Monsieur Venus: A Materialist Novel (Mla Texts and Translations)
Average customer rating: 4 out of 5 stars
  • Fantastic Service
  • The Queen of Decadence
  • Trying too hard to be suggestive?
  • Paint-by-numbers Decadence
Monsieur Venus: A Materialist Novel (Mla Texts and Translations)
Rachilde , Liz Constable , and Madeleine Elise Reynier Boyd
Manufacturer: Modern Language Association of America
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0873529308

Customer Reviews:

5 out of 5 stars Fantastic Service.......2005-10-08

I got exactly what i wanted in great condition and it came in a timely manner.

5 out of 5 stars The Queen of Decadence.......2001-02-20

Rachilde's masterpiece, Monsieur Venus (1884), is the ultimate decadent novel. It has something for every sexual nonconformist: transvestism (both male and female), sadism, masochism, fetishism, homoeroticism, and even symbolic necrophilia. Rachilde's genius lies in her poetic ability to express the protean possibilities of gender. More than a mere reversal of stereotypical gender roles, her story destroys the boundaries of those limiting roles. The beautiful Raoule, dressed in masculine attire, seduces, violates, and keeps the feminine Jacques as her "mistress." Jacques takes quite naturally to feminine attire, as well as to the drugs and luxurious apartment provided by his lover. Raittolbe, Raoule's suitor--a virile military man--and Marie, Jacques' prostitute sister complicate the plot with their ruthless, yet stereotypically "normal" sexuality. However, it is Raoule's sexual ambiguity which threatens to undermine everyone else's gender identity--with the exception of the prostitute Marie, who is the only character with a strong gender identity. Problems begin to occur in the romantic lives of Raoule and Jacques when their mutual transvestism causes Jacques to question both his gender and his sexuality. Read symbolically, this text provides a wealth of meanings and any one of the themes enumerated above, from transvestism to necrophilia, can be explored with fascinating results. However, this is more than a symbolic text; this is a great story, a saturnalia of decadent eroticism. In my opinion, Monsieur Venus has lost none of its power to shock, provoke, and most of all entertain in the more than one hundred years since Rachilde wrote it. Thus I can think of no higher praise for Rachilde than to call her the Queen of Decadence unless, taking her own transvestism into account, I should call her the King of Decadence.

3 out of 5 stars Trying too hard to be suggestive?.......2000-12-27

Perhaps the passage of time makes this book no longer as daring as it once tried to be. On the other hand, it is now quaint, in a way it never was meant to be.

Reading this novel gives you a definitely unique experience. It is as if the schoolgirlish author --- with a decidedly schoolgirlish voice in prose --- wants very, very much to write a dirty book full of all sorts of fascinating sexual fantasies. So she is all buildup and no climax: she does her best to set up a variety of situations, but her authorial lens always fogs up at the good parts.

Like most other books whose mainspring is sexual fantasy, the plot contains some non-sequiturs and unexpected developments. These discontinuities lend an ultimately dreamlike quality to the narrative, that is not dispelled by the bizarre --- and truly artificial --- denouement.

Its tale of sexual role reversal was no doubt more interesting in 1884. Those who would seek to read some kind of political statement into this fantasy are undercut by the noticeable naivete of the story itself. I also understand that Rachilde re-worked the main themes of this tale in her several later works. Still, it is definitely a unique experience.

3 out of 5 stars Paint-by-numbers Decadence.......2000-04-04

Gender inversion, sadism, masochism, exoticism, hallucinations, exploitation, the artificial creation of a perfect lover, sensuality--all of these are commonplaces of works of the Decadent movement, and, I'm sorry to say, Rachilde rarely lends any vitality or insight to these cliched devices. Add some extraneous characters, overblown melodramatic situations, and poor attention to detail, and this perfectly describes "Monsieur Venus". Unless you are a scholar of Decadence or a serious fetishist, I wouldn't read this particular work. I'd recommend Huysmans, Gautier, Wilde, Villiers, or even Sacher-Masoch in its stead.

Michael Moorcock's Elric: Tales of the White Wolf (Michael Moorcock's Elric)
Average customer rating: 5 out of 5 stars
  • A great read
  • An Elric novel written by Authors who grew up reading Elric
  • Skin tingling ,edge of your seat, can`t put it down, tragedy
  • Elric: A creation of a new genre
  • Elric is number 1 in my book.
Michael Moorcock's Elric: Tales of the White Wolf (Michael Moorcock's Elric)

Manufacturer: White Wolf Pub
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

AnthologiesAnthologies | Genre Fiction | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
Kramer, EdwardKramer, Edward | ( K ) | Authors, A-Z | Science Fiction & Fantasy | Subjects | Books
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  1. Michael Moorcock's Pawn of Chaos: Tales of the Eternal Champion Michael Moorcock's Pawn of Chaos: Tales of the Eternal Champion
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  5. The Eternal Champion (Paperback) The Eternal Champion (Paperback)

ASIN: 1565041747

Customer Reviews:

5 out of 5 stars A great read.......2005-05-01

I highly enjoyed this book, the dark and gothic theme created a great anti-hero in my opinion. It took a bit of time to get into the "setting" of the book, but once I did I was able to immerse myself in the story and thoroughly enjoy it.

5 out of 5 stars An Elric novel written by Authors who grew up reading Elric.......1999-05-18

I have read every Elric novel. I own 500 kilos of fantasy paperbacks. This book brought me as much joy, inspiration and satisfaction as any book I have ever read. Elric was the first "evil" hero. Every fantasy writer has taken a peice of elric to produce their characters. Drizt Do'urden is a shadow of Elric. Raistlen is almost an exact copy of Elric. Darth vader's sinister life, dependence on technology/sorcery and eventual noble self sacrifice are in mimicry of Elric. In this book so many authors who wanted to write Elric stories, some who had made great fame and fortune copying Moorcock, were given licence to write as they pleased. Every short story in the book is its authors best work because as they write about their own dark heros in their own novels they are thinking about Elric. My highest praise: I want a sequel.. or two... or ten... a series published monthly untill I am old and grey.

5 out of 5 stars Skin tingling ,edge of your seat, can`t put it down, tragedy.......1999-03-14

Elric, last Prince of Melnibone. Elric makes you feel that your right there with him and drawing the from the dreaded runsword Stormbringer, all his pain,sorrow,grief you feel it all. This pale,weak being could be any of us, and yet it`s his weakness that gives him the strainth to weld such enormus power and to control the uncontrolable. Elric will make you cry, make you feel that you could defeat the Lords of Chaos your self and forever will you bare some of his burden. Your life will never be the same, the way you look at things such as the ocean will change and you`ll catch yourself try to summon the water element himself. For such a being to exist in your mind alone is enough.

5 out of 5 stars Elric: A creation of a new genre.......1998-11-06

Elric of Melnibone' represents a departure from the era of Tarzan and Conan, giving people a dark prince for a protagonist. This book helps put together a group of stories written for the first time by other authors and show how dynamic Michael Moorcock's Elric really is.

5 out of 5 stars Elric is number 1 in my book........1998-04-04

This is the first of the Elric saga Ive read. I found it most exhilirating. The dark antihero and his struggle for his humanity is almost sorrowful. His sword is legendary amonst who has lived to tell about it. Not many have though. Elric is an outcast among his people.It is one of the best books I have read in a long time.
Michael Moorcock's Elric: Tales of the White Wolf
Average customer rating: Not rated
    Michael Moorcock's Elric: Tales of the White Wolf
    Michael Moorcock
    Manufacturer: White Wolf Pub
    ProductGroup: Book
    Binding: Mass Market Paperback

    ElricElric | Series | Fantasy | Science Fiction & Fantasy | Subjects | Books
    ASIN: B000NP658I

    Hot-Wired Dodo (The Wonderlands Gambit , No 3)
    Average customer rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    • Wrapped Up - but Why?
    • Ghost-written with the ghost of Philip Dick?
    • Chalker's best to date
    • Mind-twisting as usual.
    Hot-Wired Dodo (The Wonderlands Gambit , No 3)
    Jack L. Chalker
    Manufacturer: Del Rey
    ProductGroup: Book
    Binding: Mass Market Paperback

    ContemporaryContemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
    Chalker, Jack L.Chalker, Jack L. | ( C ) | Authors, A-Z | Science Fiction & Fantasy | Subjects | Books
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    1. March Hare Network (#2) (The Wonderland Gambit , No 2) March Hare Network (#2) (The Wonderland Gambit , No 2)
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    3. Melchior's Fire Melchior's Fire
    4. Balshazzars Serpent Balshazzars Serpent
    5. The Sea Is Full of Stars (Well World) The Sea Is Full of Stars (Well World)

    ASIN: 0345388496
    Release Date: 1997-12-27

    Book Description

    TRUMP CARD

    Reality wasn't what it used to be. Life after life, as man, woman, and child, Cory Maddox was trapped in an endless cycle of ever-changing realities, on the run from his ruthless companions and from the shadowy figures that seemed to exist outside the increasingly unstable matrix.

    As each new world proved increasingly bizarre, Cory wanted nothing more than to find the way home. Fragments of knowledge--a mysterious UFO crash, alien technology, glimpses of a computer that was controlling his fate--all pointed toward Matthew Brand, the virtual reality genius. But Brand had vanished long ago, into, or perhaps beyond, the borders of reality.

    To break the cycle of cyber-reincarnation, Cory had to find Brand--before the actions of his enemies destroyed reality altogether . . .

    Customer Reviews:

    4 out of 5 stars Wrapped Up - but Why?.......2001-05-29

    I enjoyed the first two books of the trilogy. I found this last one a bit more fantastic than what had come before. It almost moved into Piers Anthony territory, but without the puns. Yes, we encounter "realities" (Everything you think you know is wrong) where not just politics and technological evolution are different, but the "human" species has evolved differently, too. Fun to play with these speculative worlds, but not as entrancing (for me) as the ones that more nearly paralleled _this_ world.

    And yes, the reader finally gets the Holy Grail in this novel, but is it really anything more than just another cup? It doesn't matter, the quest was a lot of fun. We even got a bit of character development in the process. The worst thing about this book is how hard it is to get ahold of. It took me three months to track one down. If you're contemplating reading the trilogy (a worthwhile endeavor), then make certain you have a copy of this book in your hands before you begin!

    4 out of 5 stars Ghost-written with the ghost of Philip Dick?.......2000-02-28

    Actually, Chalker manages to incorporate his favourite themes: that stagnation leads to Hell, his fascination with how much power corrupts, and what some call an obsession with transformation. If nothing else, his "first world" in this book brilliantly analyses what would happen if women really did have power. David Brin did an equally good (albeit different) job, and few others have avoided the standard clichés. As a conclusion to his most paranoid trilogy, the book is brilliant, up to the last chapter. Fans of the late Phil Dick (of whom I am one) should recognise it as the last chapter of Dick's own book UBIK. This lack of originality nonetheless fits in with one of the most paranoid trilogies I have ever read.

    5 out of 5 stars Chalker's best to date.......1999-10-15

    This is fantastic stuff. I read through the whole series very quickly, always wanting to see what happened next. Chalker is a great storyteller, with excellent character development and retroactive exposition that will continue after you have finished the book, while you wonder just what the "real" reality is. BTW, I think "The Matrix" _did_ steal heavily from this series.

    4 out of 5 stars Mind-twisting as usual........1998-07-03

    I really enjoyed both this book and the series in general. It has been yet another fine work by Chalker, although, like most of his works, it quickly becomes very confusing if you aren't paying attention. Or sometimes if you are. I would have liked a better ending, but it was, at least, appropriate.
    The Hot-Wired Dodo (The Wonderland Gambit #3)
    Average customer rating: Not rated
      The Hot-Wired Dodo (The Wonderland Gambit #3)
      Jack L. Chalker
      Manufacturer: Del Rey
      ProductGroup: Book
      Binding: Paperback
      ASIN: B000OVJHI6
      The Hot-Wired Dodo (The Wonderland Gambit, Book 3)
      Average customer rating: Not rated
        The Hot-Wired Dodo (The Wonderland Gambit, Book 3)
        Jack L. Chalker
        Manufacturer: Del Rey
        ProductGroup: Book
        Binding: Paperback
        ASIN: B000OVMU7Q

        More-With-Less Cookbook
        Average customer rating: 5 out of 5 stars
        • Best cookbook ever
        • I finally had to get a new copy
        • Vegetarian who loves Mennonite Cooking!
        • Not just a cookbook, but a nutritional reference source!
        • If the house were on fire. . .
        More-With-Less Cookbook
        Doris Janzen Longacre
        Manufacturer: Herald Press
        ProductGroup: Book
        Binding: Plastic Comb

        GeneralGeneral | Cooking, Food & Wine | Subjects | Books
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        5. The Complete Tightwad  Gazette The Complete Tightwad Gazette

        ASIN: 083619103X

        Customer Reviews:

        5 out of 5 stars Best cookbook ever.......2007-08-23

        I cook everything from scratch, this truly is my favorite cookcook. I love it so much that I bought one for each of my children when they become adults and moved out.

        5 out of 5 stars I finally had to get a new copy.......2007-08-17

        I bought my original copy of this book in the Amish community of Kalona, Iowa in 1977. It has shaped my attitudes toward cooking with thoughtfulness and sensible use of in-season foods ever since. My old copy is worn and tattered from constant use. Very little about it is out-of-date in today's world, in fact, it is perhaps more relevent than ever. I value the lessons about living with care and without waste as well as the recipes.

        5 out of 5 stars Vegetarian who loves Mennonite Cooking!.......2007-08-10

        Although this is not specifically a vegetarian/vegan cookbook, the information about using plant proteins gives a fantastic nutritional education for vegetarian/vegans, and there are tons of tried-and-true recipes for quinoa, soy, and beans. Helps us veggies feel 'frugal' to know that we're following centuries old wisdom about getting the most protein for your penny!

        5 out of 5 stars Not just a cookbook, but a nutritional reference source!.......2007-07-10

        I love, Love, LOVE this book! My 1970's version is worth far more to me than a mere collection of recipes--it's also full of nutritional advice, spending advice (albeit outdated, but the idea remains), and missionary stories (I especially like the ones about "abundance"). Now she is gone, but her relatives and fellow church members have taken up the torch, writing follow-on books.

        I have been known to read this book as I would a novel, reliving her stories in my mind, and using her tables and charts for source material on many blog articles--women today have forgotten so much, or were never taught in the first place. My opinion is that PROPER Home Ec classes need to be brought back into the schools with a vengeance, and Doris's info should be worked into the curriculum. We've pretty much all become slaves to the microwave, and our waistlines and weight show it. Seemingly nobody cooks for real any more--Doris would be disgusted if she were around today.

        Doris was a Mennonite, and I am an Atheist. Nevertheless, I still value this book as if it were my bible.

        5 out of 5 stars If the house were on fire. . ........2007-06-07

        this would be the one book I would grab on the way out the door. I wish I'd known of it when I was a young bride. I've given it to many people. Besides recipes, it is a way of life. "Gathering Up the Fragments" is a part of each section which teaches cooks how to diversify resources and feed more with less. A classic.
        More-with-Less Cookbook
        Average customer rating: Not rated
          More-with-Less Cookbook
          Doris Janzen Longacre
          Manufacturer: HERALD PRESS
          ProductGroup: Book
          Binding: Spiral-bound
          ASIN: B000K6THFI
          SIDEWAYS.(Brief Article): An article from: The Other Side
          Average customer rating: Not rated
            SIDEWAYS.(Brief Article): An article from: The Other Side

            Manufacturer: The Other Side
            ProductGroup: Book
            Binding: Digital

            JapanJapan | Asia | History | Subjects | Books
            ASIN: B0008HO5UG
            Release Date: 2005-06-01

            Book Description

            This digital document is an article from The Other Side, published by The Other Side on March 1, 2001. The length of the article is 329 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

            Citation Details
            Title: SIDEWAYS.(Brief Article)
            Publication: The Other Side (Magazine/Journal)
            Date: March 1, 2001
            Publisher: The Other Side
            Volume: 37 Issue: 2 Page: 9

            Article Type: Brief Article

            Distributed by Thomson Gale
            Goodness & Joy Cooking - Mennonite Cookbook (Lancaster County, PA)
            Average customer rating: Not rated
              Goodness & Joy Cooking - Mennonite Cookbook (Lancaster County, PA)

              Manufacturer: Carlisle Printing of Walnut Creek Ltd.
              ProductGroup: Book
              Binding: Spiral-bound
              ASIN: B000EVM4MM

              Product Description

              Mount Joy Mennonite Church, founded in 1799, is a congregation of approximately 350 members in scenic Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. This beautiful new cookbook "Goodness & Joy Cooking" is a collection of our members' most loved recipes. You will enjoy over 600 of our best recipes including old-fashioned favorites and many new adventures in ten categories. We look forward to sharing our family traditions from the "heart of good cooking" in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. The book measures approximately 8 1/2 x 6 1/4 x 1". It is constructed with a hidden spiral binding and laminated cover.
              More with Less Cookbook    Suggestions By Mennonites on How to Eat Better and Consume Less of the World's Limited Food Resources
              Average customer rating: Not rated
                More with Less Cookbook Suggestions By Mennonites on How to Eat Better and Consume Less of the World's Limited Food Resources
                Longacre Doris Janzen
                Manufacturer: Herald Press
                ProductGroup: Book
                Binding: Paperback
                ASIN: B000LDFFNS
                More-with-Less Cookbook
                Average customer rating: Not rated
                  More-with-Less Cookbook
                  Doris Janzen Longacre
                  Manufacturer: Herald Press
                  ProductGroup: Book
                  Binding: Ring-bound
                  ASIN: B000Q5O3R0

                  Product Description

                  suggestions on how to eat better and consume less of the world's limited food resources.
                  more-with-Less Cookbook
                  Average customer rating: Not rated
                    more-with-Less Cookbook
                    Doris Janzen Longacre
                    Manufacturer: Herald Press
                    ProductGroup: Book
                    Binding: Spiral-bound
                    ASIN: B000LCT6Q6

                    Before and After Getting Your Puppy: The Positive Approach to Raising a Happy, Healthy, and Well-Behaved Dog
                    Average customer rating: 4 out of 5 stars
                    • A bit overwhelming
                    • Must read for all considering a puppy
                    • Very helpful for 1st time puppy owner
                    • Essential Help for You and Your New Puppy
                    • Thinking about getting a puppy, get this book
                    Before and After Getting Your Puppy: The Positive Approach to Raising a Happy, Healthy, and Well-Behaved Dog
                    Dr. Ian Dunbar
                    Manufacturer: New World Library
                    ProductGroup: Book
                    Binding: Hardcover

                    Care & HealthCare & Health | Dogs | Animal Care & Pets | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books
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                    TrainingTraining | Dogs | Animal Care & Pets | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books
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                    3. The Power of Positive Dog Training The Power of Positive Dog Training
                    4. Doctor Dunbar's Good Little Dog Book Doctor Dunbar's Good Little Dog Book
                    5. How to Raise a Puppy You Can Live With How to Raise a Puppy You Can Live With

                    ASIN: 1577314557

                    Book Description

                    Combining two popular titles in one value-priced edition, Before and After Getting Your Puppy is a simple, practical guide for anyone bringing a new puppy into the home. In clear steps, with helpful photos and easy-to-follow training deadlines, Dr. Ian Dunbar, who pioneered puppy classes and a loving style of dog training in the 1970s, presents a structured yet playful and humorous plan for raising a wonderful dog. The guide is based on six developmental deadlines: completing owner education and preparation, assessing a puppy's prior socialization and education, teaching errorless house-training and chewtoy-training, completing a socialization program of meeting strange dogs and people, learning bite inhibition, and continuing a program of ongoing training. In the first half of the book, Dr. Dunbar focuses on what the owner needs to know to select a great puppy. In the second half, he presents the crucial lessons the puppy must be taught during its impressionable early development — using a kind, positive approach that, over time, has been proven the most effective.

                    Customer Reviews:

                    3 out of 5 stars A bit overwhelming.......2007-09-13

                    This book made me feel a bit overwhelmed. It has been a while since I had a puppy and a dog trainer recommended this book. Dr. Dunbar says you need your puppy to do so many things before the puppy is three to four months old ( ex. Introduce the puppy to 100 people before its three months old ). My puppy was two months old. To make myself less overwhelmed I'm taking one thing at a time and as for the people, there trickling in. I think he means well, he just comes across the wrong way.

                    5 out of 5 stars Must read for all considering a puppy.......2007-07-20

                    Dogs and humans alike would benefit greatly if potential dog owners would all read this book! Lots of vital information, well presented, a good read.

                    5 out of 5 stars Very helpful for 1st time puppy owner.......2007-06-02

                    I bought this book after reading several recommendations on AMAZON. The book was very informative as to painting a picture of what to expect with a new puppy. Some of Dunbar's recommendations are very unrealistic though. Such has having your dog introduced to many different people every day. Overall, I found it very useful.

                    4 out of 5 stars Essential Help for You and Your New Puppy.......2007-05-30

                    I bought this book after reviewing some of the articles on the [...]website, which offers a preview of some of the key points of the book. I did read many of the reviews here and felt that the negative comments were somewhat over-reactive.

                    From my perspective, the book not only makes sense about how to raise a puppy, but also about how to raise a child! Why waste time trying to teach kids or dogs what is wrong, until they eventually figure out what is right? That seems really inefficient, now that I know the "lure-reward" technique. This technique lets you use the essential nature of the dog to train it to do what you want it to do: pee, chew, and poop where you want it to, for instance. Walk calmly on leash, for another. The trick is to not fall into the trap of thinking that a few weeks of short and long-term confinement is somehow cruel to the dog. Like children, dogs respond quickly to a consistent routine. It DOES require YOU to be consistent and to have discipline, and I definitely figured out where I was being lazy and too lax, and whenever I went back to the tighter crate schedule, things improved immediately. I realized that I confused a few days of successful potty events with "success" in overall training and went from confinement to total lack of restraint, so I referred to the book again and made some corrections.

                    Here are a couple of tips that helped make this book so useful for me. First, I had a consultation with a pet dog trainer who knew about (and recommended) Dunbar's technique. This really helped me when addressing the issues that I felt were not explained in the book (more on that later). Secondly, while I took Dunbar's stern advice as the kind of advice someone gives to people who might not pay attention...that is, I didn't take him quite so seriously. So, when he says that your dog needs to meet over 100 people in his first month (or whatever), I took that as the general message: socialize your dog as much as you possibly can. We have a really small house and we aren't hugely social, but I was surprised to find that I could make a list of 100 people pretty easily. They haven't all been over to my house, but I've been out and about and exposed my pup to a lot of different people, and I could see the change in about 2 weeks! And, I realized too that this socialization has to continue through adolescence, the difficult stage (again, think of children). I also found that "training" your dog to be OK when you are not around was particularly practical and helpful. It not only reduced my dog's anxiety, but mine as well, since it gave me a method to work with the dog to gradually introduce him to "alone" time, which will definitely be a part of his life. It also helped me to be aware of where I might be inadvertently feeding into the dog's anxious attitude when I returned home (or got him out of his crate).

                    The sit, lay down trick is a snap and I even successfully tried it on an adult pitbull that wouldn't lay down for its owner!

                    What I also found interesting was that the tips I learned in the book and shared with my other dog-owning friends helped them when it came to their adult dogs! I think that the Cesar Milan method can be quite effective, but it is based solely on dominance, and the lure-reward method can work wonderfully too in many situations (such as getting your dog to be calm when going on leash and learning to happily sit when greeting people).

                    Now, for some things that come to mind that I found lacking in the book. First, I happen to have a toy poodle who is bizarrely un-food motivated, and Dunbar doesn't mention that at all. I did learn from other poodle owners that this breed isn't the most food motivated one. I wish he would cover that situation in the book. So, for instance, Dunbar recommends putting all of the dog's kibble in Kong toys, yet if I put all of Buck's food in his bowl, he *still* wouldn't eat even half of it. So, if the open dish doesn't work, the Kong toy is like locking it away! And, freeze dried liver didn't work for Buck either. Advice: get those beef jerky sticks for dogs. Or try cheese. And strangely: Wheat Thins (even my cat loves them). Small bits of hot dog too. (I use this for the poop reward). Even so, all of these favorite items stuffed into a Kong toy won't work for my dog. Maybe when he gets a little older/bigger and I can try it out again, but for now I'm mystified about turning him into a chew-toy-aholic.

                    Secondly, I would have appreciated more information on the puppy interaction when you have a really small dog, or a really large dog. I think the problems you encounter as a dog owner do vary when you have a "non-average" sized breed. How do you keep your little dog from being completely frightened of huge dogs (and then later turning into one of those yappy jerks)? How do you keep your rambunctious, lovey Great Dane from bowling over the chihuaha? And, when you do finally take your dog to the dog park, how can you as an owner to a better job of evaluating other dogs as potential problems? Most people don't even bother to socialize their dogs, so how do you evaluate?

                    Finally, while I initially started asking people to offer a treat to my dog to get him to sit, I quickly learned that most every person will use a different visual method in asking the dog to sit, while only using the word "sit." So, it's really too onerous in my opinion to try to get every person to get the dog to sit, since the lure/reward technique of holding the treat over the head works, but most people don't know the signal! So, my dog dances on its hind legs while people say "sit!" and give it the treat because he's so cute. This pretty much has de-sensitized "sit" as a keyword so I quickly dropped the idea of asking people to make him "sit." What *does* work is asking people to offer the dog a treat, since then they naturally great the dog with a lowered hand, palm up, which is far less threatening to the dog and not a dominance display. I am really not going to burden every human social interaction with an instruction on the sit technique that is required. Later, when the dog learns the word itself, maybe then. I feel that in this respect, Dunbar's advice is a bit impractical.

                    Overall, I am very glad that I bought this book, and it's been an essential tool in my working with my puppy and understanding the nature of dogs.

                    5 out of 5 stars Thinking about getting a puppy, get this book.......2007-05-09

                    I read this book twice before even getting my puppy it has been a godsend. Right now my puppy is napping quietly in his doggy den. It has great information for new dog owners and for people who have had dogs for years. The training methods are a lot different from when I had my last dog. The lure/reward way is much easier on the dog and owner. My puppy was a little undersocialized, and information in this book has really helped me to build his confidence. I highly recommend this book, get it if you are even thinking about getting a puppy. It prepared me for all the work you have to do to be a dog owner.

                    Miller's: Buying Affordable Antiques: Price Guide 2005 (Miller's Buying Affordable Antiques)
                    Average customer rating: Not rated
                      Miller's: Buying Affordable Antiques: Price Guide 2005 (Miller's Buying Affordable Antiques)
                      Mitchell Beazley
                      Manufacturer: Mitchell Beazley
                      ProductGroup: Book
                      Binding: Paperback

                      Care & RestorationCare & Restoration | Antiques & Collectibles | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books
                      GeneralGeneral | Antiques & Collectibles | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books
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                      ASIN: 1840009608

                      Fun with Flax
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                        Fun with Flax
                        Mick Pendergrast
                        Manufacturer: Reed New Zealand
                        ProductGroup: Book
                        Binding: Paperback

                        GeneralGeneral | Crafts & Hobbies | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books
                        Textile ArtsTextile Arts | Crafts & Hobbies | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books
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                        ASIN: 0790000539

                        Book Description

                        These 50 interesting and entertaining projects are designed to teach beginners the basic skills of the Maori craft of plaiting. Fun with Flax shows how to make items ranging from a simple windmill, a dart and a whistle to more complex puzzles, balls, birds, fish and even a caterpillar. Each project is described one step at a time with easy to follow line drawings and intructions.

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                        Tomorrow's Office: Creating Effective and Humane Interiors
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                          Tomorrow's Office: Creating Effective and Humane Interiors
                          Santa Raymond
                          Manufacturer: Spon Press
                          ProductGroup: Book
                          Binding: Hardcover

                          GeneralGeneral | Architecture | Professional & Technical | Subjects | Books
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                          ASIN: 041921240X

                          Book Description

                          The Information Technology revolution is just as engulfing as the Industrial and Agricultural ones were in the past. Technology alters the way we work, where we work and what tools we need to work with. Work now happens any time, any place, and the revolution is both frightening and immensely exciting. To survive and succeed, businesses have to change the way they operate. A sociological revolution is also taking place. No longer can workers expect a job for life, so to counter this lack of security they ask to develop skills in a learning environment. In order to attract and keep high flyers (the 'gold collar workers') the office interior must underwrite this environment, and facilitate new work methods. Many organizations struggle to understand the implications of these changes, and to decide what their physical manifestation should be. Executives, whilst experts at producing a product, face project management of which they have no experience. Designers, experts in the physical environment.

                          Chargeable Vs. Nonchargeable Downtime in Prepress: An Eps Special Report, 2002-2003 (Eps Special Reports)
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                            Deanna Gentile
                            Manufacturer: Graphic Arts Technical Fndtn
                            ProductGroup: Book
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                            Alan Ayckbourn: Grinning at the Edge
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                              Manufacturer: Continuum International Publishing Group
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                              Alan Ayckbourn: Grinning at the Edge
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                                Paul Allen
                                Manufacturer: Continuum Intl Pub Group
                                ProductGroup: Book
                                Binding: Hardcover
                                ASIN: B000MZ8O0G

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