Ward Books

Most readers never want a good story to end and that's the way I felt about "Moulin Huge," Mr. Ward's attention-geting debut novel. The characters are both funny and interesting and I couldn't wait to see how their stories would play out. The ending is a shocker and I highly recommend this work by a new star on the literary scene. Congratulations to Mr. Ward on this hilarious and poignant tale of three friends who stick together through thick and thin...no matter what happens and somehow manage to accept what life offers on their own terms.

I couldn't wait to go from one chapter to the next. I don't know who I enjoyed more, the main characters or the supporting ones. Evan wants to be noticed but has no confidence, Diva is an over-the-top movie queen, and Lloyd has similarities to Paris Hilton. They all meet up in a trailer park for a drag show. I would love to see this book become a film. Lots of laughs even though there are some sad overtones.

You can't help but fall into the flow of this story of Evan, Lloyd and Diva. Poor Evan wants to be a performer, even if he has to do it in drag. Oh, wait, he WANTS to do it in drag. Lloyd teaches school by having the kids watch soap operas and drives around with his pants off in pursuit of sexual hijinks. Diva is a Hollywood star with a split in her personality that rivals the Cumberland Gap. She has a Hollywood bigwig wooing her, and her personalities can't agree on the outcome. They all follow the yellow-brick road ... okay, it's probably just regular pavement ... to a trailer park in Niceville, Florida, for Evan to make his performance debut as Lowla. Not for the gay-paranoid but a well-crafted plot spiced with a lot of laughs for everyone else. More than a comedy, though, as the characters all show their darker, unhappier sides too.

As one who has spent an appreciable amount of time in Neyland Stadium, as a spectator and a resident (Yes, men's dormitories and faculty offices have occupied space underneath the stands since at least the 1950's!)I can say this is more than just another picture book! Neyland: Life of a Stadium is a beautiful representation of the place the gridiron Volunteers call home through larger than life color pictures and larger than life commentary from many of the GREATEST LEGENDS to perform on the field and/or the press box! Not to be overlooked by anyone who has basked in the glory of the Big Orange...'It's Football Time in Tennessee.'

If you are interested in the history of Vols football and Neyland Stadium this is a great read. It's full of historic photo's as well as a gameday chapter full of some very beautiful and recent pcitures from gameday at Neyland. I own a few Vol books, this is my favorite.

This book is for anyone who is a BIG ORANGE FAN or has attended a game at the mecca of college football. Robin Hood captures lots of great photographs of players and fans that have put on the orange and ventured to Neyland Stadium. The only thing lacking is a soundtrack that includes the fans cheering, John Ward saying "IT'S FOOTBALL IN TENNESSEE", and, of course, The Pride of the Southland band playing "Rocky Top".

I know this book is out of print but sometimes it is available on the secondary market.

This is an amazing book. The illustrations are beautiful and the story is simple. It's about a hermit crab who outgrows his shell and goes looking for a new one.

My kids loved this when they were babies and they still love it...at six and three years old. I love it too.

Helen Ward is an amazing illustrator and she identifies all of the creatures pictured in this book and tells a little bit about them.

It's educational and beautiful.

The illustrations are what caught my eye with this book about a hermit crab's quest to find a new home. The cover shown above gives you an idea of the detailed artwork within. At the end of the book are line drawings explaining the various plants and animals that live in a coral reef. My 7 yo daughter has been enjoying this book for a couple of years now. A nice simple story.

Hermit crab loves his shell but he's outgrown it - he sets out to seek a replacement but finds only another crab with the same problem. Very simple text and large color illustrations of coral reef life accompany a story of problem-solving and change.

Unbelievable! When reading this book, the stories and anticipation as to what is going to happen next will leave you questioning whether your reading fiction or non-fiction... yet the story is true! I loved the book since it depicted a crew of 6 relatively inexperienced sailors who embarked on a circumnavigation knowing they did not have sufficient money to complete the voyage. These men were truly risk takers when it came to finances, storms, cannibals, etc... If you like adventure, you'll love this book! Five stars!

A true adventure story of a round-the-world voyage by four men and a dog on a three-masted schooner. With many ports of call and stays ashore of varying lengths to earn money to continue their journey, provision and repair the schooner's wind-battered sails, have fun, see the sights and explore remote and dangerous areas, William Ward Vicker's account of this epic voyage is a fascination. Lavishly illustrated with 161 photographs, the majority memorably captured by crew member Art Teets, "On Wits and Wind" is a unique five-star treasure.

We now live in a very different world than that which existed following the end of World War II. After six years of unimaginable tumult, chaos and destruction, there was a short period of time when much that survived the war but which has now passed forever away was still available to be explored and experienced.

William Ward Vickers and a small group of companions - having served in the military but having never seen combat and knowing that the world and they would soon change forever - were determined to see as much of the world and learn as much as they could about themselves before the forces of change reshaped the world and themselves.

In his book, "Of Wit and Wind", Mr. Vickers tells the story of an unforgettable voyage put in motion by desire and audacity and sustained by an unquenchable spirit of adventure and resourcefulness. He tells it in the first person - and in his telling of his story - it is easy to forget that you are reading words on a page and to feel instead that he is there with you as his tale unfolds - a master storyteller spinning a yarn that enthralls and ultimately exhilarates as you realize that every word of the yarn is true.

The book is handsomely illustrated with photographs that document the various - and at times unbelievable - stages of the voyage and is a wonderful history of places and peoples that are now long gone.

Do yourself a favor and sign on for a weekend with the crew of The Cal - you will be very glad that you did.

A great story and a terrific read. I found I could identify with the characters and feel that other people could easily relate to the themes. It is a captivating story. It kept me wanting to know what happens next. It would make a great movie! I look foward to Mr. Ward's next book!

This is a great book. I read it in just a few days and found it hard to put down. The characters are realistic and the writing style makes it easy to identify with the characters. It's a great read.

What an amazing story from first time author, John Ward. It's a truly uplifting story that makes you walk away feeling good about life. I highly recommend it - an easy read.

I'm moving to Bainbridge Island and my husband picked up this book. Andy has a great writing style - very accessible and good-natured. He's painted some nice images in my mind; I'll be curious to see how it feels living on the island after reading his interesting stories.

Maybe I like this book because I recognized so many of the things that have also happened to me, with a similar college background in New Haven, then moving to an island in Washington and trying to "fit in" among the reserved and elitist locals. In his case the island was Bainbridge, in mine it is Orcas. The author seems to have made the adjustment to the wet cold weather and the cold reception rather well. His warm sense of humor and training in the colder winters of the East may have had a lot to do with it. Most of the chapters are short.. a few pages.. and will leave you with a smile.

I wish I could write like this; I'd love to tell my own story, but it wouldn't be as funny.

A thoroughly entertaining book. Excellent first-read for a Seattle newcomer, as am I. Provocative descriptions of the mountains (especially Rainier!), water, towns, people, animals. He writes beautifully, and his words paint clear, wondrous pictures. I missed my bus stop twice when I was buried in this book. I bought copies from second-hand bookstores in the Seattle area and sent them to my mom, daughters and friends.

The many drawings in this book are delightful; they complement and illustrate the poems and are of impressively high quality. Worth buying for the drawings alone.

Just in time for Valentine's Day comes the timeless gift of Ovid's handbook on love. The ways of man and maid have not changed in the intervening two millennia, and Guy Lee makes that clear with this light, witty, and appropriately naughty version of these love poems. And his loyalty to the original Latin is beyond reproach. As the translator of Ovid's Heroides (Dutton, 1972), I can attest to the difficulty of the task, but Lee carries it off without apparent effort. The illustrations add a vivacious charm and remind the reader that these poems are classics in both the popular and the traditional sense of the term. If you haven't time to brush up your Latin, or you never had any, this book is the answer!

This particular translation, by Guy Lee, captures the fluidity, idioms, and casual attitude of Ovid's Latin and puts it into equally casual, idiomatic, and fluid English. An enjoyable read, with fluid and casual illustrations as well.

This book is one I use daily while working with customers in my job. It offers simple steps and easy methods to diffuse situations and make my day run better while resulting in an increase in refferals and a number of big accounts growing larger because of our service, which I credit to this book here.

The concepts Flynn presents are startling. Imagine appreciating your customers! No one does this AND that is precisly the opportunity for providing dynamic value to distinguish you from the pack. I'm using these concepts everyday to make a difference in the lives of my customers and the success of my business.
Thank You Mr. Flynn!!

I am a former Vice President of Human Resources for a large insurance company and I managed over 15 direct reports and was responsible for customer service delivery to over 1,000 employees. I am now working in healthcare where the need is even more critical for customer/patient service.

This is a perfect book for reminding everyone in ANY organization the importance of Customer Service. This little book is a gem, offering tips on establishing your current baseline of service, training, measuring and rewarding excellent customer service. I highly recommend!

This poem is very unique. Langland conveys many moral issues that will always be part of human existence. The poem is written in the beautiful, alliterative style. It is not quite a standard allegory and perhaps this is why I enjoyed it so much. It is masterfully composed and Piers' vision is accutely realized. Langland has an artistic touch that grabs hold of a reader and also manages to import a message. I would recommend a version that has both the original text, with all the idosyncratic spellings, and a modern English translation. Reading this is like reading Dante, Chaucer, or the Gawain Poet. A lot to chew on but well worth the trouble.

The poem of 'Piers the Ploughman' is often considered to be anonymously composed, as the name William Langland was less an authorial designation as it was an inscription on the back of a manuscript - it would be as if I would be assigned the authorship of the O.E.D. because, in some future time, the only remaining copy was missing the title pages, but still had the hard-cover with my 'ex libris' impression on it. Be that as it may, Langland is considered at least as likely an author as any other, and becomes a sort of stand-in, an 'everyman' for his time period. A few details of this Langland are known - he was a wanderer, a constant reviser (the poem goes through several revisions that scholars have designated as texts A, B, and C (and some argue for Z). This is not a spiritual autobiography, as J.F. Goodridge states in an essay about Langland in another edition, but there are no doubt autobiographical elements in the text. That the lead character is named 'Will' helps in this identification.

This poem stands alongside Chaucer's 'Canterbury Tales' as one of the great products of Middle English; this also has the character of being a different sort of Middle English than Chaucer's more courtly, continental influenced variety. Thus, it gives breadth to the history of the English language. Langland is often ranked as a great English poet on a par with Spenser, Milton, Wordsworth and Yeats, as representative of his age both in topics as well as language facility.

This epic poem deals with themes familiar for the time - like Dante and Milton, Langland deals with the grand ideas of the meaning of life and the destiny of humankind. However, unlike Dante and Milton, Will and Piers the Ploughman do not go through a mystical, otherworldly adventure or journey, but rather stays rooted to the earth. These are dream sequences, but these too need not be otherworldly - they are things that can happen to every person. The ideas of the seven deadly sins, the virtues, the church, and the images of heaven and hell are very much rooted to regular society images of the same. The discussion of the allegorical characters, aptly named Do-Well, Do-Better, and Do-Best, does much for the moral teaching of this poem, which would have been of primary concern to the author.

Langland's text is often more Old English than Chaucerian in ways. It is far more alliterative, a strong component taken from Old English. Also, it is less metrical in rhythm than Chaucer - there is a pause in each line akin to older English poetry, but the metre is less secure.

This translation is done in alliterative verse by E. Talbot Donaldson (the 'E' stands for the very olde Englishe sounding name of Ethelbert). There are notes, essays and other helpful material provided by Elizabeth Kirk and Judith Anderson. There are over 50 non-related texts of the poem that have survived the Middle Ages, that vary from minor to major changes throughout. Reconciling these is rather like attempting to reconcile the gospels of the Bible, and then adding to that task the discovery of other non-canonical gospels. It leads to rich discussion, but less agreement.

The introductory material helps set the stage for reading, and the appendix gives a more thorough development of 'The Dreamer' from the C text.

Perhaps one of the reasons I like this text so much is that the persons involved were known to me, or friends of friends. Donaldson was the founding editor of 'The Norton Anthology of English Literature', a broad, wide-ranging text. However, it was 'Piers Plowman' that was to be a continuing favourite study for him.

This is one of the classics of English literature, perhaps the least known among them.

This poem is one of the most beautiful things I have ever read. I am not a specialist in Middle English, so I cannot say what was lost in the translation into Modern English. I have a copy of the B-Text version which is in Middle English, and if you are like me and have no background therein, this is definitely the version to possess.

It was written circa 1380 and gives an excellent account of life in Plantagenent England and the behavior of the people. The money economy was relatively new, and he saw the negative effects that it had upon both the secular authorities and the Church. The poem is written as an allegory in which the author tries to reconcile the needs of human society with satisfying our Lord our God. Similar to Pilgrim's Progress, the author has a vision, in which he is encounters different aspects of humanity (Covetousness, Sloth, Soul, Knowledge, etc.) on his attempt to find Truth (or God). It is definitely not light reading, and there is so much deep thought that one has to spend a lot of time reading it slowly, as I am sure it was done in the 'Middle Ages'.

The author thought that End Times were near after the Black Death and the utter corruption amongst secular and clerical authorities at the time. The fact that something so penetrating and inspirational was written and found such an appreciative audience that it has survived till now shows that the society then was not so bad. Highly recommended.

THIS BOOK, THOUGH WRITTEN IN 1954, HAS SOME OF THE MOST THOUGHT PROVOKING, SOUL SEARCHING,CONTEMPORARY PRAYERS I HAVE EVER READ. IE., THE EXAMPLE OF A BRICK AS EACH BRICK IS IMPORTANT AS TO WHERE IT IS IN A BUILDING, RELATING TO WHERE I STAND IN THE WORLD,? FAITHFULLY IN THE RIGHT PLACE.....DIFFERENT THAN THE PRAYERS WE MEMORIZE, IT MAKES YOU
REALLY THINK ABOUT THE WORLD AND THE PEOPLE, PLACES AND THINGS IN OUR DAILY LIVES....THIS BOOK COULD CHANGE THE WORLD......

I first read this prayer book as a sophmore in college over twenty-five years ago. This French abbe had a touch of reality, which was uncommon amongst spiritualists at that time. I found the book again in a bookstore in London and passed it on to a friend who was terminally ill with cancer. It encouraged her. I passed my own copy on to my daughter who began college this year, it has been a source of finding words to express the feelings of many life situations for her this past year. Michel Quoist writes that "all life should become a prayer", and this he accomplishes in this book. From the fence to the telephone, the subway to the ocean, he finds the voice of God for those who want to listen. His expressions of Christ on the road to the cross leave a deep impression on all who read the prayers.

My copy of this book is dated 1963. Over the years I've used it constantly not only for my own inspiration but to use in worship services. Quoist takes common things like subways and doors and tractors, even a pornographic magazine, and through prayer sanctifies them.

We must do more than imagine that God is talking to us, he says, we must listen. "God addresses us through every event, even the most insignificant." Through these prayers we come to know what it means to "pray without ceasing," and we learn that it's not such an effort after all, but a privilege that blesses us beyond our wildest dreams.

Here's a sample of what he's about:
"I went out, Lord.
Men were coming and going,
Walking and running.

"Everything was rushing: cars, trucks, the street, the whole town.
Men were rushing not to waste time.
They were rushing after time,
To catch time,
To gain time....

"...You understand, Lord, they simply haven't the time.
The child is playing, he hasn't the time right now...later on..
The schoolboy has his homework to do, he hasn't time...later on..
The young man is at his sports, he hasn't the time...later on..
The young married man has his new house; he has to fix it up. He hasn't time...later on...
The grandparents have their grandchildren. They haven't time...Later on...
They are ill, they have their treatments, they haven't time...Later on...
They are dying...they have no...
Too late!...They have no more time!

"And so all men run after time, Lord.
They pass through life running -- hurried, jostled, overburdened, frantic, and they never get there. They haven't time...."
There's much more to the poem, of course, but you see his style and some of his message. These poetic prayers speak to the world and life as we live it today."

This is a very special book for all generations; it is uplifting, comforting and sustaining. Put this on your bedside table and let it wake you and ready you for sleep and it will give your soul rest and consolation all the days of your life.