Nonfiction Books

I've used this book when my older daughter was going through potty training. Now we are doing the same for our youngest. I loved how it emphases that it's okay to have a mishap and just to keep on trying and eventually you will say good-bye to the diaper forever.

I love the pictures in this book. They are clear and appealing to the toddler. The bad rhythm and rhyming structure, though, is jarring. In addition, the book focuses on failure a lot more than success. The baby keeps trying to go on the potty and things just don't work out for him. He finally does in the end, but I get the sense that it makes the process seem a little scary.

Let me first mention that I am a huge fan of Karen Katz's books. However, this book was a big disappointment. Instead of teaching the child how to use the potty, the story contradicts using the potty. The child in the book spends most of the time rejecting the potty. This book basically confused my child and I stop reading it. The illustrations are great, but the story indicates that this particular child is not ready to use the potty. The lack of encouragement and motivation of potty training in this story is not great at all.

We've just introduced the potty to my daughter, she's not quite ready yet but she loves this book! When she is ready I know she'll let us know and it will be a smooth transistion

My 20-month old son loves this book. He's not using the potty yet, but he loves to sit on the potty and have me read this book over and over and over... I have two other potty books for young boys and he is not interested in either (can't get past about 4 pages.) This book has just enough text and the story is very sweet. He gets a HUGE smile when we get to the end and read "I'm so proud of me!"

I received the book in just a few days and it was in great shape! I would definitely do business with this seller again!

This was a very easy and very informative read. I know there is always two sides to every story but I have been always curious about the Mormon religion. I felt this book would give more information on the controversial side of plural marriage. This book was almost like reading a long article from a newspaper. I felt that the writer used a lot of facts, tried to give as many sides to the same story and gave complete backgrounds so, the reader felt well educated on the information given. Very well done.

Any time a book is written on the subject of religion, controversy is bound to ensue. Extend the subject to religious extremism and/or fundamentalism and you can ratchet it up a notch. When the book is written by a "non-believer", you can bet that it will come under vicious attack by proponents of the religion in question. Such is the case with Under the Banner of Heaven, Jon Krakauer's expose on Mormonism and Mormon fundamentalism.

I read Krakauer's Into Thin Air and was riveted by his writing on the subject of Mt. Everest. I would not place this work in that category, but found it be a very instructive primer on the origins and background of the Mormon religion and its various fundamentalist offshoots.

The book essentially tells two stories, the threads of which alternate throughout the book. In one thread, Krakauer tells the story of Joseph Smith, the founding of the Mormon religion and its evolution to the present day. In the other thread, he explores the various fundamentalist offshoots of Mormonism through the prism of a vicious double murder committed by a pair of its proponents.

It is difficult to argue with most of the facts presented in relation to the founding and evolution of Mormonism. As Krakauer points out, it is a religion of such recent vintage that the historical record is quite clear. He does make a few assumptions and extensions which have earned him the ire of the official church. In those cases, however, he states his grounds for doing so quite well. It is doubtful that anyone except a true believer in Mormonism would ever write a history to the liking of the church.

The beliefs and practices of some of the fundamentalists profiled in the book are scary in their level of extremism, however, they take their beliefs directly from the pages of Joseph Smith, the founder of the religion. Polygamy, or plural marriage, was one of the chief tenets of his church, and one that was stubbornly clung to for many years by the leaders of the church. It can hardly be argued that many heinous instances of statutory rape and sexual child abuse have resulted and continue to occur.

While Mormonism has come under attack throughout its history, both for some of its practices and the highly dubious circumstances surrounding its founding (Joseph Smith was likely no more than a charlatan and a fraud who concocted a religion that guaranteed him access to a never ending cache of nubile virgins), very few of the world's religions have better legs to stand on. Old Testament Christianity is filled with barbarous practices and outlandish fables (Noah's Ark, parting the Red Sea, burning bushes). Islam, ditto. I'm not even going to mention Scientology.

So, before anyone tears off on a rant concerning Mormonism, just make sure your own house is in order. If you want a quick and dirty outline on Mormon beliefs and foundations, this is a good place to start. If you want a good example of the effects of extremism (not limited to Mormonism) this is also a good example.

Never before have I had to actually turn my eyes from the page because the text/truth was too horrific to read. This book takes you into the lives of the FDLS. It should scare the bejeezus out of anyone that this sort of thing is going on right here in our country. Not to mention the predicted effect the FDLS may have on the way our country is run in under a century.
I found the book to be a fasinating read and eye opening experience.

Both cowards, psychos, willing and able to kill innocent women and babies/children in the most violent way possible. Both believing that they got direct revelation from God to kill. I read the book; I agree with most of what I've read thus far; I'm not going to waste bandwidth repeating the same thing. I am po'd right now that a 24 year-old wife and mother and a 15 month old baby got their life snuffed out by cowardly weasels who were afraid of a young woman and a dear innocent baby. Death is too good for these murderers. The most heinous form of torture is too easy/good for them. Beating them to a pulp, electrocuting them - just a few degrees from death is what's appropriate here. The trouble is that they'd find reason to like it and would attribute their pain and suffering to God's revelation or something. Living in the gutter eating trash out of dumpsters would be 100% better than living with these types of psycho cowards.

After finishing this book, I wasn't quite sure how I felt about it.

It is seperated into three parts. The first are some brief snapshots of the author's life. Telling memories from his childhood, early jobs, first book publication, and even descent into addiction. The second part is strictly about writing. These are the pages that I found had trouble keeping my attention. The third section talks about his accident. He was hit by a motorist while walking on the shoulder of the road. He describes his experience in suprising detail.

When he shines a light on his own work, giving us an inside perspective on the books we've already, it is extremely interesting. When he is talking about the use of adverbs, not so much.

I understand that this is a book about writing. Myself not being a writer I wasn't fully able to enjoy it in its entirety. This book isn't off limits to you if you are, like myself, simply a constant reader. However, you should temper your expectations.

I found this book by Stephen King both interesting and useful.

It allowed me to see what style of writing he has and how he came about.
I wansn't a big Stephen King fan but decided to buy the book and I learned a lot about him and his career. I am very gald that I came accross it. The most important thing that I learned was to just write, write, write on your first draft. Then revise and edit on your 2nd draft.

An enlightening read!!

I read this book 3 0r 4 times. His fiction is a little tacky. I ignore it,mostly. This book just fills me with joy. Why? Because Steve is a man.He gives you the reader the life of a man,who also writes. His taste in fiction,is not my taste. I avoid his books and I bless him for making a lot of money.Stephen is a beautiful guy,as far as I can discern.In America,writers have no dignity anymore:Writers are either cheap whores or celebrated whores.This is just wrong.Steve is both cheap and celebrated.Hemingway wrote great stuff in cable-ese, then killed himself.Steve writes a bunch of stuff I ignore and I hope and pray he does not kill himself.In sum, I don't read American fiction anymore-not even The New York Times:America's premier fake-news publication.
This book is a little light-weight and yet I love it.Steve is a fine man who wasted his life writing schlock.I,however, have never published anything.So, maybe I am a putz.Maybe I should try publishing for a change.God Bless You,Steve King.

I found King's book on writing both helpful and highly entertaining. One of the greatest storytellers of our time allows us an insight into the do's and dont's of being a professional writer.

This book is masterfully blended with useful information, and an autobiography of King's life from childhood memories to today. His own life is as fascinating and complex as many of his novels.

I class Stephen King's book on writing a true gem, a very rare find - highly reccomended.

By Stuart McCallum (author) Beyond my ControlBeyond my Control: One Man's Struggle with Epilepsy, Seizure Surgery & Beyond

With nearly 600 reviews of this book there is very little need for any new reviews. I mainly want to record my five-star vote for the excellence of this book. I have to confess that I'm not a huge fan of Stephen King. I read very little horror fiction and as a result have only read a couple of King's books. Nonetheless, I have lately been toying with the idea of writing a fictional work of my own (all of my previous work, without exception, has been nonfiction, and within that virtually all academic). I thought this would provide a good practical guide to someone like myself. Regardless of one's opinion of King, he clearly has no trouble putting pen to paper. I have to say that as a practical aid this book far surpassed what I was hoping for.

The title is a slight misnomer. King does not discuss writing in general, but very specifically narrative fiction. He wants to help someone who wants to write a yarn. His advice is perfect for someone like me, who wants to take a first stab at creating a new story. I actually have a rough idea of what sitting down to write would be like and approximately what I need to do need. If I actually write what I hope, this small book could play an important role in that.

The book is, however, more than a writing guide. As the title makes clear it is also a memoir of King's life as a writer. It isn't a full-blown biography, but a record of what his life as a writer has been like. But because King famously suffered a near fatal traffic accident while he was writing this, he lingers a bit longer on this than other parts of his life. But, as Michael Scott might say, "It's all good." I enjoyed both the writing guide and the memoir. I highly recommend both.

Part of what led me to read this was reading King's columns in Entertainment Weekly. I've been quite surprised to discover that I share more interests in books, TV, and music than I would have expected. King is someone I think would be fun to argue with about all of these. One thing that surprises me in the book is how negative he is on TV. I've been arguing for years to anyone who will listen that one of the really big changes in popular culture over the past decade has been how very, very good television has become. I definitely prefer television to the movies. When he wrote this book King was clearly not a fan of television. He is now. I suspect that he began discovering some of the very good shows on the air. He has written with passion about such shows as BATTLESTAR GALACTICA, VERONICA MARS, and LOST. I'd like to know more specifically what caused him to see the light with regard to TV. But that would be a different book.

I recommend this book to just about anyone. It is hard to imagine that anyone wouldn't find something of interest in this. If nothing else, it will give the reader insights into the way one highly successful writer practices his craft.

I believe there are few individuals (I'm talking especially about laypeople like myself here) who won't benefit from reading Guns, Germs and Steel. While Diamond's hypothesis may not necessarily represent the *complete* picture, may be biased, and may not be indisputable, it indeed "lays a foundation for understanding human history" as Bill Gates reviewed it.

Diamond provides a convincing, well-worded argument leading the reader to believe geographical differences between continents played a major role in shaping the fates of human societies, at the very least.

Diamond initiates the book with a simple but valid and very interesting question of why the current power distribution in the world is as it is as opposed to some other way. He takes us thru from the point where everything was equal - at least it appeared to be so - to where we are now and attempts to explain the way things progressed as they did and how different parts of the world advanced as opposed to others; not only how this took place but also why it did not take place in other parts of the world too.

Going thru the arguments are really enjoyable, un-put-downable and teaching. It can be used as a great teaching material and that was the reason I have ordered a new copy for my son who is 14 for him to learn, question and understand intricacies of these social and technological developments as well as appreciate the value and capability of all societies.

Diamond concludes every chapter as well as exploring in detail in the last chapter the importance of consequential circumstances in these events. This makes us more knowledgeable in relation to where we are as societies and allows us to understand that this is not only result of the intelligence of races but also environmental consequences. This is an important message that needs to be expanded all around the world, specially in the west and lately in the far-east that we should look at our successes with more humility and stop acting as if such successes are only attributable to our own race and/or being the chosen one.

I endorse this view and therefore I recommend this book to everyone who wants a better understanding of the history of these developments in our world.

Diamond explores the link between geography, and the way that societies develop, on a grand scale over thousands of years. It's the ultimate history book, in which world events shrink to localised inevitabilities in the grand scheme of things. It's a study that relates to history in the same way that "climate" relates to "weather".
Most illuminating and thoroughly researched are the relationships between the available species of plant and animal available to early farmers, and the development of farming and with it "civilization". One uses the word with caution given the extensive discourse that Diamond has upon the subject. Of similar interest is the way that linguistics are used to underpin and cross-reference archealogical data concerning the movement and development of peoples on a global geographical scale.

The thing that really brings the book to life is the personal passion of Diamond himself. He has worked at close quarters with "primitive" peoples - a word whose use he would object to - and he is at pains to debunk the notion of one society being in some way genetically superior to another. He mixes research data with personal anecdotes and experiences in a way that illuminates and illustrates what he is saying, without losing the scientific objectivity of his principal vantage point.

The book is well-written, has a clear structure and flows well. At certain points it can be a little laboured, some commonsense points being explained over several pages, but this usually happens when he is tackling some commonly held misperception. He uses the question of a New Guinea friend, basically "why do some societies do better than others" as opening background, though as an attention-grabber it seemed a little weak and as a "red thread" came over as slightly contrived. The book really gets into its stride in about the second or third chapter. However, this is a very minor criticism of a work of masterly proportions and execution.

I would thoroughly recommend this book. If nothing else, the reader will be able to watch television documentaries about far-flung places and spot the triteness and popular inexactitude of some of the commentary. However, in terms of driving a stake into the ground, and saying "this is where we come from" and why, this is the defining work, and well deserving it is of its Pulitzer Prize status.

Great book but it easily could have been reduced to 30 % of it's size. It got so repetitive that I thought I had actually lost my page and wound up at an earlier chapter. This author completely beats his topics to death. Had I known what I was getting into, I would have bought the documentary DVD instead.

Guns, Germs and Steel is a scientific historical treatment on the rise and fall of civilizations and the reasons why the western world is considered successful. In many ways Jared Diamond has built a city with one stone. He has established the necessity for the scientific method in history, reversed the problem of a western biased orientation of the analysis and identified several challenges to a racist explanation for western success.

The book comes about as a result of a fundamental question raised by the friend of the authors from New Guinea. Yali asked in a roundabout way why whites have been more successful than blacks. Diamond felt that human genetic diversity in the form of racism did not answer this question and proceeded to produce this deep treatise which looks more at environmental factors as the causal agent of success or failure.

Chapter 1: Up to the Starting Line
This chapter does a brief synopsis of the evolution of humans and deals with the Great Leap Forward, extinctions and the Clovis culture in Americas in 11,000 BC.

Chapter 2: A Natural Experiment of History
Diamond shows that common stocks can produce very diverse cultures based on the environment. He cites the case of the Maoris victory over the Morioris on the Chatham islands in 1835. Both are Polynesian decedents.

Chapter 3: Collision at Cajamarca
Francisco Pizarro conquers the Inca emperor Atahuallpa in Cajamarca Peru in 1532. Guns, germs, steel and horses decide the victory as well as the Inca making serious mistakes many times over. It is this situation that requires an explanation as to how things got to this point and is what this book is about.

Chapter 4: Farmer Power
Food production is a huge part of this book and occurs frequently throughout. The book might well have been called 'farming' there is so much of it. This is an extensive fact based chapter that deals with food production. A lot of it is raw data and tables. Crops and animal domestication get the full treatment. There is an important link between animals and human germs brought up.

Chapter 5: History's Haves and Have-Nots
This chapter deals with carbon dating and is an extension of the last chapter verifying the types of crops and animals various civilizations had or didn't and why.

Chapter 6: To Farm or Not to Farm
Diamond explains the slow progress of farming and why hunter gatherers simply had more than early farmers but farming eventually outgrew hunter-gathering. He explains why some civilizations didn't adopt it based on lack of domesticated crops and animals and or inappropriate environments.

Chapter 7: How to Make an Almond
Because wild almonds are poisonous Diamond explains how mutations and breeding selection produces edible crops. More importantly he discusses why some crops are not edible and how this effects civilizations depending on their environment. Some civilizations had it easier than others.

Chapter 8: Apples or Indians
Here the Fertile Crescent richness is compared with places of sparse productivity. It becomes clear that a very low percentage of biological life can be domesticated for human consumption.

Chapter 9: Zebras, Unhappy Marriages, and the Anna Karenina Principle
Some animals cannot be domesticated and thus domesticated animals must be imported. This chapter is about the failure to domesticate certain animals and why. It is also about the spread of domesticated animals.

Chapter 10: Spacious Skies and Tilted Axes
Geography plays an important part in how wide a naturally occurring or bred species can spread. East to west is much easier than north to south because of climate. This explains why species spreading across Europe and Asia is easier than up and down North and South America.

Chapter 11: Lethal Gift of Livestock
Animals are responsible for a lot of human diseases and plagues. Diamond links animal husbandry and large populations with developing immunity against epidemics.

Chapter 12: Blueprints and Borrowed Letters
The evolution of writing. This chapter may be worth the book alone. Diamond covers the evolution of writing and is one of the reasons why this book (containing writing!) has a nice twist in its tale. Writing is important because it became a method of communication over long distances and record keeping for farmers and supplies.

Chapter 13: Necessity's Mother
This deals with the Cretan Minoan Phaistos disk of 1700 BC and is a continuation of the previous chapter but deals more with why technologies develop. Diamond correctly identifies that technologies don't spring out of nowhere. They evolve.

Chapter 14: From Egalitarianism to Kleptocracy
The evolution of governments. This is a heavy data and fact laden account of the evolution of governments from small bands to tribes to cities. It is all about how societies get organized.

Chapter 15: Yali's People
Here Diamond applies everything we have learned to the conquest of New Guinea by Europeans. He shows how essentially they are the victims of their own environment. The conquest of Australia is also examined in the same way.

Chapter 16: How China Became Chinese
This is about how China's many inter-civilizations interacted and the Austronesian migration of people to the Far East and Australia.

Chapter 17: Speedboat to Polynesia
Moving on from the previous chapter Diamond explores the colonization of Polynesia and the evolution of the double-canoe.

Chapter 18: Hemisphere's Colliding
Revising everything, Diamond goes back to Chapter 3: Collision at Cajamarca and attempts to explain how things led up to that point. Food production, domestication, metallurgy, weapons, cavalry, transport, writing and political organization lead the way. The environment is given a reason behind the slower development of these points by the Inca. Diamond then reveals that the Norse, not Columbus, were the first Europeans to visit the Americas through Greenland.

Chapter 19: How Africa Became Black
This examines how Africa evolved internally, the various tribes involved and their long battles that have lasted centuries as well as the slow movement of technologies and discoveries from the north to the south.

Epilogue: The Future of Human History as a Science
Diamond puts forward his case for scientific history, dispenses with the idiosyncratic Great Man theory, points out that there are social factors involved and possibly even chaotic ones before calling on the use of the scientific historical method to predict future outcomes for humanity.

There is no arguing the point that Diamond is making and he has established it very scientifically. Environmental conditions have an impact on how a civilization will appear and act. This is Darwinian in every sense. Using the examples of the same genetic stock from the same culture developing into two opposite lifestyles in short spaces of time because of island separation and geological differences is a good argument. You can't help but note the degree of luck and opportunity involved in success and as Diamond so aptly puts it, this is much more about the quality of real estate than the quality of a race. This is not to say that slight genetic variations don't make a difference, they do and Diamond doesn't challenge that as some have wrongly accused of him of saying (as a note the evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins often cites Diamond's work). What Diamond does is to challenge that genetic variations within a species are a sufficient explanation for the success of white man. He may be riding a wave of political correctness with this book but he does dispute justifications for racism scientifically. He also breaks down absolutism by showing that success is relative when it comes to doing one's best in the environment they are in. As he points out, Aborigines conquered some of the harshest lands in the world.

Diamond himself knows the problem with his oversimplification. His findings when applied to all civilizations throughout history will turn up contradictions that fly in the face of his reasoning but he has explained the big picture of social conquest and doesn't need to shuffle genes to do it.

There are a few more problems with Guns, Germs and Steel though. His overall reasoning touches on environmental determinism. Diamond does deal with this serious predicament by elaborating on the social conditions and cultural qualities at play. He believes and states often that human choices influence things. Diamond does his best to cover these in the political organisation sections and throughout but a type of environmental determinism does emerge as the overall message even if it is caricatured by his critics to mean geological determinism without human influence. Diamond is not saying that. What is really the problem here is not that Diamond says the environment plays a major role in the forces at play but that he doesn't do enough to challenge the view that environmental determinism is the sufficient explanation for the success of white man. Diamond doesn't say it is sufficient but it is his conclusion that amounts to most of what he is writing. So he leaves himself open and quite frankly gets intellectually decked quite easily because a lot of people leave this book thinking as environmental determinists. Environmental determinism is just as false as racism. We go from prejudice based on skin color to prejudice based on country. He really deals with this problem in the space of just a paragraph in the epilogue and that just doesn't cut it.

The other problems are that sometimes the picture plates are not linked to anything in the text and this book is such a torrent of facts that casual readers may find themselves skipping huge sections about which part of which country developed wheat or camels first and in which quantities just to get to his overall point. Guns, germs and steel can be taxing at the best of times because of this. There is also an expectation that maybe you would find more about evolutionary biology or important battles along with at least some case made for genes. Instead the evolution is minimal, important battles limited and no genetic defence appears. This is all about how much corn Europe can produce, how many horses Asia can tame and how much politics does the Zulu need.

There are other weaknesses here but he does have a huge task set for himself into 400 pages. It is doubtful that the truth is the complete opposite of what Diamond is suggesting but more of a deeper elaboration of what is being said while attributing more socio-economic reasons for success along with his geographical ones. You can also just play the probability card by saying 80% of humans lived in Eurasia but the improbable does happen and has happened and the geological explanation needs to be covered anyway.

Experts in world history may view this work as being too simple and even go as far as to call it wrong, but Diamond's task is to show the importance of environmental factors not just genetic ones when it comes to the progress of modern humans. Experts want to make that environment plus socio-economic but both are on the same side when it comes to criticizing those who argue solely the race card.

The main point behind reading Guns, germs and steel is that it changes how we think about ourselves and the conditions leading to how we got here. At the very least your horizons will be broadened and at the very most you will be hitting the environmental determinism socio-economic debate and both are a far cry from discrimination ideologies based on Ethnic identities.

(As an end note it is my understanding that Diamond is aware of these criticism and answered it by... writing another book that includes more of a socio-economic dynamic, called 'Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed'. So see you there for a follow up review).

Nothing much to say except that when I picked up, I could not put it down. Read it entirely in a couple of days. If you are interested in American history, this book will make a great addition to your library.

I have always been a fan of Revolutionary War history. I was born Williamsburg, it was easy as a kid to let imagination take over in a town like that. I thought 1776 was great. I thought that the book could be expanded to allow in the whole northern campaign of the war, Breeds Hill, Ticonderoga, Lexington, Concord and the events that led to these battles. However, it covered the year 1776 from Washington's perspective in a such a way that made me put the book down to just ponder the details of the story that no one, not even Washington, knew the way it would end. This book should be part of every high schools required reading list, because it can invigorate the understanding of our country's bedrock traditions. These traditions are so often unrealized, unappreciated words whose backstory is only vaguely understood by each new generation. This book will invite a love of history, and respect for history to all who read it...
Will Lutz

This book deals with the pivotal year - 1776 - in the American Revolution. While the revolution started before and American victory ended at Yorktown in 1781, this is the year in which the fate of the American Revolution hung in the balance. There was still hope in some quarters that the colonists could reconcile with Britain and King George III. But the events of this year, including disastrous losses after a surprise victory at Boston, almost doom the dreams of the colonists. An incredibly harsh winter contributed to the gloomy outlook for the Founding Fathers. The British expected a very short war but were surprised by the tenacity and zeal of the American militias. The best passages described and illuminated the character of George Washington. He publicly held aloft a torch of optimism while personal correspondence and intimate conversations conveyed his despondency and desperation. But he was the right man at the right time for this job. The most telling passage was Washington, up late at night before a battle, writing the code word for the night on slips of paper: "Victory or Death". This dedication gave us America and the world a Beacon for Freedom.

Michael Mandaville, Author - "Stealing Thunder"

It can be said of this book, as it can for most of McCullough's work, that it is a rare example of accurate history blended with well-crafted story telling that is equally appealing to both mainstream history buffs and seasoned professionals. Usually with books (music and movies too for that matter) it is the case that integrity and depth of ideas become diluted proportional to their popularity - something meant for a larger audience looses the specifics and details that are only appealing to a smaller set of people, thus reducing marketability. David McCullough, whether writing about a person, an event, or in this instance, a year's worth of events, consistently breaks this rule. 1776 is a readable book that deserves credit for its ability to enlighten the historical novice while contributing a worthwhile perspective to the first "official" year of American History.

The book itself is a simple narrative that moves proportionally and chronologically through the events of 1776. George Washington is the book's central figure. His relationship with Henry Knox stands out among numerous themes. Most of the emphasis is placed on the Siege of Boston, the Fall of New York, the New Jersey retreat, and the Battle of Trenton. While it takes place in early 1777 the Battle of Princeton is briefly detailed, largely because of its proximity in both time and importance to the Battle of Trenton. McCullough fills the spaces in between with a variety of stories pertaining to notable figures on both sides including Nathanial Greene, Israel "Old Put" Putnam, William and Richard Howe, and General Henry Clinton. One such story, a Thursday afternoon journey to Parliament by George III in October 1775 to discuss the Colonial problem, effectively starts off the book as it reviews the events of 1775, particularly Bunker Hill, and also delves into the daily political and social life of London. Some readers will be surprised to see an American book about the American Revolution cast King George III in a favorable, yet objective light. Absent from this book are the reports of a delusional tyrant. Instead we are given the description of a simple man, whose reported two favorite things included "a leg of mutton and his plain little wife", with a job to do and an empire to preserve.

A few things come to mind upon completion of this book. One is a sense that the real significance of the year 1776 was that of the decisions and sacrifices that were made along with the physical and mental conditions endured by those at every level who did the work. This same sentiment is also noted by the surprisingly brief appearance made by the Declaration of Independence roughly halfway through the book. Its absence does not imply a diminished sense of importance, rather a commitment to the reality that it was only a document that, no matter how eloquent, meant nothing without military success, which was hard to come by for the colonials in 1776.

Most notable of all is a point that McCullough alludes to throughout the book, first early on by the British parliament or through the eyes of loyalists fleeing Boston, then later from the perspective of the English and Hessians troops pushing through New Jersey. The point being the fact that this revolution was started and carried out by people who had some of the best material lives that the 18th century had to offer. The question of why they were doing it and what they were willing to go through is a large part of what makes the American Revolution the fascination that it is. 1776 is a thorough exploration of this important history that should, and probably will, contribute something significant to any reader's understanding of the American Revolution.

NOTE: There are some authors who read their own work on audio format and David McCullough is one of them. This book is available unabridged. Sometimes, particularly with abridgments, listening to a book in audio format gets frowned upon, as if it is considered cheating or at least skimping. This review has been written by someone who has both read and listened to parts of this book. McCullough's narrating skills being what they are, which is to say superb, leave one with the sense that both formats are legitimate and make a strong case for the validity of well produced audio presentations.

What works in David McCullough's "1776" is the introduction of smaller stories. This is when he shines. Everyone knows that George Washington is larger than life and has in their head iconic images of him crossing the Delaware. What fascinates here is the story of Henry Knox getting much-needed guns to Boston, or the fortuitous fog that allows the entire army to escape.

Another aspect of 1776 that I loved was the fact that Washington, in the midst of one of the most difficult and disappointing years of his military career, was obsessed with completing his renovation of Mount Vernon. He's upset about how poorly things are going on the front lines, so he steps away briefly to write home and specify just how he wants the fireplaces to be installed. This is classic adaptation to events - if you can't control the situation you're in, find one that you can control and attend to that for a while.

The stories, intertwined and numerous as they are, are edited brilliantly by McCullough, who makes this book, which could have been a dry recitation of dates and battles, a human tale of sacrifice, triumph, disappointment, homesickness and almost anything else you could name. I could "hear" Mr. McCullough's voice throughout my reading of the story, and that's a huge compliment.

Wow! On Writing Well The Classic Guide to Writing Nonfiction is a book that should be in every writers/authors library.

The book is easy to read and there is no clutter. As a reader, I want to get to know the author. William Zinsser definitely has a style I will not soon forget!Diabetes Can Be Sweet . . . Once You Bury It

When I bought this book I had already read it. When it arrived, I read it again. As in the first round, I thought the same could be said in much less. It is paradoxical, because the book argues against clutter. This could sound as criticism, but it is not. It is just the price you have to pay in order to get a book published. No one would print a book of thirty pages.

This being said, I add that the ideas written in this book are the ones which any scientific or technical writer must bear in mind. They should be the standard in anybody's mind. Diverging from them is possible and sometimes successful, but risky unless the writer is especially trained or gifted for language. In summary: buy this book. It's worth its price.

In case you don't want to, I sum it up for you: straight words, short number of them, short sentences with as few subordinates as possible and revision and rewriting above all... and some justifications and variations on this philosophy. If you need to be convinced or are curious about why, or simply want examples of all kinds, buy the book.

If you're a writer and you don't own this book, you're not doing your craft any justice. In fact, everyone should own this book. Zinsser has put together the ultimate guide to writing in simple-to-understand form.

This book is a good read and offers some solid advice. It doesn't teach writing, but rather offers tips to keep in mind while writing. I feel that some parts of the book are hypocritical, especially when Zinsser uses some tougher vocabulary, but you cannot expect a teacher, writer, and editor to write a book in "see spot run" style, which is what I'm discovering to be the basis of the negative reviews. I don't feel the book offers enough methods to improve writing, especially when it comes to how to reduce clutter. In order to follow the tips and advices Zinsser offers, you have to think and word hard. For $14.95 or less, this book is definitely worth it. This book is easy to understand (even if you're a high school student), with an overall simple, yet unique language and style. The insight it offers is priceless regardless of what profession you are in. Read it, enjoy it, remember it! =]

Whether you are an amateur or professional writer, this book is a must. If you buy only one book on writing, make it On Writing Well. It is a treasure trove. I learned something on every page, and I have been writing professionally for more than 25 years.

I'm usually concerned about purchasing items on line, especially books. I can honestly say that this experience was worth it. I would recommend this seller to anyone interested in purchasing good quality books at extremely reasonable prices.

Buy with confidence, I did!

It took a while for it to arrive...other than that...everything was great!

As a foreign student who just started learning English 5 years ago, the verbal section is definitely my major obstacle to mastering the SAT. When I first took the PSAT, my verbal percentile was only a 49, but after working through all eight levels of Vocabulary Workshop (A through H) it has increased to a 99 (that was a year ago). Therefore I highly recommend this book to you (sincerely).

This book is a highly successful tool for guiding and stimulating systematic vocabulary growth for students. It has also been extremely valuable for preparing students to take the types of standardized vocabulary tests commonly used to assess grade placement, competence for graduation, and/or college readiness.

This book contains approximately 300 basic words, selected on the basis of currency in present-day usage, frequency on recognized vocabulary lists, applicability to standardized tests, and current grade-placement research.

The words in the book are organized into 15 short, stimulating units featuring pronunciation, parts of speech, definitions, synonyms, antonyms, and usage.

5 reviews (1 review for every 3 lessons) highlight and reinforce the work of the units through challenging exercises involving SAT-type critical-thinking exercises, definitions, synonyms, antonyms, analogies, sentence completions, word families...

4 accumulative reviews utilize standardized testing techniques to provide ongoing assessment of word mastery, all involving SAT-type critical-thinking.

Other features in this book include: a diagnostic test (which provides ready assessment of student needs at the outset of the term), a final mastery test (which provides end-of-term assessment of student achievement), word roots (which introduces the study of etymology)...

I knew that the Diary of Anne Frank was the second most purchased book in the world, the Bible being the first, but I still wasn't sure if I wanted to read it.
In our eighth grade class, our teacher is big on the Holocaust. And when she first mentioned that we would be learning about it, I was excited; to a point. I know that most kids my age think 'ooh blood and guts and gore' and think it's cool or funny or a joke. They all watch horror movies that almost make them immune to real life experiences that involve real horror or real tragedy.
So before we started learning about it, I wanted to know more in depth about how it was like to be a teen during the Holocaust. So, I summed up the guts and checked it out at the library. When I started reading it, I couldn't stop. Anne and I are so similar. She's always happy-go-lucky despite the terrible circumstances; she's very curious, careless, and sometimes a trouble maker. And even though I'm not Jewish, I think it's extremely easy to worm your way into her shoes. You learn so much, and it's really emotional, knowing that Anne Frank, this person you've grown attatched to, and her family, everyone except her father Otto Frank, has been killed. Slaughtered innocently by the Nazis, a cult led by Hitler that cornered them just because of their religion or their looks.
I think that if anyone wants to learn about the Holocaust, this is a must read; it's an amazing journey that might not end so happily, but Anne never ceased to hope. It has such vivid details of everything that sometimes it's hard to believe that something like the concentration camps and Hitler and everything existed. The fact that it's in diary form makes it all the better.
This non-fiction diary is amazing, and I think everyone, at some point, should read it.

a wonderful story told by an innocent child.
it is a must read for all generations

I am presently living like a refugee, so I can say from experience this is a good way to understand what it means to be stuck in a room for four years, having done that myself.

This is what happens when wars get out of hand. Required reading for government workers.

Sometimes you wonder to what purpose a person releases the details of a love ones life after death. This is just such a case. I will admit, I did not read the book as instructed in school, or many of the books forced upon us. As an adult, I went back and read many of them to see what I had missed (like the Red Badge of Courage, Uncle Toms Cabine, Tom Sawyer, etc.). This book from the hype would seem to be a literary masterpiece, rather, what it turns out to be is a rudementarry, and purposely selected piece of a little girls journal. If the purpose of the book was to delve into the mind of a teenage girl of the 1940's who does not get on well with her family or others, and seem a bit spoiled, it is a glowing success. The problem here is that it is meant to showcase a little girl in hiding from the Nazi's during WWII. To this it fails in that it merely touches on those issues (other than the ad nauseum complaints that Anne Frank makes about her inconveniences). I also get the feeling that this was severly edited to make the father look better than he was (in that he released the book), while making everyone else the villan. I guess this book is timeless in that most teenagers today have the same rants and raves. If you are reading it looking for historical perspective of a Jewish teen in hiding, you will not get much more than the backdrop which leaks through every now and again, since all the rest could truly be the rants of a teen of any generation. I know this review will be unpopular since this book is considered a modern day classic from our generation, I just feel there are numerous books that are far better at demostrating the attrocities, and difficulties of living through World War II, and going into hiding as a Jew during that time period. I was dissapointed.

I am probably being redundant when I say this, but this was a profound book. This was a rare look into the life of a Jew living in hiding during Nazi occupation that shaped the worlds understanding of this dreadful persecution. Anne begins as a spoiled and restless child, but her time in hiding definitely changes her. She becomes more precocious and reflective, sharing her insightful thoughts with her diary. She comments on her parents, her living conditions, her learning pursuits, politics and the war, her desire to be loved, among many other things. Of course, there is great conflict in the "Secret Annex" with eight people living in such close quarters for over two years, but it reveals the fragility of human nature when confronted with such tension. Anne's descriptions allow the reader to easily imagine their plight and her writing matures throughout. Anne's diary is a timeless and necessary piece of literature. The tragedy of her death is nothing compared to her devotion to humanity.

The Secret is intriguing and gives anyone with need of money, hope or health, a lot of hope. It is hard to believe, however, that one can get whatever one wants just by thinking about it or asking for it.

This book is a wonderful companion to the movie, "The Secret." I highly recommend seeing the movie and reading the book--if you are interested in learning how to create positive changes in your life and manifest your desires.
Also about relationships i find a book amazing to read to manifest the love that you areI Love You. Now What?: Falling in Love is a Mystery, Keeping It Isn't

The main thing is that a group of people devised a well packaged scheme with a well known "secret" to make people believe they will get rich to get rich, themselves. The question is whether one should be a party to this kind of activity, and every buyer is. The claims at their site are utterly outrageous - Plato and Beethoven got where they were after finding the "Secret" - and should be really shut down by an outpouring of qualifiers. They should not be rewarded but rather shamed.

While this information wasn't especially new, it was a great reminder. I run decluttering and time management workshops for a living for Inspired Honey (inspiredhoney.com) and so I like to have a break once in a while give my mind a tune-up (like my car). While this information is certainly not new. See the book You Can Heal Your Life written decades before or even lots of ideas from proverbs in The Bible), it is still interesting information. If it gets people analysing their thoughts more and being more in control of their choices - I'm all for it!

I saw this book last night and picked it up. I had seen it in stores on the best seller racks, and it had a catchy cover. At first I thought it was some kind of story until I opened it up. After I read the first page I realized it wasn't, but being bored I read on. The first chapter is quite interesting. But as I kept reading the book, I honestly felt like I was reading the same page over and over and over again. This has to be the most redundant book I have ever read. The only thing I have gotten from this book, is to sell the idea that hard work and dedication never got anyone anywhere. Telling people that their bad spending and eating habbits aren't cause for them being broke or overweight. I simply finished the book because it was quite funny. This book takes the idea of staying positive with everything in your life, having hope and a motivation to reach your goals, and makes a total mockery of great scientist and inventors. Everything great that has been done was created by trial and error, not because some mysterious "universal mind" or genie wanted them to have it. If you purchased this book, the only real secret is that you have wasted twenty-five dollars.

Both our sons loved this book . I bought this for our grandson, who, I am sure, will have as much fun looking for Goldbug as his dad did some 30 years ago.

I purchased this for a grandson's 2nd birthday and he just loves it. He has it virtually memorized by now but it is still his first choice at bedtime.

I bought this book with Scarry's A Day at the Airport book to help entertain my 23 month old during a cross country flight. My son wasn't as absorbed in Cars and Trucks as I'd hoped he be during the flight but in the weeks since he has been asking for the "Trucks" book every day. We narrate some of the pictures but he also spends some time looking at book every day on his own, paging through the book and absorbed in the illustrations (and commenting on the pictures occasionally, or at least as much as a near 2 year old can). We have other books with photos of vehicles which also interest him but this book so far seems to have more lasting appeal. I think it's the combination of the sheer volume and variety of the vehicles, interesting animals driving them, and just lots going on on each page.

Our 19 month old grandson loves Cars, Trucks and Things That Go, so this book is perfect for him. It is not too old for him. He looks and looks at the pictures on the pages and says the name of the object over and over.
He has learned many new words from having this book.

I recall reading this book to my younger sister many years ago.
I recently purchased this for a 6 year old. He squealed with delight.
It is his favorite R S book.

Richard Scarry books are classics - great for young & old.
Delightful pictures & so fun to look at!