I concur with the other reviews on this site. This is my favorite cookbook, and I have quite a collection. The recipes are well-written, good cooking and preparation techniques are given in conjunction with the recipes, and the results always earn me kudos! Can't ask for too much more.

I have given this cookbook as a gift several times and have recommended it to my friends who love to cook.

Best cook book I ever used. it so easy to follow, you just prepare the incredients as directed and followed the directions. you can't go wrong. I tried using other cook books but only get frustrated trying to follow the instruction, but this book has simple and clrear instruction, anyone can follow it. one thing lacking limited pictures of what you are cooking, but not important.

These recipes are for elegant, delicious dishes to serve your friends and family. They all reflect the ethnic and culinary influences that make up California cuisine, including tips from such people as Arnold Wong and Alice Waters. All of the food is fancy, but not everything is complicated: the Cambazola Apricots are an easy-to-make appetizer, while the Blueberry French Toast can be whipped up the night before for brunch. This is a must-own for anyone who loves food or who loves San Francisco.

SEVEN DAYS IN MAY by Fletcher Knebel and Charles Bailey is a frightening look at what most people would consider impossible in the government established by our Constitution. Most Americans take our democratic form of government for granted; but could a military leader manage to engineer a coup to overthrow the Executive Branch of government?

This is the central issue in this novel set sometime around a decade after Kennedy's administration (the book was written in 1962), as an unpopular President Lyman faces unrest in both in the armed forces and the civilian sector over a proposed disarmament treaty with the Soviet Union, labor troubles at home, and a poor economy. Colonel Martin Casey, reporting to the Chairman of the Join Chiefs of Staff, suspects something is up when a series of suspicious events and circumstances occur, which lead him to conclude that JSC Chairman General Scott is readying a coup. With only days before the potential coup, President Lyman, and his trusted allies Colonel Cassey, Secretary of Treasury Todd, Senator Clark from Georgia, the President's Appointment Secretary Girard and Secret Service Agent Corwin, must act quickly to try to corroborate or disprove the theory of a military coup. The investigation includes a kidnapping of one of the President's men at a secret military base, a suspicious death that rattles the President, the use of sexual innuendo for information, and more.

The picture this novel paints is a frightening one. The book is not a difficult one to read or comprehend. In the end, you're left wondering if it could possibly happen today. The book is set up as a chronological account of the actions of the Presidents team over the seven days until the coup; the pressure of time is constantly felt through the novel, which just adds to the suspense. Although over 300 pages, the book starts up quick and never stops. SEVEN DAYS IN MAY is an excellent political thriller that entertains and makes you wonder. Once you pick it up you'll find it difficult to put down. I highly recommend.

A coup d'etat in the United States? A visionary pacifist President gets a disarmament treaty ratified, over the military's opposition, and is about to begin implementing it despite widespread public apprehension and disapproval. Some top military and congressional leaders, led by the charismatic general who chairs the Joint Chiefs of Staff, join forces in taking advantage of the President's political weakness--but what are they planning, and how far will they go? The general's aide begins connecting certain ominous clues, suspects the worst, and shares his fears with the President. Then the battle is joined: the President and a small inner circle must not only figure out whether there is a conspiracy but, if there is one, must neutralize it--all before a blow that might fall at any time, all without provoking the conspirators into premature action, and all without falling prey to a paranoia that will itself furnish the pretext for bringing down the President even if there never was any conspiracy.

The writing is tight and dramatic. "Seven Days in May" was adapted to the big screen in a 1964 film starring Kirk Douglas and Burt Lancaster, and again thirty years later in a 1994 made-for-television movie starring Forrest Tucker. Both versions do justice to the novel.

If you enjoy "Seven Days in May," you may also enjoy "Night of Camp David," also by Fletcher Knebel. "Night of Camp David" largely follows the same formula as "Seven Days in May," but the issue is presidential incapacity rather than a coup d'etat.

Is an American coup impossible? Maybe. Then again, maybe not. With all these crazies from the militia movement to the Posse Commitatus, it's quite possible. What if it happened? Who'd do it? Probably a power-hungry general. Who'd stop it? A loyal Marine colonel perhaps? That's the plot of the 1962 novel and movie Seven Days in May. James Mattoon Scott, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, is the power-hungry general, Colonel "Jiggs" Casey's the loyal Marine who uncovers Scott's plan and warns the President. The attempted coup begins when the President of the United States signs an arms control treaty with the Soviet Union and his popularity sinks like the Titanic and the Lusitania. Casey, an alcoholic, is at a party being thrown by a Washington socialite in suburban Chevy Chase, Maryland, when Scott makes his move against the President. The climatic confrontation comes when the President tells Scott that if he has a disagreement with our policies he should resign his commission and run for President in the next election. He can't be in the military and President at the same time. Casey warns the President and is rewarded. Scott's arrested and charged with treason. This book may be old but it's not dated.

I have just returned from seeing Steve Lehman's exhibition of photographs from Tibet at the Newseum/NY- PLEASE GO SEE THIS SHOW IF YOU CAN!!! I stood before some of the most touching and moving color, black and white photographs and collages with tears running down my face at the inhumanity and humanity of the disgusting situation in Tibet. How can the United States and other so-called free nations stand back and allow this foul occupation continue to take place? Not only is the culture, religion, architecture, forests, etc. of Tibet being decimated but MOST IMPORTANTLY her people are being mass murdered, tortured and ignored by the "powers that be." (The setting of the show was wonderful also with thankgas, prayer wheels and other Tibetan objects. It was also incredible to be surrounded by all the photographs in one fell swoop.) I was particularly struck by the personal, hand-written descriptions on the photographs which made them even more immediate. One could really feel for the peaceful protestors who were subsequently imprisoned and tortured. I searched their faces and was mesmerized and thought about what each person's life was like now. Even if you cannot stand before the pictures, be surrounded by the injustice of it all, do obtain the book and see for yourself. This is photo-journalism at its finest and most poignant.Mr. Lehman's photographs give ample illustration that more needs to be done to help the Tibetans and now!

When deadly riots broke out in Tibet, Steve Lehman captured that terror in his outstanding photographs. Lehman continues to chronicle the Tibetans' courageous struggle for human rights, and his work is a major contribution to understanding the Tibetan story. -Congressman Tom Lantos Co-Chairman, Congressional Human Rights Caucus

THE TIBETANS is a beautiful portrayal of a courageous, earthy, and spiritual people struggling for survival under the tremendous burden of late twentieth-century colonialism. It is a must read for those who want to understand their planet. -Robert A.F. Thurman President, Tibet House

Deep, profound, complicated and eventually simple, like all truths....I have had this book for several years, I have read parts of many times and I am just about to delve into it yet again. A book to read and digest slowly. The information is so profound it takes time to assimilate and a certain level of previous understanding of metaphysical concepts to grasp at all. Not for the beginner on the path, just as a doctorate level physics text is not enjoyable for someone in secondary school. It takes some patience and dedication but is very much worth the effort. Profound.

In my opinion this book was written for the training of the Soul and not the personality. It has been my opinion that this is a book written in a harmonic that resonates in understanding at a level above the concrete mind and should be read through even if not completely understood at the moment of reading.

I have had others verbally express the same opinion as above to me without my input. In my opinion this is a book that will keep coming back at you for a very long time.

Of the hundreds of books of similar orientation that I have read, I consider this one book to be the most Lucid! Of the approximately 1300 pages, the first 6 to 7 hundred addressing the creation of reality through mind, may change the way you participate with life!

As Buckeroo Banzai said, " No matter where you go, there you are!"

Also worth reading (though not at the level of the above, but still superb!) I. K. Taimni (Science of Occultism, and his other books) Torkom Saraydarian (Especially his Science of Meditation, and Science)

This truly extraordinary book (abbreviated TCF) contains information at several levels. If you read and understand this book you will know and understand the Secret of Life. Matter is energy, as we know from E=mc(squared) but this book talks of all energy and matter as Life! This Life evolves at the atomic level, human level, planetary level, etc.
TCF has succeeded in describing and classifying many types of life inherent to matter/energy. It talks of the sumtotal of Life on the Physical Plane, the Astral Plane, the Mental Plane. Everything ever written about auras in Theosophical or New Age texts can be understood at depth in TCF. It talks about the chakras; not just the human ones, but those of animal/vegetable/mineral, and of the larger Lives such as for a Planetary Being (Logos).
The reader will soon see that TCF is an ambitious book; its words painting the inner bodies of humanity and a description of the Egoic Lotus or the vehicle of the human soul which "sends down" incarnations.
The remarkable thing about TCF is its coherence as a workable theory. Properly understood, it generalizes just about every New Age and Religious belief system, without being sectarian in any way. It accepts the sanctity of the Buddha, the Christ and other World Teachers. If you understand the "14 Rules of White Magic" from TCF you will have no need for Wicca as all of what it represents is subsumed in the knowledge of various devas and elementals. The "14 Rules" were themselves expanded into AAB's book "A Treatise on White Magic", which is written at a more superficial level than TCF.
My first reflective/meditative reading of TCF took me six months of daily 1 to 3 hour sessions in 1986. Even today, I count this time spent in real terms as an asset more valuable than my joy for knowledge which led me to obtain a PhD in mathematics.
My physical lifespan is of course limited. However, the insight I've gained from this book will serve me long after this incarnation is at an end.

If you are a history buff or a scuba diver or if you know anyone who is, this is the book to get. Not only does this book go over the history of Truk (Chuuk as it is now known) Lagoon but also the history of all the wrecks contained there from WWII. It also details the attack that the US Navy completed in February of 1944. From the force of ships that participated in the attack to the ships that were sunk.
It has in complete detail of all ships that sunk, what they were carrying, size, etc.

I have been to Truk Lagoon once, bought this book when I came back, and now going back again now that I know more of the history of the ships and planes that I will be diving on again. This book also makes for a great coffee table book that many friends and family will enjoy looking through.!
It is well put together and worth the money for it.

I would recommend this book to all divers and war history buffs interested in the wrecks of Truk. Especially for divers who are planning a trip to Truk. This is the perfect dive planning text for learning about the wrecks before the dives so divers can maximize their bottom time experience. Each wreck has its own chapter with maps and a guide to the highlights of the wreck. There are also photos of the wrecks before they sank and a history of each ship. After a trip to Truk, it is the perfect souvenir -- better than any details in log books! Lots of GREAT underwater wreck photography in color, too.

I received a copy of World War II Wrecks of the Truk Lagoon by Dan Bailey a few days ago. I can not get over the detail with which this book covers this subject. In addition to being a diver's reference book (and a large one at that...an 8 by 11 inch+ hardcover), it is also a highly detailed historical reference. Included are US Navy reconaissance photos, pilot reports from the pilots who were flying missions in Operation Hailstorm attacking these ships, layout drawings of the Japanese installations on the islands, not to mention the history of the sunken ships. This book contains virtually everything I can imagine regarding Truk (and stuff I never thought of). Lots of archival photos and present day photos. This book is a must for any Truk afficionato. A great addition to my library.

Set amid the Zapatista revolution of the 1990s through the present day, Zapatista is a novel about a writer who gets caught up in the struggle for the poverty-stricken Native Americans of Mexico. In the middle of guns, bloodshed, and the hope for a more equal tomorrow, he falls in love with a beautiful Native woman and his life changes forever. Zapatista documents Blake Bailey as a gifted writer of memorable fiction who is able to make his characters live and their surroundings form an impressive context for original storytelling. A portion of the proceeds from Zapatista will be donated to the Zapatista movement in Mexico.

This book is an adventure, a wild ride, a plane crash to avoid a forced military landing, grab the bags of money and run. A tale of a person displaced, going on a vacation and end up killing for a cause. If you have ever been an occasional traveler in Mexico this book throws out a whole new twist, while teaching you some history about the Chiapas Indians and the Zapatista movement.

This is an excting, engrossing story of an American caught up in the Chiapas Indian revolution in Mexico -- a subject I knew nothing about prior to reading the book. The author gives a vivid portrayal of the struggles of the Chiapas Indians and makes it very real to the reader in a poignant way. This was a definite page-turner, as I couldn't wait to see what would happen to the protagonist next. I would definitely like to see more books from this author.

Nancy Bailey does a marvelous job in this short novel describing a heartbreaking loss of life, love and friendship as well as the joy of each. Based upon events that she is all too farmiliar with, the book walks one through the crushing loss of love and reestablishment of relationships which must withstand, or not, the trials of tragedy. Nancy has an uncanny sense of symbolism and is not unpoetic in her rendering of this episode taken from her own experience. It is well worth the investment of time and attention to share these moments with her.

Holding the Ladder shows us in a captivating way how holding on to the ones we love inevitably relies on our ability to let them go. I laughed and cried through Holding the Ladder and I recommend it to anyone who wants reassurance that overcoming lifes setbacks is possible.

When I first sat down with Holding the Ladder, I had no idea of the emotional journey I was about to undertake. Nancy Bailey is an excellent tour guide. She reaches into the heart and soul of Avery, and presents her journey of grief and resolution with uncommon empathy, compassion, realism, and even humor. By the end of this book, I was avowed Nancy Bailey fan. I look forward to future books by this author. Holding the Ladder is a wonderful novel!!

This book had great meaning for me. I started making dolls as a child and was always happier making and creating them than playing with them. Often at flea markets I rescue folk dolls because they seem to speak to me as an object of the creativity of another and a link to that person or that time. I have hidden the part of myself that needs to create and appreciate the creation of others. Now as Elinor says, I have permission to play. If you also need permission then you need to read this book.

elinor's philosphy on life, family and doll making comes through making this an entertaining and uplifting book on creativity and life in general. I re-read it periodically when I feel the need for reassurance that it's okay to indulge in my version of play...

The dolls made by the guest artists are very interesting - especially as some have changed their style dramatically since this book was published.

Thank you elinor, keep up the good work!

Not everyone will enjoy this book. If "cute" is the highest praise you can imagine for your art, then maybe you should look elsewhere. However, if you like challenges, art that makes you think (about yourself and life), and fabulous, fascinating artistic expressions, this book is a must-own. Rich, insightful text, and full-color examples of cloth dolls by a variety of well-known fabric artists. Best of all, a copy of the pattern that all of the dollmakers used for their work. If I had only three books on my bookshelf, this would be one of them. I don't re-read it weekly or anything, but there are times when I need this inspiration, desperately! At least ask your public library for it. It's that good.

Apparently, some magical force is invading Greyhawk, a fine medieval city. It kills some of the famous and dignified seers of Greyhawk. The murders aren't random and it seems that the magicians who cast the murders don't want the seers to tell the future - some kind of scheme is being plotted. Garett Starlen, head of the Nightwatch of Greyhawk is troubled by the murders and plans to investigate the happening together with his comrades. A sense of helplessness prevails in Greyhawk and Garett is the only one who can save it from being.......

The book is very fun to read and altough it's fiction, it's classic fiction (dragons,wizards,magic). Until the end it keeps you wondering what is the force who bothers Greyhawk. The book is written in a rich language and gives you the feeling you're actually in that era. The only thing that made me give this book 4 stars is that i expected a more sophisticated or rather longer ending. GREAT BOOK - READ IT !!!

TSR obviously did not know how a good stuff when they see one. Some of its best books were published in innocuous covers with hardly any marketting support while it pulled out all stops for a number of its worst written drivels.

Night Watch, written by Robin Wayne Bailey (Thieves World), was published in 1990, just as TSR was experiencing a lot of difficulties (which they oft do but that's another topic). Gary Gygax, founder and anchor writer for the Greyhawk series, had left and the company turned to other writers to carry on the Greyhawk series, the results which was so bad that it cancelled the series before Night Watch was printed. As a result, Night Watch was published without the customary Greyhawk logo.

Despite not being a role-playing gamer, the author took painstaking efforts to study the Greyhawk setting for his first and only (to date) Greyhawk novel. The results produced should put to shame the works of many other TSR authors who began with greater familiarity, both past and present.

Instead of trying to ride on the formula of previous Greyhawk writers, Bailey created his own - a detective thriller in a fantasy setting. The novel was placed in an undefined time in Greyhawk, and without contradicting any canon, could be fitted almost anywhere in the Greyhawk timeline except the major wars.

Rather than revisiting the same scenes mentioned in the earlier Greyhawk book (Saga of the Old City), Bailey made his main character, Garett Starlen, captain of Greyhawk's Night Watch. He gave a brief glimpse to Garett's past, just enough to present him as an honest man, educated and competent in his duties without unjustified idealism, and was good enough to inspire loyalty from other competent subordinates - Blossom, a seven footer amazonian, Burge, a half-elf who hated his faerie ancestry, and Rudi, a short fighter sensitive to his height (or lack of).

Greyhawk, in an ordinary day, was bad enough. The poor had a hard life, regardless whether they had an honest job. The rich, protected by the privilige of wealth, spent their hours protecting their wealth. The district for temples were lined with religious institutions of varying, even opposing, dispositions. The city was governed by the Directorate, composed of various factions of power, including leaders of the Thieves Guild and Assassins Guild. All were aware that orderliness, with a smattering of chaos, was in their best interests and hence the Watch was not merely an instrument of the elite.

Magic was very much part of life in Greyhawk, and the story opened with the successive murders of the city's fabled seers by their own instruments, all within one night despite being quartered in different parts of the cities. It fell to the captain of the Night Watch, Garett, to investigate those murders, which were certainly caused by magic. While the Watch could normally seek help from the Wizards' Guild, there was no response at the Wizards's Tower, and no sane person would intrude a wizard's lair, much less the Tower of the Wizards's Guild.

Further disturbances in the form of unusual flocking of black birds, inexplicable departure of the city by elves, warned Garett that an approaching danger, which was why the seers had been killed. Garett could get no help from the Directorate, whose members were more keen in protecting or promoting their own interests than the city's. It would take an intercession from one of Oerth's legendary Circle of Eight to provide Garett with the clue to the threat and the instrument to overcome it.

Readers familiar with Dungeons and Dragons or Greyhawk settings might be put off by the portrayal of magic in this book. Instead of the usual spells like wands of fireball, the investigating characters were virtually bereft of magic. Instead of an adventuring group mixture of paladins, clerics and magic users, they were all fighters belonging to the Night Watch. And when contact with the Wizards' Guild was lost, there was no other magic-user in the city of Greyhawk they could turn to, a phenomena any Greyhawk fan would vow as impossible.

But as someone who appreciates the essence of fantasy more than game-mechanics or statistics from RPG supplements, I really like what the author had done.

The clues were well laid, but it took the main character to act upon his gut instinct and against incompetent superiors to get anywhere. Critics who say this is another Thieves' World novel in Greyhawk guise are probably right, but it should not mar the enjoyment of the novel. I need only to point to the Knights of Crown series by Roland Green, set in Dragonlance setting, as another example of enjoyable fantasy novels borrowing an established setting but lacked the distinctive "essence" of the setting. Even the recently published novel Keep on the Borderlands which was based on a well-known Greyhawk classic had hardly any Greyhawk-ness in it.

Having said that though, while I regret there is no sequel to Night Watch or Garett Starlen, to date, any further work should include more of Greyhawk-ness.

I read this book 8 years ago and I enjoyed it a lot! The action takes place in the City of Greyhawk, but not the City of Greyhawk you're used to. It takes place in the future, a future where the mayor Nerof Gasgall and the Circle of the Eight had misteriously disapeared. The captain of the City Night Watch must investigate several murders to prevent a civil war between the city's temples. Great book!

Private Detective Art Hardin is hired to help in a domestic violence case--a police officer isn't taking his divorce calmly and Hardin has a reputation for not taking the police terribly seriously. He soon learns that the case is a lot more complicated than domestic violence...

Author Robert Bailey delivers an action-packed thriller. Hardin is a fine wise-cracking hero, ready to take on the police or anyone else for his client and his pride...

PRIVATE HEAT was occasionally too complicated, with too many corrupt officials and too many tough-guy acts on the part of Hardin, but only occasionally. For the most part, this was a fine and exciting novel. A real page turner and hard to put down.

It's tough to find a contemporary first book by an author--and a mystery, at that--as compelling and entertaining as PRIVATE HEAT by Robert Bailey. What a pleasant surprise. A gut-wrencher one moment, the reader laughs out loud the next. On top of it all, Bailey's experience as a private investigator lends the book a believability that pulls the reader right into the action.

The plot moves along quickly, as Bailey masterfully builds his characters. The reader cannot help but identify with the not-quite-smug protagonist, Art Hardin, and his sidekick, as well as the entire Hardin family--especially his wife, Wendy. Throw in his dead partner's widow, who holds the business pursestrings, and a few cops who don't take to a PI who continually gets ahead of them , and Bailey has woven a great setting for a dynamite murder case.

PRIVATE HEAT is loaded with the irony that underscores real life. In one scene, Hardin's wonderful "rotor"-tailed dog careens across a vehicle's hood to catch a frisbee while the cops, called to check out a shooting at Hardin's house, cheer him on.

Bailey's polished, well-turned phrases give the book impact. It's a damned good read, and the last page is the best. But don't cheat. You'll miss out on a great ride if you do.

Note: I hear the next book in the series, DYING EMBERS, is due out any time now.

Authenticity is hard to come by in the world of fiction, but this first novel offers plenty.

The back of the dust jacket says the author is a military veteran as well an experienced private investigator. I have no doubt of this, for as I read 'Private Heat', it was obvious to me that Mr. Bailey has personally experienced the events which enabled him to craft and plot this excellent story.

His first hand experience not only allows him to accurately portray the technical details of a detective story, but, he is also able to strike the elusive and delicate balance between fiction and reality.

IE, "Private Heat" is not a 'true crime' novel, but it's entertaining and REAL at the same time.

"Private Heat" offers excellent dialogue and a well crafted plot. Highly recommended. Collectors should grab their own first printing of Mr. Baileys first novel while they still can. I'm looking forward to the next installment.