Burns Books

8 Yr old really enjoys this book. He said it helps him to figure out the kind of reptiles that he has seen outside. He even has a salamander he found and it has a lot of info and facts on it.

I used Diane Burns' book as an aid for nature programs while I was working as a naturalist. Each animal is depicted in full color with pertinent details and hazards to watch for. Young kids love the colorful pictures of their favorite "slimy" creatures, while older kids can read the information and learn where and when to find the creatures. I found that Burns' book works better than a more sophisticated source when working with children, as it is written at their level -- but adults can also gain much knowledge from the information. My congratulations to Diane Burns for writing such a wonderful book!

I purchased 5 books of this series for my five year old daughter for Christmas, as she is a nature lover and loves anything to do with science. After reviewing these books before giving them, we decided to use them as part of our science program for our home school. These books have bright and colorful pictures, short accurate explanations of the animal, their habitat, eating habits, and even some of the popular anecdotes that go along with the animal. It has the appropriate warning for studying certain animals. What we enjoy most is many of these animals can be found in our back yard to furthur study. Each book deals with three types of animal, such as snakes, salamanders and lizards. They are separated into sections dealing with each type. At the end of the section is a wonderful hands-on project the child can basically do on their own within the recommended age group (9-12) or with some assistance for a younger age group like my daughter. My 5 year old begs us to read these books to her and loves the projects. I highly recommend this bokk and others in the series for those who want their children to learn about nature and how to respect it. I can't wait to obtain the remaining books of this series.

This books wonderful photography brings back great memories of a fantastic fly in fishing trip with my son to Alaska. Up close and personal fishing with my son, the bears & Denali.

Alaska is our biggest state, and this book has some truly big pages (mostly 12x16, but occasional 12x36 foldouts). We see terrific photos of rainforests, rivers, waterfalls, glaciers, mountains, including of course, Denali (Mount McKinley), the aurora, volcanoes, wildlife, towns, cities, people, and more. And there are fifteen 12x16 pages of well-written articles: on history, landscapes, resources, and lifestyles. I really like this book, and I recommend it.

The books unusual (12x16), wide-open, landscape format is well-suited to the subject: the largest, most majestic state (and land) I've visited. Spectacular photos carefully edited from 11 photographers.

The cover (and back cover), 12x32, appropriate pays homage to Denali (Mt. McKinley), viewed from Wonder Lake. Plus numerous other views of Denali, and all Alaska's major regions, national parks, cities.

With plenty of thoughtful essays, also of high caliber. And at a great price...

I just finished this book today and kept waiting for the discussion of problems and issues to end in some guidance but it never really did. It was an interesting read and probably very accurate in its treatment of the financial planning industry but it just makes you realize how many variables there are - inflation, government rules, laws, and tax policy - how much Social Security will I get and how much will be taxed and how much will my Medicare premium that gets deducted from it be? Oh, and what lifestyle do I want? Where will I live? Who will I live with? Life is full of uncertainy so I think I will still tend to over-save just in case, perhaps at the "expense of my youth" as the authors caution against.

There were some valuable insights into what you need to consider - like how nursing home care can wipe out all of a married couple's savings, leaving next to nothing for your surviving spouse (Medicaid will come after your house eventually so don't count on leaving it to your kids). But then there was no information on what to do to prevent that or which states have the most favorable Medicaid rules that allow you to pass on more to your kids. Since the authors already established that financial advisors are only interested in lining their own pockets, who am I supposed to go to for that guidance?

The book did have a few small nuggets of very good advice - one type of investment I hadn't heard much about that sounds very safe, another financial product I bought a few years ago due to my own paranoia, and a task that will require I do some legwork to figure out how to execute - very carefully. It has advice but you still have to do the work and hopefully find someone you trust to help you.

Spend til the end is a must have book that examines, diagnoses and prescribes cures for the illogical and ill advised financial advice inflicted on ordinary americans by the army of brokers, dealers,wealth managers and financial planners (aka sales people) carrying fancy titles such as CFA, CFP, CFC, CIMA etc. It exposes the advice given by these sales people who prescribe Financial "Rules of Dumb" for savings and investing, which results in unnecessary oversaving or undersaving, consumption disruption, and risky investing. Spend til the end offers a better approach, Consumption Smoothing, which if followed, allows individuals to maximize their spending power, smooth their living standard and price their passions. The subject of Consumption smoothing will be new to most without significant studies in Economics. But the tenets of consumption smoothing, that individuals want to maintain their standard of living over time will resonate with most readers. Read this book, and buy a copy for your financial planner. If your planner is not willing to educate herself about consumption smoothing, the advice they prescribe is not good for your financial health. Fire them! One major light bulb moment after reading this book is that individuals need to diversify all of their resouces, not just their financial assets. This means individuals should take into consideration their non financial assets, such as the ability to earn a living, Social Security, and Medicare. You will not see headlines about this approach on the cover of your favorite financial magazine, because those magazines have one goal in mind, to sell more magazines. Leave the magazine on the shelf and read this book. You will improve your life.

Kelvin
Chicago, IL

The notion of being over or under funded, saving too little or too much, and balancing all of life's choices in spending based on what you personally value to avoid, as David B. Loeper has long put it in his speeches and white papers, too much uncertainty and needless sacrifice to have a rational balance is well articulated in this book. (The white papers are: "Do You Perceive a Contradition - Examining the Premises of Financial Advising-August 2003" and "Measuring Temperature With A Ruler- Is Your Wealth Manager Really a Return Manager In Disquise").

Also well examined are the premises Loeper outlined in his 2007 book - Stop the 401(k)Rip-off! that avoiding active management not only has the certainty of lower fees, but also has value in avoiding the needless risk of materially underperforming the markets that any attempt to out perform introduces.

I am naturally frugal, so my instinct is to aggressively over-save. However, their idea of consumption smoothing, and the corresponding metaphor of "law of diminishing returns" is spot on. For years, I didn't give much thought to what happens to a nest egg as one ages, other than happy compound interest. However, the threats of uninsured medical care, assisted living and nursing homes loom to strip property at warp speed. At least in my case, as a single person. Which means there is a fairly good chance that I will not get to pass on my assets to my relatives, or favorite charity. I don't really have much desire to "consume" more per se. With substantial self-discipline, I might could trade in my humble Ford for a BMW, and take an annual European vacation. Or better yet, maybe I should get married to have someone help me with consumption smoothing. :-)

There's been some very good early press on this book. See, for example, the Washington Post article (copied below) as well as this comment in a recent article in the New York Times:

-----
Even if the parents have money left over, the ones who didn't have custody of the children may be less inclined to pass an inheritance on to them. "The ties that parents have with kids and their interest in supporting them could well be weakened by the fact that they haven't spent much time with them," said Laurence J. Kotlikoff, an economics professor at Boston University and the co-author of "Spend 'Til the End," which gives readers a new way to think about financial planning.
-------
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/21/business/yourmoney/21money.html?em&ex=1214193600&en=6425b01af144e3d7&ei=5087%0A

from the Washington Post:
SPEND 'TIL THE END The Revolutionary Guide to Raising Your Living Standard -- Today and When You Retire By Laurence J. Kotlikoff and Scott Burns | Simon & Schuster. 319 pp. $26

With a different view of spending, economics professor Laurence J. Kotlikoff and financial writer Scott Burns stress that what matters is not how much one spends but rather the standard of living that it enables. In their new book, Spend 'til the End, they argue that most people could achieve and sustain a higher standard of living throughout their lives.

This book's greatest contribution may be the inclusion of often overlooked topics, such as the timing of payouts and deductions. The authors analyze when, how and in what order to start taking payouts from various retirement savings plans, as well as when and whether to choose your own or spousal Social Security benefits. Making the wrong choice could significantly increase your tax bill and reduce the tax benefits of charitable contributions and other deductions now and for years -- or decades -- to come.

Another neglected topic they cover is the problem of outliving your money. Kotlikoff and Burns advocate making spending decisions based on the maximum age to which you might live, not the lower, average life expectancy that most financial planners use.

How can a consumer optimize his standard of living? Kotlikoff and Burns tout their software program "ESPlanner," which is available online for a fee. They claim that the late Nobel Prize-winning economist Franco Modigliani endorsed it. Whether their software lives up to the authors' promises is never proven. What is shown is that Kotlikoff "is president of the company and has a financial stake in the software."

When the bidding on e-bay went sky high for the same item, I was pleased to find it at Amazon for a reasonable price.
The book is in super condition and I am very happy

Eleanor meets Sue in one of the most delightful of her quilting how-to books. If you're familiar with Ms. Burns' books and/or videos, you know that she's getting better with almost every volume...clearer instructions, more detailed illlustrations, and enticing photos of the finished projects. An added treat in her Sunbonnet Sue volume is the clever series of illustrations featuring the famous little faceless lass engaging in the various steps in quilt-making (Sue earnestly plugging away at the sewing machine, etc.) This would be an excellent addition to a quilting library, and even a great first-time quilt project. Thanks to Eleanor's consistently excellent instructions, you'll be able to follow along with no difficulty...and even a chuckle or two.

I bought this book for myself because of Eleanor Burns. Her books are so easy to understand. The book is in black and white with some color photos of Sue & Sam. You get directions for a wall hanging (18 X 32 1/2) all the way up to a double coverlet (76 X 89). This book tells you how to make the patterns using an interfacing you have to trace the pattern onto. I have gone to Eleanors website and bought the preprinted fusible interfacing. Makes it much quicker and easier IMO. This book reminds me of the quilts my grandmother used to make. A little old fashioned, but you can change how the Sue's and Sam's look by using different material and things like lace, buttons, ribbons, and rickrack. The book does come with a pattern for Sue & Sam and a kite & tie.

This is a great book filled with short stories showing the weakness and strengths of women. These women are not your usual women - some are soldiers, some sorceress and others just plain ole women who are thrown into an extraordinary situation and prevail, or do they? They don't all end with the typical fairy tale ending. This book is the first in a series of 21 books. My favorite story is the Thorn and Frostflower involving travel to other worlds by Phyllis Karr.

Sword and Sorceress is the original. This book has given rise to a series spanning 15 other books, and set the precedent for all future books in the series. All the stories in S&S I are about stong female characters, but the stories are diverse. Some are written by men, some by women. Some have only a female protagonist, others have male and female protagonists working together. The protagonist's talents range from shapeshifting, to magic, to swordsmanship. Or should I say swordswomanship? All in all, Bradley has put together a collection of stories that will entertain every fantasy reader. I was especially pleased to find so much variety and quality in one anthology. I like Bradley's novels, and as an editor she is no less disapointing. I highly reccommend any books in the S&S series!

Women read fantasy too. Beloved author/editor Marion Zimmer Bradley created this anthology in 1984 to address just that issue. At a time when women's fantasy was just beginning to make its mark, MZB created an anthology to define the emerging female protagonist. In her introduction, MZB makes it clear that she wanted to avoid the stereotypical Amazon-type heroine who ultimately gave up her freedom to win love. She didn't simply want recreate the old cliché turned upside down-where the men are subservient to women. She wanted stories that gave women new myths to identify with, powerful stories that could be worth consideration by the men and women who read them. This collection is not your average "feminist literature", these are stories that feature warriors, magic-users, healers and thieves-the women of fantasy, the kind of women to give a new generation of fantasy readers characters to see parts of themselves in, and ultimately make readers think.

MZB must have been onto a good thing. In the nearly twenty years since the first publication, there have been 19 Sword and Sorceress anthologies to date. Having read all of these anthologies, I can honestly say that this remains one of the best. The originality of the stories, the quality, the variety; all of these elements make this particular shine out from the group. Out of the fifteen stories, four are written by men, including well-recognized authors Glen Cook and Charles de Lint. MZB prefaces each story with a short blurb about the author and a few comments of her own. These paragraphs, along with her introduction, enable readers to catch the glimpse of MZB's personality and some insight into why she chose the particular stories she's included in this anthology. It becomes clear that each story was selected with care, polished and set in place to augment this anthology. There are no "filler" stories here.

Readers skimming the contents will quickly recognize quite a few of the author names; Glen Cook, Emma Bull, Charles de Lint, Jennifer Roberson and Diana Paxson to name a few. For Emma Bull and some of the other authors listed, this is their first sale. That is an additional bit of delight in these earliest Sword and Sorceress anthologies. So many writers made their first sale, or were just beginning their careers at the time. As to the stories themselves, they are as varied as the authors. For sword and sorcery duos, "The Garnet and the Glory" by Phyllis Ann Karr and "The Rending Dark" by Emma Bull are good examples. For darker, emotionally charged reads, try "Severed Heads" by Glen Cook, or "Sword of Yraine" by Diana L. Paxson. On the lighter side there is "Taking Heart" by Stephen L. Burns, "Daton and the Dead Things" by Michael Ward, and the finale of the anthology, a short-short story by Dorothy J. Heydt, "Things Come in Threes". My particular favorite story-although I admit it is hard to choose just one, all of them have had a powerful impact-is "With Four Lean Hounds" by Pat Murphy. This is a beautiful, fairy-tale-esque story that is as powerful in its message as in its unfolding adventure.

Any reader who loves good fantasy, particularly short stories will likely enjoy this. Women readers especially-but in no way exclusively will appreciate the chance to read about women as protagonists of the epic fantasy story. When this was first published, there were much fewer female fantasy writers and stories available. This has changed dramatically over the intervening two decades. Despite that, it does not diminish the quality of this first anthology-and the stories remain as strong today as they were when published. On a side note-these are all fantasy reads-MZB as a rule does not include science fiction stories in any of her anthologies, although the right story can make her break the rule just a bit. If you can find this anthology, buy it-read it and treasure it.

Happy Reading!

"People all over the world have been using and building walls for thousands of years. These walls tell many fascinating stories." Margy Burns Knight tells 14 of these fascinating stories in Talking Walls. Beginning with The Great Wall of China, Margy Burns Knight takes us all over the world and gives us insight into many different cultures. Each wall is featured in a two-page spread with beautiful illustrations by Anne Sibley O'Brien. The stories of the walls themselves never exceed three paragraphs, so you won't get bored reading a lot of details and facts about the walls and different cultures. Instead, you'll get just enough information to learn about the wall, the history behind it, and the people who built it. We also learn how walls can bring us together or keep us apart. Throw in a little folklore and you've got a fascinating book that is sure to spark a lot of conversation with your kids.

This might be the best introduction to social studies that elementary schools can get. It is a colurful, interesting book with young characters who will introduce your students to all kinds of walls and cultures around the world. An absolute must for the classroom because of its information, an absolute must for home because of its beauty and value in a home-education without too much school-like text.

This is an excellent book for children of all ages. Fantastic if you are looking for a multicultural book for your child or classroom. I have in fact found several sites on the internet ( one of the sites is that of the publisher Tillbury House)which give address and phone numbers for hundreds of lessonplans for teachers. A book that no elementary classroom should be without. There is actually a sequel call "Talking Walls:The Stories Continue" which I have not gotton my hands on yet.

This book has become a cornerstone of my existence. Shakespeare has become a mere footnote compared to this nirvana of literary perfection. I personally know the author and can attest to his impecable diction and vocabulary...and good personal hygeine. He has used all these forms of completing a sentence, every word at his disposal, and has incessantly groomed himself during the creation of said work.

Reading this book is like having a nice long conversation with a current student about their college. They give you intimate details that other guides won't tell you and you know you're getting accurate information because there are both pro and con oriented quotes about every aspect reviewed, and they come direct from anonymous students. I really found the "Finding a Job or Internship" section helpful because its' good to know that the college has such great resources to help me when I need to find summer/post-college work.

I was considering Richmond as one of my final choices for college, and was interested in learning more about it. I knew the college prowler series was well-regarded, and this book was especially helpful. It's a fast but thorough read, and since the author was a student, I tend to trust it more than I would a guide from an old fogarty

As a Director for RCIA, I have looked at quite a few publications to use in training adult sponsors. This along with the companion video is the best that I have seen. It does take into account our year-round ongoing RCIA process. I highly recommend it and are providing copies to each of our sponsors. Additionally we use the companion video in training these same sponsors.

This is a slim, non-threatening volume that provides the essential information for a person becoming an RCIA sponsor. While avoiding the complication of precise terminology so that the book reads easily, it does distinguish the varying states of the "candidate" as inquirer, catechumenate, candidate, neophyte, elect ... and of the various roles RCIA sponsor, godparent, confirmation sponsor ...

The information regarding the expectations of the sponsor through the full RCIA process is excellent; it is supplemented by thoughtful questions, quotes from the Catechism, Scripture and the Rite. It's only drawback is that it makes a number of assumptions about parishes that may be untrue of many parishes. Because of this, it should be provided as information that supplements the training provided by the parish not in lieu of parish training.

This whole series of "Handing on the Faith" is solid and should be accessed any time you are seeking for resources in this area.

Sponsorship is such an important part of the RCIA process and this well written book is an excellent take-away for sponsors. It provides simple explanations to qestions frequently asked by candidiates and catechumens. It gives enough information without making the education process cumbersome. We will use it as a resource in our upcoming class for sponsors.

Dr. Milton H. Erickson often worked his "magic" by telling metaphorical stories to his patients. The construction of such effective metaphors has sometimes been difficult for Ericksonian hypnotherapists. Burns addresses this issue by affording the reader a collection of 101 therapeutic metaphors. For each story, the problems addressed, resources developed, and outcomes offered are listed.

Equally important is Burns' explanation of how to use these stories. Reading a story verbatim from this book is less likely to be effective than telling a modified version of a story so that it is isomorphic with the client's experience. Burns provides a list of do/don't reminders that are almost essential in enabling the reader to utilize therapeutic metaphors successfully.

If you enjoyed Tales of Enchantment, you will also love this excellent reference and instructional guide.

Stories are very good specially if you have people & want to tell them something.

good for trainers as closing story, for friends....

For therapists, for psycologists...

I was so pleased to get this book so quickly. I had looked other places for it to see if I could beat the price as it is a required text for one of my classes. The seller was great in communicating with me and delivered the product in the condition it was promised.

Back in 1970, wading through a mire of academic prose in graduate school, I was dazzled by my discovery of Nancy Milio's new book, "9226 Kercheval." Not only was the author a nurse (like me), she was working in the community (like me). Better still, she wasn't pontificating or theorizing. In her own voice, she told the story of how she worked with residents of a restless, inner-city neighborhood just coming to grips with the potential of black power, to start a health center for women and children. It was hard slogging, but worth it in the end. I never would have guessed that, ten years later, I'd be engaged in a similar undertaking, albeit in very different circumstances--and writing about it. A couple of years ago, I begged a friend for her precious copy of the original hardback edition and reread it. It still elicited a "Wow!" Now I've got my own copy. I hope all of you reading this will consider doing the same.