This book gave me a new outlook on God's plan for my life! It showed me that God already has a plan for each and everyone of our lives before we were even born and how important it was to be lead of God when making tough decisions in life. One point that Sis. CeCe Winans(Love) made in her book that really inspired me was when she said, "No one can beat you at being you". I know that will stick with me for the rest of my life! As a 21 year old, single, woman of color, this book describes the life of a woman that I can truly model my life after! I may never become a famous gospel artist, but I can strive to be that humble, meek, and virtuos woman that I read about in this book. I found a mentor in Sis. CeCe after reading her book. Thank Sis. Cece for sharing your life! May God oh so ever bless and prosper even the more, you and your family!

While reading "On a Positive Note" by CeCe Winans, I was taken back into a time when I myself was growing up, how her childhood memories was very similar to my own. I also grew up in a large family, and reading her book brought back so many memories of my past. Despite all the tribulations and triumphs of her life, she managed to hold on to her spiritual belief, letting it guide her through her every decision in life. "On A Positive Note" has inspired me, lifted me to a higher level of praising the Lord and reminded me to always put God before each decision throughout my life. This book was quite a page turner that filled my heart with laughter, joy, tears, praise, sadness and forgiveness. I was moved to pray for Ronald myself as she astoundingly shared his testimony. My thirteen year old daughter is now reading this wonderful book and I will reccommend it to everyone I know.

http://pages.ivillage.com/cassie23/

Easy reading about the Diva Priscilla CeCe Winans Love. She is definitely in a class of her own. I enjoyed and beleive every women and young girl who has a dream will enjoy it too. After reading this book, I have a new respect for Mrs. CeCe, the Winans family and her Love family. It speaks volumes on the impact of music business, what it means to be a woman of God, raise a family, have a career while maintaining Godly values, morals and a desire to do the things of God.

Wonderful book! Most of the recipes use less than five ingredients and most of them are already in the kitchen (ex. flour, salt, pepper, dill). I love to cook but hate complicated things. Mama Dip cooks like real people do, with a few ingredients, lots of flavor, and lots of love. Almost all of them but a few can be made in 45 minutes or less. Try it for yourself, you won't be dissappointed. I've bought one for about everyone I know!

I first saw Mama Dip on the Food Network. I immediately went online to find the cookbook that was mentioned. I now have a book of recipes and techniques that I can leave for my children when I am gone. I was afraid that I would have to write down my techniques etc. but she did it for me. What a wonderful read the book is also. I can hardly wait for her to find time to put another collection together. What a wonderful woman.

Mama Dip is a remarkable lady and her cookbook makes you feel as though you are right in North Carolina sitting at her table. The recipies are wonderful. Not all soul food or Southern cooking is the same. Different regions do things in entirely different ways and I enjoyed trying her variations on dishes I'm was familiar with as well as totlally new things.

I recently ordered this book and read it cover to cover in one afternoon. Brooks Brown has hit the nail right on the head when he says that 'although Eric and Dylan are responsible for the murders, it took a school like Columbine to create people like Eric and Dylan' or something to that effect.Everyone knows what the real reason is, but nobody wants to really come out and say it because the truth hurts. It's more convenient to blame it on music and television, guns or video games.All of these are scapegoats. The fact of the matter is that our schools are not only a reflection of our society, but a look at what the future of our country holds.I somtimes wonder how many more innocent, dead American children these administrators and teachers need to see before they wake up and realize that they created a hostile and offensive atmosphere.As teachers, as administrators, coaches, counselors, etc. they have an obligation to create a learning atmosphere that is safe, that is equal, and that is non-discriminitory. Those in charge of Columbine prior to the shooting failed on all three counts. They failed those children, they failed the community, and they are an example of the decline in modern American education.Is it any wonder that so many parents have opted to homeschool? The day after the shootings the National Homeschool Legal Defense Association was literally jammed with phone calls from parents who had finally made the decision. I was homeschooled myself and thank God every day that I had parents who cared enough to prevent me from having to be exposed to atmospheres like that. I was never a 'jock'. The only sport I've ever felt passionate about is surfing. I also like classical music, art, the theater and reading. I probably would have fit in quite well in places like Columbine. (sarcasm)Ayn Rand once said that "the only purpose of education is to teach a student how to live his life-by developing his mind and equipping him to deal with reality. He has to be taught the essentials of the knowledge discovered in the past-and he has to be equipped to aquire further knowledge in the future by his own effort."Not to bash athletes. Some of my closest friends as a teenager were athletes. But to those who have the attitude that athletics is everything, that the jocks are 'untouchable' as was said in this book, who is it that these people think really runs this country and keeps America going? (Hint: the star jocks who care nothing about learning are not the ones you would want operating on you, or helping you manage your finances, or the people that operate multi-national corporations, or the people that run the weapons systems that defend our country. You want someone with a brain for that.)As much as I pray that nothing like Columbine ever happens again, I can't help but thinking that until we address the real causes of schools like that, that it's simply a matter of time.We're failing our kids, and it's high time that people wake up and realize it. Anyone who works in the school systems of this country needs to read this book.

Ok, seeing these 2 negative reviews is really making me angry.
I guess these people just can't stand that the truth has come out about their awful little school and the cold heartedness in their community both before and after the shootings.I applaud Brooks for telling it how it really is and refusing to let the lies about Columbine being a land of milk and honey continue.
It takes guts to stand up against a whole community like he has.
The refusal of certain groups of people in Littleton to admit the truth is astounding to me.
But the book is awesome.It should be required reading in schools.
This book gives you the real story from behind the scenes over the last 3 years.It provides you with a inside personal experience of Columbine from a person who lived it.Rob did a great job of helping to pull it all together.
I like how Brooks shared his personal memories of Rachel,Daniel Mauser and Eric and Dylan.It gives a more vivid picture of them as people.
In closing this book is a very important book .It has a message people need to hear. It has something for everybody.
Anyobody who follows the Columbine story will love it, but I think people who are interested in bullying and school violence will benefit from reading it.I recommend it to everybody.

Brooks Brown and Rob Merritt came to my school on Thursday to discuss the events at Columbine and what high school is really like. Brooks told us what everyday life was like at Columbine and I was in complete shock. He told us how students would bring alcohol into class and drink it right in front of the teachers. He told us how students getting "swirlies" and "trash canned" and beaten by other students with baseball bats were seen daily. I, on the other hand, have been in high school for over two years now and know many more people who have been around even longer and I don't know anyone who has ever seen any of those things at my school or at any other school. Sure I've seen fights at school every now and then, but nothing compared to what Brooks described to us. There is no way that anyone can consider Columbine to be a normal high school. Something is seriously wrong there and that's what Brooks was trying to tell everyone. I would highly recommend this book. It truly does give a real insight to what actually happened.

I read a great number of biographies that deal with American history, and this is simply one of the finest works I have ever read. In terms of scope and ambition and writing style, I compare ALL ON FIRE with Robert Caro's THE POWER BROKER. Henry Mayer should come to be known as one of America's finest living biographers. In addition to being the definitive biography of William Lloyd Garrison, this is also a brilliant retelling of nineteenth-century American history as seen through the eyes of its greatest Abolitionist leader. This is social and intellectual history at its finest, for Mayer uses Garrison as a focal point to tell the story of the political leaders, writers, agitators, and early women's rights advocates whose lives were affected by the fight to abolish slavery. I realize that this book will take you a good chunk of time, but it is worth every minute. ALL ON FIRE becomes an absorbing, tragic tale, yes, an epic, with all events leading to the carnage of the Civil War and the emancipation of the slaves. Once you have finished this book, you will put Garrison before Lincoln as the one person most responsible for setting free the slaves. It's hard to imagine a time in American history when people were so socially and politically responsible (read the section where 10,000 people encircle a Boston prison to protest the removal of an escaped slave back to South Carolina, for example). There is a great tradition in America of social protest. This book is really a colossal achievement that harkens back to an age when people and ideas still mattered.

I thought I knew my American history reasonably well until Henry Mayer taught me how much I had missed. Garrison certainly was far more than the hot-headed crusader on the nut fringe I read about in one text after another. But this book also is more than a correction of an historial footnote; Mayer breathes life into the moral arguments about slavery before the Civil War and weaves America's history from the signing of the Constitution to the passage of the 14th Amendment into a colorful, lively tapestry. This is biography raised to its finest form.

Henry Mayer has written a definitive account of the life of William Lloyd Garrison, the great abolitionist. While I have a Master's Degree in American History, and have read extensively about 19th century America, I had not until now read anything of this power and scope about this great central figure. In many ways, the Garrison portrayed here is the epitome of an American ideal: fierce and unswerving in the constancy of his views about great and weighty matters, willing to not only stand up for his convictions, but to live them every day of his life. Mayer does a particularly good job in delinieating the early days of Garrision's life and the surprising--at least to me--roots of both his background and his passion. While we can learn a great deal not only about the conduct of an intellectual life from Garrison, we can also learn a great deal about the conduct of family life as well. Gentle, kind, loving and doting, Garrison at home stood in marked contrast to his public personna of "Garrison the Madman," as he sometimes introduced himself. We also find a cast of peripheral characters in this biography (William Herndon, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Frederick Douglass, Abraham Lincoln, Harriet Beecher Stowe, etc.) which enliven it and give it the necessary depth required for a weighty and detailed biography. Taken in all, this is a terrific biography, and one of the best books I have read in some time.

It will be 3 years ago this February that I first read this book. I then bought the hard cover version so I could keep it in my library and read it over and over again.

Prior to this, my interest in Western history was confined to pioneers and cowboys. The Indians were just some folks who happened to get a tough break. This book though, opened my mind to a culture that I had never known or thought much about. Now I read every book I can get on the subject, and spend my summers touring forts and battlefields.

Since my first reading of Crazy Horse I have read a biography of Sandoz. I know that her research was maticulous and that she had a good rapport with the Indians who knew Crazy Horse and were still living at the time she was writing. Of course, since this is mostly an oral history it is hard to know what is actual truth and what is the myth which grew around the subject, but it doesn't really matter. No one can read this book without coming away with a new understanding of what it was like to live the free life on the Plains, and how devestating it must have been for those who lost it.

I read this book some days ago, and I am deeply impressed on both the life of Crazy Horse and the way Ms. Sandoz told it to the reader. Since long I have been reading books about Plains Indians and their wars and had a special interest in the person of Crazy Horse. But I had not expected that this strange man, hardly to be understood by his own people, would have become so vivid to me. Ms. Sandoz book is by far better than that of Stephen E. Ambrose who often quoted her, because unlike him she was able to tell it from the Indian point of view and did not always evaluate what she wrote about. Crazy Horse was an Indian hero as out of a Greek tragedy alway doing the best for his people but condemned to be beaten by unmeasureably stronger forces than those of his people. I think he will keep in my heart and brain.

In his foreword to the 50th anniversary edition, Stephen Oates, himself an historian and biographer of note, describes how Sandoz came to write the life of Crazy Horse and states,"Mari Sandoz and Crazy Horse may be the most potent pairing of author and subject in the history of modern biography." He praises Sandoz for writing "with a creative and lyrical brilliance that makes Crazy Horse a tour de force of language and style" and calls the book "...an almost perfect work of biographical art." I could not agree more with Oates. I have read the entire book two times and portions of it many more times.

Readers are often faced with the dilemma of deciding to read further after the first few chapters of a book in the hope they'll "get into it" or to close it and turn it into a dust-catcher. Not so with Sandoz's Crazy Horse. The reader is immediately drawn into it. I was hooked by the lyricism of the first few words of the book which told me that this was going to be no ordinary biography. They read as follows: "The drowsy heat of middle August lay heavy as a furred robe on the upper country of the Shell River, the North Platte of the white man. Almost every noon the thunders built themselves a dark cloud to ride the far crown of Laramie Peak. But down along the river no rain came to lay the dust of the emigrant road, and no cloud shaded the gleaming 'dobe walls and bastions of Fort Laramie, the soldier town that was only a little island of whites in a great sea of Indian country two thousand miles wide."

This story is told, not in the voice of a distant historian, but in the voice of an eyewitness. The vividness of her narrative would convince you, if you did not know otherwise, that Sandoz walked with Crazy Horse and his people. But even though she did not walk with them, she knew them well.

This is an extraordinary work of creative nonfiction that makes you love being a reader.

This book was exactly what I needed. I didn't realize how much I didn't know until I read this book. This should be required reading for every high school athlete and their parents.

Our players found this book to be very helpful. The book's size was not intimidating yet it hit all the bases in detail. I highly recommend the "Athletic Recruiting & Scholarship Guide."

I work as a high school guidance counselor and was told to learn as much as possible about the recruiting process for sports. I bought all the books on the market and this one was BY FAR the best book out there. We bought copies for all our student-athletes.

While as other reviewers have stated, these three stories unfailingly and unflinchingly touch the heart and celebrate the spirit in ways far too many holiday tales only aspire to, Capote's stories, like his longer finished works like IN COLD BLOOD, are also pure literary delights. The characters of Buddy, Miss Sook, Odd Henderson, and Buddy's New Orleans father are richly individual and fully realized, yet resonant of some of the most colorful characters in the vast and lovely muddy swamp of Southern literature. Capote has often been reviled as a dissipate, degenerate, and decadent social butterfly, but these tales show him to hold the highest moral standards, of such degree that his defamers could never mete. The appeal of his work is wide and varied. There is a bit of the Dickensian in his characters as well as echoes of Faulkner, Tenessee Williams, Flannery O'Connoer and his chum, Carson McCullers. Stylistically, if one listens carefully, Poe and Melville, even Hawthorne and Cooper, and especially Capote's beloved Proust ring through and true. Truly, a holiday treat. Read it annually.

I love this book! Plain and simple. I always save it for the holiday season though and never read it at any other time. It's become a holiday tradition.

The three short stories all take place in holiday seasons during the depression and feature the same setting and characters, so they form a nice group for a single volume.

"A Christmas Memory" is my favorite short story ever. I've read it every Christmas for six or seven years now and I have the same powerful, emotional reaction every time. I smile, laugh, cry, and daydream about my own memories every time I read it. No other story affects me like this one, and I think everyone will see a little of themselves or their childhood somehwhere in these pages.

The other two stories are very well done. I'd probably rave about them much more if I could value each on its own merits, but they do get lost in the glare of "A Christmas Memory."

Excellent literary work, but I really value the beauty, simplicity, and truth in these stories. Highly recommended for a holiday evening with hot chocolate, a lit tree, and Xmas carols playing.

Three very touching short stories by Capote that are sure to bring back memories of your own childhood in some way or another. Capote has the power to somehow make everyone relate to his experiences in a way some authors can't. So good that I own the book and "A Christmas Memory" makes me cry every time I read it...every single time. Touching stories about how little his family had but how much he was loved by Sook and how happy that love made him. Great book!

To date, I've only read the chapter on Conoco's response to aiding the community in the aftermath of Tropical Storm Allison. I look forward to reading the remainder of the book over the holidays.

Dan Carison has acurately captured what I witnessed first-hand in coordinating the "Weekend of Caring" efforts that Conoco employees undertook with regards to assisting those in time of need. I still have a hard time reading some segments of this story without showing emotion...the author captures details that are forever burned in my memory. I've told many others of Dan's gift in capturing the human elements of the story - the details are an exact duplication of what I felt - the hair on the back of my neck stands out each time I read various segments of the book I'm familiar with. There truly are lessons to be learned regarding tight to impossible deadlines whether that be personally or corporately.

My hat is off to the author for capturing a remarkable story!

All of us have deadlines. Whether in the home, on the golf course or at the office. Thankfully, few have to meet the deadlines Dan Carrison has masterfully profiled in his new book. More than a history of how some well-known industry titans met seemingly impossible deadlines, Dan gives us the inspiration we need to meet our own Deadline!

Dan and I co-authored another book in 1998; he's even better on his own.

...try being the FBI on deadline to save an abducted man from his murderous captor.... Or Boeing to build a next-generation jet. Deadline! by former Marine Dan Carrison shows how top-notch organizations like these surmount seemingly impossible odds to get the job done right and on time. The principles can be applied to any office project. Thank you Dan for giving me my marching orders! This book showed me no matter how challenging the project, it *can* be done -- on deadline.

I was fascinated with this book, as I was with Murder Machine. In Murder Machine, Roy DeMeo was presented as a human monster, a creature of almost hellish perversity. Albert DeMeo, his son, presents a different, more compassionate view. This book is a true rarity. Albert DeMeo gives a window into a world and a personality that most people never really see, much less understand. What I particularly liked is that Albert DeMeo talks only about those aspects of his father's life that he knew through personal experience. Although his distaste for the Murder Machine book is evident throughout the text, he never denies that his father was a murderer, or a criminal of the most repugnant kind. But he also demonstrates that Roy DeMeo was a husband and a father in addition to being a mobster. His words add a shade of complexity to a person who, if he is remembered by history at all, will be remembered as a parasite of unparalleled evil. Roy DeMeo shows himself as a man capable of love, kindness, and generosity. Albert DeMeo also tells about how his father's notoriety affected him and his family. All in all, this is a unique, praiseworthy addition to the genre of True Crime.

I am by no means a big book reader but when I got my hands on "For the sins of my father" I couldn't put it down! Albert, son of a mobster and devoted father Roy DeMeo does a masterful job of showing the other side of mobster life. The side where the "sins" commited by his father were far surpased by the loving relationship he had with his family. I would highly recommend this book! A+++++

Al DeMeo has lived two lifetimes before he turned forty, and this book tells his story. He has warm memories of his father, and can somehow seperate his father's crimes from the havoc it caused on his family. It was stunning to read that he carried a gun to elementary school to protect his sister. The auther equivocates about the number of people his father killed -- "Murder Machine" puts the number at 200, but that's somewhat unreliable. The only one Al is certain about is the one I remember reading about growing up -- his father mistakenly identified a door-to-door salesman as a hitman and killed him. This killing of an innocent (or a "civilian" in Soprano's-speak) seems to have broken his father's spirit somewhat, and led to a downward spiral. After his father's death, Al Demeo carries on outwardly strong, but eventually the stress of holding it all inside nearly culminates in suicide. The two most powerful scenes in the book are the desciption of Al's mourning for his father and his near suicide. I believe the book was ghost-written, and much of it has that breezy, second-hand feel, but those two scenes are very intense and the reason I give this book the highest rating.

This is my second review because I enjoyed the book so much I read it again! It's even better the second time. Incidentally, I've now sent it to 47 of my friends because I wanted them to get the same pleasure out of the book as I did. Many of them have told me "it's the funniest book I've ever read" and "I felt like he was writing about me." I've told them, don't tell me.... send in a review. I've been checking the reviews and only a few of them have taken the time to send in reviews but I'm taking the time to do a second one for all my friends who are too lazy to do their own.

Nobby Orens, Golf Nut of the Year/ Golf Nut Society of America/ Guinness World Record Holder/ Director of Golf Research, Plaza Travel/Encino, Ca

I thought this was the most fun book on golf I've ever read and I've read quite a few. In many of the chapters I felt as if the author were writing about me, personally. (In one chapter, it turns out that he actually was.) I can't say enough good things about the way the book was written. It is down to earth, very, very accurate regarding the feelings that most addicted golfers feel, and just a real lot of fun to read.

I was so impressed with the book that I bought 24 of them (so far) and have sent them to a lot of my golf buddies.

I think that there's not much more I can say without being reptitious other than this is the best golf book I have ever read.

Sincerely,

Nobby Orens 1999 Golf Nut of the Year/Golf Nut Society of America, Guinness World Record Holder, Director of Golf Research/Plaza Travel

As a avid golfer, I rather play golf than read about it! However, since I received this book as a gift, and I had some free time I decided to give it a try. I'm glad I did. The book is great, right from the start.

Robert Woodcox is a golf genius, if there is such a thing. His accounts of what he has gone through so far in his "golfing career" is hilarious. Every golfer will be able relate to what he writes. However, this may not be such a great thing. Not everything a golfer does or thinks is something to be proud of.

If you golf, know someone who golfs, or just want to laugh at human nature, then buy this book. It is one of the best books I've ever read. If he played half as well as he writes, he'd be a scratch golfer.