This grossly overpriced item has the look of a Golden Book. The photographs are basically a collection of victory passes taken by horse show photographers. The quality of the reproductions of those photographs are poor, and the cropping is even worse. Shouldn't younger readers expect a quality product, too?

I found this book to be informative in a brief way,however for a hard back book that measures 8.75" tall by 6.5" wide with only 48 pages it can't justify the price... As I wrote it is an informative book but not for that price.

This book covers it all from breeding and conformation to showing and other disciplines ASB's are suited for. Very informative! I've had this book for 4 or 5 years, and I still have a hard time putting it down! GREAT pictures! Explains the different gaits and training equipment that Saddlebreds use. Also gives alot of information about the breeds used to make the Saddlebred. Includes information and pictures of the great Saddlebreds from the past. Great all around book, shows a little bit of every aspect that comes along with this breed!

Susanna Rowson's "Charlotte Temple" is not the first novel and certainly not the last to deal with the topic of the morally fallen woman. Poor, pitiful Charlotte finds herself in the midst of an immoral and unforgiving world where one transgression sends her on the road to permanent ruin. Rowson encases her heroine Charlotte Temple within a world of virtue and vengeance. Charlotte has no possible means of escaping her inevitable fate because the author/narrator makes it clear from the onset that she has written this story as a lesson to young woman. She has no real interest in Charlotte as a dimensional character. Charlotte simply serves as a symbol of lost virtue and symbols do not have real emotions or feelings. "Charlotte Temple" was written in 1794 and became one of the first best sellers of the newly formed America. A morally abhorrent woman who pays for her sins almost always guaranteed a best seller in the eighteenth century and now "Charlotte Temple" has been rediscovered and published in a Scholarly Press edition. Was this reclamation of Charlotte really necessary? In the past twenty years, feminist scholars have rediscovered authors and texts that have gone out of print or been totally ignored by the literati. Authors such as Anne Plumptre, Frances Burney, Aphra Behn, Sarah Fielding and Charlotte Lennox have been dusted off and given new literary lives. Feminist scholar Cathy Davidson has taken Charlotte Temple in hand and aims to join Rowson to the above list of rediscoveries. Unfortunately, Rowson does not warrant such treatment. Rowson has a flat, humorless approach to the fallen woman story. Unlike Burney's "Evelina" or "Camilla," Rowson does not imbue her narrative with needed levity. Her pedantic iron-fisted preaching smothers the modern reader in a moral morass that confounds rather than illuminates. In many of the fallen women stories, authors would use the genre as a subversive technique to criticize the patriarchal structures. Rowson does engage in such subversion within the novel. She seeks to preach to the young women who may fall victim to the unscrupulous man -- in England and America, it was not considered altogether lady-like to read a novel, so Rowson would be preaching to young women who had already transgressed. Rowson does not criticize men within the novel. She does not censure Montraville for taking Charlotte as his mistress, impregnating her and abandoning her for a wealthier woman. When he believes that Charlotte has becomes his best friend's mistress, he does not believe that she would soil her reputation even though she has ruined her life by engaging in an illicit affair with him. He aims to enact revenge upon the friend for acting "dishonorable" against her. Yet if he had not acted dishonorably towards her, she would not have been reduced to a penniless, pregnant ex-mistress scrounging the streets for food and shelter. He never takes responsibility for his role in Charlotte's downfall. Rowson had the perfect opportunity for savage criticism of the patriarchy with Montraville but she fails to take it. Instead, Rowson places the blame for Charlotte's ruin on the women within the novel. When Charlotte leaves the safe bosom of her morally upstanding family, she enters into the deviant world of the female who fail to protect her from licentious men. Madame Du Pont errs in judgment by hiring the morally loose Miss La Rue. Madame Du Pont sets Charlotte's downfall in action. Rowson does not punish the ignorant Madame Du Pont by killing her, she ends up an hysterical mess after the Montraville/Charlotte "elopement." Miss La Rue, the woman who pushes Charlotte into the arms of Montraville, must be punished for being a promiscuous woman. She ends up poor and begs for her last scrap of food. She ends up dying painfully as Rowson takes the opportunity to lecture her readers on the improper behavior of loose women. Why would modern readers want to read this? I do not think any intelligent would reader would want to subject themselves to the depressing experience of reading this novel. At 125 pages, it seemed to progress at such an excruciating pace. No character has any shadings. There are no subplots to divert the attention from the static Charlotte. Rowson does nothing to keep our interest. Unfortunately Rowson has become a heroine to feminist scholars for her feat as the first American woman to have a best-selling novel. That accomplishment is noteworthy as literary trivia, but it does not make for engaging reading.

"Charlotte Temple" is a sentimental, moralistic 18th century novel by Susanna Rowson, an English-born author who lived much of her life in the United States. According to Cathy N. Davidson (who wrote the introduction to the Oxford edition), "Charlotte" was "America's first best-selling novel in the early years of the Republic." According to the book's bibliographic notes, it was first published in 1791, with the first American edition appearing in 1794.

The book tells the story of an innocent young English schoolgirl who becomes involved in romantic intrigue. She eventually winds up in the vicinity of New York City; thus, the novel has an interesting theme of a foreigner coming to America. The book's plot reminds me of a contemporary soap opera, but with a much more judgmental and religious tone. The characters are, on the whole, cardboard stereotypes. The book is full of female hysterics, male villainy, cruelty, dangerous passion, and heartbreak.

Rowson fills her book with asides to the reader, and, ironically, I found this ongoing conversation to be more interesting than the melodramatic plot. Many of the asides are preachy, such as this example: "Oh my dear girls [...] listen not to the voice of love, unless sanctioned by parental approbriation" (chapter VI). But as the book goes on, Rowson begins to anticipate objections from possible readers, and some of her asides are witty and quite entertaining.

Ultimately, "Charlotte" is not a great piece of literature as a novel, but as a sort of metafictional exercise, it's quite intriguing. It's especially interesting when read in comparison with such self-referent 20th century novels as Ernest Hemingway's "The Torrents of Spring" or Kurt Vonnegut's "Breakfast of Champions." Also, the book's presentation of 18th century femininity and sexuality is an interesting precursor to 19th century books like Harriet Beecher Stowe's "Uncle Tom's Cabin." "Charlotte" may try the patience of contemporary readers on certain levels, but I believe it to be a literary milestone that is still oddly relevant.

"Charlotte Temple" is about a young British girl who runs away from her family and country because of a lieutenant named Montraville and her promiscuous French teacher, Miss La Rue. When Charlotte is fifteen, La Rue convinces her to run away to America with Montraville, La Rue and La Rue's temporary companion, Belcour. Once in America, La Rue marries a wealthy colonel and moves to the city. Montraville purchases a house for Charlotte outside the city and she becomes pregnant. She is left alone day and night with only her worries to give her company. Soon, Montraville abandons Charlotte for another woman and leaves for the Revolutionary War. He plans to send her rent money but his evil friend, Belcour, deceives him, keeps the money and leaves Charlotte to ruin. Charlotte is desperately poor and far along in her pregnancy and wishes to return home to her loving parents. She sends them a letter but must wait a long time for their reply. When Charlotte is eventually evicted for failing to pay rent, she goes out in a terrible storm to the city in search of La Rue, only to find that La Rue has disowned her. She is alone but La Rue's servant takes her in as she is going into labor. Although the novel was written in the late 1700s, the theme is applicable today. Charlotte suffers an illigitimate teenage pregnancy, her boyfriend abandons her, she is unable to contact her parents and feels they no longer care about her, and she falls into poverty and ultimate destruction. Rowson's novel is a must read for all young women, because it functions as a guide of what not to do with one's life.

Written just over a 100 years after the publication of Cervantes' DON QUIXOTE, Charlotte Lennox's THE FEMALE QUIXOTE is interesting for several reasons, not the least of which being that it's a strong, intelligent narrative written BY an 18th century woman ABOUT an 18th century woman. Writing in a wry, humorous tone, Lennox penned a definitive anti-romance, deftly skewering most, if not all, of the pillars of that genre, and seemingly with great delight, never once leaving a doubt as to where she stood on such matters. Lennox intended to pen a delightful little didactic tale centering around the foolishness inherent in lettings one's imagination get the better of oneself, and in this she succeeded admirably. And yet, like the proverbial house, a narrative divided cannot stand, and to be sure, Lennox is working at cross-purposes in her novel. To the more cursory reader, she seems only to be writing a sort of 'Dame Quixote;' skewing the mores of Cervantes' earlier novel towards a more female audience, but still drawing the same conclusions as he did about the absurdities inherent in their characters. A deeper reading, however, fleshes out instances within the narrative where Lennox seems to be actually SUPPORTIVE of her main character's quixotry. While on one hand, Lennox seems to be supporting the male patriarchal status quo by bending her Arabella (the female quixote of the title) to the dictates of society and behavior, on the other hand she seems quietly supportive of the power held by the fictitious princesses of Arabella's fancy, and thus Arabella herself. While Lennox's adherence to the former is obvious, and is the tack that she ultimately chooses to emphasize, her support of the latter is more difficult to root out, yet utterly unavoidable in any serious discussion of the work.

THE FEMALE QUIXOTE is not a story in celebration of some new dawn of the strong, intelligent woman. It is not a piece of nascent feminism in the style of a Jane Austen or a Charlotte Bronte, both of whom would pen their own takes on the female condition in the century following Lennox's. No, ultimately Lennox conforms THE FEMALE QUIXOTE to expected 18th century sociological mores, just as she conforms her character to those same mores when, at the hasty conclusion, she has Arabella drop her vision of reality and exchange it for the more socially acceptable value system shared by most characters in the novel. This conclusion is a particularly disappointing development because after pages upon pages of pitch-perfect, minute excoriation of popular romances, Lennox deflates her heroine in one chapter, and then hastily, and almost wholly without the wit which made the preceding chapters so interesting, gives her main characters an artless 'happily-ever-after' and simply ends the novel. In her eleventh hour capitulation, Lennox turns her narrative upon itself, weakening its integrity to the point that when she finally gets to Arabella's moment of truth at the conclusion of the novel, she can do nothing but end it straight away before it collapses on itself, writing without any of the flair that characterized the rest of the story. Though Lennox' didactic debt is repaid in full by such an ending, it leaves her narrative in want and the more observant reader skeptical. It is sad to note that in a novel that started off so promisingly, Lennox ends up cheating not only her character and audience, but also any greater purpose the work could have had.

Although usually a fan of 18th Century literature, I found this book extremely tedious to read. The plot is thin, and situations repetitious. The foolish obsession of the heroine with romantic literature is overdone, and her suitor's devotion to her difficult to fathom as Arabella is vain, selfish, and unreasonable. Not a book I would recommend to anyone.

Charlotte Lennox's heroine, raised in complete seclusion from the world by her misanthropic father, grows up believing that romances (of the chivalric kind already satirized by Cervantes more than a century before in the original Don Quixote)are true histories and that the extravagant behavior of the knights and heroes in such texts is the model for modern (18th century)men. Poor Arabella is doomed to be ridiculous! Her world of romance never was and never will be. But although she makes the most absurd mistakes, she is intelligent and strangely wise much of the time: she ignores fashion, she believes in complete honesty and fidelity, she rejects all accomodations to practical, but base, worldly wisdom. She constructs a world of her own in which women, who in the real world were quite helpless and treated as chattel, hold real power.

It is perhaps unfortunate that Lennox was a bit too much under the influence of Samuel Richardson and Samuel Johnson, both great writers but quite conservative in their views about women and their place in society (firmly under the power of men). The ending of the novel seems rushed and sad. Poor Arabella, so delightfully original throughout most of the novel, is "reformed"--as one of my friends said after reading it, and so "she becomes completely ordinary." If it weren't for the ending, the book would get five stars.

I'm taking biochemistry for the first time and the book is almost useless. It has many errors and the explanations are not clear. To study for my class I have to look for other books. I don't recomend this book to anyone who really wants to learn biochemistry, specially if they're taking the class with a bad professor. I'm not saying this because I don't like the class; I like chemistry and I thought biochemistry would be very exciting. But, the book isn't a good reference, neither the CD-ROM it includes. Thank God I bought it used.

All 3 major biochemistry texts were being used at the univesity where I attended: Lehninger was used in a one-semester survey course for biological science students whose emphasis was not biochemistry and/or molecular biology; Voet was the chosen text for the first of a 2-semester sequence in biochemistry; and Stryer was selected for the second half of the sequence. As an undergradate student, I was grateful that the authors (joined by Pratt) produced a fine version instead of the original Voet & Voet main text. This revised, modified version is more succinct, clear, with excellent graphics and photographs. The level of content in this version of Voet is no less intense and thorough than the other 2 major texts, with a special attention on chemistry as well. One star is taken off due to the high price!

Although not as comprehensive as their larger text, this book is ideal for a beginning course in biochemistry. Most undergraduates are overwhelmed by the encylcopedic nature of Voet & Voet's main text, so the author team are to be thanked for joining with Pratt to produce this fine text. The book is on the level of the other main biochemistry textbooks (Stryer & Lehninger), but has the wonderful images and diagrams for which V&V (via artist Irving Geis) are famous! The interactive CD is very informative and useful as well. I have switched my classes to this text, as have about half of the liberal arts colleges in the midwest area (noted at the last MACTLAC conference, where the text, although new, was aready tied with Stryer as the textbook of choice).

This novel is like a parody of a suspense novel, bland and unsuspenseful.

After wading through 200 pages of so called character development I was still marveling at the lack of depth that the author manages. Especially Dan, the antagonist. There is absolutly no indication in his personality that he is capable of his crimes. There is vrtually no connection between the Dan of the first half and the second.

So maybe the author was trying to surprise us with this guy's character flaw, but half the fun of reading this type of story is the marvelous sense of forboding that can be developed and which can keep you looking back at the beginning for clues to the dissolution.

But we get none of that here. Nice guy one minute, terrorist the next. So Dan has some issues with his first wife, how exactly does that lead to his need to kidnap?

And are we to believe that the so called strong, independant Leigh really wants to marry a guy who calls her "my little trollop" and other sexist inanities?

The portrayal of New York City aristocrats is shallow. It seems mearly to give the characters the free time to play out the events of the novel.

The ending is totally ridiculous. After raping, beating, torturing and otherwise abusing Leigh she turns around and forgives the guy, doesn't tell the police, and starts hangin with his daughter? Come on.

I suspect that this is a basic bodice buster romance novel trying to make a leap into a serious subject, but fails.

Leigh Dunn,an illustrator of children's books, is flying to London to visit her father, from whom she has been estranged for years. Having survived the earlier loss of her husband and son, this trip was prompted by the recent death of her beloved stepson,Joel. On the plane she meets Daniel Goddard, a businessman. The two fall into a brief encounter in London,which is only that for Leigh, but is much more for Daniel. After returning to New York ,Leigh,still grieving for Joel and upset over her reunion with her father,cannot re-establish herself in her old life. Her mother, an author of romance novels, and her agent Miles try to encourage her, but she is unable to ,and a quarrel with her mother plunges her deeper into despair. In the meantime,Daniel is becomming obsessed with her and falling deeper into his obsession. Leigh slowly comes back to life,making amends with her mother, and falling in love with Miles. Just at a point where good things are happening to Leigh an unspeakable act by Daniel changes the course of everyones' life, almost destroying everyone.This leads to a very exciting ending. This is an earlier book,1987,of Charlotte Vale Allen's, but is as contemporary as today. As always,her characters have such dimension you feel that they really exist. Her story-line moves quickly forward, never missing a beat. Once started, this book is difficult to put down.

This book was like reading a dream. It drew me into the story like a magnet. The writing was mysterious, enigmatic. This is her first book I've read and I intend to read every book she's written. The sex scenes were well written and very true to life. The plot kept me guessing; I could not put this book down. A fabulous story which I highly recommend!

Many adults seem to enjoy the book. Well, why not?? it resembles a soap opera. Being a high school student, i'm not very interested in that type of literature. However i must agree, it does contain ideas that will last centuries. Basic human flaws and sins (like pride and revenge) are represented in the novel. Overall, its a decent book, but specially for a mature audience.

To say Wuthering Heights is dull and boring, is to deplete your own humanity. Bronte's novel is an incredible depiction of life and the relationships in it. Love is a contradiction; Love is difficult and Love is kind. Each of these characteristics jump out of the text with the turn of each page. Heathcliff and Catherine are either in denial of their love or overtly showing it. I would highly reccomend the book to anyone who wants to further their education with a worthwhile experience.

Readers: I feel Wuthering Heights related to my life and easily to many others. Thr characterization between Catherine and Heathcliff was most interesting to me. I loved the finesse between the two of them. Their love was eternal because "whatever their souls were made of, his and hers were the same..."(73). When I read the each chapter it seemed a mystery because you never knew if the two would show their love or hide it. Another element of the book that made it interesting was Heathcliff's revenge against Edgar Linton and or actually the entire Linton family. The hatred he felt was produced by Hindley his father. In return, Heathcliff treated his own family meaness of a bear for his sufferings from the past. Heathcliff displays a tendency of resentment sympathising "with all his feelings, having felt them myself"(201). Emily Bronte showcases relationship Hareton and Heathcliff to Hindley and Heathcliff to show the viscous circle through generations. Emily Bronte perceives the minds of her readers and reveals how life can go in circles unless someone breaks the chains. To anyone who receives Wuthering Heights, I really do think the novl is worth reading. I, myself am not big reader but this book can catch your attention and keep you on your toes because there is a mystery in every chapter. Nicole

As a mystery-lover, I was excited about potentially finding a new character series to follow, but I had no success with this book. Carter's style is tiresome and contrived -- I found both the heroine and the plot cliched, overdone, and generally mediocre. It's rare that I read a book and think to myself, "Wow, this is really awful," but that's exactly what I was thinking throughout the entire read. I won't be investigating the sequel or any other Carter creations.

A weak plot and a protagonist I didn't care about made for an unsatisfying read. Carter's hero, Nanette, came across as far too contrived a character for me to get in to. She's a jazz freak, who's got a master's in French and passes her days busking with a sax on the streets of New York, and her best friend is a stripper--ooo, neat. The murder of an undercover cop in her apartment kicks things off, but it never goes anywhere that interesting. Might actually be better as a movie.

'Rhose Island Red' had been sitting on my bookshelf for about two years (all avid bibliophiles have such backlogs), but it was worth the wait. Charlotte Carter gives us Nanette Hayes, a fresh new voice in the world of detective fiction.

Nanette Hayes may be smart and sassy, but she's rather directionless. Armed with a master's degree in French, a love for Paris, a taste for Rimbaud, a refined palate on a beer budget, and a true love affair with jazz, she spends her days playing saxaphone on the streets of a New York that Ms. Carter captures so lyrically.

This novel reminded me of the seminal French film 'Diva', with all the plot twists and unusual characters - crooked cops, $60,000 stashed inside a saxaphone, an elegant yet aging criminal who worships Charlie Parker, and a no-nonsense exotic dancer with a taste for Wall-Street investments. Oh, and a gay lower-level mobster who becomes Nanette's confidente of sorts.

The story centers around the urban legend of the Rhode Island Red, a saxaphone that was supposedly given to Charlie Parker from a mobster as a bribe to play at a wedding. A saxaphone that was reportedly filled with heroin.

Charlotte Carter writes in the breezy rhythmic style of a jazz musician, and the book was a joy to savor. I can't wait to get my hands on the next book, 'Coq Au Vin'. Our heroine goes to Paris...ooh la la!

Basic in its approach to writing, this book may be useful for high school English classes but is totally unsuitable for college students. Although it contains some worthwhile fiction, most of the non-fiction pieces are not very challenging for college readers. The text is extremely prescriptive, and leads students to write formulaic papers rather than original and creative college level essays.

As a freshman nutrition major, this book was required for my English 101 class. I found it to be boring, unhelpful, and plodding. The author's instructions for activities leave you depressed and annoyed, and teachers have to jump around a lot to instruct properly.

This might be a good reference book, and perhaps even a book for secondary/high schools, but not for a college English class.

I consider this book to be one of the best how-to-write books I've read. I'm not a college student, but a writer who wants to sharpen skills, and I have found many sections of the book to be extremely helpful--the section on writing profiles, for example, and the one on writing autobiographical essays, just to name two. I've also found the information contained in other sections--such as Narrating, Illustrating, Comparing and Contrasting, Field Research--to be invaluable. I'm so glad I came across this book! I highly recommend it to anyone who wants a detailed plan for learning to be an excellent writer.

"Fat And Proud" truly made me angry. By using the most worst case scenarios which overweight people could face, the author has done nothing but vent anger against sound medical judgement concerning obesity. From reading this book I couldn't help but think of a wounded tiger who'd fallen into an open pit, growling at its family members who'd been more careful. This not a helpful read, but an angry one.

As one who was once overweight and who knows the humiliation of biased notions of beauty, I was interested by the title of this book. Now while the author makes some adequate observations about society's prejustices against the overweight, this book left me with the feeling the author is simply attempting to make these flawed concepts a scapegoat for poor choices. Any act of discrimination is unforgivable and should not be tolerated, and I am only too familiar with cruelty vented toward the overweight. Yet, an attempt to promote pride for an unhealthy life choice is not only self-serving but also irresponsible.

I found this book to be engaging and empowering! I disagree strongly with those reviewers who claim that Cooper is irresponsible by celelbrating an "unhealthy life choice." Fat in of itself is not necessarily unhealthy. A fat person who excercises if far healthier than a thin person who does not. In addition, it has been proven that dieting and other dangerous weight loss methods (such as intestinal and gastric bypass surgeries) are far less healthy than simply trying to maintain one's normal body weight, even if it by definition "overweight."

I don't know who was the fact checker or editor for this book, but he should be fired. A brilliant concept, but pathetic execution. There are many better books on this subject. Avoid like the plague. (I'm an Arts and Crafts dealer and collector and the errors I found in two minutes at the bookstore had me laughing to myself.)

I must agree with the first reviewer of this text. First let me say that this workbook is a decent starting point for those people who are learning about elements of Arts and Crafts style, design and architecture. The layout is addresses a specific aspect of the Arts and Crafts movement (e.g. Wallpaper & Paint, Furniture) and applies it to each room in a house. So far so good...

My problem is there isn't clear identification of resources and craftsman to contact for each of the areas. The photos are great but there isn't identification in a room of who to turn to if you like what you see. The only thing you get is a list at the back of the book for each of the areas covered. In the format of a "workbook" I don't think this is particularly helpful.

Like the previous reviewer I wasn't happy that some of the core Arts and Crafts suppliers weren't highlighted (Bradbury & Bradbury, Motawi Tile, Fulper Tile, etc.)

So as I said, this is a decent starting point but the content is far from comprehensive. I suggest looking at other resources in concert with this workbook to get a better idea what is available.

This is not a textbook nor a guide to its history or sources. It makes none of these claims. What it claims it succeeds in doing for us: A Workbook for Arts and Crafts lovers or beginners.

We've found that going through books and magazines to find stuff we like in decorating in A&C style is what this great resource provides in neat, organized way!

Great idea starter easy to carry when shopping. Who wants to carry a heavy stack of books with far too many words and few illustrations, except of rooms?

This is more easily accessible for most of us shoppers. We've already used it for art, chairs and found it very resourceful and helpful.

If you're an expert, maybe this has no place. For the consumer that we are, this is great! Depending on your needs and goals, this just might fit well in your A&C library like it has in ours.