Q Books

I was required to purchase this book for my College Technical Writing Class - back in 1983. I still have the book! If you need a book to help you with all of the English language exceptions - this book is for you. Excellent examples and a great index make this easy to use and apply. This book will help anybody with communication skills.

The Happy Time by Robert Fontaine is a gentle look back at the eccentric adventures of an quebecois-scot extended family living in Ottawa ,ontario,in the early 1920's.These pre-'modern life' tales are sometimes sad, always funny, and never turn out quite the way you would expect.The evocative language used to desribe day to day living and the wild...yet recognizable characters that inhabit this family make you want them as your own.I found that I tried to read this book slowly so as to enjoy it as much as I could.You would do the same.

A great book that gets to the heart of the issue with actionable instructions instead of esoteric nonsense. If you're in the human resources group, it should be a mandatory part of training.

I used this book to do some research about early mormon families. It acurately and pictorially follows the early history from beginning to present.

Every other page is a map or chart with a brief overview on the other page.

If you want the facts and nice illustrations of them this is the book for you. Only 150 pages.

This is a REALLY good guitar tab book. 14 tracks, with all notes and lyrics. What surprised me was how easy and fun it was to play this. It's easy some to play guitar on some songs like "Prodigal Son". I actually wanted to give up, but when I heard the exact tune come out of my guitar, I was SO HAPPY!!! Well I learned you just have to stick with it, and really just practice a little bit. And I can't wait till I can play "American Bad Ass!!!"

I read the second edition of this book before moving to Honolulu three years ago, and still find it a very useful reference. Joe Bisignani gives you tons of interesting and useful information in an enjoyable writing style that captures the mood of the islands. Anyone who is the least interested in exploring Oahu beyond Waikiki Beach will find this book useful. Unlike the writers of some competing guidebooks, Bisignani is honest about labeling expensive tourist traps as such (it is telling that most of them have also shown up in the "Honolulu Weekly" annual readers' choice of "Best place to cruelly misdirect tourists"). Inbetween all the hard facts, Bisignani also manages to give the reader an accurate portrayal of the social climate of Oahu. Unlike most guidebooks, this one has an extensive and excellent history section, and there are also many references to fascinating Polynesian legends throughout the book. Warmly recommended!

Erin Q. Hartman, author, was born in 1957 in the cozy ambiance of a home in Carsonville, which produces rich, childhood memories. Erin Hartman, one of twelve children, grew up in the home of a sick, alcoholic mother. But what Hartman's parents lack in material wealth, they make up for with family cohesiveness and love.

I was able to connect with this book on many levels. Like Hartman, I was born in 1957, so I have memories similar to those that she so intimately shares with us. Her language is so vivid that I found myself present in the lives of this quirky, yet loving and loyal family. Imagine attending church wearing toilet paper as a scarf on your head! Hartman sums it up: "What I love about Sunday dinner is that my father is home and we are truly a family. It doesn't matter how my funeral scarf looks or how stupid my sisters look with toilet papers on their heads. God knows we are doing the best we can." Hartman portrays well the awkward situations that surface through childhood innocence and harmless childhood pranks.

Although Hope (Hartman's mother) might not be considered the ideal parent by today's standards, the children find her loads of fun. A child at heart, she takes seriously her run for town council in Carsonville. Her values are rich as she teaches her children to help those who are less fortunate by inviting them in for a rich, home-cooked meal. In addition, she never runs out of resourceful ways to entertain her children, like "The Abandoned House Game," where she and her children try to imagine what took place within the walls of abandoned homes. She may seem outlandish, but her adventuresome spirit makes her the envy of Hartman's friends.

Hartman concludes her memoir in just the right way by celebrating joyful memories of the close-knit family's experiences. Some are poignant, but most are endearing and unforgettable.

by Sharon Blumberg
for Story Circle Book Reviews
reviewing books by, for, and about women

This book has a ton of tips and words of encouragement for all types of mothers. I felt uplifted and strengthened by reading this book. I'd recommend for all Moms.

I enjoyed reading the book as it examines the cultural aspects of the pandemic. We each need to question our own cultural assumptions as we analyze just what happened to make this such a disaster.

This book is a really terrific idea. I am disappointed that there are over two million other books which are purchased more frequently than this one, according to Amazon.com -- it just doesn't seem right.

Querida Pearce has done a great deal of work, in compiling this amazing little volume. Conversations about dinosaurs are one of the few areas where adults and children can really be complete equals together, sharing in a state of wonder. Actually, as often as not, the adults are at a disadvantage here. Children often know MUCH more than the less age-challenged, height-challenged members of their families, about this fascinating topic. Therefore, to help adults bridge this unfortunate gap, Ms. Pearce has created this guide.

Let me just briefly mention that this book came out a couple of years before the film "Jurassic Park." It happens that some of the dinosaurs featured in that film were almost completely unknown, to most folks, before the film came out. Velociraptors, in particular, are only mentioned in passing in "How to Talk Dinosaur With Your Child." And the Tyrannosaurus Rex is always referred to by its full name, never as a "T. Rex." But those are small complaints, of course. This book is basically superb, and has been highly praised by curators at museums featuring paleontology exhibits.

Here are some particularly fun features of this book. In Chapter 8, the author talks about how you could prepare for a visit to a dinosaur museum with your children. She helps you get thinking about how you could create a dinosaur diorama, for example, to help your kids understand how the displays in the museum are made. In Chapter 11, there's a great little section about dinosaur names. It gives handy definitions of all the little Latin and Greek prefixes, suffixes, and other roots which go into composing the names of dinosaurs. You can even use this section to start making up dino-names for family, friends, or pets. For example, if you have a dog with very triangular ears, and a short tail, you could take the roots "spheno" (wedge shaped); "oto" (ear); "micro" (small); and "urus" (tail), and start calling your dog Sphenooto Microurus. This is how scientists really name dinosaurs! You and your children can share a lot of laughs with this section.

The whole book is packed with ideas for dinner table discussions, or for talking about during agonizingly long car rides. For example, Ms. Pearce encourages readers to think about the devastation that would be left behind if a herd of diplodoci crashed through the local jungle. She suggests going to the library, and seeking out accounts of how African jungles have sprung back after rampages by groups of elephants. The whole book is full of suggestions like this. They go on, page after page after page. I don't know how she thought up so many great ideas.

As I said earlier, some parts of this book are realy designed to help adults catch up to their kids, who are most likely miles ahead of them in their knowledge of dino-lore. But the focus is on finding common ground, and things to share wonder about. This book is actually about real wonder, real scientific discovery, and real fun. This book represents what learning really should be like, although of course it rarely actually is.

If you enjoy this fine little volume, I would like to recommend "After Man: A Zoology of the Future," by Dougal Dixon, which is also incredibly fun and interesting. It gets kids asking "what if" we could see into the future, and visualize how present animals might evolve in coming millenia? It has amazing pictures, and provocative essays. Also, you may wish to take a look at "Our Continent: A Natural History of North America," by National Geographic. They did a great job with that book, and it includes actual charts so you can see how various dinosaurs evolved. Also, just a slightly oddball recommendation: I really enjoyed the book "When Geologists Were Historians," by Rhoda Rappaport. It helps you see what early scientists were up against, when they tried to get people to conceptualize the idea that rocks were laid down in layers, some of which contained dinosaur bones.

Anyway, "How to Talk Dinosaur With Your Child" is superb. You owe it to your kids, or maybe even to a co-workers kids, to pick up a copy of this book.