The Piercing Bible: The Definitive Guide to Safe Body Piercing Review

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(More customer reviews)I am in a unique position to write a review of this book as I am emergency/flight nurse, but also a non-pierced, non-tattooed medical consultant for the Association of Professional Piercers. Starting several years ago when I first began researching the medical myths vs. research realities regarding body mods, Elayne has been an invaluable resource. Her first hand knowledge regarding the history and future of body piercing practices is unequaled and this is evident throughout this book. The Piercing Bible is an excellent summary of body art jewelry, piercing options, and aftercare, as well as confirming/disputing several urban legends regarding body art. For those with body art, contemplating acquiring body art, or those caring for those with body art, I highly recommend this unparalled resource.
Scott DeBoer RN,MSN


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Piercing pioneer Elayne Angel has performed over 40,000 piercings since the 1980s and has brought many practices, such as tongue-piercing, into the mainstream. She brings her exhaustive knowledge to this groundbreaking manual that covers everything you need to know about the process, including:• The best piercings and placements for various body parts and body types• Terminology, tools, and techniques of the trade• Vital sterility, sanitation, and hygiene information • Jewelry designs, shapes, and materials• Advice for people with stretch marks, plastic surgery, and unique anatomy• Healing, aftercare, and troubleshooting for problem-free piercing"As a piercer, nurse, and educator, I can say without a doubt that this is the most complete book ever written for all people in our industry."--DAVID A. VIDRA, FOUNDER AND PRESIDENT OF HEALTH EDUCATORS, INC."No one is more qualified to write this book than Elayne Angel. With more than three decades of personal experience to her credit, no one knows the subject better."--JIM WARD, FOUNDER OF GAUNTLET, THE WORLD'S FIRST BODY PIERCING STUDIO"This is an exciting book for a field that has exploded in the last two decades. National industry standards are needed, and Elayne provides important data."--MYRNA L. ARMSTRONG, RN, EdD

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Infections and Inequalities: The Modern Plagues, Updated with a new preface Review

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(More customer reviews)Finally Dr. Farmer couples his lucid historical, political and economic analyses of the conditions that put the poor at risk for bad health outcomes, with a plainly indignant calling out of healthcare professionals and healthcare organizations to make honest efforts to understand and remedy conditions which would never be tolerated among the well off in Western nations. In his goundbreaking, earlier books, "AIDS and Accusations," and "The Uses of Haiti," Dr. Farmer matter of factly discusses the global and local structural conditions and misrepresentations which led to the spread of disease and persistent, dismal health conditions in Haiti. In "Infections and Inequality," Dr. Farmer adds moral overtones to incisive, sociopolitical analysis and his characteristic accounts of individuals suffering from disease. The book consequently provides a powerful reflection from a man who has worked in some of the world's poorest regions on what the benefits of medical technology mean for people who have not traditionally had access to them. A powerful, informative read that clearly reflects the years of experience of a physician who has wrestled with the global responsibility of caring for the those who are worst off. An obligatory read for anyone even thinking of working for the impoverished of the world.

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NO MATTER HOW LOUD I SHOUT : A Year in the Life of Juvenile Court Review

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(More customer reviews)Let me start by saying that I really enjoyed this book. Mr. Humes is a wonderful writing who has the skills to draw the reader in in such a way as to "experience" the things he is writing about. Readers, though, ought to be aware that this is a book about a very specific system-the California Juvenile Justice System-which as most people in the field know is substantially different than, say the juvenile system in Topeka, Kansas. I think part of the book's utility, and the reason I think anyone in the field out to read it, is the way in which Humes makes salient the individuals that make up the larger system in much the way Marc Parent did in Turning Stones.

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A Summer to Remember (Get Connected Romances) Review

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(More customer reviews)I'd rather not review this book but, instead, "share my thoughts" as we are invited to do by amazon. Mary Balogh is so talented that she rarely fails to please and those who may have been disappointed by this story perhaps prefer stories which are not quite so introspective as this one.
One aspect of this novel I enjoyed was that it brought a happy outcome for some of those wonderful characters in One Night for Love. It also allowed us to watch a deeply hurt and misunderstood man and woman reach tentatively, hesitatingly for mutual fulfilment and and happiness. Kit Butler, Lt Col Viscount Ravensberg had, from all outward appearances, a brilliant military career working under particularly dangerous circumstances. Balogh alludes to this sparingly but with great effect as she explores the impact that war and command can have on a man. However, he is damaged and confused and hurt as a result of his experiences and this has helped to bring about a collapse of relations with each member of his family.
Miss Lauren Edgeworth was the jilted bride from One Night for Love who, we now find out, has turned inward on herself because of loss of her parents at a young and vulnerable age. She has some rather deep psychological scarring which needs to be expunged if ever she is to find true happiness and serenity of spirit. Her calm and cool manner hides a deeply passionate and loving woman who, sadly, all her life has felt she must exist to please others and never herself. Balogh writes with great insight into Lauren's character.
Balogh has written a novel examining the psychological make-up of two very interesting and sympathetic characters. They think and behave in a wholly credible and believeable fashion. She has truly made them come alive for me and, by placing them in a setting of a large extended family, she shows how sadly isolated both of them are, despite the surroundings of the comings and goings of everyday family activity.
I am truly interested to see if the author can make me like Lady Freyja Bedwyn who makes her somewhat alarming debut here. I look forward to reading about her and her family in the Bedwyn saga. I also hope that Sydnam Butler, Kit's younger brother will find a happy outcome in a future story. Much of the torment and turmoil experienced by Kit is directly attributable to his relationship with Sydnam. Sydnam deserves "fleshing out" and I hope to read more of him.
All in all, another marvel from Mary Balogh and not to be missed if you like heart-wrenching, immaculately plotted fiction with a rounded, mature H/H who mature to loving completion in a most heart-warming way.

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The Book of Luke Review

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(More customer reviews)Readers of Jenny O'Connell's first book for teens, Plan B, will have high expectations for THE BOOK OF LUKE--and they won't be disappointed!
When nice girl Emily Abbot's family moves from Chicago back to Boston in the middle of her senior year, Emily and her two best friends come up with a plan that is not so nice. It's a project for their class time capsule, but it won't be the typical scrapbook or mix CD. They'll write a handbook for guys about girls. And who better to test out their theories on than arrogant Luke Preston? Emily, the three friends decide, will be the perfect person to try it out and report back. After all, Luke would never suspect the nice little Emily he knew way back when...But Emily's not what she used to be.
Before she knows it, however, the experiment has gone horribly wrong. Wrong in that Emily finds herself falling head over heels for her experiment!
THE BOOK OF LUKE is a funny, original story guaranteed to have readers fascinated from first page to last! This fresh, honest novel is full of amazing characters and excellent writing. Jenny O'Connell is a smart, talented author; I'm really looking forward to seeing what she writes next! This is contemporary fiction at its best; readers will not be disappointed.
Reviewed by: Jocelyn Pearce

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From the bestselling author of Plan B comes a funny and touching new novel about a girl, a boy, and a notebook that could ruin everything. Emily Abbott has always been considered the Girl Most Likely to Be Nice -- but lately being nice hasn't done her any good. Her parents have decided to move the family from Chicago back to their hometown of Boston in the middle of Emily's senior year. Only Emily's first real boyfriend, Sean, is in Chicago, and so is her shot at class valedictorian and early admission to the Ivy League. What's a nice girl to do? Then Sean dumps Emily on moving day and her father announces he's staying behind in Chicago "to tie up loose ends," and Emily decides that what a nice girl needs to do is to stop being nice. She reconnects with her best friends in Boston, Josie and Lucy, only to discover that they too have been on the receiving end of some glaring Guy Don'ts. So when the girls have to come up with something to put in the senior class time capsule, they know exactly what to do. They'll create a not-so-nice reference guide for future generations of guys -- an instruction book that teaches them the right way to treat girls. But when her friends draft Emily to test out their tips on Luke Preston -- the hottest, most popular guy in school, who just broke up with Josie by email -- Emily soon finds that Luke is the trickiest of test subjects . . . and that even a nice girl like Emily has a few things to learn about love.

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Neither Wolf nor Dog: On Forgotten Roads with an Indian Elder Review

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(More customer reviews)I love this book, this story perhaps more than any other that I own. It is that moving! All my life I have had a deep heartache about the destruction of our Mother Earth at the hands of industrial humans in general, and the destruction of this land we call America at the hands of the European invaders in particular. This book delves deeply into this wound, brings tears of pain and anguish, and ultimately brings about some healing as well. I think it is a GREAT combination of Kerouac and Black Elk Speaks. It is beautifully written and hard to put down. I have read the book many times by now and have given copies to friends. Rumor has it there's a movie version in the works. I love this book so much I'm not sure I'd want to see what Hollywood might do to it! The book is enough, anyway.

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Motel of the Mysteries Review

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(More customer reviews)This book was actually a gift from my Mother who knows I enjoy things archaeological and historical. Since she`s more than a trifle eccentric and has a marvelous sense of the absurd, I've a sneaking suspicion she was poking a little fun at me--which is something I probably need once in a while for my own good.
The Motel of the Mysteries is a wonderful send up of the fields of archaeology and history. It's aim is doubtless to entertain, at which it's vastly successful, but over and above that the book makes quite clear what archaeology legitimately can and cannot do. I think it also points out that what is taken as "The Reality" of the past is often as much a function of current cultural biases and of the personal motives of individual researchers as it is of what actually occurred in the past. (This was made quite clear to me when I saw Knossos on Crete for the first time and realized that a great deal of imagination had gone into the reconstruction of the "Minoan" buildings there).
My favorite parts of Motel were Archaeologist Carson's interpretation of the hotel bathroom as the inner sanctum of a religious structure and the subsequent depiction of his assistant--ala Heinrich Schliemann with the Trojan treasure and Leonard Wooley with the Ur III treasure--wearing bathroom accoutrements as religious paraphernalia.
The author also pokes fun at museums and at all of us, when he includes a collection of "Souvenirs and Quality Reproductions" available for sale at the end of the book. My favorite is the coffee set based on the "sacred urn" (toilet). Goodness knows I've purchased my fair share of quality reproductions on my travels throughout the world!
This should be suggested reading for every college history and archeology major and required for those seeking degrees over BA in these fields!

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It is the year 4022; all of the ancient country of Usa has been buried under many feet of detritus from a catastrophe that occurred back in 1985. Imagine, then, the excitement that Howard Carson, an amateur archeologist at best, experienced when in crossing the perimeter of an abandoned excavation site he felt the ground give way beneath him and found himself at the bottom of a shaft, which, judging from the DO NOT DISTURB sign hanging from an archaic doorknob, was clearly the entrance to a still-sealed burial chamber. Carson's incredible discoveries, including the remains of two bodies, one of then on a ceremonial bed facing an altar that appeared to be a means of communicating with the Gods and the other lying in a porcelain sarcophagus in the Inner Chamber, permitted him to piece together the whole fabric of that extraordinary civilization.

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Why Buildings Stand Up: The Strength of Architecture Review

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(More customer reviews)Salvadori clearly explains, with the invaluable aid of lots of little pictures, how and why buildings stand up. There are chapters on cathedrals, the Eiffel Tower, the Hagia Sophia, bridges, domes, and so forth. The chapter on wind is particularly fascinating--I found out a lot of things I'd had no idea of. Other chapters, like "Form-Resistant Structures," were pretty deadly dull. Overall, though, the book was well worth reading. It's not always entertaining, but it's always informative, and sometimes tremendously interesting.

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Here is a clear and enthusiastic introduction to building methods fromancient time to the present day, illustrated throughout with linedrawings. In addition, Mr. Salvadori discusses recent advances inscience and technology that have had important effects on the planningand construction of buildings.
B/W line drawings

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Awakening the Heroes Within: Twelve Archetypes to Help Us Find Ourselves and Transform Our World Review

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(More customer reviews)As a software developer and mathematician presently in my early 60's, ever since I can remember I have always been long on technology and short on "people" knowledge Yet from my early adolescence I remember my dad telling me how important it is to know oneself. While I always agreed with this good advice, whenever I explored my soul, I seemed to fail to come up with meaningful, non-judgemental answers - possibly because my questions themselves were not thought provoking.
Enter Ms Peason and her "Heros Within" book. Her brilliant, accessible review of the 12 archetypes that define our personalities suddenly provided me with a new handle - a key to a better understanding of myself and others. What I particularly appreciated in her book was its combination of a rigurous, scientific treatment of the subject, couched in a language both accessible and devoid of academic circumlucutions. I would reccomend her book to anyone who wants to understand himself/herself better and/or redefine his/her professional and personal life.

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AWAKENING THE HEROES WITHIN

"The heroic quest is about saying 'yes' to yourself and in doing so doing, becoming more fully alive and more effective in the world…The quest is replete with dangers and pitfalls, but it offers great rewards: t

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Mastering XPages: A Step-by-Step Guide to XPages Application Development and the XSP Language Review

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(More customer reviews)"I never got the chance to meet the inventors of `Notes', but these guys were true visionaries." This is the first sentence in a 748 pages book about XPages that was recently published by IBM Press.
The book is written by Martin Donnelly, Mark Wallace and Tony McGuckin with a foreword by Philippe Riand. Although all authors declare that "none of us had been down the book-writing road before", the book is well written, even for readers that do not have english as the first language.
The main content starts with a high level overview about XPages. Even if you are already experienced in XPages development, it is worth reading this chapter. Start writing your first XPages application and follow the instructions step by step. The resulting application is a good starting point to put enhancements on top.
If you run into a problem regarding security settings on the server take a look at the very end of the book where you find the settings that have to be applied to your server.
IMHO, this information should be part of the "Getting Everything You Need" chapter.
The anatomy of an XPage is described in detail in chapter 4. Newbees to this field should read this chapter carefully. You will need this information if you want to dig deeper into XPages development later on.
Chapter 12 explains how to build your own user interface controls. This part of the book is not easy to understand for a non experienced developer, but if you follow the step by step instruction carefully, you will succeed.
All over the book you find tons of source code and numerous screenshots. It would be a good idea to make the source code available for download. But perhaps it is already available and I missed this part in the book.
The book also gives credit to all of the members of the Notes Community that started back in 8.5 with spreading the news about XPages in blogs, podcasts etc. Take these ressources as a supplement to the information you find in the book.
As a conclusion, I would recommend this book to every developer that wants to start with XPages development.

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The first complete, practical guide to XPages development - direct from members of the XPages development team at IBM LotusMartin Donnelly, Mark Wallace, and Tony McGuckin have written the definitive programmer's guide to utilizing this breakthrough technology. Packed with tips, tricks, and best practices from IBM's own XPages developers, Mastering XPages brings together all the information developers need to become experts - whether you're experienced with Notes/Domino development or not. The authors start from the very beginning, helping developers steadily build your expertise through practical code examples and clear, complete explanations. Readers will work through scores of real-world XPages examples, learning cutting-edge XPages and XSP language skills and gaining deep insight into the entire development process. Drawing on their own experience working directly with XPages users and customers, the authors illuminate both the technology and how it can be applied to solving real business problems. Martin Donnelly previously led a software startup that developed and distributed small business accounting software. Donnelly holds a Commerce degree from University College Cork and an M.S. in Computer Science from Boston University. Mark Wallace has worked at IBM for 15 years on many projects as a technical architect and application developer. Tony McGuckin participates in the Lotus OneUI Web Application and iWidget Adoption Workgroup. He holds a bachelor's degree in Software Engineering from the University of Ulster.

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Cracked Up to Be Review

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(More customer reviews)I have no idea how to express my feelings about this book. It's powerful, emotional, important, and really spoke to me.
The book takes place a good time after some sort of upsetting event has occurred. Everyone has gotten over it to the best they could except for Parker and that's because she finds herself guilty for some reason and no one else knows about it.
When reading this book you literally see Parker fighting with her memories. Everyday things bring up the memories of that night and we only get a little taste before they are pushed back out of her mind. Because of the way this is written you can't put the book down and also can't pinpoint what this upsetting event is. You can guess, but you are probably wrong.
I was so wrapped up in this book that in the end when that night is fully explained and I found out just what has happened, I sat up and said out loud, "Oh My God" for me that moment of understanding Parker was very powerful. Everything came full circle and I found myself identifying (to a less severe degree) with her feelings of guilt and loss of control.
This book is amazing. Just read it, immediately. I could talk about the tons of other things I liked, like Parker's sassy Veronica Mars-like attitude, the great secondary characters etc. but I rather you read the book and fall in love with it just the way I did!

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Twelve by Twelve: A One-Room Cabin Off the Grid and Beyond the American Dream Review

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(More customer reviews)
William Powers' memoir "Twelve by Twelve: A One-room Cabin Off the American Grid and Beyond the American Dream" is an intimate account of his journey to find answers to the questions: "Why would a successful physician choose to live in a twelve-foot-by-twelve-foot cabin without running water or electricity in rural North Carolina?"and "How can we learn to live in harmony with each other and nature?"
Dr. Jackie Benton (not her real name), a mother, peace activist and "wisdomkeeper" who mostly lives off the produce from her permaculture farm, struck Powers as someone who had achieved self-mastery in confusing times. To avoid war taxes (fifty cents out of every dollar goes to the Pentagon) she accepts only eleven thousand dollars instead of the three hundred thousand she could make as a senior physician.
Powers needing a way out of despair from a separation from his young daughter and a decade of challenging international aid work accepted Jackie's offer to stay in her cabin next to No Name Creek for a season while she traveled.
He said Jackie's 12 X 12 and her unique approach to living in todays world seemed full of clues toward living lightly and artfully. He hoped it would help him learn to think, feel and live another way.
Having worked in Africa and South America Powers asked Jackie how we can stop the northern economies pillage of the Global South's forests, mines and oceans. He later came to synthesize Jackie's vision as "see, be, do." Before acting on a problem we must "BE." Take time in solitude to reflect, meditate or pray. Only when we SEE with clarity can we act ("DO") fearlessly. Powers says this blending of inner peace with loving action is sometimes called God, intuition, the "still small voice," grace or presence. He knew Jackie was right, "The world's problems cannot be solved at the same level of consciousness at which they were created."
At first it was difficult for Powers to live without a shower and toilet in the 12 X 12. He said Jackie did not leave an "Idiot's Guide." However, as the weeks passed in the 12 X 12 he found a deeper appreciation for the preciousness of water and the natural world. He said, "Instead of listening with one ear, as I sometimes do when faced with deadlines, with multitasking, I used both ears. Real listening is prayer."
Jackie's instructions were to "simply sit" and "to not do, be." Her stack of hand written cards with sayings or questions like "The Strenuous Contours of Enough, Trade Knowledge for Bewilderment" and "Simplify"
brought him into mindfulness and deepened his daily life. She said earlier, "The joy of simplifying one's material life is you don't have to work long hours to buy and maintain a bunch of stuff."
Concerning anger Jackie advised, "When you become so enmeshed with the fullness of nature, of Life, that your ego dissolves, emotions like resentment, anger, and fear have no place to lodge...you still feel these emotions but more like a dull thud against the mind...When you see worthiness, praise it. And when you see unworthiness, trace it. Don't judge. Trace anything you don't like in someone else back to their unique history; then trace it back to yourself because anything you dislike in others is somewhere in you."
Jackie's "wildcrafter" life and her eclectic neighbors of organic farmers, biofuel brewers and eco-developers helped Powers synthesize the wisdom of indigenous people. Their idea is not to live better but to live well: friends, family, healthy body, fresh air and water, enough food and peace. To ask what is enough? To see how genuine well-being is not linked to material possessions and productivity.
Powers' chapter on "Noise and War" reminds us that humans have slaughtered one hundred million of our species in twentieth-century wars. Powers fears America with its massive military industrial complex with 721 official military bases in foreign countries, and over one thousand unofficially, has chosen empire over democracy.
Powers and Jackie's story show how we can reshape ourselves in the face of globalization. We can decide what get globalized: consumption or compassion, selfishness or solidarity, war or peace.
Their penetrating insights offer clues for a smaller footprint, the joy of ordinariness and a more meaningful life.

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The Tenth Good Thing About Barney Review

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(More customer reviews)The little boy who is the narrator of this book has just had his pet cat Barney die. He can only think of nine good things about Barney, until the day after the funeral, when he spends the day in the garden with his father. The plot is extremely simple and spare, but the book depicts grief very well, and so we understand just how broken-hearted the little boy is, and how much he loved his cat. The Tenth Good Thing About Barney is an excellent springboard for families of every religious persuasion (including agnostics and atheists) to discuss what they feel happens after we die. The book helps children put into words many questions that they might be too young to articulate, and helps parents answer them for him as best you can. The writing is excellent, and perfectly captures the voice of a young boy, and the illustrations are elegant. It's a classic book, and belongs in every library.

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My cat Barney died this Friday. I was very sad. My mother said we could have a funeral for him, and I should think of ten good things about Barney so I could tell them... But the small boy who loved Barney can only think of nine. Later, while talking with his father, he discovers the tenth -- and begins to understand.

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The Discipline of Market Leaders: Choose Your Customers, Narrow Your Focus, Dominate Your Market Review

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(More customer reviews)This book's concepts for strategic marketing management are so widely accepted that the popular Balanced Scorecard concept of Kaplan and Norton in 2001 decided to adopt the ideas for the "customer perspective".
The authors manage to take Michael Porter's two generic competitive strategies - Differentiation and Cost Leader - and elaborate on these to an extent never presented so elegantly before. In the process, they discover a third generic strategy - Customer Intimacy.
Thus, Treacy and Wiersema distinguish between focusing on the following value dimensions:
- Operational excellence (cost leadership / focus on supply chain management)
- Product leadership (innovation / focus on product lifecycle management)
- Customer Intimacy (service leadership /focus on customer relationship management)

These are the FOUR RULES that govern market leaders' actions:
Rule 1: Provide the best offering in the marketplace by excelling in a specific dimension of value
Rule 2: Maintain threshold standards on the other dimensions of value
Rule 3: Dominate your market by improving value year after year
Rule 4: Build a well-tuned operating model dedicated to delivering unmatched value
Expanding on the fourth rule - operating models - may the best long-term contribution of this book. The authors explain in detail and via case stories how the operating models differ for each of the three value propositions. In practice, I've learned that by explaining the operating models, many people can easier find themselves depicted than in the overall generic dimensions of cost, service or product leadership.
OPERATIONAL EXCELLENCE or Cost Leadership - Best total cost - operating model:
Key success factor: Formula!
Golden rule: Variety kills efficiency
Culture: Disciplined teamwork; Process focused; Conformance, "one size fits all" mindset
Organization: Centralized functions; high skills at the core of the organization
Core processes: Product delivery and basic service cycle; built on standard, no frills fixed assets
Management Systems: Command and control; Compensation fixed to cost and quality; transaction profitability tracking
Information Technology: Integrated, low-cost transaction systems; Mobile and remote technologies
PRODUCT LEADERSHIP - Best product - operating model:
Key success factor: Talent!
Golden rule: Cannibalize your success with breakthroughs
Culture: Concept, future driven; Experimentation, "out of the box" mindset; Attack, go for it, win
Organization: Ad-hoc, organic, and cellular; High skills abound in loose-knit structures
Core processes: Invention, Commercialisation; Market exploitation; Disjoint work procedures
Management Systems: Decisive, risk oriented; Reward individuals' innovation capacity; Product lifecycle profitability
Information Technology: Person-to-person communications systems; Technologies enabling cooperation and knowledge management
CUSTOMER INTIMACY - Best total solution - operating model:
Key success factor: Solution!
Golden rule: Solve the client's broader problem
Culture: Client and filed driven; Variation: "Have it your way" mindset
Organization: Entrepreneurial client teams; High skills in the field
Core processes: Client acquisition and development; Solution development; Flexible and responsive work procedures
Management Systems: Revenue and share-of-wallet driven; Rewards based in part on client feedback; Lifetime value of client
Information Technology: Customer databases linking internal and external information; Knowledge bases built around expertise
If you're interested in Customer Intimacy, you may want to add Wiersema's additional book on only this strategy to your shopping basket. I highly recommend both paperback books ... great value for money ;-)
Peter Leerskov,
MSc in International Business (Marketing & Management) and Graduate Diploma in E-business

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Why is it that Casio can sell a calculator more cheaply than Kellogg's can sell a box of corn flakes? Why can FedEx "absolutely, positively" deliver your package overnight but airlines have trouble keeping track of your bags? What does your company do better than anyone else? What unique value do you provide to your customers? How will you increase that value next year? As customers' demands for the highest quality products, best services, and lowest prices increase daily, the rules for market leadership are changing. Once powerful companies that haven't gotten the message are faltering, while others, new and old, are thriving. In disarmingly simple and provocative terms, Treacy and Wiersema show what it takes to become a leader in your market, and stay there, in an ever more sophisticated and demanding world.

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The Running Dream Review

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(More customer reviews)
You know how it is when you wake up in the morning and sigh...you have to go to work at a place that makes you ill, or you have to face down a bill collector, or spend hours in your home trying to work and take care of your child while outside your next door neighbors are playing music so loud it could wake the dead. Or maybe you can't sleep because of the aches and pains or the icy wind blowing against the window, and you wish your life could be better? I'm guilty of this; I'm guilty of cussing or crying, sighing or grumbling...but what if it was worse? What if I really had something to complain about? I don't. I get up every day on two good legs, with minor aches and pains maybe, but able to walk out the door and follow my dream. This is a book that shows us what real troubles are, and how someone can overcome the fact that they have lost the destiny that they were shooting for with their whole heart, body, mind, and soul.

Jessica Carlisle has a gift - she can run like the wind and win race after race for her team. She's so good, in fact, that she's looking at winning gold medals in the Olympics when she gets older. Not only is she good at running, she loves it. There is nothing like the power - the "whoosh" - as her feet glide across the asphalt to people cheering. In that world she is Queen; in that world everything else makes sense. After a meet one day, where she has set a record almost impossible to achieve, Jessica is sitting on the bus with her friends when the crash comes. The lights go out and when they blink back on, she's in a hospital bed. She has a mother crying beside her; flowers on the table telling her to Get Well; a father who is angry and pacing the floor ready to take out the fates that have hurt his little girl; and, a cheery doctor who can say nothing more than 'you're healing well...you're fine...everything will get better...' and smiling like Jessica should feel like she's just won the lottery. A smile that says forget about the fact that one of your legs is gone, at least you have your life.

What life? Her whole future has been taken away from her. Her leg was smashed under a tangled piece of metal while others escaped with only cuts and bruises. Jessica is mad...beyond mad. Why her?

The story that follows hits you right between the eyes. Not a standard drama, the author writes her pages from Jessica's own mind, showing readers the steps of depression, anger, and the torrent of emotions that happen to someone when life becomes brutally unfair. The power that Jessica shows, the courage and bravery that comes upon her when she realizes that it's not over and there's no way the devil who made this happen is going to win, makes for one of the most powerful stories I've read in a long time.

Jessica's best friend, the boy she's always loved from afar, the support of her parents, schoolmates, and coach, as well as a young freshman in a wheelchair named Rosa who becomes a large part of Jessica's life, all come together to make a story that the reader WANTS to read. Not because of the lessons taught, mind you, but because Jessica's life, while tragic at first, turns into a fun, enjoyable read about friendship and starting over.

I hope this book goes straight to the top where it belongs...and I will try never to whine again. I will chase my dream until the lights turn out for good no matter what stands in my way or is thrown at me. Jessica is a fantastic role model for children and adults to simply keep going and, no matter what, doing what you love. Bravo!
Until Next Time,
Amy, Bookpleasures.com Reviewer

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Radioactive: Marie & Pierre Curie: A Tale of Love and Fallout Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)This is the first review I've ever been compelled to write. I also bought "Radioactive" after reading the New York Times' glowing praise. I couldn't put it down. After I read it, I couldn't go to sleep. I promptly ordered a dozen copies for friends, and wished I had the means to buy this book for everyone I know. This book changed my perspective on art, history, science and storytelling.
First, the little things: the author created her own type based on the title pages of the New York Public Library; through evident hard work and determination, she tracked down astonishing anecdotes, photographs, gravestone rubbings, x-rays, and little known facts; the bibliography includes a breathtaking spectrum of sources, from interviews, lectures, biographies (in English and French), scientific journals, classified documents, correspondence, maps, notebooks, newspapers, scientific society proceedings; the illustrations are stunning. What unfolds on pages 83 - 85 is profoundly affecting and viscerally unforgettable. I am embarrassed by the number of superlatives in this paragraph.
Now, the big thing: this book, like the story it tells, is a miracle.
The reviewer below is entitled to his opinion. But may I offer a counterpoint. On page 94 Marie recalls a day in the meadows with her family, picking flowers. And there is an illustration of buttercups. Pages later, when Marie learns that Pierre is dead: "The flowers he had picked in the country remained fresh on the table." And then, let's say for curiosity's sake, you flip to the Notes and see this citation: "flowers...on the table." Curie Archives, microfilm, 4300.
Perhaps you will "learn" "more" from a Wikipedia article. But I have rarely encountered a book that has made me feel so strongly and care more deeply about a topic (an entire world, really) that, prior to opening the cover, I had little interest in. Buy this book at once if you are a humanist; if you know anyone -- a journalist, artist, doctor, scientist -- looking for inspiration; if you believe in the confounding collision of serendipity, discovery, destruction and love; if you've never read a graphic novel; if there is a curious young woman in your life who you suspect might one day change the world with her intellect, or desperately wishes to. This book earns and deserves the attention of those of us who live beyond Wikipedia where stories are told, hearts swell and break, the buttercups matter (No. The buttercups are essential.), and man discovers a way to make mutant roses and glowing tubes of fairy light that change the course of history.

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Be a Perfect Person in Just Three Days Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)Who says that nobody's perfect? Certainly not Dr. K Pinkerton Silverfish, the clown-nosed, messy-hotdog-eating author of the book "Be a Perfect Person In Just Three Days!" that mysteriously falls on our hero's head!
Meet Milo. He's your average kid, flawed like the rest of us, and just trying to find a good book on scary monsters at the library when "Be a Perfect Person...!!" flies from the shelf and beans him a good one. The author, Dr. S, is a very strange looking character in his author photo, dressed in a half-tie and Hawaiian shirt with that messy hotdog, but something about his eyes and what may be a smirk on his lips makes Milo want to check the book out. After all, who WOULDN'T want to be perfect?
He takes it home to read and immediately finds out that the road to being perfect is paved with strange tasks. Wearing a stalk of broccoli around your neck for one day and night, and not eating anything, for example. It's enough to make people wonder if you've lost your marbles. Still, if broccoli-wearing brings Milo perfection (kinda' like fasting brings inner awareness), then so be it! Bring on the green stuff!
B.A.P.P.I.J.T.D. is a quick, fast-paced read that will entertain and draw in even the most reluctant readers. It's short, weighing in at under 100 pages, so the length won't intimidate beginning readers. It is funny, ridiculous and clips along at a pace where you can't help but keep reading to find out what could possibly happen next. The language is easy to read but not condescending to young audiences. I teach reading to a group of normally reluctant, low-level readers, and within the first page everyone was hooked! Many of my students even asked if they could read THE WHOLE THING by the next day's class. Lo and behold, most of them *DID*!! This was not my doing; this was the ease and engagement of the book itself. Don't just take MY word for it, take it from the students who normally hate reading: this is a fine, fun book!

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Milo, tired of problems with his sister, parents, and classmates, finds a book in the library which promises to make him perfect in just three days.

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