Berry Books

This book was recommended to me by an occupational therapist in response to my 4 year old son's messy eating habits. I found it was helpful to read it to him and then use some of concepts from the book during mealtime to redirect his behavior. The text is simple and direct. I think it might be better for a younger child as it is a board book and very easy to follow. My son's OT recommended Berry's like of special times book, but this particular one was relevant for my situation.

Someone gave me this book and another from the series (Bathtime). While I applaud the concept of books that teach children about appropriate behavior, I have a very low opinion of these books and can not recommend them.
The writing is very uninspiring. "I like myself. I do not want to get sick. I eat healthy food. Healthy food helps me to stay well." Maybe this type of language could be good for early readers but the version I have is a board book (for babies!) and I choose not to talk to my baby like she's an idiot with a rudimentary IQ.
The illustrations are also uninspired. They are neither colorful, nor interesting, nor beautiful. They look like a terrible textbook from the 80s.
Overall, these books are so boring that I have no interest in reading them. My daughter (now 1 yr old) is clearly unimpressed. She never selects them for me to read to her (as she does with other books) and she never sits and turns through the pages.
There must be other books out there that teach meaningful life lessons but come packaged in an artistic and clever book.
Sorry to be so negative but in my opinion, these books are boring and lame.

This book is filled with facts. The facts, however, are extremely distorted. This book, I feel, contains little more than a closed-minded author's interpretations of various religious groups other than his own. I cannot understand how a person could believe any information in it.

This book gives factual and concise information on many religions from a Christian perspective. Again and again it has given me good details that help one intelligently discuss other religions in conversation. It is brief but to the point. It checks out with other resources, so reliability seems very good. I highly recommend it for anyone wanting a quick, but meaningful understanding of other religions, some of which may even be thought of as cults...

The Feathered Quill book review is very accurate. [..]

The beginning is not hard to read but it is admittedly a bit too much detail for some. Some readers like detail & some don't. But it is quite easy to skim over family history of main character, the boy with magic, provided in only a few brief pages of Chapter one.

Chapter two is where the fun begins as Ben, the Wizard of Windsor Island, discovers his magic.

You can skip chapter 3 , all of about five pages, if you don't wish to learn about windsor island.

The rest of the book , chapters 4 -12, is easy reading and very entertaining. Written to entertain children without too much detail. Fun story telling. I promise you that once you read chapters 4 and 5 then you'll want to know how things work out in the end.

The book is easily appropriate for young readers.

The new book Wizard of Windsor Island: Giovanni's Missing Boat, is the tale of a young man and a magical book. The hero of the story, Ben Smith, lives on Windsor Island, a small, close-knit community located on a cozy island off the Chesapeake Bay in Maryland. Ben is a music prodigy, playing piano every chance he gets. One day, Ben tells his mother that he and some friends are looking for items to donate to a fundraiser. Ben's mother suggests going into the attic where there are old books, toys, and furniture.

During his search of the attic, Ben stumbles upon "Gabriel's Book of Magic." Curious, the young man carefully opens the old book and soon the fun begins. Rollo, an adorable talking rabbit, pops out of the book as does a magician's wand. When Ben's friends come to visit, Ben quickly realizes that they can't see the rabbit. Shortly thereafter, when Ben gets the creature alone in his room, the two begin to talk. It isn't long before Rollo the rabbit is advising Ben on how to use the magic book.

Ben learns that his newly discovered magic powers can only be used for good and he is quickly tested. The Giovannis, neighbors of Ben's, go out in their boat for an afternoon of fun. But a storm comes roaring along and before the frightened mother and her children are able to get back to land, the thunderous sea catches their boat and they are helpless. Brian and Austin King, two kindhearted treasure hunters, are also out on their boat. Seeing that the Giovannis are in danger, the two men come to their aid, abandon their own boat to help the family, and together head toward land. Meanwhile, Ben, who is safely inside his house, uses his magic wand and his imagination to guide the frightened travelers to land. When a huge waves gobbles up the Giovannis, it is up to Ben and his magic to rescue them.

Written for young readers, the Wizard of Windsor Island certainly has an entertaining premise. Rollo the rabbit is adorable and the incantations that both he and Ben use are cleverly written. "Bring me a friend who lives in the sea, it will harm no one and be helpful to me. Find me the cave, show me the way, and get back to me by the end of the day," implores Ben as he searches for his neighbors. Unfortunately, these delightful rhymes are few and far between. The book gets bogged down early with details that are irrelevant to the story, such as describing in far too much detail the layout of the island, its government, buildings, where kids can go to college, the various churches, etc. I fear that youngsters will put the book down at this point. The writing is also quite stilted and makes the story a struggle to get through. The old adage, `show don't tell,' is forgotten too, as time after time, the authors tell the reader what is happening rather than let the reader get lost in a good story. Do we really need to know the complete layout of Ben's house, down to the 20 x 20 foot "fabricated wood deck" or that there is a bay window in the kitchen?

Quill says: This wonderful story gets lost in the extraneous details.

I used to read all of Tom Clancy's books until I got annoyed by the Op-Center series, and bored by Into The Storm: A Study in Command and Every Man a Tiger (Tom Clancy's Commanders Series) (which were interesting, but dry as dust) and quit reading them altogether. Then I found this in the bargain bin, and remembered why I liked his books so much.

And wow. I checked Amazon reviews to refresh my memory (it's been 3 weeks since I read this), and there are 800 reviews with an average of 2 stars. I always gets very curious when I have such a complete difference of opinion, so I read through a few pages of the reviews. The negative ones seem to focus on two things: 1) it's not like real life, and 2) the series has moved on to the next generation. News flash: Tom Clancy books have never been overly realistic. Except probably for the nonfiction. You can pick apart dozens of things from even The Hunt for Red October (Jack Ryan Novels) that would never happen in real life--that's why it's fun to read. And I applaud long-running series that move on to the next generation. Otherwise, you end up with a hero that never ages, or increasingly improbable scenarios that even I won't swallow.

So, now that I'm satisfied that I didn't miss anything, on with the review.

The Teeth of the Tiger is about an ultra-clandestine government agency set up by then-president Jack Ryan. It's such a new agency that so far, all it's done is make money (it's self-funding, mostly by quasi-legal insider trading) and collect intelligence hacked from the alphabet-soup agencies. And now they're training their first operatives: twin brothers Dominic and Brian Caruso, respectively an FBI agent and a Marine officer.... and Jack Ryan's nephews.

They get a slightly accelerated course when a routine training exercise crosses paths with an actual terrorist operation in a suburban mall.

Meanwhile, Jack Ryan, Jr., a few years younger than his cousins, has used his brains and figured out the existence of the agency, and basically applies for a job.

Interspersed with the training thread and the Jack Jr. thread is the terrorists' plot.

Maybe it's because I've just been in an action mood lately, but while I did notice a few drawbacks: the twins call each other Aldo and Enzo for no good reason, except perhaps as something to trip up readers; Brian dithers for far too long about whether or not he can kill terrorists in cold blood; and there's quite a bit of repetition; they didn't bug me all that much because I loved the story otherwise.

I found the idea of a combination of stock market traders and assassin/spies irresistible. And I loved watching the development of the agency, even--or perhaps especially--the doubts and missteps. It was new, they weren't sure how it would work, but they were willing and eager to try, and that excitement was passed on to this reader, at least.

I also found the three cousins to be fairly reasonably characterized. Even Brian's crisis of conscience made sense with his character, and my irritation with him was mitigated by the fact that his brother was also irritated with him. The twins were youngish and excitement-seeking, which explains some of their less logical decisions, like renting a Porsche instead of taking an anonymous train on their mission in Europe. Jack, Jr. had grown up privileged in the shadow of his larger-than-life father, who he admires, so it's understandable that he has that sense of duty, and yet he wants to make his own mark, and to prove himself.

And, oh, yes, I did have to ignore a bit of political b.s. with which I'd have taken exception if I hadn't expected it. I find Clancy a little naive, politically (no shades of gray), but that works pretty well in an action novel. I think I'll have to see which of his books I've missed in the interim and check them out.

Many reviewers have lambasted Clancy for the shallow portrayal of the protagonists, and justifiably so. But what I have not seen is a parallel cri de coeur regarding the book's antagonists. So terrorists shoot up four malls in various mid-sized, red-state cities. Why? Clancy's gives them a rationale of shattering Americans' illusion of security. To what purpose? Post-9/11 America was very sharp for about two years regarding security issues. An operation like that described in the book would have a similar effect, making further operations incredibly difficult. If they had something bigger planned, what is it?

Who is Mohammed? I mean, aside from the most generic bad guy ever portrayed in a Clancy novel. We have no idea why he's gadding about Europe from city to city meeting with people. If it was merely information, his trusted encryption system would have been a much better way to convey this. If it was planning and recon for operations, why is he meeting people in restaurants to have meaningless conversations that could have taken place by email?

What happened to the Cartel? Once used as a plot device, they were discarded except for some fluff text that advanced no plot or sub-plot.

For that matter, where were all the sub-plots? You have the Caruso brothers storyline, and you have the Jack Jr. storyline. They moved along rapidly, yet without seeming to move somehow except in fits and starts. The merging of these two plotlines was as hackneyed and predictable as it was nonsensical. But more importantly, where were all the minor character subplots that are the true joy of the writer's earlier works? Most of the bit players get a page or so of background material, then they do nothing more than have repetitive conversations with each other. None of them has their own storyline. They are window dressing.

I found the most laughable part about the whole situation to be that Jack Ryan, pere, does nearly as much in this novel as Jack Ryan, fils, while never appearing onstage. In almost 500 pages, Little Jack manages to read some reports, tell other people about his brilliant flashes of insight (that anyone with an IQ in the average range would see), fly to Europe, and stab a guy with a weapon that would make Ian Fleming cringe--staying in four star hotels and flying first class in true James Bond fashion. What made the earlier Ryanverse novels so appealing is that the characters are expressly trying *not* to be James Bond. Yet here are their direct successors--people who literally grew up surrounded by adults who knew the trade--zipping about in a Porsche, wearing three thousand dollar suits, not only using credit cards but flashing status-symbol versions, engaging in such poor tradecraft that they could not possibly be related to the main characters of the Jack Ryan/John Clark generation.

I have read precisely one of the Op Center novels published under Clancy's name, and "Teeth of the Tiger" feels like it belongs in that series. It is similarly poorly written, devoid of characterization, and about one hundred and fifty pages longer than its thin plotting can support. One has to wonder if it was similarly ghostwritten. Perhaps a better title for this booh (with apologies to Monty Python) would have been "Contractual Obligation Novel."

I received this book as a gift and was looking forward to a good read only to discover that this is certainly the worst Tom Clancy book I have read. The dialogue is amateurish and unrealistic. Very little happens for more than half the book. The ending is slapdash and unsatisfying. The door is open for another book to continue and resolve the plot line, but there is no chance I will bother reading the next installment. Don't waste your time with this one.

Haven't read a Clancy book for several years and am sorely disappointed at the poor quality of this effort. The most glaring problem with this book is the dialogue. Guys in their twenties making references to Grace Kelly and Maureen O'Hara? Simply awful. Too bad this author didn't hang it up while he was on top or at least collaborate with someone who is more in touch with the real world.

I'd read most of Clancy's others, but by the time Jack Ryan became president of the U.S., this whole series ground to a halt for me. And that (Debt of Honor) was the last Clancy novel I read--until I picked up Teeth of the Tiger in an airport bookstore so I'd have something to distract me on a 3-hour flight.

The first thing a novelist has to do is get the reader to "suspend disblief." Jack Ryan becoming president was bad enough but now, with Jack Ryan, Jr. going to work as a low-level analyst for a black ops outfit, and his two cousins (twins, no less) working for the same group, this is beyond plausible. The plot is thin, the characters weak and predictable, and, guess what?! Jack Ryan, Jr. is suddenly catapulted into the spy game in a big way during the last 3 pages of the book. I lost count of the number of times Clancy used the term "bro'" and "lit up his computer." Hackneyed and trite.

Lame. Lame. Lame. Let's put a stake through the heart of Jack Ryan and let him go in peace. My last Tom Clancy novel.

Please see my review of Physical Chemistry by K.J. Laidler, J.H. Meiser, B.C. Sanctuary (ISBN 0618123415) for detailed comments on that book plus other useful p-chem books. Link:Physical Chemistry

See my other reviews for other chem books.

Although I've studied chemistry for almost 5 years, this book was really complicated and too difficult for me

This book will not aid your study in P Chem. It will just confuse you further. What I find funny is the fact that the beginning of the book states that this book will make P chem accessible to anyone who has had a normal year of calculus and physics. First off, a normal year of calculus does not include partial differentiation, iterated integrals, and differential equations. If you have never studied those topics, which are usually studied in courses such as Calc 3 and Differential Equations, you will have an extremely hard time following the majority of the topics in this book. It is hilarious that Silbey and Alberty define and tell you what the delta symbol means in the beginning of chapter 2 but already assume you know what partial derivative is in chapter 1 when you are assumed to have a "normal year of calculus". I mean every sophmore in highschool knows that delta means "change in" or final minus initial. This book does not even have a periodic table, which is very perplexing. How can a chemistry text not have a periodic table. The text just has a listing of every element by atomic number, which is very annoying since most people are used to looking at a periodic table. Reading the text almost gives the impression that P Chem should only be understood and studied by an elite few who could actually understand the material. Alberty and Silbey talk way over your head and could explain things in a much simpler fashion like my P Chem professor did. The text bogs you down heavily in theory and in the end concepts are not clearly understood. I would definitely recommend to stay far away from this book and use an engineering text for thermodynamics, since they are much more concise and clear. For quantum mechanics there are many better physics texts out there that explain things simply to an undergraduate.

As far as I know, there is no good p-chem text around, especially for this generation of students. The various editions of this text has been around for 80 years and it had helped several generations of students to learn p-chem. Not anymore. Very few students of this generation can handle it unless he/she has a very solid math, physics, and chemistry background, can read books written in formal english, and is serious about his/her study. I personally know math majors who are about to graduate with good grades who even have hard time with simple algebra. In conclusion, this book is not very helpful to most today's students. The text by Atkins is a little easier to read. But I'm not sure if today's students will find it much better than this one.

An absolutely atrocious textbook. The preface states that "The objective of this book is to make the concepts and methods of physical chemistry clear and interesting to stdents who have had a year of calculus and a year of physics." What an outrageous lie. No student who takes a normal year of calculus is introduced to multivariable calculus, vector calculus, partial differentiation, linear operators, linear algebra, group theory, legendre transforms,differential equations, and the list goes on. You will have a very hard time understanding this text if you have never had courses in those topics. I'm sure Silbey and Alberty are brilliant, since they are professors at MIT, but they can not write a clear and concise book on physical chemistry. As someone stated earlier, terms are rarely defined, there is no index in the back, and there are errors in the text (email me if you would like to know some). The only thing this textbook has done for me, as well as the rest of the class (yes, I've asked them), is turn us off to the field of physical chemistry. A text should not make an entire class hate the subject, but it should create interest in the subject matter. Silbey and Alberty are masters at obfuscating the concepts of each chapter, trying to understand this text is like trying to understand what Alan Greenspan says, an impossible task. This is a book to pass on, there are other texts on the market that keep things simple and understandable for an INTRODUCTORY physical chemistry course.

I APPEAR IN THIS BOOK, BUT WHAT IS STATED ABOUT ME IS NOT TRUE; NOR DID THIS WRITER TRY TO VERIFY ANY TRUTH WITH ME.

AT FIRST BLUSH, IT ALSO APPEARS THIS WRITER SIMPLY COPIED "QUOTES" FROM COURT DOCUMENTS, AND PARROTED "THOSE" AS "AILEEN WUORNOS' WORDS"; AS I SEE STATEMENTS (SUPPOSEDLY OUT OF MS. WURONOS' MOUTH) THAT WERE TAKEN (OUT OF MY MOUTH) FROM MY LEGAL DEPOSITIONS!

TOO BAD THERE IS NO LEGAL RAMIFICATION FOR PLAGERISM FROM DEPOSITIONS, OR THIS WRITER WOULD BE OUT OF A JOB. AND, IN MY OPINION, DESERVINGLY SO, AS THE ONLY TRUTH IN THIS BOOK IS THE SPELLING OF THE AILEEN WUORNOS NAME.

JACKELYN GIROUX

i purchased this book written by christopher berry dee,i was very very disappointed as it said on the cover aileen in her own words,there were the odd one or two quotes,as ive read sue russells book lethal intent,i could see alot of similarities in berry dee's book.as for the one of the main topics being corky reid,maybe he should have studied the case more,and not blamed aileen for his disapperance/murder,as he went into hiding to avoid large debts he had incurred.if you want a book given both sides of aileen i would not go for this book,i would purchase sue russells book

I actually met Corky Reid, who thought it strange, that Aileen Wuornos should take the rap for his death, when he was very much alive. Corky turned himself into the police and back to his family, very much alive and NOT THE EIGHTH VICTIM BY WUORNOS!
How could THIS so called WRITER state he is writing a TRUE STORY, plus from the mouth of Aileen Wuornos (who obviously knew she did not kill Corky Reid!) and have such a BLUNDER as this?! The book should be taken off the shelf, or retitled, in my opinion, as it is not truthful! PLUS, I have read all the BOOKS written about Aileen Wuornos and the only one that makes any REAL STATEMENTS is LETHAL INTENT by Sue Russell, who actually met the people she writes about and QUOTES THEM!

It seems that the author (and I'm not talking about Aileen here, since she didn't write this book, no matter what Berry-Dee is trying to convince you) has taken lots of newspaper clippings and put this book together in a quick way to make money. Although it's not badly written there is something missing. There is hardly any references to her childhood and very much about her being interviewed. Lots of stuff I believe is taken from Nick Broomfield's Aileen documentaries. It's an ok read and I'm glad I got this one from the library and didn't buy it!

I had a great time reading this book. Having seen the movie a few months back I decided to purchase 'Monster' to see what else went on with this story. What a tale! So much more to be known about Wournos and written by a man who has clearly had a lot of experience talking with this woman. Using his extensive interview experience with other serial killers he has created the definitive portrait Aileen Wournos. Those who enjoy reading about this kind of crime should check out 'Talking With Serial Killers' by the same author. Again, using masses of interview material Christopher Berry-Dee has produced an absolutely chilling document. And whats more, this guy can write!

I truly feel sorry for the author's children----this little piece of junk is ignorant, ignorant, ignorant--ignorant of history, ignorant of religions, ignorant of the world! Sad.

the previous "reviewer" hasn't. I know, because I published and distributed it --it had not been made available to the area where this person allegedly lives. It's a great book with historical truth and facts in it about the evolution of Halloween. Halloween, Behind the Mask does not condemn any one's choice or religion, it simply, objectively relates historical and traditional information, so that choices can be made. It is well-written and well documented. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!

No, it's not objective. I personally don't have any stake in Christianity or Paganism, but I think certain religious zealots are publishing pamphlets like this to stir each other into a tizzy. Remember in the 1980's when the churches were burning heavy metal albums and spreading unfounded rumors about secret Satanic cults (which included your elementary school teachers and Avon lady as members) who killed thousands of babys and abducted children every year? Well, after all of this was proved to be unfounded, the hype died down, but I guess some of these people are still around, waiting for their chance to look important.

I don't believe for a second that the author doesn't have a specific agenda in mind, being to persuade the reader that anything that doesn't have the stamp of approval from the right wing is EVIL. What is ironic is that many Christian holidays, Christmas and Easter included, have their origins in pre-Christian festivals. Should these holidays be banned, too? After all, Santa is an anagram for...SATAN! Maybe all of that money you spend on presents and decorations is going to Satanic corporations, who sacrifice babies while mocking the people who buy their goods? I think everyone should spread this rumor around, because it sounds juicy to me. Yes, the Satanists really run everything, including Christmas! Jerry Fallwell? Satanist! Your minister, he's a Satanist, and you don't even know it! Probably has a pentagram drawn with blood in his basement. Little 7 year old neighbor Timmy next door? Satanist! And his family are Lutherans (not born again), so you really know he's destined for hell. Start pointing fingers! Let the witch trials begin!

Will the Christians ever stop inventing fear and lies about other religions? This book is nothing but! Read it only if you want to learn about predjudice.

As a person who enjoys a good scientific history (nerd alert), I was very disappointed in Galileo and the Dolphins. The writing is poor and the topics treated in a superficial and sensationalistic fashion. For very good books in this genre I would suggest Bill Bryson's A Short History of Nearly Everything or The Know-It-All... by A. J. Jacobs.

I picked out this book as one that might be fun for reading at the beach. It's easy to pick up (a series of very short essays) and unfortunately, equally easy to put down. I would categorize it as scientific mind candy

I bought this book to help supplement a college text for a management accounting class I took recently. While the book itself isn't going to teach you everything about management accounting that you'll need/want to know, it is a decent supplement to more professional texts. It did help to clarify a few concepts, and simplify some things, but it is not in-depth enough to teach all of the relevant material you would learn by taking a management accounting college course.

Unfortunately, this book does not live up to its title. The author clearly knows his subject, but is a poor teacher. From the outset, synonymous terms are used interchangeably without warning or explanation. Example problems (such as identifying costs in a table in chapter 2) are too dissimilar to real problems that you are meant to work out (the terms in the table columns have been changed so that it isn't clear what cost definitions you are working with anymore). If anyone is using this book to get the basics of management accounting, he will find this book inconsistent, convoluded and difficult - unnecessarily. Better organization and a critical editor's eye would have made this a much better book.

Enjoyed reading this book, though it was very top surface. It does an excellent job in showing the out-right conflict between Free Masonry and Christanity. After reading this book, no true born again believer should want anything to do with Masons or Eastern Star orginazations.
For more indept reading on this matter buy the book called:
Cult Watch
by John Ankerberg & John Weldon

God Bless

The author makes some interesting points about where a Mason's true allegiance lies. Sadly, he is wrong. The Masonic belief is (in order) God, Family, Country, and Lodge. How this can be possibly construed to mean that they are at odds with christians, or catholics, is both unfounded and a misrepresentation of fact. Any reader interested in learning more about the Fraternity would be better served starting with one of the hundreds of books available on Masonry. My sense is the author has some other agenda at work here.