Guest Review: Transforming Your Kitchen with Stock Cabinetry

Transforming Your Kitchen with Stock Cabinetry: Design, Select, and Install for a Custom Look at the Right Price

Product Details

  • Pub. Date: October 2010
  • Publisher: Fox Chapel Publishing Company, Incorporated
  • Format: Paperback , 160pp
  • Sales Rank: 423,636

Synopsis

Make Your Dream Kitchen an Affordable Reality
Creating the kitchen of your dreams does not have to involve custom-made cabinetry and a budget-busting price tag. Cabinet and furniture maker Jonathan Benson shows you how to transform your kitchen by less for using money-saving stock cabinetry and a well-thought-out plan.
Benson takes you through the planning process that will help you create a kitchen space that meets the needs of all members of your family. With extensive input from his wife, Sherry, a former executive chef and restaurant owner, Benson shows you that working as a team can make a kitchen remodeling effort go smoothly, even when opinions differ.
Transforming Your Kitchen with Stock Cabinetry will teach you with what you need to know before going cabinet shopping, how to live in a construction zone, and the pros and cons of various countertop materials. The Bensons put you right in the heart of a remodeling project, which happens to be their kitchen, and guide you through the process to dream kitchen success.

David’s Thoughts

If you’re looking to redo your kitchen anytime soon, I’d recommend reading this book first.  It covers everything from layout to cabinet selection to tearing out old cabinets to having a finished kitchen.  Written by a husband and wife team, he’s a cabinet maker and general contractor and she’s an executive chef, it goes into just as much detail explaining why location of appliances is important as it does which cabinet to install first.  While an experienced contractor may not find anything new in the book, it’s great for a do-it-your-selfer.  I have redone several kitchens and had to learn most of the information in this book the hard way.  It’s easy to understand and filled with pictures showing the step-by-step process as the authors completely redesign their own kitchen.  If you’re worried about the high cost normally involved with a complete kitchen makeover, read this book and you’ll find out it may not be as expensive as you fear.  This book will definitely get a lot of use at my house.

Guest Review (early): A Kingdom Besieged

A Kingdom Besieged: Book One of the Chaoswar Saga

Product Details

  • Pub. Date: April 2011
  • Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
  • Format: Hardcover , 368pp
  • Sales Rank: 23,576

Synopsis

“Feist has the universe firmly under his control.”
Contra Costa Times
“Feist has a natural talent for keeping the reader turning pages.”
Chicago-Sun Times
Midkemia’s fifth and final Riftwar—the devastating Chaoswar—explodes in the opening volume of Raymond E. Feist’s spectacular new epic fantasy trilogy of magic, conflict, and world-shattering peril. A Kingdom Besieged is a breathtaking adventure that brings back Pug—first introduced in Feist’s classic debut novel, Magician, and now Midkemia’s most powerful sorcerer—who faces a major magical cataclysm that forces him to question everything he’s ever held as true and dear…including the loyalty of his beloved son Magnus. The Chaoswar promises to be the crowning achievement in the three decades-long career of a New York Times bestselling master fantasist who rules the sword and sorcery universe along with Terry Goodkind, George R. R. Martin, and Terry Brooks.

David’s Thoughts

This is yet another great read by Mr. Feist.  Continuing after the Demonwar Saga, this first book in the Chaoswar Saga once again sees Midkemia at war.  Kesh launches an assault on the Kingdom, but no one, including he head of the Keshian intelligence, seems to know who’s behind the attacks or why.  The Conclave of Shadows is busy trying to determine the cause of the demon incursions.  Pug is struggling to cope with the death of his wife and son.  And on the demon world, a new demon begins to make her escape from the Darkness devouring her realm.  New characters are introduced and thrust into the action.  And the ending will leaving you wondering how long you have to wait for the next book to be released.
I thoroughly enjoyed this book.  It is as well written as the rest of Mr. Feist’s books have been.

Guest Review: HTML 5

HTML5: Up and Running

Product Details

  • Pub. Date: August 2010
  • Publisher: O’Reilly Media, Incorporated
  • Format: Paperback , 205pp
  • Sales Rank: 37,864

Synopsis

If you don’t know about the new features available in HTML5, now’s the time to find out. This book provides practical information about how and why the latest version of this markup language will significantly change the way you develop for the Web.
HTML5 is still evolving, yet browsers such as Safari, Mozilla, Opera, and Chrome already support many of its features — and mobile browsers are even farther ahead. HTML5: Up & Running carefully guides you though the important changes in this version with lots of hands-on examples, including markup, graphics, and screenshots. You’ll learn how to use HTML5 markup to add video, offline capabilities, and more — and you’ll be able to put that functionality to work right away.
  • Learn new semantic elements, such as &#lt;header&#gt;, &#lt;footer&#gt;, and &#lt;section&#gt;
  • Meet Canvas, a 2D drawing surface you can program with JavaScript
  • Embed video in your web pages without third-party plugins
  • Use Geolocation to let web application visitors share their physical location
  • Take advantage of local storage capacity that goes way beyond cookies
  • Build offline web applications that work after network access is disconnected
  • Learn about several new input types for web forms
  • Create your own custom vocabularies in HTML5 with microdata

David’s Thoughts

This book shows how to use many of the new elements of web design present in HTML 5. It is not intended to be a complete reference manual for HTML.  The author seems very knowledgeable of proper HTML use and web design.  However, I gave up on trying to read the whole book.  The first couple of chapters seem to be background history on HTML and the internet in general.  Aside from HTML 5 being the newest thing to use, I don’t understand why the history lesson was included in the book.  The remaining chapters each cover a different topic illustrating the new elements, (i.e. canvas in chapter 4, video in chapter 5, geolocation in chapter 6, etc.).  Some of the elements are covered in great detail, while others seemed to be quickly glossed over.  I read the digital version and it is full of external links to websites for ‘further reading’.  Frankly, this irritated me to no end.  I felt like I was browsing wikipedia, where every article I read has a ton of links to other articles explaining what I was just reading about.  I could have easily spent more time reading the ‘further reading’ links than the actual book.
If you’re looking to make a website incorporating one of the items covered in this book, it may be a good buy.  But don’t expect to build an entire website, as the book isn’t designed to cover building a whole page, just sections.  Honestly, I’m glad I have the digital version as I don’t think the book is worth taking up shelf space.