perceptive memoir from a woman who writes with the hindsight achieved by age forty.

Most of IVY DAYS - a relatively short work at 199 paperbacked pages - relates to Smith. The trauma of leaving home to live in a house with strangers of the same sex and age. The awkward process of fitting-in, which included learning how to smoke, drink socially, survive at mixers, and, most importantly, acquire a steady boyfriend. The sifting through the various academic disciplines with the purpose of declaring a major. The pressure of living up to the academic expectations of others and self. Friendships. Petty enmities. Confusion. Disappointment. Depression. Elation. Insecurities. Triumphs. Defeats. Boredom. Excitement. The patchwork quilt of life.

It's in the last chapter, "Up, Up and Away", where Susan briefly mentions her initial brief trip to London and England. This first exposure eventually blossomed into an affectionate connection to that island nation that produced the delightful travel essays (MY LOVE AFFAIR WITH ENGLAND, ENGLAND FOR ALL SEASONS, ENGLAND AS YOU LIKE IT) that first drew my attention to this author. I myself love the place more than I can say, and, in this regard, Susan and I are soulmates. I wish I could sit down with her over High Tea and just talk.

There's a an occasional bittersweetness to Susan's words, especially when it comes to the subject of men, or at least finding the right one. Having grown up with the ingrained notion that "someday your Prince will come", she ruefully writes at one point:

"I had never stopped to consider what would happen if he came, and I couldn't get him to talk to me."

Finally, at Berkeley, she meets the man she was to wed, have a child with, and ultimately divorce. (Happily, she's since remarried to James, her boon companion for the journey to other countries and old age. The reader meets him in Susan's England trilogy, and he seems a first-rate fellow.)

IVY DAYS, like BLOOMING, isn't a can't-put-down book. But it is a charming and congenial insight into the life of a person I wish I knew better and could have as a personal friend. Thank you, Susan, for all you've shared.

_Ivy Days_ is the memoir of Toth's college experiences in the late 50's and early 60's. Her narrative is honest, humorous, and filled with moments that will strike a chord with anyone who has traveled through the halls of higher education