Mannering, the novel's supposed hero, is so unappealing and thickheaded that it defies even romance novel logic that are spunky heroine should fall in love with him. Mannering spends the entire novel in love with another woman and treats the loveable heroine, who is his wife, so badly that you actually hope the author kills him so our heroine could find a worthy mate. Not a noteworthy book.

Another Allison Lane winner! The hero takes forever to realize the errors of his misplaced passion (all the way to the next-to-last chapter), but the rest of the story is well worth reading. Caroline's development is well-paced and rather enchanting, the lesser characters interesting, and the anti-heroine rather amazing to watch. Particularly enjoyable is Caroline's level-headedness; she understands that she must become 'her own woman' in many ways, and so comes off as a strong person. And Thomas's turnaround, when it finally comes, is very thorough but also believeable. You'll cheer too!

My first experience with Allison Lane (The Beleaguered Earl) was a disappointment for the book was so full of flaws that I was reluctant to try again. I am pleased to say that I was very much surprised with The Rake's Rainbow and recommend it highly.

The story of The Hon Thomas Mannering and Miss Caroline Cummings is not an easy read. If you like your regencies lite 'n' fluffy, then this book is not for you. It is dark, distressing and depressing but, ultimately, full of hope and triumph against what seem to be pretty overwhelming odds.

Thomas and Caroline marry in order to escape - for her poverty and governessing and for him in order to gain an inheritance. Thomas had become ensnared by Alicia - a heartless, fickle nymphomaniac who strings him along never intending to marry an earl's mere second son. He slips into a deep depression, drinking and gambling and nearly slipping over the edge into madness.

Caroline is the stronger of the two for, with astute insight into human nature, she is able to save him by letting matters run their course, never giving up hope that the man she sees beneath the hopeless despair is worth nurturing and loving. Some might say she is a bit of a sacrificial lamb but, within the social context of the times, she did what she had to in times when divorce was virtually impossible. The descriptions of her meeting Thomas's family for the first time and finding her way through the Season were excellent for she does it without the support of her husband who, by this time, is so depressed that he ignores her completely.

I liked the way the author developed Thomas's family; each member, particularly his father, the Earl of Marchgate and his foppish but sweet elder brother, had a significant role to play in the development of the story.

There is a great deal of pain, angst and high emotion in this story. Tempers flare, characters sometimes act against their own best intentions and the hero is flawed but honourable. The heroine is strong but tender and loving. Sometimes the reader will want to point a pistol at Thomas and at others will want to love him - for this story is a real emotional roller coaster.

I will read another of Allison Lane's books to see if my first experience was atypical. It's just too bad she did not meet in The Beleaguered Earl the exceptionally high standards that she set with The Rake's Rainbow. It was very well done; polished prose and obvious careful research gives it a very authentic air. Her depiction of the Season, the Ton and marriage and family life in the Regency era were very good and most realistic.

As a bodybuilder who is very much informed about pro-hormones and other supplements, I have to mention that androstendione has fallen into disfavor.

The hype about the product has proved to be just that -- hype.
The supplement has largely been replaced by androdiol -- a more potent and more effective substance, and norandrodiol. The better pro-hormone products contain a combination of both "diols."

Newer products are emerging from supplement makers: topical andro and norandro sprays, and 1-AD, among others.

Unfortunately, information on this subject seems to get outdated quickly, and we may eventually learn that even these newer products are not as good as their promoters say they are.

This book is trying to state actual facts about androstenedione and the way it works, its potential benefits and risks. However, I recommend not using this book as the only source of information. I consider this book a very good summary, for more details seek other sources.

This book makes an important contribution toward dispelling the media-driven myths, and revealing the scientific truth about androstenedione. In an easy-to-read format, with research-based evidence, it supplies practical information on the use of this testosterone precursor, including its health benefits for both men and women. It also warns, responsibly, against its use by young people, for whom it will not only not have the desired effects, but can be damaging. The public deserves to know the facts, and this book does the job.

If you expect finding all the groups of metal and all its's genres in this book .. this is not for you, the book cover only commercial bands and is not a product of investigation, good archive photographs but that's all

This book offers brief descriptions of bands, both mainstream (Metallica, Slayer, Blink 182, Fuel, etc) as well as the not-so-mainstream (Testament, Nebula, Hellhammer, Dream Theater, etc). Gives details on how the band was formed, the line-up (including their stage names), their influences, where they came from, and what other bands they have played in. I thought this was a very nice reference/encyclopedia book that covers the past 30 years. But be warned, it is not that informative if you are trying to research bands. If you want more detailed information, look elsewhere or buy separate books.

Lots of beautiful pictures, but in the end not so many recipes I've been inspired to try.

A lot of new idea about cross-cultural food

Living in Switzerland I found the book hopeless. The recipes ask you to go to the store and buy fat-free products and ready prepared food. I was hoping that the recipes would work with raw materials and provide me with healthy meals, but I was sadly let down.

I think this book is another winner for Vicki Park. I am learning how to cook healthy after 36 years of marriage and my husband and I both are losing weight and feeling better. This compares to her first book Live, Don't Diet. The recipes are simple, but very delicious. This book and Vicki Parks' other book Live, Don't Diet are the best low fat cook books I have seen and I have bought a lot of them. When you get a recipe done, it tastes like real food and not like cardboard like other low fat cookbooks I have tried.

Normally I enjoy the offerings of Robert Kennedy (author of "Fast Lane to Fitness"). Despite the cheesy poses of the models pictured in his books and magazines, his work is motivating! But "Fast Lane to Fitness" lacks solid information. Unless you are a rank beginner and I mean rank beginner there is very little information to be gained here. When I purchased the book I expected info on how to maximize my workout time effectively to achieve optimal fitness in minimal time. I was disappointed! Instead this book focuses its few pages (76)on why you should exercise and the different types you could choose from. There is no in depth look at how to make true improvement in your physique. The pages are devoted to simple ideas most third graders know. Sample quote "Jumping rope is super inexpensive, and can be done at home or on the road (by taking a jump rope and sweats with you when you travel.) DUH! Most people also realize that your diet is at least 70% of the battle. What you eat will make or break your 'buff' body. But guess how much space is devoted to nutrition in this book? NONE! Thats right ZIP! Bob, I love your magazine Oxygen, enjoy some of your other books too..but this one wont get anyone on the fast lane to fitness...just the fast lane to thinking, Why did I waste my $$$ on this?" By the way Bob if you or someone associated with your magazine Oxygen reads this PLEASE PLEASE relabel those so called 'Special Reports' for Hydroxycut that are frequently published in your mag. Clearly mark them as 'Advertisements'.

This book gives a lot of options for training - several different cardio/aerobic venues. It does a good job of explaining how to train at different levels and has good workouts that can be used.

I bought this book believing that I would in some way know Catherine more intimately after reading most of her novels. I came away with an understanding of what her life was like and I greatly appreciated that aspect of the book. I was dissapointed in that a lot of it went back and forth between her life and the characters she wrote about. I felt as if I were traveling down a long bumpy road and then backing up at times. It could have been written much better in my opinion.

I found this book very interesting and well written. Catherine Cookson's candidness gave this reader an insight into a background that allowed the author to create multi-faceted characters who persevere despite any obstacles that may arise.

GUILTY LITTLE SECRETS: Connie Lane's latest offering is better than her first book, but not nearly as good as ROMANCING RILEY. ATF agent meets stripper in the shady wings of a Las Vegas night club stage. He's undercover taking off his costume, and she's putting one on, as a clown(?). Sparks fly, especially during the many, many practices for his act. Yum. No romance novel skimping with this stripper act. He takes it all off, down to the teeny, tiny g-string. I liked that Lane didn't have her hero behave all prissy about it. I mean, if you are going undercover as a stripper, go as a stripper, not a pole dancer with excess modesty issues. Everything else about this book was same-ol', same-ol', but Lane usually makes one element of her books brilliant and different, but sticks to cookie-cutter for everything else.

ATF Agent Rosie Malone enthusiastically works undercover as a showgirl at Las Vegas' Silver Swan in a quest to find information on the sale of stolen 9A-91 Russian Assault Rifles. Recently killed Gus Friel worked at the Silver Swan when he engineered the illegal arms sale.

FBI Agent Mack MacDougal also goes undercover at the Silver Swan, but much more reluctantly than Rosie because he is working as a stripper, a job he held in college. He seeks a drug ring allegedly operating out of the Silver Swan.

Sparks fly when Rosie meets Mack when he tries to rescue her in a back alley. However, each wonders about the other's suspicious behavior to the point that they conclude the other is the miscreant they seek or an undercover FED. Besides that they both agree that they are falling in love although they fear what they will learn about the other person.

Fans of undercover police procedural romances will relish this delightful tale that pokes fun at the "cooperative" nature between government agencies. The story line is fun more for romance readers since the romantic story line serves as the prime theme with the charming lead couple falling in love while doubting the identity of their beloved. Readers will not feel guilty for fully appreciating Connie Lane's enjoyable tale.

Harriet Klausner

This book was not for a young child to read. Do not recommend at all.

As a big fan of Lane Smith's work, I was instantly attracted to this book. A collector of Halloween picture books, I knew that this book would be a frightfully, wonderful addtion to my collection. The illustrations of this book set the right eerie tone for Halloween. Eve Merriam's poems are wonderfully sinister! I am a 6th grade teacher and will definitely read some of the poems to my class during Halloween week, however I would not recommend this book for young children. The tone of the book is not just scary but sinister, the letter D for instance should never be read aloud to students. It speaks of the demonic characters Beezlebub and Satan. The illustration is wonderful but the words are not appropriate for students. The other letters are not as evil but still conjure up creepy thoughts about Halloween. This is a wonderful addition to a Halloween collection that will be kept on my personal shelf for me to read aloud.

Poet, Eve Merriam, and award winning illustrator, Lane Smith are back with a new "spooked-up" addition of their 1987 stunner, Halloween ABC. Step carefully through this alphabetical collection, if you dare, and read each bone chilling poem. From apples, bats, demons, and ghosts, to nightmares, skeletons, vipers, and witchery, Ms Merriam's rhythmic, rhyming poems are filled with macabre imagery and dark magic that are sure to set your knees knocking, and make the hair on the back of your neck stand up. Mr Smith's brilliantly detailed, dark and somber artwork, has been digitally redesigned by Molly Leach, and kids will be mesmerized with each page turn. Perfect for Halloween, or any other terror-packed, moonless night, Spooky ABC is a timeless masterpiece to read aloud and share with friends and family now, and future generations in the years to come.

This whole book is based on the work of so many others and doesn't really offer any new ideas. Group think, fast business, keep up with the times, all of these ideas have been floating around for at least a decade if not longer. I suggest reading books on the subject that are ten years old. You'll get the same basic stuff.

Does the world really need another book on how to re-make and lead high performing companies? If the reaction of many companies to the recent downturn is any indication, then no, not one book, but probably 1,000 more books until the business world "gets it." There are some important concepts in this book that should be fairly easy to take away and implement--once a company generates the corporate will to do so. One is the difference in mindset between running what the author calls a creation company and running the more common type of company, which he calls a compliance company. The second centers on the topic of chapter five--the art of collaboration. While collaboration has received a great deal of lip service in recent years, the author lays out some simple characteristics and a simple process to remind everyone how to do actually do it. Collaboration will become a more important ingredient for survival over the next decade, regardless of which way the economy turns. Brian Gillooly of Information Week thinks it's so important that he's chosen it as the theme of their annual conference this September. The third important concept is the chapter on models. Senge popularized the idea of mental models, but McGehee has some nice insights to add.

The book is not a substitute for an MBA, but an MBA is not a substitute for insight, either. We're all in the process now of watching a whole new generation of businesses and business leaders analyse themselves into the ground and demonstrate a failure to focus on their ability--and the ability of their people--to create something good and powerful out of adversity.

In the Introduction, McGehee suggests the need for 'new methods' for leaders and managers in today's workplace. 'As I see it, organizations face two choices. The first option is to remain the same, emphasizing current methods of compliance, by which I mean consistently focusing on what the company has done, not on what it can do. That method calls for constantly measuring past performance, focusing on problem solving to regain what you've lost, rigidly holding onto past models of success, and creating experts in various specialties.' McGehee thinks he has a much better idea and I wholeheartedly agree. 'Or, an organization can become a Creation Company. Creation Companies see the changing nature of work as one of the greatest opportunities of our time, and they understand that the opportunity can only be seized by unleashing the individuals within the organization. What this means is allowing individuals the freedom to explore, discover, and take action on the organization's behalf, in real time.' In his thought-provoking book, McGehee explains HOW.

He examines three trends (cultural, technological, and structural) which will eventually determine whether or not a given organization survives. He characterizes the first as the 'Death of the Corporate Myth': there are no jobs for life, no careers even, not in the traditional sense. The second is manifest in the rapid rise of portals for real time, instant information sharing, and Internet communities. As for the third trend, organizations (willingly or not) are being changed from stand-alone hierarchies to interconnected webs of alliances, partnerships, and outsourcing relationships. Unlike Compliance Companies, Creation Companies have leaders who emphasize freedom, not control;, an understanding that success means creating the new, not replicating the old; and finally, have a work style that values individual expression and collaborative work, rather than a work style that values group conformity and individual effort which ensures that conformity. Two other recently published books address many of the same issues: Hamel's Leading the Revolution and The Cluetrain Manifesto co-authored by Locke, Levine, Searls, and Weinburger.

The 'whoosh' to which the title refers what can happen in a Creation Company when, as one executive explained, 'We were all working hard. We were heading in the right direction and the next thing you know, things were just falling our way and we were running and gunning and boom, we were there. That's what [italics] whoosh feels like.' In other words, those involved are in active, indeed intensive collaboration. Together, they enter what has been referred to in competitive athletics as 'the zone.' The basketball touches only the bottom of the net. For a batter, each baseball thrown by the pitcher seems to be the size of a melon. For collaborators such as those described in Bennis' Organizing Genius, there is a moment when they finally realize how to create the first nuclear weapon (The Manhattan Project) or the first feature-length animated film (Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs) or the first personal computer (Xerox PARC). All of the hard work, countless failures, and personal sacrifices have finally made this shared moment possible. There is a collective adrenaline 'rush.'

Such a moment is obviously rare but virtually (no pun intended) impossible in Compliance Companies which, in terms of their culture and structure, are antithetical to a whoosh. McGehee correctly stresses the importance of rigorous and constant 'conversations' about what an ortganization really values most. What are its non-negotiable values? Do these values nourish and enrich what are the dominant components of a Creation Company? Specifically, leaders who emphasize freedom, not control, an understanding that success means creating the new, not replicating the old; and finally, have a work style that values individual expression and collaborative work, rather than a work style that values group conformity and individual effort which ensures that conformity.

If you believe in the values of a Creation Company and are currently involved in a Compliance Company, you have two choices: either do everything possible to help it become a Creation Company or leave it and become involved with one which is. Keep in mind that anyone who is totally committed to those values is viewed as dangerous to those who don't. For me, one of this brilliant book's most important points is that Creation Companies are (by nature) a serious threat to Compliance Companies. They have unleashed, nourished, and sustained a creative spirit which achieves for them a decisive competitive advantage. McGehee urges his reader to challenge and test the examples and models he provides. 'Use them to change yourself and your organization. Use them to develop creative possibility, and to unleash your own [italics] whoosh.' If you accept the challenge, through this book, McGehee will accompany you each step of the way. The decision is yours.