Montana Books

The book came in with extra features. The previous owner was a library. The book had different types of stains on it and in it. The previous readers loved to eat, drink, and read a lot. If I had a chemistry lab for my child, she could have some fun guessing what they were. Grant it, it was a used book but, I wouldn't ship a product to a customer and make them throw it away. Trash is trash, my house is not a recycling facility. You try to save a tree by buying used books that may have under lined sentences here and there or bent pages. Maybe even some highlighted sentences. But food and drink is an unacceptable bonus of bacteria in my book. No pun intended. Ok maybe just a little.

I purchased this for my daughter who is hooked on this serious. She loves the books but it ends in a cliff hanger so you have to read the next one too!!

Oh, I'm Massie, I guess
I'll go kiss a moose head.

Ooooo read my book.
NAWT

Octavian Country day school's seventh grade field trip is a camping experience on lake placid with the Briarwood boys! Massie opens up her own kissing clinic when the truth is that she's never kissed in her life! She lies to her "class" about kissing Derrington and he catches her in the act! Of course, this means a breakup! Later on they make up and Massie gets her first kiss! The pretty committee gets expelled when Kristen sees her mom getting a little to close with her teacher and runs off in tears towards the woods. Of course the rest of the pretty committee follows and when they all return that's when they get expelled!

This is my favorite book of all the series! I love how in the beginning they make a list of clothes to bring. I read all the clique books and so far this is my faV!

Irving Stone makes you feel you are right there: in Ghirlandaio's studio, in Lorenzo's Garden, in the Pope's apartments, in Michelangelo's marble. I have seen the movie many years ago (and enjoyed it greatly) so when I saw the book in a friend's house borrowed it. When -after three years!- she really wanted it back, I could not help but buying it. You can read it over and over again, also as a text book of Italian Art, with an encyclopaedia at hand. Actually, that is the best way to fully enjoy this book: you travel to Florence, Rome, Bologna...at the feet of the masterpieces.

Having not painted since 1995 due to life's hurts, I needed to read something that would bring back the passion I had for my art. This book is doing the trick. I can't put it down and wish it would never end. I'm starting to paint and The Agony and the Ecstasy is the best read for me since Gone With The Wind. Michelangelo had so many gifts from God that I feel sad we all don't use it like he did. Since we are all gifted this book will certainly make you realize not to waste time with our modern stuff and start using the gifts God has given us. This is a must read and a classic.

I'm a high school English teacher, and I would never assign this to students to read. Nor would I recommend it to any adult except for those who are doing academic work about Michelangelo or those who are art historians. Michelangelo's artistic gifts are obviously amazing and worth knowing about. And the Renaissance time period certainly is important and interesting. However, the author exhausts his readers by seemingly including every single detail he gleaned from his obviously thorough research.
As a result, the story just goes on and on without any ongoing internal or external conflict to sustain interest. Maybe this is because as a whole, Michelangelo's life did not present an underlying, complex struggle. It was just a bunch of little struggles, each with the very same dynamic -- trying to do things his way, dealing with difficult popes and Medicis. His "great loves" are just slices of life along the way, for whatever reason: maybe the historical record does not give reason for much embellishment. I also felt like he never really conveyed an authentic, thoughtful sense of Michelangelo's inner world. It felt thin and simplistic, portrayed through the objectifying lens of Stone's reverence.
And the names! It was so frustrating to come across dozens of new people every few pages, most of whom were never mentioned again. It became impossible to figure out which ones I needed to pay attention to, which alone would have been a struggle because so many of the names are so similar to each other.
However, I guess all of the seemingly faithful details are an honor to someone worth honoring, so for this I give it two stars. Historical fiction can be so powerful. Here, though, a bit too agonizing.

The feelings and emotions of one of the greatest artists of all times is reflected in this excellent book. Take it with you on your next trip to Italy.

This book is fantastic if you want to immerse yourself in the daily life and culture of an artist in Italy living 500 years ago. The insight into the artistic process is very well written and you get a true sense of what artists were subjected to by way of maintaining themselves in the world. Read it to get yourself into the mind of an artist.

That said, it is a biography, so there are no shocking twists or big reveals like you will find in great fiction. I don't know why other reviewers seem to fault the book for this. Yes, it can seem rather banal compared to modern fiction, but it's not modern fiction. Is it the best written book in the world? No. It could have done with some more editing for one. It's still a good read.

Wow, I love Halo and all, but this book is boring and full of typos. What the hell? Mr. Nylund should slap his editor. There's a grammatical error in almost every chapter.

Let me preface by saying that I usually do not read books. I never played Halo 1 or 2, but have played Halo 3 and was caught up by the excitement. That being said, I never truely appreciated the story and the need to 'finish the fight'. I decided to buy the 3-pack here at amazon (Fall of reach/flood/First Strike) kind of like a filler to get to $25 to get free shipping. A best buy I have made in a long time. I liked First Strike the best, followed closely by Fall of reach and then The Flood. My suspicion is that since the Flood was a narrative of the 1st game, it followed the flow of the game (lots of fighting) thus perhaps why it was 'not as good'.

I soon got excited to see what happened in Halo 2 (still have not played it), but got Ghosts of the Onyx 1st. This book (again in my opinion) is the best so far. It hardly has Master Chief or Cortana, but fills in a lot of the story (and of course leaves a 'cliff hanger' at the end unrelated to the main Halo story arc, thus having me 'wanting more').

I remember when watching Star Trek, Battlestar galactica, etc. I always wondered what the stories some of the other star ships might of had, or wanting to know what the exploits the 'other' Jedi had in star Wars, as all of them likely had excitig stories. This book is similar in that it follows the 'life' of Kurt as he is the main star. It gives more details on the Spartan program, and particular the Spartan III's. It also re-unites the remaining surviving spartans II's (except for Master Chief and 'Grey team --> Cole Protocol). It also sheds more light on the fore-runners, and the civil war that the covenenant are having.

I know many are 'unhappy' that it is not centered around master chief, but we all know what he is doing in halo 2 and 3. I want to know what else is going on in the Halo Universe and with the rest of the Spartans and this book does a great job in that. I think Cole protocol will be a 'similar' and outstanding book as well giving us stories of the other spartans. I just got Contact harvest in the mail today. can't wait to read it.

If the other Spartans are not dead, then they must be engaged in other tasks. Spartan 117 cannot do it all alone. It's good to know the others are fighting. Kurt Ambrose rocks!

I missed Master Chief.
I wish our heroes were less prone to dying, yes, powerful enemies and weapons but we out think them.
This is a real page turner, I am sorry it was not twice as long then I would have had four days of reading pleasure.
More Halo, PLEASE.

I've arrived at my next stop along my reading rampage this summer with the Ghosts of Onyx. After thoroughly enjoying the first 3 books of this series, I read this book once again.

In Ghosts of Onyx, the situation for humanity is a rather bleak one. There are just a handful of John's (The Master Chief) fellow Spartan II's left and they are fighting a losing war on two fronts against the Covenant and a civil war against the Rebel colonies.

Section III, responsible for the original Spartan II's creation, once again devises up a plan to create a new , improved breed of Spartans (Spartan III's), in an effort to somehow balance the tide of the war just a bit.

A top secret operation is underway at Onyx to train these new Spartans using a familiar Spartan II face. The main question is will it be enough to stop the Covenant forces or will it just buy time for another fight, another day? This question is answered in the book and once again Forerunner technology rears its head on, you guessed it, Onyx. This turns into an arms race between humanity and the Covenant both seeking a desperate edge to turn the tide of war against one another.

The ending is a real trip though and of course is a cliffhanger doing what any good book does, making the reader wanting to immediately want a continuation of the story. Unfortunately, the next Halo book I'm reading I'm told has no Spartans in it, so we will all have to eagerly await when the story is hopefully continued in another 5-6 months.

This book is not what it is hyped to be, Not very informative and not what I thought it would be.

From what my husband and I have read so far, there is a lot to learn from Dr. Phil's Relationship Rescue. We also bought the workbook to go along with it and would highly suggest that people do that as well. The two resources put together are wonderfully productive. Just don't expect a "how to get your spouse to change" book, this is a book designed to help you better yourself. You realize what you are doing wrong so that you can begin doing the right things. Eventually, your spouse will come around based on your actions. The old proverb that goes something along the lines of kill meanness with kindness definetely applies here.

The Doctor focuses on The Reader, and hammers away at making the point again and again that it is The Reader, not their partner, that must embrace change and improvement. It's a strong book. I laughed at how he puts into light how good my relationship is by his standards of trouble. My reasons for buying and reading this book are the same as anyone's for buying a self-helper: uncharted territory and the wish of self-improvement.

My only concern is that this book would most likely never help those who are the ones who really need it. It makes strong points to this itself: You cannot control or change other people. And those who need this book are probably not smart enough to even consider reading it or seeing the need to change and modify themselves.

Thanks Dr. Phill. I am glad I read your book. It is strong and helpful.

Dr. Phil just lately has been known in the Middle East through his program "Dr. Phil". I got to know Dr. Phil from quite some time.

This book is, as its name, a rescue procedure that the couples should follow. It starts with an inventory that each partner should do alone; evaluating him/herself independently, what were the weaknesses, how did I contributed to the failure/success of the relationship.

Then the real work begins..!!! Where the couple meets together and reviews the result. They should apply certain communication techniques. It is really very effective. At the end, the couple should agree and maintain certain techniques throughout the way.

It is not a book that you read for educational purposes, it is a life curing surgery.

For the best results, both couple should have the interest for the rescue. My advice, maintain the passion throughout the way, try to influence your partner if he(she) is not the driver for this process. It is a surgery...but very effective...

Wish you all the best while reading and applying this book...!!!!

"When you own your relationship, you must hold up the mirror to look at yourself. You will finally realize that whatever your partner is doing, you are either eliciting, maintaining, or allowing that behavior." ~ 97

It is difficult to work on your relationship by yourself. That said, Dr. Phil believes you have a lot more control than you think. By analyzing your relationship you learn about the areas that need improvement. The book begins with a questionnaire of sixty-two sentences. You choose true or false then instantly find out if your relationship is in distress.

It takes quite a lot of time to answer all the other questions including sentences you complete and analyze. You may think you have a pretty good relationship until you see what the test results are. This book may even temporarily make your relationship worse, especially if you try to get your partner to take any of the tests. The 17 page family history evaluation did seem a little over the top.

This book requires you to make a commitment to making your relationships work. It is an extremely detailed program designed to improve your relationship in a matter of weeks. You learn to agree to disagree or to argue more effectively. You develop relationship skills instead of relying on the feelings (infatuation) you felt at the start of the relationship. Dr. Phil then delves into the dark side that can sabotage a relationship.

Dr. Phil completes the book with questions he thinks you might want to ask him and then in conclusion he writes a separate letter to women and then to men. For the most part this book is complicated yet engaging. The tests are fun to take if you have the time and they do reveal aspects you might not uncover in a more casual conversation. Dr. Phil takes on all the difficult subjects and puts the ball in your court. In one sense it can be discouraging to work on a relationship by yourself and on the other hand your partner might actually get involved in making the relationship work. "Relationship Rescue" is one of the most intense relationship books I've ever read.

~The Rebecca Review

I am still in the process of reading this book but what I have read so far is really great. I am looking to travel to Alaska in 2009 and a travel consultant I have been talking to recommended that I read this book.

The book really gives a great insight into the ordinary every day Alaskan lives which has just made me want to see Alaska even more.

I recommend this book to anyone whether you want to see Alaska or not. It is just a great read.

We've been to Alaska twice and are planning our third trip soon. This is an extraordinarily capturing and surprising place. Our trips there avoid the touristy cruise ship or resort hotel thus allowing us to stay in towns much like Jenkins did during his 18 months there. This style allows you to be with and enjoy Alaskan residents.

What Jenkins did was is to involve himself far more deeply than our experiences and that made this book remarkable for us. I liked his writing style as it made for a comfortable read. Yes, there are errors, but they are few. What's memorable is that each of his chapters highlights some adventure or someone's personality. It's been some time since I finished it and yet I still think back on this work and recall much of it. Peter Jenkins left a series of images in my head that are going to be there for a long while. My only regret was that we missed Hobo Jim. An interesting guy (check out his web site). He will be on our agenda next trip.

I'm on the Amazon site as I am ordering some copies for friends. Looking for Alaska is a terrific book and a must read for any of you with a sense of wonder for the wilderness. It is easy to not only tout Jenkins's book but Alaska as well. Destination and book are tops.

I read this book before a trip to Alaska, and admittedly, ours was only a small boat cruise in the inside passage, so I knew I would experience only a part of Alaska from a tourist's vantage point. I wanted a bigger view of this remarkable state and hoped Jenkins would deliver that in this account of his family's 18-month residence in the state. It did - most of the time. I felt Jenkins took me to places I would never be able to go and gave me a true sense of the state. His was a journey based on the day-to-day interactions, discoveries, struggles and surprises of one who intends to know a place and its people more deeply. Jenkins creates a vision of the landscape and the people, and in its richest moments, this book is almost as good as the real thing.

But - it is too long (editing would have cured this), and poorly written (editing would have cured this as well). More than once, I puzzled over sentences that I wanted to correct. When speaking of the caretaker near a family living in the bush, we read this about the neighbor's disposition: "If the current one, Dave, was a bit grumpy one day, he'd try to tell Mike and Pete how to snow-machine the winter trail, except he'd never done it." Or this for example: " In the early morning, the kids' chores began. Eric wanted Mike and Pete to go across the lake about two miles. I went along to help; we were going to retrieve some doghouses to keep the team in."

I am quite willing to labor over a complex but beautiful sentence to get at the essence, but his is just plain bad writing. Too many examples like this slow the pace and distract the reader. At 434 pages, strenuous editing could have achieved more with less.

That aside, when Jenkins lets the landscape and the people speak for themselves, the reader gets a sense of the real Alaska. On the whole, I enjoyed it and felt it prepared me for the little bit of Alaska I was about to see. Just allow yourself enough time to wade through the verbal bush.

I have thus far reviewed more than 100 books. Of the 112, this is only the third audible book review I have thus far posted. That should tell you this book is special - it joins my review of Stephen King's On Writing and T.E. Lawrence's Seven Pillars of Wisdom as the best in its class. At surfreviewandreport dot com I will name this book as the 2006 Audio Book Extraordinaire - Bill Anderson.

Initially I found the monotone a bit of an annoyance. I wondered, "Why didn't he inject some emotion?"

Later I figured out why. Peter Jenkins correctly chose to have his words, not his voice, emphasize the the beauty and freedom that once predominated America and now exists only in Alaska.

I found his inclusion of brief statements by those whom he visited and of the honey-rocket to add unimaginable value! A literal stroke of genius!

Hobo Jim - I have been fortunate to listen to some of his music before. He reminds me of a cross between Pete Seeger, Woody Guthrie, Bruce Springsteen and John Denver, seasoned with a dash of Arlo Guthrie and and of Phil Ochs. Aside from those guys and Sam Hinton, no other musician I have ever heard has made me so proud to be American nor more frustrated at how often each of us falls short of our potential to improve our world. Oh, but I digress. The little bit of Hobo Jim's live voisterous audience yodeling was far too short.

I do have two serious complaints: This book is far too short. I could listen to six months of this adventure. Also, it needs more interviews and sounds of Alaska.

Yes, the included audios of people and nature made this book my absolute all-time favorite audiobook. This book also is in my Top-10 list for books on Alaska and also for Adventures In The Far North, and it probably will be in my Top-10 Adventure Books list.

I found myself swelling with pride to hear that people in Alaska live a lifestyle intent on the old values of people and nature without the trappings of prejudice and demands for conforming to other's expectations that permeated America during the 50s, 60s and 70s, yet that also does not vilify or censor those who are not politically correct.

In other words, it seems Alaska is what America could have been if only we'd possessed the need for a honey-rocket and a rebellious Che-inspired balladeer who yodels and sings songs of heroism about guys named Redington.

Confused? Get download the audiobook and get listening!

The most remarkable thing about Peter Jenkins is how he got so many "real" Alaskans, often a highly reclusive lot, to open up to him and tell their life stories. Granted, his residual fame as the author of "Walking Across America" opened a number of doors for him, but very few people could, for example, trustingly follow a bush veterinarian and his family to the shores of frozen Chandalar Lake, fit in with them so well and paint such a vivid, affecting portrait of their lives. Mr. Jenkins is not only a good storyteller, but he also is a quite extraordinary collector of stories, due to this sense of trust that he seems to engender with his subjects.
In a genre rife with either "carpetbagger" authors who don't really get Alaska, or with indigenous writers lacking top-notch skills, Mr. Jenkins finds an effective middle ground. He did actually reside in Alaska for a time, and tried to live as the locals did, so he at the very least scratched the surface of what the place is all about. And, while he made a few silly factual mistakes, and his prose is not the most sparkling I've ever seen (I actually think that his daughter Rebeccah is the more lively and interesting writer), he is nonetheless effective in communicating the stories of those Alaskans whom he genuinely admires. Another five years or so up North, and I think he'd have truly gotten it right.

I found it very interesting, is not a science book...I think this book is perfect if somebody wants to know anything about the climate change

Tim Flannery, well-known for his writing on the unique ecology of Australia, turns his attention to the pressing issue of global warming with "The Weather Makers". As the disappearance of the southern winter rain belt hit home in 2006, Flannery deservedly won an Australian of the Year award for exposing the continent's shameful record on greenhouse gas emissions.

"The Weather Makers" begins in a quite slow fashion with a look at past climate changes and how they have occurred. Flannery, in a very scientific manner, gives a very detailed account of how the Earth's climate evolved, and how scientists gradually found out the role of carbon dioxide in making the Earth habitable by increasing temperatures. He looks at these things in quite revealing detail and the goes on a journey through geological and human history to illustrate how humanity developed in an era dominated by long periods of very cold weather in which most of the unusually fertile land of Europe, North America and New Zealand was covered by glaciers. Flannery then looks, in very close detail, at how coal and oil were formed and shows, in remarkably simple and legible language, how fossil fuels form and explains why they are so rare in comparison with the present demadn for them. He also shows, in quite simple language, how they burn and why they vary so much in their usefulness as fuels.

It is the last half or so of "The Weather Makers" that is really revealing and something that must be read by global warming sceptics and especially by those who are in doubt or overtly nervous about action. Flannery shows, contrary to popular belief, that climate moves as carbon dioxide increases from one metastable state to another, and that the changes - like the 40 percent drop in Melbourne rainfall in October 1996 - are quite abrupt and, as we are seeing in Australia today - extremely liable to be disastrous. his illustration of the declines in rainfall over southwestern Australia are especially noteworthy. Flannery also does a marvellous job of showing how species, especially in tropical mountains that are effectively cool "islands", global warming has already driven extremely old species like the golden toad to extinction through chaning the level of the cloud layer. The very fact that such species have become extinct should, of itself, be enough to quash notions - still popular amongst the most fertile sections of modern humanity - that global wamring is not real.

Flannery also writes an excellent section titled "The Great Stumpy Reef" about threats to the Great Barrier Reef from global warming and coral bleaching.

The last part of the book, which looks at the Kyoto Protocol, is however clearly the weakest part of the book. Whilst I do not question Flannery's point that there are a large number of vested interests controlling politics in Australia and the US that prevent public ratification of the Kyoto Protocol regardless of its ineffectiveness, I am still critical of Flannery for his failure to recognise that - contrary to conventional wisdom - Australia and the Republican states of the US do not belong to the same culture as the rest of the West. Rather, they retain a value system that disappeared from Europe a hundred years ago and from Blue America, Canada and New Zealand in the 1960s and 1970s. I myself have no doubts that Australia would not refuse to take the most radicla action on greenhouse emissions like eliminating car travel and coal power were it not for a rapidly growing and socially ultraconservative bloc of voters become the dominant force in its politics. Flannery, in contrast, never looks at public opinion in Australia beyond the stereotyped liberal view that the public is less conservative than government.

The rise of parties like One Nation and Family First in Australia, and the number of conservative, climate-sceptic sites on the web form the US, should be proof that public opinion is actually more conservative than Flannery would like to believe. He also does not consider the serious question of what an increasing ultraconservative Australian public will think when rainfall declines in Melbourne and Perth become even worse than they have already.

He also does not look at whether international bodies' failure the greater ecological vulnerability of Australia (which he ought more than anyone to have known about) idea of assuming equal reductions for all countries as the right way to reduce emissions radically wrong. I myself believe Australia should have been internationally targetted long before any efforts at dealing with any other nation's emissions were even considered.

Nonetheless, for all Flannery's failures on the cultural front, "The Weather Makers" is still a most impressive read packed with infomration to arm yourself against the climate change sceptics and to harden your views if you are in doubt.

A few weeks ago, while visiting South Australia's Yorke Peninsula (the place where European settlers have cut the native mulga forest to plant wheat and barley... and later discovered that it does not always rain enough to grow wheat and barley), I stopped by a local public library looking for an interesting Australia book. As my luck had it, I picked two, from the same shelf: Tim Flannery's "The Weather Makers", and Tim Low's "Feral Future: The Untold Story of Australia's Exotic Invaders". It turned out that these two books - both well written, well informed, and covering environmental subject of concerns to Australians as well as people worldwide - complement each other in some ways that neither author may have planned.

The heart of Flannery's book is a martyrology of species that have already gone extinct due to the climate change now in progress, or those likely to do so as the climate change (warming, reduction in precipitation, fog, or cloud cover) continues. As a biologist closely working with many rare and endangered species, and, on occasion, having a chance to discover a tree kangaroo species just to see it become extinct within a few years, Dr. Flannery no doubt is in a very good position to appreciate the danger brought by climate change to many plant and animal species, as well as the tragedy of their loss to the mankind.

As Tim Flannery's accessible and well-presented analysis of many extinction (or threatened extinction) cases shows, the extinct or doomed species are mostly those that are already on their last legs, due to the natural or human-induced causes. Some of them have lost most of their habitat during the last ice age, others during the warming that followed the ice age; some were extirpated from many areas when the Aborigines came to Australia with the spear and the firestick, others were helped to their grave by Anglo-Australians' bulldozers and ploughshares. As Flannery correctly emphasizes, it is the reduction and segmentation of suitable habitats that makes many plant and animal species especially vulnerable to climate change, as, with the wheat fields and housing estates in the way, they can't easily "move" from the northern to southern parts of their geographic province anymore.

Although that's probably not Flannery's conclusion, it seems to me that in many cases the impending loss of these species, while tragic for the world's genetic diversity, and for those small areas where these species do find the refuge now, their extinction won't affect the ecosystems as they currently exist throughout most of the world: there, these threatened species have already disappeared.

As the global temperature inexorably rises, what is coming to replace the doomed species and the ecosystems that they form? As Flannery suggest, many areas of the world are on the way to simplification or "uniformization" of sorts: the reindeer's and lemming's tundra may be replaced by the expansion of the moose's and squirrel's taiga forest; the polar bear's ice-covered Arctic ocean - with a seasonally ice free cold sea (similar to today's Bering Sea perhaps?); Amazonian rainforest, with a savanna of sorts. And to get a better idea of who *is* likely to survive in the new hotter world, Tim Low's "Feral Future" makes a good companion reader. It is all about creatures whose habitat, instead of shrinking (often, due to human activity), expands (often, not without human help). Widely adaptable, these species are likely to survive in the changing world, and likely even to benefit from the change sometimes, replacing the species that are losing ground. Forests of lantana and mimosa instead of the native species; rats and racoons instead of tree cangaroos; starlings and mynas instead of the native birds... this is what we are likely to see more and more, with or without climate change.

Read the two books together and think of what the future may hold. It may not be all that unpleasant - if, after some millenia, the climate stabilizes again, the now-worldwide starlings or racoons may undergo a new wave of speciation, developing new narrow-ecologic-niche species, replacing those that are disappearing now. It's probably not the first time this happens, on the geological scale: there must have been other global extinction events, followed by the appearance of new narrow-niche species, descending from the adaptable wide-nice survivors.

But in the present day, perhaps though the conservation biologists could pressure governments into funding captive breeding programs, to save some of the particularly threatened species for later reintroduction in the suitable environments - wherever those may be. Maybe we should be prepared to grow a new Great Barrier Reef around Tasmania, too :-)

This was a wonderful read for me during a week I spend in the woods on retreat. Although not as "spiritual" as I would have expected, it still resonated with so much of my being in the wilderness. Contrary to Dr. May, I have spend numberous years with such times. I just thoroughly enjoyed his writing style, his honesty and humor, and the awareness that this was his last book before his death. I cried at the end of it!

The Weather Makers is a great over-all, general look at global warming and climate change. Easily 5 stars, the highest rating, for its reasoned, common-sense guide to a complex subject, which largely avoids partisan politics and alarmist reactions. Of more than 30 books I've read on the subject, this is in the top three, the other two being "With Speed and Violence - Why Scientists Fear Tipping Points in Climate Change" by Fred Pearce; and "Hell and High Water - Global Warming, the Solution and the Politics, and What We Should Do" by Joseph Romm.

this book i just loved it is a book that makes you laugh and keeps you asking for more great job lisi harrison

MAssie I'm sorry Nina makes you jealous. Is it cause yer little A-cups can't keep up? Well DEAL.

Hey Lisi HArrison, from a fifteen year old girl's standpoint, please write something that doesn't give me the upchuck reflex? Thanks dog.

Nina is Alicia's spanish cousin, who will be spending a semester in Westchester. She has all the guys drooling and Massie is jealous! After Nina is found guilty of thievery Alicia comes up with a plan to send Nina back to Spain for good!

I bought this for my 12 year old grand-daughter . She had read the first in the series and couldn't live without the next. She is now pleading for the next three. She read the last three within two weeks. If she'll read them,I'll buy them. Her grades are up. Keep them coming!

Excellent series for that precious pre-teen age. My kids can't read the Clique series books fast enough!

I liked this book very much because it gave me insight into the culture of India. I wish the book had been longer. I loved it. Very indepth with respect to the feelings of the characters.

The author's style takes the reader to a world far different than the one most people would know. Her abilty to shape characters and describe their surroundings creates empathy for the struggles people endure in other cultures. However, the ending of the story felt weak in comparison to the emotional heights and depths throughout this complex tale. I felt cheated at the end-as if the author couldn't quite figure out how to bring the story to a conclusion so she just stopped writing.

The divide between the rich and poor is portrayed wonderfully in this brilliant novel.

Written through the eyes of an elderly servant living in the slums of Bombay, and an upper middle class Parsi woman, the past and the present of borth women are interwoven as the story unfolds.

Through the novel, the trials and tribulations of the past, present, and future of both women come to light. The fact that the author manages to make seamless transitions into flashbacks that offer an adequate background into what these two women have experienced. This helps the reader better understand the two women and how their current states of mind were sculpted. It also shows how talented this author truly is.

This book was certainly a page turner, and the ending adds realism to what is really a tragic portrayal of how punishing life can be.

This was recommended to me by my mother, who is a Parsi, and I was delighted to see that her name shows up as one of the characters in the book. It offered a nice tutorial on the Parsi culture as well, for those who are interested.

Set in modern-day India and told through two women, the movel shows how the lives of the rich and the poor are intrinsically connnected yet vastly removed from each other, and captures how the bonds of womamhood are pitted against the divisions of class and culture. Reminded me of the Lana Turner movie Imitation of Life. An interesting book that makes you thik about how fortunate we in America really are.

This was one of the best books I have read. My interest in India was deepened with this moving, insightful and detailed work of art about the relationship between families and the people who care for them over a life time. The secrets and lies that are carried within a family; and the universal longing for love and sweetness in all our lives. The poverty described in this book and of course in India is heart breaking and sobering. The choices one is forced to make just to be able to barely survive is a reality check for all of us. I applaud Thrity Umrigar and hope you will enjoy it also - it is a special treat.

I am so glad that I read this book. I found it uplifting and inspirational. How amazing that women like this lived, and I am so grateful they shared their story. It is not something I normally would have read, but I am grateful that I gave it my time. It was a very quick read.

"I'm not black, I'm brown!" So says Bessie Delany, at age 100. Despite her years of involvement in the Civil Rights movement, accepting its nomenclature wholesale isn't part of Bessie's personality. She's the feisty sister. Sadie, age 103, is the one who conquers by saying nothing - while going right ahead and doing exactly what she wants. Or by playing dumb, as she and Bessie both put it; but either way, it's always worked for Sadie. These two, the second black woman licensed as a dentist in New York and the first black woman to be appointed a New York City high school teacher, have lived together more years than not in their long lives; and as of this book's publication, they're still in their New York home and taking care of themselves just fine, thank you very much.

What do they have to say? Plenty, mostly in alternating chapters. Their father was born a slave, and their mother's parents - a mulatto woman and a white man - couldn't marry because state law forbade it. That freed slave eventually became an Episcopal bishop, and all ten of his children became college-educated professionals. Sarah and Elizabeth Delany were old enough to be shocked and hurt when Jim Crow became the law of the South, and each had to find her own ways to survive and thrive in spite of both cultural and institutionalized prejudice. Relocating to Harlem, New York City opened new opportunities, but didn't take them away from that familiar struggle. Through it all, Sadie and Bessie lived by the creed their parents had taught them: You're here to do good. To which Sadie added her own maxim: Maybe I can change the world a little bit, by changing me.

The challenges these two women faced are not familiar to me personally, in one sense, because I've never had to face racial prejudice. Yet in the way they met those challenges, with determination, realism ("As long as they need you, you've got that job"), and plenty of humor, any fellow human can surely find inspiration. A wonderful read!

The Delany Sisters are simply a spectacular duo of fighters. Their story is one almost every person would find amazing. The way they see this world, and how their past experiences with Jim Crow and being colored in the South before the Civil Rights Movement shaped their perception of humans forever. The book is filled with very warm humor and it is essential to understand part of the complex psyche of 'colored' people in the United States today, which, by the way, is a term prefered by the Sisters over black or even African American to refer to themselves and their people.

Let's just say I fell in love with the sisters so much that I adopted their last name. I am in awe of these remarkable woman, still. After living for more than a century they did not believe they had a story to tell. I am grateful that Amy Hill Hearth was able to convince them otherwise.
Their accomplishments were remarkable not only what the two oldest sisters did but the entire Delany family. Their father Henry was borned into slavery, however, he did not use that as an excuse. All of the Delany children were trailblazers because there were no civil rights for people of color in the early 1900's. They did what they had to do, Bessie was honest and brutal as she felt it was her duty to tell people the truth. Sadie was considered the sweet one, however, she too was a go-getter.
I recommend this book and the two other books that were co-authored by Amy Hill Hearth. Without Ms. Hearth these women and their stories would have never been told, I am thankful to her for bringing them into my life. I expected the sisters to live forever but Bessie died in 1995 shortly after turning 104 and Bessie at 109 in 1999. They are still alive in the hearts of many of us and in the pages of their books.

This book was recommended to me by my 95-year-old mother, and I must say it was an excellent recommendation.



Author Amy Hill Hearth must have had numerous conversations with Sadie (age 102) and her "little sister" Bessie (100). The book is written with the words and the spirit of these two special ladies shining through each page. The Delany sisters were born to a father who was a former slave and who got an education and later became the first black bishop in the Episcopal Church. Their mother had white blood, but she chose to marry and socialize among the black race. As the sister explain, if you had one drop of black blood at that time, you were considered a Negro.



The sisters describe their growing-up years and their gratitude for their parents' love, guidance, and the high standards of conduct which they held up to their children. They tell what is was like to be chased by the Ku Klux Klan, discriminated against by teachers and employers, and be the victims of the Jim Crow laws. They mention the illustrious black people, such as Adam Clayton Powell, and Cab Calloway, who were part of their social circle. They tell about their patriotism during WWI and WWII and in one of the most poignant comments in the book Bessie says, "We were good citizens, good Americans! We loved our country, even though it didn't love us back."



This is a look back at American history by two women whose family was prominent in the black community, but mostly unknown in the white world.

It is an eye-opener and is a wonderful story.

Hi well to start This is a very boring book. I can't believe it got a newberry cause it really stinks bad. And well it was fun at first but there wasn't good grammer or punctuation. (I enjoyed that part.) But it was boring (as I've said before.) But May got treated bad by her Dad and brother and a bunch of other stuff happened. I didn't finish it cause I didn't like it. Well gotta go hope this was helpful Brooke.

May Amelia the main character grows up with an all boy house at the turn of the 1900's. The author Jennifer L. Holm does a great job capturing the readers attention. In every chapter there is suspense and excitment like when she got chased up a tree by a mother bear, or when she almost got killed by a rushing stream of logs and was saved by an incredable string of luck. This book should fill childrens libraries,and in my opinion is one of the best books I have ever read. If I were you I would check it out!!!!!!!

May Amelia was a girl was the only girl in her Washington farm. She had seven brothers and her mother and father with her. May Amelia was their one and only. She was no proper young lady. She wanted to be just like any of her other brothers. Fishing on the Nasel and getting messy with her brothers was what she treasured most. She had a very harsh life, and Jennifer Holm had a very superior way of expressing the calamity and pain of her life. May had her hardships and the twilights of her life. Being the lone girl on the Nasel was tough for May; since she would do anything, and everything to be like one her own brothers. She had done so many outrageous and extreme things just to do the things a boy was allowed to do. May had an Uncle in Astoria, which was a city down along the end of the Nasel. When he would come to visit his Finnish family on the shore of the Nasel it was then a very extraordinary occasion. He was a sailor, just like one of May Amelia's brothers wanted to be. When he left, which wasn't exceptionally time-consuming after he had just arrived. While May does a great deal to be like one of her brothers, nothing seems to be actually effective. May was a wonderful girl, who everyone knew, even though there were not that many people that lived along the Nasel River. There especially were no other girls.

After May has so many things to have the privileges and the honors of being a boy, some one comes into her home and life that no one wanted within a million years; Grandmother Patience. Grandmother Patience was the meanest person that May's family had ever met. She had treated May with no respect, and had abused her as if she had no feelings and could feel no pain at all. Jennifer L. Holm had described May and her life with her father's mother with such a deep passion; with all the things that had happened to her from the things that Grandmother Patience had done to her. May was tortured inside and out, with her having no control. Since she was just a girl, she had to be a proper young lady. She couldn't say anything that would disrespect her elder, no matter how much she wanted to. It was tearing her up inside. This book was such a spectacular thriller/drama that it kept me reading and always interested. Every time you have to stop reading, it is like having to read an ongoing cliffhanger. It would always keep you interested, and having very depressing feelings for May Amelia. It makes you wonder if you could handle what she was going through, and how much more of it you wanted to read it to see what her decision to do is next. I would recommend "Our Only May Amelia" to everyone to see how suspenseful someone's life could be.

Our Only May Amelia is a historically based novel for older children. It is also a Newberry Honor Book and is for good reason. The characterization is infectious, the emotion is honest and provokes a reaction, the relationships between characters creates a welcoming atmosphere, and the first person perspective in which it is written portrays the social and developmental status of the protagonist, May Amelia, perfectly.

Characterization
Jennifer L. Holm, the author, clearly knows her characters very well and I believe she does a fantastic job of not only introducing us to them but allows us to know them quite thoroughly. This has great appeal with children in the fact that they are able to relate with such characters and to some extent live the experiences through the characters. In My Only May Amelia, we first meet May Amelia Jackson on her 12th birthday. Already, such a fact makes her endearing to the audience as most children are easily excited by birthdays. For the most part, children also have a sense of fantasy that allows them to believe that a person is somehow more special on their birthday. I believe this was done on purpose by the author to get children captivated in the story early. Having this sort of situation start the book also allows the author to introduce a new character, May's father Jalmer. He is characterized as gruff and harsh. This is apparent in the opening pages as he yells at May, even though it is her birthday. Children tend to see things in a more polarized view, and having these opposing characters from the start build interest in the story. However, as the story unfolds, we are able to see the more, loving side of Jalmer. This is apparent as he comforts May after Grandmother Patience smashes her china doll to pieces. Such a change in characterization is very effective in a book for children. It also satisfies the one of the typical story patterns, where the evil character redeems himself in the end. This is a pattern that has been followed many times, but in My Only May Amelia it doesn't feel cliché or overdone.

The brilliance of the characterization does not stop with May Amelia or her father. She is a girl with 7 brothers (well, one is technically a cousin) who each have their own unique personalities. These boys, along with other members of the family and neighbors are all developed well enough that you feel like you are part of the family. Matti is the kind one, Kaarlo the mean cousin, Isaiah the patient shepherd, Wendell the aspiring doctor, Alvin and Ivan the sneaky twins, and Wilbert the compassionate, understanding pal. The characterization of all of these individuals works very well together to weave a tapestry known as the Jacksons. All of the differing traits agree and clash in ways that makes the Jackson family a believable one, relatively peacefully living on the banks of the Nasal River.

Emotion
Corresponding to the unpretentious life of this young girl, the emotions that we see in the book are simple. May Amelia will be happy when she gets to go fishing, sad when Kaarlo makes fun of her, and frustrated when she has to go help muck out the sheeps. This appeals to children as these are emotions they themselves can understand. I believe that it works well in this novel because it allows children to put themselves in May Amelia's shoes and to live in the 19th century through her. On the reverse, however, as the book progresses, emotion is not as simple as it was towards the beginning. This change occurs when Amy Alice, the baby sister May has so fervently hoped for, unexpectedly dies. This event appeals very strongly to the reader's pathos. Death is a hard subject, yet the book works because it is coming from the point of view of a 12 year old girl who was the primary caregiver for her infant sister. Pity is evoked not only by the passing of an infant, but by the raw reaction May has to this event. She has never experienced death before, and having it be of someone who she was striving so hard to care for is crushing. Grandmother Patience only adds to the situation by blaming the fatality on May Amelia's care. Children can also identify with this, as they have a sense of injustice and being blamed for things that are not their fault. As a warning, the book might not be appropriate for a younger audience who could be shocked by such an event and not able to handle their own emotions in reaction to this.

Perspective
In Our Only May Amelia, the story is told through the first person perspective of May Amelia. This allows the story to be told in an essential sort of way, with other events that could be distracting stripped away. May Amelia, as her nature states, is not an elaborate person. The author is very in tune with this and only includes parts of the story that are engaging. This is very effective in the way that it adds to the tone of the book. The novel has a very straight-forward feel, and this makes the message of the pages even more powerful. Having the story written how May Amelia would have written it appeals to the intended audience. She is a 12-year-old telling her story to her peers. Even though she may have lived over 100 years ago, May still relates to children today as she is constantly getting herself into scrapes and needing help from an older person to get out of them. The author really allows the audience to feel like the situations that happen to May Amelia could have happened to anyone. I believe that this makes the book great, as it can relate to a wide variety of children.

Relationships
One of the core elements of this book is the relationship that May Amelia has with her brother Wilbert. One of the reasons the book is so good is because this is a completely believable relationship. Even though they are inseparable most of the time, May and Wilbert do not always get along. This is easy for the audience to relate to, as they probably have siblings or at least a good friend that they have such kinds of conflicts with. This makes the story much more real to the children, as they can related to the frustrations that May Amelia feels. Also, Wilbert is the one that takes May Amelia to Astoria after Grandmother Patience is so awful to her at Amy Alice's funeral. This shows the loving nature of the relationship between these two siblings. This is another instance where the book is amazing. While you are still reeling with shock at Grandmother's actions, the author swiftly introduces a frantic May Amelia running away and a protective Wilbert chasing after her. He knows that May cannot be expected to stay after such an incident. So they leave.

A few days after their departure, Jalmer comes to the door of the aunt and uncle where Wilbert and May Amelia are now living. At this time, the relationship between May and her father is revisited. At first, Jalmer wants May and Wilbert to immediately come back home. After some coaxing from Wilbert, however, Jalmer is convinced that May really needs to heal and because he loves her, allows both children to stay in Astoria. I believe that at this time, May changes greatly the way she feels about her father. Instead of feeling like he just picks on her all the time because she isn't a blonde boy, she can see that he truly does care about her and wants what is best for her. I feel this is another instance where the book is fabulous because the author is able to write a deeply touching moment in the tense father-daughter relationship without coming off too sentimental.

My Only May Amelia is a sweet tale of an irrepressible girl growing up in a rural area of all boys. She has her sorrows and her triumphs. Jennifer L. Holm is able to tie all of the events together in one neat package, writing at a level that makes it applicable for older children. Her characters are lovable, the emotion is real and through May Amelia's perspective, you can see that she is surrounded by a family that loves her, despite all the trouble she gets herself into. This book is a charming read and I would recommend it to any older child looking for a moving glimpse into the past.

My family and I listened to this book on tape as we traveled last week. As adults, my husband and I found the story fascinating and touching. As parents, we were shocked. Why is there swearing in a book that's labeled "for ages 9 and up"? Also, why is there a gruesome and graphic description of a murdered woman's remains and what happened to them? If that scene had appeared, as written, in a movie, it surely would have been rated PG-13 or R. We really did enjoy the book very much, we were just horrified that it is considered "children's literature." When I was a child, May Amelia would have been in the young adult dept at the library, not the children's. Just my two cents.