I just finished this book. It was a quick read with lots of helpful insights. I will be buying some copies as stocking stuffers for my friends. I think whether you are looking for happiness or not, you will enjoy and benfit from this book.

I really enjoyed this book. I sat down and read it all the way through in my first setting. It was a common sense approach to happiness. Can't wait for the next book.

I loved this book. It was a great reminder of things I already knew about being happy. Of course I think good writers make you feel that way. It was easy reading. I highly recommend this book to any one who feels unhappy or just wants to smile. Great examples throughout the book on how to make the right choices. Thanks Terry and Ronnie

In this book, Jane Evans, author, presents not only copies of her artistry, but also gives the reader insight into: the art of Chinese Brush; explains the materials you need to accomplish your entry into this particular form of art; the basic techniques you will learn; how to apply 'washes'; how to accomplish painting flowers, plants, birds, insects, fish and aquatic creatures, animals, people, landscapes ... trees, grasses, mountains, hills, waterfalls, bridges. From start to finish ... including mounting your art ... Jane has left nothing out.

In a world of Chinese Brush Art, where books are hard to come by, this is a great buy!

In this book, Jane Evans, author, presents not only copies of her artistry, but also gives the reader insight into: the art of Chinese Brush; explains the materials you need to accomplish your entry into this particular form of art; the basic techniques you will learn; how to apply 'washes'; how to accomplish painting flowers, plants, birds, insects, fish and aquatic creatures, animals, people, landscapes ... trees, grasses, mountains, hills, waterfalls, bridges. From start to finish ... including mounting your art ... Jane has left nothing out.

In a world of Chinese Brush Art, where books are hard to come by, this is a great buy!

Bought this book a few weeks ago and love it.

The author uses illustrations and technique tips to enhance learning. The technique tips were very helpful and this book is an invaluable tool for anyone who would like to try their hand at brush painting. A bonus was information on supplies, including best bets for beginners.

This is my third novel by the authoress, Susan Wiggs. I chose Dancing on Air, in hopes that, just maybe, I was wrong about her writing, that, just maybe, this would alter my initial opinion of her. Unfortunately, I still despair with each sentence, still grimace at the suffocatingly slow plot development.

One typically reads romance novels for the tension, and, as most know, sexual tension is the most frought with emotion and peril. I feel no tension between Pippa and Aidain (at least no "believable" tension). I feel unmoved my Pippa's "Poor Girl with a Cockney Accent" plight. I am annoyed with Aidan's "National Pride", which presents itself bluntly, forcing the reader to say, "yeah, that fellow sure loooves Ireland". There is no subtlety with Wiggs, no assurance that her audience will understand clever inferences. Instead, she takes a battering ram with tautological thoroughness to her readers heads.

I've never enjoyed having great fat arrows point to a character's motivation unecessarily, never liked having their depth "explained" to me. The story too, feels formulated. It treads heavily trodden ground with nothing stark or startling to make it poignant. Try a different Wiggs novel, this one isn't on the level.

A good read. This is my third Susan Wiggs book. Pippa, Aidan, Iago and Donal Og, what a delightful bunch they were in the telling of their adventures through England to Ireland and beyond. It was so easy to visualize their experiences. This book made me both laugh and cry. Because of the storm of emotions among the key players in Aidan and Pippa's final fate, I expected a different ending. I was surprised. One suggestion. A glossary of the Gaelic terms would have been nice.

Thanks so much for bringing such a delightful end to this series, I thought I may not have the bond with Pippa like I did Oliver, but was I ever wrong! I so thoroughly enjoyed this story and Pippa what a little spit fire! Aidan... what a man! As I sat crying at the end, when Aidan is saying good bye... I was so heartbroken I thought I could never read another S.W. book, but then the wonderful surprise! Thank you for not letting us down!

After reading the back cover on this book, and a recommendation from a friend, I bought it. Unfortunately, I was disappointed. For the most part, I just scanned it. It was predictable, no challenge at all. I had not read any Harlequin books in a long time, and now I remember why I quit reading them.

I am fortunate to know Harper Allen but had not yet read any of her books. This was a surprise especially that the heroine reminded me of her. I could just picture Harper crusading in the same manner. This book has been mailed to a friend and I can hardly wait for the next one to be published. Bravo Harper!

If I want a challenge, I'll read a calculus textbook. If I want to be entertained, I'll pick up a book by Harper Allen. Woman Most Wanted has everything: a strong romance, unique characters, twists and turns and a lot of laughs. What more could you want? Calculus, I guess ;)

The New Complete Pembroke Welsh Corgi by the same author (D. Harper) is vastly superior to this book. That book contains information about corgis & no other breed. Half of the information in this book is on corgis, but the rest of this book contains generic information that pertains to all breeds. For example; the "Happy Healthy Pet" book for westies shares some identical chapters with this one.

I DID NOT READ THIS BOOK, BUT CORGIS, ESPESCIALLY THE PEMBORKE WELSH VARIATION ROCK!

the book was great with lots of pictures and info. it was definatly worth the money. this dog is soo cute!

I actually went looking here, for this book, so that I could warn people off. What a tremendous let-down, to come out of such an interesting premise! The writing, oh, the writing! I have been afraid, since reading this book, to pick up any book with a similar title. If you like action and suspense, and plot twists, fine. Want quality prose? Look elsewhere.

Cat Scratch Fever was the first of Tara Harpers books I read and it sold me on her as an author. In Cat Scratch fever we learn about the psycic links between the colonists and the animals and the promise to the cats. Tsia wants one of the animal links unfortunately hers is to the cats. She avoids using her link and does not want to lose it because of the other benefits to the link. Then Tsia gets into trouble and her link to the cats is helpful and the cats seem to welcome her into their world.

A vivid account of one woman's struggles with her telepathic link to an interdicted species, this story is not for the light reader. Seemingly effortlessly, Tara K. Harper plunges you into Tsia's harsh, chaotic world so that you feel every lash of the n-rod, every drop of sweat, every heart-pounding moment that could mean life or death.

A must-have for any student of Monet. Volumne I contains covers his biography proper, while volumes II-IV provide a COMPLETE record of the artist's body of work.

Wilderstein protrays Monet life for the most part as that of a debtor. However to his credit, he tempers the romantic "suffering artist" idealism with insight into Monet the creditor. By illustrating what a jackass the artist could also be, the author creates a deep and lively narrative.

Most of the personal insight into Monet come to us by way of coorespondance with Alice Hoeschede. Due to 'appearances' however she requested of Monet her letters be destroyed immediately and thus we're sadly left with a one-sided portrait of the man. While his artistic talents we're unparalled, it's his devotation to correspondance that allows Wildenstein to bring him back to life. Without giving away the ending, it's Monet's inability to write rather than paint that signals the end.

If you are in love with Claude Monet's Water Lily Pond paintings, this is the best book for an explanation as to their origins and where Monet found his inspiration. There is a photograph from 1926 showing the bridge covered with climbing plants.

The Japanese Bridge at Giverny, 1924 is just one of the outstanding paintings in a series of works devoted to the bridge that preoccupied Monet during his final years.

Monet loved his garden at Giverny with such a passion that one could say it bordered on obsession. Harmony in Green, The White Water Lilies, The Water Lily Pond are all explained in detail. There is even a picture of Monet photographed in his beloved garden in 1917.

In every life there is beauty and sadness. The beauty of the water lilies contrasts with the pain Monet felt when he painted Camille on her death bed.

When Monet's wife died, she not only left him without a companion, he then had small children depending on him. He spent most of his meager earnings on his wife's medical treatments and he was also deeply depressed and alone.

This type of revealing information makes him so very human and the paintings then contain a certain depth when these secrets are revealed.

I loved this book! The pictures were wonderful and the readings that went with them were as well. Learned many things that I did not know about his artwork. VERY informative...give it a try, it would make a great gift book!

I am disappointed in the quality of the art, as I was expecting something much more realistic, not so impressionistic. Other than that, there isn't much to say about a calendar.

John Howe is universally considered to be the foremost Tolkien illustrator (along with Alan Lee, though I prefer Howe's style), and this release is a glimpse into his working process, as well as a grateful advance look at the art design used in the upcoming film trilogy.

These images have been culled from the conceptual work Howe has done for Peter Jackson's films, currently undergoing principal photography in New Zealand. We should consider ourselves enormously fortunate to be allowed such an opportunity, for Howe is both a brilliant artist, but also has a deeper understanding of Tolkien's world and Jackson's intention in recreating it than virtually anyone else on the planet at present.

Certainly these works are rough and unfinished, since they are essentially visual "sketches" for set and character design on the film project. However, Howe's style is smooth and lush, his use of color and mood evocative, and they stand on their own as powerful imagery.

Howe's other Tolkien artwork is considerably more "finished" and refined in appearance, with greater detail, but here we get a different and unique vision of Tolkien's world, and an idea of what to expect when the film trilogy hits the big screen next year. Each month leading up to the film your wall can be graced with an image that has inspired and shaped it. I for one am more excited than ever now that I have seen this collection.

I was thoroughly impressed with this masterpiece of modern date-keeping. I mean, ALL the days are in order within the appropriate months! And even February FOLLOWS January! Not the other way around as one would get with "other" inferior calendars. I've seen calendars in my life (LOTS of calendars!) but none so gloriously laid out as this. Take March for example: you know how March generally has 31 days? Well, THEY'RE ALL HERE!! All 31 in a row! Mondays following Sundays . . .Thursdays after Wednesdays and so on and so forth. It's incredible how much time(ha!)went into the immaculate design of this baby. I'm recommending this caledar to everyone I know who is FED UP with the current hapless order of the days of the week. If you are sick and tired of lousy, poorly organized "we know what's good for you" calendars and you really want something stimulating and emotionally challenging for once, then BUY THIS CALENDAR!!! You will never regret it! And even if you do regret it, you will finally know in which day of the week your regret happens.
The artwork's pretty cool, too.

This book was really really borring

Bartram's "Travels" is an odd, idiosyncratic, and highly original book. There is really nothing else like it in all of English or American literature. Certainly there are scads of chatty travel narratives by later explorers who wrote of more exotic regions and more dangerous adventures, but there are none I can think of that rise to the level of Bartram's. Its rich and colorful images, the poetic quality of its language (in places), the strange juxtapositions of prosaic discussions of the habits of certain animals or features of certain plants with profound analogies between the physical world and the spiritual realm, and the narrator's frequent speculations on the meaning of human existence and humanity's relationship to nature and the creator mark it as distinct a contribution to American letters as Melville's "Moby Dick."

The world Bartram writes of is late 18th-century (just after the American Revolution) Southeastern America: mostly East Georgia and East Florida. Some of the places he visits, if you are a Floridian or a Georgian, you will recognize: Augusta, Savanna, the St. John's River, the area around Gainesville, Archer, and Micanopy; the Suwannee River and its tributary springs (specifically Manatee Springs). Below Savanna, it is a sparsely populated wilderness inhabited by various Indian tribes (such as the Seminoles and Muscogulges) and where whitetail deer, racoons, black bears, rattlesnakes, alligators, turtles, and various species of bird and fish grace the fields, woods, lakes, rivers and streams.

If you love good descriptive writing infused with a passionate appreciation for natural beauty, you will be moved by Bartram's descriptions of Florida, which comes off in the book, quite convincingly, as a sort of prelapsarian paradise. Bartram entering Florida is like Adam going back to the garden of Eden before the fall (I am admittedly a little biased, being a native Floridian): he sees seemingly endless vistas of sawgrass and sabal palms under amethyst skies, crystal-clear springs of the purest water bubbling up out of the forest floors, emerald hammocks of palmetto, sweetgum and cypress; groves of massive liveoaks and wild orange trees. All of this is taken in and recorded in an attitude of childlike wonder, and a deep awe and respect for the mysterious but benevolent power that fashioned all of it. Bartram is a scientist (botanist), able to engage (sometimes, to the detriment of the book) in detailed discussions of biology, so his effusions about the majesty of the deity seem all the more genuine and sincere.

Lastly, what endears the book to many of its readers, I suspect, is the personality of the author. The "William Bartram" of the book is a kind, gentle, reverent, simple, generous, tolerant, and quiet person. The great thing is, he doesn't really tell us about himself--we get an idea of what he is like mainly from his observations on the people and things he encounters. His Quaker faith in the wisdom and omniscience of God undergirds all of his observations and speculations.

Regarding the book's place in literary or intellectual history, it stands at one of the turning points when one episteme is giving way to another. In the "Travels" we can see the influences of the Enlightenment: an emphasis on empirical observation and data-gathering, and the emphasis on the role of reason in securing man's betterment--but at the same time we can see the influences of the then-ascendant Romantic worldview: a belief in the "noble savage," that all people are basically good but corrupted by institutions, and a pantheistic sense (looking forward to Wordsworth) of God as immanent in nature.

Belongs on the shelf with Jefferson's "Notes on the State of Virginia," Thoreau's "Walden" and "A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers", the "Journals" of Lewis and Clark, and Melville's "Typee."

This Dover edition is the best buy out there. It has an attractive cover (some unknown artist's rendition of a Florida hammock) and has all the illustrations included, plus Mark Van Doren's short but helpful introduction. It's also a very durable volume--you can keep it in your rucksack to pull out and gloss over choice passages as you hike the wilderness trails of Florida.

This is a wonderful book for anyone interested in the nature, landscapes, Indians, and early settlements of Georgia, Florida, South Carolina, and Tennessee around the year 1775. I haven't read this book in about 10 years, but I do remember checking it out of the library about 3 times, and I'm going to buy it for my birthday. The landscapes the Bartram describes will by and large never be seen again. Bartram described seeing a 45 square mile forest made up of nothing but magnolia, and dogwood trees. He saw forests that were covered by grapevines for miles. The trees were sometimes 20 feet thick, and the grapevines were so old that the vines were more than a foot thick. He saw canebrakes that covered miles, and some of the bamboo cane was 40 feet high. Canebrakes are practically extinct as an environment. He saw virgin forsts, abandoned Indian fields, overgrown Indian villages, open pine savannah forests, and uninhabited swamps. He saw wildlife which today would be scare, or extinct. He reported seeing a bobcat stalk a turkey. He pleaded with a market hunter not to kill a mother bear, and lamented the reaction of the bear cub to it's mother being killed. Bartram also reported seeing wolves, and bison skulls from recently killed buffulo. Bison were just rendered extinct in eastern Georgia at that time. Bartram took literary licence with some events. He exaggerated his encounters with alligators in Florida. After enjoying a meal of fish, rice, and oranges from the Spanish missionary orchards, he battled "fire breathing dragons." Bartram had many encounters with the Creeks, and Cherokees, and most were friendly. He feasted with Indian cattle raisers. Bartram also gives a good account of early settlements. If you decide to get this book, also get a copy of a tree guide with the scientific names, because Bartram tells exactly what kind of trees he came across in each forest. What I wouldn't give to see what Bartram saw?

While this book had an OK beginning, the imagination and original creativity of the book quickly went out the window. There is a scene where a thief is being hung, but his friends just waltz on by and free him from execution...not a bad idea, but I saw it first in the movie "Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves". And then the readers discover that the thief has a distinct personality which is none-too-subtlely ripped-off from the thief Silk in David Edding's books. I am abhorred that TSR actually published this book which barely retains a shred of true originality.

Actually, 3.5 Stars. Decent story line. A definite step up from some of the other Harpers books (I am reading them in order and have just finished this one). It's not a brilliant story or brilliantly written, so I'd say it's really best for FR fans.

This is a very entertaining, well-constructed novel. There is never a dull moment in Caledan and Mari's battle against the Zhentarim for control of the city of Iraiebor, from Caledan's unwelcome return to the city, rife with evil, to an all-out battle and just slightly predictable conclusion, as Caledan and an accompanying band of heroes race the Zhentarim's evil agents to discover the secret of the shadow magic. It's a page-turner, with chapters more often than not ending on cliffhangers. The book has its share of surprises, and the characters are introduced slowly and developed well. I found myself rooting for the main character, Caledan, to succeed and to "get the girl" Mari, which should happen considering this a tightly-plotted, quick moving novel focusing mainly on Caledan and his exploits as he reluctantly tries to wrest the city from evil's grasp. Anyone who just wants to have a good time reading an excellent adventure novel should try this. It leaves you wanting a sequel, or even a trilogy.