This book has everthing you would want to know about every ballpark or stadium. This book has the history and pictures of each ballpark.

One of the best books on baseball ball parks anywhere containing the great Mack and Amadee cartoons. Unfortunately, this book is outdated and out of print and a new version of this book is sorely needed. If you can get a copy of this at a used book store, by all means pick this one up. It is a great history book and for all baseball lovers,

Team Spirituality has been recommended by some major writers in the field fof Church Administration. I join them in the feeling that this book will do more forstaff administrator than any other of it type. It is an examination of the spiritual base of church leadership, and especially focused on the church staff. It can be recommended for any pastor, staff member or personnel committee memmber. There is nothing else quite like it.

This book starts at the begining, with the Biblical sources, and continues through present day staff realities. Guidelines for recruitment, development and operation are provided, and many instruments and processes are included that can be used in staff sessions to increase effectiveness and team spirit. An excellent guide to local church staff development.

This is the first book my daughter really enjoyed reading. She really likes the interaction of asking what the animal eats, and then lifting the flap to find out.

The illustrations are charming, with many fun details to discover. My six and eight year old boys still look at this book occasionally, even after owning it for 4 years.

It's the 10 year High School class reunion and it's time for
the duckling to make an appearance. But the catch this time
is that there will be no swan, instead he turned into a bird
of prey who was quite debonair. Jared Wilkes paced in his
Manhattan apartment comtemplating what to wear, he wanted to
make a good impression but he did not want to overkill.

Ten years ago Jared had a mad crush on high school beauty
queen, Daria Mitchell. But Jared was a nerd and he was too
shy and insecure to approach her. So Jared's older brother
Chapper, a high school and all-state basketball star added
her to his list of groupies.

Daria has been living in California pursuing her dreams as
an up and coming actress, but she is looking forward to the
reunion. Jared, works as a senior bonds trader for a
Manhattan firm. He is going home, but only because Daria will
be there. Jared never really got over the crush he had on her
and he's now ready to get up-close and personal.

Ms Laudat, has written an interesting twist to this coming
of age story for one shy young man who finally gets an
opportunity to share his feelings with his high school
fantasy. But his brother Chapper is living back at home and
he uses his old charms and a few new habits to create a firey
sibling rivalry. Will Jared finally beat his brother and
wake from his dreams to a promising and real tomorrow?

Reviewed by aNN

TEN YEARS AGO IN HIGH SCHOOL DARIA DATED THE WRONG WILKES BROTHER. CHAPPER, WHO IS A PLAYER FROM HIS HEART , HE IS ONLY AFTER WHAT HE CAN GET. WHEN DARIA TURNS HIM DOWN HE DROPS HER IN A FLASH. JARED THE SHY ONE WHO IS A MEMBER OF DARIAS' CLASS LOVES HER FROM AFAR. DARIA AND JARED RETURN FOR THEIR TEN YEAR CLASS REUNION. DARIA JUST TO SEE WHO IS THEIR AND JARED WITH THE HOPE THAT SHE WILL BE THERE. AS SOON AS THEY SEE EACH OTHER SPARKS FLY. THEY BEGIN A LONG DISTANT RELATIONSHIP, WHICH IS GOING GREAT. HOWEVER CHAPPER IS JEALOUS OF EVERTHING HIS BROTHER HAS ESPECIALLY DARIA. CHAPPER SET UP THIS ELABORATE PLAN TO BREAK THEM UP, BECAUSE JARED REFUSES TO LISTEN; PLUS HE STILL HAS HANG UPS FROM HIS HIGH SCHOOL DAYS IT WORKS. JARED SPEND THE NEXT FEW MONTHS HATING THE WORLD, WORKING NIGHT AND DAY, AVOIDING DARIA AND HIS BROTHER. DARIA SPEND IT CRYING AND TALKING ABOUT HOW MUCH SHE STILL LOVES HIM. FRIENDS TRY AND TALKED TO HIM BUT HE IS SO BLIND WITH ANGER HE WON'T LISTEN. SITTING ALONE AND UNHAPPY A S HELL ONE NIGHT, JARED REALIZES HE LOVES DARIA MORE THAN LIFE IT SELF AND DECIDES TO GO SEE HER SAY HE IS SORRY AND BEG FOR A SECOND CHANCE. DARIA ISN'T SURE SHE WANTS TO GIVE IN, SHE ADMITTS SHE LOVE HIM BUT LOVE WITH NO TRUST IS NO GOOD SHE TELLS HIM. THEY WORK THROUGH THIS PROBLEM GET MARRIED AND THE REST IS HISTORY.

"If LIFE is a GAME..." is a deeply spiritual book which makes a strong contribution to the idea of finding one's purpose in life, and to learning the lessons along the way. It's the connective tissue to living. Learning lessons is a part of living. What I am curious about is what has Carter-Scott learned about God? For a book with such a spiritual basis, little is said about the Divine, or our relationship to Him. What was His role in creating us? Or in designing our curriculum? And how about other people? How does our giving to others affect our lives? While acknowledging the role of God and others, this book reflects a self-centered appoach to life, talking about my lessons, my judgments, my purpose. Nor does she say anything about visualization. Her comments about judging others were very helpful. Her question, What do our judgments reveals about us, is worth asking. Judgments always boomerang, so why not understand what they say about you. She has dedicated this book to her readers who have followed her rules in their lives. And the cut-out on the back-flap was a nice way of rewarding their efforts. Each chapter has four principles (except for chapter 10, which has three) which includes a discussion and a anecdote from Carter-Scott's past. It's a nice mixture that makes for an enjoyable read. Her tribute to her sister Lynn on p. 127 was very touching, and reminded this reader of how important other people are to enhancing one's life.

For all of you fans of the book, "Chicken Soup for the Soul", there is a new book out there that unveils the ten greatest rules about living life as a human being. In fact, the forward is written by Jack Canfield ( of 'Chicken Soup' fame) and has an interesting story. You see, the first version of Chicken Soup had a list called "The Ten Rules for Being Human" signed by 'anonymous'. Turns out, Dr. Cherie Carter-Scott was the author of those Ten Rules and, with a little encouragement, she's put together this fabulous little book to help us reprogram the gray matter in our skulls.

The book is laid out in an extremely easy to read format and divided into Ten Chapters, or Rules, if you will. In these 133 pages, are such eye opening revelations, such as: Chapter # 3 There Are No Mistakes Only Lessons and Chapter # 4 A Lesson is Repeated Until Learned. These two chapters alone are worth the price of admission! Time and again, you may have witnessed a friend, or even yourself repeating a situation in life, over and over. Whether it's always going out with the same type of people, trusting the wrong people, or simply making the most difficult choices, these are symptoms of not understanding that life will always present you with the same type of situations, until you have learned to master them. It's not bad luck, but probably unwise decision making that gives us the same outcome. Until a person makes a 'conscious' decision to adjust their cycle of thinking, and break out of the pattern, life will always seem to dole out the same rewards.

Another great chapter is #9: "All Your Answers Lie Inside of You". Sometimes we know what's best for us and we still decide to go against it. What you need, what you seek and who you are is embedded within you. This book is not about games, it's about living life to the fullest and achieving the next level of consciousness. An excellent gift for the soul searcher!

Cherie Carter-Scott has written an excellent interpretation of the rollercoaster of life and has truely touched on the lessons that need to be learned in order to stay on track. Although I am a young male reader, this book has truely opened my eyes to my world and how I should attempt to live it. Reading this book I have found a peace that I have never known before, and a peace I am sure anyone who takes the time to learn lifes lessons as presented in this book will find. It truely is a remarkable work touching on the basic truths which govern our lives.

In the years since this book was published, controversy has erupted surrounding Forrest Carter's writing career. Some have accused him of not being a Cherokee, or of renouncing his Native American heritage when it suited him, then exploiting it later in life. There is also evidence that he was a speech writer for the Ku Klux Klan early in his career, before having a change of heart and writing the works for which he is better known. Does this affect one's reading of this book? That's a harder question. I can say for sure, though, that this book is the real deal. It is a deeply felt, honest (if occasionally idealized) account of what it meant to be raised Cherokee in the 1930's. It describes beautifully the Great Smoky Mountains of eastern North Carolina, and it is a powerful argument for a return to some of the old ways of the indigenous people of the American Southeast. Deeply moving, extremely humorous, and carefully told, this is one of America's greatest stories. Treasure it, and read it again and again.

Reguardless of the way the author lived his life, he has given us a look into what may be the best way to raise our families. I don't mean you have to live in the mountains (though that would be great), I'm talking about teaching our kids to live truthful lives. To respect nature, and live with (in) it, instead of fighting it. I'm not a native american, I can't say that I know enough about thier culture to accuse Carter of making it all up. But if using herbs, taking only what you need for food, respecting trees, animals, people, and caring for your family above all is not a part of Cherokee culture, then all of the other books about Indian culture I've been inspired to read (since reading Little Tree) must be wrong also. But I don't think so. Maybe the best aspect of this book is to incourage the reader to search out truthful accounts of native life, it just may change your thinking, and your life. I'd like believe that may have been the case with Mr.Carter. L.Runge

Okay, first let's get the ugliness out of the way. The recent boom in memoirs has produced a really fascinating phenomena, the true life tale which any intelligent reader knows to be fiction. The most celebrated recent examples are books like Angela's Ashes, wherein Frank McCourt reconstructs his entire childhood and verbatim dialogue in such loving detail that we realize that his memoir is ultimately a fictional take on his own autobiography (see Orrin's review). But in The Education of Little Tree we have an even more audacious author. Forrest Carter's supposed memoir of being raised by his Cherokee grandparents after being orphaned at age 5, likewise recreates his youth in a level of detail that makes the story hard to credit, but in addition the characters he creates and episodes he relates defy belief. The simple old Cherokee couple living at one with nature in a marriage of equals seems to be a purely mythic creation, but then when the five year old joins them and helps them outwit government bureaucrats, Christian missionaries, big city mobsters, etc., in between trips to the library to get the classics of Western Literature which Grandma reads aloud each night, you can really feel the text leaving any claim to a basis in reality behind. Finally, as the story ends with Little Tree, now age 9, and his two loyal dogs, working their way across Depression America to get to the Cherokee Reservation, we've entered Cloud Cuckoo Land.

So I mentioned all of this to my Mom, who along with my brother urged this book upon me, and she said that she'd seen a People Magazine article about Carter a dozen years ago and it, naturally, turned out that the book is fiction. A little quick research on the Web turns up the fact that it's not just fiction, it's virtually a hoax. Carter was actually named Asa Carter. He was a rabid segregationist who adopted the pseudonym Bedford Forrest, in honor of the Confederate general who founded the Klan. He may or may not have been a speech writer for George Wallace, but he did claim to have written the infamous "Segregation Forever!" speech.

Now having said all that, there's one more thing that needs to be said about the book; it's terrific. In many ways it reminded me of The Power of One, both are books of such surpassing beauty and heartwarming humanity, who cares if they are completely unrealistic? Isn't one of the chief values of fiction the capacity to transcend reality? The Education of Little Tree teaches timeless lessons about the value of family, education and place and it preaches an abiding mistrust of government. If it also managed to snooker most of the touchy feely, do-gooder, Left, which desperately wishes that these were all Native American values, and not essentially Western ones, this merely allows us to enjoy it on a second level. After all, it's not hard to make Oprah & company look stupid, but it is fun.

GRADE: A

Elmore Leonard has a real ear for dialogue and for writing interesting, complex characters that might seem like average, everyday people at first glance. Small wonder Hollywood has chosen to adapt so many of his projects to the big screen ("Out of Sight", "Get Shorty") and television ("Maximum Bob").

Rum Punch is the story of Jackie Burke, a stewardess looking at the twilight of her life and becomes involved in an ATF sting directed at gun-dealer Ordell Robbie. The ensuing scramble to clear her name and swindle Ordell out of some money dominates the story, as does her relationship with bailbondsman Max Cherry. Director Quentin Tarantino made a decent film based on the book called "Jackie Brown", but to truly appreciate Leonard's story and the characters in them one has to read the book.

While this was most enjoyable of the nine or ten Leonard books I've read, I have to confess that I'm pretty sure that's because I was able to visualize the actors from the movie version (1997's Jackie Brown). While Leonard's characters always have great patter, I often have a hard time visualizing them as real people, so to have a mental picture going in helped a great deal. In this book, Leonard revives a trio (cons Ordell and Louie, and eye candy Melonie) from an earlier novel The Switch (which I have not read), and picks them up 14 years and plenty of hard knocks down the road.

The story is pretty basic super convoluted Leonard territory, ex-cons both crafty and stupid, a complicated money laundering operation, double-crosses, less than straight-laced cops, a wide range of women, a big score, and soforth. It has to be said that the way Leonard combines the elements is rather substantially more complicated than in others of his books-and indeed unnecessarily so, as the movie shows. I have to disagree with the majority viewpoint and declare the film superior to the book (a rarity). Tarantino clearly recognized and excised the burdensome subplots and unlikely coincidences, and the resulting script is smoother and more believable. For example, Max's disintegrating marriage and his sparring with her busboy lover/painter adds nothing and doesn't go anywhere. Similarly, Ordell and Louis's robbery and killing of some neo-Nazis is set up early on, disappears for a long time, then plays out rather foolishly, but never leads to anything. Most importantly, the notion of Louis working briefly with Max Cherry is dropped. In any event, in both book and film, the focus is on stewardess Jackie, and her playing both sides against each other in order to walk off with half a million. That's the fun stuff, and while the book has too many distractions from this, it's still more enjoyable than most of his work.

Ok so this was my first elmore leonard novel and maybe it's just me but I was dissapointed. The characters were great. Each character was compelling enough to keep my attention. There were witty and funny moments and a little romance witch mr.leonard is suprisingly good at. The bad points well in one word the plot sucked. It is a good premise but it just isint enough to keep my attention for three hundred pages. Its a fairly panned out book for a story so simple. Second is that the climax was'nt much. other then that I enjoyed the trials and tribulations of ordell,louis.melanie,jackie and max.

Okay, you're probably thinking that I'm just someone complaining about having to read it in my freshman year's honors English class. No, I was not forced to read this. I read it far before it was on the reading list. Just wanted to clear that up. Back to the review. Mary Shelley's Frankenstein is an intriguing autobiography of a man obsessed with tampering with the laws of nature by reversing them. This novel shows how man deals with failure and loss. Unfortunatly, Victor Frankenstein dealt with failure and loss the wrong way and... Wait, I don't want to give away the ending. Anyway, Mary Shelley creates a clever plot and adds some gruesome happenings and romance, combining the three to make one of the most famous horror stories. Unfortunatly, for those of you still hooked to video games and fast-paced action, you may have a difficult time reading this for it tends to drag out at some points. But that's how literature is, you'll just have to deal with it. Apart from that, I would definitly recommend this book to just about anyone.

The Frankenstein monster is truly one of the most tragic characters in classic literature. He is obviously quite brilliant, having learned to speak (rather eloquently, I might add), and to read simply by secretly watching others. He's sensitive, kind, and appreciative of nature's beauty-all of the most admirable characteristics of a wonderful soul. And yet, he is vilified by all who come in contact with him because of his physical repulsiveness.

His longing for love, especially from Victor, was so painful that it became difficult for me to read. I kept hoping he'd find someone to show him the littlest bit of kindness. His turn to violence is entirely understandable, and Victor's irresponsibility toward his creation is despicable. Victor, who is outwardly handsome but cowardly and cruel, is the story's true monster.

In addition to writing a captivating story, Shelley raises many social issues that are still relevant today, nearly 200 years later, and the book provides a superb argument against *ever* cloning a human being.

(Note: I have the edition with the marvelous woodcut illustrations by Barry Moser and the Joyce Carol Oates afterword - superb!)

After seeing at least five versions of this tale in film - one of my great childhood monster loves - I was happy to finally read the novel. As so often occurs with classics, I was as surprised as I was fascinated.

For starters, the characters are far more subtle than any of the film versions: Victor F appears as a brooding and obsessed genius, but also as a great lover of life and nature. The monster, who is an articulate and literate creature who read Goethe, is even more interesting, from his hopeful beginning to his bitter reaction at rejection and his thirst for vengence. His eloquence was vivid and his pain horribly realistic.

But the work is also fascinating as a window into the mind of the Romantics, who at once strove to reject the rationalism of the Enlightenment yet reflected it. The creature starts off empty and what it becomes is due entirely to his experience. Knowledge is not always good, etc.

Finally, the themes are timeless and full of conflict: creativity giving birth to unimaginable destruction, tampering with nature as its necessities overwhelm even genius, and the like. THe book is a kaleidescope of philosophical reflection. The pain of the creator and the monster alike are inescapably linked like father and son.

I did find the style of the book a bit difficult. It is full of florid rhetoric and lengthy circumlocutions, as the doctor and then the monster tell their stories in almost identical prose.

Highly recommended.

This is a tale of a boat trip up the Congo, although nowhere in the book is the actual name of that river or the Belgian colony that emerged on its banks ever used. The writer, Joseph Conrad, was probably more interesting than any of his characters. Although writing about stiff-upper-lip types and managing to be more English than the English, he was actually born in a country that was undergoing its own form of colonization in those days, that is Poland. Going to sea, Conrad experienced many adventures around the globe, providing him with the rich stock of stories that were to win him acceptance from the English reading public.

Most people now come across this book as part of some college course condemning colonialism. At least that's how I came across it. Others might know it as the prototype for Francis Ford Coppola's amazing movie "Apocalypse Now."

Although an enthralling read, it is also a strangely vacuous book and, as a consequence, extremely well-named, as Kurtz, the central character, remains a dark enigma at the heart of the story to the end. We never really get to know who he is. Sent by the Belgian colonial authorities upriver, Kurtz has 'gone native' and our narrator is sent after him to investigate.

This format allows the narrator to drop-feed us information about Kurtz during the long river voyage, giving us pieces of a jigsaw that is never completed. As we read we are nevertheless tantalized by the prospect of meeting the man who has scrawled "Exterminate all the brutes" on his report for the "International Society for the Suppression of Savage Customs," participated in "unspeakable rites," and established his authority among the natives through the uncivilized practice of impaling heads on poles.

Is this a true picture of colonialism? During his life as a sailor, the writer visited the Belgian Congo so the details ring true. Also the objective, descriptive, and rather emotionally detached style of the narrator proves convincing. Nevertheless there is something rather mechanical about this picture. Conrad presents economic exploitation or vicious greed as the dominant if not the only force in this view of colonialism. Perhaps in the case of the Belgian Congo, a particularly brutal colonial system, this is justified, but those college students being fed this novel as representative of colonialism in general should be more wary.

To our modern materialistic sensibilities, it makes perfect sense that colonialism should be so greed-driven, but there were also more altruistic motives at work such as the desire to 'save,' 'educate,' and 'civilize' the natives. Conrad treats these with a healthy dose of cynicism. The philanthropic motives, sincerely believed by many in the home country, such as Marlow's Aunt, become in the face of the ruthless greed and brutality existing in the Congo no more than empty jargon, ironically spoked to justify the terrible cruelties inflicted on the natives for the benefit of the Company. But quite often these motives were actually sincere and brought great improvements to the natives, in many cases actually giving them the tools with which they later won their independence.

Although condemning their exploiters, Conrad has little real understanding of the natives who always remain mysterious and unfathomable:

"The prehistoric man was cursing us, praying to us, welcoming us - who could tell? We glided past like phantoms, wondering and secretly appalled, as sane men would be before an enthusiastic outbreak in a madhouse."

In this there is a lack of true sympathy, which however reassures us that he is not exaggerating or sentimentalizing the plight of the Africans. Colonialism was certainly not a blessing; maybe it wasn't a mixed blessing, but it might have been a mixed curse. Anyway, however you choose to view it, it undoubtedly had a profound impact on the economy, environment, culture, and identity of native peoples. We get little of this from Conrad and his "unfathomable savages."

I'm not sure how to feel about this book. While reading it, I really could not become absorbed by Conrad's dense prose, though, while occasionaly eloquent, is very thick, and, well, British. But now that I am finished with it, I can not get the images the novella invokes out of my head. The conquest of Africa by the Imperialist on the surface, and the corruption of man's very morality underneath. The story is deceptively simple, merely a man working for an Ivory trading company, ominously called "The Company", going up the Congo river to meet up with Kurtz, the archetype of Western Imperialism. During this trip, we are shown the inner workings of man and his heart of darkness. The novella is not perfect though. Conrad's condemnation of Imperialism is uneven. Yes, the only discernable cause of Kurtz's descent into evil and madness is the imperialist ethic of master-slave, and it is fairly clear that Marlowe (conrad) is condemning that ethic, but at the same time, he doesn't work very hard to elevate the view of the African natives any higher in the esteem of his western readers. Anyway, as the novella is only about 100 pages, it is something that can be read in a day. Invest an afternoon in it, and decide for yourself.

Heart of Darkness is a novella that really needs to be read more than just once to fully appreciate Conrad's style of writing. The story is an account of one man's simultaneous journey into the darkness of a river as well as into the shadows of a madman's mind. There is a very brilliant flow of foreshadowing that Conrad brings to his writing that provides the reader with accounts of the time period and the horrible events to come. Through Conrad's illuminating writing style we slowly see how the narrator begins to understand the madness or darkness that surrounds him.

I recommend this particular version of the novella because it contains a variety of essays, which discusses some of the main issues in the reading and historical information. Issues like racism and colonialism are discussed throughout many essays. It also contains essays on the movie inspired by the book Apocalypse Now, which is set against the background of the Vietnam War. I recommend reading Heart of Darkness and then viewing Apocalypse Now, especially in DVD format which contains an interesting directors commentary.

"The Forest House" (or "The Forests of Avalon") is a good book, no doubt - but it is not as good as "The Mists Of Avalon", by any means. The book is too long compaired to the content of the story, but it is written very well - if not as good as "The Mists...". The characters are very well described, but not always totally realistic. The force of the book is the historical facts about the Roman occupation, and it gives a new perspective to "The Mists..." because the celtic religion is described. Also, a lot of information about the religious background of the characters in "The Mists..." is given. Should be read if you liked "The Mists...".

I post this again to get it linked to my memberpage.

"The Forest House" (or "The Forests of Avalon") is a good book, no doubt - but it is not as good as "The Mists Of Avalon", by any means. The book is too long compaired to the content of the story, but it is written very well - if not as good as "The Mists...". The characters are very well described, but not always totally realistic. The force of the book is the historical facts about the Roman occupation, and it gives a new perspective to "The Mists..." because the celtic religion is described. Also, a lot of information about the religious background of the characters in "The Mists..." is given. Should be read if you liked "The Mists...". (P.S. I'm sory that my english isn't perfect.)

I read the series backwards, and all three books were equally wonderfull. The Mists of Avalon I actually think is the best one, but the Forest House is the first in the series and is positively beautifull. I wish I would have started out in the right direction. This book practicly glues you to the story in the first chapter and keeps you there till the end. You endur the trials and feel the strength of the characters as if you were really there. Bradley works her magic bringing you into a realistic story that spins you into a world full of magic, action and romance. This is a can't miss book.