Although this book is not a guide to Hawaiian Lighthouses, this is what we used it for, when we were in Hawaii, photographing the major lighthouses for our own book "Lighthouses of the Hawaiian Islands". We also used it to plan our trip. Love Dean has told the history, the stories, with accompanying black and white photos. Our book, all color photos, is a great companion piece to "Lighthouses of Hawaii". Anyone interested in Hawaii's Lighthouses needs both books. WE are known as "the Lighthouse People" because we have photographed every lighthouse in the United States.

I needed a thorough listing of all the lighthouses on Hawaii and this book provided it in detail! Plus I got stories to add to their beauty and great maps!

A truly wonderful collection of historical data on Hawaii's lighthouses and their keepers.

Picked up this book because the author was coming to book store. So glad I was willing to try a new author. This book was filled with so many similar problems we are facing. When SARS arrived and I'm seeing people with face masks on their nose and mouth sitting next to me at the Doctor's office I was living the book. It had the Doctor hero and all the agency's CDC, FEMA and such that we are listening to right now. This story didn't need SARS or the WAR to make it interesting. It's a good story and very suspenceful.

Critchton move over for competition! Congratulations Mr. Holmes on an excellent and well written mystery! It held my attention from the thought provolking title to the back cover.

Chilling, plausible, thought provoking, all too real, yet fiction. This is one book you will not stop talking or thinking about.

The Mycroft series reaches a new peak with this one. Amidst a dazzlingly complex plot, Holmes and Guthrie must overcome the disappearance of his actor/double, Sutton. The duress requires Mycroft to take Sutton's place on stage in MACBETH, the "scottish play" (ahem).

The period treatment here is simply superb, by far the best of any of the many Holmes pastiches I have encountered. In this installment, we also receive a number of tantalyzing clues about the relationship of Mycroft and Tyers, his manservant, to the noxious Brotherhood.

This is a book that leaves one in eager anticipation of the next one in the series. Here's hoping there are many more books to come in this series!

"The Scottish Ploy" is the fourth volume in Quinn Fawcett's successful Mycroft Holmes series. In this tale Mycroft and his secretary Paterson Guthrie once again confront the secretive Brotherhood in their effort to infiltrate England and destroy world peace. Holmes is determined to prevent the entry of two of the Brotherhood's top men under the guise of uncles facilitating the reconciliation of Sir Cameron MacMillian and his estranged German wife. This involves complex diplomatic negotiations that seem to be frustrated at every turn.

In fact, Mycroft Holmes is confronted with a mare's nest of problems including a Turk's missing brother, a famous phrenologist, and perpetually being pursued and shot at. It is all that Mycroft and Guthrie can do to find the common threads and come to grips with a plot that makes devilish use of what are normally Holmes strengths.

This series has a great deal of charm to it. While I wouldn't say that Mycroft Holme's personality is exactly true to Conan Doyle, he is certainly in character for an intelligent man of his position during the 1890's in London. Paterson Guthrie is perfectly typecast as a gentleman of breeding. Paterson is certainly younger and brighter than Watson is, but he is cut from the same cloth. Sometimes he is so stuffy you just want to kick him.

Greatly increasing Guthrie's stuffiness quotient is the reappearance of Penelope Gatspy, the indomitable agent of the Golden Lodge. The Lodge is a secret organization of mysterious goals, which, on occasion, coincide with those of Mycroft Holmes. Miss Gatspy, who can outshoot, out think, out race and out last just about any English gentleman, is the undoing of Guthrie. Of course, the only person who doesn't know that Paterson Guthrie is in love with Penelope is Guthrie himself. He has, unfortunately, no idea how to deal with a 'modern' woman and this provides much of the humorous by-play in "The Scottish Ploy."

The book is very well written. Aficionados should know that most of the key bit players also put in their appearances. By the fourth volume though, I have finally realized that, while there is a great deal of deduction and adventure in these books, Holmes and Guthrie are often dry and humorless to a fault. Penelope does her best, but it is too much to ask of even such an incredibly talented woman to completely humanize two such paragons of British propriety.

Oh well, just because they never seem to laugh at anything doesn't meant that we can't, and there as enough humor and mystery and suspense to keep the story from ever flagging. I would, however, suggest reading one or more of the earlier volumes before taking up "The Scottish Ploy." Much history is carried forth from previous volumes and Fawcett is not one to offer extensive explanations. Have no fear, once you start reading them you will never regret the decision.

The Brotherhood is an international organization consisting of powerful and clever individuals who want to overthrow the governments of Europe. Once they achieve that first step, they plan to follow up by taking charge and becoming a global force. The targeted governments know the goal of the Brotherhood and try to counter their enemy's moves through dedicated people working behind the scenes.

No one detests the Brotherhood more than Mycroft Holmes, the older brother of the famous private detective, does. He recently learns the Brotherhood, which has been absent from England for quite a while, has set in motion a scheme to gain entrance on English soil. At a time that Mycroft needs to remain at full alert, he is beset by conflicting problems that pull him into different directions. He knows in his gut that the Brotherhood is responsible for his troubles an also he must stop them if he can.

Quinn Fawcett turns his hero into a mysterious person with complex depths and an incisive intelligence. Mycroft is James Bond turned M, a spymaster operating in the deepest shadows. THE SCOTTISH PLOY includes an excellent mystery filled with numerous twists and red herrings that continually fool readers who never know what will happen next. The novel provides insight into Mycroft's psyche that in turns allows the audience to understand his patriotic fervor. This is a great entry in fantastic series.

Harriet Klausner

Originally Broadcast On the CBC during 1968
Sherlock Holmes- Henry Comor, Dr. Watson- Gerard Parkes, Barrymore-Gillie Fenwick,
Heed the Baskerville family legend of the Hound: avoid the moors in those hours of the night when the powers of evil are exalted. Every Baskerville that has lived in the family home since the Legend began has met with a violent death. Dr. Mortimer writes to the one man that can help him, Sherlock Holmes, to exorcise the "Legend of the Hound" that plagues the Baskervilles. This radio adaptation of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's masterpiece traces Sherlock Holmes' adventure of superstition and revenge on the barren, gloomy moors in this thrilling mystery.

The first in Scenario Productions' "The Adventures Of Sherlock Holmes" series and taken from the Archives of CBC Radio, this superbly presented radio adventure theater production of The Hound Of The Baskervilles is a multicast presentation of a classic Sherlock Holmes story. This two audio cassette audio book has a two hour running time and is enhanced with music and sound effects for the perfect "theater of the mind" listening experience. This radio theater production of The Hound Of The Baskervilles is enthusiastically recommended for all Sherlock Holmes fans and would make a very popular addition to school and community library audio book collections.

"The Hound of the Baskervilles" ranks as the most famous and also the best of the four Sherlock Holmes novels. It is the first Holmes novel I read as a child, and the combination of ancient curse, foreboding moor, and modern danger kept me turning the pages.

The BBC has once again done a masterful job of adapting the novel to the format of radio drama. When I first stumbled on to the BBC Holmes series, I thought Clive Merrison to be a scandalous over-actor, but going back and rereading some of the Holmes stories for the first time in decades shows that Merrison, of all the portrayers of Holmes, just might have gotten the oddball genius most nearly right. Holmes had a histrionic streak which caused him to keep his deductions secret until he could reveal them in the most sensational fashion possible, and Merrison captures this quirk of Holmes' character perfectly.

"The Hound" is unique among the Holmes novels because for a large part of the mystery, Holmes' character is offstage, appearing only at the last moment to bring events to a hair-raising denouement. Holmes' joint penchants for secrecy and sensation almost bring his client to grief, but all's well that ends well. This radio play begins, continues, and ends very well.

"To call this CD only a 'reading' of the classic Sherlock Holmes story of 'Silver Blaze' would be to devalue the beauty of this performance. Although you may have heard recordings of the Sherlock Holmes work read before with distance and haughty affectation, none of that is present in Mr. Davies storytelling performance. This CD features one man, many voices and a hefty portion of talent. This performance is fresh, approachable and inviting." -Storyteller.net Reviews

If you enjoy the intrigue of Sherlock Holmes, you are in for a real treat listening to David Davies vibrant and incredible rendition. Looking forward to future "readings" by D. Davies. You will too, once you've experience this exciting reading.

Dave Davies dramatic rendition of this Arthur Conan Doyle, Sherlock Holmes classic tale is well worth a listen. Dave's obvious talent for dramatic reading comes through beautifully and the production quality is excellent. Hopefully David will not stop with just this one but will continue right through the entire cannon. If you like listening to "a good read" Silver Blaze is highly recommended.

Emotional Toxic Shock Syndrome, or PTSD, thought by many to exist only in situations where extreme conditions cause children to fall victim to the illness characterized by its now well defined symptoms, is now a nearly universal phenomenon that goes largely unrecognized in its many variations. The interests of children would be best served by making the connection between violence, neglect and trauma that forms the foundation of PTSD, the perpetual kind, that undermines adult potential and leaves its victims vulnerable to and the most probable outcome of any and all "emotional overload" setbacks in childhood we tend to ignore or dismiss as unfortunate influences. PTSD, rarely the first inquiry (and rarely examined) as the most probable diagnosis of children caught in domestic conflict, or those troubled, or in trouble, is a constant and continuous affliction in modern society where family conflict is "nearly presumed" as ordinary occurrences. Diagnosed with a myriad of "other" less likely performance-undermining illnesses, it is far easier to medicate, counsel, and address anything but the real source of their problems, the desperate situations out of which their troubles come. Medication, inappropriate ridicule or punishment and inadequate counseling insures circuitous examination that prevents the real diagnosis and the real resolution of their problems, often leaving us wondering why they "cannot be reached," or foolishly justifying the compounding of social and educational dysfunction laid upon them, and further crippling them for life ignoring all forms of social conscience due to our own neglect and ignorance. Failing to recognize that orphans, or orphan-like children are not likely to receive the remedial steps for recovery, and that adoptees are actually former orphans with unaddressed impact can only be detrimental to wellness. Continuing conflict among the almost-orphaned is little better. All reside in varying states and levels of PTSD which do not disappear with age but become buried within the makeup of the individual further complicating the healing and health of those who suffer, or once suffered the conditions that caused it. Recognizing the realities and necessities of treatment should be a first concern and the first step in diagnosis for any child, or any adult. Awareness is always the key to understanding how illness becomes health in the non-physical sciences, a.k.a., the world of emotional, mental and cognitive health. More discussion is needed, not silence.

This book is absolutely perfect for helping children who have experienced trauma understand their feelings, consciously and subconsciously. The story is straight forward about how sometimes we try to hide from the scary feelings created by trauma and how we may act out because of our trying to suppress those feelings. It also gives children an entre' into how to handle these feelings while not telling them that everything will go back to the way it was. Spectacular! Probably the best child's self-help book I've read in a long time.

This is a wonderful book for teachers or parents to use with younger children. It uses a fun character to show different emotions that children have after witnessing or being a part of something that is tramatic to them. This could be their parents fighting, divorce, abuse, etc. That is what is so wonderful about this book; it does not tell what the character witnessed. As a result of this, it can apply to a number of situations. This book also helps children to realize that it helps to talk about what is bothering them. This is a must read!

In my 16 years of existence, I have read the complete Sherlock Holmes 4 times, yet they still continue to amaze me. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was a genius, and it shows through his whole series. This book combines 4 of the many great mysteries that make the Holmes legend live on. Definitely worth much more than the 80 cents!

I have read the Complete Works of Sherlock Holmes and The Adventure of the Dancing Men and Other Sherlock Holmes Stories and in all his stories he reveals that marvelous skill of deduction through keen observation. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle is showing us through his writing how much information you can get about a person, place or thing just by observing it. I was amazed as to how he was able to discipher the code of the dancing men. Before he reveals the answer you should try to figure it out because it is possible.

Two oral practices flourished in antebellum America: the lecture (or sermon) and the conversation. Lectures, such as Emerson's "The American Scholar" and sermons, such as the abolitionist sermons of Henry Ward Beecher, are well-known examples of this era. But it was also known as the Golden Age of Conversation, and its greatest practitioner was generally agreed to be Oliver Wendell Holmes, Senior.

Holmes was considered an important American writer until the 1920s when he was excised from the American canon by the modernists. They depicted him as willfully provincial, and elitist. What those critics failed to understand was that the Autocrat is also a comic pose, and that Holmes is making sport of everyone, including elitists. Holmes' democratic view of conversation as an open, free-wheeling discourse where anyone could join the Autocrat at his table, as long as they enlivened the conversation, ran counter to the views of his more elitist friends in Boston's Saturday Club in Boston. Holmes loved to talk, and his love for talk made him a democrat, or perhaps a true republican.

His Autocrat is a many sided character: stern and foolish, admonitory and celebratory, a polymorph who will don any temporaty mask necessary to keep the conversation alive. Holmes' playful metaphorical imagination is also a revelation. His gift for translating complex ideas into homey metaphors, aphorisms, and similes is nothing short of miraculous. In the words of another seriously comic American whom I'm sure Holmes would have delighted in, the Autocrat "floats like a butterfly, stings like a bee."

The Autocrat of the Breakfast table begins "in media res," in the middle of a conversation, with the Autocrat attempting to set the rules for conversation at his table. They are generous rules, but even they are open to sabotage by his tablemates at the boarding house. He begins by banning "facts" from his table as impediments to conversation, (a condition that should prevail on today's too numerous current event talking head shows. But I, like the Autocrat, digress).

Here's how the Autocrat starts: "I was just going to say, when I was interrupted, that one of the many ways of classifying minds is under the head of arithmetical and algebraical intellects. All economical and practical wisdom is an extension of the following arithmetical formula: 2 + 2 = 4. Every philosophical proposition has the more general character of the expression a + b = c. We are mere operatives, empirics, and egoists, until we learn to think in letters instead of figures." "They all stared. There is a divinity student lately come among us to whom I commonly address remarks like this. "

In other words, as Gibian says in his marvelous OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES AND THE CULTURE OF CONVERSATION: [The Autocrat] only asks us to study his beliefs the way a pragmatist would study the doctrines of any religion: "I don't want you to believe anything I say; I only want you to to try to see what makes me believe it." How refreshing in this age of factoids and statisticoids recited with rancor and ideological certitude, to hear the Autocrat and his tablemates at the boarding house attempting to fashion a democracy through and by their conversation. Nowadays all we have are the unironic Autocrats, control freaks like John McLaughlin, Ted Koppel, Rush Limbaugh, and that guy on FOX whose name I have, pleasantly, forgotten.

Listening to the Autocrat you can almost hear American singing. It's not exactly Walt Whitman's America, but it's still America in the hopeful, experimental antebellum era, and thus a good antidote to the cold technocratic chatter and lukewarm public relations cant we are showered with in this hypermediated century.

The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table is a demonstration of New England civility in the 1850s. I believe it went through more than 50 editions by the end of the nineteenth century, so it must have been very widely read at one time. The book is packed with amazing observations. Holmes takes the time to wonder why the sense of smell is the quickest path to memory. He rails against puns in a way that is better than punning. He points out human flaws and praises examples of good living. Trees come alive, through prosaic description and poetic flights. Would you like to go back to the 1850s and have a conversation with a Boston intellectual? Here's your chance. There are many old copies of this book sitting around, but it's nice that it's come back into print (again).... (it's also a quiet love story, by the way)

The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table is a demonstration of New England civility in the 1850s. I believe it went through more than 50 editions by the end of the nineteenth century, so it must have been very widely read at one time. The book is packed with amazing observations. Holmes takes the time to wonder why the sense of smell is the quickest path to memory. He rails against puns in a way that is better than punning. He points out human flaws and praises examples of good living. Trees come alive, through prosaic description and poetic flights. Would you like to go back to the 1850s and have a conversation with a Boston intellectual? Here's your chance. There are many old copies of this book sitting around, but it would be nice if it came back into print.... (it's also a quiet love story, by the way)

The imaginary scene is a boarding house breakfast. Conversation is dominated by a lively gent who's seen it all. He holds forth on women, school, philosophy, rowing, interrupted from time to time with verses such as the Deacon's Masterpiece. It's witty, poignant, and rightfully a classic.

Great book! Lot's of history on Kombucha. There are some pretty neat recipies for cooking with the brewed tea. The extremly detailed but easy to follow directions, complete with photos, make brewing your own tea a cinch. If you can't successfully brew your own tea with this book, you probably can't tie your own shoes either.

The ideas in The Book of Kombucha are so easy and a lot of fun! The recipes are especially fun to try. It's easy and fun to read! I reccommend anything from Beth Ann Petro Roybal.