Ball Books

What if the White Sox had been the first major league team to field a black player? Rutkoff imagines it, populating his rich story with people both real and imagined. Among the real: An imperious, double-dealing Chuck Comiskey, owner of the White Sox. Among the imagined: The Negro League hero who makes the leap into the majors a black blues singer from Memphis whose heartbreaking tragedy is a riveting subplot and the Jewish fixer who finds himself in the middle. Full of fascinating historical detail (the author is a noted historian at Kenyon College). You've never heard of this small-press novel, and what a pity: It deserves an audience among baseball fans, Chicagoans, history buffs, blacks, whites, and just about and anyone else who cares about why America is the way it is today.

Full disclosure: If you read and love "Shadow Ball" as I did, you may also enjoy my novel "To Love Mercy" -- because it's a virtual sequel to "Shadow Ball." "To Love Mercy" takes the story forward three decades, to 1948. It's a tale of blacks and whites, Christians and Jews, how children see the world, conflict and forgiveness ... and the White Sox!

This is a beautifully written and imaginatively conceived historical novel. Its author is a well-published academic historian who teaches at Kenyon College. This is his first novel. Peter Rutkoff brings together several strands of American history (e.g., baseball, race, and Chicago.) Real people--Rube Foster, Charles Comiskey, and Shoeless Joe Jackson--encounter the author's wonderfully-drawn fictional characters. Rutkoff's evocation of Chicago is also as superb as it is knowledgeable. And the storyline--which I won't reveal--is most compelling. This is, as they say, a page turner. If your literary appetite combines baseball and American history, read this book!

I came to this book through my interest in social history. I came away from the book a fan of baseball as well. The author drops you into 1919 Chicago and into the heads of all those involved in a high-stakes and incendiary decision to bring a Negro player to the Chicago White Sox. Despite a new appreciation for baseball, for me the highlight of the book is the portrayal of "small" lives. The tragedy that racial prejudice brings to a young, poor woman coming to Chicago from the South makes this book resonate much longer than any game-winning home run.

This book was easy to read, and had very good basic information. It would be great for the first time gardener and/or composter. Recommend!

Como resolver o problema dos residuos provenientes das retiradas de fruta

This is a rarity of a book since it doesn't spend a lot of time telling you stuff you don't need to know, but is what it says. A book about the various means of composting whether you live in an apartment or have an acre for an organic vegetable or flower garden.

The illustrations are helpful and easy to follow. And if you think you cant compost or that it will just be to hard, this book will change your mind. It is also an important book in my opinion, because Americans throw away so much useful compost material or grind it down the kitchen garbage disposal. By composting your kitchen and garden wastes you not only produce rich soil but you build up the entire eco system. And with garbage dumps becoming full and new ones harder to find I think that composting of kitchen and garden wastes should be a law.

David Niall Wilson offers us an exquisite short story about that most pastoral and elegant summer sport, baseball. Don't be fooled, though, dear reader, because this tale about the Boys of Summer is firmly embedded in the cold bedrock of terror. While the long days of warmth play host to the crack of the bat and the umpire's gruff calls, a fast pitch can kill a batter if it catches him just wrong. Or...just right. When a fastball pitcher named Jeb "Rocket" Rabinowicz fired a ninety-five-mile-an-hour pitch at a batter named Smith in the summer of 1939, the ball went wonky and Smith was left dead at the plate. The ball that killed Smith becomes a favorite attraction in a baseball museum, made famous by its tragic trajectory. However, when an elderly man shows up at the museum one day and declares the ball a fake, this knowledge places everyone he tells in jeopardy. This is a finely crafted and very spooky story that illustrates how easily guilt can become a fertile a soil in which horror can grow.

Having (to my recollection) never read any works by David Niall Wilson, the short story "Take Me Back To That Ball Game..."--available through Amazon.com's Shorts program--was the perfect introduction.

While it's difficult to describe a short story without giving the whole she-bang away, Wilson has quite successfully mixed baseball, antiques, mystery, death, a curse, and a couple of curve-ball plot twists into this 16 page offering. And, even though I'm not a fan of baseball, Wilson's smooth and easy writing, intriguing plot, and believable characters sucked me into the tale.

"Take Me Back To That Ball Game..." is certainly worth the paltry $0.49 fee from Amazon. It is one of those perfect short stories that succeeds where so many fail: it setups you up well then pays off big in a short space. I look forward to delving into some of Wilson's longer works in the near future.

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You'll enjoy this story even if you're not a baseball fanatic. Wilson throws enough curves to make it an exciting time at the plate.

"One of the most evocative images in the whole genre of the mind, body and spirit subjects--and of mysticism itself--is that of the gifted seer contemplating the depths of a crystal ball." - Titania Hardie

Individuals have sought answers from within or from the realm of spirit for thousands of years. One of the most ancient forms of divination, called scrying, employs the use of substances or objects with shiny surfaces, such as molten metal, ink, water, or glass. Whether though a light meditative trance state or via 6th sense function such as clairaudience and clairvoyance, seekers of wisdom consulted such objects from every culture.

Crystallomancy, a form of scrying using crystals or glass, is arguably one of the most easily recognized forms of divination, especially in the form of a crystal ball. Suggesting an infinite realm of possibilities and a cache of treasured insights, the image of crystal balls enchants children and adults alike. Through literature, movies, and television, wizards, witches, and fortunetellers are often shown gazing hopefully into a glistening orb--presumably to discern the future. In fact, crystal ball gazing figures prominently in one of the Harry Potter films!

For those who scry on a regular basis, the experience isn't quite so sensational. However, crystal gazing *can* be a wonderful way to access your subconscious, call on internal wisdom, and enter a mindful state through meditation.

An excellent kit for beginners, Titania's Crystal Ball by Titania Hardie includes a glass orb, round wood stand, and 64-page companion book. The "crystal ball" is a bit bigger than a golf ball, but smaller than a baseball. The circular wooden stand (imagine a thin donut) safely nestles the ball during meditation. Of course, you can use your own stand or cloth to keep the orb in place, but it's great that this kit happens to come with one!

The companion book serves as thorough introduction to crystallomancy, and Titania's knowledgeable yet empathetic approach encourages beginner scryers to experiment gently while learning how to use this unique tool. She explains theories of crystal gazing, as well as how to create a relaxed atmosphere and induce a meditative state. Titania also describes how to "cleanse" and charge the orb, and what to expect during your first attempts and crystal gazing.

In the companion book to Titania's Crystal Ball, the author also elaborates on the meanings of colors, objects, and images. For example, seeing small birds such as robins or sparrows may suggest activity, while flowers often presage invitations or new beginners in a love affair. Fruits may indicate time well spent, while books suggest study or the need to learn something.

Titania also provides additional ideas for using your crystal ball:

1. Meeting your spirit guide
2. Trying astral travel
3. Creating positive energy
4. Aspiring to a generous, higher consciousness

She also advocates keeping a diary or journal for recording your progress, insights, and readings. Looking back, she says, will likely astonish you when you realize what you've seen!

My husband bought Titania's Crystal Ball for me several years ago, for Christmas. He knew I always wanted one and it was *perfect*! Personally, I don't use it for scrying--it's not my preferred method of divination--but it's *fantastic* for meditation, especially when gazing at it with dim background light or candles. I keep my crystal ball on its wooden stand, which sits on a satin ice blue cloth next to a brass statue of Ganesh. I use this arrangement as an "altar" of sorts, sometimes placing Tarot or oracle card behind the orb.

This new version of Titania's Crystal Ball seems to be produced by another publisher, but I'm almost positive that the blue satin cloth I use for mine came *with* the kit (my husband seems to think so, too). However, it's possible that I'm incorrect, so assume that your crystal ball set will NOT come with a cloth.

Whether you use this kit for divination, meditation, decoration, or devotion (as in altars or rituals), Titania's Crystal Ball provides a truly lovely orb, stand, and guidebook for each of these purposes.

Janet Boyer, author of The Back in Time Tarot Book: Picture the Past, Experience the Cards, Understand the Present (coming Fall 2008 from Hampton Roads Publishing)

I was very pleased with the packaging. The crystal ball is made of real glass and very clear. It came in a nice firm box. The bottom of the box was cover with a black shiny material. It also has a wooden stand if you'd like to place it on your desktop. The book was short, easy to read and easy to understand. It gives enough information to get you started.
For the price, this set is a good value. I would've loved to have a more indepth book, but this one is wonderful for beginningers.

I've just received Titania's crystal ball and I am convinced it was a worthwhile investment. I now have another favorite to my collection and cannot wait to work with it more. Thank you for such an amazing object!

This book offers great Core moves from beginner through advanced. The instructions and photos are clear and easy to follow; the spiral binding means the book stays open while you practice the moves.

I am a group fitness instructor teaching a Core class and I wanted some new moves. This book delivered. I am also a personal trainer and I liked the detailed explanations of the muscles being worked and the fact that the moves were safe and came with modifications if needed.

A good buy!

For some strange reason, I have only seen one review for any of the books in the 'Total' exercise series, which left me wondering really how these books were (the one review gave a high rating) and if anyone was actually buying them! None-the-less, I decided to take a chance on this book, because it had the right title - I was looking for an exercise ball program that was exclusively for core strength. This is a large book that is styled on the order of Ungaro's 'Pilates: Body in Motion'. If you are not familiar with that book, it is the most well laid out Pilates book I have found, with abundant and important tips, pointers, and cautions, and all the steps involved for every move. Total Core Strength on the Ball offers clear explanations of everything from what the core muscles are and why it is important to strengthen them, to when to breathe during each exercise. Exercises are clearly photographed with a series of photos for each exercise, and a well written and easy to understand explanation of how to do each step. There are beginner, intermediate, and advanced exercises, with a variety of different exercise programs laid out at the end of the book with the exercise name, a thumb-nail photograph, number of recommended reps and page number. The routines given are beginner, intermediate, advanced, a 15 minute routine, a 30 minute routine, a hotel room routine, an office routine (what have I left out?). There is a short stretching routine, although there is a long series of stretching exercises in the stretching section. I have never been 'into' stretching, but I went through the entire stretching section and really enjoyed it. I would say that in general, the exercises in this book, for each level, are challenging without being complicated or dangerous (as I have found in some other ball books). Since I have experience and practice on the ball already, I started at the advanced level, and I either do the advanced routine or the 30 minute routine, and found them both to be sufficiently challenging. I suppose that if you want super-advanced moves for a gymnast or a professional athlete, you could find those moves else-where, but for an at-home exerciser in decent shape, this book is an excellent resource. I am very pleased with this book and am glad I invested in it, it is easily one of my favorite ball books. By the way, the spiral binding is a big plus (and was one of the main reasons I bought the book - I was tired of poorly bound 'exercise ball' books either falling apart, or not staying open during exercise.)

This is a great book. Very clear descriptions of the exercises. Wonderful pictures. And it is spiral bound, making it easy to keep open while performing the exercises. I come from the perspective of being a former personal trainer and a recovered back surgery patient. I use the ball to keep my back and core strong. I couldn't recommend this book more highly. I will say, however, that if you are looking for a book to show you how to use the ball for exercises for non-core muscle groups, this is not the book for you.

Beautifully written! Story is able to capture the interest of children young and old as it teaches a valuable lesson. Great educational book as well "bedtime story" for younger readers. The illustrations are also beautiful!
Highly Recommended! A++

This book teaches a great lesson about learning to get along with others. It is written in a format that small children can understand and older children can relate to. Beautifully illustrated and highly recommended!

It is a wonderful children's book with a great story line for children to follow.

This is the one book anyone learning to play tennis must have. The author gets his point across in a humorous way, making learning a frustrating game fun. It is very easy to transfer the words in the book to the court. All those who teach tennis could learn how to better teach their students with the many examples used in the book.

This is a must have book for anyone serious about learning how to play tennis. The author uses humor to make learning fun. It is difficult to learn tennis from a book, but the lessons are easily transferable to the court. This is also a good guidebook for the tennis professional. I just wonder how long it will be until tennis lessons are no longer $40.

This book is very different and lots of fun. Anyone who has taken a clinic from Ed, as I have, will recognize the tips and the teaching style. Much of material is very unique to Ed Collins and very helpful. I recommend that the book be part of any tennis library.

This ia a really fun book. Most of TCL books will cover the language or how to build pretty grahical programs, but this books emphasis in on the web. In the scope of the web, the book has many sections including: (1) SafeTCL, (2) CGI Scripting, (4) Servlets, (5) TCL Web Server, (6) Client side scripting, (7) document processing with XML, (8) Java Intigration. This book offers so much.

I really like how the authors started off with SafeTCL as a way to firewall your code taht could potentially be attacked by hackers. I was touched by the coverage of Tclets and TCL Netscape plug-in. This stuff was really cool, as it is a way to reuse code on the client browser, but also offer ways to interact with JavaScript. Some really neat stuff.

I highly recommend this book for anyone that likes to tinker and do really cool things with little effort involved. It is also great I think for in house applications or testing tools that could be deployed via the web or to the desktop on just about any platform (Unices, Windows, Mac). The document processing section, and also make TCL into a powerful set of resources for a variety of enterprise solutions as well.

You can accomplish everything you want on the web, on both the client and server sides, without leaving this book, or Tcl. There are a huge number of web development tools out there, and a confusing variety of techniques for web page development and for web server management. After reading this book my decision was clear. I use the Web Tcl Server which I down-loaded and booted first shot. Instead of having to juggle a number of techniques I can now just stick to Tcl. It is the common glue across the company and it is also liberating. People can use their own tools to create various aspects of the web site and yet central policies can be maintained. For example, everyone can use their favorite word processors instead of being forced to use a Web management tool such as Front Page that is universally hated. Get this book. It will be the shortest route you can take to complete control of your web site.

this is not my first TCL book. if u are looking for a TCL book to learn, I recommend Practical Programming in Tcl & Tk by Brent B. Welch .

nonetheless, Web TCL complete does live up to its name and covers practically almost all (if not all) things revolving around using TCL for the web.

get this book if u are interested in getting up to speed regarding using TCL for web base development.

My only wish (not complaint) is I hope that it can be priced lower.

I assigned this book for an undergraduate course I teach, "Diversity in Psychology." As a faculty of color who teaches at a predominantly white college, I often struggle in talking about these issues with my white students in a way in which they can truly "get it." Dr. Malcolm's book helps my students grapple with such critical issues as racism, sexism, heterosexism, and all the other -isms that plague our society. He does this by sharing his own journey of dealing with these issues. His book reaches out to these students in a way that I will never be able to.

Dr. Malcolm's book is truly an inspiration, not only to me, but also to my colleauges, those who are of color and white. What I like best about this book is that the author doesn't sugar coat anything. He clearly communicates the message that in order for our society to live up to its egalitarian ideals, we *all* must be willing to engage in difficult dialogues with one another about each of these issues. We all must get comfortable with being uncomfortable in order to overcome our fears of one another. These types of dialogues are truly necessary if we are to deal with our society's unfinished business.

I will keep Dr. Malcolm's book as assigned reading for many of my courses and I'll keep it close by me because I have drawn so much encouragement from it. I would like to thank Dr. Malcolm for sharing his experiences and taking me along on his amazing journey. His book has given my students, colleagues, and me new hope that we can come to a much better understanding of one another in this society. That is Dr. Malcolm's greatest gift.

The title, A Whole New Ballgame, will make most of us think that this is a book about sports, and perhaps to some people the race game or racism is a sport. A game in which there are winners and losers-preordained and predicated solely upon their physical characteristics. This book can be a text book for college level sociology classes, as well as history classes and graduate level education and counseling programs.
It is a book which is easy to read and understand the author's viewpoint. It may have been told by others with a multicultural perspective, but not so eloquently as Dave Malcolm with his broad-mainstream background. His book, with piercing insight, directs the reader toward introspection and to question their values, behavior and cultural background.
"Finally, an Anglo man understands the plight of people of color and racism." My dad gave me a "high five" for a sharing this book with him!

I am a biased reviewer. Dave Malcolm, my father and my hero, published his first book this year just before his 89th birthday. I am inspired that he completed this book and persisted in finding a publisher.

Dave's book, A Whole New Ball Game, shares the joy and wisdom gained in his particular life journey, one that has led him beyond an ethnocentric, patrtiarchal white New England background into a love affair with collaborative learning with persons of other races and cultures.

In this book, Dave describes the innovative multi-cultural master's program in counseling at San Diego State University that has for forty years trained persons from under-represented groups (along with those of us from over-represented groups). As a book about racism and cultural difference, it is most unique because it does not preach "shoulds" and moral obligations to the privileged, instead it tells how genuine contact between races, ethnicities and cultural groups makes all of our lives richer and fuller. I am not only his daughter but also a graduate of the program he founded, and the program, challenging though it was, profoundly enriched my life.

Although the book cannot replicate the experience of the graduate program, it does open up the reader's thinking. The book also inspire the reader to welcome encounters across race and ethnicity as wonderful opportunities for adventure, widened horizons, and a richer life.

As usual this is a great Ann Ball books with pictures and stories of modern day saints, many of them not canonized. Many photos. She does a great job.

I am 16 years old and in love with God. This book was such an amazing inspiration to me in my spiritual life that now I want to do so much more for the Lord. If these little Saints could have so much faith and trust in God so as to give their very lives for Him, I can at least be a Saint for Him! A must-read for anyone seeking holiness.

(...)Many Sunday School classes have fallen into debates on what Jesus meant by the words we must become as little children to see the Kingdom. Perhaps He was thinking of such children as those recounted in this book. The brief time on Earth these little ones spent only sharpened the impact of their lives of devotion and love. Their lives are ones to inspire readers as they learn of the goodness exhibited by these children, often in the face of terrible pain and suffering. Even Protestants might find a pearl to cling to in times of trial. (...)

Reviewed by Amanda Killgore for Huntress Reviews.