Scott Books

This inspiring book is a must for all recruiters who understand the leverage power of online sourcing and networking.

As its subtitle suggests, The Virtual Handshake is all about interfacing with business and social contacts through the worldwide web. In my field (recruiting), the lines between business and social contacts blur since everyone I encounter might need either a new job or project, might know someone who does, or might be in a position to hire. Networking is not just about pressing flesh and passing business cards at a luncheon these days. There is a rapidly growing area of opportunity to meet people and make deals on the internet. However, please note that The Virtual Handshake does not merely expound the virtues of the internet or report results of deals closed and marriages made, the authors also make the technologies easy to understand and provide practical advice on how to use what's out there. Published in 2005, the book provides current information on various virtual options and their uses. The authors cover topic such as social software and services online; virtual clubs and associations; tips on managing the deluge of email; basics on blogging; effective use of email blasts without being perceived as a spammer; netiquette; privacy protection; and, of course, real-life examples of the use of the virtual medium. Easy to read and very useful, The Virtual Handshake is a primer for those of us who haven't been hip to the virtual world that's out there. It made me wonder if I've been living under a rock! The good news is it's not too late to learn, and this book will definitely help. I was so inspired by this book that I boldly went out there into the virtual world and set up my own blogsite!

This book delivers everything it promises. It is interesting from beginning to end and is obviously written by someone who is inspiring, articulate and experienced. It gives really good advice abot how to handle and manage one's growing familiarity with Internet capabilities and offers several good references for aspiring networkers. It even explains how to write a good resume.

The world is changing and so is business. The Internet, and various "Web 2.0" technologies, for lack of a better (or even good) name, are rapidly becoming an integral part of business and life.

The Virtual Handshake doesn't attempt to get you entirely up to date -- that's impossible, but up to speed -- that's far more valuable.

If you don't have any trusted colleagues you've never met in person or maybe not even talked to over the phone, you need this book. Even if you've spent a quarter of a century online like I have, you need this book. I learned a lot, and still refer to this book often. (If your secretary reads your email to you and you dictate answers, I suggest you retire or read this book ASAP.- You need help catching up).

After reading The Virtual Handshake, and I strongly suggest you do, you'll understand the basics, importance, and success guidelines of social software. You'll be up to speed in perhaps the most critical area of business change in our lifetime. The CURRENT wave of the Internet, and probably more important than the original commercialization and popularization of the Internet.

Hey, what's more interesting, the Big Bang Theory or How Life Came About?? This is the "How Life Came About" part and you'll learn about things like virtual communities and social networking, but far more importantly,- you'll know what to do. Actual steps you should take --- and plenty of case studies to help you understand their importance. Guidelines to harness the power of these new whateveryoucallthem.

Hint: be yourself, act responsibly, and remember you are the same person both online and offline and don't forget it!

There is a lot of valuable information in this book. Plan to read it, enjoy it, and then study it. And plan on concrete benefits.

It's a rehash of common sense. Do not waste your time reading this book.

Essays in Trintarian theology are seldom written in quite such a folksy style. Section headings include, â€~It’s the Economy’, â€~Soul Provider’, and â€~The Trinity from Infinity’. Not how I’d write, but, hey, I’m not as clear as Scott Hahn at getting my point across.

The strength of this book lies in the clarity of individual passages. Hahn’s demolition of the use of the â€~gender neutral’ use of â€~Creator, Redeemer, Sanctifier’ to replace Father, Son and Spirit is brief and lucid, â€~It’s good for us to tell our loved ones how much we appreciate what they do for us; but it’s far better to tell them how much we love them for who they are as persons.’ Another highlight is his extended discussion of the Fall.

Hahn restates a traditional understanding of both the Trinity and the Christian family, meeting both feminist and moral objections by starting with a study of relations. What is the pattern of familial relations implied by the statement that â€~It is not good for man to be alone’, and what is the pattern of divine relations implied by the creation of man, united as male and female in the likeness of God? How does the pattern of one relationship illuminate and explain the nature of the other? Suddenly our relations with one another are revealed as statements about God.

Hahn makes enlightening use of a concept of a â€~trustee family’ extended beyond the household or â€~domestic’ family, and demanding loyalty to and stewardship of its property, traditions and life. This is the antithesis of the â€~atomistic family’, the individual forging his or her destiny alone, in company with others only while they serve the individual’s wants.

Linked to this is an attempt to draw out the â€~maternal impulse’ in the Godhead by considering the Holy Spirit as indwelling Mother Church â€" the Bride of Christ. He is careful and challenging. Because of his Pneumatology, for Hahn the Church, like the family, is a reflection in her economy of the eternal Trinity, implications of which include a rejection of referring to God as Mother, and the exclusion of women from holy orders.

This book is penetrating, accessible and readable. It challenges us to more work. The questions that this book raises will repay study.

The remarkable thing about Scott Hahn's own brand of high-street theology is that it loses nothing in quality or depth. Since his conversation from hard-core Protestantism, Hahn has devoted himself to explaining the beauty and coherence of the Catholic faith to ordinary lay people. And with his infectious enthusiasm he certainly has a talent for uncovering richness of Church doctrine hidden in Scripture. But that's not all. Often, as in First Comes Love, he probes new depths, his obvious love of the Word of God leading him to insights that are, as Aidan Nichols observes in the foreword to this book, both wholly original and wholly orthodox.

The most revolutionary theory Hahn promulgates in First Comes Love is the idea that there was something left of the divine image for the man and woman to bring to completion themselves, a life-giving sacrifice. Sacrifice, Hahn argues, is the only way humans can imitate the interior life of the Trinity.

Hahn's ideas do not remain merely theoretical. In the second part of the book he brings his theology home, quite literally, with an honest discussion of how this self-giving love works practically in the family; it is a slow and gradually learned process. He includes a brief glance at the celibate vocation, as providing no less an opportunity for self-giving than married life, but this could perhaps be treated at greater length.

Hahn embarks on some bold but cautious explorations into the identity of the Third Person of the Blessed Trinity in a chapter devoted to the Holy Spirit. Leaning on the Scriptures and the writings of various saints and theologians, he incorporates Mary's maternity into this vision of the Spirit. This chapter demonstrates just how responsible Hahn is as a theologian. He openly and most willingly submits all his findings to the judgment of the Magisterium.

Hahn writes personally as always, with his trademark wordplay, painful or ingenious according to your taste. His theology is both profound and highly accessible, suited to those unused to reading academic works. All credit and indeed thanks to Hahn for cashing in on the fact that the Truth is simple.

Scott Hahn's "First Comes Love" is, overall, a very fine book. It is a Trinitarian treatment of biblical theology that focuses on sacrificial self-giving as the mode of divine life that is to be replicated in the life of the church and to transform family life. "Family" is the dominant idea, encompassing the divine Trinitarian family, nuclear and extended human families, and the church. Within this overall theme, Hahn makes a number of intriguing specific points:

1) He sets things up by pointing out that Adam was not to be alone but was called into family life. When Jesus comes, however, He calls people "away from their primal families, their tribes" toward participation in the divine family. (At some points, Hahn expresses this using the language of nature and supernature, which strikes my ear as a dissonance.)

2) He has some profound points on Sabbath, points that bear much more extensive meditation and study. The covenant name, Yahweh, he points out, does not appear in the creation account until after the Sabbath, and he uses this common observation to highlight the fact that the Sabbath is already at creation a sign of covenant. As he puts it, with the Sabbath, "something has changed in the relationship between God and creation. Most especially, something has changed in the relationship between God and His highest creation. . . . As a result of the seventh day, the day of the oath, God lives in covenant, a family bond, with humankind. God is not just our creator but our Father."

On the one hand, I want to say that a covenant relationship exists from the moment of the creation of Adam. Covenant is not something added to Adam's life as such. (Hahn, I think, disagrees; and I sense the presence of a nature/supernature framework intruding again.) On the other hand, the sudden use of the covenant name in 2:4 is striking, and perhaps suggests some kind of formalization of covenant relationship with the Sabbath day. Perhaps, though, the use of the covenant name serves to introduce the work of the sixth day (2:4 begins a new section in Genesis), a point that would support the notion that Adam is CREATED always already in covenant with God, rather than created and THEN brought into covenant with God.

3) Hahn points out that the serpent uses a plural verb in the temptation of Eve, confirming that he is addressing both Adam and Eve. Further, he suggests that the serpent's assurance that "You shall not die" if they eat the fruit implies the opposite as well: "You shall die if you do not." Pointing out that the Hebrew word for "serpent" describes a dragon, he describes the temptation scene this way: "if the serpent was indeed a monstrous beast, and if Adam did indeed dread death, then suddenly we can understand our forefather's silence. He feared his own death. Moreover, he feared physical death more than he feared offending God by sin. He stood by quietly while Eve continued in conversation with the beast. He stood in silence while the serpent issued his veiled threat."

4) And this very fine formulation of covenant: "Every covenant required a sacrifice symbolic of man's total self-giving. For a covenant is not a contract; it is not an exchange of goods. A covenant is an exchange of persons. One person gives up his former self, his former identity, to be accepted into a new family."

Not unexpectedly, there are some typically Roman Catholic turns in the argument that I object to. But to repeat, overall this is a stimulating and helpful book.

This is a very fine book. I think that Scott Hahn does an exemplary job in showing how a reflection of the Holy Trinity resonates in the construction of a family.

He has received some flack from those who take exception to some of the feminine characterizations of the Holy Spirit in his reflections on the Holy Trinity. What he says, of course, as his book illustrates, is supported by great theologians such as Cardinal Ratzinger and Matthias Scheeben. The explanations that he gives, both in the Endnotes as well as in the text, are more than adequate, in my view, to cover the objections which he has confronted.

Unfortunately, in our time, the devil is not only in the details, but also in the pronouns. Because of the onslaught of radical feminism, and other ideologies that are not compatible with the Catholic Faith, there is a great sensitivity to the kind of pronouns used for the Persons of the Most Blessed Trinity, and so, the sensitivity and contrary feelings that might be aroused from the beautiful speculation that this book contains, can perhaps, in the light of the circumstances of the present time, be understood, if not appreciated.

The only adjustment that I would suggest would be, in addition to what he already has in the text, to place some of the information he has in the Endnotes into the text so that the objections could more readily be refuted -- illustrating, as he says so well, that there is no intention to indicate any kind of gender or sexual differentiation in the Godhead. It might also have been helpful had there been an allusion to the pronouns used for the Holy Spirit in John 14-16.

That being said, I certainly salute the work that Hahn has done, and congratulate him for it. I assure you that in my view it is not only completely orthodox, but also exceptionally useful.

A practical guide to understanding the trinity. This book starts off by talking of the three types of families, then talks about how the family resembles the trinity. The process where the husband and wife become one in marriage and conceive a child is the embodiment of the trinity. The book goes on to talk about the covenants God has made with his people, and the New covenant Jesus made through the church, then it talks about the love of God and living a more Godly life. The last part of the book talks about the similarities of the family and the church. This is another excellent book by Scott Hahn and has given me a deeper understanding of God.

Leaves of Red and Gold is a HOT novel! I loved the main character and his sexy life! The suspense was great, the love story fabulous, and the ending out of control!

HURRAH! This is what I say to "Leaves of Red and Gold" HURRAH to this delicious and delectable novel about a strong gay character that could serve as a role model to all! It is fabulous to see a novel that tells a heartwarming story full of characters that could be a part of our own lives. It is also wonderful to see a "gay book" that is not about sex!

The story of the life of Matthew Schipani is absorbing and stirring; laced with a great deal of passion for his loves and his career.

I was stimulated, aroused, and drawn into this novel by its well developed plot line, with crescendos of suspense beating in the background! This is one of the best "gay" novels I have read in a decade!

Leaves of Red and Gold is a HOT, HOT, HOT gay novel! The storyline is fantastic and the development of the main character by the author is wonderful! I hope a sequel or a movie is on the way!

I agree with everyone who reviewed this novel, Leaves of Red and Gold, except the last reader. The protagonist is not gay, he is a scary dude: (...)!

The main character is gay, and a great gay guy at that! The story is very exciting, not amatuerish at all...it is a NEW story, with a great ending!

Leaves of Red and Gold is definitely worth your time and money!

Leaves of Red and Gold is the best gay fiction I have read in a long time! The main character is exciting as can be, and the supporting characters add to the depth of the story. It is a quick read, one that you will thoroughly enjoy and will tell your friends about! I recommend you order...order two and give one to your friend! It is a great book for straight and gay alike!

Exploring the TITANIC is a very profound read. Robert Ballard (author of this book) is an avid diver, with the dream of finding and exploring the TITANIC. He joined a bunch of French explorers, and traveled far into the deep of the Atlantic Ocean, approximately 400 miles off the coast of Newfoundland where the TITANIC sank in 1912. Ballard used Argo (an advanced water-safe camera) to take pictures of the TITANIC until he found that he could not use Argo anymore because the rough waves were pounding against it. Minute after minute, hour after hour, the Knorr (the submarine Ballard was traveling on) floated in a sea of darkness because the only light they had was the light from Argo. About ten hours went by before Ballard decided to use Angus. Angus was an older camera that Ballard had used in previous explorations. In an hour or two, Ballard had found the TITANIC. Somehow he was not satisfied. He wanted to take clear pictures but did not know how to get them with the technology that he had with him. He pondered this for days. He knew that he was about 13 feet above the TITANIC. Then it came to him that he just needed to go down 13 feet more to get his pictures. Ballard convinced the Captain to go down the 13 feet. When they reached their target, they were able to get their pictures.
Ballard's dream was still not fulfilled because he had not yet explored the TITANIC. About a year later, Ballard and two other divers went underwater to explore the TITANIC. They had traveled down four or five times to complete their mission of exploring the TITANIC. Ballard's dream was fulfilled.
I would recommend this book to any reader that is NOT sensitive. This book told about people on the TITANIC who died. I think the author told us too much about people's lives and made us care about them too much. It was sad when you found out the person died. If they weren't killed, then one of the person's loved ones was killed. For example, Jack Thayer was talked about very much in the beginning. I became fond of him because the author gave so much detail about his life. When Ballard told us that Thayer had survived the crash, he did not stop there. He went on to tell us that Jack's father and his friend did not make it. This made me very emotional. If you would like to learn about Robert Ballard and his exploration of the TITANIC, then by all means, read this book. If the sad parts about the people who died bother you, just skip those pages and you'll still learn a lot about exploring the TITANIC.

I first read this book almost 15 years ago, at age 5 : I loved it, and read it uncountable times. Today it is still just as fascinating. Beautifully illustrated and clearly written, it was the first of many Ballard books that I read. I would also recommend the Discovery of the Bismark and The Wreck of the Isis, just as interesting but less well known. A great way to start reading about the great ships of the past.

Goes behind the Titanic. Why did the Titanic sank, why it was built, how they came up with the name Titanic etc. It has everything you need to know about the Titanic. Even has real actual pictures taken of the Titanic in the water and above.

Do you like old ships? Well, I know the right one for you. It is the Titanic. It is about a ship that hit an ice berg and went down. So go under water with Dr.Robert Ballard and explore the Titanic. Good Luck! This book is recommended for 8 and up.

It's a true story about the Titanic and what things Robert Ballard and his team find in the Titanic.

This was the text for my college Shakespeare classes over 20 years ago (different edition of course) I still have it and still use it. A wonderful book for students and those who want not only the complete works but some well written and authoritative information about Shakespeare and the world in which he lived and wrote.

The texts of the plays are well foot-noted and the type is easy on the eyes. Well worth the investment.

If you can't afford the Oxford Edition of Shakespeare's complete works than this is the next best edition you can find.

While reading reviews of this edition elsewhere on the Web, I came across this review by David Allen White, professor of English @ the U.S. Naval Academy and editor (with Charles Boyce) of Shakespeare A to Z:

"Re-writing Shakespeare is nothing new. The Nahum Tate version of King Lear--with the happy ending--held the stage for nearly a century and a half. The great actors of the romantic age, Kean and Booth and Macready, not only spotlighted the heroes in the tragedies but felt free to beef up their roles. Directors began more than 50 years ago to monkey with the historical settings of the play, often with imaginative and instructive results. Scholars, critics, and directors have ridden various hobbyhorses through the plays for years, introducing us to Freudian Hamlets and Marxist King Lears and feminist Tamings of the Shrew.

"Recent Shakespeare production and scholarship, however, add a perverse twist to this long tradition. We no longer care what the Bard actually wrote. Years of deconstructionist theorizing have taught us that words are needy and we, readers or actors or scholars, have the right, indeed the obligation, to give them the gift of meaning--our meaning, the more bizarre the better.

"For the 23 years that I've taught Shakespeare at the United States Naval Academy, I have always used the same text, The Complete Works of Shakespeare, edited by David Bevington of the University of Chicago. Professor Bevington is an old-school scholar with a distinguished career. The book he edited had many advantages: large print, full character names before each speech, specific indications of settings, modernized spellings, solid introductions that connected the plays to the students' experience of love and politics, morality and order, passion and faith, and comprehensive but not overwhelming notes. Every few years a new edition would appear, and I would open it with interest and a little apprehension. But the changes would be minor--thinner paper (approaching the substance of tissue, a malady afflicting many recent books), hints here and there of encroaching academic perversity in the notes--nothing sufficient to make me seek another text. The 4th edition's introduction to The Tempest caused me to swallow hard: We learn there that Prospero's authority "is problematic to us because he seems so patriarchal, colonialist, even sexist and racist in his arrogating to himself the right and responsibility to control others in the name of Western and Christian values." But this is an imperfect world, and I soldiered on.

"Notified that a 5th Edition would appear this fall, I took time to examine it closely. Many of the introductions remain the same; but new editors and commentators have significantly altered others. Despite the myth of progress that reigns in all the disciplines of modern academia, "new" is often far from "improved." Apparently, Professor Bevington has either ignored the changes or allowed the young scholar-colts to have a romp. In some of the new introductory essays, especially under the guise of new brief histories of stage performance, questionable judgment, to put it mildly, has crept in. For example, the introduction to Othello ends with the following observation:

'In another recent development, Emilia has stood out in several productions as the raissoneur and heroic figure in the play, speaking as she does on behalf of maltreated women, urging Desdemona to stand up for her rights. One recent Chicago production went so far as to rewrite the ending: Othello and Iago both survive unpunished for what they have done, while Desdemona and Emilia lie dead as their innocent victims. This deliberate and provocative overstatement might seem extreme to some viewers, but unquestionably did signal the direction of recent performance history of the profoundly disturbing play.'

"It may be time to stop buying tickets to that great play.

"The current obsession in academia is "queer theory," and the homoerotic is everywhere, not just in Shakespeare studies. But this particular perversity fills the introductions to the new Bevington, especially the introductions to the comedies. Compare the following passages, the first from the introduction to As You Like It in the 4th Edition, essentially a carry-over from earlier editions:

'Rosalind's disguise name, Ganymede, taken from Jove's amorous cupbearer, has homoerotic connotations that are easily misinterpreted today. Shakespeare delicately acknowledges the suggestion, to be sure, both in Phoebe's pursuit of a young lady (but really a boy actor) in male attire, and in Orlando's courtship of "Ganymede" as though addressed to Rosalind. Yet this innocent titillation, found also in Shakespeare's source, is not meant to hint at homosexual attraction as we understand it. On the contrary, the point is that Orlando can speak frankly and personally to "Ganymede" as to a perfect friend, one to whom he can relate in platonically spiritual terms without the distracting note of sexual interest.'

"These are eminently sane and sensible remarks. Now from the Introduction to As You Like It in the 5th Edition:

'Rosalind's disguise name, Ganymede, has connotations that suggest ways in which human sexuality can be partly understood as socially constructed. If Rosalind in disguise as Ganymede wins the affection and eventually the love of Orlando, while her father and the others are equally taken in by the disguise, are maleness and femaleness chiefly matters of sartorial convention and superficial appearance? When Phoebe falls in love with Ganymede, is not her infatuation a way of showing that the roles of the sexes can be put on and off? Theatrically, the device of having a young male actor play Rosalind who then disguises him/herself as a young man adds to the witty confusion of sexual identities by introducing homoerotic possibilities. Not only can the roles of the sexes be put on and off, sexual desire itself is unstable...'

"This is ideology masquerading as interpretation.

"To be sure, the range of possible interpretations of Shakespeare's work is wide, for he encompasses all of humanity and tells profound and mysterious truths about human life. Such inexhaustible expansiveness invites discussion and dispute and differences. At the end of the Introduction to Richard II in this volume, for example, there is a brief but superb account of various interpretations of that rich role by leading actors. Professor Charles Forker of Indiana University provides that account; another old-school scholar, he knows more about that play than any other living soul. Too many of the revised introductions, however, are more interested in advancing the latest academic-political orthodoxy than in discovering and illuminating the natural and conventional moral order so abundantly on display in Shakespeare's works. Nothing is more orthodox--still--among contemporary literary critics than the alleged truth that there is no truth, that all interpretations are valid except the author's own.

"Thus Puck in A Midsummer Night's Dream can be presented as "the denizen of a drug culture, with the love potion as the weed he gleefully distributes. The experience of the forest becomes a drug-induced 'high,' for audiences as for the actors. The fairies, sometimes played by adult and hairy males, can exhibit a streak of cruelty." And, indeed, in a recent production at the Shakespeare Theater in Washington, D.C., the fairies were hairy males who carried something like miners' lights. So much for lightness and charm and magic. This same Dream introduction gives the game away in words that are echoed in many of the other essays: "These modern interpretations are arguably neither more nor less 'true' to Shakespeare's text than earlier or more 'traditional' versions. What they do demonstrate is the play's remarkable permeability and openness to differing views."

"The new Bevington retails for $90; in good conscience, I cannot ask students to fork over such a sum of cash for a book that is now rife with nonsense. So next fall I'll assign The Riverside Shakespeare, which fortunately is still in its 2nd edition. I fervently hope it is not soon updated.

"Of course, the Bevington volume has come to reflect the universities it serves, where young students pay small fortunes to be taught that there is no enduring meaning or beauty to be found in the poetry of Shakespeare, no tradition worth preserving, no "truth" other than personal whim and innovative foolery. If the price of the new Bevington is petty theft, the tuitions charged by these institutions have become, at least for the study of the humanities, highway robbery.

"I know a father who gave his son the equivalent of a year's tuition and told the lad to go to Europe, to travel, to observe, to learn for as long as the money would hold out. The young man came back after two-and-a-half years, mature and educated, and instantly found a good job. The time has come for imaginative, alternative learning. I talked recently with a very intelligent young woman who loves literature; she is completing her sophomore year at Yale, where she had hoped to pursue an English Literature major. She informed me with sorrow that she was abandoning that plan. Her reason was quite simple: she had already sat through too many classes where lunacy prevailed. She mentioned the possibility of looking at traditional Catholic convents. Could this be the first refreshing drop of a wave of the future? It would not be the first time that civilization was preserved in the convents and the monasteries. Nymph, in thy orisons, be all of Academia's sins remembered."

(Allen, David White, "An Unweeded Garden," The Claremont Institute, http://claremont.org/publications/crb/id.959/article_detail.asp [originally published March 22, 2004])

I guess it's safe to say that, based on his review, Professor Allen'd give this edition 1 star...right?

I purchased this book as a birthday present for a graduating high school student who is a big fan of Shakespeare.
This volume has a lot to offer to both students and casual readers. In addition to very readable text of all the plays and sonnets, the fifth edition provides historical and literary context, including drawings and photos, as well as insightful essays on each of the plays. The essays include background, plot summaries and discussion of major themes and would be very useful to anyone seeing a play, especially for the first time. The helpful glossary is extensive, so the reader doesn't have to look up unfamiliar words or feel intimidated by the language. Professor Bevington's fifth edition of the Complete Works is a gem, authoritative and attractive. The birthday girl thinks so, too-- she gives it an A+.

This is truly a great book. Not only does it contain all of Shakespeare's works but it also has an enormous amount of information. There's a little bit on his life and a bit more about the theater during his time. There are also some great drawings in the beginning of the book.

Our copy has now passed on to our third child -- Anna and Jane loved this book, and Danny loves it, too.

Byron Barton really seems to "get it" -- what captivates a child. Bold illustrations, nice use of color, and just enough detail for a board book.

Board books aren't necessarily meant to teach or be encyclopedic -- they're like good friends that you visit every day, and look forward to doing so. "Machines At Work" is just that -- a good friend.

We've named the characters, we make construction sounds when we read, and we love the lunch break and the end of the day pages.

Solidly constructed, wonderfully illustrated, and age appropriate, "Machines At Work" is a winner, sure to please any pre-reader. Thank you, Byron Barton!

My two year old recently figured out all the sentences in this book, and reads them aloud. He feels so proud after finishing the story, and reads it almost every night. Of course he's just memorizing but its one of a few books that he "reads".

My three year old son usually only lets me read him books with characters he knows. I gambled on this one and came up a winner. I'm not sure why, but he laughs through the whole thing and wants to hear it again and again. He loves to beat me to the first line, "Hey you guys!" For my reluctant reader, Machines at Work is a winner.

When I first got this for my son (2 years), I thought "What a snooze-fest!" We were still high on the Mo Willems wave, still in love with Knuffle Bunny and the slightly off-kilter viewpoint of the Pigeon, so the utter barrenness and simplicity of Machines at Work honestly put me off. But, as it is all about the baby (and don't he know it!), Connor simply loves it! Although he is fickle (we have now moved on to the pop-up Bug series by David A. Carter) it firmly held the New Boy Times #1 bedseller slot for a good 3 weeks (an eternity to the toddler set). It also was known to douse many a tantrum (great diversion - "I know you just ka-bonked your head on the dining room table for the fortieth time today, but LOOK AT THESE COOL TRUCKS!") and entertain on long car rides.

The story (as it is) involves a diverse work crew doing stuff with simple 4-5 word narration for each page. It is so simple, it is almost zen-like. And Connor came to be able to repeat each phrase as we turned the page - as soon as I opened the cover he would gleefully shoud out "Hey, you guys!". Reading this to him at bedtime has become one of the fondest memories of my fatherhood experience, and hopefully one of my son's funnest moments.

When you write as many reviews of children's books as I do (and is there any more pompous way to begin a sentence, I wonder) you sometimes find yourself at a loss for words when it comes to the simpler ones. And author/illustrator Byron Barton is, if nothing else, the patron saint of picture book straightforwardness. There is no wry undertone to a Barton book. No sly wit. No winks or nods to parents and educators beneath the simple childlike text. Nope. Byron Barton is an author that writes stories for children and children alone. In "Machines At Work", Barton (who's millions of books have covered every topic from planes to dinosaurs) tackles that perpetual toddler fascination - - the worksite.

In this particular book, we observe a wide variety of small workers (male, female, white, black, etc.) off to work. Some climb readily into their machines. Others dictate instructions from below. For this day, the workers knock down a building, bulldoze trees, dump rubble, take a lunch break, build a building, and build a road (amongst other activities). Then the expressionless crew heads for home after a long and satisfying day. Says the text, "More work tomorrow".

The book begins with the sentence, "Hey, you guys!". For those parents amongst you who remember the heyday of that classic PBS show, "The Electric Company", you know how best to read that line. Otherwise, the sentences in this book tend to be instructions. The narrator (and, hence, the child reading the book) tells the little people what to do and they do it. I was intrigued by the prior reviewer of this book who commented that though we see the workers apparently build a road and building, no final product is ever shown at the end. It would be nice to see the result of all this work. Obviously Barton thinks kids would be far more interested in the breaking down and building up than in the end products. I was also a little amazed at the amount of destruction in this book as opposed to the significantly smaller amount of construction.

But these aren't really criticisms. If you've a kid who likes machines that go vroom and boom, it's hard to find fault with this book. There are plenty of simple words with thick black lines for kids to understand. No, it won't name the machines one by one. You'll have to find a different book for that. Still, it's a nice enough preschool title to entrance those kiddies who're already enamored of these friendly agents of destruction. A simple text that is certain to find a wide appreciative audience.

This book is the finest Marathon Training Guide I've seen. It is written for any level runner from first time Marathoner to experienced veteran. The author explains in an easy to understand format the reasons behind his system. This system works! The better job I did of following the book the faster my times dropped. I've taken over 30 minutes off my marathon time in a 2 1/2 year period. The book has easy to follow running schedules for a wide variety of training circumstances.

I really can't say enough good things about this book. I'll start by saying that having just followed the "below 70 miles per week" training plan pretty faithfully, I just lowered my personal best in the marathon by 19 minutes, breaking 2:50 for the first time. I also actually enjoyed running the marathon, right to the finish, did not hit "The Wall", and sustained my highest weekly mileage ever without sustaining injury. I attribute a lot of this success to this book.

You need to be fairly serious about training to benefit from this book - the training plans are best suited for those who are willing to do 60 miles per week or more. (The 70+ mile per week plan contains a section "When 93 miles per week just aren't enough"). But the book places a strong emphasis on recovery and nutrition, which I think were critical in allowing me to increase mileage without getting hurt, sick, or run-down. And you certainly don't need to be elite - just willing and able to find the time and energy for a fairly large amount of training.

There are a lot of things to get right in a marathon, and almost all of them seem to be addressed here: all the different types and intensities of training, how to make sure you recover on your "easy" days, how to replenish carbohydrate stores after long runs, how to taper, race day strategy, carbo-loading, hydration, and even how to recover intelligently in the month after the race. Impressively, the book manages to cover all these aspects while being readable and quite easy to comprehend and remember.

A lot of ideas in this book are quite similar to Daniel's Running Formula (another good book) but tuned specifically for the marathon and made a bit easier to digest because it only covers that one event.

Nothing new to read here, just the same old marathon training instructions we have all heard.

This program is tailored for the "serious but busy" athlete.
A big plus are the scaled programs from <50 mpw to >70.
The main emphasis is on LONG HARD RUNS. It is no secret that this is the key to aerobic development (Canova, Noakes, Costill etc).
Pfitz puts it into practice w/ a well thought out program.

My only issue would be that there is no "anaerobic threshold" training e.g. 6x2k @ 10k pace. While maybe a bit of overkill, training at this pace worked well for me in the past, and is advocated by others (Vigil, etc).

Definitely worth it - I will be following the 18 week cycle (with a few of my own modifications) for my next race.

This book totally transformed my marathon training. It took me from a middle of the pack runner to a Boston qualifier. It explains the demands placed on your body in training for a marathon and what it needs to recover and how to focus your runs so that each time you hit the pavement, you do it with a purpose (i.e., no more "junk" miles). I use the training guides in the back of the book religiously. If I'm ever away from home more than a few days, this book goes with me!! I've given it to at least 4 other people. In my opinion, no runner should be without this book.

I really like the fact that they have information week by week about what you and the baby are going through. In addtion they have comments from mother's for each week. A lot of the time these comments are contradictory which helps to illustrate the point that every pregnancy is different and what you are going through is normal for some. I'm in my first trimester and i've read the first 14 weeks thouroughly and looked through the rest of the book as well. I like how the sections are split up and the sections at the end such as the "is it safe?" section are great. There are benefits to other books as well - one is that some of the information, such as information on specific symptoms, is talked about throughout the chapter and so it may not be as easy to search for answers to specific questions in these areas. However, I've really enjoyed this book and I think it's a great reference to have.

I flipped through a bunch of books (and someone gave me What to Expect When You're Expecting). But The Baby Center's Guide had the most meat of those I looked at. I'm the type of person that wants the facts written in intelligent terms. The rest seemed "dumbed down" in comparison.

This is hands down the best pregnancy guide I've read. "What to Expect" is alarmist. "The Girlfriend's Guide" will quickly make you neurotic about your weight. The 2004 edition of "The Unofficial Guide to Having a Baby" is organizationally muddled. This book, however, is wonderful and everything you could ask for in a pregnancy reference guide.

The week-by-week pregnancy descriptions in "Essential Guide" are informative enough to satisfy your curiousity about what's going on with your body and your baby's development, but not so detailed that you feel creeped-out or overwhelmed. The tone of the book is never preachy or anxiety-inducing. The medical info is largely up-to-date and tailored to common American health care system practices. And there are helpful sections on "making the most of your changing look." Bravo! A superb resource I consult often and would recommend to any pregnant woman.

This book was well-thout out, put together clearly, and features input from mothers at each stage (week) of pregnancy, which really helped me understand that everything I was going through was normal (and scientifically explicable). I'm a childcare provider and 1st time mom (now 16 months old), and I recommend and buy this book for all of my pregnant friends (even dads-to-be should read it).
Trust me, you won't be disappointed! I had 7 other pregnancy books given to me by friends/garage sales, and they all were terrible, common sense type books. Even the "What to Expect" series is so incredibly overrated...I have no idea why! Buy this book and you won't regret it. Oh, and you're welcome to check out my wish list on Amazon that I share with my expectant friends and family. I researched forever before deciding on each item and have nothing but terrific things to say about each one!

Great week by week guide of what is going on. Good tips and things too look out for.

This book introduces jazz to a young audience. It explores the sounds, rhythms, and emotions of the genre through colorful pictures and rhythmic words similar to the beat of "scat" singing.
Lots of the words are there just for the sound of them. By focusing on the sound words, students could develop spelling strategies that help them move from phonemes, the sounds they make, to graphemes, the written representations of those sounds.

This book is excellent. The illustrations and musical text allow for early readers to really enjoy and learn from this book. Perfect for preschool and kdg age. I used this book as the basis of a jazz unit, it worked wonderfully.

"Charlie Parker Played Be Bop" was my son's favorite book when he was two and nine years later we still have fun reading it. I now purchase a copy for new parents to read to thier babies. As a speech language pathologist, I want to share to magic of words and the music they can make! This book is an absolute MUST read for all children.

I wasn't sure how my little one would respond to this book even though I love it. If I ask, "Do you want to read about Charlie Parker?," she lights up and starts literally starts to bop. The baby digs it. Just more evidence that the jazz is a universal language. I like the introduction to poetry, rhythm and randomness ("Never leave your cat alone"). I bought two other copies and gave them to my friends for their babies.

I am an elementary school music teacher with students ranging from pre-K to 5th grade. I read this book to all of my pre-K and kindergarten through second grade classes and sometimes the mood strikes me to read it to older students. There is something in here for most every age. Everyone loves it.

So why does Raschka draw chicken feet in such odd places, e.g., on overshoes, alphabet letters, pancake flippers?

Well, rumor has it that one day Charlie Parker was driving back to his boarding house and, as luck would have it, he hit and killed a chicken that had run out into the street from someone's front yard. Such chickens are called "yardbirds". The alleged events include Parker doing the unthinkable, namely, backing up his car, picking up the dead chicken (aka "roadkill"), taking it to his landlady (hey, it was fresh!), her cooking it, and him eating it. When friends heard this story, Parker was known forever after as "Yardbird", which was eventually shortened to just "Bird".

If you didn't catch the part about the chicken feet on your own, don't feel badly. Insiders like Rachka and myself know it and now you do too. Rachka has done a terrific job in providing a lot of feeling about some very notable personalities. Plus he does it with humor, some of which is very subtle.

My students probably have as much fun going through Parker's history as with the book itself. But all of that is just the preliminaries: I then have to read it several more times with the students reading and acting out the story. We have a rockin' good time.

I just finished reading this book and loved it.The stories are warm and insightful to life growing up in the South and how food was the glue that held families and friends together. As someone who lives in the South, the recipes are true to the "old" South.

I grew up in Southern Virginia and while I come from a white middle class background, we still enjoyed many of the dishes, Miss Edna writes about in this book with Scott. Unfortunately I didn't appreciate the importance of my 'food' heritage until it was too late - both grandmothers were gone and all their recipes and tips with them. While this book is a delightful read on its own and provoked many a trip down 'Memory Lane' I am enjoying the challenge of recreating my childhood memories with Miss Edna and Scott's well-written recipes. If you are a Virginian and over 50, this book should hold pride & place on your shelf - but I'll wager it spends more time open than many of your fancy new cookbooks!

The Gift of Southern Cooking is one of the best collections of pure southern cooking to be found, from a grand dame of the South. These recipes preserve much of the history of southern food, handed down from generation-to-generation, and brought to life in the inspired talent of Scott Peacock.

I have all of the late Edna Lewis's cookbooks. She wrote so beautifully and her recipes never fail. This is one of her best. I highly recommend it.

A wonderful book, full of insight, basic instruction, social and historical instruction. I bought this book after finding one recipe from it online for Fried Chicken. What I found was book full of my childhood memories. The authors have managed to fill me in on why I do certain things in the kitchen that were done only because I seem to remember my grandmother doing them or an aunt saying it should be done that way. This book inspired me to make my first batch of sweet southern pickles and they came out just as I remember available at every home we visited during my youth. They came out so delicious that I immediately made a second batch to give as Christmas presents.
For anyone interested in southern cooking and the reasons for things being done in a certain way, this is the book for you.