Very Disappointing and Insulting
593528
My wife and I bought the Leapfrog Clickstart and a few cartridges for our daughter based on past experience with other Leapfrog products.  Previous experience with DVDs and other items has been great, however the Clickstart is a huge disappointment.  First of all, after connecting it to the TV, we tried to enter her name and it refused to accept it.  Her name is not unsual at all but for some reason I just would not work.  I could enter unintelligible gibberish and it would accept that just fine.  Then the mouse proved very difficult to manuever.  It is very erratic, like someone with very nervous hands is using it.  Next one of the cartridges would not work.  After reinserting it several times, I finally got it to work.  All the batteries are fresh, by the way.

To sum it up, Leapfrog really screwed up with the Clickstart.  It could have been a great learning device, but now my daughter won't even use it because of the level of frustration. I doubt that we will ever buy Leapfrog products again.  Be forewarned to stay away from the Clickstart and its cartridges.
2063177
I do admit I borrowed this book from the library, I do not believe in  adding a penny to murder suspects' pockets. These people are disgusting and  it is obvious they are just trying to pollute a future jury pool with this  book. It is all about them and pointing fingers at the media and everyone  else, they were never wrong . (they just wasted millions of tax payers  dollars by NOT cooperating fully with the police and NOT providing all the  necessary information the police needed) What is even more offesive is the  guise of religion, and Patsy proclaiming her "miracle cure" from  cancer, as if she is a saint. Shame on these people, and shame on these  publishers for publishing this book.
1420374
I don't even know where to start. This book got so many five-star reviews. I feel completely misled. I felt like the main character was an entitled person with her head in the clouds that I most certainly cannot relate to. I was really excited too learned about Quaker culture but this ended up being nothing but a white people against black people fantasy land piece of poo. No one was realistic. I feel like I just lost hours of my life that I will never get back and  this book almost caused me to cancel my Kindle unlimited membership is so bad. Anyone who likes this book needs to re-examine their understanding of race relations in the United States. White people reading this : you don't get to buy your way out of bad things. That is essentially what this book tells you you can do. This book is a recipe for disaster. Horrible horrible horrible horrible horrible. I really dislike this author. This book was boring and she talked about the mundane minutia of life for pages and pages and couldn't get to a point to save her soul. When she did finally get to a point it was a horrible one. I am so annoyed that I read this book. Spoiler alert : there is no shocking twist. What you think is going to happen absolutely happens. If you don't think that was going to happen I don't know what to tell you. Read more books because this was so predictable and so so so horrible.
2505261
Having read this "book" I was horrified and regret even purchasing the "story".  Not only for the people that are named, living and dead, and whose hometowns and some family members are also named, but for the child she so callously attacks over and over.  It is poorly written, poorly edited and written from a perspective that is skewed to the point of myopic.  From chapter one on it is obvious that this book is written by an individual whose own mental health is questionable.  Kathleen talks of being teased, tortured by being teased.  She talks of hating her life because it is not pristine and perfect, without the hated "males" in her world.  She talks of how she hates all males and how dirty and disgusting they are.  There are numerous rants regarding filth, dirt, poor people, fat people and people she perceives as not good enough.  Kathleen Hoy Foley talks of how she helped torture her brothers, beating them with a belt and not until she is in her 60s does she repent in any form for this behavior.  She talks of rape, however, she continued to date the father of the child she dispises for over 2 years.  Kathleen claims that she is the only one that saw this abusive behavior, that her mother ignored it and encouraged it.  Mrs. Foley's supposed and well publicized abuse was, in reading the book, something that was not only not sexual in nature, as far as the stepfather she acuses quite publically on her own website and her brothers, but apparently something she "dreamed" as happening.  In the end, it is a mindless rant that explains away an affair that she ended by refusing to face the world in a realistic fashion.  Kathleen is the female version of a mysoginist, hating all men and worse, she has no empathy for anyone at all.  This lack applies to the man she is now married to and claims to love.  Her hate of the child she bore is due to the fact that she sees the world in such a way as to believe that anyone that is not her is not perfect.  Descriptive in nature, she sees the world as clean and good or perverse and dirty and only she, her chosen off-spring and, by dint of rescuing her from her hated home, her husband, are worthy of life or living.  It is disturbing to say the least.
3493745
I bought this book based on the very good reviews here at Amazon, and for the first time since using Amazon reviews, I'm greatly disappointed.  I thought the book was boring and repetitive.  In the beginning, Con is obnoxiously pushy by touching Tim and getting into his space.  Tim is an unlikeable character who pushes people away because he has repressed his hurt and anger over losing his parents when he was young.  The author tells us countless times what is wrong with Tim to the point of ad nauseam.  The sex scenes revolve around Con trying to get Tim to relax because Tim hates to lose control and be vulnerable.  This book will go directly into my trash bin.
1327192
I've bought the book to practice reading Spanish and because the first book was adequate. But this one is lacking all elementary common sense it's insulting. Let me exemplify:

- The dad is acknowledging the daughter is the final and only hope for the kingdom - fine. A bit Harry Potter, but I can work with that. However, in the second after is sending her ALONE through dangerous woods full of enemies for three days. Seriously? He could not spare a single grown-up to go with her for, again, only three days? Yes, the author wanted to create the premise for a teen to handle herself, but this is lacking common sense.

- Then, the same dad doesn't think to pack her enough food for the journey, so that she has to get close to a village, where of course there are enemies. He's supposed to be an experienced general, and he doesn't think that food is a must have?

- The same general gets a fortress basically handed over to him by a dragon, emphasizes its huge strategic importance, and guess what? He LEAVES it the minute the dragon flies away.

- Then the dad goes on another attack, hoping an old buddy of his he hasn't talked to in years 1. Is still in that town, 2. Still has an army at his command and 3. Will want to provide armed support in the heat of the completely unannounced attack on the said town.

Seriously? Who with this level of logic gets promoted to general? No wonder the king surrendered, given this was the level of his main general. One look at Duncan and he would have said 'oh yes, we have no chance'.

And Kyra displays an alarming level of detachment - she not only kills at 15 without a thought, but she can also witness an entire army (and horses) burned alive (by a dragon) without any emotional reaction.

In conclusion, horrible, challenging conditions for the main hero must have at least an elementary logic behind them. The author is not even trying.
4281217
What a disappointment! I found the overall tone to be unpleasant (not the kind of griping I want my child to emulate) and the stereotypes predictable (really, the kid should color inside the lines?!) to offensive (pink is a girl color - great, thanks for reinforcing that ridiculousness). Glad I only checked it out. I definitely would not want my money going to support this book. I would expect a book like this to have been written 30 years ago, but not now.
4572675
This book only contains a few personality types and references everything on how you would deal with people at Church!

It is trite and ignorant enough to make me wonder how this person can possibly view themselves as an authority, or how this book got published. My guess is its her 6th or 7th book and they gave it to her cause she sells books. This is most likely her first venture on this particular subject. Her views of depression and depressed people are particularly offensive.
1487866
Filled with errors and cliches born of fear and hate, this book is disgusting. It will only appeal to those nut-job creationists who have already made their mind up about same-sex marriage. What is is about the idea of 2 men or 2 women raising children in a loving environment that offends these people so much? If you want what is truly best for the children, let them be raised by people who love them, not a family filled with hate.
1193448
This book is written in the most insulting way. Author is overly opinionated and makes sweeping generalizations about all racial groups. Author makes bold statements that are unsupported, except by opinion. Here's a quote from the book about white ethnic groups (like German, Irish, Polish, etc.), "Whites as people don't think of themselves as a race or have a conscious racial identity. The only occasion when a White racial identity emerges is momentarily when Whites fill out a form asking for self-designation of a race or one of those occasions when they are culturally or socially surrounded by people who are not White. (page 121)" This is insulting to all who honor their cultural heritage. I am proud of my "White ethnic heritage", just as much as anyone from any other ethnic group should be. Thank goodness the class using this book is almost over!
119929
It is insulting to any woman with the ability to think for herself.  Between the patronizing 'doctor knows best' tone and the advice that you should measure your thighs when you find out you're pregnant so you can make sure they don't expand - it's ridiculous.  It hardly addresses any other birthing options, aside from medicated hospital births.  Anything outside of the norm is regarded as dangerous to the mother and the baby.
This is a horribly disgusting book that does nothing more than scare or guilt a newly expectant mother into submission.
3509266
This book was introduced to me as "highly recommended."  It was an extreme disappointment. Simple can be charming, and less can be more, but not in this case.
The writer seems to think that his audience is about, oh, say, seven years old.  (I won't go as high as eight, since even the South Park gang would find it too puerile.) Hem, Haw and Co. are less dynamic than Dick and Jane, and less intelligent as well, if that is possible.
No one enjoys being spoken down to, and this has to be one of the most extreme examples of supercilious writing I have ever encountered. It is not only boring, but insulting to the reader. The only reason I finished this literary work was because I was incredulous that it was considered a "best seller" and a motivator for employees. If the supervisors in a company really think the employees are such dolts that "literature" (or should I say litter-ature?) such as this is the answer, we are indeed in peril.
Corny, home-spun humor as a teaching tool has its place, (far, far away, one hopes) and this is where "Who Moved the Cheese" should be laid to rest.
2561765
I quit half-way through. This book is insulting on many levels.  I wonder why so many authors create small town folks as being stupid. In this case, they seemed to be fat and stupid. Except those, of course, who had moved away to the big city, such as AJ and Elizabeth.  If we are to believe this author (co-authors), none of the parents at the school AJ took her son to had a clue about the disabilities act and simply let their special needs kids wither away. It would take AJ to set them straight on that. Neither author nor the editor took the time to use the correct term for Down syndrome (it's not Down's) nor that educated people do not use the word retard. David himself used the word, but in the special needs community with which I'm familiar, David would be offended by that word. This book really turned me off.
4560192
This book is awful. Clearly any angry wife would love nothing more than to hurl this book at her husband, but I can't imagine that it would ever be well-received in such a scenario, and I CANNOT imagine a man ever buying this thing for himself. This book makes a lot of assumptions about what ALL men typically do in a relationship, and in my experience it's so far off the mark it might as well have been written a thousand years ago. It offers very little in the way of understanding or interpretation of gender roles and differences, simply repeats the message over and over that men are selfish cads and should treat women like princesses--this is not only going to irritate men, it creates extremely unrealistic expectations for women who were raised on Disney movies and horrible diatribes like "The Rules." This is not to say that I don't think men make all sorts of mistakes, I wouldn't have been drawn in by the title if I thought otherwise,(I am a woman, by the way) but I would STRONGLY encourage anyone, ANYONE in a troubled relationship to avoid this book. The men I have known who have carried out advice similar to what is offered in this book have found themselves extremely unhappy, and have created monsters out of their wives or girlfriends.
3578371
The back cover will tell you that Rhapsody was running from a former romantic interest. A very poetic way to describe a murderous rapist. Before you buy this book, you should know that Rhapsody was a prostitute, that her forced sexual relationships are described in detail, that the book depicts children sacrificed as victims left to drained their blood and as potential victims of sexual abuse. I found it offensive. Rhapsody's companions keep alluding to her "former profession "as a prostitute and insult her even after she saves their lives. She does not react to the insults and at one point makes a Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz statement about how men want prostitutes and then they repudiate them. It is ludicrous. Rhapsody supposedly had a hard life in the streets, but her character does not reflect that history at all and it is always mentioned in a superficial way. To be a Namer of such power, she does not command respect or admiration. All she seems to be is a pretty girl with a big heart for kids with a gift convenient when it fits the plot. She's outspoken sometimes, incredibly submissive at others. Nothing redeems this novel in my view. The characters are obviously made up , full of stereotypes and their traits are not consistent. The dialogue does not flow anywhere. The endless descriptions are tedious and non-relevant to the plot, which is hard to follow. Don't expect to find a climax or a redeeming ending. I would not waste my money in this book or the sequels.
4232801
I'm embarrassed to say that I read this book - make that perused it over the course of 10 minutes of so - and it is without a doubt one of the worst books ever.  I came across it as a result of reading Christopher Lawford Kennedy's book, leading me to wonder how his dad Peter turned out to be such a loser of a father, which led me to this book about Peter's mother.  Lady Lawford had so many negative qualities - she was a snob, a racist, frigid, a user, self-absorbed - that's it's difficult to understand why this book was even published by someone who purported to care for her, no less her "secret" husband of 4 years, Buddy Galon.  Even a brief review of the book gives one a better understanding of what a crappy life Peter Lawford must have had - his mother never wanted him, she was apparently ultra-critical of everything he tried to do, and she delighted in insulting Peter and sharing private information about him whenever she felt like it.  I'm no fan of the Kennedys, but in this case it appears they were justified in ignoring and denigrating the mother of one of their sons-in-law.

Don't waste even a minute of your time reading this book.  Lady Lawford sounds like she was a truly despicable person.
478583
Astounding and disappointing racial and cultural stereotype, the book is littered with an extreme conservative political agenda. Bloodthirsty Moslem terrorists, short sighted, ineffective academia, lazy and spoiled "hippies". Really, hippies in 2016?  That's  about 50 years late. Waste of my time and money.