Tracks Books

Ms. Quinn Smith very boldly puts it right out there, as far as kids getting too much influence from the media and growing up too early in our world today. We have a teen as well as a preteen and this book was exactly what I was looking for. I highly recommend it to anyone with teens!

Perhaps the best book to ever capture the true essence and spirit of long distance running, this well written book features interviews with both amateur and Olympic long distance runners and captures that unique rush that runners get (through the sense of challenge and accomplishment). The book also traces the history of marathon running and its place in human history. Truly a great book that any distance runner should read.

If you grew up in the South, you have to love Lewis Grizzard. He describes his life and loves with all the evocative phrases and drawls that bring back relatives long dead (or at least not seen for a while). And my husband, who grew up in Pennsylvania, finds it even funnier than I do!

This is a great book for budding young naturalists or scientists. M's Schlein tells the story of Harry Johnston and his trip to Africa to discover the okapi. She captures the reader's attention with the information while also teaching about the scientific method of investigation.

Besides the description of how Mr Johnston came to discover the okapi, M's Schlein also includes a complete description of the okapi and the way the okapi lives in its natural habitat.

M's Sanderson is a major contributor to this book. Her wonderful drawings detail the whole story - how the pygmies assisted in locating the okapi, what the okapi look like and their habitat, and various genus and species.

The book and illustrations work together so perfectly it would be good for everybody to read this book. It would be especially good for children that have an interest in animals or have scientific bent their mind. The more artistically inclined child would definitely enjoy the drawings.

Get the book and find out about this strange new animal.

I wrote this book for two reasons.

First, many books about leadership in recent years, especially those about Christian leadership, have focused on leadership character. While character is essential, it must be linked to solid skills. In this short book, I hoped to provide a leadership skills primer, something that would help a new or developing leader know what to do first or next. Leadership is challenging but it is not rocket science. The parts of a leader's work can be understood, learned, and, yes, even mastered. This is not the last book someone will want to read on leadership; I hope it may be helpful as the first book for many new leaders. I know I would have done better in my early years of ministry and corporate leadership if I had focused clearly on the essential leadership skills I describe in OnTrack Leadership.

The second reason I wrote this book was to raise money for the building campaign for my church, Grace Community Church in Brentwood, TN. My wife and I attend a fairly new, young church. As a couple in our 50s, we are the "senior adults" of this wonderful church. Our pastor challenged the congregation to fast and pray and ask God to show us how we could give more to the building campaign than would otherwise be possible. For my wife and I, OnTrack Leadership was the answer to that prayer. Without going into the details, I was able to complete the book and assign the contract for the book to my church. My wife and I gave it as part of our gift to the building campaign. So if you buy the book, check out the front matter and you'll see that the copyright is held by Grace Community Church. I have no financial stake in the book and all royalties, past, present and future, go to our church. So if you buy the book, I hope you'll enjoy knowing that you are helping a young church pay for a new building.

I appreciate you taking a look at OnTrack Leadership. I hope you will find it helpful as you continue as a leader in business, in ministry, or in whatever arena you are privileged to lead.

This book provides a weekly homework page for your Pre-K students. Each week the child has an oral language, gross motor, fine motor, and read a book activity. The only materials families needs are pencil, crayons, scissors, glue, and time. It is perfect for busy families because they can do one activity a night, and it encourages parents to talk to their children.

Salt and pepper; a common spice used to spice food. However, in abstract practice, salt and pepper may suggest human color, white and black or brown. Salt and pepper, as an ingredient, is much needed to spice food. Similarly, prejudice, narrow-mindedness, and bigotry are ingredients widely used to spice hatred, discrimination and injustice against race, religious beliefs, ethnicity and even sexual preference.

Author Tony Cano tells a horrible, hideous and vile story to say the least, of discrimination and bigotry in the town he was born in and raised. A Mexican American, he and the rest of the Mexican kids his age as well as their parents was discriminated against. They were discriminated against in such a vile way that makes one think if such atrocious, brutal, and vicious behavior against a race is possible. Much to the consternation, and dismay of the reader of "The Other Side Of The Tracks," it is!

"...Behold men, as it were, in an underground cave-like dwelling, having its entrance towards the light, which extends through the whole cave. Within it, persons, who from childhood on, have had chains on their legs and their necks; so they can look forward only, but not turn their heads around because of the chains, their light coming from a fire that burns above, far off and behind them."

Plato: THE REPUBLIC, BOOK VII, 2
(Italics mine.)

And, so it was with the Mexican American kids in Marfa, Texas. A small farming town which made sure Mexican Americans were kept from being human beings, and where cattle was treated much better than any Mexican American human being. Marfa, Texas, a small town who made certain that Mexican American kids stayed in the jailhouse instead of a hotel or motel when they competed in sports in other small towns as Alpine, and Abeline, Texas. Those towns too, were filled with hatred and discrimination. They proudly displayed signs in their business establishments, which said, "No Dogs or Mexicans Allowed." Marfa, Texas a small town so dead-set in discrimination and bigotry the Mexican American population had to live on "The Other Side Of The Tracks."

Read Tony Cano's story and get your heart and soul turned inside out!

Readers interested in the relationship between railroad and cinema should not look beyond Parallel Tracks, Lynne Kirby's extremely entertaining and insightful historical coverage of the how the train can be seen as a precursor to cinema. Conceptions of spectatorship, travel and suggestibililty normally associated with cinematic viewing practices are forcefully argued as inherent properties of how a passenger experiences rail travel. Perhaps a fault of the book is that it ends with the birth of sound cinema, when the whistle of the incoming train signified a new stage in cinematic representations of rail journeys, gender and identity. I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in classic American silent film, westerns and rail thrillers, as well as those interested in how the railroad continues to impact on the triad of cinema, identity and modernity.

Elton Glaser's new work presents a rich gumbo of precise observation and down-home longing. Having known Mr. Glaser and his writing for 35 years, I find these poems to be among his finest to date. His potent blend of erudition and Louisiana vernacular creates humor, perception, and profound connection with ourselves. I recommend his work highly to readers who appreciate a master of language, intellect, and emotion in verse.

This book complements the other biographical and (semiauto)biographical works on Richard Feynman. In many ways we see him more intimately than ever before.

I once read a book describing the Roman Catholic Church as a struggle between saints and cardinals. (I would love to refind this book.) The cardinals were the guardians of orthodoxy, the saints broke new ground. The cardinals often burned the saints for heresy, then the saint's ideas became accepted and the next generation of cardinals beatified the ex-heretic (while burning the next future saint). Saint Joan is the best-known example of this habit.

Whether it is Einstein (who was described as a lazy dog by his professors at graduate school) or Feynman (whose paper that ultimately recieved the nobel prize was originally excoriated by his seniors) events move faster now, and original minds can now be canonized within their lifetimes. Einstein famously said something like "I always resented authorities - God has now punished me by making me an authority".

This book can be regarded as the record of Feynman's attempt to evade or accept this fate.