I could only image what my two month old daughter thinks as she smiles at me,"I know this man; he is my father, who loves me and cherishes me, and he will protect me. I know his voice because before I was even born, he spoke to me and comforted me. I know that I already love him, even though I can only let him know this with my little smile." Phoebe is at peace with her mother and me because we used the Sleep Talk scripts. And, we are convinced that Phoebe sleeps all night because we continue to use Sleep Talk today.

What this book does is provide words (scripts) of encouragement to read to your child while they sleep to help with problems they might be experiencing. For example, my son wouldn't go to sleep easy AND would wake up more that once during the night. Getting him back to sleep took some time. This went on for two years. We tried everything including the Ferber method. Within three days of using one of the scripts in the book it was easy to get him to sleep. If he did wake during the night he would go back to sleep on his own or be easy to sooth and fall asleep. This was using a script right from the book. Even more amazing was when we would fight with him to give nebulizer treatments. As I fought with him through a treatment I made sure he knew what the nebulizer was and it was good medicine. That night I read a script I wrote using the same words I used during his treatment. The next day he was calm and took the "good medicine." This book provides scripts for many situations and gives you the tools to write your own scripts. It is easy to understand and you can be using the method in short time.

How I wish I'd had this book when raising my children! It's now at the top of my list for new parents. Not only does the author give specific scripts to use with children as they sleep (with impressive results from clients), she offers wonderful little tidbits on dealing with issues that arise in all families. All of this is presented in a loving, thoughtful, intelligent and logical manner. One of my favorites is the "one-finger" technique. Instead of saying, "No, don't touch that!", she suggests, "You may touch that with one finger." When I'm fortunate enough to have grandchildren, much of what is presented in this gem of a book will be put to good use.

I got a hold of this book when I was still wet behind the ears as far as bass fishing goes. I'm not a huge reader, but I couldn't put this book down. Roland talks about how to be observant and pick a pattern apart, including everything from lure color to presentation speeds. He really reveals it all when he's talking about these patterns. He gives the time of year, water temp, clarity, etc.

I gained a tremendous amount of confidence from reading this, as these are some of the patterns that earned him 9 B.A.S.S. Angler of the Year titles.

I've only been seriously fishing for about a year and there's no telling how many of these patterns I've used. I did skip over the parts on trolling and live bait, as they are not allowed in tournaments.

But an excellent book, as I refer to it over and over.

Roland Martin has always been my favorite bass pro. He exudes a love of the sport and has an unquenchable thirst for fishing knowledge. And he shares it all in this book.

It is packed with the bass patterns that Roland has learned throughout his career. He explains which lure works best under a given situation and why. He covers shallow, heavy cover situations to deep structure, live bait to lures to fly fishing. If you love fishing for bass, buy this book!

Roland Martin's book is the best I've ever read, and is still timely today. It's like the Bible of Bassfishing to me. The thumbworn pages of my copy have guided me to fishing success time and again. WARNING: Do not loan this book to a friend. It will disappear.

AN EXCERPT FROM THE SCOTSMAN: Thursday, 30 November 2000:

"Shelby Tucker's Among Insurgents: Walking Through Burma is the account of an American adventurer who entered Burma illegally from China, was captured by Communist guerrillas, passed on to Kachin freedom-fighters and was eventually arrested by the Indian Army. A hugely informative book of near-lunatic courage."

A BOOK OF THE YEAR! (The Sunday Telegraph, UK)

"For near-lunatic courage and a unique mine of information, [this book] by Shelby Tucker might belong to another century. At the age of 53, Tucker, a maverick American lawyer, decided to cross North Burma, entering illegally from China and departing illegally into India. He was captured by Burmese Communist guerrillas, passed on to Christian Kachin rebels (with whom he was soon consorting), was arrested by the Indian army, and six months later emerged to write this astonishing book: a surreal mixture of "Boy's Own" derring-do and expert knowledge of an almost unknown region."

--Colin Thubron, for The Sunday Telegraph (UK), in "Books of the Year" Column

"I read the book over the weekend and laughed my head off. What an addle-pated odyssey it is. The nonchalance with which he does things that could get him locked up in some bamboo cage for thirty or forty years takes my breath away. I've seldom been more aware of the thinness of the line between courage and lunacy. Luckily for his narrative, he is aware of it too, and has great fun jumping back and forth over it. I take my hat off to him, both for actually doing what he did and for writing so well about it." --Tobias Wolff

"I cannot recommend Among Insurgents highly enough. Shelby Tucker describes a quite extraordinary trek across the genuinely remote and dangerous mountainous north of Burma. His account gets to grips with an immensely complicated political scenario and is written in the classic manner. I was reminded quite often of Fitzroy MacLean and Peter Fleming." --Justin Wintle "To one familiar with the dangers inherent in such an enterprise, the story almost defies belief. A 53-year-old American teams up with a 22-year-old Swede, whom he has met on a train and known for less than an hour, with the aim of trekking across one of the most inaccessible and least explored areas on earth, in a country which, everyone recognizes, is ruled by a military autocracy and which has been engaged in a vicious civil war for nearly half a century." --Stephen Morse

"I read it in growing amazement. What a journey and what a lot of research since! Very impressive." --Robin Hanbury-Tenison

"I think [Shelby Tucker] may have written a classic of modern travel writing." --John McEnery

"Among Insurgents is a vastly impressive piece of work and life. Shelby Tucker may be a mad man, but he certainly writes wonderfully." --Peter Wolf

"I read it at one sitting, with my wife providing earthly sustenance at intervals, and thoroughly enjoyed the adventure. The vitality and freshness of the enterprise shone throughout." --Robert Pelletreau

"Those of us who would never go on such an adventure (and that's most of us!) can have something stirred within us, feel a little freer, more willing to take risks, after reading this book." --Fred Fenton

There currently is no better comprehensive guide to world wide marine shells than this new edition of the 'Compendium'. If you were a budding shell collector starting a library on this subject, this would be the most important book to get. The 'Compendium' is the first book to provide a comprehensive overview of the world's amazing variety of marine shells, displaying images of over 4200 species with their common AND scientific names. This feature alone enables any collector to access the rapidly increasing information available on the subject of worldwide molluscs - for instance on the internet - by targeting a particular species directly by its scientific name. This book is not only beautiful to look at but is also a great resource of general information on the subject, providing the most useful reference to date for all advanced seashell connoisseurs and collectors worldwide.

We have used the Compendium since it was first published as our primary identification reference. It is well organized, the pictures clear and colorful. It is a valued reference used by many in our museum library.

Since childhood, I've loved the beach and seashells. In our library are a dozen or so books on shells, but this is undoubtedly the best I've ever read. Small, unimportant shells that abound on the Gulf Coast are difficult to find in ordinary books, resulting in the fact that I'd picked them up since childhood, but didn't know what they were. I know now, thanks to the "Compendium of Seashells." If a person could have only one book on seashells, this is the one to buy.

This book is a MUST for anyone who seeks a well-rounded understanding of Marx. It is ordered in an ascending fashion, starting from his initial ideas about his absolutist materialist ideologie in his early academic years, down to the culminating work of the Communist Manifesto as an outcast revoutionary. It is structured in such an intelligent and convenient way that the reader can feel like he is holding hands with Marx and his intellectual development.

What I find most fascinating about Marx's style of writing is that while it is subtle, sophisticated, and academic his audience was geared for the masses. In other words, the writing has a strong activist tone to it. And he gets away with much of his merciless attacks and accusations against capitalism and the bourgeois since he wrote outside of the insitutional setting.

It has been a refreshing experience to read a scholar who is so daring and bold. Marx, in my eyes, completely represents intellectual freedom bounded by the human spirit alone, and not by insitutional, political, or economic structures and agendas. Marx-Engels reader provides intellectual and spiritual refreshment in every sense of the word.

"The Marx-Engels Reader" is the best single collection of Marx's thought. What makes it doubly important, is that it is one of the few texts which contain an index. This sounds unremarkable, but believe me, it makes the text extremely more useful. This book transcends the state of being a mere anthology, and is an indespensible reference work.

Make sure you get the second edition.

Marx and Engels wrote an absolutely tremendous amount of the most diverse topics of society possible. This reader does a good job of putting together some representative readings, starting from their most famous "The Communist Manifesto", going into his analysis of revolutions and conditions in many different countries, including France, India, Russia, etc., finally reaching into topics such as family and morality (mainly addressed by Engels).

Though not a Marxist myself, I found this compilation a very comprehensive view of their thinking. It should be sufficient to anyone not seeking to write a dissertation on their thinking.

I didn't pick up The Song Reader expecting a deep novel. The cover seemed "hip girl," and the idea of song reading, interesting enough, but deep? Yes. Deep is the word, along with other words like original and even profound. The relationships between the people in The Song Reader are developed with a sensitivity and nuance and wisdom that is unusual in any novel, and astonishing in a first work.

Each character is utterly unique and yet as familiar as some part of ourselves. Leeann is the wise eye of the book, watching over her family, wishing she could protect them, and understanding them in ways they can't understand her. Henry, the father, is as odd as any fictional character I've encountered, and yet Tucker makes him make sense, quite an achievement. Mary Beth, the song reader and ostensible star of the book, a hero because of her ability to help others, is both larger than life and completely vulnerable. This is what makes the story so fascinating, watching what happens when a gifted woman like Mary Beth, a woman with a big heart and a big soul, collapses under the weight of her own charity--and knowing, tragically, that her greatness and her grief are so entwined that to starve one would be to starve them both.

This is a great first novel.

This book is fantastic! It's a page-turner and an incredible character study of two sisters and their troubled family. It's a love story, too, and Leeann & Mike are one of the most touching teenage couples I've ever read about. Add in Mary Beth & Ben to the mix, another love story. Juanita & Henry, broken people, finding each other. This is one of the many truths in The Song Reader: that no matter how damaged we are, we can still open up our hearts and find people who will understand what we've been through.

What a beautiful book. I picked it up on a whim, because I like music, but I wasn't prepared for how deeply it would move me. Like a haunting melody, The Song Reader will stay with you forever.

This is a touching, honest tale, simply written and starkly lyrical. Lisa Tucker is a born story teller. Once I picked up The Song Reader I couldn't put it down because I was mesmerized by the narrator's young voice. When the novel ended I wanted to keep following Leeann into her future.
The best part of the book is the essential generosity of spirit. Toward the end Leann thinks "I want to be a kid who didn't know that damn near everybody's secret was the same: that their life had been full of heartbreak." This quote is actually a signal of the hopefulness at the heart of this story. Yes, terrible things happen. Yes, people sometimes hurt those they love, but we go on. Everyone I've recommended The Song Reader to has thanked me.

...Grandpa Tucker's Rhymes and Tales is a "lucky," or well worth expense. This book is chockfull of fun story-poems, and just simply poems, that offer the reader and listener an alternative to the bedtime story, or anytime story for reading to our children. That's what I did with this book. I read the rhyming tales out-loud to my 10-year-old daughter, as I believe the contents of "Grandpa's" book are best enjoyed out loud. The stories are amusing, the rhyming clever, and often the underlying messages offer lessons of good behavior without being preachy.

"Grandpa" is "hip" too. While many of the poems deal with personified animals, Tucker's most frequently used character is a snake that goes by the name of Sammy, a cool dude with a mischievous personality. Many holiday poems include Sammy getting in and out of trouble, or becoming hero for the day. Take for instance "Sammy, the Snickers Snake." Sammy dresses as a barber's pole on Halloween and saves his town from a vampire by holding his snake friends, Hiss and Hoss "dressed together like a cross," scaring the vampire away. And then the friends rejoice by giving themselves a "high one." Sammy is justly rewarded with a five-pound Snickers bar.

I have only one complaint about this book: it would be better served with full page, color illustrations. All of the children's poems here lend themselves to pictures. The black and white sketches are well done, but I would like more drawings and in color to make the book more inviting for very young children.

Grandpa Tucker's Rhymes & Tales is an absolute delight. I especially love the Sammy Snake poems. Sammy is charming and mischievous. He may get himself into trouble, but he gets himself back out again. Sometimes I laughed out loud as I read about his adventures. I love the humor, but I also appreciate the gentle lessons on life Mr. Tucker slips in. He never preaches, but he does encourage children and adults alike to love one another and take responsibility for their actions. This is a book you will read over and over again.

"Grandpa Tucker's Rhymes and Tales" is a treasure, packed with delightful humor and brilliant in the use of captivating rhymes. My students and I became acquainted with Grandpa Tucker via his enjoyable website where fun rules and where the love of language is passed to each visitor. Middle school students are drawn to the unique story poems and appreciate the natural rhythm and flow of the verses. Special favorites to all readers are the adventures of Sammy Snake, the lovable and sometimes incorrigible character who always leaves everyone smiling. There are 18 of the Sammy Snake stories in this volume. Parents and teachers appreciate poems that motivate students to read and to think about themes relevant to today's youth. The students always beg for more when we read Grandpa Tucker's rhymes, so we are thrilled to learn there is a collection of joyful poetry in this volume that can be shared anytime, anywhere!

Grandpa Tucker surely understands that the love of language shall, hopefully, ever remain the most endearing and enduring gift to be passed from parents and teachers to children. This book offers the most effective and charming way I have found to pass that gift along.

This fascinating book is the story of smallpox. Starting with the distant past, the author traces the history of smallpox's relationship with mankind. Then, the book goes into luxurious detail on the World Health Organization's campaign to stamp smallpox out. But, just when it seems that the story should be over, it takes an ominous turn when the author begins chronicling the Soviet Union's nightmarish program of breeding smallpox as a weapon. This horrendous project is traced from its genesis after World War 2, through the use of modern genetic splicing to enhance the disease's lethality under Mikhail Gorbachev, to its continuance even after the fall of the Soviet Union.

This is a fascinating book! Unlike some books I've read recently, this one dragged me along, keeping me up at night when I could not put it down. As I know little about the topic, I appreciated the way the author made the whole subject clear to me, educating me while keeping me entranced. Overall I would say that this is a great book, one well worth the cost. I highly recommend it!

I read this book on the flight to NYC where my husband and I viewed the remains of the World Trade Center. A memorable event. Tucker's book is a memorable reading event for anyone interested in public health, bioweapons, US and world policy, and anyone who wants to read a darn good story! The book can be divided into three parts; the history and impact of smallpox on the human race, the unprecidented efforts to successfully eradicate this disease from the earth, and its real potential for reintroduction as a potent bioweapon. Tucker is a careful researcher as well as a wonderful storyteller, an unbeatable combination considering the nature of the topic he chose to write about. You like Tom Clancy? The story told here is real. Don't let the non-fiction designation deter you from reading this page-turner.

Mr. Tucker has written a highly readable account of one of the great killers of human history. Starting with background on smallpox: the course of the disease, its effect on humnan history, its use as a biological weapon, and moving through to the early work of Jenner in the field of vaccination, and the awe-inspiring triumph of the campaign to eradicate this terrible disease, this riveting account paints a portrait of one the great public health achievements of the 20th, or any, century. From that high point, the author then goes on to describe the hideous betrayal of that achievement by the very people who had first proposed undertaking the eradication of smallpox: the former Soviet Union. He lays out the Soviet bioweapons program that secretly kept the virus alive and kicking, and the Soviets' attempts to combine the virus with other viruses to create an even more powerful bug. Given recent events, this book's timing and message could not be better. Scourge is not an alarmist book, rather, a sobering one.

I can't add much to the reviews already present on this page; clearly this is a book that has left a strong impression on its readers. Read the book yourself and it will be easy to see why. Howard's mastery of pace and plotting puts him in a league with the greatest "thriller" writers: Haggard, Buchan, or Wilkie Collins. Moreover, Howard's ability to bring the sights, smells, and sounds of his invented Hyborian world to vibrant life is nearly unparalled in Fantastic Fiction. He's in a league with Tolkien (who, perhaps surprisingly, liked the Conan books--score one for Tolkien) when it comes to creating a sense of depth, but Howard's world is far grittier and more sensuous.

However, while this is a great book, I'm going to be the only one to give it less than five stars. Not because Howard lacked the talent to write a five star book--he had talent to spare--but because he simply didn't have the time to make "Hour of the Dragon" as good as it should have been. There are passages that clearly could do with editing or rewriting; occasional infelicities of style; and minor inconsistencies in the plot. In spite of this, "Hour of the Dragon" will keep you up reading all night. If you've never read Howard before, you'll wonder why it's so difficult to find his books. So, pass up the pastiches and cinematic stereotypes. Give Bob Howard, of Peaster, TX a read and you won't be disappointed.

In addition to "The Hour of the Dragon", this edition also contains "Red Nails","Jewels of Gwahlur","Beyond the Black River","The Black Stranger","Wolves Beyond the Border(draft),"The Phoenix on the Sword",and "The Scarlet Citadel".This is the second volume of a 2 part set reprinting all of Howard's Conan stories in chronological order (volume 1 is People of the Black Circle). It's unfortunate that the publisher did not simply title them the Conan Chronicles Volume 1 and 2, instead of creating confusion by calling them People of the Black Circle and Hour of the Dragon. It's obvious that most of the people reviewing the book haven't read this edition but are just writing to say that they enjoyed reading Conan the Conqueror as a kid. Well that's fine and dandy, but you are not helping the people who already own the series published by DeCamp and Carter and want to know if it's worthwhile to buy this too. Well let me reassure everyone that indeed this is worth buying because it is THE ONLY place that collects ALL of the Howard Conan stories EXACTLY AS HE WROTE THEM,arranged in CHRONOLIGICAL ORDER of Conan's career, WITHOUT those awful pastiches by DeCamp and Carter mixed in.

Robert Howard wrote most of his stories for the pulp magazines so popular in Depression era America. As a result, most of his writings were short stories. Howard had many heroes (Bran Mak Morn, Black Vulmea, Red Sonja, Kull, Solomon Kane), but Conan was his best developed character, and the Conan stories were the best of his writings.

Howard got an opportunity to publish a novel in England, and he fell back on his old standby, Conan, to serve as the protagonist. Howard expected that his English audience would never have heard of Conan, so he borrowed a number of motifs from several of his short stories. Those who take the time to read all of Howard's Conan stories will recognize many of the elements in "Hour of the Dragon."

Alas, the book deal fell through, and Howard had to publish "Hour of the Dragon" in a pulp magazine.

Whatever Howard's difficulties in publishing the book, he had no difficulty in writing a wonderful tale of heroic fantasy. Conan is the ultimate sword-and-sorcery hero, and this is Conan's ultimate adventure.

If you really like Conan, you might want to compare "Hour of the Dragon" with "Conan the Conqueror," a paperback republication which was "edited" by L.Sprague DeCamp and Lin Carter. "Conan the Conqueror" is about 90% Howard, but DeCamp and Carter polished Howard's grammar and softened some passages they deemed politically incorrect. Howard's original version is more rough-hewn, but then Conan was a rough-hewn hero.

I am really finding myself enjoying many of the new entries into the extended Little House family, this book included. However, I did not like it quite as much as others in the series (and of course not as much as the originals, but that goes without saying!). I don't think this is the writing, but perhaps just the setting, more urban than any of the others, so not as full of descriptions of self-reliant country life. This book is well written, and I do look forward to following Charlotte's life and seeing how it fits into the big story of the Little House family! I especially enjoyed the description of school life in the early 19th century Boston area.

I really enjoyed the book, but it's the shortest "Little House" book ever written. The story ends abruptly when a family friend leaves to join the war; I would have liked to see the story continue on, like maybe what happened to the friend, whether he was killed in battle or came back to marry his sweetheart, etc. I'm assuming there just wasn't enough information available.

Like all the others of the Little House books, it was wonderful. You can't compare it to Laura's writing, but it is pretty close. Melissa writes wonderfully and puts some thoughts in your heads. I really loved the book as much as the others. Keep on reading.