This was a very close-up look at the day-to-day life of a mother and her ADHD child. The author uses journal entries to track the frustration, worries, behavioral difficulties and lack of acceptance she and her son face. As the parent of a child with ADHD, I felt that this book was telling my son's story. It was very specific and accurate, not biased towards or against medication, and it presented a personal view of a very pervasive and painful disorder for both child and parent. I would recommend this book highly to anyone who wonders if their preschooler has ADHD, to professionals who doubt the significance of ADHD and to others who would like to know what life is really like for families like the author's and mine without all of the media hype and controversy. A very readable and touching story.

I absolutely loved this book. It gives an excellent first person view of what is it like living with a child with ADD. The reader follows the mother (the narrator) through her journal entries about coming to discover that her little boy had ADD, and finally getting a correct diagnoses, and then finally finding a school that catered to his specific learning style.

I am a mom of a similar little boy with ADD and horrible experiences in "wonderful" preschools. I am so glad that Ann shared the story of Willie & his family. It is a moving, accurate and compelling story for anyone struggling to help their child feel good about themselves despite unacceptable behavior. My favorite line from the book relates precisely how I feel about my son, "buried treasure: Willie's true angelic sweetness, hidden deep under his symptoms." I am also a Pediatrician who knew how to make a diagnosis and start him on medication, but I am only now learning how deeply I have hurt for and with my son as he tried to be a "good boy" but simply couldn't sometimes. I recommend this to my patients' parents, and am grateful for Ann's sharing and Willie's courage.

In his book, John Morris offers lots of amusing baseball anecdotes and one or two touching if maudlin family stories. However I have never seen so many spelling errors in one book (a short book at that!) in my life. Too bad.

From the grind of the minor leagues to the thrill of playing in the World Series...John Morris knows baseball extemely well-having played 12 years with the Cardinals, Phillies and Angels. In his first book "Bullet Bob Comes to Louisville" Morris demonstrates a surprising strong talent as a writer and storyteller. The strength of his book comes from his ability to take his baseball experiences and interweave them with themes of everyday life. In his short story format (22 stories over a nine-inning game) Morris displays a wonderful balance of baseball humor, behind the scenes insight, and sensitive family issues relating to life and death. This book moves very quickly- which made it that much more enjoyable for me. (I read it from cover to cover in one sitting)Go buy it for yourself and your friends. You won't be disappointed!

As a former teammate of Johnny Mo's, with the Cardinals and Phillies, I vividly recall many of the events he describes in his stories. These stories bring back so many memories - precious memories of the joys and pains experienced on the trek to become a major leaguer. I knew Johnny Mo was a great teammate and an outstanding individual, but I did not know he was such a wonderful storyteller! I could not put the book down. If you want a glimpse at the life of a baseball player - the life you never see on TV or in the movies, read this book.

Willie Nelson is a great singer and pretty good guitar player. Now for the book: Most of the book consists of his song lyrics. That's the best part. As to the jokes, a few of them made me chuckle. The "keep breathing" and "long liver" lines on page 22 are ancient. Willie admits to being 68. As to the slang language, those same old "s" words and "f" words and a few others might be OK for emphasis, and if you like repetition, there's a bit of that. The joke about AIDS on page 64 is modern, but. Stick to music, Willie.

Even my daughter the confirmed punk rocker howled with delight when she read it. It's just Willie having fun, telling war stories, Texas tales, and some of the dirtiest jokes you'll ever read. For long-time Willie fans, it's filled with lyrics to classic Willie songs, and, even better, to his obscure, mostly long-forgotten songs. One of the lyrics has a legend not in the book attached to it: Willie and Johnny Bush are on a tour bus, Willie says something like "I can write a hit song about anything in 15 minutes." Bush says "You're on!", they bet something best left unmentioned, and hands him a newspaper story he'd been reading about a woman found strangled. "I Just Can't Let You Say Goodbye" is in the book ... maybe the bloodiest country song ever ...."... the flesh around your throat is pale, indented by my fingernails, now you can't scream and you can't cry, and I just can't let you say goodbye ..." When you see the lyrics to "Crazy" in print, you realize all over again what a wonderful wordsmith Mr. Hugh W. Nelson is. It's a book I have read and re-read, gave a dozen copies of it as gifts when it first appeared, some of them to musicians who'd played and toured with Willie. "Yup, he hasn't changed a bit!"

If you are a fan of Willie Nelson ... as most folks are ... you'll want this book.

It's spoken in town-to-town musician-bus language and it's simply what Willie intended for the book to be --- a no-holds-barred bit of chit-chat placed into print by utilizing the casual talking style of the author.

Like his many musical compositions that have been released on records, CDs and cassettes during the past 40 years or so, this is a work of art by an artist who has lived the life and is, therefore, qualified to talk about it.

Willie sent me the beginning pages of the manuscript as he was creating it on his bus while riding from city to city for various appearances. After reading what was submitted to me, I knew it would be a "winner". Reading the completed book was a genuine delight.

Some of the jokes told by Willie are not the type you would tell to your mother (who made have already heard them if she knows Willie), but are not offensive unless your head has been buried in the sand during the past couple of decades. Like a good movie, the hilarious attachments just add to the atmosphere.

While you are reading this book, you get the feeling you're sitting on Willie's smoky bus, listening to the genius as he laughs and relays numerous stories of the road, discusses some personal friends and speaks with a tongue in cheek manner about the somewhat complex music/entertainment scene. There are also some bits that are to be taken as serious statements from time to time.

Although he needs no introduction to his talents as a singer, actor, extraordinary guitar picker and songwriter, it's the "common" connection that makes this an authentic piece of literary art.

Willie caps it all off with many photos and lyrics for songs, most of them composed by a man who is looked upon by his many peers and countless fans as being unsurpassable in the business of entertainment.

You might put Willie's new CD, "THE GREAT DIVIDE", in the player unit while you lay back and enjoy this very good book written by a dear old friend.

I read this book a few years ago, and was both interested in Willie Mays not only as a player, but as a man. Growing up a baseball player Willie Mays was someone to idolize, and with the way he played, this was easy to do. What was most sad about this book was the fact that Willie ended up a great career having little money to show for it, and had to become a greeter at a casino to make ends meet. One can only imagine how much money he would command now, and how he would be set for life in today's current baseball climate. If A-Rod gets $25 million a year, than Willie would get much more. This book gets points for being an honest look at Willie's life, from his own perspective, and for that I aplaud him. If you like baseball, you will like this book.

The autobiography of Willie Mayes portrays the life and times of one of America's best baseball players. Willie Mays played with a style and flair unmatched in this day and age. The book describes his trials and tribulations growing up in the deep south.

It is a very well-written autobiography, and if readers are into baseball or Willie Mays this is an excellent selection. It is an excellent selection because it is a profile of American baseball and the way we idolize professional athletes.

If you grew up during the 50s and 60s, Willie Mays was a household name. He is an american icon, and was recently voted the greatest living ballplayer. This book covers the remarkable life of this american hero, from his humble beginnings in segregated Alabama, to fame and fortune in the major leagues, to his struggle to learn to live without baseball. Willie Mays is an american hero, and this is the best book there is on Willie Mays. Say Hey!!!!!

Parts of the book are overly detailed, yet some parts are quite sparse. The portrait of Brown's hometown of Mineola, Texas is riveting yet there are few details of what Brown was like as a child -- readers wanting to find out what books, philosophers or anything that inspired Brown will be left wanting. We must settle for the unsupported statement that he was a voracious reader. Also, there seems to be a mismatch in focus -- over half of the book is devoted to Brown's career before becoming speaker when he really was a marginal figure. Perhaps a dozen pages are devoted to obscure delegate credentialling details about the '72 convention that could have been covered in a fraction of the space.

On the objective side, the book does call Brown to task for several ethical and race-baiting missteps, and he largely accepts the common view of Brown as a fixer extraordinare who made the trains run on time in the legislature at the expense of an agenda. The author also perceptively highlights why Brown succeeded tactically in holding his Speakership for so long, sometimes by pulling absolute political miracles. This is when the book is at its best, showing how Brown has become one of the most powerful, savvy figures in California political history.

On the minus side (for those who prefer their history unfiltered by the author's personal politics) references abound throughout the book to "ultra right conservatives", "hard right conservatives" and the like but there are no similiar references to figures on the left; Jesse Unruh and Ronald Reagan have "cronies" while Brown has friends.

While clearly critical on occasions, at other times the author blatantly bends over backwards to make Brown look good. When Brown made some vicious personal public remarks about then Governor Duekmajian (sp?) the author criticizes Brown yet excuses him by saying he was just doing so to satisfy the Democrat Assembly members who disliked the Duke, yet its impossible (for me at least) to believe Brown's Assembly delegation ever included people who demanded hateful comments from the Speaker. Throughout the book, Brown is portrayed as a consummate, off-the-cuff showman who's unmatched with his rapier-like comments, yet we're expected to believe this one was done calculatingly to satisfy people who insisted that Brown engage in brutal personal insults. This doesn't hold water.

The author also uncritically accepts Brown's assertion that he went to law school on a whim and says if he hadn't seized this seemingly random impulse, he never would have gone into politics. This seems a stretch to say the least, largely because the author paints a quite vivid picture of Brown the showman who lives for thie limelight -- it's virtually impossible to imagine this truly unique personality not in politics. That, and the fact that he was running for office by the time he was 28 indicate to me that like Bill Clinton, Willie Brown was intent on being a politician at an early age.

In the "give Willie the benefit of the doubt" category, outrageous remarks that can be fairly categorized as inciting violence are excused because Brown, according to the author, was so personally devastated by RFK's assissination a few weeks before. Yet the author provides nothing to support this strange assertion. It seems reasonable to conclude the author is going to extremes to excuse some of Brown's most inexcusable conduct.

At the end, the author drops all pretense of objectivity and discloses that he was a McGovern delegate at the '72 convention (which explains why, although doesn't justify, the excessive focus on that convention's minutae) and highlights Brown's greatest achievement as stymying the agendas of numerous Republican governors during his Assembly career.

The book was enjoyable largely because the subject is so fascinating. Parts of it are extremely well written, filled with strong analysis and the author undeniably did a tremendous job researching the book, but even more, in landing firsthand interviews with the major participants. Nonetheless, the book is unevenly focused, lavishing attention on Brown's flamboyance at the expense of personal insights. There is also a sometimes subtle but unmistakable bias from beginning to end in favor of Brown's leftist politics and Brown himself.

I found this book to be very interesting and informative. Without a doubt it gave me a look into the life and times of Willie Brown and the state of California. From growing up under the repressive laws of Jim Crow and segregation to becoming one of the most powerful men in California,Willie Brown is a courageous and complex figure in California's history. In the tradition of "showmen politicians" like Adam Clayton Powell, Huey P. Long, and Lyndon Johnson, Brown is a part of a by-gone era. With term limits well in place, we will never see the likes of such a powerful and personable politician. President Clinton could not have said it better when he arrived in Sacramento and met Willie Brown in person for the first time. He stated, " now i have finally met the real slick Willie". Whether demon or devil, Willie Brown changed the face of legistlative politics in Califonia and paved the way for the state to expand in many other areas. After reading this book, you wonder how California can survive without Willie Brown.

Willie Brown is a politician regarded as both a political reformer and a modern political boss, a sometime political progressive and sometime defender of corporate interests, and a man of humble background who flaunts a flashy lifestyle. The book, "Willie Brown", presents a study of a man's contrasts and complexities.
This biography neither glorifies nor lambastes its subject. The reader is allowed to thoroughly understand the gray areas between the good and evil which is the human nature of most public figures. We learn about Willie Brown and the events shaping his life and histroy.
We learn that Willie Brown sought being the center of attention from childhoold and how this trait was internalized through lifelong quests for leadership. Willie Brown emerged from a life of gambling and nightlife into a life or politics and nightlife.
Controversy has followed Willie Brown's life. Branded as both a radical liberal and a conservative coalition builder, Willie Brown has learned that power and personal feelings can change and that these changes can be used for advantage. Readers learn how Willie Brown, upon becoming Speaker of the California House of Representatives, was adept at maintaining power.
The author demonstrates that Willie Brown enjoyed political power games more for the sake of power than for setting policy. Willie Brown played the legislative power game very well for a long time. When he finally lost the power game, he exited the legislature by becoming a big city Mayor. This book presents a remarkable study of one of America's most resilient politicians.

The book is well written and easy to read. The instruction is well presented so the novice can uderstand and with practice will be able to advance in the game. For the intermediate on up player this book has little to offer except to learn a little about Willie which could be better spent reading a book that is devoted to Willie and not a sideline intro. depending on your skill level it is either good and well worth your time or is not worth reading. Even though i did not gain much useful information i still enjoyed the book.

This book really does not have a lot of content or instruction. If you really want to learn more about pool you'll find more in other books by less prominent pool players (ie, Robert Byrne, Phil Capelle), but he does make some very good points about the fundamentals. However, above all other things, Willie Mosconi is the greatest pool player to have ever lived and any serious pool player should read his book out of respect if nothing else.

I originally purchased this book when it was fresh off the press (at a cover price of $2.50).

Over the years, my pool game has had its ups and downs, but when I get into a 'slump', I get out "Winning Pocket Billiards" and go through the entire book as if for the first time. My game seems to undergo an immediate improvement!

I highly recommend this book for both beginners and "those that THINK they know it all"!

Amazon says this is out of print. NOT SO! It can be gotten thru the National Parks Service National Women's Museum in Seneca Falls, NY. The woman who wrote this lived an extraordinary life, as a slave child, and as a freed woman. Yet by many standards she is just an ordinary person living her life, doing what she CAN do. It's a nice read. She's not trying to be anybody's heroine, more simply I think she was writing to tell herself who she was, that she could survive, that she could be of service. Neither boring or exciting (so far), simply real.

It's a short book (especially when you consider the added historical footnotes and pictures), but very valuable. It's so rare to hear the perspective of someone who was a slave, and who then lived free in the post-war period. Her heartfelt tales of the bigotry of the _post_-war period to me were even more memorable than her focus on the war itself.

"A Black Woman's Civil War Memoirs," by Susie King Taylor, was first published in 1902. A new edition, edited by Patricia Romero and featuring an introduction by Willie Lee Rose, appeared in 1988. In that new intro Rose declared, "There is nothing even vaguely resembling Susie King Taylor's small volume of random recollections in the entire literature of the Civil War, or in that of any other American conflict insofar as I am aware." Indeed, this book is a rare and valuable historical document.

Taylor was born a slave in 1848 on an island off the coast of Georgia. She gained her freedom and worked as a laundress for an African-American Union regiment during the war.

Taylor recalls how she learned to read and write and then herself became a teacher. She offers fascinating details about her life with the troops. She had many different duties beyond laundry service. I loved the episode where she recalls concocting "a very delicious custard" from turtle eggs and canned condensed milk, and serving it to the troops.

Taylor condemns the lack of appreciation shown for both black and white Civil War veterans. She also condemns early 20th century racism. Reading her book I was reminded of W.E.B. Du Bois' classic "The Souls of Black Folk," which was first published around the same time; I think the two books complement each other well.

Taylor ends on a note of hope and pride, noting "my people are striving" for better lives. This book is, in my opinion, an important milestone in African-American literature.

Read the Kirkus Review for the story summary, so I'll cut to the chase here. Kinky tells a lot of road stories about Willie Nelson, Tom T. Hall ("loved all his songs and both his melodies") and offers a ribald quote from Kris Kristofferson about Farrah Fawcett-Majors that will make you spit milk through your nose. These stories make "Roadkill" a far more entertaining book than "The Love Song of J. Edgar Hoover" in which he seemed to spend far too much time talking about himself. Kinky is capable of spinning a mystery plot -- "A Case of Lone Star" is still his best -- but "Roadkill" shows Kinky can be ribaldly funny, still capable of making the inner 13-year-old boy on some of us laugh out loud

Willie Nelson fans will find pleasure, and perhaps a few surprises, in Kinky Friedman's latest offering, "Roadkill." The two share a long friendship, dating back to Friedman's days as leader of the now-defunct Texas Jewboys. In "Roadkill," Nelson reprises his real-life role as a friend of the Kinkster and serves as a sort of spiritual mentor for the country singer-turned private eye, who finds himself becoming disillusioned with his bohemian lifestyle. The two connect just in time for Kinky to take up the case of a possible revenge plot against his friend. Is the FBI settling an old score with Willie? Or is it just one of his 97 former wives? As usual, the Kinkster crashes his way to a comic resolution, with the help of the ever-present Village Irregulars. Kinky makes a practice of populating his novels with the real people in his life (most every character mentioned truly exists), and it's quite touching to find his description of Nelson as a spiritual, centered man at peace with himself - a regular "Zen Texan." The novel will provide Kinky fans with another wonderfully convoluted ride, and perhaps give Willie fans new insights into their hero

Even his enemies must admit that Kinky Friedman is clever. Too his fans, he's hilarious. This is another mystery with himself as hero/detective. Willie Nelson plays the part of potential victim. Funny as usual, and with a good story line, as well. Not a Nobel Prize candidate, but definitely a fun read.

Despite the generous humour found within, this is probably NOT the book you want to get if you need to find out particular data on your Jeep. The book seems to focus on common sense issues related to 4X4's in general, so it leaves much to be desired in terms of identifying axles, transmissions, transfer cases and the like. Oh yeah, there aren't any wiring diagrams included. I suppose the book was written on the premise that the reader should already know what s/he has in and around their Jeep...which, in a sense, kinda relegates the book to owner's manual status rather than being a bible on the subject. The Haynes manuals are much better.

This is the good book. Jeep freaks this is the real deal hollyfield. Easy to read, understand, and lots of stuff jeepers wanna know, forget Grisham...... Willie Worthy is my hero.

This is the book I go to for help first. It's filled with common sense troubleshooting tips. This book is geared towards the older CJs that use points and "old technology" engines. It is not a "how-to" for performance or trail build-ups, there are other books better for that. Yes, you still need factory manuals and/or Chilton's type manuals, but this one is best for the average Jeep CJ owner with an older model who needs simple help on everyday problems!