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Paul Theroux, whose inveterate globe-trotting marks him as one of the most restless writers working today, lands us in the Far East with this novel of personal lives swept up in the handover of Hong Kong from Britain to China. But the end of Colonial rule is perfectly unwelcome for Neville Mullard and his mother Betty, who run a textile factory that's been in the family for 50 years, and who have spent a lifetime insulating themselves from the Chinese culture that's all around them. Now, the shadowy and dangerous Mr. Hung wants to buy the business, and he won't take no for an answer--whether or not the Mullards want to sell. Theroux, the author of several travel books, has few equals when it comes to the portrayal of exotic cultures, a skill that makes this one of the first great novels of the Hong Kong handover of 1997.
Book Description
Ninety-nine years of colonial rule are ending as the British prepare to hand over Hong Kong to China. For Betty Mullard and her son, Bunt, it doesn't concern them - until the mysterious Mr. Hung from the mainland offers them a large sum for their family business. They refuse, yet fail to realize Mr. Hung is unlike the Chinese they've known: he will accept no refusals. When a young female employee whom Bunt has been dating vanishes, he is forced to make important decisions for the first time in his life - but his good intentions are pitted against the will of Mr. Hung and the threat of the ultimate betrayal.
Customer Reviews:
A pre-97 Hong Kong thriller.......2006-06-28
Set in the year or two just before the British handover, this book really brings back that strange period of a few years when noone knew quite what was going to happen. Would the Chinese move in with their tanks 1 month early just to make a point? Would capitalism in Hong Kong end? Would the progress made under the British be rolled back and the province absorbed into the mother country without trace? Well of course none of that happened (at least not yet).
As usual Theroux's characters are vivid and his style matter-of-fact yet very informative. I would have liked a bit of a happier ending but I guess that just reflects the chances of a happy ending for HK at that time. Also the mainland Chinese are portrayed as somewhat pantomime villains. This work doesn't quite stand out like his travel books but still definitely worth reading.
One of Several Essential Books on Hong Kong for Visitors.......2003-10-30
This Hong Kong classic is both a great read and a great help for Westerners planning to live in, or visit Hong Kong. I first read it when I lived there in the late 90's, even began reading it on the Star Ferry when it came out in early 1997. Bunt is an old "Hong Kong Belonger", British, lives atop Victoria Peak ("the" address to have), has a factory in the district of Kowloon Tong, and has a pretty easy life thanks to the protection of British rule and law in a region better known for dictatorships. But all that is coming to an end, with Britain handing over Hong Kong to China. The Chinese military bureaucrat Hung arrives to force Bunt to sell the Chinese Army his business - the Red Army wants to start making some cash, and Bunt is bewildered and soft due to his life in the colony and can't cope well. The harshness of Hunt and the fuddy-duddyness of Bunt are well-drawn depictions of actual Hong Kong types. The ending is very Hong Kong. Also very Hong Kong are the myriads of other types depicted here - Chinese, British, American. The Chinese bigot yelling "Gweilo!" Bunt's horrible mother yelling "Chinky-Chonk!" The American trying to buy a new nationality to avoid paying US taxes. Many of the anecdotes and scenes perfectly capture the harsh underbelly of the place which has its origins in the tragic influx of all those millions of Chinese refugees fleeing China to the safety of then-British Hong Kong and the huge insecurities that created. This is a book to read both before you go AND after you've lived there for a year, many of the subtler aspects of the book will be revealed to you. One thing the book the makes no concessions to is the important concept in Chinese culture of "Face" - there is nothing more importatnat than NOT losing face in China, so warts-and-all books like this are not appreciated. But the book is written for any readers who like a good read to contain accuracy of description rather than a tourist bureau spin account. The book was banned in the People's Republic for just this reason (minor shades of Tiannamen Square!) There are also several in-house jokes which will become apparent after you've been in Hong Kong awhile - for example the placing of a factory in the district of Kowloon Tong, a subtle comment on how awful that residential district was to live in - locally reffered to as "exclusive" (this is "face" at work again), it sat under the final landing path of the international airport which was next door!
If you're going to Hong Kong, also consider reading the other *Hong Kong classics* most expats have on their shelves: Jan Morris's *Hong Kong* has loads of information on Hong Kong up to 1997, including an important account of the tragic influx of all those millions of Chinese refugees fleeing China for Hong Kong, how that situation vastly overcrowded the place and made for a pressure-cooker atmosphere, and how even today it is embarressing for Hong Kong Chinese to talk about (again, it causes loss of "face"). Great info on the British days, too, and evocative descriptions of the wonderful hill-hiking Hong Kong has to offer (don't miss Plover Cove!).
Bo Yang's *The Ugly Chinaman and the Crisis in Chinese Culture* is a fascinating account by a Taiwanese journalist of the stultifying effect many aspects of Chinese culture has had on the Chinese - especially the worship of the past during imperial times that led to the near-death of critical thinking. The author relates this legacy to many of the unpleasant "underbelly" - side of things in day-today Hong Kong
life - the rude crowds, bad public behaviour, spitting, etc. Though that may sound harsh, it actually helped me to appreciate things Chinese better knowing the tragic origin of these things. I appreciated more the great aspects of China - the poetry of Li Po, the classic novels Story of the Stone, etc - because of Bo Yang's book. Sadly, Bo's book is also banned in China proper.
Timothy Mo's novel *The Monkey King* is a great account of an eccentric Hong Kong Chinese family - I felt I met these people again and again while living there.
National Geographic's video *Hong Kong* is a must see portrait of the real Hong Kong - not some tourist bureau fantasy but a remarkable look into the millions of refugees who escaped to Hong Kong after the Chinese revolution.
The film *China Box*, by a local Hong Kong boy who made it to the West, is essential for potential expats - watch it for the *depiction* of the city, which is perfectly rendered. The story is a little so-so, but if you're going to live there, watch the visuals. This is what Hong Kong looks like. The depiction of the young Chinses refugee (played by Gong Li) being ridiculed for her bad accent buy older, "more established" refugees is harrowingly accurate.
Lastly, check out Austin Coate's classic, *Myself A Mandarin*, a memoir of a colonial judge in the 1950's trying to sort out the culture clashes between British Law and Chinese sensibilities.
If you're going to live in Hong Kong, ALL these books are even more illuminating read a second time after you've lived there a year.
A cobbled piece of fiction.......2003-07-12
Paul Theroux's Kowloon Tong (meaning nine-dragon pond, a district in Hong Kong) is a novel of Hong Kong on the verge of the 1997 handover. Written against the historical backdrop of handing a free Chinese city back to a totalitarian Chinese state, Kowloon Tong is far less glittering from the inevitably rip-roaring story for the global media, it is a piece of cobbled (opportunistic, maybe) fiction.
Neville "Bunt" Mullard was born and raised in Hong Kong, went to the posh Queen's College, and inherited the almost-monopolizing Imperial Stitching Company, which manufactured badges sewn on breast pockets of sports-jackets from his late father and his partner Henry Chuck. At 40, Bunt was not married, devoid of friends, frequented bars and brothels, but felt the pressure of his dead brother, dead father, and the late avuncular Chuck hovering near him at work.
A pathetic mama's boy, Bunt lived a life that synchronized with his mother's, so confining and dull. She knew so much (too much) about his life, his daily routine and his where about that he deliberately contrived to create secrets (the topless bar and an affair with an employee Mei-Ping) and manipulated his mother's mood.
As the British prepared to hand over Hong Kong to the Chinese motherland, the much-talked-about upheaval did not concern the Mullards, who lived nonchalantly at the Peak (a rich-and-famous, on-top-of-the-city neighbor which afforded panoramic view of the city and was away from, say, 95% of the colonial population). They executed their social fares with the small band of Brits at the Cricket Club, the English tea ritual at the Hong Kong club, outings to horse races by taxi, and lived as if the city and majority of its inhabitants (meaning the Chinese) didn't exist. The Cantonese was such grating noise that was remotely similar to any human speech. The Chinese food made them retch.
When a Mr. Hung, who spoke perfect English with an American accent, on behalf of the Chinese People's Liberation Army (soon to station in Hong Kong), offered 9 million to purchase the building of Imperial Stitching, the Mullards' world of insouciance was jolted. Through a series of minatory gestures that might have attributed to the missing employee Ah Fu and janitor Woo, for the first time in their life the Mullards learned the truth of the colony's prospect-smiling but threatening and know-it-all Chinese officials behind a system of bribes and disloyalty.
I have to applause to Theroux's keen eye on the geographical and cultural details of Hong Kong that are usually accessible to those who live in the city, the natives. His effort in nailing down the Hong Kong Chinese to the root is admirable and formidable-the inveterate trait to look after family, to not to say the thing that was no the heart, to say "I don't know" when you knew, to not to show feelings and emotion and (this is my favorite) to mob the exit on arrival in any transportation mean as if it was a panicky evacuation under an emergency. That's Hong Kong, in addition to all the incessant noise-the clanking of trams, the beeping of cell phones, and the ubiquitous charivari of Cantonese conversations that sounded like a hair-pulling argument, serenaded the city.
The book also deftly captures Hong Konger's despondency of the uncertain future. For over 100 years, under the British governance, Hong Kong stood as the only Chinese society that lived an ideal never experienced and realized at any time in the history of any Chinese society. The colony, which practiced capitalism, provided a stable home for refugees from turbulent events of Chinese history such as the Cultural Revolution and the Great Leap Forward. Inhabitants of Hong Kong were those who fled the Communists in 1949 and their descendants. Thus in the proximity of 1997, a taut atmosphere hovered over the colony as everyone tried to secure an escape route, which usually manifested in the form of a foreign passport, a green card, a relative in Canada, or a marriage of convenience. Theroux has astutely seen to this political tension in his novel.
What infuriates me about this book and thus makes it a cobbled piece of fiction is the puerile plot. Theroux portrayed the Hong Kong Chinese women as some of the most naïve and gullible and stupidest species of the human. Women were constantly abased, manipulated, used, and sexually abused. As a native of Hong Kong, I could vouch that the chance of an affair between a foreigner and a factory worker is infinitesimal. The affair itself was stuck in a deadlock and the characters that involved in the affair were one-dimensional. Betty Mullard's ruler-ver-subject attitude toward the Hong Kongers was also snobbish and obnoxious. If the Chinese were really so out-of-focus and were like riddles to her, why couldn't she at least try to know the Chinese people? It was true the British were rulers and the Chinese the subjects, but what infuriates me is the arrogance on her part, not knowing she was in Hong Kong, where the majority was the Chinese people.
It occurred to me toward the end that the stitching company and its fate might have served as a symbolism of Hong Kong but I prefer not to give away. The ending was disappointing and ambivalent. It is a cobbled piece of fiction that astutely delves in the significance of the historical backdrop but sacrifices the backbone of the story. Readers will learn more about the culture of Hong Kong but disappoint at the story. 2.5 stars.
Riding the Iron Rice Bowl.......2002-02-23
Theroux's early travel writing places him firmly alongside Lewis and Newby; his middle period novels only a little below Greene. This novel, however, makes 'Nobel House' seem well-researched and insightful.
The plot of Kowloon Tong is loose and although the novel is thankfully short, Theroux seems to anticipate his reader's ennui with the whole concept well before the middle of the book. It is the sort of thing you would expect of someone who'd paid a fortnight's vist to the Territory to stay with friends who didn't go out much.
The characterisation of both the English and Chinese is wholely unbelievable and the energy and 'vividness' of Hong Kong which has always been unconnected with ownership of the place is totally lacking.
Clearly a piece of opportunism on the part of his publisher, which Theroux should be ashamed of himself for going along with.
Highly evocative of Hong Kong I knew.......2001-10-23
I first read Kowloon Tong while living in Stanley, Hong Kong, just a few months before the Hand-over. I have found its rendering of attitudes of expatriates and chinese by far the most accurate account of the Hong Kong I experienced on a day to day basis. Theroux is equally fair (and equally blunt) about British, Chinese and American residents in Hong Kong - I encountered the boorish behaviour described here everyday - that was Hong Kong, a place where people went to make money, or to escape from China (or both). Not everyone, of course, was like Bunt and Hung, but these are recognizable types.
The plot is that of Graham Greene thriller, with the sarcasm of Evelyn Waugh and Gore Vidal thrown in. I should add that I find many of the comments on this page highly evocative of the Hong Kong I knew, too - the novel was banned in China and was a painful read for some Hong Kong British, Chines and Americans I knew (especially the types well-described here -chiefly long-term residents). The detached reader should enjoy a good read that's also highly accurate in its description.
The Hong Kong I knew was about the most un-literary place on the planet. "Criticism" of Hong Kong was thought of as a pamphlet from the Tourist Bureau, an announcement from the Government Publicity Office, or the Website of a company wanting to do business in China. But that is not what novelists do.
Book Description
Tales from the dating pond.
"It only takes one."
"There are a lot of other fish in the sea."
"Every pot has a cover."
"When it's your time, it will just happen."
Ugh!
Karrie Kline had heard it all. But her search for the perfect man had never been all that pressing until her laugh lines became more noticeable, she attended one too many bridal showers and woke up next to far too many never-gonna-commit men. Suddenly, she realized that finding someone to love (and who actually loved her back) was important. Karrie wanted more. But knowing what she wanted, and actually getting what she wanted . . . well, that was a lot to think about.
Through her wry, witty and sometimes wrenching recollections, join Karrie as she looks back at over fifteen years of dating vignettes involving disastrous fix-ups, strange chance encounters and missed opportunities. From the shortest date in Manhattan history, to Mr. FamousHollywoodTelevisonActor who was more bark than bite, these are tales for every woman -- whether she's found her Prince Charming, or her lips are incredibly chapped from kissing her own share of frogs.
Download Description
"It only takes one."
"There are a lot of other fish in the sea."
"Every pot has a cover."
"When it's your time, it will just happen."
Ugh!
Karrie Kline had heard it all. But her search for the perfect man had never been all that pressing until her laugh lines became more noticeable, she attended one too many bridal showers and woke up next to far too many never-gonna-commit men. Suddenly, she realized that finding someone to love (and who actually loved her back) was important. Karrie wanted more. But knowing what she wanted, and actually getting what she wanted...well, that was a lot to think about.
From the shortest date in Manhattan history, to Mr. FamousHollywoodTelevisionActor who was more bark than bite, these are tales for every woman whether she's found her Prince Charming, or her lips are incredibly chapped from kissing her own share of frogs.
Customer Reviews:
Nothing... Just nothing.......2007-06-20
There are very few books in my life that I have not been able to finish. This was one of them. Nothing happened. Nothing funny, nothing exciting, nothing even tragic, except that it was completely boring! I found myself fighting to read it thinking that it has to pick up some time, but it didn't. Finally I gave up. I think the plot had potential if only some zany things would have happened. It was just a looooonnngggg list of boring, not so great dates and relationships that didn't work out.
Not what I was hoping for.......2007-06-19
I was excited to read this book and was very happy with it until the last 50 pages. I guess maybe I can't relate to this book very well b/c I've never been through this. I'm still glad I read it and would recommend it to anyone who has had bad dates.
Been there and done that too...finally found my Prince.......2007-05-25
I absolutely loved this book. My sister got it for me for my birthday and it is exactly what I needed. I lived in the City after my divorce and thought I was the only one meeting losers. It was nice to speed read this fun and funny book. Of course, I am at a place where I can now laugh about all those mis-adventures with the opposite sex. I was really able to understand the accepted silent frustration the writer communicated.
Poignant and laugh out loud funny in the same read.......2007-04-17
I finished this rather long book in only 2 days, getting little sleep, because I was on the edge of my seat trying to see if Graff could meet Prince Charming, and was riveted by her sometimes depressing, sometimes hysterical dating tales.
Graff details many years of her dating and relationships, which necessarily include some of her career and family issues, which I personally found to be enjoyable and touching.
But, the dating is the main course. Some of the most memorable stories? 1) When Graff pretends to be Christian so that her new Jewish boyfriend gets to feel like a badboy for dating a Shiksa; 2) Graff's mixup from the personals column where she grabs the wrong man at the meeting place; and 3) the time she goes on a long weekend in New England with a boyfriend, and as she is contentedly relaxing in the car on the drive home, he commences to tell her that, all in all, the weekend wasn't worth it, because he had to spend too much money, and proceeds to count down his expenditures. Doh!
The other thing about this book that I liked is that there isn't a nice, pat ending. Like life! If you are tired of dating, you will find a lot of support, and some good laughs, in this book.
Don't Read This if you are Expecting Bridget Jones or Becky Bloomwood!.......2007-01-14
A good friend lent this book to me but warned it was not the typical "girl meets boy" read. I am glad she told me that because I was prepared for what I got.
Do not expect this book to be like the "Shopaholic" series, "Bridget Jones," or anything along the same lines. It is nothing of the sort. It is more of a mini-memoir. I believe several of the other reviewers expected it to be like that and when they began reading, were so disappointed they had nothing positive to say. Go into this book in the right mindset and you may just find yourself enjoying parts of it, or even the whole thing.
That said, the review: Instead of adopting from her fellow writers by presenting a character with her normal job and normal everything else and watching as she finally finds "THE ONE," Laurie Graff wrote from the heart and presented a "non-feel goodie" that most single women over the age of 20 can relate to in one way or the other.
The dates she goes on range from pathetic to pretty funny, albeit appalling. Are men really like this? Well, in fact, I have been on crappy dates before where the men truly did act the same way but with a different context. I did laugh at a few of the men, and I felt alarm alongside Karrie when some of them showed severe anger problems at the first date, but there were times I felt exasperated with Karrie, especially when she continued to date certain guys she truly did not like nor was even happy with. It drove me crazy that she wasted so much time on them but then I realized Karrie was so desperate for love in some sense that she kept going back, as do many of us whether we realize it or not. That was the single way I symphathized with Karrie.
Honestly, while I enjoyed most of the book, it simultaneously managed to scare the crap out of me. I am 20 years junior to Karrie, and while I am not looking for matrimony anytime soon, Karrie signaled to me what it very well could be like two decades from now. So while I was rooting for Karrie, a neurotic actress sort, I also felt much trepidation throughout, making this book hard to put down yet incredibly depressing.
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- Shin adjusts to his parasyte...
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Parasyte #4
Hitoshi Iwaaki , and
Hitosi Iwaaki
Manufacturer: TokyoPop
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ASIN: 1892213443 |
Customer Reviews:
Shin adjusts to his parasyte..........2001-07-13
In this the 4th installment of the Parasyte series, our hero Shin begins to adjust to his pal lefty, and even begins to show cruelty-- enough to scare sara. He also discovers that the new kid at school, one Hideo Shimada, is more than he seems....
Another great book in a great series! Bloody and violent with deep emotion and feeling, great black and white artistry and an involving story, this is one that manga fans shouldn't miss!
Product Description
Success stories and inspired interviews from inside the world of Christian publishing. More than 40 well-known authors, editors, agents, and other publishing professionals who help shape the books enjoyed by millions provide inspiration and up-close insights for readers as well as aspiring writers. Among those interviewed are Left Behind series co-author Jerry Jenkins (on handling success), bestselling authors Terri Blackstock (about writing fiction), and Karen Kingsbury (on connecting with readers).
Customer Reviews:
Helpful Advice the Title Doesn't Tell You About.......2007-02-10
This is a smart purchase for anyone interested in Christian writing, but neither the title nor the subtitle captures what the book is really about. The author interviewed 40 authors, editors and others involved in various aspects of publishing summarizing input from each one in a separate chapter. From Responding to God's Call to Write to Learning from Genre Experts to Building Your Presence with Readers and the Media, the seven sections provide advice, helpful sidebars, and URLs for more information.
A quick read but, even more, a book that can be returned to again and again for reference and guidance.
Wrong Title, Poor Cover Design but Excellent Content.......2006-06-03
Some books have a radical disconnect in the way they come together--and this book is one of them.
Almost everyone inside and outside of publishing would like to know how to make a bestseller--and for those of us involved in Christian publishing--in particular a Christian bestseller. You will not learn how to make a bestseller in this book. The word doesn't appear in the index and barely appears in the entire book. It's not about The Making of a Christian Bestseller. It IS about the subtitle, "An Insider's Guide to Christian Publishing."
I was discussing this book with a well-known literary agent who has been involved in Christian publishing for many years. He pegged this book cover design as "the worst cover design on the planet." I agree. Whoever selected florescent orange with white type knew nothing about selling books. The back cover is not readable. Poor is a kind word for this type of effort.
Even with these caveats, I recommend this book. Ann Byle has compiled some of the more unusual (yet vastly experienced) voices of Christian publishing into a single volume. Any writer who wants to thrive in the business of Christian publishing will want to read and follow the sage wisdom from writers like Davis Bunn, Sally Stuart, Dennis Hensley, Jack Cavanaugh, Charlene Ann Baumbich, Angela Elwell Hunt, Terri Blackstock, James Scott Bell, Melody Carlson, Nancy Rue, Brandilyn Collins, Julie Ann Barnhill and Karen Kingsbury (to name a few of the top writers who each have chapters in this volume). Or writers will want to learn from seasoned professional editors like Judith Markham, Dave Lambert, Ami McConnell, Jeanette Thomason and Lyn Cryderman--who also have chapters in this volume.
My overall impression from reading The Making of a Christian Bestseller is valuable information in the wrong package with the wrong title. Don't let these flaws put you off from getting this book.
From a Christian Writer.......2006-05-09
What a great resource Ann Byle has put together. This book is chock full of the answers to so many questions I had and many I did not know to ask. I appreciate the clarity and organization which allowed me to flip right to the issues I needed addressed first and to get those answers directly from the sources. With information on blogging and self-publishing, the book is very current and I will keep it close to my work station to be able to refer to it often. Added bonus ;) the hunter's orange cover helps me find and grab it quick when I want to check a fact or review a subject.
Must Reading for Those Interested in Christian Publishing.......2006-05-08
If you are connected with Christian writing, or even interested in Christian publishing, order a copy of Ann Byle's book, The Making of a Christian Bestseller. It is engagingly readable, well organized, and highly informative.
The great strength of the book is that Ann has mined for publishing gold by interviewing a number of leading authorities on every aspect of Christian publishing. After finding priceless nuggets of insight, she has shared them with the rest of us.
The overall organization of the book allows readers to move immediately to those areas most relevant to his or her situation whether it is how to find a publisher, pursuing the passion of writing, writing fiction, writing non-fiction, or promotion.
Within each chapter, side-bars and summary statements make central points accessible, even for the reader with limited time.
Ann writes in a clear and engaging way. Each chapter captured my attention and held it until the end. In addition to benefiting from the content, I enjoyed her style.
Emphatically, enthusiastically recommended.......2006-04-30
What an excellent resource The Making of a Christian Bestseller is! An absolute must-read for authors and publishing industry professionals. This book is full of great insights, advice and tips.
Highly recommended...a great addition to the bookshelf!
Book Description
Yes, Virginia, you can butter your carrots. A farmer’s daughter tells the truth about cream, eggs, fish, chicken, chocolate—even lard.
Everyone loves real food, but they’re afraid butter and eggs will give them a heart attack—thus the culinary abomination known as the egg-white omelet. Tossing out the yolk, it turns out, isn’t smart. Real Food reveals why traditional foods are actually healthy: not only egg yolks, but also cream, butter, grass-fed beef, wild salmon, roast chicken skin, and more.
Nina Planck grew up on a vegetable farm in Virginia and learned to eat right from her no-nonsense parents: lots of fresh fruits and vegetables, along with beef, bacon, fish, dairy, and eggs. Later, she wondered: was the farmhouse diet deadly, as the cardiologists say? Happily for people who love food, the answer is no.
In lively, personal chapters on produce, dairy, meat, fish, chocolate, and other real foods, Nina explains how ancient foods like beef and butter have been falsely accused, while industrial foods like corn syrup and soybean oil have created a triple epidemic of obesity, diabetes, and heart disease. Real Food upends the conventional wisdom on diet and health and explains our taste for good things.
Customer Reviews:
This book is my new bible.......2007-09-04
I love this book. It has everything in it I've read from various sources, all cited and organized and written out in an easy-to-digest fashion. So recommended!
Real food is for everyone!.......2007-09-01
I won't reiterate what so many reviewers have already said about this great book--it's great, accesible and well-documented...what I would like to say is that it can also be really economical!
I am a homemaker who watches her household budget and with a little extra work I have seen my food bill drop by twenty-five to thirty dollars per week. True, I go to more than one store for my groceries now and I had to look online to find where the farmers markets were, but now my son and I make a whole day of fun out of doing the marketing. We are getting to know our local butcher and the best vendors at the farmer's market. I am learning to bake bread (slowly) and buying things like spices and flour in bulk. True I spend more on eggs and milk than I used to, but this is more than offset by the rest of the savings. The food tastes better, we eat out less and spend more time together in the kitchen and at the table as a family. Pretty great tradeoff for chips in front of the TV, I think!
very informative read.......2007-08-27
I truly enjoyed Nina Planck's book. It was an easy read and had a lot of valuable, well researched information. She advises us to eat the way our great-grandparents ate and advocates eating locally. The book is funny, smart and challenges one to think outside the box of politically correct nutrition. My husbands and my health has been greatly improved by following this common sense advice and by eating traditional foods. I also highly recommend Sally Fallon's Nourishing Traditions.
Lots of good solid information.......2007-08-23
I took my time reading this book because it was full of different ways of looking at what we eat and why! The research seems solid. And most importantly it makes so much sense. I have already changed several things in my eating life based on this book.
Finally someone talking sense........2007-08-05
This is a great book. It explains good nutrition in an easy to understand and even entertaining way. It has changed the way I look at food and set me on course for better tasting and healthier future.
Customer Reviews:
The Buetiful paintings.......2003-10-07
This is the story of little boy of sabana grande. I liked the pantings alot.They were very beutiful and warm. The people in the story liked the paintings too. I also liked the work he put into it too. He worked hard too make the paint and then do the paintings.
Then the people asked him if he coud paint for him to and so he did.
THE END
It is an interesting book about Panama for kids my age........1999-10-12
This book is a boy who wants to paint.But then he has no paper.Then he asks his neighbors for paper but they don`t have any paper.So then he asks his Dad to paint on the house but he can`t.Then he got so upset that his parents let him paint.Then he painted all the houses.
Book Description
An inspirational story of overcoming adversity and discovering a hidden talent combined with award-winning quilting techniques, this guide shows the evolution of a unique woman into one of the world's top quilters. Beginners and advanced quilters alike will learn intricate free-motion threadwork that fuses colors, fabrics, and design into one quilt. Her prized techniques are thoroughly discussed, including the basics for machine quilting, tools, specialty threads, bobbin quilting, trapunto, and free motion work. Included are five original quilt designs complete with patterns and step-by-step photographs for simple re-creation.
Customer Reviews:
Inspirational.......2003-01-11
I purchased a new sewing machine and was really looking forward to expanding my quilting skills. First, I wanted to improve my machine quilting skills given all the beautiful threads available. Second, I wanted to branch out from traditional piecing and, well, "let go"! This book was the inspiration I needed. The quilt photos illustrate wonderfully how Ms. Heine's own creativity flourished, and the text recounts the circumstances that inspired her. Toward the back of the book are techniques on how to draw with the sewing machine, how-tos on how to recreate some of her quilts, as well as needle and thread advice. It's a book with heart.
Ms. Heine's quilts have appeared in many quilt shows. Imagine seeing your quilt hanging....with the back facing out! It happened to her. As she writes in her book, "It was at this point in my quilting career that I decided that the back was just as important as the front!" Incidentally, the quilt received a First Place ribbon and a Judges' Choice.
If you want thread to make a prominent statement in your quilting and do much, much more than secure the layers; if you want to gain confidence in "letting go" and trying something new, I suggest you add this book to your quilt library.
Customer Reviews:
Current but timeless.......2002-06-03
The main problem with a book such as this is that it can become outdated so quickly (if you have ever seen a used book from 20 or 30 years ago that was current and hip and modern to that time and horrible outdated now, you know what I mean). Sarah Lynch is concious of that potential problem and presents the material in such a fashion as to avoid being outdated, gives wonderful examples, explains colour principles, displays good photographs, and warns that there are rules for current fashion/interior decoration trends, but you can go ahead and break them if you want to, with guidance on what to watch for by the way of results. Also helpful is the last few chapters on how to correct mistakes if you don't like the results after all. If you have an inkling that you want to go bold but are hesitant, or looking for helpful direction, this is a good book.
Book Description
Each year, the New York chapter of the American Institute of Graphic Arts shines the spotlight on a few emerging geniuses and invites them to speak on what tomorrow holds for graphic design. Begun in 1983, the Fresh Dialogue lectures have introduced such luminaries as Jonathan Hoeffler, Tibor Kalman, Jennifer Morla, Chip Kidd, and Stefan Sagmeister to the design community. This new series of books will document the Fresh Dialogue presentations, creating a compendium of the field's most talented graphic artists.?
In 1999, the AIGA invited Nicholas Blechman, Christoph Niemann, and Paul Sahre to present their work through an informal conversation about their design ideas and practices. This book presents the results of their collaboration by weaving together images and anecdotes about the artistic process, their interrelated careers, and their work with clients and other designers.
Customer Reviews:
Great Graphic Design Book.......2002-08-22
Stemming from a 1999 lecture and slide show for the New York chapter of the American Institute of Graphic Artists, this crisply designed book with almost 150 images is sure to be of interest to designers everywhere. The works included here come from the personal and professional lives of three young designers: Nicholas Blechman, Christoph Neimann, Paul Sahre.
Blechman is the art director of the New York Times Op-Ed section, and met the other two through his self-published political 'zone, Nozone-samples from which constitute about a fifth of the book. Neimann is German a freelance illustrator for a number of well-known magazines, and a teacher at the School of Visual Arts. His samples have a slightly quirky and offbeat amusing air concealed in their simplicity. Sahre is a well known book cover designer and postermaker, and his samples tend to be more outrightly commercial and graphically appealing than the others.
The book is a quick read, you can probably absorb it in about two hours, and well worth it for those interested in how graphic designers work and arrive at solutions. My own favorite part was the brief "killed work" section, where the three designers discuss work of theirs that was rejected and why. I'll definitely try to track down Fresh Dialogue 2, which covers the next year's lecture.
Average customer rating:
- An interesting and well written book about John Ford!
- So-so Ford Bio
- Not bad, but misses the real genius
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John Ford: Hollywood's Old Master (Oklahoma Western Biographies)
Ronald L. Davis
Manufacturer: Univ of Oklahoma Pr
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
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Customer Reviews:
An interesting and well written book about John Ford!.......2001-11-03
I recently read the John Ford biography by Ronald Davis, PhD, and found the book to be well written and very informative. After reading this book, it became quite obvious that Ford had an unhappy personal life. While Ford was in control of his professional life, his personal life was out of control. Ford was a represed man who lived a lie...
So-so Ford Bio.......2000-03-18
If you've never read a Ford bio, this is a decent introduction. But the book has three problems. It has very little interpretation and evaluation of the films. Much of the book is about Ford's flaws as a human being, especially his cruelty to the people he worked with. Film by film, he piles up examples of Ford's bad behavior without explaining what all this nastiness has to do with Ford's achievement as an artist. Finally, much of the book's material comes from interviews. In a bibliographical essay, Davis lists all this material. In the text, however, he never makes it clear where he got a particular quote. Davis did quite a few interviews for the book. Those don't need further citation. If you want to track down quotations from other interviews, however, forget it. There's no way of finding out when an interview was given or what the context for the quote is.
Not bad, but misses the real genius.......1997-12-31
Although this book does a reasonable job of delivering the essential information about one of Hollywood's great directors, it spends too much effort attempting to analyze the dark side of John Ford, and too little time dealing with the art he created. The author speculates on Ford's drinking, his sexuality, and his family problems. If you want to know Ford's work, don't buy this book...buy one or two of his movies, instead....or buy Harry Carry Jr's book, or Peter Bogdanovich's book.
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