Patience Magee is a savvy, intelligent woman with an attitude and a temper. From the opening scene this heroine is depicted with a fiery disposition that attracts and repels. You'll either love Patience or hate her. Jace Hoffman was the most boring, ordinary man she knew in college. This was not a person skilled in the art of inspiring thrills. Years later Patience sees him again at a friend's wedding and falls for this Wall Street executive against her independent best interests. She has no need for the interference of domestic or romantic issues. Jace reciprocates her affection, and their relationship leads to steamy seduction and sparkling dialogue as they play off each other's wit. Morgan's fast pace and shock-value scenes will entertain genre fans looking for an unusual read. A polished, skillful delivery.

Who would have guessed that Patience would fall for her ex-boyfriends college roommate. It was great to see that you could be so wrong about a person until you actually give them a chance. When Patience first met Jace she thought he was boring and basically a nerd, but ten years later she realizes her mistake and the love story that unfolds is so realistic--it has good times and bad times. The ending was so perfect. It will make you laugh and cry at how truely romantic some people can be. I will admit that these two characters at first seemed so opposite, but they love each other and are willing to work with each other to make the differences seem not all that important. If you want to cozy up with a really great romantic love story with a few twists than I strongly suggest that you get this book.

This collection of stories is my favorite of all the Robert Morgan books I've read so far. It seems to me that the short story is Morgan's strongest literary form; whereas his novels tend to be tedious and his poetry somewhat bland, his stories often carry some genuine emotional punch. These stories, arranged in a generally chronological (in terms of the time in which the pieces are set, not when they were written or published) sequence, are all set in the Southern Appalachians, where Morgan was born and raised (although he now teaches at Cornell University). "The Tracks of Chief DeSoto," perhaps the best story in the anthology, is set in a Cherokee village at the time of the arrival of the first white explorers to visit the mountains, while "The Balm of Gilead Tree" is set in modern time. Nearly all the stories have a powerful sense of pathos, although Morgan occasionally injects a dose of grim humor. These are stories of exploitation, depression, loss, death, disappointment, and occasional small triumph. I have heard Morgan say during a lecture that he writes stories which have a sense of inevitability, whose outcomes seem to follow directly from what happens earlier in the story. He accomplishes this, although the sense of inevitability also results in a predictable approach to storytelling. Nothing happens to his characters that is unexpected or clever; they live simply and according to a cosmic plan. They are believable people, but I sometimes found myself wishing that they were a little less ordinary. I recommend this collection to lovers of Robert Morgan, as well as anyone interested in the craft of writing short stories, particularly stories with a strong sense of place. This book leaves the reader with the smell of sweat, hog, and honeysuckle lingering long after the final page is turned.

The Balm of Gilead Tree is a strong collection of stories by Robert Morgan whose Gap Creek has been selected as Ophrah's Book Club Selection for January.

Ranging over three centuries, The Balm of Gilead Tree shows Morgan's mastery and displays a wider scope of his grasp of history and language than his novels.

How might one categorize BEAUTY, HEALTH AND HAPPINESS: A WAY OF LIFE, by Lily Morgan? Is it an account of a young entrepreneur's entry into business, the pitfalls, frustrations, difficulties, and triumphs? Is it a commentary revealing how far a drop-out can go? A manual in the history and uses of herbs? An exploration of characteristics and benefits of essential oils? A description of alternative health therapies, including only those the author has personally experienced? Is it autobiography? Philosophy? A recipe book of make-at-home, all-natural skin care products developed by Lily for her commercial, purely botanical(tm) skin care company? Splashed with humor, Lily's BEAUTY, HEALTH AND HAPPINESS is All of the above, and more. I highly recommend it both as a delightful read and a source book for alternative beauty and health therapies, ancient and new, to keep near at hand.

Lily Morgan's Beauty, Health and Happiness is a real keeper!

My three year old daughter loves Caillou. Caillou started out as a kids tv series in france. It is now a pbs series here in the USA, and it focuses on the trials and tribulations of a young boy. The books are written in the same narrative form as the TV series. This one in particular has Caillou picking up his toys before being allowed to eat some chocolate pudding. My daughter enjoys this book and has started helping me pick up her toys. Good for a boy or a girl!

This is one of the best books I have ever read! It made me and my little cousins (12 and 6) want to clean up for no reason! This is a great book if you want your kids to cean up!

"Calming Upset Customers" is basically a workbook for dealing with difficult customers. It is not a deep text that delves into the psyche of customers and would be used in a college level business course. What it is is a basic workbook that explains the basics of why customer satisfaction is so important and the various things that can be done to convert an upset customer into a happy customer. This is front line stuff at the employee level. It is about solving basic problems at the employee level before they become major problems.

While manager level professionals should receive more advanced training in working with upset or difficult customers, this book is an excellent resource for anyone who has to deal directly with customers. The workbook format with various exercises throughout make this book an excellent training tool. It is a recommended read, but probably its best use would be to purchase a stack of them and hand it out to all new employees when they are hired. This is the minimum that every person involved in customer contact should know.

Morgan's book is practical and packed with workable strategies. With the US workplace seeing a rise in violence, this is a skill to develop and use as if your life depended on it. "Calming Upset Customers" is set up in seven easy-to-complete sections with questionnaires for analysis of coping strategies, hints on danger signal to watch for, and constructive suggestions on how to avoid "them fightin' words." The lessons focus on developing practical skills in dealing with customers, and working through this inter-active book will strengthen your ability to handle hassle. From knowing when to forget a customer, to what to do when a valued employee is in the wrong, this book will be valuable to managers creating an environment for customer satisfaction. This book is in the top ten best sellers for Crisp Publishers, and it has been translated into German, French, Italian, Spanish and Korean. Apparently the upset customer problem is not limited to the US workplace!

Cape Random is a brilliant novel that tells the story of an 1800's English working class family, the Andrews. They are forced to flee from their home in order to escape being imprisoned or hung. The Andrews wind up seeking passage to a land far away in the hold of a ship where pigs are normally held. The harsh reality of their situation does not improve when they are taken from the ship.
They are put ashore in Cape Random a tiny settlement on the bleak coast of Newfoundland with no supplies, no viable skills and little hope of surviving the impending winter season.
The artistic writing of Bernice Morgan paints a vivid picture of what the family sees as they arrive and the emotional state of a desperate and scared family. This is a tale of what people can manage to do in order to survive. The conditions and situations faced draw the reader into the tale and pull at you emotionally, as you watch those you know struggling just to barely stay alive.
The relationships between the residents of Cape Random are clear and complex and as time passes and the community expands with children the complexity also expands.
This is an amazing book that deals with love, survival, faith, hope and the tough challenges imposed by mother nature, as well as the challenges that human nature puts forth.
This is an exceptional and thought provoking book.

In addition to the great plot and characterization mentioned by other reviewers, I found Morgan's writing style graceful. That's the first word that come's to mind when I think of this book. Her treatment of characters with questionable(?) motives and behavior is objective; their redeeming qualities are also presented. She reveals the beauty of each person and their role in an almost incestuous community. Her careful treatment of her characters and the skills they build to survive in the weather, community, various types of deprivation is as graceful as her prose.

As the long title suggests this is a scholarly edition of Malory's classic story of King Arthur and his knights. As such, it forms a counter-balance to the edition edited by Vinaver and Field which is based on the Winchester manuscript. Even though I tend to prefer the Winchester manuscript's readings over the Caxton edition's, I believe this is an excellent edition of the Caxton. No Arthurian library is really complete without it.

Obviously if you are looking at this book you have more than just a mere passing interest in King Arthur and Sir Thomas Mallory's Le Morte Darthur. This edition makes available the origional text with the origional orthography adding only modern punctuation and paragraphing to facilitate reading. The book contains two volumes the first contains the actual text. The second contains some notes showing variations in the various textual versions of Le Morte Darthur as well as a glossery of middle-english vocabulary. The book can be used by the novice and the scholar alike. While the versions translated into a more modern english are fantastic there is no substitute for the flavour of the origional. As Robert Frost said,"poetry is what is lost in translation."

I really loved this one about a sorcerer condemned to life on a deserted isle with only dragons for company because of a tragic secret and the lady warrior who needs him to break his 15 year isolation and help her rescue her partner from the hands of his evil twin brother. From the moment Alena lands on Cadvallan Island she realizes there is more going on there than she was led to believe. She also finds herself unwillingly "bonded" to a clumsy baby dragon she names Paddy whom follows her everywhere.

Since Galen's self-imposed exile he has refused to use his "evil" magical powers, fearing they will consume him. He is content living his life feeding and caring for the sickly dragons. Galen's life changes dramatically when Alena crashes through the magical barriers and enters Cadvallan Island and does everything within her power to convince him to help her.

This book has a great heroine who does the seducing and a sweet, tortured hero who I really loved. The clash of the hero & heroine's opposite personalities (she's a warrior, he's a pacifist) adds a ton of heat to the story. Paddy, the dragon, is a scene stealer and made me smile whenever he appeared. He kind of reminded of my lovable, eager to please but very clumsy puppy (the author says Paddy is based on her son's English Cocker Spaniel). I only wish he had more scenes!

This book caught my attention quickly and thoroughly. I didn't want to put it down. And I didn't want the story to end. I hope there will be a sequel! This is a must read!

This was a wonderful overview of many of the different aspects of the American Revolution. It deposes many widely held myths, but is never cynical. It presented many interesting ideas and opens up many new avenues of study. It is perfect for anyone who would just like to know more about why the American Revolution took place than the surface skimming that most of us got in High School and College.

Edmund Morgan is America's most readable colonial historian, author of the ground-breaking "American Freedom, American Slavery" and the seminal "The Puritan Family" among other classics. This collection of loosely organized essays about the American Revolution is not meant as an introduction to the subject (for which see Morgan's "Birth of the Republic"), but a conversation for those who already know something of the subject. These essays range from a discussion of the sources of the revolution (legal, traditional rights, intellectual, religious) to the conflicts between the calls to freedom and the existence of slavery. First-rate reading for anybody interested in the subject area, but especially for AP history teachers like me.

I'm using this book as a text for a political theory/philosophy course. I'm impressed by the selections. However, I had to spend $50 on it at my college bookstore. Buy it here.

CLASSICS should be required reading for every high school and college student, because it grounds one in the fundamental theories that have shaped, and continue to shape, our world. No one can afford NOT to read this book; it's subject matter is too important. After you read this book you'll appreciate why we have it so great in America, because America has actually applied the political ideals that other countries only talk about. In CLASSICS you are able to read the most famous works of the world's most famous philosophers; a word about each is due: Plato, the Father of Philosophy, the Jewel in the Crown, still my very favorite philosopher. Learn that doing right is the path to happiness. Learn about justice, moderation, courage, and wisdom; Aristotle: learn about the importance of moderation in everything, and the importance of establishing, and preserving, a middle class; Epicurus: no comment; Epictetus: the father of Stoicism, a great philosophy for ignoring the world but if you live by this philosophy, don't be surprised if you wake up one day completely disenfranchised!; Augustine: no comment; Machiavelli: always a pleasure to read; learn how the world really is, as opposed to the way we'd like it to be; Hobbes: this guy must have been paid by the word, because he took several hundred pages to say what could have been surmised in one sentence: man is always at war. Locke: a brilliant discussion of the origin of property-a must read!; Hume: not very impressive; Rousseau: excellent; shows that civilization, rather than being the solution, may actually be the problem!; Kant: difficult to comprehend; Mill: excellent insights on liberty; I personally think Thomas Paine did a better job discussing liberty; Marx: hard to believe that people bought the Manifesto, but desperate times called for desperate measures; you can't leave people scrapping for crumbs and expect to reign for long; "On the Jewish Question" is an excellent essay on the importance of having a wall of separation between church and state; Nietzsche: understand why Hitler employed his philosophy so effectively to burn books, and then to burn people. Learn that living is appropriating, and understand the difference between slave morality and master morality. After you read this fantastic book, you'll see the world, and especially the forces that shape it, in a way you could not have imagined previously! Read it, for your sake, and for the sake of both this great country and the greater world we live in!