Wake Up, Me! is a sunny, full-color picturebook written by Marine McGee specifically for young boys and girls just starting to read their very first words. The warm, homey artwork by Sam Williams fills pages with the wide-eyed wonderment of a toddler just waking up to a new day. A great book for reading to very young children, Wake Up, Me! is particularly recommended for preschool, day care, kindergarten, and community library collections for beginning readers.

This picture book is a gleeful way to greet the day, and just the thing for bringing on the sunshine. Sam William's cheerful illustrations perfectly compliment Marni McGee's warm, playful rhymes. My son likes to hear it first thing in the morning, with a cup of orange juice, a tickle and a hug. If you already have SLEEPY ME (also by McGee & Williams), you will certainly need this lively companion book. If you don't have SLEEPY ME, well, for goodness sake, get it! Both of these books are sure to claim special places in your child's day and in your heart.

WAKE UP, ME and McGee's SLEEPY ME are two good 'friends' that every young family should have. The simple, exuberant rhyme is a perfect 'good-morning' song that will help your toddler greet the day with joy and anticipation. (I could see parents 'singing' this to their children with a kiss and a cuddle to get them out of bed.) Williams' illustrations are cozy and warm and as big as the expectations of a toddler, ready and rarin' to go!

I humbly suggest that anyone who likes the work presented in "Washington on $10 Million a Day" also peruse the political newsletter "Counterpunch". I am not affiliated with any of the above mentioned entities just an interested reader eager to spread the truth about our sham democracy. For those of you who have not read this title and would like to investigate the sordid inner workings of our nation's capital; purchase this book. You will not find the commercialized, sanitized B.S. so pervasive in mainstream media. Educate yourself about the dissolute triad, comprised mainly of lobbyists, corporations and P.R. firms otherwise known as the "4th" branch of government. I also suggest reading "Derailing Democracy" by Dave McGowan. Thank you.

Ken Silverstein is the co-editor of the newsletter Counterpunch and one of the best investigative journalists in the US. In this book he exposes some of the ways in which corporate money and lobbying corrupt our political process and make sure that public policy serves corporate interests, not our own. A pair of examples will illustrate. In one particularly telling account, Silverstein reveals how Philip Morris connived to set up a phony public interest group called Contributions Watch, the purpose of which was to smear trial lawyers as "the most powerful special interest group" in the country. In another section, he describes various types of "astroturf" lobbying activities, where corporations create phony "grassroots" groups to provide cover for their interests.

Much of the book is based on reporting Silverstein did for Counterpunch. Given Silverstein's talents, one wonders why he is working for a small-circulation newsletter. Surely our major newspapers have need for investigative journalists of his talents. But then one remembers that the big papers are themselves corporate owned, and unlikely to want to shed too much light on the misdeeds of large corporations or the excesses of unrestrained monopoly capitalism.

The one flaw I can find with the book is the absence of any detailed notes on Silverstein's sources.

Yes, it truly is the age of retail politics. And Ken Silverstein's new expose, Washington on $10 Million a Day, shows the high price that must be paid to the lobbyists of K Street to get troubled corporations and Third World dictators out their various jams. Silvertein introduces us to the likes of Tommy Hale Boggs, the brother of ABC news diva Cokie Roberts, who charges $500 an hour to help oil companies boot Indians off potential drilling sites, bail out the interest of big banks, vouch for the character of butchers like Baby Doc Duvalier and tirelessly tread on his intimate relationship with President Bill. Then there's the noxious Edward von Kloberg, the man who fell for a Spy Magazine spoof when he indicated he would be willing to represent the interests of a German neo-Nazi group. Among van Kloberg's other clients: Saddam Hussein and Romanian thug Nicolae Ceausescu. With this new book, Silverstein goes right to the corrupt heart of the Beltway, where forgiveness for almost any crime against humanity is for sale at the right price. Silverstein is one of the nation's finest investigative reporters and this book proves he is also one of the funniest. Jeffrey St. Clair

This book is a wonderful gift idea for a baptism. The story is nice and the illustrations are wonderful!

This book is fabulous. The writing is a pleasure to read and the illustrations say so much more. The two put together is wonderful. I recommend it as a gift when ever you have the chance.

Walt Wangerin, professor, teacher, writer, pastor, and most of all, child of God, has given us a precious gift: an illuminating storybook about God's gift of baptism. This book fills a void in the world of children's literature, drawing children into their rightful place in the household of faith, The Church. The text is written in rhyming couplets, a style that children love; after hearing it a few times, they can supply the rhymes that follow each line (as they do with Dr. Seuss books). The story is told from the perspective of creation itself, rejoicing at the baptism of the child, and his/her place in the world. This is done gracefully and lovingly. The illustrations are glorious! The artist, Gerardo Suzan, has a simple, delightful style that children can interpret easily; yet included within the simple paintings are classic symbols of creation and Christian iconography. The illustrations and the text are a perfect marriage. The back of the storybook includes scriptural and theological clarification of the story and paintings. This is helpful for parents with their own questions about baptism; I believe that quality children's books offer something for the adults as well as for the children. This is a "lap" book, something to be enjoyed and shared for families. Baptism is the perfect occasion to give this book;on the baptismal day, have the family, the sponsors, the pastors, and the whole congregation sign the book as a remembrance.

The Way Of A Ship: A Square-rigger Voyage In The Last Days Of Sail recreates a sea voyage on one of the last merchant sailing ships near the close of the 19th century, and provides a satisfying blend of historical reconstruction, fictional narrative, and focus on seamanship. It's hard to easily categorize this account: The Way Of A Ship reads like fiction but couples such with rich historical detail, resulting in a multi-faceted guide.

Lundy wrote a book I've been looking long to find. He writes of the day to day life of sailors from the 19th century that is very knowledgable and page turning. I finally got to see what it would have been like. He created characters that I felt interested in and wanted to learn more about. If you've ever wondered what it was like on a sailing ship- Lundy will anwser all your questions, and entertain. Again, a fantastic book!

Derek Lundy's "The Way of a Ship: A Square-Rigger Voyage in the Last Days of Sail" is in large part a history of blue-water merchant shipping in the late Nineteenth Century with a particular focus on those ships rounding Cape Horn, along with literary meditations by the author upon the works of Melville and Dana and Conrad. But interleaved with the history is Lundy's account of an imagined 1885 voyage around the Horn by his great-great-uncle Benjamin aboard the fictional 4-masted barque Beara Head. It is a harrowing, but by no means atypical voyage aboard a giant iron-hulled square-rigger of the era, its crew kept small by the owners' economies necessary to compete with steamships. This novel-within-a-history is a useful device for conveying the harsh realities of life aboard such a vessel, and Lundy is well up to the challenge of portraying ships and the sea in convincing, highly vivid detail. This will come as no surprise to readers of his earlier book, "Godforsaken Sea: Racing the World's Most Dangerous Waters", about the 1996 Vendee Globe race.

The spark that drove Lundy to write this book is a simple (and perhaps unanswerable) question: how were his great-great-uncle and men like him able to challenge Cape Horn? Even with the strong iron hulls and wire rigging of the 1880's, Cape Horn killed men and ships with a regularity that would dismay the modern world. And if wind and wave were not enemies enough, then inadequate food, terrible living conditions, and hard-driving captains and mates would supply sufficient misery to seemingly make any rational man balk from voluntarily undertaking such a voyage. Of course, not all the seaman aboard were willing volunteers, dockside "crimps" if necessary supplied the required number of drugged and drunken men to fill the meager crew rosters permitted by penny-pinching owners. No records other than family stories and a few old letters survive to chronicle Benjamin Lundy's actual experiences or even to name the ships he sailed on, so his great-great-nephew to better understand the man and others of his ilk decided to reconstruct what his first ocean-crossing voyage might have been like, aboard a square-rigger carrying coal from England to Valpariso, Chile. Coal might seem at first thought an innocuous enough cargo, but in fact it was not. Coal, especially damp coal, often ignited by spontaneous combustion during these lengthy voyages and sometimes even exploded. Very probably quite a few of those big sailing merchantmen that mysteriously vanished at sea were victims of such slow, secret heating, deep in their black holds. Although the young Ulsterman Lundy is a veteran of the coastal trade, the challenges of working such a deep-sea merchantmen were beyond both his experience and his imagination. Derek Lundy crafted his story after intensive research that stretched to include sailing some of the same waters himself, although the author confesses a disappointed relief in not encountering a real gale off Cape Horn.

Between the fiction chapters, Lundy delves into the history of rounding Cape Horn going back to the days of Raleigh and Anson, and of the struggle against a foe even more deadly than the Cape itself: scurvy. He also explores that strange age of transition in the late Nineteenth Century when long distance bulk cargo sailing ships were still battling against the steamers that had already come to dominate shorter routes and the passenger business. Iron (and, later, steel) hulls made possible sailing vessels of a size previously unachievable, so large that even the traditional three masts of ships had to multiply in order to carry sufficient canvas. Merely increasing the size of individual masts and sails proved impractical. As masts grew taller and yards wider, the proportionately larger sails became too hard for the crews to handle. Topsails and topgallantsails were split horizontally into separate upper and lower halves with their own yards, creating the wide but shallow sails so characteristic of photographs of the big merchantmen of this time.

This combination of maritime history and nautical fiction makes for compelling, insightful reading. Lundy well conveys the misery, the fear, the fatigue, the excitement, and even the occasional exhilaration of an experience that would otherwise lie beyond the boundaries of our own lives.

I loved reading these fascinating stories. I learned so much about famous couples in love and how they met. This book certainly makes a great gift! I keep it on my coffee table and friends love looking through it.

Reading this book is like eating peanuts - once you start, it's hard to stop! It's filled with lots of romantic, funny and sometimes so touching stories about famous couples and their marriages. I like the way Gordon set up the book - it's organized like a calendar, with a story for every day of the year. The words are printed in deep purple ink - very pretty! I'm giving this book to my aunt and uncle for their 25th anniversary, and I'll write something special on their wedding day page. They love the Beatles, and will love to learn that they were married on the same day as John Lennon & Yoko Ono.

If you're getting married, or know someone who is, this book is a lot of fun to read and give! It's filled with lots of great facts like what Elvis sang to Priscilla on their wedding day, and why Napoleon and Josephine shared their wedding night with her nasty pug dog. Wedding Days is set up chronologically, with a story for every day of the year, so you can find out who else was married on "your" day. Last spring, I had to make a speech at a wedding and Wedding Days gave me wonderful material - my friends got married on April 18 - the same day as Princess Grace and Prince Rainier! Her father did something really outrageous during the ceremony - you'll have to read the book to find out what... By the way, Elvis & Priscilla were married on May 1 (1967); Napoleon & Josephine were married on March 9 (1796.)

This cookbook is the best I've ever tried! I had a pretty good selection of cookbooks before buying this one so I didn't really think a 'healthy cookbook' would be able to compare... but the recipes are really great! There's a large selection of tastes for simple to complex meals.

Plus for each day/page the book does not just give you one recipe. You'll be given a full menu for breakfast, lunch and dinner! Side dish ideas and drink ideas that will go good with your main dish are suggested! It's deffinatly a unique and helpful cookbook. You'll love it!

Exceptional recipes for busy people. Includes suggestions for healthful bag-lunches, breakfasts, and brunches you may not have thought of. The food tastes REAL, not the usual nonfat flavour (imagine eating the BOX that the burger came in...there, you've got it). Lots of things that even the kids will eat. Wonderful!

I'm 27 and busy, and not a big cookbook person, but after a few weeks on Weight Watchers I needed to spice up my menu. This book did the trick! It's got so many awesome recipes with all the WeightWatchers breakdowns, as well as daily menus to keep it all interesting. And even if you're not dieting, the meals are tasty and filling and you know you're eating healthy!

Great books for this age group are difficult to come by, and Leda Schubert has created two of them with Winnie Plays Ball and Winnie All Day Long. A huge, lovable dog, Winnie proves to be a totally appealing character for young children, and her activities engage their imaginations. These books have the same classic charm as Cynthia Rylant's Henry and Mudge stories, and they are enormously popular with very young children.

This series of four booklets show the main character, a giant dog named Winnie, as she goes through her day, interacting with her family. If you own a dog, particularly a big dog, you will feel as though you are seeing your dog in the story. The basic language that is presented in repition, make these booklets a delightful way for the new reader to get started and experience immediate success. I intend to give the books to a fiend of mine who teaches 1st grade.

This is a wonderful book for brand new and aspiring readers. It is a very inexpensive set of 4 short picture books with wonderful episodes about life with a dog, Winnie. For dog owners, these pictures of everyday situations are laugh-out-loud humor. For everyone, the stories are intriguing and charming. The illustrations have enough going on in them to make the reader want to go back to them over and over. Winnie's expressions are incredibly expressive and irresistible.

"A collection of quotations from the Master's letters,essays and fiction loosely connected by witty,fact-filled commentary by Barry Day,to form a concise,bried biography...This belongs on the same shelf with "Wodehouse Nuggets" and "The Wodehouse Companion" - except that you will want to keep it by your bedside or carry it around in your pocket. At the very least,"Wodehouse In His Own Words" will send you scurrying out for Plum's novels and short story collections."

- Michael Dirda
The Washington Post

"A splendid Wodehouse vade-mecum; no home should be without a copy. No hotel,tavern,or public accomodation,either. Perhaps the Gideons can be persuaded to branch out and include a copy of this estimable little volume with their other reading matter."

Roger Kimball
Managing Editor of The New Criterion

Evelyn Waugh admired him, and his books were at the bedside of Eudora Welty. P. G. Wodehouse's enormous output of books can be found in castles and cottages, and have been translated into dozens of languages; the Russian versions are particularly adored. It is true that he doesn't appeal to everybody; I have run into many who think he just put out the same silly comedy with interchanging characters. They are completely wrong, but we can't argue about tastes. Barry Day and Tony Ring are two Wodehouse enthusiasts who had the bright idea of taking bits and pieces from Wodehouse's amusing letters, inserting parts of his work, and tying it all together with a very few notes as a small biography. Their book, _P. G. Wodehouse in His Own Words_ (Overlook) is a great success, but it must be said (and they would agree, I am sure) that its success derives from page after page of quotations from the master.

Woodhouse had a happy early life, and loved school. His public school values of fair play, loyalty, and honesty stuck to him all during his life, and may easily be found within his stories. A dip in his father's fortunes made college impossible, and he entered commerce for which he was completely unfit. He had trouble in the basics like getting to work on time. If his supervisor was as good at dry understatement as Wodehouse was, Wodehouse might have gotten the following warning, which comes from one of his books: "I must ask you in future to try and synchronise your arrival at the office with that of the rest of the staff. We aim as far as possible at the communal dead heat." What he did do with fervor was to write stories. It was tough in the beginning, as he took a while to acquire his tone now familiar. "I wrote nineteen short stories in three weeks, I just sent the stories out... (all of which, I regret to say, editors were compelled to decline owing to lack of space. The editors regretted it, too. They said so.)" But once he found his voice, magazines and book publishers in England and in the U.S. were enthusiastic. He crossed to the U.S., working in the theater and in Hollywood. After being imprisoned in Nazi Germany, he settled into working his last decades in America, writing constantly, and tending his dogs and cats. When he died in 1975, he was in the middle of a novel, and he was writing new lyrics for a musical _Kissing Time_ that he had written in 1918. And less than two months before, he had been given his knighthood.

Wodehouse was not Shakespeare. ("Shakespeare's stuff is different from mine, but that is not to say that it is inferior.") His plots can be clever, his characters unbelievable dolts (as is Bertie Wooster, but as is not the invaluable Jeeves), but his expressions guarantee a smile, and possibly a guffaw, on every page. "The Sergeant of Police... was calm, stolid and ponderous, giving the impression of being constructed of some form of suet." "I don't suppose he makes enough out of a novel to keep a midget in doughnuts for a week. Not a really healthy midget." "I've seen worse shows than this turned into hits. All it wants is a new book and lyrics and a different score." "I was in musical comedy. I used to sing in the chorus, till they found out where the noise was coming from." Day and Ring seem to have read every Wodehouse book with total recall to find comments on butlers, golf, America, clubs, and the clergy. Even displaced from his daffy plots and characters, the many quotations here provide spiffing entertainment, and will remind even the best of fans that it is always a good time to get reacquainted with Lord Emsworth, Gussie Fink-Nottle, Aunt Agatha, Psmith, the Mulliners, and all the rest of the balmy crew.

This is the best (and I mean best) cookbook on the market today. There are few "fancy" ingredients and 99% of the recipes can be made with what you have on hand. If you don't have something, it's easy to substitute. Need something elegant, look here. No nonsense, easy to use, and better yet, great recipes!

I checked this book out of the public Library and liked it so much after using it for several soups, I decided I needed it for many other reasons, such as the investment cooking section. I never thought I would need another cook book, but I just couldn"t pass "The Woman"s Day Cookbook.

This book is great, especially for a novice cook. The recipes are clearly labeled: low fat, easy, 30-minute, make-ahead, etc. There's a section called "cook once eat twice" for making a new recipe from the leftovers of another dish. They also have "investment cooking" where you spend 3-4 hours in the kitchen and you've prepared 6-8 completely separate meals to freeze for later. I always hated to cook, but I've been using this book for 3 weeks now and cooking almost every night. It's fun!

This is a great item for first time parents! Also a great way to preserve memories of your child's busy first years. I love it and highly recomend it.

This was a great book for any new mother and it relieves some of the guilt when you are away from your child and miss some of those most precious moments. A great gift!

Great book! All you need to know about raising children and to the point. Give a copy of this to your nanny or baby sitter for Christmas or make it required reading.