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This book is a read aloud for 4-6 yr olds and independent reading for 7-8 yr olds.

Katherine(5yrs old), loved this book. She read it with some help and loved the part when Chuckie said,"Hey! Leave him alone! He's not a nanner! We giggled throughout the book and you will too.

I have just ordered my third copy of this book for .58
The other to got loaned out and never returned. That's
how great this book is. The passage on Tammy Faye dealing
with her dog Chi Chi could be the basis for an Indie Cult Film.

I read this book years ago. It still sticks in my mind how much good I got out of it.
In life we have to go through many storms, not weather related, but tests and trials of the enemy. Instead of trying to get out of it, she tells about how she conquered her fears by not running away from them, but running right into them.
When you do that they disperse. It reminds me of geese. They are very aggressive and if you allow them they will try to back you down, but if you run through them and swing your arms they will move out of your way and instead of you bring intimidated, they will disperse and move out of the way. You are in control and not them.
Something most of us need to know when we are facing the storms of life.
God tells us in James 1:2-4 Amplified Version

2 Consider it wholly joyful, my brethren, whenever you are enveloped in or encounter trials of any sort or fall into various temptations. 3 Be assured and understand that the trial and proving of your faith bring out endurance and steadfastness and patience.
4 But let endurance and steadfastness and patience have full play and do a thorough work, so that you may be [people] perfectly and fully developed [with no defects], lacking in nothing.

This is what the book is about. I loved the book when I read it, and I highly recommend this book to anyone who has fears of any kind because she points you in the right direction to Jesus who showed her what to do about her fears.

S.W.A.T. by Diane Cary is a thrilling book that keeps its reader constantly on the edge of their seat. The author makes sure to always keep the reader interested. I couldn't put this book down and read its 276 pages in 2 days. You are actually placed into this book as Jim Street, the main character. This was a good book. It was well written so that you knew what was happening around the characters. "He walked to the Crown Victoria and got in-to find that Hondo was already inside, lounging back in the passenger seat, shuffling through seven or eight personal files." The words that the author has chosen were specific but understandable. "Street stood there alone. He'd pleaded, hoped, mourned, fought for this moment. Now that it was here, he actually wasn't sure what to do. If he showed up at seven o'clock in the morning, he could just as easily be shot down in front of all the other officers chosen for this team." The dialauge was always enjoyable, weather it was serious, or hilarious. ""She's like, how's she gonna take care of the kids if something happens to me, right? So I call State Farm, looking for some extra life insurance, and when I tell the sister I work S.W.A.T., guess what she does."
"Laughs?" T.J. suggested.
"Hangs up?" Boxer threw in.
"The woman laughs her ass off, then she hangs up on me!""

First off, if you haven't seen this movie, go! Now! It is easily, besides the matrix trilogy, the best movie out there. Action, Thirller, Mystery, Humor, Everything. Then, you can buy this book, which is probably, besides the lord of the rings trilogy, the best movie book ever made. By far. This has even more suspense than the movie. The author did a supurb job at describing the action. You can thank me later. Have fun. :-D

Carolina da Silva can transform anything, from a suitcase to a house, into a personal shrine. Chockfull of holistic concoctions, multicultural traditions, and the magical essences of colors and scents, her book, "Sacred Spaces: Transform any Space into a place for Rejuvenation, Relaxation and Transformation" has to be the Feng Shui of New Age.

I just finished reading SACRED SPACES and found it an intriguing and exceptionally informative book on how to transform any space--including a wallet--into a personal place for meditation, comfort, and joy. I enjoyed reading how cultures all over the world transform their own spaces for protection, enjoyment, relaxation, cultural identity, and a number of other purposes. I especially liked the sections on African American yard shows and "flash and light." What a fun book!

Read this to the five-year-old twice already, and expect to r3ead it lots more. The ten year old was delighted: she joined us and reread the book when we were done.

Recommended. You got to love those cows.

Those loveable Santa Cows take their human friends on a magic carpet ride to the islands! Tropical fun to keep the holiday spirit alive. You'll love the whole Santa Cow Series!

My two daughters (ages 2 and 4) request this book be read--at least once a day (along with all the other "Ready-to-Read" books we bought for them). They love playing with the toy cameras they already have with each other, taking pictures of each other and us. So, they especially love this book. They love to yell out, "Cheese" with the characters as they get their pictures taken by Dora. Even Diego makes an appearance in this book.
I think this book is probably geared toward the preschool/beginning grade school set. It has big words and colorful pictures. The stories are simple and not too long.
Certain words have little "pictographs" with the word that it's for directly underneath it in smaller print. I suppose this is to help the child learn to read these certain words. Since my daughters are still pretty young (the oldest is now just learning the sounds different letters make; she already can recognize all the letters), we haven't really tried to use these little pictures in that way. Although, we've read this story so many times to them that they "read along" by reciting from memory certain parts of the story. All Dora the Explorer books are great fun for the kids because it involves them in the story much like the TV show does.
I highly recommend it.

My son loves Dora. He also is very late in verbal development. This book really helped because he had so much fun participating in the story, that he seemed to forget to be shy about speaking.

The book is set up with a combination of words and pictures so your child can 'read' along when you get to the pictures. This book only works if your child is familiar with the Dora universe though. For instance, there is a picture of Boots every time in the story you would normally read the word Boots. If the child doesn't know who Boots is, it isn't going to make any sense to them.

The book is great for the pre-reader. It shows them how to scan a page (top to bottom, left to right) to read the story and allows them to participate and help 'read' the story.

For those familiar with other Dora books, it is written in a much simpler style. (most of the other books seem to be full scripts for the tv shows and can seem terribly long sometimes).

Would recommend!

This work is a discussion on topics including religion, education, ethics, humanism and Buddhism/Christianity. Through the dialogue, SGI President Ikeda and Derbolav, professor of education and philosophy at the University of Bonn, offer a bridge between Asian and European cultures.

This book deals with a variety of contemporary problems in the form of a dialogue between Daisaku Ikeda, president of Soka Gakkai International, the world's largest Buddhist organization, and the late Josef Derbolav (1912-87), then professor emeritus of the University of Bonn and a world-renowned authority on pedagogy and Greek philosophy.

Together they explore a wide range of topics, starting with a discussion of the tension between tradition and modernization in Japan and elsewhere. They compare humanism in East and West, and Buddhism and Christianity.

Focusing on the crucial topic of education, they consider the roles of ethics and religion. They conclude their dialogue by "searching" for a new humanity that can face and conquer the daunting problems we have created in our century, especially overpopulation and destruction of the natural environment.

By selecting the word "search" for their title, the authors consciously stress the dialectic approach, whether it be that of Plato searching for the ideal, Augustine for God, or the bodhisattva of the Buddhist tradition searching for perfect enlightenment. This search for the future is to be based on substantial expertise, the strongest sense of responsibility and the highest degree of self-control.

Therefore, they state, "it is necessary to remember that attaining a new form of humanity entails an inner revolution - a radical alteration of our way of thinking - that will free us from prominent egoistic, commercial, and ideological motivations and at the same time liberate us to the deep and genuine claims of Eastern and Western cultural traditions and such of their treasures as Buddhism and Christianity."

The discussion began in May 1981 when Ikeda visited West Germany and continued in 1982 in Tokyo and then again in 1983 in Bonn. During the intervals, they sustained their dialogue through regular correspondence, clarifying and elaborating their views.

Having recently heard of the field "Cryptozoology" for the first time, I was unsure of what I would think of this book. Cryptozoology is an interesting topic and after reading Searching the Abyss, I was not only impressed, but also almost compelled to go out and start hunting for lost or new species of animals. The book was well composed and thought out, and obviously a lot of research went into it.

Mark uses a balanced blend of Myth and Fact to give this field of research a place in science. This book contains well-written and simply explained methods and techniques that anyone could use to become a Cryptozoologist and be confident that their findings and reports would be viable. It is explained in detail what is required in order to survive the skeptics and to keep ones evidence creditable. The approach used in this text was not to convince people that strange animals exist, but to encourage others to keep an open mind that some such life forms may exist, no one can go into this type of research a true believer, some skepticism is required to maintain objectiveness. After all, one cannot find the truth of something if they already believe it is there and refuse to weigh all the evidence discovered fairly.

If anyone was interested in going into this field of study, I would recommend this book as not just educational reading, but as a on-hand field guide during such investigations. It's easy reading, simple, and to the point without all of the fancy words that requires a master's degree to understand.

What does ghost hunting and cryptozoological investigations have in common? The effortless answer is nothing, however, once you peel the skin away there are a lot of similarities. Preventing evidence tampering, evidence collection, creating case files, how to conduct interviews and taking meaningful notes to name a few. Mark Mihalko uses his extensive field research and militay training to give the reader simple but precise directions on the entire range of cryptozoological investigation. This book is a total training lesson for anyone and everyone in the field of cryptozoology and even for those of us that research other aspects of the paranormal.

When you first step inside of the book you will realize that it is well written and emphasis the importance of using science in your investigations. In my opinion, the best section in the book deals with forming a hypothesis. Every serious investigation must be constructed around forming a hypothesis, creating a theory and then setting out to disprove that theory. It is important to keep in mind a theory cannot be proven- only disproven.

1. What is the problem?
2. What facts or data relate to the problem?
3. Can a hypothesis be formed from the known knowledge?
4. Can a theory be formed from the hypothesis?

In the final part of the book Mark gives the readers a helpful A-Z glossary, a complete case file for review, a list of helpful web sites. One of the biggest hidden gems in the book a complete section with example forms; cryptip classification table, sighting report form and investigation permission form. Anyone who has ever had to create forms will understand the value of having access to these well thought out examples.

Is this a book for people heading out in search of bigfoot? Yes. This book is also for anyone headed out to do any field research. It is a must read and is destined to be one of the key 'How To' books in cryptozoological research.

Gene Lafferty
founder, www.bsphi.com

"Censorship" is a truly ugly idea, repellant to anyone who values First Amendment rights. And yet, few would argue that in wartime is unnecessary. _Secrets of Victory: The Office of Censorship and The American Press and Radio In World War II_ (University of North Carolina) by Michael S. Sweeney tells a previously untold story. Sweeney has assembled what is surprisingly an inspiring tale on what could have been a dismal subject. The censors did their patriotic duty, and in almost every case, did it well, staying to a middle course that got the job done but was not unduly repressive.

There's a hero in this often dramatic book, a hero who helped win the war not with firepower but with persuasion, common sense, and patriotism. Byron Price was a newsman nominated by Roosevelt to be director of the Office of Censorship shortly after Pearl Harbor. Price had huge amounts of authority and responsibility, but the miracle is that Price got all that power and chose to run a voluntary system whereby the nation's journalists would become their own censors. All Americans wanted to do their part in winning the war, and journalists were no different; Price enlisted them in a cooperative effort. He issued a code of voluntary censorship, and enlisted the help from newspapers and radio stations in following it. Essentially, the code spelled out details of a rule of thumb: "Is this information I would like to have if I were the enemy?" Violations, and there were hundreds of them, got confidential letters from Price's office, detailing the mistakes and asking for more circumspection. There were few serious complaints about the self-censorship program. Sensible rules included that opinions could not be censored, nor could stories that had been publicized in other countries. Even the ACLU approved of the way the censors had done their job.

Sweeney's description of how censorship was applied is fascinating. Even descriptions of sporting events had to contain no mention of the weather, and "lost dog" ads and requests for a certain song dedication were curtailed, for they could contain coded information. There are wonderful details on censoring (or failing to censor) such things as the Manhattan Project, General Patton's slapping of combat stress victims, and the threat of incendiary balloons floated over from Japan. It goes into detail on censoring the movement of the President, who sometimes unfairly hit the road so that political dialogue would be stilled by his silence. This is a fascinating book about an aspect of the war not generally appreciated, but which turned out to be well waged at home. The admirable Price was quite eager to be put out of a job, hounding President Truman before the surrender papers were officially signed to end all censorship. He had an admirable distaste for a job he had executed in an exemplary fashion; he wrote, "It should be understood that no one who does not dislike censorship should ever be permitted to exercise censorship."

"Censorship" is a truly ugly idea, repellant to anyone who values First Amendment rights. And yet, few would argue that in wartime is unnecessary. _Secrets of Victory: The Office of Censorship and The American Press and Radio In World War II_ (University of North Carolina) by Michael S. Sweeney tells a previously untold story. Sweeney has assembled what is surprisingly an inspiring tale on what could have been a dismal subject. The censors did their patriotic duty, and in almost every case, did it well, staying to a middle course that got the job done but was not unduly repressive.

There's a hero in this often dramatic book, a hero who helped win the war not with firepower but with persuasion, common sense, and patriotism. Byron Price was a newsman nominated by Roosevelt to be director of the Office of Censorship shortly after Pearl Harbor. Price had huge amounts of authority and responsibility, but the miracle is that Price got all that power and chose to run a voluntary system whereby the nation's journalists would become their own censors. All Americans wanted to do their part in winning the war, and journalists were no different; Price enlisted them in a cooperative effort. He issued a code of voluntary censorship, and enlisted the help from newspapers and radio stations in following it. Essentially, the code spelled out details of a rule of thumb: "Is this information I would like to have if I were the enemy?" Violations, and there were hundreds of them, got confidential letters from Price's office, detailing the mistakes and asking for more circumspection. There were few serious complaints about the self-censorship program. Sensible rules included that opinions could not be censored, nor could stories that had been publicized in other countries. Even the ACLU approved of the way the censors had done their job.

Sweeney's description of how censorship was applied is fascinating. Even descriptions of sporting events had to contain no mention of the weather, and "lost dog" ads and requests for a certain song dedication were curtailed, for they could contain coded information. There are wonderful details on censoring (or failing to censor) such things as the Manhattan Project, General Patton's slapping of combat stress victims, and the threat of incendiary balloons floated over from Japan. It goes into detail on censoring the movement of the President, who sometimes unfairly hit the road so that political dialogue would be stilled by his silence. This is a fascinating book about an aspect of the war not generally appreciated, but which turned out to be well waged at home. The admirable Price was quite eager to be put out of a job, hounding President Truman before the surrender papers were officially signed to end all censorship. He had an admirable distaste for a job he had executed in an exemplary fashion; he wrote, "It should be understood that no one who does not dislike censorship should ever be permitted to exercise censorship."

Raphael says often: "It's very demanding and at the same time very easy." This also applies to this book. It explains the metaphysics of Vedanta, comments on traditional (Sanskrit-)terms: "The Drgdrsyaviveka (Drg = Spectator-observer; drsya = spectacle [the visible; the object of vision or knowledge]; viveka= discernment) is a rational discerning method for distinguishing between the Spectator [the seer; he who sees] and the spectacle (Self and non-self)." (p. 13)
For me personally it was not continuously easy to follow the text, to 'digest' the condensed knowledge.
It might be best to start with the last chapter 'Bibliographical Appendix', as there you find valuable hints about purpose und goal of the book as well as to HOW to read it:
"The only aim ... is to present the Advaita vision to those who are ready 'to spread their wings'. Those who are ready for this experience do not need elaborate or intricate reasonings or erudite treatises. The attentive disciple needs only a 'vision' to meditate upon and contemplate. ... Union and Identity with THAT can not occur upon rational basis or through intellectual knowledge. ... One must grasp the essence of a sutra in order to meditate upon it and then embody it. After which the sutra ... or the text may be thrown away because they have served their purpose as a stepping-stone."
While reading the book, on the one hand my mind has complained at times: "Uff, this material is really dry." But, on the other hand, when I then (nevertheless!) continued to read on, suddenly (just a few pages further on) it was as if a "wide space" opened up. With an "Aha!" of cognition a section (or sometimes just one sentence) appeared, that absorbed me totally. Here Raphael's hints provide a useful and very concrete(!) support for the practical transfer into life. And in the end - despite some lean times during the reading - I found myself really glad and grateful for having read this book. Important coherences have become clear. Thank you, Raphael!

I've been researching Advaita Vedanta for approximately 5 years now and this book is a well constructed exposition on the nature of maya and Being, it points out the relationship between subject/object and their transcendence, and discusses the 4 states of being explicated by the religio-philosophical system of Advaita Vedanta. Raphael makes an interesting analogy between the philosophies of plotinus and paramenades, demonstrating their similarities with Advaita Vedanta. Overall this was an extremely helpful book reguarding the nature of non-duality and how one may go about distinguishing between the being attributed to maya, the jiva, the apparent self of phenomenality....and Being, the absolute, the noumenal, our wholesome and inviolable Self.