M Books

One of the most engaging aspects of M.J. Rose's writing is that she gives the reader an "insider's look" into a possibly unfamiliar venue. "Flesh tones" is set in the art world, and both the process of painting and the business end were depicted in an interesting and convincing way. The characters were attractive and made you care about them.

M.J. Rose knows writing! I finished Flesh Tones last night and have to say how much I admire her work. Her characters and the situation are finestkind, but I am most impressed with the way she tells the tale. What superb timing, and how nicely she spins a chapter strand into transition. With a tease here and a glimpse there, M.J. Rose gives us just enough to move the story along, like oars move a shell over the water: allowing us to glide between strokes, never losing momentum, accelerating smoothly to a stunning finish.

What is the dividing line between deep love and obsession? Who should be allowed to judge when a relationship crosses from one to the other?

Genny Haviland met artist Slade Gabriel in her father's gallery when she was 17. They became lovers, an affair that lasted for only weeks in reality but survived for the rest of Genny's life in her heart and soul. They meet again twenty years later, only to have Gabriel learn he has fallen victim to rapidly advancing Alzheimer's. Knowing he could not bear to live without his art, Genny agrees to help him commit suicide.

But a missing letter results in her arrest for murder, and a grief-stricken Genny has no inclination to fight the charge. Instead, as the trial proceeds, she reviews the past, the present and the relationship that has defined her emotional life, looking for an answer that may defy explanation.

In her latest novel, M.J. Rose explores yet another aspect of the relationships between men and women and how those relationships can define us even more than we define them. Child of a distant mother and a father whose love carries strange, twisted undertones, the young Genny is ripe for the kind of intense, all-encompassing passion she finds with Slade Gabriel. She is at once sympathetic and irritating, stubbornly clinging to the loss of her lover as if it will somehow compensate her for the greater loss of the emotional connections she never had -- or allowed herself to have.

FLESH TONES, however, is more than simply a study of one woman's overwhelming need for enduring love. It is also about creativity, and how the truly great artist will always have one small part of his or her soul they cannot share no matter how deeply they love another. Written with powerful emotional intensity and a clear, discerning eye for both the glories and the agonies of both love and passion, Flesh Tones will resonate with anyone who has ever loved what they can never completely have, but it will also provoke tough questions in those who have not.

I have learned that if a book doesn't grab you within the first 50 pages or so to foget about it and move onto something else. This book had me hooked within the first 20 pages. This book does a wonderful job at exploring that very fine line between love and obsession at times I felt like I was reading Genny's personal diary, but this book is much more than a smutty beach read. Did Genny Haviland kill her lover or did she save him from a terrible disease that would rob him of everything he knows and holds dear? M.J. Rose's writing style is efortless and smooth. Half the story is told in the present tense during the murder trial and half the story is told through the use of flashbacks, which normally can be hard for the reader to follow, but in this instance they are used to define very important elements in the story. Ms. Rose's writing style is masterful, the reader becomes totally absorbed in the tapestry of the story, there are passages that read like poetry that force the reader to go back and read them again. It was impossible for me not to turn the pages, I was transfixed and I will definetly be on the lookout for more by M.J. Rose!!

MJ Rose paints a portrait of an amazing bond between a man and woman. Genny and Slade, both products of the art world, meet when she is far too young to fall in love with him, or to share his passion. She misrepresents her age and background to be with him, and Rose skips forward, after laying the foundation, to Genny's immeasureable sacrifice for the man she loves. Rose is equally at home writing about art, death, the courtroom and the bedroom. She's one author I'll not soon forget!

Enjoy!

If you could only choose one book beside the Bible, I would tell you to choose this one. I always underline and use my books for future reference. In this case I underlined more than what I left unmarked. I also made notes in the back of my book with page # and subject pertaining to explanations of many biblical terms. In my opinion, this book would greatly help every reader and I wish I could put one in every Christian's hand. The Church would be so victorious if all Christians read this. I am planning to give as many copies away that I can. And to everyone I talk to I will mention this book is MUST READ! In short get it!

I first read this book in the early 1960s when I had just become a believer the year before. There are things in this book that will help anyone to become a NORMAL Christian. It is not entitled How to be a Super Christian. It tells it like it is, turning to our spirit where the Spirit of the living God dwells will enable Him to permeate your fallen self and conquer the devil's influence in your life to become an Overcomer. I bought 15 to give to young people who love the Lord but are struggling to "be a good Christian". I gave them to someone to give to them anonymously. The Lord directed me. I don't want thanks.

This book has really helped to change my life in a positive way. Brother Nee does repeat things a lot, but you have to relish that repeating because it gets the truth down into you and helps you to see things you've probably not realized so deeply before. This is my favorite book of his I've read so far and will read it again and again. It is very helpful for anyone not happy with their own spiritual walk. It is a little slow to read because the translation is a little choppy, but I think it is good that way because you have to absorb what you are reading and it is definitely worth the time to read - again and again!

This is one of those "life-changing" books we hear about that should be a must for every believer...even, and perhaps, especially new believers. There are 36 reviews posted before this one, so, I will make this short.
If you've struggled in most of your Christian experience, with trying to 'die to self', truth expounded upon in this book will set you free! Watchman Nee through revelation from the Holy Spirit, speaks to this issue more accurately than any I've read.

The top values when reading Watchman Nee are depth in Bible exposition and insight. The drawback of reading Nee is lack of hermeneutical restraint. He sometimes "reads in" meaning that may or may not be true, but is not warranted under a grammatical-historical hermeneutic for the passage in question.

This book is his best. His conclusions are all well reasoned and exposited from the text of Romans. Nee has a delightful grasp of the grace of God and what a living relationship with him should be like. You get the depth of insight, but without allegorizing or undue license.
-Dennis McCallum, author Organic Disciplemaking: How to promote Christian leadership development through personal relationships, biblical discipleship, mentoring, and Christian community

It's been 15 years since I first encountered this book - part of a vocabulary challenge in the sixth grade. I still remember most of the stories, and I must have infuriated my parents using each word incessantly as I learned it. I can't recommend it highly enough.

This animated book gives children a new way to learn the definitions of words. It was highly recomended to me, and I loved it!

I love this book.This book is one of the best books ever.The reason why I gave this book five stars because its funny and senstive. My favorite word was laxcity.Laxcity means that you dont even care about whats gioing on.I think that this book is good for all ages. I hope that you read this fantastic book.

I use this book with my third grade students. We read a story per week. Many of their parents tell me it becomes a topic of conversation each week as the child teaches Mom and Dad a new word. It is fantastic.

This book is one of the best books I had ever read in my life.I would recommend this book to every one because its funny and great.

This is a wonderful book for teen girls and their mothers to read. Girls will resonate with the emotional roller coaster of life at the brink of womanhood. Mothers will come to understand what their daughters are really thinking and feeling. It will also take them back to a place they once were--young and vulnerable. The diary format really makes you feel like your in the character's soul. Her candid account of the joys, insecurities and simple pleasures of teenage life are poignant and witty.

I loved the little girl in this book, and as a youngster would have enjoyed being her friend. She's a smart, sensitive, and perceptive kid looking at life. I'm currently an elementary school teacher and I see her serving as a role model for my students. This is a stimulating, thought provoking read for young girls.

The Truth (I'm a girl, I'm smart and I know everything) by Dr. Barbara Becker Holstein

91 pages

ISBN 978-09798952-0-3

Enchanted Self Press

Excerpt from the back of the book:

Read the thoughts, secrets and stories of a young girl just leaving girlhood. "The Girl" writes all her deepest thoughts in her diary and gives every young reader a sense that they are not alone. What if you could have found a secret diary written by your mother or your grandmother when she was a girl? Wouldn't you be curious to see how they really felt when they were young? Now you have a chance to really know how girls like you have felt generation to generation...

I was thrilled to be offered a copy of this book from Pump Up Your Promotion - there has always been something about a diary or journal format that has been intriguing to me. Maybe it's because i wish I would have been more diligent and kept a journal as I was growing up. Sure, most of it would have been meaningless, but there might be a few treasured thoughts or feelings that I conveyed years ago that I really long to have again. But, sadly, I didn't do this so I have to live vicariously through journals and diaries of others.

This "diary" is that of a 10 year old girl. As I read this, it brought back so many memories of my childhood, some wonderful, and some awkward. The writing was superb - I wonder, does the author currently have a 10 year old daughter? If not, she truly has captured the voice of little girls everywhere. I was surprised at how much I loved this book! I am sometimes unsure, especially when the book is geared more towards the "younger" generation. But there were a few passages that I felt the need to share:

Things for Grownups to Remember:

Don't be mean to animals.

Try not to swear for a month.

Don't fight with anyone you love.

Don't put people down or call them names.

Believe your child if she tells you she is in love.

Answer a kid's questions.

Listen to their ideas.

It seems like such a simple thing, but aren't these things we all should really take to heart and try to live by? That said, she also makes some promises for when she is grownup.

Things I promise to do when I grow up:

I'll travel a lot.

I won't look away when my kids ask me tough questions.

I'll answer truthfully.

I won't swear.

I won't get into silly fights with my husband.

I'll have fun with my kids and laugh a lot.

I'll remember me!

Oh, if only we can take all of these and use them everyday. It's worth a shot, right?

I am very excited that my daughter read The Truth and wrote a review about it. She is 11 years old just the right age for this book. When she completed reading it she said it was cool and that she could relate to the girl. Here is her complete review:


I've read The Truth by Dr. Barbara Becker Holstein. I really enjoyed it very much. I can really related to The Truth because it told about how girls really feel. I could feel how the girl was feeling as she was going through crushes, family, and her dreams. The Truth told what girls want and what it takes to achieve it.


I truly recommend The Truth to girls my age and a bit older. I believe most girls would and could relate to and enjoy The Truth.


There are parts in the book that my daughter could identify with. When a relative cursed alot and that made the girl uncomfortable. My daughter says she feels that way to about one of our relatives. Also on pages 53 and 54 the girl talks about travel and how she is going to travel alot. My daughter says that she also wants to travel. The girl has a crush and so does my daughter.


I also read the book. It brought back memories of when I was a girl, smart and knew everything. Mothers and daughters should read The Truth together. It is a nice tool to use to open discussions between each other. As my daughter and I discussed this book we talked about things that were mentioned in the book. First crush, parents fighting, dreams and things we wanted to be or accomplish. At the end of the book there are questions that a tween/teenager can answer and her mother can use to continue the discussions.


I feel that a girl of any reading level can read and understand this book. This would be a nice gift to give to the tween/teenager girl in your life.

The Truth is a glimpse into the diary and thoughts of a girl who is ten at the start of the story. We follow her through two school years and get a candid look at a `tween's perspective of life.

Everyone can remember feeling that we knew more than our parents when we were kids. In The Truth, the narrator gives us her opinion on falling in love, the damage done when parents argue, and her fears about getting older. She does so in a sincere and straightforward matter. She makes a list of truths that she wants to remember as she gets older because she fears aging has a negative effect. She knows adults must know the truths but that they somehow forgot, for how else can they possibly accept yelling at each other.

The unique voice along with the diary entry format make the book a quick read. It has an educational value which should be shared with all young girls and parents. The entries are direct and honest. The reader feels privy to the secret diary of the girl whose writing is personal, accessible. The observations made within the diary follow a natural progression of personal growth, which makes it feel more like non-fiction than fiction.

Dr. Barbara Becker Holstein is the originator of The Enchanted Self(R). She has been a positive psychologist in private practice and licensed in the states of New Jersey and Massachusetts since 1981. She is currently in private practice in Long Branch, New Jersey with her husband, Dr. Russell M. Holstein.

I highly recommend reading The Truth. It is great for women of any age, and can definitely be appreciated by tweens and teens. It's interesting to have memories of the tween years conjured up that are a mixture of enjoyable and hard to deal with.

As a devoted fan of M. C. Beaton's Hamish Macbeth series, I was intrigued to keep reading reviews of Hamish Macbeth books by people who claimed they liked the Agatha Raisin series better. But every time I contemplated the title, Agatha Raisin and the Quiche of Death, it just seemed too tongue in cheek to be possibly any good. Well, I was wrong. Although the book couldn't be any more satirical and much punnier than it is, the book works very well both as a straight story and as a satire. It's like getting two books for the price of one.

Since the Hamish Macbeth series started first, let me address Hamish Macbeth fans first: Think of Agatha Raisin as being one of the optimistic incomers to Lochdubh who hope for peace and tranquility without realizing what village life in Sutherland is really like. But Agatha has mostly good intentions (except towards the women in the area who drive her batty) instead of being an incipient homicidal maniac like the incomers in Sutherland. Agatha is also her own woman, and not about to take any prisoners she doesn't have to. Like Hamish, she has a crime-solving partner, Bill Wong (of the local detectives), who helps her in ways she doesn't always appreciate (like Priscilla Halburton-Smythe does for Hamish). Agatha is based, however, in the gentle Cotswolds so there won't be too many stories about brutal winter blizzards in this series. You won't miss hearing about Strathbane.

In this inaugural book, Agatha has just sold her PR firm in London (where she succeeded by being a blunt instrument in plying journalists with meals and drink and then shaking them down for stories) and decided to retire to a cottage in the Cotswolds, an area she had once visited as a child. Naturally, she has a romanticized view of what life there will be like. Having been a busy businesswoman, she now finds herself not quite sure how to fill her time. Although she had made no friends in London, she expects to make many in rural Carsely. People nod and are friendly, but it goes no further. Agatha soon makes an enemy of her next door neighbor by stealing her housekeeper. While catching up on her reading of Agatha Christie mysteries, Agatha decides she needs to get everyone's attention. Why not win a prize for baking?

Plotting her strategy, Agatha invites the quiche competition judge, Reginald Cummings-Browne, and his wife, Vera, to an expensive dinner (expecting to curry favor as it were in the quiche wars). Agatha instead ends up with a very large bill and a not very high opinion of the Cummings-Brownes. Agatha makes a quick foray to London to buy a wonderful spinach quiche that she enters as her own.

But her plot is soon foiled when the woman who always wins the quiche competition once again triumphs. Agatha leaves her quiche behind in disgust, and Vera Cummings-Browne takes it home as a snack for her husband. That night, he eats the quiche and dies of poison! Naturally, there's a police investigation and Agatha has to confess that she cheated.

Feeling like she will never make it in Carsely after such a large faux pas, Agatha begins to think she should move out and go back to London. Soon, she's between two islands of discord and not sure what to do.

The police decide that the poisoning was an accidental death, but Agatha's not so sure. Before long, she starts acting on her urge to detect . . . with consequences that definitely heat up the story.

Where most detective stories are mostly about a crime and the process of uncovering the criminal, that element retreats into the background in this book. Instead, Agatha's search for happiness is the main focus of the story. The crime and its solution are merely incidents along the way. I liked that element. In fact, this would have been a very entertaining story even if it hadn't contained a mystery.

Any time your attention threatens to flag, you can just sit there and chuckle over the outrageous satirical elements. Although you know they are overdone, you can't help but laugh . . . as you might at good burlesque sketches with imaginative pie throwing.

Although I haven't read past this book in the Agatha Raisin series, I would have to say that Agatha could displace Hamish as number one in my affections for M. C. Beaton characters.

Enjoy!

This is the very first Agatha Raisin book. In it we meet Agatha, retired early from the London PR firm she owned, and ran with an iron hand. Agatha grew up in the Birmingham slums, and dreamed that one day she would live in a Cotswold village and no one would ever know she had been poor. In order to escape the slums, she learned to be tough and hard-headed, and never had a friend in her life. Now she wants to be someone important in her new hometown. She has never cooked or baked, or planted a garden, but has learned through hard experience how to get by: with ingenuity and a little cheating. When the judge of a local baking contest dies after eating the quiche she submitted, the truth comes out: she bought the quiche in London. Now she must deal with utter humiliation and try to clear her name, and in the process she begins to thaw out and make friends for the first time in her life. What a great book!

Advertising mogul Agatha Raisin always wanted to retire in the classic English village and turn domestic. When she gets her chance she also wants to be popular with the locals. To this end she enters a spinach quiche (store bought) in the local contest. She even butters up the judge by taking him and his wife out to eat.

Needles to say her quiche is snubbed and the standard winner gets the prize. To compound matters the judge eats more that night and expires. Now everyone will know she cheated. The local police chalk the death up to an accident as cowbane a weedy poison somehow got mixed up in the spinach. They invite Agatha to keep out of it. Of course Agatha will not let sleeping dos lie and whit the help of her city friends puts her nose and foot into it.

This is a good little mystery that takes place in contemporary times not some old 30's or 40's setting. The mystery is formula with the standard suspects, sub plots, a few read herrings, and funny now and then.

As a devoted fan of M. C. Beaton's Hamish Macbeth series, I was intrigued to keep reading reviews of Hamish Macbeth books by people who claimed they liked the Agatha Raisin series better. But every time I contemplated the title, Agatha Raisin and the Quiche of Death, it just seemed too tongue in cheek to be possibly any good. Well, I was wrong. Although the book couldn't be any more satirical and much punnier than it is, the book works very well both as a straight story and as a satire. It's like getting two books for the price of one.

Since the Hamish Macbeth series started first, let me address Hamish Macbeth fans first: Think of Agatha Raisin as being one of the optimistic incomers to Lochdubh who hope for peace and tranquility without realizing what village life in Sutherland is really like. But Agatha has mostly good intentions (except towards the women in the area who drive her batty) instead of being an incipient homicidal maniac like the incomers in Sutherland. Agatha is also her own woman, and not about to take any prisoners she doesn't have to. Like Hamish, she has a crime-solving partner, Bill Wong (of the local detectives), who helps her in ways she doesn't always appreciate (like Priscilla Halburton-Smythe does for Hamish). Agatha is based, however, in the gentle Cotswolds so there won't be too many stories about brutal winter blizzards in this series. You won't miss hearing about Strathbane.

In this inaugural book, Agatha has just sold her PR firm in London (where she succeeded by being a blunt instrument in plying journalists with meals and drink and then shaking them down for stories) and decided to retire to a cottage in the Cotswolds, an area she had once visited as a child. Naturally, she has a romanticized view of what life there will be like. Having been a busy businesswoman, she now finds herself not quite sure how to fill her time. Although she had made no friends in London, she expects to make many in rural Carsely. People nod and are friendly, but it goes no further. Agatha soon makes an enemy of her next door neighbor by stealing her housekeeper. While catching up on her reading of Agatha Christie mysteries, Agatha decides she needs to get everyone's attention. Why not win a prize for baking?

Plotting her strategy, Agatha invites the quiche competition judge, Reginald Cummings-Browne, and his wife, Vera, to an expensive dinner (expecting to curry favor as it were in the quiche wars). Agatha instead ends up with a very large bill and a not very high opinion of the Cummings-Brownes. Agatha makes a quick foray to London to buy a wonderful spinach quiche that she enters as her own.

But her plot is soon foiled when the woman who always wins the quiche competition once again triumphs. Agatha leaves her quiche behind in disgust, and Vera Cummings-Browne takes it home as a snack for her husband. That night, he eats the quiche and dies of poison! Naturally, there's a police investigation and Agatha has to confess that she cheated.

Feeling like she will never make it in Carsely after such a large faux pas, Agatha begins to think she should move out and go back to London. Soon, she's between two islands of discord and not sure what to do.

The police decide that the poisoning was an accidental death, but Agatha's not so sure. Before long, she starts acting on her urge to detect . . . with consequences that definitely heat up the story.

Where most detective stories are mostly about a crime and the process of uncovering the criminal, that element retreats into the background in this book. Instead, Agatha's search for happiness is the main focus of the story. The crime and its solution are merely incidents along the way. I liked that element. In fact, this would have been a very entertaining story even if it hadn't contained a mystery.

Any time your attention threatens to flag, you can just sit there and chuckle over the outrageous satirical elements. Although you know they are overdone, you can't help but laugh . . . as you might at good burlesque sketches with imaginative pie throwing.

Although I haven't read past this book in the Agatha Raisin series, I would have to say that Agatha could displace Hamish as number one in my affections for M. C. Beaton characters.

Enjoy!

...And great fun to read! Agatha first comes across as hard to take, but pretty soon we begin to appreciate her vulnerability. Set in the Cotswold villages of Britain, Agatha's adventures are closely tied in with her inability to safely navigate normal social life amongst the village. The supporting cast is wonderfully diverse, and the humor that is liberally sprinkled throughout Agatha's observations and experiences kept me thoroughly entertained chapter to chapter. I don't much care for series, but look forward to reading more in this one. I appreciated that it was PG rated, and that the main emphasis was on characterization and solving the mystery. No blood and guts.

I love this series. Besides being silly and fun to read, they also point out that it is ok to be different. This is a great message for kids, especially with the terrible shootings that have plagued our country. A message of acceptance is needed for all. Of course, my class just loves Tacky. He is a character everyone must get to know.

Very cute story, very engaging with hilarious illustrations. This is a great book - we travel alot so I tend to purchase a lot of paperback picture books (portable!) and this is one of our favorites.

It's been many, many years since I read this book, the last time being in my childhood. It's been a while, but I still remember Tacky with fondness. In fact, I was just thinking about him earlier today. I loved this book sooo much when I was a child, and highly recommend it for both kids and parents alike.

My son from an early age marched to a beat of a different drummer. We discovered this book when he was 5, and it was a great thing in his life. I was recently asked to name the most influential non-religious book in our lives and believe it or not this was it. Tacky helped our son believed that there was a place in the world for both the straight-laced run-of-the-mill kids and the more creative types. He is leaving to college today, his third year , and I just had to write this review in thanks. Our son has a lot of self-esteem and this book helped him find it. If you have a quirky kid, this book is a must. If you have a 'normal' kid, but they have a quirky friend this is a good book too, because it doesn't put down either sets of people, or penguins as the case may be. We of course have the whole book memorized and can make any of us smile by starting any of the phases in the book. If we save one of the children's books in our library, Tacky would be by FAR it.

My little sister was "Tacky" in a school play in about 4th(?) grade. (they put it on for the little kids) Now we're grown and have kids of our own and NEED this book because it's ingrained in our heads... Gotta love TACKY!

This is a really sweet book! My 9 year old daughter really enjoys it. My 6 year old son could care less right now. But if I talk to him about the meaning, he then understands it more and asks some really smart questions!

The story is about how we (the children) are a big part of earth. How everything is a part of us. Everywhere we look on earth and above is what we are made up of... kinda cool. I really liked it!

If you have a universal outlook on spirituality- you will love this book! My children beam after we read it. They feel special, loved, secure... all the things we want for our kids. There is not ONE THING scary or negative in this book. It voids the polarity idea. It is fantastic.

This is a wonderful book. I have a four year old son who has owned this book since before he was three. He loves and understands it, probably more so than many adults. It is the favorite book for my husband and son to read together.

If you like this book you will love "Child of Fairy, Child of Earth". Both books have beautiful verse, illustrations and messages.

This book is beautifully inspiring and a needed aid in nuturing spirituality in children, I love it as much as my 3-year-old.

This is by far one of my most favorite children's books. "I am part of all I see, and all I see is part of me." Those first two pages sum it up.

The illustrations are warm, gentle, and beautiful. If you look closely you can see little elves and fairies hiding in the forest. My girls love to try and find them while we are reading.

I have given this book as a gift many times and it is always well received.

Thank you Chara for creating such a wonderful book for our evolving little ones (and their parents)!

I wanted a book with a lot of information and recipes. Too many cook books are filled with pictures, and empty of information. This book is the opposite. Don't expect many photos, do expect lots of information. The author gives you information about the food, about the preparation, and about the ingredients. It even gives you a little Japanese history as related to the food.
This is a must buy for anyone serious about cooking Japanese food.

I purchased this for my daughter for Christmas. I took some time to browse through the book and found it full of interesting information in addition to recipes and directions on how to prepare ingredients. I was very impressed, as was my daughter.

A beautiful book, clearly written, but the simple of the title is misleading. These are difficult, exacting recipes calling for both ingredients and kitchenware that require a search in specialty Japanese markets.

My wife and I bought this cookbook in Japan 25 years ago and have used it often since then. It is the best I've found on describing ingredients and how to do certain techniques especially making sushi rice.

This book explains everything, and is actually an enjoyable read.

Well organized and illustrated. Especially helpful for early stages of diagnosis and in meeting family member's concerns. I wish I'd had it sooner.

The book is really well written. It is chock full of information...figures, web links, and references. Great place to start to educate one's self if newly diagnosed.

I began this battle in the depths of ignorance. After a year+ and ineffective treatment, I began to learn, almost too late, about PCa from this book and to become an empowered patient.

I have studied both the first and second editions, and have them at my side constantly.

When my local medics failed, Strum and Pogliano's work preserved and still preserves my life.

Book Review
A Primer on Prostate Cancer: The Empowered Patient's Guide, 2nd Ed.
Stephen B. Strum, M.D. and Donna Pogliano
Hollywood, FL: Life Extension Foundation, 2005, 124 pp.
Ranked in the Top Ten of my Cancer Bibliography.
Ranked in the Top Five of my Prostate Cancer Bibliography.

I have surveyed or read so far over 100 cancer books in researching my own book. This ranked in the top 10% in both my categories primarily because of the excellence of its useful and professional content and presentation and the sophisticated level of the discussion. After my prostate cancer diagnosis, quickly learning I would not get enough time with my doctor, I dug deeply into many libraries and web sites. Public libraries are helpful, but severely incomplete and rarely up to date. With a background of two college degrees and Managing Director of a large research corporation, I knew how to do research and began to seek deeper information sources and understanding on cancer and medical websites. Here, also, there are problems: insufficient depth, too general, uncertain or dated reliability, suspect motives and dispersed value in millions of locations. Studies have shown that patients have a lot of trouble finding good material on the web, trying to find diamonds in the rubble. Then, I turned to Amazon and began to build my own library of the best available. This solved my problem.

Dr. Strum is a specialist in prostate cancer. This book is condensed and loaded on almost every page with color diagrams, charts, tables, photos, scans, Physician Notes and medical writing and details I would expect in a med school text. With my previous preparation, I was able to understand and apply almost all of it to my own situation, a great leap forward for a non-scientist. Not every prostate cancer patient will be ready for this, but buy it, refer to it as you do your homework elsewhere and your disease progresses, and it will soon become the core of your understanding and view of your future.

Along with the beautiful, colorful and clear presentations, I loved the several examples that were identical to my own journey, followed by the explanation of choices and exact treatment I have had: what a relief to study, decide and then get the same confirmation from my own doctors as we moved through several stages of diagnosis and treatment; what a thrill to study a photo of a problematic bone scan and compare it to my own favorable, cancer-free scan following treatment.

Your doctors are, of course, the final and up-to-date authority: be well-informed, so you can participate in the decision-making with the experts; but recognize that the busy medical community may not have the time or detailed knowledge of your situation to give it the attention you can. As you go, you will find a number of excellent books like this to guide you. It is important to have current information about the fast-moving science of medicine. That makes it a lot easier to get past the basics, ask good questions and accept or refine the doctor's judgment and recommendations. Seek out and devour books like this one, and you will be miles, perhaps even some time, ahead of most patients. With that confidence, your improved mental attitude will assist in your progress.
John Roberts (www.CanFighters.com)

Prostate Cancer (PCa) diagnosis is a scary time in a man's (and his family's) life. While most PCa books are written by doctors stressing the treatment benefits of their own discipline, this book does a wonderful job at explaining the many options without recommending any particular treatment. Many doctors try to push their patients into quick treatment decisions; Dr. Strum encourages patient empowerment through thoughtful education and understanding of the disease. He advises each individual to take their time in locating the best doctor to perform whatever treatment the patient decides upon, as this will result in the best outcome (the least degree of post-treatment problems). Since my PCa diagnosis in May 05, I have recommended this book to numerous friends and their families! It helped me feel 'comfortable' with my disease, it helped me seek the best treatment, it helped me find the best "artist" doctor. This book is a winner, and should be a First Read on your list!!

This was one of those really excellent experiences. Shipping was done within the days specified. The shipper sent notification the book had been shipped and the book arrived within a week. Above and beyond expectations!!

Great Amazon Seller! Would buy from again. Received book exactly as described in great timing.

Don't you just love Beth Moore?!? What an inspiration Beth is to ALL Christian women across this world. God has used Beth in such an awesome manner - don't you wonder what it's costing her? To whom much is given, much is required. This book flows just like her Bible study with the same title. This book will help you to find areas in your life where you are being held back and weren't even aware you were being held back! There are so many things that we as humans accept as just a part of normal life. Beth shows us in biblical terms why that is just not true! Just because it's a common 'side effect' of living in this sinful world DOES NOT mean that we have to accept it in our lives! I strongly urge you to find a church in your area that offers Beth Moore Bible studies. Read this book - it will set you free!!!

Several of my friends and I are using this book for an e-mail small group Bible study. It is well suited for that with its short chapters and review questions.
I ordered 3 items at exactly the same time and had to pay 3 separate shipping charges. I probably would not do that kind of shopping again.

This is a fantastic Bible Study. I would recommend it for every woman no matter what their experiences are in life. Each of us deserves to be totally free.