Lifestyle Books

My daughter got this book as a birthday present from a family friend, and it has quickly become a favorite of hers, and mine. The story is touching and well-told, and the author tells it in a way that is appropriate for young children but also interesting for adults. The illustrations are also beautiful and really draws you into the story.

What a fantastic story! I bought this book at the recommendation of a friend, and loved it from the first page. The way the author takes a story that is interesting from an adult's perspective and makes it enjoyable for young children as well is great - it's hard to find books for my children that my husband and I find fascinating too. The story is great - it's about the men in prison up in Lake Saranac, New York, who build a palace made out of huge ice blocks each winter.
There are so many interesting and touching elements to this story, which are all accentuated by the beautiful illustrations. It makes me want to visit the real ice palace!

I try to read to my children as much as possible. The Ice Palace was one of the best books I have read in a long time. My children and I were both equally captivated. The story is sweet and compasionate and I would highly recommend it.

This excellent book by Joel Saltzman chronicles the trials and tribulations of a group of writing students through a 10 week course with him. This is like a dream course I wish I could have partaken in. The writer's are supposed to write freely during the days they are not in his class -- which takes place at his home rather than an a cold, impersonal classroom. Some of these writers don't try very hard at it and give up easily. Some are gritting their teeth through bouts of writer's block and insecurity. Some are so captivated by their art that they go on to write through their blocks and fears, conquering the challenge writing brings to us all. There are six students. Three master their craft enough to complete their stories, which are published in the back of the book.

At the beginning of this review I said this book was like sitting down with a few friends. Here's why, the class most closely resembles a writer's group in that the participants bring in their work and read it to the group where it then is critiqued by their teacher and their fellow students. In reading this, you recognize things in yourself and your writing that need improvement as well as those that you have accomplished. A couple times you will smile and say, ah, I've done that. These are writers with fears and accomplishments that you can enjoy identifying with. And ... the whole thing is written in a style that makes you feel you are there, an observer of the group.

Now! Buy this book -- sorry mine will never be for sale. Get in gear, and write! This book will make you feel that you can.

Somewhere I read that more neophyte writers are writing well these days thanks to the popularization of writers' workshops. That's more bad news for those of us with inferiority complexes, who want to go somewhere with the scribbling but live wagon trains away from places where workshops flourish. How in the world can we competitively buff our stuff without a seasoned writer and a dozen deadly honest classmates looking on? The next best thing is to rely on self-help writers' books, a burgeoning genre of which this compares with some of the better examples like Anne Lamott's "Bird By Bird" and Rita Mae Brown's "Starting From Scratch." What I like about "If You're Writing, Let's Talk" is its emphasis on the revision process. For all its supercool LA chatter, the book offers a good lesson in critical thinking

Joel Saltzman's new book, If You're Writing, Let's Talk, reads like a novel, full of drama, characters and conflict, even as it lights the way for writers to follow on their own journeys to publication. It's the story of six students in a ten-week writing workshop Saltzman taught and their trek through the problems all writers face. Quotes from famous authors on nearly every page remind us that even the greats face the same problems we all do. As author, teacher, lecturer and sometime comedian, Saltzman has written for television and won awards from the American Film Festival, The Long Island Film Festival and the U.S. Forbes Playwriting Awards

THIS BOOK WAS REALLY GOOD I MUST SAY I WASN'T EXPECTING MUCH FROM THIS BOOK, BUT IM EATING THOSE WORDS BECAUSE I WISH THERE WAS A SEQUEL. DON'T SLEEP THJE COVER MAY BE A LITTLE FUNKY, BUT THE BOOK IS OFF THE HOOK. PLEASE BUY IT YOU WON'T BE DISAPOINTED. THIS BOOK NEEDS MORE PROMOTION, SO MORE PEOPLE CAN READ IT. GONE BULLOCK DO YOUR THING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Urban Lifestyle Press has done it again with a masterful tale of choices, consequences and what people will do to protect their honor, their families and the lives they have built for themselves. As a first write, Bullock has really unfolded a thriller that shouldn't be lost as only an "urban tale". Anyone who loves a good "who-dunnit" will love IN THE CUT for the way that it tells a story and lets you into the minds of the characters.

The book took me a little over a week to read, not because of its length, but because I didn't want to miss any of the message.

I will be reccommending the book without a doubt, however, I don't feel as though the summary on the back of the book tells the story that comes through.

Yes, there is the character Manus and his conflict with his baby's mamma--- but that is not the main storyline that I found.

IN THE CUT is about vengeance and how a man--- in this case Tory---was able to wield his mighty hand of revenge without ever lifting a finger... destroying many along the way. The characters are able to live their story with us knowing what we should, and being able to guess at the rest.

I liked the way that Bullock did seem to send the reader on a mysterious journey before finally revealing the real villans and victims in the book.

Can't wait for the next installment from this author.

This book had me going I was thinking that the book would end a certain way and then something occured that changed the whole outcome! Cool read

Inside a Barn in the Country is my kids' favorite read-a-long and my favorite to read to them. Had I had this book when I was a kid, it would have been my favorite too.

I used to work at a preschool that had this book in its library. The children could not get enough of this book! It's simply charming! Very rhythmic verse and the pictures are adorable. The children loved the book so much in that class that the school's art teacher reproduced large 3D pictures of the animals in the book. They were then hung around the room in the order of the story. The children loved it! So much in fact that I purchased the book through the school's book club even though I had no children at the time, nor any intentions of starting soon.

Now, my 2 yr old adores this book! She thinks it is absolutely wonderful and while she's far from reading it yet, she can almost recite it from memory. The verse is that easy. Great book for new readers and future ones!

I have used The Napping House by Audrey Wood for years in my classroom. Inside a Barn in the Country has the same type of appeal to primary and pre-primary aged children. The pictures are fabulous and the children love to read along making all of the animal sounds. The book lends itself to sequence activities and encourages memory of sequenced events. This is sure to be a class favorite! I highly recommend it.

Charles Craver is the Leroy S. Merrifield Research Professor of Law at George Washington University (Washington, D.C.) where he teaches negotiating. Through his work at the Law School and in workshops throughout the world, Professor Craver estimates that he has taught negotiating skills to some 60,000 attorneys and businesspersons.
The Intelligent Negotiator is a book that fulfills the promise of its title. Craver provides the reader with the techniques and skills to become a true master of the craft.
Unquestionably, The Intelligent Negotiator will prove invaluable for the beginning negotiator and a solid source for refining the skills of the more experienced practitioner. Refreshingly, in a field in which so much has been written and is often unacknowledged, Craver credits and draws upon the research and findings of its authors. Additionally, although he has a preferred approach to negotiations, the author provides a fundamental negotiating skills book that does not rest upon the adoption of a singular negotiating style.
"Don't even try to adopt just one negotiating style or philosophy," Craver tells his reader in the first sentence of his work, "for there is no single approach that can effectively govern all bargaining transactions" (p.3). The intelligent negotiator, in Professor Craver's view, is a person who is comfortable working within a suite of negotiating styles. The reader who understands that premise is on the way to wisdom.
The experienced negotiator knows that no matter what the hopes, not every negotiation expands the pie. Negotiators come in all stripes and are driven by differing motives. Success in negotiations requires that its participants understand and adapt easily to the reality of functioning with an arena encompassing widely disparate styles.
Craver notes three major approaches that the intelligent negotiator must master. The first of these is the Competitive-Adversarial. This is the stuff of win/lose negotiations, the zero sum game in which the pie is presumed to be fixed and one participant wins more if the other loses more. The second he defines as the Cooperative-Problem-Solving approach. In this style, the parties seek to expand the pie through engaging in a joint creative enterprise and thereby enable the participants to realize a win/win outcome. The intelligent negotiator recognizes that this second style has inherent rewards and significant risks of exploitation depending upon the true commitments of the parties at the bargaining table to the cooperative negotiating style.
Both styles remain predominant in negotiating and Craver introduces the reader to some of the research on the effectiveness of practitioners of these two dominant negotiating styles. It is interesting research.
Craver cites a study of the negotiating styles of practicing attorneys conducted by Professor Gerald Williams of Brigham Young University some twenty years ago that may surprise many readers. According to Professor Williams' research, most practicing lawyers do not use an adversarial style in their negotiations. Two thirds of the attorneys, as viewed by their colleagues, used a cooperative approach and only twenty-five percent of the lawyers were seen as practitioners of an adversarial style of negotiations (p.10).
More importantly, peer assessment concluded that cooperative negotiators fared far better than adversarial attorneys in the negotiating arena. Fifty-nine percent of the cooperative style negotiators were viewed as effective negotiators and only a miniscule 3 percent were considered ineffective. Only 25 percent of the adversarial style negotiators were deemed effective by their peers and a staggering 33 percent were judged to be ineffective. A more recent study reported last year by Professor Andrea Kupfer Schneider, found over half of adversarial style negotiators were considered ineffective by their peers (p.10).
There is much that the negotiator can draw from these findings, not the least of which is that the intelligent negotiator must be able to adapt and operate successfully in an arena of diverse approaches. Reliance on a singular style, as Professor Craver well illustrates is a recipe for disaster.
Given this, Craver offers a third style as the best primary style for the intelligent negotiator. The Innovator approach, as the author calls his preferred style, is a hybrid of both of the preeminent negotiating approaches. Its hallmarks are beginning with principled offers, matching one's counterpart on how much and what is disclosed, relying on objective criteria and recognizing that the primary goal of the negotiator is to obtain beneficial results for themselves and secondarily for the opponent.
The core of the book, however, is far from a discourse on a singular approach, but rather the teaching of the underlying fundamental skills and techniques that every negotiator regardless of their approach requires to succeed in practicing the art. The book, therefore, is an intelligent negotiator's guide to the practice of negotiations.
Craver explores the process thoroughly and leads his reader through the tough issues confronting every negotiator with concise and well-reasoned advice. The author shows the reader the importance of setting high goals, even increasing them before negotiations begin. He gives the reader solid advice on how to construct an opening offer and coaches the negotiator on its critical impact on the psychology and course of the negotiations to follow. The reader learns how an opening offer operates as an anchor, its role in bracketing the negotiating settlement range and its use in framing the other party's perception of gain and loss in the potential agreement. If these concepts are not clear to you, they are clearly explained in Craver's work.
There is far more in this volume. You will find strategies for multiple item negotiations, techniques for handling absurd positions, some careful advice on reading body language and a host of topics that the intelligent negotiator must know. You will find it a valuable negotiating skills guide of value for any style of negotiations.
To complete his work, the author turns his attention to some of the more special types of negotiating situations that all readers encounter. You will find some insightful advice in his concluding sections on negotiating employment agreements, automobile purchases and real estate bargaining.
Highly recommended.
John Baker, Ph.D.
Editor, The Negotiator Magazine

As a consultant in International and Cross-Cultural Management, I found this book particularly valuable. That's because it not only is a great and comprehensive compendium on effective negotiating (as others already pointed out), but it also covers techniques negotiators may be less likely to find used in the US but are likely to run into when abroad. Examples are extreme openings, time pressure, large negotiation teams, and so on. This makes the book very valuable in preparing for overseas negotiation, for instance in Asia.

This book is excellent because it is well organized and maps out the negotiation process. Instead of just giving tips about various tactics, this book gives the reader a roadmap, which makes preparation for negotiation much easier. In my opinion, this book is second only to G. Richard Shell's, "Bargaining for Advantage."

This book made the 2005 National Council for the Social Studies Notable Trade Book for Young People List. This bibliography is in cooperation with the Children's Book Council. Books that make this list emphasize human relations, diversity, cultural experiences, or they present an original theme or a fresh slant on a traditional topic.

Jackson loves basketball! He wants to play basketball all summer, although he can't. His mother got him a plot in a garden. He works with his plants there. He doesn't like it. He starts working there so much he gradually comes to like it. Then he gets a phone call telling him the garden is going to be plowed up. Jackson wants to prevent it. Will he? The reader will be very surprised by what he does. I liked this book very much! I hope Ms. Quattlebaum writes a sequel to this book!

Delmar
9 years old
Washington,DC

I am eleven years old and "Jackson Jones and Mission Greentop" was the best book I read this summer! I like the part when Jackson finally got Blood Green, the bully. I also like the part when Jackson goes down to the company to talk with the boss! The most interesting thing was when I found out who the boss was....

John
Mechanicsville, Virginia

this story is fun for the kids and will ignite the readers imagination.

This book sparked my interest as one my husband and son would enjoy together. It has far exceeded my expectations. We all enjoy it immensely. The book definately has a jazzy tone, and it's a great story. My son loves to say that he "spun so fast he dissapeared!"

Whenever I see yet another children's picture book celebrating the heyday of jazz, bebop, and swing I always wonder how interesting that book is to the intended child audience. I mean, sure "Ella Fitzgerald: The Tale of a Vocal Virtuosa", by Andrea Davis Pinkney is fun, but do child readers dig it? Or do they just see it as yet another history lesson disguised as a book? With this in mind, "Jazzy Miz Mozetta" is extraordinary because even though it covers some old-fashioned odes to the dances of yesteryear, kids will enjoy reading and watching this extraordinary heroine as she bops, jitterbugs, and re bop she bams her way through the night.

One evening, sweet Miz Mozetta decides to doll herself up for a stroll in the moonlight. She applies Pretty Plum powder, Tango Mango lipstick, and a dress of a distinctive red sheen. Once outside, she runs into three of her friends while across the street some kids dance and jive to their beatbox. In a rare humor, Miz Mozetta asks the kids if she can join in, but their skepticism puts her off. Her friends won't join her either, so it's up to her apartment she clumps where she decides to turn up the radio and dream of dancing days. Fortunately for us, the tale doesn't end there. Her friends, lured by Miz Mozetta's spunk and the music from the band, put on their finest swing clothes and zoot suits and start some serious jitterbugging. Now it's the kids asking if THEY can join in on the fun and by the end everyone's cutting a rug in Miz Mozetta's snazzy living room floor.

There are tons of children's picture books out there that have elderly adults as their heroes, but few in which those adults dance as wildly and extravagantly as this. Author Brenda C. Roberts has a good ear for the cadences and wordings required for such a jazzy snazzy book as this. There's wonderful repetition and the characters speak affections like, "chickadee" and "honey dear". When Miz Mozetta's friends come in to dance the night away, one man's hair, "was shiny and slick and blacker than black and smelled like shoe polish". Couple this with first time children's illustrator Frank Morrison and you've got yourself a pretty little picture book. Morrison may never have helped create a book for kids before, but he's the perfect person to pair with Brenda Roberts' words. His Miz Mozetta all akimbo arms and straight strong legs. Characters in this book twist their bodies into an assortment of strange shapes and angles. Best of all are the wild dancing sequences where the multicolored elders regard the baggy clothed youngsters then burst into magnificent twirls and romps.

The book's certainly the kind of thing to wake the kids up with, that's for sure. If you want a high stepping picture book to accompany your dance-centric storytime (of which books like "Dumpy LaRue" and the aforementioned "Ella Fitzgerald" would have to be a part of), this book has your number. A visual stunner with a great sense of wordplay to boot.

I borrowed this book from the library for my son, and since then we haven't been able to put it down. I had to finish the book last night by myself because I couldn't wait to find out how it ended. This is a GREAT book, and I am seriously thinking about getting a copy for our home.

Yes, adults will love this as much as they loved reading HARRY POTTER. Get lost in your own childhood all over again. The illustrations could not be more charming. Here, unlike HARRY POTTER, you are able to easily visualize the characters. While POTTER is extremely visually written, JIMMY DABBLE is both visually written and perfectly illustrated. Get this today. You and your children will love this and crave more and more. Jimmy Dabble is born!

i am 9 years old and i thought jimmy dabble was lots of fun, especially the way jimmy talks with the farm animals. jimmy's grandmother is great. she's so different from jimmy's parents and i really like her. and beebo was a real surprise. i'm going to bring the book to school and show it to my class. i want to be a writer when i'm older, and i'd love to be able to write like mr vischer. i hope there will be other jimmy dabble books, just like harry potter...

Taking *The Journey* is like stepping out of a Time Machine as a northern Indiana Amish child is transported into the 21st century in Chicago. The team of Sarah Stewart and David Small produced this winner in 2001 and it's my opinion that only *The Friend* (see mcHAIKU's review dated October 3, 2004) has it 'bested'.

As Hannah becomes a time-traveler between two very different cultures, her level of excitement rises to test her well-schooled mannerliness. She is awe-struck and makes her discoveries seem new to us as we read over her shoulder the words written in her diary: "going down the street is like making a journey across the whole world. I feel like happiness has rushed up and grabbed me ..... "

There are only two small disappointments for me: I wish there were a situation in which Hannah was juxtaposed with a young city girl - - perhaps in that not-to-be-missed Chicago River boat ride - - somehow sharing an adventure which might suggest kinship despite their obvious differences. And, having recently written a review of *Berghoff's* ("The Berghoff Restaurant" of Chicago) I wish Hannah & her mother & friend had walked to that 100+ year old establishment to have a German meal - - where another comparison could be drawn. For me, the small black & white sketches of Hannah have a special appeal. Her facial expressions declare that she is a story-teller herself, and David Small makes obvious why he was selected by Caldecott judges.

This book is a delight to share, and can be a conversation-starter among children raised so differently from those of the Amish faith - - they may question how Hannah could be so eager to return home to the chores she has escaped for a week, and to a culture with gender-segregated religious services, and outhouses, and riding in an oh-so-slow buggy. When picture-book-age children aren't close by I reach out to adults or eleven-year olds & share the sweetness and strength of these words quietly enhanced by the dark blues of early morning and the jubilant sunrise. I will look for my favorite Monet-like haystacks the next time we travel north, too!

REVIEWER mcHAIKU is content that "the simple life" makes room for a love of books and hopes that Sarah Stewart & David Small continue their story-telling for many years.

Hannah has traveled with her mother and her mother's friend Maggie to the city. For an Amish girl from a small community, the city is big and full of strange and wonderful things. They go to the top of hig buildings, to marvelous stores, to big parks, the aquarium, the atr museum,on a boat ride and into a grand church. While Hannah is enchanted and enthralled by all the new sites, each new site reminds her of things at home she loves. Written as diary entries by Hannah during her adventures, this book manages to capture the wonder of a young girl in a new enviroment, and her thankfulness for the simple ways at home. Once again Sarah Stewart has crafted a wonderful storyline and David Small has turned what is in the mind's eye into enchanting illustrations. A wonderful book to read aloud, and to be enjoyed by all ages.

"Dear Diary, The luckiest girl on this good earth is writing to you tonight..." So begins The Journey, Sarah Stewart's lovely story of Hannah, an Amish girl on her first trip to Chicago. Each night, before she falls asleep, Hannah writes about her day and marvels at all the wonders of the big city, the fancy department store with it's frilly dresses, the aquarium and public library, the enormous cathedral with its loud choir, the cars and hundreds of people rushing here and there... And each makes her remember and appreciate something from her simple life at home, trying on a homespun dress, fishing in the pond, praying silently in the small wooden church, quilting with the ladies from other farms... David Small's expressive and detailed artwork take readers from the busy, brightly colored streets of Chicago, to the quiet, softer and subdued life of Hannah's Amish farm. Together, this award winning duo of Stewart and Small have authored a gentle, understated picture book, perfect for youngsters 6-10, that is sure to become a treasured classic in the years ahead.

Got dreams you haven't begun to put wings on? Got goals you have not yet achieved? Got plans for the future? Well, Scott Jeffrey's book has been a genuine inspiration to me, and I believe it will help you too. He gives you short, easy tips to implement, fun ways to motivate yourself, and a whole toolbox of ideas that will help you put wings on those dreams and reach those goals.
I have 4-5 favorite chapters that offered advice that has become part of my daily life, and even if those chapters are not your own favorites, I know every reader will find something that will speak to him or her personally. This is easily the best motivational book I've read in several years.

I review many, many books each year and each year I find two or three that are so powerful that I find myself taking notes. "Journey to the Impossible" is one of these books. Read it, reread it, highlight it, take notes, do whatever you need to do to keep this information at hand while you use it to transform your life.

A lot of things are impossible only because we perceive them to be impossible. And yet others who don't see them that way achieve those same goals. Scott Jeffrey takes us on a wonderful journey to achieving the impossible every day. With short, easy to read chapters the book lends itself to reading a chapter whenever you get a few minutes. This is easily one of the most practical life-changing books that I have ever read. Bravo, Scott Jeffrey, I could not recommend the book more highly.

The title got me excited -- and the rest of the book changed me. 'Journey to the Impossible' is full of useful, easy and practical ways to change your life and create something extraordinary.

The chapters are broken into bite-sized pieces, some only 2-3 pages long. This technique allowed me to easily take Scott's recommendations and apply them - instantly. I didn't need to learn a philosophy to begin practicing what Scott preaches, as I was able to digest every chapter quickly and see the effects of the excercise, thought process, etc. right away. This is a powerful difference between 'Journey' and many other books on the market right now. With the busy lives we lead, we need something that we can take in and integrate quickly and effectively. Scott Jeffrey's 'Journey' accomplishes this admirably.

Read and recommend this book to all you care about. This book brings home a strong message for those who want to lead the best life they possibly can...it is amazing how the power of a few words can change so much.

In all, a true pleasure to read and recommend!