I was really quite disappointed in this book. It was juvenile and superficial. The main character was exceedingly condescending at times for someone so young and immature.
The title of the book is a little bit misleading. I expected an in-depth traumatic account of the character's brave struggle with an eating disorder, but instead was treated to a brush with anorexia and teen angst. Maybe I'm being a bit harsh since this is a book for young adults. Perhaps, it's satisfactory for younger readers, but don't bother reading this one if you're out of high school.

"Diary of an Anorexic Girl" by Morgan Menzie is a novel, but it is based on the author's own life and the journal she kept as she struggled and finally succeeded in beating the addiction. I know the intended audience is young adults, but I think adults will gain a lot of understanding from hearing what anorexia is like from someone who has it. The best part of the story is the strength that Blythe draws from her faith in God and how that faith ultimately leads to her triumph.

If you are anorexic, or have a family member or friend who is, or simply want to know more about what it is like to have this disorder, this book can open your eyes.

I would disagree wholeheartedly with the reviewer who said that they were hoping for a "traumatic account." This is an honest, moving account that still manages to be humorous at points. No one wants to read a depressing, whiny book like the previous reviewer seemed to want. If you want a thoughtful book that will make you both laugh and cry, this is it. Highly recommended for those who have friends or family battling eating disorders.

Tombstone 1881. A brief clash of wills, commonly known as the gunfight at the OK Corral, became indelibly etched in the American imagination. Loren D. Estleman takes this familiar story and fleshes it out into a whopping good yarn. But beware! You don't gulp "Bloody Season" like a hastily eaten meal; you savor every bite of this well-written tale. From the opening page of Doc Holliday hacking over a sink on a crisp October morning to the closing narrative regarding the outcome of "Season's" principal players, you'll be hooked by Estleman's exceptionally well-penned, descriptive prose. If you think you've been to Tombstone, think again. You've yet to relive its graphic past until you've been there during the "Bloody Season."

The first sentence of Bloody Season grabs you and the book won't let you go: He was dying faster than usual that morning . . . Estleman introduces Doc Holiday with those painful words.

Then with careful detail, he dismantles the fiction of the OK Corral, replacing it with fascinating reality. I used to sip well whisky in saloons in Tombstone back in the early 70s. How I wish I had Estleman's vision when I was there.

I have been privileged to read many books on the Troubles in Tombstone from S. Lake's larger than life treatment to A. Barra's recent offering. I found Estleman's treatment, the novelization, to be refreshing while very informative. He gives a certain life to the principals of the ever popular 1881 incident rather than the stiff renditions of the facts.

It's not terribly fanciful and the illustrations are dull. I love the idea--like if I met a parent who had no idea how to get her kids to sleep, or I met one whom I suspected was a closet family-bedder, or if I wanted a gift for a new parent---just to let them know that people do this, happily.
But the story is dry and the pictures look like they came from a textbook. It feels more like propaganda than entertainment. I am glad I have it, but I was disappointed, as you can tell. The people who would buy this book would usually be people who are cuddlers themselves, and I bet most of them already have much cuter stories to tell about sleeping in one bed together!

I bought this book for my son when he was 3 (now 4.5) and it quickly became a special bedtime story. It is so relaxing, sweet, and reflective of our nighttime choices. When the children all wander down the hall and end up snuggled together in one big bed with Mommy and Daddy, it shows a strong sense of love and security. My son loves it.

This book has been a long-time favorite in our family. Both of our children delight in the details of the illustrations as well as in the simple, dreamy story of a family who begin the night in their separate beds but awake in the morning to find themselves all snuggled together in one bed. As a parent, I enjoy snuggling up with a child at bedtime to read a cozy story about a family of cuddlers. What a wonderful antidote for the cultural messages that stress separating yourself from your child at night.

If you love dogs, this is a book you will enjoy for the profusion of excellent photographs! It is also packed with good information. Each breed is described in one or two pages with bullet points about its history and character. Color-coded data in the margins tells you the size and weight, temperament, and origin of the breed. But the best part of this book is the collection of full-color, detailed, and very expressive photos.

The book is organized into chapters for "companion dogs, gundogs, herding dogs, hounds, terriers and working dogs." This is a little confusing, at least to a non-breeder. For example, Labrador Retrievers are in the 'Gundogs' chapter and Chow Chows are under 'Working Dogs'. Fortunately, there is an index to assist with locating the dog you want to learn about.

I picked up this book to help me identify the breeds that went into my two adorable mutts. I admit I didn't get very far -- best guess is that one is a Lab-Chow Chow mix and the other is at least part American Pit Bull Terrier. Now that I have this book about breeds, I think I need a "Mutts of the World" book to help me figure out my little monsters!

The book contains colorful breed pictures, as well as basic informative information about the breeds (i.e. country of origin, first use, origins, height, weight, and temperament). It also gives a tiny bit of history and additional remarks. Use the book as part of your research, maybe as the foundation.

It may seem kind of silly, but in our household we must have thumbed through the pages of this book about a thousand times! Someone seems to take the book from the bookshelf and leave it lieing on the coffee table each week. Since you never actually read this kind of book cover-to-cover (it's really a fancy picture book), you always seem to find something new.

The handbook is a wonderful guide showing almost every breed imagineable. Approximately one page is dedicated to each breed (there's the occassional 2-page dedication to popular dogs as well as 2 dogs per page for some lesser known breeds). After finding a breed which catches my eye, I enjoy jumping onto the internet to learn more from a dog club's web site. The book may be light on detail, but there's just enough to get you interested to learn more. And the pictures are great.

If you're trying to decide on which breed is right for you, this book may be appropriate as a first step in your decision - but you'll have to go elsewhere to learn more. Make no mistake, there's a lot to learn about each breed which isn't described in this book. After getting some ideas as to which dogs may be right for you, call a breeder or talk to the personnel at your local SPCA.

As a quick picture guide, we have found no better. Compact in size (8.5"x5.5"), it's a great book to carry to a dog show as well.

This is a very good book for beginners. The problem is that versions of the software has been changing so rapidly; some of the instructions in the book do not conform with the changing versions of SPSS. Some functional buttons have changed positions or renamed (e.g., Analysis in place of Statistics) etc.Other than that, the book is still useful for basic statistics and could be used even with the newest versions of the software.

This is a fine book for someone new to SPSS. The problem is that version 10.0 doesn't match up with the examples in the book (written before version 10.0). If you're using 10.0, get a book specifically for it.

The book provides good statistical information and examples on using SPSS for Windows. One of the book's strengths is that it provides hands on examples and provides guidelines and interpretation of the results. In setting out the problems, the examples lead you through the multitude of options in SPSS statistical analysis. Highly recommended.

Maybe management is the topic with the poorest quality of books in social sciences. Authors usually think that their readers are so busy or so stupid (or both) that they have to write a book for kids (they repeat the same example one hundred times) Fortunately, there are some authors as Morgan that believe posible to write a simple but interesting book like this one. I know Imaginazation is not the best book of management (even Images of Organization of the same author is better), but it is a quite intelligent one and in management this is a very rare quality.

Morgan's book is a delight to read. I couldn't wait to go out and try some of the techniques myself! While extremely readable, Morgan includes a couple of appendices that give the extensive scholarship behind his work.

Innovation and creativity are big buzzwords in management these days. Every second guru has a new paradigm or a new way of thinking, many of which aren't really new and may not be relevant to the situation on the ground. Many books are written on these subjects, mostly long on concepts but short on real tools.

I loved this book because Gareth never falls into that trap. His approach is always created from the situation on the ground, not as manna from above. Indeed, one of his best insights is the way he neatly explodes the word "supervision" into its component parts, showing the assumption of management as people with "super vision" who can see the future. Think about the realities behind that one word, and watch many of your assumptions about managing start to change.

As you might expect, Imaginization has several chapters which use real consulting experiences to illustrate the ideas presented. It's very effective at illustrating the ideas, conveying both the approach in action, and giving people the tools to actually start putting innovation and creativity to work in their workplace. It's also a very enjoyable read, as fun as its name implies.

Gareth Morgan's course was the most useful and well-spent time in my entire MBA at the Schulich School of Business. END

I just finished reading Keller's Den! Great late-night page turner. Just eerie enough to keep you looking around the corner for anything out of the ordinary. Looking forward to the next book. A great gift for anyone who enjoys a spine-tingling tale.

I just finished reading Keller's Den. Awesome reading, but scared the hell out of me! No more reading your books by myself. Keep on writing!

Keller's Den defines the term "page turner." The plot is awesome, the reading is easy and Rod's creative thinking is of the best I've ever read. I think he's created a new genre. Would have liked to seen the book a little longer. Rod - where do you go from here? I'm waiting.

Kingdoms of Kalamar is a campaign setting from Kenzer & Co, the makers of the Knights of the Dinner Table. This book however, although aimed for the KoK player, is most useful for a regular D&D player. Why?
- a lot (I mean a lot) of new feats anybody can use
- several variant core classes like the Gladiator or the Infiltrator that can easily be used in other campaigns
- new prestige classes (like the Golem Master)
- canons (holy books) for Kalamarian faiths. They are written up very generically, so they can easily be used in FR/GH or wherever
- new equipment: poisons, alchemical items etc
- a lot of spells
- how to make rulers more powerful
- gaming rules for clerical hierarchy

The book suffers from some errors, mostly editing and playtesting. The art is sometimes irritating and some 'crunchy' bits have already appeared in other books. I, however have found this book to be of excellent value.

Another in the line of excellent books from Kenzer, this book has a lot to offer. It gives you more background on playing characters in Kalamar, including some more information on playing various demi-humans. For those who want still more rules, they have some new classes (we have a very effective Brigand in a current campaign) as well as some new spells, a comprehensive list of clerical domains and a whole lot more. I highly recommend this book.

This is a great book with tons of information that you can put into any D&D setting. It is geared toward Kalamar, but is written so generically that you can insert the information contained in this tome into any D&D campaign.

Classes: This book takes the Dungeon Master's Guide's advice and takes the initiative to create variant classes. These range from more specific versions of a class with cool abilities (like the Gladiator and Shaman) to classes that combine existing ones into exciting new classes that are much different than the old ones (like the infiltraitor). These classes are as flexible as the old ones and are fairly well balanced. Also are new prestige classes that cover specific jobs (Mariner, Muse) and a few of the many orginizations on Tellene (Sentinels of Providence, Alliance Merchant).

Feats: Absolutely tons of new feats in this monster. New types of feats like the Enhanced Familiar feats (which give your familiar better abilities like a higher intellegence or the ability to speak) and regional or race-based feats which you can only take at first level help shape your character to exactly what you want and brings the game back to roleplaying.

Religion: This book details the canons of each church. Although these are specifically related to Kalamar gods, they can be adapted to fit any setting. In addition, this book gives ideas on how clerics can advance through the church and very basic game rules like time spent and how to advance to the next level and what you get at each level.

Other rule stuff: The equipment section isn't too terribly exciting but it does give a shot at pushing the edge. Included are (some) new weapons and rules for slaves. The most exciting part is the new alchemical mixtures that will get you thinking of your own and are all interesting in their own way. Their is repeat in the domain section, but not a large amount. The new spells are kinda cool, but what is really nice is the scalable spells. These are kind of like Wheel of Time spells where you choose the level it is cast at.

At the end: The white pages. If you are thinking telephone book when I say that you are on the right tracks. In these are a comprehensive list of all feats and spells (divided up by class) in all official D&D products and where they can be found. These can then be copied to use as a spell sheets. Also back here is a gigantic Place of Origin table. Only useful if you are playing Kalamar but it is non-obtrusive and only takes 7 pages.

To close, this is a great book for all D&D players and DMs alike. If you don't have it yet, I recommend you pick one up.

The book was a pleasant surprise. Not only was it tasteful, it was delightful.

This is a fun read, either for leisurely reading a minute here, a page there, or for sitting down for some concentrated reading. Anyone with the entire series should have a grand time learning just how much fun a bit of sin can be.

Eileen Morgan's Lust, Love And Longing is the newest addition to the Red Rock Press "Sin Series" and reveals in a compendium of literature, quotes, poetry and illustrations how gods and mortals, royalty and peasants, mystics and cynics have viewed amorous passion down through time. Lust, Love And Longing presents affairs that altered history, sizzling movie moments, and parables of animal mating as it explores the height and depth, breath and scope, delicacy and demands of a very pervasive, strong and human emotion. Also highly recommended is the first title in the "Sin Series", Nan Lyons' Gluttony: More Is More.

"Lust, Love and Longing" by Eileen Morgan satisfied me on many levels, the scholarly, the aesthetic, and the sybaritic. It covers all bases from the history of lust and the great lovers and objects of desire to the more mundane subject of "how the birds and bees do it." Included are well-chosen illustrations and pictures, all evocative of the theme. "Lust" could be used as a reference book or as an inspiration.

A good anthology, but flawed by "The Bodyguard," which seemed cobbled together, and suffers from an absolutely terrible ending that had my mouth falling open in disbelief. Not what I expect from the series, at all!
"An Act of Love" is entertaining and steamy, a good contemporary romance that apparently picks up a character from a previous volume. Made me want to get the original!
"Enslaved" was OK, but the heroine annoyed me, which wrecked the story. That's more personal bias than any fault of the author - I need a really strong female protagonist in period romances.
"The Love Slave" was AMAZING, the best story I've read in the Secrets anthologies. I read it twice through in two sittings. The sci-fi premise is similar to another novel I read by a different author but the characterization and romance are so much stronger I found myself thinking, "This is the book the other author was trying to write." Terrible, I know, but honest!
Steamy, steamy, hot erotica - heart-tugging romance - Emma Holly is my new hero. lol I'd recommend this volume on the strength of this one story alone.

Anyone who had read the Black Lace books will recognize Emma Holly's name. She is one of the best writers of erotica that I've come across. On my quest to collect everything ever written by her, I found Secrets vol. 4. Let me say that I was pleasantly surprised by the other stories in this collection.

Each story is based on a romantic premise, so readers of romance novels will enjoy this book. The "steam" factor has been pumped up, so readers who don't like graphic love scenes should avoid these stories. However, people looking for one-handed reading would do well to remember that these stories have PLOTS. That said, I enjoyed every one - but especially Emma Holly's.

Others have done a wonderful job reviewing the contents of this book, so I won't rehash. This review is just to emphasize how much you will NOT regret purchasing Secrets vol. 4. :-)

Romance Comm says, "In ENSLAVED Lindsey adds a unique twist to a classic plot creating a passionate story of love lost and found. Her characters live and breathe in this appealing tale producing a powerful impact not soon forgotten. Exquisite, erotic love scenes sear the senses. ENSLAVED will take your breath away. Hot! Hot! Hot! ~