As someone new working in the world of online communities, I found this book to be a great resource. It provides not only technical tips but also gets at the larger social issues of how to manage communities, help them grow, deal with problems, etc. Good overview of lots of topics with links and references of where to go to get more information.

As a Community Director for a website that talks to/with huge numbers of consumers daily, I found this book really, really helpful. It outlined several different approaches to the Community challenges without espousing one way only. This is great because not every site has the same needs for a their community. The links to other helpful sources alone were well worth the price of the book. All the advice and information was useable, applicable--nothing was so radical or off-beat that we could not relate. It is now on my desk as a reference tool as we build and rebuild our Community porton of our website.

Create a web community for a business or family using the power of the Internet and this 'Poor Richard's' guide, which focuses on inexpensive methods of achieving such a goal. From locating and participating in mailing lists to joining web-based communities for business and pleasure, this imparts the basics of understanding how such groups function.

As far as it goes, Born Royal is an interesting view into the lives of George V's children. The problem is that it doesn't go far enough.

The author spends far too much time on David (the Duke of Windsor) and his younger brother Bertie (George VI), who have already been the subjects of numerous biographies, and gives George V's other children short shrift. It's unfortunate, given that there isn't much written about them. Hough apparently referred mainly to research he undertook while writing his books on the Mountbattens; since Mary, George, Henry and John didn't figure much in those books, they don't figure much here.

OVERALL THIS BOOK IS QUITE NICE, GIVES A GLIMPSE OF THE CHILDHOODS OF THE CHILDREN OF GEORGE V AND QUEEN MARY. I WOULD HAVE LIKED MORE INFORMATION ON THE PRINCESS MARY AND HER YOUNGER BROTHERS. THE BOOK TENDS TO DWELL ON THE DUKE OF WINDSOR AND GEORGE VI.

It's too bad this book is out of print because it's a tale relevant to the current British Royal Family. Richard Hough wrote this easy-to-read book on the six children of King George V and Queen Mary out of the notes he took for his books on the Mountbatten family. King George (and Prince Philip) was a rigid martinet who could only criticize his children so they grew up to fear him. George (and Prince Philip) adored his daughter Mary (Princess Anne) who grew up self-righteous. Queen Mary (Queen Elizabeth II) was not a warm and loving mother. She put her duty to the monarchy above her duties as a mother and neglected her children. Her eldest son Edward VIII (Prince Charles) sought love with a married woman who became a mother-figure for him, a necessary balm for his immaturities. Her son George was the Randy Andy of his era and a bisexual (Prince Edward), too. Among the Windsors, it can be said that history truly repeats itself.

DREAM LAND Lake by Richard Peck is a really good book. This is a mystery novel. It's about a mystery man who was found in the woods. Bryan and flip the two main characters of the book.
TRY TO FIND OUT WHO IT IS.
THE MURDERER USES ALL DIFFRIENT CLUES TRYING TO TROW THEM OFF. THEY DON'T WANT TO TELL THE L.A.P.D. SO THEY KEEP TRYING TO FIND OUT WHO IT IS.

A moody, unsettling novel for the teen and pre-teen audience; however, I'm slightly older than that and I thought it was pretty terrific.

The novel covers three seasons in the life of two young fellows who go poking in the woods beside Dreamland Lake, where once upon a time a merry amusement park stood. But the remains of the long-gone roller coaster--a few concrete supports--are not half as eye-catching as the skeletal remains lying half-obscured under foliage by the lakeshore. This pile of bones has not been there too long either, so how did it get there?

Authorities and residents of Dunthorpe let the incident become yesterday's news pretty fast; local opinion says the dead man was a tramp, not missed by anyone. But Brian and Flip's unsettling adventures are just beginning, because they sense a mystery that brings them back to the scene of the crime, to take pictures. The pictures show, later on, that the two friends are not necessarily alone when they creep about in the woods. There's also the little matter of the swastika carved near the scene that wasn't there, originally--and who left the fancy knife, complete with sheath and also decorated with Nazi iconography, for the boys to find when they returned.

Brian, as narrator, makes all of this quite exciting; the book is written as if Brian were looking back at this period in his life. Slowly, the focus of the book does shift to a coming-of-age theme, so despite all the sinister build-up, the reader is not being led through the thriller of the ages. Indeed, the book seems to shift gears entirely, as we get a vivid flashback sequence involving Flip's dictatorial father forcing Flip (plus Brian) to take swimming lessons (this Navy-man father is ashamed that his grown boy can't swim) from a cool fellow named Ralph Harvey. The boys idolize Ralph so much that they write stories about him, usually swimming to rescue some drowning damsel and then leaving her heartbroken when he goes off to save more people. The flashback reveals that, first, the boys embarrass themselves in front of Ralph in a humourous, if somewhat edgy, showerroom scene, and then, Ralph shatters their heroic illusions of him.

A further digression from the main plot is when Brian's father, a trucker, finally gives in to his son's request to take him on the road with him just once. What ensues--trouble involving a speedster--works as another life-lesson for Brian, but does not have anything to do with the creepy stuff going on everytime Brian and Flip go into the woods.

Thankfully, these distractions don't mean there are going to be actual loose ends. Always the book does wend its way back to the central mystery, meaning that, yes, the book does fashion itself as some kind of sophisticated crime novel for young readers. And the Nazi angle, together with the two friends' insistence that something sinister is lurking just out of sight in the trees, gives the whole affair a bit of a horror feel.

Finally, the characters of the two main boys are strongly created. Flip is just a little braver, and a little nastier, than Brian, and it threatens to fracture their friendship.

I enjoyed discovering this thoughtful tale originally aimed at young readers.

I read this book 12 years ago and even today it remains one of the more hair raising books I've read. Granted I was probably 12 years old, but it had the whole evil-in-the-woods thing going.

Being a teen who has been close to suicide many a time, I know from experience that reasons for suicide are plentiful, but finance is a main problem. Why sell a book on how to prevent suicide? To me thats a little bit of a tease. Also... I don't think parents would buy this book, as the symptoms of a suicidal teen are not in great supply. We hide our feelings. Well, thats just my opinion.... An online 'How to prevent suicide' would be much more effective

Unlike many other books on adolescent psychology, this book takes more initiative in teaching teenagers to help each other during tough times. The tips included can be used immediately after reading them, and the authors stress certain important points repeatedly so that, although they may seem redundant to those who already know them by heart, no one can finish the book without having them permanently inscribed in their minds. The first person point-of-view style taken by the authors when explaining suicide helps, but not completes, a teenager's understanding of why his or her peers may consider suicide. There were a few detractions though. More fundamental information on depression as well as the increasing necessity to consider sexuality and ethnicity as aggravating factors in suicidal teens may have helped. A few sections were over-generalized, but the most important info (such as the "fact or fiction" of suicidal behavior) were well-covered. Combined with a book on teenage affected (i.e. emotional) disorders, alcohol/narcotics addiction, and/or risky environments (e.g. abusive families, violent neighborhoods, homogenous communities), whichever is helpful to the reader, this book can go a long way in reducing the heart-breaking statistics on suicide among young people. A newly revised edition with updated information is eagerly awaited.

Nelson & Galas have put together an excellent book packed full of information such as the myths, facts, risk factors and warning signs as well as how to prevent suicide from happening. This powerful book is geared towards teenagers to help each other but it is also an excellent resource as well for parents, teachers and para-professionals. As a graduate student in elementary education, I found this book easy to digest and relative to the issues facing todays teens. As a parent of four girls, my concern in the prevention of the skyrocketing suicide rate is of utmost importance. As I read, I was able to recall what life was like as a teenager and the high importance of some issues to teens of things that I now would think of as minor or temporary. I recommend this book highly for parents, teachers, school nurses as well as any teen (contemplating suicide or not). It is a MUST resource, and should be easily available for all who would benefit. Maybe if more people can understand why teenage suicide happens, we can recognize the distinguishable warning signs and be more successful in preventing it.

This essay is a classical book from the 1960s, about the idea of civilization and the different ones that Braudel considered that were in existence. Some descriptions are brilliant, others not quite. But they all are a good introduction to some of them, unknown to us, like Islam or Black Africa.
He explains their history, their past and present. There're very surprising historical facts. For instance, about slavery and the enormous demographic tragedy that meant for Africa. Millions of men and women were captured and brought Westward to America and Eastward to Moslem countries (the Turkish Empire, Arabic peninsule) and he gives higher numbers in those sold as slaves to Moslem countries than those sent to America. Braudel considers that there are real alive Africas in America (in Brazil or the Caribbean islands) while no trace of those wretchs sent to Islamic lands can be found, as if swallowed up by the sands of hot desserts.
We know a lot about slavery towards America but very few about that bleeding towards Arabic countries, some of them still defend and practice slavery, for instance in the Arabic peninsule.
Those facts were the most touching for me because it shows the difference among civilizations towards the other one, the one that is different, and I was so disconcerted that for once I couldn't come to any conclusion about anything this book told me.
Which I guess is a good starting point.
Still, the second part told me nothing and it was dificult to finish. I'd put 5 stars to the chapters I-IX and none to the rest. So I guess 2 is a fair average.

If you want a better understanding of how the world has come to be what it today is, then this book is a good first step in so doing. Braudel was an influential French historian specializing in the Mediterranean, so his insights into the evolution of Europe are more insightful than other regions he highlights (but he is insightful throughout). Excellent book to read while you bask in the sun with your feet dancing in Lake Michigan on a tourist beach (as I did). Maybe the atmosphere I had while reading made me enjoy it more; nonetheless, one should read this if they have any desire to.

This book is extraordinary! Meant for French lycéens in their last year before sitting for their bac exam, it was a failure. However, looking at today's situation of the west vis-à-vis the Islamic and other non-western worlds, it is a jewel. Among other things, it explains the origin of today's conflicting attitudes. For example, why the Egyptians and other Mediterranean peoples become in overwhelming majority Moslems several centuries after the conquest by the Arabs.

Sometimes kids say the the most
charming things, but this isn't
one of those times--too many
unfunny selections.

I would like an address where letter's written by children can be sent to be published.

This book seemed so Lame whiLe I was reading it! I don't think it's worth the time if you're not into beauty pageants and stuff Like that. I mean, wow(!):( she wins the Miss Hybrid Seed Corn.....Good for her! I mean, it didnt even have a good cLimax, Let aLone pLot, diaLogue, etc. etc. I think that if you're going to read this book, you'LL have to be into the subject: Beauty contests/Miss America/trying to be how society wants you to be, and not what you wanna be. ALthough, it does have a good message....I guess.

Though I'm not a farm girl like the character Verna, her character really reminded me of myself and how awkward I feel around "pageant queen" types. This book made me realize that life may be tougher for them than we tend to think and that you really shouldn't judge someone before walking in their moccasins. Representing Super Doll also made me mad at the kind of parents who push their kids so hard that their kids no longer know what it is to be a kid anymore.

This books starts out with lots of excellent information on Islam and various problems that Muslims in this country go through. An excellent easy reading for a new Mulsim convert such as myself.

However the second half of the book gets into topics such as racism, black history, ideals of Malcom X and Louis Farrakhan and the idea of white people being the devil. The author does't present these topics as something members of the Nation of Islam would have to put up with since these ideas are all not of the Quran. Rather the author provides way too much history and various ideals of Malcom X and Louis Farrakhan and in my opinion went way too far on this topic and it made the book an overall negative for me.

The book is really good when it came to discussing the Muslims and their views. There are a lot of interviews with Muslims on where they stand with parts of there religion. It is really intresting and enlightening. Except for when it comes to the Nation of Islam group, a little less then half the book then focuses on this African-American-Muslim religion. But doesn't give facts as the book did when it came to your ordinary Muslims. It then becomes more of a biografy of Malcome x and a few other gentle men. Excluding that part, because it really did not answer any of my questions, it just went on to explain this Nation of Islam group, the book was informative and an easy reading with intering facts and first hand stories!!!

Richard Wormser's American Islam does an excellent job in explaining just what this important world religion is all about. He does it in an easy to understand manner without boring the reader with unimportant details. Wormser explains the early history of Islam in the Arabian peninsula and the USA, how Americans Muslims have adjusted in Post-9-11 America, and presents Islam from a Muslim teenager's perspective, bringing Islam into a today's context-something that his contemporaries have failed to pull off.

In the second part of American Islam, Wormser discusses issues and problems concerning African-American Muslims, who make up the largest number of converts in America, and in an unprecedented heroic step, in Chapter 5 he narrates an issue that no Imam in America will tackle-discrimination against African-American Muslim males in love & marriage by other Muslims.

For that alone, Wormser and American Islam deserves a Pulitzer. Five stars Richard Wormser on a job well done!

Any visitor to a foreign country is well advised to get to know its religion, not only because it's practiced by most inhabitants of the country, but also it illuminates many cultural and social parculiarities of the locale. This book claims to be a travellers' book on Japan, yet Buddism, which informs most of Japan's architectures, art, literature, is relegated to an a few index pages in the back of the book. More distressingly, Christianity is treated with a whole chapter, "The Christian Century", which should be appropriately titled "Encounters with the West". The Christian Century implies somehow that Japan was almost Christianized, when in fact the reader will find that at most 50,000 Japanese converted during that time. Too much emphasis is put on how these converts were persecuted, without putting these incidents into historical context. In 16th century Japan, the Emperors saw Christianity as a threat and meddling to their affairs, due in part to the missionaries' arrogant dissimal of Buddism as idolatry. In the index, Buddism is said to be a religion that "conceives salvation as extinction, rather than redemption." This is a serious misunderstanding of Buddism.

By title, this book, indeed this series, may put fear into the reader of being a too-general and non-scholarly vast account of a subject matter too complex for any quality to come from the short format. Tames proves these fears wrong almost from the beginning in this indeed scholarly, engaging, and very well-balanced account of the history of one of the most misunderstood nations among today's world leaders. Tames does write a very general account, but "general" can be better understood as "broad" and "far-reaching" in this narritive. Regardless of the period discussed, his approach is rarely too single-tracked. This is a developmental history, and as such, properly includes development of Japanese government, culture, arts and literature, and the cumulative effects of this development onto the subsequent generations of Japanese. Tames does an excellent though suggestive job of relating the development of the Japanese nation to that of its people, and vice-versa. Throughout, except for the beginning, where it is often difficult to make any pre- and early histories come to life, the narritive flows freely with a purpose, and Tames' clear interest in his subject shines through the pages to take the reader with him on the easy, air-conditioned, and quick monorail tour through the safari of Japanese history, which is exactly what it is meant to be. In addition to the narritive is an excellent bibliography with commentary, as well as an entire reference section on everything Japanese from language to food and drink to holidays and their meanings. Especially for ex-pats living in Japan who don't want to be bogged down with anything dry or without connection to their experience, this is a quick, excellent read. It does a great job of subtly explaining the oft-seemingly unexplainables of Japan today.

Past and present gave a westerner view of culture and their characteristic vertues. Having Japanese friends and co-workers I wanted to understand their unfathomable virtue and how civil the makeup. I find that Mr. Tames not only covered the world they came from but how they are contributing to our culture in America 2000. Past and Present :-)

Karen was a girl who had been to no exotic places so when her so-called "cousin" Blanch nvites her to England saying her dad gave permission, Karen is extremely happy. The story is sizzling and exciting, the plot is unique, the escape is strategically planned. I was kept in suspense till the last page.

Though she may have been providing a detail for the room Mrs. Hoaresham was held helpless in, main character Karen Beatty, in actuality, summarized her entire life by describing the room as "dark as a pocket."

Karen knows nothing more about her life than a complete stranger on the street. Her mother died when she was young, her father has managed to stay a distant figure... Karen's memories of childhood consist of one boarding school after another.

Suddenly, Karen is instructed to leave school, which initiates a long journey, toward her father and more importantly, to herself. With the help of a childhood friend (Jay) and Mrs. Hoaresham, an animated and generous new friend, Karen is able to escape from her fictional relatives and find her father, along with a strength she never knew she had.

This book is great! It may be short in length, but it is a great story. All her life, Karen has known nothing but boarding school after boarding school. Her father, her only parent, is a mob boss, and Karen doesn't really know it. She has always kind of suspected it, but never confirmed it. She doesn't really want to know the truth. She is very out of touch with her father, partly because everything is handled by her father's secretary, Miss Simon. One day, the headmistriss at Karen's boarding school recieves a call to get Karen and tell her to pack her bags because her father is taking her to London. This call is supposedly from Miss Simon, snd there is no question in that matter at that point in the book. When she finally gets there, the people that meet her are again, "supposedly" her deceased mother's cousins. After a few odd happenings, Karen starts to think that something isn't right, so she calls upon an old friend who happens to be going to school in London. He comes to the rescue, and whisks her off to a safe place, however, all is not right yet. Her mother's supposed cousins chase them all over, and finally.... Well I guess you'll have to read the book to find out, won't you? This is such a good book. If you like excitment, action, and drama, this is the book for you. Read it already!