In New Orleans, though she fears her upcoming sixtieth birthday because that sounds old, Charlotte LaRue feels quite good about her cleaning company, Maid for a Day. Her small firm won a contract from realtor Marian Hebert to clean the renovated Devilier Apartments before the tenants take residency.

However, the cleaning crew finds a dead body in a closet in one of the rooms. The police led by Charlotte's niece and her tenant arrive to investigate. The corpse turns out to be Drew Bergerson, who allegedly died two years ago in a plane crash into the Gulf of Mexico. Though told to stay out, Charlotte wonders if this death is connected to the supposed accidental explosion nine months ago that killed Marian's husband as she tries to sweep clean the homicide in her own unique manner.

DEATH TIDIES UP is an attractive amateur sleuth-police procedural that reader will relish because the engaging staff, especially the charming star, makes for fun reading. The cozy style who-done-it will hook the audience because of the warm cast though the answers to the murder mystery seem strange. Barbara Colley provides an entertaining cozy that will send the audience seeking the first LaRue novel, MAID FOR MURDER, which is being re-released as a paperback in January.

Harriet Klausner

Charlotte LaRue owns Maid For A Day in New Orleans, LA. Charlotte and Janet, Chere, and Emily, who work for her, clean the new apartments in the renovated Devilier house. Drew Bergeron is discovered dead in one of the apartments. Charlotte faints after he is found. Drew was supposed to have died 2 years ago.

Charlotte's niece, Judith, who is the detective on this case, encourages Charlotte to contact her son Hank who is a doctor. Judith calls Hank the next day. He sets up an appointment with a fellow doctor for his mother for a physical. She is feeling tired and forgetful. She begins worrying that she has some terrible disease. She is also very nervous about her upcoming 60th birthday.

Through families Charlotte cleans for, she gathers information and does some sleuthing. There are plenty of suspects. Charlotte believes in not gossiping about her customers, so she finds it difficult deciding when she should contact Judith with information and when she needs to stay quiet. Sometimes this puts her in dangerous situations.

This author has done a great job creating the characters in this series. I found myself really feeling for Charlotte in her concern for her health and her frustration with turning 60. It is all very believable and well constructed. This series is definitely a quick read. You will want to keep reading until you get to the end.

I like the relationship developing between Charlotte and Louis, Judith's soon to be ex-partner. I hope this will develop even further in future books.

This is the second book in this series. I highly recommend this series. It is definitely a great cozy.

This is a solid reference work, one of a series, thick as a phone book, and full of information. I was unfamiliar with this book, now being reissued, and so was surprised (and a little disappointed) at the fact that it has precious few color plates. The zillions of illustrations are for the most part reproductions of contemporary 1920's ads and other published materials - and so are in black and white. There is an enormous amount of good material in this book - furniture, houses, and a lot of decorative and/or functional objects - but the casual reader (someone who is not a confirmed history-of-design maven) would be helped by having seen the artifacts in another venue - whether in museums, private collections, or in color photographs. This is a great resource for readers who are familiar with, and committed to, the subject.

TASCHEN's Decorative Art series spans the 20th century through the 1970s and carefully reproduces the best of Studio Magazine's Decorative Art yearbooks. Published annually from 1906 until 1980, the yearbook was dedicated to the latest currents in architecture, interiors, furniture, lighting, glassware, textiles, metalware, and ceramics, and remained on the cutting edge throughout its nearly eight-decade run. Since going out of print, the now hard-to-find yearbooks have been highly prized by collectors and dealers. Preserving the yearbooks' original page layouts, TASCHEN's Decorative Art books bring you an authentic experience of each decade's design trends and styles. The now complete six-volume set is an essential addition to the comprehensive design library and the devoted collector will want them all.

Decorative Art 1920s - Moving from the spirit of the Jazz Age to the cool simplicity of Le Corbusier's early "machines for living", Decorative Art 1920s is a survey of the groundbreaking innovations of interior design and architecture in the century's wildest decade. Demonstrating the dictum that form follows function, this volume features the design output of Walter Gropius, Marcel Breuer, and Ludwig Mies van de Rohe, to name a few.

An enjoyable book. Didn't like James to start off with, but that's probably the point Ms Lamb was trying to make, that he needed to change his attitdues. Patience and her sisters and brothers are adorable characters. An easy read. I read most of it while my husband was in with the dentist :)

Written from a male's point of view? I have to tell you at first I wasn't sure about this one but it turned out to be one of my favorites. James is the classic male who is hard on the outside but really has a soft spot in his heart. Patience was delightful and so where the kids. I have read alot of books by Charlotte Lamb and this is by far one of her better ones. It was funny and the story was beautiful

I read this book when I was in Jr. High (over 30 yrs ago) and has always loved it. My parents raised poodles and so I felt close to those in the book, Juliet, Ravel, and their pups and of course Poo-Cat---the cat who thought he was a poodle too. The story introduced you to the world of show dogs and those who love them. I'll never forget them.

Allan was the only one of the Grees who really wanted Cousin Fern to come from England to live with them at Pond Farm in East Texas. But as Aunt Lena said, "A Green is a Green, and Greens stick together." So Fern came. And with her came Juliet, a Champion silver poodle.

Pond Farm was never the same after that. Surprising things began to happen almost at once. A mysterious prowler, some unusual visitors, seven soot colored puppies, an unfortunate illness, the loss of half a valuable painting, a venture into business - all these brought new problems to the Greens.

But in training their dogs, Allan, Fern, Charley and Ann learn more than they taught, about discipline and fun. And after a few big surprises at the New Orleans Dog Show, the children and Aunt Lena found the answers to all their problems. The answers, of course, were supplied by the poodles - Juliet, Ravel, Lady, Ringo, Jujitsu, and the puppies - The Green Poodles who frolic through the pages.

The models for the Green Poodles lived at Poodhall Kennels in Nacogdoches, Texas. Here Charlotte Baker learned firsthand about puppy care, grooming show dogs, showing Champions and Obedience Training. Here also she met Ravel, a shy, kennelbred puppy. He needed the attention of one trainer, so he came to the author's home as a visitor; but as his Obedience Training proceeded, he soon took over both her home and her book. Watching from her desk top, he created a major role for himself. At the end of his course, Ravel achieved a permanent home, a place in literature, and his C.D. (Companion Dog). Miss Baker, on her part, finished the Green Poodles. You will meet Ravel and many of his Poodhall friends in the text and lively illustrations.

In private life, Miss Baker is Mrs. Roger Montgomery. She and her husband lived in East Texas, with Ravel and two cats.

My college ceramics class had to buy this book. It's really good, the section on how to mix glazes using all of the different frits and stains is very informative. The pictures are inspiring, and the book also gives many techniques for throwing and handbuilding.

This became one of those costly book purchases students have come to resent: required for an introductory level class in ceramics, part of the core requirements towards a studio degree, expensively imposed on a class the bulk of whom will never continue on in ceramics, therefore ultimately destined to become a neglected text sitting on a dusty shelf or returned during university book buy-back for a pittance. This is a shame, as the book is one of the more comprehensive and beautifully put together texts of its kind, and had it been required of students whose clear intention was to go on in ceramics, its obligatory purchase would have been more valued and appreciated.

Containing information well beyond the scope of an introductory survey of ceramic processes, this book is densely packed with information, providing a historical and cultural overview of the use and development of one of the most ancient of the arts, as well as detailed discussions of its various forms and construction, the mixing of clays, the necessary chemistry, kilns, and clay's many glazings and firings. Appendixes and charts containing quite a number of recipes for both mixing clay and creating slips, colorants and glazes are provided at the back, encouraging experimentation, as well as a basic description of the chemical constituents encountered in ceramics. In terms of the latter, both within the text and the appendixes, concerns of potential toxicity are highlighted, providing valuable and essential information often overlooked when working with the potentially hazardous components present in most clays and colorants. Additionally, the authors provide encouragement as to how to easily recycle the environmentally unfriendly waste by-products associated with ceramics, along with helpful tips as to how to set up one's studio in a way that is at once utilitarian and environmentally sound, offering a list of governmental agencies and associations that can assist the ceramicist in addressing these concerns. In addition to providing through the appendixes further avenues for exploration on the part of those working with clay, the authors must be applauded for not ignoring or obfuscating the obvious safety and environmental concerns involved in working with ceramics.

Well organized and detailed, the text is also liberally endowed with photographs and drawings, providing clear visual examples of both the equipment and techniques the ceramicist may encounter, as well as beautiful color plates showing contemporary examples of noted artists' work using a variety of forms and processes. These plates exemplify the diverse and often stunning manner of expression that can be captured in clay, ranging from the sculptural and painterly to installation and multimedia. Their inclusion, along with the depth and breadth of information presented here, certainly justify the price asked for this text, and this book should grace the library or studio of any serious student or practitioner of ceramics. And, I suspect, there is enough information provided here to allow the student that has access to a studio and equipment to begin learning ceramics without the necessity of a classroom.

While the main character in this book is a bit far-fetched, it was still an interesting book because it presents a few unexpected twists and turns. Which makes for more realistic charactacters and an excellent choice of reading material.

I absoulutely loved this book and couldn't wait to read the one after (Another Kind of Magic). Wynne Shipton is an author, writing under her father's name, finds a man she absolutely adores, who brings out all the feelings she has hidden inside herself for so many years. Wynne was forced to sign over her infant daughter at an early age to her husband Edward, who was very over-bearing, and the daughter grew up thinking her mother had died. Another Kind of Magic continues on with the story of Wynne coming to grips with letting go all her covered up feelings, wanting to see her daughter, wondering if she'd hate her if she found out her mother wasn't dead. Charlotte writes with so much feeling - she doesn't miss a beat! This book was written in the late 70's and is so "up to date" in the year 2001!

From the time of her uncle's death, Jane Eyre's existence at Gateshead has become unbearable. Her aunt dotes on her own three children and never lets Jane forget that she is living off of the Reeds's charity. After frightening her Aunt Reed with her willfulness and ingratitude, Jane is sent to Lowood School where she continues to exist for eight years.

After placing an advertisement in a paper, she is hired on as a governess at Thornfield where she meets and falls in love with Edward Fairfax Rochester. But a series of odd and dangerous events which take place at Thornfield succeed in tearing them apart until Jane realizes that she must journey alone or else compromise her own sense of self forever.

Jane Eyre is a novel about a woman who comes to realize that she must hold on to herself. Bronte's heroine is strong, willful, and isolated. Her hero is constantly referring to her in an otherworldly sense. But what he sees is otherworldly is simply a strong independent streak. This independence is what the author seems to urge women to cultivate through the character of Jane Eyre. Bronte reinforces the strength of Jane's character by making her plain. By doing this, she forces us to realize the beauty of her character rather than her looks. She has none to recommend her and no fortune to appeal to a man so the reader is certain that it is her character which appeals to Rochester.

The road towards a happy ending is not easy for Rochester and Jane. In fact, even before discovering the truth about the woman in the attic, Jane has taken measures to preserve herself by writing to her uncle in Madeira even though she tells Rochester that she has no family aside from the Reeds, whose connection to her she is forced to admit when Aunt Reed calls for her. This perpetuates the unraveling of their happiness. From the point of separation, however, Bronte sets Jane on the road to self-discovery. With her Rivers cousins, whom she discovers after leaving Thornfield, she comes to realize her full capacity as a cousin, a teacher, and her potential as a servant of God.

By the story's end, when Bronte has led her title character back to a devastated Thornfield, Jane is truly independent in both character as well as finance. There is a role reversal which the reader discovers. No longer is Rochester offering to take care of her, it is Jane, rather, who is in the position of power as she becomes Rochester's helpmeet from the time of their reunion.

Uncommon story for the era. Imagine... an INDEPENDANT woman!

The two parts of this book differ greatly in reader appeal. While packaging the juvenilia of two loved women authors together seems like a good idea, I think the actual works are not particularly compatible. Jane Austen fans will love the sprightly, unrestrained wit of her juvenilia; 'Love and Freindship' in particular is a delightful romp, wickedly satirising the 'novels of sensibility' popular at the time. In contrast, the Bronte stories, which all form part of a series set in a fantasy world created by Charlotte together with her brother Branwell, are obscure and turgid. No doubt this peek at her early writing would be invaluable to a Bronte scholar, but the average reader is likely to lose interest. Particularly in contrast to Austen's lightness and ease of touch, the Bronte works seem clumsy and confusing. Still, the volume is worth buying only for the section on Austen, which is as far as I can tell fairly complete and an absolute must-read for any Austen fan.

"The Juvenilia" is a collection of Jane Austen's early work--scholars estimate that Austen produced the Juvenilia between the ages of 12 and 18. Austen edited and collected these early stories later in life, and of course, to the Austen scholar, "The Juvenilia" remains an invaluable testament to the genius of Austen, but, furthermore, the stories also stand as evidence for the development of one of the world's greatest writers.

The first Austen book I read was "Pride and Prejudice," and that is a good place to start. "The Juvenilia" should be read after one has read all of Austen's other works. But no matter whether one has read two, three or all of Austen's novels, discovering and reading "The Juvenilia" will always be a surprising experience, for here is revealed a "new" side of Austen.

"The Juvenilia" is composed of three volumes. The volumes contain short stories, the outline for a book, poetry, epistolaries, and short plays. Some of the characters are clearly early personifications of characters Austen developed and used in later novels.

For me, the very best part of "The Juvenilia" is simply Austen's humour. The teenage Austen wrote of violent deaths, hangings and alcoholic women. Reading her comic presentations made me appreciate her much more than ever before.

Jane Austen--juvenile and funny--: "Lovely and too charming fair one, notwithstanding your forbidding squint, your greasy tresses, and your swelling back, which are more frighful than imagination can paint or pen describe, I cannot refrain from expressing my raptures at the engaging qualities of your mind, which so amply atone for the horror with which your first appearance must ever inspire the wary visitor."

Charlotte Bronte's Juvenilia is quite, quite different from that of Austen. But after all, what else should one expect? Here we have a marvellous peek at the Bronte household--including the intense, private world the Bronte sisters shared with their brother, Branwell. The Bronte children wrote stories for one another, and, unfortunately, a great deal of this did not survive. The various Bronte writings include stories, and plays, and again one can see early characters Bronte later develops. For example, Elizabeth Hastings receives a proposal from Sir William Percy to be his mistress, and she replies " I'll never be your mistress. I could not without incurring the miseries of self-hatred." This, is of course, is very much like the great scene that takes place between Jane Eyre and Mr Rochester.

If you read and loved Austen and/or Bronte, reading this book will just add new layers of appreciation.

I enjoyed how varied the selections are on a whole range of topics that appealed to my heart, mind and soul. There were some new concepts, new ideas, as well as the tried-and-true soothing stories for when I just wanted my troubled waters calmed. The short chapters meant I could read two or three a night. My favorite ones are The Caregiver by N. Davison, and Little Vigilance and The Teacher by Ford Boyer. Lisa Payne's Millenial Dance of Death is a beautiful kind of prose poem--very inspiring stuff.

This is a book to peruse in the wee hours, a page or two at a time. The writers use both poetry and prose very well to look at the questions of life we humans dwell on in our innermost souls. The more one reads these essays and poems the nearer the answers float upward. Sometimes even reaching the surface. Listening to the Soul is a book I will turn to often. Ilene Smiddy, DeSoto, Missouri USA

"How can you print a piece of your own soul," Dickinson, p. 51

This is the 2nd in the Krull and Hewitt's "Lives of ..." series. The book contains 19 chapters on 20 writers in birth order: Murasaki Shikibu (973?-1025?), Miguel de Cervantes (1547-1616), William Shakespeare (1564-1616), Jane Austen (1775-1817), Hans Christian Andersen (1805-1875), Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849), Charles Dickens (1812-1870), Charlotte & Emily Bronte (1816-1855 & 1818-1848), Emily Dickinson (1830-1886), Louisa May Alcott (1832-1888), Mark Twain (1835-1910), Frances Hodgson Burnett (1849-1924), Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894), Jack London (1876-1916), Carl Sandburg (1878-1967), E. B. White (1899-1985), Zora Neale Hurston (1901?-1960), Langston Hughes (1902-1967), Isaac Bashevis Singer (1904-1991)

This is a perfect book for young adolescents and pre-teens who as they grow and mature frequently feel awkward. Krull introduces us to the idiosyncrasies of the literary. Some of the authors were loners, eccentric, a wee bit peculiar. Michael Jackson's behaviors might seem normal when held in comparison. Some retreated into themselves. Some sought out adventures. Some as adults were unsuccessful at the ordinary.

Some worked at a young age to support the family. Some took daily walks, very long daily walks. Some were not healthy and therefore wrote in bed. There were some similarities and some differences, but they all shared a singular conviction to write and write they each did well.

Hewitt's delightful portraits of the writers are precious. My favorite portrait is of Frances Hodgson Burnett of "The Secret Garden" fame. Her hat is the secret garden.

Given the high price of the book, I was surprised that Krull did not include a list of the authors' books and/or poems and the publication years. END

This book is a fun and informative book. The pictures are filled with humorous meanings and hidden information. The book keeps the reader's attention by keeping the included information short and simple, but also makes sure that the reader gets as much possible about the author. This book is great for kids and students to use as a report source as it is filled with great information. Kids would rather use this book as an information source rather than an encylopedia since the information is easy to understand. Authors in there are some you may not know, ( Murasaki Shikibu) and some well know ones ( Charles Dickens). I am glad I purchsed this book. I really liked the pictures which are so vibrant with color. This would make a great buy.