This book has all the information that a person would need to know about all the varrious horses in the world. Each horse is shown in a full color photo and a history of that breed. The book also has an excellent introduction to the history of all horses and their effect on the history of mankind.

In "Yorkshire West," Richard Hamilton successfully weaves a large cast of characters into an intricate and fascinating storyline. The author's love of all things British shines through in his settings and the detailed attention he gives to his dialogue. "Yorkshire West" will hold your attention and keep you guessing until the very end. This is a work well worth keeping close at hand, to be read over and over again.

This work stands out from others in the culture wars and in the debate about PC for its excellent historical research. The history of moral zealots on campus goes back to the civil war era, claims the author. He identifies six different academic zealotries, with out current climate of "offend no one" and "flatter every vanity" as the seventh.

On top of this, the author, who is a professor of law, includes a lengthy analysis of the history of the the legal and paralegal conceptions of academic freedom. A must read.

This is a richly layered book, full of interesting and thoughtful insights into the Zunis and the anthropologists who have studied them. McFeely combines a sympathetic approach to Zuni culture with intelligent analysis of the Euro-American anthropological tradition. Her language is sometimes difficult, a reflection no doubt of the fact that this book had its origins in a Ph. D. dissertation at New York University (some unfortunate passages are so complex and convoluted that they come close to defying comprehension). But this is more a stylistic problem that one of substance. I was particularly taken with McFeely's descriptions of the Eastern anthropological museums of the early twentieth century in which Zuni artifacts were displayed in row on row of glass cases, and with her observation that a dialogue took place between the frozen objects in the cases and the peering faces reflected in the glass (of course, the peering faces were learning about themselves even as they studied Zuni). It is a good metaphor for the book. Readers who are interested in the complex interplay between Native American cultures and the dominant European culture of the United States, will, I think, find this book rewarding--but only if they are willing to read slowly and carefully.

In A Zuni Artist Looks at Frank Hamilton Cushing, Phil Hughte portrays the images of F. H. Cushing who was an American ethnologist who resided in a late nineteenth century Zuni pueblo. Hughte, a trained artist, illustrates the life of Cushing in Zuni pueblo in a form of cartoon. Hughte offers forty-three cartoons which are developed upon Cushing's the reminiscence of his Zuni years, My Adventures in Zuni, and letters written by him, or to him by others. They are also accompanied by the cartoonist's explanatory comments on his drawings, reflecting his own interpretation of what Cushing did and meant to Zuni people at that time. What Hughte offers with his cartoons is the perspectives of the society studied which is hardly conveyed in such anthropological monographs. As an insider of Zuni culture, Hughte depicts the ethos of Zunis of the ninteenth century and provides "the other side" of the story which were told by Frank Hamilton Cushing. In other words, the reader is able to see how "other people" explain themselves.Hughte's drawings are done by a pencil, presenting a beautiful monochrome tone. It is interesting to observe that Hughte always illustrates Cushing in traditional Zuni outfit, implying Cushing's obsession with the culture, and constantly depicts Cushing with almost no facial expressions. On contrary, Zunis are rich in expressions as well as in clothing, representing the emotions of the people. Hughte's juxtaposition of the images of Cushing and Zunis clearly shows their divergence in perspectives. Generally speaking, cartoons are often associated with satire and caricture in which the target is tha larger entities such as political power, or the dominant culture, in this case Cushing who represents the Anglo-American culture. However, Hughte uniquely portrays Cushing in many ways; one way he is disturbing the Zuni clowns, and another way he protects their land from U.S. troops. He is an outsider, a Bow Priest, an ethnographer, and a clown, representing a trickster figure in the Zuni society. This is the very reason why Cushing appears human and does not appear as the target of satire or caricture. Hughte brings such figure on the settings where Zunis are warm and kind, treating them all equally in a drama called "A Zuni society in the ninteenth century." While maintaining a Zuni perspective, Hughte teaches us to see the story as a whole, helping us to balance between the objectivity and the subjectitvity.

Expanding upon early impressions of Zuni fetishes, this book contrasts the reprinted text the Second Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology (published in 188), with annotations by noted art historian and author Mark Bahti.

A Review by Brena

Margaret had moved from New York to a smaller community in New Jersey. Wishing all she could do is fit in with the other girls. She joined a club calling them the Pre-teen Sensations. All the girls want to become a woman so fast. Between growing up and fitting in she was trying to decide what religion is right for her only coming to the right resolution for her faith.

This story really makes you understand the feelings that Margaret are going through. I really liked that you could very well understand what she feels or how she thinks. Especially when she must start wearing a bra, she still felt herself that she didn't need one, but she wanted to become a woman. It was also very easy to follow along with the pace of the story and dialogue. The language was easy to follow and descriptions were very clear in Margaret's life. The conflicts she faces with religion show great realism to actual life for young children.

I would recommend this to people who like to read a young coming-of-age drama. The people to most enjoy this book would be young girls ages 8-14. The audience is mostly young woman.

Before i tell u about this book, i want to make sure that u're a gal, not a guy. Because this story is sort of a girl guide but its made into a story and besides, guys will think that it is disgusting or something, since it includes something girls always experience...
Well, the story is about an eleven years old girl, Margaret. Nancy, her friend, let her join into a club PTS. And to be in the club, they have to wear bras. Margaret and her two other friends are wearing Gro-Bras, but Nancy is already wearing a bra sized huge for watermelons. Well, and Nancy's older brother always walk naked in the house but Margaret has never seen his body before. The girls are trying to be grown up and started to read PlayBoy magazines. Nancy even taught them how to increase their bust!?! Now, can u imagine that?
Then, like normal girls do, she got her first kiss and her period. Life was different then....
To my opinion it is a very nice story FOR GIRLS!!!

I really enjoyed this book because it taught a lot of lifes' lessons. Mararet is a fantastic young woman who in the book shares her intermost deepest secrets about boys, her religion, and becoming a woman. she doesn't know which religion is the right one for her, when her parents give her the desision of choosing her own. Her expeirementing with trying out some of them doesn't really help her make a desision. she goes through tough times but always looks at the bright side of things and that's what really got me to believe that margaret was becoming one of my friends. as I read the book she felt closer to me. to bad she's not a real person! I would definently recommend this book, but probably only to a female, mostly because it has woman related material. when I am asked to list my favorite books, I will not hessitate to say "Are You There God, It's Me Margaret".

I've been a fan of Hamilton's Anita Blake series since the day I picked up Guilty Pleasures on a rainy trip to the book store. The Killing Dance hooked me in like the other books because of the action and Anita's wonderful wit. The only reason why I give this book an 8 instead of a 10 is because throughout the book I found Anita's incredible resolve weakening because of (what else)the men in her life. It just wasn't, well, Anita. I was especially surprised by how it ended. I can understand lust and sex, but the trust that was required for what eventually happened between Jean-Claude, Richard and herself didn't seem like the thing Anita was ready for, TRUST being a big issue with her, especially considering the fact that she is a person who sticks to her principles at the expense of death itself. I felt I got to know Anita through this series and I admired her mostly for her strong will. I was slightly disappointed by the compromising made on her character but I can't deny enjoying learning more about the vampire and werewolf communities of Anita Blake's universe. My review overall? Anita's still the coolest, weapons-toting chick in my book (no pun intended)

I'm quickly making my way through the Anita Blake series. Any of these novels is a winner on its own, but you'll miss so much if you don't start at the beginning (GUILTY PLEASURES).

DANCE, in my humble opinion, is the best book thus far in the series. The main characters (Anita, Jean-Claude, Richard, Edward) are much more developed, the relationships between them all are so well written that you start to feel like you know them. In DANCE, Anita faces the realization that a mysterious "money man" has put out a huge contract for her death. With the help of her friends (and I use that term for lack of a better word for these complex characters), she battles her way through shapeshifters, shooters, makers of shapeshifter-porno movies, vamps, psychopaths and cops. And then things get strange.... Forever undaunted, Anita arms herself to the teeth to protect her life as well as the "lives" of the men/undead/werewolf that she loves.

DANCE also brings Anita to some decisions regarding her feelings for Jean-Claude, the seductive Master Vampire of the City, and Richard, the potential alpha male of the local werewolf pack. Who will she choose? Will she tell them both to take a hike? How will she reconcile her own ambiguous feelings about what it means to be a monster and what it means to be in love?

All in all, this entire series is a great ride. Anita narrates each story. She's petite, she's pretty, she's tough. She doesn't need to be rescued because she's typically the one doing the rescuing! She's a necromancer with incredible powers, and these powers are more developed in DANCE through her relationship with Jean-Claude and Richard. Laurell Hamilton introduces new characters and brings in some old ones from prior novels. It's rather difficult to pin this series into one genre. It's part romance, part mystery, part detective, part horror, part gore, part vampire and all of the above. There's something here to please almost everyone. These books are fun, they're scary, and I guarantee you'll keep reading them to find out what happens next!

As if life wasn't hard enough for Anita Blake: vampire hunter/executioner, zombie-raiser, necromancer - now someone has a contract out on her for half a million dollars. She is notified about this from her seemingly only HUMAN male friend, Edward, who was offered the hit but passed it up. Now, while trying to dodge unseen enemies, she also must try and help a rotting vampire get rid of his icky disease, and try and talk her werewolf boyfriend Richard into becoming more of a - get this - killer. Then, add to all of that the huge decision Anita must face: should she choose Richard, or the vampire Jean-Claude? I'm rooting more for Jean-Claude personally, but I kind of wish she would just choose someone a little more human.

I read a lot of reviews from people saying that this is their favorite Anita Blake novel. I can't say it is mine. I was hoping more for the hit-man story to develope, but a lot of the book had to do with ho-hum Richard and his rat pack of wereanimals. However, there was one scene that made this book irresistible, and it started at about page 335. At about page 344, I wanted a cigarette - and I don't even smoke! I'd say this particular part is worth the read alone, and will satisfy any fan who has been loyal all the way up from "Guilty Pleasures". Still, though it is not my favorite novel so far, it kept my interest up until the end, like all of the rest. Needless to say, I can't wait to get onto book seven.

The Anita Blake series is not deep and subtly crafted. I have no urge to immediately give a second reading to pick up all the nuances and depths I missed the first time through because one can catch everything on one reading. They're good fun, but not *great* reading.

The book can stand alone, but since you're here at a book store, pick up 'Guilty Pleasures' to make everything crystal clear. Also because it's a better book and you might as well see Hamilton at her best to carry you through lesser volumes. The Laughing Corpse is a different book, yes, but the writing quality has dropped as well on objective levels.

This is not a vampire book. Those from GP appear almost as cameos, more to set up future books and to keep them in mind than to further this story. Other characters could have been used for their functions, but it was nice to see the fang gang again. This story concentrates on Anita's abilities as an animator, raising the dead, dealing with zombies, and some of the implications of that power she has been staving off.

Technical writing flaws have been allowed to creep in: comma splices, using the same word "gleaming" three times in ten lines, little distracting teeth-grinders that I still remember the next morning.

More importantly, this volume uses gratuitous gore as sheer padding. The gross-out contest shows the characters involved as immature, unprofessional, and disrespectful of murdered women and children. Is this really what Hamilton wants us to think of Anita and the RPIT crew? The tremendously detailed crime scenes this time around, as opposed to those in GP, make me think someone gave the author a copy of 'All the Gooey Gunk Inside' and, when she found herself 15,000 words short of a novel she used it to pad things out. It's okay in the first murder scene to set up the horror, but elsewhere it's a weary drag on the story's pace. I wound up skimming it in boredom. She should have used another Jean-Claude scene and moved things along on that line, at least, rather than just marking time.

Also, I was persistently thrown off by the long-term voodoo queen of the Midwest being Mexican, and the whole business being treated as if primarily a Mexican religion. Voudoun comes out of francophone Haiti. I would expect Santeria or Spiritism out of an Hispanic community. Read 'The Magic Island' and 'The Serpent and the Rainbow' for some NF on voudoun.

At least a bit more of the story world background is explained, like why vampire criminals are executed in the field rather than any attempts being made at trial and incarceration. Her timeline is off here, though. Vampires have only been legalized two years, Anita has been the Executioner for two years, yet the executioners are said to exist in response to something that happened within that two years. Sloppy, but that's sort of the motif for this volume.

If GP was a bag of Oreos, this was generic chocolate sandwich cookies. Okay for a snack attack, but it could have been better.

Laurell K. Hamilton's second book in the series takes off nicely where the first left off. The book opens with Anita in the mansion of an eccentric millionaire who needs her to sacrifice a human (in order to raise a 300 year-old zombie) and is willing to pay richly for it.
The more Anita Blake novels I read, the better I see Laurell getting as a writer, for it seems she has a hard job - she has to create the rules for this "alternate universe" where vampires and zombies live among us. The problem comes with the issue of "convenience". Instead of letting the reader in on the solution to the puzzle one piece at a time, she does this huge revealing TA-DA! at the end, and it leaves you feeling a little cheated.
The best part of the book has to be the growing "lust" between Anita and Jean-Claude. I found myself blushing from the sexual tension and innuendo - they're quite effective and keep you reading.
I definitely recommend the series - just don't expect anything groundbreaking. With each book you read, the picture gets a little clearer and Hamilton gets much better.

Ever wonder what the United States would be like with vampires and shapshifters? Where vampires are treated as living people and a person could be tried for murder when they staked the undead. Where the disease known as lycanthropy can make a regular person howl viciouly at the full moon and crave warm human flesh. And a woman known as an animator makes a living off of raising the dead...as in zombies. If you've ever wondered if the supernatural could be natural then I would encourage you to read this book and the other books of the Anita Blake series. Especially those who love blood, guts, gore, and a heroine who's tough enough to take on the whole supernatural world that Laurell K. Hamilton has created.

I came to "Guilty Pleasures" because of a lady in line in front of me in a bookstore - she had read one of the Anita Blake series previously, and was standing in front of me buying all the rest of them at once to complete her collection. I had heard of the books before, always love a good vampire story, and since when reading a series I always like to start with the first one, I gave "Guilty Pleasures" a try.

I am glad I did; the book is gritty, dark, horrific, sometimes funny, even touching in a couple of spots. The world of the vampires is quite well-drawn and pretty much believable. When Anita's friend's life is threatened unless she agrees to undertake the case of solving the hideous vampire murders plaguing St. Louis, I was totally into the book and waiting to find out what horrible thing was able to actually rip the heart from a creature as strong as a vampire. . .

But as a mystery, I don't find the book works quite as well as I would have liked. The solution was a letdown, to some degree, as far as the mystery end of the plot -- although the ending of the book itself was fast and bloody and pretty satisfying.

What I noticed most, though, was the writing style; being a writer, I could tell from the first few chapters that this was Hamilton's first book; that she was feeling her way along in spots, and still getting to know her characters. That made, for me, for awkward reading, and it actually took me longer to get through this book than most that I read. But get through it I did, and overall it was worth it. Anita's life as both Animator and The Executioner make for such interesting potential you want to know more. Jean-Claude is one annoying character, and I wish she had developed the character of Valentine more, but it's still a good book, and I do plan on reading a few more in the series (in order), as stylistically I am sure each one just gets better and better. Ms. Hamilton has created a pretty fascinating vampire/zombie/werecreatures world, one I would love to visit again. WARNING: The "GQ" (Gore Quotient) in this book is high, and from what I understand only gets worse in subsequent sequels, so buyer beware, these are definitely ADULT novels not for the faint of heart - or squeamish of stomach.

The Anita Blake series -- I cannot express enough how MUCH you need it read them if you haven't already. Let me tell you the reasons why.

One, the main character, Anita is tough and modern, and she could beat the socks off of the biggest bodyguard out there at only 5'4 (with the help of some uzis, sawed off shotguns, and her precious firestar.)

Two, the best contemporary science-fiction/fantasy books you'll ever find. Guns, vampires, werewolves, and necromancers are just a walk in the park.

Three, (and I feel MOST important), might I mention that taking one look at ANY of the male characters in this book is enough to make you stop, drool, and forget your own name? How about that delectable French fanged popsicle with the tight leather pants, Jean-Claude? (You can bite ME anytime, JC!)

Ahem. In any case, I recommend these books to any sane SF/Fantasy book lover out there, because I'm afraid dissapointment is not an option. I am 99.9% sure you will fall in hopeless love with these books after reading them, so get a head start, eh?

Guilty Pleasures is the first book in (so far) a series of nine. Read away, m'friends...

To begin with, I'm a big fan of the Anita Blake series. Anita is a heroine anybody can relate to. She's a very young person who has already seen the darkness in the world and is doing everything in her power to fight it. She's willing to play by the bad guy's rules if it means saving innocent people, which makes her character all the more intriguing. Guilty Pleasures isn't my favorite book in the series but it does a nice job of setting up Hamilton's world. It introduces you to most of the main players--including Jean-Claud who could make anybody want to believe in vampires. One of the things that I like about the series is that the good guys aren't always that good and they don't always do what's right. Her world is well imagined and consistant. A friend of mine who read them at my suggestion called them candy. The series is kind of like a bag of dark chocolate; once you taste one you keep having to have just one more bite; and, before you know it, the whole bag is gone.