Pattern is here considered not only as a formalised repeating motif in embroidery, but also as embrancing structure, design, composition and elaboration. The book is divided into three main sections. The first is concerned with the nature of fabric, the effect of patterned fabrics and their suitability when used in the techniques of applique, patchwork, raised surfaces, hand and machine embroidery. The second section on threads is divided into two parts. The first deals with drawn fabrics and thread, net darning, needleweaving, blackwork, and canvas stitches; the second with embroidery stitches and the combination of embroidery with print. The third section examines the effect that different grounds have on the print and so on the type and style of the embroidery. Illustrated with over a hundred photographs drawn both from historic and modern sources, the book will be valued as a stimulating source of ideas as well as for its technical information.

This is a beautifully produced book of particular interest to the advanced student of embroidery, studying this subject on an intellectual level. But it is a stimulating ideas source for anyone. There is a minimum of text and an abundance of excellent, beautiful photographs.

Embroidery, like crochet, patchwork and rug making, has made an enormous comeback. There is, however, a vast difference between the embroidery of today and some of the rather insipid type of work that was found in so many Victorian households. Because machines can do so much in the way of stitchery these days, hand embroidery has to be completely individual in design and full of character in order to compete. Gratifyingly, a return is evident to many of the stitches used in the Seventeenth century and earlier, and these are sometimes combined most effectively with modernistic designs. Moreover, much of the handwork done nowadays is used for interior decoration, rather than for small items such as traycloths, or on clothes. For those who are skilful with the needle and interested in this kind of work, this book is full of ideas to stimulate the imagination, and the basic kind of instruction which a beginner needs. It contains a collection of pictures of different pieces of work, some ancient, some modern. The chapter on patchwork, an old art now very mod, suggests varying ways of joining pieces of material to achieve variety in the appearance of the work. For instance, attractive pictures can be made merely by using different shaped patches- another idea for interior decorating. The section on raised surface, quilting in particular, is unusual. In case you think quilting is only for making quilts, or possibly skirts, try this: When embroidering a figure, pad the face, hands and feet. the resulting picture looks very different from that with a flat surface. The book contains on applique; the effects achieved by using grainy fabrics on a smooth background; drawn thread and cut fabrics work: net darning; needle and felt weaving (working over the warp threads of a fabric to create a new surface texture) and blackwork, one of the most effective types of embroidery.

Carpal Tunnel and related stress injuries struck me in mid-August and left me practically helpless for nearly 3 months. After 3 days of doing the stretching exercises in Butler's book, I was back to doing simple activities and completely off the high dosages of anti-inflammatories recommended by my doctor. I cannot recommend this book too highly. The exercises are super simple and can be done throughout the day whenever you have a moment - in front of the TV, while laying in bed, in the car at a stoplight. The exercises deal with the entire upper body, including arms and wrists. You can choose those appropriate to you and your activities. If you are not sure, Butler has a list of which exercises apply to certain lines of work. An excellent - and inexpensive - book.

Fellow RSI and Carpal Tunnel sufferers, here's some relief!
I have tried almost all the exercises in this book. Thank you Sharon Butler - you've made my life a little less painful!
There are a few exercises in this book that gave me instant relief which I found pleasantly surprising. I have been to an orthopedic surgeon and physical therapist for a year now. None of them have given me the quick relief I got from doing some of these exercises. There is one exercise in which you pinch the skin between the thumb and fore finger in a certain way. That exercise greatly reduce the pain in the palm and my thumb. Also some of the exercises for fore arm pain reduced my pain considerably.
This book gives you a better understanding about why stretching helps and what is happening internally to the fascia.
There are details of symptoms and what exercises to do to alleviate those particular symptoms along with diagrams. I bought this book along with "Reptitive strain injury" by Emil Pascarelli. Both the books compliment each other pretty well.
I now have a pretty good picture of what is happening when you have carpal tunnel or/and RSI and how you can get some relief.
My suggestion: Buy it!

This is the book I return to again and again, since the exercises, which are gentle and easy to do, really do help on tense and injured muscles and tissue. The book is very much focused on the drawings of the exercises with helpful text on the sides and references to important intro text scattered throughout to help you remember the essentials of safe stretching. Very easy to use book, and the exercies do help! If you need more information in general about RSI, the physiology of it and treatments, I have found "It is not Carpal Tunnel Syndrome!" to be a very informative book.

As the number of "baby boomer" caregivers increases, so, too, has the number of books on how to best care for our aging parents. Virginia Morris book, How To Care for Aging Parents, is a personal favorite for several reasons. In layman's lingo she addresses almost every concern a caregiver might experience. She provides ample options and suggestions for dealing with those concerns. Additionally, she offers information on community and national resources to contact for help.

Details relating to the physical, emotional, and cognitive aspects of aging are addressed as well as dying and bereavement issues. Likewise, housing alternatives, financial, and legal aspects are presented in a readable and clearly detailed manner.

The challenge of caregiving for parents can be monumental at times. I only wish that this book had been in print sixteen years ago when I became a caregiver for my father following his stroke. Kudos to Virginia Morris for offering this much needed book. It will inform and encourage anyone who cares for our elderly.

This book helped me tremendously as I stuggled through a difficult time being both a parent to my children and having to care for an ill parent. The book is easy to use with helpful information and resources, as well as being emotionally supportive. Easily read, not cover to cover, but as I needed help and support at different moments I picked it up. I have kept it next to my bedside...

This is a wonderful book, and will be helpful for anyone facing the inevitable issue of parents or other relatives growing older and needing care of any kind. Easy to read through, as I have just done, it is also a wonderful resource to pull off the shelf as these issues manifest, from talking to your parents about what needs to be discussed as soon as possible, to knowing when to intervene and when to get out of the way, what questions to ask whom, and what to expect. Information about contacts and agencies is liberally sprinkled throughout the book, and a helpful index at the back helps you to find whatever you need at a moment's notice. An initial read-through makes you familiar with what the book has to offer, making it more familiar as the needs arise. Highly recommended.

Sight and Insight! As a painter this book is invaluable to me, as an appreciator of art and a viewer it is an opportunity to view some of the most magnificent and masterfully executed paintings all bound together in a spectacular reproduction of artwork in itself. The execution in his draftsmanship, the use of form and the genius of the use of color by Mr. Silverman is incredible to behold. The narrative is clear and thoughfully written. I have purchased not just one book but two, one for use in my studio as a reference book. The other is a special edition signed by the Master. All who pick up the book have a delightful treat in store for them, for each time one gazes at his art, there are new discoveries to be made. As an artist I am in awe and hold a great deal of admiration and respect for his art, to have this treasure to enjoy and learn from in the form of a book is indeed a feast.

"I purchased Sight & Insight ;the art of Burton Silverman several months ago, but just came across his listing with Amazon. I think it's a beautiful book with some of the best paintings I've seen that uses representational realism. The people depicted are both very real and very arresting in a thoughtful, reflective way. It's like reading a good book and looking up to conjure the image of the character in ones mind only this artist does that for you. He doesn't exclude the viewer though, because there's a lot of ambiguity in his characters that leaves room for ones own speculations as to the meanings of the paintings. The writing, by both Prof. McGrath and Philip Saietta are excellent if sometimes difficult sledding, particularly with the Professor. But it's really a very readable and informative collection of essays. Silverman also writes about his career with compelling honesty. It's a real treat to go through this book and well worth the price, many times over."

As the art director of the Merrill-Johnson Gallery, we are privileged to exhibit Mr. Silverman's work including several of the paintings in the book, "Sight and Insight". The paintings depicted in the book are fine example of the work that has made Mr. Silverman one of America's most respected realist painters. There are many books that are "how-to" paint (in fact Silverman has written two wonderful ones himself), but there are few "why-tos." "Sight and Insight" provides the reader an insight into the interpretive and artistic motivations behind his paintings. The book deserves to be in every serious art book collection for both the artist and the art appreciator.

Gitanjali is a sweet collection of poems and songs from Nobel Prize winning poet Rabindranath Tagore. These are songs that touch on love, faith, truth, life in general. Tagore has written from the heart. The wisdom contained in these works is startling. This is Eastern poetry that is a wonder to behold. Tagore embraces the personal as well as the universal. He encourages his people to transcend. I refer to this book variably over the years. Its alluring beauty has not faded in any way.

"Gitanjali" is a collection of prose poems by Indian author Rabindranath Tagore. The Dover Thrift Edition contains an introductory note on the life of Tagore, who lived from 1861 to 1941. According to this note, Tagore, who wrote poetry in Bengali, translated "Gitanjali" himself into English. The Dover edition also contains a 1912 introduction by William Butler Yeats.

This English version of "Gitanjali" is a series of prose poems that reflect on the interrelationships among the poet/speaker, the deity, and the world. Although Tagore had a Hindu background, the spirituality of this book is generally expressed in universal terms; I could imagine a Christian, a Buddhist, a Muslim, or an adherent of another tradition finding much in this book that would resonate with him or her.

The language in this book is often very beautiful. The imagery includes flowers, bird songs, clouds, the sun, etc.; one line about "the riotous excess of the grass" reminded me of Walt Whitman. Tagore's language is sensuous and sometimes embraces paradox. Like Whitman and Emily Dickinson, he sometimes seems to be resisting traditional religion and prophetically looking towards a new spirituality.

A sample of Tagore's style: "I surely know the hundred petals of a lotus will not remain closed for ever and the secret recess of its honey will be bared" (from section #98). As companion texts for this mystical volume I would recommend Jack Kerouac's "The Scripture of the Golden Eternity" and Juan Mascaro's translation of the Dhammapada.

The word and the deed were never far from each other in Tagore's life and not surprisingly he advocated the Universal Man. He was a polymath: a poet, fiction writer, dramatist, painter, educator, political thinker, philosopher of science. He was also a genius in music, choreography, architecture, social service and statesmanship. Over six decades Tagore gave the world some 2,500 songs, more than 2,000 paintings and drawings, 28 volumes of poetry, drama, opera, short stories, novels, essays and diaries and a vast number of letters.

I would enthusiatically recommend this book by my favorite author. Like the Psalms of David, Gitanjali is a soothing balm to the spirit. I read this entire book in less than two hours and has been my long-trip travel companion ever since. The introduction to the book by W. B. Yeats is magical and all the poems in this book transcend your imagination. The variety and quality of the poems are unbelievable!

Light A Single Candle Beverly Butler

Light a Single Candle, a story of a courageous girl who is diagnosed with glaucoma at the age of fourteen, is a very well written book by Beverly Butler. Cathy has a hard time accepting the fact that she will never see again. The author, who is blind herself, tells of the simple daily tasks Cathy must learn to do and how she feel when she loses a friend but gains a few others. One friend for Cathy is essential to every day life. This special friend is Trudy, a German Shepherd, and Cathy make an excellent team and learn to defeat many of the twists that life throws at them. This book is good for anyone who likes books about people who are survivors.

Like some of your other reviewers I first read this book when about 14, the same age as the book's subject, Cathy, when she loses her sight. I would say that I have re-read it since at least a dozen times, getting something different from it each time with the different perspective of age. It stays with you vividly - I can remember very clearly where I was when I first read it.

I only wonder however whether it will still appeal to 14-year olds today - I don't think it has dated but maybe I'm nostalgic. What it has to say about the difficulties of being a teenager and growing up to my mind are just as relevant (it was several reads before I could read about Cathy's experiences with Earl without squirming). To sum up, I was miserable when someone borrowed my copy and lost it and delighted when on holiday in Washington the Library of Congress traced it for me. Learning that there is a sequel was a mixed blessing - I want it desperately - as another reviewer says, it's a book that leaves you feeling good and wanting to know what happens to Cathy.

This book is about a girl named Cathy, who has severe glaucoma. She has surgery and it makes the problem worse than it already is and makes her blind. Throughout the book she copes with the blind lifestyle. She gets a seeing eye dog named Trudy who leads her around everywhere. This book teaches you a lot about the morals of life. I highly recommend this book because it also makes me appreciate not being blind and having 20/20 vision.

After thousands of years, the immortal Doro's breeding program has finally produced a young female telepath who becomes the cornerstone of a psionic network, a new kind of society called the Pattern. However, Doro and Mary can't see eye to eye, and conflict slowly comes to a head...

Butler sees human nature as paradoxical: people need communities and families to be healthy and sane, but humanity is inherently hierarchical and compelled to compete for power. Human society fosters both love and violence.

Butler is pretty honest about the uglier aspects of the Pattern, a society where mind-control is a regular practice, and non-telepathic "mutes" are well-tended slaves. However, when you compare it to life without the Pattern, thousands of people living in hopeless schizophrenia from uncontrolled telepathy, you can understand their decisions. As in most of Butler's fiction, it's about how people live in imperfect situations. Ask yourself what you would do in their place....

The book is a bit talky in places. The strength of the book is the characterization and dialogue, and Butler's perspective is unique and thought-provoking.

Spoilers
My only real complaint about this book is Anyanwu/Emma's role in the story. "Wild Seed" ends with her winning the war of wills with Doro, retaining her personal autonomy. I thought she would jump at the chance to renegotiate the terms of the society Doro created, but instead she just has a few cameos and sides with Doro to the end. It undermines the strength and integrity of her character as established in "Wild Seed".

This book is great, I have read all of Octavia Butler's stories, and I think this one is my favorite. In this story, which can be considered the second in the series after Wild Seed, all of Doro's tampering finally comes to a head with his daughter Mary. Mary has the unique talent of being able to tie many telepaths together in a pattern. I think that this is one of the best written books I have read. Butler is really able to take you right to the spot, which is difficult to do, especially with science-fiction. Even if you haven't read Wild Seed, this book can easily stand on it's own, but I also recommend reading Wild Seed and the books that come after Mind of My Mind, Clay's Ark and Patternmaster.

I enjoyed this book very much. They way she introduced each character was like starting a new book. They each seem unrelated but all have a strong power that connects them. I highly reccomend this book.

Just bought "The Unofficial Guide to PCs" from Amazon and found a couple of good ideas in it already. To me "Recovering from a PC Disaster", "Taming Tech Support", and the "Resource Directory" plus "Important Documents" in the Appendix alone are worth the bargain price I paid Amazon.

Whether you've put off moving up from a Windows 3.1 machine, haven't owned a computer before, or want more information about using Windows 95/98 and working with common packages, this book is a tremendous resource. It distills the years of experience the authors have had with Win9x and presents general methods to use when purchasing your computer, fixing hardware and software conflicts, and working with applications. It also contains a good set of web sites as starting points for learning more.

Win9x experts probably won't gain much from this book. However, they're not the intended audience, and I wholeheartedly believe The Unofficial Guide to PCs is well worth the price for any new Windows user.

I've never been much into "how to" books for PCs since I have been using them for more than a decade. I always figured I could write one myself. But having read your Underground Guides I figured I'd check it out. And I'm glad I did. There are all sorts of useful tips contained in the book that either novice or export PC users will find extremely helpful. I kept reading things, nodding my head and thinking "that's a good idea!" The idea of your NEAT box for a home PC is brilliant, and worth the price of the book by itself. I'm making one up for mine now. Great book.

I am not normally a science fiction fan, but this book gripped me from the start and I couldn't put it down. Butler's lean, spare style of writing helps keep the story tightly under control and moving briskly. In addition, her skill at constructing multi-dimensional characters is at it's best in this novel. It isn't easy to make individuals as powerful as Anyanwu and Doro seem like believable people with genuine human emotions, but Butler pulls it off, showing startingly empathy with her characters, especially Anyanwu. The relationship between Doro and Anyanwu is so skillfully done you can't help but think of them as real people. The book is rich with both historical and sci-fi detail and gives the reader an almost overwhelming sense of epic scope while basing the story around a small, intimate cast. Butler is an excellent writer and this is arguably her finest effort -- a good book to start with if you haven't read her before.
--Teri

In his book _How to Write Science Fiction and Fantasy_, the famous writer Orson Scott Card says about _Wild Seed_ that "nobody handles exposition better than Butler...it's a terrific novel that you ought to read for the sheer pleasure of it." I'm with him--this book is one of my very favorites. Octavia Butler is not nearly as outstanding for being an African-American woman writing speculative fiction as she is for the sheer quality of her writing, especially in this book. It has everything. Sure, in terms of the genre, it has great "hooks": the reader can speculate about the genetic basis for the abilities of the soul-stealing Doro and his "seed"--shapeshifting Anyanwu, telekinetic Isaac, and many others; and the novel has a grand scale, since Doro is two or three thousand years old, and the action starts in Africa and crosses to the young America. But this is far more than your ordinary science fiction novel. It has appeal for a wider audience. Doro, Anyanwu and the other characters have deep, complex personalities--you will care about them deeply, with love and hate and pity. When Butler writes violence, it's like real-life violence: sudden, shocking, sometimes fascinating but usually sickening. Butler's language is beautiful, but it's her plot, characters and imagination that put you in a mindlock. I only rated _Wild Seed_ 9 out of 10 because I know that some people find the ending a bit unsatisfying. Personally, I think it's perfect: the main conflict is between Doro and Anyanwu, so once that gets worked out, the story has to end. If I were to be completely subjective, I'd give it a full 10. And by the way--yes, it is nice to have a (convincing) black woman playing the lead.

Not so long ago I've read the first book from Ms Butler. I was immediately captivated by her amazing imagination and quality of her prose and became instantly a fan of the author.
All her books showed a rich mixture of imagination, interesting characters and conflictive situations.
*Wild Seed* is a complex story about Doro and Anyanwu, two extraordinary beings, their encounter and relationship expanding over three centuries.
I refuse to say Doro is a male, he may acquire any physical nature, so I think the character as a Self, each reader may assign he/she/it any attribution. This trait only, is enough to arouse many questions and situations, other writers may stick only to the rich action line. Octavia doesn't, she dig deep into each character, giving them soul and flesh, going into what they feel, their ethical (or unethical) considerations, their whole conception of life, their struggles for power and love.
All this blended in an inspired story full of action. A very commendable book.