Allen Books

The third Allen Choice mystery is the best yet. I'm so glad I discovered these books and gave them a try. If you haven't read these yet, you've got some pleasant reading waiting for you.

Choice is a great character, easy to identify with. You want the best for him, even when it looks like things can't possibly work out. He knows he should be paying more attention to his current girlfriend, Serena, but can't help himself when former girlfriend, Linda, featured in the previous two novels, comes looking for his help in finding her niece, kidnapped by her estranged father during a custody dispute. Linda seems to have some sort of hold over him, yet the more he thinks about it, the more he realizes how much he loves Serena and that he wants to be with her.

Allen is an introspective, lonely guy who is quietly becoming something of a success in his chosen profession of private detective. Yet he still finds it hard to fathom other people and he hasn't quite figured out why Serena keeps getting so mad at him during his investigation. There's a philosophical undercurrent running through things, too, as Allen keeps coming back to the Kierkegaard he's been reading and trying to fit it into his everyday life.

There are some dangerous bad guys at work, and bad things happen to the people he cares about, but Allen is ultimately able to solve the mystery and make a real step forward in his relationship with Serena. Here's hoping this series lasts a long and satisfying time. Highly recommended!

Two years ago, then San Jose Sentinel reporter Linda Maldonado worked with private investigator Allen Choice on a case (see UNDERKILL). They became lovers, but eventually she ended their romance without explanation. Saddened he moved on professionally and personally.

Linda comes to Oakland where Allen is a partner in Baxter & Choice, a private investigation firm because her niece has been abducted by her nasty abusive father. She wants to hire Allen to rescue nine-year-old Nora from Frank Staunton, who snatched the child because he loathes his former wife and will do anything to hurt her. Allen's current girlfriend Serena Yew would prefer he not accept the case because of his previous affair with the client that he may not have gotten over. Allen himself knows how dangerous the rescue would be as the target is mean and cruel, but a pussy cat next to the guy's killing machine brother. Though facing Hobson's choice, Allen accepts the challenge in which law enforcement at all levels have failed.

FADE TO CLEAR is a terrific private investigative urban noir story starring a delightful protagonist, who is a hodgepodge of conflicting emotions that make him endearing to the audience (don't tell Choice what I called him). The story line is action-packed yet at times quite humorous as the bewildered Allen often leads with his chin in spots that could prove deadly when the case turns out even more dangerous than dealing with the lunatic Staunton siblings.

Harriet Klausner

Fade To Clear, $23.95 US, was penned by Leonard Chang. Thomas Dunne Books published this title in 2004. This novel is the third entry in the Allen Choice Series. The two books preceding it are Over The Shoulder and Underkill. Allen Choice is a thirtysomething private investigator living in San Francisco, just trying to succeed in the world.

As we enter this new installment, we find Allen Choice is now a full partner in Baxter & Choice Investigations. The story launches in an Oakland warehouse chock full of stolen computers and peripherals, where Allen and his partner Larry Baxter are being held at gunpoint by a fast-talking Jamaican gangster. Maybe breaking in here wasn't such a bright idea?

Despite being surprised by the thug, Allen and Larry outsmart him long enough to get away before even more armed criminals arrive. B&C bring the police in on the multimillion-dollar fencing operation after fleeing the warehouse. However, Allen isn't enjoying this work very much. His employment seems tenuous at best; he's also unsure where he stands with his girlfriend Serena.

Enterprising though he may be, Allen is actually overly introspective compared to protagonist in other series fiction I've read. He's fixated on the works of Kierkegaard and other philosophers -- when he isn't working as a P.I. -- and he's also obsessed with long-distance running. Oh, did I mention? He's Korean-American, but speaks no Korean, and feels guilty about this.

These identity paradoxes intrigue me and I find Chang's writing fascinating. Allen's father died while he was young, so he was raised outside Korea by Aunt Insook. He's Korean but he doesn't feel Korean. He feels American. It bothers him when people bring up ethnicity. Serena is Korean. Ex-girlfriend Linda wasn't. He seems conflicted about his race -- fitting in.

Of course, I can't recall any other character in series fiction that's been assimilated into another culture. Can you? Broadcast and newspaper coverage about immigration seems abundant in 2006. Present-day immigrants (legal or otherwise) typically don't assimilate; they reside in `language enclaves' and resist learning any English. Allen Choice represents the antithesis of these trends; ergo Chang's novel feels sophisticated.

Complications arise for Allen when Linda Maldonado reappears in his life. Needless to say, Serena doesn't like it when Allen agrees to take on a case regarding ex-girlfriend Linda's abducted niece Nora. Allen's ambivalence about the case is tempered by the urgent need to locate Nora; she's merely a little girl caught in the crossfire of a bitter divorce battle.

Looking into Nora's abduction requires Allen to scrutinize Linda's former brother-in-law Frank. This guy was rich -- he was going to lose a fortune in any divorce -- so when Linda's sister Julie started playing hardball in the custody case, Frank decided to liquefy his assets, grab Nora, and flee to Mammoth Lakes with the help of his family and business associates.

Eventually Allen realizes Frank Staunton is a bad seed. He's involved in drug smuggling and money laundering through shell corporations. Frank's got a nasty brother (named Rick) that's running interference for him when Allen sniffs around and his sister (Deirdre) and parents in Seattle (Doug and Marilyn) aren't much help to B&C either. Allen ultimately locates Nora by investigating Staunton family contacts.

As you might know, excellent writers like Chang assign characters at least one major problem they must solve before the end of the book. Chang wisely hinders Allen Choice with two major obstacles. The first involves an arson fire that destroys his office (foreshadowing) during the abduction investigation; the second involves the unexpected death of a beloved friend. I won't divulge whom.

Readers will find that Leonard Chang pens dark crime novels that defy the conventional. If you're studious, you'll realize this nuanced novel has mass-market appeal. My one recommendation to Leonard would be that he may want to double or triple his chapter count, and concentrate on writing shorter chapters. More `action' and `less literary' would signify the ideal way forward.


______________________________________________________________________


The Book:
Fade To Clear,
Thomas Dunne Books

ISBN:
0312308450 or
9780312308452

Pages:
322 Pages

Rating:
5 Stars

Chapters:
29 Numbered Chapters

If You Like Fade To Clear, you might enjoy:
Choke Point
Country of Origin
Little Girl Lost
The Interpreter
The Wake-Up

Recommended:
Yes

All of Chang's books are worth reading. This one, the third in the Allen Choice series, is no exception. The plot is well crafted, the characters well-rounded and believable, and the suspense written perfectly. I'd be hard-pressed to come up with a better contemporary crime novel. To top all of this off, Chang's use of voice, and the change of point of view in this novel (third person here, first in the previous two), make for an interesting literary read as well as for a page-turning crime yarn.

The sad part? The rumors are that this is the last in the series for a while. Maybe the publisher deserves some emails?

What is really interesting about this novel and the others by Leonard Chang is how they are not just about solving a crime. These novels are about a lonely man trying to figure out his relationships and his place in the world. He just happens to be a PI now. It's not as hardboiled as I usually like my crime novels, but it's deeper and more thoughtful than pretty much any other crime series out there. Smilla's Sense of Snow is similar. Henning Mankell's series are close. I also like these novels are about a Korean-American guy, but not overdoing the race issue. He's Everyman.

I thought this book did a great job at getting me up to speed on C#. I came from C++ and MFC development, so this definitely fit the bill for bridging me into C#.

Worth the read!

Excellent book. I am a VB 6 programmer making the jump to C#.

C# instead of VB.NET? Mostly because there seems to be more contract jobs for C#.

This is an excellent book. If you are a long time programmer like myself and want to get into C# programming I highly recommend this book. This book can make you a very functional C# programmer in a very few hours.

This is an excellent book for C#. It covers almost every topic in C# in a consie, to-the-point fashion. Whether you are new or experienced programmer, this book will give you a head-start on mastering C# concepts. If you are doing MCAD, this is the book you should read first for brushing your concepts. I like the portability of this book (400 pages). Big thumps up for Wrox Fast Track series.

If you need to learn C# in a hurry, this is the book that will get you up to speed. The entire "Fast Track" series from Wrox were written to help you learn a subject fast and this is especially helpful if your employer decides to convert to C# or any other .Net technology or language. I purchased both Fast Track C# and Fast Track ASP.NET C# Edition together. I am impressed with both books. The Fast Track C# book is 413 pages and the chapters are not to long. This makes the reading very easy and the chapters don't take weeks to read. The book starts out with the basics of .NET and C# and then progresses to more advanced C# subjects. Note: The authors do not go into great detail on the various subjects and you should augment this book with a more advanced books on C#. There are ample examples but the authors do not provide the "results". This is a book for the intermediate developer making the conversion from Java or C++ but I think Visual Basic 6 developers will benefit from this book.

In Chapter 1 - Overview of .Net and the CLR (Common Language Runtime), the authors explain the fundamentals of .Net.

Chapter 2 - Introduction to C#, Chapter 3 - C# Basics, and Chapter 4 - Object-Oriented Features of C# provide the basics that you will need to know about C#. If you are coming from Visual Basic.Net, you might want to skip over these chapters but I read these chapters twice.

The authors explain the more advanced features of C# in Chapters 5 - Advanced C#, 6 - .NET Programming with C#, and 7 - Working with the .Net Base Class. These chapters will help you get beyond the "Hello World" type of applications. These chapters provide some real-world examples.

In Chapter 8 - Building Windows Applications, the authors explain all of the basics to windows development. The GUI or the presentation layer is what the end-user will be most familar with.

The next chapters will help you with real-world applications that you may encounter.

Chapter 9 - Assemblies and ILDASM.
Chapter 10 - Data Access with ADO.Net
Chapter 11 - COM and COM+ Interoperability
Chapter 12 - ASP.Net
Chapter 13 - Web Services

Wrox guys, you have done it really well. I am a beginner to C# but have previous experience with C/C++. Really wanted to get into the C# field. Tried 2-3 books but was bogged down by details everytime. Then I got hold of this book. Man this is awesome...really takes no time if you have some programming background..esp. OO related.

Just devote 1-2 hours for each chapter..and this will cause the Sams 24 hours series some serious worries.

This book is a concise roadmap to getting healthy and living in the present. Having read a small mountain of self-help books in the past this is the ONE book I would point to as an absolute guide to a simple effective way to turn things around.

Ruiz's book is fantastic; he adheres to to ACTUAL Toltec wisdom, WITHOUT the silly "interpretations" which so many "New Age" charlatans inject when writing about what they label "Toltec" wisdom.
Ruiz superbly explains the Toltec way in an extremely logical, simple, and intelligent way. These writing could be dubbed "Cliff notes for Castanada!" This book is a keeper, something to be read, comprehended, and read again. This is one of the very few books which has the intent AND ability to enable the readers to actualize their potential and transform their lives. This book is truly what the Toltec way is all about! This book is the real thing...
(Beware of the numerous authors who claimed to have "studied" with Ruiz; paying a tuition and studying something doesn't mean you are a successful student!)

Obviously The Four Agreements, written by Don Miguel Ruiz, is a guide to personal freedom. The question, though; how does it work, and what does one get out of it? It's simple, one agrees to them self the four agreements and eventually changes his or her life.

To be honest, the book's not the most exciting read ever, but it is an eye opening mental journey. Imagine having fifty lb ankle weights that are welded on. This guide is a pair of heavy duty metal clippers, slowly cutting away at all the stressful weight.

I, at fourteen years of age, personally recommend The Four Agreements to anyone who wishes to change their life for the better.

DCH

THE FOUR AGREEMENTS is printed in an easy to read style, but has a powerful message when applied. The foundation of the book is based on Toltec wisdom, and the ancient spiritual knowledge passed down through the cultural "masters" called naguals(shaman). Ruiz underwent an event that changed his life's path from surgeon to nagual. Often times ancient wisdom is not so ancient when it still can be applied to modern living. What the book offers is timeless. It is about grabbing hold of a personal freedom that was always yours and using it to master your life and not allow others to master you. This is solid knowledge that can only add clarity to your everyday living.

If you follow and apply THE FOUR AGREEMENTS,which are "Be Impeccable with Your Word","Don't Take Anything Personally","Don't Make Assumptions", and "Always Do Your Best", you will find a security within yourself that provides you with a better perception of yourself and the world around you. We as people, and as individuals,are "conditioned" by our society. This book will help you to break away from that conditioning and most of the responses and reactions we assume as normal. It gets you to think in a different manner that builds stronger emotional resilience.

Although this book is based on spiritual wisdom,it offers opportunities not only in spiritual growth,but also personal relationships,personal growth,enhanced awareness and perceptions,better decision making,and builds emotional strength. THE FOUR AGREEMENTS easily falls in with those who would simply want to improve their everyday choices or decision making skills as applied to the workforce or business management.

Not quite sure if you are being taking advantage of,being made the victim,making the right choice,over reacting,being to sensitive,or tired of not meeting someone else's expectations, then this book is for you. I have given this book as gifts to several acquaintances over the years who have found themselves in life changing events that had left their emotions in turmoil and essentially could not be relied upon for a good decision. By reading this book and writing THE FOUR AGREEMENTS on a business card placed in their pocket,when a questionable decision or choice had to be made,they went down the list and used it as a guide to measure against to ensure a better choice or decision knowing they could not rely entirely on their own ability to make a sound judgment under the emotional strain they were feeling. Using THE FOUR AGREEMENTS as a personal tool added clarity to a seemingly murky emotional state, something I believe we have all experienced at one time or another.

I have not read any of the other books written by Ruiz,but have glanced through them at bookstores. I only found a personal connection with this publication and can only endorse this writing. This book is a great companion to the book AWARENESS by Anthony deMello and compliment each other well.

This will be a very quick read, but kind of a book that you will want to keep close by as a reference. It has simple four rules on how to live happy and full life: have impeccable words, do not take other people's comments made to you personally, do not assume and do the best that you can. Writer explains breezily these four rules and how they can be applied in one's every day life. One has to remember to be grateful for his life, one has to live in the moment and send his/her intentions to the world (intention being unconditional love). This is a spiritual world but what is amazing is the simplicty of its wisdom and makes so much sense. Book almost hypnotized me with its message and I highly recommend it to anyone to read. It has one of the most beautiful references on life, God, death and faith.

There is humor and self-deprecation in The Gardener's Year...This is a book that will appeal to the gardener, the philospher, and the Zen deotee, the reader of self-help books, as well as the humorist. Here are quotes: "After his death, the gardener does not become a butterfly but ... a garden worm tasting all the dark, nitrogenous and spicey delights of the soil." "I find a real gardener is not a man who cultivates flowers; he is a man who cultivates the soil". "The life of a gardener is active and full of will." There are easy references to German philosophers, campanula alpina, Tolstoy, the perfume of manure. All this is presented with humor but there are no fools in this book. It could easily be subtitled "Zen and the Pleasant Art of Gardening." It didn't change my life, but it made it better. For Godsake, by this book!

I don't know much about Czech literature, so I don't know if the Prague Spring had anything to do with the writing of Karel Capek, but I would not be surprised to discover a connection. "Leaves wither because spring is already beginning, because new buds are being made, as tiny percussion caps out of which the spring will crack....if we could only see that secret swarming of the future within us, we should say that our melancholy and distrust is silly and absurd and that the best thing of all is to be..living.."

Karel Capek wrote those words in 1929 when he was 39 years old. By 1938, the year the Nazis invaded Prague, he was dead. His brother Josef died a few years later in Bergan-Belsen. But this book is not about those sad events. This book is about a year in the life of a good gardener, how ever extraordinary a writer he might have been.

During his lifetime, Capek realized that humans were becoming enslaved by fascism and run-amuck technology. The ancient and cyclical daily practices of humans were dying before his eyes --the beet farmers stacking their fall harvests at the railroad stations; the wagon loads of manure that could be delivered for garden beds; the nursury men who understood plants giving way to "market garden centers" staffed by those who regularly misidentify plants and stocked with items that "move" (produce a high volume of sales).

THE GARDENER'S YEAR is a reflective book. You don't have to garden to appreciate it, but if you garden, you will probably laugh on more than one occasion. Where is the gardener who has not struggled with a hose; Who has not looked with greed on a bald spot and attempted to squeeze six more phlox plants in, only to discover a dormant sping plant; And, where is the gardener who has not wandered about the yard with a plant in each hand trying to find just one more place for a perennial. Capek understood the gardener's soul. We are a greedy lot, obsessed with dirt, happy in a wagon load of s___, and hostile to many-legged life forms, but, we are also the best sort of human beings who understand the meaning and importance of life.

Capek's writing reminds me of that of Henry Mitchell who wrote two columns (one on gardening the other on "everyday" philosophy) for the Washington Post. Like Mitchell Capek had the gift of converting his own gardening experiences into tales that inform, enlighten, and illustrate the best and the worst of human nature. "I tell you there is no death, not even sleep. We only pass from one season to another. We must be patient with life, for it is eternal."

I brought this as one of those suggested sells, you know the "people who brought blah blah blah also brought this book" . . . so I did. And boy am I glad I did! Karel Capek is a wonderful author who struck a resounding chord in the heart and soul of this gardener. It was not only wonderfully clever but inspired me to tend to my little rooted, green outdoor children and give them bushels of attention, care and compost ASAP!!! Loved it!

I bought this book for a friend, as a gift upon her achieving Master Gardener certification. I expected something a bit different, a bit more practical, perhaps, but after leafing through the pages, I read the entire book before I gave it to her. Written by the man known to most of us as a European author of the early 20th century on more weighty subjects, this man's witty description of himself as the sometimes manic master of his small domestic garden both amuses and somehow comforts those of us who share his enthusiasm. I laughed long and loudly at Capek's description of what ensued from his planting of the seeds from just one packet, at the many dozens of little plants in little pots, all of which became bigger and bigger, and had to be taken outdoors, finally, to find places in a tiny garden patch. This is a short book, with short chapters, just right for picking up in odd moments during the winter months when we are only dreaming about the coming of gardening season once again.

This is the best book about gardeners I know of. With grace and humor, this book delightfully explores the glories and foibles of serious amateur gardeners. Any garden nut who reads this book without laughing and almost crying over this inciteful outing of the gardener's soul is a callous person indeed.

An excellent publication for all those who have desired to implement eastern theology and the soul's path into the corporate realm, but didn't have the tools or know how. This book is revolutionary in providing the practical tools to bridge this tricky terrain.
Apply the soul's work in an "acceptable" format that won't raise the eye brows of CEOs. Execute exercises that seem sincere and truly contribute to well-functioning individuals and organizations. Review organizational and personal experiences with the new perspective of eight steps of the change journey realizing that they do exist, and how you can work with each step for the best possible outcome.
Highly effective in my work as a consultant and organizational behavioral specialist.

Guiding Change Journeys is a masterful fusion of Eastern and Western wisdom,science and mythology presented with great insight,clarity and warmth.It is full of new ideas,tools and practical applications that are guaranteed to energize and re-orient your thinking and approach to organization transformation.

Rebecca Chan Allen has written a masterful book that bridges
ancient eastern wisdom and modern western organization problems.
The book illuminates both the practical and theoretical side of some of our greatest organizational issues, and supports leaders
in playing full rich transformational roles in organization change.

Finally!... A book providing both practical guidance AND sound theoretical reference materials for change leaders and organizational effectiveness practitioners. Chan Allen's book is clearly organized, easy to use, and accessible at whatever level of conceptual depth her reader wishes to work (or to start from). Her examples are creative, original and fun to use -- in both professional and personal contexts. I highly recommend this for organization development professionals and those interested in transformation methodology.

One of the greatest challenges an author can undertake is to write a book that is both theoretically complex and strongly pragmatic. Rebecca Chan Allen has accomplished this in Guiding Change Journeys. In combining the philosophical underpinnings and conceptual bases of a wide variety of organizational change strategies with practical approaches, examples, exercises and illustrations, she skillfully supports change practitioners in integrating Eastern and Western perspectives. Through her integration of stories from mythology and concepts from organization development, new science and wisdom traditions, Chan Allen takes us on an "Archetypal change Journey" based on Jungian archetypes, which describe enduring patterns of transformation.

In a spirit of integration, the book implies throughout that successful organizational change is dependent upon individual and group psychological approaches, conceptualized within a systemic framework. The author's intention seems ultimately holistic, in that she continually addresses issues of mind/body/spirit, whether individually or organizationally.

Though the book may seem esoteric and philosophically dense at times, it carefully balances the more theoretical introductions to each chapter with a plethora of practical examples and exercises, which bring the theory to life and make the concepts infinitely usable. The overall impression is a treasure-trove of ideas. The many insights, methods and resources are offered by the author as gifts, with the invitation to "tinker and improvise" in order to adapt them to one's own needs.

In this simple offering, Chan Allen summarizes the heart of her book as a journey of discovery - which may well alter the life of the change practitioner, as well as the very nature of his or her organizational context.

In The Hahnemann Sequela, Harold King exposes the vein that runs from medical research to business and computer technology with surgical precision. This compelling novel begins with the author's insistence that we face our greatest fear -- life can change in a heartbeat. Mixing a taste for complex research with his unique flavor of mystery, Harold King delivers a potent dose of suspense and intrigue to one common man who must face a life-and-death struggle against astonishing odds. This is a novel fraught with tension and, all at once, frightening and provocative. A brilliantly written work, from "the undisputed crown prince of suspense," that will leave you wondering where fiction begins and ends. Find a copy of this book.

In The Hahnemann Sequela, Harold King exposes the vein that runs from medical research to business and computer technology with surgical precision. This compelling novel begins with the author's insistence that we face our greatest fear -- life can change in a heartbeat. Mixing a taste for complex research with his unique flavor of mystery, Harold King delivers a potent dose of suspense and intrigue to one common man who must face a life-and-death struggle against astonishing odds. This is a novel fraught with tension and, all at once, frightening and provocative. A brilliantly written work, from "the undisputed crown prince of suspense," that will leave you wondering where fiction begins and ends. Find a copy of this book.

I've never read anything by Harold King before, but the speed with which I finished this book is testimony to how good it is. Virtually from page one I was hooked. It isn't often that you find books like this - I'm a big fan of Dean Koontz, and find the skill with which Harold King keeps the tension, and slowly rachets it up, is on a par with Koontz. Keeping the chapters short certainly helps retain the reader's interest, and keeps you thinking "I've got time for a little more..." until you realize how much time has gone by!

The premise of the story is about an experimental procedure initially intended to eradicate or at least slow down a rare disease which causes children to age far more quickly than is normal (if you've seen the movie "Jack" with Robin Williams, you might understand what I'm talking about). However, not only does this procedure halt the effects of the disease, it also increases the subject's energy, intelligence and productivity. So this large medical company tries the same technique on healthy adults, and all works well....until 60 months when the people start suddenly aging and dying. A team is created to try to find a cure. When one is found, all of them get in a plane to go to the company's headquarters...when there's a horrific plane crash and only one person survives, although without a heart transplant, he also will die, and with him goes the cure.

So the company sets out to locate and remove the heart of the man's twin brother, as there is less liklihood of rejection if it's a twin. This is where the tale truly starts, with the twin escaping and trying to find out what's happening and why they're after him.

The basic premise of the story, then is fairly simple - how far would you go to save thousands of lives? Is the death of one innocent justified in this quest.

I give the author high marks for posing this complex question, while threading it into a thriller of such high quality. Needless to say, I highly recommend this book, if you can find it, that is.

In The Hahnemann Sequela, Harold King exposes the vein that runs from medical research to business and computer technology with surgical precision. This compelling novel begins with the author's insistence that we face our greatest fear ~ life can change in a heartbeat. Mixing a taste for complex research with his unique flavour of mystery, King delivers a potent dose of suspense and intrigue to one common man who must face a life~and~death struggle against astonishing odds. This is a novel fraught with tension and, all at once, frightening and provocative. A brilliantly written work, from the "undisputed crown prince of suspense," that will leave you wondering where fiction begins and ends. Find a copy of this book.

In The Hahnemann Sequela, Harold King exposes the vein that runs from medical research to business and computer technology with surgical precision. This compelling novel begins with the author's insistence that we face our greatest fear -- life can change in a heartbeat. Mixing a taste for complex research with his unique flavor of mystery, Harold King delivers a potent dose of suspense and intrigue to one common man who must face a life-and-death struggle against astonishing odds. This is a novel fraught with tension and, all at once, frightening and provocative. A brilliantly written work, from "the undisputed crown prince of suspense," that will leave you wondering where fiction begins and ends. Find a copy of this book.

Since reading this book in 1994, I have used it as a reference for my life AND work. Using a warm and witty style of writing, Allen teaches us the physiological and emotional benefits of mirth. My favorite chapter title is "Strike While the Irony is Hot!" So clever!! I recommend this book to friends who are facing life challenges and to everyone who attends my workshops. On a more personal note, since embracing The Healing Power of Humor, I felt freer to add a little levity to my Aunt Alice's funeral. My family was amazingly grateful. Me too!

This book showed me the evidence that I need to have humor in my life on a daily basis. I have always loved humor, but until I read this book I didn't really realize the powerful effect it has on me and my family. This book will help anyone learn how to have a more healthy, mind, body and spirit. --Tom Antion

I was taking a training that was particularly difficult. At lunch and breaks I would open this book and read. It is like the sun coming out after a thrunder storm.

It is fun and serious at the same time. Read and enjoy.

Wonderful book, which truly elevated my spirits so much that people started complimenting me about my positive attitude. Good bedtime reading. Chapters are written so that you study one "lesson" per day.

Educational and entertaining, this book relays convincing evidence as to the psychological and physiological benefits of humor. The author gives concrete and helpgful techniques and suggestions as to how we can begin to bring more joy and laughter into our lives. Lots of humorous anecdotes and examples bring the points home. I found this book informative and motivational.

Have you had to redone, redue, redo something over and over again? You're at the end, but go back to the start? If you have, then you know just how the main character in The Hero of Ticonderoga feels.
Therese is a 5th grade girl from Vermont and her teacher has to leave for two months, and gives instructions for the sub to announce an oral report assignment the class has to do on Vermont. One lucky student gets to have the privilege of doing their project on Vermont's Revolutionary hero, Ethan Allen. As you may have thought, Therese gets picked to do the "fabulous" project. She doesn't want to do the project like someone doesn't want a wet donkey in a fourth of July parade. But now has to do it in front of the class. She doesn't get to do it just once, but 4 times. Now that's ridiculous!
Therese at the end realizes that she is more than just a good oral reporter, but a good actor! She also finds friends who she thought could never be. And enemies she thought were her friends, but stabbed her in the back like a little kid spits out spinach.
You might think that this book is a girlie book, but it's about someone finding out who they really while going through friendship obstacles, mean teachers, and family.

Presenting an oral report can be an adventure! Ticonderoga tells about a girl in school who gives an oral report of Ethan Allen, the first leader of Vermont's Green Mountain. This book is packed with historical events that will amaze you!
A girl named Theresee isn't happy about the way she looks and her life. Theresee never got invited to parties, and she never liked her parents. One day when she went to school she had to do a report about a leader called Ethan Allen. When her substitute teacher Mr. Santanggelo told her to do the report, all of her classmates gathered around her desk as if they wanted to trade with her. They wanted to trade because they thought her person would be easier to research. It turned out, it was hard to find a lot of information on Ethan Allen, but Theresee didn't give up. She learned a lot of facts about Ethan Allen and became a shining star in her class. She finally felt good about herself.
This book thought me a lot about history. I never knew anything about Ethan Allen before this book. This book is a good book for an older student or an adult who likes history.

More than simply a book about an unlikely heroine -- a girl, who succeeds despite all expectations (even her own); more than simply a biography (once removed) of an unlikely hero -- Ethan Allen, who led the green mountain boys to an unexpected victory against the British; this is a wonderful tale about the unwritten laws, of ethics and valor, of friendship and family.

Tessy is an engaging character and it's easy to root for her as she tries to avoid flunking the sixth grade by giving a great report on Ethan Allen. The author certainly knows her history and her geography, and how to write a book that will win over young readers, but her most sterling achievement is that she finesses material that could easily turn pedantic in less sure hands.

The Hero of Ticonderoga is an important book for children of all ages to read. It teaches us that if we work hard, w ewill start to like what we are doing in school.

This highly engaging book makes the Hittites accessible to the general reader. It opens with the story of the discovery of this culture with reference to the Old Testament, Egyptian records and the work of various scholars in the 19th and 20th centuries plus discussions of their various publications.

The main text is divided into State & Society, Life & Economy, Law & Institutions, Warfare, Religion, Literature and Art, as well as Languages & Peoples which includes discussions of Hittite, Hattian, Luwian, Palaic, Hurrian, Mitannian, Akkadian, Sumerian and Tabalic (hieroglyphic Hittite).

The book includes a Table of Hittite Kings, a bibliography and an index. There are black & white figures throughout the text and many plates with works of art, statues, seals, pottery and cuneiform tablets and photographs of the remains of Boghazkoy, Yazilikaya and Alaja Huyuk, plus a map of the Middle East and one of the layout of Boghazkoy (Hattusas).

For a brilliant discussion of the Hittite language, please consult Whence The Hittite? by Jaan Puhvel in the book Sprung from Some Common Source: Investigations into the Prehistory of Languages, edited by Sydney M Lamb and E Douglas Mitchell.

Gurney's book was my first introduction to the Hittites. And despite the passage of years and several revisions, it remains one of the three best general introductions. Even a general reader limited to the English language, however, should not stop with this book. Two books by Trevor Bryce ("The Kingdom of the Hittites" and "Life and Society in the Hittite World") complement Gurney's treatment and are both up-to-date, well-informed and written in a readable style. Well written and inexpensively priced collections of Hittite texts in translation authored by G. Beckman and H. A. Hoffner can be found in the Society of Biblical Literature's series "Writings from the Ancient World".

If you are not very familiar with ancient history, but want a good popular introduction to the Hittites, this is the book for you. Hittite is the oldest known Indo-european language, known mainly from thousands of tablets unearthed in central Turkey. The language is so archaic it is not classified with the others, but is considered derived from an earlier version. Hittite is the only language that preserves an explicit trace of the laryngeals, sounds that disappeared from all the other languages. The culture of central Turkey is identified with the Biblical Hittites. They just may have founded or helped to found Troy, and they may just be among the pre-Greek inhabitants of Greece. There are relatively few popular books on the Hittites, mainly because the field changes so fast. You scholars that are popular educators, get busy!

When Israelites arrived at their "promised land" land in Canaan, they met several other peoples, already settled there. One of them was the Hittites of Northern Syria - a civilized but also a "warrior" nation. The Old Testament told something about the Hittites but this civilizations' existence remained an enigma until the early 20th century. Since that time we learned a lot about this Indo-European people, especially after Hugo Winckler's excavations in Hattusa (Bogazkoy) of Central Anatolia. Oliver Robert Gurney, a well known hittitology specialist, presents us a rich summary of both Hittite history and culture in this excellent work. There are only a few books on Hittites, written for non-specialists, and this is probably the best one.

The Hittites are one of the better-known unknown peoples - they are well known from the Bible; mentioned as one of the peoples in the Syro-Palestinian area during the time of the Patriarchs, they continued to be mentioned through a long span of the history of the Hebrew Bible. At some point, they stop being mentioned - most likely, the Hittite Empire collapsed just as Israel was growing strong under the united kingdom monarchy (or perhaps just before) and was later absorbed by the various empires (Assyrian, Greek, etc.) that swept across Asia Minor.

There aren't many texts on the Hittites; what books are available are often written for archaeologists and other scholars. O. R. Gurney was a professor at Oxford specialising in Assyriology, that branch of archaeology and history that studies the empires of the Fertile Crescent. This book is accessible and interesting; originally written in the early 1950s, it has been updated to take account of later archaeological finds and interpretations. The history of publishing in this kind of field is such that often the 'latest' book will be something decades old, so the 'antiquity' of the book here should not be an issue, and generally isn't, for the student and for the general reader.

Gurney discusses in his introduction the earliest archaeological discovery of the Hittites, lost for millennia to the world under the sands of Asia Minor (Turkey) and other countries at the northern end of the Tigris and Euphrates. From here, he looks at Hittite history in broad strokes - the earliest cities, the Old Kingdom, the period of Empire, the decline of Empire and subsequent rise of neo-Hittite kingdoms, possible connections with the early Greeks and Trojans, and finally the Hittites found in Palestine.

Gurney's following chapters look at the different aspects of Hittite life and culture - society structure from royalty to commoners; government and foreign policy; economy and lifestyles; law and institutions (there are tablets of laws found in various locations); warfare (some things shared with other nations at the time, and some uniquely Hittite features); languages and literature; religion; and art. With regard to languages, this continues to be a rapidly developing area, but the connection of Hittite to the Indo-European language family (through the Anatolian line) has been known since 1915; this was rather surprising, given that the other languages in the area are of the Semitic line, a non-Indo-European language family that included Sumerian and Akkadian, languages in evidence in Hittite areas, showing regional connections for trade and foreign relations. This shows that the Hittites are most likely of a different stock of people from the rest of the peoples of the ancient Near East -- strangers in the land, in a way.

Gurney's text adds details for the student that are worthwhile. For example, while reading about the downfall of the Hittites, Gurney mentions the Peoples of the Sea who were sweeping across portions of the eastern Mediterranean at that time, and tells how Palestine came to get its name, not data directly relevant, but useful and interesting nonetheless. The text is full of such things.

The book also contains many pictures, plates, and line-art drawings of inscriptions, maps, buildings and building plans, and other pieces of interest. There is a chronological list of the kings of the Hittites, ranging from early kings of unknown timing, to the known dated kings from 1740 to 1190 BCE. The bibliography is excellent, divided topically into eighteen different topics, for scholars and students to pursue particular subjects in relations to the Hittites in earnest. The index is very good, useful for Hittite, English and other words and names.

A fascinating book!

If a Dolphin Were a Fish is an enchanting book about a dolphin who imagines what it would be like to be other creatures. The artwork is beautiful, and the imaginative way that other animals' features are incorporated into Delphina's body is creative and delightful.

Art teachers, elementary classroom teachers, and others who work with children will find this an excellent resource. Comparing and contrasting the various animals' features and habitats, predicting which choice Delphina will make next, deciding whether she'll eventually be happy with her own status...are just a few of the thinking/discussion topics that this book presents. I love this book, and recommend it highly for children of all ages!

Delfina is a bottlenose dolphin. She swims through the pages of this beautifully illustrated book, imagining what it would be like to be something other than a dolphin. If she were a fish for instance, she could spend all of her time underwater. Unlike fish that have gills, Delfina has a full set of lungs and breaths through a blowhole on top of her head.

Considering the life of a sea turtle does not appeal to her at all. Slowly lumbering along the beach to lay hundreds of eggs does not sound like a lot of fun. She much prefers to give birth to her calf underwater. She discards the idea of being a shark and being a manatee does not thrill her. The thought of being a bird covered in feathers is too funny to even consider.

Being a boneless octopus is not to her liking either. A dolphin has a skeleton in its body made up of hard bones. Delfina has a backbone, skull and rib bones much like humans. She has five fingers inside of her front flippers that are similar to the bones in our hands. After considering all these alternatives, Delfina decides she likes who she is and has no desire to be anything else. Ask your child if he/she has ever thought of being someone else. This would be an excellent time to point out all of your child's unique attributes and celebrate who they are.

Here is a book about a very special dolphin, Delfina, who often wonders what it would be like to be a different animal. This clever story takes the reader through many different possibilities, including fish, sea turtle, shark, manatee, bird, and octopus. With each animal Delfina could be, the author explains why Delfina is not that animal and along the way, aided by the incredible "morphing" illustrations of artist Laurie Allen Klein, the reader learns exactly what makes Delfina a dolphin.

An especially helpful section in the back of the book, "For Creative Minds" gives the reader even more information about dolphins and includes fun facts and, on the final page, a "Dolphin Adaption Craft" that will be a hit with any young dolphin fan.

This book is sure to be a favorite of all young dolphin lovers. It would also be useful as part of an instructional unit on dolphins and/or sea animals.

A dolphin named Delfina wonders how life would be if she were another different animal. This story teaches about dolphins by explaining why Delfina can't be a turtle, a bird, or many other animals, while giving simple information about each animal.

Certain fun for children and a solid tool for teachers with extra information and teaching aids in the back.

I love the colored pencil illustrations in this book, my favorite being Delfina as a turtle. Envision a small dolphin with a turtle shell and spots.

Writer and illustrator both work for Sea World Orlando in the Education Department. The book has dual lessons: One deals with the science of dolphins and the comparison animals. Hopefully children will also learn that by design, we are best at being ourselves.

Armchair Interview says this book is, "In a word: delightful."

My kids loved this book. Can't go wrong. I bought a second copy for the school library so that more kids can enjoy this book.
Educational story and beautiful pictures at the same time.
We also enjoyed the sections in the back of the book that tell you more details about dolphins and a section on how to trace the dolphin and his different disguises.
Great book - perfect for beginning readers as well.