Letters like these are treasures of intimate understanding that transcend the paparrazzi snapshots and questionable commentary of the contemporary celebrity gossip industry. They are not 100% but certainly more accurate represntations of the information that is not a part of the public identity.
Indeed, Nancy Mitford, her family and her celebrated friend, Evelyn Waugh, were represented often in the gossip columns of their lifetimes. To the degree that Lady Redesdale, NM's mother, commented that as soon as she read a headline that said "Peer's daughter..." she knew it would be one of her own. The letters compiled here, relect the 'way' it was at the parties, what NM's often wicked but always colorful take was on the 'important' guests. Some of these were, Princess Margaret in a ghastly mini dress and bouffant hairdo, or Churchill's very less impressive, often drunk, son Randolph, and innumerable royals, politicians and artists, all discussed without awe, or particular excitement, just ordinary people, being foolish or, as she would have it, boors.
Nancy Mitford's life spanned a period in history that seems impossibly long, and long ago. People, I have learned, become implanted in a time, for better or worse, and for Nancy this was the age known largely by art as "between the wars." It is those times, in the decadence and continued supremacy of the class system in England, that Nancy could embody the comedy of aristocratic insularity being pummelled by the modern world. Nancy was far more a representative of the old, but capable of making ideological decisions that her sisters and parents despaired of. They, for anyone not already drowned in the subject, went largely pro-German, with one, Unity, an intimate with Hitler before England entered the war. Another, Jessica, was a communist, and transplant to America, for which she was more condemned.
The bulk of the correspondence is certainly lively, and in no way self-centered, or particularly dense. This holds true even when death or some other tragedy overtakes her. The oddest to me was her comment that Unity had been taken to a concentration camp and that they would leave her there for a while to learn a few things before getting her out. Either that is British aristocratic detachment that I fail to get, or else she did not know much about concentration camps.
The only obstacle to incredible fun reading is the footnote requirements. They certainly are necessary for comprehension of who people are and what they're referencing, but they do make it a bit choppy and annoying. Still, it was an extraordinary time, as Nancy would say, between the fascists and the Bolshies, as well as the hilarious anti-foreigner burlesque that her father's actions brought to life in her novels. They may have appeared extreme however, the letters suggest their accuracy as well as their shared viewpoint, if not enactments, throughout the upper classes of that period.
Nancy moved to France after the war and horrible blitz, never to return to England. In her charge to get away from the weight of her very visible life there, she made but minor progress. Almost each letter has at its essence, the perspective as well as many references to her eccentric family, and its myriad political and social highways that led seemingly everywhere. If we did not have this unique vantage point, these names would be connected only to history's image, or critical reviews. Nancy makes history, quite filled with very human players, from DeGaulle to Princess Elizabeth, to Anthony Eden, to rock and roll
She wore Dior, summered in Venice, and lived for 30 some years in Paris, but she remained eminently British aristocrat, as did those for whom she was enormously, and eternally loyal.

One summer I read all the Thomas Hardy books in my library. Another I spent reading all I could find on the Duke and Duchess of Windsor. This was my Mitford summer.

It began with Mary Lovell's, "The Sisters" and I've read most of the Mitford biographies and novels that I could find.

I am enjoying this book for the letters and pictures. The footnotes don't bother me because I know who most of the people are from my reading of English history. French phrases don't bother me because I know enough French to be able to understand them altho it is nice to have translations given.

I believe young readers may have a problem with this book because they do not understand how it once was. I was a small child during WWII and didn't suffer as much as people in England did. The Mitfords were a wonderfully strange family and readers probably should read Mary Lovell's book first as background.

I love Nancy's sharp observations and style. It saddens me that she didn't like Americans. I wonder why. I believe she was one of the most interesting of the Mitford sisters, but they were each special in their own way. I am just so sorry she had such a painful illness at the end. It was very sad to read of her last days.

"More Than the Doctor Ordered" by Jacqueline Diamond. In Nowhere Junction, Texas, former beauty queen Lilibeth Anderson places an on-line ad claiming she is an heiress seeking matrimony. Lucas McRifle responds as he sees Lilibeth as the capital he needs to market his product. Before he meets Lilibeth, Lucas is hurt and pretends amnesia so that he can learn if his intended is more honest than he is when it comes to telling the truth about money. However, his injury leads to Lucas meeting and falling in love with reticent Dr. Mimsy Miles, leaving him with a for love or money decision

"A Hitchin' Time" by Charlotte Maclay. Lilibeth Anderson wants to be married, but finds no one in Nowhere Junction even remotely appealing. She decides the next new eligible bachelor is hers. When the former principal quits to join a demolition team, the education board hires Alexander Peabody as the new principal. She thinks he is perfect even if he answered the wrong ad, but he refuses to see Lilibeth until he proves his worth as an inventor just like his family has done before him. However, his inventions seem rash and cause messes rather than proving to be better mousetraps, leaving Lilibeth to wonder if she will ever marry even if she loves this nerd.

DUETS 55 contains two tales that are tied together by the same characters and location. Both stories employ slapstick plots that some readers will find amusing while others distracting. Fans who enjoy the absurd in their romantic writings will take pleasure in these weird stores. Everyone else will find this book goes nowhere.

Harriet Klausner

Okay, I admit it. I'm a sucker for Duets, and for Duets set in Nowhere Texas specifically. Nowhere, Texas, you see, is the setting for both this volume and "Designer Genes/Two for One!" by the same authors.

This volume gives me everything I'm looking for in a Duets volume. The relationships are developed well, but the impediments to "true love" don't involve really painful issues that would detract from the general "romantic comedy" flavor. Both the main characters and the secondary characters are appealing and just quirky enough to provide a number of hilarious situations.

This particular volume doesn't provide a lot of real emotional depth to off-set all the silliness. But that kind of depth is a rare thing indeed in a romantic comedy, and probably not what you're looking for in a Duets volume anyway. This is a very good, funny read, and you'll fall in love with all the characters of Nowhere. I did!

Mustard is a playful cat that has been with Alex's family for 14 years. They are all very attached to him. When they visit the vet, Dr. Griffith, for Mustard's yearly check-up, they are told to keep Mustard from having any stress. The problem is Barney, the newspaper boy's mean dog...and that's when the trouble starts.

I read this book in the in the 5th grade back in 1986 and loved it. Til this day, I still remember it and will definately purchase it again just so I can read it again. It is a very good book that left me in tears through it. Get out your kleenex if you plan on reading it. I recommend this book to all children and adults.

This is one of the first books I remember reading. It is the story of Lew, who is remembering his Grandfather and all the things he loved about him. Without being graphic or overbearing, models grieving for young children and helps them articulate what they'd like to remember about loved ones.

This is one of the treasures of children's literature. My daughter chose it from the library one day and read it to me, and I was spellbound as I listened to my five year old read a story of such depth. A little boy of about six years of age remembers his grandfather who cared for him when the boy was barely out of infancy. The boy's memories are so vivid that his mother is overjoyed to discover that the grandfather, who has died, lives on through the memories of her son. A book that no one seems to know about but which my daughter and I have found to be one of the best we have read in our seven years of reading children's books together. A book that should be included on all children's reading lists.

There is nothing new about a book of nursery rhymes, but I especially love this book for its playful illustrations. They are whimsical, light and attractive. I had a child in my library today entranced by it and had to take a look at this book that I had never noticed before.

At her best, and she is almost always at her best, Charlotte Voake is the most gifted British illustrator since Edward Ardizzone. In this divine nursery rhyme collection, she makes worlds out of the simple, suggestive words, and creates some of the most endearing illustrations of the last 50 years. While thoroughly contemporary in spirit and execution, the pictures at the same time recall the modern golden age of children's books which ran roughly from the late 1930's to the late 1950's. Candlewick Press needs a good swift kick for letting this charmer lapse from print. If a book this good isn't selling, it's the publisher's singular lack of imagination that's failed, not the artist.

Not sure how it is that I was sent this book, but I found it in my mailbox on a dreary Seattle afternoon. Instantly I was flooded with memories of dewy summer mornings that promise to become hot sticky days; the smell of earth and sweet grasses rising with the humidity; the sounds of grasshoppers hopping, crickets chirping, skippers fluttering, big blue stem, bur oak, gamma grass all rustling from a breeze that seems to tug at me to follow it to the horizon.
Having grown up in Illinois where 99% of the original prairie landscapes are gone, it is a THRILL to see a 352 page directory of North American prairies. I found myself scanning this book's pages for restoration sites I did volunteer work on years ago and places I've visited. It's encouraging to see how many have been designated as nature reserves and parks. Of course many of the entries are also for very small, inevitably threatened rements of prairies. Perhaps this text will help to validate the existence of these small treaures and promote human awareness and stewardship.
This directory is nicely organized by U.S. States and Canadian Providences. Introductions for each state provide varying amounts of backround information, such as the types of prairies, geological history, current environmental/restoration/preservation concerns, and key plant and animal species. A few states are included, which aren't really prairie states, such as Oregon. The all too brief justification for including this state and it's two listings are that these sites look like prairies. That's good enough for me, but then I have to ask why my current home state of Washington was not included with it's steppes, plateaus and mima mounds. Oh well. Entries for each state are then provide within alphabetical county listings. One improvement might be to include each site by name in the index. I spent a long time trying to find individual prairies I knew by name, but couldn't recall the county they are in.
There is one map of central North America, a lack luster, black and white, bare-basic outline of states and providences, on which, author, Bernard Schwartz, appears to have colored in the "pre-settlement prairie bio-regions" with dark and light crayon. A far better map, perhaps with color/texture coded sub-regions, would have been a nice addition and not too hard to come by. However, on the facing page is one of my favorite prairie related illustrations, a diagram of prairie plants and their root systems. Other illustrations are black and white sketches of prairie flora, drawn by author Charlette Adelman. Like her husband's map they are a bit more abstract and amateurish than botanical, but I like them anyway, being recognizable representations of key species and having a 'heartland' essence of earthiness, simplicity, and beauty.
One problem of restoration is the long term management and monitoring of human activities on on prairie sites. Since the book serves as a guide to visit these natural areas, I would have liked it to have a introductory chapter on appropriate human usage and negative impacts (eg. harvesting seeds, herbs, disturbing/feeding wild life, pets, off-road vehicles, staying on trails, littering, etc., etc). Additional emphasis on invasive weed species and land- use threats with perhaps an apendix of references for state and federal weed/rare plant directories and protection agencies might enhance future additions.
A great reference for birders, botanists, conservationists, scientists, travelers, and anyone who believes that America is, first and foremost, a beautiful chunk of land.

Collaboratively written by Charlotte Adelman and Bernard L. Schwartz, Prairie Directory Of North America is an information packed, accessible, reader friendly, straightforward, ecological reference book filled cover to cover with the names, one-paragraph descriptions, and geographical locations of prairies found throughout the United States and Canada. The prairie listings are organized first by state (or Canadian province), then by county for easy reference. Telephone numbers for each prairie area's associated conservation board or similar organization are included. The Prairie Directory Of North America is an excellent, indispensable, highly recommended desktop reference for academicians, professionals, environmental activists, and non-specialist general readers needing to look up a given prairie's location or basic facts quickly.

I thought the book was very good, although a bit unbelievable in parts. Jessica was the one you were cheering for, and Tilly wasn't, but by the end, you wanted them both to be happy, so you find yourself cheering for them both. If you have a rainy afternoon or just want to spend the day in bed with a good book, this is an excellent choice.

Although this book was written in 1980, if you are a Charlotte Vale Allen fan, it would be well worth your time to read it.I found this to be a very powerful book and was quite moved by it.It starts during the depression when Jessie and Tillie's formerly wealthy father dies,leaving them penniless. Jessie, at eighteen, has promised her father she would always care for twelve year old Tillie.What follows are Jessie's sad attempts to earn enough money to care for both of them. Tillie thwarts her early attempts and they run to Canada to try to establish a new life. A truck driver,Rene', takes them most of the way and plays a major positive role in Jessie's life throughout the book. They establish a new life in Toronto, where Jessie becomes a call girl to give Tillie the decent life she wants her to have. Tillie, in the meantime,turns into an ungrateful,selfish person,forcing her way into peoples' lives ,creating destruction along the way. Jessie's life takes an entirely different direction when she marries a wealthy busiman and has a family. A tragedy seperates the sisters, and they both face different kinds of problems in their lives,leaving them seperated for years.Events played out with both women create changes in them,making Jessie stronger and more positive about herself.Tillie faces a serious problem ,which forces her to look strongly at herself, realizing what she has been to others, and effects a major change.In addition to Jessie and Tillie,there are Sandy,Press,Flora,the children and,of course,Rene'.They are all so well developed you feel you know them well. This is a wonderful book, which leaves a "feel good" feeling when you have finished it.

I grew up in the pacific north-west and experienced many of these stories as a child. This was a wonderful book to bring back most of those memories. It is well written. Simple yet engaging. Once I started I couldn't put it down. I've since used it as a teaching resourse in social studies and will be ordering other copies for fellow teachers I've shown it to and were equally impressed. I highly recommend this book to anyone with an interest in native legends or mythology.

I brought this book on a trip to Vancouver and Victoria and read it in the evenings after returning to my hotels. As a European American, I found it indispensable to understanding much of the art I saw on vacation (especially Totem Poles). This book relates many of the best known Haida stories, including those of the noble, tragic Bear; the intrepid, versatile human fisherman-hunter Nanasigmit and above all the amoral but always fascinating Raven. Almost all the stories are simple, yet strike a deep chord. Add this to "Looking at Totem Poles" and "Kwakuitl Legends", both also reasonably priced, and you'll be well on your way to understanding the basics of First Nations culture.

The beginning of the Storm Book, starts out with the build of a big storm. The storm first striked with lightning and thunder, something the young boy in the book hasn't heard or seen. The thunder and lightning leads to heavy rain. After the storm pasts, the boy asked what the curving, misty arch of color was. His mother told him that it was a beautiful rainbow.
I enjoyed the story very much. The words they used to describe the surrounding was very well done. This story could very possibly happen in real life. The pictures are very good. I hope you decide to take a look a this book, I'm sure you will be pleased...

I really enjoyed how the book described the different experiences people had with the same storm. I love storms so the book was that much more interesting to me!

This was an enjoyable book. The characters were very believable. Despite the fact this was a marriage of convenience, Beth and Darius made the best of of it. Of course as their relationship matured they found not only the love each of them desired, but Darius found a woman who was trustworthy and Beth found a man who gave her the family she wanted. The secondary characters were all delightful from the servants (Munke, Maggie, Kelso & Billy the stable hand) to the horrible sisters and Dowager Dutchess. Dorie (Beth's young cousin) was especially delightful!

This book was a little slow moving at times but worth getting through those slow parts to the moving ending!

Charlotte Louise Dolan is a wonderful writer. She is very authentic to the regency era and a writer in the tradition of Georgette Heyer. The focus is on the relationship between the hero and herione and does not focus on the bodice-ripping scences found so commonly in most books today. This is a very sweet story of how two people, married for the wrong reasons, ultimately get together. What I liked best about this book was the growth of both the hero and heroine. The minor characters were very well-developed too. This is a book that every self respecting Regency lover should have on their bookshelf