Joan Murray deconstructs the boundary between poetry and science, biography, tourism, history, womens' studies. I am a college instructor and plan on using Murray's book of poems in an essay-writing course next year. She has written a stunning, subtle, believable book and has created a new genre.

i read murray's poetic and lively journey of annie taylor in one sitting. it was breathtaking, honest and all too real. Taylor was centuries ahead of her time. Her major flaw was that she believed that her feat would transcend gender. Murray's book should be taught in every grammar school so that children of all genders can exerience the world of realizing one's imaginative and so daringly creative forces. RUN OUT AND GET THIS BOOK! I GUARANTEE YOU WILL NOT BE ABLE TO PUT IT DOWN UNTIL THE LAST GASPING PAGE!

With passion and compassion, Joan Murray gives Annie Taylor a voice and makes her a heroine, a woman of courage, who did what she had to do to survive. My colleague Jack and I both read this book about the first person to go over Niagara Falls in a barrel, and we each read it in a single sitting--very unusual for a book of poetry. But this is an unusually compelling book. Highly recommended.

Gottman, the leading researcher in the area of marriage and other intimate relationships, provides in this latest book a simple, yet very effective 5-step-model of enhancing and deepening your personal relationships.
This program builds upon the results of several longitudinal studies. This means, the advice offered is based not on personal opinion (like so many other authors do), but on solid research findings. Gottman starts by introducing the basic element of human relationships, the bid. A bid is any single expression that says "I want to feel connected to you". Failed bid processes are the root cause of many problems in human relationships.
The 5 step Gottman offers are:
1) Look at your bids for connection: here the reader learns to distinguish among turning-towards, turning-away and turning-against responses and their effects
2) Discover your brain's emotional commmand system: this chapter is especially illuminating because it deals with 7 emotional systems with their distinct linkages to behaviors and feelings. It demonstrates how these systems can cause problems in bidding processes
3) Examine your emotional heritage: in my opinion, this is the best part of the book. Several exercises reveal your family's way of dealing with emotions such as pride, anger, fear, and accomplishments. You beome aware of your personal way of relating to others and how they relate to your earlier experiences. Another part is devoted to your enduring emotional vulnerabilities.
4) Sharpen your emotional skills: various exercises are aimed at improving your emotional intelligence.
5) Create shared meaning: another very important part, not only for marriages. It encourages the reader to explore his and the other's personal dreams and visions. It also urges to create a deeper level of connecting by the use of rituals.

By and large, this book is an excellent example of science applied to real life. Everyone interested in improving his personal relationships should read this book!

This is another outstanding book by Dr. Gottman and his research team. Instead of an author giving his own personal opinions of what he thinks make good marriages, Dr. Gottman actually observes hundreds and finds what they have in common. Two major bits he observed in happy couples were paying attention to each other and elements of romance. From all the very happy couples I know, I would agree.

I'd recommend looking at The Romantic's Guide for ideas on easy ways to keep being romantic.

I feel privileged to pick this book to mark my 100th review for Amazon.com. I've been recommending to numerous groups Gottman and co-authors' books, esp. the less technical ones: The Heart of Parenting (which is in Chinese also), Why Marriages Succeed or Fail and The Seven Principles for Making Marriage Work.

With almost 3 decades of research of actual interactions, Gottman and teams' books are always filled with vivid and enlightening examples. The touching personal stories, elucidating questionnaires, exercises and long lists of "what to do" are all helpful and practical. They hold up multi-dimensioanl mirrors to explorations. Without having to do any formal meditation, you can grow in awareness and mindfulness.

Given the plethora of popularization, it might sound trite to relate this book to E.Q. (Emotional Intelligence). But it IS one of the best books for developing mindful emotional connections. That's why I need to qualify it with "authentic E.Q.". Please note in particular "Emotional Intelligence Versus Detachment and Denial" (pp. 158-160).

Please read the informative Book Description and the review by Mitchell (one of my "favorite people"). In Step One, breaking down communication to the basic unit of exchange, "bidding", and responding (turning toward, away or against), helps one to learn HOW to behave differently instead of remaining at lofty levels of unfruitful talk about love and consideration... (This reminds one of Eric Berne's "stroking" in Transactional Analysis, most popular in the 60s & '70s. "Stroking" however, connotes more manipulation.)

The authors have done a good service to make Jaak Panksepp's pioneering studies in Affective Neuroscience accessible to readers in Step Two: Discover Your Brain's Emotional Command Systems. (It would be interesting to see if there are any correlations with the Enneagram systems, which study nine-types of personality.)

Step Three: Examine Emotional Heritage, gives a good illustration of the value of the "emotion-coaching philosophy". The other books that I've mentioned give many more examples.

Step Four: Sharpen Your Emotional Communication Skills, gives interesting coverage to sharpen sensory acuity and listening skills (much stressed in NLP, Neuro-linguistic Programming). [I personally tend to differ from the author's sweeping dismissal of "the pseudoscience of physiognomy", p. 178. I still see some value of a more scientific approach in verifying the significance of permanent features and also fleeting changes in physiognomy. Cf. My several reviews of "face-reading".]

Step Five: Find Shared Meaning, brings us beyond behaviorism and studies truly human interactions and rituals.

Detailed applications of these 5 steps are given to different relationships: marital, parental, friendship, sibling, coworker. The book is ideal for personal and shared reflections, retreats, marriage encounters and workshops. I have already been actively promoting it and sincerely hope that it will reach the best-seller list. Gottman and team well-deserve the reputation and publicity they receive. Readers will not be disappointed. Relationships not needing cure will also be much enriched. [From a Christian viewpoint, it is in relationships that we can reflect the communion and unity in diversity of the Trinity, that we continue to become the image of God, and embody the presence of Christ today. Salvador Dali's Last Supper depicted a Risen Christ without any face. It is the quality of our relationships that will show forth the face of God.]

I have used this recipe book practically every day for the past 4 months. There is not one recipe that was a disappointment. Most were fantastic. They salsas are out of this world! Best of all I have lost 12 pounds!! Every day my husband says "This is the best dinner I have ever had." I just ordered two more books for my daughter and daughter-in-law.

This has become our favorite cookbook. I like spicey food, but not overly hot spicey food, and these receipes are perfect. Our favs: Lime-Curry Chicken Breast (pg 228), Spicy Mango Salsa (pg 173 - with any grilled fish or chicken), Avocado & Jicama Salsa (pg 197 - again with any grilled fish or chicken).

The recipes are varied and quite ecclectic, but remain easy to prepare. The instructions are detailed and most of the ingredients are readily available. This is definately the cookbook I use the most!

Born and raised in Salem, Mass. I could certainly relate to all the landmarks, etc. mentioned in the book. The story of Martha Brailsford is indeed a tragic one. I thought the author did a superb job of telling the story with compassion and straight-forward information.
I literally couldn't put the book down from the first page and even a day later, Martha lingers in my mind.
The story was written with a good pace and left this reader looking to purchase another of Margaret Press's books.

Excellent read about this chilling case. This book was originally released as "Counterpoint: A Murder In Massachusetts Bay".

Press did a thorough job in this true tale of a man who could not take no for an answer. Her character build of Tom Maimoni, a slipshod liar, NASA imposter, fake collegiate alumnus and all around creepy guy kept me riveted to the end. The strange death of local Martha Brailsford sent the small, close knit sailing/witching community of Salem Mass into a tailspin. The tailspin turned hurricane when numbers of women came forward after her death to report they had been pawed and humiliated by Maimoni. Good research, nicely done reconstruction and time line and tightly packaged facts which read like a novel. Margaret, what is your next crime?

Being the parent of a child with PDD, I have been procuring a lot of books and materials on autism. Many of them turned out to be highly specialized and some downright negative. This book turned out to be one of the best buys which gives practical solutions to all sorts of problems faced by an autistic parent and the solutions are suggested by a child who was autistic. Also, the book is highly positive, as the child it seems, has now been fully mainstreamed and therefore this is another success story like that of Catherine Maurice which gives us parents a lot to learn and practise.
PS. The books was bought in the US and sent to me by a friend.

A lot of adults have written about their experiences with autism, but very few children have enough language to do so. This book shows you that even kids have insights into themselves.

I wish every parent of an autistic (or AS or PDD or SID or ADHD) child would read this book. I find myself constantly trying to explain to people how/why my son behaves the way he does. I've understood to some degree right from the beginning (having shadow AS dx myself), but this just brings it all into unbelievable focus. Especially for all those parents who pointlessly physically punish their children for behaviors that are neurologically-based, not attitude-based, this book is/would be a real eye-opener.

This is a great book with some wonderful stories that should capture the heart of any success minded person.

I interviewed Joan Clout-Kruse on "The Inside Success Show" and discovered how success in Silicon valley is the same as it is everywhere. She shared lots of great stories that you'll love.

Here's some of what you'll learn from the book:
** Why you should learn how to believe in yourself
** What you can do right now to embrace change
** How you can 'catch' enthusiasm
** Why you simply must follow the all-important rule of life
** How you can keep failure in perspective
** And much, much more ..

Randy (Dr. Proactive) Gilbert
Author of "Success Bound" and editor of "Proactive Success" ezine

I found this book very refreshing. It is simple enough that it can sink in deeply and easily. The 10 traits are a great help to encourage and motivate. This book reminds of some of our other best simple classics.

Written by an expert on corporate management and self-actualization, Top 10 Traits Of Silicon Valley Dynamos by Joan Clout-Kruse is a collection of turbo-charged stories about the Silicon Valley entrepreneurs and professionals who survived the cutthroat corporate world and achieved a dream to be rightfully proud of. Filled with activities to improve oneself and build confidence, Top 10 Traits Of Silicon Valley Dynamos is an insightful, useful, business "self-help" book, as well as an engaging journal of entrepreneurial success. An energetic and inspiring business book for the Fast World of the twenty-first century!

I have purchased this book hoping to find something innovative, something very cool - and under the cover of so much advertisment I found a simple, but not bad, SAT preparation book. It has all the elements to prepare for the real thing except for the practice tests and the so-called "SAT words" - both of them are low in quantity. Perchaps it's a suggestion for the authors. Overall, I think I wouldn't have bought it if I had seen the Barron's title earlier.

PS: The "word teams" is just great - explore it more and this might be your key to success!

This is the best SAT book I've used - it really helped me improve my score. I thought it was well-written, and the practice tests were really useful. I would recommend it over any of the others out there.

This is the best SAT prep book out there. This has great pointers for avoiding common mistakes, a comprehensive vocabulary building section, an easy-to-understand math review, and even gives you prep talks along the way to keep you calm but psyched and ready to ace the test. This was great, I recommend it to anyone hoping for high scores on the SATs.

When the six Kelly children are split up Danny then sees a fake doctor he heard about in New York while at a medicine show out West. When he reveals the phony doctor's secret to everyone there, the doctor decides to hunt Danny down. It is a race to catch each other first before the other one catches you. A dramatic, heart-warming story filled with love, joy, and the importance of family.

This is a great book. I wouldn't recommend reading this book before: A Family Apart, Caught in the Act, and In the Face of Danger. It is the last book a Quartet about the Kelly children. Unless you don't want to read the first three I suggest you read A Place to Belong last.

It was souch a great book I finished it in one night! Although it was sad, It was very interesting. You really got to know the characters. I hade to get the three other books as soon as I could! One night I stayed up till one in the morning to finish one of the books!

In "Rough Medicine," Joan Druett continues the excellence of such previous works as "Hen Frigates" and "She Captains" in bringing to her audience everday life upon the sea when ships under sail roamed the oceans. Where these other books focus on women who found themselves on long voyages, usually with their husbands who captained the ships, this new volume of easy to read history looks at life on the whaling ships of the early 1800s. These ships left port in search of whales and did not return until the holds were full of their valuable oil. If the captain and crew were lucky, it only took a year or two. To be gone four years or even five was not out of the question. Ms. Druett tells this story through the surviving diaries and journals of surgeons who accompanied the crews on these long and hazardous voyages. Along with extraordinary eye-witness accounts of whaling methods, the reader is shown that to be put under the knife in those days of rough medical techniques was scarcely less dangerous than battling whales in tiny boats. A main requirement to be a surgeon, it seems, was to be strong enough to hold down the unwilling patient. Reading "Rough Medicine" will leave you thankful to be living in our modern age, while at the same time make you wonder how archaic our methods of medicince will seem a hundred years from now. In the meantime, sit back with this good read of a life at sea, as so many of us have often wished to experience. And be glad you have all your arms and legs, and that no well-intentioned sea surgeon has hacked them off. -Doug Kelley

A thoroughly engaging presentation of nautical history on the lives and times of the early ship's surgeons on British and American naval and whaling vessels. The drawings of the early surgeon's tools, the descriptions of the surgical procedures and the stories of illness and injury makes one wonder why did anyone sign on as a ship's surgeon? Very informative and highly recommended.

My angle on this book is from an avid adventure & exploration reader's perspective. I enjoy reading the exploits of Franklin, Shackleton, Cooke, and such sea borne explorers.

One of the constants of all of the fantastic voyages of exploration is the inclusion of a physician / scientist. Almost in cliche style these doctors play a major role in the direction and guidance of the expedition. (If you will pardon the comparison, most ships doctors seem just like Bones on Star Trek.)

This book gathers together the biographies, anecdotes and histories of many of these physicians into a conherent historical theme.

Great book!! (Very readable and accessible.)

After a slow, simple start, this book really draws the reader in! Try not to be confused by all the characters in the beginning, there are really just 4 and they become very well developed. The story almost reminded me of Forest Gump, with the main character's (Gummie) nostalgic memories of her life. It was a great book that made me laugh, cry and really wish it could keep going. We read it for bookclub, and we all enjoyed it. It leaves the reader with a warm feeling, one of those books you want to share with a friend, and then talk about. There's alot for bookclub discussion, don't limit yourself to the reader's guide at the end of the book. Enjoy!

The stories of four unique and vibrant Minnesota mothers and daughters are told from the viewpoint of the great-grandaughter - and what a mix of gutsy women these are! Facing issues from suffrage to socialism to what constitutes a family, they involve the reader in twentieth century history as activists and role models. Most moving was the account of the family's participation in the 1995 march from Selma to Montgomery. The author mixes politics, morality, the value of work, complex relationships, the disappointments of life, and lots and lots of love into an engrossing novel. The characters carry some mystery about them, but what you'll remember is each woman's courageous individuality.

I love this book! The characters are rich and the story is full and very well written. Looking forward to a sequel so we can see what happens to Maddie ....