Steven Layne is great author, one of my favorites. I am a grown man that loves children's books. I know children's books, and this is a great one. It deeply, deeply touched me. SMOOCHES!!!

I just logged on to comment on what great classroom applications this book has for teachers, but I see another reviewer already beat me to it. Still, my colleague and I both picked up a copy of the book after hearing the author speak. We've used it to launch some great writing and geography projects in our classrooms (1st and 4th). I like that Layne uses his writing to help other educators. It makes his books practical as well as fun.

I recently learned of this book at the ISRA conference in Indiana where several teachers were buzzing about it. I find the concept of a student with text anxiety so true to life, and the sheep are endearing characters. My students adore them. I've used the ABC concept in the book in a take off of "Counting Sheep in Indiana" with different Indiana cities that begin with the letters of the alphabet. I also love the alliterative verbs. There's so much to teach from in this book. I don't really think it's meant to teach geography, simply to use geographical places as a vehicle.
LOVE IT!

Mildred, a heart-broken girl, wants to run away from everything. When a hitchhiking girl killed herself, Mildred takes her identity to live a completely new life.

It is crazy to replace oneself with a complete stranger. It would be an artificial story if Mildred's despair were not convincingly described. And it would be tiresome if her misery were tediously described. Gardner describes her hopeless feeling concisely but convincingly. He is an excellent writer. No more explanation will be needed. Please enjoy how Mason brilliantly rescues Mildred from predicament.

This book is written in 1958. The general public is so strict to an unmarried pregnant woman that she will be driven to suicide. It is interesting how times has changed.

I'm not going to give away the plot like eveyone else does in their reviews. I'll just tell you that the way this book is plotted is awesome. Gardner's Perry Mason novels are almost entirely plot driven. This story moves fast, gets complicated without becoming sloppy, and then is resolved when Mason amazingly figures it all out. This book is better than some of the others I've read in the series because in this one you don't doubt his logic as much as in some of the others. You find yourself surprised but not in disbelief about how Mason puts it all together. In some of the other books it's simply a leap of faith to believe that he was able to deduce the answer from the information given. This one is seamlessly put together. If your looking for sex and violence, don't bother, but if your looking for a well plotted mystery this book will not dissappoint. My only criticism is that Gardner absolutely refuses to hit pause long enough to give good descriptions of the characters and scenery.

This is my favorite Perry Mason Mystery. It has the feel of an Alfred Hitchcock mystery. A woman who is running away from life is in a one car accident in which her passenger, a hitchhiker, is killed and mutilated beyond recognition. So she begins a new life, assuming the identity of the hitchhiker. All goes well until an insurance adjuster figures out her secret and tries to blackmail her.

This story addresses a segment of our population that is largely ignored in fiction. It is addressed with great hunmor and wisdom. You will be looking forward to greater adventures with Huck and Bubba when you finish "Big Doin's".

Here is a great comic novel about a small town and its weird characters. While keeping you laughing all the way, Wilson paints a colorful picture of Mckinleyville, an area of California seldom written about. We're looking forward to continuing adventers of Huck and Bubba.

Let me tell you a little about my week. I've been working long hours, getting low pay and even less recognition. In the evenings I worked out and ate poorly. To relax, I tried to read Jane Smiley's "Moo".

Normally I read a book every couple of days. I've been slogging through "Moo" for weeks. I'm not sure whether it's exhaustion or lack of interest, but the fact is, I was bored and frustrated.

But then I found "Big Fish" by Thomas Perry. I'd known this novel existed for years, but have never been able to find a copy. I loved the author's "Metzger's Dog" and "The Butcher's Boy" and was intrigued. I opened to the first page, just to get an idea of the style, and the next thing I knew three hours had passed and I was done.

"Big Fish" is the story of two charming, relatively small-time gunrunners who become embroiled in a plot to control the world. I won't tell you how or why, because that's part of the fun, but I will tell you that along the way they collect a Hollywood agent and teach him to be a commando, and a Hollywood director and teach him to be a human being.

The writing is crisp and clean, with no words wasted on unnecessary exposition or description. Perry, in fact, is reminiscent of Gregory McDonald at his most terse and entertaining, but can be more goofy and relaxed.

This book was just what I needed to get the taste of the week and Jane Smiley out of my mouth. It's out of print, which is disappointing, but I bet you can find it used or at a library. And, who knows, as Perry's recent books become more mainstream, "Big Fish" just might be republished.

The best summer reading imaginable. Buy an old copy now and don't wait for the silly publishers to get off their butts and reissue it. This is classic Thomas Perry -- odd, violent characters that you come to care about, tight plotting touched with wit and irony that make it more believable not less, and scenes you'll remember. I have to say it; Thomas Perry has this trick about writing about "bad" people as if he were their guardian angel and could see how all their decisions and mistakes built up around them and yet left them human, not sweet, but somehow compassionate, and it balances the violence and the pratfalls. Oh well, take my word for it, there's a grace to his writing that lasts after the great entertainment is over.

The book I've read consists of several novellas, including the title novel. Perry Mason finds himself with a client who has both intimate articles of clothing and other personal items inside the murdered man's secret apartment. She also had been drugged, as had her roommate; a drug that would have been fatal if her aunt hadn't gotten a doctor in time.

Mason finds himself with a client facing a murder charge, and an attempted murder charge; the death of her supposed boy-friend, and the attempt on that of her roommate. But he does have one clue... the lipstick kiss placed on the decendant's forehead.

The book consists of several short stories reflecting the range of Erle Stanley Gardner's interests. The feature story is a Perry Mason novella, where he finds himself defending a woman accused of murdering the man the police claim was her lover. She claims she doesn't know him, but she has his key on her keyring, nightgowns, lingerie, and even her toothbrush and toothpaste in his apartment.

Other stories revolve around the workings of a private detective working for a Chinese tong, a tale of a beaten man who comes to the desert, a clever jewel thief, and a private detective sharpshooting a case.

The collection is a good read, reflecting the storytelling skills of Gardner in many different ways.

Erle Stanley Garnder's THE SHOPLIFTER'S SHOE is vintage Perry Mason, published in the 30s when Gardner was at the height of his powers. This is a complex tale of sinister gem thieves, blood-stained shoes, phantom bullets, and a double murder. Of course, the most obviously innocent person is immediately determined by the police to be guilty and that propels Perry into action. Perry is more hard-boiled in this story than he is in the 50s and 60s. I don't think audiences were intended to LIKE him as much as we are meant to later in the series. His treatment of Paul Drake (his detective friend who gives constant assistance), for example, is a little more gruff in this tale. And Perry has no time to give to the hysterical Virginia Trant, when a second body almost literally falls in her lap. Gardner, at this stage in his writing, seems to be influenced by his BLACK MASK days, when he was writing his Lester Leith and Phantom Crook tales. But watching Perry in action, whether hard-boiled or not, is always fun.

So the question remains: is THE SHOPLIFTER'S SHOE a good book? Yes, but with some reservations. The mystery itself is very good, with a dazzling defense of the defendant. The entire case hinges on which pocket a policemen uses to store the incriminating evidence. This won't ruin anything because we are not actually shown this event when it occurs in the story. Once again, Perry shows the unreliability of circumstantial evidence, which is a Gardner trademark. However, I don't think the characters were as fully developed as in some of the other books. There is really no one to latch on to emotionally. Also, Della Street takes a back seat in this story, which doesn't help either. In fact, Della doesn't really make her mark until the very last page. But I will say that it is worth the wait...To conclude, the plot is very strong in this book, with interesting clues and a strong trial sequence. Though not one of Gardner's main masterpieces, it is still well worth the three hours it would take to read.

Very well-plotted mystery entangled with two murders and two guns. Events occured one after another from the beginning to the end and I never got bored. Mrs. Breel, the shoplifting old lady, was the most peculiar of all Mason's clients; her attitude was as cold as a cucumber but what she really did were highly irrational. I wouldn't say I liked her, but anyway she was very impressive.

This book enchanted me when I was a kid. It was more involved and historically related than normal Choose Your Own Adventures. After reading it, I always felt a special kinship to Harriet Tubman whenever we studied her in school. I also recommend the one about midieval times (can't remember the name) and anything by Edward Packard

When you read this Choose Your Own Adventure-type book, you'll get more than an adventure. More than 10 years later, I still remember most of the storyline. But most importantly, this book introduces you to one of the many unsung Civil War heroes: Harriet Tubman. She was perhaps the best known member of the Underground Railroad and the fiction-based-on-fact adventures that you go through with her are really amazing. Every time I hear her name in history class my ear perk up because I know who they're talking about. Very educational, very fun to read. Wish it was still in print. If you find a copy, buy it and like the scorpion--don't-let-go!

This is an excellent book on how to gain respect by recognizing and cultivating its traits. Descriptions and examples of the traits (i.e. honesty, humor, etc) are explained. It would have been an even greater book if it taught how to handle people who just won't respect you no matter what.

Overall, it was a good book on the subject.

When I entered the professional arena after college, I had an extremely difficult time adjusting from the fraternity hijinks and it showed in the office. This book changed my life around. Everyone respects me and I can inspire others. No one throws things at me anymore. Perry Garfinkel is truly a great man!

An A to Z of DNA Science is an illustrated glossary coauthored by the Director and Deputy Director of the Office of Science Education at the National Human Genome Research Institute at NIH. (The third author created the illustrations). For each glossary term the authors provide a concise, one-sentence definition, a longer explanatory paragraph, and often an accompanying illustration.

Given the authors' respective credentials as science communicators and educators, I was surprised and disappointed by the ambiguity inherent to the writing style, inconsistencies among and within definitions, and the paucity of terms represented.

The lack of clarity in the writing was particularly striking given the following excerpt from Dr. W. French Anderson's preface to the book: "[This book's] core value...is the increased access into, and understanding of, the world of genetic research that it provides to the non-scientist through clear, well-defined terms."

For example, the definition of a "genotype" is listed as "the genetic identity of an individual that does not show as outward characteristics." The use of the word "that" instead of the word "which" implies that the authors are distinguishing "genotype" from some other genetic identity that does show as outward characteristics. Even as a neophyte in this arena, I am fairly certain that some portion of the genetic identity codes for outwardly identifiable traits. Clearly, this is simply a case of poor grammar. One would expect more from science educators, especially when the result is semantic ambiguity.

In some cases, poor writing results in apparent inconsistencies and tautologies within definitions. For example, the notion of "contig" is first defined as "a chromosome map", then as a "collection of overlapping clones", and finally, a "contig map" (a new term?) is described as "a physical map reflected by an overlapping series of clones". Thus, if we subscribe to the first definition, then a contig map is a map of a chromosome map. But from the second and third definitions, we can also infer that a contig map is a physical map reflected by a contig. Confused? So was I.

In a field that Dr. Anderson refers to as "exacting", it is unfortunate that this book seems to have inconsistencies also among its definitions. For example, "genome" (a fundamental term in DNA Science), is defined to include both the DNA in the nucleus of a cell as well as the DNA found in mitochondria. However, if one were to look up the term "mitochondrial DNA", one would find that it is "a complete and independent genome". If this is not contradictory, it certainly requires a modicum of elaboration in order to reconcile the seemingly incongruous definitions.

Finally, while brevity may be the soul of wit (to steal from Mr. Twain), in science, it leads to conceptual poverty. Though much of the explanatory text seemed to be of an appropriate length for this type of book, some key terms and their related concepts seemed to be missing. For example, the illustration for a "chromosome" depicts two "chromatids", which are also referenced in the explanation of a "centromere". However the "chromatid" is simply not included as a glossary term in this book.

On this basis of this review, one might expect to see a numerical rating lower than three. However, despite the shortcomings described above, I was sufficiently motivated by my interest in each definition to pursue other related definitions. Ultimately, I found myself flipping pages back and forth throughout the book in an effort to pursue various conceptual threads. If the book can stimulate such interest in me, then perhaps it will also be of interest to others - particularly in a second edition which has been embellished for completeness, and edited for clarity and consistency.

Five wonderful stars and the highest rating for making DNA science understandable for me.

I am not a professional reviewer and not a scientist, and can only write about what this little book has meant to me.

I wanted to say, especially in light of the last review, that this is the only resource like this anywhere I could find. It has clearly and wonderfully explained all these interconnected terms to me in a way that is really insightful, valuable and I think quite remarkable. I now can say "I get it."

I carry this with me most of the time and use it to remind me or explain to me the fairly unique language that even television reporters (and especially writers in major magazines and newspapers) use to explain new DNA-based findings. I am surprised how technical these writers think we (the general public) are in this area. I use this book to decipher the New York Times, Wall Street Journal and even the CNN reports on genetics I am interested in.

This book is a blessing in that respect. I can find the term, see what other related words might further help define it for me, and see a drawing to help even more.

I don't think it was meant to do more than that, and it does that perfectly.

So when a review calls it less than magical, I think that is probably from someone with a lot more science in their personal life than the general public might have. I think writers and scientists really misunderstand how little "we" know about this area and they use so much technical jargon every time they speak or write.

I suspect that having a strong understanding of DNA might make a reader wonder why this book is important or needed. I just wanted to say that it is needed because most of us do not know a lot of this science, but we now find it in our daily lives and important and interesting.

This is the tool we were waiting for. The overly complete and technical textbooks have been out there for years. If you want to learn more, go there.

However, if you are just a regular person who wants to understand the vocabulary of this amazing science then this is perfect. I feel educated and empowered by this great little book.

Three cheers for all involved and my highest recommendations.

Five wonderful stars and the highest rating for making DNA science understandable for me.

I am not a professional reviewer and not a scientist, and can only write about what this little book has meant to me.

I wanted to say, especially in light of the last review, that this is the only resource like this anywhere I could find. It has clearly and wonderfully explained all these interconnected terms to me in a way that is really insightful, valuable and I think quite remarkable. I now can say "I get it."

I carry this with me most of the time and use it to remind me or explain to me the fairly unique language that even television reporters (and especially writers in major magazines and newspapers) use to explain new DNA-based findings. I am surprised how technical these writers think we (the general public) are in this area. I use this book to decipher the New York Times, Wall Street Journal and even the CNN reports on genetics I am interested in.

This book is a blessing in that respect. I can find the term, see what other related words might further help define it for me, and see a drawing to help even more.

I don't think it was meant to do more than that, and it does that perfectly.

So when a review calls it less than magical, I think that is probably from someone with a lot more science in their personal life than the general public might have. I think writers and scientists really misunderstand how little "we" know about this area and they use so much technical jargon every time they speak or write.

I suspect that having a strong understanding of DNA might make a reader wonder why this book is important or needed. I just wanted to say that it is needed because most of us do not know a lot of this science, but we now find it in our daily lives and important and interesting.

This is the tool we were waiting for. The overly complete and technical textbooks have been out there for years. If you want to learn more, go there.

However, if you are just a regular person who wants to understand the vocabulary of this amazing science then this is perfect. I feel educated and empowered by this great little book.

Three cheers for all involved and my highest recommendations.

Steve Perry writes books that are fairly open about sex. The details - such as they are - hardly titillate, but there are certainly details. A lot of that depends on your point of view I guess. If I was younger, I'd find the material to be somewhat racy. Of course, the world the younger me lived in was different, but I digress.

There is also a strong martial component to his books. I actually prefer the Matador trilogy, because shooting people doesn't make for interesting reading to me.

The Trinity vector seems to be more of a story in search of a plot to make it work than anything else.

The story is about two people who have loved and lost, and find love again. It's not that bad a story, all things considered.

The book doesn't really fit conveniently into any category. The hero is much to sensitive for a good action novel, but some of the characters are much to... Policitally Incorrect for a novel with a sensitive hero. Actually, they are portrayed with more depth than the equivalent character would be in a true New Age novel, and aren't really made out to be the monsters that a shallower treatment would make them out to be.

Sure, the ending disappoints, except, it's not about the silver box. Once I understood that, it made a lot more sense.

So, what then is this book exactly? Well, for me, it was enjoyable to read. The characters were complex enough tp be interesting, without causing a lot of deep thought about what it all meant. The story read well enough to draw you in, without tripping over itself trying to please. It's just a good, solid, well-crafted story. Nothing ground breaking or earth shattering.

A good afternoon's entertainment, any time (my afternoon was a gloomy one in October, yours can be different).

I really enjoyed this book, spending a lot more time than I should have in each reading session. I picked up this book after reading the also excellent The Man Who Never Missed.

It follows the adventures of an ex-navy commando who's now a courier, expecting and receiving lethal attention from others trying to intercept the package he carries.

I didn't expect such detailed descriptions in the sex scenes though. It's definitely not something I'll lend my teenage nephew.

The only real problem I have with this story is that parts of the last few pages appear to have gone missing. The plot thunders wonderfully toward the endpoint, then all of a sudden there's the epilogue and I feel I've missed out on the final scene. What happened in that missing scene that explains the epilogue?

If I'd stopped at the penultimate page, I would have given it five stars. It is a great read until then.

I thought this book was a blast. I couldn't put it down. It starts out explosively and just keeps getting better until the action charged final gun fight. I don't know what a certain other reviewer means when he says the ending fizzles off. It is a great book through and through, with an excellent plot and furiously paced action. And as a fifteen year old I thought it was perfectly fine for a fairly mature reader.