Another super book by Christopher Finch, including an outstanding tribute to their creator, Jim Henson. A *must have* for all Muppet fans!

Christopher Finch does a great job of detailing Jim Henson's life. He includes colorful pictures and stories about Henson from his colleagues and friends. "Jim Henson The Works" always keeps your interest by containing interesting and fun sidebars. Every Muppet fan should read this book.

Jim Henson truely wsa a creative genious. The original development sketches of the muppet characters truely makes this book a gem

This book is a work of sheer genius. It made me laugh and tugged at my heart strings. I have never read a book like this before. It's almost a hymm or prayer. She must have had help from the angels in the universe. I did not want to put it down. I wanted it to go on and on. Oprah Winfry should review it. She would love it. This is a gift for people from age 10 to age 100. This book should get the Newberry Book prize. It deserves it. I have read works of hers before. But this one takes the cake!

...

Kelly Easton is certainly set to be our next star of young female adult fiction. Her book is an absolute delight to read and digest. She captures beautifully the nuances of being a teenage girl and growing up in an uncertain world, America. Her use of language is gifted and insightful and utterly captures adolescence. It's hard to believe Ms. Easton didn't take her own diary entries from her childhood. That's how good she is!

Easton's The Life History of a Star is one the most amusing books I've read in years. The heroine, Kristin Folger is a wise, cynical, and vulnerable teengaer. Her observations on adolescence, the universe, and her dysfunctional family made me laugh out loud, and had tears in my eyes. A wonderful and compelling book. I have purchased several copies for my friends.

In Dec 1966, I was privileged to have been picked by the Div G2 to assist Capt James as the team leader for an experimental team which if successful would evolve into the development of more teams. In 1966, Capt James and I were the only two individuals in the Cav's Lrrps. As I read this book, I was amazed at how the author put this all together and as I continued to read, I wondered where I had been during all that time when I and James were the first two soldiers in the Lrrps. This book describes a unit that I did not serve with nor did I have anything to do with yet my name is mentioned in the book. If this is the unit I helped James form, then this book is a novel and should not be considered a nonfiction. I would like to however, compliment the authors writing abilities.

Read the book - thought it was well written and fairly accurate. Jorgenson scores again! Despite what some "wanna be's" say about the book, the professional leadership of Capt James, LT Hall,1st Sgt Kelley, and OPS Sgt Campbell, made the 1st CAV LRRPS a reality. Team members shared the same risks and dangers regardless of their team number. Recommend reading!

I would just like to Thank You, Kregg, for telling our little part of the war, which was now so long ago, and so far away. We improvised, adapted and overcame and did what we could with what we had.

He, who on this field, this day
Sheds his blood with me
Will be my brother

This book is fantastic for the experienced, as well as the inexperienced landlord. It sets out in plain English some of the common legal pitfalls landlords run into and how to avoid them. The books cites examples - some quite frightening - of how these pitfalls occur and the appropriate action to take. The book clearly outlines the differences in particular laws between the states. It explains all aspects of landlord law from finding goods tenants to dismissing bad tenants. The book makes a great desk reference and it's cheaper than a lawyer!

If one is a landlord and one thinks that knows everything. Well, be ready for a surprise. In this book in question, i.e., Every Landlord's Legal Guide (Book & CD-ROM) by Marcia Stewart, et al, leases & rental agreements are discussed and explained along with concept and rules governing deposits, rent rules, liability, discrimination, repairs and maintanance, privacy, property managers and evictions. The book is written in an easy to understand manner and the font is quite easy on the eye (which is a nice bonus if I may say so). Highly Recommended for people in the industry.

This book has helped through every step of buying my first investment property. It's like having your own professional standing over your shoulder, reminding you about every detail of every step. The section on insurance alone is completely priceless, pointing out that a landlord needs not just property loss coverage but also personal liability. And not just physical liability, but coverage of potential slander, libel, discrimination, unlawful eviction, invasion of privacy suits... And don't forget loss of rents! It's that kind of detail that maybe someone who's done this before would call 'basic.' But I admit: I am no pro, yet when I called an insurance agent and explained what I wanted coverage for, he said to me, "Um, you've done this before, haven't you?" Thank you, nolo!

Although many of the website links listed in this book were no longer in use, I still give this book 5 stars because the information provided inside led me to finding websites and ideas I might never have found otherwise. If you want to find "free" ways/methods of homeschooling, this book just may lead you down the right path. I first learned about the Charlotte Mason method of teaching in this book and am now following the principles of this method. If you are like my family and don't want to spend countless dollars on fancy curricula but want to give your family a solid education at home or supplement your child's formal education, this book just may lead you to some wonderful places.

Homeschool Your Child for Free

The subtitle of this book is: "More than 1,200 Smart, Effective, and Practical Resources for Home Education on the Internet and Beyond." Those three words: "smart, effective, and practical" describe the reasons you should own this book!

This is one homeschool investment that will pay off the first time you use it. Author LauraMaery Gold has provided a wealth of resources on such topics as language literacy, mathematics mastery, art appreciation, history highlights, music, social studies, humanities, science and health. In addition, she has crafted this book in such a way that there are multiple messages for both the novice and the veteran homeschooler. I just love the way she weaves storytelling of the very fabric of homeschooling life into her carefully selected resources. The hands-on, practical nature of her advice creates a complete homeschooling handbook, not just a reference book.

Included are quotes and recommendations from actual homeschooling families, screen shots of sample web sites, a section on "the socialization question", and hundreds of "the very best" internet links, legal guidelines, and complete curriculum plans.

From the back of the book: "For families who want to splurge on education but scrimp on spending ... The Internet is an open door to the biggest library/laboratory the world has ever seen--and it's all at your fingertips for free! This never-ending source of information, adventure, and educational experiences for the entire family is now compiled in a complete curriculum for any age in _Homeschool Your Child for Free_."

(Note from the author: By the way: You need never worry about the book going out of date. So long as this edition is in print, owners will have unlimited access to our companion Web site with a regularly updated database of reviews and links to thousands of homeschooling resources.)

Courage! Marji

I'm impressed with the scope of the research. This is worth 100 times the purchase price. Excellent division by learning level.

What's not mentioend enough is OpenOffice.org. OpenOffice.org is the best office suite for home schoolers. It's free but is comparable to MS Office and creates all the MS Office files you need. The drawing program it includes is magnificent.

If you are a martial artist or a martial arts instructor this book is a must read. Even if you don't agree with all of his conclusions Bob Orlando brings up points we MUST consider before we claim to teach, or know, self-defense via martial arts. I have nothing but respect for Bob, both as a martial artist and a thinker. Marc "Animal" MacYoung

This book is the best book on how to THINK about the martial arts that I have ever read (and I've read quite a few). Orlando takes on the tough subjects that most fear to touch, or worse, come up with weak or illogical arguments to support. This book is full of the history behind various techniques and traditions that fill the martial arts. Kata, tournaments, chambered fists, and chi are a few. In each case he makes an unbiased presentation of the benefits, then systematically explains the drawbacks for the self-defense motivated student.

This book should be on every student's list.

Review of Martial Arts America: A Western Approach to Eastern Arts, by Bob Orlando Published by Frog Limited. Berkeley, California, 1997. Bob Orlando is an experienced martial artist whose book on the Indonesian arts was critically acclaimed in the Journal of Asian Martial Arts. This new book is excellent for the thoughtful martial artist whose main goal is to develop the ability to protect themselves. In his introduction, Bob Orlando says his work will "...examine Eastern martial arts training practices and philosophies, consider their origins, and appraise their relevance to the American student." While he states that there are many good reasons to study the martial arts, Orlando is very clear that "this work is intended for the individual whose main interest is...effective self-defense. He hopes to encourage readers to "think critically about every part of what he or she is learning and teaching." Orlando does a great job. While readers may not always agree with him, I think most will at least admit that Orlando's book is very thought provoking. He raises many good questions, examines many issues in depth, uses supporting evidence and examples. He put forth some strong opinions in many cases, but in others, where he is not sure he can make a strong enough case, he does not hesitate to state, in effect, "this is my opinion, but I'm not totally sure that I am right." It can sometimes take a great deal of courage to admit that you don't know something. God knows that there enough (often self-proclaimed) martial arts masters out there who are not exactly bursting at the seams with humility. This book really seems to have been written by someone who is willing to question how things are done, but who does so respectfully, and who does not engage in name calling and large amounts of "my style is best" statements. Among the many topics Orlando discusses are the degree to which martial arts should preserve ancient (and sometimes not so ancient) techniques, why martial arts change over time, the value of tradition, the pros and cons of training barefoot, the value of kata, the role of sport karate (and other arts) in training, women in the martial arts, the role of chi and the spiritual aspects of the martial arts, and a very amusing chapter on teacher motivations, finding a school, and rank. My criticisms of this book are very minor. In discussing the evolution of the sword, he uses a foil as an example of a weapon that evolved for a particular reason. The problem is that the foil was never a real weapon, but was specifically designed to develop skills for sport fencers. If he had substituted "epee," the analogy would have worked perfectly. He does not compare the relative approaches of very stripped down styles meant to be learned relatively quicky (such as Krav Maga and Bando) to styles whose basics may take much longer to get down. He touches on, but does not really examine the difference in approach between styles which focus on teaching a student flow, and how to move, and those which focus on teaching technique. I would have liked to have seen him discuss these things in depth, and i suspect he would have had some good ideas on these points. This book is a steal at 14.95. Buy it. It is superb.

I agree with previous reviewers that Watson's story is amazing, but I do not believe that Maney execution of this book is that good.

I think that this book would have been a much better read if it was 250 pages. One of the reasons for the extra length is that the author decided to deviate from simple chronological order. Instead, Maney attempted analytical/descriptive biography, but, in my view, did not fully succeed.

I came away from this 400 page book with mixed understanding of what sort of person Watson was and what, besides the IBM culture, were his business methods and innovations.

Overall, the book did not flow, the organization of some of the chapters was not intuitive and the chapters on Watson's sons were short. I can not quite call the book disapointing, but I can not say that it was a great experience.

If IBM and computers are synonymous, so are Watson and IBM. Whatever the criticisms and the controversies surrounding the 3 magical alphabets in blue, IBM is IBM. To build such a company from ground up, offering solutions to business and scientific computing and thereby acting as the catalyst for the process of economic progress during the most part of the twentieth century is by no means an ordinary feat. That was exactly the material Thomas Watson Sr was made of. Watson has done his job and done it well and now Kevin Maney completes the rest by bringing this story in a truly remarkable manner to our bookshelves.

It is difficult not to fall in love with Watson Sr and his beloved company even half way through the book. From his humble beginnings to the misfortune at NCR, for nearly forty years Watson Sr is just another story of struggles, ups and downs. But to him, life just begins at forty with his job at CTR and of course the birth of Tom Watson Jr. The birth of IBM and its growth under the paternalistic care of Watson Sr through depressions, wars, booms and uncertainties gets a lion's share of coverage in this book. Watson Sr took big business risks bordering on a propensity to gamble, pushing IBM into higher orbits. Luck is the word the author takes recourse to while describing these successes.

The next logical part of the book deals with the succession plan at IBM that is a story by itself. Father, Son and Co by Tom Jr is widely quoted in these pages. The father's affection for his sons Tom Jr and Dick, his struggle to reconcile their differences and the frequent fights with Tom Jr are very close to what Tom Jr himself has described in his book.

The chapters on transformation of IBM into the era of electronics under Tom Jr and the trust suit that had a severe personal impact on Watson Sr deserve commendation.

While reading the pages where the old man bids goodbye to IBM and to this world, I stood up in salute to this great man.

I've generally not been a huge fan of business biographies...they can get very much bogged down in transactional specifics and company arcana, not to mention shoot-from-the-hip hindsight. This Watson biography, though, is very different and exceptionally engrossing, for two reasons: One, because Maney, whose USA Today columns are pretty much always highly entertaining, is a terrific storyteller, and two, because it seems Watson was nuts enough to have stenographers in his boardroom and all kinds of other meetings so as to preserve his words and wisdom for the ages (not something today's Sarbanes-Oxley-bound CEO's are hurrying to do!). Maney took that source material and turned it into what I found to be a very interesting page turner that's a great read for anyone interested in the history of business -- any business, not just IBM.

Maney spends a fair amount of time explaining how Watson had large early-career successes at NCR, got into very deep yogurt with the feds for anti-trust activities, and then bounced back from that taint to create the world's first great technology company. It's also fascinating, given our three year old economic malaise, to see how Watson steered IBM through the Great Depression and powered it forward into the modern era.

A very vivid and worthwhile book.

I love baseball books; especially nonfiction books, and Pat Jordan has written a beautiful yet depressing account of his turbulent years in the minors. Once upon a time I played baseball, but unlike Pat, I didn't hold the talent and ability to progress into the upper levels. We follow Pat as he makes his journey from high school pitching phenom (whom scouts were foaming at the mouth to sign)to a broken-down, frustrated and average minor league pitcher. Pat Jordan accomplishes something that few other baseball books have in the past: loss of place and time. I for one become immersed in books that I read and A FALSE SPRING will allow you to be caught up in the struggle with Pat. You will feel his exhileration when he is signed, his pain when his career comes tumbling down; and, like Pat, at the end of the book you will ask yourself why? A FALSE SPRING has many charismatic characters that infiltrate the pages, and like Pat you will come to like and dislike them for the same reasons. Any baseball fan will quickly become enthralled with the story of this young and confused man as he trudges through the lower levels of baseball. After reading this book I ventured out and caught my first minor league baseball game. I sat in the stands, caught up in the excitement and amazement of a game that is still played for pure joy and not money.

I first read "A False Spring" close to 23 years ago and it remains as one of the best books I have ever read...I have read it again numerous times over the years and am always captivated by Jordan's writing style. A haunting tale about a kid who could throw hard but didn't really know how to pitch, and was released by the Braves in three years. He does an admirable job describing his failings as a young man..The clarity in which he remembers this short career so many years later is astounding. Even a non-baseball fan will appreciate this outstanding work.

I ran across Pat Jordan's A False Spring many years ago. I was intrigued by the book then and I still rate it as one of my all-time favorite sports books. It is a sports memoir which is unique in the genre in that it is a story of a loss of talent as well as the discovery of self.

Pat Jordan was a high school baseball phenomenon in Bridgeport, Connecticut in 1959. At the end of his high school career, he signed a bonus contract with the Milwaukee Braves. His first assignment was in McCook, Nebraska in the class D Nebraska State League. Another young pitcher named Phil Niekro was a teammate. Their careers would take decidedly different paths. Niekro would go on to a brilliant major league career, but in three years Pat Jordan would lose his fastball and be out of baseball for good.

Time Magazine said of the book:
"Pat Jordan is a failure by all professional baseball standards. But it is in the dissection of that failure that his book discloses the dimensions of a man and a game ... for out of Ex-Pitcher Jordan's experience has come one of the best and truest books about baseball, and about coming to maturity in America."

This is a fascinating story. If it grabs you like it did me when I first read it , it will find a permanent place in your sports library.

"The Good Old Days-They Were Terrible!" is a sharp and unflinching overview of day-to-day living from the end of the American Civil War to the turn of the century, which employs contemporary sketches, cartoons and photos to make its point that these years were not the idyllic times we think them. Otto L. Bettmann uses his vast archive of illustrations to not just show us just how hard and fraught with danger this period of time really was, but also to give us a fascinating look into a vanished time. While his main purpose is to show us that these times weren't peaceful and carefree, Bettmann also illustrates the mundane aspects of any period of time, IE health, work, education, crime, housing, etc. All aspects of a routine day are covered here, which makes this social history at its best. We discover that the inhabitants of this period had the same concerns and problems that we do today. It's all here: garbage in the streets, dirty drinking water, prostitutes protected by cops, child-beating, etc. Definitely not a simple, beautiful time. It's life like any other period, and it's captured here. Bettmann's commentary is concise and mainly supports this book's real strength: it's expressive, contemporary illustrations. As journalism is the first draft of history, these illustrations serve the same purpose in telling us how things really were and how the inhabitants of these times saw their lives. Excellent social commentary.

I am addicted to stories about time travel and I have a collection of them. This book is wonderful in that, instead of sentimental twaddle, conjecture, and picturesque rose-colored-glasses stories of the past, you really get to know what times were like in "The Good Old Days' - and - you'll thank your lucky stars that you are living now and not then. I was fascinated and horrified at the details of everyday life a century ago. I don't know how the people of that era survived and I now know why a lot of them didn't. A real eye-opener!!

What an incredible book! Interesting, informative, eye-opening, and unflinching. Tells the grim truth about life in nineteenth century industrial America, focusing on the cities (especially New York), but touching on the hardships and unpleasantness of rural life as well. The illustrations are as valuable as the text--and Bettman's list of sources is outstanding. Social history at its best!

Mr. Malone's description of Mr. Jefferson is detailed and encompassing. It is well organized and brings the reader in touch with this American Icon and his times. The only failing of this work and its subsequent volumes is that we really only see the best of Mr. Jefferson. His failures, faults and weakeness are dealt with as if they were unimportant or at least only a minor footnote in development of this man. Only in his last volume does Mr. Malone start to deal with the more complex parts of Mr. Jefferson's life. Regardless of this shortcoming this work should be required reading by all students of American History.

Jefferson: The Virginian by Dumas Malone is a masterful work on Thomas Jefferson's early years, from birth to being appointed as an ambassador to France.

This work is one of the first comprehensive biographies of Jefferson's life. This is the first of six in the complete set. Malone is a distinguished historian so you will read about Jefferson's ancestry, along with Jefferson's youth, education, legal career, his marriage, the construction of Monticello. Not that was enough for one man's life, but we see the writing of the Declaration of Independence and Jefferson's work on the "Notes on Virginia."

We get an insight as to how Jefferson conducted his highly successful legislative career and his governorship. But what we do NOT see is the soul of Jefferson... the man, the human being. We get facts and more facts about a very complex individual and a monumental man. But the richness of the breath of life is left out.

Nonetheless, the book is a very scholarly work, one of the first to complete a comphensive work on a mulitfarious man. I enjoyed reading this volume for its historical importance and significance. This volume lays the ground work on which all of the other volumes set.

This work being well documented is a good start into reading about the life and times of Thomas Jefferson. One fact the comes through loud and clear... Jefferson is a Virginian foremost and always... there is no mistaking that fact.

Malone, once called "the greatest Jeffersonian of them all", originally conceived this biography in four volumes. By the time he published the last book in 1982, at age 89, it had grown to six volumes. It remains the standard life of Jefferson, an indelible and important portrait of a great man, flaws and all, by a great scholar.

JEFFERSON THE VIRGINIAN begins things with Jefferson's birth into a family of much distinction. His father Peter was a noted surveyor and a man of inordinate physical strength who nevertheless died fairly young (in his fifties). The book covers Jefferon's education at William and Mary (at a time when formal education was not a widespread thing, even among the gentry), his law practice, his beginning the construction of Monticello (which would preoccupy him right up until the time of his death), his terms in the Virginia House of Burgesses (one of which was served after his governorship), his writing of the Declaration of Independence (his initial version, a scathing indictment of King George, had to be toned down by his compatriots), and his controversial governorship (in which he sustained much of the blame for the British army's inroads into the Old Dominion state). It ends with his appointment as an American ambassador to France.

Obviously this is no primer on Jefferson. Malone spares no detail. His prose is fastidious, elegant, and easy to read, although you may find yourself putting the book down from time to time to absorb what you have just read. Overall, Jefferson emerges here as a man naturally scholarly and reclusive, content to build his home, pursue his studies, and tend to his family, who is pushed into action by the obligations of his caste and by his own fervent patriotism.

Malone has been criticised for writing a virtual hagiography of Jefferson, ignoring the "darker" aspects of the man's personality. In other words, unlike Fawn Brodie, Malone did not reduce his subject to some psychological cripple and sex deviate. The charges are balderdash. Malone DOES recognize Jefferson's flaws (e.g., his lack of a sense of humor and his sometimes indecision in taking action). He simply refuses to turn Jefferson into a whipping boy for his own ideological preoccupations.

This is as complete a contemporary biography as we will probably ever get of this great man.