Douglas Books

I was raised in Santo domingo and was 11 years old at the time of the revolution. We were also some of those "evacuated" by the U.S. Navy from the hotel. We lived at Avenida Independencia, esquina Wenceslao Alvarez avenue he speaks of in page #207 in the paperback book. We were also there when Trujillo was killed and we spent the following school year in San juan while things settled down. Dad of course stayed with house and business. The names and memories all cascade through my mind. My dad was the Volkswagen and Studebaker dealer in Santo Domingo, and he had to sell the dreaded black VW Beetles the secret police drove, which for a good period of time cost him a lot of business with the locals for obvious reasons. Sadly that same 1965 revolution took my father's life later that year from the stress of remaining in the island to guard house and business, while his wife and four children were away in Puerto Rico. He was only 46 years old. The book is written very well, and do not let him fool you, his spanish had to be good as he described the island and people expertly. It was hard for me to read as you might imagine. After 5-10 pages I would have to stop and let all the memories pass. I was last there three years ago, and much has changed, from the incredibly horrible traffic to the tall sky scrapers that dot the Capital city. One thing has not changed however, and that is the pervasive poverty and same crooked governments who line their and their friends pockets as the country continues to suffer. I have always been asked what it was like to grow there, so I am ordering 4-5 additional copies to give as gifts to those so inclined to read it, I will also send a copy to my extended "family" in Santo Domingo. These are friends I grew up with, and to this day I call them the brothers and sisters that they are to us.

This book is incredible. MacKinnon follows family history in this incredible piece of literary nonfiction. His uncle was a Catholic priest, murdered by police officers in the Dominican Republic in the 60s. The police were immediately shot by an army officer. Forty years later he tries to unravel what actually happened.

The thing that blew me away most was that I could feel him struggle with a foreign language in a different country. I have lived overseas as well, and his writing took me right back to the feeling of pressure inside my head, as I tried to understand. As the book progresses, the pressure diminishes. Truly spectacular writing.

I tried to take it slow, to savour the book, but I finally gave up and tore through it in a day and a half. I am going to reread it this winter.

It took a long time to get a copy of this book, since it went out of print with the original publisher. I did finally get a copy and was very pleased.

Claire Mitchell, the heroine in this story, has secrets locked in her head. Secrets that developed because of a severe head injury when she was ten years old. Time and medical help have not revealed what she cannot remember. Now that she's all grown up, someone wants her dead. Uncovering those childhood secrets is her only hope of staying alive.

The story mesmerized me. I couldn't put it down. Recently, in an Internet chat room, I heard that Lynda Douglas has released an enhanced version of Deadfall through a different publisher. You can bet I'll be looking for it. I don't know how she could have improved on the original, but I intend to find out.

Claire Mitchell has a brilliant career, a handsome fiancé and she can't remember the first ten years of her life. She'd been found in 1979, a battered ten-year-old clinging to life with a gold locket around her neck in the Siskiyou National Forest.

Richard Westfall is everything Claire's ever wanted in a husband. When he takes her to meet his parents her apartment is vandalized and she is hit over the head as she interrupts the intruder. Claire can't imagine anything in her apartment worth taking. Then a friend borrows her car and winds up murdered and now Claire is convinced she was the intended victim, not her friend. Someone wants her dead and she is determined to find out why.

The book drips with suspense right from page one and it continues through a mase of twists and turns all the way into Oregon's Siskiyou National Forest and an ending you'll never forget.

Reviewed by Olivia Louise Lewis

This book, as well as all the other Inspector Roper mysteries, was excellent! I have read all of Roy Hart's mysteries and, needing another "fix" from this author, even read his espionage novel, "A Position of Trust". He has spoiled me for other authors. I keep hoping for more publications from him.

After discovering Roy Hart in "A Pretty Place for A Murder"
and "Fox in the Night", both enjoyable British police procedurals, I looked for others by him and came across "A Deadly
Schedule", apparently his most recent. While the previous two were good, this one was outstanding - a real page-turner. Inspector Roper encounters a murder in Crete while on holiday and tries, with difficulty, to remain detached. Upon returning
home to Dorset, however, two more murders crop up and of course
the reader suspects a connection. Motives remain elusive, and
red herrings abound, but it all comes together nicely in the end.
Woven through the story is the inspector's growing relationship
with Sheila Carmody (whom he met in Crete) and surprisingly (!)
she lives near him in Dorset. In previous books he seemed a
confirmed bachelor, but now he seems vulnerable ... which makes
him more likeable. This is Hart at his best, I hope he has
written another since 1996 as he is getting better and better.

Well written book! While it is a work of fiction, it is very fact based, and has reminded me of many things that happened in Viet Nam. While the subject itself may not be that appealing, it has enough humor mixed with the element of fact to make the book very enjoyable to read!

Dear Donna It's only 45 Hours from Bien Hoa by Douglas Neralich is the gut-wrenching personal account of his year in Vietnam. An elementary school teacher turned Army medic, Douglas was only twenty-two when called to serve his country as part of the 36th Engineer Battalion, stations at Vinh Long, in Vietnam in 1970. The vignettes presented are both gripping and horrifying, sometimes gentle, sometimes cruel, and taken altogether form an unforgettable picture of the war in this engaging memoir. Enhanced with occasional pencil sketches, Dear Donna It's only 45 Hours from Bien Hoa is a welcome and recommended contribution to Vietnam Military History collections and reading lists.

*Deckhand: The Humorous Redemption of an Angry Man*
by Bishop Douglas B. Weiss

I have been eagerly awaiting the publication of this book and finally received my copy around the middle of March. As many of you know, Doug Weiss, was the rector of St. Mark's, Shelby, from 1970 to 1981. Barbara, Amber and I started attending St. Mark's in 1976 in the midst of Doug's ministry here. Doug, his wife Eleanor and son, Josh, became our friends, remain so, and we have kept in touch over the years. Having just completed the book I can truly say I enjoyed it immensely! I learned things about the people of St. Mark's, who were members long before my family started attending. Sitting down with the book was just like having Doug here again and listening to one of his teachings, it gives the reader food for thought and calms the spirit. The book is a about his life and ministry beginning just prior to his birth in Ellwood, Pennsylvania. I enjoyed the background information and descriptions of the relationships of his grandparents, parents and extended family members. He has a gift for describing places and situations bringing the reader into an intimacy with the storyline. Doug's school years were difficult as was his relationship with his father. This theme influenced him throughout much of his life causing him much anger and, no doubt, made him much more reflective and spiritual than most. His description of his boat building project with its imminent sinking in flames brought a smile to my face. The struggles though High School and his college experiences were a reminder of the struggles we all face and how they shape who we are. Most of us, however, never give a second thought through it all or identify that it is God working on building our character. Later in the book Doug mentions that he had the feeling he was something of a "square peg being put into a round hole" and that thought had crossed my mind as I was reading the book. The summer spent as a deckhand on the Henry Phipps, a Great Lakes freighter, prior to seminary, he describes as a crucible experience. Here he establishes his independence and a building of his self confidence as he is thrown into the "world." Being on the water, something he has always loved seems to be an underlying theme of the book. He both begins and ends his book with passages about water. Following seminary his first assignment was as a Deacon at the Church of the Epiphany, in Euclid, Ohio. Strangely enough, Euclid, was the community in which I grew up. His description of his ministry in Euclid continues with his "going against the grain theme", while his use of humor throughout the book softens the tensions therein.
Coming to Shelby, in 1970, and his stay here is where he says he learned what ministry was all about. He and Eleanor call their Shelby years "The Days Of Heaven". I very much enjoyed this portion of the book, as I'm sure will most of you and I'll just let you read about it on your own. From Shelby Doug and Eleanor were called to a Diocese in California where much of what they learned in Shelby was put into practice. Both joyful and difficult times ensued until that portion of his ministry came to an end. Doug and Eleanor eventually left the Episcopal Church, along with their parish, in what I am sure was a very heart rending time. Doug eventually became a Bishop in the Anglican Mission in America (AMiA) which was a more orthodox branch of the Anglican Communion. After some "political" adjustments within that branch he retired as Bishop and he and Eleanor moved to Moon Township, a small community, just outside of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. True to his ministry he continues on as a Pastor, providing spiritual direction to seminary students at a seminary in Ambridge, Pennsylvania. Doug's writing shows he has a real gift for telling his life's story. His use of humor throughout the book tempered the anger he found within himself and made the book a wonderful and enjoying read. An outstanding thing I noticed when I started reading the book was on the very first page. He is describing a swimming lesson where the instructor calls out to him, "Relax kid! Relax! a voice admonishes as I break the surface, lifted on the hand of a swimming instructor. You can't float when you're all tensed up like that. Just relax." Further on he says, "How do I float? Let my body go. Relax all over. Believe the water is my friend, not my enemy. Terrified, letting go is impossible. Depend on another. Not my life! Be at someone's mercy. Absolutely not! But to float, I must let go, allowing the water to take me, to wrap me in its embrace." "Doing often sinks me. Resting, doing nothing floats me. It is an incomprehensible contradiction, requiring trust to make it work." Wow, I thought to myself, how much like swimming is our faith in God. When we try to be in control ... we sink, when we relax and let God... we float. He will embrace us and save us. Doug's story is about relaxing and letting God do what He has promised to do. The more we take, or try to take control, the quicker we begin to sink. While at St. Mark's, early in their ministry, Doug and Eleanor Weiss had a profound and lasting effect on the life of our parish. We continue many of the things they set into motion. We still do not have an "every member canvass" relying on the Lord to provide for our financial needs. We continue with a prayer ministry during the Sunday service. We continue to try and be faithful to the Lord's leading by allowing Him to direct our presence in the community. I would highly recommend this book to you. It's enjoyable, enlightening and a true testimony of one man's walk with Jesus! Thanks Doug & Eleanor!

Dale Traven

Don't try to tell Douglas B. Weiss Christians will never become one church. He's been there when it was happening and he's written a guidebook for making the ecumenical movement real.
Each of us can become what the writer became. He has given us all the details -- what to do, what not to do, how it felt to him, as well as lessons he learned and the price he paid. So what did he become? Weiss became intimate with Jesus Christ. They became close friends.
While still in seminary in 1968, Weiss joined a Roman Catholic church whose members renovated houses for poor people to live in and founded a company where they could go to work. As a young Episcopal priest, he began praying for people in his own words, in addition to praying the prayers in his prayerbook.
Prayer as conversation led to hearing and obeying what he heard his Lord telling him. When Weiss did this, God helped him transform two troubled missions into growing, vibrant parishes. After his Silicon Valley parish left the Episcopal Church, Weiss became part of Pastors Prayer Summit, which developed into Pray South Bay and Lighthouses of Prayer. Pastors of all denominations gathered to pray for one another, people prayed for their pastors and congregations, church leaders prayed for their cities, then found ways to meet their city's needs. People committed themselves to a prayer program that became a lifestyle. God built his church on people's prayers.
Weiss paints vivid word-pictures to set scenes, then moves adeptly between narrative and dialogue. Although active in the church his entire life, he doesn't come across as sanctimonious. From the rough language and risky situations that surrounded him as a deckhand on an ore boat, to fascinating and detailed sketches of what heaven could be like, his writing makes it real. This well-written memoir reads like a novel.

This is THE BEST book I have read on math instruction. It fits my philosophy of sequential learning. It breaks every math skill into hierarchial steps, offers instructional presentation strategies, and assessment strategies. Every teacher of math needs to look at this book.

Great book for developing direct instruction for math. Nice job with task analysis - breaking down concepts into steps. Helps inform my teaching.

This book is a great "tool kit" for all parties involved in software development. It gives equal time to current methodogies, and offers suggestions for how to create blueprints others can read for application systems, in the same way architects and engineers design a home. Makes complete sense. Great information with rationale behind it.

This is a great book. I refer to it often and have used many of the ideas in it to build software. It is especially good at addressing software architectural issues which are seldom talked about in a coherant manner. The book takes an approach that is more apt to be of benefit to the desktop application designer. Although, being an embedded firmware designer, I found it to be very helpful anyway.

Some of the complaints that I have about it is that sometimes you have to hunt for the information you're looking for. It could have been organized a little better and the index certainly needs to be beefed-up. It could also use more treatment on how to do architectural design with operating system services such as tasks, threads, etc... in mind. Sometimes, the author uses several terms for the same concept which forces the reader to go back and say "oh...he meant such-and-such..." But these items are a small price to pay for the overall amount and depth of information covered.

A great book. Definitely on my top ten list!

SMART! Nicely written and very clear language. Public school systems could learn alot from this book!

This text explains EXACTLY how to make the everyday practice of teaching with ABA work BEYOND the one-to-one home program for a single student. It is the most comprehensive extension of "what to do and how to do it" since Cooper, Heron, & Heward's "Applied Behavior Analysis."

What Dr. Greer dubs the "ABA Systems Approach" springs from the university informing comprehensive application of behavior analsyis to schooling settings (CABAS schools). However, the text can also stand indepenent of that special environment; and its contents are immediately applicable to individual practitioners in home and community settings.

Chapters summarize advances in practice and current research in verbal behavior; creating literacy and mathematics curricula for students who need ABA methodology to learn; and how to supervise other professionals in advancing their ABA and research skills.

Especially useful are tables that translate students' performance trouble into potential repertoires that may not be fully taught or reinforcement contingencies that may be lacking; and team actions that would remedy those problems.

This little book is great. Easy to understand simple text with illustrations to match. I highly recommend this little gem.

Diabetes is a complicated disease. I know. I have it, and I've tried to explain it to people (no, I didn't get it from eating too much sugar). This book gives an easy-to-understand explanation about diabetes and its treatment--and the illustrations are great. I'm giving copies to my friends.

Most of my students have purchased the 7th Edition. They say, this Dictionary is very good and comes in handy for class and homework assignments.
The definitions used are clear enough for new computer enthusiasts; as well as the more advanced student. I like it.

A wonderful reference book as you muddle through the jorgon of the computer world. This book offers short and concise explainations needed to understand the growing technology surrounding computers. A must for any home or business computer.