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Susan Cummins Miller, a very gifted editor and writer, has scored a hit with this one! It should be read by every woman, young and old, desiring a woman's insight of the events of the West during its formative years. The book gives the reader a woman's perspective as to the hardships suffered along with moments of humor and the joys of discovery and exploration through essays, travelogues, poetry and letters. The editor has blended well a group of women writers who lived this age of discovery and settlement. Almost all the cultures in the West during the period are presented with their particular view of the events as they lived them. It is a unique collection and I wish I had read this book in college. It certainly would have broadened my horizons and complimented the materials presented in my history and literature classes. Hey, professors! You need to add this book to your must read lists. And, to the author, many thanks for finding a unique niche that had been missed and filling it with a great group of women writers, broadening our historical and literary minds and giving us one great book that can be enjoyed many times over. It will hold a sacred place on my bookshelf.

From the moment I heard about the premise of this book I waited with anticipation. What joy that it fulfilled everything I expected. Susan is a gifted writer and brings these women's words to life. The book made me desperate for more, both in depth and scope. As easy to take as a novel, it is a history lesson - should I say HERstory - and then some. Superb work.

For the first time I really understand the role played by WOMEN in settling the West. This collection of writings by women of all cultures took me to that time and let me feel the joy, loneliness, laughter, exhaustion and fulfillment of settling a new country. It also let me see the life of the American Indian through the eyes of women for the first time. Excellent read.

I am a workplace English instructor and find Targeting Pronunciation and the audiocassette package of to be very useful in business settings as well as the classroom as a tool for teaching more effective presentation skills.
It has a fun and clear approach to covering all the essential pronunciation features such as word stress, rhythm patterns, and thought groups, as well as consonant and vowel sounds.

Students enjoy using this book and tapes because of the engaging and varied activities. Whether you are experienced or inexperienced at teaching pronunciation, Targeting Pronunciation a great book to teach from. I recommend the book and audiocassette package: ISBN 0-395-94540-2. It's the best deal and each student has a set of tapes for home practice.

This is a really good book, but be careful. Don't buy the $33 version of this book (ISBN 0-395-90331-9). It ONLY includes the Book. Buy the $42 version of this book (ISBN 0-395-94540-2). That is the Package Edition, and includes both the Book and the Audiocassettes.

We've been working on a lot of material on voice and accent for Indian Call Centers dealing with the American market.

This appears to be the best book I have come across.

It is very detailed and easy to understand and beats the current book and CD offerings like American Accent training.

A definite must buy if you are into accent reduction for individuals or training.

Ian Stern
Holistic Enterprise

This book took my Tarot work to a whole new level.

Don't let the title throw you -- you don't need to be a psych major to understand the ideas presented in this book. The author relates the path laid out in the Major Arcana to life, so everyone should be able to relate.

This book is also a good reference. The book contains discussion of each major and minor arcana card, combining the symbolism of the suit with the card's number, and tying that into the image. As an advanced beginner, this was helpful, since it took me beyond associating keywords with cards, to using my intuition in my interpretation. After checking it out from the library for the third time, I knew this was one that I should own.

I believe each person who discovers the Tarot is a seeker of wisdom and knows there is a Power greater than ourselves. The Tarot reflects the combined wisdom of humans who have sought an understanding of the Will of the Divine or as Joseph Campbell has said it the Will of "the thing that stands behind."

My own path originated in a diverse religious upbringing, winded through an academic setting filled with various social science perspectives, encompassed therapy, developmental workshops, spiritual retreats, etc., and came to rest in a 12-step program. After all these experiences, I recogize the Tarot as a cumulative human effort that places a face on the sum of my experiences. I too started as "the fool" and discoved the world.

A knowledge of Jungian psychology will help one understand and appreciate Karen Hamaker Zondag's TAROT AS A WAY OF LIFE. If you've taken a Myers-Briggs personality test, read Joseph Campbell's works on 'The Hero' or seen the Moyers-Campbell interviews, are familiar with T.S. Elliot's poem 'The Wasteland', or ever been in a 12-step program, you've been exposed to Jungian concepts.

Using Jungian concepts, Zondag explains how the Tarot deck can help the individual develop and use an organizing principle for living. Each of the cards of the Major Arcana represents some aspect of life that occurs for every conscious human being. Zondag divides the cards of the Major Arcana into three components: the basic drives; the construction of the ego; and the integration of the consciousness and unconsciousness. Zondag uses illustrations from several sets of Tarot cards to show why she prefers the Waite Tarot Deck illustrated by Pamela Coleman Smith over others.

Some who work with the Tarot use only the Major Arcana, but Zondag uses both the major and minor decks. The Minor deck has four "suits" comparable to a regular deck of playing cards: Cups (Water, Hearts, Wine, Clergy); Wands (Fire, Clubs, Rue, Peasants); Swords (Air, Spades, Angels, Ivy, Needles, Aristoi); Pentacles (Coins, Diamonds, Salt, Commerce).

Zondag associates the Yin/Yang principle with the cards. Thus Cups and Pentacles are receptive or feminine and Swords and Wands are creative or masculine. Interestingly, the Yang cards are frequently associated with strife and anger as well as building and accomplishment, whereas the Yin cards are associated with passivity, love, wealth, and happiness. There are Yang Queens and Yin Kings, so one cannot argue the cards are stereotypes in a negative sense although they may be "types" in a positive sense. Each person regardless of sex can exhibit any of the aspects reflected in the Tarot cards.

Zondag offers several ways to do a Tarot reading. Readings are designed to "guide" the recipient, not "forecast" the future. Conceivably, if one chooses to ignore the cards one can, and suffer the consequences. I've done several readings for a female who is a Leo with an IQ of 165, has red hair and a temper to match. We keep turning up the Queen of Wands who sits on a throne where lions serve as arm rests. Zondag says this card combines the receptivity of the Yin with the independence and activity of Wands. "The Queen of Wands is no stanger to the desire for attention. Her penchant for getting involved, and her natural activity, often result in firey enthusiasm, which she is mature enough to keep within bounds...the Queen of Wands provides a powerful stimulus to action." I always tell my Leo that she holds the key to her destiny in her own hands. The cards merely reveal the situation at hand and point to possible outcomes.

This is a book that not only tells you what the Tarot cards mean--in plain English--but also gives a concise, credible explanation for why each card means what she says it means. She draws heavily on Jungian psychology in her interpretation of the Major Arcana, and on numerology (filtered through folklore and mythology) for the Minor Arcana, but in both cases she refers directly to what's actually on the cards--helping the reader see them as a coherent symbolic system, not just mysterious pictures. (She mostly uses the Rider-Waite deck, but gives an extended justification for her choice, comparing it symbolically with other popular decks.) I don't know that I necessarily agree with every one of her interpretations--but that's actually one of the book's great strengths. After reading it, I felt that I understood enough of what was going on in the Tarot to begin to have my own opinions. Hamaker-Zondag, who's a noted astrologer, includes a chapter on attempts to combine Tarot and astrology--and concludes that it may not be possible. She also includes straightforward, common-sense advice on how to conduct a reading and lay out the cards--instructions that are far more helpful than those in other Tarot books I've read. The one thing I don't like about this book is the title. It sounds like it's inviting you to join a cult. It's really one of the most feet-on-the-ground introductions you're likely to find.

I bought my husband, a history buff, this book for Christmas, but I haven't even let him read it! It offers a fresh window into famous people and great events of the past. I love it!

This book is on my telephone table and I pick it up every time I pass by. In a pre-email era, the arrival of the Western Union envelope was a cliff hanger. When words were money, the messages were distilled to their bare bones: joy, despair, longing, and witty one upmanship are a few. Most of the telegrams involve familiar celebrities, artists, and historical figures who are suddenly illuminated by this verbal economy. To me, the thrill is not so much historical fact but the surprising insight into the sender. Writers and anyone interested in language usage need this book. This book is addictive.

I got this book for my husband, who loves offbeat approaches to history, but when I started to thumb through it, I found that I couldn't put it down. There's lots here for the history buff--running from the Civil War to 9/11 (sympathy wires from Putin and the Pope), but the book is also a wonderful collection of funny, clever, warm, romantic, spiteful and sometimes tragic snippets of prose by great wordsmiths like Abraham Lincoln, Ernest Hemingway, and W.C. Fields. There are things in here that made me laugh out loud and others that brought a whole new perspective to historic events.

You'll Ever Find... as well as a good read--I can't believe it's out of print! Probably most appealing to grammarians, however. The format invites you to envelop yourself in this beautiful language and its proper usage. Each teaching point is illustrated with phrases in English translated to Spanish or quotes from Spanish literature translated to English. I can't say enough about the timeless quality of this detailed reference. I've never come across a textbook that's such a pleasure to read.

Ramsey is the quinessential reference for anyone who is serious about learning Spanish accurately and correctly. This marvellous book has been integral in my personal library since 1960. I used it as a student, as a professor of Spanish and as a researcher. My original copy is now being used by a grandson in the wilds of Nebraska; hence, the need for an additional copy.
If there were more stars to give this review, I'd mark them down. Ramsey does not just provide the standard explanations, he gives the history and the technical aspects of the language. The book's arrangement makes research very easy and comprehensive.

I've used this reference text since I started learning Spanish ten years ago, and it never fails me. It is best suited to those interested in grammatical mastery of the language, but is useful to any first-year student. It is well organized and easy to read. First published in 1894 and last updated in 1956, the book is entirely relevant to Spanish today. Its useful forays into etymology and grammatical history will leave you with a lasting understanding and memory of essential elements of the language. The book has been praised by educators and students for over a century. As the most recent reviser, Robert Spaulding, says in his introduction, "Down through the years Spanish teachers continue to refer to Ramsey as 'the ultimate and best accessible authority.'" It is my favorite Spanish reference book.

I was introduced to Bohm through his video dialogue with Krishnamurti in The transformation of Man. He is one of the most honest, clear thinkers I have ever read. This book is really a transcript of a group discussion of thought with Bohm at the head. If you ever wonder why you get angry for "no reason" or why people get so upset over ideas, then read this book. And if you have an insight into the way thought works, you'll never be the same.

This book is the result of Bohm's collaboration with Krishnamurti, which lasted for over twenty years. David Bohms background as a proven physicist enables him to explain K.'s thought to the West in a more systematic, clear fashion that even K. could. This book was put out after Krishnamurti's death, and so it represents the results of their collaboration from Bohm's point of view. The implications of this analysis of thought are profound. It out does phenomenology in depth as well as it's avoidance of the hideous academic jargon. The only other thinker to take as in-depth a look at "Thought" is Rudolph Steiner (see 'Intuitive Thinking As A Spiritual Path'). This book brings a focus and clarity to a subject that never quiet graduated beyond the experimental dialogues between Bohm and Krishnamurti. Bohm also took the dialogue format (very similiar to Socratic) as his methodology (see his book on communication). Bohm felt that Krishnamurti's greatest contribution was his ideas about the "observer and the observed" and the nature of thought. Bohm had already had intimations of these ideas in sub-atomic physics. Excellent stuff!

A superb book with Bohm investigating the nature of thought in all its subtlety through a dialogue approach used by Bohm in several other books. Bohm's remarkable way of dialogue investigation assumes nothing except his internal investigations of his own thought processes which are explained in a manner allowing free discussion, ie nothing is assumed, set in its ways and everything is open to question, similarly he doesn't create any sophisticated terminology which could confuse the issue or the people who are asking the questions. The talks are in the words of every day people and use their everyday experiences for understanding. Thought is dissected in all its aspects, the creation of the `subject' and `object' and the underlying self, how thought gives rise to the structure of society and its problems, where is thought appropriate, these and many other questions are studied with no final answers allowing a deeper search to be performed by the reader. A book desperately needed to brush away the cobwebs of terminology, systems, fantasies and other claptrap so prevalent in our society.

If you are familiar with Grant`s campaigns then youll like this book . It gives us an insiders view of the battles of Vicksburg, Chattanoga,the Wilderness,and Appomattox.Because of his unique situation at Grant`s Headquarters where he was accepted as one of the staff,we get the inside take on Grant`s drunkedness on Warren`s removal from command and any number of things that happened during Grant`s campaigns.

If you are familiar with the campaigns of General Grant then you will find this book worthwile.Cadwallader has a front row seat at Vicksburg, Chattanoga,the Wilderness,and Appomattox. He is a reporter therefore a professional writer which helps. His book is filled with inside information on all the principle figureheads of the time. Also it is the only book I ever read that gives us the reader the inside true story on the rumours of General Grants drinking problem.

This is a controversial book because of one reason: the author maintains he witnessed Grant getting drunk during the Vicksburg campaign in 1863. Why this is particularly contentious with Grant supporters is a trifle mystifying, but Grant fans still vociferously contend the author "embellished" or "lied" about the drinking binge. Never mind that two other people who were also with Grant corroborate the drinking story. Never mind that his chief of staff specifically wrote about the binging in a private letter.

Aside from this drinking anecdote, the book is a warm, rich portrayal of General Grant from a man with a discerning eye. Cadwallader relates many small incidents of Grant's everyday life as a man and as a general that are fascinating and not to be found in other first-person narratives.

Cadwallader truly loved Grant and his book shows his regard and his profound attachment to him. It's a pity that so many people denigrate such a fine book simply because they feel the author's memory was fallible or because they refuse to see Grant as a multi-facted man. A man with his share of human frailties and weaknesses, but still a towering individual: a great general and a man of uncommon moral fiber and decency. If you know little about Grant, this is a good place to begin a journey in seeking to know him as a man and as a great soldier who saved the union.

When one of the least liked dealers at the Tight as a Tick flea market is murdered, another dealer asks her visiting niece, Laura Fleming to investigate the murder. Most of the story takes place at the flea market and to be honest I had never thought of how much work could go into setting up booths there. Laura manages to investigate the suspects while helping her Aunt Maggie run her booth. She finds out that the victim liked to make trouble and ruin the business of fellow dealers. No one is mourning his lose. Her Shakespere-quoting husband is helping in the investigation but Richard is having problems of his own. He has bet a group of friends that he can stop quoting the Bard for three weeks.

I enjoy reading the Laura Fleming Mysteries since they are set in an area of the country that I'm familar with. Even though Byerly and Rocky Shoals are fictional, it isn't hard to recognize bits and pieces of local towns in those two towns. I'm seeing the familar in a different way then normal.

It's as much fun visiting Laura Fleming's hometown and meeting her relatives as it is trying to solve the mystery. That is what makes Ms. Kelner's mysteries so enjoyable. Her depiction of a North Carolina town is dead on, and this novel delves into the subculture of flea markets. While the novel is well written and well plotted (like Ms. Kelner's other work), it's the interesting characters that make this book a good read.

Every time Laura Fleming and her husband, Professor Richard Fleming, return to her hometown of Byerly, they always seem to get involved in a murder investigation. Laura has shown a knack for crime solving, so her Aunt Maggie asks her to investigate the murder of an acquaintance whose corpse was found at the TIGHT AS A TICK flower market. Out of their love for their relative, the couple begins to make inquiries even though they do not grasp their aunt's interest in the death of someone she loathed.

When Laura starts questioning the vendors about their relationships with the victim, she discovers that no one has a kind word to say about the deceased. When Maggie's table is trashed, Laura concludes that there is a connection between the vandalism and the homicide, both being done by insiders. Laura soon realizes that the killer will go to great lengths to obtain what he wants, including killing Maggie. It is up to Laura to identify him before he succeeds.

The Laura Fleming mysteries are some of the most whimsical and entertaining books on the market today. Toni L. P. Kelner captures the true meaning of community in a small southern town. Laura's literary quoting spouse adds comic relief as he serves as a counterpoint to the tension filled story line. They mystery is a mind challenger that is difficult to solve because of the long list of viable suspects. Mystery fans will have a jolly time with this well written charmer.

Harriet Klausner

I read this book as a child, and not only did I reread it numerous times, but I even went around the neighborhood trying to read it to other kids! As an adult now I can say that this book speaks from the heart. It is written in an uncomplicated style, but the content is no less charming and warm 20 years later than it was the first time I picked it up. As a youngster I identified with Okee and Trouper (the dog), and all the mischief they created. As an adult I identified with Dorthy and Luke, and the sacrifices they made for an animal who brought them so much happiness. For this reason it could be recommended to children and adults alike. This book is a wonderful part of my childhood now, and I would recommend it to anyone who loves animals.

this book was a sensational biography of a pet otter and it brought you through his whole life flawlessly. I first read this bbok when i was 12 and i have loved for 3 whole years and i think you'll love it to!!

I am only 14 years old and I must have read this book 4 dozen times. I got it when I was about 10 and I haven't been able to put it down since. It used to be my mothers and she gave it to me. It has always been my favorite book and it always will. It's just wonderfully written. I am trying to look for a new one because my original is falling apart! I hope I can find one soon. Cheri Fogdt Pittsburgh, PA

I have not read the book but am looking for a copy, but Nelson was my dorm father and an inspiring high school teacher. I'm sure if it's anything like Nelson it's amazing

Lebo's book is a wonderful read-full of intense images and rich characters. Story and science blend in a captivating series of encounters with people and Nature as he pedals across a vast stretch of the American continent. Lebo and his characters offer historical knowledge, natural history, and a spectacular setting in a well written book. If you enjoy Abbey and Leopold put this on your reading list.

This is a wonderful collection of stories gathered by a man who made a remarkable bicycle journey through the American West. Humorous and touching anecdotes are weaved in among serious discussions of pressing environmental issues, and expressions of love for the beauty of the land. It is both inspirational and thought provoking in the finest tradition of Abbey's Desert Solitaire. Lebo combines his understanding of the human condition and love of the natural world in a way that celebrates the quirky magnificence of both. It has left me with a hunger to follow his example and design an adventure for myself!