Boston

Kathryn Lasky turns a simple visit to Boston into a magical experience. She brings to life the every-day things that we normally never notice and turns them into something special. I've lived right next to Marlborough Street for years, but have never noticed how "the chimneys have pots that look like funny hats: some like top hats, some like knights' helmets, some like peaked clowns' hats." She turns the weeping willow trees in the Public Garden into the "Place of Green Rain" and calls the three white stone buildings across the street "The Brides". You'll appreciate any historic neighborhood in a new light after reading this delightful book.

Upon first reading, skepticism looms overhead, fat black rainclouds of doubt shadow the land. The ray of sun is: that no single opinion dominates this book, that it is refreshingly diverse. Anarchists in this volume emerge as political freethinkers, people of a courageous honesty who debate and exchange powerful ideas on the topics concerning social beings. When closing the book, wonder is in the wind...one ponders Mencken's germane analogy of politics to religion and the poplular participation of the masses in the exercise of control.

This detailed, clear map is practically indispensable for navigating in Boston, whether on foot or by car. The laminated format makes it not only very durable, even after much use, but easily folded to show the segment of the city one needs. The detail is really excellent, showing many things including large and small streets, parkway access roads, points of interest, surrounding communities, Logan airport, etc. The map's clarity is much enhanced by the use of well-chosen color. It would be helpful if the names of Boston's many squares were regularly included, as these seem to be a prominent feature of navigation in Boston, and if possible, to indicate more of the one-way directions of streets. All in all, I find this an extremely useful and well-made map, highly recommended for navigation in a complicated but fascinating city.

An excellent help to me and my family. I actually chanced upon this book in Borders, only after 2 months of relocating to Boston from Asia.
Nevertheless, it explains everything in depth and the resources mentioned were updated and exact. 2 years now and I still remember that this is the book that help me settled in and the authors experiences were my exact feelings if I were to write a book myself.

This extraordinary book brings together a confluence of compelling themes: The history of a city and its self concept; the evolution of city planning and the politics of public space; visionary thinking and the implications of decisions on the future of urban living; and the visual record of 19th century Boston through historical photographs and maps. These ideas have been woven into a highly readable book, stunningly designed by Yasuyo Iguchi. For anyone who lives in or has lived in Boston, this book is the best history of the city's evolution. For others who may not be as compelled by the specific story of how the Charles River came to be or the significance of the Big Dig, this book is a fascinating and provocative exploration of the implications that face all cities as they envision themselves into the future. How should public space be used? Who decides what is the public good? Haglund cares passionately about these issues and has assembled a thoughtful, readable and provocative response to these important questions. Don't miss it.

My children and I love this book.I read it outloud to my 5 and 7 year olds.Just a nice simple story of a boy and his favorite stuffed toy

This book does a fantastic job of introducing American children to a significant moment in the history of Black Americans in this country. The illustrations are beautiful.

There should be more cookbooks like this one. This book takes standard recipes and then teaches how to modify those recipes for five types of restricted diets -- bland, diabetic, low cholesterol, low calorie and renal diets. There are some 250 recipes in this book. But its real value is that it teaches the reader basic techniques for modifying ANY recipe to fit a particular restricted diet.

Gyorgy Markus was a member of the so-called Budapest Circle in socialist Hungary of the 60s. This grouping of brilliant students was gathered around the Marxist philosopher Gyorgy Lukacs. While Markus' other comrades in the Budapest Circle such as Agnes Heller and Ferenc Feher have drifted far away from Marxism and have become vituperative critics of socialism, this book shows that only Markus has continued Lukacs' great tradition of laboring towards the renewal of Marxism and socialism. Markus devotes the first part of the book to a briliant and comprehensive critique of the so-called "paradigm of language" as it has been represented by Wittgenstein, Levi-Strauss, Gadamer and Habermas. He points out here that all these philosophies seem to fall back into some kind of utter fatalism under the inexorable weight of linguistic reality. Marx on the other hand with his "paradigm of production" is able to lend a more balanced viewpoint on the tension between the "human condition" and the "human striving" for a better society (as Markus demonstrates in the second part of his book). Markus seems to continue, in a positive Marxist direction, the earlier model introduced by Heller regarding the "concept of needs" in Marx. The third and last part of the book is rather difficult going because too condensed, but it is apparently an exposition of Markus' own understanding, practice and reconstruction of historical materialism.

Canine author and therapy dog Mickey offers a furry-fresh perspective on animal-assisted activities in his book LapDog Therapy. An educational and entertaining read for anyone who is - or wants to be - involved in this rewarding world of human-animal interaction.

An added benefit for Canadian readers is the inclusion of Canadian contact information in the well laid-out reference section.