Editors Books

This book reminds me of Carolyn Myss's The Anatomy of the Spirit in that it elegantly and consisely draws the connections to the natural rhythms of the earth and to individuals. The author carefully constructs the foundation and then builds upon it. It is an inspiring invitation to connect oneself with the earth and with life itself.

"We want to allow ourselves to unfold, to let our magnificent, radiant selves shine in the world and to create all that we are meant to create..."
This is what each one of us longs for deeply and soulfully. Through Natural Rhythms Lisa Michaels offers us a powerful workbook, playbook and companion for living a full, passionate and creative life. She gently challenges us to consciously choose to face and unpack our blocks and to claim our most creative and expressive selves ... to live courageously and honestly ... to be present to the movement and dance of the elemental forces in each moment of our lives ... to accept and then to fully claim our co-creational capabilities and responsibilities.

Natural Rhythms provides an over-arching structure to looking at the wheel of the year, the phase of the moon and the cycle of life. I am moved to gratitude and joy by the simple grace and beauty of this book.

Barry Wellman "The network community". Wellman & Stephanie Potter "The elements of community". Wellman & Milena Gulia "The network basis of social support". Barrett Lee & Karen Campbell "Neighbor networks of Black and White Americans. Alexis Ferrand, Lise Mounier & Alain Degenne "The diversity of personal networks in France". Endre Sik & Wellman "Network capital in capitalist, communist, and postcommunist countries". Vicente Espinoza "Social networks among the urban poor in a Latin American city". Yanjie Bian "Getting a job through a web of guanzi in China". Janet Salaff, Eric Fong & Wong Siu-Lun "Using social Networks to exit Hong Kong". Shinsuke Otani "Personal community networks in contemporary Japan". Wellman & Gulia "Net surfers don't ride alone: Virtual community as community".

I've tried in this book to show what personal communities are like around the world. This is the first book to compare the personal communities of people around the world. The articles are written by residents of the countries described -- this is no view from afar. They show that major social differences between the First, Second and Third Worlds affect the opportunities and insecurities with which individuals and households must deal. The authors and I have also worked hard to make the articles stimulating and readable.

As the Internet moves us away from local neighborhoods, our personal communities -- the friends, relatives, neighbors and workmates we're linked to -- become critically important for using social networks to get social capital, find friendship, develop identities, and get civicly involved. Who we connect with profoundly affects who we are.

Barry Wellman, "The network community". Wellman & Stephanie Potter, "Elements of community ". Wellman & Milena Gulia, "Network basis of social support". Barrett Lee & Karen Campbell, "Neighbor networks of Black and White Americans". Alexis Ferrand, Lise Mounier, Alain Degenne, "The diversity of personal networks in France". Endre Sik & Wellman, "Network capital in capitalist,communist, and postcommunist countries". Vicente Espinoza, "Social networks among the urban poor in a Latin American city". Yanjie Bian, "Getting a job through a web of guanzi in China". Janet Salaff, Eric Fong, Wong Siu-Lun, "Using social networks to exit Hong Kong". Shinsuke Otani, "Personal community networks in contemporary Japan". Wellman & Gulia "Net surfers don't ride alone: virtual community as community"

This work was eight years in the making and is truly a delight to own. I just purchased it and am very pleased with it. It is the counterpart to to Colin Brown's New Testament Dictionary in 4 volumes.

Wonderful new resource for Bible students. Includes an analysis of individual Hebrew words, topical studies, exegetical guide, and many more helpful tools.

Logos and Hermeneutica may do a better job, but for the price, it is a wealth of information. Try used for an even better deal.

The electronic format comes into its own with multi-volume works. Having a 5 volume dictionary on CD ROM is much more convenient than having to juggle with bulky books [much as I love the codex!]

If you have used the Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament, you will appreciate having this up-to-date, more comprehensive dictionary. Also included with the excellent lexical entries are articles about how to do Old Testament exegesis and stimulating introductions to the theology of each Old Testament book.

Very entertaining! It was a great surprise to find this gem from an unknown author. The characters are very real and engaged my interest. I laughed, cried and was captivated by the wonderful story. It caught my attention and held me right through to the last word. It was difficult putting the book down since the novel is written with each chapter leaving you wanting more. I would very much like to find more work by this author but haven't been able to find anything else. Highly recommended! Thank you.

Acting: Art of the Monologue by Frank Catalano.

If you are an aspiring actor you must read this book and you will go back to it a thousand times. Frank has a unique, ralaxed way of teaching and writing. After you read his book I'm sure you will wish you could attend his classes. I said an aspiring actor because I am one, but I really mean anyone can and will learn a great deal from this book. Don't wait. You will be many steps closer to succes with the use of this great book.

I have read many monologue compilations, but this one is excellent! The material is relevant and very good. I also loved the characters. Plus all of the pieces can be done together as a single work. Very cool book. I'd give it an A+ for originality.

No Ordinary Joe: A Life Of Joseph Pulitzer III provides a very fine scholarly biographical survey of the man who created the widely known Pulitzer Prize. Joseph was trained for succession to the Pulitzer media empire and worked hard to maintain his family's paper's liberal philosophy even as competitors began mixing news with entertainment. His many achievements in the newspaper world are detailed alongside interviews with over seventy who knew or worked with him: the result is a study spiced with personal insight and celebrating Pulitzer's impact on the publishing world as a whole.

No Ordinary Joe: A Life Of Joseph Pulitzer III provides a very fine scholarly biographical survey of the man who created the widely known Pulitzer Prize. Joseph was trained for succession to the Pulitzer media empire and worked hard to maintain his family's paper's liberal philosophy even as competitors began mixing news with entertainment. His many achievements in the newspaper world are detailed alongside interviews with over seventy who knew or worked with him: the result is a study spiced with personal insight and celebrating Pulitzer's impact on the publishing world as a whole.

As you watch the national news it is easy to see how the national organizations have blurred news and entertainment. Any attempt on their part to present all sides of a complex story disappears if they can find a blown up vehicle or an injured person. Politicans have learned that the few second sound byte has to convey the message they want or the message isn't getting on the air at all.

Further, there are only a handfull of newspapers that attempt to provide a full story. During the reign of Joseph Pulitzer III, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch was one of that handfull. Politically liberal, the paper prospered during the years that other newspapers were failing, merging or converting to tabloid style.

This biography of Joseph Pulitzer III covers his life, but his life was never far removed from the newspaper. This book presents the story of a man not seen so often. Trained by his father from birth to run the paper he had the problems of employees not liking his style, of friction within the rest of the family, and more. It is a fascinating story, well researched, and well told.

I just recently discovered this book and enjoyed it immensely. As my children are teenagers and leaving for college, many of her writings described so well the experiences we have had within our own family. You will enjoy it, and I'm sure you will identify with many of the pages, or will know a friend that will.

In these unusual and animated essays, nothing is ever quite as it seems.Mallet teaches us that families are mysterious and complex organisims, forever moving and changing and growing. The reader plunges into a beguiling drama featuring a constellation of relatives including sons, sisters and husbands; old-world Bobie; Aunt Izzie of the blueberry pies with crisscross crusts; the mother-in-law, Sarah, who loves Elvis; and Sarah's bookish Arthur, who keeps a bathtub mat by the front door. In this accelerated narrative, are the mysteries of growing up, growing old, and growing together. "At one time," Ms. Mallet writes, "I had all the answers." But she wisely decides, what endures is the passion for the whole enterprise. Her fast-forward chronicle of the perils of progeny encompasses the happiness and heartbreak that make up all families. But it does this so deftly, so lovingly, and so concisely, it is as if the reader had been given a flawless and heartfelt geographer's guide to the unchartered wilderness that is family. Her rich and glowing collection demonstrates that the besieged notion of family is---at least in this household---as strong and remarkable as ever.

Mallet gets at the essence of growing up and family life in this lovely little book. Mallet's former Cleveland newspaper columns were among the best Northeastern Ohio has ever seen and I miss them. It's a joy to have this book and get a taste of her sensitive, sometimes humorous and thoughtful writings again. An excellent book to take a break from the "fray" and look at the reality of living to its fullest.

by Daniel Cabot, Martha's Vineyard Times.
OBJECTS OF DESIRE is a book of essays--two dozen witty essays, a kind of polymorphic valentine from Ralph Graves to his wife of 45 years, Eleanor. The "objects" really are objects: cars, a cassoulet, sculptures, a bracelet, paintings, a wine rack, various dogs, a silver belt buckle. Each is in some way evocative of the flavor and spirit of what seems to us to have been an extraordinarily wonderful marriage. The objects are the objective correlative of the emotional, intellectual and spiritual aspects of their life together.
Ralph Graves is a witty and entertaining raconteur, but more than that, as poets like Robert Frost are able to do, he takes ordinary objects and finds in them something more--about life together and about the human condition. The objects do more than call up the family story; they are touchstones to reflection and understanding.
Ralph and Eleanor are interesting people--bright, creative, talented, adventurous--who have lived interesting and intellectual lives. Their jobs at "Life" magazine and the style with which they live in New York City, on Martha's Vineyard, and in travels around the world, are interesting in themselves. But we found our interest in the insights of the thinker and the craftsmanship of the skilled essayist.

OBJECTS OF DESIRE uses what seems at first an implausible premise--that an object can tell the story of love. But as Mr. Graves writes about his or his wife's desire for an object, the circumstances surrounding its acquisition, and their enjoyment of it, we are drawn in to an understanding of the dynamics of the couple's long and tightly woven marriage.
The book is organized in a series of stand-alone chapters. Each chapter describes an object Mr. and Mrs. Graves treasure--a belt buckle, a painting, a swimming pool, a house, a table, a leather-bound book, a necklace.
Chapter 16, The Nine-Foot Table,exemplifies the give and take, the working together and the determination each brought to the marriage. Off and on for years--36 years, in fact--the couple searched for a nine-foot table to accommodate their large family. The search finally ended when Mrs. Graves found just what they wanted under a heap of display items. The story of the hunt for the table, its purchase, the farcical transporta-tion of the table from delivery van to upstairs apartment in an inches-too-small freight elevator, closes with a comment from the building superintendent, "If you ever sell this apartment," he slaps the table, "this stays here."
Mrs. Graves describes her husband's book as "a valentine, a love letter." Mr. Graves says it is something more, "a portrait, through objects, of love and marriage and of the woman who is at the heart of both."
Mr. Graves has published three works of nonfiction and six novels.

By Cynthia Riggs, Vineayrd Gazette. At a time when more than half of all marriages end in divorce, it's heartening and more than a little reassuring to read this author's love letter to his wife of 45 years. Graves has written ten books, ranging from a novel about the Roman Empire to a murder mystery set on his beloved Martha's Vineyard. This is his most deeply felt and charmingly written book, as well as a portrait of the woman who has shared his life for so long. He tells much of their story through objects that have been important to them. Many of these are gifts. As he puts it, "Every present that is given in the course of a marriage makes a cumulative contribution to the marriage itself. Every gift must be personal."
He begings with a sterling silver belt buckle his wife gave him three years before they were married, and that he still wears. She still wears a bracelet that he bought her in Rome right after their marriage. He talks about the problems of finding the nine-foot-table they needed for their growing family, a Mustang convertible they had for 22 years and a number of dogs that have brightened their lives and broken their hearts.
This is, as he says,"A portrait of a love story and a marriage" and one that tells a great deal about what it takes to make a marriage work.

After chatting informally with George Scithers a few times in the rec.arts.sf.written newsgroup, I decided to get the book and read the answers to all the questions that I didn't dare blurt out in the newsgroup, primarily "how do you get published! "

This book did a wonderful job of showing me the other side of the desk, of what editors are looking for when they look at manuscripts and how to ensure the story you tell is the one that they absolutely must have. (It's not a formula book; it's showing how to shape your story so it fits the -story's- needs, rather than a preconceived notion of what the editor wants.)

Highly recommended.

This book is not only suited for people preparing their break-through as a science-fiction author. It
is as well suited for all who care about books and do not just simply want to consume them.
Instead of reading tons of boring theoretical papers on literature, those people should rather
consider reading this book. Besides a theoretical introduction, it contains commented short-stories.
A very good mixture.

The 1981 editors of Asimov's magazine use stories from their own periodical to illustrate some excellent points about how to write good science fiction. Do not worry if your stories do not involve robots and aliens, any fiction writer would find plenty to help here.

Despite the outdatedness, as the editors lecture on how to set your typewriter in order to produce clear manuscripts, using the short stories is a great idea. Even the stories' authors admit their work is flawed. Throw in a great bibliography and reading list, and some very funny observations from the editors about submissions (they are rejecting papers you typed on, not you personally) and this is a quick read and very informative. I highly recommend it if you can find it!

The only thing I have to add to Labradorman's review is that the social commentary in The Onion never crosses over into meanspiritedness (in case anyone was wondering). But its writers have an unerring eye in spotting and reporting the ridiculous wherever it may be found. The stories aren't real but most of them contain more than a grain of truth about our society.

My favorite Onion features are the regular columns written by fictitious characters who are part of The Onion's "Community Voices" - particularly the "gansta" Accounts Receivable manager Herbert Kornfeld and slacker Craig Anchower.

The Onion levels its aim at everything from pro sports teams to the loss of a "perfect" eBay feedback rating. It's a gem.

The Onion is by far one of the best publications out there today. I really don't have much else to say other than this package is a deal and will provide many hours of entertainment and biting social commentary.

For those of us who have long chuckled at the wry and winsome humor of the collective effort at the "Onion" website, this compilation of several earlier collections into one effort is a treasure trove of biting satire and clever use of modern language. Somehow the writers manage to tickle our funny bones as they educate and entertain us with their insight and insider's understanding of the madness know as politics, social farce, and correct cultural thinking. They most often approach the subject at hand via parody, and some of the finest I have ever read have been within their pages. They are almost monotonously brilliant, nearly uniformly informative, and best of all, universally irreverent. This is one to take to a trip to the rest room, folks, for it will have you enjoying life's most personal moments with tears of laughter the unavoidable net result.

The editors and writers at the Onion website, one of the most often visited such sites on the web; routinely attack the most sacred shibboleths and taboos of society, ranging from abortion to homophobia, from sexism to animal rights, and from racism to the dangers of cloning. One of my favorites is a tongue-in-cheek examination of the Canadians as though they were nothing more than closet Americans trying to rebel against the monolithic forces of our culture. To be sure, the humor that results is by its very nature often tasteless and even a little but crude, so if you have a delicate stomach or a fragile disposition this collection of satiric pieces culled from three previous collections may not be something you would enjoy. But those of us with a taste for such bawdy fare will read the pieces again and again, until the whole book gets a little dog-eared. Nice to have all this stuff in print and available for instant replay. Enjoy!

Pat, I have the hottest story for you. It is a true story. It deals with money, power and murder in Palm Beach, Fl. I would like you to e-mail me and let me know when you are going to be in the area. If you are not going to be in the area soon I would like you to make a special trip to Palm Beach on me. We could have lunch. I would really appreciate it if you could e-mail me with a response as soon as possible. Ted

Pat Booth became a household name with this novel, her first American published work. Five other UK published books preceded this one. It's clear to say she followed Jackie Collins' roman à clef style to pen (yet again) a wonderful wicked page-turner herslef. PALM BEACH chronicles the ups and downs of two misfits yearning to find one another despite the odds. Typical stuff you might say, but what sets the novel apart from the many paint-by-the-numbers releases out there is in its unique approach of style. Booth uses a lyrical undertone while building a richer and craftier plot. Indeed, she works hard to create a variation on the same theme. Make no mistake, PALM BEACH is a beach read: you get all the stereotypical fluff expected, but with an added edge to it that makes the reading experience all the more worthwhile. No wonder it became an international bestseller.-----Martin Boucher

Sun, sex, sin, and scandal in a small town with big money. Enjoyed the book!