AS

I was fortunate enough to have Dr. Cornett as my Integrating of the Arts teacher and used her book when it was first printed! Her ideas and love of the arts will empower your creative juices to flow! I use this book constantly and always find something 'new' to do with my students! It was written for every teacher! She really wants you to be the 'best of the best'!

I discovered this book a few months ago and have been using excerpts to teach teachers how they can easily use the arts to support their literacy programs. Each section of the text has quick and easy ideas about ways to implement drama, music, art, and dance into the daily lessons of children grades K-6. National standards for the arts are summurized in each chapter along with "snapshots" of classrooms that implement these simple strategies. Resources are also provided so that arts activities may be tied to specific books for those readers that are unsure where to begin. The language of the book is easy to understand and follow, unlike many educational models that overwhelm the reader and bore the student. Since I have been using the text with my graduate teacher/students, I have been receiving positive comments about the fun ways to appeal to all learners. I highly recommend this text to classroom teachers, camp counselors, parents, and anyone who is tired of the traditional lecture learning style that is so often used in education today. I believe that if the reader practices the suggestions made in this text, they will reap the benefits of a robust and exciting learning environment.

In an age where everything must have universal/worldly appeal; including all arts, government and religion; there is a "voice" in each of us, guiding us to be greater and more harmonious together; telling us who we really are. Clearing the mist of worldly desires and oversimplifications of the complex universe, in an attempt to make it appear "stupid/immoral friendly", there is the universe of Truth or reality. Books from all sectors of religion have pointed to a loving and giving God, called by many names, but all of us have something between a guess and working knowledge that this Being is what we refer to as the Creator of All; that which is all in all. This book, "As "I" See It" by John Hargreaves, does the decidedly significant task of defining "the tares from the wheat" separating the Truth from the lie.

As "I" See It brings the reader closer to a functional knowledge of divine metaphysics and challenges the reader to raise the bar on their own sense of what consciousness is and what "I" (referring to both "me" and "you") means to them.

Using The Bible and The Science & Health (by Mary Baker Eddy which is the companion book for Christian Science along-side the Bible) as the starting point as well as stories from people of different walks of life, "As "I" See It" brings in many useful angles of what reality is. This book puts the idea, paraphrased from the Bible, of "work(ing) out our own salvation..." in a new light for me; stating it, in the sense that each of us is responsible for our own sense of what and how we see reality. That what we perceive is not out there but is all within us- and as we gain more correct views of God's creation, "life" becomes harmonious, happy and fruitful.

I highly recommend this book to anyone, regardless of their religious beliefs, who seeks a greater understanding of what Life is all about and how to bring more Love, Truth, and Principle into their experience. Unfortunately, "As "I" See It" is out of print as of early 2004 and older copies seem to go for quite a bit; but if you do come across one and have the dough, you may very well find this book to be one of a kind and helpful on your spiritual journey as I have.

Spiritual transformation from the standpoint of human understanding has proved tedious. The belief that the human expands or becomes spiritual has been problematic and not fruitful for me. It was not until I began a serious study of John Hargreaves' book that I began to recognize life as wholly spiritual. This has changed my perspective on who and what I am. Living universal and eternal divine completeness now as the truth of all creation is expansive in ways I could never have imagined and establishes me in the line of spiritual creation with the whole of the world.

Mallory Carson plans to make her establishment, Bad Reputation, a success by serving "Screaming Orgasms". She also figures having her barmaids dancing on the bar will encourage males to populate her tavern and spend plenty of money. Her brother Dave worries about his sister so he sends his buddy, Shay O'Connor, to check the joint out. However, Mallory and Shay end up making love, but he acts like it was nothing.

Mallory is outraged because men don't leave her. Shay feels guilty for having sex with his pal's sister and though attracted plans no repeat. Mallory does not want Shay's interference about the way she runs Bad Reputation. When she learns who the best lover she ever had even with a one-night stand is, Mallory decides to teach her sibling and a man she could fall in love with a lesson on playing with a woman's affection.

Mallory is the key to the fun AS BAD AS CAN BE as she uses her bad girl image as a defense mechanism to cloak her insecurities. Shay is the first male to penetrate (no pun intended even if this is a Blaze) her barriers. The secondary cast especially the wild B-girls add depth though Dave needs to chill out a bit. Fans desiring a torrid yet humorous romantic romp will appreciate Kristin Hardy's engaging tale.

Harriet Klausner

Serving Screaming Orgasms and encouraging barmaids to dance on the bar, Mallory Carson intends to make her new business Bad Reputation a success, despite brother Dave's interference. But when he sends his friend Shay O'Connor to spy, things go too far. Especially since Mallory and Shay find themselves alone in a very compromising position before either learns the other's identity. Worse, Shay walks away like it was nothing.

Men do not walk away from Mallory Carson. She does the walking on her terms and when she is ready. Unfortunately, her body does not seem to remember her own rules. Shay does not want to seduce his buddy's sister; Mallory does not want Shay's interference about the way she runs Bad Reputation. So when she learns Shay's identity, Mallory decides someone is playing games, and she is evening the score. She proceeds to show Shay just how bad she can be.

Author Kristin Hardy's rising star continues to dazzle with AS BAD AS CAN BE. Mallory conceals her vulnerability behind a bad attitude that intrigues Shay even as her walls keep him away. Indeed, sensual moments threaten to make the pages spontaneously combust with scenes filled with spontaneity and naughtiness as Mallory's bad girl attitude and Shay's good guy persona clash. I admit to falling in love with Mallory's bad girls and their love for dancing on the bar, resulting in a tone that is both exhilarating and seductive. Consequently, AS BAD AS CAN BE comes very highly recommended.

This is an historical novel placed during the Civil War. Based on a series of letters between James McNeil, who rises through the ranks of the 101st New York Volunteers and loved ones at home, Ms. McLain has brought to life an amazing triumph of the 19th Century--the bonding of people across space and time, that transcended the meager technology of the period. It is touching, real, and poignant as 3,000 men die each week across a 200 week war....

Why read it? Today, we are again involved in a War that will define our national identity, and the personal identity of Americans from coast to coast. In 1865, the United States was on the verge of fulfilling the concept of its Manifest Destiny to unite a land from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean. Are we fulfilling a manifest destiny now? Are we defending our nation from enemies foreign and domestic, as sworn by our President, the Commander in Chief, the same oath sworn to by Abraham Lincoln, and the members of our Armed Forces. Does that oath EVER terminate.

Today, the battle came only once to our soil, some 3,000 died one time. Compare this to the Civil War. Today, cellphones and e-mails bring the front closer to home, however, than the stone walls at Fredericksburg or Gettysburg could ever come to New York. And yet, in the words conceived by the authoress McLain, they are close, perhaps closer.

You don't have to be particularly interested in the Civil War per se to find this first novel intriguing, moving, and remarkable. I was fortunate to purchase this book from the author at a meeting of the Austin Civil War Roundtable--which one might think of as unfriendly turf. However, even the many Texans in this group recognize the universality of the feelings, images, stories, and effect on families of WAR. War is constant globally--somewhere, all the time. Ms. McLain's work of devotion to the study of the human dimension is a fine offering.

Highly recommended!!

Jean Marie McLain's book As Best We Could is a wonderful story and I highly recommend it. One of the best books I have read in the past couple of years. Jean Marie became interested in the lives of the young men from her home area of New York who served in the Union army during the Civil War, so she did a lot of research and this book is their tale.

Now most of us are not enamored of war so maybe we wonder why we might be interested in As Best We Could. Well, although the book happens during that stressful period, the story is a very moving, romantic, enthralling historical fiction of the relationship between a young man, Jamie McNeil, and a girl he met the day before he entered the army, Mary Edwards. The device Jean Marie uses to carry on the story is the letters they write back and forth to each other. From the first letter in which Jamie apologizes to Mary for startling her horse and causing her to fall off, to her accounts of her life as a single young woman in Delaware County, New York, to his descriptions of learning how to be a soldier, and then his very moving cries for contact with the world of peace as he experiences the horrors of war and his depressions from it, this book of letters was very hard for me to put down.

If you like social history then you will really like the detail that Jean Marie put into the book. I learned more specifics about how it was to live back then, and because she wraps all this interesting information around Mary's growing feelings for her correspondent, and her relationships with her nuclear family, the text is an integrated, real story that creates a wonderful level of fascination.

Jean Marie captured all of these ideas from serious research about the 101st New York Volunteers regiment. She read hundreds of letters both from these men and from their families to develop an understanding of their lives and their feelings about what they were going through. So this is a book as much about the women and families left behind as it is of the soldiers who were in the service.

I really cannot speak enough about it, I loved it and frequently was moved by it. It was one of those rare books that you don't want to end...you know, the kind of story that when you see you are halfway through, your thought is, "darn, just 250 pages more." My hat is off to Jean Marie, a gifted author.

the author wrote the story beautifuly and its an amazingly true story

This is one of my favorite books for gift-giving because the story is so beautiful and the message is so important. (And the illustrations are stunning!) Every time I read it to my kids, it stays in my mind for a long time...

This is one of those books that is great for both pre-teens and adults alike. It's the right mix of reality and fantasy and has some great insight about making the right choices in life.

I know there's room for a sequel . . .so C.R. West, if you're reading this, when's the next one? Don't keep us in suspense for long.

This book had a kind adventurous approach to flying from a childs point of view. It's interesting and makes you want to join in on the adventure.

When she is given a diary for her ninth birthday, Margaret Cora Wells, called Meg by her family and friends, expects to record her daily life in St. Louis, Missouri. But then a cholera epidemic strikes, and Meg's mother and little sister, Grace, fall ill. Having already lost two children to cholera seven years before, Meg's mother is determined not to lose another. So Meg and her seven-year-old brother, Preston, are sent to live with their aunt, uncle, and cousins in the Kansas Territory. Accustomed to a comfortable city life, Meg finds frontier living to be tough, but at the same time full of adventure. But in 1856, Kansas is a very dangerous place, where pro-slavery Border Ruffians attack northerners like Meg's family, who have come to Kansas in the hopes of making it a free state. Can Meg come up with a plan to help her family? I highly recommend this new title from the My America series.

During 1856 in St. Louis her mother and sister fall ill with the cholera epidemic, which has spread widely in Missouri , nine-year-old Meg and her brother Preston are sent to live with relatives in the praire lands of Kansas, until the epidemic passes. In her diary Meg describes the dangerous journey they have to take to get to Kansas and when they finally get their she and her brother Preston must adjust to the rugged lifestyle which is much different from St. Louis with their everyday chores. This was a great story about how a young girl braved her new lifestyle and someday wishes to be reunited with her family. I highly recommend Dear America fans to read this great new book in the My America series. I can't wait for the conclusion of Meg's story in her next diary!

With my own Irish heritage, I have always been drawn to stories of Ireland, and wish to one day visit the Emerald Isle. This book is a wonderful guide to help me visit the historic places that interest me most, and will be invaluable in locating just the perfect inns or bed-and-breakfast establishments to make my time in Ireland the best it can be. I really appreciated the history and historical insights, they help to give one a comprehensive overview of the country and its people. This is ONE WONDERFUL BOOK, and anybody who loves Ireland will benefit by reading it. VERY INTERESTING.

This book has inspired me to take my next vacation in Ireland. The reading is easy along with interesting. The color coding of the historical eras and counties make it a great reference for the traveler as well. If you want to learn about Ireland, you have to read this book.

These stories, for those whose lives have been stripped down to bare bones, are both frank and uplifting. They acknowledge the pain and loss associated with terminal illness, but also the joyful clarity it can bring. These people sound REAL, and their realizations are true. The questions their stories raise, focus the reader on what remains important in the last precious months of life. What should you read if you are preparing yourself for a final journey? This book.

The book allows the reader to share with men, women and families who are dealing with loss in order to find commonality and comfort. The stories and the meditations are real and comforting. The authors have shared stories and lives that are real and appropriate - you can really share in the healing that took place.

Blake Morrison's "As If" was this reader's favorite find of the year. Morrison finds himself compelled to view the unfolding of Liverpool's James Bulger murder trial, and in doing so is forced to assess his own life in relation to what it means to grow up "normally". Who is truly guilty or innocent in this shocking act of two ten-year olds murdering a two-year old? He says he must determine the "why" of the crime. As we sink with him into the morass, we find that the answer becomes more and more elusive, and we wonder how different these families are from yours or mine.

I bought this novel in the summer while I was in England. A few weeks ago, when I was looking for a book to read, I came across As If on my book shelf. Since then I have read it three times. Morrison made me ask questions of myself and of society that I would have never asked otherwise. He explains the trial, not only in a factual manner, but in an extrordinarily philosophical way as well.