Seasons Books

I'm deeply grateful that this beautiful book has crossed my path. It's a rich treasure trove of both visual and visceral inspiration. The artwork will speak to your senses while the poetry and prayers will enrich your meditation and devotions. As an author myself of NEW PSALMS FOR NEW MOMS: A KEEPSAKE JOURNAL (Judson Press), I especially appreciate the time, thought, insight, imagination and wisdom that went into creating this lovely book that will help women (and men) grow spiritually in every season of God's year.

This is a fabulous book for anyone who has a desire to know God in a deep way. Jan richardson is a beautiful writer and artist. The words speak in a poetic way...and yes there is poetry too. Words can hardly discribe my excitement. It is a beautiful book to read and look at. I recommend it to all who are on a spiritual journey!

Organized by seasons, Susan Simon's "Insalate" provides Italian salads for all meals, from the sublimely simple - melted gorgonzola poured over baby spinach leaves, or romaine and fennel salad, or tomato and mozzarella; to the simple and hearty - tuna and bean, bread salad, eggplant caponata. There are grilled salads with tomato and zucchini, fruit salads including mixed berry with blueberry sauce, grapefruit and carrot salad, grapefruit and avocado, orange salad with leeks and radicchio. She offers seven potato salads, including potato and green bean with pesto, potato and beet and a simple baked potato salad with sweet pepper and onion. There are only two pasta salads, one with eggplant, one with tomato and basil.

The emphasis is on fresh ingredients and the directions are simple, as is most preparation. Anyone who loves fresh vegetables and Italian flavors like olives and olive oil, capers, anchovies, tomatoes, basil, and parmesan will find the recipes and luscious color photos mouth watering.

This is a sensational little book full of delicious, inventive recipes. Great for summer, but the rest of the year is thoroughly seen to as well. Highly recommended.

IT IS A REALLY GOOD BOOK BECAUSE YOU CAN'T PUT THE BOOK DOWN!
WHEN SAMANTHA IS SAD YOU FEEL SORRY FOR HER THAT SHE FEELS THAT WAY. I LOVE IT. I WISH THERE WAS MORE TO THE STORY!!!!!

Since her mom passed away seven years ago, Samantha has taken care of her dad, helping with every household chore from bill baying to assuring that her dad takes his allergy medicine. Their comfortable routine has recently been interrupted, however, by her dad's new marriage. Suddenly Samantha does not feel so needed, and she resents her stepmother's intrusion in her life almost as much as she resents being shipped off for the summer to her new step-grandma's. But her grandma and the island where she spends the summer turn out quiet unexpectedly as she meets new friends, especially Jason, the cute kayaking instructor. Unfortunately, there's a secret game that could threaten Samantha's new love.

The second of a series targeting teen girls, ISLAND GIRL scores a direct hit with this audience. Author Lori Stacy deftly captures the struggles and triumphs of changing family dynamics as well as the turmoil of young love. As Samantha gains insight and maturity, she moves from a self-consciousness and resentment to a strong young woman in control of her destiny. A delightfully entertaining read, ISLAND GIRL comes very highly recommended.

The pictures in this book are beautiful. It was a great way to introduce the concept of fall to my preschool class. It tells about all aspects of fall and is great for any age.

We like to read seasonal books with our children and this one is fun! It really captures the spirit of Autum and the classic activities that we all attribute to the season. Beautiful illustrations---love the book.

I really liked the illustrations, because they went so well with the words. It is written just the way I remembered Fall when I was younger. I would recommend this book to anybody who enjoys nature and ever jumped into a pile of leaves.

Once again the wonderful Jimmy Pickering has created a visually compelling, wonderous, fun look through a kid's eyes at the wonders of spring.
This book is great for kids of all ages.

Written and illustrated by Jimmy Pickering as one of the Smallfellow Press "Another Season Book" series, It's Spring is a joyous picture book that celebrates the arrival of warmer temperatures, fresh green leaves, and all the other hallmarks of the spring season. Rhyming verse captures the antics of a young girl and her beloved dog, in this whimsically illustrated read-aloud tale. Also highly recommended is the other book in this outstanding series, It's Summer ...

Very cute, very fun and you'll fall in love with the adorable illustrations! Cute, cute, cute!!

Fantastic! Great illustrations and fun reading. All kids will love this book! the illustrations of the dog with his monacle are funtatstic!

The way this book reads is a direct analogy to the Jaguars. A quick and powerful example of how to write and how to win correctly. The Andre Rison anedote and Tom Coughlin's use of fear to gain respect were excellent. With the Jaguars poised to make a run at the Super Bowl, I look forward to seeing a following on this model franchise by these two gifted writers.

Anyone who regularly reads the Florida Times Union sports page would expect that John Oesher and Pete Prisco could provide this fascinating and sometimes provocative story of how this world class franchise was put together. The pair's sensibility and willingness to force Coach Coughlin's respect lends to a short but compelling read.

This book is just packed with useful information! I absolutely love it! As the previous poster said, it is also beautiful and well-bound. Worth every penny!

In the 26 days I've owned this book, I've been bowled over 26 times by Rabbi Hammer's daily teachings. They have touched me personally and often educated me.

Jill Hammer, clearly very knowledgeable in Jewish texts and tradition, reveals how Judaism embraces perspectives on nature and women that we might not credit Judaism with.

I've always tried to keep track of the cycles of the moon and seasons at the same time I keep track of the Jewish year, but it took this insightful, well-educated woman to unite the two in a meaningful and Jewish way. Thank you, Rabbi Hammer!

The introductory sections of the book are informative, and each day, in addition to her own teaching, Rabbi Hammer includes one quote from Tanach (Bible) and one quote from Talmud, Rashi, or other Jewish texts. I expect to turn to this book daily for the next year (and probably years to come), to learn and to deepen my spiritual life.

I can't recommend this volume highly enough. BUY YOURSELF THIS BOOK!

(Just a note: it's bound well, and under the pretty dust-jacket, the brown and gold cover would look really nice next to any Metsudah siddurs or machzors you might own.)

Let nobody fool you with adjectives about Cheever's fictional voice -- elegant, supple, crisp, resonant. Yeah it's all that, but if you have not encountered him before, you will be thinking in other terms -- unsparing, discomforting, perhaps even unforgiving. But listen to all these discs through, arranged from early stories to later -- through a variety of fine professional voices ending with Cheever's own refined rasp, for the last two stories -- before you make any judgments. It ought to take you several sittings; one story at a time may be all you can take. But by the end, you will likely want to eventually hear them all through, again.

Cheever, along with the somewhat younger John Updike, was thought of as the basic social chronicler in the short story form of his generation in post World War 2 years. That is somewhat misleading; the background for both is Protestant, or post-Protestant, east coast, upper middle class and aspiring higher. The two of them became known for what was called "the New Yorker story," which in itself will tell you a lot.

In Dante's Hell upon entry, a demon named Minos winds his tail the precise number of times to figure exactly how deep to drop you down to your earned level of damnation. A similar process happens very early in a Cheever story. A character, or the narrative voice itself, pitilessly fixes all others, in their sphere of vision, based upon the smallest nuance of voice inflection, diction, style of car or dwelling, choice of school, favorite drink, clothes or shoes. They are thus immediately damned in this world, and in a Hell particularly Calvinist (according to Cheever himself), without appeal except, perhaps, eventually to the reader's sympathy. Which some will gain, some not. In any event, they will still be wearing the same shoes at the end, of which fact Cheever will be certain to remind you.

In the early pieces, Cheever is a little uncertain on paper, a little jokey or cute but always entertaining and fascinating. Then he cools out real fast, and delivers stuff as good as the best of his predecessors in this genre, John O'Hara and F. Scott Fitzgerald. From then on his batting average is about as consistent as Lou Gehrig, too; the human toll of his endeavor is discreetly kept from the reader but apparently sounded in his personal life. State of the art performances by a catlike Merle Streep, the great Ed Hermann, serious Peter Gallagher, jovial George Plimpton, witty Blythe Danner move you soundly and at an even pace through all this material. But for all the pain in his voice, it is tremendously beatutiful when Cheever's own voice finally breaks surface on the last disc, in a clearly angry yet unbelievably controlled fit of passion, reading The Death of Justina -- a full frontal assault on modern corporate nonsense and social pretense. I certainly had never heard anything like it. Finally, a shade or two cooled off, Cheever closes the set with a reading of his mythic standard, The Swimmer.

Not for the feint-hearted, this mature set is as good as audio books get.

This audio-set collects 12 of Cheever's finest stories and recruits wonderful readers, including Meryl Streep, who is fantastic. Cheever has a gift for ripping the cover off of everyday life and getting at the emotional core. Many of the stories pack an emotional punch at the end as the reader gains a sudden and almost blinding insight into the emotional core of the lead character. The first and last stories of the collection ("The Enormous Radio" and "The Swimmer") are especially good at this. Some stories are funny -- like the "Chaste Clarissa" -- but most would have to be classified as "downers." Perhaps it is this dark edge that keeps Cheever from achieving some of the heights that Chekhov scaled.

Still, Cheever is at the top of the hierarchy of great American short story writers, along with writers like Sherwood Anderson and Hemingway. He's a little bit better at the short-story craft that any of his contemporaries.

George Plimpton is probably the only reader in this collection who will grate on you. Everyone else is absolutely great. My hats off to the publisher.

John Elway: Armed and Dangerous, by Clay Latimer, is a must for the John Elway and Denver Bronco fans. It is an easy to read book on Elway's career and personal life filled with quotes from players and unknown stories about other football greats. It sometimes drags a little as it gets off the subject quite a bit.

This book is a great read for Bronco and Elway fans of any age. It chronicles the life of John Elway from the time he was a child, through college and his joining of the Broncos, to his victory against the Green Bay Packers in Super Bowl XXXII. Black and white pictures are included with each chapter, and the center section 14 pages of color photos, as well. The author (Clay Lattimer) is a sports writer for the Rocky Mountain News, and he also draws on Sports Illustrated, Becket Football Monthly, and even Newsweek, as well as several other sports sources, so he packs a lot of information, dates, and statistics into each chapter. He also packs a lot of superfluous detail, too -- the writing meanders a bit and doesn't always stay on focus. But hey -- if you're an Elway fan (like me), who cares? The book is fun to read even in the places where it goes off topic. If there was such a thing as a "definitive" biography of an Elway, this would probably be it. If you're an Elway fan, get this book and enjoy it!