That Quail, Robert was a very compelling look at nature. If you like nature books, you'll love That Quail, Robert. If you think birds can't be humans, than you haven't read this book.

The writing style of Margaret Stanger is very descriptive and at times needed explanation when my 10 year old daughter and I read it aloud to one another, but it is so full of love and admiration that the message is clear: this bird was very very special and much loved. She (for Robert was a she not a he) was a dignified, sweet and loving 'person', and we really enjoyed the many well-told stories within. I read it when I was a young child, and it is one of my favorite books, along with Charlotte's Web. Just knowing that this is a true story makes this book even more remarkable. Animals are more special than the average human being realizes, and I wish more 'ordinary' people would read it to open their eyes to how wonderful the animals that share our world really are. We tend to get to bogged down in our jobs and material things which really do nothing to enhance our lives. All we really need is a quail, perhaps, to enlighten our lives. Simplicity is always best. Fabulous, Fabulous book. I would like to know if there are any postcards or pictures available on Robert for sale, and if the people in the book are still alive...

My interest was sparked to read That Quail, Robert, because an adult friend of mine constantly is saying quotes from the book. I was surprised to find quite a lovely story about a mature couple and the tiny quail they raised. Robert befriended every human it met and as a reader, I was enchanted with his little personality. Prepare your heart, as the ending may bring tears. I loaned this book out and am replacing it, as the borrower asked to keep it. I will encourage my teacher-friends to read this to their 3rd-6th grade classes.

But it wasn't exactly a great read, either. My mother bought this book for me when I was about seven years old. Back then, I thought it was rather boring and hard to get into. Fifteen years later, I picked it up again, and my first impression remains the same. The author spends a great deal of time telling you how unusual, engaging, and unique her heroine is, but throughout the book, Rebecca's actions never back up the author's assessment. I felt this book was dry and flat. Who wants to read a book in which the climax revolves around children selling soap?
I found it all too similar to L.M. Montgomery's "Anne of Green Gables," in story and characters, except the "Anne" books are so much better!! Anne is the heroine who is unusual, engaging, and truly unique.

I tried to read this book to my 5 year old daughters, (they loved Anne of Green Gables), but the language was too advanced for them. However I couldn't put it down. Ms. Wiggin's use of turn of phrase and metaphor remind me so much of Mark Twain. I'm in awe of their common talent for making it possible to see a concept in a new light by merely a precise juxtaposition of words. Much of this might be lost on younger readers, but my daughters were nevertheless facinated by Rebecca's spirit; so much so, that they asked me to tell them the whole story when I had finished.

No review could do this marvelous book justice, but I will attempt it. My mother bought the book for me some years ago because she thought it would be good for me to read classics. Thinking that it would be boring, I didn't read it for a long time. But a couple of days ago I was bored and picked it up. Soon, I fell under the same spell Rebecca cast over nearly every person she met. Around the age of 10 or 11, she was forced to leave her home, Sunnybrook Farm, to live in a brick house with her spinster aunts in Riverboro. Her aunts Jane and Miranda weren't used to young people, but they let Rebecca stay with them in order to help out her poor widowed mother who had 6 other children to care for. Rebecca charmed nearly all the citizens of Riverboro, Aunt Jane, and, in time, her strict, austere Aunt Miranda.

There were many things to love about the story. In fact, it has become one of my favorite books of all time. (and I am a voracious reader) The characters were all realistically and richly delineated. Rebecca especially came alive for me. She was such a talented, imaginative, caring girl. She was the kind of person that anyone would love to have as a friend. Actually, I would want to be her. I didn't want to stop reading about her adventures. The events played before my mind's eye like a movie. I traveled back in time, to 100 years ago. This is considered a children's book, but it has truths and insights that people of all ages can learn from. Several of the passages, the literary allusions, and Rebecca's poems were so beautiful that I had to reread them. The language was eloquent. As another reviewer said, the vocabulary wasn't "dumbed down" like the vocabularies of modern children's books, and there was a protagonist one could love.

The only part about the novel that I didn't like was that there isn't a sequel. I would love to find out what Rebecca's career turns out to be. I believe that she marries Mr. Ladd (a.k.a. "Mr. Aladdin"), but I wish we could know for sure.

Overall, I highly reccomend this book to readers of all ages. If you like books with wonderful supporting characters and an unusual, loveable heroine, treat yourself to "Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm".

I read this book fast in one sitting; Donoghue's stark but evocative prose brought the interlinked tales vividly to life. The celebration of affection between women is subtle and refreshing, and, though prose and characters seem simple, they are nuanced. My favorite tales were the reworkings of Beauty and the Beast (who is "not a man") and Snow White, which concentrates on the relationship between the girl and her stepmother. Donoghue's reworkings subvert classic tales in sophisticated ways that challenge any reader, especially the young adult audience that this book is ostensibly for.

This book was simply enchanting! How refreshing to read these old fairy tales retold from a modern woman's point of view. I have to agree with a former reviewer that it was nice NOT to read, "And they lived happily ever after," at the end of these tales. I particularly enjoyed the interconnectedness of the stories---the way one flowed into the next. A beautiful, mind-expanding book that should be read by everywoman.

One page read aloud and one image shared (the book's cover on an overhead transparency)aroused a thirst for more as I listened to a review of this new collection of fairytales. As I sat in the audience of over eighty other English teachers, gathering notes about new adolescent literature, my ears perked up as the eloquent speaker, a very conventional looking lady, gave accolades to this potentially controversial anthology. Once I bought a copy and read it for myself I admired the author's clever skill at delicately weaving each tale to the next, taking every opportunity to dispell the subtle patriarchal oppressive seeds of thought planted by their traditional ancestors. As a literary instructor, I put much faith in the science and art of bibliotherapy (using books to address emotional and psychological issues). This book is excellant balm for a young lady confronting her emerging sexuality, should it diverge from mass cultural expectations. Furthermore it is a vivid example of how a story can be beautifully retold, keeping the frame of the original but explaining something much deeper than "happily ever-after." I would not limit this book by saying that its only audience is comprised of lesbians, bisexuals, or adolescents. It is a book from which we can all gain lessons of tolerance, peace, and a deeper understanding of human emotion.

I started to read the book on a Thursday evening and couldn't stop until I had finished reading it Saturday morning. I enjoyed the full life story, the coincidences and the beautiful description of the other side. Of course there will be the doubters, but it certainly gets you thinking and gives a reason for being here. Can't wait for your next book, Martin.

Having read this book, and then the reviews I can only express the reservation that when reading this subject everyone has certain expectations of the content they wish to find. Martins story while not a unique account does strive to convey that his experience of rebirth was only the beginning. It may be a sub-conscious expression or rationalisation of his subjective experience, but whatever you decide it is, the core of his account is that accepting the imposed limitations of inexplicable life events can cause more psychoses than considering the alternative ways of surviving them. The realisation being that once you reject self or socially imposed limitations many more ways of accepting your life become possible. There is a feeling that the authors' tale extends beyond the pages of his book into an even less accepted area of parapsychology that may warrant another book. In all it is provocative and challenges your existing beliefs in a positive form and remember a publisher exerts their influence to sell copies.

i read this book and think the author has something to tell. everyone who reads this book will probably see a connection to the somehow "forgotten" world we used to live in. i personally think that the author did a very good job describing his experience in aswell meditation as memories of past life and his experiences on earth this life. i think he managed to tell a lot about the "other" side without giving his personal opinion about it. thanks martin for this beautiful book.

Will Pennekamp Holland will_pennekamp_hotmail.com

This wonderful book not only tells the stroy of King Philip's War with accuracy and detail, it also provides an excellent guide to the various sites throughout New England where key events in the war's history occurred. These are not the typical sites you'll find in Fodor's or at the chamber of commerce, but they provide insight into a (shamefully) forgotten but important period of American history. Take it along when you take your next trip to New England, and on your way to Lexington & Concord, make sure you visit a few sites form an earlier -- and equally pivotal-- American war.

This book is one of those rarities that can delight passionate history buffs, professional historians, serious field explorers, and armchair travelelers alike. The authors have skillfully drawn on nearly every worthwhile source on King Philip's War to create a fascinating and readable text. What's really great, though, is the photos, maps, and place descriptions. You might live over 350 years later and most of a continent away but they still give you a strong sense of "being there" during one of the greatest white-Indian showdowns of American history.

This is a fantastic book. Beautifully written and illustrated. Haven't finished reading it yet, but it has already given me a whole new understanding, not only of the history of colonial New England, but of the troubled and as yet unresolved history of the relationship between European and Native peoples in this country. This is much more than a guide book to obscure sites of the King Philip War. This book explains a lot about why the history of relations between European and Native has been and continues to be so difficult. Its gruesome tale also explains why this is not a part of our history that has made it into American history textbooks -- at least none that I or my children have ever had in school. Perhaps by telling the story Schultz and Tougias have helped open up a path toward truth and reconciliation in the relationship between European and Native Americans. This is must reading for anyone who cares about history, who cares about the state of race relations in America, or who dares to try to understand how we got to where we are.

I picked up this book in London. I decided to look under the last shelf of the "Fiction A-Z by Author" section of my local bookshop, and chanced upon Paul Watkins' most recent novel.

This is a good yarn. The narrator, Paul Weidekind, and his girlfriend Suleika are fishermen in North Eastern USA. Their apparently honest, hardworking life on the sea is turned upside down by the appearance on shore of someone for Weidekind's past who he thought he had left behind long ago. I don't want to detail the plot here as that would spoil it. Suffice to say this is a great thriller.

Watkins' own experience on a deep sea trawler in North Eastern USA have clearly lent to his detailed descriptions of a fishermans' life. Watkins' also chooses historical contexts in many of his novels, as this one does.

In short, I read this book in about two days. I recommend it wholeheartedly. You won't be disappointed.

This was my first Paul Watkins book, but I will now look for and read others. I rated this book and 8, but it is an honest 8. Grapes of Wrath gets a 10. I was hooked by Mr. Watkins' book and enjoyed it very much. It is serious and interesting and thoughtful. Not a page turner in the conventional sense, but if that is what you want, I'm sure Danielle Steele will be coming out with two more books this month. The characters in "The Story of My Disappearance" are unusual and interesting, though the lone female could have been developed more fully. As a writer, what I liked in this story was the plotting and the attempts at weaving past and present, which was done skillfully though not perfectly. Who can do that perfectly? I don't know. But it must be done in a novel like this, which portrays how our past is never really left behind. Even if we force it down inside us, it may still erupt from the outside, as people and incidents from our past come back to haunt us. Read this book. I think you'll like it.

Every time I read a Paul Watkins book (and I've read 'em all!) I am totally amazed at his ability to draw interesting characters and put them in situations that make you examine your own life, even though we may not share the life experiences about which he writes. His focus is on what makes people tick, our motivations as humans. Every page contains a nugget of truth and wisdom that will make you say, "Yeah! I understand exactly! I felt that way when...."

Returning to the fishing boat setting of his earlier novel CALM AT SUNSET, CALM AT DAWN, Paul Watkins has, with THE STORY OF MY DISAPPEARANCE, achieved an even fuller flowering. This one's a winner!

My first book by Luanne Rice and it was a pleasure to read it although it was somewhat sweet and lacked as much depth as both the characters and subject deserved. Others have summed up the story well so I won't do that here. I would like to say that I fell in love with her hero, Thomas X Devlin, and enjoyed the peripheral characters of Anne Davis's family, eg her niece Maggie and her sister Gabrielle and brother in law Steve and even the society on the unnamed island on which they all lived.

However, there were, in my view, some weaknesses here. In particular, her ex-husband was very one dimensional and Maggie's circle of friends were rather over-drawn.

The grisly accident scene at the end of the book was very well done but the way in which Matt, the two-timing ex-husband, appears to undergo some divine revelation leading to his reformation into a saddened and chastened husband was too much to bear. His grief was examined but not developed. Thank goodness Anne had already seen through him!

This novelist was at her very best in describing grief and loss and also in showing the path to recovery.

Homefires is probably the best book I have read about the dynamics of family and death. The reader is able to feel the devestation of Anne Davis and examine the life of lonely Thomas Devlin. Rice draws these two, very complicated characters together in a rather unique relationship. It is at this point that Homefires delivers certain reality...Devlin's son, Ned, must deal with his feelings about Anne. Anne's sister must work through the issues of her own family...and the envy of her sister. Added to this mix of mourning, jealousy, pride, and anger is Anne's troubled niece Maggie. Only in reality would one see a story of this magnitude played out. LuAnne Rice does a lovely job showing how each character takes on his or her own personal demons. I recommend Homefires to any reader.

Home Fires is the first Luanne Rice book I have read and I know that after finishing this wonderful book, I will now be seeking to devour all of her other books!!

Ms. Rice writes from the heart concerning what matters most in a family - love, tenderness and caring. She writes of tragedy and loss that will have you weeping but by the end of this book, you are smiling with joy at the realization of love and hope in this family in the midst of all of the tragedy.

I absolutely loved the tenderness, understanding, and compassion in the character of Thomas Devlin - (yes, Thomas, where are you? :-)). I admired the strength and courage in Anne Davis after the recent loss of her four-year-old daughter. She draws the reader completely into the depth of each character, from young to old, and you feel like you know them intimately and can relate to them all. You experience their pain, grief, and uncertainty and mourn their losses. Rice's ability to magically draw on the emotions and real life scenarios of family life is really amazing.

This book's message is indeed one of hope, trust and love. Luanne Rice lets you know that amidst the chaos of tragedy, love can find roots, grow sprouts, and blossom gloriously again - one just has to trust and let love in.

I love to see this book made into a movie! I highly recommend this wonderful book and eagerly look forward to reading more of her books!

You get a printout based on a sample of your DNA telling you that you have an inherited disease--even though you have no symptoms now--that will cause you to suffer a slow, agonizing death. Do insurance companies have a right to know this? Do they have the right to test you before issuing a policy? And what happens if this information is manipulated by corrupt people? All these questions are addressed in Patrick Lynch's novel. In this well-told story, we meet the ambitious actuary, Alex, her fast-lane boyfriend, Mark, and her stable mentor, Randal, all of whom play significant roles in answering these questions. The plot is fast-paced, and the characters are quite believeable. This is a great one or two day read--one of those "can't put down" books. Quite enjoyable.

ProvLife is one of the country's leading life insurance companies. However, the firm wants to enter other markets and has chosen health insurance as a lucrative business. The company's plan is to take over the Massachusetts HMO market. They start by offering their own employees top rate health care for a reasonable cost. Soon, they expand their coverage and their strategic business objective suddenly appears to be within their grasp.

Alexandra Tynan works for ProvLife, evaluating medical data when she notices an alarming trend that makes her question the validity and reliability of the numbers she has been provided to analyze. She begins to investigate and soon realizes that the company's board of directors are making millions of dollars through bogus payoffs while deaths due to alleged accidents go off the actuary charts. As her bosses launder cash overseas, Alex may have uncovered a nefarious plot that could make her the next statistic.

As HMOs ma! ke headlines for their bottom line accounting decisions on health care, THE POLICY takes us one step beyond that scenario into what might seem like the unthinkable. Yet in the talented hands of Patrick Lynch the premise truly seems believable. The pace of the storyline is non-stop and ultra-speed, but should carry a warning label. The masses of us already having troubles with HMOs and other health insurance carriers need to have a tranquilizer handy because this novel will strike a chord of anger and anxiety. Anyone who has not read Mr. Lynch's previous thrillers (CARRIERS and OMEGA) need to because like this novel, the excitement continues long after the last page is completed.

Harriet Klausner

This was a well written story that for some reason I didn't expect to grab me and yet it did. To be fair, I had read many of the reviews here at Amazon and it was the general praise that The Policy received that convinced me to buy the book and read it. Had I not visited this site first, I probably would've passed. Now, I'm glad I didn't. Alex Tynan is one of the neater female characters I have met in a book in quite some time. What I liked about her were the several dimensions the two writers who hide behind the pseudonym Patrick Lynch gave her. Like many of us, she has her flaws and has made her share of mistakes. She is not a one-dimensional superhero like we see in many of the bad techno-thrillers. With more than above average intelligence and a tenacity that creeps up on the reader as the novel progresses, Alex reminded me of the proverbial dog with a bone that they just won't give up. Alex is like that and that's what kept me glued to this book. Another interesting skill the authors brought to this storyline was that they picked a dull industry like life and health insurance and somehow, made it seem sinister and evil. Of course, industries themselves are not evil, but the people in them can be and sometimes are. To be sure, this is not a scary book or a true nail-biting page turner in the strictest sense of that label but there is a lot of tension and it grows throughout this novel. The authors did an outstanding job of creating and increasing that tension as the novel progressed. I haven't read any of the other books by the two folks who call themselves Patrick Lynch but rest assured, I most certainly will. These two writers have several other books out and I intend to track them down and gobble them up. Patrick Lynch, whoever you are, keep up the good work and keep the stories coming. You two seem to have a lot to say and some good story lines to use as your vehicles. Thanks for an enjoyable read.

If you haven't read any Edith Wharton, read Age of Innocence first, then Ethan Fromme, then House of Mirth. By then you will love her, and then it will be time for Buccaneers. This is not her very best book. It contains some of the same themes that she has covered before. There is one key difference, that makes Buccaneers unique from her earlier works and that is...something I won't give away!

Most of us know Edith Wharton either through
reading Ethan Frome in high school, or having
seen The Age of Innocence at the movie
theater. While she is best know for these works
they are dim in tone and portray the oppressive
nature of society.

In The Buccaneers, Wharton presents us with a group
of young women who have been rejected by
late 19th Century NY society, and journey to
England in search of husbands. Each of the
characters in fully drawn, and while Wharton
maintains her description of society as oppressive, she
counters this with the idealism and hope
of her brave young women and societal rules that with time are changing.
These women for the most part strive
to attain happiness, and unlike Wharton's
other principal characters, do acheive it.
This is probably the only Wharton novel
to end on a note of happiness and hope.
Combined with the richly drawn backdrop of 19th
century English & American society, it makes
for an enchanting and provocative read.

I was skeptical about reading this book, since it was not complete by Edith Wharton. However, I was pleasantly surprised. Marion Mainwaring did a wonderful job of completing the novel. I was unable to tell where Edith's writing stopped and Marion's began. (The afterword describes exactly what Marion added.) -very fun book to read. I finished it in just a few days.

Graver's Aimee Slater reveals herself without shame, not only through the unraveling of her tangled story, but also through her dreams, fears, hopes, and memories. A tough New Englander rooted in and by the soil, Aimee holds stubbornly to her ideals in an unforgiving environment, thereby becoming a truly "modern woman," one with whom the reader will certainly identify. Her totally candid views of her stultifying life on the farm, her obvious need for comfort and love, and her fears and loneliness in the Lowell mill, where she, friendless, attempts to become independent, all give warmth and power to her character. One also cannot help but respond with sympathy to the role her mother is destined to play, while understanding, too, the inevitability of Aimee's rebellion and its consequences. The story structure itself is somewhat contrived and the plot predictable, an illustration, perhaps, of the lack of choices in the lives of mid-19th century women, but this is a character story and the lack of a unique plot may be appropriate. Whether Aimee's story is approached from a psychological, historical, geographical, or feminist perspective, one will find much satisfaction on every level.

This novel is a pretty amazing creation - Elizabeth Graver has created a story and characters here that are at once compelling and, although set firmly in the mid-19th century, have a lot of valuable insight for us in the present. I picked up this book after being impressed by her newer novel, THE HONEY THIEF - and I have to say that I enjoyed this one even more than that wonderful novel.

The central character here, the narrator, Aimée Slater, is, I think, the key to the book's depth. Born in the first half of the 19th century, she is both a product of and a reaction to the age. Her parents are good, if simple people - she and her family live on a farm in New Hampshire. She has siblings - the closest to her in age being her sister Harriet and her brother Jeremiah. All of the other children seem not merely to accept, but to seek the niches awaiting them in society and family - Aimée is headstrong and independent, always questioning the 'why' of things. This trait exasperates her parents - and sets the course for her life at an early age.

Straining to break the stifling bonds of her household - but still holding a deep love for her parents in her heart - Aimée embarks from the rural area where her family lives to Lowell, Massachusetts, to work in one of the textile factories that have sprung up there. She does this against the wishes of her parents - especially her mother - but they give in to her when they realize that their hope of convincing her to do otherwise is nil. In the city, she encounters a world she has never seen before - and at fifteen years old, she is scarcely emotionally equipped to cope with it, despite what she may think. Like many other young girls away from home for the first time, in a time when sexuality and eroticism were repressed to the point of complete non-discussion, she is left by her first love affair pregnant and alone. Her mother makes no secret about being completely shamed by Aimée's situation - but at the same time, she finds a wealthy family who agrees to adopt the babies when they are born, who will support Aimée monetarily during her pregnancy. After the birth of her twins, even though she has agreed to the adoption, she is devastated by their departure - it is a sadness that, along with other events she has experienced, that will color her life.

One of the most moving passages in the novel, for me, was the depiction of an incident of a suppressed memory from Aimée's childhood being triggered by a scent. When she was a girl, one Christmas, her father produced a piece of chocolate candy - a rarity - without telling her that she was meant to share it with her sister. So taken was she by the taste and scent of the treat that she popped it whole into her mouth. Her father reacted angrily - another rarity - and forced her to spit out the candy, slapping her and calling her 'a selfish girl'. Unused to such treatment from him, the young girl was traumatized by this - only as an adult, when offered a piece of chocolate, did the scent cause this memory to resurface.

Another incident that casts a lasting shadow over her life - and that of her brother Jeremiah - is an instance of brother-sister 'touching' that occurred in the upper loft of the barn. As depicted in the story, I believe that it was more a result of a combination of natural curiosity, combined with the emotional repression and ignorance of the times, incestuous perhaps in one sense, but not an out-and-out case of abuse. I say this because it didn't involve any sort of attempt by either participant to exert control over the other - both children were left very uncomfortable by it, and it never happened again. Nonetheless, it changed their relationship forever, and it created a darkness that hovered over Aimée long past her childhood.

The sense of reality with which the author illuminates both of these incidents is incredible, and done with great insight and sensitivity. Any time events such as this are depicted in literature - or in film or on stage - in a sensitive and intelligent manner is an important step forward in society's understanding of them, and as such is extremely valuable.

The progress of Aimée's life - her emotional healing and growth - is told beautifully and realistically, without dripping sentimentality. She manages not only to heal her own emotional wounds, but also to reach out and touch the lives of those around her as well - and that touch is a blessing, coming from such a source. The story is a moving and compelling one - and it is one from which the reader can come away feeling his/her knowledge augmented in relation to this process. It is different, of course, for everyone who passes through it - but this story, of one woman's determination, pain, healing and courage, is an inspiring one, as well as being an 'old fashioned' good read. I came away from this book uplifted and moved, and very impressed with Ms. Graver's writing abilities. Her sensitivity to her characters, combined with her apparent exhaustive research into the era, make this quite an accomplishment.

Elizabeth Graver has written a thoughtful book that spoke to me on many levels. First of all, it is a book that makes one realize the importance of forgiveness, and yet how hard the truth is to see when you're in the middle of conflict, hurt. Secondly, the mother/daughter relationship is portrayed in all it's complicated mess so beautifully here. The push/pull relationship is very poignant. Aimee's conflicted feelings about wanting to leave her childhood home, yet how she cannot forgive her mother for letting her leave is very realistic. And Aimee's mother's feelings are palatable. Loved this book!