Product Description
As Thoreau used the pond, Romtvedt uses the windmill as a metaphor to take the reader on a philosophical and spiritual search of fundamental truths in the commonplace elements of daily existence. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

A contemporary voice with word tone poems of the west.
When a book comes along that speaks with a voice that gives the reader an emotional understanding of the west, it quickly moves to the top of our "must read" list. "Windmill. Essays from Four MileRanch" by David Romtvedt is such a book. It is a book that makes thereader feel that you are there...experiencing a real understanding of whatit means to live and work in the west.

Calling Romtvedt's experiences"essays" is appropriate. They are separate stories...but morethan merely stories. They appear to be unrealated chapters, but the threadthat weaves throughout is an understanding and appreciation of living inthe west. Those who live, or have lived in Wyoming and the west (and wemean LIVED in the west, not just had a residence there), will share thekindred spirit of which Romtvedt writes.

Often, when reading theseessays, we had to put the book down momentarily to absorb the words, andthe experiences behind the words. The words paint pictures of thelandscape, the heritage, and contemporary life near Buffalo, Wyoming.Romtvedt allows us to peer into his very personal thoughts and experiences.He lets us know that there is beauty in the "mundane", for whatwe may first perceive as mundane can been experienced on so many levels.The only limitations to our experiences are those we impose upon ourselves.In Windmill, Romtvedt shows us that it is possible to experience the beautyof the west through something as common as a windmill, as distant as thethunder rolling across the plains and as close as ourselves.

Through thisbook, we are able to experience the beauty of simple words and thecomplexity of the west. Romtvedt draws us into his world and shows us howeasy it is to open ourselves to an awareness of life around us. Whetherintended or not, he almost seems to defy us NOT to increase our awarenessas we share his awareness of his world.

Occasionally, the picturespainted by the words are enhanced with charcoal drawing (or pencildrawings) by Gregory Truett Smith. Those pages don't detract from the wordpictures, but rather make us wish there were more of them.

The followingpassage from the book shows the beauty and meaning of simplethings:

"One June night as I was coming down out of the Bighornswith my friend John Lane, we saw a light we didn't recognize off to thenortheast. UFOs maybe, or a giant city that had been built in our two-weekabsence from civilization. We stopped our truck and got out. In thestillness, we saw the Northern Lights - long shimmering bands of yellow andwhite pouring down from the top of the world, then racing back up.

Westared. After a few minutes, we heard the rumbling of thunder from thesoutheast, and, turning, we saw lightning - jagged fierce bolts, somerunning up and down, some back and forth across the sky. We turned from onelight to the other.

Next came singing. It wasn't the long howling singingof wolves - the last Bighorn wolf was shot in 1939. Rather, it was thesinging of coyotes - short bright yips very close to laughter. There wereso many singers that the song took on a quality that seemed familiar,human.

Sheep need to be protected from coyotes but I can't help but feelsympathy for the clever dog. Coyote will find a way around every impediment- traps, poisons, guns, trucks, snowmobiles, airplanes. When night falls,no matter how hard the day, Coyote begins to sing. Coyote's song is 'We arehere; it is now'."

Romtvedt's words are simple. They invite us toshare personal experiences. They invite us to be open to personalexperiences of our own. The book quotes poet Lew Welch when he made anobservation to a friend:

"...to the mountains the trees are justpassing through".

This not only shows us OUR place; but shows howimportant it is for we mere mortals to appreciate our place in the worldaround us. Romtvedt expresses that appreciation. He shows us how simplethat complex appreciation can be...and, in many ways...how vital it is forus to cultivate that appreciation.

If the contemporary west has a voice,it may be the voice of David Romtvedt. If it is not HIS voice,"Windmill. Essays from Four Mile Ranch" shows us that, without adoubt, he HEARS that voice.

The Wyoming Companion

Uneven, but worthwhile.
I read a library copy of this book several months ago and now I am thinking about buying a copy for my own library.I thought it was a bit uneven but parts of it have stuck with me. I want to go back and reread it. I found similarities between this book and the nature writings of Amishauthor David Kline.

Conveys a sense of place and simple wisdom.
In his essays on his small town, the local economy, the local culture, being a nonhunter, death, sheep, and weather, Romtvedt indeed conveys a sense of place and simple wisdom. Recommended for regional, large public, and academic libraries.LIBRARY JOURNA ... Read more

Product Description
This is a true story about my lifelong battle- and victory- over a rare genetic bone disorder. Osteogenisis Imperfecta left my bones brittle and my body fragile. As a child I suffered hundreds of fractures. The story details the early years of hospital visits, pain and loneliness. However the uplifting events of encouragement, which helped me through those difficult times, times when even doctors thought I would not survive, are also illustrated. I write about the joy and the despair of growing up with a disability, a unique perspective of life for both the able-bodied and the physically challenged. Eventually I would rise above the broken bones and prejudice, attend college, earn my degree in Social Work, and help others in need. Colorful, loving profiles of family and friends, as well as episodes of romance, laughter and heartbreak are sprinkled through out the book, ultimately reaching a powerful climax of hope, inspiration and achievement. THOSE ARE THE BREAKS is a tale of a breakable body- with a very unbreakable spirit. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Good enough to search for it
I remember staying up at night to read this book to my brother when we were kids.It continues the story of Lam Lao, now on a planet where a eugenics policy is being enacted.Of course, it's up to Lam and his new friends (including a love interest) to face impossible odds and beat the bad guys.

It's been a LONG time since I've read it, but I remember enjoying it as a kid.If I were to read it again as an adult (as I'm hoping to do), I'm guessing that I would find it a little formulaic/predictable.(The first book in this series--from what I remember--is less so.)Even so, both books stuck in my mind through the years--enough to motivate me to log on and look for them.Surely that counts for something . . . ... Read more

Product Description
This digital document is an article from Doors and Hardware, published by Door and Hardware Institute on November 1, 2003. The length of the article is 805 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: The beatings won't stop until the morale improves.(business buzz: Management)
Author: Gregory P. Smith
Publication: Doors and Hardware (Magazine/Journal)
Date: November 1, 2003
Publisher: Door and Hardware Institute
Volume: 67Issue: 11Page: 46(2)

Distributed by Thomson Gale ... Read more

Product Description
Organophosphorus and carbonate pesticides are used as insecticides, herbicides, nematicides, acaricides, fungicides, rodenticides, and bird repellents throughout the world. Today, organophosphorus and carbamate pesticides use is widespread on agricultural crops, rangelands, forests, and wetlands. Toxicology and Pesticide Use: Organophosphorus and Carbamate Compounds summarizes what is known about these pesticides from wildlife toxicology literature and discusses the potential hazards to wildlife by examining toxicity, environmental persistence, and use patterns of the pesticides. This information is critical to anyone involved in agriculture or agribusiness because of the impact of recent EPA rulings regarding the administration of these chemicals to crops. The book will interest toxicologists, environmental toxicologists, agrichemists, and all researchers involved in the study of the impact of these chemicals on the environment. ... Read more

Product Description
This digital document is an article from Doors and Hardware, published by Door and Hardware Institute on July 1, 2004. The length of the article is 875 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Leadership mythology.(Leadership)
Author: Gregory P. Smith
Publication: Doors and Hardware (Magazine/Journal)
Date: July 1, 2004
Publisher: Door and Hardware Institute
Volume: 68Issue: 7Page: 65(1)

Distributed by Thomson Gale ... Read more

Product Description
Anyone working in the leadership arena these days is fully aware of the potential for failure. Whether you are in the public or private sector, government or industry, The New Leader: Bringing Creativity and Innovation to the Workplace, offers something for those who want to improve their leadership ability and redesign and energize their businesses. Here is a three-step framework that will enable your operation to become an innovative organization and not only make it in the 21st century -- but survive in it as well!

Different than most books on the market, this one is written in an enthusiastic, informative and highly practical format.The author's first hand experiences provides an inside-out approach, showing how to transform and energize your organization and your leadership skills.

Discover programs to improving employee involvement, innovation, customer service and growing a healthier bottom-line.

Specific benefits from this book:
Discover how to get a high level of employee involvement
Learn the key steps to transform organizations from the inside out
Discover the key leadership skills needed for today's changing business environment
Learn how to build trust and remove barriers and obstacles
How to build effective teams and teamwork
Understand how idea programs improve productivity
The traits of an innovative leader
How to build trust
The key steps on managing change
Understand what motivates people
How to improve your effectiveness as a change agent
Learn how to make work fun and increase enthusiasm and vitality
Discover how to capture and transform ideas into valuable products and services ... Read more

Product Description
1956 Tan Paperback ... Read more

Product Description
An erotic obsession with a young Shaker woman sends John Venner, a thirty-five-year-old doctor of divinity in a small New England college, on a rollercoaster ride that touches upon the need for salvation. 10,000 first printing. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

A story about one man's quest for intimacy and absolution.
John Venner is a middle-aged Doctor of Divinity who is in the process of a divorce from the true love of his life.He is also obsessed with the last colony of Shakers in New England, and particularly the youngest member ofthe community,23 year old Sabbathday Wells. In a way only Smith coulddescribe, Venner searches for real love and intimacy in a morally corruptpost-modern america.He dreams of redemption by purity, by the simple actsof hard work, and cleanliness of soul and body.His need for intimacy-divine and human- leads him on a sexual quest for the last American virgin.This book is extremely entertaining to read, immaculately written, andshows a depth of understanding of the post-modern soul which is rareindeed. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Powerful real-life crime story by Pulitzer Prize-winning authors
Unlike most of the true crime books I've read (especially those by Ann Rule), "A Stranger in the Family" does not focus on the victims, but on the family of the serial-rapist/murderer, Richard `Danny' Starrett.The criminal himself reminds me of Peter Pettigrew from the Harry Potter books ("I was a GOOD rat!").He isn't one of your usual macho "I did it because it was fun" rapists.In fact, he spends most of this book trying to justify his crimes or slough them off onto his alternate personality.I wish the authors had performed a bit of literary liposuction on Danny's journal entries.They're all `me me me'.I was especially put off by his claim to have fallen in love with the girl he kidnapped, raped, and murdered.

At least, Danny Starrett confessed to his crimes and led the police to the body of the girl he had murdered.He was sentenced to five life terms in South Carolina.

This is where most true crime stories would end.

But a Georgia prosecutor wanted to run for judge, and a good way to earn points with the voters in his state was to get a death-penalty conviction in a high-profile case.Danny Starrett's only murder victim was a Georgia girl.Even though he was already serving five life sentences in South Carolina, the prosecutor attempted to extradite him and get him executed.

Now we come to the hero in this book: Bud Siemon, an ex-Green Beret platoon leader who fought in the Vietnam War, even though he opposed it--the authors ask `When did James Dean become John Wayne?"After his tour of duty, Siemon became a criminal lawyer who fiercely opposed the death penalty.

Even if you approve of executing murderers, it is hard to resist a lawyer who works for a cause he believes in, even though he earns peanuts.

There is also a little twist at book's end concerning a character I had pretty much given up on (not Danny), that made me glad I had read "A Stranger in the Family."It is a powerful, character-driven account of a `perfect' family gone wrong by Pulitzer Prize-winning authors.
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Product Description
This digital document is an article from Doors and Hardware, published by Door and Hardware Institute on January 1, 1998. The length of the article is 1991 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Improving your workforce productivity.(Management Matters)(Column)
Author: Gregory P. Smith
Publication: Doors and Hardware (Magazine/Journal)
Date: January 1, 1998
Publisher: Door and Hardware Institute
Volume: v62Issue: n1Page: p51(4)

Article Type: Column

Distributed by Thomson Gale ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

profound, beautiful, fascinating writing--lags at the end
Must admit that when I received this tome in the mail, it took me weeks even to pick it up and look at it, as it seemed just well over-the-top in length and weight for the story of this one man or for a summer read. But as soon as I began, I was off.The writers carry you along like the best fiction writers, and in the meantime you get an inside peak at an entire era -- the times, the mood, the other people around and active in the American modern art movement. It almost seems impossible that the authors were able to gather so much detail to make this so vivid!I became attached to it like a favored novel.Only one criticism--the last multiple chapters are all about his post-production, post-return to drinking, destructive downhill spiral.After a while, this portion became repetitive as in "enough already, I don't need to hear about his destroying yet another set of lawn furniture."At some point well before the end, I the reader wanted to jump in the book and put him out of his misery.Still -- what an American tragedy and must read. ... Read more

Product Description
Danny is the story of a true event about a man with Down syndrome who was senselessly and viciously murdered. His life is recounted, and the criminal investigation, trial and its results are laid out for the reader's scrutiny. Only then are readers able to understand what happened to the criminals and to DannyÂ’s family.

Throughout DannyÂ’s life there were many crises, which he overcame by the strength of his personality and family support. Danny had many clear-headed attributes, and he certainly utilized his intellectual abilities to their maximum. Out of determination and need, Danny created his own business enabling him to become self-supporting and financially independent.

But rather than giving him the recognition he deserves, we are left pondering his fate. Danny was brave and didnÂ’t submit to his aggressors. His bravery was no different than a soldier's on the field of battle.

Danny's death, unfortunately, presents us with a dilemma: Did he fail to receive equal justice under the law, because he was handicapped? In many ways, our society and the people who govern it appear to be unable to properly cope with individuals like Danny. On the face of it, for whatever reason, our highly technical society is regrettably able to abstract itself from the needs of its less fortunate members.

Heroes are not selected. If they were, they would all be glamorous, rich and, perhaps, celebrities. In reality, we must accept a hero from whence he comes. Danny was an authentic hero, even though he came to us from poverty and obscurity.

Customer Reviews (2)

Deserving of comment
This book asks important questions. What is the value of a life with Down syndrome?A sobering account of one young man's murder it makes visible how little we value the lives of those with intellectual disabilities. Paying tribute to Danny's memory it is to be recommended to anyone who cares about life and how we need to maintain strong communities.

ARemarkably Good Read--AReal Page Turner
Based on a true story, this book provides the reader with twounforgettable insights. The first is the "human-ness" of thosemembers of our society not blessed with perfect births, and the warminterrelationships of their direct family members as well as the"neighborhood" family members. The second is an "in yourface" realism of the consequences of the deterioration of our olderestablished neighborhoods, and a legal system (ours) where many of the keymembers are much more interested in upward mobility and societal profilethan in "equal justice for all" as set out by our constitutionalforefathers. The readers of this book will close it with many lingeringthoughts! ... Read more

Product Description
After studying under Alexandre Cabanel at l'?cole des Beaux Arts, Thomas Hovenden (1840-1895) began an exemplary career as a painter and teacher at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. Along with his contemporaries there, Thomas Eakins and Thomas Anschutz, Hovenden acquired a reputation for being both an influential instructor and a talented artist.

A realistic genre painter and recorder of everyday activities such as those involving home and family, Hovenden had a particular gift for choosing subjects with wide recognition and appeal. His work reflects a Victorian ethos; unlike many artists of the time, however, Hovenden's work featured African American subjects in domestic settings. His firm belief in sentiment and beauty as the goals of artistic pursuits is evident in the nostalgic paintings for which he is best known, such as The Last Moments of John Brown, in which Brown is depicted stopping on his way to the gallows to kiss a young black child.

This is the first full-length study that fosters a greater understanding of Hovenden's gifts as a painter and of his stylistic contribution to art. Chronologically organized, it is both a retrospective of Hovenden's work and a critical biography of the artist. The volume features many of his paintings, studies, and sketches, some reproduced for the first time. ... Read more

Product Description
This gripping account of William Gregory Smith aka Cyril Johnson is indicative of twenty-five years of deception, abuse of power and character assassination by the Working People Alliance (WPA).

This brutally honest book exposes the WPA in the web of Lies and Betrayal.

My brother, William Gregory Smith, did not seek out Dr. Walter Rodney and the WPA. They sought him for his brilliance in the field of electronics. The resulting alliance led to the loss of a brilliant mind and son of Guyana.

It will become quite clear after reading this account, that once can safely conclude that history, as we know it, is not always accurate.

... Read more