I had never read anything by Lael Littke before Lake of Secrets, but must admit that I was very impressed with this book. I just wish there would have been more romance and that the authur had done more with the book; it seemed so short. But, non-the-less, Lake of Secrets was great and is a highly recommended read.

This book is full of twists, excitement and mystery. Lael Littke works her magic thru words by creating a masterpiece of literature. It's about a girl who discovers the terrible secrets of her long lost brother, Keith's past by recalling memories deep inside of her. This is a great book!!

The author is an excellent chef at the Lake Austin Spa and Resort. In his cookbook, he details low fat/low cal recipes he has created and served to the patrons of the resort. He stresses the use of the freshest ingredients (having an extensive kitchen garden at the spa) to enhance the flavor of the dishes. He has compiled a collection of appetizers (such as Texas Caviar); his delectable and fat-free salad dressings; fish, meat and meatless entrees; veggies; and , YES, luscious pies, cakes and other desserts. The food is delicious, healthful, and believe-it-or-not quite filling. Includes tips on how to cut calorie and fat by, for example, making your own baked tortilla chips (super easy and tasty).

Recipes have nutritional content on each. Take home message stressed to spa-goers at Lake Austin Spa and Resort is...portion size, portion size, portion size!

Terry Conlan has taught several cooking classes in my area and I have taken two. His cookbook is an extension that I can have with me at all times. His recipes are tasty and don't taste "low fat". Whoever would have thought that lima beans could have been made into a delicious soup? Even my SON-IN-LAW liked it!

This is a delightful addition to my collection of cookbooks and one that I use often.

Facaros and Pauls have provided a fun and entertaining guide but they often forget to include essential information to make the book practical. For example, we are told that above Orta San Giulio there are several fetching towns and attractions but we are not told how far they are or how to get there. Is a car required? Any public transportation? Is the sanctuary a pleasant 2 mile walk or a challenging 7 mile hike? Perhaps if you are making a return visit such details are not necessary, but for the first time visitor they are essential. Also, anyone planning to visit this area will most likely include both Mantua and Verona on their visit, but only Mantua is covered here. (Yes, Verona is not technically included in the 'Lombard Plain,' but can you imagine a guide to LA that didn't include Disneyland because technically it's in Anaheim, not LA?) You'll need another guide for Verona. If the authors issue a revised edition including Verona plus more detailed info, this will be an excellent guide. Mr Pauls, can we hope for this?

I bought 4 books for our trip to the lake region and this was by far the most useful. Granted it does not include specific information about hours and costs for museums and sites, but we found that most of that information in the other books was out of date anyway. Use it with another guide if you need that. This book gives detailed background information on each area with history and culture, which gives you a great head start on your appreciation of the places you visit. We also found that it included some out-of-the-way places not in the other guides and really appreciated the personal opinons. Restaurants we tried on their recommendation were excellent, compared to the mixed results when we picked on our own. No guide is perfect, but this one comes very close, and the coming 5th edition may be even closer!

This tale benefits greatly from Foust's style; he deftly handles the protagonist's clashes and friendship with a Greek family on the family's own, dangerous turf. The book jacket trumpeted comparisons with Hemingway, and it was right. This book provides a tight, literate summer read

After reading Uris' "Trinity" and a Roth's "Sabbath's Theatre" I was looking for something entertaining but not heavy or with four pages devoted to the innerpsyche of each character. While the book was sometimes predictable, I enjoyed the redeeming qualities of the lead character Jay contrasted to the Krisos' family members. Indeed, from the pedophile homosexual elderly brothers to the classic bullfighter, each character was a contrast that moved the book through the somewhat tired plot

This is a great book for a mystery lover. If you are interested in lake monsters like me you will like this book. So you decide is there a monster or is it a hoax.

It all begins the day the Aldens arive at Lake Lucielle when their new friend,Nicole, tells them that a person who lives at Lucielle Lodge,Carl, has seen a monster in the lake. Then mysterious things start to happen like Monster tracks, low wailing sounds, even a monster-bitten canoe paddle! Is someone trying to scare visitors away or is their really a monster in Lake Luicelle? Read the book to find out!

Each of these essays slows down time while fishing for steelhead, condenses time in a Lake Superior fall bird migration, turns on the time-lapse camera of glacial time and rekindles the time-suspended fun of playing in the waves. Van Stappen's naturalist eye and poetic style draws his reader in. A writer for Wisconsin Outdoor Journal and 1996 Pippistrelle Best of the Small Press Winner, Van Stappen's collection of Lake Superior essays puts this achievement in the osprey's nest: high above and easy to spot. In his essay about blueberry picking, his dry wit can be found: "After all, our opposable thumb and forefinger didn't develop just to flick coins into vending machines. We were berry pickers before we were tool users and are still berry pickers today." Each essay is also accentuated with paintings by Kate Wright. Wright is obviously inspired by Van Stappen's writing. The paintings interact superbly with each essay. In his essay, "Ephemeral Like Clouds", Van Stappen writes about clouds of mayflies (Aurora ephemeralis) appearing everywhere in his hometown, Washburn. He writes, "They didn't spread themselves evenly like some insectile fog, but instead clustered in discrete, cloud-like swarms resembling miniature thunderstorms. Within each swarm there was a continuous circulation of mayflies rising and falling as if in updrafts and downdrafts." Wright's painting depicts the whirligig desires of mayflies, flocking to a lit cabin window. Hunters, birdwatchers, cabin owners, and fishermen will love this book. Vacationers heading for Northern Wisconsin and Lake Superior can enhance their trips with it. Residents of the region will find these essays a warming balm in the long winter nights. With it's sense of timelessness, "Northern Passages", will hopefully make it into the shelves of libraries and family favorites.

Northern Passages: Reflections from Lake Superior Country by Michael Van Stappen

Reviewed by Matt Welter

If there is one word the sums up Michael Van Stappen's collection of nature essays, it is "timelessness". Each of these essays slows down time while fishing for steelhead, condenses time in a Lake Superior fall bird migration, turns on the time-lapse camera of glacial time and rekindles the time-suspended fun of playing in the waves. Van Stappen's naturalist eye and poetic style draws his reader in. A writer for Wisconsin Outdoor Journal and 1996 Pippistrelle Best of the Small Press Winner, Van Stappen's collection of Lake Superior essays puts this achievement in the osprey's nest: high above and easy to spot. In his essay about blueberry picking, his dry wit can be found: "After all, our opposable thumb and forefinger didn't develop just to flick coins into vending machines. We were berry pickers before we were tool users and are still berry pickers today." Each essay is also accentuated with paintings by Kate Wright. Wright is obviously inspired by Van Stappen's writing. The paintings interact superbly with each essay. In his essay, "Ephemeral Like Clouds", Van Stappen writes about clouds of mayflies (Aurora ephemeralis) appearing everywhere in his hometown, Washburn. He writes, "They didn't spread themselves evenly like some insectile fog, but instead clustered in discrete, cloud-like swarms resembling miniature thunderstorms. Within each swarm there was a continuous circulation of mayflies rising and falling as if in updrafts and downdrafts." Wright's painting depicts the whirligig desires of mayflies, flocking to a lit cabin window. Hunters, birdwatchers, cabin owners, and fishermen will love this book. Vacationers heading for Northern Wisconsin and Lake Superior can enhance their trips with it. Residents of the region will find these essays a warming balm in the long winter nights. With it's sense of timelessness, "Northern Passages", will hopefully make it into the shelves of libraries and family favorites.

In this book, Kathleen Jones provides excellent insight into the lives of the women involved with the early English Romantic poets (William Wordsworth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, and Robert Southey). The reader is struck at the difficulty of these women's daily lives, allied as they were (through marriage or sisterhood) to men whose reputations were growing at such a rate that they often failed to provide their families with the emotional support one might have expected. Of course, such a comment may reflect this reader's contemporary expectations, but surely Coleridge's abandonment of his family, for example, is shocking in any era. Sara Coleridge and the two Dorothy Wordsworths (sister and daughter to the great poet), especially, come to life with great zest. It is a shame in such an otherwise interesting and readable biography that Jones does not provide more of a social context for these people's actions; had she done so, this biography would have approached the quality of, say, Amanda Foreman's _Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire_. Nevertheless, for anyone interested in women's history or the Romantic movement in England, this book should be most appealing.

If you've ever wanted to know more about the women in the lives of some of England's greatest poets, then this is the book for you. Edith and Sarah Fricker were married to Robert Southey and Samuel Taylor Coleridge, who, along with William Wordsworth, wrote some of the best-loved poetry in the English language. However, this is not a book about the great men and their problems with the Muse. It's about the women in their lives, their wives, sisters and daughters, and how they coped with everyday life with poetry and genius as their everyday companions. The Lake poets were geniuses, and not always easy to live with. The women in their lives were often forced to live with incompatible people, run households on very little money, and cope with pregnancy, birth, death and illness. Often, the poet was too busy with his Muse to be of much practical help. The strength of Mary and Dorothy Wordsworth, Sarah Coleridge, their sisters and daughters was admirable under often difficult circumstances. "A passionate sisterhood" describes the other side of the Romantic ideal of the poet's genius. It shows us what it was like for the poet's family, and their struggles make for fascinating reading.

_Polyphony_ is a new anthology series that showcases excellent stories that lie somewhere between mainstream fiction and fantastic/SF fiction. The stories in this, the premiere volume of Polyphony, are of a consistently high quality.

My favorite story in the volume (and picking a favorite story is like shooting fish in a barrel) is from Victoria Elisabeth Garcia. "Anthropology" is her first published story. It's about the intricate plans a woman goes through to seduce an anthropology professor. An excellent piece of work.

The rest of the anthology is very good as well. The reader should pay special attention to the stories by Carol Emshwiller, Maureen McHugh, James Van Pelt, Bruce Holland Rogers, & Douglas Lain. Carrie Vaughn writes a very nice story, but the first half of the story is eerily similar to the recent war movie 'Enemy at the Gates'. I assume that either the similarity is coincidental or that both stories are rooted in the same historical facts (with which I am unfamiliar).

I was slightly disappointed with the stories by Andy Duncan and Lucius Shepard. They're nice enough but don't have any of the zest both writers normally deliver. Be warned, Shepard's piece was published previously in an e-book.

I'm eagerly looking forward to the next volume in the Polyphony series. With luck (and reader support), Polyphony will become successful and continue indefinitely. If the quality of the fiction is as excellent as it is in this collection, I can't wait.

Slipstream, a term often bandied about in discussions of science fiction, doesn't lend itself to easy definition. It's used to describe stories that don't fit neatly into genre categories, in which the fantastic elements that usually mark a story as science fiction or fantasy are subtle or barely present.

POLYPHONY happily embraces the slipstream, and the result is a fine assortment of short fiction that belongs wherever well-written, imaginative stories are welcome.

Every item in the table of contents offers something of interest. Highlights include the following:

"Anthropology" by Victoria Elisabeth Garcia, a wonderfully lunatic tale of mating rituals, Victoriana, and weird science.

"The Sea Monkey Conspiracy" by Douglas Lain, where brine shrimp and 2-XL robots feed a college student's paranoia and/or serve as the tools of dark, manipulative agencies.

"The Room on the Roof" by Vandana Singh, a sensually rich story about a sculptress who introduces magic and strangeness into the life of a girl growing up in India.

"Laika Comes Back Safe" by Maureen McHugh, a showcase for McHugh's ear for distinct voices in which a Russian dog stranded in orbit and a werewolf cousin figure in the life of a girl straining against a troubled home life.

"The Main Design That Shines Through Sky and Earth" by Bruce Holland Rogers, a particulary moving story (or suite of stories) that examines teachers, teaching, lessons, and students.

If the world works the way it ought to, we'll have many more volumes of POLYPHONY to look forward to, and open-minded readers will have continued cause to celebrate.

An immense compendium of the pristine paddling spots left in New York State. The authors looked for lakes with one goal in mind: find places where the water has not been spoiled by development, pollution, or powerboats. Unquestionably, they succeeded. The book describes over 100 trips across the state, with an expectedly high concentration in the Adirondack Mountains. For each trip, the authors describe launch locations, scenery, notable areas on the lake, and any interesting wildlife seen during their paddle. Many of the lakes are a bit small for a full day trip, but if one only has a few hours to paddle, these are certainly places to go. The authors did a good job of including sites from across the entire state, and tried to include a number of lakes near New York City. Unfortunately, the authors almost ignored flat river paddling, but a few calm rivers and streams did make their way into the book. Overall, if you are a New Yorker who loves getting away from it all, this is one book to have.

For the novice, such as myself, this is a good book to get you started on exploring the canoeing areas of New York. They review the area, the water, and the wildlife. It is not an exhaustive list and many areas we found were seasonal, but that wasn't mentioned in the book. I hope they write another updated and more exhaustive review in the future.

This a greatest book.It has mystery,humour,and all around fun.I think the characters are dumb. I know what's community work,and I'm younger than Jane!Even though,Leavey made us forget about that. This is a work of true planning.

The best Silverberch book!Silverbirch is a book award and I read all ten.It has suspense,humour, and all around good.There are some parts I don't understand like when Jane introduced Jesse to Corrie,Jesse wasn't moving.Jane was"afraid of that."What does that mean.This is a great book!