I'm a weekend quilter - and love working with rich color. This is not only a coffee-table beautiful book but it inspires creative ideas far beyond normal quilting. You don't have to be a quilter to enjoy - the art is wonderful. And if you do quilt, this will inspire you to all sorts of radically new ideas.

Robert Shaw draws upon his impressive expertise to celebrate the traditional bed quilt as a needlecraft art form that is a creative, emotional, example of "form following function". His insightful text traces the transformation of the quilt from bed cover to display piece, the quilter from homemaker to academically trained artist, the workshop from kitchen to studio, and the materials from simple to complex. The Art Quilt is superb survey of an art form grounded in tradition and, at the same time, committed to originality and innovation. The works of such superb contemporary quilters as Michael James, Yvonne Porcella, Julia Pfaff, Nancy Crow, and more than two hundred others, serve to illustrate the quilt as art -- and the art of the quilt. The Art Quilt is enhanced with 300 full-color reproductions and numerous insightful sidebars of important technical processes and leaders int he art quilt field. The Art Quilt is highly recommended reading for needlecraft students, quilters, collectors, and popular culture enthusiasts.

From the moment I set eyes on this book I knew I had to have it. The quilts are totally incredible. The skill of these quiltmakers & the detail they obtain is astonishing. They are true artists. It is a great value.

The abstract quilts combine color, pattern & shape so beautifully it takes your breath away. Surface techniques such as dyeing, painting, applique & embroidery make these quilts remarkable works of art.

Some of my favorite quilts include a nude pregnant woman & two quilts depicting Noah & his ark. I enjoyed a few scenes with vases & another made as a memorial to the artist's parents. I also fell in love with the many landscape quilts.

The text is fascinating, discussing the history behind quiltmaking & the techniques used to make these beautiful quilts. The captions are great, explaining the methods used to make the quilt as well as the artist inspiration.

Though this text is certainly an excellent attempt at rethinking the problems in which film studies has become trapped, it is also a useful model for new approaches within the wider disciplines of English and cultural studies. Top notch and very readable!!

Wow! The Avant-Garde Finds Andy Hardy is the best book on film that has ever been published. Ray's use of Andy Hardy is a perfect vehicle for understanding film in general. This book's scholarship is deep without being obscure or boring in any way. Ray's clear writing allows even the most novice reader to understand his most profound ideas. Yet, serious cinema afficadadios still have a great deal to learn from this master. Ladies and Gentlemen, Harvard publishes this book for a reason. The Avant-Garde Finds Andy Hardy is film study at its best.

I am a film student from Australia and Ray's book 'A Certain Tendency of the Hollywood Film' was one of the best texts I have read on American cinema. I haven't read this, his more recent book yet but want to deperately. I live in Japan and would like to know its availablity.

"The Best of Pif Magazine Off-Line" offers a refreshing assortment of new stories and new voices. A standout among them is Mimi Carmen's "Love Birds". Ms. Carmen's tale of an aging mother and conflicted daughter resonates with idiosyncratic vision and gritty passion. The bird imagery is breathtaking. I also very much enjoyed "23 Johnson Avenue, 1985" by Diann Blakely. If writers were race horses, and I had money, I'd bet my wad on these two.

A wonderful collection - refreshingly different, but solid. My favorite is "Love Birds" by Mimi Carmen. I'd like to read more of her work.

I am bored with many print magazines nowadays. The same things, the same things. Ho-hum. I've been following this zine for a while now, open it every month with relish. They've definitely picked a lot of their best, and Camille Renshaw's intro says a lot about WHY I don't like other magazines. Here is something worth a read, something that will make you want to get everything the magazine has put out since the beginning. There's even a rationale for professional wrestling, something that wants me to buy a tape of the event with the Undertaker/Mankind Hell in the Cell match, and I NEVER watch that stuff! You should definitely have this on your shelf--impress your friends with how in the know you are.

We have clear conceptions of important abstractions that we have heard named, but not defined, since we were children. We live with misconceptions born while we wait to understand when we are able. Unfortunately, these images take on a life of their own, and crowd out any possibility of there ever being any real understanding.

Grace is one of those concepts. We hear the word repeated in sermon and song, we use it ourselves in characature. The image of what we think Grace is limits our access to its reality in our lives.

Enter this annoying book. Capon twists and tweaks and disturbs our sense of what is right and wrong. OUR sense.
Only when the shocking first section is trumped by the final section do we realize what is happening to us. Even though he warns us repeatedly along the way, and taunts us into dialogue.

I admit the central section merely annoyed me without enlightening me ... yet. Maybe I will get it later. Sacred adultary, a mafia hit, and a coffee hour give-and-take seem unlikely parables to expain Grace. It works. With style and grace. Anyone who has tried to live a life of faith honestly in the midst of the contradictions of life will feel this book resonate within their soul.

No wonder it is subtitled "Romance, Law, and the OUTRAGE of Grace."

Capon continues to tantalise, entice and stimulate with this revised edition of Between Noon and Three. Capon captures the incredibly lavish Grace of God through a combination of wit, exegesis, and a carefully crafted story. This book is a real shock to the "grace-fearing spoilsport in every one of us". Capon confronts the menacing ugliness of legalism and drags it screaming into the light of the lavish Grace and Love of God. Capon expounds the Grace of God in such a way that one can't help salivating at the beauty of God made complete in his glorious Son. Throughout the novel one is continuously shouting AMEN (I Love you) to the Father who so loves his children that he does not give grace so that they will feel "much obliged" but rather extends totally free, unconditional, absolutely radical, all encompassing Grace. This is the grace for Dead people, and as Capon eloquently describes: all that is required of a dead body is to stink. I Love my God who makes the little, least, lost, last, losers and the DEAD - ALIVE! FREE and all this is GRATIS!

This was my first Capon book and it made me fall in love with his writing and the way he uses stories and dialogue to expound the meaning of grace.

I think almost all of his books are on grace and that's because he has been captivated by the grace of God.

This novel, like most of his other books, may not be that simple a read but once you get what he's getting at, then you start to stand in awe of the amazingness of God's grace.

Capon is pretty lutheran in his view on law and gospel and it shows clearly in his books.

This particular novel is interesting in the way he tries to convey God's grace to us. It's about two people who are married but carries on with an affair together. This story is meant to outrage us, but Capon uses this storyline to show us that God's grace is like that. Despite the sins we do, He still loves us and accepts us in Christ.

Has Capon gone a bit far in illustrating grace to us? Well, i don't know. All i can say is that he's at least half right! A good book to read and ponder about God's grace

This book ranks as one of the greatest achievements in ornithology ever. It puts in perspective some of the most perplexing and difficult groups of birds with sublime artistry, comprehensive text along with distributional data and beautiful maps. It is a pleasure to have it as a reference even if like the average mortal I may never get a chance to see but a small fraction of the birds covered. Use it as a reference to both plan and make notes before your trip. The vastness of the continent and the diversity of the birdlife of South America is now opened up for all to see; this is the book to launch a thousand expeditions into the bird continent and to make new discoveries.

This book is definitely one of the best books about birds I've ever seen. Personal experience, combined with the experience of others, plus a tremendous knowledge of the species, make this book even surpassing the first volume.
Mr. Tudor must have spent at least two lifetimes as well in collections as in the field to present us with these drawings which show both the necessary details and the natural position of the bird. To perform this, you should not only be an excellent painter, but have thorough knowledge of the birds as well.
It's such a pity that apparently they're not succeeding in finishing the series, given the fact that it is eight years since this volume has appeared and the site of the editor states "No release date has been set for the remaining volumes". guess they're too busy observing the birds ;-)

This book, and its companion volume are the first part of a promised 4 volume work on South American avifauna. These books are wonderfully detailed, beautifully illustrated, and worth every penny of the purchase price. I am a bird book fanatic and have enjoyed these books as much as any of the other books in my collection. One of the other reviewers mentioned these as field guides. In my opinion, they are definitely not field guides- way to massive. I imagine myself lugging these two babies through a lost corner of some rainforest in Brazil. They are heavy when dry but once they became soaked, they would probably kill you. These are wonderful books but not field guides. They are reference works written and illustrated by some of the most respected experts in the business.

I've been reading Robert Rankin for three years, and I have to say, all the books in the Brentford triangle series are classics! The sheer silliness of his stories just have you in stiches for hours, The Antipoope is a favorite for one reason only. It's a first! It starts everything off, Neville the part-time bar man, the professor, the tramp... This book starts it all and I assure you, you'll never put the book down!

This is one of my favorite books. It's the first of the Brentford series. I find the whole series to be comfortable, likable and highly amusing. It helps to have a taste for the surreal. I found the characters to be very likable. They have the carefree attitudes of the characters from Steinbeck's Tortilla Flat or Cannery Row, but they are intelligent and educated. They are not the type one would expect to be called upon to save the world. Essentially Brentford is the world. Should any character temporarily wander out of Brentford, Brentford would still be the reference point. The pub is the core essence of this world. Nothing is really serious unless if effects the pub. To this little world comes every silly notion that ever landed on the front page of the most bizarre tabloids. The Antipope is the place to start. It's one of the best, and will introduce you to the Brentford perspective. I found after reading a few pages, I wanted to take a break and wait for the smile on my face to ease up a little before I dared to proceed.

If you are unacquainted with Rankin's bizarre books, this may well be a good start. It's not his best book, but it's his first. Part of the fun reading Rankin is in the repetitions: Rankin quotes himself constantly, so you won't miss any of that when you start off from here.

"The Antipope" is the first novel in the Brentford series, in which an ordinary London suburb is the scene of grotesque battles between Good and Evil. It's up to Jim Pooley and John Omally, two bums with an insatiable appetite for beer, to save the world, with the help of a mysterious professor and some other highly improbable characters. In this book, the adversary is an evil tramp posessed with formidable powers, who is about to take control of the world as the Pope of some dark new Church.

Two things distinguish Robert Rankin from other comic SF/Fantasy writers like Douglas Adams and Terry Pratchett: his profound knowledge of the occult, and the sheer outlandishness and pomp of his stories. Rankin calls himself a tall-tale teller and his books far-fetched fiction. Some scenes in this particular book, like the disastrous cowboy night, and the vain attempts to open a mysterious parcel, just project themselves before your eyes, as if you were watching a movie. And make you laugh aloud.

Generally, I agree with the high ratings that other reviewers have given to this book. After I obtained my bachelor's degree in philosophy, I took the end-of-the-book test. My thinking style at that time was primarily an idealist. But after I earned my master's degree in American Studies and took the test again, I was primarily an analyst. Both these test results made sense to me given that my two degrees were separated by six years. This is one of the "hidden" values of the book: that one's "Styles of Thinking" (the original hardcover and, in my opinion, the better title for the book) may change over a period of years.

However, I do not agree that the social scientific basis for the book and the test is well-grounded. The authors give a quite vague description for the validity of their five styles of thinking. And the only basis for the validity of the test is that they have given it to thousands of people. Purportedly, because they intended to write a follow-up book, and they wanted to keep their testing criteria secret at least until the sequel. To the best of my knowledge, neither author has written a second book on the same subject. And keeping the criteria for a test secret is simply poor social science.

Nevertheless, I find the book subjectively useful and still refer to it from time to time. I have also given the test to college students, and most of them identify with the test results. So four stars for usefulness but not five stars because of the lack of documentation.

it's a very useful books and practical. i've started applying and feel pleasure getting to know my thinking style and others as well. you can improve the way you think. useful...

Thinking-- a process we normal people are constantly doing in most of our lifetime. However, have anyone of us thought how do we think? It's an interesting question. Indeed, only very few of us have come across this question. This book have classified most people's styles of thinking into 5 main categories. Nevertheless, the book includes a test to help you identify your preference of thinking. If you do it seriously, you'll eventually find the result very accurate in helping you know more about yourself. Meanwhile you will identify the which classes do the people surrounding you belong to, in order that you will know how to deal with them using the most suitable approach. More importantly, you'll realize your own strengths and liabilities by reading this book. In such a way, you can develop the strengths that you already have and improve your liabilities. Hopefully, life can be a lot better if you can take the suggestions mentioned in the book into practice. Even if you are not preparing to take what this book alleges solemnly, it's still a great fun letting your friends do the test. You'll discover a load of things that you've overlooked! Thinking is a child's play, as well as a Herculean study.

So, you want to buy bandages? How about inventions only DaVinci could come up with? How about all those odds&ends that thieves need to escape? How about simple laborers tools. This is the book for you. This book adds MANY items that the D&D game lacked. A vial that restores hit points can be bought. Various clothing that improves AC that even a wizard & sorceror could wear is also here (Boom's Garden section).

Pick it up.

Usually your stuck trying to make some good equipment but with this book you got it all.

I do believe that this is the greatest thing you can have when playing AD&D. This book has everything you could imagine and USE in AD&D. Everything but the kitchen sink... and thats proabably in here too I just havent found it!

The author does a good job of looking at the issues of social isolation, emotional over-dependence upon wives, addictions to work and substances, and aggression in men as results of how males are raised in our culture. He gives many interesting ideas on how things could be changed for the better. As a therapist, I have used many of these ideas to challenge stereotypes that some men see as defining them, but which are really limiting them.

By itself, however, the reader does not end up with a clear enough idea of what an alternative definition of masculinity would look like. However, if paired with the difficult-to-read and somewhat harsh lessons of Robert Bly's "Iron John", the combination does give you both the abstract and the specific, the historical and the contemporary, of what masculinity could mean in a better world.

I bought this book at the recommendation of a marriage therapist. Wow! I couldn't believe how accurately it described my lifestyle. As someone who is working actively to save my marriage, I found the book very helpful in identifying some of the habits I've developed that were affecting my marriage. It also helped me recognize that I'm not the only one that has fallen into a deep sleep. After reading the first chapter I contacted three of my closest friends and told them to read this book.

Awakening from the Deep Sleep has powerful relevance even eight years after it was published. Deep sleep is an apt metaphor for the condition in which many of us men find ourselves, and Pasick's analysis is right on target. He focuses on our family training to hold back emotionally, the isolating competitiveness of the male role in society, and most importantly (for me), barriers to tapping the riches of a deep emotional life and deep friendships. Pasick writes in a clear and heartfelt style, and he shares many stories, some of them movingly personal. Yet we are also aware of the world of learning and experience behind his Phd. and his practice as a clinical psychologist. But more importantly, we sense his experience--and it's an awakened experience--as a human being. I defy you to read this book without thinking of three or four people you feel you should a send a copy to.

Golf novels usually fall into two categories, either sharp-tongued humor fests featuring wacky characters and wackier situations, or smalzy, mystical quests seeking to provide salvation through golf. Fortunately, The Big Tour is something different - the first gol noir novel, a cocaine fueled lightening jag into the heart of one man's darkness. By never letting his characters take the easy way out, and by forcing them to experience the consequences of their actions, author Upton's writing drags us over a crude eighteen hole course in a foursome with Jim Thompson, David Geddis, and James M. Cain. Don't expect sportsmanship and Rockyesque endings here, but hold on for a wild ride through the rough where you bet with you life and and every club shaft in your bag is a serpent in disguise

Unlike so many books with golf themes, this one doesn't get bogged down in mystical bunk about finding the golfer within or caddies with supernatural powers. It's a gripping (sorry, no golf pun intended), straight-ahead story about a kid from Long Island who makes it to the big time, with a lot of serious obstacles thrown in his way. Funny, full of drama, and -- I'll bet -- very close to the way things really operate on Tour. If you need a gift for the "real" golfer on your list, this is the one!

Unlike so many books with golf themes, this one doesn't get bogged down in mystical bunk about finding the golfer within or caddies with supernatural powers. It's a gripping (sorry, no golf pun intended), straight-ahead story about a kid from Long Island who makes it to the big time, with a lot of serious obstacles thrown in his way. Funny, full of drama, and -- I'll bet -- very close to the way things really operate on Tour. If you need a gift for the "real" golfer on your list, this is the one!