V Books

I found all sorts of "flashes" in this book. One of the best parts was how men and women look at work differently. I wish I had known this before! It would have made my life easier.

A great book for any woman of any age, but particularly for younger women who want to have it all. I love the quote that you can have it all, but not at the same time!

In today's society many of us are more worried of being perfect than being ourselves. Lisa did a great job showing us how to wake up and start living life on our terms. She teaches us to enjoy our stay on the this world and not letting everything bother us till we get it right.

Although this book was written by an woman and is more geared to women...I found the empowering message contained within this book to be very apropos for men as well.

To give you an idea what this book is all about here is the table of contents:

Prologue
Oh, what a difference she made

Is This It?
Picture Perfect
It's probably just me

The Perfect Thing
The Queen of Perfect
Who turned that thing on anyway?
"You really should . . ."
The case against housework, dieting, and other shoulds
"Just fine" isn't exactly what I was going for here

Mother Nature had Something in Mind
The truth about dogs and cats
Attention Wal-Mart Shoppers
Calling All Camp Counselors
264 Extra thoughts
Life of the party
The Best Laid Plans

Is Anybody Out There?
What was your name again?
Westward Ho
Home on the range
Hello my name is
Rebel with a Cause
Nobody.com
Just the facts mam

Last on the List
You're gonna need `em, you just don't know when
All your eggs in one basket
Madame chairperson
I heard it through the grapevine. . .
Who's Zoomin' Who?
Proud Mary

What did you expect?
Which end is up?
Cry me a River
The Trouble with Work
And they all lived happily ever after
Why didn't you say so
That girl

What time Is it?
It worked for Scarlet
I've got a feeling about this
This one's a keeper

Epilogue
The end
Bibliography
Author Bio's

I highly recommend this book to anyone who is waiting to do things until it's just right. This book makes a great gift as well. I gave one to my wife!

Zev Saftlas, Author of Motivation That Works and founder of EmpoweringMessages.com

"Forget Perfect" is witty and charming. I feel like I personally know McLeod and her friends and love them for the stories she shares . Her honesty is endearing and I found myself laughing out loud at her refreshing take on being a wife and mom.
I never realized how much I resented my "prefect" friends until I read this book ! Prompted me to be myself and stop pretending to be something I'm not. Thanks, McLeod, for reminding me that life is not, and will not be, perfect.

I'm giving this book to all my friends - it's fantastic! Lisa McLeod is the voice of her generation -- a voice that says, "For God's Sake, I'm Exhausted, The Laundry Can Wait!" Forget Perfect is a wonderful, laugh-out-loud mirror for women - wives, mothers, daughters and friends everywhere who have put themselves last on their own to-do list. It's one of those rare books that makes you reevaluate what's really important, and helps you to realize that being perfect doesn't make people like you more, it makes them like you less. A wonderful book!

...truly! We spend all of our lives WANTING - thinking something out there will make us happy. If we have the perfect body, skin, man, career, kids, whatever...THEN we will be happy. I have truly spent my whole life believing this, that if I could somehow make myself BETTER, I'd be happy. This book is like a thump on the head. Hell-oooo??? No one is perfect, and the people who appear perfect, well, no one wants to be around them anyway! This book makes you realize that the GOOD stuff is already here. Cherish your friends and family. Be a real person. Be yourself!

I had grown so tired of being disappointed in cookie cutter novels about women and friendship. As if it were a hot topic du jour and authors were just jumping on the bandwagon. This was a GOOD BOOK. An unlikely friendship, humor, heartache and women finding themselves and their strength.
Ms Friddle has set a high standard for herself, I look forward to the next one.

if you are looking for something different , Mindy Fiddle does it in this story. Its an easy read, easy to follow characters and you feel a sense of being there with the story. It was fun to read and worth every penny.. dont miss out on this one .Nicole

In the Garden Angel - Ms. Friddle carefully weaves a story with intricate detail and character. She illustrates how people's lives are oftentimes multi-faceted, secretive and how relationships are compromised, stretched and redefined.

This is a story of a young woman seeking to keep her family's estate together, of another woman seeking to keep her husband, and theats that they both must overcome.

Ms. Friddle illustrates that life isn't always fair or just, that sometimes we are not dealt the best hand but that we must play the game with the cards that we have been given. We must learn how to make lemonade out of Lemons. And in essence to live a life in "San Souci" -- which in French means "Without (San) worry (Souci)".

Southerners will feel right at home with this quirky novel. Its eccentric characters could fit right into our own family scrapbooks, and its reverence for the past and suspicion of the encroaching future pose a conflict being played out across the length and breadth of Dixie-and might even be encapsulated in our ambivalence nowadays toward using the word "Dixie" as a synonym for the South.
Just outside of Palmetto, S.C., in the small town of Sans Souci, Cutter Johanson lives in a dilapidated mansion that houses the comforting ghosts of her ancestry. The urban sprawl of Palmetto, which is a thinly disguised Greenville, threatens to engulf the small town that has been home to Cutter's family for generations, but an even more immediate threat is that the death of Cutter's grandmother has brought the house up for sale. Desperate to keep the old home place, Cutter goes to great lengths to sabotage efforts to sell it, but she knows she is fighting a losing battle. Her sister Ginny, "the pretty one," and brother Barry, away in service, are eager to sell, and Cutter, though working two jobs, both menial, can not afford to buy them out.
Enter a kind of Delphic fate: Ginny, a college student, is having an affair with a teacher, Daniel Byers, and is pregnant by him. His aggrieved wife Elizabeth is an emotional cripple whose agoraphobia and panic attacks keep her a virtual prisoner in her home, significantly a run-of-the-mill subdivision ranch house. Not least, Elizabeth's main affliction is a husband so caring that he seems to have an unhealthy need for his wife to remain a cripple. Stir into that mix an anonymous telephone tip to the unsuspecting wife, and a solution to Cutter's problem that she could never have imagined is set in motion.
The attentive reader will see it coming when Elizabeth somehow manages to summon the strength to venture out and knock on the Johansons' front door. When Cutter answers the door, the die is cast: Two oddballs, one strong, one weak, come face to face, and the reader, recognizing their compatibility right away even if they don't, knows that they will wind up with each other when the dust has cleared-though in what arrangement is a nice, and logical, surprise.
The story of how all this happens is highly readable and, for the most part, deliciously written. Ms. Friddle's prose shines, especially with apt and poetic similes--but she comes awfully close to overdoing a good thing: Too many similes can be tiring and come across finally as the same artistic trick done too often to retain its freshness or, worse, as a kind of misdirection. Not for nothing did Gertrude Stein advise writers that in describing something it is usually better to say what a thing is than what it is like, i.e. "A rose is a rose is a rose."

Just finished reading The Garden Angel.....and really dragged out those final pages, because I didn't want it to end!
Wonderful debut novel with prose that flows, characters that made me feel like I knew them personally and Friddle displayed a terrific sense of place.
I highly recommend this novel and honestly have to say it's been ages since I enjoyed a story as much as this one. Down-to-earth and believable. Do yourself a favor and read this one. My only regret is I'm going to miss Cutter, Elizabeth, Alfred and the rest of the cast. Very much looking forward to Friddle's next novel.

I highly recommend this book for parents of, and people who work with, pre-teens and teenagers, especially those who are not comfortable using the latest web 2.0 tools (if you don't know what this is and you have children ages 10 - 16, you need to read this book!). As a school district technology specialist for grade K - 12 schools, I see and hear many stories about how kids are using social networking sites - often without parents knowing what they are doing. Even those kids whose parents do not allow them to use these tools at home are finding ways to use them elsewhere.

The book takes you step by step through the process of viewing and creating a My Space site before suggesting you try to access the sites set up by your own children and their friends. It is informative, without lecturing, and has practical advice for communicating with your children about online etiquette and safety.

This book is highly fascinating in its ability to connect to it's readers. Any parents with kids interested in MySpace should read this fantastic book. It takes you through the steps of setting up an account so you, the parent, can experience MySpace first hand. As a college student and young professional, I find this book to be a resource for myself as a social worker and for parents. I highly reccomend this book!

I wish I had the information in this enlightening book two years ago when my daughter first began using myspace. I truly like the easy yet intelligent command of the english language the author has used to portray to her audience how there are many facets to be concerned with that involve our youth and how they engage, influence, and deeply affect our children while behind closed doors in their own rooms for endless hours on Myspace. We as parents are so often busy, tired, and all to often aloof to the significant dangers of the inner psychological repurcussions that are manifesting while our children sit mesmerized and addicted in this 'unchaperoned private club.' It is not to late, and to educate ourselves is paramount if we as loving and concerned parents are to help facilitate a change in the amount of time and usage we allow our precious children to interact on this massive meeting place. Afterall, we are their guardians and we must help them with positive action at this vulnerable time in their lives. Be informed, that is what this book does in a most potent way! Excellent job Candice Kelsey and thank you! You obviously are a person who cares and who wants to make a difference to your students and to all others-far beyond the perimiters of your own classroom.

The book it good. It is written by someone who has worked with a lot of teens therefore, her understanding of teens and social networking sites seems well-founded and thus, valid. The book is balanced in that it offers a lot of statistics, perspective and experience of the author as well as first hand stories and examples from teens themselves. A must read for anyone dealing with teens and the internet.

"Sheesh! Another MySpace thing! Mom, MySpace is really not that big a deal!" -My son, on seeing the book.

And therein is the point of the book. This is not a book for teens; it is an attempt to bridge the generation gap between parents and their children, using MySpace as the point of departure.

The author is a middle school teacher in California who has supplemented her personal experience with extensive research. There are no footnotes, but expert commentary and research is well documented within the text. There is also a "Resources" section at the back of the book, listing sources by chapter, as well as a "Recommended Reading, Surfing, and Viewing" section, also broken down by chapter.

There are few holds barred as the author delves into the current world of teens. In the first chapter the author points out that it's not all about MySpace, it's about social networking sites, of which MySpace is the largest. She then proceeds to explain why social networking is so important to teens and how it fits into the overall picture of their lives. In doing so, she exposes the terms and terminology they use and their current cultural context. Although she gives frequent warnings, if you are not prepared for language that would have been offensive in prior generations, you may want to skip this book and try one of the others available.

But the author is not trying to shock as much as to wave red flags. She and many experts say MySpace is not the problem, it is simply a symptom of a larger cultural shift. Kelsey believes, and offers good documentation, that the shift is driven by media and consumerism. With the red flags she also offers advice on dealing with the negative issues surrounding MySpace. The first step, also recommended by other authors of MySpace books, is to visit this part of a teen's "world" by creating a MySpace account and looking around. There is a guided tour through the process, beginning with Chapter 2, "Pimped Out: Anatomy of a Profile." The author recommends not going straight to your child's profile, but using the experience to understand the world of today's teens by seeing it through their eyes. There is a chapter later in the book devoted to assessing your child's MySpace involvement, and strategies to use.

Overall, the book is well written and well documented, promoting strategies that are recommended by experts for dealing with teens and MySpace. The book overall also has an alarmist tone, and uses very frank language. For the clueless parent (including the one(s) thinking, "Not MY teen!"), this is probably a good thing. But it may not be the book for every parent. If you want a full picture of the teen world and teens on MySpace, this book should top your list. If you'd rather not know all the gory details, but still want to know how to approach MySpace, consider something like MySpace Unraveled, by Larry Magid and Anne Collier.

As a writer of character-based novels, I found this book to be a veritable fountain of perspicacity, chock full of pithy analogies and examples. As someone who was an actor before a writer, I really appreciated new insights presented by Brandilyn, an accomplished writer of gripping novels who practices what she preaches. This is not a book you read and donate to Goodwill but rather one that should take a prominent place on your bookshelf so it can be easily found and accessed for a refresher course.
Donald James Parker
Author of Reforming the Potter's Clay

It's true, writers often say it rather than show it. This book helps you take a look at a character and like an actor would show their action gives writers tips on how to make your characters look believable. The book also gives some very good suggestions on the use of color (emotional that is) and rhythm. Some of the book's material may be exactly what you knew before but then it never hurts to refresh you memory. I liked the book more as a look at acting and since plays are one of my favorite hobbies, it gave some nice tips on how to spot bad acting. I would recommend the book for all writers.

I don't usually write reviews, but I found this book too enlightening to not. Getting Into Character is full of excellent ideas and excellent examples. I am in the process of editing my National Novel Writing Month novel using Collins' ideas. Her examples are clear and illuminating. The recommended reading at the back of the book is extensive and well-explained.

I would have liked a little more on creating a good "Level A," but that is my only complaint.

If you write and are in the market to raise your writing to the level of such literary greats as Twain, Austen, Tolstoy, Dickens, Siddons, Dumas, Hugo, Mitchard, Foster, Waller, Martini or Saul, then this is a must have for your research library. From the fingers of Brandilyn Collins comes the experience of a best selling novelist and her adaptation of Method acting director/instructor, Stanislasky's words. Included are samples of contemporary and classic novels teaching you how to push your writing higher. You can learn how to draw the reader to your characters as their story unfolds. Don't miss this one!

The reviewers have said it all, and yet I feel the need to add my two cents as an author and a 'how-to' book collector.

I struggled with my characters from the beginning and since reading Brandilyn's book I can understand why. Never before have I read a book that gives such explicit examples of how to create characters of depth and motivation.

My copy is dog-eared, highlighted, scribbled, and has lovingly earned a spot on my shelf as a book I could not write without. I can't recommend GETTING INTO CHARACTER enough for new authors and those who think they have nothing more to learn.

These are the best books ever. I always look through it when I need a little pick me up and it always gives me a good laugh!!! Makes a great gift for somebody. I always order extras to have on hand..great last minute gift.

Another great one from Sloane Tanen. Same chicks, different day! You'll love this one too!

The cartoons wouldn't be so funny (except the pictures are just adorable), if they weren't so true. Sloane translates human emotions into these cute chicks doing outrageous things. Buy one for yourself and 10 to give away.

I first fell in love with Sloane Tanen's work when I read the caption above the photo: "Samantha looked around the playground in amazement. Her mother had been right. She really WAS the smartest and the prettiest."

If you thought you had to give up picture books when you graduated from second grade, have I got a treat for you! Writer Sloane Tanen and photographer Stefan Hagen take those tiny little stuffed yellow chicks you can find at Easter and put them in wickedly funny scenarios in gorgeously detailed dioramas. This is the first book in the series BITTER WITH BAGGAGE SEEKS SAME: THE LIFE AND TIMES OF SOME CHICKENS and it's both delightfully bitter and sunny-natured. And who can't relate to adorable little spoiled tyrant Coco who is rarely seen without her tiara and dreams "that one day she would grow up to be a benevolent queen...or a supermodel?"

The second book in the series--GOING FOR THE BRONZE: STILL BITTER, MORE BAGGAGE is equally hilarious. One of my favorite pages shows two chickens peering over the side of the Titanic while a chicken floats beneath them and one of them comments, "I don't know, the last thing he said was something about being king of the world and then I may have accidentally pushed him." No one is safe from the satire including Charles and Camilla, American Idol, and Hooters. And the photographs are so detailed that you can spend hours just noticing things in the background.

I should warn you that, due to a wee bit of naughty language, these picture books are for adults only, but Sloane Tanen has also written a children's book called COCO ALL YEAR ROUND. If you want your child to develop a deliciously dark and dysfunctional sense of humor right along with you, you can read them rhymes featuring the adorable Coco like "I walk down the street with my whole Girl Scout troop. It would have been fun had I not slipped in poop." (I'll spare you a description of the illustration on this one.)

[...]

A followup to Sloane Tanen's earlier "Bitter with Baggage Seeks Same." This is also a hilarious look at the lives of adult females. Thanks to Sloane for these books!!! My college daughter and I laugh, laugh, laugh at these funny, situations and how Sloane has captured them perfectly with the help of some fuzzy little chicks!!!!

This book is a treasure trove of information about the battles and the influence of the topography had on the outcome. A must read for any Civil War buff OR anyone who loves to look at old maps.

This book is beautiful and interesting - it's a definitely a great book to have!

My dad is a CIvil War buff and a former surveyor. He loved this book. It had a ton of maps he could take out and look at to go along with what he was reading.

We recently moved to North Carolina and our grandson, who has studied the civil war in school, was so excited to see this book. We are planning on taking him to the many sites this summer and this has given him the opportunity to read up before the trip. For his age this book was awesome.

Thomas Nelson's Rutledge Hill Press publishing division has created a lovely book that tells a simple narrative of the Civil War focusing on the importance of maps in the war and the men who made them.

The cover of the book is designed to look like a leather bound canvas portfolio, much like a mapmaker's sketchbook of the era. The text of the book is beautifully printed on high quality paper. I appreciated the fact that the publishers included lots of pictures of everday soldiers - not just the same old posed shots of the generals and politicians.

There are 32 removable maps included as well. The removable maps are stored in between the pages. The publisher has printed on only one side of the thick paper pages and then glued the blank sides together on the edges to make an envelope of sorts between the pages. The maps are securely stored so there is no chance of accidentally losing a map.

I would not recommend this book as an introduction to the topic of the Civil War since it does precious little to introduce the issues that caused the war or Reconstruction. However, it is an attractive volume that would be welcome in the collection of any Civil War buff.

I bought this book for my 4-year-old granddaughter and within the first week we had read through it completely and at least half of it twice. It's a great compilation of top-notch classic picture books and in a quality presentation. It's a little too heavy for a child to cart around with him or her, but should be a favorite at story time. All the books inside are full sized with reprinted original illustrations.

This book is a wonderful collection of classic children's stories! Not only will kids love it, but as an adult, it was very nostalgic to flip through and revisit some of my favorite stories as a kid. Who doesn't love "Goodnight Moon" and "If You Give A Mouse A Cookie"?? Just a good time, fun read for everyone. I gave this book as a gift...and I think I may have to purchase another one just to keep for my own personal collection!

Yes, this book IS heavy! But my tiny 2 year old loves it so much that she lugs it off the shelf and hauls it on the couch for us to read. That's 5 stars in her book. My 4 and 6 year old love to flip through and choose numerous stories for us to read - they enjoy this book also. I am glad it's in our children's book collection.

This is the kind of book that should sell itself -- a collection of classic children's stories. At a time when going to the children's section of any bookstore can be overwhelming, it's a relief to find something like the Harper Collins Treasury of Picture Book Classics. It takes away all the guesswork by being filled with over a dozen stories that are already tried and true, stories that are proven entertainment to a wide variety of children. And they're all in one book (though it's a heavy sucker, to say the least). The contents are as follows:

Goodnight Moon written by Margaret Wise Brown, illustrated by Clement Hurd
Caps for Sale by Esphyr Slobodkina
Harold and the Purple Crayon by Crockett Johnson
Crictor by Tomi Ungerer
A Baby Sister for Frances written by Russell Hoban, illustrated by Lillian Hoban
Leo the Late Bloomer written by Robert Kraus, illustrated by Jose Aruego
William's Doll written by Charlotte Zolotow, illustrated by William Pène Du Bois
If You Give a Mouse a Cookie written by Laura Joffe Numeroff, illustrated by Felicia Bond
George Shrinks by William Joyce
Baby Says by John Steptoe
From Head to Toe by Eric Carle
Pete's a Pizza by William Steig

In addition to these timeless stories, the Harper Collins Treasury of Picture Book Classics contains short author and illustrator biographies (such as what other books they've done) and useful ideas for sharing the story further with children (like concepts to discuss). And all proceeds from the purchase go to First Book, which donates books to needy families. It's a win-win situation, and not only for you and your children, but for others as well.

Publisher Harper Collins really lives up to its name. I was so impressed with the carefully chosen picture books they compiled. There were so many children's books and I wanted to find the best ones for my child and I did with this book! There are 12 unabridged books in this book and the picture quality is EXCELLENT. The paper is glossy stock grade and the pictures are just beautiful. Good Night Moon looks much better in this book compared to its individual board book and hardcover versions in this book. Baby Says is another picture book that is mainly a pictorial but was perfect for my infant who was able to comprehend the story. Her reactions were just amazing. There is another picture book out there called "The 20th Century Children's Book Treasury" and it does not compare. A good majority of the books in their book is abridged, the paper quality is like any other and, although the book is large in its dimensions, the pictures were shrunken down quite a bit because they put multiple pictures per page on some stories. In addition, some of their book choices were great but a lot of them weren't unlike Harper Collin's book. They really chose only the best. I only wish they came out with another volume. This book contains two books appropriate for infants, Goodnight Moon and Baby Says. The rest of the books will grow with the child.

Fantastic and simple recipes cooked in a healthy way. The ingredients used are easy to find and I had absolutely no problems to follow the recipes. I would recommend it to everyone who's trying keep or learn a healthy style of cooking.

I was in a bookstore few days ago, checking cookbooks when I see this handsome youngman asking a store worker about some book. I couldn`t help to hide noticing his reaction when he found out the book he was looking for in the bottom shelf of the cookbook section. He got very excited and even screamed some words I didn`t understand. I than asked him what was all about? He apologized and replyed that the book in question was written by him and that he was so proud and happy he couldn`t contain himself. I tougth that was very sweet. He was so charming and sincere about the book that I was convinced to buy it. It turned out to be a great decision. I loved the simplicity of the recipes and the way he uses vegetables, herbs, and all the other healthy ingredients. I was happyly surprised to find out that no red meat, flours or canned products are used in any of the recipes. I was also surprised the youngman is not that young, he is in his forties!!! Must be the food. Bravo!!! It is a wonderful book!!!

I was in a bookstore few days ago, checking cookbooks when I see this handsome youngman asking a store worker about some book. I couldn`t help to hide noticing his reaction when he found out the book he was looking for in the bottom shelf of the cookbook section. He got very excited and even screamed some words I didn`t understand. I than asked him what was all about? He apologized and replyed that the book in question was written by him and that he was so proud and happy he couldn`t contain himself. I tougth that was very sweet. He was so charming and sincere about the book that I was convinced to buy it. It turned out to be a great decision. I loved the simplicity of the recipes and the way he uses vegetables, herbs, and all the other healthy ingredients. I was happyly surprised to find out that no red meat, flours or canned products are used in any of the recipes. I was also surprised the youngman is not that young, he is in his forties!!! Must be the food. Bravo!!! It is a wonderful book!!!

I shop for books online very oftenly and use the customer and editorial reviews to help me to get decided about a book I'm interested on. Some of these reviews are too critical, while others are too favorable, so I analyze each review as only half truth. The Editorial Review of THE HEALTHY TABLE fails its purpose which should be to tell us what is good or bad about this book. The problem here is that it suggests that the book is too simple and straigth forward like it is a bad thing - or yet -that the book doesn't offer any culinary innovation for the health conscious,like to show another revolucionary diet is or would be the best news in the world since the invention of the wheel. After reading the book I found out that its greatest quality is exactly to be so simple and straigth forward. There are some problems however, the price is too high for a two colors book, the photos also are poor, I believe they try to show an "atmosphere" but the idea doesn't convince and the people photographed don't show they want to be there, perhaps if the food was showed more, the results were better. Finnaly, I found out that the book is very helpful, the recipes are healthy, creative, uncomplicated and above all, "simple".

Luiz Ratto has created a culinary adventure for people who are conscious of their health. Evocative of the cuisine in five-star restaurants, these recipes are culled from years of experience and cooking wisdom. The flavors are exotic, the aromas pungent, and the photography enchanting.

This 175-page book is photographed in black and white, and is dedicated to "cooks everywhere." The book features an Introduction, Cooking Tips (including Techniques, Ingredients, and Equipment), and a listing of Basic Recipes. The Recipes themselves are grouped by course: Appetizers, Soups, Salads and Grains, Vegetables, Fish Shellfish and Poulty, Weekend Recipes, and Desserts.

Each recipe features a short paragraph of introduction (for example, where the recipe came from and presentation tips). There is a list of ingredients, followed by paragraph-form instructions on how to prepare the dish. All of the instructions are simple and easy to follow.

However, I was surprised to discover that nutritional information is completely absent. Also, pictures are only provided for some of the recipes. If you are unfamiliar with some of the ingredients, or with the expected textures, you may struggle.

The recipes are unique and inventive. Examples include: Green Grape Salsa, Chicken Roll-Ups (prepared with spinach and plum tomatoes), Doce De Coco (Coconut Cookies). The ingredients used vary by recipe - some are readily on-hand and others are exotic (for example, wonton skins or portobello mushrooms).

I was first drawn to this book by a haunting picture of two little girls on the book cover. I was impatient to learn their significance. I had to wait. In the opening of this story, the author relates his fear of the Not-sees (Nazi) as told to him throughout his youth by his mother who escaped Europe.

However, in an effort to come to grips with being Jewish and to learn the truth about what his family endured during World War II, an American divorced father and his two sons begin a quest to retrace the steps of an uncle who endured the Holocaust. Using a tattered journal's clues they searched for his hiding places and learned more than they expected about the war and its victims. Only after finding where and how the twins died did the author understand his great-uncles, other family members, and his mother. During the trip he also realizes what it means to be a father.

I could not appreciate the cover of this book until I learned the fate of the Jewish twin sisters and others who suffered.

This book touches the reader on many levels, and you may be drawn in to the writer's childhood experience as an outsider striving to find ways to fit in, while marveling at his opportunity to retrace an ancestor's flight from terror, and transfixed by the relationships that are recalled (and are still forming) in this book.

For many of us, the holocaust is more fully appreciated in personal terms than in the abstract. This book doesn't just fetch the truth from the past, it carries memory forward. For a generation twice removed, and more fully assimiliated, Hiding Places is both an intriguing real life story and an inspiring lesson in how the past still echoes.

An inspiring, thoughtful and funny book. A father is retracing his family's escape route fifty years later. While teaching his two sons history, family lore, geography and much about human courage and frailty, the author learns much about family bonds, love and loyalty from his sons. The boys add common sense to a voyage with a lot of bagage and helps the author resolve some difficult family issues. The book is serious and entertaining at the same time. You laugh and cry with the author and wish the book would not end. An obvious Father's Day gift -or for any sensitive person you may want to give some reading pleasure!

Hiding Places by Daniel Asa Rose is many stories in one. It's the story of a young boy growing up and how he perceives his differences and ways he tries to blend in or hide. It's the story of a father and two sons trying to forge a relationship with each other after divorce, and it's about one family's experience of hiding to survive the horrors of the Holocaust.

The book is honest and forthright. Daniel Asa Rose has opened up a window into his feelings about growing up Jewish in a predominantly WASP Connecticut town. This reader was able to relate, not so much to the hiding borne out of cultural and religious differences, but to the hiding that kids do because they feel that no one else has the same thoughts. Daniel Asa Rose gives a voice to those childhood thoughts that most of us have kept silent.

The author reveals himself to be a caring father, one who misses his sons greatly after his divorce and seeks to find a way to create a whole family out of the three of them. He doesn't spend much time talking about how painful the divorce itself was to him, but this shows through in the writing. This is not something seen from a male perspective too often. There are sure to be other fathers out there who will resonate with this aspect of the book.

Lastly, Daniel Asa Rose creates a portrait of his relative, J.P. Morgan (not THE J.P. Morgan) and his particular experience of survival during the Holocaust. At times, it is painful to read, but because it is the story of a singular person, it takes on greater significance than observing the Holocaust as a whole. J.P.'s survival and the tracking of his hiding places by Rose and his sons is nothing short of miraculous. But wouldn't most of those who survived the Holocaust describe their experience as such?

It's tempting to condemn this father for exposing his sons to the horrors of the Holocaust at the tender ages of seven and twelve. Without debating the issue too much, the final verdict is really up to his sons, Alex and Marshall--after all, it's a family thing.

Daniel Rose grew up in Connecticut, in a lobster fishing town. He always felt different because of his Jewishness even though his family was assimilated. Later, after a fractured marriage, he wanted his young sons, aged 7 and 12 to really understand their heritage, especially in terms of the Holocaust, and so he took them to Europe to discover their roots. They looked up relatives who had survived the horror and still lived in Belgium, and from there they set out on a journey to retrace the actual events of the life one of their relatives, an ancient eccentric old man who gave them his diary as a roadmap.

In addition, in alternating chapters, we learn of Mr. Rose's Connecticut boyhood. Not only does he describe the events, but he's able to recapture every nuance of feeling that must have been difficult to dredge up from memory. He makes fun of his orthodox relatives, he battles the school bully, but most of all, he keeps coming back to the recurrent theme of the book --his hiding places.

Foremost though, is his relationship with his own sons, and the unique loving relationship between the three of them. Some of the things that they were exposed to on the trip were not pleasant, but they all came through it enriched by the experience. This was a difficult subject to write about, but somehow Mr. Rose managed to do it with humor. While I didn't laugh out loud, I found myself smiling throughout.

There's a lot of detail in the book, each one adding further insight into each of the characters. It's more than just description; the reader really feels the emotion. There's mystery here too as well as unsolved questions. And there sure is a lot to think about. Afterwards, I couldn't get the book out of my mind and I don't know if I ever will. I must thank Mr. Rose for writing it. Highly recommended.

This is a sequel to "The Tao of Pug," but in a completely different format. While the prequel dealt with Wilson's philosophy, this is a straight-up Christmas tale that is sure to engage people of all ages. Whether it's the heart-wrenching story of yearning for a home and love, or the adorable and witty accompanying pictures, this book is sure to become a Christmas classic in your house. It's also a great gift idea for anyone from toddlers to grandparents!

I have fallen in love with Wilson as portrayed by Nancy Levine. I think this is another great Wilson book. (If you haven't read the other 3, you must!) Great coffee table book, great gift, great to make you smile on a down day. Heart-warming tale of rescue from a puppy mill but light-hearted with a lot of humor in the photos and Wilson's editorials. Can't miss on this or any of Nancy Levine and Wilson's books!

Homer for the Holidays is a cute book that pug (and Taoism) lovers will enjoy. It injects humor and Taoist wisdom into the story of a puppy who escaped from the puppy mill and Wilson the Pug's effort to find him a home. The photos are adorable. It makes a great holiday gift.

FIRST OF ALL I HAVE 2 GORGEOUS PUGS AND LIVE IN AUSTRALIA. I FIRST READ THE TAO OF PUG AND LOVED IT. I HAD TO THEN BUY HOMER FOR THE HOLIDAYS. THE PHOTOS ARE THE BEST IN BOTH BOOKS AND WILL MAKE YOU LAUGH SO HARD. HOMER FOR THE HOLIDAYS IS A STORY OF HOMER A LOST PUG WHO IS TRYING TO FIND A HOME WITH THE HELP OF WILSON. IT IS MORE OF A STORY THAN THE TAO OF PUG WHICH IS FUNNY INSIGHTS INTO THE LIFE OF WILSON. IT HAS A GOOD THEME BEHIND IT OF CARING FOR ANIMALS OVER PROFITS AND I THINK IT PERFECTLY CATCHES THE PERSONALITY OF THESE LITTLE ANIMALS.

"Homer For The Holidays: The Further Adventures of Wilson the Pug" is a lovable book because of the lovable pugs within this magical story. As a pug lover, of course my face will soften and my spirits will rise at the sight of the pugs in the story, but non-pug adorers will still feel the joy when the read this delightful heartwarming story that can be enjoyed in and out of the holiday season. I recommend.