J. Blaine Lewis, Jr. was fired in 1989 from his post of Connecticut state lottery chief. This is the story of his ten year legal battle against the state in which we gain an insight into the politics of lottery management, the courage and integrity of a man in a David and Goliath scenario, and the failure of the legal system to provide justice. It is also a love story of a devoted wife, who in memorium, is driven to vindicate her husband. The message conveyed deserves national attention. What a great story for TV or the large screen.

This book is an inside look at the politics of state run funtions and the effects on honest employees. A must read book!

This book is the story of a man with principles, written by the wife who loved him to the end, and loves him still. It is the factual account of a man who was ordered to lie by his bosses and refused, and was then hounded out of his job by men more concerned with kickbacks than doing what was right. The author backs every word up with transcripts and documents-not a word of it is unsubstantiated. In this little book is a magnified look at the workings of government. Read it and weep.

This book that discusses characteristics of high impact teams, and what you can do to build a high impact team. Rachael and Cynder show how you can turn a team into a high impact team with specific examples and explanations. The book is fabulous in discussing the benefits of coaching and how you yourself can help coach your team to improve themselves. The book neatly ties together many themes of teams, coaching, and leadership, and points you to many helpful tools that can help build a high impact team. This is a book that you will continually want to reread and reference.

This is much more than an academic look at team-building. The authors have created a template that managers and team leaders in any organization would find practical and useful.

This book really delivers. Many books of this type offer general guidelines without easy-to-use, practical examples and tools. This book bridges the gap between concept and practice. The examples are inspiring AND illustrative. I have been building and leading teams for over 25 years, and there resounding truths from the trenches in the pages of this book, but there is more--this book brings new applications of sound ideas, and innovative ways to see, hear, and empower any team you'd like to turn into a high-impact team. Worth every penny and every minute; I return to its very well-organized pages again and again for ideas and inspiration.

This book can really capture your heart. Sal has just come home to live with her family, after living in a special boarding school, for people with Cerebal Palsey. She gets enrolled in a public school, and makes two best friends, Libby and Elsjie. Elsjie has a brother named Piet, who is also crippled, like Sal. If you like reading Jean Little's books, I reccomend her biography, "Little by Little" This book is a must read!

This is truly the best book featuring a character with cerebral palsy. Sarah (Sally) is the central character in this story. At 9, she has attended a school for children with physical challenges for the past five years. The Canadian province she lives in has no such school, so her parents arrange to have her admitted to the school in America.

Finally, a rehab center opens in her town. Sally's parents move closer to the center so Sally can live at home. Her father flies her back and works like a soldier helping Sally to feel integrated into her rather large family.

Sally has an older, bossy sister named Mindy, a brother close in age named Kent and a sister in kindergarten named Meg. She gets to know Meg because Meg was the sibling she spent the least amount of time with due to her years in America.

Sally's father is truly a rare gem. He is clearly a very intelligent and articulate man and he provides intelligent explanations for things. For example, when Sally, understandably fearful of starting out in public school asks why she was sent out of the country in the first place, her mother flares up. That was needless. Sally needed sympathy and a good explanation, which her father provided. He told her that at Meg's age, Sally could neither speak clearly nor feed herself; she could not walk; she could not dress herself. He summed it up nicely by saying that he thought she would want to do these things for herself. He was truly a delightful character.

Once enrolled in public school, Sally makes friends with classmates Jon and Elsje Jansen and another girl who immediately takes her under her wing. Sally learns that Elsje's brother Pieter had a heart condition that precluded him from attending school for a year. Nursed at home, Pieter nurses a grudge against his illness and insists on only speaking Dutch, thus further isolating himself. It is Sally, his sister and his friends who get Pieter to leave his self-imposed shell to help them with their dog training project.

This is a wonderful book that I have loved since I was a little girl. I even have a well loved copy. It is a real treasure.

I just finished reading my childhood copy to my 6 1/2 year old daughter. We both loved it. The family portrayal was lovely as well as the inisght into Sal and her struggles with fears and cerebral palsy. I am dissapointed the book is out of print and I cannot give it to others.

For my senior seminar, I wrote a paper on desegregation/busing in the South. While I was doing research, a librarian found this book for me. I had to wait 2 weeks to get it through interlibrary loan, but it was worth it!! The essays really bring home the complexity of Southern desegregation when viewed through the lens of class issues. I can only aspire to produce such insightful scholarship!

WHAT A CHARMING PIECE ON THE ANTEBELLUM SOUTH. CRAFTED WITH PURE GENIOUS AND A PEN FOR DETAIL, "THE MODERATES' DILEMMA" BRINGS TO LIGHT THE UNDENIABLE OBSTINANCE OF THE SOUTH'S PREMIERE SCHOOL DISTRICTS.THIS WORK IS A MUST READ FOR HISTORY GRADS OF ANY BACKGROUND.

Matthew Lassiter, editor-in-chief of this seminal collection, sets forth, once again, a fresh standard of scholarly excellence and eloquence. His essay, "A 'Fighting Moderate,'" illustrates one of his innumerable intellectual virtues, the ability to electrify his arduously acquired historian's sobriety with an innate psychological acuity.

I could write a really long review with a lot of adverbs and literary terms, but hey, those get old. That's what I liked about "Officer Friendly"--nothing excessive, nothing boring. He writes high-quality short stories one can easily read within an eight hour book store shift. I also liked his use of the word "varsity." Watch out for that. Read the book.

First of all, this is clearly the work of an emerging American Master. Show me a short story published in the last five years that can hold up to Puckheads, and I'll give you a wet willy! Where in the Hayseus did this guy come from? None of these stories were ever published before this book came out? This simply astonishes me. the OilCan will go down as saying that this is the greatest book about Maine that ever was published. This includes this year's pullitzer, sorry Russo, but have you read this guy? Someone should ask Jason Fulford if he thought this Robinson would write a book twice as good as Delillo? the OilCan would rather have this hardback than HBO.

I concur wholeheartedly with the previous reviewer. Though all connected by an ever present, and never static, sense of place, each of Robinson's stories stand as individually gripping flashes of storytelling brilliance. This is my favorite kind of short story collection. You know, the kind where after each story, you feel compelled to stop and enjoy the sense of being pleasantly adrift in the momentum of the telling, released at the end to coast and glide through unnameable emotions, delicate and poignant. As much as they are tied together in Point Allison and its surrounding areas, Robinson's characters also share residency in a wonderfully infectious sense of longing and reflection and unease. This reader's current favorites are "The Edge of the Forest..." and "Cuxabexis, Cuxabexis". Ah Cuxabexis!
Robinson's gift for seemingly effortless natural puppetry with his characters (with place and location always acting as a character of the flesh) makes the collection seem at times like a wonderfully non-linear novel. I look forward to future offerings from this splendid new voice in fiction. This is only the beginning. Clearly Robinson comes from a gifted and talented family.

Great variety - especially in the art styles, tone and energy - will keep you looking forward to each story. The stories themselves are very interesting. Whether it's epic battle, insightful character work, humorous genre pieces, or even abstracted explorations, these artists did a wonderful job. I can't wait for the sequel!

A fun book. Lots of sillyness, a little romance, a little drama, all from a fan based perspective.
The high point was the film noir/50's sci-fi murder mystery, "Hazzard Von Braun, Astronaut Detective". Purposfully campy, definitely fun.
It's a thick book and a good read. Highly recommended!

I really liked this book. It was a chance for me to see more than one aspect of anime. It also gave me a taste of what each of the artists can do. I look forward to seeing more from each artist. I gave the book to friends and family to read and they too seem to have enjoyed it. Most of them didn't know what anime was, so this was a great introduction for them.

I enjoyed this book completely...it really gave me a sense of the human experience of the journey, and made me appreciate just what an incredible accomplishment it was. The illustrations really add to the enjoyment of the book, as do the excerpts from the journals of several of the men. I also liked the background information on what goals were actually behind the exploration and how they worked to meet those goals. There's only one reason that I didn't give this book 5 stars, and that's because it lacks a good map to help understand where they were during some of the events described. But that can be found in other works, and this really is a good introducion to Lewis and Clark...it's a relatively easy read but full of interesting facts and adventures.

I give high praise to this book and this reading. You will learn so much about the journey, and you'll feel the cold of the winters and the wonderment of their adventures. Taken from their actual journals, this book is even better than "Undaunted Courage". p.s. the unabridged is even better.

This audio is a great telling of this amazing journey. Any history buff should order this and play it over and over. The facts of the ride and the aftermath of the characters will leave you in awe.

A more detailed view of Lewis and Clark's relations and attitudes toward the Indians. Interesting insight into Sacagawea's true role within the Corp of Discovery. A must read for any Lewis and Clark/Western history buff.

AS an author of a Lewis and Clark book, I can appreciate the research involved in writing a good book. Dr. Ronda has written the definitive book for understanding the interactions between The Corps of Discovery and the various Indian nations they encountered. He explains the politics behind the numerous interactions, some friendly others very contentious. For a Lewis and Clark buff, this is a MUST HAVE addition to their collection.
I totally enjoyed this book!

This book is a great follow up to Stephen Ambrose's Undaunted Courage, and builds on his great synopsis of the journey. Readers will gain a greater appreciation of the rich Native American cultures that were instrumental in the success of the Lewis and Clark Expedition. After reading this book you will walk away with a renewed sense of awe regarding the journey, and a new found respect for a culture that has been all but destroyed by the "white man's progress". An excellent, gripping, insightful and exciting read. Involves some advanced terms and concepts that add flavor to a general understanding of this most fascinating period of 19th Century American Histroy.

At last, the penultimate chapter of the Lone Wolf And Cub series - I had every one of the First Comics issues (and had everyone I knew hooked on them) and when they stopped production in 1989 or so, I did my best to try and locate the original telephone book Japanese edition - just so I could KNOW what happened. After 14 years of waiting (and buying the entire series over again when Dark Horse started the reprints two years ago), I'm finally at the end of the story.

What an ending! In my heart I always figured it would turn out the way it did, but the final act actually moved me to tears. In the climactic end, the authors have not only brought their series full circle, they have made a comment on the state of bushido in history at that time. Its hard to write a review of this without giving it away - all I can say is this series must be collected and read from the very beginning to fully appreciate its scope and power. But it IS worth it.

As always, the art is staggering and the minimalist dialogue perfectly suited. There has never been anything like Lone Wolf and Cub.

After 28 HUGE volumes, Lone Wolf and Cub finally comes to an end. On the one hand, I couldn't WAIT for the series to end, so I could see what happened to Itto Ogami and his son, Daigoro. Would they have their revenge against the Yagyu clan at last...? On the other hand, I knew I'd miss the characters and the magnificent work of creators Kazuo Koike & Goseki Kojima....Well, I've finally finished the series, and I miss Daigoro already...

This final installment revolves around the showdown between Ogami & Daigoro and their nemesis, Retsudo Yagyu. Yagyu brings the final remnants of his "Grass" (Deep-cover Ninja who spend generations infiltrating villages in Japan) to the battlefield, and employs a truly insidious deception against Itto (Which I won't spoil!); I studiously avoided any situation that may have resulted in my discovering the end of the series before I got a chance to read it, and although I had a general idea of how the final battle would play out, I was still moved to tears at the final twenty pages.....

If you haven't experienced any of the Lone Wolf and Cub series, I can't recommend them highly enough. I've been reading comics since I was two years old, and I have NEVER read such a finely wrought story; It ranks among my favorite works of fiction, right alongside Lonesome Dove and The Stand, and that's pretty damned impressive.......

In this final volume of the now-legendary series, Lone Wolf and Cub face their final battle against their enemy, Lord Restudo in a showdown that is nothing less than poetic and stunning. Being a reader of the series since it started being published in the U.S. (going on two years now...), the final shocking act committed in this series definitely struck a chord with me. A long journey has ended, and with it, a truly great epic series (sure to be among the finest in comic history or popular literature) has as well. Highly Recommended.

After all that Mara has been through with the goddesses--charm allergies, amnesia, the Lord of Terror, other demons--you'd think she'd eventually give up on attacking them. Well, no one ever accused Mara of having a brain, or common sense. She's come back with a genie-like demon named Senbei, who shows up again in the "Devil In Miss Urd" arc. Needless to say, this doesn't do anything to stop the goddesses, and Mara and her accomplice are once again defeated.

Banpei enters, and causes problems for everyone in the household except for Belldandy, with whom he has fallen madly in love. This is a cute story, but it makes you feel kinda sorry for Keiichi and the oldest and youngest goddesses.

Every fan of OMG should have this book in their collection. So buy it!

This graphic novel covers the original Japanese manga Vol. 7 Ch. 45-47 & Vol. 8 Ch. 48-49. Chapter 45-46 is the Mara arc and chapters 48 & 49 are solo tales.

The first part of the Mara arc has her return to Earth where she possesses Megumi. She unleashes Senbei, who is a genie-demon of poverty and disaster, upon Keiichi and company. The second part of the Mara arc has Skuld create the anti-Mara robot Banpei which works a little too well. The third part has Urd being recalled to the heavens and Mara intends to make sure she leaves for good.

The next story has the Nekomi Tech Motor Club on a retreat to a lodge where a shinnentai (manifestation of will) lives. She seems to know Keiichi and is determined to make him fulfill a promise made in 1930! The final story has Belldandy teaching Sora on the art of making boxed lunches while Urd attempts to play matchmaker.

Bottom line: As one might expect from this series, the artwork is great. The stories are light for the most part with the latter two being more humorous. Great for a quick read before going to bed.

Another wonderful book in the Oh My Goddess series. Mara returns yet again to wreck havoc on the goddesses. This time she takes over Keiichi's little sister's body, and tries to bring misfortune to Belldandy with teh help of Senbei the demon of poverty. He is a prettyy neat guy who talks in the third person. He also lives in a bottle. Also in this book Skuld builds a robot named Banpei to protect the Morisato household from Mara. The problem is that the robot decides that Belldandy needs protection from everyone, including Keiichi and Skuld. Good stuff. Please read it!