Sheltered by the walls of academia, I had forgotten that the writing process itself is a mantra of social change, that our awakenings lead to a more united world. Reading the poignant and inspirational stories submitted to Chicken Soup for the Volunteer's Soul reminded me of the many people who give selflessly of themselves, who teach us that heroes are everywhere we cast our eyes.

Janet I. Buck, Ph.D.

Have you ever read a book that actually inspired you to contribute to the world..........to make a change? This book will do that. The authors have put together a tool for transformation..........helping others brings more love to everyone.

Think of your image of "volunteer." Now disregard it and check out "Chicken Soup for the Volunteer's Soul." Volunteer authors describe their experiences volunteering, and the variety and creativity of their work is truly amazing and inspiring. I loved the variety of volunteer stories in this book. It made me realize that if I don't have a lot of time or there's no big disaster around at the moment, there are zillions of ways that I can contribute to my community and the world, so I'm dumping my guilt and getting creative. . . . A big thank you to this great crew of authors and editors!!

How Houghton-Mifflin let this book go out of print is beyond me. It should've been packaged with a pair of Depends & instructions to put them on before opening--it's that big a threat to sphincter control in the scienceminded. I think the copyright information is straight, but flatly doubt there is another serious word (or picture) in the damn thing. The Geologic Ages table is worth the price--as is the table of "currently understood properties of the quack"--as is the periodic table---as is The Electromagnetic Spectrum--as is... Hell, the cover drawing of T. Rex getting beaned by an asteroid is worth the price!

In SCIENCE MADE STUPID: HOW TO DISCOMPREHEND THE WORLD AROUND US Weller pokes fun at time-honored scientific standards including names of geologic ages, the periodic table, the scientific method, continental drift, and evolution.

It's doubly fun if you happen to be a scientist yourself!

Give it a look!

It is a tragedy that this is out of print. It's one of the funniest books I've ever read. Anyone with any knowledge of science whatsoever finds it hilarious, and I show it to anyone and everyone who I think can appreciate it. No-one's ever been disappointed. Three thumbs up!

Unless a person has been isolated in Siberia I think everyone has heard of the Mel Brooks hit musical "The Producers". Written by Brooks and Thomas Meehan it is probably the biggest hit on Broadway in the past 50 years. Tickets are unavailable until July 2002 and "prime" seats are fetching $480. Is the show worth it? You bet and so is the book. And it is only ...
The book is a wonderful coffee table volume full of wonderful photographs from the production, rehearsal, casting and out of town tryout. There are stories from the stellar cast such as Nathan Lane, Matthew Broderick, Roger Bart, Gary Beach, Brad Oscar and Cady Huffman. Madeleine Doherty relates her hilarious audition as a little "old lady" and Brad Oscar's rise from a swing/understudy to the permanent part of Franz Liebking when another actor was injured.
All of the lyrics and most of the book are included Act by Act. The lyrics for some of the songs that were deleted are hilarious. With Mel Brooks heavily involved in the book, we get to know how this valentine to Broadway was created and how the original 1968 film came to be.
Miramax Books is to be given a standing ovation for the gorgeous design on this publication.
If you have seen "The Producers" in New York as I did one month ago, this book is a wonderful souvenir and a necessary addition to your bookshelf. If you haven't seen it yet, it is still a wonderfully enjoyable volume. Anyone interested in Broadway or musical theatre will pore over the pages for hours.
I highly recommend it and it would make a great gift.

Caution: This book contains vulgar three and four letter words in the libretto and lyrics of The Producers. The intent behind the use of these words is humor, rather than prurience.

The Producers is by far the best book I have ever read about the development and staging of a Broadway show. Anyone who likes Broadway, comedy, or Mr. Mel Books will find this book to be irresistible! For those who cannot get tickets to The Producers (or have tickets for 2003), this book is your best bet to enjoy this marvelous musical in the near future. I strongly recommend this book as a gift item for those who don't mind some salty language and references.

This book contains reminiscences of the show's development from the first contact by Mr. David Geffen to Mr. Mel Brooks to encourage Mr. Brooks to create a Broadway musical version of the 1968 motion picture of The Producers by Mr. Brooks. Each personal statement is accompanied by beautiful, lighthearted candid photographs of the people involved. One of the most touching sections involves how Ms. Susan Stroman was chosen to direct and choreograph the show after her talented husband and artistic partner, Mike Ockrent died, and Ms. Stroman was still in mourning. The stories about the first reading for producers will leave you with a tingle of excitement. After the first act was read, Mr. Rocco Landesman offered the St. James Theatre. Fourteen producers present eventually invested in the show, after Mr. Geffen had to bail out due to other commitments. The accounts are full of one-liners to keep you laughing as you learn. For example, turning a movie with two songs into a musical with 16 more is described as being "not unlike trying to translate it from English into Serbo-Croatian."

Although the feedback was good all along, everyone kept waiting for something to go wrong. But it never did. The most negative thing anyone said about the show was Mr. Brooks. "It's not funnier than Blazing Saddles." When the New York Times Review came in, it was an amazing rave that began with "How do you single out highlights in a bonfire?" You then get some background on sets, costumes, and winning 12 Tony awards.

From there, the book presents the libretto of the show and the lyrics of the songs. The only thing that's missing is the musical score. But you can sing to yourself, and enjoy the many wonderful photographs of the 22 person cast (featuring Nathan Lane as Max Bialystock and Matthew Broderick as Leo Bloom -- with full allusions to Ulysses intended). This is an annotated version, so it includes notes about what the draft versions had called for and the reasons why certain changes were made. Having seen the changes, I must agree that the decisions were unerringly improvements. Some of the false starts are pretty funny, too, such as the planned beginning with a "Hey, Nebraska" spoof of a well-known Broadway musical.

If you are one of the few people who doesn't know the story line, let me give you a brief summary without spoiling it for you. Max has just had a flop ("Funny Boy" based on Hamlet). Accountant Leo notices that Max made a small profit and speculates that a lot of money could be made by over raising money for a flop on which little was spent. Max falls in love with the idea, and draws Leo into a plot to do this. They find a story called "Springtime for Hitler" which they feel will offend practically everybody, and hire a director to make an outrageous version. Max raises the money by romancing elderly female investors. The rest of the story takes a number of unexpected twists that will delight and entertain you. One of my favorite lines from the show comes in Act 1, Scene 1 when Max comments that "the reviews come out a lot faster when the critics leave at intermission."

The appeal of the story is that it ultimately upholds positive values while poking good-natured fun at everyone involved in the Broadway community. Since no one is spared by the satirical spear, no one can be terribly offended. There's a lot of cross-dressing to spread out the small cast that gives the show some of the sophomoric appeal of a Hasty Pudding theatrical, which is well captured in the photographs.

Creativity experts say that you can find improved solutions by trying to do the opposite of what you've been trying to do. So the notion of trying to make something bad . . . to find something good . . . is a well established one. Turning something from one form into another one is also advised. So you can learn new ways to solve old problems, even from Broadway musicals!

As I've written elsewhere, if you can't get a ticket to this, the greatest Broadway show of all time, here's what you should do, courtesy of Amazon.com.

1. BUY THIS BOOK. It contains all of the lyrics, super pictures, and more important, not only the entire script, but the entire chronology, from its inception as a movie to creating the stage story to slapping together the first few songs to nervously hosting the first previews in Chicago to its blockbuster grand opening at the St. James Theater in New York! It doesn't get more comprehensive than this!

2. BUY THE ORIGINAL CAST ALBUM ON CD. This contains every song, from start to finish, sung by the award winning cast. The lyrics are here too.

3. BUY THE DVD/VIDEO, "Recording The 'Producers' - A Musical Romp with Mel Brooks." This is the closest you can get to seeing the musical, albeit not on stage. And don't be fooled by the liner notes. This isn't ONLY the 85 minute version that aired on PBS, it has extra footage that clocks the package at around 1 hour and 40 minutes!

I saw the show in October and I'm going back to New York to see it again in March. I've NEVER been this INSANE about any entertainment product (books, films, music, staged theater) in my LIFE.

With all three items -- the book, the CD and the DVD/video -- you get a pretty good idea of what makes "The Producers," with its spectacular mix of merriment and mirth, mayhem and satire, so great! It deserves all of its hype. You can't oversell it!

Every song is a show-stopper, a throwback to the riffs that feel like a "best hits" package from the greatest musicals ever made. A little bit of Cole Porter, Gershwin, vaudeville and classic dance melodies reminiscent of Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly (e.g., "Gotta Sing-Sing!" -- as in prison!), with lyrics that are so happily vulgar and irreverent that you're lucky you're not more doubled-over in pain from laughing so hard if you could only see the girls wearing pretzels on their heads and others doing the swastika "circle" march (visible via a tilted mirror toward the audience), done in Busby Berkeley style! Heck, there's even a bit of an homage to the Andrew Sisters (e.g., "He's a Hot-sie-tot-sie Nazi! Woo-woo, he's a hot-sie-tot-sie Nazi! Woo-woo! The Fuhrer...is in a FUROR!")...

Sadly, this original cast won't be together much longer, but the traveling show officially begins next year (it'll be in San Diego from December 2002 to January 2003)! So the wait won't be as long as we thought!

To recap -- get the CD, the DVD/Video and THIS BOOK! Then you'll save some big-time $$$ until the show arrives in your backyard! Whatta deal!

Clegg and Bird make a strong case in this Vanguard book that America has become a mission field. The mind boggling statistics and compelling stories in the book back this claim up. This is not just a theoretical attempt to address the issue, as the authors site churches and people who are engaging pre-Christian people in our post-modern culture with the Gospel.

I found the reality of what the authors are saying to be disturbing. Truly we can't continue doing church or outreach as we have for the past half century or even decade and expect good or different results. Rather than tear the church down, I felt Clegg and Bird were acting as consultants to guide the church through these changing times.

The authors challenge readers to move from program evangelism to relational evangelism, which is the New Testament pattern. They cite examples from their own lives of engaging pre-Christians with the Gospel through relational evangelism. So they are practicing what they are preaching, which is refreshing.

The book is chock full of interesting graphs and relevant statistics. It is plain to see that the church is losing ground in America, with the conversion rate not even keeping up with the birth rate. This book, calls the church to wake up and change!

If you are a church leader wanting to engage people liveing in post-modern culture with the Gospel in a relevant manner and see healthy reproducing churches established as a result, then this book is a must read. I think Clegg and Bird displayed much courage to write a book like this. Certainly not everyone will agree with them, but then again those are probably the people who are resistant to change and want us to go back to doing church like we did in 1970!

Clegg and Bird inspire and equip the reader to care and act as freedom fighters in the battle for the lost. After an introduction that accurately portrays the state of America's relationship (or lack thereof) with Christ they place the responsiblity for the situation on the church instead of the culture. And they show how to present Christ in relevant and attractive ways to a community that thinks it understands what God is all about. I've used this book as the basis for a Bible study that has seen results in increasing our church's level of commitment to an outward focus. It's must reading.

In a country where "In God We Trust" is printed on the currency and where in any given city you can drive by several Christian church buildings within a few minutes, it seems almost absurd to suggest that the U.S.A. is a mission field. But that is exactly what Clegg and Bird not only suggest but effectively prove.

After effectively presenting their case that the U.S. is indeed a mission field, they enthusiastically challenge the Christian reader to prayerfully and thoughtfully engage the unbelieving community around them. They do this by telling compelling personal stories as well as pointing to examples of other churches and individuals who have made a mark in their communities through thoughtful relational evangelism.

The authors have done an excellent job of viewing evangelism in America as a cross-cultural experience. It is clear that they have become effective practitioners of what they are suggesting we do. Yet they do not come across as having arrived. One senses that they are very hungry to continue learning new ways to reach their own neighbors with the love of Christ.

For many readers who are bound in a tradition of expecting quick results from confrontational evangelistic methods, this book may come across as compromising or weak. But the wise reader will understand that we are living in a different age that will require seeing evangelism more as a process more than an event.

As the founding pastor of a brand new church, this book reinforced many of my convictions about what it will take to penetrate an increasingly secularized America. It also refreshed my hope that my community is reachable.

I heartily recommend this book to pastors, church leaders, and Christians who are serious about doing "whatever it takes" to break through with God's love.

Great book of pictures of Mirage, Visions, 5th Edition, Weatherlight & Portal. Helps alot with viewing the cards for collecting.

If you are currently collecting or playing Magic cards, I suggest buying this book if you dont have it NOW! It is filled w/ information, fully illustrated cards, interesting facts, playing tips, etc. Also, buy the Magic Encyclopedia Volume 1.

Richard Garfield is the creator of Magic The Gathering card game. This book gives the reader an in-depth look into the game and shows the beautiful illustration that each card contains. This is a must have for all players and collectors of the card game.

Word Building was introduced to me about three years ago. I have been teaching for two years now and have used word building as a part of my reading program. I am pleased with the progress that my 2-3 graders make with this program. They understand how spelling and reading are related. Also it teaches them that two or three letters when put together make one sound. I purchased this book in September. I have been very happy with it. If you are unfamiliar with this method, this book is all you need. At the start of the book it shows you step by step how to set up word building in your classroom. Pictures are included. You will find over 150 word building lessons. Letter tiles for you to copy, cut, and laminate are included. I now feel that word building should be a part of every k-3 reading program.

"Making Words" is a super and exciting way to teach students spelling and phonics. I am a special education teacher. This was finally a way that my students enjoyed learning to read and spell.

This book provides hundreds of fun, hands-on activities for teaching children phonics and spelling. I've used the book for several years, taught other teachers and interns the program, and I have not had a negative reaction by any student, parent or administrator. It is an excellent method for teaching learning disabled students at the elementary level. Children really learn phoneme segmentation, an essential reading skill, through this process. They especially love the culminating activity, finding the "Big Word."

Having never read anything about Shamanism before, and being rather intimidated by the subject, this book was a great way to gently learn about Shamanism. With this book as my guide, it felt safe to explore journeying, and this has become a great gift in my life! The idea of shamanic practice seems possible for everyone through this book. I have learned a lot from it and would recommend it to anyone who wants to understand shamanic practices as well as experiment a little with them. This book shows you how.

This is in my "top ten" list of favorite books, and I refer to it often. As a Westerner trying to learn about shamanism and how I might apply shamanic principles and practices in my life, I found this to be THE book. It's a perfect place to begin. Cowan provides the essentials of core shamanic practice without bewildering the reader with the incredible diversity that more scholarly and anthropologically oriented books do. After reading it, I was able to bring together the gleanings of thirty years of spiritual seeking into a simple, coherent framework that has allowed me to connect with others in ways I never imagined were possible. It has definitely been a factor in deepening my ability to help others through my ministry.

The Cowans have done it again.

If you are looking for a practical, beautiful, meaningful handbook for core shamanism ... look no further.

This book is packed full of exercises, ideas, journeys, interpretations and core shamanic values. I have been studying shamanism, and this is the most useful introductory text I have come across. It will give you the principles you need in order to build your own shamanic practice, without forcing you down the path of a certain cultural shamanic tradition.

As Cowan says: not all of us are cut out to be actual Shamans, but anyone can be a shamanic practitioner.

I highly recommend this book, whether you are already a practitioner, or are interested in learning more. This is not a book you will regret buying, no matter how advanced your practice becomes over time.

I stumbled upon this book in the library recently, and have since told all my friends they must read it!! I think the fact that it was written by a man made it even more special. It always surprises me when men show their feelings so openly and with total abandonment, eg: Nicholas Sparks, James Michael Pratt, to name a few... The love and devotion that these two Princeton professors had for these dogs was so intense. Their dedication to the animals was astounding and therefore reciprocated in great abundance. Anyone who owns a dog, has ever owned a dog, or needs to be convinced of the immeasurable experience of owning a dog, needs to read this book. It touched me more than any story of animal/person unconditional love and devotion that I have ever read. A must read!

Several years ago I discovered this gem in a bookstore at the St.Louis airport when a connecting flight was cancelled. I sat in the food court, crying, and finished the entire book. Since then I have given 6 copies to dog loving friends for special occasions. This is a book to cherish, but it is not just about dogs. It's a wonderful account of the relationship of the two men who rescued the dogs, and to all who were involved in their extremely long and happy lives. The author is a philosopher, and the book is extremely well written and erudite, a commentary on the values that make life worth living - love, devotion, trust - the karma is the same for humans and canines. I have shared my life with eight dachshunds, and I recently buried my beloved Dieter with George Pitcher's eulogy-poem. Thank you, George and Ed.

It's always so nice to find other people that see animals in the same heavenly light. If my husband asked me to make a choice between him and my beloved dog - I'd pick the dog. The reasoning would be, that if he couldn't understand my love and very primary NEED for animals; perhaps he never knew me at all. But you know what? My husband does "get it". His heartstrings have been pulled in the same way as mine. Pets never leave and seldom disappoint. When everything is topsy turvy in my world - precious Molly comes to the rescue. The best part of the book was for me when George decides to take the somewhat bedraggled mother, Lupa. He really IS an animal lover - a man with a soul. I'm the gal that always wants the orphans, the discarded, or the mutts. Great book. So glad this book was written.

This is a wonderful book for anyone who's ever dreamed of time travel. It also showes you a first-hand view of the Summer of Love. Mason does an excellent job of describing her characters and how they feel, even when under the influence. Her view of the future seems realistic enough, (Although we'll never know) and the way she twists the plot around Chiron, Starbright, Ruby, and the other characters is quite clever. All in all this is a book that I will read many times.

Summer of Love is an important American literary contribution that may very well have a strong and viable fan base. Where are you? Join us!

This novel is loads of fun to read. The majority of the characters are hippies from the 1960s who meet a stranger from the future who's looking to save his world. This fellow, Chiron, needs to find a troubled adolescent teen named Susan Stein (a.k.a. Starbright) for a very compelling reason. The book has a great deal to offer: swift action, lovable characters, spiritual insight, and well-chosen primary documents such as essays, poems, and news articles which round out the reader's understanding of the worldview of the novel.

I think Summer of Love has excellent potential for a wider audience. I hope it continues to enjoy a healthy amount of sales in the used books market on this site. I wish even more for it to be in wider circulation. Some books talk about the sixties. This novel IS the sixties, thanks to the spirit and scholarship of its author. And, as one reader aptly put it, "the sci-fi stuff is just plain off the hook." Get a copy. Most people who have read it seem to respect it and enjoy it every bit as much as I do.

The funky rainbow cover of this book was what caught my eye at first, then the title began to resonate in my hippie soul. Summer of Love is about a runaway girl who calls herself Starbright who goes to the Haight-Asbury district during the summer of 1967, looking for her friend Penny Lane. She meets a time traveler from five hundred years in the future, who is looking for her as the key to resolving a rift which has occured.
The vivid texturing of the historical situation at the time alone makes this book well worth the read. I also recommend the Golden Nineties as a sequel to this great book.

This was the first book by Tom Sharpe I've ever read. Blott OnThe Landscape is a wonderfully funny, campy book that is hilarious!The contrived situations... A hysterical plot for a hysterical book. Read this in the summer when you want to feel light and bubbly. Have plenty of Gin and Tonic on hand! END

This is the first Tom Sharpe I read, and it just seems so much better that the others...I first saw the t.v. series, and was even more impressed by the book. I loved eveything about it, the plot, the exagerrated characters, the way everything fits together at the end. I was a bit disturbed that I could laugh so much about a woman deliberately letting a lion eat her (thoroughly horrible and worthless) husband, but this is the mad world that Tom Sharpe takes you to. Ther way the betrayed wife should become best friend and ally with her husbands mistress is just hysterical! My other favourite character was the poor,bureacratically challenged head of the motorway planning authourity who had none! A great book to escape into.

Tom Sharpe, Christopher Brookmyre, P.J. O'Rourke, Stephen Fry, P.G.Wodehouse - they all fall into the category of authors who REALLY make me laugh. If you mix up Billy Connelly and John Cleese, you'll get the idea. In Blott on the Landscape (which was turned into a BBC television series), Sharpe's humour is as sharp as ever (pun intended) and his characterizations are an absolute scream. Of course, it helps if you appreciate British humour which, at times, can be quite black. (A woman getting a lion to eat her own husband?)

Tom Sharpe's 'Wilt' books were comical enough but, in Blott on the Landscape and Porterhouse Blue, he excels even his own high standards of comic writing.