This is a charming book and serves to remind us all about our families and the experiences we had growing up. Children today might take a moment to read this and reflect on their own day-to-day experiences. Too often today we forget and take too many things for granted. I enjoyed reading this book

Faye Kicknosway is one of the most awesome US poets on earth, and this small book caputures her huge, trans-ego power. She is a zen master poet, teacher to Lois-Ann Yamanaka, Justin Chin, and Zack Linmark at the U of Hawaii at Manoa. She is a crazed goddess on earth, a voice from beyond the codings and the poesy games. Read her, and your life may be changed forever, and poetry will live on as it does in her myriad works and days.

There are a lot of books out on this subject, but this one is one of the best. Sampson is an excellent, engaging writer. Into the midst of profound ideas, she injects the entertaining, fascinating stories of the Celtic saints and those associated with them. What emerges is a tale of great beauty and deep meaning--a new light on a worlwide faith. What sets her book apart from others is her refusal to pit a Celtic Church against a Roman or Continental Church. To the average reader this is no big deal, but so much that is written about Celtic Christianity these days deals more with polemic than with reality. She keeps us firmly based in reality and gives us a side of Christianity that should be valued, appreciated and practiced in our day and age. Great book, great read, great contribution!

When Dreams Don't Work is a most wonderful and essential guide for anyone facing life's challenges, sadness, and disappointment. The authors help us understand our very natural responses to burn out and most major perceived setbacks and dilemmas. I recommend this to every manager, investor, and thinking citizen, and to everyone entering the challenging stages of middle age and senior status. My only wish is that I had read this book during my college years, as its guidance is truly magnificent.

I first met the author during a seminar she conducted a few years before her book came out. I immediately put her techniques to practice and my career took a drastic turn for the better. I was thrilled to be one of the profiled professionals in George-Anne's book. I use the techniques I have learned with her on a daily basis both in my professional and personal life.

If you are looking to re-fuel your career and find that extra "UMPH" that is required when you know you are ready to take on the world in the Administrative Profession, you need to read this book and even listen to her seminars on tapes.

This is a book of empowerment for Administrative Professionals worldwide. It helps the reader recognize his/her weak areas and how to take advantage of them in order to not only overcome them, but to resurface as the seasoned professional that resides within. Written in her personal style - it's also a "fun book" to read; knowing George-Anne personally and professionally has enriched my life in many aspects - there is something for everyone in her book. Get it! Apply it! It'll propel you into the reality of the Administrative Profession.

Particularly interesting to me are the chapters that discuss "Change", "How to do what you want", how to "Expand your Circle of Influence" and the importance of continuing training.

This is the best theoretical book examining a central concept to many family therapy models, triangles. Thomas Fogarty referred to this book as a triangles reference manual for family therapists. A great professional book for the library.

This excellent book kept me turning pages until the end. As a guy, I don't think you need to be a woman to enjoy to clever and cruel plotting Ruth uses to get her revenge. Her sweeping retaliation against her husband and his mistress (who are deserving of a little justice), is well written and fun.

The only reason I won't recommend this book to everyone is its unrelenting dark side. Nearly all of the characters are unlikable in an interesting way. Even the final ends for the She-Devil are unsettling. She's happy to have achieved her goal, but the reader is left to wonder about her wisdom.

If you enjoy dark humor, read this book.

I think too many readers & reviewers have overlooked the sheer scope of Ms. Weldon's attack in this, my favorite novel. More than just a roadmap to the vengence of one woman against the man and mistress that cause the disintegration of her life, Ruth by the end, becomes the avenging angel of all who have ever felt unwanted by a world consumed with the transient virtues of beauty, taste and wealth. She decimates, with the depraved passion of a Bosch-like demon, all of the "sensible" notions of love, mother-hood, respect for beauty and humanity that society foists upon the less attractive of its people, specifically its women. By the end of this novel her attack broadens beyond the simply banal cruelties of man and begins to rattle the very gates of heaven itself to force a confrontation with Nature and God. Ruth's gripe is with God and not man, for she sees Him as the real culprit behind the suffering she, and all women, must endure. Her ultimate victory, and the perversity of its coming is summated in the last line of this book(In my opinion, one of the best final lines ever written). One of the sharpest minds writing today, Ms. Weldon brings a lucidity and vigor to her portrait of the modern beauty-obssessed culture, that is by turns bitingly humorous and strangely touching; for all of the bile that she unleashes throughout the novel, Ruth is a character that we can fundamentally claim as one of "our" own. I think that this "our" goes way beyond the small group of feminist women who have had Weldon claimed as one of their own. For me she is the truest torch-bearer for anyone who has ever felt not beautiful, intelligent, graceful or genteel enough to earn respect in our culture. A true masterpiece, this novel is Weldon at her delicious best and is worthy of any comparison to that other great novel of revenge, "Moby Dick". Is Ruth Patchett the modern-day equivalent of Ahab? You decide.

I find this book complete genius and one of the best feminist books I have ever read. Ruth's hideous looks are her husband's excuse for treating her like an animal, and eventually leaving her for an ultra-feminine and successful woman. Ruth can see Mary Fisher's shallow and materialistic success and character, and she knows that they are what society respects the most. Ruth doesn't, and shouldn't accept this cruelty, for she knows that there is no justification for her husband's and society's ways, and she has to get even. Ruth hasn't got anything too lose, she doesn't have any money, respect or public status, therefore she can plan her revenge without any regrets. Ruth's revenge on her unfaithful husband Bobbo is clearly about getting back at society, and it's ridiculous demands of women. Ruth gives up motherhood, love, humanity, and even her own body in order to show the world and Mary Fisher and Bobbo in particular, that beauty, respect and popularity can be achieved by anybody.

Nancy Springer's "I Am Mordred" is still one of the most original and intriguing retellings of Arthurian legend. Now there is a prequel to that work "I Am Morgan Le Fey," a haunting story of a young girl's gradual downhill stumble.

Morgan's father died the night she saw a strange man going off with her mother Igraine. That man, the king, soon took Igraine to be his queen, and her little daughters went to live with the nurse Ongwynn. During that time, Morgan falls in love with Ongwynn's doomed son Thomas, and learns of her own blossoming magical powers.

But things take a nasty turn when she is a teenager. Armed with a druid stone and the aid of gods and fay, she goes on a quest to find her traumatized mother in Avalon. But losses and rejection will spur her on to a destiny that she was desperate to avoid...

Like its sequel, "Morgan" is ultimately a psychological work. Springer avoids "it wasn't his/her fault" traps, instead focusing on explaining rather than excusing. The romance is bittersweet and well-written, which makes the violence and darker undercurrents even more disturbing. And though Morgan's glimpses of the future, we also see a few facets of what we also saw in "I Am Mordred" -- Morgan as she would be about twenty or thirty years in the future, and what she would do to her family.

The main difficulty with the book is that in places it feels a little distended, as if the plot is being scraped a bit too thin. The writing is lush and detailed, with different atmosphere for different settings: Dreamy for Avalon, woodsy and homelike for Ongwynn's cottage, and dangerous for any of the roads.

Morgan is a genuinely compelling anti-heroine, who will have readers wishing that her path were anything else. Thomas will win over readers as well, a quiet character who lacks Morgan's darkness. Igraine and Morgause may annoy the readers, and Ongwynn will interest as the surrogate grandmother figure. The other characters are pretty undeveloped, especially the villain.

Definitely a good read for fans of good spins on Arthuriana, and definitely for fans of Morgan le Fay (I would recommend this highly over any other Morgan-related book).

I am Morgan le Fay
By: Nancy Springer
Ms. Olivet Eng. per.2

I am Morgan le Fay is a spellbinding tale of the enchanted place, Avalon, from long ago. It has an incredibly facinating plot, with impecable details. Together these two characteristics create a captivating novel that reaches into the mind of the reader.
Nancy Springer's use of imagery brings the reader into the mystical Arthurian world of the sorceress, herself, Morgan le Fay. The castles, forests, events, and never-ending emotions are portrayed so well in the story that the reader can clearly picture them in his/her mind. The author also brings you, the reader, into the mind of the spoiled, stubborn Morgan, as she grows both older and wiser. As you read through the book, you feel everything that Morgan feels, and begin to think the way
she does, often forgetting about reality and falling into the words of the novel.
As Morgan grows by learning and gaining powers from the milprieve stone, she begins to understand more about herself, and how her past has formed the person she is now.
Overall, I felt the novel, I am Morgan le Fay, was a fantastic book filled with dazzling events, people, and places that tease the mind for more reading. I would most definitely recommend this book to readers with creative minds, good imaginations, and those who enjoy fantasy.

This has to be the best book I have EVER read in my entire life. It not only contains magic, suspense, betrayle, and hatered, but it also containes passion,undieing love,and loss.

This story is about a little girl who doesn't really know her destiny, and as she grows up she starts to find it step by step. She finds a magical druid stone one day, and then, before she knows it, starts to start on a never ending adventure- literally. For Morgan le Fay means Morgan the fate, and this fated girl will have to live with the scars of her youth for the rest of her life, and be burdend with the infamous power that brought her those scars. For she is Morgan le Fay...

I was hooked on this book from page one. The journal of 11 year old (to her late teens) Daisy Fay Harper is a gem! I laughed so much reading this book and wondered, "Where did Fannie Flagg get these ideas?" She is a wonderful story teller. The characters are great (didn't we all have someone like Kay Bob "Big Mouth" Benson in our lives?) and memorable. If anyone is looking for a light read and lots of fun and laughs then look no further than DAISY FAY AND THE MIRACLE MAN. I'm recommending this book to all my friends who love to read.

It's not often accurate to describe anyone as a hero/ine, but Daisy Fay Harper is the heroine of one of my favorite books, "Daisy Fay and the Miracle Man" by Fannie Flagg. It's a sweet, silly, noble, crazy book, sometimes heartrendingly sad but more often hysterically funny; and unlike some cutesie kid characters, Daisy will strike an unmistakeable note of truth with anyone who remembers what being a child was really like.

The book is in the form of Daisy's diary. The story starts when she's eleven and ends when she's about twenty. In the beginning, she's a very bright girl with a sense of humor that can only be described as "wacky" (I usually dislike that word -- but what else can you call somebody who titles her Halloween project "The Hall of Blood and Guts"?). Her parents are constantly fighting, primarily because her father is completely irresponsible, but she's very fond of her father because they're so much alike -- ambitious, charming, full of big ideas and harebrained schemes. Daisy daydreams about movies and popular songs, and eagerly anticipates blossoming into an exciting adulthood of fame, fortune, the occasional albino, and Technicolor adventures.

Like Pippi Longstocking, Daisy is feisty and self-confident, and her mental and emotional health are not at all hampered by "femininity". It doesn't bother her that being smart makes her different from the other kids at school, or that girls aren't supposed to be the class clown -- and if she even realizes that she's an oddball, she's OK with that. Despite her weirdness, she has her own circle of friends, including some grown-ups. She has only one arch-enemy, the arrogant, spoiled-rotten rich kid Kay Bob Benson (every kid knows another kid who's a hateful, backstabbing snake, and the adult authority figures never seem to catch on -- why is that, I wonder?), whom she's able to outsmart and outmaneuver without even trying very hard.

I like Daisy partly because she's a little bit like me -- or like I could have been in a parallel universe -- but mainly just because Daisy is who and what she is. She personifies the childlike qualities that most of us start out with and then lose somewhere along the way. Daisy's brave, smart, kind, resourceful, and funny -- but also stubborn, amoral, buttheaded, and conniving. She's loyal, generous, and supportive toward her family and friends (when one of her pals gets a fever that causes all his hair to fall out, she wins the essay contest by writing a composition titled "Why I Want to be Bald"), but downright vengeful toward her nemesis, the evil Kay Bob (who richly deserves it).

Daisy looks after she leaps, not before -- that is, if it ever occurs to her to look at all, which isn't often -- and the results aren't always what she expects or hopes for. She doesn't always succeed in being good -- in fact, a lot of the time, she doesn't even try -- mainly because the not-so-good way is easier and/or more fun. But deep down, she's pure at heart and trying to find her way in a world that doesn't always make sense to kids -- and too often, isn't kind to them, either. Daisy's underlying integrity makes the reader empathize with and root for her throughout the book, no matter what sort of mischief she's up to at a given moment.

The pleasurably implausible plot is full of surprises and convoluted twists and turns. The characters, far from being cookie-cutter cartoons of down-home Southern folks, are complex, varied individuals. Nobody is too good to be true; almost nobody is too bad to be true; and nobody is "quirky" in that cheesy fake-cute way that never *ever* happens in real life.

A lot of the book is fairly over-the-top, but in other passages, the humor is deadpan, almost as though Flagg were trying to sneak it past the reader. I don't want to give away too many surprises, but one example of this is too good not to share: In Home Ec, Daisy's classmate accidentally sewed the skirt of her dress to the sewing machine, and when the bell rang at the end of class and everybody stood up to go, it ripped off the entire sewing machine arm. The last sentence in Daisy's diary entry for that day reads simply: "Tomorrow we're having a lecture on 'Safety and Small Appliances'".

Flagg's writing style never clobbers or manipulates the reader -- she's equally clever, observant, and deft whether she's making you laugh or making you cry. Her obvious heartfelt emotion for the place and the people (good and bad) imbue the book with authenticity and compassion, without being sappy. There's also something about her writing style that makes me feel as though she's a genuinely kind person, one whom I'd like to have for a friend.

Despite some very real tragedies (on both a great and small level) in the story, the overall message of the book is basically simple and uplifting. Daisy isn't beautiful or brilliant or rich -- she's an ordinary kid with no superpowers, who spills her milk and trips over the volleyball net and swipes things from the five and ten. But as we find out, even ordinary people are capable of extraordinary moments and deeds. Daisy accomplishes some wonderful things (on both a great and small level), and is successful in her own way (which is the only way that means anything, anyway), and makes her corner of the world a little bit goofier place to be.

I have loved Fanny Flagg for a long time, and this was the book that introduced me to her. I don't even remember how many times I have re-read Daisy Fay and the Miracle Man, laughing at some parts and wanting to cry at others. Told through the viewpoint of Daisy Fay Harper in her journal, this book brings you along on Daisy's journey to womanhood. While it definately addresses some fairly deep issues, the majority of the book kept me constantly giggling. You learn all sorts of things about her, from the tunnels she digs under the family's malt shop to the mischief she gets in with her best friend Pickle. If you're up for laughs, this is the perfect book. Daisy's adventures are something anyone can enjoy.

How many of us have tried system after system of discipline in an attempt to attain and/or maintain control of the classroom and facilitate an EFFECTIVE LEARNING ENVIRONMENT, only to find ourselves frustrated and ironically powerless? Jim Fay and David Funk ask us to discard "systems" of discipline and adopt a "principles" method of management. The "Four Key Principles of Love & Logic" are the following:

1.THE ENHANCEMENT OF SELF-CONCEPT
2.SHARED CONTROL
3.CONSEQUENCES WITH EMPATHY
4.SHARED THINKING

Fay and Funk demonstrate through various scenarios, tips, and "Pearls" of wisdom how and why conducting your class or school according to these principles can VALIDATE YOUR AUTHORITY and EMPOWER STUDENTS, thus enhancing the student-teacher relationship. Learn to ELIMINATE THE ALL-TOO-COMMON POWER STRUGGLE by giving students limited control on your terms. Key ideas to look for are "enforceable statements," "thinking vs. fighting words," and "consequences vs. punishment."

Teaching with Love & Logic, a collaboration representative of over 105 years of school experience and strongly supported by research, presents practical ways in which teachers and administrators can help their students become confident, responsible individuals, internalized in their discipline. It is well written and a pleasure to read. A MUST HAVE FOR ANY TEACHER WHO WANTS TO MAKE A LASTING DIFFERENCE.

Did lthomros read the same book the rest of us read? It actually takes more time & effort from the teacher to use Love and Logic, but it is worth it! LOGICAL consequences presented in LOVING manner helps the child maintain his/her dignity.. it's how most of us would prefer to be treated!

Below, I've taken some statements from the book. If you agree with this philosophy, you will love the book. It works for all ages. This method helps teachers to avoid POWER STRUGGLES with kids and teenagers.

The Three Rules of Love & Logic

1) People Learn from Their Own Decisions

2) Use Enforceable Limits--Provide Choices Within Limits

3) Apply Consequences with Empathy

The Love & Logic techniques:

-Put teachers back in control of the classroom

-Result in students who are internalized in their discipline rather than dependent upon external controls (THEY do the thinking!)

-Raise the level of student responsibility

-Prepare students to function effectively in a world filled with temptations, decisions, and consequences

In conjunction with reading this book, I also took part in workshops about Love and Logic that were offered at my school. The book itself, however, is easy to read and offers lots of examples and practical suggestions.

As a teacher, I have read many books looking for ways to run my classroom and discipline my students. When I read this book, I instantly had ideas to use in my classroom. All of them have worked! It has changed my philosophy on discipline for the better. I no longer have a lot of the problems I used to and when one does arise, I don't get angry and frustrated! I'm no longer exhausted at the end of every day. I really believe I am a better teacher because I deal with my students in a respectful way but yet I am teaching them responsibility. After you read this book, you will be so excited to go into your classroom and try some of the techniques!