The BSC is having a summer camp! The BSC has had a lot of problems-including Cokie Mason. So all the members have been working hard-entertaining the kids, solving their problems, and fixing their mistakes. But all the BSC members have noticed something weird about Kristy. And that's because her father came back into her life! Mary Anne is the only BSC member who knows that her father is back in town. During Day Camp, Kristy goes home early and comes late. Plus, she's been lying to all the members! Kristy can't let all her friends down. But is her father worth it? Or will he go away again?

What a wonderful book! I love it because it proves that no matter what, the BSC will aways help each other. My favourite part was when Kristy met her father. Ann M. Martin's books expresses the member's feelings. Ann is my most favourite author.

Iloved this movie it talks about friendship and how friends should always be there for each other through tick and thin it reminded me of now and then.

This book was realllly kewl. Try it, you'll be sure to like it. K.A. Applegate rules!

The Summer series is like a warm,heated pool that you can just jump right into. Every page you devour is a page you experienced all that is Summer firsthand. Once you start reading you wont be able to put it down, i guarantee. ...

I think this was a great book! I have numbers 1-6. They keep you so occupied and interested! Will there be any more?

This book is one of the best on dream symbols i've yet to encounter. Easy to read and understand.

The best symbol book I have read. For six months I have been looking for books on symbols and have been settling for less than what I wanted. This dream symbol book is what I have been looking for and more!

This one is a buy, keep and use forever. I have found many of Mary's books insightful but this one is my favorite. I've had it since '97 and I use it almost every morning to review my dreams. You'd be amazed at the stuff your dreams are trying to tell you. If you're interested in personal growth and the like, my advice to you is to buy this book and start paying attention to your dreams.

These are the mermaids that sailors feared -- vain, nasty little finned misses who don't hesitate to call up storms if it suits them. Mollie Hunter is in prime form here, in the tale of two brave kids who struggle to free their village from a vindictive mermaid.

Eric Anderson never believed in the mermaid -- until his ship was crashed on the rocks, and he saw a mermaid seconds before the disaster. After that incident, he stays on the land with his family, but eventually grows restless for the sea. He leaves for a shipping job far away. Three years later, his wife, children, and grandchildren Anna and Jon receive nine gifts -- which the wise woman Howdy tells them is significant. Everything regarding the mermaid and their grandfather, she says, will be connected with the number three.

One of the gifts is a conch shell, which the spooked Jon finds will summon the mermaid. After Anna accidently calls the mermaid up, the fishy girl is at first charmed by the sight of a "female land creature," then demands Anna's gift, a beautiful jade comb. When Anna refuses to give it to her, the mermaid threatens to drive away the herring -- meaning that the village will starve that winter. A war of wills begins between two ingenious kids and a ruthless mermaid -- not just for the village, but for Eric Anderson as well...

This is a stronger book than Hunter's "Stranger Came Ashore," partly due to the more mainstream plotline and partly due to the third-person narrative. For the characters, Hunter hits all the nails on the head, as every person's emotions and responses are perfectly-written. Her descriptions of a rural village full of life and work is appealing, as are her atmospheric descriptions of the coastline.

Jon and Anna are good heroes for this. Jon is strong-willed and a little befuddled by what is going on around him, while Anna is an innocent little girl with a scheming streak. Senior citizens Jamie and the Howdy add a note of experience and wisdom. The mermaid is also excellently drawn: she's not evil so much as lacking in generosity, mercy, or basic kindness. Like a spoiled brat, she wants what she wants, and will throw a tantrum to get it. And in keeping with her vanity, her only goal is to make her sister mermaids envy her.

"Mermaid Summer" is a charming, sometimes spooky look at the less benevolent mermaids. With endearing heroes and a tight storyline, it's a good read for any and all kids.

Eric Anderson was the only fisherman in the village who laughed at the tale of the mermaid whose favourite place was the Drongs, the huge rocks off the coast of the village. (They're real, by the way, lying off Hillswick Ness in the Shetland Islands of northern Scotland.)

Eric stopped laughing, though, on the foggy day when he and his crew not only saw her, but were lured onto the rocks by her singing. After consulting the Howdy - the local wisewoman, in this 19th century village - Eric left the fishing fleet to sign on for a long ocean voyage, rather than endanger the other fishermen. The Howdy offered hope - and riddles, recommending what gifts he should find and send home to his family. Not until later do we understand the Howdy's prophecy that Granda Eric's gifts will be his hope of coming home, and that his fate is ruled by the number three. The Howdy's character is well drawn - we see enough of the story from her viewpoint to know that she's not as uncanny as she seems, and enough to understand why all the kids are scared of her.

Eric sends gifts and letters to his wife Sarah, his son, and his grandchildren, Jon and Anna - but not the name of his ship or its home port, fearing that he might weaken if they write back. Both the adults and children of the family are developed properly as characters; Sarah, Eric's wife, reacts about as you might expect to her husband's exile to the ends of the earth, giving us a glimpse of the Howdy's treatment of the ailments of despair. While the adults are too proud to write against Eric's wishes, Anna is so determined that she figures out how to get her letters to Eric, always ending, 'Please come home soon.' She may even be determined enough to defeat the mermaid's magic...

The mermaid, as you may have gathered, is drawn in the tradition of the old legends: beautiful, but ageless, and as uncaring as the sea of any human feelings. Mermaids have *some* feelings, just not the softer ones: they revel in the jealousy of other mermaids, for instance, or the rush of power. She isn't evil; she's outside human reckoning, like a storm or a shark. When the children finally encounter her face-to-face, they find themselves trying to outwit her for both Granda Eric's freedom and the fate of the entire herring fleet.

My friend read this book and she said it was a real good book Now I'm reading it.

This is a profound gift for anyone willing to re-evaluate his or her assumptions with honesty and courage. The teachings from a Greater Community can help you get in touch with the Truth within if you are willing to do the work. This is definitely not a book to be read, this is a resource to use to test the validity and value of one's beliefs, assumptions and preferences that often go unchallenged but frequently are the source of tremendous confusion, frustration and inner conflict. I give this book my highest and strongest recommendation.

I read it over and over. Lots of wisdom. New perspectives.

Simple, clear and profound! You'll want to read this over and over! This one goes on my "one of the best books I've ever read" list.

If you like books (which I presume you do if you're hanging out on the Amazon.com website :)), and especially if you like book reviews (ditto!), you're going to LOVE this book. Gleaned from a century of New York Times book reviews (plus interviews and letters to the editor), "Books of the Century" gives us the some of the best in 20th century literature, as seen through the eyes of some great reviewers (e.g., WH Auden on Tolkien's "Lord of the Rings"). I can't decide which is more entertaining and edifying -- reading a well-written review which really "nails" a book, or laughing over a ridiculous "panning" of what would turn out to be a great classic.

My only MAJOR criticism of this book is that it includes almost NO science fiction whatsoever. Besides being one of my personal favorite genres of literature, there are just some great all-around WRITERS missing here: Philip K. Dick, Olaf Stapledon, Alfred Bester, HG Wells, and many more. I mean, I can understand that "Books of the Century" wasn't thousands of pages long, and obviously couldn't include EVERYTHING, but leaving out an entire GENRE of literature? I seriously question the editors' judgment on this omission (and that's why I give "Books of the Century" four stars instead of five)!

Besides that problem, which can be solved by checking out David Pringle's "The Ultimate Guide to Science Fiction," I strongly recommend "Books of the Century." The New York Times Book Review section is a national treasure, and this is a select sampling of that treasure. An excellent book for a lazy summer afternoon...enjoy!

Do you ever wonder how some of the most highly regarded and influential books of the century were reviewed when they were first released, without the benefit of hindsight? This book, a collection from the New York Times Book Review, gives you the answer. It's a tribute to the reviewers that they were often right on the money in their evaluations (like the reviews on "Ulysses", "The Grapes of Wrath", "For Whom the Bell Tolls", etc.). It's also kind of a hoot to read the "Oops!" reviews, where they dowgraded books like "Catch-22" and "Catcher in the Rye" when they first came out. There is a lot of fascinating reading here. I just wish it were more comprehensive, which may not be realistic on my part, since that would mean about a 10,000 page book. But for what this book sets out to do, it succeeds with flying colors.

I would suggest that all who are interested in obtaining this book put it in your "Shopping Cart" IMMEDIATELY, because if you come back later and put "Books of the Century" in the search engine, it will inexplicably bring up a bunch of books about architecture. HUHHH?? C'mon, Amazon, let's tweak that search engine a little here!!

This book selects hundreds of representative reviews from NYT's "Book Review". This's a great book! It reflects the taste and the trend of American (or put it boldly, contemporary) literature and lit-crit. Numerous witty articles and perspectives prevail here. While in retrospective, we can find how precise the words were to some great literature works when they were just published. Typical examples like reviews of "Ulysess" ,"The grapes of Wrath". Such reviews undoubtly testify the high-standard of NYT's review. This is a must for book lover.

Since I've visited Antarctica, and enjoyed its haunting, indifferent beauty as well as the spectacular wildlife, I was interested in reading an account of someone who had lived, studied, and conducted research there.

Campbell's strength is writing about the science, the wildlife, the extremes of weather and of living in a difficult place. His weakness is his utter lack of self-analysis. He berates the tourists who come to this place (does he think he owns the Antarctic area himself?), and laments the loss of microscopic and macroscopic life that is lost when the loutish tourist dares step on the fragile landscape, yet he is blissfully unaware of the far greater damage he does to the ecosystem when he powers up the hills to work on the weatherstation, and when he pulls up marine creatures and watches them burst, dying, under his microscope.

I guess anything is fair game when done under the guise of 'science', but woe be to the ordinary person who dares to learn about one of the farthest reaches of the planet.

It would be hard for this book to be uninteresting, covering as it does the natural history and present teeming life, as well as the everyday life of a human community, in this remote area. My only objection is the use of some scientific biology words which may be common enough among scientists but which are curveballs for us lay folk. Otherwise it's a fine read. This really made me picture myself there, and want to visit Antarctica, and appreciate its role in the world environment.

This book is elegantly descriptive of the history, both natural and anthropogenic, of one of the last true frontiers - Antarctica. Dr. Campbell presents an interesting history of Antarctica before the human invasion as well as after, which provides the reader with a better understanding of the environment in Antarctica.

I'm gonna have to get this book sometime. I have always been intrested in the smaller clans; salubri, cappadocian, and kiasyd are all real cool.

By the old rules there are only 8 salubri alive at a time but now since they are part of the sabbat I'm not sure. I have read through the Book of Nod and I don't remember the passage from the previous reviewer but it did talk about saulot being baal's brother and betraying him to Cain when he started his demon worshipping.

Ohh well I hope they come out with a revised Salubri book.

These are one of the most powerful clans in vampire the Masquerade. But they have been small in numbers for so long that you have to go back to the dark ages to be one. This book has a very good background story for the salubri. Lets you in a few sercrets never before heard of until this was released.

Something that explains the how and why behind the Childer of Saulot. Most interesting. The explination of the split of Valeren into the warrior aspect (antitribu's Valeren) and it's healing aspect (main-not considering numbers-power Obeah) The mystery about the Baali intrueges me. I can only say that Saulot must have been closer to Malkav, not just in the physical sense, but in the MENTAL sense. The clan was splitting before the Tremere ever came along, much like Saulot's mind........

Primogen Darodine of San Francisco "Fractured is the mind, fractured is the soul, diseased is the blood, you are what you eat. What am I?"

I was attached to A Battery 2nd/32nd F.A. - 2 8inch S.P. guns that arrived at F.S.B. Illingsworth 10 Days before the Battle ! The Book has some misinformation - like we arrived 1 day before the Battle ! I have already had 14 months inside War Zone C before arriving at Illingsworth ! A Battery has had many conflicts with the enemy - lived over 2 years continuiously inside War Zone C . The plans were forming in mid - march about using our 8inch S.P. guns, before entering Cambodia in May, being used as a Baiting Operation ! 79 Brave Americans were given orders to stay , after the fall of F.S.B. Jay , and to face the enemy ( 272 Reg. 1,050 strong )without any Hardline defense . Between the second hour to the 5 hour - 3,372 Friendly Artillery shells were fired at us - around us ! After the smoke cleared - 24 Brave Americans died - 100 Enemy bodies found ! We ( Proud Americans 2nd/32nd F.A. ) attacted and raised our American flag on a chopped down small tree . Everyone there were the BRAVEST Combat troops that the Army ever gave orders to stay and fight ! We all knew that a lot of us were going to be killed ! The Army knew that too ! Sent out the 1st. Cav. Chaplin the day before the Battle . The I.I.F.F. units received a Unit Battle award but the 1st. Cav. units did not ! Embarrassement that has to be corrected - going to try to correct it ! The Unit Battle awards should be Upgraded to a U.S. Presidential Unit award - Baiting Operation - is the Supreme Sacrifice that a Soldier does by giving his Life by following orders . Everyone of us still LIVING has the duty telling everyone of the Couragious men at F.S.B. Illingsworth on April 1 , 1970 .

The Cambodian invasion of 1970 is treated in a string of interrelated episodes; the story-telling is good but as military history, this falls short. No real analysis because the author is non-military. Note, intelligence is virtually ignored throughout the book; no S-2s were contributors (yet virtually every S-3 operations officer is listed). The book does point out how armor-heavy the Cambodian incursion was and also how effective the NVA was in dealing with US armor. Numerous M113 ACAVs and M551 Sheridans, as well as M48 Pattons were knocked out by the ever-present RPG-7s. Nolan is a conservative, pro-military author who wants to paint the US military in a good light, but he does allow lapses, such as the occasional apathetic or druggie soldiers. His conclusion is that the incursion was a military success that saved US lives and bought us 12-18 months of relative quiet from the enemy. Unfortunately, he does not discuss ARVN operations much and ignores the wider political issues. Better maps, an Order of Battle appendix, a little more info from the enemy side and a better strategic overview would have made this a superb book.

Chapter 5-7 regarding Fire Support Illingsworth was so accurate. I was there on 1 April 1970 with A Troop 1/11 ACR. I thought about my experience, and the book read as if I was writing down from my own memory. The accounts came to life! email: george@foreveryone.net

Ive read Countess Below Stairs a hundred times and it's one of my favourite books ever, so when I bought this one I thought it would be as good as that one. But it wasnt. It was kind of boring. I enjoyed, it was good to spend the time, but it was not so great.

I am an avid fan of Eva Ibbotson's children's books, whose descriptions are in between JK Rowlings's and Edith Nesbitt's. This book was slightly less enchanting as her children's fantasies, but there was still that wonderful rich description. I do have to argue against the reviewer who said that few could match her warm, lyrical style; Jane Austen's and Charlotte Bronte's comes close. The plot is a fairly straightforward tale of a young woman who goes to work at a boarding school, so it isn't the most gripping tale, but it's still a wonderful beautiful story. Read it if you love Anne of Green Gables, Jane Eyre, or Ms. Ibbotson's fantasy books, or if you love the English language, or just spend a sophisticated, enjoyable few hours with a great book. Email me if you want more info or have a specific question.

This is the first Ibbotson book I had read and it ties with A Countess Below Stairs as my favorite. The author creates such memorable characters that you can't help wanting the story to go on forever. I loaned this book to a friend and we laugh over the characters like Andromeda, the self regulating baby. I could not put it down. I love to tell my friends about Ibbotson, but it seems like all her books are out of print so you have to get them at libraries. I heartily recommend this book to anyone who likes a good story mixed with a little romance.