"I Don't Have an Uncle Phil Anymore" is about a boy who learns to deal with grief after the sudden death of his Uncle Phil, a fireman. Although the book was published in 1999, it is the perfect vehicle for helping children cope with the tragedies of 9/11/01. Every child who has lost a cherished adult should read this book.

"I don't have an Uncle Phil Anymore" offers us a touching and real story that makes a difference in the lives of children who are grieving. I read it to my own children and it started a meaning and needed conversation about death. This book makes a thoughtful gift for a child, family or friend in grief.

I congratulate Marjorie White Pellegrino on her heartfelt book "I Don't Have an Uncle Phil Anymore" which explains death to children. At a time when parents are often understandably caught up in their own grief, this book is invaluable in explaining this passage point in life. I believe the book also helps convey to our children, and reminds adults, that life is precious and unpredictable. Although I first read this book at our local library I decided to purchase one to include in my own family library. My children particularly enjoyed hearing how our loved ones live on in our hearts. Thank you for a book that reaches out to the spiritual needs of young and old alike.

Unlike other career guidance books that force the reader into existing job titles, this book offers wonderful insights and process to guide you to developing and designing your own customized career/job. TLC looks at the whole person, and factors in the need for personal and professional balance to get more out of life. Kudos to the authors for writing a book that instilled the courage to break-away and do what I love, leading a life I look forward to each day.

After reading the first few pages of TLC, I had to put it down for a moment. The authors had described the last three years of my life almost perfectly. I didn't put it down again for two hours. I'm a highly compensated information worker who "has it all" by most people's standards, but still feels unfulfilled. TLC showed me how to examine my talents and skills and use them more effectively to achieve what I really want from my life. I cannot recommend it highly enough.

I found this book well thought out as it first identifies and then helps the reader integrate all the pieces to the puzzle in creating a career and life vision. I have used this in a adult college course and all the students found the book both very helpful in understanding themselves and practical in working on the life/career pieces for themselves

Imagine yourself back in New York in 1983. It's about 5:30 in the morning. You're a regular pedestrian walking down the street near the New York Public Library. A large crowd of people are gathered there. Equipment such as cameras, lights, and microphones are everywhere. Soon you find yourself standing next to Bill Murray.

You ask, "What's this production?"

Bill says, "Production? This is a madhouse! These cameras are just getting in the way!"

You step back and see odd statues and robots crafted into obscene and terrifying figures. Suddenly, a voice shouts, "Action!" and you're pushed aside while Bill Murray and Dan Aykroyd walk into the magnificent library with a huge camera dolly following them.

Finally, you spot a small card table packed with coffee, donuts, and Styrofoam cups. Tired and thirsty, you pour yourself some hot coffee from an electric pot hooked up to a small generator. As soon as you touch the pot, a kid jumps from behind the shadows and screams, "Don't move!"

"I just want a sip of coffee!"

"This is Dan Aykroyd's coffee table. Only he gets anything on it, ya' hear? I'm his assistant!"

"You've got to be kidding!"

The kid whips his arm from the shadow of a tall streetlight and points with a shaking hand, "And that table is Bill Murray's!"

Not willing to argue with this crazed assistant, you begin to walk away from the mass of moviemaking paraphernalia and out of the area. Before leaving, you spot a short, nerdy man sitting at a small card table by some sound equipment. The table is filled with art supplies, and the man works on carefully molding a green goblin the shape of a spud. "I've got to get out of here," you think to yourself as you skip over a roadblock and scuffle back into the reality of non-fiction.

In 1984, the next summer, not knowing what to do with your friends, you go to a movie called GHOSTBUSTERS, for it's been getting a lot of hype in the media and you want to see what the fuss is about. As the first scene comes into focus, you let out an involuntary shout of amazement. That was the New York Public Library! Soon enough, the pieces fall into place. You had witnessed the partial filming of one of the greatest comedy films in history!

After the movie, as you walk into a bookstore to kill time before a party, there in front of you is a large book entitled, "Making Ghostbusters: The Screenplay." Ecstatic, you pass up cab fare to attend your party and buy this magnificent book, pouring over it until dawn. You realize that you're a Ghostbuster fan for life. The book is a possession you cherish, for it's like a souvenir of time you spent unknowingly with some of the greatest moviemakers in film history, not including that overprotective assistant.

The movie GHOSTBUSTERS means a lot to many people. One way to sum up their incredible fondness of the movie is "pure cinema magic." Most first impressions of the movie quantify its resounding quality: the wizardry of the special effects, the amazing cast, and the taught, well-written script. And it's largely a comedy! How many comedies have accumulated such a fan base? It's almost unheard of! How many comedies are enjoyed as thoroughly and extensively fifteen years after their original release? Almost none, I'd bet.

Here, in Making Ghostbusters: The Screenplay, the behind-the-scenes secrets and the complete shooting script are here, but the book is more than that. It's a complete sentimental scrapbook that materializes the movie's greatness and encapsulates its craftsmanship and artistry like a time capsule of moviemaking blood, sweat, tears, and creativity.

What this classic volume needs badly is a reprint, but for now, Amazon.com is probably your only hope. With the magnificent re-release of the movie on DVD, this book in its entirety would be a wonderful companion. So let's get this message out; let this be the manifesto! Hear that? Get those printing presses cranking, and bring back the magic!

Making Ghostbusters contains hundreds of exclusive concept sketches (many by legendary horror artist Bernie Wrightson), details of which scenes were deleted and why, color photos (though not nearly enough), and more. The book is built around an annotated script, with enlightening comments from Harold Ramis, Ivan Reitman, and others from the creative team. Few hit movies have had their creative process so wonderfully documented from genesis to box office--for Ghostheads, it's a must-have.

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Having performed a goodly segment of this script during an ill-fated production from hell, I must say that it was quite good to have a copy of the script that was what I was looking for. Man of La Mancha is most certainly NOT the original (Don Quixote), but it doesn't need to be. If you want the original book, you may as well read it in it's original, Spanish text (as I have). Have fun with the story, it's one of the more referenced, when dealing with insanity.

Whenever I would teach "Don Quixote" I would take one class period and play the "Man of La Mancha" album for my students. Of course, "Don Quixote" is really a story told in two parts, and there are some significant differences between the first and second parts written by Miquel de Cervantes. If you have read both parts of the first great novel then I think you have an appropriate perspective for looking at the script of "Man of La Mancha" with a critical eye. The big question is whether this version by Dale Wasserman and company achieves a creative synthesis of the two parts of "Don Quixote" or whether this constitutes a totally new and different telling of the tale. There is probably enough evidence from reading the synopsis of the play and listening to the soundtrack, but having this script in hand can really facilitate your analysis. Of course, having an entire class read this script in addition to the entire novel (or a decent abridged version) is probably a bit much. But if I were to convince a teacher to use the synopsis/album as a starting point for discussion, then I would certain urge such teachers to pick up the script for their own personal reference, especially if they have never had the opportunity to see "Man of La Mancha" in performance (and this does not mean having seen the fairly wretched film version). Ironically, the framing device of "Man of La Mancha" makes the story of Don Quixote an extremely personal work to Cervantes, while the musical attempts to craft a unique version of the character and his life's story. Just be warned that becoming familiar with each version is ultimately going to require you to make a choice between the two (or three) versions.

I was introduced to Hidalgo Quixote, Knight of the Woeful Countenance in high school and was overtaken by the power of the music and the story. Two years later, I was living in Portugal. Though it wasn't Spain, I still felt the same breeze, and saw the same type of windmills that Quixote tilted in his tilted reason.

Joseph Smith once observed that, "by proving contraries, truth is made manifest," (History of the Church 6:428), and Aristotle once said that if you want to find truth, invert. Cervantes follows this pattern of putting things upside-down to show right-side-upness. He accentuates reality by taking an insane man as his lead character. The paradox, however, is that Quixote seems to be the sanest person in the story.

"The Man of La Mancha" has two advantages over its parent-text "Don Quixote." The first is that Wasserman, et al. did a marvelous job of pairing down Cervantes' two part book into a one act play. A lot of Quixote's adventures are funny parody, but it at times becomes a bit over-done. The play captures the essence of the Quixote-Idea without any gas. "Brevity is the soul of wit," as Shakespeare testified.

The second advantage is the music. "The Quest (The Impossible Dream)" is a triumph not only for Wasserman et al, but it is a triumph for humanity. So this book needs to be read with the soundtrack. The original Broadway is my favorite, since it captures the Iberian wind that blows over the story. The Peter O'Toole film is too produced and had too many sweet strings that drench out the Spanish guitars.

You know how good a work of art is by seeing how it is parodies. Quixote has been copied on "Quantum Leap," and Alf, and Jim Neighbors sung "The Quest" on Gomer Pyle. There is even a cartoon "Don Coyote and Sancho Panda." And, of course, there is the classic Mr. Magoo (Jim Baccus) version of Don Quixote.

So buy, and enjoy this play. Read along with the movie, and ponder reality through the eyes of an insane man.

This book was a easy reading and totally enjoyable. All young readers having a bad time going to bed should read this book. This book is also really great for babysitters to read to thier children, whom they put kids to bed and which this is a really great bed time story book. I personally like this book because of it's beautiful pictures and kids get a kick out of this book.

I don't want to go to bed is a great example of a perfect children's story. It has all the elements that are required for a children's story. These are, funny characters, good illistrations, the ability to relate to kids, and teaches them a lesson. It also has some much needed humor. It has all the elements and it isnt long and drug out and boring like many other children's storys. In conclusion, it is a great book and I would recomend it to any kids.

I have two young sons who are 3 & 4 years old. Everynight before bedtime, they get to pick out six books for us to read before they get tucked in, and everynight, this book is one they want to hear!

We've gotten into the habit of me pointing at them when it's time and they get to say, "I don't want to go to bed!"

Wonderful book! I highly recommend it to all children! Not only is it a great message, but it allows the youngsters to become involved in the story.

My son and husband loved this song from Sesame Street so I was so excited they had a book of it. The illustrations are beautiful and my one year old loves the funny pictures of Ernie. We sing the song as a lullabye and it works like a charm!

"I Don't Want to Live on The Moon" has been one of my mother's favorite songs. The song is mostly in Sesame Street episodes about space, but the main theme of this soothing song is really about having wishes rather than about going to the moon. It tells how when one has wishes, it is hard to decide whether or not he or she really wants them to come true because of the changes that might happen if they did. I sing the song when I think of my wishes and at nighttime when I see the moon. They really ought to make more books of those not-so-babyish Sesame Street songs such as, "We are all Earthlings". Buy this book for somebody who's always got wishes on their mind about which they have tough decisions.

We received this book as a gift from my sister and its fast become a favorite! Not only is the song pretty but the illustrations that Dagmar did has brought it to life. She is truly an artist of standing!! We will be sure to add more of her work to our library!

I write historical novels, and this novel is everything I look for in a novel when I read one--and everything I aspire to when I write one! It's purely entertaining; historical fiction at its finest. Mozart is characterized as a wonderful blend of naivete and the immortal genius he was; a multi-dimensional character just delightful to read about, especially if you're a fan of Mozart's and have read other biographies of him. I had read that Casanova actually did assist Mozart & DaPonte in the creation of Don Giovanni, and other historical details were very well researched. To me, the best historical novels contain factual information so that the reader can learn a bit about the time period, even if most of the plot is fictionalized. If this were made into a movie, it would blow Amadeus right out of the water!
Now Anthony Rudel has another talent to add to his list--novelist. If this is a debut, it was outstanding. Extraordinary work, Mr. Rudel! Keep them coming! (How about a Beethoven bio now???)

I love opera, I love Mozart, I love Prague and I'm intrigued by Casanova, so I really loved this book. It centers around the premier of Mozart's opera, Don Giovanni in Prague in 1787.

The author tells us that Don Giovanni was inspired by none other than Casanova, himself, who set up a meeting with Mozart in a Prague coffeehouse in an attempt to "sell" the great composer on the idea of basing an opera around the figure of Don Juan. That part is factual...I think. That and the characters, dates and delays in staging the opera. The rest of this marvelous book centers around imagined happenings, all contrived to urge Mozart to produce and bring Don Giovanni to fruition.

There are three main characters in this book: Mozart, of course, Casanova, and Lorenzo da Ponte, Mozart's long suffering librettist. All three main characters are wonderfully drawn, but just as wonderfully drawn are the "minor" characters, who really aren't so minor at all.

One of the best of these "minor" characters is Mozart's wife, Constanze, or "Stanzi," as Mozart called her. Stanzi had a few secrets of her own to prod Mozart to work and she often had use them.

Josefa Dusek, the singer, and her husband make appearances in the novel when they host the elaborate parties Mozart loved to attend. The party the night before the opera's premier is especially memorable. Opera lovers will recognize the garden scene in Act Four of The Marriage of Figaro, but this only adds to the whimsy of the book rather than detracting from it. This party night is a night of high tension as well as fun, for Mozart has yet to finish the opera's Overture and more than one character is more than a little anxious.

Even the Marquis de Sade manages to make an appearance, of sorts, in this book. Locked away in Paris, he answers a letter from Casanova and gives his own advice on living a life totally without limits. You can imagine what that advice might consist of. If anything in this book can be construed as being "over the top," it is this, but then Mozart was a genius who was, much of the time, "over the top," himself. I think it is completely within the character of the book to include de Sade and I enjoyed it.

Although Mozart does take center stage in this novel, as he should, he gets stiff competition from Casanova. In his sixties at the time, Casanova may have slowed down a bit, but he is still quite thoroughly a rake. Beautiful women seem to abound in Prague and Casanova seems to make it his quest to know them all, or most of them at least, and to let others know the details of his conquests.

I'm an eastern European and I've spent many happy days and nights in Prague. I loved Rudel's detail of Prague city life as well as his detail of the premier, itself. The details are, in large part, what make this book so charming.

The best thing about this book, however, is the wonderful and loving portrait it paints of Mozart, himself. Rudel has managed to capture Mozart in all his genius and all his whimsy. We see him as he no doubt was...an extraordinary composer, the likes of which the world will never see again, and a man who took tremendous joy in the simple pleasure of life.

This is a gorgeous and fun book, but I don't think it's right for everyone, or even the majority of readers. I do think one has to be a fan of Mozart or of opera to obtain the maximum enjoyment from "Imagining Don Giovanni." If you're an opera fan, like I am, I would certainly recommend this book. While it might not stay with you forever, it will certainly entertain you for a few hours and make your life more pleasant. And, it just might leave you wanting more of Mozart.

Aside from the fact that I now have to go buy a recording of Don Giovanni, this is a terrific book. Mozart and his librettist are under the gun to get their production going and seek advice from the then-premier womanizer in the history of the world, Casanova. After all, who better to advise on staging and dramatizing the nuances and perils of seduction? But the best aspect of the book, for me, were the atmosphere and details in the settings -- the genteel yet dramatic interplay between the characters and the dynamics that move the story forward. It's all rendered with a touching affection and respect for the characters and their times. Lovely.

Posiblemente este sea uno de los libros mas importantes de mi vida. Descubre un mundo que siempre ha estado ahi mismo, el cual es dificil de percibir debido a nuestra propia tendencia de ser. Desgraciadamente en ultimas fechas ha sido objeto de un extrano culto "new age" propiciado por la mercadotecnia boras. Recomiendo ampliamente este libro pero solo a las personas con una amplia vision de la vida y un enfoque critico de la realidad.

Desde que leí por Las enseñanzas de Don Juan primera vez y por esas casualidades de la vida, podría decir...quedé fascinada, tanto que por un lado me moría leerlo pero por otro lado era como una especie de dolor terminarlo ya que al cerrar ese libro era como cerrar ese mundo. Es por eso que al recién leer todos los comentarios publicados aquí y encontrar esa misma sensasión en cada uno que escribió siento una inmensa alegría. La verdad que los diversos libros de Castaneda me ayudaron a abrir un poco la cabeza y a desarrigarme un poco más de todo lo que no tiene sentido. Mis saludos para todos, Gaby.

Las enseñanzas de Don Juan es uno de los libros mas maravillosos que he leido en mucho tiempo,lo recomiendo a todas las personas que tienen una mente abierta.

This book should be read by all men and women. There is something for everyone to take away from it. The list in the book are very helpful and gives you a place to start. Women if you can get your husbands to listen to you for one minute ask them to read this book it could very well change there whole thought pattern . I loved it. Great Job Wayne!

I feel this is a must book for both men and women but even more so for women to read. Women have an easier time expressing their feelings and needs and I feel this book will help them understand men better and give them the tools to help draw out the man in their life if they are having any problems communicating. I am presently going through a divorce after a very long marriage and I know if I would have read this book several years ago maybe I could have saved my marriage by knowing more about how my husband was thinking and not giving up because I could not get through to him and us growing apart. The book was written from the personal experiences of the author which makes it even more useful and practical information to learn and hopefully helps the reader not make the same mistakes in their lives. I know I have learned some valuable insight into a man's mind in reading this book that will hopefully help me in any future relationships I am lucky enough to have. Thank you Wayne for sharing your life with the rest of us in an effort to help us avoid the mistakes you made in your journey through life!

Ah, what a great book! Being involved in Relationship Workshops, I feel this book is absolutely a must to read by women as well as men. It certainly offers insight into the world of men who listen but have found it difficult to feel. Women you must read this book! It will give you a greater understanding of men. I will indeed suggest reading it at my Relationship Workshops. Pattimari Sheets

Based on some of the other reviews here, I purchased this book with the objective to get a jump start on how to architect a .Net solution. For example, I was looking for answers to questions like: How to integrate with legacy applications, how to modularize, where to put components, security and performance considerations, redundancy and sizing, database connectivity, etc etc.
There is nothing in this book pertinent to .Net architectures, in my opinion. It is a collection of common practices and questions to ask that every architect should be familiar with, anyways. I am a Sun Certified J2EE Architect, and much of what I saw in this book could be legitimate questions at the Sun test as well - that's how generic this book is.
I am not interested in passing the exam. Don't buy this book if you are not, either.

It is a pleasure to study for a Microsoft Exam and actually learn something along the way. This book is well conceived and well written. It covers all of the material necessary to pass the .NET Solution Architectures exam. In fact, it includes enough real-world knowledge and background information that I would suggest it for learning about Microsoft architectures even if you aren't planning to take the exam.

Other reviewers have written about the execellent references that the book provides, so I won't repeat all of that here, except to say that the book was published after the exam came out and that some of the material in the book is more up-to-date than what is being tested by Microsoft. This will not pose a problem for the person taking the test, however.

I just passed the 70-300 exam and used this book to study for it.

The book is a comprehensive review of everything that you may need to know for the exam. However, some sections are repeated without any good reason. The questions at the end of each chapter are similar in nature to the ones that I saw on the exam.

It took me 12 days, spending about an hour - an hour and half per day, to get through the book. I did pass the other .Net tests before I read the book, so majority of the material was a review.

Although I do have many years of experience as an architect, I found a lot of useful information in this book that will help me design better products and solutions in the future.