O Books

Wow! What a story! Can't wait to see what's next on the author's list. I will definitely be first in line to buy it!

Wow! What a story! Can't wait to see what's next on the author's list. I will definitely be first in line to buy it!

This book will captivate you chapter to chapter. It will absolutely keep you spellbound. I couldn't put it down until I had finished it!!

This is definitely a mystery that will keep you on your toes! It has just the right balance of romance and suspense. I would highly reccommend it!

Definitely, a must-read! I got it to take to the beach as something extra to do incase of rain, etc. and I ended up reading the whole book while I was there! Just make sure you're not by yourself -- it'll scare you to death!

This book came in record time and it was in excellent condition. Thank you, my children really are enjoying this book.

This book will always have a special place in my heart as the first book that both our boys enjoyed. The rhyme scheme is catchy enough to keep our 7 month old from eating the book (as he does with his others) and the story is familiar and funny enough ("Wait baby/Wait baby/Wait baby/No!") to entertain our 2.5 year old.

Instead of a nice, "quiet" bedtime book, this story follows a baby through his day. The rhyme is lively, just like Baby's adventures. Any mother of an active toddler will recognize their little one in this story. It would make a great baby shower or new baby gift. (O'Hair's Twin to Twin is also a great book!)

STAR BABY is the perfect gift for any newborn or toddler! Margaret O'Hair and Erin Eitter Kono have created a timeless picture book that all children should experience over and over again. The love and support that are evident throughout are sure to instill a sense of safety and self-worth to children at a very young age. Now, that's a gift!

Margaret O'Hair's lyrical rhyme and Erin Eitter Kono's illustrations make Star Baby a book that toddlers and the adults who love them will clammor to "read it aloud" and "read it again." Delightful!

Hi I'm Zoe Whilton, and Childhood Hills is an excellent book. Each poem is a masterpiece of its own. My favorite poems are, "The Lie", "The Elevator", and "Your First Day at Dolly's" (by Annemarie Mullan Whilton, aka my mother, I am the girl at preschool, my sister is the one crying). I hope that Pat Mullan continues to write poetry.

Reviewed by Diane Morgan - Editor, ... .

Pat Mullan takes us on a poetic journey through Ireland, the world and childhood. His evocative poetry creates for us lush landscapes, towering cities and weeping hearts that share the sorrow within all of us.

Relationships are key to his poetry, love, loss and remembering. I truly enjoyed his style of writing; it wasn't at all like the rhyming cliché poetry we are overburdened with as we read aspiring poets; it has a rhythm all its own; one could almost hear an Irish lilt to it.

He adds to the end of his book a section in memory of James Dickey that is poignant and stirring reminding us of the vast heritage we have of poets often forgotten.

Childhood Hills
by Pat Mullan

Reading this collection of poetry and writings was like holding a conversation with a very interesting person who can fascinate with a hypnotic flow of words. His muse is an old country bard who whispered secrets of the ancient days in the poet's ear. Pat Mullan has translated those secrets onto these pages.

You will be moved to joy and sorrow as you traverse the winding path over these Childhood Hills. Within these hills dwells a child who remembers the man he was, not a man dreaming over a lost youth. He still lives in the poetry contained here.

This author is a spirit freed from the fears of childhood that we all have shared, no matter what shape those fears take, what horrid dreams they inspire. If you allow him, this poet will guide you through imagery and images, familiar and strange, to a destination where understanding waits.

A poem is music of the soul that takes its inspiration from ordinary events, places, and people. It is a music you hear with your heart. I recommend you read Childhood Hills slowly and listen carefully. It will quicken the spirit that lives within.

I am the author of "THE FEELINGS AND IMAGINATION OF A BAREFOOT BOY STILL INSIDE MY HEAD!: Poems and Short Stories for Boys and Girls Ages 9 to 12," which will be available online soon! I bought Childhood Hills to read another author's poetry. In Pat's book, here are several of my favorites: THE QUARRY HOLE, WE NEVER TALKED, BICYCLE RIDE, SMALL VICTORY, GRANNY BUNTY'S BUTTON BOX, and MY CAT (this one is by Annemarie Mullan Whilton). As I read, Pat's poetry created a vivid picture in my mind. The poems about Pat's childhood were particularly moving. Great Book Pat!

It's an amazing way of painting a picture from a really interesting life and Childhood of this irish author. For me it was sometimes intellectuall demanding and sometimes easy to follow. My Favourites are: 'The turning point' and 'Granny Bunty's Button Box'

If you want to learn how to really treat hyperactivity, the core issues and causes of hyperactivity, then this is the book for you. So many books only address the symptoms, but Drs Cook and O'Dell go for the underlying causes. And the treatments don't involve drugs, either! Kudos for your brave foray into an overworked subject using innovative and workable treatments.

Having tried multiple alternative therapies to treat our daughter's adhd/dyslexia/dyspraxia we were suspect that anything would work. Since our daughter did not crawl properly as a baby, this therapy made sense - go back and have her crawl. The results were impressive - almost a year after starting the therapy she is more organized, pleasant, and compliant. She mostly does her homework independently. She is on target for her grade although her writing and spelling are still weak, they are improving. Her coordination is outstanding now. She used to trip over everything and fall 1X/week on the playground. Now she never falls. School is so much easier for her than it used to be. She is able to stay seated and her writing is less labored. Combining this therapy with the Feingold diet (she still had residual anger issues, plus lots of allergies which led us to believe Feingold might help her), we have a child who is almost neurotypical in every way. This is not a quick fix and takes much dedication, but the results we feel are worth it.

The exercises in this book have definitely changed my life. I can remember better, focus better, and organize better. Although this book is geared toward helping children, I am over 40, and these exercises worked for me. I was diagnosed with ADD just a few years ago. This book is well-written, well organized, and very genuine in voice. I fully recommend this book to anyone who shows signs of this STNR reflex still bothering them. I believe this is a breakthrough in ADD and ADHD treatment.

Dr. Miriam Bender should be applauded for her tireless research in revealing a misunderstood subject/label "ADHD". I have completely read this book and have started using the exercises with my child with positive results so far. The author, Nancy E. O'Dell organizes and addresses the subject very clearly so any layman can completely understand. If you have a child with hyper activity and are sincerely looking to rid your child of medication, it is in my opinion that you should study this book.
I am very pleased with the concept out lined in the book as it gives real solutions to a frustrating behavior condition that many children/adults experience in their daily lives.
Curt de la Cruz
www.selfhelp-motivation.com

After many therapies, medications, and exercises, we have finally found the underlying cause of our son's ADHD. This book clearly explains what some children miss in their early development. Then it shows you detailed exercises that can cure the problem, not just treat the symptoms! Although the exercises require a commitment, we saw results after only one week! At the end of the 8 month program, we had a "normal" child who was able to focus, sit still, and function completely typical for his age without medication! WONDERFUL!

Perhaps one of the more interesting parts of this book, I thought, was the introspective view of the world situation as voiced by Pugh to Bronwen. Keeping in mind this was originally published in 1952 that would mean some of what was at issue for O'Brian was the Cold War and the nuclear threat, but it is fairly easy to interpret the concerns as equally applicable to today. The threat is different but the results on the human psyche are the same, as are Bronwen's curious response asking how that relates to the idea that a person has a soul.
Other interesting tidbits include Pugh's description of characters such as Lloyd, Ellis, and Skinner. Loved this bit on Skinner: "The stuff he adduced was such an intolerable farrago of rubbish that I was shocked that it should have imposed upon a man of education and some reading. It was such an incoherent, verbose mumbo-jumbo, with esoteric twaddle jostling Gnosticism, scholarship of the lucus a non lucendo order that I could not refrain (burning with my private fire) from saying some sharp things about his authors." (p. 124)
I had no issue with the person playing "Q" assuming it was just a rhetorical device.

This is the sort of book that, when you finish the last page, compels you to sit in silence for at least half an hour, contemplating it. It doesn't allow you to pick up another book right away because you don't want to break the spell that's been cast over you, and the spell lingers for hours and days.
I already knew, from the Aubrey-Maturin books, that O'Brian was a master of characterization and of plot and action, but here, with the sailing and the battles removed, I could see even more clearly how masterful his prose is. It is hauntingly beautiful.
Like some other reviewers, I was confused and unsure what to think of the ending. There was a part of me that thought O'Brian was pulling a fast one, which I didn't like, but the other part of me was so enamored of the characters and the writing that I just didn't care. Especially when you consider that this was his first novel, you simply can't ask for better. It has echoes of Hardy, or even (if you remove all the melodramatic passion--just my opinion) of Wuthering Heights, with the harsh but beautiful landscape mirroring the harsh but beautiful people.
Highly recommended.

I cannot describe how much I think of this book, even 4 years after reading it. How many books have that effect?! For me, it was one of the most vivid renderings of passion, loneliness, the relationship between men and women, and most importantly, the parallel of our emotional state to the land we occupy. The country of Wales was just as powerful as the relationship between the characters in the novel. What more can you ask for? Find a quiet spot and read this book!

Patrick O'Brian is more than a writer. He's a publishing phenomenon via his superb Aubrey-Maturin series.
But TESTIMONIES was his first novel, originally published in 1952. It tells of an English professor of Welsh origins, Joseph Pugh, who abandons teaching at Oxford and moves to a cottage in Wales. There he explores the primal mountain back country and tries to understand the farming culture of his ancestral land. A lonely, middle-aged bachelor, Pugh can hardly keep house, even to basics--cooking, cleaning, maintaining his clothes. He has never known intimacy, let alone close friendship, but he falls fatally in love with the wife of his sheep-farmer neighbor Emyr Vaughan, a violent man . . . He pines for months, keeping his love sickness to himself, but when he becomes gravely ill he is taken into the Vaughan house, where he and Bronwen discover each others' feelings, with tender reserve. The denouement is poignant, inevitable, yet O'Brian handles this difficult material deftly, without over-writing. For a beginning writer in his 20s this is masterful work at the pinnacle of writing.
An acute recorder of time and place, human behavior and motivation, action and reaction, O'Brian uses words persuasively, passionately, a craftsman to the core. He captures country, culture and character with Hardy's lyrical affection, idiosyncratic ethnicity, thoughtfully observed. His meticulous work is reminiscent of the great American writers Faulkner, Steinbeck and Capote, or O'Brian's fellow Brits John Fowles and William Golding.
Back in 1952 O'Brian anticipated with TESTIMONIES the struggle for relationships, understanding and love in an era--the last half of the 20th century--in which men and women judge and choose first from ethnic or cultural biases or appearances or political/social correctness and only later, maybe, start to understand each other and become acquainted. Or is xenophobia genetic, eternal?
Fast forward to Norton's republishing of TESTIMONIES in 1983. We see that beyond Aubrey-Maturin, O'Brian had the chops in 1952, though few knew and it took many years for many of us to find him. Doris Lessing in the '90s offered two books under assumed names to test the market for unknowns. Result: rejection (she couldn't even get the books read!). So how many others like O'Brian flower unknown, unappreciated? What is their 'testimony?'
Napoleon allegedly remarked that ability is useless without opportunity. O'Brian won his opportunity, finally, and made the most of it. We are the beneficiaries and TESTIMONIES is the proof--res ipsa loquitur.
This book is one of those few that is unforgettable and will remain in the mind and heart for the rest of the reader's life.

Having been so affected by this book, it is so pleasing to see the unanimity of readers. I finished the book last evening and have been engrossed all of today without waning; it just won't go away. What a mavelous love story where passion is never enjoined except in the spirit. What a painful tragedy that leaves one stunned and wishing himself dead. What a range of humanity. What a blessing on us all that there are writers of the power and imagination of Patrick O'Brian.

This book is a good place to start studying Torah from a Christian perspective. The Old Testament IS Torah but it is so much more. Christians minimize the need to know the OT because they are taught that the word "Torah" means "LAW" which is then taken in to our Western minds to mean "Rules and regulations that restrict my freedom to do what I want to do with my life." If you read that definition and you have a personal relationship with God, you suddenly realize that God doesn't want to restrict our lives at all! HE wants to be part of our lives, but to have HIM ---a holy God -- in the midst of our lives, we must endeavor to be holy and to know how to be holy, you have to read the instruction manual, as it was, on how to have HIM in your life...and that manual IS The Torah! The Torah isn't something to be ignorant of, or to just take out on Sunday, Torah---should be a living study of God in our midest! HE should be the one guiding our steps and we should be drawn to His Side daily to find out how HE wants us to do that. Where does HE need you to be on this day. So this book is a good first step in beginning to study these things. The LAW isn't bad at all! God doesn't make a mistake! God is the same--yesterday, today and forever! We just have to be RE-deemed...or as the prefix indicates---drawn back to HIM and to understand how we are to do that, we need to study the Old Testament within its context--of history, culture, language, geography, archaeology, and even politics of His Time. We need to see HIM within the Scriptures that HE spoke! All the Scriptures that HE spoke were from the Old Testament and they were presented within CONCEPTS and not taken out of CONTEXT! "A text without a context, is wrong!" Learn to read the words and to hear the words as His Audience would have heard them. So, this is a good first step to your studies.

This is a great book! The Torah shape or Genesis shape of the scriptures is revealed well in this book. The Torah Story: An Apprenticeship on the Pentateuch

This is a great response to help postmodern people.

After having Dr. Schnittjer as a professor at Philadelphia Biblical University, I was extremely thrilled to obtain his book. It is one of the most amazing resources that I have ever read. It is not only an exhaustive resource but it is a visually pleasing book as well. What an amazing thing to have your life's work become a reality and be able to impact so many people's lives as Dr. Schnittjer has done!!

I have read the Bible five times straight through and find myself reading it again thanks to Dr. Schnittjer's excellent textbook. Written for the Bible scholar, it is readable by the average student and will inspire those readers to dig into the Torah like no other book I have read. It is honest in its approach and thoroughly enjoyable. It will challenge and stretch the reader. The exercises at the end of each chapter and the guide points throughout each chapter stimulate learning and comprehension. This is a must read for anyone interested in the foundational chapters of the Bible. If you are not an apprentice when you begin this book, you will be by the time you have finished it.

This book is easy to use by anyone who wants to understand or teach the first five books of Moses. Outlines, charts, and easy to read but rich information pervade the text. I can't stop taking down notes to use in my teaching ministry!

A TRACE OF SMOKE was fabulous! I stayed awake until almost two a.m. so that I could finish it. I didn't want to put it down. I have not read such a good mystery since THE DaVINCI CODE by Dan Brown. Finding a well-written book nowadays is difficult. They seem to be written so simply, and many are full of vulgarity and graphic violence. I am ready for the next book.

I really appreciated the colorful descriptions of the Smokies and the surrounding areas, as well as the true-to-life pictures you painted of the mountain people. Grandmother Dare made me think of my own family, especially my Granny (Mama's mother). As I read about Barbara's childhood, I thought of my own, growing up in the woods, climbing trees and building straw houses, feeding mud pies to my brother... so many fun memories.

I called Dad this morning and told him how much I enjoyed the book. He is anxious to read it.

Nicole Rodriguez, Dance Instructor

Dalton, Georgia

This is a start to finish thriller with just the proper tone to convey the action and the locale. Let's hope this is just a "first" novel!

A Trace of Smoke is a rather provocative story. It stirs your intellect, kinda keeps you on the edge of your seat. Yes, it is a mystery, a stirring one. All in all, it is a very good story.

I didn't start reading until shortly before my 65th birthday. That was sixteen months ago and since then I have read sixty-one (61) books - most of them by the heavyweights (Stephen King, Ken Follett, Dean Koontz, Jonathan Kellerman, James Patterson, John Sanford, Douglas Preston/Lincoln Child, Lisa Scottoline, the Left Behind Series, all of John Grisham's, and more). "A Trace of Smoke" is by far the most enjoyable book I've read so far. I can hardly wait for his next one. A couple more like this and this author will knock the big guns right off their perches.

This book meant a lot to me because my mother died from ephysema 17 years ago at the age of 50 (she had smoked 3 packs a day for many years). Mr. Bryson's story is within the realm of possibilty - knowing how the Tobacco Industry tends to operate (I think it's gutsy of him to "attack" them.) Another commendable thing I noticed is that he didn't use one swear word in the entire book. That's rare in today's society. In my opinion, authors shouldn't use profanity as a crutch! The story was thrilling without being gory. I very much look forward to reading his next novel.

I looked all over for a kids book about Henry Thoreau to use with my 3rd and 4th graders. They really enjoyed this story! I highly recommend it.

Wonderful book, my adult friends loved it as much as the children. Thoreau was cool 150 years ago and knew then what ignorant people like GW Bush will never know. This book should be read by everyone!!!

This is a beautifully illustrated and clever fictionalized account of Henry David Thoreau as a man who turns out not to be so foolish as his townsfolk think. His neighbors in Concord think he's crazy for not wanting what they want: more money, more property, more industry, more things. Their incredulity is heightened when he decides to live out by himself in a small cabin on the banks of Walden Pond. As told in this story, the townspeople and especially the mayor are threatened by this challenge to their lifestyle and decide to try and kick him out by enlisting a toothpick manufacturer to come in and cut down the trees in Walden woods. He changes their mind by telling his story -- or, as the authors suggest: by bringing his townspeople out of their cloistered lives and into the woods for an afternoon.

Of course this isn't exactly what happened -- there were some industries in the area but logging had been taking place in the Walden woods for a long time before Thoreau got there, and while some of the townsfolk thought Thoreau was crazy, none of them were threatened by his lifestyle and none tried to threaten him. Still, the essence of the story rings true, and the authors use of poetic license serves to indicate how much of a contrast there was between Thoreau's convictions and lifestyle and those of most around him. A very nice story, that would serve as an excellent brief introduction to the life of Thoreau for newcomers of all ages.

One minor caveat on the otherwise excellent illustrations: Thoreau is here depicted as tall and lanky, something like Lincoln, when in fact by all accounts he was short and lean but built.

"The Trouble with Henry" provides children with an accessible classic story expressing the trials and tribulations of individuality and fostering sensitivity to the environment.

What a refreshing story! My daughter and I loved it. From the beginning to the end, children (and adults alike) will be caught up in the wonderful imagery created and clever "sounding" words chosen by its author. By celebrating the spirit of the individual and appreciating the simplicity and beauty of nature, children are introduced to Thoreau in a delightful and marvelously illustrated way. The Trouble with Henry is bound to be a favorite, especially among younger readers.

What a wonderful story Dr.Asagba had told.The stories in the book speaks powerfully to us today about war,human rights,religious freedom and the devastation of oil exploitation in Nigeria oil states.And a fascinating story about how Sir.Ralph Moor,a British colonist succeded in turning public opinion against slavery and in making it illegal in Nigeria in 1901.

Victor Vann.

l have just finished reading The Untold Story of a Nigerian Royal Family and this is a fascinating account of a royal family stories and events that will blow a readers mind.Not since Alex Haleys novel and roots was released years ago that another interesting book about the slave trade and slavery now come along.This is a history on a high scale,crucial to the story as it was to history is a child born to the daughter of Orholor,an African Chief and was revealed to have been fathered by Akeh a slave who was a favored member of the chief's household.The slave was burned alive by the chief for impregnating his daughter Princess Umerikube.This child was named Abeke by the chief and grows up in the royal household but was considered a son of a slave.What is remarkable about Dr.Asagba's undertaking is that this book is about a journey of discovery and a never-before told story of how Africans treated thier slaves during the slavery era.This is a very powerful and honest story and a must read book.

This book The Untold Story of a Nigerian Royal Family is not only a comprehensive history of an African royal family as told by a modern-day prince,but an exciting story of a revolution that led to the assassination of Esezi l who was a dictator that ruled Okpe Kingdom from 1770 untill his death in 1779.The book also covered the slave trade and slavery by Aficans,and of the political intrigue of an ancient Urhobo kingdom of Okpe. At the end of the book, contemporary issues such as the Nigeria oil policy toward the oil state citizens which includes the Okpe people and the muslim-christian strife,and human rights abuses are addressed.As terrorism faces us today, this book presents a wealth of information on religious freedom and how the christians are killed by the muslim extremists in the predominantly muslim northern states of Nigeria for spreading christianity in that part of the region.And how the muslims are allowed to worship freely in Urhobo kingdom of Okpe.This book is very entertaining and enlightening on many of the topics and issues.A well documented history and powerfully written.

The Untold Story of a Nigerian Royal Family is a book that describes the slave trade,slavery and wars in a royal kingdom of Africa.The author Dr. Asagba describes the war battle between two powerful African Chiefs Ojegba of Urhobo-Okpe and Olomu of ltsekiri in 1870 in regard to slave raiding in the Urhobo hinterland.And how Ojegba raided Olomu's trading canoes and freed the slaves.The author has written a remarkable history of his family that will takes the readers on a journey of a very rich Africa's past.This book is an essential reading for anyone also seeking insight into the early 20th century democratic system of government by an African monarch and the wonderful work and duty of HRM Esezi ll for his remarkable character and courage toward a constitutional monarchy of Okpe Kingdom.And the Untold stories of the royal members who were feminists that campaigned for womens rights to participate in the all-male council of Elders.The book also covered a brief history of the Nigerian civil war of 1967-70 and how the war caused postponement of the successor to the Okpe king HRM Esezi ll.A very rich book on the slave trade,slavery,wars and freedom in an African Kingdom of Okpe.

l have read this book and the story in it is a fascinating one.The author describes the beginning of his family remarkable journey by tracing his family back to the 1500 when the founding father prince lgboze,the son of the Oba[king] of Benin empire left the empire and founded his own kingdom.And lgboze had a son Okpe and his descendants are the kingmakers and ruling clans of the kingdom.The author had brought to light a very compelling Untold story of an African royal family role in the slave trade and as slave masters.Dr.Asagba describes how the slaves were used as soldiers and as plantation workers during the slavery era.He also uncovers and describes the Life and Times of Obodosike a slave once owned by his great-greatgrand father Chief Asagba and his treatment as a slave in the family.What began as a family history has become a history of an entire long,dark era.The Untold Story of a Nigerian Royal Family is a colorful non-fiction historical book and briliantly written.

This book is very good, I have recomended Child of the Wolves (also by Elizabeth Hall) to my friend and she found out this other book in the libaray. She read it in a concert, (nauty nauty) but it was truely very good. It's the way Elizabeth Hall makes you think you are a part of the book or how she can express an animal's feelings.

GOOD, NO GREAT BOOK!

As a young child, I fell in love with the vivid images in this book, the bright colors of the undersea world between the pages. For children, 'Venus' offers a look at another world, with different values, morals, and priorities. Now, years later, I still have it, and still enjoy going back and reading it. I highly suggest this, especially for children who show even a slight interest in dolphins, or the ocean in general.

This book i found at a local book store and read it. It is my favorite book i have every read. It is so well written and a good plot. The resion I am on amazon.com and on this books page is to buy it hardcover and add it to me favorite book library. If you are thinking about buying this book buy it.

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THE BEST BOOK REVIEW

Killer whales trap a herd of dolphins. They send two young dolphins to get help. They get trapped at a Sea World place and meet some friends.
I liked this book because it is exciting and you donýt know what will happen next. The characters were fun, protective, and brave. I liked all them. The setting was great. It was in an ocean where colorful reefs and fish live. It was easy to read and it was good. My rating for this book is four stars.

As a second grade teacher I am always looking for books to read to my class that can help them relate to the subject I am currently teaching. When looking for a book to read during our ocean unit I came across Venus Among the Fishes. My kids love it. When I stop reading for the day they beg me to continue. I warn the kids that several parts are sad and often I find my kids crying along with me. I have recommended this book to several co-workers and they have all thanked me.