Himself & Other Animals - A Portrait of Gerald Durrell

Book Description

Kyoto, imperial heart of Japan, is where arts and culture reign supreme. Escape the frenzy of Tokyo and Osaka for the flutter of cherry blossoms and the serenity of a zen garden. Let the insider knowledge in this bestselling guide transport you to another era.

• WALK IN WONDER through the famed Silver Pavillion, Tatsumi shrine and Arashiyama's magical bamboo forest on comprehensive walking tours

• DINE LIKE AN EMPEROR on steaming sukiyaki, soothing soba and the high cuisine of kaiseki - expert-written reviews show you the menu

• SELECT FROM THE BEST - Shopping chapter shows you Kyoto's finest wood-block prints, ceramics, kimono, and washi (Japanese paper)

• SLEEP LIKE AN ANGEL in a tatami-scented ryokan or serene temple lodgings - our Sleeping chapter has accommodation covered

• CONNECT WITH THE ARTS in Japan's cultural capital - local author Chris Rowthorn shows off kabuki, pottery, tea ceremonies and kimono textiles

Customer Reviews:

Avoid this guide.......2007-04-10

My wife and I just returned from Kyoto, and unfortunately we were relying on this book as our guide. The information was, for the most part, up-to-date.. but the maps were *horrible*. I dunno if they just used maps from the 1930s, or hand drew them from memory, or what.. but you are going to get seriously lost if you rely on these things. There are almost no street names included and the walking tours often rely solely on hard-to-find landmarks.

They also missed some major sights.. for example, Gion; I dunno about you, but I'm interested in seeing some of the tea houses where Geisha actually work. The guide talks about these and gives you one place to look for them. However, it totally skips one of the most beautiful tea house districts located in Maruyama Park! We stumbled on this place by complete accident, and found it to be the best place for Geisha-watching.

It also appears to be an exclusive area where the really well-off clients go, and so perhaps it wasn't covered to keep down the crowds.. but that's the kind of information I *want* in a guidebook.

In short we were extremely dissapointed in this guide. I don't know what would be a good substitute, but I can tell you to avoid this one.

Oddly out of date.......2006-06-08

No guide is perfect, but some are better than others. In the case of Lonely Planet, some are great, others leave a bit to be desired. For whatever reason, the Kyoto guide is missing some important pieces of information that I would have wanted to see. For example, the best vegetarian restaurant in the city, and one of the few places a veggie can eat some authentic Japanese "meat" dishes (made with fake meat) is the Peace Cafe -- which is not listed in Lonely Planet though it's been around for a few years. Another example: The "japanese-only guides" at the Shigakuin Imperial Residence still holds true.... except they have a full audio guide now, recorded in English, with lots of information at most stops made by the Japanese tour.

Other guides?.......2005-03-07

I borrowed this guide from a friend and have leafed through it. I haven't decided if I want to buy it yet when I go to Kyoto later this year.

What do you guys recommend as the best travel guide for Kyoto? While skimming this one, I've noticed a few of the things mentioned here like the unorganized maps and such. But are there betters one there to buy?

Waste of money - poor maps, poor info, poorly organized.......2003-07-07

Where do I start? Poor maps, chaotic organization or boring writing? Or perhaps ugly, poor quality photographs (except cover which is really nice - this is the trademark feature of this honest publisher, which is only [inexpensive] as far as publishing costs are concerned, without bothering to reduce the price of the book itself).

There are countries where Lonely Planet does a very good job (in West Africa, I would be lost without them), but oh my God how they can mess up things elsewhere! Kyoto is one of them.

With so many good guides to Japan available (Eyewitness, Frommer, Fodor, even Rough Guide, for goodness sake), why bother with Lonely Planet? Well, probably because many readers feel that they have a spiritual affiliation with this seemingly hippy-ish, seemingly anti-Capitalist, seemingly slightly rebellious serious of guides. I can only imagine how they are laughing - this lean and mean publishing house, an efficient money-making machine, being funded by mostly a naive bunch of tree-huggers.

If you feel good because you identify their sandal-wearing image, go and buy this book, by all means. This is only an image, a marketing tool - clever publishing people are laughing all the way to the bank. However, do not expect to have the best available travel advice. Usually LP guides are praised by those who have not read anything else.

Great for out of the way places, but poor crossreferencing.......2003-06-11

A few years ago we discovered Lonely Planet travel guides. They have been a staple of every trip ever since. The Kyoto book was no exception.

The major highlights of this book include:
- Great walking tours
- Fun listings of out of the way places
- Interesting history and background
- Good tips and recommendations for everything from getting around on the subway (complete with a handy map), to reliable restaurant recommendations.
- Restaurant & place names written in Japanese in the book. Even if you don't read Japanese, this was very handy for doing symbol comparison to make sure you were in the right place.

Lonely Planet guides are really excellent for helping you see the sights that not everyone else is seeing, and to help you get more out of the culture you are visiting. The authors have a good sense of humor and seem to aim towards a slightly more liberal and adventurous audience.

On their own, I found both the guide and the maps very helpful (although I do agree with the other reviewers that the varied orientation and scaling of the maps could occasionally be disorienting). However, when attempting to cross reference these I often got frustrated. Many of the references to maps in the guide were just wrong (wrong map listed), and many things just weren't on the maps. Similarly, many things on the maps were difficult or impossible to locate in the guide. Example: "We need to find a restaurant near were we are right now. Oh look, here's one a block away. I wonder what type of food they have?.... ... Hmmm...I can't find it...." I know Lonely Planet knows how to do this effectively (see the Condensed guide to Tokyo as an example), it was just frustrating that they did not apply that knowledge to this book.

Book Description

Since the Middle Ages Europeans mounted oriental porcelain in settings of precious or semiprecious metal as a tribute to the value of the pieces. And beginning in the 18th century, it became increasingly fashionable in Parisian society to decorate the interiors of houses with Far Eastern
materials such as lacquer and mounted porcelain. This revised catalog features thirty-two examples from the Getty's collection of lacquer and porcelain mounted in settings of silver, gold, and gilt bronze, ranging in date from 1665 to 1785.

Customer Reviews:

Attractive, engaging, informative, beautifully produced........2000-06-04

Gillian Wilson is the curator of decorative arts at the Getty Museum and draws upon her considerable expertise to provide an informative, authoritative commentary on each of thirty-two objects, ranging from 1665 to 1785, selected from the Getty Museum collection, and showcased in this beautiful survey including the marks, provenance, exhibitions, and publications of each piece. Superb color and b/w photography wonderfully illustrates each piece. Mounted Oriental Porcelain In The J. Paul Getty Museum is an attractive, engaging, and beautifully produced volume that would grace any personal, academic, or community library artbook collection.

Book Description

Family Pet books are filled with color photos and attractive sidebar features, and are written especially for animal lovers - both children and adults - who have little or no experience in caring for pets. This volume describes the different varieties of canary and gives advice on feeding, caging, ways to encourage singing, and general health care. Brief Children's Corner features present information and advice of special interest to kids.

Customer Reviews:

Buy this book for the young pet owner...........2004-06-28

CANARIES BY Sigtun Rittrich-Dorenkamp provides the reader with "basic information to help you purchase and care for your new pet". As I just bought two new canaries a few weeks ago, and knew virtually nothing about at the time, I found this book and the other books about canaries I purchased from Amazon most helpful. Unlike some of the other books, however, this little volume appears to be developed for children with larger type as well as plenty of cute photos.

Particularly helpful for the new bird owner is a "cleaning schedule" which advises the reader on daily, weekly, monthly, and "every few months" tasks to carry out on behalf of a feathered companion. As children tend to find housekeeping responsibilities the downside of pet ownership (as do many adults), clear instructions on how to care for your canary to keep him healthy and happy should prove somewhat encouraging for the young bird owner. The book also includes plenty of additional information about how to solve problems, and how to identify bird ailments and prevent in the first place them with proper hygiene and diet. As a gardener, I found the photos of canaries munching dandelion greens most amusing. I've always wondered what to do with those pesky weeds.

great book -- pictures, information.......2003-03-23

Great book for children or adults. There are lots of color photographs, tips, facts, things about kids and canaries ... sections on sickness, things you can and can't feed, whether or not canaries can be handtamed. (Yes, but it takes time. They can't be picked up or touched like some birds.)

The pictures are very appealing -- adorable! The different breeds are fun to look at. Did you know canaries could be red?

If you have a canary, or are interested in buying one, this is definitely a good book for you. The whole thing is appealing. Not at all boring like some pet guides can be.

Very detailed and esay to understand.......2002-04-27

This book is excellent! It tells you about everything from buying to taking care of your canary. It also explains if your birdie could be caged with other birds. Has lots of pictures and at the end of the book it has space to record information about your bird.

Book Description

In the 1880s, the Norwegian-born traveler Johan Adrian Jacobsen spent a year in Alaska and amassed an unprecedented collection of Yup'ik material culture that eventually made its way to Germany's most prominent ethnographic museum. More than a century later, a delegation of Yup'ik elders and educators from Bethel, Alaska, joined cultural anthropologists and museum professionals at the Berlin Ethnologisches Museum to examine and interpret Jacobsen's collection, one of the world's largest and most impressive Yup'ik collections

Things of Our Ancestors is a record of this unusual meeting of minds and cultures. Evoking the stories and experiences that the cultural artifacts embody, the Yup'ik elders examine and discuss these objects made by their ancestors, reclaiming knowledge on the verge of being lost. For this Yup'ik-English bilingual book, anthropologist Ann Fienup-Riordan has chosen stories and accounts of the Berlin exchange that best describe the collection and the visit. The narrative is accompanied by 66 photographs of this unusual episode of cultural revival.

This book will prove a treasure for Yup'ik readers, linguists, folklorists, anthropologists, and historians, and will hold much interest for anyone concerned with Native American oral tradition.

Average customer rating:

A joy to read!

A Wonderful Gardening Book

Sage advice for gardners of any level!

How to Have a Green Thumb Without an Aching Back: A New Method of Mulch Gardening
Ruth Stout
Manufacturer: Fireside
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Gardening & Horticulture | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 0671640615

Customer Reviews:

A joy to read!.......2007-04-13

What a great book. I found this book in my mother's basement when we moved her last year. It had a great "70's" style cover and a title that intrigued the gardener in me. Well, all I can say is WOW! What an entertaining and informative book. I really felt like I was in the garden with Ruth. She was guiding me through my entire growing season and I was loving my garden again. I was truely entertained by the book, but most impressive were the results that I saw in my own garden. My best season ever. It lasted well into November here in PA (brocolli from my own garden for Thanksgiving dinner) and I attribute that to the great tips and practices that I learned and used from this book.

A Wonderful Gardening Book.......2003-04-28

I've read this book numerous times, and enjoyed it every single time. I'm a garden writer myself (Allergy-Free Gardening) and I always appreciate good garden writing. For my money, no one did it any better than Ruth Stout. Her writing is useful, practical, easy to follow, sensible, fun, often funny, and is a joy to read. She was quite the gardener, and went about gardening in an intelligent and creative way, with her eyes wide open to things that worked, or those that didn't.
Ruth Stout really ought to be known as the "Mother of Mulch," since she was such a strong advocate for this practice. This book would make a fine addition to anyone's personal gardening library, and would also make an excellent gift for a friend who loves gardening. If you grow vegetables and flowers and have never read this gem, treat yourself to a copy. Remarkably good!

Sage advice for gardners of any level!.......2002-08-08

Ruth Stour's book is so incredibly conversational that I feel that I've been invited over for tea and weeding. It's broken up in several different essays and fun to read cover to cover. Despite the fact that it's more of a novel than a how-to book, you'll want to run out to your garden and try out a few things after each page. Today, she's well into her 90's -- a testament to how beneficial gardening is both for the garden and the gardner!

How to Have a Green Thumb Without an Aching Back: A New Method of Mulch Gardening

Average customer rating:

How to Have a Green Thumb Without an Aching Back: A New Method of Mulch Gardening

Manufacturer: Rodale Books, Inc.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000E319A8

Product Description

A new method of gardening using mulch

Average customer rating:

How to Have a Green Thumb Without an Aching Back: A New Method of Mulch Gardening
Ruth Stout
Manufacturer: Cornerstone Library
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000NO7B5A

Average customer rating:

How to Have a Green Thumb Without an Aching Back: a New Method of Mulch Gardening
Ruth Stout
Manufacturer: Exposition Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000H0QF4S

Average customer rating:

HOW TO HAVE A GREEN THUMB WITHOUT AN ACHING BACK; A NEW METHOD OF MULCH GARDENING.
Ruth. Stout
Manufacturer: Exposition Press,
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000RIUXAM

Average customer rating:

How to Have a Green Thumb Without an Aching Back a New Method of Mulch Gardening
Ruth Stout
Manufacturer: Banner Book/Exposition Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000ME6A44

Average customer rating:

How to Have a Green Thumb Without an Aching Back; a New Method of Mulch Gardening

Manufacturer: Exposition Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000FSEGFW

Book Description

Using mainly hitherto unstudied primary materials, this monograph studies a very significant episode in Chinese Christianity. Focusing on the origins and earliest history of Protestantism in South Fujian, this analytical-critical study investigates the evolution of the churches which pioneered in indigenisation and ecclesiastical union in China during the nineteenth century.

Some subjects studied are primitive missionary objectives and methods, the relationship between the `Talmage ideal' and the Three-self concept, and the nature and dynamics of `native' religious work. Extremely useful is the critical assessment of South Fujian in terms of self-propagation, self-government, self-support and organic union. The key areas suggested for future research are also quite thought-provoking. The volume is especially valuable to social and church historians, missiologists and sociologists.

Book Description

This collection of classic and new writings on dance improvisation brings together 21 essays by prominent dancers, scholars and historians. Until now, discussion of improvisation in dance has focused mainly on the postmodern form known as contact improv. Taken by Surprise reflects the development of improvisation as a compositional and performance mode in a wide variety of dance contexts, including dance traditions from around the globe, such as Yoruban masked dance, Indian Bharatanatyam and flamenco.

The book also includes a thoughtful look at computer-aided choreography, a discussion of recent innovations in tap dancing and a section on improvisation in everyday life. Combining primary sources with critical analysis, Taken by Surprise will serve as an indispensible companion to studio work in improvisation, and a much-needed supplement to twentieth century dance histories.

CONTRIBUTORS: Ann Cooper Albright, Sally Banes, Bruce Curtis, Kent Despain, Margaret Thompson Drewal, Simone Forti, Susan Leigh Foster, David Gere, Raymond W. Gibbs, JR, Michelle Heffner Hayes, Carmela Hermann, Constance Valis Hill, Rachel Kaplan, Maura Keefe, Victoria Marks, Avanthi Meduri, Steve Paxton, Janice Ross, Karen Schaffman, Nancy Stark Smith, Ellen Webb, Ruth Zaporah.

Customer Reviews:

From Yoruban masked dance to Indian Bharatanatyam.......2004-01-14

Collaboratively compiled and ably co-edited by Ann Cooper Albright and David Gere, Taken By Surprise: A Dance Improvisation Reader collects together under one cover some twenty-one essays by well-known dancers, scholars, and historians. Discussing improvisation in dance within contexts and traditions ranging from Yoruban masked dance to Indian Bharatanatyam, flamenco, and more, Taken By Surprise offers an informed and insightful exploration into the art of impromptu dance, as well as the changing emotions expressed within its many forms.

Average customer rating:

Taken by Surprise: A Dance Improvisation Reader
Ann Cooper & David Gere (eds.) Albright
Manufacturer: Wesleyan Univ Pr
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000MBT152

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