First and foremost, this is an excellent book and absolutely worth an out-of-print search. I read this book in a little under 3 days - I just couldn't put it down, it was practically addicting!! It is very violent and gruesome but don't let that scare you away from buying it because there's a whole other side to it. First, it's up-lifting and it makes you look at things differently. And also, the fact that it is not a work of fiction is even more frieghtening considering what the lead character had to endure as a child and young woman. This is among my top pick of books, definitely one of my favorites on the book shelf. This book really opens your eyes to what people are capable and DO do to each other - leaving out the fact that in this book, it's family. Buy it and I promise you whole-heartedly, you will NOT be dissappointed! :)

This is my all-time favorite book on the subject of satanic ritual abuse.

Dr. Feldman's own painful emotional journey as she and her client uncover the realities of abuse is very touching.

It is impossible to read this book and not be touched very deeply.

This book is true crime in the true sense of the word. Depending on what your appetite for the truth is, the book is either a page turner or one that will drag you through reality kicking and screaming. Gail Carr Feldman is the author/therapist that shares with the reader her own journey of discovery while working with Barbara, a client whose own awareness unfolds in the course of therapy. Implanted memories? I think not...while prior to reading this book I myself questioned the appropriateness of hypnosis in this kind of work, Dr. Feldman so clearly explains her technique that in now way could I feel that the client's integrity had been violated in any way. I'm still not a big fan of hypnosis, but I do think that Dr. Feldman was as professional as could be expected under the circumstances. My main issue with hypnosis in these circumstances is that it puts the credibility of the client/survivor into question at a time when s/he needs to be believed more than anything else. The other issue I have with hypnosis under any other circumstance is that it makes the client very vulnerable to mind control, which, as I am coming to understand, is a lot more prevalent than any of us wants to believe. I also think that hypnosis can uncover memories that the survivor is not yet ready to deal with, creating a dangerous vulnerability to psychosis, but again Dr. Feldman, in her practice, creates a system of subconscious communication gestures that keeps her from delving deeper than the client is willing to go at any given time. She also uses examples of the client correcting any misperceptions she, the therapist, expresses while the client is under hypnosis. That is, if Dr. Feldman attempted an explanation that didn't ring true to Barbara, Barbara would correct her even while under hypnosis...memories could not, therefore, be suggested. I hope this reassures the client, it certainly reassured me.

Even more food for thought is presented in the epilogue and closing essays of the book, where Dr. Feldman and Barbara do what they can to bring the issue of what happened to Barbara in her childhood to the proper authorities, with all the evidence they are able to accumulate. The way they were both dismissed is more horrifying and more evil and more satanic than the trauma of the abuse itself, if you ask me.

Lessons in Evil, Lessons from the Light is worth an out of print search, I can assure you.

This book is one of the funniest books I've read this year ranking up there with David Sedaris' NAKED. The book starts off hilariously and doesn't let down. It is a cynical look at post-college life and pokes fun at the Don't Sweat the Small Stuff type of advice books. This is truly a very funny book that will make you laugh out loud heartily... It is a MUST read!!!

Carl Kozlowski has done it again with his wit and style of humor all his own. This book is the antithesis of all of Oprah's Remembering Your Spirit shows. (How approppriate that both these authors, also, come out of Chicago.) This book leaves the reader laughing so hard that he/she is crying, because of its nonstop irreverence. It is a MUST READ!

Tim Joyce just ROCKS! Okay, flattery aside, this book is full of witty and pithy observations that will help the naive people bravely entering the world for the first time as a young adult really "get it" and gives some very helpful survival insight.

Oh, yeah, it is FUNNY too!

I expect this book to become THE standard fare as a graduation gift for high school and college grads alike. This book picks up where Dr. Suess with his "Oh, the Places You'll Go" leaves off. It is also a great read for anyone about to face new challenges.

Did I mention it was FUNNY?

This book might well become the standard (mainstream) graduate text in monetary economics.

This is the best book length treatment of the state of the art in academic thinking about inflation and central banking, a lot of what economics is about to lay people and politicians. While this is a graduate text in macroeconomics, in no way is it unnecessarily abtruse. You'll need to be comfortable with little more than algebra, linear difference equations, and the sort of elementary statistics practical economists do. Amazingly, this book has no obvious competitors because first rate economists wrongly disdain writing books.

This book provides a good grounding on monetary theory and the questions it wants to answer. It is easy to follow whilst providing covering most recent development. Its only drawback is that it uses the HP filter as the benchmark which any model should replicate, without accounting for the fact that there are several problems with that filter.

I remember this book as a child with great fondness. Now, I am reading it to my children and they too love the stories and the beautifully illustrated pictures. Using this book has opened the door to many questions about the story, God and of life itself. My favorite picture was the one where the father is hugging his son (the story of the Prodical Son).

Each story is no longer than one page of type and each comes with its own full color illustration. The majority of the book is taken from the Old Testament (granted the O.T. is longer) and focuses on the stories most people know. It then goes into the New Testament starting with the birth of Jesus and goes through until Jesus had ascended back into heaven.

If you have not seen this book, I suggest you purchase it and start reading it to your children or grandchildren.

My rating: A+

To all Christian parents of little ones, this Bible story book by A. C. Mueller is a must have! Looking back over the years, I appreciate so much my parents buying and reading and rereading to us the Bible stories and lessons that shaped my beliefs and values. My family has owned a copy of this book for twenty-five years, and I have to say that it is one of the most beautiful Bible story books that we have in our family library. The illustrations by Richard Hook are precious!!! The hundreds of readings that it has endured have rendered it worn out, so now we are ordering a new one for the next generation of readers in our family that will love it as much as we did.

This is our favorite Bible story book. We purchased our first copy fifteen years ago and wore it out reading it to our children. The most worn and faded page in the book is the story of Jesus blessing the children. How the young love to hear of Christ embracing and blessing the children!

This book has wonderful, simple storytelling, beautiful illustrations by Richard Hook and most importantly teaches plain Bible truths without false, modern interpretation. It is a classic.

It's a good time for Harold Adams, whose novels about itinerent sign painter ex-cop Carl Wilcox had been languishing, garnering critical raves but little in the way of sales. Walker & Company, a publishing house becoming known for literate, sometimes off-beat mysteries, has released four books so far in trade paperback and published new ones in hardback. This is a series well worth investigating.

Wilcox reminds me of every boy's favorite uncle, the one who's a black sheep to the women of the family for not settling down, who stops by when he needs a bed and a few square meals, bringing with him a whiff of sin and a few great stories. He travels the small towns of the Dakotas and Minnesota during the Depression, taking on sign-painting jobs for grocery stores and law offices when they're available, and camping by the side of the road in his modified Model T. When the jobs are few on the ground, he'll take on a murder investigation.

In "A Way with Widows," his sister asks him to come to Red Ford, North Dakota, to help clear a neighbor of killing her husband, who was found on the stairs of another woman's house. In "No Badge, No Gun," a minister who has heard of Wilcox's reputation as an investigator asks him to solve the murder of his niece, found dead in the basement of a church. Wilcox's investigating style consists of wandering around town, talking to people, gathering threads of facts and weaving them into a plausible story. He's suspicious, but not cynical. Told about the perfect character of a churchgoing man, he observes, "Nothing in this world raises more doubts in my mind than apparently perfect young men."

Yet Wilcox is also a flawed man. He makes mistakes and is perfectly capable of being turned by a pretty widow with something to hide. His attempts at seduction sometimes succeed, but more often fail, which makes sense at a time when a woman's reputation could be affected by who she's seen with.

One hopes for better things for Adams and Wilcox, but if it doesn't happen, it won't be the fault of the publisher. Like most of Walker's books, these are beautiful to look at -- details from Edward Hopper's paintings appear on most of them, which is a nice change from the usual blood and skulls that passes for art on most mystery covers -- and the $8.95 price tag is more than reasonable for these absorbing tales of small-town crimes of passion.

For some of us too young to know better, the world of the Depression can seem as foreign a place as Moscow or Outer Mongolia. It was, after all, a half-century ago, before computers, television, the Interstate Highway system and couple of major wars.

Which is why following Carl Wilcox, part-time bum, former convict and itinerant sign painter as he travels from town to town in the Dakotas so fascinating. In addition to painting signs and doing what he can to bring body and soul a little closer together, he sometimes investigate cases in small towns like Hope, Jonesville and Greenhill.

For the most part, these are pretty quiet stories about small towns where there's not much to do, and where murders are few and far between. Adams's books describe a Depression-era Dakotas of quiet small towns where private reputations and public behavior mattered. His Wilcox is a quiet man, willing to work when he needs money and loaf when he doesn't. His constant pursuit of any semi-willing women would be off-putting were it not realistically depicted (i.e., he doesn't succeed very often).

One added bonus can be found in the design of the books, whose covers sport art by Edward Hopper and Thomas Hart Benton. Not your usual mystery book design.

During the Depression, sign painter Carl Wilcox has earned a reputation throughout the Dakotas for solving murder mysteries, which is why Pastor Bjorn Bjornsen invites him to lunch. Bjorn and his nephew Sven offer Carl $100 to discover who raped and murdered the pastor's niece Gwendolyn in their church basement.

Carl begins his inquiries by talking to the cop on the case, Officer Driscoll, who has unofficially given up on the case, but does provide Carl the needed information. Carl follows up with discussions about the victim with her teachers, friends, and family. As he continues to look into the brutal death of a child with no seeming enemies or anyone with a motive to hurt her, Carl begins to wonder if even he can solve this mystery.

The fifteenth Wilcox depression era who-done-it keeps the freshness that has constantly made this series one of the best historical mysteries on the market. The story line fits the period, making it seem much more alive than fiction normally produces. However, it is the talent of Harold Adams to brilliantly describe a host of characters as seen through their varying relationships with succinct and abrupt Carl that makes NO BADGE, NO GUN and , for that matter all the Wilcox books, must reading for sub-genre fans.

Harriet Klausner

I'm a middle-aged English professor, but I love this book now, as I did when I was a kid. If I had to whittle my personal library down from its present size (maybe 3000?) to a hundred books, I'm sure I'd still keep this one. I read these stories now to my children and remember how I loved the stories when I was their age. When I'm a senior, I'll remember how I shared this book with my kids, as well.

I lived near Oslo from Aug. '85-Jan. '86. One fall Saturday, at the checkout counter in a bookstore across from Slottsparken, I said to the clerk in Norwegian "You speak English like an American!" Her sharp tongue shot back "You speak Norwegeian like an American!" She responded to my questions why she (American) was there with "I was married to one of them" and couldn't "go back" because she didn't fit anymore. She recommended a book and also told me she'd translated some Norwegian Folk Tales into English. My host told me later it was Pat Shaw.

My daughters (then 8 and 12) read the book from cover to cover many times. Without the availability of an English grade school library filled with teen and preteen romances my daughters read pretty much whatever was placed on the coffee table. They enjoyed Shaw's translation very much, although I also occaisonally translated directly (with effort) from Asbjørnsen and Moe. This translation gives us in English a look at 'the soul of the Norwegian people', as a good friend describes the folk tales.

My 9-year old was enthralled with the stories in this book, begging for more every night until we finished it. I disagree with his Freudian interpretation, but Bruno Bettelheim is right that folktales touch something wired within us, fulfilling an innate need children have to comprehend the adult world.

Although not as well-known as the German Grimm's collection in the United States, this book is widely revered in Norway. Both are teutonic cultures, but these stories are different in character and feel from the Grimm Brother stories. While they contain elements common to all european fables, this book is filled with trolls, and the reformation seems like a recent event. Norsk tales have a unique and compelling charm.

My favorite fable is in this collection--the one about the mill that explains why the sea is salty. Read it yourself--I don't want to spoil the ending.

From a purist point of view, drawings detract from stories such as these, but two of Norway's most most well-known illustrators are represented, and the artwork is compelling.

This paperback is a reprint of the original English-language translation from 40 years ago. I have that original text packed away somewhere lost, so it was a real treat to be able to buy a new copy to share with my son.

Right from the start this book is one of those that just feels good in the hand. A thin aesthetically pleasing little volume it has a red satin ribbon to mark your place and a brightly colored huge red heart invites you inside from the front cover. The text is a love poem by the great Carl Sandburg that has never before been published. The pictures are by Anita Lobel and they are filled with glad, warm-hearted images and colors.
A young man goes to "where the aurora borealises grow" and brings home a beautiful speciman for his true love's birthday. The enchanting swirls of color actually do quite well at depicting the essence of the aurora borealis and its mysterious, magical light show. I know, because the northern lights were swirling in the skies over my home just a few nights ago and Lobel captured the feeling just perfectly.
We follow the young man's struggle to find and bring the aurora borealis to his love and we believe that his feelings are so strong that he really can do anything for his love that he sets his heart on doing. He offers to bring her more aurora borealises or even a rainbow if she would like. This poetical man is letting her know that he will always work hard for her and struggle through life with her which is something a young woman may hope for, but this clever man has found a beautiful and romantic way to say it. His sensitivity to her need for beauty and abundance is the endearing point of the colorful promises he makes in this story.
I treasure this book and I think it makes a wonderful gift for anyone you love, especially yourself.

I'm an avid reader of all sorts of novels. I've read 'em with thousands of pages, but none of them have ever moved me as much as this little book did. Both the poem and the illustration have a magical, enchanting quality to them. Buy it for yourself or as a gift. It's well worth the money.

This book is so amazing that when i picked it up in the store and started reading it, i began to cry right there in the shop. i've never experienced that sort of thing in before. i bouth the book right there on the spot with money i had ear-marked for something else. It is just a really simple, really beautiful poem about love with wonderful illustrations. It makes a beautiful present for a child or even a sweetheart.

Just want to say that this is really a fantastic book.
Carl Jennings did a really great job. I have gave several
copys to friends for Christmas. I new Carl at the old Peony Park
and I wish him all the best at his new Peony Park in Wahoo Nebraska. The many pictures cover Peony Parks history in 1919
to the present. Just learned the book is now in it's second
addition, and a movie is being made,"Peony Park an American Legend" this year. Great!

Love ya,

Barb

This is a fantastic book on Peony Park!
I had no idea how famous it was. The author did
such a nice job with all the pictures.
So happy to see there will be a new Peony Park soon.

Sincerely,

Barb Berg

The book is so cool, really neat story.
Peony Park has such a neat place in history!
I look forward to going to the new Peony Park
this summer.

Don't miss this small, pocket-sized volume if you need a thorough introduction to the principles and philosophy of macrobiotics. Without including any recipes, author Carl Ferre has done an excellent job condensing the most important aspects of marcobiotics into this handy book. An easy read, keep it in your purse or jacket pocket to peruse when you have a few spare minutes.

This book provides a great deal of information on beginning and sustaining a macrobiotic diet and is written in a clear, concise manner. It speaks positively about small dietary changes and never stoops to belittling other diets. When I bought the book, I knew absolutely nothing about the macrobiotic way of life. When I put it down, I had a good working knowledge.

Although it doesn't include any recipes, I think this book is excellent.

This small pocket guide outlines food choices in diagrams displaying the relative positions of food rather than in terms of nutritional data. Nutritional quantities and percentages of food are misleading in that the imply accurate descriptions of food before it is eaten and digested. Each body is different and the macrobiotic way of eating requires considering the condition of the eater as well as the food eaten. For anyone who has encountered strange or misleading information of this grain-based diet would benefit from reading this small guide. It is well written in an easy to follow format that persuades rather than dictates. The resources and references are excellent and the price is right.

This was an extremely good introduction to the history of the church. Especially the early church history was written very lively, giving me a new understanding and appreciation for this period in time. The layout and structure of the book, including interesting maps and charts, made the reading very nice too.

I enjoyed the balanced treatment of this topic, neither blaming the church for all negative that ever happened, nor white-washing and excusing dark areas in history. The author mentioned very nicely the conditions of the times leading to new developments, be they negative or good.

from The Faith Connection, 7/12/98: "offers readers a journey into the past so they can see the future. Koch makes a good point: we need to see the church with new eyes so that we can advance its mission with wiser minds and hearts."

from Criss Cross, No. 5: "a new resource that can help us to remember by becoming more familiar with the varied colorful history of the Catholic Church. . . can be recommended without hesitation for catechists, parents and all persons wishing to remember our Catholic roots. This history helps us to understand why the Catholic Church exists as it does today, while it gives necessary perspectives for envisioning the future."