This is a fun word book for toddlers. My 2 year old is really into Elmo, so she loves sitting down with this book. The pages are broken up into different scenes like the park and the grocery store, and there are big pictures with labels to teach basic words. There is a nice farm scene good for teaching animals.
I think this book will continue to teach my daughter, until she outgrows Elmo.

Mickey Stone had a stimulating and rewarding career in a U.S. intelligence agency until his wife stole a million dollar emerald and disappeared. Mickey was exiled to no-man's land, and he became obssessed with finding the woman and the emerald and winning back his old position. He is living on the edge, barely surviving, one step away from the streets when he learns that someone is looking for information on the emerald.

Laura Marley is the widow of another man whose life was destroyed by the theft of the emerald. Her husband finally committed suicide because he couldn't deal with the situation. Their business, based in London, was nearly brought down by the scandal and the damage to their professional reputations. She has decided it's time to find the emerald, clear her husband's name and put their company back on the strong footing it had once held.

When these two meet, they are both strong opponents. But Laura is the more secure in herself. Mickey is so obssessed that he will do anything, no matter how demeaning or wrong, to retrieve the emerald. The two of them agree to a partnership, which Mickey assumes will be in name only. Laura has other ideas and is perfectly capable of sticking to her guns.

They work together as much as Mickey will allow, although his grudging and growing admiration for Laura makes him more inclined to isolate her for her own protection that to let her more fully into the hunt. Laura is a warm steadfast woman, a woman whose past marriage was more of a friendship and partnership than a passionate love affair. Now, Mickey is awakening the passion inside her, and she's willing to risk being hurt rather than crawl back in her shell.

In spite of the fact that the Mickey comes off as a complete jerk, Ms. Nelson makes us stand in his corner and root for him. Laura is a strong woman and stable, and that's what it takes to get our hero through the maze of red herrings, murder attempts, car chases and to find the real reason for the strong and widespread repercussions from the theft. In the end they manage to accomplish both their goals and change both their lives.

Great book and a far more complex plot than you might expect from a Harlequin American Romance book. I don't know why this ended up in this line, rather than Intrigue, but I thoroughly enjoyed it.

This book rules. It deals with a character named Gerald who is led on an odyssey across the United States by the aptly named Enigma Smith. The cities come alive with Nelson's prose, and it is filled with many provacative ideas on the state of the world, and the United States in particular. A fascinating blend of science fiction, travelogue, and character study, with an unforgettable climax involving the burning head of the Statue of Liberty. A must-read.

When one hears the phrase "political morality", one is inclined to throw it off as an oxymoron. This set of case studies, compiled and commented on by Professors Amy Gutmann (of the esteemed Princeton University) and Dennis Thompson (of a small liberal arts college in Boston), shows us that the term is incredibly relevant to us today, not just as possible politicians (most of us aren't), but as informed citizens in a democratic society. This collection is separated into two parts: one which deals with the difficult decisions made in times of crisis, and the second with the hard choices inherent in public policy. The first part outlines case studies on issues such as dropping the bomb on Hiroshima and lying in office. The studies and commentaries force us to consider if and when it is right to ignore conventional morality for a possibly greater end. The second deals with currently-raging controversies such as abortion and the death penalty. This part encourages us to consider cases in which two competing ends are at stake. Overall, this collection is an engaging and thorough investigation into a large number of past and current controversies that encourages us to consider the issues from all sides.

I went to Columbia, with the most prominent 'great books' curriculum still in existence. 25 years later, I'm finding myself re-reading and discussing many of the titles. The Penn Greek Drama series is a handsome library of new translations that give fresh takes on the classics. It's useful to have Euripides on the shelf when you return home from the recent bravura performance by Fiona Shaw as Medea--it settled an argument too on how it 'originally' ended.

The Everlasting Sky is a reissued collection of classic essays that portray stark details of Anishinabe reservation life in Northern Minnesota, along with human histories and tragic imbalances between Anishinabe and dominant culture individuals. A recurring theme that is the search to honor the vision of the artist, particularly the Anishinabe artist, and the quest to refine or even reforge a definition of "indian," Anishinabe, and cultural art and learning. These chapters are compelling, vivid, and go beyond linear verbal traditions with their impact. They do not make for easy or comfortable reading, for the dominant culture reader. But they are treasures laced with bitterness, but treasures nevertheless. There is something medicinal and bracing about the writings of Vizenor. In his new introduction he writes about manifest manners, "the apish continuance of manifest destiny," and the educational value of daydreaming: "Ted Mahto, the literary artist and philosopher, celebrates the natural Anishinabe custom of daydreaming as 'a very constructive kind of behavior' in public schools...'We are going to have to find ways to recognize what it is that is happening to a child when he daydreams, because this kind of visual thinking,you know, might be of more value with respect to learning how to live with one another than learning how to work a mathematical problem...There is something spontaneous and religious about visual thinking which is being ignored in the public schools. (p. xiii).'"

This dialectic underlies much of The Everlasting Sky. And even that trivial insight is not key to understanding or experiencing the dazzling Anishinabe voices under Vizenor's pen. Perhaps it is necessary to allow oneself to experience the pain in it, even vicariously, to progress to something like a starting point, or common ground. Then the elusive beauty that pervades the underlying cultural vision can perhaps be glimpsed or imagined.

Though it is difficult to understand those whom we have so badly hurt, it is not a punishment to read The Everlasting Sky. Rather, it is an experience of richness, like the final series of paintings of George Morrison, that work to "create a sense of that imagic moment when the water on the horizon of the lake merges with the sky (p. x)."

Nancy Lorraine, Reviewer

This is a beautiful book, written using verses from the psalms on praise in a language children can understand. The child in the story has just learned the joy of praising God and teaches your children this joy by example in her talk with God. Even though this book is written for a little bit older children, my two year old loves it and asks us to read it daily. It should go back in print. I'd love to buy it for every little one I know.

This is an excellent collection of documents of great relevance to the Presidency. A must for any scholar of the executive office, it prevents bothersome source searching by efficiently combining so many great documents in one well organized work.