The Midwest Book Review's Michael J. Carson:
Set in the high-paced, volatile, and competitive world of Madison Avenue in the 1960s, "The Poodle at The Poodle" is the story of a young advertising copywriter who accepts a retired senior executive's offer to guarantee him wealth, fame and success. But there's a price -- and it's a doozey! Author Bernard Ryan Jr. draws upon his own years of experience and expertise in the advertising world to bring a feeling for genuine authenticity in this Faustian-style novel of greed, ambition, and the cost of success. Deftly crafted from first page to last, "The Poodle at The Poodle" is very highly recommended for personal reading lists and community library American fiction collections.
Publishers Weekly:
This well-made book re-tells the Dr. Faustus legend as it might have played out in American business. An 81-year-old narrator tells of Foster’s ascendance in advertising in the1950s & 60s. An ex co-worker tells Foster, recently passed up for a promotion to Vice President, he can give him career success in trade for his soul. The book offers great knowledge of advertising — presentations, strategies, meetings, and descriptions of air travel in those decades are accurate and interesting. The story offers believable dialogue and a good hook — we want to know if Satan ends up with his soul, and if Foster gets the success offered.
Amazon’s Top Reviewer:
This story did hook me from the earliest pages. The author is a natural-born storyteller, providing readers with an eloquent narrative featuring natural, free-flowing dialogue. I've read several Faustian stories over the years, and The Poodle at The Poodle acquits itself quite well among its literary forebears.
Amazon reviewer Cathi L. Radner:
Great voice. Unique, evocative, draws you right in. The sort of book that will keep a reader reading.
ISBN: 1-4382-2299-8. 300 pages. Quality trade paperback. Price $14.95.
Now on Amazon Shorts
These are letters that might have been written to some well-known writers before they became established. Satirical? Maybe. Amusing? You decide.
• Amazon Shorts are available exclusively at Amazon.com; you will not find them anywhere else.
• Amazon Shorts are delivered electronically; there are no printed editions.
• Amazon Shorts are yours forever – after purchase (at a one-time charge of only 49 cents), you can read them anytime at Amazon.com. (They'll be stored forever in Your Media Library in PDF, HTML, and text e-mail formats.)
• You are free to print Amazon Shorts to read in hard copy form at your convenience.
This essay describes the entertaining events, hour by hour, of the day before the bill of impeachment of President Andrew Johnson was introduced in Congress. It reveals that shenanigans are shenanigans, then or now.
Also new on Amazon Shorts.
This unique short story, told in a sequence of three e-mails, takes place on a famed nude beach at Truro, Massachusetts, on Cape Cod.
Tyler's Titanic
"The fantasy writer's job," says Stephen King, "is to conduct the willing reader from mundanity to magic."
Tyler's Titanic, a 104-page chapter book for children of all ages, fits King's prescription. To read more about the book, click on
Tyler's Titanic under
Fantasy in the right-hand column of this page.
To order from Amazon or Barnes & Noble, click below:
The Wright Brothers: Inventors of the Airplane (Great Life Stories: Inventors & Scientists). Publisher: Scholastic Library Publishing. ISBN 0531122549
The Wright Brothers: Inventors of the Airplane
This colorful, 128-page comprehensive biography for readers in 6th to 8th grade was published by the Franklin Watts imprint of Scholastic Incorporated in its
Great Life Stories: Inventors and Scientists series. ISBN 0531122549.
The Poisoned Life of Mrs. Maybrick
If you were intrigued by the purported diary of Jack the Ripper or other books that have convinced experts that the notorious murderer was a Liverpool cotton broker named James Maybrick, read this true-crime biography of Maybrick's wife. In 1889, in one of the great trials of history that produced major changes in English jurisprudence, she was tried, convicted, and sentenced to be hanged for Maybrick's murder.
This 292-page book of narrative non-fiction--a true story that entertains like a novel--takes you from the shipboard meeting of the 18-year-old American girl and the 42-year-old Englishman in 1881 to her death in 1941 as a lonely derelict whose past was unknown. You get details of the reprehensible treatment of Mrs. Maybrick by her husband's family. You learn what happened when she weekended in London with Maybrick's handsome associate. You watch as Maybrick succumbs to an arsenic diet. You discover why the press found her guilty before the trial, yet England's leading barrister proved her not guilty in the public mind despite a hanging judge and jury. You learn the details of the uproar that followed, the last-minute-before hanging commutation to imprisonment, the 15-year trans-Atlantic effort to get her released, her return to America and acclamation, and her years as "the cat woman" in a tiny cabin in rural Connecticut.
The Poisoned Life of Mrs. Maybrick was originally available only in the United Kingdom, where it was published both in hard cover and paperback and was a selection of the U.K.'s Biography Book Club. It was published in the U.S. in 2000 by iUniverse. Its ISBN is 0595000959.
To order, click Amazon or Barnes and Noble below:
The latest in the series. ISBN 0-8160-5903-9.
The life story (so far!) of the man who thought up Amazon.com. It has made him a billionaire. ISBN 0-8160-5890-3.
A good book to give the young reader who paid attention to the 2008 election campaigns.
Hillary Rodham Clinton: First Lady and Senator
This 154-page biography for the reader in grades six through nine is one in the series Ferguson Career Biographies, published by Facts On File, Inc. ISBN 0-8160-5544-0.
A most remarkable and inspiring life story, published by Facts On File in its Ferguson Career Biographies series. ISBN 0-8160-5546-7.
Now updated to include Ms. Rice's position as U.S. Secretary of State.
Condoleezza Rice: Secretary of State
First published when Condoleezza Rice was National Security Adviser, this 126-page book brings the sixth- to ninth-grade reader the fast-paced life of a woman who has a fascinating, and quite remarkable, record of accomplishments. Now in a revised and updated edition to include her position as U.S. Secretary of State. ISBN 0-8160-5480-0.
Another billionaire. The life story of a man who has invested extremely carefully since he was a young teenager. ISBN 0-8160-5894-6.
Simple Ways to Help Your Kids Become Dollar-Smart
Co-authored with certified financial planner Elizabeth Lewin, this book starts from a simple premise: There seems to be a taboo about money. We hesitate to talk to our kids about it. We figure they'll learn how to handle it. Somehow. Somewhere. From somebody. But it doesn't need to be a burden or a barrier, and that's what this book is all about: to help you help your kids learn how to use money wisely.
Whether your kids are just receiving their first allowance, or are taking their first steps toward financial independence, there are lessons you can share about earning, spending, borrowing, and saving.
Simple Ways to Help Your Kids Become Dollar-Smart is organized into these four categories, and information is presented in an easy-to-use format, so busy parents can quickly find the specific tips they need. Every chapter features a list of dollar-smart tips, including:
. 10 tips on giving an allowance
. 11 ideas for creating and managing a spending plan
. 14 suggestions for borrowing and credit
. 24 tips on saving money.
Throughout, the authors stress the importance of developing a spending plan that is linked to stages in a child's financial maturity, and to the equal importance of making sure that parent-child communication over money is a positive experience for both sides. Easy to read, and packed with innovative--and in many cases enjoyable--ideas, this book delivers tested wisdom that every parent can immediately put to good use.
Published by Walker and Company, this book holds ISBN 0802774296P.
To read a review and the book's Table of Contents, click on
Simple Ways to Help Your Kids Become Dollar-smart (right-hand column).
To order, click on Amazon or Barnes and Noble below:
Helping Your Child Start School
This book answers such basic questions as:
. What can I do to help my child make the transition from home to school?
. Is all-day school too much for a five-year-old?
. Why can some kindergarten children already read and my child can't?
. And much, much more.
Helping Your Child Start School describes the emotional and physical makeup of the preschooler and shows the parent how to become a "resource center" for the child's development of self-image. It takes the reader through the typical kindergarten day, describing the purpose of each activity, explaining how the child is introduced to such key subjects as arithmetic.
Packed with useful information and presented in a light, easy-to-read style,
Helping Your Child Start School will do much to relieve the wondering--and the worry--that all parents experience when their child takes that major step into the world outside the home.
Helping Your Child Start School is a Citadel Press Book from the Carol Publishing Group. Its ISBN is 0806517980.
To read pages from Chapter One and to look over the Table of Contents, click on
Helping Your Child Start School in Selected Works (right-hand column).
To order, click on Amazon or Barnes and Noble below:
Community Service for Teens (8 volumes)
Published by Ferguson Publishing Co., Chicago, each book describes what the reader may expect to be doing in its field and what he or she may expect to gain from the experience. Titles are:
. Caring for Animals
. Expanding Education & Literacy
. Helping the Ill, the Poor, & the Elderly
. Increasing Neighborhood Service
. Participating in Government
. Promoting the Arts & Sciences
. Protecting the Environment
. Serving with Police, Fire, & EMS
To read reviews, click on
Community Service for Teens under Selected Works (right-hand column).
One of the eight volumes.
Great American Trials, Great World Trials, and Sex, Sin and Mayhem: Notorious Trials of the Nineties
As a contributor, my work involved researching and writing the stories of 100 courtroom trials for inclusion in these three extensive volumes. My subjects ranged from Socrates to Adolf Eichmann, from Sacco-Vanzetti to O.J. Simpson. The works, each published by the Gale Group, Detroit, or by its Visible Ink Press division, are:
. Great American Trials 2 volumes, 1,675 pages.
. Great World Trials, including Mata Hari, Mohandas Gandhi, Tiananmen Square Dissidents, 536 pages.
. Sex, Sin and Mayhem: Trials of the Nineties, including Woody Allen-Mia Farrow, Lorena and John Bobbitt, Tonya Harding, Dr. Kevorkian, O.J. Simpson, 210 pages.
To read reviews of these "trials books," click on their titles under Selected Works (right-hand column).
Advertising for a Small Business Made Simple
This book offers vital and practical advice on advertising, including all aspects of integrated marketing communications: direct response, sales promotion, and public relations. A useful 200-page book published by Doubleday. ISBN 0-385-47556-X.
