Yes, the title DOES suggest that it's about making wooden planes and I suppose it is. ('Krenov-style' planes only, but that's a great start.) In actual fact, this is a book with so much more than just the usual overload of information on a very narrow field. Every page has something of interest to anyone who works wood, or who uses tools for either livelihood or recreation. If you DO want to make wooden planes, then you couldn't do better than to get this book. I believe it's among the best titles available and is probably the best still in print anywhere. The techniques outlined would permit a reasonably careful reader to upgrade any plane, wooden or metal, that came into his or her possession.

Almost incidentally, the reader is taken on a short course in testing, upgrading, creating, fine-tuning and using all manner of tools for cabinet-making and general woodworking. The band-saw, metal block-planes and spokeshaves, the cabinet scraper and all manner of jigs and tool-rests are covered. There is even a small section on making a brass mallet for adjusting planes, if you are so inclined. There are even methods outlined for coping without a 'proper' work-bench.

No elaborate machine-shop or tool arsenal is necessary to utilise this book and no greater skill than that of reading is required to take a pile of great gems from this outstanding book. If you're very experienced, you might have heard most of the tips and advice before, but probably have never had them explained so thoroughly and convincingly, with high-quality photographs accompanying the text on the same page.

There is no preaching and there is nothing 'forbidden' in these pages, but there is a philosophy of good craftsmanship that really under-pins the work and manages to come through clearly. The author's love of fine tools and their interaction with the raw materials is infectious.

This book would suit the professional woodworker as well as the complete novice who has yet to decide whether to take up some form of woodcraft. You WILL gain something from reading this book; you may even lose out, if you ignore the clear and powerful techniques and messages that it offers. It's brilliant. I've never quite been able to say that about a woodworking book before.

This book, while taking you through the steps of making a wood plane, teaches the essence of woodworking with handtools and is a 'must own' book for beginners to experts.

It starts with instruction on how to use and tune both the hand and power tools that will be used in making the wood plane, as well as covering the essentials of wood as it relates to woodworking (i.e. run-out, etc.)

Then it presents an excellent chapter on sharpening, discussing how to sharpen plate irons, chisels and knives.

Next is a long chapter on actually making the plane, although interspersed as always are extremely useful digressions into gluing techniques, truing various tools, etc.

Next, a chapter or two on how to use a plane, both for edging, flattening and polishing. This chapter shows the level of perfection that the author wants from each of his students, as he discusses issues such as how much the thickness of a cut impacts that ability to match the grain when joining. To be honest, this attitude is pervasive throughout the entire book. The author is obviously a craftsman of the highest calibre and of traditional 'old-school' values.

The last chapter is on scraping, a technique I've never understood the advantage of until now: for those working in hardwoods, having made good use of their handplanes, scraping is the best, cleanest (lowest-dust) method of smoothing a board. Why risk sanding a gouge into a beautifully flattened work when the scraper will shave off the last of that rough surface, requiring only a quick pass with a 400 grit piece of sandpaper?

I borrowed this book from the public library to see whether I wanted to buy it. Needless to say, my purchased copy sits close-at-hand in my workshop shelves, already well-thumbed and dog-earred.

If you are already a woodworker and want to make planes, this is a great book. If you are a beginner and want to learn woodworking, this is the best book I've ever seen. Get this book and "Making Joints" by Ian Kirby. I have both on the shelf dead center above my workbench because I refer to them often. I used to think the Kirby book was the standard by which all other WW books should be judged, but "Making Planes" has set a higher mark.

The best things about Mr. Finck's book are it's thoroughness and logical organization. Every time a new tool is introduced, information about using it and tuning it (ever see how to tune a combination square?) is given immediately, thoroughly and clearly, instead of at the end or a few pages later or whatever other cockeyed place was convenient for the editor.

Further, techniques are described for doing the work to a very high standard of precision and beauty, not just "close enough". We all need to urged on to higher acheivement, and it sure helps if the person urging is also showing you how to do it, clearly, symapathetically and in detail. Using a band saw? Shows how to check the tires for trueness. Grinder? how to dress the wheels. Sharpening stone? how to flatten. Make your own marking knife, adjusting mallet. How to plane -- how to stand, where to put your hands, everything but breath control (2d edition -- ?).

I found this book to be a true inspiration for me. I found out about it through one of the Massage magazines and I can honestly say it was one of the best and most important purchaces I made since I graduted from massage school in 1999.

I have used it as a reference while doing volunteer as an LMT on the oncology unit at my local hospital and it was extremely helpful. Staff and students alike were very impressed with it when I showed it to them. The layout of this book is very user friendly and the appendixes and references in the back were excellent.

I personally feel it's a good ideal to get further training related to the oncology in the clincal enviroment as far as massage concerned. Yet this book was also very clear as about the limitaions and contraindications which made me feel at ease. This book is an excellent starting point for thoes wishing to give care to people facing Cancer and is quite thorough in all topic covered. It can help the therapist, student therapist and/or caregiver understand the challenges and rewards of providing the gift of touch at a time when it maybe needed it most.

As a massage therapist, I was trained that massage was generally contraindicated for cancer patients. Gayle does a wonderful job of explaining why massage is appropriate, the chemistry behind metastisis and the issues around massage treatment along the continuum of cancer treatment. It also has a chapter on death and dying that I recommend to many patients. I have made this a required text in the therapeutic massage program as our local community college.

I was privileged to take a weekend seminar from Gayle MacDonald, and I purchased the book at that time. Her amazing compassion and caring are evident in every line of this book. If you have been told that massage is not appropriate for people living with cancer, this book will change your thinking. The book also gives a very good basic description of the process that cells go through to become cancerous, and de-mystifies some of the treatments that patients go through. Medicine Hands is a practical, down to earth book that is well worth reading. It is an excellent book for anyone living with cancer - in one's self or in a loved one.

If you've not read Jane Bowles, stop what you're doing and buy this book now. Everything in it will enrich you. Every sentence is an object of pleasure, every character a shrewdly observed or constructed being. Along with Jean Rhys, Bowles is one of the most important writers of the last century.

While the entire collection is notable, I have to say that "Two Serious Women" seems to me to be the real masterpiece here. I read it ten or so years ago for the first time and liked it but found it rather dark. I re-read it a few years ago and liked it much more than I had the first time, finding it hillarious, albeit darkly. I was happily surprised all over again by the unpredictable behavior of the characters. Unlike many novels, this one is almost immediately engaging, with its portrait of the young Christina Goering's religion-obsessed childhood games. Jane Bowles is often lumped in with her husband; but her writing, though less voluminous, is more unique, more inventive. This is writing well worth repeated reading.

Jane Bowles' prose is strange and beautiful. It's never quite clear why her characters act the way they do, but they leave such haunting impressions that her novel and stories beg to be read a second time. My Sister's Hand in Mine is a great companion piece to Paul Bowles' The Sheltering Sky, which shares the split cold/emotional nature of Jane's work, and also themes of Americans abroad. Jane's novel Two Serious Ladies, which opens this collection, is a stunner. A wonderful writer; I wish she'd written more.

Open Hands, Open Heart was one of the best childrens illustrated books I've read since Dr. Zeuss.

Ms. Diedra Robinson's book about Biddy Mason was inspiring to those young and old. I really enjoyed reading this book and I others will enjoy this book just as much as I did.

I found this to be a delightful book with accurate historical information and a story reflecting Biddy Mason's strong Christian values. It has a warm friendly tone and the story is anchored in the history of early Los Angeles as well as of the United States. All ages could learn of Biddy Mason from this book and find it an enjoyable experience.

An excellent, well-written book with great examples that should work for both beginners and advanced users. No other book on Palm OS development [I think I own just about all of them] overlaps in any serious way with the topics treated so thoroughly in this book.

The chapters on non-blocking sockets are an absolute must-read for anybody who wants to develop robust, responsive, real-world applications for the Palm OS.

Two nit-picky items: 1) the book is somewhat more verbose than it needs to be because of irrelevancies about "the Zen of this..." and the "Tao of that...". If you ignore these altogether too-cute sidebars, you'll have a generally more productive and pleasant read. 2) there are some occasional stylistic problems with the C-code. Not errors, but things like assignments to local variables that would never be referenced that show up. The code is also somewhat more pedestrian than that employed by most working C or C++ coders. For the large audience, this might be a plus. I think the style makes it more accessible to VB and NS-Basic types. But it will be a little off-putting to the hard-core.

This is THE Book to have if you intend to do any type of network programming on the palm. The time you'll save in the first hour will pay for the book.

Not only is it very well written it includes many great examples, covering the simple to the complex. Even if I'm only doing something relatively simple I've found it's always worth it to see how the author's handled the situation in his examples. There's also a lot of information here that's only briefly touched on in the Palm OS Reference or not covered at all.

I'm very careful about purchasing books, usually relying on reference manuals and online docs when I can. However, this is one that I have absolutely no regrets about adding to my library.

Kevin

I found this book to be exactly what I was in search of - something to clearly explain how to use NetLib along with well documented examples! Greg Winton does an excellent job of taking the reader through the development of an FTP application (explaining NetLib and sockets along the way) - each chapter builds on the previous and introduces new concepts in comprehensible portions.

I admit, like most engineers, that I jumped ahead to the end to see the "whole enchilada", but then went back and reread the earlier chapters. This was still a good approach for absorbing all that is presented in this book.

I highly recommend this book to anyone venturing into networking their Palm. It is well written, concise, and contains insights from someone who is clearly experienced in networking.

I loved this book. The soothing voice of Dick Summer immediately puts you in a relaxing state. As you listen to his words you start to feel the comfort of the Quiet Hands soothing you. You know that this is a place that you will have to return to, again and again.

Dick Summer's recordings are undeniably mesmerizing: storytelling at its best. He uses his voice to bring us into his world, and our ears respond by making his world ours. He has the ability - like all great storytellers - to simultaneously conjure an environment out of thin air, and also to make us feel at home there. The enchanting quality of his stories cannot be overemphasized: listeners are engaged with a voice that somehow soothes and overwhelms us at once. His tone is warm and sincere, and he responds to the demands that modern life makes on our capacities to feel and to desire. If you appreciate respite from the dutiful administrations and obligations of everyday living, Dick Summer is a master storyteller ready to tap into the importance of love and memory in our inner life.

You are instantly transfered into a mystical world of romance and passion. You have arrived at a place in your mind, that has never been visited. Within this space, there is only you and your lover, there to feel contentment and the roar of the fire within. You know that this is a place that you will have to return to many times................

The affecting cover painting drew me to buy this book, and it changed my life--I'm not exaggerating. I ended up requiring it for my college "Psychology of Loss" class and recommending it to my "People & Animals" class. Samantha Mooney grasps the preciousness and depth of each cat's life as she recalls the feline personalities she met on the animal cancer ward where she worked. Better than any professional manual I've read, Mooney's deceptively slim volume presents the issue of an animal's "quality of life," and its place at the core of deciding whether and when to euthanize a beloved, sick companion animal. Blending genuine emotion with her professional commitment to care and assistance, Mooney captures the fragility of these brief lives--like snowflakes melting in the warmth of the human hand that would save their beauty and uniqueness--these brief lives that share and change our own. I came to love every cat remembered in these pages as I read and reread them, particularly Fledermaus, Mooney's tiny, mysterious friend, who has affected Mooney most of all. I passionately recommend this gem of a book to any reader interested not only in cats and any of the animals with whom we share the world, but also anyone who must deal with questions about the meaning and quality of life, the possibilities and limits of medical care, and the ways we risk love--and face grief in the wake of loss. I treasure my dog-eared (!) copy of "A Snowflake in My Hand," and though I wish I knew Samantha Mooney personally, still I feel I have gotten to know her as well as the cats in her life, and to feel they are friends. As long as we keep our loved ones in memory, we do not lose them.

The author worked for 10 years on the eighth floor of New York's famous Animal Medical Center - the eighth floor housing the cancer clinic.

All animal people will be deeply moved and inspired by Ms. Mooney's story of cats approaching a prolonged painful death. The little cats she came to know so well through their illnesses, will bring smiles amidst tears with the felines' courage, patience and spiritedness as they face each day living with a terminal illness. This small slim book is filled with warmth and sensitivity of inspiring lessons in human love, joy, loss, and triumph over grief.

I have not read the book only listened to the tape (the book is on back order). I and my wife have a deep and long time love for our 6 (yes six) cats and these tapes only served to not only deepen those feelings but to better understand how our lives are so much better because of them. I also work with students in the field of patient care (people patients)and will use this set of tapes to help them better understand those patients that they will be working with once out of school. If we are able to give unconditional love for others the way cats give there love.... oh what a wonderful world it would be.

This book is thoroughly researched and footnoted and very well written. It culminates in a balanced account of the development of the International War Crimes Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia and exposes the role of Western nations in supporting- and in some cases, obstructing the tribunal's work. Bass' thesis is that Western nations value human rights and the rule of law,- but not more than the lives of their own soldiers - thus accounting for the sporadic Western support for War Crimes tribunals. This is provocative book which has many insights into the complexities of international organizations, human rights, and diplomacy.

The man has courage to deal with these issues read the book

Gary Jonathan Bass's book is a riveting, thoughtful read into what has been a long-neglected chapter of history. Piecing it all together wasn't easy. Mr. Bass takes sound scholarship, adds good reporting, and weaves a tale that I, frankly, could not put down. Read it. You won't regret it.

Mike's book is very thorough--perfect for novices with little prior knowledge. Good for more accomplished anglers, too. I've fished Newport bay a lot and found numerous tips and pieces of advice to help me be even more productive there. Even after several readings, I continued to find new bits of important info about targeting bay bass. There are still a few questions I have but I'm sure I'll get those answered in person at Fred Hall or if I book a trip with him. I did find a few sections a little long on subjects that I feel didn't need that much attention. Overall, a very comprehesive, easy read.

I once met Mike at a local fishing show, and believe me, he's not lying when he says he can catch 200-300 fish in one day with the technique listed in this book.

IF YOU SEE THE FISH BUT THEY JUST WON'T BITE MAYBE YOU NEED TO READ THIS BOOK. EXCELLENT HOW TO BOOK.

This is a delicious collection of erotica which presents well written and clever pieces. While the works may be primarily intended for a female audience, I think that many men will find it instructive of the female mind. The wide variety of erotic subjects explored will surprise even the most experienced lovers; however, if you don't have an open mind, you may be turned off by some of the selections.

Of all of the women's erotica I have experienced, I enjoy this collection the most. The stories are compelling and well written, steamy and vivid.

My wife purchased this book, and after reading it through, I found it quite stimulating. Some great vignettes are presented, and they are written intelligently. If you like erotica by women, I also recommend Mary Ann Mohanraj...