They call this a book?! What a rip-off!!! First of all, it's only 25 pages long and contains only 17 words. Yeah, that's right. Only 17 words. That comes to about 24 cents per word. There is no plot to speak of. All it shows is pictures of various farm animals with a description of the animal next to the picture. For example, they show a picture of a hen next to the word "hen." Like,duh, I couldn't figure that out?! Is this author writing for infants, or what??

My son loves this book, he started at 6 months and still loves it at one and a half. Just pictures of animals and a label indicating what kind of animal it is. You get to do a lot of ellaborating.

Robert and I read this book about twice a day. It is a small boardbook, so he can help turn the pages. No words, just pictures of cute farm animals. I get to add all the sound effects (mooo. bah-bah, quack-quack, etc.) Robert loves it!!!

Unfortunately the writing for this book does not equal the cute illustrations. The story is uninteresting and the rhymes don't really work. My three year old doesn't like it and I wish I hadn't bought it.

This is a wonderful story with great rythm and rhyme. My 13 month old who just loves the pictures. I really enjoy reading it too! I think it will be one she passes down to her kids.

This is an excellent children's book. The story line is easy for young readers to follow and the pictures make it even more so, for children who can't quite read all the words yet. The size of the book is just right for young readers to handle too. Although my daughter is older than the recommended age for this book, she really enjoyed it because it was a fun story and easy to read. Having the pie recipe in the book was an innovative and welcome addition. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone with children and we are looking forward to more stories from this author.

I will buy virtually any book on roses so I don't regret buying this one. The book provides each rose a single page and photograph so its fun to just look at the pictures, annotated with the relevant stats and a short description of the rose. The author has a long association with Jackson-Perkins and Horticulture Magazine. For me, the book's shortcomings are fairly serious. Reviewing the descriptions of the roses made it immensely obvious that the author and I don't use similar criteria when identifying favorite roses. The term 'favorite' is a purely subjective term so one can't critique the author for a value judgement, nevertheless, I wouldn't let this list of favorites guide my selection of roses to plant. For example, one favorite rose had the following in the description: "Mildew and blackspot are often a problem", "It is not especially hardy" and has "slight fragrance." Another rose had "sparse growth and inhibited flower! ing when hot" while at the same time being "not super hardy". Those roses wouldn't go in my garden. Just as a nicety, I always look for a bibliography and this book had none. Cultivation was only very briefly touched on.

Beautiful illustrations, information good, great gift or coffee table book!

Daisy's latest is fun, but a little too light.

This latest Daisy Dalrymple mystery novel is not that much of a murder mystery at all, and more of an adventure abroad novel. However it is also the most light hearted of the Daisy Dalrymple mystery novels to date, and quite a bit of fun.

For Daisy and her husband Alec (a DCI with Scotland Yard), this visit to the United States of America is supposed to be a honeymoon trip. The reality is that Alec is in America in order to advise the Americans (J. Edgar Hoover in particular) on how to clean up and set up their Investigation Bureau of the Justice Department. So while Alec is stuck in Washington, Daisy is in New York, gathering material for her magazine articles and meeting her American editor. After one such meeting, while on their way to lunch, Daisy and her editor hear a gunshot and witness a man plummet to his death down an elevator shaft. Daisy quickly recognizes the murdered man as a fellow resident of the Chelsea Hotel. She then discovers that he is/was the journalist, Otis Carmody, an investigative reporter, also known as a 'muckraker.' It soon becomes apparent that Daisy, her editor, and a federal agent that had been shadowing Daisy (Alec's superior at the Scotland Yard had apparently warned Hoover that it would be wise to provide a watchdog for her as Daisy has the habit of getting involved in all kinds of unsavory goings-on) are the only credible witnesses to the Carmody's death (which of course turns out to be murder). Why was Carmody murdered and who committed the crime? Striking up friendships with other guests (and workers) at the Chelsea, Daisy discovers that Carmody was quite the crusading journalist, and that he had angered more than his fair share of dangerous and powerful men. Could one of them have commissioned Carmody's murder? And then there is the tantalising information about Carmody's estranged wife and her shady lover... Before long Daisy discovers that New York is not England, and that she could be in danger herself because she witnessed Carmody's murderer escaping. Never before has Daisy missed Alec so much or wished that she did not have this propensity to fall over a murder wherever she went.

"The Case of the Murdered Muckraker" is strictly for Daisy Dalrymple fans. It is a lighthearted read full of eccentric and quirky characters, and funny moments when Daisy ponders over the differences between the English that the British speak and the English that the American speak -- how this brought back memories of my first few years in the US -- and the differences between the manner in which Scotland Yard would have run things and the manner in which the New York detectives carry out an investigation. And while there some gathering of information and sounding out of theories, this mystery novel is still not much of a murder mystery like the previous Daisy Dalrymple mystery novels -- no red herrings, twists and turns in plot development, etc. However it is a charming and humourous book, that is bound to entertain and lighten the mood. And Carola Dunn does a wonderful job of bringing to life Prohibition-era New York, as well as certain character types. So read it for fun and entertainment and a bit of a laugh, and read something else if you're in the mood for a wicked murder mystery.

Driving Forces is a well written, highly persuasive book which extols the social and economic benefits that have been brought about in the United States as a result of mass car ownership and suburbanisation. However, Dunn's arguments are based on a number of highly questionable assumptions:

1. An automobile based transportation system is inherently superior to a mixed transportation system that utilizes cars, transit, walking and cylcing.

2. The suburban lifestyle enjoyed by most Americans is inherently superior to the urban lifestyle found in European towns and cities.

3. There is a highly organized "vanguard" of anti-auto campaigners who are determined to reduce Americans' mobility and destroy America's economy.

4. Global warming, and other environmental effects, are imaginary, and were invented by the "vanguard".

5. Current patterns of land development and transportation can be sustained indefinitely with only minor modifications, such as improving the fuel efficiency of cars, and deregulating taxis.

In addition to these faulty arguments, Dunn either downplays or totally ignores other negative effects such as loss of farmland, urban decay, and reduced mobility of the carless.

After reading Driving Forces, I was left wondering which automobile manufacturer paid Dunn to write it.

In spite of the someout sensationalist title, this book provides a balanced overview of the recent history of transportation politics and policy in the United States. Anyone wanting to understand the complex array of forces at work shaping our current transportation policy regime would do well to read this book. Dunn does a particularly excellent job detailing how the anti-auto forces have been able to capture the political high road in many of the debates.

This rather short coffee-table book is most notable for its collection of photos of Eleanor Roosevelt and her family. The photos are extensive, and a few have not been seen before by non-historians like myself. Otherwise, there was almost nothing new to be learned about this very remarkable and intelligent woman, much to my disappointment! Most amazing was that her grandson actually admitted that he was ignorant of her role on the public stage until her death when he was 20 years old!

I love everything and every pictures too. Thank you.

The fact is, there aren't many books out there about Ponzi and his scheme. Dunn's book has been around since 1975 and is a "novelistic" approach to Ponzi's life and scheme. If you are looking for a non-fiction account this one may not be for you. However, there are some great, now hard to find, black and white photos of Ponzi in the book. As a point of interest, I recently published "The Rise of Mr. Ponzi" by Charles Ponzi. Ponzi wrote the book and it is amazing. I hope to have the book available soon on Amazon.com.

Absolutely the best of its kind! Forget going out for a Friday night fishfry - send your wife and .. sister-in-law ... out to bingo. You need to stay home and read this entertaining book on American's biggest and most proficient scam artist. You will not believe how gullible we were back then. Talk about greed! You owe it to yourself to grab a copy of this book, ... You'll smile. You'll grince. You'll shake your head. This "Ponzi guy" was one amazing con artist!

Now - do as I say, not as I do - order the ... thing and enjoy!

As a huge fan of Geek Love, I read both Truck and Attic, Dunn's earlier works. It's clear from reading Truck, the account of a boyish runaway girl, that Dunn came a long way in learning how to structure a narrative. The main character in Truck seems loosely based on Dunn's own childhood. The characters are compellingly physical-- they do things that real people do, like check their pits for smell, that people in books rarely do. They are polymorphously perverse. The plot is not terribly engaging, but you either sympathize with the characters or are disgusted by them; Dunn doesn't leave much room for simple apathy.

after reading "geek love", i spent several years searching for dunn's earlier, out-of-print novels. until today: stumbled upon 'truck" in a used store! been reading all afternoon: daring fiction, fascinating characters (of course), and i am left wondering why ms dunn is not more widely recognized...her writing is even more experimental and adventurous here than in geek love (far as language and structure are concerned)...few writers can pull off a forty page paragraph, compelling all the way through.

While there was some excitement about this series, things just didn't go right for most of these. The Ben Dunn penned and illustrated "bookend" stories are lacking in any real imagination in the manga-fication of the Marvel Universe. Plus, the introduction of the ideas is handled in such a rushed fashion that you never get to stop and like a character or absorb the concepts.

Some of the individual things worked alright. Lea Hernandez and Peter David score with a fun, kabuki-sytle Punisher. Kaare Andrews' take on Spider-Man is... okay, really. Udon does nifty art for Avengers Assemble, but the story isn't up to much. Same with most of the others.

Frankly, there are great Manga and superhero books out there. May I point you to the work of Miyazaki or Mark Millar's Ultimates for entertaining Manga or pure superhero reimagining? This book, overall, is decidedly average.

I think I decided in 1996 that everything that could be done in comics had been done and I stopped collecting everything but Cerebus, and I stuck around to see that Aardvark die in issue 300. It turns out I was wrong and am now just realizing a Renaissance has been going on and I've missed the first half. Thanks to these collected volumes, I'm getting back into the pool fast. This was a nice collection to stumble across.
With absolutely no rules to define how they structure their histories or adventures, a cross section of the Mighty Marvel family are given a shot at plying their advenures in Manga style storytelling. Some characters are exact transpostions. The Fantastic Four story is lifted directly from Evangelion, and the Avengers are the Power Rangers, right down to having vehicles that form into an Uber Iron Man.
Bruce Banner is the main protaganist, the unleashing of a Godzilla sized Hulk is the core story that combines most of these one-shots (although the X-Men connection was pretty weak, and so were the X-Men). Spider man and Ghost Rider were cool, I can see them doing more with them. The Punisher was funny. I wound up liking the Manga Dr. Strange more than the "Real" one.
A lot of time has passed since Wolverine got his adamantium back and Bruce Wayne's broken spine was healed with mystic energies, I'm glad to see that comics are fun to read again.

MARVEL MANGAVERSE is a collection of one-shot specials showing an alternative anime-styled version of the Marvel Universe. These 8 issues paved the way for the Marvel Mangaverse comic book series and the new comic, Spider Man-Legend Of The Spider Clan. It starts off with the Mangaverse version of the Avengers lead by Irongirl testing a new technology that attracts the attention of the criminal orginization Hydra and the rebellious forces of the underwater nation of Atlantis lead by Prince Namor. This causes the arrivial of the gigantic Godzilla-like Hulk to go on a rampage in New York. The Avengers assemble their giant robot, Iron Man, to stop it, while keeping it out of the clutches of the evil mutant, Apocalypse. Then, the meta-altered Fantastic Four tangles with the interdimensional menace, Annihilus. Ghost Rider roles in next to try and take the monsterous Hulk on his own. A Kabuki version of Punisher is introdueced next. Plus, Spider Man is redone as a ninja kid. The X-Men lead by Storm bring up the rear. Finally, all the heroes combine their efforts along with Dr. Strange and a very anime catgirl version of Tigra to stop The Hulk, Hydra, and Namor to save the world. But thanks to the hammer of Thor, the day is saved, but only at the cost of two of Marvel's greatest heroes(who never would've ended up together like THAT in the regular comics!). Definately check this graphic novel out! It features the talents of Ben Dunn, Lea Hernandez, Adam Warren, and Udon Studios. A must for all anime and comic book fans!