The Dragonfly Door

The Dragonfly Door
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The warm, emotional colors of award-winning artist Barbara L. Gibson

Jewel's Reading Excellence Review: Helps children understand nature's life cycle

A Message of Hope for Children Who Are Grieving

Beautiful and excellent for all who grieve

The Dragonfly Door
John Adams
Manufacturer: Feather Rock Books, Inc.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Ages 4-8 | Children's Books | Subjects | Books
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Sad Isn't Bad: A Good-Grief Guidebook for Kids Dealing With Loss (Elf-Help Books for Kids)

ASIN: 1934066117

Product Description

Parents will help children identify the beauty and hope in all cycles of life as they follow two insect friends, Lea and Nym, and the struggles one of them endures when her friend disappears. This is a tender story about loss and change, written to help parents express their views about life and death. The book may serve many purposes, such as comforting a grieving child who has lost someone close or providing facts about dragonflies to inquisitive minds. Lea's transformation into a dragonfly may even be used as a metaphor for life-after-death. The Dragonfly Door is beautifully illustrated by award-winning artist Barbara L. Gibson. The book is cherished by parents, grandparents and teachers. It was recently brought to life as a mini-play in Alabama to help children cope with the loss of their classmates. The following is an excerpt from the book: While Nym slept, she heard Lea's voice saying, "Follow me, Nym. I'm going to show you where I am." "Will I see you again?" Nym asked. "Only when it's time for you to die too," Lea replied. "You won't see me in the marsh ever again. But let me show you what I will look like the next time you see me. Here, close your eyes." Nym closed her eyes. "Now look at me," Lea said. Nym opened her eyes and saw ...

Customer Reviews:

The warm, emotional colors of award-winning artist Barbara L. Gibson.......2007-09-07

The debut children's picturebook of author John Adams, The Dragonfly Door dares to confront serious topics - of loss, death, grieving, and transition. Nym and Lea are two close insect friends, but one day after Nym yells at Lea, Lea disappears. Nym searches everywhere for her missing friend, and can't find her. At last Nym falls asleep, grief-stricken, and finally hears Lea's voice one more time. "'I died and went to this special place,' Lea said, her voice full of love. 'But I didn't want you to leave,' Nym pleaded. 'I'm sorry I yelled.' 'I know you're sorry,' Lea assured her. 'I left because my water nymph body died while I was picking flowers in the reeds, not because you yelled.'" The warm, emotional colors of award-winning artist Barbara L. Gibson illustrate this highly recommended picturebook for sharing the bittersweet realities of life with young people.

Jewel's Reading Excellence Review: Helps children understand nature's life cycle.......2007-05-10

John Adams brilliantly invites the reader into the world of Nymphs and Dragonflies to explore the changes that take place when Nym's friend goes to a special place.

When I had lost a family member I had read a wonderful story called, "The Water Bug Story." John Adams adds a fresh approach to this story by focusing on friendship loss and giving a voice to his characters. With the help of Gibson's eye-catching nature illustrations, "The Dragon Fly Door" answers general questions surrounding loss, such as feelings about loss, what happens to the nymph's body when he dies, and how a nymph is transformed into a dragonfly.

Adams creatively normalizes typical friendship rivalry and takes the reader on a nature journey to discover that one chooses to resolve conflict, loss, and changes in different ways. Adams concludes the book with uncomplicated educational facts for the inquisitive science mind.

This is a great educational tool for parents, grandparents or professionals to use to help explain the uncontrollable life cycle changes and loss.

Reviewed by Jewel Sample, MS
Award-winning author of Flying Hugs and Kisses(2006), also translated: Besos y Abrazos Al Aire(2006, Spanish edition) and Flying Hugs and Kisses Activity Book(2007)

A Message of Hope for Children Who Are Grieving.......2007-02-26

As President of a nonprofit organization that reaches out to those who are grieving, I was very pleased to read a book such as The Dragonfly Door. This book provides a much needed way to offer children (and adults) a message of hope following the death of a loved one.

Children can relate to the playful nature of Nym and Lea who are the two young nymph friends, the sorrow of Nym when Lea dies, and the comforting feeling when when Nym realizes that he will one day see Lea again as a dragonfly, when he too has made his transformation into a dragonfly.

Our nonprofit organization recommends this book so highly that we have decided to make it available for purchase at all of our events.
-Valerie Marquardt

Beautiful and excellent for all who grieve.......2007-02-18

I received this wonderfully beautiful book on the 8th anniversary of my son's graduation to Heaven ... that evening, I was able to read it with his daughter, who is now 9... I believe she gained another understanding of her Very Own Daddy in a beautiful place that we have not seen just yet ... and though she already knew he is waiting for her, this was another good reminder of that ... I was unaware of the dragonfly's life cycle and was so blessed to see how it seemingly parallels this life and the next. Thank you, John, for a wonderful way to help us all in our continuing journey with grief and the Hope we can have.

Where There's a Will : Thoughts on the Good Life

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Stick to Rumpole
Elegant, wise, and humorously self-effacing
Rational Thoughts
...There's A Way, British Style.
Did not meet my expectations

Where There's a Will : Thoughts on the Good Life
John Mortimer
Manufacturer: Amazon Remainders Account
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: B000EPFVUU

Book Description

John Mortimer is best known for his stories about the lovable and disheveled barrister Horace Rumpole, the “great defender of muddled and sinful humanity.” But he is also an accomplished memoirist, screenwriter, librettist, playwright, and former barrister. Now, at the age of eighty-one, he wonders what he should pass on to the next generation. In Where There's a Will, Mortimer ponders this question and writes about the (nonmaterial) things he believes enrich our experience of life. From the pleasures of drink and outdoor sex (though not necessarily together) to the justification of the odd lie and a vision of God as the Grand Perhaps, Where There's a Will is Mortimer's witty and wise, occasionally outrageous, and always thought-provoking examination of what it means to truly live and live well.

Customer Reviews:

Stick to Rumpole .......2007-10-04

Mortimer writes Rumpole, who is a delight. This is the third (I think) in Mortimer's memoirs, and I missed its predecessors so this review may do Mr. Mortimer a disservice. There is a big of bragging, some interesting notes, but it a fairly forgettable series of life lessons, barely disguised as things of leave behind one that do not fit in a Will. It is a sad truth that there are a number of writers whose characters are more interesting, and charming, than their authors.

Elegant, wise, and humorously self-effacing.......2006-08-08

I should first confess my bias--I have often been tickled and sometimes awed by Mortimer's way with English prose for 20 years. So, in picking up this book I had the high expectations one might have before meeting an old friend or beloved teacher. No disappointment. Even if some of these essays are slightly less effervescent than others, all are at least wonderful, and several are both brilliant and touching.

Mortimer has given us a collection of short essays, conversational and often wryly funny, which he intends as a kind of spiritual bequeathal to his family and other heirs. The chapters range across a broad range of subjects, some perhaps outwardly frivolous, like the cooking of eggs. But in the main, Mortimer touches on matters of great substance--the nature of beauty, how to be happy, surprising ways in which our world has managed to be unjust, places and times for sex, how to dine sociably, the love of children, faith and reason, the terrors of the writer facing blank paper, and many more. I found these essays to be wise and absolutely delicious. I suspect that readers who have enjoyed Rumpole, or Mortimer's other biographical essays like Summer of a Doormouse, or Clinging to the Wreckage, will be quite pleased with these sketches.

Mortimer may, sadly, be nearing the end of his life, but at present he seems to be on a literary tear. I, for one, wish him many more prolific years.

Rational Thoughts.......2006-04-12

Sir John Mortimer is an extremely literate and honestly open-minded person who writes with a flowing exquisiteness of the English language. This small book of his thoughts on a good life is a reminiscence of the life he has led and is still leading. He mentions a lot of classical literary authors and their characters that would further enrich a person's knowledge. Also, the various types of people he met working at the Old Bailey has surely enhanced his art of observing and putting their perspectives onto paper. Together with wild imaginations of his, no wonder his many writings are keenly absorbed by the public. The last ten chapters are my favorite but in each I find something to laugh out loud about. This is his own story and the way he tells it is invigorating. In not so many words in each section, he still succeeds in relaying his message that is predominantly deliberate.

...There's A Way, British Style........2006-01-13

These are the random musings of an old man contemplating his mortality. After a writing career in which he had twenty novels published, in addition to fourteen stories featuring the fictional barrister, Horace Rumpole, and twelve plays as listed in this small book of ramblings about his life, I learned that he was actually a barrister himself at the Old Bailey. He was born five years after the end of the 1914-18 war, he says, and enjoyed and endured a 'public school' education where one of his school mates was Lord Byron. He calls Byron's DON JUAN one of the great masterpieces of European literature.

Sir John Mortimer (knighted in 1998) led a privileged life from the very beginning. Now, at age 81, he looks round at his children and grandchildren whose ages range from 53 to twelve, he contemplates: "Their words will echo out into the future, with their children and their children's children." What to leave them as his paternal legacy? That is what he ponders as he tells about life as it was for him at the various stages.

He wonders what to pass on to the next generation. So, he gives some ancient history concerning the birthplace of out civilization, in olden times called Mesopotamia in the Persian Empire. He talks about the times he spent enjoying one of the Seven Wonders of the World, the Hanging Gardens. Then he goes on to tell about the city of peace (back then) in the time of Charlemagne, in the Ottoman Empire. "When Turkey was defeated in the 1914-18 war, the Allies carved up its possessions with quite arbitrary boundaries and placed an arbitrary king, Feisal, on the throne of Iraq. These kings ruled until a revolution led by the Baath party finally produced Saddam Hussein who was, of course, backed by America. Algebra was invented there at the center of civilization which conquered the whole of Spain."

His opinions on lots of things included this remark about democracy: "I suppose democracy was most nearly achieved in ancient Greece, when everyone except women and slaves took part in the government. The result was usually disastrous and led to the death of Socrates just as the introduction of democracy in England was started." Utopia, information technology as the cause of deterioration and decline of the English language "at least as its's spoken by the governing classes", family values and vulgarity, telling lies (the bigger, the better), Shakespeare, and old movies are just some of the topics he knows so much about. This is his postscript (P.S.) to his autobiographies, as he reflects on his good and prosperous life.

Did not meet my expectations.......2005-08-04

I am afraid I was quite disappointed in this book. The review in the Times that I had read made it sound like a much more profound and important book - one I would like to own rather than just take out of the library. I had previously enjoyed other books by John Mortimer, but this book was just a collection of random musings which did not hold together at all.

Where There Is Light: Insight and Inspiration for Meeting Life's Challenges

Average customer rating:

Coming out of the shadows and into the light.
A Beacon of Light for Humanity
Divine Truth and Light
Finding the Light Within You
Perfect antidote for stress and our modern material overload

Where There Is Light: Insight and Inspiration for Meeting Life's Challenges
Paramahansa Yogananda
Manufacturer: Self-Realization Fellowship Publishers
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Religion & Spirituality | Subjects | Books

General | Hinduism | Religion & Spirituality | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 0876122764

Customer Reviews:

Coming out of the shadows and into the light........2006-11-18

I found this book to be truly amazing in it's wisdom. The author who died in body in 1952 has truly wrote a post-newtonian book on transformation. The movie "What the bleep" has nothing to add over the wisdom and teachings of this book. The author has a complete understanding of the ideas of Candice Pert who wrote "Molecules of Emotion," which came out recently, but Paramahansa Yogananda was writing about these concepts over half a century ago. Paramahansa Yogananda takes it a notch further and brings in the spiritual domain where the real transformation occurs.

This book "Where There Is Light," gives great tools in the form of instruction in using meditation and affirmation to change the patterns of thought that have become like grooves in our brains. So many of us have been stuck in repeating the same habits over and over again and we have all felt the frustration and suffering of being a slave to habits we want to be rid of. This book gives the answer to being free.

This book is truly a gift of mercy and compassion for all those who truly wish to lighten up and start living a life of more comfort and ease. Reading and following the teachings of Paramahansa Yogananda takes the struggle out of life, and all for the small price of a paper back book.

A Beacon of Light for Humanity.......2004-08-19

This is a wonderful treasure of a book that will help you to see the light behind the seeming darkness of any situation that you may be in. I have found it to be one of the few books that has genuinely helped me to rise above "negative" appearances, and to embrace the gifts that may not be so apparent while in the midst of change. I highly recommend this book if you are looking for hope and answers for more inner peace.

Divine Truth and Light.......2004-02-10

Where There is Light will help you find the Light within to rise above any circumstance in your life where you might feel helpless or alone. A wonderful contribution to humanity that will bring you peace, and a way to find that peace within no matter where you are on your path.

Finding the Light Within You.......2004-01-21

Where there is Light will endure for centuries as the Divine wisdom that is given in this book will raise your awareness of YOUR inner Light, and how connected you are to the Divine in your life.
I love this book, and keep it in my car to refer to. No matter which page I turn to, there is wisdom and enlightenment that always helps me stay 'as the Light' within. I highly recommend this book for the truth, insight, and upliftment it will provide for you...

Perfect antidote for stress and our modern material overload.......2002-11-09

As one of Yogananda's advanced students once said, ''I don't know how anyone can keep his sanity amidst the pressures of this modern world without the help of a true spiritual guru.'' This collection of Yogananda's inspired insights into our divine nature - and the challenges posed by our oppressive materialistic environments - is a powerful way to keep a true spiritual master's guidance at one's side.

In a moment of distress or spiritual need, just open to any page and you will feel this master's wisdom lifting burdens off your shoulders.

Highly recommended... for both the newcomer to spiritual awakening and the veteran devotee. EXCELLENT GIFT for friends or family who may be new to Yogananda's brilliance or to Eastern spirituality as a whole.

The Five Life Stages of Nonprofit Organizations: Where You Are, Where You're Going, and What to Expect When You Get There
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The Five Life Stages of Nonprofit Organizations: Where You Are, Where You're Going, and What to Expect When You Get There
Judith Sharken Simon , and J. Terence Donovan
Manufacturer: Amherst H. Wilder Foundation
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 0940069229

Book Description

The life stage model is a powerful tool for understanding — objectively — your organization's current status and preparing it to move ahead to the future. This useful guide helps you understand where your organization is in its life and how to avoid unnecessary struggles and act on opportunities to boost your organization's development.

Where There's A Will There's A Way: Or, All I Really Need to Know I Learned from Shakespeare

Average customer rating:

Well reasoned though a bit preachy
Wam, witty, and great scholarship
Maiming The Bard
Laurie Maquire argues that Shakespeare helps us "see better."

Where There's A Will There's A Way: Or, All I Really Need to Know I Learned from Shakespeare
Laurie Maguire
Manufacturer: Perigee Trade
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Self-Help | Health, Mind & Body | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 0399532943

Book Description

When life becomes one big drama let history's greatest life coach help you rewrite it.

Bard expert Laurie Maguire brings her knowledge and love of Shakespeare to bear on the great-and small-challenges that all readers face today. As she illustrates in this witty, accessible, and unique self-help book, all one really needs is Shakespeare when it comes to understanding life.

Covering such universal subjects as identity, the battle of the sexes, family relationships, love, loss and death, Maguire shows how the dilemmas illustrated in Shakespeare's plays can help readers explore their own emotions and judgments. Together, Maguire and Shakespeare offer suggestions, comfort, empathy, and encouragement as they set out a timeless principle for living. To read Shakespeare is to understand what it means to be human. To read Where There's a Will There's a Way is to better understand how to deal with it.

Customer Reviews:

Well reasoned though a bit preachy.......2007-09-12

I am not a self-help reader, but I do love other people's interpretations of Shakespeare. Ms. Maguire writes soulfully, humorously, and intelligently about an application of text that I had never thought of before (I particularly enjoyed the comments on Lear and "seeing better"). I would have loved to give her a perfect 5, but there were just enough digressions and slightly off-the-topic (or overly long) anecdotes that I felt a bit distracted from the course, namely, how Shakespeare helps people understand themselves better.

This, though, is not a sharp criticism, and perhaps makes the actual score closer to 4.75. Her explanations, examinations, and insights are great almost all the way through. It is an accessible yet complex text, making it something worth returning to.

A great book--just a little pious at parts. I know that the argument is, It's a self help book. Of COURSE it's preachy. Yeah, but...it feels a little overwhelming sometimes. Still thoroughly recommended, however.

Wam, witty, and great scholarship.......2007-01-15

What's so great about this book is that it uses the model of self-help with such grace and insight to write a book of literary criticism. There's no condescension here, rather an innovative guide to nuancing our understanding of Shakespeare's characterisation in the round. This is wonderfully readable - I sat up all night reading my copy - without being reductive - highly recommended to all. However much you know about Shakespeare, or about yourself, you'll get something from it.

Maiming The Bard.......2006-12-17

Laurie Maguire's is the latest in an apparently unending series of books seeking to make the Bard more palatable to undergrads by fitting him into borrowed clothing, in this case the straightjacket of the contemporary self-help movement. The shortcoming of this approach is that it judges the genius Shakespeare by the bromides of self-help writers, rather than vice versa, and thus is, at best, vulgarly reductive. As unnecessarily candid as any tell-all guest on Oprah's show, Mcguire speaks first of some sort of nervous breakdown she had after a failed "relationship," whereupon she read a whole shelf of self-help books. The unfortunate result is this mostly awful book of her own. Its basic premise is that of Polonius, "to thine own self be true." Despite the posting of this cliche in numerous dentist offices I've visited through the years, surely nobody else besides Maguire believes Shakespeare in these words is offering us his own hard-won wisdom as a "life coach." The characters who take this "I've gotta be me" philosophy most to heart, after all, are Iago and Edmund [....] an embarrassing complication Maguire does not directly address. Shakespeare's view on "the individual," to the extent it's discernable, seems more accurately one encouraging the characters to be true to the demands of a larger than personal genuine nobility, one of objective truth, goodness and beauty, whatever their social station.
One test case I use to chart further the presence of contemporary misreadings of Shakespeare is that of responses to the character of Lear's daughter, Cordelia. Here, sorry to say, Maguire once again shoots wide of the mark. Her self help books have taught her that a second principal piece of Shakespearean wisdom is that one should walk on eggshells to avoid hurting the feelings of others. Therefore, Cordelia should have spoken more diplomatically to her father in the opening scene. Maguire even quotes the noble Kent to this effect, singling out his admonition, "See better." Here though she is clearly stacking the cards, for Kent's words are not "See better, Cordelia." They're "See better, Lear!" It's Kent after all who says Cordelia has spoken justly, that anyone is obligated to speak truth to power if "majesty falls to folly." Moreover, the play ends with the observation that "we should speak what we feel, not what we ought to say." The more diplomatic Cordelia of Mcguire, I'd say, is concocted from the "why can't we all get along" banalities of self help books, where tragedy is always avoidable, rather than from an unblinking attentiveness to the details of the more tough-minded, almost unbearable Shakespearean vision.

Laurie Maquire argues that Shakespeare helps us "see better.".......2006-12-11

In "Where There's a Will There's a Way: or, All I Really Need to Know I Learned from Shakespeare, Laurie Maguire sees Shakespeare as a great psychologist.

Maguire is a fellow of Magdalen College, Oxford, where she teaches English literature. She has written numerous articles on Elizabethean drama, women's studies, and theater, and has lectured throughout the United States.

"Shakespeare's plays," writes Maguire, "show us human lives in all their perplexing and unpredictable variety. They show us choices, good and bad; they show us predicaments, tragic and comic; they show us characters, complex and shallow. They show us ourselves."

Indeed, argues Maguire, Shakespeare can be read as a self-help guru and life coach who places at our fingertips strategies for survival and success: "The entire Shakespeare canon," she says, "is a course in Finding Oneself 101."

Her repeated imperative if for us to learn to "see better," to quote a phrase from "The Tragedy of King Lear"--to strive to see things from another's point of view. When Lear says to Kent, "Out of my sight!" Kent replies, "See better, Lear!"

To illustrate this desideratum, Maguire examines Shakespeare's plays in relationship to themes such as identity, family, friends, the battle of the sexes, unrequited love, acceptance, anger, jealousy, positive thinking, forgiveness, taking risks, maturity, and loss.

"So what kind of book is this?" she writes. "Is it a self-help book that draws its illustrative material from Shakespeare? Or is it an introduction to Shakespeare in the guise of a genre we all understand: self-help? The answer is: it's both.

"We read self-help books for the same reason we read literature. To find solace and inspiration. To find guidance and advice. To find comfort; comfort that we are not alone, that others have shared our experience. Shakespeare and self-help will always overlap. . . . Ultimately, Shakespeare helps us take control of the plot in our own life; he helps us discover our self. . . . 'A Complete Works of Shakespeare' is the only guide to life you'll ever need."

Robert Graves once said, "The remarkable thing about Shakespeare is that he is really very good, in spite of all the people who say he is very good."

While reading books about Shakespeare is no substitute for reading Shakespeare himself, Maguire helps "see better" his deep wisdom, and thereby "see better" other people and ourselves.

(See also my review of Colin McGinn's "Shakespeare's Philosophy.")

Average customer rating:

An easy and informative read

Where There's Life, There's Life
David Michael Feldman
Manufacturer: Yashar Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Ethics | Religious Studies | Religion & Spirituality | Subjects | Books

General | Religion & Spirituality | Subjects | Books

Jewish Life | Judaism | Religion & Spirituality | Subjects | Books

Medical Ethics | Physician & Patient | Medicine | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 1933143118

Product Description

This book has been called "An Ode to the Sanctity of Life." In it, Rabbi Feldman makes the case for life's intrinsic preciousness, and does so, first, by guiding us through the details of pikkuach nefesh -- the principle in Jewish religious law that sets the saving of life and health above all else. He then illustrates this life-affirming perspective by means of a scholarly exploration into abortion, euthanasia and the right to die, martyrdom, the mandate to heal, the mind-body connection, embryonic stem-cell research, organ transplants -- including the controversial question of heart transplantation. He leads us with edifying expertise but popular style through an analysis of pro-natalism, new reproductive technology, even the writing of Living Wills. Drawing from Talmudic sources as well as contemporary issues, and offering personal accounts from his more than 40 years of experience as a congregational rabbi and a sought-after medical ethicist, Rabbi Feldman advances his theses with passion and verve.

Customer Reviews:

An easy and informative read.......2007-04-13

David Feldman's book takes a very difficult subject and explains it in an understandable way, always reinforcing the Jewish view that sanctifies life. I recommend it to anyone who is interested in learning more about the subject.

Where Did I Come From? Where Am I Going? How Do I Get There?: Straight Answers for Young Catholics

Average customer rating:

why go through life without an owner's manual on how to live smart?
"Amen" to Patrice's review!
Offers Answers for those Questioning Their Faith

Where Did I Come From? Where Am I Going? How Do I Get There?: Straight Answers for Young Catholics
Charles E. Rice , Theresa Farnan , and Ellen Rice
Manufacturer: St. Augustine's Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Religion & Spirituality | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 1587319276

Customer Reviews:

why go through life without an owner's manual on how to live smart?.......2007-04-23

truly, faith is a gift - and no one can proselytize or persuade anyone else, not should they - but how DO we know how to live a good life, how to live the Best Life?

this is a very readable Just-The-Facts explanation - in short essays that you can reference quickly or read slowly - a simple presentation of how to understand and decide the vital issues of a lifetime - applying great scholarship and wisdom to the everyday questions and problems of ordinary life that we all have, that have been true for all the centuries and that will be true until the end of time -

this would be the best Confirmation present for any Catholic - but it's not just for Catholics...because for anyone, what is more important than "settling the God thing" - deciding what to believe and why to have certainty in what we believe? why not figure this out when we are young so that we can live out our lives in accord with principles that hold up? why put off figuring out What Life Is All About?

there is joy in discovering truth and this book would help anyone find out for sure what is true for them and why - living well is not complicated and it's not easy. A good life, the Right Life IS simple and it is hard - but it's not confusing at all.

this book can REALLY help you discern for sure what makes sense to you about the Good, the Beautiful and the True - it's a bargain to get this much clarity and peace of mind for such a fair price.

"Amen" to Patrice's review!.......2006-09-30

This is another one of those books that I wish was written 30 years ago when I was a teen. The information is key to knowing how to correctly form your conscience and make choices; and knowing how to make good choices will affect the rest of your life. The authors make Aquinas very accessable to the average reader. It is written with warmth, some humor and makes the point well. Personally, I think this book should be required reading for every highschooler. This would make a great gift for the teens/young adults on your Christmas list!

Offers Answers for those Questioning Their Faith.......2006-04-10

Have you ever wondered why the Catholic Church teaches what it does on issues of faith and morals? Do you struggle with belief in a personal God? Are you having difficulty making ethical decisions? If you answered "yes" to any of these questions, then "Where Did I Come From? Where am I Going? How Do I Get There? Straight Answers for Young Catholics" is the book for you. Co-authored by Charles E. Rice, Professor Emeritus at Notre Dame University, and his daughter, Theresa Farnan who is a lecturer in Philosophy at Mt. St. Mary's Seminary, this book seeks to provide black and white answers to a world that often only sees shades of grey.

"Where Did I Come From?" begins by proving the existence of God. This section will seem very familiar to those who have studied the work of Thomas Aquinas. For those who have not, you are in for quite a treat. If you have ever wondered "How can one prove that there is a God using reason," you will now have an answer.

The book then goes on to describe why a Church, in particular the Catholic Church, is necessary, and why there must be a Pope. The authors maintain that the teachings of the Church "are like a manual provided, not by General Motors, but by God himself to show me how to achieve eternal happiness, a goal even more important than changing a tire."

Ethics are also covered in detail. Topics discussed include: how one makes ethical decisions, why there must be a right and a wrong, and the role of our conscience in making decisions. Rice and Farnan delve into difficult ethical issues such as abortion in the case of incest or rape and the removal of feeding tubes. While one may not necessarily agree with their conclusions, they do present the official Church teaching and the reasons for it.

While this book is aimed for young Catholics who are still in the midst of being formed in the faith, it provides a useful tool for Catholics of any age who are seeking for definitive answers.

Patrice Fagnant-MacArthur is editor of http://www.spiritualwoman.net

Best Places to Photograph North American Wildlife/Where to Go, How to Get There,What to Shoot, Where to Say and Buy Supplies

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Best Places to Photograph North American Wildlife/Where to Go, How to Get There,What to Shoot, Where to Say and Buy Supplies
Mark Warner
Manufacturer: Amphoto Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Photography | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

Equipment | Photography | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0817435565

Where There's Hope There's Life, Women's Stories of Homelessness and Survival

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Where There's Hope There's Life, Women's Stories of Homelessness and Survival
Anthony J. Gittins
Manufacturer: Liguori Publications
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Religion & Spirituality | Subjects | Books

General | Spirituality | Religion & Spirituality | Subjects | Books

A Presence That Disturbs: A Call to Radical Discipleship
Come, Follow Me: The Commandments Of Jesus; Invitations to Discipleship
Encountering Jesus: How People Come to Faith and Discover Discipleship
Becoming Who You Are: Insights on the True Self from Thomas Merton And Other Saints (Christian Classics)
Reading the Clouds: Mission Spirituality for New Times

ASIN: 0764814109

Product Description

This book introduces readers to twelve homeless women in a way that will change our perception of the poor on our streets. Here, we encounter them in their own voices. We discover their pain while we realize their beauty and strength. Their stories are not intended to elicit guilt or pity, but to evoke compassionate understanding and a concrete response. These stories help us to identify more closely with the homeless and forgotten people who are not far from any of us. As we fall in love with them (and one another) we realize that, above all, where there's hope, there's life.

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Where There is Life

Manufacturer: Dell
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
ASIN: B000GWTNWS

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