This was a great book! The presentation and abundance of prints is excellent. I have been playing with decoupage for some time and I found that this book has inspired me to do more and more. I found the collection of prints very helpful in both planning and enticing new projects out of me. The variety of prints and the clear and precise information would be helpful to anyone working in decoupage or just beginning.

This author has really given me the additional boost I needed! Thanks Dee for a great book and your good work. I look forward to more!

Allen

I have bought a lot of prints in my time decoupaging and I have to say that someone has finally done this right! I love this book. I have used tons of the prints (there is a terrific selection) and have made some really beautiful pieces.

The format is clear and easy to use, good for beginners or for more experienced people. There is a wide variety of material so that if you don't like one theme, there isn't too much of it.

I hope there is a second volume on the way soon b/c I am almost out of inspiration!

I loved this book. The selection of prints was terrific and I've made some beautiful things from it. I highly reccomend this book for beginners and more seasoned craftsmen. I'm planning on buying another copy as a gift for a fellow decoupage fan.

Very nice book, well illustrated with many representations of what a garden may be. However, too many photos of gardens full of tat, make this a slight dissapointment. Would make a fun gift for an enthusiast.

I work part time at a greenhouse (mostly as an indentured servant to my own gardening habit) and am TIRED of those whom I refer to as "Garden Nazis" - people (some of them - horrors - my very own co-workers) who think gardening is all about what you see in *those* magazines. You know the ones. This book offers a much needed and totally refreshing viewpoint that takes the onous off of we gardeners to create in just one way and opens avenues into whole new worlds! Have a look and be transported.

When I was a kid, I thought I'd like to be eccentric when I grew up. On my good days, I flatter myself that I've attained this goal. Compared with the people whose gardens are shown here, however, I'm a rank amateur. The gardeners whose work are presented have a clear vision of what they want, and they've gone to whatever lengths were necessary to create it. There's topiary, there's folk art, there's real art. I guarantee you'll find some of it ugly or tacky -- but anyone who wants more from a garden than what good taste and convention can provide will be riveted and inspired.

As a proficient VB/COM developer, I thought this might be a good book to begin learning Java with. Be warned: It is not! It was written over 4 years ago and it completely out of date. The text makes constant references to the accompanying CD, which does not exist. The book honestly looks like a poor quality photocopy. It is clear that this was writen in 1996 and republished in January 1999 with nary a change in content. The book only goes to VB4, which is long gone. Want to learn Java? Buy Beginning Java 2 by Ivor Horton. I am sending this book back.

As a long time VB and ASP programmer, retraining for Java or C# is a mind-boggler. After taking a class on OO Analysis and Design, I can now make sense out of the paradigm of OO, and appreciate it's benefits. But the paradigm shift is so great, that one probably needs more than the syntax training and introductory level OO concepts presented in this book to be successfull with OO. However this is not the author's fault. If you already grasp OO concepts, this book provides superb examples of how to move from procedural syntax and program structures to use inheritance,polymorphism, and encapsulation as provided by Java.

This book is unlike any other Java book on the market. For a VB programmer, the comparisons really clear even the most abstracts aspects of Java programming. I highly recommend this book.

If you liked what Song of the South did for American history, you will love Xeno's take on transplantion. Written by two individuals with a vested interest in promoting xeno-transplantation, the book glosses over the dangers inherent in putting organs from the animal thought to have the largest number of endogenous viruses into a severely and permanently immunosuppressed patient and then releasing that person in a unsuspecting world to be a human vector. The book alternates from blantant inaccuracies to sins of omission to the most impossibly naive spin on the abysmal history of this failed psuedo-science. I would love to think that the authors were just optimists but their resumes make it obvious that they have an enormous financial interest in keeping the dollars infused to their dangerous attempts at pseudo-science. This book is pure propaganda and the normally prestigous Oxford Press should be ashamed to have it on their list.

I just finished reading XENO - it easily lives up to the reviews I read in "Nature" and "The New Scientist." I wish all medical books were this thoughtful (and easy to read).

I just finished reading XENO - easily lives up to the excellent reviews I read in Nature and the New Scientist.

As a patient and understanding reader, this was a good story. However, I don't feel that the book was easy to read and was slightly boring. By saying this, I'm not saying I did not enjoy learning about the expedition of brave men traversing the Australian continent. In many ways, this is a devastating story. It's sad and true. Unless you are an avid Australian history researcher, it will be very difficult to utilize any of the information from this story. Keep that in mind before attempting to purchase this book.

This account of the first south-north crossing in Victorian times is incredible. A film of this story several years ago did little to change that situation. The story recounts the key attempts and the elaborate expeditions involved. The crux of the story really revolves around a series of many mishaps and oh so near misses. Tragedy was almost avoided numerous times but ultimately...well read the book. The fact that the story is known and accurately recorded is in itself an incredible sub-plot. It is hard to believe sometimes that this is a true story -- yet this is a case of real life being more amazing than one would dare write as fiction! The story is quite detailed but hang in there, the threads all come together in an incredible finale.

When I was about 11 my uncle who had spent 40 years in the Royal Canadian Navy, handed me slender volume called Cooper's Creek. Since I had no idea where Cooper's Creek was at that age I left in on my shelf where it gathered dust for the next 25 years, and was lost in one of my many house moves.

Over the course of the years I kept coming across some of Alan Moorhead's books, on bookshelves in Canada, the UK, India, Hong Kong and Egypt and even the United States. I happened to read another book of his "Gallipoli." He is a superb writer.

Cooper's Creek is exactly the same. After reading more of Moorehead's work (including a history of the North Africa Campaign) I resolved to find this book and read it. But even in Australia it had been out of print. I found it in London, England and hand carried it to Canada. The tale of imperial adventure warmed me over a few long, cold Canadian nights.

In the 50s and 60s narrative history was at its pre-postmodern highpoint. Moorehead's narrative flows like a novel, there is plenty to get your teeth into and also interesting tidbits. Also, unlike a lot of 60s historians Moorehead is not afraid to pass judgment on anyone.

The folley and bravery of the Burke-Wills expedition is recouted for all those unfamiliar with Australian history. Attempting to map the interior of Australia was a dauting proceedure, and was the equivalent of travelling twice the distance Lewis and Clark covered overland in their American Odyssey.

Those unfamiliar with 60s narrative may find the contemporary account of the aborigines to be paternal and patronising, but that is projecting our values backward.

It is one of the greatest true tales of adventure written, and ranks alongside the Scott, Shackelton explorations in Antarctica and the first land traverse of the North American Continent by Alexander Mackenzie.

A ripping good read and well worth the effort to track it down.

Moorehead by the way was a very popular narrative historian of the 50s and 60s (a bit like a contemporary John Keegan). He was also one of the foremost war correspondents in WWII and worked for Newspapers in Australia, the UK and Canada. An autobiography of his life has just been re-published but I forget the title.

Those hoping for an attack on mob rule and Andrew Jackson will be sorely disappointed; this 'treatise on Jacksonian democracy' is hardly a commentary on the current events of Cooper's age, and does not even mention Jackson. Rather, Cooper, spends more time discussing the merits of proper pronounciation than slavery! Further, for a polemic that greatly hurt its writer's reputation, the book is pretty weak and tame.

First published in 1838, The American Democrat is a wide-ranging series of essays, many of them couched in theoretical terms, about the historical and cultural bases of American democracy, and an informed critique of many aspects of American politics, society, and culture in the 1830s.. Cooper wrote the book shortly after returning to Jacksonian America after a seven-year sojourn in Europe, and it reflects much of his discontent with what he found. As a cogent and informed commentary on 19th Century America it belongs with a book with which it has often been compared -- Toqueville's Democracy in America.

Whereas, Alexis de Tocqueville offers his perspective on America as an outside observer, the literary genius James Fenimore Cooper offers his assessment of culture, politics and society in 19th century America. He doesn't hold democracy to be sacrosanct like we do today, but rather like any other system of government with its advantages and disadvantages. His look at the nature of liberty and its relation with equality is particularly intriguing.

He is cognizant of the dangers posed to American self-government, which values legal equality. Equality, is a virtue, only insofar as it pertains to equal rights and equality before the law. Any effort at establishing equality of outcome is tantamount to tyranny and opposed to liberty. Cooper illustrates the precarious relationship between liberty and equality. Unless, tradition, custom, the rule of law and the Constitution are revered and upheld- the American Polity could easily collapse into majoritarian tyranny under a demagogue.

One gains an appreciation of the system of government established by the American founding fathers after reading this book... They established a constitutionally-limited federal republic, with limits not only on the power of government, but with limits placed on the power of majority rule, so as to limit the fundamental role of government to protecting the rights of its citizens. This constitutional republic sought to balance out monarchial, democratic, and aristocratic elements...

Marginalia(the study of notes people leave written in their books) is a growing area of academic study. Future readers of my personal copy of "The Cooper's Wife is Missing" will find that I have several notes relating to rambling, incoherent sentences and grammar errors that an editor should have found before the book went to press. The book wanders repeatedly away from its subject, the trials of Bridget Cleary, and dabbles into Celtic folklore and Irish History. I am a fan of both, but the authors of this book do a poor job of making clear the connections between Bridget and Irish History and Myth. I understand their point, but someone not as interested in Ireland would have put this book down long ago if they were looking for a story( which was why I actually picked it up myself.) If you stick with the story, the idea of Bridget's case being used as a reason for Britain to keep the Irish in subjugation is interesting, but it requires great patience and an ability to translate horrendous grammar to do so.

I thought this book was broken into two disconnected parts that did not work well together-- the trials of Bridget Cleary and the historical happenings during this time period. I found myself skimming through the chapters that detailed the history of Ireland during this time period and looking forward to the chapters related to Bridget Cleary. This novel was too much like a school textbook with boring and wandering descriptions of the historical times of Ireland. The relevancy of these historical descriptions to the trials of Bridget Cleary was exaggerated by the authors.

In 1895 a relatively unimportant incident occurred in a rural part of Ireland that literally was used by the British to overstate the superstitions and backwardness of the the Irish nation thus depriving the Irish of any possibility of Home Rule at that time.

Bridgit Cleary, the wife of a barrel maker was suspected by her friends and relatives of "conversing" with the fairies. Many of the rural people somewhat believed in spirits and thought that the fairies convened in a wood near the Cleary "residence". When Bridgit returns one night and does not look herself, they suspect she has been possessed by the fairies and is a changeling. Various herbs are tried in an attempt to "exorcise" Bridgit. When these fail the last resort is fire and Bridgit is held into the fireplace. She expires and all those present at the "exorcism" are put on trial. Indirectly, the Catholic Church is also "on trial" being held responsible for the superstitious nature of the Irish population. The whole experience becomes somewhat of an international news item propagated by the British for the aforementioned purpose. The group is found guilty and given various sentences. The most severe, ten years in prision, is placed on her husband

This book is a wonderful review of the Irish struggle for independence. Irish patriots and sympathetic British statesman are depicted. The harshness of the British during famines is also underlined. On the lighter site, several fanciful tales regarding the faries are related.

At the back of the book there is a very complete set of notes for anyone wishing to pursue topics in greater detail

I read the first fifty pages, got really bored, skipped ahead and read the last twenty pages, and found nothing compelling me to go back and read the middle. I guess some people like the "realism" of the harried mom schitck, but I felt the lead character was pumped up with self-importance: she was sure she was the only person who could save this precious child from the horrors of her birth family. Maybe you'll like it, but I didn't.

I don't like mystery, never really have. I was always brought up in the world of Science Fiction/Science fact. And I loved this book. It really is not what I expectd a mystery to be, but it has made me rethink my reading habits. This is a drama- a story with fully developed characters and a story that I was cheering, sighing, yelling out loud for. I responded to this book the way men stereotypically respnd to football. It really was engaging, and has led me to pick up another one of her books which is just as good. The writing is intelligent and engaging and I completely feel for each of these characters, even the overshadowed husband. The dynamics between characters are great. I definately reccomend this work.

In this book, our friend Eleanor Janine Pugh (E.J.) is back. She saves the life of a young girl who tries to commit suicide by drowning and is off into another adventure. The rescue of this girl intoduces Brenna to E.J. and involves her in the girls life. Her history is very sad and her life is aobut to become very complicated by the return of her mother, who left her years before in the custody of her grandmother, a woman who doesn't know much about raising a girl in this day and age. When the mother is killed, the girl becomes a suspect in the murder and E.J. helps to solve the murder and help Brenna work out a plan for her future. The people in this book are so real and the mystery very gripping. I enjoyed it very much. May this series continue on for a long time.

This book brings nothing new to the time management arena. The first page shows they are very politically correct in their writing to ensure no gender or culture is left out. I loved the newspaper style columns that are easy to read. The ink drawings are well done with direct quotes sprinkled throughout the book. As for the actual writing, most of the ideas in the book I came across in earlier books("Working Smart"). In a nut shell, they advise creative people to take their time, move from task to task as they feel like it. Go out and play, even though you have high priority project with a close deadline. (The Ant and the Grasshopper" comes to mind here.) The authors also spent a chapter knocking time management sayings such as "A messy desk is a sign of a cluttered mind" or "Handle each piece of paper once." They took these says too literally. They referred to many people in business whom I've never heard of saying how they used various techniques on the job to better control their time like scheduling meetings close to quitting time to keep the meeting from running long. If the workers want to stay after because the issue isn't resolved; its on their time I guess. That lead to workers doing things outside of their responsibilities. Here they used Southwest Airlines as an example. (The CEO's ink drawn picture is on the back of the book.) I must say SW Air is a well run company, but what works for them can be taken to disastrous levels in other industries under penny pinching mangers. Though the family atmosphere in a company environment is appealing; it's not realistic. I had previously been employed at companies that had that philosophy. As soon as business got bad, they laid us off without warning and went back to the old way of doing business. SW employees save the company money by having attendants clean cabins instead of a professional cleaning crew; off duty crew members helping out on flights serving passengers. It's looks admirable at first glance but when company managers start expecting this on a regular basis then that's were creativity and motivation goes down the drain. The message they deliver is confusing at best, possible due to the fact there's two authors. How to say "NO" to tasks even high priority ones could get someone fired if followed as written in the book. The book is more a discussion on Time management then a how to guide. What was once creative and innovating for individual workers is now expected. Downsizing has made this book obsolete for all but the self employed, housewife and artists. I wanted to give them 1 1/2 stars for the books layout but I had to give them whole stars. DOT-COMS used this philosophy and now they're gone. You can pass on this one. You not missing anything.

Looking at the trees, _Time Management for Unmanageable People_ was a jargon-laden, philosophically confused waste of time. But the forest wasn't so bad. The basic premise, that time management advice is too often useless and even harmful when applied to creatively disorganized people, seems sound. The book primarily functions as an alternative guide to time management for the creatively disorganized, discussing both why traditional techniques fail and suggesting some alternative methods. Unfortunately, both the theory and practice of the book tended to be shallow at best. So the primary virtue of this book certainly lies in its basic approach to the subject of time management: individual people need to find methods of time management that suit their unique strengths and help them overcome their weaknesses.

If you are a "right-brained" person and have tried to follow other left brained time management programs with only fair success, this is the book for you. This author makes time management fun and flexible. I read about her book in another great time managment book by Lee Silber. You'll enjoy this book and get many good tips to help you be more productive.