As background material for this book, the reader is referred to "The Scientist in the Crib" (Dr. Gopnik, et al; Perrenial, 2001). It offers a fresh and detailed evaluation of the language acquisition process by infants. At about 6 months of age, a critical change seems to occur. The specific pronunciation patterns of the language(s) heard begin to be retained in a very focused manner. Also see "The Monday Tape" (The Snow Water Corporation) at Akilo.com for more insight into this process. This audio tape, one of a series, provides multilingual speech patterns for infants. These tapes are available exclusively through Amazon.com (not available in stores). It appears that they should help an infant (birth to age 2) gain good pronunciation skills for many widely used languages.

This is a great baby book (and I'm not just biased because I'm one of the baby models in it!). There are plenty of helpful facts and ideas, as well as a lot of useful how-to.

I recently read this book during my pregnancy, having read other books like, "What to expect when you're expecting", and the Mayo Clinic Guide, and this was the best book out of all of the books I have read. I found it well-organized, concise, easy to understand, and extremely informative. I highly recommend it to any expectant mother or father!

For fans of streetlife and "the real" in general, this is a fantastic read. Having seen the movie, I wasn't quite expecting the book to be what it was - a running mental monologue recounting the life and times of Carlito Brigante, the fictional yet prolific gangster the film was based upon.

Having grown up in Brooklyn, I was thoroughly impressed by the accuracy with which Torres illustrates the "I've got mine, so .... you" thug mentality that's so much a part of the underground New York experience. That, combined with the "Code Of The Streets" and a tiny dab of conscience, is what makes Carlito seem human and uncannily real-to-life.

Torres, being a NYC criminal court judge, has chosen to expound his abundant understanding of the criminal mind not through textbooks or bland case studies, but through this brilliant character depiction. I place it in the same category as "Down These Mean Streets" - a modern urban classic.

If you like crime stories don't miss this one. This is one of my all-time favorites and it never really got the attention it deserves. The story of Carlito Brigante shows us the world of crime from a different angle than the classic Mafia tales. Carlito is Puerto Rican and comes up in the New York of the fifties and sixties. He's a hard-core criminal, hard-nose, and he makes no bones about it. He starts of with breaking-and-entering, moves up to racketeering, and after a long impatient wait breaking into the big-time--heroin trafficking.

Yet Carlito never comes across as a merely evil person. Living in America, where the streets are paved with gold except in the barrio where he spent his entire life, Carlito says that no way was he going to spend his whole life washing dishes when there was big bread out there for guys with the guts (he would use a different word) to go get it.

Torres, to his credit, never romanticizes Carlito to the point that he comes across as a good guy, either. Carlito follows his way because its the one HE chose, and if that means dancing with a fine lady at the Palladium one night and then going into Lewisburg Penitentary for a 3-year stretch the next, that's how it goes. Those are the risks and rewards of the life he leads. He meets characters like smooth guy Earl Bassey, crazy guy Nacho Reyes, wise guy Rocco Fabrieze, and bad guy Pete Amadeo. All in all, "Carlito's Way" is a wild ride, both the ups and downs.

I really recommend that you get the audio version of this book and listen to Torres read his book. The movie "Carlito's Way" actually focuses on the second book Torres wrote, titled "After Hours." It's good, but the first novel is told in the 1st person, in Carlito's voice, and Torres is fantastic as he speaks in Carlito's voice. Well worth a listen.

Like many, I was first introduced to this book when I saw the popular movie starring Al Pacino, Sean Penn, and Penelope Anne Miller. I received the book as a Christmas present, that particular paperback being a movie tie-in reprint with Al Pacino (Carlito) on the cover. I think I gave away the book to the library when I moved a couple of years ago. Film Ink's edition, showcasing a typical street in an ethnic neighborhood, impressed me. I've always been fascinated by some of the provocative photography on book covers these days.

The saga of Carlito Brigante's life (in essence the film Carlito's Way) is actually chronicled in two books, the first titled Carlito's Way, wherein Carlito in 1st person narrative describes his rough-and-tumble childhood and induction into New York's ruthless criminal world, culminating in Carlito's arrest, conviction, and sentence of thirty years in Riker's Island. Yet no one can accuse Brigante of being simply a heartless killer. We get to sympathize with his plight; he is undoubtedly the hero of Torres' tale.

The next installment, titled After Hours (written in 3rd person this time), is actually the setting of the movie, beginning when David Kleinfeld, Carlito's Alan Dershowitzesque attorney, gets Carlito out of prison on a technicality. The David Kleinfeld character is another reason to read this book after seeing the movie, as things in the book turn out quite differently for most of the characters affected by Kleinfeld's machinations. There's also some additional fleshing out of characters and episodes not included in the movie, including Brigante's trip to Spain, where the brash hombre shows off his bullfighting skills. I'm not giving anything away.

Like the Shawshank Redemption, the movie also highlights the profound changes in American everyday life and culture (and with it the criminal world) during the twentieth century. The two books trace Carlito Brigante's criminal career, from the swinging and colorful 1940s, when Carlito existed on small-time armed robberies and switchblades, all the way to the sleazy lava-lamp lit cocaine infested 1970s, an appropriate prelude of the Me Decade. Central to the story is the role New York's Italian Mafia plays in the life of Brigante. Brigante, a Puerto Rican, is eventually admitted to their exclusive innermost circles, but because he is not a Sicilian is never elevated to the status of a "Made Guy," which ultimately leads to his downfall. Via subplots and secondary characters Torres notes the rise and fall of the Cosa Nostra's influence in the Big Apple.

I thought that Miller brought a lot to the somewhat hapless role of Gail, Carlito's longtime love-interest and confidant. I found it much more believable that Carlito's girlfriend would be a stripper and aspiring dancer. In the book her character is an elementary school teacher, which makes the idea of Carlito persuading her to go to the Bahamas a bit implausible.

In an interview contemporaneous with the film's release, Torres said that his novels were inspired by his exposure to countless Carlito Brigantes who had walked through his courtroom throughout his career on the bench. Torres also includes a vocabulary of Hispanic street slang and underworld terms.

An extremely capable writer of prose, Torres pens a stimulating, readable, and believable portrait of life in the Barrio. Barrio is Spanish for jungle, in this context the urban jungle-ghetto that wickedly and unknowingly nurtures the self-destructive psyche of a career criminal who knows nothing but a life of violence and self-preservation.

Splendid!

I was highly impressed by the exhaustive research conducted by Sweeney for this biography of Cochise, who was surely one of the most impressive Indian chiefs ever. Sweeney's extensive use of obscure documents and recollections, as well as general knowledge of nearby events and geography, give this biography an authority that you don't often see in the historical bio field. Therefore Cochise clearly emerges from the world of rumors and romanticism, and is shown as a true man with real concerns and actions. So instead of the ruthless, bloodthirsty savage of popular legend, we see that Cochise was a highly intelligent leader of men and was nearly a military genius. He managed to fight a nearly even war with White settlers for a much longer time than any other Native American leader. This would not have been possible if Cochise were not a clear-thinking man of great intelligence, and Sweeney gives exhaustive proof that this was the case.

Sweeney's historical and geographic backgrounds, as well as extensive testimonials from the characters around Cochise, truly make the story come alive. Of special interest are many of Sweeney's footnotes, in which he gives a brief life story of just about every single person mentioned in the story (wherever possible). Sweeney is also ready to admit when information is missing, which is very refreshing for a biography. And in an even-handed fashion, Sweeney is not afraid to criticize Cochise at points, such as when he flouted his agreement to stay on the Chiricahua reservation to allow his warriors to continue raiding in Mexico.

Anyone who reads this book will come to greatly respect Cochise as a man, even if some of his actions were brutal. Unfortunately, this story ends like all other works of Native American history, with the eventual destruction of the people's independence. But while he was in his prime, you can't help but root for Cochise.

Ed Sweeney has written a marvelous biography of an Apache war leader of much greater stature and importance than the more popular Geronimo. It is based on a detailed examination of American and, especially, obscure Mexican documents having to do with the Chiricahuas and Cochise. As a result, Sweeney rescues the chief from the romantic mythology of Elliott Arnold and Michael Ansara. He turns out to be a fierce and uncompromising leader of a barbaric and savage people. His was not an era of gentle, politically correct, and liberal humane attitudes. Some of the accounts are chilling of the brutalities committed by whites, Mexicans, and Apaches toward each other. Sweeney examines in great detail the incident at Apache Pass that spurred Cochise's war against the whites. He notes that such a conflict was likely inevitable between two such very different cultures. Sweeney also writes about the relationship between Cochise and Tom Jeffords, which turns out to be somewhat different than the common myth. But it is also clear that the relationship was indeed a strong one and important to the final peace effort by General O.O. Howard. After reading this biography, you may want to read Sweeney's recent publication of the journal of Captain Jos. Alton Sladen, "Making Peace with Cochise". My only regret with Sweeney's biography is that he did not include more detail on the lifestyles of the Chiricahua Apaches. But the book is an important resource to everyone interested in the 19th century history of south Arizona.

Thank you Edward R. Sweeney. You've rescued Cochise from obscurity and myth. The real Cochise is every bit as admirable and fierce as the mythical one. This book is brilliantly researched, wonderfully written and combined with this same author's edition of "Making Peace with Cochise" supplies a vivid, objective and sympathetic portrait of the man who may have been the greatest of all the Indian chiefs.

This volume does cover in a very comprehensive way the artillery used during the American Civil War, as well as of those field pieces surviving on fields of battle up until this day. This is a book you HAVE to own if you are an ACW-artillery nut! It is well worth the price, and since it is in hard-back you won't have any problems with consulting it over and over again.

Every detail of Civil War field artillery is covered in this definitive book on the subject, more than most people will ever want to know. Full profile photos of nearly every type of fieldpiece, both Union and Confederate, facilitate identification of any survivor. In addition to the scholarly text containing more facts on the subject than ever assembled in one source, the appendices list the known surviving Civil War fieldpieces at the time of publication.

If you were to acquire only one reference for Field Artillery, this should be your choice. Everything you could hope for, one chapter on every field piece, used by both Union and Conderacy, plus imports and experimentals. Even a chapter on limbers, carriages, etc.

I've borrowed and read this book over and over again during my undergrad years which copy I think was a rare first edition of it. The book really was one of its kind in describing moon landing from the eyes of the people who live it. Read and be inspired.

i'VE JUST FINISHED READING THIS BOOK FOR THE 100TH TIME, SINCE PURCHASING IT 10 YEARS AGO! Ihave always wanted to meet these men [Apollo 11] and this book helps me to know more --especially about Neil Armstrong! When I wrote Neil Armstrong back in 1987, he suggested this as the main book to read from the three Apollo 11 astros. Tells about their lives, the training, how being an astronaut affected them and personal lives, all leading upto, and to splashdown! This book deserves a 10 plus star rating! I'll probably read it another 100 times!

This book is one of the most intriguing books on the Apollo 11 missions i have ever read, and i HIGHLY recommend it to anyone interested in the Apollo 11 mission

The road called "coming out" can sometimes be a long and painful road for gay and bi men coming from a strongly intolerant background. Somehow, each one of us needs to discover the timeless and essential beauty of love between human beings.

Some men take the path of unbelief, and find that it works for them. Some other men find this path impossible, or inconceivable, and Toby Johnson has written this book for them. As many readers have already said, it can be critically helpful at a crucial point in life.

Highly recommended.

With religious beliefs and homosexuality tendencies being at the forefront of all my waking hours, I found this book quick, interesting and wonderfully insightful. -> Do yourself a favor and give it a read!!!

Homosexuality is objectively disordered, sinful, immoral. Such are the positions still held by the Roman Catholic church and many protestant Christian denominations. Having grown up with this kind of outright moral condemnation, many gay men go on to reject organized religion, and there's nothing wrong with that. Unfortunately, many throw the baby out with the bathwater, and ban not only religion, but spirituality from their lifes, leaving them spiritually empty and longing for that missing piece to the puzzle of happiness.

This book can guide you to that piece. It shows that being gay is a spiritual asset, not a liability. Where some look down on same-sex love as defective, because it does not express the male-female duality, Johnson turns it around and proudly declares that to be the precise reason why same-sex love is spiritually superior. It transcends the duality.

Johnson's vision of a life-affirming, sex-positive spirituality of love, cooperation, mutual respect and acceptance is in sync with modern scientific knowledge, and does not ask the reader to suspend logic or critical thinking. Gay christians who are struggling with their sexual orientation will especially appreciate Johnson's convincing refutation of common "biblical" anti-gay arguments.

A powerful book for personal change, a wonderful antidote to the negativity of the Religious Right, and a great gift to a gay friend who is unhappy with his life or suffering from low self-esteem.

This is a fascinating book. The places are real (and some are rather creepy) and the stories are supposedly true. Every story will draw you in. The history and research the author did was extensive. This is a book you could very well (regretfully) finish in one sitting.

I was born and raised in Kingsport and I even met the author of this book when he came to my high school in 1996. The name is a little hokey but the book is extremely well written and the research is very good, it even includes some newspaper clippings. This book is well worth the price and the read!

This was a very suspenseful book. It has many short stories in it and all are suppose to be true. Many are folklore that was passed down and most have some eyewitness testimony. My favorite was the one called "A Part Of The Dark Is Moving". Every story takes place at real place in East Tennessee. This is a must have for anyone who likes old fashion ghost stories or folklore.

In letters to his brother and aunt, Francis Adams Donaldson chronicled his daily experiences during three years in the infantry of the Army of the Potomac. Not intending that his words would find their way into publication, he used his letters home to express his hopes, ventilate his frustrations, and convey to his family some sense of the tedium, grandeur and horror he was experiencing. Presented almost as written, this collection of correspondence brings an honesty and immediacy not found in the often sanitized volumes of other Civil War memoirs. Donaldson was a very young man when he began his service as a volunteer in a Pennsylvania regiment. Enduring the intensity of combat, called upon to lead but not trained as a professional soldier, craving recognition and promotion, his often bitter criticisms of the abilities and personal qualities of his peers and superiors reflect his own inevitable stress and insecurity. There are other collections of such letters from Civil War combatants. What sets this book apart is J. Gregory Acken's remarkable editing and research. Almost every individual and place name mentioned by Donaldson, even if only in passing, is referenced by a footnote. Where available, photographs of the soldiers are provided. You won't be left wondering what happened to these men, whether they survived the wounds which result in their passing from the pages of the memoir, or the course of their careers as they leave the unit; their fate is there in the footnotes. Each chapter is headed by a brief section placing the subsequent letters in historical context. My only criticism of the book comes in these sections, which introduce some jarring redundancies by quoting passages later contained within the letters, themselves. The book comes most alive in the letters describing the battles of Gettysburg and Mills Run. Though it can be a long read at times, you will finish it with the feeling of having shared, in the words of the subtitle, the Civil War experience of Captain Francis Adams Donaldson.

After E.P.Alexander's Fighting for the Confederacy (edited by Gary Gallagher) this is the best Civil War officer's narrative in existence. Want a real treat? Read it. You Confederates will love it too.

This is an outstanding set of letters by a perceptive officer in the 118th Pennsylvania Infantry. It certainly ranks in the top five of Army of the Potomac letter collections published in the last decade. Donaldson was opinionated, but also intent on description, not chat. He provides excellent narratives of most of the major campaigns, but more importantly he offers insights into ordeals and events often overlooked--everyday struggles lost to history. Gregory Acken has done an outstanding job of introducing, annotating, and editing the missives, offering the reader cues to the important themes that course through the correspondence. For the serious researcher of the Army of the Potomac, this book will become an oft-cited source. For the more casual student, these letters are a vivid, first-rate look at the experience of America's Civil War.

This beautifully written book brings to light, in an understated but poetic way, the genius and greatness of the man who, as Gaustad says, "was out to do nothing less than alter the institutional structure of the Western world." It is a measure of our time that many people-especially young people educated pursuant to the fashionable bromides of contemporary social science education-have never heard of this first founder of liberty of conscience and disestablishment of religion in America. In our epoch of attempted "faith-based" governmental initiatives, Gaustad's book reminds us, by constant reference to the writings of Roger Williams, of those principles that, after a bitter struggle of more than a century, came to distinguish this nation from the government-controlled religion and thought of the rest of the world. The life of Roger Williams shows that deeply held religious belief necessarily implies an unwavering commitment to the principle of absolute separation of church and state. Williams' life also demonstrates that at least one colonial leader tried, unsuccessfully, to overcome the tendency of the Puritans to treat Native Americans as less than human or as mere subjects for conversion to Christianity. The tragedy of Williams' life consisted solely in the failure of his decades-long effort to resolve the conflict between rapacious, religiously hypocritical English settlers and the Native Americans. The triumph of his life was his original pronouncement, in this country, of the enduring but often threatened principle that government should be restricted to civil, not religious, tasks. More than a century later, Jefferson and Madison built on the foundation that Roger Williams so nobly established in his writings and in the constitutional documents of Rhode Island.

Gaustad did an excellent job of portraying not only Williams' beliefs, politic and theology but the state of the world that led to their development and need. Very readable, never boring, practical and insightful to William's America as it is to ours. WE could learn a great deal from Williams, even so mamy years later. Gaustad truly brought him to life.

Gaustad's Liberty of Conscience is the second biography of Roger Williams I have read this summer. Perhaps because the first, Covey's The Gentle Radical, was so prolix, I loved Gaustad's work. His selection of historical data, his clear sequencing, and his explication of Williams's own writings make this a delight to read. Seventeenth-century Britain and colonial America and all those names one vaguely remembers are vividly described. The prose is clear and attractive. I came away with a new appreciation of Williams. Gaustad sees him as the first to set forth those principles of religious liberty that were picked up after him by Locke, Penn, Jefferson, and others and which we take for granted today. Toleration is a subject of current conversation within the United States. This biography depicts someone who fought for toleration in a time when people were being banished and even executed for not believing what the political powers said they must believe. It really gives a healthy perspective on our times. I recommend it highly.

This is an exellent book by a man at the forefront of the conservative movement in America. Ed Feulner takes samples from the writings of the centuries foremost conservative thinkers including Hayek, Russell Kirk, Ronald Reagan, Whittaker Chambers, and others and puts them into one very nice volume. He writes introductions to each essay highlighting important points in the writers lives and turning points for them intellectually. It is well worth reading!

This book by no means covers the breadth and depth of conservative thought during the 20th century; but it does give the reader a glimpse into the mindset and thoughts of some of conservatism's most heroic figures. Of course, Feulner himself is one of those heroes. So it is fitting that he would write about his contemporaries. The book provides brief biographical and bibliographical information on each conservative hero along with an essay/article that epitomizes what that individual represented. The heroes include the minds of the conservative movement: William F. Buckley, Jr., Russell Kirk, F.A. Hayek, Milton Friedman and Frank S. Meyer; and the witnesses of the conservative movement: Midge Dector, Albert Jay Nock, Whittaker Chambers, Michael Novak, Wilhelm Roepke, Richard M. Weaver and President Ronald Reagan. This book is a must read for modern conservatives since bridging the ideas from the past to the present is essential to promoting free markets, individual liberty, and smaller government.

If you think you know the difference between the modern liberal and the modern conservative, but are not familiar with the writings of the twelve writers collected in this volume, you probably DON'T. These are carefully written, carefully reasoned discussions about statesmanship, economics, politics, and personal attitudes, by "liberals turned conservative", "liberals partly turned conservative", and "long-time but open-minded conservatives" (with the possible exception of William F. Buckley who is Mr Conservative). The introductions to each selection by Edwin Feulner provide a short historical background for each author that is extremely interesting in its own right. This is not a book by "whining" conservatives decrying the existence of "whining" liberals, but a sampling of conservative thought frequently modified by liberal inclinations in certain areas that allow one to assess and evaluate the arguments of conservatism at its best.