On-the-tape

* * * * * FIVE STARS! NO DOUBT ABOUT IT! * * * * * Last summer I found this book on my younger brother's desk--a gift to him from our mother. As an eighteen-year-old college student, I thought the writing would be "too young" for me. NOPE! I read the book and it has significantly changed my views of myself, others, and the world. On another note, I liked the book so much that I decided to check out 'the original,' Sean's father's book (7 Habits of ... *people*): the verdict: I personally found the book for Teens a MUCH better read. Sean's writing style is concise and very visual, making it easy to understand, enjoyable, and fun. The anecdotes and stories are universally applicable--despite racial, economic, etc. backgrounds (or even age!). He doesn't waste time getting to the point, taking a single paragraph to introduce a new concept, and then supporting it with two or three stories, anecdotes, or quotations; and yes, there are even pictures too! The end product is something that is VERY enjoyable, practicable, and has helpful. If you have ANY doubts about whether or not to read this book, I would say that if you are even looking into it enough to read this review, you and someone you know can greatly benefit from the ideas in this book. Of course self-change is scary and difficult, but this book makes it fun and easy. It's helped me to not only improve my own life, but also that of my younger brother, guiding me to be a better role model for him. When I first found this book I had made fun of it, but as soon as I had begun reading, I was hooked [or as the book would have me say, "I hooked myself..."] Thanks Sean (and Stephen) for your contribution(s)! [And thanks Mom, too...] : - )

Teenagers are so extremely busy today trying to juggle school, home life, friends, sports, after school activities, friends and plan for the future. This book helps a teen to recognize the need to look at and begin from a solid foundation in life.

I work for the Office for Youth Ministry in the Archdiocese of Boston. I run many training sessions for adult youth ministers and leaders who work with teenagers. We help them create effective youth ministry environments. This book has proven an extremely effective tool in that process.

It is an easy read for the teenager or for the adult that wants to read 7 Habits of Highly Effective People but want to read it from a lighter perspective. It was also used as a text for a one day training course for a group of teens at a local high school. They loved it, especially the Baby Step recommendation sections. A great gift for a teen or for those of us young at heart

This book is great! Teenagers can really relate to this kind of stuff! The book is jam packed with pictures, quotes, and best of all the best advice a teenager could get!
It's divided into sections of the 7 Habits for Highly Effective Teens. This book isn't a book to preach or lecture. It's a book to learn from and grow from.
If you really take this book to heart it could change your life somehow. It could help give you more positive outlooks on life.
This is a great book for teenagers~

This book really deserves more than 5 stars. It is off the chart!!! It is one of the best books I have ever read! The entire Kensington Chronicles series is fabulous. All of the books in the series took me places I've never been and knew very little about. But Wings of the Morning is my favorite. It is loaded with adventure, thrill, suspense, love and romance, and God throughout it all. I was learning Scripture while living a whole new life on the high seas. The captivation starts with page one and doesn't end even when the book ends. I highly recommend this book, and every other book that has Lori Wick's name on it.

I have all books Lori Wick has ever written and have read them many times. By far, this is her best. Something about these characters is special. They draw you into their story and become a part of you long after you turn the last page. God is always the hero in her books, and Wings of the Morning is no different. The chemistry between the characters is marvelous. Everyone I loan this book to returns it to me smiling and always saying it was their favorite. Thank you, Lori Wick for your marvelous work!

A wonderful, unusual story of love, adventure, and social graces in the 1800's. While carrying a unisex nickname and hiding behind men's clothes, Smokey is a beautiful woman... and a gift to all her know her, except the pirate who wants her.

Lori Wick makes places I have never seen and lifestyles I will never experience feel like home. So realistic is her story line that I can feel the bumps as the carriage navigates dry land, an unusual place for a ship's captain.

This book 2 of the "Kensington Chronicles" series is a must read! While a bit more enjoyable if you have read #1 (The Hawk and The Jewel), this 'stand alone' book stands out on it's own. A new cover has been released on this 1994 book.

Another wonderful book by Mary Stewart that grips the reader and drags him or her into an imaginative world of wonder.

This book is a wonderful read! Stewart keeps the suspense up untill the end! I highly recommend it!

I have loved every novel written by Mary Stewart, some more than others. I read this one well over twenty years ago and many times since then. It is one of my many favorite of her books. In her books you get to travel; you feel as if you are really there. I have wanted to visit almost every place I have visited in her books. I too had pledged to see the Lippizaner stallions someday & I finally got to see them a few years ago. They were wonderful of course. There is magic in all the Mary Stewart books; the relationships in this one in particular were warm and appealing.

Patricia Polacco captivates young and old alike with this story of friendship and courage that is based on real events. Polacco brings the story of the Nazi occupation in France to her readers through a family hiding a Jewish family in their basement. Polacco uses rich water color illustrations to evoke feelings of fear and hope. Told from a child's point of view, this story opens the door to discussions of prejudism and racism during this time of national unrest.

This book is based on a true story. It is about two girls; Monique and Sevrine, in which Sevrine and her family are trying to survive against the Nazis' attacks. Before Monique meets Sevrine, her best friend is Denise. This story takes place in France. Monsieur Marks, owner of the candystore, gets taken away by the Nazi soldiers. Monique asked her mother, Marcel Solliliage, why they took him away. Her mother tells her it is because he is a Jew. A night before all this happened, Monique claims she saw a ghost girl. Later, Monique finds out that Sevrine is the ghost girl and that she isn't really a ghost at all.
Monique asks here where she lives. Sevrine says that she lives here. Monique is puzzled by this because she lives there. Sevrine tells her that she is a Jew, so she has to hise from the Nazis. Sevrine tells her that she lives in the cellar in her house, and that Marcel Sollilage has been hiding her family for awhile. Since Monique found out that Sevrine lived in her house, she would have someone to come to her room at night to play with. She brought Sevrine things like soil and then one day, a butterfly. They both go to the window to let the butterfly go and their next-door neighbor, Monsieur Lendormy, saw them together. They thought that Sevrine and her family were in danger, so they went to go find and wake up Monique's mother.
Marcel tells them to put on as much layers on them as they could and had Sevrine's parents dressed up as a priest and a nun. A car pulls up that Sevrine is going to ride in. Monique gives Sevrine her cat, Pinoff and Sevrine gives her a gold chain with a gold Star of David on it. Will Sevrine and her family survive? Will Monique ever see Sevrine again? Read this great story if you want to find out what happens. I thought this book was great because it was based on a true story. It is a great story, that tells you about two little girls that come face to face with the Nazis, but still have faith that it will all be over soon.

I am a college student who wants to become an elementary school teacher. This book was read to us in one of my education classes and I fell in love with it. It will fit in with any unit on the Holocaust.

I found this anthology to be full of compelling stories - many having to do with extraordinary coincidence, others simple stories of Jewish life. I was surprised at the high caliber of writing in this book, since some of the other "Chicken Soup" books are more about inspiration and less about the craft of writing. There is a lovely story by Rabbi Gerald Wolpe about the great kindness of a fellow congregant, and a remarkable account from Norman Jaffe and Leslie Riskin about "The Day Hitler Touched Me." All in all, it is a wonderful compilation, well worth the cost. I highly recommend the book.

So nu, it's about time we finally got "Chicken Soup for the JEWISH Soul" -- after all, didn't we Jews invent the chicken-soup-cure-all metaphor in the first place? And storytelling is such a big part of our culture, that there was no shortage of material. In fact, according to the intro to this book, one of the reason it took so long to edit is because there was SO MUCH material. Enough, I hope, to do a sequel or two.

I was delighted to find so many of my favorite contemporary stories included: Larry Trapp, the ex-KKK member who had a real change of heart; a prison inmate touched by a hug from the late Shlomo Carlebach; How Kirk Douglas re-connected with his Jewishness at the Western Wall; how Eddie Kantor started the March of Dimes; the heroism of Raoul Wallenberg; the good-hearted people of Billings, Montana, who took a stand against antisemitism, etc. Plus there are many, many new stories to touch the heart and soul. Ten stars!

The Larry Trapp story is amazing, and I was deeply touched by the Billings, Montana, the "Rabbi's blessing," and the Ed Koch/Mother Teresa stories and the Anne Frank excerpt. These are stories about the power of human kindness and about the value ALL people have to God. I am not Jewish myself, but I loved this book. It shows that (in the words of Voltaire) "prejudice is the reason of fools."

I am a sucker for beautiful words. These are some of the most beautiful I have read. I am so grateful to Mr. Fulghum for collecting these passages in one easily accessible volume. Though I read the book in two short hours, I find myself pulling it from the shelf frequently for comfort, words of wisdom, or lyrics to the music of my life. This book also gave me the "right" words to memorialize two very close family members. I am grateful. Do not deny yourself the pleasure of this wonderful little book. It is a "keeper." -- Dr. Allison L. Hayes

This book has to be one of the best that I have ever read. The effect that it has on the reader is immediate and profound, for it has a way of showing you life through the simplest and yet most obtuse terms. It is truly a piece that will expand the mind and inspire the imagination, a much read for any "thinker."

I have enjoyed the other reviews, especially one with all the Poetry! From judging by the Author's picture on the back cover in his Library, seeing the references to William Butler Yeats, and quotes in Chaps: Simplify, Play, Lafter, God, Bene-Dictions and Contra-Dictions. I wholeheartedly agree that he loves poetry and very likely is a Poet! He is infinitely qualified to write about and quote these intensely varied poems like "Ithaca, "How can I keep from singing, "All things dull and ugly, plus Annie Dillard and Thomas Merton!

I am pleasantly surprised to see his quote of F. Scot Fitzgerald on being able "to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time...since I had lost that proper resource. Also happily, I noted the successive pages with Walt Whitman, William Blake and Ralph Walso Emerson! I am fortunately blessed to discover this collection of Wisdom, to keep alongside of Thomas Moore's neat "Meditations, Thomas Merton's "Essays on Contemplation, and Anthony deMello's "Awareness plus his "Song of The Bird.

Reading his Introducton, so personally written, I was reminded of his earlier, "From Beginning to End" and his final chapter fittingly titled Bene-Dictions using Carl Sandburg and Jerry Garcia! Pointedly contrasting excerpts from my favorite chapters I conclude with his Big Chapter on God: With "Renascence of Edna St Vincent Milay, "When We Very Young of AA Milne, ee cummings, Nikos Kazantzakis...Altogether are too much for my mysticism to handle at one sitting! From an experienced Lover of Wisdom Writings... Retired Chaplain Fred W Hood

This was the first Heyer book I read. It was given to me by my aunt who suggested it to me as similar to Pride and Prejudice, one of my very favorites. It is the best type of charming, lighthearted, and entertaining novel one could ever want to read. Its endearing characters won't let you stop till you have read it to its end. Being a girl, I naturally focus on the male lead and this one is incredible. His appeal is so obvious and yet Heyer, even in her most devestating heros, stays cleanly away from degrading sexual banter. The humor in this book made me laugh out loud...Heyer has a talent for instilling in her characters a dry and ready wit that makes for the most entertaining dialogues. Arabella, the lead female is clever, coniving, sweet, endearing, and a bit of a rascle. Pleanty of fire and spice in all the right places. Really an excellent read, especially for ladies, young and old who long for romance yet don't want to fill their minds with trash.

Don't be fooled; these stories are not merely romances. Georgette Heyer is a great writer; she takes what might be construed as hackneyed material and makes it sing. I own a tattered paperback of Arabella and I think it may well be my favorite; I know that when I need a laugh and a cry and to be absorbed by witty sparring that leads to a happy ending, I reach for this book time after time. The draw is not only the charming romance between the main characters, but her fastidious eye for detail and ear for dialogue. I hope that these books never go out of print for long.

I must agree with the reviewer who called Arabella the best Cinderella story ever. This was the first Heyer I ever read, the first romance I ever read, many years ago, and it got me hooked. While I normally prefer Heyer's older heroines, Arabella is so completely engaging you cannot help but adore her. She is not only young, she is beautiful, another oddity for Heyer's heroine's, but Arabella has had a steady upbringing and is unconcerned with her looks and well aware that character counts for much more. Be that as it may, she has no trouble enjoying the frivolous wonder of a London season, and does let her pride and temper land her in the uncomfortable position of being thought an heiress when she most assuredly is not. Our hero, Beaumaris, is an absolute dreamboat, but of course slightly jaded, and is delighted with Arabella's lively innocence. He doesn't fall in love, however, until he sees the depth of character beneath her surface beauty and charm, and the lengths to which he will go to win Arabella's love at that point are both amusing and endearing. This is an altogether delightfully satisfying romance that I can guarantee will go on your keeper shelf and be enjoyed over and over for years to come.

No need to look at of Tom Sharpe's novels if you are looking for refined literature. The man simply pumps out farcical stories which polk fun at the establishment and wealthy folks in particular. As with most farces, the reader can either find it all to be hilarious or simply stupid. Fortunately this reader found it to be hilarious.

'Blott on the Landscape' is about one woman's fight to keep her ancestral home at all costs, with the help of her gardener (Blott). We are exposed to the most improbable characters and actions imaginable, with rude behaviour and language in abundance. It all has a 1970s British television sitcom feel about it. Still I think most Brits will enjoy this book, and fortunately it is still in print over here.

Bottom line: Tom Sharpe in fine form. I'm still giggling.

This is the first Tom Sharpe I read, and it just seems so much better that the others...I first saw the t.v. series, and was even more impressed by the book. I loved eveything about it, the plot, the exagerrated characters, the way everything fits together at the end. I was a bit disturbed that I could laugh so much about a woman deliberately letting a lion eat her (thoroughly horrible and worthless) husband, but this is the mad world that Tom Sharpe takes you to. Ther way the betrayed wife should become best friend and ally with her husbands mistress is just hysterical! My other favourite character was the poor,bureacratically challenged head of the motorway planning authourity who had none! A great book to escape into.

Tom Sharpe, Christopher Brookmyre, P.J. O'Rourke, Stephen Fry, P.G.Wodehouse - they all fall into the category of authors who REALLY make me laugh. If you mix up Billy Connelly and John Cleese, you'll get the idea. In Blott on the Landscape (which was turned into a BBC television series), Sharpe's humour is as sharp as ever (pun intended) and his characterizations are an absolute scream. Of course, it helps if you appreciate British humour which, at times, can be quite black. (A woman getting a lion to eat her own husband?)

Tom Sharpe's 'Wilt' books were comical enough but, in Blott on the Landscape and Porterhouse Blue, he excels even his own high standards of comic writing.

This is the most beautiful wolf book I own. The book reads poeticly, and will make you seriously fall in love with this animal. You will see through the wolf's eyes. This is one of few books were the author photographed all wild wolves, and never "lived" with the pack to do it.

I actually bought the AUDIO version of BROTHER WOLF. I listened to it and was amazed at the thoughts and insights. This book was written BEFORE wolves were reintroduced into YellowStone. I was especially won over by the descriptions of the relationships of wolf and man and the relationship with the ravens. I enjoyed it so much, I decided to purchase the book as a gift for someone. I knew the author was a photographer but I guess I totally forgot about the fact that there might be PICTURES. When the book came, I was enthralled with this icing on the cake. So of course, I'm keeping the book and ordering another for the gift.

Jim Brandenburg succinctly captures the essence of the wolf. The wolf has been so unfairly persecuted throughout our history; due on no small part to ranchers. Incredible photographs, this book will make you a wolf lover if you aren't already. Incredible text and photos!!!!

i'm very impressed. :-)

hecht writes well (great rhythmic flow, not surprising considering he's also an accomplished musician), plots well (reminded me a bit of the magus in terms of layers unfolding), researches well (a very vivid portrayal of new orleans), creates complex engaging characters (cree just draws you in, like people/ghosts she encounters draw her in, joyce is a hoot, etc.), and provides substantial scary/emotional reader payoffs (an early scene in the "haunted house" is truly horrifying, cree's self-discoveries are very moving, etc.).

there's so much to like about this novel, but just two flaws (for me): 1) hecht can do "scary" as well as anyone i've read, but he doesn't do it enough in the book; i wanted more. 2) i found the ending a bit flat and disappointing.

if you like ghost stories and/or psychological mysteries, definitely read it. :-)

Daniel Hecht has certainly done his homework with this wonderfully written book. He describes the city of New Orleans very accurately, and all of the characters fit into the backdrop seamlessly. I certainly look forward to reading the next novel in the Cree Black series. She is a very likeable character with a fascinating gift. I can't wait to see where Cree will end up next, perhaps with Dr. Paul Fitzpatrick by her side? Don't keep us waiting too long Mr. Hecht!!

From page one I knew that this book was the pick of the litter from my local chain bookstore. It happened to be a second string choice for me but it turned into the best book I have purchased since Patricia Cornwell's 'Kay Scarpetta' novels.
Cree Black reads as a very likeable and down to earth person, an easy to relate to character although, sometimes I could hear myself screaming "Dont go in there!" to her as I read some of the more spine tingling and scary situations she put herself into. The addition of modern science adds so much to this story that I almost believed in ghosts myself.
While this book shows some of the darker or seedier sides of New Orleans it is also charming and nostalgic in its descriptions. I loved the history, the cemetaries and the old Beauforte house. What great descriptive detail this writer gives! I look forward to much more ghost hunting tales with Cree Black and Daniel Hecht. Hurry Daniel, I want more.