I finished reading "Ohio" last night and enjoyed it thoroughly! The author weaves the four stories together relating characters with passion and depth. I particularly enjoyed the author's lighter, funnier touch in the last story featuring Dr. David Wheeler and his true love Josephine (Josie) Cline. They are both such eccentric characters, time just flew as I enjoyed their struggle against the truth that their paths were destined to be together. I hope you enjoy this book as much as I did - I love all the Barbour anthologies and highly recommend them! -Deb from Nashville...

Rhythmic text and amusing illustrations make this children's story a delight. It increases the young listener's interaction by being predictable and by repeating successive lines. The message is clear that a mother will love her child no matter what it's appearance. "Purple hair? I don't care! I'll love my little baby anyway." Buy this book to share with your 3-6 year old and find out why Mrs. Ragon's baby may have purple hair (and skin of green!)

I love this book! It gives detailed advice for setting your classroom up using learning centers, with special recommendations for schools that are short on space, and suggestions for making your own supplies.Good checklists also.

It is a wonderful book. How did it not get more attention?
The writing perhaps needs more detail and needs to be tightened up a bit, but there are some great lines, such as the dog "is free to wander anywhere on the farm
a sniff leads her" and some great characters. It's a fantastic tribute to the sisterhood of womanhood and to feminine links to the earth and has a wealth of ideas to
discuss (Is the missile supposed to be symbolic?).

I think that this book was really exciting and interesting. There like mysteries in the letters that "Hope" reads. It really got my attention while i read the first pages. When i started reading this book i actually didn't want to stop. I would recommend this book to other people.

The book, Holding Up the Earth, was about a girl, Hope, whose mother died when Hope was six. She went to seven foster families before she went to a lady's named Sarah. This is about how Hope overcomes her mother's death, and learns to live with Sarah. I think that this book is well written,because about every other chapter the author has a diary or a journal explaning what has happened at the farm where they live in the past. I think that this helps you better understand the book. I would recommend this book to someone who likes Realistic Fiction. As far as age groups go I would recommend this book to children ten and up because there are words that younger children probably shouldn't be reading. If you love books that will lift your spirits this is the one for you!

C'est a toi is a text book series that relates it's lessons to an ongoing story that follows the lives of 4 french teenagers and their hopes and dreams. The text book is accompanied by a tape series to see the "action in action". The book review a particular section on grammar, vocabulary, or structure, and then relate it into a "real life" situation that the teenagers face. C'est a toi does an excellent job of relating French in a way that a high school French student can understand and apply in everyday French situations. I would recommend this book to any high schooler who may be having difficulties in French, or just wants a different approach to French.

There are some boks that read and can just put down and forget about them - this book is not one of them. This book takes a leaf out of Sliding Doors and creates a storyline that is split in two. After Elisabeth finds out that she is five weeks pregnant she splits into Beth and Libby. Libby decides to keep the baby she is carrying, while Beth decides to have an abortion. Both girls with have a tough nine months ahead of them, and both will have to deal with some of the hardest times in their lives to date.

This book is easy to read (once you get used to the perspective switching with each chapter) and it is a book that can be read ion one sitting. If you are preganant or know someone who is then try recommending this book to them. The one problem I have with this book (and the only reason it got three stars) is that from all the reading I have done Beth's story is alittle over the top - she practically slides right off the rails. Read this book for yourself and see if you agree with me ...

This just goes to show you that even if you are not a diabetic, you can enjoy these combinations of foods and not restrict yourself to taste. This book just proves that for once in our life we can cook one way, and not have to cook 2 different meals, one for our family and one for us. Everyone will enjoy this combination of cooking.

I should begin this review by stating that it is biased. I do not like Diane Di Prima's writing. I do not like Diane Di Prima. I spoke to her on the phone for about an hour and you know what? I still don't like her. I wish I did. I wish I could sit and read and enjoy the works of a woman who managed to pull off what no other woman really did as a woman of the beat generation. Most women of the beat generation are associated with it because, though they may be talented, they were married to Kerouac or Cassady or were some great feminine ideal or something like that. Not Di Prima. As she tells it, she had to give up most of her femininity in order to take her place as a Beat Gen author. That deserves respect.

That said, "Memoirs of a Beatnik" was written to make money. Sex sells. If you are searching for the truth you won't find it here really. But it is worth reading. The reader must take into account the fact that it is not about truth, but about the exploitation of an image of a generation. I found it to be pretty insghtful as far as what people expected of a beatnik book (as this was already covered by another reviewer I will not go into the differences between beatnik and Beat, but suffice it to say, in my opinion, yes, this is a beatnik book). This is what people thought the beat lifestyle was about. This is what caused them to hire Beatniks for entertainment at parties. I think it is definitely worth reading if only to look at the whole thing through that sort of a light - what beatnik as an image meant. And most of all, we should not critisize Di Prima for wanting to make money. She saw how to do and she did. That's all right in my book. Overall she is a woman to be respected, even if I don't like her poetry and find her to be a rude and abrasive person (both of which are traits that I think made her able to succeed).

This book has been both torn apart and praised but I seem to view it as something other than what most others do and in that I find entertainment and an intersting (if somewhat oversexed) version of her life. But that is the crux of the matter...it is entertaining and well written. Keep this in mind and you will enjoy it.

a recent article on diane diprima in the chicago tribune (4/19/2000) called di prima's "memoirs of a beatnik" - "a sort of insider's Beat exploitation book Di Prima wrote in 1968 for Maurice Girodias' Olympia Press in Paris because she needed money badly--and quickly." It goes on to state that "It is mostly accurate, [di prima] said, except for the sex parts."

with that said, i doubt the book aspires to make any type of high-brow feminist or literary statement. the fact that is does make any such statement can be attributed to the time in which it was written. it is basically an account of a young woman venturing out on her own in times when young women did not do such things. young women lived at home, maybe went away to college, met a nice suitable young man, and got married. maybe had a job as a typist in the meantime. sex was not something young women from nice families experimented with.

this is not to say the book does not have its merits. it is artfully written, intelligent, and poetic. it's a great look at the obstacles women faced when they decided to do their own thing, especially when that differed from society's norms. it's a peek inside the counterculture that was growing larger and larger thanks to a certain jack kerouac. all of this raises the book above being just plain old erotica. as a fan of beat writing and culture, i enjoyed the book very much.

of course, the drawback to this book is that someone reading this book without knowledge of the context in which it was published will come away from it with a view of the beats that is as cartoonish and two-dimensional as the rest of society's view was of them at the time. "oh wow, look, the beats were always having sex." - "oh yeah, man, that's what they were about. coffee, sex, and alcohol. (and bongos and poetry and black berets)"

maybe that's why the title of this book is "memoirs of a beatnik," and not "memoirs of a beat." major difference.

I thought I had found a book that incorporated my son's cat in relaxation techniques that he could use for home and school. I was REALLY disappointed! This very small book (only about 25 pages) talked more about cats and their reactions to things. I thought that if I worked with my son and his cat I would be able to calm him down when he gets uptight. This book is not intended for that!! In fact, it has very little use other than its descriptions of what cats do and how cats react to certain things. Don't bother with this book if you're looking for specifics on relaxation techniques with your cat.

This is a great book for kids and adults. It goes beyond many of the usual stress management techniques with an emphasis on self-esteem and standing up for yourself. Children have so much stress these days. This simple, easy-to-read book gets right to the heart of ways to help the children we love. I have a copy to read for myself and my 7-year-old daughter. I have bought copies for the library for people (and families) with cancer and chronic illnesses where I work - high stress situations. I also recommend it in a stress management class I teach at a local hospital for kids. Parents and kids alike are drawn to its message.