Being the sequel to “The Oak Apple”, this novel is the fifth book in the MORLAND DYNASTY series.

Nine months after the fateful battle of Marston Moor, which Kit did not survive, his cousin Ruth gives birth to a daughter, Annunciata.

After the restoration of James II, Ruth sends her daughter, now a woman grown and bearing an uncanny resemblance to the Stuarts, to London where she becomes an instant sensation at Court.

Populated by engaging characters and vivid in historical detail, this book is as enjoyable as the preceding books in the series.

AS USUAL JOHNSTONE HAS WRITTEN ANOTHER EXCELLENT BOOK IN THE "EAGLES" SERIES.

This is truly a wonderful book! The splendid colors are soothing and pleasing to the eye, while the theme of focusing on the Star image for inner strength and healing is gently brought home on each page. This reminds me of a visual mantra, so to speak, a way of easily connecting with the universal love energy within us all. I have personally used the Star image not only for myself, but for sending healing energy to family and friends. I believe it has been very helpful. For readers desiring to learn more about White Eagle's teachings, there are many more books available on this site to explore.

The Boy Who Became an Eagle, written by Kathryn Cave and illustrated by Nick Maland, tells the story of an extraordinary boy who learns to fly and how his life makes a drastic change. This young man lives in a small community that is going though a rough time. He decides to fly away on his own and experience what the world has to offer. A traveling showman who runs a type of extraordinary-people show discovers him and makes him the main attraction. Soon the boy becomes homesick and wants to return home, but is abducted and held hostage until he outsmarts the criminals. At the end of the book the boy is back with his family and happy to be home. This book can fit into the fantasy genre or the realism genre. The story of the young boy is fantastic because he discovers that he can fly. He does not use wings; he just jumps from a mountain and keeps on gliding through the air. The storyline fits into the dream that many people have to be able to fly with the birds. He also uses his abilities to earn money being in a circus-type environment. The story fits the realism category because of the realistic settings of the towns and countryside. There is also the dynamic of the homesickness and the family love felt by the boy even when he is away. He also uses realistic ideas to outsmart the thieves when he is abducted. They believe that the wings made by the circus man are the reason that the boy can fly. The boy knows that the real ability lies in himself and when the thieves try to throw the boy out of a window he just simply keeps flying all the way home. The book shows aspects of both genres, but is a perfect combination to make the story fantastical and believable at the same time. With a fantastic flying ability the boy is able to return home to his realistic family and community.

So much more than just a "guy thing"! Sheds refreshing light and insight into the psyche and collective consciousness of men. Worth the listen for men *and* women.

A classic story when one friend steps aside for another.
Tate Harrison is one cowboy whose life style had been determined by a very grave mistake made when he was very young. He has one very close friend in Kenny Becker, a dreamer and not very practical.

Amy Becker is a widow with a small son, Jody and another on the way. Unfortunately she also is the one who found her husband after a long search. She also neglected to inform Tate of his friend's death.

Tate had leased his ranch land to Kenny and had been surprised when he hadn't taken up the lease this year. He received an even greater shock when he discovered why.

Now the woman he secretly loved needed help and he decided to hire on as ranch hand. Only to find that Kenny's dream of raising Quarter horses was not working and that Amy had a herd of sheep. Man! he was a cowboy! not a sheep herder. And those dang sheepherding dogs didn't want to listen to him.

But the miracle of miracles happened when he was forced to help deliver Amy's daughter, Karen one night. This child felt is if she were his own. Maybe his roving days were over. If only he could convince Amy. If only he didn't want her so much. If only he could tell her he needed her. If only she needed him.

Highly Recommended --M - a very enjoyable story with wonderful characters - great to add to your library!

The author, Richard Collier, has chosen the six weeks period from August 6 to September 15, 1940 for an account of the Battle of Britain "daylight air battles that were fought over the English Channel and across southern Britain; a short period that may have determined the western world fate." This is the story of the pilots, aircrews, support personnel, and commanders of the RAF and Luftwaffe who fought for air supremacy while Germany was preparing to invade Britain.

First hand and eyewitness accounts supported by official documents provide the details for the text, which is fast-moving and very readable. The narrative moves chronologically from mid-August 1940 through the September 15. The Luftwaffe initially launched devastating attacks against British radar sites and RAF stations such as Biggin Hill and Manston with the intent to either destroy the RAF on the ground or in the air as RAF fighters defended the stations. This tactic created a serious problem for RAF Fighter Command as limited aircraft and pilots had to be dispersed to defend multiple locations. RAF pilots were under great stress as "The mounting losses now decreed that a pilot's expectation of life was no more than eighty-seven flying hours." "One moment the pilots were sprawled on the dusty grass at dispersal, swapping stories, the next they were staring unbelieving at scores of German planes flying in perfect stepped-up formation." By September pilot wastage was approaching 120 men a week and aircraft losses exceeded production.

Lacking is the usual Hollywood approach to air combat that opens with "There I was at 20,000 feet when I spotted the enemy." Instead Colliers presents first hand and eyewitness accounts of the air battles, which are well presented and informative. For example, the author writes, "Then, in his last moment, feral instinct once more saved Red Tobin's life. In the second of closing in, something prompted him to make one last check, swinging the Spitfire violently to port, and as he swung back on the last weave of all he saw, almost dead astern, three yellow-nosed Messerschmitt 109s." Humor is also included in the text: at Homefield, Kent the butler "did the rounds of the velvety lawn after each dog-fight, sweeping up spent machine-gun bullets as deftly as ever he brushed crumbs from a damask table cloth." In another case when a RAF pilot made a wheels-up crash landing near an Elizabethan garden, "a country gentlemen of the old school stepped courteously forward to greet him" with a glass of brandy for his unexpected guest.

The text outlines critical command problems. The British commander Air Vice-Marshall Sir Hugh Dowding lacked trained pilots despite a two-week crash course for replacement pilots as losses outstripped the training unit's yield. From 1438 men available, by September 3 pilot strength had slumped to 840, "a casualty rate which assured the Germans victory in just three weeks." When Germany shifted to massive bomber raids to force the RAF into a fight to extinction, Fighter Command could concentrate fighter defense in larger groups; however, Dowding still faced a shortage of pilots and aircraft.

In Germany Reichsmarschall Hermann Goring lacked Dowding's empathy for his aircrews. To the German pilots it seemed that the pressure was stepping up almost hourly and Major Adolf Galland (later Germany's leading fighter ace) stated, "Things can't go on much longer like this. You can count on your fingers when your turn will come." Goring insisted on using the ME 110, which was ineffective as a bomber escort; but rejected arguments to increase production of the badly needed Messerschmitt 109 fighter. He further foolishly stated at the battle's midpoint that the RAF was down to just fifty Spitfires.

The book closes with an excellent outline of the critical air battle that took place on September 15, which the author calls the "greatest air battle of all time" On September 15, high above the German bombers, the leader of the Luftwaffe fighter escort sardonically broke radio silence with: "Here come those last fifty Spitfires." The RAF entered the battle with no reserves. While Dowding was still 170 pilots under strength, the author notes that at "this eleventh hour a fierce elation had seized every man airborne. "Few pilots notched top scores; it was teamwork from first to last" and so numerous were the crippled bombers pilots couldn't miss.

A downed German fighter pilot paid tribute to the RAF stating to his escorting guard "Well done, Spitfire." After the critical air battles of the past six weeks, by September 17, Hitler decided to postpone invading Britain indefinitely and give full priority to invading Russian. Ahead for the RAF lay long nights of bombing while the day battle was all but over. The brave efforts of "the Few" may well have determined the outcome of WWII in the west.

The book ends with a brief section of Facts About the Battle of Britain.

Overall it is well written account of a critical event in World War II.

"Catholic Women's Colleges in America" finally addresses a notable gap in women's history, American educational history, and Catholic educational history. From the last third of the 1800's, congregations of Catholic religious women - nuns - created more than 225 institutions of higher learning for women. Numerous generations of women (and later men) were educated in these institutions. Because of the students' modest economic circumstances, many would not have received an education but for these institutions and these religious women. Recent histories of American higher education and Catholic higher education either ignore or pay only passing attention to the fact that more than half of all present-day Catholic colleges in the United States were formed by these women. The multiple authors of this edited book examine the colleges' history, importance, failings, and present challenges stemming from the steady disappearance of nuns from the American landscape. Along the way, and perhaps more importantly, they tell many of the individual stories of these religious women and their colleges. The chapters are well-written, and easily accessible to the lay reader. While my own judgment is that the religious character of these institutions is currently at more risk of disappearing than the editors allow, one cannot but be moved by the story, faith and determination of these religious women to educate women in the United States. Thanks to Schier and Russett for bringing this story to print.

Carly Austin, had been out of Rafe STrongheart's reach in high school. Now she was back in his orbit teaching in the reservation school. There are many facets to both these characters that I really enjoy. It is a great read. Set in North and South Dakota on the Sioux Indian Reservation.

I wish my Home Economics teacher had a book as nicely illistrated as this one! The recipes are great, and easy to follow!

Good index and Table of Contents, makes each recipe easy to find!