Angie is a little too much to take sometimes, but the other characters in the book make up for her. The mystery is solid and Joanne Pence keeps you quickly turning the pages with her writing style. She offers humor and excitement from the 1st page to the last. Though I wish she would tone Angie down a little to make her less irritating, Paavo keeps getting better and better and the other supporting characters seem to be further developed with each book making them seem like real people. Joanne Pence is definitely an author I would still buy in hardback. The enjoyment she offers would be worth the hardback cost.

In San Francisco, Angie Amalfi feels love is in the air after SFPD Detective Paavo Smith proposed so she arranges a date between her best friend Connie Rogers and a football star, but the jock fails to show up at the café where they were to meet. Instead, nervous rumpled Max Squires, a former financial guru, plops down at Connie's table. He desperately needs help to clear his name and regain the money embezzled by Veronica Mapes from his clients. Unable to resist the pathetic looking shlump, Connie agrees to assist him.

However, Connie soon finds she needs aid too, as the police make inquiries into her connections to a jewelry robbery, a murder, and Max. Angie knows she must help her buddy so she begins investigating even while her beloved Paavo tries to persuade her that there are already too many cooks on the trail. Her show of friendship places Angie in danger from unknown assailants.

IF LOOKS COULD KILL is a fun culinary mystery that amusingly cautions the audience on the dangers of a friend in need is a pest at least for the Good Samaritan lead cook and her pal. The two women try to help, but jump into pots of dangerous situations. The story line never takes itself too seriously yet master chef Joanne Pence provides fans with a solid amateur sleuth investigation. IF COOKS COULD KILL is the latest five star gourmet delight that will send readers seeking other entrees from Ms. Pence.

Harriet Klausner

Angie is in Heaven. She has finally gotten her beloved cop, Paavo, to commit to an engagement, and now has visions of the perfect wedding dancing in her head. Meanwhile, Paavo is ready to just elope and have done with it.

Now, Angie wants to share the love. She constantly devises romantic, tasty concoctions that are ruining the waistline of the local police precinct, and is doing her best to make sure everyone, best friend included, have the same joy she has with love. Unfortunately, all her plans are being continually interrupted with job offers and a murder.What makes it worse is that someone close to her may be involved, as in the killer.

**** With the typical, loveable madcap antics we have come to expect, Ms. Pence tickles our funny bone as we revisit beloved characters once more. Though the suspense and plot may be light, they are ever refreshing, and as a bonus, some of Angie's favorite treats have recipes in the back of the book. ****

Reviewed by Amanda Killgore.

Cooks' Illustrated, surely, is many things to many people. I like to think of them as cooking for the hard-core geeks; they slice and dice recipes as well as vegetables, and work the kinks out of them to make what is at least their idea of the best possible version of a meal. To the geek chef, their books are the technical flip side of the theoretical work of Alton Brown, Shirley Corriher, and Harold McGee.

Don't pick this book up thinking that you're going to get someone's Italian nonna's sunday gravy recipe; that's what the Sopranos Family Cookbook is for. This is very technical stuff that involves stripping the great recipes down to their bare essentials and rebuilding them from the ground up. Sacred cows of Italian cuisine, as in everything else they do, are scrutinized very carefully, and slaughtered as often as not. Only the most basic definition of the dish is taken for granted. The end result is sometimes minimalist; the Baked Ziti recipe, for example, has no ricotta in it and is almost vegetarian. The end result is a dizzying book that should be on the shelf of anyone who likes to cook Italian. Finally, the frequent sidebars on cooking equipment, a Cooks Illustrated staple, offer deep background on the techniques in the recipes.

Now with raves like that, why only 4 stars, you might be asking? Well, it's not perfect. The Best Recipe series presents itself as a bible of cooking, and it's not; glaring omissions in this book include meat lasagna (though the big bragging point on the dust jacket is the vegetable lasagna recipe) and cannoli. There is also a tendency to repeat articles from earlier books, an understandable but occasionally annoying situation that tends to leave the reader feeling as though the magazine people are trying to cut corners. And the appeal of this book isn't universal; the Cooks Illustrated style is, as I said, very technical, and a bit chatty at times. If you just want the recipes and don't care about the particulars, this book will bore you. Me, I like cookbooks I can read, so this isn't a problem.

So, in conclusion, I say this: if you like chomping data as much as you like chomping food, this book will rock your world. If not, the recipes are still pretty good.

The Best Recipe series have outdone themselves. This is the best one yet.(I am partial to cooking american-italian food at home). This illustrates great recipes that are tasty and user friendly. I especially love the risotto cakes. This book goes beyound recipes and teaches one about techniques and what to do or not to do. THIS IS A GREAT LAST MINUTE GIFT FOR THE NOVICE CHEF TO THE AVID COOK FOR THE HOLIDAYS OR ANY OCCASION. Definately a keeper if you like italian cooking.

Italian Classics is easy to understand and has great tips on everything from balsamic vinegar to meatballs. It makes cooking simple and fun. The recipes also include tricks the pros use as well as home style cooking techniques. It is a great addition to any food lovers library.

Ms. Cobb's cookbook is unquestionably scrumptious. Family members, friends, and the author contributed over 175 Southern and Southwestern recipes for this mouth-watering book.

These recipes come before the days of fat-free recipes and the author warns-"Dieters beware!" "Comfort Food!" and that it's "Hazardous to your waistlines!"

Each recipe is sectioned off into categories, making it easier to locate your favorite food, breads, salads, jellies, vegetable dishes, and soups fill this book to the brim. You can almost smell the food!

Ms. Cobb purposely neglects putting in the fat content and calories per recipe, with the mention that several of the contributors lived to be over 90 years of age, so that the reader can just cook without worry.

The author encourages you to add your own ingredients, subtract a few of theirs, and to experiment with your taste buds.

A few of the scrumptious dishes include: popovers, potato muffins, curry chicken, chicken parmesan, roast duck, gumbo, fish fritters, chili, liver and onions, nut cake, gingerbread, meringue, rhubarb pie, cathedral cookies, easy fudge, bean soup, 24-hour slaw, fried okra, grape jelly, and many more!

LB Cobb is an attorney who grew up in Tennessee, and who now lives in Houston with her husband. Ms. Cobb is a mother of two and grandmother to five.

As a woman who loves to experiment with cooking, I encourage you to get a copy of LB Cobb's book OLD FASHIONED RECIPES FOR MODERN COOKS today. Your tummy will thank you....

Showcasing more than 175 Southern and Southwestern dishes from a culinary era well before the coming dominance of "fat-free" manias with respect to fine dining, L.B. Cobb's Old-Fashioned Recipes For Modern Cooks: Foods With All The Flavor You Remember In Grandmother's Cooking is as much fun and nostalgia to browse through as it is fun and fulfilling to cook from. Whether for special occasion celebrations or daily family dining, here are recipes to please any palate and satisfy any appetite. From Chicken Baked in Wine; Sweet and Sour Pork Chops; and Quick Spiced Peaches; to Biscuit Gravy, Asparagus Soup; and Buttermilk Pie, Old-Fashioned Recipes For Modern Cooks will quickly prove to be a favorite addition to any kitchen cookbook collection!

L.B. Cobb is a mystery writer who also loves to cook. She is an attorney who grew up in Tennessee and practiced geology, then law. Her first novel is Splendor Bay and she and her husband now live in Houston, Texas.

She has dedicated this cookbook to Clara Nixon Dawson, Linnie Belle Snodderly, Martha Wilson, Edith Burkhart and Kathryne Cobb. In fact, this cookbook is inspired by dinner-table conversations. When Martha developed a "food fetish" and started to watch the Food Channel (how I can relate), she began practicing her new-found culinary skills. Martha then came across her mother's recipes.

In the meantime, L.B. Cobb was researching her own family recipes. What resulted was 175 Southern and Southwestern dishes. She encourages each cook to experiment a bit and to make the recipes their own. Each recipe in the Index is followed by an abbreviation for one of the ladies who created or contributed the recipe. So, for Clara Dawson, you will see (CD).

Some of the recipes include headnotes and some have secrets only Grandma would tell you. Little secrets like sifting the flour twice before making a cake or how to make a perfect pie crust.

The recipes are divided into sections:

Biscuits & Breads
Main Courses: Chicken, Other Poultry, Seafood and Meats.
Desserts: Cakes, Tarts & Patties, Pie, Cookies and Other Desserts.
Soups
Salads
Dressings & Sauces
Vegetable Side Dishes
Pickles & Relishes
Jams & Jellies
Beverages
A handy page of Measurements & Conversions is also included.

One cookie I tasted this Christmas at my aunt's home is called: Cathedral Cookies. And, believe it or not, I found it in this cookbook! It is the same recipe. I was also thinking of making some Pecan Pralines since they are just delicious. The recipe is also so easy to make and is on pg. 53. Then my husband is always talking about tortilla soup and so I was very pleased to find a recipe.

Other Recipes Include: Cilantro Dressing, Whipped Onion-Garlic Butter, Fried Tomatoes with Thyme and Garlic, Stuffed Mushrooms, Watermelon Rind Preserves and Pineapple-Cherry Jam.

Delicious!

I have no problem recommending Virginia H. Ellison's "The Pooh Cook Book" (1969). It offers child-friendly recipes (requiring adult supervision) with Pooh-related names or having something to do with honey. Each page has one of the original illustrations or a food-related quotation from the Pooh stories. To make Honey Mustard, just combine 1/4 cup mustard with 1 tablespoon honey. Honey Sauce II is 1 tablespoon fruit juice whipped with 1/3 cup honey and 1/4 cup condensed milk. Hipy Papy Bthuthdth Thuthda Bthuthdy Cake I is a "1, 2, 3, 4 birthday cake," since it combines 1 cup butter and milk, 2 cups sugar, 3 cups flour, 3 teaspoons baking powder, 3 pinches salt, and 4 eggs. Children can also learn to make muffins, popovers, scrambled eggs, Cottleston Pie (ham quiche), soups, pies, cookies, drinks, and various tea snacks -- about 60 recipes in all. The book's simplest offering is "A Recipe for Getting Thin," which contains no ingredients or instructions. Nothing fancy or difficult, just a simple book admirably designed for its target audience. Very Pooh, in a way.

My children and I would use this book to cook together. Their favorite is Cottleston Pie; little did my 4 sons know they were eating quiche. Real men do eat quiche! They need to start printing this treasure again.

This book was given to me the year it was published(1969.) I just came across it while unpacking boxes.

Looking through the book brought back alot of childhood memories. Making the recipes at thirty eight was just as much fun as when I was nine.

Poohanpiglet Pancakes, Honey Toffee Pennies, Easy Honey Buns, Cream Scones, etc...

If ya can find a copy get it and give it to a young'n and give them a lifetime of memories.

Doing a review of Keats' work is impossible, his merit has already been established, his work is mastery. Now the question is this, is the book well done? For a small sample of the genius's work, this is a great edition, for a more experienced poet, this one isn't for you. The poetry is genius, the book is not great.

Doing a review of someone like Frost, Keats, Rilke, or Shakespeare is like reviewing the Bible, it is impossible. It has already been established that this man's poetry is mastery. Now the question is thus, what book should you purchase? If you want a small taste of his work at a good price, this is it. With this small, under $... edition, you can decide if you want to purchase anymore of his books. I say it is a great book for a poetry shelf in anyone's library.

What a wonderful anthology of John Keats' poetry. The selections in this book range from his well known and loved pieces like "Lamia" and " To Autumn" to less familliar but still gracefully written "On the Sea" and "To Leigh Hunt, Esq." The timeline in the front of the book is helpful, giving an overview of what the world was like in Keats' short lifespan. Many critics wonder what he would've accomplished had he lived longer, and by reading this collection of his poems, one can only image the brilliant works he might have given us to further his powerful legacy.

The Rush Hour Cook series is a collection of small books that are designed to easily fit into a purse or briefcase without taking up much room. In the "One Pot Wonders" book you can expect the usual categories of appetizers, main meals, and desserts. One of the requirements for a recipe to make it into the Rush Hour Cook series is that the ingredients must be easy to find in just about any grocery store. So if you plan on preparing something from the book you can drop it into your purse or carry it along and pick up the ingredients on the spot.

Various tips are also scattered throughout the book. At the end there are five days of suggested meals as an example of meal planning and the shopping list that would be needed to prepare all of these meals. These are practical, easy to prepare, and quick recipes that are prepared in one pot. Ergo, cleanup is not a major task. This is a great gift for the novice cook, the person who just wants to make a quick meal and get on to other things, or a nutritious meal for college students with minimal cleanup.

There's a child in all of us ... that certain someone who yearns for things that taste good and are quick to bring smiles to our faces and bellies. And that child ain't Julia. We have finally discovered a woman who understands the way most Americans eat: fast and faster. Brook Noel has penned a series of ultra-slim cookbook (think of them as gastronomic guides) that offer recipes, and serve up tasty tricks and tips. There's even a sprinkling of savory trivia --- who knew the pretzel was invented in 600 AD by a monk who crossed the dough to form hands in prayer? The meals in minutes (Noel insists "no list of ingredients shall be longer than the instructions") are easy to make. She proves that anyone can conquer kitchen chaos, win the battle of rush hour without rushing, and still come out smelling like a cinnamon bun.

I heard about this book on the radio and can see why this book has gotten so much press coverage. I love it! You can fit it in your purse and it includes complete grocery lists so you can grab all the groceries you need for a week quickly and easily. I bought the set of 4 and also bought a bunch to use as Chrsitmas presents and they received rave reviews! I think this book is a relief from those huge cookbooks with tons of useless recipes. My family has loved everything I have made so far!

First of all, this is my first try at the Portuguese language, although I've studied other languages before. The book takes an awful approach to learning the Portuguese alphabet -- although the letters look the same, oftentimes they're stressed completely differently, depending on where the stress is, etc., but all this book is to lay it out in a 8 or 9-page table in the beginning of the book. For someone who doesn't pick up accents very easily, this book barely even tries to explain the difference between an accented e ("is") and regular e ("and"). This book takes the viewpoint (as far as vocabulary) of the tourist -- o aeroporto, etc. -- and does include useful phrases. To its credit -- as far as I know -- it does a fairly good job saying which phrases are Brazilian-only and which are vice versa, as well as pronounciation differences, but as I said earlier, it does such a bad job anyway on pronounciation: on the tape, to teach the alphabet it just has a native speaker reading a list of words which happen to have the letters in them. Nothing about how to pronounce them, the tapes don't even play the regular vocabulary words at a reduced speed, so it's entirely possible to miss whole syllables. I haven't read all of the book, but it does an OK job explaining word differences in general...althoguh it has a Portuguese-English dictionary of terms in the back, there's no vice versa. Especially for the intended audience -- a would-be tourist who suddenly forgets the word for "toilet paper"...It does a fairly mediocre job of explaining verb tenses and conjugations, too -- the main redeeming feature of the book is fast process. Yet because of the horrible job explaining pronounciation -- even with two tapes -- whatever process you may have may well be rendered unintelligible to an authentic native of Brazil, Portugal, Guinea-Bissau, etc. Buy it if you need a quick course -- especially in writing -- it's OK, and the exercises are adequate, although there's no space for writing. All in all, I'm going to use it... but if you're serious, get another book and do yourself a favor.

I owe most of my Portuguese to this course. It offers more than most. It explains the language better than usual in a course for beginners. It is also very friendly. The author always appears to have the learner in mind. For the words in the dialogues, a literal translation is given in addition to the normal translation; grammar is carefully explained; the words you learn come around again so you don't forget them; and so on. You feel that the author really cares. For me each page was a step forward. I progressed steadily and I can actually speak some Portuguese. I am a very satisfied customer.

Perhaps the most striking feature in this course is the gradual progression from the known to the unknown, in easy incremental steps. Grammar is explained thoroughly and then practice is given in exercises (there could be more exercises, though, for extra practice).
Another good point is the everyday vocabulary, very practical. Brazilian variants are shown throughout, so you know to say 'comboio' in Portugal but 'trem' in Brazil.

Heaven Lee is asked by her old friend Mary to be a participant in a fundraising dinner for the Ursiline nuns of New Orleans. All does not go well. First an African American newswoman protests that the fundraiser is for a white order, when her ancestor helped found an order of African American nuns who were instrumental in educating their community. Suddenly there is a commotion and graffiti is found all over the courtyard and an eighteenth century cross that the nuns brought with them from France. Other incidents follow. Heaven is determined to find out who is sabotaging the event.

I always enjoy the books from this series and this on is no exception. I love the setting, and can't wait to try the recipes.

Heaven Lee having been backed out of the legal profession for doing something wrong opened up a Café Heavens Restaurant in Kansas City. To her amazement, Heaven learns she likes to cook and prepare food and soon her restaurant is a success. She has a full house almost every night with many repeat customers. When a nasty letter about her restaurant is sent to Heaven, City Hall and the local newspapers, she is afraid her restaurant's precious reputation will be tarnished.

Thanks to good friends, Heaven is able to keep the note out of the public eye and go to New Orleans with an easy mind. She is part of an outdoor sit down diner to raise funds for the Sisters of the Holy Trinity, one of the oldest convents of the United States. Towards the end of the event one of her closest friend's husband is murdered and Heaven will not rest until she finds the killer.

Lou Jane Temple has created a zany, eccentric and lovable heroine who will go that extra mile for anyone she cares about. The mystery is well drawn out and it is doubtful anyone will guess the identity of the perpetrators although when they are finally revealed it makes sense. RED BEANS AND VICE is a colorful culinary who-done-it that is a feast to read.

Harriet Klausner

Heaven Lee is invited to New Orleans to be a guest chef at a swank fund raising dinner for the Sisters of the Holy Trinity. Before she can even get packed, Heaven receives a vicious crank letter that could ruin the reputation of her Kansas City restaurant if it gets into the wrong hands. But going to New Orleans could be great publicity for her restaurant, so it's off the Big Easy. Almost as soon as she hits town, problems crop up. The planning meeting is disrupted by a loud mouthed local celebrity with a grudge. Mysterious and menacing people are lurking around her friends, Mary (an old law school chum of Heaven's) and Truely Whitten (successful owner of the largest coffee importing company in Louisiana). And to top it off, the Sister's lovely Convent building is vandalized and a priceless crucifix is stolen!

Heaven smells disaster for the future success of the fundraiser and reluctantly steps in to try and make sense of these seemingly unrelated incidents before it's too late.

She meets and befriends a former Madame, Nancy Blair, who knows a lot about the hidden skeletons of the society elite in town. She is squired to all the best night spots by handsome, smooth talking, Southern gentleman T. Wilson Tibbetts, who is Truely's best friend.

But murder, conspiracy and plain old greed complicate Heaven's life even further. On the way to solving the mysteries, the reader is treated to some of the most mouthwatering descriptions of delicious sounding Southern food. Many of the actual recipes are included, a trademark of author Lou Jane Temple's scrumptious series featuring Heaven Lee. By all means, read this book. It's a fun, fast paced book and a great addition to the series.

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Garrett and his partner the Dead Man go from famine to a plethora of cases in this novel. Garrett only has to follow one of the local soapbox conspiracy orators after he is released from prison, find a green butterfly belching serial killer and find the wayward daughter of the boss of the underworld. He accomplishes this in his usual way, and manages to rescue 3 damsels in distress along the way. Of course things do get a little interesting after the serial killer dies, and still keeps on killing. But that is almost par for the couse in TunFaire a real melting pot for all sorts from this fantasy world.

I enjoyed reading this even though at times, I felt that Cook was flat out telling the reader the solution prior to his character's enlightenment. This did not lessen the enjoyment any. And Cook still managed to get enough in to set up for his next book. I would definitely reccomend this one if you like Same Spade style mysteries and fantasy.

GOOD book for a rainy day. Has some plot twists that can only occur in a world with magic. Excellent characters. Glen Cook is my number one favorite author.

The whole Garrett series is fantastic and this is just another great example. A spectacular mix of Chandler-esque P.I. work and surrealistic fantasy.