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I should have read reviews of this book before buying it. I've been a member of a local, organic, community supported farm for 2 summers BEFORE I read this book. The first couple of chapters were very hard to get through, and I kept thinking, OK she's going to get into the specifics soon... But they never came. I assumed that she'd be writing to an audience that already knew of the importance of eating locally, and was going to give good advice on how to apply it practically for a whole year. WRONG. I'm a little more than halfway through and I can't wait to be done with it. There are no details about the variety in her garden, pest control, planting times for different produce. Perhaps the biggest disappointment is the fact that they didn't really only eat local food! Rice, olives, sugar, sardines! What a ripoff. The tone is preachy, she hits you over the head with themes again and again, and there are only a handful of recipes, most of which have one or more nonlocal ingredient. Just. Disappointing. And a total waste of money.

I found this story fascinating and inspiring! I originally listened to this book as a download but had to buy a hard copy to loan out because I keep recommending it. If you are interested in learning more about the local food movement, sustainable farming/gardening, seasonal eating, etc... this book is for you. I have always been a city girl but six months after I read this book I was blessed with the opportunity to move to a nearby organic family farm and I love it!
Reading this book also caused me to check out Kingsolver's novels and I have really enjoyed those as well, especially The Bean Trees.

I love the message of this book but found the stream of consciousness writing style was a bit distracting. It was hard with all the side tracks to read this for more then short sessions although I was really pulling for the turkeys at the end. Barbara was also a bit heavy handed in her promotion of her friends who so happen to be offering this book on their web sites. I would have loved to found the reference for the source of the statement that is take 1.2 acres to grow food for one person today and in the year 2050 we will only have .6. That is a startling fact that I have found nothing to back it up. Barbara is pretty good for the most part in providing back up for statements. The other major puzzle was why the heck did she not buy her husband a flour mill so they could grind their own flour. They are not that expensive and fresh ground flour is so much more nutritious. Once milled wheat starts to break down as soon as oxygen and light to the expose kernel, plus all the driving around to find flour seems to be a serous waste of time.

Barbara Kingsolver's lyric prose is so fun to read, and it's good for you too! It's heartening to see the locavore movement get such attention on a national scale. Maybe American food culture isn't doomed after all. The inserts from her family are entertaining, but sometimes awkwardly placed. I can't wait to lend this out to my friends.

I enjoyed reading this book as a story about a family and how they chose to eat for a year. It certainly inspired me to cook more often, and to head to the farmer's market up the street a little more often. The sections I didn't like were those by Kingsolver and her husband broached bigger societal issues like subsidies for big agriculture companies, problems with feed lot animals, etc. These are all very real problems, but I wish the book had given more details, some statistics, references and footnotes from where her info came from, etc. Also, as a well-informed vegetarian of 17 years, I found the section about how vegetarians are all delusional to be very demeaning and her arguments weak.

Anyhow, read it for the family and farming story. But also pick up "The Omnivore's Dilemma" by Michael Pollan for a much better explanation of the bigger issues.

Read the book and I would recommend it to anyone that likes to read autobiographical books. Yes, there are people/children that live like that either through their own choice or not.

This is a wonderfully written autobiography. You will laugh many times. You will also cheer for these children to overcome their start in life.

In the genre of Angela's Ashes or Let's not go to the Dogs Tonight; Jeannette Walls had a totally unconventional childhood and has moved on to write about it in an oddly humorous, unsentemental manner which leaves the reader not only stunned but unable to put the book down. This story is all her own and she shares it beautifully. It will make you certain that you are not the "worst mother in the world", no matter what your teens say.

I couldn't put this book down once I started it. One of the best books I have read this summer by far. It's one of those books that you keep thinking about long after you've finished it. Loved it!

"I had no idea what my life would be like then, but as I gathered up my schoolbooks and walked out the door, I swore to myself that it would never be like Mom's, that I would not be crying my eyes out in an unheated shack in some godforsaken holler." - Jeannette Walls

"I was sitting in a taxi, wondering if I had overdressed for the evening (party), when I looked out the window and saw Mom rooting through a Dumpster ... She had tied rags around her shoulders to keep out the spring chill ... To the people walking by, she probably looked like any of the thousands of homeless people in New York City ... I was embarrassed by them, too, and ashamed of myself for wearing pearls and living on Park Avenue while my parents were busy keeping warm and finding something to eat." - Jeannette Walls

THE GLASS CASTLE by Jeannette Walls is the second-best book I've read this year to date, the best being Still Alice by Lisa Genova.

Rose Mary and Rex Walls were married in 1956. Over the next several years, they had four children - daughters Lori, Jeannette and Maureen and son Brian. Anti-establishment and anti-authoritarian individualists frequently on the run from something, the couple refused to enter the societal mainstream even to the extent of supplying their children with the conventionally acceptable American upbringing that stipulates freedom from hunger and the provision of adequate shelter and clothing. THE GLASS CASTLE is Jeanette's poignant and powerful memoir of growing up emotionally loved but materially deprived.

From Jeannette's narrative, it's soon apparent that her parents are gifted and intelligent human beings. Indeed, Rex, who's self-taught and knowledgeable about subjects that would challenge many university graduates, reads "Los Alamos Science" and "The Journal of Statistical Physics" and becomes interested in the Chaos Theory. Rex's mind is constantly ablaze with technically sophisticated plans and enrichment schemes, the former including designing The Glass Castle, an energy self-sufficient family home to be built of glass. However, Rex's rebellious streak against society, complicated by alcoholism, dooms him to a succession of failed blue-collar jobs and petty confrontations with the law that keep the Walls constantly on the move from California to Nevada to Arizona to West Virginia to New York City. In the Southwest, the family lives in a succession of dilapidated buildings in isolated, desert mining towns until Rose Mary inherits a home from her mother located in Phoenix, where life for Jeannette and her siblings is relatively good. Then Rex again becomes unemployed and the Walls move to the decaying coal mining town of Welch, WV, where Rex grew up. In Welch, the family's living conditions bottom out when they take up residence in a wretched, unheated, leaky, unplumbed shanty on stilts built on the side of a mountain. Here, the children don't even have enough to eat. Jeannette describes the experience of scavenging food at school:

"When other girls came in (the girls' restroom) and threw away their lunch bags in the garbage pails, I'd go retrieve them. I couldn't get over the way kids tossed out all this perfectly good food: apples, hard-boiled eggs, packages of peanut-butter crackers, sliced pickles, half-pint cartons of milk, cheese sandwiches with just one bite taken out because the kid didn't like the pimentos in the cheese. I'd return to the (toilet) stall and polish off my tasty finds."

I've had occasion to read memoirs by authors recalling happier upbringings: Knots in My Yo-Yo String by Jerry Spinelli, Blooming: A Small-Town Girlhood by Susan Allen Toth, Wait Till Next Year: A Memoir by Doris Kearns Goodwin, The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid: A Memoir by Bill Bryson, Sleeping Arrangements by Laura Shaine Cunningham. In the early pages of THE GLASS CASTLE, I had to ask myself, "Is this a parody?" But one couldn't make up the events that Jeannette relates.

What's remarkable about Jeannette's story is her lack of bitterness towards her parents. Only on a couple of occasions does she even hint at laying blame on them for irresponsibility and negligence. Besides, her love for them endures. To me, and perhaps other readers with more "normal" childhoods, Rex's and Rose Mary's treatment of their offspring was neglect verging on abuse.

The fact that Jeannette and her siblings apparently grew up to be well-adjusted and, in the author's case, happily married and professionally and financially successful, is evidence for the resiliency of the human spirit. But, as you read THE GLASS CASTLE, you will perhaps weep and/or rage for the Walls children.

During their Phoenix period, Rex took Jeannette, whom he'd nicknamed "Mountain Goat", to the city zoo. There, led across a low fence by her Dad to get closer to a cage, Jeannette's palm was licked by a captive cheetah.

I recently started a book club and this was our first pick. It could not have been a better choice. Everyone had it read in plenty of time. No complaints on the choice I made either. This book tells a very emotionally charged story. Once I started reading it, I was constantly stealing time to read, until it was finished. Hope there is a part II.

I lost a bet with my wife and was forced to read this book. Let me just say, Im very glad that my pick for the final four lost when it did, because this was the best book I had read in a long time.
What struck me most about Kite Runner is how specific and detailed the setting was-Afghanistan, a world few Americans understand. The main character's memories were vivid and enlightening, and likely not one of us born stateside can really identify with pomegraneate trees, kite running, and the threat of constant rpg fire. But the themes that cut through the book, the guilt, the redemption, the family ties, the bond of blood, this is the stuff of all people, of all races.

This book is a a fantastic piece of literature, a work that is at both educating and empowering, painful to read but healing to finish. First rate.

The book was fantastic. It is sad, yet heart warming at the same time. It addresses very real issues...and the characters are wonderfully developed. The author teaches alot through these characters...about friendship...loyalty...hate...shame...acceptance...and brotherhood. Absolutely amazing.

I read the book when it was brought into my book club. I found the wording to be easy to read and the characters highly interesting, but what I really loved was the fact that it gives people a view of a different culture and helps them understand it more. I have met so many people who see people from the middle east as just terrorists, and that is simply awful. The story is moving and it touched my heart. I would recommend it to anyone.

I bought this book because my book club chose to read and discuss it. I did not think it was the type of book I would enjoy, but I absolutely did. I will soon be reading another book by the same author and can't wait!

I have yet to receive the book. Please help me get this book in my hands since I've already paid for it.

Our accountant recommended this book, and I am sure glad he did. I read it in just a few days because it was so interesting. This isn't a typical "get rich" book since I found that the author was definitely trying to teach the reader how to rethink the way he or she views money. Some people might think that he is holding back by not going more into detail about how he made his millions, but trust me, if you read between the lines and really pay attention, he does give you some hints on how he got started. He does reinforce a lot of his information, but he is a teacher, and teachers I find are usually repetitive to make sure that they get their points across. This is a great starter book for anyone looking to make their money work for them. And for those of you with children, this book (or Rich Dad for Teens) will help get them on the right track.

I started really late in the game. Employed in dead-end jobs for the most part, it was only in my mid-thirties that I really began to get serious about money. If you're like me and don't know anyone to talk to about the matter, Kiyosaki's book is an adequate start, if only to help you rewire your brain into that zone of financial consciousness.

While Rich Dad, Poor Dad doesn't have all the answers and, as other reviewers have cited, may arguably contain disputable advice, the book has successfully encouraged me to learn more about financial education. And for that, four stars.

Ok, let's skip the fact that by Kiyosaki's own admission, both dads were to a great extent fabricated.

Let's skip the fact that many of the experiences in this book were either embellished or outright fabricated.

Let's skip the fact that much of what he speaks of is in generalities without specific details.

What remains are pleasant-sounding platitudes, lacking in the real-life specifics that most people need. To say that "The poor work for their money, while the rich have their moeny work for them" sounds nice, but is of very little help to someone lacking a compass.

About the only thing that I agree with Kiyosaki on is the fact that our schools (at all levels) lack any kind of personal finance educational curriculum. This is an absolute travesty, but understandable when you consider that our nation is running record budget deficits. When debt is a way of life, people tend to accept it as a given in their own situation.

I've known several people who are devotees of this book series. None (as in zero) have made a discernable difference in their lives. Most are also devotees of MLMs such as Amway, Quixtar and MonaVie...the common thread here being the desire to suceed (which is admirable), but the unwillingness to get the degree, the job and put in the time. Another Kiyosaki theme of "Become a real estate investor!" sounds great on paper, but without the education and training can potentially be a disaster. No one book (or series like this) can prepare someone for an entire career.

If you want to learn how to handle money, try Suze Orman, Dave Ramsey or Lou Rukeyser. The fact that this series is a bestseller, does NOT necessarily mean the series has merit. It simply means that there is a market for baseless hope and optimism. I am sure Kiyosaki is laughing all the way to the bank.

This book was a real eye opener. I knew allot of the advice but hadn't thought of it in the way the author told us. Great helpful book.

I think the subject of the book is good, however a big part of dicovering your strengths is taking the on line strength finder quiz. Unfortunatley for me the code provided on the inside of the jacket is either invalid or has been used by someone already.
So as I read this book I will be left to wonder "what are my strengths..."

[As a corporate human resources director, I often work on developing the latent talents and skills of various managers. Years ago, I taught a class where I had each participant to look into a hand-held mirror and ask the question, "Would you want to work for this person?"

This book takes this exercise to a completely different level. To discover your own inner strengths (and weakness) ensures that you will become the very best manager possible. As a fan of First, Break All the Rules, I was very satisfied that this follow-up was as timely and useful as the first book. I highly recommend you purchase a copy of this book for yourself and for all of your managers. Michael L. Gooch, SPHR Author of
[ASIN:1897326882 Wingtips with Spurs]]

Nice concept that could have been handled with a 10 page paper. Clearly authors had to have some volume to prove value so they drone on and on and on. Very tedious reading. Then at every turn they continue to try to sell other products or services. The major killer is having an online exam to evalute your strengths; however, the code is only good once - so DON'T buy a used book as your code will be invalid. If the exam is a work related exercise, you'll be forced to buy a new book just for the code. Also, DON'T let your spouse read the book. If you do, they'll want to take the exam and suprise suprise, you would need another new book just to take the test.

The book is very interesting and very effective. The internet test is very accurate. Nevertheless each strength profile should be discussed more in depth. Let's say you get an idea of who you are but you would like to get more of it. Anyway, the price is worth the stuff you find in the book!

I wish my husband could have read it and used the code. I had gone on a job interview before reading this book and one of the questions they asked me, was what strategies would I use in a certain situation. And all I thought was that is THE dumbest question ever, how am I going to answer that, it all depends, I hate that word strategy.... you get the idea. Then as I was reading through the strengths book, I thought that would be so be ironic if one of my strengths was strategic. Well, sure enough that was the number one answer on my quiz results. So I am still laughing about that. So my strategy is to read through my strengths and understand them well enough and look at where I use those strengths and then try to improve on them. I would have given this 5 stars but since my hubby has to buy his own book, I only gave it 4.

How to Win Friends and Influence PeopleA book of proven advice that has stood the test of time.

I haven't finished the book yet but it definately motivates you to better yourself and be a more positive person. I recommend this book to anyone.

i havent finished the book but it has influenced me already. nice book well written with many examples

This is the roadmap and field book for developing and maintaining healthy and unselfish interactions with others. What does another person need to hear in the first 30-seconds to get their attention? Why should you see a situation from the other person's point of view and what will happen if you don't? This book is filled with real life vignettes that illustrate the power of having a winning attitude. A must for anyone, and those in sales will love it! You will find yourself reading it again and again and using it as a reference tool.

The author used great examples to help illustrate lessons. Strongly recommend this to everyone who works in an office or with people in general.

I have used this text when tutoring individual students at the undergraduate and graduate level. I have also used it extensively in my management development classses featuring writing. It is superb,clearly written with almost brazen simplicity. It is the special gift that I give to students and trainees to keep for a lifetime.


Dr. Word Merchant, Ph.D.

Just what I ordered, speedy delivery. When I found I'd mis-ordered, the credit for my return was handled without demur. Excellent merchant.

This is a great handbook to have anywhere you need to write. For the price everyone should have one.

The Elements of Style is a short, timeless and foundational book on writing style and grammar. It is exceptionally well written and an essential writers desk reference. The authors stripped away all the fluff and kept the best of the best to help anyone write more clearly and concisely.

The Re-Discovery of Common Sense: A Guide to: The Lost Art of Critical Thinking

We traditionally give this as part of a high school graduation present and have received many notes of thanks over the years.

The second disc was the same as the first so do not know if I heard the whole book or not otherwise was OK.

I've stuck with Stephanie Plum through think and thin, but this is the end. I'm just glad I took it out of the library rather than paying $28. Other reviewers have said it all, the verve's not there, so I'll stick to the low points: formulaic pablum and at least one misleading bit.

"...and we all piled into Lula's Firebird. Lula drove north on 206, past Rider College, to a neighborhood of modest homes." Well Rider College, actually University since 1994, is in Lawrenceville, NJ, a goodly piece from the Burg, and there are no such neighborhoods. Immediately north of Lawrenceville is Princeton. Apparently J.E.'s forgetting her NJ geography up there in New Hampshire. Shame on St. Martin's press, too, for letting that slip through.

So, J.E's jumped the shark, and Terry Pratchett has been diagnosed with early stage Alzheimers (this is a MUCH bigger tragedy in every way). The future looks grim for laugh-out-loud funny reading.

While #14 isn't the best in the series and was perhaps not as deftly crafted, it's got some good laughs and has a good story. Though Evanovich consistently delights, it's unrealistic to expect every work to be a masterpiece. While I wait patiently for the next installment, I'll re-read my personal favorites and hope that the Joe-Steph-Ranger triangle heats up again in #15.

As I was reading this one I noticed myself giggling. Not because of the content of the story but because I began to realize this novel sounded like a Dick and Jane book. See Stephanie run. See Ranger run. See Stehpanie and Ranger run. I've never noticed before in any of the other novels how simplistic the writing style was. I'm a fifth grade reading teacher and I felt this book would have been to much of an easy read for my fifth graders.

Then I noticed that the story line was NOT memorable. I can remember previous novels with such ease (Stephanie wrestling the naked midget, Grandma opening the closed casket, or even the exploding cars). This novel had nothing "special" about it. There was nothing new or exciting. The characters sounded flat and boring. I felt like I was watching a soap opera with bad actors compared to a movie with Oscar winnning actors. I use to enjoy Stephanie having to fight over who she wanted more between her two men, but now I feel there isn't even a choice. Morielie is obviously the choice and everytime she lets Ranger kiss her brings down my repect for Evanovich for letting her character loose "character." At this point, I'm not sure if I want to read any more Plum novels.

Stephanie and her friends keep me laughing. I stayed up all night laughing at the book. My husband even started the series!

This is an invaluable book for new business owners - I'm reading it cover to cover and then reading it again.

Every entrepreneur should know and implement strategies and concepts found in this book. Coupled with my own book, "The Expert's Edge," readers of both would not be able to beat their many new customers (and profits) away!

I just cannot believe how amazing this book is!! I have never had this experience of feeling the book is talking about me and my business on every page! Gerber's tips, knowledge and methods will surely lead Entrepreneurs into a better understanding of how business works, what is needed to be done and how to do it.

Since I started reading the book I started using a highlighter to mark what I considered was interesting and finally noticed I would have had to highlight it at all since all the pages have 100% valuable information for all of us trying to make our business successful.

If you are creating your own business or trying to make it better, that's the first book I would recommend!

No doubt one of the most important books any entrepreneur or business owner should read. I thought it was so good, that in addition to this book, I ended up reading one of his other books (Emyth Mastery) as well as buying his tape programs from Nightingale Conant.

The basic premise is that most entrepreneurs work in their businesses rather than on their businesses. That is developing the systems, processes and strategies that allow other people to do the work. He then goes on to explain what entrepreneurs should be working on (the business development process.)

Whilst probably not a unique insight (successful business owners have always done this,) he does bring it into focus and provides a program to follow and a mindset to adopt. [...]

When this book was recommended to me by two people over the course of two days, I knew I had to read it. If you have started or are contemplating starting a business, it is a must-read. I saw myself throughout the pages of this book .... knowing I was frustrated in trying to run my business and not really understanding why. This book spells it out. It's real. It's applicable. I've recommended it to every friend I have who runs their own business. You HAVE to buy this book TODAY!

Debi Brim / Indpls IN / www.cateritsimple.com

This story is set in the 1950's in a small rural town in Iowa (Gilead). Robert Boughton, a retired and aging minister, is in poor health. Glory Boughton, 38, his youngest daughter, has returned to Gilead to care for her dying father and to regroup after the failure of a longstanding relationship and the evaporation of her dreams of home, marriage and children.

"I am 38 years old, she would say to herself as she tidied up after supper. I have a master's degree. I taught high school English for 13 years. I was a good teacher. What have I done with my life? What has become of it? It is as if I had a dream of adult life and woke up from it, still here in my parents' house."

Jack Broughton, his father's most beloved son, also returns home after a twenty-year disappearance - looking for peace, forgiveness, a refuge and reconciliation - with his Father, his family and a community which he ran from after earning a reputation as a thief and a scoundrel.

"Jack was exceptional in every way he could be, including of course, truancy and misfeasance."

Glory and Jack unravel their personal histories slowly - one slight pull at a time on a large ball of string. The simplicity of the story is tied with tension, heartwarming and difficult memories, conflicted emotions and most of all - with love - among family members and Father to son. Glory and Jack slowly build a relationship while caring for their Father.

The story is anchored around Jack and his relationship with his Father - a kind, graceful, forgiving man - who is elated to have his son home to settle his longstanding worries and concerns - yet other concerns have now surfaced - including how to deal with Jack's restlessness, his troubling "behaviors" - and finally his concern over Jack leaving again and being out of reach of help.

"I thanked God for him every day of his life, no matter how much grief, how much sorrow - and at the end of it all there is only more grief, more sorrow, and his life will go on that way, no help for it now. You see something beautiful in a child, and you almost live for it, you feel as though you would die for it, but it isn't yours to keep or protect. And if the child becomes a man who has no respect for himself, it's just destroyed till you can hardly remember what it was - it's like watching a child die in your arms. (He looked at Jack.) Which I have done."

My assessment:

1) One of the best books I have read. A sad but hauntingly beautiful book (or perhaps better described as a work of art) by a writer who is in a professional class of her own. I couldn't put it down.

2) Beautiful, crystal clear images and plain spoken prose.

"And there was an oak tree in front of the house, much older than the neighborhood or the town, which made rubble of the pavement at its foot and flung its imponderable branches out over the road and across the yard, branches whose girth were greater than the trunk of any ordinary tree. There was a torsion in its body that made it look like a giant dervish to them. Their father said if they could see as God can, in geological time, they would see it leap out of the ground and turn in the sun and spread its arms and bask in the joys of being an oak tree in Iowa."

3) Not for everyone. Slow Pace. Thin Plot. Deep Character insights.

If you are looking for in-your-face suspense thriller, murder mysteries, car crashes, this book won't be for you. This is quiet, gentle, artful prose that carries your interest like a gentle breeze on a warm summer day. You can feel your heart beat slow as you turn the pages - yet she pulls you along a slow moving river, wanting to see what's around the next bend - and often times it is a peek into what the characters think and feel.

4) Feels like the application of a soothing balm over a sore that won't heal.

Novel highlights the imperfections of man. The beauty, strength and pain of unconditional love. The binds of family and friends. How belief and doubt affect our daily lives. How leading the simplest life can be touched by grace, wonder and heart ache.

This is a genius work by a master craftsperson. I was sorry for the story to come to an end.

You will adore HOME. Fans of Robinson's Pulitzer Prize winning novel GILEAD fell in love with her gentle minister, the Rev. John Ames, and the story he was creating for his son. Set in the 1950's, GILEAD is a love letter from the 77 year old Ames to his 7 year-old son. This luminous, tender book was completely outside the realm of what some might expect from a modern best-selling novel. Robinson shattered the mold with GILEAD.

In HOME, Robinson takes readers back once again to this quite Iowa town. It is still the 1950's. John Ames still has a bad heart. But he's alive and enjoying life with his young wife and child. HOME is not a sequel. It's more of a companion volume to GILEAD and while reading the first book first would certainly enhance the reader's appreciation for HOME, doing so is not essential.

HOME is a story about the best friend of John Ames, the Rev. Robert Boughton, and his family. John Ames is definitely part of the story but in a more peripheral sense. These two elderly ministers grew up together. They have argued scriptural fine points for the better part of a century. Rev. Boughton's health is failing now too, much faster that his friend's is declining.

Rev. Boughton's 38 year-old daughter Glory has come home to care for her father. Boughton has been a widower for 10 years. The Boughtons had seven children. Rev. Boughton's favorite child, Jack, is the black sheep of the family. He hasn't been home in 20 years. As the story opens they have just heard that Jack is coming home for a visit with his ailing father.

The prodigal son finally turns up. Jack is a man with a mysterious past. He is also one of the most compelling fictional characters this reviewer has encountered in years.

Robinson spins her magic as father, brother, and sister play out the drama of this homecoming. HOME is pure gold. Robinson writes with a warmth and assurance that will bring tears to your eyes. Will this one win another Pulitzer? It's good enough. Time will tell. HOME will resonate with readers who understand the joys and sorrows of being part of a family.