I am currently living in Belgium and have gone through several guide books to help find the spots to visit. Many other books focus on hotels or restaurants, but the Rough Guide focuses on where to go and what to see when you get there. It has useful information on how to get there by car, train and even bike. I take this book with me on my travels around Belgium and am enjoying learning more about this wonderful country.

Having spent an academic year studying and travelling in Belgium, I went through a great many different guidebooks to enhance my Belgian experience. The guidebook experience was a mixed one - some multi-area guidebooks devoted but a few pages to Belgium (Rick Steves' France, Belgium, and Luxembourg - very spotty on the Belgian information), others were more focused on the culture and history of Belgium than the intricacies of getting to a specific place (the Insight Guide to Belgium).

So, having gone through the gamut of books on Belgium, I can wholeheartedly say that this is the best one out on the market at the current time. The coverage given to tourist sites and getting around this small-but-wonderful country is outstanding...it helped me find some great, off-the-beaten-track destinations that other guidebooks might pass over. The coverage given to Luxembourg within these pages is also very well-done (not to mention helpful) -- something sorely lacking in other guidebooks.

The Insight Guide to Belgium is also recommended, but more as a cultural and historical primer. For the practicalities of everyday Belgian life, this is the only book you'll need (and its physical size is great - the least cumbersome and yet most informative guide I've ever carried around on my travels). So...what are you waiting for? Go to Belgium and take this book with you!

Hello, I am the author of this book and wanted to take this opportunity to explain the benefits of bar or strippy quilts for the beginning to advanced quilter. Each row uses simple blocks that will increase your piecing skill but won't bore you by stitching dozens of the same block. Each row is like a mini quilt and each row urges you on to the next row. If you stitch one row per evening by the end of the week you have a quilt top! For the advanced quilter these quilts are easily put together from your fabric stash and the "instant" gratification is fabulous! Use any theme fabric and try the fusible interfacing method to personalize the quilt top for that special someone. I have also included a block index for designing your own row quilt. There is lots of information and suggestions to inspire you in this book and I hope you will enjoy creating fun, one-of-a-kind bar quilts. PS: I would have liked to not rate my book and let you decide but I had to so modesty aside I do think it is a fabulous book!

The quilting projects in Row by Row are wonderful just as they are, but more than that, they can be expanded upon or adapted to whatever your tastes and interests are. You will find some great ideas for using up those "theme" fabrics and fat quarters in your stash. There's also an easy process for personalizing your quilts-whatever your message is, you can say it with fabric! I can also see where these projects would be great for guilds and quilting groups. I can't wait to get started!

Several weeks after my mother passed away, my husband was off fishing and I was attempting to come to terms with becoming the matriarch of my family...a difficult task! I wandered into a small bookstore in Weaverville, CA and this book jumped out at me. It brought me a sense of the peace and a meaningful goal, achieving "sagehood" or is it "sagedom." I read a selection or two each night. I am still a long way from reaching my goal, but the challenge makes me feel alive. I recommend it to all "of a certain age."

read no further!! Warning!! danger ahead. If you have come this far and still want a Christmas present for that old person you know, you better know what you are doing. Don't waste your money unless this person is open, friendly, lively, alert, happy, honest, intouch with themselfs and is full of joyfull life. If they fit all the above and more, then search their bookshelfs and their bedside table because they probably already have this. This is a wonderful book! Reading the first page I found this great quote "The great task of the sage is learning to see in the darkness and not be afraid" and this " Enjoy the monents given you. Love the people around you. Live the life offered you." Need I say more. Now, If your like me, old and full of life, I keep my copy close to my reading glasses.

This is a delightful story for reading aloud or for a beginning reader. My daughter has read it countless times, and loves the fact that it is such a small book that she can put it in her pocket and take it wherever she goes. She delights in examining the pictures for every little detail. We love Martin Waddell and enjoy all his books.

This book is a true masterpiece,delightful in every respect as are all of Virginia Austins childrens books.Not only are the illustrations exceptional but the story is complete and the lessons are easily understood and digested by young minds.

i had the experience of being flooded with light and clarity when i first opened and browsed this book. my enthusiasm is in part because of kemp's extraordinary scholarship and detailed command of paintings and art publications across the entire span of western art. but it's also because the story of artistic imaging over the past six centuries is woven around the european romance with linear perspective, which has become so discredited and disliked by artists that it qualifies as a repressed memory. (like any buried memory, perspective surfaces in the dreamlike digital animations of intergalactic science fiction and first person computer games, which take perspective effects to the ultimate level of technical accuracy and artistic triviality.) kemp unearths those repressed perspective memories and shows how vital they were to the development of art and the connections between art and the wider culture of the times.

it is jaw droppingly fun to see how intensive, sophisticated and singleminded was the artistic interest in optical and perceptual issues of seeing. everyone will find special surprises here, but mine include kemp's spatial analysis of velazquez's "las meninas," and the extraordinary drawings and engravings produced c.1800, which force us to realize that we are already looking at "photo graphs," light drawings created by hand, at a time when film photography was not yet practical. there is a large section on various optical devices utilized in visual arts, including the camera obscura and camera lucida, and an excellent section on the evolving understanding and use of color, from the renaissance to seurat.

poignant for me was the victorian fascination with light as a spiritual quality, which comes through in turner's paintings and ruskin's amazing perspectival studies of "clouds" -- images that verge on op art. the intelligence and strength of these images reveal a road left untraveled in art, which turned toward the perceptually driven styles of impressionism and fauvism instead. as a bonus to the many interesting visual exhibits, the writing is lucid, sensible and alert. an invaluable publication.

It's amazing what happens when a scientist studies art history. This is a historical perspective on color theory, camera obscura and perspective. It relates the work of indvidual artists to the advances in science.

The refreshing thing is that Kemp realizes that artists who used perspective were not slaves of science, and an artist such as Turner actually realized that the main item of interest in a scene perceptually appears larger than mathematics would dictate.

My favorite story is how it was considered obvious that there were 5 primary colors because Christ had 5 stigmata, but when Newton proved there were 3 primaries, that was obvious because of the Trinity.

This book is certainly not an easy, but the knowledge gained should forever change the way you look at art.

I love scrap quilts and this is my favorite book about them. In fact my copy is very well read and I love to look at the color photos.

Judy Martin covers a wide variety of patterns (traditional to contemporary) and color schemes. There are quilts with just two colors as well as some that use every color on the color wheel. Some quilts are shown in different combinations or sizes.

There is an introduction to scrap quilts and sections about fabric collecting and storing, color choices and the appropriate use of scraps as well as some hints on sewing and cutting efficently. The instructions are well illustrated and easy to view. At the end there is a section of more block patterns that could be made with scraps including some ideas on how to place scraps with each block and the necessary templates for these blocks.

Judy Martin's "Scrap Quilts" is a great book with superb pictures and extremely well-written directions for a number of beautiful quilts. The quilts include some traditional ones as well as new and innovative ones.

This is a fascinating treatment in the thriller genre of a frighteningly credible possibility. The novel races along with no letup in tension. Apart from being good entertainment - it would make a great film introducing new twists to the action adventure film - the story shows an originality of thought and idea that make it more than a run of the mill thriller.The author shows imaginative flair coupled with an ability to draw the reader into the dilemmas that confront the characters. There are no easy solutions in this thriller.

A Great Read. The pages just flew by - a must for anybody looking for a book with an original theme, great characters and a very thought provoking topic.

I came across this book in the 'magic' section of a Tower Books store... (I mention this misplacement to let you know this book is hard to find even when it's in print.) The author devotes the first two or three slim chapters (all the chapters of this book are short but effectively enlightening) to Shakespeare's 'secret' (the structure of his plays as well as practical aspects of his religious art - call it 'alchemy,' but don't let that word turn you away, it's not a book on alchemy in the usual sense that word is used...) Then he devotes the next twelve chapters to twelve of Shakespeare's greatest plays (as well as the most mysterious plays) giving the reader very impressive, revelatory insights as to what these plays are about and what some of the various characters symbolize (for instance how some of the beautiful and charming female characters in the late 'romances' - Cymbeline, Winter's Tale... - represent the Heavenly Realm, etc...) and the general 'undercurrent' of themes that are meant to carry a viewer or reader through a universal drama of darkness to light... Suffice it to say this is not usual academic fare, but it is original and impressive and enlightening and it has the added grace of being concise...

Academics will wince. Many will throw the book down in anger. A few may even write angry letters to the publisher demanding that the book be recalled. After all the work they've done convincing the public that Shakespeare was a Marxist, feminist, proto-Nazi, homosexual, anti- smoker, imperialist here appears (or reappears) a little book suggesting that Shakespeare was just simply an inspired artist creating inspired art suggesting that there's something higher than the fully-accredited human being. This book is a to-the-point revelation of Shakespeare's Work's; justifiably forgettable when you go back to the plays themselves (as all books on Shakespeare should be forgotten when you go back to the plays themselves) but a revelation none-the-less. By itself it's worth all the books on Shakespeare in the New York Public Library; and it's a good aquisition for those interested in the esoteric side of life (what's NOT contained in Horatio's philosophy...).

Although the intention of this book is to argue a particular theory of the location of the Crucifixion of Christ, it contains much, much more. This is an essential book for a person wondering about who Jesus was, whether he could really have been the Messiah of the Jews, and whether any other "higher authority" such as the Diety Himself may not have left a witness to Jesus's authority and significance in the historical records of the Jews in the generation after Jesus. Buy this book, read it carefully, and use a highlighter pen to mark key texts for swift recovery later. In terms of content unavailable elsewhere (or at least hard-to-find) this book is worth about four times its price.

"Secrets of Golgotha" is an facsinating book that sheds light on the exact location where Jesus was crucified and buried. Dr. Martin goes into exhaustive detail about why neither the Church of the Holy Sepluchre or Gordon's Calvary and the Garden Tomb could possibly have been the scenes of the most significant events in human history. Using scriptural evidence (which has been under the noses of theologians for centuries but ignored), archeological findings and historical documentation about Roman and Jewish execution practices, Dr. Martin convincingly pinpoints the locations of the death and resurrection of Christ as having occured at the Southern summit of the Mount of Olives, not the two different areas that Catholics and Protestants have separately believed and disputed. This book is not an iconoclastic work that tries to refute Christ's divinity or his resurrection like so many other recent books have. Dr. Martin is a believer and his eye-opening work of scholarship puts bibical events in their proper historic perspective while stripping away many of the heritical traditions that have been handed down through the centuries.

This book is a gem. Brenner and Martin make a valuable contribution to the growing literature of freedom from the archaic past and its limitations. They present a process to help us examine the roots of our thinking, feeling, and automatic behaviors which can bind and paralyze us. The Family Triangles process they recommend is a simple, but not simplistic tool to navigate the confusing inward journey of understanding what motivates our experiences.

The process uses the metaphor of triangles: mommy, daddy, and me. For both parents, we are asked to identify the gifts and hurts we inherited. Then we examine the coping style we developed to deal with our hurts. Once these are recognized, we are shown how our coping styles, turned inward, are actually the exact solution to the discord we experience in our lives. Another useful insight is that the hurts we experience are in actuality blessings, for each hurt carries with it the gift of the shadow side. Once we identify the shadow of the hurt, we can come to truly appreciate all the gifts of our childhood experience, and embrace everything we have encountered, thus becoming whole and capable of choosing another path.

For example, an adult may identify the gift from his or her mother as stability, however the hurt might be criticism. In day to day life, the adult may project or automatically assume that those who are stable are also critical, thereby misinterpreting the actions of others. This inaccurate assumption will unconsciously frame and determine the outcome of his or her relationships. By investigating the source of this assumption, he or she is able to identify the gift in the hurt, which may be discipline, determination or independence (to name a few). Additionally, the child most likely developed coping skills to compensate for the hurt, such as acceptance of others (the opposite of criticism). As an adult, these coping skills are generally directed at others because we all fear hurting others, as we have been hurt. These coping skills will provide the solution to the pain we experience. By applying these skills to ourselves, we learn to nurture ourselves when we hurt.

This is a great tool for those who shy away from "metaphysical" or "higher power" based tools of self -knowledge. However, for others, it will beautifully compliment investigations into self -imposed limitations that deny realization of grace.

Pauline and Kristen Arneberg

Mother/Daughter Team using this process.

This book is a gem. Brenner and Martin make a valuablecontribution to the growing literature of freedom from the archaicpast and its limitations. They present a process to help us examinethe roots of our thinking, feeling, and automatic behaviors which canbind and paralyze us. The Family Triangles process they recommend isa simple, but not simplistic tool to navigate the confusing inwardjourney of understanding what motivates our experiences.

Theprocess uses the metaphor of triangles: mommy, daddy, and me. Forboth parents, we are asked to identify the gifts and hurts weinherited. Then we examine the coping style we developed to deal withour hurts. Once these are recognized, we are shown how our copingstyles, turned inward, are actually the exact solution to the discordwe experience in our lives. Another useful insight is that the hurtswe experience are in actuality blessings, for each hurt carries withit the gift of the shadow side. Once we identify the shadow of thehurt, we can come to truly appreciate all the gifts of our childhoodexperience, and embrace everything we have encountered, thus becomingwhole and capable of choosing another path.

For example, an adultmay identify the gift from his or her mother as stability, however thehurt might be criticism. In day to day life, the adult may project orautomatically assume that those who are stable are also critical,thereby misinterpreting the actions of others. This inaccurateassumption will unconsciously frame and determine the outcome of hisor her relationships. By investigating the source of this assumption,he or she is able to identify the gift in the hurt, which may bediscipline, determination or independence (to name a few).Additionally, the child most likely developed coping skills tocompensate for the hurt, such as acceptance of others (the opposite ofcriticism). As an adult, these coping skills are generally directedat others because we all fear hurting others, as we have been hurt.These coping skills will provide the solution to the pain weexperience. By applying these skills to ourselves, we learn tonurture ourselves when we hurt.

This is a great tool for those whoshy away from "metaphysical" or "higher power" based toolsof self -knowledge. However, for others, it will beautifullycompliment investigations into self -imposed limitations that denyrealization of grace.

Pauline and KristenArneberg

Mother/Daughter Team using this process.