This book will make you laugh out loud -- at Kardong's coverage of the Boston Marathon by phone, for example. It will also make you think, as he describes the impact President Carter's decision to boycott the 1980 Olympics had on his running career and competitive spirit. In between, there are lots of great stories about Kardong's running adventures. Even runners who aren't at Kardong's level will enjoy his tales of life on the trails, and identify with many of the fixes he finds himself in -- running hilly trails in a wild rainstorm, for example, and trying to decide how much more he can take before he hits the top of his misery scale

This beautiful book is filled with many wonderful maps as well as early western journals desribing the first explorations of the Ohio Country by white settlers and their encounters with the many native tribes that called Ohio home in the mid to late 18th century. Including such important accounts as Christopher Gist, who was the first white man to chronicle his explorations of the Ohio wilderness, John Heckewelder and David Zeisberger, the famous Moravian missionaries who founded a number of Christian Indian towns in eastern Ohio and who help support the American cause during the Revolution in the west, Col. Henry Bouquet, the leader of a military expedition into Ohio in 1764 to help put down Pontiac's Rebellion, as well as many others whose explorations and contact with the Indians proved valuable to posterity. Early maps are compared with modern versions to try to locate a number of vanished Indian villages in a way never done before, thus providing a new perspective on the locations of modern roads and cities to their old Indian counterparts, particularly in the areas around modern Coshocton at the Forks of the Muskingum River. This area was also the site of the ill-fated Fort Laurens, the first American military installation in the Ohio Country. This is a wonderful reference book and is highly recommended to anyone with an interst in Ohio or frontier history.

Much good advice and a few outstanding examples are presented here in clear, readable style. The materials on the CD are the most valuable to me.

My biggest complaint, as with most software development books and manuals, is the lack of documentation methodology. How does one fully document the code, classes and other aspects of the application so that they might be searched and researched later? With all the emphasis on complete documentation, this is a severe shortcoming.

This is a rhyming book, a counting book, and rhythmic story that will have you practically singing and clapping as you read it! I will love reading this aloud with classes. The illustrations are delightful cartoons that amplify the story. What fun!

I borrowed the book and read about half. Booth does a nice job of talking about co-dependency in an upbeat way. _Co-dependent No More_ by Melody Beattie is better, but this book stands up well versus most of Beattie's other co-dependency writings. Booth includes prayers and meditations, in addition to common sense advice about "letting go" of unhealthy relationships. He has a spiritual focus. This book was not a waste of time, especially for a novice reader in the field of codependency.

Tarkington has filled a book with a hodge-podge of essays and short stories on the coming of the mechanical age. The book covers the changes of people's morals and habits with the coming of electricity, cars, and other inventions. The perspective is written by someone who has lived through the tumultuous changes of the time.

Each story or chapter explains exactly what impact a particular invention made upon society. The biggest one, according to Tarkington, is the car. The car appears to have ushered in major societal changes: people went into debt to purchase one, people's live became more rushed and hurried, speed was important, they became a status symbol, necking parties occurred, women cut their hair and wore short clothes so as not to be harassed by the wind. The book also mentions the invention of the airplane, electricity, women's suffrage, prohibition, and the introduction of "sex" plays, novels, and movies. Also, the changing of the moral guard is also written about.

This book is more like a Tarkington-perspective history book rather than a work of fiction. Also, those who wonder why the moral changes in the youth of today and yesterday can look into this book and see that people back at the turn of the century were raising the same questions and were dealing with the same issues. Tarkington attempts to answer them, but I felt his answers and explanations fell short. The book was also a bit of a challenge to read -- as sometimes it drifted into very deep and subjects. Also, the chapters themselves were discontinuous and were jumpy. This is not a book for light reading (like many other Tarkington novels).

After Tarkington's death, his nephews gathered some of his letters that he had written between 1903 and 1904 and published them in a book. The letters detail Tarkington's impression of his first visit to Europe. Along with the letters are some crude sketches that Tarkington used to illustrate what he saw.

The letters reveal the personality of Tarkington. In many ways, the characters he wrote about in his novels were similar to himself or his family members. He seemed to have a good nature about him and looked upon the adversities of traveling in Europe with an amiable mind. Most of the letters were funny, however, they also talk about historical sites, many of which have been destroyed by the two world wars.

I enjoyed Pat Booth's other books, Miami, Palm Beach, Malibu and Beverly Hills. I would have liked this book much more had it not been for the ending. I liked the idea of Kate Haywood being a Martha Stewart type, with her rise to success stunning. I was disappointed in her final decision as to who she would spend the rest of her life with. Her husband is an egotistical jerk who wants to take all the credit for her success. I found the book a little confusing they way Ms. Booth spent so much time developing the story of the American sculptor and the English doctor. I kept wondering where this all was going in relation to the start of the book with the development of the Kate Haywood character. All in all I wasn't left with that 'book well read' feeling when I finished.

"American Icon" was not your typical Pat Booth book. I will say this much: I think I like her old books better. This book was good, Kate and Peter and Donna and Steven are interesting enough, but it lacks all the steamy scenes of her early books. Try it, you'll like it!!!

Kate, a glamorous New York City based fashion model falls in love with Peter, a successful literary agent. It's the late 1960s when they marry, move to the Hamptons, and have a daughter. Starting their own cottage-industry business, Kate becomes an enormous success as a best selling author, a magazine publisher, and then the head of a home-making empire. But success is not without its costs. Personal and business pressures drive Kate and Peter into the arms of other lovers. But when a tragedy befalls their daughter, both of them come to realize the truth of their commitment to each other and to their family. American Icon is a superbly written novel that is expertly narrated by Kate Harper in the complete and unabridged production from Chivers Audio Books. With excellent technical production values, this highly recommended addition to any community library audiobook collection has a playing time of 13 hours, 15 minutes.

I am a former United States Border Patrol Agent and I read this book while working the fixed positions we often manned along the Arizona-Mexico border. I was so moved by this story, I cried. I cried as I read this book, right there in my Border Patrol vehicle on the very line separating two very different worlds! This book is an easy read and can be taken a little at a time. Its impact is incredible and your heart will be broken. It is a must read! I am not compromising my stance on immigration laws here, I am just expressing my heart-felt pain for some of what the beautiful people of Mexico must face in their lives. God bless!

Brilliant read, by a heroically courageous soul. If you are aspiring to learn more about Mexican reality, read this book. Highly recommended.

This book is a must read for anyone who cares to understand Mexico's border life. Pieces of his stories will haunt you for days, months, or years. He writes in such a manner that innocently seeks your mind but in the end it will garner oh so much more. I only wish he could then tell us how the other side of Mexico lives or can live with such abject poverty (In Mexico, over 40 million out of 90 million live in poverty--17 million live in severe poverty, NAFTA, ye all shall be free..).

Mark Twain's, The Prince and the Pauper is a classic look back into sixteenth-century English society. Tom Canty is a young boy who is born into poverty and is forced to beg in the streets of London by his father. Edward Tudor is the Prince of Wales, heir to the throne. Both of these boys were born on the same day but grew up in opposite ways of life. One day Tom is dreaming about being a prince and starts walking towards the royal palace. When he reaches the palace the guards try to stop him but Prince Edward sees Tom's condition and invites him to his quarters to hear what Tom has to say. While they sit there they begin to realize what strong resemblance there is between them and decide to switch clothes to fulfill Tom's dream of looking Princely. All of a sudden Edward storms out of the room to denounce the guards who did harm to Tom, only to be mistaken as the poor pauper and locked out of the royal palace. From here on out the two boys experience what life is like in the other's shoes. Mark Twain does an outstanding job of developing each character and showing how each must learn new ideas to deal with their latest way of life. Unfortunately I did find myself losing my concentration while reading this book. This easily could have been due to the fact that the way Twain wrote The Prince and the Pauper was actually on a very easy reading level, which would lead me to recommend this book to readers of middle school age who enjoy adventurous tales like The Boxcar Children or The Hardy Boys.

This is the story of a prince and a pauper who switch places because of their uncanny outer resemblance. They obviously go through many trials and ordeals - the pauper trying to learn the ways of royalty, and the prince having to witness and undergo the results of some of the ridiculous laws and practices of the period.

Like many of Mark Twain's books, this is another satire that makes fun of the values that society holds to be important. In this story, Mark Twain points out how people place so much importance on outer appearance. A prince and a pauper, who, despite their outer resemblance are very different people, switch places, without anyone noticing. There is more to a person than their looks, and this is one point stressed throughout the novel.

The one complaint I have about this book is that there wasn't enough written about Tom Canty, the pauper who became a prince. I found his situations much more interesting than those of the true prince, but this was only a minor point.

I would recommend this book for ages 12 and older. Younger people could read the story, but miss the underlying meanings in certain situations. I wouldn't call this book a "Must Read" but it is a good introduction to classic literature.

The Prince and the Pauper written by Mark Twain is an adventurous, exciting book. The book takes place in London around the 1500's. Two boys were born on the same day, Tom Canty and Edward Tudor. Tom Canty was born unto a poor life, and as a boy growing up, "Tom's reading and dreaming about princely life wrought such a strong effect upon him that he began to act the prince." And just his luck, did he happen to some across the Prince of Wales, after suffering the hard blow of the soldier knocking him into the crowd. The Prince of Wales is Edward Tudor, the other boy born on the same day but born into a rich and wealthy family. As a result from the encounter, the two boys decide to switch places, as the Prince of Wales says to Tom Canty, "Doff thy rags and don these splendors."
The book describes the boys' adventures throughout the experience of living each other's lives. As the Prince of Wales lives as the pauper, he is introduced to and learns about many different people such as the Canty family, Miles Hendon, a troop of Vagabonds, Hugo, the peasants, the hermit, and others. And as Tom Canty acts as the Prince of Wales, he experiences living the higher life of royalty, being treated with respect and given so many opportunities and choices.
Through having the plot be that the characters switch places, the book is more exciting because the reader could act in the character's place and experience the lifestyles and adventures involved with each person's life. Other than being able to understand better each person's lifestyle with the type of writing, using dialogue in Old English adds a stronger effect to bringing everything back in time to understand the setting. Although at times, the Old English could get confusing.
Overall, I thought that this book was interesting because it explains the lifestyles of different people in London around the 1500's in a way that is fun and easy to understand. Although at times, I did feel as if it carried on too much about things that were insignificant. Other than that, the book was good and I would recommend that it be read, if you are interested in adventure.
Other adventure books written by Mark Twain, such as The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, were also interesting, but I enjoyed reading The Prince and the Pauper more because it contained more excitement for me.