I bought this book from Amazon after reading all the glowing reviews. I was skeptical, but hopeful, it would really help me. I want to tell anyone reading these reviews that this book is worth buying and reading, if you suspect, or know, that you were abused as a child. Every good thing said about this book is true. If you are hurting, angry, have trouble trusting, have trouble keeping a relationship going, this book may be just what you need.

I found the techniques described in this book incredibly simple with a powerful impact. "Simple" meaning very uncomplicated but requiring a commitment to healing on the part of the reader. It has made me very cognizant of those moments we all have when we are about to react from frustration or anger--or even dismiss an emotion because we don't want to deal with it. This book says, STOP...right in the middle of it...embrace it, feel it, hurt with it, learn from it. It's extremely empowering and very humbling to realize how often I have such moments. I highly recommend this book to those who want to make positive changes in themselves and ultimately in their relationships.

Few books have been written for people who want much more than feeling somewhat better. Jenson makes clear how much of our reaction to situations and other people is programmed by childhood experiences that must be uncovered, and grieved for. If you are satisfied with anti depressant medication, then don't bother reading. But if you want real healing, you will need to read this book. You may also want to read, No Shame On You.

Impressionism is my favorite style of painting so I was really enchanted with this biography. Written by Renoir's middle son, Jean, Renoir, My Father not only gives us an intimate look at the life of Auguste Renoir, it gives us an intimate look at the Paris of Renoir's day as well.

As we get to know Renoir we get to know his contemporaries, too. Jean Renoir writes about Monet, Cezanne, Manet, Sisley and many other great artists. We learn many "little known" facts, such as Monet's penchant for lace and his "artful" way with the ladies.

Paris really comes alive in this book. Many of the places Renoir writes about still exist and can be visited today. This book makes any art lover's trip to Paris more meaningful whether he's a Renoir fan or not.

When reading this book, one must remember that this is not a "run of the mill" biography. This is a son writing about the father he adored. The portrait we are given is very intimate, detailed and loving. It's obvious that Jean Renoir adored his father, just as Auguste Renoir adored his family.

Ultimately, this book is a beautiful tribute from a loving son to a father who was one of history's consummate artists. If you have any interest at all in art, this is one book you simply must not pass up. The last page alone will break your heart.

Renoir was far more than one of the world's greatest artists. He was an adventurer, a family man, a man who held interesting views on just about every subject under the sun, and finally, in his later years, a martyr to life. Although this book was written by Renoir's middle son, Jean, it is as vibrant and alive as if Renoir, himself, had just written the words in his own hand. Through this book we learn how the Renoir family left its roots in Limoges and moved to Paris. We read of Renoir's early years as a painter of porcelain and how and why he became an artist, more specifically, an Impressionist. We learn of Renoir's marriage to Aline Charigot of Essoyes, the birth of his three sons and his move to the south of France. Some of the most interesting sections of the book deal with Renoir's feelings about the effect of light on a painting and why he needed to paint in a "natural" setting. Also, most interesting are the chapters on the birth of Impressionism and Renoir's relationships with the other artists of the time, such as Monet, Manet, Sisley and Cezanne, just to name a few. Lovingly and charmingly written, this book truly brings Renoir to life and makes him accessible to all. Absolutely a must for anyone with even a passing interest in art or artists!

Not only is this a book about Renoir, whose tableaux peer out of every other art store on every mall in North America (what a curious fate!), it is also a book about Paris. Born in 1841, Renoir was older than most of the other Impressionists with whom he grew friendly later. He also had the chance to see Paris as it was before the Commune and the war of 1870. He lived a good part of his life on the Butte in Montmartre and it is hard now to recapture the atmosphere up there among the hordes of tourists. Yet early on Sunday mornings with a light rain playing on the umbrellas of the artist's stands in the Place du Tertre, you can wander freely among the memories of the rue Lepic and elsewhere, and catch glimpses of Renoir (and others) as you pass through the old streets. Reading this book first will help.

Jean Renoir is a very famous artist in his own right, having made numerous films and become one of the most acclaimed directors in French cinema history. Here he has taken great pains to paint a fine portrait of his renowned father, this time with a pen. He has succeeded admirably.

I saw this book at Borders and requested it from the library since I couldn't afford to buy it that day. It is an amazingly beautiful book with so many pictures. I love art books with lots of pictures, and this has many in colour as well as black and white. I recommend this book very highly. If you are a fan of art nouveau, Mucha, or just appreciate beauty, you will love this book.

This large and very handsome book, which presents itself as the catalogue for a 1998 exhibition, is a beautifully and intelligently presented anthology of the artist's very diverse career, capturing drawings and paintings, sculpture, posters, illustrations, decorative panels, and even jewelry design; the work of a master, all in excellent reproduction. Mucha was a fascinating man and an artist of considerable magnitude, and as the title claims, his work is the spirit of Art Nouveau, though no such label should limit the amazing body of achievment found here. I haven't collected other books of his work yet, but surely this volume will remain definitive for some time.

I have been looking for the picture "Lottery of the National Unity for Southwestern Moravia in Brno" ever since I saw the original this past summer in Prague, where the Mucha museum is located. If you have never heard of this picture, perhaps you can understand how MANY Mucha drawings, paintings, watercoulors and pastels are in here, to find such an obscure one. Not only does it have his known art, such as the 4 seasons, Laurel and Ivy, etc; But is also has his political art, THE ENTIRETY OF THE SLAV EPIC (Which is amazing), and many of his interior designs. How critics ever said Mucha wasn't one of the great masters of pen and ink, eludes me. This is one of the best books, and with Amazon's savings, it's even better. :)

One of our teaching assistants came to me and begged for this title to be added to the library collection. After checking the book out online, I ordered it. To my delight, it arrived in my book order, and I immediately read it to my 2nd graders in library. We all fell in love with Clarence and Smoky. Both characters are well written and delighfully drawn. The simplistic storyline can easily be read by beginning readers. This is a must for every personal collection!

Clarence, a city dwelling little pig, sets out on his first big vacation to a dude ranch, out west. After a long and interesting bus ride, he arrives and meets Smoky, a very large and friendly purple horse who introduces him to all the pleasures of western ways. Smoky takes him on long rides through the mountains and canyons, teaches Clarence to play cards with the boys, line dance, and perform on the washtub in a cowboy band. They eat, nap, and even read stories together. It's a wonderful week. But as his vacation comes to an end, Smoky tells Clarence he's getting too old to work on the ranch anymore, and is going to be sold. Best friends are hard to come by, and Clarence can't stand the thought of never seeing his favorite horse again. So he uses all his bus money to buy Smoky, and together they begin the long ride back to the city. It may take years, but as long as they're together, they have all the time in the world..... Jean Ekman Adams has written a delightful story with a gentle message about loyalty, compassion, and friendship, that won't be lost on young readers. Her simple and engaging text, with its satisfying, happily ever after ending, is beautifully enhanced by her charming, bold, and vibrant illustrations, full of endearing ranch characters, and subtle, humorous detail. Perfect for youngsters 3-7, Clarence Goes Out West And Meets A Purple Horse, is a sweet and entertaining, feel good story, that is sure to put a smile on everyone's face. This soon-to-be classic, is a picture book youngsters will beg to read again and again.

Not only does my daughter thoroughly enjoy Clarence & Smoky & the colorful illustrations, but I like the idea that she's getting fun lessons on compassion, friendship & priorities. Having lived in the big city & now finding myself in "the West," I truly enjoy this book myself. (Or perhaps it's my similar tendencies to pack my favorite snacks & not enough clothes when I travel...)This is one of the few books I don't mind reading 4 times before bed!

I've read several book bij this author. This one was and is my favorite! I read the original Dutch version about 20 years ago, and I still have it on my bookshelf! It's a great adventure that will surely grab a young reader's attention. Buy it!

i read this in jr. high about 25 years ago. i read it a couple of times , actually. loved it so much, i even remembered the author's name. now i am ordering this for MY daughter(12). i hope she will love it as much as i did. great adventure story!!!

I read this book in high school about 25 years ago, and it was such a good book, that i remembered the title up to this day. i have been trying to find a copy, and since getting a home computer, i am now able to find it and share it with my daughter. it is an amazing story.

Guy De Maupassant (1850-1893), if "Bel-Ami" is any indication, must rank as one of the best writers in the history of the western world. Born in Normandy in 1850, Maupassant became a disciple of the French author Flaubert early in life. Guy quit his job with the civil service after publishing his first short story, "Boule de Suif" in 1880. What followed was a phenomenal flurry of 250 short stories and six novels before his premature death from syphilis in 1893. During his short life, Maupassant helped to form the "groupe de Medan," a loosely knit group of naturalist writers headed by Emile Zola. He also worked as a journalist, covering such important events as the French campaigns in Algeria and Tunisia. A hard worker when it came to writing, Maupassant also possessed a zest for life, including a love for the ladies that eventually killed him.

"Bel-Ami" is hardly an original premise. How many books written through the years discuss the idea of a rural man heading to the city to make it big? That is exactly what happens with this book in the form of main character Georges Duroy. After a five-year stint in the French army, Duroy moves to Paris to make his fortune. Regrettably, Duroy is languishing in a lowly job as a railroad clerk until he meets his old army buddy Forestier. From this point forward, Georges is on the fast track to success. Forestier gets him a job at a scandal rag named "La Vie Francaise" where Georges rapidly ascends the ranks from lowly reporter to chief editor. Along the way, Duroy engages in all sorts of amorous adventures with women both high and low on the Paris social register. By the time the story ends, Georges is within sight of the highest positions in French society, all accomplished through sheer cunning and social maneuvering.

There are so many themes running through this sordid tale of the decadent Third Republic that it is impossible to adequately describe them all here. The introduction to this Penguin edition, written by translator Douglas Parmee, does a good job of showing how incidents in Maupassant's life appear in the character of Georges Duroy. The protagonist's rural background, his experience in France's North African expeditions, his work as a reporter and the subsequent expose of the seediness of journalism, the numerous affairs, the social positioning, and the philosophical musings on death are all expressions of Maupassant's personality and activities. I do hope, however, that Maupassant was not as big of a cad as Georges Duroy because this character may be one of the biggest jerks in the history of literature.

You cannot help but hate Duroy. He has little self-control except when he realizes that holding off on a conquest might mean self-advancement. Georges takes his mistress to the same theater where he picks up prostitutes, takes money from people without paying them back, corrupts women of high moral standards, sleeps with his boss's wife, seduces his boss's daughter, and physically assaults his mistress. There is just no way to sympathize with this guy, and the fact that he gains riches and fame is particularly galling to anyone with any sense of decency. But that is the message De Maupassant is trying to convey; that the complete decadence of French society during this time allows the likes of Duroy to succeed, and to succeed with a smile. Witness the scene towards the end of the book when Walter, Duroy's boss, grudgingly accedes his daughter to Georges's slimy scheme. "He will go far," says Walter, with more respect for Duroy's distasteful achievement than disdain for his lack of morals.

Another theme in the book, and one that runs through the pages like a 400-pound gorilla, is hypocrisy. The propensities for backstabbing, lying, and blatant disregard for self-realization in "Bel-Ami" is laugh out loud astonishing. These are shallow, manipulative people without a shred of decency, and Maupassant never passes up an opportunity to expose these despicable people. The hypocritical stance of the characters and situations often vie with powerfully descriptive passages of Paris and the French countryside, which are truly beautiful to read and have probably accounted for thousands of tourist trips to that country. The characters in "Bel-Ami" may be of no account morally, but they move and live in an environment of unsurpassed beauty.

Maupassant's knowledge of his own impending death weighs heavily in the story. Two sections highlight his musings on mortality: the monologue of the poet Norbert de Varenne and the death of Forestier. For the author, his slow deterioration from a disease made death a daily reality. What seemed to worry De Maupassant the most about death was not punishment from God but the idea of nothingness and being forgotten by the living. Of course, death makes no impression on Georges Duroy, who experiences only a moderate twinge over the passing of Forestier before making a play for that man's wife in order to improve his social position.

I am elated that I discovered this author. Guy De Maupassant is a brilliant writer whose early death robbed the world of a great talent. Although his short stories are considered some of the best ever written, do not pass by this novel. I have rarely seen an author who can write about mundane, daily situations with as much aplomb (see the scene about the fencing party as a prime example). De Maupassant's masterful abilities make this ordinary plot strikingly original and I will revisit this author again in the future. You should too.

Maupassant's characters are more real and colourful than those created by any of the other French naturalists. Bel Ami, his first fill length novel, is simply a joy to read. It tells the story a young ex-soldier, fighting for social position and materialism in the rat race of 1870s Paris. This novel could easily be transported to present day and loose nothing of its impact. Scandal, political intrigue and sexual manipulation are described with Maupassant's cutting pessimism, yet beautifully balanced by his black wit and appreciation for the simple joys of life.

I would never have known that Guy de Maupassant wrote novels along with his great short stories if another amazon reader hadn't turned me on to their existence. This novel, reminiscent of Madame Bovary (a male version, you might say) is terrific. You'll get a great deal of description of Paris in the late 19th century with period details worthy of any great novelist. The plot is typical: poor, rural young man from the outskirts (Rouen) has no money and no position in life, but longs to find fame and fortune. Thanks to his manly wiles (he's a natural ladies' man), he manages to sleep his way to the top. Like Madame Bovary, happiness is never really there no matter how much money and power he attains - the more you get, the more you realize that others will always have more. Still, Monsieur Duroy, even at his most calculating retains somewhat of a sympathetic quality that allows us to relate to him and root for his success. Despite its length, this novel is a fast read. One of my favorites of the year.

My beagle looks EXACTLY like Poky. I have never seen an artist's version of a more adorable dog than Poky. His adventures are always sweet and brighten up my day. I loved these books when I was about three and my mom and dad read them to me. I still love them even though I am older. I wish they were more widely available. It is REALLY important to teach kids to love and respect animals. After school every day I volunteer at an animal rescue shelter with my older brother and his girlfriend. The things I have seen and heard break my heart and bring all three of us to tears. Hopefully if more kids grow up learning about how to treat animals and reading books like this that show animals as sweet, adorable, and VERY REAL the next group of older kids and adults will not be so cruel towards our best friends, the four legged ones.

The poky Little Puppy was my favorite as a child. I found that my nephews and neice loved it. It teaches why it is important to obey your parents.

When I was a child I absolutely LOVED this book. My grandma tells met hat she used to read it to me atleast 5 times a day...and she soon memorized the whole book and would have been able to recite it too me if only i didnt have to see the pictures. I remember loving this book as a child and I saved my copy to read to my children when I have them. I definately recommend this book for your child.

The perferct mix of avant-garde art which represents a philosophy. The framed narrative, its necessity that is, is the only aspect of the work I would question. A must read of the French writers.

Jean Genet's seminal Our Lady Of The Flowers (1943) is generally considered to be his finest fictional work. The first draft was written while Genet was incarcerated in a French prison; when the manuscript was discovered and destroyed by officials, Genet, still a prisoner, immediately set about writing it again. It isn't difficult to understand how and why Genet was able to reproduce the novel under such circumstances, because Our Lady Of The Flowers is nothing less than a mythic recreation of Genet's past and then - present history. Combining memories with facts, fantasies, speculations, irrational dreams, tender emotion, empathy, and philosophical insights, Genet probably made his isolation bearable by retreating into a world not only of his own making, but one over which he had total control.

The imprisoned narrator "Jean," who may or may not be identical with the author, masturbates regularly; like a perpetual motion machine, his fantasies fuel his writing and his writing spurs on his fantasies in turn. Nothing illustrates this more than the brief scene in which self - sustaining "Jean" describes his Tiamat.... Legs thrown over shoulders, "Jean" is not only the serpent that eats its tail but becomes a small, circular, self - imbibing universe all his own. A motto attributed to the alchemists could be the narrator's own: "Every man his own wife."

Though the narrative is not the primary focus of this or any of Genet's novels, most responsible critics have failed to remark on the fact that the narrative of Our Lady Of The Flowers is the least compelling of any found in his five major novels. Our Lady Of The Flowers, does, however, lay the basic groundwork for the novels to come: The Miracle Of The Rose, Funeral Rites, Querelle, and The Thief's Journal (all written between 1944 and 1948).

While Our Lady Of The Flowers is Genet's only novel to feature a predominantly effeminate homosexual man (Divine, who is at least partially a transvestite) as its protagonist ("Our Lady Of The Flowers," a virile young thug, is a secondary character), most of the other elements of the book will be very familiar to those who have read the balance of his fiction. Transvestites and transvestite figures abound, as do handsome, amoral, and homosexual or bisexual "toughs," jokes and extended vignettes concerned with lice, flatulence, constipation, and feces, mordant examinations of manhood and the criminal's code of honor, obsession with personal power through emotional betrayal, the long vagabond road to "sainthood," theft, masochistic love, prostitution, and vivid examples of the way in which physical desire and sexuality secretly and subtly fuel, in Genet's view, almost every aspect of life. As in portions of his other novels, the characters here, even the swaggering, virile young men, are known among their friends by fey pet names like "Darling Daintyfoot," "Mimosa," and "Our Lady of the Flowers," which are intended to be simultaneously affectionate and mocking. To further confuse, Divine is referred to as a "he" and referred to his surname during his youth and as a "she" and "Divine" in maturity. As in the Miracle of the Rose and Funeral Rites, characters mesh into one another, exchange identities, and move backward and forward through time at the narrator's whim. Both "Jean" and the individual characters fuse their own and each other's personalities together as needed, and all occasionally lose control of this process: but Jean Genet, master puppeteer, never does.

Genet's readers are probably aware of the existence of haughty establishment critics who pretentiously embrace Genet's work but nonetheless treat it like something best held at the end of a very long stick. "Evil" is the word most commonly used to describe Genet's fiction by stuffy, anxious middlebrow critics who, while distressingly stimulated by his work, feel duty - bound to officially decry its potential for pernicious influence. Many artists are said to create a "moral universe" within the body of their work; Genet is one of the few that actually does, though his is a mirror universe where amorality reigns. Genet's world is so exclusively concerned with flea - ridden prostitutes, child murderers who don't wipe themselves, handsome pimps who eat what they scratch out of their noses, [prostitutes] with rotting teeth, strutting, uneducated alpha male hustlers, and masochistic sodomites -- bourgeois emblems of horror all -- that the question of "evil" as such in Genet's work becomes obsolete.

While Genet loves and personally glorifies his memories, fictional recreations and their outcast lifestyles, he never objectively condones their actions to his audience. In all of his novels, Genet finds beauty, suffering, and vulnerability - humanity - in everyone, thus setting a far better example than his hypocritical reviewers. There is as much "evil" in Genet's books as there is represented by any typical novel's reality principle (for example, all of Genet's characters reveal more humanity and innate dignity than the crass, vacuous crowd Nick Carraway falls in with in Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby) or, for that matter, as there is in the lives of those unstable, morally - confused critics who are simply too cowardly to recognize the world as the diverse, dangerous, devouring, and unstable place that it is. If Our Lady Of The Flowers proves anything, it's that fifty years after its initial publication, the book is still effectively upsetting the wormy apple carts Genet intended it to.

From the standpoint of Jung's psychological types, Genet's feeling and sensation functions probably predominated in both his life and his writing. However, his thinking and intuition functions were clearly constellated as well, giving Our Lady Of The Flowers and the masterpieces that followed it unmatched macrocosmic perceptiveness, poetic resonance, and gripping, all - inclusive dramatic power. Like alchemical "totality" the hermaphrodite, a shaman, or a legitimate Christian saint, mystic Genet seems to have written from a state of undifferentiated consciousness and enjoyed a state of perpetual participation mystique with life.

Somebody should make an opera of this book! I've loved this book since high school, perhaps more than all the others! Genet as always is like a dark narcotic; impossible to shake, and constantly ecstatic. His genius is like a kind of suffocating honey on the page, it pulls your heart out. This edition has a substantive Introduction by Sartre, whose "Saint Genet" is one of the seminal books of the late twentieth century. If you've never read Genet, you've got something coming! What is there to say about literature of this standing? Read it and be ennobled.

This is a good book. The author avoids the self-indulgent aspects of most memoirs and has a great sense of humor. I think this is just as much a book about living in the south as it is about her grandmother. If you like pot liquor, you'll like this book.

I read this book a couple of weeks ago and have read many since and this one still sticks in my brain. I really enjoyed this book. Allison's grandmother reminded me a lot of my paternal grandmother. I really enjoyed her writing and look foward to reading more books by her.

Allison Glock has fashioned a lovely little book about her grandmother growing up in West Virginia during the Depression and World War II.

The author shares with us anecdotes, both happy and sad, about the hardscrabble existence of those days where working in a pottery factory was how people made their living and social life was pretty much confined to one's holler or at best the next one down the road. Nobody of that generation ever left town except to fight in a war.

Glock is especially adept at describing the townspeople and their feelings, drawing the reader into the story and enabling us to feel so close to the characters. The section describing Petey Dink is especially touching.

Kudos to author Glock. She has done a marvelous job. This book reminded me of David Baldacci's recent novel, "Wish You Well." Whereas his book is a work of fiction concerning tough times for a family in Virginia, Glock's accounting of her grandmaother's life is all the more interesting because it is true.

Keep on writing, Allison. You are very good.

When 13 year-old Julie Edwards Miyax Kapugen runs away from an arranged marriage, she gets lost in the vast and lonely Alaskan tundra. This begins the extraordinary journey of Miyax and the wolves she befriends. While struggling to survive in the harsh Arctic winter Miyax experiences something few humans ever will. She lives as one of the pack, eating from the wolves kills and communicating with them in their language of barks, yips and tail wags. Soon she grows to loves them as she would her family. But when she learns that her father, the great hunter Kapugen, lives on, she decides to go back to him. Struggling to adjust to this new way of life, she learns that the Eskimo way of life is dying, even in her father. Then hunters endanger her wolves, and Miyax must choose between her pack and her father. This engaging trilogy includes Newbery Medal winning Julie of the Wolves, and its sequels, Julie and Julie's Wolf Pack. They are written by celebrated wildlife biologist and author, Jean Craighead George. Miyax's epic quest to find where humans belong reminds us of our beginnings, and of the creatures with whom we share this world.

I bought this pack of books, and I think these are some of the greatest books I've ever read. I've read too many... and none are the best, but these are some of my favorites! Julie Edwards/Miyax Kapugen is stuck on the tundra. She learns by watching a pack of wolves the language of them. She becomes a member of the pack, led by Amoroq. They give her food and she travels with them. She becomes friends with Amoroq's pup, Kapu, and when he is the new Alpha, Julie helps the pack stay strong throughout all three books (Julie of the Wolves, Julie, and Julie's Wolf Pack). I highly recommend this to anyone that respects animals and nature. We should all appreciate them!

I love animals.. and am interested in wolves most. I am eleven years old and these books are so interesting! I learned all about a wolf's life and their own language. I strongly recommend all three of them!