Vermont Books

This book is the antidote to the sugary-sweetness of _Charlotte's Web_ or _Babe_. Perhaps you hadn't noticed that either of these two were amazingly sappy. This book puts them in perspective as sugar-coated froth.

While sometimes melancholy, this book delivers a wonderful meal of a story. This tale is sure to nourish far more - and perhaps more realistically - than any tale of talking animals.

A coming of age story for a young boy in 1920s rural Vermont, as he learns to run the farm and understand his father and his father's role. The book is a series of humorous tales and Robert's growing understanding of his world. He hunts, delivers calves, goes to the Rutland Fair, takes care of his pig, and eventually buries his father. A beautiful, funny, and moving tale. A graphic view of life on a farm might be too much for younger children. Grade: A+

This book is amazing because a boy of 12 years old has to help his father on their farm. The most shocking things happens to this boy. First he gets a pig from his neighbor, Ben, and he names the pig Pinky. Some funny events happen in this book too -- like the time, Robert vomits on one of the judges shoes at the fair. Many exciting things happen in this book that may astound you and your parents. I would recommend this book to children who like fascinating and heartbreaking stories. This book is entirely different than other books you may have read.

Sky, 8 years old and happily homeschooled!

What an eye opener for this generation! Welcome to the Shaker tradition of plain, earthy, reason. No frills. Where a man's word is second to his deed. I found this novel to be inspiring and humbling. Nowadays, we take so much for granted! Here is a family who earns or makes everything they have, and is gracious enough to consider themselves rich. Indeed they are - rich in faith, love, dignity, integrity, and community.
This is an important coming of age novel for many reasons. Robert Peck has to face challenges that many Young Adult readers face: increased responsibility, the wanting of worldly possessions, and death.

I'd give this book zero stars if I could. It sends a message that "growing up" involves butchering pets. There is also dog abuse and a nasty pig rape scene. And this book is assigned to children? We should teach children to respect and care for animals. This book graphically depicts harming and in one case murdering pets.

I bought the book because I had seen the movie. Although I enjoyed the movie a lot, I found the book to be even better - much better. this is a good and easy read!
Janet Foret Lococo

Have you ever been to Provence? Non? Do you know the French? Non? If you haven't and you don't, then this short time with Max Skinner might not be as much fun as it was for me. Not only have I been to Provence, but I stayed in Montpelier for a month and made many outshoot trips to nearby locales, including Arles and Avignon and small villages like Saint-Pons, the setting for "A Good Year." I lunched and wined and dined as Max Skinner does in Peter Mayle's novel. I also know the English, as different from the French as can be. Knowing the English also helps in the pleasure of reading this novel. But if you haven't and you don't, this is still a great read because you will get to know Provence and its people and the ways of the English.

My introduction explains, I think, why I love this novel. No, this is not literature that sits on shelves with Faulkner and Austen. But it is a great, enjoyable few hours transported to a wonderfully sunny, pleasant place among people with a joie-de-vie outlook.

Max Skinner lives in England and works as an investment banker and is at odds with his boss. He wakes up one day, thinking, This will be a great day. He expects to close on a big deal. Instead, his boss asks for details of the deal, then fires Max and claims the deal. But his "great day" is yet to come. He receives notification that he has inherited his uncle's small chateau and vineyards in Provence.

Thus begins Max's year as a future winemaker. Mayle is excellent in making his characters flesh out as real people, in creating visual images of the chateau and surrounds. He has the ability to put the reader right into the story, savoring the smells of wonderful food and wines.

The real story is this pleasant, daily life in Provence. The seemingly main plot is the secret concerning a special section of vineyard and how most of the characters' lives intersect concerning this one section. The number of coincidences coming together seem impossibly large, but the reader knows this is a book of fiction and that the author has ordered such events in such a way. If the reader has immersed in this world of the French, then the coincidences will merge into the flavor of a good wine. Take it at that.

Does Mayle purport to writing great literature? Or, does he give the reader a delightful and pleasant story for a few hours? Prepare a cheese and sausage plate, open a bottle of good red wine and enjoy those with this book. It will be a good few hours.

Like another reviewer here, I had seen the movie first and bought the book because I wanted the fuller, more developed story line. What I found was a completely different story. Other than the same character names, location, and the fact that Max's Uncle had died leaving him the house, the story is completely different. One reviewer here loved the line "Excuse my lips, etc." - guess what - he did not read the book, he saw the movie - this line is not in the book. Please do not expect the same story in the book as the movie.

That being said, I did find the book enjoyable. It is a good read - not quite up to Peter Mayle's previous efforts but fun. Without spoiling it for you, the ending left me a little disappointed. Like so many novels today, the author does not have an ending - they just stop without resolution of the plot lines. If you like Peter Mayle's other books, you will also like this one. If you have never read any of his books, Hotel Pastis is far superior - a beginning, a strong plot line, and a good ending. A Good Year only comes close to this superior novel.

What other reviews of Peter Mayle's "A Good Year" neglect is that he comes up with some great lines. How about, "Forgive my lips; they find joy in the most unusual places." Now doesn't that sound like what (one's fantasy of) a French girl would say? There's also, "(I want) a bottle of wine that tastes like you; and a glass that's never empty." Hope I haven't ruined the book for you, but for me, I'd like to have thought either of those characters' confessions up, myself! Mayle challenges - no, he invites - us to do so, even if we haven't inherited a French chateau and vineyard. Enjoy the journey. I sure did.

I've never read anything by Peter Mayle, but a friend gave me A Good Year, knowing that I like to read books about other countries. I found A Good Year to be fun, but lightweight and fluffy.

Max Skinner is a Londoner who is struggling with a job in finance. After working on a project for six months (that he expects to reap big financial rewards), his supervisor steals his work and then fires him. Skinner goes home that day to find a letter from a French lawyer. An uncle who lived in Provence recently died and has left his chateau and vineyard to Skinner. With a 10,000 loan from his best friend, Skinner travels to the small town of Saint-Pons, hoping that maybe he'll be able to start a new life in France. He spent his summers visiting his uncle, so he's familiar with the area and the language. He also hopes to learn something about winemaking.

Mayle has an obvious love of France and his books are filled with the beauty of France, the small towns, the customs, the people, the food, and especially, the wine. But not everything is idyllic with Skinner and his new home. The chateau's wine tastes like vinegar and there seems to be some hanky-panky going on with his caretaker and the vines. There is also a question of whether the chateau truly belongs to him. It is just enough to keep Provence from being paradise.

Mayle piqued my interest enough to want to read A Year in Provence. Not only was it a best seller, but the television series based on the book was very popular. Mayle's recurring theme of foreigners living in France has obviously been successful for him. Now if only he would help us out with a little French vocabulary...

I just finished Robin Cook's Fatal Cure first published in 1993. Health care reform was a huge topic then, and surprise it is, or will be a big topic in the upcoming presdential election in 2008. The plot and characters are not developed well but the read is easy and engaging. As a physician myself, I can relate to the excitement and uncertainty of finally finishing your training to start your career, but with the economic burden of debt. Now as a practicing physician, I am acutely aware of how the economics of medicine do not necessarily mix with good patient care. Dr. Cook's thoughts on the subject are well presented in the last few pages of the novel. An old novel with a timely message.

Complete waste of time! I am done reading Robin Cook books for now..The story line for this book is so stupid I am amazed Mr. Cooks editors even allowed it to be printed..I'm not sure about the hospitals where Robin lives or works at, but in the area where I live, if just one patient died there would be an immediate investigation, but here we have several patients die from unknown causes and the characters just move along like it's no big deal..The Wilsons even allow their daughter to be admitted!!! Give me a break!! Like I said..don't waste your time on this one!!

Fatal Cure is Robin Cook's most controversial book ever written about the darker side of managed health care in America. A married couple start a hospital business where they can treat several patients in a day, including their daughter who suffers from crystic fibrosis. For awhile, it works until their patients begin to die and when a dead body is discovered is their basement, they begin to lose popularity. A very suspensful book, this could actually happen. Overall, a good book!

I enjoyed reading the book because it did have a good idea behind it. What bothered me, though, was how unrealistic the main characters' responses were to what happened to them. What got me the most was when the two characters that the family and the little girl were supposedly so close to died, they didn't even contact their families or attend their funerals! PLEASE! At least mention it in the book for 5 seconds so that we know that you have at least a slight grasp of what would really happen! No wonder everyone in Barlet hated them!!

I'm sure you've read the plot synopsis by now, so I'll skip it and get to the real review. This book is a long, contrived, boring piece of unrealistic drivel. This guy went to Harvard? It reads like an Encyclopedia Brown mystery, except you figure it all out much quicker. The characters are underdeveloped and frighteningly unrealistic (not to mention just plain stupid. It took them 400 pages to figure out what was going on? Maybe they went to Harvard, too). Evidently, in Dr. Cook's world nobody ever utters an obscenity or does anything risque or more involved than "making love." We get pages and pages about a man having an affair with his business associate, been when it comes to the pivotal moment the experience is summed up in two words. Sounds like Cook is as prudish as his main characters. Skip this book unless you enjoy mind-bogglingly bad literature (a la "Mystery Science Theater 3000", perhaps). This is my first, and last, Robin Cook novel.

Carla Neggers sometimes writes books that grab you from the first few lines of the first chapter. The Waterfall is one of those books. I am now ordering and looking forward to her next book "The Widow", read an excerpt of it in the back of The Waterfall, can't wait to read the book. I most always would recommend Carla's books to anyone who enjoys her type of writing, romantic suspense.

**Disclaimer** My review is of the abridged audio version.

Most of the time I can find something redeeming about a book. But there are exceptions . . .

This book really re-defined "bad" in a whole new way. Histrionic women that give us girls a bad name, completely unbelieveable actions by the characters, phony affairs, odd revenge motives . . . the list is unending.

And let's not forget the dead bat on the bed as an aphrodisiac?????

Suspense is great, but it needs to be based on some plane of reality. (Anyone believe that the Senator wouldn't have requested at least one photo of the supposed "affair" before buying the whole thing, hook, line and sinker?)

Romance is great, but it needs to be believable between the characters. (Barbara and the villain? Even the lead couple - what is the basis?)

Women are emotional (hey, we could even be described as mercurial at times), but most of the time we need some provocation before going stark raving crazy and falling into the arms of the nearest available good-or-evil stud muffin. (Apparently none of the women in this book ever matured past Madison, the 15 year old.)

So, fellow readers . . . pretend this book is a waterfall, pretend it's a psychotic good-guy-gone-bad, pretend it's a dead bat on your bed . . . STAY AWAY!

I enjoyed this book. I get tired of some reviewers who give every book a 5. To me it needs to be the best book you have ever read to be a 5. I really enjoyed this one. Some parts didn't ring true but I really enjoyed reading about parts of the country I know nothing about. Not a whole lot of romance in this book but I am tired of other books that throw in the "sex just to sell" angle. I really liked both leading characters. You leave the book with a good feeling. You really can't ask for more than that.

I really enjoyed this book and had never read books from this particular author before. The book was so great, that I have been searching for some of her other titles. I would definitely recommend this book. I couldn't put it down!

Sometimes when you try a new author you are wonderfully surprised. Sometimes when you try a new author it's a struggle to get through every page and you throw the book away without ever finishing. This book falls into the second category.

When widow Lucy Swift's family is threatened, she won't go to the local Sheriff. (Sheriffs are usually the ones to see when you find bullet holes in your dining room walls.) Lucy somehow just "knows" the law can't help her. She has a father-in-law who is a senator. She won't go to him for help either. Why you ask. Her indecisive, wishy-washy parenting has brought criticism from the father-in-law in the past. She's too weak to risk more advise from the senator so she has to keep the threats a secret from him.

Lucy takes a little trip to Wyoming to ask for help from Sebastian Redwing, a friend of her deceased husband. Sebastian ran a security company until he killed a bad guy. Later he finds he didn't really kill the bad guy, but just the thought has sent him into a neurotic state of seclusion. Anyway he's a surly, rude, misogamist who's hiding out in a hut without running water or electricity. (Seems like he could have used some of that money he was saving on electricity to see a psychiatrist about his social problems. Maybe going without bathing and wearing dirty underwear is his idea of psychic healing.)

Turns out Sebastian wasn't such a good choice in the help department. First thing he does while skulking through the woods looking for evildoers is to tumble off a cliff. Of course this requires Lucy to take care of him. Ah, what woman could resist falling for a mean-mouthed guy with poor judgment, serious psychological issues, and a concussion?

For everyone who thinks rude, uncommunicative macho-men are romantic as heck, get this book. Personally, I like my men with a deep appreciation of the finer things in life like hot showers, electric washing machines, and good reading lamps. Doesn't hurt if they actually want to say a few words to me now and then either.

This was a good fast read but leaves little in the males character development. I think that the mals character needed to be more in depth. The book does have you wanting to read more. This is my second Anne Stuart book but as the other reviews say it apparently is not her best. But always read for yourself to see... Iw ill still read Anne I think her writing style is easy and very satisfying.

I have recently started a collection of Anne Stuart books. I read one and got hooked. I would say that so far this is my least favorite of the books I have read. I am not saying it is not a good book, it is a really good book. Just compared to her other books, this one is lacking. OK, even though I figured out the "who done it" in the begining of the book, it still had the suspense factor. I may have known who did it, but at times I still questioned it and did not know what he was going to do. That mixed with the sexual tension keeps your heart pounding through out the whole book. I though that John in this book was a little too um, distant. It seemed he felt nothing but lust. Most male characters usually make some mention of feeling something other then lust, even if they turn right around and tell themselves they are wrong, they at least mention it. I didnt like how up until the very last page, he didnt seem to have deeper feelings. He kept them just a little too hidden. He was an interesting character though. They all are in her books. There were things that were also left to the imagination I guess. Just little things that seemed to be signifigant were never mentioned after the first time. Like the knife. Did it ever have any impact on anything? Or even at the end when she wore the dress,it was so important to her when she was getting dressed, so while we are waiting for his reaction to it, it never happens. Just little stuff like that. I still thought it was a good book, but there were too many little things that were not matching up that took some of the enjoyment out of it for me. But dont knock it until you try it.

I enjoyed reading "Still Lake" I am not much of a contemporary romance reader, but if there's suspense and thriller, I never pass it up! An added bonus were some pretty hilarious moments that had me laughing out loud. The main characters are Griffin (aka John Smith) and Sophie. They have this love-hate thing going with a lot of sexual tension. There's Sophie's mother, "Spacey Gracey" who just cracked me up and Sophie's "rebel without a cause" younger sister, Marty. (I won't summarize the story, since other reviewers have done so). The reason I gave the book only 4 stars was due to the fact that the plot was rather weak. I was hyped up in finding out "who done it", but I figured it out immediately. No surprises or mystery about it. It seemed that the whole story was mainly focused on Griffin and Sophie completely and their "blossoming" affair. There were no real thrills and chills in connection with "finding the killer" before he strikes again. All in all, I'd say it was a good erotic romance story, the down and dirty type in some parts...LOL. But if you are looking for those certain "thrills and chills" in finding out "who done it" or "why he or she done it" I do not recommend this book. I recommend Anne Stuart's other novel, "Into the Fire"...Happy Reading!

Sophie Davis writes a column providing household advice. "The poor woman's Martha Stewart", Sophie doesn't get much of a chance to actually apply that advice - until she buys an old inn in Vermont, and moves her mother and sister along with her. The inn was the setting for a gruesome triple-murder twenty years ago, but Sophie doesn't care much about that aspect of her new home. She's intent on renovating and decorating the place, although she's not too eager to have strangers invade her sanctuary. However, she knows that this is the only way to maintain an income in such a small city.

Sophie's life gets even more complicated when the enigmatic John Smith rents an old abandoned cottage near her inn. Why is he there? It's obvious to Sophie that his name is not really John Smith, and he seems to be asking way too many questions about the old murder, yet she can't figure out his true identity. Meanwhile, Sophie has other problems. Her mother, Grace, is slowly slipping away as she battles Alzheimer's disease, and her sister, Marty, is going through an extreme teenage rebellion stage. And why is Sophie so intrigued (and a little frightened) of John Smith?

Anne Stuart has created a gorgeous story of finding love when you least expect it. Both characters have issues, and they're as different from one another as could be, yet when they're around each other, sparks fly. The tension and attraction between them is strong, and the reader immediately gets pulled into their relationship, rooting for Sophie and John to make it despite their differences and the obstacles thrown at them.

The beautiful scenery and atmosphere works as a wonderful backdrop for the story. My only complaint is that I had the "bad guy" figured out about 1/4th through the story, so the ending didn't come as much as a shock as perhaps it should have. Still, the romance and the incredible sensuality in this story were enough to keep me eagerly turning pages until the end.

Was he a murderer? That question has haunted Thomas Ingram Griffin for over twenty years. On a summer day in 1982 Griffin woke up at a farm in Colby, Vermont covered in blood and accused of killing his girlfriend as well as two other girls. Convicted for murder but eventually released on a technicality, Griffin went on, in the ultimate irony, to become a successful lawyer. However, the time has come for Griffin to search for the truth. Changing his name and renting a cottage in Colby for the summer, he finds out that the farm where the murders occurred has been transformed into a country inn. Now, Griffin must somehow find a way to search the property for clues to a decades old crime and keep his hands off the delectable innkeeper.

Sophie Davis is trying to keep it together. She's burnt her bridges by leaving the city and buying a farmhouse in rural Vermont. Okay, so the property was the scene of a grisly triple murder. A little notoriety just might help jump start her bed and breakfast inn! In the meantime, Sophie's got to keep an eye on her eccentric mother and rebellious teenage sister and her hands off the new neighbor who seems to be everywhere. She absolutely does not need to get involved with a man who obviously has secrets to hide. Nevermind that he has the body of a god, gives earth-shattering kisses and owns a '74 Jaguar XJ6.

Anne Stuart is back and I'm happy to report she is in fine form, indeed. Her descriptions of the Vermont countryside are vivid, the plot is classic and the characters are varied and interesting -- from the mutinous Marty to the God-fearing town locals. The interaction between Martha Stewart wannabe (for the domestic goddess stuff, not the insider trading) Sophie and mysterious John Smith aka Griffin is sometimes farcical, always funny and downright steamy on occasion. Nothing's better than a good girl learning to be bad and nobody writes naughty good girls better than Anne Stuart.

TheSchemer

How Tia Lola Came To Stay is a decent book. Not good not bad just decent. I liked the spanish in other words... It is about a family that just moved from New York to vermount and the parents just got divorced the mom and kids go to vermount while the dad stays in New York. Their aunt vistits vermount from the Dominacan Republic and she knows litel english that is all i am going to tell you for the rest buy the book!

Tia Lola Came to Stay is a pretty good book in the terms of the morals in the story, but I didn't really like the way it was written. It seems to be a book for kids much younger than I am, because it was very jumpy. The story line would jump around a lot, and it seemed as if one moment it was the middle of the winter, and the next it was mid July. That tended to confuse me a little bit. The author also placed a lot of Spanish words in the text, without any clues as to what they are. That got confusing also.
The story's morals are okay though. The children learn that change happens. If you don't stay negative about change and look at the bright side of things, things may turn out okay. The kids find that they would be devastated if Tia Lola went home to the Dominican Republic, rather than wishing that she would. So, the moral is one of the highlights of the book.
There were definitely aspects of this story that I could have done without, such as the explanations after every set of dialogue, but I did enjoy the meaning of the book and the plot. I didn't care for the sudden Spanish words springing up all over the page, but I would still probably give this book about 3 stars.

There is always someone in our family that stands out. There is also someone that's an influence.

I thought that this book was so bad it was annoying. It was hard to read because of all the Spanish words and sentences. I didn't want to continue the
book because I got lost in the language. I had to continue because it was a school project. I reccommend not to but this book because you're wasting money. How Tia Lola Came to (Visit) Stay

I liked the YANKEES game and the big party. I thought that the spanish helped my spanish. Parts of the book got boring but it was ok. I thought Miguel was a good tuff odd characher. I thought Junita acted like a baby. Tia Lola was a very good story characher. The book was very good.

I enjoyed the combination of writing and photos, but neither could hold up on their own. The writing left much to be desired. It was jumpy and went off on a few tangents. Some of the photos were decent while others were blurry. I paid $5 at a sale for this book and that's about all i would spend on it.

The book follows a family that has chosen a career to be farmers. Organic is their niche, but farming is the topic overall. There are a few great pictures in the book, that add value to it. I enjoyed the book and if you are interested in organic farming this book gives light to the details.

Please note that this book doesn't attempt to be a How-to farm book. Other reviewers seemed to have been searching for 'Farming for dummies'.

I never would of imagined that reading about farming would be so enjoyable. The author's literary style is refreshing and nicely paced. Throughout the book, the author describes settings in such descriptive passages that it places the reader in the middle of the farm's activities. A couple of sections within the book were touching for me to read. Please keep in mind that or modern live is quiet different now than from our ancestors a few generations ago. Not to go into details, people back then viewed animals differently than the majority of us do now. The majority of us have grown accustomed to not think about or question where our food comes from.

Equally as enjoyable, the book contains hundreds of vivid photographs of sights around the farm.

A cordial narrative about a year in the life. Not meant to be overly academic, but intended to provide a peek into the day-to-day happenings on a small, family farm. A pleasant read - great for the nightstand.

The pictures in this book are beautiful but this should have been an educational experience and it just wasn't. I agree with the other reviewer that so much of the book was about logistics that it would have been wonderful to have a map or clear pictures of the property so we would be able to tell what the author was talking about. The other issue I had was how oddly these farmers seemed to deal with animal deaths. For example she slits a sheep's throat during a difficult labor and says she regrets not doing it earlier that day because of the "look" the sheep gave her but didn't because she was in her work clothes. I cannot imagine being pyschic enough to know an animal should be put down based on a look. In addition, they lose approximately half their calves because of the simple fact that they aren't cleaning the enclosed barn stalls during the winter. First of all, why are the cattle in the barn? Secondly, any farmer knows you must muck out stalls for health reasons *especially* if you have calves and you've enclosed them in the barn. It's NOT common practice to do this, at least where I come from and we get temps below zero with serious wind chill factors. The chicken predator was unsettling for me as well. If something's getting my chickens and I really need that income to survive for the year, you can bet all holes will be blocked, the chicks will be moved, anything and everything will be done to stop the killing.

They just seemed to cause themselves so much of their own misery and work. Another examply, they seem to always be chasing down the sheep from where they're not supposed to be and then being frustrated or late. Well.... put up fences. Good fences make for good neighbors and also lazy farming where your animals stay in the pasture you want them - with an occasional excape artist. They seem to take on more than they bargain for at every turn. Like, they want to do tasks that require a tractor but don't have one. So they work out a borrow arrangement with the neighbor but then complain about the neighbor's attitude. If you don't have a tractor, either don't do it, or understand you're at the mercy of others. The old saying "beggers can't be choosers" comes to mind. The entire fiasco with the syrup harvest was baffling. You cannot integrate people into your business like that and not expect some difficulties. If you don't want to deal with them, DON'T include them! It's very simple. These types of issues seemed to bog them down in negativity and made me, frankly, not like them much. Their marriage is in SERIOUS trouble and I cannot believe how often divorce is mentioned. Not that any marriage is always happy, but these people are definitely overworked, struggling, miserable, and stressed. *Something* should give.

After reading the book, I was just... sad. Sad for them. Sad for their animals. Sad for their child. Just sad.

This story begins with the finding of a body in an old quarry. The body has no fiber or other clues and all the labels have been cut out of his clothes. The only identifying markings on the body are Cyrillic letters tattooed on his toes, and his lousy eastern european dentalwork. Starting from this base, everything goes downhill for Joe Gunther and it looks like he might even be headed to jail for taking a diamond brooch at a jewelry store smash- and-grab.

From this seemingly plausible beginning, we end up with Joe (and Gail and Willy and Sallie) involved with a forty year old feud between ex-KGB and Russian Mafia, retired CIA agents, cold war Russian defectors and a cast of characters who seem to come from a bad James Bond rip-off. The culminating shoot-out at the end of the story, is so absurd as to be comical. This is the kind of stuff that only happens in bad B-Movies or Woody Allen spoofs.

This has been a very enjoyable series (eight books prior to this one) up to this point. Let's hope that Mayor gets back on the road to reality with the next one.

Having read and enjoyed most of Mayor's earlier works, I was prepared to sit back and enjoy a good plot sited in a scenic part of New England. But this attempt to entertain fell far short of Mayor's past books. Hence the title review blurb. The plot and character development are convoluted and inane, and it seems to have been written more for a "Die Hard -3" audience than for readers who like a bit of credibility in their mystery novels. Come on, Archer, you can do better than this.

I had enjoyed several Mayor novels prior to this one: a sensitive and humble hero, nicely shaded supporting characters, multidimensional villains, complicated but carefully developed plotting. And framed by a lovingly drawn Vermont background.

But I guess Archer decided he wants Arnold to someday play Joe Gunther on the silver screen because this one leaves all of the above behind. Instead we have an ever-widening and increasingly unbelievable web of FBI, CIA, Russian operatives and a hail of bullets.

I think the reader from Maryland asks the right question: Did Archer Mayor really write this book?

Say it isn't so, Archer.

Archer Mayor is a good plot crafter. He sets up crimes bereft of any clue except one - and that one clue leads to many more. In this outing, there are ambitious city politicians, CIA spooks, and Russian mafia of all things. If Mayor was heavy handed or trite, he would have these evil forces pulling every impossible dirty trick from a comic book you could imagine. Thankfully, he shows restraint. The writing and dialogue is lean, the story moves quickly (sometimes too quickly) and there is a cliffhanger type of ending. One thing that would change my review to five stars is this: I don't feel a payoff from the climactic endings. All the events leading up to the finale are satisfactory.

Not to readers - you will get the most satisfaction from these books if you read them in sequence. You will get to know the characters and understand their motivations and personalities.

Joe Gunther has a mystery on his hands. Who is the body found face-down in the quarry with all the labels cut out of his clothing. The dead man looks vaguely slavic and he has some cyrillic characters tattooed on his toes, but that's it. As Gunther tries different avenues he finds that suddenly the CIA wants to talk to him about the murder. And when he goes to Washington he's attacked by a knife-weilding assassin. But the final straw is when he's suspended for allegedly stealing a diamond brooch missing from a jewelry store robbery. Joe is convinced that he's been set-up to take him off the case and he goes after the Russian mob on his own.

Mr. Mayor is a good writer. His characters and dialog have always struck me as being believable. However I think he's finding that having his protagonist work in the small town of Brattleboro Vermont is becoming a bit too constraining. In this mystery we've got the CIA and the Russian mob. We've got ex-Russian spies fighting for their lives and we've got a mob shootout that almost costs Gunther his life. Perhaps a bit too much to believe for Brattleboro. Not that the mystery itself is bad. I still think that Mayor's novels are many times better than a lot of the junk that passes for mysteries these days. I just think that this particular book doesn't quite measure up to his earlier works.

It's a hippie story. Rarely do you ever read a book about a company that makes you change your buying habits. For some reason this was one of those books to me. The story is pure Americana - gutsy, clumsy, real. Not the smoothest flowing narrative but if you like their story it flows none the less.

A good recount of how the company got going, but the last few chapters dragged.

There are things to learn about how Ben and Jerry developed their company:
1)They are geniuses at this. They actually figured out mass production without knowing what they were doing, they figured out marketing from scratch, they encountered financing and survived.
2)They had a near masochistic willingness to work. Boy did these guys work hard (it would kill me to do what they did, even if I had the will to do it).
3)They could adapt incredibly.

4) and finally: There are pitfalls and prices to trying to make social profits and business profits at the same time and to not planning your company to be as big as it already is.

You can learn about businesses in their growth phase from this book. You can learn about making sure a company has sufficient controls in place for its size. You may be able to learn whether you have what it takes to be an entrepeneur.

The first 3/4th of the book were fun to read but for some reason the last couple of chapters, when Ben and Jerry were playing less of a part in the business, were slow and boring (I don't exactly know why but I know they dragged).

This was a really good book that shows "How Two Real Guys Built a Business With a Social Conscience and a Sense of Humor." This should be required reading for MBA's along with Hawkin's Growing a Business.

I read this book at the suggestion of a business school professor. It was supposedly a great illustration of the trials and tribulations of entrepreneurs.

I found that the book tried more to be humorous than to convey any business knowledge to the reader. Everything seemed to be an inside joke. Rather than producing a well thought-out account of a business experience, the book fell flat with dumb humor. I was very unimpressed with how the company was run, and I don't feel like I got much from the book.

It's a chronicle of the intriguing journey of junior high friends who split the $5 cost of a home study course in making homemade ice cream and turn it into a $237 million company (1999 sales). Ben & Jerry's antics of giving away ice cream so they can 'get the ice cream into people's mouths so they will buy it,' take on some unusual situations. Free cones are offered to folks who register to vote, donate books to Head Start, or send postcards to elected officials for a variety of causes, and to celebrate at Fall Down Festivals with block long stilt walking races, music and other amusements. Solar-powered mobiles are used to transport the ice cream and a show on the road. They still sponsor customer appreciation day once a year when free cones are dipped all day.

It's hard to resist a bowl or cone of Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough or Cherry Garcia as you read this humorous show and tell of two guys who really want (and do) make a difference. You'll be ready to book a snow shoe tour of the Vermont plant by the time you finish reading about these guys' mission. Their values-led business (in addition to having fun) is to produce the best ice cream from Vermont dairy products, to increase the value of the of the company for the stockholders and create career opportunities and financial rewards for employees, and to improve the quality of life for the community. (They donate 7.5% of pretax profits to Ben & Jerry's Foundation that supports a variety of causes that improve the quality of life for children.)

I'm using this book as a project for an organizational communications course and enjoyed the reading (and eating) more than I ever expected. It was the most fun I've had doing homework!

Everyone knows that "Josh" obviously works for one of the following competitors to College Prowler:

1. Princeton Review
2. US News
3. The Fiske Guide

These corporate giants can't handle students taking over the college guidebook industry.

At first, I hesitated, because I'm a bargain shopper. This book is priced a couple of dollars more than the Princeton Review and Fiske Guide. Could it be that much better?

Well, let me tell you this, if I was comparing it to the Princeton Review or Fiske Guide, I would have paid hundreds of dollars for this book.

Simply put, my daughter was not excited about the college selection process. When I brought home the Fiske and PR guides ... I found them in a closet with our old phone books.

I then heard about College Prowler from the NY Times, and immediately bought the guide to New England, as well as some of their single-school guides ... I'm in love with the single-school ones, but this guide to New England was the perfect book for my daughter to begin the college selection process.

When she flipped open to the middle of the book, and read a student testimonial about how attractive guys are on campus at Northeastern, but to watch out for players ... she was hooked.

The book sits at our dining table, and she blurts out random student reviews from different schools ... we get quite a laugh. Not only is the book tremendously funny, but it dissects the campus culture at each school. You get a feel what students are actually like, and where you'll fit in best. The new way to choose a college, is to choose one that's right for you, eventually, these College Prowler guides will be the industry standard, if they aren't already.

Sadatay.

I would like to recommend College Prowler's New England Colleges book to all sr. high school students. I'm from the Pacific Northwest, but was accepted into 4 elite schools, 3 of which are on the East Coast (Brown, Wesleyan, and BC). Fortunately for me, I ran across this guide in a local bookstore, and just a quick glance though its pages gave me the impression that this was no ordinary college resource, pamphlet, or biased review that I've been encountering in my extremely difficult task of evaluating which school is right for me. The most impressive aspect of this book is that it lets the students-from each individual college-tell their stories about what they really think about their school. There are a ton of student quotes on each school on just about every factor that a student like myself would be interested in: safety of campus, campus facilities, campus parties and organizations, local bars and restaurants, and more.

When I met with my academic advisor to discuss the college guide books I had been reading, she warned me that College Prowler is considered a reputable source of information by neither her nor any of her colleagues in academe.

Sure enough, when I came to Amazon just now to sell my two used College Prowler books, I noticed that shortly after each book had been published, a single person had submitted a five-star review for both books. In one review, he stated he's "from the East Coast," and in the other review he stated he's "from the Pacific Northwest."

It looks like my academic advisor was correct about College Prowler.

Let me start by saying that other reviewers seem to be in the process of choosing a college, so they do not realize how inaccurate these guides are. I am a junior in college, and when I saw my little brother reading this guide I decided to see what it said about my school. Not a single one of the categories was even close to the truth. And I'm not just complaining that my school got too many poor remarks, it got graded high in areas it shouldn't have and vice versa. Being from the New England area, I have friends that go to many of the colleges listed, and most of them say that their school is wrongly represented as well. There are a lot of other (cheaper) guides out there that are way better and that list more schools.