His Way: A Biography of Robert Muldoon

Book Description

This the only authorized biography of New Zealand's prime minister, Robert Muldoon-one of the dominant political figures of the last half-century in that country. Based on many hours of conversation with Muldoon himself as well as colleagues, friends, and family, and wide access to the prime minister's official and private papers and diaries, this book has been awarded the Ian Wards Prize for published historical writing. Muldoon is shown as a champion of the ordinary people whose vision over time became anachronistic and inflexible. The book is also a fascinating picture of New Zealand's changing political landscape from the 1940s to the 1980s.

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The Founder of New France : A chronicle of Champlain
Charles William Colby
Manufacturer: Hard Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: 1406925500
Release Date: 2006-11-03

Average customer rating:
Chronicles of Canada, Volume 3 .. The Founder Of New France .. A Chronicle of Champlain
Charles - Wrong, George M. & Langton, H. H.(editors) Colby
Manufacturer: Glasgow, Brook & Company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Leather Bound

Founding | Canada | Americas | History | Subjects | Books
ASIN: B000KHDGD6

Average customer rating:
The Founder Of New France - A Chronicle of Champlain - The Chronicles Of Canada Series (Volume 3 only) of 32 Volume Set.
Charles W. - Wrong, George M. & Langton, H. H.(editors) Colby
Manufacturer: Glasgow, Brook & Co.,
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Founding | Canada | Americas | History | Subjects | Books
ASIN: B000KH9BNK

Average customer rating:
You Can Go Bankrupt Without Going Broke: An Essential Guide to Personal Bankruptcy
Lawrence R. Reich , and James P. Duffy
Manufacturer: Pharos Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Bankruptcy | Business | Law | Subjects | Books
General | Taxation | Law | Subjects | Books
Private Law | Law | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 088687629X

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YOU CAN GO BANKRUPT WITHOUT GOING BROKE An Essential Guide to Personal Bankruptcy
Lawrence R. & James P. Duffy Reich
Manufacturer: Pharos Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000O7M08O

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A straightforward reference and price guide

Collectable Paperback Books: A New Vintage Paperback Price Reference Second Edition
Jeff Canja
Manufacturer: Glenmoor Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Books | Antiques & Collectibles | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books
General | Antiques & Collectibles | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books
Reference | Antiques & Collectibles | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books
General | Bibliographies & Indexes | Publishing & Books | Reference | Subjects | Books
General | Reference | Subjects | Books
General | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books
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The Home-Based Bookstore: Start Your Own Business Selling Used Books on Amazon, eBay or Your Own Web Site

Official Price Guide to Books, 5th Edition (Official Price Guide to Books)

Book Finds, 3rd Edition: How to Find, Buy, and Sell Used and Rare Books

Pocket Guide to the Identification of First Editions

Selling Used Books Online: The Complete Guide to Bookselling at Amazon's Marketplace and Other Online Sites

ASIN: 0967363950

Book Description

Completely revised, updated, and expanded, this price guide to vintage paperback books lists more than 12,500 books along with their market prices and basic bibliographic data. With more than 1,000 illustrations of key paperback covers and prices ranging from $5 to over $500, this is an essential and eye-opening reference for collectors, book dealers, flea market bargain hunters, and anyone with an interest in books and popular culture memorabilia. Also included are an introduction to paperback collecting, profiles of the leading publishers and cover artists of the vintage era, pseudonyms of popular authors, and a guide to additional resources.

Customer Reviews:

A straightforward reference and price guide.......2002-12-09

Now in an fully updated and expanded second edition, Collectable Paperback Books by Jeff Canja is a straightforward reference and price guide to vintage paperback books featuring 12,625 authentic market prices ranging from $5 to $500! Black-and-white illustrations of book covers pepper the extensive price list comprises this invaluable and authoritative guide; along with a brief section at the beginning which teaches the novice collector about grading the condition of vintage paperbacks, distinguishing collectible books from ones that aren't worth very much, and more. Also included is a selection of publisher profiles, famous cover artists, and author pseudonyms. Collectable Paperback Books is an indispensable and strongly recommended reference for collectors, dealers, bookstore staff members, and anyone simply wanting to assess their personal or family library of vintage paperback books.

Average customer rating:

A great book to start playing with polymer clay

This is Polymer Clay heaven!

An Increasingly Popular Craft: A Super Book to Learn From!

Step by Step Polymer Clay in a Day: Over 15 Exciting Projects, from Gifts to Accessories for the Home
Emma Ralph
Manufacturer: North Light Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Crafts & Hobbies | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books
Pottery & Ceramics | Crafts & Hobbies | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books
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Polymer Clay for the first time (For The First Time)

The Polymer Clay Techniques Book

The Art of Polymer Clay: Designs and Techniques for Creating Jewelry, Pottery, and Decorative Artwork (paperback reissue, Updated)

Polymer Clay Creations: 11 Easy Projects You Can Make

Elegant Gifts in Polymer Clay

ASIN: 1581804911

Book Description

Anyone interested in the popular and adaptable medium of polymer clay will delight in the colorful projects found in Step-by-Step Polymer Clay in a Day. Crafters will welcome Emma Ralph's affordable and beautiful gift ideas, ideas that include wine glass charmers, a millefiore trinket box, stylish napkin rings, clay and metal earrings, colorful pens, and a delicate lattice bowl.

With a comprehensive techniques section, which presents such essential techniques as canework, blending, texture, and filligree, along with a creative gallery of projects and project variations, beginners and experienced crafters alike will appreciate the inspiration found in this dynamic and easy-to-follow guide.

Customer Reviews:

A great book to start playing with polymer clay.......2006-03-08

This is a great book and the only one I have bought about PC so far. It has so many fantastic projects that you will want to try them straight away! The projects are all very colourful and funky and a lot of fun to make. There is a section that covers the basics which is enough for someone who has never tried their hand at PC. Highly recommended!

This is Polymer Clay heaven!.......2004-04-22

Emma Ralph wrote a great book here! The reason it's so good is that she has wonderful ideas - and they can all be adapted to whatever YOU want to make. If she shows you how to make napkin rings, you don't have to make napkin rings, but you can adapt the techinique she has very clearly explained to many other things. I love this book and can't wait to spend some more time with it.

An Increasingly Popular Craft: A Super Book to Learn From!.......2004-01-28

Even if you have never seen polymer clay, this book, by polymer artisan and author Emma Ralph, will intrigue and inspire you.

I bought this book because I design jewelry using polymer clay beads made by other people, and I wanted to read more about it.

Jewelry--beads, pendants, and earrings--is not the only way you can use polymer clay, however. This stunningly photographed book proves that, with a variety of projects devised by talented and well known artisan Emma Ralph for readers from the beginner group on up to the more experienced.

She is very clear in her instructions and leaves absolutely nothing out--from safety, to amount of clay you will need, to what to do with scraps left over.

When you make a project with this book by your side you are in confident and stylish hands.

Polymer clay is a form of plastic. It is an exceptionally flexible medium which can be baked in a regular oven to a degree of hardness which enables you to make an incredible array of items.

This book has wonderful explanations and is greatly appealing to look at. You will WANT to make things with polymer -- get ready to explore something and have a great time doing it!

Even if you have used polymer clay before, you will learn new techniques and gain experience from this book. There are a number of skill levels to the projects, and the author has marked some of them to note this. I liked that. There are also some really interesting variations explored in some of the projects as well. For example, when you have leftover clay after making one of the projects which involves covering an egg with polymer, you can use it to make pendants. This is illustrated with photographs.

I liked the "artist's tips"--little quick notes throughout the projects--to ease things along, or add something special to what you are working on.

I also liked the remarkable variety of things to make. You like mobiles? There is a mobile in here. You like personalized greeting cards? Believe it or not, you can make a card with polymer! I could not stop looking at the photos and I want to try everything.

So: What is a good test of reading a book which concerns a craft? Do you want to make something after you've read it? As you can see, I did. And you will, too. Whether it is Emma's wine charms which look like adorable citrus slices, her incredible millefiore trinket box, or a barrette, or some clay and metal earrings or...oh, you name it! You will want to get started having fun with polymer clay. Thanks to step-by-step POLYMER CLAY in a day,
you will have a super guide you can refer to, over and over, in order to get you going and keep your enjoyment of working with this fascinating medium high.

Average customer rating:

Laugh Out Loud Funny

Humerous Look at Finacial Part in Having a Child

Great book for a soon-to-be first time mom!

This book left me bitter towards the woman who wrote it.

The Perfect Book for a first time mom!!

Callie's Tally: An Accounting of Baby's First Year (Or, What My Daughter Owes Me)
Betsy Howie
Manufacturer: Tarcher
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books
Women | Specific Groups | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books
Memoirs | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books
Motherhood | Family Relationships | Parenting & Families | Subjects | Books
General | Parenting | Parenting & Families | Subjects | Books
General | Parenting & Families | Subjects | Books
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I'll Never Have Sex with You Again!: Tales from the Delivery Room

Accessories:

Health o Meter HDC100-01 "Grow with Me" Teddy Bear Scale for Babies and Toddlers

ASIN: 1585421758
Release Date: 2002-09-26

Book Description

According to reports, it costs upwards of $190,000 just to get a child to the point that college is a possibility. But none of these studies takes into account the hidden fees of parenthood: the doubling of caffeine expenses to combat sleep deprivation, new membership dues for exciting clubs such as Weight Watchers, and escalating photo-processing bills.

While other parents resign themselves to covering these necessities without a word of acknowledgment, Betsy Howie decided to keep a running account of her daughter's first year of debt: her hilarious memoir, Callie's Tally. "I want my daughter to know how much life costs and what things are worth," she writes. "I want her to know what she's worth."

"I would also like to get some money back."

Describing how having a child turned her bank account (and her life) upside down, Howie debates such topics as whether babies should pay for post-partum candy binges, in-utero rent, and travel expenses incurred while being shown off to in-laws. Part Bridget Jones's Diary (after Bridget snags the boy) and part Operating Instructions (for the fiscally obsessed), this witty chronicle offers a receipt-by-receipt answer to the question: exactly how much does a baby cost?

Customer Reviews:

Laugh Out Loud Funny.......2005-04-01

I loved this book. I laughed so much and insisted on reading passages to my mom and/or husband throughout the book. As a first time mom of a baby girl, it was so funny to hear her take on the first year.

It's very much in the same comic vein as the "girlfriend's guides" books. Raising a child is serious business, but you need to have a sense of humor!

I sympathize with her desire a) to take back some control over the tumultuous event of having a child and b) reclaim and reintegrate your "old" life into this new one. I loved reading the financial "categories" for her expenses.

I highly recommend the book and will add it to my list of baby shower gift books!

Humerous Look at Finacial Part in Having a Child.......2004-04-22

I saw this book at a library display and decided to read it. What a refreshing and unique way of looking at having a baby, especially a daughter. I was able to relate to so many of the stories and laugh at the creativity of the author. Wonderful book.

Great book for a soon-to-be first time mom!.......2004-01-16

Come on Jessica from Michigan, lighten up! You didn't "get" this book at all, did you even read it? She's not actually charging her daughter anything, just trying to figure out what it really costs financially, and even more so the huge life changes involved in having a child. And her eventual point is that we ALL owe each other... in ways that you can't ever really count, and it doesn't matter because you can't count what you get in return either. I certainly owe my mother more than I could ever pay her, for the financial, physical, and emotional sacrifices she's made. I expect that it will be the same way when I have a daughter... in fact, my having a daughter is one way of trying to repay my mother. That's just how it goes. This book made me think, more than anything else I've read, about what my mother's done for me, and the changes that I'll go through when my baby is born. I laughed, I cried, and I have a whole new appreciation for my mom, and for what I'm getting ready to do. I plan to buy it for the next friend who gets pregnant!

This book left me bitter towards the woman who wrote it........2003-09-15

First of all, this woman has "unprotected sex for several weeks" and now she has the nerve to bill her first born for all the expenses. If she made the choice to to put herself in that situation then she should have been responsible for the outcome. Her daughter Callie was in no way indebted to her mother for her mother's actions. This book was dreadful and I can't imagine any mother indebting her own unborn child.
Take responsibility for your own actions, your child owes you nothing.

So I guess Callie will be billing her mother for all Callie's psychologist appointments when she is older.

The Perfect Book for a first time mom!!.......2003-07-07

Loved it. I wish I had it when my daughter was born. Betsy writes about so many of the ups and downs of the first year. I will be purchasing it for all girlfriends when their first children are born!

Callie's Tally - Accounting Of Baby's First Year (or - What My Daughter Owes Me)

Average customer rating:

Callie's Tally - Accounting Of Baby's First Year (or - What My Daughter Owes Me)
Betsy Howie
Manufacturer: Jeremy P. Tarcher, Inc.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000JZZMTK

Book Description

Rosa Raisa (1893-1963) was legendary for her imposing, powerful, and wide-ranging voice as well as for her highly dramatic and emotionally stirring stage presence. A renowned star of the Chicago Opera, Raisa sang over 1,000 opera performances and concerts around the world. Held in high esteem by composers, conductors, and colleagues, she was Puccini's choice to create the lead roles in La rondine and Turandot.

In this first biography of Raisa, Charles Mintzer provides a captivating and revealing portrait of a warm-hearted, generous artist whose career and complex personality were shaped by a life that crossed Jewish, Italian, and American cultural boundaries. Mintzer masterfully blends together his narrative with selections from Raisa's unpublished memoir and excerpts from contemporary critical reviews to present a well-rounded picture of this extraordinary woman and to trace her incredible journey to operatic fame.

Born Raitza Burchstein in the Polish ghetto of Bialystok, she fled the 1906 pogroms and settled in Italy, where she studied under Barbara Marchisio at the Conservatory of Naples. After her operatic debut in 1913 as Leonora in Oberto during the Verdi centenary celebrations at Parma, she immediately joined Cleofonte Campanini's Chicago Opera and, renamed Rosa Raisa, achieved instant acclaim. Mintzer recounts her great successes in Chicago and on the company's national tours, as well as several seasons in South America, Mexico, and Italy. He discusses Raisa's most famous roles, describes the La Scala premiere of Turandot with Arturo Toscanini conducting, and offers fresh insights into her controversial Berlin engagement in a Tosca performance with Adolf Hitler in the audience. Mintzer also chronicles her marriage to baritone Giacomo Rimini, her illnesses and miscarriages, her financial collapse, her lifelong commitment to Jewish organizations and causes, and her puzzling burial in a Catholic cemetery.

Lavishly illustrated with over fifty photographs, many of them previously unpublished, the book includes an authoritative chronology of all of Raisa's performances, her concert repertoire, and an annotated discography.

Customer Reviews:

A wonderful labor of love.......2002-02-17

I am a big nut about singer biographies. I think they are
invariably revealing, sometimes not for what they do reveal but for what
they do not. But it's a rare occasion to find a biography as well-written
and thoroughly researched as Charles Mintzer's "Rosa Raisa."
In a way Mintzer was lucky. Unlike many opera singers there was never
anything `unrespectable' about her early career - she studied, she sang, the
audience loved her, and that was that. She also had a good memory and most
of her recollections seem supported by the `hard' evidence, give or take one
or two years. Thus Mintzer's use of Rosa Raisa's own unpublished memoirs is
not frustrating but revealing. No shocking lapses in long-term and
short-term memory are `necessary' for this diva. Mintzer is lucky in other
ways. Raisa is a sympathetic subject. And even though she was born almost
110 years ago, modern readers will no doubt identify with facets of her
life. Victims of discrimination, racial, religious, or otherwise, will
identify with the difficulty Raisa had in remaining true to her `roots' and
becoming a more `mainstream' celebrity. One of the most chilling passages in
the book relates how Raisa once sang for Hitler, who was unaware this
Italian diva was in fact a Russian Jew born in a Polish ghetto. People in
interfaith marriages might be interested in how Raisa balanced her loyalty
to her husband and her own religious convictions. Celebrities who were

`advised' the change their name into something more ostensibly marketable
will understand the pain Raisa felt in dropping her birth name, Raitza
Burchstein. Raisa's efforts to balance a career and family will strike a
cord with many working women. And Raisa is just a funny, engaging, lively
person. You like the gal.
On the other hand, the same things that make Raisa such a sympathetic
subject are drawbacks as well. Raisa isn't a `typical' diva. She did not
make outrageously critical remarks of her colleagues, she did not feud
openly with conductors/managers/other singers, she did not have scandalous
affairs and secret love-childs. Thus, those looking for catty gossip and
juicy backstage tales will be disappointed. It simply wasn't her style.
Although the book relates Raisa's dislike of Mary Garden, there are no grand
proclamations of deep undying hatred for Garden, only some subtle
passive-aggressive comments that can be construed in different ways. For
instance, Raisa's comments that Garden was well-suited to be an impresario
can either be taken as genuine or a backhanded compliment about Garden's
personality. And Raisa was generally happy in her personal life. Wonderful,
but perhaps a biography needs some unhappiness for `juice.' I mean, let's
face it, part of reading a Callas biography is her disastrous affair with
Onassis, part of reading about Lillian Nordica is the fascination from her
unhappy personal life. Likewise one reads a Melba biography not only for
tales of her success but also for her imperious, unique, somewhat bitchy
personality, and her many feuds with her colleagues. There's none of that
here, except for the eternal argument with Maria Jeritza over "Who did
Puccini write Turandot for?"
This book is copiously researched. Part of the biography's strength is how
it has `testimonials' from many other witnesses. It does not simply rely on
Raisa's own colorful tales of her glorious career. There are countless
reviews, not all of which are uniformly positive, and some of which are
hilarious: one critic wryly noted "Emotion is not properly expressed by
frenzied rolling of the eyeballs." There are also accounts by people who
`were there.' This is especially important, because it's generally agreed
that Raisa's recordings are not a fair representation of her art. Thus
reading so many reviews of Raisa's performances gives the reader a better
idea of Raisa's qualities as a performer, both positive and negative. It
seems Raisa relied more on pure voice and good looks than any deep
characterization or acting ability. But again the live reviews are
conflicting and fascinating to read. There are many wonderful pictures of
Raisa in all stages of her life. She's not bad on the eyes either. There's
also a chronology of performances, discography, and a critical appraisal of
her problematic records to round out the biography.
I highly recommend this book, and I highly recommend getting Ward Marston's
three CD set of Raisa's recordings as a companion. Besides listening to the
voice itself, there is also an interview at the end of the set, where the
aged Raisa reminisces about her life and career. She sounds funny,
delightful, a great woman. I thought she'd be maybe fun to party with. She
was not a crotchety, cranky lady at all in the interview. (Compare her
upbeat style to many of the relentlessly negative, self-absorbed, bitter,
divas in Rasponi's Last Prima Donnas to see what I mean). Rosa Raisa always
complained that her recorded legacy did her no justice. But with the
wonderful book and comprehensive set of her recordings, I really feel like I
`know' this first-ever Turandot.

A Top-Notch Biography of a Great Singer.......2002-02-11

The soprano Rosa Raisa had an extremely important career from her debut in 1912 to her retirement in the late 1930s. Because she was not a Metropolitan Opera artist and because her records didn't adequately capture the glorious voice about which reviewers raved, she is not well known today - her contemporary Rosa Ponselle, who had a much smaller repertory and career, is far better known.

Raisa also had a fascinating life: born in a Jewish family in Bialystock, she fled pogroms at 12 and emigrated with a cousin to Italy. There, her beautiful voice won her the support of a wealthy family, and she became a conservatory student. Great things were foreseen for her, and she made her debut at 19. Among other accomplishments, she went on to create important roles in Puccini's "Turandot" and Boito's "Nerone," and became the prima donna of the Chicago Opera.

Charles Mintzer, who has been researching her life for 40 years, tells her story gracefully and compellingly in this fine biography. His work is interspersed with selections from Raisa's unpublished memoir, lending the volume great immediacy. He includes a very fair and interesting assessment of Raisa the singer and a review of her discography, as well as a chronology of her opera and concert performances. Moreover, the book is copiously illustrated with photographs from his collection, and they explain some of Raisa's impact as a stage performer, as she was a strikingly beautiful woman.

This wonderful book will be of great interest to anyone interested in operatic or recent Jewish history.

The other Rosa.......2001-12-28

Charles Mintzer has given us a labour of love. Whereas Rosa Ponselle's life and art is amply documented, Rosa Raisa's was largely forgotten. A pity, as Raisa had the more interesting life, being Jewish at a time when that was not whithout danger. And Raisa definitely had the more interesting career than Ponselle, singing a more unhackneyed repertoire and crowning it with the glory of being the first Turandot (and spoiling it by not recording one single note). Mintzer painstakingly reveals it all, profiting of course from his decades-long acquaintance with the soprano's relatives. He easily passes the most important test for this kind of biography: the reader's urgent need to play Raisa's records which however, even in Marston's fine reissue, will disappoint a little as Raisa's huge voice didn't record too well.

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