Considering its high price and the fact that it calls itself an 'Encyclopedia,' and considering the incredible importance of Emily Dickinson's writings and the vast amount of research and criticism they have given rise to, one would have expected this book to have been a rather hefty and substantial volume.

One would have expected, for example, many interesting photographs, illustrations, useful tables, maps, genealogies, discussions of _many_ of her important poems, detailed and classified bibliographies of early editions, modern editions, biographies, criticism, etc. And one would have expected much more. After all, this book is supposed to be an 'Encyclopedia.'

Unfortunately we get very little of the above. What we get is a standard 8vo-size volume (6.5 by 9.5 inches) of just 395 pages of bare and unadorned text. After a brief Preface, a Chronology, and a list of Abbreviations, 312 pages of articles follow. The articles vary from paragraph to essay-length, and the book is rounded out with two Appendices, an 18-page Bibliography (of which 16 pages are devoted to Critical Books, Articles, and Dissertations), an Index of Poems Cited, and a General Index.

Interestingly, in a book already top-heavy with biographical entries, and that might have included so much else - I personally expected to find many more discussions of individual poems, for example - it concludes with 9 pages 'About the Contributors' - their affiliations, major publications, and interests.

The articles are arranged alphabetically. Here is the entire crop for 'A' : "A narrow Fellow in the Grass" (P986); "After great pain a formal feeling comes -" (P341); Aldrich, Thomas Bailey; Ambiguity; American Dictionary of the English Language; Amherst; Amherst Academy; Amherst College; Anthon, Catherine (Scott) Turner (1831-1917); Aphorism; "Apparently with no surprise" (P1624); Asian Responses to Dickinson; The Atlantic Monthly, A Magazine of Literature, Science, Art, and Politics; Austin.

So much for the letter 'A.' To properly evaluate the scope of this book and the quality of its articles (some of which read quite well), one would of course have to be a Dickinson scholar, which I'm not. I do note, however, the absence under 'A' of an entry on 'Animals,' which in view of the many animals we find in Dickinson's poems seems very strange.

I also note, on turning to the entry for 'Carlo,' Emily Dickinson's pet dog, the following statement: "He is the only animal in her entire corpus given human emotion and intelligence" (p.41). This statement is utterly and completely false, and could easily be shown to be so, by, for example, an analysis of a poem such as "The waters chased him as he fled" (P1749). I've also run into other highly dubious statements in this book, particularly ones that seem determined at all costs to claim Dickinson for the Christian camp, whereas it seems perfectly evident to me that her mind was far too subtle to be contained by Christianity, or indeed by any official religion.

This book is very much a product of the official world of Dickinson scholarship. Its orientation is squeaky-clean orthodox, and it has either rejected or distorted much that isn't to its taste. It will prove a handy (though misleading) reference work for students, and the few ED cultists who stumble upon it will no doubt approve of it.

The book is bound in full cloth, stitched, and beautifully printed on excellent strong paper, but to me its contents came as a terrible disappointment. Gudrun Grabher's 'The Emily Dickinson Handbook' (1998) turned out to be a far better book, a superb collection of articles from which I feel that I'm actually learning something about Emily Dickinson. Some of its contributors are also found in the 'Encyclopedia,' but perhaps they weren't operating under quite the same constraints.

Emily Eyefinger is about a girl who was born with an eye on the end of her index finger which she cherishes. It has a bubble on top of it to protect her eye, because when she gets dirt or other stuff in her eye all of her eyes start to water. This book is full of many different adventures Emily has as an individual, being the only person she knows with an eye on her finger

Emily the heroine, or so to say, at the age of 20, oddly enough for the times, was a pure and innocent living with her sister Eveline and of course very libertine mother and father. Having reached that magic age, accoring to the rules, Emily,is from one moment to the next, basically rocketed into an erotic and sexual world by her sister, a couple of visitors and her father. Of course, it is after all a Victorian novel of a time when incestuous type of relationships were not considered a crime and the practice was only condemmed by the ecclesiastic community.

With her family's fortune is waning, Emily's mother and father arrange for her to marry the wealthy neighbour's son so that she can get an allowance from her father-in-law that can be passed back to her family. Of course Emily's husband, Arnold, having lived with his parents and two very very 'active' sisters is for some reason described as a rather whimpy type, lacking in much free will and wanting in the physical attribute dept.

Considering what mommy and sisters do with poor Arnold since he was a young boy I guess you'd probably come to the conclusion he's dead tired rather than whimpy!

In any case, Emily is of course seduced in this book as she discovers that everyone in the community seems to be having sex with each other and that there are a whole bunch of unwritten rules that they follow in their sexual pursuits.

The book is light on spanking and whippings (thank goodness) but those strange rules that seemed to make a lot of sense to the characters are continuously mentioned at the beginning of the book.

The main problem with the book was that even though there's sex from cover to cover I never got the feeling, while reading, that I was either a willing or an unwilling participant of the action. The sex is there the eroticism of the moment isn't.

Since most of us who'll buy wedding planning books are first time brides, this is a good one for starters. It's a FAQ collection. It covers broad areas, from what bridesmaid's responsibilites are to do-you-need-to-take-off-your-glove-for-the-ring-exchange. It's helpful, although you might get answers like that in other wedding etiquette books.

Solid book with the basics of etiquette for various situations. But I didn't find this book special or with anything that stood out as especially useful. Nevertheless, a nice compact guide.

I was looking for a planner that had the typical checklists, timelines, etc. This book has all of those and great information about every aspect of your wedding -- from the fabrics for your dress to the wording of your invitations. The only thing this book needs are the little pockets so that you can add business cards, magazine clippings and other such things that brides-to-be collect in preparation for their weddings. Perhaps it should have been made as a notebook -- so you could add your own paper as well.

Overall ... a helpful book!

I purchased this book based on pre-publication reviews.

I figured that a book featuring a black cat looking for a witch would be a natural for my library's Halloween story time. The fact that it also featured a library seemed to be a bonus.

The illustrations by Pawel Pawlak are chaming and are definitely the book's strong point. The cat, Herbert, and the witch school girls are well drawn and show individual personalities.

Unfortunately, the illustrations are not enough to carry the book. The story is bland. There isn't enough substance here to engage most children. Herbert's search for an owner is unconvincing. To make matters worse, the book seems to stop one page short of the end. It doesn't end; it just stops with no sense of completion. I read it to my 5-year-old grandson and both of us automatically reached to turn a final page that wasn't there.

Though I might use this as a non-scary story for the under-three-year-olds, I will stick to "Meaner than Meanest" by Kevin Somers and "Wee Witches Halloween" by Jerry Smath for my Halloween storytelling to anyone over three. They're funny, have an interesting plot and the kids love them!

In this Grandma Sal and Grandma Nan story, Pip's baseball coach is sick and if the team does not find a new coach, they will not be able to play in the big game on Saturday! Grandma Nan overhears Pip talking on the phone with his best friend, Ski about the big game.
"I can coach!" states Grandma Nan.
"I can too!" says Grandma Sal.
Both grandmas will coach together they decide. At practice, the grandmas are how they usually are. Grandma Nan is too strict, but Grandma Sal is too laid back. The Stings, Pip's team, are all bothered by the grandma's arguments and ways of coaching.
At the big game, the Stings are losing and Pip tells the grandmas that they need to play on their own, without the help of coaches. The Stings continue to lose and Grandma Nan and Grandma Sal agree that they must do something to help the team.
I can't tell you what they do, for that will give away the ending, but it is silly, like always! I love the grandma stories! They are so fun. I would recommend this story to beginners at reading. It is easy to comprehend, but definitely not boring.

This text provided the most basic background for selecting the sampling technique. This book is an excellent introduction to basic survey research and provided the framework from which to consider this project. As this project goes beyond the scope of this text, it became necessarily to imagine what alternatives existed given the material provided in this text. Some of the options were available in other texts, such as books on SPSS and GIS computer software, as well as some of the information in Ethnography Step by Step, which provided additional information on computer data collection options available to researchers.

"The Ivory Dragon" is a sequel to "Lord Huntingdon's Legacy," and tells of the romantic ups and downs of the younger Huntingdon daughter, Lady Harriet. And, I think that it would be safe to say that this Regency romance (at least) does not seem to have any of the plot 'flaws' that generated so much debate in "Lord Huntingdon's Legacy" -- save for an instance in chapter three where Harriet suddenly descends into 20th century colloquialisms -- and is quite a charming follow-up to "Lord Huntingdon's Legacy" esp since it seems to be chock-full of eccentric characters and strange goings-on.

Lady Harriet is visiting with her aunt in the country while both her mother and sister are off on their respective honeymoons, where she spends most of her days rambling about the countryside and painting water colours of flora and fauna. A sudden downpour one afternoon causes her to take shelter in a barn, where she comes across a curiously carved wooden box, a litter of new born kittens, and the incredibly handsome and flirtatious Lord Stanhope. This chance meeting also propels her into The Adventure Of The Stolen Ivory Dragon Pin (Lord Stanhope's younger brother has been falsely accused of stealing the pin from their neighbour, Baron Rothson, and Stanhope is trying to return the pin unobtrusively), as well as a rather heady flirtation with the incredibly charming Lord Stanhope. However, Stanhope also seems to be courting the extremely fetching daughter of the village vicar, Nympha Herbert. What is Harriet to make of Stanhope's alternate pursuit of her and his equally serious courtship of Miss Herbert? Especially when the beautiful and sweet natured Miss Herbert makes it only all too clear that she feels that she has the inside track to Stanhope's heart?

While I rather enjoyed "The Ivory Dragon," I did think that it was not quite so riveting a read as "Lord Huntingdon's Legacy." And that was mainly because of the character of the 'other' woman. Nympha Herbert was just not unlikeable enough for this novel. She's pretty much a young woman who mistakenly assumes that Stanhope's attentions to her are serious and hangs about the place driving Harriet into paroxysms of jealously. As such, while I wanted Harriet and Stanhope to clear the air and realise that they had fallen in love with each other, I also felt sorry for Nympha for the blow that she was about to experience.

However there is also much to laud about this novel, most especially the realistic manner in which Emily Hendrickson has 'fleshed' out the character of Lady Harriet. It is very seldom that we get to see all facets of a heroine's character, and I liked that Hendrickson made Harriet human enough to experience jealousy over Stanhope's seeming courtship of Nympha. And I loved the subplots involving the disappearing ivory dragon pin and the goings-on at the Stanhope estate -- golf mad brother who is suspected of theft, bird enthusiast father who has abdicated his responsibilities in order to dissect birds, a mother who dresses absurdly in a bid to get her husband's attention and the relatives who have descended upon them and refuse to leave -- these subplots provided just the right kind entertaining diversion, and worked well as a counterpoint to the romance subplot.

All in all, I'd say that "The Ivory Dragon" is an entertaining read; and even if it did not quite compare to "Lord Huntingdon's Legacy" (for me anyway), I would still recommend it as a pleasing and charming diversion.