The pictures are great. The poems and stories are real. The women who put this book together are real people who got out there into the environment to tell the real story. It changed my mind to the way I thought about women and addictions. Kira and Fran are good people who know what telling truth is all about.

I'm looking for the book that can help me to identify yeast, but almost of them can't help me to identified them. My freinds adviced me to find " The Yeast " textbook, it can help me in works. I think that the truth, my works could continues. It the best book to used that I found.

These precious grace stories are very encouraging and refreshing! I enjoyed them so much I purchased 12 of them and gave them as gifts to friends and family. Thank you Angela!

Early from the Dance was my second David Payne reading and it was every bit as good as the first (his last novel, Gravesend Light). I'm a big David Payne fan. I couldn't put this latest book down (I read it in five days, including taking the last day off for the specific purpose of having an uninterrupted read (the last 150 pages)). The story(ies) were gripping from the start. Payne can move from male to female voice and I'm thoroughly convinced by either. I'm only upset that there are just two more Payne books for me to read.

This book is, without a doubt, the most thought provoking, intriquing work of fiction I've had the pleasure to read. As a southern girl who lives for my vacations on the Outer Banks, I FELT this book. My family knows not to even TRY to talk to me on vacation when this book is in my hands (I read it each trip). I only loan my copy to friends who I know will "get it" so we can discuss it later. This is such a true depiction of growing up southern style, and coming of age in a simple place with complicated issues. It's a read for anyone. I also read Ruin Creek, and was disappointed. I guess Early from the Dance was hard to top. Am eagerly awaiting the next book from David Payne.

I have read this book 3 times and love it. I want to read MORE novels by David Payne. I am eagerly awaiting a new novel. I will be the first in line. True and very realistic of becoming an early adult, love and tribulations. I value this book and will always keep it in my collection.

In C.D. Payne's novel Youth in Revolt, I found myself revisiting a time in my life which was hell-- age 14. Revisiting the awkwardness, the angst, and the raging hormones is not necessarily something I would do willingly, but nonetheless Payne often made me laugh about it. While I wouldn't call it the funniest book I've ever read, there were a few paragraphs that were so wonderfully worded I had to read them over five or six times (each time laughing harder). While comedy laces the narrative together, the best part of the book comes in Payne's ability to make us relate to Nick. It's hard to remember just how thoughtful and mature we were at age 14, and Payne pulls all those repressed memories back up to the surface. It's as though you are looking at yourself today, and realizing how that time sent you on the path to your current self.

Along the way, Payne introduces a series of characters that, for better or for worse, fail to move beyond caricatures. This is the result of the entire book coming in diary form, whereby you only get a sense of the characters by viewing them through Nick's biased eyes. In the long run, the heart of the book's humor comes from this viewpoint. From the oafish truck-driver Wally Rumpkin to the dazzling Indian goddess Apurva Joshi, the supporting characters come alive through Nick's insightful observations of them. Some characters are pure genius. Lance Walcott, the evil cop turned stepdad, is a figure everyone loves to hate, and I found myself eagerly awaiting for Nick to knock him over with one of his brilliant schemes. In fact, these are the most engaging portions of the book, in which Nick has been slighted and he plots witty revenge-- you only wish you had his talent to make it so sweet and yet perfectly cover your tracks as he does.

Occassionally, the book falls into lulls, in which characters become the underbelly of humanity (Nick's dad, Dwayne, Bruno, and even Nick). These visits with the grotesque features of humanity are the book's only failed attempts at humor. I found myself skipping pages here and there, either because the plot was on a treadmill, or the narrative was getting repetitively boring. Except for these portions, this would have been a four star book.

I admit the 500 pages of Youth in Revolt seem daunting. I was intimidated, probably because I've had some problems with books this long in the past. Unless they really entertain me, I tend to lose interest simply because they take so long to read. Well, not this one. This book entertains every step of the way. The format C.D. Payne chose to write Youth in Revolt surprised me. The entire book is a series of journal entries by Nick Twisp, a California teenager with more than the average number of teenage problems. I became accustomed to this writing style after just a few pages, and since the entries range in length and the book is so long, they make for good stopping and starting points. The young writer isn't skimpy on detail. From zits to sex to rebellion from his parents, Nick's life is a constant whirlwind of crisis. The bulk of the book revolves around the pursuit of Sheeni, the love of his young life. There is no limit to how far Nick will go to be with her... or perhaps, to be in bed with her. It's not going to be easy. The god-like Trent is Sheeni's ex-boyfriend, and Nick struggles to remain unphased by his obvious physical and social superiority. Then there's the parents, both his and hers, deliberately or otherwise keeping the young lovers apart. Nick deals with one obstacle after another and is forced to grow up very quickly in the process. This book is hilarious, and on several occasions I caught myself laughing out loud. Many of his tribulations are all too familiar, and in my case as a 19-year-old, all too recent. Thankfully, his ordeals are far worse than mine ever were. I've never had too much trouble with the FBI, for example. But I think everyone should be able to relate with Nick's life on some level. Some parts of this book also made me a little uncomfortable. The constant talk of masterbation started to get on my nerves. It got to the point where it became a distraction from the reading. Aside from this, I'd recommend Youth in Revolt to anyone looking for a good laugh. It's definitely hard to put down, but when you do, jumping back into it is easy.

I'm writing this as a 14 year-old boy, having just read this book for the second time. Now I have read many many books about teenage guys, but NOBODY gets into the male-mind like C.D. Payne. The teenage sex drive is captured perfectly, and everything that Nick Twisp (our protagonist) thinks and tries to do is something that I and all my friends have thought or fantacized about every day. I believe that ALL teenage guys should read this to set themselves free from the toil of every day life. In addition, C.D. Payne is the most hilarious author I have ever read, excluding Bill Watterson. Each page is packed with jokes that will make you laugh so hard that it hurts, which is something that everyone needs in their lives.
Many parents I have talked with question this book's suitability. Parents,my response to this is as follows: Regardless of whether you know it or not, your son masturbates, thinks about sex, thinks about going against your parents, and all the other escapades that Nick Twisp experiences. If you let your son read this, it will help them get in touch with their sexuality and the difficulties in their lives...it did for me. And kids: read this if you want to laugh, because nothing else will make you laugh at a level this crude, yet intelligent. In conclusion, read this to get in touch with the male-mind.

"You will be haunted by Three Spirits." So forewarns Jacob Marley's ghost to Mr. Ebenezer Scrooge, a miser of stingy, unfavorable traits. And so begins the enduring Christmas classic distinguished by almost everyone. Come along on an erratic journey with the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present, and Future, all of whom attempt to point Scrooge onto a virtuous path. Meet the most notable characters ever introduced in literature: Bob Cratchit, angelic Tiny Tim, and good-natured Fred. With vivid descriptions of Victorian England and enlightening dialogue, 'A Christmas Carol' will enrapture both the young and old throughout the year with a vital lesson on hope and benevolence for humanity. This, I find, is treasured most of all in this brief story marvelously crafted by the creative Charles Dickens. No matter how many adaptations of the book one has seen on television or as films, the real source is highly recommended and should not be missed. For if you do pass the book up, you are being just a Scrooge (metamorphically speaking, of course!).

Master storyteller and social critic, Charles Dickens, turns this social treatise on shortcomings of Victorian society into an entertaining and heartwarming Christmas ghost story which has charmed generations and become an icon of Christmas traditions. Who, in the Western world has not heard, "Bah, Humbug!" And who can forget the now almost hackneyed line of Tiny Tim, "God bless us, every one!" or his cheerfully poignant observation, that he did not mind the stares of strangers in church, for he might thus serve as a reminder of He who made the lame, walk and the blind, see. Several movie versions: musical, animated, updated, or standard; as well as stage productions (I recall the Cleveland Playhouse and McCarter Theatre`s with fondess.) have brought the wonderful characterizations to the screen, as well as to life. This story of the redemption of the bitter and spiritually poor miser, and the book itself; however, is a timeless treasure whose richness, like Mrs Cratchit`s Christmas pudding, is one that no production can hope to fully capture.

Well, I finally read it (instead of just watching it on the TV screen).

This is what you can call a simple idea, well told. A lonely, bitter old gaffer needs redemption, and thus is visited by three spirits who wish to give him a push in the right direction. You have then a ghost story, a timeslip adventure, and the slow defrosting of old Scrooge's soul. There are certain additions in the more famous filmed versions that help tweak the bare essentials as laid down by Dickens, but really, all the emotional impact and plot development necessary to make it believable that Scrooge is redeemable--and worth redeeming--is brilliantly cozied into place by the great novelist.

The scenes that choke me up the most are in the book; they may not be your favourites. I react very strongly to our very first look at the young Scrooge, sitting alone at school, emotionally abandoned by his father, waiting for his sister to come tell him there may be a happy Christmas. Then there are the various Cratchit scenes, but it is not so much Tiny Tim's appearances or absence that get to me--it's Bob Cratchit's dedication to his ailing son, and his various bits of small talk that either reveal how much he really listens to Tim, or else hide the pain Cratchit is feeling after we witness the family coming to grips with an empty place at the table. Scrooge as Tim's saviour is grandly set up, if only Scrooge can remember the little boy he once was, and start empathizing with the world once again. I especially like all Scrooge's minor epiphanies along his mystical journey; he stops a few times and realizes when he has said the wrong thing to Cratchit, having belittled Bob's low wages and position in life, and only later realizing that he is the miser with his bootheel on Cratchit's back. Plus, he must confront his opposite in business, Fezziwig, who treated his workers so wonderfully, and he watches as true love slips through his fingers again.

It all makes up the perfect Christmas tale, and if anyone can find happiness after having true love slip through his fingers many years ago, surprisingly, it's Scrooge. With the help of several supporting players borrowed from the horror arena, and put to splendid use here.

In the dogmatic rigid world of academic philosophy, rarely are "outsiders" fully appreciated. Especially when capable of lucid and lively expository skills. Schopenauer's well known and explicit challenge of Hegel as the legitimate heir to Kant doomed him to a minor status in his lifetime. However, his insights and doctrines have provided much material incorporated by others, such as Nietzche, Freud, Jung. His recognition of the legitimacy of Oriental thought preceded Western appreciation as well. For those willing to devote the time to a thorough reading, a full and comprehensive world view emerges. The role of the unconscious, the dualities in the struggle between reason and emotion, the valuation of a pragmatic but compassionate ethic are some of the still worthy expositions in his opus. Allowing for some of the local references and historical context, a true and lasting example of real philosophizing as it was envisioned in classical Greek tradition.The pursuit of truth and knowledge as an end worthy of devotion. Maybe he was a bit of a cranky eccentric, but he was a true individual who dared to pursue his own insights to their logical conclusions.

Volume II of The World as Will and Representation is the most substantial portion of Schopenhauer's work for me. There is a nice selection of ESSAYS AND APHORISMS from his 1851 work Parerga and Paralipomena, translated by R.J. Hollingdale into English in a Penguin Classics that provides a good summary of his views, and earlier works which established his ability to think in purely philosophical abstraction about things which largely escape me, and weren't quite grasped by Kant, if those who followed Kant were correct in how much philosophy they were willing to engage in. The difficult comparison for me to make would be between Schopenhauer and Nietzsche, the only two German philosophers that I might wish to be equally familiar with, but the differences between those two are like life, for me, of which Schopenhauer said, "Therefore many a great mind has had to drag itself breathlessly through life unrecognized, unhonored, unrewarded, till finally after his death the world became undeceived as to him and as to them." (p. 163). This, from Chapter XVII, "On Man's Need for Metaphysics" from Volume II of The World as Will and Representation, strikes me most forcefully as applying to anyone who would attempt to be the conscience for a nation. The attempt to apply morals in such a nebulous manner is sure to arouse the kind of defense mechanisms noted by Schopenhauer in his view of those who "Among the Greeks they were called sophists; among the moderns they are called professors of philosophy." (p. 163) Any great thought "will cast too great a shadow over theirs, and moreover will not adapt itself to the aims and limitations of the guild. For this reason they always endeavour to prevent such an achievement from finding favour. The customary means for this purpose, according to the times and circumstances in each case, are concealing, covering up, suppressing, hushing up, ignoring, keeping secret, or denying, disparaging, censuring, slandering, distorting, or finally denouncing and persecuting." (p. 163) Readers of this book get to learn how even Kant wasn't secure in his position, after the king who appreciated his philosophy was dead, and playing a game like philosophy of the chair "cannot pass for serious philosophy, but only for philosophy that is a joke." (p. 164). Perhaps Nietzsche succeeded in making philosophy that is a joke so obviously superior to what universities normally teach that our thoroughly comic society is the natural outcome of such logic. This book forms a solid basis for that conclusion.

When I was a student of a high school, I read only the first chapter of this book. It was easy enough to read, while Kant was too difficult. He told me as a kind teacher and explained the epistemology as easily as possible. He shows that the world is recognized and constructed by your view and only your viewpoint, and that everything is the simple chaos if you don't recognize it. It is you that are the subject, while objects are meaningless without your cognition. This typical epistemological thought has brought me the wholesome skepticism about the objectivity. The certainty that there are no types of objectivity has become not the knowledge, but the mind since my adolescence.

The epistemological thinking can be the foundation of all sciences, though it seems a lie. Please don't confuse the ease of this book with its importance. I would advise the young people to read the first chapter at least.

Griffin's books always have a good deal of excitement, and so does _The Investigators_. However, this one begins to strain credibility in some ways. Just when we think Matt Payne (supposedly a very, very intelligent man) can't possibly do anything dumber, he does just that. Is the Philadelphia Police Department really so paternalistic that such an officer would remain on the force despite seven bookfuls of bungling? I sure hope not.

The strength of the book, and the series, is some of the characters. The toady Czernich (or however Griffin has elected to spell his name this book; he never spells it the same way twice), the protective Lowenstein, the genteel Savarese, and the fiery Carlucci are always entertaining. Peter Wohl strains credibility a little but is an interesting fellow.

Recommended but could have been better.

I was really glad to discover just recently that W.E.B. Griffin had also penned books under the name "Alex Baldwin," as that was how I originally came to know his work (some really fine writing in that series). "The Investigators" allows him to reach out to a different type of reader, and show his stuff. I've now read four of his books and I'd put this one somewhere in the middle (Griffin is a very good writer - he's funny and really seems on spot with all the little details). Griffin's character development in "The Investigators" is a bit uneven, but the story takes some interesting turns, and I found it to generally move right along. Overall, I enjoyed this book and look forward to reading more in the series, and eventually most or all of his work. Order the book -- this guy is good!

I thought that this was a very good series book and I very much enjoyed reading the book. Every time I see a new book by Mr. Griffin I buy the book. I have taken weeks to read some books that were very good. For some reason I can't put down one of Mr. Griffin's books until I have read it at least once. I say keep up the good work, and more books in each series.

This book is Hank Hanegraaff's answer to "The Prayer of Jabez" by Bruce Wilkinson. It is not ONLY an answer to Jabez, it is also a great book on prayer. But the small size and similar shape and quick readability of "The Prayer of Jesus" makes it perfect to hand someone who has swallowed the Jabez trend hook, line, and sinker.

Hank politely and appropriately points out the errors in Jabez, while not tearing down Jabez's author of the whole concept indiscriminately.

But the focus in this book is on the prayer of JESUS taught us to pray! I especially liked Chapter 8, titled "The Armor", which contains a fictional letter written from the enemy to one of his own, C.S. Lewis "Screwtape Letters" style.

While this book isn't the best I've read on the topic of prayer, it provides a much-needed balance to the Jabez movement (as of now, 24 weeks on the Bestseller List).

This book is one that I will definitely re-read. It would make a great gift - there's a lot of "meat" here in a small package. You might already by aware of Hank's ministry as "Bible Answer Man," a daily radio show. Hank is Founder and President of the Christian Research Institute - the website is Equip.org.

You might want to buy several copies of this book - give a gift with an eternal value!

Please check out my other reviews of Christian books and music!

This book is awsome. It goes into great detail about why and how we should pray. It explains that Jesus is the prime example for prayer and even breaks down the lords prayer itself. It answers hard questions like, why doesn't the Lord always answer our prayers right away? or why does he not answer it the way we want? While explaining this, it gives scriptural background with verses of the Bible. Above all Hank Hanegraaff makes incredibly strong points which make you think a little;(for example how we need to focus on the approval of the Lord rather then men or how we would be in trouble if God really gave us everything we asked for). Hanegraaff shows why we need to ask God questions, even though He already knows them, and why we praise him even though He already knows we love Him. The reason I enjoyed the book was because it backed up what it said. It tells us how to be intimate with God and who better to follw then the master Himself,Jesus Christ. Thats why I rated this book a five

My wife bought me this book a few months ago; she knows I am a fan of Hank Hanegraaff, and enjoy his books. This is actually the third book of his that I have read, and I can't wait for an opportunity to give this book to someone in need of a text that discusses the model prayer of Jesus. I saw Hank Hanegraaff speak about his book a few weeks before it hit shelves, and he was very excited about it. I think that this book definitely lives up to his hopes.

Primarily, this book discusses in detail the Lord's prayer, or the prayer of Jesus, as Hank Hanegraaff terms it. I think that this book beautifully explains, in plain language, the careful wording and underlying meanings of the prayer that Jesus wanted to leave his friends with.

For me, the foremost thing that I took away from this book was that I don't need to pray for tomorrow and next week and all of my long term goals and needs. Jesus leads us by example and shows me that I need only to pray for my needs "this day". Again, I enjoyed this little book a great deal, and I highly recommend it.