Scott Reviews

This is a much smaller book than "Conversations.." which is a testament to the writing skills of the author. I thoroughly enjoyed this book.

It's thoughtful, funny, very easy to read, enlightening where you thought you'd heard it all, and informative. It's fiction but you have to wonder about that because it all seems so real.

I found it very helpful actually. It solidified many views I already held, answers some questions about life I've been carrying too long, and made me smile all at the same time.

A little book that packs a solid punch. Everyone should read this and own it for their bookshelves. Very few make it on my "to own and keep" shelf, and this is one of them.

Light-hearted and deep. Lucado's intelligence and humor fail to mask an underlying gentleness of spirit. His imaginative pseudo-physical depictions of God enliven the serious discourse. If enough readers discover it, it could become a classic.

Never Too Busy For You" is a unique book. Author
> Scott Lucado is simulataneously bold but humble,
> sassy
> but wise, light and heavy as he provokes the reader
> to
> think and feel about the meanings of life, death and
> time. Psychologists and philosophers are likely to
> find a useful story here somewhere---so will
> plumbers
> and musicians and teachers of all flavors. Scott is
> perceptive, revealing and amusing in the way he
> writes
> light dialogue that covers deep subjects of religion
> and spirituality. A Christian lens is clearly
> visible,
> but I am not Christian and still found the stories
> and
> ideas interesting and accessible. This is a keeper
> for
> me.

This easy to read comic will have parents everywhere in tears of laughter. Hammie and Zoe have their parents dead tired after 5 minutes with them. A must have for any parents to be. Check out the other books too.

The Singapore National Newspaper are publishing Baby blues cartoons with a more grown up Zoe and Hamish who can walk steadily on his own. I reckon this could the the No. 12th comic onwards after the title "if I were a stay-home mom, why am I always in the car". I am looking to buying the 12th editions onwards, please ask the publisher to compile and publish the books.

My hubby & I have started reading Baby Blues 1 year ago & now we are truly truly addicted to the series. we absolutely love hammie & zoe..... keep up the good work ... it is indeed bringing tears of laughter to readers worldwide.

Here's a customer service success and sometimes hilarious failure story book, packed with practical, real world ideas that really work that you'll really enjoy reading. Gross says great selling is a by-product of great service. He shares his hard-serve, soft-sell secrets and shows you how to make serving customers more fun and less frustrating once you decide to raise your customer service bar to Positively Outrageous Service.

This is the first book I read which has helped take the stress right out of sales. If anyone is in retail knows how stressfull it may be at times. I highly recommend everyone in retail business today to read this book and enjoy your every day to day sales.

book contains lots of ideas and great examples . . . very inspirational . . . makes success simple . . . all we have to do is apply some of gross' POS thinking!!!

As a Mac user, I noticed that all the screen-shots in this Elements book are done in Microsoft Windows. That aside, this book seems just right for the amateur digital photographers who want to make big improvements in their photos. Scott starts at the beginning - with the File Browser - showing you how to organize and find your photos on your computer.

From there, he shows you how to size, crop and straighten a photo. Then, it's on to correcting over and under exposures, adding a fill flash and correcting red eye. There's an excellent section on color correcting photos (he makes it amazingly easy!) Masking isn't just for Photoshop. Scott shows you step-by-step how to use masks to make selections.

I was surprised to find sections on how to repair and restore damaged photos, along with professional photo retouching secrets. And there is a great section on digital plastic surgery and body sculpting. Chapter 8 covers the most-requested photographic special effects, including: adding motion, creating depth of field, using color for emphasis, sepia tone, creating montages, replacing the sky, and making a panorama pic.

This book should expand your skills with Elements so you get more out of it than you thought possible.

As an educator-- a technology teacher-- I see lots of books of how-tos for all kinds of technology products. Many of them are geared either for the beginner or for the professional. This book finds the perfect combination of help for beginners with enough "meat" for those of us who are a little beyond that. It's a very practical guide for dealing with common photography problems. The author also gives some very valuable help in keeping photos organized. I also appreciate the humor in his writing which makes the book even more enjoyable to read. I will be using this book as a guide for in-service training for teachers who want to learn to use Elements more effectively for themselves and for their students. I'll definitely be looking for more useful Scott Kelby books in the future!

It's the book I've been waiting for. It's straight to the point and so useful. Now I'm hooked on editing my photos on Photoshop Elements 2.0. It is truly a godsend for digital photographers. Thanks Scott!

really good poetry should be felt and not just read...
_places_ left me with an undeniably bittersweet heartache.
it is first and foremost the voice of someone else living out the human experience...
i only wish i had found it sooner.

I haven't read this book, but Scott submitted one of his poems to my humble e-zine and I thought it was great that a Pulitzer nominated poet would still be so in touch with his roots -- which are the independent zines that don't make no money ;). I will definately have to buy his book later, since I am deeply influenced by the beat poets as well as Bukowski.

- jimmy.

Scott Holstad is a hard working young poet, whose first "real" book (read "perfect bound") has been nominated for the Pulitzer Prize in poetry. Which is not to say that Holstad is a newcomer to the American poetry scene--between 1991 and 1994 he published seven chapbooks, as well as poems in hundreds of magazines all over the world, and gave numerous performances of his work.

Places reinforces the main line of Holstad's work, including many poems which announce his influences--the beat poets (especially Ferlinghetti) and the grand, dirty old man of no-nonsense poetics, Charles Bukowski. In fact, Holstad devotes two poems to the memory of Bukowski, "Buk" and "The World Ran Dry." In the latter, the wry, detached voice of the poet juxtaposes the futility of his own academic ambitions with the authenticity of his reaction to the news of his hero's death. After a night spent trying to erase the pain of this fact with alcoholic excess, the poet is left lying in bed, "thinking of futile / grant application / attempts and the / beautiful mexican girl / dancing with swaying / pendulous breasts while / wedding sized bells / frolic in [his] increasingly / shrinking dehydrated head."

Holstad's poems are predominately voice driven--and that voice is often filled with the anger of moral outrage. Poems such as "let's give ourselves a round," "this is what we are" and "just for kicks" express the poet's disgust with his fellow American's penchant for mindless violence and excess. But sometimes Holstad's poems are just plain angry. In the poem "smoking" the poet, having recently quit after ten years on the weed, expresses a desire to "file [his] teeth / on your forehead."

Places also announces some new directions for Holstad's work--some poems that reveal a quieter, more contemplative aspect of his voice. In "You Are," the poet compares his lover to "the steam / of the teapot" in the morning, "the hiss of / water kissing the / shower curtain, / . . . the soft curve / of fresh clothing / falling onto tired limbs." Similarly, the poem "In Defense" speaks of the poet's fears as a gift which he exchanges for "cotton candy at / the circus, John Cage / exhibits at the museum, / lying in each other's / arms under the light of / the full moon . . ."

But this is not to say that Holstad has gone soft--not by any stretch of the imagination. These poems provide relief from a vision of the world which might otherwise prove too bleak for most readers, the world of "Stripper," which culminates with "another / hot hand job in the old / man's perspiring Caddie." Ultimately, for Holstad, as for Bukowski, "The poem is the / crutch, the gun, the / good drink. Need I say more?

G.P. Lainsbury, Vox, University of Calgary

I have had the privilege of writing beside these girls for a couple of years. It was nice to see their work pulled together for a marvelous, intriguing read.
I recommend this book to anyone that wants thier guts punched in with unique feminine design.

I will treasure it.
Beautiful girls, just beautiful.

Congrats,
Amanda Oaks, Editor
[website]

I was never really into poetry until a friend showed me this book. What can I say, I loved it. I never felt so much emotion as I did while reading about what these women had to say. It's so unique reading poetry by modern women. I hate to single out any of the poets, but I really liked Carolyn Phoenix's work. WOW! I hope to see more of her work in the future. This is a great book and I HIGHLY RECOMMEND IT!

This book is a wonderful collection of original poetry. With the different styles and approaches of each writer you are bound to find one that you like! It is a small glimpse into the life and soul of each writer. They are not writing what people want to see, but what they feel inside. If you are a fan of poetry this is a must have. If you are not, this is also a good starter book to see what kind of style you'd prefer to read.

This book is heaven sent for those of us who aren't gourmet chefs and don't like having to buy enough food for a small army just to follow a dinner recipe. Good, fresh food without a lot of fuss...that's my kind of cookbook.

Plus, they don't use lots of fancy schmanzy ingredients...Another winning element of Quickies for Couples!

As a young and newly married woman, I am so happy to have found a recipe book to feature beginner-level recipes that serve two people. So many other cookbooks assume that you are an expert-level cook! "Quickies" is a great book to help you feel more comfortable in the kitchen, and it will never intimidate you.

As a working mom, I never had time to make a nice meal for my family. Then I got Quickies for Couples! This cookbook is great because the recipes do make enough for my family or can be doubled if more is needed. They're delicious and so easy to prepare.
I also appreciate that the book includes several wonderful vegetarian & seafood dishes. This is a great buy for anyone!

This collection of beautifully-crafted essays should be required reading in all Appalachian Studies classes. When readers tell me that they enjoy the natural history references in my Ballad novels, I urge them to read Scott Weidensaul. This wonderful book traces the natural history of the Appalachian Mountains all the way from Alabama to New Brunswick, Canada. In clear and lyrical prose, Weidensaul describes the formation of the mountain chain, touching on plate tectonics and the configuration of the prehistoric continents. Several chapters describe the plants and animals past and present which make for the unique ecosystem that is Appalachia: the use of the mountains as a migration path for birds and monarch butterflies; the 20th century chestnut blight which destroyed a species of tree, and the extermination of the passenger pigeon. With a keen understanding of nature and an obvious love of the land, Scott Weidensaul writes a guide to the mountains that is both informative and enchanting.

Scott Weidensaul has produced with "Mountains of the Heart" one of the finest examples of popular natural history writing I have ever seen. Thorough and authoritative, yet an easy read and quite engaging, he tackles an immensense subject with enthusiasm and obvious experience. Discussing the geology, ecology, fauna, flora, and conservation of the entire Appalachian mountain chain from central Alabama to Belle Isle, Newfoundland, you will never find a better book on the subject.

In reading the book I have learned so much about the natural history of this great eastern wilderness. Unlike many other natural history books which discuss faraway, exotic lands like Antarctica, Thailand, the Amazon jungle, or the Australian Outback, Weidensaul makes an area where I live in fascinating, bringing to my attention a variety of things I never even suspected, making this book a unique treasure. An area I took for granted, had lost my sense of wonder about now seems new and interesting to me. I am sure those reading this review would be similarly enlightened.

No you say? Do you know why leaves change color in fall, and how? Or why some trees turn one colors while others don't? Do you know what effect this leaf change has on the animal community in forests (ever hear of foliar fruit flagging?)? Did you know that many Appalachian tree species can survive winter temperatures as low as 80 degrees below zero, far colder than the mountains ever get today? Do you know what tannin is, and why trees produce it, and what effects this has on the forest community? Weidensaul makes what to me was a fairly mundane subject, perhaps suitable for a grade school science book, fascinating and weird. Trees are rightly one of the stars in this book, as Weidensaul recounts the sad tale of the American chestnut, the plight of the Fraser fir, the role of oaks in modern forests (and the potential problems their predominance could cause), and the magnifence of the white pine among many other plants.

However, animals receive a great deal of attention in this book as well, as by no means it is only about botany. Almost an entire chapter is devoted to the awe-inspiring annual hawk migrations down the length of the Appalachians. The many unique and highly local species of the mountains salamander fauna, one of the richest in the world, are recounted in great detail. Another unique fauna, the mussel fauna, again one of the world's richest, is also discussed, a subject not much to the lay naturalist. Weidensaul discusses some of the chain's fauna winners - such as black bears, successfully co-exisiting with people in crowded Pennsylvania, moose, which are rebounding in the northern Appalachians, and the raven, formerly a bird of deep wilderness but that one that is increasingly adapting to disturbed habitat - and its losers as well - such as brook trout, a species in decline in all but the most pristine streams, the red wolf, long gone from most of the range and yet to be successfully reintroduced, and the passenger pigeon, once a the most common land bird in the world, thriving on the vast crop of acorns in the Appalachians, now extinct.

A truly excellent book with nice illustrations in it, this will please any lover of natural history.

If someone assigned you the task of writing a history of the Appalachian Mountains, how would you organize it? Keep the information in its separate realms of geology, botany, zoology, and anthropology? Start in Alabama and work northward? Go state by state, province by province, and look at the smaller specific mountain ranges? Well, Scott Weidensaul has taken none of those approaches, thank goodness. His is an education by general themes: basic geology (for it must start there), bird migrations, habitat specialization, forestry, mammalian zoology, archaeology, pollination, extinction, survival. Each chapter has a pure focus; and yet all of the chapters somehow touch on all of these topics. Weidensaul's conversational style has the reader walking through the woods with him, chatting seemingly aimlessly, all the time seeing and learning about the life that abounds. Gems of detail sneak up on us while we read. If you travel 1000 feet up, the habitat and ecosystems change as if you had traveled 100 miles north. Wow. And then there are the interspecies connections, some well-known and some new to us: squirrels and oaks, oaks and gypsy moths, migratory birds and fatty fruits, white pines and ship masts, bears and wetlands, fishers and porcupines, crossbills and spruces. The natural world makes sense after reading this book. Highly recommended for naturalists everywhere and mandatory reading for residents of the Appalachian states and provinces.

If you have children this book may save your family. This book may change the way you deal with your family doctor, your child's school, and who you allow into your home. No, I am not paranoid, but there are too many cases documented here of individual rights being trampled, due process ignored, and families destroyed by bureaucracies that are not concerned with what is just. You may also be left with a cynical view of our adversarial legal system -family services workers assert that 'a declaration of innocence is a sign of guilt'. Let's just bind their hands and throw them in the river -you know the rest.

Left unanswered is the secondary question of how family services organizations became dominated by so many wrong-headed people, and how our tax money came to fund them. Are they really so deluded that they think they are doing good, or is there a New World political agenda driving them? Why do prosecutors go along with them? Why do police departments make arrests based on little or no evidence? There are a few good people in these organizations but I am afraid they have been intimidated into silence. Fixing this problem will take politicians willing to fight the tide of it-takes-a-village political correctness. How did it ever get this bad?

After a horrendous child custody case where my wife and I were both accused of abusing my step-children, this book was a God send! We both learned so much that is helping us finally win this war. Brenda Scott's book should be read by every single parent in this country, especially by those who homeschool.

This author fills this book with stories of horror and corruption that will scare the living daylights out of ANY parent! If you've ever believed that our system is only looking out for the best interest of our children, then please think again, and read this book! Your pre-conceived notions WILL be blown right out of the water when you read these chilling true reports of the abuses, tortures and indignities our child protective agencies have imposed on some of the families in our country. As a parent who really does want what is best for my children....this is truly terrifying.

This book proves why a person needs to check out local bookstores when traveling - small presses often do not have the distribution network that good writers deserves. I live near Ft. Worth but found this book at the Pike Street Market in Seattle. I started reading it on the airplane going home and found it hard to put down. The paperback version is so attractively packaged that I did not realize when I purchased it that it was written and published locally in Seattle. Everything the other reviewers have said about the book is true. It is a very worthwhile and entertaining read. There is fuel for plenty of great arguments about "what it all means." Buy it!

Scott Davis' wonderful The Road from Damascus is a treat.
I have found it difficult to put a face on this area of the world, to actually get a sense of how citizens of the Middle East live, work and think. Davis gives the reader a ground-floor vantage. Introducing the reader to the Syrians, young and old, male and female, who sat next to him on rickety busses. Met with him at monastaries. And introduced him to their families, their art, their culture. The Syrian secret police are never very far from the author and rarely out of his thoughts. Which adds to tension that drives this journey through Syria and kept me turning pages.

Not a big fan of "travel" books, I found this one to be seasoned with the author's integrity, humor and affection for the Syrian people. Which made it most enjoyable.

Why would a Stanford graduate turned mountain climber/carpenter drop everything and, on a shoestring-budget, wander through the deserts of Syria? An attraction to adventure -- a quest. Davis takes the reader along as he visits the homes of Syrians,converses about spirituality, and visits sacred locations, all under the insidious scrutiny of the local police. Davis's narrative captures the ambiguities, fear, and exhilaration instilled by unfamiliar situations in remote places, while keeping a lighthearted perspective now that the trial is behind him.