This book starts out as a fairly standard fantasy love story but quickly becomes a much more serious fantasy about the uses and abuses of power. It starts out slow but by halfway through you won't be able to put it down. Great character development especially.

For more info about this book and other Louise Cooper info, check out The North Spire online.

Ah, power. We all want it, no matter how much we deny we do. What would I do if I had it? What would you? Of course, you and I are good, decent people and would never abuse power. Or would we? You and I know that power would never corrupt us. And if, perchance, it did, it would take a very long time and a very good reason. Or would it? It would certainly take more than a careless word from someone to make us wish harm on them, wouldn't it? Maybe not.

And magic is always something to think twice about, to be cautious with, and to respect absolutely, because magic constantly has a way of sneaking up behind us and biting us where it really hurts. If you don't understand magic, it's best to not mess around with it. But, then, there would be no story.

The Summer Witch begins as a harmless love story but transforms into a much more complex tale about power and what it does to even the most innocent and good hearted of us. The character development is remarkably good and the emotions well explored as the main character matures. Ms. Cooper has managed to allow us to not only enjoy a wonderful story, but also to examine our human frailties, desires, and fragility.

A book of love verses as they should be written - through good and bad. It is so exquisitely written that it'll give you that floating-on-clouds feeling and move you tears. An excellent read.

A work that manages to evoke just about every known human emotion, as it traces the arc of a relationship from the early joy:

for i locked a yellowdoor
and i threw away the key
and i spent summer with monika
and monika spent summer with me
...
somedays we thought about the seaside
and built sandcastles on the blankets
and paddled in the pillows
or swam in the sink
and played with the shoals of dishes

Through conflict:

your finger
sadly
has a familiar ring
about it

Through resignation:

we nolonger stroll along the beaches of the bed
or snuggle in the longgrass of the carpets
the room nolonger a world
for makebelieving in
but a ceiling and four walls
that are for living in
--------------------------
roger mcgough
sadly
is discounted
because realpoems
can't be
funny

This cookbook does a good job using seasonal produce and combining traditional American and ethnic/world flavors. Virtually all of the ingredients are available in my grocery store. Most of these recipes are easy to prepare, and the finished results can easily make you look like a better cook than you are. Only two quibbles: while I appreciate the use of fresh herbs and spices in these recipes this is not always an option for me, and I would have appreciated equivalent measures for dried herbs and spices. Additionally, while beautifully done I found some of the photographs superfluous. I would rather see the finished dish, which would show me what it should look like and perhaps give serving ideas, than a glass of fresh squeezed lemon juice or a plate of garlic. On the whole, however, this is a cookbook I will return to again and again.

I have always found chicken something of a challenge. If you don't make it just right, it can be dry and flavorless. This book makes chicken a snap! I am hooked! I got this book from a friend and have recommended it to others.
I've made about eight of the recipes so far - and have loved every one of them. There are some great ideas for the use of herbs (like the "Chicken with Lemon and Herbs" - using tarragon, one of my favorite herbs!!) and fruits (like "Sauteed Chicken With Pears"). All of the recipes are simple and have turned out great.
My only advice to go with this book is to double the sauces - the recipes tend to give you barely enough sauce to go over the chicken.
Many cookbooks will yield one or two favorites - but this one I will go back to again and again!

Charlie and Beth Callahan were high school sweethearts in Riverbend, Indiana. They rushed into marriage when their "summer thing" resulted in a pregnancy. Following Beth's miscarriage, they split up and she left Riverbend for college while Charlie stayed in town with his own business.

Now she's home again for a visit--and to sell her half of a houseboat that deceased town pillar Abraham Steele left to her and Charlie. She doesn't see Riverbend as a place she's going to move back to on a permanent basis. But Charlie's young ward, Nathan, finds his way into her heart--and she discovers that Charlie's still there, too. They were way too young the first time they were together, but what about now?

Well, folks, this IS a Harlequin Romance. Need I tell you?

But like the first book in this series (Birthright), there are some twists, turns, squabbles, and unresolved things along the way. The scene where Charlie and Beth finally get down to the bottom of why their teen marriage failed left me with tears in my eyes, as did the final scene between Beth and Lucy (Charlie's sister, who had a falling-out with Beth when the latter broke up with Charlie). Like nearly all the books in the Riverbend series, this one features a teenager or child as a major character. It's delightful to read that in many cases, they're the ones who bring out--or bring back--the love between the lead characters.

Riverbend is just like the town I grew up in, and even though I now live in a much larger city, it's fun to read about the small-town community. This is a good continuation of an excellent series. Enjoy. . .

Beth Pennington returns to Riverbend, Indiana expecting to stay with her brother and his family. Seeing her sister-in-law occupied with a full house, however, she reluctantly agrees with her brother to make use of the inheritance the town patriarch, Abraham Steele, left to her and her ex-husband, Charlie Callahan. Though she fully intends to sell her half to Charlie, Beth agrees there is no harm in using it for a weekend while Charlie is out of town. She never expects the houseboat to leave the pier until she awakens to find herself in the middle of the river.

The last thing Charlie Callahan expects to find on board his houseboat when he takes his ward fishing is his ex-wife. When he sees Beth after fifteen years of successful avoidance on her part, Charlie has no intention of going back to his past with her. He would, for the sake of their childhood together, like to rekindle their friendship. When they both find themselves helping his ward through a difficult time, they slowly and painfully begin confronting their past and rekindling much more than their friendship.

Pamela Bauer picks up the Riverbend mini-series where it left off last month. She admirably retains the small-town atmosphere that was established last month in the first installment. She also skillfully weaves Beth and Charlie's past with their present with a great deal of success. She illustrates Beth and Charlie's development through the established rapport between the two and Charlie's ward, Nathan, as well as Beth's fractured friendship with Charlie's sister, Lucy. Bauer has succeeded in writing a heart-warming story about love and more importantly, the value of old friendships.

this book was easy to read and easy to get into. I loved the story and recommend it to anyone that asks for a good book.

I read each of these books separately, but what a great idea to package them together. Home Song tells a story of a nuclear family whose relationship is tested by the news that the husband has fathered an illegitimate child. That Camden Summer tells of a single mother raising her children without help in a time when this wasn't the norm. Small Town Girl chronicles the visit of a famous country singer (reported to be based on Reba McEntire) to her small home town and the pressures and changes she faces when she falls in love with an old classmate. All three bear LaVyrle's descriptive stamp of making you fall in love with her characters, plots, and settings. This book set would be an excellent value, and if you are a Spencer fan, you should not pass it up.

My first summer at camp was in 1998 and I was really nervous as I did not know what to expect from this new experience. I took this book with me when I went and found it to be an excellent reference in which I used all summer. Three years later, I still work at a summer camp and still find things in this book that are helpful.

This is a great resource for any summer camp. As a member of a camps central staff I found this book to be an increidable resource for me as well as the many staff members that are workin gat the camp. This book really covers all aspects of summer camps, and sould be used by all to ensure the campers of a great summer.... a must for every camp director.

The Vietnam War Almanac is very informative, easy to read and to follow. If you are interested in the Vietnam War I recommend you read this almanac.

Very well balanced book in an almanac form. This covers places and chronological events. There are many charts, maps and significant pictures to support the information. There is a very descriptive table of contents.

You can see that Colonel Harry G. Summers, Jr. has a very good understanding of the region and events leading up to and after the Vietnam War.

I picked this book because it is one of the few that include an armored reconnaissance unit, the First Squadron, 10 Cavalry. Also the other units we travels with it in the Central Highlands in II Corps. Being an almanac, not enough information was given to tell the feel of the location.

This book is well worth the cost.

Waimea summer is a wonderful novel that teaches you a lot about segregation in old hawaii. I recomend it to people who have interests in hawaii and want to learn about its history.

The novel is about a segregation in hawaii many years ago. I recommend it to people who want to find out what hawaii was like many years ago. The book teaches you a lot.

In this book Dostoevsky seems to take his time to criticize capitalism ( or so I find), takes as an example French society,
criticizes the accumulation of money and the adulation of god money (Baal), the servilism that comes with it, analyzes the way marital relations are, that is in relation with capitalism (Bribri and Ma biche ).

I found it pretty good, although it requires you to have knowledge of many things of the time it was written, (for instance can you remember who is Guizot?) and be used to the style of Dostoevsky.

Vivid impressions of the author during his travel all over Europe in the second half of the 19th century. His main targets are France (Paris) and England (London).
He gives us a biting and cynical portrait of the French: parvenus and bourgeois who make a mockery of 'liberté, égalité, fraternité'.
In England, he is confronted with child prostitution in London's Haymarket: a most terrible and moving scene of a child of only six, black and blue beaten, barefoot, who tries to lure him to have sex with her. On the contrary, the Anglican clerics preach a religion for the wealthy and don't even hide it. A most pregnant portrait of the fat and the meagre.
A book to recommend.

Like most women who grew up in the 70s, I was a huge fan of Judy Blume's children's books. This is the first time I've read one of her adult novels. I didn't think it was bad, and yet I excpected more from her. I liked the main characters of Vix and Caitlin. The book is really about female friendship, belonging, family, and love. I could relate to how Caitlin treated Vix - I felt like I knew these girls. Their envy of each other made perfect sense, and I did sympathize with both of them. They were people I could identify with. The situations they found themselves in, the fears, the concerns, the hopes, all rang true. The dialogue was realistic and the novel was fast paced. Blume started to explore family dynamics, but only on a surface level. And that is the key problem.

There were too many characters, and I didn't like the shifting points of view at various points in each chapter. I know she did it to try to give the reader a better sense of the family dynamics at work; I don't think it was effective. I never quite understood Tawny, Abby, or Vix's need to replace Tawny with Abby. I felt let down by the event that is considered the big betrayal of the final summer -- there's a secret that Blume holds on to until the girls are adults that I think she should've revealed sooner.

Yes, this book has alot of sex in it, and some of it is unnecessary. I didn't find it as offensive as some other readers, however. Overall, this was a decent book that was easy to read. It won't challenge you, and you likely won't want to read it twice, (hence the rating of 3 stars as opposed to 4) but it will keep you engrossed. I wouldn't reccommend it to anyone under 15 or so. I also don't think it's likely to appeal to many people over the age of 35ish.

I was a huge fan of Judy Blume when I was growing up. Now at 26, I recall reading her books with great fondness. I thought that they were appropriately written for adolescents. Summer Sisters is the first adult book I've ready by Judy Blume and was left feeling disappointed. When I was younger, I remember thinking that she knew exactly what it felt like to be that age. Throughout Summer Sisters, I didn't think she knew what it felt like to be an adult. At what point does Vix need to stand up for herself and stop letting Caitlin walk all over her. Vix's character was a doormat. I could not find it in myself to find sympathy for her. Also, I feel like Judy Blume glossed over the story. There was so much that could have been done with the characters. I found them to be terribly flat. Considering how many years this book covered, I did not feel as if there was more that one or two characteristics per person in the book. While the book was a good read, it had no depth.

This is the story of Caitlin & Vix (Victoria), two young girls that met in Elementary school. Their friendship begins in 1977 when Caitlin invites Vix to spend the summer at her cottage by the ocean on Vineyard beach. Judy Blume takes us on their journey through teenage years right into adulthood. Friendships ; how often they can become bittersweet...to what length is Caitlin willing to go to find happiness ? Could she even betray her best friend ? Why can't she find contentment in her life? Why is it that even as adult we sometimes look for answers outside ourselves?

It's all about choices and how they affect our lives and the choices these two girls make are very different yet through thick and thin their frienship remains.
This book is about sisterly love and the real bound that exist when you have a true friend.
This was a great summer read for my vacation.