MY

From the title to the last pages, this book was comforting and a must read for anyone dealing with the loss of a child. It is well-written, funny, and pulls at your heart strings. Thanks Judy and Kyle for sharing your story!

I would like to recommend this book, "Quit Kissing My Ashes" by Judy Collier. It is a "Must Read" for anyone who has lost a child. I lost my child in August of 2001. Reading this book convinced me that I was not going "crazy" receiving my "angel" signs from my little Christie. This book only proves that our loved ones are with us all the time, and our signs, no matter what we feel or believe, let us know that our children stay with us, even when they have "crossed over" to the other side. Judy Collier relates to her readers all her signs she and her family have received from her son, Kyle. Judy lets everyone know that there is life after death, and if a person truly believes and lets themselves feel, that these signs will just keep being received by those who have the faith that God's love is truly present at this sorrowful time. I, for one, know this is abosolutely true, even though I admit that my little angel tries to tell her mom to "Get a grip" as maybe I take "signs" a little too far. But, you know, if it makes me feel better, what the heck!!! When a loved one dies, especially your child, a person has to dig really deep and learn so much more. Thank you Judy for writing this much needed book, to let us all know we are not crazy!!! Most importantly, thanks for letting us all realize our children are okay. I believe all parents only want their children's happiness and peacefulness with no worries or pain. Now, I realize my angel and many others have this. So, I tell others, when you see us cry, it is not for Chrisite, but for us who, of course, miss her so deeply. But is she okay?? You bet, and I can't wait till our entire family will one day be together again. Read this amazing book and feel your own signs at your time of grief. With faith in God, and listening to your innermost feelings, you too will realize what Judy herself tries to convince others what she has truly felt and come to believe on her amazing journey--our kids live on and they are okay.

Judy Collier's remarkable autobiographical book, Quit Kissing My Ashes: A Mother's Journey Through Grief, is the powerful, profound, and intensely personal testimony of a teacher of special-needs children and bereaved mother whose beloved son Kyle died in 1996. Her intense mourning and her soul-deep grief are candidly presented, as is her eventual consolation obtained through working with a spiritual medium who was able to make her son's presence known to her on multiple occasions. We are compelling presented with Collier's personal experience and understanding that death is a only a beginning, not an end, and that the ones we love are always present with us in spirit. An uplifting, deeply moving book, Quite Kissing My Ashes is highly recommended for students of metaphysical studies in general, and anyone who has ever lost a loved one, in particular.

A great book and different than any other Marx Brothers book. Steve Stoliar was a college student who was lucky enough to spend the last couple years of Groucho's life with him. What makes this book so fascinating is Steve could have been anybody. He was just in the right place at the right time. Steve's sincerity shines throughout. A unique look at a legend who remained in the limelight until the end.

"One morning I shot an elephant in my pyjamas. How he got in my pyjamas I don't know". (Groucho Marx).

"Raised Eyebrows" is a fascinating account of life inside the home of Groucho Marx. There are many fine books available about Groucho Marx but this one is different as it deals with Groucho's later years and is written by Steve Stoliar who was a big Marx Brothers fan and by an extraordinary set of circumstances was lucky enough to land a job working for Groucho as his personal secretary and archivist. Even more remarkable was that Stoliar ended up actually living inside Groucho's Beverly Hills home. His main task was to deal with Groucho's fan mail and organise his memorabilia. This gave him the opportunity to study Groucho at close quarters and be present at all the parties, dinners, and other events at the house. He met many of Groucho's celebrity friends including Bob Hope, George Burns, Jack Lemmon, Milton Berle, Mae West, Red Buttons etc. He writes how most of them accepted him and were quite friendly (some might even have thought he was Groucho's grandson!) but just occasionally he was completely ignored by the celebrity guest (read the book to find out more!).

"If I hold you any closer I'll be in back of you!". (Groucho Marx).

How Stoliar came to have the job at Groucho's house makes very fascinating reading. He was just a 19 year old college student at UCLA and a big fan of the Marx Brothers when he had the idea to start a campaign to get their 1930 movie "Animal Crackers" re-released. This came to the attention of Groucho's companion and secretary Erin Fleming who phoned Stoliar for more information. A local showing of the film was arranged in Westwood with Groucho in attendance. Fleming kept in touch with Stoliar and eventually the movie was re-released nationwide with enormous success and created renewed interest in the Marx Brothers. Due to his efforts on the campaign and because of his knowledge and enthusiasm for Marx Brothers movies Fleming contacted Stoliar to offer him a job dealing with Groucho's fan mail and correspondence. He immediately accepted but expected to be working in some office building and was overwhelmed when he discovered he would be right there in Groucho's Beverly Hills home. He eventually lived in staying there for over three years.

"I never forget a face but in your case I'll make an exception!". (Groucho Marx).

One of the most interesting sections in the book for me was when Stoliar outlined the sometimes stormy relationship between Groucho and Erin Fleming which Stoliar was able to witness first hand. Fleming did a lot for Groucho but was not liked by the family (apart from Zeppo) and she was involved in a long drawn out court battle with Groucho's son Arthur Marx as to who should be declared Groucho's conservator to oversee his money matters. (This was before Groucho's death but when he was very fragile and confined to a wheelchair). The newspapers got onto the story and the headlines came fast and furious with many of Groucho's friends being called to the court to give evidence in favour of Arthur. However, Erin had her supporters too including Groucho's brother Zeppo who testified in court for her. He said that if Erin was taken away from Groucho "it would kill him" and that Erin was "the finest woman in the world". He had nothing but glowing things to say about Erin and her relationship with Groucho. He thought that Erin was good for Groucho and had prolonged his life. However, another side of the story came to light when a parade of former employees from Groucho's house took the stand. Evidence was given that Erin had treated Groucho badly, had screamed at him using filthy language and had even threatened him physically. Eventually, a compromise was reached with a new conservator being appointed.

"Will you marry me? Did he leave you any money? Answer the second question first". (Groucho Marx).

A very entertaining book about an insider's personal look at a Hollywood comedy legend. It is rare to find a book such as this where the author is in such close contact with his subject. It is really quite amazing that an ordinary fan like Steve Stoliar whose only ambition was to meet Groucho Marx and perhaps shake his hand and have a photo taken should spend over three years working and living in Groucho's Beverly Hills home. It certainly gives Stoliar credibility that he was present "on the inside" and therefore able to build up valuable and useful information over a long period of time which has now come to fruition with this book.

Just snapped this book up recently at a specialty bookstore & highly recommend it for anyone who is a Marx Brothers fan. Or an Algonquin Round table fan. Or an "Old Hollywood" fan. Anecdotes abound. But woven into the story is that of a diehard Groucho Marx buff who inhabits the tight, peculiar, often sad world of his last few years. Stoliar comes off as a decent guy with his heart in the right place, a relief since Groucho was surrounded by more than a couple of people with selfish ulterior motives towards him in the end. Erin Fleming, Groucho's companion in his last years, is intriguingly revealed as a complex, disturbing madwoman. Painfully sad read, but with the saving graces of humor & insight. Much of this was actually covered in Arthur Marx's book, but check out the different slant! I'm glad I read & own this book. I'll be back at it again.

Knowing Riki is a blessing. Riki signed my book and said at the time of doing so there was a lot of me in there. As an intersexed person that had just begun to read the book I had my reservations however we both see gender issues in a similiar fashion, this I already knew. The further I got into the book the more I begun to understand that Riki truly understands what people are all about. While her book is part autobiography and part gender/fem theory it allows those with an open mind to share a fresh perspective of just how all theis 'gender stuff' impacts Everyone! Truly a wonderful book.

Lots of MTW's/transwomen's claims to be feminist books are merely womanist and don't reveal a serious engagement of feminist gender studies. Riki Anne Wilchins is providing a transgender feminist political analysis of a good many things, including gender. The only objection I have to the text is the sexual self-disclosures that seem to violate the true integrity of the book. Where the queer sexual celebration of love works splendidly in Minnie Bruce Pratt's, "S/he," it feels like advertisement in Wilchins'.

I'm left wanting more of Riki Anne doing her transfeminist political critiques of US culture(s) and re-readings of Foucault. A beyond the old-boy bastions of heteropatriarchy, is where I want her to go. In this revolutionary's work there's much motivation to be found for taking social action. This puts the text nearly in the league with Leslie Feinberg's "Transliberation." What is quite interesting to note is the trumping of Kate Bornstein's "Gender Outlaw," that this text ably achieves. The everyday outlaw gal seems old school, by contrast, and relegated to the discourse of transsexual auto-autobiography proselytzings, or the "All About Me" genre. "Read My Lips," is a refreshing "switch," so to speak with the pun intended, from the overdose in transgender literature of ever-repetitous gender-crossing sufferable self-disclosures. Finally, the transwriter's emphasis lands on the political, emphasizing the need for collective action. In this sense, it is remarkable.

I love this book, which adds to the burgeoning collection of work by transgender theorists on their lives and critical perceptions about them. As a fellow Foucault junkie, I like the way that Riki Ann has factored the instability of bodies and truth into this work. As a gay male in a women's studies programme that is very open to transgender theory, I welcome and value Riki's work as a contribution. Rest assured, the other tribes within the queer nation want to listen to what you have to say.Riki, please write something else, soon!

Already having serveral books with very appetizing pictures, but complex recipes that required more time/effort than I wanted to spend, not to mention a shopping trip, I bought this book at a used book sale for about a dollar, thinking "what the heck". I soon found it to be one of the best dollars I've ever spent, and it's well worth the $10 or so charged here because this is one cookbook that you will actually USE.

I was delighted to find it a cookbook geared toward real 'home cooking'. As the title suggests, it does not contain gourmet or particularly fancy recipes, but very down-to-earth, practical, familiar favorites and comfort foods you'd find at Mom's house. I like it because it features the variations on common dishes that occur from family to family, as well as regional adaptations (the author's military family moved around the country quite a bit), that make tasty departures from the same ol'-same ol', as well as dishes you're familiar with but maybe never made at home. Recipes also include the kind of time saving shortcuts our moms used, and almost every ingredient will already be in your kitchen.

Cookbooks can be intimidating, but this one is like an old friend. A great resource for making quick, delicious everyday and company-worthy meals, it includes main dishes, sides, deserts, appetizers, drinks and even serving suggestions. This book is perfect for the beginning cook and anyone wanting to add variety the way they prepare the staples. Use other books for elegant entertaining, but for everyday meals for family and friends this is a winner.

We are excited about your recipe book, which is a wonderful tribute to your mother. We have known your parents for many years and can proudly say "your parents are wonderful people and gracious hosts".

I have had the honor of tasting all the recipes in the book,cooked by both Vale and Carolyn and love all of them. My son is now starting to enjoy them as well.

Once I started reading this book, I couldn't put it down until I was through. Congratulations on an excellent delivery. Waiting for Kokopelli's Dream.

A friend of mine suggested this book to me, I told me it would be worth the effort taken to find it. I couldn't agree more. The life story of Manny Twofeathers told in his words is a inspiration.

Manny is by no means a polished author, but the plain language and the raw presentation help to make this a much more compelling and effective book.

With some of the graphic descriptions of the sacrifices and ceremony involved in the Sundances,

I would suggest this book to anyone who is looking for some inspiration as they make there way through a long and troubled journey.

As one who knows Manny and is a Sundancer I recommend this book to anyone who truely wants some understanding of this most beautiful and powerful prayer. Manny's descriptions of how he got to this road and the road he traveled are straightforward and descriptive without loosing the respect for the ceremony. He describes the heart it takes to follow the Sundance Road.

I finished this book at 12:30 in the morning on January 2, and can think of no finer way to ease out of one year and greet the next. It's a brave and tender page turner and I could not put it down.

Sailing is a fairly rare thing: an honest book about living a spiritual life. It talks about how one writer entered Santeria, an Afro-Cuban religion, without losing her skeptical eye, integrating a 21st-century woman's rationalism with a willingness to believe. Not many books show someone actually doing the work of embracing a personal spirituality--doubting, moving one step forward and two steps back, but moving. This is one of those books.

Sailing is also about remaking the mother-daughter bond, caring for a mother losing her short-term memory as she moves toward death. By now, you may be saying, "I get it. The woman found God, and God helped her deal with Mom." But spirituality didn't always help. Thompson's mother tried as hard as she could to push her daughter away, and Alzheimer's isn't pretty--one of Thompson's most rousing successes comes when she finally gives Stinky Mom a shower, a production that should make you laugh if you're not dead. Facing your mother's old age takes a sense of humor.

Looking back on her ancestors, as Santeria practitioners do, Thompson tells of the family that formed her mother, and braids in her love story with her husband. Thompson as a novelist has always been a superb stylist, and the voice as much as the story kept me reading through the night. When you marry her voice to this true and unusual tale, you get a book I can't recommend highly enough.

This wonderful book overtook my life for 3 days as I savored each short, wise chapter. I was sorry when I reached the last page. A book about love, death, spirit, it is equally a funny down-to-earth account of a woman's everyday struggles with career, family and what to wear. Here's the bonus...Thompson's wordcraft is masterful. Her lovely meditation on the simple dance of a falling leaf is as lyrical as the passages about her working days at Microsoft are richly drawn. If you have an aged, impaired parent, you will find in Thompson a wise and witty guide on how to maneuver the tough, too-real moments. There is heartbreak here but also a sense of honor in helping a loved one transition into death. The vignette when she steals away from her abusive husband with her young children is told mostly though dialogue between her and her unsuspecting 6 year old daughter. A lovely and harrowing account where the mother protects the child but never quite tells a lie. Thompson's memoir challenges readers to find their own stories. The real treasure is her writing, an astonishing gift. If you're a fan of words, welcome to your new favorite writer, Joyce Thompson.

Hello to all those tappers out there - I love all of you - Including you Savion. My name is Vaughan and I am actually Australian. My mother taught me how to tap ever since I could stand on two feet. Now, I'm 19 years old. And I'm a professional tap dancing teacher in Japan. Let me just say that I could relate a lot with what Savion was talking about. His views on tap and the way he wants it to go.

It's a fun book to read - with some great action tap shots of Savion throughout his life. The layout is very original, and very creative - it was nice to take my mind off my uni degree for a couple of hours and learn about this extremely successful tap dancer. Someone who I didn't know too much about, but now somehow believe that I've known him all my life.

It's a great art - Tap Dancing. And I wish there were people who could indulge themselves in a couple of professional / guest classes. I go around all of Japan teaching in my holidays, and I try to get as many people involved. Maybe because not many people do it, thats what makes it so unique. Thanks Savion - for following your dreams and publishing this book. It was a great read.

Your fellow Tap Dancer... Vaughan

I couldn't put this book down. As a tapper, who is into hoofing and rythm tap, this book was amazing. It explains not only Savin's life and his career but how he uses his shoes to do what he does. This book brings an element of percusion into the dance world that needs to be more widely used.

We've been hearing his wonderful rhythms for years, now we finally get to hear his voice. What a true inspiration! This book just makes you want to jump up and start moving your feet. Believe me, this book is not just for children. I used it as required reading for my advanced tap class at the local college.

'Over My Dead Body' finds a young lady who arrives at Wolfe's door claiming to be Wolfe's daughter. Wow! What a way to start the book! Things begin to heat up even more when the young lady is suspected of a murder in a fencing studio.

This is the seventh entry in the Wolfe series, and it is an entertaining one. Wolfe is in his usual beer-drinking, orchid-loving form, using that brilliant mind of his to sort out any difficulty. In this book, we begin to see a little more depth in two of the recurring minor characters in Wolfe's employ: First, Fred Durkin, the lumbering, bumbling guy who is not too bright, but is always there when Wolfe needs him. Second, Saul Panzer, who is probably just as good a detective as Archie (well, almost), but is completely no-nonsense. (And Archie thinks he's better looking than Saul.)

I'd give the book 4.5 stars if I could. The only problem is Wolfe says a few words and lines that really aren't in character for him. This would only distract readers who have read a lot of the books. Since this book is still fairly early in the series, Stout can be forgiven. 'Over My Dead Body' is definitely a Wolfe book not to be missed.

Having read just about all of the Nero Wolfe series, I have to say, this one contains all of the elements that make Rex Stout's detective novels wildly entertaining, without most of the elements that make some of them maddening

In this mystery, the utterly unswashbuckling Wolfe is revealed, in his younger, svelter days, to have been quite a romantic. Not only did he fight on the anti-Imperial side in Montenegro during the Great War, but he adopted and may even have actually sired a young girl.

To his shock, this young Yugoslav maiden--whom he had lost track of--reappears in his life, up to her neck in a particularly messy, intricate affair that may or may not include missing diamonds, a dead body or two, international intrigue, and a bellboy's uniform. For all of the peeks into Wolfe's previously unsuspected soul, he remains as crumudgeonly and as immovable as ever. Archie Goodwin, of course, remains the wisecracking, milk-drinking sidekick, flirting with anything in a skirt and even giving a Nazi agent a black eye just for the fun of it.

The joy of these books is their marriage of the American gumshoe attitude and the British cozy focus on character. Where they generally fall short is their plotting. This entry in the series is, without a doubt, the most successfully rounded out of the lot. Stout manages to keep the mystery truly mysterious, and yet never manages to confuse the reader so thoroughly that s/he can't find the exit. The plot actually ends on the last page--many of the Nero Wolfe mysteries fizzle out, wrapping up a chapter or two before the end, leaving nothing but rumination and grumbling for the final pages. Others seem never quite to wrap up all the loose ends. Here, the conclusion is both inevitable and unexpected--utterly satisfying.

Imagine having Nero Wolfe as your dear old dad. That's one of the delicious premises of this book. The mystery is a very good one. But even more entertaining is the glimpses into Wolfe's early life, when he was "lean," and his long-ago adventures in Europe. Archie is terrific, as always. The police go from adversaries to allies, and there's plenty of action to keep us on our toes.

The questions in this book allow the reader to muse on their own relationships with their parents and others close to them, and hopefully to realise how important it is to make time to communicate within families. Buy it to read, think and keep it visible on your bookshelf as a reminder of what is important and that there is always time to talk to those close to you, however busy you think you are.

At first glance I thought this was just another "quick-fix" book offering [bad] platitudes about the quest to reveal the mythical father-figure.

I started to leaf through it and three days later I'm still excited and troubled by what "Questions" has revealed to me.

The questions are, quite simply, stunning in their originality and form. There's stuff here I wouldn't have thought of asking in a million years.

And then there's the narrative that is sprinkled throughout the text; a dark and troubled trans-America motorcycle trip during which the author has an eerie insight into the importance that his father has played in his life. Too late, of course. Staniforth returns to England just in time to watch his Dad die, and so begins the internal intellectual voyage of discovery about his father.

Read it, use it, buy it for a father or a child. This book can save families.

A wonderful book to learn more about your father and yourself.
It's also a fantastic conversation maker. Don't miss out on
this jewel of a book.

Raising Raul was such a refreshing book to read because of Hinojosa's ability to keep me glued. I read it in two days. How did she manage to do that?? Her struggle to achieve motherhood is narrated in such a frank manner,with such flavorful intimate details;you just can't help but be drawn into her world. While the book in itself is wonderful I did have an objection. The name, Raising Raul, is a bit of a misnomer. I thought the book spent too much time on Hinojosa trying to conceive Raul rather than focusing on when she did have him which is what the title suggests.

My mother gave this book to me right after my son was born. She liked the general mothering idea it proposed - sort of a "whatever you do, so long as you do your best, all will be OK." It was wonderful to read Maria's thoughts on motherhood (and all of it's ups and downs) while I was still adjusting myself. I read most of it while breastfeeding (the early months can be marathon feedings)!

Men have no reason to feel uncomfortable about reading and appreciating this book. I love Maria Hinojosa's memoir because it is easy to empathize with her efforts to become pregnant after past near misses. She writes about so much more than just pregnancy and motherhood, though. The book's richness resides in how honest and open she is about her struggle; and its impact on her relationships with her parents, husband, and friends. Even when she discussed painful topics and incidents, I detected no bitterness or sense of blame. Most of all, I appreciate Hinojosa's acknowledgement of spirituality as a constant pillar of her development. This is a rich, down to earth, and moving invitation into one woman's experience of parenthood, marriage, friendship, culture and love. Do not miss it!