Senses Books

The moment I recieved 'The Older Brother Returns' I had a very hard time putting it down. I laughed. I cried. It is very thought provoking. I want to send a copy to every one I know. This is the type book you just don't let out of sight. It is extremely inspiring, as I have said. I absolutely reccommend this to anyone down on themselves, down on life, down on the upcoming year, with all the hoopla you hear coming from the media. This book will turn your life around. It did mine.

What a timely gift for all who seek to express God's loving heart in our day! Author Neal Lozano has served as an instrument of the Great Physician in providing a healthy dose of medicine for the soul and spirit. It is a very fitting book to read as we prepare for the new millennium. As Pope John Paul II urged recently, "Let no one behave like the elder brother in the Gospel parable who refuses to enter the house to celebrate (cf. Lk. 15:25-30). May the joy of forgiveness be stronger and greater than any resentment." THE OLDER BROTHER RETURNS is an excellent means to apply that timely message -- and the classic story about the prodigal son and the older brother (in all of us!).

Award-winning poet Wayne Miller presents Only the Senses Sleep, a compilation of free-verse poems revolving around the theme of night. From the quiet that pervades a nighttime apartment to silent snowfalls and the ferocity of an ice storm, Only the Senses Sleep sublimely captures a wide range of environmental experiences in the dark that pervade the corners of human consciousness. "November Wind": Immured here / by infinitely minute and endlessly exact details - // Air ink-rolls the water, where far off / a trawler's anchored by a cloudlike net. // A curtain blows through a window, / gray (damp) along the bottom lace. // Cars in the street like hollowed cells, / their passengers naming certain stops // arrivals. To name these arrivals - / a ship, a curtain a face - your soul trailing // like a net. The ice wind cuts through. / Yes, to speak it now, and thus absolve it // like a read word. Or else there's no wind, / just the whipping of your shirt.

Wayne Miller's poems, with steady voice, concise language, distinct images and a nuanced sense of poetic tradition, gives the reader clarity without sacrificing depth. The reader is always spoken to in a human voice (which is rare in contemporary poems), and so we come away from each poem having listened. One of the best first books of poems I've read in quite a while. Highly recommended.

> "A good friend of mine gave me this book - I thought it was a joke until I read the first 3 pages .... I read it and realized like everything else I was pushing through it - I have since stopped after a few pages to absorb what I have read ... it's like looking in a mirror .
Now, I'm getting copies for my daughters, sisters, and some of my friends."
And I am still overfunctioning but I am now paying attention - and who knows what may happen next?

This is to all the people who are females or who know a female they
care about or are married to or whatever their situation is. This book is a must read. Once you start reading it, you can't put it down. It is an
awesome book. You will see things differently after reading it. Even
guys could learn a thing or two on why woman do what they do.

This is one of the best, most thought-provoking books I own. The essay on Reagan and the virtual is fascinating, as is the essay on the color blue. The guy blows me away. He doesn't just slavishly repeat Deleuzo-Guattarianisms like you might expect. He takes from them and then participates in the creativity that they inspire. I particularly like the way that he uses such real things to discuss the "philosophical." Indeed, Massumi does express a higher empiricism (one unencumbered by prefabricated categories and other forms of abstraction).

While many philosophical texts can lay claim to a good cerebral work-out Massumi makes sure you don't forget that the body and sensation are very much part of this process. As he says "There is no thought that is not accompanied by a physical sensation of effort of agitation, (if only a knitting of the brows, a pursing of the lips, or a quickening of the heartbeat). This sensation, which may be muscular,...tactile, or visceral is backgrounded. This doesn't mean it disappears into the background. It means that it appears as the background against which the conscious thought stands out: its felt environment." These musings on the sensations and functioning of the body are not without larger consequence. Massumi elequently re-introduces movement, dynamism into the static and spatially orientated positional grid that is the basis of much analysis.

This book was written by my father & I think that he did a wonderful job. If you liked this book, you should check out his new book entitled-"Never Walk Away".

Crawford W. Loritts challenges "fruitless and aimless" Christians "To, once and for all, as an act of the will to dedicate all that we have and are to Jesus Christ." He observes that the majority of Christians have never made that decision and then are bewildered that they feel lifeless, purposeless, and without direction. He defines the problem and shows us the Biblical solution to it. If you want to get your spiritual train back on its track, you will be glad you found this powerful little book. He backs up his teaching with scripture and deals with the issues that bring passion and purpose back into the Christian life.

An excellent compendium of leading thinkers on the ills that plague us. Not only do they accurately point out the flawed policies that have gotten us into the mess we are in right now, they give us solutions that work. A must read for anyone who cares about the future of this country.

We are making all the wrong decisions. It is our democracy. We have to take it back. The sound-byte political debates offer slogans and marginalize comprehensive thinking. It is a very dangerous time. America is being aggressive to "spred" democracy around the world with our out-of-control materialism. It can't work. One can't spred democracy with military violence and nonsensical materialism. Does the rest of the world really need 25 brands of toothpaste, but without adequate affordable dental care as we have in the United States?

[This review was first published in the "Ephrata (Pa.) Review."]

All of Ehlert's productions are cornucopias of color, shapes and textures, and "Pie in the sky" is no exception. A girl and her father watch a cherry tree evolve from winter's bare branches to summer's wealth of "rubies," (which they tuck between crusts). Assorted creatures come and go, from tiny ladybugs to a masked "thief."

Ehlert's bold collages use an assortment of materials. Corrugated cardboard, handmade papers from five countries, wood veneers, sheet metal, wires, balsa wood, wax paper, and cherry tree branches are among the items used in "Pie." Quite a recipe!

Movement, color, unique page formatting, and a mysterious blend of words and images launch the first few pages of this imaginative, exceptionally well-illustrated book for kids. Besides an abstract picture of a tree trunk with a caterpillar and a purple, turquoise, and white/translucent dragonfly, the unnamed narrator informs us: "This tree was here when we moved in." On the next half page insert, the caterpillar is further up the tree, and the narrator says, rather mysteriously, "Dad says it's a pie tree." Turn the last half-page insert, and small red dots with tiny black eyes-ladybugs-join the caterpillar on the tree trunk. There's another engaging "hook" in large letters: "I've never seen pies growing on trees. Wouldn't that be something?"

Except for the initial inserts, every page of author/illustrator Lois Ehlert's unusually compelling nature/mystery book is increasingly elaborated but similarly formatted: There's an eye-dazzling collage, a one or two-sentence narrative that hints at the tantalizing but puzzling prospect of a "pie tree," and smaller-font prose poetry that references the collage and doubles as a vocabulary builder:

I see
green leaves,
white blossoms,
yellow pollen dust,
blue eggs
In a brown nest,
yellow honeybees,
and black stripes
On a yellow
Butterfly.
But no pie.

Ehlert's collages use a variety of materials-including origami papers, wood veneers, vellum, sheet metal, cherry tree branches-to complement her acrylic, watercolor, colored pencil, oil pastel, and crayon drawn illustrations. The result is an incredibly textured group of collages that are among the best illustrations of 2004. Somehow, they're abstract and realistic, brilliantly colored, and gracefully beautiful without being precious or too delicate. The story is similarly well balanced: The paean to nature is evident ("Sweet spring is here at last" .... "But now a damp wind is blowing, and all the flower petals are falling down like rain"), but just when things threaten to become overwrought, the child's voice returns, and the mystery of the pie tree is solved: It's a cherry tree, and birds and butterflies and even a raccoon ("But, hey, raccoon, save some for us!") have already begun their "feast." Now it's the child and his or her dad's turn, and the book concludes by showing the preparations for a very cherry-filled pie. It is, after all, a pie tree.

An outstanding picture book, with an original story and excellent pedantic value as well (i.e., all that vocabulary building and object searching), this is one pie in the sky that delivers. Definitely recommended.

I have 3 children and I've read all the "how to" books I could in many subjects thoughout my 18 years as a parent. I found this small book in the library and I'm sad to see it's not printed new. They should bring this book out to publish again! It's old fashioned , right to point and a simple read. Many parenting troubles can be solved by having our children "pitch in"! I'm not even sure Mr. Spellman knows how this book is really much more than a book on teaching chores. It teaches love, sharing,helping and so much more. Not only did I get my children to help more but they have become so confident!! And a pleasure to be around. We have fun as a family..... thankyou Charles Spellman.

I have 3 children and I've read all the "how to" books I could in many subjects thoughout my 18 years as a parent. I found this small book in the library and I'm sad to see it's not printed new. They should bring this book out to publish again! It's old fashioned , right to point and a simple read. Many parenting troubles can be solved by having our children "pitch in"! I'm not even sure Mr. Spellman knows how this book is really much more than a book on teaching chores. It teaches love, sharing, helping and so much more. Not only did I get my children to help more but they have become so confident, and a pleasure to be around!We have fun as a family...thankyou Charles Spellman!

anyone who works with preschoolers should read this book. written by two experts in the field, it provides some nice insights into ways to reach kids of this age. pick it up and share with your friends!

Play, Projects and Preschool Standards: Nurturing Children's Sense of Wonder and Joy in Learning reviews state early learning standards for the very young, linking these standards with existing curricula and surveying projects and play activities which support them. Preschool teachers and daycare centers concerned with early education receive an excellent survey based on expert insights which provides a variety of projects and activities to enhance early learning in all curriculum areas. It's a workbook of ideas pairing benchmark standards to realistic activities and will provide a wealth of easy ideas.

My daughter loves this book! She loves the different textures and loves the pictures of the different children!

My grandson, age 3, searches our children's library stacks for this every time he goes there. He loves it and I believe it is the forerunner of children's ability to read.