Family Resources Books

When couple first begin to deal with the agony of sexual addiction, it is very common to feel like they are all alone and no-one can possible understand the pain and the shame that they are now facing. S.A.R.A.H. helps to shatter that myth. In this book Richard Blankenship demonstrates the realities that many couples face. He paints a true to life picture of the victories and the struggles that couples often encounter when dealing with addictive behaviors. I appreciate the fact that he doesn't paint either an overly rosey scenario, or a seemingly hopeless one either. Every couple is different. Couples who choose to do the work that's necessary to make it through these very tough times in their relationship can begin to experience a renewed sense of hope when they utilize the tools that are discussed in this book. This book wasn't written to be the only thing needed for healing in relationships, it was written to offer hope and direction for spouses who feel like they are all alone and who want someone who understands to come along side them and tell them that things can improve. I believe if spouses of addicts will use this book along with the tools that it recommends they will be well on their way to being able to see that their marriage can be much better than it currently is.

I began Blankenship's self-published book filled with hope that this text would provide just that: hope. My husband and I have recently begun our journey of healing and restoration, and the content of S.A.R.A.H. seemed promising. The book begins well, with an uplifting chapter written largely by "guest author" Melissa Haas, the wife of a former sex addict. The book then defines different types of trauma, discusses family roles, addresses common myths surrounding sex addiction and recovery, shares appropriate scenarios for disclosure, outlines boundaries, and promotes the benefits of support groups. These concepts, while relevant, seemed a bit underdeveloped. Some chapters, such as the chapter on establishing boundaries and another on family roles, seemed like they were going to contain helpful and useful information, but a lack of concrete examples and full explanations left me at a loss as to how to apply the concepts to my situation. As soon as I would think, "Okay, this is going to be good," the paragraph would abruptly end or shift gears. One of the final chapters, ironically entitled "Your Grief Will Turn to Joy: The Forecast," promises to present life "on the other side" of a sex addiction. The chapter shares four stories written in the words of Blankenships' clients. Rather than share "joy," however, the stories depict marriages that either ended in divorce, separation, or a seemingly melancholy acceptance of a tragically depleted relationship. Not one story of true victory or a "thriving" marriage is shared, although Blankenship himself states that "marriages not only survive, they thrive." I guess just not the marriages he chose as illustrations for his book. In addition, the book contains many grammatical and syntactical errors. Overall, I can tell that Blankenship is a very insightful and compassionate counselor, but his book would have benefited from the touch of a professional editor. S.A.R.A.H. claims to help "spouses navigate the journey of healing," and while some useful concepts are introduced, the off-roading and vague directions can be distracting when trying to use Blankenship's book as a navigational tool.

Susan Hall defines literary devices clearly and gives examples. The real power of this book however, is the resources listed and the easy to use layout. Teachers who are teaching at any grade level can find short, easy to read books that can teach hard to explain literary devices in a single class period. This is great for teaching youngsters, or a great introduction for older students who will be encountering a particular device in a longer book. Picture storybooks are wonderful literature these days and should be encouraged at all levels. This book should be in every school's professional library. I'd love to see a follow-up with more recent titles, and a resource of popular children's chapter books that could be used in conjunction with picture storybooks.

Although this is a great guide, most of the books are no longer in print. Had I known I couldn't buy the books I would have gotten volume II instead.

I bought this book for use in my 2nd grade class. I found that the pages did not have much variety. I ended up using the book "Word Family Practice Pages (Write and Learn, Grades K-2)" instead. My students seemed to like it better, maybe it was the crossword puzzles. Overall, the book just didn't work for me.

The Word Family Activity Book provides students with opportunities for independent practice with word families. The Activity Mats are useful for independent class work or for home practice. The Concentration and other games provide a fun activity that will help students reinforce their reading skills.

I am a fan of the first book and subsequent "Rules" books by these authors. While these authors are criticized for being manipulative and non-feminist, one only has to try out their methods and look for results (or, conversely, violate the rules and see that doing so ends in disaster). Every time I have violated a rule of theirs, the man has immediately lost interest. What's great about this book is that it tells you exactly how to handle certain situations that arise when you are engaging in the online search for a significant other. This book is just what I needed to save myself time and heartache!

By reading other reviews you most likely have an opinion right now if this book is for you or not. Is it old-fashioned? Sexist? Stupid? Playing Games? Honestly, that's your call. There were several points I liked in this book, I think it has some valid content.

Profiles, the authors state that men basically look at the pretty pictures of the women, and glance at their profiles. Is this true? Men are visual. So pick a nice smiling photo. Don't write too much. I like this, not because it creates mystery, because your leaving out emotional baggage. Your selling yourself, not the fact your ex cheated on you with your neighbor, wouldn't commit, or he was mean.

I liked the after 4 emails, and he didn't give you his phone number, or ask for yours move on. Really, your on a dating website to date. If you are looking for chat buddies, go to a chat room. The author also asks you to wait 24 hours before you respond. There is a lot of pressure to respond right away, do you need to wait a full 24 hours?

There are a lot of tips like this that I think help weed out the real potential canidates. Online dating isn't for the faint-hearted. It is work finding the right person. I like that this book sets boundaries initially. I haven't read their other book, but I felt this book does a good job of helping you to sort through people. If you liked 'He's just not that into you', you will like this book as well.

Have you noticed that most of the negative comments about this book are written by men? Well, there's a reason for that. Men don't want to feel "manipulated" or part of some strategic plot. Understandable. However, guess what? This book isn't written for them! It's written for women, only. No matter how hard men try, they will never know what it's like to be a WOMAN and not asked out, or to have men constantly ask you out, but then they all lose interest. It's too painful, so let's give ourselves an honest break.

These Rules aren't to deceive anyone, contrary to what some people may say. They're actually to transform and empower a woman. I'll admit, if a normally talkative/boisterous woman acts quiet just to get her man, then she's not being honest and that's wrong. The authors, Ellen and Sherrie, do not support that kind of behavior. They actually want women to work on their dating skills, like someone working on their cooking or writing skills.

How would a man feel if a woman frequently called him at 2am in the morning with her emotional issues? She talked too much and wouldn't get off the phone when a man has to work the next day? She quits all her extracurricular activities/hobbies just so she can pursue a man? Shows up at a man's doorstep one weekend without calling first and expects him to entertain her (even though he may have already had plans)? She nags or tells a man what to do, like his mother would?

Women don't really do that, right? Wrong! Heck, I'm embarrassed to admit this, but I used to do some of those things myself, and I know PLENTY of other women that still do. That's the point! Even if some of the methods in the book seem a bit extreme, it's helping women (especially ones with low-self esteem or can't seem to get/keep a man) learn important skills of respect (a man's time) and about having a life of their own, which is very attactive.

My story: People were saying, "You're so smart, attractive, and talented...how come you're not married?" I definitely had men pursuing me, but then they seemed to ALWAYS lose interest. I used to think I was cursed or God hated me. Then a friend suggested The Rules book and it turned my love life around. Suddenly I learned how to keep a man by not being so obnoxious and pursuing him too heavily, and giving him the space a respect a man deserves. And it wasn't deception either. I worked hard to make these skills truly part of my life and not some false front to deceive anyone.

And guess what? I married an amazing man! He's tall, handsome, very intelligent (PhD), has a great job, superb personality and wit, and very much a gentleman. After his divorce, he seriously had women throwing themselves at him and pursing HIM! He would initially like these women, but they seemed so clingy and needy after awhile that if turned him off. Then when he met me, I was pursing an intense career, dating lots of other amazing men, and didn't have time to spend hours on the phone/computer bearing my soul to some stranger. He thought my confidence (which was sincere) was amazing and pursued me vigorously. Needless to say, he won my heart and the rest is history.

So, some may scoff, but honestly women, read the book and take it with a grain of salt. If something doesn't apply to you or feel right, test it out. If it doesn't work, don't do. Use your head and common sense. But there are lots of GREAT suggestions. And remember, this book IS NOT FOR MEN! Good luck, ladies, and I hope you marry the man of your dreams like I (finally) did!

I read this book in one day, can't say my internet dating sprees of the past have been that strategic as the authors guide women, nor productive either. Most of the time I've been cyberdating I didn't get second dates, I had a lot of drop-outs, I had one boyfriend that I met online, and that didn't work out. So although I have taken a break from the singles; scene, I want to say that I will implement the author's guidelines as much as possible. If anything, not being taken for granted, disappeared on, or run all over is worth the trouble. Even thought you are more mysterious online, you can display behaviors that show overeagerness and low self-esteem. The Rules for Online Dating helps to show women that the boundaries are what will keep (normal) men interested and appreciative. So if you're tired of being walked all over by men, read this book. Kudos to the authors for additional tips to implement, and the profiles of men to avoid, so women can spot them easier. I won't be replying to "winks" any longer, because they don't often end up in dates, and I sure won't be traveli9ng to meet an online prospect, (I do remember someone asking me to come and visit him, saying he was "on call" for some reason, and I turned him down. He never suggested visiting, so next! as the authors say.And this was before I read the book.) No more sloppy seconds and wasted time, ladies, re-claim your power, and read this book if you're tired of men jerking you around, on the Internet or anywhere else.

After being out of the dating scene for ages, I've been trying to work my way back in, and find The Rules aren't necessarily about capturing the heart of "Mr. Right," as they are weeding out "Mr. Wrongs" and not kicking yourself over a failed relationship or a relationship that's not getting off the ground. If he hasn't asked you on a date after four emails, it's because he simply doesn't want to, at least not badly enough to ask. The Rules help you give a guy enough room to decide, and communicate, what he wants -- the opposite of manipulation.

If you are dealing with the revelation that you have a gay family member (particularly a son or daughter), avoid this book. This book is not only unhelpful, but it is extraordinarily dangerous, unless of course you intend to drive a life-long wedge between you and your gay family member. Tomes of scientific research and 99.9% of gay people indicate that homosexuality is not something that can be changed. It is an inherent characteristic just as being left-handed is. One is better off reading a book about accepting your gay family member for who they are. Do yourself a favor and get over your Biblical belief that homosexuality is wrong nor an inborn characteristic,... The majority of problems gay people face are directly created by the continued intolerance shown toward them in our society. As for AIDS that is a problem with promiscuity among certain gay people as well as certain straight people. AIDS is not an inherent danger of homosexuality. If we, as a society, did more to encourage gay people to enter into life-long committed monogamous relationships though marriage, the incidence of AIDS in the gay populous would decrease significantly.

This book is a must read, the gay community has a history of censorship so if you can buy it please do it.

Cleverly disguised as concern and professions of faith, this book will teach you to loathe your gay child and to don a mantle of silent, superior suffering. You will be taught to ignore your child's professions of happiness and to remain smugly sure -- regardless of your child's age -- that you know what is in their hearts and what can't possibly make them happy. You will be told to grieve, not celebrate, when your child is honest with you. Censure, kidnapping, ostracism, brainwashing -- these are the "appropriate" responses that this book will teach you all because your child trusts you enough to say, "I'm gay."

The appropriate response to this book -- full of discredited "research" -- is not to buy it. Instead, sit down and talk with your child about what they want from life, what makes them happy and how you can HELP them get there. Let your love show. Leave the judgement to God.

I grew up in gay culture and for years beleived the lie that no one could change. I am now 27 and am married and have two kids. I am happy to have read this publication. I bought the silly tales by gay activist, that just because homosexuality was in wildlife that meant it was okay. My freinds in the late 80's were dying of Hiv while gay activist refused to close the bath houses of San Francisco. I amso glad to be over that and am aware of this sinister movement. Gay people and Gay activist are two differnt groups. I loe to talk to gay people gay ativist are beyond talking to. I am happy and am not even a christian I am an athiest. So you can be ex gay and not be religous. Science is abounding with information that says sexuality can be changed by enviroment. The gay activist through means of intimidation not science got some of americas most cherished medical institutions to bend to there whinning. The American Psyciatric Association is about to get a huge law suit by former gays. I hope this will teach them to be honest.
...

After learning that my daughter was leaving her 4 young children and a very loving husband to persue a lesbian relationship, I was devasted. Nothing can take away the terrible pain this has caused in family members, friendships, and fellow missionary friends and associatiates. Her dear husband recommended this book to me and it was a lifesaver for me. I still hate that this terrible thing has happened but I am now able to understand something about which we are dealing. I would recommend this book to anyone going through this painful discovery.

This book should never have been published. If it had been put on the web and kept up, which is how it should have been published, it would be a poorly done web site. The annotations show a lack of understanding of the web and of how to find information via the web. Each site is given a page, and most of each page is blank. There are many directory sites on the web on bioethics that are up-to-date and more complete. There is no understanding of the various aspects of bioethics demonstrated in the range of sites listed nor in the annotations provided. I am sorry to say that I felt I had wasted my time and money buying this book. It does not rate 1 star.

As director of the largest bioethics site on the Internet, I have something of a conflict of interest in reviewing this book. While the book treats our site well, I can't help but note that this is a terrible reference guide for two reasons - it suffers from a lack of peer review and scholarly rigor, but where that pans out is that an average user won't find half of the good stuff that is out there, because the authors did not find it, because they literally did not know how to do research in bioethics. More important, this book is heavily biased toward dopey opinionated sites rather than useful sites, the kind of sites that someone who buys the book will be looking for (like a site about how to write an advance directive, for example...). This book appears to be an introduction to using the Internet for bioethics -- and only someone with no familiarity with the Internet would be persuaded that this book is a good introduction to that subject. There are so many better sources of information on the net itself -- and all that is required is that one uses search engines (including the engine at Yahoo!, Google, NIH or Penn, for example). One can't help but see this book as profiteering - it is so poorly put together yet makes such provocative claims to comprehensiveness. Save your money.

Contents:

Introduction
Governmental and Policy/Thinktank websites
Academic and Institutional websites
Professional Associations' websites
Commercial sites
Interest-group websites
Other bioethics resources

BIOETHICS ONLINE is possibly the first printed guide in book form to the vast array of resources on bioethical issues to be found on the internet. It is aimed at both scholars and students alike, and focuses on a range of areas of concern to those working within the field.

Websites from 12 different countries are represented in this directory, and the book attempts to highlight the growth of international interest in this expanding field. Particular emphasis has been placed on the wide range of academic institutions who have established institutes and centers based on the study of bioethics.

Policy and legal aspects of bioethical issues are also a particular concern of this book.

A great book - I'm just surprised nobody has ever published a guide like this until now. There's a whole army of websites out there on bioethics, but the best information is contained in a relative few and most of the best sites are listed in this directory. There are a couple of typos, but overall a useful purchase for anyone interested in bioethics.

When you're trying to explain to a new class of students where they can go for good web-based information on bioethics it can be a tricky task. I think this book is going to be a handy asset for faculty in selecting the best sites. There's even a site about how to write a bioethics essay. Its not comprehensive, but it doesn't set out to be - just a straightforward guide to some of the better material on the net at the moment.

I took a summer class which used this book. It was interesting and very easy reading. If one works in the health field like I do, it reminded me of some issues and gave me other issues to think about. I would recommend it to a person who wanted a good overview of healthcare in the US, compared to other countries. The charts were easy to understand and the book was not full of charts and graphs that were unnecessary.

Poorly written and highly un-edited. The authors make strong and slanted statements throughout the book, stating things as factual rather than the opinions they truly are. There is little citation of research references when there certainly should be. Poor, poor quality text book.

This book was used as text material for a course I took. I found it to be incredibly biased against the current American "system" of health care. We all know health care needs fixing around here, but I rather expect a more balanced view from a textbook.

Delivering Health Care in America: A Systems Approach with Resource Guide (Purchased on 08/22/2007) was purchased. It was recieved in excellent condition and was a brand new book as stated in the original description. I am very satisfied with the service, especially after saving over $30 by ordering through this buyer versus my campus bookstore. The order was received timely.

This is one of the worst text books I have ever used for a course. The content is dense and difficult.
Chapters are not well outlined and don't follow sequence provided in text.

Too many inconsistencies in the data and materials. Chapter 12, page 524 says that the HEDIS quality review has 56 measures, the glossary says 71. This is only one of many I identified. I spotted far too many grammatical errors, incomplete sentences and more for a 3rd Edition book.

It is more than obvious that some updates have occured in certain sections but have not been rolled throughout the entire text. This textbook is in dire need of an overhaul and condensing. Major points are diluted with it's over-complicated verbiage, poor flow and lack of comprehensive outline.

None of this is TOTAL BS! My pal Kristoff told me about this book, and ever since I've been using AOL to get the ladies online! I'm chatting with 5 girls right now, thank goodness for the "tile windows" option, eh?!?

Dan Theman is really The Man! If I met him, I'd say "Dan, you are The Man, Man!"

Yeah Boyee, this is one awesome guide, and not just for dudes trying to score chicks. It's also great for you ladies out there, to buy and to study. Emphasis on the STUD if you know what I mean.

In conclusion, this is one rockabilly book, and I'm not joking when I say it was totally worth the $1.00 I paid for it. Heck, the first half alone is worth $.50, so go figure! You do the math! I'm too busy meeting foxy internet ladies and moving beyond cybersex!

After having the misfortune of buying this book(?) and reading the first paragraph I had to toss my cookies. The author comes across as a totally arrogant jerk. It's too bad that one of more of the women that had the 'misfortune' of meeting him haven't written their own rendition. If they would, I'd be at the head of the line to purchase it.

I gotta say being the girlfriend of a perverted 'man', 'animal', 'dog', whatever you want to call him, is not easy. Maybe I should write a book on how to keep your perverted man under your wings. This book has great jokes and awesome to read on long plane rides, laugh real loud and annoy your neighbours. Vulgar, very much so. I'm surprised your mom didn't wash your mouth with clorox detergent yet, babe.

I originally bought this book as a gag gift for a buddy of mine but it turned out to be a lot more than I expected. Dan is hilarious - sure he gets a little raunchy here and there but anyone with any sense can tell that it's all in good fun. I think some of the other people who wrote bad reviews on this book either didn't really read it or are from the religious right or something. Anyway - I loved it. My only complaint is that he hasn't written anything else - at least not that I know of... and I guess I wouldn't have minded if the book was longer - I was done before I knew it.

There is only one thing "wrong" with this book: it points men and women in the wrong direction, outward instead of inward. Psychosexually speaking, in this day and age of widespread rape, domestic violence, and sexually transmitted diseases, it behooves each potential Lover, whether male or female, to "come within" and cease "looking for It" out there, which is to say, treat every "male" online as a Voice, not a physical person, and inner Voice for astute women, the Voice of her own Animus (see Jung's books); the reverse is true for men, the inner Voice belonging to the Anima. Within EACH individual, the inner marriage of both Anima and Animus results in personal peace, happiness, and even Joy. Thank you for the 5-star metaphor!

David Mamet is certainly an excellent story-teller and an accomplished writer. No one can take that away from him.

But this story - which in Mamet's mind is intended to combat bigotry and racism toward Jews - actually enhances bigotry and racism toward other groups that are being marginalized in current American society.

Mamet gives us a story where an innocent Jewish man is mistakenly convicted of rape and suffers a harrowing fate at the hands of a lynch mob. Mamet tells us that this happened because of anti-Semitism. Fair enough.

Mamet's character then goes on to deliver a two-fisted verbal assualt on Christians of the "evangelical" variety ("they say they've been saved. Saved from what?"), who he portrays as evil, stupid, and lazy. (They bask in "inherited glory," although they've contributed nothing to society, "invented no vaccines," as Mamet puts it.)

First of all, there is no evidence that the historical killers in this case were "evangelical Christians." It's a big stretch to say that just because a murder occurred in the south, that it was committed by Bible-thumping Southern Baptists.

Second, "evangelical Christians" comprise about 7 to 10 percent of the current American population (a number that is consistently revealed in polls by Gallup, Barna, Smith, etc.). That's about the same as the number of Jews and Muslims in America combined. They are consistently villified as "right-wingers" who want to take over the government, impose a theocracy, and kill homosexuals - none of which is true. (The typical evangelical is a moderate Republican of the John McCain variety.) Aside from the rather sympathetic portrayal of Ned Flanders on the Simpsons, the entire media establishment is arrayed against this one segment of our population. The lies and stereotypes directed against these people are as pernicious and hateful as those directed against the Jews in Nazi Germany. (The Jews, too, were out to take over society, according to the Third Reich.) Mamet's hateful scree against people "who say they've been saved" is just fuel for the fire. It takes a feeble-minded coward to throw himself wholeheartedly into society's accepted mode of bigotry, and well, Mamet lives up.

Third, evangelicals are hardly stupid people who bask in "inherited glory" from the Pilgrim days. Evangelical accomplishments are many - from revolutionizing the field of linguistics (Kenneth Pike) and Philosophy (Alvin Plantiga), to improving the lives of millions of Latin Americans after the abysmal failure of Roman Catholicism to confront oppression and injustice, to helping freedom of religion and freedom of speech spread throughout the globe, Evangelicals have contributed much to modern society. Of course, they haven't contributed much to the Entertainment industry, and perhaps that's the only industry Mamet cares about.

I love David Mamet's plays (recently, I laughed my way through the movie adaptation of State and Main), but this novel was disappointing. The event itself (described on the book jacket) is much more interesting than a fragmented interior monlogue by a less-than-fascinating protagonist. The idea invoked The Stranger, but unlike Camus who does a brilliant job, Mamet is much less brilliant. This read more like a literary experiment in a writing workshop than a polished piece by Mamet. If you want to read the master of this genre, stick to Camus.

This book is an exploration of the Leo Frank case who in 1914 in Georgia was falsely convicted of rape/murder and was lynched for the crime; the tale is told through Frank's internal musings. In writing the internal dialogues, and yes they are dia- or trialogues not monologues, Mamet shows his skill as a playwright - playwrights must tell their tale through the speech of the cast.

However, in the early chapters of the book it is sometimes difficult to determine who is speaking. And Frank's social relationships come across as one-dimensional as Mamet focuses on the relationships necessary to explain this miscarriage of justice.

The novel is good enough to recommend to individuals interested in prejudice, miscarriages of justuce etc. - but it doesn't deserve an unqualified recommendation.

In The Old Religion, historical figure Leo Frank, a Jewish factory owner in the old American South falsely accused of rape and murder, then imprisoned and eventually lynched by an organised mob, is turned by Mamet into a religious philosopher, an all but obssessive turner over of truths and half truths, propositions and the voices within voices of a disputatious mind from a disputatious people. But the heart of it is still the same: "To be a man," the Rabbi said, was to behave as a man in that situation where there were neither the trappings nor the rewards of manhood: scorned, reviled, abandoned, humiliated, powerless, terrified, mocked. "Now be a man..." the Rabbi said."

And in The Edge, a movie by Mamet, the millionaire played by Anthony Hopkins is an obssessive learner and compiler of facts, a man detached from his emotions, who through the forces of a melodrama plot, (a plane goes down stranding him in the wilderness with his wife's lover, the fashion photographer Alec Baldwin who wants him dead) is forced to confront himself and, stripped to his essentials, survive. In a sense, The Edge is the opposite story to The Old Religion in that the former has as its central motif a canoe paddle on whose two sides a rabbit and a ravenous beast, I cannot quite recall what, co-exist. Why is the rabbit not afraid? "Because he knows he's smarter then the.." Fox, I believe the beast is. It is significant that the line, among the best in the film, is not quite memorable enough to hold the mind. And the central, memorable sequence of the film is millionaire and adulterous rival being forced to collaborate in killing a bear. That bear was more memorable than the characters or the dialogue. In The Old Religion the opposite moral is operative, Frank is in no useable way smarter than his employee Jim, who uses the white Southern mob's unwillingness to believe in the intelligence of a "nigro" to fool them and gets away with murder, dooming the outsider Jew. You cannot be smarter than the fox and disruptive nature, chaos; the forces of darkness cannot be conquered - you must only stand and face them as you may, that is the true heart of Mamet's reveries.

The trouble is that this does not always amount to a compelling fulcrum, in and of itself, it must accompany colour or is bland, a blank stare in the face of onrushing doom - Mamet's stoic glance in the face of the cancer look.

In The Old Religion, Frank's habits of dissecting, homelitically commenting on and generally discoursing throughout and over every event of his downward course lend the book the air of a series of absent minded sermons, underpinned with occasional colourful clues as to motive, projection through space and narrative to fate, the taste of life. As Mamet points out somewhere in his book of actors' sermons "True or False"- intentions are not interesting, a person's qualities are not interesting, only actions are interesting. Hence the only memorable thing about the Rabbi, a key figure of the last third of the book, is the way he lights a match, his way with a cigarette. This is actual character. Mamet doesn't give either Frank or the Rabbi or any of the other characters quite enough internal colour, a personal smell or feeling, to make them anything - an actor could not successfully play them without addition and a reader cannot happily create them in the mind's eye because aside from the endless discourses- as Mamet's Frank asks himself at one point "what part of reason is not simply the recoil of fear?" - there is nothing much going on. The only thing which defines Frank's response in the face of the onrushing catastrophe is his reversion to the "Old Religion" of Judaism away from the "Old Religion" of the South, of America, of the belief in progress. This is not really, in itself, much that you can play. As Mamet the actor would put it: What's the objective? And it cannot really be said that Mamet the novelist has given the actor or reader much in the way of lines on a page to sustain the illusion of character.

At the novel's early parts, before chaos unfolds, one feels a little like the inhabitant of a Aharon Appelfeld novel, where bitter laughter and irony is beneath every casual detail of the lives of comfortable Jews on the lip on an abyss. And Mamet's skill is always wordily present - for probably two thirds of the novel he manages to keep you reading, keep you turning the pages, despite very little meat between his odd moments of concrete detail. This is no small skill. But his aesthetic position about acting is disproved in his own work, in this particular book. Not enough blood in these characters to sustain the book.

Being very familiar with the Leo Frank case and the various forms of media that have evolved concerning it (novels, plays, movies, musicals...etc.) I was anxious to see what slant Mamet would take on this most intriguing true story. As usual, Mamet offers a bizarre, disturbing and profoundly intellectual work that provides a whole new look at Leo Frank. Instead of focusing in on the trial or events surrounding it...Mamet takes us on a journey inside Frank's head...we see the mind of a man displaced; trying to make peace with himself, his world and his God. The result is not a page-turner, not a heartfelt and moving account of a man accused, but rather a facsinating examination of the human brain and it's inexplicable way of relating ideas. A worthwhile read for anyone familiar with the Frank case...but a little too heavy and vague for those who are not.

This book is absolutely AWFUL for children. I thought this would be cute to read to my son. Well, if he wasn't previously having issues with a new baby coming he might after reading this book!! The book definitely gives plenty of bad examples for little ones and is NOT humorous! Don't waste your money or worse, taint your children with this book!!

Young Oliver is angry. His mother is giving away his high char and crib to the new baby that is coming to live with them. Oliver can't even sit on his mom's lap because her tummy has grown too big. Oliver is so angry he feels like throwing his mom in the garbage can, or running away and living in his tree house. There is just no room for a new baby in his life. But when momma reminds him that there are perks to being a big brother, Oliver decides to stick around and share his wisdom with the new baby. Originally published in 1979 and featuring recolored art by author/illustrator Martha Alexander, When The New Baby Comes, I'm Moving Out is an ideal book which is enthusiastically recommended for children whose parents want to prepare them for the arrival of a new baby in the family.

This book isn't funny. It's extremely negative to a level that I didn't think possible for children's books. Truly, I saw it at the library, couldn't bear to read the entire thing, then came to give it a bad review....it's really that bad.

If your child is having a hard time adjusting to a new pregnancy or new sibling, deal with their actual emotions. Do not give them the idea that throwing mommy away is an option.

When mom is about to have a new baby, it is natural for children to feel jealous, upset, insecure. It is difficult for a young child to articulate or understand these feelings. This book enables a child to see that others have negative feelings also, that it is acceptable to voice those feelings, and that mom understands. It is better for children to voice their negative feelings than to stuff those thoughts inside and act on them later. Martha Alexander has written a wonderful story which allows children and parents to recognize themselves in the characters. My children love this book and want to read it over and over again, as will yours.

I was appalled when I read this book. It talks about the little boy Oliver being upset about a new baby. But goes on to say that he will put the Mom and baby in a trash can and hit it with a stick, not feed them, cover them with ashes, and on..... While I'm sure this was meant to be funny. I don't find it that way at all!!! I find it disgusting. Why would you even want to put these ideas in a kids head. Maybe they can't put the Mom in a garbage can, but they may try to put the baby in one. I can't believe a book like this was published.