Murray Books

While this book does not cover the intricacies of mentoring itself, it is a perfect reference for establishing and maintaining a mentoring program. The book walks through the essential elements of a program, repleat with tools and tips for acheiving success. I used this book as a blueprint for a well-received program.

BIBLE STORIES FROM A to Z - This book is a fantastic resource for parents, teachers, and Sunday school teachers! It is filled with a wonderful variety of Bible stories and exciting activities that accompany them.

Young children will have marvelous time learning about Adam, Noah, Moses, Ruth, Esther, Jesus, Saul, and so many more Bible characters! After hearing each Bible story featured, the children will engage in such stimulating activities as making puppets, creating footprints with paint, constructing wind socks, connecting dots, using codes to color, completing mazes, and finding hidden pictures.

The book is divided into 26 mini-units, each featuring a letter of the alphabet.

After reading this book, you'll have solid proof that television actually molds human behavior. The irresponsible mantra by the Hollywood elite that their movies simply reflect life, and are in no way responsible for violence in our society, is roundly disproven with solid, scientific evidence. Besides directly being responsible for increasing senseless violence, irresponsible television producers have also caused increased racism in America. This is a must read for anyone who wants to decrease violence and racism in our world.

I am a physicist, not an ecologist, but still found this book fascinating. It deals with the interface between physics and biology, focusing primarily on heat and mass transfer in living organisms. A large section of the book is devoted to radiative heat transfer, which is the dominant heat transfer mechanism in many every day situations. Gates has many interesting examples sprinkled through the text. For instance, there is an interesting discussing of evaporative cooling of birds and mammals, including the relative importance of panting versus sweating. An accompanying graph, from the author's research, shows the evaporative losses of a ground squirrel as a function of ambient temperature. There are also formulas given for estimating evaporative losses. There are many other interesting discussions (evaporation losses of lakes, body temperatures of birds, skylight irradiation on sloped surfaces, etc.). Lots of interesting stuff. The book requires knowledge of trigonometry. It would also be very helpful to have had exposure to heat transfer concepts, especially radiative heat transfer. Without that, book may be tough going for some. Overall, I found the book well written and very enjoyable

Uninhibited by style or genre, Murray samples everything that life has to offer, what he sees and experiences, tossing out impressions that startle and attract, a facility of language and a love of place that is both extraordinary and compelling:

"But tears underlie every country. Nowhere do they
discharge the past, which is the live dark matter
that flows undismissably with us, and impends
unseen over every point we reach."
(The Welter)

Murray renders landscapes tangible, images that seduce with subtlety, yet paint a stunning portrait grounded in reality:

"Haze went from smoke blue to beige
gradually, after midday.
The Inland was passing over
High up, and between the trees.
The north hills and the south hills
Lost focus and faded away."
(A Levitation of Land)

Contrasting with the poetry that explores the sensory world, a celebration of out natural environment and a caution toward preservation, the poet displays a sharp and canny wit, undeterred from humorous musings:

"Fragrance stays measured
stench bloats out of proportion:
even a rat-size death...

is soon
a house-evacuating metal gas
in our sinuses..

give it a Viking funeral."
(The Nostril Songs)

As well the poet is a master of punsmanship, a provocateur of twisted metaphors:

"A rhyme is a pun that knows where
to stop. Puns pique us with the glare
of worlds too coherent to bear
by any groan person."
(Black Belt in Martial Arts)
A man who appreciates the beauty of nature and the history imbued in place, Murray creates streams of images prompted by the past in league with the present:

"Greeks camped out there in lean times
fishing. Their Greek islands lived in town
with their families. Now it is a National Park."
(The Offshore Island)

In "The Cool Green", Murray writes of money, its power to influence behavior, the fact that "millions eat garbage without it", its facile misuse of those in need, its irrelevance to life's grand design:

"Our waking dreams feature money everywhere
but in our sleeping dreams
it is strange and rare.

How did money capture life
away from poetry, ideology, religion?
It didn't want our souls."

The treasure of New South Wales, Les Murray captures the spirit of language in poetry that assails, provokes and haunts, his love of place rich with memory and image, evoking our finer instincts, cautioning an appreciation for the diminishing bounty of a fertile and precious earth. Luan Gaines/2007.

This is one hefty tome, being the result of decades of birding and a monumental amount of compiling. Birds of Ontario lists every known (wild) bird to have been observed in the province of Ontario and privides information concerning identification, measurements, and seasonal residency. For migrating birds, average and earliest/last arrival/departure date is provided based on observations by naturalist clubs and individual researchers. For the common birds of Ontario a grid-marked map of the province is provided for Christmas Bird Counts and Breeding Bird Surveys; the former lists (per grid) the average number of birds observed per 100 party-hours, while the latter the average number per 50 stops. Both are based on information collected between 1968 and 1977. Given this, and the fact that the book was published in 1985, suggests that the information could be now dated considering the amount of habitat destruction that has occurred since then, not to mention other ecologically-related matters. For the average birder, this book is not necessarily essential--especially for $150--but if you are fortunate enough as I was to come across one cheap, it is certainly a useful volume to add to one's library.

A childhood of control where even the slightest step out-of-bounds of the required agenda would rile the fury of a step mother obssesed with her way or no way. Reina Murray presents a touching memoir of relentless striving to understand her world as a young teenager thrown into a homelife far from her loving and formative younger years. Some events touch on the very survival of the essence of her soul....leading ultimately to the assurance that love, free and open to touch the core spirit of herself and those around her, allows her own spirit to soar so high above her own expectations. A joy to read a finale so deserving of personal victory and triumph!

No feel-good message here. No fire and brimstone either. Just clear, biblical exhortation from a man with an obvious heart for following God. Murray's main point is that complete obedience, while impossible to practice, must be an absolute commitment on our part for us to walk in Christ. Basic things that are rote memorized truths in Christians minds are here restated in a way that will prod you to reconsider your level of true, deep obedience. I highly reccomend this book for anyone hungering for more...

Blood Feud by Harry Potter is a great book of the 16th century family rivalry between the Stewarts and the Gordons. More specifically, the Earls of Moray and Earls of Huntly are the focus of the book. Mr. Potter shows how the Highlands have always been a turbulent region of struggles between families for power, money and land.

He starts out with the 4th Earl of Huntly and 1st Earl of Moray, the good regent who were both grandsons of King James IV. They both vied for control of the realm during Queen Mary of Scots reign. The Gordons were Catholic and the Earl of Moray was a champion of the reformed faith otherwise known as the Protestant faith. Then we see the continuation between the 5th Earl of Huntly and the regent.

The meat of the book surrounds the 6th Earl of Huntly and the 2nd Earl of Moray. This chapter of the feud leads to the murder of the 2nd Earl of Moray who is immortalized in the Scottish ballad of the murder of "the Bonny Earl of Moray". We see that George Gordon, 6th Earl of Huntly is a staunch supporter of the monarchy, now King James VI, and practically a vice regent in the Scottish Highlands but still Catholic. He collides with the upstart James Stewart, 2nd Earl of Moray. James Stewart is Earl of Moray in right of his wife, Elizabeth daughter of the Good Regent. James Stewart is from a lesser branch of the Stewarts descended from the Albany Stewarts. James proves to be a far less of an Earl and Stewart then his famous Father-in-Law. Despite this he is still the King's kin and a protestant. His family is relentless in seeking to avenge his murder. King James must mediate this long term family feud between his family and his friend to keep it from interfering with his accession to the English throne.

In the end the Earl of Huntly is created a Marquis but looses much of his former power and glory due to the murder and his keeping with the Catholic faith. The 3rd Earl of Moray and son of the murdered James becomes Lieutenant of the North of Scotland and marries the Earl of Huntly's daughter, thus ending the feud for good.

I really enjoyed this book. It was interesting to see a side of Scottish history that previously had been shadowed by Queen Mary's troubled life and King James accession to the English throne. It was nice to stay focused in Scotland for a change when most of the attention shifts to London's stage at this time in history.

Blood Feud is a must for the Scottish History enthusiasts.

Starts with the history of Bloodhounds in Belgium at St. Hubert's monastery, where Bloodhounds were known as St. Huberts. Discusses the temperament and has a detailed description of the breed. There is a section of proper care including need for veterinary care, good food, exercise, and love. See the fabulous detail of the writing, "Today, about 400 different dog breeds exist....Some can weigh as much as 200 pounds (91 kg). Others are small enough to fit in the palms of your hands. Despite these differences, all dogs belong to the same scientific family. It is called Canidae. This name comes from the Latin word canis, which means dog." Finally, Bloodhounds looks at puppies and getting a dog. The glossary is very good and the web site www.adpub.com is recommended for further information. Good index. Karen Woodworth-Roman, Children's Science Book Review