Castle-on-the-Hill ends with mystery: who was the Ragdoll man? who lit the tower on the strange night years ago? why was the Castle of Tremannec abandoned and empty?

In "The Treasure of Tremannec" M. C. Campbell picks up the tale takes the reader from Gwenrande to Sant Malou -- around and across 15th century Brittany. A great read for all.

Adventure of this kind is good for any 10 to 90 year old reader - it involves kinship and friendship, youth & aged, good & bad, beauty and malevolence. When you let yourself fall into this fantasy you find yourself believing in "the Doom" and in solving the riddle: "No living man; no woman born / Shall enter here and live 'til morn."

This is a very creative and descriptive story. As the story unfolds, four children go on a great adventure as you follow them through Brittany many, many years ago. You are drawn into the ad venture as you go around France following the children, an old cobbler, and their newly found friends. I strongly recomend this book. You won't be able to put it down!

Bonnie Campbell Hill and Cynthia Ruptik have done it once again! This book is filled with wonderful rubrics, both primary and intermediate, explanations for parents and teachers, and a wealth of authentic assessment ideas. I would highly recommend people spending the money on this valuable book and CD rom. I look forward to the next three books in the series.

Classroom Based Assessments is the first book of a four-part series that uses the image of a puzzle to conceptualize assessments and their uses. If you've bought assessment books before and always found the ideas were good but not something that you could regularly implement in the classroom, then this is a book that will pleasantly surprise you. It addresses the use of a variety of assessments for all content areas. Of special interest is its focus on using assessments that inform your instruction, are practical and manageable. Following each chapter, you'll find a section on Professional Growth and Recommended Readings. The authors recognize the many teachers who assisted in the creation of the many forms included - roughly one-third of the book has blackline masters of the various assessment forms. Lastly, the book comes with a CD-ROM that has all of the assessment forms in PC and Macintosh platforms as well as in the Acrobat Reader ".pdf" format. The other three books in the "Corner Pieces Series" are Developmental Continuums, Student Portfolios, and Reporting Student Growth. If the other three books are anything like the first, Classroom Based Assessments, then they'll definately be worth reading!

This book has been so helpful both by giving terrific ideas about assessing and evaluating students, and also by providing easy to use forms. I would strongly recommend it to all elementary educators who are interested in reevaluating the way they assess students.

Glenn Tompkins wrote this book from his heart. He told stories of how hard it was to survive in the 1930's and 1940's on Crowley's Ridge in Southeast Missouri. The struggles of that time made the family unit strong there was work to be done and you did it. The family never gave up. After getting the book from Glenn's son and daughter in law I found I could not put it down. The first day I read 95 pages. The true stories make you laugh and then cry and I feel I know the Tompkins family personally. I would recommend this book to anyone and I plan to pass it on to my family members to read. Thanks to Glenn for a job well done.

In the 1930's and 1940's, a young boy named Glenn Tompkins and his family lived in a house on a farm north of Campbell, Mo., on a ridge called "Riddle Hill," so-named because a family named Riddle had once also lived there. Glenn and his family struggled to make ends meet, and lived a life quite similar to most of us farm kids who also lived on or off that ridgeline which is generally known as "Crowley's Ridge."

After Glenn retired, he began to think about writing about some of the events in his life, there on the farm. In 1994, Glenn started writing short stories about his life on Riddle Hill. Dr. Frank Nickell, Director of Regional History at Southeast Missouri State University in Cape Girardeau, read one of the stories and encouraged Glenn to continue recording the stories, for eventual publication as a book.

As Glenn wrote, around 130 of these short stories were published in a local Missouri weekly newspaper, the Campbell Citizen, from December 1994 until August 13, 1997. I was working part-time at the newspaper during that period (until February 1997), and it fell my duty to type most of those stories.

Now I should warn you that Glenn has the powerful capability to interject strong emotions into his writing, both humor and sadness. I am not ashamed to say that many times, as I was typing Glenn's stories, I had to laugh; and sometimes I had to cry, like when his old dog Queenie died, or his faithful horse Prince died -- and, certainly, when Glenn told about how a newfound friend was run over and killed by a truck on a road in front of Glenn's house, before Glenn had known the lad for even an hour.

Living on a farm in those days, we lived with life, as we saw baby calves born into the world. We also lived with death, as we slaughtered hogs and cattle to feed ourselves. That is just the way it was in those days, on a farm.

Well, over the years, Glenn recalled lots of things for us, like how hot it was to have to sleep in the attic of his house at night, during summertime. And he told us about the ghost that his brother thought lived up in the attic, too. And about the fortune-teller who told about the two pots of money which were supposed to be buried on the farm. The fortune-teller also told Glenn's father, Van, that they would be picking money off the trees on that farm. Glenn's father just laughed.

But when Van Tompkins stopped trying to raise cotton on that old red clay soil, and planted a peach orchard, they DID pick money from the trees, and the Tompkins family could live a little better from then on.

Well, I'd better not tell too much about Glenn's stories, but I will say that Glenn has not only created a great historical book which "tells it like it was" back in those days, but he has told the stories of hundreds of boys and girls whose families were just barely able to eke out a living on the little farms around here, in the 1920's through the 1940's.

The stories were published in a soft-cover 274-page book in May of 1997, and Glenn now keeps busy at book-signings, around the St. Louis area (where he lives) and elsewhere.

I am glad Glenn has written those stories, and I am proud to say that these two old farm boys have finally met up, and are now friends! -- Hal Miller

Mr. Tompkins' book is a great read! It was even more special to me, though, because my Grandpa Tot was one of the "O'Neals on the next farm over". Their house is in the background of the photo on page 269. Some of the stories, like the one about the "Wild Man of Crowley's Ridge" I can remember from my childhood. Others, though, are a fresh glimpse into history. I drive by the Old Tompkins Farm every day on my way to work. Now, I can not help but to try to visualize what it was like when Mr. Tompkins was growing up, there in the house on Riddle Hill.

I'm finding it difficult to be terrified by fiction these days. Nazareth Hill is entertaining, the psychological excalation somewhat fun, and its elusive gore-ghosts neat to watch out for. Its conclusion is inevitable--though not down to the least detail, nevertheless inevitable. Some of the metaphors, especially the more obvious spider one, feel ocassionally forced...the inevibility of once being trapped, eventually undergoing the torture of desanguination--i.e., you will die...The language in this book is pretty smart, pretty formal--sometimes not stage-shy enough.

This is the story of Nazareth Hill. The ghosts are incidental in a sense to human psychological makeup. And this view leads to my primary criticism: fleshless ghosts reign a-okay, but other characters could be more fleshed out. After all, the more critical demons reside in their own hearts and heads, not in the walls of Nazareth Hill.

Ramsey Campbell's Nazareth Hill has most of the elements of a Caitlin Kiernan comic book. A haunted mansion sets the scene for an atypical haint story, where the protagonist is a teenaged punk/goth chick (Amy) who is tragically misunderstood by everyone, including her increasingly-bizarre fundamentalist Christian father (Oswald). So far, it doesn't sound that atypical, but the differences are in the details and language.

The story is rather surreal. The religious school Amy attends is chock-full of teachers with good moral hygiene and strange grammar. Odd word choices occur throughout the novel in the conversations between Amy and her boyfriend (they're prone to uttering polysyllabic and biting one-word commentary). The strangest cadence belongs to Oswald, who speaks in an increasingly stilted and formal manner when he's not desperately reciting simplistic children's prayers. At first, the word choice made it difficult for me to immerse myself in the book, but after a while, it felt appropriate, although never natural. I'm certain this unnatural language is wholly intentional.

Nazareth Hill is a story of mental illness, asylum history, and a dysfunctional family par excellence. None of the characters are likeable, but I could feel empathy developing, despite my personal dislike for Amy. The book has a perfect haunted house story ambience, and gathers creepiness as it goes, something like a woolly spider egg tottering down a dust hill.

This is only the second Campbell book I've read and already he's one of my favorite authors. I find him fabulously able at writing suspenseful scenes that make me cringe (in a good way!). "Nazareth Hill" caught me unawares -- a rare, "slow-boil" horror novel in this time of easy, in-your-face, bombastic scares. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

"The Fruit of The Tree",Edith Wharton's third novel,remains the most misunderstood of all her writings.It has usually been criticized,even by those who admire it,as "brokenbacked" in structure and unsatisfying with its inclusion of the seemingly contoversial subjects of labor reform and euthanasia in a work that examines marriage and satirizes the idle class.This is primarily the reason "The Fruit of The Tree" has not been published in ninety years;hopefully,readers will rediscover a memorable book with its fascinating portrait of turn of the century America with themes which are still timely.It tells the story of a young nurse,whose intelligence and maturity attracts a brilliant young doctor working to reform deplorable labor conditions for the poor.Despite the nurse's admiration for the doctor's progressivism and her growing love for the doctor's person,he becomes infatuated with the gentle elegance of a beautiful and rich society girl-the nurse's best friend.The society girl supports the doctor's work financially to the great animus of her friends and advisers and eventually becomes smitten with him.They marry,only to discover their incompatibility when the doctor's new schemes for reform are baulked by his wife's love of comfort and security.The doctor by this time realizes that the nurse loves him and that he reciprocates.He argues with his wife and they seperate;the wife left alone breaks her spine in a riding accident and being attended by her friend,the nurse,begs her to kill her.The nurse seeing that her case is desperate(this is a century ago,remember)and influenced by the doctor's support of euthanasia-does so.The nurse falls under suspicion with the public and even the doctor suspects her of killing his wife because of her love for him.They marry,but she is haunted by the fact that despite her protestations of innocence,her husband tacitly believes her culpable."The Fruit of The Tree",subtly depicts the price one pays for following conscience and being ahead of one's time.The novel is not "about" labor reform or euthanasia but uses these to show how today's controversial ideas are usually tomorrow's accepted facts;that the progress of our civilization,accepted as a matter of course, is at the cost of the toil and suffering of others.Bitter is the fruit,indeed.I cannot rate,"The Fruit of The Tree" among Edith Wharton's greatest works,however.The style of the book while good,never reaches the sustained brilliance which she achieves in "The House of Mirth","The Custom of The Country" and "The Age of Innocence",works of which the prose is unrivalled in English fiction. Nevertheless it is a fine novel,and deserves recognition for its well integrated artistry. END

this is undoubtly an intresting book,but its main problem is the weaknesses in growth theory.furthermore,i believe it should be improoved in its explanations and the depth of the knowledge it provides.concluding,it is an excellent book for a begginer level,but not an intermidiate one

this book focused on certain economics issue and is excellent for readers with an intermediate knowledge on macroeconomics. however it does not have much graphical explanations

This book is a page-turning thriller with reasonably decent writing. Characters are a little more than cardboard, but not much. Regrettably, the plot centers around the "science" of astrology, which for most people will render it ridiculous and boring, notwithstanding the use of standard devices to create tension and pacing. Fine for a lazy afternoon on a day when you've nothing else to do. Otherwise, avoid it.

This is a fast paced, page turning thriller. A wholly plot driven book, there is little character development. So, if one is looking for a literary feast, one should probably look elsewhere. If one is interested in a book with an interesting plot and a somewhat surprising ending, this book fits the bill.

In the small town of Bensonville, the unthinkable happens. Everyone suddenly seems to be striken with illnesses that turn inexplicably fatal. Within hours the town is decimated, as if it were a plague ridden, medieval town. No one knows why. The few survivors are stunned. One of these is Jess Barrett, Rhodes Scholar and Ph.D. He teams up with presidential aide, Micah Maruyama, along with a team of renowned medical doctors to discover the cause of this seeminly inexplicable phenomenon. Enter beautiful and intelligent Vera Norman, a highly respected astrologer, who assists them in unraveling the mystery surrounding this epidemic. It turns out not to be a medical problem, but rather, something far more sinister and intriguing.

This book gets off to a running start and simply does not let up. It will appeal to those who enjoy Michael Crichton and Robin Cook novels. as well as to those who simply enjoy a good story.

Ignore what the other guy said. I really liked it. It was a book that you never wanted to put down . I am not much of a reader but I really enjoyed it.

This should have been a worthy tribute to SAC but its content has been badly let down by appalling standards of reproduction.

Schiffer books are not cheap and this one is no exception so it would be reasonable to hope that the highest standards of printing would prevail. Not so! There's hardly a pure black or white tone in the whole book - nothing but muddy greys. The colour shots (those that aren't faded overall to pink, that is) have tone reproduction that is harsh, contrasty and garish.

I've bought other Schiffer books and been happy with the print quality so this one came as a surprise and a big let-down. If you see this book on sale at half-price, save your money - it really doesn't deserve shelf space.

With only one other review I had to write and give my opinion. I had the opportunity to view this book at my local hobby shop. Because of the price I decided to look at Amazon - BUT - I found this book to be extremely interesting in its content. Being an old SAC crewdog, it brought back alot of great memories of a proud service and the people that made it work. Most of the photos were obviously taken by members of SAC while on duty. Not an easy task given the security measures we all had to follow. While it may not win any awards for its photography, I find the book to be accurate and a must have. I must admit that my preview of the book was only 90 minutes long. The owner asked if I was going to buy it because he wasn't operating a reading room. I'm sure once a copy is in my library my rating number will be a 5.

Photo history of SAC from being to end.... I saw many of the planes I worked and flew on in the book.... One of the best photo albums of planes I have ever seen..

We thought we had ordered the textbook, Microeconomics: Principles, Problems, and Policies by McConnell and Brue. This book however is Selected Material from Microeconomics. The Table of Contents is the same as the textbook, so this is really confusing. Be sure you get what you want.

Microeconomics by McConnell and Brue is a great text book. The explanation is very clear. I especially like the way they explain the graphs and concepts. It's very easy to understand. They give very good examples in each chapter. I use it for my class and I found the reading is very enjoyable. This textbook is definitely good for people who want to do self-study of microeconomics.