Freeman Books

I collect children's and young adult ghost stories, time slips, and other eerie tales, most of which are now sadly out-of-print. This one, A Haunting Air, is one of the better books I've read in a long time. Here's the summary on the book's fly:

"There was no real reason to fear the small modern house that had replaced the old Fairmead mansion, but the rumors about the strange child who sang in the overgrown garden seemed to have some chilling basis in reality when tenant after tenant moved away. And for 16 year-old Melissa Brown, living next door with no family but a preoccupied novelist father, an empty Fairmead meant a lonely life. When Helen, a young widow and her baby, Bobson, arrived, Melissa found them so companionable that she determined to keep them there even if it meant coping with a ghost. But slowl the three of them were drawn into a struggle from the past that had chilling implications for the present."

The summary doesn't do the story justice, as they seldom do. Helen and Melissa are both so intrigued by the box Melissa finds in an abandoned icehouse that was once used for parties at the Fairmead mansion before it was torn down and other properties built on the land. Melissa feels she's being led to this box, and at first she's terribly disappointed. She hopes to find treasure to help her landlady, the fiercely independent but kind in her stern way, keep her home. Inside the box--which looks to be an old hatbox-- are antique penny toys and a wax doll that had clearly seen fire in its time. The pieces are wrapped in old newspapers. But Helen, who has always wanted to be a historian, sees far more in the contents of the box, especially the papers. "They're pieces of the past...Don't you see that they may tell us something about the toys? And don't know where they may lead us." Miss Clayfield lets the girls have access to old family letters, and they begin to put together the story of Fairfield's last days in the 1880s and the people who lived there--particularly the quiet and intense little girl, Hannah, who is hated by her mother, Ada, a servant in the home who had hidden her pregnancy and then hidden Hannah in a very dangerous place where she would have been burned had someone not found her. Jane Webb, the quiet and caring lady of the manor, worries for Hannah, never having had children, and comes to love her, which engrages the unstable Ada.

Through a frightening but cathartic conclusion, Melissa comes to terms with her own mother's abandonment and works through the often difficult relationship she has with her father. Helen's love and compassion for children heals a very great sadness. Mrs. Clayfield is always there, making good things happen.

Freeman Barton is a well-trained biblical and historical scholar who nevertheless can write clearly and simply for non-scholars. This book is one of the best introductions available to the subject known as "conditional immortality." From the Middle Ages onward, the doctrine of the unconditional immortality of the human spirit developed and became the prominent view in most Christian denominations. By this doctrine, everybody has eternal life -- most people have an agonizing one in hell forever, while some have a blissful one in heaven forever. However, many scholars have shown that the evidence from the Bible favors the view that the human spirit is not automatically eternal, but has to be granted eternal life by God. Barton examines in rather ample detail (for so compact a book) the evidence for both automatic immortality and conditional immortality, and in the process teaches the reader a great deal about the whole afterlife perspective of the Bible. I think he succeeds admirably in his task, and this book is timely and interesting reading.

Provence is known throughout the culinary world as a stronghold. Often, one is called upon in a recipe for "herbes de provence." This is a combo of seven of the herbes used in this region:bay, fennel, marjoram, rosemary, sage, thyme, and savory.

Here, seven of their top chefs take one of the herbes and create a burst of recipes featuring that herb.

Feast your eyes and tastebuds on such as: Pears and Strawberries roasted with thyme honey, Confit of Rabbit shoulder in olvie oil and blinis with bay and eggplant compote, Braised Mediterranean bass with lemon and sage, River Trout en papillote with fennel and white wine, Thin Tuna tart with marjoram vinagirette, Apple Confit with savory,vanilla ice cream.

This is not for the faint not ready to find the ingredients and try out the techniques. For those who do, the results are superb, intense and fresh with herbes! Bon Appetit!

My 4-year-old is following along with this book/tape combination about 10 times a day!! It's positively addicting. The illustrations are engaging. The tape has wonderful narration on one side and just music on the other, so you can read the story along with the music.

Mr. Freeman puts you in the cockpit... If you fly Hueys or fixed wing you will love this book. This is one mans life of flying from Dust Off to GA this is a great book. He has saved many lifes in his time and deserves to have his story told.

I am indeed an admirer of James Dillet Freeman's writings, ranking him with Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, and Walt Whitman.

Although this book (originally mistitled "Happiness Can Be A Habit" by an earlier publisher) is an extended essay, it is profoundly poetic and also profoundly spiritual. The title poem sets the tone for the book, and the forward gives insight into the author. He does not consider his writing to be truly his own, but the result of putting down thoughts that "Angels Sing In Me".

This book is a spiritual, joyful, loving look at the world and the life we live. Freeman shares his uplifting philosophy with us throughout the book...every chapter and part of chapter has important insights, though there are definite peaks. Chapter Four, "Life's infinite variety", begins with the beautiful "One morning in my garden", wherein he speaks of the life within everything...even in the rocks and the earth. The chapter ends with "The I of me" which contains some of the most meaningful lines in the book...starting with the sentence, "Perhaps I am most like a song" and continuing through the last line of the section. Chapter five, "God's free gifts", includes the section, "We are not splinter people" in which he questions if a God who is intelligence and love would have created "a world where nothing lives but something dies" and ends with the thought that this "is also a world where nothing dies but something lives!" In chapter seven, "Perfect world--perfect man", he gives us "A vision of perfection", a vision which might not be as desirable as one would think and follows up in chapter eight, "Your own heaven, your own hell" with an unexpected "vision of Hell", unexpected since the subject of Hell is hardly one you encounter often in his writings. And I think you'll definitely like that vison...it's not what you might expect. In chapter ten, "It all makes sense", he shares two of his best writings drawn from his garden experiences...the story of the cherry tree in the section, Life is effort", and "A fish not even gold"...both of these using nature to show us basic Truths. I hope I've done some sort of justice to this book...you'll find it a profound spiritual and uplifting experience.

Incidentally, the forward of this book as well as the story of the cherry tree and "A fish not even Gold" are read by the author on the audiotape, "Angels Sing In Me", also available on this site.

This is a great book for knucklebusting hot guitar licks, especially in the American roots music/Telecaster style. I recommend this as a textbook for my guitar students.

What would the holidays be without candy - Valentine's Day without the hearts, Hanukkah without chocolate coins? Candy wasn't always part of our lives, explains Ruth Swain in How Sweet It Is And Was: chapters provide a lively and intriguing history of candy production from the first accidental discovery of fudge at Vassar to Hersey's mechanization of the chocolate-making process. Kids in grades 2-4 will love How Sweet It Is And Was.

This is an entertaining and fascinating cornucopia of ingenious ideas. Gets one thinking in new directions--even if you aren't running a company.

More than 30 kitchen & bath pros have shared information and demonstrate successful sales tactics. The stories have been organized by topic, from "lead roles"- finding sales prospects-all the way to contractual obligations-closing the sale & cleaning up the paperwork.

Each column concludes with quick tips, snappy summaries of the story's lessons. These tips help you sell more and better kitchens & bath.