I've bought a couple of the other books in this series and I have to say that this one was a total diappointment. The crafts in this book were just so ordinary. I was hoping for some unique crafting ideas but only got some projects that I probably did as a Brownie or Girl Scout. Not worth the money.

Another winner from Sara Perry! I'm giving this to all my young friends with children, and to the grandparent set as well. The crafts are easy to make, and the recipes are rewarding in every way. Fun to make, fun to eat! Sara's well thought out recipes, and step by step craft instructions set this book apart from the rest.

This book was so helpful to me as a full time working mother with a 7 year old daughter. The crafts were simple to do, yet looked like we had spent days in the making. What more could a mother want! My daughter loved making the easy decoupage christmas balls almost as much as my in-laws loved receiving them. The candy land house was our schools answer to the dreded gingerbread house (the frame is made from a six pack carboard container) I cheer the author who can put together such a well written & workable book. In closing I am off to the kitchen to whip up one of the fabulous recipes! I would say wish me luck, but I have confidence in the Snow White Bunnies being the perfect answer.

"History has given Mary Custis Lee a bad rap," writes John Perry in the opening sentence of LADY OF ARLINGTON: THE LIFE OF MRS. ROBERT E. LEE. "I'm out to change that."

And change that he does. Perry rehabilitates Mary Custis Lee from a whining, neurotic invalid whose weakness and selfishness made everybody around her miserable and demonstrates that she was, in fact, a charming, attractive woman who turned heads in the Supreme Court chamber as a teenager and who almost certainly received a marriage proposal by no less a man than Sam Houston.

"Over her sixty-five years," writes Perry, "friends, relatives, and perfect strangers consistently described her as cheerful, smiling, welcoming, and industrious. She read Latin and Greek, and when she ordered a copy of LES MISERABLES, she wrote the bookseller to send it in either English or French, whichever was more readily available."

True, had not her great-grandfather been George Washington, and had she not have married Robert Edward Lee, the greatest of Confederate generals, we probably would never have heard of Mary Anne Custis. But Perry shows that she was a fascinating and inspiring woman in her own right.

Mary Custis Lee was an excellent painter, a published author, a legendary hostess, a tireless fund-raiser for charities, a devout Christian, staunch patriot, the mother who cared for seven children when their father was away from home for years at a time, and a devoted wife who nurtured her beloved husband's career even as arthritis crippled her body and the ravages of the Civil War drove her from the only home she had ever known.

Through diligent and dedicated research, John Perry has tracked down false rumors, half-truths, and conflicting claims about his subject and, by bringing the real Mary Custis Lee into the light, has set the record straight.

"Certainly the most exciting discover was Mary's prayer journal at the Virginia Historical Society in Richmond," writes the author. "As far as I can learn, none of it has ever been published or even examined before. Filled with her innermost thoughts, hopes, and fears, it casts new light on every word we have from her."

Was the discovery of Mary's prayer journal a blessing or a curse? Although some readers may rejoice in Mary's expression of religious emotions (concerning which Perry puzzlingly writes, "No one would ever read this"), others may find her diary to be overwrought, tedious, repetitious, and ultimately boring.

Be that as it may, Perry's diligent and dedicated research has tracked down false rumors, half-truths, and conflicting claims, and, by bringing the real Mary Custis Lee into the light, has set the record straight.

3.5 Stars

I was attracted to this book as a result of reading, "April 1865". I found General Robert E. Lee to be a particularly fascinating person, both militarily and in his personal life, and so a biography of his wife seemed to be an appropriate progression. I had never read material on this historical figure, so this books promise of the inclusion of her diary for the first time was also an attraction. The book was less than I had hoped for, while Mrs. Lee certainly held a unique place as a result of The Civil War and her relationship to George Washington, this book did not seem to justify its necessity.

Mrs. Lee like many women of the southern wealthy families lost virtually everything she ever called her own as the result of the war. She also was a beneficiary of the provision of a new home, and a more rapid return to a form of normalcy due to her husband's appointments, and then her son taking his father's place as a college president after the war. This was a return that was measurably longer for other families. The transition she did not make with her husband was the progressive acceptance of what had happened, and acknowledging the new reality that post war America would offer to those of the losing side of the conflict.

Mrs. Lee came from a family that was very progressive with regard to abolition and many other issues typically credited to The North. Unfortunately these thoughts did not carry through the war, and when compounded by her illness and the confiscation of the family homestead, she spent the balance of her life growing progressively angry. The US Government did return the title to her Arlington home after her death, and after it had thoroughly been destroyed as a family home. This home was also the site of many of George Washington's belongings, including the bed he had passed away in, his carriage, silver, literally rooms of possessions. This estate that had been the calling place of successive presidents and dignitaries like Lafayette was turned into a deforested piece of land, a squatter's village numbering several thousand people, and a national cemetery that encroached to the edge of her families graves.

The offerings from the diary are fairly slim in their variety and information they share. They are deeply personal notes of a devout Christian woman, however they do not offer great and original insight to her life.

This book is about much more than Mrs. Lee; it could have been called, The Families of Arlington. There is much that is of interest regarding her relations, and details of General Lee's correspondence, however she alone does not fill this book. Other work has been written about Mrs. Lee, and has received high praise; a reader might be better served to read other work prior to setting out with this offering by Mr. Perry.

I love everything about this book. They way it traces Mrs. Mary Custis Lee's family all the way back to George Washington and takes it forward from their. The way it describes the acquisition of Arlington. I have never seen a biography written better and keep my attention word for word till the end prior to this book.

I recently purchased this book for a class that I am taking at a junior college. There were two internet classes offered. However before selecting a class, I review the books first to see which are the most user friendly. To me this book fit my overall requirements. Although the print is small it is easy to read and understand. Instructions appear the be clearly written and objectives are outlined at the beginning of each tutorial. I'll write another review at the end of the semester once I see how it actually plays out.

Good foundational book for Internet and e-mail knowledge. However, do not rely solely on this book for all information revolving around the Net.

This book has a Blackboard course cartridge written to accompany it. That is what makes it an excellent book.

Unfortunately I can't agree with the first reviewer. The concept behind this book is sound; it attempts to address the needs of students who, due to family background or special circumstances (such as, in my case, having lived in China), can speak some Chinese but have little knowledge of reading, writing and formal grammar. The concept is good, but the book falls short on execution. Problems:

1)There are numerous errors and omissions in the text and in the example sentence patterns. My Chinese teacher, a native speaker of northern standard Mandarin, has confirmed this.

2)The grammar "notes" are little more than footnotes; no formal presentation of grammar is given. One would think that students whose background includes little grammar preparation would require more grammar than a typical textbook provides, but this book contains virtually no formal grammar presentation at all.

3)The sentence patterns are not only prone to error but also frequently contain vocabulary items that have yet to be presented in the main body of the text. Considering that the target audience is students who can speak some Chinese but cannot read and write, why do the authors assume that students using the book will be able to read the characters for these additional vocabulary items before they have been formally presented in the main body of the text?

4)The exercises also frequently contain vocabulary, grammar and/or characters that have not been introduced in the text. This makes doing the exercises incredibly frustrating.

5)Although the main text is presented in both "traditional" ("fantizi") and simplified ("jiantizi") Chinese characters, the exercises are given only in jiantizi, while the sentence patterns (containing characters not found in the main text) and index are given only in fantizi. This makes the book significantly less useful for those who wish to learn only one character set.

6)The organization of the index is a travesty.

In sum, this book needs a much better editing job and more comprehensive use of both fantizi and jiantizi character sets throughout. Perhaps these problems will be addressed in a second edition. Until then, prospective students who fall into this book's target audience group are better off combining one of the many elementary texts on reading and writing Chinese characters with a more advanced book on Chinese grammar, such as Yip and Rimmington's (jiantizi-only) "Intermediate Chinese: A Grammar and Workbook".

As a Peace Corps Volunteer living in China, I needed a book that would quickly and effectively introduce me to the complex grammatical structures and vocabulary necessary to engage in grown-up conversation. Books widely available here in the motherland were not particularly useful - most "advanced" books here tend to avoid the very issues that are most talked about by young, educated people today.

I found "Oh, China" to be a great tool in my personal language acquisition process (a sentence that I can now translate into Chinese...). Most importantly, the book introduces topics of conversation that I often encounter in a method that is all-but-entirely free of bias. I was able to use this book with my Chinese tutor...

While it's true that the grammar isn't perfect - sometimes my friends and teachers laugh @ me for sounding like a textbook - for the most part the grammar lessons were right on, especially their explanations in good, clear English.

The vocabulary problems stated above are, indeed, quite infuriating.

Despite these problems, the book was immensely helpful to me and, overall, a really good book

The title indicates that this is for advanced beginners. I don't consider myself an advanced beginner, but this book was very informative and helpful to me. I really appreciated the wide range of information presented with each lesson, and I learned a lot by just going through the lesson once. Although some of the grammar explanations are a little dry, it is a very helpful reference to have if you are learning Mandarin.

This book is not worth your money or time. It is very confusing to understand what the author is trying to teach you about quickbooks. I found myself jumping around from various chapters searching for additional clues that the author sometimes mentions briefly. I had better luck playing with the software than using this book.

After struggling with the manual supplied by Intuit I was overjoyed to find the answers to my questions in this Special Edition of Using Quickbooks. It contains a wealth of information and tips from one who obviously has used Quickbooks extensively.Worth twice the price.

I bought this book for my company bookkeeper who had very little experience
with computers or, for that matter, bookkeeping. The easy-to-understand
information in this book enabled her to quickly figure out how to set up our
company's records in QuickBooks and maintain them effortlessly. The
checklists for what to do on a daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, and annual
basis are priceless, and now we know how to print out any kind of report we
need to tell us how the business is doing. The manual that came with the
program was confusing and just touched on the surface of complicated topics,
but this book took us everywhere we needed to go. We knew we had the right
book when our accountant came to visit, had a question about how to do
something with QuickBooks, and pulled this book out of his briefcase for the
answer!

William Perry Pendley obviously has a contempt for wildlife. He calls ranching, logging and mining a "culture" that "environmental extremists" are trying to destroy. He seems to forget that there is a "culture" more fundamental than that: the amazing ecosystems of the West. Mr. Pendley calls himself an environmentalist and calls real environmentalists "environmental extremists." Don't be decieved by this deceptive word choice, this man is only using political buzzwords to get what he really wants--a western economy that devastates the environment.

Pendley has very fairly presented both sides of the environmental impact of the U.S. Government's impact on takeovers of private lands. Most people that want to keep their private land PRIVATE are exceptionally good stewards of their land. Please read this if you are a private land owner or a total Eco person. A very fair presentation! Eye opening!

This book should be required reading for everyone that thinks the government is to be trusted with all the resources that belong to ALL OF US. The plan is MUCH bigger than we realize. Read this and take note!

This book was written more in the form of a textbook than a novel. It contains factual information but is neither suspenseful nor very interesting. It may have been good for its time but is now dull

Herbert Asbury, by default, was the most important crime historian of the first half of the twentieth century. He produced a series of books published before 1950 surveying the red light districts, criminal haunts, and notorious incidents occurring in Chicago, San Francisco, New Orleans and elsewhere. In those days, before the public fascination with true-crime resulted in a flood of new books rushed into print, Asbury had the field pretty much to himself. Gem of the Prairie remained out of print for many years, but it inspired generations of Chicago writers to produce more of the same; Herman Kogan, Finis Farr, Lloyd Wendt, Bill Helmer, Henry Justin Smith, Emmett Dedmon, Curt Johnson, (and myself, I must confess), to name but a few. Asbury blazed new trails for all of us, but his research is largely based on newspaper accounts and poorly documented second-hand sources. Many of the anecdotes, though engrossing, cannot be verified upon further research. Mr. Asbury colors the text with florid prose,unintentional wit, and a withering cynicism common to the Chicago school of writing, but he fails to provide the reader with synthesis of his subject matter. Stories are evenly told, but we are left to ponder the obvious question. Did the same economic and social forces that fueled Chicago's phenomonal growth in the late 19th Century also contribute to the reputation the Windy City is still enjoys as a wide-open, corrupt town where anything goes? The answers are to be found elsewhere.

Excellent book describing the Chicago underworld from post civil-war to the 1920's. I have an original copy from my great aunt who was a flapper in the 1920's. Born and bred in Chicago--I loved this book.

Very disappointing. More a book for beginning brewers than it is making marijuana beer. I can thing of better ways of extracting the compounds than the simple methods shown.

I like beer and I like bud. what a great combination. it realy works

It is a damn good cook book

The author provides NO information which can't be found in the Microsoft manual that accompanies the Win98 CD. If one wants any detailed operating instructions, this is not the book that will provide it.

I was hoping for some definitions of filename extensions (e.g. .jpg, .dll, etc) that would help understand how various files are used. I also expected some discussion about how files are shared and which processes share which files. That information is sadly missing. A good primer at perhaps $15 but I expected more for the $25 price.

I, a newcommer to Windows95, felt lik a genious after reading this book. Teach Yourself Windows95 was extreamely easy to read and follow. I came away with full knowledge of Windows95.

This edition is obsolete as of the 2001 rule changes. Perry wrote a new edition for the 2001-2004 Racing Rules of Sailing, which is excellent and replaces this edition. This edition is worse than useless, as reliance on this outdated volume could lead you to break the (new) rules. This is a great series, mind you. Buy the new edition.

Every so often, the rules for sail racing are refined. Knowing the impact of these rule changes, while requiring some "guts" to follow amongst other racers who may not be as current, can have yield big advantage on the course and in front of the protest committee. This book helps you get there by citing many common situations.

This is the place to start. Dave Perry makes the rules come alive through clear, interesting examples and Brad Dellenbaugh's quirky little drawings. It is a wonderful book for the beginner trying to get past the confusion of being able to apply the rules while approaching a thicket of starboard tack boats without the benefit of painted lines marking the lanes, yield signs giving you a heads-up, and brakes to bail you out when your attention wanders. At the beginning of each season's racing I return to this book to get me back in the mindset of the racing culture. Be sure you get the current edition.