Eighteen years ago Emily Cooper and Jackson Talbert met and fell in love. They made love, but on their last evening together they recycled a used condom. Emily became pregnant, but failed in her efforts to inform Jackson of her condition. Though he promised forever, he never called her after that last night. Instead, Jackson struggled with his mother dying, which left the teenage Emily in the untenable situation of having to give up her baby for adoption.

Almost two decades later, Emily, who is now a doctor, sees Jackson, who visits her hospital to exhibit a new software program. Though their old feelings surface immediately, Emily has never recovered from the betrayal of eighteen years ago. With that baggage and her secret, a relationship between them seems remote.

Though written within the confines of category boundaries, EMILY'S DAUGHTER is an engaging tale that grabs the reader's heart. The flaws and demons both lead protagonists carry make Emily and Jackson authentic and very human. The story line grips the empathetic audience who will want this couple to regain the happiness they lost. Linda Warren provides readers with a tearjerker that never lets up on the angst until the ending.

Harriet Klausner

Eighteen years ago Emily Cooper and Jackson Talbert connected in a way that was profound. At twenty-one, he was struggling with his family regarding entering the family business. At seventeen, she was struggling with the embarrassment of her mother's recently announced pregnancy. Together they found mystery and magic beneath the moon, loving one another deeply and passionately. Their last night together, they ran out of condoms, reusing one in an effort to be responsible. It wasn't enough.

When Emily learned of her pregnancy, she repeatedly tried to contact Jackson. All his promises of phone calls and return visits disappeared in the light of day, leaving her alone to cope. She didn't know his mother was terminally ill, and as she struggled to cope with birth, he was learning about death. Lost in his grief, Jackson never knew that Emily was trying to reach him.

Emily's mother reacted strongly to her teen daughter's pregnancy. Harsh words and judgment pushed Emily into a decision she would regret for the rest of her life. She gave her daughter up for adoption. She never told anyone of those days, and the wounds are still fresh. Even fresher when she's working as a doctor and Jackson unexpectedly arrives at the hospital to demonstrate his new software. As all the old feelings come rushing back, Emily's secret holds the power to destroy their relationship yet again. Or provide the healing they both need.

Author Linda Warren creates a poignant tale of family, forgiveness, and redemption in EMILY'S DAUGHTER. While the plot might be a bit predictable, the play of family dynamics and the resolution of the past result in poignant, memorable read. Emily Cooper is flawed, admirable, beautiful heroine as is Jackson Talbert an equally flawed, worthy, memorable hero. These are characters that believable, that readers can identify with, and that remain in the heart and imagination long after the last page is turned. Highly recommended.

My infant, Emily, received this as a baby gift. It is so adorable (even for a child not named Emily!). The rhymes and story are whimsical, but the message, really, is that life is all about how you look at things. I plan to read this book with her throughout her childhood. And I will definitely be giving this darling book as a baby gift in the future.

This book is my daughter, Emily's, favorite book. It has been a bedtime regular since she was 2.(she is now 6) The wonderful poetic pace increases the excitement as Emily's house becomes filled with animals and more and more noise. My children love making the animal noises and sharing in Emily's frustration. It is an excellent participatory book. I am now purchasing a new copy as ours has lost it's cover from so much use.

Wonderfully written story of the simple pleasures of life in England in mid 40s. Excellent illustrations - caught the essence of Emily in my mind! Would strongly disagree with age bracket - think this is for much younger child - perhaps 2-5, to be read and talked about with an adult.

This is my wifes first book and is based on her childhood in England during the early forties. Real stories about real people, good english, and no violence. A story for parents or, grandparents in particular to read to the kids. MORE STORIES in the series are in the pipeline.

Fifth Grade magic was a fabulous modern version of a fairy tale. The concept is simple enough: fifth-grade drama enthusiast Gretchen doesn't get an acting part for the school melodrama, and she invokes a fairy, who she is surprised to see appear. But the fairy godmother's magic doesn't turn out the way anyone thought it would, and leads to more problems. At the end, we find out the secret of the fairy godmother, and Gretchen gets what she wants.

This book is written very well, and has lots of little treats for you to find. I feel that this is more literary than Mail-Order Wings; the beginning almost invokes Ramona's distinct voice and strong opinions, and the author completely takes you into Gretchen's little mind. Gretchen's growth throughout the book is done in a very believable and complete way.

One of the fun aspects of this book is the fairy godmother's tool of choice; instead of an old-fashioned magic wand, she uses and Enchantulator, which helps her find out things she can do to help Gretchen, and sends out colored sparks when casting magic. There's also the school play, a melodrama, Polly's Pies in Peril. (Polly Winsum needs to save her pie business from the evil banker Blakheart.) The snippets of this were delightfully over-the-top!

Other reviewers didn't mention Amy, who was the golden-haired newcomer initially chosen for the part of Polly Winsum. (Amy looks the part of a traditional, naive heroine, but has the acting skills of a cardboard cutout.) Throughout most of the book, there's intense rivalry between Amy and Gretchen, at least on Gretchen's part, and most of the enchantments are directed at Amy. But the consequences of the tricky enchantments are done very realistically, and in one of the delightful last scenes, Gretchen actually helps Amy's acting ability. I look forward to seeing Amy's character developed more in More Fifth Grade Magic.

Also, in many books where someone has a special talent, interest, or ability, it's very hard for the author to show us that. (I've yet to read a book that makes me understand how much the protagonist loves dancing, or drawing, or something, and let us visualize very distinctive and precise drawings, or dancing, or whatever.) But in Fifth Grade Magic, we can totally see Gretchen's love of acting, with her trying to get other people to act with her at recess, or memorizing all of the lines in the play, or what she does in the fabulous last scene. This is a very good book.

I disagree with the previous reviewer that the ending doesn't tie things up; everything that needs to be told to end the story is told, and there's one of the happiest endings I've ever seen. There may have been one page or so more, to help us feel more satisfied, but otherwise it was a very good ending.

So what are you waiting for?? Read this book already!

I read this in fifth grade and it really helped me. I remember wishing at that time that I had a fairy godmother. I was going through a lot of turmoil in school myself. It's about a girl named Gretchen who wants the lead role in the play her class is putting on. However, Amy, the new girl, gets the part instead. Gretchen is desperate, and even willing to believe in magic. Then a "fairy godmother" named Errora shows up in her bedroom one night and agrees to help her...which led to a lot of trouble. I won't tell anymore. It is full of a lot of laughs while being a touching story. I didn't particularly care for the ending much, though, I felt like it wasn't really wrapped up.

The "First Snow" depicted by Emily Arnold McCully in this charming wordless picture book is a pretty BIG snowstorm. After digging out their old red truck, a family of mice heads for the skating pond and the sledding hill. Young children will be able to "read" the story for themselves, making up dialogue to go with all the little details McCully has put into her pictures. Certainly they will empathize with the little mouse who is not at all sure about going down that great big hill on a tiny little sled. But no one ever had fun sitting on a sled and not going anywhere. They might actually find this book more fun than going skating or sledding themselves. "First Snow" is a companion to McCully's "Picnic," both of which were inspired by trips the author took with her children when they escaped from New York City to the Berkshires.

First Snow was a delightful story about a mouse family that goes sledding on the first day it snows. One little mouse is frightened but eventually learns how fun it is to sled down a big hill. It is a wordless picture book which allows children to "read" this book a little differently every time. This book is my 3 year old daughters favorite. It's wonderful to see how she translates the pictures into words based upon the expressions on the faces of the mice. She imagines what they are saying and how they are feeling. I thouroughly enjoy "reading" it with her every night to see what different ideas she finds. I beleive it is a great learning tool for preschoolers.

This is one of the best general books on Fostoria I have been able to locate thus far. Well organized and useful. Great pictures.

If you have stemware and need to identify it, this is the book for you. There's a goblet index in the back which refers to the main book by numbers. I have found it invaluable for quick reference. Having ounces and height given really helps to identify which pieces one has. Each pattern is given production dates, and if it was made in several colors, production dates are given for each color.

I had no idea that Fostoria Glass was so plentiful.

As a seller in an antique mall & on-line, I can kick myself that I have passed up so much Fostoria Glass. I have overlooked expensive cigarette holders that I thought were unusual candle holders, bowls with lids that are old cigarette holders, glass coasters, and much much more at auctions & estate sales that I could purchase for pennies on the dollar.

I always thought fostoria was either made with hobbs or very fancy glass. This is not so.

This comprehensive book will more than pay for itself. In the evenings, I will carefully study sections on Fostoria so I do not overlook it again.

If you collect or sell glass, You NEED this book!

Milba Long & Emily Seate's Fostoria does contain plenty of color, providing an identification and value guide for ornamental fostoria glass of all kinds. From jellies to coasters and lamps, this packs in all kinds of fostoria glass works.

I just finished reading "Giving a Voice to the Ancestors" and I can't tell you how fascinating this book was to me. I learned a lot of history, the Civil War, history as it happened in the South as well as the Cherokee Indian history. The vivid portrayal of the complete family was just wonderful. It was so touching to read a book with tales about actual people.
I'm sure reading this book brought back memories to others as it did to me. My father was a chef also. He smoked cigars and we played checkers together, so each time I read a piece that reminded me of something in my childhood it gave me little chills. I smiled, I shed a few tears and experienced all of the emotions that make you know you are reading a good book.

When words flow fluently creating pictures of places, and people and activity it is difficult to put "Giving a Voice to the Ancestors" aside. Quickly one becomes immersed into lives of anguish created by man's inhumanity to man.
Through the sadness is a reocurring theme:hard work, faith in God, and education does bring one security and dignity.
Thus Emily Allen Garland in a well-researched book, while giving us a glimpse into the life of slavery and bias, leaves the reader with a message of hope.

"Emily Hiestand, with her radical trust in description as a guide to the moral life--and her extraordinary trust in the processes of logic--works reason--kneads it, assaults it really--till it explodes once again into the magic and mystery it truly is. In Green the Witch-Hazel Wood, the breathtaking hesitancies and suddenly explosive new vantage points of the physics of our time are suddenly alive in the poetry. It crackles like some source of energy we had no idea we had lived without and now--of course--would not." --Jorie Graham

"Here is a poet with an exact and exacting intelligence which is not based on presumptions, but which arrives at its...conclusions with melodic intricacy." --Derek Walcott

"Green the Witch-Hazel Wood...is a dazzling, engaging book, wherein the chief pleasure is watching the play of Hiestand's imagination and curiosity. [This is] a bountiful group of superb poems." --Frances Mayes San Jose Mercury News, October 15, 1989

"This poet aspires to a Wallace Stevens-like palette.... The best poems experiment with scale, expanding and shrinking scenes until images achieve potency.... A sensuality, an unabashed play with language...renders her work distinctive." --Lee Upton, Belles Lettres, Spring 1990

"The remaking of nature poetry is always a challenge within a discourse. Emily Hiestand seems particularly fit for the challenge... Her poems are full of (the) correspondences and yearnings she observed in Bishop. Her line is swift, with a lovely, citric vernacular about it. I admire this in particular about her work...a powerful and gifted stylization within her wider themes; a sort of sibylline demotic. The pleasures of tone make the control in her nature poems a real mix of verve and intensity... These are wonderful gifts to find in poetry." --Eavan Boland Partisan Review, Summer 1993

"One of the most valuable things about Hiestand's poems is their vision of human life, and of its most characteristic featur! e, language, as continuous with the natural world. Here there is no romantic abyss, and no sentimentality...This first collection of poemsdeclares its attention to and affection for the natural world beginning with the title and the cover painting.... The opening epigraphs then define the tasks at hand: "If we sell you our land, you must remember that it is sacred" (Chief Seattle) and "What we admire in the green world is a benign selfhood./ And in one another, the ability to speak of this. / Or better, to act it out." (William Meredith, Dalhousie Farm ). The poems themselves take up Meredith's challenge with wit, intelligence, curiosity and obvious pleasure in the task at hand. Their attention to detail is both lavish and precise." --Sharon Bryan The Boston Review, October 1989

"Emily Hiestand's Green the Witch-Hazel Wood is a foray into logical thought, beginning with the traditional logic of the mind where the world is questioned and observed. Much of...the book is an attempt to define, and broaden, that window of reason. To do so, Hiestand examines the world under a scientist's microscope, somewhat reminiscent of Dickenson, Moore, and Bishop before her. There is a parallel logic of the senses. the dominant sense here is sight (Hiestand is also a painter) where objects are lovingly made palpable. Nouns are clean and simple--eggs and sofas and linoleum and the smell of kerosene. The known world sparkles and comes alive under her observant eye: "here is an orange that fits in the palm of your hand / with segments like maps, and sweet, and hard." Hiestand's volume was selected by Jorie Graham for the National Poetry Series, and it shows some of the same proclivity for abstraction and philosophy as Graham's own work. This is an interesting turn of mind, and I find it refreshing." --Judith Kitchen The Georgia Review, Spring Summer 1990

These are poems that stop one's wandering mind and focus it onto an image, a detail (a rivet in a bridge, a passage from an archaic encyclopedia). And, remarkably, each detail contains an insight, a structural discovery about people, cultures, animals, or the hard material world. To be savored, and read out loud to good friends.

Hearthside Cooking, now in its second printing, has been an indispensible source for those of us who practice open-hearth cooking at historic sites. Not only does it offer practical advice, it provides an excellent overview of the development of Southern (the emphasis is on Virginia, of course) foods from the beginnings of English settlement here. The recipes are all from primary sources, shown as originally written, then for the fireplace, as well as for a modern kitchen. The bibliography, as well as the content of the book shows Ms. Crump's extensive research. I highly recommend it.

This book is the "bible" of open hearth cooking. Everything a beginner needs, it is also indispensable to the cooking interpreter working at a historic site.