How to Live Green, Cheap, and Happy: Save Money! Save the Planet!

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DO NOT BUY

This book is worth your time.

How to Live Green, Cheap, and Happy: Save Money! Save the Planet!
Randi Hacker
Manufacturer: Stackpole Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0811724492

Customer Reviews:

DO NOT BUY.......2005-02-26

This book offers some insightful information although i don't think the value is really worth it. Here is a suggestion , go to the library and try to find it there. If you want to be cheap. Start here. DO NOT BUY THIS BOOK. DO NOT EVEN BUY IT USED!! The reason you can't save money is because of poor investments like this one. Stay away. If you want to know why you can't save money ...it's because of poor choices like this one

This book is worth your time........2001-01-08

This book is interesting to put it in one word. It offers many ideas to help people interested in a lifestyle of saving money and being eco-friendly. Some of the suggestions are practical. For example, going to thrift stores to buy clothing. Also a chapter discusses how to grow your own food for economical and ecological reasons. I think one of the best Chapters of the book is Chapter 9. It is called "Clean Enough." This chapter discusses Americans' fetish with anti-bacterial products. However, I found some of the tips in this book to be obscure for somebody like me (21-year-old college student with a part-time job). One of these tips was to wash your hair once every three days. That would create a problem for myself because I am judged upon my appreance where I work. I also dislike to let my hair get oily and greasy looking. I think probably the worst thing about this book is the tip on how to make your own sanitary napkins. I can understand the reasoning behind this idea but it is hardly practical for somebody like me. That part kind of made me sick. If EVERYONE on the planet followed the guidlines in this book the world would be cleaner and perhaps more enjoyable. Though, I am not sure if everyone in the world would find these suggestions practical and worth the time. If you are interested in reading the book then buy it. I enjoyed reading it, and it did enlighten me.

Book Description

· A best-selling volume in America's most reliable and comprehensive guidebook series.
· Covers over 4,000 lodgings and restaurants in Arkansas, Colorado, Kansas, Louisiana, Missouri, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Texas--plus all the sights worth seeing.
· Every lodging and restaurant rated with One to Five Stars, based on inspections by Mobil Travel Guide's experienced Field Representatives and the informed recommendations of the guide's expert Ratings Committee.
· Encyclopedic listings of sights, activities, parks, forests, and events.
· Easy-to-use state-by-state organization, with listings in alphabetical order by town.
· Over $500 in money-saving coupons.
· Full-color state highway maps for each state in the guide, plus U.S. interstate maps and more.
· Comprehensive indexes of hotels and restaurants.

Book Description

As soon as Mum dropped me off, I made a dive for the ladies room, where I trashed the sandwich she'd made me and reapplied my makeup. Mum really didn't understand. I couldn't possibly get up on stage in front of everyone looking like I was dressed for afternoon tea with my grandma.

Izzie is restless, and eager to be treated like an adult. So she decides it's time to make some changes. But the new Izzie comes with new problems. First there is Josh Harper, an older, cute-but-wild boy. Then there is her mother, who is opposed to every part of the "new Izzie."

How can Izzie learn about herself and what it means to be grown up -- without upsetting everyone along the way?

Customer Reviews:

pretty darn good.......2006-06-22

i think that it was a good story but could have used a little more unexpected surprises. overall the talking about teenage subjects was effective although it was slightly sugarcoated.

~Maddie W

Great stuff for girl teens .......2006-05-11

As i bookseller with specialty in kids and teens, I must really give this series the "thumbs up"!

They are great "light reading", but with substantial contents for their target group. A series with all the right messages - trust in yourself, value your good friendships, be your own person, don't succumb to group pressure etc. BUT they are not annoyingly politically correct, and they are written in a way that will appeal to most age 11-14 girls.
They deal with friendships, first loves, puberty, parents, siblings, school and issues like 'what am I good at' and 'what do I want to be professionally' etc.
The first 6 books are narrated by 4 different girls (who are all friends), which gives a good insight to how different girls in a group see, react towards and percieve the various situations and issues.

Reading "guidelines":
The first five books are good from age 11 and up, from book six the girls mature somewhat and, depending on the individual of course, readers should be a year or two older.

really good series!!.......2005-06-14

This is the sixth book in this series and it is about Izzie. In this book, she meets a boy in the park, Josh, and he is a bad influence, he does drugs, smokes and drinks. Izzie thinks nothing of it and does it too, even though she doesnt like the feeling of any of it. She starts getting into fights with her mom because of it and gets into lots of trouble and her friends start worring about her. Read this series, its really good!!!

Good but not the best .......2005-05-13

I enjoyed this novel for the most part but I've got to admit that it wasn't my favorite of Cathy Hopkins's books. It had an interesting premise and moved at a good pace but it just felt a little lackluster for some reason. (I definitely can relate to Izzie though.) In the end, there was too much preaching and philosphizing. Authors need to learn that sending a message about drugs, alcohol and sex to teenagers is best done sublty. Over all the book was pretty good.

Fun, but it seems a little bit desperate.......2005-02-05

I love the books in the Mates, Dates, and...series, but the last two have seemed a little bit desperate. Cathy Hopkins is a good author, but it seems like this series is about to end. MATES, DATES, AND MAD MISTAKES is cute, but nothing special.

Izzie feels a little different from the rest of her friends - she wants to try more wild and crazy things (like drinking and getting her belly-button pierced without parental consent), but she's still the same fun character. When Izzie starts testing her limits, though, she starts to get into trouble. She's met this guy, Josh, and he's encouraging her to do a ton of things she wouldn't normally do. Her friends (and parents) recognize that she's fallen into a downward spiral, but they can't do anything to change her mind.

MATES, DATES, AND MAD MISTAKES is one of the more serious books, with Izzie getting into drinking, smoking, drugs, and lying to her mom and stepdad. I wouldn't say the book is bad, but for all the problems that Izzie faces, the ending was too sugarcoated. Also, I miss the Izzie from the older books - the one that was into all the astrology, tarot cards, etc. In MATES, DATES, AND MAD MISTAKES, Izzie barely even mentions any of the things she loved in the first books.

I'd recommend getting it from the library, but I wouldn't buy it.

Overall grade - C

Average customer rating:

Mates, Dates and Mad Mistakes

Manufacturer: PICCADILLY PRESS
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000GNZZQA

7 RANDOM MATES, DATES, AND SEQUIN SIMLES, MAD MISTAKES, SOLE SURVIVORS, SLEEPOVER SECRETS, DESIGNER DIVAS, INFLATABLE BRAS AND TEMPTING TROUBLE (MATES, DATES AND)

Average customer rating:

7 RANDOM MATES, DATES, AND SEQUIN SIMLES, MAD MISTAKES, SOLE SURVIVORS, SLEEPOVER SECRETS, DESIGNER DIVAS, INFLATABLE BRAS AND TEMPTING TROUBLE (MATES, DATES AND)
CATHY HOPKINS
Manufacturer: SIMON PULSE
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000TPF0ZG

Average customer rating:
Reinventing Biology: Respect for Life and the Creation of Knowledge (Race, Gender, and Science)
Lynda I. A. Birke , and Ruth Hubbard
Manufacturer: Indiana University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Biology | Biological Sciences | Science | Subjects | Books
General | Science | Subjects | Books
General | Biology | Biological Sciences | Professional Science | Professional & Technical | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0253209811

Average customer rating:
Reinventing Biology: respect for life & the creation of knowledge
BIRKE & HUBBARD EDS
Manufacturer: Indiana UP
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000LLTKJK

Book Description

Mario Vargas Llosa condenses a lifetime of writing, reading, and thought into an essential manual for aspiring writers. Drawing on the stories and novels of writers from around the globe-Borges, Bierce, Cline, Cortzar, Faulkner, Kafka, Robbe-Grillet-he lays bare the inner workings of fiction, all the while urging young novelists not to lose touch with the elemental urge to create. Conversational, eloquent, and effortlessly erudite, this little book is destined to be read and re-read by young writers, old writers, would-be writers, and all those with a stake in the world of letters.

Customer Reviews:

good advice but a bit much for a "young" novelist.......2007-08-22

The introduction leads one to believe this is geared toward a fourteen or fifteen year old potential writer. God knows it would have flown over my head at any time before my mid-twenties - both the intellectual discussions presented and the literary references made.

It still shown a bright blazing light at my near complete ignorance of Spanish and Latin American novelists. But taken in the sense of "young" meaning "beginning" novelist, it was a good read with a lot of interesting viewpoints on the makeup of a novel.

Entertaining but forgettable.......2004-01-05

These short essays examine various literary techniques in detail but are ultimately unhelpful in writing (or reading) fiction. While discussing narrative options available to the writer, we never are offered advice of why different techniques work or when they might work. Or even how different authors make them work (except for one or two examples in the final chapters). There is only the indefinable je ne sais quoi. The book is very well written, witty and it is interesting to see the list of the works Vargas Llosa admires but ultimately, sad to say, forgettable.

Essential Companion.......2003-05-30

Reading Mario Vargas Llosa's works of literature is one of the best experiences a reader can have. In "Letters to a Young Novelist" Vargas Llosa shares the name of authors that have shaped his life as a writer, along with his personal insight on narrative techniques, and an unconditional love for the written word. Each chapter presents valuable information for anyone interested in the art of writing or for anyone who enjoys reading a well-written book.

Concise, Real, and Enlightening.......2002-08-18

This book is written as a series of letters to an anonymous, aspiring novelist. Obviously it is fashioned after Rilke's "Letters to a Young Poet", and although somewhat cheeky, the style and tone of these pseudo-letters fit Mario Vargas Llosa's objectives in writing.

Unlike some of the mainstream writing tutorials that are around, this volume, although slight in page length, has genuine and truly original insights that will help your writing tremendously. For example, whereas most writing instructors teaach you to stick to one point-of-view, Vargas Llosa says one of the most unbending rules in fiction is that no novel sticks to one kind of point-of-view, that it subtly changes. There are equally startling and persuasive directives regarding spatial and temporal matters in fiction.

The book is fun to read as well; only a novelist of Vargas Llosa's caliber can dismiss many of the so-called 'classics' and not seem vindictive and/or crazy. To fully understand this book (although not totally necessary), a reader should have at least a passing knowledge of the writers and their works that Vargas Llosa invokes as examples. i.e. Proust, Flaubert, Robbes-Grillet, etc.

If you are an aspiring writer, chances are good that this wry book will be an indispensable guide. Highly recommended.

Adroitly written.......2002-07-29

"Letters" is an adroitly written instruction book for beginning writers. Incorporating an imaginary correspondent, Mario Vargas Llosa writes a series of letters to a young protege sharing his years of literary experience and outlining the principles that make a novel. It is an interesting vehicle for an instruction book and it works. Most books of how to write are overloaded with superfluous detail and have the annoying tendency to be academic in the approach to writing. This book is breezy, conversational, loaded with brilliant insight and fun to read. Sighting loads of examples from classic and not so classic novels he brings to life essential topics of style, voice, time, point of view and other narrative tools that the masters of the novel have incorporated for hundreds of years.

Book Description

The sensuous evocation of a young woman's sea journey from refined England to the wilds of Australia. It is 1854, and with the certainty of land behind her, Sarah flees her home for the uncertainties of life in the new colony. In steerage, she joins the other unmarried women, where the horrors of their close confinement bring an unraveling of secrets no one can control. Sarah endures, longing for her mother's forgiveness and the sweetness of her cousin Richard's breath. As she draws closer to her new land, she becomes increasingly haunted by her own tale and the letter home she cannot write. Moving between the voyage in which pigs run through flooded living quarters to the hallucinatory visions induced by heat and doldrums, Christine Balint's astonishing debut novel brings us close to a time when the world was still a place to be discovered. Shortlisted for the Vogel Literary Award.

Customer Reviews:

Ambiguous Ending leaves this reader Ambiguous.......2007-04-14

While I can't say I hated this book, I can't say I loved it either. The Salt Letters provided an interesting and easily readable account of a girl's escape from family expectations to pursue the love of her life...and to do so required her to travel all the way across the world in a rickety, overcrowded boat. Her experiences are harrowing and the narrative voice is true: you feel Sarah's experiences and sympathize with her.

What I didn't like about the book was that it was written in such a vague way that I couldn't really tell what happened at the end. The narrative weaves the story through both the present and the past, but the ending isn't clear if she's in a dream world from her sickness or if she's healed and will begin her life anew in the "new world." It almost feels as if the author wants the reader to be confused, or that she's being cute in writing a double-meaning ending, but it was unsatisfying for this reader. I didn't like not knowing.

What I did like about the book is how the characters feel real, how you can sympathize with them, how their struggle to survive the miseries of the long boat ride (boredom, discomfort, unsanitary conditions, bad food, lack of privacy, etc.) makes them all feel a little crazy, how the narrative takes on a fantasy tone at times. The playfulness of the narrative was a stark contrast to the actual events of the story, and was, for the most part, done well.

Too flamboyant........2006-01-22

"The Salt Letters: A Novel" was a book that interested me greatly from its plot summary. I had not read about anyone coming from Australia to America via a boat, nor have I read about unmarried women making such a voyage. I ended up learning nothing about these topics. Author Christine Balint made her story much too artistic. It left me thinking, "And the point of this was..." True love? Perseverance? I have no idea. I would rather she have focused on the taboo relationship between the cousins rather than the voyage, since that was the most difficult to read and understand. I do not recommend.

Leaves you wondering..........2002-01-08

Set on a ship sailing from England to Australia in the 1800's, Sarah is traveling in the unmarried women's section (in steerage) of the ship. With a tough matron to watch over them and nothing better to do, each girl tells a story of what they are running from and hoping to find. At the heart is Sarah, who believes she has a fish in her stomach and is made of salt water. She tells her story in broken bits, as part of the journey causes her to remember.

I am really not sure what to think of this book. Sometimes, I think it is good, others, it seemed very poorly done. Christine Balint is more known for her short story work, and in my opinion probably should have stuck to it. "Salt Letters" is a good story, with vivid descriptions that pull you in and make you feel what is going on. But, the Balint has goes from each characters story, and back to Sarah's, the main character. The ending, well, it just ends, leaving you wondering what happened.

A terrific book.......2002-01-04

Balint's language and tone were pitch-perfect. A fascinating story, wonderful book.

A life ends on land and begins on sea.......2001-08-28

This book was one of the best I've ever read. I throughly enjoyed it and was very upset when it was over. Throughout the book, I wondered what it would be like to be in the girls shoes. To have to run away from a man whom her parents wish her to marry, and run off to Astralia of all places with her lover. It really made me sad to think that her love wasn't on the ship but happy to find out the secrets of the end. I especially loved how the author had her start letters to her family but never finish them, and then the resolve on how she came to fix that. I recomend this book highly to anyone intrested in historical fiction! I loved it!! I hope you do too!

Granta 43: Best of Young British Novelists 2 (Granta (Viking))

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Granta 43: Best of Young British Novelists 2 (Granta (Viking))

Manufacturer: Penguin Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Essays | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 014014059X

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Letters to a Young Novelist
Mario Vargas Llosa
Manufacturer: FSG
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000PI4MX8

MR. THACKERAY IN RICHMOND. DESCRIPTIVE COMMENTS FROM A LETTER WRITTEN BY A YOUNG LADY IN I853, AFTER MEETING THE DISTIGUISHED BRITISH NOVELIST

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MR. THACKERAY IN RICHMOND. DESCRIPTIVE COMMENTS FROM A LETTER WRITTEN BY A YOUNG LADY IN I853, AFTER MEETING THE DISTIGUISHED BRITISH NOVELIST
William Makepeace] Thackeray
Manufacturer: Attic Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000VXK7GS

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