I read Dark Angel 5 years ago when i was 14 and i loved it. I thought it was the best though i have read only a few of her books. Dark Angel is trully impressive and it had effected me a lot and still do...i can't remember everything but Troy was simply awesome and dark -- one of the best male character i had came accross. I was completely enthralled by 'their' romance though it was short-lived.

I read Virginia Andrews' 'Dark Angel' about ten years ago now, but the impact it has had on my life is astounding. I have to confess I am possibly one of Madam Andrews' biggest fans and sing her praises to all those I meet and have converted many an unbeliever into an Andrew's fanatic. As I mention, It has been a long time since I last read this book and the details are a little hazy, I simply remember the power of the text and how I could not put it down, desiring to read every carefully composed word. Her book is myserious and captivating, the compelling family saga is one to be read over and over and I demand everyone read it now...

BIRTH OF A JOYFUL NOISE: Long-forgotten Jubilee Singers Brought Spirituals to the World by JUDY LIGHTFOOT The Seattle Times, April 30, 1999

Seattle journalist and novelist Andrew Ward was doing research for a Civil War novel in local libraries when he stumbled on a wonderful, little-known American story. A discovery in the University of Washington's Suzzallo Library collection sent him to Nashville, Tennessee, where he found archives of material on the Jubilee Singers, a remarkable troupe of African American students who sang spirituals to audiences around the world after the Civil War, countering racial stereotypes wherever they went.

"The Jubilees were front-page news during the 1870s," says Ward. "From newspaper clippings it's obvious that their performances gave audiences everywhere their first exposure to authentic African American music. And at a time when it was risky for blacks to assert themselves in public, these young people (many of them former slaves) stood on stages and denounced any segregation they encountered. It astonished me that I had never heard of their contribution to American history."

History isn't Ward's field, though he won a Washington State Governor's Award in 1997 for Our Bones Are Scattered, a historical account of the 1857 Indian Mutiny against British rule. Local readers are more likely to remember his NPR monologues about living in the Seattle area, broadcast ten years ago on "All Things Considered" and collected in the volume Out Here: A Newcomer's Notes from the Great Northwest.

Ward says, "I'm an essayist and novelist, not an academic, and I don't have a historian's training. But I like to tell stories. When writing history I try to stay close to the experiences of people who were there."

Ward's "Dark Midnight When I Rise: The Story of the Jubilee Singers" tells a deeply American story that shows the "can-do" national character at its best: people uniting to save something they love.

In this case it was Nashville's Fisk School, established for the education of African Americans after the Civil War. While many comparable schools offered only agricultural or industrial training, Fisk boasted a liberal arts curriculum meant to produce teachers and missionaries. But like other black schools of that era it was underfunded. When Fisk faced financial ruin, with teachers and students falling ill from poor food and bitter cold in buildings virtually rotting away, the choir and their director went on the road (another resonant American theme) to raise what today would be millions of dollars.

The story is also American in featuring people who work together despite divergent backgrounds and conflicting aims. Ward observes, "Many of the missionaries who helped build black colleges and the white teachers who staffed them were Northern abolitionists who thought they'd find in black people a kind of blank slate to write on. What they found were real African American persons in all their human variety, with a complex, vital culture of their own." Yet in spite of mistakes, quarrels, and mixed motives on the part of all, black and white, the Jubilees succeeded.

"'We were nothing but a bunch of kids,' wrote soprano Maggie Porter. 'All we wanted was for Fisk to stand.'"

But they were a savvy, resilient bunch, too. Tenor Benjamin Holmes had taught himself to read and write by studying the letters on city signs. Soprano Georgia Gordon had learned to read by memorizing a Bible verse she heard in church, comparing it with the text until she could match each word's sound with its shape, and finding other words like it. Bass singer Greene Evans had built a schoolhouse for black children from discarded lumber, wryly noting that the building "'did not lack for ventilation, for a bird could fly through anywhere.'" Like Evans, Porter had taught in a country school, until it was burned down by the KKK.

On their first U.S. tour the Jubilees wore shabby clothes and lacked winter coats. Critics confused the slave songs that, in soprano Ella Sheppard's words, "'were sacred to our parents'" with the vulgar comedy of blackface minstrels. Railroad conductors ignored the singers'coach tickets and banished them to the smoking cars. Hotels that didn't turn them away often provided rooms which, Sheppard wrote, were "'so well occupied' with insects 'that a part of us only could sleep while the others slew the occupants.'" Some innkeepers were more welcoming - - one tied his wife to the upstairs banister to keep her from throwing the singers out of the parlor.

Despite fears, threats, exhausting schedules, and serious illnesses (contralto Julia Jackson had a stroke; tenor Benjamin Holmes developed TB), the Jubilees persevered. Their gracious ways and marvelous music inspired newspaper reporters to write articles that shamed hotel and restaurant owners into admitting black customers, and several railways, steamship lines, and schools integrated.

Through incessant rehearsals the singers had developed a sweet, stirring sound "that rose and soared and faded like a passing breeze." They sang for royalty throughout Europe, they sang in the Taj Mahal. Packed audiences listened to their praise songs and sorrow songs with astonished joy, weeping and applauding.

It was the first truly American music, and it would influence music everywhere in the next century. In these spirituals, Mark Twain observed, America had "'produced the perfectest flower of the ages.'"

The songs live on in such favorites as "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot" and "This Little Light of Mine." No Jubilee performances were recorded, but every student choir at Fisk University has sung the original arrangements, and the present choir will appear in Ward's TV documentary, Jubilee Singers: Sacrifice and Glory, on May 1 at 9pm on KCTS-9.

Ward may either finish his Civil War novel or write about another historical event his work on the novel turned up, the massacre of African American soldiers at Fort Pillow. Writing history, he says, reminds him how his life is linked to the lives of others. "Driving to Silverdale, Washington, I'm haunted by a sense of being an interloper on Suquamish Indian soil. We're all interlopers to some extent, and we shouldn't fool ourselves with a proprietary sense about America that none of us has a right to." Ward adds, "We even treat African Americans like guests in this country. Though some of us try to make the 'visitors' feel comfortable, history shows us we're in no position to do this."

History also shows us, in Ward's inspiring book, a triumph of great music and personal courage.

BIRTH OF A JOYFUL NOISE: Long-forgotten Jubilee Singers Brought Spirituals to the World by ...The Seattle Times, April 30, 1999

Seattle journalist and novelist Andrew Ward was doing research for a Civil War novel in local libraries when he stumbled on a wonderful, little-known American story. A discovery in the University of Washington's Suzzallo Library collection sent him to Nashville, Tennessee, where he found archives of material on the Jubilee Singers, a remarkable troupe of African American students who sang spirituals to audiences around the world after the Civil War, countering racial stereotypes wherever they went.

"The Jubilees were front-page news during the 1870s," says Ward. "From newspaper clippings it's obvious that their performances gave audiences everywhere their first exposure to authentic African American music. And at a time when it was risky for blacks to assert themselves in public, these young people (many of them former slaves) stood on stages and denounced any segregation they encountered. It astonished me that I had never heard of their contribution to American history."

History isn't Ward's field, though he won a Washington State Governor's Award in 1997 for Our Bones Are Scattered, a historical account of the 1857 Indian Mutiny against British rule. Local readers are more likely to remember his NPR monologues about living in the Seattle area, broadcast ten years ago on "All Things Considered" and collected in the volume Out Here: A Newcomer's Notes from the Great Northwest.

Ward says, "I'm an essayist and novelist, not an academic, and I don't have a historian's training. But I like to tell stories. When writing history I try to stay close to the experiences of people who were there."

Ward's "Dark Midnight When I Rise: The Story of the Jubilee Singers" tells a deeply American story that shows the "can-do" national character at its best: people uniting to save something they love.

In this case it was Nashville's Fisk School, established for the education of African Americans after the Civil War. While many comparable schools offered only agricultural or industrial training, Fisk boasted a liberal arts curriculum meant to produce teachers and missionaries. But like other black schools of that era it was underfunded. When Fisk faced financial ruin, with teachers and students falling ill from poor food and bitter cold in buildings virtually rotting away, the choir and their director went on the road (another resonant American theme) to raise what today would be millions of dollars.

The story is also American in featuring people who work together despite divergent backgrounds and conflicting aims. Ward observes, "Many of the missionaries who helped build black colleges and the white teachers who staffed them were Northern abolitionists who thought they'd find in black people a kind of blank slate to write on. What they found were real African American persons in all their human variety, with a complex, vital culture of their own." Yet in spite of mistakes, quarrels, and mixed motives on the part of all, black and white, the Jubilees succeeded.

"'We were nothing but a bunch of kids,' wrote soprano Maggie Porter. 'All we wanted was for Fisk to stand.'"

But they were a savvy, resilient bunch, too. Tenor Benjamin Holmes had taught himself to read and write by studying the letters on city signs. Soprano Georgia Gordon had learned to read by memorizing a Bible verse she heard in church, comparing it with the text until she could match each word's sound with its shape, and finding other words like it. Bass singer Greene Evans had built a schoolhouse for black children from discarded lumber, wryly noting that the building "'did not lack for ventilation, for a bird could fly through anywhere.'" Like Evans, Porter had taught in a country school, until it was burned down by the KKK.

On their first U.S. tour the Jubilees wore shabby clothes and lacked winter coats. Critics confused the slave songs that, in soprano Ella Sheppard's words, "'were sacred to our parents'" with the vulgar comedy of blackface minstrels. Railroad conductors ignored the singers'coach tickets and banished them to the smoking cars. Hotels that didn't turn them away often provided rooms which, Sheppard wrote, were "'so well occupied' with insects 'that a part of us only could sleep while the others slew the occupants.'" Some innkeepers were more welcoming - - one tied his wife to the upstairs banister to keep her from throwing the singers out of the parlor.

Despite fears, threats, exhausting schedules, and serious illnesses (contralto Julia Jackson had a stroke; tenor Benjamin Holmes developed TB), the Jubilees persevered. Their gracious ways and marvelous music inspired newspaper reporters to write articles that shamed hotel and restaurant owners into admitting black customers, and several railways, steamship lines, and schools integrated.

Through incessant rehearsals the singers had developed a sweet, stirring sound "that rose and soared and faded like a passing breeze." They sang for royalty throughout Europe, they sang in the Taj Mahal. Packed audiences listened to their praise songs and sorrow songs with astonished joy, weeping and applauding.

It was the first truly American music, and it would influence music everywhere in the next century. In these spirituals, Mark Twain observed, America had "'produced the perfectest flower of the ages.'"

The songs live on in such favorites as "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot" and "This Little Light of Mine." No Jubilee performances were recorded, but every student choir at Fisk University has sung the original arrangements, and the present choir will appear in Ward's TV documentary, Jubilee Singers: Sacrifice and Glory, on May 1 at 9pm on KCTS-9.

Ward may either finish his Civil War novel or write about another historical event his work on the novel turned up, the massacre of African American soldiers at Fort Pillow. Writing history, he says, reminds him how his life is linked to the lives of others. "Driving to Silverdale, I'm haunted by a sense of being an interloper on Suquamish soil. We're all interlopers to some extent, and we shouldn't fool ourselves with a proprietary sense about America that none of us has a right to." Ward adds, "We even treat African Americans like guests in this country. Though some of us try to make the 'visitors' feel comfortable, history shows us we're in no position to do this."

History also shows us, in Ward's inspiring book, a triumph of great music and personal courage.

I'm researching systems-development related topics at the moment and this book is one of the few I've encountered that gives an abundant amount of carefully considered information. Most books, it seems, can be summarized in a sentence or two. Dillon's work, on the other hand, is one of the most detailed--and purposeful--I've seen. I'd recommend this book not only to text designers but anyone interested in user-centered design. Its implications for users (who are often scanners, not readers!) are broad and significant, encompassing motivations (why people read, or why they visit websites and what they expect to get out of their experience) and navigation and wayfinding issues. Another useful component of the book is its discussion of using models and frameworks as a tool to faciliate structured research and development. Many thanks to Dillon for providing a first rate book on a pervasive, yet largely ignored topic. I look forward to seeing more of his work in the future.

This is by far the best analysis of reading of electronic text that I have seen. He provides an excellent insight as to what is, what might be, and what is not important for on-screen reading.

He does not limit text to just fiction/non-fiction categories, but instead discusses: WHY it is read professional/personal reasons, to learn or not, out of interest/need, etc. WHAT type of information it contains technical or non-technical, subject matter, general or specific, textual or graphic, etc. HOW it is read serially or non-serially, once or repeatedly, browsed or studied in depth, etc.

His book suggests to me that text should alter its format to the meet the users - Why, What, and How. Possible examples: switch to all caps when searching for words or phrases, turn off hyperlink indicators for linear reading, ...

He points out that there have been many studies on editing text, but few on reading text. A good fraction of the book deals with on-screen reading.

Screen reading was better with: high resolution characters, increased space between lines (leading), proportional font, limiting the number of characters on a line, and not splitting a sentence across a page boundary.

He indicates that users preferred on-screen reading over paper reading for some tasks when the screens had enough improvements.

Screen reading might be improved with: landmarks/navigation, serif fonts, full left/right justification, ...

Screen reading was no different than paper reading for: orientation of the media, flicker rate, screen dynamics, and visual angles (< 36 degrees).

We read this book as a family. We all loved it! From youngest to oldest we were laughing out loud. Great fun!

Imagine this: you're turned into a donkey by an old hag. Then the most beautiful girl you've ever met turns you back into a boy! The only problem is that you are completly naked! All of this happens to Dan'l Pitt of Coven Tree, New England, in this humor packed thriller of a book. The Devil's Donkey is for everybody, because Bill Brittain puts humor, horror, and fantasy all into one book.

A wonderful reference! The book is well written and explains how many myths across the globe are connected (myths about a flood, the sun, the moon, etc.). Anyone interested in the study of mythology should have this book on their shelf. For the Pagan readers out there, while this is not directed at Pagans (in other words, you won't learn how to cast a circle, etc.) I would very highly recommend it to understand the mythology surrounding your particular path, and how it relates to other cultures. Just about every culture is given a place in this book--from the various Native American cultures (North, Central and South) to the Celts, Middle East, Asian, and many more.

Bottom line: A mythology lover's dream.

This is a very thorough, yet readable, book that I use all the time in helping students that come to our Library. It's amazing how many times I've used this book. It seems to span so many subject areas. I would recommend it for any reference collection that serves high school and college students.

This is a really meaty book, with lots and lots of good, solid scholarship. Some of the articles are path-breaking; all are rewarding.

Articles by S. Kent Brown, David B. Honey and Michael P. Lyon, Victor L. Ludlow, Lousi Midgley, Marian Robertson Wilson, John L. Sorenson, John F. Hall, Richard Neitzel Holzapfel, Hugh W. Nibley (The Last Days, Then and Now), Donald W. Parry, Daniel C. Peterson and Stephen D. Ricks, David Rolph Seely and Jo Ann H. Seely, Andrew C. Skinner, Richard D. Draper, C. Wilfred Griggs, Kent P. Jackson, Daniel C. Peterson, and Stephen D. Ricks.

Can't ask for authors better than these...

The sections include Book of Mormon Studies, Old Testament Studies and Ancient History, and New Testament Studies and Early Christian History.

I got it for the article on Leroy Robertson's Oratorio from the Book of Mormon.

This is a wonderful book. It is a must read if you are interested in science, technology, or history.

Copp and Zanella have written a marvelous text that conbines science, history, and technology in a master manner. They are just two of the marvelous professors at the Claremont Colleges.

This is a wonderful story which uses a doll's house to give clues as to who will be murdered next. The characters are interesting and well developed. The book leaves you wanting to read the next adventure.

Just before the Revolutionary War, the Pancoast family founded Seacrest, a resort town near Philadelphia. Over two centuries later, the townsfolk still hold the Pancoast family in high esteem. Especially loved are the senior citizen Pancoast sisters Judith and Emily. The duo own an incredible dollhouse that is identical to every nook and cranny in their mansion. Additionally, family members have a miniature that is an exact replica of them.

This year, the siblings are preparing the Thanksgiving dinner when they notice the doll of their niece Pamela lying face down in her plate. They think mice must have knocked the doll over. However, Pamela is found dead. The two sisters ask their friend Dr. Andrew Fenimore to look into the death. Besides being a physician, Andrew has experience as an amateur sleuth. He learns that someone poisoned Pamela. Soon two more family members die with their replicas giving a foreshadowing of their death. As months go by and more killings follow, it soon appears that only the murderer will remain as the sole living family member; that is if the killer is even a Pancoast.

Anyone who has read Agatha Christie's AND THEN THERE WERE NONE or seen one of the movies of that novel will realize that Robin Hathaway has put her own spin to the tale. The concept works as it maintains a freshness that will fascinate the audience until the novel is finished. The first class story line stars two adorable elderly ladies and an amateur detective. Though the murder count is high, violence is nil and kept off-stage. Thus, in spite the constant killings, Ms. Hathaway has written a wonderful Americanization of a Ms. Christie-like cozy.

Harriet Klausner

The Cyberleader, a.k.a. David Banks, has furnished us Earthlings and those who feel they are actually aliens (such as myself), with a superior, highly detailed information on Cyber History and the BBC series that chronologically dramatized said history. Elaborate histories of programs, dealing with a certain aspect of it, can either border from the esoteric for adherents of the program or the way Banks does it, which is esoteric but fascinating.

The prelude to the chapter dealing with biomechanics, control-and-communication systems, artificial intelligence, and immunity from diseases are the roots of what inspired Gerry Davis and Kit Pedler to create the Cybermen and make interesting reading.

A prerequisite of the program is obviously needed, as in the case of the solar map, having Fendhal between Mars and Jupiter. The existence of Cassius, described in The Sunmakers, is not mentioned, unless it is the same as Penultima, the 13th planet. Beyond that is Planet 14, base of the Cybermen in The Invasion.

An added bonus is Gerry Davis' Cybermen origin story, Genesis Of The Cybermen. As it does not specify which Doctor, it could well be a future Doctor should the BBC come to their senses and do another series. The companion is named Felicity so either BBC will work around that or change the name, as long as it is a female companion.

The chronological order of stories matches that in The Terrestrial Index, although the variances between the proposed year stories without a definite date are minor. For example, this book proposes The Invasion took place in 1979, whereas TI puts it at 1970. In contrast, both the Discontinuity Guide and A History Of The Universe place Revenge Of The Cybermen as taking place after Attack Of The Cybermen. The Disco Guide places Tomb Of The Cybermen AFTER Attack, so go figure. Silver Nemesis was in production as this book was being written, but because it takes place in 1988, there's little debate the year of occurrence.

The various changes in Cybermen are also covered in technical detail, from the Mondasians to the streamlined "new-fashioned Cybermen" of Earthshock onward, what is called Cyberneomorphs. They are differentiated from their lookalike ancestors, the CyberFaction (The Invasion) and the Cybernomads (Revenge Of The Cybermen).

It was in this book that I first learned of the destruction of the majority of the William Hartnell and Patrick Troughton stories of the 1970's. Because of this callous lack of program preservation, we will never see Episode 4 of The Tenth Planet, Episodes 1 and 3 of The Moonbase, Episodes 1,2,4, and 5 of The Wheel In Space, and Episodes 1 and 4 of The Invasion.

The cover art by David Banks, with superior artwork by Andrew Skilleter, has the Cyberleader holding his gun, standing in front of a metallic tunnel of varying colours. And there are lots of drawings and photographs, both black-and-white and colour, scattered throughout the book.

Conclusion: this book is EXCELLENT!

The Cybermen were one of the most popular monsters featured on the long running British science fiction series, Doctor Who. Although they appeared to be seven-foot tall metal robots, the cybermen were, in fact, once human. Faced with a hostile environment and a decreasing lifespan, the cybermen replaced their organs and limbs with more durable bionic components. They surgically replaced all weaknesses, including the emotional weaknesses that made them human, becoming in the process something less than human - dehumanised machine creatures determined to survive by the conquest and assimilation of other races. (They are suspected to be one of the inspirations for Star Trek's, Borg.)

The book covers the creation of the monsters by scientist Kit Pedlar and screenwriter Gerry Davis as well as the history of the cybermen on screen. Additionally, an unofficial "events occurring offstage" history describing the evolution of the creatures over the 22 years they appeared in the series is presented together with a "Genesis of the Cybermen" plot outline from cyberman creator Gerry Davis.

The book was written by David Banks who played the CyberLeader in the last four cybermen adventures and illustrated by Andrew Skilleter, the artist responsible for the Doctor Who video sleeves. The author's enthusiasm for the series and the love for the part are clearly evident. Fans (and there are many of us) will appreciate this firsthand account of the production of a much-loved TV series and the creation of one of the classic science fiction monsters.

Although the book is not in print at the time of writing, Doctor Who is undergoing a renaissance in the form of a series of paperback novels and new adventures being released as audio dramas on CD. Given the keenness of the BBC to capitalise on Doctor Who it's certainly possible that this book will be reprinted.

Nineteen compelling, "nearly true" tales set in southern Africa during the late 1970s and 1980s comprise a debut work for this promising writer. The book, essentially a memoir dealing with Howard's coming-of-age experiences in Rhodesia/Zimbabwe during and after its war for independence, is a labor of love -- love for the land and its inhabitants: black, white, colonial and indigenous. As an American youth studying veterinary medicine in South Africa, Howard, afflicted with wanderlust, chanced to hitchhike north to Rhodesia on school holiday, whereupon his life was forever transformed. Upon marrying a Rhodesian girl and beginning a veterinary practice in the quaint colonial town of Marondellas, his soul became an irreversible part of the hard, red African clay. Now practising in New Zealand, Howard has experienced that teawakening of midlife, when many of us feel an urge to do an accounting of our lives. Howard is eminently successful in this accounting, and has shared his impressions and experiences in a way that makes this reader, a resident of Zimbabwe in the 1980s, want to see more. His stories, some comedic, others tragic, will evoke fond memories and nostalgia in all who once called southern Africa home.

Talk to most people about southern Africa and they will recount images of political unrest and violence. "Drive-By-Duck and other stories" offers the reader a different viewpoint. Human emotions and experiences of everyday life are interwoven in stories that reflect the depth of these nomatter where in the world you live. The only difference is the backdrop of the majesty that is southern Africa. For the reader brought up in southern Africa, the book will evoke many special memories. For the reader who has a curiosity for this part of the world, it will fuel your urge to visit one day. And for anyone who just wants a 'darn' good read, you WON'T be disappointed. If you only buy one book this year, let it be "Drive-By-Duck and other stories"