If you are a beginner, I would certainly get a hold of this book, if for no other reason than to make yourself familiar with what is and is not contained within, just for knowledge’s sake. This slight booklet consists of a small number of brief poems, recipes, tips, and articles from witches around the world, all concerning historical and practical points of interest relating to the craft. While I, personally, find some of this information interesting, on the whole, I would not consider this work a stimulating read, nor an excessively useful reference. Though the three to four page explanation of the lunar cycles is quite useful to the beginner, this is something that is contained every year, so, for this, it need not be purchased annually. I have found the horoscope to be moderately accurate every year, however. I guess what I’m saying is that, by the time you buy this book, and possibly pay shipping for it, if you may not find more than four or five pages of particular use and interest, it may not be worth it. On the other hand, it is not excessively expensive, and some people with different interests than I might find this work fascinating. Decide for yourselves. Pick up this year’s! Please note, that if you are looking for an actual “daily almanac”, you are much better going for Llewellyn’s Magical Almanac, which actually provides day to day report of moon cycle, planetary alignment, suggested incenses, colors, etc.

I really found this book helpful as a fairly new Witch. I find that you still have to do more research to find out what the moon phases mean and but the basic helpful information is clearly laid out for you. You can use the information how you want to. There is alot of other information in the book including horoscope, recipies, folklore and AMERICAN (not Canadian) weather predictions. - I found it well worth the price. I have not read "Llewellyn's Magical Almanac" but plan to compare the 2 books.

I am pleased to say that this is exactly what I was looking for in an Almanac -- something that simply tells me the phases of the moon, important dates, etc. with other charming articles, poems, and artwork for my reading and viewing pleasure. No irritating fluff thrown in there like in the Llewellyn Almanacs, just straight to the point information and articles worth your time. The reason this almanac is a dollar more expensive is because it's the better almanac. Whether you're an experienced witch or you've only been one for a day, this almanac will help you keep track of things!

This book was of great interest to me as a new home owner. However, Feng Shui is presented in a somewhat biased manner, as a cure-all for healing lives. Certainly, our environments can be places of healing and nurturing energy, but the bottom line is personal preference and common sense. (in life, as well as interior decorating!) Each person has their own likes and dislikes. For example, many people enjoy having high ceilings and an open floor-plan, while others prefer more "yin" environments, with lower ceilings and dimmer, smaller rooms. Socrates said most wisely, "All things in moderation." I still believe that Feng Shui needs more westernization for it to be practical, useful, and accessible to the average American or European

I found this book very helpful. It was originally reviewed by a student of mine for a college class which led me to buy Collins' other book "Feng Shui Room by Room". I like the other book even better (I would give it 5 stars). These books bring the concepts into focus for use in a western setting. I transformed two major parts of my house within the first week and it was life changing. In fact I was able to make some powerful changes the first night. Also I didn't spend a lot of money but rather used things I already owned and loved that were either in storage or in the wrong place. I found myself loving my house for the first time in many years instead of constantly thinking about moving.

Okay, I'll admit I was seduced by the subtitle, ". . . Creating Balance, Harmony and Prosperity in Your Environment." I need all the balance, harmony and prosperity I can get.

Feng Shui (that's FUNG SHWAY to us mortals) is the ancient Chinese art of placement (does anyone but me notice there's never a modern Chinese art?). I came from the 1950's Irish-American art of placement: "Use a coaster! Don't lean on your elbows! Get your feet off the coffee table!"

The idea of Feng Shui is that by correct placement of objects around my environment, I will maximize the 'Chi' or energy in and around my physical world. Hey, I believe this. In college I rearranged furniture in my dorm room every month. I continued this even after I married a man who, given the option, would nail down furniture. These days I'm too tired to change the television channel after everyone has gone to bed. In this book there's a Chinese saying: "If you want to change your life, move 27 things in your house." I do this every morning trying to figure out where my son left his gloves, his hat, or his lunch box. My life hasn't changed yet.

The author claims that "Relaxation, rejuvenation, and recreation are the three primary functions of a home." The three primary functions of my house are collapse, incoherence, and get-ready-for-the-next-round-of-laundry. The front door is the gaping mouth, where all the chi enters the home. All doors are entrances for chi, which is why doorways should never be blocked and should open freely. I haven't been able to open a door in my house without banging into something since 1988. I'm in chi debt until the millenium and then some.

Halfway through the book I learned my rooms are laid out poorly, my bedrooms in the wrong place, and my blocked doors are draining me of energy. She didn't mention what stepping on those little green army guys does to your chi. It can't be good.

Ms Collins says for optimal chi, my environment should be clutter-free, contain my treasures and photos of my loved ones, fresh flowers and natural crystals to circulate chi to energy-low areas. I was getting energized just reading this book. Hey, I could throw some stuff out, rearrange the furniture, put out my crystals and burn scented candles. Maybe there's something to this. Ancient Chinese arts have to be based on something.

I was telling my husband the highlights of all this when our eight-year-old son came into the room. In quick succession he argued about his homework, his chores, his sister, and tried to negotiate a later bedtime. When he left I slumped over in my chair. My husband looked at me and asked, "Does the book say anything about living with the 'Anti-Chi'?"

The book is well-coordinated and provides excellent footnotes which further amplify and clarify the Scripture in its historical/theological context. This edition, in the New American Standard Version, is easy to read, although I personally prefer the elegance of the King James Version (albeit that version does contain some obsolete and obscure words). It is wonderful to be able to compare the accounts of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John side-by-side! I had a similar scholarly volume during my college days but somehow it and I parted company over the years (My old edition had a _sewn_ binding. Unfortunately, this edition has glued-in pages -- but the book should endure fairly well with reasonable care).

You won't go wrong with this fine reference. It is certainly helpful to anyone who desires a fuller understanding and appreciation of the New Testament, especially regarding the life and sayings of Jesus.

A wonderful and essential reference tool for studying the Bible! I recommend this book for both serious scholars of the (New Testament) Bible and for any person who is already a Christian, _and_ for any other of those who wish to learn and explore the teachings of Jesus.

This harmony of the gospels was recommended to me by a retired professor from Taylor University. I found the arrangement of material very defensible and very well organized. The essays at the end of the book give a good introduction for the uninitiated in fundamental problems in modern "criticism". Useful information on dating of events in the gospel narratives are also provided. I take exception to the critic who claimed that "The actual date of Christ's birth and death is written in stone and correlated by the Jubilee records." This view is held by a tiny minority, some of whom, to be charitable, have dubious academic credentials. On the other hand, both Thomas and Gundry, have published a number useful pieces of scholarship many of which can be purchased through Amazon.
I found the most obvious thing to jump out at me was the development of the controversies between Jesus and the Jewish leaders, and between Jesus and the village of Capernaum. Without some form of chronological guide it can be difficult to see the connections between events during Jesus' life. I found this to be the most helpful aspect of reading Thomas and Gundry's Harmony.

After reading "Your Money or Your Life" by Joe Dominguez and Vicki Robin and the "Tightwad Gazette" by Amy Dacyczyn, both of which I found revoluntionary and greatly inspiring, this book fell flat.

There is nothing in this book that couldn't be gleaned from a few basic investment and financial advice books with a little social conscience thrown in. Why not try Charles Given's "Financial Self-Defense" or "Charles Schwab's Guide to Financial Independence"? They cover everything in Mr. Glickman's book and then some.

As far as his money-saving tips for around the house, yes! it is good advice. Did you know that buying energy-efficient appliances can save you money in the long run? (A revelation). I guess this is good stuff for people who really aren't paying attention to such things, but then again, people like that generally don't bother reading books about how to be financially responsible or how to retire early. They're too busy working to keep up with those credit card payments...

Personally, I would have found it INFINITELY more interesting if the author explained to his dear readers how he managed to "retire" on $135,000 at the age of 24. Even at a 10% yearly return, this is only a $13,500 a year income. Not to mention, he has a wife and two kids? How did he manage it? (He writes financial advice books, I guess!)

To add insult to injury, he advises his readers how to calculate their retirement income - at age 65! I plan on retiring FAR earlier than that. Mr. Glickman certainly did.

This book provides the same cliched advice you can find just about anywhere these days, but without adding anything really interesting or new. For those looking for something with REAL answers on how to get out of the rat race, why not read Janet Luhr's "The Simple Living Guide"? For example, she has a whole chapter devoted to inexpensive, alternative housing that REALLY can make a difference in your lifestyle and values.

The author of this book dispenses lots of advice, and a lot of it IS very good, it's just that it isn't very revoluntionary, inspiring or heart-warming.

This is a great book for socially conscious investors. The book discusses our relationship with money and various ways we can learn to invest more socially conscious. The relationship we have with money affects our feelings toward money and eventually the way we view our lives. This book is also a great beginners book for investing. It highlights different investments as well as asset allocation tips. This book can positively change the relationship you have with money.

I loved The Mindful Money Guide. It's humor, economy, and wisdom were a delight. I appreciated how the book synthesized the best of the alternative financial books, while still being fresh and original. Do note in some ways the book is subtle, it's not intended for those looking to get rich fast or retire young. Rather it's aim is to help the reader find financial security (both fiscal and psychological) and meaningful work without becoming obsessed with money or neglecting their social conscience. It's about balance. Since that's what I was looking for, the book struck a chord in me. And unlike so many other financial guides, it's fun to read. I've been heartily recommending it to my friends--and getting good feedback from any who've read it.

A bizarre, somewhat disjointed read not for the scientific faint-of-heart, but for those familiar with Tompkins' strange excursions and capable of suspending scientific disbelief, another intriguing, startling exposition; includes discussion of Theosophists, Rudolf Steiner, astral planes, occult chemistry, fairies, woodland spirits, and the like. Tompkins is one of those far-out writers who, inexplicably, I consistently get a kick out of reading (and constantly wonder if he himself believes everything he writes about?). Personally I give this wild, rambling read a very high "4" for enjoyability, but it is the sort of volume other folks will either love (if they are inclined toward the metaphysical and esoteric) or...hate.

This is a most excellent book, covering material not generally available to the spiritually curious. I have been completeing a Doctors Thesis with The University of Metaphysics and find this to be one of the books I used most extensively in the thesis. Interestingly enough this gives a more complete story of the movie FAIRY TALE A TRUE STORY. A movie which portrays Sir Arthur Conan Doyles discovery and publishing of the famous Cottingsley fairy pictures As a spiritual hypnotherapist (C.M.Ht//Certified Master Hypnotherapist) I am able to validate some of this material from my research sessions. I wish you would make a better effort to supply this book, which is on my list of 10 most recommended books to students and clients.

This book is a tour de force work on nature spirits (fairies, gnomes, angels, etc.). Peter Tompkins uncovers the history, past mystical organizations (as well as current ones), mystics, scientists and others and then factually pieces together the existence of this hidden worldaround us. This book is out of print (although you can purchase it through Amazon.com of the UK)as I suspect this book was deliberately taken off the market in the U.S. because of the controversial subject matter and discussion of halucigenetic drugs (and growth of the Santo Daime community).

I suspect the prospective purchaser may be mislead by certain of these reviews.

1) I'm not sure what is meant by "his attempt to put written parameters on atonalism", but it is important to understand that Schoenberg's "Theory of Harmony" says nothing whatsoever about atonal music.

2) Does it "[show] that if [Schoenberg] had wished, he could have written popular pieces in the key of C major that would have been some of the finest music ever written"? It shows, I suppose, that Schoenberg had a solid grasp of traditional elementary harmony, but as far as I know this has never been in question. Before he wrote atonal serial music and before he wrote free atonal music, Schoenberg wrote a reasonable quantity of tonal music, so you don't have to speculate about what he could have composed "in the key of C major". Just listen. (It's a thickish sort of tonal music and not really my cup of tea.)

3) Whether or not you admire the author or his music, you would be very foolish to assign this to your undergraduate students or to try to teach yourself theory with it--and not just because a number of the author's speculative notions are dubious.

4) If you elect to read it you'll be in for quite a bit of haranguing. Brace yourself.

Schoenberg is willing to reconsider and rethink every aspect of traditional music theory. It's too bad his conclusions are almost invariably wrong, but this book will help you reconsider and rethink traditional music theory yourself--and come to your own conclusions. Also: this is much too unwieldy for the classroom; use Robert Ottman's texts instead. I recommend as well PENTATONIC SCALES FOR THE JAZZ-ROCK KEYBOARDIST by Jeff Burns--for theory and for practice.

This is a classic in music theory--the 1983 English translation of the Schoenberg's third edition of the Theory of Harmony. Written as a textbook, it almost is never used as such; rather, it is used primarily by Schoenberg scholars and, more generally, academic music theorists. Schoenberg's ideas differ frequently from more "standard," American curricula (Piston, Schenker) and for this reason make for interesting reading. In addition, viewing Schoenberg's output as theorist as compared with a his output as a composer is always a rich topic.

Without getting into specifics you read Chaos, Symetry and Harmony. A good description of all modern theories and how they tie to Chaos without concrete reasoning. Yes Stock Market behaves like Chaos so what do you do with that, i could not get the answer. I would call it more like a summary of modern physics

Just so you get an idea of Dr. Thuan's philosophical viewpoint, he is a neo-Platonist (in the sense that he believes in a self-existing reality where mathematics "resides") and he believes that the universe was designed. He also thinks that determinism is bad. If you agree with any or all of these perspectives, you probably won't find any new reasons to support your viewpoint. If you disagree, you will probably find little here to convince you otherwise. This is not a philosophically original work.

But Dr. Thuan does offer an engagingly written (if brief) account of much of the history of modern physics--big bang cosmology, electromagnetism, special and general relativity, quantum mechanics, strong and weak nuclear forces, particle physics--as well as some fun topics like black holes and wormholes, and he teases the reader with short accounts of potential research areas such as superstring theory and supersymmetry. His treatment is nice since we get not only the results of modern physics, but also some sense as to how we got them in the first place, which is often missing in works of popular science.

My only complaints (other than the possibly misleading title) are:
* I wish he would have been a little more careful to distinguish the behavior of chaotic systems from the operation of "chaos theory" in Chapter 3.
* In Chapter 6 I wish he would have given more rigorous reasons than his personal incredulity for doubting that natural selection can account for the diversity of life. At least he could have gotten a biologist's perspective--he quoted quite often from physicists and mathematicians, so presumably it wouldn't have been very hard to get a relevant comment from a biologist.
* I found his comments on the "evils" of determinism in Chapter 7 to be distracting and beside the point, but perhaps others will see merit in them.

Overall, it's a good read if you want to get a general sense of some of the more important advances in physics, but if it's philosophy you're looking for, you could do better elsewhere.

I thoroughly enjoyed Xuan Thuan Trinh's approach to describing a modern view of the Universe. He ties many of the common themes underlying modern physics and science together. He also beautifully inter-weaves them together to give us all a better perspective on the advances that will come in the 21st century.

As a knitter advances past the "blind following" of patterns, a good stitch directory is an invaluable item for designing patterns -- even if it's just the pattern for a scarf. This is one of several stitch directories in my library. It isn't my favorite but I still use it regularly.

What I like about this book is the photography of the samples. Other books may (and often do) explain the actual working of the pattern better (Barbara Walker's Treasuries come to mind) but you have to be attracted to a pattern/stitch to even want to try it. This is a very good resource when looking for a stitch that strikes your fancy.

Of the various volume in this series, this is certainly the most useful for everyday knitting. The other books have some neat fancy stuff but when it comes to relatively basic stitches, this is a handy book to have on the shelf.

The stitches in this book are very interesting and many are quite unusual. My only gripe is that some of the colors are so dark that you can't see the stitch very well. I already have another stitch pattern book in which only a cream colored yarn was used. At first, I thought, "How boring!" But now I see what a big difference it makes when deciphering the patterns. However, many of the patterns in this book are for multiple colors, making the use of dark colors essential. I think the variety in this book and Volume 3 (I've never seen volume 1) is terrific and I recommend these books to anyone who loves experimenting with yarns and stitches in her original garment patterns.

This book is fantastic. I'm a textile designer in knitwear and this book is great for different ideas and inspiration. Its fantastic for beginners and also for the experienced knitter. You can never know too much.

Whereas 365 Tao is so non-technical as to be a beginners' text, Everyday Tao brings in more of the concepts and terminology that aren't covered in the more religiously oriented books available from Shambhala. The ancient Chinese characters bring even more shades of meaning to the concepts discussed. Works as either a reference or a meditation book.

I usually skip over the entymology and pictographs and go straight to the text. Each page dwells on a concept from the taoist point of view. Very relaxing to trip on a subject that is affecting your life at a particular time. If you flip through the I Ching looking for that random nugget of wisdom and find nothing but vague hints, this book would be very useful for establishing equilibrium and bringing resolution. Of course no book does that, you have to find what page is applicable to you and read it and reflect on it.

It is definitely a layman's text, not a religious historian's, so don't judge it on the wrong terms. If you prefer to read Stephen Mitchell's reworking of the Tao teh ching over Jim Cleary's translation you will like this book.

I am a westerner who applies the kernels of truth that have kept the Chinese civilizations strong for last few thousand years, not a starry-eyed new ager looking for their next guru to throw my cash at, and find it a useful book. Romanticization implies wishing to be in another era other than the present, but on the contrary, this book helps me make sense of the present moment, my present (and future) relationships, and my surroundings in late 20th century San Francisco.

E(n)tymologically correct or no, the information in this book is immediately applicable and simply stated. Really it's a collection of abbreviated essays, reflections, that the author has... given the inspiration he draws upon Chinese characters.

Maybe he's right, maybe he's wrong, maybe he's accurately reporting folk tales... does it really matter if he is the utmost authority on Chines etymology? Not if you are looking to use this book in the manner in which the title implies, Everday Tao, Living with Balance and Harmony. These are offerings for you to have new inner dialogs with yourself.

A previous reviewer recommended looking to this book for answers in a similar fashion one might look to the I Ching. He recommends looking up the character with a meaning most specifically correlated with your problem or question, and reading the corresponding passage for further reflection. I don't see how that could hurt. But i think you'd also be missing a lot if you left it at that.

My recommendation is that you read the passages in no particular order, and then maybe again in some specific order, seeing how the author has organized them in the TOC. Reflect without the desire to solve. Reflect without trying to remember. Let go of your egoistic needs -- you won't need them to enjoy the text.

Lucy Summers' books has nice photographs in her book, great looking cover, spells and tricks for the master witch??....
A real witch knows these are books to please the mass market, the Buffy and Charmed fan teenagers. They are cheap, more photos than text and (all) about love, hate, anger,luck, doing a little ritual and money.
So do you really need a spell? Why don't you write it yourself? It be far more effective, but remember the rule of three. And the above are things that you can't master, love, money and heath will come if someone sees in your heart how true you are.
A witch can practice magic naked in a desert. He or She doesn't need a pre-made spell that has hard-to-find ingredients.
If you like spells, read Larie Cabot or Starhawk. They know a least what they are talking about.

It's a great beginner book, it's in simple english, to the point and takes you step by step thru rituals, as well as explaining magickal tools and seasonal festivals. I'm not a beginner and I still found this book interesting.

This is a good book for begeners, or people who jsut want to knwo a bit more about wicca. Its not ment for an advanced student, but still good.