The book is a great source of information on hydroponic gardening (forgetting the < $20 part). Even though some of the pics are dated the info is still current. Having started a hydro garden, this book could have saved me many false starts and I could have avoided many problem areas.

I highly recommend the book if you want to give indoor gardening a shot.

Readers leave this work with a better sense of how to go about implementing a plan of prioritizing that makes sense. Biblical principles are used to demonstrate how one goes about living a life of significance.
Trust God for the outcomes in various projects, they advise. Similarly, they make the point that one should learn God's assignments in life. God made each individual the way He did for certain reasons. Assignments are related to an individual's makeup and composition. Another pertinent point they make is that God is the Lord of all of life, not a separate "top priority," but to be part of life in its entirety.

This was a great book. It showed how an old bureaucracy like GM could manage to set up a car company that will change how cars are made and sold into the next century. Good insight into the fighting, working, changing, struggling, and wining that has made Saturn a model for companies that want to cherish their customers and turn them into salesmen for their products. If you wonder how your Saturn got to be so unique this is the book for you.

I picked up this book from the library for a research paper about Amazon.com for my Microeconomics class. "Amazon.com - Get Big Fast" was on order so I decided to see if this could help me get started. The writing is easy to follow (as this is a children's book) and gives background about Mr. Bezos (his youth, etc.) as well as information about the beginning of Amazon.com. My favourite bit was the struggle to choose the name for his company -- "Abracadabra" was deemed too long and "Cadabra" was thought too similar to "Cadaver." There are black and white photos in the book (images of Bezos, the Amazon River, etc.). I enjoyed the book and think that it (and others in this series) are a perfect foil to the dusty biographies that kids (including myself) had to read in the past. Sometimes one has to wander into the children's section of the library (or bookstore) and take a break from long-winded books (not that I don't enjoy them as well). Besides, all the basic ideas from big management books are in here -- like the idea to emphasize customer service. :)

This is a biography of an obscure figure from the American Civil War who had a famous name. Jefferson Columbus Davis was no relation to the Confederate president, and stayed loyal to the Union, rising the the rank of brevet Major General. He's probably best known as the culprit in the murder of William Nelson, another Union army general, in 1862. There was, however, more to Jefferson C. Davis than that, as this admirable biography shows.

...

Jefferson C. Davis was from Indiana. He enlisted in the army young, and participated in the battle of Buena Vista as a private in his Indiana volunteer regiment, distinguishing himself so much that he was considered for an appointment to West Point. When that fell through, Davis was directly enlisted in the regular army as a second lieutenant of artillery, and spent the years between the Mexican war and Fort Sumter studying and learning to be a soldier. He was part of the garrison of Fort Sumter, and this notoriety positioned him for a brigade command of Indiana state troops. He led them through the battle of Pea Ridge, and never looked back, concluding the war in command of the Fourteenth Corps during the March through the Carolinas, and during the battle of Bentonville. After the war, he was Alaska's first military district commander, and briefly fought the Modocs on the California-Oregon border.

The authors do a wonderful job of bringing Davis, and his many contradictions, to life. He was a demanding soldier, and a hard taskmaster, but he appears to have generally been a fair and decent person. There is the one incident where he shot Nelson dead, but the authors lay out the course of events, and frankly the whole thing sounds provoked. Nelson was disliked by a lot of people, apparently, to the point that when he was shot, there weren't very many calls for his killer to be brought to justice. The whole thing is laid out in considerable detail. And where Davis emerges as a surprise is in his competence as a soldier. Though his troops were routed at both Stones River and Chickamauga, at Pea Ridge it was Davis who stopped Louis Hebert's attack on the Union left, and at Jonesboro it was Davis who broke the Confederate front. At Bentonville he again held off the main Confederate assault, though with some help. Frankly I was surprised: he turns out to have been a pretty good general, and generally well-liked by the troops, even though he *never* praised anyone for anything, and apparently thought bravery nothing extraordinary. In his defense, he was brave himself.

There is one shortcoming in this book. There is a lack of maps to illustrate the text. The authors try to detail battlefield maneuvers from Buena Vista to Bentonville, with no tactical maps at all, and only three general area maps, none of which are particularly helpful. Only one of the maps even deals with the Civil War. This unfortunately makes the text a bit hard to follow at times. Other than that, I would highly recommend this book for the Civil War scholar. It's definitely worth the money.

This is a fast-paced book that uses the murder of a state senator to touch on some key issues regarding retirement and moving South. The characters are vivid, from the rough-talking fisherman who hates all Yankees to the housewife who turns to religion for comfort, but really only wants to spend more time with her husband.

The book is set in a retirement community in North Carolina, where there is conflict between the local residents and the retirees from the North, and where there is very human, emotional conflict in the retirement community.

The writer is very direct in his approach to the subject, and at times very humorous, such as in his description of the two detectives working on the murder. One is a North Carolina native, "white as a biscuit, beefy going toward fat," and the other is a slim native of Jamica who arrived in Walter County after a stint as a social worker and policeman in New York. The two play off each other, with the Jamican at one point telling the North Carolinian he would have advised reading a map instead of getting lost, "but that would have ruined your red-neck masculine image of yourself."

Although there are some interesting excursions, such as a tour of strip joints and worse in Myrtle Beach, the real story is a very human one about relationships, and about what can happen when a person becomes desperate to defend something of great value. This is definitely a book worth reading.

Many not-for-profit organizations do not have a Planned Giving Program. The basic reason for this is they feel it is too complicated to establish and maintain one. After reading this book they will think differently.

Legacies for Libraries: A Practical Guide to Planned Giving is the Bible for establishing an effective and successful program. Although the book was written for libraries the principles and concepts can be used for any industry. So don't let the title scare you away from buying it. This is a must read book.

The authors, Amy Smith and Matthew Lehrer, are experienced in the fund development process. However, they write the book in easy to understand language. You don't have to be a lawyer or scholar to understand what you are reading. In simple terms they explain the value of establishing a Planned Giving Program and then lay out the necessary steps for implementing such a program.

The book discusses the different types of Planned Giving gifts and give examples for each one. The authors have also put together an excellent appendix chocked full of valuable information. There is a list of Planned Giving resources, a glossary and bibliography.

When you finish reading Legacies for Libraries: A Practical Guide to Planned Giving you will be ready and willing to tap the $43 trillion in assets that demographers say that the World War II generation will be transferring to the next generation.

Don't lose out on this critical source of funding for your organization.

I read this book for a paper that I wrote for a class called "Women & Public Policy" at Brown University. This book didn't help much because it was all narratives from gay couples that have had weddings. Still, it was a good book for someone not writing an academic paper. This book could almost be called the history of gay & lesbian weddings. It spoke about gay weddings from decades ago to the present. What I loved most is how gay rights champions spoke about their weddings. Unfortunately, Paula Ettelbrick's silly, radical, postmodern argument against gay marriage is here. Too, Harry Hay says something against bisexuals that may offend many readers. Still, this was a cute concept by the editor. I think John Gay Man and Jane Lesbian will really appreciate this book.

When your traveling around with your life on your back, it's important to have a guide that will keep you on the right track. Lets Go Europe helps the backpacker decide when to get off the buses, planes, trains, and automobiles. All at the same time, the book keeps you laughing with some fun comments from the young at heart editors. The bright yellow cover will make you friends on the train...but be aware of book hungry travelers who may borrow it without ever returning it!! A must buy for the young backpacker

The Genealogical History of the McGaffey Family, 1904, by G W McGaffey (NOT MacGaffey) is a good starting point for any McGaffey researcher. It does have some errors, both serious and minor, in its information. Don't look for any documentation or sources in it!

The information is a bit difficult to follow until you get used to G W's "style" and "form". The original is leather-bound. It does have some basic Scots & Irish information & history in it. The photos of the various family members are very good and accurately labeled.

If you're a McGaffey or MacGaffey, this book is a "must-have" for research from the 1700s through 1904.