I Books

Fat City by Leonard Gardner is a singular masterpiece of modern American literature. I was introduced to the book by the John Houston film of 1972 which in its own right is a work of wonder.

Gardner, who has regrettably not written another novel since, tells the story of an over-the-hill boxer in Stockton, California, his brief affair with an alcoholic woman, and the last chance he is given at a bout. In a spare, flawless prose, the novelist depicts the starkness of this life which unfolds in cheap hotel rooms and bars, in third-rate boxing arenas and in the agrarian fields where he has to work as a picker to eke out a living. A scene of onion picking is often cited as an example of supple, kinetic writing at its best.

By being so specific and immersing the reader in this small world, the author manages to make devastating statements about the mercilessness of American life and even the ultimate futility of life's many struggles.

As the veteran boxer mentors a young contender who is getting married and starting his own life, the reader is given every reason to believe that the travesty is open-ended.

Fat City is a short book, so I'll write a short review. You can get a plot synopsis from the other reviewers. This is high-quality noir territory. It is 180 pages of boxing, booze, lousy jobs, poisoned relationships, and flophouse squalor. It perfectly captures the characters' desperation and hopelessness. If you are looking for a tough, lean, gritty read, then look no farther.

Fat city is a book that took place in Stockton California in the 1950's that follows the broken lives of several men who are brought together from boxing. This book is written by Leonard Gardner, a boxer himself during the 1950's. As you read through the pages a story of the lives of different men unfolds.
Billy Tully is an out of shape boxer who gave everything up because of long losing streak and the painful divorce with his wife. Living off of almost nothing he decides he wants to go back and try to fight. While training he meets a young boy named Ernie Munger who has a natural talent for boxing. Ernie wants to be a boxer so bad that he trains day and night letting nothing get in his way. In the middle of his career he gets his girlfriend pregnant but tries his hardest to stay in the life of boxing. While following the characters in their lives this book goes though the struggle of each man and illustrates how they react to their failures. In this story the women are the cause of problems between all of the unhappy boxers; a problem that cannot be fixed.
Some chapters in the story are dedicated to small parts of other men's lives such as the trainer and the opponent, letting you understand the story from both sides. Although these men are brought together by boxing the book is about these men doing what they can do to survive. From boxing to farming this book accurately covers the actions taken to survive. Although the book can be slow at parts over all it is a quick read.

I read Fat City sometime in the mid-sixties, when it was first published, and was immediately captivated and envious of Gardner's powerful style and talent. If you appreciate and admire Hemingway or Steinbeck you will likely feel the same about Gardner, who, unfortunately, has not published anything since. Perhaps this small gem of a book was the only one he had in him. Even so, this novel is a remarkable accomplishment and may well become an American classic. What intrigues me the most in this work is that Gardner gets it all down right--the sights and smells and sounds of the seedy streets and flophouses; the drifters and dingy diners; the sweaty gyms, barsweeps and whores and how it is to work as a stoop-laborer in the fields, especially the true-to-life characters inhabiting the pages. Fat City is simply a well-crafted execution of art throughout and is as pleasurable to read now as when I first picked it up years ago.

Short novel, published in 1969, about two boxers, Billy Tully, who is 29 and down and out, and Ernie Mugger, who is 18 and up and coming, two versions of the same man, in some respects. Terrific skilled prose, short chapters, switching points of view between these two main characters and an assortment of other minor characters. The author takes you inside the characters' deepest despair or elation. How simple the author makes it look, one thinks, reading this book. But of course it is not. The prose is precise and honed, and looks easy only after who knows how many drafts. There are only 18 or 19 short chapters, and much of the novel is dialogue. But somehow one comes away with a panoramic view of Stockton, California, this woeful place, and the people the inhabit it - the immigrant fruit pickers, the bartenders and bar girls, the hobos on the street. The descriptions are compact and dead-on. About Billy Tully's hotel room: "All his neighbors had lung trouble." One could quote sentences from this book almost at will, the prose is so spare and perfect.

That the author never published another book, and that this was his first, is incredible. To write this cleanly and confidently, he must have practiced and studied for years. Yet to never do it again.

A must book for anyone who wants to understand why so many black boys and men seem to be targeted by the society for failure, criminality, jail, etc. I highly recommend it and the rest of rhe volumes in this series.

As an educator who strives to find direction on how to break the negative experience in pre K-12 education for a high number of Black male youth, I find this book, along with the other two in the series, to be informative and innovative when it comes to establishing a marker for administrators to use in order to monitor the teacher-student relationship and provide the positive environment that is necessary for all students, especially the Black male youth, to succeed.

This book is a must read for parents of African American boys and boys of color.

Reading this book revealed unfortunate truths that were not surprising to me at all. Serving as a public educator for over twelve years, it's sad but true as to why young black males at a very young age lose the desire, hope,and will to do better in school settings due to the facts listed in this book and many more since this book was written. I was overjoyed to see that Marcus Garvey Academy, a school that I taught at for eight years under the sincere leadership of Dr. Harvey Hambrick was mentioned. I was honored to read that Dr. Kunjufu took notice to how Marcus Garvey Academy in Detroit, Michigan and other schools assume pivotal roles in contributing to the solution to this horrible epidemic impededed on the futures and lives of young African American Males. Dr Jawanza Kunjufu did a great job at presenting multiple truths and the sad reality of how young black males are unfortunately targeted from the start.
Adra Young
Author of: The Everyday Living of Children & Teens Monologues

This an Dr. Kunjufu's many other books are exceptional in the fact that he details the facts straight to the point. I enjoy his methods of writing without pullng any punches. I wish that I had read this before my son started grade school, but now he is in the 4th grade and he went from being placed in special education, to a 4.0 dean's list GPA. God bless the power of prayer and guidance. Anyone can change their situation. I also just finsihed my Associate in Business, and I am in my Bachelor's Degree program right now for Marketing. Of course I will go on to the Masters programs and Doctorates. Learn for life...

"Please share a priceless thought through literature" "Give God the glory"

Thank You Dr. Kunjufu

I come from a routing shop - never having a customer need for Multicast. This book brought me up to speed very quickly on the both the beauty and ease of Multicast. As a tool for my CCIE studies, I felt the first 200 pages were of immense value at helping my studies. I felt Chapter 5 (on DVMRP) was not nearly as valuable as Chapters 6 and 7 (on PIM-DM and PIM-SM).

Some typos I was able to pick out:
page 144 - 2nd line from bottom should read "...it too sends a Graft message to Router C" - not Router D.

page 168 - 3rd line on the 1st paragraph should read "...SPT to pull the (S2, G) traffic down to the RP..." - not (S1, G).

There are some other typos, but they are few and far between (but I'm not an expert on multicast!). I have heard of this book being talked about as the 'bible' for multicast - I can see why.

I give this book 5 pings out of 5:
!!!!!

I was skeptical about buying a book this old, but I just finished it and am still slightly amazed at how little has changed in multicast technology in ~8 years. I have read Doyle's multicast coverage, listened to InternetworkExpert's excellent "class on demand" (CoD) on the topic many times, and worked through over half of their 20 CCIE lab scenarios, all of which have multicast sections. This doesn't make me an expert by any means, but I know enough now to recognize that the material in this book is still worth reading.

The differences between this book and Doyle's (2004) are:
- Williamson dedicates a lot more effort to explaining the mroute table. This was my single biggest stumbling block in multicast routing
- Doyle, IMO, gives IGMP a better treatment
- Doyle goes over mtrace and mstat
- Williamson spreads the information out over more pages via liberal usage of config snips and diagrams, often one per page. This allows him to go into *brutal, painful and excruciating* detail about every line in the mroute table, every flag, every state transition, etc.
- Williamson does a more thorough job of explaining exactly what happens in PIM-SM networks (100+ pages to Doyle's ~25)
- Doyle goes over Anycast RP and gives a better explanation of MSDN, which appears to have been rather cutting edge when Williamson put finger to keyboard

I finished the book in about a week of serious effort, but I skipped the following chapters (Cisco has not put much effort into the technologies described), leaving me with about 400 pages of groovyness:
DVMRP
CBT
MOSPF
Connecting to DVMRP Networks
and several sections of other chapters

To be sure, some things have changed. I didn't see any mention of the "ip pim autorp listener" command, which negates the need for sparse-dense mode when configuring Auto-RP (can't recall if Doyle mentioned that either). Also, in current versions of IOS one *does* need to specify the RP on the RP itself, whereas Williamson (and Doyle) explicitly say this is not the case (they were both right at the time of print, Cisco has changed this). Overall however, I would say that easily >95% of the material is solid here.

So which book to buy? Well if you're serious about the CCIE and/or running a multicast network you'll get both, and read them both several times. I do hope Williamson updates the book though, as he alludes to several draft proposals, and gives a "state of the multicast internet" address that I would like to know more about without digging through two dozen RFCs. Also, the few things that have changed would be a boon to the book.

Multicasting is truly a technology solution in search of a problem. Excepting highly specialized conferencing applications (a few of which are mentioned here) it is difficult to see how multicasting can be a money-making service for carriers and providers, and the protocols have yet to really penetrate to wide deployment. That said, knowledge of this separate realm of IP networking is a must for any professional in the telecom space.

I'm glad to say that this book rewards determined scrutiny. As a technical writer supporting a very complex product line that has recently added PIM-SM to its bag of tricks, I've found this book painstaking and tremendously informative. You will need to understand IP networking before approaching this title; on the assumption that you do, you will fully understand shared trees, SPTs, and their combination in PIM to an absolute fare-thee-well. My focus when reading this book was on IGMP and PIM-SM, so I have not read absolutely every page of this title. However, Williamson breaks the processes down packet-by-packet for each protocol in the multicasting suite in almost excruciating detail. Advanced coverage of topics such as registration, pruning, and Rendezvous Point behavior means that you will have complete mastery of Cisco multicasting, and for any platform that conforms to the standards, by the time you are finished.

This is an excellent, excellent effort in what I think is a consistently solid networking series.

Multicast has for several years been used in LAN environments to easily exchange information among users, especially in educational and academic research environments. The advent of audio and video conferencing has increased its use in these environments, and it is now making its presence known in WAN and Internet environments. This book gives an overview of the how to implement IP multicast on Cisco devices, and does a good job in that regard. Readers with a general knowledge of networks, even those who have not administered Cisco devices explicitly, can gain much from the book. This reviewer was not interested in the actual implementation of Cisco multicast networks, which is covered in Part 3 of the book, and so this review will concentrate on the other three parts of the book. These parts are mostly descriptive, but they do discuss some of the performance issues involved with the deployment of IP multicast, although nowhere in the book are test cases discussed, even though their inclusion would have been extremely helpful. Multicasting by itself is not a complicated phenomena to understand and use, but when it is deployed over Layer 2 or when coupled with QoS some interesting issues can arise. This reviewer was mostly interested in traffic engineering in multicast environments, and the author spends an entire chapter on this topic.

The book begins with a history of multicast and the MBone, the latter of which is a collection of Internet routers and hosts that are interconnected and are able to forward IP multicast traffic. IP multicast is of course an unreliable transmission mechanism, based as it is on UDP. Along with stating the assigned scope of the multicast addresses over IP, the author also reviews the scheme for multicast MAC addressing. The MAC address mapping will cause a CPU performance hit though since the CPU will have to be interrupted in order to deal with all 32 of the IP multicast groups. This arises since the IP multicast address information cannot be mapped into the available space of the MAC address space. There is a 32:1 address ambiguity when an IP multicast address is mapped to a MAC address.

One can summarize the properties of the multicast routing protocols discussed in the book straightforwardly:

PIM (Protocol Independent Multicasting) can run in three different modes, namely Dense (DM), Sparse (SM) and Sparse-Dense. A router will always forward multicast traffic on a dense mode interface unless all the PIM neighbors of the interface prune themselves from the multicast tree. Multicast traffic will be forwarded on a sparse mode interface only if at least one of the PIM neighbors explicitly joins the multicast tree. In sparse-dense mode, the interface can be running in sparse mode for some groups and dense mode for others. There is a "hello interval" for PIM multicast which is the frequency at which the router will send PIM query messages, the latter of which are used for selecting a PIM designated router. The PIM designated router is responsible for sending IGMP (v1) queries. Bootstrap messages can be forwarded from an interface in PIMv2. This allows all PIM-SM routers in a domain to dynamically learn all Group-to-RP mappings.In PIM-DM, the multicast traffic is periodically forwarded even on pruned interfaces of a source-based distribution tree. This allows the learning of membership changes. This 'state-refresh interval' can be configured on the first-hop routers of the multicast source, allowing the interface to periodically send a state refresh control message down the source-based distribution tree. When doing multicast in an NBMA (NonBroadcast MultiAccess) network, a router will replicate multicast packets for all neighbors configured for broadcast (actually pseudobroadcast to use the author's characterization). To avoid this, one can configure the router in NBMA mode, which will then only allow the replication of packets for PIM neighbors. NBMA mode is only supported by Cisco for SM networks.

DVMRP (Distance Vector Multicast Routing Protocol) does neighbor discovery, where network routing information is exchanged between neighbors. This information consists of Route Report messages that advertise a source network and a hop-count. DVMRP generates two routing tables, one is a multicast routing table to the receivers and a unicast routing table to the sources. When forwarding, a DVMRP router will use the unicast table for RPF (Reverse Path Forwarding) checks and the multicast table for forwarding multicast packets. When doing unicast routing, the router will use the unicast table for the RPF check, but will use a different multicast routing protocol for forwarding multicast packets. There is a metric value associated with a DVMRP unicast route, which is the sum of the interface metrics of a route between the router originating the report and the router in the source network.

For multicast traffic, one can control bandwidth with: 1. Aggregate rate limiting, which sets an upper bound for all multicast traffic being sent on an interface. 2. Mroute table entries wherein each individual multicast stream is set to a maximum rate. 3. `Scoped zones' and multicast boundaries, which prevent multicast traffic with a high rate from traveling outside the provisioned regions. Doing actual multicast traffic engineering is complicated do to the need for calculating the proper RPF (Reverse Path Forwarding) interface (and not the destination IP address). The author discusses in detail some of the techniques that can be used, such as GRE tunnels and `pseudo load-sharing.' GRE tunnels are used to do load-splitting of multicast traffic, which cannot be done otherwise since multicast is allowed only one incoming interface. He also describes how to do traffic conversion between broadcast and multicast, this being allowed for Cisco IOS 11.1 or later. This is a useful capability for networks where the source or the receivers, or both, do not support IP multicast.

This is the best multicast book on the market. It is a must have whether you are preparing for the CCIE Lab or just want to understand multicast.

The explanation was simple and clear. There are tons of configuration examples covering pretty much all kinds of scenarios. The author actually explained every single line of the configurations.

I bought this book for my Lab exam, and after two days of reading, 99.99% of my questions were answered (the only one I still have is I actually made PIM-DM work in a hub-spoke frame relay network. The prune message from one spoke was actually seen by the other spoke, I don't know why the hub would forward it out).

I have to admit this is one of the best books I've read for a long time. Just like Jeff Doyle's TCP/IP Routing is the Bible of IGP, this book is the Bible of Multicast.

This book 'Eddie Would Go' is a great read if your are a water man or surfer.

This is an important book about surfing. Watching movies like "Riding Giants" you will most likely be left with the impression that native Hawaiian contributions to this sport stopped sometime in antiquity, last one being The Duke, and that the only object of surfing is to make a stunt video or earn a title. In fact, if you come to Hawaii and really look beyond the hype, you will likely find that the sport continues to be sustained and nourished by its many faceted native Hawaiian roots, the spirit of Aloha being most important, courage ("Eddie Would Go"), synergy with nature ("Eddie Wouldn't Tow"), family values, music, humility, spirituality (all of which manifest as "free spirited hippie culture" in pop culture) and, of course, the sheer enjoyment of the ocean, while being respectful, for "pleasure instead of treasure".

I liked the commentary and collected anecdotes in the book. Eddie was the kind of guy that is typical of Hawaii. Holmes describes his character as self-effacing, humble, generous... always giving of himself to others. These are attributes which are valued in the local Hawaiian culture and also,universally. Sadly, the very things which locals in Hawaii value the most, are taken advantage of by outsiders looking to capitalize or commercialize the "Aloha," shown to them. This is demonstrated continually in the book.
Overall, a very interesting biography written with respect and conviction to the legacy that Eddie "lived" during his short life. Many details in the book encourage self-introspection within one's own life.

An intriguing tribute to hawaiian waterman Eddie Aikau, "Eddie Would Go" explores the life journey of a true native legend. From big-wave surfing, to saving countless lives as a lifeguard at Waimea Bay, Eddie epitomized the true essence of Hawaii and the spirit of "aloha." This book embraces the strong family connection that is so inherent in hawaiian culture, while focusing on the characteristics that made Eddie a local hero, a surfing icon and a dedicated waterman.

Author Stuart Holmes Coleman explores Eddie's lifelong connection to the ocean, while also giving a glimpe of life as it was and is on the ever famous North Shore. Always the adventurer, Eddie's passion for the water would bring him across infinite miles of ocean over the course of his lifetime, and in the end would serve appropriately as his eternal resting place. This book transcends all genders, ages, races, surfers and adventure seekers alike, a thrilling gem of a read for all. An epic tale, it will stir your emotions and touch your soul. Eddie was an inspiration to many and a friend to all, and his spirit lives on in this book just as it will forever in the ocean.

This book is a true story with many messages. Eddie Aikau was a hero many times over, a warrior waterman. He was a hero to the many whose lives he saved. He was a hero to the Hawaiian culture. He was a hero to his crewmates on the Hokuleia.

He wasn't perfect, however. Author Stuart Coleman worked very hard to find the true Eddie, separating the man from the myth, the sinner from the saint.

If you like reading about surfing, the Hawaiian culture, and people who have influenced the reputation of the Hawaiian North Shore, this is the book. The photos are terrific, but the story is sad. I thank Coleman for pulling it all together.

This book completes the series of Mandala coloring books by this author. Well worth the money spent.

I teach an alternative high school class and these designs have helped my students focus and relax at the same time. Anyone who works with troubled teens should have these at their disposal...one more item to add to your bad of tricks!

I think this will be fun to color with my granddaughter. We love to color things together, and we love designs. Thanks.

I enjoyed this book very much. I kept it on my coffee table and would color in it to relax. Now that each page is colored I have moved it to my bookshelf.

Out of the half dozen coloring books we bought last year this one was our favorite. Every design felt well thought out and was quite fun to color. My only complaint is that there weren't more pictures to color. This is well worth buying if you're looking for a challenge to your coloring skills.

I admit, I was skeptical. I've never believed that tapes or cds of someone droning phrase after phrase actually had any use to someone learning a language, but my friends told me that the Pimsleur Program was different. I'm fluent in German so I checked the first level out of the library. I figured that since its a language I already speak I would be able to tell if it was actually teaching anything worthwhile. I was completely amazed! The pimsleur program doesn't just tell you how to ask where the train station is, it gives you a knowledge of the language that can be expanded on. You're not just mimicing, you know what you're saying. I was so excited about "discovering" Pimsleur that I went out and bought the Norwegian course and am having much success with that!

We've tried 5 other audio language programs for our family, and I took a conversational German class at a community college. I wish I'd found this program before I'd wasted so much money on other programs (and before I lived in Germany for several months!)... In just a few lessons, we are UNDERSTANDING the language better than we ever could have with other programs, are more confident about speaking, and excited about learning more. Everything is introduced in context, making it easy to remember. The program continually builds on what has been learned, so review is built in but not boring. The question and answer format forces one to THINK about what they have learned instead of just repeating phrases without figuring out what each word means and how it should be used. We'd like out children to have mastery of several languages, but with the next language, we won't be floundering trying to find a good program. For spoken language, we'll go straight to Pimsleur!

I already speak more German in FOUR WEEKS than I have been able to speak French in FOUR YEARS of classes using this method.

For the first time, I am actually learning to speak and understand another language (rather than just reading and writing). I thought I was a dunce at languages! Turns out, it was the education system. I recommend getting a few books to supplement what you learn in this method, but I would wait until you begin Pimsleur German II to do this. Get the spoken language down first, and then learn to read and write.

I took German in high school and college, but wanted to brush up on it.

I just completed German I, and I was pleasantly surprised. To achieve spoken competence requires a hugh amount of repetition and drilling to internalize the patterns. But different people have different learning styles; some respond well to reading and practicing grammatical principles and paradigms, others are more ear-oriented. At first, the endless repetition was frustrating; I must have heard "Would you like to drink something with me?" about 40 times. And "Where is Goethe street?" about 30 times. For someone who remembered some of his school German, it was a little much.

The pace picks up in later lessons, and it began to get a little more interesting and challenging as new vocabulary and grammatical structures are added.

All in all, it was an enjoyable experience, and I think a pure beginner would do very well with these tapes.

If only they weren't so hideously expensive. Fortunately, my library system carries all 3 levels of the German series, so I'm all set. Before paying for the full set, you might want to pick up the smaller 4-cassette version to see if it suits your learning style.

I have been using this program for about 2 months. After a couple of weeks I kind of forgot to listen to the cds for about 2 weeks or so. I thought I would have to start all over again from the beginning, but I was surprised when I realized that I had remembered everything I learned.

I think the reviewer(s) who gave this program 4 stars instead of 5 only because it didn't cover all of the months of the year and/or days of the week is being a bit unfair. Maybe it is fair if you have had a German course elsewhere and have somewhat of a head start. But seriously, how many of us are there out there that can read and write in a foreign language [at least a bit] feel completely lost listening or at worse trying to converse in that language?

This program is easy and it works! If you only want to learn the grammatical structure and/or expand your vocabulary obviously this program is not for you. If you want to begin [a very good head start] to learn German then you are very well on your way.

I laughed and cried, but I must say I think I get a bum rap on what happened during the Great Fire.

I recall, years ago, when I first read this book. It was not long after I met Jason (one of the many grandsons). I didn't know him well at the time, and I certainly hadn't spent much time with his family. I started reading the book one morning, and found that I couldn't put it down until the last page was read. I remember thinking as I read the book- WOW- what an amazing man to have as a grandfather! Since that time, I have gotten to know many of the people written about in this book well, and I too, feel blessed to be able to call these people my family!

If everyone lived their lives with the same morals and values as this author, the world would be a better place. Yudoo Pop

I enjoyed reading this book and I am thankful for this written family history. Happy Birthday Pop.

When life handed this man lemons, he really made lemonade! I Count My
Blessings: Please Count Yours, is the fascinating story of a unique man's
journey from Peck's Bad Boyhood, (his exaggeration) to a respected
gentleman of eighty years.

George's quick wit transfers well to paper, so his humor and adept
turn-of-phrase made me gobble it in a day.

Here lies proof that one can be successful while maintaining ones' values, and have a ball in the process.

More folks should set such an example for their grandkids! Happy 80th,
George

the story is about a girl named ava, who just lost her boyfriend, jackson in a trajic way. after jackson dies she keeps seeing him everywhere...she doesnt know the reason that he keeps haunting her, and belives he is doing it because he is mad at her for the way he dies. when she finds the reason for why he is haunting her she is overcome with his true love for her and finally lets him go.

this is one of the most beautiful and saddest books i have ever read. the good thing about this book is that its so short you can read quickly. i cried so hard when i read this. it touched my heart and made me feel ava's love for jackson and made me sad that she will never see him again.

i recommend this to anyone. its a great book and one you wont regret reading.

This book was very coherently and beautifully written. It was focused and poetic, magical and real, all at once.
Ava really touches readers as she is so human-- she wants to be more of something, she wishes she were something, and she both loved and lost, and let go.
The author conveyed the essence of true love very effectively-- emphasizing that Ava loved her boyfriend not only because of what he was, but because of what she was when he was with her. The book also explores the question of letting go and when to do it and how to know when you are ready to do it. And anyone of any age is capable of love, for there are so many types of love.
I highly recommend this touching, tear-evoking novel!

Ava's boyfriend was perfect, he understood her. But when their game of dares goes to far and he is killed, Ava is guilty.
She misses him and stays home all the time, she won't talk to anyone, but then one night when she is finally starting to get better Jackson appears to her (in his own way).
He can't leave the house, so she stays home too.
He can't touch her or talk to her, but he's there and he still loves her.
But will Ava become a prisoner of her lost love or be set free by his presences?
I thought it was a great haunting read. The free verse really adds to it and it is the kind of book you can read over and over.
I really can't think of any negative feedback for the book. It is a beautiful, haunting book.
Warning: keep tissues near by.

Ava can't see him or touch him, unless she's dreaming. She can't hear his voice, except for the faint whispers in her mind. Most would think she's crazy, but she knows he's here.

Jackson. The boy Ava thought she'd spend the rest of her life with. He's back from the dead, as proof that love truly knows no bounds.

This is a touching story, written in free verse, about a teenage girl whose boyfriend dies, and we see her go through all the different phases of this loss. She's grieving and feels she is to blame for his death. But Jackson starts to appear to her in her home, as a ghost. This book is a wonderful read for teenagers who have lost someone close to them, and even those who have not. It's all about healing, and moving forward with your life after a tragedy.

It is recommended for grades 9 and up. There are mild references to sex, but I don't think it's something an 8th grader should be kept from reading. Its beautiful poetry, and a easy read.

My friends recommended that I read this book, and when I did, I was amazed by how incredibly touching it was. I cried a few times while I read it, which is unusual since I usually don't do that. The writing style that the author used really contributed to the emotions in the story.

Read it =]

I honestly feel that if every male practices what is written there then their relationships with their spouses will become more intimate and the
divorce rate in the world would certainly plummet down. I also recommend
other book that is about to satisfy female and male I Love You. Now What?: Falling in Love is a Mystery, Keeping It Isn't

Excellent book that is well written with a sense of humor. This should be required reading for all women interested in enjoying their lives. The authors are non judgemental and professional. Wit and humor cover the topics along with perspectives for partners of women included through out. Wonderful book! Buy one for everywomen you love.

As a sex coach and instructor, this book helped me answer a lot of questions for my clients about female orgasm. I also have several friends who have trouble in that area. I made it part of my library along with two other books that have proven invaluable and that I have shared with all my clients and friends: (1) Five Minutes to Orgasm Every Time You Make Love: Female Orgasm Made Simple. This 3-step technique takes the mystique out of female orgasm and makes it the natural and simple act it should be. (2) Was that an earthquake? The Sensuous Couple's (Flip Over) Guide to Seismic Oral Sex. This flip over book has tons of information about fellatio on one side, then flip it over and you have just as much information about cunnilingus. A must for couples of any age, sex or experience.

I just received my order of "I <3 Female Orgasm" today, and have been engrossed ever since. The amount of information found in the approximately 300 page book is incredible, as well as incredibly well written. I love the way that when the authors sometimes refer to a certain concept, they will also tell you the page number to get more detail about that concept. They also frequently recommend other books for more information. I also enjoy the wonderful anecdotes and little quotes that are constantly interspersed within the book. I frequently laughed aloud while reading some of the stories. ^_^

This book is an all inclusive book about female sex, not just female orgasm, and is helpful on many levels. If you are the least bit interested in females and sex put together, I definitely recommend this book for you to read and enjoy.

Anyone who is female - or anyone who sleeps with females - needs to read this book. It's written in a clear, friendly, sometimes funny way. It provides a ton of great information and insights. I learned a lot from this book, as I think would anyone. I loved that it is also inclusive of everyone, straight or not. This would also be a great book to give to a girl before she becomes sexually active with a partner. Please do yourself a favor and read this book right now!

My son was given this book as a baby. I used to read it to him all the time and he loved it!! Now he is 9 years old and reads it to me!!

Our daughter was given this book before we left to moved to our new duty station. She loves it so much and so do I. Our friends wrote on the inside that no matter were we are in the world they will alway promise to find her. This book shows the love a mother or father would do to find their missing child.

I bought this book for my four year old son when he was only two, because the artwork was captivating, and the storyline was sweet and easy for him to follow. He got to know it by heart and for a while insisted on touting it everywhere we went, and would "read" it to himself. I lost count of how many times we've read it together. He's four now and it's still a favorite among others. I'll have to replace it soon, because it's so worn out... and that's when you know you've got a great book.

I purchased this book for my little sister in 1998. I wrote an inscription in the front promising her that, no matter where she goes, I promise I'll find her. I'd since forgotten about the book until my sister passed away a few weeks ago and her teacher told me that she had just read the book to her the day before, including my note to her. I now have the book in my possession and it will forever be special to me knowing that, although I'd since moved out and didn't go home to visit nearly enough, she was still reminded in my absence how much I loved her.

For me, the most touching stanza of the book is:
And if I had no other way,
I'd walk or crawl or run,
I'd search to the very ends of the earth,
For you my precious one.

This is a great gift for anyone with whom you'll always share a special bond.

I really liked the fiction book I Promise I'll Find You. It had beautiful pictures, and on each page there's a little doggy and a kid for you to find in the picture. It's a very touching and comforting book. I hope to see more books like it in the future.
By Emily, age 8