Anne Books

I loved this book. At first I was annoyed by all the narrative and the fact that there was very little dialogue. We get it. Her life sucked.

But as the story progressed, I really began to feel connected with these people, especially Angel. I have read more romance novels than I can possibly count, but I have never before felt so happy for a character at the end of the book.

This novel is a credit to the writer and the genre.

Captive Angel is a wonderfully-written novel about a young woman's search for love and acceptance in the 1870s in Texas. It is a harsh life for both men and women. The heroine is subjected to travesities that shock you, and you yearn for her to win over her unbearable circumstances. Ms. Porter is an excellent writer. I felt as if I were transported back in time agonizing and cheering for this beautiful young woman, who finally finds what's she yearning for. . .a home of her own and love.

Angel Devlin is not your typical romance heroine but you will be a fan of hers from the beginning to the end. The trials she must endure include ones that I have yet to find in other novels. Porter offers characters that are flawed enough to be real but deep enough to be loved. This is my first Cheryl Anne Porter novel. I am so excited to find her and plan to pick up her other novels.

Even many years after I bought the book, every time I open the book, the right answer to my problem comes.
It is beautiful ancient knowledge for the modern days.

This will be the best use of $12 you could ever make. One page knowledge sheets takes 3 minutes to complete and is useful on any day. Makes you stop and think and then smile.

I have gifted this book to others as well and everyone LOVED it.

This is the most essential and relevant book to guide us to higher understanding of life and elevated consciousness. It's layed out in a very practical and creative manner. With topics that range from love to anger and enlightenment and God. It really gives you the deepest of knowledge in an easy to read and simple yet brilliant manner. A must for everyone wanting more out of life.

This is a handy book for all occasions and situations. Giving a very profound yet simple meaning to everyday challenges of life. A very good buy for people from all walks of life and religion.
I have picked up this book practically everyday to read Sri Sri's comments on life. And it has given me a new meaning and showed me directions to go forth in any situation. It is a simple yet very powerful book to understand the complexities of daily life and the solution to them, in the most uncomplicated manner. A must buy for today's world.

A Child's Bible is an anthology of stories from the Old and New Testaments of the Christian Bible, adapted for young adult readers to enjoy and interspersed with simple yet colorful illustrations on almost every page. Most sections of the bible are rendered into short passages several paragraphs long. Quotes from Jesus Christ and other Biblical figures are typically repeated verbatim; other story elements are often streamlined or simplified. "St. Luke 8-1-3 Jesus Journeys: Jesus visited every town and village teaching and telling people the good news about God's kingdom. He traveled with his twelve disciples, and certain women whom he had healed, such as Mary Magdalene, Joanna (the wife of Herod's agent, Chuza), Susanna and several others who had money to help support him." Highly recommended, especially for church youth libraries and Christian households with younger children.

This book is so beautiful! It would be great for intermediary grades- not too babyish of a Bible, but not too difficult to understand. Most bibles jump from childish to adult with nothing in between, but this version offers the bible that isn't patronizing or overwhelming. The paintings are rather... 60's....but I still find them breath-taking.

So many adult literacy students want to learn to read, or improve their reading, in order to read and understand the Bible -- yet there are so few easy-to-read Bibles for the adult learner! Most children's Bibles are woefully incomplete, or too childish or bear too little resemblance to the Bibles their friends and families are using in church or synagogue. This Old and New Testament in one volume, though designed for use by children ages 9-12, is a joy! It's simplified/condensed, but amazingly complete, with a comprehensive index and full chapter citations at the top of every story for the student who wants to know more. Beautifully illustrated, and a pleasure for grown-up students and tutors to read aloud, together. My student (a 46-year-old male) and I were so happy to find it, and we are delighted to recommend it to other tutors and new readers.

I teach ancient history at the college level, and I give this book to my children to learn about the Bible. It has nearly all the stories, not just Noah and Moses, and tells them in a lively way, with plenty of action, but in words children can understand. And it is short, with lots of colorful pictures. There is no moralizing: this Bible sticks to the text.

I highly recommend reading Circle of the Soul by Anne Carroll Decker. It is uplifting, readable- a gem of a book. It provides answers, actions, solace for living in today's confusing times. Don't miss it.

I was so grateful when I learned that Anne Carroll Decker had published a second book, because I gained so much from her first. Her messages bring the word of God alive in our lives today. I highly recommend her books for an uplifting view of our sometimes-dark world.

... Anne Carroll Decker's Circle Of Souls emphasizes that we are fundamentally one. Our heartfelt concern for others, no matter how despicably they may behave, turns out to be very important to each of us personally. For the central point of the book is that ultimately no-one can be set free if any one remains chained. Freedom, as used herein, may be taken to represent and include all good desires, all hopes - in fact those lists of spiritual gifts the Scriptures discuss. Chained is
used herein to represent the state of those who behave horrendously: the murderers, the liars, the rapists, those who would use fear to coerce others and those who harbour fear and unbelief themselves. The startling thesis is that no-one (no matter their sanctity) will be set free until each and every one of us (the worst offenders included) comes to salvation

Other authors have written emphasizing the thesis of all-encompassing unconditional love. Authors as diverse as Betty Edie and William Brugh Joy MD emphasize that love must be unconditional. Jesus himself pointed out that even the heathen love those who reciprocate goodness and He recommended that we love those who harm us (and presumably, those who harm society at large.)

While Anne Carroll's book emphasizes the great importance of unconditional love, it goes much farther. It states that our unconditional love and our prayers for those who are chained by their sins can help misled offenders to be set free. And until each and every one of these are set free, no-one will be set free. For humanity will be regarded as a single holistic entity.

Anne Carroll contests with an Angel verbally even as Jacob once wrestled the angel at Penuel. She has trouble accepting the angelic ideas outlined above but he persists and overwhelms her contradictions time and again.. Sometimes angels of varying religious persuasions or ethnic derivations invite Anne Carroll to witness God-respecting "foreigners" whose approach is other than standard American Christianity. Some angelic tour guides are difficult for Anne Carroll to bear. As one who has achieved all the signatures of the idealized modern American woman, the author must find angelic messages somewhat counterpunctal. Yet she knows somewhere down deep within herself that the values they are pressing upon her are worthwhile on a level that material success can never approach And much of the charm of this book lies in the honest presentation of this conflict. A dedicated and devoted woman, she has worked very hard to meet the criteria of a materialistic culture. But Anne Carroll Decker's angelic friends will not let her rest on sterling laurels. Goals set for her (and incidentally, for all of us) include more than the honest, satisfying life. Working, tithing, helping others, and maintaining the suburban marriage and mansion are not enough.

The new goal superimposed is the eventual Freedom of all mankind!!! That is the responsibility of each and every one of us. Our tools are unconditional love and the power of prayer.

We must not rest until every one of our others is set Free. We will not be Home until all are welcomed Home.

Such is the message of this interesting and well-written book.

This is the second of her books, which I have read over and over and bought at least 20 to share with friends. Her conversations with the angel are amazingly enlightening and moving. It's especially different because she debates contemporary issues and receives new, insightful responses to things like, 'why should I pray for the shooter at the convenience store when the woman he killed left a motherless child?' How come prayer doesn't always help? 'God doesn't seem to understand how much more complex and difficult it is to live today, nor have to deal with the problems we encounter.' I have spent years studying religion and listening to clergy, but her dialogues with the angel are the most insightful and peace-engendering I've ever encountered. I totally believe her experiences are real, and so will every reader. I've asked Catholic, Protestant and Jewish clergy to read it, and they all praise it very highly!!!

Five hundred years have passed since Empress Tathea was driven into exile, there to discover a book of mystical teachings which was to change her life and charge her with a newfound mission to battle against the evil the Book foretold. The immortal Tathea has spent centuries awaiting the events the Book has predicted: the time has come, but she seems destined to stand alone without the warriors and true love predicted as her allies. Anne Perry has created an emotionally-charged, fast-paced story in Come Armageddon which proves hard to put down.

On many worlds, the battle between good and evil is being fought. On one such orb, Asmodeus is thought to be a myth and the word of God has only been alive for five centuries. Tathea, who brought the Book into the word and spread its teaching, is over five hundred years old but worries because she knows the time of Armageddon is getting closer. On the Island at the Edge of the world she waits for the warriors who will take up the spiritual battle of the evil one.

Tathea and her friend realize, almost too late, that all Asmodeus has to do is wait for them to die out to win the battle. To prevent this from happening, Sadokhor, whom Tathea regards as a son, enters the portal that leads to Hell and encourages the spirits of those who turned away from the light, to walk the Earth. This starts the time of Armageddon and Asmodeus is forced to use his minions to spread sin across the land, leading to man's fall. Stripped of everything, with only her faith to guide her, Tathea must endure a final confrontation with Asmodeus for the souls of mankind.

Anne Perry is a master storyteller who has written an epic tale rich in characterizations and strong in plot. Readers will find such depth in the story line that they will want to peruse the novel many times to get the full impact to COME ARMAGEDDON'S multiple meanings. Though hard as it is to imagine, this sequel to the terrific TATHEA is even more compelling and powerful.

Harriet Klausner

Anne Perry has written the most important work (including her previous masterpiece, Tathea) since Sigrid Undset (the first woman to win the Nobel Prize for Literature) did so in 1928 for Kristin Lavransdatter. With the brilliance of our history's greatest poets, philosophers, mystics, metaphysicians, and not to exclude experts in theology, spirituality, as well as law (both man and God's), this author goes where no author has ever gone before.

The book cannot be catagorized as any cookie cutter genre other than a masterpiece in art from a Master whether that be in painting, or sculpture. How would we categorize Da Vinci's Pieta as a genre?

Moreover, I not only related to all of her magnificently brave characters (Tathea, most of all) but I wept through much of the book for its depth of wisdom, and profound beauty in story, scope, and frankly, prophecy for this world right now. My prayer is that everyone would have the courage Ms. Perry did in laying it on the line by showing us just how fragile humankind is as a race; and that whatever one's belief-or-not, if faced with the darkest evil (and we will all face it one time or another), God is the only one who can save this world gone so terribley awry.

I will never, ever, be without this book in my possession if only to give me hope in times when I truly feel that I cannot go on.

Five hundred years since being granted immortality and being exiled, Tathea finds herself involved in the final struggle between good and evil. She had hoped for peace and oblivion in the time she spent in the Lost Lands, but instead is given a mission, spread the teachings of the Great Book as armor for the people who would have to stand against the enemy, Asmodeous.

Tathea had counted on having an army help her make her stand, but instead finds that the final battle is one that comes down to just her as the herald of good against the ultimate evil. Can one woman keep darkness from engulfing the universe?

***** As Tolkien, Lewis, and others have before, Anne Perry skillfully creates an allegorical epic of the major themes of the Bible. Without being too obvious, her message is made clear. Her final chapter, when Tathea's quest ends, is poetry worthy of the Wisdom books. *****

This is a great book! I've been following the instructions, exercising at TV commercials, and I'm starting to see the difference!

I AM a couch potato, and this book is GREAT for me. I can watch all the tv I want and exercise at commercials. It's easy, it feels good, and I'm starting to see results!

An easy to follow and well thought out exercise program for those of us who are less then inspired jocks. If TV and tight buns are your cup of tea then this is the book for you!

Well thought out and easily followed exercise program for those of us who are less then inspired jocks. If TV and tight buns are your cup of tea, then this book will do the job!

"The Complete American Jewish Cookbook" includes a mix of traditional Ashkenazic dishes and mid-20th-century American comfort food. There are many cookbooks that will provide updated versions of traditional foods and kosher versions of contemporary favorites. But how many of them also serve as good, basic references, covering everything from applesauce (multiple versions) to zucchini? My personal favorites include banana bread and baked macaroni and cheese. The Passover section is invaluable, and the chicken soup is sheer perfection!

My friend's Mom gave me her book that she got in 1950. Even with the front cover missing I return to this book time and time again. I love the thousands of recipes to choose from. The best part is rarely is there a recipe that has more than 6-10 ingredients. Easy to read - simple to follow - great pictures. I've purchased a used hard cover version that I saving for my daughter. This cookbook brings the memory of my mother and grandmother back to life!

I have approximately 20 cookbooks on my shelf, but when push comes to shove, this is my best source for almost anything I am looking for. I have been using it for 40 years, and am now looking to buy a "new" one, having gone through 2 already...as I said, I really use this book!

I have had this book for about 48 years, in fact the original one has pages falling out. I had to buy another (with soft cover) about 15 years ago because the first one is very fragile. I bought this book for my daughter when she got married in 1980 and also for my youngest daughter when she married in 1983. Now my grandaughter, age 18, is starting college and wants the book, too. I understand it is out of print, and in that case, I will have to give her the soft cover one. This book is a basic cookbook which covers every situation, and it is especially good for new cooks because it explains very well. You don't even have to be kosher to use it, but it doesn't hurt. New jewish cookbooks come and go, but this is the one you really need and is a keeper!

My daughter is 2.5 years old. Loves this book. Helped her to overcome fears at doctors/dentist. Quality is good. Pictures are so cute. Good for early readers too. Good price. Fast shipping. Very glad I purchased it.

This book is aimed at toddlers and upwards. My 2 year old loves it. It details first experiences in going to the dentist, school, doctors, moving etc. The illustrations are well drawn, bright and lovely (which I am very particular about) and the stories short and easy to read. There is also a little duck hidden on each page which my child loves to find.

Would highly recommend this book!

This book is a wonderful compilation of all the first experiences that children have. The illustrations are amazing and full of so much detail that a child can take his time and really enjoy the book. The stories are written with the short sentences at the top, that the kids can read, and then longer sentences at the bottom of the page so the adult can add more detail to the story. The layout is wonderful and the stories are precious. I loved it!

This collection contains all of the First Experiences books (Going to the Hospital, Going to the Doctor, Going to School, Going to the Dentist, The New Baby, Moving House, The New Puppy, Going on a Plane, Going to a Party). The volume is a smaller format than the individual books, but still large enough for proper reading.

Each of the tales tries to give a well-rounded picture of what to expect from the experience. For instance, in the doctor visit the family has three kids who each need a different type of treatment. Each story starts out by introducing the family and each family is different in composition although none are single parent families. Each page tells an aspect of the experience with a more detailed description at the bottom. Each story also contains a small yellow rubber duck hiding somewhere (my favorite is where he is hiding during the metal detector section of going on a plane).

Obviously the families presented will not always mimic your own and many experiences will be different in some details, but they still offering an excellent way to get into the subject with your children and start a discussion. Each tale has a different expert consultant but they are all delightfully illustrated by Stephen Cartwright. Check it out.

Sergei Dovlatov's The Compromise is set in Brezhnev-era Soviet Talinn, where, among other equally and even more absurd things, it was decided that "the four-hundredth-thousandth inhabitant of Talinn" would be born on the eve of a jubilee marking the anniversary of the city's liberation. This child would not only be born happy, but would even be "condemned to happiness" (p.27). The contradiction in terms between condemnation and happiness is lost on the Soviet news architects who will spare no expense in their ostentatious displays of pseudo-national pride and feigned socialist fulfillment. In addition to spotlighting official propagandist policies, The Compromise captures an important trend in the USSR under Brezhnev: the decay of ideological fervor among the population and the emergence of widespread cynicism and stoicism that people rely on to navigate the exigencies of an increasingly absurd everyday life.

The Soviet Union was notorious for its reliance on propaganda. Typically, official propaganda masks deep-seeted paranoia on the part of the ruling elite. It is part of a concerted effort to create a national myth. Under Brezhnev, the Soviet Union struggled to form an identity. It found itself torn between a reality that was completely undesirable and a fantastic view of itself that was utterly untenable. This illusion of identity was advanced through propaganda. There was a partial rehabilitation of Stalin in the Brezhnev era. The characters' outright cynicism reflects the easing of controls under Brezhnev compared to those that had existed under Stalin. While this partial rehabilitation of Stalin did not involve a return to purges, it did become more difficult to publish works that could anyway be construed as disapproving of the regime. The corollary of that, of course, is the publication of works that flatter the regime. This is what Dovlatov was tasked with.

Dovlatov, the narrator, is a newspaper journalist who does not read newspapers out of "simple hostility to the official side of newspaper work" (p. 11). In his work, he must balance reporting actual facts with fluff aimed at promoting the official party line--with the balance tipped more to the latter. Typically this involved a complete repudiation of reality. His work exacts a heavy toll: he is an alcoholic. Dovlatov has no romantic notions about the value of his work. He realizes that he is peddling lies, but continues in his line of work to make money that he generally spends on alcohol and fast women. Through it all, he "had to concentrate. Otherwise the contours of reality might become hopelessly lost" (p.31). He is deeply aware that most of his readers know very well that what they read in the newspapers are lies: "in general, no matter what the press comes up with, it's hard to surprise the average reader. He's used to everything" (p.32).

The narrator's cynicism is not unique. Cynicism, which began to emerge in the open in the early 1970s over the Soviet system's inability to provide its citizens with the conditions for meaningful lives, is this novella's overarching motif. As with the characters in The Compromise, cynicism and its accompanying pessimism did not necessarily translate into open political dissidence. The citizenry's morale, however, was not particularly conducive to the formation of a vibrant civic society

Selection of the 400,000th inhabitant of Tallin reflects the degree to which reality was engineered. By fiat, the baby had to meet certain physical, national and religious standards. A half-Ethiopian baby was rejected on account of his skin color, even though the father was from an allied country. The Jewish baby of esteemed citizens, active in the affairs of the state was likewise rejected on account of his religion, leading the father to observe that: "anti-Semitism really does exist, doesn't it?". Try as it did, the Soviet establishment could not move past the burden of nationalities, many of which it inadvertently created. Neither the half-black (or chocolate, as they put it), nor the Jewish babies would do for the purposes of the story. The baby had to fit a specific national and religious mold, even in a country that was avowedly secular. Brezhnev had conceded the USSR's backwardness, but only to suggest that the country could leap past capitalism in its development. Stories like these illustrate vividly that the Soviet Union was unwilling to commit itself to the heralded ideals of socialism. National, ethnic and religious considerations continued to trump ideological ones.

In the midst of the unabated assault on reason and the human soul, everyday life goes on, as it invariably must. People learn to strike a balance. They juggle censors, ideology and propaganda with the more mundane elements of human life, specifically: sex, alcohol and gambling. Brezhnev-era Soviet Russia was a country searching desperately for a soul. When it did not find one, it tried to create the illusion of one. Ultimately, it could not sustain that illusion.

It is difficult for life to flourish when all its minute details are orchestrated, particularly in the arts. Writing as an art and an expression of human emotion, but in the Soviet Union, even human emotions are choreographed. Journalists are supposed to be the purveyors of truth and are a sine qua non for civil society. When civic virtue is extracted from their job and they become mere tools of a regime trying desperately to create a national identity, the state ceases to be a nation. On the last page of The Compromise, Dovlotov's cousin, a convicted murder chastises him, saying: "All I did was kill a man..and try to burn his body. But you!" killing reality, rewriting history, unforgivable, even in the eyes of a murderer. The Compromise is a bitter denunciation of the assault on art and intellectual life in Soviet Russia and the accompanying cynicism they helped breed. It is a sublime portrayal of the absurdity of life under a regime committed only to its survival behind a mask of faux ideology and a population's heart-breaking quest to find "What kind of people are we [it is] anyway?"

I am Russian, so I got the English version as a gift for my friend, knowing it's one of the best to read about soviet times and Russian great drinking sport. The author immigrated in New York in the 70s, so some of his latest stories are about America.
I would very recommend this book.
I have a whole collection of his essays, and no matter what book of his I pick up, it makes me laugh to tears!

An easy but thought provoking read, this book contains short stories of Sergei Dovlatov's true experiences with journalistic manipulation in the Soviet Union. This book will keep you laughing, and also make you wonder if newspapers are as accurate as you once believed.

Living as a Russian journalist in Soviet Estonia, Dovlatov captures the cynicism, emptiness, irony, isolation, careerism, and dissonance of late Soviet communism. It is a work of powerful literary force and profound human awareness.

My son loved the book as a young boy now the grandchildren are having it read to them and beginnning to love it.

This is a fabulous book integrating math and literature. Frank reminds us of someone we all know. You will laugh yourself silly, no matter what your age is!

This is a story for younger children, about a boy who likes to ask questions. Not about dragons, or witches or monsters, but about the ordinary things around us like ball-point pens, and peas, and his dog Frank. The best and biggest question is of course 'What if?' "What if I drew with this ball point pen until it ran out, how long would the line be?" "What if I ran this bath until the room filled up with water, how long would it take?" These are the sort of questions that all kids ask. The difference is that this kid has the answers. I found this book a delight with colourful and amusing illustrations. I would recommend it to anyone with children aged 4-10. Also to grown-ups who still have the enquiring mind of a child

This book contains wonderful illustrations of a boy and his unforgetable dog Frank. The boy, as he's referred to in the book, uses Frank as a unit of measure. The boy also calculates fascinating and interesting facts about peas (his least favorite vegetable), humpback whales, his father and the bathtub. It inspires readers to reconsider measurement and allows them to laugh at the same time. It is a wonderful book full of intresting, if sometimes seemingly useless, facts about numbers, calculation and one amazing dog name Frank!