Full Books

I normally browse and skip sections in books like this but found myself reading word for word. Wonderful photographs, history of the girl's game of basketball and how it evolved. I learned how unique girl's playing the sport really was. I learned Iowa 6 on 6 was covered heavily by media all over the USA. I am wondering if something special was allowed to die with the advent of 5 on 5 girl's basketball. I found that many 6 on 6 players were quite successful playing 5 on 5 college ball. Lot's more to think about the directions we are sometimes led in the name of progress.

This was such an entertaining book, especially for those of us that grew up in Iowa, and fell in love with the game the way it's played there. It brings back memories and conjures up images of many nights spent admiring those high school heroes and hoping to someday join their ranks.

Upon finishing this magnificent book, do I laugh or do I cry? Girls' high school basketball and teaching young girls to play basketball is my life. But what relevance does this book have? This is the history of girls' basketball in a state far away from mine. There are no diagrammed plays or secrets to success. Is it worth the hardcover price? To that question I answer an emphatic " yes! " There are a number of men and women in North America, who like myself, have dedicated themselves to girls' high school basketball. We can give you a dozen reasons why we love girls' basketball and why we have dedicated our lives to it. We can give you another dozen reasons why basketball is so important to the lives of our young female athletes. But still, when all has been said, words cannot adequately capture what the experience means to all those involved. Within the 200 pages of text, this book explains an American phenomenon that has its roots in Iowa and has proceeded to touch the lives of millions of girls, coaches and communities. That is why in reading six-on-six, I sometimes laughed and sometimes was swept up in emotion. This book is a comprehensive history of girls' basketball in the state of Iowa. The research is careful, thorough and disciplined. But in addition to covering the history of girls' basketball in Iowa, the book represents one of the best documentations of the history of basketball ever printed. The photos and interviews take you into the lives of the players -- how they played the game, how they overcame the obstacles of the early years in terms of facilities, equipment and transportation and most importantly, what basketball did for them personally....how they felt about the emerging game of basketball. It also covers how the game changed and why the changes were made. Iowa is unique in girls' basketball. It is the only state that since the 1920s, has continuously sanctioned interscholastic play and it does so with an independent sanctioning body that is separate from the boys. Those of us who live in the big metropolitan areas tend to think of Iowans as down-home conservative people who live a stable uncomplicated life. While their may or may not be some truth to the latter, what is perfectly clear is that Iowa is the most progressive state in the union when it comes to girls' athletics. They implemented Title IX fifty years before it became the law of the land. They appreciate, support, praise and celebrate their high school female athletes. In Iowa, the Iowa girl is queen. How did this develop? Why in Iowa? All of this is explained. But the best part of the book are the interviews that give you a glimpse into the lives of the girls, coaches, superintendents and sport writers that made all this possible.... men and women that had great vision and understood why basketball and sports is so important to the lives of teenage girls. As mentioned, the book is not about strategy or tips but through interviews, I learned some things that have helped me in my coaching. These have to do with the psychology of girls and why certain aspects of the game and experience are so important to girls. And why as a coach, I must respect the girls' wishes. If girls' basketball means a lot to you, read this book. You will be inspired by one of the great success stories of the 20th century.

Rufus Dawes can embellish things at times.. but nothing beats a first hand account for detail and entertainment.
At least these are the events as he actually saw them, and he saw a lot of important events first hand :)
JJ

It's sometimes tough finding memoirs or diary accounts that don't get involved in writing battle history on a larger scale that doesn't have anything to with the person writing it. Rufus Dawes heavily battle tormented years in the hard fighting Iron Brigade only covers his involvment and the affairs of the Iron Brigade which I found refreshing to read. Rufus Dawes has wrote down a lot in his diary and also wrote many letters home which are presented very well throughout this book. Most of his diary writings mention the date and the events which occurred. Dawes manages to define daily life activity in the camp and soldier actions. What makes this book exciting is his detail for writing about his involvement at major battles such as Antietam, Gettysburg, Cold Harbor and more! Rarely receiving a single scratch, Dawes manages to live to write about his military life as other officers around him eventually become discharged while a majority die. He gets descriptive at times which captures the chaos and confusion of battle. His writings also talk a lot about the Iron Brigade and it's a great reference for those trying to understand how hard fighting this group of soldiers were. Unlike some recollections or memoirs, Dawes writes very well and makes this book easy to follow and read. At times Dawes was very detailed and explains many army movements and his thoughts about approaching battle and surviving the aftermath. I highly recommend this book for anyone interested in the Civil War and especially for those looking to learn about the Iron Brigade.

Rufus Dawes writes of his service as an officer of the Iron Brigade's 6th Wisconsin Volunteers from it's formation until his resignation in 1864. Dawes was continuously present in the field almost every day from the day he enlisted, and wrote to his wife even several times a week, yet the book fills a mere 318 pages. His work is based primarily on this large collection of letters his wife had kept throughout the war.

His retrospective reminiscences are interjected only to give us the larger context, and sometimes he quotes the Official Army Reports when helpful. Not only is Dawes a good writer, but because he rose to command the 6th Wisconsin Regiment, he was cognizant of both the big picture and the immediate details of soldier life.

Dawes is an eloquent and sensitive writer. Through Dawes' letters we can feel the stresses and tensions of army life. As a junior officer, Dawes notes his concerns over the seniority among Captains in the Regiment as his primary concern. By 1864, this has shifted to the simple desire to spend time away from the incessant bullets, death and discomforts of war. Dawes' passages on the 1864 Campaign really expresses how different the war became and how really weary the veterans had become. Dawes himself, an exuberant and optimistic spirit always, had become truly weary of war by 1864.

To have tramped with Dawes all over Virginia, to Antietam and Gettysburg and through the Wilderness is an unforgettable experience. I highly recommend this book for the general reader. Of all the first person accounts I have read by Iron Brigade soldiers, this is the easiest to read and follow, and is richly rewarding.

A truely compelling read. How can so much be said about so many people and events in just a few paragraphs and such a span of family and world history in one book. There is such joy and sorrow all flowing together. How said that Joshua Sithole was not as good a man as his father from Zimbabwe - one can almost breath its present troubles in this wonderful writing.

I have read FULL CIRCLE and enjoyed it immensely. It is positively riveting and the flow is easy and pleasant. It is not a work I would clasify under "PULP FICTION", the popular concept of ordinary writings of Paper Back form. I can quite understand why it would be considered for awards such as the prestigious BOOKER PRIZE, and I would not at all be surprised if it earned many more nominations. It would also make a superb action/drama film and in the political climate of today would be an odds on favourite for all ages. FULL CIRCLE is wonderful and I would highly recommend it.

This is a riveting story told with great skill, creating vivid images of one of the great countries of Africa. The story spans the life and experiences, in different countries, of a strong and interesting man and his family. A marvellous story and a definite 'must read'!

You will not be sorry when you pick up this book to read. The characters each develop a personality that is wonderfully described by the author as the plot unfolds. The suspense and intrigue are such that you won't want to put this book down. I thoroughly enjoyed this book.

Wow!! Great Job, Diane. Full Circle 911 was a terrific, suspenseful book. The plot was full of intrigue it kept you wanting to read more. The characters were so true to life that you could definitely relate to their goal. I will definitely recommend this book to many people. I hope that you will write a sequel to this amazing story.

Great job Di! This booked was unbelievable! I read it in less than 2 days and could NOT put it down! The characters were so real and very easy to relate to! I can't WAIT for the sequel because I just know that was him at the end! Great job! ABSOLUTELY fantastic reading!

Barbara Harris Whitfield is extraordinarily insightful on the matter of Near Death Experience, having experienced one herself and then working in hospital settings where she saw people who were also NDErs.

Her personal story and her eloquent, lucid and compelling way of competently expressing the difficulties, positive and negative effects of non-NDErs, and coming to terms with the ND experience in one's life is a priceless gift.

I'm glad to have this book and hope that others also see the value in having it on hand for reference.

Barbara Harris wrote this book in 1989 as the first near-death experiencer to share her memoirs. And she was in a perfect position to do it because -- she was also a researcher at the University of Connecticut researching the near-death experience with the top people in the field, Bruce Greyson, MD and Ken Ring, PhD. Whatever she shared in this book, was also shared by the 100s of people they interviewed. Her story explains the results of the research -- that people experiencing a profound spiritual awakening, near-death and in other ways -- can have an energy arousal that is not understood by Western medicine. She continues this explanation in her next book Spiritual Awakenings.

This book is the personal story of a woman who had two near-death experiences while she was in the hospital undergoing extensive treatment for a severe back condition. Her story on a personal level is interesting, but more than that, this book has alot of information about the NDE, and what the experiencers go through AFTER it happens to them, and how to understand it, cope with it, and incorporate it into their lives. All the big names of researchers of NDEs are consulted, and there is alot to be learned for everyone, especially the experiencer themselves. It's all about understanding this true and real phenomena, and how to deal with it. Interesting and helpful. ... The experience is totally real and it's about time we talked about it! It's for all of us to learn from. Important book!

This book is so informative. I have learned tons from this book about business. I might add, not only is it educational, it is also humorous. This author is wonderful at keeping you interested in a subject that I think is boring, but had to learn about. And, I will also add...from his picture on the back of the book, he is also quite good looking! Thanks Brian for the wonderful advice ;)

Jones has created a fun, entertaining, and enlightening book on owning and running a business. This should be required reading for all business owners, even sole proprietors. You don't have to love football to enjoy the analogies between the book and the game. Great Book!

What a great book. As I am now finding the time to start my own business Brian Jones' book is an excellent game plan for doing so. His simple and straightforward advice mixed with sports analogies makes this an entertaining yet informative read and should be required when applying for a business license in any state. Thanks Brian.

Stephanie's writing style is engaging and encouraging. The information is fresh, her advice is right on the mark and when applied to real life situations, actually works! I highly recommend this book to everyone in the hospitality industry. Newcomers and veterans can benefit from Stephanie's expertise and kindly guidance. In addition, she is a truly gifted speaker with tremendous appeal. Her audiences have given consistant high marks on the quality of her delivery and the value of her information.

This is a must read for all of our new employees. We have several copies in strategic locations around the hotel. It is so easy to just pick it up and read a chapter or two in your spare time. The concepts are broken up into succinct chapters and are well defined. I highly recommend this book for the seasoned sales veteran, who needs a quick brush up, and the first time sales person, who needs to learn it all from the ground up. This book covers all the bases.

One of the most comprehensive and information books on the market in it's field. Anyone interested in selling rooms/meeting spaces should have this book in their reference library!

This book is really cool. It may be short, but it tells so many details andfacts about the actual charactersand their real life. I mean, did you know that Joey Gladstone is really Danny Tanner's best friend in real life? I didn't until I read this book. Itis really cool and I give it 5 stars. It's a must-have!

On one side of the book D.J. talks about her thoughts and on the other side Stephanie talks about her thoughts. They each enter their families in the big happy family of the year. Will they win? Find out by reading this book.

The book has pictures of the Full House family. D.J. shares her thoughts on her side. Then if you flip the book over Stephanie shares her thoughts. Both Stephanie and D.J. get interviewed by Michael Fabres so they can enter the Big Happy Family of the Year.

It is a book of an interesting woman from childhood to the present. Her experiences have been unusual but has guided her into wisdom and independence.

I know this woman, as she worked with me in the library mentioned in her book. I did not know her background very well, but after reading this book, I thoroughly enjoyed it. I recommend it. It is absorbing. Willow Grove, Pa.

This book makes excellent reading of a woman who has had a most interesting life from childhood to the present. There are serious obstacles in her life, but she also has humorous incidents and after many years of marriage and seven years as a widow, she has found a new love. She continues to enjoy life to the fullest and revels in her independence and activities. I found this book compelling.

Full Service's characters feel real. The interactions feel like they matter. There is a plot arc but it doesn't dominate the book - instead the book unfolds a particular summer, a particular lens on how it goes in a small white town and the larger world. This particular lens has a lot to do with sexuality and making sense of the world. There are a couple subtle gay characters but the focus is on heterosexuality - and this is one of the few teen books I've read where the women and girls are just as lusty as the men and boys and aren't made to suffer G-d's wrath for it. This is one of the books where each character is rounded with a virtue and a problem. It reminded me of "Our Town" but less feeling of allegory and more the feeling you could know people like these.

In the summer of 1965, shy Paul Sutton, at the urging of his mother, takes a job at the local Shell gas station in the tourist town of Hawk Bend, Minnesota. Paul is a bit apprehensive about his new summer occupation, but nonetheless leaves the shadow of his family's religious farming community and goes to "meet the public." Paul's stint as a full-service gas attendant quickly becomes anything but a simple summer job.

First, there's Kirk, the angry gas station manager whose frequent "service calls" and narrow-minded opinions soon get him in more trouble than he can handle. Then there's Harry, a kind, older gentlemen who's still trying to escape his gangster past. And beautiful Peggy, whose torrid love triangle between her controlling boyfriend Stephen and dark-haired Dale --- Peggy's on-the-side lover who's headed for Vietnam --- snags Paul into its tangled web.

Along with the great expectations of his community's fundamentalist ministers, the family of hippies visiting Hawk Bend on their way to San Francisco, and the various tourists who pass through Shell Station, Paul finds himself dealing with the prospect of a new independent life or continuing to lead the odd quiet farm life in which he grew up.

FULL SERVICE is about a young man's rite of passage as the world he lives in is undergoing its tumultuous own coming of age. It's a strangely compelling, nostalgic novel that may make readers notice how much the world has changed and how they themselves may have changed as well.

--- Reviewed by Sarah Sawtelle ([...])

" 'No, no, no,' she said impatiently, wiping her hands and turning down her radio, 'a real summer job--full-time. One where you could meet the public.'
"I glanced quickly through the screen door. 'What about Father?'
" 'I'll talk with him.'
"I shrugged. 'Yeah, well, what about the others?'
" 'For once let's not worry about the others,' she said. She turned back to her dishes, and her hands again moved into the soapy water as quick as trout among stones.
" 'The others' takes some explaining. We were a Midwestern family long on religion. Not Lutheran, but sort of. Not Mennonite, but kind of. Not Amish, but a little bit. Not Quaker, but a good part. It was a Christian nondenominational faith, a phrase mystifying to my few school friends who were not in it ('Come on, Sutton, how can a church have no name?'). Farmwork was communal. My family shared the larger machinery--baler, grain combine, corn picker, silo-filling equipment--with several other families in the Faith. Planting, haying, threshing, silo filling, corn picking were done on an orderly circuit: VandenEides, Grundlags, Sorheims, Suttons (that was us), and so on. Unlike the Mennonites in Canada or the Amish in central Minnesota, each family owned its own farm, but the focus was on shared work, worship, and fitting in with the others."

It's 1965, and Paul Sutton has spent his first nearly-sixteen years pretty-well sheltered by life on the farm, and living among those families of the Faith. Tumultuous events elsewhere--the Civil Rights Movement, the War--seem like they're taking place in another world as heard through Paul's mom's little transistor radio. But Paul's life is about to get shaken up in a big way thanks to one of his mom's infamous "plans":

" 'All right. I'm listening,' my father said, though he really wasn't.

" 'First, Paul finds a job--a real job, one where he can meet the public--and then we hire someone to take up the slack here at home,' she said.
"My father reached for the bread He began to butter a piece. The silence went on. Finally he said, 'First, I don't know that Paul necessarily wants to work in town. Second, who could we find to take his place? There are no hired men anymore. But third, none of it really matters, because there aren't any jobs in Hawk Bend for farm kids. Town kids have them all.'
"There was silence. I looked down at my food.
" 'It must be nice to be right all the time,' my mother said.
"I sucked in a breath and held it."

"Well, I try my best
To be just like I am,
But everybody wants you
To be just like them."
--Minnesota native, Bob Dylan (1965), "Maggie's Farm"

Thirty or forty pages into reading FULL SERVICE, I found myself thinking back to such wonderful children's books as BECAUSE OF WINN-DIXIE, A YEAR DOWN YONDER, and THE CANNING SEASON. These thoughts did not spring from any belief that Will Weaver's new book is the appropriate next read for the elementary school fans of those award-winning titles.

In fact, FULL SERVICE is a real sex, drugs, rock & roll, told-in-the-first-person, oft-rude, coming-of-age, YA novel that takes place back in '65.

But what Kate DiCamillo, Richard Peck, and Polly Horvath did so well with those books was to create unforgettable, multigenerational, ensemble casts of characters. And in FULL SERVICE, Will Weaver accomplishes this so exquisitely that I could easily imagine him writing another book about any one of, perhaps, a dozen different members of "the public" with whom Paul Sutton comes in contact as the result of landing a job at the Shell service station in downtown Hawk Bend, Minnesota (population 1,750) over that summer that he turns sixteen.

That list of characters begins with Paul's coworkers, Kirk and Bud. Kirk's the former high school jock with a wife, kids, and a rather healthy number of bad habits, as Paul quickly learns when he takes over manning the pumps at that full-service Shell station and starts meeting "the public."

"I met a local housewife with blonde hair piled high and sprayed in place. She seemed annoyed that I came out to wait on her, and she asked for fifty cents' worth of gas. She kept looking toward the office, the back room. 'Isn't Kirk on today?' she finally asked.
" 'Kirk is engaged by a service call.'
" 'I'll bet he is,' she said.
" 'Is there anything Bud or I might help you with?' I asked.
"She gave me a long look. 'Bud--it'd be a cold day in hell. And you--not for a couple of years.'
"My ears reddened like train semaphores.
"Unless you know furnaces, that is,' she said, raising one eyebrow at me.
" 'No, ma'am,' I stammered.
" 'There's the main boiler and then there's the pilot light,' she said, gesturing, drawing a circle with her hands.
"I nodded.
" 'Oh, you do know furnaces after all?'
" 'Well, kind of--I mean I know what a pilot light is,' I stammered. " 'Good. Good. A lot of men go through life never understanding the difference between a pilot light and the main boiler. My first husband, Bill, he never knew where to look. Matter of fact, he couldn't even find the basement.' "

Other notable characters include the "hired hands" Paul's mom succeeds in locating and "The Workers" who are supposed to be assisting Paul in preparation for his transformation into a grown member of their religious community.

Then those distant world events make their presence felt in Hawk Bend in the guise of a family passing through town in their VW bus on their way to joining the antiwar efforts in Berkeley, and a barber in town who lost his son in the Korean "conflict."

Through it all, Paul has to figure out where he stands in regards to his beliefs, his religion, and those world events, and how he fits into "the public."

In the long run, one of the characters we see through Paul's eyes who really surprised me is his father. The author sets him up as a rigid man of strict habit who strongly adheres to the rules of his religion, but, in contrast to stereotypes, Paul's father ends up as the rare character who really understands what being a Christian is all about.

As with Will Weaver's previous book, CLAWS, this is not only a book that I'm anxious to recommend, it is also a book about which I'm anxious to sit down with a bunch of teens and have long discussions.