Spencer Books

This book and its illustrations will bring back memories of childhood summer vacations and will make your children excited to go on their own summer trips. The illustrations are beautiful and detailed -- your children will love to read and re-read this book as they try to pick out all of the interesting details.

My boys absolutely loved this book. The illustrations really caught their eyes. They pointed out many things that I didn't even notice at first glance. Although the boys have not personally taken the Downeaster, they have been on a train and related well to the book. Rebecca Harrison Reed is a highly talented children's book artist! I look forward to her next book.

My guy loves this game. He's a quiet kinda guy and this game brings out the laughter, the passion and the fun and always leads to hot s*x. We've played it about 3 times now and have yet to go through all the cards. I buy a lot of games, some are a hit and some are a miss and this game is a hit! It's simple to play and is a great prompter to do something different. I feel the game is more for intimate couples instead of just meeting couples.

Let's face it. Walks on the beach, candlelit dinners and picnic basket lunches are great. But, there is a lot more to life than that! "Truth Or Dare (A Game of Passion)" will take you and your partner places you've never dreamed of. The premise is simple. Roll the dice and pick a card. You'll get "Truth", "Dare" or a "Wildcard", which means you can perform the card's command, make your partner perform it or pass. For some examples, if you choose a "Truth" card, it may read, "What part of your partner's body do you find the most erotically fascinating?" "Name a sex toy you have longed for but have not had the nerve to buy yourself". "Who do you think is more dominant in the bedroom, you or your partner?" If you get a "Dare" card, it might read, "If desire is a dish best served hot, what sort of dish are you? Discuss what you taste like? "Kiss your partner from head to toe and back up again". "Create a bondage costume using nothing but plastic wrap!" These are only some of the partial card instructions. Some are mild and some are wild! The most fascinating point of this game is you are safe to get to know your partner in hundreds of ways. The card instructions make a good start, but you are free to use your imagination and a lot of humor. The whole point is to have fun and enlighten your relationship. You might find yourself using one card that lasts the entire evening! The best part is - everyone wins!

Until I read Metta Spencer's Two Aspirins and a Comedy, I saw television as basically entertaining me, and sometimes informing me. Reading this insightful book shows me how many of my core values and understandings have been formed -- from the tolerance that Howdy Doody implicitly taught to the multiculturalism of I Spy, Northern Exposure and Star Trek.

Metta Spencer brings her skills as a Professor of Sociology, as a long-time peace researcher, and as a psychologist or social psychologist to the question of how we can change our society so that individuals are happier and more fulfilled, and the society is more peaceful and stable.

Two Aspirins and a Comedy is not really a study of television and its uses, it is actually a study of our society and how it meets the needs (and fails to meet the needs) of individuals in it. She sees people who are lonely and out-of-sorts reaching out to television stories for human contact and affirmation of their values. But mostly the television stories that are available fill their mind and their imagination with crooks, sociopaths, and unsympathetic characters, and the stories fill their minds with violence and cruelty. Spencer argues for better stories and more sustaining characters as social policy, and takes up a wide range of arguments about why we have the situation that exists.

Unlike most non-fiction (and unheard of in professional sociology) this account is wide ranging and consistently serious across a range of fields - philosophy, theology, sociology, the physiology of emotions, and so on. The voice of the author - in turn humorous, sad, empathetic, and intellectually ambitious - comes through the whole account.

Try it. Reading Two Aspirins and a Comedy is a unique experience, unlike any other book I know.

I'm an 8th grade teacher (teaching US history) and I use these crosswords as optional brain teasers for my students. Sometimes I give them to students who are finished with a class assignment to keep them busy and thinking about Social Studies. Students enjoy the challenge and learn something along the way. I have bought other "puzzle"-type books, but this is by far my favorite, because students don't need any specific content-type prior knowledge before tacking the crosswords - all the info needed is right there. It was well worth my "investment". Buy it!

I've been very pleased with this book. It's a variety of maps (including a floor plan of the white house) which comprehensively teaches map-reading skills. My son is gifted, age 9 and in the 5th grade, and he did struggle at first with the thoroughness needed to complete the crossword puzzles. He needed supervision and help. It was good to see him struggle and work (evil Mom grin) instead of dashing out easy answers. He's learned to slow down, analyze, and search for the answers and I've noticed that this has carried over to his other work. I'm very glad that I chose this book for him and I would choose it again.

Alexis' writing comes from the heart, she shares her thoughts, feelings and experiences openly. She's not afraid to challenge, or be challenged! Here verses are a blessing and an encouragement!

From the first words, I wanted to know so much about this woman who chose to devote herself to West Jackson, Mississippi. Her poems and pieces were very compelling. She is living an American life that everyone should know about, whether they are religious or not. I recommend this book for anyone who struggles to make change in the world.

Vagabond's House is wonderful! If you want to relax some evening, read this work of poetry by S. California's poet, Don Blanding from the past. His work will send you on a dream vacation!!

Vagabond's House is a nostalgic collection of poetry set in the exotic locale of pre-statehood Hawaii and the South Seas. The central theme is wanderlust and the joys (and sorrows) of vagabondage. Those who normally dislike poetry may take a liking to this simply written verse which appeals to the everyday man. The book is full of pen and ink illustrations, which are supurbly rendered by the author. This wonderful book has been so popular since it was first published in 1928, that there have been over sixty printings. To find out more about Don Blanding, vagabond poet, please visit www.don-blanding.com

THE WEARY MOTEL doesn't have a breakneck plot. It doesn't have lots of suspense. It's not a mystery; it's not a thriller; it's not a romance. It doesn't have a "gimmick" like some books, and it's not topical like others. It doesn't introduce us to any "brave new world." In other words, THE WEARY MOTEL is definitely not the kind of book that's going to land on anyone's bestseller list anytime soon, though it's certainly better written than most that do.

THE WEARY MOTEL takes place in the fictional town of Peebles, population 3,811, in southern Ohio, just southwest of Steubenville (very near the town where Clark Gable was born), near the West Virginia panhandle. It's coal-mining country, one of the least exotic places on earth. Most of the people are extremely poor, and many lives revolve around the sheer battle just to stay alive.

As would be expected, the people that inhabit this book aren't glamorous or wealthy, or involved in any exotic pursuit; they're just trying to make the best of what they've got, and along the way, maybe eke out a little happiness as well. As the novel opens, Jo Rene, a single woman approaching middle age, is setting out on a mission, a mission to spy on her live-in postman boyfriend, Buck, whom she believes, for no good reason, is lying to her and sleeping with someone on his route.

With the second paragraph, Spencer establishes the tone of his novel, and we can see this is going to be a novel that's both grim and grimly funny. Not satire. It's not biting enough for that. Not even black comedy; it's too whimsical. But, it is going to be filled with something much, much better - deep insight into what makes us human as well as raw honesty.

Spencer is an extremely talented author, one of the best and most genuine of all American voices, and while all of his writing skills are strong, it doesn't take many pages to realize that characterization and dialogue are definitely his forte. All the characters Spencer creates are "genuine," they really "come alive" on the page and they burrow into the reader's heart and stay there. Spencer's able to do what so many other, far lesser but better known authors have never mastered, i.e., translate his insight into human nature into the written word.

Spencer's characters may seem a bit quirky and offbeat at first glance, but as the book progresses, the reader comes to identify with them more and more, for what human among us isn't a bit quirky and offbeat, himself, at least at times? Spencer simply reaches deep inside his characters and turns them inside out for the reader to get to know. It is, at least in part, the loving humanity that this author bestows on each and every one of his characters that sets THE WEARY MOTEL apart and lifts it above the ordinary.

THE WEARY MOTEL features an ensemble cast, rather than focusing on one central protagonist. This book tells the story of Dill, Jo Rene's brother, and the heartache he feels over the early death of his young wife, Carol; it tells the story of Jo Rene and her struggle to survive in a family she loves and one we know that, if given a choice, she'd no doubt choose again, though she might want to kick herself for doing so; it tells the story of Dawnell, Dill's teenaged daughter and her desire to break free of the suffocating atmosphere of Peebles despite the fact that she's going to have ties to this little town for the rest of her life.

The supporting characters in THE WEARY MOTEL are as beautifully drawn and engaging as the major ones, although several of them aren't very likable, but then, they shouldn't be. There's Buck, the man Jo Rene should be woman enough to toss out, but doesn't, because love, more often than not, gets in the way of common sense and causes us to do stupid things instead of smart ones; there's Lori, Dill's unhappily married love interest; there's Tonya, the girl who dreams of running away to Florida, but settles for Buck and roses and chocolates, instead, at least for the time being. Then there're Dill and Jo Rene's mother and grandmother, two feisty women who are both surprising and yet, wholly believable.

Like the characters in Spencer's previous book, LOVE AND RERUNS IN ADAMS COUNTY, the characters in THE WEARY MOTEL do the "wrong" thing more often than they do the "right," but they are, above all else, supremely human and extraordinarily memorable. Spencer really lets us see into the hearts of these people and I found myself chuckling on almost every page and thinking, yes, that's exactly the way I felt; that's exactly the way life is.

One of the most memorable and endearing scenes occurs when Jo Rene receives a chain letter. Like most of us, her first instinct is to chuck it into the nearest trash can, but also, like most of us, Jo Rene doesn't want to tempt fate, so she deals with the letter, instead, and in a very comical and human manner.

While the characters take center stage in THE WEARY MOTEL, one really can't review this book without mentioning Spencer's fresh and funny dialogue. His narrative voice is strong and it's unique. It's also as uniquely American as Mark Twain. Spencer carefully walks the line between the comic and the grim without so much as a single misstep. In addition, his dialogue has subtext, something I think many authors today simply dismiss as being unnecessary. I have yet to read another book that can even come close to being as poignant, as truly funny, and as genuinely bittersweet as is THE WEARY MOTEL. The subject matter is sometimes dark and grim and serious, but Spencer never forgets that even in the grimmest moments there can often be found a comic side to life, and to his enormous credit, he focuses on both.

THE WEARY MOTEL is a fresh, funny, and touching novel and one I would definitely recommend to anyone. It's really too bad it's not more widely read. Mark Spencer is an author who's not only mastered his craft; he's an author who knows how to plumb the depths of the human heart.


5/5

I love this book! I love the way Mr. Spencer draws the reader into every characters life, all the way down to the "mind chatter" that everyone has and never talks about. He draws a clear picture of the external settings of an internal madness. I love his sense of humor and the multi-faceted texture of his writing. I own three of his books and look forward to the next!

I recently purchased this book at a convention for my home based business, and I had the pleasure of getting my hands on one of the first copies of this book. I wasn't sure what to expect, however, I knew it would be good. But after reading the first chapter, I was in Awe of how honest, direct and up-front these guys were about what it REALLY took to be successful in the network marketing industry.

Many people are sold on the get rich quick stories of our industry, often giving it a bad name. These guys broke it down under the "what to expect" category, and they truly lay out a strong foundation in which to build a successful business and team on.

I encourage this book as a MUST READ to any networker and their teams. It is definitely an eye opener and an encouragment to all of us in the industry!

Nicole Cooper
www.topmlmsuccesssecrets.blogspot.com

A self-proclaimed Mormon prophet, Ervil LeBaron, and his polygamous cult, vow to extract "blood atonement," aka murder, for what Ervil perceives as sins against his cult so great that simply "being saved" won't wash them away. After Ervil's death in prison, his family (referred to by some as the Lord of the Flies LeBaron's because of their ages), set off to murder their father's enemies.. Investigative reporter Scott Anderson exposes "The Church of the Lamb of God," the two-decade-long murder spree, and the prophet's sons and daughters who were also his hit men. This is true crime at it's best.

ABSTRACT JUSTICE: An Ascent Into Hell, by Spencer Preston. The spellbinding political thriller that dramatically altered the course of the "Trial of the Century". "As the leader of the free world lays dying, a plot unfolds to kill his successor-- a black man.