One of the relative few pre-Tolkien fantasies, originally published in the 1920s, "Wind Boy" is substantially more juvenile than books of that sparse fantasy era. Despite a slightly dated feel, it's a cute little read that children may appreciate as a bedtime story.

A strange girl called Nan arrives in response to an ad for a housekeeper, put out by a refugee family in an idyllic little village. The only problem is a mysterious figure, wearing a cloak and a frightening mask, that is roaming around the neighborhood and scaring the kids. Nan drives the Masker away, then helps out the overworked mother and her two children, Gentian and Kay.

It is soon revealed that Nan is not all she seems. She brings the two children into the fantastical Clear Land to be fitted for silver and gold sandals that can walk on the air. They also befriend the Wind Boy, a beautiful young boy with a pair of purple wings. Gentian and Kay continue their jaunts into the Clear Land with their friends, until the identity of the Masker threatens all of them.

This is a cute little fantasy; the style of it, which includes constant addresses from the author to the readers, is somewhat dated, as is the idyllic village life with such career-named characters like "Artist" or "Policeman." There is no family strife, problematic parents, and there are no villains. However, if the young readers do not dislike these elements -- or lack of them -- then they may like this book. It's ideal for very young kids, as there are no plot complexities or frightening elements.

The writing style is somewhat flat, as often the author addresses the readers rather than describing, for example, Gentian's transitions into the Clear Land. However, the biggest bonus are intriguing scenes such as the weaving of the "starry-brightness," as well as the charming little illustrations.

A cute early fantasy for young kids with a high nostalgia factor. For all sweetness and light, try reading this.

I am so excited to find that this favorite and haunting book from my childhood has been reprinted. I've attempted to find a copy over the decades. My book was borrowed when I was a kid and never returned. I just discovered the reprint and ordered several copies. This is a magical read for kids of any generation.

My children were eight and four when we discovered this little gem for a read-aloud together. It was a lovely time. A year later, my five year old will still recall some of the scenes or events from the book. I recommend it to all families!

OK, I'll admit it...
I am a Bobby Flay fan. But Bobby Flay Cooks American
is truly Bobby Flay at his best!
The recipes are easy to prepare, with basic ingredients,
with not a lot of frill. Easy to understand, and will
bring you many compliments!

I don't like Bobby Flay, but I have to say the guy knows how to cook! This is a great book, and I enjoy cooking out of it.

I have read all of Bobby Flay's cookbooks and made several of the recipes. This is my favorite cookbook. It is so much fun to read and the recipes are so incredibly varied. The recipes are presented well: clearer and more organized than his previous volumes. Julia Moskin, co-author, may be the new ingredient that makes this cookbook so special

There is very little left to say about this book. I agree with all the glowing reviews and would like to add my 2 cents! Last year I gave my parents a copy of Grace Young's new book The Wisdom of a Chinese Kitchen. My father said thank you very much and he handed me this book and said this is real food for real people - and he was right! In this book the meals of my childhood have been replicated! Ken Hom gathers up an amazing treasury of recipes. They are easy to follow, not overly complicated, and offer an easy dose of comfort food.

The title of this cookbook is what attracted me to it in the first place. As a Chinese-American, I have rarely found - especially since I now live in a small New England town - excellent and authentic Chinese cooking that compares to what my mother used to make. And unfortunately, since she suffered a stroke last year, I've been unable to reproduce the many wonderful dishes she used to feed us, since she kept them all "in her head." Ken Hom's cookbook brought back wonderful memories. I have raved about this cookbook to my brothers and plan to make gifts of it. My Caucasian husband truly loves these recipes also. The first dish I made reminded us both so much of my mother's cooking that I almost cried. Hom's dishes are flavorful, delicious, authentic, and relatively easy to make. A trip to a Chinese market for some ingredients is required for many of the recipes, but it is well worth the trip! Anyone who loves quality Chinese cooking and finds the standard, Americanized, often tasteless dishes you get in so many "Chinese" restaurants unpalatable (unless you happen to be lucky enough to live in NYC, DC, or SF), will love this book! Please try it - this is what quality Chinese cooking is all about!!

Major Book Award for Ken Hom and BBC Worldwide

The prestigious Andre Simon Memorial Fund award for the best food book of 1998 was last night given to Ken Hom for his book "Easy Family Dishes: A memoir with recipes " published by BBC Worldwide last October. His editor Viv Bowler (Lifestyle Group, UK Region) accepted the award on his behalf.

This is the most prestigious cookery book award of the year - for which Ken has previously been short listed twice. Easy Family Dishes doubles as an autobiography and a cook book and tells the story of Ken's upbringing as a Chinese American in Chicago. Eighty-five cookery books were entered in all and the short-list included top names such as Nigel Slater, Madhur Jaffrey and Nigella Lawson. Josceline Dimbleby, who presented the award, described the book as beautifully written, endearing, informative and unique. Ken's book enters into the André Simon hall of fame.

Seamus Geoghegan, Director, Lifestyle Group, said: "This award is a testament not only to Ken's enormous writing and cooking talents, but also to the editorial expertise of Viv Bowler who worked so hard to get this title - a non TV tie-in which several other publishers were interested in. BBC Worldwide is often regarded exclusively as a TV tie-in publisher, but this proves that we can be just as successful with books that aren't linked to specific series. We have worked with Ken for over 15 years now and are delighted and proud to be the publishers of the first of his titles ever to win an André Simon award."

. . . the ending, while certainly "unpredictable and downbeat" (as one of the other reviewers notes), was not, in my view, "fitting"; rather, it seemed abrupt and arbitrary, drastically changing the tone of the novel sustained up until the final few pages, to no particular purpose. Having very much enjoyed Double Negative and The Full Catastrophe, I was angered and depressed. Nevertheless, Carkeet remains one of those rare writers (like David Lodge and Michael Malone) who not only makes me smile a lot, but also, at times, makes me laugh out loud; and, mostly, this novel did the same for me. So I still recommend it. Perhaps those for whom this is the first Carkeet novel will not have the same issues I have with the ending.

Carkeet was my History of the English Language professor two semesters ago, so I picked up this book out of curiosity when I saw it advertised on the UM-St. Louis English Department "Recent Faculty Publications" board. Am I glad I did. This book is very funny and very true to life. And the best part is that I can actually hear Carkeet's voice in there. Having taken one of his classes, I think, has given me a lot of insight into the book I might not have had otherwise, but I think that a lot of people can relate to this book, especially when it comes to the relationships between the characters.

This is a complex yet thorougly readable and hilarious book. A master of the spoken word, Carkeet makes every word count. His characters touched me deeply at many levels.

If you love to make your own soup, you want this book, if you love excellent tasting soup, you want this book. Easy to follow recipes, excellent tasting soups, you cannot go wrong purchasing this book. These soups can be eaten all year round. This Soup Cook Book makes an excellent gift.

BR>It is truly a classic cookbook with nothing but great tasting, wholsome soups.
This wonderful book also includes many tips on how to make soup.

.....then make soup from this fine cookbook. Every recipe is amazing and delicious, there's not a miss in the bunch! Her use of herbs gives extrordinary flavors, giving new life to old-favorites, and creating new favorites for your repitoire. I've been using it for years and have never tired of it. Get this book immediately, do not wait another minute!

Since her husband left her for another woman, Mary Ryan has sunk herself into the 16 hour days of a restaurant pastry chef. But when she arrives early one morning and stumbles over the dead body of one of the wait staff, she is yanked from her lethargy and feels compelled to investigate--despite clear warnings from cop ex-husband Jim and Jim's former partner, O'Connor. Mary's search takes her all over San Francisco and she gradually uncovers evidence that the murder is more than random violence. Something is going on at the restaurant where she works--something that may put her in grave danger.

Author Claire M. Johnson delivers a well written story in her debut novel, BEAT UNTIL STIFF--and what a killer title. I took a while to warm to Mary Ryan, the protagonist as he full emersion in self-pity quickly wore thin and her motivation for investigation seemed a bit shaky. Still, it's hard not to like a 30-something woman determined to make it in the rough world of food service, and determined to uncover the truth about the death of a friend.

Johnson's view of the restaurant world, with its base of immigrants, self-obsessed prima-donna chefs, gay creative talents, and wine tasting parties rings true as does her city of San Francisco.

I am truly surprised that this was the author's first book. I read a lot and can usually tell when its a first try. I really enjoyed this book and read it in one sitting. I hope she writes more!

Mary Ryan, pastry chef at American Fare -- the hottest restaurant on the West Coast, is 34, recently divorced from Jim, a San Francisco homicide inspector, and cranky.

Getting a chef's jacket and apron from the laundry room of the deserted restaurant, she steps on a laundry bag. It feels hard, not spongy like a bag of dirty laundry. She opens the bag with her chef's knife and finds Carlos Perez, one of her pastry assistants, beaten to death and neatly folded into the laundry bag. After she throws up and hides in the bathroom to make sure whoever killed him has left, she calls 911.

O'Connor, Jim's partner and a friend, is assigned to this case. Mary disobeys O'Connor and puts herself in danger time and time again. But she also helps uncover what has been going on under her nose. Many secrets of the food business at American Fare are uncovered.

I found Mary Ryan to be a likeable character even though her life is dysfunctional at best.

If you like food and mysteries, you will like this debut novel. I am looking forward to reading future books.

It gave me new spells and new campaign ideas. it was what i wanted, so I am very happy with this product.

One thing I like about the 3E core rulebooks is it seems like WotC play tested the hell out of them. Nearly everything is fairly well balanced. Many aspects have been simplified from the 2nd addition in a good way (though sometimes too much.) Overall, I really like 3E and consider it worth buying.

Enter supplemental materials like the Book of Eldritch Might, by Monte Cook. Let's take a look:

VALUE: Under 10 bucks for the printed version, or 5 bucks for the PDF file (available from his website). After shelling out at least 20 for each of the class books, I find this very refreshing.

DESIGN: The art in the printed version is pretty horrible. But, it's nice to have the printed bound version for easy access. However, I went with the PDF and had Kinko's print it out and spiral bind it. It's just as nice, if not nicer.

CONTENT: This is where all of Monte's D&D 3E material shines. The man is brilliant when it comes to fantasy game design. The BoEM contains new feats, spells (primary for Wizard's and Sorcs), new prestige classes, and new magic items. However, these aren't just more of the same things we've seen. Each has a unique flavor and purpose. Examples:

FEATS: Eldritch feats enhance spell-casting abilities in a whole new way outside of metamagic. Most are usable for many of your daily spells, if you meet the prereqs. Rune & tattoo magic -- very cool, great flavor to a campaign.

PRESTIGE CLASSES: For those of you that follow the many PrCs that get published through Dragon mag, Monte's are almost always unique and cool. So too in this book. Embermage: Ultimate fire mage. Graven One: A mage covered in sigils, glyphs, and tattoos, using them to invoke powerful magic. How cool of a NPC would that make? The other PrCs are solid too.

SPELLS: As mentioned, most are for Wizard and Sorc, but there is a mishmash of spells for druids and even the assassin PrC. The spells are all creative, interesting, and remarkably well-balanced.

MAGIC ITEMS: Interesting! Magic vehicles. Magic poisons. Others that vary in power, but never vary in cool factor. Your players will love to get their hands on these, and will loathe NPCs wielding them!

OVERALL: 5 Stars. One of the few accessories that I've opened up in its entirety to my game. Visit Monte Cook's website for errata to this book, and all his other Malhavok Press products...

This is an extremely useful book with new spells, feats and magic items in it. The spells are well balenced and won't require any adjustments before being put in a campaign. The PDF ... is a better value, but the print version is pretty good.

Admittedly, this cookbook is not always for the novice. It doesn't tell you how long to cook a roast, for instance. However, if you are into a reenactment hobby (e.g. SCA), definitely get this book and do not get Fabulous Feasts. This book actually gives the source of each recipe so that you can do your own redacting. One of the better easily accessible sources for planning a feast.

This book has some good background info, and the recipes are tested, and they work well. I used the roasted carrot recipe for a feast put on by a local group. Other recipes that I have tried in here have worked good as well. This is one to add to your feast book collection.

This was my very first medieval-food book. To my amazement, it actually works well as a "mundane" cookbook too. The recipes are presented with the primary source they come from first (translated if the source isn't in at least somewhat-recognizable English), with a redaction following.

Not all the redactions are easy to work with, and sometimes the results are.. well.. uneven (watch out for the sage sauce one that calls for chopped boiled eggs). I suspect that three people making the same recipe would come out with three different dishes. That said, some recipes are just mouthwatering -- a thickened wine sauce for meats went over well at one feast I helped with, and most of the vegetable recipes are tasty and easy to prepare.

A decent bibliography is included with the work, as well as an analysis of period spices and spice mixes. I'd recommend this to anybody interested in medieval cooking -- it dispels a lot of myths and presents a number of dishes that prove that we haven't changed all that much.

I don't think this book will go be considered earth-shattering, and admittedly, I bought the book as a gift, so I didn't try the recipes. But, I did read the first chapters on budgeting and how to shop. If you don't have much experience with grocery shopping, or if your idea of buying food is to have something delivered, then this would be a good book. The advice is practical, and in some respects common - but face it, if you don't know it, you're not going to necessarily divine it, at least not over night.

Some of the tips are things as simple as comparing unit prices to see if the larger size is a value (face it, it's not necessarily true anymore). And looking at the cost of say flavored rice, versus buying the ingredients and flavoring it yourself.

The recipes are basic, and while not necessarily inspiring, they get the job done.

I don't think this book is aimed at the person who is a cook and looking to save money. If you're a person suddenly faced with a kitchen and no money, this will help.

My niece decided she wanted to take on some of the household duties, like shopping and cooking. (I think she actually wanted more control over what was served for dinner.) Not having done much beyond boiling pasta, this was quite a challenge. This book was a great jumping off point for her and she still refers back to it. The cupboard and marketing tips taught her that a shopping list isn't just the things you ran out of this week. She is becoming a good menu planner without breaking her mother's budget.

I am student and this book helped me to estimate my costs for food before I went to US. Although, while in Los Angeles the first week spendings were huge, lately they were less or about the same as in the book.

The amazing thing about this beautiful book, to me, is the fact that these two guys (Brooks and Cook) wrote this book while they were still students at Clemson University. When I was a student, my weekends were never this productive. Heck, I couldn't even afford food. Any one who was able to produce such beautiful pictures on a student's budget merits my greatest admiration. Great directions, too. I really liked the inclusion of GPS coordinates for waypoints.

Easily one of the most enjoyable and versatile field guides ever produced. Unlike the typical "cobbled together" field notes that seem to permeate the field guide market, The Waterfalls of South Carolina succinctly presents photography tips, directions, maps, stunning photographs, and even GPS coordinates in a neat 80 page softcopy, suitable for slipping neatly into a day pack, camera pack, or oversized pocket. In the past three years, I've given this book as a gift to friends, relatives, and co-workers. Two of these persons were so inspired by the book that they began hiking regularly. One of these persons actually lost close to 80 pounds during his travels. Thank you, Tim Cook and Benjamin Brooks for your wonderful gift to the people of South Carolina, and to others who will hopefully discover this masterpiece.

I'm not sure what the previous reviewer is referring to because "The Waterfalls of South Carolina" is very clearly written. Perhaps all the pollution in Atlanta has clouded his judgement. The directions are easy to follow and very concise. The fromat of the book is also easy to use. There is a beautiful full color photograph on one page and the directions and description of the waterfall are on the facing page. I also particularly enjoyed the extra information about the plant and animal species that inhabit the area around each waterfall. While some other guides for the area include more falls, most of the extra "waterfalls" included don't quite qualify as such in my judgement. Brooks and Cook definitely offer the most authoritative guide to the waterfalls in South Carolina.