Way Books

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"Tween Time" is an enlightening and inspiring approach to the "tween" years. The importance of these years is often overlooked by both parents and pediatricians alike because most kids are "easier" during these years - no longer a young child, more independent, healthy, curious, eager to learn, but not YET a pubertal teen. These years, though, are the crucial foundation for teen, young adult, and adult life. Much of what occurs during these years will be part of a child's character forever. Creative, attentive, involved parenting during the years is the vital key to later success. This book deveops and shapes that key. A Must-Have for Parents of Tweens!

This book truly puts a finger on the pulse of our Tweens! As a parent of a Tween, I have first hand experience with what a trial and error bonding can be at this age. Tween Time has given me a secret tool that has been a God Send. At this age my son is trying on adult behaviors, activities, and emotions and the "52 Ways to Celebrate Life with Kids Ages 8-12" lets us experience time together free of any age, coolness, or emotionally charged activities. Thank you Ginny Bishop for passing along such a gem!

As a mother of three boys (two are tweens), I really enjoyed reading this book for ideas of ways to spend truly quality time with them. The ideas are for REAL people. They involve me -- and my kids -- in the community, so we find ways to give to others while giving to ourselves. The illustrations and lay out are also wonderful. It is so fun just to browse through and read tidbits. Congrats to Ginny Bishop and her daughter for creating such a wonderful and timely book... We need to focus more on our Tweens before they become Teens!

Having kids today is a bigger challenge than ever before. Marketers and advertisters are targeting children with so much force to create loyal customers from an early age, it makes it impossible to compete. There are so many 'things' out there for kids to want and need- I feel like so many parents have no choice but to succumb to these pressures. Tween Time is such a refreshing look in to interacting with your kids and getting back to the things that are important in families and in the parent-child relationship. The Tween years are so important- they provide the building blocks to the challenging teen years. Your kids need you more than any toy, TV show, video game, or junk food. Tween Time is a valuable addition to any family library.

i love this book, it was fast pacing and so sexy. a great love story and great charcters.

With her second book in the O'Fallon Family Series, Ms. Castell has once again provided readers with a fabulous and fun read filled with great characters and a wonderful plot! Laced with humor, charm, and passion this book is a very enjoyable pageturner that keeps the reader interested. I look forward to the other books in this great series about the O'Fallon family.

Keefe O'Fallon returns home to help his family. Little did he know that trouble followed him home, one sexy reporter and an avid fan and the fun is just beginning.

The attraction between Keefe and the reporter-turned babysitter Callie is sizzling!! They both try so hard to deny it but with the steam they generate it is only a matter of time.

Besides the main storyline, Dianne Castell has woven in stories for some of the other folks in town. Keefe's friend Digger has his eye on the new girl in town. Sally & Demar's romance is heating up and what is going on at the Hasting's House. The storyline involving the retired folks in the community was perfect, a second chance at love and plenty of fun. All great additions that make you feel like your part of the town.

This is a must read for all you romance fans and if you missed "Til there was U", be sure to read it also. I am "patiently" waiting for the next O'Fallon story "I'll be Seeing U"

Keefe O'Fallon has taken a break from his job as soap star, Lex Zandor, to go back home and help his family out during a crisis. Callie Cahill has followed Keefe to get a story for her magazine, which Keefe does not want to happen. Callie, also, has a bit of a crush on Keefe, but Keefe does not like reporters! Callie saves the day when she helps calm Keefe's baby sister, Bonnie, and agrees to take care of Bonnie in exchange for Keefe giving her an interview. And so begins, Keefe and Callie's adventures.
Dianne Castell has created a fun, engaging cast of characters who immediately pull the reader into their lives and keeps them there. Keefe and Callie are fun to watch as they try to fight sexual tension that they cannot escape, and they really do not want to. The secondary characters and the underlying mystery both add to the charm of the story. Dianne Castell's The Way U Look Tonight is wonderful and I cannot wait to get my hands on Til There Was U and Quaid's story. Dianne has me hooked!!

Meet Keefe O'Fallon. He is at the top of his game. A very hunky soap star. But the media hounds are driving him crazy. His father has a problem. So Keefe heads back to O'Fallon Landing to help Rory his father. And to hide out from the media. But then he mistakes a beautiful reporter as his baby sister Bonnie's new nanny. This is the break Callie needs. She has to have this interview so she can get a promotion. She needs it to help pay for her little sister's college education. Let the fun begin. Dianne Castell writes the second book in the Four O'Fallons and a Baby series. She creates a great family with a secondary cast of fun characters that are just as great. I always enjoy Ms Castell's books and this story is one of the best. Her books are great fun to read. Can not wait to the third brother to come home.
Also recommended: Dianne Castell- 'Til There was U. and Lori Foster's Jude's Law

A marvelous book. The author is to be commended for his ability to recall these events from the vantage of so young an age at the time of occurrence. This story is little known, sometimes actively forgotten, almost always disregarded in the record of 20th century crimes against humanity. I had the privilege recently of speaking, literally for only a few minutes, at the funeral of an older man (born 1922) from Rowne--only a few miles from Adamczyk's hometown, Luck. A decade older, he tried to get to Hungary in October, 1939, failed, and was therefore a criminal for having made the attempt. His story, then, was of direct prisons rather than of being dumped by the side of the tracks. Each situation had its advantages and disadvantages. The man from Rowne was "amnestied" from Norilsk, above the Arctic Circle, in late 1941, and his story paralleled that of Adamczyk until arrival in Persia, emaciated--at 86 pounds at age 20 and suffering recurring malaria. There are a million of these stories; more should be published.

I am sitting here struggling to find the words to begin to express my love for this book. I have just spent the past twenty-six hours not putting this book down. Now, I don't know if it is the fact that my family had delt with these similar circumstances and moved to the same area of Chicago, but i have never felt so connected/transported to individuals in a book as I did with this one.

The ugliness of reality balanced with hope, faith, and love render this reader, at least, speechless. I can only thank Mr. Adamczyk for a glimpse of what my family had found to difficult, with good reason, to talk about. This book has left me with a greater understanding of World War II, the atrocities of a Communist rule, and a deeper appreciation of my Polish faith and heritage.

This book reflects the resilience of the human spirit even in the most devistating of circumstances and stands as an inspiration to reflect on the freedom we too often take for granted.

...Wow!

Simply stated, this book reiterates everything my grandpa told me about the Russians' way of life and their mentality brought on by the deceitful communist system full of oppression and anti-western propaganda. Read and you will begin to fathom the injustice inflicted upon the peoples, both Polish and Russian. It will take generations to undo the damage.

Anyone with half a brain might wonder why the Nazis are still minced to pieces in all media 60 years after the war's end, while the Soviets, with 70 years of blood on their hands, have passed quietly out of their Communist terrorism without any great international trials or severe criticisms by the Western media. Is it because the leftists still believe that "true Communism" has yet to be attempted? Well, perhaps, there are such fringe lunatics still around (in the Frisco and NYC areas).

No, the real answer lies in the deadly dealings of the Allies in WWII, in cooperating with Stalin in the Lend-lease supply of materiel, and in not condemning the murders, exile, and starvation of the Poles before Germany attacked Russia. In our all-out effort to defeat the Nazis, the USA and England cooperated in suppressing the knowledge of the 5,000 Polish officers and Polish civilians shot and buried by the Soviets in 1939, when they invaded and took over Eastern Poland. This famous massacre in the Katyn Forest was for years blamed on Hitler, when the Germans had not yet been in that side of Poland. Only when Gorbachev came to power was the murder order signed by Stalin made public - but Roosevelt knew, as did Churchill.

This remarkable book takes us into the frightening world Wiesiu Adamczck, a seven-year-old boy when his father, then 47, was taken away and killed in Katyn Forest, unbeknownst to his family - Wiesiu's mother, older sister and brother. They are all packed up on trains and sent to Kazakistan, as members of a bourgeois oppresser class, they must be punished according to Soviet logic.

The writer, now a man in his 70's, is an excellent wordsmith, who doesn't stint in telling what Russian and Polish expressions mean. He dwells on his own family, his own people and the terrible consequences of the Communist regime for the people of the USSR, for the Poles, and for all nations which fell to its avarice and terror after WWII. His incredible adventures, if you want to call them that, in surviving such a deportation through the Eastern republics of the chaotic war years, into Persia and finally to England, then the USA, is a ten-year journey of incredible hardship, hunger, cold and homelessness. His mother dies, and the truth about the father is known at the end of years of hoping against hope.

What Hollywood or the BBC could do with this material! The story of the Soviet empire and all its disgusting inhumanity should be aired out thoroughly, even more so than the Nazis' philosophy. If it should take root again, woe betide the planet and the millions to be starved in the future.

This book should be mandatory reading in the US high schools, as many students will never know that non-Jewish-descended EUropeans also suffered dreadful consequences during the war.

A skewered history is often a false one, and that is slowly happening throughout the US media, in omitting the Communist side of the horrendous torture and killing from 1917-onwards.

Well, this book will make it clear: FDR knew it, as he knew that Pearl Harbor was to be bombed.

The teaching of history is often distorted by selective presentation of past events. Virtually everyone has heard of the 5-6 million Jews killed by the Germans. Few outside Polish circles have a clue about the fact that 2-3 million gentile Poles were also murdered by the Germans, and a few hundred thousand by the Soviets--first as Poland's sworn enemy and then as an "ally". While Churchill and Roosevelt were dilly-dallying with "Uncle Joe" Stalin, he was still murdering Poles and executing his plans to deprive "liberated" Poland from her rightful independence, freedom, and sovereignity. The western powers shamelessly disregarded the Atlantic Charter and betrayed the Poles--who all along had been fighting on their side on just about every front, and who had played a significant, if not decisive, role in preventing the Luftwaffe from achieving air supremacy over the English skies as a prelude to the planned German invasion (Operation Sea Lion).

This work provides an absorbing personal account of the deportation of hundreds of thousands of Poles by the Soviet Union following the German-Soviet conquest of Poland in 1939. Wes Adamczyk, then a boy of 7, was to lose his father in the infamous Katyn Massacre, and his entire family was uprooted and sent to a living death in Kazakhstan. He was one of the lucky few to be released and to eventually find his way to a new life in the United States. Decades later, he fulfilled his wish to visit the site of his father's murder near Smolensk, Russia.

The reader is exposed to the brutality of the Soviet police as they ransack the Adamczyk home, destroy objects related to Polish patriotism, and herd the family ("enemies of the people") into overcrowded trains for the fateful trip east. Every day becomes a battle for survival. They are near starvation. However, individual Kazakhs and Russians show friendship towards the Poles. The young Adamczyk befriends Mr. Petrovitch on a fishing boat. The moving account tells how the elderly Russian teaches the boy the truth about Communism. It is lies on top of lies on top of lies. In fact, the continued spying by the Soviet police on the captive Poles does not stem from the fact that they suspect that the Poles may escape or revolt. The spying comes from the fear that the locals may learn the truth about the outside world from the Poles--that the non-
Communist world is not rotten, and that the Soviet Union is no workers' paradise.

Nazi Germany turns against its erstwhile Soviet ally, creating a chance for the Poles, consigned to eventual death from starvation, overwork, and disease, to escape the Gulag. Negotiations "succeed" in securing the release of captive Poles. But the Soviets drag their feet, and only a fraction of still-living captive Poles end up being released. The Adamczyk family has to stage a near-escape adventure to reach Iran. The squalor of the just-freed Poles is indescribable. Thousands die right there, including Wes Adamczyk's mother--ironically just a short time after having finally left the clutches of the Soviet hell.

Tens of thousands of previously-captured Polish officers are found to be conspicuously and unexpectedly missing, and the Soviets say, "They all escaped to Manchuria". As time drags on, the Adamczyks realize the fate of their father and the remainder of the POWs. The Soviets don't admit responsibility for the Katyn Massacre until 1990. The long cover-up by western governments is little better than the decades-long Soviet one. The west needed a second coverup to cover its first coverup of the conspiracy of silence about this heinous Soviet crime.

The Adamczyks, like all surviving Poles, get a cruel blow when they learn that Roosevelt and Churchill have betrayed their faithful ally Poland by giving away eastern Poland to the Russians, and allowed a Communist puppet state to be forced on the rest of "liberated" Poland. In a sense, all of the Polish sufferings and sacrifices turn out to have been in vain. The Adamczyks, and millions of other Poles, have no home to return to. The only "happy ending" is a new life in America.

The "Three steps to yes"is an excellent guide on how to overcome everyday life obstacles with professional guidance from Gene Bedell.It is not just another book from "self-help"series. "Three steps to yes" is a chest with valuable instructions and all required materials for preparation of keys to doors of life that are locked either by us(knowingly or unknowingly) or by some other force.Great book, if you would have more than five stars to rate, I would mark the top number.

I hadn't really thought much about the psychology of persuasion. As one who has a natural sales talent, I had never really given careful consideration to what I should be trying to accomplish when I want to influence someone. This book thoroughly describes the steps one can follow to help accomplish your goals of attaining desireable outcomes in your dealings with others. Moreover, the author makes it abundantly clear that unless you are competent, fair, and make sure that the person you are trying to influence satisfies their personal needs, you will not be successful. An excellent book...

3 Steps To Yes is truly a magnificent work!

Mr. Bedell's book came highly recommended and not only did it live up to its praise, it far surpassed it!
As a student of positive persuasion, I've read numerous books on this subject; many of which are excellent. This book is the best (along with Carnegie's "How To Win Friends . . . ") as, not only is the information top-notch; the author's instruction is simple-to-apply, and immediately applicable. His stories, used as examples from which we all can learn and benefit, are interesting, compelling, and I know it allowed me to see myself utilizing these wonderful win/win methods in my own life. Parents will especially love his advice regarding persuading children in a way that will benefit everyone involved. In fact, although there are lots of helpful business examples throughout the book, if you are a parent or plan to be one, you'll want to own this book for that reason alone.

This is one of those books that you'll most likely want to buy as gifts for loved ones and anyone else you wish to be successful in their lives.

Gene Bedell did what few writers are able to accomplish: he said something useful, he made it accessible in bite-sized chunks, he made it readable with a delightful "voice" and, when he was finished, he quit writing. I have been in sales and sales training for years - and I read 6 or more books a month. What a delight to pick up a book that took me to a new level of competency, and carried me there with ease. Five stars for Gene Bedell - I hope you are working on a new project!

I've been in sales and marketing for a long time. Probably read most of the books on the subject. So many times we read and gather all the information, but have just that, clumps of information. This book takes all the clumps and smooths them all together. Easy to read and comprehend. A MUST HAVE for anyone hoping to sell a product but is tired of all the old sales tricks, you know the ones, as produced in "The Closers". If you just follow the lead set in this book, you will find yourself building relationships where many referrals will follow. Fantastic book. Wish I had it at my disposal 5 years ago.

I knew only a little bit about the Japaneese internment camps during the bombing of Pearl Harbor. I had learned a little from reading novels by Gail Tsyukiyama. I learned a lot more after reading this one by the very talented Ann Tatlock. I had no idea the degree of predujice the Japaneese went through in America. I also had no idea how predjudiced Mississippi was in the 60's. This book really is an eye opener about how stupid racism is. We are all human and make terrible mistakes at times. We are all capable of being consumed by hate and violence. This book clearly shows that we all need to forgive since none of us is near perfect. I wish I could get a couple prejudiced friends of mine to read this book, but none of them read much(if they did they might learn more!), and hate long books. That is actually the reason I didn't give this book 5 stars. It was a bit too long, with too much repeating. It has taken me 6 weeks to finish it. I think the book would be more popular if the author had decided to cut out about 1/4 of the pages. I like to be able to finish a book within 3 weeks tops.
I absolutely adored Tatlock's "A Room of my Own", so I will probably check out another novel of hers soon. She makes history fun, real, and interesting. I agree with the reviewer who said this should be on high school reading lists.

This is such a great story! I had just finished "Farewell to Manzanar" when I read this book and learned more about the treatment of Japanese Americans during the war through the eyes of a young girl. The story did not get bogged down in war and politics though. The most intriguing aspect was the desire of the caucasian girl to be part of the Japanese family based on internal emotions and the challenge of the Japanese family to be accepted as Americans based on their external features. If only man were able to look at the heart the way God does! This is an inspirational story of belonging and the adverse treatment of "enemy" culture during the war.

All the Way Home is a touching story, teaching us how the world events of WWII and the Civil Rights Movement touched everyday lives. The author weaves the story with questions of faith--real ones that real people struggle with--without being preachy in the least.

I enjoyed the book so much that I read it very quickly, but it's also worthy of a longer more thoughtful reading. Quality writing from an award winning author. Highly recommended.

What a wonderfully well written story. I have never read this author before and was pleasantly surprised. There were so many issues for discussion and so much history in the story that I am pushing for this to be on the required reading list at the high school where I work.

ALL THE WAY HOME by Ann Tatlock
November 15, 2007


Rating: 3.5/5 Stars

I wanted to like this book a lot more. While I enjoyed the two subplots (that of the story of a Japanese American family living in Los Angeles before the start of W.W.II, and life for Black Americans in the Deep South during
The 1960's), I felt this book could have been better if either one or the other subplot had been eliminated. I understand that the author was trying to compare two terrible injustices played against two sets of minorities in America, but I think this could have been easily two separate books, or written differently (to be specific, shorter).

With that said, ALL THE WAY HOME starts off as the story of Augie Schuler, who in the 1960's is flying from California to the Deep South, to meet with a woman who wants to tell her story about her project helping Blacks to use their right to vote. On the plane, she meets a woman who is on her way back home to the South, and Augie flashes back to memories of another time, living with a Japanese American family who made her feel like she was one of them. Augie's home life was terrible, having lost her father early in life and now her mother was forced to move in with a brother, living in a crowded house with children from both families. Augie chose to spend most of her time away from home, and eventually came to live with the Yamagata's and became best friends with Sunny, who became more like a sister to Augie. The first half of the book details the friendship between the two girls, and the awful family situation that Augie had to endure at her uncle's home. But when W.W.II broke out, and with the bombing of Pearl Harbor, Augie lost her adopted family, who were sent to the camps. Augie waited for that letter that would tell her that Sunny and her parents were doing OK, but no letters ever arrive.

And now it is the 1960's, and Augie has since learned to keep those memories of her childhood away, feeling she had been betrayed by the Japanese family she had once loved. But what she finds in Mississippi, will shock her, and bring her childhood memories back to the forefront.

This is a good book for one to be introduced to the plight of the Japanese Americans in the years before and during W.W.II. As a Japanese American (Third generation), there is only a little that I know about those years when my father and his family lived at Manzanar. While I am not sure how accurate this book was in terms of life for the Japanese American before WW II in Boyle heights, California, an area of Los Angeles I am familiar with, I think I did get a better idea of how my father's generation may have felt. However, I did have a hard time believing in the portrayal of Sunny's parents, who were 2nd Generation Japanese Americans (meaning, their parents were from Japan). They behaved too much like Caucasians, and not like the reserved traditional Japanese Americans that I connect with who were born in America before W.W.II. Still, I did enjoy reading the story of Augie and Sunny and their remarkable friendship prior to W.W.II. The book was a just a tad bit too long however, and that is why I'm giving it a 3.5 rating.

As a nurse working with cancer patients, their families & loved ones I often find myself at a place of wanting to say more to comfort or offer solace. Sometimes the emotions filling & spilling do not allow verbal sharing. This beautiful book fills that space. Sometimes weeks later I will get a note thanking me for the giving of this book...how much Maggie's words have meant to them...how connected to another human they felt while reading it...how sometimes they read it aloud to the dog or cat just to hear their own voice speaking such loving , tender words...my heart fills.

I received this book as a review copy from a small publisher, and was wary. Many of the review copies I've received have been books that were not what I'd normally chose to read (and in those cases, the books rarely get finished or reviewed.)

This book was a welcome exception. Often I've wished I could pass onto my children some of the insights I've had after years of living and experiencing life. Or be able to comfort a friend in troubled times with sage thoughts. This book offers me that opportunity, in a modest-sized, but nicely packaged offering.

Maggie Steincrohn Davis has woven her own reflections with those of well known and not so well known wisemen and women, and presents us with food for thought appropriate for many times -- joyfilled or troubled -- in our lives.

She says in the beginning, "I confess, I could have condensed this book into one sentence - 'See deeply the beauty and interconnectedness of all life; then think, speak and act from what you see.'"

I'm glad she didn't confine herself to a few words - this book makes a lovely bedside book to read in those moments when you feel blue. It makes a wonderful gift for a friend in a time of need. It is uplifting, yet simple; inspirational yet earthy. It gets added to my list of books to give as gifts.

A personal, practical & tender book about honoring the heart - a deep-seeing that goes beyond courtesy, kindness & empathy to the living compassion. Especially fitting for health practitioners, teachers, parents & volunteers.

Maggie's philosophy is to see the beauty & interconnectedness of all life. Her goal is to strive, to think, to speak & to act from what we see. She has been listening to her own heart & the concerns of others for years.

There are books that you read & there are books you live by. Caring in Remembered Ways is just such a book, the kind you can read from cover to cover or leave on your nightstand for those final, meditative thoughts before sleep. The throne room is also a good place for such pondering in a moment of privacy & relaxation.

A simply beautiful inspirational book of verses, thoughts, stories & philosophies.

CARING IN REMEMBERED WAYS is the kind of book I reach for when I crave nourishing insights during trying times in my life. Maggie Steincrohn Davis' book about loving and caring for ourselves and others is true food for the soul, written like poetry. Thirty-one graceful entries gently serve up tasty morsels of ancient wisdom (such as how to see from the heart, or face times when loved ones are dying) alongside a garnish of amusing and heart-warming personal anecdotes.

I love the way Maggie understands all the subtle nuances of care-giving, and the ways love can reach through any situation, when we imagine it can. She writes, "Only by reaching 'beyond-the-beyond' of people -- behind their eyes, back of their pain, beneath their blaming and irritation and fussing -- do we make a path to the best in them. Treating someone with compassion who does not treat us well in return might be our fullest offering of love, as well as our own greatest relief during the daily rounds of vigilance and giving."

In this book, every sentence feels like a prayer and a meditation on love and compassion. As I read each comforting entry, I find myself feeling like I'm back in the warm, sunny days of my childhood -- snugly wrapped by my mother in a fluffy towel after a warm bath. CARING IN REMEMBERED WAYS can help brighten and warm even the darkest, coldest days in one's life. It's the ideal pick-me-up for anyone who grows weary of caring for and nurturing others, and even oneself.

Maggie has written a beautiful book about taking care of our fellow man. Her words flow like a calming river, bathing our souls in caring consciousness. This book will teach you deeply and remind you we are all human. Maggie helps us hear the thoughts of the ill and dying. She takes us by the hand and leads us into their world. How do you handle a parents death, a friends illness, the loss of a pet? What do you say to a friend experiencing a loss? How do you feel about your own aging? These are issues we will all have to face in our life.

Her words inspire us to move beyond courtesy and kindness and realize empathy. She evokes this feeling through a montage of anecdotes, meditations, stories from her own life, collected quotes, eternal wisdom and rivers of thoughts which run deeply over the rocky river beds of life.

The philosophy is to see the beauty and interconnectedness of all life. The goal is to strive to think, speak and act from what we see. Maggie has been listening to her own heart and the concerns of others for years. She has absorbed this knowledge and wants to pass it on to us in a way that affirms the best a human can be. She reminds us: "...any life we care for well can remind us of all we are capable of giving."

I highly recommend this "drink for the soul" to nurses, doctors, hospice volunteers, families caring for their loved ones, and everyone who feels disconnected and wants to start learning how to care for others. How beautiful the world would be if we could all know what Maggie knows in her heart. How caring of her to share her knowledge with us.

By reading this book you will realize how the smallest deed can have a positive effect in your own neighborhood. If you nourish yourself with the attitude of compassion, at the same time you will leave attitudes of worry, self-doubt, blame, fear, resentment and pettiness to die without your care. Maggie started Neighborcare to provide hands-on-care, plant care, pet care, help with errands, meal preparation, housekeeping, help with outside chores and help with transportation to medical appointments.

Her vision for the future is to encourage others to serve the ill, dying, injured and heartsick. She applauds volunteer efforts and I believe she is going to succeed in bringing awareness to caring with this thoughtful book from her heart.

The lessons presented in "Caring in Remembered Ways" are your guides to compassion. Along the journey of collected thoughts you may not see the words through you own tears. This is when you will most clearly see the needs of your own soul and the needs of fellow souls traveling with you in life. If you plant the thoughts from this inspiring book in your soul, caring will grow.

~The Rebecca Review

I have used suggestions in this book many times when issues came up with my daughter, and even used ideas here to come up with some of my own. The ceremonies were fun, easy to adapt and effective ways to raise issues for discussion. They were suprisingly effective at getting us unstuck so we could move on.

I have recommended the book to several parents, both adoptive and biological.

As an adult adoptee, I can say I needed this book when I was younger. The title is deceiving. It tackles all the issues adoptees and even foster kids can relate to. I wish my parents had done these ceremonies with me. Some of them would have helped a lot. The ones around fear, loss, transitions, and self-esteem would have been especially helpful. Get this for your family today -- don't waste another minute thinking about it.

This book is a treasure. So many of the books I've read on adoption offer advice that isn't from the real world. This book is full of practical, easy-to-follow, helpful information. A true gift for adoptive parents!

This book shows families how to honor and cherish simple and complex acts of every day life. The authors lead readers through real life situations with compassion, knowledge, empathy and personal stories. It's an educational read for potential parents of adopted children and a must read for those who have already welcomed children into their homes.

I bought this book because a friend suggested it. It sounded like a lot of fluff.

It turned out to be a lifesaver!

There were times I was at the end of my rope and I found a way to turn a rough situation around because of this book.

During calm periods I used other ideas to teach or enhance self-esteem in my two children.

Do yourself a favor and buy this sooner rather than later. I wish I had. It is a jewel.

I bought this book quite a while ago and I absolutely the format. It's a great resource to just pick up and get great ideas, verify that you are on/off the right track and generally learn how to get to the next level with XML. Highly recommended

The flexibility of XML can often mean that there's a gap between using XML and using XML effectively. Elliotte Rusty Harold's book Effective XML - 50 Specific Ways to Improve Your XML (Addison Wesley) is an excellent way to move towards the latter condition.

Chapter List: Syntax; Structure; Semantics; Implementation; Recommended Reading; Index

There are obviously a large number of books that will teach you the semantics of writing and using XML. But just because you can create an XML file doesn't mean that you've done it well or effectively. Harold's book provides a bridge to being able to create XML files that will be usable in nearly all situations. The book starts out in the introduction with explanations of terms that are often confused (element vs. tag, text vs. character data vs. markup, etc.). Then there are four parts of the book that include a total of 50 tips that will improve the quality of your XML usage. Some tips are pretty basic, like "Include an XML Declaration". Others are more complex like "Verify Documents with XML Digital Signatures". But every one is practical and useful for making sure that your XML is widely useable by all potential applications.

Excellent bridge book to read after you've learned the basics of XML. This is a book that, when taken to heart and used, will cause your coworkers to thank you.

Effective XML is a collection of about 50 tips for working with XML. Although XML seems is simple and easy to use, it's also easy to get wrong. I've often scratched your head and wondered why things like XML Schema, for example, just doesn't feel right. But it wasn't until I read Effective XML that I understood what was really awkward with it.

Because the book is so diverse (an amazing feat considering the small page count), it is hard to single out any specific part as being a reason to read the book. The book doesn't just talk about schemas, the infoset, etc..., it digs down and really explains what is good and bad about the technologies and what the best ways to apply them are. All I can say is that I use XML day in and day out and have learned everything I know by trial an error. I've made many mistakes along the way. I've tried my best to learn from them, but Effective XML was the book that made everything click for me. The best part is that the book went well beyond just helping me see my errors. I've already applied some of the ideas to new work I've done recently and have been able to head off some of the problems I would have encountered.


Effective XML is by far the best XML book I've ever read, and quite possibly the best tech book I've read all year. I might even have to add it to my favorite tech books list. If you work with XML to any significant degree, I can't recommend this book highly enough.

Elliotte Rusty Harold states in the introduction of Effective XML that the book is neither an introductory book nor an XML tutorial. Rather, it is a distillation of the author's experience using and teaching XML and how to use it effectively. The book does a great job of explaining how to use XML and its related technologies.

The book is divided into four major sections: Syntax, Structure, Semantics, and Implementation. Each of the fifty Items packs a lot of information into a few pages. The Items span topics such as why you should Include an XML Declaration (Item 1), Make Structure Explicit through Markup (Item 11), Program to Standard APIs (Item 31), and Write in Unicode (Item 38). Even the Introduction is valuable because it sets the definitions for XML-related terms used in the rest of the book that the author has found to be used interchangeably or inconsistently.

Item 24, Choose the Right Schema Language for the Job, provides a typical example of the great information contained in Effective XML. This Item discusses the strengths and weaknesses of four schema languages: W3C XML Schema Language, DTDs, RELAX NG, and Schematron. The use of programming languages to handle situations that the schema languages can't handle is also discussed. The Item ends with a set of questions to think about when selecting the schema language to use.

I found the book very readable and like that the information is presented in digestible chunks. Effective XML isn't meant to hype XML but to identify what the actual capabilities of XML and its related technologies are and how best to use them. The book does an outstanding job at this task.

Full disclosure: I received a complimentary copy of the book for review.

This is not a book explaining XML. This is not a book that goes into any depth on XML APIs. It is not a book explaining any one XML format like XSLT, RSS, or XSD.

Instead it is a book on how to work with XML. How to design an XML application to take full advantage of the facilties of XML: schemas, processing instructions, XSL transforms, namespaces. It is all structured to slowly introduce you into the complexities, and deserves to sit up on the bookshelf with Effective C++, Java and Enterprise Java.

If you already know the basics of XML, it is actually quite a good way to learn about some of the more esoteric concepts -from the pragmatic perspective. Too many XML books rant about how wonderful some feature like XML schema's extension stuff is, why XML is the most universal format ever, SOAP and WS-* the best protocol for distributed systems ever, and XQuery everything you need for an XML database.

This book bursts the bubble of hype with rational analysis of what makes sense, and what doesn't. Item 28: Use only what you need, is my favourite: A review of the main XML specs and analysis of what really matters, which comes down to #35, navigate with XPath.

If you are designing an XML schema/system/application, you need this book. If you have to put up with architects telling you about WS-MetadataExchange, WS-Transfer and RDF, you need a copy to roll up and hit them over the head. And, if like me, you are involved in standards bodies that produce XML related things, you need to buy a copy for all the other participants, so that what you produce will actually work.

Remember that XML is a language designed for use by people and machines. The machines have the upper hand. But with this book, and some thinking, you can design XML applications that people can use.

This book has deeply affected me in several re-readings over the past several years. I appreciate how I can open it to any page and, in a clear style, find a new jewel every time. The book concerns itself with trasmitting Buddha's profound (but, of course, simple!) advice for how to turn our strange, inhibiting mental patterns around a full-180-degrees. There are lots of beautiful passages on *why* we should become interested in caring about others, ie, what are the benefits to *us*. This book never tries to convince us to believe something abstract, rather it encourages us to work practically with the teachings and start convincing ourselves, again and again, using seemingly endless paths to move our mind to positive, warm, and profound places. I am grateful to have found this work...thanks!

This writing from Geshe Kelsang Gyatso is a perfect accompaniment to a regular meditation practice. His language is clear, straight-forward, and he speaks to the practical application of spiritual teachings that are truly transformative. I have had this book for a few months now, and I haven't made it past the first 100 pages. So much wisdom and understanding can be revealed by reading and reading these teachings until they become fully integrated and clear. This book is a wonderful gift.

This is simply the most beautiful book available about the mahayana teachings on love, compassion and transforming adversity. I highly recommend it.

This is an amazing book! I bought it for my mom and she can not stop listening to it! We all love it!

I am a long term lojong practitioner, and usually recommend Pema Chodron for beginners, and steer beginners away from the older texts. This book is one I will recommedn for both. Excellent explanations, uplifting and enlightening, very clear and concise. Even if you are not Buddhist, i recommend this book -- sweet!

We absolutely LOVE this book. I pulled my son out of Kindergarten to homeschool him because he was miserable with all of the worksheets and it made him hate writing! This book saved us. These games are fun and it doesn't really even feel like "work". Writing doesn't have to be boring. He has improved 100% and no longer complains about writing... It's even fun for me!

This book has lots of good ideas that can be implemented in writing workshops for any age.

This book gives great ideas on how to stimulate your child's interest in writing it's ideas are so practical and user friendly that anyone can start to apply it right away.

This is a great book. I just received it and have put it to good use with my students. I look forward to using it with my own children too!

This is a wonderful book for the homeschooling environment. First, the author is a tutor for children struggling with public school methods, so she offers enjoyable, imaginative alternatives to the plug and chug kids get in school. Second, as a tutor, the author works with children primarily one-on-one. These games, therefore, lend themselves naturally to the experience of home schooling. Third, the author provides meaningful explanation of the kinds of writing and thinking skills each game addresses; in this sense, these games are more than games. Finally, many of these games can be tied in easily to whatever other content you may be covering at the moment. For example, I found a wonderful game in here that I plan on using when my son and I cover the artistic concept of "line". I also appreciate the chart in the back of the book that categorizes each game according to grade level.

On the whole, the author takes a "bottom up" approach to writing. Ditch the spelling tests and grammar grind for now, and teach kids to love writing by providing writing exercises that they'll love. She respects and celebrates the kidness of kids.

You can really get several years of use out of this book, even with no other writing book.