Told through the journal of 12 yr. old Becca, the book is written in mountain jargon, warm, friendly, the kind that makes the reader want to drop in and sit a spell with them. After the loss of their MOm to consumption (probably TB), the children continue on living, attempting to make Papa laugh. This is what they feel their mother wants them to do. However, Papa is not in the mood for laughing, in fact, suicide is more on his mind. His fiddle has been silent, his social contacts nonexistent. The Christmas part is touching, when the children attempt to have a Christmas and papa rages that it will not happen. I was happy to see this made into a movie for TV as well, but of course, it is more touching to read the book.

It's hard to believe "Papa's Angels" wasn't written by Becca, the 13 year old girl who narrates the story. Becca, who can't speak, writes to tell the story of her 1930's Smoky Mountain family. With journal-like entries in "Becca's Book," she "says things with writin' that most of us can't say when we talk." She teaches us things that were never our own, without feeling we are being taught, and then they become ours. We learn that some people see nothing but their own misery and we learn about losing someone dear to us but being blessed with another. Gary Carden, authoring 70% of the story, skillfully weaves countless sayings and anecdotes into short narratives of interesting, entertaining and sometimes tear-evoking accounts of a family's struggle. He writes with such a smooth, natural mountain dialogue, the reader isn't offended. "Papa can't tell Santa Claus what to do." "His voice sounded like it had tears in it." and "Raise your head and open your heart." are memorable phrases made by Becca's brothers and sisters about their recently widowered father. "Papa's Angels" might be fiction, but it isn't make believe. You'll laugh in places and if you don't pause somewhere in this book because of the tears, you just ain't folk yet. A definite for children and adults.

Dog has a bone cellar, and Rancid Rabbit wants the rarest bone of all kept within for his museum. Chaos ensues. If you like the CatDog cartoon, you'll love this book!

Great for kids, great for adults, great for fans of CatDog. . . this is a fast paced and funny novel that brings the animatedcharacters to life on the printed page. The writer shows a gift for witty dialogue that works on levels for younger readers and older lovers of the series alike. A gem that is superior to most series tie-in books! Highly recommended! Hi-ho-diggity! END

A version of Little Red Ridding Hood that you will not be able to forget. Sheila Hebert Collins has done a wonderful job of giving Little Red Ridding Hood a cajun twist. The reader of this book is able to "play" with some french words, which children will love. This book hits a homerun with this reader!

Petite Rouge is the Cajun version of Little Red Riding Hood. It is filled with Cajun French words and expressions with sound spellings and definitions on each page. It is story that can be enjoyed by first grade on up. It is especially appreciated by displaced Cajuns very lonesome for their Louisiana home and all the Louisiana maw maws and paw paws eager to share their heritage and culture. It follows the Little Red Riding Hood Story but ofcourse is adapted to the Louisiana bayous and swamps. Ofcourse, it has a happy ending, but not for that gator, who ends up in a sauce piquante. The book ends with a Cajun recipe for alligator sauce piquante. This is a enjoyable book for the whole family.

I enjoyed the poems in this book very much. It is impossible to pick a favorite, because I loved them all. I really enjoy reading poems about different human experiences. Poetry 180 is filled with almost every human emotion.

I loved the poem entitled Love Poem 1990. It is about a man falling in love at different stages in his life from childhood to old age and how he feels about it. Another one of my favorite poems is entitled May. It is about the painful experience of putting a dog to sleep. The Green One Over There is a wonderful but sad poem about the relationship between a sister and a brother. I could really relate to the way siblings compete as described in this poem. The subject matter of the poems in this book are diverse. I never knew a subject could evoke such emotion. One of these poems is entitled What Would I Do. It is an insightful poem about what a husband would do if his wife cheated on him. The Quest is a excellent poem about a mother's fear that her daughter will be hurt and the extent she would take to protect her.

I was drawn to some of these poems because of the title. I loved the titles Vegetarian Physics, The Poem of Chalk, 1-800 Hot Ribs, and The Grammar Lesson. These are humorous and descriptive poems I could read over and over just for a laugh. My appreciation for poetry has increased so much. I loved this book.

The premise of this anthology is a poem a day for high school reading, or I might think for a high school reader. It is a wonderful little text. The works are neither simplistic nor obscure and cover the broad range in style and subject of contemporary poetry. Be advised, not all of them are "new" works, and not all important contemporary writers are represented:(Some of the BIG big names are not here). Still, for anyone wanting to develop familiarity with what has been going on in the world of poetry there is a lot of pleasure at a reasonable price.

I rather like the idea that there is no obvious agenda here, nor any pretense of "the best." Readability seems to be the standard. It is a book for a bus-stop, or the short ride home. It is light and easily portable. I can envision a poem over breakfast, or one to conclude an evening of study. Along those lines, the print is nicely laid out; it's the sort of book that I can read without my specs - after all my discovery of poetry in high-school was decades ago.

I used this book as a primary reference for a senior/graduate prestressed class. Overall, the book is clear and wonderful. I really appreciated the way the author stressed fundamental behavior.

I found the section on deflections heavy going for my students so I picked a simpler, but less accurate, approach from Scordelis's report.

I strongly encourage the author to update this book or publish a new text.

A "must have" reference book for Structural Engineers in the area of prestressed concrete.

Chapter 7 and Chapter 9 are the most comprehensive single source of information on the Modified Compression Filed Theory and procedures for the design of disturbed regions(corbels, dapped ends, ledges,etc.) on concrete structures(except maybe for MacGreggor's).

The book is advanced and requires some knowledge of concrete behavior, prestressed concrete design and mechanics of materials.

Software has been updated and is available on the Toronto University web page (Response 2000-compute Moment Curvature Diagrams of Prestressed Concrete Beams). The software is excellent and easy to use.

I've just read some Amazon reviewers' responses to T. S. Eliot's poetry as testimony to his possibly being the greatest poet ever. Such an evaluation practically proves Eliot's insistent point about the cultural impoverishment of the present.

Indeed, Browning's masterwork may very well be the ultimate poetic epic in the English language, rivaled certainly not by Spenser, Wordsworth, and Pound but only by Chaucer and Milton. The fact that even the "trial of the century"--the O. J. Simpson case--did not produce widespread renewed interest in its literary predecessor and equivalent would produce surprise and disappointment were I not so aware that, outside of Shakespeare, the academic canon has been foreshortened (and engendered) to a tradition that begins with Virginia Woolf and ends with Sylvia Plath.

In "Ring and the Book" Browning takes the sordid event of an enraged husband murdering his helpless bride--the daughter of a prostitute and rescue project of a priest--to "explain the ways of God to man." The reader of the poem becomes, in effect, a "privileged" juror in the trial of the murderer, positioned through Browning's protean and powerful rhetoric within the consciousness of each of the principals before finally being enabled to glimpse the "truth" that affords meaning to human mutability and suffering.

The poem no doubt will remain in dust closets, largely unread even by literature Ph.D's. But there's little chance of its ever becoming lost. Like the priest-hero of the poem, a few priests of the imagination will ever so often make the poem's discovery and be lured into the quest of pursuing its singular meanings.

As an English major at the University of Pittsburgh, I was never exposed to this series of dramatic monologues. It's a pity, because when I finally stumbled across it, Browning went from being just another 19th-century poet to my favorite English language poet of them all, at one fell swoop. The Ring and the Book is based on a real-life murder trial in 17th century Rome. The story is told from multiple perspectives, changing with every new section of the book; we hear from the "Man on the Street", the murderer, the victim on her death-bed, and even the Pope. The details of the story are far too convoluted to explain in summary and do anything resembling justice to the book, but it can be safely said that once you've begun, you're in for a whirlwind ride through a carnival of a trial that makes the O.J. Simpson affair look like a parking-ticket dispute by comparison. The truly stand-out feature of The Ring and the Book is not in the story itself, however, but in the telling. Browning handles the English language like a virtuoso emulating angel's choruses on a Stradivarius. If the book suffers any single flaw, it is the simple fact that at times, Browning writes these lines almost TOO well, making it difficult for the reader to pay attention to the actually progression of the story, as said reader becomes entraced by the beauty of the poetry. (In particular, I consider Caponsacchi's description of the flight from Arezzo beginning at line 1152 of Book VI to be one of the best written passages in literature of all time.) Dramatic blank verse hasn't seen genius of this level since Milton wrote of the angelic Fall. It's a pity this book isn't more widely recognized and discussed, for it deserves recognition as one of the best-constructed poetic stories of history, and the pinnacle of 19th century authorship.

I actually got this book at a sale at the local library for a dime. The first story really does make the entire thing worth it. I found myself wishing I could be in the heroine's shoes. It's a lovely book for those of us who want to believe in fairy tales. Who wouldn't want to be swept off her feet by a charming prince (or king in one case)?

Royal Weddings consist of King's Ransom by Diana Palmer, A Prince Of A Guy by Kathleen Korbel & Every Night At Eight by Marion Smith Collins.

I got my copy of Royal Weddings thanks to Amazon's out-of-print service.

The stories, or rather just my favourite story alone--King's Ransom, makes it well worth its price.

In King's Ransom,Brianna Scott, your ordinary girl-next-door, absolutely detests "foreign dignitary" Ahmed Bin Rashid. She threw a paper weight at him.

Unknown to Brianna, this overbearing "dignitary" is actually a King. One whom terrorists are after.

Sparks flew, Diana Palmer style, when His Royal Majesty is forced to live with Brianna for the duration till the terrorists are caught.

I absolutely adore the culture shock HRM encounters. Especially when it comes to food.

"Tell her to stop shoving oblong containers of suspicious meat wrapped in buns at me!"

"Hotdogs..."

Diana's characterisation is absolutely wonderful. One couldn't help but wish to be in Brianna's shoes...

A great story not to be missed. Enjoy,...that is, if you can get a copy!!

I find A Prince Of A Guy a bit like the story of The Prince & The Pauper. Casey Phillips from Brooklyn bears a remarkable resemblance to the kidnapped Princess Cassandra...

When Prince Eric von Lieberhaven, a real dishy kind of guy, asks Casey to stand in temporary for the real Princess,...things start to get interesting.

I enjoy the changes that Casey made whilst being a temporary princess. Casey's gleeful anticipation of the real Princess Cassandra's surprise/shock upon her return to the palace is a joy to read. It left me grinning.

In contrast, Every Night At Eight seems a bit tame. Not much of ups and downs. Selena Mastron, a sophisticated woman from an ancient family was deemed to be a suitable bride for Nicholas Sabre, King turned President.

A country in transition, they need to make both the country's democracy and their marriage work. But how to balance demanding state "careers" and a marriage ? Why, by making an appointment, of course. Every Night At Eight!!

My younger daughter loves this book. As "the second princess" in our house, she often feels the same way as the second princess in this book. This book reinforces that her feelings are okay, that her actions about them may not be, and that working it out with the "king and queen" may be a better solution. My second princess and I would highly recommend this book to anyone with two (or more) daughters.

I adore Tony Ross's illusttrations - this story follows in the same vein as I want my Potty, I want my Dinner & Iwant to be...I loved it & both my daughters (3 & 6months) do too.

Elizabeth Collins has captured my heart with her endearing love story, Secrets Unbecoming. I was completely captivated by her realistic characters.

Abbey Whitfield wanted nothing more in life than to save her deteriorating marriage to Kevin. Convinced that the isolated military base of Guantanamo Bay would be the tropical paradise they needed, Abbey was more than disheartened when she discovered the secrets of unbecoming acts that dwelled within the base. Adultery, domestic violence, rape, drugs, prostitution - all secrets that had been hidden from the United States Military, by top ranking officials.

The tempestuous Molly Everett would stop at nothing to distract Kevin from his wife. How could Abbey possibly compete with the love her husband was developing for Molly's child, Sara Ann, when she'd unable to give her husband the family he'd always dreamed of herself.

Jack Parker had become her only friend, the only person able to comprehend her breaking heart and desire to help her friend escape her abusive husband. Jack's a rebel, understood by most. But Abbey soon finds him to be the most compassionate man she's ever known, with a heart large enough to save the world, or at least try. His rough exterior a mere facade, disguising his broken heart.

I loved the way Elizabeth wrapped this story up with twists and turns. No one seemed to be who they appeared. The story ends with the malicious finding judgment and the wounded finding peace, in one way or another. Ironically, Kevin forfeits rights to his family - the one thing that destroyed his marriage - and Abbey rides away into the sunset, family in tow.

Secrets Unbecoming was by far, a romantic escape from reality.

What a great read; tasteful, romatic, and quite a thriller. Secrets Unbecoming is a brilliant and extremely well-written novel about love and duty in the American-owned corner of Cuba, Guantanamo Bay (now home to hundreds of former terrorists). Though set around modern day naval life, the characters of Secrets Unbecoming are fascinating and easy to relate to via Elizabeth Collin's use of imagery and gift for description. The story is centered around one woman trying to salvage her marriage, while trying to help another woman whose marriage is life-threatening. With more twists and turns than the movie "Wild Things" the reader is compelled by curiosity to find out what happens next, and Elizabeth Collin's writing style keeps the reader moving swiftly, yet afixed to every word. A+, and then some. This book has movie written all over it.

This book has been great fun to use while planting our garden. It helps speed the process along to show what will happen next, plus has great illustrations to show what happens under the ground. This entire series of books is top-rate.

I really enjoyed this book that I donated to our school library. I seldom see books that are both non fiction and fiction in one edition. The illustrations were great and the flip format was fun.