Are you wondering what to give someone as a very special gift? THIS is the answer, or Ms Kiefer's other books on Christmas traditions, songs, poems, cartoons, recipes, with super-de-luxe photos that make you remember a visit there or just dream and really enjoy.

As a personal friend of the author I have seen the proofs of this beautiful book which ranks right up there with Ms. Kiefer's "A North Carolina Christmas" A great birthday or Christmas gift for ANYONE

I first heard of this book in a review in Sports Car International magazine. As a dedicated Alfisti, I had to check it out. I was debating between the ($) printed version, or the ($) CD version. Needless to say, the CD version won. I was a little apprehensive about a "book on computer", but the authors did an amazing job. Basically, the navigation is through Powerpoint, so it's really easy to learn, once you figure out where exactly to click. Besides that, the sound and video clips make the CD worth it 10 times over. I couldn't believe some of the video, the blueprints, and such that were on the multimedia presentation. I would highly recommend this to anyone with an interest in pre-war GP racing, or pre-war Italian autos.

Since there isn't a summary of what Angel of Fire is about, let me tell you what this book is about.

Chrestian de Lontaine's life changes after the news of her father's death. She plans for herself to be a nun after seeing her twin, Adelaine, marry to their father's friend. She meets Weston FitzStephens, who rides to take Lontaine for his King Henry, after he helps her group of an ambush from an unknown enemy. Weston, an arrogant, fierce warrior takes Chrestien as a prisoner after realizing that "Christopher" belongs to Lontaine. His life changes after he realizes that "Christopher" is a woman and the daughter of Gilbert, who turns into a traitor in favor of Normandy. King Henry orders Weston to marry Chrestien. Weston realizes that Chrestien is not like other selfish women, and finds himself in love with her. She realizes that she isn't meant to be a nun. She also falls in love with him yet has a hard time believing of Weston's love for her since he doesn't say the words. They both have strong personalities in which they seem to have arguments from time to time.

I hope that summary helps! I know it's hard to buy a book without having a book review/summary about it. Words of advice to those who sell books or going to, WRITE SUMMARIES ON THE BOOKS YOU SELL!!!! You'll profit better with a summary than without.

What I think about the book: It's great, a must-read. It's worth buying. You would want it as a collection. Tanya Crosby did a great job with the story and the characters. This is a Viking theme so if you enjoy reading Viking stories, buy this one! I was touched, even cried at one part of the book. Chrestien faces a lot of hardship in the story, but she's got a stong personality to overcome any obstacles in her way. Weston is someone right for Chrestien who is unlike other men in that century and respects Chrestien's spirit. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. Author did a great job!

When missionaries came to colonize California, it was to Baja California "Antigua California" that they came. This is the story of the Jesuits who persevered in a barren, waterless, resource poor place. But the really great thing about the book is that it is the whole story of the pioneer mission period: it is also the story of the aboriginal peoples who were the targets of the Jesuits, and of the people (mostly Mexican) whom the Jesuits hired and brought along to handle and create daily life-soldiers, sailors, artisans, laborers. For once, a comprehensive history truly is. Using original eighteenth century materials (church records, diaries, letters, reports) the author has tracked down the movement of individuals, their genealogies, their careers, their contributions. More than most, it is a book of portraits of real people, pieced together sympathetically from scattered and scanty records. For a scholar, the book is eminently useful: full of maps, chronological tables of people and places, explanations of systems and bureaucracies. For the history buff, it is a dream of readability and detail. Highly recommended.

Philip B. Crosby died on August 18, 2001. Crosby was a quality expert, but he was much more.

This was the first business book that I ever read, and it is still my favorite. The following quote alone would be worth the price of the book:

"The successful situation manager is one who learns to establish the ground rules for success before launching himself into completing the job assigned to him. If nothing else, he must assure himself that he will know when he is finished. He must also decide what persons are involved in deciding he is finished, and supply them with the means to measure his progress."

"Much of the tragedy of modern life is wrapped up in the failure to accomplish those two basic steps . . ."

"You are going to be measured anyway by some means, fair or foul. Usually the one doing the measuring has nothing specific in mind; so he does it by the seat of his pants. Careers are destroyed in this manner. It is the situation equivalent to 'Let's have lunch sometime.' "

Rarely is career advice so well stated or so universally applicable.

In The Art of Getting Your Own Sweet Way (1972), Crosby writes:

"People are conditioned to believe that error is inevitable . . . However, we do not accept the same standard when it comes to our personal life. If we did, we would resign ourselves to being shortchanged now and then when we cash our paychecks. We would expect hospital nurses to drop a certain percentage of all newborn babies. We would expect to go home to the wrong house periodically. As individuals we do not tolerate these things. Thus we have a double standard, one for ourselves, one for the company."

The standard organizations needed was "Zero Defects":

In this book Crosby writes, "The Zero Defects concept is based on the fact that mistakes are caused by two things: lack of knowledge and lack of attention . . . Zero Defects is not a motivation method, it is a performance standard. And it is not just for production people; it is for everyone."

Though many wanted to join the quality bandwagon, Zero Defects was not always understood:

"I found people thinking that Zero Defects was a worker motivation program and blaming all the problems on the workers . . . Management is the bad guy . . . We are dealing with a new management philosophy, not a propaganda program."

However, the real focus of The Art of Getting Your Own Sweet Way is on situation management, not quality management. That makes the book useful to everyone since everyone has situations to manage.

The back of the book includes Crosby's trademark "Guidelines for Browsers." This feature is simply a list of loosely related sentences that reduce the key points of the book into slogans. Here are a few favorites:

"You have probably noticed that the world was not specifically designed for you."

"None of us is only one thing. We are a combination of many occupations, responsibilities and desires."

"Consistency wins, whether you want it to or not."

"Embarrassed kittens become tigers."

"Unless you get your kicks from an electric massage,, there is nothing things can do for you that people can't improve on."

"Dedication is wanting your thing to happen more than they don't want it to happen."

This book is now 30 years old and has been out of print for a long time. With Crosby gone, let us hope that the book will be re-issued at this point and not fade into oblivion. Maybe these few quotes will help generate some new interest in this work.

Susan Crosby has never failed to deliver a great read. Romantic, sexy, and heartwarming, I read The Baby Gift in one sitting. Write faster, Susan! We're waiting.

Both my father and I used this book to work on our spelling. I was born in the US, and English is my first and only language. Ironically, I am actually an English major. While I could interpret the innerworkings of Shakespeare, I couldn't spell basic English words. I started using this book and my spelling improved incredibly! My father, an immigrant from India, didn't begin to learn English until he was 17 years old. However, by the time he had finished with this book, his spelling was nearly perfect!! This book is great for anyone and everyone!!

How many times do you hear fundamentalist Christians complain about society's ignoring about the Ten Commandments? Lots I'm sure.But then how many times do you hear the same fundamentalists complain about how society has ignored the Beatitudes? Probably never.In her book, Sr. Mattern reminds us of the Beatitudes in a moving and always thought provoking manner. After all, these are the heart of the teachings of Jesus. The Jesus the fundamentalists claim to follow and would do well to listen to.

Bing Crosby comes to life in "Call Me Lucy". Each word, each sentence, every portion evokes Crosby's wonderful exalted form of speaking. This is not a tell-all biography, but rather a wonderful recant of anecdotes and humorous observations. Crosby tells amusing stories of Bob Hope, Paul Whiteman, Oscar Levant, Groucho Marx, Al Jolson, Fred Astaire, his wife, and his kids. He also spends time telling stories of his adventures on the golf course, in movies, on radio, and traveling the country with Paul Whiteman's band. What's more, he tells the true stories of his rise to the top of show business. From being a team with his Washington pal Al Rinker, to getting the Academy Award for "Going My Way" in 1944. In addition to this, he speaks frankly about his wife (who died not to long before the book was originally published). An honest, and teary moment. All together, "Call Me Lucky" is a must to any Crosby fan. It's undeniably Crosby!

This review is written by my 9 year old son Morgan

He gave it 5 Stars

I really liked this book, because it is a mystery. Most of my friends like mysteries too, but I think I like them the most One of the reasons I gave it 5 stars, was because it's easy to read, and it kept my interest. I was interested in finding out who did it. The characters in the book are Wizard, Tubby, Skinny, and Snitch, I liked their different personalities and how they think. The Story is a mystery about who ate the blueberry pie. It took me about an hour to read, but it was worth it. It would really excite me to read other books by this author.