Burns Books

The majority of interior photos do show interiors you would find in that area of the world, and they're well-done. I bought this book because of a description stating that it had a lot of "British Colonial" style, and although it has a lot of very plain furtniture and a lot of mosquitoe netting, it does not have the neutral walls and heavy wooden furniture of British Colonial. It definitely does NOT have British Colonial India style, which is regular BColonial w/ splashes of decor found in India.

One should not get the idea that the "camps" depicted in SAFARI STYLE have anything to do with the experience of safari. I have stayed in both tent and cabin camps and they were comfortable. They were not, emphatically NOT, anything like these. However, after safari is only a memory and an anticipation, a room decorated with ideas put forth in this volume will help soothe the longing until you can really go back. Whether your goal is to compile your memories in photos, watercolors, or traditional heads and horns a "trophy" room decked out in Safari Style will end up being the most satisfying in the home.

Safari Style is the quintessential insiders design source for creating African interiors. At over 200 pages, literally every other page has a full page color photo on it! While this book is a feast of exotic interiors, exteriors are featured too, they include a wide array of domiciles: rugged tents to palaces to tree houses, and game camps to very exclusive lodges. In fact, at the back of the book, the author has generously offered up a ýSafari Guide,ý complete with addresses and phone numbers of many of the books featured sites, for those of you inspired to go to these places!

Designers will appreciate the clear arrangement and large scope of design possibilities. You will see everything from salvaged heavy teak wood platform beds with misquote netting, baskets and carved masks in very rustic bedroom settings, to contemporary eclectic dining rooms with ever so slight touches of favorite and hard to find African objects strewn within more modern houses. Part of what makes this such a fantastic book is that the ýlooký you wish you could achieve in your own home are possible; Classical, Stylish, Simple, Eclectic, Exotic, Masculine or Feminine, Rustic, etc. For example - a photo of a patio with a raw timber pergola covered with fucia bougainvillea and a casual wood four person dining area replete with plants, chaise lounge and ethnic lanterns could easily fit into a Southwestern home. Another example of the diversity of style in the ideas found in this book is the Modern Romantic open loft room. Here is where a tanned leather couches gently separate the space between the living and dining areas. Additionally, the Modern Romantic has silver columns with only a little mudcloth wrapped around the bottom, raw wood tables and lighting treatments, bamboo blinds and a large abstract oil on canvas taking up an entire wall in the dining area. This second example could be found in a Manhattan apartment or a swank L.A. house with only subtle nuances to a mixed African style.

A plethora of native craft objects such as, paintings, carvings, textiles, spears, shields, shells, bowls, and pottery, which make their appearance throughout. I would also like to site that more architectural elements like treatments for roofs, ceilings, walls and floors, balconies, chimneys, sinks and showers, windows, doors, corridors and more are all part of what makes these places so enticing. Natural elements are key ý stone and wood, rough woven textiles, baskets, mats, and so on. If you like more eco-friendly living (such as the books Earth to Spirit, or the New Natural House Book both by David Pearson), you must at least look at this Safari Style for reference material. Indian, Asian and Coastal / subtropical blends on the African tradition are perfectly woven into the concept of creating foreign spaces yet comfortably beautiful living arrangements.

Indeed this book makes no argument that it borrows from the land and native cultures. Black and white photos from the 1920ýs accompany historical text exploring the British colonization of south and eastern regions of Africa. Very fortunately, I counted less than ten photos, which depict hunting trophies, animal skins or taxidermy, which I had previously associated with a safari style. I find this refreshing! Donýt be mistaken that Tin Beddowýs book departs from more than an exploration of sites into adventures. Not a single image shown within depicts humans, native or non-native, beyond the introduction. Safari Style does not whatsoever portray, with even the remotest sense of accuracy, how any native African peoples live, their homes or villages. Then again, this subject is hardly broached.

It is easy to promote this book to the both the novice interior designers and design student, professional interior design firms, architects and possibly contractors, the curious eclectic artist, hermits and meditative spirits, romantics and in general, to travel lifestyle enthusiasts. (Stay away Ralph Laurent platinum card waving wannabes and homogenized Martha Stewart rip-off artists, or youýll ruin a good thing.)

If you loved the interiors depicted in such films as Out of Africa, Queenie, and The English Patient, you'll adore the interior design of Safari Style. Twenty-one interiors are beautifully captured in all their romantic splendor. White walls act as backdrops to the teracotta floors, bamboo or mahogany, red or deep blue cushions, solo hats for the sun, mosquito nets over beds, and panoramic views from windows. The vicarious visitor is welcomed to homes in Mozambique, Kenya, and nineteen other locations. Floors are usually tile with occasional oriental or persian rugs. The views run the gamut of near primitive to exotic Moroccan. If the reader enjoys these details for their home, there are shops that carry pottery, masks, mosquitto netting, solos, bamboo furniture to incorporate into a safari style. Designer Tricia Foley also has a book that inspires this approach to decorating as well. It is British Colonial Style.

One side of me recognizes that the younger sons of the Empire without great resources "went out" to Africa where they could live like princes on comparatively little [comparative only for Europeans, of course]. The other side wishes I had enough decadence in me to have lived in Happy Valley. There is no pretense that this is anything other than splendid housing for Europeans, not native Africans, and it is honest about malaria and the like, without mentioning politics. Nonetheless, I am happy to put this on my shelf with more technical works on indigenous African architecture. The work offers splendid structures built of simple materials on simple plans in which I could happily end my days relishing the elegant detail. The rich melange of styles effectively denies any dim notion of East African cultural isolation. Here Arab, Persian and Indian met and married native genius, and biologists know the offspring of heterosis are often ravishing.

It was hardly an exaggeration for Tom Hanks to say that Al McIntosh was worthy of comparison with Mark Twain. I was born in Luverne MN and lived there through college. Every Thursday we received the Rock County Star-Herald, and one of the first things to capture my attention was Mr. McIntosh's "More or Less Personal Chaff." I was just a baby during WW II, so the contents of this book were all new to me. However, the inimitable writing style that pervades this book was the same style that he used in later decades to describe county fairs, piano recitals, the death of a prominent citizen, colorful people about town, and everyday life in his beloved town. His ability to capture the spirit of Luverne in the 40s continued throughout the years he owned the paper. In an era when very few people travelled beyond Minneapolis or Chicago, the McIntosh family literally toured the world, and through their eyes we all became more enlightened people. This book deserves wide readership because it's among the best of its genre, and it is most certainly a painfully accurate telling of the effects of war on the citizenry.

This was so interesting because I was born in 1940 and raised in Luverne, Minnesota. To personally having known Al McIntosh and to read this book with so many names and places familiar to me was just so personal and interesting. I purchased two extra copies for our two sons, the oldest also being born in Luverne, Minnesota. Even tho I have very few memories of the war years, I remember stories told to me by my parents and grandparents and other family members about the war years. Having now watched the entire "The War" documentary and enjoyed the pictures and stories about my hometown, this book helps putting it all together.

This series of articles gives a wonderful, interesting view of life on the home front during World War II. Well written and hard to put down.

I imagine I wasn't the only person who bought this book because it had been featured in the Ken Burns documentary on World War Two. What I didn't know was that every worthwhile extract, every short paragraph explaining what it was like to live in a small peaceful town during a war, had been read during the documentary. There is nothing else of note here at all. McIntosh often gives the impression he's writing long to fill up space and the vast majority of the anecdotes are both boring and pretty meaningless to those of us who don't live in his small corner. To be fair to the author, I imagine he had absolutely no idea his work would be gathered together some 60 years later and sold in a collection like this. That said, this is a seriously disappointing book.

The episodic nature of this book--selected weekly columns from a small town paper--lends itself well to reading in bits and pieces. It really pulled me in. Having grown up in a small Minnesota town about half a generation later, it was easy to picture the kinds of people, places and events that McIntosh describes. After a while, it was almost as though I was a member of the community, experiencing WWII on the home front as it unfolded. I found myself "recognizing" recurring characters and worrying about how things were going to turn out for various families and individuals. McIntosh's story gets closure--I'd love to see a follow-up book that revisits some of the folks and families prominently featured in here in order to find out how their stories turned out as well.

I just finished reading this book, and I loved it. VI Warshawski is one of those characters that you got to love.

This is the best installment of the VI Warshawski series that I have read. Here, she's tough and uncompromising yet vulnerable. This book is most thoroughly recommended.

One of Paretskies greatest Books ever. Private Eye V.I.Warshawski gets in trouble in helping her old aunt, who is adicted to alcohol and got thrown out of her appartment. Watching V.I. stumbling through the world of crime, government politics and lovely neighbourhood, listing to her sarcastical comments and sharing her decisions concerning her wardrobe is once again great fun and everybody who has read any of the other Paretsky books will love this one. It definitely is my personal favourite of all V.I.-Adventures!

Vic must reluctantly rescue her Aunt Elena, a notorious drunkard, con woman and flirt. While she is disgusted at Elena's antics, she is discerning enough to know that she shares some of Elena's character flaws. As usual, Vic's good heartedness leads her into a murky world of dishonest politicians, traitorous cops and disgruntled bankers. As usual, she can rely on none but herself to solve the mystery and right the wrongs of the system. As usual, Peppy, Mr. Contreras (Sal)and Lottie are ever watchful and protective of their friend. As usual, this book is filled with interesting characters, locations, events and probing character analyses. If you like your protagonists intelligent, resourceful, wisecracking yet wearing the perfect set of Magli pumps, this heroine is for you.

After having finished Burn Marks last night, I read the on-line reviews here. Isn't it interesting how the same book can provoke such different opinions?
Look out, VI fans - I'm about to commit sacrilege.
I found Burn Marks in my bookshelf while hunting for some bedside reading. After the first chapter I got the impression that I'd read the book before, but never finished it.
I soon realized why.
So long-winded, so verbose, frankly - so BORING!
Ms Warshawski is alternately dead tired, sick, throwing up, having headaches, being injured or detailing the condition of every last burn blister in minute detail; her old Chevy is "groaning" on virtually every page, sometimes even in consecutive paragraphs, until it predictably dies; the plot barely gets going only in the last couple of chapters.
OK, I'm exaggerating a bit, but not much.
Doesn't Ms. Paretsky have an editor who could weed her story down by some 50 percent?
By sheer dogged persistence I managed to arrive at the final chapters, where the tension picks up a bit.
But unless you're looking for a sleeping pill, stay away.

I was very satisfied with the quality of this work. Probably not a coincidence that Oxford University calls it a "Classic".

The author systematically demolishes every aspect of the Jesus Christ story, convincingly arguing that Jesus Christ was a mythical figure who never actually existed, and the Jesus cult is an updating and re-telling of myths that existed in all of what we now call middle-eastern societies 3,000 years ago.

He relates that all of the cultures in the area had this mythology: son of God born to a virgin, suffering, dying and being resurrected. The Babylonians, Attics, Greeks, Egyptians, Essenes, Persians, Indians, and even Jews with their story of Joshua. In every one, the name of the mother of the son was a variation of "Mary". In the Vedic Indian cult, the son's name was Jesudu.

We learn that all of these myths were related to the cycle of the changing length of the days and intensity of the sun during the year; and that Paul rehashed existing sun-worship myths into story of a person he never met named Jesus who was the Messiah who had been born to a young woman named Mary, lived, died, came back to life then levitated up into the sky someplace... and as this had conveniently happened in the past, there was no need to wait for the Messiah any more, we could start worshipping right away.

Drews also shows how the stories in the canonical New Testament are a collection of traditional folk tales from Jesus cults that were mostly oral then written down mostly in the second century after Paul.

He also explains how the story of the cross is wrong - people were hung from poles at the time, not nailed to crosses.... the cross is a stylized representation of the two sticks used to create fire in the sun worship rituals. Normally, a lamb was shown at the center of the cross as this was the symbol of the simultaneous death of the winter and birth of the summer. It wasn't until 600 years after Paul that the Church required a figure of a man representing Jesus at the center of the cross instead of a lamb.

Though a bit turgid, being translated from German, and a bit of heavy slogging in places, the book finishes on a strong note.

If you believe the Jesus story, you will not be pleased with this book.

If you doubt the Jesus story and are looking for some well-researched analysis of the historicity and veracity of the story, this book will be of great interest.

Drews wrote this book in German and it was translated to English with sometimes difficult sentence construction, but the ideas are good and essentially clear. The ideas are not at all outdated. I've read the recent Christ-myth books, such as The Jesus Puzzle, The Christ Conspiracy, The Jesus Mysteries, The Jesus Myth, and Deconstructing Jesus. This book and The Jesus Mysteries are my favorites because instead of only refuting the historical Jesus and discarding the whole of the Jesus story, they ask what is the meaning and value of the myth, in terms of religious experiencing and insight into the relation of self and world.

The conclusion of this book is that given the choice between Jesus as myth and the historical Jesus, the right path for religion as religion is to choose Jesus as myth. If all we have is the historical Jesus of liberal Protestantism, then we no longer have religion, just mundane morality divested of both myth and the supernatural. But if we retain Jesus as myth, then we retain the religious redemption that is possible. He asserts that the Catholic Church could become legitimate by abandoning the historical Jesus and emphasizing the mythic Jesus as redeemer. Despite his elevation of redemption as the true essence of religion, Drews does not define redemption. (I'd define redemption as reconciliation between the self as moral agent and that from which it emanates.) Drews does not explicitly define this reconciliation and explain specifically how the Jesus myth assists this reconciliation.

He explains a main motive for creating the assertion of the historical Jesus. The early Jewish Christian leaders used a strategy of trying to limit authority to themselves and shut out competitors such as Paul and his Gentile/mythic Christianity by creating historical requirements that would serve to exclude others and restrict authority to themselves. Drews shows that this is the same strategy the Church fathers used: assert that the only spiritual authority is that of the person who spent time with the historical Jesus. If Jesus is allowed to be purely mythic, religious authority is potentially spread evenly among all people, but if Jesus is historical as well as mythic, the profitable and advantageous possibility of excluding other authorities arises.

Drews emphasizes the sacred meal as central to early Christian worship and compares it to the central role of soma (= "body") in Vedic religion, thus this book is useful for the entheogenic theory of religion.

To my surprise, The Christ Myth is not at all a rant of Christianity and Christian theology, but rather simply a comparsion between Christian beliefs, similar pagan belies, and the essential meaning behind the motiff of the suffering god image that has persisted religious faith in a number of different ways from Mithras, Odin, and on to the sacraficial vegetation god worshipped by modern pagans. That is at least the first part of the book, the second part takes a look at the Jesus figure himself, apart from his pagan influences, and relates how the character of Jesus came about, meaning what went into him, what sources were used, and the eventual product character that is today the centerpiece of Christianity. But all throughout this, the book is still not work of religious forgery of deception, but rather a book about literature and poetry, and how these two elements forged the image of Jesus Christ.

Well researched but poorly executed. A prime example of turgid,abstruse,poorly organized scholastic writing that all too often characterized late 19th & early 20th centuries. As was pointed out in a previous review,some of this prolix style is a result of translation from the original German. Another difficulty is that of organizing large amounts of ethno religious myth data. This problem was addressed quite satisfactorily by J.M. Robertson in PAGAN CHRISTS (1909)who was another pioneering scholar of the MYTHACIST school of thought regarding christian origins. More recently, Aschyra S.(THE GREATEST STORY EVER SOLD) & Timothy Frecke (THE JESUS MYSTERIES) do a similarly effective examination of the non historicity of the jesus figure. That said,Drews made a powerful contribution that can't be discounted by any serious scholar seeking the truth & not simply a reinforcement of his religious delusions.

You must take a carefull look on this book originally writted at the turn of the century (1910). How actual are the views of this eminent German philosopher.

My horse loving 8 yr old daughter got this from santa for christmas and loves it. The pictures are beautiful and are printed on nice photo type paper. Also the pages are very easy to take out without ripping the pictures. For now we are keeping the book together, until we buy some picture frames for them. Once they are framed we will display them either in a collage on one wall of her bedroom or display them as a border.

This book is gorgeous in its layout and pictures of horses ready to be framed and displayed. There is a great variety in both the horses and the environment -- some pictured singly and others in a group. Very nice! My granddaughter was ecstatic!

The first customer, Luan Gaines wrote a perfect review. I too bought this for my one of my little girls who loves everything & anything horses. She looks at each & every page over & over.The rest of the world just melts away when she & I have this book open. This poster book of horses was beautifully put together. Sheer genius!!! Stunning photo after photo! Your horse lover will treasure this gift forever.

This picture book is full of beautiful pictures of horses. All of them are amazing and beautiful. All of them, however, are pictures of horses in motion. A lovely sight, undoubtedly, but I also enjoy pictures of horses in stillness, and in this regard, the book comes empty.

I ordered this book expecting a series of beautifully photographed horses, but was stunned by the creativity and exceptional quality of the 30 poster-sized images, the outstanding work of the leading equine photographer. Page after page of gorgeous horses are posed against backgrounds of air, water, sky and color. Each page is accompanied by a small amount of text, but I must confess that I was enthralled by the fantastical photographs.

The animals appear as though in the land of myth, floating through the clouds or splashing in the foaming surf, their manes blowing, captured in each perfect moment, page by page. Whether the white horse rearing, or three black beauties at leisure, these pictures are the stuff of fairy tales. I keep expecting to see a horn, the hallmark of the mythological unicorn.

I bought Dream Horse as a gift for a little girl who loves horses and was delighted by her response to this exploration of the beauty and fantasy of these animals. She fell in love with these portraits, urging me to look at each new image, her eyes sparkling with the joy of a new-found treasure. This book is an excellent gift, a combination of myth, fantasy and magical horses fit for a princess. Luan Gaines/ 2005.

Seemed a bit out of date. Easy to read.

The author can be forgiven for writing a book that reads a little more like a formal academic paper, given his illustrious credentials. However, it is a surprisingly comfortable read given the complexity of the industry (if you could call it one industry) and the material covered. His analysis is as comprehensive as it is thought provoking. He does an excellent job of portraying the myriad of complex relationships between various evermore technologically sophisticated players within the health value chain. I would have preferred more coverage and discussion of specific company/organizational profiles. But, his artful and deft handling of the complex subject matter presented in a way that gives the reader many "aha" moments makes this book a must-read for anyone serious about the business of healthcare.

Burns and several of his Wharton School colleagues collaborated on this book as well as a subsequently published book, The Business of Healthcare Innovation, which I also highly recommend. In the later work's Introduction when explaining the value chain perspective, Burns observes that it "analyzes the entire sequence from raw materials (input) market to final customer (output) market. The sequence is labeled a `value chain' because each link in the chain adds value to its inputs. Each link seeks to maximize its contributions to the total product's value added, thereby capturing as much profit as it can. This may involve focusing on only those links which add the greatest value (and let other firms focus on links that add less value), or encompassing as many links as possible in order to maximize the total profit captured (and leave as little as possible for other firms to divide up)."

This is a key point because whatever decision is made, there can be -- and almost always are -- significant consequences insofar as gross volume, net income, and market share are concerned. In this earlier published volume, Burns and his Wharton School collaborators focus on a large segment of the health care industry which, until now, has not received the attention it deserves. They rigorously examine "the trading relationships between [and among] the producers (manufacturers) of health care products, the purchasers of these products (group purchasing organizations, wholesalers/distributors), and the health care providers (hospital customers) that are the end users of those products -- hence the title of this book."

This is by no means an "easy read" but, as does The Business of Healthcare Innovation, it generously rewards those who absorb and digest the material, then carefully consider appropriate ways by which to apply what they have learned. Obviously, the relevance of the material will ultimately be determined by its practical value to each reader but it may be helpful if I suggest some of the questions to which Burns and his Wharton School collaborators respond.

1. What does the health care value chain consist of and how does it work?

2. What are the major pathways and stumbling blocks to improved value chain operations?

3. Which are the most effective strategies used by manufacturers in pharmaceuticals, medical devices, and medical-surgical product areas?

4. Which are the most effective strategies used by group purchasing organizations and wholesaler/distributors?

5. What do the health care value chain and the "extended enterprise" found in the auto industry share in common? So what?

It is important to keep in mind that this book was published in 2002. There have been several significant developments within the health care industry since then, several of which Burns and his Wharton School collaborators examine in The Business of Healthcare Innovation (published in August, 2005). I take this opportunity to recommend, also, Steven J. Spear's article, "Fixing Health Care from the Inside, Today" which appeared in the September 2005 issue of Harvard Business Review.

For whom will this book be most valuable? In my opinion, there are two separate groups. The first consists of teachers and students associated with undergraduate, graduate, and post-graduate programs such as those offered by the Wharton Center for Health Management and Economics. The second group would include senior-level executives of organizations which are (a) producers of health care products, (b) purchasers of these products, or (c) health care providers that are the end users of these products. I presume to observe that decision-makers in any one of these three categories would be well-advised to understand its inter-relationships with the other two.

In the concluding chapter of this book, Burns and John R. Kimberly suggest that in order to avoid the failure of prior organizational innovation (e.g. integrated health care), "the revamped health care value chain must find parties willing to pay for it." Given the nature and extent of the investment required, it seems imperative that all of those involved share the costs as well as the benefits of organizational innovation. According to Burns and his Wharton associates, there is no acceptable alternative.

For anyone working in the manufacturing or distribution industry within pharmaceutical, diagnostic or medical device companies, this book offers an excellent oversight. Its very helpful for anyone doing business analyst work in a technology department who is new to the industry, but wants to come up to speed rapidly. I recommend it for everyone in my department.

Its rare that a good overview of an industry value chain is available and so accessible to help someone understand how an industry operates.

This is an ace book that will unfortunately only appeal to those wanting to bring all areas of professional health care into a commercial but patient focused new paradigm.

My firm has created a business operating system (all the non clinical stuff) for dentists in Australia - we do everything from the tools to assist them to credibly advise of pharmacy level home care products, to FactSheets on complex services for better and higher levels of compliance to treatment plans, and to achieve all those economies of scale that small businesses can never secure.

It is a well structured book and presents a (psudeo Porter)value based way of looking at health care in a readable and logical way.

If you want to make a branch of healthcare work and you have the energy to think your way through the issues (and to overcome the existing Luddites), this book will assist you greatly.

This is a really good book. Mr. Gleason's Midwest character, charm, and logical thinking come shining through in each delightful page. It's been a while since I've read a book in journal format, and it was perfect for this subject matter. Practical information about preparing for a marathon is presented in a half serious, half whimsical manner. His commitment to his cause was both surprising and admirable. This is a must read for anyone embarking on a fundraiser for a charitable cause, whether it's for the Girl Scouts or someone in need of a heart transplant, the methods and thought processes employed by Mr. Gleason will definitely inspire. And if you're a serious runner looking for a laugh, or a newbie just getting started, this book is highly recommended.

A very refreshing read as Randy writes about a topic that is becoming relevant to more and more people. The balancing act of raising money for charity and training for a long distant event. We go on an entertaining journey of the escapades of Randy's cat and the interesting people he meets as he raises money for burn victims. At the same time we learn and relate to Randy's training highs and lows. I wish I would've had this book when I did Team in Training!

This guy had no qualms about asking people for money. I loved it when he began asking the people he had paid money to all his life: his doctor, dentist, lawyer, utilities, etc. The author takes you through all the training and pain that goes into running a marathon and finishing. I read the book in one sitting and I have never done that before.

Randy Gleason deserves a job as a professional fund raiser. The man is relentless. When he set out to raise funds for burn survivors by running the Marine Corps Marathon, he hounded his friends, his fellow firefighters, his neighbors, his old girlfriends, the president of his alma mater at Grinnel College in Iowa, even a couple of millionaires he happened to know as a former newspaper man. Ultimately he raised over $15,000.

Gleason shows us how he prepared for the run, including one aborted effort where he ingested too many brownies before a preliminary race. He includes such instructive details as taping your nipples to avoid chafing during the race, and choosing just the right running shoes.

Randy is not afraid to go off on a tangent every so often, as when he relates the exploits of his obstreperous cat, Truman (think Garfield on steroids). When Truman goes missing, we have another subplot to go with preparation for the race and the fundraising minutia.

Gleason also has quite a sense of humor, using both personal anecdotes and the occasional quote such as this comment from Neil Armstrong when asked about his regimen preparing for the Apollo 11 mission: "I believe the good Lord gave us a finite number of heartbeats --- and I'll be damned if I'm going to waste mine running up and down a street." There's also some self-deprecating humor where his fireman buddies give him a bad time about wanting to be on Oprah.

IN FOR THE LONG RUN also functions as an PR for the firefighting profession in general. Not only do they fight fires and show up at accidents, but they also "place ice on a sprained ankle, bandage an injured hand, walk through an apartment building at three in the morning to ensure everything is all right after a false alarm."

And they raise over $40,000 running the Marine Corps Marathon. Bravo!

Randy takes us into his world of fire fighting, training for and running a marathon and fund raising for burn survivors. It is a humorous, honest (sometimes painfully honest), easy to read journal style book. This is Randy's personal story of how it all happened. Very fun and inspiring!

Rope Burn is a great book for all ages. My daughter, Jennifer thought that it was true in the fact that most children relate to not wanting to write stories for their teachers. I like that he overcame a fear by practicing.

I loved this book, it was heartwarming, and everyone should read it. It was a "Texas Bluebonnet Award" Winner. It deserved every single qualifacation that you need to be a bluebonnet! You'll absolutely love it! A MUST READ!

A boy of about 12 keeps a journal as part of a writing assignment. In the process he explores events in his life such as a gym class test, death of an older neighbor, the divorce of his parents, and his attitude towards writing. The book reads right along and was enjoyed by my 11-yr-old son.He said, "I wanted to keep reading it because it was interesting." One annoying aspect is the publisher's choice to use a typewriter font on cheap-looking paper. It did not work to capture the idea of a student's journal and detracts from the appearance of the book.

What an excellent book for any young person! It is especially good for a young person experiencing divorce. As an adult child of divorce, I could relate to Richard's feelings about the break-up of his parents. And as a teacher, I can see how students could relate Richard's feelings about being at a new school, making new friends, etc. I especially loved the ending - it gave great closure to the story and left me with a strong message...finding your voice in writing (or just as a young person) can be so powerful. A great read for a child or adult!

This book is about a boy his parents are divorced and in school he has to use a proverb as a story. And in gym class he has to climb a rope but doesn't know how. But with a little help, he may not have to worry about it anymore but then again he may!

Burns has produced a fascinating book and demonstrated that alcohol, as well as Americans' ambivalent attitudes towards it, has been an important subtheme in American history. Breezy and energetic, the book is well organized and moves briskly through many good stories of temperance wars. A fascinating read and a reliable historical reference.

This book has a perfect balance between in depth reaserch and entertainment. It is like Barbara Holland's "Joy of Drinking" with more in depth research. Burns does an excellent job of illustrating the joys of American spirits throughout our country's history. I found the book very enteraining, especially the passages about the founding fathers and the way they used to drink. It was very helpful with the research I was doing as well. If anyone has an interest in the subject or is curious about the roll alcohol played in our country (its a lot larger than you'd guess), then they should defineitley chose this book over the others.

The spirit of america described the important facts about the social history of alcohol in america and it does it with a lot of humur. If yuo are interested in broadning your knoledge it is wonderful. But if you are intersted in a thorough history that will help schoallars and atudent of the field, you should read Drinking in America by Mark E. Lender and James K. Martin which is written in a more formal fashion (but also easy to read).

"The Spirits of America" covers alcohol use in the United States from roughly colonial times to the end of prohibition, with some coverage of latter developments, such as Mothers against drunk driving. I enjoyed Burn's writing style.
I was surprised at how much drinking people in colonial times did, and how early in life they began.
Burns devotes much attention to the several waves of temperance and prohibition movements that began in about the 1820s and eventually culminated in prohibition.

Eric Burns does an awesome job on Fox News Watch and now he does just as good a job in this book. His fascinating stories about people like Thomas Jefferson are really entertaining. Who would think that the Supreme Court Justices were drunks! Probably a lot of people based on their rulings! lol

This book goes from the beginnings of drinking in America to the endings. It focuses on the big players and even some no names who I'd never have heard of if not for this book.

Even though Eric Burns is no scholar, he weaves an interesting tale. And he certainly deserves another Emmy for this one.

Having worked for several years in refugee health, this book, along with "Where there is no doctor" were staples of our field health libraries. I was incredibly happy to see the book on the shelves in our clinics on the Thai-Burma border, and feel that it provides really thorough basic information for women's health programs. I think it is a really good teaching aid for rural health workers- my only wish is that there were glossy full page anatomy pictures- but alas. . .

Great book! Highly recommend it! I particularly like that it is written in simple, easy-to-understand terms with illustrations. It provides basic but key information about women's health care -- Dalay Lawrence

I thought this book was wonderful because it not only addresses women's health in the reproductive realm but it also addresses the realities of women's health in developing countries: injuries due to overwork, too many children, violence, malnutrition, and also addresses mental illnesses. It also has a great section on FGM, AIDS, Sexual Violence, and Commerical Sex Workers. It integrates gender issues with traditional women's health concerns. I am dying to know when it is coming out in Spanish so I can take it down to Guatemala with me.

Tonight I turned the television on and was distracted by a little blurb on CNN. They were discussing tuberculosis, andit got me thinking about how one would diagnose/treat it in the absence of our current health care systems.

I decided this would be a good test for one of my birthday gifts from my amazon wishlist - a copy of this book. This is supposed to be a practical reference guide for female-oriented health problems. I picked it up and thumbed through it, and was distracted again by just how well-organized and useful the book is. It's cross-referenced in dozens of ways, it's written in plain language, and there are thousands (according to the cover, and flipping through it I certainly believe it) of simple explanatory drawings.

I picked a subject about which I know a few things to really test it out: pieces of placentas left in the womb after childbirth. This was a big issue for us when I worked at a large horse farm - after a birth, the placenta is expelled from the body (doesn't matter if it's a cat, a horse, or a human for the basics). You're supposed to carefully check it to see if it appears to be complete, and then weigh it for even more certainty, and then check the 'patient' over the next few hours/days to really confirm. This book covered all of that correctly, and even provided tables such that you'd know what it's *supposed* to weigh, and an illustration to show how to check the membrane for completeness. The next section was on how to tell if pieces had been retained - and then how to remove them in the absence of a real doctor/hospital. There was a point at which I saw the disappointing "if X is happening, see a doctor immediately." But then next to that was a page number. Flipping to that page, I saw "if there is no doctor, follow these steps." Simple instructions, illustrations, courses of treatments. A+ instructions. I could reasonably see someone who had no knowledge whatsoever of some of the techniques being able to figure it out using this book.

There are also sections on common, useful drugs, as well as little 'cheat sheets' on each one (and a simplistic, scaled down Material Safety Data Sheets) and details on how to give different types of injections. Again, complete with useful illustrations. There are even brief sections on psychological problems and crisis counselling. There are color-coded indices.

I am really impressed. If you don't have one of these, I highly recommend you get one. It's no substitute for real medical care, but I think it's an extremely useful reference, and would be good to have for any non-Monday-through-Friday-9-to-5 health questions.

I brought this as a companion to "Where There is no Doctor" for a trip to Guatemala. Althought parts are very helpful, I tended to refer to the other book for concrete help. Excellent info of family planning, breast feeding which is a must for health care workers.