A strange novel set in Virginia in the mid 1950's to early '60's. The rural class structure is in place, while the incipient apartheid society is being challenged with the civil rights movement. The novel deftly contrasts racism and classicism that was (and probably still is) existent in rural Virginia.

The heroine, Penny Bone, is alone - - her husband having been sent to prison for manslaughter that was the result of his throwing a full beer bottle out of a car and hitting a Negro teenage girl who just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. John Bone ends up in jail primarily because he is poverty stricken and uneducated. The town where the Bones lived is haunted by the long-ago disappearance of the first Negro child to integrate the town's school. This disappearance is attributed to the 'Gypsy Man', a local legend who supposedly kidnaps and kills children. Penny fears that the Gypsy Man will take Tory, the only thing she has from her brief marriage to John before he went to jail.

The book turns on the contrast of classism and racism and whether or not the Gypsy Man does or does not exist. It is a slow moving book that turns out to be totally absorbing. The questions about class and race and balance of power and what people will do to maintain the balance will remain with you for quite a while. This book would never make a best seller list, but it would be wonderful if many people read it. Worth your time and interest.

Robert Bausch has created vivid three dimentional characters caught in their own lives. The Gypsy Man is not based on a gypsy from Romany, but on the collected beliefs of an entire community. This is a heck of a read.... Gypsy Man far surpasses any of Bausch's previous works. This book is intriguing in its plot twists, its development of distinctive but believable characters, and the style of writing. This book is for readers who want to read a novel for plain entertainment or for those looking for a real piece of literature. He is an author to keep an eye on. I can hardly wait for Bob Bausch's next book!

Set in the rural Kentucky mountaintop community of Crawford in 1959, Bausch's multi-narrated novel goes to the heart of love, deceit, dashed dreams and hope. Penny Bone, who lives with her daughter and her Aunt Clare, but who's really been on her own a long time, centers the novel with her strong, young voice, a voice so strong people don't see the fear at her core. As the story opens, Penny's Aunt Clare is missing and her 7-year-old daughter, Tory, unearths some writing on a white stone at the edge of their yard. A gravestone, perhaps.

Penny latches onto the stone as a focus for her fears. Her mother died when she was a baby and her father was killed in the war when she was 11. Raised by Clare, who is subject to benders and running off with men, Penny learned self-reliance before she knew what it was. She met John Bone in Crawford's tiny school, married at 17 and lost him by the time her daughter was born. Not that John Bone is dead. John accidentally killed a girl and got 20 years for manslaughter. Penny recalls: 'When they took him away he says, 'I'm dead to you, and you got to be dead to me.' ' And now Clare's been missing for weeks, longer than she's ever been gone before.

'After a while, even with Tory sitting next to me and chattering about the stone, I felt kind of lonely and sad. It seemed like the air I inhaled could spread out anywhere in my body, and make me cold and afraid at the same time. I can't explain it. I wanted a car to come. Somebody I knew to get out and visit for a spell.'

The narration switches to John Bone, feeling the first stirrings of hope he's allowed himself in six years. During a jail break-out, when he could have run, he saved a guard's life instead. There's talk of doing something for him in return. But the man who did escape, Peach, a thoroughly chilling psychopath, had once for treasure up at the old Crawford place at the top of the mountain, near where Penny lives, and Bone worries he's headed back there.

Back in Crawford, Penny's friend Morgan, an old man who can remember the last of the Crawfords, the one who became the Gypsy Man, worries over the signs he's seeing of the Gypsy Man's return. Born with a birthmark that blighted half his face, kidnapped, supposedly by Gypsies, as a toddler, then returned a few years later, the last Crawford became a fire bug. Though he was nearly 50 when he disappeared for good 40 years before, people still blame the Gypsy Man whenever there's a fire or a missing child. The last child to go missing still haunts the community ' a boy from the black enclave further down the mountain, he was the first to integrate Crawford's school and the sheriff still looks for him. Now Morgan's seeing the signs again and Penny's after him to help her dig out that white stone.

When Clare shows up, beaten and evasive, her house key missing, the reader knows it's Peach she's been with, and the sinister undertone takes on an edge of dread. The narrative shifts among the varied voices of the characters, including the schoolmaster, his wife, Clare, the sheriff, Morgan, Penny, John, Peach and more. They don't always tell the whole truth and some are guilty of deceiving themselves, but they each contribute to the fabric of a community trying to hold together in the face of calamity, loss and horror. Before it's done there's more death and horror, but also redemption and acceptance as Penny learns that hope has value and love endures.

Bausch's ('A Hole in the Earth')risky narrative works because of the distinctiveness of his character's voices and the rich simplicity of his prose. These mountain voices reveal more than the depth of their prejudices and the foibles of their character, more than their level of education and the regrets that come with age, more than the small piece of the whole they've seen from their considered perspective. Individually they reveal the hidden places in the human heart; together they show the complex weave of a community, in all its ugly grubbiness as well as its Sunday best.

This collection of the selected writings of Henri Nouwen is a gem. Nouwen was one of the greatest theological thinkers and spiritual writers of the last century, and this book makes it clear why. Jonas begins with a fascinating portrait of Nouwen, the man. This is one of the most in-depth and fascinating spiritual biographies I have read in a long time! Jonas' close personal relationship with Nouwen himself and his background as a therapist give real depth to his observations. The introduction as a stand alone piece is well worth the price of the book!

The second part of the book is the meat: selections from Nouwen's own writing. They are organized thematically, around such topics as Community, Intimacy, and Being the Beloved (central to Nouwen's theology). Each selection is perfect... a self-contained revelation. I used this book as the starting point for a series of sermon's using Nouwen's thought... and it would be wonderful for personal study and devotion as well. This is the book to start with if you want to understand Henri Nouwen!

This is a great introduction to the life and writings of a unique spirit. Henri Nouwen's thoughts on life, death, self, community and God have touched me deeply. This book provides well-chosen and organized excerps of his many writings. About a quarter of the book is devoted to an overview of his life. It is a friend's perspective and provides an interesting background to the writings. The author writes in the acknowledgments that he hopes the book will honor Nouwen's life and work. I think it does that very well. Thank you, Mr. Jonas.

As a relative newcomer to Henri Nouwen's work, I found this book a wonderful gift. The excerpts are short and accessible yet rich with this extraordinary man's transformative spiritual vision. Organized into intuitively sensible sections, the collection makes a perfect first sampler, pointing clear pathways to further exploration. It would have to be a first choice for anyone wanting to learn more about this fragile and profound man's finest spiritual writing.

But the jewel in this little treasure chest is Jonas's introduction. Beautifully written, the essay-which comprises fully a third of the book-tells the story of this fragile, Christ-like man in a way that I can only imagine would be as informative to those deeply familiar with Nouwen's writing as it was to a neophyte like myself. Jonas weaves together biographical information with literary analysis, broadly-known stories with never-before-told vignettes from his own friendship with Nouwen. And throughout, he holds a graceful balance among collegial respect, psychological insight, spiritual affiliation, clear-eyed scrutiny, and loving tenderness, while retaining an appropriate respect for the boundary between truth and sensationalism. I emerged from reading this soon-to-be classic collection at once informed, inspired, and grateful.

I was young when I first heard the story of Herman the Helper. I liked the way the pictures and words made me feel so good inside. Although the book was on loan from the library and had to be returned, my persistent parents looked everywhere for the book and finally located it in California. The book made its way back home with them in NY, and I still have it, 20 years later!

I read this book until it fell apart in Kindergarden and first grade. You will love it. Read it to yourself, to your family, to your children. I hope that it makes as much of an impression on them as it did on me.

Herman the Helper was my favorite book as a little girl, and I was thrilled to find it at Amazon. The illustrations are so colorful and inviting; I used to spend hours with this book. The story is also upbeat and very charming, so if you have kids, or if you still feel like one, you'll love Herman!

This book is, plain and simple, the best book on what drag racing is all about. The history and facts are first rate. I learned more about the sport from this one book than all others I have read combined. This would be a fantastic documentary for TV.

as a lover of drag racing and a drag racer myself,i have to say this is THE MOST COMPLETE BOOK on the subject of drag racing i have ever read.it covers all aspects of the sport from the beginning to 1990 and in every detail.if you are a lover of the sport,a drag racer or even if you know nothing about the sport this book will give you new insight,new feelings and you WILL learn a new appreciation of the sport..

This is by far the best book on drag racing I have ever come across. My first season was 1961 at the track of Maryland and Pennsylvania, and to varying degrees I have followed the sport ever since.

This book has an incredible amount of detail on who did what, and includes many important historical events, and other oddities that have happened in the forty years covered. He even includes one of the weirdest accidents I ever saw, which was the time Paula Murphy's rocket car had a stuck throttle, and sent her off the end of the track at Sears Point Raceway, and literally over the rolling hills of Sonoma County at well over 200 mph, like a real-life Whiley Cayote.

But even more to his credit the author attempts to get at the heart of drag racing, what drives the participants. And he writes with a fine balance of scholarly objectivity and insider's appreciation. A very nice piece of work and a "must-read" for anyone seriously interested in how drag racing got to be what it is today.

Richard Fay

Bob Schaffer has taken an already powerful message and amplified it in this revised version of his book. Good examples and additions. Guaranteed to challenge the status quo. Well worth it!

I spent 15 years as a manager inside companies that had little to no idea how to work with a consultant. When I started consulting myself, I bought copies of this great book for my clients so they could learn how to get the most for their dollar. The great thing about the book is that the title might make you think that the value it promises is all long term -- quite the opposite. The entire concept is to look for value points and deliver them -- focus on results and not on inputs.

Overall, this book is great for people who are not consultants because it really demystifies working with consultants by revealing things consultants woudl rather you not know. With a level playing field -- created of you read this -- you can really make your consultants work for you.

This book gives an account of the absolute right way to consult. But there is a problem: One, however, I believe is a good one whose day in the sun has come.

Consultants and consulting firms have different definitions of success. A GOOD and TRUE consultant wants to see his customer succeed, and this book shows how to accomplish that. A TYPICAL consulting firm wants to rack up the chargeable time. There is a dichotomy here, one with which I have dealt personally for 18 years before founding my own firm.

The author correctly describes consulting success as client results. However, most large consulting firms describe success as a monstrous amount of chargeable hours. In short, don't you dare solve your client's problem before your billing has reached at least six figures!!!

Read this book. If you are a consultant, celebrate it. If you are a partner in a major consulting firm, decry it. If you are a client, hold your consultants to it!

I was assigned this book for my physical anthropology class. Overall, it's very easy to understand. THe authors explain difficult concepts well for the most part, and they usually include diagrams or pictures to reinforce the point. Granted the chapters on genetics weren't the easiest things on earth to understand, but I had a firm biology background from high school so it was not an issue. The authors also do a good job of making the concepts very interesting and alive, a difficult task for a college textbook.

Overall, it's a great book and very informative.

I never thought that I would enjoy biological anthropology, let alone understand it well, but this text has made the class easy and even fun (seriously, I'm not joking). The book is layed out simply with outlines at the beginning of each chapter and clear subheadings within the chapters to help get across the main points. The points are all connected together nicely to leave the reader with a complete picture of human evolution.

This book was the required text for an anthropology course I took recently. The book explained things well and actually made complex biological concepts simple to understand, even for a undergraduate. It provides a very detailed and easy to understand overview of human evolution and the biology of human culture. I would recommend this book.

I am a psychololgist. I read this book very carefully and outlined it, it was that good. It is very practical information on how to deliver difficult news. I found that I deliver more difficult news than I thought. I use the six steps outlined in the book now, and teach residents about the book. This is the best resouce I found for delivering bad news to patients.

This is a unique, delightful, and highly practical book. I recommend it very highly for all physicians and mental health professionals. The authors explain that, despite the American focus on informed consent, some patients who develop life threatening disease do NOT want to know all the details, or even the prognosis, of their condition. A wise and useful six-step protocol for breaking bad news is proffered, incorporating both readiness to fully inform and readiness to respect the patient's psychological vulnerabilities. Since bad news comes in many forms in this life, the skills and attitudes described have wide applicability in the helping professions. A TRULY OUTSTANDING videotape also exists as a companion to this book. I don't know if it is available through Amazon or not. PKC

How to Break Bad News is one of the best books on the subject I've found anywhere. I wrote a book called "Difficult Conversations" which deals with some of the same issues in a broader context, and I am impressed indeed by Buckman's book. I wish healthcare workers everywhere would read it.

If you need a method for managing your money, this is simply the best book out there. It is not preachy and is more focused than most financial books that try to cover personal budgeting in a single chapter: it is too complex a subject to get adequate treatment in a few pages.

This, on the other hand, is a good chunk of book about just the one subject. There are a lot of OK books out there but, really, to do budgeting and financial planning how many do you need? Only one and this is it!

But be warned, the system presented by the author is complex and intensive in that it requires that you really think about where your money is going. It also forces you to set priorities and face the limitations of your financial resources.

If you use the system it will force you to become future and goal oriented and if you have a problem with spending too much and not saving enough, this might just be the cure. Good luck.

This is a "how-to" book covering the fundamentals of establishing a personal financial system of establishing and attaining financial planning goals. The book successfully sets forth an easy-to-adopt system of "funding" each desired goal. Throughout the book the author illustrates the principles with stories from this own dealing with clients.

If you need assistance with "establishing a budget", "getting out of debt", or "learning to save", then this is the book for you. It is probably most suited for persons age 18-55 who need a system to manage their income, or to handle sudden influxes of wealth.

If you are living beyond your means, or never saving enough, an attitude adjustment book explaining the "why" (such as "The Millionaire Next Door") might be read first, followed by this book, which shows you the "how". You might then follow these readings with others in personal finance and investing, such as John Bogle's excellent primer "Common Sense on Mutual Funds".

My only reservation about this book is that it lacks an explanation of how to implement the "funding" system proposed through Quicken or MS Money financial planning software. If the author is listening, perhaps a future edition can be planned. Until such happens, however, this 1990 book still remains the best "how to" book of "funding" and "budgeting" personal finances out there. I often recommend this book to my younger clients and thereafter see their successes in implementing the system this book teaches.

I thought I knew everything about personal finanace, because all the other books I'd read said the same things: pay off your debt, save 10% each month, and use willpower when you budget. WRONG! This is the best approach to managing money I've ever seen. It helps you to actually use your money effectively and develop plans based on what you need and WANT. This book does not recycle the same stale, predictable, unrealistic rhetoric of finances - it questions everything we've been told by "Dad and Uncle Ralph" over the years and looks instead at what makes sense right now, today, this minute. The advice in this book is practical and immediately useful. Suddenly, it all makes sense!

This books is full of inspiration, information, and hope. I am so blessed to have come across this book in the early stages of my educational leadership experience. I have been a principal for less than a year. No matter where my leadership "road" takes me, I am sure that I will always reference the reading of this book as playing a pivotal role in shaping me as a leader. In this respect, it will rank second to only one other powerful book which plays a similar, yet infinitely more powerful role: the Bible.

According to Evans, the goal of this immensely readable and practical book is to help school leaders "implement change in ways that truly 'take'." He has divided this project into three parts. In the first, he describes the nature of change; in the second, the dimensions of change; and in the third, the dynamics of leading innovation. Evans' book is perhaps different from others in that he looks at change from where most schools are, not from where he believes they should be. In so doing, he describes what it means for schools to grow and improve given the very human constraints that define an educators' world.

In describing the nature of change, Evans sees a need to move away from common organizational assumptions rooted in Taylor's scientific management practices to assumptions that are more aligned with the nature of today's organizational reality. Given that the environments in which organizations operate today are no longer stable, but turbulent, change strategists must alter the way they seek to improve their organizations. Taylor's legacy assumes efficient organizations are stable, rational, hierarchical, and product-oriented. Evans argues that this "rational-structural" paradigm is less useful than the "strategic-systemic" paradigm, which assumes that efficient organizations are fluid, adaptable, open, and process-oriented. Given that cultures (school cultures as well) are fundamentally conservative, changing schools means changing school cultures. The problem is change challenges peoples' competence, creates confusion and causes conflict. Effective change strategies must harness people's competencies, seek coherence, and work productively with conflict.

In describing the dimensions of change, Evans argues that change must be desirable and feasible. He includes a useful table of tasks of change (p. 56), which describes "unfreezing" the school's culture by increasing the fear of not trying, making change meaningful to the change agents, developing new behaviors and ways of thinking, revising existing structures and norms, and generating support for change. In one of his key chapters, Evans addresses the issue of the "reluctant faculty" and offers an analysis of the faculty member in midcareer (the average age of teachers in the US is forty-five). In part, midcareer educators are where they should be: their personal roles (partner, parent, community member) in life have become important, and the material rewards of work have become necessary expectations. Yet for many, educating young people has become less challenging and the rewards and recognition for what they do have become less frequent. These faculty are isolated and unfreezing them is a significant challenge. Schools must offer more new opportunities for leadership, appropriately recognize and reward teachers at all stages of their careers, and seek new ways for teachers to develop professionally and personally. Additionally, to undertake effective change, schools must assess their organizational capacity by examining six school specific contexts, which Evans describes in some depth: (1) Occupational framework (2) Politics (3) History (4) Stress (5) Finances, and (6) Culture (pp. 119-143).

In the last section of the book, Evans focuses on leadership as a key dimension of innovation. Given that effective reform in today's schools requires trust and consensus, authenticity is the key quality for school leaders - be they teachers, administrators, or parents. Major change, he argues, almost never arises from the bottom up, it comes from purposeful leadership. Purposeful leadership means generating consensus around a school's core purposes and demonstrating tireless commitment to them. Purposeful leadership builds followership and with followership comes change. (Evans offers an exploration of six ways to build optimal participation on pages 246-252.) Leaders should emphasize the positive, keep the path clear (when you add, take something away), and be flexible with timelines. The leader can't ask others to change unless s/he changes first. And, leaders must challenge "unprincipled resistance" from staff who violate group values. Schools, like America's top corporations, must reward people for trying innovations, and avoid punishing failure.

This book, more than most I've ever read, is true to its title. Evans is humane, intelligent, insightful, and realistic. This book continues to enrich me each time I re-read it.

A staggeringly good book.Easily the best analysis of the change process in education that I've read-and I've 'force-read' a few. Evans' adopts a holistic approach concentrating on why real innovation is so difficult to achieve successfully. However,there is much sage advice and many cogent observations that are enormously thought-provoking. Although ostensibly about change it is also a marvellous examination of leadership,how educational institutions function and how public policy should be implemented.This is an excellent book in every respect.

This book is life changing. I first met Bob through his son, my schoolmate Chris, in Malaysia, and thought he was Just another friend's dad(don't take it personally Bob, you were all like that:). After more than ten years, I arranged to visit Bob, his wife Judy, and my old school mate Chris. I was advised by Chris to read the book as a precursor to meeting Bob, so as not to "shock" me when I met him again. HOW WRONG COULD CHRIS BE!!! Bob's vitality, energy, and will to live life to it's fullest, regardless of the obstacles, should be a lesson to all so called able-bodied-people. I used to think that being put in a wheelchair would destroy my life. I now know I was wrong. Bob, you are a hero to me.

This book was impossible to put down. Mr. Horn's determination, will to live, outlook on life, and his achievements are something we all could take a lesson from. He seems so happy and vibrant you almost forget that he typed the whole book with his foot! His descriptions of his family and friends support is enough to make the happiest person in the world jealous. This book is a tribute to the human spirit and to Mr. Horn and his family

As a person with the same disease, I found myself saying "ME too!" to all of the stories and feelings. This book is uplifting and presents ALS as a condition that happens to our bodies but never to our minds and souls. Final piece of advice: Ignore the title. It's the worst part of the book.