"No, no, no," said Santa in a kindly voice, "Christmas hasn't got anything to do with me. Sit down and I'll tell you all the story of the first Christmas."

"Santa's Favorite Story" is an attractively illustrated (with watercolors) picture book for children, which helps to de-emphasize Santa's role in Christmas, and helps to place the focus where it should belong. I'm sure the real Saint Nicholas would agree that it's part of his favorite story as well! (For more on the real St. Nicholas, take a look at "The Saint Nicholas Secret," by Dennis E. Engleman, available here at Amazon.com.)

We have had this book in our family for many years...it is read on Christmas Eve right along with "The Night Before Christmas" and St. Luke's Gospel. It truly answers their questions about Santa and the real meaning of Christmas. A true treasure.

Santa goes for a walk in the woods to get in shape for Christmas deliveries. However, he gets tired and ends up falling asleep under a tree. When the forest animals gather 'round him and he tells them he might be too tired to deliver the presents this year, an alarmed fox asks, "Does that mean there won't be a Christmas anymore?" Santa replies, "No, no no...Christmas hasn't got anything to do with me." And he tells them his favorite story -- about the first Christmas, when Jesus the Son of God was born. He concludes, "Love was the gift God gave to us on the first Christmas, and it still is, you know. And this love is far better than any presents I can ever deliver." Re-energized by his remembering of the story, he and the animals return to his house to prepare for Christmas and deliver the presents.

This is an equally fun and meaningful story. The illustrations are lovely, too. I plan to make the reading of this book a part of our family's Christmas tradition.

The book is very well written. Easy to understand and once you've read it you can start realizing your potential and how to get started, and suceed. I have meet and listened to Skip as a speaker on this and other topics, this book is a classic!

As a former camper at Skip Ross' youth camps, I initially read this book 20 years ago and have re-read many times since. It continues to be, in my humble opinion, the greatest guide in acheiving success and healthy self esteem. This book is perfect for anyone at any age who wants to learn to reach their full potential.

I have gone from someone who was a very shy person and is living a life more creative and dynamic and happily too.

Don't let the branding fool you -- this is easily the best book on lawns currently available. I've read many books on the subject, and most of them are very simplistic and useless, or spend some time on the lawn and then go off into growing vegetables or flowers. This one is just on lawns, and contains sections on lawn weeds, lawn pests, types of grass -- basically everything you could think to ask or need to know about how to maintain a great lawn.

Makes a terrific housewarming gift, too. I wish someone had given me one!

Worth the price just for the extensive section on weed indentification and eradication with color pictures. Since they have drastically cut back extension agents and services in our area who used to be able to field lawn questions, this is an invaluable reference for the homeowner.

I found this book to be simple to understand, yet extremely helpful in helping me to do what is best for my lawn. I would highly recommend this book to all who are interested in improving their lawns.

In A Season For Justice: Defending The Rights Of The Christian Home, Church, And School, David French (Counsel for Intervarsity Christian Fellowship's Religious Freedom Crisis Team) brings to bear his many years of litigious expertise and experience as a courtroom defender of the rights and constitutional freedoms of the Christian community. French traces how Christians have fought for their legal rights through the use of anecdotal stories, case studies, and personal accounts illustrating and showcasing battles to preserve the basic right to share gospel teaching in their churches, schools, and workplaces. A Season For Justice is informed and strongly recommended reading for those concerned with the freedom of religion, and the relationship of Church and State, within the American constitutional framework.

I found this book to be very enlightening on the issues and hurdles facing many of our Christian brothers today. This book serves as a wake-up call to those of us who may have become lethargic and lazy in our faith. I believe you will find "A Season for Justice" to be highly educational and inspirational.

This book is very educational, but the tone of the book is conversational and approachable. The author talks about religious freedom issues in quite interesting and remarkably innovative ways. I have been a Christian all my life, have heard the arguments from the pulpit about how we need to "take our country back" from those who try to relegate Christianity to the back rooms and away from public life. I always agreed to some extent, but never felt empowered because I didn't understand HOW to do that precisely. This book explains the HOW. If you are remotely interested in American culture and Christianity's place in that culture, this book's for you. If you wonder how September 11th changed things in America's spiritual/political climate, this book's for you. I highly recommend the purchase of A Season for Justice. It will change the way you think about the "culture wars," and it will give you courage to stand up in the name of Christ to actually fight these battles.

Lynn has managed to gather the cream of the writing crop in this beautiful book. How wonderful when the "insides" meet up to the gorgeous "outsides" of a book's promising cover. This is the perfect book to give to a friend for any special (or ordinary) occassion. May God Bless you, Lynn Morrisey, as you continue to write, and gather the writing "gold" for more books!

Seasons of A Woman's Heart is a timely treasure in my reading. I love the warm variety of stories and devotional thoughts. Sometimes I read a page while I am waiting to "get on line". Lynn Morrissey has put together an uplifting and meaningful collection. It is indeed a blessing. It would make a lovely gift for a friend. My only suggestion is that some of the quotes at the top of each page be a little more complete in thought.

I love the variety of experiences that I am finding in this book. Just reading them encourages me to know that I am not the only one living through them and that God is with me through all of them.

This is an awesome book and an awesome series. You will laugh, cry, and adore this story line. Debra White Smith has a way of touching your heart with real life issues that you can relate to and that bring you closer in your relationship with the Lord.

I really enjoyed this book, and would very highly recommend it to anyone. I would give it more stars if I could. It's romantic and has a great and entertaining storyline.

This is my first of I am sure many Debra White Smith books. I absolutely loved this one. The author kept you wishing the couple would get together and you could feel the suspense of impending danger. I can't wait to read the sequels.

Pssst! Yes, you! Come closer. Want to know a secret? Have I got a terrific book for you!
Hey, what am I doing? Let's shout this from the rooftops and share the good news. Vickey
Banks has done a superb job of Sharing His Secrets in her wonderful new book about the
women with whom Jesus shared His life and His most intimate moments. I smiled, I cried, I
dreamed, I grew, all the while knowing that if they could get closer to Jesus then I could, too.
The amazing thing is that I have repeatedly read these Biblical accounts; but this time, thanks
to Banks's fresh insights, I read them with new and knowing eyes. My favorite story was about
the woman at the well. I had always thought that the Samaritan woman was satisfying Jesus's
physical thirst. Banks made me realize that He also thirsted for her love. Amazing! Jesus
thirsting for me. That insight alone has revolutionized my relationship with Him. Sharing His
Secrets will help shape your moments with Jesus to be the most intimate you have ever spent.
And once you learn these secrets, you will likely reveal them to others. These are secrets you
simply must not keep!
-Lynn D. Morrissey, author & speaker

Vickey does an outstanding job of bringing you face-to-face with Jesus and the women who encountered Him. You'll not only get great Biblical insights into the women Jesus met, but you'll be personally challenged to grow more intimately acquainted with the Savior. The prompted prayers at the end of each chapter will hit you in the face and bring you closer to the One who continues to make a difference in the lives of women today.

I had often read about Jesus raising the son of the widow in Nain, but never through the lens of a call to compassion as Vickey Banks develops in her book, "Sharing His Secrets." If you feel nameless and unimportant in this big, wide world, you need Vickey's book as an affirmation that you are named and known to God. Her book draws spiritual lessons from the lives of ten who knew Jesus, including seven whose names are lost to history. They aren't lost, however, to the Lord, who cared for them genuinely in a time when women were second-class citizens. Despite the gap of 2,000 years between our lives and theirs, we share their needs: salvation, compassion, faith, intercession, forgiveness, friendship with God, ways to love God, spiritual warfare, and spiritual intimacy. Vickey mines the few verses devoted to each biography for lessons for today's woman. Her concluding prayers and "Getting Personal" application sessions will help anyone, or any group, embrace their truths.

I thought that LaHaye and Blackstock would never be able to duplicate and certainly not be able to top the writing in the 1st book of this series. How wrong I was!! This book is even better than the first! I can now relate even more to the characters of Cedar Circle, and I feel like they are my best friends. I can hardly wait to turn each page so I can find out what happens next. I am anxiously awaiting the opportunity to read the 3rd book, because I know I won't be disappointed.

I found this book by accident, and I loved it. I rarely cry at a book, but this one brough the tears. It was so real. I have friendships like the ones the women in the book did. The characters were real people- they struggled, made mistakes, and dealt with anger and pride and personal weaknesses.

A lot of the time I felt like the messages and advice in the book was for me, not just for the character who needed to hear it. I highly recommend this book to everyone.

This book was amazing! I had no idea that they were putting out a second book to follow up the first, but I read it in 3 days, couldn't stop. This is a MUST read - really makes you thankful for everything that you have!

I enjoyed this book very much. It started off slow in the beginning, but then after a while it started to pick up. You can learn a lot from books and this is one that really does make you think about you, your family, religion, townspeople, and even your preacher. It taught a lot of lessons. I thought a lot about this book after I got done reading it and there are several things that still throw me off, but that's the joy about books, making your own opinion and own feelings. I highly recommend this to anyone.

The whole point of the book, I guess, is that adults are fallible. That's the story: Charity realizing that. While I don't much like her father (he beats her) I guess I can see that Charity loves him, and he, her. As an atheist, I found it kind of amusing the way people prayed and flocked to the Jesus chair. Though the thing with Mad Joe and Vonnie and Velita was incredibly sad. While some of the characters seemed stereotyped -- Charity's dad the hell-raising Southern preacher, for instance -- I thought it was a really good book. Han Nolan's one of my favorite authors and I hope she keeps churning out works like this for decades to come.

I just finished this one. WOW! I couldn't put it down. Han Nolan is one of the best writers I have ever read. All her books are just as great as this one. I can't wait 'till she writes another!

This book is wonderful for those of us whom don't have the time to pray the complete Liturgy of the Hours. Very compact and travel friendly, I am able to pray during my morning and evening commute to/from work...

Published for use in all the US Roman Catholic Dioceses (and many international ones too) and fully approved by the Bishop's Committee on the Liturgy, National Conference of Catholic Bishops.

Excellent and user friendly. Highly recommended.

This set of prayers is a daily offering of psalms, readings, and other prayers to help direct one towards God.
I have the four-volume set of the liturgy, but find those volumes are difficult to carry with me when I am traveling, or when I am visiting a place where I will have some time to pray and just want to carry a smaller book in my pocket. What you do lose is the complete set of prayers (such as the Office of Readings and various holy days), and you do have to use more place-markers, but it's a wonderful companion that I'd rather not be without.

Like an earlier reviewer, I also own the four-volume set of the Liturgy of the Hours. I do enjoy the additional readings and the somewhat nerdy activity of finding my way around the complete liturgy. But for pure prayer value, "Shorter Christian Prayer" is the book. It has the entire four-week psalter for the key prayers of the day, Morning Prayer and Evening Prayer, as well as the same Night Prayers as the larger volumes. What it is missing are the special readings and intercessions for feasts and memorials--but even those special days are built around the same psalms printed here. For me, on my commute, Shorter Christian Prayer is less distracting and much nicer in the hand than the standard Christian Prayer or Liturgy of the Hours. It has larger print than either. It has the gospel canticles printed on the inside covers, a brilliant idea. Plus it is a LOT cheaper.