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The entire book is fascinating, and surely different parts will appeal to different readers. I was particularly enchanted with a poignant description of how Charles Lindbergh handled dying as he lay on his deathbed. I was also fascinated with how environmentally conscientious some of these men were, particularly Edison and Lindbergh, but also Ford. For example, Ford was very interested in making automobile parts out of soybeans in order to reduce the need for metal parts. It seems that all of these men had numerous ideas and ideas for inventions that were way ahead of their time - perhaps some of them still are.
Newton's writing is quite good, and I only have one very minor criticism: it seems that he preaches a little bit and dwells on the religious facet of his relationships with these people. Of course, I'm sure this was a very important part of his relationship with these men and their families, but it seems that there is a grand, overarching agenda he has in constantly illustrating their connection to God and religion.
If you are interested in any of these historical figures and their fascinating relationships with each other, this book is definitely the best book you will find on the subject.
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Pancake grew up in the hollows of West Virginia and each of the carefully wrought stories in this collection deals with the seemingly desperate lives of the working poor in that part of the country. They are remarkably crafted stories, written with a deep sense for the locale and the people from which they are drawn. They are also models of precision, the kind of stories that deserve to be read over and over, studied for the way in which they use foregrounding and the mundane details of everyday life--albeit everyday life that quietly screams with the desperation of poverty, deadening work, drinking, promiscuity, and brutality-to draw complex portraits of people who endure, even when endurance is no more than a substitute for hope. As he writes in "A Room Forever," the story of a tugboat mate spending New Year's Eve in an eight-dollar-a-night hotel room where he drinks cheap whiskey out of the bottle and eventually ends up with a teen-aged prostitute: "I stop in front of a bus station, look in on the waiting people, and think about all the places they are going. But I know they can't run away from it or drink their way out of it or die to get rid of it. It's always there."
The best of these stories are "Trilobites," "The Honored Dead," "Fox Hunters," and "In the Dry." But there really isn't a weak story in the bunch. Every story is captivating, every one an exemplar of what good short story writing should be. At the end, the only thing that disappoints, that leaves the reader discomforted, is the thought that Pancake died so young, that these are the only stories we have by a truly remarkable writer.
Having grown up in West Virginia, there were parts of these stories that spoke to me from a sort of "native" perspective. But more to it was the emotion that was the core, the skin and the stitching of each of these stories.
It's a good book to own. To read from when you feel like being taken to another place for a while. And to carry a piece of that place with you once you put the book down.
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Deborah Hopkinson's story assumes young readers already know about what slavery meant in the United States in the years before the Civil War. The focus on "Sweet Clara and the Freedom Quilt" is on the inventiveness and courage of a young girl in helping her people wind their way to freedom. What I like best about James Ransome's paintings are the evocative looks he always captures on Sweet Clara's face, which help tell the story as much as Hopkinson's words. This is an excellent book for young students to learn more about the Underground Railroad and the quest for freedom.
Sweet Clara was a very brave girl. She really wants to get back to her mother. Sometimes I like to make quilts just like Clara. I like it when Clara starts making the freedom quilt.But I do not like it when Young Jack escapes too see Sweet Clara.
I did like the book ,because it was freeing the slaves.
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Opal City looks fantastic, and is a distinctive environment for Starman to flourish. Robinson and Harris have created their own world here, separate from our own. Opal City works on a similar level as Astro City works for Kurt Busiek's excellent series, and Gotham works for Batman. There are several panels where Opal City is featured, without the benefit of any of the stories' characters. This effectively enhances the impact and depth of the Starman saga.
The initial story arc included in this collection is phenomenal, introducing us to Jack and presenting his origin as Starman. The middle bits, including a few intriguing epilogues and prologues, hint at larger story arcs to be pursued in later collections. The final story detailing an encounter between the two brothers is both entertaining and insightful. I look forward to reading the second installment in this series of graphic novels.
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My grandmother purchased one of the first copies and I now have the pleasure of owning it. This truly is a cookbook you will want to read over time. Reading the entire cookbook could be quite daunting were the recipes and notes not so delightful to read!
Each chapter begins with a note from James Beard and continues in a sort of cook's diary style with many recipes on one page. You will find recipes for cocktail food, salads, soups, eggs, cheese, fish, shellfish, poultry, game, beef, veal, lamb, pork, ham, bacon, sauces, vegetables, grains, pasta, beans, lentils, pies, pastries, cakes, cookies, puddings, ice cream, dessert sauces, fruit, bread, sandwiches, pickles, preserves and candy.
If you didn't grow up in America, you will find this cookbook all the more fascinating. You can literally read this cookbook like a novel. I found it fun to sit outside and just start reading it from the beginning, skipping over recipes I didn't find interesting and being amazed at how many recipes I was familiar with and had actually made at some point in my life.
A recipe will often start just so casually, you forget you are reading a cookbook, then suddenly you are reading the instructions and the recipe ingredients are listed on the right or left. This is written in a very personal style and you can truly hear the voice of James Beard in his writing.
If you read a few pages of this book a day, you will find that within a year, you will know so much more about cooking. I also think it is handy to have to look up various aspects of cooking. I can hardly do this book justice by reviewing it, you just have to see it to believe it! I did especially enjoy reading about the 1-2-3-4 cake and finding a recipe for Crullers. I had lost my recipe quite a while back and didn't know where to find another one. You will also enjoy finding many recipes using saffron.
I can almost bet my cooking teacher in high school had this book on her shelf, it does look a bit familiar now that I look at it closely. It is also incredible how much cooking has changed in 20 years, and how much it has stayed the same.
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Brandon M.
While amusing the grown-ups for the same reasons the story also throws up many interesting points for them to mull over. Here are some of them:
To start with, young children will always come up with unattainable demands, and the parents-doting or otherwise-would do well not to dismiss them offhand. The King chased the impossible dream of his ailing daughter and came out successful.
Next, the story shows that people in power are often prisoners of their own rigid patterns of thinking and doing things. If they must come anything near to solving problems they have to break the shackles of convention. The Lord High Chamberlain was trapped in the web of his bureaucratic achievements and the Royal Mathematician could not think beyond his complex rules of calculation. They, unlike the Jester, did not leave any space in their minds for new ideas to sneak in.
The story tells us to use the perspective of a child, at times, for a change. Innocent and uncluttered minds may throw up fresh ideas, which are often blocked by our mindsets and in-depth knowledge. Only when the Jester decided to look at the problem with the eyes of the Princess did he find that the answers lay in the child herself. Creativity must be nurtured in a mind that is a fresh green pasture. This story has a very good lesson in divergent thinking and would make great reading in the creativity and problem solving courses.
It has a great stress-busting lesson too. We worry most of the time for causes, which do not exist. The King fretted about the unpleasant consequences when the Princess would look at the sky, but did the real moon bother the Princess at all?
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There is no fat in the writing, and the book is packed with information. The entire PC process is covered; purchase (a great component description, including moneysaving tips), use (including software), upgrades and replacements. In a review there really is no way to convey an adequate description of all that is there. Just think of the time that you have spent talking to disinterested salespeople, looking at help screens, manuals, third party books, on hold on customer service lines, bugging friends, etc. Then think of a book that actually provides detailed, well-written guidance that answers questions. Get the book.
Win9x experts probably won't gain much from this book. However, they're not the intended audience, and I wholeheartedly believe The Unofficial Guide to PCs is well worth the price for any new Windows user.
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Chinese Handcuffs by Chris Crutcher tells the similar story of a teenage boy named Dillon who also loses his older brother to suicide. Dillon escapes his pain through triathalons, an extreme contrast to Judy's music writing and playing. Crutcher tends to write novels centered around sports because more young people can relate to sports analagies than they can to introspecitve song lyrics. For me, it was nice to read a young adult novel with a storyline that I could relate to rather than merely understand.
"You can give her all your money, till you're totally broke./ You can christen her with diamonds, You can sprinkle her with coke./ But you'll never have her and you'll never know her/ 'cause she's the girl, she's the girl inside the girl."(Pg. 36) Judy "wrote" this song,"The Girl Inside the Girl". Many other full song lyrics are included throughout the book so that one can truly hear the sounds of a Wedding Night concert as well as visualize it. One even begins to understand the rock and roll lifestlye through a teenager's eyes. Once seen from behind closed doors, a rock star's life loses it's luster and glamourous image. Yet, the passion never dies for the music, not for Judy Valentine.
This book was written for "young adults", so it might be a little below an older teen's reading level. However, the storyline is just so unique, I would still recommend it to any music lover.
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Aside from that, it's great to have these particular translations "side by side," as it were. With the notable exception of the King James Version, each of these translations is written in modern (American) English; they are a joy to read and make studying the scriptures a meaningful experience.
I would recommend this volume to anyone who enjoys comparing (or who has an analytical mind).
Bible study on a passage in the NT. It is very good, the
translation choices are from the wide spectrum of English
translations, literal to paraphrase. I wish the publisher
had placed the NKJV next to the KJV and the NASB next to
the NIV. It would have made this resource even more useful.
But this deserves a place on every pastor's study desk.
Highly recommended.
The entire book is fascinating, and surely different parts will appeal to different readers. I was particularly enchanted with a poignant description of how Charles Lindbergh handled dying as he lay on his deathbed. I was also fascinated with how environmentally conscientious some of these men were, particularly Edison and Lindbergh, but also Ford. For example, Ford was very interested in making automobile parts out of soybeans in order to reduce the need for metal parts. It seems that all of these men had numerous ideas and ideas for inventions that were way ahead of their time - perhaps some of them still are.
Newton's writing is quite good, and I only have one very minor criticism: it seems that he preaches a little bit and dwells on the religious facet of his relationships with these people. Of course, I'm sure this was a very important part of his relationship with these men and their families, but it seems that there is a grand, overarching agenda he has in constantly illustrating their connection to God and religion.
If you are interested in any of these historical figures and their fascinating relationships with each other, this book is definitely the best book you will find on the subject.