This book is not my usual genre, but thought I'd stretch a bit. A few chapters in, I felt that I should not be reading Barbara's private diary. Several chapters later I was wondering WHY I was reading Barbara's private diary. Several more chapters in, I was wondering why Barbara felt we all should be reading her private diary. I am confident that Barbara got more out of writing this book than I got out of reading it.

While I was aware that this was a memoir, my assumption was that something interesting must have happened to the author, or her immediate family, or her friends, or her neighbors, or her not so immediate family, or ANYONE! But that was not the case. While Barbara does a very good job of recalling various parts of her childhood, the reader is not really provided any reason to care about any of the characters. Unless you grew up in the Midwest, or were divorced once or twice, or had a parent die young or commit or attempt suicide, there was no real "hook," no connection to the author or her life. We don't really learn anything or take anything away from this book, nor do we learn that the author learned anything but a few missing facts about her past. We don't get any inkling of how that information and/or revelations will benefit her or the reader.

Despite her inclusion of geographic maps and genealogical family trees I had no idea who was related to whom, nor which generation was involved with which other generation. I'm sure it all made sense to her extended families, but to the moderately engaged reader it was very disjointed.

Though this volume was self-absorbed and narrow, Barbara's other volumes may be worth a read assuming that she has an actual story to tell in them.

i thoroughly enjoyed this book. i am not an expert critic, but i found myself wanting to go"home" again after reading her book. very nostalgic and bittersweet.

This book is well organized and easy to read. I'd recommend it for beginning programmers only, however. It does NOT cover how to make and use library files and routines.

Before planting your children in any setting, it's important to do your research. We live in a highly mobile society. Many of us have to rely on childcare outside the home. A book like the family resource guide helps us sort out our options and make the best choices for our children. However, I encourage you not to rely on this book alone -- do your own research and as always in parenting, trust your instincts!!!

This is not my review; but I have consciously read this book (chapters 1,2,3,4,5) for preparing my thesis, and I was thinking about the translation (from English to Spanish)of this book.

Badly in need of a new edition, this books is 25 years behind in the life of a dynamic and energetic author, poet and education supporter. For a more complete biography, check out the one by David A. Groseclose, with a foreword by (the late) Michener himself.

Although Jean M. Groves book about the Little Ice Age (or LIA) is not really up to date anymore, it still is the most comprehensive textbook about the cooling period that preceeded our present climate amelioration. Both, measurements as well as historic records are presented in great detail and some of the striking pictures of e.g advancing alpine glaciers or abandonned moraines tell us much more about the profound impact of the LIA on human activities than graphs and tables could do. Unfortunately most of the pictures are in b/w. The contents are well organized and an introducing chapter on the history of the term "Little Ice Age" gives a good overview on the topic before the following chapters become more regionally specific. Grove's Little Ice Age is a must have for everyone who is scientifically dealing with the topic, but is interesting as well for people who want to learn how even lesser climate changes are capable to affect the course of the history and how Greenland and Iceland got their names for example.

If you're reading this, either you're a died-in-the-wool Jack London fan or you know little about his work.

To those who liked "The Call of the Wild" and "White Fang" and want to know what to read next: the short stories! And of the novels, "Martin Eden," "The Sea-Wolf." Among his LESS well-known works, I and others have a high regard for "John Barleycorn," "The Road," and "The Iron Heel," and many love "The Star-Rover" (although I don't care for it).

Now, as for those who just can't get enough Jack London and want to know what this book is like: it's not bad. It's readable. It is a Jack London account of a passage around Cape Horn in the last days of the sailing ship. It is based on a trip Jack and Charmian (and of course his valet Nakata) made in 1912.

Three-quarters of the way through this book I was almost ready to classify it as a hidden Jack London treasure but it really falls apart.

The problems? Well, loose construction and loose ends, common Jack London faults. He establishes an intriguing cast of grotesque characters and curious plot twists and then never resolves any of them. It builds up wonderfully, then it lets down miserably.

For example: the mutineers have a mysterious source of food which makes it hard for the officers to starve them into submission. Jack London elevates this to the status of a major riddle and refers to it again and again, until I reached the point of being really curious about what happened. And he never tells us!

Worse: what became of Mr. Pike and Mr. Mellaire? For two-thirds of the book he builds toward a confrontation between them. During the mutiny, Pike leaves the deck intending to find Mellaire--and, basically, both of them simply vanish!

Like many of his later tooks, this book contains the usual amount of racialist crappola, but not enough to ruin the book for me. The good guys win because "we, the fair-pigmented ones, by the seed of our ancestry rule in the high places and shall remain top dog over the rest of the dogs," etc. And there's the usual amount of what I can only call mushy stuff

"The Sea-Wolf," the protagonist earns his strength and self-reliance. In "Elsinore," he simply comes into it as his Aryan birthright.

This is a terribly bad book. It is full of factually incorrect assertions woven together into a distorted picture of the most influential and complex theater worker of the twentieth century. There is a total absence of critical perception or analysis, and for someone who claims to have been working so long in the field, Fuegi betrays a remarkable lack of insight into the dynamics of theater production. He pays lip-service to what he seems to believe are feminist principles, but underneath them, he shows great disregard for the opinions and achievements of the remarkable women who worked with Brecht throughout his life. Fuegi seems to have learned nothing from Brecht;his writing is plodding and turgid - all the more so in the context of Brecht's own sharpness and economy of language. Any other book on Brecht would provide a better introduction; I have only given it one star because I can't figure out how to give it less

Brecht's achievements and influences as a pioneering modernist dramatist are inarguable. What needed to be added to the record was that the man was something of a literary sociopath whose reputation has been greatly inflated by his aggressive gift for self-promotion at the expense of others. Fuegi's documentation of his creepily Manson-like manipulation of talented but insecure women into a harem of love slaves and uncredited collaborators is long overdue.

Stupid book really for the greatest philosopher of all time. And what are those cartoons all over the book? Buying it is a waste of money and reading it, a waste of time. Sorry.

Reviewer: Barbara (see more about me)
Stupid book really for the greatest philosopher of all time. And what are those cartoons all over the book? Buying it is a waste of money and reading it, a waste of time. Sorry.

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First of all Barbara, you obviously dont understand what pictures are used in learning for. They help you link the text with the words, thats how your brain works or havent you understood any of these before? I suppose you have quite a fair amount of intelligence for the average chap, but your criticism is absurd. The making of this book "Introducing Plato" was made in comical way so that it would be more "friendly" to the reader rather than sleeping over a 10,000 word essay or book on Plato's life and philosophy, i suppose what you are used to eh? This book is informative as it is pictured. Well buy . Please dont listen to the BS Barbara is murmuring on.

I fell in love with the Little House books back when I did Little House in the Big Woods in grade three for novel study. Since then I got my parents to purchase the rest of the series and I read them over and over again. I was a bit suspicious of this book because of the whole filling the gap idea. Like one reviewer said, Laura Ingalls Wilder wrote On the Banks of Plum Creek and By the Shores of Silver Lake so that it wasn't obvious there was a hole. But now that they've brought in Old Town in the Green Groves... Anyways, onto the actual book itself.

Cynthia Rylant is a great author but she fails misearably here. I have a feeling she did this for the sake of money, not because she wanted to write it. This book does not have the vivid descriptions or magical feel to it like the originals. The writing was way too simplistic and the dialogue sounds cut up from the originals and pasted together. Somehow a modern feel leaks into it too... Oh, and by the way I forgot to mention that even though I managed to get to the end I was still left wondering about what happened. So, I had to go to the library and take out a biography on Laura Ingalls Wilder instead.

I think the publishers (whoever they are) should have just left the Little House Books by themselves. They stood out on their own just fine. Also, I think it was unfair to add this book in because Laura didn't want to write about those years, considering how depressing they were. They should've respected her wishes instead but it's too late now...

I enjoyed reading this book, but at the same time, felt sadness. Cynthia Rylant did a good job of capturing some of the spirit from the other books, but I feel that the reason Laura herself didn't write about this time in her life is because she wanted to forget it. The family experienced so much sadness during this time and maybe she didn't want others to know about it. While reading it, I just kept thinking about how Laura would feel if she knew people were reading this.
I first received the complete set of Little House books when I was 9. I'm 30 now & still read the complete set every fall. I won't put this book with my precious & well-worn set because I will never consider it a real part of the series.

On the Banks of Plum Creek was one of my favorite books since I was 9. For some reason I loved reading about Laura's life on Plum Creek. I knew there were stories she didn't feel like telling because it was too painful to write about yet I was curious about the rest of her life in Minnesota. I was so delighted to find this book! Like another reviewer said, I don't know if it should be considered part of Laura's original series, but it is still a joy. The author has a very positive yet non-saccarine way of telling the story, and she well-establishes the characters, showing what a loving family Laura has and how much she loves her family...you really feel like Laura is a part of you; almost a soulmate. I just wish Johnny had gotten what he deserved; he was such a rascal to Laura and her sisters. He should've known better than to pick on girls. If I was there I'd fix him for Laura!!