I have just finished reading Barbara Leigh's book for the second time. As the other reviews stated, it is hard to put down once you start reading, it is just so absorbing. One of the comments I would like to add to the other fine reviews is the fact that I, as a woman who has had many struggle in life, found great triumph in Barbara's story. Here is a woman from a sad childhood who made it through modeling, Hollywood, movies and powerful men without ever turning to crutches like Alcohol or drugs, much like many of her peers. This is a true story of a women's survival in a preliminary mans world. And I would like to point out, that while Barbara is still strikingly beautiful and still has a successful career...Elvis, Jim Aubrey and Steve McQueen are gone...two from either drugs or alcohol, and McQueen sadly from cancer. So here's to you Barbara. A life of beauty, fame, fun and sorrow all exquisitely told and elegantly lived...

As an avid reader of autobiographies & biographies of all things Hollywood, I found this book to be one of the best ever written by a Hollywood actress. Barbara Leigh is not only a physically beautiful woman, but she is also one heck of a classy lady for candidly speaking about her relationships with Elvis Presley, Steve McQueen and Jim Aubrey, without maliciously destroying their reputations as powerful men & in Elvis and Steve's cases Hollywood Icons. Ms. Leigh has a delicious sense of class for "dishing the dirt" in such a "clean" way! How lucky these men have been to have had her in their lives and to see her respect their memories together. She writes with a knack for vivid details and in such an honest, real way. You just can't put the book down. I read this one in about a day and a half turning each page with enthusiasm. The only bad thing about this book is that it came to an end! Give us another one Barbara! Somewhere in the heavens Elvis & McQueen are smiling, pleased that their paths crossed with hers! This book is a keeper and a definite must read! Buy it, sit back & Enjoy!

This book is a smooth reading, fast paced, energetic romance adventure leaving female readers green with envy and male readers "champing at the bit" to trade places with one of Ms. Leigh's three love interests showcased. A majority of the book's content is devoted to the "on-again", "off-again", mostly "on-again" love affairs of the young and beautiful actress/model Barbara Leigh as she delicately balances the advances of three of Hollywoods most powerful, influential and desirable men---all at the same time!

Ms. Leigh gives the reader a rare and honest glimpse of her heart and heartaches as she strives to strike a balance between her magnetic attraction to each of these dynamic personalities as well as groom and advance her own professional and personal growth.

Barbara describes, with remarkable recall, some of the high points with each lover. Through her eyes we see aspects of these men otherwise hidden from the public. But alas, not all was "fun and games". Ms. Leigh, just as clearly, recalls some of the stresses and strains associated with each relationship, documenting tragic circumstances that eventually brought each to an end.

A portion of her writing is dedicated to her childhood. We see fragmented relationships, abandonment and a lack of stability that leaves the reader believing that miracles do happen...for out of this turbulent childhood emerged a lady who holds few ill feelings, loves people and has carved her own distinctive niche, achieving the well-earned status of celebrity.

I just bought this book a week ago and read it in two days. Now that Game Show Network has brought the show back, it's nice to also read about it. Peter Marshall has written a book not about his life, but his time on "The Hollywood Squares". He talks about what life was like with Paul Lynde, Rose-Marie, George Gobel and many others that I loved as a kid watching the show.

I gave this five stars because of the book. It also includes a wonderful CD with the zingers that we all loved to hear after a question was asked. The only drawback on this CD is hearing Buddy Hackett's laugh for much of the CD, and it's always the same laugh! It's irritating to listen to, but I can get past that.

The book answers many questions and gives many secrets of what went on in the heyday of this show. I won't spoil it for others, but it has information on the recently discovered thought to be destroyed episodes that GSN now airs. Plus, you can read about stars of today who were contestants on the show. One secret I'll give away is the fact that Naomi Judd was once a contestant!

Buy this book today. You'll find it's worth the money!

... is a phrase Peter Marshall admits he would have loved to hear on his hit television show "The Hollywood Squares". That fact, and a thousand others, come in a new and downright funny book, "Backstage with the Original Hollywood Square", written by Peter Marshall and Adrienne Armstrong.

Part memoir, part fond walk down memory lane, "Backstage" provides insights to the creation and hosting of one of America's all time successful games. Peter Marshall recants many stories, some of which he told on the E! True Hollywood Story of the "Squares" and others are brand new.

He starts off with a quick summation of his early career, and how he was offered the emcee job of a lifetime. Then he delves in to all the people behind the scenes that were important to the show. The book starts running when he reminisces about all the stars we grew to love over the years: Paul Lynde, Wally Cox, Rose Marie. While each section of the star could have been longer, he sheds some light on each one admirably.

Throughout the book, Peter comes across very polite and respectful. It's almost his persona on the Squares. He allowed the stars to shine by taking a somewhat backseat approach to hosting, yet you realize after watching it he was the glue that kept them together. In this book, he is the mere storyteller, and showcases everyone else.

What's more fantastic about this book is the CD that accompanies it. From an album entitled "Zingers from the Hollywood Squares" that was released in the 70's, this CD holds some of the Squares funniest one liners. That alone is worth the cost of the book. I had the album as a kid, and listened to it constantly, and to this day, recalled many of the jokes still!

This book was a long time coming, and needed. For many people, The Hollywood Squares wasn't a showcase for has beens, but a welcome comedic relief during some of our nation's most turbulant times. Thanks to Peter Marshall for writing this, and bringing back all the laughter!

You will have hours of entertaining escapist reading!
I don't normally read "showbiz" books, but bought this on an impulse, as it had so many great photographs. What was such a nice surprise is that Peter Marshall and his co-author Adrienne Armstrong, are excellent writers. They make the reader feel like he is sitting in a cozy bar with Peter, drink in hand, listening to wonderful tales about the making, and eventual breaking of Hollywood Squares.
Peter is refreshingly honest, delightfully candid, yet never disrespectful when discussing the celebrities and contestants who appeared on the show over the years.
An added bonus is the CD that comes with the book.
I'm a new Peter Marshall fan, who hopes he and his partner write again. Soon.

This is a charming, heartwarming story by Beautiful Joe himself. He tells of the cruel mistreatment by his first owner, Mr. Jenkins, and how he was rescued and came to live with the Morris's - the most loving family on earth! His adventures with the other animals in the Morris family will make you laugh and his love for Miss Laura will warm your heart! Some might say this book is just propaganda for the American Humane Society, but I am loving it all over again 45 years after I first read it! Treat yourself

This is a book that I picked up at my grandmother's house when I was probably ten or eleven years old. I can remember what the original looked like, just as I can picture other books that I found in her house, many of them dating from my mother's childhood. This one was special, and I was so glad to be able to find that it has now been reprinted. It is a story of a dog that is told from the dog's point of view. It is an old-fashioned story that will teach your child about kindness to animals, and to others. I bought two extra copies for friends, and reread the book myself. Check some of the other Amazon customer reviews of previous editions of this book--you will see that all readers find it among their favorites. Last year when my father died, my mother told me that this had been one of his favorite books--I had not known that, and it made me sad that we had never talked about it. Get a copy for your family today!

Trying to raise a humane child? If so, you want this book. I didn't realize until I was an adult that Beautiful Joe is essentially a humane education "tract"--a series of quasi-essays on various types of animal abuse held together by the plot line of Miss Laura's attempts to stop animal cruelty. I was surprised by the realization, because I had understood Beautiful Joe as Literature with a capital L--the real stuff, the good stuff. And I'd argue that it is. Much like Black Beauty, it both fulfills and transcends its original object of educating and agitating in the service of animal rights. Each one of its characters and incidents has remained stamped in my mind and heart since I first read it as a child in the 70's. In fact, Beautiful Joe changed my life: today I rescue, rehabilitate, and find good homes for abandoned, neglected, and abused dogs. Every tear that I have shed over these dogs has its source in that first burst of childish grief for poor old Joe. He's a good dog--and he can count me among his good works.

The kids in sweet Miss Nelson's class are rude and obnoxious, until a mean substitute replaces her. By the time Miss Nelson returns, they have learned to show their appreciation by behaving well. A great moral, certainly, but hardly sugar-coated: the children's misbehavior and the substitute's grouchiness are outrageous and delightful. This book is one of the most engaging I've ever read to my kids(ages 4-7)and a great success with my ADD child who normally has a hard time sitting through a story. It provides a great platform for inferencing and theory of mind work.

As I mentioned in my review of "Stinky Cheeseman and Other Fairly Stupid Tales," I am taking a Children's Lit class in college, which requires me to read a lot of children's books. So, this is a great excuse for me to write more reviews. If you want to make fun of me for liking these books, so be it. I could care less.

"Miss Nelson is Missing" was always a childhood favorite for me. One of my first picture books I ever read, I think. I even remember that my copy came with a record that you could listen along to as you read. Wow, does that bring back memories. I picked this up a few days ago, and found myself enjoying it as much as I did when I was little, if not more.

This is a book about a sweet and nice teacher who has one of the most terrible classes ever. Everyone is mean and nobody ever listens to her. Miss Nelson knows that something has to be done.

One day, when she doesn't arrive to class, the children are so happy. They think they have driven her away forever. They are all smiles and grins.....until....

They meet Miss. Viola Swamp, an ugly and mean teacher dressed in black and white makeup. She puts them to work, yells at them, and makes them do tons and TONS of homework. Desperate and worried, the children turn to a detective in order to solve the whereabouts of Miss Nelson.

This book is incredible. Fun for all ages, especially the young ones. It's fun and gives a good moral lesson at the same time. It has great writing and very cool pictures. The reading level is pretty easy. Nothing too mind-bending behind it.

I recommend "Miss Nelson is Missing!" to ANYONE! Yes, I don't care how old you are. You're never too old to enjoy a good children's book, and I'm starting to re-discover that. Check this one out whenever you can. And if you have kids, I can almost promise you that this will be a favorite.

Remember when Joni Mitchell told us "You don't know what you've got 'till its gone"? Well, even if you have never heard about the "Big Yellow Taxi" you will realize that this is exactly what the kids in Room 207 learn when their teacher Miss Nelson goes missing. This was the worst behaved class in school and no matter what Miss Nelson tried the class would not settle down, made faces, giggled, squirmed and refused to do their homework. When Miss Nelson does not come to school the next day, the children are all excited because they think that now they can REALLY act up. But it is the children who are in for a rude awakening when they meet their new teacher, Miss Viola Swamp, a woman in an ugly black dress. After a few hours with Miss Swamp, the kids decide that they really miss their old teacher and wonder what could have happened to her?

No parent ever wants to hear that their kids do not like their teacher, but then what teacher wants students who are rude? "Miss Nelson Is Missing," written by Harry Allard and illustrated by James Marshall, teaches children several valuable lessons about appropriate decorum in the classroom without the children recognizing that they are actually learning something reading this book. This book makes having a happy classroom with a pleasant teacher sound like a very good thing indeed. Which, of course, it is! However, I think you will discover that teachers will like this book every more so that children. There are at least two other adventures of Miss Nelson and Room 207 that I know about, plus you can also read this classic children's book in Spanish in "La Senorita Nelson Ha Desaparecido!"

Christy is a book that one wouldn't really think to read unless it was recommended or they had to. The latter was my case, but it ended up being, more or less, an enjoyable experience. We follow the chronicles of Christy as she befriends the superstitious people of the backwoods of Appalachia. We see Christy's plight to bring education and understanding to the people of Cutter Gap, a small Tennessee village. We see good and evil paradoxed throughout the novel; those who want to help, like Christy and Alice Henderson, and those who, though seeming evil, are only naive enough to appear that way. Many of the characters appear so simple that they are complex; the theme of appearance versus reality is echoed not only with Christy's love life (and the contrasts of Doctor MacNeill and David) but with the beliefs and actions of the native people. The book can be a great inspiration, but does tend to drag at some midpoints. Definitely needed to read this book well is enough concentration to keep reading it and enough insight to see beyond the seemingly one dimensional characters that occur so often. Overall, a good read. 4 Stars.

This is one of the best religious, spiritual books I ever read!

In 1912 nineteen-year-old Christy embarks on a journey to the Appalachian mountains as a "missionary" to the mountain people, hoping to bring them spiritual nourishment and awakening. But in the process, it is Christy herself who undergoes some spiritual awakening.

This story is in some way an indictment of Calvinist theology. Christy asks Alice Henderson, the Quaker missionary from Pennsylvania who God could allow a girl to be raped and a woman to be hanged. In other words, how can a sovereign God of omnipotent power allow His own created being to do evil. Alice responds that God would HAVE TO if He has given us our own free will.

But the greatest test Christy faces is when a typhoid epidemic hits the mountains in early autumn, and her dearest friend, Fairlight Spencer, is the first victim. What were the power of a few germs to that of the Sovereign Omnipotent Ruler of the Universe? Christy rants. ...

This book says a lot about human responsibility and how not to blame God for everything that happens, especially when people do wrong to others.

And that's saying something! :)
I'm definitely not saying it's anything *similar* to LotR, because it's not, I'm just saying that it's *almost*
as good. It's about a 19-year-old girl named Christy Huddleston who goes to teach school at a mission
in a place called Cutter Gap in the Great Smokies of Tenessee. The year is 1912. This is an incredible
book about a citified girl who finds adventure, hardships, challenges, maturity, God, joy and (of course)
romance. It's very wonderful to find such perfect balance of all elements. It's quite rare to find a book
that actually mentions, (gasp!) *GOD* that is not way overboard and in the preachy department. In fact, I
think the way that religion was tied in was just perfect. Then, my favorite part would have to be the
romance. A very frustrating one, one of those where she thinks she's in love with one, but is actually in
love with the other. Not too frustrating though. I've read plenty of those (Anne of the Island, cough
cough!). My brothers, who are adamantly against romance, and always bury their heads in pillows when
anything romantic comes up anywhere. In Christy's story, they are fascinated, and my youngest brother,
who at first really didn't like Christy, says that "I only keep going to see who Christy marries," :)
The thing is, the romance is only a big thing if you make it so. There just happens to be a cute young
preacher and a hot doctor with a sexy Scottish brouge in the vicinity, both of whom have a major crush
on Christy! :)T his is by no means a romance novel. I just personally am a fan of one of Christy's
admirers, (who is, dare I say it, hotter than Aragorn:)
But more than the romance, this is an incredible story and the characters are so real to me now. I'm actually now doing some research on Catherine because I'm so interested in this whole story.
A must-read!!!...

In preparing our list of Christmas books to share with others, we had to search far and wide on amazon to find this particular book, a paperback edition of the classic Night Before Christmas.

This is the book I've used for years when reading this story to my own children, passing on Tasha Tudor and other illustrators. Why?

Although we can find the same poem and pay a lot more, with award winning illustrators, the illustrations provided by Douglas Gorsline are surely the best. They are quite colorful, and offer details little children love looking into...cats lie sleepily on the window sill, we see an overview of the town, the presents spilling from the open sack are intriguing and plentiful, and Jolly St. Nick is -- well, quite Jolly (as you can see by looking at the cover!)

The story is an "abridged version" - I'm not sure about other parents, but we read this on Christmas Eve, and we only have so much time and energy. Everything we remember from the classic poem by Clement Clarke Moore is in this version.

(From "'Twas the Night Before Christmas, and all through the house, not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse" to "He sprang to his sleigh, to his team gave a whistle, And away they all flew like the down of a thistle. But I heard him exclaim, ere he drove out of sight,"HAPPY CHRISTMAS TO ALL, AND TO ALL A GOOD-NIGHT!" In between we have everything, from the names of the eight tiny reindeer, to a belly that shakes like a bowl full of jelly, including dry leaves that before the wild hurricane fly, when they meet with an obstacle, mount to the sky".

In other words, don't be scared off by 'abridged'!)

Perhaps a hardcover edition might be more appropriate if you're giving a gift (unless you're giving to more than one child), but this book is one of the best offers we've found!

A classic done simply and inexpensively!

We have an inexpensive paperback version (see our reviews) of this classic poem, and we said that's enough for us. That was before we looked through this beautifully illustrated (by Bruce Whatley) edition of The Night Before Christmas.

The lyrics are the same, from book to book, but the fanciful illustrations in this one are enough to engage adults and children as they read this book together.

The perfect gift for any family whose Christmas tradition includes reading this classic!

This beautiful book was in my family as a hard cover edition for many years and was a Christmas Eve tradition for my four sons when they were growing up. It's poor battered body disappeared some time after the last of my little ones went off into the adult world. I am so delighted to see it back again, though this time as a nicely affordable soft cover. Clement C. Moore's enchanting story poem already provides an atmosphere filled with warmth and joyful expectation and with the addition of Tasha Tudor's quaint, nostalgic water-colors from an antique New England the Christmas magic is complete!
The winter landscapes fill our senses and Tasha's own gray tabby cat and Welsh Corgi welcome us into this charming world.
Tasha's Santa that you will meet in this book has been portrayed as the poem describes him...a right jolly old elf. He's not that much larger than the corgi and his team really consists of eight "tiny" reindeer. His pointy ears and his Eskimo mukluks add to the delightful ambiance of the book. He dances with the toys and with the happy animals and we can truly believe it will be a happy Christmas for all.
I hope this book becomes a Christmas Eve tradition for many, many more families.

Featured Book - "Nonviolent Communication" by Marshall B.
Rosenberg, Ph.D.

This book's full title is "Nonviolent Communication: A Language
of Compassion." It was brought to my attention by the founders of
my sons' school, and for that I thank them. This book explains
Rosenberg's philosophy and model for communicating with others in
a compassionate, nonviolent way. It explores the profound
subtleties of the messages behind the words we use, and examines
how to listen, truly listen, to the messages being sent to us by
the people we communicate with, as well as the messages we are
sending.

In Chapter 1 Rosenberg begins, "Believing that it is our nature
to enjoy giving and receiving in a compassionate manner, I have
been preoccupied most of my life with two questions. What happens

to disconnect us from our compassionate nature, leading us to
behave violently and exploitatively? And conversely, what allows
some people to stay connected to their compassionate nature under
even the most trying circumstances?"

The Nonviolent Communication ("NVC") model's main precept is to
train oneself to focus carefully on words as they're received,
and to examine the speaker's feelings and needs, along with one's
own, in a nonjudgmental way. The model is comprised of four

components: observation, feelings, needs, and request. The next
level of engagement involves expressing oneself honestly using
the four components, and receiving empathically using the four
components. I'll leave the details for your reading pleasure;
Rosenberg does an excellent job of walking through the model, its
theory and history, its application, and its potential for
profound and positive change. His writing style is engaging,
friendly, straightforward, and sincere. He relates his own
experiences as a youth, a clinical psychologist, and his many
world-wide efforts to promote nonviolent resolution of disputes
and conflicts, thereby providing a good balance between theory
and examples of NVC in action.

Rosenberg's NVC model works in both directions of human
communication: us listening compassionately, and us speaking
compassionately. NVC can be applied in any communication
scenario, whether with a child, significant other, sibling,
parent, business partner, client, neighbor, stranger... anyone
and everyone you communicate with.

I highly recommend this book to you. The NVC tools and
Rosenberg's insights assist me every day, and have profoundly
enriched my interpersonal communications.

I read this book on a plane from San Diego to Virginia. I was so enthralled by it that I was disappointed when I arrived at my destination. While reading it I cryed and laughed out loud. It is easy to read and has touching examples that illistrate the principles. Applying the principles to my life and using the easy four-step tool has helped me change old conditioned beliefs and ways of acting. It has allowed me to overcome my toxic conditioning and find the loving parent and person that was locked inside. Reading the book can be the beginning of a journey. Applying the principles to your life will allow you to live fully. Dr. Rosenberg has created a way to transform the violence in the world. Violence begins with language. If we can change our communication, we can change our consciousness. Then we can dance with others and create beauty and harmony instead of war and destruction.

In the realm of creating satisfying harmonious human relations and conflict resolution, Rosenberg has done his part with this easy to follow how-to adventure. He has developed a practical spiritual gift toward enjoying powerful but respectful relationships. A simple communication process that eliminates the competitive, adversarial, and violence provocative style of communication that has infected most of our lives. This is not about the meek inheriting the world or being nice docile cogs in our power-over, hierarchical system. It is about the "protective use of force", vulnerability, heart to heart dialogue, and getting our needs meet in a way we will less likely regret. Rosenberg, from his experiences around the world with the communication process he advocates, gives many examples where attempts at compassionate connections have given the parties involved just what they needed in the end, without giving in or giving up. Personally, I value these new tools for getting along in life in harmony with my deepest values, a more natural way to get my point across, without it being heard as a demand but as an opportunity for us to willingly give and receive each other's gifts

I enjoyed reading about the life of George Dawson, a man whose life has spanned three centuries. However, the mere fact that he has lived so long does not necessarily a feature book make. Aside from Mr. Dawson's rail travels and working on the Mississippi, Mr. Dawson had not done much else until he took up reading at 98. He can't comment much on events of the 20th century because he couldn't read, and what he could remember was scant. The reader is presented with a view of a genuinely kind man whose outlook on life is basically positive and warm. Yet, I often could not distinguish if I was listening to Mr. Dawson, or his "co-author", Richard Glaubman. It would have been far more interesting to detail Mr. Dawson's years since he began to read. The book speaks of the large numbers of letters written to Mr. Dawson, congratulating him on his beginning his literacy venture so late in life. Why not write more about his classroom experience and how that must have transformed him recently?... or the interaction with those who now wish him well? Perhaps a second book should be in order because that is where the REAL interest in Mr. Dawson lies.

This book is about the life of George Dawson, a remarkable 101-year-old man who is the grandson of slaves. Born in 1898, he tells of what life was like in Texas before integration. He turned away racial hatred by his gentle manner and kept his dignity during the most trying circumstances. He did manual labor from the time he was 4 until he was 90, and at age 98 he began to look for new challenges and so decided to go to Adult Education classes and learn to read. When he was growing up, he was always working,and as the oldest son he was depended upon to contribute financially to his family. His younger brothers and sisters went to school, but he never had a chance until someone knocked on his door and offered him the chance to learn to read. His quiet dignity shines through the pages as his story is told to co-author, Richard Glaubman. Glaubman is an elementary school teacher from Washington who became fascinated with a newspaper article he read about Dawson in a Seattle paper. The two became good friends over the course of the writing of this book and it is told in a narrative style of two friends chatting about the past. Some of the most interesting stories involve Dawson's early years and the times in his 20's when he traveled around the country just to satisfy his wanderlust. This is a wonderful book and in the course of reading it I felt as if I'd gotten to know a very special person

George Dawson is a remarkable man. He was the son of a slave and grew up in Texas. At the age of four he began working the family farm. At twelve he was sent out as a hired hand to help earn money for his family. He left home at twenty-one and traveled the country by rail. He worked hard all his life and encountered many hardships but there is no bitterness in this book as there is in so many memoirs today. This book is like a mini lesson in American history from a black respective. I loved this book because it showed so much perserverance and determination. George Dawson never was able to go to school as a child because he always had to work but at the age of 98 he learned to read! At 103 he was working on his G.E.D. He died in June of 2001. I read part of his story to my first grade class this year and they were fascinated. It shows how it is never too late to learn. This is the best book I have read all year.

The Pocket Guide is one of my desk reference books...It is written so even idiots like me can understand it, and use it. I think it is in the same league as Glover's Pocket Ref, and the Pocket
Pal for graphic artists. If you work with Industrial Ethernet, you better buy this book, and stick it in your pocket, briefcase, tool box, or whatever you carry around on the job with you. If you think you need to know about
Industrial Ethernet, buy this book and carry it around in your pocket for when you have a chance to catch five minutes and read a few pages.

This is the best book published by ISA this year...

I'm used to Ethernet reference books that occupy huge volumes in my company's library; they require time and determination to find answers to a specific problem and are never accessible when you are out in the field. When I saw Perry S. Marshall's Industrial Ethernet- A pocket guide, I was surprised by its small size; it's, well, really pocket sized. And it is nort small, once you start working with it; it is rather compact, or concise, and to the point. Information is laid out systematically,topically and logically; you can find both general info and troubleshooting tips on hardware, cabling and protocols covering the whole range of typical problems found in network maintenance. This little book is now part of my toolbox, and it should complement anyone's who is faced with Ethernet problems on the plant floor. It has already proven its worth to me in helping me correct networking problems I have been faced with in the field.

If you are using Ethernet in an industrial environment, you've got to have this book! Even though it's billed as a pocket guide (it really is pocket sized), you could also use it as a desk reference. It has concise and to the point coverage of every aspect of Industrial Ethernet.

Even though I had planned on using this just for reference, I found so many interesting things in it that I started reading it. I really enjoyed the writing style which, unlike other books, didn't put me to sleep. This book is easy to read and understand, even for an old timer like me.

Excellent!

This book will touch you. There is a simplicity and purity of thought, but there are deeper more profound meanings there for you to discover on your own. Marshall is a special child of God, as we all are in our own way. Love and listening are prevalent themes in Marshall's short poems and prose. I am a grown man with grown children, and I am not prone to tears, but many of Marshall's words brought tears to my eyes. I know God talks through Marshall. Share this book with your friends and family.

Some may call him a boy genius. Others may call him a prophet. One thing is certain about poet Marshall Ball: Anyone who has ever used the phrase, "simple but profound," does not know the meaning of that phrase until he or she reads Marshall's Kiss of God.

Marshall began writing at the age of 5 but not in the way other children write. While his elbow is supported, he points to individual letters on an alphabet board. Someone jots down Marshall's message letter by letter, and Marshall alone provides the editing and title. Marshall does not compose his writings orally, because he cannot speak.

Through a veil of silence, Marshall Ball speaks by the Kiss of God to any heart yearning for inspiration. Marshall's style of writing is wholly original, and the most learned reader will marvel at Marshall's syntax. When Marshall was collecting the writings he wished to place in Kiss of God, by the way, he composed before his 12th birthday, his mother asked him how his book should be arranged. He responded, "Attempting good fine force badly spilts Kiss of God apart." When she asked him what he meant by "force," he answered, "Forcing is giving good book great organization. Can you give love by force?"

Kiss of God builds on the premise that God is good and that "Good God," as Marshall calls Him, is his "good candid teacher." Marshall sees only good in himself, and he imparts good effortlessly. The sheer innocence of this volume prevents it from being didactic. Marshall simply sets forth insights or what he calls "kisses" from God. "Great kisses are loving, grand, great little thoughts, " he writes.

Some kisses from God come to Marshall as poems. Some come as letters. And others arrive as aphorisms. In a single-sentence letter to his "Great Good Grandpa," Marshall writes, "My feeling is our thoughts ran together for love." This tone of love and yielding to love prevails throughout Marshall's work. "In pure great Love real intelligence is manifested," he says. And he says, "Good finds the sweet giver."

After setting the tone of love in Kiss of God, Marshall offers to the reader a note in which he sets forth the purpose of his book. In alluding to the eternal questions about happiness, Marshall says, "Questions want good answers. With the help of my family and dear friends, I have been able to answer thoughts concerning old beliefs about questions regarding why people are not happy." In the following pages of Kiss of God, Marshall proves his point.

Recognition of Kiss of God is surging. Already in a second printing since an intial self-publication two years ago, the book is being republished by Health Communications, Inc., the publisher of the "Chicken Soup for the Soul Series." Marshall's publicist, Phenix & Phenix, states in an exclusive interview with this editor that negotiations are underway for Marshall to appear on the Oprah Winfrey Show.

While many poets align with suffering and consume their creativity in crafting images of pain, Marshall Ball, seemingly fulfilling the biblical prophecy that "a little child shall lead them," writes from the perspective that there is no pain. It is not enough to say poet Marshall aligns to good, to love. Marshall IS love.

This book has the most original thought. It can't be compared to any other. It makes you go beyond the words to pure ideas. You can't say there is a particular philosophy in his writings, but you are made to realize a truth. That is the beginning of all understanding. He makes the truth so simple that any sincere seeker will be able to see it. Maybe it makes us listen so we can hear the truth. Marshall doesn't give the answers. He gives you just enough to trigger your already known understanding about life. It seems like a charge given to us, but we have to figure it out. Some say his style is elliptical. There are different people that help Marshall with his writing They do this by cradling his elbow in their hand. It would be impossible for three or four different people to all have the same style of writing. Why do some doubt this boy's ability? It is truly his gift.