In Beyond Cortisone: Herbal Alternatives for Inflammation, clinical herbalist Martha Moore first explains what inflammation is and what causes it. Although people regard inflammation as undesirable, Moore says it is a necessary part of the healing process. She adds that "inflammation may, however, develop at times and at sites with an intensity that is harmful, and the weapons intended to destroy invading elements or noxious stimuli may turn against the body itself."

Moore describes exactly how the immune system recognizes and attacks foreign substances, and how that system sometimes becomes overwhelmed and breaks down, leading to chronic illnesses. She explains how the body chemicals and anti-inflammatory agents work together and how inadequate nutritional intake weaken those functions.

Moore says herbalism is a holistic approach that "assists in resolving the condition while alleviating pain and discomfort. It is not aimed at simply alleviating symptoms, it also focuses on liver function, circulation and elimination, as well as quality of life." She adds that herbs primarily stimulate both anti-inflammatory and metabolic functions.

The bulk of her book is devoted to describing the various herbs, how they work, and recommended dosages. She offers specific diet and nutritional information, as well as herbal treatments, for these common inflammatory diseases: allergies and asthma, rheumatoid arthritis, inflammatory bowel diseases, and eczema. She ends with a materia medica which lists the common herbs and how to use them. An appendix has a list of resources.

Beyond Cortisone provides all the information needed to help those suffering from chronic inflammation find natural and gentle relief from their pain.

This book is about a boy named Matchit who doesn't think too much of himself or thinks he's popular.This story takes place at a junkyard where his dad leaves him to hightail it to Mt. Rushmore with his Girlfriend. Matchit thinks worst of the situation but he begins to lighten up later on.Great book about a boy who learns to face challenges with his dad being gone for a while. DEFINITLY 1-2-3-4-5 stars!!!!!! One of the better books I've read ever!!!!

I give Under The Mermaid Angel two thumbs up.
It is a good book to read if you'r feeling really down and depressed and you just want a really good book to read to so totally boost up you'r spirit.

I read this book when I was twelve. It is still my favorite book. And when I read it, I finished it in 2 days! I couldn't put the book down. It is not tons of adventure on every page but it is soo interesting. I felt connected to Jesse. Well, Jesse feels kinda in a rut in a very boring town (Ida). But when roxanne moves in she changes Jesses life. They become best friends even though the big age difference. I think the climax of the book was when Roxanne wanted to touch Frankenstiens hand at the church and she didn't. I thought it was so sad that she sat next to him but never said or did anything. And he never knew. And that she came all the way to Ida and sat next to him and never told him. Very sad. At the end of the book. I wished that it would go on. I wish Martha Moore would make a sequel. Because I want to know if Frankenstien ever found out about his mother.

Although I read this book like 5 months ago I can still remember what it was about!! I can't even describe this book it was so amazing! To all readers out there: read this book you will fall in love with it!

One cannot truly understand another without walking one mile in their shoes. This saying is displayed in Martha Moore's novel, Angels on the Roof. This novel takes place during the protagonist's freshman year of high school. The protagonist, Shelby and her mother, Zoe, have a missing link in their mother-daughter-relationship. That link is Shelby's father. Then to make things more complicated for Shelby, her mom is taking Shelby on one of those over-night-impulse trips she gets all the time. Shelby thinks she is going to have to move for the thousandth time, and she is determined to finish 9th grade in one place. So the lucky place they are going to "visit" is Red Valley, an empty town with country hicks. Shelby is miserable the minute she gets there and she wants desperately for the day to end, so they can go home. But things happen that make Shelby want to stay longer. This is an enjoyable novel for pre-teens and teenagers, because it deals with issues that every pre-teen or teenager deals with. Most people can relate to Shelby, which could make someone think that there is someone else who went through the same issues, even though the book was a fictional novel. Here is a good sampling of this idea: "Over the years my mother's had a lot of phases: Ceramics, Sand Candles, Designing with Buttons, and Denim Art, just to name a few. I figured Georgia O'Keeffe would pass and we wouldn't even have to have a garage sale to get rid of her. In the meantime, my mother couldn't get enough. Every day when she came home from work, she sat in the recliner with her lap full of art books. She read out loud whether I was listening or not, spouting off a million loony ideas about an artist who was born over a hundred years ago. I mean, she'd be a skeleton by now." (Page 2) This quote demonstrates how Shelby, thinks that her mom is off her rocker, but at the same time, she still loves her mom and goes along with her mother's bizarre obsessions. I thought the book was a good short novel that one doesn't have to analyze. All one has to do is just read and enjoy it. The understanding that Shelby and Zoe start to reach near the middle of the book makes the reader come to a sense of peacefulness that brings relief in the middle of this mother-and-daughter mess.

Angels on the Roof, by Martha Moore is about a girl named Shelby and her mother who is a little bit crazy. She has moved around many times in her life and is very sick of it. She goes to Red Valley with her mother to find out about her father. By the end of the book she figures out who her father is and she is very upset about it. In the end Shelby realizes that she doesn't need a father and that her mother is enough. I recomend this book to young teens because it is very interesting and is teaches you a lot about life. I realized by this book that family is very important and you shouldn't take them for granted. The reason I liked this novel so much is because it keeps you interested throught the whole book it never gets boring. I think that anyone who likes to read mysteries would love this book!

Angels on the Roof is a very touching book to me it made me wonder more about my family and not to lie to my mother like her mother did to shelby about her dad. I would recemend this book to anybody because it is very good with explaining it's characters, it's plot, and it keeps on wanting you to flip the page and not set it down.

My curiosity about the Amish allowed me to really enjoy this book. The author mingles two years of actual diary entries written in the '70's by Amish friend, Sarah, with experiences in areas she shares with Sarah - gardening, quilting, cooking/ recipes, and writing. By the end of the book I felt I knew something about Amish community interaction, and the life of a wife and mother skilled in and married to the home arts.

The author relates getting to know Sarah and Amish life as somewhat spiritual and shares her introspections. I couldn't drum up any spirituality. My reaction was simply 'How like us they are, and yet, how different.' If you're curious about the Amish wife and mother's day-to-day, the book will interest you.

I loved this book. A good book is like a comfortable friend; this is one of those books. It takes us back to a time when 'mundane' tasks were considered both important and of value. This is such a soothing and gentle and genteel book. Sarah is hardworking and can master more in a day than anyone I know (I wish I could be more like her)....yet considers her own fragility -- she calls it 'feminine weakness' when she compares her abilities to that of her husband. In a short paragraph she speaks volumes about the loss of her mother. 500 people attended the wake/funeral service.....and yet, how the family is left 'in its sorrow.' Everyone is equal in Amish society; no one is viewed 'above' another -- so when the author mentions personal traits she views as superior, Sarah just looks at her, unimpressed. This to me is much more appealing than our competitive, fast-paced society. This is truly a delicious book, not full of fluff, but rather more the wisdom I wish our society still embraced.

Important background! In late 1993, Martha Honey & Tony Avirgan recanted their previous claims that the CIA tried to [end] Pastora after determining that Sandinista intelligence was behind the assasination attempt. Doug Vaughan published an expose on this in the San Francisco Chronicle/Miami Herald on August 1st, 1993.

Considering that Brought To Light was published in 1988, and the book seems to imply that the lid would be blown off of these scandals, it's ironic to read it now and see that not only did nothing come of the expose, but no one even seems to remember (or care) about La Penca.

Brought To Light is designed as a flipbook, with each side having a complete story, and it's own cover. The stories can be read in any order, as they only really converge at the end.

I read Flashpoint: The La Penca Bombing first, and it's the best of the two. Joyce Brabner and Tom Yeates tell the story of a couple of American journalists trying to expose American involvement with the attempted assassination of a Guerilla leader in Central America. It's a gripping story, but with almost 15 years elapsing since it's original publication, I can't help but wonder what the REAL story is, and if anyone was ever brought to justice. Another reviewer here states that the whole story was later recanted....

Shadowplay: The Secret Team, is a whole other ball of wax. Both stories are based on a lawsuit filed against the Federal Government by The Christic Institute, in which they hoped to expose 30 years of illegal and unconstitutional U.S. covert activities. Where Flashpoint tells a straightforward docudrama tale, Shadowplay is like Oliver Stone on a bad acid trip. Alan Moore and Bill Sienkiewicz' hallucinatory tale is a conspiracy-nut's wet dream, but the art is almost as hard to follow as the twisting logic of the narrative, and the lettering is so hard to read, I was sorely tempted to just stop reading the book entirely, something I NEVER do....Usually I LOVE Alan Moore, but this story was just too much.

Overall, Brought To Light is an interesting read. If you already distrust "The Man", it won't tell you anything you didn't already suspect. And if you buy everything Uncle Sam tells you, you won't buy what the writers are selling.
It's an interesting look back at a time when it seems America was more naive and trusting in the Government, but that's about it.

Read Susie Morgan's book "In Search of The Assassin" in conjunction with this book. Susie was a survivor of La Penca and has doubts about the conclusions that this book comes to. Nobody wanted to talk about the bombing, and it is known that people lied to interviewers to cover up the facts.
Read with a pinch a salt.

The book, "Planning a wedding with divorced parents" serves as a reminder of what the reader, as a divorced child, has already experienced: You need to be the go-between and the one responsible for communicating everything. It does a good job of pointing out where it is essential not to forget this, particularly telling the photographer, ushers, and director/coordinator(assuming you opt for one of those). It also gives examples of good etiquette about invitation wording, alternative seating arrangements and ceremony procession order.

My main criticism about this book is that it limits discussion to semi-formal to formal events, with a particular sense that adult children are still dependent upon their parents for much of the wedding planning and financing (e.g. parents splitting traditional bills, or parents inviting their friends). I've been to very few weddings lately (the couple is usually over the age of 28 or 29) where parents' friends/coworkers were in attendance and parents financed everything -- or anything, for that matter. While that may be useful to some interested in this topic, I found the recommendations limiting, and common-sense extrapolations from those in any non-divorce wedding guide or bridal magazine.

I would imagine many children of divorced parents who do not get along well opt for a more informal, less-structured event in order to circumvent the more obvious financial and communication issues (I know I am, and my brother certainly did). The way to deal with not hurting parents' and stepparents' feelings, while still having YOUR wedding is missing here. It also pushes the idea of a wedding director to handle these situations, which is out of the purview of any informal wedding.

For example, advice on the appropriate way to accept and use offers of small financial support from each parent/stepparent without potentially offending the other parent (or the stepparent that contributed but will not play a role in the ceremony) would be helpful, in my opinion. Ways of broaching the involvement expectations of all parents and stepparents without committing oneself, or perhaps how to deal with little traditions that are specific to a parent (e.g. roses to the mothers -- should the long-time stepmother get one too, potentially upsetting the "real" mother that raised you?) would be something appropriate for a book like this which is not discussed anywhere else.

If these sort of deeper issues don't apply to your wedding, this book will probably serve you well. If you have the "other" type of situation, then this book offers you nothing new.