K Books

It was very poignant for me to read Dr. Underwood's book at this particular time. Our 11-year-old cat had been diagnosed with kidney disease a couple of months ago and we have been expecting his slow demise. I have been reading more of late because I want to spend more time with him and he enjoys sitting on my lap when I read -- otherwise he hides out. So for three consecutive nights I read Dying with Atticus on my lap. I would interrupt my reading occasionally to talk to him, to pet him, to kind of process what I was reading in the book as well as witness his own end-of-life. The book gave me support -- it was and will be very helpful.
Judy Gordon, co-author of The Heroics of Falling Apart: One Couple's Breast Cancer Journey, www.theheroicsoffallingapart.com

This book is well written and easy to read. The book reads as if the reader were having a conversation with the book. As soon as I thought of a question Dr. Underwood was answering it. I highly recommend this book to any one who is concerned with death or dieing. The poem in the back was especially helpful to me after a close friend passed away.

This easy to read short work on the experience of a middle age woman dying prematurely of cancer and those closest to her, is done with such sincerity that it allows the reader to feel all of the emotions of those invloved in the dying process. Author, Judy Underwood (PhD), provides guidance to the reader through her experiences assisting one of her clients through the often times bewildering responsibilities involved as one approaces the end of life. While I had already made some preparations for my own eventual death (will, living will, services, remains), this informative book reinforced many of my beliefs involving dying, but it also elicited the need for me to re-evaluate how some things should be better handled. I urge all to take the one or two evenings it takes to read this well organized book on a most important subject that all too many of us try to ignore.

If you only have time or energy to read one book on the dying process, choose "Dying" by Dr. Judy Underwood. She has written a masterfully clear and compassionate story about her own personal experience in helping a friend through her final illness. The story illustrates the difficult and rewarding process of being there for someone in their ultimate time of need. It parallels my own experiences with the deaths of my parents, a close friend, and finally my daughter at age 21. As much as you give to the dying person, they will give you so much more. You will come away with wisdom, humility, compassion and joy to fill your days, however many there may be. This book is a gentle guide to the facts and choices that arise during the death process. It raises your awareness of what will come and helps you capture the positive moments of life with your loved ones before those moments are gone forever. It is heartfelt, practical, and free of any religious agenda.
As a personal note, I met Judy Underwood on an airplane when she was editing proofs of this book, and I was travelling to see my father 3 months before his death. I couldn't help noticing the title of these pages in her lap and the connection with my recent life experiences. It turned out that we both had migrated to Colorado from our childhoods in New Jersey. Serendipity strikes again!

This book is a perfectly natural, honest and compassionate telling of the path leading to a peaceful death. It details the loving effort of discovery that was required to make it so and shares the learnings so we all can benefit. The book is encouraging and wise, not just in revealing steps and stages, tools and resources, and tips for comfort. It frankly discusses the importance of having open and direct discussions about one's death, and how to close one's life to our own satisfaction. I believe we are more likely to have the experience we want if we and those closest to us know what to ask for. Most of us need help to do that-- this book helps. I plan to send a copy of this easy-to-read book both up and down the generations in my family, and to take it to heart myself. Thank you, Dr. Judy Underwood, for telling this important story.

I thought this was an excellent book. I bought it to help provide some guidance while training my young horse, and it not only gave me a nice guideline of what-to-train-when, but also made dressage much more understandable.

This book focuses on the German dressage training scale. The author explains the steps in training the horse, dividing it into stages (i.e. stage one you focus on A, B, and C elements, stage two you begin developing D and E). He gives some guidelines as to what your horse should be able to do before you push him for more. He then devotes a chapter to each element needed in dressage, in the order it should be developed in the horse (relaxation, regularity, freedom, contact, on the aids...). He finishes with a few miscellaneous chapters on the flying change, transitions, the inclined arena (great for eventers), Prix St. James test, and lateral movements.

This book mainly aims to discuss the development of the young horse, providing a correct foundation for all further work, including eventing and show jumping. It provides more detail about the early years of training, rather than say, development of the piaffe, passage, extensions, etc.

I would recommend this to all dressage riders (especially those just starting out or at the lower levels), to those people interested in putting a good foundation on a young horse (this applies to ALL disciplines!), or to those that just want a better understanding of how to ride a horse correctly. This book has great clarity, is an easy read, I even recommended it to my youngest sister (she's 12).

Don't get me wrong, this is not a book for novices just learning to post. You do need a basic understanding of riding. He's not going to explain how to ask your horse to shoulder-in or get on the bit. I read this with a good working knowledge of dressage. This just put everything into a clear format and made dressage, for once, seem simple to understand (even if its very difficult to perform!)

Very helpful, great ideas on horsemanship and training. A must read for anyone serious about correct, empathetic horsemanship.

This is a book that should be mandatory reading for all aspiring Dressage riders, as well as those who train and start youngsters! This book provides detailed descriptions as well as a thoughtfully laid out format. Kurd follows the German training tree - with one exception that makes sense and gets results quicker! Read the book to find out what it is!

This is a book that should be in every Dressage enthusiast's library! A clearly written, valuable book for any rider, especially at the lower levels of dressage, with a horse of any age.

I am very enthusiastic about "The Elements of Dressage: A Guide to Training the Young Horse" and will be recommending it to my friends and students.

The author's instructions are written clearly and are plentifully illustrated with diagrams and photos.

As well as dressage riders, Western Pleasure and Western Horsemanship riders will find this book to be amazingly applicable to their favorite events. All riders will find that this book is both a wholistic and a specific guide to good horsemanship.

This is a book with a strong focus on modern telecom networks. It has helped me achieve a good understanding of SS 7 - both the protocols and the network aspects. And herein lies the strength of the book - its stress on both the 'academic' and the 'practical'. I would recommned this book to all those who wish to obtain technical insight about mobile, ISDN and Intelligent networks - as SS 7 is at the core of all three. practical aspects.

This book covers all standards used in the world in a very complete way. It describes all aspects of the digital technologies used in the telephony world. I have used it several times in the last weeks, while making some avaliation tests in ISUP and DSS1 and it was very useful!

A text that builds up the subject step by step. Of particular merit is the tutorials on all three subjects - SS7, ISDN and Synchronization. The main theme is rightly SS7 considering its significance in modern telecom networks. A good text both for students and professionals. More details should be provided on U-interface. Perhaps the author will include this in the Second edition.

If you need to know about the ISDN, network syncronisation and non-advanced SS7 this book is the best. It is a shame though that the book does not cover SS7 user parts such as SCCP,TCAP and due to date of publication does not have BISUP, Etc. The book is extremely well written.

This book is packed with ready to use information on SS7. Eversince I got hold of this book, I have used it on numerous occasions in my work. Though I bought it mainly for SS7, I found the chapters on network synchronization and timing truly revealing. Very few telecom engineers are aware of the significance of timing in telecom networks. I do not know of any text that treats this subject so convincingly. In conclusion, a great work.

I bought this book when I was about 11 years old. I am now 20, and still use it. All the base folds are relevant for alot of the more advanced models that I fold. I will never get rid of this book, and it should be in every origami lover's library!

This is one of the best beginners books there is. Models are grouped into chapters covering the different origami models with a range of easy pieces which will give the beginner plenty of practice with basic folds and techniques. The finished results are attractive and in some cases downright exciting - the Steve Biddle Father Christmas is one of my favourite models. I also like the Kawahata pteranodon.

The book progresses towards more advanced work which is nevertheless produced in the characteristic clear style of the books by Steve and Megumi Biddle. They use standard diagrammatic language so that once you have learned from this book you will be able to pick up most other origami books and work from them.

In addition, once you have made all the models in the book you will be an intermediate level folder and ready for more advanced challenges!

I recommend this book which will make a great gift, but be sure to provide some paper with it as it does not include a pack of origami paper the way some beginners books do.

Very good diagrams. Projects range from very easy to more advanced, following a logical progression.
Appears to be out of print.
For beginners, I recommend Hediaki Sakata's _Origami_.(Please note that Amazon has an incorrect subtitle on Sakata's book).

I bought this book to broaden the range of things that I could fold (knowing just 2 or 3 origami before reading this). It has exceeded my expectations. Not only did I quickly learn new things that I could fold, I also learned a broad range of fundamental patterns for origami, plus I found detailed instructions on complex models.

There are a variety of simple hat, box, flower, and animal models that you learn from the very start, but the patterns range up to much more complex models, like a wonderful Santa Claus origami that I've folded several times to add to Christmas presents. That one still takes me about half an hour to fold, but I'm working on it. This book covers many origami that can be made from a fairly broad set of basic folds, so you can go a long way with just this book.

The instructions are generally very clear with words and pictures for everything you need to do. The models do build on one another, however, and later in the book there are often back-references to previous pieces (which may themselves refer to earlier pieces). You should not expect to jump immediately to the most complex origami (unless you have significant prior experience, I guess).

I was prepared to buy a couple of books, if necessary, to learn a variety of interesting things to fold, but having purchased this one, I have not felt the need to buy another so far. I highly recommend this book.

This is the perfect starting origami book it has wonderful digrams and most the models are pretty simple even the dragon shown on the cover is pretty simple, although there are a few harder models. The one downside to this book is there aren't very many origanal models although the ones that do exist are very cool. people just starting origami haven't seen that many models so what i just said isn't a problem for them. I highly recommend this book to anyone who would like to learn the art of origami

For the first few pages, perhaps the first chapter and a small way into the second, I found this a difficult read. It is my policy, however, to read at least the first 100 pages of a book, and then decide whether to read on. I am very glad I did! This is a fine tale of a boy growing into adulthood, and all the trials he faced. It rings true with what I know of the period, and is a wonderful example of good literature. It is not a light read, but it is certainly worth reading, if you are interested in the period, sword play, sailing, history, or a good tale. Enjoy!

I am a die hard Lamour fan having read all of his novels (several times).

I bought this novel as it puts a lot of history and philosophy of the early exploration of America in a good context. You will get a good feel for life in England during the early days when England, Spain and France were fighting over imagined gold.

I bought this for my 14 year old son so he would learn the times of early exploration really were and the forces in play at the time.

louis lamour is easily my favoritest author - and this is my favoritest book of his.

superlative action, adventure swashbuckler.

the story of an irish prince who becomes a fugitive, becomes the greatest swordsman of his time and wins back what is his by right.

action, adventure, romance, a little bit of history, mystery, drama, sentiment, earthy philosophy - this book has it all!

pity that lamour never got to writing a sequel to it - though apparently he did desire to do one.

I thought that this book was very well written. I really liked the way Lamor described the fight scenes and the characters in extreme detail. This really gave me the idea of what it was like in those times. People made a lot of money through trade just like Chantry. If you like the art of fencing, this book is for you.

My grandfather collected and owned every original Lous L'Amour western novel. When I was 15 he passed the collection onto me. While this is not the best example of L'Amour's work it is certinaly my favorite. Another favorite of mine is "Last of the Breed", but "Fair Blows the Wind" is the book that I come back to read over and over time and again. I would recommend this book to anyone. No book collection is complete without this.

I really enjoyed this book. It had good detail, and you really felt like you were going on the rounds with Dr. McCormack. I have read it several times since I bought it, and it is hard to put down each time, even though I know the outcome!

I enjoyed reading how tough it was to convert some of the farmers to the methods of modern veterinary medicine, and it was interesting to read the different methods the farmers had preferred to treat the illnesses in their livestock and pets until their was more modern help available.

My people are not from Choctaw County, but we're from "around there." This is not only a sympathetic and heartfelt account of a rural vet practice in the sixties; it's a very accurate look at the folks you were likely to meet then and there, both the good and the bad. I have met most of the folks he talks about, or at least their near relations. Dr. McCormack's extended meditation on the verbal mangling of his job description by his neighbors is alone worth the price of admission, although the account of his visit to the Governor's Mansion driving the "rounds vehicle" and a too-long-delayed boar cutting run it very close. Excellent book.

This book relates some of McCormack's adventures as the new vet in a southern country town during the early 1960s. McCormack grew up on a farm in Tennessee. His college roommate, a pre-vet major, interested him in veterinary science. Once he earned his veterinary degree and had a few years of experience under his belt, he set off in search of a town where he could hang up his shingle with an independent veterinary practice. At the time, Butler, Alabama had no licensed vet, so it seemed like a reasonable place for a new vet to make a start. In this book, McCormack describes the characters he met, both human and bovine, during that first year in Butler.

McCormack is a master storyteller. With his careful choice of words, he conveys the character of the place with all its color. While chatting with some locals at a general store, McCormack quipped he went into veterinary rather than human medicine because he didn't like dealing with people. But he tells us that this is absolutely not true-if there's one skill that a vet must have above all others, it's the ability to deal with people, to understand their needs and character. In this book, McCormack regales us with tales of how he came to learn this lesson.

I really enjoyed this book. It was well written and entertaining. I loved the Herriot stories so much, this is another great book about vet stories. It will definately be worth your time.

I own the hardback copy of this book...actually I have owned it for a few years now. It is one of those books that become a literary treasure in your bookcase. I was so hooked on this book when I first got it, I read it from cover to cover in one day...I just couldn't put it down!

Dr. McCormack in the US can be likened to James Herriott of England. His stories of animals that he treated and the start of his career in the 1960's makes the reader feel they are right along side him assisting in whatever procedure needs to be done to his animal patient.

I am a person of great compassion for animals and as a reader, I was truly appreciative that the love and compassion that Dr. McCormack has for his animal patients shines through to the reader's soul. I laughed with this book..I have cried with this book...I have pulled for the sick animal in this book...I have rooted Dr. McCormack through as he treated tough cases in this book.

There are books about animals and then there are the special books about animals because the respect, compassion from the writer is there and the animal patients become real as one reads along the journey in the book.

If you are a James Herriott fan or an animal lover who is a reader, I highly, and I stress highly, suggest getting this book and reading it!

This book will give you the love you know to be the truth of what marriage is and how we must live it......Kudo's

I was extremely pleased with this book. This book is great for any marriage, including good marriages. My husband and I have a solid, stable marriage, but it can always be better and more faith-filled. This book provides a great foundation for creating a great marriage. It discusses bringing Jesus into your marriage and how to be Christ to your partner; how to be a loving mate even when you don't feel like it; what the different "love-languages" are, and more.

This book does mention Catholicism is a few sections, but overall, it is more geared toward any practicing Christian. I highly recommend it to any newly or long-married couple.

Loved this book! Highly recommended for any Catholic couple, whether or not you are having perceived marital tensions. Even for happy couples, this book can help you find even greater meaning and intimacy in your marriage.

This book is a great tool for any married couple. If you think you have a good marriage ... this book can help you make it better. If your marriage isn't so good ... you can improve your marriage if you are willing to be extrememly honest with yourself and you are willing to work to improve your marriage.

Every marriage needs help but not every couple is ready for a marriage counselor. This book helps you understand what kind of marriage you have and how to make it better. It also helps you see that the very things you wish your spouse would do for you are often the things God is asking of you! Highly readable and helpful.

Wow! where to begin. This is a book that everyone must read. Get it today and start the beginning of a new life.

Ed has a very down-home, yet practical style of writing. You feel like you are in the room with the author and hanging on every word. In Go the Distance, he offers great advice for looking at life from a different perspective. By changing our paradigm and the way we approach life can make all the difference. The way this book is written, you can really get into it or if you're like me, I'll read a couple of chapters and then set a book down and come back to it later. With Go the Distance, I found my self not wanting to put the book down. I can't wait for Ed's next book!!

How many books on success and leadership have you read where the author borrows from so many other sources that it's tough to tell what's new and different about the book? Well, you'll have no such quibbles with Ed Rowell's Go the Distance. Ed looks unflinchingly at aspects of life that can easily bring us to our knees. He's so honest about life struggles, in fact, that you'll be weeping before you finish reading. But he doesn't leave us there. He takes the next, rare step of actually supplying us with helpful direction. He doesn't promise that success comes quickly or easily, or that success will always be what you expect. But you know that he's in there slugging away, just like you are. And after you've read his book, maybe you'll be able to avoid a few of life's bigger blows because you're equipped with Ed's wise and practical advice.

So often in the world of self-help this and self-help that, major points get lost in the writer going on and on about how HE or SHE overcame negative circumstances and eventually found happiness, rather than on practical steps that can be implemented in the life of the reader. While Ed Rowell does draw upon his own life and the lives of his family and friends to make his points, he does so only to illustrate how YOU can benefit from the very practical, very thoughtful principles contained within the pages of Go The Distance. For me, I realized that life is more about my relationship with God than it is my relationship to failure and adversity. Ed Rowell points out that our response to life is more important than what life throws at us - which sometimes can be a substantial mess of stuff.

In the end, it's not about where you start, it's where you finish. Sound advise from a sound writer who has a lot to say. Listening will help you win the race and enjoy the journey.

"Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us," Hebrews 12:1. For years this race has teased me. My feet have pounded the road with this cheering challenge dancing around in my head. The problem is that this challenge was almost crowded out by all the theories floating around with it. No matter how badly I wanted to win I couldn't ever seem to come up with a clear plan, just a resolve to try harder, run faster, be better. But none of these were means to the end I was seeking. They were only goals themselves.

Then I found the book Go the Distance. Though I was immediately drawn to the theme, I felt skeptical that a book could redirect my path when few others had. I was wrong.

As I sampled the first pages of the book, I was practicing my usual disciplined, "give it a chance mode." I expected to have to dig into the plot of this new book a bit before I gained the desire to finish it. I was so surprised to feel my pulse quicken and my eyes mist over when I was only finishing the dedication. Rowell proved two important points to me while his page numbers were still Roman. He had something to say to one of those deep fears and mysteries in my heart: "How can I be really successful?" Not, "How can I be more productive, efficient, wealthy, intelligent, muscular?" (I've already read all those.) How can I find the purpose for which I was created and live in it? More importantly, Rowell's style proved that he knew how to tell me.

Rowell chose to dedicate a book about success to two of his former teachers. "I would tell Mom over the phone," he writes, "Be sure and tell Mr. Trotter about me." How many times have I wanted the real winners in my life to be proud of me? And I as I go further down the road, how I long to know that I will be the kind of cheerleaders that these men were! Because Rowell could show how these two men made him believe that he had worth, I knew that he was speaking to the kind of success I sought. And, I was hungry for more.

After hooking me, Go the Distance changed my own race strategy dramatically. It offered the experience of many who have run much further than I've gone. This author spares me a published personal agenda. He offers instead a compilation of many interviews with winners and what they can share about their own successes. Having already practiced many of their strategies along the way, Rowell is able to weave these together with his own insights into a game plan that reads like a great story.

Perhaps the most powerful personal application I found in Go the Distance was in the time management arena. When I read about Ken Hatch in chapter one, I winced painfully and felt the need to look over my shoulder to see if someone was watching. For years I've resolved again and again to simplify and not live in such a hurried frenzy. Reading Go the Distance provoked me to stop asking, "How can I fit more in?" "What would make me more productive?" and to ask instead, "Why do I feel such a need to produce?" "How can I stay focused on my purpose?"

Making these kinds of changes in the questions I ask myself has been the catalyst to finally getting me on the right path towards finding my own purpose. I am so hopeful after reading Go the Distance that I will finish well. Finally in all the books I've read, I have one that has helped me focus on the finish line rather than chase my own tail.

I love the integration of golf-psychology and golf-instruction in one place. This audio has real people who provide useful tips and strategies to improve your golf game. A great gift for corporate women golfers.

This audio is full of wisdom on how to develop golf-confidence, and enhance your EVERYDAY CONFIDENCE! These authors quote top LPGA instructors on how to STAY-IN-THE-PRESENT, PLAY WITH CONFIDENCE, AND HOW TO FORGIVE YOURSELF FOR ANY MISTAKES OR ERRORS YOU MAKE ON THE COURSE. This audio inspired me to be more committed to my passion--the game of golf!

I love the integration of golf-psychology and golf-instruction in one place. This audio has real people who provide useful tips and strategies to improve your golf game. A great gift for corporate women golfers.

Superb Job! Thanks for conveying easy to follow steps and techniques guaranteed to improve golf skills. This audio provides the tools on how to play and respond to situations out on the golf course. It gave me the internal focus to drive out distractions and key into making things happen in my golf game. A Must Buy for Golf Enthusiasts.

What a great tape! I love listening to it before a round of golf. I am so much more at ease on the golf course. Thanks to the tips provided on this tape, I am really so much smarter mentally on the golf course. This has helped me shoot lower scores. I know golf is a diffucult game, but the golf pro, Karen does a great job of reviewing the fundamentals. She gives specific golf drills that are easy to understand and follow. I now enjoy practicing because I have a set routine to perform on the practice range. I have also noticed that my overall outlook on life is so much more positive! I can't wait for the next project by these authors!

I picked up "Grace" about a year ago when I found it in my mom's old book closet. Although I am relatively young, something about the stars of yesteryear attracts me more than the glitz surrounding contemporary celebrities. Grace Kelly is no exception. I knew nothing about this icon, except that she was an American princess and a Hitchcockian heroine. Mr. Lacey certainly did his share in informing me about this classic movie star. I enjoyed how he provides us with immense background on the Kelly's, a prominent family in their own right. Mr. Lacey also does a fine job in giving us the "low-down" on Monaco and its interesting history.
Also of note would be the fact that Lacey attempts (and succeeds) at presenting the seemingly ethereal Grace as a person, not the sex symbol or ice queen she is usually remembered as. He does give a lot of insight into her love life and various affairs, but you never lose sight that Grace had this innocence about her. It seemed as if she could do no wrong.
Aside from being a talented actress, Grace was a true beauty and a dedicated mother and wife. She will always be remembered as our very own princess.

Everyone remembers his first screen love.

Grace Kelly was mine, and I can still remember her clear Teutonic skin, lugubrious soft hair, her casual sophistication, all completely new fascinations to my mundane childhood. Years later, the only thing that's changed is I've grown older and she's still impossibly perfect.

What Robert Lacey has done in Grace is bring us all a little bit closer to that Snow Princess whom we all would have made our Princess were we a Prince. Behind the camera, behind bedroom doors, behind the veneer of an idyllic fairy tale that proves that fairy tales are exactly that, each anecdote is like a stitch in a grand painting that is sometimes bleak (Grace ages and somewhat pathetically begins to fool around with younger men), sometimes inspiring (her persistence at overcoming her natural dramatic flaws), and always sensual (her intimate fashion shows for her boyfriend Don Richardson).

Unlike many biographies of screen legends, Lacey largely eschews extended back lot stories that might involve but not support the basic image of Grace that he believes must be told. So while we learn High Noon's screenwriter Carl Foreman meant his film as an allegory about Communist witch hunts, we are spared a complete A-Z on the Hollywood Blacklist and its artistic implications. A great biography of a great person must not necessarily take on the great issues of his day. Of which Lacey understands.

Grace is a woman of terrific sexual energies and ambitions but just as importantly, sports a marvelous capacity to mask those penchants. So instead of becoming Jenna Jameson, she turns into Princess Grace, a woman who sleeps her way to the top but seems so inevitably suited for the position that no one can possibly begrudge her it.

As Lacey says "She managed to be naughty while appearing very nice."

It's become axiomatic that the greatest personalities are deeply contradictory. Nearly every biographer, when faced with the compelling weight of his research, is forced to concede that mankind is a very complex being (thank you, Mr. Stevenson). And Grace was no different. Lacey talks of Grace's growing conservatism, her disputes with her daughters over their flagrant ways, all while engaging in her own illicit love affairs as Princess Grace. And what of her devoted Catholicism? How to resolve her piety with her philandering?

Questions which can only be answered by Hitchcock's own. This is a snow covered volcano we're dealing with here.

And sometimes, you can't guess; you can only watch.

The media reviewers quoted here harp on Grace Kelly's supposed "promiscous" behavior, the main point of the book, as far as they are concerned. Anyone who actually reads the book will find someone who had a few discreet affairs before she was married, who took her marriage vows and commitment to her family and role as princess seriously, who worked very hard throughout her life to meet her commitments, and who had a comforting relationship with a kind younger man when her marriage turned lonely as she got older. If she wasn't quite the cold, virginal image presented by Hollywood, good for her.

It's a very good book about a real woman of extraordinary beauty who could have settled for a society matron's life in Philadelphia but who made an extraordinary life for herself through her own efforts. Read it for that and not the sensationalism.

This book has a great deal of detail. I feel as if there was too much emphasis on her sex life versus her screen image, and frankly that was her business, not important in the book. Otherwise a good book.

I wanted to know all about the men in Grace Kelley's life, both before and after her marriage. This book told me everything, but in a classy, well-researched way. I learned a lot about Monaco, and just the things I would have wanted to know about her family members, too. After reading this excellent book, I plan to read more of Robert Lacey's works.