Home Books

This book has some excellent ideas and design concepts for landscaping those hills of yours. For me, the diversity of colorful photos provided some wonderful ideas when working with my landscape architect. This book has a good section on erosion control and drainage, but probably not detailed enough for more severe grades - in which case you should probably consult a professional. We already hired a landscape architect, but having this book has given us some great ideas and direction for what we want to do with our hillside.

The other reason you may want a professional is that the last section which recommends plants to use for erosion control is not all that useful. In fact, I knocked a few stars from my review because they specifically recommended Hedera (English Ivy) and Hypericum (St. Johnswort) on their Ground Cover list. Both of these species are quite invasive and extremely bad selections, especially in the Pacific Northwest. In fact, Hedera is on our state's Noxious plants list and eradication of Ivy is a high priority. Additionally, some studies have shown that Ivy has little effect on erosion control. It is better to consult with your local nursery or landscape architect on best erosion control plants to use in your specific location as these can differ significantly by zone.

So many visual ideas in this book with practical "how to" advice as well! Full of color photo's of beautiful landscaping along with clear instructions on how to do things like stonework, steps, paving, walls, etc. I've just purchased some land on a mountain in a rural location and I'm very glad to have this book. Highly recommended.

The country where you were born rarely stops being home. Especially if you lived there for very long. This book highlights a family from the United States whose parents come from Mexico. The parents still feel very strongly that Mexico is home though they are firmly planted in the US. The kids are very uncomfortable with the knowledge. They prefer to speak English and feel that the US is home. What is this place their parents call home? What if they want to stay there? How do their parents really about about home in the US which the kids consider home? It's a confusing dilemma for kids and parents have to have mixed feelings too.

Eve Bunting takes her readers on journey with a Mexican family going home for Christmas. The text she uses is elegantly written. Through the feelings expressed by Carlos and his family you get a real sense of the Mexican culture and the importance of family. David Diaz's illustrations lead you into the journey with Carlos and his family. With the use of collaged background and inset illustrations the pages come alive. The text of Bunting and the illustrations of Diaz give you the sense of being there. This is a book that a child of any age would enjoy.

This book is very touching...it sensitively portrays the sacrafices Mexican immigrants have to make to move to America for their children to have a better life. Very well done themes of parental love, long car trips, the sadness of leaving one's home country, sibling realtionships, husband and wife being romantic (tasteful and age-appropriate), and a child's growing understanding of the complexities of life. Buy and read it to every child (and adult) you know.

This story is well told, with a nice pace and sense of language. Diaz is up to his usual standards, creating a colorful world that you just want to hop right into. Judge this book by its cover - it's beautiful!

Eve Bunting's books have a wisdom that transcends their simple stories. As an ESL teacher and a teacher in classes with immigrant students, I have often shared this book with middle school students and adults. In a brief and poetic narrative, it tells the universal story of parents sacrificing so their children will have a better life, through the eyes of a child. The adults in my ESL classes love it and take it home to read to their children.

I had to purchase this book as a required text in nursing school. I find it very difficult to read and follow. Everytime I've had to use it I dread opening it. I have since ordered two other care plan books hoping that one of them will be easier to read and use. My clinical instructor agreed that there are much better books on the market for this purpose. Please look around before you decide to purchase this text.

Cox's Nursinging Diagnoses doesn't relate any of the Nanda Diagnoses to any specific disease processes. For the novice nurse, like myself, this makes this book very difficult to use. With only 2 semesters of experience under my belt I need the additional guidance which books like Gulanick/Myers Nursing Care Plans, and Ackley-Ludwig Nursing Diagnosis Handbook give me. In these books I can use my patients medical diagnosis to find suggestions on appropriate interventions for my careplan. For instance, I am assigned a patient that is one day post-op for having undergone a CABG, I can look up CABG and get a list of corresponding nursing diagnoses and prioritized interventions. Using the Cox book I would have to have alot more first hand knowledge of what to expect regarding the patients' response to undergoing a surgery like a CABG.
The Cox book can be useful as an adjunct to these other books. Once I know what Nursing Diagnoses I should focus on, I can then go to Cox and look at suggested interventions.
Summary: If you are only getting one care plan book, dont make it this one.

I agree that this is a great book. It really helps me with my care plans and is easy to use. The only reason it only got 4 stars is that I HAVE seen more user friendly diagnosis books for beginning students, but for that same reason I can see this book helping me in my advanced studies down the road.

This textbook on nursing diagnosis is an indispensible guide in creating the nursing diagnosis. It is well organized and easy to read. The diagnoses are grouped according to the 11 functional health patterns. Interventions are simple and broken down into easy to apply format. Additionally, interventions are listed for adults, women, psychiatric, gerontic, and for the home health care situation making this text useful in a number of clinical situations. Rationales are included with each intervention saving precious time for the nursing student writing nursing process papers. This text does not link medical diagnosis with nusing diagnosis which may make it difficult to use for some students. I, and my fellow nursing students, have found this text to be an indespensible guide in developing our nursing diagnoses.

This is a very complete book that doesn't leave the reader asking for details like so many others. It's written so beginners can understand it and it contains all the design criteria, load tables, joint details, and so forth that an experienced builder needs to get a building permit and construct a building. Seddon inlcudes practical "how to" answers beginning with construction of a temporary frame to lift tall poles into holes in the ground without killing yourself trying. Framing and jointing details, connections, siding, windows and finish are all here. I built many stick frame homes over several years and was looking for information on construction of a pole frame home. I found it very useful and practical.

Although the book had some helpful hints I was looking for more practical instructions on how to build a pole barn. The book did not go in deepth enough and had little information on pole barns. I was looking for ideas to help setting the floor grade and where to get started after lay-out is finished

This book is very good. The information is presented in great detail in a very useable way. I found myself wanting to build with poles! Highly recomended.
Sincerly, Adelbert M. Vinal Jr.

I'm 2/3 done with a garage that's based on a plan in this book. I'm using this book for pole barn-specific info, and "Building a Multi-Use Barn : For Garage, Animals, W..." for the rest. Together, these two books give me enough information, without going overboard. Good luck to you; I'm having a blast!

This book is fine, as far as it goes, but does not address the trend towards using cast concrete pole bases and untreated poles rather than using direct-burial treated poles.

I think the idea or basis behind the book is very good. However, this book bored me from page one. It was also very repeticious; the author doesn't quite give recommendations on how to create this art in your home but instead goes in circles saying that we are all creators and can create art. I was looking for actual ideas on how to incorporate art into my home and this book definitely did not come through. Her descriptions were also very hard to follow and I'm not sure if she's from England or just an old hippie type. Or maybe both...but her words were hard to put into ideas.

I loved this book, Schaeffer does an excellent job of inspiring her readers to brining art into every day life. She has an abundance of great ideas, and is a very easy-to-read authoress. I bought 6 copies and have given them away as gifts to several friends.

Boring.... I bought this book because it came soooo recommended but I couldn't wait to pass it on to someone else. I talked with one of my friends that also bought it. She totally agreed with me. It is just boring. I don't know why this book was republished. Mrs. Schaeffer has other books that are better!

A friend of mine recommended this book to me and I read it with surprising enthusiasm. I recently bought it for a friend of mine so that she could experience the same surprising and lovely blessings I did when I read it.

Schaeffer describes the simplicity of homemaking, how small gestures can create great elegance in a world that too often eats its fast food lunches out of a paper bag while driving in a car hurrying from point A to point B. Schaeffer draws on her own experience, her life's wisdom, as well as her Biblical faith to remind the reader that creating a home is not about having things but sharing one's self. Even a person who travels a lot can carry a piece of home with them in having a few personal items they take from hotel to hotel turning at least a corner of even the most anonymous and homogenized environment into something personal and unique.

An elegant and loving book.

What a treasure. A wonderful book that encourages you to use your gifts and to be creative! And to make it a priority! All tired and burnt out housewives should read.

Garrison Keillor -- NEVER BETTER -- is very entertaining and keeps you smiling for the entire CD.

If you've never heard of Garrison Keillor or Lake Wobegon, well are you in for a treat.
Sit back and put on your head phones and be prepared for people around you to think you're out of your mind when they glance in your direction and hear you laughing.

The CD stories were absolutely and truely stories from Lake Wobegan. They were tasteful and full of humor

Like another reviewer, many driving hours have been happily spent listening to Keilor's incredibly engaging tales of Lake Wobegon. When I saw a new collection, my heart raced as I stood at the checkout....only to be sorely disappointed. These aren't stories, they are just newsy ramblings. And they aren't all that funny either. It sounds like Garrison is getting tired of Lake Wobegon, as evidenced by the bored tone of his voice and the superficial news tidbits he plies us with in this collection. If you love his older stories from collections such as Mother, Father, Aunt, Uncle or Summmer, Winter, Spring, Fall, these will not live up to your expectations. But, us Lake Wobegon junkies take what we can get, and any new stories are welcomed. But, jeez, Garrison, there must be some good ones left in you. Although I'm giving this a 3-star rating, it's really more a 2.5 star when compared to his older stories.

...but not of my favorite stories. I fell in love with Lake Woebegone about ten years ago. I used to do a lot of driving between Georgia and Tennessee and Garrison's hilarious stories made the drive go by fast. I tried to listen to this CD several times, but I noticed that it wouldn't really hold my attention. The stories aren't bad. It's just as a collection, it didn't pop. But I'll continued to listen to his work.

I am very pleased with the amount of time I waited to receive this item. It was shipped quickly and I received it within a few days of making the purchase.

I purchased the Praxis Official Guide 2008 in preparation for the Praxis I exam. Although the reading and writing sections were similiar to the sample tests in this guide, the math section did not scratch the surface of the types of problems I was confronted with.

In fact, I read and reread the preparation tips several times. I practiced the previous tests given religiously, and I memorized all of the formulas suggested in this book. I went into the testing area feeling confident and prepared, and left the examination feeling overwhelmed and defeated.

I'm still waiting for a response from ETS.org regarding this situation. My suggestion is to look for other resources to properly prepare yourself for the Praxis I.

Not a great choice for PLT. This book only gives an outline of topics covered along with three practice tests. The content area sections only gives around 15 sample questions and answers, that's it. More than half of the book is dedicated to the PPST and they are covered in far more depth.

Some of the problems in the PPST I test were the same as the problems in this book. The Essay Topics section was right on the money. The topic I was given was the same as one of the topics in this book. I wish I would have studied this section more. I also purchased REA PRAXIS PPST tests.

I passed two of the three tests - Reading: 175; Math: 185, and I am still waiting for the results from the writing test.

If you are preparing for the PRAXIS I test, I strongly suggest you get both books.

Great book to prepare for the Praxis series of tests. Excellent!! Great deal too!

I am an interior designer and thought this book was great for exterior ideas. I highly recommend it.

It is a beautiful book that is well written and illustrated. So I'll give it 3 stars. But I don't believe it belongs in the Not So Big series. It feels like false advertising or misrepresentation. I appreciate the concept of connecting the outside and inside, but I expected to see ideas for small gardens/yards in small lots, not small planting areas within large lots and acreage attached to large houses.

I agree with many of the poor reviews by fellow "Not So Big House" thinkers. I was very, very disappointed by the lack of practical information and very few useful principles for "creating the landscape of home".
While I agree with and have used so many of the principles in her other books, this one left me with nothing I can use to landscape my property.
While some of the examples are quite interesting, most are also quite unusual and there is not much to take away for those of us with average-sized, rectangular-shaped lots living in subdivisions filled with tract homes.

Prerequisites: You have a house with some space for plants.
Pros: if you wanna block your not so eye-entertaining neighborhood.
Cons: French (glass) windows/doors may have security concerns.

You don't have to have a million-dollar house and 10 acres to have a nice view. The point of this book is "a look from inside out."

Your windows and doors can be a frame looking through your garden, hence the garden/landscape is designed from an inside view of your house, as far as your eyes can reach.

It teaches you how to create a relaxing enjoyment by using your current limited space, landscape, or even a slope with proper plant arrangements.

It greens your house from inside out!!

A house and its garden are different parts of the same overall design. Bestselling author Sarah Susanka and acclaimed landscape designer and award-winning writer Julie Moir Messervy understand this concept. They describe it as "opening up the relationship of indoors and out" and demonstrate it with actual case studies in "Outside the Not So Big House: Creating the Landscape of Home."

"Outside the Not So Big House: Creating the Landscape of Home" covers the landscape of home, embracing the habit of home (playing up the corners, borrowing the landscape, the attraction of opposites, a stream of one's own, shelter and embrace), composing journeys (variations on a theme, Japanese journey, parallel paths, the territory of home, the world behind the walls), linking the inside with the out (living lightly on the land, easy living, a landscape of stone, good fences, rooms inside and out), and crafting the elements of nature (gardens of earthly delight, three cabins in a forest, at home on the range, terraces of grass, a cottage in the city). This book does show the influence of Julie Moir Messervy's training with the well-known Japanese garden master Kinsaku Nakane as a Henry Luce Scholar.

"Outside the Not So Big House: Creating the Landscape of Home" has 216 pages and many dazzling color interior photos and plans. It is a good gardening ideas book for both design professionals and ordinary gardeners.

Really good book with plenty of technical information, drawings, schemes. I would recomend that item for architects interested in this technology. It's one of few books on the market which are really "serious" about straw bale. It's not for people interested in colourful images and photos of buildings... it's not for design inspirations.

I hope to build a natural house some day and am still in the research stage, looking at various alternatives. Straw bale is of course a serious contender. I am not a builder or a handyman; as a lay person I found this book satisfyingly detailed. "More Straw Bale Building" by Chris Magwood is another worthwhile read on the subject and balances this ones anti-Nebraska and pro-cement stucco biases somewhat. Anyway, what both books do is make it clear that building with straw bale isn't like Lego. It is serious stuff and requires a professional builder, and the money to pay them.

One other thing: I really liked this book's introduction to other alternative building materials. It has given me other things to research.

Everything you ever wanted to know about building a straw home from the ground up can be found in this manual.

This is a great book and for anyone thinking of building in a damp climate a must have. Great information about the various ways of doing things, allowing the reader to make the best choice for their site, budget and level of skill. Covers wet weather considerations better than most other books. A good addition to your straw bale library.

One warning, in this book the straw bale slab system is detailed but has since been shown to be a not so good idea so I would reccommend separate research on that subject.

I've been doing research for a house I'm hoping to build in 5 to 10 years, and straw bale is one of the wall systems I'm seriously considering. This book was extremely informative. I confess I often skimmed past sections dealing with cold, wet climates (I live in Arizona), but sometimes I read through them just because they were so interesting. If you're considering using this wall system for your own project, this book is a good place to start.