I Books

This is a fun search & find book with a Christmas theme. My niece, nephew and teenage sons all had fun looking for the hidden items. Some items are simple to find and others extremely difficult.

If you like I Spy books and looking for things this book is great. The pictures are very imaginative. I really enjoyed it. Great for children and adults. Wonderful for Christmas fun.

Excellent for spotting the finer things in pictures. My 7 year old loves to look at these books over and over again.

Walter Wick books are a favorite of my 5-year old, and this one is a favorite of mine. The photos are absolutely beautiful and full of Christmas spirit. Although kids love the repetition of finding the same things over and over in hidden picture books, adults can get tired of it fast enough. But the photos in this book hold your attention like a coffee-table art book, making it a pleasure to find five Santas in the Gingerbread house for the umpteenth time.

I have the entire series of "Can You See What I See?" and my son at 4 1/2 really enjoys these. I bought his first book when he was about three. It has helped his visual skills so much that he can find some of the objects faster than I can.

As a teacher for boys and girls in juvenile reform centers, Mr. Preston has brought to print what more than 60 percent of my kids have suffered. This book is great for high school students and all teachers should take the time to read it and place it in their school libraries.
"Sometimes good people do bad things. A t some point , and to different degrees, we all succumb to our environment" (Frederick Preston)

This is an excellent first novel from Mr. Preston. He tells the story of January Calhoun and how circumstances in life can cause an intelligent young man to make the wrong decisions for his life. I enjoyed the characters and how we were able to see how they became the people they are. This is a good book for high schoolers to read. For adults it lets us know how important parents can be in guiding their children. My book club SILK (Sisters Increasing Literary Knowledge) really enjoyed this book and are looking forward to a movie based on it and a hopefully a sequel later.

When I finished this book, I felt like I just left the movie theatre. It was very exciting to read and it keep me wanting more and more. Great piece of work and hope hear more from James Preston.

My book club, "Spirit III", based out of Atlanta, Ga really enjoyed reading this novel. The antisipation of January's next move allowed the book to be an easy read. Once you get started, it's hard to put down. The author is very intelligent and has a keen sense of writing. We had the pleasure of having Frederick J.Preston, at one of our meetings. The are so many young men in the world that are striving to do the right thing, but sometimes this is a hard task for them without proper guidance. Mr. Preston, "broke it down"... Do AS I SAY NOT AS I DO. Read the novel and you'll understand just what point the author is making. I'd also recommend this novel to "rising" 9th grade young men.

this book has a LOT of messages for people of all races, ages, and backgrounds...I urge everyone to pick up this book and read it, more than once...!

I'm overwhelmed by this novel. It's about history, religion, travel, philosophy, phychiatry, biology--you name it and it's there. It's about a truly wise mother and father and their 5 children on a mission to do "God's work" in earthquake ravaged Naples, Italy. Domini knows Naples like the back of his hand, and he knows about traditional family and the workings on the inside. He knows about graft and people in high places trying to climb higher. I asked Domini if he is a Christian because only a Christian could have written about the inner workings of the Holy Spirit. Love this bookfor being politically incorrect and not apologizing about it. Janice Daugharty

John Domini is an extremely talented writer and all his skills are on display in Earthquake I.D. This is a suspenseful story full of mystery, believable characters, and wonderful images. The action begins in the opening pages when an American family arrives in Naples to help earthquake victims, and on their first day in the city are robbed by muggers on a motorcycle: "An elbow caught her, and as the cycle roared away the pain flared in her mind's eye in the shape of one attacker's kite-like blue bandanna--the lone bit of evidence the family would have for weeks to come." There are great moments like this on every page and the plot continues to thicken as we learn more about a colorful cast of characters, many of whom turn out not to be who they seem to be when we first meet them. Lots of well-timed surprises. This is the perfect novel to take on vacation.

EARTHQUAKE I. D. joins a not-so-lengthy list of great novels about Americans in Italy: these, a middle-class family led by an Italian American wife and mother, heroically adrift in her marriage and in a city she's had foisted upon her. Domini deftly fleshes out not only the emotional life of her family and its middle child, the "miracolino," but also contemporary Naples itself, a city of refugees, hucksters, facilitators and half-samaritans. The lives of all Domini's characters play themselves out in colorful threads of plot, which snake through the novel like medieval alleys and catacombs, and which Domini masterfully brings together in a series of climactic scenes that brought great joy to this middle-class American reader.

The colorful chaos of Naples is a huge part of this book's intriguing plot, filled with fully developed characters. Great holiday and great book club stuff! The central character, Barbara, is a rare case of a woman past forty, given the complexity and sensuality of an ingenue.

One John Domini novel equals about three semesters of creative writing. Accordingly, his latest book, "Earthquake I. D.," qualifiies him for a doctorate.
The book is about an earthquake, except that it isn't. It's about an accident that should have killed, a marriage that did die, and how a family teetering on oblivion manages to survive an earthly upheaval.
No ex-newspaperman should be allowed to review such a novel as "Earthquake I. D." News writers summarize in the first paragraph, then fill in the details until they run out of room, maybe 21 inches.
Domini, however, tints his narrative with subtlety, sympathy and shock; the reader has to pay attention.
That done, "Earthquake I.D." leaves the reader with a remarkable sense of fulfillment.

Walt Shotwell, retired Des Moines Register reporter/columnist

"The goal of this wonderful book is to glorify our Lord Jesus Christ,by drawing us closer to Him. Bryant and Cindy take us on a spiritual journey through the lives of family and friends,to experience God's grace, healing, love and His ever constant presence with us. With our eyes fixed on God we can experience joy in spite of sorrow and trials we may face. The stories gently remind us to turn to God to fill our every need. A truly inspirational writing for any age group or stage of life!

I plan to use this book as an encouragement to our students at the College Student Health Service where I work as a nurse. It will be great for our waiting room when students come in and are waiting to be seen"

Faith, hope, encouragement are essential to every human being; without these we at times could never face tomorrow or live today. Jesus did not promise us a perfect world, but He did promise us His strength to endure whatever life may bring our way.You know, in life there is an old saying about things it goes something like this, " You don't need it until you need it." I have often thought that about those who ignore God, just don't have time to know Him or just don't care to know Him. Troubles touch every humans life and for us who know Him we have an edge on those who don't. Remember, "You don't need HIM, until you need HIM," and in this life you will need HIM. Think about it. This book will help you do just that.
In this work, Experiencing the Great I Am, we are given 40- Faith-building stories from Christians who have tasted the pain of life in various forms and have encountered the Great I Am. Each story takes you along their personal experience that at times will not only show you that indeed God is ever present; but will put you on your knees in thankfulness that you have not lived their journey.
This book is a strong reminder of how fragile life can be; but it is also a stronger reminder of how faithful our God IS! The authors share their hearts with you, sometimes with raw emotion, but always at the end of the journey is the Great I Am!
If you need encouragement to know that God never leaves you, if you want a reminder of His love for you or if you just want to share stories of His ever present help in times of trouble, please read this book. A heart-warming work that will leave you smiling, looking up and whispering, "thank you," to a God who never leaves us and always loves us.

An important truth of following Christ is we do not look for adversity. Adversity will find us! In the pages of this book, Cindy and Bryant have compiled story after story of adversity's role in deepening His saints and God getting the ultimate glory. The ancients said `God is an ever-present help in time of trouble'. Thank you Bryant and Cindy for reminding me of the constant relevance of that promise.

I eagerly read each and every story with a sense of awe at what God can do. This book helps me to realise that God is there in the mist of our need and we can truly count on Him.

I don't usually read in the summer, but this book was an exception. I thought it was truly heart warming.

James C.
college student

If you haven't read Regeneration, you are making a big mistake if you read The Eye in the Door before Regeneration. Regeneration sets the stage for The Eye in the Door and provides much background information that you need to appreciate this book.

Those who liked the first book in the Regeneration trilogy, Regeneration, will absolutely adore The Eye in the Door. The characters from Regeneration return, and you have a chance to find out the consequences of the treatments they received from Dr. William Rivers in Regeneration. Pat Barker builds on the tensions, damage, doubts, and despair of mid-World War I to show how much more desperate matters were for the British by the spring of 1918.

In developing these themes, Pat Barker does a masterful job of explaining how a soldier has to operate both by emotion and by objective distance in order to function. From there, she helps us use the crucible of war to see how that duality is important to everyday functioning for all people.

As the title indicates, the book builds on a central metaphor of everyone being under observation as doubts build about Britain's ability to win the war. Those on the margins are most under pressure and at greatest risk.

I thought that the portrayal of Lieutenant Billy Prior was brilliant. He comes across as the kind of complex, interesting character that can help us learn a lot about Ms. Barker's messages for us. The eye metaphor is nicely developed in the context of Billy's life.

Brava, Ms. Barker!

People existing against a war background-normal people doing normal things whilst shouldering the burden of their experiences, their fears and societies norms and expectations.

A lovely book that always has the lightest of touches in the darkest of moments. Nothing is simple and nothing is complicated, but everything is ambiguous and dwarfed by "the front" and what is expected.

The writing is always simple, but the ideas, concepts and dilemmas dealt with are complex and impossible to resolve. Class and duty are themes; the most interesting theme in my opinion is that of being a pacifist, a father figure to your men and a violent war hero simultaneously. (By the nature of things, war heroes are violent.)

My one regret is that I have only just realised that this book is part of a trilogy and that I have read it out of sequence... although on the positive side it means I have two more books to explore. I would strongly recommend this book; I have just gone and bought one of Sassoon's books as a direct result of it awakening school hood poems by him and Wilfred Owens.

THE EYE IN THE DOOR is the second installment in Pat Barker's marvelous Regeneration trilogy. In this volume the principle characters of Dr. Rivers and Prior have left Criaglockhart War Hospital and are now living in London. Although Dr. Rivers has taken a new position treating shell-shock soldiers who have returned from the front in France, he continues to keep in touch and treat his former patients from Criaglockhart, especially Prior. Amidst the bombing and blackouts of wartime London, Prior continues to suffer from war neurosis as he embarks on solving a mystery that involves his childhood friends and acquaintances. He is confronted by England's societal fixation with fear and scapegoating of those who are believed to deter from the war effort (mainly war deserters and homosexuals). Individuals are often forced to hide their true attributes from society during this time of societal finger pointing and blaming. As in the previous volume of this trilogy, the characters of Prior and Dr. Rivers are well developed and nuanced. I continually enjoy reading about their trials and tribulations, and look forward to reading the third and final volume in this trilogy.

THE EYE IN THE DOOR (spoilers)

Ms Barker's epigraph, a quote from Stevenson, sets the tone: "It was on the moral side, and in my own person, that I learned to recognize the thorough and primitive duality of man. I saw that, of the two natures that contended in the field of my consciousness, even if I could rightly be said to be either, it was only because I was radically both."

I am hampered in critiquing the trilogy, since I've read only the first two works, REGENERATION and THE EYE IN THE DOOR. The first of these concentrates on the relation between the enlightened, humane Dr Rivers and the war hero/war protester Siegfried Sassoon, who has been labeled a war neurotic ("shell-shocked") in order to avoid confronting his rational case against the war. Both Rivers and Sassoon are historical characters who the author effectively fictionalizes (their dialogues, etc).

The second novel focuses on the relation between Rivers and Billy Prior, a relatively minor character in the first. The book is set on a wider stage than REGENERATION, which was confined to the (real) mental hospital of Craiglockhart in Scotland. Here we are in London, during the crisis produced by the initial success of the Germans' spring offensive in 1918. As happens during defeats, the search is on for scapegoats seen as undermining the war effort, groups like pacifists and ... who are seen as destroying the nation's "moral fiber." Ludicrously, the leading anti-... crusader, lays the blame on the Germans, who are said to have sent homosexual agents over before the war to corrupt English youth.

Billy Prior, on medical leave from the front, works for a counter-intelligence agency, but his loyalties are divided, since his earliest friends are pacifists and "conchies" (conscientious objectors). The result of these divided loyalties is a split consciousness, where the fugue state ("Hyde") takes over at times, doing things that the "daytime" Billy is not aware of, but whose consequences nevertheless he must face. It is this split consciousness that Rivers must deal with-and on one occasion, he deals directly with "Hyde," who speaks of Billy in the third person.

At the crisis of the novel, Billy's alter ego betrays his closest friend, something that the daytime Billy at first denies doing, but which he finally comes to suspect he has actually done. Rivers treats the psychological phenomenon by making Billy see that it is basically Oedipal, that he actually wished to kill his father, who had, in Billy's sight and hearing, beat and abused his mother. One manifestation of this hatred is "Hyde's": punching the agent provocateur Spragge, who looks like Billy's father. To complicate the issue, his father is a socialist/pacifist, a fact which may contribute to Billy's ambivalent attitude to his pacifist friends, one of whom he helps, as he betrays the other.

Sassoon make another appearance here, having gone back to France (partly at Rivers' suggestion), and once again been wounded (by friendly fire). But Sassoon's appearance doesn't seem to contribute to the plot of this novel, tho it may have a role to play in the trilogy as a whole. (Maybe his divided consciousness is relevant, since he was very effective at killing Germans, but at home becomes a "dove") Another seemingly extraneous thread is Manning, one of Billy's sex partners.

But basically a rich novel, recalling a key point in Western history. In many ways, WWI was more traumatic than WWII, since it occurred after almost a century or relative peace in Europe. And, as Barker makes clear, WWI was harder on soldiers than was WWII.

Trivia: Why were French troops show on the covers of the paper editions of the first two novels? They play no role in the novels themselves (tho they played the major role on the Western Front).

After reading "Regeneration", the second novel of the trilogy "Eye in the Door" expands in terms of characterization and plot complexity. Whereas Regeneration is superb in its exploration of the consciousness of Siegfreid Sassoon and his psychiatrist, Dr. River; Eye in the Door expands the character of Billy Prior to become one of the most psychologically well developed and complex characters in English fiction.

Billy Prior , a bisexual, has both male and female lovers in this novel. These relationships are embedded in the homophobic atmosphere of war torn London. Prior, suffering from "shell shock" struggles with his identify of war hero and pacifism. He struggles with childhood trauma in a society where repressesions are let lose in a war charged atmospher.

The book is beautifully written. Whereas Regeneration explores Sassoon's struggles to brng meaning into a meaningless situation, Eye in the Door explores more of the societal struggles with the war and individual reactions to the pressures of a war time society.

I loved this book and would give it 10 stars if I could.

This book is a good self-reading story with a fun character my second grader can relate to.

My daughter loves Fancy Nancy books. I think the character is cute and perfect for little girls. This is a starter book, but I figured she could pass it on to younger friends and get them started on Fancy Nancy after she reads it.

My five year old daughter enjoys listening to Fancy Nancy and recites pages and those 'fancy words' throughout her day.

She's charming...and you can't help but love her. How cute it was that she thought she had finally met a real French person...oh well, Paris, Texas isn't very close to the Riveria, but as the book says, she did make a new friend, and that's a good thing too.

This book is darling and fun to read with a kindergartener/first grader. If you like the other "Fancy Nancy" books, then you'll be pleased with this one. You can't beat the price.

It really doesn't. This book tells how much easier it can be once you set you mind to it. It's mostly willpower and sticking to a plan. This is as good as any of the others out there.

The thing I liked about this book was that it wasn't just about losing weight, it had lots of social commentary--my favorite being the whole "it's genetics" routine. The author really hits upon some major hot spots within the book and takes on cooperations who help make us all "fat".

Sure, the program is relatitevly easy and does seem to work--oddly enough, who would think that eating less could contribute to weight loss? But the real reason to read this book is the comments on the weight loss industry. I have to totally agree and say that the diet industry doesn't want any of us any thinner. If they did, wouldn't a few of their diets work?

All in all, this is a good book not only because the program can actually help people to lose weight, but because it might even open a few eyes and ears. Just thinking about all the things that conspire to make us eat more and more makes me sick. Therefore, I am very glad I read this book.

To the author of this book, I just want to say a big thank you for being so honest with us.

I bought into the low carb craze, starting with a popular food combining plan, then to Atkins. I know these plans work for some, but not for me. I started suffering from severe fatigue, chronic mood swings that were hard to control (this from being so darn tired all the time), never lost weight, but what was my breaking point was when I started having irregular heart beats, my arms would tingle and go numb, my hands would swell and icth (that, and being on bi-polar meds when I knew something else was wrong). Turns out I was reacting to Splenda. I thought I was having heart attacks! Scared me to death! Then I realized, how do you low carb if you can't use sugar subs, when the whole point of the diet is to be sugar free. Well, a light bulb went off and something clicked. We think low fat diets are bad because they emphasise replacing fat with sugars and chemically enhanced foods, so low carbers won't touch low fat stuff because of the hidden sugars and chemicals, yet they will eat low carb stuff with chemical sweeteners, this makes no sense!
At that point, now that I will never touch a artificial sweetener in my life, I needed to learn how to balance foods so I can eat real foods, including fat and sugar, to be healthy and lose weight, and this book did that for me. It makes so much sense. It is hard to learn portion control, to eat only when hungry and to stop when full, not stuffed, but everyday it gets easier and easier. I do make good choices over bad (whole grains over processed, fruit over desserts, etc, but now that I eat from all food groups, I get full with less food, something I never experienced with low carb.

Its nice to be free of the "diets". All the money spent on diet cookbooks and special ingredients never did anything for me, but taking the advice of this book has done a lot, and it cost me nothing more than the cover price. No specialty ingredients, no plan to follow or lists of foods I can eat or need to avoid, just good old fashioned common sense.

Thank you!!! I wish more people could read this book. Especially all those suffering from 1 diet to the next.
And by the way, since I have stopped doing low carb and eat like a real person, no more mood swings. Gone, all of them, and no more fatigue! I'm able to work out daily now and live my life, something that seemed so out of reach just 2 months ago.

I'm done with dieting for good!!!!!! I can't believe how I've overlooked this common sense approach. I can't beleive how I've been fooled. This book deserves to be right up there with the best of them. It's not gimicky and it's not starvation and it's not eating a million pounds of bacon. It's just good advice to be had. If everyone would stop and open their eyes like this book advises, there would be NO overweight people in America! Time to wake up, everyone! And, no, there is no simple plan in this book, it just tells you to eat what you want but don't gorge!!! That's the problem, we can't stop feeding our faces or having an immese fear of starvation, just like she says. I'm just so glad I found it. I'm serious. If you want to lose weight, like I did, read this book. If you're happy being fat, skip it cause her advice WON'T sit well if you're in denial!!!

This is what I thought Secrets of a former fat girl would be from
all the good reviews. This is a much better book in that the author
shares her story AND...unlike lisa delany's book tells you how she
did it. Bravo Kim!

Nicely done Pete. It will hang, deservedly, on its' own nail next to my Farmers Almanac.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book and found myself laughing out loud during many of the chapters. It was funny, witty, charming and impossible to put down. I am now anxiously waiting to read about the 'second half of an average man's life'. Thanks for the entertainment!

I really enjoyed the book and could not put it down. Pete is incredibly witty and honest. I laughed out loud several times. The book is an extraordinary account of an "average man's life." Congratulations to Pete--the book is awesome.

What a great read...I laughed hard and cried harder. So many of us say we want to do things in our life...but to say you want to write a book for your dad and have it published and actually go through with it.....awesome!! I never put it down and enjoyed every page. I would highly recommend this book to all!! Thanks Pete for a great read!!

I found this book to be thoughtful, moving and entertaining. The author takes you right out of your own mundane existence and places you into his own unique view of life as he knows it. And oh yeah I peed my pants laughing. OMG I LMAO! FANTASTIC!

I bought this book to get a better understanding of the glycemic index, and use it to try to manage my insulin-dependent diabetes.

It came up a bit short. I am a bit of a "geek", and I was hoping for a more detailed discussion of the index. Instead I got a rather simplified version. I was also hoping for numeric values, but instead the book listed a low/medium/high rating.

The index was fairly comprehensive, although it showed L/M/H, as described above.

The book has a number of useful tips, but borders on being condescending at times.

If you are looking for a theoretical understanding of what the glycemic index is all about, this is not your book. If you want a reasonable index of foods with some thoughts on lowering your glycemic load, this is not a bad place to start.

I hated the size of the book- it is about 5" square. It is too small to fit in your pocket (as an aid in shopping), and just small enough to get lost on a bookshelf.

A very good explanation of what is meant by the Glycemic Index, how it works and why.

Helpful in understanding the concept of diminished hunger using Glycemic Index as a dietary guide.

I have found this book to be very helpful in understanding the Glycemic Index. It's presented in simple, easy to understand language and concepts, but it's not a dumbed-down version. It's a comprehensive look at the facts behind the glycemic index. It's motivational in tone, upbeat for the outcome, and sits on a foundation of solid science. I'm quite pleased with this purchase and have started feeling better already. GREAT book.

If you told me a month ago I'd be taking tablespoons of flax seed oil to increase my polyunsaturated fat intake, I'd of told you you're nuts, but here I am. What I like most about this book was how it presented information but then leaves the application up to you. I'd much rather learn and then figure out how to apply it to myself, so this was the perfect book for me.

I also just gave this book to my entire family for Christmas and most have already called to thank me. It's a short book and the information is easily digestable. My mom who's the most not technical/science person I know thoroughly enjoyed it.

_Goshawk Squadron_ tells the story of a WWI squadron of pilots in the winter and spring of 1918. Robinson is ruthless in the treatment of his characters, tragic death following tragic death as both replacements and old hands fall from the sky as part of the randomness and unpredictability of war. This, and Robinson's portrayal of daily life within the squadron are its strong points. Each character struggles to cope with the stress and uncertainty of their job, compounded by the hard and heavy-handed leadership of the protagonist, Major Woolley - an anti-hero whose training methods are unconventional but effective.

Perhaps it is because the book is over thirty-years old, but many of the characters have become cliched: Woolley, for example is seen in film again and again (from the Dirty Dozen to the Die-Hard franchise); even some of the pilots are stereotypical (the fire-and-brimstone son of missionaries, the simple country bumpkin, the blue-blooded aristocrat unaccustomed to being treated with disdain and disrespect by the stern, common-man commanding officer ...) I also had difficulty keeping track of characters - partially because so many of them arrived to the squadron before they were killed, but partially because in only a few instances was there any remarkable feature that made them memorable or distinguishable from the others. This, of course, could be intentional, as Woolley himself doesn't expect any of them to live beyond the next three months.

Even with these shortcomings, though, I give the book four stars. Through Wooley, Robinson strips the veneer of "honor", "fairplay" and "sportsmanship" from combat, instead emphasizing what war really is: cold-blooded killing in as quick and efficient a manner as possible. He also shows the helplessness men underfire feel, and his descriptions of aerial combat are among the best I've read.

Excellent book with truly dramatic descriptions of WW1 flying and ground wars and their impacts on British class structure.

Like most others I know of who have read Derek Robinson's novels of British fliers in WWI and WWII, I think him far and away the best writer on the subject. With relentless humor and realism he gets us to imagine what it was like to be pretty certain you were going to die there, just unsure when.

And he is unsparing of staff leadership that didn't have a clue. In Robinson's war, you fly to kill people--neither more nor less--or die yourself.

I like this novel of the 1918 campaigns a bit less well than the hard-to-find Hornet's Sting about the early war, 1915, in which the humor, suitable to the absurd reality really works. But I like it better than his best known and very good WWII book about the RAF in the Battle of Britain stripped of myth, A Piece of Cake. It is a shame that his books aren't more easily available.

It is still the same today...and probably always will be.
Retired USAF Pilot (220 combat missions per war)

This is a stunning book. Wonderful characters, biting humour. This would make an absolutely stunning film provided it wasnt made by an American studio, and just left unadulterated. I even started to draft a stage version when I was at school because I thought the strength of the characters could come across without even being able to realise the aerial combat sequences. Its hard not to think of ourselves in terms of the youngsters posted to the squadron, and revile in the northern cynisism of Major Woolley, but as the story unfold, you start to see the cracks in his veneer and how very hard he is trying too get the message across to his young charges, they are here not to survive, but to kill. Like the "municipal rat catcher".
They went into combat in what were basically powered kites, structural failure was common, often pilots went into action with less than 10 hours flying experience. No time to train at the front, just the hope that as "anti-Woolley" Biggles used to say, "if you survice your first couple of trips, you might survive a week, if you get to a month, then you have a chance of becoming a bigger danger to the hun than you are to yourself."
Ask youself that if you were to go into combat, what sort of leader would you like? Hopefully, you will never have to, but read this book and remember those who did.