1 comments about The Standard Antique Clock Value Guide.

1. 215 pages of detailed illustrations with information on the type of clock, pattern name, when manufactured, dial size and price. Even if you're not a collector or seller this book is interesting to look at with all the different styles of clocks. Would make a wonderful coffee table book.

1 comments about Great Short Works of Mark Twain (Perennial Classics).

1. I love good writers, almost as much as getting a product I expected to get. Thanks for speedy and accurate service!

2 comments about The Complete Guide to Perthshire Paperweights.

1. An absolute must have for both the novice and skilled collector of glass paperweights made from important factories. An inexpensive source of infinate knowledge about the Perthshire Paperweight company.



2. I couldn't ask for a better reference ~ except wishing for an update from '97 until production ceased. This book is the most complete I've seen. Individual detailed descriptions include Perthshire's ID number, and many explanatory comments. The quality of the photographs is clear, crisp, and colors are true to actual weights. Most importantly, photos are large enough to show small details. Even if you never intend to buy a paperweight, this book is fascinating, educational and beautiful. Forty pages provide general information and 155 pages describe and illustrate the paperweights. There is a hardcover version, but the quality of this softcover, with its glossy paper, is certainly all I could ever need. I highly recommend this book for experienced collectors ~ and it is essential for novices!

3 comments about More Silver Wings, Pinks & Greens: An Expanded Study of USAS, USAAC, & USAAF Uniforms, Wings & Insignia ¥ 1913-1945 Including Civilian Auxiliaries.

1. This is an extension of the authors first book, Silver Wings, Pinks and Greens. The section on pilot and aircrew wings is once again outstanding. Any serious collector of WWII wings and insignia must add this book to their library. Highly recommended!!



2. It really is something of a rare event these days when someone writes a scholarly reference work that rapidly becomes a benchmark for others to aspire to, but Jon Maguire just keeps on doing it.

   Keep em coming, keep em flying!




3. It seems to date that the author Jon A. Maguire can do no wrong whenever he decides to commit pen to paper. Yet again we have a title that is truly exhaustive in it's coverage of the topic without becoming staid and condescending. Each page is full of highly detailed photographs that describe and illustrate the items perfectly for the collector. His text is articulate, informative and detailed.

   If the American Army Air Forces from the period covered are of interest to you then I can offer you know more words of advice other than buy this book. I hope you will enjoy it as much as I have.

1 comments about A Collector of Treasures (African Writers Series).

1. On the level of moral philosophy, Bessie Head's tales examine the development of a civilization and the ethical views established throughout their expansion. Her accounts institute lessons about love and romance, rituals, new religion, law, and material wealth. Bessie brilliantly sets the foundation of her collection with an extraordinary account of the origin of the Botswana village. The advancement of Christianity within the rural community sets the stage for divided beliefs and practices. Wealth and materialism create stratification and the villagers strive to reach and maintain the status quo.
   
   Ethical relativism and the problems associated with the majority rule theory come into play throughout the progression of this civilization. With the group's morality being determined by the majority male population, the women are left to decide for themselves, whether the morals are merely professed values established to accommodate and maintain the dominant male role or actual ethical values instituted for the good of all the inhabitants of the village. There are many heroines throughout Head's sagas that determine that the rules are unjust. These female protagonists bravely stand their ground refusing to be mistreated and abused any longer.

5 comments about Little Altars Everywhere.

1. I first read Divine Secrets... and then read this book, and very much felt lied to by the author. In the second book the mother is basically lovable, well almost, but flawed. Then I went and read the first book Little Altars Everywhere and read that the mother is sexually abusing her children. This did not come up in Divine Secrets at all and to me seems like a bunch of bull crap. I know that Divine Secrets is mostly from the daughters point of view and that the mother was sexually abusing her sons, but evenstill. On its own it would be a much better book.



2. This was the hardest read in the Ya-Ya series. I didn't always like it. It felt disjointed and uneven and some chapters (they were like vignettes, strung together) I started and then just skimmed or left unread.
   
   The final chapter, however - was worth the entire experience. I wish we could have heard from this voice, the adult voice of Siddalee, through the entire thing. Baylor, yeah - he was good, too. There were no other Ya-Ya's (except in passing, where were "the gang" we love so much in Divine Secrets and Ya-Ya's in Bloom?). This book, the prequel to the rest was mostly Vivi's family.
   
   I was reading someplace, maybe it was here, readers were upset about a revelation that takes place in this book. I guess I am weird in that I would rather have the characters in the books I read be flawed, be human.
   
   Vivi is messed up. Ya-Ya readers know that. Her parents were messed up, her children are messed up albeit differently. "Little Altars" begins with Sidda as a pissed-off-on-the-edge-of-puberty girl scout and ends with Sidda as a late 30's woman, the woman who we see several years later narrating half of Divine Secrets.
   
   I don't expect my "heroines" to be wind up toys or robots or flawless automatons. I would rather they be real.
   
   And this volume, in my estimation, doesn't do it.
   
   I think it was written first. But that last chapter. Oh my, that last chapter. I sat at my kitchen table sobbing and my daughter Katherine, from the living room said, "Mommy? Are you ok?" I hadn't realized I was so loud!
   
   Read the last chapter. Pick it up at the bookstore and read it.
   Here is one group of sentences as a preview for you:
   
   "As far as I'm concerned, if you could bottle that smell, all the companies that make Xanax, Prozac and Valium would be out of business. You could just open the bottle and smell Willetta and never feel panicked or depressed again."
   
   Love it.



3. This isn't *really* my kind of book - it reminded me eerily of something like Margaret Laurence's "A Bird In The House", given it is a collection of interwoven short stories told from the perspectives of different members of a small-town Louisiana family, most notably from the character of Siddalee.
   
   So why am I giving it four stars? Well there wasn't anything I didn't like about it. I found the prose easy to get through and imaginative. The stories for the most part were captivating and enchanting. The characters were well developed and familiar despite our polar opposite lives. The plot moved enough from section to section to keep me interested. I can't justfiy giving it a lower mark just because it's not my preferred style (ie: novel over short stories) or preferred subject matter (ie: modern day as opposed to the past).
   
   The stories revolve around two points in the character's lives - their childhoods in the 1960's and their relatively young adulthood in the early 1990's. Vivi is their eccentric, perhaps dangerously so, mother who also features in the ya ya sisterhood book. Interestingly enough this book was written before (and publicized after) the ya ya sisterhood - yet there are frequent mentions of the ya ya's and some dark secret they share and so on...so I'm guessing that book was simultaneously in the works as this one. Big Shep is Vivi's husband, a working class man who makes a few poor choices that make him forget how to love.
   
   Their children include the eldest daughter Siddalee, who is probably the most identifiable as the main character in the book. Sidda goes through several phases of independence/autonomy and relying on her family for guidance. Her younger brother Lil Shep doesn't feature much in the book other than his desire to be freed from the nasty secrets his family is keeping. I can't remember the next siblings name, I think it's Lulu, who stars in my favourite story in the book about petty theives and liars. Finally there is Baylor, the youngest, who lives in a dream both as a child and an adult.
   
   Overall this is a nice, slow read...it's enjoyable to drink up on lazy summer days in bits and pieces, and very much personifies the southern climate it describes.



4. This book was fabulous - not quite as groundbreaking as the "Divine Secrets.." but still fabulous nonetheless. It made me smile, it made me think, and it made me cry - all the things a good book should do and more. Buy it - read it! Enjoy.



5. I along with many others read Divine Secrets of the Ya Ya Sisterhood first. I LOVED it!!! It was one of those books I didn't want to end! I was elated when I found Little Altars everywhere at my local thrift store. I can't believe the diffence between the two!
   I was caught off guard immediatley with the lesbian chapter. I had no idea that's where R. Wells was taking it. I had to read and re-read where the mother molests Little Shep because I was sure I was taking it the wrong way. I felt sympathy for Vivi in DSYYS, but not after this. If you want my opinion, read Divine Secrets of the YaYa Sisterhood and forget about Little Altars Everywhere. It's trash, plain and simple!

3 comments about Oriental Carpets: Their Iconology and Iconography from Earliest Times to the 18th Century (Jumbo).

1. a mildly goofy interpretation that claims Armenian Christian origin for oriental carpets, ill organized, with excruciating page layout, but the sources consulted and the rich illustration make an interesting read and as well an incredible bargain



2. Dr. Gantzhorn's book is both a fabulous bargain, with over 600 beautiful color plates, and a ground-breaking work of art history scholarship. If you are open to an iconoclastic view of carpet weaving history, i.e., history which differs from the official one, you owe it to yourself to consider Dr. Gantzhorn's carefully researched and documented thesis.



3. This is a beautiful book with careful drawings and magnificent color photographs. It is a serious scholarly work. An ideal text for a course on Oriental Carpets.

No comments about The American Sword 1775-1945.

No comments about Vintage Christmas Ceramic Collectibles.

No comments about The Collector's Encyclopedia of Geisha Girl Porcelain.