5 comments about Antique & Collectible Buttons: Identification and Values.

1. A good basic book, mainly for the U.S. market. As a British button collector, I found it of limited use due to most illustrated buttons being manufactured in America. However, the illustrations were clear and information fairly concise though more dates and background information re. manufacture would have been useful. I am based in Yorkshire, England with an interest in all glass, and golden age buttons, but found no mention specifically of the latter. The over-all approach was user-friendly and would be of particular interest to all collectors of American buttons



2. The photos were nice. However, it would have been nice to have a ruler or coin in place for scale. Measurements are rarely mentioned - only that buttons are either larger or smaller than actual size. The book also could use a glossary. Several terms are used but never defined. I'm glad I bought the book - it does have nice photos.



3. This book is mostly comprised of full page pictures of buttons. Many of the pictures are accompanied by a note that gives a range of prices for all the buttons in the picture. I had hoped for some information about what characteristics make a button more or less valuable than another. It mentions that there are different styles of shank and construction, but says nothing about why or when each style was used. I had also hoped for information about estimating the date of manufacture.



4. This book covers everything in detail except what really interests me, plastic buttons that aren't made of the early, valuable plastics like Bakelite and Catalin. However, what she does cover is profusely illustrated and her pictures are clear.



5. Very informative and educational. The pictures are a little small but the magnifying glass seems to be an accessory that you would use regardless. Recommended for any button beginner or collector.

5 comments about The Money Culture.

1. Articles published in different newspapers and magazines in the years 1980-1990 about major and lesser financial adventures.
   The best ones for me, were 'Eddie the Chop House Boy' - about a stock salesman who continues to take everybody for a ride at different broker houses and 'Taken for a ride on the Customer's yacht' about Louis Rukeyzer as emperor without clothes.
   Most articles have only historic value: the S & L scandal, Ivan Boesky, Michael Milken, the RJR Nabisco battle, the cornering of the bond market by Salomon brothers, the LBO mania (leveraged Rip-Off) and the end of the Japanese bull market (kamikaze capitalism).
   All articles written in an ironical or sarcastic style.



2. This is really a collection of essays Lewis wrote for magazines and newspapers, many of them before he wrote "Liar's Poker". As such they are a mixed bag both in content and writing style. Perhaps the most entertaining are his accounts of the coming of American-style finance and ambition to Europe, and I also enjoyed the essays on Japan. However other essays are best simply because they are short.
   
   If you are a Lewis fan and want a little light reading, fine...read this book. If you haven't read his other books, go read those first.



3. A very entertaining book, and it gives you a really great look behind the curtains of Wall St.



4. Michael Lewis wrote one of the great popular books about Wall Street, Liar's Poker: Rising Through the Wreckage on Wall Street. It is a classic of what life was like on Wall Street during the time when mortgage backed securities, something we're hearing a lot about currently, was just getting off the ground. He also wrote the bestseller Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game, which is a great baseball book. This collection of pieces written right before and after Liar's Poker is all right, but it is not his best work.
   
   I have a high tolerance for bad writing if I am interested in the subject manner, but even I had trouble getting through some of the early pieces in here. Perhaps Lewis had to get all this poor sophomoric writing out of his system before he could write decent books. If the pieces collected in Money Culture are what it takes to get to Moneyball, then so be it.
   
   Still, from a reader's standpoint, don't bother with this one, read Liar's Poker and Moneyball instead.



5. I bought this looking for a sequel to Lewis's highly entertaining LIAR'S POKER. What a disappointment.
   
   Unlike the on-target and amusing later effort, drawn from Lewis's own experience, this little book of essays slides into editorial pontification and personal agenda point-of-view. One year as a junior player in the industry certainly does not make one an expert on all things, and that lack of perspective makes "The Money Culture" read more like a personal agenda driven act of hubris.
   
   That, and so many of the vignettes are so badly dated that they have to be footnoted that "This piece was originally written in 199x" to keep them from looking like they were written with the benefit of hindsight but without the enlightenment history can provide. I thought at least the 2-3 page length of the essays would make this a good carry-along read, to pick up whenever I had a minute or two. Even that slid, to where by the end of the book they turned into much longer articles/chapters.
   
   I had hoped for a prequel to the highly successful Liar's Poker, but was disappointed enough to now believe that Liar's Poker was probably a lucky fluke.

5 comments about Unsigned Beauties of Costume Jewelry: Identification and Values.

1. I love this book!. It's chock full of excellent pictures and information for the vintage jewelry collector, whether a novice or one of long-standing. The book is well organized in its layout. I've discovered it's a 'collectible' book in its own right. Author, Marcia Sparkles Brown, has a video, which I also own and recommend.
   
   Although not a whole lot on each designer, some mention is better than none. To find references to Judy Lee, BSK, LaRoco, Park Lane, Avon, Capri, Art, JJ, Les Bernard, Capri, etc. was of interest to me when I first started collecting jewelry because of the scarcity of volumes on these names. Other designers, such as Lisner, Coventry, Napier, Monet, etc., also included in this book, were more easily found when doing searches for designers.
   
   The book has no index, so this may be a concern to others. But the designer names are presented in alphabetical order.
   
   Gail Gupton, Author: The 31-Day Diet of Spiritual Enlightenment and Seekers of Truth.



2. I had read the book before when I started researching my mothers pins. I have now purchsed two of Marcie's books. They are well written, easy to follow, good pictures of pins and great advise.



3. Marcia "Sparkles" Brown puts together the best books on costume jewelry there are. With all the pictures she includes it makes it so much easier to find something you may be wondering about and she has a lot to look at! I absolutely love her books!



4. I was looking forward to receiving this book because as a collector I did not have a book on unsigned costume jewellery. However I was disappointed with the copy I received.
   My main complaint is the quality of the illustrations. For the most part the photos are dull, too dark and the colours are distorted. Some pages have a definate brownish tint and other pages are quite grey. In comparison to other books on the suject the photos lack colour and clarity but this may be due to the printing and perhaps I received a particularly bad copy.
   The book has 3 chapters that give insight into the birth of costume jewelry, the metals, stones, shapes and settings and also how to start a collection, date and restore pieces.
   For the price the book covers the subject well.



5. An excelent reference book, however, sellers/buyers need to know a particular designer to find items. Not all items are referenced. Sellers/buyers need to do MUCH more research if they are looking for something special.

4 comments about Mexican Calendar Girls: Chicas de calendarios Mexicanos.

1. Beautiful! I have been looking for something like this for a long time. I love the period art and the history-thank you!



2. This book is a compilation of the many important roles Mexican women have played in history through the use of calendar art. The photos are colorful and demonstrate the diversity of Mexicanas. What a delightful way to teach the history! This book will surely be appreciated and enjoyed by art lovers, history lovers, women and men alike.



3. I highly recommend the picture book on Mexican Calendar Girls. The author really did her homework and touched on an aspect of Mexican Popular Art that played on cultural symbols. From La Adelita to La Malinche and even the venerated Virgen de Guadalupe, this artwork found in kitchens, neighborhood tienditas or bakeries evoked an idealized Mexico and its various viewpoints of womenhood. These images are the cultural equivalent of the Norman Rockwell paintings that evoked an idealized North American culture to generations. Angela Villaba hit a homerun with her book as far as my family was concerned. I gave it to my mother who is an educational advocate for multicultural education here in the Southwest and she could not put the book down.
   Sergio S. Guerrero Jr.
   El Paso, Texas



4. very well written. interesting historical account of artists and their methods and subjects. have never seen a greater accumulation of beautiful images, colorful-exiting-romantic portraits. full of 'old time' detail and glamour. hard to put down.

4 comments about Stamp Collecting for Dummies.

1. I have always thought the Dummies series of books were some of the best-written "How To" books on the market. This one lives up to that reputation.

   Mr. Sine has produced a well-written, clear guidebook for both new and experienced collectors. He manages to cover the subject without getting bogged down in the jargon of the hobby. His style and wit are welcome in a hobby whose literature can at times be very dry.

   This is a good guide to a great hobby.




2. I have always thought the Dummies series of books were some of the best-written "How To" books on the market. This one lives up to that reputation.

   Mr. Sine has produced a well-written, clear guidebook for both new and experienced collectors. He manages to cover the subject without getting bogged down in the jargon of the hobby. His style and wit are welcome in a hobby whose literature can at times be very dry.

   This is a good guide to a great hobby.




3. This volume in the 'Dummies' series is written with a humorous light touch that makes it especially attractive to the Dummy who knows he is one and doesn't need to be reminded that he is one by being frog-marched through impenetrable jargon. In addition, Richard Sine or his editor have had the foresight to break the topics he treats up into very small sections and subsections.
   
   The result is a light-hearted but content-rich introduction to the topic, one that this reviewer is only beginning to explore.
   
   I cannot imagine a more effective starting point for the would-be stamp collector or - like me - the person who needs to know before he invests time and treasure whether this is something he's going to be able to manage.



4. When you are American and want to start a collection of American stamps, this is the book for you.
   The book contains some really nice tips e.g. how to set up a reference collection. However, I would have like to see some more technical stuff e.g. on how to identify watermarks (and especially when its not straightforward). It also is a pity that the author spends a lot of time on American stamps (and I am not American :) ), askPhil and the fact that you can also start a thematic collection. In so many pages the author could and should have covered a lot more ground.
   So definitely not a book for intermediate level collectors or people interested in the world outside the USA.

5 comments about Sourcebook of Modern Furniture, Third Edition.

1. I was disappointed with the book and returned it. Nothing by Robsjohn Gibbings. Nothing by Harvey Probber. Only a single piece by Wormley. Only two by Finn Juhl. Instead, the selection seems weighted heavily toward austere Italian designs of metal and glass, esp. those produced in the 1960s and later. I did not expect the editors to show such a lack of interest in wood. And given the book's definitive-sounding title, I did not expect them to adopt such an rigid and uninteresting definition of "modern."



2. As predicted, the 3rd edition is OFF THE HOOK!!! The 3rd edition, published in 2005, has close to 700 new entries. Nearly half of the photos are in color and the authors have included web site information for manufacturers. This latest edition is in the collection of prominent museums and academic institutions across the globe, especially universities which have significant design and architecture programs. This is certainly a must have edition for the intellectually astute connoisseur of furniture and design.
   
   BTW, many of the listed reviews are referring to the 2nd edition which is now 10 years old!!! Check to be sure which edition other reviewers are referring to before making a purchase decision...you wouldn't want to miss out!!



3. did not someone write that they are coming out with a new edition in fall 2004? this is the only problem with this edition. it is not updated. soon to be resolved it seems.



4. The third edition of Jerryll Habegger and Joseph H. Osman's SOURCEBOOK OF MODERN FURNITURE should be on the reference shelves of ANY serious interior design collection. Appearing in its third revised edition, SOURCEBOOK provides one of the most authoritative guides to furniture and lighting designs of the 20th and 21st centuries in print, pairing color photos with features of works by hundreds of notable designers. Photos arranged by type of furniture or fixture make it simple for quick look-ups, while lists of suppliers and indexes of designers and manufacturers provide invaluable cross-referencing.



5. This is the best compendium of pictures and details about the Modern Furniture movement!

5 comments about Warman's Hot Wheels Field Guide: Values and Identification (Warman's Field Guide).

1. It is not clear in the description of this book that only a relatively small sample of Hot Wheels are featured and the only values listed are for "mint packaged vehicles". Because of these limitations, this book was of little value to me.



2. This book has some good information, but is very incomplete. It does not even contain the deora car that is on the front cover and title page of the book!!! This book only lists mint in package prices and many cars have been left out. It also contains very little variations. If you are looking for a complete price guide, look somewhere else.



3. This little book fits right into your pocket. You can take it with you when you go on your "treasure hunts"



4. When I bought this book I was IN heaven It had all of the pictures I wanted to see except for the cover car.It hardly had any of my cars but Im okay with IT.



5. This small but concise volume is Warman's Hot Wheels Field Guide: Values and Identification (2nd edition), which was released on October 30, 2007. It was purchased as a gift for an avid Hot Wheels collector, shortly after he had noted that it would be good to have a small and simple book to keep in the car as a quick reference book when casually shopping for cars for his collection.
   
   This new edition should not be confused with Warman's Hot Wheels Field Guide, which was published in May 2003. That older version features a Deora on the front cover.
   
   After a couple of weeks worth of use, he commented that its 500+ pages are chock full of good information. Though it's not the ultimate resource on HotWheels cars, it's perfect as a handy quick reference when shopping at the local chain and toy stores for that occasional rare car that does slip through. There's good info on Blackwalls, Redlines and the Number Pack details, and has over 500 color photos of some of the highly prized Hot Wheels cars, along with a decent "Wheel Guide" for easy identification of some of the rarities that pop up on the racks.
   
   If you're looking for something larger and more detailed, you might wish to look into Hot Wheels Variations: The Ultimate Guide (3rd edition), also by Michael Zarnock, and published July 6, 2007.
   
   All in all, this compact volume is perfect for what has been described by the publisher, and a good handy reference for the hobbyist, casual collector or avid Hot Wheels fan. Add to that, it's a great gift.

2 comments about Fourteen Families in Pueblo Pottery.

1. This is a wonderful detailed book of the the finest potters to be found in the southwest. This new expanded edition provides great family trees of the finest of Pueblo potters. If you're planning a visit to the Southwest and hope to meet some of these potters, it is the perfect companion book to The Native American Indian Artist Directory that will actually provide phone numbers and mailing addresses for many of the potters found in this outstanding edition.



2. almost every piece of pottery I have is represented in the book!

5 comments about 100 Years of Vintage Watches: Identification and Price Guide (100 Years of Vintage Watches).

1. I found this book to be excellent reading. It includes hundreds of beautiful photos and a brief but fascinating historical summary for several well-known foreign and American watch manufacturers. Even a person who knows nothing about watches would enjoy browsing through this book. Highly recommended.



2. The book has thousands of pictures of watches, mostly pocket ones. However, it does not cover the history of such watches It's just a picture timetable of watch development.



3. Disappointing. Little if any information about European and English watches. Misleading title should be call American watches and a few others.
   
   Unless you are into American watches - a waste of time and money



4. This is a great reference however it has very limited information and only a fraction of collectible Watches are listed.I will admit the photography is excellent!



5. Good photos & description of vintage products. I bought this as a gift to a friend and he is really into Vintage watches.

3 comments about The Complete Idiot's Guide to Restoring Collector Cars (The Complete Idiot's Guide).

1. If you already know a lot about Pitman arms, rag joints, pinion gears, and harmonic balancers, then this book is probably not for you. After all, the word, "idiot," is in the title. As the new owner of a collector car who hasn't much of a clue where to start, I found it to be perfectly suited to my needs and knowledge level. The information is presented in such a way as to apply to a wide range of vehicle types, which I especially liked, since my specific vehicle interests don't correspond at all with the author's. Most importantly, the author is a good writer and the book is enjoyable to read, cover to cover. (There are a few typos, which always surprises me.) Overall, a good value and a great introduction to the topic for beginners.



2. By far a really, really good starter book for anyone looking to see what it would take to get into restoring a classic car. If you know the basics; budgeting, tools needed, what car to look for this is not the book for you.
   
   But for those who haven't even scoped the project this is a great starting point to layout your plan of how you are going to proceed or whether your should proceed at all.



3. Not exactly what I was looking for, but there was certainly much I didn't already know. Great resource referrals! I wanted more specific, step by step instructions, but now I know where to get it from reading this. I did not waste my time or money.