This book is more for corporate executive types who think 'being creative' is doodling on a notepad for 5 minutes. *Those* dudes need to explore their inner artist a little more, for sure. If you're in a creative block, or wanting to learn how to draw, there are much better resources out there to help you out. You really don't need this book, as it will be a waste of time and keep you from actually making art!

Also, regarding the author: Betty Edwards seems to have over-analyzed the right-brain/left-brain system - something the left-brain would be in control of, according to her teachings. She was defeating her purpose by writing a book about the method, since people must experience, firsthand, the ecstasy of hitting 'the zone' when making something. Analyzing it and taking credit for such a natural gift from God is, to me, ridiculous.

I am one of the biggest fans of Betty Edwards' work, having learned to draw in five days by the "Right Brain" method. I have found the "Artist Within" book less helpful than the others, however. In it, Edwards uses many of the same drawing approaches (exercises that I love and which have made all the difference to me) as "Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain," but now she applies them to creative problem solving.

I agree completely with her premises and support the approach. On the other hand, as a book, this one is less helpful than the original precisely because it reuses so much of the same material. I would have liked more theory and exploration of just how learning to draw makes a difference in other parts of one's life.

So, I'm not sure I'd recommend this book wholeheartedly, unless you just can't get enough of the "Right Brain" drawing approach. Get "Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain," first. Then decide if you want more elaboration with a different spin.

This is a book that will change your life. The brilliant Betty Edwards has given us a way to access that creativity that is within each of us. This book, in tandem with her groundbreaking "Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain," are perhaps two of the most influential books of their time.

In 1920's Brooklyn, Margie graduates from highschool and is filled with youthful optimism. Determined to rise above the drudgery and poverty of her upbringing, Margie finds a job at a small business nearby and attempts to escape her overbearing mother and her overworked,disillusioned father. Before long, she meets Frankie Malone, a poor Brooklynite like herself, and the two fall headlong into courtship and marriage. Despite differences between her and Frankie, and some difficulties in her relationship with her parents, Margie still hopes that "tomorrow will be better."

Perhaps more than many of her other books, "Tomorrow Will Be Better" showcases Betty Smith's boundless abilities. Although the synopsis of this book may sound unassuming and dull, with Smith's writing the story becomes rich and eye-opening. Never have I found another author who can take an ordinary life and an ordinary situation (such as Margie's) and fill it with such truth and wisdom so that it becomes powerful. Smith has a rare gift for truly putting herself "in her characters' shoes" and seamlessly weaving their differing stories together to form a believable novel. While "Tomorrow Will Be Better" is ultimately a sad story, its sadness is fitting, realistic, and handled extremely will. This story of optimism, dreams, and disillusionment may not be quite the show-stopping masterpiece that "A Tree Grows In Brooklyn" is, yet it deserves to be read for its excellent characterization and deep truth.

This book is often compared to Smith's opus "A Tree Grows In Brooklyn" and thus many readers miss what is truly great about this book. Whereas "Brooklyn" chronicles Francie's growth within her family from child to woman while weaving in the perspective of her mother, father, aunts, etc., "Tomorrow" is purely about Margie.

"Tomorrow" begins with 16-year-old Margie getting her first job in Brooklyn. It chronicles her courtship and marriage to Frankie, a neighborhood boy with his own family issues i.e. overbearing mother, loud father, myriad sisters. Margie's own parents are none too attentive to their daughter and what she might need, but feel pangs of loss when she decides to get married.

Margie tries to please her mother, mother-in-law, and husband, make ends meet, gets pregnant, and gradually all of these adult conventions that she is supposed to want threaten to destroy her unless she stands up to all of them. Only then will she truly be an adult.

This is an excellent account of a girl becoming a woman and proving it is an internal, not external, journey. The tale is as true today as it was in the 1940s. Female readers will identify with many of the sentiments expressed in this book and find themselves comparing their own lives to it.

i agree with the people that say A tree Grows in brooklyn was better (there isnt a book i have read yet that beats it)! I loved a tree grows in Brooklyn and it inspired me to read the rest of Betty Smiths books, i have Maggie Now to read, i thought the book lacked the detail that A Tree Grows In Brooklyn had, and the little things that people notice in Francie that werent present in Margy...still, I felt Smiths writing familiar and comforting in the last chapter which made me remeber why i keep reading the books over and over,good book...not her BEST but still very good...I give it a 4 as a Betty Smith book and a 5 as any other...becuase a Tree Grows In Brooklyn sets the bar so high! read it because its great but read a tree grows in brooklyn and u will have read the greatest!

Jennifer's review prompted me to read and compare Where Heavens Meet to Betty's. Aside from the remarkable color photos in WHM, the other striking contrast was how narrowly focused Betty keeps her subject, thus lacking the same 'grounding', and not offering a wider context to achieve a greater understanding concerning 'spirituality/humanity', which Frankovich gives the reader.

I loved "Embraced By the Light". It changed my life and way of thinking! "Awakening Heart" did not have the same effect until the end of the book. "Embraced By the Light" challenged old belief systems that were not working in my life and really made me stop and think and want to learn more. "Awkening Heart" seemed redundant until the end, where new information was given. Overall, it is worth the read.I can't wait to read Betty's latest book.

This is a very enlightening book. It can help you to understand your spiritual self. This is not as awe-inspiring as "Embraced by the Light" but I definitely recommend this one to any person trying to understand themself and God.

This book is a compilation of original Betty Page photos taken by Bunny Yeager. It's mostly pictures (all b&w), with some biographical sketches included. I have no idea if the text is accurate, but the pictures are pretty decent and certainly does justice to Betty Page's classicically sensual looks. Since these are just pictures of one photographer, you pretty much get only one particular style, and many of the pictures are beach shots. Given Betty Page's status in the American entertainment history, this is a good book to have.

This book has inaccuracies in its limited text. Bettie Page was not born in Kingsport Tennessee, but some 300 miles away in Nashville, Tennessee. Bettie's eyes were blue, not brown. Do not believe much of the text in this book as it is not endorsed by Bettie and contains much misinformation about her life.

However, if you want some great Bettie photos, this is the book to purchase! I much prefer her lighter fun photos to her Irving Klaw bondage photos.

I fell in love or lust with Bettie when my hormones arrived about 1955. This book is well worth the price as Bunny's photos of Bettie are among the best. Bettie belonged outdoors! The Klaw photos are fine; it was hard to take a bad picture of Bettie, but she was,to me, the ultimate "beach brunette"! I recognize the problem with the book title, it leads you believe it's some kind of "Bettie expose'", but beyond that it's a great photo-record of some of Bettie's and Bunny's best work. If your a Bettie Page fan old or new, this one is a must!

Granted this is pretty dry reading. Erasmus may not be the greatest writer. This does make for a turgid evening if one plans or desires to read it from cover to cover in one sitting. That said, Erasmus rode (if not found himself starting) the beginning wave of the great reformation. In his writings (which bear a not so slight foreshadowing to the great C.S. Lewis) Erasmus gives hope for all of us sinners in the guise of wit. An important addition to any library of classical literature.

Sorry, I tried several times to read this book. I hunted for passages that might interest me. Unfortunately, all I found was [the author] blowing his own horn. But then fantasy and science is about all that interests me. I'm sure someone with a historical bent would find this tale exhilarating.

To say the book has less than perfect unity in tone, as was written in the introduction, pg xv, is an understatement. The reader is never sure whether it is Folly or Erasmus who is talking. Perhaps for the goddess of Folly, contradictions and inconsistencies are the very follies desired - how are we mortals to tell?

And that is what we have here - all the inconsistencies, as, for example, mentioned in pages xiv-xv of the introduction again, that Erasmus wrote with the learned sophistry he denied schoolmen, philosophers, courtiers, theologians and monks. It's almost like Lao-Tzu and his Tao-Te Ching which includes the famous "The name that can be named is not the eternal name; the Tao that can be named is not the eternal Tao," only to have a later poet, Po Chi-Yi, quip about the 10,000 word effort to say what cannot be said in the first place. Yes, he did say at the end that 'I hate an audience that won't forget,' but that's not a courtesy he proffered to his opponents, of whom the criticism by Erasmus seems caviling, carping and nitpicking. He should have emulated his inpiration, Lucian with his 'philosophers for sale,' and made points simple like that here. It would be unfair, though tempting, to think that Erasmus took Quitillian to heart (pg. 81, 'what can't be refuted can often be parried in laughter') and disguised his voice in silly chaos for what has not been thought out cogently.

So, one is not quite sure whether wasting away a life in idleness, corruption or avarice as priests, bishops and monks are wont to do is the same kind of folly as the folly that comes from the innocence of the simple minded people or children, since Erasmus never quite made it crystal clear. Do we praise folly here but condemn it otherwise - without unity of tone and consistency of the vantage point of the writer, the whole thing just becomes a mess of confusion.

What Erasmus wanted to say does deserve our attention, but one wishes that he could have done it in a more fluid style and without all that pretentious classical references, for unlike Lucian, he lived not in that period. And certainly it could be better organized into chapters and sections, and used some editing to eliminate the endless repetitions, ensure consistency and unity of tone. Casson's 'Selected Satires of Lucian' is a much better read and is highly recommended over this one.

Moby Dick is so dry for young readers with all the details of life on a whaler, this book is much more the adventure, the what happens when the whale decides that he's had enough. How men endure when they run out of food, then water, then people start to die. It's a fairly fast read and Owen gives a fairly good account of the problems and the horror of the men as they watch the whale ram their ship.

"The Wreck of the Whaleship Essex" is much more than just the inspiration for Herman Melville's "Moby Dick." It stands alone as a remarkable account of survival in a hostile environment. It's probably difficult for modern readers to truly grasp the impact First Mate Owen Chase felt when his ship the Essex sank in the middle of the vast Pacific Ocean, leaving 20 men to fend for themselves in three frail whaling boats. In 1820, the loss of the ship meant that Chase and his men were truly on their own. His account and shock reflect the enormity of what losing a ship meant to these men. The ship was their world and without it, they faced an ardorous journey. Chase also accurately captures the shock of seeing a whale attack his ship twice. An experienced whaler, Chase watched dumbfounded as a creature he always thought to be gentle and placid appear to deliberately sink the Essex.

Chase has managed to balance these feelings of anguish and fear with determination to survive. His story also vividly recounts a bygone time when Nantucket whalers seemed to own the seas, and industry at home depended on the oil these men brought back. We seem to forget that whaling and its fruits were an essential part of early American commerace and life. This book puts Chase's account of his survival clearly in context with its times. Highly recommended.

Just imagine the unthinkable:- a whale, that most placid animal, suddenly turns on its tormentors with malice apparent in its intent and within a few minutes, reduces the ship, not the boat that harpooned it, to a sinking wreck, a thousand miles from any land. The subsequent journey to safety of the eight survivors is recounted by the first mate in graphic detail and with great literary skill; you have to admire the fortitude displayed by Mr. Chase in keeping an accurate log, even in the extremes of privation and heat exhaustion, as well as the psychological assault of that ultimate horror (at that time) of cannibalism. Put in their position, would I do the same - absolutely! It speaks volumes that very little was said about the Essex party, whereas the Donner party were unjustly vilified for doing exactly the same thing to preserve the remaining members of their company. I can do no better justice to this book than to quote Gary Kinder:- "...settle back into that overstuffed leather chair and let the most amazing story in the annals of the sea transport you to a different time, a different breed, an experience few could believe...".

This "classic" ESL text, recently updated with green headlines and green tinted pages in the appendix, remains a favorite among English grammar fundamentalists. This thick book offers the drill and kill approach to learning languages with far too much time spent on minor differences of more interest to linguists than to ESL students wanting to read, write, and speak English. What is the goal, anyway?

Yet even if one believes in dwelling on the smallest details of some idealized use of the English language, I'd hestitate to recommend to either the second or third versions. Why?

"Fundmentals" costs far too much, weighs too much, and contains far too many impractical exercises of limited practicality. Teachers may find the grammar puzzles fascinating, but students usually want to learn grammar so they can use the language.

In comparision, Raymond Murphy's "Grammar in Use" series (Cambridge University Press) provides far clearer examples, a simpler format, and a more logical format. It's also ideal for self-study since lesson's answers can be found in the back.

Plus, the "Grammar in Use" books cost far less. Administrators and teachers, especially ones working with immigrants and refugees, should consider price and practicality when choosing texts.

Granted, this "classic" text makes more sense in elite, private programs where wealthy studdnts are preparing for the TOEFL test outside of the United States. Yet immigrants and refugees, however, don't need, want, or have the time to master these often silly distinctions without a difference. They need practical readings and compelling conversation exercises that help them get better jobs, make smarter consumer choices, and fully participate in the society. Ms. Azar's book provides almost no assistance to immigrants as they struggle to create new lives in an often confusing, strange land.

Finally, I must confess that I don't like fundamentalists in religion or language study. The same excessive zeal and narrow-mindedness that can distort and pervert rich religious traditions can be detected in the Fundamentals of English Grammar. Ms. Azar wants new English readers to write - and speak - far "better" and more "correct" than the vast majority of native English speakers. She advocates a fossilized view of the English language where innovation, slang, and change are all "corruptions" and "wrong." Let's just throw away the last century of art, film, and literature!

How can we, as English teachers, ask our immigrant students to write and speak better than of the President of the United States?

There seems to be a question as to the value of teaching students grammar from an academic standpoint. There has also been criticism of the academic nature of the Fundamentals of English Grammar by Betty Azar. I have read Stephen Krashen's books and I agree that students need comprehensible input and not just academic knowledge of English; however, from my experience as a language learner and teacher, I have discovered that students need a combination of both "form and function" of the language. Betty Azar's book, Fundamentals of the English Language, provides the "form" practice that students need to master these structures that carry meaning. After the students do the drill practices in Azar's book, I provide my own extension exercises which allow students to integrate these structures into their every day speech (function).

I have discovered that language at the intermediate level starts to move into the realm of the intangible, which means acquiring language is no longer easy to extrapolate from mere deduction. Language acquisition that comes from the deductive process at this and more advanced levels is often highly inaccurate in both form and meaning as students erroneously try to transform it back into what is familiar to them. Consequently, achieving accuracy becomes a very time-consuming endeavor which is difficult to manage in a large classroom. Given the time constraints on language learning and the increasing demand for understanding and communicating technical information, these "academic" structures are essential for acquiring language that is concise and unadulterated.

To enhance comprehension, I always do my own presentation of the material with my own examples and demonstrations before I ask the students to look at Azar's seemingly "academic" explanation. The oral and written drill practices contained in the book allow students to stay focused on accuracy so they can achieve mastery when they are asked to produce language of their own utilizing these targeted structures. If it is only conversational language that one wants to learn or to teach, sure, try some other book.

There is, however, another reason to teach students grammar structures: grammar tests are one mode the educational institutions use to screen students from higher education. Most, if not all, of the standardized tests given as prerequisites for college study are focused on grammar. (It's what they erroneously call "writing".) I feel to deny a motivated student mastery of the language at that level is denying them the tools they need for achieving success in our present system. Betty Azar's Fundamentals of English Grammar presents these structures in a very organized fashion, and my students who learn the material do very well on these tests and are able to continue with their educational goals.

This book is exhaustive but it gets the job done for any student on a plateau. It should be used after a simpler book like Side by Side 3. The goal is to reinforce and consolidate the skills learned in the simpler communicative learning books. TESL/TEFL apologists for ESL students obviously have not integrated this book because their students are not ready for it yet. It is a social matter of lower-educated working adults or a motivated language learner. It is for immediate students and will polish their skills in general. Spoken language is not very directly correlated with reading and writing. If you can not speak well, then do a simpler book. Then practice, practice, practice...and do this book as you practice speaking only. You will move off the plateau in a few weeks to a couple of months. When you are finished, my experience with private students is profound. You are ready for advanced ESL classes in community college or local university. Advanced-level English is not for academic students, it is a bare minimum for the functional English literacy in this society. You'll still need spell check and grammar assistance, but you'll be so much more confident. You'll distinguish your language skills in spoken, reading and in your general everyday writing. You can't skip to near-native speaker with this book, and slang books alone are not a short cut. This is a time saver.

Fussell's book is entertaining. Her chapter title can make you laugh out loud. I think she might be fun to have as a guest at a party, but that's as close as I would want to get to her.

In this book, Fussell recounts her life story -- leading up to her successful career writing about food. Mostly it's a story of how people did her wrong, from the wickedest of wicked stepmothers who readers could easily envision wielding an axe -- to her atrocious husband, Paul Fussell. Betty Fussell, according to her version of the story, has been surrounded by mean, vicious, cruel people whose main purpose in life was to smother her spirit. Even innocent bystanding neighbors and party guests are not spared her sniping.

The people are so unremittingly awful in her story, that I quit believing a word she had to say about them before I was half way through the book. However, it did get me to read Paul Fussell's memoir as an antidote. It truly was an antidote -- with greater honesty and integrity and more human kindness, compassion and decency.

This is a war story of a different sort where the warrior is a woman & the battleground is her kitchen. Her weapons evoke a lifetime's need to make dinner, love & war. Betty Fussell has pried open the past, giving voice to a generation of women whose stories were shaped & silenced by an era of domestic strife & global conflict, the Elysian Fields between World War II & Vietnam.

Fast, frantic & often tartly funny, where the author will snap your funny bone & suck out the marrow even as she prepares you a satisfying feast!

This is a terrific memoir, intelligent and bitchy and gripping.

Yikes! Looks Mr. Mills needs psychiatric help, and fast!

Roy tells of his experiences in the realm of the spirit world BEFORE coming to Earth as well as a scattering of ephemeral divine events he witnessed while here. At times these accounts sound almost too bizarre to be true. For example, the time he saw the clouds open up and heaven unfold right before his eyes while out in a field, and of course his thoughts while still in his mother's womb. But you know, you can't help believing this man. The way he presents his story is too simple and sweet to be a fraud, but he left many unanswered questions. I would like to see him write a sequel and elaborate more about life on the other side, e.g. spirits who have been gone for centuries...Do they return to Earth as another being or do they continue to remain there after their life on Earth is finished? Now, I'm talking about going back to the caveman! Are we reunited with old friends, loved ones, relatives when we return? What about our pets? Birds? Butterflies? Insects? Do they have a place in heaven? And what does one do all day? Do earthly things such as sports, music, jobs, marriage, food exist? Yes, you've got it, Roy, I'm one of these who likes to get down to the nitty-gritty and I'm afraid your book doesn't quite cut it. Therefore, I implore you to write another in your same simple "down home" style that I love.

I believe this man wrote from his heart. It was a book I didn't want to put down or end. Worth the reading and everyone who feels connected to God will feel the impulse of this book. For those looking for something else, or expecting the pages to be written for their educational standards...I feel for them for lacking the insight necessary to understand what the author is conveying. This is a wonderful inspiring book. All should appreciate the "gift" Roy Mills brings to us having written it for our benefit.

"Opposing the System" is a silly book.
Reich is in a long line of socialist reformers whose disdain for ordinary people compels him to try to harness the power of government to hammer citizens into a new form of acceptable human which will populate the utopia of his imagination.
Like socialist intellectuals everywhere, Reich would eagerly trample on freedom in the name of freedom, slaughter truth in the pursuit of a "higher truth." Avoiding facing the fact that his ideas of liberty, equality and fraternity have failed with bloody results everywhere they have been tried, from Russia to Germany to Uganda to Cuba to Cambodia, he nevertheless marches on, convinced of his own special insight.
This book is shot through with glaring factual errors about the alleged pervasiveness of crime, poverty, unemployment and associated disillusionment. His main argument, the old discredited claim of socialism, is that society is split between the powerful exploiters and the powerless exploited masses. His hatred of large corporations who supposedly enslave their workers is reminiscent of those puerile manifestos and declarations which issued from the silly and naive college students in the sixties. What is needed, he says, is a group of talented, compassionate, scientific decision-makers (presumably including him) to organize society in such a way as to bring love, peace and harmony to the ignorant masses.
In one rare example of lucidity, Reich acknowledges that "...governments are adept at avoiding responsibility when they cause harm." He apparently doesn't see the irony of proposing bigger and more powerful government with sweeping control over all aspects of our lives.
But it is not only Reich's politics that makes this a bad book. Reich displays a stunning ignorance of economics, history, psychology, human nature and constitutional government. His sloppy logic is on display in nonsensical statements like: We need to devlop "social self-knowledge" - an ability to "understand how (society) acts," "why it treats us as it does,...what it cares about." And what do we make of statements like: Since WWII "America has suffered a steady impoverishment..."? Is he suggesting that we are worse off than we were in 1945? Where has he been? Has he heard of equal rights, abolition of Jim Crow, a cure for Polio, artificial hearts and hips, the exponential rise in the standard of living, extended life expectancy? In one very important way, we ARE worse off than in 1945, in the loss of much of our liberty. But apparently this is fine with Reich who proposes to rob us of the rest of it.
Consider this economic profundity: He contends that under the current system, one's pay is determined, not by its value, but by what someone is willing to pay - as if there were any other way, in the real world, to measure value. The failure of socialism is, to no small degree, a consequence of people like Reich trying to assign equal value to street cleaners and heart surgeons. Of course, these people have equal value in God's eyes, but this is not where Reich is going with his argument. .
Reich quotes Roosevelt: "...necessitous men are not free men." but then writes a whole book advocating that government assume responsibility for our mental, physical, economic, psychic well-being, making us wholly dependent on enlightened men like him, a course of action that throughout history has produced, not utopia, but poverty, misery and death.
"Opposing the System" is a shallow collection of meaningless platitudes. Don't waste your time.

I first read "Opposing the System" when it was first published in 1995. I thought it was excellent then, and now six years later, I still think it's excellent---and am, if possible, even more enthusiastic about it. The only thing that could have made it better, IMO, is if a study guide had been included. This book should be required reading for every citizen in America before tomorrow morning's coffee is poured. Reich describes our dire present political/economic reality with perfect clarity; he peels away the scales covering our eyes, scales fastened there by what he calls the System, a system so ravenous and so consuming that it threatens to swallow the entire planet Earth---if not the entire solar system. Borrow, or FIND and BUY a used copy of this OP book as soon as possible. Badger the publisher to re-issue it ASAP---and to include a study guide. This is one of the most important books in America today.

Reich's earlier book, "The Greening Of America," is also excellent. Add to these two Charles A. Reich books, Thomas Frank's "One Market Under God." Read, study and absorb the content of all three, and you'll be well prepared to confront, lay bare, and deflate the claims of the System's eager courtiers and foot-soldiers who've cheerfully applauded and helped shackle us to the unholy economic/political System we're deeply mired in, and are Systematically forcing down the throats of the entire world. Read these books as a monumental favor to your self and to our country.

I first read "Opposing the System" when it was first published in 1995. I thought it was excellent then, and now six years later, I still think it's excellent---and am, if possible, even more enthusiastic about it. The only thing that could have made it better, IMO, is if a study guide had been included. This book should be required reading for every citizen in America before tomorrow morning's coffee is poured. Reich describes our dire present political/economic reality with perfect clarity; he peels away the scales covering our eyes, scales fastened there by what he calls the System, a system so ravenous and so consuming that it threatens to swallow the entire planet. Borrow, or FIND and BUY a used copy of this OP book as soon as possible. Badger the publisher to re-issue it ASAP---and to include a study guide so you can study the book in groups with friends and colleagues. This is one of the most important books in America today.

Reich's earlier book, "The Greening Of America," is also excellent. Add to these two Charles A. Reich books, Thomas Frank's "One Market Under God." Read, study and absorb the content of all three, and you'll be well prepared to confront, lay bare, and deflate the claims of the System's eager courtiers and foot-soldiers who've cheerfully applauded and helped shackle us to the unholy economic/political System we're deeply mired in and are Systematically forcing down the throats of the entire world. Read these books as a monumental favor to yourself, to our country, and to the world.