Romance of Redemption-Book of Ruth (Basic Bible Studies)

Customer Reviews:

Must Have; Don't Even Hesitate!.......2001-10-11

Recommendation:

Great tape; great topical instruction. One of the best tapes a Christian can buy. Every Christian should learn about faith and commitment from the Moabitess (gentile) Ruth. One of my very few favorites. I have given 1-2 dozens of these tapes for my friends.

If you are a new Christian you should get this. This book ranks up with John, Genesis and Revelation (Revelation is a great book not because of its prophecies, but because of its 340+ references from the Old Testament).

Summary:

One of the key Old Testament books that details the Levitical legal requirements for a "kinsman redeemer. Ruth is a beautiful literary work with critical concepts and prophecies for the Jew and Christian alike. Also, teaches the laws for gleaning, the Leverite marriage, and other Jewish customs. Ruth is a powerful four (short) chapter book that also prophecies King David's birth in Bethlehem.

It also demonstrates (indirectly) how suffering can have great
purpose.

Review:

Naomi leaves Israel for Moab penniless and in her land (inheritance) in debt with her husband during a severe drought. Her two sons marry Moabitess and then die. When Naomi's husband dies she returns to Israel. Ruth perseveres and returns with Naomi, committing to love and worship Naomi's God. While gleaning, she happens on Boaz's land where he becomes interested in her - he had heard many good things about Ruth's faithfulness and commitment to Naomi. Naomi learns this and teaches Ruth the Jewish customs and laws and how to act for Boaz in order for Naomi to redeem her land, and therefore care for both of them. Boaz falls in love with Ruth and redeems Naomi's land, marries Ruth and is given a prophecy after the birth of his firstborn.

Missler carefully instructs the listener in the subtle details that are missed when we casually read this book. Also, there are several passages that confound us, including Ruth's request for Boaz to "put his skirt over her"; the point that she is on the threshing floor with him when she makes this request; as well as the bizarre prophecies 1) "may you be famous in Bethlehem" and 2) "may your house be like Perez" (Gen 38:6-29). He also teaches us why this book is so valuable to Christians and Jews alike because of its call for faithfulness for grace and redemption.

Chuck Missler's Tape Studies:

I listen to Missler (and Dr. Fructenbaum's) tapes when driving in my car. They have greatly helped me extend my personal studies and spiritual growth while persevering under exceptionally arduous personal circumstances. (I will always have a special place in my heart for Missler's K-House because of the beautiful prayer one of his staff said with me just before I had to take my daughter off life support to end her life - you can read my daughter, Rebecca's story at littlestangel.com by going to the "Questions" page and clicking on the icon).

Missler is great because he provides well-researched biblical studies while pushing the listener / reader into a wider realm with some well-identified, but reasonably founded speculations. Many times the listener won't agree with these speculations, but they are good for some spiritual and argumentative exercises. He fully discloses his references when he is on firm ground, as well as clearly states when he is venturing into speculative territory.

The only negative is that I have the first version with the original notes. These notes are more sparse than the notes in Missler's more recent tape studies. But, the notes are deep enough and have the required bibliography. The more recent tape set may (or, may not) have updated notes - I don't know.

Regardless, this is absolutely a must have tape set for every Christian.

Inspired and Insightful.......2001-03-12

My faith was profoundly encouraged with this tape. You come away feeling excited to get into the Bible and search down all the correlative scriptures mentioned. I enjoyed grasping the symbolism of Ruth, the gentile Moabite, redeemed by Boaz. Boaz serving as an archetype for Christ, our Redeemer. This is a love story we should all come to understand. Many thanks to Chuck Missler for the intelligent way he is able to communicate what he understands to be God's truth.

Odd Girl Out: The Hidden Culture of Aggression in Girls

Average customer rating:

On the upside...
Good to get it out there
Odd Girl Out---the book
Interesting interviews, but feels repetitive and incomplete.
Now I understand why some girls are suddenly so mean!

Odd Girl Out: The Hidden Culture of Aggression in Girls
Rachel Simmons
Manufacturer: Recorded Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Audio Cassette

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Similar Items:

Odd Girl Speaks Out: Girls Write about Bullies, Cliques, Popularity, and Jealousy
Girl Wars: 12 Strategies That Will End Female Bullying
Mean Chicks, Cliques, and Dirty Tricks: A Real Girl's Guide to Getting Through the Day with Smarts and Style
Reviving Ophelia: Saving the Selves of Adolescent Girls
The Bully, the Bullied, and the Bystander: From Preschool to High School--How Parents and Teachers Can Help Break the Cycle of Violence

Accessories:

Tanita BC533 Glass Innerscan Body Composition Monitor

ASIN: 140252787X

Amazon.com

There is little sugar but lots of spice in journalist Rachel Simmons's brave and brilliant book that skewers the stereotype of girls as the kinder, gentler gender. Odd Girl Out begins with the premise that girls are socialized to be sweet with a double bind: they must value friendships; but they must not express the anger that might destroy them. Lacking cultural permission to acknowledge conflict, girls develop what Simmons calls "a hidden culture of silent and indirect aggression."

The author, who visited 30 schools and talked to 300 girls, catalogues chilling and heartbreaking acts of aggression, including the silent treatment, note-passing, glaring, gossiping, ganging up, fashion police, and being nice in private/mean in public. She decodes the vocabulary of these sneak attacks, explaining, for example, three ways to parse the meaning of "I'm fat."

Simmons is a gifted writer who is skilled at describing destructive patterns and prescribing clear-cut strategies for parents, teachers, and girls to resist them. "The heart of resistance is truth telling," advises Simmons. She guides readers to nurture emotional honesty in girls and to discover a language for public discussions of bullying. She offers innovative ideas for changing the dynamics of the classroom, sample dialogues for talking to daughters, and exercises for girls and their friends to explore and resolve messy feelings and conflicts head-on.

One intriguing chapter contrasts truth telling in white middle class, African-American, Latino, and working-class communities. Odd Girl Out is that rare book with the power to touch individual lives and transform the culture that constrains girls--and boys--from speaking the truth. --Barbara Mackoff

Book Description

Dirty looks and taunting notes are just a few examples of girl bullying that girls and women have long suffered through silently and painfully. With this book Rachel Simmons elevated the nation's consciousness and has shown millions of girls, parents, counselors, and teachers how to deal with this devastating problem. Poised to reach a wider audience in paperback, including the teenagers who are its subject, Odd Girl Out puts the spotlight on this issue, using real-life examples from both the perspective of the victim and of the bully.

Customer Reviews:

On the upside..........2007-06-09

What an incredible walk through our nation's schools--though only eye-opening because I didn't realize how prevalent my own experiences were among others. How sad that girlhood aggression has been labeled a "culture". On the upside, that ought to give it the attention that such destructive behavior is due. I know, I know, it's been said before: EVERY girl and her mother needs to read this.

Good to get it out there.......2007-05-02

I think the value in this book is its ablility to open up discussions about this subject. For generations, nothing has been said about it. Parents, teachers, school administrators, nobody wanted to talk about it. Without that discussion, nothing will ever change.

Odd Girl Out is beautifully written, sometimes heart-breaking, often maddening. I would have liked to have seen the author offer more solutions to the problem, but overall, I think it is a very valuable book and would recommend it to anyone with daughters.

Odd Girl Out---the book.......2007-04-15

Great book, very easy to read. Parents and girls should read this.

Interesting interviews, but feels repetitive and incomplete........2007-04-10

In Rachel Simmons' book, "Odd Girl Out: The Hidden Culture of Aggression in Girls," she introduces us to three hundred girls from thirty schools across the country. Blasting the stereotype that girls are the kinder, gentler sex, Simmons' premise is that girls are taught to "be nice" and to "make friends," and, as a result, are unable to express anger that might destroy the façade of friendship. Because our culture does not grant girls "permission" to confront conflict directly, Simmons asserts, there exists a "hidden culture of silent and indirect aggression" consisting of "backbiting, exclusion, rumors, name-calling, and manipulation to inflict psychological pain on targeted victims." Simmons remembers how she felt when a third grader named Abby told the other girls not to play with her; she remembers her own responsibility in giving another girl the silent treatment. It is from that base of personal experience that Simmons conducted her interviews.

The book consists of Simmons interviews...many, many interviews. Over time, the interviews begin to seem mind-numbingly similar. Natalie's story, Lisa's story, Molly's story, Dina's story...each story becomes repetitive. At one point, I set the book aside for a week and found that I had lost my place. I attempted to find the exact page where I had stopped reading, but I found that it was impossible to do so. Since none of the stories stood out distinctly in my mind, I gave up my search for the "right" page; I picked a random early chapter that I knew I must have read already and resumed my reading.

I enjoyed reading the book, even given its repetitiveness problems, and with a lifetime of experience being the "odd girl out," I found it somewhat cathartic to read stories of young women who had experienced similar trauma. Simmons does some things well. Her explanation of the devastating impact of girls' aggression is compelling, and she does an excellent job of describing the dynamics of the hidden aggression. In addition, Simmons relates the various interviews in a compassionate and thoughtful manner.

Where she does not succeed, however, is in giving her readers tangible suggestions about ways to address the problems she emphasizes.
Odd Girl Out contains two hundred and seventy pages, but it is only during the last thirty of those pages that Simmons addresses possible solutions to the problems she outlines. In those thirty pages, Simmons tells readers to talk to their daughters, to tell teachers about what is happening, and to make sure that teachers take the problems seriously. Those are reasonable suggestions, but I wanted more. I did not find a plan to keep these things from happening to my young adult daughter in the first place, nor did I find a plan of action in the event these things happen to my daughter. It is not enough to recommend we talk to our daughters and to their teachers - my friends and I could suggest that plan to one another over a cup of coffee at Starbucks. Simmons has made a good first step in raising awareness of the problem. She needed to work harder, though, to provide parents and teachers with skills and with plans for action when facing these issues.

Now I understand why some girls are suddenly so mean!.......2007-03-14

I read this book in preparation for my daughter's middle school years. I can honestly say it helped prepare me the first time she came home in distress over a friendship that had taken a negative turn. It gives insight into what might be going on in a girl's mind when she suddenly starts displaying RA tactics, and the devastating effects it has on both the aggressor and the victim.

My daughter took great comfort from this book as well as the companion book, Odd Girl Speaks Out - they helped her understand her friend's possible motives and gave her some tools to use to turn the situation around. It also helped me open up a dialogue with her school, who were very responsive. RA can be overcome, but you have to educate yourself and your community. Sometimes this has to start with the parent, not the teachers. This book is a fantastic first step.

Simisola: The New Chief Inspector Wexford Mystery (Chief Inspector Wexford Mysteries)

Average customer rating:

Simisola: The New Chief Inspector Wexford Mystery (Chief Inspector Wexford Mysteries)
Ruth Rendell
Manufacturer: Chivers Audio Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Audio Cassette

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ASIN: 074516515X

Average customer rating:

engaging classic
Great for first time readers
fantastic adventure
EXCELLENT!
Elmer and the Dragon -- a CLASSIC

Three Tales of My Father's Dragon
Ruth Stiles Gannett
Manufacturer: Listening Library (Audio)
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Audio Cassette

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My Father's Dragon (My Father's Dragon Trilogy)
Mr. Popper's Penguins
Elmer and the Dragon (My Father's Dragon)
The Cricket in Times Square
The Dragons of Blueland (My Father's Dragon)

ASIN: 0807217166
Release Date: 2003-05-13

Amazon.com

My Father's Dragon--a favorite of young readers since the 1940s and a Newbery honor book--captures the nonsensical logic of childhood in an amusingly deadpan fashion. The story begins when Elmer Elevator (the narrator's father as a boy) runs away with an old alley cat to rescue a flying baby dragon being exploited on a faraway island. With the help of two dozen pink lollipops, rubber bands, chewing gum, and a fine-toothed comb, Elmer disarms the fiercest of beasts on Wild Island. The quirky, comical adventure ends with a heroic denouement: the freeing of the dragon. Abundant black-and-white lithographs by Ruth Chrisman Gannett (the author's stepmother) add an evocative, lighthearted mood to an already enchanting story. Author Ruth Stiles Gannett's stand-alone sequel, Elmer and the Dragon, and her third volume, The Dragons of Blueland both received starred reviews in School Library Journal and are as fresh and original as her first. (Ages 4 to 8)

Book Description

The classic fantasy trilogy of Elmer Elevator and the flying baby dragon has delighted children and their parents for generations. Now, on the occasion of their fiftieth anniversary, Random House is proud to bring the three timeless tales together in one beautiful commemorative edition, complete with the original delightful illustrations. A Newbery Honor Book and an ALA Notable Book, My Father's Dragon is followed by Elmer and the Dragon ("rich, humorous, and thoroughly satisfying"*) and The Dragons of Blueland ("ingenious and plausible, the fantasy well-sustained"*). Each story stands alone, but read in succession, they are an unforgettable experience.*Library Journal, starred review

From the Hardcover edition.

Customer Reviews:

engaging classic.......2007-07-05

I recently purchased this CD set for a long car ride with my almost four year old. He loves listening to stories and this is no exception. The first of the three stories is our favorite, but all are well read; the narrator does the voices very well, which is most of the fun. These are classic tales, well worth exposing your children to. (The only caveat to the "classicness" is that they also contain material not sensored for modern political correctness. . . a slap, the word "queer", animals that consume humans, etc.).

Great for first time readers.......2007-06-04

Many years ago my wife and I were looking for a good book to give to our son as one of his own to read. The teen-age daughter of a friend recommended My Father's Dragon and it was perfect our son loved it and it is very good for young readers. He often returns to read the book again, 5 years later.

Just this past year we were struggling to get our 7-year old daughter to read anything, she would do anything not to read. I just handed her "My Father's Dragon" and she spent an hour reading it without a peep. She raced through the book in 2 days and it now moves from book to book with confidence and enjoyment.

I recommend this book highly for young readers. It's fantastic.

fantastic adventure.......2007-05-18

Young Elmer Elevator is, like Kipling's sailor, a "man of infinite resource and sagacity." When a stray cat he befriended tells him about a baby dragon being held prisoner on a far-away island, Elmer immediately puts together an eclectic selection of useful objects, stows away on a boat, and sets out to rescue the dragon. Such odds and ends as chewing gum, a brush and comb, hair ribbons, rubber bands and lollipops all turn out to be exactly what's needed to handle difficult situations. The second book in this three-in-one tells of Elmer's equally eventful return home. The third covers a second rescue, this time involving an entire dragon family. The stories are inventive and fun, and the pictures are delightful as well, leaving the reader wishing for more.

I would recommend this book for all ages. Our resident four-year-old has asked that it be read again and again.

Other recent favorites include Just So Stories and Mountains of the Moon.

EXCELLENT! .......2007-05-04

My 5 year old and myself enjoyed this book very much! I can't say anything negative. It is a great book!

Elmer and the Dragon -- a CLASSIC.......2007-02-15

I heard 2 of the 3 stories contained in this book read to me when I was
in Grade School [2nd grade]. The chapters are short enough to be used as a night by night READ to a young listener, prior to bed time, but these stories are charming even for adults to appreciate.
The main protagonist of this child's classic is a boy of 11 or 12 years of age by the name of Elmer Elevator. He travels abroad (on the advice of his newly acquired pet cat), and meets a juvenile dragon who is held captive by a jungle full of selfish animals. Elmer rescues Boris (that is the dragon's name), and that is where their adventures together begin. These stories have been in print for over 50 years but still retain their sparkle and charm and are timeless and fun for especially young readers or pre-reading listeners.

Just Listen 'N Learn German: The Basic Course for Succeeding in German and Communicating With Confidence (Passport Books)

Average customer rating:

Best way to learn German, period!
Easy and effective
Highly recommended
You can learn a lot from this course.
Best audio course I found

Just Listen 'N Learn German: The Basic Course for Succeeding in German and Communicating With Confidence (Passport Books)
Ruth Rach , and Brian Hill
Manufacturer: McGraw-Hill/Contemporary
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Audio Cassette

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Similar Items:

Just Listen 'N Learn German Plus
German: How to Speak and Write It (Beginners' Guides)
The Everything Learning German Book: Speak, Write and Understand Basic German in No Time (Everything Series)
Essential German Grammar

ASIN: 084429652X

Customer Reviews:

Best way to learn German, period!.......2003-01-24

This audio course in German is the best way to learn "real" German, since the conversations are taped in real life situations in and around Germany. There are also easy to digest lessons in grammar, aiding the listener in understanding word and sentence structure. The lessons are well organised and quick to learn and master. The listener is given plenty of chances to both listen and repeat German, aiding the learner in quickly mastering the language. Lessons are also geared toward travel situations that the listener might encounter - banking, hotels, dining out, introducing yourself, traveling on trams and trains and more.

If you've tried other German audio courses and failed, try this one. I've tried a lot of others and found this one to be superior for learning German. I've been to Germany and the taped conversations sound exactly like what I heard over there. They aren't acted out by actors like on other audio courses. They're actual conversations in hotels, restaurants, banks, on trains, museums and other places one might be inclined to go when traveling overseas. So you get to hear the "real" language in real life situations exactly as you'd hear them while traveling.

I give this audio course my highest recommendation, as one who's already been to Germany and Austria and heard the language in its native setting.

Easy and effective.......2000-08-17

I really like these Just Listen n Learn programs. They are well-organized and fun, I think. They emphasize audio comprehension, speaking skills, grammar and vocabulary. You start out by listening to several dialogues spoken by native speakers. Then you do some practice exercises, either written or spoken, which effectively cement the knowledge of what you just learned. There is a manageable vocabulary list and a page of grammar. Their attitude toward the importance of grammar in conversation is to take it easy, don't sweat it, and eventually you will get the hang of it, which is very comforting, since often German classes involve memorizing charts of the dative and accusative cases (UGH!) There is also a section on German culture, but in the German program it is generally not as interesting as I would hope. At the end of 15 lessons, if you are consistent and an active participant, you have not only learned a pretty extensive collection of words and phrases, but you can use it with remarkable ease. Not recommended for intensive writing or grammar study, and you really have to set aside a little time to do it, you can't just do it while you're driving, you have to use the book.

Highly recommended.......1999-05-31

Bought this set prior to a trip to Germany and Austria. A great value. Practical text, exercises, and cassettes, along with interesting and helpful historical and cultural information. I have just ordered the advanced course to get ready for next years trip. Sehr gut.

You can learn a lot from this course........1999-05-21

This is one of the best courses on the foreign language market. Not just boring drills, but real life situations as you follow Ruth Rach through different places in Germany. The situations are real life and not made up or rehearsed. You also get to test yourself at the end of the chapters. Recommended for anyone that wants to learn German. Nicht schlecht.

Best audio course I found.......1998-03-09

The tapes and book were easy to use. With English explanations for different thing in the book and on the tapes, I didn't have to look-up lots of things. The use of idioms made me sound like I knew more German than I actually did. German friends marvaled at my accent! By the end of the 3 tape course, I was able to actually reserve hotel rooms, order food (for myself and all my traveling companions), get help in stores, use public transportation, and meet locals in bars and clubs. I highly recommend this course.

Average customer rating:

EXCELLENT SHORT - AND NOT SO SHORT - STORIES
What the h* does Piranha to Scurfy mean?
Good Stories - Great Reader
Seven Good Stories Bordered by Two Great Ones
Good Mix of Rendell's Work

Piranha to Scurfy: And Other Stories
Ruth Rendell
Manufacturer: Books On Tape
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Audio Cassette

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Similar Items:

The Copper Peacock and Other Stories
Fallen Curtain, The
One Across, Two Down
Blood Lines: Long and Short Stories
The Lake of Darkness

ASIN: 0736656928

Amazon.com

These short fictions showcase Ruth Rendell's many gifts, among them the ability to evoke a mood and trap a reader in the deepest recesses of a character's psyche. The title story (its odd name comes from the volume of the encyclopedia her character uses in venting his spleen at published authors whose work suffers from a lack of precision) draws us into the mind of a lonely man whose inability to please his mother makes him vulnerable to self destruction. "The Wink" and "Walter's Leg," two stories about revenge, demonstrate that it is indeed a meal best eaten cold. "The Professional" is a small gem with an ironic twist, notable for its acute insights into social class and status in England. In these and other pieces in this collection, Rendell's powers of invention and acute psychological insight remind one of the chilling tales she writes as Barbara Vine. But the best is saved for last, "High Mysterious Union," a tale that's like the weather in Rendell's typical English landscape: sunny at the start but increasingly dark and threatening as the plot thickens. A translator rents a cottage in a village that seems like Lake Wobegon. Everyone is beautiful, strong, and kind, especially the women, who seduce the newcomer with their charms and then abandon him when he fails to see the rightness of their unique, bizarre ways. He gets away with his life, but it will take days before he (and his creator) give you back your own. --Jane Adams

Book Description

In these pages, internationally celebrated novelist Ruth Rendell, author of Harm Done, offers a collection of unforgettable stories evocative of Edgar Allan Poe, Stephen King, and other masters of the chilling touch.

"Piranha to Scurfy" tells of a lonely man who devotes his life to writing scathing letters to newly published authors, pointing out their many mistakes. He does so in memory of his mother, who lies buried in the garden, for reasons that emerge to haunting effect.

"The Wink" recounts the story of a woman, raped years ago in a small English town, whose patience is rewarded by a perfectly satisfying moment of revenge.

"Catamount," set in the Rocky Mountains, is seen through the eyes of an Englishwoman who perceives the ruthless ferocity that lurks behind the beauty of the landscape.

And bringing the collection of nine stories to an unforgettable conclusion is the novella-length "High Mysterious Union," a dark, relentless tale of erotic obsession and bloodless violence in remote, rural England.

Customer Reviews:

EXCELLENT SHORT - AND NOT SO SHORT - STORIES.......2005-10-02

For an evening of light reading this is just the thing and the scope and variety of the author,s imagination is breathtaking at times. Read this book and you will not be disappointed.

Timothy Wingate Ottawa CANADA

What the h* does Piranha to Scurfy mean?.......2004-07-09

This book is so boring, I barely made it half-way through; the stories are idiotic in the sense that if you don't understand it, it must be art.

Good Stories - Great Reader.......2004-01-22

The stories are good, mysterious. Add to that the outstanding talents of Jenny Sterlin and you have 4 hours of good times ahead.

Seven Good Stories Bordered by Two Great Ones.......2003-10-04

Of the nine stories in this collection, the seven in the middle are good. Some of them are very good. But the stories that open and close the collection are great.

Rendell has the ability to put people in strange situations and make us feel what they feel: danger, fear, panic, disgust, or just plain unease. Her stories have a sense of justice. We see someone doing something they shouldn't and a part of us wants justice. Rendell knows how to write such a story and make it thoroughly satisfying.

The title story focuses on a young man named Ribbon. Ribbon is well-off, not filthy rich, but well-off. He spends his time reading novels, examining their grammatical and factual inaccuracies, and writing letters to the publishers and authors involved. He's the original literary snob (and a real jerk). But who can blame him? His mother taught him this behavior, after all. Ah, but she's no longer with Ribbon. And when a book by a despised author takes on a life of its own, Ribbon doesn't know where to turn. But it's silly to be harassed by a book...isn't it?

The final story, "High Mysterious Union," is a story that works on many levels. It's a great story, but it also speaks to our society and how we view culture, community, and sex. Ben is a writer who stays in a friend's cottage in a British village to work on a manuscript. Ben becomes obsessed with one of the local girls, a young local girl. Ben's almost old enough to be her father. You might think this is a typical Lolita-type story, but you soon realize that's not it at all. It's an amazing story, one of those that stays with you long after you've finished reading it.

Good Mix of Rendell's Work.......2003-09-19

Any selection of short stories will have stronger and weaker pieces to make up the whole. And if you ask three different people to rank these stories you would most likely get a lot of variation in the lists that they would make. Different people are drawn to different things--and this is a set of stories to prove that rule. My husband and I read this book out loud to each other and we had amazingly different opinions about the merits of each story. I just read the reviews others have left for this book and I see the variety of responses there too. Both my husband and I liked this book. But we were both drawn to very different aspects of these stories. Every one of these stories has a special kind of interest; each works on building tension and characters in different ways. Some are predictable. Some have surprises. But it is the fun part of reading short stories by a writer as good as Rendell. You don't necessarily know what you will find when you start a story. Her ability runs across a broad range -- and she gives you a taste of her talents in the variety presented in this book. While this book is not going to land on "my hundred favorite books list," it is a good entertainment and it reminds me of eating snacks. It is a great book to have around to pick up and take a nibble of: Complete stories are presented to you quickly, neatly and each has a special flavor. But it isn't the stuff of a satisfying meal.

My Father's Dragon: Books 1 and 2: #1 My Father's Dragon #2 Elmer and the Dragon (My Father's Dragon)

Average customer rating:

If your child likes animals, humor, adventure, and maps...
Buy a better quality print of this book
SUPER
My boys favorite series!
AN Amazing Adventure

My Father's Dragon: Books 1 and 2: #1 My Father's Dragon #2 Elmer and the Dragon (My Father's Dragon)
Ruth Stiles Gannett
Manufacturer: Listening Library (Audio)
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Audio Cassette

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Similar Items:

Elmer and the Dragon (My Father's Dragon)
The Dragons of Blueland (My Father's Dragon)
Mr. Popper's Penguins
Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle
Three Tales of My Father's Dragon

ASIN: 0807220337
Release Date: 2003-07-22

Amazon.com

My Father's Dragon--a favorite of young readers since the 1940s and a Newbery honor book--captures the nonsensical logic of childhood in an amusingly deadpan fashion. The story begins when Elmer Elevator (the narrator's father as a boy) runs away with an old alley cat to rescue a flying baby dragon being exploited on a faraway island. With the help of two dozen pink lollipops, rubber bands, chewing gum, and a fine-toothed comb, Elmer disarms the fiercest of beasts on Wild Island. The quirky, comical adventure ends with a heroic denouement: the freeing of the dragon. Abundant black-and-white lithographs by Ruth Chrisman Gannett (the author's stepmother) add an evocative, lighthearted mood to an already enchanting story. Author Ruth Stiles Gannett 's stand-alone sequel, Elmer and the Dragon, and her third volume, The Dragons of Blueland both received starred reviews in School Library Journal and are as fresh and original as her first. (Ages 4 to 8)

Book Description

This collection includes:

My Father's Dragon
When Elmer Elevator hears about the plight of an overworked and underappreciated baby flying dragon, he stows away on a ship and travels to Wild Island to rescue the dragon.

Elmer and the Dragon
A stand-alone sequel to My Father's Dragon, in which Elmer Elevator and the flying baby dragon help the king of the canaries find treasure.

Customer Reviews:

If your child likes animals, humor, adventure, and maps..........2007-10-10

This might be the book that gets your reluctant, or comic book obsessed child into reading. This book includes a dialogue with an alley cat on the first page...a map of imaginary lands, and a clever story about imaginative trickory of various animals. I haven't seen a lot like this out there for the 7-10 year old readers. It also makes for great bedtime reading, as the adventure is gentle, the pictures not too frequent, and the text soothing, descriptive, and rhythmic.

Buy a better quality print of this book.......2007-08-22

While the story is definetly worth 5 stars, all the paperback printings of this story render the art absolutely hiddeous. The fine graphite shading of the illustrations is totally lost and the images end up looking like Xeroxes from a newspaper. I grew up reading this story in an anthology of stories published in the 1950's; the art in the anthology is of the highest quality so I know most reprints of this story today are sadly lacking - and it's a shame, too, because I know how much I enjoyed looking at the pictures as a child with my grandfather reading the story to me. These newer printings leave much to be desired.

SUPER .......2007-08-14

I just finished reading this clever, witty and engaging book to my almost-four-year-old son and we both enjoyed it very much!

My daughter - age eight - read it in about thirty minutes and I am considering using it as a resource for copywork in our daily lessons.

This is one of the most entertaining and sweet books we've ever read as a family.

My boys favorite series!.......2007-01-03

Great story about a boy who rescues a baby dragon. My 3 and 5 year old love this series, and anything that doesn't beep, flash, or make a mess that will get a 3 year old to sit down for half an hour at a time has to be great! The storyline is very imaginative, and revolves around being nice to others and using what you have to solve the problems you run into.

AN Amazing Adventure.......2006-12-17

These books are so special because they capture thae minds of all readers, and mean somthing more to younger kids because, Ruth Ganett use her imagineation as is she could go into a mind of an kid 5-9 and speak their thoughts. I am an avid reader, so out of all the books I've read this is one I will cherish forever. Everyone should read it even if a 190 year old person special ordered a super deluxe HUGE print version, they would still enjoy it.

Average customer rating:

Candid, thoughtful, and highly recommended!
A good, but hardly exceptional, memoir
Completely absorbing, entertaining and inspiring!
Far better than I'd imagined
Tender and insightful

Tender at the Bone (Cassette)

Manufacturer: Random House Audio
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Audio Cassette

General | Books on Cassette | Audiobooks | Formats | Books

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Essays | Gastronomy | Cooking, Food & Wine | Subjects | Books

General | Cooking, Food & Wine | Subjects | Books
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Comfort Me with Apples: More Adventures at the Table
Garlic and Sapphires: The Secret Life of a Critic in Disguise
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Remembrance of Things Paris: Sixty Years of Writing from Gourmet (Modern Library Food)

ASIN: 0553525174
Release Date: 1998-02-17

Amazon.com

New York Times restaurant critic Ruth Reichl reads her (only very slightly abridged) memoir with the same humor, care, and intimacy that she put into its writing. The voices of the chefs, waiters, and gourmands who taught her to love food and its preparation come to life in this audiobook. Particularly compelling is her wonderful tale of "Life on Mars"--boarding school in Montreal might well have been on another planet. We listen as her halting French becomes fluent, as she shares weekend forays for forbidden smoked meat and cream puffs (the cure for all homesickness) with her new friend, Beatrice, and as her encounter with Beatrice's father, Monsieur du Croix, introduces her to a new level of joy in food. Audiobook listeners are also treated to a handy booklet of recipes included with the tapes that represent a dish from each of the main characters we meet in Ruth's life.

Book Description

For better or for worse, almost all of us grow up at the table. It is in this setting that Ruth Reichl's brilliantly written memoir takes its form. For, at a very early age, Reichl discovered that "food could be a way of making sense of the world...if you watched people as they ate, you could find out who they are."

Tender at the Bone is the story of a life determined, enhanced, and defined in equal measure by unforgettable people, the love of tales well-told, and a passion for food. In other words, the stuff of the best literature. The journey begins with Reichl's mother, the notorious food-poisoner known forevermore as the Queen of Mold, and moves on to the fabled Mrs. Peavey, one-time Baltimore socialite millionairess, and, for a brief poignant moment, retained as the Reichls' maid. Then we are introduced to Monsieur du Croix, the gourmand, who so understood and stood somewhat in awe of this prodigious child at his dinner table that when he introduced Ruth to the soufflé, he could only exclaim, "What a pleasure to watch a child eat her child eat her first soufflé!" Then, fast forward to the politically correct table set in Berkeley in the 1970s, and the food revolution that Ruth watched and participated in as organic became the norm. But this sampling doesn't do this character-rich work justice. And, after all, this is just a taste.

Tender at the Bone is a remembrance of Ruth Reichl's childhood into young adulthood, redolent with the atmosphere, good humor, and angst of a sensualist coming of age.

Customer Reviews:

Candid, thoughtful, and highly recommended!.......2007-09-04

Why have I been reading so long without knowing there was a subgenre of books called "cooking memoirs"??? Perhaps it was because I didn't care all that much until my son became a sous chef and then his friend and former coworker became a contestant on the current season of the Emmy-nominated reality TV program, Top Chef. I grew up in a small town of parents from the Midwest. Meat and potatoes were their game and meat and potatoes were what sustained our family and my family when I was a young wife and mother. It wasn't until I acquired the cookbooks of Julee Rosso and Sheila Lukins (The Silver Palate and The New Basics) That I began to eat a little differently.

It wasn't until I met my husband that I was introduced to more nouveau cuisine in restaurants; I had never been able to afford food like this before. We went to all the nice restaurants in the Seattle area, Portland, and many in Palm Springs, Las Vegas, Southern California, Scottsdale, Arizona and even Hawaii on our trips. But still a lot of the terminology and recipes remained unfamiliar to me. So until the last few years fancy recipes and restaurants didn't mean much to me, so why would I care about food memoirs even if I had known they existed?

But I digress. Back to Reichl's memoir. I had heard about this genre first when it was mentioned in one of my online book groups. Then I happened to download a wonderful interview with the author done by the CBC onto my iPod. I couldn't wait to read her books. I immediately ordered Tender at the Bone but while waiting for it to arrive (and it still hasn't) ordered it from my local library. I was immediately taken in by the story of this woman who rose to fame by being a restaurant critic for the New York Times and then editor of Gourmet magazine whose mother cooked such horrible meals that she once poisoned the entire guest list of an engagement party. This woman who while a young dissident in Berkeley in the early 70s made meals made primarily of ingredients garnered from Dumpster diving. How in the world did she get to where she is now? I had to know more.

How could one woman have so many colorful characters come into her life? How could she have so many food adventures? An amazing book. I absolutely couldn't put it down.

Reichl's candor makes the reader feel like they are almost a voyeur in her life. I love this woman's writing!!! Where has she been all my life???? I want to know what in the world happens between her and Doug and did she ever remain friends with Serafina? Will we ever find out what happened to Mrs. Peavey? Inquiring minds want to know!!!! I was lucky to have her second memoir, Comfort Me With Apples, Growing Up at the Table here from the library as well and immediately picked it up. Hopefully I will get some of the answers in this second book. Her third, Garlic and Sapphires, is on order.

A good, but hardly exceptional, memoir.......2007-08-20

[Review written Mar 2005]

Ruth Reichl was the former food writer for the NY Times, and as of this writing, she's the editor in chief of gourmet magazine.

Her autobiographical "Adventures at the Table" series spans 2 books:

1) Tender at the Bone: Growing Up at the Table
2) Comfort Me with Apples: More Adventures at the Table

As far as memoirs go, Reichl's is more interesting and diverting than most. She's a good, if unspectacular, writer, and she has the requisite ability (required of all professional food writers) to wax poetic, at need, when discussing food related experiences. However, she never really succeeded in impressing me (as a reader) with her narration. She's certainly very competent at what she does (as a restaurant reviewer), but she just sort of drifts along in her book(s), in that lacadaisical barefoot Berkeley commune kind of way of hers. Good, but not exceptional. She's at her literary best when she's talking about food - or more specifically, writing food reviews.

There are some entertaining moments in her book(s) - such as when she was a newly hired food writer, and she pulled up to an uber-exclusive restaurant (I forget which) in her clunker of a car, shaggy hair, and decidedly casual attire, and was (predictably) treated like a persona-non-grata by the valets and snobs in charge ... and she gleefully took them to task for it in her subsequent review (good for her !). On the other hand I wanted to reach into her book and smack her when she wrote how she had a casual affair with a married man in Paris (rather self-centered, flighty and unethical, if you ask me - to each their own I suppose). Lastly, some of her food memories (but not nearly enough of them) occasionally include recipes for the reader to try ... such as Danny Kaye's sublimely simple fresh pasta in lemon-butter.

Bottom line: a somewhat above average, but hardly spectacular, memoir - heavily garnished with mildly diverting food related memories.

Comparatively speaking, Peter Mayle is a more gifted and entertaining writer; Anthony Bourdain writes with more edginess and wit; and Arthur Schwartz writes with more breadth, focus, and depth on the subject. Ruth Reichl just sort of flounders along in their footprints, in her lackadaisical dilettantish fashion. It's good, but hardly exceptional.

Completely absorbing, entertaining and inspiring!.......2007-05-08

I loved this book - with every chapter I was inspired to learn French, drink French wine, try out the recipes. I can't wait to read "Garlic & Sapphires" which I ordered and should be receiving shortly!

Far better than I'd imagined.......2007-04-20

I really enjoy Gourmet magazine, but I had no idea how much of an influence its editor really has on the quality of the writing until I read her first book. I think it's her best, but others may think differently. Either way, it's a must-read for any foodie.

Tender and insightful .......2007-04-09

Over all this book is a great read. Generally memoirs tend to be ho hum, but Ruth tells what was "tender at the bone" (I love the title) for so many families/kids of her generation. Ruth's description of her ecentric, off-the-wall mother was really hilarious, although understandably an odd person for a child to understand and/or explain to others. To me Ruth writes like she's on the outside looking in (at life and people); although she has her complexities, she also seems intuitive and sensitive with people and food and she knows the two go hand in hand. Pork Chops and Applesauce: A Collection of Recipes and Reflections

Average customer rating:

Excellent
exquisite stuff from Rendell
Wonderful, Wonderful, wonderful
A shamefully underexposed thriller
Rendell at her most Hitchockian

The Face of Trespass
Ruth Rendell
Manufacturer: Chivers Word for Word Audio Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Audio Cassette

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ASIN: 0754075370

Customer Reviews:

Excellent.......2004-04-12

This book was excellent. I had not read anything else by the author prior to this point, but look forward to reading more of her works. The plot twists are amazing. I knew that something was going to happen, and it was going to be bad...but didn't know what. Which is surprising nowadays because so many books are so easy to figure out half way through. The characters are wonderful too.

exquisite stuff from Rendell.......2003-08-23

Two years ago Gray Lanceton was a promising writer with one successful novel under his belt. But, then he met Drusilla, a bored, rich, unstable yet magnetic young woman, and his life was changed forever.

Now he lives in quiet exile in a small messy cottage, with only the surrounding trees and his own obsessive destroying thoughts for company. Their affair is now over, and he hopes that maybe now he can be free. But, unbeknownst to Gray, tragedy lurks still above him, the shadow of Drusilla and her violent desires will soon threaten to rob him of any of that freedom he thought he had clawed back...

This short book is a little piece of genius. It is a great great shame that many of these early novels of hers remain out of print, because they really are excellent. This one in particular is a wonderful yet chilling character study, which is what several of them tend to be, their lengths being what they are. While her later books are longer and can probe the psychological depths of many characters with greater ease, these early short gems tend to focus their intense insight on one major character, and she manages with effortless ease to present a completely whole, completely real, somewhat disturbing, portrait of a single fascinating character, in this case the reclusive, eerily human writer Graham Lanceton, who is actually quite likeable, which is rare for Rendell. It is a tale of desire, violence, freedom and of obsession, with each element explored wonderfully within a riveting plot.

She has a wonderfully polished writing style, and creates a tale that is both claustrophobic and atmospheric. All the aspects of the plot click together wonderfully. No event is superfluous, every occurrence has its purpose and its effect, which creates a wonderful whole and round effect to the book. Book with stories that weave and interlock so well are a joy, they are more fulfilling and the effect makes the writer seem darn clever, and this is a prime.

The Face of Trespass is dark, compelling, and psychologically brilliant. The final cataclysmic events are shocking and yet sensible. In fiction, this is becoming very rare.

Wonderful, Wonderful, wonderful.......2001-12-12

This is my 12th Ruth Rendell book and I think each is better than the last. They are not as good to me when I listen to them on audio book. I wonder why? Gray loves Druscilla so much but cannot bring himself to commit the crime she requests. Then he has to go to France to see about his dying Mother. It is so hard to write a review of this very complicated novel which is so good. You know something bad is going to happen to someone but you don't know who, when, where or why. I love that type of novel. Read it, you won't regret it. I am going to get all her works, if it's the last thing I ever do!!!!!!11

A shamefully underexposed thriller.......2000-06-01

THE FACE OF TREPASS falls into that category of early Rendell classics that have since fallen out of print. A pity--this is one of Rendell's most enjoyable, involving, and finely tuned performances. An author, obsessed by his memories of a passionate but dangerous love affair, shuts himself up in a filthy hovel for months and months, willing himself to forget...it's a wonderful setup for Rendell's typically inventive plot twists, peppered with dead-on psychological insight.

Rendell's boundless strengths as a mystery writer and an anatomist of the human condition are fully in evidence here. She demonstrates once more her perfect mastery of tone and pace, as well as her gift for wicked wit--THE FACE OF TRESPASS is not just a superior thriller; it can also be an extremely funny book in certain places. And like all of the author's novels, there is a wonderfully effective buildup of psychological tension, a sense of inevitable tragedy that is brilliantly sustained--impressive, considering that THE FACE OF TRESPASS doesn't feature a single gunfight or car chase. Nothing here but delicious prose, shrewd social observation, marvelous character study, and a deft plot that serves up surprise after surprise. The story is marred only by a contrived conclusion that offers a false sense of security, usually absent in Rendell's bleak novels. Still, a wonderfully rich choice for fans of intelligent suspense fiction.

Rendell at her most Hitchockian.......1999-08-11

Alfred Hitchock would have filmed this story of deceit and obsessive love. Although the book begins slowly, the plot quickens to a double twist of fate. Highly recommended. This book is out of print and hard to find. Excellent BBC adaption available of video.

Average customer rating:

1920s Wisconsin without nostalgia
Well written but depressing as hell.
I've read this at least three times.
Read it twice
Surprises

Drowning Ruth
Christina Schwarz
Manufacturer: Random House Audio
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Audio Cassette

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ASIN: 055352853X
Release Date: 2001-05-15

Amazon.com

For 19th-century novelists--from Jane Austen to George Eliot, Flaubert to Henry James--social constraint gave a delicious tension to their plots. Yet now our relaxed morals and social mobility have rendered many of the classics untenable. Why shouldn't Maisie know what she knows? It will all come out in family therapy anyway. The vogue for historical novels depends in part on our pleasure in reentering a world of subtle cues and repressed emotion, a time in which a young woman could destroy her life by saying yes to the wrong man. After all, there was no reliable birth control, no divorce, no chance of an independent life or a scandal-free separation.

Christina Schwarz's suspenseful debut pivots on two of the lost "virtues" of the past: silence and stoicism. Drowning Ruth opens in 1919, on the heels of the influenza epidemic that followed the First World War. Although there were telephones and motor cars and dance halls in the small towns of Wisconsin in those years, the townspeople remained rigid and forbidding. As a young woman, Amanda Starkey, a Lutheran farmer's daughter, had been firmly discouraged from an inappropriate marriage with a neighboring Catholic boy. A few years later, as a nurse in Milwaukee, she is seduced by a dishonorable man. Her shame sends her into a nervous breakdown, and she returns to the family farm. Within a year, though, her beloved sister Mathilde drowns under mysterious circumstances. And when Mathilde's husband, Carl, returns from the war, he finds his small daughter, Ruth, in Amanda's tenacious grip, and she will tell him nothing about the night his wife drowned. Amanda's parents, too, are long gone. "I killed my parents. Had I mentioned that?" muses Amanda.

I killed them because I felt a little fatigued and suffered from a slight, persistent cough. Thinking I was overworked and hadn't been getting enough sleep, I went home for a short visit, just a few days to relax in the country while the sweet corn and the raspberries were ripe. From the city I brought fancy ribbon, two boxes of Ambrosia chocolate, and a deadly gift... I gave the influenza to my mother, who gave it to my father, or maybe it was the other way around."

Schwarz is a skillful writer, weaving her grim tale across several decades, always returning to the fateful night of Mathilde's death. Drowning Ruth displays her gift for pacing and her harsh insistence on the right ending, rather than the cheery one. --Regina Marler

Book Description

Six cassettes, 9 1/2 hrs.
Performance by Blair Brown

Deftly written and emotionally powerful, DROWNING RUTH is a stunning portrait of the ties that bind sisters together and the forces that tear them apart, of the dangers of keeping secrets and the explosive repercussions when they are exposed. A mesmerizing and achingly beautiful debut.

Winter, 1919. Amanda Starkey spends her days nursing soldiers wounded in the Great War. Finding herself suddenly overwhelmed, she flees Milwaukee and retreats to her family's farm on Nagawaukee Lake, seeking comfort from her younger sister, Mathilda, and three-year-old niece, Ruth. But very soon, Amanda comes to see that her old home is no refuge—she has carried her troubles with her.

On one terrible night almost a year later, Amanda loses nearly everything that is dearest to her when her sister mysteriously disappears and is later found drowned beneath the ice that covers the lake. When Mathilda's husband comes home from the war, wounded and troubled himself, he finds that Amanda has taken charge of Ruth and the farm, assuming her responsibility with a frightening intensity. Wry and guarded, Amanda tells the story of her family in careful doses, as anxious to hide from herself as from us the secrets of her own past and of that night.

Ruth, haunted by her own memory of that fateful night, grows up under the watchful eye of her prickly and possessive aunt and gradually becomes aware of the odd events of her childhood. As she tells her own story with increasing clarity, she reveals the mounting toll that her aunt's secrets exact from her family and everyone around her, until the heartrending truth is uncovered.

Guiding us through the lives of the Starkey women, Christina Schwarz's first novels shows her compassion and a unique understanding of the American landscape and the people who live on it.

Download Description

Deftly written and emotionally powerful, Drowning Ruth is a stunning portrait of the ties that bind sisters together and the forces that tear them apart, of the dangers of keeping secrets and the explosive repercussions when they are exposed.

Customer Reviews:

1920s Wisconsin without nostalgia.......2007-09-19

From the beginning of Drowning Ruth, I kept wondering, is Ruth's aunt Amanda just kind of crazy, or really crazy? The story begins with Ruth's memory of drowning when she was four, at the time her mother drowned beneath the ice. Aunt Amanda keeps telling Ruth that of course she didn't drown, but Ruth has emotional memories of the time surrounding her mother's death. Drowning Ruth is as much (or more) Amanda's story as Ruth's, a story about the healthy and unhealthy bonds of family.

Drowning Ruth is set in rural Wisconsin starting in 1919. The isolated farms and communities seem to foster private sorrows. Although the farm family's private island is idealized, generally life for these characters is harsh. There's no eccentric charm of Lake Wobegon here. Although I didn't click with any of the characters, the complexity of the puzzle drew me in.

The back of the book blurb describes it as a "psychological thriller". That's a misnomer better applied to The Alienist: A Novel. It's more of a family drama where Amanda's past unfolds piece by disjointed piece as Ruth's life progresses along a chronological path. This book is sold as an Oprah book and a book club book to an audience of women, because the primary material is motherly/sisterly/daughterly love, but it's also a good historical study. This is Christina Schwartz's first novel, and an impressive first one it is.

Well written but depressing as hell........2007-09-10

Read this for a book club. Wish I hadn't. Going back to romances now so I don't have to deal with any more suffering than absolutely required.

I've read this at least three times........2007-08-16

I haven't found an emotional thriller to beat "Drowning Ruth". The fact that I could get so involved with the characters that I wanted to shout at them is a credit to Schwarz's style. The plot twists -so surprising-yet not, in retrospect, reminded me of the last chapters of "Rebecca".

I'm sure this will remain one of favorite reads.

Read it twice.......2007-04-30

This book is an intricate, perfect character study. I enjoyed the writing style and especially enjoyed the mental imagery. Read it once for pleasure. Read it a second time for the subtle jems you may have missesd the first time through. Wonderful!

Surprises.......2007-04-13

This book was given to me as a present, I had not heard of it and I picked it up reluctantly. I was pleasantly surprised by this book, full of interesting characters and a suspense that kept me gripped throughout the entire book.
A lot of surprises in this book.

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