Product Description
Rustic old Riddlesdale Lodge was a Wimsey family retreat filled with country pleasures and the thrill of the hunt -- until the game turned up human and quite dead. He lay among the chrysanthemums, wore slippers and a dinner jacket and was Lord Peter's brother-in-law-to-be.His accused murderer was Wimsey's own brother, and if murder set all in the family wasn't enough to boggle the unflappable Lord Wimsey, perhaps a few twists of fate would be -- a mysterious vanishing midnight letter from Egypt...a grieving fiancee with suitcase in hand...and a bullet destined for one very special Wimsey. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (33)

Clouds of witness
The Duke of Denver, Lord Peter Whimsey's brother has himself in a spot of trouble. A guest to their hunting lodge has turned up dead wearing slippers and a dinner jacket and bother Gerald was seen leaving the lodge.
Lord Peter knows his brother wouldn't commit murder, but how does he prove it and save his family from the clutches of a court of law.
At times Ms. Sayers may have used techniques from her contemporaries to feel her way to a style of her own.
My favorite line from this classic novel is "..., but an advanced old woman is uncontrollable by any earthly force."
If you love mysteries and haven't read it do so, then read it again. The puzzle will always please.
Nash Black, author of SINS OF THE FATHERS.

A pretty good little mystery
Clouds of Witness is one of Dorothy Sayers's earlier Lord Peter Wimsey mysteries. It's definitely not as good as Murder Must Advertise (Lord Peter Wimsey Mysteries), or The Nine Tailors, but it certainly shows some promise.

Having just spent time abroad in Corsica, Lord Peter Wimsey returns to find that his brother Gerald, the Duke of Denver, has been accused of the murder of one of his houseguests at Riddlesdale Lodge, a house rented for the hunting season. The murdered man was Lord Peter and the Duke's brother-in-law-to-be--so Lord Peter intervenes in what promises to be a sticky mess. It turns out that a lot of people are guilty of a lot of things, and it's up to Wimsey to sort things out. What I love about this book is that you know who didn't do it--the fun is in figuring out who did.

This book (the second Sayers wrote about Lord Peter, actually) isn't as strong as some of her later books, but it's pretty good nonetheless. The identification of the murderer isn't as important here, though, as is a major twist that's revealed near the end. Lord Peter himself, with his unusual manner of speaking and varied pursuits, is an endearing character, and it's easy to see why Peter might have inspired many other gentleman-detectives in fiction (Inspector Linley from Elizabeth George's books). I thought that Lady Mary was one of the weaker characters (way too many dramatics for me). Clouds of Witness may be the second book in this series (after Whose Body?), but if you're new to the series, you may want to start with this one--there's a lot more character development, as well as the introduction of some characters who make recurring appearances throughout the series.

Garbled text destroys the enjoyment of an excellent book
Love the book, hate the version. Far too many (garbled text removed) (garbled) (missing).The publisher claims it was fixed in May 2009, but I just bought it in February 2010.

Badly garbled and many omissions in Kindle text
I like Sayers.I've read all the Lord Peter novels, some more than once. They're among my favorite books to reread.

I was looking forward to reading it on Kindle, because I thought the ease of use of a dictionary, plus ability to look up some of the foreign phrases or obscure references, would enhance my experience.

Unfortunately, this Kindle edition is rife with [garbled] and [missing] text.I would understand it in a free download, and shrug it off as a "get what you pay for" experience.But even at a .99 pricepoint, there is no excuse for putting it out there in such bad condition.

Comments from the Publisher:
We apologize for the inconvenience. The book was corrected on May 18th, 2009. The new version has no omissions.

MobileReference ... Read more

Product Description
You'll find a selection of some of the most startling and unusual cloud formations, from uniform streaks of 'cloud streets' to the odd bulbous 'lenticularis' that are commonly mistaken for UFOs.Each amazing photograph will be accompanied by Hamblyn's entertaining and informative explanation of how the cloud was formed and the conditions in which a similar one might occur.The images chosen use satellite photography as well as ground-based pictures and the collection demonstrates the most unexpected and seemingly impossible patterns that can be created by the natural cycles of weather. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

Eye-opening
Extraordinary Clouds, Richard Hamblyn's follow-up to The Cloud Book, is a collection of photographs that illustrate the more unusual designs and shapes of clouds -- including a section on man-made clouds (i.e. aircraft contrails: currently "the world's most abundant cloud type"!).

Submitted from around the world and authenticated as non-"Photoshopped," the images are printed in stunning color on smooth, heavy paper. Each is accompanied by a paragraph or two of explanatory text, though it's in a tiny, fragile font that's a bit hard to read.

If the "decaying altocumulus" clouds on the cover intrigue you, wait until you see the "mammatus" and "lenticulars" inside!

My Opinion
I thought the book was well done, the pictures were great! However, the writing was a little difficult for me to read the way it was printed. Enjoyed it and think it is well worth the money.

A Visual Vacation
A fascinating view of nature above us. This book is tour of the shapes that occupy the sky. The brief descriptive paragraphs that accompany each photograph expand the value of each image. This is the ideal book to slowly page through of a cloudy winter day.It would be even more remarkable in a larger format.

Wonderful
Spectacular photos, many of very rare phenomena.Excellent if meteorology is one of your interests.Slightly disappointed that the book itself is very small - 6 1/2" x 8", but the photos are all in color and excellent quality. ... Read more

Product Description
Well-known security experts decipher the most challenging aspect of cloud computing-security

Cloud computing allows for both large and small organizations to have the opportunity to use Internet-based services so that they can reduce start-up costs, lower capital expenditures, use services on a pay-as-you-use basis, access applications only as needed, and quickly reduce or increase capacities. However, these benefits are accompanied by a myriad of security issues, and this valuable book tackles the most common security challenges that cloud computing faces.

The authors offer you years of unparalleled expertise and knowledge as they discuss the extremely challenging topics of data ownership, privacy protections, data mobility, quality of service and service levels, bandwidth costs, data protection, and support.

As the most current and complete guide to helping you find your way through a maze of security minefields, this book is mandatory reading if you are involved in any aspect of cloud computing.

Coverage Includes:

• Cloud Computing Fundamentals
• Cloud Computing Architecture
• Cloud Computing Software Security Fundamentals
• Cloud Computing Risks Issues
• Cloud Computing Security Challenges
• Cloud Computing Security Architecture
• Cloud Computing Life Cycle Issues
• Useful Next Steps and Approaches

Customer Reviews (1)

Shovelware
I was extremely disappointed in this book.It is not an in depth coverage of cloud computing's security issues in any way. It's as if they took a CISSP study guide, added a cursory chapter on "What is Cloud" in the front, then just sprinkled the word "cloud" in on occasion.There's sections on biometrics and wardialing and dumpster diving for God's sake.Save your money and time. ... Read more

Product Description
This book provides weather information quickly and surely, because it focusesupon what is going on directly overhead--the actual clouds now on view in thesky, the actual sequences currently developing. 137 color, 19 black-and-whitephotographs. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (7)

Good Cloud Identification
Excellent book.Using this along with a couple others to get back into weather forcastingThank you for an excellent book

Superb, portable, and incomplete
I bought this book in preparation for an advanced mariner's meteorology course, and could not have made this comment without having first gained that higher level of knowledge.

This is a suberb book with two major flaws:

1)It sticks to the two-dimensional depiction of weather that is common to the average person.Although there are a couple of illustrations showing altitude, the author could easily have put in a few pages on the rotation of the earth, the 500 mb level, and how weather on the surface cannot be understood without underestanding what is happening at the 18,000 level.As my instructor put it, the high-level troughs are the chicken that hatches the surface level (scrambled) egg.

2)It provides the pictures of the clouds, but missed the key chance to break down the names into the original latin meanings, to create a matrix of high (Cirro), medium (alto), and low (strato), with substantive meaning including layer (stratus), curly (cirrus), stacked in a vertical heap (cumulo-cumulus), and delivering rain (nimbus).

Add this little matrix above, and read "Mariner's Guide to the 500-Millibar Chart" by Joe Stenkiewicz and Lee Chesneau, and Google for to find his web site, and you'll have all you need to move to the better three-dimensional interactive viewing of weather and weather charts.

I also recommend Understanding Weatherfax

A good little book
A very handy book for "instant" weather forcasting. Interesting to read and written with a bit of humor. The only shortcoming is the arrangment of the photographs of the different clouds, they are not in logical sequence.

for newbies to weather
OK book for newbies or beginners to this interesting hobby(uninteresting if in Michigan)

Small Gem of a Book...
This small hard to find book (unless you order it online) starts with a basic premise: to predict the weather you need to do 2 things-determine the direction of the wind and identify the clouds currently in the sky. That being said, I would consider this book a great primer for anyone interested in naked eye weather forecasting.

The book includes color cloud charts, discusses weather folklore, precipitation, warm and cold fronts, and volcanic eruptions.

This a general primer. The information is not spoon fed to the reader.

The strength of this approach is Rubin's writing is entertaining and lively, and will enourage you to not only make your own weather predictions, but to also seek more information outside the scope of the book.

The weakness is that some of the material is incomplete. The book was completed by Louis Rubin's children with the help of a meteorologist after Rubin passed away (based on the Introduction), using Rubin's cloud photo collections and his collected writings.

As a result, some of the material is incomplete. For example, Rubin describes the 4 types of clouds and the 10 specific clouds most associated with weather changes. You then have to search all over the book to find those 10 clouds, and even then, you're not sure (based on the prefixed names) if you're looking at the right photographs. I suspect at the time of his passing, Rubin's cloud photo collection was far from complete.

That being said, I still liked the book, consider it a keeper, and respect Rubin's work in this area as an amateur meteorologist. ... Read more

Product Description

Product Description
Do you know much about the philosophy of the hypnotic trance? That was the relation between us--hypnotist and subject. She had been under another man before my time, suffered from tic of the fifth nerve, had had most of her teeth drawn before I saw her, and an attempt had been made to wrench out the nerve on the left side by external scission. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (9)

Prototypical "Last Man" story
It's an experiment that can never be performed, but it's worth thought anyway: how would a man act if there were no one to answer to? Adam Jeffson is that man, and this is his world.

Back in 1901, when this was written, parts of the earth's surface remained unmapped, including the north pole. Jeffson is part of the expedition to reach that pole - as sole survivor, he finds it (an actual upright pole, it turns out), and struggles back to civilzation to claim his reward. No one is left to give it, though. During the months of his trek, catastrophic volcanoes unleashed poisonous gasses that cover the world, killing off every bird, beast, and man, except for him alone. At first, he scours the globe in search of other survivors. After years of solitary confinement in the world-wide jail, his civilized spirit fails. He turns to the decadence of drugs and pointless wealth. Decadence turns to active nihilism, a self-declared mission of arson and destruction, a modern Nero who blasts and burns entire cities for his own amusement. Then ... well, I'll try to avoid spoilers, but his name is Adam and 1901 was not an era that tolerated wholly unhappy endings.

Just reading history books won't tell you how nervous that era was. Political tremors were building up to the quake that triggered the first world war. Medicine hadn't made the inroads against disease that modern generations assume, as the 1918 Spanish flu would soon show. The earth itself could turn against mankind, as the 1883 explosion of Krakatoa had shown. Sheil captured that sense of fragility, and his words preserve that sense for today's reader.

This book also preserves the style of writing that prevailed back then, something that might be even less familiar today. Think of the effort that moviemakers put into the special effects of today's media, then realize that writing was that era's medium. The pyrotechnics are all there, but in the florid vocabulary of the writing.

The story is a fair one, and could work well if recast as a modern adventure movie. More than that, though, "The Purple Cloud" records the fears, the values, and the literary style at the turn of the last century. It succeeds at many levels.

-- wiredweird

Dense Prose, Good Story
I got halfway through this book some six months ago and then just put it down for a while.Finally picked it back up and finished it today, and I must admit, for being an ancestor of the post-apocalyptic, last-man-on-earth genre, it carries some unique qualities.

On the downside, this was just a difficult read, period.The prose was incredibly dense: sometimes an entire page was but one run-on sentence!No paragraph breaks, few semicolons, and even fewer commas.I tried to make an audio version of this book, and found I could not pitch the sentences properly, since I could not see their end!

I'm quite practiced at reading, writing, and speaking, always at the head of my class even into the graduate level.That being said, this book almost *wasn't* English, not as modern-day Americans understand it, at least.I have a rather sizable vocabulary, but this was the first book to leave me hard-pressed to determine what he was talking about half the time:

"I paced between the oak pwes of the nave - massive stalls they are, separated by Corinthian pilasters ...some little angels with strangely human faces, Greuze-like, supporting the nerves of the apse" and so on.

Honestly, I'd swear he was making up the words half the time.Sentences ran far too long to keep the thread of things easily; I took to scanning over his florid descriptions but cautiously, for the most obscure little phrase within any block of text could trigger something that I would then be unable to understand.

That being said, I really liked the book.Along with "Earth Abides," these are the only two books that take their time looking at a world where man just... disappeared.Most post-apocalyptic stories talk about some war-ravaged earth, or one wherein civilization had been thousands of years ago.In stories like that, Earth might as well be Mars for the reader.

Contrarily, "The Purple Cloud" and "Earth Abides" allow the reader to leisurely stroll through a world that, in one sense, looks exactly like always, yet in another, feels inverted, nightmarish in such ordinary alienness.An emptied - yet undamaged - world always feels far more gripping and interesting to me.In this, Shiel most certainly provides.

Like I said, getting through his wording is like jogging in sand, and the guy he describes is pretty bizarre, wacked, and selfish, but I still find it a beautiful book, especially as the reader is slowly drawn from the lifelong nightmare of the protagonist's depravity into a beauty he'd never have guessed, let alone dared believe in.

Definitely a must-read, a keeper, and a read-again.

Excellent horror/scifi
Lovecraft mentioned this novel in his "Supernatural Horror In Literature" essay, and had good things to say about it.The novel deserves the good words.The first half, before our hero finds the inevitable woman to complete him, is really dark.A man alone, totally alone, with only corpses around him.I think that would send me "over the edge", too.Shiel captures the pathos of the situation well.Unlike Lovecraft, though, I like the "romantic" ending.At least the human race will not die out.This is well worth reading.

Lush,imaginative use of language.
make this book really worth reading. I find the descriptions of an empty world chilling, the familiarity with some of the places(in England) making the story at once believable yet terribly strange to me. Shiel is a romantic, bringing the story to an optimistic end for our poor protagonist (hasn't the poor guy suffered enough...!), even though it seems like Leda gets the short end of the stick once more(Victorian women were made of stern stuff!).In the end it is Shiel's rich and unusual descriptive style that really made this book stand out for meand I look on it as something original, captivating and totally refreshing compared to the lame language used in a lot of modern fiction.

A post-apocalyptic tale from the early 1900s
No one has yet succeeded in reaching the North Pole, and a new British expedition is mounted. As our protagonist, Adam, returns from the arctic, all the humans and many of the animals he encounters are dead. Adam travels all over the world, looking for other living people and, understandably, going kind of bonkers.

I wanted to like this book more. Early in the book, Adam finds himself in many morally challenging situations, but he has these voices in his head that more or less compel him to act in certain ways, so the reader is prevented from really entering into any moral struggles with him. I liked the writing, but each place Adam goes is essentially like the rest--everyone's dead--and I kept waiting for something interesting to happen. Near the end, something finally did, but then I mostly wanted to slap Adam around for being so dense.

Maybe I'm just jaded from reading too many post-apocalyptic stories and that's why I'm not more enthusiastic about this book. If you're new to this sort of story, you might find this book to be a powerful exploration of loneliness and the meaning of human society and human life. A similar but much better post-apocalyptic novel is Cormac McCarthy's "The Road." ... Read more

Product Description
Helps parents set boundaries with their children and teach the concept of boundaries to their children. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (51)

Boundaries for kids
It is an excellent book with excellent examples on child rearing.The company I got it from sent in promptly and I've had no hassles.Very pleased overall.

Some good points, but would recommend "The Explosive Child" instead.
I thoroughly liked the general adult version of "Boundaries", but did not like this book as much.Many great points throughout the book, such as how parents can and should avoid extreme anger and manipulating behavior when disciplining their children, but I feel a much better overall approach to dealing with challenging behavior in children can be found in a book called "The Explosive Child", but Dr. Ross Greene."The Explosive Child" is great for parents of all children, but can be especially helpful for those dealing with severely challenging children.This book has changed my entire paradigm of how to relate to children.Though Dr. Greene's book is not written from a Christian viewpoint, it might as well be!It is very in line with mainstream Christian principles - more so than many books marketed as "Christian parenting" information in my opinion.

The Missing Manual for Parenting
This book is a gift from God! I have two strong-willed toddlers and could not of asked for more biblical, practical, and empowering information. I'm so thankful for this book and would highly recommend it to anyone who has the hard task of raising future leaders.

Above Expectations
The product was exactly what I wanted and is in new condition as stated. I ordered the book from this seller in the am on one day and received it the next day in the mail.
As for the book, I have already read it and wanted a copy to keep at home for a reference, The book helps with your kids and helps the parent as well.
I highly recommend it and ordering from this seller.

God sent help
I wish I came across this book sooner. It is full of infos about children, their habits, their way of thinking, their behavior, their can and can't, and lots more. My husband and I really did not know what to do with our seven year old daughter. Some issues were so difficult to deal with, especially they were constantly repetitive. I went to a consoler to seek out help. After listening to me, she suggested this book. I reluctantly bought it at Amazon. I immediately put to practice what it suggested and I saw immediate changes with all of us. My parenting is no more inconsistent, guilt driven, argumentative, bargaining, exhaustive any more. They choose the behavior, they receive the consequences; weather good or bad.
The book also explains the kids " I can't do it" and their " I'm the boss" attitude.
I love this book, I think every parent in the whole world should read it and put it to practice. We would have a promising next generation.
DL ... Read more

Product Description
We are witnessing the third seismic shift in information technology over the past fifty years. In the beginning it was centralized computing where mainframe computers gave companies economies of scale in handling their data processing. Then it was client-server computing driven by networks and PCs that gave companies new sources of efficiency. Now we are witnessing the emergence of a third computing model and it will have a huge impact on business, -- especially in today's economy full of unexpected change. As with the first two computing models as they emerged, we may not be totally sure what it is or how it will change the rules of business and create new winners and losers in the marketplace.It s called Cloud Computing and the economic and innovation implications are game changing. No one needs to know more about the business implications of Cloud Computing than C-level executives responsible for the future of their organizations, for the wow isn t just about technology, it s about the promise of on-demand business innovation. But even more than understanding this new wave, they need to act, and act now. Written by industry veterans with a combined leadership experience of over 100 years at the intersection of business and technology, Enterprise Cloud Computing provides strategic insights, describes the breakout business models and offers the planning and implementation guidance business and technology leaders need to chart their course ahead.This is the companion book to "Dot.Cloud: The 21st Century Business Platform." ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

A choice pick for anyone who wants to learn from the ways of experts
The flow of information everywhere has changed everything. "Enterprise Cloud Computing: A Strategy Guide for Business and Technology Leaders" discusses the importance of cloud computing and how it is changing the economic and innovation games across the globe. Understanding it is absolutely vital and industry veterans lend their advice on learning and mastery the process. "Enterprise Cloud Computing" is a choice pick for anyone who wants to learn from the ways of experts.

Particularly enjoyed Private/Public/Hybrid cloud discussion
Good, crisp read. We are seeing the battle for the soul of enterprise computing for the next decade or so depending on whether they virtualize and keep computing in-house or take to the far more efficient public cloud. I enjoyed that discussion in book the most. I also enjoy Peter Fingar's style (from earlier books) - he is about big IT and BPM thoughts and unafraid to use colorful language to make points.

A Survival Guide for Enterprises on 'Business Technology'
This book is a must read!
It brings clarity in the on-going discussions on Cloud Computing, demystifying the current hype.
It gives a straight overview on what Cloud Computing is and isn't. And most important: it is about Enterprise Business, about Business Innovation.
I had the opportunity to work with one of the authors: Andy Mulholland, in Cloud Computing Events and discussions with Enterprise Business and IT Seniors.
In these challenging times, books like this are a guides to survive and excel with your Enterprise, creating new profit,

Must read for c-level executives
If you are looking for a bunch of techno-speak, look elsewhere. This book is not for programmers or technologists looking for technical guidance or programming recipes. It's about how cloud computing is being forged with new categories of resources and services that give business people control over their business processes to compete for the future. The book makes an interesting point that business units, not IT departments, are often driving the uptake of cloud services to solve business problems...in some cases all it takes is a credit card, not an annual IT budget, to tap needed business resources in the Cloud.

The book explains in lay terms what cloud computing is in order to set the context for what it means for the enterprise.
Then it looks at the newly emerged social networks and how they are changing the ways businesses must operate. The book describes the needed shift from Information Technology (IT) to Business Technology (BT) being driven by the ease of use of Consumer IT, and provides the rationale for a Service-Oriented Enterprise that operates in the Cloud. It explains the how business process management (BPM) can become a 'business operating system' in the Cloud, and sets forth a high-level process for the adoption of cloud computing in the enterprise.

The book provides insights and guidance for people who are in some way responsible for the future of their organizations including CEOs, CIOs, CFOs, CMOs and other C-level executives. It will also be useful to IT staff in order to gain common ground with non-technical people on the 'business issues' related to cloud computing.

Review
I had high expectations starting this book. I ended up skipping though much of it because this seems to be more of a snapshot of what has been going on over the last 10 years. If your new to cloud technology and know nothing this is a good book to bring you up to scratch. If your looking for insight into the future or you already are competent there's not enough points to make the purchase of this book worth while. ... Read more

Product Description

Customer Reviews (10)

Into the air
Emily and Navin's mother has been healed, and the good guys are safe for the moment. But of course, that won't last long in "The Cloud Searchers," the third volume of Kazu Kibuishi's epic graphic novel series -- this time it's a Hayao Miyazaki-esque flight to the clouds, in search of a floating city lost for years.

Emily and her friends have to get to Cielis,a city said to be destroyed by the elf army. However, it may actually have been hidden in the sky. Unfortunately, the moment they hire an airship captain to take him to this legendary lost city, elf soldiers try to arrest them -- as well as Prince Trellis and a timid, amnesia-stricken Luger, who are now wanted for treason.

As the motley crew sets off for a city that may or may not exist, they end up encountering plenty of perils in the sky -- especially since the Elf King has sent a brutal bounty hunter after them. And as Emily works to master her powers with the Stone, Trellis reveals a horrifying fact about the Elf King that may change everything.

"The Cloud Searchers" isn't quite the gripping, suspenseful story that The Stonekeeper's Curse was, mainly because most of it is spent on the airship cooking and practicing Stone magic. But don't worry, Kibuishi manages to insert plenty of exciting action (WYVERN ATTACK!) interspersed with solid character interactions.

There's also a lot of development for Trellis, who reminds me a lot of Avatar The Last Airbender's Prince Zuko -- we see more of his grumpy kindness here, as well as the true reason he's rebelling against the Elf King. Luger is also... well, very different from the coldhearted, ambitious warrior of the past, and we see more of Emily's motivations and why she's still in Alledia.

Kibuishi's art also continues to be awesome -- a sort of Americanized manga style, littered with robot bunnies and anthropomorphic animal-people. A lot of time is spent on the airships and floating citadels, which are washed in warm oranges, soft purple skies and cool blue-greys. But the villainous elf characters are usually given darker, grimier-looking backdrops.

"The Cloud Seekers" is a great "bridge" between epic story arcs, full of airborne action, lovely art and some dark new twists. We're waiting for book four, Mr. Kibuishi!

These Aren't the Elves You're Looking For
Recovered and reunited after their adventures in The Stonekeeper and The Stonekeeper's Curse, the Hayes Family, Silas Charnon's helper robots, and Leon Redbeard set out upon their next quest in the struggle to free Alledia from the Elf King: finding the lost city of Cielis, former capital when the five great Stonekeepers who comprised the Guardian Council ruled Alledia.Meanwhile, Trellis, traitorous son of the Elf King has found Luger much the worse for wear after his defeat by Emily and defied an order to return home and be executed, and the Elf King has hired Gabilan the Assassin, an elf with a giant chip on his shoulder to go along with his giant ambitions, to kill them all.

In this book Kazu Kibuishi temporarily sets aside his determination not to resemble anyone else in order to celebrate a couple of his early influences.The scene where an airship is hired is obviously inspired by the similar spaceship hiring scene in Star Wars Episode IV - A New Hope and the quest for Cielis is clearly Hayao Miyazaki's visionary Laputa or Castle in the Sky reimagined all the way down to nearly identical airships!

With this volume Kibuishi has finished assembling the cast who will be taking the next step in the saga:

Cielis itself.

The Best of the Series Yet!
Reason for Reading: Next in the series.

Finally, the year long wait is over and Book Three is here and well worth the wait is was! The Cloud Searchers is the best book in The Amulet series to date! Kibuishi keeps taking this story further and deepening the plot with each book. Much happens in Book 3 that brings the storyline to new heights. We learn some background of the world they are in, Alledia, and more about the stones and their powers and purposes.

In this volume Emily and the gang are in search of the fabled lost city of Cielis, which some say may have taken to the skies to hide. Emily joins forces with a previous enemy, she looses two dear friends, she becomes more powerful and she finally learns what her purpose here is.

Kibuishi's illustrations are, as usual, fantastic. I love the buildings, cities and towns he creates. His creatures and enemies are dark and scary and this volume has an overall dark and oppressive atmosphere with its colours ranging from greys to black. This suits the story very well.

The author puts a few references to incidents from both previous volumes quickly here and there which a reader appreciates when there has been so much time since publication of Book One. I was excited from the first page! The only thing I'm concerned about is how long the wait will be until Book Four hits the shelves!

And Still More Awesome
If you haven't read The Stonekeeper (Amulet Vol. 1) or The Stonekeeper's Curse (Amulet Vol. 2), this review will contain some mild spoilers.

Although her mother was saved, Emily has accepted that she is the chosen Stonekeeper and has a destiny that she just can't walk away from. After learning the story behind the stone in her amulet, she, her brother, mother, and allies set out to find the lost flying city of Cielis so the Guardian Council can help Emily come into her own and defeat the elf king.

This volume explains why the city of Alledia has gone to pot and how it fell into the control of the elf king in the first place. There are also some unlikely alliances formed and a few plot twists thrown in for good measure. Although the fantasy hero quest aspect seems eerily familiar (my mind often drifted to 'Lord of the Rings'; I could almost envision Emily succumbing to the amulet's power, and then rocking back and forth while stroking it, whispering "my precious") it was different enough to be its own enticing story.

As with the first two volumes in the series, the illustration, writing, and editing were phenomenal. Since I had a chance to read the pre-release greyscale ARC I can't speak to the colouring, but if it's anything like the previous volumes it will also be excellent and complementary to the scenes. And just like the first two volumes, I'm left itching to read the next installment.

Great Buy
Pre-ordered the book.Arrived on time in a brand new condition.Read it and loved it just as much as the other 2.***** ... Read more

Product Description
Journey across the heavens through thick cumulus clouds, wispy cirrus clouds, and wide stratus clouds as they dance through every season of the year.
Thomas Locker introduces young readers to the basic science of our natural world with brilliant illustrations and poetic prose.
... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

Totally Stunning!
This book is really beautiful the scenes are like a gentle lullaby and to boot its educational I recommend all Thomas Lockers books!

Cloud Dance
My students loved this author and his illustrations. I have since bought more of his books. An excellent book to read to a class.

Harkens back to my youth as a Native American
I, Smith T. Aames, have a secret.I was not always Smith T. Aames.Nay, I was raised an indigenous person. My original family was a small tribe of Native Americans called the Hopi, centered in Arizona.When I was a Hopi, my job was to gather succulent weeds and grasses for the tribe to eat.I think this early job was responsible for my interest in having dogs--I mean, it's very similar how I go about Washington, D.C. collecting roadkill and abandoned housecats for my dogs to feast upon.Just the other day I was able to capture an injured squirrel for my Pomeranian, PomPom P. Aames.PomPom really enjoyed the tasty, tender squirrel meat, although she did get some blood on my lovely white couch.I actually discovered a great upholstery cleaner as a result of this incident, but that is another review.

So anyway, I grew up a Hopi youth, clad in leather tunics made from the hides of the bison and dodo we hunted for sustenance.Ieventually left the reservation at the age of 21 for the big city.There I learned to read, write, and make frantic love to beings of all types.After leaving the lovely arid mesas of Arizona, I began to miss many things from my youth.I would remember the beautiful Native American women lolling about the reservation, the euphoric highs I got from chewing on peyote and other plants, and the occasional visits of Kevin Costner so that he could observe our way of life for his epic movie.When I found this book, Cloud Dance, I knew I had found a way to recapture my youth--my former self, Barks-With-The-Hounds Aames.

Cloud Dance
This is an absolutely beautiful book.I am an art teacher attempting to integrate the visual arts and science.This book came highly recommended by a school librarian and I am so grateful for her direction.I will definitely share the book with my students.

Cloud Dance
Thomas Locker creates an interesting way to learn about clouds in this beautifully illustrated book.As the reader turns the pages of this book, they encounter numerous types of clouds.The first illustration shows the many different sizes and shapes clouds can assume, from the light and wispy cirrus cloud to the puffy cumulus cloud.With each turn of the page, clouds are seen in different seasons and times of day, under various weather conditions.The illustrations are eye appealing oil paintings.As you view each picture, it is like you are standing on the ground and seeing the vast sky with the clouds creating a mosaic of lights, shapes, and colors.You can almost feel the rain hitting your face when you look at the painting depicting clouds in a rain storm.The painting of the clouds that "shimmer in the moonlight" gives the reader a sense of calm.Each painting in this book causes the reader to feel some emotion--from the suppressed anger of a developing thunderstorm to the warm peace of a sunset.At the end of the book the author includes factual information about clouds.The scientific names are given for all the clouds along with a description.Answers are also given for such questions as "How are clouds formed?" and "How high does the sky reach?"This book would be a good way to introduce a science unit on clouds and weather.The illustrations would stimulate a student's imagination and could be a starting point for them to begin thinking about what clouds look like at different times and in a variety of conditions.Cloud Dance would be a valuable addition to anyone's library. ... Read more

Product Description
THE CLOUD COLLECTOR'S HANDBOOK fits into the pocket, allowing cloudspotters to identify cloud formations anytime and anywhere. All the common cloud types are represented, as are many of the rare ones, each fully described and illustrated with a range of photographs. Not only is THE CLOUD COLLECTOR'S HANDBOOK an invaluable resource for anyone who wants to be able to identify and understand every cloud that floats by, it also caters for the competitive cloudspotter. Points are awarded for each cloud type identified -- the rarer the cloud, the greater points -- and there's space to fill in where and when it was sighted. Beautifully designed, in colour throughout, and full of the humour that made THE CLOUDSPOTTER'S GUIDE so engaging, the HANDBOOK is the essential reference for anyone with their head in the clouds. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

At last! Somewhere to put all those clouds
This little handbook is a great extension from the Cloud Spotter's Guide. It is compact and robust enough to cart around with you, and has the same wit and concise information that made our Founder's guide so enjoyable. It suggests that as you accumulate clouds, you can take photos of them, and link the notes to the photos. This will allow us to compete aggressively with other cloud spotters in amassing beautiful and exotic clouds. I have only just started, but I think this is going to turn me into a cloud connoisseur. The photo examples in the book are very clear, and it has an image index at the back to help you work out what has taken your fancy.
CAS Member No.: 15980

What a delight!
Who would have thought that you could get so much enjoyment out of a little book about clouds? I got this as a gift and am completely enchanted. I thought I already knew a lot about clouds but this book has taught me so much! In particular, I knew the major groups, but there are dozens of cloud varieties that I am learning to recognize. Fun fun fun!

great book for cloud lovers
this is a great book for cloud enthusiasts it gives you basic knowledge of clouds and helps you understand how the become such beautiful images

Excellent little book!
Great little book (fits in your coat pocket!). Well written with nice explanations and a great sense of fun and humor, as anyone looking in the clouds would probably appreciate.I like that there is a spot where you can jot down an image file name for each type of cloud if you take a picture of one.Now, go buy this book and start collecting clouds!

The Cloud Collector's Handbook
I was looking for a way to connect with my 10 yr old grandson.This book
has been just the thing.We have been able to use the book to gain points as
we "collect" different types and formations of clouds.We compare notes and meet
at McDonalds to discuss and see what we have collected. I have learned alot about
clouds and have come to appriciate them more.The book is well written and the
pictures are great.There is even a "cloud" web site to go to.Share a cloud
with your children or grandchildren.It's fun!! ... Read more

Product Description

Product Description

Cloud Computing: Implementation, Management, and Security provides an understanding of what cloud computing really means, explores how disruptive it may become in the future, and examines its advantages and disadvantages. It gives business executives the knowledge necessary to make informed, educated decisions regarding cloud initiatives.

The authors first discuss the evolution of computing from a historical perspective, focusing primarily on advances that led to the development of cloud computing. They then survey some of the critical components that are necessary to make the cloud computing paradigm feasible. They also present various standards based on the use and implementation issues surrounding cloud computing and describe the infrastructure management that is maintained by cloud computing service providers. After addressing significant legal and philosophical issues, the book concludes with a hard look at successful cloud computing vendors.

Helping to overcome the lack of understanding currently preventing even faster adoption of cloud computing, this book arms readers with guidance essential to make smart, strategic decisions on cloud initiatives.

Product Description

What seems like just a common, no-harm-done excuse-"It's not my fault!"-is often a dangerous trap, say Drs. Henry Cloud and John Townsend, because people don't recognize what the blaming mindset does to them. It not only keeps them from overcoming the effects of all that they can't control-like other people, circumstances and genetics-but separates them from a solution. And when they give away the ownership of their life, they end up losing the one opportunity they have to fulfill their dreams and enjoy God's best.

Using eight principles, a variety of true stories and their years of experience as professional psychologists, Cloud and Townsend enlighten readers on how to make empowering choices-and how to build the life they want to live. It may seem impossible but it's true: taking personal responsibility is not only liberating, it is the best-and perhaps the only-way for a person to get what they really want out of life.

Customer Reviews (6)

Great Title!
The title sucks you in only to be challenged to in fact, accept your part or fault in any given situation.Actually, all of America needs the contents of this book to be taught so everyone will stop blaming others or situations and instead take responsibility.What a different society we would have!Reading this book has challenged me to step out and take a risk in an area that I enjoy and could also make money which I need since I am without a job.Sometimes we all need a good kick in the pants!Also good to see this perspective from a godly point of view!For those who are seeking to please God, this book shows how taking responsibility IS God's will and He will bless you for taking this step.Learning to accept responsibility isn't always easy, but the rewards for yourself are worth it!It gives you your power that God meant for all of us to have!Thanks for writing this book, Cloud and Townsend!

common sense
this book is just full of common sense that many of us overlook in our daily lives.
i have passed this book on to several friends and family members and all of them agree with me that this is a good book for everyone to read.get a copy.

Do you want it to be different?
This book will help make things different in one's life. It helps you to see where you fit with others and how to navigate through the hard times. It does not let you off the hook though, but rather helps us to see our role in how things have flowed in our lives and how to make the necessary changes. It is a book that needs to be digested over time and not one sitting.

It Certainly IS Your Fault!
In doing research for a book about Biblical Community Life, I purchased this tome as a reference in regard to a group dynamic that would keep believers focused on a discipleship model of becoming accountable. After all, the title led me to believe that the authors would convince me I'm personally responsible for my behavior. I should have known better. As a recovering psychiatric professional, I had become "burned out" over the unremitting emphasis in psychiatric and psychological circles about only one truth -- me, me, me. I expected that a "Christian" book about personal responsibility (about which I wrongly thought this thesis was directed) would help redirect any inertia in a self-centered plane in a new direction. Sigh... I'm sad to say that the good psychologists were very short on Biblical foundations, and big on personal opinion that waxed on and on the in the usual patient-centered narcissism found in most psychobabble related writings. For instance, on page 139 the authors claim that my financial goals should be directed at first paying myself each month, whereas a Biblical approach would first have me paying the Creator his 10%+ out of my gross earnings. And on it goes with the worn-out, TV evangelist-like themes of reaching my goals, making my dreams real, and other shop-worn mottos bandied over the airwaves of the so-called "name and claim it" faith crowd.

True Biblical counseling, as taught by Jay Adams and others who are faithful to their roots in Holy Writ, never stops beating on the G-dly themes of loving G-d and loving my neighbor...first. Even after years of revolution in Christian publishing with the production of untold essays teaching the Biblical priorities of G-d first, family second, and all others third, Townsend and Cloud have failed to even remind us how our families are involved in reaching for our dreams.

"It's Not My Fault" is incorrectly classified under the Christian label on the bookstore shelf. It would be better marketed as a manager's tool for reaching financial success and one's personal objectives in the climb up the corporate ladder. This book is about self and selfishness. The accountability to one's mentors is not taught as one tool of sanctification to help me reach higher in levels of holiness. This is a pop psychology thesis wholly (not "holy") directed toward the usual overriding theme of what I want for me, now.

Very sad.

Solves the Problem!
I don't think I realized I was making excuses.After all, I had many VALID REASONS for my poor performance in many areas.But this book helped me immensely to understand that even when I have valid reasons (and sometimes invalid ones) there is still only one way to solve the problem, and that is to tackle it head on.This book gave me lots of useful, easy to understand tools for overcoming long-standing difficulties.Since I read the book last February, I've lost 25 pounds, improved my career, my parenting, and have begun making progress in many other areas which have proven difficult for me for years.I love this book and actually, I've already read it three times! ... Read more

Product Description
Once in a great while a new novelist comes along who dazzles us with rare eloquence and humanity, with flawless storytelling and a unique understanding of another place and time. Takashi Matsuoka is just such a writer.

His magnificent new novel, set amid the violence and beauty of nineteenth-century Japan, takes us beyond the epic tradition of James Clavell’s Shogun and into a majestic realm of samurai and geishas, ninjas and Zen masters. Brilliantly imagined, gloriously written, Cloud of Sparrows is at once a sweeping historical adventure and a love story of almost unbearable poignancy. It is storytelling on the grand scale from a novelist of astounding depth and grace.

Cloud of Sparrows

It is the dawn of the New Year, 1861. After two centuries of isolation, Japan has been forced to open its doors to the West, igniting a clash of cultures and generations. And as foreign ships threaten to rain destruction on the Shogun’s castle in Edo, a small group of American missionaries has chosen this time to spread the word of their God. Among them, Emily Gibson, a woman seeking redemption from a tormented past, and Matthew Stark, a cold-eyed killer with one more death on his mind.

Neither realizes that their future in Japan has already been foreseen. For a young nobleman, Lord Genji, has dreamt that his life will be saved by an outsider in the New Year. Widely reviled as a dilettante, Lord Genji has one weapon with which to inspire awe. In his family, one in every generation is said to have the gift of prophecy. And what Lord Genji sees has struck fear in many around him. As the Shogun’s secret police chief plots Genji’s death--and the utter destruction of his entire clan--the young and untried lord must prove that he is more than the handsome womanizer of legend, famed lover of Edo’s most celebrated geisha, Lady Heiko, and that his prophetic powers are no mere fairy tale.

Forced to escape from Edo and flee to his ancestral stronghold, the spectacular Cloud of Sparrows Castle, Genji joins his fate with Emily and Stark, unaware of the dark forces that drive them. Together with Genji’s uncle, Lord Shigeru, a legendary swordsman knee-deep in the blood of his own kin, and the enigmatic Lady Heiko, the unlikely band embarks on a harrowing journey through a landscape bristling with danger--to prepare for a final battle.

Here, on a snowscape stained with blood, horror will mix with wonder, secrets will unravel, and love will duel with vengeance--as East and West, flesh and spirit, past and future, collide in ways no one--least of all Genji--could have imagined.


From the Hardcover edition.Amazon.com Review
Following in the substantial footsteps of filmmaker Akiro Kurosawa and Shogun author JamesClavell is Takashi Matsuoka, whose action-packed debut novel, Cloud ofSparrows, unfolds as the age of the samurai warrior starts to wane. Theyear is 1861, and Lord Genji of Akaoka, last in line of the Okamichi clan,welcomes missionaries Emily, Matthew, and Zephaniah to Japan. Cut off fromthe West for more than 2,000 years, Japan is as completely unprepared forthese outsiders as the missionaries are for geishas and honor killings.Genji, his geisha love Heiko, and the missionaries suddenly find themselvesin the middle of several nefarious plots to overthrow the Okamichi leader from as far away as the shogun's palace and as close as Genji's ownhenchmen. Genji and his visitors journey together across treacherous terrainto seek refuge at the faraway Cloud of Sparrows palace. Although it's arip-roaring yarn full of ambushes, swordfights, cross-cultural friction, love, and prophetic visions, the book does read a bit like a screenplay, cutting quickly from one scene to another. But the frequent shifts in the story's tempo succeed in making the novel all the more vivid, allowing simultaneous action and contemplation to deepen the story and its inhabitants. --Emily Russin ... Read more

Customer Reviews (101)

So bad, not even worth a more detailed review
I cannot believe how bad this book was!It is poorly written, and the characters are so... uninteresting. I could not care less about them; the story, and the protagonists, simply failed to engage me, at any level. I read more than 100- 150 fiction books a year, and I know I cannot expect to find, even if I am lucky, more than 20 or perhaps 25% outstanding novels in that pile. Many other books are good and adequate, and may provide an interesting, even excellent, read. I know some books are not going to be so good, and that a few are not going to be worth the time needed to read them. This one, unfortunately, is at the very bottom of the undesirable pile, or at the far (bad) end of the tail of the statistical distribution.Save yourself a big disappointment--never mind the money! Life is too short to waste it reading this.

No, this author does not know Japan
I hate to bring up the author's nationality, but it seems many people have assumed wrongly because of the author's name.He's American, not Japanese.And this book is not actually about historical Japan during its Edo Period. It's about an imaginery samurai-and-geisha Japan that seems to have evolved out of years and years of ill-informed fiction.You could say it's to Edo Period Japan as a spaghetti Western is to the real American West.Based on things learned from movies, which were themselves not too true to fact.

Spaghetti Westerns can be a lot of fun, though.Who cares if they're authentic to history or not?Unfortunately, to me this book didn't that same kind of charm.The characters-- especially the American ones-- seemed like stock, cut-out characters.I got the feeling I'd seen them before.Then I realized-- I'd seen them before on TV or in made-for-TV Westerns!Not just the characters themselves, but their histories, backgrounds and situations.The Japanese characters were a little better, and I think the author did a good job the with geisha one.But the rest of them just don't interact with each other right.The way the samurai lord and his retainers speak to each other is just way off-base.This was a tough book for me to finish.

Cloud of Sparrows & Bridge of Autumn
I had finished Dorothy Dunnett's Lymond Chronicles and the Nicolo's series
and didn't think there was anything else I would ever enjoy as much.
Well I was wrong, The Cloud of Sparrows and Bridge of Autumn are truly a great
epic read.To me a good story teller has things to tell you that you never could have imagined, Takashi Matsuoki is that great storyteller.He never ceases to
surprise you.Wish there was a third book but the story is really over.

Great Great great!!!
great story line and great action. Good humour too. Seems so real. Some of the scences are pretty violent though. I like how it goes from scene to scene and the flashbacks and all. I liked it so much I had to read it all over agin after putting it down.

Not the usual brain candy
I read to escape.This book will take you to Japan at the end of its shogun period and making the transition to "modernity."A good clarification of Asian culture interwoven with some incredible characters.worth the time.as is its sequel Autumn Bridge ... Read more

Product Description
Memorable and thoroughly understandable science lessons, liberally sprinkled with humor, will fascinate beginning physics students as well as general readers in such fascinating chapters as “On a Clear Day You Can’t See Forever,” “Physics on a Manure Heap,” “A Murder in Ceylon,” and “Multiple Scattering at the Breakfast Table. “[The book] rings with a unifying tone: the science of the everyday physical world is fun. And so is this book.”—Jearl Walker, Physics Department, Cleveland State University.
... Read more

Customer Reviews (8)

Fascinating read for every science enthusiast
Craig F. Bohren writes science books with a delight that is infectious. There are few books like this where science and education are turned into an entertaining commentary. Bohren shows us that the things we see normally, in our day to day life, contain the science truths which can be used to teach concepts, useful for understanding and solving more complex problems.

The book is an amazing survey of simple experiments that can be done to understand the concepts relevant to the cloud physics and atmospheric phenomena. A fascinating introduction to formation of clouds, including role of salt particles in nucleation, relies on carefully observing the bubbles formed in a glass of beer. Surface tension is introduced by example of dew formed on bath mirror. Concepts related to evaporative cooling or mixing clouds or relative humidity, come with a baggage of simple experiments that debunk scientific myths and illustrate essential physics. A textbook on Atmospheric Thermodynamics, published by the same author, is an entertaining and more course friendly account of the same ideas. The science of clouds by Tricker is an equally delightful text on classroom demonstrations and cloud physics inherent in simple observations.

Bohren tackles many concepts of light scattering which are quite difficult to grasp initially or say teach to young students, in a brilliant series of examples about what we observe in our daily life. Be it a discussion about "blue moon" or colors of sea or rainbows, Bohren takes the essential ideas and expresses them with his characteristic wit and brilliance. He supplies you with a tangible set of experiments to illustrate the concepts further. Bohren's treatise on Absorption and Scattering of Light by Small Particles (coauthored with Huffman) is most definitely the resource for looking at detailed physics and mathematics associated with scattering. The classic text by van de Hulst "Light Scattering by Small Particles" is a useful supplement for those interested in theory of small particle scattering.

Bohren has written another book titled: "What Light through Yonder Window Breaks" with some more hand-on experiments about Atmospheric Physics."Clouds in the Glass of Beer" and its sequel are two books that every atmospheric physics student must read and own. The books are throughly enjoyable for anyone even remotely interested in everyday science. No equations involved! No education beyond high school required! Only for fun loving scientists, who believe that true understanding comes when a difficult concept can be explained by simple analogies and in simple language. Highly recommended.

What I Learned About Atmosperic Physics
The book, Clouds in a Glass of Beer, Simple Experiments in Atmospheric Physics by Craig Bohren is a very in depth read for a very avid reader or scientist. This book is split up into twenty-two chapters about atmospheric science. A few examples about some of the chapters included in this book are; the explanation of the mystery of the elusive blue moon, why black clouds form, and the fantastic phenomenon that is the rainbow and many other different details. One of the chapters I really enjoyed reading about was chapter three, which talked about the mechanics and utilization of the sippy duck. Before reading this book, I had no understanding of these ducks and how they work. But now I know pretty much everything there is to know about them. In another chapter later on, Bohren conducts yet another experiment about the misinterpretation of the laws of pressure. What he does is place a can in a shallow pan of water, and then adds hot water inside the can.For this experiment to be successful, the can should cave inward and contract. The main reason why I enjoyed this chapter is because the experiment took no skill or much time at all, and it was an interesting way to explain atmospheric pressure. Other than the well planned put chapters in this book, there was one that went into way too much detail about explaining the greenhouse effect. I do agree that it was highly detailed fact wise but he just went a little much into detail. One segment of the book I really enjoyed was when he talked about the rare occurrences of either a blue moon, or the green flash. It really excited me to get up and actually try to see one of these one day. If you like rare occurrences, than you'll love this book. Overall, Bohren is a very in depth writer and people who enjoy physics will benefit from reading this book.

A very interesting book
Clouds in a Glass of Beer is not a book for everyone.If you do not have a vast understanding of atmospheric science and physics, you will not enjoy reading this book.In essence, this book is 22 different experiments with an explanation on how each experiment works.If you do find enjoyment in reading about the atmosphere, however, you will enjoy this book.
The first experiment is, as you probably guessed, why clouds form in a glass of beer when salt is added.The passage goes on to explain why and how the clouds form, why a cloud comes out of a freshly opened bottle of beer, and the behavior of the bubbles.It is interesting to see all of the scientific forces behind this action, even though it may become hard to understand at times.
The next experiment is how to make a cloud form in a bottle.This is done by filling the bottom with water and a tube, sucking a little bit of the air out through the tube, letting some smoke in, blowing air into the jar, putting your finger on the end and releasing it quickly.If the bottle is painted black, the cloud should be easier to see.
One experiment I found very entertaining was how to keep fog from forming on a mirror.It consisted of smearing an extremely small amount of dish washing detergent on the glass and trying to fog the mirror to proved that it worked.The soap forces all the fog droplets to create a thin layer of water.
Many of the experiments in this book are quite interesting.This book answers why a rainbow could form in the winter, the requirements for a blue moon, and why you can't see forever on a clear day.If you have a great understanding of science, this book will, without a doubt, amuse you.

Something for (almost) everyone
Craig Bohren is a first-rate atmospheric scientist with an unusual knack for being able to explain difficult concepts to general audiences.Sure, some of the explanations can get complicated so most readers will have to pause and think or reread sections occasionally to understand.However, Dr. Bohren uses figures and analogies rather than equations to explain physical processes.The book does not assume any particular scientific background and should be accessible to almost anyone willing to put in a little bit of mental effort.The book is less than 200 pages so the effort feels like a pleasant jog rather than a marathon.What's more, the author's fascination with the world around him and mostly interesting anecdotes inspire and entice the reader all the way.The author manages to do all this without dumbing down the science in any way.The subtitle suggests that the main purpose of the book is to provide educators with handy demonstrations of atmospheric physics.While the book certainly does this, it is not a recipe book in any sense.What one sees during the demonstrations is described well enough that the reader does not actually need to do them to follow what is going on.Moreover, the underlying science is well described and related to things most people see regularly in the sky around them.I have no plans to assemble these demonstrations but enjoyed the book immensely nonetheless.I am sure many others with an interest in the atmosphere will as well.

[The following autobiographical information is to help you evaluate this review.I hold a Ph.D. in chemical engineering, having done my thesis work on some issues regarding airborne particulate matter.I am an assistant professor in environmental engineering at a major US research university, where I teach and regularly publish peer-reviewed research papers on air pollution.While I do not claim to be as expert as Dr. Bohren on the topic of atmospheric optics (few people can), I feel qualified to evaluate this book both technically and otherwise.]

Quite fun, and clever
This is not a chummy kitchen science experiment book.The science is serious and some principles obtuse.I studied this sort of thing in college and found some of it tough going, though I do think I came away with a lucid understanding for the effort.

The author rambles a bit, mixing exposition and reminisces.This is not a terrible thing, but may not be what you expect.Some of the experiments are elegant and clever, and impressed my 6 year-old considerably.The author's bent is towards optical phenomena, such as why the sky is blue, more than the meteorological, though there's plenty in there.

A fun and interesting book in a conversational and sometimes amusing format.And yes, I finally can explain why the sky is blue. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

How the salmon got the way they are -- a biography.
Mountain in the Clouds: a search for the Wild Salmon
ByBruce Brown

This book touched me.I don't read much non-fiction, and what I do read is usually skills-based How-To stuff about carpentry or plumbing or growing mushrooms.This book though, being non-fiction affected me to a surprising degree, and I know exactly why: location, location, location.

A book like this can touch me precisely because it and I share a common experience.I've seen salmon jumping in the Dungeness; I've been to the campground on the Fork of that river.I've tasted wild Chinook and Chum and I can tell the difference.I've seen the stripes on a mating chum in its Redd, and smelled their dead bodies lining a stream channel in autumn.So, this is a book about my experience of Salmon as much as it was the author's - and because of that it was entirely poignant, touching upon the experiences of my life and things that were significant to me.That's what got me.

But if it weren't for that - I suspect that the compelling yet fact-filled tone of the author would have done it just as well.A pioneering novel in the genre of "ecological history," he strikes the delicate balance, so precarious that most of the time you're poised on the front of your seat expecting to find out that all the salmon are dead and you just haven't heard about it yet.Yet, woven in with these truthful accounts of the state of affairs of the plight of modern fish are settings if great beauty, people who are good folks, and experiences of such great meaning that reading through them you could swear afterward that that had happened to you too; rather than just having read it in a book.The author's gift here is very apparent, and his creation is artful, inspiring, education yet provocative and beautiful: if only because he is able to give an accurate portrait of something that I find to be one of the most gorgeous (and delicious) parts of nature in my neck of the woods.

If you haven't seen a salmon in Washington: this book will bring you here.If you have seen them, or have seen them your whole life: this book will bring you much, much more. There isn't anyone I know of who couldn't or shouldn't read this book - if only because it brings them a little closer to the Olympic peninsula and in doing so that much closer to me, and my heart, which was always here and probably always will be.

The book did make me want to go out and slap everyone involved in Washington Fisheries before 1985, slap the fisherman and the gill-netters, slap the moneyed lobbies and the trollers and the loggers and the dam-builders and the pulp mills.I'd slap the people too - just for not doing anything about it if they did know about it; and slap them twice if they didn't.I wouldn't slap the Indians - they got screwed over just as much as the salmon; and I wouldn't slap the salmon themselves - if the river dries up or they're eaten, how could you blame them for that?

The salmon don't depend on us; this book opened up the raw world of hatchery fish in a way I hadn't even been aware a controversy existed before.Being a scientist, I tested some of my own theories and found that they held up under scrutiny, so I can say: Yes, salmon hatcheries are bad for salmon.If you want to restore salmon, tear down every hatchery in existence right now.And its not even like they had nobody out there doing different things: the Canadians scrapped their hatcheries decades ago and have stronger runs because of it.Why do we have to keep doing the same wrong thing over and over again?

Part of me wants to think that its because our culture can't stand a freeloader: and if you're fishing the stream, and doing so keeps you from having to join the money-economy, that isn't tolerable.And anything that generates money is more important than everything that doesn't.Even though you can measure an industry based on the number of salmon it kills: to most people, that doesn't matter as much as the number of jobs it creates.

We're selling our souls to buy lipstick and blush - starving our hearts for the sake of fingernail polish.And in a week, all that pretty will be gone and we'll have to deal with the stark reality that our culture has just whored itself out for nothing, and nothing is exactly what we'll have left.Maybe this is how we're going to go, maybe this is our society's way of committing suicide.But why do we have to take the whole world with us?

"We're going to ride this bike until the wheels fall off."

... and they will; and the salmon will be a legend like the wolf or the grizzly bear or the mammoth, and eventually we'll forget them entirely, and never know that once there was a different way of being which wasn't toxic to the world or to ourselves.

... And yes, that emptiness in your heart day in and day out IS because something really is missing; and you won't find it in stuff, or other distractions, or even religion (which is to real meaning as fool's gold is to true wealth).But then again, who care's right?`till the wheels fall off indeed.

Dominic Ebacher
ebacherdom.blogspot.com
071101.1234

Wild Salmon of the Northwest
Experience wild salmon leaping up the wild rivers of the Northwest.In western Washington, salmon still return from the ocean to spawn deep within the Olympic Mountains. This book is a classic on conservation and wildlife. Pre-dating the current concern for salmonids as an endangered species, Brown engages the reader in the unique environment of the temperate rainforest of the Olympic Pennisula. He describes the people and the fish that are the central players in this life and death drama. ... Read more

Product Description
A positive Christian alternative to the bestselling The Secret, this book reveals the "secret things of God" -- secrets about God, about happiness, about relationships, and about your purpose. These tested spiritual truths reveal principles that make life work.

With millions of copies of The Secret in print, countless readers are left wondering how its teachings fi t with the truths found in Scripture. Though many teachings in The Secret may have shocked those of the Christian faith, believers have also been reminded of the deep spiritual hunger that exists in all of us -- the desire for a power beyond the human to work change in our individual lives.

Even Christians who know and claim biblical truths often don't know how to use them. Author Dr. Henry Cloud shows readers how to unlock the treasure of these truths and ignite their power in their lives.

There is, indeed, a powerful attraction at work in the universe, but rather than being between an impersonal universe and our own thoughts, this attraction is between the personal Creator of the universe and the creation he loves. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (24)

Great book
This book is full of great information.It is a real blessing.I keep giving my copy away and buying another one.

Life Changing
This is a great book.Easy to read and understand.This book braught me peace.All my relationships improved 100%, especially at home.This is one of my favorite books to give to friends and family.

Continue the Journey of Discovering "The Secrets"
"The Secret Things of God," is a very pleasant surprise in both content and presentation.Dr. Henry Cloud definitely knows what he is talking about and does an excellent job accomplishing his objective of comparison between the subject matter presented in Rhonda Byrne's "The Secret," and the relationship to Judeo-Christian beliefs.

I found this book quite by accident in constantly hitting the "Recommended" button.The book is in paperback, consisting of eight primary sections, encompassing 215 pages.Oh!The pages!WOW!I've never seen such uniquely designed partridge paper type, individually embossed type of pages before.They simply made the book more impressive in presentation.Dr. Cloud's liberal use of very appropriate Bible versus supporting his observations and analysis lent great value to his comparison.

This is NOT a boring book by any stretch of the imagination.I believe all who take the time to experience this quick read will enjoy and benefit.Of course, reading "The Secret" before hand will pretty much be a given in order to appreciate this book.

I highly recommend this book as I received a great deal of insight, revelation, and enjoyment within the first 31 pages alone.The rest of the book held true.I believe you too will agree with me after enjoying the experience.

Excellent Product and Service
Product as described and service was excellent
will purchase again from this company.
Thank you
M Haynes

Seeking the Treasures in the Bible for Your Life
This book seems to be the religious version of "The secret". It does supports some of the statements made in the book called "The Secret" such as "what you think is what you become". On the contrary, the author (Cloud) vividly disagrees with the notion made in the book called the "The Secret" that the universe respond based on the frequency (i.e. your thoughts)you emits. I believe that Cloud brings to light with extensive ontological truths the Bible promises since the world began. If you want to succeed in life, this book is a great book. I strongly encourage all to read this inspiring book. ... Read more

Product Description
Fairyland is home to the seven Weather Fairies!With the help of Doodle the rooster and his magical feathers, they bring all of the weather to Fairyland.But when evil Jack Frost and his goblins steal the feathers, the weather turns wacky.It's up to the Weather Fairies to fix it -- fast!When everyone in Wetherbury becomes gloomy, Rachel and Kirsty think the cloud feather might be to blame.Can Pearl the Cloud Fairy help the girls find it?Or is Pearl down in the dumps, too?Find one feather in each book and fix the weather in Fairyland! ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

First grader's first chapter book
Daughter was given one of the Rainbow Magic Fairies books in her class book club toward the end of first grade, and it is the first chapter book she was fascinated by and was motivated to read all the way through. She wanted more of the Rainbow Fairy books so got several.They are cookie cutter similar to each other and hardly great literature, but since it was the first chapter book she was attracted to, I gave it four stars for that.

Good series for younger readers...and very, very, very girly
This is the second series of "Rainbow Magic" fairy books written by Daisy Meadows, picking up where the seven-part Rainbow Fairies series left off.These books are innocent and engaging, focusing on two young girls, Kirsty and Rachel, who meet while on vacation with their parents, and are drawn into the magical world of the fairies, who are in conflict with the mischievous Jack Frost. The structure of this series is nearly identical to the first: the girls are given a quest in which they must help seven fairies (each with sparkles aplenty and cute, super-girly outfits and princess-y names such as Hayley, Heather, Iris, Amber and Iris... ) who have been bothered by Jack and his goblin helpers. In each book they complete one part of the quest and meet one new fairy.

It is important to know going in that these books are interconnected -- each individual volume ties in with the others, so you will want to start with book #1, then go on to #2, etc. The plots are not very complicated, but they do make reference to each other, and the idea is to read them all together.

The other thing to know is that these books are not very scary or troubling - there is action, but no violence and not much real danger (the goblins are easily beaten, and not very frightening) so if you are looking for longer narratives for young kids to read, but don't want anything disturbing, this series is good option. One criticism is that the books are pretty WASP-y, and while a couple of the fairies might be seen as Asian, basically the entire series takes place in an all-white, middle-class world, populated with thin, blonde girls and a few brunettes. Other than that, though, this is a good series for families looking for light, engaging, age-appropriate stories. (ReadThatAgain children's book reviews)

First book my daugther was excited to read on her own!!!
My daughter never really wanted to read on her own much at all. She read this book from cover-to-cover in a short time. She cannot wait to read the rest of them, and is so proud of herself!This is a great series for girls who are early readers!

Got My Daughter Interested in Reading Again
We've been struggling for a way to get my daughter to read now that she's run out of Junie B. Jones books. The Weather Fairies books have done the trick.She seems to enjoy reading again for the first time in half a year or more.

I have to say I haven't read any of the Weather Fairies myself but I caught my twelve-year-old son reading the series because his sister had obviously liked it.He said he wanted to read more, too.

pearl the cloud fairy
great imaginative series with descriptive words that my little girl loved.it can get a bit repetitive as they repeat the main premise in each book of the group in case someone hasnt read the last one...
all in all, she couldnt wait for the next fairy book to come out!

hits all the right buttons. ... Read more

Product Description
This is a straightforward look at problems families face and their human consequences. It will help you understand the influences and interrelationships that can lead your family on a path of pain. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (9)

Help for those who grew up in a less than perfect home.
I don't know of too many people who grew up in a family where all was well.It's one thing to say "put it behind you", but that's easier said than done.This book helps to identify the problems, name them, and deal with them in a way that is effective.You can't choose your family, but you can learn to deal with them in a more effective manner!

Very good for ministers and missionaries
I sat by one of the authors, Alice Brawand, on a plane, and she was such a facinating lady that I looked her up when I got home. She had worked in Guatamala as a linguist with the Rabinal-Achi' people for about 12 years translating the Bible into their language, along with her husband John. She is the daughter and wife of a minister, as well as a veteran of the mission field. She also has a Master's in Social Work and Counseling, I believe. The book was very eye-opening and helpful.

Secrets of Your Family Tree: Healing for Adult Children of Dysfunctional Families
Everyone will benefit from this book, but especially those involved in helping professions.Not only can you use it in your work, but it will help you see why YOU tick like you do!Written from a Christian perspective with Biblical examples.

Very Informative!
I found this book very helpful, explaining how things went wrong within the family, and
steps to take to heal and move forward.

You will find your famly in the book!
There is little doubt that most people will recognize their own families in this book since no family is perfect and most are truly dysfunctional to some degree. This book has a good spiritual approach to looking at family life.

I use it as a part-time minister to give me insights on famlies and their issues. I think everyone can get something of great value out of reading this book. I highly recommend it along with the whole series of books offered as a part of the Minirth-Meier Healing series. ... Read more