School Time Books

This work is designed for children in grades 3-6, but is easily adapted to other age groups and to family formation, sacramental preparation, and vacation bible schools. The 30 lectionary-based services include a reconciliation service, scriptural Stations of the Cross, the luminous mysteries of the rosary, and celebrations of the saints. General topics include living in peace, belief in Jesus, and walking in justice. Services contain gospel readings, reflections, activities, and prayers designed for group participation. Activities range from designing peace posters to donating items for children in crisis. This is an excellent resource for teachers, catechists, and family-based small church communities.

When asked to write a poem, many children have difficulties because their vocabularies are limited. This book, which lists a set of very common words and all the common words that rhyme with them, will be invaluable to the youthful poet. There are two lists in the book.
The first is a listing of 237 groups of words where all in the group rhyme and the second is an alphabetical list of all the words that appeared in the first. Also included is a set of illustrations with a short verse. They are simple, on the order of:

Katie Baytee had a curse:
She only spoke in rhymes and verse.
Her mother took her to a nurse,
But after that, her verse got worse.

Written at the level of the late elementary child, this is an excellent reference book for the class when the assignment is to write a short poem.

Many a person's fantasized about living in Arthurian times, despite the ickiness and violence of the era. What if you were given the CHOICE? It's a good question that is raised pretty well in this particular book...

Lindsay, the main character, suffers along the same lines as many literary high school students. The way to avoid being squished is to stay out of the way. But when she is roped into a school production of Arthuriana, she is suddenly transported to the REAL Camelot. And the question is raised: would you rather be a downtrodden sophomore, or a far more respected person in the glorious court of King Arthur?

It's a good question, handled fairly well, though I would've preferred a little more depth in the handling. Lindsey is a sympathetic character with understandable worries and responses to things that happen to her, both past and present. The writing style is a trifle bare, and often I felt that I didn't have enough insight into what was going on there.

All in all, a nice time-travel read and nice Arthurian read.

This book is a good introduction to the invention of the first cereal. It provides colorful pictures to represent newer cereal labels; and black and white pictures to represent a time period many years ago. The author divides the book into short chapters that give a chronological review of W. K. Kellogg's life. I encourge young readers to read this easy and interesting story about how our favorite cereals were invented.

I am new to the world of quilting, so this book and it's ideas and terminology were difficult to understand at first. I had to read the instructions a few times before I caught on, but once I did, I couldn't see why people aren't all doing quilts like this. It's a "quilt as you go" approach. That means that you don't have to piece together all of your quilt blocks, then sew the batting and backing on, then sew over all of your original stitches to quilt. It's an excellent time saver.

I bought three of these Werewolf Club books for my [...] son who just finished [...]. They are the first chapter books that he can read on his own, and he likes the stories so much and is so proud that he can read them, that he sat the rest of the family down and read a few chapters out loud to us. Some of the words are too difficult for him (e.g. except, solicitors), but for the most part he can figure them out independently. The chapters are very short (1-2 pages, usually) and this seems to help him not feel overwhelmed. I recommend these for anyone who likes silly but fun stories, and who is ready for easy chapter books.

The book is completely different than the musical - loved the musical, hated the book. The book was very racy and hard to get through.

I ripped the cd's to my mp3 player, but had the hardest time identifing discs 1 from 16. Let me explain. It seems that disc one is named disc 16, as well as, disc 16 is named disc 16. This happened from the point of origin. My Zune player recognized disc 16 when it was ripping it, and promptly erased disc 1. I had to re-install disc 1 then burn it to a cd-r, and then rip it back to my player without the factory installed identifier "disc 16" on it. My Zune ripped it as "unknown" and I was able to rename it "disc one". Besides all of that, I am enjoying the audio book.

I've seen the Judy Garland "Wizard of Oz" more times than I care to think about so I have much more familiarity with the movie that the (very good) Frank L. Baum books. "WIcked:..." is not only about the Wizard of Oz and Ozma, it has a deeper layer that made me think about the nature of good versus evil. After reading this, I wondered "Was Glinda really 'The Good Witch'? Did Glinda have a right to give away the 'Wicked Witch of the East'shoes?" It sounds pretty silly, I know, but it's not something I ever considered after seeing the movie.
It's a good, fast read, one I couldn't put down. If you want a little thinking with your reading, try this book. If you would rather remember "Ease on Down the Road" or "Somewhere Over The Rainbow", this is not the book for you.

I loved this book and when I finished reading it, I went out and bought the rest of Maguire's books. By far, this is my favorite of his books. It's definitely a little different and somewhat risque, but overall a great read!

I'm only giving 2 stars because it waffles on way too long.

I would give it a 4 and 1/2 star if abridged.

The story line is brilliant and as a huge fan of the Wizard of Oz (seen video so many times because raising children) I don't mind the idea of Oz being filled with danger and evil characters. Hearing of Elphaba's birth, school years through to her becoming a witch was very interesting.

I would give it a 4 and 1/2 star if abridged.

The strange sexual themes could be removed. Story could easily be 5 cds long or even 8, more than that is just rampling. But what a brilliant concept just raved on too long. (Narrator excellent)

I've read several of the author's books and all are suspenseful, sometimes draggingly slow. Sometimes you can't undersand the plot due to the long sentences with strange constructions. The love story is such that you feel the ache of the characters. But why the ending? Nowhere does it explain this. It doesn't fit the story at all. And you wait until the last paragraph to get it. Is a sad book and you never really feel happiness. Drags you down.

There was a build up to the suicide in the last paragraph? Where? Was it buried somewhere in the verbose chapters telling of Linda's attitude towards hotels? Was it typed somewhere in those irritating italics?

When I finish a book I usually donate it to a thrift shop. I simply can't donate this book. I would hate to think that someone else wasted a few hours of their life by reading it. I tossed it in the recycling bin instead.

Horrible book. Don't waste your time.

Another Anita Shreve's hit, sober, heart-wrenching and full of texture. I had no idea it had a connection to one of her previous books, "The Weight Of Water", which I read years ago (and liked very much). It connects us with one smaller character in that book, Linda, but it is not necessary to read its predecessor to get into this one, as it is not a sequel.

Linda and Thomas meet and fall in love as teenagers, but the story unfolds backwards, after a chance meeting in Toronto, when they are both in their fifties. They have not seen each other in twenty-six years. Their past life with all its joys, flaws and pains resurfaces. The anatomy of a very deep, moving true love is described with such emotional substance, its essence never lost to the reader.

And the end. The surprising ending. I found this novel to be a page-turner and possibly the best one I've read by this author (I've read almost everything written by Ms. Shreve). A love story to be remembered.

I read this immediately following it's prequal (of sorts), "The Weight of Water", and found it to be, overall, less "deep" and ambitious but more enjoyable. I guess on a literary level, the first novel was better constructed and grappled with a wider variety of themes, however, this one read easier for me and I found myself connecting with the characters more emotionally. Being that the fate of Thomas's high school girlfriend is pretty clearly stated in the first novel, I knew as I was reading that things couldn't exactly be what they seemed, although I wasn't sure how Anita Shreve would tie it all up at the end. The last page did catch me off guard entirely, but it didn't quite ruin the novel for me. The beginning section was somewhat dull and impressive, and I only kept reading because I was interested in hearing what Thomas and his former wife had been up to since the horrible events from the first book. The character of Linda was initially completely uninteresting to me. However, things really sprung to life during the Africa section of the book, Shreve did an impressive job with capturing a vivid sense of time, place, and mood, and at that point, the sensuality and sharpness of the writing really sucked me in. The final section was also quite well crafted and painted a tender portrait of the vunerability and sweetness of first love. I also liked the construction of the novel, the backwards story telling. I know Shreve isn't the first person to attempt this and it's probably been done better elsewhere, but it made the story more interesting and helped build up the momentum leading to the climax. By the time I reached the last page, Linda and Thomas had become very real and believable people to me, and although there was something vaguely unsatisfying and maybe even a little gimmicky about the ending, the book rang true on enough emotional levels for me to not hold that agaisnt it. There were a ton of unanswered questions for me in contemplating the ending, and I'm not even really sure I liked how it all panned out, but ultimately the novels' strengths outweighed it's weaknesses and it was well worth the read.

I'm an Anita Shreve fan and I liked the way the book started out with the present day events and reflected on events from several years past and then events from much earlier in the life of the narrator. I'm not sure what I expected and I found the book to be a good, solid love story of two individuals who were destined to be together. However, after reading the ending, my reflections made me realize that this may be Ms. Shreve's best work. The ending pulls at the heartstrings of the reader with an ironic twist that leaves the reader thinking and reflecting on the book for quite some time.

I got this book (an autographed copy, no less) after a debate between the author and a Christian apologist. The debate was very polite (possibly too polite; I think they were worried about how the students watching would behave if either side decisively won) and I don't think any minds were changed. Mr. Shermer spent most of his argument explaining why Theists believe what they believe, and why atheists don't. I remember wondering why he didn't simply argue against the beliefs themselves (many of which are beliefs about the world that can be proven one way or the other, such as whether God answers prayers like the Bible says he does). After reading this book, I understand it! Whether the beliefs are true is not the main deciding factor for most people; this book does an excellent job of explaining the way people's minds justify various beliefs.

Because they are pleasure addicts who have no evidence that the Bible is bad and in hypocrisy, attack it.

Just look at the stupid title. So whatever is "weird" and "odd" must be wrong huh? That's a childish school bully's insult: look at that guy over there, he's a weird because he doesn't dress, talk like us or agree with whatever we think is cool, so he must be inferior and let's keep insulting him.

The authors reject this over 1900 years old common sense advice:

"Stop judging by mere appearances and make a right judgment." - Jesus

"There is a way that seems right to a man but the end thereof leads to death." - Proverbs

They reject it, hence why their book, even the title, is stupid.

What's weird is believing that unimaginably complex amount of ordered life-sustaining and replicating information, a super beautiful universe with life-friendly areas; living replicating, emotional, multi-sensory, biological robots which enjoy singing, dancing, learning, and doing good and evil were created by an exploding bomb from dozens of billions of years ago with no explanation as to why it exploded which no one saw explode in the first place, and which the evidence shows did not ever happen.

Nor is there any evidence to explain why many living kinds of animals that are supposed to evolve over time (according to evolutionists) have not evolved after millions of years, but only lost some features such as the ability to defend against a certain kind of disease or digest some sort of food (like how non-animal humans have been losing the ability to digest milk or bread well). Nor is there evidence to explain why there are very high-tech ancient man-made tools in millions of years old strata when evolutionists claim man wasn't evolved enough at that time to make them or how an exploding MATERIAL bomb can create SPIRITUAL things like GOODNESS, EVIL, INFORMATION, and THOUGHTS. To believe the impossible over the evident and probable is what is "weird".

"All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident." - Arthur Schopenhauer

As it turns out, the truth is often considered weird before it is fully accepted as factual and common sense. It just depends on "timing" really, which is another way of saying political and economic agendas. If a certain political point of view, or certain economic theory, or certain treatment for disease, or certain archaelogical find, or certain scientific discovery does not provide direct benefit to THE POWERS THAT BE (TPTB), then it will promptly be dismissed in the mainstream media as weird, kooky, quackery, pseudoscience, snake oil, conspiracy theory, or otherwise. Everything mainstream that is "accepted" in our society as not weird, or as "scientific" ALWAYS provides direct and enormous benefit to TPTB, in terms of more money, more power, and most importantly more CONTROL. This has been going on for hundreds of years.

Case in point: there have been various people (including engineers, physicists, and biochemists) over many decades who have run their vehicles entirely or partially on water. I have been in one such vehicle. A fair amount of information about different techniques exist on the internet, including a number of videos that take you step by step through the different processes of how to covert your engine to run partially or entirely on water, for anywhere from about $400 to $1500 dollars total cost. This is fact and quite scientific as it is repeatable and readily observable, but yet the idea of running a car on water still is firmly under the heading of WEIRD, or RIDICULOUS, or IMPOSSIBLE by books such as these. But what if books such as these were sponsored by the oil and gas industries? Do you see where I'm going with this???

Simply put, books like this keep us stupid, keep us ignorant, keep us arrogant, keep us in the box and firmly under control. Whereas the World of Weird is often where the liberating truth lays. Ironically, there is often far better "science" involved in some of these so-called kooky ideas and snake oil schemes, than that offered to us by the mainstream (Tier 2 and 3 Science) academia. The total shams of "peak oil" and "global warming from human CO2 production" are two good examples. In fact, the very idea that we must be so dependent on oil and gas is completely weird and wacky to me and many other scientists, biochemists, engineers, and geologists because there are MANY, MANY other scientifically valid and laboratory proven methods to run cars and machinery indefinitely, BUT the Powers That Be would lose far too much money, power, and control over us to ever consider letting that happen. [Ooohhhhh noooo, not another crazy conspiracist you say???] Thus, good creative people always get suppressed and sometimes hurt, and books like this get published and the sheeple never know any different. It's all just another page from the military-industrial complex's playbook. Find out for yourselves.

This book by Michael Shermer (founding Publisher of Skeptic Magazine) is a 350-page tome about why people (even smart people) hold weird beliefs they should know are simply false. It is divided into 4 parts and 18 chapters that covers cults, alien abductions, NDEs, creationism, Holocaust denial and the like. The book is very well written and entertaining. Dr. Shermer is kind of like Carl Sagan (in the Demon-Haunted World) because he emphasizes the need for proper scientific investigation into such claims before anyone reasonable should accept it. Personally, I just don't see how anyone - much less certain eminent scientists themselves - can continue to believe in these things once confronted with the facts (or lack of them) unless they're not quite as open-minded (in the sense that their brain doesn't fall out) as they often claim.

Shermer also turns the argument against skeptics themselves and how what we hold dear today could also one day wind up as the discussion of a similar book. Even so, skeptics at least try the best they can to weed out the pseudoscience. The only issue I had with the book was the disproportionately large amount of discussion on the topic of Holocaust denial. At 3 solid chapters (60 pages), it got a little tiresome. I would have preferred the inclusion of at least another topic in Part 4: History and Pseudohistory. Those who liked Daniel Dennett's, "Darwin's Dangerous Idea" for its juiciness and substance will also find a book of similar value here, albeit on a different topic. The book cover happens to be playfully light green in colour but I suspect that has something to do with poking a little fun at "little green men". It'll certainly stand out in your library.

So does the book answer the question, "Why People Believe Weird Things?"... yes, but if that's all you're interested in, just skip to the last two chapters.

Michael Shermer, the publisher of Skeptic magazine, has written a book that ostensibly explains why people believe strange things. In fact, this interesting tome spends little time explaining "why" people believe weird things, but instead focuses on some of the weird things people believe and why they shouldn't believe in them. This isn't intended as a criticism (the subtitle of the book does provide some clarification as to the book's main purpose) so much as a warning to those who expect a deep psychological or sociological analysis of what prompts human beings to accept "weird" things as part of their belief system.

Part I of the book attempts to explain skepticism, science as a methodology, and 25 fallacies that can lead us to believe weird things. This first part is amongst the strongest within the book. Clearly, it would be too much to expect an exhaustive, definitive account of what the scientific method is when scientists have not reached a conensus among themselves. Nonetheless, general principles are proferred:
--Based on established facts, an hypothesis is generated
--If tests tend to support the hypothesis, a theory is formed
--Continuous testing is performed and scientists look to see if the theory can explain a wide-ranging and large number of facts

In setting the stage for the rest of the book, Mr. Shermer does an admirable job for the general reader. The uninitiated particularly should gain a real appreciation for what science (and skepticism) bring to the table aside from equations, test tubes, and lab coats.

The rest of the book is a bit of a mixed bag. The subsequent chapters deal with such things as the paranormal, aliens, witches, Ayn Rand, creationism, Holocaust denial, and race. Many of these chapters are well-written and aid in cleansing the lens of skepticism with which to view the subject matter at hand. That being said, it becomes apparent rather quickly that creationism is a particular bugaboo of the author's. Perhaps because of his former status as a theology student, Mr. Shermer takes up over 45 pages of the book dealing directly with creationism and its adherents. Contrast that with about 11 - 15 pages spent on aliens, Ayn Rand, near-death experiences and the like. Only the chapters on the Holocaust receive more attention in the book. This is not to say that Shermer is unrelentingly hostile towards religion per se. This book certainly treats those with religious beliefs in a more respectful manner than many science-related volumes do. The author draws the line where religion encroaches upon the realm of science. Specifically, he believes creationism to be a pseudoscience as well as an attack on all of science and not just evolutionary biology. While the author makes a forceful case, I think he belabors his point a bit too much. Nonetheless, the arguments are well worth pondering irrespective of one's belief.

There are also several chapters on the Holocaust. He tells of his confronting deniers on Donahue, conversing with skeptics who believe that the event has been mischaracterized, and concludes with why we know that the Holocaust did occur. The remaining chapters are noticeably weaker than their predecessors. Mr. Shermer covers race in a rather superifical manner (it seems as though he felt he had to say something on the "Bell Curve" controversy), has a rather odd paean to Alfred Kinsey (whose work on sexuality has been called into question by many), and has still another chapter on science and God. The book concludes with a brief chapter on some possible explanations for why people believe weird things.

The author's political leanings occasionally seep through (the book seems to subtly imply at times that those on the "right" are the unthinking members of the population who wish to foist their views on others whereas, by inference, the political liberal is rational and tolerant by nature) and the book is a little long in some areas and short in others; however, Mr. Shermer does a good job throughout the book of emphasizing that science is a methodology perfomed by fallible human beings, so continuous testing is key. The failures of scientists and theories contribute as much, if not more to, the progress of science as the successes do. Given this, I would recommend the book to anyone interested in constructing a framework for boosting their critical thinking skills and gaining insight on how good skeptics and scientists approach the evaluation of hypotheses.

Twain spoils a promising premise with bloated preachifying, colorless prose, and an uneven, nigh-absurdist plot arc.

I have always received the best service when I have placed an order from you. Outstanding!!!!!

With each Twain novel I read, I am amazed at how he can be so funny while packing such astute insights about life. This novel is no exception as Twain strikes the balance between the two again here. The premise for this novel is perhaps Twain's most original idea (when did Tom Sawyer ever time travel?) and the story and characters satisify at every turn. While this isn't Twain's best work, I think that some of his funniest moments are in this novel. I recommend Tom Sawyer as the place to begin reading Twain, but if you are already a fan then this book is a must-read.

The title also happens to be the plot outline. Elements of the plot have been duplicated in countless books, TV shows and movies. Army of Darkness and MacGyver leap immediately to mind. The book is a fantasy, and if haters can set aside its numerous anachronisms (A man from 1900, for example, would never be able to understand the language of 6th century England), it's quite enjoyable.

The novel is considerably more adversarial than one might expect. The main character is uncouth, obnoxious, and a jerk, even more so than is necessary given the immensely frustrating ignorance of the 6th century people. I suspect Twain plugged himself in to the Boss character, and had a good old time writing this one.

The main character is out to get the established Church, not in a no-holds-barred, Philip Pullman way, but in a logical way that recognizes the value of faith while tearing down the humanistic and suppressive political and economic machinations of the Church.

Twain also takes shots at England through the ages, at its historically oppressive caste system and at the English people's long-running love of hereditary nobility.

Commentary on politics and on human nature abound, but A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court is still a great adventure story. These two elements step on each other's toes sometimes, but Twain pulls it off.

Clunky title. Great book.

RECOMMENDED

Although I usually enjoy Twain's writing style, and his sense of wry humor, there was something about A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court that was less than satisfying.

Some of the situations that the protagonist gets himself into are "classic" Twain. When the narrator is transported back to the time of Camelot, he begins to speculate about rituals, customs and general style of life. There is one part where the townspeople are convinced that he can perform great magical feats (he actually has Merlin as his rival), and when they corner him about performing one, he has to think of a way to please them or face punishment. He realizes that he can remember when an eclipse is going to come, and there is the way out of his situation. There are many adventures, where the narrator becomes critical of their ways, as a time warp will do. He is a fish out of water in many ways in this new world, not understanding, for instance, their need to have extravagant adventures: "Hardly a month went by without one of these tramps arriving; and generally loaded with some tale about some princess or other wanting help to get her out of some faraway castle where she was being held in captivity by a lawless scoundrel..." Because of his ability to perform great acts, he becomes known as the Boss, and helps to free some poor peasants from terrible punishments.

Maybe what made this less of a story was that it became too "preachy" and filled with social commentary. Although this is what usually makes Twain's novels, here it seemed to detract from the over all story. I was much more interested in hearing about the next adventure, but the narrator continued to rattle on and on about what he felt was wrong with this society. You get the feeling that Twain, not the narrator, is speaking after awhile. In the end, I guess it wasn't really the book I expected it to be. Still, it has its moments, and there are some parts that will have you chuckling to yourself as you read.

I consider Twain to be one of my favorite authors, but this is one of his lesser achievements.