Nobody should read this book, unless you're a lonely woman who enjoys harlequin romance and wants to make yourself feel worse. This collection of stories are about the same main character, Rhoda, a wanna-be writer with loose morals. This prose is not innovative at all, but rather a desperate attempt to make sense of something I'm not interested in. The book suffers from the flaws of both bad novels and bad short story collections. The stories are about the same person but not ordered chronologically. Skip this author and read the true masters of modern fiction like Morrison or Proulx.

I'm not normally a short story reader, but I love most of Ellen Gilchrist's short stories -- especially her characters Rhoda Manning, Miss Crystal and Miss Crystal's maid Traceleen. This particular collection of Gilchrist's work is, in my opinion, her best and the easiest to lose yourself in. All in all, it's a fine representative sampling of her work if you've never encountered it before.

Other short story collections by Gilchrist I'd recommend are "Rhoda: A Life in Stories", and "Drunk with Love".

I've read all of Ellen Gilchrist's work, and THE AGE OF MIRACLES is my favorite. The subjects of the short stories vacillate between serious and quirky, but each one is intriguing in its own way. Gilchrist lends a distinct personality to her writing that few authors have the capacity to exude. I also recommend FLIGHTS OF ANGELS.

Like most of Shakespeare's comidies, LLL involved a couple of very independent women falling in love with a couple of guys who were in love with them too. It also brought mistaken identities into play and, like A Midsummer Night's Dream, it had a play within the play. The humor was mostly in the form of puns, most of which were hard to understand the first time through. The ending was really bad, though, because the girls didn't get together with the guys like they should have if Shakespeare had planned a happy ending. All-in-all, I would only recommend this play for really serious Shakespearean scholars, as it is almost too dense for us laypeople

this is witty play about four guys who vow to sequester themselves for three years in serious study, but who are forced to forswear their vows when four attractive women show up and upset their plans. the humor is mainly in the form of wordplay, as only shakespeare can do, and the verbal jousting between berowne and his lady is especially entertaining, and anticipates the tete-a-tetes between petruchio and katherina in "taming of a shrew" and benedick and beatrice in "much ado about nothing". definitely worth a read, and if you can get it, the bbc television production of LLL is also worth seeing. last of all, i disagree with the other poster who complained of the ending. i thought it was pretty clear that the couples would get together in a year's time. so the ending was implicitly happy. only someone who is accustomed to instant gratification could find fault with it.

Book is more focused on tickets, programs and autographs. It is absolutely worthless for identifying and finding values for irons and putters. It lumps generations of irons into a single category, even if the iron was completely redone and just kept the same name.

I thought it was mostly very useful information for the collector, however one piece seemed to be missing, "golf balls" I would think that this particular piece would be important since that is what golfers hit around the links.

After years of collecting and researching golf clubs, balls, equipment and literature, I was very pleased to find Gilchrist's Guide to Golf Collectibles. With the explosion in interest in vintage links-related materials, I found this guide to be the most up-to-date and complete resource yet. The portion devoted to golf publications is especially impressive, and essential to anyone even the least bit interested in collecting or selling literature related to golf. Why not five stars? I'm waiting for the next edition.

READ THIS BOOK AND WAS FRANKLY DISSAPOINTED. NOTHING NEW IN IT.THE ABOVE TWO REVIEWS WOULD SEEM TO HAVE BEEN WRITTEN BY MATTS MUMMY AND POSSIBLY HIS PUBLISHING COMPANY AS WELL.THE CELEBRITY ANGLE WILL DOUBTLESS SERVE HIM WELL WITH SALES. ALL I CAN SAY IS THEY MUST BE EASILY PLEASED

I purchased this book initially because of the great resource of exercises contained in the book. But, upon closer examination, I found that not only is there the aerobic and "resistance" training, but Roberts also gives concrete guidelines for diet changes . I think this is a really great book, and the breakfast energy smoothie that he recommends as part of his "detox" plan was Yummy! I wasn't hungry all day!! I am very excited about this book, and about the new body that I'm soon going to have.

I was very dissapointed with this book. First, the concentration focused more on center pieces than table settings. It also had some very strange chapters. Example: How to set TV trays. Like I really need to know this? The book also strayed from the subject and focused too much on decorating your home for the holidays.

I do not think that this book was worth the investment. It also failed to give any new "funky" or modern ideas on how to deecorate tables and that's what I wanted.

I loved this book. It is a fresh approach to decorating a table with plenty of unusual ideas. Admittedly it is not primarily about table settings as in "where-does-which-spoon-go-and-how-many-do-I-need-anyway", so the title of the book might be misleading to some people (I bought it in the store and was able to thumb through it before).

Instead it gives you an abundance of suggestions on how to achieve an individual and unique look for any occasion you might have in mind. Yes - there is a page on TV trays in there, but it is rather general, and just another "table" in the eyes of the authors (ok, I admit that even I didn't need THAT).

The book is arrranged by topics like dinnerware (the authors encourage you to mix and match freely), table coverings (vintage, quilts, any fabric, bare wood - you name it), how to present the food on the table nicely and appealingly, and last but not least the book shows you different and complete table decorations for all kinds of seasons and occasions. In addition to beautiful and very professional photographs of the varius decorations, the reader is offered alternatives to each of those settings. For example one decorating idea uses flowering witch hazel, but you may also use weeping cherry, or Bradford pear instead.

The centerpiece idea for a winter table is awesome and worth the book in itself - they suggest making a luminary of ice filled with twigs and red berries, and to put a candle in it - step-by-step instructions are of course included.

One word of caution: If you are looking for suggestions on formal or traditional decorating ideas, this book is not for you. It is geared towards people who would like to achieve highly personal and unusual, yet tasteful table settings (as in decorating). It is about pairing unusual things, e.g. bundling asparagus and displaying the bundle as centerpiece, and most importantly it is about freeing yourself from the notion that only a table setting with matching china and a traditional layout can be stunning and successful. My tip: Try it and see for yourself!

This book is a decent introduction to Alchemy, but the problem is the author goes too much into explaining other pseudo-alchemies such as Jung's "Alchemical Psychology" and such. I would've liked it better if it dealt wholely with real, lab alchemy and not the stuff inspired by the same.

After enjoying listening to Ivan Doig's autobiographical books, I was anxious to hear more and chose the "Winter Brothers" book on tape. The common theme that ties the two stories in this book together are fairly solid, but for me the two stories together were frustrating and less easy to follow than his other books. Although a major problem was the fact that the reader didn't use much of a voice change to differentiate between Doig and Swan (maybe in this case reading the book would have been better), I at times found myself wishing that the Swan entries could be less interrupted. Also, while Doig is an artist with word descriptions, they were occasionally a bit distracting. On the positive side, the descriptions of the Northwest setting and the character of Swan and his relations with the Indians were fascinating and educational. And even though I wished for the Swan story to be less interrupted, it sounds like Swan was a very prolific diarist and it was nice that Doig did the gleaning of the most interesting parts for us and filled in the background context that so enriched them.

There is hardly anything to this book at all. A few pictures, a few pointers. It is not worthwhile.

While this book has some nice concepts and illustrations on how to plan your garden floor, and offers a variety of materials to complete the task, I found the book simply did not provide enough detail or information. "Making Garden Floors" will make a nice complement to other existing books in your library, but you likely will not find enough information here to use as a "stand alone book." There are only 144 pages to this book, so it truly is condensed. However, what information that was provided was worth reading. Other books I do suggest for garden planning which have some excellent coloured photography and creative suggestions are, "The Complete Gardening Guide" by Peter McHoy (any material by McHoy is helpful in garden planning) and "Garden Structures" by Linda Joan Smith, which contains information on pathways, fences, walls and other structures.

First of all, there are so many errors in this book, such as: Sarah takes 10mg of xanax when the usual dosage is between .5 and 2 mg.
Secondly, the dialogue is pitiful. Just plain horrible.
Thirdly, the characters are unreal. Sarah fails as a likeable protagonist--she is self-centered, cruel, and basically despicable. Her attitude towards Elise certaintly does not add to her charm--why does she repeatedly refer to Elise as "ugly" and blame Elise for the initial failed relationship with Jack?
I cringed my way through this book wondering how it managed to get published in the first place.

This book was awful. I could not find any redeeming or likable qualities in Sarah. Snobby, self-centered, and worst of all, boring. The plot could not possibly have been more blah. Not even good beach reading.

I have read earlier books by Ellen Gilchrist with pleasure, and, recently bereaved myself, came across the latest novel on the remainder table with some anticipation. Although I enjoyed learning about Sarah, the "heroine", I was struck by the lack of characterisation in some of the other main characters, especially Jack, whose wife dies early in the novel. Jack shows (or is allowed to show) no grieving at all. As someone in Jack's position in real life, I found this strange and unfortunate. Timothy was even less filled out. Jimmy and Elise, in their sadness, are more human, but the scenes in Paris seem to be Ellen Gilchrist's attempt to interest Hollywood in this novel. Better than The Bridges of Madison County, will it make a worse movie? Disappointing -- Ellen can do better.