This lovely little volume is a gift that keeps on giving. Its essays are simple, elegant, soulful, inspiring. And thought-provoking. You may well find yourself searching your own Christmas memories, and finding gems you had long forgotten. Which is what this book is all about -- seeing, hearing, remembering those things we take for granted, and cherishing them anew. This is a book to feed the heart, and the soul. And it's just the right size for stocking stuffing!

The kind of collection that is a great gift during the holidays for anyone - it reminds us of the spirit of the season and connects us to our past, our hopes, and the more important meaning of our lives! Great gift for family members, co-workers, neighbors and for anyone on your list!!

Many books about religion and children sound like they're writtrn by monks or mother's with too much time on their hands. Now I have great respect for the religious men and women who have graced my own life but their expertize is not in raising children. On the other hand mothers know a lot about raising children, but if one has the luxury of writing a book while in the midst of parenting, perhaps that family is not too typical. As a mother of four I never had much discretionary time.

My husband and I took our faith seriously and tried our best to share it with our children but it is only in hindsight that I recognize the truth and wisdom that Tom McGrath has taken the time to put on paper so that those of us too busy doing it, can also be intentional about sharing with our dear ones that faith which is so dear to us. Add to that the bonus that McGrath writes with such a refreshing and non-pietisic style that it makes faith come alive and reminds us of our deepest beliefs.

All this would be fine but irrelevant if it just added more time consuming practices to a parent's already busy life. Then we'd have to add guilt and feelings of inadequacy to our list of parenting failures. But McGrath lets us in to the realm of faith sharing gently. He shows us how it's not just about going to church and saying memorized prayers but it's also about how we take the ordinary times and people in our lives and recognize their holiness. It doesn't necessarily take more time, it just takes awareness.

I especially liked the story of how children pick up faith not only from their parents but are helped, sometimes invisibly, by other relatives and friends that surround our families. For example, he tells of how, as a child, an older relative patiently explained to him the stories behind the holy cards that fell out of her prayer book. It put flesh on the sometimes vague concept of the "communion of saints". Raising Faith-Filled Kids goes on to offer numerous other prompts that remind us of how God works through every day family life. It's nice to have a book that invites, gives creative ideas, and encourages but doesn't preach. It's also nice that it was written by a father - not that he had much time either.

Mr. McGrath does an excellent job giving parents useful advice in an area not often covered in our culture. Tone is conversational, friendly and comfortable. This book will help you to relate to your children better.

Mr. McGrath has done a wonderful job at compiling short anecdotes of every day occurences in a traditional family that will make you laugh or bring tears to your eyes. Either way, the daily paragraph and perfectly matched scripture passage will reaffirm your parenting efforts and give you a sense of order in the sometimes caotic family life. The one or two minutes you'll spend reading the daily message will set you off on your way to having a great parenting day.

If your idea of love is limited to visions of puppies and balloons, The Thing About Love Is... probably not for you. In Polyphony Press' first effort, the heavy topic of love is tackled in gritty, gutsy pieces that cut to core of this complex emotion. Sometimes it's bliss, sometimes it's bizarre, and quite often it hurts, but regardless of its form, love is always intriguing. This anthology is in keeping with that notion. With a variety of styles and voices, the works featured here are unanimous in their ability to draw the reader in and keep him hooked. It is truly a great read that may challenge one's personal definition of love. Call it an enjoyable experiment in mind expansion!

It's difficult to find an anthology that has as much stopping power as this one. Reading it, I was impressed not only by the diversity of the authorial voices, but also by their veracity. Each story, poem and play seems to have come straight from the gut. What's more, the contributing writers help to remove our blinders; particularly when it comes to matters of the heart. Love, they argue, is nothing less than a battlefield on which each of us daily chances victory or defeat.Those seeking to enter the contest fully armed would do well to buy this book.

Anthologies are not my usual choice of reading material, but as this was recommended to me, I decided to give it a try. I was pleasantly surprised. While I could not relate to some of the pieces here, I enjoyed the underlying topic immensely. The poetry, drama, and short stories were a good blend. The Thing About Love Is... an enjoyable and fast read, but has a peculiar lingering effect that required that I return to it for further exploration. It's a perfect book to read from the relative comfort and safety of your best chair, where you know that you can dip into the joy and angst of love and for once, walk away unscathed.

the damn foole by tom mcgrath is a good book becuse i think it is it is exilirating and exciteing but it gets boring after a while because it is very repetive and somewhat boring. its the same thing over and over again with nothing new ever happening. this makes the story boring and unfun that is also why i gave this book only 1 star its not good book with some funny parts its the samething over and over;he goes somewhere meets some people then he leaves and does it all over again. very repetive and very boring. I did not like the book at all.on the story tome does the same thing over and over again makiong the story boring and all that.

Voyages... are refreshing, hilarious, cynical short stories opposing the Boy Scout motto "Be Prepared". If you like the writing of Kurt Vonnegut or Toole's "A Confederacy of Dunces" you will love this book. While some of the stories are a bit repetitive, they are wonderful. If you are a sailor, no doubt you will recognize some of the characters in the book - including the boat's. The black and white illustrations in the book are charming and add a lot.

Tom is a cranky man with a leaky boat that talks to him. He sometimes carries with him a crew of mocking ghosts as well as he travels.

Doesn't sound too promising, and yet this book, first published as a series of mimeographed pages tacked to the wall of a marina, gets closer to the spirit of sailing than anything you'll ever read.

In this slightly overdone docudrama, McGrath lays down the history of MTV, charting the evolution of the most significant cultural influence during the eighties, and explaining its surprising success.

Starting with the founders -- or "pioneers," as McGrath calls them -- we are given a closer look at the rebellious mentality which gave birth to MTV, the discouraging conditions posed by a fledgling cable television industry, and the cultural factors which explain the wild success of the MTV phenomenon. But for all of this, I've got to say that this book fell short in a number of places.

Rather than provide a factual account of the network's history and evolution, McGrath frequently displays a strong bias in his interpretation of 1980's culture, and his writing often becomes more creative than analytical, as he ascribes internal monologues to the various executives and celebrities involved in the MTV saga. The information which he provides is both interesting and well-supported, but he strays from the analytical angle far too often for this to be a strong resource text. Personally, I find the explanations of the mechanics of business, and specifically the media industry, to be quite interesting, and a good introduction to media economics.

While I found the story itself interesting, and admittedly exciting in some places, I think McGrath should have focused more closely on the facts, and less on the one-liners.

I was not expecting this to be so insightful of a book about the television business. Unexpectedly insightful.