Teachers, this is one of THE best sources for your young thinkers. Wollygoggles is a collection of reproducible brainteasers, all clustered around mathematics and nonverbal skills. I use them with my gifted kiddos, grades 3-5, and they beg for more! My students are even creating their OWN Wollygoggles. Ok, ok, here's a sample: I will give you a set of Wollygoggles, and a set of "NOT" Wollygoggles. See if you can tell what makes them a Wollygoggle! WOLLYGOGGLES: 1, 4, 9, 36 & 121 . "NOT" Wollygoggles: 5, 12, 33 and 130. The students have to not only discern that the Wollygoggle is a perfect square, but they have to write the "rule" and create more of the same. Very stimulating for those "mathy" and "nonverbal" geniuses of yours!

O'Brien has written a well researched work that brings a new perspective to a familiar chapter in labor history. Her findings suggest that a paradox exists within the foundation of labor policy and the development of liberalism in this country, and that the principles of labor history associated with the National Relations Act of 1935 actually emerged over a decade earlier in the 1920s. This is a well written book that should be included in the library of anyone interested in labor history and the politics of the 1920s and 1930s.

Wrestling to Rasslin' provides a straightforward analysis of American Professional Wrestling. Written by two college professors (and rasslin' fans), the book does an outstanding analysis of the psychology behind the success of the sport

This is one of the most useful books I've located on delegation. I examined longer books, but they were padded with theory and other material I didn't need. For the busy manager or supervisor (or even leader of volunteers), this is a good book to take you through the process of selecting the right person to delegate to, preparing for and conducting the delegation meeting, and then following up to make sure the job gets done. There's also a chapter on "Coping with Delegation Difficulties" to avoid the most common traps and pratfalls.

Ms. Baer's style is casual and conversational, and her writing is clear and interesting. Some books on this topic drone on and on, but hers moves along quickly.

The book has lots of brief exercises and case studies to test your skill & knowledge--it's one of those self-paced, self-study books. It's kind of fun to match wits with the author and see how your answers compare, but of course you don't have to work your way through the exercises if you don't want to -- you can skip straight to the answers.

All in all, it's an ideal book for the busy person who needs to get things done through other people. And the price is right, too!

I was fortunate enough to have worked for Daytop some time ago, the inspiration for this book. This in not only an interesting read, but a must-read. And I think it is important for all families to read it, even if your life hasn't been affected by someone's drug abuse. The book is a parents' guide to help your addicted child or loved one. Based on Dayop's successful program, this book can help! You can also read an excerpt from Msgr.'s book.)

Tim O'Brien's The Things They Carried is not just about the physical aspects of war. This book looks more closely at the Vietnam War. It takes a closer look at this time period in our recent history. O'Brien takes a look at the way the soldiers were affected emotionally as well as the physical aspects of war. O'Brien does not give a boring overview of Vietnam. Instead, he takes you there. O'Brien introduces you, the reader, to a platoon of men led by their fearless leader, Jimmy Cross. The reader learns about each man's quirks. O'Brien gives you insight as to what these men saw, what they felt. I, myself am not a huge fan of the war era books. They often are dry reading that loses my interest very quickly. This book is unlike any other war book that I have ever looked at. It kept my attention as I read, and it kept me anticipating what would unfold next. The Things They Carried is an fresh new look at The Vietnam War. It comes highly recommended.

The Things They Carried, by Tim O'Brien, is a magnificently composed work of fiction. O'Brien writes so vividly, that the reader will be experiencing a gut-check by the time they are finished with this book. He captures many of the soldiers' feelings and emotions, by writing about the items that they had with them during the Vietnam War. These few items represent the soldiers' lives as they fought their way through Vietnam's elephant grass, and rice paddies. Mental objects are also close at the soldiers' hand. Love, grief, pain, terror, memory, and guilt weigh heavily on these young men's minds, as well as their hearts. O'Brien 's characters are one of a kind, and many readers can relate to these people as one of their own. He describes his character's actions as real as one could be, and this is one of the most important reasons that help the reader relate to this novel in a way that they can understand. This novel is a success on every step known to man, because O'Brien takes this reading in many different directions. He describes in terror the killing of one of the soldiers, pulsates in writing of one's love, and captivates the reader to go with him on the wild and untamed journey of Vietnam.

A friend of mine recently mentioned that "The Things They Carried" was her all-time favorite book. So, the next time I was in the bookstore I went looking for it. I must admit that I was a bit surprised when I realized that it was a book of stories about the Vietnam War. I bought the book, read it in two days, and thanked my friend for telling me about this woderful book.

"The Things They Carried" is a collection of stories following the lives of a group of soliders in the Vietnam War. The same characters appear in many of the stories and you really get a sense of who these men are: Their strengths, their weaknesses, and they ways in which the War has changed them forever.

This book really painted a picture for me of what the Vietnam War was like. I felt as if I was marching down the trails with these men. Tim O'Brien lets you into their hearts and into their minds. You feel their fears and understand their pain.

The two most memorable stories/chapters for me were "Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong" in which a medic brings his girlfriend over to Vietnam only to have her become more engrossed in the war/Vietnam than he ever was, and "Speaking of Courage" where a man struggles to re-enter American society after returning from the War.

This book is an essential read for anybody interested in the Vietnam War, as well as a recommended book for anybody looking for a well-written, engrossing work of art.

Although I am not a sailor nor am I very knowledgeable about the navy, I do get a charge out of historical naval fiction. I read the Hornblower series by C.S. Forester with gusto, and was rather disappointed when I finished, because I thought that I had read the best books and there was nowhere to go but down.

Soon after, I saw a review of a Patrick O'Brian book and though he looked promising. I bought "Master and Commander" and started on it. I quickly realized that this was no Hornblower book. I slowly struggled 3/4 of the way through it and decided it wasn't worth the effort. I just couldn't adjust to O'Brian's style: where Forester was straightforward and simple, O'Brian's writing style gets very involved, and sometimes his sentences take half a page. I dropped the book and forgot about it for several months, but for some reason I decided to give O'Brian another try. I started on a later book in the series, and found myself caught up in the story and enjoying the complicated prose. O'Brian's fascinating character development, not to mention the intense battle scenes and occasional bursts of subtle (or not) humor, was captivating. When I re-read "Master and Commander" I couldn't believe that I had been so obtuse on my first perusal; I LOVE this book now, and I know the book didn't change!

I know why a lot of people never really got into O'Brian (I was almost one of them), and I don't blame them. He is not easy to read, at least not at first. But when I got into the groove, so to speak, I found that I wouldn't rather have it any other way. I like the way O'Brian makes the reader work a little, and in the long run I think the payoffs are greater than in the Hornblower series. I know, a lot of people won't believe me, but I cannot tell a lie. O'Brian is better.

This is the first in an excellent, utterly addicting and always compelling series that chronicles the exploits of Captain Jack Aubrey and ship's doctor Stephen Maturin, taking us on a lively tour of their lives, loves and adventures over the course of many years. When my sister first suggested that I read this book I was skeptical -- isn't it a "guy book"? But I was coming off a Jane Austen fix and one of Patrick O'Brian's favorite writers was Austen...so I gave it a try. I read the entire series, back to back, while pregnant with my son.

O'Brian fills his books with such incredible period detail and wonderful Austen-esq characterizations that I was immediately and incurably hooked. You will be astounded how much you learn about the post-Regency Period and life at sea because you will be so busy being deeply engrossed and throughly entertained.

Having grown up with Horatio Hornblower, Teddy Roosvelt's classic "Naval History of the War of 1812," and Fletcher pratt's "Empire and the Sea," among others, I don't impress easily. I am impressed by this book, and have three more in the series awaiting my reading pleasure. What helps to make the book so enjoyable, above and beyond a snapping good story, is the superb detail and authenticity of the telling. Mr. O'Brien, recently deceased, is a master of his genre, the period, and of the writer's craft. The story draws you in; the prose is so vivid, that there are passages that leave you unaware of your surroundings as you drink them in. The turns of fortune, set against the backdrop of the Napoleonic Wars, nener let the reader guess at the conclusion, even though the history is well-known. The principal charachers, Jack Aubrey, Dr. Stephen Maturin, and Lt. Dillon, are well-sketched, and quirky in ways that make them seem authentic to their time. Their speech, and even the turns of phrase used by the author in telling the tale have an 18th-century sound to them. The language is reminicent of Gibbon in terms of the seriousness of the tone of speech. After reading this book, two things are formost in my mind: is the rest of the series up to this level, and why, if they are, didn't he ever get the Nobel Prize? -Lloyd A. Conway

I read Jane Eyre for my AP Lit. Class in the 12th grade. I figured, oh just another boring book. WOW! was I completely mistaken. ALthough long, Jane Eyre could have been 1,000 pages and I still would have read every page, with joy. The growth Jane Eyre, the novels main character and Protagonist, goes through throughout the novel is amazing. Born into an unloving world, with rejection and anger at every corner, Jane is forced to keep herself company and therefore, her only friend is herself. Adopted by her uncle, who soon dies, Jane is forced to live with her aunt Reed. I dont want to summarize about all this stuff, I am going to get down to the nitty-gritty. The novel mainly centers around Jane and her love for Rochester. When Jane becomes eighteen, she is hired to govern at the mansion of Rochesters, and to guide and teach his daughter, Adele. The marvelous love story between Jane and Rochester is as intense as anything you will ever read. At times while reading the novel, I would have to put the novel down and take in what I was reading. The passion and heart exhibited by these two characters was at times unbearable. If you want to read a true novel, full of power and emotion, read Jane Eyre- the best novel ever written. :-)

When I first read Jane Eyre, I (and I think many others) was taken in by the odd combination of romance and ominous overtones that makes Jane Eyre such a unique book. Of course, the Victorian-era writing and social commentary also made an impression.

But upon reflection, underneath all of this is a story of people with difficult lives learning to find and accept each other and hopefully coming to peace and happiness despite long odds. Maybe my second reading just comes from a twenty-first century mind reading things into a nineteenth century book that just aren't there. But to me, the book does have the feel of a modern story of hardship as well as a Victorian story of people trying to overcome their backgrounds to find love.

Jane Eyre tells the life story of an orphaned girl sent away to a harsh boarding school by a cruel aunt. Despite the harsh nature of the school, Jane thrived at the school since she is finally out from her aunt's crushing dislike for her. She graduated and took a job as a governess for a girl in the care of a mysterious man who spent much of his time traveling abroad, Mr. Rochester.

At first, the two do not like each other. This is compounded by the fact that Jane thinks she is plain looking and not worthy of his company. But the two develop a peculiar friendship, and there are many signs that their feelings are deeper. But Mr. Rochester is busy courting other ladies at the time. Mr. Rochester also seems to have a secret that he will not divulge to Jane but may have serious consequences for her.

Jane's job as a governess and the friendship that develops make it seem that the book will quickly become a Jane Austen book (which of course, would not have been a bad thing) in which the man and woman from different classes find love with one another, but from the point of the friendship blooming, Jane Eyre takes a few remarkable twists and turns that I had not expected and that make for real page-turning.

But it is as much the quiet desperation of both Jane and Mr. Rochester and their struggle to find each other despite this that makes Jane Eyre a book truly worth reading and treasuring.

I read this book in junior high school and, like so many other girls, fell head over heels in love with Mr. Rochester; after all this time, the book is still a terrific read. The first part is classic Cinderella with an interesting twist. Jane is an orphan who is abused and mistreated by her rich and evil stepmother and her nasty cousins; unlike Cinderella, Jane stands up age age 10 and fights back. She is promptly shunted off to a school for girls from poor families, where she spends the next eight years. Needing a change of scene and environment, she answers an advertisement for a governess and enters the household of Mr. Rochester. Rochester, however, is no Prince Charming; he's 17 or 18 years older than Jane, hard, bitter, cynical, selfish, and, unknown to all but a few, encumbered with a wife who is the prototype of the "mad wife in the attic". Rochester is a romantic at heart, however; he is captivated by Jane's innocence and simplicity. We all know how the book comes out so there is no sense in rehashing the plot; suffice to say that Bronte is a marvelous storyteller. The one problem I have with Jane Eyre is the same that arises in Bronte's other books, and that is her stifling insularity; she seems unable to find value in anything that outside her own narrow, English Protestant frame of reference. However, this is a small caveat in this book. "Jane Eyre" is a classic romantic novel that has entranced generations of readers and looks good for generations to come.

Have you ever been in a concentration camp? If you haven't been, reading this book is the closest you will come. The book Night , written by Ellie Wiesel is both informative and suspenseful. In this book I found the characters to be very strong and resilient people. They faced many problems with strength and courage.

Some very suspenseful and unbelievable scenes are described in gruesome detail, which helped me understand the struggles of the characters much better. Elizer and his father, who are the main characters, tell of their story in various concentration camps. Although they were separated from their families and virtually alone, far worse things were to be endured. "I had felt death" (Wiesel, 82). This quote from Elizer shows that each and everyday the occupants in the concentration camp battled to stay alive. At this point in the story, I realized the fear and brutality that the Jewish people encountered. Some could take the hardships and some could not. Although, Elizers father loved Elizer dearly, there were several times when he wanted to rid himself of all of the pain and suffering he was forced to endure. As Elizers father muttered the words " I can't go on" (Wiesel, 100) I could not imagine what was going through Elizers head. Sadness, anger, pain, despair? As I read those words I felt nothing but compassion for each and every person who had to go through such an awful experience. I think the characters in this story really help enhance the story. This book was heartbreaking and at the same time made you smile through the course of the book. It's the best book of its kind that I have read so far. It made me feel like I was feeling the pain, sadness, fear, and hunger right along with Elizer and his father.

This story focuses on every aspect of the camps. However, some stuck in my mind more than others. "We were tormented with hunger" (Weisel, 39) the struggle of starvation contributed to a large portion of the plot in this story. When Elizer sacrificed his own food ration to give to his ill father, he became my favorite character. Because his ability to block out his own needs and be completely unselfish was inspiring to me. Being tormented by hunger is a hard concept to grasp for people of today. Night did a great job of weaving that into the plot. Starvation was a large portion of the story because of the number of people that perished because of lack of food. In fact, thousands, if not more, Jewish people died while being held in concentration camps. I had a very hard time relating to Night. I could not imagine being killed because of the color of my hair, or simply because of something I believe in. Although this is a sad and horrific reality that theses events happened in our past, I would recommend anyone above the age of 14 and up to read this book. It can, and will, prevent us from making these same mistakes in our future.

Night was a very real, true, and eye-opening book. It was suspenseful, action packed, and informative. I thought this book was well written and very detailed. It shows the true struggle of two people's journey through the concentration camps and their battles to stay alive. It's a great book!

Night is a book that really needs no review on how great it is. I have read the book several times over to fully understand what the author is trying to explain to the reader.
This book stars off with a boy (Elie) who wants to learn more about his religion, which is, of course, Judaism. He wants to study and find out a much as he can. He lives in a house with a mother, father and, sister. They all have heard about the war and are ignorant to the fact that they have heard stories that the Nazi are placing Jew into a camp, called a concentration camp (death camp). He and his family one-day find out what the cost of being ignorant is. The Nazi's come to his town and quickly starts placing all the Jews who live there into ghettos. Elie and his family go through unspeakable torture. They are sent to Auschwitz. Auschwitz is infamous for being one of the most unbelievable death and work camp in the Nazi history.
This book helped me to see the real horrors of the holocaust. I had to stop numerous times while reading this book to stop and say wow how could this possible happen? I feel that this is a great book to read.

"Night," by Elie Wiesel, has been translated from French by Stella Rodway. The copyright page notes that the book was originally published in French in 1958. The author bio at the end of the book informs us that the Hungarian-born Wiesel was deported to Auschwitz and Buchenwald and eventually received the Nobel Peace Prize.

"Night" is a first-person account of surviving the Nazi Holocaust. The narrative spans the years 1941-45 and recounts the atrocities committed against the European Jews by Hitler's regime. At 109 pages, the narrative is slim, but it is powerful.

Wiesel vividly depicts the dehumanization of concentration camp inmates. He effectively recounts the details of life in the shadow of Hitler; the Holocaust experience is depicted as a nightmarish mix of absurdity and horror. Some key questions raised by the narrative are theological; for example, how can anyone continue to have faith in a deity in light of these horrors?

Wiesel's prose, as translated by Rodway, is stark and grim--very effective for his subject matter. The well-written text leads up to a truly haunting final image. I recommend this book not only to those interested in the Holocaust, but to anyone interested in human cruelty and the human will to survive.

This is the first of Tim O'Brien's books I've read. Although I don't regret having read it, and it's beautifully written, I have to say that I found the ending to be most frustrating. O'Brien seems to leave up to the reader exactly how the tension in the book is resolved and while that may work for some, it didn't work for me. I like my loose ends neatly tied up, and that doesn't happen here. Still, there is much to recommend it. The reader has to work with this book--it is told from sundry points of view, all of which make the characters come vividly to life. The flashbacks and oblique references to the main character's former interest in magic makes for fascinating subplot, and both greatly enhance our understanding of what makes him tick. The main character's foray into plant care (I can't be more specific or I'll give something important away) inspires the same level of horrifically scary chill one gets reading in Stephen King's "The Shining" that the main character's novel consists of nothing other than the sentence, "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy" over and over and over again. I found the "interview" tidbits to be distracting, but they do enrich the novel with additional points of view. Is it a love story? A story of moral and political corruption? A Vietnam cautionary tale? It's all of these and more.

...but it is so powerfully written, and some of the scenes -- particularly the more horrific ones -- are so vivid that I had to recommend it solely on that basis. (I won't reveal the particulars of one very powerful scene, but I am sure that the grotesque events described in excruciating detail will stay with me for a very long time.) The main problem I had with this book is that it focuses almost completely on two incidents in the main character's life -- his participation in the massacre at My Lai during the Vietnam War, and his wife's disappearance from an isolated cabin at a northern Minnesota lake many years ago. Granted these are the pivotal events of John Wade's life (as is the suicide of his father, which is also constantly touched upon), but the narrative constantly circles these two events, so that after several chapters, it feels as if you are going over the same ground over and over again. You crave some new information, and the horror loses its power to horrify, particularly in the Vietnam scenes. The book spirals back out of this pattern at the end when it becomes very dark, very disturbing and very engrossing yet again. Another reason I liked this book was its narrative structure; it reads like the unfinished manuscript by a frustrated true-crime writer. This unnamed writer gradually becomes another character in the story whose obsession with what happened at the Lake of the Woods and the mystery of Kathy Wade's disappearance drives the story forward. At the end, this mystery is never neatly solved, which may annoy some readers, but I enjoyed the ambiguity and the opportunity to make up my own mind about what happened between this husband and wife in the dark night.

I'd like my first comment to be an overall five stars, you've got to read this book type of comment. Reading this book for a class, I had to stop at a certain page, which was one of the hardest things for me to do; it's a page-turner, but not like trashy books. This is literature at its best, in unconventional form.

Tim O'Brien captures in this book the moral dilemmas of the Vietnam War as well as the moral dilemmas as a modern human, as a politician, as a lover, as a husband, and as a possible murderer. This worldview is on the nature of our humanity and our motivations, and some people think it's pretty glum.

I read a "warning" from a teacher's community of reviewers and they described the book as "vulgar" and "gruesome." This is not a horror story. It's more the account of what maybe took place at one time in our history in Vietnam. Although the placement of our character John Wade was in "My Lai" which is an actual part of Vietnam, but perhaps a more symbolic motion to remind the reader that this is fiction, we can't forget that our author was a part of Vietnam and probably has a good notion of the type of violence that went on there; after all who could be more accurate then somebody who has actually been there? Though the novel has been blamed for confusing fact and fiction, there is a disclaimer in the front of the novel affirming that it is a work of fiction and must be read that way. If the reader does not do what the reader is told, the there will be disappointment from the ambiguous ending of what really happened. Tim O'Brien was asked about the truth of this novel and responded, "The literal truth is ultimately to me irrelevant . . . what matter is what happens in our hearts." When reading this book it's evident, this work is from his heart, and the ultimate truth, or lack of it in this novel, is completely irrelevant because it's not what the book is about. He didn't sit down to write about a murderer, or an escaped wife, he was writing people, and if they fascinate you, then this book will too.

The tone of the book could be taken as rage and the themes could be explained as the lack of truth and hope and meaning in life. There does seem to be a distorted view of marriage and sex and love since John Wade does stalk his girlfriend-turned-wife and perhaps kills her? But the question isn't answered, so no reader can assume, and Tim O'Brien sets the reader up to know that this book will never have a clear-cut ending very early on in the novel. Th\e reader has a choice then, he offers to set it down if that's not good enough for the reader.

The biggest strength in my opinion is the sheer artistry in which O'Brien paints the dramatic line of the novel. The unconventional prose form really added to the unconventionality of the story. The ambiguity of the narrator and his connection to John Wade just made you think even more. The chapters with only the evidence listed gave such a tremendous strength to the exposition provided. The mystery of the Northern Minnesota setting on the water made a perfect escape route for concrete answers to the mystery. And the love that was spoken between husband and wife was enough for a reader to want to find what that feels like. This is not the first work I've read by O'Brien; in fact it's one of the many. This so far was my favorite and with my high recommendation.