Butler Books

Teresa Rae Butler wrote a very entertaing and funny novel titled "Don't Even Trip". She took her main character Coraz on a journey to find true love. She uses her characters in a way that most of us can relate to. Coraz finds love in one of the lest expect places within her life. After a few tries before, she finally makes the right choice. A great novel to boost anyone's sprit. And a truly great read!!!

Thanks Teresa!!!

Coraz Sade Singleton has been through the wire with men, especially black men. With three kids by different fathers at the age of thirty-two, Coraz just wants to find somebody to love her and to be a positive male role-model for her children. So she decides to swear off black men totally and to focus on snagging a successful white man. Things seems to be going to plan until Coraz meets a twenty-six-year old black college student name Mill. Mill is smitten with Coraz and wants to give her the love that she deserves. But will Mill be able to break down the wall surrounding Coraz's heart? Coraz also has to deal with the growing disciplinary problems of her thirteen year old daughter and trying to inspire her students on a daily basis. What will the future hold for Mill and Coraz?

Don't Even Trip is an absorbing novel by Teresa Rae Butler. Butler does a wonderful job of bringing the struggles of a single mother to life in this story. You'll feel the frustration of Coraz as she tries to not only raise her children but also tries to find real love. This author showed great vision when incorporating the value of education, self-worth, and self-preservation into this book. There's also a good dose of humor mixed in for good measure. Readers will also be surprised to see Milwaukee, Wisconsin as the backdrop of this story which is a welcome change. Don't Even Trip is a novel that entertains as well as educate. With her unique writing style, Teresa Rae Butler is well on her way to taking the fiction industry by storm.

Reviewed by Radiah Hubbert
for Urban Reviews

Coraz Singleton keeps looking for love in all the wrong places. After 3 bad relationships, Coraz is now a single mom of 3 beautiful children. Determined to finally get it right, she decides to date wealthy white men only. But after a night out with some friends, she meets the man who may change her mind once again. Mill appears to have it all: handsome, intelligent, and hard-working and a college student. At first, the age difference is a turn-off for Coraz but Mill is determined to make Coraz his woman and soon, they give in to their attraction. But Coraz can't shake the feeling that Mill is too good to be true and soon, her doubts begin to cause problems. But her baggage comes back to haunt her in a big way when she is forced to choose between her new-found love with Mill or her deteriorating relationship with her 13-year old daughter. Don't Even Trip is an entertaining story about a woman finding love in a unexpected place, join Coraz on her journey as she finds her soul-mate and the man of her dreams! Reviewed by Shay C of PeoplewholoveGoodBooks

Don't Even Trip by Teresa Rae Butler-Coraz has three baby daddies and all of them has different fathers. Coraz attracted different type of man that was not worthy of her. As time goes on she finally meets the right man after all the drama she had to go through to find him.

Teresa Rae Butler has a great feature ahead of her with her writing. Keep it coming and I highly recommand everyone to go out and get the book today.

Claudia Mosley
Big Time Publishing Magazine

In the beginning of the story, we find out that Annabel has gone to the house of some of her relatives for the summer. She wakes up to the meowing of a cat. She goes outside to find it but it keeps disappearing and reappearing. Later Annabel learns of a story about an old ghost and her ghost cat. She sets out to find out about this ghost and also her own past.
On a scale of one to ten, I would give this book a seven. The book kept me interested and was very exciting at parts, but it could have been better. Although I mostly read fantasy books, it was interesting to change styles with a mystery. I think if you haven't read a mystery book in awhile, you should try this one.

I'll start out by admitting that Ghost Cat is one of my favourite books. It's got a nice mix of emotions, from suspense to sadness to joy, and while in some parts the things that happen are rather "out there", the way they are written makes them almost believable. Annabel, the protagonist, faces an internal battle of emotions, towards her mother and her new boyfriend, as well as the relatives she never knew existed that are keeping her for the summer.

As an animal lover, Annabel feels more welcome with the cowardly farm dog, Ricky, than she does with her relatives, although she does sympathize with Old Pa, the old man in his eighties or nineties that Aunt Lil bosses around and embarrasses like a child.

Throughout the book, Butler spurs our own emotions as well - we feel what Annabel is going through, as the feeling of being the odd one out is so familiar to most of us. An excellent read that I highly reccommend.

Ghost Cat was written by Beverly Butler. The publisher was Scholastic Books. It was a mystery and it had 189 pages. The main character was Annabel. She is thirteen years old but thinks that she is tall for her age. Her personality is adventurous. She gets herself into tight spots a lot. She likes to eat. The story takes place in the summer of an unknown modern year. Annabel is spending the summer in Canada with family. She's in the countryside in a house. The story begins with Annabel meeting her cousins. The problem is that they heard half of a story about Julia Craig, a school teacher from many years back who disappeared. Early in the morning, Annabel woke up, went outside to the forest and saw a ghost of a cat. Annabel and her cousins end up going to the Craig cottage. Her cousin Michael found some negatives and developed them. They found out that Annabel was related to Julia Craig. When her uncle found out what they were doing, they were busted. They went on a picnic and they ended up at the Craig cottage again. Her cousin Todd broke his ankle. Julia Craig was haunting Annabel and Annabel told Julia that her daughter was dead. They were found by her uncle in the attic and he got help. Her great grandpa, also known as Old Pa, died when the roof collapsed. They found Julia's bones and buried her. The next day she buried the bones of the cat and her mom came to visit. Mom's boyfriend got her a kitten. I liked the book because it was about a cat. It's a good book because it leaves you hanging on the edge and wanting to know what comes next. It was interesting and I would recommend this book to everybody because it's a good book. If I had to rate the book on a scale of one to ten, I would give it an eight because I have read better books.

Like so many ghost stories, this one begins when the protagonist--a very tall 13-year-old girl named Annabel--is sent to spend the summer with relatives in the Wisconsin woods. Already resentful that her single mom just wants to get rid of her so she can party with her beau, Annabel discovers a bunch of unkind cousins who regularly summer with the old folks--their grandparents in fact. Her first morning there she is awakened by the plaintive sound of a cat crying from the woods. Having just lost her own cat in Chicago, she is moved by its obvious distress to help.

Her search for the mysterious and beautiful cat triggers the memory of her old relatives--stirring up bitter feelings of doubt, family shame and perhaps even guilt. All because 40 years ago two women disappeared without a trace, which set suspicious neighbors' tongues wagging: an old maid schoolteacher named Julia Craig, and her young niece, Annie. Are the ghosts of these women (plus the girl's cat) trying to contact Annabel-- and is it because she so resembles the lost girl? Her Uncle Axel scowls at all references to the painful past; could he be protecting an ancestor, covering up family guilt? And why are her cousins so mean to her? Todd especially has a definite nasty streak; I admit to hoping that he would get his!

Annabel's only friends there are the family dog, the ghost cat (which does not provide much comfort, but incentive to explore) and Old Pa who is everybody's great-grandfather. In his prime he was the boss of a logging crew, but now he is reduced to near senility as an unwilling shut-in, whose every move is dictated by his over-protective daughter. There is an old mystery to be solved, of course, and ghosts to lay to rest--literally. But once the truth is told, will the family name be cleared or convicted of further shame?

Some heavy task for the so-tall-that-she-slouches shoulders of Annabel, whom the ghosts think is Annie come to life. Can ghosts manipulate the weather? Do they want Revenge, Justice or Peace? It's all up to Annabel. This is her summer to grow up and Old Pa's to come into his own again. A good yarn with an interesting plot and some character development. Annabel must come to terms with her mom's boyfriend, while Old Pa--that unlikely hero-- will briefly enjoy the limelight. A good, imaginative read which will keep the interest of both girls and boys.

Daniel Butler's Titanic book was panned by the Titanic community due to it's reliance on the same old Titanic sources, re-wording (but properly attributed) of other author's text, and personal opinion. These qualities are evident in his Lusitania book as well. A glance at the bibliography shows that his book is no different from any other Lusitania book preceding it. Same books such as Hoehling, Simpson, Hickey, Ryan are used ad nauseum. There is nothing original in the text of this book that could not be found in another book. The practice of combining research from other books versus going outside the usual sources is a poor one and shows that lazy research is all you need to put out a book.

this is the best book on lusitania book.this book is more than telling you about what lead up to the sinken but following rescue and fate of the people aboard her that tragic trip.

After putting the sinking of the Lusitania into historical context, author David Butler delineates in harrowing detail the ship's final moments, recreating for the reader a mind's eye image of what must have ocurred aboard ship during this pivotal event in world history. His description of the minute by minute efforts of the passengers to survive (the ship sank in only 18 minutes!) his 85 pages of sinking description mark a high point in this type of writing. You'll never need to read another account of a ship's sinking after "witnessing" this one! It just couldn't have been written better. A masterful job on all counts, the author is to be commended not only on his attention to the details of historical perspective, but as well to his understanding of human emotions brought to the very brink of existence. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.

A note to readers -- the first half of this book is more of a chronicle of WW I than an account of the Lusitania. If you're just a disaster buff, you'll probably like the Titanic stories better than this. The author explains in his final note that he deliberately focused on the historical context and meaning of this event rather than the minutia of the sinking itself (as he does in his Titanic book). I personally enjoyed the WWI refresher. There are still many unanswered questions about the ship's death -- did Churchill deliberately let it be struck to draw the US into battle? We may never know. The author does a nice job of putting this event in context. The sinking chapters are shorter than you'd think (heck, the ship went down in 18 minutes) but there is a lot of juicy background stuff here.

I got a very good price, a great book, and the shipping time was good.

The seller sent the book out the same day. That was great but the postal service dropped the ball. The book was routed to vermont instead of virginia but the seller offered a refund and was very empathetic.

Unfortunately I had to buy the book and read all 600 pages of it. It was my textbook for one of my courses at uni. Generally, the content of the book is quite all right, but lots of mistakes (esp. of numerical nature) make the book nearly worthless. If your lecturer wants to use this book as a reference, tell her/him it is even not worth the way to the bookshop.

This textbook is used in our MBA International Finance course (1 semester) and we basically covered about 80% of the materials in the class. The book is well organised and, most importantly, the notations are very clear which helps understanding the materials. Each chapter include a list of references so that students who need to do further research (e.g. for their projects) can start from there. There are also extensive references to the current developments in international finance arena including internet links. We used the Conceptual Questions and Problems at the end of each chapter for revision purpose as well. I do not find much numerical errors as other reviewers mentioned in 2nd edition. Overall I find it very well-written and was useful for my learning experience.

Abu Iyad is a revolutionary who can only be compared to Che Guevara.

Abu Iyad is a revolutionary who can only be compared to Che Guevara.

Abu Iyad is a revolutionary who can only be compared to Che Guevara.

"Ugh!" is all I can say about this book. Idealogical justification of murdering innocent people is not what I (or anyone else) should want to read. Thank god Abu Iyad now lies in a grave.

This is a great companion for PKD fans. It is fun to read especially if you have already read his books beforehand. The best way possible to enjoy good memories and how they tie in with other PKD novels, especially the ones you haven't read. Will make you want to pick up a PKD book and read it. I didn't agree with all the reviews, but how often does anyone agree on anything?

My review is brief to match this book. And that is not necessarily a bad thing. I have read all of PKD's novel and short stories and another person's views are always of interest to me. But I suspect that a reader who does not know PKD's work well may find this book more confusing than stimulating. I would also have liked more of the short stories to have been discussed - some of the great stories not yet made into movies, plays or operas.

And finally, in a critical analysis like this I would have liked some explanation of how Mr Butler determined his ratings, and I would also have liked some considered opinion as to why PKD has such a great following that far exceeds, apparently in number and reputation, such other SF stalwarts as Simak, van Vogt, Asimov and Heinlein. And does PKD have a reputation outside SF that these other authors do not?

I am what could be defined as a PKD scholar, and I think this small book is very useful as a reference. While writing my articles and essays I often use it. And I recommend it to those who have just read 1-2 novels by Phil Dick and wish to know more, and would like some advice about what should be read next by the same author. Andy's reviews are fair and the plot summaries won't spoil your reading. And there is a wealth of useful info to boot. Very high price/quality ration, in my humble opinion. Recommended.

An excellent introduction to the complex world of Philip K. Dick, filled with insight and synopsis galore, it gives a quick and in-depth look into each of the works of this Chicago born genius. Mr.Butler has given us the perfect introductory book to Philip K. Dick, with a quick to the point review of a truely facinating career. It points the way to further reading. The book is clear evidence that Philip K. is one of the most important authors in American SF. This book is a must have for any reader of Dick, novice or expert.

I like this book a lot. There is a real thread here that has been well developed by these guys. This is more speculative than the well-argued case such as explained in their previous book - Civilization One, but its all pretty convincing anyway.

If anyone thinks Christopher Knight's books aren't true, I can't understand why. Not only are they well written, they are thoroughly documented throughout all the pages.

This book is a great summary of Knight's (and other's) work that, despite naysayers, is as compelling as it is inspiring. The one (big) problem I have is that Knight seems to take too many assumptions and leaps as fact. All he needs to do is be more 'objective' and less absolutist about things, and his points would be even more powerful. With that in mind, I still loved every minute of it!

How this guy continues to get published is beyond me. He never presents a fact...he'll start out with an assumption, discuss it, and then later on, build a new assumption on the previous assumption, but now present it as if it were fact!

I've been a 32nd Degree Mason of the Scottish Rite for over 10 years now...and Knight's books have always been good for one thing and one thing only: a laugh at Knight's own ignorance. I read The Hiram Key with an open mind and an attempt to see where he was coming from. The only value that book had was for entertainment purposes, and for spurring of some interesting debate amongst Lodge members.

Refer back to one of his other books where he discusses Jacques De Molay as the source of the Shroud of Turin. While an interesting theory, he never once provides compelling proof of, well, anything.

A wonderful storyteller, nothing more. If you're looking for FACTUAL books about Masonry, do not look to Christopher Knight for the truth.

Excellent work! Especially the 'fine art workflow' by Stephens Burns!
Debbi

The book is full of examples using numerous (and sometimes pricey) 3rd party software and plugins for photoshop. Color management for monitors, printing, and B&W and infrared were focuses of this book, with SEVERAL chapters on B&W alone. Ther was also a lot on printing with your own inkjet printer (most of us use 3rd party professional printing services). The last parts of the book go over making "digital art" or complete collages and pics with photoshop (not photography at all), and the last section deals with turning your photos into paintings using filters.

The description of most everything is pretty broad in nature, and when discussing sharpening (always a hot topic), the suggestion is to "Use USM and keep the pixel radius and threshold pretty low, while changing the % to get the desired effect". That's about the 1 sentence on sharpening without using some 3rd party PS plugin.

Overall, not recommended. I am still looking for a good all-in-one photography book.

First off, I'm an extremely amateur photographer, so I want to own up to that right away, since I realize that most of the people who buy this book are likely to be professional photographers. I'm not going to do a normal review to discuss the relevant chapter info either. The publisher's official write-up is better for that sort of thing, in my opinion. What I will say is this: I was slow to enter into the world of digital photography. I had the regular middle-range inexpensive digital camera, but whenever I went anywhere that I knew the pictures were going to really matter, I still lugged my SLR with all the great lens choices and accessories.

Last month, after reading through this book as mostly a curiosity, I took the plunge and bought a digital SLR. This book makes you truly appreciate the benefits of digital photography and the flexibility you can achieve through digital that you just can't get with your film negatives. I want to stress in advance that I am not an "advanced" digital photographer, but I still found this book to be beneficial and instrumental in bringing me around to this format. I wouldn't have wanted a basic book for this, since I would have outgrown that with the first round of pictures I took with my new camera.

Now, I'm in the process of working back through this book as I play with my new camera, and I couldn't be happier with the results. I definitely recommend this book for anyone who is the type of person who craves a little extra know-how when it comes to getting the most out of your work or hobby. If you are an amateur like me, don't be intimidated by the fact that this title was written for professionals who have advanced skills. When it comes to photographs, learning from the professional level is exactly what you want to do. Your pictures can't help but benefit.

This book is good for a quick reference. It is filled with sketches that are grouped into categories (chairs, tables, beds).
It can help you identify the style of a piece of furntiture, but doesn't help authenticating the piece.

Excellent and easy to use reference book, illustrates styles in thier purest form. Does not treat the subject of authenticity but notes characteristics and idiosyncracies of various examples.

Get this one. It shows and tells what a novice needs to learn about antique furniture. Also...a great refresher for long-time antiquers.

This book was very informative about the way these artists lived and treated their wives. It showed the very human side to Cezanne, Monet, and Rodin and made me think that genius comes with a price. Their wives/models didn't have easy lives living with them which was in a way surprising to me after seeing all the beautiful portraits they did of their wives. Those portraits made me fantasize about how wonderful it must have been to be married to these artists. This book opened me up to reality!

It was a sad revelation to see how these brilliant artists treated their models who became their mistresses, the mothers of their children, and they eventually married them,--but gave them little credit.

It was also a sad revelation how little they were appreciated and how little their art was able to reap for them financially.

Ruth Butler has set herself an ambitious and commendable task in "Hidden in the Shadow of the Master," namely, to pluck from oblivion the histories of three women who shared the lives of three remarkable artists - Monet, Rodin, and Cezanne - sometimes happily and sometimes in utter misery. Butler asks good questions: Why have these women never figured in traditional biographies of these artists? Did they feel cast aside in their own time, as their husbands pursued extramarital affairs and devoted, almost always, more attention to matters of art than of family? Did their roles as the principle models for their husbands' figurative work constitute an important contribution to art history?

Unfortunately, Butler isn't really in much of a position to answer these questions. Researching the lives of obscure people is undoubtedly very difficult: to pull off her project successfully, Butler would have needed to get extremely lucky in uncovering previously unknown documents, like correspondence and diaries - as, for instance, Gail Levinson did in researching the life of Edward Hopper's wife, Jo, who is brought vividly and poignantly to life in Levinson's "Edward Hopper." Butler however has not hit upon many revelatory documents, and one tends to doubt that she tried very hard to find any. Ninety-five percent of the sources she cites are war-horses of the traditional history of Impressionist and Post-Impressionist art, which she creatively reinterprets to place the "model-wives" front and center. The result is a lot of rhetorical questions: "What must Madame Cezanne have felt like" in her difficult marital circumstances, etc.

The first sign of trouble comes in Butler's introduction where she says, "The story I tell depends both on fact and on imagination." To my mind, that statement makes this book a very suspect addition to the academic literature, and I am frankly surprised that Yale University Press would have published it. Most disturbing, to fill in the gaping blanks in her narrative, Butler engages in highly speculative biographical interpretations of paintings and sculptures - often presuming to intuit the feelings of both sitter and artist. This is precisely the sort of thing that one would expect of undergraduates writing on art for the first time, and one would caution them against it because of the methodological speciousness of the approach.

In sum, high-minded intentions cannot make up for a lack of rigorous research and ground-breaking discoveries. Despite Butler's best efforts, all three of the women about whom she writes in "Hidden in the Shadow of the Master" remain, as far as I can see, unrevealed in this very ambitious though questionable book.