Z Books

As we know, there 's a popular film showing in US named' The

Lizzie McGuire Movie'. Unluckly, I'm not in US, so I can't

watch the film.I've watch the preview and I like it very

much.This book is full of imagination, it's a bit similar to the

book' The Princess Dairies'. It's the best book for all the

girls who liked to dream(including me) ------being a famous pop

star, having all the clothes and food you want. I like the

ending best, because it is unexpected. I think that it will be

one of the favourtes of the girls who liked to dream !!!

- Lucia Lee, one of the readers of this wonderful book

This book was really great. I would reccomend it for ages 11 or 12 and up because it has a bad word in it and it has the word sexiest in it. So if you know any 11 or 12 or older person get it for them if they are a Lizzie McGuire.

This is the best book around! It tells the exact same story as the movie. There aren't differences in this book as the movie. I read the first two pages of the book when I first bought it

i'm a big fan of lizzie, i think this book was very cute, it's very funny. i hope the movie turns out the same way.

The Lizzie McGuire Movie by Susan Estelle Jansen is an awesome story about one girl that is to clumsy to do anything and then she goes on a trip to Rome and finds out otherwise.

Lizzie is just about to graduate from junior high and she messes up real bad! Her brother tape records it and sends it to Good Morning America. Then she goes on a class trip to Rome and she tells her best friend Gordo that they need to find adventures. Then Lizzie bumps into pop superstar Paolo and she does find adventures. He tells her that she looks just like Isabella the girl he sings with. He tells her his story and she agrees to help him. She becomes Isabella for a couple of days dodging her new principal while doing so. Gordo covers for her and gets himself in tuns of trouble. Read this wonderful story and find out what happens with Lizzie and her singing career and Gordo and Isabella.

The characters really jump out at you. Lizzie is so clumsy and she seems to always fall down. The characters were really believable and the story seemed to be real to me. This book is really hard to put down you always want to know what is going to happen to Lizzie and her friends. You have to pay attention very closely so you aren't lost or confused. The plot is so interesting and the ending will blow you away. I really believe any girl who reads this would want this to happen to them.

I loved this book. It is every teenagers dream. This is such an exciting book it really lets you feel like you are leaving the `dream'. I would recommend this book to teenage girls looking for a good read because they would enjoy it and keep it as one of there favorites. The book will be enjoyed by all whom read.So read this book and please with all means `enjoy'!!
-Patricia Harnish 13

My early reader wasn't interested in reading any more for the day when we started this book, but each page is so funny that she just had to keep going to find out what happened on the next! The story is amusing for adults, too, and as a read-aloud for pre-readers. As a parent, I appreciate the fact that the humor is not rude humor, which appears so often in contemporary fiction.

My mother in law checked this book out at the local library for our 2 year old daughter. It is absolutely her favorite book and she cannot part without it. We went back to the library today to renew it for the last time and she was on the verge of tears, so I'm buying it now. It's a great story and we read it to her every night.

This is a fascinating book. I hope she writes more stories about the monster. I can see all kinds of possibilities.

I do think it can be classified as a story to read as well as an easy reader. My grandchildren who cannot read think it is wonderful.

This book has become a new favorite in our house. It is witty, funny (to adults and children) and beautifully touching. My daughters love giving copies of the book to friends as gifts. Everyone we've bought it for has loved it!

This is a definite "must-have" for the bookshelf! The story's delightful premise will engage even the youngest reader. Children will giggle at the monster's antics and Annie's dilemna.

The author has done a wonderful job creating fun read-aloud story with sentences that lend themselves beautifully to the eager ears and eyes of children ready to gobble up a love for reading.

I was watching James Robison one day and Janet Maccaro was his guest. She gave an extremely intelligent review of her book, Natural Health Remedies, along with examples of its contents. I picked up her book and found the most widespread uses of herbs and natural foods with cures for almost any condition. Dr. Maccaro has spent hours of time researching and testing different natural remedies and has written a book so easy to follow anyone can improve their health.
The book is so well designed, you can turn to any condition or any section and get results without reading the entire book first. I would recommend this book to anyone having health problems, or just wanting to stay healthy. Thank you for bringing God's remedies to light in such an easy to read format !

With so many possible side effects possible from traditional drugs and remedies, I believe the best answers come from nature itself. I found this book to be very helpful and I will use it as a resource for years to come. Why treat the symptom when God gave us natural answers to treat the root of the problem.

I saw Dr. Maccaro on a talk show on the TV and found here to be very personable. Her book is a great resource for information and redmedies. I have been looking for an natural healing book but so many of them have so much New Age spirituality I could not bring myself to buy them. This book will give you down to earth remedies and uplifiting Christian veiwpoints. I found it very refreshing and informative.

I think this is an excellent resource to have in the home for continual review of different health conditions and natural(herbs and vitamins)ways
of treatment. As a Christian, I appreciated the references to prayer and
the Bible.

This book contains quite a bit of health information that you don't get from your traditional doctors, although it should be that they read these books. Janet Maccaro's book is written in a simplistic way. A way in which it is easy to read and to understand. She also writes in such a way that you can feel free and safe to incorporate her remedies in your everyday living. They are natural and safe remedies. Of course, some of them you might want to discuss with your physician just to let them know you are considering, or are doing, a certian remedy that you read from her book. I would suggest this book to anyone who is interested in learing more about natural health remedies.

Times may change, but human nature does not. "Once in Golconda" is a play-by-play of the worst financial disaster ever to befall the U.S.-- at least until now. Yet, unfortunately so many of its lessons have faded. Eighty years may have passed since the events described in it took place, but this book reads like living history of the most timely sort-- it covers the first years of the roaring twenties to the last years of the groaning thirties-- and has so many parallels to what's going right now that it's downright eerie.

There are superficial differences of course, we have different characters (They: Charles E. Mitchell, Albert Wiggin, et al-- We: Stanley O'Neal, Richard Fuld, et al.), and we have, of course, developed far more sophisticated ways of circumventing fair standards, decent practices, and common sense. But at their core the greed, the recklessness, and the hubris of then versus now is as similar as one malignant strain of virus to another.
Fast-money, fear; booms, busts; glory, and disgrace are all part of the story line, and believe me it is one that will have you turning pages as fast as any Grisham thriller, while shaking your head that so many of its lessons about free markets, easy credit, and wishful thinking have either been forgotten or forsaken.
After reading John Brooks's brilliant expose, surely no historically knowledgeable Fed head would feed speculation by keeping interest rates recklessly low as Benjamin Strong did in the twenties; or any Congress and President be complicit with or cowed into watering down or repealing hard-won safeguards (Glass Steagall eraser Phil Gramm, anyone...?) by special interests. Just as today, "Once in Golconda" reports industry leaders celebrating economic growth while railing against the onerous, anti-capitalist evils of transparency, oversight, and "anti-competitive" regulation-- all while the bubble they were blowing kept expanding. Then, once it popped, many of those same leaders scurried off, carpetbags bulging with slippery loot, leaving both the markets and the economy shattered.
Everyone should read this book. Maybe then, we could avoid the financial devastation of a casino capitalism that demands socialist-style bailouts. Maybe then people would demand accountability from management, and clarity on how their hard earned retirement funds are being bet, borrowed, and blown. Fat chance.
History is indeed just variations on a theme and "Once in Golconda" shows us how easily we are led not only to march to the same drummer, but, before we know it, right off the same old cliff.

The book really placed you back in that era. The information was like spying on the "old guards" of Wall Street. This book was really a well written and it is hard to believe it was written in 1969. I could not believe how much George Whitney bailed out his brother Richard and how others at the Morgan firm went along with it...I guess old money is generally foolish! Great Book!

This book brings the Depression to life. The writing is erudite and the author's decision to tell the story through the life of one individual makes it personal, more than a "dry" history. A time that should not be forgotten, a story that should not be forgotten.

If ego is a drug, Richard Whitney was Wall Street's Tony "Scarface" Montana. More than $27 million in debt and trying to conceal bald-faced embezzlement, the broke stockbroker and former New York Stock Exchange president still managed to carry himself with a smug hauteur as he drew up new IOUs.

Approaching one broker with whom he was on a bad footing, Whitney "made no lame effort to ingratiate himself. Rather he announced brusquely that he 'wanted to get this over with quickly'...Then he said he wanted to borrow $250,000 'on my face.'"

He was denied that time, at least, but Whitney's arrogance was rewarded in other instances. When you were one of Wall Street's aristocrats of the 1920s and 1930s, life was like that.

Whitney is the central character in John Brooks' "Once In Golconda," an absorbing, picaresque account of the New York Stock Exchange's painful coming of age during the Jazz Age and Great Depression. Though there are some patterns watchers of today's stock markets may recognize in this account of the Great Crash of 1929 and its aftermath, some things are probably never to be repeated, probably for the best.

Wall Street in 1929 was a plutocratic fiefdom where might meant right and no one was righter than J.P. Morgan & Co., known by many as "23" for its Wall Street address. But the crash brought anger as it took the rest of the national economy down with it, and in time, calls for reform that the stockbroking elite ignored at their peril. Leading the resistance to change was NYSE President Whitney, who showed great bravery on Black Thursday by placing some stabilizing bids but remained inflexible despite growing demands for needful change.

"Once In Golconda" is a financial history anyone can pick up and enjoy. The terminology is not too technical, and Brooks writes with a real zest for the human equation. At the same time, you get a deeper appreciation for the market forces that dictated what happened on the Street; how the market was democratized, first by the influx of middle-class investors before the bubble burst, and then after, by the formation of the Securities And Exchange Commission; and how J.P. Morgan lost its supremacy to new-money upstarts like Merrill Lynch.

Brooks, writing in the late 1960s, clearly favored a closely regulated market, but he avoids coming off shrill by presenting both sides of the argument at all times. Not completely in the New Deal camp, he describes the theory of an early FDR economic adviser as amounting to populist voodoo economics. "To reverse the roles by trying to make gold prices affect commodity prices was like a man in a building lobby trying to move an elevator from floor to floor by pushing the indicator dial from place to place: it wouldn't work, and it could easily end up ruining the whole mechanism."

This is an excellent companion volume to Brooks' other classic, "The Go-Go Years," a contemporary account about the market's rise in the 1960s. It has the same elegant prose, the same attention to nuance and detail, perhaps an even larger-than-life cast of characters, and a wry wit that pierces through even the driest sensibility. Of one fabled stockbroker, he writes: "He published a book explaining his stock-market techniques - a tip-off that they were no longer working for him."

Once in Golconda is a well-written financial history book. The setting is 1920s and 30s Wall Street. The drama centers around Richard Whitney, who falls from grace like the hero in a Greek tragedy. During the '29 crash, Whitney himself (he was president of the NYSE at the time) strode onto the floor of the exchange and bought U.S. Steel (and other blue chips) to temporarily halt the slide. In the aftermath, Whitney literally stole from widows and orphans and was sent to prison. An excellent example of a financial history book that is not dry and unreadable.

"Pack of Thieves" is a riveting account of man's greed coupled with a recounting of the worst crime in modern history - the Holocaust. I commend Richard Chesnoff for an insightful and beautifully written book. A must for every family library!

Chilling, captivating, terrifying express some of the emotional responses one will feel when one reads this book. The author has thoroughly researched his topic. In addition he has presented his findings in a very organized and readable fashion. The writing style makes for easy reading. The author has transformed what could have been a very mundane presentation of facts and figures into a captivating story that is impossible to put down once started. A must read for students of the Holocaust.

Pack of thieves is probably the most detailed book I have ever read about the plundering of the Jews in Europe. Throughout the book the crimes committed against the Jews is explained in horrifying detail. In my opinion, I would not suggest this book to the weak hearted as it has many awful pictures and stories of people being destroyed by the Nazis. Although it is a horrible subject to read about, the holocaust is not talked about enough. I think that people should be educated about world history so that atrocities like the mass murder of the Jews never happen again.

Chilling, captivating, terrifying express some of the emotional responses one will feel when one reads this book. The author has thoroughly researched his topic. In addition he has presented his findings in a very organized and readable fashion. The writing style makes for easy reading. The author has transformed what could have been a very mundane presentation of facts and figures into a captivating story that is impossible to put down once started. A must read for students of the Holocaust.

I literally shuddered from a combination of amazement, disgust, and anger after reading this well-written and quite readable overview of the plundering of the European Jews by Hitler and others starting in the 1930s and continuing to the present day. This book by Richard Chesnoff carefully details the scope and depth of the continuing final financial insult to those who suffered the "Final Solution" at Hitler's hand in the Second World War. Even after fifty years, the lies, dissembling, vile deceptions and equivocations continue, for literally tens of billions of dollars of gold, valuables, and money plundered as a result of the so-called "Final Solution" are still unaccounted for. For anyone old enough to have fifty such years of conscious experience in the world, it's difficult to actually be moved to disgust, to be amazed by anything people do, but the bold, shameless ways in which Europe's thugs, slugs and other lowlife cowards came slithering out of their damp and furtive hiding places to take full and open advantage of the Jews' persecution before, during and even after WWII is enough to wrench the most strong-stomached among us.

Although this line of investigation is by its very nature disturbing stuff, it is well handled by the author, and his even, professional journalistic tone is solid, seldom bitter or vengeful. Instead, his forte is his ability to systematically describe, detail, and document the multifarious ways in which the Jews were ritually stripped of anything of value by their friends, neighbors, and countrymen, and how so many of those of whom so much better should have been expected used their positions of relative advantage to exploit, extort, and even help to exterminate them. From outright expropriation of rugs, art, and valuables by the Nazis to a plethora of scams, false promises, and ultimate betrayals, the bottom line in case after case is personal enrichment at the extraordinary expense of the victims. Were I not also aware of countless stories of so many others who risked and often sacrificed themselves to save Jews, I would be ashamed to be a human being. It is difficult to understand how so many fellows human beings could continue be so cravenly covetous and so heartless as to perpetrate such a campaign of dispossession against those who were so helpless, impotent, and so needing of compassion.

The number of ways in which the Jews were exploited and extorted is numbing; from life insurance scams to funds transfer to numbered Swiss accounts to offers to help individual Jews escape to offers to hide them and spirit them to safety, the various permutations seem endless, and often quite ingenious. Yet one cannot help but be appalled by neighbors calmly expropriating clothing, cars, furniture, apartments, homes, and farms from Jews who were being systematically displaced. There are accounts of individuals coming home from the camps to find neighbors firmly ensconced in the homes, using their home goods, and totally oblivious to the possibility they would have to give it all up to the returning survivors. Many Jews returning to their former homes were threatened, scared away, beaten, or even murdered upon their return.

Of course, the most systematic exploitation was by social institutions; governments, banks, insurance companies, art museums. The degree to which these organized interests have systematically delayed, stonewalled, and denied any access to their records for all these decades is scandalous and disheartening to learn about. While the original impetus was to "Aryanize" the wealth of Germany's Jews to help finance the goals of the Third Reich, the explosion of avarice and greed soon spread throughout the Reich and beyond. What is truly disheartening is the widespread degree to which economic, social and political institutions we would otherwise consider respectable and honorable have participated in the plunder taking. This book is a most provocative reading experience, and one anyone interested in the curiosities and unintended ironies of history can play out their games should read. I highly recommend it, and hope it will be widely read and appreciated.

Sometimes the vet does not have time to explain in detail the medications they are prescribing and sometimes you just for get to ask or think of someting after the fact. The book is a good source of information and it its written in plain enlish so you dont have to be a DVM to understand it.

A good reference. I have only had it a month and have already made 4 reference searches and pleased with each result. If you have pets, and if you have more than 2 or 3 pets, this can be a great help to talk to your vet about. Puts you in the know.

Pills for Pets by Debra Eldredge, D.V.M.
Dr. Deb Eldredge is not only an award-winning writer and columnist on veterinary issues, but she is my friend and a fellow Belgian Tervuren owner/trainer/competitor. Deb works in an animal hospital outside Syracuse, NY and is a volunteer consultant for Canine Working Companions.
Her book, Pills for Pets, is truly an A to Z guide to drugs and medications for your animal companion, from dogs to horses, from iguanas to cats! This book was awarded the Muse Medallion for Best Health and Care Book for 2003.
Pills for Pets is a comprehensive, easy to use listing of prescription and over the counter drugs - including cautions, possible side effects, and drug/food interactions. Deb Eldredge makes it very clear that the information in her book is to allow pet owners to supplement their knowledge about veterinary care, not replace it.
Dr. Eldredge gives advice and cautions about homeopathic remedies, herbal treatments, vitamin and nutritional supplements; all of which are becoming very popular with pet owners. Her book also helps pet owners in choosing the right veterinarian and pet insurance. She also touches on emergency first aid and how to provide long-term nursing care for animals, as many of our pets are living longer.
Of interest to anyone who wanted to save money by buying medications and fad diets on the web, a must read is chapter 7 which makes you aware of the dangers of Internet purchases. Emphasis in Dr. Eldredge's book is that "an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure." Pills for Pets is an excellent resource and a "must have" for any pet owner!

Awarded by the Cat Writers Association of America, Pills for Pets was voted the best health and pet care book in 2003. This essential book for every pet owners shelf was called,
"An extremely useful reference book that covers the ground. This is a book that pet owners want on their shelf when health questions arise."

Whether you own an iguana, dog, cat or horse this book arms you with the information you need to ensure that your pet is getting the best medical care possible. The book includes prescription and over-the-counter meds, homeopathic remedies, herbal treatments, and a guide to emergency care and first aid.

This book is a well written and clear guide for pet owners. The information is timely and thorough and covers a wide spectrum of topics beyond medication that every pet lover will appreciate. It's also a great help in resolving those questions of "is this serious (requires a trip to the vet) or should I wait a day and see if he gets better?" The author has packed a wealth of knowledge into a small package! I think this book should be sold in veterinarians' offices everywhere!

This book is a fantastic resource for Business Analysts and Project Managers alike. I've recommended this book to several of my contemporaries, and use variations of many of the tools discussed in the book. If you've ever had a creative block on how to demonstrate good analyses, this set of tools will provide you with the spark you need.

Traditionally, project management tools and techniques have been seen as vehicles for reaching an objective or, more specifically, a project deliverable. However, most project management literature just describes individual tools and, at best, loosely gathers them into a quasi-toolbox to aid the project or program manager in doing the job more effectively. Thankfully, the business community finally has Project Management ToolBox by Dragan Z. Milosevic, not just another review of available tools and techniques, but the most comprehensive text ever published on the subject. The author makes a strong case for the need for a more systematic and pre-constructed project management toolbox, one that is of significantly more value than the simple sum of its individual tools.

Within the book, Milosevic develops a new role for project management tools and the toolbox in three distinctive ways. First, the book provides a clear roadmap for how to deploy and customize each tool depending on the specific project and company environment. Second, the book goes beyond individual tools by offering a more effective approach, i.e., constructing a toolbox, unique to an organization, which gathers together a predefined set of tools, thus supporting not only individual project management activities and deliverables but also the complete project management process. Finally, the book spells out how to customize the toolbox. Constructing a generic project management toolbox has value, but customizing it to fit a company's competitive strategy significantly enhances that value.

The book content is clearly and logically organized by project management process - initiating, planning, implementing, and closing - and then by practical applications. This helps users locate tools according to use, i.e., to support one or more specific deliverables in the project management process. Also, it reinforces the applications aspect of the toolbox for a standardized, company-specific project management process.

In summary, the Project Management ToolBox is not just the resource for a collection of project management tools and techniques. It offers an extensive set of tools that goes beyond the limits of generic domains and also takes the guesswork out of when and how to use them in order to support the project management process and to deliver concurrent projects as dictated by a company's strategy for competitiveness and profitability. It also describes how to link project goals and practices and the organization's mission, and it offers much value to managers of organizations of any size or endeavour. In short, it is a must-have book for the project manager.

I don't share many of my consulting "know-how" secrets, but in this case I will, because I think the field of PM will benefit from the ideas presented in this book. After working 20 years in the consulting and project management field, I felt I was as knowledgeable as one could be about managing projects. Then one day, I came across Dragan's PM ToolBox. WOW! Every page is an eye opener. And this book really is a toolbox because its filled with detailed examples, report layouts, checklists, and figures which I have personally incorporated into my projects management and documentation. And those work examples have helped me win additional PM business many times over.

If you think this is just another "Here are the PM process steps" book, then click on by. But if you do, you will miss out on the chance to reach a higher level of excellence in the field of project management that will set you apart from the rest.

Thanks Dragan for a job well done!!

I must say I was excited to discover this book: finally a book holding a comprehensive set of templates! For each tool/template, the author provides answers to practical questions that most people face and provides a short case study to illustrate its usage.
Good Job ! It is to be used as a reference material, not to be read cover-to cover.

If you're a project manager, this is one of those invaluable resources to add to your personal "toolkit".

This is a very practical reference book to keep close to your workspace. It contains more than 50 tools you can incorporate into your practice.

When that moment arrives in the project where one of your managers demands some additional piece of information presented in a particular way (as Murphy's Law describes - always at the busiest, most hectic, time), and perhaps it's one of those things you've never personally done before ...

Don't panic, just reach for the "Toolbox".

Each tool is described clearly, most including a table, diagram, or sample of the tool, along with instructions as to best practice use of the tool, e.g.:

o When to use it

o The best place in the project life cycle to use it

o Its benefits (in case you need to "sell" its use within your organization), and

o Advantages/Disadvantages - enabling you to make smarter choices among the tools, and more effective application of the one you select

One suggestion for future editions: I'd like to see more correlation of these tools with the Project Management Institute (PMI)'s PMBOK - both in terms of consistent language and project phasing. (The author does include a short appendix that attempts to do some of this.)

Notwithstanding, I still consider this book a valuable resource for my practice.

Peter Mayle's books about Provence are always wonderful, and this one does not disappoint!
Mireille McKell

Peter Mayle's "Provence A-Z" is a collection of personal interests and discoveries. There are amusing stories of construction complexities, the celebration of truffles and humorous stories of wild pigs eating perfectly ripe melons. Peter invites you into his world and as he explains the reality of Provence he keeps the fantasy of the perfect vacation alive and well. Since I recently made my own tapenade it was interesting to see a new recipe. There is also an explanation of why tomatoes are known as pommes d'amour. There are stories of unique fruits and visions of hills that are home to two thousand types of butterfly. I loved the story of the new puppy and you can't help but smile when you think of all the adventures Peter has on a daily basis. Overall, this collection of writing makes winter days seem a bit warmer and it is perfect as a cozy read by the fire.

~The Rebecca Review
Once I spent a weekend in Provence

An enjoyable collection about things in and of provence. Peter Mayle has done another winner.
An easy read and quite informative.

This is a collection of short essays about the culture of Provence in alphabetical order. I think it is typical Mayle, intelligent, bright, and whimsical without being "cute". It's a writing you can sample in at odd times.

Here's a book of a couple of hundred entries, from A to Z of course, about life in the Provence region of France. Each entry then has from a short paragraph to a few pages of description. The author is Peter Mayle who has almost made a careet of writing about Provence. He's a Brit who moved there many years ago. He was going there to write a novel, but instead wrote a book on Provence which to the surprise of many turned into a best seller.

This started a trend with 'A Year in Provence' and 'Toujours Provence' being the best known. Like expats everywhere who have permanently moved from their homeland, Mr. Mayle is in love with his new chosen country. It shows through his selection of words to include in the book and in the dedication with which he has given these words their Provence meaning.

It's almost enough to make people who don't like France ready to go visit.

I was shocked to see no reviews of Ramtha. I read this a few years ago. He is one of my favorite teachers. Determine for yourself if you think you might be interested in reading Ramtha.

"Do you know what "the" truth is? That there is none. There being none means that everything is."-From Chapter 12, which is entitled "Nothing But Truth".

"You are the only creation that is directly of God. Everything else you have created by thinking and feeling it into being."-From Chapter 8, which is entitled "Creation and Evolution".

"The more you love yourself, the more your brain is opened up. Then you are becoming more than your body. You are becoming that which holds you together."-From Chapter 19, which is entitled "Opening the Mind".

"You have the ability to know all that is, for everything there is to know is in the Great Consciousness of God, and the Mind of God beats like a heart to pump it to you."-From Chapter 17, which is entitled "The Science of Knowing."

If you're thinking of purchasing Ramtha, be prepared for everything in your life to change (I believe for the better, but that's just my opinion). Once you pick it up, you won't be able to put it down, and after, you'll never have the same unconsciousness again. You'll be more awake; more aware (for some people, that's not a good thing). If you are a universal truth junkey, like myself, then Ramtha will fit in perfectly with your collection of other spiritual reads. If you are a novice, then I have one question for you... Did you see the movie, The Matrix? Remember when Keaneau Reeves took the blue pill? That's what this book is... the blue pill. Before you buy, make sure you're ready to peek behind the curtains of "life."

As a seeker of Spiritual Truth and a Medium/Teacher who conducts workshops on Sp. Enlightenment; I have found RAMTHA closest to my heart. When given a copy a few years ago, it 'shook me to my roots'. It was as though I had experienced a look into my own life and yes, 'I tingled from head to toe'. RAMTHA has been a constant companion on our (my wife Beatrice and I) travels. I have quoted excerpts from these pages so eloquently written and, like arrows shot from the bow of a marksman, most have struck the target. It has been a wonderful experience to see how these words have struck home to my students. IT HAS MADE THEM THINK. IT HAS MADE THEM BECOME MORE RESPONSIBLE FOR THEIR OWN ACTIONS. I thoroughly recommend it The best answer for any query about the book must surely be "Try it for yourself - life is individual, not all are ready for it".

I had read the book of Ramtha for almost 20 years ago. Since then I continued to buy somemore of these books to give away. My spirit was reborn since I met Ramtha 20 years ago. It is growing up over the years from his teaching. I am a student of Ramtha School of Enlightment (RSE). He taught me how to love. He told me who I AM and He gave me the knowledge of immortality.
Yes, life is illusion but we need the reflection of life lessons in order to gain wisdom. If you are search for answers, if you love magic, if you love science of quantumn physics, and if you want to know how to manifest from nothingness into materials before your eyes, finally if you want to know how to time travel and unfold space, come to school (RSE). Please contact me at teresafeichan@yahoo.com or write to www.ramtha.com for free package of introduction of RSE.

This is THE book to read for an introduction to Ramtha and his teachings. It talks about his lifetime and the basic principles regarding the core of his message. There isn't room to explain much more than that, because he's so detailed with the basics of his message. There's a part that goes over the beginning of all creation. It's rather technical and complicated, but if you read it over more than once you'll get it.

For information on Ramtha's School of Enlightenment, where he teaches us all how to eventually become ascended masters, visit http://www.ramtha.com.

Buy and read everything Ms. Kephart writes. No disappointments, EVER!!

Although cast more as an encouraging model for adults involved in nurturing and shaping children's lives and their imaginations, this is a delightful read for any age. We can all remember our childhoods. We all have imaginations that still need nurturing in a fast-forward world. And, we can all enjoy beautiful writing wherever we find it.

I especially enjoyed her chapter, "The Stuff of Memory," which reads smoothly like a personal essay that reveals hints to twitch our memories and the telling detail.

--Janet Grace Riehl, author Sightlines: A Poet's Diary

Given the title of Beth Kephart's new book, SEEING PAST Z: Nurturing the Imagination in a Fast-Forward World, I was prepared for a straightforward analysis of the very real challenges facing parents trying to raise imaginative, creative children in a culture that seems to eschew imagination and creativity. I expected a well-reasoned and well-researched argument, perhaps with specific suggestions for fostering young people's creative processes.

Instead, much to my surprise (and eventual delight), what I found in SEEING PAST Z was something quite different, and no less valuable. In this slender volume, Kephart strings together a series of personal essays and anecdotes, some of which focus on her own childhood, but most of which center on her fourteen-year-old son, Jeremy, and his development from a reluctant reader into a passionate storyteller, comic strip artist, and aspiring filmmaker.

Kephart primarily lets her stories speak for themselves, allowing readers to draw their own conclusions about her parenting approach --- discouraging competition and adult-oriented achievements in favor of pursuits whose rewards are not so easily quantified. Her stories are told with a quiet, lyrical grace rarely found in nonfiction.

Kephart makes the argument that kids' imaginations are vital, not only during childhood but for their whole adult lives: "I am hoping that the time we've spent on the imagination will enable him to foresee the consequences of actions not yet taken. I am hoping that it will reinforce a compassionate heart. I am hoping that it will steel him for the hardest times, by giving him faith in another, better day .... I am hoping, a mother's simple dream, that it deepens his happiness."

The author's success with her approach, not only with her own son but with the reading and writing workshops she conducts for other children, will certainly be an inspiration for other parents and professionals who work with children. She provides some practical suggestions for implementation in the several appendices at the end of the book, and includes many of the workshop exercises she used with her own son and other children. Parents and teachers will find many worthwhile writing prompts and reading suggestions here. More important than these practical guides, though, is what Kephart quietly suggests throughout her thought-provoking essays: a profound philosophical shift in how we think about children, imagination, and the definition of success.

--- Reviewed by Norah Piehl

I read Seeing Past Z with excitement and envy. Finally, a book that puts words to so many of the feelings I have as a mother, aunt, and teacher. Beth Kephart reminded me how important imagination is to every day life, and she's given me a book I can share with friends as we struggle to raise our sons and daughters with care. We're always complaining about how competitive everything has gotten in our kids' lives. Seeing Past Z has given me a way to do something about that. Thank you, Beth Kephart.

I'm not a teacher, or a parent--but I loved this book, and consider it extremely important.
Disguised as a collection of some of the most lyrical and evocative essays you will ever read, this book is really the operating manual for a child's imagination. How to nuture it, challenge it, and importantly, give it space to flourish--how to let the life of the mind grow into a garden, and not a parking lot. Yet this is not a book full of instructions (although there are excellent and very specific guidelines you can use to start a reading and writing group for kids on your own)--this book is an open door. Read it, give it to every parent, librarian and educator you know--and next thing you know, we might have kids who will be brave enough and free enough to imagine our world into new wholeness.