No comments about Ronan & Erwan Bouroullec.

4 comments about The Best Birdhouses for Your Backyard.

1. The Best Birdhouses for your Backyard includes thirteen projects. Most of the projects are birdhouses, some are feeders. This is a well put together book with great photographs and instructions. There are even projects to attract butterflies, and bats! (Ick)

   The part I like most about this book is that the projects are arranged according to what bird you�d like to attract. This makes it easy to build the spring house for your Robins, or the hide away for the purple martin! Also, the designs are made using basic tools.
   For all you bird lovers, GET THIS BOOK! It is great!




2. This book first explains some of the basic tools, then goes into the houses, how to build them, what you need for lumber and supplies. The book also explains a little about the bird most likely living in the house, when, how many eggs, ect. It also explains where to put the birdhouse for mounting.
   This book is excellent for the beginner. Excellent pictures and directions. Well done book. I actually have birds living in some of the houses. Nice to make a "home" for someone, hihi.



3. This book provides some basic design ideas, but does not provide any decorative "yard art" type plans.



4. This particular work is not bad. I borrowed in from a friend, gave it a look, and did indeed try several of the dozen or so projects. I was more interested in bird houses, rather than feeders, and this book does give some nice simple designs.
   
   The designs are complete and comprehensive enough for most beginners, or for folks like myself that have absolutely no clue when it comes to building things. Fortunately I have a son-in-law who is a builder and does wonderful cabinet work, so when I did get into a pinch, I made a phone call.
   
   The projects in this work are not fancy and in fact are quite basic. I did appreciate the nice photographs and detailed, step by step instructions. The projects I did try, all using very basic hand tools, including a hand saw, worked out quite well.
   
   I must note her though, that in most states, as in Missouri, you can order, for free, any number of birdhouse construction plans from your local conservation department and do just fine with those. They do not have the pretty pictures, but they do contain the simple instructions and they get the job done just as fast as a store bought book.
   
   I own quite a number of various publications myself, and have a wonderful public library whose shelves are overflowing with such books. To be honest, you can use these resources and do much better than you can with this particular book. Now don't get me wrong, this is indeed a nice little publication, but I have to tell you that there are better and cheaper ones out there. Also, as one reviewer has so well pointed out, these are not fancy yard ornament projects, which personally I liked, but feel many will not. Let me stress, these designs are simple and utilitarian.
   
   Don Blankenship
   The Ozarks

No comments about Fun with wood;: How to whittle & carve wood to make useful & decorative articles, toys, puzzles, and unusual figures.

3 comments about Birdhouse Builder's Manual.

1. I checked this book out of the library and built several of the birdhouses. I particularly wanted to build the log house on the cover. Could not believe how detailed and exact the directions were. I still haven't put that birdhouse outside because it turned out so great, we want to look at it. If you follow their directions, you won't go wrong due to the fine pictures that illustrate each step. I'm now buying the book for myself.



2. I Found this to be an outstanding book, with complete, easy to follow directions. I have built several of the birdhouses in the book with much success. The photos of Mr Grodskis other birdhouse works of art are inspiring as well. Someday I hope to go see his Birdhouses on Long Island in person. I Highly recommend this book to anyone who is interested in wookdworking,from beginner to advanced.



3. I was VERY disappointed in this book. I did not expect a book that had plans for a whopping FOUR birdhouses. Yes, they are quite beautiful, but a bit on the difficult side to make (this is not a book for the novice). The designs are beautiful, but be prepared to spend LOTS of time attempting to make these -some of these have numerous pieces and difficult cuts (especially the wagon wheel bird house). The instructions are good with lots of photographs. I wish there had been plans for more than four birdhouses.

1 comments about Builder Boards: How to Construct a Set of Notched Boards Children Use to Create Their Own Playspace.

1. The book direction for making the play house is clear and work great.

No comments about Handbook of Joinery (Art of Woodworking).

No comments about Making Authentic Pennsylvania Dutch Furniture: With Measured Drawings.

No comments about Antonio Citterio.

4 comments about The New Voice: How to Sing and Speak Properly.

1. This book is wonderful and enlightening. It addresses the structure of your instrument, your voice, and he trains you how to use it properly. You start by NOT singing. You exercise using certain muscles and not using others. It is dramatically different than anything else I've read or been taught. There are three mechanisms that work together to produce your sound: the sound-producing mechanism, the sound-supporting mechanism, and the word-producing mechanism. He gives you many exercises for each. It will seem weird at first, getting used to a new concept. As a singer, I never had thought about how I made sound, I just sung and if it sounded bad I'd get frustrated and try to blindly fix it. But this book teahces you how to do it properly, so that even if you're under stress you will be concious of how your voice is reacting and still be able to sing properly. I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in singing or even speaking publicly.



2. I agree wholeheartedly with the first reviewer. This book tells you how to sing, not just what should happen in good singing. I don't know of any other book that spends the time needed to address setting up the structure for singing and especially the tongue and high larynx which causes most of the problems that as a voice teacher I encounter! This is amazing.getting over the urge to gag is really worth it! I'd like to be in contact with other teachers and singers who find this really great. It has meant so much to many of my students who went to teachers who seemed to be afraid of this approach and who use only the ear and imagery to overcome real physical ignorance or misunderstandings. There is help out there for the tight, retracting, tense and lazy tongue. What freedom this offers!!!!!!



3. I had extremely high hopes for this book when a friend just happened upon it and gave it to me as a gift. This offered a completely different approach to the voice that was in contrast to Mark Baxter's book that I was also studying at the same time. Since the approach made so much sense to me I threw myself into the excercises whole wholeheartedly for months and spent hours a day doing all the various exercises with a high level of diligence. I desperately wanted it to work and even went as far as to try and contact Alan Greene. Although I wasn't able to find him, I did find a former student of his who studied this method and we talked briefly on the phone. Although he couldn't offer tips or specifics, he said the method did work and that you just had to do the excercises. Perhaps there was some missing piece here for me, but after seeing (or rather hearing) no difference in my voice after several months I eventually abandoned it.
   
   Incidentally, I really be interested to hear from people that it *did* work for though.



4. If you are a good singer or have a good voice, this book was not written for you. Although even Harry Belafonte endorses this book.
   
   If you want to acquire a good voice or singing voice, then this book is for you! Nearly all introductory books I've read on singing deal with practice or very basic ideas; but do nothing about tension stored in the vocal tract. This book does. If you don't relieve the tension, how will you ever sing well?
   
   I was working on some parallel ideas when I read this book. Look for my upcoming website [...] when I get it launched--whenever that might be.... (Sorry) ZenSinging will teach how to take the steps beyond this book.

No comments about Traditions in Wood: A History of Wildfowl Decoys in Canada.