Home Garden Books

This book is amazing as is all of the Better Homes and Garden cook books. The pictures alone draw you in. There is nutrition facts and fun easy, kid friendly recipes. Small amount of recipes, but I feel perfect. Should make kids want to cook.

my 12 year old daughter picked this out and i couldn't be more pleasantly surprised.we have other "kiddie" cookbooks but this is far and away the best.the beginning of the book is wonderful tips and basic food safety (like not buying dirty eggs).the book is divided into breakfast,lunch,snacks,dinner,and dessert.my daughter has cooked many recipes out of the cookbook entirely by herself because the directions are very clear and concise.and the recipes taste great too!all the ingredients are easy to find in any grocery store and they're quick cooking.i really think this is a must have for any preteen or teenage girl.couldn't love it more!!!

I bought this cookbook along with a couple others for my 3 boys. I was hoping to get each of them involved with some of the cooking in the house. I wanted them to learn some basic things that they will be able to take with them as they get older. So far, they have each enjoyed their evenings picking out the meal they want to make and preparing it. Their ages are 10, 7 & 5. My oldest can pretty much make the recipes by himself with a few questions about the recipe. The other two need a little more help. Overall this is a great cookbook for the beginner offering a decent selection of meals, snacks and desserts. Pictures are great and the instructions fairly easy to follow for the older ones.

I bought this for my 10 yr. old son for Christmas. He loves to cook. He was excited to get his own cookbook. The recipes are great, the whole family enjoys them. It is well laid out and is very informative. A great learning cookbook with very colorful and entertaining pictures. Definitely not boring. I really like the ring binder, the book lies flat when opened making it easier for him to use. I am very happy with my purchace and so is he. It arrived quickly and in good condition. Thanks Amazon.com!!

I gave this kid's cookbook only three stars because the recipes contained within rely too often on packaged/prepared food ingredients (canned soup, crackers, refrigerated dough, etc). I cook real food from whole-food ingredients and want my children to learn this way of cooking as well. The recipes that use whole foods are fine and kid appropriate.

Describing how how the high tech parts of a microwave,flouroscent light,and detectors work. Before repairs; it excellent, except, for p. 122 vacuum cleaners- before calling for help - also, motor filter can be clogged. It's similiar to a plastic scrubbber under the dust container. It can be cleaned by washing it under water. Located below bagging area when the motor intacts air. Rainbow Home Inspection Co. Inman, South Carolina

this is a nice, solid little book - its really quite interesting and informative - presented in a clear way. The illustrations are very helpful - this seems like it would be a good foundation book to have if you are a new home buyer especially.

My husband and I are not really handy around the house, so we purchased this book so we could get to know our home better. We were not disappointed. The diagrams are wonderfully clear and the tips for things to try before calling a professional are wonderful. We have already used the book several times to fix things around the house. The book has paid for itself ten-fold.

I originally checked this book out of the library; I was quite impressed with the clearly labeled drawings, the How It Works section and the Before You Call For Help sections. I then checked out the ratings by reviewers on [...]. Then I purchased several as gifts; all of them were well received. I think that this book is a great resource and confidence builder for any individual who wants to know more about the plumbing, wiring, heating/cooling, ventilation, appliances, windows/doors &/or foundation of one's dwelling. It is very visual and it is presented in clear, easy-to-understand, brief language for the layman. Yet Mr. Wing also writes for professionals in these fields. A highly recommended resource!

I'm a book geek, a connoisseur of ideas. And i'm not one of those book geeks who is also very practical or handy about the house or with home repair. This book includes a visual dictionary (label + illustration)along with its plain explanations. I'm glad I bought it.

This product was received in a timely manner and was in excellent condition; could not have asked for better service. Thank you!

It seems that most comprehensive or beginners sewing books aren't for true absolute beginners. At least that's my experience in learning to sew from books and buying a bunch. This book though is better than most and for that I'd recommend it. I learnt to sew a seam properly with this book. I found the projects enlosed awful though and I'm not tempted to make any of them, not the greetings card with buttons sewn on, nor the waistcoat made of napkins for example. But, the basic information enclosed is useful although all you need to know isn't here. If I knew what I know now before I bought the books I did, I'd still buy this one, unlike a couple of others I have.

This is an easy to read book on sewing. Great for beginners and also for the more experienced that needs a review. Very easy to understand. It is a 'must buy' for the first time sewing person.

Some parts get a little confusing, with a few step by steps that don't add up. But, the techniques described in this book will make anyone a better sewer. And, there are great simple project ideas throughout the book for beginners that allow you to practice as you read through the book. I highly enjoy this book.

I'm new to sewing and I purchased several books to help me get started, including this one. It's easy to read and it gave me a good idea of how to do some things, but I would not have been able to sew just by reading this book. It's a perfect companion to other learning aids and I have returned to it several times. It's worth the cost as long as you have other teaching aids at your disposal.

While useful and informative and, indeed, a must if you buy coins, this book is quite outdated. Since the price of gold and silver have gone up considerably and change daily, the effect on coins is intense in many cases.

There are several sites online where you can get more up-to-date information. Yet having this handy is a good idea. I like having something near my work area and in my hands so I can quickly look up the information I want. Then I can follow that up by going to one of the Web sites.

-Susanna K. Hutcheson

This handbook (The Blue Book)provides a good target price representing dealer's cost for all the US Coins listed in the corresponding retail value Red Book. Invaluable reference tool for quick evaluation of a seller's coin price markups for the casual collector who doesn't need up to the minute price changes. Use it with the Red Book to establish a range for buying and selling.

The Bluebook is an invaluable reference when you are selling coins (along with the Redbook when buying) since it tracks what coin dealers pay for coins. You need to keep in mind that in a "hot" market prices change rapidly which can make the Bluebook "dated" fairly quickly. In any case it does provide a baseline indicating what others have received for coins in specific grades over the past several months giving some indication of what you should receive from a coin dealer.

If you are interested in what you can expect to pay for a coin you want to buy then use the Redbook which tracks the amount dealers charge for coins in specific grades.

The difference between the Redbook and Bluebook indicates the monies retained by dealers for the value they add to collector's trades. So, if you are trading collector-to-collector with no dealer involved, the two references can serve as the high and low bar for the negotiation process.

Easy to use
Contains all information you need to assess any coin
A wise purchase

This book is nice to use when you are wanting to sell one of your coins. It would be a better book if it would come in spiral bound so that it is easier to use.

I love this book, it is absolutely beautiful. Everyone with any taste needs to purchase this book!

Photography is extraordinary. The people featured therein, not so much. Still, it's a beautifully done publication and worth the cash but buy it at discount.
Stylemaven

Flash review: The perfect gift book for this season.

This new book, timed for Xmas giving, features a selection of the best homes shown in Vogue in the past several years. It is a large-scale book, filled with wonderful color photography. Although Elle Decor and Architectural Digest have come out with similar books this season, neither can hold a candle to Vogue's tome. If you are familiar with the 1968 publication, "Vogue's Book of Houses, Gardens, People", which now sells for $400 and up if you can find it, you will know what is in store for you.

Maximum emphasis on homes you would love to see in person, owned by people of impeccable style: Janet de Botton in the south of France, Marella Agnelli in Marrakech, David Cholmondeley's stately, etc.; minimal number of celebrity digs done by decorators of questionable taste which you tend to see in Architectural Digest. The style and taste of the featured houses, gardens (and, yes, people) are on an entirely different plane than those shown in the new books by the other two lifestyle magazines.

you have to love decor and fashion to understand this book.it is Vogue after all!!!! the book is full of fabulous properties and fabulous people.I went through it already many times and got inspired by it.
Buy it f you are a fan of vogue magazine !!!

There is no disputing that this is a sumptuous volume. Lavishly produced, its oversized 384 pages are crammed with images of exquisite rooms and lush gardens from 36 unique homes, owned by the rich and/or famous in Europe, America and North Africa and into the likes of which you and I will never set foot. (Which is the reason, thankfully, such books are produced and why we lesser mortals buy them.)

There are rooms modern and rooms classic, arranged with the taste, elegance and restraint of the world's best decorators and captured by the world's greatest photographers. And yet the rooms are not museum pieces, but are demonstrably inhabited by their owners, their well-scrubbed children and their adorable dogs, such as the greyhound on page 317 filching a piece of cheese from the dinner table.

My favourite room which is featured on the front jacket cover is of Janet de Botton's breakfast room in Provence, its French chateau décor a study in white, cream and faded pastel, the background, literally a wall of china - floral motifed white plates and platters displayed on white-painted, floor-to-ceiling wooden plate racks built into the walls. (Already I've been measuring my walls to see how I can incorporate something similar - though less vast - into my old house).

At the opposite end of the décor spectrum is Amanda Brooks NYC loft, all kitsch and brash eye-popping colour like a Barbie Doll house with Brooks herself photographed in a Barbie Doll style gown in a Barbie Doll pose. (It's not to my personal taste but cleverly done & I had to look twice to be sure the figure lying stiffly across the bed wasn't a mannequin).

If you are a fan of décor books you will find plenty more here to inspire, amuse and entertain you and your like-minded friends and family.

So why did I hold back from a five star rating? My quibble is with the empty 14 pages devoted to Madonna which might have been put to better use: Madonna's cow pastures, M. with (admittedly cute) children; a gowned & high-heeled & coiffed M. feeding the chickens (as if!); M. canoodling with husband, a double-page shot of M's sheep -- & only one tiny interior shot, a sitting room that was rearranged by the photographer & does not reflect the actual décor of Madonna's house - which might have been of real interest even to a non-fan like me.
Thus the book falls just a little short of being, for me, the epitome of the coffee-table décor genre.

This book has wonderful ideas to help us build fantastic fairy houses out of materials found in nature. I have had lots of fun creating these houses for the fairies who live in my woods and I just gave my mother a copy of this book so she can create houses for the fairies in her garden. This book is absolutely enchanting and my fairy friends love their new homes!

This was a wonderul little book that inspired my son and nephews to create several fairy houses down at our river. Not only did it inspire them but my nieghbor and myself found fairy logs as we call them and are creating fairy houses in our gardens. You will love all the different woodsy fairy houses found in this book. Using the outdoor elements to create each one was a great tool to teach kids about nature. Simply enchanting!

Anyone with an imaginative child with fairy aspirations will love this book! Share an architechtural adventure with your little one as the two of you build a home for your fairy.

Great natural photos. My pre school daughter loved the ideas and created her own fairy house by gathering natural elements from the woods. She adds to it every weeek.

This book is nice to look at and does give you some ideas about making your own fairy houses, but doesn't do anything in the way of "how to". In fact, there isn't much text at all. It would have been nice to know more about the project that inspired the book.

Bugs are good! That's the takeaway message of this book. Tallamy is an entomologist so his affection for insects is not surprising, and he clearly admires them for their aesthetic beauty and clever evolutionary adaptations. But he also argues, persuasively and passionately, that there are sound ecological reasons for welcoming insects into our landscapes with open arms--and a smorgasbord of native plants.
Healthy insect populations are essential to sustainable ecosystems that support the birds, butterflies, mammals, reptiles and other "charismatic megafauna" we cherish. Birds, especially, rely on insects and their larvae to feed their young. In the areas we humans have disturbed with our roadways and infrastructure, commercial buildings, residential developments, and agricultural plantations, we have wiped out the native plant diversity that supports wildlife. Tallamy estimates that perhaps only 3% to 5% of the United States remains as undisturbed, natural land, and much of that is composed of "ecological islands" that preclude immigration, making both plant and animal species vulnerable to local extinctions. So unless all of us actively work to convert human-disturbed lands--including our suburban gardens--for the preservation of wild creatures, we will no longer have the opportunity to observe nature on a daily basis. We will have to travel to outlying preserves to visit the few remaining species that survive.
So, what's the connection to native plants? All plants convert the sun's energy into organic matter usable by life. They are the first "trophic level." Insect herbivores eat plants and, in turn, provide food for all the other animals in higher trophic levels: insect carnivores, birds, mammals, reptiles, etc. But insects are often specialists, able only to eat those plants they have evolved with. And in our residential landscapes and agricultural plantings, we have systematically chosen exotic plants or created plant cultivars that are distasteful to our native insects. We have done this to protect our valuable food crops and because we
view our landscapes as mere decoration, wanting them to be aesthetically perfect and unmarred by chewed leaves. But deliberately excluding insect herbivores in this way deprives our ecosystems of a vital link in the food web. And introduced exotics are doubly problematic because these "pest-free" species escape our grasp and themselves become pests, precisely because they are distasteful to the insect herbivores that keep native plants in check. Our native plants, by contrast, are tasty insect food, and insects provide the basis for all the other animals.
To help us choose plants that are insect-friendly, the chapter "What Should I Plant?" identifies and describes those plant genera that have demonstrated the greatest ability to support butterfly and moth larvae. This criterion was chosen because Lepidoptera comprise over 50% of all insect herbivores in the US, because caterpillars are important components of many vertebrate diets, and because there is more published data about host plant
use by butterflies and moths than there is for other insects. Tallamy's plant descriptions are interesting both for his suggestions for landscape applications and his knowledge about which caterpillars make use of each plant group.
The cleverly-titled chapter "What Does Bird Food Look Like?" describes various insect families, including but not limited to Lepidoptera. Tallamy tells us what plants these insects eat, what eats them, and describes interesting or curious facets of their life histories. (Initially I was tempted to skip this chapter but was glad I didn't because I found it fascinating.)
The book is illustrated throughout with wonderful color photographs of plants and insects, and has useful appendices: a list of native plant species that have both wildlife value and desirable landscaping attributes (sorted by region and plant type), a checklist of host plants of butterflies and showy moths, and a summary of Tallamy's survey data that demonstrates his thesis. I enjoyed this book immensely and highly recommend it to anyone who wants to make landscape choices that are more likely to attract birds, butterflies and other creatures. Whether you read the book or not, when you see insects dining on your
landscape, rejoice!

This is a very important book. I reluctantly purchased it after hearing several people that I admire recommend it very highly. I am not much into gardening but am interested in birds, biodiversity and restoring natural habitats. I have read hundreds of books on biology and the environment over the years and have been to hundreds of meetings and conferences regarding solutions to the many problems that beset our natural environment. It is not often that I hear of a very simple solution to a ubiquitous problem, that of a decline in the overall population of birds and mammals and the increase in the ravages of diseases affecting our forests, grasslands and deserts.

In addition to offering a novel solution to major problems the outlook of the book is optimistic and the reading is interesting and pleasurable. Dr. Tallamy is a fine writer and also furnishes fascinating descriptions of the plants, insects, mammals and birds that he has studied. One that I remember from the chapter on insects was the defensive strategy of some insects called leafhoppers that are preyed upon by wasps. The mother protects her offspring that are feeding on the stem above by intercepting attackers from below. If a wasp starts an attack from above her young drum out a distress message that vibrates through the stem to her so she can rush up and try to kick the wasp away. Another insect, a tree-boring beetle, flies to the top of mountain ridges to scan for forest fires with infrared vision to locate trees weakened by fire that are prime targets for feeding and breeding locations.

In addition to these insights into the world of insects and plants the book gives you an understanding of the significant danger from the spread of alien plant species. I agree with all the high recommendations for this book. Everyone that reads this will have a new outlook on nature and even the gardeners will enjoy it.

This book is a must read for all. It highlights and informs about the small steps we can each take to create a better world in our own back yards.

I thought this book was great, and now I'm "sold" on only using native plants in my garden. And for those who say that not all alien plants are bad, and that this book doesn't tell the whole story or whatever, I would retort "well why NOT use native plants only?" To me there's something more "right" about using plants that are native to the very land you are on.

The back of the book contains a terrific appendix that lists good native plants to grow by U.S. region. I was very disappointed however that there was no index for the Northeast region(which is where I live)...

We've been avid gardeners for decades and have done many things to attract wildlife to our 10 acre woodlot where we reside. This book is a real eye-opener. It's scientific but easy on the mind. It's thorough and informative, yet casual in its prose. Dr. Tallamy has made a terrific contribution to anyone who values their property, enjoys healthy diversity in their landscape, and wants to do right by the planet. Don't go to your local nursery before reading this book. Mention this to all your friends who share your outdoor interests and talk to your local librarian to be certain he/she obtains a copy for your community.

Great all around tree info. for all types of fruit trees, especially when starting out.

Extremely helpful! Just moved to a new home and wanted to start my plants off right. This book helped me not only in the selection of my plants, but where on my property it is best to plant them, and how to properly plant them. I also learned the correct ways of pruning and fertilizing each plant. I have found this book to be an invaluable tool to a begining backyard gardener.

The Backyard Orchardist: A Complete Guide to Growing Fruit Trees in the Home GardenI found this book very thorough and informative for someone just learning about growing fruit and nut trees at home. It answered very nearly every one of my questions.

I have about 5 books on fruit trees and this is by far the best and most comprehensive. Only drawback is that they don't use real pictures.

I bought this book because I wanted to learn to care for the fruit trees and plants in my yard. This book looks like it has a lot of good information but honestly unless you are really good at gardening it is very wordy. I don't think I will sit and read it but I will probably use it as a reference book.

My husband does metal sculptures. He saw this book mentioned in a magazine he reads and asked me to order it. He was very pleased with the book. It gave many ideas for metal forming for do-it-yourselfers.

This book explains everything you need to know about fold forming for metal used in art and jewelry.
Wonderful pictures and great explanations of how to do form folding...

The word was on the street with jewelry designers about this book. When I ordered it, it was already backordered. Great pictures and written instructions. Can't wait to get my hammers humming.

This book gives every possible way to fold form. There are many techniques and lots of pictures. I would have given it 5 stars if there had been more pictures of finished products with fold forms.

A great book to have in your library if you are interested in sustainable building. Excellent overview of all of the different aspects to consider. It did leave out any discussion of log construction.

A comprehensive run over all the options when building new or remodelling a house and wanting to be "greener". Provides most of the sustainable info you need, and would help for future house rating schemes as much of the content structure seems to be geared around LEED. A possible fault is too much detail on alternative technologies (e.g. straw houses) which the vast majority of even green obesssives will never use. Good for reference or just dipping. As a non-American I found it a bit US-centric but not so as to effect its relevance.

This book has a lot of great ideas, however it has a very strong bias in certain areas such as wind energy being very poor cost efficient method of energy production. It goes in to depth about solar panels and offers alot of great ideas for cheap energy efficient housing ideas way above and beyond the average methods.

Green architect Eric Corey Freed knows his stuff and it shows in Green Building and Remodeling for Dummies.

Freed makes green building and remodeling approachable and very doable.

I like the checklists throughout the book and the perfect green rooms, both of which make understanding the big picture easy.

Freed does an excellent job in explaining the advantages of building green for the health of the occupants and the environment.

If you've ever wondered what the true environmental cost of a particular product is, Freed does a great job of explaining it in "the life cycle of materials from cradle to grave." If you didn't "get" greeen before, this section will show you how important it is to look at the entire life cycle of a product to determine how green--or not--a particular product is.

I also liked the handy list of green material substitutes which make purchasing very easy.

The book was very readable and concise and even fun to read. I highly recommend it.

By the author of the award winning book, Harmonious Environment: Beautify, Detoxify and Energize Your Life, Your Home and Your Planet

I have a number of the Dummies books on various topics, and had an interest in how one might "green" an existing home, or build a new one. One thing I learned recently is that 50% of the energy lost from a typical house is due to poor building insulation, and that's one area in which most houses, depending on where in the U.S. they're built, could be improved. Since we wanted to beef up our house's insulation, we had a type of insulation installed that was more green than the other choices, and that is equally effective. If you're building a house from scratch, this book has a lot more information on many other topics relating to green building, including materials, construction, design ideas, energy saving tips and ideas, and many more topics on the subject.