Wild Mushrooms of the Central Midwest

Customer Reviews:

"Good for Starters".......2000-07-22

While The "Complete Idiot's...." is extremely helpful in the pre-planning stage of your trip, it doesn't always work that well on the job. As a first-time European traveler the introductory chapters are particularly good. It really is designed for someone who has not a clue what they are doing. While I found its suggestions for day trips helpful in making my pre-trip planning, I did find it unhelpful in planning hotel/B&B accomodations. Because it was slightly dated it, inadvertantly, helped me get hopelessly lost when looking for Tube directions to the new "Tate Modern" Gallery. All in all a useful tool for any beginner. Just make sure to get the very latest edition and use other souces to plan your hotel/B&B arrangements.

The most used book on our trip.......1999-08-17

Of the several books we purchased for our first trip to London, this was the one we kept coming back to. It has great basic information for the first-time traveler--practical how-to information not included in the other guidebooks we had. This book is good to read before your trip. Its time estimates were very helpful in planning our itinerary.

The Complete Idiot's Travel Guide to London

Average customer rating:

The Complete Idiot's Travel Guide to London
Donald, Illustrated by Spear, Kevin Olson
Manufacturer: Macmillan Distribution
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000O8T4NM

Book Description

By successfully combining theory and practice, this on-the-page course provides the tools and information necessary for any artist to develop strong observational, organizational, and expressive drawing skills. The instructions include a discussion of the uses and history of drawing materials, then it’s on to the basics of composition and of controlling representational shading. Seven distinct shading techniques, including various forms of crosshatch shading, charcoal techniques, and shading with colored pencils, are laid out in detail and supplement a variety of compositional ideas. Read through this volume as a comprehensive primer in drawing, or refer back as needed to answer questions or refine particular skills. A supplemental glossary is included to assist in understanding technical terms.

Customer Reviews:

Drawing Course 101 - a must for high school art teachers.......2006-08-18

Drawing Course 101 is everything the description states:

"By successfully combining theory and practice, this on-the-page course provides the tools and information necessary for any artist to develop strong observational, organizational, and expressive drawing skills. The instructions include a discussion of the uses and history of drawing materials, then it's on to the basics of composition and of controlling representational shading. Seven distinct shading techniques, including various forms of crosshatch shading, charcoal techniques, and shading with colored pencils, are laid out in detail and supplement a variety of compositional ideas. Read through this volume as a comprehensive primer in drawing, or refer back as needed to answer questions or refine particular skills. A supplemental glossary is included to assist in understanding technical terms."

No, this book is not about figure drawing. For that topic, there are many suitable books.

I own this book and find it to be a valuable resource for any high school (or middle school) art teacher. Students will be inspired by the lessons in this book. The authors are both veteran art teachers and know how to motivate students.

If you want a preview of what is in store, you can browse the lessons and projects on Ken Schwab's web site - Leigh High Art Department.

Ken Schwab also has many lessons on Incredible Art Department web site. You will find some examples of the focus down circle pencil drawing.

I subscribe to several art education list serves and many art teachers - both high school and middle school - have purchased this book and are impressed with the contents. It is a valuable resource for any Art Fundamentals course.

Enjoy Drawing Course 101.

Judy Decker

Not much positive to say on this one. .......2006-05-04

"Drawing Course 101" by Robert Capitolo & & Ken Schwab

I do not trust books that are dual-authored, or co-authored; at least, not in some basic skill like DRAWING. Well, so much for that.

"Drawing Course 101" ...okay, so it covers basic DRAWING, so, I get the point. I guess the question here is, can Larry & Mo do it without Curly, and still write a good and thorough book that teaches good, basic drawing?

The book is disorganized. A good book on drawing should move right into basic sketching with pencil or charcoal I think, and break drawing down into circles, squares, triangles, cylinders, rectangles. Maybe some stick figure drawings, and some coverage of basic human proportions, like lessons about a human body being drawn to about 8 heads tall. You know, basic drawing.

That is not what this book does. Before it covers basic DRAWING it teaches a lot about COLOR (which a BEGINNER should not even be using yet), and then PERSPECTIVE, and by the time you've read to page 28, there is something of a lesson on basic DRAWING. The illustration the authors suggest you draw is a "Still Life". In this instance, you get to draw a Pepper Mill, and an Olive Oil bottle, a metal pot, a small plate, and a glass. Pretty exciting, huh?

I do not mean to appear unfair. I suspect a guy like me could learn a lot from a good book on some Still Life studies, if the lessons were well-illustrated. But this is not a well-illustrated book. Because this is only a 96 page book, I hope the reader will begin to get the idea that if this book waits until p.28 to start teaching actual drawing, it is handicapped with slow development. Allow me to point out that by the time you have read up to p.68 of "Drawing Course 101" you have not even been shown a single human figure, or even a SIMPLIFIED FIGURETTE, or HUMAN PUPPET or BLOCK-FIGURE PUPPET, in any kind of animated pose such as "running" or "jumping" or "bending" or "twisting"; no, not one!

But the authors are ready to remedy that. That's why p. 68 shows a woman's face, and the authors, in their wild exuberance, have decided to get a little bit carefree. They have a kind of "GIRLS-GONE-WILD" moment. TWO/THIRDS the way through the entire book, The girl, has broken through to "the other side" or something, kinda, sorta, I guess, and the muscles at the corners of her mouth have turned upwards...in a SMILE! (careful there! things are getting a bit out of control!)

More surprised than Sylvester-The-Cat sputtering "THufferin' THuccotash!" and spurred on by the author's sudden eruption of passion, I forged right ahead, reading lesson plans with great fervor, right up to page 77, which was the exciting lesson on CROSS-HATCH SHADING. ...And that is about as exciting as "Drawing Course 101" got.

Book Description

Although winter is only one of the seasons, most horse owners spend nine months of the year getting ready for it, getting through it, and getting over it. It is the hardest and most unpleasant time of year for owners, and the one in which horses can suffer most due to particular health, management, and work-related difficulties.
THE HORSE IN WINTER presents winter-management practices that really work. In a thoroughly practical and accessible way, it explains how the horse's bodily processes work and relates them to sound horse-care principles, giving many time- and labor-saving tips along the way.
Covering climate, body temperature, shelter and housing, feeding and watering, care of the skin and coat, feet and legs, clothing and bedding, exercise, health and condition, winter sports, and all special winter jobs and activities, THE HORSE IN WINTER is an indispensable handbook for those who care for horses and ponies of all types in winter.

Customer Reviews:

A Beautiful Picture - Price Guide For A Popular Collectible........1999-12-15

This 176 page guide contains over 800 great, full color, sharp photos of book covers. The values have been updated to 1996. Topics range from Whitman Big Little Books and Big Big Books to Tarzan, Dell Fast Action, Disney and Comic Character books. The amount of text is limited to brief discussions of history, where to purchase, condition, storage and care. If you enjoy collecting this topic, you'll enjoy this volume and refer to it often. Add it to your library.

It was disappointing since it only covers Whitman Publishing.......1999-04-17

It was disappointing since it only covers the Whitman Publishing company Little Big Books. If you want the prices of other publishers you need an additional book. The number of pages in the LBBs are not listed nor are the artists. There are many pluses to this guide. The photographs of the books are great. They show you what the books look like in top condition. The guide is easy to use, since the listings are alphabetical. In the back is a handy check list to mark off what you have in your collection (a column for the price you paid for your book would have been useful). It is a book I would recommend to add to your references on Little Big Books.

Big Book of Little Bears: Identification & Price Guide

Average customer rating:

Big Book of Little Bears: Identification & Price Guide

ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: 0762862971

Product Description

From the Publisher In this colorful guide, expert Shawn Brecka reviews the history of popular bean bear lines. Current values, reports on recent retirements and releases, and tips on grading condition are also listed.

Average customer rating:

Great New Guide To Delight Bean Bag Toy Bear Collectors !!

Big Book of Little Bears: Identification & Price Guide
Shawn Brecka
Manufacturer: Krause Publications
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Antiques & Collectibles | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books

Teddy Bears | Antiques & Collectibles | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books

Toy Animals | Antiques & Collectibles | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books

General | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 1582210217

Book Description

In this guide, expert Shawn Brecka reviews the history of popular bean and plush bear lines. Current values, reports on recent retirements and releases, and tips on grading condition are also listed.

Customer Reviews:

Great New Guide To Delight Bean Bag Toy Bear Collectors !!.......2000-12-15

This new, year 2000 book contains 160 pages with more than 300 large, sharp, full color photos, and prices of more than 1,200 collectible bears. There's a nice introduction and plenty of useful text in this book. Topics range from Avon Full O'Beans, to Chilly Bears, Godiva, Harley-Davidson, Paddington, Ty, Beanie, Winnie-the-Poo and Yogi Bear. There's information on Bear Trends, Tips for Buying and Selling Bears, Using the Internet, Tips for selling on E-Bay. Also data on current lingo, bear condition, counterfeit bears and a list of internet resources. Very interesting and valuable for collectors of little bears.

Average customer rating:

Big Little Book Price Guide
James Stuart Thomas
Manufacturer: Wallace-Homestead Book Co
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Antiques & Collectibles | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books

General | Books & Reading | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

General | Reference | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0870694146

Average customer rating:

Big Little Books
L W Publishing
Manufacturer: L-W Book Sales
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Books | Antiques & Collectibles | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books

Reference | Antiques & Collectibles | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books

General | Books & Reading | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

General | Publishing & Books | Reference | Subjects | Books

Big Little Books: A Collector's Reference & Value Guide

ASIN: 0895380412

Official Guide to Comic Books and Big Little Books ...: The Price to Buy and Sell

Average customer rating:

Official Guide to Comic Books and Big Little Books ...: The Price to Buy and Sell
Hal L. Cohen
Manufacturer: House of Collectibles
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Drawing | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

General | Antiques & Collectibles | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books

General | Foreign Languages | Reference | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0876373295

Ashton's big little book catalog & price guide

Average customer rating:

Ashton's big little book catalog & price guide
James E Ashton
Manufacturer: Ashton Publications
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

General | Comics & Graphic Novels | Subjects | Books
ASIN: B0006YQM6Q

Average customer rating:

The Big Little Book Price Guide
James Stuart Thomas
Manufacturer: Des Moines, IA Wallace-Homestead 1983.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000J5MX4M

Average customer rating:

Big Little Book Price Guide
Jim Thomas
Manufacturer: Wallace-Homestead Book Co
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OLUJZG

Average customer rating:
Grow Your Own Dwarf
Ken Kraft , and Pat Kraft
Manufacturer: Walker & Company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Gardening & Horticulture | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books
Trees | Gardening & Horticulture | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0802704298

Average customer rating:
Grow Your Own Dwarf Fruit Trees
Ken & Pat Kraft
Manufacturer: Walker and Company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000NV9ABG

Average customer rating:
Grow Your Own Dwarf Fruit Trees
Ken and Pat Kraft
Manufacturer: Walker and Co
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000NXEZ2I

Book Description

Por primera vez, y en sus propias palabras, Celia Cruz cuenta la historia de su vida, sus alegrías, sus tristezas y los múltiples obstáculos que tuvo que enfrentar para convertirse en una de las artistas más destacadas de nuestra época.

Sin embargo, a pesar de su fama y popularidad, la vida de Celia Cruz siempre estuvo cubierta por un velo de misterio. Hasta ahora, nunca le había contado a nadie la historia de su vida y nadie nunca había visto su colección privada de fotos. En este libro, por fin les abre las puertas a sus admiradores y nos cuenta su historia, en sus propias palabras.

Basado en más de 500 horas de entrevistas grabadas tan sólo unos meses antes de su muerte Celia incluye fotografías y anécdotas inéditas sobre la vida de Celia Cruz, revelándole a sus millones de admiradores, una vida que había permanecido muy privada a pesar de haberse vivido sobre el escenario.

Celia es la celebración de la vida de una mujer dotada de un talento extraordinario. Es la historia de una mujer apasionada, trabajadora y que tenía una fe indestructible en Dios y en toda la humanidad. En estas, sus últimas palabras, le rinde homenaje al público que tanto la adoraba.

Narrado por Cristina Saralegui

Customer Reviews:

SIMPLEMENTE ELLA........2006-08-11

Yo buscaba una Biografía en la que sintiera que ella me está contando su vida, con sus palabras y su forma de ser. No quería que fuera escrita por otra persona y esta reunió esas condiciones, me divierte mucho, me hace pensar y conocerla mas aún. Tuvo una vida increible, fue un ejemplo de vida, y creo que este libro reúne esos pequeños y grandes momentos relatados por ella.

Celia is an Angel ... And this book reveals it!.......2005-10-16

This is my second review of this book which I re-read (I don't know why Amazon lost the first review). The book is a good read and very well descriptive of La Reina de Guanguanco ("Queen of Guanguanco"). Celia spoke of many points in her life which we all can relate to. She also spoke highly about her wishes to return to her homeland. I'm glad we have her in the USA! She is worthy of her success as a human being and a fine negra-latina. Bravo!

Celia SPA: Mi Vida.......2004-07-21

This book was truly written by Celia Cruz. You can almost see her speaking to you as you read her words. If you are lucky enough to be bilingual get the Spanish version. You'll love it!!! Celia's kindness and honesty is refreshing and inspiring. I had admired Celia Cruz for a long time, this book made me realize why I had found her so likable. Celia was a great human being and a great inspiration to us all, not just as a great entertainer but a wonderful person. I will always treasure this book.

Amazon.com

Although the author opens with a visit to her mother's native Ireland at 12 and ends with lighting candles in her new home in County Cork four decades later, this is no nostalgic memoir about getting back to your roots. Alice Carey has crafted a tough-minded examination of her complicated relationship with her heritage, a warm tribute to the theatrical free spirits who helped liberate her from an unhappy childhood. She grew up in Queens; her father often hit her and flew into a rage when his wife dared to augment the family's meager finances by working as a maid for Broadway producer Jed Harris. Helping Mammie in the afternoons, Alice glimpsed a glamorous, sophisticated world beyond the constraints of Catholic school and Celtic fatalism. She moved to Greenwich Village in her teens and made her life as a Manhattanite with a weekend home in Fire Island. When AIDS decimated that community in the 1990s, she and her husband moved to Ireland. Making an 18th-century farmhouse habitable is a black comedy Carey describes with a sardonic wit that echoes her Irish forebears and gay friends but is uniquely her own (she names "the Seven Dwarves of Restoration: Happy, Reluctant, Fearful, Suspicious, Wary, Hopeful, and Doubtful"). Her journey towards a new identity as "a real New Yorker living in Ireland" is all the more moving because it is chronicled with sharp perceptiveness and without sentimentality. --Wendy Smith

Book Description

The only child of poor Irish immigrants, Alice Carey's isolated childhood in a cold-water flat in Queens is transformed when her mother becomes maid to legendary Broadway producer Jean Dalrymple. In Ms. Dalrymple's Upper East Side townhouse, young Alice absorbs with delight a sophisticated theatrical culture that includes such notables as Jed Harris and Marilyn Monroe. Then, a visit to Ireland with her mother thrusts young Alice into another novel culture, one that simultaneously enchants and traumatizes her. When Alice returns to Ireland as an adult, she and her husband serendipitously find and fall in love with a ruined Georgian farmhouse. As they begin to convert the stables into a livable cottage, Alice unearths buried memories of a childhood played out in wildly divergent homes. I'll Know It When I See It is the witty and rueful examination of her struggles to make sense of—and peace with—her recollections of a bittersweet past. It is a book bound to appeal to a wide range of readers: Irish, New Yorkers, theater folk, and all those longing to buy a house in the old country.

Customer Reviews:

Finding "Home".......2007-02-02

Alice Carey read at the West Side YMCA's Writer's Voice on February 18, 2005. This is from my introduction to the event.

For most people, what probably drew them, or will draw them to this memoir, this author, this event, is one word in the subtitle of this marvelous book: Ireland. Whether you are as Irish as the characters described within "I'll Know it When I See It," or have a last name that sounds more like...Raucher...for instance, the word Ireland still conjures up a multitude of images, of the place itself, its long, difficult and complex history, and how it is also interwoven with the myths and tales of this country. And many of those images have little connection to any reality about the place; but, nevertheless...the romantic image of Ireland persists.

But "I'll Know it When I See It" is not a soft clover travel guide; for one, we spend as much time in Astoria, Queens and on 55th Street right here in Manhattan as we do in County Cork. The events that take place not five miles from the spot where this reading takes place are as indelibly recalled, and as potent for our narrator, as any that take place across the Atlantic, on that verdant island.

But, to this reader at least, the key word in the title is not Ireland; it is something even deeper and more universal: Home.

In this moving yet remarkably unsentimental book, Alice Carey makes it clear that no one finds "home" without a cost, a reckoning of what is lost. Whether it is letting go of--leaving--what one thought was their "home," or coming to terms with simply letting go of what other people expect you to accept as your place in the world, "I'll Know it When I See It" tells a powerful and entrancing tale. One that, because of Alice Carey's expert hand and ear for the beauty and power of language, her ability to make her words come alive on the page, takes us right into the places she, her family and dear friends inhabit, or even only visit.

An Easy and Pleasant Read.......2005-12-19

A friend, whom I accompanied on my first trip to Ireland last May, lent me Alice Carey's memoir "I'll Know It When I See It," knowing how enamored I have become of things Irish. Alice Carey, as a clever and witty story teller, has a natural knack for sizing up situtations and characterizing people that seems to be an Irish trait. Having lived for a while in NYC, I was amused by her reflections on the city, its rapid neighborhood changes, and at the same time dismayed at the stringent life she endured in Queens as a youngster, made especially difficult by a father whose abusive anger was probably rooted in the frustration of economic and social deprivation in a city where extreme wealth so clearly co-exists with poverty.

Alice's salvation resides in her mother, "mammie," whom she adored and who adored her. By the author's literary skill, mammie comes alive and endearing. One example is the episode where she and her mother attended the Broadway opening of "Peter Pan" starring Mary Martin, -a tale told with vivid detail. In her account of her ambivalent search for her roots in Ireland, I very much appreciated the account of her and her husband's finding and rehabilitating the Protestant mansion and rescuing the Catholic cottage from the cows near Bantry where they settled before tackling the manor house. That tale of renovation and acclimation would be a fitting sequel. Perhaps Alice Carey will treat us to that tale. A delicious read that ended all too soon.

Returning to Irish Roots.......2005-03-14

There's something about restoring a house that makes people want to write a book. Perhaps it's the epic nature of their undertaking and the growth they experience in the process. In this account, the house is in Ireland and the restorers are New Yorkers (with Irish roots). Pleasant enough reading, but nothing super-special about it.
The book includes tidbits about Broadway celebs, Fire Island and AIDs, and slight peeks into the Irish way of life.
Other books on home restoration or home building experiences that might interest you are Under the Tuscan Sun (Italy) or A Family Place (Nova Scotia). One I can't recommend is Turn Left at the Black Cow (Ireland).

Loved It!.......2002-12-30

What a wonderful, funny, enlightening book. Please Alice Carey - write me another one. My Irish mother would also like to read the next... Bravo!

A engaging read.... We want More...............2002-03-21

I found this book most enjoyable. It almost could of been
2 seperate books. Life on Broadway and Life on the Emerald Isle.
I would love Ms. Carey expand on both in future books....

A great read!!

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