Written by Barry Lane and enhanced with the artwork of Miles Bodimeade, The Tortoise And The Hare Continued... is a charming and very highly recommended children's color picturebook that extrapolates from Aesop's famous "slow and steady wins the race" parable. As we all know, the tortoise challenged the hare to a race, and the tortoise won because the hare was lazy... but what happened the next day? And the day after that? Continuing the story of tortoise and hare exploits, and introducing new morals along the way, The Tortoise And The Hare Continued... is a delightful story that's just a little closer to the real world than most, since it acknowledges that there is no such thing as a pat ending. The final moral: "Made up stories can improve real lives."

Great book that teaches you to see past the end of fables. The illustrations are a riot! Especially when the Tortoises hire gophers to help them win the next race. I can see how teachers could use this inventive book to inspire children to create and reshape their own fables. Moral: Buy it!

It's small but its got it all. Rather than turn out another normal size book on Route 66 the publishers had the great idea of making it pocket size, four by six inches, landscape and with FOUR-HUNDRED all-color pages. I predict that this will be the standard book for those who want to make the trip. Each of the eight states that 66 goes through has a chapter, they start with a simple map, comments about landscape and climate, then the text details what to look for along the way, with the help of historical and contemporary photos, a linear map with places and mileage goes across the top of all of these pages.

Between all the route pages are some lovely spreads of Route 66 Americana which repeat themselves throughout the book, Route Food (pages 174-175 has Red-Hot BBQ Beef Ribs) Transport (168-169 has a 1936 Harley-Davidson) Music of the Road (Woody Guthrie on 156-157) and Famous Sites (Wigwam Village, Holbrook, AZ, on 294-295). The books production is excellent, good choice of photos, well laid out pages (a tip of the hat to designer Phillip Clucas) with colourful graphics behind the text on most of them. The back has a book list, useful resources guide (including websites) and index.

I recently reviewed 'The Final Cut Route 66' by German photographer Gerd Kittel. Eighty-three wonderful photographs of what he saw along 66 and I think it is the perfect book to complement Nick Freeth's travelogue. Kittel has the knack of producing really good color in his photos. Both books do justice to a unique and fascinating bit of America.

Don't let the size of this book fool you. Approximately the height & width of a post card, it is packed with vibrant full color pictures and information. Archive photos, current conditions of Route 66 icons and roads, and text that is very well written. Even regional culinary receipes from the Mother Road! What more could you ask? An excellent book for both actual and arm chair Route 66 travelers.

My 10 yr. old son brought this book home from the library and loved it. The graphics are second to none and the labels and short captioned boxes of text encouraged him to read several excerpts. The broad range of equipment covered is intriguing even to an adult. It is educational for the young reader to identify vehicles they've read about in school but never visualized. This book will be under our Christmas tree AND under the tree of a nephew who loves figuring out how things work!

This book is a 1997 NCSS Notable

My first grade students love this book! It is equally valued by my gifted and also struggling students. The children use it in a story writing center to help when they need to spell a word, or get ideas. This book is arranged by themes rather than alphabetically, for example, there is a 2 page spread of food words. This helps the students who are not ready to look up words alphabetically. The pictures are bright and clear. The book is sturdy enough to survive being handled daily by several students. Easily 5 stars!!

I think this book is fantastic and should be kept by every parent with little children, even for my own child who is now only one and half year old. She loves this book at first sight. The pictures are bright and look real in the busy everyday environment. Everytime you read it, you discover some new things. The paper quality is good and it is not easy to be damaged by my baby. The problem now I have is I have to read with my baby every page every night before she agrees to go to sleep. She likes to point to every item in the page and ask me to tell her the names.

Within two short years Reverend Miles has given the Christian world two revolutionary books. He's taken his experience and expertise in domestic violence and abuse and opened Christian eyes to the dirty, hidden truth that's ignored by most Biblical believers. We're blind to the domestic terrorism that lives in every one of our churches ' even next door or in the parsonage. We choose not to see, either due to our theology, or due to our past, painful, private, and personal experience with the family violence we each try to forget.
There is an Evangelical theology of marriage that forgets the Scriptural teaching that each of us is responsible for our own sins. We can't blame another for violence by responding, 'If you had cooked a better meal I wouldn't have had to smash your face into the refrigerator.' No level of perfection on the part of the victim is sufficient to prevent the cyclical, but relentless onslaught of brutality. The issue is not about the victim's maturity. The core question is about the ongoing attempt by the abuser to establish complete and uncompromising power and control over his spouse and family.

Reverend Miles, in his first textbook, 'Domestic Violence; What Every Pastor Needs to Know (Augsburg Fortress, 2000),' demonstrates his grasp of the evil among us by introducing clergy to the horror which more than a fourth of church families experience behind closed doors. Subsequently, he broadens his audience by appealing to the Church in general by sharing this compassionate treatment of the subject in his follow-up study, 'Violence in Families; What Every Christian Needs to Know (Augsburg Fortress 2002).'

Fact ' Christians batter their spouses and children

Fact ' Most Biblical believers don't think Christians are capable of brutality

Fact ' Most clergy are in denial about abuse in their own congregations

Fact ' The 'theology' of female submission and male dominance contributes to the evil

Fact ' More than a fourth of women in our pews are victims

Fact ' Clergy of all stripes are ill prepared to deal with domestic violence and abuse, and in many cases they revictimize their parishioners with a counsel that is neither compassionate nor Biblical

Al Miles introduces us to another hermeneutic that is both Biblical and scientifically accurate. In his texts we're introduced to a study from the social sciences that refuses to depart from the solid foundation of Biblical inerrancy. The truth of recent scientific studies is presented to us with Scriptural corroboration: men are beating their wives; the Church's teaching of female submission to their husbands is contributing to the terror; and the Church is ignoring an evil that's universally prevalent without regard to race, economic status, or denomination.

Seminary courses in pastoral theology shirk the responsibility to prepare clergy to respond compassionately and competently to an evil that affects more than a fourth of female congregants, as well as untold numbers of males and children. Al Miles in his detailed and unusual study of one hundred fifty-eight clergy, male and female, confirms that few victims will find safety in their pastor's office. More than one victim has been sent back into the snake pit with the instruction to be 'more submissive and loving' to their batterer.

The secular bookshelves are full of books, texts, and studies of domestic violence and abuse. The world has known about domestic terrorism for many years, but the Church still has its head in the sand. Christian bookstores are loaded with Dobson, et al, world renowned experts who are giving us outstanding teachings on how to fine tune already acceptable or solid marriages. But the Church's teachers of repute are ignoring the dangerous dysfunctions of verbal, physical, financial, and sexual abuse on their own doorsteps. Reverend Miles rises head and shoulders above the Church masses and courageously opens doors that many of our leaders would rather leave locked.

I own these two books. As a domestic violence and abuse consultant, on a recurring basis I furnish these writings to clergy, elders, and victims. I can think of few other textbooks for the faith community that can assist the involved parties with a trustworthy, Biblical paradigm of the evil of family violence. It's time to open Christian eyes to the disease, and to provide a treatment for both victims and perpetrators. Thank you Al Miles for your resolute handling of a sensitive subject. I pray that the desperation of more than a few victims sitting with us on Sunday morning will find Godly compassion due to your dedication.

Violence in Families: What Every Christian Needs to Know by Reverend Al Miles (Pacific Health Ministry Coordinator of the Hospital Ministry Department at The Queen's Medical Center, Honolulu, Hawaii) is a powerfully charged survey and analysis of emotional, sexual, verbal, and physical abuse among marriages and dating couples. Particularly denouncing those Christians who misuse scripture to justify abuse or even murder, Violence in Families is a sobering and soberly recommended account of a very real problem within the Christian community and our secular society, -- and what is to be done about it in terms of both prevention and intervention.

Weegee is best known for his photos of "rubouts, suicides and
accident victims", but I think those photos are his
least interesting. He has a talent for capturing ordinary
life as well. His photos are warm and real. Often times I
find old photos make the subjects appear remote and distant
in time, but Weegee's photos break through that barrier.
You don't feel like you are looking at old pictures.
His photos transcend nostalgia.

This wonderful book not only includes all of Weegee's (Arthur Fellig) greatest photos, but includes three in-dept essays on his work by Miles Barth, Alain Bergala and Ellen Handy. Weegee raised the craft of photojournalism to the level of art by his talent to show the essence of any situtation without any discrimination between social classes. Besides his pictures expressing the entire human condition, they also story-tell New York City circa mid-century. This is a book that is essential for anyone who wants a comprehensive photographic library.

My granddaughter and I read this book quite often, especially as summer gets closer and closer and our summer vacation to the island is a sure thing. Especially nice are the beautiful watercolor drawings. I actually got this book in two weeks when we ordered from Amazon, much sooner than they said.

FYI, this book was written by Mary Miles and illustrated by Barbara Kauffmann Locke.

The world of e-reviewing is a tolerant world, and exaggerations have an easy home there. But measured by the role it has played in people's lives, there is little hyperbole in identifying Peterson and Fisher's "Wild America," precisely fifty years old this year, as among the most important books produced in the twentieth century. In the 1950s and 1960s, the book found its way into school libraries all over America, where it has been read with awe and envy by the last three generations of would-be naturalists--read so intensively that many of us, decades later, can quote great passages by heart.
The book is a collaborative account of the biggest 'big year' up to that point ever undertaken in North America; the trip was planned by none other than Roger Tory Peterson, then (and still today, perhaps) the continent's best-known birder, and was intended as an introduction to America's natural history for James Fisher, an equally prominent British naturalist who had never visited this side of the Atlantic. "Wild America" was the result: a priceless document of the continent's natural riches seen through the eyes, the words and the illustrations of two gifted and interesting observers.
This year marks the 50th anniversary of Peterson and Fisher's trip, and the book is certain to be celebrated over and over in the press. Those who have not read it should by all means visit their library to borrow a well-worn copy; and those who have should take it in hand again, and be reminded of how important this text was in the birth of North America's birding culture as we know it today.

Let me just quote my favorite line from the book. It is when James Fisher, an Englishman, first sees the Grand Canyon:

"I went down there a few yards. The world ended; began again eight miles away. Between the ends of the world was a chasm."

Now I have never seen the Grand Canyon, but reading about it with such wonder through Mr. Fisher's eyes was extraordinary. It brought tears to my eyes. It goes to show how truly amazing and beautiful America is. I highly recommend this book, not just for the birds these two men see, but also for all the wonderful sights they come encounter. It made me want to retrace their route.

This book is a bit dated now, but is a great primer on the espionage business. Copeland relates his experiences and those of other spies - both on our side and the other side(s) - in a matter of fact, this-is-how-it's-done style. If you like either fiction or non-fiction accounts of espionage, this is the book to get so that you understand just what the heck those "spooks" are doing.

This is one of my two required readings for any aspiring intelligence officer or student of intelligence. An absolute gem across the board, providing insights into both capabilities and culture. The description on pages 41-42 (of the original hard-cover version) of how "Mother" concocted an entire network and got the head of Secret Intelligence to agree its production was worth $100,000 a year (big money in 1946), only to reveal that his source was actually five issues of The New York Times "demonstrated not only the naiveté of our nation's only existing group of espionage specialists but the value of ordinary New York Times reporting on matters regarded as being of high-priority intelligence interest." Nothing has changed in 50 years.

This small yet powerful book challenges all of us, as Americans, to begin developing a truly United States. The writer uses Zora Neale Hurston's works to give us an example of how to bear witness to historical traumas and begin a long overdue healing process. This is a must read for anyone interested in culture, gender, and race studies!
Charles

This book is a must read for anyone interested in American culture, race relations, gender relations, and/or Zora Neale Hurston. The book is small but powerful. It has made me rethink my whole understanding of the process America needs to undergo in order to bring about true healing. Through her study of Husrton, the writer addresses many, many levels of continued discontent in this country and suggests ways in which we can move to new and more sincere cross cultural relationship by awakening our national consciousness. Great text!