If you've ever wandered through a friend's or neighbor's garden and seen something so remarkable and yet so simple that you can't believe you didn't think of it yourself, you have some idea of what it's like to read this book. The author has done a wonderful job compiling information on everything from amending soil and fending off pests to creating garden structures from free materials. This book is a motherlode of ideas. I've been using the library's copy, but I'm going to spend a few of my well-pinched pennies on a copy of my own.

Ironically, I read this book on Christmas Eve. However, it's message can be realized at any time of the year. The book's focus is on a twelve-year old boy during the final months of his grandmother's life. His relationship with her and her "final lessons" are very heart warming. No nail-biting plot, nor exploding ending, but I finished the book feeling renewed. If you want a feel-good book with no profanity, violence or sex, give this book a try. Recommended to all readers of Christian fiction.

generalized power serie

Author Maureen Gilmer gives an excellent overview of the northern California plant palette. Not only does she tell you what you can grow, but also gives hints for buying, planting and caring for northern California plants. The Month by Month Gardening Guide is especially helpful since it covers lawn care, trees, shrubs, vines, groundcovers, perennials, annuals, roses, irrigation systems, tools and general tasks. This book is a wonderful complement to the Sunset Western Garden Book.

Having grown up in a major metropolitan area and not having the luxury of trees and shrubs near me as a child I was in the dark but this book was a real eye opener. There was just so much I never knew. Pruning was a complete mystery to me, now I have an 8 foot duck on my lawn. My hedge maze is coming along nicely and will grow in by 2008. The chapter on watering was spectacular! Simply brilliant!

This book is written by a woman posing as a man for a newspaper. Her column was an advise to the lovelorn. The book teaches you about relationships. I had one edition and had left it open at work. Well the chuckles that came from that table and the remarks were precious. She chronicled all types of relationships. This book was originally published in 1938. Times were not so different. Don't the notorious marriage of the King of England to the divorced woman of his dreams. Dorothy Dix is a pseudonym. She mainly taught you to be not be so close to your husband. Keep him at a distance and let him come to you and don't volunteer anything. By keeping him guessing the sparks in the relationship will never die. Now the problem is getting a copy of the book.

Nonlinear Control and Analytical Mechanics is an excellent masterpiece that has been written by experienced researchers and educators. In a little over 200 pages, the authors have summarized all the developments in nonlinear control and analyitical mechanics in the past 50 years. The most important theme in the book is the emphasis that it places on the relationship between control and mechanics through the calculus of variations, and which is often missed by many books on the subject.

The book begins with a lucid approach to modelling of mechanical systems as the first step to control; lays the fundamental principles to analytical mechanics, namely, the Newtonian appraoch, and then the Lagrangian and Hamiltonian approaches; then develops the necessary mathematical tools for analysis and design, which include: the necessary background material of advanced calculus, to the concept of differentible manifolds and vector bundles, and ends with concepts of stability and differentiable dynamics.

The book then introduces nonlinear control systems on differentiable manifolds using local coordinates on R^n; then discuss basic Lyapunov stability theory and advanced stability concepts; then discusses the problem of feedback linearization and equivalence to a linear system; then discusses stabilization and adaptive control ;and ends with variable structure control systems.

The book has been expertly written and will be highly valuable as reference book to practicing engineers and graduate students of electrical and mechanical engineering interested in nonlinear control and its application in various systems such as aircraft control, robotics and automotive and chemical industries.

I have recently been reading everything I can find on, if you will, the "higher uses" of plants, especially in terms of therapeutic landscape design. Rooted in the Spirit is not only beautiful to look at but includes ACCURATE information on the history, lore and uses of plants and herbs. The author uses the scientific names appropriately, which increases the reliability of the text. I am very impressed and would recommend the book even for people who do not have a garden space of their own in which to implement the ideas, since the photographs and garden plans are so well executed, they are delight in themselves.

In the typical format, The Complete Idiot's Guide to a Beautiful Lawn is easy to read and understand with abundant simple definitions and explanations and well-formulated, easy-to-follow instructions. However, there is comparatively little on revitalizing an existing lawn, and the major emphasis is on putting in a new lawn. Granted, lessons from putting in a new lawn can be applied to revitalizing an existing lawn, but the techniques for doing so are not detailed and are rarely even mentioned. A useful book, but not my favorite Complete Idiot's Guide.

The "reader" in the above review did not read the book. It contains extensive instructions for renovating existing lawns. In fact, I have just renovated my lawn based on information in the book and now (3 weeks later) have a nice green carpet of turf in my front yard. She also discusses topdressing at length, a technique I didn't find in any other lawn book I looked at. I found this book very useful and quite comprehensive. IMHO, this is the fundamental homeowner's reference work on lawns.

Because the climate in Southern California is so unique with its rainy and dry seasons, intense sun, and little or no frost, gardening here poses challenges for the uninitiated. When I moved to Southern California from the East Coast I realized that I couldn't even identify most of the plants around me, let alone plan a garden. So, I headed to the library and was lucky enough to find this book. After I checked it out three times in as many months, I realized that I needed my own copy.

"The Complete Guide to Southern California Gardening" offers explanations of the local climate zones, photographs and growing habits of commonly used plants, information about local pests, and even a gardening calendar. Since I grew up where it snows in the winter, I never would have thought to set out pansies, snapdragons, lettuce, and snow peas in October. I re-learned how to care for my beloved hybrid tea roses and discovered the identities of many of the plants growing around my house. There are useful tips, hints, and helpful advice on everything from evaluating soil to choosing which plants to grow.

I would have liked to see more detail on some of the topics. The sections on pests, irrigation, and growing fruits and vegetables fell a bit short. The plant descriptions are brief and are limited to fairly common plants. Of course, a 238 page book cannot be expected to cover enough ground to be a stand-alone gardening book. I recommend this book as a valuable addition to the Southern California gardener's bookshelf.