5 comments about Educating Esme: Diary of a Teacher's First Year.

1. "Educating Esme" is a great book for any new or perspective teacher. She uses humor to demonstrate the struggles of a first year teacher, and yet the book isn't entirely about those struggles. It also includes some cute anecdotes about the little things that make you want to be a teacher and some great classroom ideas! This book is a great read if you want to be inspired as a teacher!



2. Things have fallen to a very low level indeed when the best an institution has going for it is a single star. Think of a ballet company, a baseball team, or even a corporation. What would it be like if only of person in the group was doing a good job? This is the premise of Esme's memoir. "Look at me! I'm edumacating 'em!" Mind you, this has been a trend in American education now for some thirty years. These earnest Antioch College types with zebra leotards and high-top tennis shoes want to dance on their desks. It's the Robin Williams to-the-rescue syndrome. Meanwhile the schools fall apart: there is no discipline, no curriculum, no learning. Ms Esme's is a name-caller, whose deepest insight is that her principal is "homophobic." Of course. But she'll straighten them all out with her philosophy of inclusion and her love of diversity. The career teachers are dismissed by these walk-through reformers as standing in the way of change, with the result that most inner-schools are revolving doors of "burned-out" do-gooders who take Fridays off to recharge their batteries. After two years they hit the road and tell everyone they miss the kids. How long can a society survive such an assault?



3. This book is a great book for anyone looking at the teaching profession. I used it in an education introduction class and it is very insightful as well as just a great read. This is a real life personal experience in the first year of teaching for Esme, and shows the good and the bad of teaching as well as effective and ineffective teaching strategies. Great for education, thought, or just enjoyment!



4. Everthing that Esme says really hits me hard because I'm a student in the typical public school. I really wish I had a teacher like this, who could make boring subjects interesting, instead of reading everything straight out of the text book.
   I didn't think she was too self-absorbed, as many reviewers have said, I think her need for approval is very appropriate. I mean, I would just scream having to be in the unhealthy enviroment Esme is in. She handled everything with confidence and was always there for her "children."
   This is a great read for anyone who has ever stepped foot in a public school. All of her stories are either entertaining or shocking, and definitely worth reading twice.



5. In our day and age, years equal experience. Well, not in this story! As an educator, I, like Esme, can see the profound lack of capability in American schools. Teachers are expected to follow guidelines and do what the principal suggests with no argument (apparently that is a guarantee of keeping one's job these days). Esme questions the status quo and challenges each of us to do the same. Many of the decisions that are made regarding schools are done by politicians who have never set foot in classroom. I've read some of the other reviews. I think the people who didn't like the book thought so because they are the types of people that Esme bulldozed in the story; those lousy teachers who run any idea into the ground because it wasn't their own-- who have sat all day in front of a class for 20 some years and have yet to come up with an individual thought. She deserves self-promotion. Clearly she's not too bad-- she got asked back for a 2nd year at the same school and won an amazing literary award. I think I would share my excitement with my diary.

No comments about Bloody Knife: Custer's Favorite Scout.

2 comments about Stonewall Jackson: The Great Generals Series.

1. Stonewall Jackson by Donald A. Davis
   (Palgrave Macmillan (2007), Hardcover, 224 pages)
   
   A review
   by
   Colin J. Edwards
   
   Stonewall or Oddball?
   
   I have to come clean immediately and confess that I have difficulty with the description, `tough fighting generals'. What they are describing are heartless individuals who send men to death or mutilation with reckless abandon. Let us remind ourselves that wars are started by politicians, fought by generals and won by soldiers. The American Civil War was the exception: the generals prolonged that one.
   Before you cast me aside as a peace-nik lefty, let me assure you that I saw action as an infantry officer, and know a little of what I speak.
   
   Books about wars: and this is a book about a war more than a biography of an individual, are either from an officer's perspective, or the enlisted man. Donald Davis is the exception being quite at home writing about either. His best seller `Lightening Strike', records the active service of a gunnery sergeant. However, I could find little sympathy for the fighting man in this volume. Mr Davis wrote with touching tenderness of the separation of General Jackson from his wife and new baby girl. A separation that didn't last long as the general called them to his side. Tens of thousands of ordinary soldiers from North and South would have thought precious, just a moment with their loved ones. Rank has its privilege it seems.
   
   Davis' detailed descriptions of the various battles are excellent, if a little tedious. This is due perhaps to a lack of information about Jackson who was such a secretive individual, that it's a wonder Davis was able to write the book at all.
   
   Born at Clarksburg West Virginia on January 21 1824 into an attorney's family, he preceded by four months another general and West Point chum who saw the light of day at Liberty Indiana in May: a future adversary, Ambrose Burnside.
   
   After a very unsettled childhood, he entered West Point more by luck than judgement. He struggled to keep up but had an almost eccentric ability to focus unswervingly on the subject at hand. This paid off and he was able to move up the rankings graduating 17th out of a class of 59. This was not good enough to get him into the esteemed engineers, but it did get him into the artillery as a second lieutenant. This single minded eccentricity bordering on autism became more apparent when he was under fire during the Mexican Way. Observation of his reckless valour caused him to be bumped up the ranks to acting major. Another manifestation of his disturbed mental state was his inability to work in harmony with others. His unresolved dispute with a brother officer while stationed at Fort Mead in Florida, resulted in him leaving the army and taking up a teaching post at Lexington Virginia.
   
   The general consensus was that Thomas Jackson was a poor teacher, but the eight years there gave him the opportunity to meet and marry two wives.
   
   The Civil War found him back in the army and up to his neck in muck and bullets in the battles so precisely delineated by Mr Davis. His eccentricity (or mental disturbance), new no bounds and he and his soldiers went from victory to victory even if it killed them. He even had one of his generals (A.P.Hill), dragged along behind a cart on an interminable march for some undisclosed actus reus. This so damaged the general's tender feet that he was out of action for some time. Not the action of a sound mind you might think; particularly when it concerns one of your better generals.
   
   Jackson continued to carry the whole war on his shoulders, confiding in no one until he experienced a nervous collapse. From then until the end of his life he was conspicuous for his ability to fall asleep anywhere. On one occasion he was summoned to see his boss Robert E Lee, and promptly fell asleep before he saw him.
   
   Thomas Jackson was a religious zealot who spoke more to God than anyone else. However, he did not practice what he preached, nor anything anyone else preached as he didn't stay awake long enough. He had no compunction in raking artillery fire into Mexican civilians when Mexico City failed to surrender in 1848, or later when he gunned down a retreating Mexican army. During the Civil War he showed no reluctance to destroy fellow Americans be them from the North or the South, and insisted that his officers do likewise.
   
   To experience fear while in the presence of danger is normal. To some extent it is possible to hide that fear. Jackson did not hide it; he did not have any fear. He constantly took needless risks and in front of his troops defied the conflagration to kill him.
   That was until Chancellorsville on May 2 1863. Throwing caution to the wind as usual, he took his staff beyond his own front lines to reconnoitre the enemy positions. True to form he omitted to inform anyone of his intentions. Upon his return he was fired upon by his own soldiers and hit three times. Six of his staff were killed outright. He however was not killed but was stretchered to an aid station falling off the stretcher on the way. The chief surgeon of Jackson's army, Dr Hunter McGuire, amputated his left arm, but did not notice General Jackson complaining about chest pain. The pain developed into pneumonia from which he died on May 10th 1863.
   
   Google Books list over 4000 entries for General Jackson, and most of them suggest that had he lived the result at Gettysburg would have been different. The generals lost the battle for the Confederates by their bickering and lack of direction. Jackson would have only added to the confusion. The soldiers of the South fought their hearts out at Gettysburg only to be betrayed by their officers.
   
   Donald Davis's book is a myth breaker, and a `must read' for anyone who has an interest in the first modern war.
   
   
   



2. I thought this book provided a succinct and accurate assessment of General Jackson's life and career. I do, however, offer three criticisms.
   
   First, a few maps would have been most helpful. The author presumes that the reader has a working knowledge of Jackson's major battles--the places they were fought, the strategy and tactics employed, and the surrounding topography. I realize that the Great General Series must make certain accommodations in order to accomplish its goal of providing a BRIEF overview of the life and service of its subjects, but a few maps would have greatly enhanced my understanding of what Jackson accomplished.
   
   Second, I thought the comparisons between Jackson's strategy and tactics and those employed in the Iraq War were both gratuitous and a bit of stretch, a not-so-veiled attempt to make the Civil War seem somehow relevant to the conflict in the Middle East.
   
   Third, the editors should have read the text one more time before it went to print. There were several typographical and formatting errors that were a bit of a distraction.
   
   These, however, are minor complaints. If you don't know much about Stonewall and want to get a feel for the contribution he made to the Confederacy and towards the evolution of military tactics, you would do well to read this book.

5 comments about The Gift of Peace: Personal Reflections.

1. I found this to be a wonderful piece of work and have lent it to several friends who were diagnosed with cancer. Monsignoir Velo's reading was very delightful and I give him a lot of credit for being able to read his good friend's memoires.



2. Beautifully written. As Cardinal Bernardin reflects on the last three years of his life, he shares the importance of embracing prayer, family, suffering, beauty, reconciliation, pain, and forgiveness in order to appreciate and completely enter into the fullness of peace.
   
   For anyone who feels lost or alone in life or frustrated, angry, or scared at the thought of facing death, I recommend this book. Love and peace pour out of the pages as the author shares his life experiences, struggles, and genuine concern for others. He shared his love with countless people he encountered in his life, and his love continues to be shared after his death to any reader who has the opportunity to read this book.
   
   The book is quite short (can easily be read in one sitting) and is incredibly focused and well organized. The book title, chapter titles, and introductory letter are handwritten by the author and really add genuineness to the book. Highly recommended.



3. Those of us losing our eyesight and who love to read often turn to the audiobook. It is like having a wonderful text read to us at bedtime as we listen on levels spiritual and psychological unreached by silent reading. Please notice the audiobook of this present precious text of peace is read by a Monsignor, a close coworker of this blessed Cardinal.
   
   The false accusations of abuse made against this great American Cardinal were quickly cleared up, and this slim volume insightfully and clearly records that process and the holy process of reconciliation with his false accuser, in a lesson for us of peace and reconciliation and of forgiveness of those who most completely destroy us. The Cardinal truly lives and demonstrates for us the promise we make each time we pray the Our Father. Forgive us in the same way that we forgive those who have trespassed against us. Forgive us with the same forgiveness we show others. Just as we must do unto others what we want others to do for us, JEsus also calls us actively to forgive others in the same way we want the Father to forgive us. This saintly and courageous Cardinal Forgave the disturbed young man who falsley accused him of abuse, and this book well displays the process, that we might also learn to forgive, in the Love of God, in our interpersonal relationships and national policies.
   
   How many times must we forgive, o Lord. Not seven but seventy times seven.
   
   We need in our national Catholic Church this voice now more than ever. Read this book and weep and become renewed in our Gospel mission to love and to forgive and to spread the good news to the poor and liberation to the captives. Sight to the Blind. In this time of unjust war and overwhelming violence, we need to hear this book.
   
   Yet some Catholics for political reasons continue to condemn this saintly man (while silent on Cardinal Law), eagerly assuming the accusations true, or some association with others similarly accused, in order not to hear the exhortation by this great Cardinal that the right to life does not end at birth, but at a natural and God given death. The right to life must be supported at every point in our life and in every aspect of life. This great CArdinal elaborated for our edification the seamless garment explanation of the right to life.
   
   Womb to tomb.
   
   Please read this book.
   
   I must rush to Mass now, and I bring this book with me to help my confused prayer. I thank God this great and holy and courageous Cardinal left us this Gift of Peace in the weeks before his untimely death. As head of the USCCB at the time of the crafting of the prophetic letter The Challenge of Peace, his courageous voice is needed now more than ever. Yet we have this, his abiding Gift of Peace, and that strong letter for peace. Take and read.
   
   Pray for peace. Receive this Gift of Peace.



4. Joseph Cardinal Bernardin made a very large impact on the City of Chicago. A simple, humble, very human being, he was greatly loved by all Chicagoans. At the end of his life, two huge events impacted his life, being falsely charged with sexual molestation by a young man, and learning that his life was soon to end as the victim of cancer. This book is a moving, eloquent statement of how he dealt with these and how his faith in God was tested and ultimately made rock solid. It is an inspiration to all who who are faced with burdens beyond their strength.



5. I have purchased this book several times and recommended it on numerous other occasions. I bought it first for myself, and on the other occasions for friends, family members and acquaintances who were dealing with serious illness and end of life issues. The feedback received from each recipient has been very positive. Cardinal Bernardin leads the reader through his last days of life as he deals in a very graceful and touching way with terminal cancer, life's issues and personal spirituality. It's not long until the reader feels he or she is walking the journey with a close friend. Through his experinece, Cardinal Bernardin helps the reader deal with his or her own mortality in a peaceful way. He is still ministering to us. I highly recommend this book for all those dealing with illness, family members, ministers, and healthcare professionals. Incidently, You don't have to be Catholic to fully appreciate this book.

No comments about Witness to Appomattox.

No comments about Ty Cobb.

1 comments about My Life in Three Acts.

1. Helen Hayes whose life story would be fascinating to all fans of Broadway and/or Hollywood pretty much squanders this effort by traducing a large assortment of individuals. What makes this badmouthing all the more unpleasant is the fact that most of her targets were deceased at the time of its publication and unable to present their side of the story.

   While the recurring instances of charcter assasination are the book's biggest liability, the First Lady of the American Theater also comes off as somewhat self-centered and shallow.

   Those who respect the many noble actions which typified Helen Hayes' final decades will be disappointed and likely disturbed by this autobiography that does not do her memory justice.

3 comments about The Altonberrys of Sandwich Bay.

1. Did you ever wonder what life would look like if everyday conflicts could be solved with love and a sense of humor? Leo's collection of short stories will show you. They are set to rhythms to delight the child in you. They are examples of love the adult in you will admire. Each rhyming short story has a surprise ending. And each one reminds us that kindness, compromise and committment to life as an adventure opens doors to lasting love. Surely Leo's book is an antidote to the competitive fast-paced '90s and new millennium which offers no promise of relief.This book is a special treasure.



2. Leo Carpenter's book is for anyone who is young at heart. The reader feels as if he/she is friends with William, Virginia and their cats. And, being a female, it was delightful to see that a male writer would admit that women do indeed have good sense--William and Virginia are true equals. The rhyme is lyrical and the story is even more enjoyable when read aloud. (I did buy the audio as well--and I highly recommend it.) Visiting the Altonberrys of Sandwich Bay is a trip worth taking--go there now!



3. I found the Altonberrys of Sandwich Bay a delight of a book.The characters come alive on the page and the authors intimitable lyrical style of writing joyful and fun.A very happy and refreshing read.

5 comments about The Christmas Box Miracle : My Spiritual Journey of Destiny, Healing and Hope.

1. A box that will make you cry, make you want to be a better person BUT if you have ever read a book written by Richard Paul Evans, you already know that..
   
   Betty Graham



2. I SEEM TO LOVE EVERYTHING RICHARD PAUL EVANS WRITES .VERY WELL RESEARCHED ,I ALWAYS HAVE TO KEEP READING TILL I FINISH ,NO BREAKS .



3. I am a big fan of the Christmas Box books, but when I saw this book I thought UHHHHHH I guess he needs even more money. RPE must have realized that he was a flash in the pan, and was desprate to hang on to his falling fame. This book does have its moments though, but it sounds like a broken record. They were giving this book away.. a free copy with every $10 purchase. I wish RPE would get over himself he's no Charles Dickens!!!



4. this book is really eye opening as to faith and where it can lead you if you let it.



5. Unfortunately I read this after reading "The Light of Christmas" so I knew most of the story line but it was still worth the read. It is a simple story with a powerful message about the importance of our individual lives and the lives of those who love us. The Christian message of hope in life is prevalent but subtle and doesn't come across as 'preaching' while still delivering its impact.

2 comments about Cuando era Puertorriquena/When I was puertorican.

1. Esmeralda Santiago is one of Puerto Rico's natural treasures and one of America's favorite authors.
   
   I'd describe this book as The American Dream, a Coming of Age story and being multi-cultural all in one, but its much more than that! What do I mean? Well, Ms. Santiago's skillful writing and ingenious use of words weave a story that beautifully frames a life from all sides: the 'ugly' is that her family lives in the most dire of circumstances both in Puerto Rico & New York, the 'bad' is that her father is a philander, the 'good' being that she comes from love and is loved. A good foundation to stand on.
   
   Ms. Santiago is able to convey to us exactly how a young girl feels when her father is a philander (cheated and betrayed) and how she feels when her parents are getting along (happy and safe) and how fragile it all seems even through a child's eyes. Her mother's aspirations to live well and to see the beauty which frames all of life's bits and pieces no matter how dire circumstances may seem is the backbone of this story and (I believe) at the heart of Ms. Santiago's storytelling. I received both this book and 'The Turkish Lover' as Christmas gifts and I can tell just by these two books that I will add many more to my collection, the first addition being 'Almost a Woman' which is the next book after this one. Most definitely.



2. This is a rich and evocative memoir of the author's chaotic childhood. Growing up in rural Puerto Rico, while often living in primitive conditions, the author's lush and lyrical prose paints a vivid picture her early life. The flavor and rythms of her island home come alive under her expert hand, creating an unforgettable picture of her early childhood.
   
   The author grew up in a poor family. During her childhood, she lived in Puerto Rico with her unmarried parents, who were always at war with each other, as her father was a somewhat irresponsible philanderer. It was her mother who centered the family and who always sought a better life for all of her children. When an irrevocable break occurred between her parents, her mother moved to New York during the nineteen sixties, eventually settling with her seven children in the mean streets of Williamsburg, Brooklyn in New York City.
   
   The author details her life's journey from rural Puerto Rico to Brooklyn. The author was transplanted to Brooklyn at the age of thirteen, and her description of her life in Brooklyn is every bit as interesting as that of her life in Puerto Rico. Her oftentimes bewildering transition from her native, Spanish speaking Puerto Rico to an English speaking environment is engagingly chronicled. The author takes the reader on her journey through Brooklyn's public school system to the prestigious High School of Performing Arts, where she graduated and went on to attend Harvard University on a scholarship.
   
   This coming of age memoir is so engagingly written that I was left with the desire of wanting to know more about the life of this remarkable woman. I was also very taken with her writing style. So, I went ahead and bought every book that this author has ever written and look forward to reading each and every one.