Caleb's Story (Sarah, Plain and Tall)

Book Description

Anna has done something terrible. She has given me her journal to fill.

In Anna's journal the words walk across the page like bird prints in the mud. But it is hard for me. It is hard for me to find things to write about.

"It's your job now," Anna says as she hands Caleb her journals, asking him to continue writing the family story. But Sarah, Jacob, Anna, Caleb, and their new little sister, Cassie, have already formed a family, and Caleb fears there will be nothing left to write about. But that is before Cassie discovers a mysterious old man in the barn and everything changes. Everyone is excited about the arrival of a new family member except for Jacob, who holds a bitter grudge. Only the special love of Caleb, and the gift he offers, can help to mend the pain of the past.

Caleb's Story continues the saga begun by the Newbery Medal–winning Sarah, Plain And Tall and its sequel, Skylark, spinning a tale of love, forgiveness, and the ties that bind a family together.

Ages 8–10

Customer Reviews:

Caleb's Story.......2006-02-20

This book in the 'Sarah, Plain and Tall" series has the same brilliant ability to draw readers in as the original, this time through Caleb's eyes.

Touching Story.......2004-03-13

Caleb's Story, the third of a series by Patricia MacLachlan, shows how a family can be brought closer together. Caleb, a teen coming of age, meets his grandpa who is sick. Taking place on the prairie this story show a struggle between generations. Read more to understand the struggles between the generations, and possibly solve some of your own.
Two good reasons you must read Caleb's Story are you could find more about grandpa, and find out more about Caleb and Cassie. You could see if their grandpa could make it or not. You could see if they started to get a long. Calob's Story is a MUST READ because you will learn about relationship. This book Calob's Story has a happy ending. You will love Calob's Story.
Patricia Maclachlan is a great writer. You will love her books. Patricia was a English teacher. She has a daughter who is helping her writer a book. She lives on the top of a mountain in Massachusetts. Calob's Story is the best book out of the series.

Sarah, Plain and Tall and Skylark Sequel is Heartwarming.......2002-04-09

Caleb's Story picks up where Skylark and Sarah, Plain and Tall leave off. For the countless readers who fell in love with Sarah as she learned to be a mother to Anna and Caleb, and a helpmeet for Jacob, this book is a wonderful addition. For the reader who lacks "Sarah background," Sarah comes from Maine to a prairie farm after responding to an ad placed by Jacob, who is looking for a woman to replace his recently deceased wife. While he is not necessarily looking for romance, Sarah and Jacob ultimately fall in love, and their next years as a family is chronicled in the sequel, Skylark.

In Caleb's Story, Anna leaves for town to help with victims of the influenza epidemic of 1918. A stranger is discovered in the barn, which turns out to be Jacob's estranged father, John. John wishes reconciliation with Jacob, who stubbornly continues to deny him the forgiveness he desires.

Journaling is a major theme in this book, making it a perfect companion to teaching the importance of recording events and feelings. Caleb picks up journaling for the family, a job which Anna had done until her departure. In trying to encourage Grandpa John to learn about the family he knew little of, Caleb offers the journals to him. Ultimately, in an extremely touching scene, Caleb presents Grandpa John his own journal, whereupon he learns that John never learned how to write.

What a touching story this is! A perfect read-aloud for the classroom (if the teacher can harden the heart enough not to cry!), students do not need to have a lot of background of the previous parts of the story. This reviewer found the characters believable; their reactions that John's arrival caused the family were extremely believable. MacLachlan's ability to convey emotions in an easy-to-understand way for intermediate readers makes this the perfect addition to any school or family library.

I'm not impressed.......2001-12-10

I'm not impressed with this book.

Sarah Plain and Tall is a near perfect novel in it's simplicity and depth but it is evident that MacLachlan spent neither the time nor the care to develop this story. I felt jipped with the cliches and predictable unfolding. This is definitely not her best writing.

Plus, the way the father Jacob is portrayed (an angry unforgiving man) takes away from his character in the first book .. shy, strong, deep and wise.

This book is a classic example of an author monopolizing on something good (Sarah Plain and Tall) knowing her fans will buy it. In the book "Caleb's Story" MacLachlan leaves herself plenty of loopholes so we know there will be more books.

I'm disappointed and kinda disgusted.

Caleb's Story by Patricia MacLachlan.......2001-12-03

As a third grade teacher, I am always on the lookout for good literature for student reading or teacher read alouds. My class and I read together the first two books in this trilogy and I used Caleb's Story as a read aloud which I shared with my principal. We loved this poignant story from its opening pages to its final pages. The old characters come to life once again while the surprising introduction of some new characters give great insight into family life. Everyone could relate to one or more of the characters, they are realistic. Lessons on cause and effect, character traits and goals, predicting, and problem solving were ongoing. Class discussions were wonderful as this tale presents much to talk about. The fact that this book is told in a different voice from the first two, is an interesting change. Caleb, who didn't want to take his sister's place as the family historian, eventually continues the saga in his own journal. My class is writing to the author requesting that she continue the stories using Jacob and the new characters to tie some pieces together. Many of my students are reading it again. It is a beautiful chapter book and appropriate to read when studying the early prairie years of our country.

Managing Credit Risk: The Next Great Financial Challenge (Frontiers in Finance Series)

Average customer rating:

Executive Summary on Managing Credit Risk
Too good to be true?
Innovative approach to Managing credit risks
A Foot in the Door
Managing Credit Risk is a fabulous book.

Managing Credit Risk: The Next Great Financial Challenge (Frontiers in Finance Series)
John B. Caouette , Edward I. Altman , and Paul Narayanan
Manufacturer: Wiley
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0471111899

Book Description

The first full analysis of the latest advances in managing credit risk.

"Against a backdrop of radical industry evolution, the authors of Managing Credit Risk: The Next Great Financial Challenge provide a concise and practical overview of these dramatic market and technical developments in a book which is destined to become a standard reference in the field." -Thomas C. Wilson, Partner, McKinsey & Company, Inc.

"Managing Credit Risk is an outstanding intellectual achievement. The authors have provided investors a comprehensive view of the state of credit analysis at the end of the millennium." -Martin S. Fridson, Financial Analysts Journal.

"This book provides a comprehensive review of credit risk management that should be compulsory reading for not only those who are responsible for such risk but also for financial analysts and investors. An important addition to a significant but neglected subject." -B.J. Ranson, Senior Vice-President, Portfolio Management, Bank of Montreal.

The phenomenal growth of the credit markets has spawned a powerful array of new instruments for managing credit risk, but until now there has been no single source of information and commentary on them. In Managing Credit Risk, three highly regarded professionals in the field have-for the first time-gathered state-of-the-art information on the tools, techniques, and vehicles available today for managing credit risk. Throughout the book they emphasize the actual practice of managing credit risk, and draw on the experience of leading experts who have successfully implemented credit risk solutions.

Starting with a lucid analysis of recent sweeping changes in the U.S. and global financial markets, this comprehensive resource documents the credit explosion and its remarkable opportunities-as well as its potentially devastating dangers. Analyzing the problems that have occurred during its growth period-S&L failures, business failures, bond and loan defaults, derivatives debacles-and the solutions that have enabled the credit market to continue expanding, Managing Credit Risk examines the major players and institutional settings for credit risk, including banks, insurance companies, pension funds, exchanges, clearinghouses, and rating agencies. By carefully delineating the different perspectives of each of these groups with respect to credit risk, this unique resource offers a comprehensive guide to the rapidly changing marketplace for credit products.

Managing Credit Risk describes all the major credit risk management tools with regard to their strengths and weaknesses, their fitness to specific financial situations, and their effectiveness. The instruments covered in each of these detailed sections include: credit risk models based on accounting data and market values; models based on stock price; consumer finance models; models for small business; models for real estate, emerging market corporations, and financial institutions; country risk models; and more. There is an important analysis of default results on corporate bonds and loans, and credit rating migration. In all cases, the authors emphasize that success will go to those firms that employ the right tools and create the right kind of risk culture within their organizations. A strong concluding chapter integrates emerging trends in the financial markets with the new methods in the context of the overall credit environment.

Concise, authoritative, and lucidly written, Managing Credit Risk is essential reading for bankers, regulators, and financial market professionals who face the great new challenges-and promising rewards-of credit risk management.

Customer Reviews:

Executive Summary on Managing Credit Risk.......2003-08-21

This book is good overview on current status of the credit risk management. I recommend it to those who need to get quick overview on what it takes. It compares classic credit analysis with new approaches, explains the credit culture etc. However this can not be used as a single source of information. You will need additional books. Do not expect to get mathematical formulas in this book. There is only very few of them, which is benefitial here, because the book is easy to understand. What you will get is a vision on how the credit risk should be managed. If you seek specific advices on how to manage credit risk than there are better books like Managing Bank Risk: An Introduction to Broad-Base Credit Engineering from Morton Glanz.

Too good to be true?.......2003-08-04

While the recent comment "Comprehensive Resource on Credit Risk Management" is very good in many ways, I wish it explains more in the low yielding instruments, like the wit it shows in the treatment of high yield.

Innovative approach to Managing credit risks.......2002-02-18

This book popularises the new portfolio management approach to managing loan portfolios.The attempt is to mark the value of loans to market. This assumes a vibrant market for securitised loans , strips etc.It is a very good introductory book an the subject which is now evolving.It should be read by regulators and those who have supervisory roles.It is easy reading not much encumbered by obscure mathematical equations
This is good value for money and should be on every credit administrator's bookshelf

A Foot in the Door.......2001-07-07

The authors make for a particularly impressive team of credit risk experts and Professor Altman in particular is a global authority on the subject. The book does not disappoint, and provides a first-rate overview of the field as it is currently emerging. Of particular interest to this reviewer were the chapters on the new credit risk models such as CreditMetrics, KMV and their brethren. There are also some informative chapters on default and recovery analysis and credit migration. However, like so many financial books on the market these days, there is little guidance on the practical implementation of the various approaches described in the text. Overall, "Managing Credit Risk" is a very useful work but for this kind of money I would have expected more than just a foot in the door!

Managing Credit Risk is a fabulous book........1999-11-15

Managing Credit Risk is an outstanding work of scholarship and a truly fabulous book. As a working credit analyst in the field the authors characterize as "classic credit analysis," I felt the need to become conversant with the various quantitative approaches to managing credit risk, (especially since the ultimate goal of the quantitative modelers is to put me out of work). The book served my needs precisely, by introducing all of the relevant models in a concise format with easy-to-understand commentary on the strengths and weaknesses of the models. The clear, qualitative, conceptual explanations are supported by quantitative examples sufficient to satisfy most numerically minded readers, but even those who shy away from numbers will find the quantitative examples easy to follow. The book has served me very well by enabling me to discuss the assessment and deployment of quantitative models on an even footing with professional risk managers and the rocket scientists who are engaged in developing these models. Although finance professionals obviously will find the book of great value, I also believe that readers who enjoyed Peter Bernstein's Against the Gods will find that Managing Credit Risk provides a concrete account of the current state of humanity's struggle to understand and control risk.

900 Miles from Nowhere: Voices from the Homestead Frontier

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Greater Respect for American Pioneers
Great history lesson

900 Miles from Nowhere: Voices from the Homestead Frontier
Steven R. Kinsella
Manufacturer: Minnesota Historical Society Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Social History | Historical Study | History | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 0873515722

Book Description

It was on the vast American prairie that people from around the world seized the opportunity for personal and economic freedom promised by free land. Traveling across oceans and continents, these hard-nosed, pragmatic people began arriving in the 1860s with shovels and plows, convinced they were part of something important. They were. Putting hand to plow and breaking the sod for their first crude homes, these hardy settlers left an indelible thumbprint on American history and on the country’s character. Though many of their ventures ended in failure, their risks permanently enhanced the nation’s diversity and its sense of independence and resourcefulness.

900 Miles from Nowhere is the heartfelt chronicle of the daily lives and personal struggles of Great Plains homesteaders, told in their own voices through many never-before-published letters, diaries, and photographs. Believing absolutely that they could control their own destiny, they bet everything they owned, even in the face of insurmountable obstacles. This is the remarkable and ever-inspiring story of life on the grasslands that stretch from Canada to Mexico.

Customer Reviews:

Greater Respect for American Pioneers.......2007-01-31

After reading "900 Miles from Nowhere" I am amazed at the pioneer spirit, and their toughness and tenacity. Settlers of the Great Plains suffered hardship upon misfortune living in crude huts and sod houses and breaking ground in an often inhospitable land. Their prize was 160 acres of free or inexpensive land given by the United States government to help populate the drier lands of the middle west. "All" they had to do was improve their land for several years, during which time they experienced some or a combination of the following natural disasters: drought, tornadoes and high winds, extreme heat, plagues of locusts, and blizzards, as well as personal torments in the form of isolation, scarcity of food and funds, unsanitary and uncomfortable living conditions, disease, and death. That anyone managed to hang on, let alone prosper, in these conditions boggles my "modern day" mindset.

The letters and diary entries in this book showcase the actual thoughts, experiences and emotions of many pioneers between 1860 and 1910. Their stoicism is inspiring and their work ethic is astounding. The optimism and sometimes the bleakness of some excerpts really tugs at your heart. The photographs are amazing, collected from many historical museums in the midwest. You see formally dressed families proudly posing in front of their sod huts, and in the background the flat prairie seems to stretch to infinity, looking more like Mars than somewhere on Earth. It's fascinating to study the faces of these people, and know that you are looking at some of the builders of America who gave it their all.

Several of my ancestors lived on claims in Montana during that same period. Now I know what they must have experienced in trying to get their share of the American dream.

Great history lesson.......2007-01-10

If you're one of those people who think hardships mean your computer is down or you've lost a cell phone call or maybe your morning coffee isn't just the blend you prefer, this book should be a wake up call. Steven R. Kinsella 's "900 Miles From Nowhere," is a compilation of letters, journal entries and other documents in which the settlers of the Great Plains describe in their own words the immense hardships they faced as they established homes, farms and towns on the vast American prairie.
Kinsella, a former press secretary to U.S. Sen. Tom Daschle, now lives in St. Paul, Minn. He is a great-grandson of Great Plains homesteaders. Kinsella did hours of research for this fascinating book which offers insight into the courage and determination our ancestors faced as they struggled to make new lives for themselves in the frontier.
The book's title comes from a letter written by a new bride whose husband had taken her to a sod house in western South Dakota. Still, the 23-year-old woman was cheerily optimistic as she wrote about the construction of her "other house," a two-story frame structure that she was more than anxious to occupy. Her determination to succeed despite being "900 miles from nowhere" is a common theme among the writings, and is a pretty good indication of just how this a large part of this country was settled - by people who refused to be defeated.
History buff or not, most readers will find this a very good read. I received it as a gift and ordered a copy to give as a gift.

Little House On The Prairie CD (Little House the Laura Years)

Average customer rating:

A wonderfully told classic!
Not as good as previous version
Great reading for kids
Little house on the Praire
Fabulous

Little House On The Prairie CD (Little House the Laura Years)
Laura Ingalls Wilder
Manufacturer: HarperChildrensAudio
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Audio CD

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ASIN: 006054399X
Release Date: 2003-04-15

Book Description

America's Original Pioneer Girl

Pa Ingalls decides to sell the little log house, and the family sets out for Indian country! They travel from Wisconsin to Kansas, and there, finally, Pa builds their little house on the prairie. Sometimes farm life is difficult, even dangerous, but Laura and her family are kept busy and happy with the promise of their new life on the prairie.

Little House on the Prairie is the second book in the Laura Years series.

Performed by Cherry Jones.

Customer Reviews:

A wonderfully told classic!.......2007-07-28

Charming, engaging, and wonderfully told, the story about Laura and her family's life on the frontier is a great read for preteen readers and adults alike. Very interesting, this is a great book for young readers looking for a good book, or even for adults. A great story about a family that sticks together through very tough times as well as a good look into what life a settler was really like.

Not as good as previous version.......2007-05-21

I teach 5th grade and I purchased these books to complete my class set of these books. This new version is missing all of the wonderful sketches that made Laura's books famous. Why? The font is also smaller and the page numbers are different, making it difficult for the kids with this version to follow along. I'm most upset though at the lack of the illustrations that children have come to love since Laura wrote these books. Disappointing. Get the older version (without the photograph on the cover) if you can get it.

Great reading for kids.......2007-05-07

My daughter loved this story and is asking for the whole Laura Wilder book series.

Little house on the Praire.......2007-05-04

Pa was happy in the beginning when the Ingalls were moving south, but when they had to move back where they used to live they were very disappointed. I loved this book because it was easy to picture that you were living with the Ingalls. The way Laura Ingalls Wilder told the story about her life and her family made the reader feel as if they were there too.

Fabulous.......2007-03-20

Whether you have read the Little House books or have never heard of them, this book on tape is wonderful for everyone from small children to adults. The narrator who reads it does an amazing job of capturing the childhood wonderment and emotions Laura was trying to convey. It is also so interesting to hear the way families lived back in the 1800's. I could listen to this book on tape over and over again.

The Simplest Path to Personal and Planetary Awakening, Step One: FREE YOUR MIND: 10 Keys for Unlocking Your Personal Potential, Achieving Spiritual Awakening, ... of Humanity's Ultimate Cosmic Destiny

Average customer rating:

Way Beyond "Socrates Revisited"
True, but gimmicky
A Unique and Inspiring Wake-up Call
Challenge Consensus Reality!
A Simple Cure For What's "Eating Us"

The Simplest Path to Personal and Planetary Awakening, Step One: FREE YOUR MIND: 10 Keys for Unlocking Your Personal Potential, Achieving Spiritual Awakening, ... of Humanity's Ultimate Cosmic Destiny
Vincent Casspriano Jr.
Manufacturer: Lulu.com
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Religion & Spirituality | Subjects | Books

Buddha | Buddhism | Religion & Spirituality | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 1847285783

Book Description

The Simplest Path, Step One: Free Your Mind delineates, in one slim volume, a complete system for achieving personal spiritual awakening, along with a straightforward, no-nonsense plan individuals and groups so enlightened can follow to awaken Humanity en masse and positively transform the world. This book contains keys to awakening. Awakening from our personal dream shatters the solid "box" of limitation memes have built around our lives, and frees us to fluidly craft our personalities, environments, relationships, careers, etc. as an artist paints a landscape or a sculptor teases form from formless clay. All of us awakening together from the shared dream of the planet will mark the birth of our species out of our current global nightmare of decline into a limitless future literally beyond our present ability to imagine, even in our "wildest dreams," indeed.

Customer Reviews:

Way Beyond "Socrates Revisited".......2007-08-22

After reading the commentary attached to the one star rating given by the young man from Texas, I feel compelled to step forward in defense of this very fine book. With only one exception, every point made in that negative review is simply wrong. Just not factually correct. The reviewer identifies himself as a young man (... "to my young mind"), and since all of his other Amazon reviews are of TV episodes on DVD, video games and rock music CDs I take him at his word. Well, I am an "old man," closing in on my sixty-third birthday, and I came to Mr. Casspriano's book after six decades of life experience, the last three of those decades a zealous practitioner of Zen Buddhism. I say this not to "brag," but simply to qualify myself as a reviewer before beginning.

I'll start where the one star reviewer closed his argument, with his statement that the simplest path reduces to two Socratic concepts: "Admit that you don't know anything" and "know yourself."

The first part is nominally true (the exception). Like Zen Buddhism, a central tenet of the simplest path is working to release the false notion we all hold that we know ourselves, other people, the world around us. But identifying and releasing our attachments to our illusions is a life's work, not some brash "I don't know nothin'!" as the young Texan seems to imply. Under normal circumstances, we go about our daily lives with no idea we are deluded about anything, as Maya (the illusion of the phenomenal world around and even inside us) is so convincing that most of us never even think to question its validity. Casspriano did not invent the notion of human beings being trapped in illusion, as this truth was known to the timeless authors of the Hindu Vedas and is central to all schools of Buddhism (not just Zen). But his scientific/spiritual exploration of the mechanism by which Maya ensnares our minds and can, with effort, be overcome is among the best "plain English" explanations of this process I have read. There is no "inscrutable mystery" in the simplest path (a criticism that has been accurately leveled toward Zen Buddhism, as a lot of Eastern thought truly does come off as "inscrutable" when translated into English and/or the metaphors of Western culture). Casspriano lays out in no-nonsense American English exactly what our brains are doing when they create the illusion we mistake for reality, then shows the reader in the same clear terms how to train his or her brain to break free of illusion and taste reality as-it-is. In just 216 pages, that is no mean feat. After thirty years of Zen practice and numerous kensho experiences (of varying depths and intensities), I can say from personal experience that Casspriano is correct. Enlightenment comes as the fruit of a long, incremental process of retraining the mind to touch reality in a new way, and the process described in the simplest path is the same as that followed in Zen practice, especially Rienzi Zen koan study (I'll have more to say about this in a later paragraph). Casspriano's approach and language is very different from traditional Zen (more "scientific," and no sitting meditation is required), which I think would appeal to Americans and other Westerners seeking to experience "awakening" without necessarily committing themselves to a religion like Buddhism, but the internal mental/spiritual process and final destination are the same.

"Know yourself," on the other hand, is not in this book at all, at least not in the way the young reviewer, or Socrates for that matter, uses the phrase. As in Buddhism, Casspriano takes pains to demonstrate that "self" is as much of an illusion as our misapprehension of the phenomenal world, and is a byproduct of exactly the same mind process that creates outer Maya. A core teaching of Buddhism is that our "self," our personality/ego, is nothing more than an aggregation of outside influences that cluster together in our minds like shiny stones gathered into a pile, and which we mistake not only for something "real," but tragically, for our essential selves. Yet this "pile" has nothing really to do with who we are at all. Buddhism teaches "no-self." Belief in the illusion of a unique and independent "self" is our greatest obstacle to enlightenment. Wasting time and energy getting to "know yourself" in the Western sense is foreign to Eastern thought. Casspriano again does a great job of translating the Buddhist concept of "no-self" into Western scientific/spiritual terminology. He shows the process by which our ego/personality aggregate "piles up," as well as how to take the pile down, stone by stone. Enlightenment is what the pile was covering up, and so it naturally appears as soon as the pile is removed - but oh how we cling to our personal pile of stones! "Self" is what we must trade for enlightenment, what must be surrendered, and Casspriano returns to this truth many times in the simplest path. My point is that the one star reviewer's reduction of the simplest path to "know yourself" has no basis at all in the actual book.

As to the book being "gimmicky": Yes, the words "The Simplest Path" recur frequently throughout the book, but not in reference to the book itself (at least that's not how I took it), but rather to the system of understanding the mind and working toward "awakening" Casspriano is describing - and it is a complete system that deserves to be considered as a whole, on its own. At times the repetition does have a feel of "branding" in the commercial sense, so I understand where the reviewer may have taken his impression. But the simplest path, while resonant with Zen Buddhism (and apparently, according to Casspriano, with the Toltec philosophy espoused by Carlos Castaneda, of which I have no personal knowledge, so I'll have to take the author's word for that) is far enough different that it needs its own "name" to set it apart from other schools of similar but not identical thought. The reviewer's criticism is like saying that every use of the term "Zen" in a book called "Zen Buddhism" should be taken as a reference to the book, and not to the larger practice of Zen Buddhism as a spiritual discipline that the book is describing. Casspriano's point in repeatedly linking The Simplest Path, Zen Buddhism and Toltec Shamanism throughout the book, at least as I understood it, is to highlight these three spiritual practices as related reliable paths through a dark forest of illusion, a forest in which many apparent (and more popular) paths, including most (all?) religious beliefs, actively vie to mislead travelers toward deeper ensnarement in the dream, rather than leading them toward "awakening."

I want to say a word about koan study in Rienzi Zen and how it relates to the simplest path. Koans are those quirky Zen sayings and stories like "what is the sound of one hand clapping?" or "what was your original face before you (or your parents) were born?" that have no rational answer, and which Zen students turn and turn in their minds like the tumblers of a combination lock until their imprisoned psyches "explode" in a "super-rational" experience of reality beyond the illusion ("irrational" would be the wrong term, as that implies "nonsense"). That "super-rational" vision of reality is called "kensho." I have experienced it myself, more than once in my lifetime. I have come to think of Casspriano's "Key Questions" in the second half of the simplest path, especially the later seven of the ten, as "cultural koans" designed to trigger "collective kensho" for the whole human race at once. Like "what is the sound of one hand clapping?", unflinching consideration of the value of human life, of how our beliefs about the future shape the present, of the true origin and destiny of life on Earth, etc., especially as seen through the lens of Casspriano's "Key Question Technique," reveals that none of these questions have rational answers, yet all require our active and immediate response. Successful resolution of these larger riddles that impact everyone will require us all to eventually "explode" into reality, together, in a "super-rational" way. We'll have to break through the illusion and wake up together, as one (which has been the goal of Mahayana Buddhism, of which Zen is a sect, since around 200 BCE). That is the "Planetary Awakening" addressed in this book, and I believe Casspriano's "Key Questions" are a concrete step in that direction. I'm glad I spent my fifteen dollars.

This is my "old man" take on the simplest path, having encountered it after 30 years of Zen Buddhist practice (I'm not veering off my chosen path here, just bowing respectfully in passing toward Casspriano's). From a Buddhist perspective, the simplest path is true Dharma, though I do not get the impression from reading his book that Vincent Casspriano is himself a Buddhist or a follower of any religion. That to my mind makes his book all the more interesting.

True, but gimmicky.......2007-08-09

Casspriano's book is scientifically and philosophically sound as best as my young mind can tell, but I don't recommend this book. Its scattered with numerous pages of advertising about how his "program" works and how it compares to other religions and spiritual movements. Why must this author physically write out "The Simplest Path" in reference to his book every other page, and talk about his second volume? Perhaps because he's not out for pure truth, but for our money.

All this book comes down to after you strip away the nonsense is two things. First, admit that you don't truly know anything. Second, know yourself. Do those two things (they essentially both mean to question EVERYTHING), and you'll have Casspriano's "Planetary Awakening," with 15 bucks still in your pocket. And you'll be following the fundamental truths already said by Socrates.. so do yourself a favor and pick up Plato's "Apology" and read up on the Socratic dialogue on how to live a good life. And don't stop there, because you can't be sure he's right.

And I have 10 bucks that says these other couple of reviews were written by the book publisher. In any case, ignore the hype.

A Unique and Inspiring Wake-up Call.......2007-05-15

This is one of the most clear-headed books I've read in years on the subject of real, nitty gritty, get your hands dirty spiritual development (as opposed to the fru fru New Age variety). So much of what passes for "spirituality" in our time amounts to some author, celebrity, priest, philosopher or self-appointed guru telling us what to "believe," sight unseen, if we want to reach heaven, attain enlightenment, achieve "ascension," etc. Casspriano takes an at times startling opposite approach. For Casspriano, such unquestioned/unquestionable beliefs are not only NOT the path to spiritual awakening, they represent the chief obstacle blocking our realization of higher consciousness. And it's not just religious beliefs ("faith") he's talking about, but all our beliefs about reality, especially those that enclose our thinking in "boxes" that limit our freedom to find solutions to real-world threats like Peak Oil, overpopulation, Global Warming, etc. Though much of the book focuses on individual enlightenment, for Casspriano, these larger planetary issues are "spiritual," as well. Whether the issue is our personal inability to find happiness or Humanity's collective rush toward physical extinction, the cause is the same - our wrong-headed beliefs about what's real. The solution is the same, as well - continuous, deep questioning. Using Richard Dawkins' concept of "memes" as a central metaphor, Casspriano first breaks down the basic process of belief, showing the mechanism in our brains by which beliefs misdirect and control our psyches, then he walks the reader through an exploration of a series of ten "anti-meme questions" aimed at breaking down the walls of our mental "boxes" and setting our minds free. With each question, he supplies an exercise designed to allow the reader to attain a personal taste of reality "beyond the box," especially as flavored by that chapter's "Key Question." For the most part, this formula works very well (with a few rare moments of over-exuberance on the author's part, as already described in other reviews, though as a card carrying vegan environmentalist, I can't say I particularly minded), delivering a cumulative series of death-blows to some of the most basic "pillars" of our present human consensus reality. Beyond the walls those pillars supported lies real reality, where we are all interconnected and interdependent, and, in Casspriano's view, mutually destined for greatness, if we can just wake up and grab the reins of our runaway culture in time. This is not a book for spiritual "feel gooders" seeking soft assurances that they're perfect just they way they are and everything's going to be all right, no matter what. This is a wake up call, a tool kit and a concrete action plan for becoming individually enlightened and collectively saving the world, all rolled up into one. That, I think, is a cause well-worthy of exuberance.

Challenge Consensus Reality!.......2007-05-10

This is a thoughtful book that addresses how we may go about developing a process to question our everyday consensus reality. I suppose if I have learned anything in 49 years of life, it is that all personal and social problems stem from our fundamental views on the nature of reality itself. Vincent Casspriano uses the concept of a "meme" as a fundamental unit of ideas, assumptions, etc. that often block our understanding of reality itself. One such meme, for example, may be that we have to "fight for our freedom" or the world's a "fearful" place and hence, we have to be ready to kill to protect ourselves. I suppose you could also use the word "paradigm" here as well, but the essential point of this book is that we "unconsciously" function in our life with many limited points of view that block our ability to solve problems on both a personal and a social basis.

While Vince Casspriano is to be congradulated for producing a book that presents both a methodology and a motivation for personal transformation, there are a few pitfalls here that the potential reader should be aware of before tackling this material. The author has some rather strong views on fossil fuel consumption, meet consumption, and the role of humans in the cycle of procreation. While I generally agree with his analysis on fossil fuel consumtion and meat consumption (as I have viewed large tracks of deforrested grazing land in developing countries), these viewpoints can distract the reader from the essential point here which is to rigourously question consensus reality. Since I am single, and have no motivation to have children, I definitely disagree with his views on the necessity of human procreation on this planet, but here again, it is important to extract the essential meaning rather than get caught in the specific political/social debates that these issues may spawn.

If you are serious about personal transformation with the potential for changing our global consciousness, than this book can be an invaluable tool. I do agree with the Author that a world population of "high functioning" people can resolve every planetary problem we face today. As we systematically question our consensus reality, we will see our problems in new ways, and with this new perspective, problems can often be quickly resolved or transcended.

A Simple Cure For What's "Eating Us".......2006-11-13

I considered titling this review, "Stop Whining, Wake Up and Get Busy Saving the World," but decided "Eating Us" would be more attention-grabbing - which matters because I believe Vincent Casspriano, Jr.'s "The Simplest Path, Step One: FREE YOUR MIND" is an important book, and I want to do whatever I can to draw your attention to it. Pick the title you like best. Both very fittingly describe what you will find within the pages of this remarkable new release from New Paradigm Press.

I have selected three short quotations to explore in this review that I think best summarize Casspriano's overall message:

From Chapter One, "The Boxes We Dream In":

"Right now, this very moment, you are asleep... Even if you are reading these words in broad daylight - sitting at your desk or beside the kitchen table, your feet firmly planted on the floor, eyes open, senses alert, feeling the weight of this book in your hands as sounds of life rise and fall rhythmically around you - you are deeply asleep, and dreaming furiously"

Now, the idea that Humans are sleeping, and must therefore "awaken," is by no means unique to Casspriano's "Simplest Path" spiritual system, being the root observation underlying pretty much all Eastern religion, and a lot of Western Occultism and New Age metaphysics, as well. In fairness, Casspriano makes no claim to this as an original insight, openly supporting his assessment of the human predicament with quotations taken from Animism, Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism and Islam. He then flows seamlessly into a list of complementary illustrations from the secular realms of Quantum Physics, brain/consciousness research, and most to-the-point, the study of memes and memetics, ala Evolutionary Biologist and world's best-known cheerleader for scientific atheism, Richard Dawkins.

If you've never heard of memes or memetics, a quick Google of those terms will reveal hundreds of serious, information-rich websites devoted to this now thirty-year old science. In a nutshell, a "meme" is a sort of contagious thought-form that spreads between people by way of imitation. Obvious memes in our environment include advertising jingles, fads and fashions, etc. Casspriano somewhat radically extends the concept to include just about everything that makes up the contents of our individual brains and shared human culture. While he resists redefining the word "meme" wholesale, he decidedly expands its definition to make memes and "memeplexes" (what you get when a number of memes band together into an organic, relational unit, like a religion or cultural or political movement) the basic, fundamental building blocks of everything we habitually label "real..."

And then he demonstrates, in at times excruciating detail, the complete emptiness of the "apparent-reality" that is a byproduct of memetic activity in our brains. What we call "real" is not real at all. It's an illusion spun up by our memes. And our memes are not original to us. They are "viral invaders" assailing our minds from without. Worse - and, while even this thought is not wholly unique to Casspriano, he certainly gives it his own very effective spin - memes are by no means mere passive beliefs or simple "harmless ideas." They are, Casspriano believes, actively predatory psychic parasites whose survival depends on our buying into the illusions they create in our minds. Think of illusion (Samsara, Maya, etc.) as a web we're caught in. Memes are the spider. We are the fly. Gotcha.

One thing I like very much about Casspriano's book is that he never asks us to take anything on faith, least of all this rather ugly depiction of the human psychic/spiritual condition. He not only challenges readers to test his hypothesis firsthand in order to experience what is real and true for ourselves, he spends a large chunk of the book outlining specific exercises anyone can do to escape memetic interference and personally experience reality as-it-is. The exercises in Part II of the book are powerful medicine... But this is a digression, so let me return to the point.

Memes are the spider, and we are the fly. A better metaphor might be that memes are the farmer, and we are the cow. Domesticated and docile, we allow memes to milk us daily, to extract from our minds the potent human psychic energy which, if reclaimed by us and put to proper human use, would quickly and positively transform our lives and our world. This transformation is awakening, ascension, enlightenment, metanoia, the Buddha-like change of consciousness most religions and spiritual systems on Earth hint at, but few ever actually deliver to followers. In this analysis, Casspriano's "Simplest Path" is very much in line with Gurdjieff's "Fourth Way," Carlos Castaneda's Toltec sorcery, and a few other well known spiritual practices inhabiting a somewhat darker, though perhaps more realistic corner of the New Age. But unlike most of those other systems, Casspriano's prescription for escaping illusion and awakening to reality is remarkably, well... simple.

From Chapter Three, "Waking Up":

"The simple truth is that we are sleeping because we lack sufficient energy to wake up."

And later in the same chapter:

"The real work that brings about awakening, rather than merely granting the external appearance of "being spiritual," while actually embroiling us ever more deeply in the dream, is a rigorous, daily commitment to the identification and elimination of every self-serving belief from which our personal dream-lives are constructed."

For "belief" in the quotation above, read "meme/memeplex." Casspriano certainly does, treating the terms as largely interchangeable. In the end, this genuinely simple - at least in the sense of being uncomplicated and pragmatic - spiritual practice amounts to discovering reality as-it-actually-is less by searching for a glimpse beyond the illusion, than by systematically withdrawing our participation in, and identification with, the dream. When we disentangle our psyches from memetic illusion, only reality remains. We don't have to chase it; to a meme-free mind, reality just appears. This is "Satori" in Zen Buddhism. This is "stopping the world" in the Toltec sorcery of Castaneda and others. Casspriano's genius lies in his talent for exposing the core mechanism behind such complex and often inscrutable spiritual systems, and for putting into plain language clear instructions for unraveling the dream and achieving personal awakening. The virus-like process by which memes take over and control our human minds, as described by Casspriano is, to my mind, very complicated (but well worth struggling through). What is genuinely simple about "The Simplest Path," however, is Casspriano's prescription for breaking those bonds, once you've made the effort to understand how they are created and maintained. For Casspriano, remaining a victim of spiritual sleep and energetic exploitation by memes is a complex activity in which we unconsciously invest enormous amounts of psychic energy every day of our lives. Awakening is the product of a simple act of withdrawing that investment, which automatically re-energizes of our minds and lives. Or as Casspriano cleverly phrases it when closing Chapter Three, "Waking Up":

"Unweave the tapestry of the dream, and awakening happens."

Anyone can do this. Spiritual awakening, in Casspriano's view, may be hard work, but it is not complicated work. The path to enlightenment is really rather shockingly simple. Fall out of love with the dream. Reclaim your psychic energy. Wake up to reality.

The ten "Key Questions" Casspriano explores in the second section of the book are designed to put the theory laid out in Part I to practical and immediate use. Essentially, I think Casspriano sees these ten issues - why we treat enlightenment as an "airy-fairy" ideal instead of a measurable transformation of brain functioning, the excuses we make for avoiding personal responsibility and integrity along the lines of Castaneda's "impeccability," the fallacy of belief in a "separate self," etc. - as pillars of both our personal and collective human dreams. They are by no means an exhaustive listing of the memes twisting our minds. But they are primary keystones on which layers upon layers of the grand illusion are built. Topple these ten baseline pillars and the larger structure crumbles.

Casspriano explores some "Keys" more successfully than others. One downside to the book is that, especially in the "Keys," Casspriano's own memetic prejudices shine at times rather glaringly through, as when, in his discussion of the American "What Would Jesus Do?" religious fad, he characterizes the Evangelical Christian purveyors of WWJD as, "ultra-conservative, right wing ideologues." Even should the reader personally agree with such pronouncements, its hard to resist thinking, "Hey Vince! Your memes are showing!" But where he nails his point, Casspriano's prose can be downright inspiring, as with the "Key" cosmological study "Is Earth the Center of the Universe?," which explores the gap between what we know, scientifically, about the Universe and what our daily choices and behavior says we really believe, about the cosmos and about ourselves. His closing "Key" "Are We Alone?" so poetically frames the true stakes of our global human predicament - species survival VS extinction - that its hard to imagine anyone keeping their gaze glued squarely to their own self-involved navel in the wake of reading it. Of course we are not alone. There are six and a half billion of us on Planet Earth, and whether we awaken to what's best in us or follow our darkest drives over History's cliff into oblivion, we do so as one. One planet, one fate.

This notion of "oneness" and of a common, intertwined human spiritual and biological destiny is a core theme in The Simplest Path, Step One: FREE YOUR MIND that sets it apart from any spiritual book in recent memory. My final quotation from the book returns us to the opening lines of Chapter One, "The Boxes We Dream In":

"We are all aware of the challenges facing us as we enter together into the 21st Century:

· World oil supplies are running out.

· Global warming is transforming the Earth into a steamy greenhouse.

· Even as our technology connects the world, ideological extremism, terrorism and militarism divide us as never before.

· Headlines bombard us with news of war, famine, pestilence and death until we feel overwhelmed and unable to respond.

· Time is running out..."

Vincent Casspriano, Jr.'s "The Simplest Path to Personal and Planetary Transformation, Step One: FREE YOUR MIND" does not offer easy escape from these very pressing real-world human ills, but rather, a down to Earth, workable prescription for their cure. Yes, we must awaken as individuals, and, rest assured, "The Simplest Path" shows spiritual seekers exactly how to do that. But a prime message of "The Simplest Path" is that, for personal awakening to have meaning, it must occur within the context of a complete re-visioning of global culture, and a mass wrenching away of the wheel of History from the control of viral memes, that we might create a common cosmic human destiny worthy of our highest potential as a species.

Now that's a meme worth feeding.

Never Break the Chain: Fleetwood Mac and the Making of
<I>Rumours</I> (Vinyl Frontier series, The)

Average customer rating:

Fleetwood Mac .. a potted history !!
Entertaining, insightful and well-written
a decent read

Never Break the Chain: Fleetwood Mac and the Making of Rumours (Vinyl Frontier series, The)
Cath Carroll
Manufacturer: Chicago Review Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 1556525451

Book Description

This insightful behind-the-scenes look at the making of Fleetwood Mac's Rumours explores the strong personalities behind the band and the creative tensions between the members that helped to shape the lyrical content of this era-defying, classic album. Original research and new interviews with those who were there reveal the technical challenges and excessive drinking and drug abuse that went on during the album's production. The complex relationships within the group and each individual's contribution to the album are discussed. The two rocky romances within the band, including the breakdown of John and Christine McVie's marriage and the increasingly strained relationship between Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham, are also discussed, as are the songs on the album they influenced. The stories that inspired and created one of the most popular and significant albums of all time are unearthed.

Customer Reviews:

Fleetwood Mac .. a potted history !!.......2005-08-03

An interesting & absorbing read. To a long-time fan like me a lot of the detail was already known & there were items that were clearly sourced from other publications but, to be fair, this was made clear & not hidden at all. I was pleased that some time was given over to other albums & not only "Rumours". Having said that I think the casual reader, drawn-in by the reference to "Rumours", would think it was an enjoyable & informative read & well presented. To be honest I found there were some elements that were new to me - which raised an eyebrow - so a "thumb's up" all round.

Entertaining, insightful and well-written.......2005-01-25

First, a confession: author Cath Carroll interviewed me for this book and when my Amazon.com copy arrived yesterday, I shamelessly looked up in the index the references to my name and read those parts first. Not only did she get everything right, she caught the spirit, the humor and the nuance of our conversation. What a hoot to see in print for the first time some of my favorite nuggets from my years as a Rolling Stone contributor.

More to the point, in addition to delivering the goods to Fleetwood Mac's fans, Never Break the Chain is entertaining, literate and, I submit, a significant contribution to pop culture letters. What is so impressive is that Cath Carroll has written a book about something that happened nearly 30 years ago, centered around an ostensibly small event, and yet she used it as a touchstone to beautifully capture the the energy, the gestalt and, strangely, a sense of relevance and importance of that special time that endures to this day.

The funny thing is, I don't think any of us at the time, neither FM or me, had a clue that what was going down was THAT significant. But I suspect in such times, few of any of us do.

No doubt part of my enthusiasm for the book derives from my having been there during that incandescent period, but my appreciation owes in far greater measure to Cath Carroll's skill as a journalist, her ear for a story, and her passion for her subject. Flat out gifted journalism. I hope the band reads this gem of a book. Highest recommendation.

a decent read.......2004-09-09

First of all, I was pleasantly surprised to have received this book about a week ago from Amazon. I wasn't expecting it until October. This book is well written and I learned a few new things about what went on during the making of Rumours. I was disappointed that there are so few photos in this book but it includes some I had never seen. If you are a Fleetwood Mac fan, this isn't a bad item to add to your collection.

Steel Bonnets: The Story of the Anglo-Scottish Border Reivers

Average customer rating:

Thorough, well-structured, and entertaining
The Definitive History of the Borderers
Fascinating book for me as a Reiver descendant.
Readable and relevant
A much needed title

Steel Bonnets: The Story of the Anglo-Scottish Border Reivers
George MacDonald Fraser
Manufacturer: Harpercollins Pub Ltd
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Europe | History | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 0002727463

Book Description

"If Jesus Christ were amongst them, they would deceive him," it was said of the plunders, raiders, and outlaws who terrorized the Anglo-Scottish Border for over 300 years. Theirs is an almost forgotten chapter of British history, preserved largely in folktales and ballads. It is the story of the notorious raiding families--Armstrongs, Elliots, Grahams, Johnstones, Maxwells, Scotts, Kerrs, Nixons, and others--of the outlaw bands and broken men, and the fierce battles of English and Scottish armies across the Marches. The Steel Bonnets tells their true story in its historical context-- how the reivers ran their raids and operated their system of blackmail and terrorism, and how the March Wardens, enforcing the unique Border law, fought the great lawless community. A superb work of scholarship and a spellbinding narrative. George MacDonald Fraser is the celebrated author of the Flashman novels, The Candlemass Road, The Pyrates, and the Private McAuslan stories.

Customer Reviews:

Thorough, well-structured, and entertaining.......2005-06-10

Until England and Scotland were united under a single king in March 1603, the border between them was, unsurprisingly, a natural place for strife and disorder. The two countries had been at war intermittently for centuries, and many armies had passed back and forth across the border counties. Fraser's history covers the last hundred years of the border, from 1503 to 1603, a period during which the decayed (and astonishingly corrupt) administration could never cope with the local gangs -- known as "reivers" -- who terrorized the district with cattle theft, murder, and arson.

The book is very well-organized. Fraser starts with a few pages on the long historical background, then takes about half the book to cover the reivers by topic: chapters on arms and armour; on reiving technique; on the key families and their alliances; on cross-border relations; on the administrative structure. Fraser gives a lot of details, and plenty of quotes from the original sources (with the original spellings!).

This painstaking coverage sets up the second half of the book perfectly: one hundred and forty pages that cover the history of the border chronologically through the sixteenth century. With the details in hand, the second half is easy to follow and put in context; the writing is also clear and entertaining.

The last section of the book details the uncompromising way in which King James I destroyed the reivers in a few short years after 1603. It is a startlingly bloodthirsty story: Fraser includes quotes from blanket pardons that King James issued to some of his enforcers, which essentially say "whatever murders you did, I'm sure it was in a good cause, and you're absolved".

There are separate chapters on some of the most famous events, notably the raid on Carlisle Castle that freed Kinmont Willie. Fraser is at some pains to dispel the romantic ideas that cling to stories of the borderers -- as he points out, they were essentially a Mafia, with little of Robin Hood about them. It's clear, though, that he finds their adventurousness and style endearing and fascinating; and he writes about them so well that you are likely to feel the same way.

The Definitive History of the Borderers.......2005-03-24

This book is the definitive history of the riding families -- the Border Reviers. It is a long scholarly look into the nature of these complex and determined families that does not pass judgment or apply modern values in the assessment of their history and deeds. This is not for the casusal reader. It uses a fair amount of old English spellings and can be an effort to decifer at times. However Fraser MacDonald combines this along with his natural story telling ability to make you feel as if you are on a foray across the border and it keeps you coming back for more. If you are a student of Border history or are lucky enough to have one of the riding names, make the effort to read this book. It has no equal in its treatment of the subject.

Fascinating book for me as a Reiver descendant........2003-03-15

I was born in Carlisle, England. The second big town of the border area other than Berwick. My father is from Longtown, Cumbria which is right next to the debateable land and I have the last name of Crozier. This book was like reading about my own history and explained a whole lot of things about my home town and the people I grew up with. Just in my neighborhood, there were Armstrongs, Taylors, Littles, Nixons, Grahams and many other Reiver names.
This is a very scholarly book and exceptionally well written. The author must have done an incredible amount of research to put this together. I read it twice, the second time noting how many references to Croziers(Crosers) there were. My father's family name is in there 26 times. Along with the Armstrongs, Nixons and Eliots, we were considered the worst of the worst of the reivers. Maybe not something to be proud of, but interesting. According to my mother(God rest her soul)her paternal grandfather was the illegitmate son of the Duke of Buccleugh(you'll hear a lot about the Scotts of Buccleugh, many of whom had the same name of Walter, including the famous one), so I have Reiver blood from there too. Fascinating book especially if you have a surname that might go back to that part of the world and those times.
What I have written here is just a taste of the whole book. A little heavy going at times, but so good that I have read it twice already and now use it as a research tool.

Readable and relevant.......2002-02-05

MacDonald Fraser brings to the history of the Anglo-Scots border reivers all the exuberance and attention to detail that made his name in the Flashman novels. Readers looking for more gloriously politically-incorrect adventures from the Victorian age won't find them here, but this book does repay the extra effort needed from the reader. The Steel Bonnets is the most entertaining yet informative serious works of history I have read.
The story of the Anglo-Scots border is a complex and a bloody one. MacDonald Fraser manages to understand, without condoning, the hard men who fought and died, rode and raided across the border between the kingdoms of England and Scotland. He untangles the knotted threads of their family ties and feuds and reveals their part in the wider relations between England and Scotland prior to the union of the Crowns in 1603. He dives into the dusty depths of the written records and brings them back to us red in tooth and claw.
At a time when the border between England and Scotland looks as though it may become an international, rather than a domestic border once more, this book should be of relevence to all with an interest in and love of these two nations.

A much needed title.......2001-09-20

As a newcomer to Scottish Border history I found the many forces and families influencing events very confusing. George MacDonald Fraser has written a remarkable book in which he creates order and logic from a very complicated period and at the same time has written a book which is etremely readble.

Customer Reviews:

A BOOK FOR A LIFETIME .......2007-03-05

Here I am ordering another copy of this book. I keep "loaning" them. I received my first copy in the mid-1950s as a horse/cowboy-loving teenager in Indiana. My USFS Ranger uncle sent it to me because he knew....!!! Knew it would be another huge nudge in getting me out to the Great Pacific Northwest other than just for visits. I made it in 1968 and my husband and I have visited the area depicted in the book countless times. I will soon turn 70 and have enjoyed reading this book every few years throughout my life. It is most compelling. The reviews of others are definitely right on. What more can I say other than, read it?

Amazing.......2007-01-10

A personal look in living real life in a land that little is known

Grass Beyond the Mountains.......2006-01-31

Pan Phillips had the "Pan Phillips International Airport" at his fishing camp beyond Anahim Lake B.C. For several years, we flew into his little airport between 2 lakes. Pan told us some of the same stories that are in this book. Louis Soukup was one of the first pilots to the area. Louis would fly in, any equipment that Pan needed, on the pontoons of his airplane. This book gives the stories as though you were sitting at the feet of the men who were the first settlers in this area of British Colombia. It is really an adventure to read.

Read It!.......2001-12-18

We own the Legacy Ranch high in the mountains of Northeastern Utah. For years we have loved the beauty of the unspoiled wilderness. Nursing newborn elk calves, watching Canadian Lynx outside their lairs, and many other adventures have cast us in the mold of lovers of the wilderness. To read the adventures of true cowboys, who started with nothing else but their "grit" and ended up with lives spent plumbing the depths of fun and hard work was one of the top literary experiences of our lives. This book, far better than the sequels, will be part o four Christmas giving this year.

Nothing To It!.......1999-12-12

Nothing to reading it, that is. This is one of the first nonfictions books I've read that I have ever liked. I got interested in it when I saw the TV show 'Nothing Too Good For A Cowboy' and had to read the books. This book made me laugh and almost made me cry. The characters are too funny and very heart-warming.

More Perfect than the Moon (Sarah, Plain and Tall)

Average customer rating:

Excellent next chapter
More perfect than the moon
'More Perfect than the Moon' is a perfect read
A STELLAR READING
Kaitlyn, an 8-year-old reader from Lafayette, CA

More Perfect than the Moon (Sarah, Plain and Tall)
Patricia Maclachlan
Manufacturer: HarperTrophy
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Ages 9-12 | Children's Books | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 0060751797
Release Date: 2005-07-26

Book Description

Cassie spends her days watching Grandfather and Caleb in the barn, looking out at Papa working the fields, spying on her mother, Sarah, feeding the goslings. She's an observer, a writer, a storyteller. Everything is as it should be.

But change is inevitable, even on the prairie. Something new is expected, and Sarah says it will be the perfect gift. Cassie isn't so sure. But just as life changes, people change too. And Cassie learns that unexpected surprises can bring great joy.

Customer Reviews:

Excellent next chapter.......2007-07-15

to the series "Sarah,Plain and Tall." It is read by Glenn Close which makes the audio version perfect. Baby grows up to find out she isn't going to be the last baby in the house! She goes through a few transitions of whether she wants to have a new one in the house or not. The ending is - More Perfect than the Moon!

More perfect than the moon.......2006-02-07

This book was not my favorite book in the world but i definitely learned from it. I learned that people can change. I learned that you should't ddoubt someone when you don't know the details. I would recomend this book to people who like realistic books.

'More Perfect than the Moon' is a perfect read.......2006-01-31

Author Patricia MacLachlan, most famous for "Sarah, Plain and Tall," invites us back to re-visit the Witting family in "More Perfect than the Moon." Mother Sarah is pregnant in "More Perfect than the Moon," much to youngest daughter Cassie's chagrin. Cassie chronicles her feelings and emotions about the upcoming arrival of the 'terrible baby' in a private journal she keeps. Cassie's private journal entries are sometimes true happenings around the Witting farm. Other times, the entries are what Cassie wishes would happen. Either way, the entries had me smiling and laughing out loud. MacLachlan holds true to her typical writing style and shows us that change is inevitable and made bearable by the love of family. Another heart-warming, laugh-out-loud, easy read by MacLachlan.

A STELLAR READING.......2004-10-16

Versatile and always impressive actress Glenn close surely merits all the accolades and awards she has received (4 Oscar nominations, 3 Tony Awards, 1 Emmy Award, and 3 Grammy nominations). Few will forget her over the top performance in Fatal Attraction then a remarkable switch of gears to 101 Dalmatians. She uses her considerable gifts to vivify the narrator in this, the fourth installment in the Sarah Plain and Tall stories.

Much has happened since we first met the Witting family. Young Cassie is now the journal keeper, and she has a knack for writing in a diary. True, sometimes her imagination does carry her away and she records events as she wishes they might be. Nonetheless, she has a journalist's eye for details and relishes putting down her thoughts.

What she does not relish is the arrival of a new baby in their family. She's concerned about what her place will be once this usurper joins them. But, once again, Patricia MacLachlan and Glenn Close remind us of the boundlessness of love.

- Gail Cooke

Kaitlyn, an 8-year-old reader from Lafayette, CA.......2004-09-07

"More Perfect Than The Moon" is the fourth in a series by Patricia MacLachlan about the Witting family. In this author's books the stories are told through the journal writings of the children. In this latest book, Cassandra Sarah Witting is now a third grader who discovers that her mother is once again pregnant. She is afraid that she will lose her parents' attention. She hides her fear by announcing that the baby is not a "special" gift nor even a real baby. In fact, it is really a sheep named Beatrice. When the baby finally comes, Cassie realizes that he is truly a gift "more perfect than the moon".

You do not have to read the previous books to enjoy this short 80-page one. Ms. MacLachlan uses simple language and tells a beautiful story with such few words. Some may say that this is a "girly" book. After all, there are no wars, no fights, no monsters and no superheroes (boys my age love this stuff). But any kid, boy or girl, with a new baby in the family, will probably have the same feelings as Cassie. An important theme in the book is Journaling. It is important that all children learn this craft. After all, everyone has a unique life story to tell.

Average customer rating:

What a good introduction
A Little Treasure!
Every little girl has to have...
Adaptive book versions for "Little House".
A Little Prairie House (my first little house books)

A Little Prairie House (Little House)
Laura Ingalls Wilder
Manufacturer: HarperTrophy
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0064435261

Book Description

Long, long ago, a little girl named Laura Ingalls headed west toward the prairie with her Pa, her Ma, her sisters, Mary and Carrie, and their good old bulldog, Jack. They traveled far each day in their covered wagon, driving through tall grass until they found just the right spot for their new home. With the help of their kind neighbor, Mr. Edwards, Pa built a snug little house for the family in the middle of the wide-open prairie.

Laura Ingalls Wilder's Little House books have been cherished by generations of readers. Now for the first time, the youngest readers can share her adventure in these very special picture books adapted from Laura Ingalls Wilder's beloved story-books. Renee Graef's warm paintings, inspired by Garth Williams' classic Little House illustrations, bring Laura and her family lovingly to life.

Renée Graef recieved her bachelor's degree in art from the University of Wisconsin at Madison. She is the illustrator of teh paper dolls and the Kirsten books in the American Girls Collection. She is also an avid hat collector, with over 150 hats at last count. She lives in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, with her huisband, Tim, and thier children, Maggie and Maxfeild.Join the Ingalls family as they pick a special spot on the prairie and build their snug log cabin home. Their new neighbor, Mr. Edwards, comes by to help, and after the hard work is through, everyone sings and dances to the joyful music of Pa's fiddle. Renee Graef's enchanting full-color illustrations, inspired by Garth William's classic artwork, bring Laura and her family lovingly to life in this eleventh title in the My First Little House Books series, adapted from Laura Ingalls Wilder's beloved storybooks.

Customer Reviews:

What a good introduction.......2007-07-27

These books are great to introduce little ones to the Little House books My duaghter loved these stories and has since moved on to the chapter books to hear more details about Laura Ingalls Wilder's life on the prairie. They are a shorter version but true to the story and the illustrations are a bonus. They also counted as accelerated readers at my duaghters school. So it's a win win in my book.

A Little Treasure!.......2007-02-20

A Little Prairie House, an adaptation from the Little House on the Prarie classic series, will delight children and peak their interest in Pioneering life. The illustrations capture the attention and imagination of young children, whetting their appetite for more.

In this retelling of a treasured classic, children catch a glimpse of what it took to be a pioneer family in America. See how the family works together to set up their new home and how community relationships were first formed in the pioneering communities as they meet Mr. Edwards.

Every little girl has to have..........2007-02-13

We have a few of the books in this series and I recommend them for all little girls of all ages. I have been reading the regular little house books to both of my girls, which have captured their interest even though there aren't pictures and they are 5 and 2 years old. But then I came across these and this gives them a chance to reread the stories and with beautiful illustrations over and over again. (My 2 year old gets more out of these than the regular series of course) But as my 5 year old is learning to read now, she will soon be able to sit down and read these herself. These books are such a nice change from so many other books out there today for little girls. (I'd rather my girls be into this stuff than skanky Bratz and things like that!) They like to read and look at these over and over again. And again I must say, the illustrations are beautiful and my girls are fascinated by them.

Adaptive book versions for "Little House"........2003-01-14

The Series "My First Little House Books" is a great tool for Special Education adaptations of the Core Literature "Little House in the Big Woods". I've used this series in general education classrooms, too, to supplement the Core Lit text. The children's positive responses to the beautiful illustrations made my day! The beautifully portrayed color illustrations capture essential details from the book chapters and make the stories come alive for all of the students. Two thumbs up for this series!

A Little Prairie House (my first little house books).......2000-12-06

I bought this book for my 1st grade daughter, hoping she would love the Laura Ingalls Wilder tradition as I had as a child. She did and I was excited because she could read this book herself and she was empowered! I only wish that you could buy the other 13 titles of the "first books" in a collection or gift set like you can the original series.

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