Brooks Books

I love this book. My mom bought it for me today and now it's my favorite. Shayla's mom is justlike mine.

This is a very enjoyable book to read and share with your children. My son is only 3-1/2 years old and though this book is recommended for children a little older, when I sat and read it to him, he asked a lot of questions about why the little girl was fussing about the chores. It sparked his interest. The illustrations are beautifully done. I kind of want to keep this book for my private collection, but I'll be a good mommy and continue to share it with my son.

I read this book to a group of children and they just loved it! They couldn't stop saying Never Finished Never Done! It's a great book to teach children all about chores. I was surprised to find that this book was a part of a series of 24 titles all written and illustrated by people of color.

This wonderful collection of letters by the gentle and wise Mr. White will be of keen interest to all that enjoy fine writing. All the better if one has an interest in The New Yorker magazine, the children's book Charlotte's Web, English grammar, boating, farming in Maine, or just the everyday thoughts of one of our country's greatest essayists.

E.B. White was fortunate in having a talented granddaughter, who has extended the first edition of this book (its letters having ended with 1975 or 76) through to the completion of his journey in 1984.

E.B. Whites letters are honest and intimate, insightful and extremely funny. White's letters often deal with his experiences and feelings about the writing process. Because of this, I would recommend reading his letters before reading collections of his essays. These letters are as satisfying, if not more so, than any biography.

I wish everyone could write as well as E.B.White! It is a great pleasure to travel with him through his life by way of his letters! This collection is museum quality art that is available to us instantly upon picking up the book!

Use literature and literary figures to follow in the footsteps of notable writers and their settings with the aid of a title which covers many destinations, from the Prague of Kafka to Steinbeck's California setting for Cannery Row. Add first-person reflections on the literature containing the settings and you have an excellent take-along or travel planner.

Literary Trips: Following In The Footsteps Of Fame is a superbly presented compendium of observations, adventures, and travels of and by some of the best loved writers as they trekked around the world. A magnificent armchair travelogue, Literary Trips is divided as the world is: Africa to Australasia (Paul Bowles, T. E. Lawrence, Rohinton Mistry, Bruce Chatwin); North America: West (Malcolm Lowry, The Beats, D. H. Lawrence, Garrison Keillor and Sinclair Lewis); North America: East (Tennessee Williams, Margaret Mitchell and Tom Wolfe, Ayn Rand, Mark Twain, Elizabeth Smart); Caribbean and Latin America (Ernest Hemingway, Ian Fleming and Noel Coward, John Stephens and Frederick Catherwood); Great Britain and Ireland (W. B. Yeats, Jane Urquhart and the Bronte Sisters, A. A. Milne, Agatha Christie and Jane Austen); Continental Europe (Knut Hamsun, The Lost Generation, Mary Shelley). Highly recommended for both school and community library collections, Literary Trips is enhanced for the reader with a section on biographies and a "user friendly" index. A novel and original feature of this publication is that any of the chapters are available as separate, individual e-texts and downloadable from the GreatestEscapes.com website.

This is a book to savor in a cigar lounge...in the corner of a jazz club...in front of a softly crackling fire at home. Or in a hammock under a royal palm in the deep, deep south.

I started out by nestling with the book into our oversized, down-filled sofa - and ended up traveling through one of the best reads of my life. Several times, I startled my husband with cries of "No kidding...Wow...I didn't know that...Ohmigod..." as I discovered new places in the hearts of my favorite authors. And delved into the lives of others I knew little about.

Literary Trips probes into the past, yet is formatted for the present. We're all used to reading in chunks now - short, self-contained sections that are complete, independent modules. And this book is totally "today" in that respect. Each chapter, written by a different person, is a complete story - gift-wrapped with its own special signature. Each has its own flavor, its own style, its own finds. Every writer has unearthed amusing tidbits and lively tales that add richness and depth to well researched and beautifully written prose.

The book is also an excellent travel guide for following in those famous footsteps. Each module contains a practical reference section listing hotels and other stomping grounds of famous feet ("Literary Sites"; "Literary Sleeps"). Each section also describes how to get to those grounds and provides useful tips and background information.

My favorite parts are the little surprises throughout. For example, did you know that: § Hemingway dedicated his Nobel Prize for literature to the patron saint of the basilica in Santiago de Cuba? § Ian Fleming wrote the James Bond novels at Goldeneye, his home in Jamaica, and named 007 after the local author of a book on birds? § When Ayn Rand was writing Atlas Shrugged, which took 12 years, she didn't leave her apartment for an entire month?

Another of the book's delightful dimensions is a smattering of recipes that could form a menu for a literary memorial party. You could honor D.H. Lawrence with his dandelion wine; Hemingway with double daiquiris; Mistry with Dhansak; and Sinclair Lewis with his "Sinful Christmas Cookies".

I'm always looking for inspiration for my own writing, and Lit Trips provides it on many fronts. Much of it comes from seeing so many authors "under one cover" - an excellent way to compare styles, to link lives, to see how they made their magic. But I was no less inspired by the talent of the book's contributing writers.

It is common knowledge that Yuyi Morales is a color genius and a word magician, and with Little Night, she does it again. Yuyi's color palette is imaginative, unique and vibrant. Her colors are so deep. So sparkly. I am convinced they will glow in the dark if I were to turn off the light. I LOVE her combination of magenta and red with turquoise and purple.
her compositions are magical. My eye flows over the pages, dancing from one spread to the next.
Yuyi's text is lyrical and soothing, perfect for a bed-time story, yet the the STARS of this story are the characters. Mother Sky is warm, round, loving and nurturing. She's the type of mother I wish upon everyone.
Little Night is spirited, sweet and a mischievous. Their relationship is filled with emotion and tenderness.
I recommend Little Night to everyone. It's just the soothing, loving story kids need to fall into a peaceful sleep under the stars-Venus on the east, Maercury on the west, and Jupiter above!

Award-winning author and artist Yuyi Morales presents Little Night, an imaginative picturebook about Mother Sky and her rambunctious daughter Little Night, anthropomorphized as an African-American family. Mother Sky chases her playful daughter across the heavens in a celestial game of hide-and-seek; at last she finds her child and gently combs her hair. "Mother Sky sits Little Night on her lap and with her shiny comb she untangles the knots, twists the hair between her fingers, and makes little swirls, one on the left side, one on the right. To keep them in place she takes three hairpins from her pocket. 'Venus on the east, Mercury on the west, and Jupiter above.'" A creative storybook ideal for reading to young girls right before bedtime, the better to foster sweet dreams.

You ever get so attached to an illustrator that they could be drawing stick figures on matchboxes and you'd still pay top dollar to look at `em? Yeah. So that's basically my attitude towards Yuyi Morales. She could draw images for Pictionary and I'd be all gaga over them. I can't help it. The woman has skills. I was wowed by her Pure Belpre Medal winning, Just a Minute and more than a tad impressed by the illustrations contributed to Los Gatos Black on Halloween. "Little Night," however, is a very rare critter; a bedtime picture book I actually like. Don't get me wrong. There are good bedtime stories out there in the world. I just happen to dislike a good 95% of them. They're either too treacly or too icky-cutesy. They try too hard and end up too earnest, or their tone is off and they simply don't read well to kids. "Little Night", exhibits none of these flaws. It's a tale as sweetly dark and tender-hearted as a warm hug on a summer night. The fact that it also happens to be beautiful to boot doesn't hurt things any either.

"In the flowered city there is an endless mother, giving and magnificent like the sky." These words come from Yuyi Morales's dedication to her mother, but she could well be talking about the mother in this book. Nighttime is drawing near and Mother Night needs to get her daughter Little Night out of bed and ready. Her small child, however, has other plans in mind. If Mama wants her to take a bath in a tub full of falling stars she'll need to play a little hide-and-seek by the rabbit holes first. And if Mama wants to dress Little Night in her gown crocheted from the clouds above, she may need to first peek inside the bats' cave to find her giggling child. On and on they go, with Mama preparing and Little Night hiding until at last it's time for the child to take her moon and bounce it high into the air.

I made the mistake of reading another review of this book before writing my own. Usually I try to avoid doing this because I have this fear that I'll somehow digest another person's words into my subconscious and end up parroting things they've already said. It's even worse, though, when someone comes up with a description of the book that you wish to high heaven you'd come up with. So with full credit going to Randall Enos of Booklist, one of the things I loved the most about Morales's art, were her, "rich jewel-tone colors." I mean, there's just no better way to describe them. These colors seep over the pages with deep reds, purples, and indigo blues. With her backgrounds in place, the pure white of the stars pierces the gloom just like Little Night's mischievous twinkling eyes. The exaggerated characters give the book a little extra added oomph too. I love how Mother Sky is this all expansive bell-shaped maternal figure. Her two braids curl delicately at their ends like the tip of a cat's tail and her tiny hands weave Little Night's hair into intricate braids, with three gleaming planets to hold it all in place.

In a way, you can read this book as a description of the way in which the sky changes in the evening. Falling stars and fading clouds at the start. Fireflies and the slow appearance of the Milky Way next. Finally the view of, "Venus on the east, Mercury on the west, and Jupiter above," with a thick round moon to cap it all off at the end. So lovely. Kids will also enjoy this book when they find that Little Night isn't just playing hide and go seek with her mother in these pages. She's playing with the reader as well. You can usually spot her, though, since her tiny white eyes sparkle like little stars wherever it is that she goes.

All told, the current crop of children's picture books the publishers are putting out there these days aren't exactly o'erflowing with Hispanic characters. You can find them if you need to, but sometimes it's nice to find a really high quality picture book containing characters that aren't whitey white white. It's nice too to see a book where the affection between the mother and the child feels genuine. I know The Runaway Bunny has its fans, but books like that one never really convince me that the mother in the story feels anything aside from an almost violent possessiveness towards her child. "Little Night," however, feels loving and warm. In short, perfect bedtime reading.

The obvious pairing with this book would have to be with Ana Juan's jaw-droppingly gorgeous, The Night Eater . Duh. The two picture books were darn well made for one another. But while one is about the fellow who eats away the night to make way for the dawn, the other is about the night going through an, ironically enough, wake-up routine at the close of day. Searching for a proper bedtime taleisn 't a difficult task in and of itself. It's nice, though, to find a book that is quite as touching, magical, and doggone adorable as this. Worth holding onto, tight.

Thank you for introducing me to these characters. I'd met some of them during my life and you brought them to life for others.
This definition of Family, no matter where you find it, shows that Love is the Potion that heals hurts and pain and gives strength when all seems lost... I want more, more, more.

Love Potion exposes you to every single human emotion possible. What a cleansing experience! One of the best books I have ever read!

Holds onto your interest from the minute you begin reading until the very last word. Every character is vividly sketched in the reader's mind as if they are sitting in your living room. You are transported into another place and time, waiting on the edge of your seat to find out whatever becomes of "Harry Honeycup"...
Execllent read...

I took the Professional test using the Pass-it book and passed easily. I tested last week using the Server Pass-it with a 900. This author does a good job giving you what is (subject wise) on the test. Two months ago I used the CCNA Pass-it. I have just purchased the Windows 2000 Infra Pass-it and will report my progress here>

I am a computer professional and I have always had problems taking any test. I ordered this book and read it from cover to cover. I scheduled the test and passed with a 900. It must have been this book that covered only the material I needed. I was so please with this author's style that I just purchased the 2000 Professional PASS-IT by the same author. If this one works out I see this same guy has just done another one on CCNA and 2000 Infastructure. Let you all know.

This is the first MCSE examination that I took. I thought the test was going to be hard. But this book only included what I needed to pass the test. Because all the filler was left out I was able to concentrate on the important stuff. Easy to read and I passed with flying colors. Wish there were more from this author.

This Must Read will tell you more about the Mormon frontier in Southern Utah than any other book I have read. It is definitely one I will keep in my personal library.

I purchased this book as I was driving through the Mormon country of Dixie in southwest Utah to try to get a better understanding of Mormonism. We had just toured Pipe Springs National Monument, a fort constructed by Mormons used to house polygamous families. For non-Mormons, polygamy and Mormonism is fascinating and nearly as exotic as bedouin nomads in Morrocoo.

Quicksand and Cactus is a flowing narrative of Mormon life in the last century told in a non-judgemental tone by the granddaughter of a polygamist. What sets this book apart from other books about Mormonism I've read, such as Jon Krakauer's Banner of Heaven is that Juanita Brooks fully believed in her faith from day one and practiced. There is nothing in her book that would lead you to believe that there was anything unusual at all about her grandfather being polygamous. As such, her book provides a truthful look at what being Mormon must really be like.

In addition, the book is very readable. Her voice is charming and likeable. It's a bit like Little House on the Prairie and made me admire the deep pioneering spirit of these particular Mormons who occupied an unhopitable corner of the country.

One of the most accessable, yet honest histories I've read. Brooks was a well-respected historian in academic circles, yet with her straightforward style instantly transports the lay reader into the early Mormon frontier.

It tells the life of Steve and Liz Bailey and their friendship with Victor and Gus. Their lead sled dog is Mik-Shrok. The book is interesting because it describes three different villages and their friends at each one. The book shows that God answers prayer.

My son read this book for his book report and he LOVED it! He still cannot stop talking about it. He is now finishing the sequel and asking for the third book in the series. He says he now wants to live in Alaska as a missionary! Highly recommended!!

This book tells the exciting story of Steve and Liz Bailey, missionaries to the Alaskan territory before statehood. Mik-Shrok is their lead sled dog. Together they have many exciting adventures as they adjust to life in the far North and grow to love the Eskimo people with whom they came to share the Gospel. My family and I are looking forward to the next book in this series.

Teen Odella is haunted by too many family secrets, including a mother's alcoholism, a great-aunt who no longer visits, and a car accident. When her mother runs away, Odella becomes confused about love and trust. When she meets Jimmy, whose dreams seem to have led him to her, she comes to realize the depth of family issues affecting all their lives in this gentle story, recommended for older teens.

"Love is an unreasonable thing -- that's something else she'd like to tell her grand-nieces back in Winnipeg. You can't predict who you'll fall in love with. Of course you can live a lie, and not follow your heart, and suffer secretly."

When, as a guy reader, I find a beautifully-written book about three interconnected generations of women with their stories of love, losses, family connections, and long-held secrets to be a totally compelling read, to be a book that demands an immediate second read, and to unquestionably be one of the YA highlights of the current year, then you've got to figure that it is one heck of a book.

In fact, I am so in love with MISTIK LAKE that I am skeptical of my ability to overstate the case for reading and sharing this stunning book.

"I don't say anything more to them. Just lie there being the filling in this sister sandwich. It's great to be here again."

Time and again I found myself laughing with total delight as the strands of story, which crisscross several time periods between the 1940's and the early twenty-first century, flow so effortlessly into one another and reveal all of the interconnectedness -- for better or worse -- that revolves around a little lake community whose name is a Cree word meaning "wood."

"Memories of every summer spent at Mistik Lake come flooding back as I give this old man my hand. He takes it, pulls me into his arms, and clasps me in a ferocious hug.
" 'Welcome, welcome, welcome!' he cries. 'Come in and meet Lilja. She's made you coffee! And cake!'
"As I'm ushered into the house I give a backward glace at Jimmy, who throws up his hands with a smile.
"His grandmother, a tiny woman, pats my hand, beaming, too, as I take her in -- her large ocean-colored eyes."

The tale of Mistik Lake is told in alternating chapters from the point of view of three characters: Odella, the primary narrator, whose story is the one told in the first person, her Great-Aunt Gloria, and a young man Odell's age named Jimmy Tomasson. But the character who is at the epicenter of the web of stories is a woman long known to all of Mistik Lake: Odella's mother, Sally McLean, nee Thorsteinsson:

"On a stone-cold night in 1981 a carload of teenagers went joyriding out on frozen Mistik Lake. The car careened around a few ice-fishing shacks, knocking one over, eyewitnesses said, then skidded and shimmied farther out on the lake, suddenly broke through the ice, and sank to the bottom. "There was one survivor -- our mother, Sally.

It is the rare young adult novel that so perfectly combines teen sensibilities and edginess and lust and dreams with an elegance of language and an unforgettable sense of place. MISTIK LAKE is truly a unique gem of a book.

For some people, the times in their lives in which everything finally comes together are the same times that everything falls apart.

Meet Odella, a teenage girl whose family is drowning in secrets. Odella and her two sisters are adjusting to the fact that their mother has abandoned them to move to Iceland with another man. Now they are faced with their mother's death. Odella must now deal with questions about her mother that may remain unanswered. Why did her mother drink so much? What really happened during that accident at Mistik Lake when her mother was a teenager? Why doesn't her Aunt Gloria visit anymore? And why is it that everyone in Mistik Lake and Manitoba seem to know the answers to Odella's questions?

Odella's life isn't all bad. There is Jimmy Tomasson, the boy Odella met last summer. Jimmy has come back into her life and Odella is thrilled to have him. But even Jimmy seems to know more about Odella than she does.

MISTIK LAKE is the story of two generations of family and the secrets they share. Author Martha Brooks tells the story through the viewpoint of three different characters: Odella, Aunt Gloria, and Jimmy. This compelling story will pull you along, tempting you with the promise of tantalizing secrets. More than that, Mistik Lake demonstrates how far the damage from those secrets can reach.

Reviewed by: JodiG.

This is a great textbook for people wanting to learn the basics of programming computers.It logically presents ML,Java and Prolog.The first sentence states,"Computer programmes are practical magic.".It absolutely is ! You will enjoy reading the historical background on programming too.The ideas really are not difficult to fathom .If you have a desire to learn the foundations of computer language design.For an advanced computer student,this book will be repetitive and frivolous.Yet,i found this basic programming book to be enjoyable and insightful.

This is one of the most clear and enjoyable Computer Science books I have ever read -- and being a CS Ph.D. student I've read quite a lot! The examples are at the right level of complexity, and the exercises at the end of each chapter are actually (gasp) fun! Alternating theoretical and practical chapters makes for a very balanced reading, where abstract concepts are explained by linking them to real language features.

The book smoothly moves the reader through Standard ML, Java and Prolog in a concise and pleasant manner. Although it doesn't go deep in any of these languages, it provides the reader with enough background to create simple programs and utilize the power of each language; the interested reader can go on to learn advanced language features with the confidence that all the basics have been covered. The book draws clear distinctions between all three languages, each of which represents a different way of thinking about programming. If you are looking for an excellent book on programming languages, or you just want to get a feel about different programming paradigms, this is your book!

I just finished using this book teaching our Programming Languages course. We easily covered the entire book in a 15 week semester while adding additional material on Formal Semantics and Concurrent Programming. I really loved the book; the writing was engaging (I'm not kidding, this is the best textbook I've ever seen) and the supporting materials were extremely helpful. The greater-than-usual attention to functional programming languages (Webber covers ML, Java and Prolog) was initially the most important feature for me.

The only possible complaint about the text is that it doesn't go into more detail on a number of topics. The next time I teach the class, I would be happy to use it again while providing supplemental material, although I am considering Friedman et al's Essentials of Programming Languages.