I was disappointed in this book. I was hoping to find detailed information on firing techniques other than traditional kiln. It did provide this information; however, no detailed information was provided on how to use/position tin to preserve glazing...this was the essential information I was looking for and thought the book would give detailed instructions on how to do this. The book did give good information on a variety of techniques used by potters all over the world, and it was very interesting...but not the "how to" I was hoping for. There was information on building outdoor kilns...and how to fire, which would be helpful to more experienced potters. Not exactly a book for beginners, like me.

"Sawdust Firing," through interviews with potters, sets forth how those potters do, rather than stepping through how-to's. This is NOT a book for beginners, except to give a taste of the medium. Brilliant photos of potters' works, 'though mostly UK potters and the editor's own, with a spattering from other countries. The vocabulary is distinctly UK-based, with some terms explained in the glossary. For a US reader, "ceramic fibre" may not instantly translate to "fiberglass," and "bin" to "garbage can." Having said all this, the book is worth the money just for the glimpses of Duncan Ross' work.

This is one of my favorite books. It is not for a beginner. I do a lot of sawdust firing and find this book so inspiring and helpful. If you have some instruction on this firing technique and have an understanding of different clay bodies, this book will enable you to continue to experimenting and improving your results.

Many of these glazes are from other sources , same for clay bodies , but have been altered slightly to be presented anew. No real emphasis on glaze toxicity . Fritting Barium and Lead does not guarantee safety in the finished glazes . It's a case of user be aware . No guidelines for glaze usuage on functional wares or decorative . Is the glaze able stand table use - who knows ? Another in the long line of Artistic Glaze books , Ho Humm.

I was disappointed by this book due to the lack of illustrations even if only of test tiles. If the author has tested these formulae I cannot understand why these illustrations were not included, but without them the reader is left having to conduct his own test to determine the effects achievable. If the author has not tested, then the book is little better than the lists of glazes available free on the internet. Either way the reader is left with a lot of work to do.

...merely a tool, which definitley involves work on behalf of the reader. There are no pictures or test tiles to rely on; you have to try them yourself... a refreshing change from the results usually included in glaze books because you have to experiment and come up with your own results. I used the 1970's edition of this book as an undergraduate, which included the original recipes - not revised to exclude toxins - and while the revised edition is informative, it lacks the conversions for the "toxic" ingredients which many of us still use for the stunning results they provide. As a result some of the best recipes have been excluded from the new edition, and unfortunatley, the replacements and substitutions produce nowhere near the results gained from earlier editions. Still a good tool for the potter who enjoys glaze experimentation, but if you can score a copy of an unrevised edition(there are two- and they are out of print), you are sure to be pleased!

This book fails to deliver on the goods it promisses. On the back of the book box, it proclaims EXAUSTIVE coverage of everything including database integration, Add-ins, SQL server, ect... . This couldn't be further from the truth, in fact the text doenst go in depth with any of these topics. With over 2,000 pages to read you'd think they would cover some ground wouldn't you? I bought the set on discount and it wasn't even worth that much. A wide variety of topics were only BRIEFLY addressed, do yourself a favor, look for VB books published by WROX, at least they care about what your reading. In the meantime, i have wasted my time and space on my bookshelf because of this text.

Its little bit Advance lavel book, but it contain huge refernce. They try to re-presnt like VB dictionary. Its not bad.

A great book for referencing!! I've reviewed over 20 VB reference guides and I still come back this one every time... even when coding in VB6. I strongly recommend it to anyone who simply needs answers immediately!

It's been a week since I've read this, and the best in the book was the first story. Light-hearted and fun, it's about a woman who is at a point in her life - no job, no money, no boyfriend, and starting a diet - and she gets a letter from her romance novelist friend. In the letter, her friend invites her to visit and includes a map, warning her that there are places that you can accidently step back into to time. Thinking the warnings a joke, the heroine ignores this advice and ends up going back in time. Usually, I don't like time-travel romance, because they are not always written well, but this one was written with a great sense of humor.

The rest of the book was also diverting, and after the sample chapter at the back for Ms. Campbell's new book, I am excited to put "My Warrior" on my going to read list.

The reason I don't give this book 5-stars is not every story in this book is good. (Normally, Romance novel is not my thing. So it has to be a really really good story to keep me continue reading).. The first one (The traveller), is my most favorite. If you're Lynn Kurland's fan and love to read about de Piaget family or time-travelling, this is the one you don't want to miss. (I know this author through this novel and I really love her style of writing...really entertaining).. The second story (The minstrel) is fine. Not perfect but ..still fine. There's some time that I felt bored at its predictable story line but it's entertaining enough to keep going. The third story (The Bachelor knight)..this is the worst story in all 4. Well, it's not too bad...it's just not interesting and just cannot keep your attention until the very end..so a bit ruining your mood from the first two. The fourth one (The Seige) is better. The plot is interesting, in my opinion, and can entertain you on your boring day. It leaves the this-is-not-so-bad feeling when you finish the book.. Still.. although not a really good one, it's suitable for your bed time reading

I bought A Knight's Vow because I am fascinated with Historican Romances. However, I was VERY disappointed with the first story. I could not believe the time travel, nor the romance between the two characters. I found very little depth to the characters and very little effort put into the plot line. I was tempted to set the book down at that moment.

However, prompted by my inability to leave a book unfinished, I continued. To my surprise, I found the following three stories to completely make up for the slow started. I especially became fascinated with the second story, The Minstrel. Patricia Potter is still one of my greatest recommendations for Historical Romance novelists. I recommend this novel to anyone who wishes to enjoy short, interesting, intriguing and ROMANTIC trips to Medieval times. But, I do recommend skipping the first one, it's only a disappointment.

I find it truly amazing that this book received so many positive reviews. The art is very good but by no means excellent. It comes across as a cartoonish and cliched portrayal of the Mexican landscape. The story is a dreary, condescending, and trite approach to its Mexican subject matter. A rip-off of the Classic poem "The House that Jack Built", its easy substitution of Mexican tools and terms, and repetitive, stilted phrases hardly render it a visionary poetic masterpiece. The verse becomes so bogged down in excess rhyming verbs, and empty descriptive words like 'beautiful' that the reading experience is like slogging through cow manure. That's before the reader attempts the smaller print on the right, which is as exciting an an encyclopedia excerpt, and a complete turn-off to children already impatient. As a pre-school teacher and mother of two young children, I found it was a grinding read that truly sapped my energy and put the kids to sleep..well before their bedtime.

The pictures are very nice. But as other reviewers have said, the structure and layout is fatally flawed and the writing style more appealing to adults who grew up knowing "The House that Jack Built". I'm finding it's not a popular seller. As a bookstore owner, I'm also finding that the publishing industry is more and more out of touch with consumer demand. That even goes for many of these smaller companies. Lee & Low, I admire your multicultural aim, but shake up your editorial dept. please! Many of your books are too similar, the writing trite and stilted. Do more humor, go deeper, be more original in style and content!

The art is not as stunning as in some other recent titles, but certain design elements are unique and make for an interesting composition. I encountered resistance when reading this story to my kindergarten class. They lost interest when I reached the historical information on the right side of the book. It was an interesting idea to incorporate the true facts of Juan's life, but I think the structure and layout of the story suffers from this dense presentation of facts. As for the poetry, I would have been more impressed by an original voice and rhythm uniquely suited to its Mexican subject and setting, and not borrowed from a Classic nursery rhyme.

This is a very cute idea, but the light does not last very long at all. The battery wore out in a matter of days, even though I only had it on for no more than 30 minutes at a time.
Get it for the journal, not the light.

This journal is of course a book of lined pages ready for an eager writer to fill. Nice harry POtter cover and small header art make it a harry potter collectible. The light is a cute addition and a clever idea, but the battery cover is a poor fit and frustrating (and it's going to break easily, or pop off and be lost and then the light won't work because the lid is part of the circuitry).

Amazing is what this book is filled with fun, and a joyous reunion to all oof the many Harry Potter freaks, and fans like my self and many, many others!!!! A wonderful expeirence

This book is a pretty package of a few facts about the author, some of which are incorrect. The final injustice for me was when they mis-spelled one of my favorite authors, Elizabeth Goudge (spelled in their book Groudge). [...].

There are better books out there.

Yes, it is hard to believe that fans of Harry Potter do not know pretty much everything that is in this About the Author biography of J. K. Rowling. The most interesting thing in this book is that it provides a map so you can find Nicholsons Cafe in Edinburgh where Rowling wrote parts of the first Harry Potter book. All of the color photographs are contemporary and most of them are about her books and the places she has lived rather than of Rowling herself. The production values on this book are geared towards sensory overload: there is not just a photograph on a page, but rather it is a photograph with wavy boarders on top of very bush "wallpaper" with Rowling's signature in gold ink.

The bottom line is pretty simple. If your children have read some of the Harry Potter books and know nothing about their author, then this book will give them the basic story on her astounding literary career. But if they have devouring every tidbit about Rowling in the press while waiting for Book Five to come out, then they will probably find nothing new here. How will you know? Simple: Ask them what the J. K. stands for and if they do not know, then let them read this book.

"Meet J.K. Rowling," by S. Ward, is a brief biography of the author behind the phenomenal Harry Potter series of children's books. With simple text and plenty of illustrations, this book is geared towards younger readers.

The book includes the basic information about Rowling's life and literary career: her childhood, education, literary influences, etc. Ward also briefly discusses Rowling's marriage and divorce, as well as the "birth" of Harry. The book is illustrated with photos of Rowling and of the places in her life. There are also photos of cover art from the Potter books. A number of quotes from the Potter books appear as sidebars. Along the way is some interesting information, such as the fact that, at the time this biography was written, the Harry Potter books had been translated into 28 languages.

The book presents the basic information about Rowling, but I didn't see anything particularly new or insightful. And I imagine that many of Rowling's fans already know most or all of the facts in the book (I did). Also, the internal layout of the book is a bit too cluttered for my taste. Overall, a competent but unexceptional biography for younger readers.

this "book" is the worst book i have ever read. the reason is because the "author" is putting 101 advertizements for harry potter mechandise. i reapeat myself, DO NOT READ THIS BOOK!

The amount and variety of Harry Potter merchandise never ceases to amaze me. Rather than collect much of it, just buy this book. The pictures are detailed and printed on high-quality paper. Want to see what some foreign editions look like? It's in here. Want to find out some basic info about J.K. Rowling? It's in here, too.

Sure it resembles a catalog, but what book of collectibles doesn't? Its biggest flaw is being out of date, thereby leaving out quite of bit of recent merchandise, but it's a good start. The focus is on items based on the books, not the movies, which is okay by me. I'm late to HP fandom, so I get to see what I missed out on.

I also had the advantage of seeing this book in a store, so I knew what I was getting. It would be nice if there were an updated second edition, as this one only scratches the surface of HP collecting.

The book definitely has an entertaining value, but as far as a book for collectors, it isn't up to par. Most of the sections on Harry Potter collectables are not up to date, and they feature very vague values or prices. I think the reason is that Harry Potter merchandise is fairly new, and so it is hard to calculate an item's worth when it just came on to the market.

The book also includes several interesting sections on the upcoming movie, JK Rowling, and England, which are mildly entertaining. The thing that I thought was the most appealing in the book, however, was a section on Harry Potter around the world. I found it very interesting to see the covers of the Harry Potter books in Germany, France, Japan, and many other countries. Out of everything, I would say that that section helps redeem this book, which is otherwise a failure.

I have read "Liberators: Fighting On Two Fronts in World War II" and although I fully agree with its authors' criticism of the scandalous manner in which the African-American GIs were treated during World War II, I violently disagee with their concoction of a hoax according to which two so-called "all-black units" would have liberated Buchenwald and Dachau.

I am particularly familiar with that subject considering that, in addition to the fact that I am a Buchenwald survivor who was there on April 11, 1945... the day of that camp's liberation... I have also been researching the history of the concentration camps since 1969.

First of all, as far as Buchenwald is concerned, it was not liberated by a unit of the U,S. Army but by the 900 members of that camp's underground organization and was subsequently discovered by a four-man patrol of the 6th Armored Division.

The two "all-black units" involved could not possibly have been there considering that, according to the Morning Reports obtained from the Army Reference Branch of the National Personnel Center, the locations of these units were as follows:

(1) 183RD ENGINEER COMBAT BATALION.-

On April 11, 1945, the locations of the sub-units of the above battalion were: (a) Mommenheim (192 miles from Buchenwald)for the Headquarters and Service Company; (b)Hocheim am Main (183 miles from Buchenwald) for Company A; (c) Loerzweiler (192 and 1/2 miles from Buchenwald) for Company B and (d) Boppard (284 miles from Buchenwald) for Company C.

(2) 761ST TANK BATTALION.-

On the day of Buchenwald's self-liberation, the sub-units of the 761st were stationed at: (a) Hildburghausen (70) mles from Buchenwald) for the Headquarters Company, the Service Company and Companies A and D; (b) Oeslau (79 miles from Buchenwald)for Company B and (c) Rottenbach (69 and 1/2 miles from Buchenwald) for Company C.

Now,as far as Dachau is concerned, some of the veterans of the 761st Tank Battalion have made the ludicrous claim that they liberated both Buchenwald and Dachau, however, the latter camp was liberated on April 29, 1945 by the 42nd and 45th Infantry Divisions.

On the day of Dachau's liberation, the sub-units of the 761st Tank Battalion were located at (A) Straubing (78 miles from Dachau) for the Headquarters Company, the Service Company and Company D; (B)Eltheim (83 miles from Dachau) for Companies A and B and (C) Salching (73 miles from Dachau) for Company C.

The liberation of Buchenwald and Dachau by these two battalions is a fabrication of historical fiction and there is no doubt in my mind that it was concocted for the purpose of improving relations between the African-American and Jewish communities... a worthy cause which should not have been served in such an unethical way.

A particularly disgusting aspect of that charade is that the U.S Holocaust Memorial Museum has been supporting and promoting the handful of veterans of those two battalions who have been involved in publicizing that hoax.

Pierre C.T. Verheye Buchenwald Political Prisoner No. 126637 July 4, 2000

This book presents a subject that has long been ignored by the rest of America. The shameful events Black soldiers had to endure have been swept under the rug for to many years. This book lightly touches on the prejudice that took place during the WWII. There is still much that needs to be told. However, the records are basically kept secret. Due to again to the powers that be in DC and the monumental cost of obtaining these records.

My father served in Patton's third Army and I can tell you that many of the conquests now being reported happened, many of the records stored about the campaigns these valiant men fought were lost in a warehouse fire in St Louis,MI. So the records are from the ones who had original documents before the fire and eyewitness accounts. The Book is a fantastic account of what the 761st conquered from the vantage point of the war front and their home front.. It vindicates the unjustices done to the memory of the fallen ones and it places credit where it is due; into the hands of these great men who fought with courage,honor and faith... A must in anyone's library.. Have amazon track this out of print book through their used book purveyors.. I am so glad it's in my bookshelf, I often reach for it reading parts to better understand what man like my father went through...

I had to return this book because it is so poorly done. Many of the example glaze tiles didn't even tell whether they were fired in oxidation or reduction. It was so frustrating to see a glaze I wanted to use, but have no idea how to make it . Poorly organized. Nice color pictures, though.

A GRUPE OF FRIENDS WE DISCUSS THIS BOOK AND WE WERE AGREE: WE DID NOT LIKED. WE HAVE IT IN SPANISH.

The thing I love about this book is the visual examples of the results you should expect from your the glaze formulas & varying oxides. The results I have achieved frequently do not demonstrate the same results. That is not unexpected...but this book does not give any suggestions or recommendations for troubleshooting significant differences in results. It also does not allow for differences in clay bodies...expansion rates, etc. I've found the book to be a good general guide as to the impact of colorant combinations, but not much more in practice.