My Really Cool Baby Book opens up a whole new sight for young ones. They explore many things. They learn good things to do and bad things not to do. Children love it!

Are you sick of all the cutesy-wootsey Beatrix Potter/Precious Moments baby books? After going the "Classic Pooh" and "Peter Rabbit" route with my first 2 kids, I opted for something a little bit cooler for Baby #3. If you are a parent that's more like "Daria" than Martha Stewart, then "My Really Cool Baby Book" is for you. It contains the usual baby book fair (i.e. growth chart, foot and hand prints, place for a lock of baby's hair, baby's vital stats, etc) but adds fun stuff as only Todd Parr can (does baby have dimples? inny or outy belly button?). Plus, this particular book is told from baby's perspective rather than Mom or Dad's. If you've read and loved Parr's other works (such as my favorite "This Is My Hair"), then you should take a look at this unconventional approach to recording Baby's first few years.

This book is Great! you can fill in the blanks,attach stickers and record all the things a your baby does. It's not about Do's and Don'ts as the other review says and very different from his other books which are all Great

The Osbournes have gained fame not just for pioneering the reality TV show (and succeeding in it the way pretty much nobody else has), but for letting the masses in on their family life. It's weird, it's wacky, and when you pare it down it's pretty close to anyone else's family life. And that includes dogs peeing on the furniture, music, thongs, the arrogance of big sisters, getting tattoos, and much more.

"Officially Osbourne" is an episode guide (first season) interspersed with biographies, interviews, and information. Each of the bios includes favorite music, birth date, video games, personal philosophies, what their family members say about them, and then an interview. Each episode has a basic summary (about two or three paragraphs) and a slew of pictures. Also there are best lines ("Bubbles? Oh come on, Sharon! I'm the Prince of #$&*in' Darkness!"), and highlights (a fire in the kitchen -- "the first one in the new house").

There are chapters on other topics too: On Melinda Verga, a lower-key employee, on home decor (black, antiques, and crucifixes), the different rooms in the house, and on the pets (dogs and cats, most memorably Lola). One chapter is devoted to Ozzy and Sharon's parenting methods, and what their kids think of those methods. And most tantalizing of all is the chapter where they talk about what never made it onto your TV screen...

This book captures some of the spirit that infuses the Osbourne TV show. The coverage and interviews with Ozzy, smart wife Sharon and kids Jack and Kelly (Aimee declined to be in the show). Their attitudes are refreshingly honest and open -- in a celebrity subculture where people say prescripted, inoffensive lines, the Osbournes will tell the world what they do and don't like (Kelly hates pop singers, for example).

The pages are likably colorful, not just black text on white paper. The pictures are a slightly more mixed bag -- there are a lot of them on almost every page in the book, of everyone: The house, the furnishings, the dogs... unfortunately, many are too small to look at easily, and some are blurred. Many are quite good, clear and well-lit.

"We're not the #$&*ing Partridge Family" -- Sharon said it best. And "Officially Osbourne" takes some of the best elements from the TV show and commits them to paper. Definitely recommended for people who watch the show.

Officially Osbourne is an excellent guide to the Osbournes. It shares details of the episodes, profiles of the family members, untold stories, interviews, parents' advice from Sharon and Ozzy, and more. The pictures in this book are mostly animated, and while regular photos would have been great, it does add a more fun approach to the book. This is a must have for fans. You'll learn so much more about the Osbournes.

For any Osbourne fan, this is the book to get. It has every detail you ever wanted to know about the show. Great pictures and interviews, as well as info you didn't know!

Although the title suggests futility, let's hope these 17 stories are not Thomas Gray's desert flower.
"Born to blush unseen, And waste its sweetness on the desert air."
The collection of stories showcases Mr. Sherman's ability to tuck a tricky turn of phrase inside a tumultuous story.
Mr. Sherman shows sublime flashes of poetry that could be saddled with conventional stories, but would still be worth the read. The author, though, tries to rise above that and instead of leaving the reader empty and malnourished, like a dinner of chocolate bars and soda, he tries to serve a well-made and fulfilling dinner. Sometimes he fails, but his efforts to strive for something more compelling compensate for some of Pitching's weaker efforts like "Shade for a Butterfly." Shade is a short stream of consciousness that did not connect with me.
But mostly the stories are creative, ranging from bizarre to humorous to horrific.
At some of its darkest points, Mr. Sherman is with the reader giving a sarcastic wink -- a tether to reality and some of the book's subtlest and best humor. Stories about a Sumerian god trapped in today's "hellish world" trying to kill his way back home or an aimless hitchhiker and mysterious truck driver's efforts to foil death are funny and satirically gruesome, but they are not so heavy-handed to be parodies. He treads the fine line with great dexterity.
Among my favorite stories were:
-- "The Conversion...," A poignant and fantastic tale of infidelity... A little sex never hurts, either.
-- "MiddlAmerica," A portrait of fatuous, self-absorbed Americans on a road trip
-- "The Point Hammered Home" An eerily silly story about a hammer with spunk
-- "Metalmorphisis" A look at how mechanical humans can be. A great opening story that sets the tone for the rest of the book. It shows the author's to ability to make both amusing and pithy observations.
Melissa Hindle's cover art and illustrations that mark the start of each story are also splendid. Their quality and subtle hints into the story that follows shows they were much more than an afterthought.
Many of the books characters battle futility with varying degrees of success, but there is optimism tucked in the words.
And I am optimistic that we will be hearing good things about Mr. Sherman in the future.

Pitching Ice Cubes at the Sun is is brilliant, dark, funny, strangely awe-inspiring and certianly thought -provoking. I found myself looking forward each night to the next short story as I took the book along on a vacation. From a hammer that pounds its master to shreds becoming hero to his brethren, to a hilarious story of a demon God suddenly thrust into 20th century New York City, to two tear-jerking very short stories that evidence the depth and inner gentleness of soul that the complex author can feel, the book was overwhelming. I'm not certian if Mr. Sherman planned it this way, but the stories get better as the book progresses. The collection of 17 utterly imaginitive short-stories reveals the mind of an author with vast knowledge of art, religion, literature and the occult. Its the mind of an author I want to see pour his knowledge and pain into future books. When I first dug into the book, I found I had to readjust my focus to move into Sherman's bizarre, certianly-not-linear way of thinking. By the end, I wanted to meet him, and tell him to rewrite the too-humble, silly description of himself on the back cover. He is an author of note, nothing like the poor soul in one of his stories, who frittered his life away wanting to touch souls, but unable. For a freshman effort, this book is remarkable. I expect great things from Todd Sherman. I expect to read them in the future. Also of note is the brilliant cover art.

I've read--and enjoyed--Pitching Ice Cubes at the Sun by Todd Sherman and all I can tell you is BUY IT. I'm not one for short stories, normally, but these? Each story is better than the one before.

Bear with the "weird" stories at the beginning of the book (perfect Sci-Fi turned Reality??!!), the stories are just awesome. Each story has a rude awakening toward life--and death. Each has a clear and different meaning behind it that makes you fully aware of all senses. I've found myself refocusing on my life, taking an entirely different look at it.

The stories are deep yet light-hearted, giving meaning to life and death in general.

Just remember, this book does have it's light side. I've found myself smiling through different stories, giggling at others and laughing out loud yet at other stories. I'm over 50 years old, far from being a child, but I must recommend this book to readers of all ages. EVEN IF you're not into short stories. You'll love it! I did.

Great job, Todd! Can't wait for more from you!!

It's good to see Chaosium getting back to topnotch books again. This one along with Unseen Masters, represents a "new wave" of Call of Cthulhu - as good or better than any of the stuff released in years.

You can't really go wrong with this package, it's got background resource material for the Goatswood area and a nice bundle of scenarios that look like fun to run (I can't wait to spring some of them on my group! HEH HEH HEH) I don't want to give away any spoilers but there's an S&M club, and the "GUARD" at the club is such a wicked idea not to mention the dude who runs the place. Good to see Ramsey the man himself giving the introduction, read his Silent Children book if you really want to get chills!

The artwork is decent, and lots of it. Plenty of handouts too, which are really important as far as I am concerned. One thing I could do without though is the side illustrations, they take up too much room that could maybe be used for information. But that's a small jibe compared to the value.

I'm a longtime Cthulhu keeper but new to Ramsey Campbell (other than the material in the rulebook). The first half of the book is devoted to resource material covering magic, monsters and locations in the fictitious Severn Valley (well the Severn Valley itself isn't fictitious of course). The second half is devoted to a campaign of 7 or 8 scenarios. Everything is well written, well thought out and seems very playable. I'm looking forward to running it!

I've waited a long time for this one, and the wait was worth it! It's chock full of scenarios (forming a campaign which you can ignore if you want), and lots of background material on Ramsey Campbell's Severn Valley. I wish there'd been more maps and maybe more info on some of the locations but all in all, this is a COOL package!

As someone interested in the practice and theory of decision making, I came upon this book via a number of "listmania" lists that reccomend it. The first few chapters got me excited about the subject matter. The authors promised to present a new model for decision making, one that was simple, and one that works.

The ensuing pages compare several theoretical models, such as Multiple Linear Regression and Dawes Rule to their own Take the First and Take the Best models.

Most of the tests were simulated on a computer. You would feed each decision making model into the computer, and then feed in various data for it to make decisions on. One popular test is "Which is the most populated German City." The computer had data on various German Cities with populations over 100,000. It also had several indicators, such as whether it has a soccer team, or a rail system, or is a state capital. The system would present two cities, with the indicators, and the decision making model would figure out which was the most populous one.

Right now I'm in a chapter called "Bayesian Benchmarks for Fast and Frugal Heuristics." It's about halfway through the book, and I'm not sure I'll finish. While the second half sounds interesting, this book is highly academic and the authors are concerned with presenting proofs for everything they say, in detail. Sort of like a victorian novel that starts of by telling you what it's going to tell you, and then tells you several times. I may skim it because I do find the subject matter intereting.

I certainly don't regret buying this book, having mathematical models for decision making is certainly handy (as someone interested in AI), but I wouldn't call it light reading, nor would I reccomend it to a manager interested in the decision making process.

I found much more interesting "Sources of Power" by Gary Klein. Indeed, I consider Sources of Power to be one of the most informative and most entertaining books I've ever read, and wish more like it existed.

In summation, I found this book to be highly academic and theoretical. If you are a human being interested in the decision making process as it is carried out by humans, I reccomend the more hands-on Sources of Power by Gary Klein. If you are interested in simple, statistical models for decision making (the kind you can teach a computer), then pick up this book.

It's really meant for a technical audience since this stuff is so cutting edge, but you shouldn't wait till the results appear in Time magazine. The experiments and writing are very easy to understand, very clear. And you will be amazed by the simple ways in which our brain takes shortcuts in reasoning -- both making it stupid and making it smart. Be careful next time you try to reason using probabilities, you're better off using frequency.

My own background is in philosophy, where this type of work has been very important in undermining the assumption that humans are rational. We aren't. You should probably read Kahnemann and Tversky's books before coming to this though, since this work adds an interesting spin to the old irrationality debate: maybe some of it is GOOD for us!

This book introduced me to an exciting new way of thinking about decision making. "Heuristics" is basically just a fancy word for "rules of thumb" and the book shows convincingly how simple rules of thumb can go a very long way.

The 18 authors from various academic fields believe that decision rules and the environment in which they are used should always be considered together. Moreover it seems plausible that a simple rule which performs as well as a rule that requires more effort to apply, should be the preferred way of explaining the observed behavior.

The authors propose a bunch of simple heuristics for all kinds of problems. One particularly impressive example was the extremely simple "recognition heuristic" which e.g. proved to be quite successful on the stock market. For all heuristics in the book it is shown that they are easy to use, that they require little memory and computational capacity, and that therefore they appear to be very plausible models for explaining human (and animal) behavior.

If you are interested in decision making and/or if you are working in the fields of psychology, economics, artificial intelligence or related fields, this book is a "must-have"!

Todd and Wait provide a competent, comprehensive, and attractive guide to each of the state's 46 counties. They cover the historical sights of each county in a systematic fashion, with knowledgeable commentary on architecture. Their photographs, all in color, are very good. The greatest shortcoming is the county maps, which are passable, but difficult to use without the supplementary aid of a detailed, county road guidebook. The description of natural sights, as opposed to buildings, is a little lacking.

This book is fantastic! I live in Columbia and can tour any county and return home in the same day. This book reveals all kinds of wonderful, historical sites which are not only interesting to me, but also to my children. We even found new places to visit in our own county!

Caroline and Sidney have done a real piece of research in preparing this wonderful book. I know many of the places mentioned and can vouch for their accuracy. They seem to have a real feel for old South Carolina architecture. With this book you can go anywhere in South Carolina and have an interesting day or two by just using it as your guide. What a wonderful gift for a friend that's visiting from out of state.

This book is a wonderful way to introduce someone to the concept, but not the "how-to", of yoga. Because the author writes very honestly of his own physical limitations, it's particularly useful as a means to encourage anyone to try yoga, especially those who are intimiated by all the bendy yogis and yoginis shown in how-to yoga books. But Walton's attitude towards yoga is so wonderfully simple and refreshing, the book also can serve as a great pick-up to those who feel their yoga practice has grown a little stale or become too superficial. Pick up a copy if you can find one!

I loved this book. The drawings of bodies in motion are spontaneous and full of life. The author's ideas about 'creating your own yoga' are inspiring. After reading the book, I am reminded during the day of many possible gentle ways to keep the body in motion. Stretching is so lovely! I think I would enjoy reading this book again and again, because the book has a calming effect upon me. A sense of peacefulness comes across the pages.

This book was so inspiring. I have read many books on yoga, but this one is special. Although I think it is important to try the classical postures, this book eloquently and yet simply captures the way that those postures *should* be attempted, with care and respect for one's individual body, and with the goal of healing all aspects of the self. Both inspiring and wonderfully restful to read, this is a special book indeed. :) For beginners, I would highly recommend this book along with a more classic introductory book, and for more advanced students, I think this book will be refreshing and a joy. Thanks. :)

This was a book written by my friends older brother. It is a sci-fi story with a religious and philosophical topic. I really enjoy stories like these that are entertaining and have learning value. I started reading the book online, and soon I was addicted, I finished it online in a few days, using the "browse this book" option. But I felt bad, so I bought it anyways. The first part of this book really got me excited for what was in store, but I was kinda disappointed that there wasn't more like that. Also Todd's writing style is kinda bizzare, not that that's bad, just hard to read sometimes. I liked his depiction of the future how we pretty much destroy the earth and the huge social class separation. Then the upper class does a horrible thing to fix the overpopulation problem. But I wont give it all away. Todd, you rock!!

Sugar Pill is an insightful and thoughtful look at the topic of religion and the potential of mankind. It is a look at a not-so-unbelievable future, where the world is not a better place, just fuller. Religion is a key factor in the lives of the billions of inhabitants.

The book starts out with an academic feel, but it is written as a story so it quickly pulls the reader in and becomes interesting.

We would all be better off if more people read books like these and took these issues as seriously as Todd Cesere does.
This would be a great book for a religious studies class, but it should not be limited to the field of academia.

I wanted to give the book about a 4.5, but that isn't an option.
Basically this is a really good book. I may not necessarily agree with everything the book has to say about this or that, but if you dislike a book because it doesn't back up everything you believe then you've got a problem. In fact, if that describes you, if you are the kind of person who gets all freaked out every time somebody disagrees with you to any degree, then don't buy this book. Because you won't get it.
But if, on the other hand, you are the kind of person who actually thinks about his or her life and the consequences of your ideals and beliefs, then this book is right up your ally. Take the time to read and understand every word.
So buy it already. I mean, it's only a couple bucks. Alright, fine, I'll loan you the friggin' money, and you can pay me back in monthly installments.

I saw this new book and got it mainly for the cool drink recipes that are in it. We tried several of them at home, but they did not quite taste like the drinks that we get at our local juice store. Maybe it's the ingrediants? Otherwise, the book was interesting.

I love this book! Almost all of the recipes I WILL use! I have tried a few and they came out so well. You won't regret buying this book if you love restraunt drinks. The variety of drinks is so great... shakes, refreshing drinks, cocktails, and making your own liquers. yummy!!

I bought this book based on the fact that I LOVE all of the Top Secret Recipe books published and this one has to be in the top 3. Everything I've tried, my family and I have loved. One of my personal favorites is the [blended coffee drink]. However, the other drinks are just as good.

If you are a Top Secret Recipe fan, this is a must have or even if you are just looking for a new recipe book for beverages, try this one. I know you won't regret it. :)

The data is very detailed and comprehensive indeed.

However, I found that the secular data, AD2000 on Thailand is a bit out of date, especially concerning the Government, the Legislature and the Political divisions (which should be 73 provinces instead of the 7 provinces published)

I also found the number of Christians in Thailand a bit too exagerated, especially the number of crypto-Christians (at 570,000 in mid-2000), Independent Christians (at 735,801) and Protestants (at 303,000).

The number of Catholics (at 255,000) and Anglicans (at 465) in Thailand in mid-2000 are quite accurate.

There should also be more frequent updates.

Almost 20 years ago the initial edition of the WCE was a great advanbce in religious information and statistics. The second edition (now 2 volumes) reflects much of the change in the religious scene in the last 2 decades and that alone is worthwhile. What is interesting is that the projections made 20years ago for the year 2000 have often turned out to be 'spot on' and this adds to the value of the work. I commend this latest effort w/o reservation and look forward to updates more frequently. Religion is one of the things that everyone shares-we all have it. This book should be in every library-esp. religious ones.As a priest who follows and studies and interacts with this world I can recommend it most heartily!

David Barrett and Todd Johnson at the World Evangelization Research Center in Richmond, Virginia have just completed the 2nd edition of the World Christian Encyclopedia. This 2,400 page, 2-volume reference set tells the status of Christianity and of evangelization in great detail for every country, people, language, city, and province in the world -- together with a trove of other information, statistics, and resources for the decision-makers in the world of missions. A companion CD, the World Christian Database, is planned to follow. This particular work, when complete, will help facilitate the analysis now missing from this monumental enterprise, a truly impressive work of religious, especially Christian, demographics. There is really nothing like it in terms of sheer raw data.