This book is a great book for teenagers and adults alike to read. It grabs your attention with stories of the romance filled relationship that Angie and Jack share. At first Angie never thought she would have a chance with the fabulous, gorgeous football player from her high school. Well, after they graduate, Angie is in for a big surprise. She soon gets a visit from Jack and finds out that he is single and "hint hint" he wants her to go boating with him! She is so excited that she gladly agrees to go. She has the best time of her life and falls head over heels for him. As you read all of the hardships they go through together as a couple, you will be drawn into the story. As I read this book it felt as though I was there with them on the boat and in Pete's and McKnight's. When Jane Rady shows up I feel as though I am Angie sitting there drinking my Coke as Jack dances with Jane. As the summer ends, Jack and Angie have to face the fact that Angie is going to college and they will have to seperate. Just as you start to think it is over between Jack and Angie, Mrs. Daly adds a little twist to the story's plot.( You'll have to read the book to find out what I am talking about.) Maureen Daly has wrote a wonderful tale of true love and friendship. I recommend you to read this book. If you love to read love stories and love books that draw you into the plot, then you will love this book. You won't regret it. I promise.

I've read this book already seven times since I first read it in the 7th grade...and every time it is simply lovely. Maureen Daly fills all of her books with a mysterious enchantment that I can utterly relate to and each time find beautiful and sweet. The book is written in the first person as Angie Morrow falls in love for the first time and she details everything so perfectly you wouldn't realize it was even a story! You feel you ARE her, and as if she is spilling your own heart out through hers. It is definately a book that ANYONE should read, so READ IT!

I discovered this book after reading an excerpt in one of those teenager-in-love anthologies that Scholastic books used to market in their catalogs. Like many others here, I re-read this one every summer, and have for close to three decades (yikes!) Angie and Jack were easy to relate to--she's a college-bound girl from a middle-class background, he was the star basketball player whose family owns the town bakery. Angie been something of an outsider in town, having attended a private girls-only prep school. Jack discovers her almost by accident one day when he blows the paper from his straw out of his booth at the drugstore, and looks over to see where it landed. From there, it's just a matter of time until they're a couple. There is nothing cliched about this book, even though it has many of the common elements we associate with teenagers in love. It's rounded out by scenes of Angie's family life and her plans for college even though she's falling deeper in love with Jack and he with her.

One caution: this book gets reprinted and re-released periodically with newer contemporary covers. You need to be aware that it is definitely not set in contemporary times, though. There are many references to society and mores of its setting--Wisconsin in the 30s--but the feel and experience of first love transcends everything. I think this one's a classic and a keeper. This is the only fiction book besides Gone with the Wind that I've kept from my own adolesence. Someday it will be my daughter's. On June 21, 2012, when she turns 17, this will be my gift to her.

In Sarah Dessen's first novel, Haven, a tall 15 year-old girl tries to deal with her life changing summer, while reminiscing about a special one that stood out in her memory. The summer where everyting was right and perfect and happy. The summer that her older sister Ashley was dating Sumner, and her parents were happy and together. Back in reality though, this summer was crazy, and strange- nothing was the same anymore. Her dad runs off with the "Weather Pet" and her sister is getting married to a boring guy named Lewis. Her best friend returns from camp a totally different girl, who smokes and has a long term boyfriend. Even Haven herself has changed. he is almost six feet tall, uncomfortable with herself and her looks. The boy who made everything right, Sumner Lee, makes a re-appearance after all those years during this summer, and Haven thinks he is the key to making everything go away and be normal again. By the end of this crazy summer, Haven finds herself and understands so many more things than she did before. Sarah Dessen is an oustanding author, who writes with a laid-back, detailed style that anyone can somehow relate to. Her characters are well-developed, and unforgetable. This is a book that you don't want to put down, but after you've finished it, you wish you had savored every page, not wanting it to end. It is sweet, truthful, sad, and funny, all at the same time.

In Sarah Dessen's first novel, Haven, a tall, 15 year old girl tries to deal with her life changing summer, while reminiscing about a special one that stood out in her memory. The summer where everything was right and perfect and happy. The summer that her older sister Ashley was dating Sumner, and her parents were happy and together. Back in reality though, this summer was crazy and strange- nothing was the same anymore. Her dad runs off with "The Weather Pet" and her sister is getting married to a boring guy named Lewis. Her best friend returns from camp a totally different girl, who smokes and has a long-distance boyfriend. Even Haven herself has changed. She is almost six feet tall, uncomfortable with herself and her looks. The boy who made everything right, Sumner Lee, makes a re-appearance after all those year during this summer, and Haven thinks he is the key to making everything go away and be normal again. By the end of this crazy summer, Haven finds herself and understands so many more things than she did before. Sarah Dessen is an outstanding author, who writes with a laid-back, detailed style that anyone can somehow relate to. her characters are well developed, and unforgetable. This is a book that you don't want to put down, but after you've finished it, you wish you had savored every page, not wanting it to end. It is sweet, truthful, sad, and funny all at the same time.

"That Summer" was about a girl named Haven. Haven is a fifteen-year-old who is going through a lot of bad changes in her life. Her life is very similar to other teenagers lives in our world today. She would always get picked on at school because of how tall and thin she was. Also, the changes she was going through seemed pretty sad. She was dealing with her parents getting a divorce and her father re-marrying and her sister getting married for the first time. It was summer time for her, and there was two weddings going on. One of the weddings was for her father and Lorna Queen, and ther other was for her sister and Lewis Warsher. She wasn't all that happy.

I truly enjoyed reading this book by Sarah Dessen. I loved it so much because it was hilarious. Well, it was not only hilarious, but the story was also sad, very heart warming, and also sweet as well. Reading this book has reminded me a lot about the character Mia Thermopolis from "The Princess Diaries" by Meg Cabot. The way that she was getting picked on at school because of how weird she looked was exactly what was happening to Mia. I really like reading books about teenagers lives. I like to see what happens and what they go through. That's why i enjoyed reading this book.

My favorite part in this book would be in chapter eleven. In chapter eleven, they are apparently only three days away from her sister Ashley's wedding. She talks about how everyone was kind of stressing themselves out, and how they were trying to get everything done before the wedding. The funny part was when she was describing how her father looked when he and his new wife, Lorna came back from the Bahamas. She said,"My father came back with even more hair, a sunburn,..." I always love reading the funny parts. It reminded me of my grandpa. He barely had any hair. That was one good laugh!

It is incredibly ironic that the Scopes trial, promised by both the prosecution and the defense to be a battle for the truth, is represented in popular & religious culture and, most unfortunately, taught in classrooms in a largely false manner. This book won the Pulitzer Prize in History for good reason; it is the first (and best) attempt to accurately reflect not only the Scopes trial but also the events before it and the three-quarters worth of a century that followed.

As one who fell asleep while trying to watch "Inherit the Wind," I find the truth far more rivetting. The bredth of the defense team.. and the strong convictions and performances of Arthur Garfield Hays and Dudley Field Moore are entirely bypassed in popular history.

The only fault with the work is Larson's apparent effort to be so objective that no one is offended. This causes him to refrain from defending Darrow from years of attacks for his "cross-examination" (outside the presence of the jury and ultimately stricken from the record) of Bryan. The prosecution-- and Bryan in particular-- had promised/threatened/guaranteed a showdown.. to prove that evolution was false, especially if one accepts a literal reading of the bible. The reason Bryan was called to the stand and Darrow was able to question him as he did without the jury present is because the PROSECUTION changed strategies. Unable to find a single competent scientist to support its view, the prosecution was forced to argue against Malone's efforts to show that christianity and evolution were compatable. By keeping out the evidence of the defense's religious and scientific experts, the only defense left was to demostrate the absurdity of Bryan particular views. Though Darrow no doubt enjoyed it, his treatment of Bryan was the third line of defense, not the first.

The manipulation of the facts surrounding Scopes and a rise in the number of so-called scientists pushing creationism demonstrates that, in spite of our supposed rapid intellectual growth as a nation, there are more individuals than ever willing to say, do, or believe whatever will give them control, power, or money. It is a shame that after more than 75 years, Bryan would today have no trouble finding an "expert" witness.

Like many of my generation, I learned of the Scopes "Monkey" Trial through the Lawrence and Lee play, "Inherit the Wind." Edward J. Larson's Summer for the Gods: The Scopes Trial and America's Continuing Debate over Science and Religion is a fine and lively historical account of the trial and its aftermath. Winner of the 1998 Pulitzer Prize, Larson's book sets the battle between fundamentalist religion and the "modern" science of Darwinism in both an historical and cultural context. In the 1920s, several states attempted to pass anti-evolution laws, and Tennessee finally succeeded in 1925. Thereafter, the ACLU found a test plaintiff in teacher John Scopes, and a test venue in the sleepy town of Dayton, Tennessee, which hoped to use the trial to "get on the map" and increase tourism. Using newspaper accounts, memoirs, and other contemporaneous sources, Larson displays in vivid detail both the seriousness and naivete of the battle between religion and science, William Jennings Bryan and Clarence Darrow. He also argues, convincingly for me, that the trial did not -- contrary to the Lawrence and Lee depiction -- leave Bryan a broken man (although he died within a week of the verdict). Going beyond the trial and its immediate aftermath, the final section of this book examines how later historians and writers -- including Lawrence and Lee -- have interpreted and often mis-interpreted the trial for later generations. In particular, Larson argues that "Inherit the Wind", like the Arthur Miller classic "The Crucible", must be viewed as both a product of and attack upon the McCarthy era of the 1950's. This is an insightful and enjoyable account.

Inherit the Wind is good entertainment... but it's entertainment, and only loosely based on facts. Read this book, if you're interested in the true story of the Scopes trial.

This book is roughly divided into 3 sections. 1., the time before the trial, political and social context, and the people involved. 2. The trial itself, and 3. after the trial, the appeals, and some comments on modern-day Dayton, TN.

The background information is the largest section of this book, and is the most valuable. It's interesting to hear who William Jennings Bryan was as a person, how the ACLU became involved, the personalities of Scopes, Darrow, Bryan, as well as the other lawyers involved, the citizens of Dayton, and the judge. You will understand that contrary to the popular view that Scopes was harassed by the religious folk in town, he volunteered to take part, for the sole purpose of testing the anti-evolution law that had just hit the books. You will read how Darrow and Bryan both expanded the issues in the trial, so that religion and evolution became the focus of the trial, instead of simpler questions about what can be taught in school, and educational freedoms. The latter is what the ACLU was testing, although the former became the scope of the trial, much to their chagrin.

The trial and wrap-ups were also interesting. I was a bit disappointed that the trial description was so short, relatively. I would have liked to read more transcripts of it, hence the 4 stars instead of 5.

Overall, a fascinating and educational book, that is still relevant today. The issues discussed in the Scopes trial are prevalent in modern society, and played out daily in our classrooms.

This is probably the best overall book you will find about guitars. It covers quite a bit of material. The details about how a guitar works and how to maintain a guitar are the best I have ever personally read. For example, setting the scale length of a guitar, a very important part of getting a guitar to sound good, is covered in easy to understand terms. It helped me fix some minor tuning issues on my Stratocaster.

This is also an effective book if you are interested in buying a guitar. You will be able to identify problems with most guitars because you will know what to look for. For example, checking for a warped neck. There is a great two page section that gives you the basics about how to look for that kind of defect.

And don't let any of these other reviews convince you that there is not enough theory in here. Granted, if you are brand new to playing or music in general it probably won't make much sense and you will struggle. But if you understand some basic scale and chord structures this book will help you gain a better understanding of how it all works. Odds are that those who do not like the theory in this book either do not like the approach or didn't actually read the entire book.

This book will NOT make you sound like your favorite guitarist. All the great players are great because they practice and the greatest players just have the gift. So do not expect that out of any book or instructor.

Lastly, do not buy the hard cover edition. Get the soft cover/paperback edition. You will want to have this book in front of you when you are working on your guitar or playing it. The only thing that would make this book a 5 star is if you could get it in spiral bound format.

When I first started playing the guitar 2 decades ago, a friend had a copy of an earlier edition of this guide and he gave me the book to use while I was getting started. Using the book, and I mean really reading the book thru thoroughly, I learned a whole lot about the instrument itself and the music that could be produced from the guitar and that really helped my performance as I developed on the instrument.

The book begins with guitar innovators, those guitar players who have had a serious impact on the way the instrument is played, etc. This section was actually fun to read and was quite informative about several guitar players who had influenced my own playing.

The following two sections of the book cover acoustic and electric guitars. These sections detail how each instrument (acoustic and electric) are put together, how to set the action, the various types of each style of guitar, how pick-ups are put together, etc. This is a helpful and technical section which instructs the reader on the ins and outs of the make-up of his instrument.

From here, the book moves into actually playing the instrument. It begins with the beginner, teaching good practicing habits, what to practice, improving fingering, chord progressions, reading tablature, tuning, action, right and left-handed techniques, etc. Then this section moves into chords (with photos), three-chord theory, flatpicking and strumming and other various fingerstyles, barre chords, and even how to transpose songs. Inside this section there is also a sub-section on rhythm guitar, setting tempo, time signatures, using chord charts, time values, etc. Essentially everything you would need to know to be a well rounded guitar player is included (including slide guitar).

The final section deals with the maintenance of the guitar. This section teaches the reader/player all the things that are needed to know about the most difficult maintenance aspects such as how to customize an instrument, to the easiest such as changing your strings. For the electric guitarist, there is a guide to guitar electronics which includes pictures and lists of all the tools you will need, instructions on reading wiring diagrams, actual charts and photos of how an electric guitar is wired, pick-up circuits, etc.

Finally, at the back of the book is a fairly extensive chord dictionary with pictures of how each chord is fingered. This dictionary is very helpful to the player when trying to find the same chord but to know where it is elsewhere on the fret board. Overall, what can I say but that no guitar player, regardless of your experience should be without this definitive guidebook.

While refurbishing a used electric guitar (a Gibson Flying V), I needed circuit diagrams and a friend lent me his copy of The Guitar Handbook. After reading a few pages, I didn't want to give it back! The book's brilliance lies in its economical use of language, diagrams and photos. It's as though Ralph Denyer and his editors are telepathic; knowing exactly what the reader needs and wants to know about guitars and guitar playing. Every page is a gold mine, illuminating topics I thought would be boring -- for example, complex music theory. Truly inspirational, the book unveils the once-daunting mysteries of music, including technical vocabulary, and still manages to stay down to earth. Listen to this quote: "Many guitarists--especially those that are self-taught--are suspicious of scales and regard them as an unattractive and unnecessary discipline. This is untrue." I've been rocking for 20 years and now my 16-year-old daughter is teaching me to sight-read music! One word of advice: if you expect to keep your copy of The Guitar Handbook, don't lend it to a guitar player.

I have been reading Jim Butcher's Dresden File series from the first, and the series just keeps getting better. It has been a pleasure watching Harry Dresden grow as a character, and the author grow as a craftsman.
Things are heating up in Harry Dresden's Chicago. The White Council is in town, and Harry is in trouble...The Vampire Reds are after Harry over a spot of arson last season, and Harry is in trouble...Someone has taken out a contract hit on Harry, (I think he's in trouble...) And now the two courts of Faerie are about to go to war, and Harry is the only one who can stop them. With the help of some old friends (Murphy, the Alphas, Toot-toot), some new friends, and some surprising sources, Harry just might survive this one.

The book is well written, with a well planned plot line. Mr. Butcher is an excellent story teller with a keen eye for detail, and a good feel for human (?) nature.

If you are looking for a good read, go to the book store, buy "Storm Front", "Fool Moon", "Grave Peril", and "Summer Knight", lock the doors, put the answer machine on, and have yourself a wonderful little weekend!

Looking forward to the next one!

Can Butcher do no wrong? The man has a real sense of imagination, wonder a fine way of molding a modern hero.

A brief overview. This is the fourth book in the Harry Dresden Files, by newcomer Jim Butcher. Harry Dresden is Chicago's only openly practicing wizard. A member of the White Council, a governing body for wizards, he is down on his luck after his girlfriend Susan gets turned to a vampire in the previous novel. Still searching for a cure he has alienated everyone who cares about him, while still trying to dodge hitman hireed by vampires, and trying to keep out of the way of Morgan a warder for the White Council bent on seeing him pay for past deeds.

In order to truly appreciate this novel you must read the first three. In this novel we see the return of some great characters from the first three novels.

Butcher not only continues to shine more light on the modern day wizard (he introduces the White Council and several of it's key members in the first 4 chapters alone), but he dives into the realms of fairie, with his usual flare.

The novel goes from the political infighting of the White Council, to the potentially earth shattering intrigues of the Courts of Fae and a war that cannot afford to be won or lost by either side.

This is the best out of all the books. Well plotted and well written. I cannot wait to read the next one.

I have been reading Jim Butcher's "Dresden Files" since the first book, and this is the best yet. It has been a real pleasure watching Harry Dresden develop as a character, and the author develop as a craftsman.
Things are heating up in Harry Dresden's Chicago. The White council is in town, and Harry is in trouble. The Vampire Reds are gunning for Harry, over a spot of arson last season. There is a rampant ghoul-cum hit man out there lurking, and Harry isn't completly sure who did the hiring. To top it all off, the courts of the fey are about to go to war, and it looks like Harry is the only one that can put a stop to it.
Harry just may survive this one , with a little help from his friends (the Alphas, Toot, Murphy) and some unexpected help from a few surprise sources.
I would highly reccomend this book!
To anyone looking for a terrific new series - Pick up a copy of "Storm Front", "Fool Moon", "Grave Peril", and "Summer Knight". Lock the doors, turn on the answer machine and have yourself a merry little weekend.
Congrats to the author on another great read. I just wish I didn't have to wait another year for the next one.

This book was a good book. It was very well written and rather enjoyable. I recommend this book to middle school girls because it is an easier book to read and is about two sisters.
A Summer To Die took place in the "boonies", or out of town, mostly. The Chalmers have to move because the father has to write a book and needs quiet. The move is only temporary but still the two girls dislike it. Eventually they adjust.
The protagonist, Meg Chalmers is a friendly, average girl who is into photography. She and her older sister, Molly, fight frequently, like any other two siblings. One day after they have gotten into one of their predicaments Molly gets one of her nosebleeds. She gets these nosebleeds when she is stressed. This one is not like all the others though, and Molly has to be rushed to the hospital. The doctor says that her blood does not clot right and gives her pills to take. Molly starts to change dramatically; she is more moody and easily set off. She also does not have the same interests, such as babies, boys, and looking pretty, as she did previous to taking the medicine. She takes up new hobbies such as flowers, which she never would have done before.
Overall I found this book to be very good. It has happy, sad, suspenseful and very intriguing parts to it. Middle School girls would probably enjoy this book most. A Summer To Die was a good book that was enjoyable and fun to read.

"A Summer to Die," was a great book. It was about two girls who have to face the new challenges, changes and having to make new friends when they move out of the city. Fifteen year old Molly has always been pretty, populair, and had an easy time making new friends. Molly already has a boyfriend in the first week they move their. But it does not come as easily to Meg, her sister. She can't make a single friend, and she is depressed. Her dad sits in his study all day writing a book, her sister is her usual, annoying, self. But one day Molly is rushed to the hospital and it is then that Meg knows that something is terribly wrong with her sister. Molly comes home and has a new drug she has to take. But Meg notices that Molly's long hair is falling out, Molly is loosing weight and she gets sick again. Read this story for yourself to find out the ending.

A Summer To Die is a very sad book, but it was great. 13 year old Meg envies her older sister, Molly, who is beautiful, practically perfect, and has a great boyfriend. One night Molly gets really sick and tells Meg to get their parents. Molly is rushed to the hospital and Meg feels as though it was all her fault. Finally Molly comes home from the hospital, but still can't go back to school, but she seems to be getting better, until one morning Meg got mad Molly was still in bed at 11 o'clock and when Molly goes to get out of bed, Meg sees something is wrong again. Molly asks that Meg not say anything about it, but she does and Molly is sent back to the hospital. Toward the end of the book Meg realizes that Molly isn't going to be coming home. Will Meg be able to tell her sister that she cares? Read the book to find out. This is a wonderful book I am sure you will like it!

I agree with many of the other reviewers on this book. It is a fun, simple tale that feels like it was targeted towards a young adult audience. The main character is likeable, but quite naive (or in my mind, not the sharpest knife in the drawer). Many of the more interesting plot details are not explored throughly - such as the aliora world and the deeper character aspects of Kentley and Coriel's half-sister. If you are expecting anything as good as Archangel, prepare yourself for yet another disappointment. Having read all of her novels, I think that Sharon Shinn is potentially a very talented writer. I keep buying her books in the hope that she will turn out something as good as Archangel, but I am getting sick of waiting (and buying those annoying trade editions). I don't understand why she seems to be rushing herself to turn out ridiculous numbers of half-finished books that betray her talent. Look at Robin McKinley - she takes her time between each book, polishing the details, plot, and language so that each page is worth reading. As a result, each finished book is a treasure. This author needs to take a lesson and spend the time required to explore and develop her ideas completely. Samaria was a brilliant idea, but she rushed through 500 years of history in the last 2 rather confusing books - there is still a lot of potential left there (hello, prequel) in that world. Maybe she is under some bizarre book contract or is paying off a lot of bills, but slow down and get a good editor! Quality matters.

An adult fairy-tale is hard to come by, but Sharon Shinn manages a beautiful one in rare style. It's hard to find the collection of magic, castles, princes and princesses, alongside a hard-hitting plot and strong characters; however, this book fulfils them.

Coriel is the ... daughter of a nobleman and a wise woman (who seduced him with magic) who spends nine months out of every year with her healer grandmother, learning how to be a wise woman as well. But every summer she travels to beautiful Castle Auburn, to be with her uncle Jaxom and lovely half-sister Elisandra. She rapidly falls in crush with the handsome Prince Bryan, unable to yet see what a self-absorbed bratling he is.

A few years pass, and as Cory ages and matures, she sees that all is not sweet and peaceful at Castle Auburn. The elven aliora (who are sweet, gentle, kind, etc) are enslaved by the noblemen as servants, tied to the human world rather than their unspeakably beautiful otherworld. And Bryan is not the wonderful prince she was infatuated with — he is cruel, irresponsible, narcissistic, arrogant, and sires at least one illegitimate baby over the course of the book.

Surrounding Bryan are more mature noblemen who don't want to be ruled by a brat prince, but are not ready to do anything. Jaxom takes sudden and unexpected actions. Elisandra must choose between happiness and duty, and Cory must consult her heart and morals after Bryan takes horrifying action against an aliora servant. Love, death, treachery and political intrigue lace the beautiful prose and entrancing background of "Castle Auburn."

I liked Coriel. Rarely do books have genuinely human heroines, and her overwrought teen thoughts (such as her melodramatic statement when Bryan kisses her forehead) are in tune with infatuation. However, I felt her awakening to the aliora's plight was a bit too quick, and her siding with them a bit too complete (her willingness to see Jaxom as a monster, etc). I wish Jaxom had been a bit more explored, given the mysterious actions going on. Elisandra's rigid road of duty -- and the results -- were pretty emotionally jerky but made sense later on.

Though billed as an adult fantasy, this is perfectly all right to let a teen read. There is some tasteful discussion of sex (in terms of illegitimate offspring and a wedding), not much violence, and no profanity worse than "damn." There is some talk of suicide/murder and moral debates on enslavement, however.

Nevertheless, flaws or not, this book has a magical atmosphere that is worthy of an aliora.

Shinn wonderfully combines an almost-romance with a number of complicated sub-plots in this book. It starts out with Corie, the illegitimate daughter of a noble, visitng Castle Auburn, home of her sister Elisandra. Corie, along with nearly all the girls in the kindgdom, is infatuated with her sister's betrothed, Prince Bryan...who is in reality an obnoxious, self-centered, spoiled teenager who cares little for others and for the world around him. It's frustrating, yet so realistic, how Corie can't seem to see the his bad qualities through the gleam of his splendour. As Corie grows, her eyes are "opened" to both Bryan's personality, as well as numerous plots being made within the castle walls. Corie finds herself struggling with her two identities - a noble lady of good lineage, despite her illegitimacy, and the apprentice to the wise woman of a small town. Corie's ways with herbs and medicines help her not only aid others, but also give her the opportunities make new friends, no matter how unlikely they seem. For the first time, Corie begins to doubt others and their actions. A constant argument she has within herself concerns the enslavement of the aliora; fey, man-like creatures who live in their own magical land but have been captured and sold for high prices. They are always wanted due to their magic and ability to send a feeling of calm to almost anyone.
Corie, however, does not appear to be the usual female heroin...you know, the one who learns how to fight and stands up for herseslf and proves to the world that she is equal to any man. No, instead, Corie is the type of heroin who influences others, whether its through her friendship, advice, or actions. While she does do things her own way and cares little for what others, especially nobles, think, she does not go out of her way to prove herself equal, which is a reliefe from the normal fantasy books of this sort.
This is an amazing fantasy book. The story is so enveloping, and the ending so satisfying, the second you finish reading it, you feel the urge to pick it up and start from the beginning again. The more times you read it, the more you begin to see all the different subtle hints that lead to the conclusion at the end. You will never get bored of it.

Gone-Away Lake and its sequel were my favorite books as a child, and I have also re-read them frequently over the years. I feel a kinship with the other people who have reviewed this book and love it as I do. I now have introduced it to my 8 year old son, and am so happy that he shares my love for this book. I love escaping to this gone-away place, and wish that I grew up in an era when children could safely wander, explore, and discover during the long lazy days of summer! How much more wonderful than today's summers filled with shopping malls, television, and Nintendo!

"Gone-Away Lake" is a delightful, beautifully written story, just this side of fantasy and filled with interesting, likable characters. A brother and sister from the city take the train to visit their country cousin. The children discover an old, mostly abandoned summer colony of houses near a swamp that used to be a lake. There they meet the most charming people in the book, an elderly sister and brother, Minnehaha Cheever and Pindar Payton, who are living happily in the place where they spent summers as children. The pair wear old-fashioned clothes stored away many years ago by their family, cultivate a variety of gardens, and have chickens, goats, a duck, and a cat named Fatly. Once a month, Pindar cranks up the antique Franklin car and drives into town for supplies. The children are adventuresome and imaginative, and have no need of TV to keep themselves amused. The descriptions of the country are amazingly vivid, and there's plenty of humor too. Don't miss the sequel, "Return to Gone-Away." And Elizabeth Enright's series about the Melendy family is also fun to read.

As Portia climbs aboard the train headed to Pork Ferry where she will spend her summer vacation with her cousin, she expects only the normal adventures: bug catching, finding mosses and looking up birds - what they always do. But this summer is different. On the first day of exploring they find themselves in a vast swamp with ruins of ancient houses around its borders. Once this swamp was a beautiful lake, a summer resort. But two people never left, the two people who can tell the story of Gone Away Lake and the many magical summers spent there.

It is a thoroughly exciting book you can't put down until finished!!! It is most definitely a must read for all people, young and old.

"In That Camden Summer," by Lavyrle Spencer, Roberta Jewett has experienced the unfaithfulness of her husband. To rid herself of her past she moves back to her hometown of Camden, Maine. This small town in which Roberta grew up now sees her as a disgrace. A divorce in a small town is seen as a criminal offense and Roberta is the offender. Through many hardships suffered through the actions of her mother as well as the town's citizens, Roberta decides to rebuild her life for her girls and herself. Love is reintroduced to her unexpectedly and her life falls back into place as she learns to have faith in the opposite sex.

In this book irony is the most significant literary element. Roberta is criticized frequently for the divorce she had encountered only months earlier. In the latter part of the book, readers see how ironic it is for her to be criticized while other citizens of the town have the same, if not worse, faults. It also ironic how badly the townspeople treat Roberta after everything she does for others. Throughout the story she is seen as a strong female who puts her life and family back together after a terrible experience. Her fellow citizens see her as a failure creating another ironic instance.

I think that this book is one of the most moving stories I've ever read. Ms. Spencer has created a phenomenal character in Roberta, who is as strong and self-reliant as we all wish we were. In spite of all her heartaches and pain, Roberta manages to find safe but passionate love. This story incorporates all our dreams; a middle-aged working woman with three young children etches out a life for herself all on her own and still manages to find time for romance. Roberta is a role model for women today. If we are given more characters such as she in more stories of courage and hope such as this, I think the women of the 21st century will go in a progressive new direction where having it all IS feasible. Inspiring

I chose Camden Summer for a free reading book for my High School Junior english class and to tell the truth I chose by looking at the cover. I was surprised at how excellent it was written. LaVyrle Spencer did a phenomanol job!!! I could never and didn't want to put it down. The book went to Florida with me on a band trip because I didn't want to put it down. The details were great. You could see everything that was happening. The detail of Roberta's house, Gabriels bedroom with Caroline's things and many other events. I would defiantly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys reading or even if they hate to read. I am only 17 and really loved it!!

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