This Curious George book is a nice alternative to other Halloween books, because it explores Halloween traditions other than trick-or-treating.

Curious George and the man with the yellow hat go to a friends house for a Halloween party, and it is a costume party. George and his friend have to borrow costumes from the hostess, and of course George's curiosity gets him in trouble. The guests play games like bobbing for apples.

This book is funny, like most curious george books. Children aged three and four who are just becoming familiar with Halloween will appreciate George's antics, and learn about halloween and costume parties at the same time.

There is nothing in this book that scared my son, aged 3. I don't think there is anything in here that would scare the average child of 3 or 4 years old. It's wholesome Halloween fun.

ken32

At first I was a little suspicious about this book, "illustrated in the style of H.A.Rey by Martha Weston." I didn't want anybody messing with my dearly loved friend, Curious George! I am glad to say that I was pleasantly surprised. This book tells the Halloween adventures of our curious little pal, as he and the man with the yellow hat go to a costume party. At first, George finds it a bit scary because he doesn't understand about make-believe dress-up, but then he gets into the fun of it. They need to borrow costumes from the hostess of the party and George has lots and lots of choices. Due to George's typical curiosity, the party becomes much more lively than the hostess intended! The story and the illustrations are true to the style we know and love from the original Curious George books by Margret and H.A. Rey. The pictures are brimming with action and excitement and colorful fun. This story has the added benefit of introducing some Halloween characters that little ones may be frightened of and showing that they are really just pretend and taking the scariness out of them. It also shows fun Halloween customs like jack-o-lanterns, bobbing for apples and other party activities. This is a real treat for Curious George fans and for fans of Halloween. Don't miss it.

My son is two years old, and loves this Curious George book. Curious George Goes to an Ice Cream Shop was not written by H.A. Rey, the creator of Curious George. Rather, it was adapted from a Curious George video.

Still, it's a great story.

The Man With the Yellow Hat leaves George in the custody of Mr. Herb, at Mr. Herb's new ice cream shop. When George is unattended, he jumps on the counter, and begins adding scoops of various flavors to Mr. Herb's order! Later, he hops onto a counter near a window looking into the street. His antics prompt many onlookers, and suddenly Mr. Herb has more ice cream orders than he can handle!

As always, the mischievous George escapes any real trouble, while having a lot of fun. Everything turns out well.

ken32

Once again George gets into mischief when the man in the yellow hat is not looking. George keeps us in stitches as he goes from one flavor to the next. Who wouldn't want to try ALL the flavors in the ice cream shop? This is a lovely book, and my students especially enjoyed reading it the day we made our own homemade ice cream!

if you know you have to change the way you eat to feel at your peak for the second half of life, look no further, this book takes you along this new path with a sense of adventure and practicality. the author understands the conflicts of time crunch with the desire to take care of ourselves . Her years as a caterer bring both elegance and ease to every aspect of shopping preparing and cooking she shares her tips and techniques that make cooking fit into our lives and she encourages eating and entertaining as a social connection with family and friends that is an absolute boon. Itkeeps me from buying into the idea that there is no reason not to survive on take out and prepared foods, she is interested in food as a way of flourishing.That really appeals to me.

Jane Wilson of New York's "The Party Box" caterers offers and unusual and entertaining treatise on the problem of enjoying food when you've reached the age when you "just can't eat the way you used to."

Wilson says older midlifers (over 50) should take full advantage of their unique ability to free themselves from living (and eating) by the clock. She recommends eating smaller meals more often and offers a 2 breakfast plan for seniors: "begin the day with light exercise, break for fruit, at mid-morning eat a small breakfast."

The book contains 250 recipes especially adapted for the special needs of middle age. From Lemon-Zest Cauliflower Soup and Ruby Red Cranberry Borscht to Raspberry Aspic with Chopped Fresh Limes and Date Apricot Squares, recipes stress enjoying a low-fat and high-fiber diet in easy and delicious meals.

There's a weekly supermarket guide as well as tips for streamlined preparation and entertaining. The idea is to switch to lighter foods and enjoy more of them.

This book's unusual and delicious recipes from a number of cultures world-wide provide some rare and yummy culinary treats.

An excellent and well documented introduction to Weston's oeuvre and philosophy. One of the true and underrated innovators in photography. If you love Adams, Depardon or Cartier Bresson's landscapes,welcome home ! Some stunning pictures of the desert. Very very good repro quality. Buy with confidence.

This book will appeal to all of those who appreciate high quality reproductions of Edward Weston's finest works. Dunes, cypress, nudes, and portraits are all conjured up by the name of Edward Weston, and each is well represented in this gorgeous volume.

Before going into a description of this book, let me further caution those of you who do not know Edward Weston that he much favored nude photographs of women and had intimate relations with many women in his life which are described in Terence Pitts' interesting essay. If such things offend you, I suggest that you avoid this volume.

"Edward understood thoughts and concepts that dwell on simple mystical levels." -- Ansel Adams

It is appropriate that this volume contains some comments by Ansel Adams about Edward Weston. The two have many similarities in their work, and were friends. Both were attracted to the underlying grandeur of nature, and looked for the connectedness in all things (a sort of fractal-based perspective on unity). Weston was especially successful in integrating images of people with his nature images.

The works speak for themselves. "Edward Weston, contrary to so many now practicing photography, never verbalized on his own work." -- Ansel Adams

The potential for each of us from considering these images is very great from Adams' point of view. "You might discover, through Edward Weston's work, how basically good you are, or might become."

Edward Weston was formally trained to be a studio photographer, and soon sought to escape the limitations of doing commercial portraits. He was very skilled in this area, and there was always demand for his work. After 1930, he was able to stop retouching portraits which was a great relief to him.

Nature always fascinated him, and in the latter part of his life he was able to focus on the potential of his work rather than on eking out a living. In the 1930s he received the first Guggenheim Fellowship to travel for photography, and made good use of this to see locales he would not otherwise have reached.

Weston's influence is important in the 20th century for establishing photography as an art, rather than as representation.

Weston did his best work in California and Mexico, where he traveled extensively. I was also impressed with his industrial photography, which I had not seen much of before. He had an amazing eye for form in industrial settings and in designs of mundane objects.

The images here are well reproduced in almost all cases, and the size of the pages is excellent for the images involved.

Here are my favorites from the images in this superb book:

Epilogue 1919

Sunny Corner in an Attic 1920

Ruth Shaw 1922

Armco Steel 1922

Lois Kellog 1923

Rose Roland, Mexico 1926

Shell 1927

Shells 1927

Cabbage Leaf 1931

Cypress Root, Seventeen Mile Drive 1929

Cypress Root and Succulents, Point Lobos 1930

Bedpan 1930

Charis 1934

Sheels and Hill, San Juan 1934

Dunes (5), Oceano, 1936

Iceberg Lake 1937

Juniper, Lake Tenaya 1937

Nude (#4 and #5) Oceano 1936

Dante's View, Death Valley 1937

Church Door, Hornitos, California 1940

Potato Cellar, Lake Tahoe 1937

Stonecrop and Cypress, Point Lobos 1939

I believe that a rewarding way to enjoy this work even more is to give yourself the equivalent of a Guggenheim fellowship for a shorter period of time, and visit many of the locales where Edward Weston produced these images. Take along your camera, and see what you can capture for yourself. It will increase your appreciation of what he saw, and the issues of capturing it for others.

Enjoy the beauty around you, in all of its natural forms.

The fine black and white photography of Edward Weston is featured in this oversized book and is one of those books to viewed over and over.The book also has an extremely satisfying text that highlights some of the phases of his career. The essays lend insight into the man. Of particular interest was the indication that Weston saw his photographic art in the same light as some of the famous Mexican artists of the time like, Diego Rivera, Jose Clemente Orozco and others. He strived to have his art looked at in the same light as those in other mediums. He was drawn to these artists, their culture and their works. The after effects of the Mexican revolution, transformed into a cultural renaissance was his palette. Also discussed was his mingling with artists of his times and his reciprocal affect on fellow photographic artist Tina Mondotti. Weston saw and recognized the art in the everyday lives of the the people, heightened during festivals, especially of a religious nature. He particualrly liked the pulquerias. He also was intrigued by the folk art created by common artisans and captured these elements with his lens. Although the book is not limited to his Mexican phase, I found this part of particular interest. There are also paintings that were done by his contemporaries with parallels drawn to his work. His nudes are an exquisite honor to the female body and all it's wonderful curves. There are plenty of nudes featured as this must have been one of his favortie subjects. The early works are featured but his later works are amazing. After 1927 his sojourn to California and his studies of natural forms at the beach and in the sand dunes resulted in some phenomenal images. Also his ability to see erotic imagery in fruit forms is inspiring. If you like the visual arts you will love the works of this master photographer. A great gift book for the camera buff in your life.

The show for which this book is the catalog was at the Museum of Fine Arts Boston during May of 2000. As a graduate student at Boston University studying photography I found this book to be wonderful - it is beautifully printed, and the scholarship that went into the text and editing really offer insight and context for Weston's photography. He is most well known for works like the one which appears on the cover, but the book includes earlier and later works, and discuss how they relate to the famous ones. Weston was active in the first part of the 20th century, and most of the works in this show were taken in California and Mexico. His photography is beautiful and rich and this book would help novice and connoisseur alike appreciate it more.

This book is a very thorough, yet simply written book that gives a great over-view of Multi-cultural celebrations. As a teacher, it has been a great asset to my classroom.

This is a great book and the whole family can learn together. It is simple, easy to read and understand yet very detailed on the explanations and descriptions. Everybody can learn and it is a great way to open the world to your children for understanding who other cultures celebrate. A very nice book.

The author leaves you at the end of each chapter searching for more time to read the next. After reading this book you won't believe that it is true.

The book was the best book I have ever read..

I was lent this book by a friend of mine, who said that something I had written had reminded him of it. I know nothing of the author and for the first 30 or 40 pages really didn't like this book: I thought it was poorly written, showed the author's opinions too grubbily, and had all the marks of those early-twentieth century dilletantes - the upper classes, country vicars, blue rinse spinsters and retired soldiers - that believe that because they can write words they can therefore write novels people will want to read (celebrities are the modern equivalent). But then my attitude changed and its true charm overtook me. As a naive, if not too subtle, allegory it works well. The characters that start off seeming shallow, crude and generally unbelievable, grew to become sturdy archetypes straight out of folk tale: yes, Mr Grutter may be stupid, but so is Jack of the beanstalk. The religion it pushes rather too hard is of a peculiar kind, which seems to advocate sex before marriage as long as it is between two loving hearts. It also avoids gawky sentimentality by portraying an evil of a particularly disarming and frank kind: a bitter old woman pimping the young village girls to the squire's sons. I'm sure that the book is no longer available, and I'm certain that the religious theme would grow very tiresome very quickly if used in his other books, but I enjoyed this book and perhaps wish that I'd read it with a different attitude from the very beginning.

It is a very good book. It is a pity that is almost impossible to find it, even in english (italian would be better).

Kind regards

Although not one of the towering books of the twentieth century, this is surely one of the most satisfying. The Mr. Weston of the title is no one less than God Himself, who visits the English village of Folly Down in the guise of a travelling wine vendor. Accompanied by his assistant, the Archangel Michael, he makes his way among the inhabitants of Folly Down, doing justice to the wicked and comforting the afflicted as far as he is able. However, Mr. Weston finds sorting out the problems of human merit and desert as puzzling and difficult as do the rest of us. But in the end good and justice, of a sort, prevail.

While this is definitely a novel about God and His relationship to His creatures, it is far from orthodox. In fact, although Powys takes his subject quite seriously and movingly, he writes with a sly, down to earth humor. Unfortunately, this may work against the book's ever becoming popular--it's too irreverent and racy for the piously stuffy, too thoughtful and honest for the facile unbeliever. However, anyone--believer, agnostic, or atheist--who is curious about how a benevolent God might manage His less than benevolent creation, or how such a God might even become accountable to His creatures, will find this book rewarding. Heck, even this good ole Southern Baptist boy from Cut and Shoot, TX, liked readin it!

In one sense this is a fascinating book, but for all the wrong reasons. For an armchair mountaineer/Everest-addict like me, it did provide new information about the 1996 disaster, adding some interesting details that were not included in "Into Thin Air." This new info is why I gave the book 2 stars instead of none. But G. Weston DeWalt is such a ham-handed writer, and he has such a big axe to grind, that the book probably doesn't really deserve even 2 stars. I couldn't figure out why the late great Anatoli Boukreev, who was one of the world's top mountain climbers, teamed up with such a mediocre talent as DeWalt for his ghostwriter. It's a pity that a real mountaineer and/or a skilled author (Greg Child, David Roberts, Jim Curran, or John Hart would have been perfect) wasn't chosen to write the book instead. It would have been a much more readable tale (and probably a lot more believable, too). As another reviewer commented in one of the entries posted below, Boukreev deserved a lot better than he got from this fellow DeWalt.

The main problem with "The Climb" is that Boukreev's heroic story is tainted by DeWalt's incessant sniping at John Krakauer, the author of "Into Thin Air." In a tone of voice that drips with smug indignation, DeWalt never passes up an opportunity to get in a nasty dig at Krakauer. DeWalt really lays it on thick, and his sanctimonious diatribes come across as cynical and phony. I was left with the impression that he must have been motivated by an intense personal hatred or resentment of Krakauer. DeWalt's bile seeps into too many pages of "The Climb," poisoning the entire book. His tiresome refrain is that Krakauer's mission in writing about Everest was to destroy Boukreev's reputation. Anybody who has read the recent illustrated edition of "Into Thin Air" (which has a long new chapter at the end where Krakauer very convincingly refutes DeWalt's charges and offers sympathetic insights into Boukreev's life) will realize that DeWalt's claims are so exaggerated that they seem downright nutty. The net effect is that DeWalt's credibility is badly undermined. After finishing this book, I wondered whether he and his publisher decided beforehand to write and market "The Climb" specifically as an attack on Krakauer, hoping to create as much controversy as possible, capitalize on the amazing popularity of "Into Thin Air," and get more attention for their own book. Heck, my paperback copy of "The Climb" even had a big red sticker on the front cover hyping it as a "response to John Krakauer from G. Weston DeWalt". It's almost like the publisher didn't have confidence that readers would buy DeWalt's book unless they slapped Krakauer's name prominently across the cover! Using Krakauer's name to sell books was perhaps a shrewd marketing decision, but the pandering, self-congratulatory, attack-dog tone of "The Climb" wasn't any favor to Boukreev, may he rest in peace.

I enjoyed this book. No two perspectives are ever the same, and this holds true for each person who was part of this tragic climb in May '96. I first read Krakauer's "Into Thin Air" and then went on to read Lene Gammelgard's "Climbing High" before reading Boukreev's account of the same disaster.

I found Boukreev to be rather modest and introverted when I read his account. He worked hard throughout the expedition, carrying loads and doing what needed to be done in establishing camps and fixing lines for the clients. He may not have spent as much time schmoozing with his clients, but he was still working on learning the English language.

I came away from the book with respect for this unassuming man who did what he could (which was more than any of the others in Fisher's and Hall's teams) considering his drained strength and energy after climbing to the summit.

I found it interesting that Hall's guide who made it back to camp during the storm, never went back out with Boukreev to try to help his two stranded teammembers (Beck Weathers and the Japanese woman).

I think that Boukreev suffered from all the negative attention that he received and just wanted his perspective of what happened on the mountain to be heard.

THE CLIMB is a far more evenly told tale of a tragedy about which the pseudo-brilliance of hindsight has managed to supply everyone with the omniscience of God. No doubt, mistakes were made, though in his self-defense Boukreev explains why, with the assistance and clarity of G. Weston Dewalt's research, either everyone is to blame or no one is to blame. I recommend THE CLIMB either as an alternative or as a companion to "Into Thin Air" -- but unequivocably as a must-read if you want to learn about Mt. Everest, high-altitude mountain-climbing, and the importance of respecting both the mountain and your own personal limitations. I would also like to extend my heartfelt condolences to the friends and family of not only Anatoli Boukreev, but to all of those who died on Everest on May 10, 1996, and to the others who climbed that season who have since perished in the mountains.

I read the prequel (which came out later) to this book, Ecotopia Emerging, first. Ecotopia Emerging was an excellent book, with a pretty gripping plot that did a good job of highlighting Callenbach's call for a more balanced and ecologically sound way of living. I read this book a few weeks later, and I could barely get through it. If you've ever read any science fiction concerning a utopian or alternative society which is visited by an outside scientist/journalist/observer who then ends up becoming a part of the society (think Walden Two), you've already read this book. The book is simply a mouthpiece in which the journalist (with whom you are supposed to identify) wanders around recording his observations in Ecotopia (and sleeping with every woman he meets along the way). There is no real plot or characterization, and it's too predictable to be exciting. If you're looking for a good work of fiction about an ecotopian way of living, do yourself a favor and read Ecotopia Emerging, not this.

Ecotopia, by Ernest Callenbach, is not what one might call a novel. It's written from the point of view of a New York journalist exploring the world of the Northwest after an environmental secession. Others have mentioned the lack of character depth, but the point of the book is not to interest you in the characters; it is to interest you in the world.

In Ecotopia, people are very free, relaxed. In San Francisco, rather than the endless cars and streets and smog, there are parks and newly ubiquitous bikes. The idea behind the bikes is that you can go outside and find them, ride them where you're going, then leave them there for the next person to use. Interesting?

The culture and society of Ecotopia are thought-provoking, at least for a teenager. When I read this book it was the first time I really thought about what things could be done as alternatives to the current way of life. After reading Ecotopia, I am more environmentally conscious. I enjoyed the concept behind this book very much. I would recommend it to anyone who is interested in the future if the Green party takes over, or something along those lines.

This book is unique in it's description of a totally different society. Influenced by the growing ecological (radical) movement, Callenbach gets us reading the notes and articles of a journalist that comes from the country from which Ecotopia separated (USA) and became independent. Callenbach "builds" a very detailed society, showing it's positive and negative (after all the journalist was from an "enemy" country) aspects. But even so, the positive aspects are so emphasized that we want to join that society when we finish reading the book. It is a whole new concept: not only the economic or political system, but also the interpersonal relations, the psichology of everyone, love, relations with Nature, etc. Callenbach was successful in making a literary book that describes a whole society. I would give 5 stars to this book if it wasn't for some parts that became too descriptive and without much emotion. Overall, this is a great book that should be read by anyone who wants to know about other ways of social organization.