Two grouchy old mice live in an ancient shell of an abandoned car. The illustrations are top-notch and our 3 year old grandson loves talking about them. The story is all right, though the plot is not strong. The verse is grating because of the constant use of the word "mousery" to rhyme with itself. After the 4th time this happened in just a few pages, grandpa handed the book to grandma and said, "You finish reading it to him, I can't stand any more." Only Great Aunt Nina really loves the verse and thinks the rhymes are just so sweet. The three year old likes the book, but it is not a favorite. He was through with it after just a few readings. Books he LOVES, such as The Color Kittens and Runaway Bunny (both by Margaret Wise Brown)he wants over and over and can recite by heart.

We really enjoy "The Mousery." Our four-year old gets a kick out of saying "the mousery" at the right spots in the text. The illustrations are wonderful and have given us lots of fodder for extended discussion of this story, mice, uses for old cars, and berry growing, among other things. That's one of the things that I think is important in books for this age group--you should be able to take the text and go on with it so the kids get used to thinking about stories, not just hearing them. This book got us going so far we even made our own "mousery" out of some boxes, fabric, etc. That was a project that took us through several long winter days and still holds our attention when we bring it out. Yep, we like "The Mousery" very much.

Can two ill-tempered mice hold on to their gloomy lifestyle when four, wee mouskins come knocking? This author shares a heart- warming, rhyming tale about two mice, Sliver and Slice, who live alone and want no guests in their Mousery. On occassion, a couple wandering mice try to join Sliver and Slice but are reminded that they are trespassing and the Mousery is not a hotel. This continues until one snowy night when four, shivering mousekins squeak, "Let us in." After looking at their ragged and thin sweaters, Sliver and Slice are weakened by the sight and cautiously unlatch the door, allowing the four to enter. The grateful mousekins immediately show their appreciation by building a fire and cooking brown beans and rice. In no time at all, the little mousekins capture the hearts of Sliver and Slice by singing a tune that their grandmother sang long ago. Sliver and Slice come to realize that they have been wrong by not wanting guests, and before long the Mousery is fifty three stong with laughter, squeals, and tasty meals. The illustrator delights the readers through vivid and very detailed scenes which take place mainly under the trunk and hood of an old, abandoned car. The illustrator cleverly uses auto parts such as a motor oil can as a fireplace and a license plate that reads NIX 2U. The Mousery can be told through the illustrations alone, but the tale is greatly enhanced by the lively, rhyming text.

This is not great literature, but it is a great accomplishment!

When i read this, i was angry, sympathetic, and resentful. Several years before Charlotte wrote her book, i had written a book about my experiences in 2 decades of state care without ever being adopted. I did not have the opportunity that the pageant brought to Charlotte in terms of national exposure and the deals that can result from that. I was angry because in reading the story in the context of my own life of abuse,neglect and bouncing around 5-600% more than Charlotte, her woes as a foster child seemed pretty lightweight to me. I was sympathetic because many of the observations she made were right on, only more amplified with greater instability or degree. And i was resentful that she had found some caring people such as the Scheps and the Wensley families. The Scheps sound like the kind of people i dreamed about and cried myself to sleep many a night until one day there were no more tears. All my grief was gone and i was numb.

But then i thought of the good Charlotte has done in using her exposure as a platform to heighten awareness of the issues of foster children. Writing a book such as Lost in the System is generally not a big profit taker, but anyone who walks away and gets something out of it in terms of understanding throwaway kids is one more ally in this forgotten corner of American society. It was painful for me to read some of the passages in this book , for it dredged long -forgotten feelings and this shows a shared quality of experience.

I have known persons such as Janet Henry and the enormous patience she must have. One must wonder how her life must be both gratifying and sad; gratified to help kids no one else will, and sad to bond with kids only to see them leave. The Wensleys impressed me a great deal for it must have been no small feat for them to show the humility needed to change their approach from strict Fundamentalist Protestantism to a more compassionate tone as evidenced by Charlotte's visits following their separation. I also understand fully the financial considerations the Wensleys faced, as while i was growing up foster parents had no reservations about making me feel unworthy of even food or clothes. Fortunately, Charlotte was spared this.

And when i read about the Scheps, i felt enormous gratitude to them for helping Charlotte realize her dream. I did not get that dream and i know the pain i have felt my whole life. Because the Scheps have more caring than the two of them can hold, they have truly changed Charlotte's life forever. I have seen many peers die, become drug addicts/dealers, prostitutes, absentee parents, prisoners and each time i saw it i saw some of me in them. In Charlotte i see the past i never had but by her sharing her story i got a glimpse into a life i wish i could have had and for a few hours i forgot. Knowing that there are people like the Scheps, the Wensleys, Janet Henry and Charlotte Lopez not forgetting to thank them reassures me there are still good people in the world.

Ken Grant of Methuen Mass. wrote a book in 1993 called "The Wanderer",about his experiences as a state ward and handicapped child survivor of the cancer epidemic in Woburn,Mass. He wrote of how state officials blocked his access to state records at every turn. But where he was blackballed and harassed by the state and federal governments, Lopez succeeded in getting her message out.

This book shows how one woman overcame a tragic past to make good and become a role model for others of similar background. It is amazing she has been able to do this, as Ken Grant wrote a similar work called "The Wanderer" but was blackballed because of it. There are many questions that come out of a book such as this: - are kids denied spiritual or religious exposure while in state care? - what are the demographics of kids in state care? - Does the Us govt view abandoned kids as a business and so have a vested interest in assuring that a steady flow of abandoned kids perpetuates?

Charlotte Zolotow is one of my favorite children's authors, and so I expected to love this book. I didn't. The Seashore Book didn't draw me into the world that Zolotow was trying to create with her words,as all of her other books have done. There seemed to be a mis-match between the style of the pictures and the style of the words. I'm sure many people will enjoy this book, but my children and I didn't.

As a teacher, I feel this book lends itself beautifully to visualization and text to self connections. My students loved the illustrations and were eager to identify the author's use of sounds, colors, similes, and metaphors. This book provided background knowledge that we used to create our own sensory paragraphs about the seashore. ... I think it is one of Charlotte Zolotow's best!

I liked The Seashore Book because the mother and her son used their imagination almost always. The boy had never seen the ocean so he imagined the sea. His mother tells the boy about the sea. Charlotte Zolotow creates very good mind pictures. It almost feels like you're there.

This book tries to show you the human rights of the poor people in London while they resolve the mystery of a crime, you will never know who is the killer until the last page, not because the book is good, because it could be anyone of the book, the writer never tells you anything about the real killer.
At the end of the book, nobody does nothing about the human rights or anything else.

Charlotte and Thomas Pitt's maid, Gracie, has been admiring her mistress's detecting adventures for the past few books, but her participation in this story adds a freshness to the plot and the characterizations. Dedicated readers of the Pitt series know Charlotte, Emily, Thomas, and Great Aunt Vespasia so well now that new characters are always welcome additions to the cast.

In this story Pitt is called in to investigate a mysterious fire and death in Highgate, a prosperous northern suburb of London. While most London policemen are investigating the Jack the Ripper murders at Whitechapel, Pitt must get to the botom of how and why the Shaw house was set ablaze and whether the intended victim was really Clemency Shaw, a modest woman involved in social reform, or her husband Dr. Shaw.

The ending of this mystery was not really up to Perry's usual standards. I was pretty sure who had done the deed from the beginning, but as usual Perry provided some excellent and suprising insights into the other secrets lurking on Highgate Rise.

Having read all the previous Pitt novels in the series, I found arson a refreshing change from the usual murder weapon of choice...the characters were complicated and well-developed, and the murderer was in question until the end--but then Perry picked the most obvious choice for the villain, which disappointed me--I was expecting some great revelation, but instead, we got someone whose motives were already obvious (so obvious I'd written the character in question off my list of suspects ^_^), and the cheesy way the confession came about read like a melodrama. Other than the unconvincing ending, the book was quite good, and Gracie finally got some a share of the adventure! If there's one thing you can count on, Anne Perry always has some interesting development in her characters' personal lives, no matter what the case.

This is a highly distorted and poorly researched book written by liberals with an agenda. Readers should first see "Missionary Capitalist: Nelson Rockefeller in Venezuela"(2002).

The authors of "Thy Will Be Done" are examples of those described in "Guide to the Perfect Latin American Idiots" and "Useful Idiots: How Liberals Got it Wrong in the Cold War".

This is one of the half dozen best books I have ever read. It answered a lot of questions as to how the power brokers operate. I found some answers to the Kennedy death.

I agree with all the reviews above, especially the last writerwho said to buy it and keep it.

I would only add that the authorsof Thy Will Be Done did an outstanding job of illuminating the intense conflicts between the Kennedys and Rockefellers on almost every business and government issue. Each well-sourced fact paints a picture of how much Big Business, Big Oil and Big Banks hated the Kennedys.

Col. Fletcher Prouty (Man X in the JFK movie) and the makers of the movie Executive Action pointed to a cabal of Big Money as the group that set the JFK assassination machinery in motion. I have always thought this a plausible theory but it needed more facts to support it. Colby's book provides them, in bits and pieces, scattered througout its chapters without ever announcing any belief in a conspiracy to kill JFK.

Yet, when I finished the book, I had a much clearer picture of these Big Money fat cats sitting around, discussing matters of mutual interest, including the fate of the Kennedys. And, there, at the head of the table, sat the Rockefeller Brothers.

Anyone interested in finding out more should consider reading a book by Donald Gibson called Battling Wall Street: The Kennedy Presidency.

This is one of the weaker novels involving Professor Peter Shandy, his librarian-wife Helen, and the colorful folks at Balaclava Agricultural College. This time, a corpse turns up during a Groundhog Day ceremony, and college President Svenson once again calls on Professor Shandy to get to the bottom of the crime. Perhaps it is indicative of the complexity of the interrelationships among the characters that the author chose to put a geneaological chart in the front of the book. It doesn't help much. The characters' names are clever, but morphologically similar, as are some of their backgrounds. Several of the women in the town also resemble each other, adding to the confusion. This book is not leavened, as are others in this series, by much humor between Shandy and his wife, or with the colorful President Svenson. Cronkite Swope, ace reporter, is present, but the overall tone is of various people resenting each other for past or present transgressions. I did, however, like the groundhog character and Jane Austen, the Shandys' cat.

After reading literally hundreds of mystery novels, I discovered Peter and Helen Shandy in Balaclava two years ago. Since then, every mystery that I read is held up to the Charlotte MacLeod standard. This series is like taking a vacation with a really fun group of friends. They're my favorite books in the world, I reread them all periodically. I can't wait until the next one!

It's one of the best books MacLeod ever wrote. The more you get to know the characters of Peter and Helen Shandy, the more you're gonna love 'em

I was VERY disappointed with this gem-care book. It has nice pictures, but contains very little information about gem-care that isn't obvious already. The book does not address any of the more unusual gems and stones either. Do not buy this book! It's a waste of [money].

As a professional gemologist, this book plays an extremely important role in helping to educate my clients in the proper care of their gems and jewelry. It is beautifully illustrated, thorough in its research and mastery of the subject, and well written.

As a teacher of Gemology, I recommend this well written and researched book on gem care to all my students.The photographs, as usual in Mr. Wards books, are spectacular. Gem Care should be in everyone's collection and read for care and treatment of the jewelry and gem specimens in the reader's possession. This book is a must have.

If I had a better grip on what it was like to be a woman during the era in which this was written I would probably like this novel a lot more. But to be quite honest I found it to be almost unbearably boring and drawn out. It simply reeks of the style of the times, which was to so forcefully over dramatize everything that work now seems almost comical. The point of the novel was supposedly to show how Eyre was able to overcome the sexism of her time, but in the end it seems as though she gave in to the sexism and ended up getting lucky. The plot is weak, the characters are unrealistic, and the language is far too melancholy. I won't argue that it was progressive for its time, simply because of the fact it was written by a woman and openly spoke out against the sexism in society, but in our times I'm afraid the message has been lost in its tediousness and extremity.

Jane Eyre is justifiably held as one of the best books in print! I selected it because it is recommended in the Lifetime Reading Program and am certainly pleased that I did. Read it, every word, and you will be caught up in the very thoughts of Jane. After, rent the A&E movie version which is much truer to the plot than the other version. Feel free to weep with joy at the end. I did.

Jane Eyre is a masterpiece of it's kind. Charlotte Bronte brings the characters to life as not many authors of this period (that I have experienced) have. The plot is excelent and intriguing, and as evocative as anything I have ever read. Mr. Rochester is a very intriguing hero, not the run-of-the mill Knight in Shining armor, and Jane Eyre is a very different heroin from the usual as well, and a very interesting one. I would definitely reccomend this book to anyone who likes classics!

There is lots of good stuff here, but it's not Buddhism. One of the best parts is the section on how to be a good listener. As a man (yes, a generalization is coming up), I sometimes am not the best listener in the world. The author's discussion of listening is very well done, and can help both men and women deal with that sometimes awkward period at the end of the day when someone wants to describe how horrible her co-worker is, etc. Other parts are really quite helpful as well.

That being said, however, and as the previous reviewer has clearly stated, this book is not at all focused on Buddhism or any Buddhist "approach." In fact, most of the little quotes the author offers are from Sufi mystics.

Like it or not, this "If the Buddha" thing (the author's previous book is "If the Buddha Dated") is a marketing gimmick, and nothing more.

What's next? "If the Buddha Ate Meat: Barbecuing with the Buddha"? Or "If the Buddha worked on Wall Street: Getting Rich in the Stock Market"?

I just wanted anyine interested in this book to know that one major complaint (that the Buddah DID marry and subsequently left his wife and son) is addressed on page 4 of the book, which you can read right here on the 9th page of the sample pages. Perhaps the title would have been more accurate if it read "If the Buddah Married After Becomming Enlightened", but that hardly seems to merit the deduction of 2 stars.

Although, I do not know a lot about Buddhism (historic details as some of the other reviewers do), I can say I found the book an excellent, inviting and uplifting read. It impacted my relationship in a profound way. I think partly because it was not "clinical" nor written in an analytical style. The flow and read of the book was so wonderful, it brought down my defense mechanisms and made me consider what was most important. Each chapter deserves real think time -- and you may wish to read it together as a couple. Maybe a chapter each night before you go to bed.

It is a book of great enlightenment. It's what you do with it that counts. Several chapters struck a chord so deep, it moved me into a whole new realm. I can not give this book enough stars. I recommend it to all who are in a relationship and are striving to stay together over the long haul. You can spend a couple of bucks now, or a whole bunch later on therapy, post divorce.

My love of films came to fruition during a brief period when the "auteur theory" held sway in the 1960s and 1970s. Auteurist critic Andrew Sarris classified Billy Wilder in his "Less Than Meets the Eye Category," primarily because he was "too cynical for the more serious demands of middle-class tragedy (DOUBLE INDEMNITY) and social allegory (ACE IN THE HOLE). A director who can crack jokes about suicide attempts ... and thoughtlessly brutalize charming actresses like Jean Arthur (FOREIGN AFFAIR) and Audrey Hepburn (SABRINA) is hardly likely to make a coherent film on the human condition."

It was only as a result of seeing Wilder's films that I discovered what Sarris was really saying was that the director was both too versatile and too successful -- and it didn't help that his approach to directing films was as a writer rather than as a visual artist.

Reading Charlotte Chandler's oral history of Wilder's career, I was impressed with Billy Wilder's ability to be able to create iconic native masterpieces of film noir (DOUBLE INDEMNITY) and Hollywood Gothic (SUNSET BOULEVARD) without the benefit of growing up in the United States. While his later comedies (such as SOME LIKE IT HOT) owe much to his collaboration with Lubitsch, Hawks, and Mitchell Leisen, Wilder developed his own style of comedy and retained his ability to make good films well into his eighties.

In the chapter on SUNSET BOULEVARD, actress Nancy Olson makes an astute comment: "Billy said, 'Every character in SUNSET BOULEVARD is an opportunist.' It seemed to me that what he is saying is that this picture is not only about opportunism, but about ... the consequences of it."

A little light bulb went on in my mind. Wilder's films are all, in their own way, about opportunism. Walter Neff and Phyllis Dietrichson take advantage of each other for their own nefarious ends in DOUBLE INDEMNITY. In picture after picture, I see a pattern of characters using one another with interesting results, with the ultimate example being Kirk Douglas in ACE IN THE HOLE.

Chandler's interviews are mostly interesting, though the intrusion of plot summaries in the middle of each chapter is intrusive: These should have been relegated to the Filmography in the back of the book. I was disturbed that Chandler did not see fit to add any of her own observations about Wilder except insofar as to provide a segue for the many quotes. Still, it is both a useful and entertaining book and a valuable addition to the literature about this fascinating filmmaker.

There is no one wilder in Hollywood than Billy - Billy Wilder, that is.  And the new bio of him, "Nobody's Perfect: Billy Wilder: A Personal Biography," is as close to the "perfect" non-critical, fun history of a man and his movies. Written by Charlotte Chandler (whose previous works include "I, Fellini" and "Hello, I Must Be Going: Groucho and His Friends"), the tome is based on interviews she conducted with Wilder and his friends over a period of years. The result is a wonderful kaleidoscope of movies, politicians, actors, geniuses and louses. From Sigmund Freud to Louis B. Mayer, from Richard Strauss to Joan Fontaine, from Prince Yussupov to Walter Matthau --- Wilder knew them all. He is the man who put Marilyn Monroe over a subway grate, Jack Lemmon in a dress and Gloria Swanson in the most famous close-up of them all. The great beacon shining through the entire book is, of course, the wit and humor of the man.  Wilder is certainly one of the great comic directors of all time, and his legacy is astounding. By structuring the book around the subject's work in a strictly chronological manner, Chandler creates a picture of Wilder that is at once true and wildly engrossing. The early stories about journalism in pre-war Berlin are as fascinating as the later tales of success in glittering Hollywood. That the last 20 years of his life, arguably the most creative time in an artist's life, were spent without a single film project is the underlying tragedy of this book, and Chandler doesn't exactly dwell on it, but the painful reality is certainly there. We like to think of him as this way: Billy Wilder, Somebody's Perfect. (Submitted by staff member Stephen J. Finn)

Billy Wilder made some of the greatest American movies such as Some Like It Hot, Sabrina, and Sunset Boulevard. He was also in charge of filming the liberation of Nazi concentration camps in the 1940's. This interesting and informative book covers his life and career, and behind-the-scenes stories of each major movie he made are in here, too. Whoever said "they don't make movies like that any more" wasn't kidding! I highly recommend this book.