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Of the dozens of books and videos I have read and viewed, there is no better discussion on the mathematics and subsequent use of the diamonds. Very few authors even touch on this subject. Mr. Hoppe also explains in detail the use of caroms, english and how to determine the path of cue and object balls after they make contact with each other. All guess work is removed because Mr. Hoppe uses scientific principles in his discussion of this grand old game.

On another note, I found this book in a small bookstore in a small town fifteen or more years ago. I lost this book ten years ago and have not been able to find it anywhere. I now know that it is out of print.

Willie Hoppe provides you with everything needed by dedicated person to become competitive in 3-cushion billiards play. He begins his book with the proper selection of a cue stick for playing billiards, then for thirty pages of text, detailed diagrams, and clear photographs, takes you through the fundamentals (stance, balance point of the cue, bridge, cueing the ball, stroke, english, and speed). The next twenty pages introduce you to the carom (natural, follow, and draw) and the use of the rails in cushion caroms and straight rail billiards. The second half of the book is dedicated to the game of 3-cushion billiards. In it Mr. Hoppe outlines the key shots of the game, misunderstood shots, and finally the science of the game. He discusses why english curves the path of the ball, the effect of the nap of the cloth on the table, the effective size of the target, long and short rolls, and the various diamond systems. His explanation of these systems alone is worth the price of the book. It is complete, detailed, and, most important, clear. In all, this book is exceptionally dense with information. Even after twenty years of use, each time I come back to this book, I gain a greater understanding of the game. It combines clarity of description with 95 well though out diagrams and thirty-seven black and white photographs. All in all, it is one of the best explanations of the royal game to ever have been published. Players of all levels of experience and skill will find something of value, and most will find enough to keep them learning and improving their game for many years. If you have the dedication of purpose to work your way through his approach to learning billiards, you too can become a Player (with a capital "P") using this book alone. As Willie Hoppe says in his forward to this book "You or anyone else who reads these instructions can become a good billiard player beyond the shadow of a doubt -- if you follow them." I agree, and I think you will too.

I've read all eight books in the "As Dreamed by Itsy" series to my 5 and 7 year olds. They're wonderful, all eight of them, so when you look at the others, you'll find this same review for all eight.

My kids loved them and wanted to hear them over an over. I noticed that with each reading, they comprehended a little more about the story. Even the first reading they loved and picked up a lot of information from, but they were so interested in the story to pay much attention to the concepts. After all, they didn't view the story as a lesson in science. On later readings they showed a great deal of interest and even awe at that the world really operates in such ways.

And me - I'm not a scientist, am even afraid of science, but this was easy. I picked up more from these stories than I learned in high school. Of course the kids asked questions I couldn't answer (but not too many), but they ask such questions every time we go to the park or the supermarket. I just passed off their questions in the usual way. Now when I someone says something about the Big Bang Theory, molecules or such, I feel well enough informed that I no longer quickly change the subject.

I recommend the books and hope the publisher adds more titles soon.

Most important - my six year old daughter liked it, wanted to hear it over and over. After twice through she could make the facial expressions to count from one to sixteen. Would that she could have learned base 10 numbers this quickly.

The book doesn't go into things like adding binary numbers - that would be too much. However, it did provide a basis so I'm going to use binaries to explain carrying when adding numbers. Binary numbers are so simple, she will be able to understand what carrying is all about.

At the level she is now, the book provided her with the concepts she needed to see how we build up larger and larger numbers. A couple of days ago she came to me and showed me how she could keep writing larger and larger ordinary numbers, to thousands, millions, billions . . . I'm sure it was hearing this book that let her figure it out.

If you never heard of binary numbers, your kid will enjoy it and you'll learn something too. If you know binary numbers, the book provides a foundation for you to expand upon. Either way, I recommend it.

Scholars should give this book an A+ for breadth of coverage and depth of analysis . . . but as a lay person in the field of academe, I celebrate its honesty and passion. While the chapters are uneven, each portrays a working writer who, for one reason or another, claims her Appalachian heritage as foundational in her life. By connecting with the rootedness of these widely-varying women, my own life --and spirit-- are immensely enriched. This book adds a unique perspective to the "spirituality of place" genre that includes such popular writers as Kathleen Norris and Thomas Berry. Take a chance -- read it! If it touches you as it did me, it may change your life.

It's amazing how much work the women in this collection have done, with so little national recognition. Dyer points out that none of them is represented in the new revision of "The Norton Anthology of Literature by Women," for example. Prejudices about Appalachia have prevented many readers from realizing what a gold mine (coal mine?) of literature the region offers. Hats off to Joyce Dyer for helping to bring this literature to the prominence it deserves. P.S. Also a very valuable read for anyone interested in writers and where writing comes from.

I found this to be one of the most informative books I have ever read on country blues, breaking it down by regions of the south and containing many in-depth biographies of several seminal blues artists. Essential.

Read this along with Robert Palmer's "Deep Blues" for a great overall perspective on blues music and its history. Informative and interesting for any music lover.

"The Case of Nora" is titled, or subtitled, in some languages "A Journey in the Jungle of the Brain". In fact, this book, modest in its dimensions, allows us to take a tiny little but invaluable journey into Feldenkrais' brain, so to say. For anyone interested in how this unusual man was thinking, it is a rare pearl among the Master's books. The text is so condensed that if you want to highlight key sentences you better get yourself a couple of markers, because you are going to highlight almost everything. Poor me, trying to review it: those of you who have read my other reviews of Moshe's books know that I try to reflect the uniqueness of each book mainly by quoting. Thus I hope my reader can get a substatial hint of what the book is about. But here - two thirds of the text are worthy of quotation in a review, so were to begin? Alas, I have aready wasted too much space in this foreword... I hurry to the (Hebrew) text. The following will be almost as good as quoting (while translating), but of course I hope you will go to the origin. Moshe's own text is soooo beautiful.

The most important kind of learning is that in which quantity becomes a new quality... Often we even don't notice this kind of learning... As if without purpose... and suddenly a new form of activity emerges as if out of nowhere... Repeating and learning by rote, preaching, reward and punishment are of no use...

While waiting [some days or weeks] I thought about her [his client] a great deal, as I always do with my clients... I have no stereotype technique... Is is contrary to the principles of my theory... I gradually explore all the body functions. Structure and function are tightly connected... I imagine the nervous systems involved. I imagine a part of the body sending a stream of liquids, sometimes electrical sometimes chemical. After many transformations it ends in muscular action which results in an observable action. When my imaginary picture of the flow is stuck in one point... I ask myself: is it diffusion? Soft obstacle? Deviation? Loss of swing? Break in the continuity? Or perhaps one of the transformations was disabled?

Try to put on your shoes in every impossible way and you will be surprised to find out how unlikely is a success by chance is... How wonderful and complex is our usual way of action.... Have you asked yourselves why relaxation and reducing tention were needed prior to this kind of instruction? What is simple and well known is not always easy to understand...

In the enabling the adult's learning process it is crucial to guess the age into which the client regressed. Growth means order. It is impossible to reverse this natural order. Had I not learned to perceive minute changes I would not have beeen able to endure the endless repetitions required in instruction.

Spacial Orientation is an abtract concept and as such I can not treat it. I don't know how to correct the function "Spacial Orientation" but I do know how to help a person distinguish between right and left.

As long as people [who were unable to perform a certain action for many years] are not able to do it at home at their own initiative they do not feel that they have "recovered". Recovery is the reversal to the exact state to the state of functioning which satisfied her before the traum. But life is a process, indeed - a process which can not be reversed. Improvement, unlike recovery, is knowledge acquired by us and which allows us freedom of choice, the main and special privilege of 'homo sapiens'.

THIS, I THINK, CAN GIVE YOU a hint of the nature of this book. Sometimes when reading his books it seems to me that Moshe was so overloaded with multidimensional thinking, that he had a sense of needing to compromise painfully in order to unfold his ideas on the flat dimension of a written text. In this unique book he seems to opt for a practical solution of the dilemma: he presents an introspection of a completed process, and sort of recaptures his own deliberation in retrospect.

Here he is very personal and honest. For anyone interested in his method, either as a student or as a practitioner, the specialty of the book is the "tour of the backstage" here presented. It is an excellent remedy against the illusion that there might be a handbook, or a guide, to the Feldenkrais Method. Rather, what we can try to follow is an orientation, a way of thinking, an attitude. And (have I already mentioned it?) a glimpse into the subtlties of the "workshop" - hints about what was going on behind the "magic" of the Master's effectiveness. Surely - much of it is indeed magic, but it was magic concieved by careful, untiring and perceptive deliberation.

The great educator, Professor Moshe Feldenkrais, describes his work in "An Adventure in the Jungle of the Brain" (Abenteuer im Dschungel des Gehirns) as this book is titled in German. And it is an adventure. A sixty year old business women wakes up one morning and cannot understand what has happend to her world. She discovers that she can neither read, get out of bed properly, cannot differenciate between her left and right slippers, bangs into the wall instead of passing through the bathroom door nor can she speak when she wants to express her irritation. Feldenkrais describes in detail all the steps he takes to discover how he can facilitate her brain to reajust and regenerate her capabilities to cope with the world again. He discribes his investigations, the mistakes and successes. This book is really a description on how we learn to learn and how we need to embrase our mistakes for only due to them we develope the facilities to learn. Gábor, Feldenkrais Movement Educator

Brief Synopsis: Spider is such a good speller that his teacherwants him to be in the school's spelling bee. Spider's afraid to bein the spelling bee, because he'd have to stand onstage with lots of people watching. His family tells him that they've been scared to do certain thing, but that he must learn to be brave. He decides to be in the spelling bee. He is not afraid in the end and is a second place winner in the contest.

Note to Teachers: This is a wonderful book for fourth through eighth graders. Even adults would enjoy this book. It is the story of an Indian boy and his family. This book would be a good way to show respect for cultural diversity. Students who participate in the spelling bee would enjoy this book.

There are hundreds of children's books that are about Native Americans, but most of them are folktales and legends - books set in the past. Rarely do we find a top notch picture book about a modern day family. That is exactly what this book is - top notch! Teachers can use it to help their children understand that Native Americans are not exotic, and are not extinct, but living in today's United States. Today, Native people's lives include a blend of elements of their cultural traditions with today's lifestyles.

This book is written in a caring, humorous, and educated voice that is easy to follow, while exploring the deepest issues of existence. . . all while helping you see that it's not that deep afterall. I HIGHLY suggest reading this book for self-discovery, healing, meditation, enlightenment, or any other journey you may find yourself on. This book is comparable to Ram Dass' Journey of Awakening, any of Alan Watts' books, as well as Ken Wilber's texts. Don't miss out on this one.

Insightful, thought provoking and funny, this book is unique. Robbins makes compelling connections between spiritual traditions and writes in an entertaining manner. Definitely a help to those on a spiritual path..

The story of two stray dogs who roamed San Francisco's urban streets in the 1860s is a classic which has been embellished over the years, and Bummer & Lazarus provides a new, expanded version of the author's 1984 publication which unravels legend and presents explanations for how and why the embellishments on the stories occurred. News stories, photos and a new introduction enhance this fun survey.

This book is great, if you love fun historical anecdotes about the old days in San Francisco. This book brings alive, through old newspaper accounts and great narration - the exploits of two of San Francisco's favorite dogs, Bummer and Lazarus. Noone owned them, they just roamed around old gold-rush era San Francisco, getting handouts from people at the rowdy saloons. But people loved these dogs, as they displayed very loyal bonds to one another, and their antics always made the newspaper columns. Highly recommended!

I loved this book! The poems are so funny and cute! I'm the author of "Caviar", and I'm so excited seeing this book published! I didn't know whether to write this on author's review or customer's review, so I just put it here. I hope one day to be writing in the Author's section! Well, back to the book. I loved the poem "Slimy Black Bananas" It definitely deserved the editor's choice award! I look forward to seeing them write another poem for "My Chocolate Mouth!" I strongly reccomend this book, because I think the children who wrote it know what they want to hear.

Bernadette Moyer has created a forum for child writers and child illustrators that works very well. This title will have universal appeal as food is the main topic! The illustrations are cute and most of the poetry is funny! The poets ages are from six to teenage and therefore most kids of today will find something humorous to read. Cafeteria food seemed to take some fun criticism. All three of the Editor's Choice Awards are great! "Milk and Bread" is short but so cute. "Caviar" is also well written and fun, loved the back cover poem titled "Slimy Black Bananas." You can tell that this was just a fun book to be a part of and what a great inspiration to all child writers and illustrators!

I consider this CD-Rom the best English dictionary on the market. Each entry has IPA symbols and also a red loudspeaker icon for the British pronunciation and a blue one for the American. A microphone icon let you practise your pronunciation.
The feature I like using every day is the QUICKfind with the automatic sound. You just point the mouse at a Word document or at the text on a web page and the software speaks up the sound for you. While listening to the sound, the QUICKfind let you have a small dictionary window open on the screen with the meaning of each word you are pointing the mouse at, and the two loudspeakers with both English and American pronunciations are still there. Just imagine all those foreign languages and literatures university students who are going to prepare for their oral exams and have to be able to read aloud loads of poems with a perfect pronunciation and also explain the words' meanings - what a lot of time saved with the aid of this software!
The main window has three other useful icons, i.e. Exercises, Pictures and Study pages.
Among the Exercises, you can find Word Exercises (adjectives and adverbs, affixes, homophones, irregular and problem verbs, noun forms, suffixes, verbs meaning 'perform') and Pictures Exercises (animals, back, birds, body, car exterior, car interior, cars and trucks, clothes, flowers, foot, fruit, hair, hand, hats, head, in the kitchen, in the office, kitchen equipment, office equipment, phrasal verbs, planes, ships and boats, skeleton, sports, vegetables).
Among the Pictures you can find about 100 tables of content with colourful drawings. If you point the mouse at a drawing, its word appears, whereas if you click on the drawing, its meaning appears.
Among the Study pages you can find very useful documents in PDF format, divided into two categories, i.e. "Vocabulary, Grammar, Pronunciation" (a guide to pronunciation, determiners, homographs, homophones, irregular verbs, modal verbs, phrasal verbs, prefixes and suffixes, punctuation, regular inflections, regular verb tenses, relative clauses, word building) and "General Information" (common names, common symbols, computers, geographical names, letter writing, measurements and quantities, money, periods of time, relationships, sounds and smells, telephoning, varieties of English, work and jobs).
I would give this item six stars, if only I could! Highly recommended to all those who need a very fast desktop companion, for it's a real pleasure to work with, and once the software is saved into your hard disk, you won't need to run the CD any more.

For years people were saying the paper-ink dictionaries were going to extinct, everything will be digitalized. Apparently this is not completely wrong or true. In either way you are going to be happy when you buy Advanced Learners Dictionary since it gives both. The software it its CD is much more satisfying than other commercially available online dictionaries. QuickFind feature of the software chows the meanings and definitions without doing anything except you move the pointer to the word. Even now I'm using it to write this review. Although I am using computers all the time in the office I'm much more delighted with my paper-ink version dictionary. The definitions are very clear and concise. Especially guidewords technique are a very intelligent invention. Many times it happens that while I'm reading something with the help of my dictionary I stop reading the book and start reading the dictionary instead. I had the Cambridge International Dictionary of English before. But Advanced Learner's has much more for me. I gave my old dictionary to my cousin. I was so anxious I couldn't wait it in Amazon.com and ordered from England (amazon.co.uk). I highly recommend it especially to those learning English as a second language.