I like this book's interesting way on how to teach a child to chase his dreams. Most children think it is impossible to reach for your dreams, but this book shows an interesting way to make a child pursue their dream. When you tell a children to do something they may not want to do it. But when you take a different approach, the request might have an effect on the child. Showing a chilren how to acccomplish his/her dreams is better then talking to them about it.

This story shows a little boy who loves to play basketball, how to make himself a better player. When you explain to a child how to overcome their enemies, and set a goal for them they are more likely to accomplish it. Yosu cannot accomplish your child's dream, but you can show them a good path to take. Kids always need an extra push to understand how something work. To achieve your goals all you need is practice, persistance, and determination.

There once was a kid that just wanted to play baskerball with his older bothers but there is a taller kid at the basketball park. That all was picked on him and told him he cant play bastekball because he was to short. So Micheal asked his mom how can he grow faster. She told him to put salt in shoes every night before he goes to bed. so he does for two mouths and doesnt grow. so his dad has a talk with him. Then he goes and playes and the game.

This is a wonderful book. I purchased it for my 8 year old nephew and he absolutely enjoys it. He reads it all the time especially before his basketball games. Its wonderful and inspirings and lets kids know with hard work their dreams can come to fruition.

Yes, this is still the standard for studies of the Renaissance. But the book deserves a better edition: especially one with relevant illustrations on the page. The best I've seen is the 1958 two-volume Illustrated Edition by the Perennial Library of Harper & Row: not only are all notes conventiently at the bottom of the page, but over 240 illustrations grace the text, usually next to the mention of the subject. Too bad it is out of print. I hope an enterprising publisher will rise to the challenge.

A better book could not have fallen into my hands! An American professor in Venice recommended it, and after I read it I was only sorry I had not read it before going to Italy. The mystery of its medieval, rather Renaissance cities (Florence, Venice, among others) would have been clearer; even today's Italians' ways and personality. So much a product of Renaissance Italy...and its wonderful heritage from Ancient Rome. I truly recommend this book for Italy lovers, anyone going there soon, or for the sheer joy of reading a good history book. Jacob Burckkhardt is one of the most intelligent, enlightened historians I know.

I was around twelve when my grandmother mentioned having heard a speech delivered by Woodrow Wilson.

For me, until that moment, Woodrow Wilson had been in the same category with Julius Caesar: people who lived a long time ago. But for my grandmother, only Caesar could be in that category: Wilson was an early contemporary of her own. I began to realize that the citizens of the past were real people, that the lives of the past were lives as large and rich and strange as our own.

Everybody who survives high school can remember at least one teacher who made the study of history look like a matter of memorizing names and dates. Such teachers often manage to create in their students a permanent allergy to the study of history. But it has been two hundred years since they could do so with a good conscience.

Voltaire was the first modern writer of history--we might say, the first historian of culture. Chiefly through his masterpiece The Age of Louis XIV, he established the principle that history is not just about who ruled when and who killed whom--that it is about all the aspects of human culture, all the means--arts and entertainment, philosophy and religion and science, as well as economics, politics, and war--by which we seek to create permanent triumphs of mind over the natural forces of chaos and entropy.

We need not fool ourselves: those forces will finally destroy us and all our works. But while we live, we can make life richer for ourselves and for those who will follow us. The writer from whom I first learned that historical writing could be such an enriching force was Burckhardt.

The Renaissance was indeed the modern rebirth of ancient culture, but what makes it important is that through that rebirth people rediscovered a truth that the ancient Ionians had known and that had been lost sight of for more than a thousand years: that the natural world, and people as part of it, were worthy objects of study and understanding--not just creatures and tools of God. With this discovery, made permanent because it could now be broadcast by the new technology of printing, begins the process of modernity--the process that still continues to increase our world's psychological distance from the ancient and the medieval world.

I am from Springfield and found the book to be very interesting. Wondering who all this love was given to. I enjoyed your book. Look forward to your next one. Keep moving don't stop here.

Ms.Nelson I cannot express with enough words how your poetry has touched me. I can truly see myself in these poems about love. I have found myself falling in traps, but while reading this book I have gotten a better understanding of love. The whole meaning of the word itself has changed. Thank you so very much.

Hey, really enjoyed the book, and found some of myself in here as well, it was so funny, I thought to myself I am going to take these notes and write them to my male companion,He won't beleive my thoughts. Interesting Love Notes.Good book

This book is a must for all beginners moving into the world of management, and I highly recommend it as a refresher course for those of us who have been doing it for a while. I do not have an MBA, but I do have a number of years' real-world experience in management, and I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It is very light and easy to read, and although much of it seems like it should be common sense, there are a number of things that are easy to forget, and it's worth the refresher. I skipped some chapters because they were too basic, but I probably read 2/3 of the book (in the matter of a business trip) and actually did learn some new information.

I found the reading of this book pretty rewarding. I recommned this book to all those who are looking for a quick guide on being a manager. On the other hand, those looking for new approaches on management may find this book too simple.

First, this book is a "fun" read which is unusual for most business books. If you want to know how mananagement thinks and how it works in most corporate environments today - get this book.

The first half is execellent and by the time it's completed you'll know exactly the way your poor boss has been tramautized over the past 10 years with all the new passing management fads. No wonder management is basically skeptical and seems to have a schizophrenic identity crisis.

The second half of the book hangs a bit, maybe the authors ran out of ideas. But the final Index of the 10 essential management books is invaluable. I've already read 3 of the suggestion.

Read this book. Take your boss to lunch, realize how trapped he really is, get a raise, and save $40,000 on your MBA. Just keep reading and reading books like this.

Miss Nelson is Back is written by James Marshall and Harry Allard, and was made for Miss Audrey Bruce.
This short story is about a group of nine children in classroom 209 with a teacher named Miss Nelson. When Miss Nelson is out for a week the children get a lesson taught to them that they will never forget.
Children will enjoy this book, because it is dealing with children and things that they go through.
Children can learn a good lesson for school about not messing with a substitute teacher , because one time you just might get a one that wont put up with any of their nonsence and could punish them very bad by possibly putting them in detention or worse.

Miss Nelson Is Back is written by James Marshall and Henry Allard, and was made for Miss Audrey Bruce.
This short story is about a group of nine children in classroom 209 with a teacher named Miss Nelson. When Miss Nelson is out for a week the children get a lesson taught to them that they will never forget.
Children will enjoy this book, because it is dealing with things that kids have to go through.
Children can learn a good lesson for school about not messing with a substitute teacher, because one time you might get a teacher that wont put up with any nonsense, and could punish them very bad by possibly putting them in detention or worse.

101 Dalmatians is written by Walt Disney Company, and its copyright is 1995.
I think that 101 Dalmatians is definitely appropriate for children. Kids can learn alot about counting in this story, and also they can learn about their favorite pets, dogs! If your child likes to read then this would be a great book for them, because it has a good amount of words for a child to read.
This short story is about two dogs that fall in love, and get their owners to fall in love also. Then the dogs had 99 puppies, and Cruella Devil gets two men to try to skin the puppies so that she could have a fur coat.

User is Blake Nelson's own answer to his first novel, Girl. This time it's a boy, a young man a few years older than the teen Andrea of that book. Mitch is 23, in between menial jobs, not in school, and generally going nowhere. His family involvement is minimal and with no encouragement from those around him to do
anything, he does nothing. User refers not so much to the familiar drugs and booze of twentysomethings but to the use and attempted use of those around him.

The problem is, Mitch isn't even good at it or good at anything for that matter. The thing he does most expertly is smoke a cigarette, as Nelson writes repeatedly,
"He smokes." ..., which would sum up the main character. Broke, bored, and with little personality to get him more than sex with people he doesn't even care about, there is no request for sympathy and none given. Stealing something here and there, bumming a ride, trying to get into a club for free ("I used to work here") all sum up the not-as-cool-nor-fun-as-it-seems life of a slacker.

Nelson has a smooth writing style that makes this a fast read. However, it comes off as a watered down version of the kind of young and the useless stories that Bret Easton Ellis began in the 80s with Less Than Zero. Ellis is both loved and reviled, but one thing has become clear. In the years since Less Than Zero, Rules of Attraction and even American Psycho, he looks that much better compared to the competition.

Not to say that User is going for the same thing. The reference to Less Than Zero on the back cover is ill-advised but undoubtedly inserted to sell the book. (Hey, I bought it!) And that's part of the problem. Don't expect a Less Than Zero for the end of the century. This book basically meanders through the few weeks (or was it months?) in the life of Mitch. There's no real plot and there is no pretension on the flip side. No larger statement that is present in Ellis' work (even though that author prefers the sledge-hammer to the head form of subtlety to get his point across.) As a slice of post-grunge youngsters with nothing to do and nowhere to go (through their own doing I might add) this is harmless enough. It's only occasionally insightful but actually seems less mature. Mitch is a less consistent narrator than Andrea in Girl. There are moments, however, where Blake gets right inside the mind of a twentysomething guy with perfection.

I'd recommend it to anyone interested in novels about the young and disaffected. However, be aware that you could do better. Nelson is a writer for Details, which may tell you as much as you need to know off the bat.

this is a Nelson's indie book. it is a little darker, a little funnier, a lot sexier than his normal stuff. check it out

If you don't know Blake Nelson by now, you should be ashamed. His work ranks among the finest stylists. To get this accurate an insight into guys' minds, Nelson must have either been one of them or have done extensive research. My vote is for the former. User is the inside 'Soup' for the soul of boys, accurate, mean, hilarious and everything you want to know but are afraid to find out for yourself.

In the book "Earthshine" 12 year old Margery McGranahan recognized as Slim's who lives in California has a father named Mack is diagnosed with AIDS. Everyday Mack is getting sicker, but still is upbeat and maintains a good attitude. For the period when Mack is sick he wants Slim to go to a Support Group for people with a family member who has AIDS. There she meets a good kid named Isaiah, 11, whose cheerfulness makes her depressing and positive at the same moment in time. In which his father already had died of AIDS. Isaiah is continuously trying to give optimism to the "doubting Thomasina" who would to a certain extent bring to a close moment in time than discover what life may hold for her. Isaiah believes that the Miracle Man in "Hungry Valley" which is north of Los Angeles can cure her father. Slim doesn't believe in Miracles, she only believes what she sees. But Isaiah's great attitude starts to rub off on Slim and she starts to consider that her father will be capable of being saved. The major clash is with the purpose of Slim's father has been diagnosed with AIDS. He is cheerful and entertaining, by way of a high-quality attitude on the way to life. Except at the same time as the incurable disease takes in excess of his body, he becomes fragile and weak. The book deals by way of Slim's expedition from beginning to end grief, and performing her hurting and her loss of sleep. Then her anxiousness and confusion, and finally her resolutions and growths. At that time Slim, Mack, Isaiah, Larry, and other then pack up to go to Miracle Mountain wishing and hoping for a miracle for Slim's father. Will Slim and her father find a miracle? Read the book. All in all I thought this was a very good book, it really brought to my attention what the effects of AIDS really are. This book is great a well meaning for your time to read.

A young girl Margery McGranahan, also known as Slim, has a father, Mack, who is dying of AIDS. Mack has a companion, Larry, who helps take care of Mack. But Slim's problems are too much for her and her father sends her to join a support group for family members who live with people who have AIDS. Here she meets Isaiah, whose father has already died of the disease and whose pregnant mother is now sick and worried about her unborn child. Isaiah believes the Miracle Man in the "Hungry Valley" north of Los Angeles can cure her mother. Slim doesn't believe in miracles, she only knows that her father is dying and no one is attempting to prevent it. But Isaiah's soon starts to rub off on Slim and she starts to believe that her father can be saved.
This book is as much about mortality as it is about homosexuality. We are taken through the emotions that Slim has while her father is dying. Through it all, Slim is still left with hope for the future.

Earthshine was incredibly moving and touching; changing the way I think and feel about many serious issues that are dealt with in this novel. The main character, Slim, is a confused, unstable and hurting twelve year old. She narrates to her diary, and her feelings were so well expressed I felt as if I had always known her. When she hurt, I hurt, when she suffered, I suffered. And so when she changed and grew, so did I.

The main conflict is that Slim's father has been diagnosed with AIDS. He is upbeat and hilarious, with a good natured attitude toward life. But as the fatal virus takes over his body, he becomes weak and feeble. The book deals with Slim's journey through grief--showing her pain and worry, her anxiousness and confusion, and finally her resolutions and growths. After many agonizing, pain-filled months, Slim's father finally passes away. But not without leaving Slim with hope for the future, a love-filled heart and strong values that I as the reader also acquired from this book.

Overall, I found this book to be incredible, eye opening and profound; changing the way I feel about those with AIDS. By all means, it is worth your time to read.

This is a fair book, but it is not near as good as Peter O. Steiner's "Thursday Night Poker." Andy Nelson's book can't decide whether it is for beginners or advanced, so it tries to fit advanced technique into too short of space. It barely scratches the surface of any of the topics it brings up. When it doesn't do that, it simply says, "Play so tight that you don't even have to think. Fold 99% of your hands." That does not make for a fun night, in my opinion.

I have recently left the arena of recreational poker player in home games and low-limit casino poker. I have moved up a notch and have become what I call a semi-pro poker player. An important book that helped me immensly was this book (and others) by Andy Nelson. This WINNER'S GUIDE gave me basics. It is filled with solid advice and information on how poker should be played. It describes the games usually played in today's world. I highly recommend this book to anyone who is beginning and wants to improve. By the way, it makes an excellent gift to a spouse or friend who wants to make money playing poker.

Along with most of the other reviews on here, I agree that this is a great beginners book. It doesn't get too much into detail about higher limit games, but beginners don't need to worry about that yet. It does a great job of explaining different types of major poker games. It also tells you a key aspect of the game that I think it equally as important as knowing the game, and that's self control and money management. The glossary in the back is also useful. The only down side to this book is it doesn't get into great detail on betting structure. When I first read this book, I noticed the most popular low limit game fo Texas Hold 'Em (1-4-8-8), is not really talk about. Overall, if you are new to the game of Poker, and want to learn the essentials, GET THIS BOOK!

I guess I am not the only one who found the two books fascinating and read them both only to find that there was not a third! If anyone figures out where the elusive end to the trilogy can be found, I would love to know, or even how to contact the author... I found the book fun, energizing and delightful to read but I never saw the last. Did she really not ever finish? What a tragedy! Email me ... if anyone knows anything! -Bridget

2003 and still no book. I talked to the author a few summers ago and still no end, she had only finished the first chapter! Help! Read this trilogy; it's really good, but only if your prepaired to wait for book three!

I loved the Taliswoman books and have waited for the third book to answer all the quetions the second book asked. Where did the book go???

If a book can grab me within the first 50 pages, then I'm hooked. With URBAN ROMANCE, it took a little longer to get the story going, but because I paid for the book, I decided to keep going. It definitely got better, but it would have been better to not spend so much time on slow introductions of the major players. Sometimes, that can wear the story down quicker than a three course meal. Still, a good book

In his first novel nelson george tells a tale of young love, lost and found amongst youb urban Black professionals in New york City. George does a fine job at reaching beneath the surface of his character and making them feel real. He also didn't allow the plot to become entirely predictable. He also gets points for writing about the beginings of hip hop culture. A very enjoyable first novel.

This is the first book I have read by Nelson George. I must say it was quite interesting. I now look forward to reading his other books, hoping to get the same joy I did out of this one. You go Nelson!