Home Books

No new information..........can do online reasearch and find same info. Don't waste money unless you are not good at research and want it put in front of you.

This book did not help me at all. It was all just alist of ideas of businesses to start(I could have written it) but no concrete advise on how to start. I finally found a business I love! and it was not listed in the book.

Lots of good ideas in this book. Each idea is only given a brief overview but it's a good way to get your own ideas going and they give you resources to find more information. Most of the business ideas were practical and do-able for most people. I liked it!

I read this book looking for ideas to help supplement by regular income by doing something from home. This was NOT the book for me. Most of the suggestions were totally useless for me and required a lot of skills/education that I don't have and would have to obtain before I started. For example, two of the suggestions are Accountant and Lawyer (!). This would better have been titled as "Careers That Allow You To Work At Home If You Want To." Also, as a side note, the projected earnings about Medical Transcriptionist was WAY overinflated...I am doing that currently, and my mother owns her own business and makes really good money, but not the $40-$60 an hour stated in the book. That's outrageous!

I loved this book, granted you could really think of many of these ideas yourself, but truly not everyone is savvy on the internet to research. Finding a home based business is a tough task, you may want to read and re-read many of the ideas that spark an interest with you! If you do not like dogs, don't be a pet sitter. Take notes at every opportunity.

The illustrations in this book are very good. However, for those who are experienced woodworkers. this might not be what you would want for new information in cabinet making. Some parts are somewhat outdated with the new tools and fasteners that are available today.

It was interesting reading and made a good donation to the local highschool shop class.

Definitely NOT for the beginning woodworker. This book does not give measured drawings or instructions on how to make pieces of furniture. It has a section which gives drawings of a large number of woodworking joints, BUT does not discuss how to make them. This part of the book has been done in many other books along with "how to" information. Thus, this part of the book could have been eliminated without losing any real value.

HOWEVER, the rest of the book is worth its weight in gold!!!! It takes virtually all types of "Case furniture" (cabinets, chests, tables, desks, etc) but not chairs, and it gives well-researched, thorough, easy to understand diagrams on how they were constructed -- that is, what types of joints were used throughout the piece. It also provides excellent references to more detailed sets of plans and descriptions of each piece. The beginning woodworker won't know what to do with this book. The professional furniture maker will not need the book, but the vast number of serious weekend warriors of woodworking will find this book to be invaluable.

The potential purchaser of this book should realize that it was published twice, under the same name. Rodale published it in 1998. Readers Digest published it in 2003. Today I examined both editions side-by-side. Except for their ISBN numbers, the two editions seem identical. I examined a number of pages side by side, and I could not find any differences. They have the same number of pages. The only differences I could detect were in the paper used. The original Rodale edition has a more glossy paper, and the print seems to be slightly darker. Both of these differences are insignificant.

I have seen this book referenced in many places as one of the best resources in the field of woodworking. It is a masterpiece. This fact is made obvious by the difficulty in finding copies of the book for sale in either new or used form. Last week (Aug 2006) I saw three copies for sale on Amazon from $79 to $129 and all sold quickly. PLEASE NOTE - I also saw three "for sale" listings for this book last week by using a FROOGLE search. Three different Electronic bookstores indicated they had a copy of the book in stock. I contacted all three and found that they weren't really "bookstores" but rather are organizers of individuals who sell books and use the electronic bookstores as a central clearinghouse. All three said to contact the actual individual sellers. I did. None of the three had a copy for sale, even though all three of the electronic bookstores had listings saying that they had copies in stock for sale. I found a number of negative comments about these electronic bookstores when I searched. To their credit, FROOGLE stated that you should check out a seller before making a purchase. I hope this information helps you. I am very happy that I was able to buy a copy of the book. If you really want to see this book and can't buy a copy, go to your library.

I bought this book because I have difficulty in two areas. One is in visualizing the construction details for a design I've sketched out. The other is in deciding what joints will be most appropriate. This book covers those two topics extremely well. In fact, better than any other book in my library.

The text is very well written. He says what he has to say in a concise and easy to read way.

I think it was written for intermediate and advanced level woodworkers, but I see a lot that would be of great value to beginners who want to try their hand at something a little more challenging.

This thick little book is filled with dimensional drawings of all kinds of furniture, including the very high-end furniture and some historical pieces. The author goes into great detail about every type of joint with some practical commentary on the pros and cons of each type. There are also detailed sections on legs and feet, table types, and drawer construction.

My only letdown, as an amateur furniture hobbyist, is that there is little or no talk about tool usage and how to make some of these pieces. The author favored information about origins, history, and aesthetics. However, the book makes up for this with its great perspective drawings on every page, complete with dimensions and names for each component. This will be a great resource down the road when I need to know how to construct a unique joint or when I just want to see something new to inspire me.

If you're looking for a book on how to build cabinets, this ain't it. This is a primer on how to build furniture (which is often referred to as cabinet-making) but references to building cabinets are brief and limited. It's really an overview of furniture building rather than a hands-on, how-to book.

The book describes a pretty good cleaning methodology. It seems a little out-dated as far as some of the equipment goes, but that is about the only complaint I have.

My mom didn't teach us the art of housecleaning - at least not in an organized time saving manner. I will agree with some of the others that have left feedback - The author is a bit on the bossy side - but that said, the book has great advice on cleaning quickly. I was left with many ideas that helped to speed up my weekly cleaning. I will say, that after reading each chapter, I was inspired to jump up and clean.

Wonderful! I got the book yesterday, and started using his methods today, and I was able to clean my whole house in an hour (it used to take me 4 or 5 hours) and it looks sparkling. I recommend this book to people that like to see their house clean but don't have the time to do it. The book explains in a very detailed way room-by-room how to clean your house efficiently and faster.

I just finished reading the book and will be putting Jeff's techniques into practice soon. There are a lot of really good tips about how to clean specific areas of the house. I particularly liked the section on cleaing the tub & shower area.

A number of reviews here take exception to the tone of the book, calling it "strict". Well, forget about it. The tone is light-hearted and fun. He is emphatic about using his methods but I completely understand why. In my own business, I've discovered methods that are the most efficient way to accomplish a task. But when I tell other people to use that method, they insist on going their own way. They go through the exact same testing, retrying, and learning curve that I already went through and they end up doing it my way after all. It's frustrating! Just listen to the voice of experience!

For heaven's sake, Jeff has gone through these processes and discovered the best way to do it! Get yourself out of the way. Believe him. Try it. Then if you find a better way, write to him or write your own book.

I got a bit confused by the other reviews, and I bought this book not knowing whether it would be any good. Thank God it is a step-by-step guide of the weekly cleaning of bathroom and kitchen, and bedroom-livingroom, without any fuss.

It is true that the tone of the book is strict. I suspect they think they are being funny. Also, no mention on stainless steel appliences. It must have been written before the age of self-cleaning ovens. But other than that..

.. a really good book on speedy WEEKLY cleaning of all your rooms. I had thought of doing 10 minutes of cleaning every day. But then, when would I do the organizing and decluttering? And when would I do the heavy-duty jobs, like windows, shutters, the veranda? Enter the answer: "Weekly cleaning is the subject of this book. Daily cleaning is de-cluttering. And then, there is spring cleaning." Voila, my question answered! I am going to check out Clutter Control next. Karen Kingston's book on De-cluttering with Feng Shui is priceless, but I tend to forget a bit the lessons I learned from it. So another prosective might be nice.

While it is commendable that the author avoids the verbal fakery, jargon and obfuscation so common amongst academic authors, it is hard to imagine a flatter, duller narrative. The evidence on offer here is anecdotal and therefore of limited value, and since the anecdotes are so mundane, there seems little reason to read the book. Most adults can furnish their own supply of similar stories, have already come to some of the same conclusions, and won't find the insights very insightful. Sociology remains thin stuff.

The basis of this book is great and the author has a terrific way with words but she loses the reader after about page 55, where she goes off into all sorts of liberal and unproven theories about modern family life. Her research was limited to one major American company and does not illuminate why there are so many problems in balancing work and family life.

This book was good for the first 40 pages but that's it. Hochschild gets across the interesting truth that some Americans work and don't spend time with their families because work is a reprieve from the stress of home and family life. This is really the crux of the book; the rest is mainly filler. Hochschild doesn't provide much more insight or scientific rigor and support to these observations. I agree with the above reviewer that the writing is quite poor: convoluted; however, I wouldn't even give the writing the compliment of being novel-like. The writing is trite and character placements a headache.

Initially I approached this book thinking that it told the familiar (and not particularly interesting) tale of how the endless demands of the workplace are slowly eating way at the little time that we have to spend with our families or just ourselves. Well, this is NOT that tale. Rather, Professor Hochschild explores and succinctly describes how the workplace has become the dynamic community in our lives, to the exclusion of all else and at a price. The reasons have little to do with "work becoming unmanageable;" rather, it is "work becoming community." I find her ideas provocative, eye-opening and remarkably non- ideological, as it is simply reporting what is happening in our Country and to some extent throughout the world. Anyone who runs around 24/7 with a cell phone, beeper, blackberry, etc. knows what I am talking about. Highly recommended.

After all the hype, I finally got around to reading Time Bind this year. I thought that it was interesting, and not too terribly written, but I have to confess that I do not see the point. Her central thesis about work being too much like home has largely been exploded during the economic downturn-- lots of the perks and benefits cited in Time Bind are no longer features in the new cost-conscious companies.

I think the book would have been much more satisfying to readers if it had been presented as what it is-- the study of a single company. In my opinion, Hochschild does not earn the wider conclusions that she attempts to draw from the study and there is not sufficient underpinning to make broad generalizations about either family-friendly policies or increased working hours.

Truthfully, I probably would have rated this book as less than three stars if I were only judging the reading experience. However, I think that Hochschild deserves credit for the work that she did studying her one company sample and for asking some tough questions which we really do need to be asking.

What is Pride ? Is it `Pride' to Review a Classic ?

I've always loved the movie version of `Out of Africa' with Robert Redford and Meryl Streep. Whether it was the character development, or the wild life, or the Mozart throughout the film score, the symbiosis of all of the above consistently moves me & holds my attention. Then there were the excerpted portions of the book I was introduced to in Literature class. Somewhere among the multitude of reviews of this book are plenty of words to describe how I `feel' about the prose and the somewhat dis-similar treatment by the movie.

But who can compete with the authors own words ?

"The discovery of the dark races was to me a magnificent enlargement of all my world."

From the view to promote the perspective of a tribal native, in this country or any other, I'd like to point out that Baroness Karen Blixen/ a.k.a. Isaac Denison has recorded some highly unique perspectives about the Kenya tribal peoples and their respective roles in the predator vs prey aspects of human slavery.

How the Mohammedans played the role of predators in concert with Arab slave traders to capture and sell Africans to the European slave ship masters is treated with pragmatism. The proud people of the Masai game reserve were sometimes assisting the Mohammedans, but if captured and sold themselves were unlikely to survive in captivity. The 'prey' class of social strata, named Kikiyu, who were beneath the 'marriage' qualifications that would suit the upwards-mobility of the Mohammedan women were yet accounted acceptable breeding stock as wives of the Masai, noble and proud.

These variations are irregular to the politically correct assumptions of our society, yet as real as they may be in middle eastern cultures, they were described in pre-World War I central Africa. What the American descendants of Mohammedan Africans might be 'sensitive' to or 'offended' by in our culture were matters of 'pride' to the Kenyans of the post Colonial era leading up to World War II. Some readers might enjoy discovering what praise Baroness Blixen had to report about her Mohammedan servant Farah, or the Holy man from India who visited her farm, or the virtues of the Mohammedan women in obtaining a husband.

Our culture is perfectly content to adopt a presidential canidate for the sake of lauding his skin color, without appreciating any of the virtues of the Kenyan ancestors who brought him to American territory. But this is one author who has uniquely appraised the strengths of the Kenyan people she knew, from living with them and learning to respect and love them. Consider a bit she writes about 'pride',

"...Very proud things were about, and made their presence felt...Pride is faith in the idea that God had, when he made us. A proud man is conscious of the idea, and aspires to realize it. He does not strive towards a happiness, or comfort, which may be irrelevant to God's idea of him. His success is the idea of God, successfully carried through, and he is in love with his destiny...the fulfillment of his fate."

"People who have no pride are not aware of any idea of God in the making of them, and sometimes they make you doubt that there has ever been much of an idea, or else it has been lost, and who shall find it again ? They have got to accept as success what others warrant to be so, and to take their happiness, and even their own selves, at the quotation of the day. They tremble with reason, before their fate."

[she distils a faith like to, but not to be confused as 'Christian' faith, thus]

"Love the pride of God beyond all things, and the pride of your neighbour as your own. The pride of lions: do not shut them up in Zoos. The pride of your dogs: let them not grow fat. Love the pride of your fellow-partisans, and allow them no self-pity."

"Love the pride of the conquered nations, and leave them to honour their father and their mother."

`Out of Africa' is filled with beautiful descriptive prose. But someone also learned from Africa and her people, and was good enough to leave us a chronicle.

Now eclipsed by the Streep-Redford film presentation that appropriated its title, Karen Blixen's memoir of life on her Kenyan coffee farm speaks movingly of the more benign side of colonialism in Africa and of one European's self-evident love for the land she had made her own.

Sadly, Blixen's lush descriptions of 'her people' are often judged too quickly by modern criteria of racial attitudes, a game that is like asking this early twentieth-century writer to wrestle with one arm tied behind her back. If it can be granted that there was anything good about Europe's colonization of Africa, then Bliksen (Isak Dinesen was her pen name) is its face.

She loved the land and its people, entering about as far as was plausible in her time into the remarkable rhythm of both. What more can be asked of any of us, all children of our moment and enveloped in its limitations?

This is a book for lovers of Africa, no matter whence they come. Blixen not only pushed an eloquent pen, she was herself shaped in the biblical and classical language of educated Europeans in a way that prepared her to bridge Africa and Europe in a day when few were equipped to do so.

Blixen's Africa no longer exists, as she already realized within the window of her writing of OUT OF AFRICA and SHADOWS ON THE GRASS. Yet the Africa Blixen knew has children, not to be disinherited for the generations that have passed and the unsavory disease that a legacy of failed leaders has wrought upon this great continent. Though the primary fruit of reaching behind the celluloid to *read* OUT OF AFRICA is the satisfaction of the read itself, it is also true that today's Africa and today's Africans can be glimpsed in the great-grandparents who knew and lived in proximity to this enigmatic and uniquely gifted Danish colonist in a land she mistreated only by calling it hers.

I came to this book expecting to read one woman's personal experience of living in Africa, and that's what I found. There is no sociology here, and very little historical context. She does not illuminate THE African experience. She records HER African experience. Certainly that is all she owes the reader? One woman's experience, one woman's life in a time very different from our own.

Do some of her observations shock the modern reader's sensibility? Oh certainly. There are things one simply does not SAY, and back when she wrote, she did. On the whole, her love and respect shine through when speaking of the people who entered her life as neighbors, employees and friends.

Dinesen brings to life a physical landscape that most of us will never get to see. She takes passionate delight in her work, her companions, and her surroundings. Even her setbacks are embraced, as they compose part of a life she knew was slipping away from her.

I was intrigued by what she didn't write. The book maintains almost complete silence about her husband, her health, and her relationship with Denys Finch Hatten. It is only in writing of his death that we understand how deep her feelings were. She writes around that love. Her discretion made my heart ache.

Very highly recommended.

I find most autobiographies to be masterbatory exercises in which the authors attempt to explain themselves.

But in Out of Africa, Denison does no explaining, no apologizing. It is love poem to the Africa she knew, and while she does display racist views, it is as she unashamedly shows her heartbreak over a world she loved and was lost.

Denison also wrote some very powerful short stories, most notably the ones in "Winter's Tales." "The Sorrow Acre," is technically one of the most masterly presented short stories I have ever read. Despite her later skills, though, Out of Africa sets itself apart as a masterpiece for its ability to elegantly show an individual's gushing sense of loss.

Underlying Blixen's tale of early 20th century Africa is the presumption that there was such a place; that is, a people or nation of peoples existed to which she went and from which she was forced to depart by economic circumstances. This presumption a priori allows her to reminisce about Africa the way it was or was supposed by her to have been.

As she observed, Africa was, in a sense, leaving her. Peoples were being moved around, new laws restricting tribal behavior were being passed, and the Ngong Hills were being laid out as a suburb of Nairobi. She was there, she professed, before all these changes began.

But was she? Was there a time and place, "Africa", or is this concept mainly her and the European view of the times? Blixen's Africa in fact was not any sort of original. Europeans had already produced vast changes: the tribes were by then being herded into reservations and European ways and goods prevailed. European reporters never reported Africa the way it was or had been. That information remained "dark."

The informational darkness is not entirely their fault. An observer always alters that which he sets out to observe. It is only a presumption that his observations are an approximation of the reality the way it would be without him observing it. That presumption is least justifiable in human affairs. We will never know what the original Masai or Kikuyu were like, or the exact configuration of flora and fauna among which they dwelled, or how they reacted to their environments or each other.

Similarly Blixen's little white light doesn't shine very far. We get some ethnic generalities as the vehicle of which she devises some stock identities, "the Kikuyu", "the Masai" and the like, which, on closer examination, turn out to be of European origin. Blixen manufactures masks and tries to get the Africans to wear them. Sociological and anthropological data are nearly entirely in deficit from these supposed traits. She probably is not alone in this process of inventing peoples. It accounts, perhaps, for why the Mau-mau insurrection caught the Europeans totally by surprise, as though you were to paint doodles on a sleeping man's body and he were to awake suddenly and demand angrily to know what you were doing.

Un libro de facil lectura y que te abre la mente, para el desarrollador común como yo.

McGovern illustrates strategies for creating more impactful web content without boring the reader to death. The advice is practical, easy to follow, and timely. I have been very satisfied with this purchase.

I purchased this book specifically to read more about the process for researching usability issues. I am not a market researcher, but I am a web developer who understands SEO, basic usability issues and general web practices. I found this book to be well-written, simple to understand and it provides a pretty good map for researching your web audience. I have actually read it twice now, finding even more the second time around.

I highly recommend this book, I still use it as a resource as I learn more about market research, something I don't particularly care for, but that is essential to my success as a brand manager and web developer.

Gerry is a genius.

Gerry McGovern's "Killer Web Content" *seems* to be a primer about writing "killer content." And it is. He talks about simple ideas (e.g., "killer, not filler," or, on the Net, "in self-service mode, people go on gut instinct") in simple sentences, with lots of words in red so you get the idea. Then you put those ideas all together and think about them. And *then* you start looking at websites created from the grad school universe by professionals, all too often FOR PROFESSIONALS, that leave you - us - Everyman - frustrated or even amused (and that is not the intent). Ah, the epiphany: you realize that too many people are getting paid too much money when they have no idea how to talk to us: the folks who are surfing at 2AM in hotel rooms, trying to learn something for tomorrow's presentation to the Executive Committee. Obviously McGovern has practiced medicine: you listen to the patient, and the patient will tell you what the problem is. You listen to the customer, and the customer will tell you what she needs to hear. You listen to your children, etc.

Of course, the devil is in the details. Would that there were a standard operating procedure to ferret out the words that each of us wants to hear. Then we could fire Sales and Marketing - all they do is get us folks in Technology and Operations into trouble, right? Nope, says McGovern, you have to talk to people, relate to them, listen to them, hear what they say, abstract the content, try it out on your site. Each word is a hypothesis: true or false. Does it work? Does it bring people? You measure, you re-frame, you redesign, you re-relate. Surely it must be easier than this! All Jeff Bezos did is slap some stuff onto a website, and look at him! Right? McGovern just smiles, probably lifts a Guinness - he hints at his pleasure in Ireland - and, secure in the knowledge that you'll reread his book, just goes on about his business, writing and consulting.

Oh, it seems so simple. Oh, it's not really that complicated. Oh, it is so, so worthwhile. Read the book carefully.

David Block MD, PhD
Editor & Publisher, "The RoadeWarrior: every consultant's ezine"
www.roadewarrior.com
david@roadewarrior.com

I work for a Fortune 500 company and was first introduced to Gerry McGovern through one of his workshops that my company was hosting. I really connected with Gerry's passion for both the customer's perspective, as well as his message to get the fundamentals right. Armed with his book Killer Web Content, I left the workshop inspired with new ideas for solving some of the UX issues we were having with our Careers website (strategic business tool for talent recruiting).

I started to read his book the next week and learned enough useful information with each chapter that I finished it. I got a lot of value from some of the techniques described in Killer Web Content. I appreciated the information specific to generating good content using "Carewords" in the right way and at the right time. I also learned from this book that the web user is a different animal than traditional application users. Gerry has a good handle on the machinations that drive this new information hunter's behavior.

I can honestly say that I've quoted Gerry's work in UX meetings dozens of times since first attending his workshop. Since December, I've given away three copies of Killer Web Content to other UX professionals. All 3 have given it rave reviews! In addition to attending one of his live workshops (absolutely awesome!), I HIGHLY recommend getting this book!

Although written in the 1860's, this timely novel will keep you captivated. The narrative format is most interesting as the story is told from the viewpoint of different characters. It is easy to read, moves right along and the language does not appear dated at all. The characters are colorful but not unrealistic.

This book satisfies the mystery lover, the romantic, the reader who loves period novels, everything you could want. It was hard to put down, and recommened to me by more than just one avid reader as one of their favorites.

Wilkie Collins' writing is amazing. The story is so engaging, spoken from such different points of view with unique voices. To think it was written in the late 1800's and so enjoyable today. He is a master story teller. A classic read that HS English classes should embrace.

Amazing and inspiring ideas that lead to a wonderful, eye-catching result! This book broadens the readers horizons and makes them see decoration through a new perspective.
Has a unique way of combining products and making them look special. Creates atmosphere and style.
Kelly has an amazing way of thinking that results to these ideas and we thank her 4 sharing it with us...

The book is really great when it comes to interior decoration. Ms Wearstler definitely has a knack for colour, and I like the creative way she used fresh colours and chic furniture to create new looks.

Beware though. Ms Wearstler seemed to like Asian religious icons in her decoration. I do not think that this gives due respect to our religion. As this is common amongst western interior decorators, this use of objects sacred to others as mere decorative items, Ms Wearstler could be forgiven for this.

Not only are her featured interiors stunning (as always) but the fab Ms. Wearstler goes the distance with great photography and writing to highlight it to its fullest. Honestly, a real gem and a must-have for any book collection on interiors.

I purchased this book for my sister, who is a design student about to graduate in 05/08, because Kelly Wearstler is her favorite designer. My sister already had one of Ms Wearstler's books and loved it so much that when she asked for her newest book I thought it would be a great Christmas gift. However, I didn't realize that the book she already had was Modern Glamour: The Art of Unexpected Style. When I gave her the book and she said that it was the one she already had I was very let down, but she did not want to return it. She said the copy she had was so worn out from use that she could never put it on her coffee table and that she loved it so much that she was more than pleased to have a brand new copy. Both my sister and I love Ms Wearstler's bold colorful design style and I was disappointed that her more resent books did not get better customer reviews, which is why I did not order one of them. I have since ordered Domicilium Decoratus anyway, since I was able to get such a good deal thru [...], and I'm looking forward to giving it to my sister for valentines' day.

She has the most amazing style. If you appreciate great design, you need this book!

It's definitely worth the read. I found it entertaining, but I'm not raving about it.

The story is very implausible. The characters are flat. I don't want to spoil anything, so no comment about the ending... You have to read to believe... Even so, I couldn't put this book down. Maybe Da Vinci Code is better. I don't know... They are in the same league. Highly entertaining.

The book is soft cover. I loved this book as much as The DaVinci code. The story is immersible and entertaining. I really didn't want to put it down. Also makes you think along with the character as you are reading...great book.

I like Dan Brown, and Angels & Demons didn't disappoint. Contrary to many fellow reviwers on this site, I can see past the religion and see the book for what it is - entertainment. It isn't a personal vendetta against the Roman Catholic church, nor is it blasphemous or trying to change the history of mankind. It's just an adrenaline-pumping, page-turning suspence novel. A work of fiction.

An incredibly entertaining read. Thought provoking, fast-paced action. I had read The Davinci Code first, and was not sure that it would be as good as that book, but it definitely surpassed my expectations. I think this was even more enjoyable than The Davinci Code. I would highly recommend buying the Illustrated Editions. I have bought both of these Dan Brown titles in the Illustrated Editions, and have found them to be even better, since you can actually see the paintings, statues, and buildings that they are referring to in the book. Overall, very satisfied with the title.

This is a interesting lots of help starting you own garden in your front yard or back.

This book has so many great ideas that I just had to have it. She makes many great "eco" points that had me going "ah, I never thought of that." I'm very glad I purchased this book.

definitely not a how to book. there are no pictures - i would have liked to see pictures of her garden....

I was very excited about ordering this book. I envisioned it would gave step by step, practical advice on how to transform my suburban yard into a lush garden. I was very disappointed, however, to find it full of advice that was either too vauge, or too complicated for the average home owner.
Ms. Flores starts off the book preaching about environmental concern. She could have spared the reader, since anyone who would buy this book is already concerned about their eco-system. Several pages of the beginning of the book give spacey, loose instructions on observing your community and yard space, as if the average reader has unlimited time to stare at her yard, and go on excursions for resources.

Flores goes on with her irrational ideas, giving several suggestions which are ILLEGAL, like diving into dumpsters and stealing off of thrift store lots. She also devotes quite a few paragraphs to setting up a water conservation system, which starts with recycling bathwater, which BTW, she also mentions is illegal in many cities. There's no in-between or alternate suggestions given. Flores, instead goes rambling on about elaborate modifications that the average person would not do to begin a garden.

This book might be good for those who have extensive knowledge of gardening, lots and lots of free time, and advanced mechanical skills, who want an all-or-nothing approach, but it offers very little for a beginner.

Anyone who picks up this book expecting to find a "How to" manual on converting your lawn into an edible garden will be disappointed. However, if you're looking for some fresh ideas on not only changing out your lawn for a garden mixed with a little permaculture, activism, optimism, and community building ideas, this is the book for you.

I read this book twice because there is so much good information and ideas in it that it was hard to wrap my head around the first time. Coming back to the book a few weeks later really made it hit home for me that gardening in your front yard is a community affair, as it should be.

I really enjoyed this book and will likely read it again in the next few weeks as I put H.C. Flore's ideas into motion and need a little pep rally to keep up the hard and rewarding work.