I was really happy to find such a great book :) It is so hard to find what you have in mind for your childs party. This book help me find what I was looking for and so many more ideas I could have Not thought of myself!!! This was a wonderful book that saved me alot of time. I usually spend hours calling around trying to find out information about a clown or character. I just turned the page to what I wanted and there was a list of names & numbers of who to call!!! It doesn't get any better than this!!!!!!! If you have a child any age you NEED this GREAT BOOK!!!!!!

Not only is this book packed full of information about birthday parties, it is a great reference for kids' activites in general, throughout the Delaware Valley. You will be amazed at all the things there are to do with kids in our area that many of us don't know about. Having them listed all together, in one "user friendly" format is wonderful for busy parents on the go, who don't have the time to research all this information for themselves. Whether it's a cool birthday party you are trying to plan, or a weekend activity for the kids, this book will give you what you need and more.

I was at a loss again for ideas on where to have my youngest son Andrew's birthday party. Using this book I found many great ideas and I didn't have to spend a fortune on the party. I recommend it highly to any parent who wants their child's birthday to be memorable.

I recently purchased DISCOVER! Volume 3 and I want more! Please send Volumes 2 and 3!

Having traveled and lived in the areas described in Vol.3, The Lower Mississippi, from St. Louis, Missouri to Memphis, Tennessee, and descended from a family of river rats, I can say that I've "Been there, done that, got the T-shirt."

Reading Pat's book is like traveling along with her as she explores the Great River Road along the mighty Mississippi River. I was especially impressed with the with the book's scope and readability. Pat has included personal insights from area inhabitants, collected geographical, historical and societal information and spread it all liberally throughout the travelogue. This is one hard book to put down, and if you ever decide to visit the area you'll have plenty of reference material to use. You will feel like you know the place already, and have gotten your own t-shirt.

Jim Pankey USN (Ret.)

Rolling on the River.......... In a few weeks, it'll be road-trip weather, and we have some of the nation's prettiest highways at our fingertips--US Hwy 61 and several other state and county highways form the parkway known as AMERICA's Great River Road. Making that drive even easier is a new guide: "DISCOVER! AMERICA'S GREAT RIVER ROAD, Volume 1." This 240-page guide highlights the heritage, natural history and recreational activities available along the Mississippi River from St. Paul, Mn., to Dubuque, Iowa. It includes maps, historical and geological points of interest, bike trails, bird watching spots and short features on small towns, parks, and villages. ----STAR TRIBUNE, Minneapolis, Mn. April 1997

After a long long time I got to read something so fulfilling. Something that one can identify with instantly and it does not take much effort as well. The theme of Brother Vs. Brother is universal and appealing to all. Maybe because as children of Cain, we are all the same - A blend of Good and Bad. Wow!!
East of Eden was heavy for me!!

Steinbeck is so good at descriptions - love the style of writing, the dry subtle humor- the very fact that he does not justify his character's actions - the struggle of mankind, the inner conflict,is so beautifully portrayed.

The Theme: Brother vs. Brother

The Plot: Two Families in Salinas, California. The Trasks and the Hamiltons. Adam Trask who faces a life-long complex from his brother Charles Trask heads towards a new life - with his brand-new wife. The birth of his twins is a joyous moment only to result in a sad one - with Kathy (his wife) walking out on
him.

He raises the kids with his manservant Lee - the ever symbolical of what is right - Chinese - who is a great human character in ages to come.

The twins - Aron and Cal are poles apart and the rest is as they say "History".

The Hamiltons are a different breed altogether. Nine children and Samuel Hamilton is a man who never feels the need to have more money.

I guess the Biblical influence is immense in the book - but obvious it had to be!!

Overall, a great great awesome read!!

This is a novel that successfuly weaves strands of fact with threads of fiction to create a stunning tapestry of American life that is timeless. The novel is based in the early part of the 1900's and despite it's massive length (over 600 pages) Steinbeck manages to draw you in and make you think. His characters are richly drawn so that you almost know them. I believe this is because we can find a little of each character with in ourselves. This book is the very best book I have ever read and that says a lot because I am constantly reading. Pick up East of Eden today and take the journey to the Salinas Valley. You will not regret it!

Classic characters and plot. More of how the more things change the more they stay the same.

Emily of Deep Valley was a sweet book. It was about Emily Webster and after she graduated from Deep Valley Highschool. Emily lived with her grandfather, a civil war veteran, in an old fashioned house across the slough. She goes to school with her own crowd and has some of the same teachers Betsy and Tacy had. Emily is one of those shy, sweet, and considerate charactures that every one loves. She gets you into the story with her longing to stay in highschool, and her longing to go to college. But she can do neither. She sees her friends come home for vacation from college. She finally decides to stop feeling sorry for herself and do something. She starts by putting her "hair up". This knocks off the whole story. As soon as the hair is up Cab Edwards, we know from the Betsy-Tacy series, begins to call on her and they go to dances together... I have one question though. When are they going to republish this wonderful book?

When Maud Hart Lovelace first wrote the "Betsy-Tacy" series, did she know how much so many people, from children to adults, would love them? The series has at least one book that anyone of any age can relate to. 10-year-olds will love "Over the big Hill," high-schoolers will love the books about when Betsy was attending Deep Valley High, etc. And it doesn't end there! Even if you're not the age that Betsy was in one of the books, you can still love all of them! Maud has a way of capturing real feelings and experiences--even bad ones--and turning them into works of art. The "Betsy-Tacy" series really is a work of art, even if it was painted with a pen, and not a paintbrush.

This book about an orphan in Minnesota living with her Grndfather is such an outstanding book that can be read over and over! This book is set in between 1910-1920, yet it still relates to modern living for teenagers. I won't ruin the story for you...read it on your own, and then tell it to your children!

The Eye of the Elephant is a wonderful, adventurous journey into the heart and soul of Africa seen through Mark and Delia's eyes. From the very first page you are caught up in their heroic quests to protect the animals they are there to observe. In spite of the unbelievable odds against them, they persevered and put the safety and security of the highly endangered animals FIRST. The elephants in the Luanga Valley are very fortunate to have had Mark and Delia watch over them and be their heroes. I have loved Africa and the African elephant my entire life and I am so grateful for these two selfless, dedicated people who have become the protectors of our most precious wildlife. This is one of my most treasured African stories.

You will immediately be drawn into their story! I was so involved reading this book that I missed my train station stop...you'll feel like you're there with them!

A second story of the Owens's exceptional experiences in the wildlife habitats of Africa.(The first book is Cry of the Kalahari.) The Eye of the Elephant is a warm and personal story of saving the endangered elephants of Zambia. The reader becomes as anxious for the survival of the Owens's as for the survival of the elephants, and the people of Africa. Eye opening to the problems encountered in doing something so nobel and obviously necessary.

Since this is a Fodor's guide, you get decent coverage of lodging and dining at the end of the book. What makes the book worthwhile, though, is the photographs. They are plentiful and great. Most are current color photos, but some of the vintage black-and-white (some from Ansel Adams) are excellent. Many of the wineries are shown as well as different aspects of the wine-making business. Even street signs and other everyday activities are included, making it a down-to-earth tour guide and photo book. Very appealing to the eye.

This is a great book on the wine country. Full of some of the most informative prose regarding where to go, how to get there and what to expect. Doerper sets out mini "tours" of the area. My wife and I mapped out our trip by the book and had a wonderful time. The book was right on. Highly recommended!

I would highly recommend this book to anyone visiting Napa and/or Sonoma Valleys. We were able to trust the information in this book and it did cover a lot of information, from: restaurants, vineyards, antique shops and farmer's markets (plus much more). To the author John Doerper, thank you for making our holiday very enjoyable by writing candid and factual information for this guide book.

David Valley's book, "Gaigin Shogun ..," is great fun and an easy read. At the same time it makes you think about things you may not have thought about before. I never realized how much of the Japanese miracle recovery was attributable to the manner in which the occupational forces governed Japan after the war. Also the excerpts of the writings by MacArthur made the message crisp and believable. It leaves one in awe of MacArthur, and feeling that he may have been one of the most under appreciated hero's of our past. Valley did a fine job. Definitely worth reading.

The author did an excellent job in pointing out the accomplishments of General Douglas MacArthur in Japan. I, also,was one of the General's Honor Guard. David and I went over events during of our tours of duty both before and after the author's assignment of how MaArthur was bringing the Japanese back into the United Nations fold as an upstanding nation. I was delighted to read what he had written , but how well he had written it.

When we compared notes, it became amazing to each of us how slowly the progress was at first. Perhaps, items such as the Marshall Plan and Harry Bridges "Long Shoremans strike" that lasted for over seventeen months. Nobody saw a real potatoe for over six months. Not that anyone suffered for it. Japanese national progress did accelerated over the following short years.

The personal climate to all of us including Mrs MacArthur was that we were unafraid to walk among the Japanese from the very first moments we where there at any time , day or night. There was seldom a case of anamosity shown. The Japanese were model citizens. This is a illustration of how well MacArthurs policies were performing.

The author was factual, brief and very accurate with details. He created each scene with actual quotations from the General about verbal discriptions. The General took all his problems in his stride. The resolve was contigious. When it came to authority, the author precisely depicted the attitudes and backgrounds of the British and the Russians and the worst party of all, our own State Department. He was candid. The General was skillful in his steps that he took. He had spent too much time in the houses of power to be careless with the heads of state and worse their correspondants.

In total, the book is a good comprehensive story of the General who did an extraordinary job of uplifting the country of a former enemy. After all his seventy years of preparation, his experience prepared him well for the task. It is noted that it has not been repeated since the reigns of Alexander the Great and Julis Ceasar.

I have read two other books on the General and listened to another on Books on Tape. Mr. Valley's book is easily the best, probably because he was really there not learning about it from a library. Brilliant insights and personal details fill this magnificent work. Get it! Enjoy it!

Larry Durbin, Captain, United Airlines

The older generation of Chicano writers have mostly written about California, Arizona, New Mexico, and west Texas. However, a little-known area of Texas, the Rio Grande Valley of South Texas, has been virtually ignored. David Rice helps to fill this void. In his collection of short stories, Give the Pig a Chance & Other Stories, Rice breaks "el Valle" wide open. Like the Valley he writes about, these stories have such a wonderful variety. In "Lucía's Last Curse," my favorite of them all, the reformed bruja, witch-woman, Lucía tries to atone for her past of curses and evil by healing a young man from some mysterious ailment. The outcome is a complete surprise. While the magical realism in this story is reminiscent of the fiction of Gabriel García Márquez or Kathleen Alcalá, the setting of the Valley makes it wholly unique. Another story, "In the Canal," reads like Rodriguez's independent film, El Mariachi, not to be confused with Desperado, the outrageous follow-up starring Antonio Banderas. Both Rodriguez's film and Rice's story capture the border violence and senseless death that Mexican-Americans living along the border are so familiar with. However, Rice improves upon the theme by making his "drogistas," drug-dealers very human, and uncomfortably familiar. Like Raymond Carver or Dagoberto Gilb, this author's greatest strength is his ability to capture the profound in the mundane. In the ambiguously titled "Give the Pig a Chance," a character named Carlos accidentally runs over his cousin's pet pot-bellied pig. Carlos's effort to win his cousin's forgiveness takes on a deeper meaning as he pleads, "Just give me a chance." Thankfully, Bilingual Press gave this young Tejano writer a chance. This is the first book in what will be a long and brilliant literary career. I am glad I saw it happen, and eagerly await his next book.

If you want to get a real taste of the Rio Grande Valley, you must read this book. It would fit just as well in the cultural anthropology section of a bookstore. I, too, lived in the Valley (La Blanca, Texas to be exact - just 2 miles from Edcouch.) and I can relate to everything Mr. Rice writes. He captures the culturally laden thinking processes that we all learned so well early in our lives. He effectively exposes the innocent, yet seemingly bizarre world that many of us felt shame over or simply chose to push out of our identity. Rice courageously relives these experiences. Quite an achievement. His work will undoubtedly inspire more writings from the imaginative minds coming out of "el valle" and begin to uncover the untapped treasure that is the Rio Grande Valley. Much credit goes to the author for giving the reader a unique and rare glimpse into a place and culture that is much written about by non-Valleyites and often misrepresented or misunderstood. I could not help but think of Steinbeck's work as I read through this book. Rice has an exceptional ability to draw the reader into his world.

I read some of his work for my English 4 CP class, I enjoyed it. It depicted Valley life - its beauty and innocence. I liked this book alot because it described the home I have lived in for about 6 years. I also met this author after reading this book, he showed an eccentric side to him. a very open and intelligence person. I give this book 5 stars mainly because it is the only book that I've read that truly shows the Valley and all its splendors. From Sapos to Tortillas.

We traveled across Wyoming, down the Colorado-Nebraska border, crossed the narrow panhandle of Oklahoma, and continued southward through the high plains to Amarillo and Lubbock. It was long day. Temperatures reached 106 degrees. Our return from Wyoming to east Texas is never easy.

The great plains are awesome, stretching forever in all directions. Barb wire fences, lonely windmills, widely scattered cattle, and some isolated ranch and farm houses are among the few landmarks. How did the early pioneers react to this vast barrier extending from Mexico to Canada?

Walter Prescott Webb's acclaimed history, The Great Plains, is a fascinating examination of how our extensive plains shaped American history. For more than two hundred years settlers had pushed westward, largely along navigable rivers, and tamed a wilderness with the axe, the plow, and the rifle. But in the mid-1800s this westward movement encountered a new world, a vast plain lacking forest, navigable rivers, and adequate rainfall. The lessons of the past few centuries were irrelevant in this new, formidable wilderness.

Webb argues that the Spanish (and later the Mexicans) failure to colonize the area that is now western United States was due to their inability to defeat the plains Indians, especially the Apaches and Comanches in Texas. Travel from San Antonio to Santa Fe was not easy; the route was southward deep into Mexico to Durango and then back west and northward to Santa Fe. The direct route westward across the plains was Indian country.

As the American settlers ventured onto the plains after the Civil War, they were aided by an explosion of innovations, especially the Samuel Colt revolver (tipped the balance away from the Indians), the barb wire fence (made fencing possible), and the self-operating windmill (made water available). And the railroads made freight and livestock transportation possible between the populated, industrialized eastern states and the sparsely populated great plains.

Webb describes in exciting detail the short, remarkable period of the cowboys, the cattle drives, and the cattle barons. Indelibly engraved on the American psyche, this period was already history by 1930 as Webb offered his insightful thoughts on the settlement of our mid-continent.

I can think of only one other history of the American West that compares with this remarkable work, and that is that great book by Ray Allen Billington, Westward Expansion. Before your next travel across our endless plains, I encourage you to read Walter Prescott Webb's fascinating history of The Great Plains.

So many people use the cliche "this is the best book I've ever read" when critiquing it. I mean it. This book, 70 years old this year, is a brilliant historical work. Webb calls the 98th meridian an "institutional fault line" that required alteration or abandonment of all the laws and implements used in pioneering east of the line. Webb offers the windmill, the six-shooter, and barbed wire as three examples of inventive genius that allowed pioneers to settle on the Great Plains. Webb cites Eastern land laws, as well as the old English common law, as impractical when used on the Plains. Interestingly, Webb states that the West was lawless in part because settlers had to disobey these impractical land laws in order to survive on the Plains. Webb examines the Great Plains from a multitude of angles to substantiate his thesis. He successfully defends it, and in the process creates a work that is of great interest to people from many walks of life.

In the mid-1930s, this book won the Loubat Prize as the best work published over a five year period. In 1950, a national panel of historians selected The Great Plains as the most significant historical work by a living author. This book continues to receive attention as reflected in the bibliographies of current books dealing with aspects of the American West.

In 1893, historian Frederick Jackson Turner's essay "The Significance of the Frontier in American History," outlined his Frontier Theory. Turner asserted that the frontier was the decisive factor in creating an American nation distinct from other nations; that the frontier created dominant traits of individualism, freedom, materialism, originality, et. al. Turner called the frontier a "safety valve" of abundant resources which shopuld be exploited for the benefit of the national good. Turner's theory foresaw progress from the simple to the complex.

Webb's "The Great Plains" modifies Turner's theory by pointing out the steady progression of settlement westward from the timbered and well watered Atlantic Coast to the edge of the Great Plains; the 98th Meridian, an "institutional fault line." Webb contended the great plains were neglected until all lands that were timbered and well watered were taken; that pioneers "jumped" across to the Pacific Slope where they could also employ long-standing techniques that had been successful in the East.

Not until the post Civil War era were pioneers able to settle the great plains (characteristics: a level surface, an absence of timber, and a deficiency of rainfall), and then only by drastically altering or changing their previous frontier techniques. According to Webb, westerners on the great plains became progressive because they relied upon change in order to overcome their harsh environment. The pioneer used what was given him and the results astonished the world.

Great plains pioneers had to build houses without timber, burn fires without wood, carve furrows in soil so matted and tough an ordinary wood or iron plow would snag in the sod or skitter across its surface like a stick over ice, draw water from an arid or semi-arid land, and grow crops that could exist with little water. Webb contends adaptation and innovation in the development and use of new or existing products and techniques allowed the hardy pioneers to conquer their environment. In essence, often reverting from the complex to the simple - "geographic reality."

This book is interesting and easily read. Webb's research ranges from the Indians, Spaniards, Americans, cattle, and water - encompassing the esoteric and the simple. For example, he delves into the Land Law of the West, in all its complexity (written by Webb 68 years ago) and the parallel and distinct differences in sign language used by deaf mutes and the plains Indians.

Webb's scholarly research is reflected in the extensive bibliography that follows each chapter. The index is useful and annotated to identify areas of relationship when warranted.

The accolades given this book over the years is well deserved. Webb's innovative study is fascinating and expands the reader's knowledge of the great plains as it contains a wealth of information on the history of the region. Webb's later book "The Great Frontier" was also influential and controversial. Both books are the hallmark of Walter Prescott Webb's long and distinguished career.

Yes, the book is very funny. But it meant more than that to me. It brought back some of my childhood memories about how I was treated as a have-not in rural Missouri. Just change the names and I basically lived the book. Fortunately, my youth years affected me the same way as it did the author. It gave me the backbone to overcome obstacles and have a successful life. Kudos to the writer! Kudos!!!

Since my childhood was in Kokomo, Indiana, I bought the book when I saw it listed. I stayed up half the night reading it. A couple of times I laughed so hard my stomach hurt. I sure wished he would have gone to St.Louis and beaten the hell out of that jerk who shoved him at the football dinner. I am ordering a book for my brother who still lives in Indiana. When I go to visit him next summer I am going to swing by and see Sullivan. I just have to see that place.

I did not know what to expect when I received this book from my wife. Once I started reading it, I could not put the book down. It made me reflect on the times I had when I was growing up in the 1950's. Very humorous, clever, heartwarming, and informative stories throughout the entire book. A must have for anyone who grow up in the 50's or for people who are interested in the huge change our country has undertaken the past 50+ years.
The most entertaining book I have read in years.
Dr. JP Longfellow