Audio Books

Mike Robbins has written a great self-examination book focusing on appreciating and being appreciated, especially from one's self. Anyone who thinks they could do better in those categories, or have a more pleasant life, should find Focus on the Good Stuff very worthwhile reading.

Great presentation on a worthwhile topic. If more of us focused on what's good around us ... people, events, society in general ... and then expressed that appreciation ... life would be so much easier. I don't remember who said it, but I love the quote: "What we think about, we bring about." Let's bring about more "good stuff" by focusing on and appreciating what we already have.

This was a delightful little book with a gentle reminder to be good to yourself. Stop being so critical of yourself and appreciate the fact that you are exactly who /what you were born to be. Appreciate Yourself !!

Buy this book, learn the methods and take action, and you will certainly bring more happiness and fulfillment to your life. I wrote pages of notes, and I use these methods everyday! Relationships are crucial for happiness and fulfillment. Learn to treat others and yourself better with "Focus on the Good Stuff."

I had the pleasure of seeing author Mike Robbins at his recent appearance at the Learning Annex in NYC. I left the event impressed by the power of his message and the manner in which he delivers it. I then read this book and felt so good about the message the author is conveying.

So many new authors and speakers have jumped on the bandwagon of the "Secret" and/or the "Law of Attraction." It is refreshing to see a new star emerging with a unique, basic, implementable message that could change the world if implemented. And, refreshing to see someone who seems so committed to walking the talk!

Recent terrific books by Deborah Norville ("Thank You Power") and Robert Emmons ("Thanks") have similarly sounded the trumpet for the importance of gratitude, the cousin to appreciation. Mike's book is equally terrific with his strong point being the specificity of his wisdom on how to express appreciation in a manner such that it penetrates the thick skins hardened by a world of negativity.

I highly recommend the book and I equally recommend that you partake in one of the author's workshops or speeches. As excellent as the book is, in person the author's message resonates even more strongly.

The author writes of her father's decent into Alzheimer's Disease (being more
and more child like in his progression of the disease and her young son growing up from a toddler to young boyhood..the opposite ends of the spectrum. A very moving book. I may reread this one.

In September 2004's Australian Reader's Digest, the story "The Unlikely Gift" had me in tears. It moved me so much that I searched out and ordered the book it was taken from - "The House on Beartown Road". I had been mourning the
death of a favourite and much loved friend who died from the ravages of a similar brain disease (vascular dementia). Although her body died recently, the soul and the entity that I loved which made her who she was, was taken from me many years ago when the diagnosis was made and the slow but inevitable slide began.

My friend Kath, whom I met in 1980, taught me joy and sharing, she took me into her family as if I was one of her own. As I am of a different background, she taught me to enjoy roast dinners and chocolate ripple cakes. She was a favourite auntie, a surrogate mother and most of all, a best friend. In the later years, I have been unable to be in her presence,
as I couldn't reconcile the angry, violent person as being the same caring friend I had known. She was diagnosed in her 60's which is much too early and didn't allow her to enjoy her twilight years with those she loved and who loved her.

Elizabeth Cohen's book is a beautiful and simply told homage to the reality of family life and in my opinion, a must read.

Few books have brought me to tears. This one did. The author writes in a matter-of-fact way about the heart-wrenching disease of Alheimer's, its impact to her life, and the lives of those around her. I didn't want the book to end. It is a quick read. Great book.

What a wonderful book. I have noticed that many who review this book are intimately involved in Alzheimers, be they professional or private care-givers. I don't have anyone in my immediate family with Alzheimers, but I read this as a potential gift to a friend who does. I am grateful that I was motivated to read this lovely, loving account of a disease and the way if effects those who are near it. The author and her family serve as reminders that love comes in all forms, and may be asked of you at the most inconvient moments. Don't wait until you have Alzheimers in your family to read this book. So much gentle learning to be done, so much joy to be given, so many miles we go, travellers through life.

I found "The House on Beartown Road" shelved in our local library (Pound Ridge, NY) under Mental Health/Alzheimer's. I don't know who decides these things, but this wonderful memoir ought to be prominently placed along with other contemporary memoirs. Elizabeth Cohen is a fine writer and she deserves recognition for this generous tribute to her 80-year-old father, Sandy, to her daughter -- one year old Ava, and to new-found neighbors on Beartown Road and to friends in the Binghamton, NY, community. Sandy and Ava of these are at opposite ends of the verbal spectrum, one forgetting language and the other learning. Elizabeth Cohen herself is there in the middle, somehow trying to work full time as a reporter, managing day care for the two people who depend on her, figuring out how to survive the winter in one of the nation's true snow-belts, and keeping her own sanity as a harrassed single mother.My own mother is 97 with Alzheimer's and I have a one-year old granddaughter, so this book is close to the bone in many ways. I tell everybody about it. I use it in the memoir course I teach. I want to keep it to survive as a classic memoir and as a year-long account by an un-self-pitying caregiver. Elinore Standard Pound Ridge, NY

Well researched and written book. Understandable by layman as well as biblical scholar. Most enlightening and informative.

Thank you James L. Kugel. I have longed for guidance in understanding the complexities of the Old Testament. Very informative and readable.
Highly recommended.

This is an especially good resource book for those who are not really familiar with the Bible. I particularly liked the set-up, with the major characters' stories so easy to find and understand. Knowing the Bible is so important in understanding everything in our Western Culture, particularly in literature, that I can't imagine this won't become a critical part of many people's libraries. That is especially true at this time when so many young people are backing away from religion. Now all we need is similar works on the New Testament and Shakespeare's works!

This is the smartest, best-written, most even-handed book of Biblical Scholarship I have ever read. I don't blindly worship Harvard, but I can see why Kugel had the most popular course there for many years. It is not only brilliant about the bible and its interpretations, it is a model for how an educated person should approach any subject where the truth claims are competing. Kugel is an Orthodox Jewish believer. I am a Buddhist atheist. But his noble search for truth first and foremost is to be admired by all humans of whatever relation to God.

How to Read the Bible, by James L. Kugel, is an amazing book. It is eminently readable and tells the general reader as much as he or she would want to know about Biblical sources, alternative interpretations through history, and factual conclusions of Biblical scholars up to the present. Kugel is a Jewish scholar, Starr professor of Hebrew at Harvard from 1982 to 2003, now living in Jerusalem. He goes more or less book by book through the Hebrew Bible (essentially the Christian Old Testament) and tells us about what modern scholarship has determined as to the Bible's origins, its probably authors, its subsequent editors, and its interpreters. He follows the development of the Jewish conception of JHWH as originally one, rather fierce, god among many, locatable in a temple, to being the God of all, approachable everywhere.
The scholarly conclusion is that what we now have as Genesis, Exodus, etc. are composites of the writings and rewritings of authors and editors over time. Most of the stories in the Bible, including those concerning the patriarchs, were written long after the time described and cannot be considered to represent actual history.

Kugel's real interest is in this question: given all this, how can the Bible continue to be read as scripture? He emphasizes the importance of the Hebrew scholars who finally edited and put together what we now have as the Bible, in the last few hundred years BCE. They read and interpreted the Bible primarily as a means of determining how God wants us to serve Him. The Biblical stories were read by them primarily as moral lessons, rather than as history. Furthermore, the understanding of Rabbinic Judaism is that the literal words of the Bible are not sacrosanct. There is an "Oral Torah" (preserved as a great quantity of interpretive writings) that are as important to the believer as the Torah itself. This understanding enables believers to move beyond instructions of Torah that are no longer practically relevant (e.g. detailed instructions concerning temple sacrifice) and avoid making Biblical language an idol rather than seeking the message within.

What fascinates and energizes me, as a liberal Protestant Christian, is how the solution of Rabbinic Judaism in reading its Bible may provide helpful insights in dealing with the similar problems of modern Christians. For Jews the theological problem was that God did not intervene to free the Jews from the control of a succession of foreign empires, from the Assyrians to the Romans. For the first Christians the theological problem was, first, that Jesus did not turn out to be a new King David. Then, after He was crucified and raised, they were assured by Paul that He would return within then current lifetimes and set things right. That did not happen and has not happened. For the next fifteen hundred years, the teachings of the Roman Catholic Church might be analogized to the Oral Torah. But under Protestantism, Scripture became the only authority available. Martin Luther discovered Paul's principal of "justification by faith", leading to a renewed effort to define what is an acceptable faith in very precise terms. Religious wars and fractures within Protestantism followed. Kugel shows, at least with respect to the Old Testament, that fundamentalists do not read the Bible (at least the Old Testament) the way that the people who actually put it together as Scripture intended.

Now, we all live in a post-Holocaust world. God has shown no inclination to override the consequences of human foolishness. For me, the import of How to Read the Bible is that we had best concentrate, whether based on the Pentateuch, the prophets, or on the teachings of Jesus, on how God wants us to live.

I love Louise L. Hay and this book and cd it just great. It would make a great gift for someone who is going through some tough times in their life and they need a little life. The positive messages on the CD are wonderful to fall asleep to.

Okay, I admit it. I wish my mother had Louise Hay's voice. I probably would have grown up to be a normal person. It's the CD that comes with this little book that gets my 5 star rating. Yes, the CD is essentially what's written in the book. But when you hear Louise read it, everything makes sense. And it does. If you put out positive, loving thoughts, you'll get positive, loving thoughts back. Simple, right? Except when I say it, you probably smirk, or roll your eyes. But listen to Louise just once, and you'll actaully entertain the idea that you can change your world just by changing your thoughts. I advocate buying this book so you can listen to the CD on your computer, in your car, at the office. Your cynicism will abate (or at least lessen) and you might just believe all things are possible. Really.

Great CD, Thank you for sending it so promptly.
Sincerely

Lynn

Louise is just amazing. Since traveling along her road since the start of the new year, it is amazing how much better I feel when I try what she suggests. Simple things but putting all the power in your hands. If you want to be happy, it is up to you. When you are miserable, you can only blame yourself. I can't tell you how many people I tell about louise hay.

This book is an instant Life Changer. The best part about this book is the CD that comes in the back of it. Louise Hay reads the book to you.
So after you read the book she hammers her ideas home to you again and again. Repetition is a must. If everyone on the planet incorporated these affirmations into their lives our world would be 300 years into the future. God Bless Louise Hay for evolving and giving of herself to the rest of us!!!

This is a great book. I bought this book because my husband enjoyed this book when he was a child. He still enjoys this book today and reads it to our 6 year old son.

The lesson we learned from this book is there are always some problems no matter where you go.

I highly recommend this book because it's fun to read, educational, and it never gets old.

My dad was, is, and will always be a huge Dr. Seuss fan. He read this, as well as all the other Seuss classics, to me as a child. I had a devil of a time finding it a few years ago; had to special order it. It has an honored place on my bookshelf.

It taught me two valuable lessons: 1) Tackle your problems instead of running away from them, and 2) The grass is not necessarily greener on the other side.

Those two bits of knowledge have stuck with me for many years and led me through many challenging times. Thank you, Dr. Seuss!

What can I say, Dr Seuss is popular for a good reason. These are fun for all ages. The rhyming, the cute stories, the good morals. These books make reading for homework fun.

This was my favorite Dr. Seuss, and one of the books that stuck with me. I came across it recently while I also happened to be reading Campbell's Transformations of Myth Through Time.

A young man, beset with the travails of life, sets off to find paradise. The premise having been set, this story is actually predominantly about his many encounters and experiences on the road to paradise -- how he gets conned, imperiled, left to the mercy of the elements, enlisted into a battle he has nothing to do with, lost and alone in a crowd, etc. Having risen to the occasion repeatedly, he arrives at (literally) the door to paradise a changed man. In the end, Dr. Seuss leaves open question of what paradise really is.

This is an archetypal Hero's Journey.

And there is another parallel. Campbell often talked about the danger of concretizing the symbols -- for example that there is a physical holy land, the place where your myth takes place, to which you as a human being must physically travel to touch divinity. The alternative is to recognize your myth as metaphoric, and to recognize that the divinity of your God is your own divinity, and to sanctify and make holy the land and the place where you are, etc. 'Solla Sollew' speaks to this theme.

Can't really add much more than what everyone else has already said. I'll just add that this is my very favorite Dr. Seuss book... great story and great illustrations.

Out of print book came quickly and condition was very good, service was quick. I will be back.

I loved this book! The entire time I listed to this book on cassette I felt I was hearing privileged information...yet Jess Oppenheimer shared his intellectual jewels freely as if they were common everyday thoughts. Well, for him, they were. What a genius. And what a witty, creative, generous, and responsible man! If he were alive I'd write him a fan letter.

This is an excellent informative book about the "I Love Lucy" show and a must have for any Lucy fan! The cd that is included is worth the price of the whole set alone. In the cd it includes hours of hilarious episodes from I Love Lucy and My Favorite Husband starring Lucille Ball, you will also receive lost scenes from the shows on the cd. I am not much of a reader but this book you just can't put down because it is so good and of course I love Lucy! The book doesn't look thick on the picture shown on Amazon but it is a nice thick paperback book and includes lots of wonderful pictures of the cast of I Love Lucy and fun information that you may have not of known about I love Lucy and how it became to be produced.

I THOUGHT THE BOOK WAS VERY INTERESTING AND INFORMTIVE! IT WAS HILARIOUS AND I JUST COULDNT PUT IT DOWN. IT ONLY TOOK ME THREE DAYS TO READ IT. I THOUGHT IT WAS INTERESTING HOW IT TOLD ABOUT THE LIFE OF JESS OPPENHEIMER AS WELL AS THE LIFE OF LUCILLE BALL AND OTHER CAST MEMBERS FROM THE SHOW I LOVE LUCY. I REALLY LOVE THIS BOOK AND I THINK EVERY I LOVE LUCY FAN SHOULD READ IT!!!

I'd like to start with a clarification: this book is not a biography of Lucy, it is the creator's (Jess Oppenheimer) memoir. As such, there are many parts of the book that have nothing to do with Lucy, including episodes from Oppenheimer's childhood and young adult life.

However, this is still a GREAT book! It is well-written and full of entertaining annecdotes. "Laughs, Luck, and Lucy" follows Oppenheimer's slow rise to the top in the Hollywood radio industry. He describes Lucille Ball's program, "My Favorite Husband," which became the basis for "I Love Lucy." The book also includes some behind the scenes information about the making of "I Love Lucy."

The included audio cd is fun because it has clips from both "I Love Lucy" and "My Favorite Husband."

If you are only interested in information specifically about Lucille Ball, this might not be the book for you (try her autobiography, "Love, Lucy"). However, if you (like me) are fascinated with everything surrounding "I Love Lucy" and the Hollywood entertainment industry of the 1940s and 1950s, this is a great read!

I found this book to be both inspirational and educational.
Inspirational : I found myself connecting to Urban's life story and was inspired to do several of the excercises he recommends. The book is very well written and requires alot of introspection after reading. For every lesson, I found myself reading, re-reading, and re-re-reading. I read this with a pen in hand and jotted down thoughts as I read. After re-reading my thoughts on each section, I started to think deeply of what matters in my life and was inspired to think of my actions, thoughts, beliefs, etc. in a different way.
Educational: A great aspect of this book is the way Urban injects the works of so many other authors into his own. I found myself writing down the names and titles of many of Urban's cited works. His use of other's ideas to further explain and strenghten his own motivated me to further my knowledge base on the subject. For an author to actively tell the reader to go and look for other's insight only proves to me the author's good intentions and credibility.
Overall - I highly recommend this to anyone who is looking for some help on the road of life. Urban does a great job explaining his 20 lessons, and he does an even better job in making the reader want to think about his or her own goals and rules of life.

I got this book as a present for my husband for Christmas. We always try to keep some positive reading around. He enjoyed it very much and has since passed it along to a friend. It's a very cost-effective but impactful gift and a simple, useful read.

As you read this book you find yourself growing with it.
20 simple lessons to follow. the overwall lesson is to learn to enjoy life .. and you will

This book get a 5 star rating from anyone that has reviewed it... do the math. I loved this book, I read many self help book because like many of us i'm looking for that edge that will take me over the top. This book is it. This is the mentor that i've never had.. the words that i needed to hear... this book will make a change... oh and check out his Positive words.. an other gold mine

I know that phrase is used a lot, but I don't use it a lot. I can honestly say that about THIS book....and I read a lot of self-help books. Not because I'm "messed up", but because I LOVE to learn. If I can read a book that can help me be a better person, I will read it...and not just READ....I absorb it and put it into practice. This book did that for me. It even changed the relationship I'm in. We are very serious, but have been having some communication problems. This book caused ME to change so much that my partner also changed and now our relationship has never been better. It showed (or reminded me) what kind of person I want to be, HOW to be that person, what is important in life, how to relate better to the people in my life that matter.....and I could just go on and on, but I won't. I just wanted to say that I got it at our library and it made SUCH an impact on me that I came here and bought the book used so I can go back OFTEN and refer to things I want to constently remember. To me, it's a book that EVERY person should read. I'm giving it as gifts to my grandchildren and children for their birthdays. GREAT BOOK!!!

This book was great. It is nice to know that there is someone out there as crazy as me and enjoys every minute of it! I'm going out to start a finger puppet collection today!

one of the funniest books i've ever read. very witty. laugh out loud funny.

I found this book clever, touching, and witty. It is a wonderful story of growing up in NYC, but it really could take place almost anywhere stateside. A great read!

Norma Davidoff

Wow. What a total and utter surprise.

After reading the rave reviews on Amazon I figured I would get the book and it would be a letdown. Good, but not 5-star good. Well, I was wrong -- and the reviews were right. Do yourself a favor and get this book.

You probably won't learn any life lessons that you can teach your children, but you'll close the book with an understanding of life in another person's shoes. There were lots of things I was shocked about (people live like that?!) and just as many things I identified with (oh my gosh, me too!!). As soon as I finished this book I forced my roomate to read it -- every 5 minutes there was a roar of laughter from the next room for the next few nights.

Its honest. Its funny. You'll want to read it all, and you'll be sad when it is over. I recommend it.

I do not read much non-fiction. I live real life. I read to escape it. But the bright neon yellow cover of this book was eye-catching. So, against my will, my feet walked up to it, my hand picked it up, and my eyes began reading. Before I knew it, hours had gone by and I had read the whole thing.

In this book, Wendy "Wendaay" Spero tells readers true stories about her life in a way that only she can do. From her childhood, to her awkward years, and on up to the present day. Being raised by a mother like Wendy's makes for some interesting memories. (I will think of Wendy and her mother every time I go to a fair from now on.)

***** Engrossing, packed with humor, and just all around fun, this is one book you will never forget. Very highly recommended! *****

Reviewed by Detra Fitch of Huntress Reviews.

Can you imagine my surprise when I encountered this book on Amazon.com!

I am 18 years old and I read "Mufaro's Beautiful Daughters" in elementary school and I was enamored with the story then! And I still am. This "African Cinderella" is sure to resonate with young girls and make them curious about Africa.

It is the story of an African King who has two beautiful daughters, only one of them, Manyara, is mean, nasty, and "haughty" (this book is where I learned that word!) while Nyasha is sweet, compassionate and kind. When their father learns that a ruler of another kingdom is to take a wife, he decides that both of his beautiful daughters should go. However, Manyara arrogantly leaves alone to get there before her sister, ever so certain that she will be chosen.

On the way both her and her sister encounter a series of tasks and through these, their true characters are tested.

Other than a great story, the illustration is absolutely beautiful! They are artwork unto themselves. Love this book! I can't wait to purchase this for the little girls in my life! Or, i just may buy it to reminisce!

Wonderful book about Manyara and Nyasha, daughters of an African King. This books shows that beauty comes from within. Manyara is a selfish sister and wants nothing more than to be queen and she will stop at nothing to be it. Nyasha is kind and loving and only wants to be happy. She sees the beauty in nature and people. A king from the neighboring town is searching for a wife and immediately Manyara wants to be queen. Manyara gets up early and sneaks to the village of the King but she is met by a little boy who wants food, and a elderly woman whom she is told to be kind too. She doesnt give the boy food and is verbally mean to the old woman. Nyasha goes through the forest and finds the same people but this time she gives food to the little boy. She is met by a woman who points the way to the city and she is kind to her and gives her sunflower seeds. As they approach the city, Manyara runs out and crying saying that she saw a snake with 5 heads and was telling her how rotten of a person she is. Nyasha is brave and walks in only to a find a simple snake for whom she was friends with. He tells her that he is the king and the elderly woman and little boy in the forest. He then asks her to be his queen because she is the most beautiful and kindhearted of them all.

The illustrations are breathtaking. The story emphasizes the true ugliness of getting to the top no matter what, while at the same time showing the beauty of compassion, empathy, and taking the time to make true connections with others and embracing their essence. These are values that we must instill within our children. I read this story to my own beautiful daughters over and over and it opens the door for deep discussions about the nature of their special bond as sisters and the need to not face one another as competitors, but as lifetime companions and support for one another.

This book is about these two sisters Manyara and Nyasha father of Mufaro. Manyara is the rude sister. Nyasha is the warm loving sister. One of them would be getting married to a king and the other will be their servant. Manyara well she wanted to get a jump start on things so when she was going to find the king she seen a boy (that was in need for food) that she refused to give food to, then she came apon a old lady she didn't listen to, she also met up with some trees that laughed at her and she laughed back at, and last she came upon a guy with his head in his arm.
So if you really think people that are rude won't get far and their rudeness will just catch up with them later as they go threw life. This book has inspired me to be a better person in many ways. This book is an amazing book it not only expresses the persons outside feelings but it expresses the persons inside feelings.

This story is based on an African tale that is similar in nature to Cinderella. In this story a man named Mufaro had two beautiful daughters, one named Manyara, and one named Nyasha. Manyara is rude to Nyasha, who just calmly bears it. When a call comes saying the Great King wants a wife, Mufaro plans to take his daughters to the palace the next day. Manyara decides to leave in the night to make she is chosen to be Queen. During the journey she is rude to a number of people, who turn out to be the King himself, shape-shifted into those forms as well as the form of a garden snake well-known to Nyasha. When Nyasha passes the next day, she is kind where her sister was rude. Needless to say the King picks Nyasha, and they live happily.

The story is told well, and the language used is wonderful, though not quite as wonderful as the illustrations. They almost look more life-like than photographs. The way lighting is used is amazing, and they are just stunning pictures. Everything about this book is wonderful, with nothing to detract from it.

Loggie-log-log-log

I really only got this book as an 'extra' purchase, to qualify for free shipping. However it has become an unexpected hit with my 16 month old who can now identify most of the animals from the pictures, and she will ask for this book over and over and over again.
The book includes some rather obscure animals, which probably wouldn't be on my 'introductory list' of animals for a young child. My list would probably run "lion, tiger, bear, cat, dog" (which are also included)... rather than the "gosling, chinchilla, parakeet, egret and kookaburra" which you'll also find in this book. My husband and I have both learned a few new animals as well!
All in all and great buy that keeps my daughter entertained for hours.

This is my 10-month old twins' FAVORITE book in the world (and we have LOTS of baby/children's books). I think they like the close up pictures, the size, and the fact that some animals seem to be looking right at them. Highly recommended.

These books are a great deal for hours of fun! My little guys looks at the pictures over and over and doesn't ever seem to get tired of hearing the names of all the pictures. These books have been great for his vocabulary as he tries to say all the words too!

My 18 month old loved this book the first time he saw it. We are pleased at the number and types of animals inside! There are farm animals, zoo animals, pets, etc. - many of which he recognizes already, but there are plenty for him to learn as he gets older, too. The pictures are beautiful and clear and give us a lot to look at and talk about. The combination of familiar animals like cats and dogs and more obscure ones like goats gives him something to feel proud of while he works on learning the harder ones.

We bought this book based on seeing My Big Truck Book and were not disappointed at all - they are both great!

This line of books can't be beat! Great pictures - simplicity, with not too many details - so that the little ones so that they can focus on what they are learning. Nice, hard board books which should prove to be durable. The size of this one is great. Adults love looking at it too! I ordered the Colors book too. You won't be disappointed!