I read this book with my Language Arts class and have an absolutely fabulous teacher. Every day in class we have a quote of the day and then do a "quick write". After we do this we read one of Ralph Fletcher's I Am Wings: Stories of Love and evaluate based on the way the words are layed out on the pages and talking about it out loud; figure out what the poem means. It is a very realistic book and challenges young and old alike to think about what the author is trying to say and talks in depth about the typical middle school dating relationship. As my class got into the book I found myself looking forward to the poems and the saga of Lea and his girlfriend. Great book for anyone. ~Amanda~

I bought this book at Heritage USA in Charlotte, NC, which I visited out of curiosity's sake as the scandal was mushrooming and the place was on the verge of being closed down. I've kept it on my bookshelf ever since. It's her autobiography, and it is, of course, a hysterical read. It also comes complete with family pictures from childhood (pre-makeup) to adulthood. Both Jim and Tammy do a lot of crying, and she dispenses wisdom like 'if you give the Lord a $20 he'll give you $200 back.'

Few collections include so wide a variety of epigrams, satire and simply nasty poems as Kenneth Baker's "I Have No Gun But I Can Spit" (the title is from Auden). Selections run from classic Latin (Horace in translation) to Pope and Swift and a good many poets less well known than they should be.

"I Hear Adventure Calling" is one of my all-time favorite books. It is set right after World War II, and the main character, Fran, chooses to move to a small town in New England for her first job. Previously, she has been in college and held different war jobs. This is her first taste of freedom because she has always lived with her strict aunt who wanted her close by. Her aunt has died and left her a trust fund with the stipulation that her brother, Ken, be the guardian and that Fran cannot marry without his approval. Ken, however, must stay overseas on a top-secret mission, so he appoints his friend, Myles, to be Fran's guardian. Fran dislikes Myles intensely and tries to avoid him, but becomes entangled with Myles in a web of deceit and suspense. This is a wonderful story that I can read over and over again, but I am afraid that this review does not do it justice. I highly recommend this book and any others by Emilie Loring.

This is not the James Baker Hall of "Music for a Broken Piano" and "Yates Paul". There are 2 Jim Hall's who are authors...this is the other. I have not read this collection

Ntozake Shange's poem, "i live in music", along with Romare Bearden's collages are presented together in this appealing book. The text and the visuals are skillfully paired and they feed each other's expressions.

"i got 15 trumpets where other women got hips

& a upright bass for both sides of my heart"

Shange's words are in turn playful, soulful, artful. The music she describes is encompassing and tangible - a real thing to be felt and true part of our beings.

Bearden's collages and paintings are vivid, engaging images of African American life and culture. The images are expressive and rich illustrations of musicians and singers. "Show Time" and "Fancy Sticks" are nearly audible - one can see the rhythm and song.

Shange and Bearden's talents complement each other so well one would think this had been a concurrent, collaborative effort rather than subsequent assemblage.

Along with i live in music, I highly recommend all the books in this series by Stewart, Tabori & Chang's Art and Poetry series:

"Life Doesn't Frighten Me", poem by Maya Angelou, paintings by Jean-Michel Basquiat..... "may i feel said he", poem by e. e. cummings, paintings by Marc Chagall...... "Dance Me to the End of Love", poem by Leonard Cohen, paintings by Henri Matisse

Each one would be a wonderful gift for a teacher, art lover, musician, poet,.... or anyone seeking inspiration. Treat yourself to one - or all.

For all ages.

I LOVE IT THE TRICKS WERE SO EASY TO PREFORM BUT ALWAYS BAFFLED PEOPLE. THANK YOU FOR WRITING SUCH A COMPLETE BOOK.

This book offers a genuine, new approach to the educational discourse. By analyzing texts by Locke, Rosseau, Herbart and Hall, Bernadette Baker re-writes the history of education.

Baker reads these canonized educators through a brand new pair of glasses: Foucault's theory of power and Derrida's de-constructive ethics.

Through her elegant analyzis, she questions both common educational beliefs and our inherited, non-refelctive conception on Power, Pedagogy and the Child.

This book therefore prooves the intelligibility of "postmodern" educational research.

Discusses the investigatory work performed in laboratories using such clues as fingerprints, tire tracks, bullet holes, and artists sketches.

Keith Michael Baker is a highly esteemed historian (previously at U. of Chicago, now at Stanford) of the Enlightenment and the French Revolution. This book is a collection of essays that are unified by their subject matter, which can be described as "the intellectual and ideological origins of the French Revolution".

A few of these essays are more historiographical/theoretical in nature. That is to say, they are more concerned with questions of how historians approach this subject and the methods and intellectual tools they bring to bear on it. These are quite smart (and extremely influential) pieces-- and they have a general applicability to the subject of intellectual/ideological history, and not just to the French Revolution. However, like all works of historiography/methodology, the questions they pose are probably not going to be of interest to anybody other than other historians. (That's a pity really, as these are important questions that history buffs, and even just ordinary folks probably *should* take some interest in...)

Most of the essays in "Inventing the French Revolution", however, are case studies of particular ways in which political ideologies were deployed and contested before and during the Revolution. One of the most important of these has to do with the practice of writing history during the eighteenth century, as well as the collection of documents, the creation of archives, etc. Far from being a disinterested practice, Baker shows, the writing of the past was a way of engaging in partisan political debate. There were royal historians who presented the French past in such a way that tended to legitimize the claims of the crown over those of the aristocracy-- and other historians who took the opposite approach. Libraries and archives were creted on both sides to serve as "ideological aresenals" to provide arms to conduct this ideological/political battle, which provided some of the "ground principles" on which the debates that led to the Creation of the Estates-General (and then the National Assembly) and other events in 1789 and beyond.

All in all, this is an extremely smart, thoughtful, and insightful book. However, it is also a dense book. Though Baker writes clearly , he deals with a lot of heavy, complicated, and abstract concepts-- and he treats them with the seriousness and complexity that they require, rather than oversimplifying them. Consequently, this can sometimes be tough reading for those more used to graceful stylists (like Peter Gay). Also, it should be noted that this is a book about the creation of the *ideologies* that were deployed in both the pre-Revolutionary and Revoultionary era. As such, it's a work of intellectual history, and of political ideology in specific. This means that its a book about ideas, their development, and their function in political discourse. Those expecting a dramatic narrative of the French Revolution that includes the storming of the Bastille and bloody guillotines will be sorely disappointed. Finally, in case it's not obvious from this review, it should be noted that this really is a work of scholarship, written by a professional historian, primarily for other historians. Non-historians who know a lot about the Enlightenment and Revolution may still get something out of this if they're thoughtful and patient, but it's *not* a work of popular history, or a work intended to be read by someone who's not already knowledgeable about the general subject.