I picked the book out of instinct, and then read it without any expectation. Indeed it's a very interesting book. Actually it has fascinating surprise elements, even more so if you hadn't read the reviews here!

This is a story of a mother's love for her son, and how the pair cope with an unexpected twist of life. Captivating, for getting us to take a peek at how someone like John deals with his new life, someone like Sonja perceives things, and someone like Joan handles it all.

The alternating narrative reminds me of the book "Mendel's Dwarf". Such a style of narration risks being confusing, but at the same time triggers our curiosity.

Once I started this book I could not put it down! A great writer for a first time novel. I laughed and cried. When it ended I was lost without it. Please read this book and I am sure you will thoroughly enjoy it so please buy it now!

If you only read one new author this year, give Jules Hardy a try. I just loved this book and cannot
recommend it highly enough. I have bought it for severeal friends and they all loved it too. I know that everyone
is raving about Lovely Bones (which I have also read) but this is even better.) Give it a go, you won't be
disappointed.

This book has excellent advice on self-defense. I would recommend this book to anyone wanting to learn more on how to protect themselves.

I will take issue though with the author's stance on firearms. He makes statements that are blantly false (more people are injured with their own gun...) and others that lack foundation. He states that a firearm can only be used as a "lethal" choice, yet uses his own non-lethal example of "racking" a cartridge into his shotgun when faced with a mob of youth. The mere presence of the firearm and the sound of the shotgun being put into battery diffused the situation. Studies have shown that the mere presence of a firearm has thwarted more crime than was previously thought, see John Lott's "More Guns, Less Crime".

Once again this one issue was not enough for me to trash the book. The basics included in this book are the best foundation for self defense I have ever seen.

Rhino

Since I am one of Mr. Hardy's students, I was required to read the book for promotion in the martial arts. The book contains practical guidelines for avoiding possible dangerous situations. The ten tips that Mr. Hardy conveys in the book are tips that every person should learn and practice. I know for a fact that many of these techniques will work. For example, I was once approached by a person whom I felt meant me harm. I calmly looked the person in the eye and said something about helping the police look for a suspect. The look on that person's face was of utter suprise. He mumbled a few words and went on his way. I never took my eyes off him, and I never let him invade my space. Unlike most martial arts books, Mr. Hardy's book does not teach the novice how to punch, kick, or block, but rather he teaches them ways in which they will not become victims. For anyone who fears becoming a victim in our dangerous world, I would advise them to read this book. IT MAY JUST SAVE YOUR LIFE!

Unlike many 'self-defense' books, in this book the author doesn't try to teach you the 'Ten Easiest Ways to Kill a Man'. Instead, he focuses on concepts of awareness that any person can immediately put to use, such as paying attention as you walk though a parking lot. When you read the concepts in the book you wonder why you didn't think of them yourself. I've loaned out my copy of the book to half a dozen friends and they all liked it tremendously.

but these stories, culled from his archives, represent the absolute best of his short work.

Hardy's tales here evoke early 19th century England; not just the Wessex Heath of Return of the Native (a novel whose opening four pages are among the best in all of literature) but the small towns where bootleggers operate and ghosts walk the back lanes.

All these stories have an "oral" quality about them, as if they were told by a hoary English gent, his face wreathed in smoke from an old Meerschaum. None of these stories will knock you out, but there were some pleasant surprises, including "An Imaginative Woman" (the best Hardy short story I've read so far), and "A Tragedy of Two Ambitions," which raises intriguing questions on murder and responsibility. Hardy's favorite tale, "The Son's Veto" is also included, but I found this story, along with "Fiddler of the Reels" to be a dud. "Barbara of the House of Grebe" is unintentionally funny - an execrable Gothic exercise, where Hardy sounds more formulaic than ever. Thankfully, the too-oft anthologized (but lovely) "The Three Strangers" is not included.

Hardy wrote a lot of garbage short stories in his career - so, kudos to the editor for weeding through them and presenting us with the best of his short works.

Read his novels. They are much better.

Hardy's novels continue to be justly popular and his poetry (which he considered his most important work)has worn well with the critics, but the short stories deserve a much wider audience than they have received. This collection, which contains some of his best, provides a fine introduction to the dark vision of the late Victorian master. The title story is uncharacteristically happy, a pastoral piece in which Hardy tells a comic tale about a young woman's unexpected talent for criminal activity. The other stories are much more representative, being concerned with the perils of love, the cruelty of convention and the tragic vulnerability of human aspirations to the whims of fate. Many of the tales are also wrapped in the Gothic and even grotesque trappings that Hardy seemed to favour when the mood was upon him. This collection gives Bram Stoker and Stephen King a run for their money, featuring a corpse with a stake driven through its heart, a new bride spending her wedding night with her new husband by her side and the corpse of her first husband in the next room, parricide, suicide and kidnapping. The mood of the pieces varies from the sunny high jinks of "The Distracted Preacher" to the wrenching tragedy of "A Son's Veto" and the relentless horror of "The Withered Arm." Overall, this group of tales gives the newcomer to Hardy an excellent introduction to his talents as a storyteller, and fans of his novels will enjoy the opportunity to see the master at work on a smaller stage.

If you are familiar with Hardy, you probably know him as a brilliant novelist and possibly, a poet (he excelled in both areas). However, he shone in the short story form as well, as this collection vividly demonstrates. This book includes some of Hardy's best known and most poignant stories, including the spectacular 'Grave by the Handpost' and the 'Fiddler of the Reels,' which echo with the tragic themes prevalent in his later novels. Hardy's prose style is incredibly moving and poetic in his short stories. He used words to serve a purpose, which is more than I can say for a number of Victorian writers. These stories are a wonderful introduction to Hardy if you have not had any exposure to his 'great' works. And don't give up with them! Although his style is moderately cumbersome, I'm sure you will find his socially-aware ideas surprisingly modern and unbelievably brutal in their rawness. Hardy is a classic writer who no one should miss reading. If you want a brilliant introduction to his work (but beware, reading these stories will drain you!) I highly recommend this collection. You will also enjoy it immensely if you've only experienced Hardy the novelist. A note to teachers: I am a high school student, and I know that my peers would have appreciated Hardy much more if he had been presented to them through these tremendous stories, rather than through his novels. I am a devout Hardy fanatic, but know people with short attention spans have difficulty appreciating his novels. Introducing Hardy to your students through his stories (I particularily recommend the Fiddler of the Reels) might allow you to cover more ground.

Being in the computer field, for years I thought CBT was an acronym meaning something other than Cock and Ball Torture. While those three words might make the average man cringe or instinctively cover their groin, there are those men who enjoy it immensely and other men and women who enjoy doing CBT to them! It is for these two groups of folks that this book is primarily written for.

Among the topics Haberman covers here include basic male anatomy (and there's quite a bit to know about it!), negotiation and safewords, play benefits and risks involved, safe sex play and cleaning CBT toys, all very important subjects to cover.

There's also a chapter devoted to various CBT toys, including clamps, ball stretchers and spreaders, cock rings and electrical toys just to name a few. There are also diagrams included on how these toys are to be used, as well as several diagrams on tieing up the proverbial cock and balls. There's even a chapter on CBT "recipes," guaranteed to give the proverbial Dom/me lots of ideas!

While CBT may not be my idea of a good time, I fully support those who do enjoy it. I enjoyed the book because it covers the topic well and Hardy's easy-going style makes reading this book fun and enjoyable.

Let's get all the cliches out of the way first. "The Family Jewels" is a gem. It is precise, finely cut to spec and invaluable. In fact, the first time I laid eyes on it, my first thought was, why didn't anyone think of this before?

Hardy Haberman has filled a void in the SM literary canon that not only give tips to the experienced edge player, but to beginners as well. There are also a few chunks of anecdotal scene evidence to add the touch of hard-on reading that any book of this nature needs to keep the entertainment value at a maximum.

You may not be familiar with Mr. Haberman, who considers himself a "Pain Technologist." He specializes in CBT and has an unusual fondness for clips, clamps and clothespins, as well as more exotic SM play. I recommend this book to anyone with even a passing interest in learning about esoteric genital play.

When we hear or see the term CBT we think "torture" and that usually makes us all cross our legs. But Haberman's book is really focused on creating intense or simply pleasureable sensations for male genitals in ways that do not involve intercourse. The book has four main divisions: anatomy, safety (please don't skip over this one), basics & toys of CBT, and finally a collection of nine short stories to demostrate the first three sections. The stories aren't really arousing, they are more instructive. If CBT is something you've thought about but know little about, this is a great place to get information. Read it with your partner and you can figure out what he is interested in.

"Galactic Tours" is a charming little book for escapists like me. It is pretty much a collection of description of fictional tours to exotic planets, organized by their distance from Earth, each description complete with accomodations, prices, local attractions - everything a tour book should concern itself with. The book starts with the basics of space travel - takeoff, staying at an orbital station, touring the moon, Mars, and several other planets and satellites, and eventually introduces the reader to faraway (and, of course, fictional) planets, each with its own central catch (volcanic planet, mushroom-covered planet, metal planet). "Galactic Tours" would be intolerably dull and perhaps even irritating, but each two-page spread of descriptive text is preceded with a fantastic painting that makes the whole thing come alive. In all honesty, I cannot imagine anyone buying this book, although it does make a lasting favorable impression.

96 pages of alien races, new worlds, and color pictures going along with the text. The book tells you everything you need to know, from cost, travel, local facilities at the hotels (like menus and baby-sitters available) and rules one must follow to stay safe. The last page is a booking form so the reader can select where to visit and alert the Galactic Tours about how much sleep you, the reader, need, your caloric intake and other requirements. Great for the child of the family or the child within.

I loved this book. I read in about 16 years ago and the art and text really transported me to other alien worlds. Well done.

Walk into the home of the wealthy Farrows family as they discover that having it all is not always a good thing, especially when you own an island deemed to be the breeding ground of all that is evil.

When a chemical company makes an offer to buy Calmer's Island, Ben is willing to consider selling. But after his deceased father's friend, Hanley Rivers, warns him not to sell, Ben's curiosity kicks in and he decides to visit the island that is believed to be inhabited by voodoo practitioners and even the Devil himself.

There it all begins. The chemical company's offer takes second place in Ben's decisions as he tries to discover and then destroy the evil that has inhabited this island for centuries.

Ben's wife Laura seems to have her mind on the stable hand, Bill Chambers. Julie, their daughter, is totally mesmerized by David, who also happens to be Hanley's son. Hanley seems to know more than he should about the island. Through it all there is a search for the mysterious diary that could hold the last piece of the puzzle.

Join Ben on his journey of discovery - both of self and that of the darkness.

"Hell's Island" starts out rather slowly with detailed descriptions of the grandeur of the family this story centers around. The plot branches out and you are not always sure where you are going, but that ends up being part of the thrill of the ride as you venture to the dark worlds contained within.

William Hardy ties up all the loose ends quite nicely. Although this is his first novel, he does a wonderful job of weaving a story with interesting twists and turns and then ends it with all your curiosity satisfied.

If you like fast paced mysteries, read this one.

Benjamin Farrows inherited Calmers Island from his father. He had never visited it and never even gave it a thought. However, when a chemical company offered to purchase it, Benjamin considered it. An old family friend, Hanley Rivers, warned Ben NOT to sell it at any price and to stay away from the island at all costs! Of course Ben demanded an explanation. That was how he learned the story about Everett Marlowe.

In England, 1619, Satan chose Marlowe to be one of his disciples. Marlowe was granted eternal life and powers through "the spike of Satan". Marlowe gathered twelve followers and began horrible acts of violence. They ended up on Hell's Island, known also as Calmers Island. Marlowe was to guard the entrance to the underworld which resided on the isle.

When Ben learned that a primitive voo-doo community dwelled on the island, he went to investigate and became obsessed with it. Soon Ben was forced, for the sake of his family's safety, to learn the secret of Calmers Island - FAST!

***** Be warned readers, this book contains Satan worshipers and scenes of torture. If you cannot handle such stories, back off now! Do not purchase! For those who love horror stories and movies, this book was written for you! Do not miss out!

As for me, I found myself appalled and engrossed at the same time! The author hooked me by the fifth sentence of page one. From then on, I had no choice but to go with the tide of words. The only time I came up for air was when I had turned the last page.

Move over, Stephen King! You now have some heavy competition! *****

Reviewed by Detra Fitch.

Of all the Hardy boys book I've read (belive me I've read a lot inculing the hardcover, mystery and casefiles) this one is the most slow paced book and it does not have many thrillers in it like Kickoff to Danger. Overall it's good.

Just like any other of Franklin W. Dixon's books it was great. It was a great plot and a great mystery story for anyone who loves mysteries and adventures.

This particular book was tastefully done. The book in my reading it always left me wondering what will occur next. It also kept me reading it because there was always something going on. One positive thing about this book is the events could actually take place. I for one am not somebody who particulary enjoys reading books with a fiction or a science fiction plot. Where as The Hardy Boys books are great for any reader because the books include mystery, suspense, and action. If you are not someone that enjoys reading those types of books remember one thing all Hardy Boy books are not all alike and if you want to improve your variety of books maybe you could read one. If I were the author I would most definately be proud of myself. I would think Franlin Dixon should give himself a pat on the back. In my own opinion I give this book two thumbs up. Joe Gainer

The plot of this book was fairly good, with the entire Hardy family going to Hollywood to look into the near-fatal accidents of a stuntman friend of theirs. What made this book so different than any others I can recall is that Mrs. Hardy gets more than a mere mention. She actually works on a case with her men. Joe hardy has the biggest part in the story and it even mentions that he is supposedly physically stronger than Frank. It should be the other way around, since Frank is the older of the two. There's even a tongue-in-cheek joke in the novel when someone tells one of the characters that he could always take up a career ghostwriting children's books. I thought that was a cheap shot and just further evidence that not as much pride is being put into writing these stories as it once was. All in all, though, an exciting story with a lot of action. I'd recommend it.

It's ok. You might want to try the casefiles series if you're trying to pick between them.

"Daredevils" was awesome, so action packed! All of the stunts were thrilling. It took place in Hollywood. There was a competition, that was called "stuntfest". The person who did the best stunts would win and get the best contract. Terrence McCauley won it last year and probably was going to win it this year. A number of events happened causing Terrence to lose competition after competition. His dad, Brian McCauley hired the Hardy boys to try to figure out who did it. The book was amazing and I think you should read it. It is a 5 star performance. I loved it.

Ed Hardy has written an engaging book. Drawing from some of his life experiences, both as a youth in the Fingerlakes region of New York and as a journalist and newspaper reporter, his portrait of a dysfunctional family was engaging and humorous even if it sometimes hit too close to home. I found myself hoping, for the authors sake, that the familial relationships portrayed in the book were purely fictional. Discerning readers should enjoy the change of style vs. the sometimes overblown and gimmicky fiction on many of the best seller lists. It was a difficult book to put down. I'm looking forward to Mr. Hardy's next novel.

Geyser Life is simply one of the best contemporary novels I've read in the last five years. It was engaging, entertaining, thought-provoking, and funny, a thorough pleasure that I lead me to feel sad when I had finished because I wanted the experience to continue. I was extremely impressed by Hardy's ability to manage several different first-person voices in the novel, each of them a distinct character, each one interesting in its own way. I have recommended this novel to people I know, and I'd recommend it to anyone looking for a excellent novel that is both readable and intelligent. I can't wait for Hardy's next work.

I found this first novel really interesting. The characters were familiar but not like those in other books. I loved the structure and plot, both of which kept me reading. I learned something about families, including my own, from the ways in which the sister, brother and father related to each other. I would recommend this book highly.

Well, they published a series of bland stories with bland characters and cliched plots, might as well bank on that with a book that tells you how to be that bland and predictable. Actually, The Hardy Boys Detective Handbook is an interesting read and if you ever wanted an up-to-date manual on how criminal investigations were conducted 30 years ago then this is the book for you. For nostalgia freaks this book will be a bonanza of delight and all those who are in close proximity when they have this book in their possession may be in for a contact high. Fans of the series will definitely enjoy this one as Frank W. Dixon, a pseudonymn for about a thousand ghostwriters, and a retired FBI agent (I forget his name) give you tips on how to be just like those nice, clean cut boys who somehow manage to get involved in criminal investigations.

I already own this, & I like it. It very useful.

This book is great for any kids who want to be detectives. It is one of the greatest books I ever read.