This book is exceptional in every manner...wonderfully written, beautiful illustrations, a certain new favorite of mine. It is touching, and teaches equality and acceptance . Great for children with or without disabilities.

This book was the perfect follow-up to my viewing of a presentation by Mr. Clark. His personal statements throughout the book are, I believe, meant to give us the perspective of a person who has overcome and accomplished a great deal in his life and are not meant to force his views on the reader. This book, like the author, is truly an inspiration!

Dan Clark changed my life about 10 years ago when I heard him speak. Now this book comes into my life and continues where he left off. If you like "Chicken Soup for the Soul" series, this book is a must.

The sheer style of writing in this book made it nearly impossible for me to get through the first few chapters. It felt like the author was talking to a first grader instead of an adult. There are so many fluff words which are not necessary to the actual content that I found myself looking for a needle in a haystack. I simply could not see the forest for the trees in this one.

Gale's book is not one of those fad diet books that promises more than it delivers. Instead, it contains a lot of sensible advice on how you can really change your life to be more physically fit and mentally alert simply by following some basic guidelines for proper eating. Well written, with lots of good information.

The title sums it up! The way to good nutition is really so simple that we all forget to incorporate the easy steps in our lives that lead to good health. Mona has reminded each of us in a delightfully written book that is easily read.

I recommend you purchase several copies because you will want to share with family members and friends. I was waiting for a doctor's appoinment and the nurse took the book out of my hands and started thumbing through...I gave her my copy and bought another. It's a feel good gift that will help others.

Highly recommend!!!

Even though I felt book 4 was just a bit dragging at times, it kept my interest because it built on the life of Hjelmer. There is finally a blacksmith and a merchantile in town. Penny's only known relative comes to join her. Haaken contracts mumps as they spread throughout the families, and the Bjorkland matriarch arrives with 4 others for vacationing -or is it a move?

A very dramatic incident occurs when Anner, an angry farmer, has a farm accident.

During a 6 wk absence of her husband and against all advise including his, Ingeborg returns to her britches and plowing and has a freak though serious accident. Zeb MacCallister, a fugitive caring for orphans Manda and Deborah, joins the prairie families. Manda talks too much.

Blessing women are discussing the possibility of women's votes and the fact their area is about to become a state. Katy and Zeb are extremely attracted but speak completely different languages.

A bank is opening, several weddings take place, and near the end of the book Zeb sees his siter momentarily and gets a painful scare which forces him into an even more painful decision.

Despite a slight discrepancy in timeframes by the author, I am glad I already have purchased book 5 in this series.

I have read all the books in this series and all the books in the sequel series. Ms. Snelling is one of my favorite authors and this is one of my favorite books. I have rad every book numerous times and would recommend them for anyone. Ms. Snelling knows real-life situations that pertained to the late 1800s and writes about them. I personally believe "A reader from Alberta, Canada" must have only skimmed the book and I suggest that she get her facts straight.

This is a sad book at times, but it brings out the truths of life for the homesteaders. Although I wish Ingeborg would get her baby, I also know that her situation was very real for many women. Alberta, Canada hasn't read this book because she doesn't know what she is talking about at all. It's a great book in a great series, I love them all.

This is a great book about the sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald. If you have never read a book on the Fitz this is a great start. The author does a great job of introducing you to the crew and what life is like sailing on the Great Lakes. He takes several of the crew and introduces you to their personality and their history. This helps you to develope feelings for the crew member as they sail on the Lakes. Hemming also does a good job of presenting the facts of the sinking and helps you to understand what the last several hours were like on the Fitzgerald. The book is very inclusive when it comes to describing the factors that lead to the Fitz's eventual demise. The only complaint that I have about the book is that Hemming described vividly the crews last actions immediately prior to the sinking when no further contact was made with any other ships. Since nobody knows exactly what happen during this period of time the author may have created a scinario to keep the book real. He accomplishes this but it may compromise the facts. All in all I learned a lot about the story and I think most readers will too.

I really enjoyed this book, and would recommend it to anyone interested in the "Big Fitz." That ship or is it the song just simply has a way to draw your attention. To the 29 men on board. Rest in peace. You earned it.

I've been fascinated with the Edmund Fitzgerald sinking for many years, partially because I've lived around the great lakes most of my life. This book answered many of the haunting questions about the ship and what happened to her. The examination of the incident by Hemming is excellent and his proposed explanation of the cause is far better than the Coast Guard's excuses. I highly recommend this book on several levels, especially for its writing and research. Thanks to Gordon Lightfoot for bringing this to our attention.

Since Gordon Melton has made an old speciality and way of life of defending criminal cults like Scientology o, moon, Krishna or aum shirikyo, I can't decently estimate that any work he writes is honorable and truthful.

In fact, Melton, and his friend Introvigne plus some others, are part of the topmost biased authors having written on cults during the XXth century.

roger gonnet, anti-cultist.

J. Gordon Melton's "Encyclopedia of American Religions" is a reference work to which I turn, year after year, in my work as both a scholar and journalist. And I eagerly look forward to each new edition (I viewed the 6th edition as I prepared this review).

This mammoth work contains both a series of essays on major religious traditions and a series of profiles of individual denominations, fellowships, and missions. The profiles on individual religious bodies number well over 2,300 in the 6th edition. Mailing addresses and bibliographic references (when available) for each individual body further add to the book's usefulness.

Melton covers everything from the largest mainstream denominations to the smallest and most esoteric bodies. His broad editorial vision takes in nearly every conceivable religious tradition: Christianity in all its permutations (Anglican, Lutheran, Pentecostal, etc.), Judaism, Hinduism and other Eastern traditions, Neo-Pagan groups, "flying saucer"-related fellowships, Atheist and Humanist associations, and more. Each entry is written in an objective manner.

The latest edition of this book should be in every library in Canada and the United States. Furthermore, serious journalists and scholars of religion will find this to be a useful and fascinating edition to their own private libraries.

While I don't own it (yet) I've been impressed with it since first learning of it. While this is not a work on which most households would spend hundreds of dollars, there really is no substitute for Melton's masterpiece. Even defunct and/or oddball sects are included, such as Kennedy worshippers, the House of David, and schismatic versions of many faiths. The organization of this work is by theological classification (Holiness movement or Black Muslim for two examples), but the index is comprehensive.

This was the worst example I have ever come across.
I'm a college student and this set of books is what we have been using in english to brush up on grammer. As you may notice mine is still awful. My entire class is extreamy frustrated and highly dissapointed with this poor excuse of a tex/work book.
I think it is wort nothing more than 0 stars!!!

'Essentials of English' is a great resource book to have on hand should you be uncertain if you are expressing yourself correctly in the written word. It is very concise, and while a bit 'dry', does not waste time in teaching you what you should know about the English language. But I am worried that I won't be able to remember what I am trying to remember from this book. I fear that no matter how hard I try, it is not sinking in and I just can't get it right. So while the book is excellent, I myslef am a failure on many counts.

I gave this book five stars even though I think the book is rather stiff and boring. The newer grammar books have more zest and personality that make it easier for a dreamer like me to understand what they mean by an antecedent, or a dangling modifier or nonrestrictive clause. I think you know what I mean.

The reason I gave "Essentials of English" a five-star rating is: when I need and answer to a grammar problem and I can't find it in all of my grammar books, I can always rely on "Essentials of English" to have my answer. That rates a five-star rating with me.

David G. Brown's "White Hurricane" is yet another in the recent flood of books depicting historical weather releated disasters. Indeed, the 1913 storm of the book's title is so little remembered that I had never heard of it prior to reading the book, despite growing up in the Great Lakes region. Brown obviously did a copius amount of research and does a fine job describing the history of Great Lakes shipping and demonstrating the risks that sailors face when the "gales of November" start howling.

The 1913 Great Lakes storm was unusual both for its intensity and because it raged over the lakes for almost a full week rather than just a couple of days. As a result, it claimed a dozen ships and nearly 250 lives. Dozens of other ships barely escaped and the first hand accounts of the sailors who survived the tempest make for chilling reading.

The book's main drawback, however, is that it lacks a single compelling central event as a focus for its narrative. Brown gamely switches back and forth between accounts of each individual ship as the storm progresses. Unfortunately, there are far too many ships and sailors for the reader to keep easy track of and eventually all the accounts begin to sound the same. On the plus side, the book provides several helpful maps as well as a generous helping of photographs, mostly of the ships that were lost.

Overall, an informative if not highly readable account of a largely forgotten weather disaster.

Hate to admit it, since I live along Lake Erie, but I never heard of this storm until someone bought this book for me. It is really excellent. The author picks a certain day, certain time, and writes about what is happening with which ship, etc., at that particular time, and sometimes it was a little hard for me to keep track of which ship he was writing about. However, he really makes you understand and feel what it would have been like being on one of the ships breaking up or getting stranded in the terrible storm. This would be an excellent movie! I recommend this book to anyone interested in the weather, the Great Lakes, or boating/shipping in general.

As a Coastie recently stationed on the USCGC ACACIA out of Charlevoix, MI. I found this book to be very helpful in my learning about the Great Lakes geographically, meteorilogically, historically. If you are at all interested in Great Lakes lore then you will thoroughly enjoy this book as well as learn a few things you may not have known, such as why lake storms are different from those on the sea.

In Doing Time- Notes from the undergrad, Rob Thomas who is the author tells 10 differant stories by using various student narrators. The students all have in common the fact that they have to do 200 hours of community service for their requirement for their school in order to graduate. In one story "Shacks from Mansions", a football player named Preston plays for the Dallas Cowboys. He is tutoring a boy named Randall. Preston was Randall's big brother. Randall learned a great amount from him. In another story there was a boy and a girl who worked for the library near them. The lirary held meetings every Wednesday. The meetings were about people discussing their emotions about their passed-away pets. One Wednesday when the boy was working he went into the backroom to get something. He accidentally overheard them talking. He looked through the shelves and saw a picture up on the wall of a dead pet. He learned that he did not want to go back to that library. This book was not recommended for children under the age of 12. Some of the language was explicit. I learned that it would be very difficult to do 200 hours of community service.

As usual, Rob Thomas is dead-on with the voice of his YA characters. The stories are funny and focused around a common theme that is familiar to most high school students. My only complaint is that the book feels unfinished since Thomas doesn't use the end of the book to return to the character of Randall, the college freshman he uses in the beginning of the collection to frame the stories.

I enjoyed this book immensely. I think that Thomas is fantastic at using perspective as a key, without making anything too unclear. I'd like to start an e-mail kids book club, so spread the news and e-mail me (Lucy) at the above adress, with your thoughts about this book.

The book set me up for the grand finale which never came. Most of these women were on the ample side. I am short and thin but with a thick long waist and I am swayback. The majority of the alterations were on separates; not much attention was given to dresses. I did however like the croqui. I need to do this and find my own way. There are probably better, more direct books out there.

This is a fun and helpful book. It was beneficial for me to learn that I should EXPECT my body to vary from the pattern standard - rather than beat myself up over it. I particularly liked the book's "before and after" photos. It's good to have so many visual images showing "this is what it means". Gale's insights will help me for years to come.

I'm just a so-so sewer, and this book was tremendously helpful to me. First, it gave me hope that I might actually be able to sew something that would fit. Second, it gave me focused instructions on how to make particular changes. Third, they worked.

If you are looking for the a-z of pattern fitting, this isn't it. But for a refreshing point of view and great ideas, I haven't found anything else in its league.

(It's fun, too.)

While Gale demonstrates considerable writing talent, he's unable to sustain the pace for more than a few pages at a time. The hapless hero is unconvincing - one moment all rugged virility, the next a wimpering wuss - and the dialog is often dreadful. As for the implausible plot twists noted by other reviewers, either you accept them as essential to the fable-like atmosphere of the book, or you regret that Gale finally resorts to a sitcom story line to pull it all together. But despite all its failings, I can't help but give Gale at least two stars for some writing that's good enough to keep me on his side - hoping in vain that in the end he'll really pull it off. Unfortunately, he doesn't.

I liked this book enormously. It had such a contemporary feel to it and yet I couldn't help draw comparisons to 19th century writers like Hardy, Dickens, and Collins. The novel starts out with a criminal investigation but quickly resolves that plotline and delves into the workings of the family. Like a network of branches and twigs in a maturing tree, we follow the characters in increasingly complicated paths and watch how they keep crossing those paths in outrageous coincidence after coincidence. For those readers that love novels of character and writers who work wonders with the English language, this is a novel worth discovering.

Patrick Gale has written yet another fine book full of believable characters and unpredictable plots. I have read all of his books and found them to be consistently well written, entertaining, and thought-provoking. This book delves into the infinite complexities of human relationships but does not become ponderous. His sudden and eccentric plot twists keep the reader stimulated and guessing. This book may seem dark at first, but don't give up - there is a rare treat in store. I have eagerly awaited Patrick Gale's each new offering for the last 10 years and have yet to be disappointed.