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A little boy who doesn't like to read much is entranced by these Jack Sparrow books. They're well written for kids with a sense of adventure. Like the Hardy Boys or a dozen other series before them, they deliver a consistent and familiar character in cleverly worked plots. The one thing I'd like to change would be to add few more illustrations. All you get here is the illustration on the cover.

The shipment was on time. Honest description of the product. I got what I was hoping to get, it was received sooner than anticipated. My 11year-old son for whom this book was purchased, was especially happy to get the book wihtin three days. Will most likely purchase other products from this seller.

Both my son and I love this series. Even as a young man Captain Jack is true to himself. He hasn't changed a bit!!!!

I question whether Rob Kidd actually exists. For the Disney people to have come up with William Kidd would have been too obvious. So they came up with Robert, which is just as 17th century sounding a name as William.

This being said my nephew seems to love these books, which is good. He seems to have little interest in the true literary swashbuckling classic "Treasure Island," which is unfortunate. I do not think, however, that we should blame Disney and its team of Kidd writers for that...yet.

As I said, my nephew loves this series and while they are not R. L. Stevenson they are mildly entertaining and not long, so no a lot of time is consumed reading them. There are some definite holes in the plots and inconsistencies but they are not the kind of thing that 9-year-olds typically tend to overlook.

I would love to be reading something of more literary merit with my nephew but that is not to be, not at this time anyway. In the end it is not the worst book you could choose to bond with a child over.

I give the Jack Sparrow series a big thumbs up,( exept for the 9th because it was it was a little cheesy.)I just really want Robb Kidd to make Constance change into a girl again! Jean is one of my favorite charactors in the series, so it would be so awsome to learn more about his sister.And then Jack would have a lass( I think it's so unfair that Arabella has a boyfriend but Jack doen't have a girlfreind.They could have been the perfect match!) READ THE JACK SPARROW: POSEIDON"S PEAK!

As always Rob Kidd provides a well written and entertaining read for young and old. Jack makes a new friend, finds some old ones again, and gets in even more trouble. The return of Constance the cat was a pleasant and hilarious surprise.

Jack Sparrow is floating in a small boat, not even worthy of being called a dingy, as he begins his next strange, unusual and always exciting adventure. Once he lands upon a very small island, he meets a very bloody, very broken man who has no idea who he is or how he got there. The only thing he knows is...Jack.

Jack, of course, is full of sarcasm, but helps the beaten and bloody man all while trying to help him figure out how the man knows him. During this, the two encounter the natives of the island who worship a cat...a very familiar cat. Jack and the man, finally known as 'Bloody Billy,' along with 'the familiar cat' are whisked into a new adventure. In so doing, Jack comes face to face with even more familiar faces who are after the very thing Jack intend to capture.

Poseidon's Peak is a great adventure, one that my 10 year old and I loved to dive into. We've read the other young Jack Sparrow books and very much enjoyed them together. Jack once again had us on the edge of our seats (or the edge of the bed) and laughing loudly along the way.

Loved every word...as usual!

A little boy who doesn't like to read much is entranced by these Jack Sparrow books. They're well written for kids with a sense of adventure. Like the Hardy Boys or a dozen other series before them, they deliver a consistent and familiar character in cleverly worked plots. The one thing I'd like to change would be to add few more illustrations. All you get here is the illustration on the cover.

I bought these books for my 12yr old daughter. She's a huge POTC fan & has gobbled these books down. Now she has the whole set (9 in all). She enjoyed them immensely & wishes more were available.

I began reading this series to my 9 year old son, who suddenly became interested in reading. This series proved to be the one that captured us both. In this episode, #3 The Pirate Chase continues the adventure began and continued in the first 2 books of this series. Five young adventurers, and their "cat-sister thing", search for and finally find the Sword of Cortes! With this discovery, comes the soul of Cortes himself and almost cost them a treasured crew member's life. It is compelling reading for any POTC fan.

My boys really enjoy this series about Jack Sparrow as a teenager. Oh, and I do, too! It is great how the author uses references from the movies. These are swashbuckling adventures with interesting characters!

For the third time a am amazed by the perspective of Rob Kidd. As Jack is on the trail of Left Foot Louis with his great crew, he sails to a island that is completly deserted, so they think. But when they split up into groups and search the island not only do they encounter the pirate Left Foot Louis, they also find a nother part of the magical sword of Cortez. So as Jack trys to get the sword he will battle Left Foot Louis and learn the past of one of the crew members. Point is, all and all a great book. One not to miss "ye savvy"!

I bought these books for my 12yr old daughter. She's a huge POTC fan & has gobbled these books down. Now she has the whole set (9 in all). She enjoyed them immensely & wishes more were available.

For my grandson's birthday, who loves Captain Jack Sparrow, we purchased two of his chapter books. It's exciting when a child will anticipate reading a book, versus watching the movie. He was delighted.

My boys really enjoy this series about Jack Sparrow as a teenager. Oh, and I do, too! It is great how the author uses references from the movies. These are swashbuckling adventures with interesting characters!

I am a 21 years old and I must admit wasn't the biggest Pirates of the Carribbean fan before I read this series. I took a chance in reading it, I did love Jack Sparrow's character and was curious as to what sort of teenage life they would fabricate for him, I wasn't expecting anything spactcualr seeing as each book was so short. However when I first began this series I was hooked from the instant, the writing style is a bit to simplistic for my tastes, it's clearly aimed at a younger audience, but the characterization (please forgive my spelling, I read avidly, but I can't spell worth a damn) was amazing, and the plot was shockingly unexpected. It wasn't long before I became addicted, and when this latest book arrived in the mail I was litterally jumping for joy. I curled up in my bed and prepared for another rivitoing hour reading about Jack latest adventures and misfortunes. This was my favorite one yet, at last the ruthless, resorcful and utterly loyal pirate within him is begining to surface. I keep wondering when he will admit that he is what he's trying to fight, and now that he made his first dreadlock, he's alittle bit closer. I am terribly anxious to read what else is in store for the young Jack Sparrow.

This book is not only a real work of art, but great fun for my grandson and his sisters.

Marguerite Culhane

This pop-up book was purchased for my 7 yr. old nephew who is an avid fan of anything related to Pirates of the Caribbean. This pop-up ship has great detail. When completely opened, the front and back cover are back to back and are fastened with ties. Also included are cardboard characters to play with. The characters from the movies were easily recognizable to my nephew and he annouced their names with great excitement. When finished, everything folds back up neatly and can fit on the bookshelf.

It's a fabulous ship, coming out of the book...and with lots of paper pirate characters to pull out and play with! AMAZING!!!!!

The book opens up into the Black Pearl and it has paper characters that you pop out to play with. My two boys (who are generally VERY hard on things), actually love this and have been very careful not to tear it (which just shows how much they love it!) It is great to bring on trips because it is like a compact action toy for them, since it has their favorite characters and the ship. The only thing that I wish they had done was install some sort of pocket to store the characters in once they are "popped out".

Paul Thomas Anderson, writer-director of the absorbing Sundance fave HARD EIGHT (1997), the brilliant, sprawling 70s epic BOOGIE NIGHTS (1997) and the utterly enthralling, 3-hour mosaic of pain, sickness, death and loneliness in the San Fernando Valley MAGNOLIA (1999), returns to form yet again with his utterly bizzare and very fascinating sounding 90 minute dark romantic "comedy" PUNCH-DRUNK LOVE (2002). The film stars Adam Sandler and Emily Watson as two nearly insane people. Sandler plays Barry Egan, a lonely businessman (his only friend seems to be a co-worker named Lance, played by Anderson comic relief fave and ensemble lover Luis Guzman) with 7 abusive sisters. Watson plays Lena Leonard, a quirky young Englishwoman who is one of his sister's (Mary-Lynn Raksjub--love her!) friends from work. They get (jokingly) set up on a blind date (I believe they meet first, then go for dinner), and love is in the air. He plans to buy lots and lots (and lots yet again) of pudding for a chance to win frequent flier miles in a contest. This will lead to a Hawaii trip that would go right, but Barry's depressing recent past stands in the way. He was conned upon calling a phone sex line (to a woman named Georgia)--seems she wants more money than he should have to pay and this leads to a dangerous group of Utah thugs coming to the Valley to collect for their sleezy pimp leader (played by the great Philip Seymour Hoffman, the only actor yet to be in all 4 P.T. Anderson pictures). This all combines to what sounds like one of the best new films of the fall season, and possibly one of the best of the year. Ebert and Roeper loved it and it was a hit at many film festivals it attended. Sounds great. Anderson's script is shorter than MAGNOLIA's 194 pages or BOOGIE NIGHTS' 152, and even his debut HARD EIGHT'S (no script published yet--the running time was 101 minutes!). This (literal) change of pace for the Altman-Scorsese-Demme-influenced young auteur promises a "joy ride" of epic proportions, if not length. His scripts (including this) are published as "Shooting Scripts". This means it's gone through some changes since the "Reading Draft(1st draft)", but Anderson thinks visually, directs very much in that vein, and has been known to write very much like that. His scripts contain much camera description and as little scene description as possible. As he said in the BOOGIE NIGHTS script book introduction, "I've come to realize that my function as a director is to be a good writer...My obligation as a director is to deliver the actors a good script, thus making my job as a director describable as 'hanging out' and watching them go. No good actor needs direction beyond 'Let's do another one' and 'Keep it simple.'...There is no flour and sugar...this is a script written for actors. An actor does not need a full description of their character...This is how most screenplays are written... This sort of thing must be written by writers who have no interest in meeting or socializing with actors. If you have written this and you can find an actress to play this part, as described, you will have a bad actress. Actors do not need this, they don't want it. Don't give it to them; they will not read it anyway. This is writing for studio executives. Studio executives do not make movies. They pretend that they make movies. This is a script written for the people who really make the movie, people who physically put it into existence, and all they need are the facts. Pure and Simple." This is a philosophy that is rare and much needed in Hollywood and Independent Cinema nowadays...Scripts rely too much on the "telling" of a story and not enough on the "making" of a story. People who know where their story is going before they pick up a pen, type one letter, or even think of an idea, will never write a great screenplay that way. You have to let it unfold for you and for the audience...

Paul Thomas Anderson, writer-director of the absorbing Sundance fave HARD EIGHT (1997), the brilliant, sprawling 70s epic BOOGIE NIGHTS (1997) and the utterly enthralling, 3-hour mosaic of pain, sickness, death and loneliness in the San Fernando Valley MAGNOLIA (1999), returns to form yet again with his utterly bizzare and very fascinating sounding 90 minute dark romantic "comedy" PUNCH-DRUNK LOVE (2002). The film stars Adam Sandler and Emily Watson as two nearly insane people. Sandler plays Barry Egan, a lonely businessman (his only friend seems to be a co-worker named Lance, played by Anderson comic relief fave and ensemble lover Luis Guzman) with 7 abusive sisters. Watson plays Lena Leonard, a quirky young Englishwoman who is one of his sister's (Mary-Lynn Raksjub--love her!) friends from work. They get (jokingly) set up on a blind date (I believe they meet first, then go for dinner), and love is in the air. He plans to buy lots and lots (and lots yet again) of pudding for a chance to win frequent flier miles in a contest. This will lead to a Hawaii trip that would go right, but Barry's depressing recent past stands in the way. He was conned upon calling a phone ... line (to a woman named Georgia)--seems she wants more money than he should have to pay and this leads to a dangerous group of Utah thugs coming to the Valley to collect for their sleezy ...and leader (played by the great Philip Seymour Hoffman, the only actor yet to be in all 4 P.T. Anderson pictures). This all combines to what sounds like one of the best new films of the fall season, and possibly one of the best of the year. Ebert and Roeper loved it and it was a hit at many film festivals it attended. Sounds great. Anderson's script is shorter than MAGNOLIA's 194 pages or BOOGIE NIGHTS' 152, and even his debut HARD EIGHT'S (no script published yet--the running time was 101 minutes!). This (literal) change of pace for the Altman-Scorsese-Demme-influenced young auteur promises a "joy ride" of epic proportions, if not length. His scripts (including this) are published as "Shooting Scripts". This means it's gone through some changes since the "Reading Draft(1st draft)", but Anderson thinks visually, directs very much in that vein, and has been known to write very much like that. His scripts contain much camera description and as little scene description as possible. ...

One of my new favorites, "Punch-Drunk Love" is a unique and spectacular story about a man who doesn't know how the face the world around him. That man is Barry Egan. He has seven sisters who have verbally abused him since he was little, causing him to, now all grown up, get into violent outbursts. Barry's a quiet and shy guy, but if his button is pushed things can get out of control. He meets Lena, a very strange and peculiar girl herself. Love falls upon these two, but Barry's even facing more problems after being blackmailed by a phone-sex operator. But when all else fails, he knows that he has a love in his life in this very oddball and dark comedy.

I'm glad they came out with a script version of the film that you can buy. Paul Thomas Anderson has written a magnificent picture that's so easy to relate to , it's scary. The stuff that occurs you can see happening in real life. It's realistic and surreal at the same time.

This is the shooting script, on blue, pink, and yellow colored pages that symbolize when the revisions were made. Technical terms such as camera angels are included as well since it is a shooting script. Even little changes are mentioned as well. I love the dialogue that was written and you can tell that P.T. had Sandler in mind for the part, because nobody else would've been able to pull it off. While it's not your typical comedy, I thought it was hilarious. It pretty much follows the movie, although some things aren't there or changed due to changes that occurred during the shooting. It's pretty much all there for the most part.

"Punch-Drunk Love: The Shooting Script" is a great purchase for anyone who loved the film. It may not had been the most popular movie to come out of 2002, but it's #2 on my list. The pages fly by with ease, and when you're done with it you want to read it again. I can't wait for this movie to come out on DVD. I'm counting the days. A spectacular script for a spectacular film.

I love being able to read P.T. Anderson's shooting scripts. His films are fabulous. I believe one of the negative reviewers partially misses the point when harping on the misspellings, the rambling monologues and how PTA's scripts are saved by the actors. The whole point of a script is that it is the first rough draft -- the framework -- upon which a movie is built. Of course there are going to be improvements between the script and the final product. The reason to buy this, or any, shooting script is to see how the project evolved from script to screen. In the case of Punch-Drunk Love -- much more so than Boogie Nights or Magnolia -- it's fascinating to find that almost every important scene was tweaked, sometimes in a major way, before this wonderful film reached the screen. ... It's a great chance to get some insight into the stages of the creative process of one of America's finest directors. ... BOTTOM LINE: Does this book have all the bells and whistles of the Boogie Nights and Magnolia shooting scripts? NOPE. Is it essential for the PTA fan? YUP.

When Tarantino blew up in the early 90's, there were slews of quickie books written to cash in on his enormous popularity. This is not one of them. Jami Bernard has done one of the most thorough and detailed biographies ever done on a celebrity. She misses nothing. The only problem this book has is the same problem almost all Q.T books have- they were all written 2 to 3 years into his career, so there is no recent information. This is one book I'd love to see updated and re-released.It is a richly detailed and fair account of Tarantino's life and career up until 1995.

I just finished reading this book, and it is a fine work of reporting. It interviews people from both sides of the Tarantino debate (those who love him and those who hate him), and allows you to draw your own conclusions from all the statements. It covers Tarantino's life from his birth up to the moment when he made Four Rooms.

Too bad this book is out of print. I hope there will be a reissue in the future, probably covering the latest works of Tarantino.

This book is a very good book. It gets you very familiar with Quentin and his movis. Every Quentin fan should read this book. I am going to read it again. Read the book!! Thomas Peterson MXPF89C@prodigy.com Kuna, Idaho

This book is a must-read for every true Tarantino fan.

Jamie Bernard's book is simply amazing. It covers Tarantino's life from childhood till about 1996. The book is well-written, and goes deep into detail and uncovers Tarantino's life as hyperactive kid, movie theater regular, fatherless child and genius moviemaker. This is the single best book ever written about Quentin Tarantino. No other book delivers such great information, biographical facts and stories about the making of his early movies and involvements in projects. If you want to read a good book about Tarantino, get this one first. It's the best!

trust me on this...

this book is great! it tells you everything about every sex and the citian, every episode, the actors/actresses, trivia, glossary (you'll have to read the book to find out what i mean by gloss.), and much, much more. if you love sex and the city, you'll love this book.

Being a critical media scholar and (Yes,fan of the show) this collection of insightful essays is a media scholar and/or feminist scholar dream come true. If you are looking for deep "dishy" style of gossip behind the show you will be sadly disappointed. "Sex and the City" is a show that will go down (no pun intended) for letting women reveal and talk about love, sex and relationships in a honest true fashion, regardless of how you feel about the characters and their "impossible" lifestyles. I always marvel at how this show often broke ground by often crossing gender and cultural guidelines within its audience base. I am intrigued by how universal the show is and how it makes me a little mad that some people want to dismiss it as a silly women/gay show.

Split into five parts the book touches on sex and relationships, the social and cultural impact of the show, female identification, narrative text and intertextuality within the show, and of course fashion. The last essays being a great deal of fun as they look at the famous "Sex and the City" tour in NYC, fandom and the intersection of being a scholar and bridging fan base gap as well. Editors Kim Akass and Janet McCabe should be applaud for their thought-provoking and meaningful work, I would quickly snatch (again no pun) any critical reader that these ladies do on any series. A critical celebration of "Six feet Under" has already been published this spring. I am "dying" to read that one. (ok, bad pun intended!)

The essays in this volume cover the first five years of the six-year run of the HBO original series Sex and the City. The first four sections of the book are comprised of scholarly articles on the subjects of (1) Sex, Sexuality, and Relationships, (2) Socio-Sexual Identities, (3) Fashion and Cultural Identities, and (4) Narrative, Genre, and Intertextuality. The fifth section contains mostly brief personal essays about the authors' appreciation of the show, and as such is the weakest in the book. I especially enjoyed Susan Zieger's essay, "Sex and the Citizen in Sex and the City's New York" in which she discusses one of the dilemma's facing third wave feminists, the conflict between identity politics and "do it yourself" citizenship. In it she observes "DIY citizenship is a consumer fantasy which always encounters the reality principle of identity politics." Mandy Merck's "Sexuality in the City" was also noteworthy. She engagingly addresses the often-discussed issue of whether Sex and the City is the product (and projection) of gay men's imagination (i.e., the producers) or an authentic depiction of contemporary women (noting that most of the episodes were penned by women).

There's a lot of good stuff in these essays. While readers need to be fairly familiar with the series, its characters, and plotlines to get the most out of this collection, anyone with an interest in media or culture studies will be able to appreciate what the authors have to say. The book is indexed and has an excellent bibliography. Another fine volume in the Reading Contemporary Television series.

Every woman should say "I'll take Manhattan" ... and then do so in her own way....

Enjoyable read and commentary on the single in the city life...for men and women alike. Sex and the City was a God-send for many women during its six-year run. Once upon a time women were brainwashed to believe that they were incomplete without marriage and motherhood. How many an aspiring career women felt she needed to take a break to find a husband and produce babies? Well ... we'll fast forward to a few years later (quoting Alanis Morrissette) .... and urban trends unfold to reveal that Cosmopolitan had it right. Love is for the Harlequin novels because like Avril Lavigne sang "five years from now she sits and home, feeding the baby she's all alone. She turns on TV and guess who she sees ... Sk8tr Boi rockin up MTV"... in the confines of a white picket fence prison. Oh hail Candace ... your Sex and the City tales spawned an entire collective discourse in pop culture's commerical HBO land ... of a rebel feminist yell not seen since the days of Madonna circa Like a Virgin..... with one clear cut anthem - Live it Up Ladies On Your Own Terms! The only baggage you need is a Gucci bag. All a wedding is - is a production - and the bride and groom get to play stars for one day. Why not be a star every day by taking on the world and a big bite out of the Big Apple.

Post-Script: All the people that I knew who got married at 25 and dissappeared from sight ... resurfaced about 3 to 5 years later divorced and some with kids. Those who once felt sorry for the single and solo now yearn for the very freedom that they lost on their wedding day. Thanks to Carrie and her pals! You saved our single lives! Go Candace - bring on more women heroines in the Sex and the City Empire. No Desperate Housewives need apply!

Here is a more personal account of how the ladies in my life see the very empowering impact of Sex and the City in their lives:

There was a young woman who was plump, plain, and finding her way in the world living alone in the big city far from family ....who only wanted to find a boyfriend to validate her. Years passed and she saw all the "love" go to the pretty cheerleader types, mostly blue-eyed blondes, ravishing redheads, or foxy brunnetts. Then a show came on the air called "Sex and the City" and something took root in the psyche. During the six years it was on the air the young lass found her personal heroine in Carrie Bradshaw and her lady pals. And so a transformation began which had a snowball effect... resulting in a quiet miracle - the young woman loved her life exactly as it was! She stopped desiring marriage and motherhood because she never wanted it at all! Who needs a cell mate and sleep deprivation - not me! It was society's rulebook and not hers! And she stopped apologizing for it. She celebrated it! And all the boys who never looked at her - well, they ended up divorced and telling everyone to avoid their mistake. A mistake they now can't take back. And as for all the girls who batted their eyelashes and won the roses ... let's just say Desperate Housewives and the suburban anorexia of their lives didn't live up to the wedding cake promise.

What a novel idea, that movies are more than just entertainment. The author points out that watching some of the traditional Christmas movies (It's a Wonderful Life, A Christmas Carol) makes us feel safe and comfortable. They relieve stress and give us a feeling of control.
I remember my family having a ritual of watching Yankee Doodle Dandy every fourth of July. Even now, if I sing a few lines from one of those songs, my sisters join in (40 years later) with all the words.
Movies like these, are "very rich in spiritual messages," according to the author.

"Reel Fulfillment"
A 12-Step Plan For Transforming Your Life Through Movies
Maria Grace, Author
McGraw Hill, Publisher
ISBN 0-07-145907-3

Reviewed by Donna Van Straten Remmert,
Author of "The Littlest Big Kid" and "The Jitterbug Girl"

If you love movies as much as I do, "Reel Fulfillment" is an insightful guidebook that will entertain as well as transform you. It will explain why you love some movies enough to see them over and over again, and why you laugh or cry your heart out each time. Psychotherapist and author Maria Grace is well known in Austin for her live, standing-room-only movie reviews that humorously and poignantly probe into our psychological make-up and help us realize truths about ourselves, as reflected by characters in the movies. She is also well known at SCN for her fabulous Be Our Guest presentation. If you've witnessed Maria's gigs, I know you haven't forgotten how delightful they were. The same is true about "Reel Fulfillment". It's delightful.

Maria moved to New York City a few years ago, and she has already received a great deal of praise and recognition for her inspiring book, her seminars, and her ezine that I highly recommend as a way to continue analyzing your responses to movies after you've read "Reel Fulfillment". Each week's ezine is about something new and different and it's always fun and thought provoking. This week's challenge, for instance, is to watch movies that are about food cravings. She tells you some of her secrets for relating to food in a more healthy way, learned from having attended a spa in Brazil, she invites you to click onto her 60-minute seminar "Eating Without Guilt: The Joy of Conscious Eating" and she asks you to watch two fabulous movies about food to better understand yourself: "Chocolat" and "Real Women Have Curves". Go to www.mariagrace.com to learn about Maria's adventures and to read more about the ezine that's free for the asking. Subscribe!

Thanks to "Reel Fulfillment", I can now say it right out-I am a movie addict! I watch at least one, sometimes two, movies a day. In the privacy of my bedroom where I can laugh or cry to my heart's content. I'm obsessed, and I now know that I don't need to feel shame or guilt for spending so much relaxation time in bed, because through my obsession and with the help of Maria's 12-step plan for transforming my life through movies, I accomplish major self-awareness fetes. There is a Questions to Answer section in each chapter of "Reel Fulfillment". I glance at these questions in advance of watching a movie recommended by Maria in that chapter. Then, as I'm watching, I think about possible answers to these questions, viewing the movie as if it were a story about my life. Metaphorically, it usually is!

After my movie(s) for the night is over, I sink into my unconscious for a good night of dreaming. When the movies I've seen are especially relevant to my life, they often trigger fantastic dreams that reveal things about me that I'd otherwise not know consciously. What a gift! Imagine all of the unlived lives I've been able to experience through this process!

I am so in love with Maria's work that I flew to NYC to attend one of her seminars. She's better than ever, and what a good excuse for having fun in The Big Apple. Reading "Reel Fulfillment" is like being with Maria again. Order an autographed copy and browse her other learning tools at her online store at www.mariagrace.com.

Life should be as happy as we can make it. Life should be as fulfilling as we can make it. Life should be as free of fear and doubt as we can make it. No one book, no one program can provide all these needs. But this work, Reel Fulfillment, is certainly a tool you will want to add to your tool box. If you are building a house, you cannot do it with only a hammer. You must have saws, screwdrivers, rulers, pliers, and on and on. To build a full life you must have many tools also. Most certainly, this work, I feel, can be one of those tools, quite an important tool, actually. What a unique and fascinating concept...using movies to help analyze your life and help correct those little and big blimps and bumps in life that we all encounter. This is not a just a book about "going to a movie and feeling good." It is far more. The author, Dr. Grace, gives us a twelve step plan or program for truly changing the way we perceive ourselves and the way we meet and treat the various crises and challenges we all encounter. The subjects, Gaining Inner Clarity, Emotional Health, Joy, and Gaining Spiritual Fitness, are all more or less hung on a unique framework, on the concept of movies, on the stories that we can relate our own experiences to, and learn from, which we see on the screen. We can and, indeed, do learn from these stories.

Movie, of course, are art. Who has not been emotionally changed by a great piece of literature, a great painting, a wonderful photograph, a deeply felt and written poem or one of the world's great paintings. Most of us can be driven to either tears or great joy by any of these. Movies are no different. More importantly, with movies, we can learn from the stories these artists, the movie makers, writers and actors bring us. We can relate. I dare say that not one person reading this review has ever not been moved, in some way, after watching some film story at some time in their life. Dr. Grace has given order to this. Each chapter includes a wonderful section of self examination, profound questions, which, if answered truthfully by the reader, can indeed shed great light on our inner being. She has been able to articulate what most of us actually know, but we simply did not know we knew. She has given us a tool and then explained how to use that tool effectively.

Now, this work, like any work in this particular genre, is only effective if you actually DO IT! I wonder how many "self help books" are purchased, skimmed, shelved and forgotten. You actually have to work through the program for it to help. Folks, there are no free lunches...you get out of something just about what you put into it. This book is no exception.

On the other hand, if you want to purchase it, skim it and then shelf it, that is okay too. As an added bonus, even it you don't work through the doctor's program, you will certainly pick up some great tips to make your movie going far more pleasurable. You really cannot loose with this one. I highly recommend! Recommend you add this one to your library.

This new self-help book is really good with this new method of watching movies combined with exercises in each step to find fulfillment.

At the beginning I thought it was about analyzing movies but was pleasently surprised that the method uses the movies to help the reader find answers and create awareness. I did watch a couple of the movies suggested and then followed the exercises and it really works.

I highly recommend this book to anybody who likes movies. Watching them from this new angle will make you enjoy even more your favorite films and even better appreciate the ones not so good.

Reflections on the Civil War was published in 1981, three years after the death of Bruce Catton. John Leekley reworked and restructured audio tapes that he and Catton had been compiling for an oral history into the essays that form the basis for this fascinating book.

For the most part this transformation was successful and achieves a natural narrative style. Reflections on the Civil War should particularly appeal to readers seeking a concise, and yet insightful introduction to the Civil War. This relatively short book, about 250 pages, would be ideal for supplementary reading for advanced high school students or undergraduates.

The essays target five major topics: Lincoln's leadership; life in the army; the war itself - strategy and execution; the Civil War as the first modern war, and There Was a Young Soldier. This last section, the experiences of John Geyser from Pennsylvania in an engineer battalion in the Army of the Potomac, was riveting, and is a remarkable description of soldiering under General McClellan.

John Geyser carefully penned thoughtful sketches of camp life, individual soldiers, and military action. These drawings add substantial value to this work. Geyser's sketches had only recently come available and had not been published previously.

In the 1960s Bruce Catton, winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award, helped Americans understand and commemorate the centennial of the Civil War. His books - Mr. Lincoln's Army, Terrible Swift Sword, Gettysburg: the Final Fury, A Stillness at Appomattox, two volumes on Ulysses S. Grant, and others - were widely admired. His writings gave meaning and life to the Civil War in a way unmatched by previous writers.

In recent decades American interest in the Civil War was similarly revitalized by the monumental documentary on the Civil War by Ken Burns and later by the film Gettysburg. Newer studies by outstanding historians like Shelby Foote and James M. McPherson, and Civil War novels like those of Michael and Jeff Shaara, have perhaps unfairly displaced the writings of Bruce Catton.

In my view Bruce Catton's major works compare favorably with Shelby Foote and James McPherson, two authors that I greatly respect. Reflections on the Civil War is a quick way to become acquainted with this remarkable writer and historian.

The first books I ever read about the Civil War were by Bruce Catton, starting with his novel BANNERS AT SHENANDOAH and continuing with his two overall histories and ending with his U.S. Grant trilogy. There is something effortless about the way Catton integrates his sources and spins his tale.

If one may say he is not really a scholar, he is at least a brilliant popularizer and integrater. REFLECTIONS is like the capstone of his career. Now that I've read scores of books on the subject, Catton somehow manages to revivify the entire period.

By far my favorite chapter is the story of an Army Engineer who also created a sketchbook of his battle experiences. Catton follows him thoughout the war and even after, until his later years are spent in pain from an injury received in battle decades before. Also brilliant is is short summary of the war from the point of view of opportunities lost. (It appears that the commanding generals of the Army of the Potomac have a lot to answer for.)

If you want a single book to give you a good feeling of what the Civil War was like without dragging you company by company through all the gory details, this is the book for you.

There are many great writers about the Civil War, but I definitely feel that, now that Catton has gone, the vital spark is no longer there.

Catton provides the reader with an easy to understand synopsis of the grand currents at work during the Civil War. Masterfully done, Catton obviously composed his ideas from a vast warehouse of Civil War knowledge. Not concerned with detailing the minutia of events, he is able deliver a feeling for what was going on during those great and terrible days. Although the Foreword and Introduction seem a bit fawning at times, the editor and E. B. Long are able to clue the reader in on what to expect and what to look for.

This book was compiled from audio tapes Catton made before his death,,, his "reflections" on the Civil War. In it Catton brings the lessons of his life long study of the war into very human focus. It is the best book I know of for anyone who is seeking their first Civil war book because it tells the stories of the war in such human terms. It is the best book I know of for the Civil war "expert" for the very same reason. One cannot lose focus on the essential human war exoperiences once this book is read. It is an outstanding achievement. There is fact here to be sure but Catton always provided mofre than fact. He provided understanding. And in "Reflection On The Civil War" he provides passion and compassion, intrigue and dareing, and deep respect for the simple common people of the 1860's Here, he speaks of their wisdom, their dedication and their courage. One of the most masterful pieces of writing I have evefr read comes late in the book when he trace two trajectories. The first