Ward Books

A Finger-Painted World is a wonderful gift book to give to all those pregnant colleagues and friends in your life. It is the vision of a 10th grader who wrote a letter to her unborn children. It is luminous! Mothers and mothers-to-be will love it. Put it on your gift list!

If you have ever tried to read Teresa of Avila and given up, Ruth Burrows may be the guide you need. In Fire Upon the Earth, she clarifies and updates Teresa's great portrait of the inner life. Both women are Carmelite nuns, but Burrows is our contemporary; she deftly bridges the cultural and intellectual chasm that divides us from Teresa's thought.
But Burrows is not merely an interpreter, although she is a wonderful one. She adds her own psychological insights and experience as a woman, nun, contemplative, and spiritual director, and the whole mix forms a powerfully encouraging and challenging message to us in the 21st century.

For those interested in learning more about Sears and Wards and specifically, the interrelationship between the two, I recommend this book. It doesn't get mired in heavy stats and facts but flows easily along.

Because of the sheer volume of subject matter this book covers, it can't afford to sink down into the mire of detail but so much. Plus, it has lots of good graphics; reprinted advertisements and ephemera from both Sears and Wards.

When researching my book, I found lots of great tidbits scattered throughout the "First Hundred Years" that I don't recall seeing elsewhere. That being said, the information on the Sears Modern Homes program and the Montgomery Ward version (Wardway Homes) was a little scanty. However, that's why I wrote *my* book. :)

Rose Thornton
author, The Houses That Sears Built

If you want to loosen up your work and/or paint outdoors efficiently and effectively, then this book will be a big help--as it has been for me. Even if you want to paint in a more representational, detailed style, than is represented here, getting the basics first as this book presents them could still greatly simplify things to make your process easier.

Edward Norton Ward's watercolor "sketches" (They are signed, so I assume he considers them completed paintings.), which are abundant throughout the book, at first might appear more simplistic than they are. In other words, there is experience and knowledge behind creating an effective, yet simple, watercolor. Mr. Ward has been generous in sharing this knowledge and the thoughts that are behind each painting. His discussions about simplifying the subject and the effects of light on color are particularly good. He also explains his painting process.

This book is useful in any case, but more useful if you paint outdoors, as that is its focus. His tips on traveling lightly and the materials he uses/prepares, has a couple valuable tips that I will use, even though after painting for a number of years I have already gone over the endless supplies combinations for painting outdoors.

The painting on the cover is a good representation of Ward's work and one that I like (although not my favorite). I admit that some of the paintings in this book do not appeal to me as the parts seem too detached and there are too many isolated dabs of paint. Others, however, elicit a sigh of appreciation, because they represent what I would like to be able to do: paint directly from nature in a very direct(impressionistic)style that doesn't involve a lot of fussing in the studio later--if I do not wish to do that--and still end up with a painterly thing of beauty. This book shows me how to achieve that goal more than any others I have studied.

I have just sorted through my rather extensive library on painting in watercolor with an eye to thinning down the collection to about half--to the ones that I deem most essential. I am keeping this book over several boxes of other watercolor books, a number by better known artists, simply because there is something valuable here that I want to learn, and I feel that I will use it as a reference for some time.

This book is unusual. It was written by a Protestant minister from England and he said that the rosary should be recited by all Christians and not only by Catholic Christians. Protestants do not say the rosary. The rosary is and always been a R. Catholic devotion....... in honor of the Mother of God.
Joe

St. Philip Benizi is a leading ornament of the 13th century, and this book tells his life well. An added attraction is that the history of the origin of the Servite order--possibly begun on the day St. Philip was born--is told. The order did not obtain the definitive approval of the Church until Feb. 11, 1304--long after Philip's death. Philip was canonized by Pope Clement X on Easter Sunday, 1671, at the same time as St. Francis Borgia, St Gaetano Cajetan, St. Louis Bertand, and St. Rose of Lima. This is a well-done and very readable account of a great saint.

"For This Child I Pray; A Father's Prayer Journal" is an absolutely beautiful idea: a directed prayer journal for Christian fathers. Each two pages offers a relevant scripture and a thoughtful quote, and focus prayer statements where the father then adds his own specific prayers for himself and for his child on a subject. For example, one page asks ' As a father, I pray for the correct definition of success specifically in ....' and 'Today God, help my child succeed in....' - the father fills in the rest. The way it's laid out and written is concise and easy and would not involve hours of journaling - I can see a Dad spending maybe 15 minutes for each two page section. A Dad could either use one journal for more than one child or could dedicate a separate journal to each child. The picture on the front really grabs father's hearts (I tested it on my husband and he was totally hooked at first glance). I think I have not seen a better tool for men's spiritual growth, for enhancing a father's awareness of his own influence, for reflection on parenting, and praying with wisdom for his children. This will capture every Christian Dad's heart and the heart of his child. This would make an exceptional gift or keepsake. Ron DiCianni also has written a prayer journal for mothers. If there is a wait for delivery, it will be worth it.

This book was recommended by one of my seminary professors as a better resource for the overall picture of the Christianity and its growth. I have found that it is an excellent resource book.

I have owned and used "The Formula Book" and "The Formula Book 2" since they were published in 1975. I raised my family and pets from the formulas in them. Being a nurse with a very large family, these books are still relavent in today's economy and THEY WORK! We made toothpaste, skin preparations, animal soaps and many other things that today cost a fortune. When you have seven to ten teenagers, six dogs, a Scandanavian raccoon and at least six cats in your home, unusual things can happen and the cost can be extravagant. I still use these books to this day and, thanks to Amazon.com, I am sharing them with friends. By the way, I am a Kansas City girl, showing that good comes from a great place!!!!!!!

Despair and depression are I guess , the mood of most people at one time or another of their lives. For some people however it is the dominant note, the prevailing feeling and totally takes over their lives. Why this happens and to whom exactly it happens whole Literatures, including my guess is the psychiatric and neuroscience literatures can give only partial answers to. However ' despair ' becomes especially problematic and interesting when it happens in the lives of those who are our spiritual models , and who in the Hasidic tradition are to continually be clinging to and uplifted by the Presence of God.
How explain the fall and the darkness?
Elie Wiesel tells the individual story of four great Hasidic masters and their particular struggles with their own inner darkness.
My only Holy Teacher the late Dovid Hertzberg who loved these Hasidic masters with all his soul, and taught their Torahs with such love and inspiration once suggested ( And this is not his suggestion alone) that the great Kotzker went into his ten year period of isolation and solitude because the sufferings of his own Hasidim ( It was his task to listen to them and help them) became so great that they overwhelmed him completely i.e. The despair was not a private despair of an individual for himself but a despair which came out of his love of his own Hasidim and people. Perhaps, even a holy despair.