40 Acres and No Mule by Janice Holt Giles was book about life in Kentucky. It told of the hardships and the good times and how everything always worked out. I recommend this book to anyone who wants to learn more about KY or living in a rural southern area.

I loved this book because it took me on a journey to a part of the United States that is not known to most readers. And to a time that is not today. And to know people who are unlike any neighbors I have ever had.
I really enjoyed learning the landscape and the problems and the social activities of mountain people. Someone who lives in an urban area (or the suburbs of an urban area) may feel superior to these characters, feel privileged compared to such country types but I really admired many of the people for coping so well with their circumstances. Many seem heroic, even.
I'd like to say Thank You to this author!

You will enjoy reading this.

I did.

I found this book really inspired me to want to write letters. The addition of the crafty materials and enclosures was just what I needed to get me to write. This book combined with "The Art of the Handwritten Note" is a must for everyone.

In the age of the internet, there are certainly still people around you who love the art of writing on real paper with real ink. Even if you think they should have been born during the 18th century, they might deserve this beautiful and inspiring book as a present. You might even want to receive one of their letters in the end...

Handcrafted Letter is a very different blend of crafts and practicality. It is a guide which restores the lost art of producing a beautifully-written letter using paper art and fine penmanship. Examples, tips, and over a dozen creative projects include photos and step-by-step instructions for producing memorable letters.

I was wandering through the bookshop as a shortcut to the bus stop jingling the last of my change, when I glanced down to an image of soft floating breasts. Quickly checking and adjusting my own to find they were still trapped under the fully buttoned shirt, I reached down to meet my new friend, a glorious book on the mysteries and enticement of mother's milk.
Our youngest, now a womanly teenager, knows well my evil plan to elevate breastfeeding to the second most important job in the world, so she was happy to use her plastic for the ...purchase.
Why at 49, would I bother breathing in the words of this Fiona Giles? Why would I feel the need to read all Easter then run around yelling 'I told you so', to Uni students, home just to reconnect with school friends? Have we come far enough in our respect for human milk to accept the need for public sharing of lactation experiences?
Fiona Giles has interviewed well, allowing an impressive array of stories to flood our senses. Maybe a submitted email or two was tinged with slightly elevated fantasy, however, all adds to the mix. I hope she has pressed the right buttons to encourage open discussion of the vitality of 'white blood.'
Thank goodness we are being allowed to gradually catch up to traditional womens' knowledge of the benefits of breastmilk as a medicine and a life long womens' resource. Any female from adolesence til death can produce human milk, as long as suckling occurs several times a day, or a breast pump is involved. Now, if that is news to you, take a deep breath and read on.
Would you relactate?
Your teenage child develops SARS ...
A Never! Well he shouldn't have stowed away to China in the first place.
B Maybe. But I'd want to sue someone if I got cracked nipples again.
C Sure. As long as no-one expected me to deliver it fresh from the sack, rather than freshly squeezed.
D Of course. I already freeze my milk and send it to an orphan.
Didn't turn blue. Then buy Fiona Giles' 'Fresh Milk. The secret life of breasts.'
Do I have qualifications to review such an inspiational book? Well, I spent most of the eighties in a nursing bra, but no-one gave me a framed degree. And the most important job? Giving birth, of course.

I love it! I am a very proud "lactivist" with a beautiful healthy 13 month old moo. This book is really a breath of fresh air, with some really thought provoking ideas. Since our culture almost let breastfeeding become a "lost art", I think that we really need ideas like those from Fiona Giles that blast open people's ideas of what breastfeeding is and can be. I've already started asking other nursing mothers some of the questions posed in the book. This has really started me thinking about things in a whole new light.

It is a sad society that finds silicone-filled breasts more alluring than milk-filled breasts.

The female breast symbolically reflects the long-established and tiresome male classification of woman as either Madonna or whore. According to men, and sadly some women, the female breast exists to be eroticised, fetishised, morphed, manipulated, enhanced and exploited UNTIL it begins to function. As soon as breasts start to express themselves they are immediately sanctified, purified, hidden and forbidden. Too sad.

In one interview Kimberley Hefner boasted that she never breastfed her children, not once. Her prerogative, of course, but it is ironic that ex-husband Hugh's Playboy fortune, and therefore hers, was built entirely on male worship of the female breast. But when it came to employing her own breasts for their true and original purpose, she baulked. While Kimberley feared the assumed domestication of her breasts, staunch breastfeeding advocates do the opposite by denying the lactating breast any hint of its inherent sensuality and sexuality. No, no, do not touch, do not admire.

In "Fresh Milk" Fiona Giles and her contributors reveal that nurture and pleasure do not negate each other; you can have both. As a book "Fresh Milk" ignores the protocols of easy classification and booksellers may be uncertain as to which shelf it belongs. It does break the conventional mould by embracing academia and anecdote, mirth and mythology, fact and fantasy. So much I never knew before about breasts, breast-feeding, lactation, and mothers' milk I discovered in this remarkable book. It is an inspiring, positive, and dare I say 'uplifting' journey.

"Fresh Milk" is refreshingly original, amusing and liberating. Oh yes, and it's also erotic.

Dean

I loved this book since I saw it with those wonderful pictures and detailed instructions. I particularly liked the floating candle project and since I make my own gel, I made the 9% self standing gel candle according to instructions. The gel worked great, floated well but the candle did not light at all!!!!! I was making these candles for a wedding party and there was no way to light those candles. I changed the wick for a different thickness and nothing worked until I tried again the 5% gel. It burned OK! The candles float well only they are not as stiff as with the other gel.

This is my favorite gel candle book. The design and layout of the book are beautiful and easy to read. The photos are very inspiring and beautifully photographed. There is a lot of good info and guidelines, too.

I just love this book, when I got this book I was surprised on how interesting it was, it has a lot of gel candlemaking projects, and they are very easy and fun to do, i recomend you to buy this book, it is incredible, it has a lot of recomendations, tips and has a lot of pictures, full colored that makes it easier to see the colors and how your final candle will look like, i just love it

Richard Giles' "Re-Pitching the Tent" will be a read that is very intimidating to the traditional Anglican/Catholic/Lutheran who is used to (and attached to!) the traditional Sanctuary, Chancel, Choir, Nave arrangement of our Churches. The Parish I pastor meets in a small space, so making the most of what we have is important. Giles shows us through his insight ways of making your space count, and how to arrange for worship in such a manner that we express a theology that highlights the participation of the people of the Congregation while still having a very distinct president of the Assembly to lead the Liturgy.

Not all traditionalists will find themseves warming to his ideas at once, but I think, when they compare this book to the modes of the early Church, they may well find some use for the author's suggestions. I know our parish did!

This book is about looking at outmoded church spaces to see what can be done to meet the needs of contemporary worshippers. Written out of a British context, using British examples and pictures (these pictures are great) the book translates quite well to the American scene, where there is a similar problem. My church in Boston chose to build a series of adult education sessions around the book, and Giles has constructed his text with this use in mind. There is an appendix that acts as a "teacher's guide." What is brilliant about the book is that he discusses pragmatics, but he provides the basis for a theological reflection on the part of the congregation so that they have a faith-basis for whatever plant and programmatic renovations they decide to make.

Recently we had the opportunity to meet Richard Giles as he was in our city giving a talk about "Re-pitching the Tent". Our firm specializes in religious facility design and we were anxious to learn what Richard Giles had to offer on the subject of liturgical space. We came away from the workshop with even more enthusiasm for our opportunities to design sacred space. We ordered his book ... and have been using it as a reference in designing two new Anglican churches. This book is not just for architects but for anyone who is interested in the Chirstian Community and the future of the Church.

Retired Professor John Minford is only a handful of people who truly understand the essence of the Art of War: "It is beautiful and chilling." He has been a translator and teacher of the Chinese language since 1977, and had chaired the Department of Chinese and Bilingual Studies at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University and the Department of Asian Languages at the University of Auckland.

Dr. Minford's translation is extremely concise yet complete -- much to our pleasant surprise -- and is truer to the original Chinese format than all previously published Sun Tzu versions. Our analysis shows great care was given to rendering each and every word. Incorporating the conventionally accepted text, Shiyijia zhu Sunzi, along with commentary from various ancient and modern sources, his book is perfect for someone who wants both an accurate translation and an extensive explanation of its many concepts and principles. The book is broken out into two major parts: the first part presents the core text unadorned, and the second part has the same text with well-selected commentary.

Just when we thought a new Sun Tzu the Art of War translation is not needed, John Minford's masterful work proved us wrong. Indeed, we are certain the value of his Art of War will only increase over time. Sonshi.com.

This slim volume contains so much wisdom on so many levels! Just buy it. Books like Von Clausewitz, or Machievelli's The Prince also treat of the same subject. The Bible, of course, is the best of all. Sun Tzu's succinct observations will help the reader see things he missed in Bible study; will help obviate the la-la thinking we in the West have come to embrace as a result of preferring Rousseau's and Thomas More's fantasies, rather than Hobbes.

I can't praise Art of War enough. If you want to understand politics, propaganda, interpersonal relationships, get this book.

This is the classic translation by Lionel Giles, formerly of the British Museum, of Sun Tzu's great military treatise. It includes numerous footnotes and explanatory notes. It is a 'straight', translation with many of the more interesting and amusing anecdotes that have come to surround Sun Tzu - such as the 'drilling the concubines' story, in which Sun Tzu beheads the Emperor's favourite concubine to demonstrate the efficiency of discipline, and the requirements of leadership.

A quick and entertaining read, especially if you like to read about disfunction where no one is maimed or dismembered. Giles is a local writer and I have been to his part of the world which makes the book interesting to me. He writes well and spins a interesting yarn. I too, found this book at buck a book, but I read it the first time as a library book. I am tempted to read it a third time, but I don't have the time, alas.

Ok, so I'm trying to think of something snappy to say and all just like a real book reviewer would or whatever...but bottom line is that this is a damn good book. I read it a couple of years ago, then found it remaindered at Buck a Book and picked it up, surprised. The second reading was even better than the first. I'm a bit biased, I suppose, because I grew up in a house not far from the Blue House in New Hartford, NY and later attended college near Providence, as the author did. "Wicked good!"

Anyway, Giles' family is an absolute riot and he describes their inadequacies, faults and occasional good points with a loving, humorous tone that had me heaving with laughter. His profanity-spewing mother is especially well-portrayed.

Also hilarious are the author's recollections of teenagedom--playing in a band (well sort of a band) with a three-song repertoire, sailing lessons, and being a closet Barry Manlow fan.

This is all superficial, of course...the heart of the story/novel/memoir is about a rough family life and conflict betwen loved ones. It still makes some excellent serious points about familial relationships without bogging down in pop-psychology.

A great fun quick read. I almost want to send Giles the 19 bucks I saved by buying his book for a buck.

One of my favorite books of all time

A little basic, but a useful look at basic stats of the leading consulting firms. Also recommend the Vault Guide to the Top 50 Consulting Firms - the latter gives an insider's view inside each firm.

This book provides invaluable information for anyone considering a career in consulting.

If you have wondered how the major consulting firms are organized and how they recruit new consultants, get this book. All firms are clearly delineated in terms of culture, typical hours per week and travel requirements, organization of services, recruitment practices, compensation, and employee ratings and insights.

The book directs its attention to recent MBAs; it would be strengthened by inclusion of evaluative comments addressing more experienced talent from industry. None-the-less, any reader can develop a good idea of which firms to target in a job search.

The information on compensation is based on 1999 figures, making it relevant for today's reader. In addition, the well-rounded profiles will remain timely for several years.

Foden's The Last King of Scotland was an unusual novel, and so well-written, that it was to be feared his second would fall short - such is not the case. He has produced a rip-roaring account of the seige of the town of Ladysmith during the Boer War of 1899, filled with memorable characters both fictional and real (Churchill, Ghandi, Buller, Kitchner). The harrowing account of the suffering of civilians and soldiers during the seige is unforgettably brought to life. Although described as a love story, the romance element plays a secondary role in this gripping historical novel. The writer's style may appear to be hit or miss at first --so many characters, so many differing viewpoints --but the reader comes to understand that the very uncertainity of the style is a mirror reflection of the uncertainty of the lives and times of the people involved. I thought that the last section, "Monologues of the Dead", was a most fitting end for a really good book.

THIS IS AN INTERESTING READ, PARTICULARLY FOR SOMEONE INQUISITIVE ABOUT HISTORY AND AT TIMES SITUATIONS LEADING UP TO WORLD WAR II. THE HISTORICAL BACKGROUND SEEMS ACCURATE AND THE CHARACTERS REAL. FOR AWHILE IN THE MIDDLE OF THE BOOK THE PACE OF THE STORY SLOWS SOMEWHAT, BUT THAT IN ITSELF BLENDS WITH THE ACCOUNT OF THE LONG SIEGE OF THE SMALL SOUTH AFRICAN TOWN OF LADYSMITH BY THE BOER FORCES IN 1899. SOME HISTORICAL CHARACTERS ARE REFERRED TO INCLUDING LIEUTENANT WINSTON CHURCHILL, GENERAL BULLER AND OTHERS, BUT THE STORY FOCUSES MAINLY ON THE INTERACTION OF BIRTISH SOLDIERS AND LOCAL TOWNSPEOPLE AND THE WAY THEY DEAL WITH THE SIEGE OF THER TOWN AND WITH THEMSELVES. EACH SETTLER HAS A DIFFERENT STORY AND REASON FOR BEING IN THAT PLACE AT THAT TIME. ALL ARE WAITING FOR THE RELIEF OF LADYSMITH, IF IT COMES. THIS NOVEL IS A TYPE OF FORCAST FOR SOME ASPECTS OF MODERN WAR AND SIEGE SITUATIONS THAT ARE PLAYED OUT TO-DAY.

Do not be misled by the jacket cover-a photograph of a beautiful young woman in Victorian dress gazing wide-eyed at an idyllic background scene and suggesting a romantic interlude. The jacket blurb itself refers to a "young woman who finds love and freedom in the midst of a devastating war" and goes on to suggest that this is her story.

Perhaps the publisher is being deliberately ironic here. Ladysmith, South Africa, was the site of one of the most horrific and bloody episodes in the whole sad story of the Boer War, a war that was waged between England and Holland for control of another country's riches and in which thousands of native, as well as foreign, people met unnecessary and unimaginably gory ends. And Foden describes this horror without reservation. I can assure you, "love story" is not what you will remember or care about here.

Foden's characters come from the British ruling class, British journalists (including Winston Churchill), British and Irish regiments, British settlers and expatriates, Indians (including Mahatma Gandhi), native families displaced by the war, and, of course, the Boers. The reader quickly becomes caught up in the lives of individuals from each of these groups, feeling genuine sympathy for many of them and mourning the tragedies which befall them all as the siege and the skirmishes continue unabated. Like the siege itself, there's a hopelessness to each of their stories, which Foden carries to their conclusions (in some cases at the end of World War II) by appending a final section aptly entitled "Monologues of the Dead." This is a beautifully wrought story of unimaginable carnage.