This book was okay. It was kind of unrealistic, though. First, Alyssa decides to change her name to Blister for no reason, then she decides to steal her dad's girlfriend's clothes. It was weird. I wouldn't spend my money on it.

I loved this book. It is very interesting. It was kind of boaring in the beginging but once you get in to the 3rd chapter you kind of know what happened and what is going to happen. The book was about a girl named Blister and she is going through a hard time in her life because her parents have been married for a long time and her parents are finally gettign divorced. Blister is very upset about this. So her and her mother stay to live in the same house and the father is told to move out of the house, so he moves out and he finds another lady. He starts to go on dates with her and then after a couple of years they finally get ingaged and then aventually get married. Blister does not like what her father is doing to her. Blister thinks that her mother and father could work things out and get back together again but that is not what happens. So her dad re- marries another women adn Blister does not approve of it. Know Blister wants to get revenge from her father since he will not lister to what Blister has to say. So she goes to her fathers new house and.....If you want to know what happens next you will have to read the book!! I liked the book alot and I think that you will too.

Blister is a great book. Blister was so brave, and she always looked on the bright side. She took control of her own life, and it made me want to be just like her. It was one of the best books I've ever read. It was wonderful, stupendous, and just plain great. I read it over and over again.

This new monograph has been released to coincide with the Whitney's retrospective. Both the long over due retrospective and the new monograph are lacking in quantity and depth needed in doing justice to this amazingly prolific and important artist. Abrams' previous Neel monograph had many more images and excerpts of important interviews with Neel throughout the book (provided by the forsight of Patricia Hills.) The new book, under the Whitney museums' auspice, includes interviews with some of the sitters. While these anecdotes are interesting it doesn't make up for the total superiority of the 1983 monograph (reprinted in 1995.) If you can find a used version of the previous monograph, you would be wise to aquire it. I also recommend Pamela Allara's "Pictures of People, Alice Neel's American Portrait Gallery" which puts Neel's work in a cultural context (from the depression through the feminist movement.)

Alice Neel has certainly inspired me to paint again. The book is wonderful and chronicles her personal story, along with paintings corresponding to those periods of her life and essays by those who knew her well. It's also a treat to get the insight of many of her famous sitters, including "Nancy". This book is also a catalogue of her work which accompanies her centennial exhibition touring the country. I can't wait to see her work up close and personal in 2001. This publication has wet my appetite to experience more and more of the artistry of Alic Neel.

I've examined this edition virtually plate by plate to the previous (1983- Patricia Hills) edition and I must say that I find the selections as well as the quality of the color printing to be far superior in this edition. Perhaps if one found a first edition of the Patricia Hills publication this would not be the case. But I far prefer this edition and can find no reason to criticize it, other than having a vested or political interest.

It is a wonderful idea to make available recordings of great speeches. I hope we have more of this in the future.
In the case of older speeches, the selection is very good, considering the restraints of time, and the readers are uniformly excellent.
As for the modern speeches, it is a marvel of technology that we can hear these speeches as delivered. It is incredible that we can hear the voice of William Jennings Bryan. I can listen to Martin Luther King's "I have a dream" a thousand times and never tire of it! How I wish I could listen to the voice of Patrick Henry! But this selection is too heavily weighted to the modern, and many of those do not deserve billing as the GREATEST speeches of ALL TIME. Also, some of the modern speeches which are included are abridged, e.g. Reagan is cut off in the middle of a sentence, while lengthy and undeserving speeches are played out in their entirety.
Also, with only a few exceptions, the selection is almost entirely American. It is hard to understand why Jimmy Carter's lengthy speech on energy policy is included, while Pericles' funeral oration is not; or why only a small portion of a single Winston Churchill speech is included; why while Bill Clinton's complete 1993 pulpit address, in excess of 20 minutes, is included.
It would be helpful if the complete list of speeches were available to online buyers, as it would be to shoppers in a brick and mortar store.

I have listened to this collection twice now, both times with pleasure. Hearing the acutal voices of Amelia Earhart, Rev. Martin Luther King, Winston Churchill and Neil Armstrong made a deeper connection than simply reading their words. The collection showcases different subjects and many times contrasts opposing viewpoints of the ideas. This volume is a fantastic introduction to the moving ideals and sometimes sad truths that have influenced Western Civilization.

I am a third grader and thought that the book was very good and funny. It is a Sunshine State Book in Florida and I took a Reading Counts test from it. It was hard to put the book down. I recommend this book to anyone that likes 'happy ending' books.

I'm glad I purchased this book. Jonah is an appealing character, someone you sympathize with and root for--his propensity to "make lemonade out of lemons" is refreshing. I wish more kids today would see the potential within themselves like Jonah did. The only thing I did not like about the book was the plot twist to the mother-boyfriend relationship at the end of the book--not very realistic, but then maybe there's too much realism in children's books these days. Otherwise, it's a wonderful book.

Are there more bike shops per capita in Rochester or is it just that so many people want to enjoy the outdoors from May through October? I can't think of a more enjoyable source of weekend r&r than taking one of the trails suggested in this book. There are good suggestions for ability, the maps are adequate, and the directions to the start of the trail are clear. The only thing I'd add to this book is an online link for printable maps so I don't have to take the book (although pocketable) along. A must for any Rochesterian who wants to enjoy the trails around town.

A great resource for people looking for good bike trails in the Rochester area. Easy-to-read maps of trails and locations, plus descriptions and difficulty ratings. A must-have for the avid Rochesterian biker! :~)

Years ago it was Linus Pauling of Caltech touting the benefits of Vitamin C. Then others added the benefits of vitamin A, but be careful because one could go toxic with too much of the oil-based form. Then others came up with a plant-based form. Now, we are completely accepting of these and Passwater and Davis are bringing us into the millenium with an explanation of a whole new realm of antioxidants - their benefits, their necessity, etc. This is a good book for the beginners who want to learn more about how they can do more for themselves.

The information provided in this book is valuable, but the book is NOT concise. The two authors could have gotten their point across in less than 200 pages. The book "rambles on" for over 400 pages.

Dr.Lark has produced a wonderful book here. I bought a copy for myself and sent one to my family. The concept of acid-alkali balance is of the utmost importance in recovering from any illness and sadly most Americans do not know this yet. You can take all the medicine or supplements you want or see your doctor every day, but you will not get well until you change your diet to an alkali-forming diet and make some life style changes that will improve your body's pH. Dr. Lark is most generous in taking the time to impart all this wealth of information to the reader to heal. The catch is the reader needs to take the initiative to make these life style changes. Since I am very holistic in my approcach to health I do not agree with taking some of the more chemically-oriented alkali-forming supplements listed in the book and prefer to alkalize with diet and green drink supplements instead. If you want to start on the road to good health read this book!

This is a must have book for anyone who has ever experienced "brain fog", fatigue, or simply feeling unwell, and been baffled as to why. This book finally puts together the hows and whys of eating certain foods and the consequences inflicted on our bodies. It is eyeopening, refreshing, solidly grounded nutritionally, and a wonderful book. This is one you will refer to again and again and everyone needs to have this in their library. Couple this with Prescription for Nutritional Healing and hopefully we will all live until we are 90!

It is not for you, if you are not using DB2 on OS/390 and you are not an absolute novice to the Database world. It talks only about the IBM Mainframe, does not cover UNIX, NT and OS/2 well. Does not cover any topic in substantial details.

I am a DBA on the IBM SP/2 and I did not get what I was looking for.

Must have book , excellent !
Just regret that some lines are oudated with DB2 for OS/390 version 7

Our company uses this book as the DB2 reference bible! We recently had a DB2 failure and could not find reference to the problem in any DB2 manual. We found the answer to our problem in this book - saving us several thousands of dollars and many hours of downtime. Everyone has a copy on their desk and uses it for everyday activities for all DB2 platforms.

the 8 year old i babysit didn't like this book, but she isn't at the boys-boys-boys stage. i picked this up off the playroom table and read it while the girls played their harry potter game.

i thought it was cute. i was and still am a bookworm, and it was fun to read a pre-teen book for the new century. no one in a judy blume book ever wore purple lipstick, or black clunky shoes- as amanda, the good does.

even now at 28, i felt the throb of misplacement and confusion that amanda is going through in the book. seventh grade is hard. and while shreve touches oh-so lightly on some of the bigger issues young girls face (peer pressure, self-image), she doesn't really supply the reader with a whole lot of substance. she mentions that amanda's clothes are all too tight several times, and i was hoping she'd give the reader some small self-acceptance with your body bit, but instead she chose to concentrate on being yourself by turning away from gossip girls and turning toward the on the mend- once troubled, boy.

a light, cute, read devoid of preachiness, and ripe with the predictibility this genre of books usually carries.

This story is about a girl named Amanda. She dyed her hair when she thought it would come out black but, instead of coming out black it came out purple. Amanda wanted to dye her hair black because Fern, the most powerful member of the club at Alice Deal Junior High, had dyed it the same color. Alice Deal was a junior high and Amanda went to it. Amanda had a brother named Joshua and a sister named Georgianna. She liked it better in her elementary school named Mirch Elementary. She would always get straight A's in Elementary and excellent's throughout the day. Then Fern started talking to Amanda and told her to smoke a little bit of the cigarette that she had because when Amanda was in the bathroom washing her hands Fern asked Amanda if she had a spare cigarette Amanda lied and said that she didn't have one right now. Then Amanda's parents were talking about her report card and when it came. Amanda said to her parents that the report card didn't have all A's. Then the next day the report card came. Then her dad saw the report card it had all C's except for a B in P.E. and D's in math and social studies. When she got to school and was at her locker she met Slade. He was only the hottest in the junior high. Fern was jealous of Amanda so she told Amanda things that weren't true about Slade. Slade was Amanda's boyfriend. And then Fern told Amanda to steal some products at CVS and she did. Slade said that for Amanda to not be in the club because Fern makes people hate each other and like Fern so he told Amanda not to join the club. He said the club was more like a gang. Then Fern asked it Amanda wanted to be in the club and she said no so later on Fern called and said that she asked Slade's so-called girlfriend, that was a skinny blond, to join the club.

Hello i'm Monica .Susan shreve has created a book of when a girl named Amanda Bates turns good to bad . This girl is now in junor high and all these changes like ,dieing her hair black ,skipping classes ,wearing her mums black clothes. Now she has muddled up with the 9th graders who smoke and take drugs . A boy named slade and a girl named fern who want Amanda to join a club .
She even gets in a adventure with fern in shoplifting.
This book is for 8-13 year old children .
They will be able to connect with Amanda.

The book's title raised my expectations unjustly. I was expecting powerful essays like James Baldwin's "The Fire Nextt Time," but remained unfullfilled. Perhaps it a sad byproduct of progress that writers see it fit to deal with such enormous issues with very short accounts that go deeply into personal experince, but shamelessly gloss over the depth of enormous events. These are mentioning in grossly conventinal terms.

i received this book from a friend not expecting a whole lot from it. but to my amazement i found it refreshing. this is, imho, a collection of well written essays. it is, in some ways, an uncontrived look into the minds and personal thoughts of writers. through his 'dead cat, floating boy' essay, which i found to be the most entertaining, i was introduced to john barth (i am now reading 'the sot-weed factor'). the central theme being 'who are we and where are we going?', it is a collection of modern essays for modern times.

Before I read this book I read the two previous readers' reviews, which made me approach the book with great curiosity (and even a little ambivalence). Happily, I would like to report that I was delighted and surprised by these essays; they are written so well, so beautifully-- really a pleasure to read and to be intellectually provoked at the same time. I especially love how personal these essays are; it's not the usual didactic fretting about the postmodern technological age. Here, people write about how their lives truly are affected by the various kinds of "progress" (the word itself is contemplated wonderfully) in America today. An admirable book!