In the hilarious sequel to "My Brilliant Career" Sybylla Melvyn chronicles her continued dissatisfaction with life at 'Possum Gully and her attemtps to break free of 19th century convention. She sets out to write a book and ends up writing her autobiography, a work "seething with discontents and pain." To her surprise, the book is published and she becomes an overnight sensation. As Sybylla puts it, "girls from all over Australia wrote to tell me that I had expressed the innermost core of their hearts." Eager to escape her dreary life at home, Sybylla ventures to Sydney to be entertained by other writers, society people, and a host of would-be suitors. She describes every detail in her own brand of outrageous honesty, never afraid to poke fun at herself as well as those around her. Although "The End of My Career" is a work of fiction, it is based on events in the life of Stella Franklin aka Miles Franklin after her book "My Brilliant Career" was published. Both books are laugh-out-loud funny, brimming with insight and vitality, and breathtakingly evocative of a particular time and place: turn of the century Australia.

According to its title, the book compiles documents from 1933-1945, the era of Franklin D. Roosevelt, but the contents are strongly tilted toward the 1933-1941 period. Maybe that's justified, given Polenberg's clear focus on domestic social and political issues and given, of course, that the New Deal period consituted more years than World War II. But I felt more than a little disappointed by the brief treatment the war effort received. And the documents pertaining to the war focused largely on Japanese internment and the issue of bombing the concentration camps. These are both important topics and worthy of attention, particularly the latter which I fear is sometimes overlooked (and which is in many ways a telling issue). FDR's Four Freedoms speech is not included, nor the Atlantic Charter, nor the Pearl Harbor speech. The book would definitely have profited from inclusion of these documents and perhaps also of documents pertaining to strategy or military policy.

Nevertheless, the book has three strong points that make it worthwhile. One, Polenberg includes a wide variety of primary sources: speeches, photographs, Supreme Court decisions, letters, posters, poems, songs, press conferences, etc. The sources also come from a range of people, left and right, "large and small." This makes the book particularly useful as a teaching tool for showing students how to tackle primary documents of all types.

Two, in the book's imbalance lies its strongest element--it covers the Depression and the New Deal thoroughly, offering new perspectives and carving new dimensions. We hear from the Roosevelts, both Franklin and Eleanor. We read the views of writers John Steinbeck and Upton Sinclair, and of Roosevelt opponents Charles Coughlin and Huey Long. Administration officials provide their opinions on New Deal legislation (including the frequently ignored Federal Theatre Project). Dorothea Lange's photographs depict the misery and poverty of the Depression. Mexican-American, African-American, and Native American viewpoints also receive attention. Polenberg successfully draws documents to paint a multi-dimensional, in-depth portrait of the 1930s.

And three, Polenberg concludes with a fine bibliography for further reading on the various topics of spanned by the documents.

All in all, despite the weak coverage of World War II, the book is eminently useful for readers interested in the period and especially for teachers and students. Had Polenberg covered the war years in the same detail as the Depression/New Deal, this would be a thoroughly excellent sourcebook. Nevertheless, it is a worthwhile book and could function quite well in an AP history course, or as a complement to reading, say, David Kennedy's Freedom from Fear.

This lovely little book is full of much information on fairy realms, fairy food, protection against fairies, fairy plants & animals, fairy loves & abductions, fairy days & festivals, and much more. It is written in the competant yet down-to-earth style that Ms. Franklin is known for. This is one of Capall Baans few books that doesn't contain a lot of typos, which is also a plus! But I think one of the most charming things about this book is the lovely illustrations; they're all in black & white, but they are still wonderful. Most are old Victorian prints & motifs that really lend even more magic to this already magical subject.

Like most books from this publisher, the price is a bit steep for a paperback. For this price, I would have liked to have seen some color plates. But, I don't mind paying a bit more for Anna Franklin's work. I recommend this book to faery/fairy lovers everywhere!

This book is pretty good. There's two new kids in Bayport, Ed and Peter Mason. They're stronger and smarter than Frank and Joe, and they're trying to charm Callie and Vanessa. Plus there's a multimillion dollar jewelry exhibit in town with a broken security sytem.

I enjoied this book. It was a little short but other than that, great! I found all I ever wanted to know about FDR. I would love to see more books like this.

...A young duo of gumshoes, Frank and Joe Hardy are called upon by Grant Tucker, a hot rod show's promoter, to crack a case of extortion and on-purpose accidents caused by a mysterious man in black. There is just one problem with this case, there are to many suspects who all have motives for causing the accidents and for needing the extortion money, a cool quarter million. Frank and Joe have to crack the case because the accidents are getting more and more dangerous.

The characters in the story are like all Hardy Boys characters. They are all fairly weird but fairly believable, which gives the stories a human property. All the hot rodders are full of them selves, the truckers act like truckers, and all of them baby their vehicles like they would their own children. The chief mechanic was a hot rodder until he crashed and hurt his leg, and now he's a bitter man. Another thing about the Hardy Boys books is the language that everyone can understand. There aren't a lot of big words. This book was just perfect in how long it was. It had enough details to give the reader a clear picture of what was going on, without doing so much that they described every little thing.

I would recommend this book to anyone who likes mysteries. It was a very elusive book, in that I didn't have a clue who the extortionist or the person causing the accidents were. That made the book very easy to read, because I was waiting for the Hardys to crack the case, which never happened until the very end.

In this work, Griffin provides an excellent and brief summary of the major issues debated by historians surrounding antebellum reform. The first third of the book is spent in an insightful discussion surrounding the nature and definition of reform. He explores some of the problems encountered when historians portray reformers as the reformers portrayed themselves. Ultimately he suggests that reform be analyzed as a part of human nature and not be limited to the study of particular groups. The middle third of this work discusses the varieties of reform. Griffin examines the methods and goals of the reformers. While finding some common ground in their ultimate goals, Griffin concludes that no single theme emerges from the study of antebellum reform. Variety and diversity are its nature. Griffin concludes his work by exploring the successes and failures of reform. Accusing historians of finding in antebellum reform what they wanted to find, Griffin declares that true understanding of the reformers will be gained only if we do not care how well the reformers served their subjects and the nation. While this work is now outdated, Griffin's insights remain valuable. His calls for more synthesis in this field have, for the most part, gone unheeded. In a field of with little historiography, I recommend this book as an excellent introduction to the historical scholarship (through 1967) of antebellum reform.

Murder and attempted murder fills this Hardy Boys Casefiles adventure. This book is good for anyone between the ages of 9 and 13.

Need a good overview of key Business and Financial statements? Look no further. This book is clear, concise, and precise. Great for people just getting their feet wet in the finance world or for those who need a refresher.

The book is interesting reading. The plot is believable and fast paced. It could have had more development of the people involved and also did not have to have a romantic interest, but all thrillers seem have the plot element.