Audio Books

Wow! I couldn't beleive how much I truly enjoyed this book. The love story between Summer and Peter was a bittersweet event. Summer, who lost her whole family to disease, and Peter, widow and father of a young son, must learn to love again and let someone new into their lives. Wonderful is all I have to say - a MUST READ!

I enjoyed this book very much. Good book. Look forward to more books by this author.

Set on the early 1900's mid-western prairie, "Waiting for Summer's Return" is masterfully written. A glimpse into the old Mennonite way of life, a sprinkling of German, a handful of elegantly crafted characters, and Sawyer's attention to detail makes for delightful historical fiction.
With delicate skill, Sawyer lays out the clear plan of salvation and a God-ordained prescription for coping with and overcoming withering grief. However, do not be deceived by the book's weighty topics. "Waiting for Summer's Return" is well-rounded with an enchanting plot complete with touches of gentle humor that break the tension at just the right moments.
This is one of the better books, I have read recently. Recommended.

I have to admit that I've read this "story" before. We all have. The grief-stricken widow finds new hope through a widower and his son. HOWEVER, Kim Sawyer has brushed freshness over the plot and inserted twists that erase predictability. Also her writing style is perfection. Waiting for Summer's Return is high on my recommended list.

Kim Vogel Sawyer created a believable story of a mother and wife suffering the pangs of grief after the loss of her four children and husband.

Summer Steadman finds herself alone in a small Mennonite community in Gaeddart, Kansas during the fall of 1894. So deep in mourning that she finds food repugnant, she has allowed her body to become weakened. Her soul has become as emaciated as her body. No longer sure that God loves her or anyone else, Summer's only real wish is to join her family in death. It seems God has other plans for her, though.

Peter Ollenburger, a local gristmill owner, is in need of a teacher for his son, Thomas. Since the young boy is housebound after an accident resulting in broken ribs and can't ride his horse to school, he is falling behind in his studies. Peter's wife, Elsa, would be the logical choice to be his teacher, but she died six years earlier. Peter needs someone to live on his property and give the boy his lessons until he is fully recovered. After learning that Summer Steadman has lost her family to illness and has need of a position, he proposes that she come live in his home as Thomas's teacher. When objections to the impropriety of the situation are brought to his attention, Peter agrees that Summer could live in his shariah rather than in the house with the family. Wanting only to be close to the graves of her family, Summer accepts Peter's proposition and moves to his property.

What awaits the reader of Waiting for Summer's Return is a journey of relationship renewals. Summer and Peter both travel the path toward new knowledge of people and God. The trip is filled with bumps and ruts much like the road to the town of Gaeddart. As Thomas grows to know his temporary teacher, his affection for her grows to become the love of a child for a mother. Neither Summer nor Peter had planned on this complication. What are they to do? How will God orchestrate the symphony of their lives?

Kim Vogel Sawyer's writing is a joy to read. Her characters catch the reader's heart. It is hard to put the book down in order to carry on with life. Waiting for Summer's Return is one of those books you will want to keep reading to the point where the dishes will stack up in the sink and the laundry will go unwashed because you have to read just one more chapter. And that chapter leads to another and then another. Go ahead read those chapters. The dishes and the laundry will be there when you finish the book.

Ok, so a friend turned me on to the Neta Jackson series of "Yada Yada" and I was hooked from day one!!! If you thought Book 1 was was a page turner and the message was great... wait till you get a hold of this book!!! When I finished reading the book I texted my friend and said... "Simply Amazing"!!! The message that it brings, the story line, the power of the gospel simply AMAZING... A MUST READ!!! BE BLESSED!!!

My niece, Raecyne, recommended this book series. I enjoy the Yada Yada Prayer Group series so very much. Neta expertly crafts her characters so that you almost instinctively assign voices and faces to these characters. You feel as though you know these characters; you go to church with these ladies, they are in your choir or your small group. I told my niece that I am already lamenting my completion of the series. It will be like the feeling of loneliness you experience when you have to leave your church family and move to another location. You know you will miss these people who have meant so much to your life and your spiritual growth. Sounds like an extreme view of characters in a book? I challenge you to start reading the series. You will be delighted. You will also be challenged in your spiritual walk as the main character Jodi Baxter is challenged and grows spiritually. Treat yourself to the ladies of the Yada Yada Prayer Group!

I would recommend this series for anyone. I have already read through books 1-6 and am waiting for book #7 that will come out this week. I liked the series so much I now am buying a set of my own and am passing them around my church and friends to read. It will open your eyes to see how different ethnic groups look at church and prayer and how they see life from their culture. Book #2 brings the group together even more and starts to have an effect on the husbands and children. There is so much good in these books, I thank God for Neta Jackson and her talent for writing them. What a blessing!

This book carries the Yada Yada's further and closer to the Lord. I loved it.

The Yada Yada Prayer Group has been meeting for a while now and everyone is starting to get used to each other. Even though the group is very diverse, friendships are beginning to flourish and everyone is starting to open up little by little. But then one night at a group meeting, a woman comes into Jodi's house and threatens the group with a knife causing many old wounds to be opened in the group. Other issues with racism, anger, and trust put the group through a tough time as it tests all how strong is their friendship and their faith.

First off, I love love love the Yada Yada book series. I wish I was in a group like this. I love how this book series is very daring in the topics it chooses. Racism is something that most Christian books avoid because it's a touchy subject. Since the book is told from Jodi's POV, it's very easy to take her side on the issue with Ma Dear, Denny, and Adele. You get frustrated with everyone for not communicating with each other, yet at the same time you realize why both sides act the way they do. I also love how the group visits the different churches. It's nice to see them in the setting of a different denominations and have a new worship experience. Again since Jodi is the main character, you feel her pain and frustration. I felt the same way she did about certain issues. Some of the other characters seem a little too perfect at times, like how they are immediately ready to forgive Becky for what she did to them. I know that we should forgive those who hurt us, but It didn't seem realistic that people would be willing to open up their arms like that so soon. Sometimes you feel that since there are so many women in the group, it's hard to keep track of them all. I keep mixing up some of them or I forgot who's even in the group. I think that Jodie herself mentions this issue about whether or not the group is too big to keep close relationships with everyone. But it's really cool how diverse the group is, all races and ages are represented allowing readers of all ages to enjoy the book.

If you haven't already read the first book in the series, I definitely recommend it. This series is one of my favorites, the books are page-turners, you laugh, you cry, you get angry, you get irritated, it's like reading a slice of real life.

I had the opportunity to meet Dr. Plasker at the 1st annual DCS Jam and the book is a must for anyone who wants to be in on the 100 year lifestyle. This is also a great read for your patients!

Dr Erik Plasker's Book is a great read for anyone looking to take stock of their life. The main message revolves around the fact that many of us will live to be 100 and beyond, so we may as well start preparing for this increased longevity that not many of us have planned for.
"What changes would you make today, if you knew you would live to be 100?"
Health, finances, relationships, career, social, and more are looked at in this book.
What will we do with this advanced warning our ancestors didn't get?

This book is life changing! Realizing that we have all this time to accomplish things in life is an awesome feeling. I loved the comparison of cris care vs. self care. If people realized this and started practicing this we would have a healthier nation. I have personally given out over a hundred copies of this book and everyone for Christmas will be getting a copy!

I've given this book to more than 100 people. They are changing their lives from stopping smoking and loosing weight, to starting exercise. The people that take the message of the 100 year lifestyle to heart are playing harder and living a higher quality of life. Thank you Dr. Plasker for allowing me the privilege of helping so many people through your wonderful book.

Dr. Plasker presents a compelling blueprint for a hundred year lifestyle. Whether or not you seriously have a shot at living to be a centenarian, his advice here on health, diet, fitness and emotional/spiritual well-being makes eminent sense. It is truly a holistic approach to lifestyle and longevity that has merit. Making the book more practical is the fact that it has a number of checklists and each chapter closes with a list of action items for the reader to take. The latter underscores the point that merely reading a book will not improve your lifestyle unless you follow through, act and execute upon it.

Since Dr Plasker himself is a chiropractor, there is a pitch for preventative chiropractic care. His plea here is not over-the-top or in-your-face, however, and is probably well founded.

The author's point is that many lifestyle changes can produce long-term positive results. In many cases, though perhaps not all, certain types of illness are products of lifestyle and tiny diet and fitness decisions made over the course of months and years. Making better fitness and health decisions every day can put extra years in your life and life in your years.

And so Asterix meets the Romans. This is the perfect place to start with the series, as it is the first book. Little idiosyncracies are evident. This was before the final forms of the characters were imagined, so you get some variance of what they look like. It's hard to put into words, but they're definitely different.

I don't think it's possible to overestimate how interesting and important this comic strip is. Not only is it extremely entertaining, it's interesting and well drawn. Also, if you care to read a little below the surface, many other things: scathing critique of expansionism, romans, and likely catholics. Also the chief of the Gauls is Vitalstatistix, a nod, I think, to Gamers everywhere. Plus... Here's more hidden meaning.. Put Gaul and Rome together, and what have you got? Game. Of course, the romans lose a certain amount of face... heh. Anyway, I'll add more when I think of it.

Every Asterix rules, doesn't matter which one, it rules!
These things are hilarious, has anyone ever read the French version?

Wonderful. what more can I say. You got to have it.

Thanks to the magic potion of the resident druid, Getafix, Asterix and Obelix triumphantly defend the borders of their village against Caesar's legions, to the legions' great dismay ("I hate those Gauls"). My personal favorite is "Asterix and Cleopatra" where they travel to Egypt to help Getafix's buddy Edifis win an architectural contest between Ceasar and Cleopatra. Oh, and the Sphinx's nose? Obelix did that.

In this graphic novel series there is great storytelling, superb drawing, awful puns, wonderful sound effects (yes, really), and sneakily, insidiously, while you're laughing, you're learning.

Asterix lives in the Gaulish part of the Roman Empire. Doesn't he? Not quite, his village resists the Romans thanks to a magic potion. The Romans want some of this potion for themselves...

"Asterix the Gaul" was the first Asterix comic, published in 1961. Rene Goscinny made the words and Albert Udzero did the pictures. It's a pretty good way to start the series though the sequel "Asterix and the Golden Sickle" (1962) sets up the vibe the other comics enjoy.

My toddler son is attending a French pre-school and we plan to enroll him in a French primary school as well. We don't know French at all and speak English in the home. We got this CD around his 2nd birthday and it has been a valuable tool. The songs and rhymes that are on the CD are the same songs and rhymes that he sings at school. I think this CD has helped him to learn faster and be able to "fit in" at school, when we, his parents, could not offer him any thing in this subject area!
The songs are very pleasant and not torture to parental ears, and the accents are authentic. This is 100% French language with no spoken English. However the CD does come with a booklet with the lyrics in both French and English, so if you don't now any French at all, you can read it and get some idea about what your little one is singing!

I love this CD. It is fun, very nice songs and rhymes. Very easy to follow. My kids listen to it every day in the car and in a month they are singing and counting in french.

The method is so wonderful that I just ordered the one for Chinese.

My 9mo. old loves this CD as much as I do. I studied French for 4 yrs and learned more from the songs on this CD! I like it because I don't get sick of it and find myself humming the songs when the CD is not on! I haven't bothered with the books yet but hopefully will get to them before baby finishes high school.

This CD is wonderful! I find a lot of products for children 2 and older but this product is geared specifically towards children ages 2 and younger who are learning another language. My degree is in French, so I understand the CD, and I think that the things that it teaches are excellent! It exposes children to sounds specific to french, like the double l which is pronounced y, the ever-problematic french "r", as well as idiomatic things like "Trois" as the number three as well as "toi" used as the informal you. Best of all it is all done in a fun way through songs, rhymes, etc. I put this CD on every night when my daughter goes to bed and we both really enjoy it!! I think I'm going to buy the Spanish and Italian ones too!

I just got this item yesterday and have not had a chance yet to go through the book but my first reaction is a little bit of disappointment.
I may not have read the exact description of the product but I was expecting a board baby book with lyrics and pictures and not a guide for parents that I am sure is nonetheless very interesting. We have another CD with a board book and it is truly amazing; The book is colourful and some of the songs are interpreted by children which is the second thing I was expecting from this product. It is so much fun to listen to those cute little voices instead of those quite boring adult voices.
The only thing I like about this CD is that it has a lot of songs and rhymes that I grew up with and I am glad that my son will be able to learn them because for most of them I had forgotten the lyrics.

This book was a favorite of my children 38 years ago and now I'm buying it for my grandchildren --- and they love it too. It helps teach words of place: over, around, between, down, out, up. Plus it is a gentle "scary book."

This book is so magical when you're a kid. The illustrations are wonderful and just scary enough. I love the last page where the kids are all snug back in bed. Kids can read this book because of the repetition. It's a great way to learn to read!

We had this book when our children were small. Our youngest boy had it memorized in short order and would correct his father if he left anything out while reading. Now our daughter asked for it for her new little boy. We bought it for him for Christmas. He has already listened to it several times (he is 9 1/2 mos old). We love the book.

My kids (girl 8,boy 7) love the Berenstain Bears. I grew up with these books and now my kids are, too.
We all enjoy reading these stories and In the dark is a keeper.

This was my second copy of the book. My kids wanted to give a copy to their teacher.

I love Karen Kingsbury and this book is no exception. It was hard for me to put it down!!

Karen Kingsbury has done it again. I could hardly put Between Sundays down. This uplifting story tackles modern issues from the foster care system to the impact that famous sports figures have on society. If you like Christian fiction, this is a must read!

A GREAT BOOK.......I GOT IT WHEN I WAS TOLD I WOULD AND AMAZON HAS ALWAYS BEEN GREAT WITH ALL ORDERS I HAVE RECIEVED.

I couldn't put this book down! It was a great read over the holidays. Definitely one of my favorite Karen Kingsbury books. I highly recommend it!

Like Karen's other books, you won't be able to put it down. I got this from a friend for Christmas and as soon as my company left, I sat down and read the whole book. It is such a heart warming story. god has blessed karen with amazing talent. Once you read this, you will surely want to read all her others!

If you can get past an idiotic short introduction by Bill Murray, you'll enjoy a wonderful experience. Billy Collins has created true poetry that will make you think and laugh.

I heard Billy Collins speak in Wellington early one chilly Sunday morning. He commented that he was amazed anyone would want to get out of bed and listen to him on such a cold day ...he wouldn't! Of course we all thought it worth the effort, nothing beats hearing a really superb poet reading his own work superbly.I heartily recommend this cd, it's always in the most played pile near my cd player and on my ipod,so that I can listen to him any time.
A great selection of his work and interesting pre-ambles before each poem.

As always, Billy Collins is above and beyond in his poetry readings. Great humor, great heart and an accessibility rarely found in intellectual circles! You will fall in love with him and with poetry all over again.

This is a figure of speech of course - once upon a time... never mind, but you'd burn your dinner or if it's cooked, then the food on your fork will miss you mouth, if you try to cook or eat as you listen to Billy Collins read. It's a treat.

My high school students fell in love with Collins. Even the chronically apathetic perked up during his reading... use this in your classroom, and follow it up with selections from Poetry 180. You'll be glad you did.

Others have already described the book well. I just want to add my two cents. This account and The Last Watch of the Night are so tender and honest that I miss these men I've never met.

"I don't know if I will live to finish this," begins this memoir by Paul Monette, who would ultimately live only seven years after he did complete it (and, auspiciously, several other works). Monette's account is a chronicle of the last days of his lover Roger Horwitz in 1985 and 1986: a mere nineteen months between diagnosis and death. It's an emotionally devastating portrait; yet, far from wallowing in his grief (although grieve he does), Monette instead describes this period as a battle to extend Roger's life and a determination to seize every remaining day and make the most of it.

An AIDS diagnosis in 1985, in Los Angeles, doomed the couple to an unwanted pioneer status; it was a "death sentence" mitigated only by hope and delusion. For the first half of the decade, Paul and Roger comforted themselves with the notion that the disease, whatever it was, confined itself to a certain group of fast-living libertines ("not us") in San Francisco and Los Angeles. When the reality hit home, the initial method of coping, shared to different degrees by themselves and by their friends (and particularly by Roger's brother), was a mixture of mortification and denial.

Once Roger became ill, however, the couple fought tooth and nail to pursue every potential pharmaceutical elixir or therapeutic panacea; they were on the vanguard of trials for suramin (with devastating side effects) and for the more successful "Compound S" (AZT), which Monette credits for extending Roger's life. Throughout, they struggled to present a united front of normalcy and optimism, with Roger attempting to practice law from his hospital bed and Paul flying to New York for meetings in the Russian Tea Room with the newly famous Whoopi Goldberg about an ultimately doomed screenplay ("it must've dismayed her considerably to think that this humorless man sipping broth and Coca-Cola was meant to be her breakthrough into feature comedy").

Still, if it's possible to say that one can be "fortunate" in such circumstances, Roger and Paul had the only advantages available at the time: money, connections, and (mostly) supportive family and friends. In spite of the sequence of crises and disappointments, they somehow managed to find time to laugh and to love amidst the anger and the betrayals; Monette's wit and fair-mindedness saves this work from overwhelming the reader with morbid pity and depression. Paul and Roger were often too busy chasing hope to pause and wallow; those moments were often saved for the morning. ("Waking teaches you pain.") What's most remarkable about this book is not the riveting and livid account from the front of the epidemic--such memoirs are plentiful--but the lyrical and even humorous appreciation of the "borrowed time" remaining to these two admirable profiles in courage.

Although I am a conservative Christian who has never been "homophobic", I have been 100 percent guilty of "indifference" to what it really means to be gay and and the AIDS issue. Not any more. I began to research the issues and I have been telling everyone about this book. The genuine love story and respectful relationship that Paul and Roger shared is something everyone could learn from. I don't believe I have ever read a book that portrays such courage. The pain that both of these men endured would make the average person collapse under the weight. I know what the Bible says about homosexuality, but I believe that Jesus himself would just wants us stop judging and comdemning and to simply love one another as he loves us. All of us.

'Borrowed Time' is the most unpretentious, cliche free account of love I've read. So much of it's power lies in what Paul does not say about his lover: describing him most often as his most precious 'friend' he asks the reader to understand, to implicitly know the strength of his passion. The simple assumption that readers across cities, countries, cultures will understand his emotions is what gives the story so much beauty. I fell in love with both Paul and Roger, or more specifically, the strength of what they had together.
The battle against AIDS and discrimination faced by both men made me bawl, and I hope this book is read by people working through their prejudices and moral judgements about the both the illness and its prevalence in the gay community at the time the events occurred. Surely Paul and Roger's love can only be seen as something beautiful that graced the earth, even briefly.

I don't know how this book didn't win every award the publishing world has to offer. Quite simply, this one volume is the most emotionally devastating work I've ever read. I've read about hate crimes, political assassination and Nazi persecution, but none touch this. Several times I had to set the book down because I was no longer able to read through great, racking sobs and eyes nearly swollen shut. I grieved.

Paul Monette, author of the the award winning memoir "Becoming a Man: Half a Life Story," died of AIDS not too long after losing his beloved companion Roger to the disease. That he was able to focus so much energy on chronicling the events of Roger's death in this memoir, was a mircle - and indeed this book is a miraclous gift. "Borrowed Time" is a story of pain, suffering, hope, strength and courage. However, and more importantly, it is a love story - the greatest I've ever read.

This book is fantastic!! I have had it for many years and never tire of it. It is a great feel good at Chritmas story!!

I have this book and love it! I saw a movie on TV about 10 years ago about this book. I have not been able to find the movie on DVD or VHS. I would love to have a copy of the DVD if anyone knows where I can obtain one.

Do you like adventure? If so, read Julie Salamon's The Christmas Tree.
In this book Julie puts a man in charge of finding the perfect tree for Rockefeller Center. This book is an adventure book because the main character has to find the perfect tree before Christmas.
The main character's name is Jesse. Jesse leaves Rockefeller Center a few days before Christmas to find the perfect Christmas tree that everyone at Rockefeller Center would enjoy. On the way to upstate New York. Jesse saw the perfect tree, but this tree wasn't an ordinary tree because it belonged to a nun named Sister Anthony, known as Anna.
Jesse talked to Anna about the tree. This tree was the only friend that Anna had while growing up in the convent. Anna told Jesse a story about her and the tree. Jesse told Anna about why he needed the tree and Anna said that he could take the tree for Rockefeller Center.
The Christmas tree is a symbol enjoyed by all the people at Rockefeller Center, by the crowd, Jesse, and Anna. Anna was glad to see that everyone was enjoying tree.
If you like Christmas, or you just need some time to rest from working, or you just need to read something around a fire on a cold winter's night, this is the right book for you. This book is about sharing and caring at the same time. You should read this book because it is exciting and you can feel what is happening in this story.

In my opinion, this book is akin to "The Giving Tree". It is a beautiful story that my husband and I read together over the holidays. It is beautifully written and is a must own! Only a true SCROOGE will not be touched by this book!

I saw the 2006 Christmas tree at Rockefeller Center and felt compelled to read this little book that packs a huge punch. As a New Yorker, I delighted in the setting. The author writes with such visual details, personifying nature, amd the scenes came vividly alive in my mind as I was reading along. And this lovely story provides a gentle reminder of the lessons life has to offer and of the little joys we miss seeing or listening to thoughout the pressures and fast pace of our daily lives.