Spouses, kids, friends, and parents will also gain much from the insights offered by Dr. Fungaroli,particularly if they use the book to communicate with their loved ones, who have taken the big step to go for what they want by returning to school. Professors working with nontraditional students will find a worthwhile teacher training resource here too. As a consultant and Ph.D. student, I have been looking for this very book for almost a decade. If you are planning the next chapter in your life and a college degree is in the picture, get this book!!!

John Singer Sargent is a great master of portraiture. This very enjoyable collection does him justice.

Often dismissed as a mere society portrait painter, the real poignancy of John Singer Sargent's work lay in the truth that the society he recorded was on the point of vanishing with the Great War. This sense is heightened by the form of the works reproduced here - drawings composed in pencil and charcoal. Their Cheshire-Cat-grin sketchiness, the way faces seem to materialise or dematerialise bodiless or skeletal on the page, gives them an overwhelmingly ghostly feel.

The most moving pictures here are of the now-forgotten heiresses, young wives, fresh-faced soldiers, and indulgent or austere parents, refugees from the fiction of Henry James, Edith Wharton and Proust, denied the immortality conferred on Singer's more famous subjects, such as Nijinsky, Myra Hess, Faure or Kenneth Grahame. Singer may not be as remorselessly analytical as his literary peers, but he has a wit, satiric sense and emotional empathy all of his own, burrowing out the melancholy behind the glittering facades. Singer seems particularly inspired by long, swan-like necks, as if their owners' beauty already sang their death. The notorious hostess Mme. Pierre Gautreau reclines on a sofa, bored and miserable as a beached mermaid; Nellie Huxley stares at us with sad, tired eyes.

Conversely, the portraits of imperious grandes dames, such as the Myrna Loy-like Mme. Eugenia Huici Errazuriz, are surprisingly sexy; while the Duchess of Marlborough flirts with gamine charm. Portraits of friends, such as the eccentric composer Dame Ethel Smyth, are more informal and playful. Androgyny is another favourite theme, while the unsigned portrait of working class Italian youth Olimpio Fusco glows with sympathetic homoeroticism. In fact, Singer's defining temperament, judging from this collection, is one of amused curiosity, as he sketches the garish and the gloomy, the restless and the resigned, the social and the solitary.

The sketches of notables are often great fun - a shadow-darkened W.B. Yeats as self-regarding buffoon; Jascha Heifitz in an intense tondo of fiddle-like scribbles, encircling a still white face rapt in concentration; Viscountess Astor lost in folds of Napoleonic grandeur; and a young Ernest Thesiger, displaying impish hints of his most famous future film role, as Dr. Pretorious in 'Bride of Frankenstein'.

What happens when a woman in a strictly segregated society commits the ultimate sin - falling in love with a man? The descriptions of the two varying societies and their need for each other is told with a sense of disquiet. And when the lovers finally "find each other" the language approaches a confession. This is a book that can be read again and again on several levels.

Her story is well documented and lavishly illustrated in this keepsake volume. Included are numerous full-color photos of the famous Alexander dolls.

Early on Madame Alexander adored her step-father, Maurice,emulating his love of doll making and doll repairing. He is responsible for this country's first doll hospital located on the Lower East side of New York City. The family lived above this business.

With the outbreak of World War I and America's ban on German goods, including the dolls which were the family's best sales items, it seemed their business was doomed. But Beatrice and her sisters would not accept this. They put their heads together to try to determine how to make dolls without porcelain or kilns. The answer was, of course, cloth toys. Their first success was a Red Cross Nurse doll. Beatrice was the creative member of this team, coming up with ideas and issuing instructions on making her concepts a reality.

Building upon their success the Alexander Doll company moved to a large space in the late 1920s. It was not long before their efforts were rewarded with an order from FAO Schwarz.

The Alexander Alice In Wonderland doll debuted in 1930. Today, in an updated incarnation, Alice is still one of their most popular items. There were soon Scarlet O'Hara dolls, bride dolls, Queen Elizabeth II dolls, Eloise dolls, and more.

Today, the original issues of many dolls are prized items in collections throughout the world.

"Alex" is among the latest creations - she's a very modern miss in an extravagant gold gown or capris and crop top. Her wardrobe is extensive as is her following. But, to many, a Madame Alexander doll is the Mercedes of toys.

This book saved my life. I have a great job at a trade association, and I don't want to give it up. But my boss left, and they "assigned" me to a woman who does not know how to manage people. She also doesn't stand up to the Exec. Director. This book says assistants are only as powerful as the boss we work for. She showed me how to get out by moving to another boss in a different department. Things are much better.

The reviewer below, Ms. Hunter, must not have read the whole book. There is a big chapter on how to keep your administrative job if you like it, and how to make it better.

Well, everyday the little yellow book was inspiring me. Then one day while reading, my sisters popped into my head and the thought of how much they'd treasure this book. So I picked up a copy for my sisters. A few days later, a beautiful reading from St.Francis De Sales remeinded me of my mother-in-law- so I sent a copy to her. My brother picked up my copy one evening while visiting, and I told him to take it. Then there were friends, neighbors and relations who kept coming in my thoughts while reading...before I knew it I was telling perfect strngers about this little yellow book so full of wisdom. Even the TUPPERWARE woman picked it up while packing up her demo things- she seemed to like it, so that copy went home with her! It seemed as soon as a copy got comfortable in my home, I'd think of someone, or someone would actually pick up mine and ask for a copy!

I'd venture to say that I probably gave about forty copies of Mary Tilestone's book away. Then I couldn't find it anywhere...and I was left without a copy. A few weeks ago I bumped into this book and almost started to cry from JOY!!!!!

Will this book find roots here with me? I hope so...but I will stock up my cupboard with this perfect treasury of readings for future gifts! And how beautiful the watercolor illustrations!

Three cheers for the most treasured book(besides the Bible and Merton's THROUGH THE YEAR!) I own!

Sincerely, Terry Stellini