In the Kids' Guide To The National Parks Of California And Oregon, 12 year old Jenna Sullivan and her 14 year old sister Laura effectively collaborate to write a thoroughly "kid friendly" guidebook to the spectacular parklands of California and Oregon. These include Redwood National Park; Yosemite National Park; Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks; Pinnacles National Monument; Point Reyes National Seashore; Lassen Volcanic National Park, Lava Beds National Monument; and Crater Lake National Park. These descriptive text covers the geology, vegetation, and wildlife of the parks, along with the young authors' insights into natural resource issues like air pollution, acid rain, fire ecology, wildlife habitat, plant ecology, and resource management. Very highly recommended for any family planning to visit these west coast parklands, the Kids' Guide To The National Parks Of California And Oregon is enhanced with an introduction, a conclusion, an index, author bios, and four color plates.

As I read these two sister's enthusiastic descriptions of a number of national parks, I found myself forgetting that they were only kids. I'm a habitual reader of travel guides (otherwise known as the armchair traveler), so I feel qualified to say that this one is very refreshing. In fact, if you're thinking of travelling with your kids to any national park, you should pick up this book so you can see what it's like from their point of view. I particularly enjoyed the interviews with park rangers who treated their thoughtful questions very seriously and added a needed perspective on many parks. I'm impressed that two young kids were able to put together such a professional book -- I can only imagine what their next project will be!

This is a must picture history of music. A good gift for the music lover and great for all ages.

This is a GREAT book for anyone who loves music. When you look at the pictures you see the history unfold. It is a beautiful book for any rock and roll addict. Read it and keep it to share while listening to your favorite artisit. GOOD FOR ALL AGES.

As a performer, the most important asset of a score is legibility and freedom from errors. This PV is superb in that it is very legible and corrects errors from prior PV's. It is also inexpensive enough that a performer need not fear guilty about writing in the margins or breaking the binding. While not a critical edition, it has everything that a performer would want in a PV, and I would unhesitatingly recommend it over ANY other PV presently on the market, even those which have been "authenticated".

The best friend you could have when performing this show. Newly revised and perfectly engraved, a must.

There is no critical showboating in "A Most Ingenious Paradox", just dead on, revelatory insights presented in a modest, straightforward voice. He really appears to have lived with each of the G & S operas, and got it in his bones. Very little overlap here with other G & S books, so even the most jaded Savoyard will find something fresh in this book.

In the past, when asked to name the minimal list of books essential to a full understanding and thereby appreciation of the Gilbert & Sullivan operas, I would have cut it down to three. For a study of the social conditions behind Gilbert's satire, there is the long out of print "The World of Gilbert and Sullivan" by W.A. Darlington. For a fairly well balanced discussion of both the scripts and the music, there is "Gilbert & Sullivan Opera: a New Assessment" by Audrey Williamson, which passed into a second edition when I saw it last. Then there is the indispensable single volume edition of "The Complete Annotated Gilbert & Sullivan" by Ian Bradley under the aegis of Oxford University Press.

Now from that same august publisher comes a volume I might seriously consider as a fourth: "A Most Ingenious Paradox" by Gayden Wren. Having worked most of his life in the theatre and specializing in Gilbert & Sullivan, Wren has come up with the thesis that "Beneath the surface charm of the Savoy operas...lies a powerful thematic core that makes their works effective to this day" (p. 4). Well, so it is with Shakespeare, Shaw, and even Rodgers & Hart. It is the examples offered up by Wren that affords so much surprise and delight.

The book is organized into fairly self-contained chapters.The first deals with "Gilbert before Sullivan," the second with "Sullivan before Gilbert." Then we have a chapter for each of the 14 works, followed by a chapter about their careers after "The Grand Duke" and a final one about their "Legacy." There follows an appendix with plot outlines, details about the original "Ruddygore" script and score, notes, an excellent critical bibliography, and index.

I think that directors will appreciate the emphasis Wren puts upon the seriousness that underlies some of the works, and not only "Yeomen of the Guard." For example, consider the scene just before the finale between Iolanthe and the Lord Chancellor in which things do become "life or death" and which could easily lead to an unhappy ending with no violence to what has gone before. Of course, the public expected a happy ending with G&S, but that was no reason they had to get one.

His remarks about "The Mikado," although confined to only 15 pages did make me suddenly aware of how Gilbert keeps tipping his hand all through by having the characters call attention to their being in a play: "Japanese don't use pocket-handkerchiefs," "the Japanese equivalent for Hear, hear, hear," "Virtue is triumphant only in theatrical performances," and so on. I part company on him with him on some remarks about "Princess Ida," but his comparison between the opera and the Tennyson original is quite revealing. In general, I kept nodding and thinking about most of his conclusions with "Of course, I should have realized that years ago."

The style is friendly, the author taking it for granted, of course, that you know the plots of the operas fairly well to begin with. Yes, I think I might recommend this as the fourth essential book. But please give it a try and let me know what you think.

A little postscript would be in order here. Naxos is reissuing at budget prices the old "Martyn Green" G&S sets that used to be available on London and then Richmond mono LPs. Thus far they have added to their catalogue "The Mikado," "HMS Pinafore," "Pirates of Penzance/Trial by Jury," and just this month "The Gondoliers." Anyone intererested in the Wren book would certainly want to own these vintage recordings.

Patrice O'Shaughnessy and Shawn O'Sullivan are both New York Daily News Photographers and as such have compiled a tremendous aray of great pictures of New York's firefighters at work and at play.

These pictures span eight decades from the early 1920's to the present. They traverse a wide array of emotions from a group of firemen posing with a woman whose baby they helped deliver to a son visiting his dying father in the Burn Unit. There are also a tremendous amount of photos that show the FDNY at work and these are incredible in that they show such a consistent theme of self-sacrifice and personal discipline, tempered with the fun-loving, zest for life that these men have exhibited throughout the years.

This is a GREAT piece of photojournalism. 9-11 may have made this book more poignant, but it's the rich historical pictorial that makes it a treasure.

By far,some of the most historic photographs of the FDNY. Just enough commentary to allow the photos to speak for themselves. A must for all Firefighters!

Lively bouncing rhymes. One of my toddler/baby standards in storytime. Pictures are nice and bright.

We borrowed this book at the library and decided to buy it. It is very bright and beautiful, and we like the rhymes.

This book, written by well known religious scholar I.P. Couliano, provides a wonderful background to the shamanic journey and how it can be found within all societies. He does a very nice cross cultural survey of Shamanism (and relatd concepts) in the early part of the book, showing the similarities of belief in the Americas, Siberia, Melanesia and elsewhere, as well as in Africa and Australia. From there he goes on to show the otherworldly journeys of the Mesopotamians, Egyptians, Chinese Taoists, Buddhists, Iranian mystics, Greek Medicine Men and Hebrew Qabbalists. Remarkable intellectuals and visionaries fill out the last couple chapters, including Neo-Platonic philosopher Plotonius, the Prophet Mohammad and Dante Alighieri, author of the Divine Comedy. Over all, this is perhaps the greatest non-culture specific survey of the Shamanic journey available. I strongly recommend that anyone interested in Shamanism, religious experiences and mysticism in general check out this book. Considering how widely varied Shamanism is (incorporating everything from Siberian and Polynesian religions to the ecstasies of Voudon and Santeria to Sufi mysticism and beyond), it might be a good beginning book.

WOw!This is very important to read,especially that this was Culianu's last book to be published. WHen he wrote it, he was receiveing threating phone calls from somebody(?), and if you think a little bit.. Out of this world....hmmm? What does that mean??It necessarily means that he knew that he was going to die?Well if you want to know more about Couliano's death(the first case in USA of a teacher killed in this way) read Ted Anton's book. Anyway, this book is a must read for anybody interested in the meta's(metaphysics,metempsychosis,etc)or in the study of religions .

If you like golf, you'll like this book. If you like to readwell-written mysteries, you'll like this book. If you like books thatdrop names of famous persons all over the place, you'll like this book.

All in all, it's almost totally satisfying, even to this non-golfer, and who doesn't even watch it on TV! Although I do read about it in the daily paper. Because what I do like is reading. On almost any topic, as long as the book is well-written, craftily plotted, with some wit and characters I wish I could meet, in person. There are a couple of small and annoying editorial glitches, plus one habitual trick that I almost wish the author would have left out. Set during the Crosby Pro-Am Golf Tournament at Pebble Beach in January, 1974, the author, AP golf writer John Logue, continually writes " . . . would in future years . . " or " . . . would win this tournament (or some other one.)" It's nice to know what would happen in years to come, but it might have been better had he made it contemporary, and looked back, rather than all that looking into the future.

That's a minor niggle, though. Much can be forgiven for writing of this high quality; there is a serenely poetical walk-through of each of the holes of this famous course, carved as it is out of cliffs and ocean, and exceedingly vulnerable to the whims of Mother Nature. On its own, this chapter could send you heading for a travel bureau - or an instructor in golf, so you could experience it firsthand.

Bing himself plays a minor role, finding himself in the hospital. His brother Larry, plus entertainers Phil Harris and Clint Eastwood, rub shoulders with all sorts of major golfers of the time (and earlier) - Nicklaus, Weiskopf, Bolt, Strange, Snead, Hogan - who wander through the pages along with the eventual winner of the rain-shortened tourney - Johnny Miller.

This is the fourth of a series about golf writer John Morris and his lady, Julia Sullivan. I'd not read any of the previous ones, but this one sent me to my library for the first one - FOLLOW THE LEADER, from 1979.

John Morris, the 1974 Associated Press sports reporter, is on the way to the Bing Crosby Pr-Am tournament accompanied by his long term companion Julia Sullivan. Both look forward to the event and a chance to renew old friendships. The Crosby is an invitational only tournament, consisting of the crooner, his friends, pro golfers, and Hollywood celebrities. It is also a time when old resentments rise to the surface, manifesting in fisticuffs between two senior citizens.

Morris breaks up the combatants before anyone is hurt, but moments later one of the fighters begins to foam at the mouth and ultimately dies. While trying to revive the man, Morris smells almonds on his breath, leading him to suspect cyanide poisoning. The subsequent autopsy confirms Morris' suspicions. Morris and Julia decide to help their good friend, the local sheriff, on his investigation. When the second combatant turns up dead, a victim of cyanide poisoning also, the sleuths realize a killer is on the rampage and needs to be stopped.

Fans of golf, historiography, and amateur sleuths will want to follow the latest escapades of Morris and Sullivan. Though 25 years have passed since the events described in A RAIN OF DEATH took place, readers will be shocked at how much the world has changed. Through his two protagonists, John Loque has captured the essence of the early seventies. The story line and the two likable lead characters make this novel enjoyable for non-golf buffs, but it is the fan of the hole in one who will devour this birdie.

Harriet Klausner

i am currently reading 'the shadow maker' again, and i'm even more consumed than the first time. i'd like to take this opportunity to tell potential readers/buyers that this book is NOT out of print...

This intriguing book tells about the early life of Margaret Atwood in great detail, and then skims through the last couple of decades. Rosemary Sullivan has done a remarkable job of recreating the '40's, '50's, '60's and '70's, and how they influenced (and eventually were influenced by!) Canada's #1 writer. Having interviewed Atwood, many of her friends and associates, ex-husband and present husband, and also using contemporary correspondence, Sullivan seems to have an authentic understanding of how Atwood developed into such an amazing, prolific writer. Always respectful, Sullivan keeps her focus on what in Atwood's life is relevant to her as a writer. This is a very intelligently written biography, with an incredible amount of research and very astute analyses, and should be a satisfying read for any fan of Margaret Atwood's, without feeling like you have invaded her privacy.

Firsthand interviews blend with personal insights and notes on recommended readings in Denise Sullivan's Rip It Up!, which focuses on some major 'rock and roll rulebreakers' across genres, from Ike Turner and U. Utah Phillips to Wanda Jackson, Teenage Fanclub, and Louvin Brothers. An excellent, involving account.

Ms. Sullivan really knows her stuff. I love her personal insights and the interviews. I have her REM book, too.