N Books

Ned Begay, a six year old kid, who had to leave his Navajo home, in America and join a boarding school, had to learn the English language and the American ways. In the boarding school, he was not allowed to speak his native language and if he did, there were consequences. Japan was one of the most powerful countries, at that time. Soon Japan started attacking America and World War 2 began. Marine recruiters started looking for Navajos to join the Marines. Ned Begay joined the Marines. He was a code talker, who was not allowed to tell anyone, not even his own family. He would send and receive messages in a secret code. The code was extremely difficult to learn and only a Navajo could learn it. For every letter in the English Alphabet, a Navajo word was assigned. After a lot of practice of the code, Ned was shipped to Hawaii, to battle the Japanese. They had to take an exercise on the big island of Hawaii to experience all kinds of terrains. They had to cross a desert, on foot, in two days and everyone had only one bottle of water. By second day, everybody had collapsed, and only the Navajos had water left. The Navajos were nothing but the best. They had to write a letter to the Colonel to get some drinking water in the desert. After a few days, Hawaii was filled with blood, and dead bodies. Read the book, to find out what happens next. I liked the book " Code Talker " because of the facts that are in the book. One fact I learned was Japan took food from the poor and gave them to their Army. The food was donated to Japan by America, before the war.

Ned Begay, a six year old kid, who had to leave his Navajo home, in America and join a boarding school, had to learn the English language and the American ways. In the boarding school, he was not allowed to speak his native language and if he did, there were consequences. Japan was one of the most powerful countries, at that time. Soon Japan started attacking America and World War 2 began. Marine recruiters started looking for Navajos to join the Marines. Ned Begay joined the Marines. He was a code talker, who was not allowed to tell anyone, not even his own family. He would send and receive messages in a secret code. The code was extremely difficult to learn and only a Navajo could learn it. For every letter in the English Alphabet, a Navajo word was assigned. After a lot of practice of the code, Ned was shipped to Hawaii, to battle the Japanese. They had to take an exercise on the big island of Hawaii to experience all kinds of terrains. They had to cross a desert, on foot, in two days and everyone had only one bottle of water. By second day, everybody had collapsed, and only the Navajos had water left. The Navajos were nothing but the best. They had to write a letter to the Colonel to get some drinking water in the desert. After a few days, Hawaii was filled with blood, and dead bodies. Read the book, to find out what happens next. I liked the book " Code Talker " because of the facts that are in the book. One fact I learned was Japan took food from the poor and gave them to their Army. The food was donated to Japan by America, before the war.

This is a great book. Not much else to say. 5 stars!! especially if you are into fictional stories based on real historical events!

We read this book aloud while on a driving vacation through Navajo country in New Mexico and Arizona. My children (girl 10, boy 8 and girl 5) were completely enthralled with both the story and the insight into the Navajo people. Although a work of fiction, the book reads very convincingly as a memoir. The author succeeds admirably in relating the cultural challenges faced by patriotic Native Americans serving in the military as well a giving a non-romanticized portrayal of the realities faced by the soldiers who waged battle in the Pacific. We particularly appreciated the lighter moments -- one tale of boot-camp swimming "lessons" had the kids screaming with laughter. A great read pure and simple, but also one with good lessons to be learned.

Bruchac has created a terrific historic novel that has enough action for young male adults and enough history and research to appeal to an adult audience. Bruchac does a wonderful job of giving a sense of the complexities of growing up on a Navajo reservation in the first half of the book. The irony of a nation trying to wipe out the Navajo language but using it as a crucial means of communication during 20th century wars should not be lost on the reader while reading the second half of the book. Bruchac's narrator tells this tale in an even-keeled, even-tempered manner. The reader is allowed to gain his own sense of injustice our nation has inflicted upon its Native American population. Bruchac's description of the progression of America's involvement in World War II's Pacific campaign is well laid-out and dramatically presented. Highly recommended.

I enjoyed reading each and every single advice contained in this book. Some of them are quite simple, even obvious. Some are more complex and profound. Nonetheless, everyone deals with those little details, the small things that can be a huge problem, or a great blessing. Awesome choice for a gift...you can hand-pick some of them to make them more giftee oriented or even write a Hopscotch in the manner of Julio Cortázar famous novel. Hope this helps. Worked for me.

H. Jackson Brown, Jr. is among the best advice givers in today's world of literacy. This book is the best gift for anyone starting a whole new lifestyle. I recommend this book to all young adults, especially those who will soon go on to College. For the game of life is always a hard game to play for young and old alike, and we can ALWAYS use a little or a lot of motivation every now and then.

I purchased these books for a group of college students that worked together as a staff. Some graduating, some still studying. I can only hope they do take the time to read it (here and there - not all at once) and it helps each one of them be better people. I believe this book has the ability to create role models and help people to treat others with kindness.

I first found this book on a bargain shelf at my local bookstore and picked it up for just 4 or 5 dollars. It really was a good buy.

It really is not a book that one would want to pick up and read but rather a book that you would want to have lie on your desk at work or on your coffee table at home so that visitors (or clients) can pick it up and turn to a random page and find any assortment of good philosophical sayings.

Each time I pick it up I find myself smiling at the fact that it gives something new each time you open it. With over 1500 entries, it really does give advice on everything. It gives advice on the things that we ethically know, but not necessarily are written down anywhere.

I bought a second copy not long ago for a friend of mine for a Christmas gift. It's a simple little thing that can make a big reaction.

I loved this little book! This is the result of a dad sitting down to write out a few words of wisdom and advice for his son who was going off to his freshman year at college. The first list was 511 entries, and then, he mailed his son a new collection every two years.

There's some great advice all through this book! And no long stories attached either. Short and straight to the point, each numbered piece of advice is no more than a few lines long. The suggestions cover a broad range, some are serious while others are funny or trivial, but all are honest and good advice, and many are just interesting. Like #841: "When your dog dies, frame his collar and put it above a window facing west" -I've never heard of that before.

I highly recommend this little book as a gifts for anybody in your life and for anything from birthdays to graduations or just because. Would also make a good coffe table or bathroom book too.

I just got this cookbook the other day and all the recipes look soooo delicious and simple! The hardest part is choosing which one to try. Today I made the apricot cashew bars for friends who just had a baby (and I made a batch for my family of course!) and got rave reviews! I cant wait to make more! Its also a great cookbook for parents of little kids- because they get to help put on all the fun toppings (if they dont eat them first)! My 4 year old daughter had lots of fun making these and eating them too!

After just flipping through this book I knew I HAD to own it. I already have a list of about 20 recipes to try, but figuring out which one to make first is the real problem! Will it be the Lipsmacker Lemon Bars, or the Coffee & Cream White Chocolate Chunkers? The list goes on and on, I will have to choose soon so I know what to take to the "Cookie Fest" we are having at work next week. I think whatever I make I will have nothing to bring home but an empty plate. Books like this do not come along very often, so grab a copy, preheat the oven and have fun!

It's funny how some books end up getting used more than others. I'm not sure I would have predicted I'd have used this so much, but I've ended up making more cookies from this one little book than any other on my shelf (and there are many). I'm an ambitious baker, but when it comes to those night-before moments when I need to bake a batch of cookies for somewhere or someone, I'm more often than not a bit too tired. This is simply a very handy book and I've had lots of success with the recipes (although, looking back, almost 100% of my choices have been citrus-type cookies. I think the addition of bright flavors is what makes the dough taste like homemade). The lemon poppyseed tart is also quite good, very pretty and people were impressed (I put fresh blackberries on top--gorgeous).

Thanks for a lovely, useful book.

If you baked your cookies from scratch, or used the recipes in this book using regrigerated dough - nobody will know! You'll know though, because you'll have less mess and more free time.

I used to love baking everything from scratch, and I still do from time to time (seems like twice a year now - Christmas and Easter). But when you become a Mom, although you're intentions were there, baking from scratch is often something there is just not time for anymore. This book gets you bake sale ready cookies that will win you raves as well as raise funds, office coffee room cookies that will be gone within minutes and gourmet cookies that your friends and family will want the recipes for. People will be whispering behind your back that you're the next Mrs. Fields.

Using the refrigerated dough is also less ingredients for the baker on the go - just grab a few rolls and you're halfway there. Stock up on the mix ins, and you're done!

Highly recommend!

This is a cookbook I really do use--a lot. I like some of the very easiest recipes in here, especially the variations on the chocolate chip cookies. They really taste unique. A friend of a friend who worked as a pstry chef thought the peppery ginger chocolate chip cookies (they have cryst. ginger and pepper mixed in) were brilliant and wanted the recipe--thy're that good. Smart ideas, smart book, worth the money.

While it's size may seem like overkill, this book packs a punch! Once you open it you'll see that it is definitely worth the money you'll pay for it. The photographs are really great and they give you a really cool behind the scenes look at the sets of the entire Star Wars Saga. Many of these pictures have never been published, so that alone is a very neat feature! And this book is more than just a pretty picture as it has some really well written and informative bits that I had very little understanding of before I read it. I now have a better grasp of set building and computer animation and special effects. I recommend this to any Star Wars Fan!

WOW - photos I've never seen anywhere else! What a fun non-read this is!!!! For sure a book to talk about and keep on a coffee table! Small, packed and colorful!

This book offers a very nice mixture of inside views to the making of the original Star Wars movies as the new series Episode I to III. Each day (or double page) is showing one aspect of this amazing series with lots of pictures and information waiting for you.

Only downside in my opinion is that it is a bit too much focused on the new Episodes even though there is tons of information about the original movies too.

On the other hand you have a CD with 360-degree-views of some sets and some rare pictures on your PC!

All together this might be the perfect gift for a Star Wars fan like me ;-) 5 Stars!

This book is not the same old thing. It features pictures I'd not see anywhere else. Its a very heavy, very thick book full of great behind the scenes stuff. Worth every penny. I just wish John Knoll would make an equivelant book for Pirates of the Caribbean.

This book is really cool for most Star Wars lovers. It shows you how they filmed the movie. You can see who played the Wampa. I think the coolest part is Mustafar because you can see the lava river bank. You can also see on one page all the Astromech droids. You can also see alot of cool other stuff.
You should buy this book if you're a Star Wars fan!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

My kids are usually finicky and they are going crazy over these crepes.
Easy to make and delicious. They do freeze well too - the instructions for storing are helpful and accurate.

I bought this for my daughter for Christmas along with a crepe maker. We've used it THREE times since Christmas...three different recipes in three days and each has been DELICIOUS! Great pictures...wonderful recipes and tips!

I originally found this book at a library, but after checking it out over and over again -as I love it, I checked on Amazon and it was here!! Love it! It has such a wonderful variety of crepes, using different flours etc., sweet and savory, and so many tips and ideas. I share this book title with everyone at my cooking shows. Definitely worth the price and then some!

I took a crepe making class just to learn the technique and take the fear out of crepe making. While I took away from that class a few recipes, none were interesting enough to make at home. This book is wonderful--what closed the deal on purchasing it was when I saw that it included a recipe for blue corn crepes. While vacationing in Santa Fe, I fell in love with their blue corn pancake/muffin mix. I can't wait to make the blue corn crepes with the blue corn mix I brought back to Houston. The recipes in this book are exactly what I was looking for--diverse and simple to follow.

I opened the book, and made excellent crepes right away, within minutes. Can't do much better than that!

you have to read betrayal of a hustler before you read this so you can keep up it seems to me it should be a part three but it is fantastic i finished the two books in about four days.it was like watching a movie i couldnt put them down until i was done.

This book was good. I couldn't wait to read the second on. Lisa and Chino knew they were wrong but hey that's how the story goes.

IF YOU DON'T KNOW BETRAYAL OF A HUSTLER IS FIRST READ THEN COMES THE SEQUEL. I LIKED THE SEQUEL WAY BETTER NOT TO SAY THAT THE 1ST ONE WASN'T GOOD. IT ANSWERED THE QUESTIONS I ASKED IN MY REVIEW WITH BETRAYAL OF A HUSTLER. I SWEAR THAT LISA IS DUMB AND I CANNOT UNDERSTAND HOW SHE GETS ALL THE GOOD MEN WITH HER WAYZ. THERE IS GOING TO BE A 3RD PART TO THIS TRILOGY AND I CANNOT WAIT BECAUSE SO MUCH HAS HAPPENED IN THIS ONE WORDS CANNOT DESCRIBE. YOU MUST READ THIS BOOK IF U THOUGHT NOT TOO IT IS A MUST. GO COP THIS ASAP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

very very good i'm a truck driver and the book was so good i was pulling over on the side of the road just to get in some reading it had me not wanting to put the book down excellent read

Chino Wells makes a grand re-entrance in A Dead Man's Vengeance to renew the love triangle that transcends into a full blown circle.

At the end of Betrayal of a Hustler, Chino is shot and left for dead. But his right hand man, Knees, wasn't haven' it, and Chino was nursed back to health and sent to recuperate in Virginia with his fam. Chino is back to reclaim his true love, Lisa, and his territory.

Since Chino's death, Lisa has tried to move on with her life with husband/doctor Chris and son Jordan. Lisa and Chris' lives are turned upside down when Chino returns and wreaks havoc on both their lives.

In the meantime, Jamaican drug lord Shark has joined forces with assassin Abu and his crew of killers. Shark and daughter Shantel have tried to get on with their lives after Shantel's mother, Shelly, was gunned down by Chino.

A Dead Man's Vengeance is a very suspenseful work of fiction that had me even more intrigued than it's predecessor. I look forward to the release of The Vendetta.

I pulled this off the shelf in a bookstore at the age of eight and forced my mother to buy it. Now, ten years later I still find pleasure in looking at the wonderful artwork and reading the great adventure story. A perfect rainy day read.

I was pleasantly surprised to find that Gurney's second Dinotopia book is just as good as the first. The illustrations are wonderful. After reading this, I now know more about the characters in the movie Dinotopia.

Dinotopia is an island where dinosaurs and people live in peace, except for the carnivores that live in the Rainy Basin. This book is the sequel to Dinotopia: A Land Apart from Time and it was just as good as the last Dinotopia. The sequel brought more depth to the plot without losing any of the original’s glory.

I first saw this book in my english classroom's bookshelf back in junior high. I was about 13 at the time, and after flipping through the pages, reading a few paragraphs; seeing its astonishing level of detail and wonderfully drawn art, I had to have this book. So I took it home and never brought it back. I wasn't the only one either. At the end of the school year, only 3 of the 7 copies our teacher had remained. Dinotopia: The World Beneath, is that good.

Even now at 22 years of age, the book sits on my shelf as I type this. It's art and story are still captavating to me even today. And its the art that really shines. Well drawn, imaginative pictures that are sure to please children and adults alike. ***High quality and artistical marks here.*** This book is sure to make you say "Wow!" And I'm not really into this kind of stuff. James Gurney knows how to draw, and write a book.

The story is set around the late 1800's on a island where man and dinosaur live with one another in pure harmony and peace (with the exception of the angry Tyrannosaurs) and, in all aspecs, equal. Arthur Denison, sets out to find a lost ancient city of Poseidos. Encountering many dangers along the way. His son Will, who was stranded with him years before on Sauropolis Island is on his own task of helping retreive a plant to make medicine that will save the life of a baby triceratops.

I can't count the times I've read through this book over the years. And for parents who want to know what kind of book they're getting for their children, it is an educational book; teaching in respect, kindness and alike. This ***IS NOT*** no Jurassic Park book. Completely opposite. No blood, no gore. Probably one of the finest fantasy books ever written, it's creative, original and opens the imaginative mind.

Kids will love this book for many years- This isn't a book that will wind up in a box of stuff on its way to a donation center. Indeed a book worthy of handing down to generations to come. You would be hard pressed to find a book that can match Dinotopia in artistic value. A wonderfully made, great book for all.

The first book was one of a kind...until the second came along and finished the story. Dinotopia: The World Beneath is a must have for anyone who has read the first book. There are new adventures, amazing new discoveries, plenty of exciting action and a satisfying conclusion to everything. The illustrations are just as spectacular as they were the first time and the story does not dilute itself one bit. I urge you to find yourself a copy of this book, and also a copy of the original if you have not read that either; both are amazing books meant for all ages.

Jennie Shortridge introduces Eating Heaven with a quotation by Karen Sunde: "To love is to receive a glimpse of heaven". But instead of setting her novel in the clouds and giving us a glimpse of heaven, Shortridge sets her novel in Portland with erratic weather, and unpredictable imperfect human life. Her characters are as far from heaven as we are, with secrets and obsessions like our own.

Ellie (Eleanor Samuel the protagonist) is a food writer who experiments making traditional recipes into low-cal delights. Her love/hate relationship with food, which has sent her to a food-issues therapist, is a continuing thread of the novel. Her conflicted relationship with food is not the only difficult relationship she encounters. She struggles with romance--the men in her life: Stefan, her editor; and Henry the chef, her heart throb. She struggles with the identity of Uncle Benny--why is he so important to her family? And finally Ellie struggles with complicated female relationships in her life: her sisters, Anne and Christine, Yolanda, Benny's wife, and more importantly her narcissistic mother Bebe whose life is full of secrets.

Shortridge employs flashbacks to narrate Ellie's past. The flashbacks provide the reader and Ellie with a way to uncover family secrets. Uncle Benny, the beloved neighbor, more a father to Ellie than her own distant father, is often in her childhood flashbacks. Uncle Benny supports and cares for her in a way her own parents did not. But some memories of him with her mother alarm her: a memory of herself as a child, sick with the flu and covered with vomit, seeing her mother and Benny in the car in a hot and heavy embrace. What is the connection between this complex man whom Ellie loves and her mother?

When Uncle Benny gets terminal cancer and Ellie becomes his chief care-giver, she finds an old photograph album in his house, which reveals surprising new understandings about her paternity, her mother, and the lies her family has been living.

Shortridge knows the human condition. She displays its imperfection in the lives of Ellie, Bebe, Uncle Benny, Henry, Anne and Christine. Mother/daughter conflicts, death and dying, sibling rivalry, and out-of-control personal obsessions are part of the story. Through Ellie, Shortridge suggests love is the most appropriate response to this human suffering. Ellie, who expresses love by feeding those around her, learns to love her imperfect self, her imperfect mother and sisters, Uncle Benny and Yolanda, and Henry. The food she serves them is an opportunity for a taste of heaven. Rainy Portland, with its imperfect life, is not heaven, but it is transcendent. "To love is to receive a glimpse of heaven": a fine quotation for this very human novel.

Eating Heaven is a great book. I could not put it down. It was just what I was looking for.

Set in Portland, Oregon it's fun to read about real locations. The book details the struggle of the main character who is caring for and dealing with the terminal illness of her uncle. Humorously she is a food writer who has her own issues with food and weight. Of course, her mother is a skinny minnie who is concerned with appearances. The book has some great twists and turns and things happen that keep you wondering. Don't want to say too much about this because I don't want to ruin the ending for readers. Well worth the money to buy this book.

When I bought the book I was on a book buying frenzy. When I finally got around to reading it I had wondered why I had ordered it. I guess my preference choices had changed since the purchase date. Since I love to read and it was next up, I thought I would give it a try and I am so glad I did. What a wonderfully entertaining book. The main character was likeable, funny and real. Uncle Benny was lovable and his life, loves and losses left me with a heavy heart and tears. Each character was brought to life as if I knew them personally. The laughter, smiles and tears left me glad I gave this wonderful book a try.

Eating disorders, tense mother daughter relationships, affairs, and cancer are a powerful mix and yet so real that life pours out of every paragraph. What a combo, I enjoyed the book and finished it in a few days savoring it even when I had to go brush my teeth.
This is the kind of novel that makes me want to stay home with a blanket tucked in my own world and living the world of the characters.
Ellie the main character is lovable, insecure, bulimic, and has problems with her mother and father, and well with her sisters, as well as, with food.
She loves to cook and her dishes are unique. You will love her and you will feel for her and with her the pain she experiences when her uncle Benny is diagnosed with Cancer and she takes on the role of care taker.
The author uses food as a catalyst for feelings, moods, and even eras, its very creative and I can say I will not forget her characters anytime soon.
Splendid, deep and utterly real.

This book is an intelligent conversion story. The author, Etty Hillesum, begins writing at a time when her life was repugnant; and yet, she is obviously very intelligent and so reading what she wrote during that period is not a waste of time.

Towards the middle of the book, Etty begins to change, and by the end, she is an admirable person - not just because she is intelligent, but also because she is good. It seems that her will changed, which is the definition of conversion.

I would compare this book favorably with "Surprised by Joy", which is the autobiography of C.S. Lewis. "Surprised by Joy" is a great book for Christians. "Etty Hillesum" is a great book for anyone.


Shawn T. Miller

This book would be one of the five. Its not about the Holocaust, not really. It is about one of the most soulful women who we all could learn so much from about how to approach our days. I cherish this book with all my heart. It came to me in a very weird way however! My parents were viisting me in Seattle when I lived there and while browsing in Elliott Bay Books, my mom handed me this book and said, "When I die I want this book buried with me!" I know, thats kind of a weird sell but she bought me my own copy (along with a separate one for her future plans) and I read it in one evening. I couldn't put it down. While she lived just a short distance from Anne Frank and was writing her journals at the same time, they are equally moving but worlds apart. Etty was in her late twenties while she wrote and her outlook on life is simply among the most remarkable I have ever encountered. I don't think I need to be buried with it but that doesn't mean I don't recommend it extremely highly for both men and women. Its a privilege to be able to recommend it, to know that even while her life was so tragically cut short at Auschwitz, that her journals survived and that maybe just one person more will come to her journals as a result of this review. You know what? I'd like to be buried with this book too. Also include a cupcake.

Etty Hillessum's diaries and her letters from Westerbork serve as an outstanding testament to the human spirit and the ability to find the sacred in the most horrific of situations. Although she was not a saint in the sense that Teresa of Avila or Juan de la Cruz were saints, she could properly be considered a mystic and a good example of a modern who had 'enlightened' insights. I find her diaries at once humane and modern in the sense of a liberated 'bohemian' who explored her sexuality and her psyche. As her diaries progress, her inner life (and oneness with God) deepens as the horrors of the realities of being Jewish in Europe during the Second World War becomes more apparent. I highly recommend this book! It will change your life!

This is one of the most profound documents ever written. Etty Hillesum was truly a person who had reached transforming union and had the ability to be able to share her experience through journaling and letters. She was unwaivering in her desire to see the beauty and meaning of life in one of the most difficult situations ever experienced on this planet. There are no words to express how deeply this work has influenced my life, except to say that I go back to her writing over and over again. She is a bright light for anyone seeking spiritual growth.

In nearly all of our nation's middle and high schools the Diary of Anne Frank is required reading. This present volume ought to be a required follow-up reading for the older student.

This Owl Books publication includes excellent photographs and commentary to bring alive holistically the full presentation of this intelligent and searching young woman's life and vision, whose eight well-preserved copy books reveal to us her soul, supplemented by personal, surprisingly joyful and hopeful and positive do-not-lose-heart letters from a way station on the road to Auschwitz. Together this corpus of writing presents bright light in the deepest darkness and locus of despair. One cannot read these living words on the way to certain death without weeping, and reflecting, at the unreasonable cruelty and inexorable deadly fruit of any total war. One cannot read this without a cry for the end of all war.

Please read this book in a prayerful way. Consider the promising and peaceful lives which were lost, whose voice rings out truly here in this thick volume of her writings, and resolve to work for peace, that we may never study war, no more. Let us work for peace, and pray with the prophet that our swords may soon be beat into plowshares, that all may live in peace to their fullest promise.

This book brings to us the reality of the horror of hateful war, through Etty's human and hopeful and joyous and beautiful voice, ever encouraging those in the deepest despair until she herself is also placed on the road to Auschwitz, a road from which so very few ever returned.

Wow! I had no idea when I started this book it would be SO GOOD! FAB is Sex in the City meets Waiting To Exhale. It was really hard for me to put this book down!

Once you meet the four main characters you'll have a hard time choosing which one is your favorite. Bianca quit her job as fashion publicist to move to LA to be a TV publicist, Taylor is a high powered lawyer who hardly ever has time for herself, Roxanne is a struggling actress/sex addict and Carolyn has low self esteem, but she's in love with her job.

I laughed, cried and talked out loud as I read each chapter of the girls lives. This book is fiction, but I feel as though every woman can see herself in one of these characters. The authors of FAB did an amazing job writing this novel. It deserves more than just five stars. This book was a perfect and flawless pageturner!!!!!!

This book has moved to the rankings of one of my favorite books ever! It was so smart and witty...I couldn't put it down and I was so sad when it ended. These characters were fresh and fun, they were confident but still flawed, and they were so relatable.
Not once was a character described by skin color or something else trivial, this book actually made fun of books like that! It was such a refreshing and smart read, I would recommend it to any reading diva!

I am always looking for something new to read. The story line has to move me. I loved he story line and characters. I could not put this book down. I think every woman can relate to each of these women. I loved it and will recommend it to others.

FAB is the story of four friends who are trying to balance their careers while looking for love. Bianca has moved from New York to Hollywood as a television publicist, but finds her paycheck doesn't cover her lavish lifestyle, and she discovers the men in Hollywood don't follow her rules. Carolyn is a successful advertising executive; however, her love life isn't going so smoothly, and she has self-esteem issues that have her always belittling herself. Taylor is a corporate attorney who works six to seven days a week and can't find a man worth spending her time with until she meets Meschach. Finally, there is Roxanne, a struggling actress who has hit a standstill in her career and must take a break or lose her mind.

The four friends are fiercely loyal to one another and offer each other advice when things seem to be a bit rocky. The ladies must make some hard decisions in their personal and professional lives in order to find their true happiness. Bianca must hit rock bottom before realizing it is not about the name brands you are rocking, it is about being yourself. Carolyn must learn to love herself to find her true love, which happens to be closer than she realizes. Taylor must face her fears of rejection and learn to balance work and life by taking a leap of faith. Roxanne must undertake a small sabbatical to find her muse and reinvigorate her career.

As successful as these ladies are, they still harbor the same issues of most women as they maneuver in the dating world, searching for the right man. However, they know they can depend on each other no matter what and will be friends until the end. The quests to balance work and find Mr. Right makes for some witty moments between the ladies. The characters are easily relatable to most hardworking and successful African-American women. Their pain, hurt and eventual understanding makes them believable. Although the story is not fresh, since it centers on female friends searching for love, the approach with four different authors was. The writing was skillfully crafted where each character had a strong voice. My only issue with the story was at times there was too much narrative and not enough dialogue, which tended to slow the pace down a bit. When the dialogue was there, it brought out laugh-out-loud moments and kept me turning the pages. The authors have presented an engaging friendship story where the women have their pains and their struggles, but in the end they still have each other.

Reviewed by Cashana Seals
of The RAWSISTAZ™ Reviewers

Honestly, the only thing that I didn't like was the title. To me, the title didn't really do the book justice.

It's a great, realistic story about four black women who want to live "the fabulous life," but do it by working hard and enjoying their time with their friends, as opposed to scheming or marrying rich. What a refreshing change! They all want the same things -- a successful career, good friends, unconditional love and support, and, to be happy in their own skin. Each character is struggling in a different way to find the right balance and perspective. They all have flaws, but wonderfully, they all know it, and they all try, in varying ways, to improve themselves and their lives.

Because the writing is so clever and interesting, all of this is clear without ever sounding trite, simplistic, or cheesy. The writing is clear and the plot never slows down. Even better, the plot isn't silly or outlandish. The writing is also VERY witty, and intelligent. (I know I said that already, but I really appreciate cleverness and wit.) It made me laugh out loud several times. I enjoyed all the characters and felt like I really got to know and understand them all. The characters are real and developed. I don't mean to sound so suprised, but even with books where I enjoy the plot, I am disappointed by the character development or the writing. FAB has it all. It's probably the best black "chick lit" that I have ever read.

If you are (or you know) an intelligent, fun, professional, independent black woman, read (or tell her to read) FAB.