Seasons Books

Very nice book complete with patterns and instructions. One of the best available.

I love making gingerbread houses. I've made quite a few, so I was looking for something with unique ideas. This houses in this book are very detailed. But don't let that scare beginners. One of the best things about this book is how it not only gives great ideas, but tells you how to use them. It starts with the patterns (great to have them full sized already) and tells you how to build the house from structure to finish. The variety and detail are wonderful. You could adapt each project to your own level of artistry. I would definitely recommend this as a keeper for the project shelf.

I am again very impressed by Theresa Layman. The gingerbread houses are just magical, not only because of the easy to use designs, but also because of the attention that has been paid to the details, which make every project just about perfect.

A lot of ideas, not only for Christmas (although I LOVE the Santa sleigh) each and every one just lovely. The directions are extended and clear. I cannot wait to make them all!

I have both of Teresa Layman's books on gingerbread, and this is my favorite of the two. If you enjoy making gingerbread structures, or just like practicing your decorating skill, this book is one you will turn to time and time again. What I like most about both of her books is how clear and detailed her instructions are on how things are put together, and how she uses items and ingredients that anyone can find anywhere, so that it is IMPOSSIBLE to mess it up. And even though the pictures look a bit intimidating, if you break each structure down into steps as she has laid out, and take it one thing at a time, you soon realize how simple they really are - they just LOOK impressive. The Haunted House is worth the price of the book all by itself! I loved making it - so much fun!

I was very happy with this book. It has lots of patterns and ideas and gives full instructions of how to make gingerbread houses, lanterns and santa with his sleigh. I am sure I can make these houses come to life like in the book. The patterns are very simple, some are a bit harder but they are all there for anyone to look at. Thank you so much for my wonderful book.

This was a gift for my husband. He loves it! It is about more than just football. It has heart.

"Hurricane Season" is a true story about triumph through hardship for a private Christian school's football team in New Orleans overcoming the devastation of Hurricane Katrina and Rita. This book takes a personal look at the devastation that Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Rita caused within six weeks. It's about a High School football coach's and his players' commitment to their school and team in midst of chaos and turmoil. It's about how football can pull a community together. I particularly liked reading how the coach motivated his players and how he taught them to be men. It was heartwarming to see how much the coach loved his players and cared about their personal lives and not just how they played football.

Another aspect that really touched me was J.T.'s close relationship and admiration for his father. His father built the school and was a big part of the football team. After the father died, J.T. still thinks of him often and wishes he could still run things past him. He feels a real sense of responsibility to make his dad proud and run the school well.

The ending of the book is very moving and emotional when the team finally gets to play football after it looked like they wouldn't even have a season. As I read about the games, it felt like I was right there in the stands watching and cheering for them. This book started out slow and was pretty sad, but is definitely worth reading to get an inside look at what the people of New Orleans went through during Katrina and how a football team really jelled. It certainly made my few problems look totally insignificant in comparison.

Karen Zemek, author of My Funny Dad, Harry

I can't say enough good things about this book!! This book is remarkable!! It tells the story about how people dealt with Hurrican Katrina and the aftermath and a remarkable man, J. T. Curtis, Head football coach and principal of the John Curtis Christian School. How he and his family brought together a school and the football team is an unbelievable story. Their story will make you cry, laugh and cheer!! I really enjoyed this book A LOT!!!

Gerard Zemek
Husband of author of "My Funny Dad, Harry"

Hurricane season is an excellent complement to Douglas Brinkley's " The Great Deluge." While Brinkley provides an excellent analytical and scholarly account of Hurricane Katrina that should set the standard for many years; Hurricane Season captures the powerful emotional dimensions. Though grounded in the story of a high school football team, it transcends normal sportswriting by speaking to the bigger panorama of life, suffering, loss, and inspiring tales of recovery and fortitude.
With so many aspirations and dreams hanging in the balance, the J.T. Curtis School and football team regroup after enduring catastrophe and devastation and become a beacon of hope and solace for many of the victims.
Replete with an abundance of anecdotes and personal accounts, Thompson weaves their stories into a gripping narrative that will find appeal among readers of all genres. This is a stirring and fast paced treatment of those perilous days that is both wrenching and redeeming.

The Patriots are a football team that plays for a Christian school John Curtis. Members of the founder's family, his five children and grandchildren make up part of the faculty members at the school. They aren't just a school; they are more like a family. They have taken football members into their homes for extended periods of time.

The Patriots have a great team due largely to their head coach J.T. Curtis, son of John Curtis. "Hurricane Season," the story, takes place in August 2005. The Patriots are preparing to play their first pre-season game, which they do, and it's a shut out in their favor. Unfortunately, hurricane Katrina is coming through the state. Katrina will drastically change John Curtis School and students' lives dramatically. Readers glimpse the struggles shared by each family during and after the storm.

J.T. is determined to get his football team back together for some normalcy. While many of the players have been relocated, J.T. realizes that getting the guys back on the field will be a big help to them mentally.

Neal Thompson has written a very good book that should be read by everyone. A true story, while reading you feel as if you're actually there in New Orleans and very much apart of the school, their family and face all of their triumphs. After finishing "Hurricane Season" I went to the website just to get information on the school and the players.

Reviewed by: Carmen
Also agree with the one reviewer who says that if you enjoy Friday Night Lights.

I was visiting a friend in Westport, CT, and I saw this book there. Was interested to learn about his tv show and local appearances, so took a chance. I love it! And it all seems so achievable--not like some books where you know it was prepped by a staff of thousands and then the "celeb" stands in front of it and says "why didn't you think of this?" or "oh, it's so easy". Yah, right. I've ordered several more now that I'm back in NY City for friends and family, and everyone loves the story of how this man's garden evolved. You won't be disappointed.

Life on Mar's: A Four Season Garden How do you describe Life on Mar's? It's part primer, part journal and all heart. This book goes beyond the 'how to' basics of a traditional gardening book and provides motivation on how to discover and maximize life's pleasures with your garden as an inspiration. Life on Mar's will not only warm your coffee table and garden...it will warm your heart.

I purchased this book as a novice gardener and after reading it, boy do I feel inspired! Mar Jennings offers so many innovative and fresh ideas that I plan to try myself; his insight and tips make even a new gardener like myself feel like I can do it all! The pictures are amazing and fun and best of all, you can really feel the love and passion that Mar has for gardening, his cute dog Corky, and just living a bright and happy life. You will be more than happy with this purchase and it's also a great gift idea. Thanks Mar and I hope there are many more books to come!

This book opens up to a world of color and emotion. Mar expresses himself with a genuine caring and understanding of both people and animals. He encourages people to think for themselves and explore their inner art form. I was wildly impressed with this book and keep it at the top of my coffee table for all guests to peruse. Prepare your eyes for a gorgeous color collection of goodies.

This book is a MAR-velous insight to a beautiful home and garden of four seasons. I especially enjoyed the colorful pictures and visualizations that are depicted throughout this book. I look forward to see what is next on Mar's plate.

Where are the big publishing houses? This guy (O'Laughlin) should be picked up by one of the major companies. Whatever/whenever his next book should be front and center of their new-authors release list. "Omens in a Dry Season" portends astounding writing, driven characters, a profound sense of place and a can't-stop read.

Author! Author!

We want more.

I have never been to Yosemite and, though I should maybe feel a bit deprived :), I also feel a strange reluctance to go there now. "Omens" conjures up such a beautiful and mysterious place in my mind that I worry that the reality might not live up or that I wouldn't [or both:)]. And I would be sad too, I believe, to find no Malone waiting there or Hummingbird Hayes or Alex or Angel or Geronimo. Through the story I found myself wanting to help Malone both to forgive himself and to find everything he was looking for in Yosemite and to be saved. This was the subtle power of Michael O' Laughlin's writing. He is able to recreate a landscape beautiful and alive, to introduce the reader to characters who they are able to care about, and to simultaneously move beyond this to less concrete territory- the stuff of myths. I would highly recommend this book to anyone. It works like legends do while still remaining beautifully rooted in the real world.

Michael O'Laughlin has created a visceral trip into nature. I was taken into the heart of a great climber of the early 70's. Through O'Laughlin's precise perception, I traveled into the depths of the Merced River at spring flood, into a cave behind Yosemite Falls, out to the edge of space at the heights of Yosemite's granite walls. This is a very short list of what O'Laughlin made me feel through his evoking of the setting. This novel is magical, mystical, and somehow penetrates the essense of what places like Yosemite can be for people who love nature. At the same time, I would describe the novel as profoundly realistic. O'Laughlin creates a world on the boundary between myth and reality, achieving an amazing balance. He writes with profound detail, capturing the power in nature to manifest human rebirth. This is a novel for any lover of the outdoors and all who appreciate the detailed prose that draws one away from oneself and into a very pleasurable fictional world. Highly moving material. Highly recommended.

O'Laughlin has written an extraordinary novel of struggle and heroism--physical, philosophical and spiritual. In a cultural moment generally devoted to posturing and irony, he dares to be earnest about the things that really matter. His characters are compelling, their individual quests have enormous drive, but the book also contains some of the best nature writing in recent memory. O'Laughlin is truly lyrical on the subject of man against rock. This is a great book that also happens to be a great read.

I was there! While I wasn't really there, this novel brought me closer, through the main character, than I could imagine possible to the world of climbing in Yosemite in the early 70's. Using descriptive and precise language, the author lets us feel the rock, see the vast exposure of climbing a vertical wall, and, most importantly, bridges these perspectives with a solid ethical and mythical cast of characters and dilemas. This novel is both a sensory and personal journey into the symbolic yet very practical world of climbing and of the main character, Malone, who must struggle with loss and coming to understand where he fits in the world. From the jungles of Vietnam where Malone is internally infected with his perceived moral failures to the vividly felt landscape of Yosemite where he seeks redemption in the tactile world of rock, I saw, felt, smelled, heard, and tasted my way there with him. This book is a stunning achievement in allowing us to struggle, judge, and celebrate the renewing qualities of nature, physical achievement, and most importantly, Yosemite, which gives and reacts as a character Malone worships and respects. This novel brings precision, literary mastery, and intelligence to the genre of adventure fiction.

After dining at this restaurant in Savannah, Georgia I just had to have the cookbook. It is fantistic and the advice on herbs/spices is awsome! I have tried several recipes and cannot wait to try everthing. My herb garden just got larger.

We dined at the restaurant and we had the 'tasting menu' - it was fabulous. But, I was dreaming of the stuffed vidalia onions. The recipe is in this book - stuffed with sausage! We made it and it was rather easy and tasted like I remembered. We've also tried a few other recipes and have been very pleased.

Everything in the book is great, unique, flavorful and simple! A family favorite -- everyone wants the recipie when I have dinner parties and they think I slaved for hours -- really most take a bit of pre planning and chopping -- some can be done ahead of time and then you can truly relax! Chicken, fish, pork, sauces, and other fun items to make you look like a pro!

I loved looking through this book and dreaming of making these dishes - but then I woke up. I realized quickly that most of these dishes were beyond my means - not to mention my finicky husbands palate. Living in the lowcountry, I have access to the shrimp, crab, and various other seafood she uses. But being from a very rural area I couldn't find most of the spices she recommened (at least not without driving to Savannah or Charleston for them). If you are looking for a cookbook to use when you want to make an impressive meal - this is a good choice. But if you are looking for a cookbook with good downhome cooking like Granny used to make, well then keep on looking. In meantime, insted of slaving over the stove trying to cook these complicated concoctions - visit her place of business and let Elizabeth Terry do the work for you.

I bought this book after a visit to Savannah and Elizabeth Terry's wonderful restaurant, more as a memento of my trip than a book to actually use in the kitchen. It has become one of my most frequently used cookbooks. I have tried about a dozen recipes so far. They are simple and foolproof, but taste as if you spent much longer preparing them. Her marinades are especially creative, and her fish dishes have all been wonderful. I am planning to give several copies as Christmas gifts this year.

The author provides few hints that he has studied the basis for his beliefs Certainly, he has thought about how to defend public religious expression. Understandably, he talks about his faith. At the same time, he claims those disagreeing with his belief are advancing their "faith" in so doing. (In this context he borrows the phrase..."the church of the left"... from the rather superficial essays of Dr. Stan Kurtz).

He consistently toys with straw man constructions in this polemic without admitting his faith is that of one hoping for substance unseen. It is not likely this hope will ever be commonly shared by all of humanity.

It is rather interesting to see him start asserting matters of "proof" when engaging a fellow law school student who is gay. Surely, proof is hard come by and an unlikely companion when making such traditional assertions of faith. Many passages in this book begin with the author being "stunned" or being "shocked" at what he observes. This rightly characterizes the emotional basis for both his convictions and the religious ideas he endorses.

Impressionable children weeping their way into a church auditorium fully reveals how dramatically emotional is so much of the faith he espouses. And yet he attempts to portray liberal opponents as similarly locked in into a faith while not recognizing... much of their profound distrust of what he presents as that faith... is based on antagonism to the widely seen religious emotional extremism that he actually describes. He finds grace in such experiences while others of us recoil at the Old Time Religion that drags sinners down the aisle to the "mourners bench."

Emotion may be natural to the human condition but as the basis of religious zeal it has proven to be dangerous throughout history. Such strong emotional responses usually exclude rational and calm discourse. The author paints emotional palettes to advance his ideas while apparently thinking that emotion validates his arguments. A better understanding is that emotion is the basis and content of the religious ideas he celebrates. Emotion validates little or nothing in this context.

Typically, it crowds out facts. Of course, certitude characterizes such intense emotion. Liberals cannot be demonized just because they lack such emotional certainty and such can hardly be described as a "faith". Learning greatly tempers certainty while emotional intensity fosters rigidity. Neither may rise to a "worldview!" Ambiguity may be the nature of the cosmos and is, of course, no friend to rigid, inflexible belief systems. Much more than "civil rights" seems to be involved here. Neither can the issues be simplified as "secular" liberalism versus straight- arrow religious faith. The presence of emotion excludes problem solving. The greater the emotion the less problem solving will occur.

Religious communities that define faith and practice it in terms of emotion are not likely to problem solve. More importantly their emotional intensity creates barriers with others in the larger community who might be willing to problem solve. This is not a matter of a "liberal" faith standing in hard headed opposition to simple religious folk. It is a matter of understanding the lessons of history where zealotry rages.

A second matter needs mention. Those, the author champions and has great affection for, those who deny or distort what we have come to understand about human beings. One might say that the worldview he espouses is a crippled and inadequate view of humanity. The cultural split he alludes to is truly great. His co-religionists continue to insist their worldview is the only accurate view, as it was authored by divinity. No values outside of this worldview can be recognized nor celebrated. This is the magical thinking that is so often considered to be the remarkable religiosity of Americans.

Supportive of the contention that the faith being discussed here is of extreme emotional intensity is this: the constant conditioning of church members with song, prayer, sermon, testimony is not seen as conditioning. In fact, the very idea, if put to religious folk, would be rejected as offensive. Somehow the well-understood conditioning that occurs to all of us at work, at home and in school never happens at church. This is a denial of the first order that thoughtful people, liberal or not, should not ignore. Such a lack of insight should make every thoughtful person wary of many religious affiliations.

The limitations of the author's views are obvious. What may be less obvious is that some religious people seem bent on turning every courthouse, every stadium, every school, every government facility, even private work spaces, into a church. This "handbook" may well help. Some of his more cautious and carefully weighed thoughts may pass unnoticed. They are worth reading as they reveal some underlying conflicts felt by the author. There are signs here that if Americans don't grant this "right" to "share"... as a civil right... religious people will opt out as many are doing.

Does "share" signal a strategy to make converts of the entire majority? Can a mere 8 percent of the population who are evangelicals accomplish this? Whatever the goals, there is no civil right that can protect us from stupidity whether it be from school administrators in Chelmsford , Massachusetts or town administrators in Georgetown, Kentucky.

There was a time when religious folk, the church, were fully in charge...of everything. Do we wish to return to that time...the Middle Ages? Civil rights posed no problem. Sacred law was the measure, the only measure, for all matters.

Mr. French seems to carefully weigh these considerations in his argument especially as a minority religionist, but when push comes to shove, will he attempt to do more than just "share" his faith? Does he not understand there would be no church today, as we understand it, without the political power of a Constantine and others?

Just maybe, as the foundations of faith continue to quake, with faith-based emotion proving inadequate to cope with the modern age, the author will wish government had picked a faith for the state...his!

The author may well be a master of arms in the "culture wars." The reader will find the subtext of this book is that the good and wise are not just being discriminated against but seriously persecuted. As those of his faith seem to portrayed as without blemish or rancor, only an invalid opposing "faith" of distorted origins can explain such negative treatment. It is just possible that more cases could be added to those discussed by the author here.

Unfortunately, as all members of his faith have not been uniformly kind, charitable and loving to others, the unkind feelings generated in others towards them will not abate. Was it not written, somewhere, that one should be mindful "...of the beam in one's own eye..."? While all citizens should have recourse to the law, one might ask what marks authentic faith? Is government to protect all those "...persecuted for righteousness sake..."? Does this stance reflect the early days of this faith?

One last comment. The author discusses the Middle School and homosexuality on pages 52-53. He hesitates to affirm the incident he cites is wide spread. He says without crisply delineating "secular" the following, "Because the content of the program was 'secular,' it was legally acceptable for government officials to use government funds to promote behavior incompatible with evangelical Christianity."

This assertion is nothing short of incredible. How can a Harvard trained consitutional specialist begin to suggest government test all its actions against what evangelicals, Mormons, Moonies, Jehovah Witnesses, Scientologists or any other "recognized" religion deem "behavior incompatible?" Please Mr. French, let's not go there! Maybe this is evidence that we should shear Samson's locks, in a literary sense, lest he pull the temple down on us all?

This is a remarkable and courageous book by a very talented student of law, religion, and liberty. There are not many evangelical Christians who would write such a blunt and forceful plea to an audience that, as he has admitted, has not always been uniformly tolerant of those on the other side of the religious and cultural divide. His fundamental point is that Christians must be given equal rights in the public square, to defend their beliefs and to attempt to convince others to see the light as they have seen it. But part of the pact must involve Christians' acceptance of the notion that the government cannot favor their positions any more than it can discriminate against them. David French is as important to liberty as he is to religion. Harvey A. Silverglate, Cambridge, MA

I found this book to be very enlightening on the issues and hurdles facing many of our Christian brothers today. This book serves as a wake-up call to those of us who may have become lethargic and lazy in our faith. I believe you will find "A Season for Justice" to be highly educational and inspirational.

This book is very educational, but the tone of the book is conversational and approachable. The author talks about religious freedom issues in quite interesting and remarkably innovative ways. I have been a Christian all my life, have heard the arguments from the pulpit about how we need to "take our country back" from those who try to relegate Christianity to the back rooms and away from public life. I always agreed to some extent, but never felt empowered because I didn't understand HOW to do that precisely. This book explains the HOW. If you are remotely interested in American culture and Christianity's place in that culture, this book's for you. If you wonder how September 11th changed things in America's spiritual/political climate, this book's for you. I highly recommend the purchase of A Season for Justice. It will change the way you think about the "culture wars," and it will give you courage to stand up in the name of Christ to actually fight these battles.

In A Season For Justice: Defending The Rights Of The Christian Home, Church, And School, David French (Counsel for Intervarsity Christian Fellowship's Religious Freedom Crisis Team) brings to bear his many years of litigious expertise and experience as a courtroom defender of the rights and constitutional freedoms of the Christian community. French traces how Christians have fought for their legal rights through the use of anecdotal stories, case studies, and personal accounts illustrating and showcasing battles to preserve the basic right to share gospel teaching in their churches, schools, and workplaces. A Season For Justice is informed and strongly recommended reading for those concerned with the freedom of religion, and the relationship of Church and State, within the American constitutional framework.

There are several editions of this book published. They have been thoroughly reviewed, so I will just review this edition, not the material itself.

As you can see by the photograph, it has a red cover and black spine. On the front cover and the title page there is a picture of a shirtless horned man. This book contains black and white photographs, by Robert Mapplethorpe, placed just about at the beginning of every section. I do not like them and I think they are a distraction from the text.

This is a very well constructed book. The pages are made out of a high grade thick paper. On the left side of the book is the original text in French. On the right side is the translation in English, which is done by Paul Schmidt. Since I can not read French, I completely enjoyed the English version.

In the collection of prose poems and verse fragments that make up the short book A Season in Hell, begun in April 1873 in an outbuilding at Rimbaud's family farm at the village of Roche and completed by the end of August, he looks back in despair over his life as a poet. In one of the fragments, titled "Ravings number two" he talks about "the history of one of my follies. I invented the colors of the vowels!" he claims, and goes on: "I flattered myself that I had created a poetic language accessible...to all the senses...I expressed the inexpressible. I defined vertigos...I ended up regarding my mental disorder as sacred."

Rimbaud draws a picture of his affair with Verlaine in cynical terms, painting Verlaine as a weak and foolish virgin and himself as an "infernal bridegroom," a monster of cruelty. It wasn't far from the truth.

The last chapter of A Season in Hell is titled "Farewell." It has an air of exhaustion and relief about it. "I have tried to invent new flowers, new stars, new flesh, new tongues. I believed I had acquired supernatural powers. Well! I must bury my imagination and my memories. A fine fame as an artist and story-teller swept away! I! I who called myself magus or angel, exempt from all morality, I am given back to the earth, with a task to pursue, and wrinkled reality to embrace. A peasant!" A Season In Hell was finished in August 1873. Rimbaud somehow persuaded his thrifty mother to pay to have the book printed in Belgium. He sent his six author's copies to his friends and to men of letters in Paris. Many people see this manuscript as his farewell to literature. It certainly reads like that, although Enid Starkie believes that it was Rimbaud's farewell to a certain kind of literature--visionary, mystical, growing out of the selfish and hallucinatory lifestyle that had crashed to a halt only a few months before with his shooting and the jailing of Verlaine--and a commitment to something more humble and realistic. "Well, now I shall ask forgiveness for having fed on lies," Rimbaud wrote. He hoped that the French literary world would offer him the forgiveness that he was now prepared to seek, and give his book favorable reviews. He the proceeded to Paris to see how his book had fared.

Favorable reviews? He must have been mad. To those literary men, the dilettantes Rimbaud had mocked and despised a year or two earlier, Rimbaud was the insolent catamite who had destroyed their old friend Verlaine: sponged off him, wrecked his marriage, corrupted his soul and ruined his life, and then, when he had used him up, had turned him in to the police to face hard labour in a Belgian jail.

We have an eyewitness account of Rimbaud on the day when the last door in Paris had been slammed in his face, at the moment when he realized that the literary career he'd embraced so passionately was over. It was the evening of the first of November, 1873, a holiday, and the cafés and restaurants were crowded. The poet Poussin had joined some writer friends at the Café Tabourey. He noticed a young man alone in a corner, staring into space. It was Rimbaud. Poussin went over and offered to buy him a drink. "Rimbaud was pale and even more silent than usual," he later recalled. "His face, indeed his whole bearing, expressed a powerful and fearsome bitterness." For the rest of his life Poussin "retained from that meeting a memory of dread."

When the café closed, Rimbaud--who hadn't spoken to anyone all evening--set out to walk home through the late autumn countryside. It took him about a week. When he got to Charleville he built a bonfire and burned all his manuscripts. He didn't bother to collect the remaining five hundred copies of his book from the printer--they moldered there until they were discovered by a Belgian lawyer in 1901. That should have been the end of it. But Rimbaud couldn't quite let go. The following year in London he carefully copied out his prose poems, gathered together under the title, Illuminations. The year after that he tried to get them published. For the anguished but brilliant Rimbaud, giving up poetry must have been akin to weaning himself from a potent drug.

These are the brilliant and mystical hallucinations of the original "enfant terrible" and his visionary raptures about poetry, innocence and guilt. Verbal deliriums suffused with pain and hatred, remorse and desperation, but also with a parodic, pathetic and fatalistic megalomania. The "mystical rage" transformed into pyromaniac wording. Poems in prose, of very high quality, which reflect the fury of the love-hate relationship of Rimbaud with life and Universe.

In the collection of prose poems and verse fragments that make up the short book A Season in Hell, begun in April 1873 in an outbuilding at Rimbaud's family farm at the village of Roche and completed by the end of August, he looks back in despair over his life as a poet. In one of the fragments, titled "Ravings number two" he talks about "the history of one of my follies." "I invented the colors of the vowels!" he claims, and goes on: "I flattered myself that I had created a poetic language accessible...to all the senses...I expressed the inexpressible. I defined vertigos...I ended up regarding my mental disorder as sacred."

Rimbaud draws a picture of his affair with Verlaine in cynical terms, painting Verlaine as a weak and foolish virgin and himself as an "infernal bridegroom," a monster of cruelty. It wasn't far from the truth.

The last chapter of A Season in Hell is titled "Farewell." It has an air of exhaustion and relief about it. "I have tried to invent new flowers, new stars, new flesh, new tongues. I believed I had acquired supernatural powers. Well! I must bury my imagination and my memories. A fine fame as an artist and story-teller swept away! I! I who called myself magus or angel, exempt from all morality, I am given back to the earth, with a task to pursue, and wrinkled reality to embrace. A peasant!" A Season In Hell was finished in August 1873. Rimbaud somehow persuaded his thrifty mother to pay to have the book printed in Belgium. He sent his six author's copies to his friends and to men of letters in Paris. Many people see this manuscript as his farewell to literature. It certainly reads like that, although Enid Starkie believes that it was Rimbaud's farewell to a certain kind of literature--visionary, mystical, growing out of the selfish and hallucinatory lifestyle that had crashed to a halt only a few months before with his shooting and the jailing of Verlaine--and a commitment to something more humble and realistic. "Well, now I shall ask forgiveness for having fed on lies," Rimbaud wrote. He hoped that the French literary world would offer him the forgiveness that he was now prepared to seek, and give his book favorable reviews. He the proceeded to Paris to see how his book had fared.

Favorable reviews? He must have been mad. To those literary men, the dilettantes Rimbaud had mocked and despised a year or two earlier, Rimbaud was the insolent catamite who had destroyed their old friend Verlaine: sponged off him, wrecked his marriage, corrupted his soul and ruined his life, and then, when he had used him up, had turned him in to the police to face hard labor in a Belgian jail.

We have an eyewitness account of Rimbaud on the day when the last door in Paris had been slammed in his face, at the moment when he realized that the literary career he'd embraced so passionately was over. It was the evening of the first of November, 1873, a holiday, and the cafés and restaurants were crowded. The poet Poussin had joined some writer friends at the Café Tabourey. He noticed a young man alone in a corner, staring into space. It was Rimbaud. Poussin went over and offered to buy him a drink. "Rimbaud was pale and even more silent than usual," he later recalled. "His face, indeed his whole bearing, expressed a powerful and fearsome bitterness." For the rest of his life Poussin "retained from that meeting a memory of dread."

When the café closed, Rimbaud--who hadn't spoken to anyone all evening--set out to walk home through the late autumn countryside. It took him about a week. When he got to Charleville he built a bonfire and burned all his manuscripts. He didn't bother to collect the remaining five hundred copies of his book from the printer--they moldered there until they were discovered by a Belgian lawyer in 1901. That should have been the end of it. But Rimbaud couldn't quite let go. The following year in London he carefully copied out his prose poems, gathered under the title Illuminations. The year after that he tried to get them published. For the anguished but brilliant Rimbaud, giving up poetry must have been akin to weaning himself from a potent drug.

This is a brilliant encapsulation of the rage of the artist. He has a contempt for mankind, society, it's progress, and yet can't escape society. He can be a "..." as artists where called back then, refuse to live a middle class existence, live a life of drunken debauchery, and yet that is just another societal role.
His imagery is powerful, his language self-deprecating and insanely sincere. It draws you in with its suffering.
At the end he finds his life as an artist, his passion, empty. It all ended with the gunshot to the hand that ended his affair with Verlaine. In short, he equates his artistry and homosexual affairs with hell, and a return to society redemption. This explains how he became a materialist later on in his life, a trader, even considering trading slaves.
It is a sad fate for someone who had such a poetic gift.
I still enjoy reading A Season In Hell, even after having read it many times. Ultimately, the work is flawed; it has a little too much affected insanity, angst, the sign of an adolescent work, but it is also full of pure poetry and promise.

Harvest Brings Love and Tears

This story captivated my mind and gave me a glimpse of a truly loving family. I thought this book, Spring's Gentle Promise by Janette Oke, was a very well done, realistic story. Janette Oke is known for her Historical Fiction books. This book will give you a picture of what it might have been like for some farming families, during the Depression.
I liked the way that Janette Oke gave a mood to the story line to show how the family was operating. When the rains weren't coming, it showed how Josh's family was torn in different ways. I also liked the way Janette Oke focused into Josh's thoughts. She really made Josh's character believable. For instance, when Josh was going back for the Christmas tree in the woods, Janette described how he felt, through first person point of view.
In this story, Josh just gets ownership of a farm that was passed down by Grandpa and Uncle Charlie. Along with the ownership of a farm, Josh finds someone he truly loves. He marries and has a family. The Depression hits Grandpa, Uncle Charlie, and Josh's little family. The family is emotionally broken and separated. The spring then brings the family their Gentle Promise.
If you are the kind of reader that likes books that take over your thoughts and emotions, then take a chance in taking this book home. You will really like this story that gets you sucked in and stuck. If this book sounds appealing to you, then pick it up, grab a blanket, and jump into Josh's world. It will take you through a part of his touching life of love and sorrow.

This was the first Janette Oke book I read. I was about 13. I adored it. My favorite part was when Josh was deciding which girl he was in love with. I got hooked on J.Oke after reading this one. It is good reading for both preteens and adults. Parents, if you can't get your girls to read, buy them a J.Oke book and watch them change.

If you are a fan of Janette Oke, then you need this book and the others in the series. I have only read this one of the 4 and it ruined it. :) This book is so very powerful, however about the need for family and God. I highly recommend this book.

I am 12 and totally in love with all of Janette Oke's books!As we speak I am reading "Spring's Gentle Promise" and I've cried for joy and sadness throughout this whole book! I can't do anything to make you read it but I would recommend it in a second!

Out of all the 4 books in the Seasons of the heart Series by Janette Oke, I can guarantee that Spring's Gentle Promise holds the PROMISE of an awesome book. I have traveled along with Joshua Jones, the main character of the story, throughout his whole life. Through tragedy and disappointment to happiness and joy. In this last book Josh goes through some really hard times. From the love of his life falling for his best friend, to the death of his best friend. But with the bad comes the good and Josh finds himself a beautiful wife, a loving family and a future as a prosperous farmer. I guess it is like they always say, life is never boring for some because just when his dreams are developing Josh and his new family are struck with a devastating blow, a drought that nearly puts them on the streets. All they can do is trust in God to get them through. In conclusion, I would just like to say that you must read this book! Heck! Read the whole series, they are all fantastic books! Get ready to laugh and cry and pick up this heart warming adventure!

Excellent Excellent Excellent Book. Not so heavenly minded as to be any earthly good. Just a solid Christian community and the struggles the residents face. Real life. Real people. Real problems. And a very real faith in Jesus who helps them through. Loved the book!

Each of the books, while continuing the stories of all four families, has a particular focus on one family in each of the books. This one paid special attention to Tory and Barry who have two children, a boy and a girl.

Tory and Barry unexpectedly discover that their third child is along the way. Their world suddenly changes when they find, due to testing during the pregnancy, that the baby has Down's Syndrome. Both are thrown into a tailspin.

Tory comes to accept this even though she has concerns, but Barry, who has a brother with severe autism, does not. He can only envision a child who will be miserable and not contribute anything in this world. He recalls different times in his childhood where having his brother around brought him pain. His brother is still being cared for by his widowed mother. All Barry sees is that Nathan just sits there and whistles whatever tune he last heard, while staring off somewhere.

Barry, an ardent pro-life supporter in the past, brings the unspeakable thought to Tory; he wants her to have an abortion. Tory is caught unprepared that her husband would even think such a thing, let alone continually pressure her to have it done and she loses the respect she once had for him. Things become quite tense and communication breaks down with Barry sleeping in the basement and coming home late all the time.

I loved how the authors handled this. One of them has a relative with Down's Syndrome. One thing I've appreciated with these books is that they have shown the characters as being real- with real faults and struggles and victories. The struggle Barry has in his mind is a very difficult one and yet when he finally allows it, God is able to speak to him and show him that his brother's life has not been as he thought.

I'd recommend this to any family who has a member who is disabled in some way. And to those who do not, so they will gain a little insight.

This book is wonderful in so many ways. First, the characters and situations are so real and powerful. But it is the Sullivans' situation that really hits on the important issue of life in our country. It has everyone facing their own souls and asking whether they would have been Barry or Tory in the same situation. It is a book I would recommend to everyone.

I found this book by accident, and I loved it. I rarely cry at a book, but this one brough the tears. It was so real. I have friendships like the ones the women in the book did. The characters were real people- they struggled, made mistakes, and dealt with anger and pride and personal weaknesses.

A lot of the time I felt like the messages and advice in the book was for me, not just for the character who needed to hear it. I highly recommend this book to everyone.

I thought that LaHaye and Blackstock would never be able to duplicate and certainly not be able to top the writing in the 1st book of this series. How wrong I was!! This book is even better than the first! I can now relate even more to the characters of Cedar Circle, and I feel like they are my best friends. I can hardly wait to turn each page so I can find out what happens next. I am anxiously awaiting the opportunity to read the 3rd book, because I know I won't be disappointed.

The pictures are nice and the book is ok, just not a book to come back to over and over again.

The artist Thomas Locker studies a tree through a year. The paintings are beautiful. Realism never looked so good in a children's book before.

I am creating curricula that integrates the visual arts and science. This book has it all.
What a gorgeous book to look at!

I read this book with my 3 year old. The questions were over his head, but he still loved it. By simply discussing the pictures he learned about seasons, weather, the life cycle of a tree, and how painting techniques contribute to the mood of a piece of art.

Sky Tree shows how a tree growing on a hill by a river changes through all four seasons. Locker's oil paintings are beautiful and accurate. The text records the changes the tree experiences in simple language. There are questions at the bottom of each page where text appears that provoke discussion. At the end of the book, Locker gives a scientific explanation of each of the paintings: the summer tree, the change tree, the autumn tree, etc. This is a great book to use for teaching about the world of nature.