Seasons Books

Found the book to be inspirational, full of innocent/pure love from such a young/courageous lady!

I found Odes, Insights, and Stories for all seasons so refreshing, the author is a natural and skillful writer and her story is very touching. Her faith is overwhelmingly solid and this gives us a lot of hope in God. Her courage is also admirable being a sickly child and a single mother and yet she comes out victorious even finding the man of her dreams in the process! Her story is an inspiration to all of us and hope to read more books from this author in the future!

A very well written and inspiring book! The author delivers a mixture of poetry, well-adviced articles and stories that will make you stop and focus on how you are living your life now. She is candid and open on her life experiences. Her book really opened my eyes and touched my soul for there are a lot of things I took for granted in my life. I also realized the things that really matter and where our priorities should be. The author has a powerful message on submitting your life to Gods will for He is the author of our life and is forever present in our trials and victories. Her book serves as an inspiration to me and has changed my whole outlook in life. A book everyone should read and a perfect gift for someone that needs uplifting and soul-searching.

Her book offers an insight to the emotional and spiritual journey she personally experienced and how God unfolded His perfect plan for her life. It is about the author's courage, faithfulness and abounding love for God, her family and friends.
It will definitely stir your heart and rejuvenate your spirit as she shows how God can change your life as you surrender to the Lord and move into the center of His will.

This was a great book about the first day at the Reds new ballpark, Great American Ball Park. Unfortunately, I thought it would be a book about the financing, architecture, details of the construction, etc. Although an opening chapter does hit on these topics - I was hoping for a little more.

I do have some other complaints. Some of the photos in the book look a little dark and fuzzy. Also, I was hoping more of the book would have been devoted to the players and their reactions to the ballpark.

So why give it 4 stars?

Though the book wasn't necassarily what I expected, it was still really interesting. There were great photos from inside the clubhouse, the restaurants, fans, the parade and even the implosion of Cinergy Field - as well as neat tidbits about the whole day. I have it sitting in my living room, and its the first thing our guests pick up. Though a little pricey, its surely worth it to any Reds fan.

Opening Day At Great American Ball Park by Cincinnati Reds baseball enthusiast Dann Stupp is an exciting celebration of Cincinnati's Great American Ball Park openeing day. Dazzling colorful photography and a sprinkling insightful asides fill the pages of this visual celebration of the grand sport of baseball, as well as the athletes who strive to excel, and the fans who love the thrill of watching teams compete to be the very best they can. Opening Day At Great American Ball Park is very highly recommended for baseball buffs in general, and Cincinnati Reds fans in particular!

I first heard about this book during an in game advertisment in the ballpark late in the season. Like so many others, I paid an arm and a leg for my tickets for Opening Day at on an online auction site. And like so many others, I thought it was totally worth the cost. Although the Reds had a terrible season because of injuries and an embarrassing ownership group, the team did "go all out" for the Opening Day festivities.

For those of you expecting a detailed history of the tax increase, the ballpark construction and the companies involved -- this isn't exactly that type of book. Although it has a chapter on the buildingof the ballpark, most of it's devoted just to Opening Day.

I really wish this book had some sample pages on amazon so that other people could see the type of photography in this book. There are some great shots of Barry Larkin, former President Bush, Marty and Joe, panoramic shots of the ballpark, etc.

I attended opening day this season in the Reds new ballpark. It was a great event and a big celebration for the city. This book has a ton of great photos that span from the Findley Market parade to the closing of the ballpark after the game. The photos are fantastic, and the captions provide plenty of information about some of the cool features in the ballpark like the Pepsi Power Stacks, the Big Red Machine Bar and a lot of the history elements found throughout the ballpark.

I plan to give a copy to all my friends who are Reds fans for the holidays.

THE POEMS OF GERARD MANLEY HOPKINS. Fourth Edition based on the First Edition of 1918 and enlarged to incorporate all known poems and fragments. Edited by W. H. Gardner and N. H. Mackenzie. 362 pp. Oxford and New York : Oxford University Press, 1970. ISBN 0-19-281094-4 (pbk.)

For anyone who is interested in Hopkins, and everyone should be, this is the standard and authoritative edition. It gives us the only complete and accurate text which for the first time puts the poems in their true chronological order.

The poems have been arranged in four sections : Early Poems (1860-1875?); Poems (1876-1879); Unfinished Poems, Fragments, Light Verse, &c. (1862-89); Translations, Latin and Welsh Poems, &c. (1862-67). The book contains a useful and informative Introduction and Foreword, and is rounded out with very full Notes, a series of Appendices, and Indexes of titles and first lines. It is also beautifully printed on excellent paper, stitched, and bound in a sturdy glossy wrapper.

Hopkins had a unique sensibility, and brought something very special and of great value into English poetry. He seems to have had the ability to enter into the intelligence and feelings and spirit of all life forms, whether animal or plant or even landscape, to resonate with the indwelling divinity within them, and to somehow magically bring the miracle of their vibrant being over into his poems.

Hopkins is in fact a striking example of the fully human sensibility as described in the works of Heidegger and the great thinkers of the East, and exemplifies a quality of sensibility which most of us seem somehow to have lost. We skate dully and blindly over the surface of things, but Hopkins plunges into the depths of being and carries us along with him. In other words, he puts us back in touch with reality, with what life is really about. Hence his enormous value and importance.

In a complete collection such as this, there are bound to be many poems that fall short of greatness. For the newcomer to Hopkins, one suggested approach might be to first read some of his greatest poems, poems such as 'God's Grandeur,' 'Spring,' 'The Windhover,' 'Pied Beauty,' 'The Caged Skylark,' 'Binsey Poplars,' 'As kingfishers catch fire, dragonflies draw flame.'

There are many beauties to enjoy in Hopkins - his unique use of language, his control of sound and rhythm, his amazing images and metaphors - but for me the most beautiful thing of all is the news he brings, news of a universe in which all things are of infinite value and infinitely precious, and in which no creature is of any less value than another because all are indwelt by divinity:

"Each mortal thing does one thing and the same : / Deals out that being indoors each one dwells ; / Selves, goes itself ; _myself_ it speaks and spells, / Crying _What I do is me : for that I came_" (p.90).

Hopkins makes us acutely aware of our loss, and our crime. His poems map out a path back to a saner, more balanced, and more wholesome and intelligent way of dwelling on the earth, dwelling lightly upon it with all other creatures and as its guardian, not its ravager.

"O if we but knew what we do / When we delve or hew - / Hack and rack the growing green! / ... After-comers cannot guess the beauty been...' (pp.78-9).

Hopkins, I think, would have been very much in agreement with Heidegger who tells us that the earth must once again become a _Spielraum_ , a space of great beauty in which to play, and one in which all creatures, instead of being treated as mere objects, are allowed to do what they came here to do, to develop the full potential of their natures and fulfill themselves as manifestations of divinity. His poems are unforgettable, and one envies those who may be coming to them for the first time.

The first poem by Gerard Manley Hopkins I read was "PiedBeauty," which was included in a book of poetry for children thatwas given to me by my great-aunt. In high school, I read "Spring and Fall: to a young child" and loved it, though I did not realize it was by the same author. It was only college that I connected the two, and discovered a wonderful poet, who has become one of my favorites.

For a fan of Hopkins looking for an authoritative volume, this edition is a treasure. In addition to his better known works, it contains early poems, numerous fragments, and unfinished works, in fact "every scrap of English verse which can be ascribed... to Hopkins" (from the Introduction xvii). In addition, it contains a good essay on Hopkins and his work, and extensive textual notes.

Hopkins poetry may appear obscure and difficult at first, and in fact it is, at times, wildly original. Hopkins' language is deliberately archaic and inventive, and he both revives wonderful words not used since Shakespeare, and makes up his own. Hopkins also writes in "sprung rhythm," a metrical style that is almost syncopated, and juxtaposes stressed syllables. I recommend reading his poems out loud. The sheer beauty of his language will inspire you to recite the words over and over again, until you understand his meaning: the essence which he is trying to distill. New readers may be daunted by this volume at first, and find that Hopkins' great poems are "submerged in a mass of less significant fragments" (Intro xiv). I would suggest his sequence of ten sonnets (#31-40) as an ideal place to start reading.

Hopkin's friend and fellow poet Robert Bridges wrote that Hopkins strove "for the unattainable perfection of language," and at times he seems to have actually obtained it: "Men go by me whom either beauty bright / In mould or mind or what not else make rare: / They rain against our much-thick and marsh air / Rich beams, till death or distance buys them quite." (The Lantern out of Doors, #40). END

Gardner and MacKenzie have compiled a fine collection of Hopkins' juvenalia, mature work, and uncollected fragments/translations.

I wish that I knew what to say to compel readers unfamiliar with his work to buy this or another collection. The Terrible Sonnets are among the most moving treatment of spiritual anguish in the English language. If you are doubting, take the time to look "Carrion Comfort" up on the web-- the poems are available at Bartleby.com. This book is one of my constant poetic companions.

For readers already familiar with the more famous pieces, it is a treat to see his younger work and translations. Reading the book as a whole gives a picture of a mind in motion. What led him to this point?

"NO worst, there is none. Pitched past pitch of grief,
More pangs will, schooled at forepangs, wilder wring.
Comforter, where, where is your comforting?"

Read it, read it, read it.

This review does not relate to the quality and character of the Oxford Complete Poems. It rather relates to Hopkins unique greatness as a poet which I will try to say a few words about.
Hopkins created his own style of verse, his own vocabulary for perceiving the world, his own special rhythm and language in poetry.
He is not the most easy poet to understand, and I will admit that his longer poems lose me.
When I consider his work I relate primarily to five, six , seven poems which seem to me extraordinary. " The world is charged with the Grandeur of God" and " Thou art indeed just, Lord" and "Felix Randall the Farrier, Is he dead then?' are to me the most memorable. They contain a power and beauty, a tremendous sense of identification with and understanding of the suffering in life, a kind of unique and intimate perception of the details of the natural world.
Hopkins the tormented priest wrote to my mind some of the most memorable and beautiful lines in the English language. Consider the closing of ' Thou art Indeed Just Lord" "Birds build but not I build/ but break Times wounds And never breed one work that wakes Thou O My Lord of Life Send my roots Rain."

This career guidebook is such a valuable resource for students and information professionals of all types. Ms. Dority is an author who actually practices what she writes about. She has a successful career as an information professional and has not only experienced but partipated in the creation process of a variety of exciting and interesting job descriptions. Practicing librarians as well as information professionals who seek an alternative career path will find information in her book that is both motivating and inspiring. This book provides substantial information including worksheets, thought-provoking exercises, and both print and online resources. I was privileged to take the alternative careers class that Ms. Dority teaches and believe that it is one of the most important and stimulating classes offered in the Library and Information Science graduate program. The class, like the book offers students and professionals the opportunity to learn about the many career options that are available along with ideas on how to pursue the possibilities. An added bonus to the book is the related website that includes updated resources and a monthly column on alternative career paths for LIS professionals. Every LIS professional and student should own this book!

Rethinking Information Work is more than a book. It is a manual and a reflexive companion that grows with you as you learn and reflect upon your career choices. I was fortunate enough to obtain a copy during my first quarter as an MLIS student. As I work through school, this book has become an invaluable resource. The format is logical, concise, easy to use, and endlessly helpful. The text is dynamic and the exercises are relevant. There are pointers and ideas regarding all aspects of librarianship that I would not have considered before reading this book. There are so many fresh ideas and creative approaches here that even in a rapidly changing information environment, this book will continue to be my #1 career resource and roadmap for a longtime to come. If you are an MLIS student or if you are remotely interested in a career in library and information sciences, do yourself a favor and buy this book.

Without doubt this is the clearest career guide ever written for librarians, library students, or others in interested in information-based careers. With libraries and access to information changing at a breath-taking pace, this guide will expand your world of possibilities and affirm your decision to serve in this field. Never has there been a work that so clearly delineates just what different kinds of librarians actually do, and what they could do with a bit of entrepreneurial ability. This book is an encapsulation of a class Kim has taught for many years at the University of Denver - a class in which she brought in traditional and non-traditional information professionals to explain what they do. Her experience in the business world comes across in the refreshing cross-pollination of up-to-date business and career literature integrated with library literature.

I highly recommend this book for the traditional librarian - it will affirm you chosen path; and for the student in search of a career future in changing times. You will be convinced that information professionals will always have a most important role in society.

This was required reading for our Library Science course. It's a good review of all the careers open to an Information professional/librarian.

I am an eleven year old boy and I think that"The Rhyming Season" by Edward Averett is a great book! Brenda Jacobsen (the main character) lives in a small town named Hemlock with her tall, basketball loving family. I liked the way the author made all of the characters in this small town become so real and believable. Even though I am a boy and not yet in high school, I could relate to the challenges that Brenda was going through in the story and was totally absorbed by the basketball games and action packed plot. I like this book because of the way the author combines two very different things together, basketball and poetry.

In a dying lumber town in the far reaches of Washington State, Averett's heroine is the star of the girls' high-school basketball team. But she lives and plays under the shadow of her brother, the town basketball hero, who died. With a bad home life and a coach who's left the team, this is the story of a season in both hell and heaven.
In a disastrous blow, the school assigns the team a coach who's not only the English teacher but who requires the team to learn and recite poetry -- aloud -- at practice and even during games. How humiliating!
But -- let me leave it there; author Averett pulls magic out of his hat and gives us a thrilling story that's far from the conventional. A wonderful achievement.

Ed Averett's "Rhyming Season" is a moving depiction of grief, loss, and growth for the individuals and the Northwest logging communities. His mixture of poetry and sports is a
delicious element in a story that resonates on many levels.
A great read!
Mary Ann Murphy

This is a great read. The writing is superb, the story is moving, engaging, and original. I loved the blending of sports and poetry. This is one of the best YA novels I've read in a while. Bravo, Edward! I look forward to reading more books by you.

This book caught me at the first page. I was pulled into a world of horrible lows and wonderful heights. Stephen is truly an amazing person for sharing his life with the world, and he is an inspiration to anyone going through the horrors of drug abuse or knows someone who is. A must-read for anybody who enjoys a heroic tale of climbing to the fullest height of potential.

Im a student at Seton Hall Un. and its finals week and I have NO time for frivolous reading of any type.When I opend the box I was commited to at least reading 6 pages with the proloage, no more. I opend it looked at the pic's in the middle "wow ,what a looser I thought.I read the ist page then the second and before I knew it the author had taken contol. I kinda felt, at that exact time, that I HAD BEEN CONNED but there was no conn at all, I did the math and made some inqueries and a GUY I know who knows another GUY said "Don't worry abbboout it!meaning "Its ALL TOO REAL" The real engien that drives the story is its air of genuinness,and realy who would lie about this kind of nightmare?.You have to read it and youll understand what everyone is begining to say.Its a must read this summer I would definatly recomend it to any one. Not just thoes who suffer with recovery isues.I was in suspence the entire time after the 1st few pages.Its a excieting as any crime novel Ive read lately. En'joooy!

The dark fog of addiction has destroyed many lives beyond repair. "Rising Above the Influence: A True Story About Alcohol, Drugs, and Recovery" is how it almost happened to author Stephen J. Della Valle. This is his story of his plummet to the very bottom of humanity, and his long climb back up to normalcy - inspiring indeed. With a message of "don't be afraid to ask for help", "Rising Above the Influence: A True Story About Alcohol, Drugs, and Recovery" is a top pick for anyone looking to get out of the fog themselves and for community library self-help collections.

A rare honest account of the author's decades long struggle with drugs and alcohol. I loved that the story was told without pandering to the readers sympathies and without all the cliche b.s. that sometimes accompanies survivor stories. A look through the eyes of the author at his worst and into his eventually recovery. Amazing and at times shocking, but always real.

I have used this book for my Lenten devotions over a number of years. I discover something fresh and wonderful every time I read it. Fr. Smith's journey in and with the Holy Spirit is not an exercise in escaping from the world around us, but an invitation to become more aware of how the Reign of God is active here and now. Although geared towards Lent, the readings are well worth perusing any time of the year.

Martin Smith is a clear and thoughtful writer, and a wonderful guide for Christians looking for help in getting right with God. This book is a series of short essays. Each is accompanied by a a text for meditation, almost always from scripture. If you use this book seriously during Lent, you will be rewarded with a richer and deeper prayer life. Smith is an Episcopal monk, but his work is equally accessible to all Christians.

This book helped my Lent to be very powerful and profound. I felt that it had been written just to answer my questions and to challenge me to grow in my spiritual life. I highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to have a prayerful Lent.

This is the second year I have used Martin Smith's book at Lent His profound insights into the psyche of persons and his practical applications to Christian living continue to deepen my own ability to "walk the walk" with Christ. His extraordinary spiritual insights, especially his explanation of the self as a group - the "selves of the self" - likening each of us to the demoniac that Jesus heals. I would recommend this book to anyone seeking a deeper understanding of the self/selves that God loves. A book for all seasons.

I love Debbie Macombers angel books. You never know what they will get into next so you don't want to put the book down because you just have to know. In these stories there are the most unlikely couples and a lot of surprises. It always looks like nothing is going to work out for the angels but just wait until the last chapter.

Debbie Macomber is a true romantic, but God is always there keeping watch. A true pleasure to read.

This is the first book I have read from this author, but will look for more of the same. It was a well written, sweet, funny look at something we all need to believe in. I had just lost my husband and was flying home (first time on a plane). Picked this up in the airport and was immediately immersed in the story, so forgot to be nervous about my flight. It was something I could connect to in my fragil state so thank you Debbie Mcomber for some light at the end of my particular tunnel.

I thought the book was great, I rated it a 4.5 out of 5. Although I didn't feel the characters were fleshed out enough, the stories of Christmas "miracles of love" were heartwarming. A perfect read for this time of the season. And again, although I love books with more meat in them, more story, ets., I felt this was a great book to read.

The first of the two stories, "A Season of Angels" did great in introducing our angels, Shirley, Goodness and Mercy as they helped their charges realize the answers to their prayers before Christmas. Of the three stories (charges), two were more predictible than the third, which was a pleasant surprise.

The angels were back again in "Touched by Angels," again helping three lucky charges. I liked this 'book' alot better than the first, as the stories were a tad more realistic.

I would highly recommend this book to anyone. And apparently there are more books featuring these three angels. Guess I have to go find "The Trouble With Angels" and "Shirley Goodness and Mercy."

In this well-put together inspirational romance novel, readers meet Katie Fremont, a likeable high school senior uprooted and transplanted from her home in Minnesota to a new place out West. Her only friend, life-long bosom cousin, Diana, helps Katie adjust and introduces her to the hunk at the small Christian high school they attend. Immediately things begin to look up for Katie as she and Steve begin a sweet, enduring relationship that fills their lives with interesting ups and downs, laughter and tears. Katie's dreams, however, take an unexpected twist that plunge Katie into a position of turning all of her hopes, fears, and even her Season of Dreams over to the One who can carry her through.

I am not a fan of romance-inspirational or otherwise, yet this book held my attention all the way through. The characters were well drawn, alive and dynamic. Anyone who enjoys a sweet romance with a twist will surely like this book and clamor for Sharon's sequel, The Rest of Forever.

A Season Of Dreams is a wonderful book of enduring friendships and how God plays a hand in the directions of the lives of Katie, Diana, Steve and Wayne, as they follow their dreams and survive the unexpected happenings that change their lives forever. I highly recommend this book to all. You will find yourself at times laughing and crying and find yourself living in the characters world. I found it extremely hard to put this one down.

A Season of Dreams is a wonderful book for teens and post-high youth, especially girls. It is a story about enduring friendship and how life does not always go the way you plan or hope. Katie (one of the main characters) grows and changes in her outlook on life and in her faith in God because of her friendship with three other teens. It is a difficult book to put down once you start! I would highly recommend this book.

A Season of Dreams is a sweet, satisfying story about true friendship and young love. The four main characters are so real you feel as though you know them and each one will touch your heart. The story begins as Katie, Diana, Steve and Wayne enter their senior year at their Christian high school and continues as they grow through their life experiences over the next two years. God's hand directs each character as they follow their dreams and survive unexpected events that change their lives forever. The last page will leave you longing for a sequel.

good chronological account of Early's 1864 campaign many interesting side notes to a little studied Confederate actio

Mr. Judge does history a great justice by writing the history of the Invasion of Washington from its inception. He covers the early phase from a confederate defeat at Cloyds Mountain in Pulaski County just south of Blacksburg (VA. Tech), takes you to Lynchburg and Early's arrival and the subsequent journey to Washington D.C. Gives the reader the complete field of study of the campaign. Wonderful description of future Baltimore Police Chief Harry Gilmore who was a colorful confederate calavary leader as well as a vivid description of the hidden valley of the Shennodoah, Fort Valley.

This book is must reading for anyone interested in Civil War history or who lives in the areas between Monocacy Junction and Washington, D. C. where this action occurred. The book provides a detailed synopsis of the action and is loaded with details of the local history, much of which remains intact for anyone interested in retracing the course of Early's raid.

Season of Fire proves to be a well written and well researched book on Confederacy's last effort to do something meaningful by trying to attacked Washington DC. Led by General Jubal Early, the Confederate forces came pretty close to success and the authors were correct in saying that even if the occupation of Union capitol would only be momentary, the political and morale cost would be devastating for the north. While hindsight make this campaign almost a sideshow, the book revealed how close it really was to being a main event.