Burnett Books

This book wasn't what I expected, but it was interesting. It's more organized into groupings of quotes or excerpts from welcoming rituals.

It had some lovely things that we used for my daughter's welcoming, though I wish it would have given citations for where these excerpts came from. I found a few that I was fascinated by and wanted to read the rest of it, but could not find where it came from.

If you are looking for ideas or quotes to get you started creating your own welcoming, this book will help a little. If you are curious about the history behind the quotes used...this book won't help at all.

This is an amazing book that is beautifully written and packed with ideas. It has several sample welcoming ceremonies that you can do, but it also provides enough information for you to make up your own using different elements of each. I loved the cultural information and the suggestions for creating altars. I think this would make a great baby shower gift and is a must read for all pregnant women.

So Welcoming Ways quotes Thomas Moore, in introducing one of its beautiful rituals to introduce children into the world.

This book is a fantastic collection of traditions and ideas for welcoming our newborns into our lives and homes. While I plan to have a traditional Catholic baptism when my baby is born, this book gave me several additional ideas to help honor my child before this date. All family members are incorporated into the ceremonies, to give the child a sense of becoming part of a whole, who is eager to have them join into the family.

World customs are mentioned, and it was a treat to read what other countries do to celebrate their babies. We have become disconnected with the rituals that make up life, and this book is a wonderful way to help new parents develop a way to mark the huge step of welcoming a new child into the home.

This is a book that needs to be on the shelf of every parent, grandparent, aunt, uncle, god-parent, parent educator, OB-GYN, Midwife, NICU nurse,adoption agency, and anyone else who has contact with infants & families.

I am a parent of two daughters, ages 4 & 6, and I am saddened that I did not have this book when they were born. Yet, I am also a parent educator, and hope to provide many pre-natal families information about this book and the value of traditions. I also plan to give this book as a gift to all of my friends & family who are or will be expecting a child---I feel that it is as important to them as the prenatal information they receive.

The illustrations are beautiful, the text and content inspiring, and the cost exceptional for a book that will/should be passed down generationally.

If you are involved with any organization that interacts with clients, The Zen of Fundraising: 89 Timeless Ideas to Strengthen and Develop Your Donor Relationships should be required reading for all your administrators, front-line personnel (they can remind Administration how to not muck up) serious contributors, board members and fundraisers. For start-ups, a little creative adaption can bring its larger messages to your aid. That is, if you want to become more effective and responsive so you can become a larger entity.

A "must read" is not too high praise. Neither is "essential". Get this book. Read it. Memorize large parts of it. It will be handy when you want to quote really wise concepts at parties, with friends and with clients.

Plus, Burnett's brilliant and personal style (reminds me of how Mark Twain might right a letter to a friend) is a joy to behold.

GregRobin.

This book is a snap shot of everything that works in donor relationships - and some good advice about things that don't. It's about building a relationship that really means something to the donor as well as the charity they are donating to. And it's also about being proud to be a fundraiser - stand up and be counted!!

Through a writing style, which stays light right to the last few pages, Ken manages to capture the essence of a lot of jargonese which penetrates the fundraising world. This is a simple book - but not for simple minds. If you like the snap shot style of American quick fixes then this is a great introduction to relationship fundraising and a whole lot more. At the end Ken makes some personal points and a bit of a plea for better customer service - well made and if only half the advice in this little book is put into practice, there would definitely be a shift.

Just try one simple thing which Ken outlines - I would suggest a fundraiser working on their own would really benefit from number 17. Really understand your donors - no amount of consultancy and research by other people can ever replace that one!

If you are new to fundraising, then take advice from number 71 - Be proud to be a fundraiser - and number 76 - `Be respectful of your donors, and show that respect even when they're not present' - and lastly number 78, which gives the ultimate in reading lists for fundraisers, both old and new.

The fact that Ken points us in the direction of best practice from a great variety of sources - big household names from Britain such as the RNLI but also from across the globe. Reading this on the tube was ideal, it is possible to dip in and out and I enjoyed creating my own `fundraising menu'. Recommended is a number 78, 72, 48, 22 and 17. Oh and definitely 87, the outlawing of killer phrases such as `'That won't work' and `There isn't time'. But then again...

Ken Burnett has been a friend since I was given the privilege of introducing him at the PBS Development Conference years ago. He wrote the book on donor relationships --Relationship Fundraising: A Donor Based Approach to the Business of Raising Money and here he's written the book on gift stewardship.

With all due respect to my many other published friends in the fundraising arena, if you have this book, Jim Greenfield's Fundraising Fundamentals: A Guide to Annual Giving for Professionals and Volunteers, and Kay Sprinkel Grace's Beyond Fundraising: New Strategies for Nonprofit Innovation and Investment, 2nd Edition, there's not much more you need to know.

Ken's book is an easy, breeze read--the whole message is delivered in less than 160 pages. But there's a depth of wisdom and experience here that belies the size. A great handbook from a terrific fundraiser.

I was hoping that this book would provide an overview of working smarter, not harder -- for example focus on understanding your own message in order to be more effective. Instead, it is a "to do" list (which the title states)that only the largest and best established organizations would have time/resources/or history to do. I'm a start-up, and for me, I can only hope to get to the point where most of the ideas in this book are useful -- or even possible.

It's good in that the underlying theme is: It's the customer, stupid. But that is something that all good salespeople/strategic marketing know: take care of your own customers first, keep communication channels open, listen more than you talk, find out why they do business with you. etc.

So: my biggest problem is the title: It should be: Maintaing Funding for Charitable Organizations: A checklist for focusing on your donor relationships. If you are in that situation you should probably read this book. But don't look for the zen.

This is as a nice reference for the blues guitarist. It's nice to have so many new ideas in one place. The only downside (more so for the beginner), is most of the turnarounds are in the key of C which means you'll need to transcribe them to different keys. This is not a bad thing as it is helps develop a better knowledge of how the blues scales are put together. It is a good investment as it is a reference and a learning tool.

(101 Razor-Sharp Blues Guitar Fill-In Licks)


Leading Book of Its Type

This is undoubtedly the leading book of its type on the market today. 101 authentic urban blues guitar fill-ins in the Chicago blues style, each accurately transcribed in notation and tablature. Each lick is recorded note-for-note on the companion CD and accompanied by a professional blues band (complete with singer Charles Atkins), and wonderfully engineered by Fred Chester, a well-known engineer in the Southeast who has recorded albums for jazz piano great Marcus Roberts and persons of similar caliber.

As a professional music teacher of many years, I have found Larry McCabe's music instruction books to be of consistently high quality, popular with students, focused and effective in accomplishing the particular objective.

Small wonder. Larry has one of the most reputable names in the music publishing industry. His resume lists over eighty published books for Mel Bay, Centerstream, and other big names in the industry. Two of his books were written for none other than Roy Clark. And he was the guitar writer for Living Blues Magazine for three years, and a member of the W.C. Nominating Committee for many years. This is a teacher who knows how to play and teach the blues.

The author, Larry McCabe, is a well-known and respected author of many instruction books and he has a strong background in the blues. I recall that in the 1990s Larry authored a popular blues guitar column for Living Blues Magazine.

Against the backdrop of a live band complete with singer Charles Atkins, each fill-in lick is played exactly as you would play it on stage or in a jam session. The licks are tasteful and performed in the authentic Chicago style-the licks are the real thing, played by a guitarist who knows how to play the blues and write blues instruction.

I would recommend this book to an early intermediate guitarist whose ambition is to play in the urban blues style. The incredible thing about this set is that the user is actually sitting in with a live blues band that includes a singer.

In the rush to play solos, fill-in are sometimes overlooked. This book is unique and unlike any other book on electric blues guitar. And in fact, Red Dog Music Books entire series of 101 Razor-Sharp Blues Books are enthusiastically recommended to all electric guitar teachers who have students who want to learn to play the blues.

I am not one to write reviews, but here I must. The author is a friend, and I promised her I would.

I found the beginning of this book scattered and slow to read (which is why I give it 4 stars), but after getting into the heart of the story, one will understand the scattered nature of it. The main character, Anna Laszlo, is runnng from her past, but what in her past is she afraid of?

The little bits of culture of the city of Budapest are intriguing to the point I want to visit the city someday. The characters are well rounded to the point that you can almost believe they are real people and this story actually happened. Tiffany is able to paint a vivid picture of the city, people, religion, and horrors of the area.

The only other thing to mention, the printing I have does contain several typos (incorrect word than what I am sure the author intended), lack of ink on the press, and some minor spacing issues that I am sure will be worked out in subsequent printings.

I cannot wait to read the sequel to this book. Thank you for an enjoyable read!!!

I really enjoyed this novel by this first time novelist. The characters are well developed and although the book is a bit of a slow starter once into it the plot becomes very compelling. I really didn't want to put it down and in fact felt I wanted to read more when the book was finished. The author has some things worth pondering, but she is never preachy or pendantic about it. This is an author to watch as I am confident there will be more good literature coming out in the future.

This is "meat and potatoes" reading----no mind candy for the masses here. Budapest is a fascinating character study full of unique personalities that spring to life on each page. Better set some time aside when you start reading, because you will never want to put it down!!!!

I planned to sue someone and represent myself in court without a lawyer. This book was the most useful of several I purchased. The updates were easy to place in the looseleafe book, the instructons were thorough and easy to understand.

Ultimately I won my case. This book allowed me to avoid some very simple but very stupid mistakes I would have made without this reference guide.

I also have shopped on many other sites besides Amazon, but even when the price might be a slight bit more (not often) I find the mechanics of the ordering process, including one-step purchases, to be superior to any other web site where you can purchase anything.

I like the options for shipping and the followup service for tracking and asking for these very written reviews.

All in all, a good book from a great shopping experience.

Karl Loren, Author

The title of my review says it all: the text and the study guide were fine at the time they were published in 1996, but this is 2004 and a great deal has changed in California's court system from the vantage of civil procedure. The publisher should have updated this book no later than 2000 when the courts were administratively unified; additionally, local and state rules of procedure have been dramatically altered to place greater emphasis on ADR (alternative dispute resolution) and the rules regarding Fast-track litigation have likewise undergone significant changes.

In short, a book which purports to teach the nuts and bolts of litigation procedure needs to be revised whenever there are major changes in the procedural law, as has been the case in California.

With that said, the examples, the case studies, and the explanations make this Study Guide an invaluable companion to the main textbook.

I bought this book in preference over several other self help law books I examined after I fired my lawyer and went in pro per. Lots of really helpful, accessible, thorough, and friendly information. In fact it was so good that I promised myself I would write its first online review. You won't get much help on how to act in court, though, as only attorneys can do that and not paralegals, who it was written for. But don't listen to me I'm not an attorney. My lesson in all of this was to stay out of court in the first place.

What's good: The book is fully documented and the sources are mostly Frances herself and her trustworthy friends.

What's not so good: The book is written in competent, though arid, prose. Not much enthusiasm for Frances comes through. The book gives the impression of being an academic project, undertaken because academics are required to do such projects and almost every other woman has already been done.

Academic presses frequently have the authors do their own proof-reading, and this book is not well proofed. There are no glaring errors such as a spell-checker would find, but errors that would elude a spell-checker are not infrequent.

Worse, there are at least two glaring factual errors:
On page 286, the biographer states that "President Roosevelt" declared war in 1917, bringing America into World War I.

On page 215, the biographer declares that in 1900, "she was now forty-five." On page 13, the biographer declares that "Frances Eliza, the third child and first daughter, was born there too, on 24 November 1849." A little arithmetic will demonstrate that in 1900, Frances cannot have been "forty-five." She was in fact 50 or 51.

Still, for a Black British academic at Columbia University, the biographer is rather free of zeal, but she does insist on mentioning every Black maid which Frances, like other Southern women of the time, employed. However, she is forced to admit Frances' unswerving devotion to social equality, which she pushed in her novels.

As to the question of "flirtations," which are used to promote this biography, there is no evidence of them. Frances was extremely careful of her reputation (she had to be, since she was famous most of her life), and always traveled with a maid and usually a female companion as well. Whether Frances slept with Stephen Townsend during the ten years when he was around so much, one can only guess. But since he blackmailed her into marrying him in 1900 by threatening to tell the world they'd had an affair, it seems likely that there must have been some truth in it. On all occasions when she felt wronged, she threw herself publicly into the fray and defended herself indignantly. She was such a person that she could not have done that without truth on her side.

Frances Hodgson Burnett was a remarkable human being, and a biography of her should be read, since for the last fifty years or so, we have been assured by academics, psychologists and self-appointed pseudo-intellectuals that humans cannot possibly be what she in fact was.

While during her life time (1849-1924), Frances Hodgson Burnett was best known for her many adult novels and plays, today it is for her children's books that she is remembered, especially for her masterpiece which has become a true classic and has never been out of print -- The Secret Garden. Frances Hodgson Burnett: The Unexpected Life Of The Author of "The Secret Garden" is an impressive and seminal effort in which biographer Gretchen Holbrook Gerzina (Professor of English, Bernard College, Columbia University) had the full cooperation of Burnett's descendants and relatives to help her examine and present an inherently fascinating life story of lively intelligence, contemporary sensitivity, and a wealth of new and never-before-published materials. From her modest beginnings in mid-Victorian Manchester, to her arrival in post-Civil "War Tennessee at the age of 15 with her widowed mother and two sisters, this outstanding biography details her become the family breadwinner at the age of 17 and the eventual publishing of 52 books and 13 plays. This is also the story of her marriages, flirtations, and a scandalous affair, the troubled motherhood of two sons (one of whom become the model for Little Lord Fauntleroy). A welcome and much appreciated contribution to literary biographies, Frances Hodgson Burnett is enthusiastically recommended reading!

Frances Hodgson Burnett was a celebrity and author of many runaway best-sellers from the 1870s to the 1920s and beyond. Now mostly remembered for her children's books, she had great fame for her romances and plays as well. This English-born author moved to the US as a child and became a true-life American rags-to-riches story. It is extremely interesting to learn how she was carried away by the resulting fame and fortune and what choices she made.

I have always loved Frances Hodgson Burnett's books and am delighted that such a detailed biography is now available. I have read the previous accounts of her life but this book is especially well-written and contains plenty of new material. Highly recommended.

I've read both volumes of the Sinestro Corps war and this third volume feels like the perfect companion for it.

It develops the conflict between Kyle and Parallax, explains Kyle's new role on the corps and the involvement of Superman Prime in the war and shows a little bit more about Sodam Yat and the most interesting memebers fo the Sinestro Corps. It answers a lot of question and geaves new perspectives on the events.

It includes also a very long list and bios of many of the corp's memebers, places and creatures of the Green Lantern mythology.

If you liked Sinestro Corps war, this is the book that will complete your collection.

My feelings differ from other reviewers of this title in that I don't think it is important to the telling of the Sinestro Corps War nor is it of the same caliber. Some of the art, especially Dave Gibbons', is exceptional. The rest, not so much.
I personally dislike the framing device of having a narrarator introduce the stories (ala the Crypt Keeper) but realize that that is a personal preference and not a flaw.
What makes the book earn a 4 star review (instead of 3) is the Secret Files and Origins chapter that rounds out the book. It is here that I heartily agree with the other reviews. Like DVD extras, it is bonus material that gives the story of the Corps some depth and richness.
All in all a worthy volume if you can't get enough of the GL Corps or are a completist, but not nearly the quality of volumes 1 and 2 of the Sinestro Corps War and not necessary to understanding the story.

A hardcover collection that compiles various side-stories and one-shots, Tales of the Sinestro Corps fleshes out the events of the epic interstellar saga The Sinestro Corps War, and many of the major players and the impacts they make as well. Featured here are backstories pertaining to various members of the Sinestro Corps, most notably being Sinestro himself, the sentient virus known as Despotellis, the insane and murderous Superman-Prime, and Hank Henshaw, AKA the Cyborg-Superman. Also featured here are tales dealing with the aftermath of the war, including Kyle Rayner's struggle against Parallax, as well as his new role as a Green Lantern, and his training of the newly christened torchbearer of the Lanterns, Sodom-Yat. What really makes this hardcover collection worth picking up however is the Secret Files & Origins one-shot featured here, which collects a horde of information detailing the mythos of the Green Lantern corps and the Sinestro corps, as well as a hint of the Black Lanterns and what is to come with Blackest Night. A more than worthwhile companion for The Sinestro Corps War, Tales of the Sinestro Corps is a must-own collection for anyone the least bit interested the epic crossover event.

I admit it. I sat down on a Sunday afternoon and inhaled Mistletoe from Purple Sage. Although, by the end I thought that the plot took a few too many stretches of the imagination. The whole was still a lot of fun and a great afternoon of escape. I can hardly wait to read more of this series.

And it doesn't hurt that I was Texas Hill Country raised. I admired the deft sense of the local culture.

Jolie Wyatt used to work at the Rose Sterling Advertising Agency in Austin, Texas. Everyone at the company knew how badly Jolie craved being a published writer. She has been away from the agency for many years, living with her husband Matt in Purple Sage. However, when she learns that she is finally going to be published, Jolie can't help but want to show off to her old cronies at the agency. The Wyatts decide to spend the holiday season with Matt's sister and her family so Jolie can attend the Sterling annual Christmas party. Her plans are to show up as the conquering heroine comes to an abrupt halt when Jolie finds the body of a murdered Sterling employee in the ladies room.

Jolie is no stranger to murder or homicide investigations (having been involved two others). However, this one is too close and personal, especially since the prime suspect is her ex-lover, a man married to the boss' daughter. With things in a tizzy at the office, Jolie is asked to temporarily return to do some copy writing, forcing her go back to work with the one person she wants to avoid.

Meanwhile, something dangerous is occurring at her sister-in-law's home with a little boy being the center of it. Ironically, this problem converges with the office mess, forcing Jolie to simultaneously deal with a traumatized child and a cold blooded killer.

MISTLETOE FROM PURPLE SAGE is a breezy, witty, and warm cozy starring a character who symbolizes every woman. This makes it easy, especially for women, to identify with her joys and concerns. The who-done-it is well done as it flows with many plausible suspects who have ample motives to have committed the deed. The sub-plot involving the heroine's nephew adds depth and intensity to a compelling tale.

Harriet Klausner

This book was good, but I didn't find it as good as her two previous, Dust Devils and Celebration. To me it seemed slower paced than the other two. Where with the previous ones I couldn't put them down and read them very quickly, this latest one I found I could put it down without a problem. I finished the book in three days, which is unusual for me. This is still an author I would definitely recommend. Her characters are wonderfully real. Her books make you wish you lived in a small town like Purple Sage.

This book is an excellent look behind the scenes of Dylan's Rolling Thunder Review which made it's way through New England back in the Fall of '75. Sam Shepard has done a great job of capturing the feel and characters that surrounded this historic tour. Not to be missed by any true Dylan fan.

I gave this four stars because I don't think Sam would want it to get five. That would make it too perfect, and once you read Jack Kerouac's On the Road, you're always wary of making things too perfect. That also seemed to be the idea of the Rolling Thunder Revue: to let things fall together even though that means they may fall apart (and by Sam's reckoning they eventually did).

Coupled with J. D. Salinger stream of consciousness writing, Sam dragged Kerouac's real time typing into the deconstructed stage with all four walls down. I only know Sam from his portrayl of Chuck Yeager in the Right Stuff from the book by Tom Wolfe-- the book full of Wolfian gimmicks but the film made the old fashioned way, his plays like True West, and the fact that his mom once toasted my fledgeling writing career-- I hope one day to make her proud.

Sam was hired to make a film of the Revue tour, and wound up making a book. While that means it has pages, photos, and a cover, within that loose definition, it falls apart as much as it can. Sam uses the "f" word, but as a word, not for effect (it is a word). There are bits of writing like this: "Fans are more dangerous than a man with a weapon because they're after something invisible."

The thing that galvanized the tour was fighting to get Rubin Carter released (which eventually happened), and Dylan penned the amazing "Hurricane", an absolutely riveting song when you hear it on the Bootleg Vols 1-3 CD set (or various other ways it exists), not only for the lyrics and music, but Dylan's delivery, at once cool and impassioned, the crazy quilt of images, skewed syntax, sprung rhythms, and well, Sam Shepardness of the whole thing.

But was it all a museum set piece? More safely enshrined rock history? Or can it happen now? Will someone rise up today for Eric Volz? Let the thunder roll on.

The perfect companion to Sloman's book, especially given the great photography.

Arm yourself with these two books and a circulating audience tape from late '75 and you will treated to the Essence of Bob Dylan.

This book could serve as literary courage for those seeking honest communication in their partnership. Looking at monogamy and infidelity in recent society, the author makes the important point that sexual needs and desires must be discussed without the fear of extreme recrimination so often present in modern relationships. This open discussion will help maintain a vibrant, dynamic marriage. An excellent read for the committed adult seeking a lifelong, ongoing conversation with their partner!

This interesting book is written by a skilled clinical psychologist with broad literary competence. She ties together her long experience as a psychotherapist for mostly urban educated clients and her wide knowledge of the rapidly changing American culture. The suject is sexual behavior inside and outside marriage as affected by the cultural changes over the past half century that have challenged myths about gender differences. She shows how these have changed from the fifties, when women in double standard marriages were pressured by society, and by their therapists, to be contented housewives, to the current state of gender equality. She leads the reader, decade by decade, to an examination of marriage and the importance placed on sexual exclusivity, an ideal seldom adhered to. She draws on thirty years of listening to the secrets of married and gay men and women; and although her theories grow out of feminist convictions, she is highly sympathetic to the concerns of men. She also draws insights from a wide assortment of authors ranging from Milton, Gibbon, Boccaccio, and Jane Austen to Gay Talese and Philip Roth. To scientists who object to the potential unreliability of clinical observation as research, it must be noted that such evidence by a broadly educated clinician was the bedrock of psychoanalysis. The book is a stimulating and insightful read.

This is an excellent book but not for the faint of heart. A certain sturdiness of soul is needed to embrace some of the ideas written about here. The author doesn't advocate the "open marriage" of the 70's, or the prison-like marriages of the 50's or 90's. Rather, she advocates an open dialogue on the question of sexual fidelity with the door not exactly open or closed but, as she puts it, "ajar". Since so many couples "stray" she asks couples to at least consider that it might happen to them, and she is definitely against making infidelity the "deal breaker" in marriage.

This is not a self-help book and there is no program to follow or exercises to do. It is a book of ideas drawing from years of experience as a therapist, wife and mother. The author gives an overview of how views on marriage and sex have changed in this country over the past several decades. (At times I felt she was over generalizing but this is probably inevitable in a sweeping book with a very broad scope. She also references pop culture in the form of movies and television abit much for my taste.) She then proposes a marriage based on an on-going conversation, with kindness, honesty and quality of intimacy being the barometer of success rather than strict sexual fidelity.

The book is well written and the author knows her subject very well. It's kind of amazing that this is a self-published title...but then, given the subject matter and how skittish most people are about discussing it, it's not that surprizing after all. I'm glad she went for it and published it herself. It definitely deserves to be read.

If you are grappling with these issues in your marriage or are smart enough to know that you will sooner or later anyway, this is a book that may stir you to new levels of truth and understanding. If you're thinking that infidelity only happens to "other" couples, maybe you should just bookmark this title for future reference. If you're single and wondering if it's possible to preserve your autonomy, sexual or otherwise, and still get married, this book may give you hope that such a thing is possible. If you're in the process of dealing with sexual fidelity issues and have arrived at some sort of "door ajar" marriage yourself, this book will validate your work. If you're currently "cheating' or suspect your spouse is and would rather just continue lying or being lied to, stay away from this book!