A Books

I think this book was read to me in school many many years ago. I remembered it as an adult and purchased it for sentimental reasons. I think it reminded me of The Secret Garden in a way. The seashell cottage was the perfect hideaway that every little girl could dream of making her own. I loved the story of Mandy and found myself wistfully wishing that I had a place like that as a child. What a wonderful story that Julie Andrews has created. I will cherish it always and keep it to pass down to the young girls in my family.

I read and reread this book about 5 or so times as a child. I simply loved the adventure of it all about the protagonist discovering a home away from home that she could call her very own. This is a fascinating tale for children who love to live in their adventurous daydreams and who love secret hiding places of their own where they can just "be". Although this is a book I would reccomend to children, I wouldn't reccomend it to adults as the plot and drama is very minimal. Adults would be bored of this whereas most children, especially little girls, would be fascinated by the simplicity and beauty described within its pages.

Mandy is obviously the protagonist of this story. She is an orphaned child living in an orphanage with other children of the state. She has a friend that she bonds with over time and gets along farily well with eveyone else, as well as the staff, until the day that mandy climbs over the wall of the orpganage and discovers an abandon cottage! She decides from that moment thatthe cottage is hers and her secret hideaway. She begins to do things that are uncharacteristic of her such as lying about where she has been, stealing from the orphanage supplies to take and supply her new home with, and is suddenly secretive with everyone, even her best friend. Read on to find out about Mandy and what she goes through as a child trying to make a cottage into a home and keep her secret place just that... secret.

Although this book is aimed to appeal to girls approximately between the ages of 7-13, I was in college when it was first released. Being a hugh fan of Julie Andrews, I of course bought the book and was amazed that I could not put it down! To me, a great book has the ability to transport the reader from their day-to-day life into another time and place. I was mesmerized by this charming story from beginning to end as I am sure every child who reads it will be. Mandy is not only a sweet, likeable orphan, but she is very positive role model for children, showing that if you try hard enough, you can make your dreams come true. I admire her spirit and courage to go after her dream of someday having a real family.
I had read that Julie Andrews lost a bet to her teenage step-daughter Jenny and her promise was to write her a story, which turned into this wonderful book! Lucky for us readers, the result of that bet gave us our first glimpse at yet another one of Julie Andrews' many talents. It's been 30 years now since I first read Mandy and I still have my original version of this book in a prominant place on my bookshelf, along with a hardback copy of Mandy and each updated version that has been printed. All the young girls in my family have read this classic book and loved it as much as I do. I only hope someday a movie version of this beautiful story is produced.

I purchased this book with my own money when it first came out thirty-six years ago. I was eight years old. I still have it on my bookshelf and shared it with my own children. This is truly a classic and I hope that someday it will be adapted for the screen!

This book reminds me a lot of "The Secret Garden" without being quite as preachy and overly descriptive. My two daughters absolutely love this book and consider it one of their favorites.

I think this book was read to me in school many many years ago. I remembered it as an adult and purchased it for sentimental reasons. I think it reminded me of The Secret Garden in a way. The seashell cottage was the perfect hideaway that every little girl could dream of making her own. I loved the story of Mandy and found myself wistfully wishing that I had a place like that as a child. What a wonderful story that Julie Andrews has created. I will cherish it always and keep it to pass down to the young girls in my family.

I read and reread this book about 5 or so times as a child. I simply loved the adventure of it all about the protagonist discovering a home away from home that she could call her very own. This is a fascinating tale for children who love to live in their adventurous daydreams and who love secret hiding places of their own where they can just "be". Although this is a book I would reccomend to children, I wouldn't reccomend it to adults as the plot and drama is very minimal. Adults would be bored of this whereas most children, especially little girls, would be fascinated by the simplicity and beauty described within its pages.

Mandy is obviously the protagonist of this story. She is an orphaned child living in an orphanage with other children of the state. She has a friend that she bonds with over time and gets along farily well with eveyone else, as well as the staff, until the day that mandy climbs over the wall of the orpganage and discovers an abandon cottage! She decides from that moment thatthe cottage is hers and her secret hideaway. She begins to do things that are uncharacteristic of her such as lying about where she has been, stealing from the orphanage supplies to take and supply her new home with, and is suddenly secretive with everyone, even her best friend. Read on to find out about Mandy and what she goes through as a child trying to make a cottage into a home and keep her secret place just that... secret.

Although this book is aimed to appeal to girls approximately between the ages of 7-13, I was in college when it was first released. Being a hugh fan of Julie Andrews, I of course bought the book and was amazed that I could not put it down! To me, a great book has the ability to transport the reader from their day-to-day life into another time and place. I was mesmerized by this charming story from beginning to end as I am sure every child who reads it will be. Mandy is not only a sweet, likeable orphan, but she is very positive role model for children, showing that if you try hard enough, you can make your dreams come true. I admire her spirit and courage to go after her dream of someday having a real family.
I had read that Julie Andrews lost a bet to her teenage step-daughter Jenny and her promise was to write her a story, which turned into this wonderful book! Lucky for us readers, the result of that bet gave us our first glimpse at yet another one of Julie Andrews' many talents. It's been 30 years now since I first read Mandy and I still have my original version of this book in a prominant place on my bookshelf, along with a hardback copy of Mandy and each updated version that has been printed. All the young girls in my family have read this classic book and loved it as much as I do. I only hope someday a movie version of this beautiful story is produced.

I purchased this book with my own money when it first came out thirty-six years ago. I was eight years old. I still have it on my bookshelf and shared it with my own children. This is truly a classic and I hope that someday it will be adapted for the screen!

This book reminds me a lot of "The Secret Garden" without being quite as preachy and overly descriptive. My two daughters absolutely love this book and consider it one of their favorites.

Fick gives an account of his entry into the Marine Corps as an idealistic young man yearning for a true challenge that would test his inner strength. His decision to become a Marine occurs prior to 9/11, the event that would turn what he thought would be a peace time stint in the Corps into an obligation to participate in campaigns in Afghanistan and Iraq. The bulk of his tale is centered around the process of actually becoming a Marine officer -- all of the physical endurance and discipline training that you would expect if you've ever seen pop culture movie treatments of the topic. This is arguably the more interesting part of the book in some ways.

Eventually, owing to unforeseen world events, Fick pulls service in Afghanistan but is largely on the periphery of the action which resulted in the overthrow of the Taliban. He's honest about his piece of the action in Afghanistan and doesn't try to inflate it. He makes it clear that what his platoon does there is mysterious even to them inasmuch as his men don't have the big picture of what's going on in the country or how their actions fit into it; they simply do what they're told to do. After a brief, but physically demanding time in Afghanistan, he next sees service in Iraq as the sole leader of a platoon -- a part of the initial invasion force. There, he deals with assorted fire fights en route to Baghdad, followed by humanitarian and recon missions there during the first days of the occupation. It's immediately apparent to Fick that post-invasion planning is an afterthought. Fortunately for Fick, he and his platoon are quickly flown out of the middle east when it's decided to turn occupation duties over to the Army. Th platoon somehow manages to escape their adventure without losing a single man.

This is not a political book, nor a deeply philosophical one, though Fick does occasionally devote a few sentences to the absurdity of war and the difficulty of following orders from immediate superiors who demonstrate questionable judgement. If he has a viewpoint on the politics of the Iraq invasion, he never really shares it. One Bullet Away is a straight ahead account of what it's like to join the Marines, be indoctrinated into their culture and serve in conflict. No more, no less.

CAPT. Fick's memoir is a great read. You really feel like you know his men, and gain a great perspective on the Iraq war. It is a great example of leadership under pressure and being in the military, I recommend it to anyone that is or will be in the military. You come to realize some of the mistakes that were made early on in the war that came to be major problems that we are still dealing with today.

This is the best written book, especially about the Corps, that I have ever read. It is accurate, realistic, no bull blunt information, yet it is written as a story. Very stellar work. I couldn't put it down, literally. Any time I had some free time, this is what I did, and still do. Being one headed to OCS next summer (hopefully), this is a great read, preparing me for what is to come. As I could see in this book, MCRD is nothing compared to OCS and TBS. He covered OCS and his duty-time more than TBS, but all in all it was the most accurate and amazing book I've ever read, as stated above. If you plan to go to OCS, want to learn about it, or a military/USMC enthusiast, I suggest you get this book. STELLAR!!!!

The author, Captain Nathaniel Fick, does an exceptional job of describing his life as an officer of Marines. The book covers his entire career. It starts with his bus ride to Officer Candidate School (OCS) at Quantico, Virginia and ends with his resignation from the Corps. In between, he describes his deployments to Afghanistan and Iraq. Although the book is non-fiction, it reads like a novel. The book's fast pace is a testament to the author's excellent writing skills. No doubt, some credit can be given to the English Department at Dartmouth, where he earned his undergraduate degree. The book is 369 pages long and is broken into three parts. Unfortunately, it does not contain an index.

His description of Marine training at OCS and The Basic School are uncannily similar to this reviewer's experience. Marine Corps training has clearly stood the test of time and remains basically unchanged since the 1980s. Given the accuracy of his training narrative, this reviewer assumed his combat descriptions to be equally accurate.

The author provides an excellent first hand account of his platoon's activities in both theaters of war. He also provides a balanced account of the people around him, both good and bad. For example, he talks about a company commander who is a nice guy but a poor tactician. The author could have easily ridiculed this Captain. Instead, he points out that no one is just black and white. He also talks about General James Mattis, who spent time talking to enlisted Marines in their fighting hole. The author holds General Mattis up as a true leader.

Capt. Fick provides a fascinating view of civilian society at the end of the book when he resigns from the Corps. The author's friends and family appear to think that he has matured and is now correcting his earlier mistake of joining the Marines. This short chapter says a great deal about society where monetary success, not honor and devotion to country, are viewed as the ultimate achievement.

The book provides an address for the author's personal web-site. If interested, the reader can peruse some of the author's various newspaper articles. His articles tend to expand on the growing divide between American society and the military. He addresses such topics as the unfeasibility of a future draft or the misconception that minorities are bearing an unfair burden in today's military.

Bottom line: Capt. Fick does a great job of describing the noble characteristics of his Marines in combat. His descriptions are unbiased and very accurate. This is a fascinating study of a front line Marine unit at war. It is fast paced, easy to read, and will hold the reader in place until the end.

When I was a younger man, fresh out of college and searching for my life's path, I felt exactly like Capt. Fick when I myself considered entering the Marine Corp OCS. Various circumstances steered me in a different direction. Now in my mid 40's, I have often considered what might have been. Reading One Bullet Away provided me with a glimpse and gave me some perspective that a military career isn't always the ideal I've often thought it would have been. In reading this book I felt that I was right beside NF through his rigorous training, frustrations with orders that make little or no sense and gut wrenching decisions that are a large part of being a military leader.

I have never been under fire myself. I feel that, if forced to, I could kill in order to defend my own life or the lives of others, but in a combat zone those decisions aren't always black and white. Sometimes innocents are hurt and the men on the front lines are forced to confront that. I know that military doctrine dictates that the mission must take precedent over all, but if approached by a family carrying their daughter that you know was wounded by your own forces, I don't think I would have been able to act any differently than Capt. Fick did.

War truly is hell. Thank you Captain for your service and for writing this book. God bless all of those who serve and have served.

I think all women should read this book and share it with others (family and children). Not only does Mr. Bach discuss how saving a little here and there can help with retirement, but he also gives women inspiration to live out (and especially to finance) their dreams. A wonderful book.

I bought this book because I heard so many positive things about it. I am in my 50's, five years ago I went from having the wonderful life that all women dream of. I had the beautiful home in the suburbs, 2 beautiful children, friends, you name it I had it. Then I lost it all in the blink of an eye. I had relied on my husband to handle all the finances I couldn't tell you the balance in the check book. All I knew was he made the money and I spent it. Thank the Lord I was a RN, but I hadn't worked in quite a few years. I am not going to go into detail what happened but when I said I had nothing but the clothes on my back I mean just that. I have been working two jobs for the past five years making good money but I have NOTHING to show for it. By reading Suze book I was able to identify myself, it is so easy to understand that someone like myself with NO understanding of finance can take her suggestions and work them into my present life. It is going to take discipline on my part and learning to say NO to my children is going to be the hardest. But, I need to take care of myself. This book was just what I needed to read. I highlighted areas, I keep going back and re-reading certain sections. I keep it next to my bed. Buying this book was one of the best things I have done for myself.

You don't have to be a rocket scientist to become wealthy and this book details how easy it can be. If you're looking for glitz and glamour and "get rich quick" this isn't it. There's no such thing as an overnight success. Read David's book and get going on the road to wealth.

Love all his books - bought this, gave it someone and had to buy it again. It all depends what level you are on. Not too much non-common sense, but good for women to read.

Smart Women Finish Rich is a bit different from other financial books I've read. I have to admit I was surprised with how well David Bach addressed both the emotional and intellectual relationship women have with money. His grandmother taught him well.

I am going to say that Smart Women Finish Rich is more for a financial beginner than a woman with financial savvy. It's a well thought out system of gaining and keeping control of your financial self-sufficiency. Bach has filled this book with definitions, resources, quizzes, systems, exercises and tables. I was impressed and give it a must read if you're serious about becoming more financially organized.

David Bach addresses both the heart and the head in Smart Women Finish Rich. He used the lessons he learned from his grandmother, and his mother, as inspiration. After growing up with two such powerful role models, he was surprised by the number of financially uniformed women. Many of the women who came to him for financial advice, had no clue about building financial security.

Smart Women Finish Rich is easy to understand. I read it and "got it." This is a "how to" book that involves a commitment on your part to read, work and put the assignments and lessons into daily practice. Bach has carefully given us valuable financial keys, now it's up to us to follow through.

What you'll get out of this book is going to depend on what you're willing to put into it. It's a book that has the potential to give you a great foundation for financial self-sufficiency.

Here are some of the areas I found particularly useful:

1.The first exercise, "Financial Knowledge Quiz" is a great practical place to start. I found it to be thoughtful and quite an eye-opener. I learned about how well (and sometimes not so well) I understood the role money played in my life.

2. David Bach is adamant about pinpointing the reason money is important to you. To find this out, you'll need to examine your money values and ask yourself if your financial behavior matches those values. He provides a simple but thoughtful exercise called the "Values Ladder."

3. Smart Women Finish Rich is a great blend of exercises, systems, quizzes and practical "real world" information. For example, the "Finish Rich File Folder System" is a simple, easy-to-follow and yet an organizational time saver.

I definitely give Smart Women Finish Rich five stars! If you're ready and serious about getting your financial house and monetary priorities in order, this is the book for you!

my daughter had a copy of this that she loved so much! It was read and loved until it fell apart. We got her a second copy for her second birthday, and it's still a hit. Great rhymes, great illustrations. a classic

Have had this book for a long time, so had to get a new one. We read it every other night, our son knows it by heart and he is 2.

I love this book! We have several Boynton board books, but this one still is at the top of my list and is a must-have for any toddler's bookshelf (with Barnyard Dance running a close second). We have video of our daughter doing the animal sounds to this, and then eventually reading it all herself, because the rhythms make it an easy one for them to memorize.

While all of this is cute and makes for nice photos and video, etc., the more important factor is how this book fosters a love of reading. It's fun, it's energetic, and it makes both parents and kids look forward to reading together. One warning -- be prepared to read it over and over and over (and over!). When they memorize and "read" it to others (my daughter wanted to do it for anyone who came over and would be willing, they feel such pride and joy. To this day, my daughter still feels this way about reading.

Great book for your own child, and perfect gift from birth until about 18 months. If you are even considering buying this...do it. You'll be delighted!

While this a great book for those kids who love rhyming, it is too short and there is not really a connection throughout the book. My son does not love it like other Boynton books such as the Goin to Bed Book.

This has been in our family library for all our kids to read. The best thing I can say about it is that our 15 year old still quotes it upon occasion. The 8 & 10 year old are enjoying sharing it (and other Boynton books) with their 18 month old baby brother as well. They all know it by heart and no longer need the book in front of them. One of those must have items for getting your children to love books and foster the love of reading, poetry and silliness.

We purchased this along with Blue Moo for our 4 yr old grandaughter and we love them both. Have loads of fun dancing with her to the music.

MY whole family LOVES this CD. There are only about 3 songs that we generally skip over, the rest are all really really great!!!! I would recommend this for anyone with kids who wants to also enjoy music with them. It's not boring at all!!!!

My two year old and several of her two and three year old friends who we have since introduced to it love the songs. I think it's pretty cute and not annoying like most kiddie music. My husband really likes it. The songs are catchy and varied. I highly recommend it.

I'm really enjoying this album! I bought it for my 7-month-old son, who, while I know is too young to truly enjoy the music now, certainly enjoys hearing some of these songs. The lyrics are easy to learn. I sing the Belly Button song to him and his face lights up. This will be an album we can enjoy together for years to come! I've heard Dog Train and love it--must buy that next! I'm glad there's actual musical children's music that all ages can enjoy without going nuts!

After recently purchasing another copy of this to give as a birthday gift I am reminded of how much our family has enjoyed these songs over the years. As a child, I remember listening to Free to be You and Me and I believe Philadelphia Chickens belongs in the same category-it is creative and fun-it is a classic!

This book will open your mind on how to launch a bew business or innovative product or server. However the authors could write this book in a more simple way and not with a hard to read english text.

Before reading the book, “The Ultimate Competitive Advantage” it seemed to me that most management books were written for “big” business problems. Most authors quote one case after the other to make their own case. A collection of postmortem reports of different companies to tell you how they failed.

This is the first book that has taught me however small a business may be, its success depends on competitive edge it creates with its own resources. There are numerous ways that even limited resources can create an added benefit for the customers and increase my business. The example of “free cold water” on an off beat road is one such method in the book to remember as a simple but brilliant solution to attract customers and add value for the customers. The authors give a set of tools to help one think in a different manner. I recommend this book especially to young person trying to get their business started and also those seeking to break out of dead end situations. A great work!

Mitchell and Coles have done businesses a tremendous service in writing this excellent book. They have done so by providing a practical toolbox of ideas with which to stimulate entrepreneurs, business leaders and managers to enhance and improve their business prospects in today's very competitive marketplaces.

I must admit to having struggled with this book for a long time. Not because of difficulty in reading and understanding. To be sure this is a very lucid and comprehensible book and is accessible to all levels from a twelve year old bringing out his lemonade stall for the third year in a row and adding iced tea to his product range to the CEO of a major corporation.

My struggle was with trying to make overarching sense of what lessons the authors were trying to encourage readers to learn. It became clear to me after several periods of reflection upon completion of the text. The crucial significance of this book in a practical way lies in understanding how deep into national economic systems the process of globalisation has seeped. We see the reults in our everyday lives, how quickly new or improved products come into the marketplace. We see how quickly established businesses change or die, we see cheaper and better products come from remote parts of the world leaving us a greater part of our disposable income to spend on the things we would prefer to spend on them.

It is clear that in life and not just in business the process of change has quickened and that as individuals we must be more adaptable and more attune to the world around us to the opportunities that exist. It is as if we need to become our own business in ourselves.

Mitchell and Coles focus on but one part of this continuous change and that is on the business model. Their strong focus on this area has great strength but we must also learn the broader lesson from their well researched work. To survive in today's world we must not only accept change but we must embrace it as people, as workers, as entrepreneurs. It is as Schumpeter pointed out inherent in the nature of capitalism. But, to be sure it is inherent in the nature of all life, as Hayek observed. We must change or die.

I would heartily recommend this book to everyone, for there is much to be gained from within it's pages. Mitchell and Coles have produced an excellent book which far and away exceeds it's remit as a business book.

The Ultimate Competitive Advantage is a gold mine with a rich vein of unusual ideas from Mitchell and Coles' nimble minds. Its stated purpose is to help readers develop and implement a superior management process for continuous business model improvement. The book goes ahead to do just that.

The authors' approach make deliberate what used to be an accidental, hapazard, uncertain and hard to repeat process.

This book, like Mitchell and Coles' others, is best used as a workbook. After each chapter, several questions are posed to stimulate your thinking, and 95% of the value of the book will be unlocked for you when you take the time to think through them rigorously. Serious entrepreneurs looking for fresh ideas for getting out of the rut and improving their businesses will.

This is a practical book, but it is not a "how-to-book" instead, it deals with the what, when and why; with such tangibles as pricing, cost of doing business and benefits to stakeholders. The authors- Donald Mitchell and Carol Coles researched and found out that unsuccessful companies doggedly apply outdated business models while the successful ones improve their models every 2 to 4 years. The book provides a straightforwad and a systematic method which any company can use to review and improve its business model basing on its key components: pricing, cost of doing business and benefits to its shareholders.

There are two types of reviewers for this trilogy. Those who rate it five stars and those who have no soul.

I am about half way through and find these volumes excellent. They not only address the battles fought, but also address the political climate how people from the North and the South felt about the war, their leaders etc. It is interesting to be made aware of the annimosity that existed toward the "press." It is also interesting to hear how the press on either side was willing to print information that may prove detrimental to military activity and probably help to contribute to the many deaths experienced on both sides. And I mean the southern press printing about the movements of southern forces and the northern press printing about troop movements of the northern armies. Also, it comes across to me that Foote presents a relatively fair and unbaised narrative of both the North and the South. Excellent reading especailly for you history buffs. However, be ready to have fun trying to keep track of all the different generals etc. It is a little like alphabet soup.

I found this a very through account of a momentous part of American history full of detail and knowlegeable details.For any student or some like me curious about the history of the American Civil War I recommend these books.

I can state nothing more than has already been stated of this wonderful narrative.

I did find, as others noted, that the author had a tendency to present the efforts of the Confederacy and its principal characters in an unbalanced fashion versus the efforts of the North. None the less, I highly recommend the narrative(s) to anyone considering a study of this period in American history.

I wanted an objective account of the civil war and an objective description of the battles, but Foote's three volume books is anything but objective. He is an engaging writer and, as another reviewer points out, brings the characters back to life, but Foote makes confederate thugs like Stonewall Jackson look like lovable, eccentric and courageous heroes. He portrays the confederate soldiers as poor, under-equipped soldiers full of valour, but then paints the union soldiers as over-equipped soldiers, lacking in courage and drive, who are there only for the experience and who pillage civilian homes when they go into southern towns (see the battle at Federicksburg for an example).

I note another reviewer commenting that Foote's view is not apparent in the books, but to me it is very clear he is rooting for the confederates. For example, on page 19 of the second volume, he writes "Texas was decontaminated" and the only bluecoats were Magruder's prisoner (this was about Magruder winning the battle at Galveston for the confederates). Only those in support of the confederate would say that Texas was decontaminated when Magruder won. If the writer was objective, that phrase "Texas was decontaminated" would not have been inserted. It's not even necessary!!

There is also a little too much detail. I can do without how many men are in each division and how many men were killed, wounded or captured.

I do not intend to read all three volumes because of his pro-confederate tone. It was a struggle to finish the first volume without wanting to throw the book at something (I am not pro-union, just anti-confederate). I am reading the second volume only so I can read about Stonewall Jackson's death. I am not sure how Foote has portrayed his death, but I'm sure with his pro-confederate feeling, it will be a glorious death!!! To me, Stonewall is a hypocritical thug and murderer and I will delight in reading about his death, however, glorious it might be to Foote.

This book is amazing. It gives a really good explanation of the crisis in Africa. I love this book and highly recommend it!!!

I couldn't finish Eggers's other big book ("A Heartbreaking Work..."), but a colleague recommended this novel, so I decided to take a chance on it and was glad I did. The remarkable and true (though novelized) odyssey of Valentino Deng, one of the generation of Sudanese "Lost Boys," makes for compelling reading as we cross Sudan with Deng and his peers through hazard after hazard (thirst, starvation, animal attacks, gunship attacks). I like that kind of book where a lion eats some of the characters and a crocodile eats some others. (I won't tell you which.) I'd probably give it five stars except that the last third, where the survival stakes are not as high, loses steam. Still, this book prevails as an inspiring survival story.

I really enjoyed the way that Eggers is able to contrast the kinds of difficulties that exist across very different cultural experiences. It seems very illogical that the young men who had survived through the kinds of death and destruction that reigned in their homeland could come to a place like the United States and face challenges that often end in similar tragedy, that difficult obstacles exist no matter what the environment and wrong choices can end in disaster whether in a refugee camp or in an Atlanta apartment. How can you survive famine, lions, the SPLA the thugs of Khartoum only to fall victim of random crime in a so-called civilized, Western country? But when it happens it is only the beginning. The story is very much Homer's Oddysey without a home to come back to and with only an outside chance of creating one in a new place. Heartbreaking yet hopeful.

The book is a captivating story of one lost boy's journey. It is at times funny, sad, heartwarming. The reader adds a dimension of accessibility and warmth that makes the whole experience wonderful. I highly recommend it.

This book opened an entire world unknown to me, I absolutely adored this book for the gift of knowledge it gave me. After reading this I went directly to the National Geographic website and ate up anything and everything I could on Sudan, I then went to Valentino's website and donated what I could for the schools he is building. Never has a book moved me so much. This pairing of minds could not be a better match, I am elated these two men were brought together to tell such an important story.

I am an avid African American fiction & non-fiction reader. However, I never could get into sci-fi-type novels. My Soul to Keep changed my mind forever. I was hooked before the end of the first chapter, and read it in one night. I wanted more...and got it later. During that first read, I experienced so many different emotions: happiness, fear, anxiety, etc. That's a rare thing for me.

I think the problem with the other books that others would compare M S to K to was that the basis of the stories were unbelievable to me. Tananarive Due did an excellent job of making the story believable (at least to me) and taking me on a journey that had me addicted. I cannot wait for the third installment to come out in June!

I had heard of this author before and had browsed a few of her books via Amazon. My oh my.. I'm almost at the end and I have loved this book from the beginning.. I can't put it down. The suspense, the drama and love it keeps you on edge. I would recommend reading this and may check out another one of her books.. Good Job!

Going against general wisdom I bought the hardcover when it first appeared on its cover alone. I'm a horror fan and I enjoy a good story over great writing and I think that's what won me over here. The writing isn't the best, but the story was different, well developed with few holes and satisfying. I read somewhere that B. Underwood bought the rights to the book, hopefully he'll sell it to someone who has the cash to make a solid movie outta this (please no Sci-Fi channel joint). Maybe get Antoine Fucqua, Kasi Lemmons or Carl Franklin to direct with Dennis Haysbert as Dawit.

I almost knew the ending to "My Soul to Keep." I say almost because I have read Tananarive Due's other work and know how she reveals her journey little by little. But don't let that fool you. She'll take it to another level at the end and surprise you. This novel reveals Ms. Due's love for humanity. I saw that in the little girl, Kira and her relationship with her father, and different relationship with her mother. The weird (and he is weird) husband's love of his mortal family and need to find love "forever," was very clear. In my opinion, the glue that holds the story together is the living blood, a metaphor for the blood of Christ. In the beginning of the novel, the Brothers of the Living Blood--immortals--were the only ones to have it until David/Dawit gave it to his wife Jessica, breaking the a covenant law. In essence, he integrated the brotherhood. At times, I became frustrated with the speed of the unfolding and put the book down. But it would haunt me so I had to get back to it. It still haunts me today. Ms. Due is a true storyteller as well as an excellent writer. She delivers.

Minimum Maturity Level - Adult
Strong Language. Violence and Gore. Sexual Situations.

Previous Reading Required - None
It's the first in it's series.

Reading Level - Easy
Not many big words to confuse anyone. Easy to picture what's going on. Easy to follow.

Rate of Development - Average to Slow
The author gets you attached to the characters pretty good. The characters are very real and seem to have real reactions to their surroundings.

The Story - Mystery, Thriller
The story is told through perspectives of Jessica, the heroine, and some others. Throughout the story, her friends and relatives are being murdered and she believes it's just the family curse. At the same time, she is finding things about her husband that are incredible. A secret that puts her life and her daughter's life in jeopardy.

My Suggestion - Recommended
The book starts off with a puzzling prologue. One that makes more sense as the story develops. And as the story develops, you actually begin to care about the characters. The writing is a little on the easy side to read, maybe at about a high school level. But then again, that is the kind of writing that I like. Without spoiling anything for you, I'd say read it and stick it out to the ending, you won't be disappointed. If I could give it 4.5 stars I would. The only thing keeping me from giving it 5 stars is the development just takes a while.