Common Tropical and Sub-Tropical Sedges and Grasses: An Illustrated Account

Book Description

Written by Michael Hodd, who has visited the region over 40 times, the Footprint East Africa Handbook is a knowledgeable, practical, illuminating and sensitive travel guide to the region.

Customer Reviews:

A Dissenting Opinion.......2004-10-26

It's not that this book is so bad, it's simply that it isn't worth the superlatives heaped on it by the other reviewers.
Although it is nice enough, it simply wasn't practical for bare-knuckle travelling. Having left behind the much more detailed (and therefore more informative) Bradt guides for Uganda, Ethiopia and Zanzibar (yeah, shame on me for being such a fool), I purchased this last minute substitute in an airport enroute.
It was a pleasant read, but not very helpful in trying to determined the easiest, cheapest or most enjoyable mode of transport from point A to point B - whether that was from town to town, or from airport to sleeping accomodations.
Some of the information was dreastically out-of-date (though that can happen with any guidebook that is not current) and the price informaiton was annoying. I much prefer seeing the prices next to the listing rather than go searching for some cost index table to decode each country's living expenses.
The thing I found most objectionable were the difficult-to-manuever maps.
The Bradt guides get my thumbs up recommendation. I am not a fan of Lonely Plant, but I have to concede that even their guide is superior to this book in terms of a practical travel aid.

Excellent for trip planning.......2000-06-17

This book has a lot of information. Amazing how many hotel and restaurants are listed, broken down by price. There are even descriptions of what type of food to expect. I love the history inserts throughout the book. I appreciate the author being forthright regarding health, safety and how to respect the local authorities. Well worth the money.

east africa handbook.......2000-05-20

very helpful and easy to use guide. worth every cent.

Average customer rating:
Regents of Nations. Part 4/2. Eastern, Northern and Central Europe Annex.
Peter Truhart
Manufacturer: K.G. Saur (An Impint of Walter de Gruyter)
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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All Titles | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books
ASIN: 3598215495

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Regents of Nations: Index Part 4/1 Western & Southern Europe (Regents of Nations)

Manufacturer: K.G. Saur Verlag
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 3598216343

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Regents of Nations: Index Part 4/2 East & Central Europe (Regents of Nations)

Manufacturer: K.G. Saur Verlag
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 3598216351

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Regents of Nations: Index Parts 4/1 & 4/2 Europe (Regents of Nations)

Manufacturer: K.G. Saur Verlag
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 3598216335

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Regents Of Nations: Part 4: Europe / Vol. 1: Western and Southern Europe

Manufacturer: K.G. Saur (An Impint of Walter de Gruyter)
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: 3598215487

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Regents of Nations: Europe (Regents of Nations)
Peter Truhart
Manufacturer: K. G. Saur
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books
Presidents & Heads of State | Leaders & Notable People | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books
Reference | Politics | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 3598215460

Amazon.com

Although this is billed as a memoir, a more accurate label might be spiritual autobiography. After Mary Allen's drug-addicted boyfriend, Jim, commits suicide, she enters the classic dark night of the soul, confronting the denials as well as the truths that existed prior to her beloved's suicide. A less courageous author might have stopped there, but Allen has the guts also to reveal her mental anguish and psychiatric institutionalization. She delved into the underworld of the afterlife, desperate for connection with her boyfriend's spirit.

Although Allen does not dismiss the possibility of "Summerland," a spiritualist term for the afterlife, she stays grounded in her personal experience with contacting Jim's spirit, instead of making sweeping assertions about the hereafter. The effect is engrossing and at times laugh-aloud funny. Overall, Allen's narrative rings with dignity--clearly the voice of an accomplished, award-winning writer as well as a woman who has risen from the ashes of a lover's suicide and codependency (a cliché she skillfully avoids lingering over) to become a person who can finally love with ferocity and self-respect intact. --Gail Hudson

Book Description

"A love story, a memoir, a haunting tale of grief and healing. This book is all that and more." --Chicago Tribune

In the tradition of Susanna Kaysen's Girl, Interrupted and Caroline Knapp's Drinking: A Love Story, Mary Allen tells a riveting love story that explores the uncharted territory between passion and addiction, grief and madness, this world and the next.

When Mary Allen falls in love with Jim Beaman, she doesn't know he has a drug problem, but she does sense demons and angels around him, like "a disturbance in the air, a sound just beyond the register of human hearing." And when Jim--discouraged and depressed, struggling with his addiction--kills himself a year into their relationship, Allen is unable to let him go. In her desperate attempts to recover from the loss, she uses a Ouija board and automatic writing to pull back from reality into the dark recesses of her mind, where she believes she can find him. The result is a mesmerizing trip across the boundaries between this world and the afterlife, a journey that leads her to the brink of insanity and ultimately back to herself.

Customer Reviews:

Would recommend.......2006-05-04

This for me was actually an engrossing read. The beginning I guess is what really sort of builds you up, because that is what keeps you reading on. It was interesting, but the one thing I really don't care for is the way that some books will not have chapter headings. But, overall I'd say it was worth it. I gave it 4 stars.

Haunting and familiar.......2005-01-30

I would also use the word haunting to describe this book. Haunting and gut-wrenching, and in a strange way, almost familiar in parts. As I read it, totally engrossed, I kept thinking "there, but for the grace of God....". The rather innocent beginning, in a college town in the midwest, reminded me of earlier days of my own, as well as the meeting of someone who is so appealing that it creates an instant bond. And then the mysterious stangeness of addiction, and the feeling that somehow you could make it all better, but can't. And then the second part, stranger than the first, but no less plausible, just that the author slid over the edge of 'rationality'. Mary Allen is a compelling writer, and a courageous one. I'm glad I read this book (twice), although it was an intense and occasionally an uncomfortable experience.

Haunting memoir of addiction, love and grief........2002-11-09

Mary Allan tells quite a story about the love of her life, Jim Beamen. They have somewhat of a whirlwind romance and Mary starts to see that Jim has an addiction to cocaine. Mary chonicles her spiral downward with Jim as his addiction becomes out of control; coupled with alcoholism and their codependecy.

When Jim commits suicide, Mary can't cope with her loss. She begins a descent into mental illness. Mary becomes 'addicted' to "automatic writing" in which she believes she is corresponding with Jim's spirit.

I think Allan is very brave to write this memoir. I can't imagine her sadness, or her irrational thoughts. They seem so strange and as I read them, I could feel her overwhelming sadness and desperation to connect with Jim...and it takes courage for her to share that sad desperation with others.

I found her writing style effective and I would recommend anyone who has suffered a tragic loss to read this book as it offers an insight into codependency, addiction and grief. Worthy of 4 stars.

An amazing connection.......2001-11-15

This book so moved me that I felt compelled to write to Mary Allen, though I've never written to an author before. I found my copy in a second-hand store. It drew me to it in much the same way that Mary's life had coincidences and connections that could not be predicted.

How can I say what affected me so about it? It wasn't that, 22 years ago, a close friend took his life, as Jim Beaman did. It wasn't quite because my ex had a bad relationship with cocaine. It was really that the honest telling of Mary's love and life with Jim was so true, in all its details.

I believe, as Mary does, in life after death. And I also believe in synchronicity, those strange seeming coincidences that catch us by surprise. Dreaming of a friend, and then she calls the next day, after years of silence. Learning a new word, and then you start seeing it everywhere.

One coincidence about this particular copy of the book took me totally by surprise. The book, of course, was used, so it had its former owner's name, in feminine script, on the first page. "N. [last name]," it read. When I flipped to the Acknowledgments section at some later point (it was dog-eared), I saw Mary's last thank-you sentence: "... and John [same last name], who read the manuscript and listened to me talk about it so often he practically knows it by heart."

So this book has come to mean more to me than just the story, which is moving and sparkling enough. Although N. gave it away, I never will!

rooms of heaven.......2001-09-02

When I read the cover on Mary Allen's book, I expected a description of heaven revealed as a result of the death of her boyfriend. This, however was not the case. It was an outpouring of emotion, from start to finish.. a story of true love, gutsy, and uninhibited. For the strength of this woman alone, this book is worth the time. You just have to give Mary credit for putting into words, the affairs of the heart, and head, no matter how horrible they may sound. And, if you have ever been around a addictive personality, this may open your eyes to the light of day.

Amazon.com

The dignified tabby on the cover of The Quotable Feline almost dares the feline fancier to come closer. Inside, page after page of entertaining photos are matched perfectly with a short poem or hilarious quip. Rich sepia tones add a wonderful antique finish to all the photos, each capturing a classic moment in the day of a cat. A few are special poses--a fluffy white cat draped with pearls is accompanied by Colette's comment, "By associating with the cat, one only becomes richer"--but many are simply kitties caught in the act of being their delightful selves. Peeking out of a fence, staring into a fishbowl, sitting forlornly on the front step--you're sure to see a calico, tiger-stripe, or tabby that reminds you of a favorite pet or kitten moment. Authors such as Joyce Carol Oates, Oscar Wilde, Tennessee Williams, and Ernest Hemingway cover a range of moods you'll find familiar, from adoration to total exasperation. Your cat's favorite quote is sure to be the one from a royal tomb at Thebes: "Thou art the Great Cat, the avenger of the gods, and the judge of words, and the president of the sovereign chiefs and the governor of the holy Circle; thou art indeed... the Great Cat." Try reading that aloud to your kitty--you're sure to get the look that says, "What, you only just figured this out, human?" --Jill Lightner

Book Description

Forty-five cats, young and old, smiling and morose, affectionate and aloof. Each is accompanied by an apt quotation ("Dogs come when they're called. Cats takes a message and get back to you.") drawn from a variety of the most articulate celebrators of the cat, including Chekhov and Colette, Hemingway and Jules Verne, Leonardo da Vinci ("The smallest feline is a masterpiece.") and Jim Davis of Garfield fame. A cat alone by the telephone, a cat eyeing a goldfish, a cat returning the love of a person, an intrepid explorer kitten--image after image, printed in glowing sepia tones on ivory paper, demonstrates the special grace and intuition that Dratfield and Coughlin bring to the photography of animals. This beautiful cat book is sure to be the perfect treat for your favorite cat lover.

Customer Reviews:

quotes on back of cards!.......2005-12-06

Good quality, but the quotes are in tiny print on the back of the cards, not on the inside.

this book is a work of art........1997-06-11

As a lover of cats and the written meaning of words, this book is extraordinary. The contents express the true thought of the cat, plus the siteful interpretation, of man, thru photograph and word. The strength of picture and meaning leap at you, as you turn the pages. Drawing you in deeper and deeper, as you rush to finish viewing your first siting, of this adventure. Encouraging you to view immediately, once again the site of photo and word. This collection is a great gift and a great addition to anyone's collection.

Quotable Cats: The Quintessential Collection of Feline Wisdom (Miniature Editions)

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Quotable Cats: The Quintessential Collection of Feline Wisdom (Miniature Editions)
Miniature Book Collection (Library of Congress)
Manufacturer: Running Press Book Publishers
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0762401524

The Quotable Cat: A Collection of Quotes, Facts, and Lore for Feline Fanciers

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The Quotable Cat: A Collection of Quotes, Facts, and Lore for Feline Fanciers

Manufacturer: Sourcebooks
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Humor | Entertainment | Subjects | Books

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Book Description

Outside the occasional meow, cats are not known for their great conversation, but many of their famous human companions have had much to say about them. The Quotable Cat contains hundreds of examples:

• Leonardo DaVinci, who really ought to know about such things, has said, "The smallest feline is a masterpiece."

• According to Garrison Keillor, "Cats are intended to teach us that not everything in nature has a function."

• Roy Blount Jr. tells us, "Cats have intercepted my footsteps at the ankle for so long that my gait, both at home and on tour, has been compared to that of a man wading through low surf."

• "You can't look at a sleeping cat and feel tense," says Jane Pauley.

Learn all about the secret methods of cat hypnosis, read about theories on purring and get up-to-date on a variety of quaint cat superstitions. Everything you've always wanted to know about cats is in this volume. Aren't you curious?

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The Quotable Cat - A Cat Lover's Compendium Of Observations On The Felicitous Feline
Lisa A. Rogak
Manufacturer: Contemporary Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000K0D4QW

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The Quotable Cat: A Collection of Quotes, Facts and Lore for Feline Fanciers
C. E. Crimmins
Manufacturer: Running Pr Book Pub
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000NSKQW6

Customer Reviews:

New Directions in Altered Books.......2007-08-17

This was a well made book with good photos etc. It was not entirely visually appealing to me however and I felt a little let down. If I had seen it in the flesh prior to purchasing I would have left it. (One of the pitfalls with internet buying I suppose).
However, maybe I am not into the whole 'altered book' process and as such my comments may not be a good overall yardstick.

What a fun book!.......2007-07-22

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. The instructions are very good, there are many creative ideas and the photography is wonderful. There are some really unique approaoches to wall art using altered books, as well as using CDs, picture frames, etc. What I like best is that this book has some new and refreshing ideas which I haven't seen before and that always gets my creative juices flowing. There is also a great gallery which showcases the work of other artists. For those just beginning, the book starts with how to choose the right book for altering. For the more advanced enthusiast, there is a section that asks, "What if...? and explores new possibilities with other artists. Something for everyone and definitely one of my favorites.

Recommended.......2007-05-24

This book was initially recommended to me by an art instructor. It has proved to be a well-founded recommendation. Clear instruction and inspiring.

Unusual ideas, for artists.......2007-05-13

This book has some very interesting ideas. Its more for the real artist who is making altered books, not the more crafty person. It sparked several ideas of my own. Not a first book to buy, though, if you're just getting into the subject.

Creatively Top-notch.......2007-05-09

Sometimes a writer simply clicks. Gabe Cyr is in top form from start to finish. I couldn't turn a page in this book without being inspired. Although the book might be a stretch for some readers who want to try altered books for the first time, it is so filled with ideas, hints, tips and possibilities that even the complete novice would find encouragement to try a new skill.
My personal experience has been that many craft books are mediocre at best. The offerings lean toward "cute" or toward craft groups preparing for a fund-raising event...very middle-of-the-road. Gabe Cyr dares to try truly unusual things and in the process to open the door for others to do the same. The projects are not intended to be re-created exactly, but to help each reader find her or his own "voice" in this artistic craft.
An excellent addition to any serious library.

Average customer rating:

New Directions in Altered Books
Gabe Cyr
Manufacturer: Lark Books (NC)
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000N67JLE

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Outdoor Living Spaces: How to Create a Landscape You Can Use & Enjoy/Featuring Hundreds of Professional, Practical Design Ideas
Susan Rademacher Frey , and Barbara W. Ellis
Manufacturer: Rodale Pr
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Landscape | Architecture | Professional & Technical | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 0875961320

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Outdoor Living Spaces: How to Create a Landscape You Can Use & Enjoy/Featuring Hundreds of Professional, Practical Design Ideas
Susan Rademacher; Ellis, Barbara W. Frey
Manufacturer: Rodale Pr
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000NY1UMK

Book Description

While working on a doomed book about commuting, Tim Brookes developed an odd affection for dirt roads. This led him to study his own driveway, a tiny dirt road, a masterpiece of inconvenience, a many-mooded borderlands in the balance of power between order and chaos. The result: The Driveway Diaries, a well-balanced mix of poignant and humorous observations about nature, the seasons and family life.

Tim Brookes is the author of A Hell of a Place to Lose a Cow, which was selected as one of the top travel books of the year by The New York Times and Booklist. He has lived for two decades in Vermont, where he teaches and writes.

Customer Reviews:

DON'T BUY THIS.......2006-02-08

I read a review that said this book was hilarious. Sure, if you like reading chapter after chapter about all the trash the writer has in the yard & his car. He alludes to the fact he and his wife are too lazy to clean out the cat box, yet worry about their daughter's allergies??? Please. I did not laugh once. Not funny at all.

A Road Less Traveled.......2006-01-14

Tim Brookes, a Brit who discovered American atop a bicycle, settled in Burlington, Vermont with a plumb teaching job at the state university and never left. Now director of the writing program at Champlain College, Brookes has compiled a number of winsome essays about moving with his family thirty-five miles out into the country, to grow intellectually among the pure forces of nature then ultimately rue "the balance of power between order and chaos," as Brookes now ruefully philosophizes.

The Driveway Diaries: a Dirt Road Almanac emerged from a regular column Brookes wrote for a local newspaper, and many of his musings about exurbia have been broadcast on National Public Radio's Sunday Weekend Edition, and most recently excerpted in Harper's Magazine. The book chronicles the first seven years of living just beyond the suavities taken for granted in a city, and as the realities of unassisted living supplant the expectations of harmonious enlightenment, Brookes staves off organic dementia by writing eloquently in sixty-three essays about unimproved existence.

The Driveway Diaries is a good pocket guide for anyone who leaves the pavement for greening pastures, and is especially informative of what is waiting for the ecstatic, rejuvenated immigrants fleeing to La Plata County for a modicum of emotional or financial independence. Open space is lovely, and there are certainly moments of bliss living on the land, but it comes at a cost for which most urbanites haven't budgeted and can ill afford.

At first, for Brookes, just finding the quaint old house perched on a hillside overlooking a wooded Vermont valley was paradisical. "Ten acres. In England, where I spent the first half of my live, you can't have ten acres unless you are an Earl, or are sleeping with an Earl, or the outcome of someone else sleeping with an Earl, Brookes says as he begins his journey. "I barely looked at the house. I looked at the land and saw everything my mother had ever planted in a garden, plus everything that she had always wanted to plant in a garden, but had never had garden enough." Thus starts the infatuation that would creep slowly like a rhizome to envelop Brookes and his young family in a form of intuitive self defense.

Precursors to catastrophe begin right away for Brookes and, likewise, for everyone moving to Bayfield or Breen, if they only saw yesterday what they see today. Drought was the first harbinger Brookes saw after closing the deal on his dream life. In Burlington, a city of thirty-eight thousand, rumor had it that Vermont was becoming a drought state, and as Brookes was readying his move from a rented house in town he noticed that the lawn was turning brown and shriveling up, but . . . "Outside Burlington, it quickly became apparent that drought, like serious snow, begins outside the city limits," Brookes observed solemnly. "On closer inspection, all the interesting (if nameless) little bushes and shrubs skirting the house are now slightly less interesting collections of twigs, with an occasional leathery leaf clinging to a twig like an overcooked nacho chip." Brookes immediately figured out what it means to draw water from a well, a well with a falling water table during a prolonged dry spell.

The dream tarnishes for Brookes and his wife, but not before putting up the good fight with moments of splendor over ridiculously simple rewards like triumphing over the icy driveway, beating back a wasp invasion, overcoming the urban construct to kill everything that stings or bites, steeling enough nerve to paint the house rafters clinging to a ladder on uneven ground, and even apologizing to the trees the landscaper suggested removing to improve the view shed. As the cuts were scaring and new cuts were forming, Brookes began to write about his curiously absurd experiences, reminiscent of a castaway writing a journal to keep from losing his mind. The best of his essays are about dirt roads, if you can imagine such a contemplation, and reason enough to go right to Maria's Bookshop and pick up a copy of this confessional.

In his essay entitled "Seventeen Ways of Looking at a Dirt Road," Brookes puts in perspective why we who live in the country endure the privations. And read as a metaphor, which isn't at all suggested, imparts solid guidance to our county planners who seem determined to over improve with computer generated guidance that which needs no improvement at all.

Brookes begins by quoting Blake: "The crooked unimproved roads are the roads of genius." Brookes goes on to discover for himself just what Blake means: "Dirt roads are a light footprint on the land, the most minimal concession to the automobile, the ragged fringe between civilization and wilderness. I love them. This is my gravel cadenza, my ode to inconvenience."

"Dirt roads are a communal creation, not suffering from the autocracy of engineers," preaches Brookes. "A dirt road is a long-running experiment in sustainable transportation . . . the perfect hybrid: half road, half part of the landscape." Most dirt roads were never designed in the first place, Brookes discovered from visiting with Vermont's credentialed dirt road expert. We who use dirt roads can see that they followed section lines, cow paths, migration trails, evolving naturally instead of being placed for anticipated traffic mediation.

"A dirt road knows its place, and doesn't claim to own all it sees," observes Brookes. "It's still obedient to the rise and fall of the land . . . there's nothing like a dirt road to demonstrate, without condescension, the diversity of the state, to assert its democracy." This is not nostalgic or frivolous conversation; this is seeing the forest for the trees, the means to the end, the single step toward a destination a long way off. "With a dirt road, we are someone: we do not pass unnoticed or unremembered . . . it acknowledges our progress in a cloud of dust, or in the curling lip of a rut." Brookes reminds us seriously.

It's hard not to extrapolate our own existence, our small footprints on the ground, from Brookes' eloquent treatise on the simple dirt roads that cause such scorn among county planners and excessively equipped engineers. "Dirt roads are self-policing," Brookes pleads, "you can't go all that fast on a surface that creates its own speed bumps," and, "enforces humility."

Still yearning for order among chaos, Brookes proposes that "Dirt roads don't lie. A paved road - a `good' road - underlies us like a safe assumption, its smooth silence reassuring us that this is where we and our car belong. But a car doesn't belong anywhere. It's only a native species in the fictional world in which we are masters of the earth. A dirt road doesn't respect this fiction. If we want to believe in our ascendance over our surroundings the last thing we want is a rude series of jolts that remind us otherwise."

And yet a dirt road is " a reminder that the intersection between the human world and the natural one is lethal," Brookes demurs. "At the head of the driveway . . . Maddy and I find a garter snake, white belly up, flattened into a treble clef. I've seen at least a dozen dead garter snakes on Chapin Road, not to mention worms, mice, butterflies, peepers, chipmunks, rabbits, cats, groundhogs, birds beyond identification, and insects beyond number. They are the true cost of driving. On a tarmac they look out of place, as if the animal were simply stupid, or a trespasser, and in any case the remains are soon erased. On my road they are unmistakably my neighbors, whom I need to watch out for. Their skin and juices become part of the road."

Brookes' insights, especially about dirt roads and driveways and the human intrusion upon nature, inspire reflection upon the importance we place on improvement, how we just may have it reversed. He's very convincing, in a very charming, humorous manner that will ring true with vicissitudes facing our backwater hamlet: "The road that leads to paradise also provides the means of its destruction," presages Tim Brookes.

Book Description

Ray Materson wanted to be a priest when he grew up. He was an A student and sixth-grade class president.

But in college Ray began drinking, which led to drug experimentation, which devolved to an addict's life of living fix to fix. Finally, petty acts of theft and the end of loans from friends led to carjacking with a toy gun and a sentence of twenty-five years behind bars.

One miserable day in prison, Ray remembered an image of his grandmother sitting on the porch with her embroidery. At about the same time, the University of Michigan was to play in the Rose Bowl. Improvising a needlework hoop, Ray made a maize-and-blue Michigan M so he could officially cheer his team to victory. Soon Ray was sewing small flags and emblems using threads pulled from socks for pieces commissioned by fellow inmates, who paid him with cigarettes. Over time his work became more intricate-miniature masterpieces that told stories from his past and illustrated his dreams for the future. In stitching his artwork, Ray found hope and salvation.

Enter Melanie, a woman who sees Ray's work in a local exhibition and writes him a fan letter. Ultimately she marries him while he's still in prison. With Melanie's encouragement and perseverance, Ray's artwork gains national attention and is a smash hit. To this day, his work is represented by the American Primitive Gallery in New York.

Illustrated with fifty pieces of Materson's artwork, SINS AND NEEDLES is the riveting story of Ray's journey-of how a broken man manages to put the pieces of his life together in a most unexpected way.

Customer Reviews:

Real life.......2005-10-23

I enjoyed this book because it is a story about real life. It is an unexpected and very atypical story about a person whose life is, for some time, dictated by the disease of addiction. It was a difficult book to put down because the story is compelling and so human.

It is likely that the negative reviews of this book stem from an inability of the reviewer to appreciate the struggle of addicts and the people in their lives and/or an intolerance for folks who write that aren't "writers". Materson is an outsider artist and this book, like his art, lack pretense. It's a great story.

An Artistic Genius Revealed.......2005-07-05

Ray Materson was born with the gift of being an artist- a person highly sensitive to pain and to pleasure who could convey these feelings to others. Even when locked up in a jail cell, with nothing to work with, he created his own materials- ironically one of them being a needle (a paraphernalia of the drug trade) and sock threads to create incredible stunning detailed works of depth and beauty of a definite style, snapshots of memory overflowing with feeling. Fortunately an appreciator, who was to become his soulmate and wife, came along and tells his life story with its suffering and its pleasures.
The glossy pages show the embroideries at their very best. This book is a MUST read for all interested in art as a whole, particularly in embroidery, "Outsider Art", "Raw Art", in teaching, and in realizing how important artistic expression is and how important it is to be there for others as an Appreciator.

Try Fiction.......2003-12-20

My good sense tells me that writing this book made the Matersons feel better about themselves. My mind tells me to thank God I never went the way of abuse or criminal activity. My experience tells me we all have a life story to tell. Reading this book showed me most of us do not tell our story to make money or a movie. If the Matersons want money and fame here's some advice: try fiction or learn how to write without being so self-serving.

A very uplifting tale of both despair and love...................2003-12-17

I thought that this book was very well written and quite captivating in that I never put it down until all was read. A peek into a personal life can be very educational and enlightening and I truly believe that this book has helped me to better understand lifes many possible ups and downs and just how important both freedom and love are in a persons life. I very much look forward to the next book by the Matersons and hope that it is soon! I wish them the best in their new life and a hearty pat on the back is in order!

Overpriced.......2003-09-26

The book and the art pictured in the book are overpriced. It's a good thing the Matersons can sell this art because their first attempt at book writing is disappointing. The moral of this story is that while it's good to save oneself from being a criminal others are just not that interested. I suppose the poor sales of the book are due to the fact that either a bad reputation will come back to haunt you or your karma will. Now, that's a high price to pay.

Book Description

A study of the career and personality of T.P. O'Connor -MP for Liverpool, Irish Nationalist and acknowledged spokesman for the Irish in Britain during the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

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