Georgia Books

All parents want a happy, confident child, but, contrary to what the Christmas letter may suggest, few are lucky enough to raise the perfect problem-free child. This book dispels the notion of perfect (You are not perfect. Your child is not perfect. Get over it.) Instead, the book helps parents understand why the child acts the ways he does and offers practical--and often fun--activities and exercises to deal with the hard-to-manage child.

Written with empathy and respect for both the parent and the child, the book is divided into chapters that address the intense irritable child, the oppositional child, and the clueless, disorganized child, with separate chapters devoted to children who suffer from sensory overload, anxiety, depression, and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. Case histories bolster the understanding of specific problems.

Helpful tips are broken out in boxes. Feeling guilty about using rewards to get your child to eat new foods or do his homework? It is very reassuring to read the tip: Bribery is the term used for something illegal or immoral.

What sets the book apart and makes it so useful to both parents and--I'm guessing here--therapists, is the Toolbox, a lengthy section of dozens and dozens of activities and exercises to address the problems of the hard-to-manage child.

Here you will find ways to help a child calm down, build self-esteem, manage out-of-control behavior, and improve interpersonal skills. The toolbox also contains suggestions to help parents provide structure and deal with the many battles around homework, mealtime and bedtime. The tools for developing responsibility and cooperation for chores are usefully broken into different age categories.

If you are perfect or your child is perfect, you will not need this book. As for me, it's on my reference shelf but may not stay there, for I've already lent it out twice.

What I really like about this book is that it is clear and straightforward and kind. The authors set out the many types of kids who are hard to parent, and then give you ideas for how to help you help your kid to be better adjusted to the world. The book is actually helping me to not feel so overwhelmed as a mom, even though one of the chapters is about helping kids who get overwhelmed!
It is a useful, practical book filled with ideas you can start putting into practice right away. I will recommend this book to friends and I reccommend it to you.

This book is an absolute must read for anyone who interacts with children, either professionally or personally. Drs. DeGangi and Kendall do a beautiful job of explaining how and why children can be challenging as well as offering simple and straightforward solutions for parents and professionals. Their abilities to make incredibly frustrating and overwhelming scenarios with children (and we know what they are!) manageable and treatable is simply priceless. Their styles are highly informative, entertaining, witty and humorous. The language is perfectly accessible for professionals, family members and curious bystanders. I promise you will laugh and cry at the stories and find yourself somewhere in the book.

I particularly found two features of this book to be incredibly useful and unique: 1) the 2-page `How to Use This Book' helps the reader to navigate the material and to select relevant sections as needed and 2) the `Toolbox' (praise the toolbox!). The Toolbox is the most fabulous creation in this book and provides the reader with skills and ideas to use IMMEDIATELY. It's essentially the authors combined years of experience/training/expertise condensed into one invaluable chapter. Furthermore, each tool has its own motif which is scattered throughout the book alerting the reader along the way to its helpful tips.

As someone who works and plays with children, I wish I had this book years ago as part of my clinical training. I appreciate the straightforward explanations and easy to implement solutions. I have already started to utilize many of the ideas in the book with great success. Furthermore, it has provided me with a language and resource to share with parents I work with as well as family and friends who have children. This book is not just a great tool for difficult to treat children, but for all children. I can't recommend it enough!

It's a great book! There are many interesting historical facts about African Americans in Elbert County.

At last, a book that notes how some of the African Americans of Elbert County helped to shape the county and the country. It is a great read with wonderful pictures.

I find this book to be one of the finest books I have ever read. It's a must read for evryone!

Since about the middle of the 20th century, it has become increasingly difficult to find poetic translations of long poems. This trend has recently been reversing, with some excellent translations of the Iliad and the Odyssey -- and Ruth Harwood Cline's translations of Troyes' works joins this new and welcome trend.

Most reviews and reviewers will concentrate on the plot -- I want to focus on the translation itself. For too long there has been a philosophy of translation that does not see any value in translating poems in the forms in which they were written. With longer poems especially, more "literal" and plot-driven prose translations have been the norm. But prose is not how these works were written, and it is not how they were meant to be read or heard. They are poems, and only a poetic translation will be able to communicate the full meaning of the poem being translated. Meaning in a poem lies not just in the plot and characters, or even in the particular words used -- though all of this is true -- but also in the rhythms and rhymes, the music, of the poem. Cline's poetic translation thus translates too the music of the poems she translates. We get the full beauty of the works only when we read them the way they were meant to be read: as poems. One hopes Cline continues to translate poems of this period into English.

And now, for a slight aside: Do not read Cervantes' "Don Quixote" until you have read all of Troyes' works, for you will miss almost all the jokes and the full satirical impact of the novel.

Chretien de Troyes invented the Arthurian romance with Erec and Enide. It was the first of what would soon come to be a genre unto itself. Tales of King Arthur and his knights are still popular after centuries of retelling, and Chretien de Troyes is responsible for many of the stories as we know them. Erec and Enide, the earliest of his surviving works, is a story about all the things we recognize as Arthurian--honor, chivalry, love, and courage.

When the poem begins, Erec is a young knight at Arthur's court and heir to his father's throne. When an unknown knight humiliates one of Guinevere's handmaidens during a hunt, Erec follows the knight, his lady, and their cruel dwarf home. There he meets an old man with a beautiful daughter, Enide. They come from ancient nobility but are no impoverished, and the girl can afford nothing but a ragged tunic to wear. The man tells him about a yearly ritual enacted there, where a fine hawk is placed on a perch and only the man with the most beautiful lady can dare to take it. The arrogant young knight from the day before has won several years in a row.

Erec, of course, takes Enide with him to the ritual and, because of Enide's superior beauty, denies the knight the hawk. The knight is furious and challenges Erec to combat, which Erec wins. The father of the girl is so overjoyed that he gives her to Erec as his bride, and the two fall madly in love.

So much in love, in fact, that Erec is soon criticized by many for staying at home in bed when he should be looking to chivalry. After overhearing complaints among the other knights, one night Enide accidentally speaks of her worry about Erec's reputation. Erec is angry and determines to prove himself. He immediately saddles his horse, has Enide follow suit, and orders her to ride ahead of himself and not speak. They set out with no specific destination in mind. Enide is understandably upset.

For the rest of the poem, Erec saves Enide from one predicament after another--three bandits, five bandits, giants, pandering nobles, and would-be assassins. It is never clear whether Erec is proving himself or proving Enide's loyalty, but in the end, when Erec is believed to be dead, only to regain consciousness and kill an overeager suitor, the two are reconciled to each other.

It is then that the poem moves from a string of episodes to a moving and deep symbolic tale that parallels Erec and Enide's own. In another kingdom there is a man trapped in an enchanted garden by his beloved after swearing to do whatever she pleases. In fear that he will leave her, she has made him swear an oath that he will not leave the garden until someone challenges him to combat that he cannot beat. Dozens have tried, and all failed. Erec is victorious, and the man and his lover are set free of the garden.

This, in part, saves Erec and Enide from becoming a tedious, episodic story without a point. The poem--just under 7,000 lines long--is so carefully constructed and unified that a second reading is just as rewarding as the first time. Throughout the story, seemingly every incident in the lives of Erec and Enide have a darker parallel that must be overcome. And, of course, the two lovers must prove to each other that they have "the proper balance between devotion and freedom," that they are not so tied to one another that they neglect their duties, or vice versa.

These themes and the history of the poem are explored in an informative afterword by Joseph Duggan, who has written scholarly end matter for all of Burton Raffel's translations of Chretien's works. Raffel himself has written a short translator's note, and the translation itself is outstanding. As he has proven time and again, Raffel can perfectly balance literalness with beauty--his translations actually convey the spirit of Chretien's poetry.

Erec and Enide is required reading for anyone with an interest in medieval poetry, Arthurian legend, or great literature in general.

Highly recommended.

With Arthurian Romances seemingly always staging a comeback, how nice to have a fast-read, "words-a-poppin" translation of the very first Arthurian Romance, written in Old French around 1170. What I found most intriquing was that the book essentially wrestles with the ways in which men and women define themselves when becoming partners. Erec's rather pig-headed forcing of Enide to lead the way in the forest and never speak to him has odd contemporary overtones. But they are sweet compared to the couple they meet in Erec's final quest in the book - wait until you find out who "The Joy of the Court" is. Burton Raffel's translation, even if you don't like poetry, reads like a smooth silver skate. I gave the book a "9" instead of "10" because it doesn't have any illustrations. I know it's a University Press, but come on folks, with a story about knights couldn't you throw in at least one old woodcut or something

What a great book. I grew up in Athens, GA watching the Dawgs. Erk was the man who built the tradition of great Georgia defense. This book brings back so many memories and is told with gusto, humor, and warmth. Even if your not a Georgia or Georgia Southern fan, if you love college football, you'll love this book. Erk was a one and only.

Erk Russell was not only an outstanding football coach, he was even more than that a superior motivator, able to bring out the absolute best in those around him. If you are able to get a copy of this book, sit down, read it, and enjoy a good laugh along with some very touching stories about personal loss and the value of perseverance. I have thrown out books by well-known sports figures who later in life turned out to be fakes, but every time I have the pleasure of running across Coach Russell I am reminded of the value of sincerity and modesty.

If you are interested in University of Georgia or Georgia Southern football you will love this Book. The book tells many funny and interesting stories. ERK is an exceptional motivator.

I read the first of the few. It was an excellent book and I really enjoyed it. My opinion is that if you wish to learn about the fighter aircraft of wolrd war one, this is the book for you. I learned a lot.

Hello, my name is Zach. I read an extrordanary book. It was about the aircraft and fighter pilots of The Great War, more commonly known as World War One. It was called the first of the few. The book was written by Denis Winter and published in 1982.

These men all very interesting and brave from Great Britan, the United States, France, Italy, and Belguim fought against equally brave pilots from Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Bulgaria in planes above the trenches. Planes such as the Britsh Sopwith Camel and Se5a, the French Nieport 24 and Spadxv, the German Fokker Eindicker and Fokker Dr1 were flow by Allied (Uk, France, USA etc.)and Cental Powers(Germany,Austria-Hungary etc.)pilots. The fighter planes were armed with Vickers, Maxum and Lewis machine guns. The Pilots would aim at the pilot or the flammible petrol tank in the enemey plane.

There were other but less known planes that were bombers suchas the German Gotha Gv and the Britsh Handley Page. Heavey bombers like these were used to attack railroads and railway stations, factories, ship yards and other industrial sites vital to the war effort. Light Infatry attack bombers, unlike large heavey bombers had a small two to three man crew. These planes often had thick steel plates to protect against anti-aircraft machine gun fire. The crew member in the rear seat was a navigator and was equipted with a Lewis or Maxum machine gun. The German Airforce or Luffwafte made their pilots fly in Two seated aircraft before allowing them in one seated planes.

The fighter plane of 1914 to 1918 had a few basic parts. the engine, usally in the front, the cockpit, the fuesulage and the tail. The Britsh had Rolls-Royce engines and the Germans had BMW made engines. Most propellers had two props on them.There were two main types of engines rotary in which the whole engine spins and stationary engines in which only the propeller and drive shaft spun. Most stationary engines were water cooled. The Sopwith Camel had a rotary engine while the SE5a had a water cooled stationary engine.

For shooting down a certain number of planes down, pilots could become aces. Aces were experienced, quick witted, and had exellent reflexes. Many of these men were shorter, shy men who kept to themselves. The Britsh top ace was Edward Mannock with about sevety some kills. Remarkably, he was almost blind in one eye! The German top ace is probably the most famous aircraft pilot of all time after the Wright brothers, Manfred von Ritchtofen, better known as the Red Baron. He shot down 80 allied aircraft before he was killed in a dogfight was a Sopwith Camel in 1918. First on the French ace list, also with about 70 kills was Rene' Fonck. Eddie Rickenbacker the top gun from the USA, started flying at the age most officers looked for a desk job. Before the war, he was a race car driver and later the personal chauffeur to General "Black Jack" Pershing, commander of all american forces in Europe during the war. Willy Coppens was Belguims top ace.

Planes had other roles during the war. Their first job was only to act as reconnaissance posts blimps were used as observation platforms too. Planes were sent to destroy the enemies blimps. These "balloon busting" raids were very dangerous. Anti-aircraft fire and field telephone poles and wires were a hazard to attacking planes. The Germans had parachutes for both plane and blimp pilots. I enjoyed the book.

I have just finished reading this book which was such a pleasure to read as it was so well researched and crafted. The writer is able to get into the spirit of the times and present a very real picture of what it was like to fly machines constructed from wood and canvas and fly without them without the the aid of parachutes. He gives a particularly vivid account of the perils of a dawn patrol, flying at 20,000ft without pressurized cabins, in open air cockpits where temperatures were sometimes -50c. In addition a pilot had to be fit in these conditions, perform complex aerobatics like the immlemen roll and have split second reflexes. It was particularly fascinating to read about the skills required to be an air ace. One had to master the art of deflection shooting that is knowing when to fire to hit a moving target. Few pilots mastered this skill. The greatest of aces such as Guneymer and Richthoven achieved kills with a minimum of ammunition usage. Under these conditions the average survival time for a debutant pilot was 17 hours in the air. However, the longer one flew the greater the survival odds: roghly double that of staying alive. One interesting point was the authors comparison of training between the English RFC and the German Luftwaffe. The German training was far longer and more thorough. The result was that the RFC had about 50% greater caualties than the Germans.One must add that the policy of the RFC was to attack the Germans behind enemy lines , whereas the Luftwaffes main aim was that of defence. One final note was the excellant chapter on flight maintenance. The Sopwith Camel for example required a fleet of skilled craftsmen of almost mediaeval ability to calibrate the wing struts and enable the plane to fly on even keel. The introduction of all metal momonplanes must have
made the job of aircraft fitter a much easier task. In summary a book to be highly recommended. I have only one complaint. Many of the air aces of the RFC described as British were in fact Canadian

The other two reviews have done a good job of summarizing the book. I would like to add that our whole family enjoyed this book. This book can be given to any Christian denomination, but has very sound Orthodox teachings. The book is best for those who are five and up. The illustrations in the book are nice. The best thing I can say about the book is that my oldest daughter, who will be eight soon, has been a lot more helpful, nice, and caring towards her sisters. Now THAT'S a GOOD BOOK!

If this book were published by a major publishing house, it would be a New York Times best seller. This book is a must read for all families with young children regardless of your faith or tradition. The engaging story follows the spirtual journey of stuborn who comes from the town of I-ville where the motto of the townspeople and of their queen, Queen Conceit, is "me first, me first." He has a chance meeting with a young girl, Serenity, who comes from a different place called you-ville. This chance meeting affects stuborn deeply, and he is amazed that during their inital brief encounter she spent time listening to him and did not talk about herself or how wonderful she is.
He sets out to discover this mysterious place and gets advice along the way from an old man living in a cave (representing the Elder Pasios, a much beloved modern day monk from Mount Athos whose spiritual teachings form the basis for this book). The journey is not an easy one as it requires Stuborn to shrink his ego and fight against bad and selfhish thoughts.
As a father of two young children, the lessons here for everyday life are enormous and there are teaching points from each of the wonderfully written chapters. Children are naturually drawn to characters such as Serenity, Humility, Magnanimous, Mr. and Mrs. Kindness; and against the old stuborn and Queen Conceit. I can now point out to them when they are behaving like Stuborn or like someone from I-ville and the point really hits home.
What else can I say, I loved this book. It is great for the under 10 crowd and for adults (in fact on a recent visit I made to an Orthodox Monastery, the monks had just finished reading it as a group). Most teenagers will probably find the story too childish and the deeper message difficult to grasp, but perhaps I sell them short. Do not hesitate, get this book for your family.
If you have trouble finding it here, go to the publisher's website at [...] and order it there.

Truly great children's literature isn't just for children. How many of us relish Tolkien's The Hobbit or Lewis's Chronicles of Narnia? Well, now there's a new, fresh children's story out there for us, and I can sum it up in one word: "delightful." An allegory in the tradition of Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress, Mersine Vigopoulou's From I-ville to You-ville enchants as much as it edifies.

I-ville is a Kingdom ruled by the goddess Conceit, a place where people live by the motto "Me first!" You-ville is a Kingdom ruled by Humility, a place where people put the good of others before their own. This story follows a young boy from I-ville named Stubborn on his journey as he struggles to make the arduous trek to the beautiful, joy-filled You-ville.

In the course of his adventures, Stubborn learns profound lessons in how to conquer bad thoughts and feelings. He learns how to shrink his ego, forgive himself and others, and put others first. He also learns how to pray to and trust in the one true God.

While written by an Orthodox author and based on the teachings of Elder Paisios of Mount Athos, the book will still appeal to Christians of other stripes. In fact, because it isn't even explicitly Christian, it will appeal to folks of almost every major religion. Young or old, we all must take the journey from I-ville to You-ville, and this story is filled with the profound spiritual truths we need to embrace in order to succeed. It's the best-selling Orthodox children's book in Greece, now in its fifth printing, and finally made available in English.

Sara Mitchell Parsons was one of the true heroes of the Civil Rights Movement in Atlanta. As a white woman from a privileged background, she took on the racist status-quo of Atlanta as a school board member and constantly and intelligently challenged the city to provide quality education for black and white students alike and to integrate the schools. She knew when it was time to leave her hidebound racist husband and she knew when it was time to leave the Civil Rights Movement though she continued to work for equal education for her entire life. She was a courageous and forceful influence for many young men and women of the 60s in Atlanta. I was one of those.

I'm standing in the Great Hall of one of Birmingham, Alabama's largest cathedrals, chatting amicably with two nicely-dressed white women who are pillars and patrons of their church. Wonder how it is possible that these two genteel ladies turned out to be so very, very different form their contemporary, Sara Mitchell Parsons.
These three women are Privileged White Class people, educated in the ways of the Old South, conversant with all-white country clubs, free from racial persecution of any kind.
What made Parsons reverse direction, give up social standing and become an Atlanta civil rights activist in a day and time when to do so was actually a life-endangering act?
Why did the other two women remain placid and content in their social roles and blatantly disdainful of all civil rights activities of black people, even to this day? "They (Those Black People) just aren't grateful. They don't appreciate the fact that we (White Folk) gave them good livings and brought them up from the savages they were."
This book is a plain-spoken narrative about a white person's journey through the confines of bigotry, racism, intolerance, hatred and concrete-solid Tradition. Parsons comes out on the other side feeling a lot better about herself and a lot less tolerant herself--intolerant toward the status quo of Southern White Bigotry.
Take a look at this modest book. It came out at a time when the McWhorter book about Birmingham got lots of well-deserved attention, occluding the release of smaller books like this. But this, too, deserves your notice. It tells a similar story, but without all the spice, lenghthy detail and scholarly overstatement. Both books should be issued together in a slipcase.
(For a copy of the entire review of this book, contact me at jimreedbooks.com)

Sara Perry was raised as the typical southern white lady. She was to assume the role of dutiful wife, devoted mother and hostess for her husband's social set. As Sara Mitchell she carried out her role of the southern house-wife which included a lovely home, Negro maid and status in the upper class community of Buckhead in Atlanta, GA.

All was going well for this southern white matron but the seeds of discontent stirred in her life. She wanted more out of life than a role. Slowly but surely a change was to occur which would change her life and the fabric of the world in which she grew up.

Contained in these pages in the memoir of a woman who had it all but made the step to get involved in the battle for civil rights regardless of the cost. Her battle ground was the Atlanta school board, her church, family and marriage. Caught up in the fervor of the Civil rights movement we see how a woman of privilege made the steps of becoming an activist.

Parsons' story is an eye-opener of the role southern white women played in the movement. Her being a part of the affluent class makes her story all the more remarkable due to the pressures she would endure. Her tale is one in which everyone should read to get an understanding of the thoughts and feelings of a woman who put her status at risk.

What I find most interesting concerning her tenure on the Atlanta school board are the issues she addresses concerning education in addition to the integration question. The issues she addressed in the 1960s are the same ones with us in the year 2000. You will get an idea about how "concerned" the majority of the board was with education.

This dynamic woman broke the rules of convention of her day. She of course is not a saint but an example to follow in having the courage and fortitude to step out for what is right. I highly recommend this as a primary text for those studying education, civil rights, and female empowerment.

The quality of this journal is excellent, the paper is nicely heavy, doesn't bleed through, the line spacing is excellent, and the covers are very nicely done with rich color and a clear image. The spiral binding is sturdy and it is very easy to use. The only thing I would add is perhaps a bound-in ribbon for a bookmark, but that is a very minor quibble. Highly recommended!

This journal was perfect. Spiral bound is really nice when looking for a journal, then you can easily flip the pages. It's lined, which is great! And the paper is pretty thick, pens won't bleed through to the other side! I highly recommend this journal!

I liked this journal because it was lined. The lined pages are good for those of us who can't write in a straight line when we're angry, excited, or upset.

I usually don't read much and I am what some people label a TV fanatic because I watch TV quite a bit, but a friend referred me to Gettin' Down to the "Real" Nitty-Gritty and it was so realistic, funny and such easy reading that I had to pull myself away from the TV to read this book. Miss Madison is a great writer and I look forward to reading her next book.

I find it to be an enjoyable readable book. Reads as if it came from the hearth of a waman in tune with her enviroment and wanting to make it change for the better. Unlike most reads I did not have to have a dictionary to enjoy it.

Gettin "Down" to the Real Nitty-Gritty is very funny, but realistic. The author has a lively sense of humor.

I've read the first in the series (So Dear to Wicked Men) and loved it for its clever plot and funny characters. This one (Go Close Against the Enemy) is even better. The characters are still funny and the plot still clever and there is an added seriousness that is thought provoking and at times heart-wrenching. I highly recommend this book.

If you haven't read one of the 2 books in the series, I highly recommend you do so. The authors have owned restaurants and are now using that knowledge to write entertaining books. The couple in the story own a restaurant in the south. The husband is Greek. They have hired a Greek friend of his who speaks less English. This couple find themselves in many "jams" but always seem to find their way out. A very likeable couple and an easy reading book.

Racism is openly flourishing in Delphi, Georgia. This becomes acutely evidenced at the funeral of a stillborn. April McNabb, daughter of the town preacher, married a black man in defiance of her father's commands. Although he disowns her for this sacrilege, he supports her when she wants her baby buried in his churchyard. However, Deacon Walter Fry objects, wanting the infant buried in the black cemetery. During the burial, a demonstrative and ugly protest occurs.

April pushed to the limit, fires a shot at Fry, but misses. However, Fry is soon found murdered and April is arrested for the crime. She calls on her friend Julia Lambros to help her since Julia has successfully conducted a murder investigations before. Though she and her spouse are having problems with an IRA agent, she decides to help her friend. Her snooping places Julia in danger from an individual who wants to remain anonymous.

In SO CLOSE AGAINST THE ENEMY, the victim has many people wishing him dead who also have the means and opportunity to kill him. This makes the story line very complex and difficult to solve. The protagonists are a working class couple whom strikes an immediate chord with the audience. Takis and Judy Iakovou demonstrate that racism is a destructive force that can tear apart a town. This enjoyable book tells a good story while making a powerful social statement.

Harriet Klausner