I rated it a "one" only because there is no zero or minus option. We just returned from three weeks in France and in our opinion this cute little book was nearly useless when trying to decode menus. We survived thanks to a combination of English-speaking wait-staffs and Rick Steves' French Phrase Book. The large number of omitted items is forgiveable--after all, this is a small book. What dooms this book is its unwieldy organization. Seven main sections, several of which are further subdivided, make the book a navigational nightmare. It is frustrating to have to wade through it page by page only to find that what you are looking for is not there. The book should be organized like Larousse Gastronomique--one global alphabetical list with pertinent cross-references. Also, we believe that the authors should actually visit Paris and Provence to observe the changes in menu lingo that has occurred since 1971 when the book was compiled. I say don't buy this book--instead, use the money to buy a bottle of wine. You'll get a lot more value from the wine.

No matter how well (or how poorly) you may speak French, this little book is an indispensable addition to your travel kit. It can help you navigate the dizzying varieties of delicious sauces, the hundreds of preparation styles, the regional specialities, and keep you from ordering kidneys when you thought you were asking for veal cutlets...Helpful pages, too, on money, numbers, basic traveller's phrases. Plus it's small enough to be consulted with discretion at cafes or bistros...and don't forget how helpful it would be for ordering with confidence in your favorite French restaurant back home.

The specialized terminology of French cuisine is rarely found in any pocket dictionary. I carry this little pocket guide not only in France, but also when dining in authentic French restaurants in the USA.

If you know little or no French, you can consult this guide and the menus posted outside most French restaurants, and decide what you're going to order before you even go inside.

The unfortunate use of "entrée" for "main course" may lead to confusion outside the USA.

The CD version of this book is very easy to use and the search function is wonderful. HOWEVER there is no way to copy text off the screen so you can paste it into other applications. I find this very frustrating and a big disappointment.

The CD version of "The Origin of Species" suffers from the same problem. Beware.

This was not the best choice for listening to in the car: too much tedious detail, and I found my mind wandering too often. Still, it was interesting, and I learned a lot.

Darwin was a promising but obscure student at Cambridge when he was suggested for the trip. By the time he returned, his reputation was made. It's not hard to see why: this book is packed with careful observations and attention to detail, as well as thoughtful analyses of topics from species extinction (though not origins at this stage) to the formation of coral atolls. Darwin is clearly very well-read and makes frequent references to the noted authorities of the time, sometimes supporting them and sometimes disagreeing.

I hadn't actually realized that the voyage of the Beagle was as long as it was. I saw it as a year or so, going from England to South America and back again. It was in fact a five-year, round-the-world cruise, covering the Pacific Islands, New Zealand, Australia, and numerous other locales as well as the well-known South America and the Galapagos.

My favorite parts are actually the more human anecdotes. Darwin is less than enchanted with New Zealand and Australia, and is not afraid of saying so, noting that most of the citizens are ex-convicts. My favorite single anecdote, though, is about the South American governor who is so dedicated to the rule of law that he has himself put in the stocks when he violates one of his own laws. Darwin also indicates his dislike of slavery and admits to feeling shame when he accidentally causes a male slave to flinch when he makes a threatening gesture to him. So much for that creationist conceit.

There are two appendices not written by Darwin. One is a summary of the orders given to Captain Fitzroy about the mission of the Beagle, which is very telling of the naval issues of the time. It focuses on getting accurate locations of known ports as well as the possible finding of new ones. As a Hornblower fan (and therefore with some interest in naval trivia), I found this very interesting.

The other appendix is Captain Fitzroy's attempt to construe their geological observations to be evidence of the Noachian Deluge. This is not on the same intellectual level as Darwin's writings, and I found it mostly of intellectual interest as evidence that creationist arguments have changed hardly at all in the last 175 years.

All in all, it's an interesting book and a classic of natural history, though not something I'd recommend listening to unless one has a passion for the subject.

Remember this says "Journal" and that is what it is. It is his first parson adventures on and off the Beagle. He even includes stories about the people on the ship, the ship's life, and maintenance. He is always going ashore and venturing beyond the ship charter to go where no Englishman has gone before. He makes friends with tyrants and the down trodden. Once, to get an animal to come to him, he lay on his back and waved his arms and legs in the air. Whatever you do, do not turn your back on him. He is always knocking something on the head and taking it back for study. It is fun trying to match the old names for places with the new.

Maybe it was the writer's fault, but this story just wasn't presented the way I thought it would be. It turned out to be more of a travelogue of this little neighborhood than individual stories about the ladies themselves. I couldn't finish it.

This book was not what I expected. I was looking for either a story about each individual women or how they all interacted. The book just seems to jump from one story to the next. All the names were so similar that it was hard to keep track of who was from each family. I never did quite get how they all interacted. I know that they all knew each other from living on Troy Hill, but other than that.....

That being said, these women were all amazing. They did was has to be done and didn't complain. In reading this it was easy to see my own grandparents and understand a little better why they do the things they do....why relationships and family is so important. The last chapter kind of made the book. It talks about the vitures of friendship and how these women have been friends for so long that they wouldn't know what to do without the other. It is rare to find a friendship like that in today's society. Friends and Family are the world to these women....maybe we can all learn from that

The Women of Troy Hill chronacles the lives of a group of women who have lived on Troy Hill, not far from Pittsburg for most , if not all their lives. It follows family's immigration to this country, settling down, and the changing roles of women in America throughout the 1900's. These women are strong, faith-filled and examples of lives well lived. This is a delightful book, and a tribute to these wonderful women.

and so they're back.

Seeing Sir Josse and Abbess Helewise in action again was the high point of this interesting story. Building on the fondness that started in FORTUNE LIKE THE MOON, author Alys Clare introduces a heightened degree of sexual tension between these two characters.

In this story, a man is killed in the ancient forest near the Abbey. The Sheriff writes it up to the 'forest people,' mythical dwellers who still worship the goddess and have strange rites they carry out with the full moon. Helewise doesn't believe the Sheriff has properly investigated and asks for Josse's help.

Because ASHES OF THE ELEMENTS has more to do with the forest than with the medieval setting, it lacks some of the historical detail that made FORTUNE LIKE THE MOON so interesting. The larger problem, for me at least, was that Josse and Helewise really didn't do much to solve the mystery. Here, their powers of observation that proved so critical in FORTUNE barely opened the doors. They relied on luck and psychic connections to finally discover who did the killing.

ASHES OF THE ELEMENTS is a fine novel, but it lacks the punch that the earlier FORTUNE provided.

she just gets better and better. Read this if you like Ellis Peters.

The second book in this wonderfully refreshing historical series is even better than the first.

There is a cracking plot (concerning the "forest people"), which moves along at a fair pace. It's interesting and very different. There is also, as another reader mentioned, a very definite sense of "otherworldliness" to the plot. Through the intense beliefs of the tree people, you start to somewhat acknowledge the possibility that maybe there is something in it after all...And this adds yet another layer of mystery and intrigue to the plot, above that of the actual crimes committed.

the two lead cahracters are great and interesting. they are well developed, and their talents and deductive skills compliment each other well. They are a brilliant team. And, as well, Alys Clare REALLY knows her stuff about accurate historical detail. All of it seems very authentic.

This is an exciting, intriguing book, with a great plot and some nice likeable characters. Definitely reccomended.

I read this book in an 'images of women' course, and i found the title very interesting....but little else. I felt that this book was predictable and, while it contains a nice story, did not relete well to me. It was dense and hard to follow.

Wistful and full of longing, Clare unflinchingly addresses the contradictions of this human incarnation. She grew up in a village of loggers who cut down the forests they know and love better than any urban environmentalists do. She is indebted to her father for teaching her masculinity and construction skill, yet he also ... her repeatedly. She loves to hike and build, even as she does not want to attempt to transcend her disability and try to be something she's not. She is an eloquent writer, flipping off a childhood misdiagnosis of mental ... . She moved away to find ... community in the city and discovered that, while urban liberals talk the talk, ... often find more real acceptance in cozy rural towns. She does not know if she is man or woman. She wants to love her body but does not know how to begin.

Clare's anecdotes and theories are rather loosely connected. To bring it together, I thought this book asked the question between the lines, "How can we save what we love?" Part of Clare's answer is that we must begin by being honest about what we love and what we hate, and about how we sometimes love and hate the same thing (for example, pornographic images of a paraplegic woman, finally represented as attractive, but only because she fits the paradigm of a white, blonde sex object). Another part of her answer is that we must begin to love the only body we will ever have: our raped, transgendered, disabled, strong, anxious, and proud bodies.

This was the first book on disability theory I have ever read, and it made me want to read more. I liked how Clare worked with with another theorists' idea that "impairment" refers to physical limitation, while "disability" is caused by society's rejection, ignorance, and discrimination against people with physical impairments. She did a good job of illustrating the difference in her own life. Impairment is why she cannot reach the summit of most mountains; disability is why people stare at her in the grocery store. Her unquenchable desire to reconnect with the sensuality, love, and lust that is her birthright inspires me to work on reconnecting with my sexuality as well.

Clare writes her autobiography in word paintings. Clare explores the multiple differences of disability, queerness, transgenderism, abuse, socioeconomic class, and gender with reflection that empowers rather than victimizes or blames. While considering how the history around her has shaped the world and affected who she is, she considers how she has shaped the world. Clare refuses to collapse the intricate complexities of life into something more managable.

Hucksters of prophecies usually make their sales by scaring what wits their customers still have entirely out of them. So, this book stands out from the rest by stroking the terrified reader with reassurances that all is not so bad as it might seem. Of course, this is the usual thing with the Biblical and other religious crowds, who all hope to make it past the fiery Millenium, but freaked out New Agers may want to hear some good tidings, too.
A bonus is the book's inclusion of several, not just one, traditions of hocus-pocus. So several word-of-mouth and late-night-television groups may be drawn to this title.
I'd recommend it for the paranormal collection in high schools, public libraries or podunk colleges, where stuff like this gets checked out permanently or ripped off all the time and the staff need to keep something on the shelf.

Having never read any of Elizabeth's books before, and being relatively aware of St Germaine and his wondrous work on this planet, this book jumped out at me. Yes, I agree with the other reviewees, that it is a helpful book to enable us to 'relax' somewhat and know that all is indeed not doom and gloom. Power to the people could never be as important at this time that we are presently in. However, there is a group of chapters which I would have to whole heartedly disagree with and if I didn't know any better, they appear to have an agenda behind them.The Child's Perspective and a few of the following chapters from this one I personally found quite alarming in their content. There is no greater truth than your own, so take care when reading some of this, because at the end of the day it is only an opinion. Don't be afraid to feel and if all of her words ring true for you fantastic, but if they don't this is because this is Elizabeth's truth and not your own.

This is a very well-written and well-researched book, but most importantly, it gives us a very profound sense of hope by saying that prophecy is just a warning, it's not intended to panick people and make them buy tons of supply and just wait for the world to crumble down, but we actually can overcome it and make our destiny what we want it to be.

While I was reading this book I kept a piece of paper beside me and tore off a slip to mark every page that I had a question about a historical fact or internal logic. By the time I had finished the top of the book was a forest of little white scraps.

If you are a reader who likes books that are strong on the history or the mystery this book is not for you. It actually begins with an entertaining and nonserious look at Richard the Lionhearted, who has a bit of a publicity problem in England. His mother, in an effort to improve his image, had ordered the release of certain prisoners. Now a young nun was found slain in dramatic circumstances that suggest one of the freed prisoner's performed the heinous act and Richard needed someone to take a look at the situation at Hawkenlye Abbey. The someone he chose was Sir Josse, a knight he had known briefly as a young page, who just happened to be in the right place at the right time. Sir Josse, on the other hand, is not too pleased to be sent to England. Nevertheless, he goes.

Hawkenlye Abbey is a very unusual medieval institution. It is a double institution, with both monks and nuns under the control of the Abbess. But that's not what is so unusual about it. The surprising part is that 1) Sir Josse appears to walk as freely in and out of the nunnery as he would a manor house, 2) nuns appear to be creeping in and out at all hours of the night, without being noticed, and 3)the Abbess appears to have no problem having unchaperoned meetings with Sir Josse. Also they run a retirement home for old monks and nuns--one home for both it seems. (I have this irrisistable image of aged monks and nuns playing shuffleboard) They also run a reformatory for repentent prostitutes, who are reclaimed from their sinful life by becoming mothers. (Don't ask.) And my favorite was the hospital where a nun was helping a man learn to walk on a crutch. A poacher, explains the Abbess serenely, who lost his foot in a mantrap. I think we are in Disney World.

As for the mystery, Sir Josse appears to think that the state of the sole of a leather shoe worn by a body that has been prepared for burial, encoffined and left in a subterranean crypt for a couple of weeks in the heat of the summer would help his solve a mystery. He also takes a cast of a footprint using melted wax from candle ends. I suppose it is possible but I would wonder why since he knew who the footprint belonged to and rules of evidence were somewhat sketchy at the time. No chain of custody or best evidence rule then. Finally, my favorite, when Sir Josse (who is staying at the guesthouse) stumbles on a body, takes off his tunic to covers its face then rushes bare chested into the Abbess' presence.

The resolution of the mystery in certain ways is telegraphed rather broadly, in other ways definitely violates some of the rules of fair play. But that is for the reader to discover.

Sir Josse d'Acquin is sent by King Richard to investigate a murder at Hawkenlye Abbey, a crime that could put a cloud over his coronation, and a case of particular interest to his mother, Queen Eleanor. The setting is near Tonbridge, at a time when the town was a small village on the main road to London. Sir Josse teams up with Abbess Helewise to investigate and solve the mystery. The case opens up questions about arranged marriages, inheritances, and unrequited love. The investigation reveals surprises about relationships, motives, and actual events. The story is a tragedy for most secondary players, while Josse receives what is perhaps not an unexpected reward for his services.

Leave those old Edith Pargeter books languishing on the shelves. Forget Elizabeth Peters. Hide your cache of Paul Doherty books. Because here, my fellow readers, is the historical series to end all historical series'.

Alys Clare is a brilliant writer, and she wonderfully evokes all things historical about the period. We have no way of knowing whether her details are correct, but they FEEL right. Which is all that matters. The attitudes and events and feelings and details have a certain authenticity about them, which is great.

The plot is simple.....a young nun is found on the path outside an Abbey, her throat slit. Soon, another nun goes missing, and turns up dead. The Abess investigates, along with Sir Josse d-Acquin, friend of the King, who has been asked to inquire into the deaths too, in order to prove that the killer is not one of the fellons which the King recently gave pardon to in order to appease the people, and convince them of his goodwill.

The writing is sharp, and the two lead character (Josse and the Abbess Helewise are great) they are incredibly likeable and human, and they work very well together.

This series is incredibly fresh. The ideas are entirely original, and Clare frequently breaks through the accepted boundaries. She is a daring writer, not unwilling to try something new. the plots are original and interesting, the mysteries intriguing, and the solutions always realistic and satisfying. The resolution to this one comes with a nice amount of emotional impact...and to some could be very moving.

Excellent. And, the novels in this series only get better and better. (Following on from this are..."Ashes of the Elements"#2..."The Tavern in the Morning"#3..."The Chatter of the Maidens"#4..."The Faithful Dead"#5..."A Dark Night Hidden"#6. ONly the first three have been released in the US, but the fourth has been released in the UK already, and is probably the best one so far.)

Enjoy :)

Mary Barton is the first novel of Elizabeth Gaskell, a female writer who left her influence upon other English writers of the 19th century, like, for instance, Charles Dickens. The book is only an average view about Manchester life in the 19th century, focusing its attentions over the extreme poverty of the working class, the first labor conflicts in the pre-dawn of the Industrial Revolution, all this connected with a tender love story between the young Mary Barton and his old time friend Jem Wilson.
In fact, the murder of the young mill owner, Mr. Henry Carson - he too an admirer of Miss Barton - is not well developed and is not the central point of the novel because the reader knows all the time who is the real murderer. So, it's not a surprise at all the ending of the trial and the revelation of the real murderer in the last chapters.
Miss Gaskell has a simple and an almost näive vision of the social problems that harassed the working class in England when the Industrial Revolution started. Even though, we must recognize that she made a good work trying to denounce the insensibility of the English government about the problems of the workers and their families and the inflexibility of the mill owners and other high economic classes to negociate with their subordinates.
Mary Barton is a book that will hold the attencion of the readers, men or women, because Miss Gaskell has an elegant style and really knows how to tell a good story. Another great vintage of this novel are some great characters portrayed with flavour and undeniable charm, like the old and friendly Mr. Job Legh and the hard and anger John Barton, Mary's father.

Gaskell wrote one of the most vivid descriptions of the gap between rich and poor in this novel of the Manchester 'hungry forties'. The plot is driven by the device of a murder of young factory owner's son, but this story line is more an excuse to present the story as a novel (and to serve the demands and expectations of the novel form as it was understood at the time) than it really is the center of the book. The romance and the mystery (although still well-written) are cursory in comparison to the loving detail that Gaskell lavishes on Alice Wilson, the temptation of Esther and all the little points of life in deep poverty.

Worth reading, particularly if you're a fan of the novel (or history) of the period.

Actually I read this book in three days' time (it can be even faster if I don't have to go to school). Anyway, Mrs. Gaskell's depiction of the working class people in Manchester during the 19th century was so vivid that you can just *see* and *feel* how the rich and the poor's lives were like back then by turning the pages. I believe no one who had read this book will not to some extent feel pity for the tragic hero, John Barton, in the story. But aside from this formal social theme being presented in the novel, there is also a very strong sense of religious/moral theme in it (espeically near the end of the story), as well as some drama and romance in it. Definitely worth a read, especially to those who are interested in Victorian Literature.

Disappointed. I am a devoted NYT Sunday puzzle doer. I have done about 4 weeks worth of puzzles since I aquired the book. Of the 50 or so words/terms/places, etc. I have looked up, I found probably 5. This is NOT the crossword puzzle dictionary I remember from years ago, which was tailored to actual multi-word clues, and did not just provide "synonyms" for single word entries.

This is one of the best dictionaries I have found. It gives the best answers in any category there is. Is there a fourth edition?

I admit to a bias, since one of the authors was my dad, now deceased. He worked on this for many years, and it is indespensible for word game and puzzle lovers of all types. Even using it to solve disputes in Scrabble is of great help.

The organization is very "user-friendly" with name places, geographical sites, etc. highlighted. It is probably the most comprehensive (more entries)book of its type.

It truly makes a wonderful gift for word game and word puzzle lovers. They will keep it right by their favorite game table or reading chair.

This book runs the gamet of female emotions and tells us words we've all familiar with. For me, this book was very familiar. I was left nodding in agreement after quite a few poems. There are quite a few excellent poems but they are sadly balanced by a few un-poetic attempts to run words together in a seemingly poetic way.

There is something about reading that which you can relate to that is inherently beautiful. I found that some of these poems were really beautiful and quite well done. However, I was slightly disappointed that more weren't so. Some of them seemed rushed without thought or edit. Although you may not agree...the only way to judge is to read the book yourself. There isn't any harm in it. We lesbians should read and support all lesbian writing.

A solid collection, though there are some howlers. A great resource for the study of lesbian poetry as it dawned upon general literary acceptance. Good place to start,a nd filled with good contemporary samples.