Being born and reared in NC is the best of all worlds - coast to mtns. This book is a wonderful pictorial glimpse into our State at the holiday season along with good recipes etc. I'm trying to find copies for "all my children". It is a joy at Christmas or anytime to peruse this book.

The best Christmas book I've ever bought. The photos are beautiful, the recipes yummy, and the stories bring back many happy Christmas memories. My family and friends had fun looking at the pictures and saying "I've been there."

With my father as the photographer (David Crosby), I highly suggest this book as a Christmas gift for anyone! I traveled with him on his photography expedition and the sites he captured are as they appear in the book; colorful and very alive! Ms. Kiefer does a wonderful job on books, and this is only one of her three works of art.

This has been my favorite book for as long as I can remember, but we always got it from the library. Every time I read it I laugh till I cry! When I graduated high school my dad wanted to surprise me by buying it for me but even after calling the publisher was told it is out of print. Once when visiting a cousin out of town we found it at her library and were so excited! Now my local library has a copy and I can read it to my daughters. I am so glad it is available for purchase again!!

This book was my favorite to read to my younger brothers and now its my neice's favorite book. It is definately a book that I recommend to those who have older siblings. I will always remember Homer and his struggles and the immortal.. "Beans", said Homer...

This was one of my favorite books growing up. Your child will love it

Catherine Daly-Weir has done an excellent job of presenting a general and yet fairly complete introduction to Heraldry. The illustrations are beautiful and attractive. Obviusly written for the younger reader, adults will enjoy just as well. If you are working on a club/class project and need to creat a Coat of Arms, this book and Rosemary Chorzempa's "Design Your Own Coat of Arms" are all you need! You will have no trouble creating your own Coat of Arms expecially with the plastic stencil which is included in the book. A must have!

This book is written for a younger audience than, say Rosemary Chorzempa's Design Your Own Coat of Arms. While there might not be as much information included, what is included is presented very well. There are full-color drawings that will appeal to kids (and adults, for that matter!) and the explanations are clear and understandable. But truly the best thing about the book is the stencil. It includes many of the common images found on historical Coat of Arms. More importantly, the stencil is made from plastic, so it will withstand many tracings. Many times a stencil included with a book is made of heavy-duty paper or cardstock, but those just don't hold up to repeated use. This stencil is made of see-through green-tinted plastic, so it is easy to see exactly where to place the image you are tracing.

This is a wonderful educational book, where the child can actually create his/her own coat of arms using the stencils in the back. The illustrations are also vibrant and beautiful!

I rather enjoyed this story of romance, betrayal and brotherly love. It follows the story of 2 twin brothers who were not identical and in those times that was taken as a sign that someone else had fathered one of them. This led to Blaec's basic bad treatment by his father; though he was the first son his father has left the Earldom to his brother Grahaem. The thing is that Blaec and his brother are very close in spite of this all. Which leads to lots of guilty feelings when Dominique comes to be Grahaem's wife, while Blaec is attracted to her and she to him. But, there is also a conniving brother of Dominique's who is rather sick in the head, and other battles to fight to make this story a good one! If you like medieval romances you will enjoy this one.

I loved this book because the characters didn't waste any time before they got busy, if you know what I mean. Blaec was extremely sexy and Dominique was extremely easy for a virgin. See what I mean about "getting busy". The reading was easy and the characters were memorable. I carried the book with me and read whenever possible.

I really enjoyed this book It was very entertaining!

In Quality Without Tears, Crosby adds new layers to his original "zero defects" philosophy. He offers fourteen steps for quality improvement in teams.

Let's look at one of them, Step 6, "corrective action." The common problem with "corrective action," says Crosby, is that people don't understand what the term means.

Suppose, says Crosby, that you suddenly found a grizzly bear in your back yard: "The answer would not be to set up an armed camp to protect yourself from the bear. This is the sort of action that takes place when parts of an organization are given a shoot-to-kill license. All that results is a lot of yard that can't be used and several dead bears."

Corrective actions have to begin by identifying the source of the bears.

Another step is Zero Defects Day: "Many people rarely have exciting days at work . . . A well-planned, dignified, Zero Defects Day on which management understands what it is talking about is a delight that will be remembered forever."

Recognition also plays a role. An organization recognizes people who can serve as "beacons." These are the people who shine so brightly that they help keep everyone heading in the right direction:

"Many managers feel, somewhat cynically, that people are being paid to do their jobs and that's that. This attitude reflects an insensitivity to people that is a trademark of many hockey-style managers."

To drive his philosophy home, Crosby cites an unusual case study:

In "A Quality Carol," Emory Spellman falls asleep on a bus. A spirit appears and takes him to see his deceased partner. The partner is repairing thousands of defective items that their company has made.

This is punishment ...

"... For being the cause of the hassle other people had to live with. For not preventing these things by being interested in quality."

The apparition warns:

"All these years, you have treated quality like something you could take in or take out. Well, unless you change your ways, you are going to wind up right next to me, forever and ever, twenty-four hours a day. No time off, no visitors, no meetings ---- just all the problems you ever caused."

Predictably, three more visitors appear.

Quality Past is a former college professor who wants to retract something he had taught Emory. The misinformed lesson was to cut corners on quality.

Quality Present appears as a woman who tries to sell him on the quality vaccine. Failing in that, she brings Emory's customers to him through a television screen. One after another comes into view with a litany of complaints about the company's products and services.

When Quality Future enters, Emory finally sees the light. The final and most portentous visitor is a "severe looking person carrying a briefcase and dressed in a black three-piece suit." He has just bought the company from a bankruptcy court.

Emory returns later in the book and applies Crosby's methods to avert that fate.

Philip Crosby is widely recognized as a quality pioneer for the concepts he drove homw with Quality is Free and Quality Without Tears. After reading, Quality Without Tears, I was struck by how deep a conviction he held that his concepts were valid. It's easy to say that now that they have become widely accepted, but it takes a visionary to act that way when they're a somewehat new approach.

The concepts which Crosby developed were a extension of the work of Dr. Edwards Deming (who also has published a bunch of books) and Crosby's work seems to be the basis of the later Six Sigma approach that proved to work so well.

Phil Crosby has the most coherent view of achieving quality of anyone I've read in 25 years of management. I continue to come back to him when I hit a quality problem in our company or those from whom we buy. This book is the best summary of his philosophy, in my opinion.

I first heard about this book on a PBS program and found a copy in a local bookstore. It is chock full of wonderful photographs, great recipes, and lots of historical information about Christmas from all around the state. I highly recommend this book as a holiday gift for any current or former Tennessee resident, or those that enjoy this type of book.

College in Maryville, TN showed me its unique culture and traditions I hadn't known in Chicago. They are so interesting are beautiful. The book brings it all back in its fullness and beauty. The photographs are real, and stories just from Tennessee. It's a wonderful gift for anyone who has ever lived in Tennessee.

I was plesantly suprised at the high quality, and the way Christmas traditions were presented. More than just another Christmas book, a great book about Tennessee, some wonderful recipes, and sentimental stories. A great coffee table book and a great idea for anyone who's from Tennessee

Cindy Crosby offers fresh glimpses of grace in this beautifully written meditation on life. But it's not the sweet, syrupy kind of life that most Christian authors seem to think we all have (or should have). Rather, it's about the life most of us live, full of hills and valleys, dark clouds and sunshine, birth and death.

Like Crosby, I'm an avid gardener. Though I've never lived in the Midwest where most of her essays take place, she brings alive the mysteries of the life cycle in her descriptions of the tall-grass prairies--ecosystems, really--as they ebb with the flow of life, death, and rebirth. Her prose sings with the wonder of nature.

Likewise, reading of her hike into the Barataria wildlife preserve near New Orleans, a place I, too, have visited, brought back all the sights, smells, and general spookiness of southern swampland. Her deftly modulated prose conveys the awe any thoughtful encounter with the natural world yields, and for Crosby this world is full of spiritual and personal insight. I say "insight" rather than "lessons," because she is careful not to reduce the glory of creation to a simple one-liner from God. No simplistic "thou shalts" or "thou shalt nots" here.

Crosby infuses her book with a deliciously appealing Christian spirituality, weaving it in with a welcome light touch uncharacteristic of most religious writing.

Cindy Crosby finds glimpses of God through flora and fauna. While struggling with a severe depression, she found solace in the rhythms of life she saw in the natural world around her. The cycles of darkness and light reaffirmed the fact that while this world is a fallen one, it is also one in which God provides hope and redemption.

Like nature writer Annie Dillard, Crosby is a keen observer of the environment, and her garden and the local arboretum provide much of the raw material for her reflections. The controlled burn of a prairie fire stimulates questions of human suffering. The birds squabbling at her feeder provide a lighthearted portrait of the church. A sleepless night reminds her that even the darkest hour brings hope of morning.

What is most refreshing is that unlike much contemporary devotional literature, Crosby allows the metaphors to speak for themselves, without belaboring the spiritual point. The voice she writes with reflects the Voice she hears through creation - subtle, gentle and profoundly stirring.

I liked the way this author balanced her experiences in life, sharing both ups and downs. I liked her writing style which really draws you into what is happening by the delightful descriptions of her life events. Best of all I found new ways to take hope when things look darkest. I hope she will write more soon!

     Windows 98 is alive and doing quite well despite government and competitor attempts to block its full implementation. It is standard on new computers systems worldwide and its impact has been breathtaking. Although a number of books have been written on this new operating system to help users, several standout as being among the better ones available. The Windows 98 Bible written by Fred Davis and Kip Crosby is one of them. This single book offers one of the most detailed examinations of Windows 98 on the market.      This comprehensive guide will provide readers with in-depth understanding of desktop controls, including the start menu, fonts and font use, display settings, multitasking, the use of pointing devices, installing software programs, installation and use of printers and other hardware devices, multimedia tools, system tools, network operation, the use of other languages, and upgrading computers. Readers will learn how to use Internet Explorer and Outlook Express included with the operating system.     The authors provide readers with an explanation of the improvements and advance features of this new operating system that will greatly enhance their computing experience. The most useful features of this book in my estimation are the coverage of desktop interfacing with the Internet, multitasking among programs, and file management that are so important for business use today.     Another feature of this book that will appeal to more advanced users is the coverage of the Registry, the file database that stores all the information about one's computer, installed hardware, and software programs. While most users will not require immediate information about this important system feature, it is available at hands' reach when such times may arise!     As readers make their way through this nearly 1,000 page book they will gain more than adequate knowledge about Windows 98. In fact, companies that depend upon this operating system will do well to read up on it and familiarize themselves with what it can accomplish for them. This friendly book, laced with wit and wisdom, offers loads of helpful instruction, some in the form of tips, tricks, and tweaks, to make the most productive use of it. This book is highly recommended for intermediate and advanced users!     Best quote from the book: "What's this Windows 98 thing?!" It's what Windows 3.x never could have been. It's what Windows 95 always should have been. It's what will come pre-installed on your next computer. And because Windows 98 is all those things, it's also what we wrote this book about. We hope you like it. - from the foreword

What an enjoyable read is this book! Most books on such technical subjects are mostly re-telling what can be found in the manual or on-line help. This book really takes you inside Microsoft's operating system and pulls no punches while offering both praise and criticism of everything from Microsoft's attitudes to its system tools. Along the way, details emerge that I haven't found in any other source including a wonderful glossary called "Microsoft's Networking Vocabulary" that offers even a breakdown of what T1 stands for, not just the speed it represents. It's the attention to the details that sets this book apart from the rest. I can't imagine a better resource to have; why the index alone (almost 40 pages) is worth the price of the book!

I run a small business and I depend on computers every day - but that doesn't mean I know everything about them. The Windows 98 Bible was written for people like me, especially because Microsoft doesn't bother to write manuals any more. I guess it would cost them too much :-).

EVERYTHING about Windows 98 is in this book, and it's clear, logical, easy to read, and sometimes even funny. Unlike some of the Windows books I've read, it's not entirely pro-Microsoft, but Microsoft will like it anyway, because it will convince people to upgrade from Windows 95. It's convinced me; I'm going to upgrade as soon as I can buy the software.

Moon Jack starts with a action in the first pages and builds to an unexpected climax with twists and turns all the way. The writer has a great, easy-to-read, conversational style and a knack for great story-telling. The characters are well-developed, facinating and surprising. You find yourself guessing which one will double-cross the other first and you read on to find out you guessed wrong. I had a lot of fun trying to figure out what Crosby was going to do next. The ending is unexpected and worth the journey. Hopefully, there will be a sequel.

In today's capitalistic society, privatization has proven to yield significant efficiencies that many governmental agencies just can't provide. An example, Russia's modern day bureaucracy is so inefficient it aggressively seeks western investment ranging from Wall Street billionaires to teenie-bop crooner has beens to help float its cosmonaut space program. At the same time, evil terroristic activity is seeping into way too many areas of western society. What happens when a government, in this case the United States, privatizes a program that has always been run by the likes of the National Aeronautic Space Administration...?

Walt Crosby's Moon Jack provides a splendid story about what can happen when these two worlds (Space Privatization & Terroristic Evil) collide. For those Clancy and Ludlum fans, Mr. Crosby provides a story-line that really takes you along for a great ride. Unlike the Jack Ryan and Jason Bourne characters; however, Crosby's hero is not the stereotypical "Bond-like" character that many male readers vicariously place themselves in when absorbed in a read of these well-known novelists. Crosby's John Belaris is a smart guy who uses his street smarts and intellect (vs. braun and martial arts). When Hollywood is lucky enough to have Moon Jack shine on its screens, this sure hit's male lead is more likely to be cast as Kevin Spacey or John Cussak versus Harrison Ford or Matt Damon.

Being uniquely qualified with the challenge that no one, or no god, since the likes of Atlas himself has had to face, Belaris has the daunting task of convincing his own government that he is on the good guys' side and is indeed an integral player in efforts to save the world. The evolution of John's relationship with the story's co-star, Sandra Billing (or as in my mind's eye, Sandra Bullock), provides an excellent deflection to the incredible magnitude of the terrorists threat to Earth. I have heard one comment (from a female reader who asked not to be identified as my wife) regarding this relationship. She suggests that Hollywood producers expand this relationship when it hits the big screen!

Without giving away any of the story's twists and turns, Walt Crosby's Moon Jack is an amazing and fun-filled ride that leaves this reader anxious for the sequel.

I truly enjoyed reading Moon Jack. The book is set upon a very plausable terrorist threat that could affect all life on earth. It's charecters area all well developed and very believable. The settings for the various scenes / chapters are described in great detail, it is like you are right there. The book builds momentum throughout, and grips the reader as it races towards the climax. The writer's style is very similar to Clive Cussler's voice of Dirk Pitt. The techno-thriller has a new ace, and his name is Walt Crosby!

Crosby's book has lots of good tips on improving your game for beginners, occasional players, or those who don't like to practice (99% of us). He also, which a lot authors miss, explains in terms usuable regardless if you are left or right handed. I especially like the section on keeping stats; even after a couple of rounds, I could see immediately which areas I needed to work on. Only quibble is the book has a little too much Tiger (the photos in the middle of the book add nothing). Wish I could have given it a 4.5.

A very sensible approach to cutting your handicap! The author maintains that he only has 3 months to develop a winning team; and he can't screw with swing planes etc. He needs to improve the teams scores. He lays out the strategy nicely.

Best $ I ever spent on a golf Book!

When I spotted this book in the bookstore I cynically thought "Here is Tiger Wood's high school coach trying to make a few bucks off of Tiger's name when we all know that Tieger was an outstanding golfer before he entered high school." I bought the book anyway and now I'm glad I did. This book gives the average golfer practical advice on how to practice,keep statistics,etc. It is totally different than any other golf book I have read. I have followed the practice routine outlined by the author for two weeks and have already noticed an improvement. After reading this book I am excited about my golf game because I know I am going to improve. The book is also sprinkled with Tiger anecdotes which illustrate points the author is making. I'm so happy that I saw past my original cynicism and purchased this book. Mr. Crosby, thanks for a great book.