As a HUGE fan of the Princess Diaries, I knew I had to get this book. Well, I got it today - and already finished it - but thought it was pretty good. The only complaint I have is the length of the book - 64 pages is wayyyyyy too short!

Mia is back, and sassier than ever! This book takes place over spring break, and Mia and her G&T class are going to West Virginia to build houses for the less fortunate. Mia is mostly looking forward to it because it means five days with Michael, her boyfriend, without her parents around.

But, the trip isnt as great as they thought it would be - first of all, Boris gets sick on the bus, so for the seven hour ride, he's throwing up. Then, the giant bugs eat everyone alive, the tents leak, and Mia and Michael can't get a second to be alone. But, as everything starts to look up, a surprise visitor ruins the moment.

This book's really funny, and I enjoyed it a lot, but it's just too short to really explain a lot.

Overall grade: A-

Princess Mia is off in good deeds again and she's sharing kisses with Michael!!! OHHH!!! To read this book you have to read The princess diaries,Princess in the spotlight, Princess in love, Princess in waiting, and after this book ; Princess in pink. To me all Meg cabot's books are amazing!!!

I thought Mia was funny when she was in NY but she is even funnier when she is out in the woods. I loved this book because I also one time did community service like this only it wasn't as fun. Also I read on Ms. Cabot's website that all the money from the book goes to charity, which I think is cool.

I bought this book after reading the reviews here. I was greatly disappointed.
It just wasn't scary. Sure, it had a lot of "twisted" characters, but none were too well imagined. A blind doctor who wants to gouge out people's eyes with a spoon, a black woman who practices voodoo, a fat cop who's kind of dumb. Nothing that original.
The gore was kept to a minimum, although one scene at towards the end attempted to make up for the relatively bloodless book. It didn't work. There were a couple of gratuitous sex scenes though. Probably the most descriptive sex scenes I've ever read in a book. I just found them exploitative and pointless.
David Martin doesn't have a true writer's flair either. His words often fall flat. There is no beauty or style to his prose.
Avoid this book.

Good read, but i wouldn't call this "Horror". In the book, there are few deaths, and only one of them is scary. The sexual scenes really get to be too much at times, but you get used to it in Martin's novels. Nice, short read...but nothing more sadly. If you want something great, read Lie to Me.

Well, as the title suggests, I am only just under 100 pages through this book, and I am utterly awe-struck by the whole affair.
This books out-grosses anything that any other horror author I have ever read has(and probably ever WILL) write.

Nothing compares to the sheer sickness of this book, it contains everything you could ask for - gore,sex,incest, horror, etc.

Read it now!

This book is exactly what you'd expect from a book purchased at a gift shop at the Grand Canyon, bland.

It is by no-means in-depth and spends more time describing the antiques that Colter decorated her buildings with than with her life. Colter was a fascinating woman and I would have liked to learn more about her than this book provided.

Being as how Colter isn't exactly someone you're likely to read more than one book about, I would recommend purchasing something with more pictures and information than this one, which is more just a basic outline.

"Builder upon the Red Earth" is not the slick tome of expensive color photographs and analytical drawings that Mary Colter's unique contribution to Twentieth Century American Architecture deserves. However, this essentially biographical book is the only one in print showing pictures and telling the history of Mary Colters extrodinary talent.It is not clear if Mary Colter's obscurity is due to the fact that she was a woman practicing architecture in a time when the field was dominated by men or if the remote Southwestern locations of her most interesting works kept them hidden form view, but it is high time more people took a serious look at her work. Colter's projects, which are "built ruins" foreshadow the work of Western deconstructionist architects like Antoine Predoc or Tom Maine. Showing the work of Colter which is almost 80 years ahead of its time "Builder upon the Red Earth" should be in every young architects library.

Although I agree with the reviewer who says that Mary Colter deserves a far better book, I still highly recommend this one, as at least it fills in a gap that's almost the same size as the canyon where Colter's buildings still stand today. More people should read it so that some will be inspired to write more!

The main character's name is "Goody" and the love interest is called "Dreama" and another character is called "Peanut". If the author can't imagine these characters as real people with real names, how can the reader be expected to? The writing itself is quite striking, but the story is weak, aimless, and there is no dramatic tension at all. It seems like the author knew this and tried to bluff us with a lot of heavy breathing and embarrisingly over-the-top grandiloquence. Like a violent empty cartoon, but written as if it were Moby-Dick.

This luminous, riveting and maddening book had me in thrall until the last fifty pages when it degenerates into a Rambo style mess. Oh, but when it's good it's terrific, I'm anxious to read this author's other books.

This is a well crafted book, not the usual word processed [stuff] that passes for popular fiction these days. It is a evocative, dark,literate slice of Americana. Not reccomended for those who like their reading to crank along at the pace of a made for T.V movie. Pinckney has a fine eye for character and detail. If you liked the movie "Sexy Beast", you will probably enjoy this book as well.

Richard Ford's novel Independence Day seems to careen at a frantic pace when compared to Ms. Phillips tale of several girls at a summer camp. JAP has tremendous talent, but I tired of her Faulknerian sentences combined with strange grammar. Sample: "Alma playing paper dolls, not sleeping at all, yelling for Kool-Aid, how things seal off for a while behind the pair of them, the two girls." Ms. Phillips also has to describe everything in complete detail. Entering a men's rest room we find that "the urinals were a long-necked row of cracked porcelain forms, laced with shadow, supplicant, open-mouthed."

I did find the story interesting; I admired a lot of the writing. Yet I continually worried that the novel would come to a complete halt, and that no existing literary connector cables would be able to jump start it again.

For devotees of Phillips' writing style, this is a must-have item. This work, more than any others truly exemplifies her rather unique way with words. No other living author could render such a poetic description of urinals; it is, alas, simply too beautiful to describe. This wonderful book is less about plot and characterization than about the pure joy of indulging oneself in Phillips' marvelously arcane prose. Happily, for the devoted fan, there are quite a few copies on the market, although why anyone would even think of discarding such a marvelous work of art is a complete mystery to me. This is a truly unique author at her very best. Excelsior!

It's never easy to see -- or imagine -- the innocence of children snatched away by the events in their lives, particularly when it involves adults who are so controlled by the evil they have become that they cannot see the difference between preying on children or other adults. The young people who populate Jayne Anne Phillips' novel SHELTER are living in an era when most Americans felt the perceived stability and perfection of their lives threatened for the first time -- the early 1960s. Kennedy was in the White House, and the nuclear arms race was in full swing. The Soviets had attempted to install missiles in Cuba, and the reactionary American conservatives were instilling fear into every citizen they could touch -- Communists were supposedly hiding everywhere. Children were touched by the concerns and fears of their parents -- innocence was bound to be tainted and fade soon enough, without any help from predators.

Phillips' writing is extremely effective in fleshing out her characters -- not an easy task with a cast which is, overall, so young. The adults that take part are equally well-drawn -- human, succumbing to temptations and weaknesses, one of them (no spoilers) incredibly evil. Yet even this evil character is, to some extent, understandable, given the relevant background articulated by the author. It's no excuse for the deeds committed, but it allows the reader to understand the source of the evil involved. There are surprises, too -- and this is a welcome aspect of the author's gift -- in several of the characters. We find they are capable of things we cannot imagine as we come to know them -- and that at least one is not as bad as we are tempted to believe.

The plot of the book was developed nicely, at a pace that made me tempted to read it in one sitting -- I'm glad that I took the time to give it more thorough attention. A very rewarding and entertaining read.

The book gives a good overview of the areas with many addresses. Anyhow I found it a bit too black and white. It gives useful maps, but no coloured pictures from the areas, which would make it a bit more pleasant to read.

I highly recommend this guide to anyone who will be traveling in the Northeast as well as Canada. This guide gives you everything from upcoming events for the year to where to stay & eat. The maps are easy to read and follow. I have been a reader of the Mobil Guide for many years and it is continuing to give the most accurate, up-to-date travel information. This is the MUST-HAVE for the Northeast traveler.

Mr Staten might have worked in a hardware store but he still lacks some basic knowledge like what the difference is between a stillson wrench, a pipe wrench, or a crescent wrench.

I've been seeking out and reading books that bring back a sense of nostalgia and "what made America great" type books. I felt the author didn't put the essence of that into this book. One of the reviewers was quoted on the cover of my edition of this book - that Staten provided "odd facts and interesting tales" and there WERE some odd facts but the tales for the most part, left a lot to be desired.
Everyone has a memory of the corner hardware store, all the assorted "stuff", fasteners, paints, stains, ladders and knife display cases. The author grew up in hardware stores, his father owned hardware stores, yet there just wasn't any sense of enjoyment or adventure, nor a sense of excitement of this in the book. I know I would have been there everyday exploring and getting the scoop on everything.

I may have been expecting more out of this book than could be delivered. I recently read Tools of the Earth and Tools of the Trade, both by Jeff Taylor. I think I was looking for what Taylor was able to deliver in his books. You may want to check these titles out if you're interested in the subject.
John Row

I bought this book on a whim in the middle of a major house remodeling project as a bit of a diversion from all the technical reading I was doing on architecture, construction practices and so forth. Like a lot of guys (and some girls) I'm a bit of a tool freak, so what could be better recreational reading?

Well, lots of things, actually. Staten's book isn't bad, and it does have a lot of interesting stories and a few out of the ordinary facts. But it has a few problems, too, like the huge number of factual errors. There are, for example, retellings of long refuted myths, like the one about Thomas Crapper and toilets. And then there are some downright dangerous misstatement, such as the claim that a string-type weed whacker won't cut flesh.

What I found most offputting was Staten's writing style. He likes the short. Punchy. Sentence.
And lots of new paragraphs.
Of one sentence.
Each.

After a while this really starts to grate, as does Staten's idea of what passes for a joke. But taken in small doses- and with a large grain of salt- the book is still reasonably entertaining. Keep it in your toolbox for reading on breaks, or atop the porceline convenience.

I expected something of a mystery with plot development. Wow, the plot never got higher than 6"s off the ground. The story was weak without any mystery and it had no development of charaters. The dialogue seemed to be at a 6th grade level because the story's character seemed to behave as 6th graders. If you read, Ludlum, Clancy, DeMille, Follet don't spend time opening this book. For those reviewers who thought this book had great insights into behind the scenes work of the government, you need to expand your reading list. The idea of the purple dots could have been a great story, but it never got off the launch pad. Most people have more excitement driving to work than what this story provided.

This novel of political intrigue surrounds the attempts of friends and enemies to confirm or deny the appointment of a man to be the director of CIA. The book starts out with the point of view of an aging CIA warrior who is friends with the nominee and your sympathies are drawn to him as he is made aware of a plot to smear his friend. His political opponnent is made to look fairly smarmy until about 1/3 of the way through the book it switches point of view to the smarmy character and we find that he is just as sympathetic in his own way as the CIA man. This is well done as we can see both sides have faults and ideals and the reader is intrigued as to what to believe. However it all falls apart at the end. A reference is made to a CIA experiment, which as an offhand remark, can be dismissed as unimportant to the story. When, later, this particular "device" is introduced to bring the story to a resolution it is both jarring to the story's "reality", ridiculous, and the readers suspension of disbelief is totally gone. In fact, if one was going to suppose for the purposes of fiction, that this particular device worked the way it's described, then that should have been the main focus of the story, because the possibilities it generates overwhelm the story of a petty political nomination and it would have world-wide history making reverberations. However, it doesn't. It just resolves the story here and makes think the author was stuck for an ending so just tacked it on.

pbs newsman jim lehrer has a new novel "Purple Dots" that is fun to read because it anwers the question i've often asked myself, "why does Congress do the things it does" in an amusingly satirical way. the book tells the story of a presidential appointment for director of the CIA and how his congressional confirmation becomes the struggle between his friends and a senator and his staff over the nomination. there are many games to be played out before the issue is resolved. Many of these have the ring of authenticity as well as being funny. The actions of the appointee's friends captures the fellowship and spirit of those who have worked together in prior relationships in an intense way. the friends who are all retired live on a charming area of the w. va. panhandle that gets some vivid description of the good life after retirement. all in all this is a good read ...but don't take it seriously.

This was one of the worst guide books I have seen. If you've never been to the New do not buy this book. The driving directions to each crag, if there, were horrible. I have never been been so confused going to a new area, while using this book. Good luck trying to find the climbs, it's all backwards. ...

thompson's book has long winded verbal descriptions but the maps and layout make it extremely difficult to use. He also neglected to put in Summersville Lake, one of the best sport climbing areas in the east. Steve Cater's New River Gorge Rock Climbers' Guidebook is definitely the book to buy it is also less expensive and is easier to use and includes Summersville Lake.

By far the most comprehensive and user friendly climbing guide for the NRG. This guide includes history,route length,and first ascent information. In addition to,being a great guide the history makes a good read. Keep in mind this book does not cover Summserville Lake,but then again it doesn't claim to. For that pick up Cater's guide or Mcray's sport climbing guide.

This book drifts back and forth with no solid foundation. It seems as if the author can't make up his mind--which seems to set the book back at times--with the proper editing I believe this book my begin and finish some sort of consolidated theme.

There is much fluff and little substance. This book is not a good read.

Professor Varano's book is insightful, interesting, and analytically sound. His work in Forced Choices sheds light on the complex dynamics involved in the social, economic, and political life of a small community undergoing structural and cultural changes. He does a superb job in bringing into life the contradictions and ironies of these dynamics through the richness of ethnographic research and the potential of sociological analysis. Great book for work and organizations, industrial sociology, labor studies, and stratification.