May Books

Compiled and edited in 1889 by Ednah Cheney, this book offers an interesting look into the life of Louisa May Alcott. Cheney intersperses the letters and journal entries with some biographical information. The Alcotts were very poor and lived off the money Louisa made from her writing; Alcott keeps track of how much money she gets for each story, even after the success of "Little Women". Unfortunately, the amount of time she spent writing (up to 14 hours a day), plus the illness she caught after nursing civil war soldiers took a toll on her and many of her letters, plus many of the journal entries mention her various illnesses and describe how she had to take morphine to help her sleep.

Fans of "Little Women" will be most interested in the segments regarding that book and may be surprised to find out that Alcott thought the book was boring. It's hard to believe she really meant that because it's clear from her letters and journal entries how very biographical "Little Women" is. In fact, Alcott's journal description of Beth's death in real life is used almost word for word in the book. Other elements in "Little Women" are fiction (there was, alas, no real life Professor Bhaer and Alcott included him against her better judgement - she would have preferred Jo remain single, as Alcott herself did) and Teddy was based on a Polish acquaintance, not a next door neighbor. However, the four sisters are based on Louisa and her sisters and the journal entries and letters make you realize how perfectly she caught them on paper.

This is an interesting book about not only a fascinating woman but also a fascinating family. The Alcotts' friends included the Emersons, the Thoreaus and the Hawthornes, all whose influences helped shape Louisa May Alcott's writings. Despite her success, her life was not an easy one and was often filled with sorrow. Yet, despite her sorrow and illnesses, Louise May Alcott's works enchanted children then and now.

Louisa May Alcott, when speaking of herself, writes with humility and grace. Her words are always wise and quietly moving. Her story is rich and engaging. This is an awesome inside view to an amazing woman and author.

It's too bad the All-Star reader series is no longer being published. This line of books is one the best tools I have found to help my children when they are starting to read. They have interesting story lines, but with enough easy "sight" words to encourage the new reader to keep going. The star stickers they get to put in the front of the book each time they read it, is a great incentive, and gives them a feeling of accomplishment. What a great idea to put the reward chart right in the book! Then in the back every time they know a new word from the story, they can color in an empty star beside the word (every word is there). Can't beat this series for giving a child positive feedback and interesting beginning stories they can read. Good colorful illustrations help to keep their interest in the story too!

I have searched and searched for the just the right books for my kindergartner. This series of books have been perfect. This book has a very good story, which has been hard to find in beginning reader books. It also has a reward for reading the book, evey time you read it you put a gold star (which are provided with the book) on the inside front cover. This has been a great incentive for my son to read the book and read it again. The words are just on the level of a beginning reader but it also has a very good story.

This teriffic little book is paper, lightweight -- and can identify nearly every tree I threw at it! (Comon, we're talking about trees in the outdoors, not funny thinks they've imported at the nursery!)

Tree Finder is an expert system reduced to a simple booklet. Look at the leaf, find the picture on page zz, which asks a diagnostic question and directs you to one of several other pages, depending on the answer. In three or four page turns, you have a positive tree identification. Nifty! Hey, even fun!!

I bought Tree Finders for all my outdoor friends --they all loved it and now carry The Tree Book on hikes.

I agree with everything the previous reviewer from Yorba Linda said, so I'll make this review short. I also carry this pocket-size book with me on all my desert hikes, and aside from being lightweight it also happens to be the most useful book I know of for quick and easy identification of desert trees (some of which look very similar to each other and would be hard to identify without a book like this). For example, on my last hike in northwest Arizona where I live, I was able to use this book to easily distinguish the canotia crucifixion-thorn from the other two common crucifixion-thorns and other similar-appearing trees such as the smokethorn. If you carry this little book around with you long enough, eventually all the desert trees will start seeming like old familiar friends. And you can't beat the price either!

I loved this book! It is so well written I can literly picture each one of these women and their lives.I would highly recomend this to anyone who enjoys English literature of the early 1900's. I wish they would release the movie on DVD for America. It is currently only on VHS.

This is the way to spend a rainy afternoon, listening to a wonderful book. I have read it many times, seen the movie over and over again and now the audio book. Excellent choice!

In the scope of the great cities worldwide, Melbourne is a baby. Slightly larger than Vatican City, it's easy to write the city off in contrast to the big five; New York, Paris, Rome, London and Tokyo. However, I always felt with utmost conviction that Melbourne can hold a torch to those great landscapes because of the sheer number of cultures, religions, ideas, viewpoints and backgrounds that have been integrated to give this city its unique character unlike anything else in Australia; Melbourne truly falls under the banner of melting-pot. This encyclopaedia chronicles all the suburbs, municipalities, nationalities, landmarks and institutions that have given the city its rich, albeit short, history from the indigenous era to the gold rush to the booming years of development during the last few decades. The Encyclopedia of Melbourne deserves a place on the bookshelf of any Australian who feels a strong sense of loyalty to Marvellous Melbourne.

Melbourne is easily the best city in Australia. It has the best geography, architecture, restaurants, coffee shops, public transport (we have a fantastic tram network), libraries, galleries and gardens. On top of all that, its inhabitants are remarkably relaxed and friendly. The new 'Encyclopedia of Melbourne' is like the city, expansive and generous, and great for dipping & skipping through over a few weeks. It has hundreds of contributors and a number of personal essays by notable Melbournians (and it weighs a ton). It has a huge range of subjects, including a small section about 'nature strips' and a couple of pages about smells. One of the most poetic entries is about Victoria's seasons and their taxonomy, which were reclassified according to observations of plant and animal life (and removed autumn).

Anyone familiar with Melbourne will find one or two problems: I noticed the section about the National Gallery of Victoria neglected to mention the architect, Roy Grounds. Some readers might also find the general style of the prose too academic or humourless.

Canberra is tranquil but entirely suburban and Perth, Hobart and Brisbane are perhaps too small (but I haven't lived in those three) and Sydney - urgh - is an ugly, car-crushed wasteland that only ignorant tourists could love (yes, I lived there for six years and it's a hole). Melbourne seems to have all the best features of a great city without the usual attendant problems. Was this from luck or the talents of its citizens?

The Enlightenment in America is a detailed survey of the impact and life of Enlightenment ideas in 18th century America. Characterized by excellent writing and thoughtful scholarship, this is an insightful book. May begins with a division of the Enlightenment into 4 useful categories; the Moderate Enlightenment, the Skeptical Enlightenment, the Revolutionary Enlightenment, and the Didactic Enlightenment. The Moderate Enlightenment is very much the Enlightenment of Locke, Montesquieu, Samuel Clarke, Francis Hutcheson, and similar figures. Pervaded by a strong sense of rational design of the universe, a commitment to deism or very moderate forms of Protestantism, and of a need for order and balance, the Moderate Enlightenment exerted a strong influence on the American colonies. May is particularly good on the strong interaction between the Moderate Enlightenment and different strains of Protestantism. Melded with aspects of colonial Protestantism and the Republican Whig/Commonwealth tradition, the Moderate Enlightenment would contribute considerably to the ideology of the Founders. May sees the Skeptical Enlightenment, associated with several of the more skeptical French philosophes and with Hume, as being less influential, though he points out the importance of some of Hume's political ideas. The Revolutionary Enlightenment, whose greatest apostle would be Rousseau and whose most important American contributor is Thomas Paine, had a considerable vogue following the outbreak of the French Revolution but was later discredited, along with the Skeptical Enlightenment, by the reaction against the French Revolution and Bonaparte. The final phase of the Enlightenment in America was the very strong influence of the Didactic Enlightenment, May's term for the influence of the Scottish 'Commonsense' school of James Beattie, Dugald Stewart, and Thomas Reid. Partly a reaction to Hume and partly a reaction to more radical Enlightenment figures, these largely second and third rate thinkers put forward a version of epistemology and psychology that was easily incorporated into the burgeoning evangelical movement in America. Their influence in American education was great and largely defused the radicalism associated with prior aspects of the Enlightenment. Accompanying the success of the Didactic Enlightenment was a definite decline in the intellectual vigor of the former colonies. May does an excellent job of discussing a wide variety of major and minor figures in American life. He as good on a number of now largely unknown writers and clergymen as he is on Jefferson and other major figures. The integration of his intellectual history with political and social history is very good. I'm surprised this book isn't better known.

The Enlightenment in America by Henry F. May is a serious work about how and why eighteenth-century enlightenment occured. This book works two main themes or ideas in early America. The enlightenment and protestantism, but this book goes deeper as enlightenment with protestantism always in the background as matrix, rival, ally, and of course enemy. This book is about Enlightenment as religion.

This book is divided into four sections: The Moderate Enlightenment, 1688-1787; The Skeptical Enlightenment, 1750-1789; The Revolutionary Enlightenment, 1776-1800; and The Didactic Enlightenment, 1800-1815. The author takes us through each of these time frames and gives the reader a basic comparitive analysis as to the times and events of the day. Politics, law, education, science and epistemology all are interplayed and are important in general discussion. To understand the political thought better we start with religion.

Men of the late eighteenth century, no matter what their calling, seldom thought about any branch of human affairs without referring consciously to some general beliefs about the nature of the universe and man's place in it. So, with this tome, enlightenment is itself basic.. to believe in two propostions: first, that the present age is more enlightened than the past; and second, that we understand nature and man best through the use of our natural faculties. We find that in the years that enlightenment and protestantism were either allies or rivals neither was simple or undivided.

This book brings into play ideas, ideas of Voltaire, Hume and Paine; Rousseau, Locke, Samuel Clarke, and Montesquieu all work toward the final outcome of the enlightenment that worked through to the Founding Fathers. Most of the Founding Fathers were deists, but perplexity of the American culture has always been deeply Calvinistic.

Your brain will get a workout reading this book, as this is the most comprehensive survey of enlightenment as it relates to the eighteenth-century America. When reading about the Founding Fathers and their lives and times, reading this book about the history of ideas will put things into perspective.

This is a great book about a part of the civil war. I have met Dr. Barron. He really researched this material and has another book about the East TN area and hiking called Presence Lingers.

Dr. Earle P. Barron, Jr. is a retired Presbyterian minister who has turned to local history with Ewell's March Home: The Civil War and Early Times in and around Greenwich, Virginia (1999, vii + 131 pp., $12.00 softcover). He writes in the preface, "October 14, 1863, the day of the Battles of Auburn and Bristoe, is the primary time period. General Richard S. Ewell, who grew up two miles from Greenwich on what is now Lonesome Road, is the principal person of interest." The book can be ordered by contacting Dr. Earle P. Barron, Jr. at 1300 Lester Harris Road, Johnson City, TN 37601 or by calling 423-434-2414.

This read gave me a feeling for what it was really like in Northern Virginia during the Civil War. Lots of first hand diary entries and interesting 'real life' stories. A great little book.

I used this text to develop curriculum on families. I found it practical, easy to understand and thorough when discussing families. Good generalist text on families.

Have not finished reading, but so far have found it very readable and up to standards of bachelors or graduate nursing programs. Nicely covers issues of families and health including how they are affected by socio-economic and cultural factors, how persons define family networks, and the role of nurses with regard to caring for families. Also does a thorough job discussing the theoretical basis of family nursing, gives numerous examples of current research and suggests areas in need of further research.

Face it, fifty years ago life was a lot simpler. Nippersink Creek was the mighty Mississippi to any nine year old boy living in Spring Grove. We might have been too young to read Tom Sawyer, but we sure could live some of the same adventures of that great book. Tempering some of those great adventures was the influence of Catholic School with it's Sister "Leon" and Father "Fritz." They tempered and helped shape the path that led us from the banks of that muddy Nippersink to wherever life took us. It was a special time and a special place. One never to be duplicated but only to live on in our memories and hearts. Life was simpler fifty years ago, and stories such as these remind us of that fact and help to reconnect to that special time.

A great book that touches anyone who ever grew up. While it entertains and makes me laugh, it triggers memories of my own life and feelings...just like storytelling should.

In 1535, following the King murdering their father, their mother Nicola Perry exiles her three daughters to different remote parts of Scotland for their safety. Catherine goes to Balvenie where she married her host John Stewart (see THE DREAMER). Laura travels to St. Duthac where she weds her protector William Ross (see THE ENCHANTRESS). The wildest one Adrianne drives the Abbess of Barra in the Western Isles crazy with her defiance.

Eventually, Wyntoun MacLean, master of the Isle, arrives and takes Adrianne away with him when he leaves. His seemingly altruistic motive disguises his effort to obtain the Treasure of Tiberius for the Knights of the Veil. At his father's castle, Adrianne and Wyntoun agree to marry in order to rescue her mother, now held hostage, and to attain the treasure without jeopardizing her now married and pregnant siblings. As they work together, Wyntoun and Adrianne fall in love, but any meaningful relationship remains in jeopardy from a traitor and the individual who abducted her mother.

THE FIREBRAND, the conclusion to the Perry siblings Highland trilogy, is an exiting, well-written historical romance filled with suspense and intrigue. The story line is fun as the lead charcaters struggle with an unknown enemy and their growing love for one another. The return of the stars from the previous tales adds to the overall pleasure of the plot. Though the story line requires some acceptance by the audience, May McGoldrick attains her third gold medal with this triumphant novel.

Harriet Klausner

This is the best of the trilogy. There are a few gaps in the story and a few issues left unresolved, such as Gilly. He started out being an important part of the story and just sort of drifted out of the story line. The end of the story is also rather abrupt in light of having to read through three books to get to it. It is almost as if the authors were burned out of ideas. Despite these little gaps and despite the stretch my immagination,it was an enjoyable read. I feel it could be read as a single self contained book as it covers the entire trilogy background of the plot and characters. I recommend it as excellent entertainment.