People Books

Other reviewers have described the breadth and depth of Glass-Coffin's study of Northern Peruvian curanderas and have noted how effectively she weaves her personal story through the book. I would like to add my kudos as well. I appreciated the solid historical context and enjoyed reading about her experiences with some of the ancient healing traditions and their modern incarnations. Having traveled through the region myself, I have can concur with her observations about some of the differences between male and female practitioners. It provides much food for thought.

Glass-Coffin's book will provide a great deal of insight for anyone interested in healing traditions or South American history. Although Post-conquest influences have mutated the expression of native spirituality, they did not completely eradicate time honored practices.

We have all enjoyed the charming and entertaining look at sorcery and witchcraft as experienced by the fictional Harry Potter. No less interesting and fascinating is Bonnie Glass-Coffin's realistic look at sorcery and shamanism as they exist in South America today. "The Gift of Life" incorporates Glass-Coffin's extensive research as a talented anthropologist with her own personal healing experiences to produce a highly readable and well-documented book on female shamans (healers) in Northern Peru. She provides a history of sorcery and healing in South America, a contextual explanation and description of the healing practices of five different female shamans she met while in Peru, and an examination of gender and socioeconomic differences in the world of spiritual healing. Academic rigor does not preclude a "good read". Scholars and general readers alike will be pleased with this book. When I loaned the book to a friend who has traveled in Peru, she returned it quickly, noting "This is too good not to have a copy of my own!" I recommend it highly.

Prior to THE GIFT OF LIFE, little had been written about the role women play in healing and shamanism in Northern Peru. Part of the reason for this oversight had to do with the way European colonization brought the concept of "witchcraft" to Peru, and the fact that Peruvian women who practiced traditional healing arts were frequently beaten and tortured until they confessed to standard European-style "witchcraft" practices. Author Bonnie Glass-Coffin was trained as an anthropologist, so she knew that women have historically played a large part in shamanism from looking at the ancient sculptures of the Moche and Chimu, which both portray women involved in healing arts. With the intention to find and interview modern-day women shamans in Peru, Glass-Coffin set out to do exactly that.

Bonnie Glass-Coffin shares the stories from five female curanderas (shamans) she met with between April 1988 and September 1989. Her extraordinary book, THE GIFT OF LIFE, describes the daily life of these female curanderas and the story of how they became healers, and includes black and white photographs of their mesas (curing altars) and healing herbs (plants such as the San Pedro cactus). Glass-Coffin's background in anthropology and her accounts of her experiences living in Peru as she grew up give this book a unique feeling of personal relevance and social perspective.

I was impressed that THE GIFT OF LIFE does not shy away from describing the ways curanderas have used their spiritual powers on some occasions for sorcery. Glass-Coffin describes "dano" as intended harm by sorcery, and tells stories and includes pictures of how Peruvians have discovered and dealt with the harmful magic of others. She also describes some of the differences between male and female healers in Peru -- such as the way female curanderas tend to involve patients more directly in their healing. I was also impressed that Glass-Coffin described her own personal involvement being healed by curanderas, giving this book tremendous warmth. The first-hand accounts of what it feels like to suffer as the recipient of a dano help the reader better understand the way our thoughts and feelings affect one another.

I give this book my highest recommendation to anyone who is interested in ancient traditional ways of healing, wishes to know what is unique about women healers, and is intrigued by reading stories about how our thoughts and feelings affect others.

Prior to THE GIFT OF LIFE, little had been written about the role women play in healing and shamanism in Northern Peru. Part of the reason for this oversight had to do with the way European colonization brought the concept of "witchcraft" to Peru, and the fact that Peruvian women who practiced traditional healing arts were frequently beaten and tortured until they confessed to standard European-style "witchcraft" practices. Author Bonnie Glass-Coffin was trained as an anthropologist, so she knew that women have historically played a large part in shamanism from looking at the ancient sculptures of the Moche and Chimu, which both portray women involved in healing arts. With the intention to find and interview modern-day women shamans in Peru, Glass-Coffin set out to do exactly that.

Bonnie Glass-Coffin shares the stories from five female curanderas (shamans) she met with between April 1988 and September 1989. Her extraordinary book, THE GIFT OF LIFE, describes the daily life of these female curanderas and the story of how they became healers, and includes black and white photographs of their mesas (curing altars) and healing herbs (plants such as the San Pedro cactus). Glass-Coffin's background in anthropology and her accounts of her experiences living in Peru as she grew up give this book a unique feeling of personal relevance and social perspective.

I was impressed that THE GIFT OF LIFE does not shy away from describing the ways curanderas have used their spiritual powers on some occasions for sorcery. Glass-Coffin describes "dano" as intended harm by sorcery, and tells stories and includes pictures of how Peruvians have discovered and dealt with the harmful magic of others. She also describes some of the differences between male and female healers in Peru -- such as the way female curanderas tend to involve patients more directly in their healing. I was also impressed that Glass-Coffin described her own personal involvement being healed by curanderas, giving this book tremendous warmth. The first-hand accounts of what it feels like to suffer as the recipient of a dano help the reader better understand the way our thoughts and feelings affect one another.

I give this book my highest recommendation to anyone who is interested in ancient traditional ways of healing, wishes to know what is unique about women healers, and is intrigued by reading stories about how our thoughts and feelings affect others.

We have all enjoyed the charming and entertaining look at sorcery and witchcraft as experienced by the fictional Harry Potter. No less interesting and fascinating is Bonnie Glass-Coffin's realistic look at sorcery and shamanism as they exist in South America today. "The Gift of Life" incorporates Glass-Coffin's extensive research as a talented anthropologist with her own personal healing experiences to produce a highly readable and well-documented book on female shamans (healers) in Northern Peru. She provides a history of sorcery and healing in South America, a contextual explanation and description of the healing practices of five different female shamans she met while in Peru, and an examination of gender and socioeconomic differences in the world of spiritual healing. Academic rigor does not preclude a "good read". Scholars and general readers alike will be pleased with this book. When I loaned the book to a friend who has traveled in Peru, she returned it quickly, noting "This is too good not to have a copy of my own!" I recommend it highly.

I started reading GIRLS FOR BREAKFAST on the half-hour bus ride home, and I smirked all the way there. There's so much wicked humor in this book. I'm not Korean and I'm certainly not a guy, but I totally identified with Nick Park. He's both flawed and sympathetic. I laughed hard at his childhood memories of teaching fake martial arts to his friends, his mom's horrible cooking, and his incredibly embarrassing moments around girls and pretty much everyone else. Many times I was smiling and sighing, "Poor guy." Nick manages to come across both awkward and sweet. He seems real enough that I might run into him one day. I very much recommend this book.

I'm not a teen, but just feel like one, reading this excellent semi-autobiographical fiction. Funny and touching, reminiscent of "A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius" by Dave Eggers, but for teens. This quick paced books will make you laugh, grimace in embarrassment and shared angst, and root, root, root for Nick.

David Yoo's novel feels a little overextended: did he really have to begin the saga of Nick Park from all the way back in third grade? But in general he knows how to tell a story and capture the reader's attention right away. Nick doesn't have many Korean friends, and he's ashamed of the way his mother serves Korean kimchee with her cheeseburgers, ashamed of his dad's heavy accent. "Hey Mr Park," Mitch said. "Hello, Meech," my dad said. I flinched. Mitch and Paul laughed; they thought he was hilarious. His accent sounded more pronounced around my friends. Other Asian kids in the Korean church Nick sometimes attends call him a "banana," -- yellow on the outside, white on the inside. And yet Yoo makes Nick's struggles with his contested masculinity into a rewarding and heartwarming tale.

He's good at tennis, and that makes him a few friends. And he draws well, so he gets put in the poster club at high school--a wealthy suburb where some of his pals live in actual mansions: Paul's got an bowling alley in his basement. At the same time he is sometimes tolerated, but racist bullies make his life a hell, as when one know-nothing calls him "Long Duk Dong" after the comic exchange student from SIXTEEN CANDLES. Racial epithets fly all over the place in GIRLS FOR BREAKFAST, and there's no safe place for a boy like Nick. The girls he lusts after aren't all that interested in him, but there's always Miss January from an old issue of Playboy. She's been sitting in his closet for ten years or more, and whenever life gets tough for him, he hauls her out and starts spanking it. (In one amusing scene he looks up and finds the cat, Boris, has been watching him [...], so he pulls up his shorts and tries to distract Boris from this traumatic memory. Now, that's self-effacing!)

Apparently David Yoo had the great luck to be able to work with the late, great fiction writer Lucia Berlin, a lady who died way too soon and whose books (published by Black Sparrow and other midrange presses) are pretty much out of print, and who stands the risk of being forgotten. I think Lucia Berlin, one of the finest writers in recent memory, would have been proud of Woo her student; he shares something of her intense interest in humanity, her gifts of penetrating dialogue and concrete observation, and quite a lot of her big-hearted humor, the laugh that could warm one's bones. I expect that GIRLS FOR BREAKFAST, even with its occasional lapses in taste, and its infrequent longueurs, introduces us to a masterful voice.

I was pleasantly surprised by young master Yoo's book about a young Korean boy growing up in the stogy suburbs of Connecticut, going from confrontations with "those guys" to experimentation with women and sex David Yoo has done a great job with this coming of age story, it's got everything you would want in a book, from humor to drama. If you're interested in a great read, pick it up!!!

This is a wonderfully-written, highly-entertaining, and often hilarious novel. Nick Park's just a kid and he's just trying to get by. And yeah, he likes girls. It's nice to see a young adult book tackle the subject of blooming masculinity head on, and Yoo skillfully weaves the issues of race, gender, and sexuality into an intelligent, humorous story. The book will make you laugh throughout, and the ending is beautiful.

Our son (13 months) adores the beautiful faces of the babies in this book.

As the mom of a child adopted transracially, I love the kids of all colors and ethnic backgrounds.

I'll be giving this book as a gift to all the little ones I know.

my son, 15 mos, loves this book. he likes to look at pics of other kids. nice pics and simple text.

My eight-month-old son loves looking at baby photos now. This is a good choice, with photos from Guatemala, Thailand, Greenland, Mali, India, South Africa, Fiji, Peru, Afghanistan, Malawi, Spain, Iraq, Rwanda, Bhutan, and USA. The two USA photos are of a white boy and a Native American girl. I am still looking for a book with good mixed-race photos.

Even though I have read this book over and over and over again to my granddaughter throughout her first year of life, I always love looking at the beautiful babies from around the world. Babies in colorful clothing from such countries as Mali, Afghanistan, Iraq, Spain, Peru, Guatemala, South Africa, and India, delight the readers each time the book is opened. This is a great way to travel the world while sitting in a chair snuggling with baby.

We bought this book when my daughter was 4 months old, but it is only recently that she started picking it out for me to read to her. She laughs at the different baby faces, especially the boy sticking his tongue out, and it is one book that she wants to look at over and over. I love how diverse the book is, and the message is great. It would be a nice book for those doing an international adoption. Two pacifiers up!

I was diagnosed with Bipolar 1 about a year ago. In my path of recovery after a hospitalization and an attempt to learn more about my new "label", I came across this book suggested by a fellow manic-depressive. For me, reading this was almost painful. It was like putting a mirror of words in front of me and reminding me of myself and all the horrific ups and downs I had to experience. But I love it because for those wanting to understand the mind of a manic-depressive, I doubt there is a single book that could portray this better than God Head. I would hardly call reading it as being refreshing, but it is extremely insightful and shows you the reality of a crazed mind starving for balance and happiness.

A beautifully written book. An amazing true story, and a fascinating look into depression and mania. A story that has changed my life. Read it today.

I've been told by Docs that I too suffer/benefit from Manic-Depressive Disporder; BiPolar I.

This book is an excellent representation of the colossal richochet of bi-polar pendulum.

For those innocently ignorant, and often judgemental, people who want to know more... who want to know why...?

THIS IS THE BOOK TO READ.

in your brain when having a mental illness episode.

A must read!

God Head takes you INSIDE the mind of a mentally ill person, ie: the narrator of the story. This is the first book I have read to do this, and it makes for one crazy thrill ride. As you read from first person perspective you get to jump around with the craziness of the main character's head. Every loop and twist he takes you take, and every time he rambles insanely off track you follow.

Although it may sound strange, it isn't hard to get into at all. Honestly, I didn't put the book down from start to finish, it was excellent! It will have you totally absorbed and leave you with a refreshed and satisfied feeling of higher understanding.

If you haven't already added this book to your shopping cart... do so now!

The Golden Isles of Georgia are mysterious and fascinating. The Spanish moss, tabby walls, the "shout" of the Sea Island Singers, and cloudy past reach out to visitors today. The author of this book, a salt-water Geechee, grew up on Sapelo. Her story is wonderfully interesting. The beliefs of the slaves' descendants were so little changed for so many years. Traditions born in western Africa are still hanging on to life even today on Sapelo. I hope the government, even in the name of saving the environment, never succeeds in taking the land away from the Geechee families who lived such true lives there. Their life deserves to continue as long as their faith lives.

Being a life-long resident of the South Carolina Lowcountry, many of the things Bailey described in her book hit home. A fear of the otherworldly, grave respect for elders and ancestors, and contentment with life in its natural simplicity are telling traits that Bailey has really invested herself in the life she describes. The book shifts in interests as Bailey describes her experiences of reaching maturity in the natural, social, and spiritual senses, but her worldview remains consistent with the old traditions.

For those who are interested in the actual speech patterns of Geechee (or Gullah) people, this is not really the book for you. There are sparse renditions of the Lowcountry/Island way of talking, but one gets the sense that Bailey was a good code-switcher; indeed, any Geechee with solid home-training would try to avoid speaking with one's home accent in public. Nevertheless, the culture that came up with the language is presented panchronologically; the very distant past is treated with the same sense of importance as the events that took place during Bailey's lifetime, and just as much gravity is given to as much as she can foresee of the unknown future.

I really enjoyed this book. It gave me a sense of culture and was an excellent reference concerning the culture of the greater African-American culture overall. It is filled with lively stories, unforgetable anecdotes, thoughtful philosophizing, and hope.

This is a great book to learn about the culture, history and traditions of a Geechee community on Sapelo Island, GA. Compared to other books I have read about this area, Ms. Bailey really focuses on the folklore and superstitions that shaped life on this isolated island during the second half of the 20th century. Although some of these traditions continue, many are fading away as this unique community shrinks in size. Ms. Bailey considers it her duty to be a storyteller, to pass these stories down to whoever will listen, and to keep the traditions alive. Ms. Bailey succeeds by telling her story with a vibrant narrative - a very fast and rewarding read.

Part memoir, part cultural history, part plea on behalf of a fragile culture, God, Dr. Buzzard, and the Bolito Man is as affecting as the best magic realism. You do not simply read it, you savor it and absorb it into your very soul.

In the book, Cornelia Bailey, resident griot of Sapelo Island off the Georgia coast, spins the story of her growing up in that place and in a time when lives were governed equally by religion, magic, and chance. She admits us deep into the culture of her proud people and introduces us to folkways strong enough to have survived the Middle Passage and the centuries since. So it is with infinite sadness we learn that the forces of progress are rendering these same folkways as fragile as a paper-thin fig shell that washes onto the beach.

It goes without saying that God, Dr. Buzzard, and the Bolito Man will appeal to cultural historians, anthropologists, naturalists, and environmentalists. The book's strongest appeal, however, will be to lovers of lyrical prose -- and to anyone who delights in the sheer magic of the way words fall on the ear and follow one another on a page.

This is a special book, one that should find a home on every reader's short shelf of well-thumbed volumes that are read and referenced time and again.

God, Dr. Buzzard, and the Bolito Man transports the reader to the Georgia sea islands. You swear you can smell the marsh, hear the sea birds cry and taste the sweet potatoes. The writing is so pure and the people so true that you come away afraid of Mama Lizzie, furious at Bukra and proud of Grandma when she faces down the deacons. The issues the book tackles are important - ownership of the land, the insidious effects of slavery, the origins of sea island culture in Africa - but it is also a book that captures your heart. A must for anyone who is interested in people. Highly recommended.

We chose my sister-in-law to be our baby's godmother and she had some questions about what it entailed. I got this to pass along to her to answer some of her questions. This book covers many perspectives, from various religious veiwpoints to more secular ways of looking at godparenting. I found the personal accounts to be the most helpful in explaining how we felt about baptism and godparenting ourselves. I think this book could be helpful to anyone baptizing a child.

I received this book as a gift from my Godson and ended up purchasing it for my Godmother! It is written from the heart and is a delightful read.

Compact, informative book for someone expecting a baby and the role they would want a godparent to play; someone deciding whether or not to accept the responsibility of godparenting; or someone needing to re-address the role. The personal stories quoted in the book from godparents and godchildren were very touching.

What a wonderful book -- a rich, fascinating history of the role of godparents, but written with a light, even funny touch. I got this for my daughter's godparents, and for my godchildren, and for my sister to give to her kids' godparents, and so on and so on. Thank you, author Michelle DeLiso, for pulling all this history and all these facts and so much wit together into such a great package.

I loved this book. It is well researched and provides wonderful information on the rituals and customs of introducing a baby into a family/community. It's a good read for the religious and non-religious as it covers all aspects of the subject. Tender stories from Godparents and Godchildren are woven into the book. You can get some good ideas on developing rituals and activities with your Godchild that become future cherished memories. It makes you stop and remember how precious an experience it is to Godparent a child. It is a delightful book to present as a gift to parents, Godparents, and Godchildren. A very good book!!

Watch Video Here: http://www.amazon.com/review/R2V2OD8UV4V65V Girlfriendology is a place for inspiration, appreciation and celebration of female friendship. While "Good Enough" mainly focuses on the cute trumpet boy and Patti's crush on him, it also offers up inspiration for high school students and grown ups who deal with the need to feel 'good enough.' PAULA YOO talked with Girlfriendology.com about her debut novel, similarities and differences between her and Patti Yoon and even played a beautiful violin solo for Girlfriendology.

Thanks PAULA YOO! For writing a wonderful book and for taking time to talk with Girlfriendology!
[...]

GOOD ENOUGH by Paula Yoo is the story of Patti Yoon, a Korean-American girl struggling to meet her strict parents' demands, and trying to find herself during her senior year of high school. A straight-A student, and master violinist, anyone would think that Patti has a bright future ahead of her. However, it is simply not good enough for her parents. She must get a 2300 or above on her SATs, participate in every church activity, and get into Harvard/Yale/Princeton.

However, this plan is put a little bit off track when Patti meets Ben Wheeler, a trumpet player in her state orchestra. Ben exposes her to new music, a new crush, and new dreams. Patti begins to wonder what life would be like without the perfect plan, without Harvard/Yale/Princeton, and with her love of music to guide her down the right path.

Will her passion for playing the violin trump all the demands her parents make of her? Will she turn out fine without attending the perfect college?

GOOD ENOUGH is a hysterical, wonderful book with a lovable main character and realistic situations. With chapter headings inspired by Spam and the SATs, teenagers will find it easy to relate to Patti as she sets off on a righteous path of self-discovery. One thing's for certain: GOOD ENOUGH is more than good enough. It's a fantastic, unique book that will keep you laughing long after your first read.

Reviewed by: Amanda Dissinger

Patti Yoon has been trying 110% all her life- in school, at the youth group, with the violin, and also generally avoiding boys (they will distract her from her studies, her parents say). Playing the violin though brings Patti into this new world, where pressure doesn't exist and it's just brilliant music. And after winning the title of assistant concertmaster instead of the actual concertmaster (which she has been for the past 3 years) as well as meeting Cute Trumpet Guy, it all sets off a chain of events that lead Patti into learning that she needs to think about what she wants rather than what other people want from her.

In Paula's debut book for the YA audience, she writes extremely effectively about an overworked, pressured girl finding her way in the world. One of the things that really pulled me into the book was the whole music aspect- it was so prominent in this book, and I don't think I've seen any book that puts this much emphasis on it. It was great to read about Paula's passion, and it definitely came through as a big passion. Also adding to the story were occasional footnotes (which is one of my fave things to see in novels), Top 10 lists, and Korean recipes featuring Spam. The characters are all well-drawn and fun to read about, especially Patti, and make this book a real page-turner. This is one book you don't want to miss from an author I'm sure you'll be hearing more from in the future!

This book is smart, funny, and genuine. If you are, were, or know an intelligent, driven teen this one's for you!

This stand-out debut novel clearly benefits from Paula Yoo's own life experiences, but is a delightful and engaging piece of fiction unto itself. Like all good speechwriters and storytellers, Paula Yoo opens with a joke, and you're rooting for her heroine Patti Yoon by the bottom of Page One. Cute boys were certainly the center of MY Universe in high school, and Patti's constant distraction by Cute Trumpet Guy is both believeable and, thanks to Yoo's evocative writing, totally understandable.

Immediately and firmly planted in her world, the reader is thoroughly invested in Patti's struggles, and ultimately in her triumphs. Yoo exposes issues of pressure and prejudice with honesty, and Patti learns to stand up against them, pleasing both herself and her reader. I've never even so much as handled a violin, but Patti is such an authentic and accessible character that I, too, found "the scent of rosin dust and the varnished maple wood of [her] violin" comforting. I have just finished the book and am on a trip, but when I return home I plan to try Patti's mom's spam recipe number 3, Spam Kimbap, and in my opinion, any book that can sell me on the idea of buying spam has definitely taken its reader into a new world and gotten its message across.

In addition to brains and talent, there is beauty, strength, and joy in home-perm survivor Patti Yoon, and it's a true pleasure to be with her when she discovers and embraces these qualities. "Good Enough"'s message of self-discovery and empowerment is one all teens should hear, and Paula Yoo deserves the critical praise she is receiving for her artful delivery of it.

What we have here is a collection of historical material that was originally published in three separate volumes. Robert Lacey introduces it with some especially interesting comments: "There may be such a thing as pure, true - what actually, begin italics] definitely [end italics] happened in the past - but it is unknowable. We can only hope to get somewhere close. The history that we have to make do with is the story that historians chose to tell us, pieced together and filtered through every handler's value system." With that acknowledgment, Lacey then reassures his reader that the tales he shares are true, based on "the best available contemporary sources and eyewitness accounts" rather than on revisionist versions decades and even centuries later. his approach to this book was not cynical: "it is written, and recounted for you now by an eternal optimist - albeit one who views the evidence with skeptical eye...the things we do not know about history far outnumbers those that we do. But the fragments that survive are precious and bright. They offer us glimpses of drama, humour, incompetence, bravery, apathy, sorrow, and lust - the stuff of life. There are still a few good tales to tell..."

Each of the hundreds of tales Lacey shares averages 3-5 pages in length and covers a period that begins with "Cheddar Man" (c. 7150) and concludes with "Decoding the Secret of Life " (1953), indeed offering "a treasury of true stories about extraordinary people - knights and knaves, rebels and heroes, queens and commoners - who made Britain Great." Before reading this book for the first time, as I always do, I checked out the table of contents and then began to cherry pick entries that immediately caught my eye, such as "The Legend of Lady Godiva," "Murder in the Cathedral," "Geoffrey Chaucer and the Mother Tongue," "Thomas More and His Wonderful `No Place,'" "Elizabeth Queen of Hearts," "Sir Francis Drake and the Spanish Armada," "Isaac Newton and the Principles of the Universe," "Thomas Paine and the Rights of Man," "Rain, Steam, and Speed - the Shimmering Vision of J.M.W. Turner," The Greatest History Book Ever," and "The Battle of Britain - the Few and the Many." Reading those took less than an hour so the next time I took up the book, reading other accounts that dated from "The Legend of Lady Godiva," c. AD 1043. Then I eventually returned to re-read "Cheddar Man" (c. 7150) and the accounts that followed. In the future, I will probably re-read all of the accounts (nor more than two or three at a time), with the selection depending on my mood of the moment and what interests me then.

Here in Dallas, we have a "Farmers Market" area near downtown at which merchants graciously offer slices of fresh fruit as samples. In the same spirit, I now offer a few "slices" of Lacey's wit and style, provided in chronological order.

"...in the village of Berkeley, tales were told of hideous screams ringing out from the castle on the night of 21 September and some years later one John Trevisa, who had been a boy at the time, revealed what had actually happened. Trevisa had grown up to take holy orders and become chaplain and confessor to the King's jailer, Thomas Lord Berkeley, so he was well placed to solve the mystery. There were no marks of illness or violence to the King's body, he wrote, because Edward was killed `with a hoote brooche [meat-roasting spit] put into the secret place posterialle.'"(Piers Gaveston and Edward II, 1308)

"Many of Caxton's spelling decisions and those of the printers who came after him were quite arbitrary. As they attached letters to sounds they followed no particular rules and we live with the consequences to this day. So if you have ever wondered why a bandage is `wound' around a `wound', why `cough' rhymes with `off', while `bough' rhymes with `cow', and why you might shed a `tear' after seeing a `tear' in your best dress or skirt, you have William Caxton to thank." (William Caxton, 1474)

"Imagine that you have been devoting your principal energies for nearly twenty years to a Very Big Idea - a concept so revolutionary that it will transform the way the human race looks at itself. And then one morning, you open a letter from someone you scarcely know (someone, to be honest, you never took seriously) to discover that he has come up with exactly the same idea - and has picked you as the person to help him announce it to the world." (Charles Darwin and the Survival of the Fittest, 1858)

"Winston Churchill wrote all his own speeches. He would spend as many as six or eight hours polishing and rehearsing his words to get the right impact - and it was worth the effort...He cracked jokes: `When I warned them [the French government] that Britain would fight on alone whatever they did,' he related at the end of December 1941, `their generals told their Prime Minister and his divided Cabinet, In three weeks England will have her neck wrung like a chicken. `Some chicken! [Pause] Some neck!'" (Voice of the People, 1945)

I envy anyone who shares my interest in English history who has not as yet begun to explore the material that Robert Lacey has so carefully assembled and then presented in this volume.

A very good first approach to English history. Summarizes its milestones and adds some notes of colour. The shortness of the stories doesn't allow for in-depth analysis, but the book provides an excellent overview and lots of references for further reading.

A great read! All the interesting bits of British history that were left out of the history books.

I am a history buff and a teacher and this book is ideal if you're both or either!
Great story-telling and SO readable.
These tales very from one page to about eight pages at most. In other words, they are easy to tackle before bed or use with a class to discover British history and famous Britons.
Lacey knows his stuff and knows how to entertain - a wonderful combination.

This is a most interesting and amusing book. Since each episode is only a few pages long, one can read a short time or long time, without losing the thread of the story. I have given it as a gift, and the recipient shares my high opinion of the book.

Hey i loved reading the boook Heven Shop, I never wanted to put it down it rocked it was so fantasicing!!! I have loved all of your books that I have read!!!
Carly.....13yrs Ontario

The heaven Shop, By Deborah Ellis is about a 13- year old girl, Binti Phiri who works at a popular radio show called, "Gogo's Family," to help earn for the family. Binti lives with her brother, Kwasi, her older sister, Junie and her father, who earns money for the family by making coffins at his shop, The Heaven Shop. Binti's mother had died of AIDS when Binti was a child. As a responsible and typical child, Binti is shocked to hear her father has also passed away, because of the same horrible disease: AIDS. Now, Binti is only an AIDS orphan, separated from her Kwasi and forced to live with her Uncle Wysom and Aunt Agnes. Junie's fiancé's, Noel, breaks up their engagement because as said by Noel her family had been "tainted by AIDS." At Binti's new home she and her sister are treated worse than slaves and are forced to give up all their belongings to Aunt Agnes' daughters. Leaving school, Junie runs away from her new home at the urge of finding a new job and leaves a note commanding Binti to go to her Gogo (grandma) who is looking after a group of AIDS orphans and young homeless people (pg. 105). Once again at a new home, Binti meets 13 year old Memory, who already has a child due to Memory's uncle (an HIV positive), who thought raping a virgin will cure AIDS. Binti learns her sister had become a prostitute at one point (pg. 169) and takes help from Jeremiah, an HIV positive man, who helps Binti, find Junie (now HIV Positive) and Kwasi. Kwasi, Junie, Memory and Binti now start a profitable business of coffins to help improve the condition of the AIDS orphanage. They name their business, The Heaven Shop.

The story of Binti a young radio actress. She has no mother and her father dies. Her family is split between relatives, can she get them together again?
A wonderful book. I gives you a childs point of veiw of the aids crisis.
It is well written and apropriate for children and adults alike.

This book is about a girl Binti, living in Malawi in Africa. Her mother died from a disease called Aids. She comes a poor family. She has a brother Kwasi, sister Junnie and her father in her family Every Saturday she goes to her radio studio and earns some money for the family. Her father runs a coffin shop, which is called "The Heaven Shop."

When her father dies of Aids she has only enough money to pay for his funeral. But when her grandmother Gogo says that her father died of Aids she is treated badly by all her relatives. Her whole family is split apart and Binti vows that she will find her brother who as been sent away to their Aunt. But from now on Binti is sent to live with her Aunt and Uncle who are incredibly rude and obnoxious and will not go near her just in case she might have Aids. Their children play horrible tricks on her. She gets hit with a fly swatter almost every day. "No!" she said that was enough so Binti and her sister decide to run away. But her sister has to find work and Binti has to go on her own to Grandmother Gogo's house.

Binti has to find her way to safety but without her sister or her brother. It's very hard for her and she has to face many challenges. When she gets to grandmother Gogo's house she meets a girl who has Aids. She didn't get treated differently because of her positive attitude and she wouldn't let herself feel different to anyone else. So I think the moral of the story is no matter how different the person may look or if they have a disease or anything that makes them different you should always treat them the same
"Treat others the way you would like to be treated."

My favorite quote in this book was from grandmother Gogo it is
"In the old days, when there were still lions around, if a lion came into our village and carry away our young, we did not keep silent! If we were silent it would keep eating our children we had to make noise. We banged pots and yelled, there is a lion in the village! Then we could get rid of the lion and save our children. There is a lion in our village now. It's called AIDS. It carries away our children and our adults."





This is a very gripping book and it is very intense you will never want to put it down. It carries you away to another world. Here we are thinking that a holiday is fun and there they are thinking that getting some food is amazing! When you compare your life to theirs it makes you think how lucky you are and it makes you appreciate your life and the world around you.

How would you feel if you had AIDS and you were treated differently to others? I can tell you that. I would feel awful. I would feel as though I've been thrown into a ditch and left there. But like Binti and Memory I would pick myself up and carry on and not let myself or anyone make me feel different or be treated differently.

By: Rima (New Zealand)

This book is about a girl named Binti. Her father owns a shop called the Heaven Shop. Her mother died of a disease called Aids. Binti works for a radio show called Gogo's family. then her father dies of Aids. Her sister and her brother loose everything. Her sister and Binti go to their Uncle's,where they work in the bar that they own. Their brother on the other hand got to their Aunts where he gets caught stealing and gets sent to jail.He only stole the food because they were starving him, he was better feed in the jail.Everyhting goes to their releatives, they manage to save alot of money and then of course they find it. Binti and her sister escape and got in search for their grandmother, Gogo. Her sister takes of elsewhere. Later she comes back HIV positive. Binti meets a girl her age Miracle that has AIDS and is still strong. She even has a baby with AIDS. in the end they all get united. t didn't matter that her sister was HIV positive and that their parents both die of AIDS. When you read this book it will take you on an adventure that discovers that it doesn't matter if you have AIDS or your HIV positive, just live your life to the fullest because you never know when it might end. Your still the same person inside whether you have a disease or not.Trust me you will not want to put this book down i know i didn't.Go ahead take a chance read it it will truly change the way you think about something.

Jesse Stuart was a great author who lived an amazing life. His family was very poor, and though they loved the land they could never hold on to one piece of it. His parents had no book learning. Mr. Stuart went to incredible lengths to get a very extensive education but never lost his love of the beautiful farmland and wildland of the mountains. Once he had money, he set out to buy every piece of land his father had farmed. He stayed friends with the simple folks he knew when young. This book tells they story of both sides of the world he grew up in, the town, with its school and fancy people, and the hills with the plain folks he loved so much. In later life he travelled around the world telling others about the beautiful country and genuine people he grew up with and trying to fight poverty and ignorance. I am so glad "Hie to the Hunters" is still in print so young people will remember this amazing man and his world.

I read this book as a teen and have never forgotten it! It is probably the best book I have ever read and I recommend it highly to readers of all types of books. They won't be disappointed. However, they may cry! I know I did.

This is one of the most heart warming stories I have ever read. I am 64 years old and read this book when I was about 12 years old and it has stuck with me for many years. I am buying one for my Grand Children to read and hope they find the love, trust and beauty that I found in these pages.

I've read this book many times and it still brings Laughter and tears into my life. The witty "Sparkie" charactor is a Southern down to earth no nonsense fellow with a heart as big as Texas.Put yourself into this book once and take it for a spin.

I first read Hie to the Hunters as a young boy. I still read it every other year or so. This is a young person's book with many adult lessons. Sparkie is a 16 year-old, tobacco chewin', fox huntin', overgrown teenager from the hills of Kentucky. He rescues Did Hargis from two bullies who are using him for a punching bag, and takes him home to the hills. Did is a soft city-slicker kid who is the resident poster boy of the local school. When Did first meets Sparkie's father "Peg" and mother "Arn" he is amused at their homey mannerisms and country ways. But Did soon learns that all knowledge is not found in books. He learns from his new family more than he had ever learned from his own father who operates the local hardware store. He even learns to sleep in the barn's hay loft with a hound dog or two for a blanket. Sparkie and Did coon hunt, fox hunt, and run a trap-line together. At first Did is all thumbs, but he soon learns the tricks of being a mountain-man and fits right in.

Meanwhile, a feud is brewing between the fox-hunters and the tobacco-growers. The tobacco-growers blame the fox-hunters for letting their hounds run through their tobacco and so they set out poison in the tobacco fields. In retaliation, tobacco barns start going up in flames one by one. Also, Did's dad isn't too happy about his leaving home to live among these "backward hillbillies" and gets the sheriff and town locals after Sparkie's folks. Did wants to stay, and the result is a cornfield fight between the mountain people and the city people. The mountain folk are at the annual corn-shuckin' when trouble breaks out. Did has just found a red ear (and thereby earned a kiss from his girl) when his dad and half the town come over the hill. Corn-stalks, fists, and insults are flying all around that night, but the issue still isn't settled.

There's much more to read about in this warm, moving, fictional account of two boys from different worlds learning how to be men together. The language in the book reminds one of the movie Sergeant York. If this all sounds interesting, believe me, this book is fun, action-packed, and moving. I recommend it to anyone who longs for simpler days and true family values. Hie to the Hunters is a classic.

--Note: Update of earlier posting