Naomi Karten's current work focuses on how to "mind the gap" between you and your audience. This advice is helpful whether your audience is one person or many, whether communications are in writing or in speech. Her advice goes deeper than the handy techniques she presents. She gives a wider view in analyzing the relationships, the context, and the internal states each of the participants (you the communicator and the listener or reader).

Her advice on understanding the other's perspective is a prime example of that depth. While making one's own case is necessary, understanding the other person's perspective is perhaps a more subtle requirement of communications.

I found this book not only helpful in my business communications, which the author targets, but also in the range of communications within my own personal life.

I recommend this book to all my business colleagues who struggle with the intention of good communciations and the results of poor communications.

Naomi Karten's current work focuses on how to "mind the gap" between you and your audience. This advice is helpful whether your audience is one person or many, whether communications are in writing or in speech. Her advice goes deeper than the handy techniques she presents. She gives a wider view in analyzing the relationships, the context, and the internal states each of the participants (you the communicator and the listener or reader).

Her advice on understanding the other's perspective is a prime example of that depth. While making one's own case is necessary, understanding the other person's perspective is perhaps a more subtle requirement of communications.

I found this book not only helpful in my business communications, which the author targets, but also in the range of communications within my own personal life.

I recommend this book to all my business colleagues who struggle with the intention of good communciations and the results of poor communications.

This book is chock-full of immediately useful advice about making your communications count. It's not about "hurling words to and fro." It's about making your message count without overdoing it. Karten covers a wide range of communication media, from formal presentations, to e-mail, to team conflict.

Some of the advice wasn't new to me, but was a terrific reminder of the thought and effort that effective communication requires up front -- to avoid all the communication gaps that can take even more time later.

I especially enjoyed the antecdotes throughout the book that highlighted each point. I was amazed at how some of the people portrayed behaved and was humbled by how others reminded me of my own foibles.

Karten's advice relies on two basic principles: care that your message gets through and care about the other person's situation. This book gives the reader lots of practical tips on how to get the message across while building the relationship.

I'm recommending it to all my clients and peers who are constantly perplexed by the excessive time they spend communicating and the confusion and distrust that still persists.

HOODOO MEDICINE offers a wonderful blend of a history of the Gullah people and their herbal medicines, explicit description of each herb including many wonderful illustrations by Naomi Steinfeld that makes it easy to identify several of the plants, with an amazing cover image by the talented artist, Jonathan Green. Carefully documented, this book is not just the usual guide of 'how to use this' or that herb, but includes historical background -- not only a chronological description of the way this special island culture developed over time, but fascinating ancedotes of how the Gullah people used (and managed to save) their knowledge so that it's now available to everyone thanks to this book and the efforts of Faith Mitchlell and Naomi Steininfeld...This is a model for how all should be written, presented, and preserved that shines light on the fact these remedies reflect not only the special understanding of the people who used these 'good' plants and the way they can help, but that there are plants unique to regional ecospheres, and how lucky we are whenever someone is still among us to point them out! Faith Mitchell includes a poem inspired during the time lived on the island that captures the real heart of the book for me -- the island itself speaking about why She shares these gifts with those there.

Dr. Mitchell reclaims the lost voices and gestures of African and Caribbean people who came to the US and made American life so rich. This description of their detailed local knowledge revitalises the past. We are grateful for Amazon.com's vast holdings which make such small-press treasures as Hoodoo Medicine available to researchers and lay people around the world.

Using the Sea Islands as a foundation, Mictchell provides readers with a fascinating and vital examination of Black folk medicine. Hoodoo Medicine also details cures used in the Sea Islands and the book includes a dreictory ofmedicinal roots and herbs. With a burgeoning interest in "traditonal" practices, I hope this book will find its way into the hands of professionals and lay people eager to support healing and wellness.

This is a fantastic book by 2 very dedicated professional educators. It is very worthwhile both for its 'fun' interactive activities with your children, and as an extremely valuable educational tool for 'stealth teaching'! (Your child thinks they are just playing, while they are secretly being educated!) We have also found it very useful in helping your child with any learning 'issues', (reading, math, etc.) using enjoyable, interactive activities.

We VERY HIGHLY RECOMMEND this book

My daughter just started second grade. I am very uncreative, and have a hard time thinking much beyond flash cards. When my daughter's teacher told me last year that she had to work on phonics, I had no idea what to do. (The Hooked on Phonics program costs almost $300!) This book addresses phonics, math, and more, for a lot less money. The ideas really are fun - this is as painless as it gets. A good investment. I'm going to buy the 1st grade book for my son.

As a second grade teacher, I am extremely excited about A+ Activities for Second Grade. FINALLY, a developmentally aprropriate resource for parents that is "user friendly," and FUN! Miller and Singer have developed a sequence of activites that allow learners to celebrate active learning at home. I will be utilizing this book in my own classroom to compliment my existing curriculum with hands-on learning experiences. I will be recommending this book, HIGHLY, to the families of my 2nd graders, as well as my colleagues.

Hans Christian Andersen is one of the most famous writers of fairy tales. The Snow Queen is one of the longest tales and one of his best known. He would listen to folk and fairy tales as a child and when he grew up, he wrote some of these stories in his own words.

Anderson began writing The Snow Queen on December 5, 1844 and it was published sixteen days later in book form! His fairy tales made him famous and the stories have been translated into more than 100 languages and some have been made into films, like the Little Mermaid.

Nilesh Mistry is one of my favorite illustrators. He was born in Bombay and moved to London, England in 1975. His books include The Illustrated Book of Fairy Tales and Aladdin. I simply want to own every book he illustrates!

In the story of The Snow Queen, you will find illustrations and photography that shows the settings of the original book. This classic is again brought to life, yet never so beautifully as with Nilesh Mistry's art. Kai is whirled away by the icily beautiful Snow Queen. His playmate Gerda sets out to find him and encounters many adventures in his quest. This is a story I remember very well, yet I had to imagine the pictures in my own mind as a child.

In this book, she looks hauntingly similar to how I pictured her as a child. "The driver stood up, in a coat and hat of purest snow. She was a woman, tall and glittering. She was the Snow Queen."

The story begins with a story about the Devil who laughed at his own cleverness. He creates a mirror that sets people against one another by making people see the ugly side of things. If a splinter of glass from the mirror ever entered a person's eye, their heart would become a lump of solid ice. (quite a lesson there to be sure!)

When the "imps" decide to take the mirror up to the angels and try to make fun of them, it falls and shatteres into a hundred pieces. When "Kai" finds a grain of glass in his heart his entire attitude to life is changed. "Keep away from me!" he screeches at his friend Gerda.

Then one day he falls off his sled and sees the Snow Queen. She kisses him with her cold lips on his forehead and she takes him away through a cloud of darkness up into the sky. When Kai doesn't come home, Gerda goes looking for him. She sings to the river and drifts in a boat down a river to find Kai.

Gerda is a contrast to Kai and is loving and kind. Only when a spell is broken is evil defeated. After the story a page of where the event takes place helps make the story more interesting. Finally, we can explore the real and imaginary world of The Snow Queen.

Even as an adult, I am fascinated by fairy tales. They appeal to the child in us all and to something deep inside of us that knows, good will triumph over evil, in the end.

Family Classic Audio Books is a series of outstanding "theater of the mind" audiobook productions featuring a full cast performance. One of their latest offerings for young listeners (and their families) are Hans Christian Andersen's classic fairytale The Snow Queen adapted and with lyrics by Adrian Mitchell set to music by Richard Peaslee and wonderfully narrated by Jonathan Pryce. The Snow Queen follows young Gerda's quest (with help from some magical characters she meets en route) to rescue her friend Kai from the icy clutches of the Snow Queen.

The messages relating to lifes journey are wonderful. If you have never read this book as a child or as an adult, it is a must!

I couldn't stop reading this book. I was crying. I wanted to shout, to yell, to kick, to k.... I couldn't avoid the thought that if I was put in this hell, probably I wouldn't survive it.

Born in Israel, I've learned a lot about the Holocaust but never before I felt the horror so strong. For example, Noami's description of the Nazis humiliating her grandparents shocked me stronger than all the many times I watched pictures of the Nazis cutting a Rabbi's sidecurls (PEYOT) hair and beard.

The part telling how in the US every one refused to hear Noami's story made it even more terrible and hard to comprehand.

I wanted to thank you Noami for telling your story which I promise to tell to my children.

This is one of the best books I have ever read - period. The author is a remarkable writer, and I can't understand why this book isn't number one on the best-seller list. It should be; it is truly that good. I felt like I was there. I got the book from the library, but I'm going to buy one for each of my adult children to read. No book or movie about the holocaust has touched me as much as this one, and I want the author, Naomi Samson, to know that this Irish Catholic and his family will never forget - because of her book. We will never forget.

This is an emotional, engaging account of a girl's survival of the Holocaust. I started reading this book and could not put it down until I had finished reading it. It is as good if not better than any other personal account of Holocaust survival, including Night by Elie Wiesel. I can not say enough good things about this book. Read it. If you are open to its messages, it will change you.

There isn't anything else on the market like this book. This is the book Naomi Drew was born to write, and she pours her whole life experience into it as a mother, a teacher, and an expert on conflict resolution. What Naomi has done is written a book that tells parents how to keep peace at home, step by easy step, while also raising compassionate kids to help make peace possible in the world at large. That's an amazing combination, and Naomi pulls it off. Readers will learn exercises to calm sibling battles, as well as how to teach kids to become peacemakers at school and work through organizations to foster global peace.

As a mother of young children, I have been working to create peace within my family (and myself) for many years, and your book truly inspired me to take the next step: to expand from peace in my family, to working actively to make peace in the world. You remind us that the personal is global, to be the change you want to see in others, and most of all, that one person who cares really can make a difference--not only as a parent, but also as a human being in the world, the world which we are creating for our children's future. Thank you, Naomi Drew.

Highly Recommended! I don't think there's a more timely book out there.
Filled with concrete information, practical suggestions, and timely advice
for anyone who cares about creating more peaceful homes and a more peaceful
world.

Sarah Cortez is a poet, teacher, and cop in Houston, Texas. Her work is tough, sensual, and very sexual. Her job as a cop and her Latina heritage flavor her poems. This is a beautiful piece of work from a poet who has a lot of potential to be great. She has the flavor of those 'bad girl' poets (like Kim Addonizio, Dorianne Laux, and their matriarch-Edna St. Vincent Millay). This is a strong collection, and I recommend it wholeheartedly.

whoa...this book is soooo hot, it could scorch your fingers....not many poets can mix erotica with police work and pull it off without making it seem schlocky...in fact, i don't think i've ever read a book like this...rather than cloud her poems with ambiguities, she tell you straight up about what it's like being a cop, a woman, and a mexican american in america, sometimes, all three at the same time...she can make a poem about wearing a bulletproof vest interesting...what i love ( and i mean love ! ) about these poems,is she shows you her world without the taint of political correctness, which i think is the worst thing that has ever happened to art, because it has kept people from saying what they really mean...you see her frustrations as a cop,when she realizes she can't win every battle; the men she works with as she tries to gain their respect...her own struggles in her personal life as she loves men of brown and white shade and possible not a man at all? after reading this book. i respect her for the job she does, and for showing her sensuality unabashed on verse...

This work is a lifting of the curtain into the world of cops, for without officers of the law our civility in a society that teeters on the fence of good and evil would certainly deteriorate. Poet Cortez brings the dilemmas of the police to the forefront showing poetically the stresses endured by the men and women who devote their lives for mankind. She peers deep into the psyche of cops and through her artistic genius shares their emotions with the rest of us. As you absorb the verses look beyond the written word and feel the current of these eye-opening poems. Thank you Sarah Cortez for sharing them with us.

I started reading this book last night after putting the kids down, intending to read a chapter to wind down. At 1:30 am, I was closing the book, wishing there were more to read. This is the absolute best book I have read in quite some time that reaches to the core of who we are as family, and what we could do to strengthen it. What I especially liked was the fact it wasn't preachy, textbook dull or the type that would make you feel like a terrible mother if there were ways you could improve. It was learning by example of her life, how she was raised, mistakes made, losses, successes, and at the chapter's end she would write one paragraph that would encourage the reader to implement one value or tradition to strengthen the family unit he/she was a part of. Excellent book--I'm buying copies for my mother, mother-in-law and sisters!

I heard Naomi speak at a conference on parenting and families recently. I was moved to tears when she spoke about the love she has for her 100 year old mother and cried again when I read her words in print. Naomi helps us understand that it is our responsibility to "teach" our children and others how to be good parents because if we don't,how else will they know? I admire this women and loved the book.

Naomi Haines Griffith writes a powerful recollection of her childhood memories. After hearing her speak, reading the book I felt as if she was talking to me. I could feel her emotion in each part and experience she shared. Red Clay and Vinegar is a good read that you can learn the small lessons in life from, and share them with your family, friends and neighbors.

This book addresses so many of the issues faced by teens in the modern world - family fragmentation, multi-cultural relationships and faltering self esteem. Through the main character, Naomi, the reader sees how it is possible to overcome these obstacles and to forge on optimistically and confidently. It is a story that, despite being fiction, will strike a chord with teenagers and their parents the world over. It also gives an interesting insight into life for an expatriate in Japan.

I think this is one of the best stories I have read in a long time. I like the story of Naomi because I have also had to move to Hong Kong from the United States. Like Naomi, I didn't want to at first, but now I really like living in Asia, and learning all about a different culture. Any person who has to move, especially to a faraway place, will enjoy this book.

when I read this book i was on my way to moving to the middle east from Canada. I could totally relate to everything Naomi was feeling and when I saw that she could adjust it made me feel like I could adjust too! And I have. This book helped me more than you can possibly know and I am very happy to have it. I reccommend this to everyone!

I'm not a big poetry buff but Qabbani just grabbed me. He's an amazing poet who spills his heart throughout this book.

So powerful, so sensual, so incredible. His poetry is earth shaking and primal.

Don't let the fact that his words have been translated from their original Arabic dissuade you from believing that somehow the work isn't as honest as it should be. Qabbani's work is so powerful it hardly matter shwat language it is in. In short, easily read dollops of wit measured out with a voice of quiet urging, he has given us work that transcends time and politics, while being above-it-all.

"If you know a man
who loves you more than I
guide me to him
so I may first congratulate
hom on his constancy
and later, kill him."

If poetry ever had a Luther Vandross, it was Pablo Neruda. If it ever had a Barry White, it was Qabbani.