Richards Books

Yes, I know I shouldn't be writing this review yet. But I don't want you to go through another day without reading this book!

This book is taking me forever to read. That's because I keep on reading each chapter 2-3 times before moving on. The effects are not only profound for your prayer life, but for your whole relationship with God. I am finding it transforming.

Here's a tip on using the book: program into your diary to spend some days away with God. Then go find somewhere beautiful and relaxing, and take a bible, a notepad, and Pratt's book. It will be like cool water to your soul.

I have had the privilege of hearing Richard speak on several occasions in Sydney. He is a warm, funny, engaging, out-of-the-box guy. He is also serious about fostering a joyful and totally-transforming relationship with God. Richard, if you read this review, be encouraged in the knowledge that your book is doing a lot of good -- even 17 years after it was published.

Books on prayer abound within Christian circles. Christian bookstores are filled with such books, with many such books acting more like 12 step programs for revitalizing prayer so we can get what we want, than in providing a Biblically based theology and perspective on prayer that can actually anchor our outlook in prayer in the Bible. Pratt predominately succeeds in doing this.

As Pratt indicates at the start, this book does not provide any grand revelations on prayer that haven't been known throughout the history of the church. It's not a magic pill offering magical formulas, and it doesn't resolve every conceivable issue surrounding prayer. But it is still quite thorough in the issues it addresses, and more importantly, its inquisitiveness is substantive and very practical.

A reader who decides to read this book is probably someone who feels that their prayer life is missing something, maybe a lot. Many Christians are in this boat, me included. As a result, I think many readers will be pleasantly surprised by the insights that are offered about our approach to prayer and how both our prayers and the attitudes and expectations behind them are so often out of accord with the prayers recorded in the Bible.

Not surprisingly, the bulk of Pratt's examination on prayer is from an Old Testament perspective, since he's an Old Testament guy. Readers may very well experience something akin to an awakening or a reappreciation for the Psalms after reading this book, I know I did. Pratt is thorough in his examination and tends to do a very good job in backing up his assertions in Scripture. He tends to be very careful in not making grand statements that have no Scriptural support, and this alone is refreshing within the publishing world where prayer is concerned.

I found Pratt's approach to be pretty systematic in logically working from one issue to the next. The review/discussion questions at the end of each chapter make this book excellent for small group studies in addition to individual reading and reflection. Pratt does an outstanding job of categorizing the many issues of prayer within three essential aspects of prayer - God, ourselves, and communication. Similar to a wedding, where all that's essential is the bride, groom, and officiant (and maybe a witness or two) while everything else is gravy when you really think about it, a focus on these three essential aspects of prayer helps the discussion greatly and makes all of the chapters relevant within a larger framework of obvious relevancy.

This book will benefit the reader greatly, because he/she will gain a greater understanding of the God they are praying to, in addition to a much more discerning and even critical attitude towards themselves and the motives and expectations they bring to prayer. In addition, the section on the prayerful communication itself may really bring a renewed spark of enthusiasm and vitality to prayer that will replace the mundane and even meaningless monotony so many of us get caught up in when we pray. Highly recommended.

A close, careful, and balanced look [primarily] at Psalms and how they provide a model for a Christian's prayer life. Easy to read while being thoughtful, well organized, balanced, and Bible-based. Conservative Christian viewpoint.

Since this is the first book that I've read on the subject of prayer, I don't have much to compare it to. I have heard that the pickings are rather limited. Not true with this book. It is great!

We have used it as the source book in a small group study with wonderful results. The chapters are chocked full of great suggestions, with lots and lots of Scripture references. The study questions are mostly good with maybe a few exceptions.

This book has helped me considerably with my prayer life. I recommend it to anyone who wants to improve their's.

I can't say enough about this book. One of the best books I have ever read on prayer. Richard Pratt looks at the Three elements required for prayer, God, Ourselves, and Communication. The book is broken up into 12-13 chapters so it is great for using for a Sunday School class or for Church Home Group bible study. The fact that each chapter is individual from each other, which helps in that if someone misses a week, they are not "lost". The author looks at praying through our joy, our sorrow, and not just focusing on one aspect of God himself (i.e The Righteous Judge, Merciful Father, The Great Healer) but to focus on all his attributes. I try to read this book once every other year as a refresher. A must buy!!

A nice book with the screenplay of the movie, some photos from the backstage and a very small interview to most of the main characters. For all the people (like me) who have loved this movie and its marvellous all-star cast.

WHAT IT IS
This is one of the best presentations of a script I've purchased in recent months. There's loads of extras in this paperback including some queries with the principle actors, bascstories on characters, cut scenes and storylines, great photos (behind the scenes as well as infront of the camera) and of course, the full screenplay.

WHY I PURCHASED IT
In general this is one of my favorite movies, but I am also an aspiring screenwriter and am currently using this screenplay to assist me with formatting my own intersecting lives in my screen play. It's a relief to see a screenplay with such depth be easily read and translated by enve a novie like me. Love Actually is proof positive that the best screenplays are rewritten, not written. Thank you Richard Curtis!

amazing movie, soundtrack AND book. i love love love it. when i got it i basically flipped out and sat down and read the whole thing through. this is a must have for anyone who loved the movie!

This is a film for people, like myself, who like movies that make them think, but occassionly need a feel-good flick with just enough complication to keep it interesting. I laughed, I cried, I got up on my feet and danced, I clapped my hands and I'm telling everyone I know that Love Actually is, actually, a must see movie!!!! And, so the screenplay is, also, a must read!

Richard Curtis is a genius! Although I haven't seen the movie version yet, Love Actually the screenplay heightened my excitement for the movie. The screenplay will leave readers giddy with excitement, eagerly anticipating the turnout of every character's story.

All characters are very human and everyone is looking for love in different forms, which anyone can easily relate to. Readers will find themselves rooting for all characters. The book is also complemented with photos of the movie and budding scriptwriters can pick up points on how to make a screenplay.

The book is masterfully written and it is a great read for those who are looking for love because, as Hugh Grant's character says in the opening scene, "I've got a sneaking suspicion you'll find that love actually is all around."

I'm an E.S.L. tutor in Canada. I coach clients on cultural aspects. This book is a valuable reference for my clients on idiom. With it, they still need the english language practice as well. But this provides an independent reference that they can check language usage when I'm not around.

When I got this dictionary, I thought... This is one of the most important thinks that I have bought in Amazon: Cheap and Excellent Quality. I'm very pleased with this deal.

Not enough being so complete with more than 24.000 entries, the phrasal verbs and idioms are very well organized. Information is also precise and well presented, with plenty of real usage examples. The Phrase Finder, at the end, is very useful for a more complete and objective search. The printing, the paper and the cover are very good also, making this book a good choice for people willing to expand vocabulary and comprehension of contemporary American English.

Standard dictionaries are great for understanding words, but not for comprehending the perplexing kind of phrase known as the idiom. This specialized dictionary provides a generous list of American idioms in an accessible format, but sacrifices phrase origins and portability in the process.

The dictionary's comprehensive nature suits students of English as a second language, as well as communications professionals. With over 24,000 entries, it offers over twice the number of listings in the popular "American Heritage Dictionary of Idioms" and four times the number of listings in the "Cambridge Dictionary of American Idioms" and the "Oxford Dictionary of Idioms." ESL students can understand the language better and communicate more effectively. Writers and editors are more likely to be able to track down needed phrases.

It's easy to use, too. Phrases are listed alphabetically by the first keyword, allowing the reader to look up the phrase by its familiar form. An explanation follows, and usage examples are provided for each entry to enhance understanding. If the exact phrase is not known, the handy index provides phrases grouped by an alphabetical listing of keywords.

Unfortunately, phrase origins are mostly lacking, apparently by design. The editor's explanation for this is that reliable linguistic evidence for the origin of idioms is rare. The few origins that are offered are thoughtfully placed and seem to be well-researched, however.

This hefty, textbook-size dictionary may be a drawback for those looking for a handy reference. Shorter idiom dictionaries have the advantage here.

This idiom dictionary best serves ESL students and communications professionals needing a reliable reference to confirm the spelling, form and meaning of American English idioms. The pages are printed on heavier, acid-free paper, so the book should hold up well. Those intersted in phrase origins or a more convenient book size should consider other idiom dictionaries.

This book is one of the most comprehensive I've ever seen when it comes to Idioms and Phrasal Verbs. It gives not only the explanation about the listed terms, but also includes usage examples. At the end of the book, there is a reference index which helps to find any expression contained in there. If you know at least one word from the phrase you are looking for, then you may find it listed and then you just go to the proper page for the necessary details. If you are a language learner or simply a language lover, it is a book that you should have on your shelf.

You need to have been an apprentice historian in the mid-sixties to appreciate the impact this book had on Europeanists. I was thirty-one years old in 1967. I had taught history in high school for eight years and picked up a master's in history at NYU, and I was starting my Ph. D. program in history at Yale, concentrating on early modern European history, and within that specialty, on medieval and early modern political theory. (Later, when I taught college, my specialty course was on Machiavelli, More, Erasmus and Guicciardini.)

Braudel had just published the second edition of his masterpiece. The book had been significantly rewritten and was about a third longer than the original edition. But it was available only in French, which I read well but exceedingly slowly. The first edition --but not the second-- had been translated into Spanish, my preferred second language, so I swotted the Spanish first edition for orals. Reading it in a foreign language, it was too much in a limited amount of time to absorb and integrate with what I already knew about the times. I more or less flubbed the Braudel question in my orals. (In contrast, I did a killer job responding to a question about Ernst Kantorowicz's The King's Two Bodies: A Study in Medieval Political Liturgy.)

Later, teaching a winter term course in college, I assigned the by-then-published English translation of Braudel's second edition to my students, giving myself --at long last-- an opportunity to read it in my native tongue. I was floored! The masterful use of maps and graphs to show hitherto unnoticed trends in history, the wealth of illustrative detail, the scope of his view! Of all the masterworks of the first two generations of Annales historians --Bloch and Febvre, Braudel's other works, Le Roy Ladurie, Aries, Duby, etc.-- Mediterranean is still the undisputed masterpiece on early modern European economic and social history.

I have been keenly interested in world history for nearly 20 years. I read, on average, 30 non-fiction historical accounts per annum. With rare exception, I have always felt up to the task of both completion and comprehension. Braudel is an entirely different animal. What Braudel has presented in the form of 16th-century Mediterranean history is formidable, innovative, and exhausting.

Braudel's narrative weaves itself through overlays of historical strata that demand as much from the reader as any contemporary written history available. His is not a mere linear schedule of cause and effect, but a finely crafted history of regional parallels which render the methodology as thought provoking as the content.

Fully one-fourth of the book is devoted to economics in such painstaking detail that, while the specialist may revel, the layman may grow foggy, uninterested, and, unfortunately, bored. But, this does not detract from the overall value of Braudel's effort. The Mediterranean and the Mediterranean World is a singular achievement in written history which offers the reader a vantage point that I have yet to find elsewhere. 5 stars.

This book is a very detailed starting point for Renaisance fans. At its heart this is a socio-economic history. The clever inclusion of climate and geographic conditions presuasively explained why prosperous Capitalism grew in some regions while others remained stagnant. Chapter 5-"The Human Unit" was the most informative. Most facets of history are here for the reader to absorb. This is the type of book we all wished we had in school.

Braudel's text on the Mediterranean is considered one of the contemporary classics of historical writing, and I can see why. It sets out to convey a total history of the Mediterranean world in the latter half of the 16th century, but ranges over so much more territory in order to achieve this objective. Just as Jared Diamond builds a foundation on geography, climate, and local flora and fauna in _Guns, Germs , and Steel_, so does Braudel begin his history. However, he does not stop there, and moves on to cover social and economic history, and, in the second volume, deals with the more standard "history of events" typical of most historical literature. Do not skip the second volume, as the tapestry Braudel weaves is not complete without it. The text is very detailed, too detailed at points, but I believe this gives the reader confidence in the authority of the writer. Clearly Braudel has done exhaustive research. You, too, will be exhausted by the time you finish this magnum opus.

I have written a review of the first volume of Braudel's history of the Mediterranean, and here will only say that it is necessary to read this second volume in order to appreciate what Braudel began in the first volume. The second volume is the more typical "history of events", but as Braudel concludes -- and correctly so in my opinion -- the history of events is founded on geography, demographics, and social and economic history. Braudel builds this foundation in the first volume, and the two volumes must be read jointly in order to fully appreciate Braudel's astounding accomplishment.

Miss Woman is Ann Vaughan Richards' first novel. Married to a scientist, a self-proclaimed recluse, A.V. Richards is a member of a large Alabama family who she says all gathered in the same spot...for generations.

Victoria is a town where everyone knows each other and their business. Told from the viewpoint of Willie Kay, a divorcee who has returned to the bosom of her family, Miss Woman at first seems to be a typical Southern story about racism. "Miss Woman" is a sassily dressed African-American woman who suddenly appears on the scene of Victoria. When she throws open her window to treat the residents of Victoria to an impromptu, loving blues performance, people don't know what to think. Then Callie Thomas runs into the street and gets hit by a car, and Glenna Bedsole, whose personal problems leave her deranged, is suddenly murdered. Willie Kay is in the middle of the action, but feels powerless:

"We didn't know what happened, but Glenna Bedsole knew and Callie Thomas knew. And, sitting in the alley beside the Victoria Dry Cleaners, O.K. Maylo knew. He had seen it all. He had seen Glenna Bedsole heap curses upon Callie's head, and he had seen her enter her store and come back with a handful of wire coat hangers, he had seen her throw the coat hangers on Callie's unsuspecting body, and he had seen Callie start in fright and run into Mr. Stroud's car. O.K. Maylo knew, all right."

As Ms. Richards' quirky but fascinating tale unfolds, her equally quirky but completely compelling characters roll out one at a time. Her tale is slow and ponderous; the type of story that appeals to any woman on a mission of self discovery or any man who craves insight into the workings of the female mind. Miss Woman operates on many levels: social; political; emotional; intellectual; philosophical. It is as much a tale that Oprah would like as it is a tale with a whodunit theme.

Miss Woman showcases a strong Black role model with the ability to make our hearts sing. Willie Kay is probably more a character whom most of us can relate to. The story itself is fascinating. Willie Kay herself uncovers emotional levels unplumbed by most of us. A great tale.

Shelley Glodowski
Reviewer

Ann Vaughan Richards' first novel is a lush celebration of all things Southern: a tale as rich as homemade pecan pie and as tangled as a kudzu vine.
"Miss Woman" is set in fictional Victoria, Ala., where nothing much has changed in decades. When 45-year-old Willie Kay, newly divorced, returns to her hometown to start over, she finds that litttle has changed since her departure. Even the unyielding attitudes of the local folks seem frozen in an earlier, less enlightened, era. Old loves and old hatreds are still firmly in place here, and old secrets still fester underneath a veneer of politeness.
The town's rigid social order is cracked wide open with the arrival of Miss Woman. She appears without warning in the upstairs window of the Victoria Thrift Store on a steamy summer day, and as she bangs chords on an upright piano and sends her "low down, gut wrenching...You Can Have Him I Don't Want Him Didn't Love Him Anyhow Blues" floating across the town square, she embodies everything that the town is not. Her ample body shimmers in rainbow satins, her smiling face is framed by a turban; she is flamboyant, mysterious, uninhibited, spontaneous and generous.
These qualities alone would be condemnation enough for Glenna Bedsole, a vicious gossip bent on unraveling the lives of her neighbors. But even more alarming, in Glenna's eyes, is the fact that Miss Woman is black.
Glenna's own father was a notorious bigot whose ruthlessness earned him a bullet through the heart long ago. When the embittered woman launches a campaign of personal destruction against her fellow townspeople, probing her neighbors' best-kept secrets, a late-night visitor uses a shotgun to silence her. As the evidence around the case slowly unfolds, the list of possible suspects grows, and a small-minded band of residents turn suspicious eyes on Miss Woman.
Unsuspecting Willie Kay finds herself at the heart of a struggle that will transform her own life, and change the townspeople of Victoria forever.

I love books with descriptions so vivid, I can smell the flowers, hear the rain, and feel the sweat drip down my neck. Miss Woman by Ann Vaughan Richards is exactly that kind of book. And her characters!! If you've ever felt overwhelmed or outflanked by your family, you will feel an immediate connection with Willie Kay, the narrator. The rest of the towns people of Victoria quickly become people as well, leaving you at times laughing at their antics and then completely shocked by their behavior. But don't make the mistake of dismissing this book as a light, frothy description of southern charm. This book also tackles serious subjects like adultery, abortion, racism, and murder. The framework of the novel is a murder mystery but it is really an in-depth look at the characters in a small southern town and their interactions with each other. I especially appreciated Ms. Richards' treatment of race relations. Although she does describe the racism most associate with the South (white man kills black man for being "uppity"), she also explores another, far less publicized side of these interactions. The love and care provided for an aging black woman by her "white family" and the courageous determination of a group of white people to provide Miss Woman a safe place to live are vivid counterpoints to the racism brutally portrayed in other parts of the book. Even a week after I have finished this book, I find myself revisiting the town of Victoria in my mind, wondering about the little mysteries left unsolved and the big question of "What happens next?" Good books always leave you wanting more and Miss Woman has done an excellent job of just that. So, grab a comfy chair, turn on your favorite blues music and let Miss Woman take you to that rainy, hot day in June when the blues notes first started falling from a second story window. . .

In the late 1980's, a stranger comes to town and settles into an apartment above the local thrift shop. A large black woman who dresses in rich jewelry and shimmering fabrics of red, green, and gold, Miss Woman exudes "presence" and mystery. Who is she? Why has she come to this sultry Alabama town? Why, from her open window, does she lean out and sing the blues?

On the surface, the town of Victoria appears respectable enough. To be sure, it harbors eccentrics like O.K. Maylo, who lives with his dog in a kudzu-covered school bus; Vereena Lucille, a former trapeze artist now almost inaccessible beneath mounds of body fat; and Lurlene Langford, who, according to local legend, calls out at night to visions of her dead brother. For the most part, however, Victoria seems like any other small town. One by one, the inhabitants emerge-the sheriff and deputy; the mayor, beautician, and jeweler; the mute child Callie; the renegade clan "strong enough to steal, but too weak to work"; and Willie Kay, a recently-returned divorcee through whose eyes much of the story is filtered. The reader empathizes with the Morrows, who grieve for their deceased daughter; the faithful Claude, whose aged body is "shrunken to an everlasting chill"; and even Granny Lou, who, until her dying day, will never know how she has managed to raise such a wasteful family. In Victoria, adult children still show up for family dinners, and an ice-cold Coke can transform a bad day.

It is Glenna Bedsole, however, the embodiment of small-mindedness and mean-spiritedness, who reveals the town's darker underside. Oppressed by financial difficulties, prejudices, and family skeletons, Glenna at first strikes out at Miss Woman and then, as her antagonism mounts, begins a tale-bearing crusade against the neighbors. Since most of Victoria's inhabitants are living "critical deceptions and essential lies," Glenna touches first one nerve and then another. Methodically, she exposes and alienates the townspeople--until she is discovered--dead.

Who killed Glenna Bedsole? This is a second mystery. Read as a whodunit, MISS WOMAN becomes a study of character and possible motive, a crime novel replete with likely suspects. Still, MISS WOMAN is much more than a detective novel. Even as it captures the flavor of small-town life--the gossip and prejudice, the interconnected web of relationships, the intrigue, the fear of being "found out"--it reveals a more fundamental conflict. For years, Victoria has resisted change, maintaining its identity--and stability--as a closed, insular system. As she sweeps into town like a healthy Earth goddess, Miss Woman brings with her both opportunity and threat:

"We didn't have a place for her in our society. She didn't fit our labels. She was dark-skinned and sensuous, and she was threatening us by her boldness. She was unsettling our world and exposing the insecurities that lay lightly buried under its ordered surface."

Through her spontaneity and humanity, Miss Woman models a new, more authentic behavior. In a very real sense, she has come to give life. To receive her gift fully, however, Victoria must be willing to relinquish at least some of its long-cherished patterns. It must forge a link to the outside world and open itself to change. This is the challenge Victoria faces. This is the theme MISS WOMAN explores.

Prefering to read non-fiction and finding enough "drama" in my own life to fill a book, I rarely read novels for pleasure. Imagine my surprise when I couldn't put down Miss Woman! Yes, the characters are colorful, the setting provocative, and the plot intriguing, but it's the mysteries left unsolved that linger and inform one's contemporary world, especially here in "Florida's Great Northwest." Florida's best-kept secret is rapidly becoming less so, thanks to unparalleled expansion by the St. Joe Co. Like Victoria, our own sleepy, very-stereotypical, small Southern towns like Apalachicola, St. Joe, Mexico Beach...even larger Panama City...are struggling with growth's purported opportunities. Miss Woman's Glenna embodies the "insanity" that is symptomatic of the "threats" of change and loss of power/control. What is especially provocative is the reader's own examination of herself/himself as both akin to and murder suspect of Glenna. What lingers for me is appreciation for being at this place in Florida's evolution...at this time. I find myself challenged to be less apologetic about all that makes my culture rich and unique and to take a more active role in preserving worthy heritage while embracing those dimensions of change that enrich it and move us forward constructively. A compelling book.

This has been refined over the years to be the gold standard of an educational text . Well worth the price.

I am a clinician scientist and have always had difficulty in relating to pure basic science books. The Molecular Biology of the Gene changed my mind. Outstandingly written chapters with colorful illustrations take you through extremely complex subjects in a breeze. A masterpiece, highly recommended.

I am a bioinformatian and always look for a reference molecular biology book which not only covers a range of topics but also is clear enough for a reader with limited knowledge of molecular biology. This books is exactly the one I was looking for. Even more, it provides a nice introduction to some basic molecular biology techniques. Highly recommend to any one who wants to know more about molecular biology from other backgrounds.

While in High School I took the class Mol. Bio. Gene from Dr. Watsons book at George Washington U., having taken orga. &inorganic&biochem at the community college after basic chem (my HS was colocated with the comm col. in Rockville MD). Paid $14.65 for mine, a f...king fortune then. I was working for Dr. Gallo (CDC) at NIH as a summer intern, riding my bike there. (Hey it's all about ME) So... I barely passed the class...it was tough. The book is still alive and kicking, and here I am back using it to understand/design a water treatment system for a small San Diego commun(ity). I thought the old man Watson died? UCSD has a center named for him.

So amazingly, for most things that are true, test of time. This book is amazing in clearly explaining the genetic processes involved. Back then (1972) I spent a lot of time slogging through the biochem then my org. chem text book (at 16). I was building the models to understand what the hell Watson was talking about in bonding, recumbinant replication , etc. Since my NIH job involved collectiing data from experiments designed by doctors working for Dr. Gallo bent on discovering a viral gene attack (read AIDS) I was able to seriously confuse and annoy the doctors/phds by my incessant half informed questions, and screwups (has any of that changed?)

Buy it! Use it! many lab processes have changed, but the book is seminal, with original idiots like me having become like the Olive Tree (if only I could have been in the Garden...), from that seed. May you provide some salvation to the future minions of the earth which will rage battle over pure water, help create partial salvation from his tome. The concepts form the rock foundation of life and salvation for the human race. God bless you.

I got exactly what I ordered, nothing more, nothing less. It arrived within 7 days of placing my order. I would not hesitate to order from this seller again.

This is a very good reference for nutrition freaks like me. It does contain a lot of practical examples, so it's much better than Dr. Atkins' book in that aspect.

As an osteopathic physician easing into the arena of nutritional medicine Dr. Firshein (another D.O.) gives some great guidelines for me to follow. I have started some of my more difficult patients on some of the nutrients that he wrote about and I have had some good results. Nutritional medicine is a complex and developing field that Dr. Firshein does an excellent job of clarifying his top 20 hits. I have not come across a better book in this field...including Dr. Weil's work.

I can not say enough great things about this book! I have recommended it to several doctors and to many of my patients.

I only wish that it was one of the rec'd reading texts at school. Any new doctor would benefit from reading this info, and because it limits it's scope to the 20 things you most commonly see in practice, it is both pertinant and memorable. The info can easily be assimilated into practice, and does not require excessive patient compliance.

For the layman, this is worth having in your library. Many of your chief complaints are not treated well wih traditional medicine, and this book gives you the info you need to treat yourself.

This is a highly readable book, chock full of the latest research on a large range of neutraceuticals, and includes numerous anecdotes of Dr. Firshein's patients' firsthand experiences with the curative aspects of these nutraceuticals. Read this book if you have any interest in herbs and/or vitamins and nutritional therapies. THE NUTRACEUTICAL REVOLUTION contains fascinating accounts of the healing and restorative impact of many substances -- glutamine, milk thistle, quercetin, lutein, flaxseed, ginko --- just to name a few!

If you think you will always have to suffer with PMS - read this book. If you have been unable to lose weight - read this book. If exhaustion has become part of your everyday life - read this book. If your family has a history of heart disease, eye disease, diabetes, cancer or osteoporosis (to name a few), and your worried that you will eventually be next - read this book. The amazing information in this book details how Dr. Richard Firshein applies nutraceuticals to the vast range of conditions that he encounters every day in his practice. He explains how the systems in the body work, and how by matching specific nutrients to the needs of the body, also impacting on the mind and the emotions, we can achieve new levels of health, regain our health and prevent disease. Many of these nutrients are available in the foods that we eat, but if we become sick, the nutriceutical (concentrated) form can be the best way to regain health, since the quantities of food required would be taxing on our digestive systems.(That's just one of the reasons.) In addition, there are herbs that are not part of our daily diet that have a wide range of healing properties for specific illnesses. This book is a great way to become truly informed and knowledgeable about the multi-faceted, powerful, healing world of nutraceuticals, and how they can help you and those you love achieve good, and even great, health.

As an elementary teacher I am always looking for good quality books with superb text and illustrations. This one fits both criteria. Super, engaging text for beginning readers and the illustrations have so much detail to enhance the story line and assist beginning readers. I can't wait for the next book by these two highly qualified artists to arrive.My 4 year old daughter loved this book, this book is not just for boys. Another plus. The questions in the book are wonderful to use as an extension in the reading experience as well. A++

This is not your typical little kids book. The pages are thick & glossy while the drawings are vibrant & captivating. My grandchildren are hesitant to turn the pages because there are so many topics from which I can teach. They point at something on the page & we discuss. It has opened the world of farming to them. I'd recommend this book to any parent or grand-parent... and also to pre-school teachers. The author & the artist have created a very unique product. I hope they will team up to create more 'readin machine' books for toddlers.

I have received the book The New Blue Tractor this week and I was very impressed with the story line and illustrations. I think it would be great for younger children especially those who are familiar with the farm. The illustrations are very large and colorful and attractive to children. My 3 year old granddaughter loved the book. I am familiar with the artist as he is the husband of my dear cousin in Ohio. It brings back memories of my father's family farms and the years I spent in Ohio as a child. It also represents the area that I have lived in for 35 years in Michigan,a peaceful farming community. I would recommend this book to be added to any classroom book collections or in a home with young children.

This is a beautifully illustrated, wonderfully written book for any child. Whether they're from the city or the country, they can't help but be intrigued by the blue tractor and all it's functions. It's a great little book to educate and inspire little ones. Hope this is first in a series????

Do you have a child in your life that only likes to read about certain things? I do, and I wrote this first reader book for children who like machines, especially tractors! The New Blue Tractor is perfect for children ages 3-6 who like to read about tractors on their own. The simple text and wonderful illustrations will appeal to children. For more information, look for the upcoming readin' machine series while visiting my website.

Mark Feeney's book provides a more intelligent examination of Richard Nixon, the movies and the twentieth century than anyone writing. That he blends them all together in a seamless narrative is just amazing. He is fair minded and, rare for an intellectual, brimming with common sense.

That doesn't mean that I agree with his analysis of Nixon. In particular, there are three substantive events of the Nixon era on which it is easy to disagree with Feeney:
1. Cambodia: Feeney seems to buy the line that Nixon brought about the fall of Cambodia. He should have read less Anthony Summers and more Lewis Sorley. No respectable historian believes Summers, William Shawcross and their ilk anymore. Sorley (no friend of Nixon) shows just how nearly we came to winning. A quick glance at the map should show anyone that once South Vietnam fell, so would Cambodia. Blaming Nixon is just the way the left avoids its responsibility for genocide.
2. Yom Kippur: Feeney treats Nixon's rescue of Israel in a couple of subordinate clauses, but this was one of the great moments of his Presidency and it was Nixon's personal peculiarities that brought it about. The military tried to block him, his advisors were unenthusiastic ("Get off your fat ass and get those planes in the air, Henry," Nixon is quoted as saying) and the left accused Nixon of organizing a coup d'etat. Only Nixon made it happen and saved Israel in the process.
3. Civil Rights: there have only been 5 US Presidents who furthered civil rights (Grant, Harding, Truman, LBJ and Nixon). Interestingly, they all left office at the bottom of the list of Presidential reputations and they all have revisionist cheerleaders, although only Truman has been pulled out of the gutter so far (Grant will be next). Nixon's signal acheivement was to pursue a liberal civil rights program (integrating the schools in the South, affirmative action, etc.) while winning white southerners to the Republicans. This depoliticized civil rights to such an extent that today the most conservative institution in America - the military - is also the least racist.

There is far too much emphasis generally on Nixon's anger and poverty creating the "Nixon Era" of break-ins and wiretaps (Feeney does a better job than most). The "Nixon Era" began in 1931 when Herbert Hoover used Naval Intelligence to break into the office of an unfriendly biographer (see Conflict of Duty by Dorwert). FDR, JFK and LBJ expanded the "Nixon Era" until, about the time Bill Moyers, then LBJ's aide, ordered the FBI to dig up dirt on Republican homosexuals for blackmail purposes, the FBI decided to go freelance, setting up COINTELPRO and assorted other programs without outside knowledge (possibly even without J. Edgar's knowledge). Ironically, it was Nixon's efforts to make the FBI more responsive to elected officials that turned Mark Felt into Deep Throat and brought Nixon down.

Nixon ended the Nixon Era by being so uncharismatic. Just as OJ, Robert Blake and Michael Jackson could get away with their crimes because of their celebrity, FDR and JFK could, too. The growth of government has not been ended but the growth of its shadier bits is firmly under control thanks to Nixon, because when he fell, so did a lot of average people. The rules changed for public servants. "Just following orders" no longer got you a gig on public television the way it did Bill Moyers (just compare the good Charles Colson has done for society with what Moyers, a premature angry old man has failed to do). Bill Clinton's sale of technological secrets to China for private gain was made known by the Director of the FBI, because he knew that if he stonewalled, he would be punished.

And Nixon's contempt for the Ivy League was far healthier than LBJ's awe of them. LBJ had big doubts about Vietnam but yielded to the "Harvards" in his administration who ran the war into the ground. Nixon's contempt for their intellect kept them in line ("Get off your fat ass, Henry"). Nixon may have been angry at Kissinger's attempt to steal credit for his own ideas, but he must have gained a certain satisfaction out of it, too. What better way to prove your superiority than to have a Harvard professor cheat by copying from your exam?

Today, it is obvious that Nixon really won. Richard Ben-Veniste, the golden boy of Watergate, was last seen engineering a crude and sordid coverup of a scandal in which, unlike Watergate, Americans did die, thousands of them. The media now is rated by the public [another irony!] on a par with used car salesmen. Dan Rather, the newsreader who delighted in tormenting Nixon, was forced to resign, proving himself to be both unethical and stupid to boot. And for the first time since 1930, conservatives control all three branches of the government.

It is that last point with which Nixon would not take so much satisfaction. Nixon was the most leftist President we ever had, the "last liberal," Garry Wills called him. "I gave them a sword," Nixon told David Frost. But he didn't give it to the Democrats; he gave it to the right wing of his own party. It was Barry Goldwater and Howard Baker who told Nixon that he had to resign because the rightwing wouldn't stand by him. The right took Nixon's sword and gave us the modern world of Reagan and Bush2 by thrusting it into the belly of liberal Republicanism.

Bill Clinton was a bigger crook than Nixon (beginning with Hillary's shortsales of pharmaceutical stocks as a newly appointed health care czar and ending with a wholesale auction of pardons to any gangster with enough Benjamins). He was also as rightwing as Nixon was leftwing, with his main accomplishment being the shutting down of the SEC, turning Wall Street over to crooks who cost the economy a larger share of the national wealth than was lost in the Great Depression. Clinton gave the leftwing of his party a sword too, but the left, fools that they are, committed hari kiri with it.

Feeney may disagree with the above, but his splendid book shows how we got here nonetheless.

This is an incredible book, approaching Nixon's life through the movies he was known to have seen and liked. The result is an overlapping portrait that is both unexpected and insightful--in one chapter he's being likened to Walter Neff from Double Indemnity; in the next he's seen wishing desperately (yet a touch ambivalently) to be John Wayne. I'm entranced--something I never thought I'd say about anything related to Nixon.

There should be equal time for a book about JFK and the movies. JFK appears everywhere in the American cinema, from THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE to PT-109 to THE GREEK TYCOON, not to mention his own real life romances with movie stars like Gene Tierney. His father made a pass at becoming a tycoon during his own affair with silent star Gloria Swanson. It might be, however, as Feeney suggests, that Nixon is a more natural film subject, if only because the shadows are darker when it comes to Nixon, and the contrasts between the light of California and the darkness of Watergate and Cambodia is more shocking.

We knew that Nixon watched a lot of movies while he was President, but it's startling indeed to see him attending several movies a week even when he was "in between jobs." Feeney shows how Nixon and American film grew up at the same time, even though he may be stretching a point to cite De Mille's SQUAW MAN (1913) as the first American full length film, that's simply wrong. You might as well call John Waters' SERIAL MOM the last American movie, since bizarrely enough that was the number one movie at the box office the day Nixon died (April 22, 1994).

I liked Feeney's writing throughout, and the parallels he makes between Nixon's character, and the character of several American film heroes (like the part Jack Lemmon plays in THE APARTMENT) is always clever and rings surprisingly true. There is something, perhaps, about identifying oneself as a member of the moviegoing audience, as Nixon did, that makes you a little more --what, passive? -- than other US politicians.

Did Nixon miss his calling? Should he have been a Hollywood film reviewer? Nixon was born near Hollywood, where characters were reshaped and manufactured, in 1913, the same year that Hollywood produced its first film, Cecil B. DeMille's "The Squaw Man." In a time before DVD's and VHS/Betamax (when "R" rating meant Regular, not Restricted (hehe)), he watched 538 films during his 67 months in the Presidency (not counting his Vice Presidency under Eisenhower); he was screening about two 35mm films per week, sitting in a darkened room. But aside telling us that Nixon viewed PATTON three times during the VietNam War and Cambodian incursion (both Patton and Nixon suffered the indignities of serving under Eisenhower), or that he loved the works of John FOrd, and in his last White House years, more classic films were selected for him, the author creates a fascinating portrayal of Nixon and a cultural history of America's hopes and dreams and myths and realities, specifically through the metaphors of some of the following films: THE CONVERSATION (1974, Gene Hackman is filled with guilt and secrets, hidden away); PATTON (1970, war, leadership, and Eisenhower); MISTER ROBERTS (1955, the banality of being an administrator); DARK VICTORY (1939, Reagan plays a playboy as Bette David is dying and George Brent is trying to sure her, contrasting Nixon's ambitions to those of a playboy); and DOUBLE INDEMNITY (1944, growing up in Southern California)

I absolutely loved this book! Every chapter is full of insights into Nixon and the movies. Mark Feeney takes five movies Nixon is known to have enjoyed, and wrings out all kinds of fascinating connections between the story line and Nixon's own personality. Not only politics, but culture and sex and money and ambition and pain -- this book teaches amazing lessons on everything that shaped Nixon. Don't miss the sections on Elvis and Nixon as twin icons of un-cool!

My only complaint is that Feeney never brings Humphrey Bogart into the mix. The amazing and authentic "movie diary" at the end of the book makes it clear that Nixon screened both THE CAINE MUTINY and THE TREASURE OF THE SIERRA MADRE while in the White House. Why didn't Mark Feeney jump on the SCREAMINGLY obvious ties between Nixon and Bogey?

Look at Humphrey Bogart's face -- the mean, kicked around face of Richard Nixon. Look at the unshaved beard, the shifty, beady little eyes. Look at how every man Bogart ever played was a cold, paranoid loner at heart, often with a homicidal streak. It's much easier for me to see Nixon as the vicious small time prospector Fred C. Dobbs (in TREASURE) or as the frightened, incompetent naval officer Philip Queeg (in CAINE) than as the smooth, sexually confident insurance salesman played by Fred MacMurray in DOUBLE INDEMNITY.

Note how Fred C. Dobbs is convinced everyone is after him. Note how he's capable of holding on to sanity -- just barely -- until he finally strikes it rich. The fact of finally having gold is what makes him lose his fragile grip on reality -- just the way Nixon survived years of political exile but cracked up the moment all his dreams were within his grasp. By turning on his buddies in bandit country, Dobbs ensures his own downfall systematically. He commits all the most horrifying acts of betrayal, but in his tortured mind it's always a matter of self-preservation. ("No, not murder, partner, not murder, your mistake! I'm saving my life that you'd be taking from me!")Sound familiar?

And how could Feeney have skipped writing a chapter on Bogart's role as Commander Philip Queeg in THE CAINE MUTINY? Nixon is so obviously Queeg it's like the movie was an eerie prophecy. Queeg is a weak, shifty eyed nervous wreck pathetically masquerading as a heroic military commander. Queeg knows he's not the John Wayne type. And he knows his officers know it. He constantly feels menaced by "disloyal officers" and insists "from the first they were all against me." Queeg routinely lies and cheats in order to avoid taking responsibility for his own ineptness as a commander. ("Take the towline . . . defective equipment . . . nothing more!")Queeg longs to rouse and inspire with his speeches, but his attempts at frank man to man talk are pathetically hollow. ("I kid you not.")THE CAINE MUTINY is the best movie ever made about Watergate.

Humphrey Bogart would have been the most logical choice to play Nixon in a major motion picture. He understood Nixon and acted out his tragedy back when Nixon himself was just a young congressman from California. How did the brilliant Mark Feeney miss the Bogart connection?

To fully understand Nixon, I highly recommend first reading volumes 1 and 2 of Ambrose's work. If, however, you are more interested in the Watergate affair, this volume certainly stands on its own.

This is the final part of Ambrose's definitive three-volume biography of Nixon. The destructive tendencies wonderfully described by Ambrose in the first two volumes come to a head in Ruin & Recovery. Ambrose takes the reader through the unfolding of the mess that was Watergate.

Even though we all know the ultimate outcome will be resignation, the author manages to maintain enough tension and suspense to keep the reader engrossed. In the wake of resignation, Ambrose follows Nixon's remarkable comeback as an elder statesman.

If an affordable copy is not currently available, be patient. Because this book is out of print, it will be more expensive than you might expect, but you can find it for $20 to $30 if you look around.

For a guy that didn't grow up during Watergate, I found the third volume in this series to be a real page turner. Ambrose does a good job of telling you what happened, why it happened, how the public saw it and all the ways Nixon tried to keep the public from seeing it all.

Ruin and Recovery is a great subtitle for this volume because Nixon truly did recover. There were a few things he never lost... his ability to guage the American people and how they felt about candidates and the ability to breakdown foreign affairs. It was good to see that in the final years of his life he was called on as an expert on both.

I'm going to say it..."I ADMIRE RICHARD NIXON." Obviously I don't admire his Presidency or his decision-making during Watergate... but... for the most part I feel he was an idealistic, patriotic person that took a bad path and ruined his place in history at least when it comes to his Presidency. He did many things that Americans should respect though and it's high time we did.

I am glad he has made a recovery in the minds of many Americans and as I read this final volume I think I saw Ambrose almost making a case for Nixon being a kinder, gentler person who should be slightly more respected in American history.

Everybody makes mistakes and true Nixon made a big one, but I think in this final volume Ambrose almost makes a personal peace with Nixon and in a way advises Americans who resented Nixon to do the same.

Really an enjoyable series of books that I would recommend to anyone willing to spend 1900 words delving into what made Nixon both good and bad as a person and politican.

it was the best book ever my bum is on the swedish! my bum is on the book hehe

This third volume of the Nixon series is dominated by the Watergate scandal, with Ambrose skilfully detailing how the great election victory in 1972 slowly unravelled, as the full weight of the media and Democrat-controlled Congress worked to expose the whole tawdry episode. During this era, there was also the bombing of Hanoi followed by the Vietnam ceasefire, and summits with the Soviet leadership, but Watergate overshadowed all. Ambrose makes it clear that Nixon reinvented the story over and over, and bears a large burden of blame for the predicament he found himself in. He also makes clear that this was the opportunity for Nixon's arch enemies in the media and Congress to go for blood. The descent into the nightmare of possible impeachment and eventual resignation reads like an inevitablity, that Nixon lasted till August 1974 said a lot about his tenacity and stubborness in the face of relentless adversity.

The recovery of Nixon was never fully realized, although he was an authoritative elder statesman in later years, and Ambrose shows that Nixon had regained a fair amount of respect in his later years. Since his death the left has continued to disparage and villify his legacy, but as hard as it is to defend Nixon at times, he was still a statesman to be reckoned with, and his foreign policy record, especially with his China trip, is one of distinction. The eastern establishment despised Nixon, but he did not cater to them, it was the silent majority that was his constituency. One finishes this book wondering where America would have gone had the Watergate scandal not occurred.

Stephen Ambroses third Nixon Volume : "Ruin And
Recovery" takes on into the heart and soul
of democracy.
Cynics accustomed to political scandal might
be bemused by Watergate. What was all the
hullabaloo really all about?

Ambrose puts it something like this in the book:
To the british, with their official Secrets Act, nothing
that Nixon had done seemed that out of the ordinary,
much less illegal. The Italians simply threw up their hands
at the crazy Americans. To the French. Watergate
confirmed their suspicions about the naive Americans.
In west Germany, the frequent comparison of Nixon
to Hitler by his enemies in America showed either
how little the Americans understood Hitler,
or how little they understood Nixon, or both.
Nixons friends in China, could not understand
why he just didn't shoot his critics.

But in a democracy you must play by the law,
and you must trust and have faith in the wisdom
of the election process.
Watergate was all about how these things were
violated and how american democracy proved strong
enough to recover.
Ruin and Recovery reads like a detective story,
absolutely undeniable brilliant stuff.