English Books

I didn't like this book at first, because it was kind of simple, and my young son didn't really like it at all.

But the other night he cut his finger and got very upset, and I grabbed this book off the dusty shelf. It calmed him immediately, and I saw its beauty. I really like it.

This book is very nice, although my ds is a bit young to understand it fully, he still appreciates the beautiful pictures in it. I am sure it will be a treasured book for many years to come.

I purchased this book for my granddaughter and I cannot wait to read it to her.
This is an absolutely wonderful book. The content is exceptionally written and the illustrations are breathtaking. This is a "children's" book that has no bounds; anyone at any age will be moved from reading it. It's message is profound.

As a mother of a 15 month old daughter, I was looking for a book that I could read to her that would teach her that she is connected to the universe. I believe that all of our energy combined is God (for a lack of a better word)...and this book says this beautifully. I think I would have loved this book as a child as much as I do as a mother. This is my new favorite children's book after reading it to my daughter for the first time today. I almost had tears in my eyes it is so wonderfully written. I'm looking forward to giving this book as a gift to other spiritual mommy's that I know. The illustrations are lovely and kept my daughters attention the whole time. I will be reading this to her very frequently.

This is by far one of my most favorite children's books. "I am part of all I see, and all I see is part of me." Those first two pages sum it up.

The illustrations are warm, gentle, and beautiful. If you look closely you can see little elves and fairies hiding in the forest. My girls love to try and find them while we are reading.

I have given this book as a gift many times and it is always well received.

Thank you Chara for creating such a wonderful book for our evolving little ones (and their parents)!

amazing collection of course. purchased it on amazon in 1996 for twenty bucks when i was in middle school. fairly sure it played a major part in my alienation as a twelve year old, as it caused my weirdo sense of humor to flourish greatly. absolutely amazed it sells for hundreds of dollars. guess i should have taken better care of it, eh? i cut up the cover to put it on my wall. silly twelve year old.

This comic inspired me so much when I was in high school. I can't even begin to describe how hilarious and well-done it is. SUCH a shame it costs so much, because it's one of the things you'd like to share with the entire world. I wish I would have taken better care of mine...not that I would ever sell it anyway. I keep coming back to it over and over again, and I'm alomost 29 now. There is so much artistry and humor going on in every single panel. It's like a cornucopia of non-sequitor humor, jabs at cheap American culture, and sheer unadulterated cartoony mayhem. If you don't laugh out loud, over and over again, there is something seriously wrong with you. Plus, there are so many little fun extras (Fizzball, the Road Trip game, Sam & Max explain our Bizarre Universe). Get it and you'll be glad you did.

A re-issue has pretty much been confirmed which will most likely contain everything in this book, plus all the missing comics including the new webcomic. With all that it'll probably bring the page count alot closer to 200.
Otherwize it's an awesome book, but I wouldn't pay as much as people are selling it for. I don't blame them though. It's a rare item and rare items have high prices.

I don't pretend to know what legal situation/absolute insanity is preventing the re-release of this nugget of genius, but I beg you for the love of all that is holy: DO IT! PLEASE!

This is one of the funniest things I have ever had the good fortune to read. I borrowed it from a friend over 10 years ago, and I now wish I hadn't given it back (I don't see this guy much anyway...). From time to time, I'll try to explain this comic to someone, and the vacant, unfamiliar stare I get in reply is absolutely heartbreaking. Whomever it is that has the authority to reprint this, I am literally begging you to do so. I will gleefully pay upwards of $50 for a reissue, especially if it has some little tiny extra, like an introduction from Purcell; a bundt cake recipe, or just a couple of new sketches. I'm desperate, and $200 for a comic just feels dirty (though I confess, I've considered digging out the credit card for this).

Please.

I love Sam & Max, A 5 STAR collection to be sure, and know for a fact that this collection is soon to be reissued. To those sellers who are charging UPWARDS OF $300 (?!!) for this little black and white 160 page book, YOU MAKE ME SICK! For that much money, I expect the book to be delivered to me in a frikkin' gold plated briefcase by an armed-to-the-teeth Secret Service agent. I HOPE YOU NEVER MAKE A DIME, you bottom-feeding nostalgia vampires.

After years of reading "Read Aloud Bible Stories: Vol. 3" to my girls, I finally had to look up the others. Volume 3 has such fundamental stories (the Creation, the Flood, Daniel & the Lions, the birth of Jesus) that I wondered what could possibly be in Volumes 1 and 2! I just may have to get them and find out.

Originally I picked up this book for basic Bible stories I could read quickly before bed because there are not many words on each page (parents who read the same book night after night after night know exactly what I'm talking about!), but I thought the illustrations were kind of sloppy. Over time I came to appreciate the simple paintings for how they capture the essence of each scene with such casual ease. Children love them, so what do I know? Interestingly, a story in this volume about manna, "God Gives His People Bread to Eat," has been the perennial favorite.

I purchased one book and my boys (three at the time) loved it. I purchased another in the series and then finally the last two. We've got a lot of bible story books my kids had no or little interest in. These are so engaging--the writing, the pictures, the selection of stories. These stories inspire them to pretend and re-tell the stories themselves. They are also easy to use as a lesson--the story, acting it out, doing a craft. I only wish there were more in the series!

I bought the first two books of the series over a dozen years ago when my youngest son was little. I was a preschool teacher of four year olds for many years and used these stories. I have also have used them with two-year-olds in Sunday School and the children like them.They get to the essence of the story with simple words and explanations. I love the simple and clear artwork with watercolor drawings. I think the simple story and artwork allows the feeling of the story to come through. I had looked for these books in stores over the years with no luck. Now with a grandson, I was delighted to find them to complete my collection. I can't wait to read the stories to him.

We used this book for our children from the time they were born until they were three years old. They loved it! The illustrations are fantastic and beautiful. Any time I give a baby gift I always include this book. Highly recommended!

When my son was in preschool, this was hands down one of his favorite books, along with Vol. 1. The stories are simply written yet remain true to the spirit of the Word. We highly recommend these books!

The Complete Works of William Shakespeare is an ingenious play. It is spontaneous and hilarious! If you're into Shakespeare, you'll love it. If you don't care for him because he was the reason you failed high school English, you'll still love this play!

I have seen productions of this play several times and each time it's hilarious! Now reading it I realize what geniuses the Reduced Shakespeare Company are - especially the writers Jess Borgenson, Daniel Singer and Adam Long! The book is worth it's price just for the footnotes. Their clever, witty, and yes - bawdy (Shakespeare would have been proud!) humor is priceless!

I am a high school drama teacher, and we bought copies of the Compleat Works of William Shakespeare Abridged for classroom use. They have been delightful to use, and perfectly correllating with the Reduced Shakespeare Company DVD that we have enjoyed in the past. The best part of all is how the kids retain the recognition of lines and scenes, even when we are viewing or reading other versions of his works. They love getting in front of the class and working up these zany parodies of the classics. I rate it 5 out of 5!!

Absolutely Hilarious! I would love to go see this play, however the book has annotations that are priceless, so you won't want to miss this either. You won't be able to put this down.

I bought this to decide whether or not to audition for a part in a local theater group performing the play. I didn't audition because I was on the opposite side of the atlantic ocean at the time, but five stars without question. The Reduced Shakespeare Company does a hilarious job of telling every single shakespeare play faster than ever before. Read this play!

The hero is a pragmatist in a Godless world. The protagonist, Frank Cassidy, had not had a day off in two years when he quits his job in New Jersey to go the the Upper Peninsula, Michigan for reason of a death in the family. He steals a car and later robs a man named Melvin. Frank's brother-cousin and his wife, Norman and Martha, dread the arrival of Frank and Honey and Robert Lee and Ernie, the children.

In the boarding house where they stay there is a hint of opulence. It is learned that the body of the deceased uncle, Ward, is being held by the authorities. Honey feels they should try to get jobs in the town. Frank works as a security guard and Honey in the business office of a college undergoing a transition from a community college to a four years residential college with a Great Books curriculum.

For Thanksgiving it is decided to eat at Cedar Lodge and stay there through the long weekend. Listed winter activities are ice skating and ice fishing. In a telephone call Frank learns that his cousin Norman is collapsing. Norman upended the sheriff's car when served with papers of foreclosure. Frank and his family go to Norman's place where it is discovered the dairy herd has been killed. In the end Frank uncovers and clarifies mysteries that have always surrounded his boyhood. The atmosphere created by the author matches the subject of the search for meaning by being indeterminate, foggy, bewildering. The children are presented in interesting realistic detail.

This is an unusual book, strange in so many ways I'm going to have trouble listing them all. I'll try, though. I will say that at some level I enjoyed this book, and if you can overcome the shortcomings that I'll list below, you may enjoy it more than I did.

For one thing, there's the issue of the author's name. This *isn't* the Michael Collins who was the first president of Ireland (of course not, he's been dead for 80 years) though the author was born over there. He's also not the astronaut who stayed on Apollo 11 while Armstrong and Aldrin wandered around on the moon. And he's also not Dennis Lynds, who has a series of detective novels featuring a one-armed private eye named Dan Fortune, and who writes novels under the pen name Michael Collins. This is the other other other Michael Collins. Very weird.

The plot of the book is pretty complex. All of the plot takes place in the late 1970s, a strange choice for the author. It works at some levels, though. Frank Cassidy is a small-time next-to-nothing, working at a burger joint, married to a woman who is at first a dispatcher for a trucking company. They have two kids, though the older one is from her previous marriage. Frank gets word that his uncle has died, and he decides to return to his hometown for the funeral. However his cousin and the cousin's wife are very angry at this.

This is where things begin to get strange. It turns out that Frank's wife, Honey, was married before, and her husband killed two people and is now on Death Row. She beats the son she had with the first husband. Frank, meanwhile, steals cars and money in order to finance their trip back home. As the novel progresses, there's not a single solitary character in the whole plot who's truly honest, good-hearted, and/or selfless. Everyone's out for themselves, dishonest, and nasty. It's sort of a cross between American Beauty and The Grapes of Wrath.

One point I think worth making is that the author isn't an American. You've got to wonder what these guys are thinking (I'm thinking of the guy who wrote American Beauty) when they move here in order to write stuff and tell us what jerks we are. I wonder if an American could move to Britain or Ireland and write a novel like this, and get it published, let alone receive awards. Needless to say, all the gushing blurbs on the back of the book are from British and Irish newspapers, which all insist (of course) that it reveals "America's long malaise".

The author *can* write, though. There's not that much of a plot, unfortunately. Instead, we get a bleak, desolate account of Middle America a quarter century ago. While the author isn't positive about anything, it's interesting to watch the characters wander through the plot. The mystery angle isn't (as is traditional) important to the book, and the solution, when revealed, seems rather forced and quick. Luckily, as I said, it's not that significant.

I enjoyed this book within these parameters. I might recommend it, but you've got to be aware of how annoying it can be at times.

This is where things get weird, however.

This book is a pleasure to read. The writing style is effortless - Mr Collins is a skillful and inventive writer.

The story follows a 1970s family who return to the Frank Cassidy's hometown for his dad's funeral. As the mystery around the death unfolds, other themes are also addressed. In a couple of generations Frank's family has moved from primary industry, mining and farming, into the service econony (flipping burgers). The novel shows the impact on families, on men and women and their ideas of their place in the world. Some people can survive in the modern world of corporate farming, of colleges which free people from their tie to the soil. It is not an easy journey but the ability of people to survive shines through, especially when the benefits of education are used to change for the better. In the background the impact of a war fought overseas is also in the air.

Ultimately, a novel about hope. Perhaps even an update of the American dream? Great book, deserves more recognition.

Frank Cassidy lives on the fringes of society in a succession of demeaning jobs, a wife with an ex-husband on death row in Georgia, an angst-riddled stepson waiting for his father to be executed and an innocent pre-schooler, obsessed with his toy dinosaurs. Frank's edge-of-desperation lifestyle can be traced back to his childhood, his father and mother killed in a fire that erupted on the family farm when Frank was five-years old. His memories of that time are dim, shaped by the overwhelming presence of his uncle, who raised him as one of his own, and the psychological evaluations the doctor hoped would unlock Frank's fragmented memory of the night of the conflagration.

As soon as he is old enough, Frank leaves the farm behind, along with all family connections, to make his way in a hostile world with no patience for an emotionally damaged survivor. His life since then has been a series of misdemeanors, an anti-social approach to the rest of mankind. Frank views his occasional petty crimes as the natural evolution of a careful society, like car theft, his deeds "preordained statistical probability", but refuses to believe that "stupidity and desperation equate to evil". When he reads of his uncle's murder, Frank gathers his family and heads for the past, a dark trek from New Jersey to the vast, empty cold of the far north in Michigan.

Along the way, Frank telephones his cousin at the farm, arguing about the purpose of the trip and the resolution of a shattered history. For Frank, this journey is like poking a stick at a bad tooth, as painful memories surge, taunting and confusing his every action, his haunted youth returning with savage intensity. He makes his way back to the kind of town nobody would willingly return to unless called by tragedy or loss. People here live in despair, inhabiting days frozen in minimal needs and obligations, waiting to thaw. At each phase of his odyssey, Frank is beset by images and memories, the flickering light of a television screen in a starless night, black and white reruns the backdrop for a tragedy buried in his subconscious that fills him with a vague sense of guilt, a mistrust of his own motivations.

Thirty years after the traumatic events that stole his childhood, Frank is called back into the chaos of his youth, the self-destruction that has defined every rebellious action since. Both distressed and comforted by a suffering family he can barely provide for, Frank plunges into what remains of his world, forced to redefine time and place, to make a stand in this frozen wilderness, drawing courage from his own need for resolution and the love of his dysfunctional family. He does so with consummate grace, a tragic character cart-wheeling through free-associative hell on a collision course with the truth. The prose is shadowed and disturbing, a painful view of the underbelly of American life, where the have-nots gather around a burning trash can in hopes of warmth in an indifferent landscape. Luan Gaines/2005.

~ Frank Cassidy learns in a newspaper of the death - possibly, murder - of his uncle, and goes back to North America to investigate any possibility of inheritance; to find out why his uncle died; and to sort out loose ends left in his head from a fire at his family farm in his childhood...

This book starts off quite promisingly. The writer evidently knows the mechanics of how to write well. But the book lacks sufficient plot after about the first hundred pages (of a 360-page book) to keep the reader very interested in continuing with it. The journey to the end of the book becomes boring, too unstimulating, too slow, too drawn out, with too much description and detail just for the sake of giving description and detail, too much describing of humdrum life, with the reader wondering if the book is going to go anywhere sufficiently interesting to be worth going on turning the pages. The characters in the book aren't made particularly interesting in themselves. The story ceases to be interesting. The reader is left in the dark for too long as to where the book is heading to, or why all the details are supposed to be interesting, or what the point of the book is supposed to be. Whilst what really happened many years before, in Frank's childhood, is revealed to us in the last fifteen pages of the book, by the time the reader gets there, he will probably have lost interest in the tale anyway.

A few specifics in the plot that didn't really seem to fit together well:
1. It seemed odd for Frank just to dump Juniper, the family pet, in someone else's car, and for that action then just to be accepted by the rest of the family.
2. It seemed odd for Frank to go back home with specific personal missions in his mind, but yet then never actually to get round to meeting up with Norman and Martha face to face for the whole time he was up there.
3. It seemed odd for Norman and Martha just to run away without saying more to anyone, after their herd was slaughtered.
4. Why Chester Green was suddenly being referred to as 'the Sleeper' didn't seem to be explained.
5. It seemed odd for Frank, not rich, not to want to salvage any possessions from either house before they were bulldozed.
6. It seemed odd and too convenient for Frank suddenly to be interrogating Baxter, his new co-worker, for information, which was forthcoming, as soon as he met him.
7. It seemed odd for Frank just to be allowed to be left alone with Chester Green in a hospital unsupervised, particularly in later visits after he had already been suspected of trying to harm or interfere with Chester Green earlier on.
8. Why Baxter suddenly ended up in the sanatorium following the window-smashing incident and ended up getting ECT treatment wasn't very clear.
9. Frank suddenly realising his mother had died in a fall many years ago, by listening to tapes, didn't really ring very true.
10. The detail at the end of the book (page 357), of Frank killing the paralysed 'Chester Green' in the sanatorium, seemed to be a detail borrowed straight out of 'One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest', where the huge red indian suffocates the comitose Jack Nicholson at the end of that film. That conclusion seems to be borne out by a reference to 'One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest' in this book, just a page later (page 358).

All in all, this was not a very satisfying book, for a variety of reasons - mainly lack of interesting plot and lack of interesting characters.

Mr. Lewis, best known for his "Chronicles Of Narnia", must have had one of the sharpest minds in his day. In this collection of individual essays / lectures / papers, he addresses many issues that were hot buttons in his day...and continue to be in ours. But, I think that the power behind his words is equally in how he expresses them, not just in the the thoughts behind them. Mr. Lewis was a master at taking rather complex matters and making them understandable to the average reader.
While some of what Mr. Lewis writes I would not fully agree with, I give him much credit and am very lenient when I consider his personal background (atheist-turned-Christian apologist).
I highly recommend this, and other, books he has written.

The book arrived in great time and is another classic of this famous and amazing author. It is all that was expected and I highly recommend it to anyone who is now, a C. S. Lewis fan or will be upon reading any of his works. Thanks gain to Amazon for another honest and quick transaction. Gary Krei

The Essay "The Inner Ring" moved my youngest daughter from the margins of middle school to its social center. Six years ago when she was in the sixth grade, we talked several times about a group of three girls that were the most popular in her school. Because she was so curious about the subject, I read her "The Inner Ring." She loved it. She asked many good questions, related the essay to her situation, and to her friends. By the middle of her seventh grade year, the group had expanded to six and because four of the six members of the group had siblings in the high school, the "six pack" was the subject of high school gossip in addition to being the coolest clique in the middle school. My wife believes that in reading "The Inner Ring" to mathematically minded Lisa, I gave her the rules she needed to become a permanent member of a group who all were starters on at least one sports team and continued to be close friends in high school.

I agree that this collection is often overlooked when considering the best works of CS Lewis. Among the essays, my personal favorites are Weight of Glory and Transposition. I highly recommend this book.

This book is actually a collection of essays. Lewis addresses various things such as, the glory of man as being a reflection of the glory of God, why he is not a pacifist (where he gives some pretty strong moral, biblical, and sensible arguments), speaking in tongues and various spiritual gifts (moreso on their implication, not on the technicality of each or what exactly each gift is), what he calls "is theology poetry" (or in other words, do we believe in theology just because the idea of a cosmic drama appeals to us), the affects of peer pressure and the gradual degradation of one's inner principles and also its positive affects when one surrounds him/herself with Christians, and forgiveness.

Overall a very enlightening read, in which many issues that are not commonly talked about are given attention. Not very long either, but packed full of insight.

Words cannot express how completely awesome and spine-tingling this book is. I saw Marshall Ball on the Oprah show several years ago and was so in awe of him that as soon as the show ended I got in the car and drove to the bookstore to buy the book. It will make you smile, cry and laugh; it really left me with the lessons of 'miracles do happen' and 'you never know what someone can do until you give them a chance'. It's a definite must read.

Marshall Ball is exquisite. With the simplicity of a child and the wisdom of the ages, he speaks with a profound understanding that could only be Divine. Marshall cannot speak, so he uses an alphabet board to point to each letter. This is a painstakingly long process. He was born with a disease that keeps him confined to a wheelchair. At age nine, he was evaluated at school with a twelfth-grade reading level. I was pleasantly inspired by Marshall and eagerly await more writings from him. My favorite quote from Marshall is: "Can we free the world to think perfectly about the listening and marvelous children?" I highly recommend this book.

As heralded by such masters as Eckhart Tolle and Don Miguel Ruiz the earth at this time is graced by a number of awakened divine flowers of consciousness which grace us with their tremendous healing power and gentility. Marshall Ball is no doubt one such light in our world. His healing gift is through the power of his words. In these important documents of our time [Kiss of God & A Good Kiss] Marshall Ball uses his gentle and seemingly simple use of the English language to incite a healing effect that evokes deep emotions and directly effects the heart. Short of a miracle, both of Marshall Ball's books are a collection of communications poetically expressed and clearly echo teachings from A Course in Miracles, Eckhart Tolle's Power of Now and Stillness Speaks, and the Conversations with God books, none of which have been a source of study for this young man of 17. It seems Truth is spoken again by another source of pure love, but here, with heavenly gentleness and a poetic voice that can lift and heal the coldest of hearts. I highly recommend reading and studying both "Kiss of God" and "A Good Kiss" as material for spiritual study and personal growth. May this gentle heavenly force continue to grace us with his divine wisdom and healing voice.

This book will touch you. There is a simplicity and purity of thought, but there are deeper more profound meanings there for you to discover on your own. Marshall is a special child of God, as we all are in our own way. Love and listening are prevalent themes in Marshall's short poems and prose. I am a grown man with grown children, and I am not prone to tears, but many of Marshall's words brought tears to my eyes. I know God talks through Marshall. Share this book with your friends and family.

Recommendation:
A great book for traveling on a journey with a special child. If you have a special child, get this book, because you may learn more about your child, and their own journey and thoughts. If you don't have an special child, then get this book and learn about the blessings that come with the pain and challenges of the journeys that parents of special children travel.

Book Review
Marshall writes, with physical assistance, of things we cannot see, or imagine in our busy and cluttered lives. Yet, these are the important, and permanent things that life is determined on, not the urgent and unimportant.

His poems are very good (fantastic considering his age and issues) and offer a mature, yet spiritually innocent viewpoint that remains objective and not caught up with our worldly challenges.

Marshall is here and suffers in order to fulfill God's purpose of helping us, and those who need spiritual assistance.

How Marshall Helped Us Learn of Our Daughter's Thoughts, and Experiences:
We have a daughter with severe cerebral palsy who cannot speak or walk an had just finished two weeks of therapy in Chicago and were catching a plane for the ride home. This was two years ago, so she was four at the time. By accident, I packed her reading books, so we stopped in the book store to find a book to read. We accidently came across Marshall's book and I explained to my daughter that Marshall was like her, and could not speak or walk, and was just a few years older. Then, I asked her if she wanted to get Marshall's book, she got very excited (happy).

On the plane we read the first few pages and came across this part of Marshall's poem...

Even though my individuality finds
sweet knowing perfection, I listen
for the answers to wishes from above.

So, I asked my daughter if God spoke to her about her wishes and prayers. She just about jumped out of her skin!!! It was like finally!!!! Someone knows my secrets!!!! Yes, I speak to God and He speaks to me!!!!

I was startled, and asked her some poorly developed questions. After a couple of months, I thought about the questions I asked and also her answers, and I realized that I really did not learn what I thought I had learned. (We have to ask her questions, with two or three answers for her to choose from, then ask additional questions to further determine her correct and precise answers).

Because I only want the truth, regardless of the issues, I spent some time to relaly think about the questions, and alternative answers that could be gleaned from my technique, then began to ask her more precise questions to nail down her responses.

What I found is that she did speak to and hear from God every night. That she did remember her personal journey (died at birth for 35 minutes), and remembered seeing God when she died. She did not remember being in the hospital, being taken off life support, or anything else.

But, when she died, she went to heaven, and was not given a choice, but was told to return to her Mommy and Daddy (which she wanted); and she was told that her purpose was to help a lot of children who were in need. (...) She came back to us - obviously - and now is a bright 6 year old who goes to full inclusion school, has many friends and lots of fun. Yet, she cannot speak, or walk, yet. (But is making great progress!)

Without reading Marshall's book, I would never have thought to ask these questions, and would have never have learned my daughter's secrets.

Riders is a definite guilty pleasure. I bought it because of the rave reviews and they are well deserved. Although a bit dated, this combination of horses, ugly duckling fairy tale and celebrity gossip/sleeze fest is irresistable. The characters are surprisingly well drawn. The ones you start out hating develop some redeeming qualities and the ones you start out loving reveal flaws. No cardboard cut outs here. And if you think that riders have nerves of steel as they jump those terrifying course,guess again.

Oh man! Let me just start by saying Jilly Cooper NAILED it with this one! Sure, it's kind of trashy. And yes, some of the characters will make you cringe and seethe and want to strangle them. But this book has EVERYTHING it takes to be a real page-turner! Between scandalous moments, raunchy scenes, totally heartless characters and incredibly well-written equestrian scenes, this book is worth every star it can get.
Sure, Cooper's writing is not necessarily for your granny, and yes, some pages will make you blush...but if you have the sense of humor required to read this book you will love every page!

I read Jilly Cooper's books backwards. I started with Wicked, then The man who made husbands jealous (not that great btw!), then score, then rivals, then riders, and now am reading polo.

I was in love with Rubert from the first time i read Wicked, but when i read about him in Riders I just couldn't believe his character, it was so inconsistent!! One moment he's so tender, and the next he's involved in a rape-like group sex with a very reluctant female!! eew!!! That scene was VERY disturbing!!

but what disturbed me even more was a the stereotypical way in which Mrs Cooper addresses animal treatment in the middle east!! I've been raised in a horse-loving family and we treat our horses right!! we love them as much as we love our family, if not more and Sheikhs don't sell their horses or beat them just because one of their kids can't cope with them.

It was so tiring reading about that in this novel and i kept telling myself that this was in the 80's and people didn't know much at that time, but in the end it really did ruin the novel for me. I just kept skipping pages to get done with it.

a fun read..the author researched her story well. The characters are well developed, as is the story. I've read this boook many times, enjoying it every time.

For years I began the summer by re-reading this book. It's a beach read, and a fun read. It comes the closest to any book to capturing the effort involved in showing horses on the international circuit. It's not all fun and glamour, but hard work and effort, with a few rich people thrown in for good measure. The characters are multi-dimensional and engaging. And it's more than just a little bit naughty. Hang on for a wild ride!

I have never met a Dee Henderson book that I didn't like. The O'Malley Series is a great suspense read. However, you really need to read "Danger in the Shadows" first since this is the start of the O'Malley series. Each book can stand alone, but they all tie in together so I suggest you read them in order. A great way to spend an evening - curled up on the couch with a cup of tea or coffee and a Dee Henderson book. You will find yourself turning each page wanting to see what happens next.

The Truth Seeker as CD audio book I received as a present. Due to ill health I now can't read very much for very long. For someone who has been a bookworm all her life this was very difficult, but audio books have come to my rescue. Mum listens to them while she is doing housework, and my sister has them on in the car during her 40 minute commute to work, & back.
Dee Henderson is a favourite author in our house & we particularly like her O'Malley Series, of which this is number 3.
It has been abridged fairly well & Matilda Novak is a good narrator - a big plus for me where audio books are concerned! Also there is music in lots of places to give atmosphere; & sound effects - fire blazing, sirens, airport tannoy, doorbell tone, phone ringing to name a few - which help to bring the story alive. Enjoyable to listen to over & over again!

Book three in Henderson's O'Malley series. Lisa O'Malley is a forensic pathologist. Quinn Diamond is a U.S. Marshal. They find their lives intersecting both personally and professionally as they investigate related murder cases. The mystery element is juxtaposed against the real-life touches of humor and family. Lisa's journey to Christ and her romance with Quinn form intriguing supblots.

Lisa O'Malley is a forensic pathologist who has a difficult time with Jesus' resurrection. Quinn Diamond is Marcus O'Malley's partner in the U.S. Marshal's Service. He's been trying to get Lisa to go out with him. Unfortunately, pursuing Lisa is going to be almost impossible because he's already asked out her other sisters!

Their paths cross when the cases they are investigating become intertwined. I love how we get to continue to follow the O'Malleys we already know and how we are able to get to know the others before we read their stories. I wish my family was as close as theirs is.

The other O'Malley novels are: The Negotiator, The Guardian, The Truth Seeker, The Protector, The Healer, The Rescuer. Each is a wonderful read!

I loved this series! I wasn't sure about reading a Christian Romance but this is so much more. Dee Henderson has a way of making you feel as though they are the real deal and you are right there with the O'Malley's. You'll laugh, cry, and everything in between. Enjoy!!

This book is very well written and has beautiful artwork! My Grandaughter will love it!

I purchased this book as a Christmas gift for my sister, who loves Barker's illustrations. It arrived even more quickly than scheduled, in great condition.

I showed this to my small children, older nieces, sister, mother, friends, and grandmother. It appealed to all of them. I bought the deluxe book of flower fairies, the complete flower fairy book and the paper doll book. I needed them for art reference books.

The difference in the first two is:
The deluxe book has a history of the author, her sketches and inspirations, timeline, her prosesses, lots of botanical notes. very collectiors edition, silver leaf and all.

The complete book has fairy's has a 1 page intro of the author then goes straight into images and poems. each has the seasons collections, but the complete has; in addition, the fairies of the garden, trees, wayside and a flower fairy alphabet.

Cicely Mary Barker's eight little flower fairies books were published between 1923 and 1985 making her a household name, especially in Great Britain. Published at the height of the "fairy-mania" that swept England during the early decades of the 20th century they captured in sweetly beautiful images and verse the wonder that many people felt about these elusive tiny creatures. Cicely Mary Barker (1895-1973) was predominately a self taught artist who during her lifetime suffered from ill-health and physical fragility, thus she escaped into the world of the imagination and make believe. Her unselfconscious, delicate and jewel like watercolors were influenced by the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, fellow women illustrator Kate Greenaway (1846-1901) and her love of England's many gardens.

Her inspiration for the flower fairies came from the lush English countryside and observing young children at her local village kindergarten where her sister worked as a teacher. Her fairies are delicately and truthfully observed depictions of these young children in naturalistic poses and postures, standing on or clinging to botanically correct and beautifully rendered flowers. Being no bigger than 20cm tall they live and sleep in their birth flower taking care of their respective tree or plant, as the tree or plant grows so they grow in wisdom and power too. Fairies were most popular in the late Victorian and the Edwardian ages but they continued to hold sway over the imaginations of countless children (primarily girls) up into the early modern era... and beyond.

This enchanting and wondrous volume is a collection of all eight flower fairies books including: flower fairies of the spring, summer, autumn and winter and the flower fairies of the alphabet, trees, garden and wayside. As some of the most timeless depictions of the world of faery Cicely Mary Barker captured the innocence and naivety of childhood in exquisitely rendered illustrations and simple verse. While some may see these fairies as "safe" and "tame" depictions of the primal and elemental forces of nature, in my mind they capture the spirit of a bygone era when peoples mores and values were just plain different to ours, if not in some ways better. As such her little fairies lack the cynicism, artificiality and worldliness of the modern age and will continue to hold sway over the minds of generations of fairy lovers to come and will bring out the child within in anyone willing to let themselves go.

Sixty Five years ago, when I was a little girl, I sat at my fathers feet looking at a book that had marvelous pictures of beautiful fairys, so stunning were their bright colors and silky wings that it completely took my breath away for never could I have pictured anything quite so awsome as these tiny little creatures, that I was sure were hiding beneath the petals of flowers in mothers garden, that I had yet to see. I kept this memory all my life sharing it with my children, when they were little, and now my grandchildren. Imagine my astonishment to once again see these beautiful little people again. Take a trip back to childhood and enjoy this beautiful book, share it with your children but keep it for the child that is you.