T Books

If you want to make it as a screenwriter, you MUST read this book. Not only is it chock full of great info, inside advice and suggestions for strategies that will work for you... it is a REALLY FUN READ! The author does a great job of grabbing your attention, and making you want to hold on for dear life as he takes you inside the Hollywood system and tells it like it is, dirty laundry and all. By the time you get done with this book, you will know what to do, what not to do, and how to persuade others to see things your way in pitch meetings, that you are SURE to B$ A SCRIPT SALE! Filled with advice you can USE, information that will help you succeed, and strategies for B$'ing that will get you to where you want to be in less time, with less pain and aggravation along the way. A truly necessary resource for ANY serious screenwriter!
MARIE JONES, Screenwriter and Book Reviewer, ABSOLUTEWRITE.COM and BOOKIDEAS.COM

This ebook focuses on the best strategies on how to write a good screenplay to sell. It is comprehensible with up-to-date information and exceptionally inspirational. When you think on how to write a good screenplay a lot of things come to mind but Paul Sinor has compile for us the most important survival tips to win in this game. There is no doubt that this book will inspire anyone to be a screenwriter or to become a better one. There is an unbeatable combination that only Paul Sinor can compose for you to begin your journey at the same time that your own drive, ambitions and writing skill will expand like you never seeing it before.

Those who buy this book will be fortunate enough to learn about the screenwriting trade and expand their horizon whether it is for writing or just for education. Don't hesitate to get it today.

This is a great read... I think that it's a great book for a screenwriter to have especially when you don't live in a city that lives and breathes the film industry. It does give you a step up in a great direction and I highly recommend it!

Excellent book!!! A must read for anyone looking to get there screenplay into Hollywood. The entertainment business is tough but Paul Sinor makes it a lot easier and a lot more manageable with his new book. It covers everything you could possibly think of, from the role agents, managers and attorneys play to finding the right production company and negotiating a contract. The best part is, you don't have to live in Hollywood to get someone to read your screenplay. There's an entire chapter on what to do if you don't live in Hollywood. If you are serious about writing screenplays and breaking into the entertainment industry then this book is definitely for you!!

I am a screenwriter for over 10 years and recently I've just bought this easy download e-book "B$ Your Script Sale". Every single tip that Sinor mentions in the book is valuable! They are true to life tactics that I think every screenwriter in town should know to get the best deal out of their script sale. How I wish I have the book 10 years ago! Nice page design and layout as well. It makes the whole reading experience more fun and interesting!!! Two thumbs up!!

Baltimore Elegance
I have taken classes with Ely. I own just about all her books. This is the best out of all! Easy to read, great pictures for visual understanding. Great information and explainations. Must have book for applique...

Elly has outdone herself with this book...the techniques she teaches is invaluable to anyone who wants to learn to applique. And the patterns are among her best yet. Plus it has projects that are fun to make too! This is a 'must-have' for every quilter who likes applique....whether you applique now or you want to learn!

As a seasoned quilter, I had always avoided applique. There were too many conflicting methods floating around, and none of them seemed to work for me. Elly's book clarified everything! She explains all of the methods in easy to understand steps. She explains the hows and the whys, and tells you what to look for to avoid problems down the road. The lessons are terrific, and presented in clear, concise steps with good illustrations. Her patterns advance in skill level as the lessons progress. My projects were a success, thanks to Elly, and I now feel comfortable with applique.

Elly has done it again for all her fans and is sure to gain new ones with this simplified approach to a classic style. Her "voice" can be heard in every written line for those of us lucky enough to have attended her academy classes. Add this to your collection, or start a collection with this wonderful book. Keep them coming, Elly!

Elly has written many books on Baltimore album quilts, but this is one of my favorites. It has 8" block patterns, rather than the more traditional 12". It's full of instructions for applique, stitching, transferring designs, and lots of color pictures. Plenty of ideas to work from. The only applique method she doesn't explain is the Templar Starch method, which I think is a good way to do applique, but I won't mark down her score for this.

This book is filled with windows into the the lives of people who did or tried to do very interesting things, and never had their stories told until now. Very interesting slices of life. Fun to read.

Don't know if I'd give it 5 stars but it's pretty good.

"Banvard's Folly" is a wonderful book, thanks to the talents of author Paul Collins. As you have probably gathered by now from other write-ups, this book tells the story of 13 people, once prominent, and now largely forgotten. They each earned inclusion in this book because of a grand failure of some sort. In other hands, this material could have been a tool for ridicule; but Collins strikes just the right tone here. While not forgiving his subjects' excesses or blind spots, he manages to tell their stories with a real sense of empathy. It's obvious that a lot of research went into this volume, but Collins never overpowers the reader with it; each chapter just seems to glide along. If history's lesser lights are of interest to you, you should enjoy this.

This humurous and sympathetic presentation of thirteen lives of historical nobodies is a sheer delight to read. Among his subjects, Collins chose a showman, a forger, a scholar, an imposter, a wannabe actor and several scientists and inventors, not to mention a businessman or two. Some tales are absurd and hilarious, while others are sad and even tragic to a degree. All are well-written and fascinating.

I selected this title to kick off a book club in my library and everyone loved it as much as I did. It is highly recommended.

I absolutely loved this book. Paul Collins takes thirteen chapters of American myth that have been largely forgotten and turns them into an eye opening treatise on the failure of will, the folly of hubris, and the absolute madness of challenging the status quo. Mr. Collins' style leads to frequent laugh out loud asides while telling the story of folks who either succeeded and then lost, had a mad idea that failed (but not for lack of trying), or who had the sheer will to make themselves momentarily inportant only to be swallowed up by the tide of time. Every person and idea profiled was at one time wildly popular or important and each eventually fell from favor for one reason or another. Sometimes it was common sense that triumphed, sometimes fad ran its course, sometimes folks just got too bizarre for accomodation. I highly recommend this book for anyone wanting a look into uncommon history. Mr. Collins has done us the favor of rummaging through the musty, dusty, long forgotten bookstacks of some of our most prestigious libraries and he has come up with a winner of a book. Save yourself the moldy lungs and long hours of researching the library basements yourself and read this work.

This is a detailed chronicle of end-time events as revealed by Christ Jesus.John McArthur tells the truth as it is written in the Bible without mincing words.This is a must read for everyone who doesn't want to be caught off guard by the looming gloom that is about to envelope the world.Christ Jesus is coming soon. Maranatha.

The content of this book is excellent but I had to give it only 3 stars because the quality of the binding is very poor. I've noticed this recently on the past 5 or 6 books that I've purchased form Amazon. The conver is almost the same weight as the pages and the binding falls apart before you finish the book. I have started returning to the traditional Brick and Mortar bookstores to purchase my books. I may have to pay a little bit more, but at least the books stay in one piece. Amazon must be running some sort of print on demand deal with their authors and are using a cheap printer. Amazon needs to up the quality of the the books they sell or risk losing customers.

This book is a commentary of Revelation. The author presents it in a fashion that it is easy to read. Not all commentaries are easy to read! It also is a scholarly work which has much depth. You will think and apply to everyday life.

I highly recommend it for preacher and student alike. This book is from a pre-tribulation and dispensationalist perspective.

The book was delivered in a very short time and it was in excellent condition. Thank you!

...if you want to understand the book of Revelation. Macarthur breaks it down verse by verse and explains it in a way that is easy to understand. It's no nonsense, but still very enjoyable to read.

After reading the The Best That Money Can't Buy, I had to meet Jacque and Roxanne. Off to Venus I went! Without a doubt this is one of the most important books that any individual can read. Lets just hope that your mind is not in a straightjacket.

Global peace is so very important as a goal we must leave no stone unturned in exploring the possibilities of making it real. Too many of us are trapped in the box of complacency and denial. Any American citizen should have enough common sense to realize that business as usual is not working, never has worked and never will work to develop world peace. Any Economic paradigm built upon a class system is inherently flawed. Capitalism, deceptive though it may be, is built upon a class structure. Just ask the indigenous native, the Hispanics, or descendents of the slaves in The USA.

No human being is a second class citizen whether they are a citizen of a nation or the world. No human being will ever accept second class citizenship status. How can any rational human being in this day and time not understand this?

The use of monetary economics is, practically, as old as human civilization and although peace has endured as the most common dream of humanity it has never been actually attained. A popular definition of 'insanity' is doing the same things over and over expecting different results. Capitalism is the epitome of monetary economics. Communism, socialism, Fascism all use money to regulate resource distribution and are but variations of monetary economics. Monetary Economics is manmade - Not God given - and it is flawed like any other creation of mankind!

Capitalism is most compatible with a Plutocracy (a wealthy minority controls government) and it is rational because the wealthy are the most adept at monetary policy and practice. We know it is a ruthless affair. In a system that thrives upon competition, and Capitalistic competition is dog-eat-dog at best, the winners rule. A Plutocracy just inevitably emerges within such systems. A plutocracy is not what the citizens of the United States admit to desire. Such systems divide the general population, creates strife and gross inequities. Deceit, fear and violence are required to maintain order is such societies. At some point in all of our lives we have probably wondered, "There must be a better way to live1". There is . . . but we must escape the trappings of thinking within the box constructed and maintained for us by the gatekeepers of our Economic establishment and the media. "The Best That Money Can't Buy", takes us outside the box and revives our dreams of world peace with a virtual guide to world peace that was relatively impossible much of the twentieth century.

Democracy demands an economic system of different stripes. Democracy cannot thrive in a Capitalistic society. It is just incompatible. What is wrong with our systemic methodology for determining who gets how much of what and what is our best alternative for a systemic adjustment that makes everyone a winner and allows democracy to thrive? . . .

Jacque Fresco's work breaks it all down and lays out a virtual blueprint for the kind of society we dream about the most. Don't give up on your dreams of peace. Dreams are what makes our world whatever it is and whatever it is to become. If we can imagine it - we can create it! Believe that and prepare to embrace a new strategy for peace, the end of needless human suffering and an abundant world with no losers.

Remember what they said about: the Airplane, electricity, space travel, and breaking the sound barrier? Ignore the nay-sayers and make peace real.

C. Dickerson

The Best That Money Can't Buy - Beyond Politics, War, and Poverty. In the context of these troubled times, the title itself seems the epitome of Utopian thinking. Within these pages, however, are not the meanderings of well-intentioned dreamers, but straight-forward analyses of, and solutions to, many of the troubles that continue to plague the world, in spite of - and often, under the present scarcity-oriented distribution system of advantage, because of - the vast technological achievements of the modern age.

Even the term Utopian rankles Fresco, who sees stagnation in the notion of a civilization that feels it has "arrived" at some sort of ultimate state of being. Rather, The Best That Money Can't Buy takes Utopia beyond an unattainable (and undesirable) dead end to an exciting, dynamic, and perpetual quest not for perfection, but for the next step in social development, pulsing with all the vitality of the unquenchable human spirit. The Best That Money Can't Buy takes all the most admirable, humane hopes and aspirations of humankind, dovetails them with known and developing technologies, and comes up with a comprehensive design for the future that surpasses any that have been offered thus far. Fresco's work doesn't just break new ground; he fuses it into glass viaducts to provide fresh water to the whole world.

Fresco's unique, streetwise background in behavioral science eminently qualifies him to identify the roles of culture and physical environment as shapers of much of humanity's past and present situation - and the surest footing for establishing a new direction for civilization, based on manageable data and enhanced communication, rather than the vagaries of philosophical remnants of an age of ignorance, scarcity, and superstition.

Fresco even takes into account the tendency of some humans to establish a pecking order of advantage by, for the most part, taking them out of the loop when it comes to making decisions based on their inevitable prejudices, psychological limitations, and an inherent lack of a sufficient knowledge base to render objective decisions that favor all members of society equally. Instead, Fresco leaves the arrival at (not "making" of) decisions to computers. An intimidating prospect to some, no doubt, until one considers the major roles computers play in things like landing jetliners safely or transporting one's messages across thousands of mile.

Particularly notable is Fresco's prescription for a new incentive system based on personal achievement and satisfaction, rather than on the shallow, socially divisive, and ultimately environmentally disastrous value system based on a ceaseless quest for exclusive access to ever more consumptive material possessions. The environmental impact (or lack of) under Fresco's proposed "resource-based economy" is profound, as are the social benefits. Producing the highest quality, most durable goods for common use by all not only guarantees the most efficient allocation of natural resources and energy, but has the potential to eliminate the vast majority of social ills born of the inequities of distribution so highly touted by champions of the present monetary system as one of its chief motivators of "incentive

A resource-based economy, as envisioned by Fresco, transcends the need for property and proprietary "rights" that present monumental roadblocks to cooperative endeavor. One need only consider the millions lost to the AIDS epidemic due to the refusal of pharmaceutical companies to allow the affected nations to develop their own, more affordable treatments; or the 13,000 who die each day from water-related diseases while private industry privatizes access to fresh water, to realize the inherent failures of the present property-oriented system to meet the basic needs of the human family

Any new line of thinking is bound to find its detractors in those who have found a measure of advantage in the current social arrangement, or even those who haven't, but remain culture-bound due to societal pressures and influences - especially those who hold onto the archaic notion that money is a viable instrument for rewarding contributive effort and distributing goods and services on the basis of whomever "deserves" them. Fresco's proposals are certain to raise the eyebrows, if not the hackles, of anyone who holds onto the notion of the "dignity" of work - a dignity which business, above all other spheres of human activity, has always been willing to forego in the name of faster production and expanded sales. Indeed, much of the psychological stress we see today is the aftershock of seeing one's usefulness rendered impotent by advancing technology.

The net effect of the Machine Age has been to elevate humans beyond the drudgery of arduous, dangerous work. Fresco simply extends this trend to the next level. While Fresco's work may appear threatening in its tendency to strip the human animal of its functionality, the trend is not of his making - but the proposals to manage technological change for maximum social benefit with minimal environmental damage are.

Good fences don't make good neighbors. They make selfish and uncooperative ones that in this age, where even one's thoughts are subject to copyright, can be a detriment to the information sharing essential to human betterment and progress. Fresco's thinking is not only out of the box; it's not even in the same warehouse. He cuts through the dilatory and inhibitive system of proprietary "rights" and leads the reader into an oft-mooted, but hitherto unrealized, distribution system in which all are not simply offered a chance for a leg up at someone else's expense, but afforded an equal footing simply because it's there for everyone.

The Best That Money Can't Buy is not for the faint at heart - but then, neither are the inevitable challenges of an increasingly complex world. Humankind can simply sit idly by and let a handful of elitists direct technology for their exclusive benefit, or they can themselves be the pioneers of a culture in which no one, and everyone, is elite. Perhaps bold works like this will dissipate some of the fog of scarcity thinking and embolden, and empower, more people to reach for that next level of understanding.

The "Left Behind" theology to the contrary, Jacque Fresco writes that we can't depend on "the divine intervention of mythical characters in white robes who descend from the clouds" to solve our problems because they are "illusions." It doesn't follow, however, that the kind of systematic social engineering Fresco advocates will work, either, because it's not taking into account some relevant facts of reality.

One, Fresco assumes that humans are born as the blank slates assumed by radical behaviorist ideology, instead of having neurological predispositions for all sorts of nonrational, reproductively-driven behaviors as shown by the rapidly growing field of evolutionary psychology. We have "politics, poverty, & war" partly because there is a hard-wired human nature that social engineering as such can't change. Supplying people's physical needs through a conjectural "resource-based economy" won't necessarily make them more sociable; they're likely just to devote more time towards noneconomic status-seeking as they go about forming dominance-submission hierarchies to show off their relative reproductive fitness, and violence can't be ruled out as a possible strategy. The history of well-provisioned aristocracies suggests that growing up in a state of affluence & leisure doesn't always bring out the best in people.

Two, in the real world property rights have demonstrated their value as a social institution for getting people to manage their resources and tools properly, giving them incentives to work hard, defer gratification, plan for the future, etc. Declaring the world's resources a "common heritage" is a guarantee for disaster, even though it sounds good according to socialistic ethical theories that aren't based on real human behavior. Fresco's plan is just a nonstarter in the sort of world we live in.

Three, Fresco doesn't seem to appreciate that in the money system we have now in the U.S., access to property ownership is available to everyone. A proper way to view one's relationship with the American economy is to find ways to get the balance of payments going in your favor. If you pay Federal income taxes, buy bonds and Treasury bills so the government has to pay you interest in return. If you buy a lot of things from a profitable, publicly traded company (current scandals aside), buy stock in the company so that it pays you dividends while the stock appreciates in value. You don't really benefit from our system as a consumer and a debtor, but as an owner of equity and a creditor, and you can leverage yourself into that position through some planning and self-discipline.

Perhaps because of his advanced age, Fresco seems not to have upgraded his worldview all that much since the late 1960's, when he and Kenneth Keyes published _Looking Forward_. Back then his vision of the 21st Century presented many futuristic ideas that were progressive in the context of its time, but his current proposals have a kind of "retro future" feel to them. Someone well read in the history of borderline sciences can detect in Fresco's book ideas derived from General Semantics, Technocracy, Inc., Buckminster Fuller's "design science," radical behaviorism, proposals for a cybernated "leisure society" and other early and mid 20th Century intellectual fads that never got very far because they couldn't make the case for their validity, necessity and real-world effectiveness. The fact that we've avoided disaster with the money system despite Fresco's warnings decades ago suggests that his proposal for social reconstruction is a solution for some other planet's problems.

The history of ideological utopianism the 20th Century shows that we have to be extraordinarily careful before we conduct another social experiment where we jettison a system that works tolerably well in favor of one that merely sounds good. While Fresco's vision of life in the latter 21st Century does address some of my concerns, in general the frontier of advanced thinking about the future seems to have passed on to where the Extropians and Transhumanists are doing their thing these days.

The Best That Money Can't Buy: Beyond Politics, Poverty, & War by futurist and inventor Jacque Fresco is a seminal, ground breaking vision of a grander, more humane future borne of the advantages of science and technology as well as human concern for the well-being of other people and the planet. Individual chapters address how to help basic human nature evolve beyond enlightened self-interest for a better tomorrow in this wondrous, compelling, superbly illustrated, hope-filled, highly recommended treatise.

I have read it at least 6 times since it was originally published.

It speaks to the current world scene each time and probably will for the next 50 years.

Hall is one of the 20th century's great geniuses.

I read this book for the first time over 20 years ago after I graduated from college with an unrelated science major which I found loathesome and never used. I had already read "The Hidden Dimension" when working with an architect. I am not about to read this one again due to its complexity and the fact it "sunk in" then. Here are some of Hall's highlights:

Ch. 1 (The Paradox of Culture): "One wonders how many individuals who have been forced to adjust to eight-hour, nine-to-five schedules have sacrificed their creativity, and what the social and human cost of this sacrifice has been."

Ch. 3 (Consistency and Life): "He is forced into the position of thinking and feeling that anyone whose behavior is not predictable or is peculiar in any way is slightly out of his mind, improperly brought up, irresponsible, psychopathic, politically motivated to a point beyond all redemption, or just plain inferior."

Ch. 7 (Contexts, High and Low): "... in high context systems, people in places of authority are personally and truly (not just in theory) responsible for the actions of subordinates down to the lowest man. In low context systems, responsibility is diffused throughout the system and difficult to pin down ..."

Ch. 11 (Covert Culture and Action Chains): "The investigation of out-of-awareness culture can be accomplished only by actual observation of real events in normal settings and contexts. ... Culture is therefore very closely related to if not synonymous with what has been defined as "mind".

Ch. 12 (Imagery and Memory): "Our problems in education are exacerbated by eductional systems and philosophies that stress verbal facility at the expense of other important parts of man's mind ..."

Ch. 13 (Cultural and Primate Bases of Education): "One reason psychotherapy is so slow is that in order to change one thing it is necessary to alter the entire psyche, because the different parts of the psyche are functionally interrelated."

Ch. 13: Over bureaucratization: "The problem with bureaucracies is that they have to work hard and long to keep from substituting self-serving survival and growth for their original primary objective. ... Bureaucracies have no soul, no memory and no conscience."

Ch. 14 (Culture as an Irrational Force): "Since the men and women responsible for these [anthropological] studies for the most part are both well trained in Anglo-American social science methodology and well motivated, one can only assume that there is something basically wrong with the way in which social science research is often conducted."

THIS IS THE SECOND TIME I HAVE READ THE BOOK. THE LAST TIME WAS A 110 YEARS AGO IN COLLEGE. MR. HALL MAKES US THINK ABOUT OTHER CULTURES AND ESPECIALLY OUR OWN CULTURE. IN THESE AWFUL TIMES IT IS EXTREMELY IMPORTANT TO UNDERSTAND OURSELVES AND ONE ANOTHER. MR HALL'S BOOKS HELP WITH THIS. IT IS NOT ENOUGH TO UNDERSTAND A CULTURE'S LANGUAGE AND DRESS. TIME, SPACE, AND OTHER CONTINGENTS ARE JUST OR MORE IMPORTANT.

This is not Hall's best known book but it incorporates many of the ideas that were originally presented in the Silent Language and applies them to culture. The idea of monochronic (M-Time) and polychronic time (P-Time) are briefly summarised as well. The underlying concept of Beyond Culture is that man is an evolutionary being and although we cannot evolve to adapt to our environment at the rate of insects we can continue to evolve through extensions. These extensions are the things we create such as fire and tools at the basic level and cars, computers, and mobile phones at the more complex level. In this way we have continued to evolve beyond the limits of our biology.

In a similar sense, culture is an extension of our personal being and is used to prevent us from having to explain every little detail. Regardless of whether a culture is "high" or "low" it contains a body of knowledge that provides for ease of communication among members. He develops this idea in the concept of action chains which is a sequence in which several people participate. Culture is by its nature participatory and understanding action chains within a culture can help us to understand how to prevent ourselves from running aground in a culture different from our own.

He also looks at culture and education and lampoons the current state of higher education in the western context. I find this somewhat unwarranted. He concludes with chapters on the irrationality of culture and our identification with culture. However irrational a culture may be to those who identify with it it makes perfect sense.

I do not always agree with the interpretation of cultural examples that he cites but his ideas are interesting and can be helpful in understanding cross/intercultural experiences. I would recommend this book to those who are, at least in passing, with his overall concepts of culture.

Since other reviewers have summarized this book, my suggestion is to read it with present-day work environments in mind. There is an increasing emphasis of Diversity and Globalization in the workplace. This book can be difficult to wade through, but the concepts stick with you. It was very easy to take the concepts and compare them to the daily situations of working in a multi-cultural corporate environment. Sometimes the best information, is from an original source or work. I would suggest reading this, just because Hall's premises still bear the brunt of time and provide that "ah-ha" awareness to an experience.

This is a great commentary. In an expository manner, he explains each book of the Bible in detail. Wiersbe gives background information on topics that help make each passage more clear. It is always beside my Bible when I study! I highly recommend it.

I have found Wiersbe's commentaries very helpful in my study of the New Testament and in particular our recent study of Revelation - the Commentary on Revelation had many very helpful thoughts which I found very useful as I prepared Bible studies for my group.

I have not completed reading these books but so far they are exceeding my expectations. Great books for anyone wanting a greater appreciation of the word of GOd and seeking to know him(God) better.

As a Bible college graduate and youth pastor, I could not do without this commentary set. Wiersbe uses everday illustrations and gives a good explanation of the text. However as with many commentators, some difficult passages are skipped.

I use these all the time in my studies. Wiersbe writes at a level anyone can understand and provides many insights that his years of study and devotion have provided.
I would recommend both volumes to anyone wanting to gain a deeper insight into the New Testament.

After hearing Dr. Stout speak at a NAMI meeting, I rushed right out and purchased the book. Not only does it do an excellent job of explaining the emotions of someone living with this illness, it is riveting. I didn't want to put it down. Several friends have asked to borrow it.

One of the things that is difficult to understand for many of us family members of someone living with mental illness, is the utter despair and hopelessness they experience when they are symptomatic. Dr. Stout is able to convey this well.

There is a lot of good information for family members as well as ill people themselves. My ill family member and I have both used many ideas from his book.

I highly recommend it for a good read and for useful information.

Precise, Great Advise. A true Bipolar Recovery book. I have never seen a self help book I couldn't put down. A great book for all those who suffer from Bipolar. Especially those who were victims of abuse. Speaks to those in commons language. Doesn't preach. Speaks of the importance of medication. A must own.

Bipolar is a big part of my life and my families life. Understanding the people who deal with it must be as hard as having it. Reverend Dr. James Stout gives us a "diary" if you will, of his life and dealing with his abusive family. Not a technical book but a book that will teach you practical techniques for managing moods without losing your mind. Unlike the other books out there on this subject, Rebuilding your life, makes you feel like you are not alone. Someone else has been through this and knows how you feel and is trying to help you.
I commend Reverend Dr. James Stout for the courage I know it took to write this book.

A very close relative of mine has bipolar disorder, so I've read everything I've been able to find on this subject.
However, this book is as comprehensive an analysis as I've found. Although the author goes into a bit more detail of his day-to-day life than I wanted, DO NOT skip a single chapter. Every chapter has tools and techniques that are invaluable to understanding and coping with the disorder.
The book is especially trailblazing in putting this "chemical" condition in the context of a dysfunctional upbringing. And in presenting skills for dealing with those, related, problems.
The appendices are especially helpful, and succinct.

Stout provides a very rare take on bipolar disorder. It is from the perspective of one who has been there (is there) and has more than survived. As a psychiatrist, I have rarely encountered a 'personal experience' volume with such bredth and balance. Yes, he includes religion... he's a minister! But he identifies scores of important aspects to 'rebuilding your life' with bipolar disorder. He doesn't shun medicine as some organized evil attempt at behavioral control. He doesn't say God will heal you without any work on your part. Basically he details all the areas of your life, which if taken for granted (like sleep) can lead to symptomatic relapse.

The title of Chapter 14, "Life in a Psychiatric Unit: Sometimes Awful, Sometimes Fun" fairly well says it all. (And it describes working in a psych unit too!)

Stout has maintained a sense of humor, balance and optimism which would be well adopted by anyone facing a mental health challenge. He has no hidden agendas and never preaches. He tells it like he has experienced it, and as it has worked for him. And he tells it well.

Heartily recommended to all.

This book is all about the trust in God, how he brings Nicole and Anne through their hard times in live, how He is their guide and strong Hand that keeps them.
Really, this book (and the rest of the series previous) are really worth reading.

This is my second favorite of the series, my very favorite being "The Meeting Place." Unlike "The Sacred Shore", the book preceding it, "The Birthright" brings out the character of Anne as well as that of Nicole, rather like "The Meeting Place" did with their moms, Catherine and Louise. I always felt that Anne is "short-changed" in the other books in the series, and am glad to see her getting more equal treatment here.

I have thoroughly enjoyed this series and hope to continue with the next one. Normally, I find Oke's book dull or too detailed to enjoy, but this series with Bunn is outstanding. Try it!

This book is great! It's been a while since I read the first two books in this series, and I was surprised that it was so easy for me to pick up right where they left off.

This is the story of Nicole's journey to England to take her place as the heir to her Uncle Charles. Her ideas of duty and responsibility, but also her need for change and to find her own place in the world are at the heart of the novel.

I don't want to give away too much of the plot--especially the surprise ending, but needless to say, this book will keep you charmed through the end--through all the heartache, sorrow and joy that comes through in colonial America.

After being reunited with her birth parents in Nova Scotia and after saying a tearful goodbye to her Louisiana parents, Nicole has a yearning for more. She and Anne become close friends and Nicole loves her parents, but there is something calling to her, dividing her allegiance. Her Uncle Charles has asked for her to go to England and become his heir, and she considers doing just that. After prayer and consideration, she decides to leave.

England is a contrast to all she's ever known . . . its glitter and bustle are almost too much for her, and she feels useless among the rich trappings and servants.

Anne, meanwhile, is dealing with some devastating news. She decides to go to England. Anne adjusts more quickly to England than Nicole.

Nicole and her uncle have to make some hard decisions. . . .

I didn't find this book as exciting as the others in the series (especially Book 1, my favorite so far), but it is still interesting and integral to the series. The writing is still beautiful and thoughtful and this book is worth the read.

As a teacher, I found this book valuable because it has activities that I can use over & over to present these lessons. A lot of people say they want "Black History" in our schools--but we do not have a clue as to how to present it--or how to make a good learning experience from all of the information. I do not have to go take another semester of college to learn inspiring ways to teach Black History.And I think it will be usable for any age group. That is really valuable!

This book seems so simple, but it is has enormous power to uplift people, to inspire, and to educate. All ages can benefit from it. I am impressed.

This 44-page book is unique and very attractive. It is not another "run-of the mill" long, narrative about slavery. It is 44-pages of powerful dynamite! This author has done an effective job in making this complicated topic simple but yet educational. I am White and I really like this book, because it has opened my eyes to reality. I think all people should read it and use the activities to learn more. This author has some great stuff in this book.

BLACK HISTORY TREASURY emerges as a book filled with some of the best teaching exercises and material that I have ever seen pertaining to this issue.All races and ages should use this book. Melvia Miller, I applaud your ingenuity!

Reading about Black History will make us aware of how people who lived under horrible circumstances rose above the problems and became great inventors, athletes, artists, politicians, etc. I hope a lot of teachers, parents and other people who work with children will get this book and use it. We have so much crime,ignorance, hatred, racial division, gang-banging, and self-destructive behavior in this country. Maybe Melvia's inspiring book can open some eyes & cause people to think!