By Class Books

Just a little words, great!, great! great!. Buy it.

This book was intense and for the most part I enjoyed it. At times it was powerfully eloquent and moved me to consider the seriousness with which I hold my convictions. For example, "...Christians are to become the sworn enemies of sin; they henceforth hold no parley with it, they will allow it in no shape, they will admit it to no composition; the war which they have denounced against it is cordial, universal, irreconcilable." However, I have few caveats. First, although there were plenty of powerfully written passages, there were passages that were unnecessarily florid and not particularly profound. Second, his approach seems unlikely to affect his intended audience, namely, nominal Christians. A nominal Christian will simply read this as the ravings of a religious zealot. Finally, like many of the puritan authors, Wilberforce can be excessive as he drones about the ills of civilization. This tends to facilitate a more bitter than salvation-oriented attitude toward society. Nevertheless, you won't be sorry for reading it, but I would recommend an edited version that still retains the original writing style, such as "A Practical View of Preferred Christians," published by Cosmo Classics.

My only regret is that they're all abridged. The three books are all great, just what I expect from Sandra Brown.

Gave the book as a gift...didn't read it but the reviews on it are great. I'm reviewing the bookseller. The book was here very quickly in excellent condition.

Author Barbara Ehrenreich spends a year as an experiment living on minimum wage and writing about it as a journalist. The book chronicles her year working in 3 states (Florida, Maine, and Minnesota) as, among other things, a waitress, maid, and Walmart employee. From the beginning she makes two caveats: that she has her own car (many minimum wage workers don't) and she won't go hungry (e.g. she will dip into her ATM before she will starve).

I thoughourly enjoyed this book. It was fascinating to see, fully see, another side of life that I thought I knew but really didn't. These people work hard, very hard, are good people, honest people and watch out for each other as best they can with what little they have.

Every dollar counts. I remember the Merry Maid who ate hot dog rolls brought from home for lunch because not only did she have no money, but no time since the work schedule was so tight. Decent housing is nearly impossible to find. All this and the author didn't even have to worry about chilcare costs. Everyone on minimum wage has to work at least two jobs to survive at even a subsistence level and live with friends, relatives, share a couch, a trailer. It's bad.

This book has changed my outlook toward minimum wage workers, made me a better tipper, and a much kinder and more thoughtful customer. I recommend it to anyone just as an aid to your humanity.

This was me! For those who reviewed the book and said that Ehrenreich was "unrealistic", I'm going to share my story. Several years ago my ex-boyfriend and I could have been in the book; we were each working a full-time job and he also had TWO part-time jobs at the same time (one after his full-time job and another on the weekends). Our jobs were in electronic sales at a big chain store and telemarketing which at the time paid $7.50 an hour. Yet we were still unable to make ends meet. After rent on our shoebox-efficieny apartment and utility bills, quarters for laundry and bus fare (we couldn't even afford a car! And even if we could have, we would not have been able to afford insurance AND gas.), we had hardly any money leftover for groceries and certainly NO money leftover for luxuries such as new clothes and new shoes (we did shop at thrift stores, but only when we really needed more outfits). After we ran out of selling our CDs, books, and magazines, which we sold for bus fare to be able to get to and from jobs, we resorted to selling plasma which paid $20 at the time and was enough for two weeks worth of groceries. Everything else that we owned, a mattress on the floor, linen, and kitchen supplies (which we deemed were the necessities) had all been purchased at a Goodwill also with the help of a friend of mine who worked there and used his employee discount for us.
I'm sure people would have thought my ex-boyfriend and I were lazy and "slackers" but we were working so HARD and pinching pennies and we couldn't understand why we still couldn't afford a nicer apartment, a car, decent clothes and to eat well. I shudder to think how much more of a hell our lives would have been if we had had children to boot!
Unfortunately the strain of our financial situation did our relatonship in. He moved back in with his single mother and I moved back in with my grandparents as we went our seperate ways. Sadly, living with my grandparents rent-free didn't really make my life easier. I was still working a minimum wage job and trying to save money while also helping them with expenses. Then the worst thing happened, I got another job in telemarketing and lost my voice completely two weeks into training which was followed by strep throat; this latest for a month! Needless to say I lost my job because I couldn't even make it through training. Of course I had no health insurance either. I realized there was no way I could ever afford a car to get a better job off the bus route or to move out into my own apartment anytime soon. Finally, I made the desperate decison to enlist in the Army.
My life is completely different now that I am out of the Army and a civilian again. From the Army I gained skills and knowledge in a specific field which are marketable and thanks to the Army College Fund and Montgomery G.I. Bill I am currently enrolled in a graduate program. Finanically I am better off now then I ever was in my life, but I never forget for a minute that I can end up again where I was before the Army, (selling plasma for food)...even with a Master's degree. Unfortunately there are countless reasons why some people would not be able to make the same decisions to join the military. For many people that is not an option. So where does that leave them?
I LOVE this book because I think it IS realistic and dead-on and I should know, I have lived it!

I was expecting this book to make us 'understand' ,not 'know', what it is like to be in a low wage job and more or less at the bottom of the economic chain. This book left a lot to be desired. The author never really 'lets go' and immerse herself in her situation. Rather, she stays high up on her perch, and passes judgment on everything that moves. How do we interpret her musings and thoughts and humor? Was it just to alleviate her pain arising from a situation (she makes fun of the 'rich' folks who employ 'poor' house-maids. While the humor was nice to read, what was she trying to convey in the page after page of sarcastic comments about the boss of the maid service? Wasn't he a product of the economic system as well?)
What I was looking forward to was someone who stood back and simply 'described', with the astute observational-eye of a Somerset Maugham or an R.K.Narayan - and let the reader interpret and judge. Instead the author fills the book with pages and pages of sarcasm and humor poked at someone or the other - management, the hotel owner (she even goes to describe problems with an East Indian marriage system !), the rich and even at the English language in Walmart's video material! The author behaves like a 'tourist' having a trip on her expensive car through 'poor town' and thinking that she is experiencing poverty. Poverty is more of a state of mind - of how the mind, in desperation, breaks down and accepts its surroundings without question. For some reason, the author simply finds this hard to understand and keeps questioning 'why the employees at Walmart don't form a union'.
Go ahead and the read the book - I do commend the author's courage in leaving her safe surroundings and living in poor conditions. But do not get swept away by the glowing reviews on the cover - they are by affluent reviewers who just want a vicarious peek at poverty.

This book was required summer reading before my freshman year at the University of Missouri. I was appalled to find after the first chapter or so a political undertone of liberals masquerading as journalists yet again.

Now I am a middle of the road individual, but my biggest pet peeve is when people are NOT UPFRONT with there intentions. It was the most hypocritical book I have ever read.

She does her best to point out how hard it is to get by on minimum wage with minimal education. She stays in these personas long enough to learn about her coworkers and show us how hopeless it is. Our lives are what we make of them not our jobs or money-I certainly hope I can not be reduced to a $ sign. Maybe if she lays off the drugs long enough she will stop blaming society for our problems and realize that it boils down to individual responsibility.

I say skip it, move on to something better. Especially if you're a new Sandra Brown reader. (as I am)

I read it in one day only because it was easy, not because it was good. I've only read about 12 of her books thus far, but usually with her novels, the characters come alive. They stick with you and you hold on to them and their story as though these were people you actually knew. Well I read this one about 3 months back, and I can barely remember it now. The general story, yes, but nothing stuck.

THE WHOLE TIME I WAS READING THIS BOOK, I KEPT THINKING ABOUT WHEN I WAS IN HIGH SCHOOL. ESPECIALLY ALL THE DUMB THINGS I DID TO TRY TO IMPRESS A CERTAIN GUY.
ANYWAYS I THOUGHT THIS BOOK WAS LESS THAN AVERAGE. FIRST OFF I DONT THINK DANI SHOULD HAVE LEFT WITHOUT TALKING THINGS OVER WITH LOGAN, BUT THAT DOES NOT EXCUSE LOGAN'S BEHAVIOR AFTERWARDS. I THINK IF THEY WOULD HAVE LEFT THAT SCENE OUT I WOULD HAVE GIVEN THIS BOOK AT LEAST 4 STARS.

Dani was such a wimpy heroine. It would have been much better if we had known WHY she acted the way she did and then proceed from there. And the way Brown talks about the characters, it sounded more like a 20 year reunion and not a 10 year reunion. I am sorry, but people don't change and accomplish as much as Logan did with as much hinderance as he had to get there, not even if you are driven as he was. I could understand it if it was 20 years later, but 10 years is way too soon. All in all, not a very well written book and definitely not up to her later standards.

I love to read anything written by her. I am a hopeless romantic and i just love the happily ever after ending of her books. This one was so great. I made you wish you had a long lost love like the characters. I recommend this book to anyone with a romantic heart.

It is with a heavy heart that Dani Quinn returns home to Texas to attend her 10 year high school reunion, where she runs into Logan Webster, with whom she shares a past. She is hoping to talk the now wealthy rancher into donating land for a charity which means a lot to her. Dani & Logan eloped after graduating and when her parents found out, the marriage was annulled before the wedding night since they deemed him unworthy of their daughter. At the class reunion, Logan proposes an odd bargain for the land she wants for her charity - he wants the wedding night they never got.

Though she agrees to his request, plenty of tension and plot devices scheme keep the two from consummating their agreement, particularly since Logan is convinced that Dani is harboring a dark secret. Turns out to be a pretty predictable and mild secret, but it wouldn't be a true Brown romance without a wrench tossed in to separate the lovers.

The premise is good, I like the characters, but the dialogue is kind of atrocious at times and the story just seems incomplete. Running at roughly 200 pages, it certainly could have used some padding to tell a more compelling story. Nevertheless, it is one of the better early Brown romance novels.

Hi,
the title "Programming by Examples" doesn't match to this book! Yes, it's right, there are a lot of examples provided with this book, but neither of the examples are discussed in detail, line by line!

Further, the example wizard (a tool helping you to copy the examples from the attached CD to your disk) was not really a good help. I tried to copy a Visual C++ project (A4) from CD to my hard-disk with the example wizard. But when I looked to the target folder, I didn't found the project as a I expected! Instead, I get the message "No example files to copy!". Everbody who tries this the first time is wondering about that behavior. The sample wizard is anything but not intuitive!

This book gives back a smattering introduction into the most important MFC-Classes, and a really confusingly introduction into the depth of the MFC message-handling. I read this chapter two times, but I didn't get the feeling that I got it. I'm convinced, that the author knows everything about MFC, but he does not impart the knowledge in a good way. The author is telling all the time about the handling under the hood of MFC. The main message is that most things are based on API-calls. But I wouldn't bought a book about API-programming. I'm more interrested in how I can use the MFC-classes. Afer reading this book you are questioning yourself, how can I apply the MFC-classes? The answer will be, I don't know.

Conclusion:
In my opinion, this book is too expensive to get only a lot of examples. Further, after reding this book, I was not able to use and apply the MFC-classes.

I've been programming in Visual C++ for 6 or 7 years and I'm the project manager for a fairly large project. This book is perfect for most of my developers, especially the newer ones, but even I have taken away some great knowledge from this book. In fact, the reference card in the front was worth the value of the book itself.

I'm always forgetting the exact sequence of messages and overrides for Window and Dialog creation and destruction. I used to have my own copy written down years ago and lost it, and I've never taken the time to go through it again. Having that is terrific. I have it hanging from the lamp on my desk.

Great book. Well written, and solid examples of writing good MFC code.

Sometimes the author shows the code you need to create a certain result and where to put it. Sometimes he does not. You have to do a lot of second-guessing when you read this book. I even tried looking through the CD to see if I could get the source code in context with the example application--na da, zip! Some of the code is outdated. If you are using Visual Studio 6 or later, forget this book. You will have tons of error messages. This is not the author's fault. This is the fault of those pointy-headed pinheads at Microsoft. They actually think changing the names of classes and functions is some sort of upgrade(lol). The book would be a lot better if it started with a simple application and expanded on that application showing where all the little code snippets go in the source files and how they work. Wouldn't that be nice?

While learning something new, it's always a dilema whether to learn concepts first, of whether to learn the application first. It's a lot easier, if you have a book like this, which maintains a proper balance for you.
language is good, examples are reasonably well structured, coverage is adequate. A great go for totally new beginner, but not much in for experienced one.
If you are starting with MFC, I strongly recommend this book for use and for ready reference.

I have been writing C/C++ programs for a long time, and I bought this book looking to go from console programs to graphical interfaces. I would not recommend this book for someone in this position. It has basic descriptions of various MFC classes and what they do, but not exactly how to use them. There is a gap between explaining the classes, and the examples, as the examples are complete programs that uses many classes put together.

For example, dialog boxes and control classes are described in Chapter 2, but the first example PROGRAM is in Chapter 5, after drawing, messaging, etc. I would have liked the book to say "Here is this drawing function, and this is how you intialize all of the MFC stuff to be able to use it." In fact, the book is more like "here is a list of drawing functions, some are used in Example X on page Z."

I suspect this book would be useful for a somewhat experienced MFC programmer but I wouldn't buy it as your first foray into MFC.

Robert Wolf, editor of American Mosaic, a wonderful collection of poetry, prose, short stories, essays and commentaries by ordinary people whose wisdom and grace are eaily ignored in contemporary American intellectual life, believes that anyone who can tell a story can write one. To prove his point, Wolf has undertaken a life's work of itinerant writing workshops, going to and settling in with people whose stories illuminate the vitality and struggles of daily life in small towns in rural Iowa, the Mississippi Delta, and river communities along the Mississippi from Iowa to Louisiana. Just as David Isay's and Stacy Abramson's powerful "Sound Portraits" on National Public Radio have given voice to a disparate array of unexpected and intriguing characters, Wolf's writing workshops produce first-person accounts of what it means to be an American--accounts which permit readers to escape the stereotypical portraits of the homeless, the rural poor, and the hidden denizens of small towns in America too frequently proffered by our mass media as truthful representations of American folksiness.
"Fragmentation, I have often thought, is the driving force of our time," writes Wolf in one of his commentaries in American Mosaic, "far more powerful than any integrating force." As Executive Director of Free River Press, the sponsor of these writing workshops which produced the book, Wolf has responded to his own critique by making the effort to bring people together, integrating their stories, rituals, and struggles with the sensibilities of readers who may never meet the people who grow the food for our tables, but through American Mosaic are given the opportunity to acknowledge their dignity, courage, and integrity.

Wolf's signature contribution to American Letters is that he records the voices overlooked by the vast majority of literary scholars. The custom of literature professors is to read and teach only the titles that appear on the best sellers list.

An American Mosaic: Prose and Poetry by Everyday Folks validates the voices from under the bridge. The homeless, prison inmates and Delta characters have no concept of first printing, publicity tours and critical reviews. Their voices accurately describe the deep currents of American life where real people are trying to keep their heads above water as they are swept along to an unknown American destiny.

As a reader, the selections are immediately accessible to all students who hear the ring of truth as the voices of farmers and rural residents cascade downstream in the American experience. Because the poems and prose pieces were not written to capture a share of the vast reader's market, the untrained authors write authentically as if they are in private conversation with real folks.

American Mosaic is also a great anthology for high school and college writing classes because students can easily pattern the natural rhythmns and tones of everyday people. American Mosaic's authors are not celebrities, many are not even good writers. Yet what they have written carries a valid reporting of real life. As one student blurted out, "I go to a church exactly like the one in "Church House Blues.

An American Mosaic is a must read and teach for writing and literature teachers desperate to find a text that a diverse student population can relate to. Bob Wolf has captured the very voice of Americans...Americans looking for an anchor in a safe harbor,

Joseph W. Warren, PhD
English Department
Andrews University
Berrien Springs, MI 49104

An American Mosaic, by Robert Wolf, is a collection of various writings through which the author attempts to document the lives of contemporary Americans. Wolf brings together stories of farmers, the homeless, residents of small towns, and people of urban towns. This book is composed of different poems, memoirs, essays, and short stories that, taken together, provide a vivid look at vanishing scenes of American life. There are stories, which relate to a farmer's life such as Greg Welsh's The Way Back. As Edward Albee states, "sometimes you have to go a long distance out of your way to come back a short distance correctly."(p123) In some ways, the reader feels as if he is in the actual scene with the writer. The readings help the imagination expand and makes one realize how many Americans there are in the world about whom not a thought was given. An American Mosaic consists of stories, which make one sit back and say, "I would love to do what that American does." In Wayne Leonard's The Right Road (p47) this statement comes true. It is not only a story which makes you feel completely free, but it also makes you want to do something for yourself and feel as good about it as Leonard did. These autobiographies of the American heartland were written by everyday people without literary ambition. This makes it easier to relate to the writers. No matter what the reader's profession, gender, or age, he/she will be able to comprehend An American Mosaic.

American Mozaic is an interesting collection of storys from every day people around america. These storys although in some cases dull enlighten the average american on the hopes and plights of other working class americans. It is a book that has real relivance in todays society. We tend to get caught up in the glamorous and not so glamorous lives of media stars and forget that the country is really kept running by the american worker. This book shows in more ways then one, that the guy who runs the ice cream stand down the street is just as relivant and important in todays society as the bank teller that puts your pay check in your account every month. This is an important book to read if you feel you are starting to loose touch with america and americans today.

After reading American Mosaic in my 20th Century Documentary Studies class, it made me realize how very different our society today is from the past. I enjoyed hearing about the way people just spontaneously picked up and traveled across America. Today, this would be something that would be very hard because of many issues; work, family, money, and most of all the citizens of the US. The things that these travelers experienced are wonderful things to read and think about. Wolf wonderfully portrays the American working man in his habitat. All of the stories are true, and told by real people. This makes the book even more interesting to know that all of the events really did happen. From accounts told by homeless people, to poems written by former inmates, this book covers the many different views and thoughts of American life. This book could easily bring back the memories of a person that lived through those times. Robert Wolf started this book when he ran a writing workshop, MATTHEW 25. Located on the corner of 8th Street and Broadway, it was the ideal place to view the life on the streets. This workshop in downtown Nashville was made for homeless writers to let their thoughts fly. After 2 years the workshop closed, but Wolf was left with wonderful memories and some excellent literature and prose.

Ricketts, Wendell, ed. "Everything I have is Blue: Short Fiction by Working Class Men about More-or-Less Gay Life", Suspect Thoughts Press, 2005.

Blue Feelings

Amos Lassen and Literary Pride

Wendell Ricketts has edited an amazing anthology of tender and angry fiction about the daily life of working class gays in "Everything I have is Blue". The stories are easy to read, edgy and at times surprising. He has tapped into that group that we rarely hear about much less read literature from. This is an overdue look into the lives of average men---those that work in those jobs that we don't always associate with our community even though we know they are there. We have stories by a trucker, a prisoner, a poet, a librarian, a retired professor, an activist a street mime among others. What makes these people special is the fact that they can write about ideology and culture. They write about love gone astray, about love in general, about loss, despair, revenge and salvation and give us a whole n literature--one of deep feelings and of the complexities of our culture.
In the last chapter entitled "Passing Notes in Class: Some Thoughts on Writing and Culture in the Ga(y)ted Community" the editor, Wendell Ricketts presents ideas on what he included in the anthology and explains the nature of his selections. He states that they capture the nature of life. There is some wonderful literature here and the collection does us proud. He explains that working class literature is as much a part of us and is an honest depiction of the way we live. Fiction is a volatile commodity and the stories here show just that. We have fascinating and refreshing short fiction that attempt to bring down the stereotypes that have been forced upon us by society. Our authors are aware of where they are in terms of society and their origins are evident in their writings. And this is the beauty of the book--the characters are who they are and nothing more. Here is a new perspective on our lives with a great deal of originality.

I'm not a formal critic, simply an avid reader. I have not even finished this book. After about 80 pages I gave up. The stories were disjointed, plots lacking (or so obtuse I couldn't figure out the point(s))and many simply lacked subject matter of interest to this reader. The title suggested an interesting read, yet many of the tales seemed laborious. I personally would not recommend this book to anyone that enjoys reading. Sadly, I consider the purchase a waste of my hard earned money. File 13 for this one.

Perhaps the subtitle misled me: "Short fiction by Working-Class Men about More-or-Less Gay Life."

I hardly think of a popular author like Jim Grimsley as a "working class man," but the bios read in such a way that any writer who grew up middle- or lower-class is qualified. That would be at least 95 percent of us. This book actually consists of stories about working-class men, sort of, but it's not what you expect. A better subtitle would have been "Mostly Edgy Stories in Unusual Formats." Included are writers like rYAN kAMSTRA, cartoonist C. Bard Cole, and poet Rane Arroyo.

The best story here is Grimsley's "Food Chain" because it has strong characterization, a plot, and a decipherable moral. It is also a more traditional length--another welcome point in this collection. One inclusion here, "The Bottom of the Cloud," by James Barr, while commendable, is practically a novella.

The last section of the book, which at first appears to be another story, is titled, "Passing Notes in Class: Some Thoughts on Writing and Culture in the Ga(Y)ted Community" by book editor Wendell Ricketts. This would be an ideal piece for a university literature-criticism publication, but weighs heavy here with the tone and stride of a thesis.

If you like extreme format creativity in short stories, enjoy the Paris Review, and have highbrow tastes in short fiction, you may enjoy this book. But what is being promoted as a collection of gay-ish stories about working-class men by working-class men falls sadly short of its promise.

In Wendell Ricketts' afterward to this collection of short stories "by working-class men about more or less gay life," the author states that "short stories and novels capture the. . . nature of being alive." Some of these stories certainly fit that description and rise to the level of first class literature. I would nominate my favorite, Christopher Lord's "My Special Friend," the euphemism that the narrator's decent and accepting family uses to describe his working-class/blue-collar lover (he replaces brakes for Midas)when he [Rudy] brings him home to rural Oregon for Christmas. Mr. Lord got the details of this family just right from the couch covered with the orange and brown crocheted afghan to the "twin green Barcaloungers." (I thought I was home again.) Rudy's grandmother OotieMae is a wonderfully sympathetic and funny character; she is pleased that "Our Lady of the Menopause" has been replaced by a much younger Mary in the Christmas Eve Living Nativity event at the local church. James Barr's "The Bottom of the Cloud," from his collection of short stories DERRICKS, published in 1951, in many ways was ahead of its time, although Robin and Karl had to remain closeted and pass themselves off as employer and hired man, rather than lovers. "Skins," by Rick Laurent Feely, is the story of two homeless addicts, Rat and Crow, intent on self-destruction; and we care for them deeply. "Hooters, Tooters, and the Big Dog," (Timothy Anderson) really is a hoot as the narrator, driving his "big red truck, Litle Red Ride "Em Good," plays road games with a fellow female trucker curious as to why he will not tell her his handle. There are fourteen more stories here, many of which I liked immensely.

In his afterward Mr. Ricketts laments the absence of working-class men in contemporary gay fiction except in porn and erotica. While his point is well taken, I would submit that some of the very best writing today in on that subject. Ricketts mentions J. G. Hayes' THIS THING CALLED COURAGE. I would add Hayes' latest, NOW BATTING FOR BOSTON, practically anything that Jim Grimsley (included in this anthology) has written as well as all of Tom Spanbauer's novels. Then there are the short stories and novels of Jay Quinn and much of the fiction in the two volumes of REBEL YELL. Finally AT SWIM TWO BOYS, although not written by a U. S. writer, is as good as any fiction, regardless of how you categorize it, gets.

I've never met Wendell Ricketts, but I have long admired his writing, and the tremendous power of his own writing in many genres he now brings to an editorial project which must have seemed daunting at the start, but which winds up, in his able hands, a terrifically rewarding anthology. It's not your typical book of working class porn, where middle class designers drool over the mechanics perched under their Mercedes. Nor is it precisely a book of agitprop urging the proletariat to armed revolution by any means necessary. James Barr's long story, "The Bottom of the Cloud," which must have been written a good fifty years ago, has everything but period charm, thank God. It might have been written today, and only some of its circumlocutions tag it as the product of an era in which Henry James was widely read, even by John Fante types whose labor is of the dust. Barr's story (from his collection DERRICKS) is amazing on a sentence by sentence level, even if you don't know what exactly is happening to our hero, Robin, and his anguished pilgrimage through the gray areas of "Central City." Barr was able to rewrite John Bunyan for our own time, and out of a fiery, almost blindsided gay sensibility. Torment, bruises, bondage and pain abound, and he takes you there. Keith Banner's story "How to Get from This to This" shares some of Barr's bleakness of vision. Two gay brothers, Danny and Lucas, argue it out from either side of a tavern that might itself be mistaken for a class marker, and from either side of alcoholism itself. Lucas is pulling himself up by the bootstraps, edging himself into a higher class status, while Danny, at age 33 (Christ's age) is sinking deeper into a nickel and dime pit. "I see my apartment the way it truly is, a mouse-bit bag of bread, Old Crow bottles, old textbooks I never sold back to the bookstore. The magical couch with no cushions." He doesn't have much self-esteem, as we say here in California. But maybe that lack keeps us honest. Not all of the stories are as hard hitting as these, but in general there's a rock-solid thrust to them that feels good.

Ricketts has taken this material and made some hard sense out of it, in a long, engaging afterword that serves as a sort of Apologia pro Vita Sua. Are there working class people in gay literature? Or is working class "contra gay"? Ricketts' thesis is a tough one, but he asserts that his own best experiences of bonding with men have occurred not in gay contexts, or even in the context of gay sexuality, but while working shoulder to shoulder in prisons and union hiring halls with other working class guys, even murderers. You may meet some dangerous scum there, but at least they're honest about it, unlike the coiffured and manicured men about whom, and by whom, so much of gay writing is being written. The working class gay man receives nothing but confusion and shame when he attempts to enter the bourgey world of "gay community."

He may say this, and he may believe this, but paradoxically enough, the stories he has collected here tweak his own definitions of what they portend. Fiction is volatile, like nitro. It doesn't do exactly what you think it will do, and it works different on everyone who comes in contact with it. "Only connect," E M Forster wrote, and the great thing about Ricketts' book is the attention he bears down, with his great brain and heart, onto proving and disproving that way dated dictum.

Mr. Keyer does an absolutely fabulous job at describing ways to market your Reiki practice.
Excellent tips and information for all Reiki practitioners who look to improve their Reiki practice.
Highly Recommended!

This book is perfect for the new Reiki practitioner who needs to understand the process of Marketing their services to the public,
Charles Lightwalker Author of Operating a Holistic Enterprise.

This book was a BIG disappointment. The quality was poor. It had lots of pages that just duplicated information presented on previous pages. The marketing information was VERY basic. There were no ideas presented that specifically pertained to Reiki. Most Reiki practioners are probably already doing many of the things the author suggests (business card, flyers, ads, info sessions). You would be better off purchasing a book written by someone who has years of experience and expertise in MARKETING. I learned my lesson. In the future, I will purchase Reiki books written by Reiki practioners and MARKETING books written by MARKETING professionals. To make this review helpful, I will recommend Harry Beckwith's book, Selling the Invisible. Afterall, Reiki is "INVISIBLE"!

There is an ever increasing amount of people being exposed to the potential of Reiki. A good number of these individuals will be drawn to Reiki for their own healing purposes but will become intrigued at the effectiveness of this complementary healing tradition. For some, this attraction will lead to many hours studying, training, and practicing to gain certification. Most then assume that after they become Reiki practitioners that they will naturally transition into having a thriving practice.

Unfortunately, practicing Reiki is like any other business venture. Once a practitioner, we each have to can decide if Reiki will be something we do mainly as a hobby or if we wish to practice fulltime. From there, we each have to decide if we wish to charge for our efforts and how we will go about gaining our client base. Ultimately, our focus and how we proceed will depend entirely upon our expectations and vision for our newfound skills.

Like most Reiki practitioners, I have had to work through my efforts by trial and error. The majority of Reiki masters simply don't teach their students how to run or market a Reiki practice. Therefore, I found the information in Reiki Marketing extremely useful. Often as Reiki practitioners we get so focused on helping people that we forget that collecting clients is a matter of business. Good business practice involved vision, organization, networking, and a whole lot of promotion.

I expected a better quality of information. This appears to be a self-published book and really isn't worth the time...

My daughter read these books in a weekend. Something she really enjoyed and quickly. She should do the next reviews on the rest of the books I bought her.

I read this book to my class of advanced third graders (they voted for it over 4 other books I would have preferred to read). Surprisingly, they were riveted to the exploits of Dani, Evil Angela, Josh, Kenny and the rest. Yes, the story is cheesy, and of course it is completely implausible, yet they loved it from start to finish. They were laughing at Mr. Truskey's ridiculous antics, siding with Dani against her ratty little brother, and giggling at the silly dialog throughout. As something to read for fun, with no redeeming literary value, this book was great.

This book is told from the point of view of Dani, a tomboy sixth-grader who just happens to get stuck on a tropical island with a "friend" from basketball practice. And some other people. And her younger sibling. And the flirtiest, girliest, snottiest girl in school.
The package is familiar: your mortal enemy from school, the popular guy you like, your annoying little brother. Not all original. The setting may be a little different, but it's the stranded-on-a-deserted-tropical-island thing all over again, from a kid's point of view and with some teenage sarcasm mixed in. Just that. Not bad, but not exactly unusual.

IF YOU HAVEN'T READ THIS BOOK AND WOULD LIKE TO, I'D SUGGEST YOU DON'T READ FARTHER.

Dani signed up to clear away a trash dump on a remote tropical island in a remote island chain. A tropical vacation on school time sounded great, even if the chaperoning teacher was a little wacky. Then her friends dismissed the idea of going, Angela, the above-mentioned snott, decided to come along too, and her parents refused to let her back out, and her mother managed to pack her little brother off with her to have a week of quiet.
By the time the trip was over, Dani had become sick of her brother (more than ever, I mean), Angela, and also insects, which her crazy science teacher was crazy enough to go and eat. The result was him barfing while supposedly steering their boat home, passing out, and throwing his cell phone overboard, destroying any chance of contact with the mainland. As if that weren't bad enough, the students collectively managed to steer the boat in the precise wrong drection and then onto a coral reef. They just managed to get off the boat with their luggage, their food and their lives before it fell apart and sank. They swam over to the nearest island, and they were stuck.
So now Dani's trying to campaign for the position of island leader against 'Evil' Angela, and is trying to ignore her brother's irritating behavior. The last thing to care about on a deserted island: getting elected leader. How about staying alive until rescue comes, which you figure it should have already. It's unrealistic. Even if it's not a bad story.
After it turns out that both Angela and Dani get beaten by, incidentally, Josh (the popular guy), they become second-in-command. They have to worry about survival and food shortage, how to keep themselves from strangling eachother in front of Josh, and rescue. Which didn't seem to be on the way at the moment.
If you like the sort of books that, however they're set, couldn't happen but aren't boring, pick this one up. You can decide if it's good or not.

Do you want to read about a class who went on a trip to clean an island but somehow found themselves stranded in an uncharted territory? Dani, the main character, is isolated on an unsupervised island with her annoying little brother, Kenny, her rival EVIL Angela, her twin friends who rarely agree, the most whacked out teacher, her crush, Josh, and some horrible snobby people.
Imagine trying to survive with all those people. Getting along is hard enough, but looking for food, shelter, and boiling water is harder. If you want to see if anyone survives till help comes, then read The Worst Class Trip Ever. To track their survival then read the whole series!

The story begins with Dani, a sixth grader, having a chance to go on a school/environmental trip to an island. Once they get to the island, they are there to clean it up for the animals that live there. As the story goes on, they are due to go to the mainland to go home, but instead end up on a deserted island. There teacher in charge, Mr. T, is delirious from eating too many "beetles" from the islands. So the children have to fend for themselves on this island. They are responsible for coming up with their own shelter, food, water, etc. Overall, the book seemed like a modern day "Gilligan's Island" which was run by children or an episode of a kid's version of "Survivor". It seemed cute from a child's point of view, especially with all the obstacles that the children have to overcome and how they go about it. This book was #1 one in a three part series. It would be interesting to read the others just to see how they manage to get off of the island and how long it does take for them to get rescued.