This book is good enjoyed it very much. Would have been helpful if I had a teaching tool of this kind when I had two young males in my home as a single black mother. But as a director of a mentoring program I have to pick and choose what I want and can use becaues we mentor to kids of all race and teaching diversity. I would like to recomend this book to others but it is focusing on the black youth only we need help with all youths.that has problems.and need mentors.

I enjoyed your book, it is a must read for the single mother.

Our youths are our futures, and it is wonderful that someone has picked up the banner to fight for their futures. Mr. Steele, your book was an enjoyment to read. We all must understand that today's youths lack motivation. If there are mentors, and a curriculum or guide to being a better mentor, we will then produce better children and a better society. WELL DONE!!! I cannot wait to read more of your works.

What does it mean to make wise choices in life? How is it possible for a sensitive teen-ager to comprehend the significance of a mother's love when its source is no longer present? How much should one risk for dreams, desires and hopes? What is it about wanting that makes it so consuming, so overpowering? Anne LeClaire's sensitive, lyrical and evocative coming-of-age novel, "Leaving Eden," provides stunning, instructive answers. Her protagonist, sixteen year-old Tallie Brock does not consider her hometown of suggestively-named Eden, Virginia to be paradise; nor does she realize that the knowledge she so earnestly seeks about life could compel her to an act of self-banishment.

What Talie does know is heartbreak and abandonment. Not once, but twice, does her mother leave her. Blessed with Natalie Wood-like looks, Dinah Mae Brock wrestles with her own need to live out her dreams. After Dinah Mae abruptly leaves her diligent, devoted husband Luddy for the hopes of realizing her life-long ambition of becoming a Hollywood stgar, her bright, inquisitive but disaffected daughter must confront her own demons and ask herself questions she is not initially prepared to confront.

Without the comfort and security of her mother, Tallie lacks "context" for her life and yearns to see the "whole picture" instead of the "jangly bits and pieces that didn't seem to fit." Insecure with her own physical appearance, a social outsider whose anxieties are exacerbated by an intolerably smug and critical maternal grandmother, Tallie has yet to discover that "things don't always have to be laid out straight as string to make sense." Trying to make sense of his own loneliness, Luddy takes to drink to obliterate pain. One parent dead, the other remote and silent, Tallie seeks answers through involvement in the Klip-N-Kurl beauty salon, where the town's women congregate to share gossip, secrets, and occasional comfort.

Just as quickly as she had left Eden, Dinah Mae returns, but with even more unanswered questions. The novel pivots around the issue of unresolved dreams and wants. Both mother and daughter must face how to fulfill the lives they have been given while being true to themselves and the one they love. In desperation, Tallie turns to the town's pariah "witch," whose Queen of Cures causes more consternation to Tallie than comfort. Tallie muses, "It's hard to figure out what will kill you and what will cure you" and even more difficuilt to figure out the difference, she unknowingly sets an outline for her own life.

The second abandonment is even more wrenching, more final as Tallie must observe her mother's unsuccessful battle with cancer. LeClaire is nothing less than brilliant in her exploration of an adolescent's existential anguish and resounding pain at the loss of a beloved parent. Tallie yearns to have her mother tell her "everything" she needs to know about life. As she rails at the unfairness of her mother's death, Tallie also castigates herself for her own inability to ask the right questions, provide enough solace and deflect physical pain.

As Tallie discovers "wanting is a powerful thing," she embarks on a bumpy road of self-discovery in which her sexuality, capacity for truth and ability to deceive combine to compel her to an act of self-defintion and discovery. She learns that dreams, "the conceiving of possibilities that stretch" beyond the single person, necessarily must animate life; the act of want transcends its attainment. Tallie ultimately will come to grips with one of life's greatest dilemmas, a choice between regret and remorse.

Interspersed in this fast-paced narrative are bite-sized morsels of Tallie's wisdom, written in her private journal. Each aphorism derives from experience and love, from the intricate web of friendships Tallie has created in Eden and from the solitude of suffering and desire in her own heart. Anne LeClaire has created a genuinely moving description of wisdom's costs and love's possibilities. "Leaving Eden" will leave readers profoundly moved.

Leaving Eden by Anne D. LeClaire

In this warm hearted coming of age story, twelve year old Tallie Brooks is missing her mother one summer. Though her mother has gone away before, in Tallie's heart, she knows it will be a long time this time before her mother's return, if at all. Her father works long hours at the mill, leaving Tallie alone in the house most days, and even for longer periods of time of times when he stops at CC's Bar after work, which is most evenings. Tallie works at the Klip 'N Kurl, with a boss who claims she can "read" soap bubbles like others read tea leave. Tallie sweeps the floors, folds the towels and helps in general. Tallie amuses herself by keeping a book of all the things she has learned at the Klip 'N Kurl, small lessons she savors that become bites of wisdom for us readers. Since Tallie's boss hosts "Glamour Day" one day, Tallie dreams the same dream her own mother die - to become a movie star, and this one "Glamour Day will be her big chance. When Tallie chases her own dream, she learns that it is in her very own little book that her dream has waited all along. A must read.

Leclaire's coming of age narrative, "Leaving Eden" is more about growing up and finding out that your dreams of leaving lead you instead back home. Tallie Brock struggles with growing up without her mother's counsel, never noticing how many people care about her. While following a dream she thought was her own, Tallie uncovers secrets that lead to her own growth, to an understanding about family love and loyality and in the end, the path to her place in this world. Leclaire's insight into the emotions of growing up will put "Leaving Eden" on the best seller list.
Beverly J Scott author of RIGHTEOUS REVENGE...

Fashion Careers has been an extremely useful tool for graduating seniors and an excellent reference for those seeking new opportunities in fashion and related industries. In these ever changing times within fashion retailing, product development and manufacturing , this book allows individuals the ability to analyze their strengths and weaknesses and ultimately develop a resumé that will help land them an appropriate position in their field of interest. The workbook is particulrly helpful, in that it allows the opportunity to xerox and reuse worksheets as one evolves through their chosen career path.
I recommend this book to all individuals thinking about or actively involved in a job search.

I purchased this book after being downsized as a retail buyer. I used the book to help me focus on what my skills were, and to give me tips for writing a punchier resume. The book was easy to use and yielded great results. I am working again, this time in sales and earning a higher salary. This is a book that will stay on my bookshelf!

What a joy to find an industry specific text for use in "Career Planning" courses for college students majoring in Fashion Merchandising and/or Fashion Design. While there is no shortage of "Career Planning" texts or workbooks per se, this is the only one we have seen that so perfectly fits the requirements of students seeking appropriate Fashion Industry related examples of everything from writing an effective resume, to cover letters, to interview techniques, to thank you letters following an interview.
The workbook exercises have proven especially useful in helping students identify and focus on specific areas of career opportunities within the Fashion Industry, as well as where and how they might begin their job search/careers. The text also includes useful reference lists of Fashion Industry websites and professional organizations.
As a Fashion Merchandising and Career Planning instructor, I would highly recommend this book for consideration as a required text for Fashion Merchandising and Fashion Design students.

Although this was a good book in itself, it covered too much of the French and Indian War to just have a title of Fort William Henry and the "Massacre". The book was interesting up to the point of the siege and massacre then it became very vague. It lacked details to the point of disappointment. It did not say what specific Indian tribes did most of the massacre, nor did it have a thorough account of actually what was happening! It told about some injured being killed in the fort , then it jumped to militia killed on the road to Ft Edward, then to the English officers dining with the French officers and chasing away Indians from their personal effects. In addition the author downplayed the massacre! Every time the word was used it was in quotation marks,making it seem the massacre was overplayed. But if 10 people are massacred instead of 200 does that make a difference? The book did inform the reader about the Canadien slave trade which was going on between them and some tribes, which other books clearly never bring up. Many English suffered because of it. It also made it clear that because of the French's terms at Ft. William Henry, many Indians then refused to help the French in the future. Sealing their fate in the French and Indian War.

The title of this perceptive book tells the gist of Professor Steele's investigation into the seige and subsequent murder or kidnapping of prisoners after the British garrison surrendered to Montcalm in 1757. In essence, the English prisoners were betrayed by the French by letting their Indian allies seek scalps, prisoners and plunder after being given parole to march to a British force on the Hudson. On a larger scale, the French betrayed the Indians by not allowing them to take what Indians assumed were rightfully theirs as a part of 18th century warfare: prisoners to replace tribal members killed in combat, plunder of European materials, and scalps. Steele asserts that the losses suffered by the British garrison were smaller than previously claimed (including a number of men who were forced to travel home with Indians from the Great Lakes)and that the incident was not the bloodbath of popular legend. The men taken to the Lakes kept turning up for years afterward. Many of the scalps taken were from the corpses in the fort's cemetery-the Indians who took these scalps therefore brought smallpox back home with them and might have inadvertently destroyed whole tribes. Steele tries to count the men killed during the "massacre" and I think he is successful in his enumeration. He does not overlook the wounded who were murdered in their beds, the man boiled and eaten by his captors, and the soldiers knocked out of line and killed because they resisted being plundered. I agree that Montcalm was not complicit in directing the massacre, but set up the conditions that caused it to happen.

The Massacre lives on in popular imagination, but so does the Boston Massacre, certainly one of the most non-massacres in American history.

On a personal note, my 7th generation great-grandfather Bernardus Bratt commanded the New York troops at Fort William Henry in the summer of 1756 and came out as a company commander in Sir William Johnson's regiment after the 1757 massacre.

Well-written and well-documented modern accounts of the French and Indian War are few and far between. Steele's book should remain the final word for some time to come.

Steele presents the reader with a masterful treatment of the events surrounding the "massacre" so familiar to viewers of the latest cinematic incarnation of Cooper's "The Last of the Mohicans." As a teacher, I can tell you it's a bit of a surprise for students to find out that Colonel Munro survived Magua's knife. Steele puts the events in historical and cultural context. A fine piece of work, one which should be of interest to a broader audience than the book will probably get.

The author was a journalist who made a point of noting key thoughts when he came upon them while reading. Thus, the book is mostly one person's presentation of what he read during his life, which is fine.

In general, quote books can be unsatisfying since they present small, out-of-context snippets of ideas. That was expected. The issue here turned out to be the title.

"Great thoughts" generally suggests ideas that have stood the test of time and been found to be true. This book devotes 8.5 pages to quotes from Freud, about as many to Marx, Lenin, Nietzsche .... you get the point. While these people have certainly affected Western civilization, at least recently, they have also been proven to be totally wrong, often at tremendous cost to the civilization they have experimented upon.

Can erroneous thoughts be "great thoughts"? If you think so, this book will be fine for you. Me, it drives up the wall.

The author deliberately excludes quotes from religious figures, assessing there is so much already out there, it's redundant. This seems to undercut the idea of illuminating the underlying ideas of civilization, but I guess Marx and Lenin need more exposure.

In skipping and out, as quote books require, I found little from those who opposed such ideas, repeated in this book of "greats", even long before they enslaved billions and collapsed the societies who adopted them. The author rather grudgingly admits conservatism is part of western tradition, but that's about it. It is significant the book was picked for update/revision after the collapse of the the Soviet Union. Do "great" thoughts need revision? These do.

Basically, if the book had been called "Influential Ideas of Modern Material Humanism", there would be no complaint here.

A much better book of short anecdotes might be "Condemned to Repeat It: The Philosopher Who Flunked Life and Other Great Lessons From History"

This book was originally put together by a very successful journalist who had access to the most famous people of the times. Interestingly, various editions are, or at least, have been available in either author or subject categorized.

I really like the quotes Seldes selected and this is one of the 30 or 40 books (from among the 400+ quote books I own) I use most (in the subject listed format) to dig up quotes for topics I am researching.

It's not one of the top five I'd buy, but if you see one one sale, grab it. It's a nice one to add to a quotation collection or to give as a gift. ALso, the price is better than many others, and it's another book you can often get for just a few dollars at a used book shop or through one of the used book web vendors.

The Great Thoughts was the first quote book that I used for writing cases in Lincoln Douglas debate in High School. I found that the quotations were thorough and wide-ranging. The Great Thoughts contains many useful authors from all time periods and all races. I have used quotations from Mahatma Ghandi to Plato. Another added bonus is that the book comes with longer quotations. A longer quote insures that a reader won't take a quote out of context. I've used The Great Thoughts for Debate, for school papers, and for my job as a writer at my school newspaper. I reccommend the Great Thoughts without any hesitations.

The Wishbone series,I thought ,was one of those nice, quick reads.I am captivated by his elegant and lively writing.
The story is about a little white-with-brown-and-black-spots dog,Wishbone and his friend,Joe,Sam and David help to save the missing history of Oakdale together .The saving action Starts after they found out the card of LINDSAY GROVES(the relief pitcher for the Oakdale Oaks baseball team),and discovered the records of 1933 Oakdale Oaks baseball team has hidden ,even being erase.As a result,the 3 kids and Wishbone try their best to cover up the truth of the Oakdale's history.Eventually,the 1933 National Champion,the Oakdale Oaks gets their right to keep record on their victorious pass ,so the Oakdale's heroes will never been forgotten!!It is a nice work,I loved the lovely Wishbone,the enthusiastic,funny dogs which always think of pepper onion chesse Italian pizza!
It is a worthy piece of work to read.Don't miss the chance to enter the adventurous world with WISHBONE!!!Read the book!

"sitting on the back of the car,waving to the crowd, was Lindsay Groves.....in his original Oakdale Oaks baseball uniform....... On the sign of the car,a sign read LINDSAY GROVES----RELIEF PITCHER FOR THE OAKDALE OAKS, NEGRO LEAGUE NATIONAL CHAMPS,1933......"The truth of Oakdale's past will never be hidden again,because of the little dogs,Wishbone and his friend.It is really a worth book to read. If you want to know more about the secret from Oakdale's past,read this book, you will have great fun by this....

I loved this book because I was always wondering what was going to happen next. Wishbone, Joe, Sam, and David want to find out more about the Oakdale baseball team, the Oakdale Oaks. But the books, newspaper articles, and everything else about the Oaks has mysteriously dissapeared. They try to figure out why someone would do that. Then they learn that years and years ago, something really bad happened in Oakdale. I thought this book was very exciting. Some people who wrote reviews about this book, I won't say who, said it was confusing, and not mysterious, YA RIGHT! They're WRONG! It's not confusing, and it is mysterious so HA! It's not confusing, because I read it, and it's a really great book!

This attempt to extend a masterpiece of poetic philosophizing on matters a woman ponders at mid-life is a whiney and disappointing series of personal complaints in the self-congratulatory self-pity mode followed by trite self-help suggestions at the end of each chapter.

This is a wonderful midlife (or early life) book for women! Is it available in French?

Anne Johnson has given the reader a great gift. This book is an excellent companion for the journaling soul. Written with a warm, insightful and sensitive voice, not unlike Lindbergh's in Gift From the Sea.

Overall, it is good, but the second volume covering late 19th century and 20th century really lacks clarity and objectivity. Though, I rather enjoyed the first volume, which covers American history from colonial times to the Civil War. However, it too is tainted by the authors offering too much perspective on who they think the heroes and villians are. I think the founding founders should be understood on their own terms and not subjected to so much hyperbole and conjecture as to their motives and beliefs. I do, however, find this work to be quite informative and a valuable reference overall. Though, I find the second volume lacking and full of ideological conjecture regarding public policies. (These historians aren't the most astute economists in the world. They find little wrong in FDR's paying farmers to destroy their crops and his grand strategy of bringing America out of the Depression by cutting producitivity and channeling the bulk of stimulative investment capital through government channels. They extol his policies too much.) Furthermore, the second volume is far too patronizing of FDR and Wilson.

I am a high school student and i have enroled in the AP American History course for my junior year. It was quite intimidating to recieve this book and another one on my first day while being told that i had to read 7 chapters in 9 days. The burden of reading almost 190 pages of this book in such a short period of time was no little thing. However the great style and " followablility" of the book helped a lot. normaly i would have just stopped reading, but this book kept me interested. It is what i would say the history book to read, whether it's for personal knowledge or school.

We used Volumes I and II of this book in my AP US History class this year. I found these books to be more interesting and easier to enjoy than the general textbook. They go more in depth and offer a greater understanding. At times they are a little hard to follow - but that may have been a result of not really paying attention while I was reading... oops. Hey it's homework, give me a break. Anyway, they're good books - ROCK ON COMMAGER!

The inclusion of edited material from ZAMM was welcome. I found I was distracted when I was actually reading ZAMM andreferencing the guidebook. My suggestion - read ZAMM completely then refer to the guidebook to explore a section more deeply. The reviews of ZAMM were of passing interest, from the early reviews published after the book's release to later ones and their criticism.
I'm not a deeply devout person of any given persuasion, so the religious comparisons and references were of lesser importance. I think they would be helpful if one were looking to delve deeper into Buddhism or other philosophy. This Guidebook DID ADD to my overall understanding and enjoyment of ZAMM.

This is a high-level overview of related to the ZMM philosophical material, fairly interesting both as a commentary to the book itself and by itself, as a means of general edification. Part of this book is an extensive bibliography that can be resorted to to in order to go beyond the information in the book itself. The page-by-page commentaries and fragments of the original manuscript lost in editing are interesting too. One section of the book that I found unnecessary was reprints of the ZMM reviews in the press, not much of interest there. All in all, a very curious book, if you've read the ZMM itself, you'll like this one too. And btw, even though I did read the ZMM, I did not like it, I found it artificially obfuscated, pompous even, with too many literary tricks at the expense of the original thought. What I'm getting at is that the "Guidebook..." is still interesting to read, whether you liked the ZMM or not, or even read it at all.

For fans of ZMM, this is an incredible book that summarizes various aspects of the ZMM book. First and foremost, it gives you the necessary background on philosophy to get a better understanding of where the Pirsig is coming from.

Secondly, it is great studying material for those of us who're interested in getting deeper into the issues that Pirsig gets to in the ZMM. Particularly, I liked the section in this book that relates Quality with Taoist principles.

A must have!

It can be read without reading ZMM, BTW.