Julie Brown Books

Editor Julie Brown has successfully compiled a collection of challenging essays by notable scholars which aim at examining various literary works by certain marginalized ethnic groups/writers in America. Among those writers whose works are analyzed in this book are Amy Tan, Sandra Cisneros, Ramzi M. Salti, Fannie Hurst, Edith Eaton, and Sui Sin Far. Contributors to this collection are Julie Brown (Editor's Note), Rocio Davis, Susan Griffin, Madelyn Jablon, Margot Kelley, Susan Koppelman, Laurie Leach, Bill Mullen, Gail Okawa, Linda Palmer, Carol Roh-Spaulding, John Streamas, Qun Wang, Hardy C. Wilcoxon, and Christopher Wise whose essay on Ramzi Salti's "The Native Informant" represents a long overdue analysis of Arab-American literature.

From jacket: "Julie Potter loved animals, naturally. Most children her age do. Just as naturally most fathers don't love them quite so much. And if father is a dentist, or otherwise filled with a special horror of germs, he may not love them at all--in fact he may not want them around! That was Julie's great trial. For Julie was not only fond of all animals. She loved one animal particularly--Sampson. Sampson was a giant two toed sloth. The zoo man sold him to Julie for a dollar, because the zoo was going out of business. Julie was sure he was the one and only pet for her, and wanted to keep him, always. You can imagine what Dr. Potter would say to that! Actually, you can't possibly imagine what happened after Julie brought home her sloth.

Los Angeles has a lot of neat countryside to explore if you know where to look. When I first came to the LA basin from Idaho, I was overwhelmed by the suburban sprawl, but I quickly found lots of nice outdoor experiences nearby. This book will help anyone else looking to escape the city for a few hours (or days). It features over 80 hikes all within 2 hours of LA.

I've hiked about a third of the trails described in this guide and all are nice. With time off in April, I expect to explore more. By way of a warning though, you will need to be reasonably fit to do many of these hikes. Most are 5 to 10 miles long, often with substantial elevation gain. Several are shorter, but a few are quite challenging. Happily, the authors also provide options for shortening (and sometimes lengthening) your walks. The bulk of the hikes listed are in the San Gabriel Mountains and Santa Monica National Recreation Areas. A few selections from Orange County, Palos Verde and Catalina Island round out the book. On the whole, this book is an excellent investment in fun and exploration.

This book takes a look at one of the greatest female soccer players in the world. It gives an over-view of her life as she grew up and when she joined the Women's National Team. The book also has some very nice photos of Foudy in action. This is a good book for any fan of women's soccer and Julie Foudy.

My daughter read this at age 12, so I read it also and discussed it with her. It has a good discussion of a parent who is depressed and a positive view of (brief) foster care. The characters were funny and three-dimenstional. Recommended for preteens.

This is a great book for everyone. One of the messages it sends out is to look beneath the surface. Antonia and "jazz" seem to be totally different but in the end the realize that they aren't that different after all. They form an unbreakable friendship through all of their unfortunate adventures. It is probably a book for middle and high school students seeing as there are questions about the book for people who read the book to answer in the back. I loved this book because whether you are a "preppy", just "normal", or a "Punker" you can relate to the characters.

Jazz and Antonia seperately found their on way to "fit in" at school, but they struggle to "fit in" to their own skin. Neither of these heroines really understands the full effect of what is happening to them in their lives, and, when they look at each other's difficulties, each realizes how much they could use a friend.

Poignant and driving. Any teen that feels alone in the world should read this story.

Antonia's life looks perfect from the outside. She gets excellent grades in high school, dresses nicely, and has good manners. Teachers like her and she likes school; she plans on graduation early and getting an early start on college. Just underneath the surface, though, Antonia's life is not so easy. Her father is gone and her mother is severely depressed. Running the house and taking care of her two little brothers has become almost entirely Antonia's responsibility.

When Antonia's guidance counselor asks her to be a peer counselor to help other students through their problems, she reluctantly agrees. She doesn't really have the time, but she knows it will look good on her college applications and she wants to maintain her perfect student image with her teachers.

Antonia is assigned to counsel Jazz, who is as different from Antonia as anyone could be. Jazz dyes her hair weird colors. She is a punk who wears ripped clothes and leather. She has body piercings and tattoos and is friends with the bad crowd at school. She and Antonia seem to have nothing in common, and Antonia has no idea how to get her to talk about her problems so they can start solving them.

Soon, though, Antonia begins to realize there is more to Jazz than what she appears on the surface. When they finally start to talk, Antonia finds she is looking forward to the counseling sessions. And as she talks to Jazz, Antonia realizes she is working through her own family problems, too.

I really liked Jazz's character--she had a great deal of depth. I liked watching Antonia and Jazz develop such a nice friendship. The adults in this book were pretty lousy, though, from the school staff who seemed to treat the students unfairly to Jazz's parents who made her life difficult instead of accepting her as she was.

One of the books that I read this year was Define Normal by Julie Anne Peters. In this book there are two main characters that are complete opposite from each other. As the story goes on they discover that they have more things in common than they imagined. As I read the story, even I found many things in common with these two girls.
Elizabeth is a shy quiet girl. She is known to be a "loner" at school. Her life is very troubling, but she prefers to hide all of her emotions. Jazz is the opposite from her, or at least she thinks she is. At school she is known to be a troublemaker. Hanging around with the wrong kinds of people and having different "tastes" in clothes. Her parents are from a very rich society her "punk" style. The two girls have to peer council each other. They think that they are doing the other person a favor by counseling one another. The truth is a whole different story. They become friends, but in secret. Jazz doesn't want her friends to find out because of her reputation.
People tend to think that two different kinds of social groups can't mix. In this case, a "punk" girls and a "loner", this book proves them wrong. I learned that you can't judge a person by how he/she looks. There is a lot more to a person than what we see on the outside.
I have never read a book that made more sense. This is a common problem that kids face, wondering what will happen if they talk to "that person" Not only is this book interesting to read, it has a moral. You have to have patience with a person until you find out their true personality. I recommend this book to kids who are in middle school. That's where these problems occur most often. I hope tat reading this book will change how a person thinks and feels.

These ladies bring the real skinny to those of us interested in bariatric surgery, or those of us who are recovering. I feel like I know them and that the information they are relating is true experience, pro and con. Thank you for an interesting, informative read.

This book although in greater detail than needed should be a must read for all people considering weight loss bariatric surgery!

If you are considering bariatric surgery, this book is a must. It is a no-nonsense, plain-speaking book about why you might need this surgery and what you can really expect. Also, if you are going to have the surgery, it is an important read for your friends and family members so they will understand why you are having the surgery and what to expect afterward. I highly recommend this book.

I ordered several books to read - even though I had a mandatory 6 month class about the entire process, emotional, physical, food requirements and many other aspects. I wanted to read and get an in depth view of WLS and especially RNY. I am making a life choice and therefore want to be very informed. Good luck on your decision and journey! I really enjoyed this book!

This book is very informative and insightful. I recommend it to anyone contemplating weight loss surgery.

This book is great. I took the DiSC profiler and been improving the way to deal with daily situations. This is practical in job and in life.

The book is short and very good. It basically outlines common different behavioral models and focuses on the best approach to communicate with people belonging to each model profile.
Of course it all revolves around your willing to adapt your style when dealing with others, especially if you manage a team.
So try to put these suggestions in practise otherwise it remains only an interesting leisure book.

Good book, moves along well, goes over the information that you would like to see. Very insightfull

Very impressive! A very helpful tool to use at work or home.

This is a great little book both for those new to DiSC and old time users of this tool. Great tips for Managers who want to adapt their management style to better communicate with their employees. Tips on giving feedback, problem solving, delegating etc. Well worth the money.

This is an amazing book with stunning photos. The author shows us the most beautiful gardens around the world and inspires us to recreate those places which has deep meanings to us.

I have no problems with the premise of the book -- that is why I am read it. I have always believed strongly in an intuitive approach to garden design. The problem that I have with reading this book is the excessive wordiness. Several online reviews of her life's work say more in a paragraph or two than the entire first half of the book -- and say it much better. Messervy is a master at saying the same thing with seventeen varieties of repetition. ENOUGH! -- LET'S MOVE ON, JULIE!

Particularly in the first half of the book, in addition to the relentless repetition, she rambles on in generic terms about nonspecific generalities; not really saying much at all. True, this book is dealing with the conceptual. But please; elaborate with some good examples or analogies rather than restating what you have already restated.

Instead of examples, she will toss out ambiguous, esoteric references that would mean nothing to anyone but a select few. For a representative example: On page 82, when talking about a natural effect achieved in a woodland garden, Ms. Messervy says, "A good example is found in Sir John's Wood at Kingshaye Court near Tiverton in Devon, England." That is it! No diagram, no picture and no further information! Perhaps I am supposed to be impressed with name dropping (Or is it just plain, droppings?) from her world travels. However, her "example" adds nothing substantive to the text.

There are a few photos of Messervy's design work in the book and they are superlative. I wish there were a lot more of them. I don't question that her work embodies the ideals she is promoting. It is just that she does not communicate these very well. There are fragments of insight scattered throughout the book. It is unfortunate that you have to wade through so much verbiage just to find them. I got the feeling that many of these needless words were displaying an underlying desire to remain "Daddy's Little Princess" in her incessant admonishments to "recall your childhood".

I am confident that I could learn a lot from Ms. Messervy if her writing was a bit less allegorical. I have a hard time swallowing statements like: "The body of your mother was your first and perhaps most indelible landscape." Umm ... Julie, babe ... You obviously don't know my mom!

I think her actual design work is good. Curiously, most reviews of this book are good. My opinion is at odds with most reviews and espoused content. I suspicion she has a really good publicist as opposed to a really good book. :-(

IronBelly

Julie Moir Messervy has written what undoubtedly will become a classic of garden writing and design. Deeply literate and beautifully written, The Inward Garden gives the reader a process for designing one's "dream garden". Based on garden archtypes: the sea, the cave, the harbor, the promitory, the island, the mountain, and the sky, this book provides a structure for imagining the garden of one's desires and a practical process for designing this deeply felt garden. The author describes in detail each of these archytical gardens. Each archtype is illustrated with outstanding garden photographs. The Inner Garden gently asks the reader to think and feel deeply about the garden of his or her dreams and to have the couage to begin creating that garden.

Unlike most garden books that focus on individual design elements of gardening, this one focuses on how to identify the atmosphere and mood of the garden you want to create. The author tells readers to think back to those places that have given them the greatest joy and ease, either as children or as adults, and to use the memory of these places in creating a retreat or garden of the mind in one's own yard. You should read this book before all others

Messervy has found a way to codify something that seemed vague to me: the "feel" of a landscape, or how a person reacts to a space. She breaks landscape forms down into 7 "archetypes," lists the features of each, then suggests ways to use this new understanding in designing your own yard or garden. I suddenly realized, for example, that the narrow, paved alleys coming off my tiny city backyard weren't necessarily the problem and disappointment I had always considered them, but were features I could play up and turn to advantage. (They had always tempted me to walk to the end -- now I just have to make that journey worthwhile.) I was just bursting with ideas after reading this book, able to look at my tiny space with new eyes. The archetypal business isn't just pleasantly mystical but is also practical, backed up with sophisticated but down-to-earth ideas. It's a different kind of garden design book that gets you to think of the overall "f! eel" (not look) you want first (the step missing from most gardening books), and then figure out how to actually construct it -- a satisfying blend of mythic/artistic with practical and well-organized. (And as a bonus, the photos are drop-dead gorgeous!)

I'm a 4th grade teacher and bought this book for my classlibrary. Boys as well as girls fight over who gets to take ithome... only Harry Potter got that much attention before. Now they'rebuying their own copies. The children know the book is written for them -- it's clear and funny and thinks like a kid. The recipes are easy to make and actually have nutritional value. I like that it encourages children to be safe and clean up when they're done. This is a smart, fun, well thought-out cookbook. Good work!

This bok has increased my daughters intrest in learning to cook not only for her friends but for the family. The Sleepover Cookbook is written in a way that entices children and encourages them to read and cook. The steps are easy to follow and direct.

As a graphic designer, I found this book to be a great idea, very well designed, easy to follow, very well organized, visually attractive and very fun. I'm sure the kids will love this book. As a grown-up kid, I did.

These recipes were just what children like, but seemed healthy too. The recipes were easy to understand and I loved the glossary explaining cooking terms.

I am an educator and a parent of two. I fell in love with this book the moment I opened it. Not only is it a fun book with great, easy recipes, but it is developmentally appropriate. The recipes give the children a sense of pride and success and is a great self-esteem booster. The meals and snacks are nutritious and gives me a night off from cooking once in awhile. This book is a treasure.

This book is really good. I think it has won an award. The story was really cute. I enjoyed reading about Sara. An excellent read. Get this book now!

P.S-I'm not a kid- I don't have a login

Being both foster and adoptive parents, this is real stuff with real personalities and feelings portrayed. Wished I had read it in one sitting to get the full effect of the emotions.

The book is great for me. I only started reading this afternoon and I already love it! It's about this great Sara Moone a very interesting character whom many people will be able to relate to. Once you start this book...you won't be able to put it down. Go get it!

This book was a great read! I especially enjoyed it because I'm interested in adopting in the future, and this gave me an insight into the foster care system, albeit in Canada. The writing was great, although it's definitely a young adult book and not an adult book! The plot line would be a bit too easy for adults, but I don't think this would be a problem with younger readers (high school would be fine with it).

All in all, I really enjoyed this! I hope to read more of this author's books!