Reading through this book over and over is like taking a roller-coaster ride through other galaxies and beyond! Finding something interesting and new every time I read it, I finally took it home with me. Zak and Tash Arranda escape the tricks and traps set up by . . . something or someone they have never encountered before! They both have to find a way to get off a cruise ship with all the exits sealed and the communications shut down. This is no easy task . . .

This book is a wonderful experience from the reader's point of view. It goes in depth about life at Parchman Penitentiary from the guards and inmates viewpoint. I highly recommend this book if you are interested in criminology, prisons, and law.

Drum Beats is a companion volume to Charley Shively's magnificent first book, Calamus Lovers: Walt Whitman's Working Class Camerados. In Drum Beats we get to know, through letters and Shively's commentary, the soldiers Whitman met as a volunteer nurse during the Civil War. It is amazing, the love that Whitman inspired in these simple, often barely literate young men.
Material on Abraham Lincoln makes a startling excursus. Lincoln's younger friend, Joshua Speed, describes how he persuaded the impoverished Lincoln to share a double bed with him, which they did for four years. From the full-page photograph of the beautiful young Speed, and from Lincoln's profound despair after Speed left him, it is plain that the most beloved American president was gay (Mary Todd notwithstanding).
Drum Beats ends with "Flutter Gayly in the Wind", another Shively selection of Whitman's poems. Two of the poems -- "Over the Carnage Rose Prophetic a Voice" and "Ashes of Soldiers" -- were astonishingly beautiful, and I had never seen them before.
Get Calamus Lovers first, and then get Drum Beats.

"The Essential Whitman" consists of the poetry of Walt Whitman as selected by Galway Kinnell, who also provides an introduction. In his intro Kinnell notes that Whitman continually revised his great poetry, but not always, in Kinnell's opinion, for the better. Kinnell further notes that the versions of the poems in this book incorporate the best aspects of Whitman's many versions. He writes, "Some of the poems in this book, therefore, are in versions that have never existed before." Notes at the end of the collection show what versions were incorporated into the poems as reconstituted by Kinnell.

I'm not enough of a Whitman scholar to thoroughly critique Kinnell's technique and choices. But I do find his approach fascinating, and I enjoyed the poetry for what it is.

The poetry in this book is an expansive, passionate testament with the flavor of prophecy--the prophecy, that is, of a playful and joyous heretic. Whitman shows a compassion for and identification with all human beings, regardless of race, gender, or religion. He is a great forerunner of 20th and 21st century multiculturalism, and shows a sympathy with the suffering and the oppressed.

His vision moves from the intimacy of a blade of grass to the movement of the stars; his eye takes in all of human history and prehistory. His writing is marked by delicious irony and paradox; he is bold enough to say "let one line of my poems contradict another!" At times the poetry seems to reflect the experience of an altered state of consciousness. Whitman's "barbaric yawp" is one of the essential voices of American poetry, and Kinnell has put together a marvelous sampling of that voice.

This book is extremely helpful in working IN THE CLASSROOM with children who are having difficulties. The book is full of practical strategies both for working with children and managing the classroom while you do it. It's humane perspective and grounding in research and sound theory make it a must for all of us! Excellent!

It is wonderful that Sara gathers the ingredients for her seaweed soup and makes it all by herself. Her independent spirit makes her a valuable character for children to read about and to know in Famous Seaweed Soup. For parents and children looking for characters who find they can make such joy for themselves Malinda Martha and her Skipping Stones(also available on amazon.com) is a worthy addition. In learning to skip a pocketful of stones, Malinda Martha discovers the joy inside that she can make for herself. I want Sara and Malinda Martha both in my children's library.

Frontiers Of Justice: The Death Penalty is an impressive anthology on the subject of capital punishment. The contributors represent men and women of conscience, including those incarcerated (as well as their families) and those free (including the families of crime victims). They are united to decry the use of the death penalty to resolve criminal justice problems in the American judicial system. Some of the contributors are drawn from the criminal justice system, government, religion, journalism, and humanist advocacy. Others are ordinary people whose lives have been touched by violence, including the act of murder. Frontiers Of Justice: The Death Penalty is a welcome and coherent contribution to today's on-going national debate over the use (and abuse) of the death penalty as an instrument of social justice and public safety.

PROFOUND WISDOM
The God of the 21st century speaks.

This book has been more helpful to us in many different areas. It explains everything from how and when to prune to how and when to fertilize. It shows both common name and scientific name in the table of contents to quickly find what you're looking for. If you are looking for a book that explains how to take care of everything available in the cold northeast, this is the book for you. Gardeners can't go wrong with this book.

The book is very informative, reviewing many small gems that are often overlooked because of the name brand giants. My particular favorite spot is The Rittenhouse Hotel located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania right on The Rittenhouse Square. I was amazed when I found this gem of a hotel. It is small, boutique in nature and the service is second to none. You can imagine my surprise when I found it in the guide. Certainly, Flamm knows his stuff.