Someday

Book Description

A mother's love leads to a mother's dream -- every mother's dream -- for her child to live life to its fullest.

A deceptively simple, powerful ode to the potential of love and the potential in life, Someday is the book you'll want to share with someone else...today. The perfect gift for Mother's Day, Graduation Day or Any Day - share a copy with every special person in your life.

Customer Reviews:

A beautiful, emotionally-charged book.......2007-10-16

The first time I read this book was in a bookstore where I fought valiantly against the urge to cry copiously. Yesterday, during both readings of my daughter's newly arrived copy, I found my voice breaking and tears starting. In simple prose and spare but beautiful drawings, this book does a simply wonderful job of summing up the complexities of a mother's love for her daughter. I can't think of another book that more perfectly expresses the love I feel for my little girl. I love how the book begins with the newborn and ends with the newborn as an old woman. It led to a discussion with my daughter of how I was once a baby in my own mother's arms and how I have grown to have a daughter of my own. The book does such a lovely job of describing this circle of life. Just thinking about it brings tears to my eyes. I highly recommend this for any mother of a daughter--no matter how young or old your little girl.

If you're a mom, this will make you cry.......2007-10-10

Touching book about being a mom. I've gotten it for my mom friends as a gift, and they all found it very touching. It's geared toward mom/daughter, but the message is sentimental. Cry everytime I read it. Love this book.

Beautiful.......2007-10-10

I absolutely love this book and cry or get emotional almost every time I read it. I have purchased it as a baby book for every woman I know who has recently had a baby girl. Each one of them feels the same for it. It is a treasure.

A Mother's Storybook Wish for Her Child.......2007-10-04

SOMEDAY is a mother's heartfelt storybook wish for her child -- that her child will grow up healthy, experience great joys, and someday have a family of her own. It's also a wish that she will be lovingly remembered by her child ("Someday, a long time from now, your own hair will glow silver in the sun. And when that day comes, love, you will remember be.") The book is reminiscent of Robert Munsch's Love You Forever, but the storyline is simpler and more realistic. The illustrations complement the story beautifully. Highly recommended.

touching, to say the least.......2007-09-21

This book brings me to tears at the very thought of it. I got about 1/2 way through the darling pictures and wonderful, sweet words and the tears started. By the time I finished I was a mess. I'm sure it will touch every mother who reads it-it is definitely a book for a baby girl or daughter since the pictures depict a mother/daughter relationship.It's about the simple memories we make with our children that mean more than anything. It's also about the dreams we hold for them. I now have a FAVORITE new book, one that will definitely be bought for others as well. Don't miss this one!

A Confederacy of Dunces (Evergreen Book)

Average customer rating:

A Colossal Waste of Time
Cajun-Style Don Quixote
imho....overated due to the book's backstory
A Confederacy of Dunces
Not as funny as they make it out to be

A Confederacy of Dunces (Evergreen Book)
John Kennedy Toole
Manufacturer: Grove Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0802130208

Amazon.com

"A green hunting cap squeezed the top of the fleshy balloon of a head. The green earflaps, full of large ears and uncut hair and the fine bristles that grew in the ears themselves, stuck out on either side like turn signals indicating two directions at once. Full, pursed lips protruded beneath the bushy black moustache and, at their corners, sank into little folds filled with disapproval and potato chip crumbs."

Meet Ignatius J. Reilly, the hero of John Kennedy Toole's tragicomic tale, A Confederacy of Dunces. This 30-year-old medievalist lives at home with his mother in New Orleans, pens his magnum opus on Big Chief writing pads he keeps hidden under his bed, and relays to anyone who will listen the traumatic experience he once had on a Greyhound Scenicruiser bound for Baton Rouge. ("Speeding along in that bus was like hurtling into the abyss.") But Ignatius's quiet life of tyrannizing his mother and writing his endless comparative history screeches to a halt when he is almost arrested by the overeager Patrolman Mancuso--who mistakes him for a vagrant--and then involved in a car accident with his tipsy mother behind the wheel. One thing leads to another, and before he knows it, Ignatius is out pounding the pavement in search of a job.

Over the next several hundred pages, our hero stumbles from one adventure to the next. His stint as a hotdog vendor is less than successful, and he soon turns his employers at the Levy Pants Company on their heads. Ignatius's path through the working world is populated by marvelous secondary characters: the stripper Darlene and her talented cockatoo; the septuagenarian secretary Miss Trixie, whose desperate attempts to retire are constantly, comically thwarted; gay blade Dorian Greene; sinister Miss Lee, proprietor of the Night of Joy nightclub; and Myrna Minkoff, the girl Ignatius loves to hate. The many subplots that weave through A Confederacy of Dunces are as complicated as anything you'll find in a Dickens novel, and just as beautifully tied together in the end. But it is Ignatius--selfish, domineering, and deluded, tragic and comic and larger than life--who carries the story. He is a modern-day Quixote beset by giants of the modern age. His fragility cracks the shell of comic bluster, revealing a deep streak of melancholy beneath the antic humor. John Kennedy Toole committed suicide in 1969 and never saw the publication of his novel. Ignatius Reilly is what he left behind, a fitting memorial to a talented and tormented life. --Alix Wilber

Book Description

The best-selling, Pulitzer Prize-winning classic hailed by The New York Times Book Review as "a masterwork . . . the novel astonishes with its inventiveness . . . it is nothing less than a grand comic fugue." A Confederacy of Dunces is an American comic masterpiece. John Kennedy Toole's hero, one Ignatius J. Reilly, is "huge, obese, fractious, fastidious, a latter-day Gargantua, a Don Quixote of the French Quarter. His story bursts with wholly original characters, denizens of New Orleans' lower depths, incredibly true-to-life dialogue, and the zaniest series of high and low comic adventures" (Henry Kisor, Chicago Sun-Times).

Customer Reviews:

A Colossal Waste of Time.......2007-10-16

I heard that the book was a comic masterpiece so I gave it a try. After reading the Preface I was prepared to withstand a slow start that was supposed to grow slowly towards a climatic ending (or at least an interesting ending). A friend of mine was given the book and she tried to get through it 2 or 3 times but she kept getting to a point that she couldn't push through. I was able to push through because I expected a payoff later on that never came.

None of the characters are completely likable. They are all idiots at one point or another and they repeatedly act in a way that I have trouble believing a normal person would. If this was a play, television show or a movie I would say that all of the characters were overacting. They would constantly repeat the same stupid sayings over and over and over again throughout the book. The whole time I am thinking how unbelievable this dialog is because normal people don't act this way. This was just stupidity. It might even be bearable if it was only a couple of screwballs characters but instead everyone is inept. There was no one to root for or to identify with and it simply was not entertaining to read.

The only good thing that I can say about the book is that the title is appropriate.

Cajun-Style Don Quixote .......2007-10-15

There are two ways of perceiving Cervantes's "Don Quixote." In the modern interpretation Don Quixote is an idealistic dreamer, a hopeless romantic battling the windmills of a bitter, cynical world. The more traditional (and I'd say correct) interpretation is that Don Quixote is a dangerous madman adhering to an outdated ideology and sowing havoc wherever he goes. Based on which interpretation you believe in, the novel can be seen as charmingly comic or darkly comic.

The same can be said for "A Confederacy of Dunces." Ignatius Reilly is Don Quixote of the bayou, a grossly overweight, strangely dressed believer in Medieval philosophy. He espouses these beliefs in notebooks, to his mother, at the movie theater (to the annoyance of patrons, ushers, and managers), and to any perspective employer. The only one close to understanding him might have been his dead collie, whom he loves in a not-entirely healthy way. The second closest is his former girlfriend--using the term loosely--Myrna Minkoff, an heiress turned political activist from New York.

Reilly's mother caters to his every need--such as supporting him through the better part of a decade of college, though it never leads him to a stable job--until she runs her car into a building while drunk. This leads her to forcing Reilly out into the world. His interactions with employees at a pants factory, a hot dog vendor, a gay man in the French Quarter, and a bar's employees create mayhem for Reilly and those he comes into contact with.

I think the prevailing view is to think of Ignatius Reilly as a madcap fish out of water, the idealistic dreamer interpretation. But it's not hard to also see him as a fat, selfish lout deserving of the scorn and ridicule he receives. Clearly Ignatius Reilly--like Don Quixote--is someone who takes himself and his ridiculously out-of-step views far too seriously, so you're never laughing WITH him so much as laughing AT him. It's up to you to decide just how mean-spirited the laughing at part is.

At any rate, it's unfortunate that John Kennedy Toole did not live long enough to hone his craft a bit more. Had he received some support and guidance he could have been one of the great American authors of his generation with the likes of Vonnegut, Updike, and of course Walker Percy, who at least made sure we could all read this novel. As it is, there are still some kinks in this, like how people are always screaming relatively ordinary lines of dialog or how the gay characters are stereotyped queens and butches.

Still, there's no question this is a good novel, and a funny novel as well, which is why it managed to endure even after the death of its author. NO matter how you should interpret it, you should read it.

On a side note, I think if Ignatius Reilly were around in modern times he would be writing his missives on the Internet instead of in notebooks. Mostly likely he'd be writing reviews on Amazon...

That is all.

imho....overated due to the book's backstory.......2007-10-08

I only got two-thirds of the way through this book because, basically, it just kept spinning its wheels. Also, the title character is 99% unsympathetic. He's such a friggin' ego-centric dolt that I simply stopped caring about anything to do with him. Yes, there are very funny parts...but not that many. I really feel this book has been hyped due to the fact that the book didn't get published until twenty years after the author's death (he committed suicide at least partly due to the novel not being published in his lifetime) and that the persistence of his mother in getting it printed really added to the book's mystique...which, obviously, has NOTHING to do with the actual book itself. I feel that the book would have never even been considered for a Pulitzer (which it won in the early '80s) had it been published in the author's lifetime. I actually would give this book two and a half stars, but that option isn't available.

A Confederacy of Dunces.......2007-10-04

This is a wonderful read. You take a fantastic and funny journey with a cast of characters that jump off the pages into the room where you are reading. I recommend this book as a gift, for a book club, for anytime. It is one you will read again and again.

Not as funny as they make it out to be.......2007-10-03

This book, i think, is generally over rated. Don't get me wrong, it is funny and memorable. However it was awarded the Pulitzer posthumously and I feel that it does not rank up there with the best work produced in the last century. It is likely that Toole might have produced such a book had he continued writing though. Perhaps his suicide has granted the book an aura of pathos that has helped it along the path to greatness.
The book tends to make caricatures out of the characters, including Ignatius (who is the only real character in the book). Because the book focuses on the personal scale of things, this defect in itself hurts it the most.
Would I read it again, probably yes, but I would have enjoyed it more had i not expected so much of it.

Average customer rating:

How strong is a mothers love?
profound and solid expression of parental love
Must have book for kids!
The Runaway Bunny
A story every child deserves to be told, with wonderful images, and in perfect size

The Runaway Bunny
Margaret Wise Brown
Manufacturer: HarperFestival
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Board book

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ASIN: 0061074292

Amazon.com

Since its publication in 1942, The Runaway Bunny has never been out of print. Generations of sleepy children and grateful parents have loved the classics of Margaret Wise Brown and Clement Hurd, including Goodnight Moon. The Runaway Bunny begins with a young bunny who decides to run away: "'If you run away,' said his mother, 'I will run after you. For you are my little bunny.'" And so begins a delightful, imaginary game of chase. No matter how many forms the little bunny takes--a fish in a stream, a crocus in a hidden garden, a rock on a mountain--his steadfast, adoring, protective mother finds a way of retrieving him. The soothing rhythm of the bunny banter--along with the surreal, dream-like pictures--never fail to infuse young readers with a complete sense of security and peace. For any small child who has toyed with the idea of running away or testing the strength of Mom's love, this old favorite will comfort and reassure. (Baby to preschool)

Book Description

Clement Hurd redrew some of his pictures for this new edition of the profoundly comforting story of a bunny's imaginary game of hide-and-seek and the lovingly steadfast mother who finds him every time.

Customer Reviews:

How strong is a mothers love?.......2007-09-18

A sweet tale, that reaches to illustrate that uniquely elusive bond between mother and child. It's just this type of love that promotes meaning and purpose into the lives of our children. A must read! It will surely tug on your heart-strings! Author/Illustrator

profound and solid expression of parental love.......2007-09-12

Enchanting and delightful expression of the devotion of motherhood, and a gentle answer to something every child at one point says they will do "I'm going to run away!" And this is the point.....at some stage children discover and become more deeply aware that they are separate beings from their closest family, and this is both a frightening and inspiring idea. Even today our own political debates on libertarian verses communitarian policies is but this idea write large. And yet in "Runaway Bunny" this idea is not writ small...for the Mother Bunny always replies "if you run away, I will become...." Acknowledging the child's growing ability and independence, but also expressing devotion, attention, and care.

Margaret Wise Brown is an unacknowledged genius of American letters and child psychology and I highly recommend her works, and especially Runaway Bunny.

Must have book for kids!.......2007-08-26

This is a wonderful story for the whole family. My son loved this book when he was little, and our daughter now enjoys it too. We love reading it because of the beautiful story.

The Runaway Bunny.......2007-07-29

This is a favorite of mine. If you are religious, this book is similar to Psalm 139 in Hebrew Scriptures. For that reason I am very fond of the book.

A story every child deserves to be told, with wonderful images, and in perfect size.......2007-06-08

I bought this book for my son when he just over a year old. I read to him ever since he was born, and he loves books.

This book is a good size for small hands, and very resistant for toddlers due to the cardboard pages. I was always able to let him hold it because of that, without having to tell him to be careful with it. And because of the beautiful and colorful pictures that the book has on every other page, he has always been inclined to take the book himself.

The story itself is beautiful. It speaks of a little bunny at a "silly" age, where he tells his mother all the things he will do to get away from her. The mother answers each of these "ideas" to run away, lovingly and patiently, telling him HOW she will always run after him, no matter what. The last idea that the bunny has "gets him caught", and he then gives up the thought of running away. The mother's reaction to this is to warmly welcome him back with a homely gesture that is to give him a snack.

My son was first drawn to the book by the pictures and the rhythm of the words... and well, he has always loved the "bunny" and "mommy" voices that one can make while reading it aloud. But now that he is almost three, he tells ME the whole story, and starts to giggle when we get to the page where the bunny gets caught. He loves it when I hold him in my arms and start tickling and kissing him at that point.

This is definitely his favorite bedtime book.

It's a book that has helped strengthen the mother-son bond in my family. It also teaches both mommy and son, if you read between the lines: unconditional love and patience.

I already have my older son's copy, but when I have my second son/daughter, I will get him/her a copy of their own. It's a book that belongs on a night table, and that every child deserves to listen to.

Mother Angelica: The Remarkable Story of a Nun, Her Nerve, and a Network of Miracles

Average customer rating:

A living saint!
Mother Angelica saved me from the depths.
See what Trust in God can do in just one life...
Once you start you won't be able to stop!
Thank-you Mother

Mother Angelica: The Remarkable Story of a Nun, Her Nerve, and a Network of Miracles
Raymond Arroyo
Manufacturer: Doubleday
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0385510926
Release Date: 2005-09-06

Book Description

The extraordinary saga of Mother Angelica, founder of the multimillion-dollar Eternal Word Television Network and “the most influential Catholic woman in America” according to Time magazine

In 1981, the year after Ted Turner founded CNN, a simple nun, using merely her entrepreneurial instincts and $200, launched what would become the world’s largest religious media empire in the garage of a Birmingham, Alabama, monastery. Under her guidance, the Eternal Word Television Network grew at a staggering pace, both in viewership and in influence, to where it now reaches over a hundred million viewers in hundreds of countries around the globe.

Born Rita Rizzo in Canton, Ohio, in 1923, Mother Angelica was abandoned by her father and raised in poverty by a mother who suffered from suicidal depressions. As a young woman, Rita developed severe abdominal pain that doctors dismissed as a “nervous condition,” but when she sought the prayers of a local mystic, her symptoms disappeared. Awakened to the power of prayer, she vowed to dedicate her life to God and became a cloistered nun, expecting to spend her life hidden from the world. But Rita’s faith soon compelled her to unlikely endeavors, from establishing a monastery in Alabama to starting the world’s first Catholic cable network. Relying solely on “God’s providence,” Mother Angelica built an empire without concern for budgets or fund-raising campaigns, achieving what even the highest levels of the Catholic Church had been unable to do.

Raymond Arroyo combines his journalist’s objectivity and eye for detail with more than five years of exclusive interviews with Mother Angelica. He traces Mother Angelica’s tortured rise to success and exposes for the first time the fierce opposition she faced, both inside and outside of her church. It is an inspiring story of survival and proof that one woman’s faith can move more than mountains.

Customer Reviews:

A living saint!.......2007-10-09

Thanks to a friend, who prompted me more than once to read it, I finished reading this story of a living saint. Did I say a living saint? I certainly did. The book made a deep impression on me.

More than anything else, this book reminds us of how real saints are. How perfectly human. And this realization is an incredible call for us to get back on track on our own and real path to sainthood!

Before reading it, I felt I knew a lot about Mother Angelica. We had EWTN whenever we have had satellite TV--which I admit it hasn't been many times or for very long. I liked her and admired her, and had loosely followed some of her life highlights, such as her miraculous walk on TV and her issues with cardinal Mahoney's pastoral letter.

And yet I closed the book feeling that I had met a wonderful friend, and that there is hope for me, and for anyone willing to attempt living a life of faith. It is this personal, the reading of this book. Or it can be anyway.

I want to read it again-- and this time I think I will grab it on audio, read by the author.

Mother Angelica saved me from the depths........2007-09-07

Seven years ago a very rare disease put me in bed for 6 months. I could not stand up on my own. I could walk with a cane once I got up on my feet. Mother Angelica via EWTN saved me from the depths of depression and helped me with my anger about being ill. This book tells her story about how she faced and overcame many illnesses and hardships. Yet, Mother Angelica always loves the people around her. Well written and an excellent read.

See what Trust in God can do in just one life..........2007-07-12

If you want to see what radical love of God can do in a life - this is the book to read. It does not matter if you are Catholic, Orthodox, or of any Christian denomination - this book is a road map of how to "work for God."

The book is written by someone who not only loves her, but acknowledges her faults - and just like all of us, she has many. This is a REAL living breathing human being who encounters the same difficulties we all face. The same emotions, hurts, fears, ailments. And yet, maybe it is because of all this that she could talk to anyone (rich man, poor man, beggar, thief) and help them to see that life is never hopeless.

You'll need to be careful though, one reading of this book will have you pondering a big question -- "Do I really trust God enough to find out his will, and do it?"

I highly, highly recommend this book.

Once you start you won't be able to stop!.......2007-07-04

I meant to listen to the audio CDs over weeks in my car during my commute. Over the first weekend I took all the CDs back into my home and listened to the rest of the book while painting a room. The wonderful thing about the audio is Raymond Arroyo's PERFECT imitation of Mother.

The book is so hopeful - even among the many physical and spiritual trials. Her faithfulness is stunning; it calls all of us to the same faithfulness.

Thank-you Mother.......2007-06-07

I really enjoyed this book and found Mother Angelica to be quite a complex and interesting person. I think Raymond Arroyo did a remarkable job in telling her story without getting in the way. Thank-you Mother Angelica for your passion and the fruits prove your source.. and Thank-you Raymond for a job well done!

A Man Named Dave: A Story of Triumph and Forgiveness

Average customer rating:

Wow
moving
A Great Book to Read!
Trying to find peace
Behind Closed Doors

A Man Named Dave: A Story of Triumph and Forgiveness
Dave Pelzer
Manufacturer: Plume
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Accessories:

Health o Meter HDC100-01 "Grow with Me" Teddy Bear Scale for Babies and Toddlers

ASIN: 0452281903
Release Date: 2000-09-05

Amazon.com

The third tale in David Pelzer's autobiographical trilogy, A Man Named Dave is an inspiring story of terror, recovery, and hope experienced by the author throughout his life. Known for his work as a child abuse advocate, Pelzer has been commended by several U.S. presidents and international agencies, and his previous memoirs of growing up as an abused child (A Child Called "It" and The Lost Boy) have touched thousands of lives. He provides living proof that we can "stop the cycle" and lead fulfilling, rewarding lives full of healthy relationships. Ultimately triumphant, this book will have you living through the eyes of a terrified child, a struggling young man, and an adult finally forgiving his dying father--reading with tissues nearby is recommended. Ending with a touching conversation between the author and his own son, you'll finish reading this with a warm heart and an enriched understanding of the need for compassion in all parts of life. --Jill Lightner

Book Description

The inspiring conclusion to A Child Called "It" and The Lost Boy

"All those years you tried your best to break me, and I'm still here. One day you'll see, I'm going to make something of myself."--Dave Pelzer, from A Man Named Dave

These words were Dave Pelzer's declaration of independence to his mother, and they represented the ultimate act of self-reliance. Dave's father never intervened as his mother abused him with shocking brutality, denying him food and clothing, torturing him in any way she could imagine. This was the woman who told her son she could kill him any time she wanted to-and nearly did. The more than two million readers of Pelzer's previous international bestsellers, A Child Called "It" and The Lost Boy, know that he lived to tell his courageous story. A Man Named Dave is the gripping conclusion to his inspirational trilogy. With stunning generosity of spirit, Dave Pelzer invites readers on his journey to discover how he turned shame into pride and rejection into acceptance.

Download Description

Dave Pelzer's incredible and inspiring life story has already captured the interest of more than one million readers. A Man Named Dave is the long-awaited conclusion to his trilogy in which he describes how he triumphed over years of physical and emotional abuse from his parents to become a self-accepting and confident adult. Readers of Pelzer's previous two bestsellers await this book--the first of Pelzer's books to be available in hardcover--to learn how he finally confronts his pathologically abusive mother and his neglectful, alcoholic father in an effort to turn a childhood marked by rejection and emotional abuse into an adulthood filled with love and acceptance.

Customer Reviews:

Wow.......2007-10-09

All three of his books are great. Since I've gotten the book everyone has asked me to borrow it lol and I agree they should read it. Amazing book.

moving.......2007-09-16

I only began reading this book as an assignment for a policy course. I am so glad now that I read it. It is moving and thought provoking and throughout the book I wanted to just reach out and help him. I would highly recommend this book to anyone. I couldn't put it down. I will now be reading the others in the series by the same author.

A Great Book to Read!.......2007-05-07

Imagine being abused by your drunk mother and being beaten for not doing the littlest things. Would you like it? Would you runaway and escape your crazy mother? Well, if you would like to know the story of this abused child then you must read A Child Called "It", The Lost Boy, and A Man Named Dave. A Man Named Dave was about Dave and his life as he got older. He is introduced to a woman and get married and have a child. This really surprised me because I wasn't expecting it.I could not put the books down until I knew Dave (the main character) is safe from his crazy mother. Well, is he? You must read the three books and find out for yourself. I am not going to ruin the surprises that come along the way.
I would definitely rate all of Dave Pelzer's books five stars. I would rate them five stars because Dave does a great job of putting you in his position. I have read all three of his books. I am not sure if he has written any more books but if he has I would definitely read them. Dave Pelzer just does a good job describing his sad and happy childhood as well as adulthood experiences. I have never read books as sad as these but they keep me hooked from early on. I just never want to put them down.
I would definitely not recommend this book to elementary students. These books are not appropriate for them because there is inappropriate use of language as well as unthinkable situations which Dave is put through by his mother. I would recommend this book to students that are in the eighth grade and above. They should be able to handle this in an appropriate way. This would be a great book for both boys and girls because it is an autobiography not on a particular subject that only boys or girls would enjoy it. All of Dave Pelzer's books are in the medium range of difficulty. They are rated medium difficulty because some parts may be hard to understand for some people. I admit I had to reread some parts to understand everything that was going on. I sure wish I helped to convince you to read A Child Called "It", The Lost Boy, and A Man Named Dave. These are the three best books I have ever read in my whole entire life. And I hope you enjoy them just as much as I did!

Trying to find peace.......2007-04-14

What I found heartbreaking about this book is the impact that Dave's childhood continues to play in his adulthood.
His confrontation with his mother is heart wrenching. Dave's relationship with his child, and the constant striving to ensure that the cycle of abuse is broken, and that he himself does not become an abuser.
Another powerful book, and an amazing life achievement.

Behind Closed Doors .......2007-03-28

I recommend this book because it tells the story of what really happened in the Pelzer household. It made me laugh, cry, and even worried about what will happen to David. The scary thing about life is that you never know who is being abused or being an abuser until you know them personally. Also, you should report child abuse right when you witness/ hear about it because if you wait then it might be too late. Dave Pelzer kept me reading until the end. I am looking forward to reading the rest of the series.

Average customer rating:

Great book!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
A lovely book!
YIKES! SCARRY!
a childhood favorite passed down
Still has the same magic

Are You My Mother?
P.D. Eastman
Manufacturer: Random House Books for Young Readers
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0394800184
Release Date: 1960-06-12

Amazon.com

This is the classic from which many of our staff first learned to read, starting us on a path of unremitting bibliophilia. Are You My Mother? follows a confused baby bird who's been denied the experience of imprinting as he asks cows, planes, and steam shovels the Big Question. In the end he is happily reunited with his maternal parent in a glorious moment of recognition.

Book Description

Illus. in color. A baby bird is hatched while his mother is away. Fallen from his nest, he sets out to look for her and asks everyone he meets -- including a dog, a cow, and a plane -- "Are you my mother?"

Customer Reviews:

Great book!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!.......2007-08-11

My mom got me this book when i was only a few months old. It is a great book. Since i am older i don't read it as much but i didn't forget about it yet! It has a baby bird who falls out of its nest and goes out looking for its mother and it asks so many animals and it finally finds her.The illustrations are great. I would recommend it to any beginner.

A lovely book!.......2007-07-18

This book could not be sweeter! My 5 yo adores this book. It shows the bond and love a Mother and child have from day one.

YIKES! SCARRY!.......2007-07-17

Not a good book for kids. Being lost and alone, searching for your mother or anyone that looks like you will not only frighten your child but also teach them that they must find someone that looks like them to feel safe and accepted. This book is dated and not child appropriate. :-(

a childhood favorite passed down.......2007-05-15

I am just thrilled to see that this classic is still going strong. I remember this from the early 70s as I was a young girl and my father read this to me daily. And now, I had the priviledge of introducing the book to my daughter about a year ago. It became an instant favorite since it involves all the favorite characters of a toddler's life: conversations with a dog, cow, chicken, cat etc. Parents that enjoy getting creative when reading to their children will love this book!

Still has the same magic.......2007-05-08

I just finished reading "Are you my Mother?" with my daughter, having not heard it since I was a child. This book still posesses the same magic it did for me all those years ago.
Highly recommended.

We're All in This Together: A Novella and Stories

Average customer rating:

Clever look at a modern American boy
Not impressed
The Legacy of Stephen King Continues in Sons
A crown for the son of a King
one of the best debuts of 2005

We're All in This Together: A Novella and Stories
Owen King
Manufacturer: Bloomsbury USA
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

General | Short Stories | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 1582345856
Release Date: 2005-06-16

Book Description

Imaginative, gripping stories and a funny, poignant novella set in Maine after the 2000 presidential election make up this exciting literary debut.

Owen King is a writer interested in the choices we make when we're most conflicted. A young husband must decide whether or not to commit a ghoulish crime; a baseball player in a fantastic 1930s Coney Island is assailed by the guilt of an illicit romance; a nineteenth-century itinerant dentist finds himself snowed in with a group of trappers for a long evening of primitive surgery and laughing gas reveries. Whether they're set in the past or the present, tinged with the macabre, the solemn, or the absurd, all of the stories in this collection carry the weight of real emotion and revelation and showcase King's impressive versatility.

In his novella, King tells the story of George, the teenage son of a single mother, and the only grandson of a family of union organizers in Maine. George's grandfather Henry, obsessed with the outcome of the 2000 election, has planted a giant billboard of homage to Al Gore in his front yard that he suspects has been defaced by the paperboy, now a sworn enemy. Meanwhile, George's mother is about to marry Dr. Vic, who, besides being possessed of an almost royal obliviousness, may even have voted for George W. Bush. George is a nervous accomplice to his grandfather's increasingly unhinged behavior, and a righteous adversary at war with his mother over her marriage. George's struggle is a funny and moving parallel for our times: How will we fight? All together, or all alone? Funny, insightful, and always entertaining, We're All in This Together launches the career of an extraordinarily talented writer.

Customer Reviews:

Clever look at a modern American boy.......2007-10-11

The novella is a compelling family story of a modern American teenager sandwiched between his aging, nostalgiac, Al Gore loving grandfather and his young, activist single mother. The novella left me sad at its conclusion only because it had ended. Satisfying ending? It depends upon the reader. Mr. King has a gift for sense of place. His prose is incredibly readable and very often witty, particularly the unique way he has the mother and son communicate with each other. (You have to find that out yourself.) I sometimes wanted to argue with the characters, who all possessed a bit of the curmudgeon - even the fifteen year-old central character George. I could see the novella as a film in the vein of Simon Burch.

Not impressed.......2007-08-15

I had a really hard time getting into this book. It was well written, just not very captivating. If you are interested in reading this book, purchase it used and save yourself some money.

The Legacy of Stephen King Continues in Sons.......2007-08-11

Following the footsteps of father Stephen King and brother Joe Hill, Owen King's "We're All In This Together" pays tribute to the literary genes of the King family, yet marks its own unique path. A collection of short stories and a novella, it's literary, nostalgic, often bitter yet touching, and insightful. Sometimes warm and reminiscent, other times painful and hard to read, it's a complex work that's impossible to put down.

The title novella, "We're All In This Together", tells the first person narrative of a young man who wonders about the contradicting world around him with a dry, sarcastic wit far beyond his years; though in the end he's still an inexperienced kid prone to all the same hurts and hopes kids experience.

George barely knows his reformed dead-beat father, loves his mother fiercely but resents her for leaving behind a string of eligible would-be fathers, and respects his grandfather in a fearful way. He spends the dry, dull summer days at his grandfather's, learning about the long gone days of the Labor Union, when honest, hard working folks were bound together by the Union's clarion call, "we're all in this together".

Owen King's work sees the best and worst of humanity; we want to cry and laugh equal parts of the time. His wit and sarcasm is razor-sharp, thought-provoking, and takes no prisoners among conservative and liberal sensitivities alike. King takes aim at everyone in this collection, and he hits the bull's eye every single time.

A crown for the son of a King.......2007-03-15

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Owen King is definitely NOT resting on his father's laurels. The title story is complex, thought-provoking and humorous. The others are wonderful are well, very eclectic style. Written much more in the style of John Irving than Owen's father, Stephen King. Owen's future looks very bright indeed. Bravo!

one of the best debuts of 2005.......2006-03-09

Owen King's debut work, We're All In This Together, is my favorite book this year, hands down. Smart and touching, the five outstanding tales that make up this collection are at once startlingly original and classically accomplished. King is one of those rare finds: a writer refreshing for both his bold, creative ingenuity and his old-fashioned gift for story.

King is a virtuosic writer, and his range is clearly on display in this collection. In "Frozen Animals," we meet Pinet, a nitrus-addicted dentist, summoned in the middle of the night to make a strange and frightening house-call. "Wonders" follows the exploits of a conflicted baseball player, a second baseman for a Coney Island farm team during in the 1930's. In the hilarious and heart-breaking story, "My Second Wife," a man still reeling from his divorce joins his eccentric brother on one of the strangest road trips in contemporary fiction.

Yet for all their daring and inventiveness, King's stories are, at heart, great examples of classic story-telling. His characters live and breathe. They are fully imagined, lovingly created, and immediately empathetic. Take for example, George, the teenage protagonist of King's terrific title novella. George's life (and story) is rich with complications. His grandfather, an ex-union organizer, wants to use George for paintball practice so that he might get good enough to gun down a rogue paperboy who keeps defacing his home-made Al Gore billboard. Meanwhile, George is engaged in an operation of his own, trying to sabotage his mother's impending marriage to a middle-aged goofball named Dr. Vic. Here is George explaining himself: "I wasn't getting along with my mother, and I didn't care to get along with Dr. Vic. Of late, I suffered not so much from a feeling that my voice wasn't being heard, as from a sense that I was speaking an entirely different language...my voice was soundless, on the wrong frequency, like a dog whistle..."

As strange as their stories might be, King's protagonists are unnervingly familiar. Which is testiment to his considerable skill. He writes his characters so well that we can't help but identify; no matter what happens tothem, we're right there along side, in it together.

"The best contact wasn't like contact at all," King writes in "Wonders." "It was like swinging straight through, the baseball only an echo of the bat's motion. The game was so hard, but that moment was so easy -the ball flew, Eckstein ran, and there was no chance they were going to catch him."

King's characters are always searching for moments like these, moments of assurance, of clarity. Which is funny, given that reading King's fiction leaves one feeling nothing if not assured - certain that one is in the hands of a dazzling new talent.

Overall: In story after story, King takes care of business. An Elvis of a collection

Average customer rating:

A classic for a reason
A little long...
great story
Blueberries for Everyone!
Blueberries For Sal

Blueberries for Sal (Picture Puffins)
Robert McCloskey
Manufacturer: Puffin
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 014050169X

Amazon.com

Kuplink, kuplank, kuplunk go the blueberries into the pail of a little girl named Sal who--try as she might--just can't seem to pick as fast as she eats. Robert McCloskey's classic is a magical tale of the irrepressible curiosity--not to mention appetite--of youth. Sal and her mother set off in search of blueberries for the winter at the same time as a mother bear and her cub. A quiet comedy of errors ensues when the young ones wander off and absentmindedly trail the wrong mothers.

Blueberries for Sal--with its gentle animals, funny noises, and youthful spirit of adventure--is perfect for reading aloud. The endearing illustrations, rendered in dark, blueberry-stain blue, will leave you craving a fresh pail of your own. (Picture book)

Customer Reviews:

A classic for a reason.......2007-08-23

A wonderful book that depicts Sal and her mother's adventure on blueberry hill. Beautifully written and fun to read, my kids have deemed it one of their all-time favorites!

A little long..........2007-08-15

While I love the story, the simple illustrations and the theme, I think it is somewhat longer than it needs to be. My two year old tends to agree and begins squirming to get another book before we finish the story.

great story.......2007-08-14

A cute little story with a little suspense. About a girl and her mother, a bear and her mother on a mountainside all collecting blueberries. A little long for young children (1-3) but will be a nice bedtime story later on.

Blueberries for Everyone!.......2007-08-07

Blueberries for Sal is one of the best children's books available today. Ranking right up there with Dr. Seuss and Frog and Toad Are Friends, the illustrations and writing in this wonderful story make a special time out of story time.

Sal sneaks some berries out of Mom's bucket, and then wanders off for a nap. Waking up, she follows "Mom" pushing through the underbrush...who turns out to be a kindly Mother Bear. Little Bear, meanwhile, has done the same...ending up following Sal's Mom!

Sorting out the children and Moms, with both families leaving full of blueberries, helps us all to understand just how alike we are -- all beings who inhabit this lovely earth.

Told with humor and great illustrations, this is an excellent gift in hardback for the new baby, or for any child's birthday or going-away gift, ages 1-10. Highly recommended. I've read this book to my children probably 35 times over the years, and I look forward to reading it to my grandchildren as well.

Blueberries For Sal.......2007-05-14

This is a timeless book for children that all enjoy. What a delightful story! My children and now my grandchildren love this wonderful story of two youngsters getting mixed up on Blueberry Hill.

Exposed: The Harrowing Story of a Mother's Undercover Work with the FBI to Save Children from Internet Sex Predators

Average customer rating:

Exposed
Truth in Print....Get the book!
I commend R. Stephanie Good for this book
Reality
great book

Exposed: The Harrowing Story of a Mother's Undercover Work with the FBI to Save Children from Internet Sex Predators
R. Stephanie Good
Manufacturer: Thomas Nelson
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Criminology | Crime & Criminals | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

True Crime | True Accounts | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

Child Abuse | Family Relationships | Parenting & Families | Subjects | Books

General | Computers & Internet | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 1595550623

Book Description

Think your child is safe surfing the Web? Think again, says R. Stephanie Good in this chilling expose and personal memoir about her efforts with the FBI to bust child sex predators. Posing as a young girl, Stephanie has helped the federal government catch everyone from common perverts to Fortune 1000 executives, even an executive from a children's cable television channel. Stephanie reveals the near-tragic personal story that compelled her into this harrowing career and takes readers on the hunt.

Customer Reviews:

Exposed.......2007-09-30

This book was very informative and eye opening. I recommend it for anyone with a teenager that wants to know what to look for on the internet.

Truth in Print....Get the book!.......2007-08-21

Hey Folks,
Mrs.Good takes you through her experiences with the sexual predators that she enounters in her great work as a civilian UC helping the FBI put these folks where they belong...in a cage away from our kids! This book discusses the many facets of this section of law enforcement and even brings you into a trial and shows you the sleazy attempt by a defense lawyer to get the predator from having to do the time for his, or her, crime. This is a great book to companinion "To catch a Predator" by Chris Hasen. These two books are must reads for anyone interested in this subject. God Bless you all, Doneaux.

I commend R. Stephanie Good for this book.......2007-05-21

I have read this book, and found it very interesting! Repetitive it was NOT. There are ALOT of sick pediphiles out there, and this lets them know we have their number! This woman works at getting them off the internet, and it doesn't take over night, it's alot of making sure she has who she thinks she has. I think R. Stephanie Good is a "PLUS" to life, if only more people were more like her this world would be a better place.

Reality.......2007-05-15

The book exposes the real world we live in and the dangers it poses. The author does an excellent job of telling the stories and not getting into too much detail. We need more people willing to risk their own personal life to help others.

great book.......2007-04-04

Wow...This book really lets you right into the middle of these frighteningly perverted cases. The Dateline series only scratches the surface. Before reading this book, you can't even imagine the things these grown men will do and say to get what they want. Thank God for people like Stephanie Good and the FBI agents she worked with who protect our children from these horrors. Hopefully this book will raise the awareness of this problem and make parents more aware of the dangers their children face online.

Average customer rating:

"She looked at herself as though a stranger": Complex Visions of Families
Mothers & Sons - ok reading...
Haunting
The new Dubliners
A poignant collection of short stories from an accomplished author

Mothers and Sons: Stories
Colm Toibin
Manufacturer: Scribner
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Irish | World Literature | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Literary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

British | Short Stories | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 1416534652

Amazon.com

The nine stories in Mothers and Sons examine in depth some of the ways that the bond that is forged--or not--between mothers and their sons is altered, re-formed, or broken forever. In The Master, his fictionalized life of Henry James, Toíbín made the reader see and understand the writer more fully than ever before. Similarly, these new stories look at relationships between fully formed adults and, with a few deft strokes, make clear what their mutual history has brought them to. In most cases, they must deal with loss, while trying to grasp the complexities of that sometimes precarious balance between a mother and her son.

In the first story, "The Use of Reason," a lifelong burglar is nearly brought down by his mother, who talks too much when she drinks in her local pub. In "A Song," Noel, on the town with a group of his musician friends, ends up in the same bar as his estranged mother, who is asked to sing. She sings an Irish ballad about love and treachery and he is convinced that she is singing directly to him. In "A Priest in the Family," Molly's son Frank is accused of abuse, but no one has the courage to tell her until it is almost time for the trial. Her reaction is not entirely predictable. "Three Friends" takes place after a young man attends his mother's funeral. He joins his friends for a night of carousing and drugs ending with a late-night swim, where he is emboldened to make an overt sexual pass at one of his buddies, with interesting results. The final story, "A Long Winter," is set in Spain in a remote village. Miquel's mother drinks. Everyone knows it but Miquel. His father pours out her supply of booze and she leaves the house. So far it's a simple story. It doesn't stay that way. Each of these stories has its own gravitas, its own sadness, and that laser-beam of insight that is Toíbín's trademark. --Valerie Ryan

Book Description

Each of the nine stories in this beautifully written, intensely intimate collection centers on a transformative moment that alters the delicate balance of power between mother and son, or changes the way they perceive one another. With exquisite grace and eloquence, Tóibín writes of men and women bound by convention, by unspoken emotions, by the stronghold of the past. Many are trapped in lives they would not choose again, if they ever chose at all.

A man buries his mother and converts his grief to desire in one night. A famous singer captivates an audience, yet cannot beguile her own estranged son. And in "A Long Winter," Colm Tóibín's finest piece of cction to date, a young man searches for his mother in the snow-covered mountains where she has sought escape from the husband who controls and confines her.

Winner of numerous awards for his fifth novel, The Master -- including the Los Angeles Times Book Prize and the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award -- Tóibín brings to this stunning first collection an acute understanding of human frailty and longing. These are haunting, profoundly moving stories by a writer who is himself a master.

Customer Reviews:

"She looked at herself as though a stranger": Complex Visions of Families.......2007-05-29

Colm Toibin's _Mothers and Sons_ (2007) is a collection of nine short stories that loosely address the permutations of the mother-son relationship, primarily within Irish families, within the larger context of modern lives. All of these stories address strains or misunderstandings, where either the mother or the son is unable to connect with the other. Yet Toibin's stories are about more than this, and the mother-son theme is developed as an understated, almost minor theme, which makes the collection that much more fascinating. Toibin's title _Mothers and Sons_ insists that readers focus on a theme, which while important, could otherwise seem secondary in any given story. The suggestion is that the mother-son relationship is primary, in ways that the characters fail to grasp, and which the stories themselves purposely obscure.

In "The Use of Reason," a story about the haunting textures of memory and repression, Toibin introduces us to an unnamed Dublin thief, who has undertaken his biggest crime of his life, an art heist one with international implications, and must decide how to dispose of the stolen property. As a backdrop to the story, the narrator describes how the thief's mother has developed the dangerous habit of gossiping about her son's exploits when she is drunk at the pub. The thief's final decision regarding the paintings, including a Rembrandt of an old woman that likely symbolizes his own mother, follows a conversation where he demands that his mother stop "yapping," not about himself, ironically, but about his brother Billy.

All of the stories are memorable and original. "The Name of the Game," for example, describes in detail how a widow in her early forties with two children sets up a fish and chips and a beer and wine discount story in her husband's families' generation-old grocery. The name of the fish and chips shop is "The Monument," with ironic associations about her deceased husband and his family. "A Priest in the Family" tells the story of a seventy-year old mother's response to her son, a priest in the family, accused of sexual abuse. In "The Famous Blue Raincoat," a sixteen-year old son and aspiring musician develops an appreciation for his mother's former musical career in the 1970s--insisting that his mother's songs be re-released--while failing to recognize the painful memories that this evokes for her.

The final story in the collection, "A Long Winter," shifts unexpectedly to an isolated family of two sons, a husband, and wife in rural northern Spain. The story chronicles the disappearance a wife who leaves her family by foot in the middle of the winter after her husband pours out all of her drink. She is presumed dead, the victim of a sudden, impenetrable snow storm. Throughout the whole story, the father and son search and then wait hesitantly for the spring thaw to recover the mother's body. This story ends brilliantly.

In my opinion, the first and last stories in the collection are the strongest. In each story, as we struggle to uncover characters' complex motives we are brought back to the mother-son relationship, a bond which like the mother in "A Long Winter" is presumably buried, awaiting discovery or rescue.

Mothers & Sons - ok reading..........2007-05-21

This book came highly recommended. I thought it was an OK read - nothing spectacular.

Haunting.......2007-03-17

I realise that I'll undoubtedly be shot down in flames for daring to criticize this book but I must be true to my own feelings on it, as must any honest reviewer. This is a collection of short stories, set mainly in Ireland and with that overlying sadness that seems inevitable in Irish tales. The relationships between the mothers and sons are all different but all have an unbreakable link between them that survives, even when things are at their worst. Other reviewers have listed the stories in detail...the drug fueled rave, following the mother's funeral, the blind love which excuses the paedophilic priest etc. so I won't rehash them. Admittedly the writing is that of a master craftsman, polished to perfection and as precise as the work of a great artist, but I simply didn't enjoy the book, feeling a great cloud of depression fall over me..perhaps it's just that the Irish melancholy got too much for me!

The new Dubliners.......2007-02-19

These are some of the fullest short stories I have ever read. Reading Toibin, you feel in the hands of a master storyteller. His stories are perfectly shaped, understated yet unforgettable, precise and graceful. You get the sense that Toibin loves his characters, these isolated, fractured, haunted souls and wants to protect them. But he wants you to see and love them too, and so he gives you the slightest peek at what remains hidden. And if he's done his job (and he doesn't fail once in this collection), you see something that perhaps, surprisingly, you have once known.

A poignant collection of short stories from an accomplished author.......2007-01-26

There's little doubt that Irish culture holds in considerable regard the ability to tell an absorbing tale. The country's literature boasts a rich tradition of compelling short story writers --- among them James Joyce, Frank O'Connor and the modern master, William Trevor. Fresh from his acclaimed novel of the life of Henry James, THE MASTER, Colm Tóibín, in his first collection of short fiction, shows that he has the talent to someday join their august company.

MOTHERS AND SONS recognizes that perhaps no other family relationship is more fraught with the tension between intimacy and distance than this one. In the thematically linked stories of this collection, all but one of which are set in modern-day Ireland, Tóibín chooses to emphasize the circumstances that isolate mothers and sons and the failures of communication that often make it impossible to bridge that gap.

The stories in MOTHERS AND SONS don't feature much in the way of dramatic action and tend to be somewhat monochromatic in their tone and pacing. What Tóibín offers that more than compensates for these shortcomings is his gift for sharp and often painful glimpses into the lives of characters struggling to deal with the harsh reality life has handed them. Typical of these insights is the one that appears at the conclusion of "A Journey," the shortest story in the collection. There, Sally contemplates the grim scene that confronts her when she returns home with her 20-year-old son who's been hospitalized for depression, and enters the bedroom where her husband lies crippled from a stroke. Examining herself in the mirror and deciding from that glance to let her hair go gray, Sally is "struck for a moment by a glimpse of a future in which she would need to muster every ounce of selfishness she had."

Among the most poignant stories in the book is "Famous Blue Raincoat." In it, a teenage boy discovers some albums recorded by a Dublin folk-rock band in which his mother and late aunt sang in the early '70s. Hoping to please his mother, he transfers the albums to CDs, but instead evokes for her only the memories of her sister's mysterious death. "Now, as the CD came to an end," Tóibín writes, "she hoped she would never have to listen to it again."

In "A Priest in the Family," Tóibín skillfully undermines the clichéd portrayal of an aging Irish mother doting on her son who has decided to join the priesthood. In its place, he offers the story of Molly, still vigorous in her late 70s, as she drives a car and works to master the Internet, but who's "not sure" she believes in the power of prayer. When Molly learns that her son Frank, a local parish priest, is about to go on trial for sexual abuse of some former students, the tragic circumstances provide them with an opportunity for a kind of reconciliation.

The collection's final story, the novella-length "A Long Winter," is the only one that doesn't take place in Ireland. Set in a village in Spain's Pyrenees Mountains, it chronicles the disappearance of a woman who abandons her unnamed husband and son Miquel, when the husband resorts to harsh measures to halt her problem drinking. She is caught in a blizzard that blows into the region a few hours after she leaves home on foot, and most of the story recounts Miquel's search for her, alternating between the fading hope that she will be found alive and his fear that her body finally will be discovered, devoured by vultures, when the snow melts.

In each of these stories, Tóibín's prose is controlled and burnished. Only a mature, self-assured writer would launch the first story in the collection, "The Use of Reason," with sentences like these --- repetitive, and yet brilliant in their repetition: "The city was a great emptiness. He looked out from the balcony of one of the top flats on Charlemont Street. The wide waste ground below him was empty. He closed his eyes and thought about the other flats on this floor, most of them empty now in the afternoon, just as the little bare bathrooms were empty and the open stairwells were empty."

At the midpoint of his career, Colm Tóibín has demonstrated his ability to master a variety of literary forms. With MOTHERS AND SONS, readers can add the short story to that list and can only look forward to the next offering of this accomplished author.

--- Reviewed by Harvey Freedenberg (mwn52@aol.com)

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