Berry Books

Beautifully illustrated. I liked the separation of poems into seasons. I WAS disappointed that "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening" was not included!

I'm a little surprised at the recommended age for this book. Perhaps they are thinking of children reading it for themselves. Parents and teachers enjoy reading these poems to children and talking about their own experiences. The book is a wonderful tool for helping preschoolers learn to love books as they relate the poet's imagery to their own experiences.

I read Poetry for Young People by Robert Frost. While I do not enjoy poetry, I felt this was a good introduction to his work.

"The Cow in Apple Time" gives the cow some personality by telling how she left the boring old pasture in search of something sweet and perhaps it wasn't a good idea because she ends up with an upset stomach and her milk runs dry.

"A Prayer in the Spring" talks about the end of winter and the beginning of spring. It tells about the dreariness of winter coming alive with the colors of spring and the changes that must take place as time changes.

Another of his poems from the book is "Now Close the Windows" is similar to "A Prayer in the Spring" because it's about change, but it's the change from warmer days to the coming winter.

If I had to pick a favorite from this book, it would have to be "The Last Word of a Bluebird" because it personifies the crow and the bluebird. The crow speaks about the bluebird who is flying south for the winter. The bluebird left a message for a young girls and it shows concern for the girl to take care to stay warm and not get sick. He also says he will be returning in the Spring when the weather turns warm again.

This title is another respectable addition to this artful series of books introducing young people (and others) to the work of beloved poets.

The book opens with a short biography of Frost. I enjoyed it immensely - as a writer I was inspired to see that this Pulitzer Prize winner had to actually leave his home in order to write because at first, no one thought his work was high enough quality to publish.

He gave up his farm to write. He first wrote his poetry at night, when the farm was still until finally - he focused on his main love - words.

The poetry is divided by season, with Henri Sorenson's glorious watercolor illustrations providing the perfect counterpoint and setting to the words of Frost.

Savor this book as a beginners guide - and lover's meditation - on the work of Frost.

This book is quite well done and gives a good representation of Frost's work. It of course in an introduction and the poems chosen hit the nail on the head. The illustrations are great and well fit the poem being addressed. There is a very nice introducion in the form of a simple biography of Frost in the front of the book which is quite useful. The addited comments by the Editor are quite good and thought provoking. I cannot recommened this one high enough.Some of the Poems included are, The Pasture, Rose Pogonias, A Girls Garden, Ghost House, Birches, Mending Wall, The Wood Pile and quite a number of others.

This book is excellent, especially for folks just getting back into dating again and who want to do it differently. She has sage advice, and really has you thinking about whether you are ready to actually do online dating.
She covers all topics with great examples. I'm on my second read and using it to reframe what I do want and how I want to get there. Highly recommend.

I'm in my 30's and recently went through a divorce. My friends kept suggesting on-line dating which didn't seem to appeal to me. I was just to nervous and uneducated with the whole thing to give it a try. One of my friends gave me a list of books to read to help me get started and one of them was Romancing The Web. Reading it helped with the nerves and I was on my way. Once I got comfortable navigating on-line I became nervous as to what would happen if I finally found someone! Resources like Romancing The Web helped me with not only the online issues(chapter 6,"The Rules"), but also with the what happens next(chapter 7, "taking it slowly"). It's an easy to read book with lots of helpful tips!

At first I was apprehensive about on-line dating, but with the right tools like Romancing The Web, you can have great results. Great book! Practical info - easy to use. I'm in a relationship for the first time since my marriage ended and it's going great! Slowly - as Diane recommends - but great! Thanks!

I am a therapist and work with a significant number of single persons seeking meaningful relationships. I stumbled on Romancing the Web in a local bookstore and was impressed by the information presented and the easy-to-follow approach. Ms. Berry's guidelines are thoughtful and appropriate and very helpful in establishing a healthy partnership. I have taken to recommending this book for all of my online dating clients!

I disagree with the review below, the book may have been a little repetive but I could understand what the author was saying. However, with the other books I have tried to use I ended up so confused and frustrated that I just gave up. This book really helped me get the right image of myself onto the internet and gave me helpful tips about choosing a mate that I would never have thought of myself.
I live in a very small town in Iowa and all the men in my town are married or not an option. Dating was out of the question with my two young children so the internet was my only option. Romancing the Web really helped me to feel comfortable with the internet and online dating sites. I am currently in a relationship and I have found that in my past relationships I had moved too fast, Berry's suggestion to only e-mail for a month helped me to really get to know Dave and now we have started talking on the phone.
I highly recommend this book for anyone who has been frustrated by the internet or needs a little relationship nudge, it really helped me.

Every day it seems the world looks a little more broken to me. It helps so much to read a few pages of Wendell Berry. He is a fantastic example of someone who thinks for himself; and really strives to get to the core truth about the important issues we face as a civilization. It should be required reading for everyone in the United States - IF we want to get on a path to restoration and healing of our society. But that's where the scary part comes in. I'm beginning to think people would put this book down and give up on it a few pages in. Even if they did get all the way to the end, not many would be willing to put the ideas into practice in their daily lives.

I picked this selection for my book club, and it was very interesting to watch the responses of the participants. You could sense the tension - watch them wiggling in their chairs. They were so relieved when we were finally done with the book; and not because it was poorly written; just because it requires an examination of how far we've all fallen from what is true. I will continue to encourage people to read this excellent and important book, but it will never be an easy sell...and that's a shame.

This is the first Wendell Berry book that I've read, and from the introduction, I found it to be an immensely interesting and engaging read. I was amazed at how skillfully Berry could take complex social issues and boil them down into bite-sized (read: understandable) pieces. I typically wouldn't find myself being overly interested in a collection of essays like this, but needless to say, I was pleasantly surprised by the enjoyable read.

The one element of this book that was hard for me to swallow was Berry's overly idealistic view of people and communities. Granted, significant changes to the current social, economic, and agricultural systems would most likely have to begin in the mind of an idealistic individual, but I felt like many of Berry's arguments rested solely on the inherent goodness of people as a whole. Here's the core problem - individuals act in their own self interest. People are selfish.

This is still a worthy book to read, however, and can bring about fantastic discussion. (I may be frequenting a farmer's market now, as a result of his arguments...Just trying to close the distance between producer and consumer!) Read it and wrestle with it.

This highly stimulating collection of Berry's essays contains some of the most important things Berry has written. The essay "Christianity and the Survival of Creation" is one of the most insightful and important theological statements of our day. It is in everyone's best interest to work to see that the organized churches take Berry's essay to heart. Of course, the book is also notable for the beauty of Berry's writing -- not coincidental, since he argues here and elsewhere for a recovery of the idea of work as sacred and for beauty as a measure of "right livelihood."

This, I think, is a difficult book to review. There are so many diverse themes throughout the book that it is hard to describe what the book is "about", and my reaction to the book was a mixture of excitement, personal conviction, and intellectual challenge. Yet, hopefully I can get something coherent down for you.

The book is a collection of eight essays written by Berry, all of which deal (sometimes loosely) with the degradation of community. "Community" is a term of art for Berry; it is more than merely a group of people living in close proximity to one another who happen, from time to time, to bump into each other at the store. Rather, community is a defined group of people who live together in a particular place, over time, in a way that fosters a strong sense of togetherness. People who have this type of community have experiences together in everyday life, such as work, play, tragedy, and joy. In community of this nature there is a sense of belonging that most Americans today would not be able to relate to.

Berry is not the only intellectual (a label I would guess he'd hate hear applied to himself) to suggest not only that our communities are deteriorating, but that this deterioration adversely effects the quality and essence of our lives. For a more empirical approach to the subject, see especially Bowling Alone : The Collapse and Revival of American Community by Robert Putnam. I think when Berry's book is read in light of Putnam's we see not only a picture of the problem but also a recipe for the remedy.

Berry is a challenging author. He is at times very radical, and he sometimes employs demagoguery to press his point. However, when taken as a whole he approaches his topic from a position of humility and honesty. There is even a sense, after coming to grips with this humility and honesty, that Berry comes to his subject with righteous indignation. He is clearly passionate about small, rural communities like his own, and his passion easily rubs off onto the reader. After reading this book, I feel like I have a heightened sense of compassion for people who are trying to keep their communities alive.

This book is probably not for everyone. I would recommend it to people who already have sympathies for the rural, self-sufficient lifestyle and those especially who have concerns for the quality of our environment (a topic that Berry hits upon numerous times). This is not to say that this book cannot change minds. However, many people who read this book from the point of view of an average modern American will dismiss Berry's ideas as utterly and hopelessly out of date. This is because Berry criticizes the way in which most of us (including himself, he admits) tend to live our lives. It takes a special intellectual state of mind to read such a book, in which you are being criticized, and keep an open mind. I hope that, if this book is for yourself, that you do keep an open mind, and allow Berry to convince you that he is right, and to show you a better way. Happy reading!

...thinkers I was exposed to in high school while researching for an essay report. His well-balanced thoughts on various agrarian and community-based themes are the most eloquent I have found from a single writer. His words and rationales spring from the land and argue pursuasively for more restraint for the betterment of the world by the human animal. The most compelling living philospher I know of is Wendell Berry. I recommend all of his written works.

Wendell Berry reveals the hardy Depression-era souls of the Kentucky soil in their intimate rhythms of survival and subsistence. Stretched to their limits by the harshness of tedious labor, they remain decent, sociable, collaborative, resilient, and committed. Their modest dreams are often crushed, but they persist by honoring the traditions of their ancestors.

As surely as the Kentucky River runs through the fictional community of Port William, so the theme of "Membership" runs through these wonderful Port William stories by Wendell Berry. He writes of membership in family, in community, in human industry, in each others' lives, in the past, in the present.

This collection of short stories centers on those now-oldest residents of an up-to-mid-20th century Kentucky farming community who still are of an age to remember and of a bent to cherish ancestral roots, traditions, and habits, and by so doing have brought the past along with them to familiarize and to endear the present. These slices-of-life accounts lovingly highlight a community's stories that have, in their joyful retelling, become part of its lore. They laughingly reminisce over both the serious and silly everyday dilemmas of past-unintended folly. They record the ingrained farm-work ethic of a time now likely gone forever. They revel in relationships of ordinary people doing ordinary things with family and neighbors. And, yes, these stories even include occasions of deaths of and among loved ones of the "membership." It is not the events, themselves, however, that are exceptional; it is Berry's telling of them.

Having read Jayber Crow, Hannah Coulter, The Memory of Old Jack and now That Distant Land, I feel as if I have been poring through family albums that have been unearthed from Port William, KY. And from these I have come to know several generations of strong, gentle, principled people whose lives, by choice, have been pretty remote and mostly detached from the rest of a changing world. These are people of good heart who are intimately linked to each others' care and well-being. This carefully constructed fictional genealogy of the Port William membership comes from an author who, to say the very least, certainly has a way with words! Even if you have not read any of Wendell Berry's work, you will nevertheless be enchanted, I believe, and drawn into the sweetness and the cadence of these beautifully told tales of family, heritage, community, and, of course, membership.

As usual, Wendell Berry continues to prove his place in the American literary tradition; if only his place were more widely recognized. His prose flows onto the page as natural as flowers spring from the soil or rain falls from the sky. I think that is an apt comparison since many of his stories consider the relationship between man and nature. "That Distant Land" is a collection of twenty-three stories, many of which have been published previously. They are brought together marvelously, arranged in chronological order from the 1880s to the 1980s, flowing in and out of time with the neighboring stories.

Berry's fiction focuses on the invented town of Port William, a small farming community in Kentucky. For those who have read his novels, the characters and the town are familiar; for those who haven't, Berry's world is so infused with natural grace that one automatically feels at home in Port William and among its inhabitants. "That Distant Land" gathers together assorted stories about Port William's characters, some that are familiar and told from a different perspective, and some that might be unknown, but no less familiar.

I especially enjoyed the stories that told of Ptolemy Proudfoot and his wife, Miss Minnie Quinch. "A Consent", the story of their odd courtship, is a story that leaves your soul beaming at the simplicity and overwhelming power of love. The Proudfoot-Miss Minnie stories add a dimension of humor to this collection that is absent in other stories. Berry does not rush any of these stories along; some are short, light-hearted anecdotes - others are long, meandering wanders through time and memory. Perhaps the two most poignant stories in the collection are "Fidelity" and the title piece. Centering around Burley Coulter and Mat Feltner respectively, both are about the end of life, of the memories and people who shape our lives and the memories we will leave behind.

While telling his stories, working his way through the history of Port William, Berry affirms time and again a world alive with possibilities, to be what it is and also what it once was. A farmer in the oldest tradition, he is in love with the land and saddened by the 'advances' technology and urban growth have created. "That Distant Land" brings this home as it covers nearly a century of change in the world, and the decay that inevitably hits smalltown America, whose inhabitants feel that perhaps they have nothing left to offer their children that would entice them to stay and carry on their way of life. Berry, time and again, offers this hope, perhaps as a way of challenge.

I have deeply loved all of Berry's fiction. That Distant Land is particularly satisfying for showing the unfolding of many of his characters in a linear historical progression. The wealth of inter-relations and the handy genealogical tree of the characters brings all the characters into a full richness.

Wendell Berry's fictional town of Port William, Kentucky has proven to be fertile ground for a legacy of graceful, lovely stories about the place and its citizens. Berry has a knack for honing in on the key moments in his protagonists' lives when they reach very personal revelations about themselves and those around them. Add to this a gentleness of style, whether the stories are funny, tragic and/or all points inbetween, and you have narratives that stay with you after you've finished reading them.

This collection of stories about Port William spans the late 19th century to the tail-end of the 20th century. Most of the stories have been anthologized in other collections, but taken together here in chronological order, this anthology makes for a novel-like whole about people, their town and their ways of life that are either gone or gradually disappearing. Rather than sadness, though, the overall sense I get from Berry's tales is one of gratitude that such lives and such times came to pass and that they could be chronicled.

Idealized and parochial visions? Perhaps, but in a USA that these days seems so broadly fragmented across social, political and geographic lines, and where so much time and energy is spent detailing the worst aspects of an American dream gone wrong, it's heartening to read fiction by someone who remembers the good if flawed humanity that we all possess. This anthology and Berry's other fiction about Port William are storytelling at it's best. Recommended.

This is one of those books that you can't stop reading, no matter how late it is. It makes you want to read another, and another...

It will whisk you away to a magical world! If you like romance, you will LOVE Irish Dreams!

"Irish Dreams" is the perfect book to warm your spirit whenever your having a cold, rainy type of day. I found myself wrapped up in the characters and really needed to know all would turn out OK in the end. Also, being somewhat old fashioned, I appreciate that this book avoids the "sleaze" factor you find in so many "modern" romances. This book is truly MAGICAL and I would recommend it to anyone who enjoys romance literature.

The characters are well developed but what I liked mostly was the dialogue! As the main characters bantered back and forth, you could hear them in your head. You wanted to enter the book and get envolved. Sometimes, you wanted the strangle the female lead and sometimes you wanted to hold her. The book was fast paced and the bantering was firey and fun. I read the book in one sitting, which is very unusual. I have recommended this book to many family and friends. I can't wait for Ms. Hewitt Berry's next book.

Erin Maguire is a self-sufficient, fiery tempered young woman who travels to Ireland to visit the homeland of her grandfather and to come to terms with the recent death of her fiancé. On the plane trip she accidentally falls into the lap of Logan Tate, a photojournalist on assignment to Ireland. Thus begins a complicated and amusing dance of romance set against the beauty and magic of the Irish countryside.

Corrine Hewitt-Berry has succeeded in bringing together two people who are seeking the healing power of love but who stubbornly bump up against each other in spite of their mutual attraction. It is a delight to see their prejudices against each other while they fall more deeply in love. Against a vivid description of Ireland and its people, Hewitt-Berry weaves a romantic tale which left me eager to see this country and read her next book.

This book was a favorite with my second-grade son. Not only is the story suspenseful (to keep a young reader's attention) but it has lots of educational stuff in it about pirates, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, and sailing. As a mom, I love that this new series is educational as well as fun for readers. I vote it one of my favorites for my kids to read.

My third-grade class went crazy over this story about pirates. The book was a little scary at times, but the author managed to tone the scary parts down, so that what was left was an interesting and exciting tale about pirates. The book is also filled with many facts about pirates. I love how this author manages to include educational facts in the story, so that kids learn without even realizing it. I'm a huge fan of this new series. Hopefully, there will be many more adventures to come.

Pirates in Paradise is the forth book in the Incredible Journey Series. These books feature brothers Max and Sam as the two find themselves on exciting adventures around the world. In the first book of the series, Criminals in the Caymans, the boys were mysteriously sent an old leather journal and a map labeled Max and Sam's Incredible Journey Map. During each new adventure, a letter suddenly appears on this map. So far, they had a W (on the Cayman Islands), a T (on Tahiti), and an S (on Africa). Now, there's a D on the Virgin Islands.

We've all heard stories about the pirates of old. Greedy and dangerous, everyone feared what the pirates might do. In Pirates in Paradise, Max and Sam fight out that modern day pirates may not dress like Black Beard but they are still just as scary.

Max and Sam are about to go on a boat trip through the Caribbean with their father. They are looking forward to the trip except for one thing - both have been having nightmares about pirates. Their father tries to reassure them, but it turns out they may have reason to be worried. Soon their peaceful trip through the Caribbean turns outs to be dangerous.

Both children and their parents will enjoy "Pirates in Paradise". Children will love the adventures Mark and Sam have especially the sailing around the Caribbean. Parents will love the fact that children will learn as they are reading. The book not only teaches them about sailing and pirates, but also about various islands in the Caribbean and types of fish found there. The pirate aspects are scary, but not too scary.

Besides the story itself, there are several other things in the book. There is an ongoing story in the books in the series involving a mysterious map with a letter showing up on the map during each adventure Max and Sam have. Children will have fun trying to guess what letter will show up and what the secret message ultimately will be. At the beginning of the book there are several pages about pirates including Facts about Pirates, Pirate Phrases, A Pirate's Life, A History of Piracy, and Piracy Today. At the back of the book there are facts about the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico, as well as a science experiment called "Ocean in a Bottle".

Although "Pirates in Paradise" is part of a chapter book series for ages 7 through 9 it can be read on its own. However, children will probably want to collect all the books in this fun series.

As one who has lived a good part of her life on a sailboat and who has spent many years in the Caribbean, I have to say that I enjoyed this book. My only problem was the way the author referred to Max and Sam's father as Mr. Stone. I would have liked "Dad" as the book seems to be from the children's point of view. But other than that little nit-picky thing, this is a nice little adventure story for the early reader, or one you can read to your child at bedtime.

I've been everywhere in the book and I hope it inspires children and parents alike to visit Virgin Gorda and the Baths, they are truly gorgeous. Life in the Caribbean moves at a different pace, slower, more friendly, well it wasn't so friendly to Max and Sam. From the beginning of the book when the boys spy "The Lost Soul" far away at sea, you know something is going to happen. And happen it does. Modern day pirates, who a year ago hijacked "The Lost Soul" leaving its crew abandon on a deserted island, are now after a better prize and they take over the boat Max and Sam are vacationing on, leaving Mr. Stone to go adrift, bound and gagged aboard "The Lost Soul."

Can the boys get away? Well, that is the question and why you'll be wanting to get his book to read to your child. Shiver me timbers matey, this is a book your child will love.

Reviewed by Captain Katie Osborne

The book has a lot of tips that you can use for your small business

Watch Video Here: http://www.amazon.com/review/R37P2EOUCCSEHN This is not just a guide to managing your money. Denise O'Berry tells you what you need to know to make--and keep--more money from your small business.

There is a lot of solid, practical, how-to advice, and the best information on pricing I have seen.

If you have a small business or you are thinking about starting one, this book belongs on your shelf.

Cathy Stucker, IdeaLady.com

Denise O'Berry has scored! With Small Business Cash Flow she hits a home run. I say this because books about cash flow and accounting hold little interest for me, generally speaking. But I can't say that about this book. Denise has done a great job of making this important topic accessible and even fun. She covers it like it should be covered, from a holistic perspective. She even talks devotes a chapter to marketing!

One of my favorite lines in this book: "It's all about Action".

Denise reminds that all the planning in the world goes nowhere without action to follow it. She offers a variety of checklists, worksheets and other useful resources.

She starts the book with a priceless chapter on how to pick your accountant. I love this because she goes into detail with specific suggestions on how to find, interview and evaluate an accountant to make sure they'll be a good fit for you and your business.

Other good stuff from this book: "Document your processes".

As a consultant who helps clients do this, I'm thrilled Denise includes this in her book. Too many small businesses never document how they do what they do. Without this it's hard to build the foundation you need to grow your business and make it sustainable.

I am happy to recommend this book to my clients and friends. I think it would be a useful read for anyone who owns, manages or is thinking about starting a small business. Well done Denise!

I wish that "Small Business Cash Flow" by Denise O'Berry had been around 7 years ago when I began my business. If it had been, I would have avoided a lot of mistakes!

This is a MUST-HAVE book for every entrepreneur and anyone even THINKING about going into business for themselves. Denise clearly explains exactly what you need to know about where to find money for your business, how to build a budget, how to price your services, how to keep control of your expenses, how to keep cash coming into your business every month...and then some.

Most of us go into business because we love to do the tasks associated with our service or product. Unless we are a CPA or financial planner, this does not necessarily include effective cash management. However, if you are in business to make a healthy profit you need to know how to manage your cash flow. This book gives you that information and more.

O'Berry also includes excellent marketing tips for keeping the money flowing in...and the resource section in the back of the book is extremely generous and helpful.

Start your entrepreneurial adventure off the right way by reading, re-reading, and heeding "Small Business Cash Flow" by Denise O'Berry.

This book is very useful for small companies. It gives knowledge about many subjects which can effect cash flow. I advise this book to all people doing small business. However if you want detailed knowledge only about cash flow this book is not for you

Sara, teaches how to turn your life from a Stone to a Gem. She motivates you to get rid of the debris in your life by coming out of the the Rock Pile and surrounding yourself with other Gems.

She tells about how she sat back and let God control her life. Sara Freeman Smith, is truly a GEM. A must read book!!!

After reading this powerful book,I was inspired, motivated and empowered, to seek my true God given purpose. This book offers practical and simple tools to aid in finding direction in every area of one's life.

Great job!!

This book is quite an inspiration to me for I am reminded of myself and the difficulties in life that befell me at an early age. I am greatful that the Love of God is displayed in the life of ordinary people.

I was moved and touched by the candidness of the author to share things that are quite senitive and kept close to the heart. That is something I want to do, yet the time is not right. To share how elderly people loved her enough to adopt her and rear her as their own child touched me in ways that are identifiable to my own situation.

It is my opinion that any oridnary person who is struggling to make their life worth while in the mist of difficulty would do well to read this book and discover that God knows how to intervene and provide you with what you need.

I must say that this is a very inspirational writing on what one could use to turn their life around and walk into a status of brillance. The author has explained in a clear format what it takes to accomplish the task of becoming a Gem...

Thought provoking questions are asked that will cause you to search your life and see where you've turned and maybe you should have walked straight or taken a step back and meditated for 15 minutes more. She realizes what the foundation should be in becoming a stronger person and uses sound doctrine to substantiate her findings.

She addresses throughout her writing expressions of possitive thinking and guidance on what process should be implemented to reach the next level in your life. You can not miss the mark once The Six P Process is setup and you are focused on obtaining change in your life.

As a writer and inspirational speaker, I can honestly say that this book inspired and motivated me! Sarah Freeman Smith does what few writers have the courage to do....she lets us see her as a person, not as a critical expert sitting up on a throne. After only a few pages, I found myself in awe of Sarah's life story. If anyone can tell us how to turn dull lives of stone into shimmering gems, it's Sarah. I put her in the league with Iyanla Van Zandt and Jewel Diamond Taylor!

This book is a comprehensive treatment of this significant heritage site. It has a lot to offer for both the interested amateur as well as those who teach it at schools. The photos are well chosen and the diagrams are well drawn and very helpful. The text is accurate and very readable. This is amust have book for those teaching Ancient History in NSW, Australia. Highly recommended. Thanks Ms Berry.

If you require information about anything the internet has probably become an unbeatable source of knowledge but for me maybe I am old fashioned there is still nothing to beat a good book and this is a good book. It is full of facts and photographs laid out in such a way that they are interesting to the reader.

The main reason that I personally bought the book was that I had visited the site a dozen years ago and my memories of the place were starting to fade in my mind. As soon as I opened the book and the photographs of various parts of the site shone back at me from the pages, all the old memories flooded back and it was as though I had been there only yesterday. The book covers virtually everything that anyone is likely to want to know about Pompeii nd the surrounding area. Also about how one of the largest archaeological sites in the world is still developing with new things being discovered all the time.

The destruction of Pompeii is well documented, but little is known of the lives of the people who lived in Pompeii before the disaster. This book goes a long way towards telling the story of the unfortunate people who were caught up in one of the worst natural disasters in history. How they lived their lives, the work they did and how they spent their leisure time.

I have to agree with the other reviews about the quality of this book. The publishers have produced several books under a similar title (e.g.'The Complete Tutankhamun'; 'The Complete Valley of the Kings')and all are of a very high quality. This book stands out for several reasons. Firstly, the text is of a high quality - suitable for the general reader, but also for school and university students, and the information is very complete and up-to-date. Secondly, the photographs are again of a very high quality. I think there are no photographs that I have not seen before, but the quality of these is superb - - undoubtedly they have been digitally enhanced. As a teacher, I will be able to use these very effectively to teach about Pompeii, but equally, the general reader will get great enjoyment and some learning because of the quality of them. As I write, I have 26 books besides me about Pompeii and/or Herculaneum. I have no doubt that this is probably the best of them.

This book summarizes everything you ever wanted to know about Pompeii, with chapters on the story of the eruption, history of excavations, origins of the town, Pompeiians' daily lives, leadership and politics, housing, religion, economy, and the 16 years between a destructive earthquake and the death of the town. There are over 300 illustrations enabling the reader to visualize what Berry is saying. The information is current as of early 2007, so it includes the latest findings and theories. The author is not squeamish about showing nudity or quoting obscene graffiti, both of which helped archaeologists decipher the daily goings-on in Pompeii.

The information is very up to date (in 2007)and provides good reference material for the Ancient History course that I am teaching at high school. There is some new information that I have not found in other reference books.

I am traveling to Pompeii in January and hope that what appears to be very useful information about getting to Pompeii is accurate.

oh man, i've read all the classics, all the weird modern new-age books, all the firsts, the lasts, and every published harry potter book, and let me tell you, this book right here, as of right now, because of where i am in my life, and because of my excessive comma use and run-on sentences, this book is my favorite. The gangster is so incredibly wise. I wish he had a real column where i could write to him every week, and trouble him with my troubles. If he didn't yell at me for not sending a photo or writing on the back of a menu, then he would probably bestow a full page of wisdom. He might even relate to me one of his own experiences, or give me all the answers i need in a single word, but he might not.

GODBLESS

-Nicholas

This is not only the funniest book I can remember reading, it's also the most honest and true-to-life. I can't believe there hasn't been a sequel. Dave Barry (author of the introduction) should definitely tell the Gangster to write a whole 'nother volume.

I read this book a couple of years ago, and absolutely adored it. Like all books I love, I foolishly loaned it to someone, and now cannot track it down. If you have it, treasure it. If you have it and hate it, give it away! I can't remember a book that ever made me laugh like this one. At the end, I turned back to page one. A first! Cheyenne in Toronto

I bought this book right after I got dumped last summer. I was looking for something to cheer myself up. The first time I read it, It made me laugh and I stopped crying. The second time through, I started saying "wow, so true!" at least once every three pages. The third time I read it, I had everything in perspective and didnt feel so bad anymore. It still makes me laugh, I reccomend it to everyone. Its the only "advice" book that ever gave me really good advice, or made me feel any better. Even if you arent "lonelyhearted" you WILL laugh your head off

Hey, buy this book. I can't make it any simpler than that, ya chowderheads.

But to elaborate...the Gangster of Love provides us with the kind of advice we really need in the 20th century wars of romance. But will we listen to his wise counsel? He is a prophet without honor in his own country, a lonely voice crying out in the wilderness. Also, he has a strange fascination with the Harvey Keitel movie, "The Bad Lieutenant". He does sympathize with the wounded, the outcast, and the lonely. Burned once too often, he understands your pain and wants to tell you, "It's too late for me, save yourself." But you won't listen, will you? And so you're gonna take the fall.

His material sorta reminds me of Hunter S. Thompson, but maybe that's just me.

Sadly, other than this one book, I've never found any other evidence of the Gangster, though I've searched and searched. In these troubled times, we could use his insight.

I'll just quote from the end of one of his replies to a reader inquiry to give you a taste of his work:

'And crying's just not good enough anymore, is it? Not if no one hears it. Not if someone doesn't say, "Please stop crying, I'm sorry I made you cry, I never want to see you cry again."

And months and years really do matter now. Somebody's counting. And who's gonna kiss you on New Year's Eve? Because at midnight your time is up, and baby, it's cold outside.

It was supposed to be warm.'

Just go buy this book.