I thought that Crystal did a great job on her first book. I liked the characters and the humor along with the antics of a 7th grader! It was fun to read and I recommend it to anyone!

Both his father, Ray Brody, and his teacher, Nora Murray, grossly underestimate Trent's manipulative ability. The twelve-year-old has come to live with his father after a seven-year absence when his mother Cheri dumped him and then disappeared, choosing drugs over her son.

Trent believes that his teacher would be the perfect woman for his dad, so he misbehaves, thereby arranging a meeting between them. Trent recognizes Nora's giving nature and her tendency to reach out both to her students and their parents. Teaching is more than a job for her; it is her saving grace. Nora believes that perhaps she can give enough to compensate for her father's transgressions.

From the first moment she meets Ray, Nora can hardly resist what she comes to refer to as Ray-tingles. She tries to rationalize her responses as years of craving a baby and estrogen run wild. She also tries to maintain her composure as guilt and self-preservation keeps yanking at her. She hides guilt over being the daughter of man she calls a monster. Further, self-preservation is way of trying to avoid disappointment.

The moment Nora enters his bar, Ray's responses prove powerful as everything seems suddenly more vivid. "Even kisses had a shade of red, of wanting more." He really likes her nervous leg, honey hair, and fruit-spice scent. Yet she leaves him feeling "scatters him like a puzzle." On one hand, she's his son's teacher and should be allowed to maintain her professional distance, yet he wants to hold her and to touch her. On the other hand, he refuses to allow another Cheri break their hearts.

The three of them belong together. A trio of lost souls; it takes one person to find another wounded soul. Together, if they all are willing to risk their hearts, they can become a family. This heart warming, humorous matchmaking novel will delight romance readers. Trent behaves and misbehaves as any twelve-year-old would, right down to skipping school. Nora and Ray display vulnerabilities that are easy to identify with, making their characters vividly realistic. Highly recommended.

Beloved Bachelor Dad started out slow, but I later realized that it only built the characters and made them more interesting.

Nora is a great student teacher with a not so great past. Nora was raised by a man who was abusive to her mother, and Nora herself almost married a man who was emotionally and verbally abusive. For Nora, it is hard to trust others.

One of Nora's students Trent Brody likes his teacher so much that he wants her as more than a teacher--he would love for her to be his mom. Trent sets out to bring his father and teacher together.

Ray, Trent's dad, likes Nora. Ray even flirts and dates Nora, but is unsure if he wants anything permanent.

Bringing together these three is like pulling teeth. Its a long slow process. Its a great story about love and family and the craftiness of a child.

I started reading this to my son about 2 months before we moved. He is still very young, but I think it might have helped to ease the transition for him. For older children it could be a great way to get them talking about an upcoming move.

This book is a Christian book with references to Jesus. People of other beliefs will probably not be interested in this book.

I liked the melody of this book. It is much like a Dr.Suess book in the rhyming sing song words. It is very easy to read and has a great message to kids about the anxiety of moving to a new house. There is a message to Mom's at the end also. If you are moving and have a pre-schooler, I recommend this book.

I wouldn't use this book as my only book if I was going to study Crystals and earth consiousness, but this book from my quick read look to be a inexpensive and good small referance to use on most any common crystal. I am very very skeptical on a lot of the information because the author does not give any referances and makes claims that are "watery" with out much definition, and I do not have the resources at the present time to verify its information. This book has a decent blurb on for instance Amythist... it would talk about its use in history and folklore, and also a good deal of its metaphysical properties. It is alphabetical by name, but not all of the crystals are not the best organised because you have to go to Quartz to get to Amythyst, or Tigerseye because these are Quartz crystals... but at the same time he has numerous other crystals that he says is in the "quartz family" for whatever that means. It is limited on how many crystals it covers, and it has very limited amount of information on what exactly you do with the crystal to actually "use" or work with them.
But I give this four stars because in general it is a good little book and I do not regret buying it one bit.
If you are looking for a really good book on the subject I would HIGHLY sugest a book on crystals by Maya Heath though her books can be hard to find.
Blessed be.

This is an incredible resource you can carry around in a pocket when visiting rock shops.

The ONLY crystal book I have read that is superior to this one is "Love Is In The Earth: A Kaleidoscope Of Crystals" by Melody

I did detect a few errors in this book.

1. Page 20: "Natural gemstones do not lose their power with age or use."

This is not so. I have seen Amethyst's, Labradorite, Smoky Quartz, Obsidian, Raindow Obsidian, Ametrine, etc; lose their coloration with use.

2. Page 42: the author states that Bloodstone is "Technicaly, it is a type of opaque Quartz"

Blood Stobe is not a quartz. It is a Heliotrope.

3. On page 125-126 the author discusses Tigers Eye, and Cat's Eye as if both stone are one and the same.

This is not so. It's true that both Tigers eye, and Cat's eye are asbestos fibers in silicon dioxide; but the appearance, and price varies greatly.

In Cat's eye the fibers are straight, and the stone is more eye like in appearance. This is a gem quality stone at gem quality prices!

In Tigers Eye: the fibers are crumpled or twisted. I have picked up nice specimens of Tiger's Eye in four different colors as cheaply as 75 cents each!

Implying that Cat's Eye and Tiger's Eye are the same stone is like saying that Peridot and Olivine are the same stone. Peridot is gem quality, and olivine is not. I bought a nice peice of Olivine for 50 cents.

Over all except for these few pointsl this book is an excelent resource.

If you are already familiar with Crystals, but want more in-depth information on properties, legends, and histories, then this is a book for you! However, this book has no pictures, and only limited info. on using crystals.

I ordered this book thinking it was the "pictorial supplement" to Melody's challenging (read: "pictureless") five-star original sensitive-gal **Love is in the Earth** encyclopedic guide. This is a thin book of leftovers on glossy paper with one small and really lame picture on each two page spread. NOT WHAT I HAD IN MIND. In truth I wanted the much larger, similarly named: **Love Is in the Earth - Mineralogical Pictorial : Treasures of the Earth.** Gee -- is it me? That's minus one for stupid title breeding, -1 for using a scanner to take pictures of the rocks, and -1 for for not coming out with a new edition of **Love Is in the Earth: A Kaleidoscope of Crystals,** instead.

A must for all healers, enthusiasts and anyone with an interest. Really informative and covers just about everything you'll ever need to know. I refer to this book all the time, if you have an interest in healing then you MUST have this book.

FANTASTIC! As expected, Melody packs this supplement with detail, detail, detail! Not only does she give descriptions, families, and metaphysical properties, but pictorials to compare your specimines to! Excellent! I can't live without Melody's books, they are my Bibles. I gave my copy to my cousin and now I'm back on Amazon buying another one for myself.

Although the book did have some very beautiful illustrations in it, and did carry rituals for a multitude of occasions, some might find that they do not mesh well with their own systems. Eclectics would find it easy to integrate a few of these rituals into their own routines. I myself, however, found some of them to be either too simple or seeming a bit insufficient for what might be required of an occasion. However, it is an excellent place to start for a beginner,giving a good idea as to how one would create the outline of a ritual, as well as learning a few basic things about the casting of the circle, quarters, etc.

Although the experienced witch will find little that is new in this book, Ed Fitch is an excellent writer and the illustrations herein are fantastic. I reccommend this work for any new practitioner. A word of caution: if you are looking for a guide with a specifically ethnic flavor (classical, celtic, norse, egyptian, etc.), this is not the best book for you (I reccommend "The Rites of Odin" for Norse pagans, also by Fitch). Even though I am no longer a "pure" Wiccan (as this system still owes A LOT to Aleister Crowley and traditional Gardnerian witchcraft, hence, it owes much to traditional Judeo-Christian concepts and not a whole lot to historical paganism), the "Crystal Well" is a good place to start.

This only book that fitch wrote a book that was not bias which is sad that his other books are. This book is great for both art and fact of rites found in it for the beginner overall worth the money and one of better books outthere.

Blessed Be;

At fist glance this book looks very nice and full of great information. Don't be fooled. It is filled with a very limmited amount of information on crystals and gemstones. You'll finish the book with many questions unanswered. Buy the illustrated guide to crystals by Judy Hall insted of this book.

This truly pocket/purse sized handbook is an informative way to learn about the types of crystals. Included layouts are Chakra Healing, Chakra Meditation & 5 other healing "grids" to perform for yourself or others. As I have stated in other book reviews, many of the suggested cleansing techniques are actually harmful to different gemstones- please be aware that sunlight & water (salt or clear) can be extremely damaging to the wrong types of crystalline structures! I recommend smudging, earth, moonlight, or a generator cluster. The 12 page Properties section covers a wide variety of commonly used/known crystals. Of course, the size of the booklet prevents the use of photos. Try DK Pockets or Eyewitness Handbooks (Rocks & Minerals ~OR~ Gemstones) for pics & chemical composition.

This little book on crystals and stones is useful and a pleasure to read. As a beginning New Ager from the Wine Country in California, I bought this book and sat down with it right away. I did the grids with my husband and he actually liked them even though he's a construction worker and totally not into the New Age. He asked me to do them many times now, and each time the grids are more powerful and healing. I have read other Sirona Knight books and each of them is useful and a reading pleasure. She writes an excellent book--and very positive too!

CRYSTAL CREEK REVERBERATES WITH THE EXCITING RHYTHM OF TEXAS. EACH STORY FEATURES THE RUGGED INDIVIDUALS WHO LIVE AND LOVE IN THE LONE STAR STATE.

RAISE A GLASS -- TEXAS STYLE!

Crystal Creek...where power and influence live in the land, and in the hands of one family determined to nourish old Texas fortunes and to forge new Texas futures.

A TOAST TO NEW IDEAS

Tyler McKinney is out to prove you can produce good wine on a Texas Ranch and make money doing it. He enlists the help of vintner Ruth Holden, but he doesn't like her advice. Her methods may work in California, but this is Texas.

For Ruth, Tyler is too stubborn, too impatient, too...Texas. And far too difficult to resist.

Tyler McKinney is the oldest son of J.T. McKinney from the previous book in the series (Deep in the Heart). Tyler is determined to have a vineyard on the ranch. His father is skeptical, but with the help of Tyler's stepmother they convince his father to try it. J.T.'s old buddy Don Holden has a very successful vineyard in California. Don is happy to send his daughter Ruth to the McKinney ranch to give her expert advice to Tyler. Tyler expects some dowdy looking woman to show up. He has all these stereotypical notions of what an expert wine chemist should look like. Tyler is shocked when he sees just how beautiful Ruth is. Tyler listens to what Ruth has to say, but he is stubborn and impatient and has no intention of taking all of the advice that she gives him about the vineyard. Ruth and J.T. build not only a business relationship but a personal one as well. Things go along smoothly until a lie almost rips them apart.

I thought that this book was more focused than the previous one. There were still plenty of secondary characters, but the main focus was on Tyler and Ruth. I have to admit that I was a bit aggravated with Ruth and her decision to believe the worst about Tyler. I thought Tyler had every right to expect Ruth to come crawling back on her knees and apologize, but instead the author has Tyler taking most of the blame-Ugh. Like I said this book was better than the previous one so hopefully the next one will be even better (Cal's story).

This book had a lot of Crystals and Gems that come in all shapes, sizes and colors.

The photographs of OVER 200 CRYSTALS AND GEMS is worth the purchase price of this book. And I am not just talking about ANY picture of each crystal, I am talking about a GORGEOUS, AMAZING sample picture of each crystal! Some of my favorite photographs/stones included are: Opals (My personal favorite stone ok, tied with Diamond!), Aragonite, Agate, Tourmaline, Calcite, Topaz, Barite, Hematite, Amethyst, Rose Quartz, The Blue Hope Diamond, Ruskin's Ruby, Moonstone, Spodumene, Blende, Natural Mosaic, Malachite, Gold, Mother-of-Pearl, Turquoise....I could go on forever!

Here are the chapters: WHAT IS A CRYSTAL? A WORLD OF CRYSTALS, NATURAL BEAUTY, CRYSTALS-OUTSIDE, ...AND INSIDE, THE COLOR OF CRYSTALS, IDENTIFICATION, NATURAL GROWTH, GOOD HABITS, DISCOVERY-RECOVERY, GROWING FROM SEED, CRYSTALS AT WORK, GOOD VIBRATIONS, QUARTZ, DIAMOND, CORUNDUM, BERYL, OPAL, OTHER GEMSTONES, COLLECTORS' ITEMS, STONES FOR CARVING, PRECIOUS METALS, ANIMAL AND VEGETABLE, WHAT IS IT WORTH?, MAKING THEM SPARKLE, LORE AND LEGENDS, CRYSTALS AT HOME AND INDEX.

This is a must-own if you have any interest in the marvelous beauty of crystals and gems. Not only are the photographs great but the information is succinct and fascinating! I highly recommend this book along with any other of the 109 in the Eyewitness series! Talk about something for everyone! Thanks Dr. Symes and Dr. Harding! Wow!

While waiting at a train station I was loaned this book by a friend and soon found myself interested in the stories. _Crystal Express_ is a wonderful introduction to the work of Bruce Sterling and I found it good enough to actually convince me to try and reread _Schismatrix Plus_. If you are a fan of the Shaper/Mechanist storyline then you should buy _Schismatrix Plus_ and leave this one behind.

Sterling is actually good in the short story genre whereas, some of his novels may drag a bit and be a bit scanty in character development the stories in this collection hpowever, are quite good in pacing and development.

One of the best moments was reading "Flowers of Edo" while on a train to Nara. The story of Japan's embrace of modern technology and the destruction of its past had a great resonance for me after seeing the hyper buzz of Tokyo. I felt that Sterling also showed more hope and charm of his romantic nature with "Green Days in Brunei".

The most daring work within a standard narrative format were all the Shaper/Mechanist stories. The other stories were interesting in ideas and themes, but nothing outside the scope of regular science fiction or fantasy themes found elsewhere.

Before slapping heavier works on your plate such as, _Global Head_ or _Disctraction_ pick up this book of his early work when he was learning his craft and was willing to dare a little bit more.

Divided into three sections; Shaper/Mechanist, Science-Fiction and Fantasy, Crystal Express provides a series of vignettes for the reader. Sterling's Shaper/Mechanist saga follows the developments of the two parties through war, peace and nervous antebellum. Starting with a story called the Swarm, the allegories are firmly underway; justifications for Caananite slavery in the name of science destroyed by sheer humanity (or entymology). Through a series of characters neurotic about their own societies, the Mechanists and Shapers represent the human need for perfection - with the reptillian Investors acting almost as Greek Chorus - and yet despite their advances we are still filled with horror. Sterling is offering a grim caveat that we need to retain our humanity, no matter what devices become viable to us. The last Shaper/Mechanist, Twenty Evocations, is in itself a series of short stories, encompassing the life of a Shaper and yet with the twist of each sinking deeper to what we conceive to be our souls. So much for the Shaper/Mechanists, then. What of the rest of the book? Amongst them are the romance and beauty of Green Days in Brunei; evocative and rich, though the storyline somewhat askewed; the twist at the end also questions our beliefs of what is beautiful and what should be pursued, and Spook, a delightful thriller-macabre, is essentially Heart of Darkness with an unexpected twist, and a few nods to the inhumanity of medical technology. The Fantasy section reinforces one's conception of Sterling as an iconoclast, his sly yet almost whimsical story of a man who attains eternal life without the expected regret destroys a thousand myths; wise men of an ancient city discuss their eternal reign and; in perhaps the strangest, yet most wildly exotic in its reality, deals with the coming of electricity to Japan. In this last, there are no allegories, aside from a sense that now Japan has lost all its magic and wonder, just human beauty and rich, rich, lovingly-researched detail

This is an excellent book on the history of the transistor. Not exactly light reading, but still an enjoyable read. As an engineer it is wonderful to learn the history of the one of the most important inventions of recent times. Really a well written book.

Who invented the transitor? The answer to this question is in the book. What is the transitor? The answer is in the book. Understanding the answer is another, more personal, matter. Why was the transitor invented in the US, when it was? This facinating question is well explored in the book. One may be surprised to see the names of Hitler, Einstein, Salvador Dali and Picasso mentioned in the same breath with the inventors. Which co-inventor of the transistor went on to win a second Noble prize for superconductivity? The book does not play favorites among the three co-inventors but the work of John Bardine on the transistor and superconductivity is reason enough for the biography fan to read this book instead of watching the biography of the "Hamburger Barrons" on TV. The story is not an "easy read." But cheer up, there are great pictures.