This book should be included in the recent printings of "Life Among the Savages." (especially as "Life" is much too short!) It is very funny and also serves as an historical peek into the flavor of it's time.

Shirley Jackson proved with this book that she is not only an excellent mystery writer, but by writing Raising Demons and Life Among The Savages she can have the reader laughing until he cries!

I received "Raising Demons" as a gift from my teacher in 8th grade (1972) and have read it hundreds of times. I even named my children after the children in the book and find that all-too-often my life as a busy mother parallels Ms. Jackson's, even though the book takes place decades ago. The children are realistically eccentric, the relationships true, the pets demanding, and the house... well, anyone who has ever bought an old house will surely recognize the situations found here.

Another quality book from Jackson. A nice size, able to slip easily into a pocket or handbag. Details beers from around the globe in an easy to read format, rating them on an easy to understand scale. Surprising amount of information for such a small book. All you have to do is find the beer!!!

This "Pocket" guide is a perfect companion (of course, there are better, human companions) for the traveling beer lover. There are concise comments and honest, useful rankings for just about any beer you will ever run across in your travels. As you'd expect, this pocket guide is easy to take with you (it's about twice as big as a wallet without all the cash and credit cards stuffed into it) and can serve as a helpful guide when trying to figure out what to order at some of the world's better drinking establishments. It's broken down by country and that's helpful as well. I once ordered all the five-star Belgian beers at a pub in Brugge and other than the trouble I got in when I returned to my hotel, this book was a perfect guide for making good decisions.

This book is excellent! It has a collection of practically every beer you can think of! If you are interested in tasting various types of beers, you will love this book. It is also pocket-sized so that you can easily take it with you when visiting a pub or bar.

I enjoyed this book as any Kinsella fan would. I found some of the stories true gems, but others I found somewhat uninteresting. This is not Kinsella's greatest selection, but it shows a different side of the author and some of the stories are more adult oriented content. I enjoyed the stories 'Fiona the First', 'Shoeless Joe Jackson Comes to Iowa', 'A Picture of the Virgin' and 'A Blacksmith Shop Caper' as the real good ones. Those alone are worth the book, so you won't be disappointed overall.

"Fiona the First," the opening story in this collection, was cited for excellence by Stanley Elkin and Shannon Ravenel in the 1980 edition of BEST AMERICAN SHORT STORIES.

Speaking to bibliographer Ann Knight in 1983, Kinsella admitted that a few details from this story are semi-autobiographical: "The lady who keeps saying, 'He can put his shoes under my bed,' I saw at a Vancouver Mounties game in Seattle in 1954." And, "the business about the stewardess trying to give away a baby happened to me and a young lady at the Vancouver International Airport in 1970 or '71."

These stories celebrate particular relationships: between father and son, brother and sister, perfect strangers, a spiritual icon and her admirers, doctor and patient, father and daughter, bowling buddies, etc. They are classic Kinsella. No fan of his opus will want to overlook these initial, "adult-oriented" adventures into the regions of Magic Realism. These tales are Icarus flyers; they tempt the sun to melt their wings.

I first saw the movie Field of Dreams when I was in the 3rd grade, I loved the movie so much. Then in the 6th grade my teacher started to read us the book, but never even came close to finishing, I was disappointed. Then, this year (10th grade) I read it over Christmas break, and I couldn't put it down. I have never read a book that could calm me down and not make me sleepy. I had to get my wisdom teeth out and I was currently reading that book, everytime I got nervous I read the book and it relaxed me! I recomend this to anyone who likes baseball or just loves to read. Even if you don't like to read I still recomend it! It is better than the movie and I still think the movie is good, there is just to much to capture. I could read that book again and again! So, I recomend it to everyone!

This is the third book by Jackson Lears and it confirms his status as one of the most innovative of American intellectual historians. Like his previous books "No Place of Grace" about late 19th century conservative intellectuals, and "Fables of Abundance" about American advertising, his approach is idiosyncratic, and not easily summarized. His work uses a large amount of literary allusion, so as "Fables" invoked Little Nemo and examined Henry James and Joseph Cornell, in "Something" Cornell makes a return appearance, along with Mark Twain, Damon Runyon (of course) and a special examination of "Invisible Man."

Lears' book is based on a contrast between a "Culture of Chance" and a "Culture of Control." Naturally, the growth of science has helped to vastly strengthen the latter against the former. But it is not that simple. There is a clash between differing Christian, indeed Protestant, views of grace. Is grace granted unconditionally, freely, like the winner of a game of chance? Or is it a matter of Divine Providence which, if not saying salvation is earned by merit, does strongly state that the hard working self made man either will get success or deserves the success he gets. Lears discusses this in a nuanced and subtle reading of the theologian Paul Tillich. One the one hand he was promiscuous and power-hungry ("not an attractive combination, in a theologian or anyone else") and his view of grace could be fashionable, dangerously naive and convenient. But there was something important, that recognized the link between grace and chance. "...Tillich had recaptured a key element in the religion of Jesus..."

It is at this point that one must demur. As a Jew, and as a critical historian I must object to any view that attributes to Jesus the ideas of grace that were developed by Paul, Augustine, Luther, Calvin or by American theologians. If there is one constant flaw of American Protestantism, both liberal and conservative, whether evangelically Orthodox or Mormon/Jehovah's Witness heterodox, it is to attribute to first century Palestine beliefs which could only have developed in the United States. Although more sophisticated than most, Lears (and the late Christopher Lasch) fall to this temptation. Another problem is that Lears does not discuss the flip side of grace. Damnation can also be awarded freely, and with no right of appeal. And if most Protestants believe they will be saved, for much of the first few centuries of Protestantism its theologians assumed most of their fellow Christians were doomed, while the non-Christian majority of humanity did not have a chance. To the extent that American Protestants no longer believe this, it is not simply the result of glib positivism, complacent pro-capitalism or sinister and sentimental "therapeutic" motifs.

"Something" is also weaker than "Fables" because it is often repetitive and less coherent. Nevertheless there is much of value for the reader here. He discusses the culture of chance in America and its roots among Europeans, Africans, and Indian Americans (rather tellingly, there was a "virtually complete absence" of cheating among the last group). Although gambling is often addictive and harmful, and clearly an unjust way of raising revenues, the culture of control's critique is often moralistic, and fatally unimaginative. There is much discussion of the social pretensions of gamblers, and their tendency to cheat. Particularly interesting is how the culture of control slowly increased its influence in the 19th century, while at the same time euphemizing or ignoring those trends in science which undermined it. Chance could be tamed by the scientific study of probability, and later public opinion poll surveys and Tayloristic management. Darwinism's undermining of conscious design and teleology could be ignored. But ultimately anthropologists developed more sophisticated understandings of what people had long dismissed as "superstition." The crude positivist certainties were undermined as non-Euclidean mathematics and quantum physics arose.

The best chapter is the penultimate one, "The Persistent Allure of Accident," in which Lears notes the recovery of chance in modernist literature like Joyce and Proust. We see the influence of Chance in Cubism, Dadaism, and Surrealism. And we see Chance's sway in Abstract Expressionism, the Beats and John Cage. But this allure has its own weaknesses. Lears points out that the risk-taking persona could degenerate into a pose. In particularly nuanced readings Lears points out that the Beats could collapse into misogyny and solipism, and Cage's work could contribute to postmodernist triviality. But there was another, more fruitful side in both Cage and the Beats, a theme best represented in Robert Motherwell's desire not to be the slave of chance, but its partner. If chance and grace are not to by synonoms for solipsism, that we have to remember "to recognize the role of other people in the creation of grace." Now that is a gamble we all have to take.

In "Something For Nothing" Jackson Lears has come up with nothing less than a fresh way to look at the American idea. He tells the story of two cultures: -- "the culture of control," and the "culture of chance" -- that have bubbled beneath the surface American life from the beginning (and he traces their roots deeper into history as well). He returns to gambling often, but this is much more than a social history of gambling. It's easy to think of America as place where the culture of control dominates and always has, in the form of the "work ethic" that says that the way to get ahead is to work hard, merit will be rewarded, etc. This notion is so basic to the way many contemporary debates are framed that we hardly even think about it anymore. But there are now and always have been competing ideas out there -- in the most unexpected places -- about the role of chance, or luck, in life. At times the culture of control has simply denied chance, and aother times it has tried to subdue it (through everything from insurance to statistics-based social science to management theory). At times the lines have been blurry -- business risk-taking has been culturally rewarded even when it is as much a matter of chance as a (demonized) spin of the roulette wheel. Obviously I'm oversimplifying, but the book is incredibly thought-provoking. It's also thick with references drawn from history, culture, art, literature, philosophy -- at times this is dazzling and at times it's overwhelming; one almost feels the need to pause, get a Ph.D. in American Studies, and then return to the book. But on the whole Lears is in command of the material, and makes his book a fascinating and important read.

I'm not sure I'm convinced by the attempt at thumbnail psychological profiling of gamblers from times past, especially in a book as breezy and entertaining as this one. But my only real complaint was the author's tendency to try to make himself sound like he possesses special sympathy for those who dare to buck tradition (and perhaps sound reasoning) in order to get a little closer to the reality of chance and dollar-bought pleasure. Academics are always claiming to side with the impoverished little guy, as if anyone really belives that the sedentary class of academic bourgeois even understands the choices made by all those who avoid institutional permanence and comfort and upper middle class gloss; are these scholars really on the side of those who take risks and think of money as the route to ephermal but appreciated material pleasure? After reading this book I found myself thinking: If only academics were capable of the same daring as the people profiled in this charming book!

I, along wih the members of my book discussion group, had the distinct pleasure of meeting Rhodesia Jackson. Lucky for us, she lives in New Orleans and accepted our invitation to join us for one of our book discussion groups where we reviewed her novels, "Pecan Candy and Huckabucks" and "Sweeter Than Candy". She is very gracious, soft-spoken, sincere, and a little shy. Everyone of us was so involved in the characters, we felt as though we knew them and couldn't wait to read about what would happen in their lives next. She promised her third novel will pick up where her second novel leaves off. It should be out in November, 1999. She wouldn't give us any hints about what would happen in her third novel, but she said she's sure we will be as pleased with it as we were with the first two in the trilogy. If her schedule permits, she will again join us for the discussion of her third novel. We are all looking forward to it!

Rhodesia Jackson has done it again. First with Pecancandy And Huck-a-Bucks and now with it's sequel Sweeter Than Candy. A great rags to riches story of a young women's struggle to have better. Each page will jump out and grab you. It's a book that once you start reading it you can't put it down. I can't wait for Sweeter Than Candy's sequel, Three Times Sweeter, to be released.

THIS IS PART TWO OF PECANCANDY AND HUCK-A-BUCKS IT PICKS UP WHERE THE FIRST BOOK ENDS.RHODESIA JACKSON IS A MASTER STORYTELLER. VERY DETAILED,WITHOUT LOSING FOCUS ON THE PLOT. WHEN THE STORY ENDS YOU WILL BE BEGGING FOR MORE.PRAISES FOR SWEETER THAN CANDY.YOU HAVE TO READ IT !!!!!! READ IT!!!!THIS IS ABOUT A YOUNG WOMAN COMING OF AGE.KIND OF A RAGS TO RICHES,LEARNING TO BECOME A WIFE AND MOTHER, DEALING WITH THE UPS AND DOWNS OF COLLEGE LIFE ,INLAWS & FAMILY.

To the mind of many historical observers, nothing so defines the striking differences between the nature of the Third Reich from the constitutional democracies that largely comprised the Allies as the way in which the defendants of the trials at Nuremberg were handled. With painstaking precision and at extraordinary cost in terms of international arm-twisting and back-door deals, the proponents of a judicial proceeding designed to illustrate the manifest individual guilt of the various Nazi officials forged a result that still stands today as a model of a non-retributive effort in the face of extraordinary pressure. While one can hardly describe the Nuremberg trials as unflawed or perfect, they did prove to the world that the Allies were willing to subscribe to the existing canon of law to judge the actions of the Nazis.

Doing so was anything but easy, Indeed, achieving a fair result that would literally convince the watching world of the guilt of the participants in the war was anything but easy, and moving toward that deliberate goal is a theme providing an interesting theme punctuating the pace of the book. Churchill wanted revenge by way of summary trials and quick retribution, while the Russians just wanted to string up the whole group in a mass hanging. Yet American Supreme Court Justice Robert Jackson was able to resolve the differences well enough to proceed, although at times the reader wonders if the trials will be anything like the fair-minded judicial event he has in mind. Indeed, the back-stabbing, personal ambitions, and petty jealousies of the various factions, trial officials, and individual defendants becomes a kind of political circus that sometimes resembles nothing so much as vaudevillian showboating.

Still, the efforts at conducting a fair and open forum for the world to watch as the prosecution and defense teams clashed before the international tribunal prevailed, and the trials concluded with mixed results in terms of the results. Most of the defendants were found guilty, and many were hanged. Yet few observers doubted that the defendants had had their day in court along with and adequate opportunity to defend their actions to a watching world. Given how little justice and liberty they collectively allowed for their tens of millions of victims, it is remarkable just how civilized and dignified a proceeding the Nuremberg trials were, with all their theatrics and subterranean undercurrents.

One marvels at the fact that after fifty years the world still stands in awe at the deliberate, careful, and methodical way in which the Allies achieved the result of a rational and fair trial of the defendants in history's most horrific modern nightmare, the terror of the Third Reich. This is an interesting and absorbing book, and a fascinating and entertaining book to read. It was also particularly interesting to me because it explores the lives of each of the defendants in looking at their individual guilt. I recommend it to anyone interested in learning more about these singular trials and their impact on history

This is hands down the most depressing book I have ever read in my life. I'm not saying that as a criticism. It is completely appropriate to feel depressed after reading this book on this subject.

What did I gain from this book? First hand accounts from the Trials of the war crimes and crimes against humanity that occurred on the part of Germany during World War II. I've read other books on World War II and accounts from survivors of concentration camps. I've also visited the US Holocaust Memorial in Washington DC and WWII exhibits at other museums. This book had just as much emotional impact because it used extensive quotes from the Trials themselves from the people who committed the crimes and their victims. In addition, I gained a deeper understanding of some of the other aspects of Germany's behavior leading up to and at the beginning of WWII. For example, while I knew that Germany had taken over Austria, Poland, Czechoslovakia and other countries, I did not have a true understanding of the duplicitous actions and downright lies on the part of the German leaders that led these countries to feel safe while at the same time Germany was preparing for aggressive action. Actually reading the first hand testimony given by the war criminals had a great deal of impact.

There are a number of rather graphic photographs both of concentration camps and of the war criminals after execution, but this is expected in a book like this. The book also makes extensive use of transcripts from the Trials and of other reports gathered by the prosecuting countries in preparation for the Trials which cause the pace of the book to be rather slow at times. It is also clearly written with a bias towards the United States, but this makes sense because of the type of book it is. I also found myself thinking of this book as a summary of all of the trial information rather than as a historical book standing on its own.

Overall, I would recommend this book mainly to those interested in learning in detail about what the defendants in the Nuremburg Trials were convicted of and why. It is not fun or light reading but serious reading presented in a style that requires you to pay a great deal of attention.

In this book, a very detailed account of what went on in the Nazi government as the end near in the Nuremberg Trials. A very good read and moderate level of easiness. So basically anyone can read it and more importantly understand it. Harris is a good fellow who illustrated the Trial in a way that now one has yet to achieve.

During the Civil War, General Robert E. Lee bemoaned the loss of his "right arm," the famous General Thomas Jackson of Virginia/West Virginia. "Stonewall" Jackson had come upon the scene following a meteoric rise in leadership in the Confederate Army. While many books of Stonewall's generalship exist, little has been written about his youth. Now, a native West Virginian from the Jackson's Mill locale explains how young Tom survived despite being orphaned and shy. Drawing upon Jackson's official biography, his early letters, the archives of the West Virginia Cultural Center, and Jackson's Mill sources, Dennis Norman has reconstructed Jackson's juvenile days. Stonewall and his boyhood friends played under the shady sugar maple trees. The book title, however, is in reference to the general's last words to "...cross over the river, and rest under the shade of the trees." Jackson's Mill was also like that. Young Stonewall fished, raced horses, performed mill site chores, and planned for his future. His unique life style was already showing and his opportunities only around the corner. Norman details Jackson's first political involvement, his trip to the Ohio River,and how a possible second place score in a West Point exam did not count him out for the appointment. Author Norman treats his own admiration for Jackson with the respect of a researcher, and yet presents an easy reading, interesting true story.

Under The Shade of the Trees is a refreshing look at the background and ultimate creation of one of America's Heros! Not often does history reveal the circumstances behind the man, however in this case you not only get to know Thomas Jackson but even get a chance to relate to his upbringing. Easy to read and and an obvious understanding for historical facts Norman puts a fine touch to a complicated man! Even if you are not a history buff you'll enjoy this one! Well done!

THIS BOOK CONTAINS SO MUCH NEW INFORMATION THAT I HAVE DEVELOPED A NEW WAY TO LOOK AT JACKSON AS AN HISTORICAL FIGURE. IT IS VERY WELL WRITTEN AND OFFERS A SMOOTHNESS THAT IS VERY COMFORTING, ESPECIALLY FOR HISTORICAL INFORMATION...WHICH IS NORMALLY DRY AND ROUGH . THIS BOOK ISNT....YOU'LL BE SUPRISED. I CANT WAIT FOR MR NORMAN'S NEXT EFFORT.

A friend gave this book to my 7 year old second grader. Her son had liked it. I was initially hesitant to read an abridged version of a classic because I'd seen such books that didn't seem very well done. My son and I both loved this version. The adapter did an excellent job. I read most of it to him but it was at a level that he could read it himself too.

My 7 year old loved this shorter version of the classic. He is just getting into chapter books and this was a great read aloud book that we could read together. It kept both his interest and my own through out the story. Maybe when he's older, we'll read the classic together, but for now this is a GREAT book for his age. The other books in this series are also just as good as this one. I recommend them all.

My son, a 10 year old, needed a book which he could read easily and independently, but, more importantly, would not talk down to his intellect. This book is a great fit. It tells a gripping adventure story in plain, accessable language - which would not be too difficult for children in younger grades to read on their own. However, I would not reccommend this book for a child younger than 4th or 5th grade to read independently. It has quite a bit of understated death and violence in it - for instance, a man gets his head chopped off - pet animals die and get eaten - and hungry cannibals abound. Thus, it may be more appropriate for the older reader. I also worried that it was not a good idea give a child a condensed version of a classic - but then, this one seems to maintain the integrity of the original. I think the book is a real find - and I am happy that my son finds it the first book he read (on his own) that he was "really in to."

I found Mr. Miller's book extremely helpful. I was really surprised to find the Christian game "Redemption" in there but was pleased to see it. If you are an avid CCG player you must have this book.

This is a great product! It gives valuable, accurate information for tons of CCG's and many checklists. Althought the system for card organization can be rather confusing at first, after a while one gets used to it and it becomes even easier to locate the cards you wish to have priced! A Great Value!

While appearing to be merely a checklist and resource for collectors attempting to catalog their collections of cards for various collectible card games, the many and varied types of information provided in Miller and Greenholdt's encyclopedic volume actually have valuable details ready to assist everyone- from the most casual players to the hard-core enthusiasts.

This veritable tome on collectible card games does contain a complete list of cards and prices for every game and every expansion to every game published in the English language up until the book's publication date in 2001. Additionally, it contains some lists of cards for expansions and games slated to come out after its publication date, but no prices are given for sets not available on the secondary market at the book's press time. These lists are very complete, and are specially tailored to each individual game. Thus, the lists can provide extra info such as the color, type (creature, instant, etc.), and rarity of every magic card; the alignment (light or dark), type, and rarity of every Star Wars card; and other type and rarity information modified for each individual game. The lists also place a checkbox next to every card name, allowing you to mark which cards you acquire.

However, it is not only the lists, but the extra info that truly makes this first-of-its-kind book shine. First, every game and every expansion has a short essay preceding the card list in which experienced players and "industry insiders" discuss the merits and flaws of the game. These discussions are usually very helpful in determining the quality of a game you have never seen, and are a remarkable resource for anyone trying to decide which new collectible card game to begin playing, or which expansion to buy into for a current game. These essays often contain a brief version of the game's mechanics, as well as how the game was received in the general market. Also, other bits of info, such as what the company was doing or planning when a particular set was released is in these essays, helping you to see how the themes and cards of the sets link together (or how they were supposed to link together). Additionally, special boxed sets and other unusual releases sometimes get their own mini-essay, a nice extra touch.

As useful as the essays are, Scrye has gone further, giving every game (not expansion) no less than 4 different 5-star ratings: one each for the quality of the game's concept, game play, card art, and the size and availability of its player pool. Providing an alternative to reading the essay (or a reminder of what it contains), these ratings help to sum up the reviewers' impressions of the game in each different area, and also allow you to focus on one specific issue most important to you (game play, for example).

Aware that their readers would be unfamiliar with many of the games in this volume, Miller and Greenholdt have provided a number of different tools to help readers navigate through the releases of unfamiliar games. Most impressively, there is a full-color section containing pictures of the backs of a card from every game, as well as the fronts of one or more types of cards from every game. This allows you to identify a card's parent game by appearance, and also gives you an idea of the quality and style of artwork on games you haven't seen (which may help you decide whether to purchase some of that game). Next to the card art in the color section, there are complete lists of every expansion for each game, neatly categorized into basic sets, expansions, and special sets, useful for quick reference of all the parts of a large game such as Magic: The Gathering. Also in the color section is a guide to determining a card's physical quality (poor, good, fine, near mint, or mint), an extra bonus.

All this would have been enough to make the Scrye CCG Checklist and Price Guide more than worthwhile, but there is still more excellent info stored within its hundreds of pages. In the front, there is a time line, organized by date, of every release for every game in the book. Also in the front are a variety of introductions, some on the general trends in CCG during each year, some on determining how to sell your cards and what price you might expect (there is even a page on online card auctions), and a foreword by Peter Adkison, the founder of Wizards of the Coast, the company that created Magic: The Gathering. And yet, there is still more! In the appendices, there is info about CCGs in foreign languages, about the collectible miniatures game Mage Knight, and even a section on "pseudo-collectible card games," or card games that had interesting features or were similar to CCGs, but were not truly part of the genre.

Miller and Greenholdt have created an amazing volume of valuable information for almost anyone involved in collectible card games in any way. From the exhaustingly thorough listings to the helpful essays and introductions, The Scrye Collectible Card Game Checklist and Price Guide is an invaluable tool and a fine chronicle of a new genre of game that could only be fated to grow in the years ahead.

There's less here than meets the eye. Award-winning work-life journalist Maggie Jackson interviews numerous people about tensions between work and home, but we learn only that people are feeling stressed and overwhelmed, and that the trend is likely to continue. It's an entertaining read, but what's missing? Social context, for one: the ideal of a private home life valorized by Jackson is essentially the possession of the post-1850 suburban middle class. Rural and working-class families successfully combine home and work with fewer stumbles over the molehills that her painfully self-aware cell phone-toting interview subjects turn into mountains. What else is missing? Social context again: Jackson's nostalgia for housework (she doesn't so her own, she admits) ignores the history of housework as a means of limiting women's aspirations (well documented in numerous books), as well as research that indicates homemaking is a full-time job that few husbands fully share. The spiritually cherishing "home" for which Jackson's overstressed subjects yearn is most probably a social construct that matched the lived experience of few, if any, Americans. Teasing out the shape of the unattainable domestic ideal may be the most entertaining part of reading the book.

I really loved this book! It spoke to me at a deep level but had an ease about it that made it pure pleasure to read.

There is no book like it - it considers a totally fresh subject. The author shines very thoughtful light on the 'essence' of home, considering the nuances of what has changed about it and what is vital to keep. She takes us on a journey - her own -- and we discover with her how important it is that we preserve the home - although a redefined version of it -- 'as a place of anchor and refuge from the public and from work'. There is a clarity that comes from reading this book and a reassurance from the understanding it offers.

I found myself changing my own behavior in the midst of reading it and feeling a sense of relief somehow. I suspect that my life will remain enriched by what I took away from it.

The book will have wide appeal both by its style and its substance. It is a great book for individuals who are deliberate about the quality of their own lives, for social observers and for people just plain curious about the invisible forces that carry us along.

What's Happening To Home? Balancing Work, Life, And Refuge In The Information Age by veteran journalist Maggie Jackson is an effective, "reader friendly" guide for the twenty-first century, focusing as it does on the invasion of telecommunication, e-mail, and the onward march of information technology to deliver more work to one's home doorstep - as well as the increasing American trend to take just about everything short of the actual office home after the official workday has ended. What's Happening To Home? addresses very real contemporary concerns, concentrating on practical and effective guidelines to balance work and home life for a happier and healthier future. What's Happening To Home? is a fascinating, informative, highly recommended account that speaks to everyone caught up in the manifold pressures of the digital age.