Book Description
Sustainable land development strategies based on scientific information
Land and Natural Development (LAND) Code offers a pioneering method to develop sites in harmony with natural processes that is solidly based on peer-reviewed scientific findings. While the LAND Code can be readily used in conjunction with LEED, EPA, and other guidelines, it features several unique characteristics, including:
- Recommendations based on peer-reviewed scientific research
- Rating scheme that weights each development and land use practice based on its environmental benefit and difficulty of implementation
- Straightforward, step-by-step system that is accessible to non-experts
- Focus on land rather than buildings
- Extensive use of photographs and diagrams to illustrate practices and procedures
After an introduction, the book begins with chapters covering water, soil, air, living resources, energy, and materials. Throughout these chapters, the authors recommend tested and proven strategies that minimize disruption of the natural processes. Each chapter provides background, describes benefits for both developers and ecosystems, and recommends protective strategies in simple, non-technical language (a glossary is provided explaining all terms not in common usage). A toolbox of environmental engineering methods to implement the strategies follows, and the final chapter of the book provides a series of examples of actual development projects in which a variety of approaches have successfully attained sustainable development. With its emphasis on scientific understanding, the LAND Code offers you the information needed to make and implement decisions for ecologically sound land development.
Customer Reviews:
every developer should be given a copy of this book.......2007-08-04
Balmori and Benoit are visionaries on the all-important issue of land development. Their commonsensical approach should guide the behavior of all land policy people--real estate agents, bankers, regional and local zoning commissions AND developers. Doing the "green" thing is cheaper and better, always.
Book Description
Take the fear out of buying your first home
For many, the process of buying a home for the first time can seem intimidating and overwhelming. How to Buy Your First Home is your resource for information on the subject. This book guides you through the entire process, including:
Preliminaries-Renting versus buying, determining what you can afford, deciding where to live
Searching for Your Home-What to look for in a home, hiring a realtor
Finances-Mortgage basics, government agencies, home loans for veterans
The Buying Process-Weighing your mortgage options, hiring an attorney, making an offer, inspecting and appraising your home
The Future-Caring for your home and increasing the value of your investment
Included within the text are Attorney Tip boxes that highlight important facts. Click on This boxes will guide you to helpful websites for additional information about calculating costs, locating homes in your area and more.
Extensive appendices include a glossary of important terms, contact information for state offices of real estate regulation and sample worksheets to help you as you make your decisions.
Written by an experienced attorney, How to Buy Your First Home is the resource that will take the mystery out of buying a home.
Customer Reviews:
GREAT guide for a first-time buyer.......2006-07-31
My roommate works at the library and brought me home a dozen different books on how to go about buying your first home and what you would need to know (including the dummy/idiot books which I normally love). After taking a look at this one, I sent all the other ones back and ordered it from amazon because it is by far the easiest, most comprehensive, and overall helpful guide for a first-time buyer. It answers all questions and can just be used as a good reference. It's questions and answer format makes the book very easy to pick-up and less daunting-- some of the books seems like a giant boring novel!! I even gave this book as a gift to a friend considering buying a place of his own.
Good first book on buying a home.......2005-02-26
This is a basic book on home buying intended for the first time buyer. It's' fairly brief, only about 130 pages (minus the appendices), so it's a quick read. If you're a second time buyer it would probably be too basic for you, but I was looking for a quick primer before starting to read more technical books on investing in real estate.
It covers the essentials of mortgages, the bidding and negotiation process, working with agents and inspectors, the major government agencies that participate in the mortgage market, such as HUD, VA, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and so on. Although you don't need to understand it to purchase a house, the secondary market is briefly discussed so you'll know what that is when you hear real estate professionals mention the term.
Most of the information is quite practical, such as how to deal with real estate agents (don't let them act like mothers-in-law and let them decide what's best for you in the way of a house, no matter how well-meaning their intentions), and inspectors (don't insist on being present during the inspection, it'll just distract them).
After the chapters devoted to the mechanics of buying the house, there's a chapter basically on "What now?" After the happy glow of buying your first house wears off, you'll now have to face the reality of doing the required maintenance and repairs, keeping up the lawn and landscaping, making sure you save enough to pay taxes, and so on. There are even useful hints on how to conserve energy and how much you can save by having old furnaces and air conditioners replaced, and the author says hers paid for itself in about 18 months, although the initial cost was daunting (about $2500). But it was worth it over the long run.
Finally, there's a chapter on foreclosure and what to do if you find yourself in that situation. There's help available in that many cities or state government agencies can help with either grants, money or advice. The book also has a glossary, and two appendices of useful worksheets such as comparing house features and mortgage lenders, a HUD-1 worksheet, and a VA guaranteed loan application form.
The book is clearly and concisely written and should give anyone a basic understanding of the home buying process. After this I went on to reading more advanced books on investing in real estate and it was useful for getting the basic knowledge quickly and easily.
Book Description
A fascinating account of piracy, betrayal, and raw survival on the high seas and dry land, Selkirk's Island rediscovers the amazing tale of an eighteenth-century legend. Born a poor Scotsman, Alexander Selkirk signed with William Dampier, a pirate who was as famous for his self-promotion as for his naval success, on an ill-fated quest to pillage the famous Manila galleon. After a series of scuffles with the captain, Selkirk was put ashore on an island three hundred miles west of South America. Alone and with little more than the clothes on his back, Selkirk spent four long years learning to survive.
Drawing on Selkirk's own testimony, that of his rescuers and fellow crewmen, and petitions from two women who each claimed to be his wife, celebrated biographer Diana Souhami uncovers the truth behind the strangeness and wonder of a forgotten man and his unforgettable experience.
Customer Reviews:
Not even average.......2007-02-20
This book I'd rate below average. Its really just a mess of conjecture. Although, to be fair, since Selkirk didn't keep journals, that really is all the author had to go on. I was disappointed by the lack of information regarding Selkirk's four years on the island. When it came down to it, we really only had less than a chapter that dealt with those years. Also, I read this book after having read Mike Dash's incredible effort, Batavia's Graveyard. If you're reading this review, I'd like to point you to that book instead. Dash truly is an inspired writer. Batavia is a gem. This book...not so much. Honestly, the only real reason I gave it two stars and finished it was because I paid for it. This book was better off out of print. Boo.
Not History.......2006-08-28
This book appears to be a biography of Alexander Selkirk, but is actually a well-researched historical novel. The author knows her sources. There are many footnotes, quotes, and factual details. You want to believe she had some way of knowing the intimate details she supplies--how people saw their situations, what their motives were, and the vivid details of their experiences that bring the story to life. After all, historical sources sometimes provide such background, and in this case we do have some sources for Selkirk's thoughts, feelings and experiences. Soon enough, however, one sees that Souhami has simply assumed the authorial omniscience of a novelist. She states as plain fact many things that she could not possibly know, including things that only Alexander Selkirk could have known and that he would not likely have revealed.
After she tells how Selkirk masturbated against palm trees while he was marooned on the island, a serious reader continues to read only to see how far she will go. At the same time it is interesting to note how she painstakingly documents some details that are not especially interesting--perhaps this is a tactic to make the book seem more like a solid historical narrative.
Her most imaginative invention is Mr. Selkirk's having sex with wild goats on the island. We do know, from his own account, that he ran down goats for sport and food, and either killed them to eat, or else notched their ears and released them. We do not know that he indulged in any other kind of sport with them. Certainly Selkirk had an abnormal capacity for violence and survived in a pirate culture that was a home for the most dysfunctional dregs of humanity. He could have been guilty of screwing goats or even kinkier things. But there is no way to know. Ms. Souhami only provides a footnote in support, implying that a present-day native of the island gave her the idea: "It is always that way with men who are alone," he tells her. Selkirk's sex with goats is not just a passing conjecture. It is a theme to which the author returns, to encapsulate Selkirk's life on the island, and to portray his attitude towards women.
I enjoyed her discussion of the myth-making that followed Selkirk's life, especially the few pages where she analyzes the public appeal of Defoe's Robinson Crusoe fantasy, which was based on Selkirk's adventures as a castaway. But she has invented another myth--one that is likely to last. In other reviews here you'll see that some readers uncritically believe her tale.
This book received the Whitbread award, in the category of biography. That was a big mistake, unless history is now to be done the way Hollywood does it. Much effort went into this book, some talent, and a commendable concern for the preservation of habitat on Selkirk's island, but no professional ethic regarding the responsibilities of historians. We'll never know whether Selkirk screwed goats, but we do know that Souhami screwed this story.
True Adventures ???.......2006-08-01
Souhami's book is awful for the simple fact that she bases so much of Selkirk's actions on his sexual appetite for goats. This may be true, however Souhami bases this gross assertion on the anecdote of one unnamed islander. Forget Selkirk's own testimony. Forget the fact that Defoe's interviews with Selkirk led to a powerful story of an individual wrestling with the providence of God. Forget that when Selkirk lived the idea of throwing off the shackles of moral convention wasn't part of the common individuals frame of reference. No,instead Souhami is clear in her conviction that Selkirk's whole being was centered on a randiness for goats. Unfortunately this leads Souhami to defend this outrageous claim throughout the rest of the book. Defoe, closer to the source, was inspired to write a story that captured the dynamic and driving spirit of Western cultural achievement(Not that it always benefitted everyone). Souhami instead jams a narrow modern interpretation on a classic and we're left with one of the least inspiring tales ever fabricated.
Very Little About Selkirk.......2006-05-27
While Souhami does an admirable job describing what life MAY have been like for Selkirk, it is mostly conjecture, as Selkirk left no journal behind to document his life on the island. Instead, most of the book is about Selkirk's voyages at sea, including his quest for riches with the famous buccaneer William Dampier. Souhami also spends some time reviewing the major works of literature emanating from Selkirk's travails, but her discussion of them adds little to our understanding of Selkirk's experiences after he was rescued. In the end, we know very little about Selkirk's days marooned, and even less about their effects on the rest of his life.
Not Good.......2006-03-30
This book was a disappointment to me, both stylistically and in terms of content. There's very little here that a Google search wouldn't turn up or that a bright high school junior couldn't slap together. The main point- Selkirk's life on the Island- gets 32 skimpy pages. I was disturbed by Souhami's preoccupation with Selkirk's supposed sexuality, unsubstantiated, disrespectful and demeaning to him (but he's dead, so he can't defend himself.) She tried to set a "heavy" and dramatic tone not through presenting the stuff of his experiences (because she seemed to have little to present)- which would have been the genuine way- relying instead on hackneyed literary devices, including foul vulgarities, of which there seemed to be a greater proportion than facts and information. Her persona was so in the forefront that it was difficult to see Selkirk as Selkirk- he seemed more like the hen-pecked husband of some dominant termagent, as if he'd have no personality without her. To my mind and taste, she committed most of the worst errors weak writers are capable of- this was painful reading made so much more acute by not satisfying the curiosity it evoked. I don't feel as though I learned much, and I have doubts about many of her light weight observations. Get it at the library if you want to check this out- but certainly don't make the mistake I did in buying the book.
9
Average customer rating:
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The Social And the Real: Political Art of the 1930s in the Western Hemisphere (Refiguring Modernism)
Manufacturer: Pennsylvania State University Press
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Book Description
During the 1930s, American artists such as Ben Shahn developed a mode of representation generally known as Social Realism. This term is given broad new meaning in the anthology brought together by Alejandro Anreus, Diana L. Linden, and Jonathan Weinberg. They and their collaborators argue that artists of the Depression era believed that their art became "realistic" by engaging the great economic and political issues of society. Through fresh investigation of the visual culture of the 1930s--painting, sculpture, photography, and the graphic arts--the anthology illuminates the struggle for social justice that led artists to embrace leftist ideologies and fashion an art aimed at revealing the harsh realities of contemporary life.
In sharp contrast to earlier studies, The Social and the Real contends that the radical, "realistic" art of the Americas during the 1930s was shaped as much by hemispheric exchange as by emulation of the European avant-garde. Alan Trachtenberg, Mary K. Coffey, and the book's other essayists consider Canadian art alongside art from the United States, the Caribbean, and as far south as Argentina. Some of the artists they discuss, like Philip Evergood or Dorthea Lange, are well known; others--the Argentinean Antonio Berni or the Canadian Parakeva Clark--deserve wider recognition. Situating such artists within the context of Pan-American exchange transforms the structure of the art-historical field. It also produces major new insights. The rise of Social Realism, for instance, is traced back not to the United States in the 1930s, but instead to the Mexico of the early 1920s.
The Social and the Real makes an assessment of Social Realism that is comprehensive as well as groundbreaking. The opening essays deal with "reality and authenticity" in representation of "the nation." Subsequent essays consider portrayals of manhood, labor, lynching, and people pushed to the margins of society because of religious or ethnic identity. The volume concludes with a pair of essays--one on artists' links with Communism, the other on the portrayal of Franklin Delano Roosevelt's physical infirmity-- that carry the discussion of Social Realism into the postwar period.
The Social and the Real is the first anthology to deal with the painting, sculpture, graphic arts, and photography of the 1930s in a hemispheric context. We take as axiomatic Cuban poet, journalist, and political theorist José MartÃ's (1853-95) definition of "America" as a hemispheric, multiracial, and multiethnic entity in which the United States is one nation among many. Although many of the individual essays have a relatively narrow focus, as an aggregate they begin the process of forging a Pan-American perspective on the art of the period, encouraging the reader to compare and contrast the experiences of artists across national boundaries and reconsider familiar narratives. Thinking about art and politics in a hemispheric context expands the very chronology of social realism. Whereas scholars in the United States locate the origins of the movement with the economic crash of 1929 and conclude it with the advent of World War II, the story really begins in Mexico in the early 1920s and continues during the 1940s and 1950s throughout the hemisphere.
Customer Reviews:
Helpful for hunting too.......2007-10-18
Although I'm not a tournament or 3D shooter, this book gave me what I needed to be a better hunter.
the best compound archery book out there!.......2007-07-16
I've struggled with my shooting for quite some time, and was about to give up. Then I bought this book, and in just 7 chapters, and 4days, my grouping was 50% better, and I have consistent hits.
This is the easiest understandable book on archery I've read.
I recommend it with all my heart.
Now I just wish Bernie would take his archery school on tour to europe:-)
Idiot Proof Archery.......2007-05-10
Great source of information on how deal with target panic. Would also recommend the book for beginners. It can help a lot with learning a good form and doing things right from start instead of dealing with a bad form and relearning how to shoot later.
The only way to shoot archey........2007-05-09
The best book anyone could buy to learn archery. The only cure for target panic you'll ever find. After 25 years of archery hunting and tournaments, I've read most of the books out there and nothing else is even close. Rich
Good book, better seminar.......2007-01-17
I got Bernie's book as part of attending his seminar. After digesting both, it's the seminar that you'll really see immediate results from. The book is good, no doubt, but Bernie's 1 on 1 coaching is right on the money.
Book Description
This is mouth-watering, authentic Southern cooking at its best, courtesy of Miss Mary Bobo, whose boarding house down-home dishes have made her justly famous. For 80 years, anyone lucky enough to pass through tiny Lynchburg, Tennessee, could taste her appetizing, remarkably economical, and easy-to-fix meals. The recipes were passed from mother to daughter, and now 120 of them are here so anyone can prepare them right at home. Whip up traditional, finger-licking favorites such as Skillet Corn Bread, rich and hearty Country Fried Steak with Buttermilk Gravy, and fresh and luscious Peach Cobbler. Make classic Southern specialties: Hush Puppies, Hoppin' John (spiced up black-eyed peas, ham hocks, and rice, only eaten on New Year's Day), and the most delicately crisp Fried Chicken ever. There are flaky biscuits; wonderful gelatin molds; holiday treats; and to-die-for desserts, including a spectacular, incomparable four-layer Fresh Coconut Cake. Plus: a look at Miss Mary's personal story.
Book Description
Gibbons examines the water supply problem through five case studies. The problems faced by these regions and the methods suggested to overcome them provide excellent models for the entire United States. The case studies---typically, expanding supplies---but economic efficiency principles lead to emphasizing managing the demand. In many cases, this means reducing demand by raising prices.
Customer Reviews:
Don't bother with this poorly conceived book........2005-06-20
Here we have more proof that some publishers have no clue how to make a useful cookbook. "A culinary tour" it may be, but this book will have trouble making it off of your shelf and into your kitchen.
I was skeptical of this book from the beginning. It claimed to cover all of Latin America, from the many diverse regions of Mexico and the Caribbean to Brazil and the South American horn. It might be simpler to survey the cuisines of Spain, France, Italy and Greece in one volume than those of dozens of nations stretching through 100 degrees of latitude. The cover was also a bad sign; what is that lovely dish of jalapeños doing floating above the enlarged photo of a flower?
The authors do their best to divide up the continent into sections (Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean, the Andes, the Southern Cone and Brazil) and find one or two characteristic dishes from no less than 22 nations. Each section starts with a historical and regional overview, which runs into the recipes for that region, leading to layout problems. Pictures of beaches and brightly-dressed natives give a travel-guide feel that may appeal to some.
The recipes themselves are usually simple and easy enough to make despite short instructions, but they are rarely exciting. Most are not illustrated, but those that are follow the cover picture; the dish floats in the center of a blown-up flower. Oddly, the illustrations did not always match the descriptions, sometimes showing red peppers where the recipe called for green.
In all, a good editor and better layout might have saved this book, but it would still not be a good edition to your cookbook shelf. You would do better with a focused book, such as those on Mexican cooking by Rick Bayless or Diana Kennedy.
Book Description
Redefining its subject by teaching readers a new craft,
Bread in Half the Time reveals how today's kitchen technology makes it possible to produce delicious, authentic yeast breads in less than half the time it used to take. Includes more than 100 sumptuous recipes and a special section of recipes for the new bread machines.
Illustrations.
Customer Reviews:
The BEST book for people who are afraid to make bread.......1998-08-28
This book is an excellent choice for people who are afraid to work with yeast doughs - recipes are precisely spelled out for you, and there is no guesswork. All you need is either a bread machine or a microwave oven and a food processor. These machines do all the work - there is no hand kneadnig, and the bread proofs in 15 minutes in your microwave. You can have delicious, fresh, homemade bread in under 2 hours. I never buy store bread or yeast cakes now that I have this book.
EXCELLENT CHOICE FOR THOSE WITH OR WITHOUT A BREAD MACHINE.......1998-07-25
tHIS BOOK INCLUDES A SECTION FOR BREAD MACHINE RECIPES. OF ALL THE ONES I'VE TRIED, THERE NEVER WAS A FAILURE. A BONUS IS THE ADDITION OF RECIPES FOR ACCOMPANIMENTS TO EACH BREAD (SPREADS ETC.)
Books:
- Legacy: A Biography of Moses and Walter Annenberg
- Madonna: The Rolling Stone Files : The Ultimate Compendium of Interviews, Articles, Facts and Opinions from the Files of Rolling Stone (The Rolling Stone Files)
- Marie Antoinette: Princess of Versailles, Austria-France, 1769 (The Royal Diaries)
- Marie Antoinette: The Journey
- Mistress to an Age: A Life of Madame de Stael
- Nine Days a Queen: The Short Life and Reign of Lady Jane Grey
- Opening Day: The Story of Jackie Robinson's First Season
- Pedagogy Of The Oppressed: 30th Anniversary Edition
- Princess Masako: Prisoner of the Chrysanthemum Throne
- Queen Elizabeth's Wardrobe Unlock'd: The inventories of the Wardrobe of Robes prepared in July 1600, edited from Stowe MS 557 in the British Library, MS LR 2/121 in the Public Record Office, London, and MS V.b.72 in the Folger Shakespeare Library, Washington DC
Books Index
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