Insect Musicians & Cricket Champions : A Cultural History of Singing Insects in China & Japan

Customer Reviews:

Amazing and Fascinating--Almost Unbelievable, but True!.......2005-07-03

Until I found this book, I had no idea to what great and amazing extent crickets are revered, bred and cared for as pets in Asia. Some are raised for their "musicianship", others for their fighting skills, employed in to-the-death matches like fighting cocks and fighting dogs. Then there is the amazing amount of cricket paraphernalia, both antique and modern that is on display here in the many photos that accompany the text.

This book reprints in their near entirety, two nearly century old, classic books about crickets, adding modern photographs and other information. This is not dry "insect science", this book is about the culture (or perhaps "cult"!) of the cricket as practiced in Asian countries, where as much care and feeding and love is applied to these insects as Americans devote to their dogs and cats.

Did you have any idea that cricket owners can diagnose various illnesses of their crickets and nurse them to health with the help of special diets? It's true, and you can read about it here, along with many other fascinating details. Did you know that some cricket owners apply wax to their cricket's wings to sweeten the sound of their song? Read all about it here.

If I didn't know for sure this book is factual, I could believe it was some satirical Monty Python-esque send-up of extreme pet owners. But these are facts and if more people would read this book, I would not be at all surprised if the culture of crickets as pets would spread significantly within the United States.

Customer Reviews:

A bit of a strain for non-students of the industry.......2006-03-03

Very informative - yet just not what I would have imagined. It would terrific it told you how to create your fashion business from scratch.

I used this book for a class..........2004-07-20

This book was to be purchased for my "Business of Fashion" class. What a great purchase. After the class was over I didn't turn it back in to get money for it. I kept it knowing that someday I may want a reference guide. It was a great investment!

A very good introduction and view into the Fashion Business.......1999-06-15

I not only learned alot from reading this book but actually enjoyed the reading considering it's a text book. As someone who's trying to get back into the fashion industry after a 20 year hiatus; I feel that I have the knowledge I need to head in the direction I want to go now. I really liked how they used real companies for examples and at the end of each chapter they have an explanation of a job in the industry with comments from people in those jobs. There's lots of charts, lists of important contacts, calendars of events, etc that will be important to anyone starting a fashion business or wanting to find a job in fashion. It's worth the money if you can't afford to go to school for this.

Fashion for profit: A professional's complete guide to designing, manufacturing, & marketing a successful line

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Fashion for profit: A professional's complete guide to designing, manufacturing, & marketing a successful line
Frances Harder
Manufacturer: Frances Harder
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

Textile & Costume | Design & Decorative Arts | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

General | Fashion | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

Entrepreneurship | Small Business & Entrepreneurship | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
ASIN: B0006S4QDI

The Business of Fashion: Designing, Manufacturing, and Marketing--Instructor's Guide

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The Business of Fashion: Designing, Manufacturing, and Marketing--Instructor's Guide
Leslie Davis Burns , and Nancy O. Bryant
Manufacturer: Fairchild Books & Visuals
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: 1563675714

The Business of Fashion: Designing, Manufacturing, and Marketing--PowerPoint

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The Business of Fashion: Designing, Manufacturing, and Marketing--PowerPoint
Leslie Davis Burns , and Nancy O. Bryant
Manufacturer: Fairchild Books & Visuals
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: 1563675781

Book Description

Dan Savage is irreverent, irrepressible, and opinionated. He's held his own on Politically Incorrect, told tales on This American Life, continues to write a beloved nationally syndicated column-and he's had it up to here (my hand is higher than my head) with the moral, conservative scolds who proclaim America is slouching towards Gomorrah (to use Robert Bork's phrase). Are we really that bad?

Yes, we are! And in Skipping Towards Gomorrah, Dan Savage eviscerates those cynics as he commits each of the Seven Deadly Sins himself (or tries to) and finds those everyday Americans who take particular delight in their sinful pursuits. Among them:

Greed: Gamblers reveal secrets behind outrageous fortune.
Lust: "We're swingers!"-you won't believe who's doing it.
Gluttony: Dan meets gluttons with attitude at a pro-fat conference.
Sloth: Leave it to Dan to find a way to celebrate this sin that will get him in trouble with his mother.
Anger: Texans shoot off some rounds and then listen to Dan fire off on his own about guns, control, and the Second Amendment.
Envy: Meet the rich-then be glad you're not one of them.
Pride: You'll never look at a gay pride parade the same way again.

Couple all this sinning with a unique history of the Seven Deadly Sins, a new interpretation of the biblical stories of Sodom and Gomorrah, and enough Bork, Bennett, Buchanan, et al, bashing to more than make up for their incessant carping, and you've got the most provocative book of the fall.

Customer Reviews:

Telling it like it is.......2007-06-09

I would give the book four stars, but I LOVE Dan Savage...so five it is. If you enjoy Dan's witty and urbane brand of humor then I recommend this book!

A very thought provoking book.......2007-05-10

I bought this book back in the spring of 2004 after seeing it on the shelves at the local bookstore off and on for months and I'm glad I did as I'm first well familiar with his columns [...] I was familiar with his writing style and his refreshingly honest replies and he certainly doesn't dissapoint here despite his toning down some.

That toning down in many ways keeps the book from being too much of a soap box for his views and thusly less strident to boot, which is a good thing as while it still gets strident at times, it's not objectionable.

And having just read all 56 reviews (as of this review), one that is virtually missed by all of them is that some king actually came up with the seven deadly sins, I think loosely based on the 10 commandments. For starters, sloth (sleep) is something we all need to do, but too much of it is not always good for us. A fellow at my church who teaches theology at a local college said that the 7 deadly sins really should be a take it or leave thing, that is, you can believe in them or not since they do not really follow the teachings of the Bible and it's 10 commandments all that closely.

What I found as I read this book is how Fundamentalist thinking has permeated much of our society and that's sad and on the chapter of gluttony and Dan's trip to San Franciso for a fat acceptance conference revealed just that very well. Example, a nurse seems to be contradictory in her views when she says we've all exercised by moving our arms 3 times that morning! Also, how so many of the fat chicks who were supposidly accepting of their fatness could barely get around and many were wheelchair bound as a result and one group admitted they come for the socializing and nothing more and really do not eat much of the food that is there. "It's the old do as I say, not as I do" mentality that I saw through much of this book as Dan takes us on a journey to discover these so called deadly sins for himself.

And that's just what makes this book so well written is his individual look at each and every one of those 7 sins and reveals them for what they are, hypocritical in many ways, especially in how they are persued by many.

In the chapter on lust where he meets the swingers group, the parents do out and "wife" swap at these events and one thing that I noticed is how they do not discuss this around their children but gladly persue these activities themselves and at these events, I found a discrepency in and of itself. The men are told to dress appropriately, that is, shirt and shorts while the women can be as provocative as they want and in the minds of the organizers, to make women feel as safe as possible. I saw that as hypocritical and it's no wonder that many straight men feel hamstrung, it's this kind of attitude that seems to permeate society in many areas and that's the point Dan ended up uncovering in his quest and in the end, takes a sharp aim squarely in the space between the eyes of the "virtuecrats" as he calls them, the Borks, Buchannans, the Slesengers etc who want us to not have any fun, even if it's not harming others and in the end, exposes the hypocrasy of these activities at the same time.

I will contend some of the chapters could've been a little stronger in his conclusions but in the end, he's very honest about what he saw and experienced and that in and of itself makes it a good read. Definatly not for the faint of heart however.

It's best to err on the side of avoiding incestuous handjobs.......2006-01-23

Best quote, among thousands of jewels, from Dan Savage.

A couple of years ago, I went on vacation with a bunch of friends to a beach resort town in South Africa. Clear blue water, white sand, skimpy bathing suits on lovely people of both sexes. Should have been a wild time, right? Well, it wasn't, at least for the first few days, because I brought along Skipping Towards Gomorrah for my beach-book. I already knew I loved Dan, and thought I could just dip into Skipping whenever I felt like a rest. Ha! Once I started, I was way too into it to stop for much of anything. And, of course, all my friends were constantly running back from the ocean to see what the hell I was laughing at. The elevator scene in the Gluttony chapter can still send me into fits. I had to buy a new copy once I got back to the States, as mine "mysteriously" disappeared. I know whoever stole it from me enjoyed it as much as I did, and hope they're passing it round to everyone they know, and even some strangers.

Wildy funny, wildy intelligent, wildy inappropriate, wildy shocking, wildly fun.......2005-11-17

There's a certain audience for Dan Savage's tough brand of over-the-edge liberal humor, and if you are in that group, then this book is a delicious treat. If you wouldn't normally read his advice column, then avoid this book. Fortunately, I fall in the former category, and I adored his book!

Savage's opening chapter is a scathing and very intelligent attack on the morality of the right wing. It was so brilliant, I found myself wanting to underline every other paragraph as a memorable quote. It definitely had me pumped up for the rest of the book.

As for the rest...Savage's plan is to experience and explore every one of the seven deadly sins. Some chapters come off stronger than others. The gambling and lust chapters are absolutely brilliant. Savage plan to explore anger by shooting a gun was a little weak to me--not everyone who shoots a gun is angry. But the gun experience was so eye-opening for both Savage
and the reader that it was worth it.

One of the real winners is Savage's exploration of gay pride, why it exists, what it means for the participants and for the audience, and more. In his columns, Savage has repeatedly railed against rainbow-flag wavers, so his insights on the topic are fasnicating. He points out that St. Patrick's day parades are the original minority group pride event, an assertion of identity by a group everyone else wanted to be quiet. Is that so different from a gay pride parade? "Who knows? Maybe one day everyone will be gay on gay pride day, just as we're all Irish on Saint Patrick's Day."

Savage goes to some extremes to prove his point, but overall, this is an intelligent, funny, offbeat look at the topic of morality in America.

A grave threat to constitutional democracy.......2005-05-24

When Al Franken promotes Dan Savage, does he have any idea how much support this builds for putting Michael Savage in the White House? To encourage citizens to abandon virtue in time of war is an act of treason. The ultranationalist backlash fostered by such outrages may soon destroy our constitutional democracy.

Skipping Towards Gomorrah - Seven Deadly Sins And The Pursuit Of Happiness In America

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Skipping Towards Gomorrah - Seven Deadly Sins And The Pursuit Of Happiness In America
Dan Savage
Manufacturer: Dutton / Penguin
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000MGVODE

Average customer rating:

Where Platitudes Prevail

What a delightful book!

Disappointing

very cliché

Great book! Very funny

Help Me Before I Go Crazy: Adventures From A Working Mother's Life
Marjorie Nightingale
Manufacturer: Charlote's Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Humor | Entertainment | Subjects | Books
Love, Sex & Marriage | Humor | Entertainment | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0974817503

Book Description

In Help Me Before I Go Crazy: Adventures From A Working Mother's Life, work and life balance expert, Marjorie Nightingale does for this generation of working mothers what Erma Bombeck did for the last one. She uses humor to make sense of one modern working mother's chaos and has readers laughing out loud in the process. In three parts, titled "Life," "The Kids," and "Mom's Madness," Nightingale tells stores that run the gamut from the day to day high drama of trying to do too much in too little time, and taking vacations with three hight energy children, to trying to find a life beyond motherhood.

It is a quick, entertaining and inspirational read that is perfect for even the most stressed out working mother. Not only will working mothers laugh out loud and nod in agreement, they may learn to see their own busy lives as fun adventures. As the good new - and laughs - spread about this book, Nightingale may well be on her way to becoming "America's Favorite Working Mother."

Customer Reviews:

Where Platitudes Prevail.......2007-07-28

This is certainly not a thinking woman's guide to a working mother's life. If countless platitudes, empty rhetoric, and weak humor are your thing, this is the book for you.

What a delightful book!.......2007-07-28

What a wonderful book! Ms. Nightingale never strikes a false note as she describes the challenges of "having it all"-- marriage, children and career. There were passages in this book that had me roaring with laughter. I was particularly struck by her self disclosures her own foibles and that of her children. This is a funny book but the deepest impression left on the reader is the author's all encompassing love and respect for her children. I highly recommend it!

Disappointing.......2007-07-25

This author will never be in the same category as the legendary Erma Bombeck. Let's be realistic.
If being a working mother makes you eligible to join the Martyr Syndrome Brigade then I'll stay single.
According to the author because I'm single I'm not entitled to be tired. Does No Children equal No Life? Perhaps she needed children to justify her existence?
Just because you CAN have children, doesn't mean you SHOULD have children.
She discounts the strength of women all over the world.

very cliché.......2007-07-24

I expected this book to be a little more than trite clichés. Everyone pumped it up, but I guess the previous reviews were from friends and colleagues. Very disappointing!

Great book! Very funny.......2004-05-16

I started this book while waiting for a plane to take off and I simply could not put it down. I had high expectations from the start, (I actually brought three copies to give to my friends), and I was NOT dissappointed. Marjorie finds an absolutely hysterical voice with which to describe the insanity of her life (and mine). I especially enjoyed the fact that each chapter ends with the lesson learned. Some of those lessons I had also learned the hard way. At some point, I wasn't sure whether she was telling her story or mine. Either way, it was well worth the investment of my most valuable resource- time. If you're a working mom with a life, you'll have trouble getting through this without laughing one minute and crying the next. Great work!!

Book Description

Movies play a central role in shaping our understanding of crime and the world generally, helping us define what is good and bad, desirable and unworthy, lawful and illicit, strong and weak. Crime films raise controversial issues about the distribution of social power and the meanings of deviance, and they provide a safe space for fantasies of rebellion, punishment, and the restoration of order. In the first comprehensive study of its kind, well-known criminologist Nicole Rafter examines the relationship between society and crime films from the perspectives of criminal justice, film history and technique, and sociology. Shots in the Mirror begins with an overview of the history of crime films and the emergence of various genres, surveying important films from the silent era, the early gangster films of the '30s, classic film noir, the work of Hitchcock, and recent innovations by Scorsese, Tarrentino, and the Coen brothers. Keeping pace with the evolution of crime films, Shots in the Mirror has been updated to respond to recent developments, trends, and shifting circumstances in the genre. This new edition expands the scope and increases the depth and variety of the previous edition by including foreign films in addition to American movies. Rafter also integrates an entirely new body of literature into the study, reflecting the rapid expansion of scholarship on law-related films over the past three years. She has added a chapter on psycho movies, a previously unrecognized subcategory of crime films. Another new chapter, "The Alternative Tradition and Films of Moral Ambiguity," focuses on recent sex crime films. This new final chapter grows organically out of the first edition's distinction between traditional crime films, with their easy solutions to social problems, and those more unusual critical films which belong to the bleaker, morally ambiguous, alternative tradition. Rafter examines more than three hundred films in this study, considering what they have to say, socially and ideologically, about the causes of crime, and adding valuable contributions to the on-going debate on whether media representations of violence cause crime. Shots in the Mirror is both a marvelous history of crime films and a trenchant analysis of their complex relationship to larger society.

Customer Reviews:

Crime films.......2001-02-21

A must read for students - and fans - of crime films! I enjoyed it a great deal!

Enjoying Crime Films.......2001-02-08

This wonderful book grew out of a college course that Nicole Rafter developed on crime films and society. It will interest general readers, too--those of us who enjoy crime films and are curious about their history and enduring appeal. The book, covering American film from the early 1900s through 1998, begins with an introductory chapter on the history of crime films, followed by chapters on specific genres, such as cop films and courtroom dramas, and other topics.

Rafter's guiding focus is the interaction between crime films and their eras' dominant beliefs and controversies. Crime films mirror cultural ideas about crime and help shape them. Thus, she features films that have received critical or popular recognition and provide provocative entree to significant social issues of their times. Crime films, Rafter argues, are social tools, as well. They help build consensus, expose our differences, and chart new courses of action. While readers will not always agree with Rafter's interpretations and analyses, they will become more sensitive observers, more active players in the ongoing exchange between crime films and everyday social life. In addition, readers will come away from this engaging book with a long list of films to see and to rethink. (Rafter mentions over 300 crime films in all, discussing over 100 in some depth.)

On a personal note, I share the author's observation that students in criminology are well versed in crime films and interested in their import. SHOTS IN THE MIRROR provides a marvelous vehicle for capitalizing on their interest and broadening the study of crime, as well. The book's historical perspective and its sensitivity to issues of race and gender could also prove useful for other courses in the social sciences.

Scholarship & Hollywood: Crime Film as a Social Mirror.......2001-02-05

Nicole Rafter's text offers a rigorous analysis of important social issues facing not only scholars and students of criminality and criminal justice but members of our own communities as well. Film- like other media- provides a viable avenue for academic study and discourse and should be used both as a tool for instruction as well as a subject for critical inspection. Rafter addresses seminal, contemporary "crime and justice" issues by considering the various genres of crime films, namely cop films, courtroom dramas, prisons, and crime itself. She contends that crime films in each of these genres make two general arguments. First, they all criticize society to a certain extent, whether the issue concerns excessive use of force by the police or the violent crime rate. Secondly, these films provide the audience with resolution by displaying the triumph of "justice" over corruption and brutality. As Rafter explains, crime films offer us an uncomfortable sense of gratification.

One of the many strengths of this text concerns its accessibility to both members of the academy and the general public. Rafter's text steps outside the boundaries of criminology and criminal justice and embraces a variety of disciplines and perspectives. As she maintains throughout her book, crime films reflect our ideas about social, economic, and political issues, and they shape the way in which we think about them. By examining the interrelationships between film history and technique, social history, criminal justice and criminological theory from multiple interdisciplinary perspectives, Rafter offers a fresh and (enjoyably) enlightening approach to the study and understanding of crime, criminality, and criminal justice within the context of film. Albeit a scholarly text, Rafter's book reads like a novel; extremely engaging in its description of crime films throughout various genres and generations, readers from various academic disciplines and those outside academia alike will find this book to be both widely entertaining and intellectually rigorous and stimulating.

Average customer rating:
Shots in the Mirror: Crime Films and Society
Nicole Rafter
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OKOMBE

Average customer rating:

so-so

speedy delivery

Moments of Truth at the Bridge Table
R. Jayaram
Manufacturer: Batsford
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Bridge | Card Games | Puzzles & Games | Entertainment | Subjects | Books
General | Puzzles & Games | Entertainment | Subjects | Books
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Logic, Intuition and Instinct at the Bridge Table

Serendipity in Bridge (Two-Brain Bridge)

Inferences at Bridge

Private Sessions: A Bridge Education

Masterpieces of Defence (Master Bridge Series)

ASIN: 0713488794

Book Description

Join an expert bridge player at the table to analyze crucial decisions from major tournaments. Develop a better understanding of the game through a series of themed chapters, each of which examines a particular technique and unravels the thought processes of expert players. By focusing on the dual roles of logic and intuition in bridge, this reader-friendly look at a challenging pastime offers sound instruction as well as plenty of food for thought.

Customer Reviews:

so-so.......2006-12-24

I don't regret reading it, just didn't get much out of it. There are literally thousands of Bridge books, and some are a lot better than this.
Read some of the others rather than this.

speedy delivery.......2005-09-03

New book at a used price was delivered in a speedy 3 days from
purchase. Super service!

Average customer rating:
Management: Skills and Application with OLC/PowerWeb card
Leslie W. Rue , and Lloyd L. Byars
Manufacturer: McGraw-Hill/Irwin
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
Management | Management & Leadership | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
Look Inside Business Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books
All Titles | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books
Business & Investing | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books
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Aviation And the Role of Government.

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Aviation And the Law, 4th ed

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Accessories:

Breakout Strategy: Meeting the Challenge of Double-Digit Growth

ASIN: 0072976349

Book Description

Rue/Byars: Management: Skills and Application, 11e is a short, value-priced paperback which presents the fundamentals of management principles to undergraduate students. It continues its tradition of presenting principles of management in a very straightforward and accessible manner focusing on skills that are needed to become a successful manager.

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