This is a great book It includs the story of live dolls More about live dolls and the secret of live dolls

This is a good and basic selection of women writers from the period, though I wish the selection were more adventurous. As well, I think the book is far too expensive to use in a course since one must supplement these texts with others. But I am pleased to have this anthology. Now if only we could have an inexpensive anthology that covers the classical through the Renaissance periods.

Nature Lab is a wonderful combination of hands-on science experiments and descriptions of how things happen. Providing the basic scientific tools like a magnifying glass, litmus paper, test tube, tweezers, a pop-up lab table (which becomes a veiwing platform for viewing the plastic slides also included) and a variety of additional tools and materials, the kit leads one through a series of natural and chemical experiments to broaden the scientific knowledge of a young child and bring back that knowledge for an adult. From sprouting an avocado seed, to examining insects, to making a rock disappear in a benign solution, each step is carefully explained and colorfully illustrated. From the natural world we explored volcanoes and made one. We sprouted seeds and made a flying "origami" seed to illustrate how plants release their seeds to the winds to propigate themselves. And my granddaughter loved having all the small child-size scientific tools and played with them by making up her own experiments. If I have one disappointment in the Nature Lab, it is that, while it supplies the tools to conduct the experiments, many of the experiments require providing the essentials of the experiment such as baking soda, vinegar, seeds, and other things to complete the procedure. But once we read through the book and decided which experiments we wanted to perform, it was easy enough to gather the materials. We were not be able to do many of the experiments right after opening, which somewhat dampened the excitement but which did not, in the long run, diminish the enjoyment and enthusiasm for this product. It was a great way to introduce hands-on science to a nine year old girl.

I found that this particular text book assisted me greatly when I was completing my nurse training. Now that I am a fully qualified nurse, I have found myself using this text time and time again. I feel that it is useful as it explains and demonstrate the anatomy and physiology of the bidy but then further describes the pathology and nursing management. it offers practicle advice and explanations of a variety of key aspects that we as nurses are faced with today.

Reading this collection of letters by the author of "The Maltese Falcon" and other great mystery novels provides a revealing insight to the thoughts and feelings of this intensely private man. Peppered with delightful sides of humor it is easily readable. One can dip into one or another of the phases of his life: the early short story years, his service in World War I, fame and fortune in books, radio, and film; marriage, fatherhood, divorce, romances, chiefly with Lillian Hellman, service in Alaska in WWII, his jailing for defying the anti-communism of the 50's, his final illness, poverty, and death. In letters to Hellman, and his own daughters, Mary and Josephine he comments with a a few words on hundreds of books he read. A compendium of the books fills five and one-half pages at the end of the book. There is no explicit explanation of why his voice fell silent after his brilliant novels, but the perceptive reader is given clues in the man's own words, written with no intention to have them preserved for history but fortunately available to us now.

Although this book is horribly outdated, having no second edition in the twenty-six years since its publication, it still accurately portrays the first two hundred years of Georgia's representation to the United States Senate. Some of Georgia's best are included in this volume -- Richard Russell, William Bibb, and Thomas Watson to name a few -- yet some of Georgia's more recent best, like Paul Coverdell, Max Cleland, and Zell Miller, are not.

This book is an excellent biographical reference for Georgia's Senators prior to 1976. If you ever plan to involve yourself with Georgia politics, I recommend this book.

Set in New Orleans, 1895. Marian Cuvier had been married to Jean twelve years. She had a ten-year-old son, Philip, and a little girl, Renée. When informed her husband was dead in a hotel room, while with another woman, she rushed to the scene. It did not shock Marian to know Jean was with another woman. She long suspected a mistress. However, it royally shocked Marian to find out that Jean had married two other women within the last four years! None of the wives knew about the others.

Jean was co-owner of Cuvier Shipping. He left his part of the business to his son, Philip. Until he reached legal age, Marian would be guardian. The partner was named Louis Fournet. Louis wanted to sell the business and use the capital to begin a mill. He could not sell it without Marian's signature though, and she refused! Worse, she began coming into the office to work every morning to learn the business. Louis would say or do anything to make Marian change her mind!

**** This story only touched on the two illegal wives. Their names were Nicole and Layla. Nicole's story will come out in Dec. 2002. Layla's will be out early 2003. This book focused on Marian, the first and only legal wife.

Author Sylvia McDaniel has created a strong heroine that readers cannot help but admire, not only for her intelligence, but also for her deep concern for her children's welfare. No helpless, wishy-washy female here! I never cared for the hero a bit. However, I never doubted Marian would take care of him! A very good romance that focuses on the main characters without major distractions. Recommended! ****

Reviewed by Detra Fitch.

This is a novel that deals not just with envy. Elizabeth and Ruth are cousins, and Elizabeth gets adopted by Ruth's parents when her own parents are killed. The girls grow up as sisters, but all along Ruth develops an incredible ill for Elizabeth, even though she doesn't do anything to provoke that resentment. Ruth makes it her life's mission to destroy Elizabeth. Her dream is to see her in pain, suffering and humiliated. She resorts to extreme manipulations and convoluted schemes to achieve that purpose.

Ruth is an amazing character, who personifies badness in a thought-provoking way. Her selfishness, envy and greed are almost incomprehensible. How can a human being harbor such hate for someone who has never done anything wrong? This novel made me think and think about the issue. Is it possible that people are born bad? So many times i've heard that we are all born good, and it's circumstances that make us bad. Did Ruth turn bad when she saw her parents combing Elizabeth's hair? Was that the moment when Ruth became jealous of her cousin? What happened in subsequent years, how did that badness grow?

Almost as amazing are Elizabeth's reactions to her sister's attacks. As evil as Ruth is, so is Elizabeth gracious and forgiving. Elizabeth summarizes her philosophy of life during their final meeting, a cathartic episode for Ruth, who is deeply changed after that.

A fascinating, disturbing novel that i highly recommend.

I see this as a story of girl, Ruth, who carried burden of deprived childhood, deprived in an unusal way(being too lucky/capable). It develps in to a dream to see her cousin and adopted sitestr Elizabeth suffer in pain, in all possible secretive ways. On the other hand Elizabeth has practiced to love Ruth instead of fighting her, She didn't figure this out till Elizabeth told her of her strategy at a very late stage in their lives. If Damage is a good book, this is an excellent one.

Josephine Hart has a superb way with words. As a novelist, her writing is almost poetic; she can say in one paragraph, what takes Pat Conroy several pages. This novel, her second, is deeply psychological, mostly taking place in the mind of the main character. Unlike her first novel, Damage, it should not ever be made into a film. The book is short. I enjoyed it immensely.

As an audio book, this is a great production. As a mystery, this was a disappointment. How convenient that people stumble onto critical clues, characters and evidence. It's as if all of England were no more than four acres large. I am still wondering what the motive of the killer was; the ending was abrubt and nonsensical. Please read "A Daughter of Time" if you want to experience Tey's best work.

A popular actress/singer's body is found on the beach. At first it is believed to be an accidental drowning, but soon it becomes apparent that this is murder. The novel begins well, and there are some interesting characters, but then it begins to go downhill. Instead of vintage Tey, we seem to have an Agatha Christie plot, and not the best Christie.

There are red herrings galore, a false arrest, 2 escapes, supernatural overtones, and then an unexpected, unprepared for, and totally implausible ending. That the guilty one would have and could have perpetrated the crime in the manner indicated is just beyond belief. The author even has to make her turn out to be insane to create a strong enough motive--no, not nearly strong enough actually.

If you want to read excellent Josephine Tey, try BRAT FARRAR or THE FRANCHISE AFFAIR. This one just isn't up to her later standards.

Josephine Tey is a marvellous mystery writer, but she does use the Golden Age formula. In this book there are actually three plot strands (one of which is a murder). In true "Golden Age" fashion we don't get the answer to any of the three until the end when the murderer is unmasked. Even though she uses the formula, it is apparent in this book anyway that she likes to flout the rules. It's that hint of the unexpected that makes her books such a treasure. And her titles!! They say so much in so few words.

In this book Inspector Grant is looking into the drowning death of a famous film star. There are no shortage of suspects, and there is so much extraneous information that he gets quite frustrated trying to unravel it. But he peseveres and discovers the murderer in the end.

With releases of each subsequent historical romance by Catherine
Coulter, I feel as though I'm in a smaller and smaller minority - I
still like her! Though The Scottish Bride won't go down as my favorite
Coulter by a long shot, it earns a respectable B- from me - I liked it
somewhat less than last year's The Courtship, but it's still a
recommended read.

This is the fourth and final book in her
regency-set historicals about the Sherbrooke family. The hero goes
against type. Tysen Sherbrooke is a dour vicar, a widower with three
children who travels to Scotland after he inherits a barony and
castle. He is not like his rakish brothers and brother-in-law, who
starred in the previous titles in this series.

Tysen rescues Mary
Rose Fordyce, the local bastard, from the clutches of a local man who,
with the blessing of her uncle, will do anything, including rape,
apparently, to force her into marriage with him. Tysen is outraged at
this turn of events, and is surprised as well to discover he has
feelings for Mary Rose, feelings that don't conform to his
piousness.

It's one thing to read a romance where the heroine
reforms a rake, it's another altogether to read a romance where the
heroine brings chaotic light into the ordered presence of a prudish
and seemingly humorless hero. As impressive as Mary Rose is in light
of her Untouchable status, Tysen's wavering between what he sees as
his religious duty and the joy he experiences with Mary Rose is
terrific. And, to Coulter's credit, the appearance of characters from
the earlier books in this series did not detract from this book's
stars - they provided both comic relief and a kick in the pants to
Tysen when necessary. Not all the secondary characters are as
well-drawn, however; Mary Rose's mother is particularly problematic,
but I found Tysen's daughter Meggie engaging, though some may find her
irritating.

There are some wonderfully funny scenes..., and some
with a strong emotional charge. Still, this is Tysen's book, and those
readers looking for a different kind of hero should enjoy it.

TTFN,
Laurie Likes Books

Publisher, All About Romance

In this "last" novel on the Sherbrooke siblings, Catherine Coulter does a wonderful job on relating the romance between the "priggish" vicar, Tysen, and the scottish lass, Mary Rose. As always, Coulter's writing is elegant and vivid. But to my utter suprise, the love story is sweet and humbling. In my opinion, which is one of many, I found this story to be one of Coulter's best; maybe not in the sense of excitement and intrigue by the reader. Coulter takes a secondary character, whom I'm sure most thought would never be featured in a book all of his own, and breathed new life and reason into him. It was an insightful read and a joy to me to know that any character I might run across in the pages of one of her books, may one day have a story all of their own! But is this the end of Sherbrookes? In one of the chapters where Ryder is featured, you will notice a musing he has about his daughter and her feelings of Oliver...or Jeremy...he wonders? Hummm....another great Sherbrooke tale in the making. I sure hope so. The only thing I feel is missing from this story is the appearance of the horrid Sherbrooke mother. Where is she? I would like to know how Coulter would have her feel about the "new" Tysen. That would have been a hoot. But all in all, it was a great read! Please don't let the many reviews placed here sway you. If you are a Coulter fan, this is a must read!

I always read the other reviews before posting my own and after reading some of the reviews I thought I must have been reading a differant book. In my opinion this book was brilliant and definitely the best of the Bride series. I will not go into the storyline because this has been done at length by other reviewers. All I can say is that I thought Tysen a wonderful hero, it was great to see his character change as he became enchanted with Mary Rose. For me Mary Rose was the perfect heroine, not in the least insipid as has been suggested and her love for Tysen just flowed through the pages of this beautifully written book. Lighthearted yes, not terribly complicated yes, an easy read yes, but this did not detract from my enjoyment of the book in the least. And Meggie, what to say about Meggie, she was an absolute joy. For me she made a good book into a great one. Her dialogue was brilliant a tribute to Ms Coulter's penmanship. I dont always like children in books because the authors have a tendency to make them seem either too old or too young for their years. But I think Catherine got it exactly right. The ending had me crying buckets, I think it was a glorious book. I can only hope that Catherine relents and gives us another Bride story. Meggie at eighteen would make a wonderful heroine, if only Catherine could find a hero good enough for her.

Thanks for a wonderful book