Girl, 15, Charming but Insane by Sue Limb

Sue Limb does an excellent job on her first teen book, Girl, 15, Charming but Insane. It is an extremely addictive story that I whizzed through, wanting more, not realizing it was a whole 214 pages long! This teen book that I would recommend for teens is hilarious, frustrating, heart-warming and smile-acious, because even though the narrator tells it from a third-person viewpoint, one really can get to know Jess Jordan, the main character.

Jess is a 15-year old teen living in England with her radical feminist mother who is constantly passionately preaching against war or Jess’s crushes. Jess’s goofy dad is divorced from her mother and lives on the coast of a sea, a place of residence where Jess hopes to visit someday. The twosome’s household gets crazier when `Granny’ moves in, a sweet-as-a-muffin grandmother who, ironically, loves hearing about gruesome news events involving slain body parts. I think Jess’s family was a great foundation for the book, because the members each have their own quirks yet they get along very well. Jess’s best friend, Flora, is, well, perfect. Or so Jess thinks. Flora’s family is very rich and live under `heavenly’, lavish conditions. Jess and Flora’s relationship greatly reflects many relationships of today’s teens, because the feelings of jealously, resentment, and flusters of sheer anger come bluntly through Jess’s thoughts. Jess also has a loyal friend named Fred, whom she has fun with jokingly speaking in old English. Fred is a sharp-witted young man that seems to have a birds-eye view of the way people act, and he would rather watch something very violent on TV than go to a clique-filled party. I believe that Jess and Fred have an awesome relationship in that they feel completely comfortable around each other just being friends. Jess is a stereotypical teenager with thoughts that the average teenage girl has, such as chest size and boy crazes.

Things get interesting when a party goes wild and Jess ends up walking home in painful platforms and a wet bra. It’s great how Limb shows many negative things that can happen in a girl’s life to balance out the good things. Flora becomes swept away by a curly brown-haired, poet-looking boy named Mackenzie and she somewhat deserts Jess, which is an exact reflection of how young people can come to forget their own best friends when caught up in puppy love. Jess is head-over-heels for a Brad Pitt look-a-like named Ben Jones.

Limb made me feel like I was Jess, because her descriptions of everything were so humanlike; I could imagine myself thinking some of the things that Jess thought, such as the battles she has with her self-consciousness and her lusty desires to be with Ben. This book wonderfully displays what it is like to be a teenage girl and how one deals with the hardships that come along with high school and the opposite sex.

A shocking ending, partially predictable, however, is sweet and sour, and will make readers yearn for more. The girls’ crushes change and I can see that things are going to get sticky for Jess. Luckily for all teens, this book is the first of a trilogy!

When I reached the last page I exclaimed, “What?! It can’t be over! I have so many questions!” Limb must have purposely not included the answers to such questions as, `What will happen between Jess and Flora?’ and `Why did Jess’s parents split up, and does her mom still love her dad?’ to continue in her upcoming novels.

All in all, this is a knee-slapping book that effortlessly caused me to perform the act of laughing out loud and continually interrupting my friend to read her the funny parts. I recommend it to those who want a bright story and a true smile for the day.

Early Adolescence: Understanding The 10 To 15 Year Old by Gail A. Caissy

I am a mother of an 11 year old and a student seeking a teaching license for middle school students. I found the information in this book very practical. There was researched information on different domains of development during early adolescence as well as practical tips to use in managing a classroom of 10-15 year-olds. I will use this book as a reference for home and school. I was disappointed, however, that the book was published in the 90′s. I would like to see an updated version of this book.

You’re Grounded!: How to Stop Fighting and Make the Teenage Years Easier by Vanessa Van Petten

This book was a fantastic eye-opening experience into the lives of teenagers from the perspective of a teenager. Ms. Van Patten really is able to show us how the world has changed for our youth today and how we better can understand what they are facing. I enjoyed the book tremendously and have been able to employ some of the ideas to strenghten the mother/daughter relationship with my daughter. I have bought copies of the books for many of my mom friends as I know they too will get a lot out this book. Thank you!

“… Kathy was sitting on the school bus in ninth grade (15 years old) listening to a bunch of the other girls in the bus talk about blow- jobs. She had no …”

Kit’s Mystery Party Game (The American Girls Collection) by American Girl

This is cute. As a previous reviewer posted, one flaw is that one character is off-stage for a good deal of the script. Not so fun for most girls. Also, this is not the best game to choose if your daughter MUST invite a large crowd. THere are roles for 8 girls. If you have 16 girls and have them share a role it ends up being very little speaking. You can “create” roles, but then what about lines? Not much flexibility there unless you rewrite the entire script. Lastly, please remember your target audience. In order for this play to flow well, girls need to be strong readers. Many 6 year olds are big fans of the AG world and you might have a daughter who is a very strong reader but the chances of 7 of her friends that age being strong readers as well are low. By age 8 or 9 most kids are reading well enough to read new material smoothly with appropriate inflection/expression, understanding the story as they read it.

“… Maud is a 15-year-old girl. She is a hobo, which is what a homeless person …”

What Daddy Never Told His Little Girl by Tony, Allen Gaskins Jr.

This book is everything a woman can ask for! It is so exact and so to the point that it brings tears to your eyes and its hard to read at some points but its exactly what women need. Of course all men aren’t just alike but the few that are different from this book would love it bc they would be in a class of their own. I asked every man I could after reading this and found that all of them answered the questions the same exact way that the author did. They just couldn’t articulate it as well. A lot of men didn’t like it bc it was everything they were guilty of. Me and some of my friends found our men to fit right inside of this book to the T. I would recommend this book to every DATING WOMAN in the WORLD!I want to go to florida just to shake this man’s hand, his book is speaking of Millions of men,and every man I’ve dated,so how could this be one man’s views and he states in the book that he polled other men. Since I read this I have heard the same things said on tv and radio over and over but never paid attention to it until now. It’s time for women to wake up and realize what is real and find a way to help change it. I read the book 6 time and I’m on my 7th, he touches on everything but ppl miss it because its a hour and a half read and they don’t read it closely. He doesn’t say every man cheats all the time. He says every man cheats or is capable of it but a good woman or his calling in life can stop him from cheating. He doesn’t say anything about dating white women to spite black women,if you got that then you were reading to fast. I just wish I knew this man, I wish I could meet this man. Finally a man steps up and exposes himself to give women the game. Ladies can see he is fine and know by looking at him he probably could get you,so you have to respect what he is saying. THIS IS NOT A BOOK FOR GUYS!!!!AND THIS ISN’T A HATERS GUIDE!!Why would a man HATE on himself???You can tell in his answers he is being honest and sincere and it brings tears to your eyes. I’m going to get my whole book club to write a review on here. Fella’s do what this man has done before you say anything negative about his work!!He has a sister and a mother the book says and the book is for them, you can’t knock that, you know a man wouldn’t give the women he loves the most false information, and even if it is about the MONEY, he DESERVES A MILLION DOLLARS FOR DOING WHAT HE DID!!!

When I started to read this book I almost wanted to quit immediately after it stated that it was based on the Christian principles of the Bible. Even though I have been brought up in the Roman Catholic faith, I thought “Oh, no. I don’t want religion jammed down my throat,” ESPECIALLY not in a book. Well, may I suggest that I could have committed one of the worse mistakes of my whole life had I stopped reading then and there?

Dr. Norman Peale affirms the Christian principles once and again, but the reader has no need for desparing, for he does not sell religion in his book. Instead, he suggests a new approach to it, purely practical. Here we have a look at the most read book of all time in a way few people could have imagined. He suggests we all use the Bible as a tool for successful living. Interesting? You bet!

The use of religion in everyday life is unavoidable, but you’ve never heard of using it in way so that your life flows easier, happier, with less stress and much rewards. After all, this is the way we were intended to feel in our brief passage through this world, since we were made to the image of God. The wonderful suggestions don’t stop there. Being a partner in a small business, the idea of “taking God in” as another partner in order to make it successful, seemed incredibly original to me; and yet, could you think of a more natural way to talk to God?

After reading Dr. Peale’s book you’ll probably start to wonder how you never thought of these possibilities even though they appear to be indeed so natural and will definitely make life so much easier for you. Although he does say the reasons we became (and that is “became”, not “were born with”) the way we are today, is something you’ll have to turn elsewhere to discover; the techniques for a new outlook on life, one that will allow you to reap the fruits of success and both personal and professional achievement, are given and shown here: the power of prayer.

I decided to keep this book by my night table. I have it marked to passages of special prayer and so far, it’s done wonders for me.So start right away, get your copy and periodically, as Dr. Peale says, read passages of Scripture. There’s no reason why you shouldn’t reap the benefits of the most wonderful vineyard of all.

Source: Escape Pod, Episode 27
Length: 35 minutes
Reader: Jonathan Sullivan

The story:Union Dues is a series of linked stories about an alternate version of our own world in which superpowers are real. People with these superpowers are kept separate of the “normals” by the Union, a extra-governmental organization which regulates the “supers.” Supers who agree to certain conditions set by the Union become superheroes, with their own costumes and Union-produced comic books.

This particular story is the first in the series. Megaton, one of the Union’s superheroes, has been arrested. The small-town sheriff begins to probe Megaton with questions, allowing DeRego a chance to throw in some expository dialogue. Yet, DeRego doesn’t spend his entire story in world-building. He also manages to establish some of the themes and moral issues he will develop in later stories: the loneliness of being different, the manipulation of image in the media, and the right of the privileged to make decisions on behalf of the unprivileged. If it sounds like DeRego is trying too much, be assured that this is a a compelling story that introduces a fascinating world.

Rating: 7/10

The reader: Jonathan Sullivan does an outstanding job with this piece. The story is told in the 1st person from Megaton’s perspective, so it is this character’s voice that dominates the story. Sullivan performs Megaton in a gravelly rasp, a more weary version of Batman’s voice in Batman: The Animated Series. The other major character, the small town sheriff, is voiced by Sullivan with a Southern accent, but he avoids the Barney Fife caricature. As is typical with Escape Pod episodes, the production values are high.

Note: Jeffery DeRego, the author of this story, recently underwent heart surgery for a bypass surgery. The surgery reportedly went fine, but financial assistance would be welcome. If you listened to this story and liked it, consider donating via Paypal to Mr. DeRego and his family. The donation link is available through this Escape Pod link and will be open through the end of September 2008.

“… THE 9/11 COMMISSION REPORT Between 6:45 and 7:40, Atta and Omari, along with Satam …”

Zip file of the entire book (672 MB)

Philip Zelikow often defends illegality in the quest of empire, so its no surprise that Philip Zelikow’s 911 Commission report, which he authored, is a mythological masterpiece, a complete web of lies, based upon lies, with virtually all citations in the footnotes being nothing more than bare allegations made in top secret “interviews”. I suppose that “interview” means “waterboarding”, and as allah knows, you can get anybody to say anything when they think you’re drowning them.

When I read the “9/11 Commission Report”, I did something few people did. Every time I saw a footnote, I went to the back and read the footnote to see if it supported the facts claimed in the text. Sometimes the footnote was peripherally related – it was “sorta” relevant, but many times the footnote simply did not support the key “fact” being claimed in the text. This was done in many ways. One way it is done is by making a factual claim in the text, along with other statements irrelevant to the main fact, and when you look at the footnotes, the factual claims aren’t referenced at all, instead the footnote relates only the irrelevant text. The second way Zelikow lies in his footnotes is by making one claim in the sentence or paragraph, and then the footnote says something COMPLETELY DIFFERENT. For example, on page 86 – Zelikow (trying to revise history and ignore things like, well, the Iran Contra scandal) makes the statement that “The CIA’s number one customer is the president of the United States, who also has the authority to direct it to conduct covert operations.” It cites footnote 64. When you turn to page 477 and read footnote 64, the cite is to United States Code Section 413, WHICH IS ABOUT CONGRESSIONAL OVERSIGHT TO FORCE THE PRESIDENT TO REVEAL ILLEGAL ACTIVITY. Whaa? It’s a bald faced lie to claim Section 413 stands for presidential authority to conduct covert ops.

And on and on and on. Zelikow fills the footnotes with unverifiable references and irrelevant references, I suppose to make it “look scholarly”. It’s almost as if he had Ann Coulter making his footnotes. “Facts” in text are supported by footnotes which are anything but “facts”, such as popular books (usually right wing) written after 9/11, top-secret “interviews” which can’t be cross-checked, citations to non-public (uh, do I mean secret?) documents, or cites to documents that the average person cannot find without a lot of work. For example, my handwritten notes regarding the footnotes on page 477 of the 9/11 Commission Report shows that of the “facts” alleged on page 86: 9 are to “official reports”; 9 are to “pop literature”; 25 are from secret “interviews”; 5 are cites to “laws or statutes” (and I’ve already shown how Section 413 was falsely attributed); 5 are to “executive orders” (not law, in my opinion, but presidential “decrees” from King George), and only 3 were from “testimony” – which I suppose means sworn testimony, under penalty of perjury (but that might not be true – don’t forget that King George and Dick Cheney refused to give sworn testimony and instead were interviewed together by the commission behind closed doors, and nobody from the commission was allowed to take notes or record the interview). That means that only 6 percent of the co-called “facts” referenced on page 477 were based on sworn testimony, and almost all would be inadmissible in court since it violates the “best evidence” rule. Perhaps a court would allow more in – but the point is made – the “facts” in the 9/11 Commission report are thinly supported – the book is a sham.

Philip Zelikow, as the director of the 9/11 Commission (or gatekeeper) was the actual author of almost all of the 9/11 Report. He is more likely a perp than a unbiased party, since, he was a security advisor to Condi Rice regarding Al Queada and as such, should have been INVESTIGATED for his failures, not put in charge of the investigation. Other oddities abound. Zelikow is a student and expert on “mythology” (his thesis in college was on creating public myths). Zelikow was an administration insider whose area of expertise is the creation and maintenance of “public myths” thought to be true, even if not actually true. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philip_D._Zelikow
We all know that he controlled what the Commission did and did not analyze, then limited the scope of the Commission’s inquiry so that the overwhelming majority of questions about 9/11 remained unasked (see http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Philip_D._Zelikow
and http://911blogger.com/node/3418 ). Zelikow is arguably the single most responsible person in covering up the truth about 9/11. Zelikow is believed to be the principal author of the final drafts, and its his horribly crappy fiction that makes it “read like a thriller”. Yah Zelikow, It can’t be ignored: your fiction is abysmal, “it was a dark and stormy night” kind of crap. But that’s what’s so disturbing – somebody is putting a fictitious spin on what should be a “REPORT” – so it becomes a “STORY” – actually, the 9/11 Commission Report is more than a story – it’s an attempt at modern myth building. From the spooky scary Islam guys to the bizarre physics lessons on tower collapse to the huge section which tells us “what to do in the future” (which should be called the “Project for a New Century Lite”), the entire book is crafted with the end in sight: the glorious heroic saga of a sleeping giant savagly blind sided, and the NYPD and FDNY heros who died so you and I can be free.

Now don’t get me wrong – I don’t know what happened on 9/11, but you won’t find anything in this book but a bizarre fantasy-land story – which sounds a lot like a report a cop writes when he’s trying to cover his tracks…

Zelikow, as a virtual a member of Bush’s cabinet, was horribly conflicted and can’t be trusted. Not only was he talking to Karl Rove throughout the Commission investigation, but he was also giving talks about catastrophic terrorism BEFORE the 9/11 attacks. Zelikow also wrote, in “Foreign Affairs”, pub. Nov-Dec 1998, an article called “Catastrophic Terrorism: Imagining the Transformative Event” – One “Transformative event” he discussed therein was the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center, which he went on to “imagine” what would have happened had it succeeded, which sounds suspiciously like what actually did happen. Correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t that kind of premeditation typically seen as an important clue which prosecutors use to identify criminals? And this guy is the key man writing the 9/11 report? And people wonder why so many Americans believe in the 9/11 truth movement.
See, as well:

http://free71.wordpress.com/2007/10/09/self-inflicted-wound-911-attacks-and-zelikow/

And later, despite blockbuster sales for the 9/11 report, Zelikow later told the Washington Post he was alarmed by the concurrent spread of “conspiracy theories” about the attacks, which he described as pathogens which would destroy his carefully crafted myth:
“Our worry is when things become infectious, as happened with the [John F. Kennedy] assassination,” Zelikow says. “Then this stuff can be deeply corrosive to public understanding. You can get where the bacteria can sicken the larger body.” (1)
To “Dr.” Zelikow, the truth is bacteria. And if you read the 9/11 Commission report, and then do some research, you’ll see that the “bacteria” are winning. The “truthers” make some very good points regarding lies about time lines, and the bizarre fact that the ones who supposedly screwed up on 9/11 (if you believe the Report) all got promoted. Something very odd here.

The fruit from this poisonous tree has spread far. The “War on Terror,” er, I mean on Afghanistan, oh, I meant Iraq…or is it now Iran? Pentagon black ops budgets and 3.1 trillion missing, Space commands move to encircle the world with killer satellites, the Patriot Act gutting the constitution, contracts awarded to Halliburton to build detention campss, surveillance society and the Telecom Scandal, SPP and Nafta, Cafta, etc. It all answers the question about who would have done it, and what they had to gain. It’s empire boys and girls. Corporatist empire. That’s who benefitted from 9/11 by billions and billions of dollars. My guess? Al quaeda is a false front enemy created by the CIA to fill the “global enemy gap” created after the Berlin wall fell down. A nameless, faceless, endless global boogy man army. And you kids fell for it.