Roberts Books

I haven't been a big fan of Schuller's other books. The ideas were good, but there was too much "fluff" along with the "stuff." Hurts into Halos breaks the mold by grappling with the real-world issues which afflict us all. Schuller reveals his own struggles and how his faith in God provided practical guidance for navigating difficult waters. I'm giving copies to many friends for Christmas.

This thought-provoking publication authored by the well-known Dr. Robert Schuller certainly should stimulate the curiosity of its readers. But to round out their spiritual education, they will benefit from the perusal of "From Here to Greater Happiness or How to Change Your Life for Good" by Joel Marie Teutsch and Champion Kurt Teutsch. First printed in 1959, their book really started the consciousness revolution, including assertiveness training and the holistic health movement. It certainly changed my life-and that of everyone I love and know-for good.

In choosing to respond appropriately to suffering you ensure that the experience leads to something beneficial. Free will is involved in that decision. Dr. Schuller writes, "I promise you that there is gain in every pain." Our reaction to pain is crucial! That choice determines whether we will expeience the benefits associated with the suffering process.

Hurts do not endure permanently. Pain passes. Trials end. He tells us to view pain as a process not an event. God has a purpose for everything. People who have made significant marks are the ones who have responded successfully to adversity. Thank God Dr. Schuller is in that group and left this work and others showing us that we too can make our way through life's challenges.

Dr. Schuller's first chapter is so aptly titled! "Welcome To The Human Race" - we are all hurting human beings! What sets us apart is our ability to recognize that the hurt is not punishment from God, but instead a reality of our life on earth. Schuller takes his reader through a series of practical analyses of hurt, in much the same way that Elisabeth Kubler Ross taught us to move through the stages of grief. How heavy is the hurt? How hardy (what is its lifespan)? and, How healthy is this hurt? He reminds us frequently that we must constantly examine our priorities and renew our faith that with God, all things are possible. Not an easy road to take, but worth it.

The book is written in an easy to follow manner and uses real life illustrations of both the author's personal struggles with hurt and those of others who survived life's worst tragedies and came out of these fires strengthened and renewed. Had Dr.Schuller omitted his own experiences, this would be just another sampling of inspirational story gathering. But as the "father of possibility thinking" was feeling victimized, he realized that he "needed to delve deep into the meat and potatoes of handling hurts and get over that seductive, self-absorbing, pity-party reaction." And he shares the wisdom of his exploration with us in an easy to read format that time and again reminds us of Schuller's powerful commitment to God.

Both believers and non-believers will find this book helpful as they search for the skills to cope with the hurts that come with divorce, death, destruction and our perceived failures. I liken it to Christian counselor Gary Smalley's teaching that we must learn to "treasure hunt" within a hurtful experience and find ways to bring acceptance and peace back to our lives.

This may be the ultimate gift book for a hurting friend!

I as all humans have been hurt during my life and didn't at times know where to turn. One day at the library I was I felt, being lead to read this most spiritual book.I know I must continue to read it at different times in my life to give me the strength to go forward,and change the hurts to halo's.

This book was a shock to me. It's not just a book of annotations, it's also a history of Ireland, literature, language, and nearly everything else Joyce decided to allude to in his masterpiece. I never would have guessed that just reading the annotations (without the source text) would make good reading, but that is certainly the case here. You do not by any means need this book to enjoy Ulysses, but it does give remarkable insight into the mind behind it

I am still digesting "Ulysses." I read it while walking around Dublin a few years ago. It was marvelous to trace the steps of Leopold and Molly, and to see what they "saw," but the novel remains a distant pleasure to the reader. I must admit it is not the most accessible book ever written, but it gets four stars for its intent ... and that it is better than "Finnegan's Wake." Be warned: This book is not for the casual reader. But this annotated edition makes it all worthwhile. You'll get genuine, comprehensible guidance. If you must read "Ulysses," this edition might be most helpful.

Gifford's book offers fascinating glosses and contextual annotations for Ulysses, but was not quite what I was looking for to help me with my first attempt at the book. The annotations are mostly disjoint explanations of specific allusions and references.

There are other guides to Ulysses that are better suited for the novice Joyce reader, helping the reader to keep track of the plot, the progress of the Odyssey and Hamlet corelations and explaining the shifts in style through the book. This kind of hand-holding may be unnecessary for more sophisticated readers, but for my first read, it was essential!

When I first tucked James Joyce's ULYSSES under my arm, Don Gifford's ULYSSES ANNOTATED was tucked under the other. (My biceps became very well developed because of this.) It took me an entire summer to read the books side by side but how worthwhile it was. Gifford's essential line by line, almost word by word, guidance made ULYSSES less overwhelming than if I had tried to tackle it alone. Once I got through ULYSSES the second time (the following spring) I was able to go to the more overarching analyses of Joyce's masterpiece. Stuart Gilbert's ULYSSES and Richard Ellmann's ULYSSES ON THE LIFFEY were particularly helpful.

Just a heads up that this is NOT an annotated edition of Ulysses (as I mistakenly thought in purchasing)(duh). It is 600-some pages of notes only and does not include the text of the novel.

As a graduate student of counseling psychology, I read on average 300 pages a week for school. But after my reading for school is done, only one book can keep my attention, and that's Richardson's biography on James.

If you want to see American psychology at its roots, there's no one else to start with than James. He's the most colorful, most quoted and most brilliant early psychologist in America and yet one of the least known and most under-rated.

This 500-page breathtaking tour de force of James sets the standard for the life of William James. For me, Richardson brought James back to life for as long as this book continues to be in print!

I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in the history of psychology, especially the history of psychology in America. Also recommended to anyone who enjoys reading about the lives of great men and women of the past.

James isn't just for academics. He was a staunch advocate for psychology as a practical field to help us live richer and fuller lives. He didn't just study psychology (and medicine, and philosophy) - he lived psychology at a time when the field was only being born.

Richardson's biographies of Thoreau and Emerson are two of the best books I've encountered in my life of voracious reading and this is one is just as wondrous. I cannot read any of these books in public, because they all make me want to weep and clutch my chest and shout, "At last! Everything has been revealed!"

I wish I could explain why Richardson's biographies are different from anyone else's. It's not just an artful piling up of delightful and distressing facts. Instead it's like the doorbell rings and you have a new best friend: William James. There's something magical and occult about this. It's not like he went to the research library, it's like he drew mystic diagrams on the floor.

Richardson writes that one of James' gifts was "his uncanny ability to pick up redemptive ideas from his reading." And it is Richardson's gift too, to fill each page with life-giving ideas. These biographies are as purely inspirational as a strong Lao coffee with sweetened condensed milk. Reading them makes me prone to fits of euphoria.

Richardson points toward the sources of James' genius-- one of the most important of which was James' own depression and heartbreak. He writes, "James had a remarkable capacity to convert misery and unhappiness into intellectual and emotional openness and growth. It is almost as though trouble was for him a precondition for insight." How hopeful that is!

Richardson's compassion for his subject spills out, somehow, to the reader, and makes one feel that one's own nonsense and bleakness do not render one disqualified for a whole human life. What more can I ask for?

More than an interesting read, not only into the life of one of the gotfathers of psychology and pragmatism, but of the period. Well written.

I would suggest reading this book first before reading some of William James other books. This book gives you an overview and thought process to give the reader a context for understanding all of his work. I am 35 years old and know of no one in my age that reads William James but I just wish this book came out years ago before I read all of his work.

I need not repeat the summaries set forth below by other reviewers, since these explain both Richardson's method -- to tell the life story through the work -- and the essentials of James' theories. What I will say is that, even if you have no background in philosophy or psychology, you should read this brilliant, passionate biography. James wrote for a popular as well as a professional audience; he was open and curious to all experience, and wished to be inclusive rather than exclusive in disseminating his ideas. Richardson is clear and succinct in explaining James theories -- often in the man's own, crisp, evocative language and clarifying analogies. Moreover, the concepts that James developed have in many cases become part of our popular vocabulary, including through organizations such as Alcoholics Anonymous, which Richardson reports took inspiration from James' Gifford lectures, published in the U.S. as "The Varieties of Religious Experience."

I had not read James for many years but, since reading this biography, have purchased a collection of his writings and am re-reading many of his works. You will come away from "In the Maelstrom of American Modernism" with a better understanding of both American values and ideals, and the history of U.S. higher education. Most importantly, however, you will come away with enormous admiration for the radiant personality that was William James, or as Richardson exclaims (using italics, not caps) at the end of this great work, for "the SPIRIT the man." When I finished reading, I not only wanted to read William James; I was sorry that I had not known him or had him as a teacher. That's how good this book is -- for every reader.

The best way one can prevent themselves from becoming a burden on their families as they age is making sure the money they saved for their retirement stays saved for retirement and is only used for that purpose. "Alive and Kicking: Legal Advice... for Boomers!" grants legal advice so you can keep your money so when you finally do go and kick that bucket, your family has something other than massive debts to remember you by. Tips on Living wills, scams and identity theft, caring for your own parents in your own advanced age, issues involving age discrimination, driving, sex, and more are covered. While treating itself as a law book first, "Alive and Kicking: Legal Advice... for Boomers!" isn't afraid to crack a joke or bust out a poem now and again, giving a different and attractive flavor, making it highly recommended for anyone who is rapidly approaching retirement age and wants to be prepared for it in the modern world. Also recommended to community library law shelves.

What I liked about the book is the vast amount of useful information on all areas of planning for ones over age 50 years. And its a book that my son who is under age forty, found interesting, because it discusses issues that many people may never have thought about. It also is a book that dispells the notion that becoming sixty or older, means getting 'old' and unable to do many of the things we love doing in our forties or fifties. Cannot recommend the book enough.

Who would have thought that serious and important legal and financial matters could not be dished out with generous helpings of humor? This book clearly proves that theory wrong. An easy read, the authors never skip a beat when it comes to thoroughly discussing what readers need to know about boomer legal matters. I've recommended this book on many occasions.

This book is a humorous treatment of the serious business of the legal aspects of aging. Chock full of useful information and every page is entertaining.

Whether your reading preference is poetic, humorous, pragmatic, or just plain down to earth, Hegland and Fleming cover difficult legal issues in a way that makes you want to keep reading! This information is must to have in every home, whether yet boomers or not!

Alligator baby
I read the alligator baby. It was a woman who had a baby in the zoo. The parents keep going back and forward because they thought they grabbed the baby but they grabbed baby animals. This time the little girl went and got her little baby brother back. This book is five stars because it is funny!

Another weird book by Munsch.

Kristen's clueless parents drive to the zoo instead of the hospital when her mom is in labor. Three times, they ignore their daughter's warnings that their son is another's, and three times they get whapped in the face by the not-a-people-baby.

Finally, Kristen has to save the day, which she does in a quick and admirable way (the illustrations in the zoo are funny in and of themselves, by the way). Everybody gets their own baby back, and we're told that everything is fine from then on... until Kristen's mom had twins. (Uh-oh.)

This book is so absurd, you can't not love it. I really recommend it to anybody having a second child. It's a wonderful change of pace from standard "new baby" books.

My 20 month old daughter loves it. I'm not sure that she connects it to her 2 month old brother, but she sure enjoys having us read it to her. She pulls it out again and again and screams along!

I read Alligator Baby. I liked this book because it has funny pictures. In the book I read that the "gorilla grabbed her mom's ear and the father's ear and they both yelled Aaaaaaahhhhhaaaaa!" This helped convince me that it was a good book.

I love Robert Munsch and this is one of his books that the kids in my 2nd grade class loved the most!

I wonder. I doubt it since Maya Angelou isn't included. She's one of the most visible poets in America today and very much loved. It's not that she's little known because she was America's Poet Laureate a few years ago -- so why leave her out? And why only one poem by William Stafford? Also, clearly one of the universal favorites of Robert Frost's is "Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening" and it's not here, either. (That one shows up in almost any discussion of poetry.)And, only one poem by Robert Penn Warren, another former USA Poet Laureate?
[sigh]

I'm also suspicious of a "project" that doesn't seem to have been announced widely before it began -- it can't be representative of ALL Americans since all Americans obviously didn't know about it.

All that said, it's a great collection. Through it I met several new poets (new to me)and I certainly enjoyed the ones I was already familiar with. It made me curious, too, about just what the American taste in poetry truly would be. I suspect it would include Ogden Nash and Edgar Allen Poe.

No. I don't think it's representative of the poetic taste of the American public and I don't think it should claim to be so, but I do think it's a great overview of popular poets and a superb collection of poems.

This is a great sampler of all the wonderful poets of all times and represents all the different types of poetry. It is a journey into the past as well as the present. What a pleasure to read and share with others.

I personally prefer poem anthologies where the poetry is from a mix of poets, not just a collection of one poet's work. Americans' Favorite Poems will give you some very famous favorites, and also might surprise you with the works of lesser known (but still wonderful) writers.

What I also loved about this treasure of a book was the comments. Robert Pinsky compiled the poems that people from around the US sent him and printed their comments as to why each poem was their favorite. Reading the comments of all these people - firefighters, students, forest rangers, doctors, homemakers, basically people from all walks of life - is often very moving, entertaining, or surprising (you'll see some of your best loved poems from new and delightful angles). You get a feel for why people love poems as they explain that love, that attachment to a particular poem, in their own words.

Americans' Favorite Poems is an amazing book. It is the result of the "favorite poem project" held across the nation. The poems in the collection are real Americans' favorites along with their own comments on why they chose that poem as their favorite. The compilation is great for the obvious. The poems selected come from everywhere (many different cultures and different styles of poetry are present), and they are outstanding. The thing that sets Americans' Favorite Poems apart from other collections is the commentary from regular people. The comments are at turns hilarious and moving. They are always profound. They show the real greatness of good poetry: it has the ability to relate to a person's life experiences and really touch that person.

I must say that my favorite selection in the book was "I May, I Might, I Must" by Marianne Moore mainly because of the reason behind its selection. The only complaint (it isn't much of one) I have about the book is that my favorite "I Thank You God for Most This Amazing" by ee cummings didn't make it, but hopefully, there will someday be a Americans' Favorite Poems Volume II, and it will.

Robert Pinsky, the 39th Poet Laureate of the United States, founded the Favorite Poem Project. Since its inception, the Project has been dedicated to celebrating, documenting and promoting poetry's role in Americans' lives. During a one-year open call for submissions, 18,000 Americans wrote to the project volunteering to share their favorite poems - Americans from ages 5 to 97, from every state, of diverse occupations, education and backgrounds. The Project's first anthology, "Americans' Favorite Poems," consists of 200 of the submitted poems, along with readers' comments about their attachments to the poems. The selections are by poets from all over the world, poems written centuries ago alongside contemporary poems, poignantly sad poetry, as well as spiritually uplifting works, and humorous poems. Many are translations.

I found so many of my own favorites in this extraordinary collection. I was also introduced to many wonderful new poems, I might never have read. And some of the comments from the folks who submitted the poems, are as moving as the poetry itself. The book emphasizes the pure joy of reading poetry. And poetry appreciation is alive and well in America!

There is Anna Akhmatova's "The Sentence," submitted by a woman from Georgia who remembers her brother "who returned from Vietnam, a broken man of 21," when reading this poem; and Margaret Atwood's "Variation On The Word Sleep," "the most beautiful love poem I have ever read," writes a woman from Queens, NY; Lewis Carroll's "Jaberwocky" is included, with the comment, "Where else can you find a tale of danger, adventure, triumph, and jubilation - all so utterly wrapped in nonsense?" There are wonders printed here, by Ranier Marie Rilke, Alexander Pope, Sir Walter Raleigh, Sylvia Plath, William Shakespeare, Wallace Stevens, Dylan Thomas and Allan Ginsberg...and so many more. It must have been a difficult task, indeed, to select 200 poems from so many worthy submissions.

I recommend this anthology to poetry lovers everywhere, and also to those who do not care for poetry. This collection may change your mind.

It's worth picking up a copy, alot of information in there. Good thick book. Glad i bought it.

This book must have taken a life time of research and work. It is the most comprehensive and complete work on the Maya I have read. I was particulary interested in the Maya Calendar history and their methods of working the calendar.

This is by far the most comprehensive book about the ancient Maya. There are several excellent shorter ones; this is the go-to book for thorough reference. It has become almost as "classic" as Maya civilization. Sharer reminisces about being "hooked on" Maya studies by the third edition (by Morley and Brainerd, 1956); so was I, back when it was newly minted. How much has changed since. Scholars can now read Maya. We now can match written history, sculptured portrayals, and archaeological findings to identify the actual skeletons of some of the greatest and most famous Maya kings, such as Yax K'uk' Mo' of Palenque. We have entire dynastic lists covering centuries, for many of the major cities. We can use bone chemistry to find out what the Maya ate. All of this was almost beyond the wildest dreams of the 1950s.
The Maya turn out to have been as brilliant, original and creative as anyone ever thought, a truly homemade civilization, one of the few in a tropical forest environment. They are said to have "collapsed" due to ecological maladjustment, but this book notes that modern research shows the civilization lasted well over 1,000 years before the "collapse" around 900 AD, and it was a fairly local phenomenon. This local collapse was due to drought, warfare, and some ecological overshoot--too many people doing too much (including burning too many trees to make lime for stucco and cement). The Maya kept on. They took on the Spanish and often won. The last independent state held out till 1697, and Maya continued holding out in remote backlands; in 1846 the Mexican Maya rebelled again, and created an independent state, finally reconquered after 1900 and turned into the Mexican state of Quintana Roo. As for what has happened since, suffice it to say that 3 days ago I saw an election sign painted in huge letters on a wall in central Quintana Roo: "PRESERVE YOUR PRIDE IN BEING MAYA!"
There are very few errors in this book, but some need correcting in the 7th edition. Most are in the very early sections, and are often left over from previous editions. Page 5, 16th-century Europeans are said to be "secure in the knowledge that they alone represented civilized life...." No, they revered China, and knew plenty about India, Persia and Arabia. P. 9, coffee is said to have come "soon" with the Europeans; not till the 19th century, at least as a major crop. 23, Nahuatl loanwords reflecting rise of central Mexico in the Postclassic: Well, a lot of those Nahuatl loanwords came with the Spanish (who had Nahuatl soldiers with them). Page 33, caiman: The book confuses the animal called "caiman" in English, an alligator-like creature not found within hundreds of miles of Mayaland, with the crocodile, which is called "caiman" in Mexican Spanish; also, pythons are claimed as native to Mayaland! The nearest they get is Africa; evidently "boa constrictors" are meant. Then nothing till page 640, where a typo (apparently two decimal places missed) has given us a preposterous yield figure for beans (in the table at the top of the page). The yields of maize are also pretty high, though not ridiculous. There are a few other errors in the book, but nothing of consequence that I can pick up.
The book uses the "new" transcription system for Maya languages, but sometimes slips and uses the "old" system, and sometimes mixes them up in the same word (e.g. "dz'onot" on p. 52). One related annoyance--not Sharer's fault; alas, it is becoming standard--is respelling "Yucatec" in the new transcription system. "Yucatec" is a SPANISH word, with no excuse in Maya, and should not be respelled. (For the record, the Spanish coined "Yucatec" from a misunderstood Maya phrase and a Nahuatl ending. They also popularized some Nahuatl ethnic names for Maya peoples. These names, like Huastec and Aguacatec, should be spelled in whatever system in now standard for Nahuatl--not in a Maya system. Better yet, they should be replaced with the actual Mayan names, like Teenek for Huastec.)
The one place I would respectfully disagree with this book is on ancient Maya population. Sharer has "tens of millions" of Maya in the 700s AD and around then. On the basis of some years of field experience with (mostly modern) Maya agriculture, I don't think this is possible. Granted that the old myth of purely-swidden agriculture is long dead, "tens of millions" would require agricultural intensity of a sort found, in preindustrial times, only in the wet-rice lands of east and southeast Asia. Mayaland is small, and only some of it is at all fertile. Sharer's evidence is a couple of surveys showing high densities of settlement in particularly favored areas; not only are they atypical, there is no guarantee the houses discovered were all occupied at once. I would guess the peak total for Mayaland was between 5 and 10 million; at least, the agriculture I know would support that many, if it had some additional intensification of the sort well documented. Beyond that, all is speculative.
One more thought. The Maya were supposed to be "peaceful" back in my student days. Then, with reading the Classic Period texts, scholars found they were pretty warlike. This led to some exaggeration the other way. Fortunately, Sharer is far too careful and comprehensive a scholar to fall for either the "peaceful" or the "warlike" view. The "warlike" view was justified by the big monuments in the Maya city squares. These commemorated wars and victories, just as do those in town squares in the midwestern US. Alas, we lack the ordinary writings--the equivalent of midwestern newspapers, with their record of marriages, births, corn and hog prices, store openings, and the like. Surely the Maya had their equivalents. What interests me here is the incredibly long life spans of Maya kings. Many lived, and even reigned, for 50, 60, even 70 years. Compare that with the Roman or Chinese emperors or the kings of France. Clearly, Mayaland in its glory days was a pretty peaceful, healthy place--though, indeed, not the paradise dreamed by romantic archaeologists of the early 20th century!
The ancient Maya are still a pretty mysterious lot in many ways, and there is a huge amount to learn. We had better do it soon. Sharer provides a long, excellent, very disturbing account of the looting that has destroyed much of the Maya heritage and will destroy all of it (at least in Guatemala) if a massive effort isn't mounted soon.
On the other hand, nothing is more heartening than the number of Maya who are becoming archaeologists and ethnographers, and studying their own past. More power to them.

Had this book been less than half its size readers would end up learning much more about the Maya from it. Unfortunately, there's much too much that belongs in an Archeology 101 class here and by the time you get to some discussion of the Maya, you're half asleep. Those of us who are not reading archeology for the first time will wish the author had just kept his discussion to the Maya, as the title suggests he will, and assumed we understood the basics.

Personally, I'm still looking for a book on the Maya so that as I travel from site to site in Quintanaroo, Yucatan, Guatemala and Honduras, I will have a basic understanding of the site I'm driving to. I just booked a trip that will book me in the area of Chac Mool soon. I'll see what I can find.

By far the most thorough book on the Ancient Maya I have ever seen. It covers all the history and gives a great deal of arceological information. There is also a lot of information on the religious, social, and economic life of the Maya. The book covers in great deal the history of each Mayan polity and it is very well organized. If there is anything you want to know about the Maya it will be in this book.

Many of us have wished at one time or another to just drop everything and run off and start over again...and that is what happens...but the discovery is that you can't run from yourself.

A famous pop star, burned out, devasted at his mother's death, simply disappears one day. He calls his manager and says he is going away for awhile. Jaime takes his mother's ashes and returns to her tiny home town. He somehow finds himself living in a simple bare room at a monastary while he works at a bakery. The townspeople do not recognize this famous singer. As he observes the townpeople around him, he becomes the mysterious Angel who when seeing a need, supplies gifts of roofs, pianos and bakery machinery. All the while Jaime is learning what he really wants in his life and just maybe who he wants in his life.

Annie has also returned home after a devastating car crash robs her of her self confidence. Annie struggles with short term memory issues and trying to learn how to rebuild her life. The mystery man who shows up and begins working in her father's bakery is a closed book. As she trys to learn how to live her life, she is encouraged by this man who can play piano beautifully, sings like a dream, and helps her with her school musical.

The book is a feel good story. How God works in our lives in ways that are so beyond what we expect or hope for. It was a fast read, pleasant. My only criticism is that it wound up very fast, suddenly Jaime is back in the limelight, his manager is gone, and the romance with Annie is just a tantalizing hope for the future.

"Fame lost its appeal for me when I went into a public restroom and an autograph seeker handed me a pen and paper under the stall door." - Marlo Thomas

So begins Robert Elmer's heartwarming book, The Celebrity.

When Jamie D. Lane, a singer "who's better than that Groban guy," faces a family tragedy, he realizes the spotlight he basks in nightly might be the headlight of a train bearing down on him. On the edge of a breakdown, and tasked with filling a loved one's last request, he disguises himself as "Joe Bradley" and disappears into small-town America.

Then he meets Anne Stewart, the victim of a traumatic brain injury, and his reasons for hiding his identity change.

Anne, a teacher and former track star, struggles with anger over the accident that changed her personality and her life. She's not the same person she was before, and she can't forgive the drunk driver who nearly killed her.

Forced to return to her hometown after the accident, she finds a job teaching at the local school, where she finds acceptance with her students in spite of her physical limitations.

When "Joe" starts working for Anne's father, he is instantly drawn to Anne. They both fight the attraction: he knows he plans to leave town, and she doubts his ability to love her despite her limitations.

Things start to unravel when Joe offers to help Anne with a school project, and she learns more about him than he intends. Will her discovery ruin their relationship or cement it?

Elmer does a fantastic job developing the relationship between Jamie and Anne. Both characters seemed so real, I felt as though I might know them from somewhere. I sympathized with Anne as she came to terms with her disability. Jamie's search for God touched me, and his kind-hearted nature warmed me. You'll be inspired and encouraged by the generosity of the story's mysterious Good Samaritan as well.

Watch for Robert Elmer's next book, The Recital, a sequel to The Duet, due out from Waterbrook June 2006.

LOVED IT!!!! I want a sequel...please!!!!
Must read.

Who was it who wrote: "Oh, what a tangled web we weave when first we practice to deceive"? Nowhere is the truth of this more evident than in the life of Jamie D. Lane, handsome, rich, talented and idolized pop star.

The premise is not new: rich boy wants to see what life is like where nobody knows who he is. Usually these escapes are planned with the cooperation of at least one other person. But Jamie, while taking a break to tend to some personal matters, comes across some things that nudge him to try to go back to his roots. And he does.

There is no one in the world who knows where he's gone. He changes his appearance, cuts and dyes his hair, adds colored contacts, everything he can think of so he won't be recognized, and heads up to the Pacific Northwest-alone, and becomes Joe Bradley.

Jamie's self-imposed exile reveals more than he had originally intended to learn. He takes a minimum-wage job making donuts, lives with a group of Trappist monks and drives an old second-hand car, accompanied by a lovable pan-handling dog.

Anne Stewart, once a teacher of inner-city kids and former high-school track star, now lives in a caboose-turned-apartment behind her parent's donut shop. She is filled with harsh bitterness and hatred against the drunk driver who nearly ended her life. Now she works at a small Christian school as part-time teacher, despite her physical and mental limitations. When Joe Bradley volunteers to help her with the school musical production of Bye Bye Birdie, Anne's life takes an unexpected turn.

Joe Bradley aka Jamie D. Lane, is pulled into the life of the people of this small town. He actually enjoys making donuts, and finds strange comfort at the abbey with the monks. And, he discovers an irresistible urge to "help" - giving anonymously. The more he gives, the greater the risk of exposure. Working with Anne and the musical only increases his chance of discovery. But the real danger is that Joe/Jamie is starting to believe his own lies and deceits.

I can't tell you how much I enjoyed this book. Robert Elmer writes with such wit that you'll find yourself laughing out loud, and then he turns around and hits you with a zinger that brings real tears. The personal and spiritual journey of both Jamie and Anne is deep, and real. You will love them, laugh with them, and weep with them, but you will cheer them on. Well done, Robert.

There are several reviews before mine that tell you the basic story line so I will not repeat it again but I just had to leave a short review about The Celebrity.

I never heard of the book or even the author before but I am a sucker for books about small towns and the cover caught my attention right away. I read the little blurb and decided to take it home with me. Once I started the book, I was instantly drawn into the stories of Jamie and Anne. Two people from different worlds who managed to find their way into each others lives and hearts.

If you are looking for a heartwarming story about how God touches our lives then The Celebrity is calling your name.

Most of the time the word "Chic" refers to the appearance of a person or thing. I have always thought of Chic as something superficial. Well "Chic Entrepreneur" goes against the norm. This book provides information on more than the appearance of a business and the advice in it is not superficial, but very substantial.

As a consultant to and trainer of woman owned businesses I often see women think small, underestimate the effort it takes to run a business and fail to identify their true customers/clients. If they read "Chic Entrepreneur" and keep it on their desk they will avoid making these mistakes. One of the biggest mistakes I see women business owners make is that they do not collaborate; they miss a lot of opportunities because they do not attempt, or often even consider, partnering, teaming, and subcontracting. I applaud the authors for realistically addressing some of this in Chapter 8 "Arm's Length or In Bed Together: Strategically Aligning Yourself".

Any entrepreneur can benefit from this book. It's a book that you will want to keep around so you can re-read Chapters as they apply to your phase or situation. I know I will be suggesting it as a companion book to the purchasers of my book "Capitalizing On Being Woman Owned".

This book is great in a general way for all entrepreneurs. Hopefully it will provide the information and stimulus that will cause existing and would-be entrepreneurs to do the in depth research specific to their business that will help them be successful in a Super Chic way.

This is a great book! Good tips and ideas--I have had my own business for 10 years and still have learned a great deal. Would highly recommend--easy reading!

Elizabeth Gordon and Leanna Adams really lay it all out on the table. Putting your business in higher heels is an efficient business strategy for any woman who wants to be a wildly successful business owner and strong woman. I think Ms. Gordon's book, website and blog is of ongoing relevance to all women who want to be strong and independent.

Nobody knows how to write a book about women entrepreneurs like Elizabeth W. Gordon. The Chic Entrepreneur: Put Your Business in Higher Heels tells the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.

Gordon impresses with this down-to-earth (and very chic) how-to guide for women entrepreneurs. From knowing your value to figuring out what customers really want and measuring your results, The Chic Entrepreneur is packed with enough vital information to help entrepreneurs run their business while avoiding costly mistakes.

Most importantly, The Chic Entrepreneur is a fun and humorous read. Know that you are not picking up another textbook because Gordon provides us with humorous accounts of life in the business world. This is great book to add to your entrepreneur reference library.

I work with a lot of women business owners. And it's apparent to me that Elizabeth Gordon does as well. She's seeing the same issues that I am.

I found the book very accessible. Another reviewer has stated that some of the comparisons are a bit outrageous. Well, they are. But the point is to have you sit up and take notice. Gordon does well at taking what is new (business knowledge) and marrying it to the world that most women understand -- relationships.

Start with the last chapter. Give yourself the entrepreneurship test -- are you really ready to commit? Gordon says: "Women tend to be eager to commit to relationships, to marriage, to their families, and even to their best friends, but when it comes to committing to business, ironically, women are the ones who can't commit."

Ouch! Yes, it sounds harsh. But I see it again and again. Given a choice between a $300 business education course and a $300 purse, far too many women choose the purse. Owning a business is work, and yet, at the same time it is the most exhilerating thing that you can do with your life, other than raising a family. Both have their own joys and pitfalls -- even more so if you are doing both.

When you first learned to make your way in the world, you did some trial and error. (Try to walk, fall down, get up, try to walk, fall down...) But you also had someone there to hold your hand and help you get the concepts.

Elizabeth Gordon has given you the concepts in manageable language and format. I recommend this book to any women thinking of starting a business, just started a business or hopelessly lost in business. Even if you don't fall into any of those categories, the book is a good read. You will probably pick up something that will lead you to explode your business in the next 12 months.

This helped me out of a parliamentarian predicament. Easy to use. Fairly thorough.

This book is remarkable. It is easy to read and easier to understand. I love the way it is broken down into segments, so that you don't have to try to absorb all the information at one time.

We bought this for our newly appointed Sargent at Arms to better conduct our union meeting professionaly. It has been a great help and very understandable.

This guide is well organized, accurate and fun to read. I've not only learned a lot from reading it, I've enjoyed the experience. If you have a specific question, the index and table of contents will direct you unerringly to the answer. If you need to know about Robert's Rules, this is the book to have.

VERY HELPFUL FOR THE FIRST TIMER. HIGHLITES BULLET POINTS AND OFFERS HELPFUL HINTS.