Clubs Books

Mastiff: A Comprehensive Guide to Owning and Caring for Your Dog (Kennel Club Dog Breed Series)
This book was very useful and informative. It is also written in a manner that is easy to follow so it was quickly to get through.

Informative & easy to read. Gives a detailed history on the breeds origin and characteristics. Great sections on housebreaking, everyday care and health. I loved all the color pictures!

This is a must have for any Mastiff Owner from the beginning owner to the seasoned breeder. It is extremely informative and Inspirational.
We purchased this book as well as another.
"History of The Mastiff"- Gathered From Sculpture, Pottery, Carvings, Paintings and Engravings; Also From Various Authors, With Remarks On Same, This book was "NOT" worth the purchase price.

This book provides a good overview of all topics related to Mastiffs. A great book for someone interested in the general history, care requirements, and peculiarities of the mastiff breed. The photos are nice, and this is a fun book to pick up and browse through. Lots of quality information can be found within, yet the breadth of information prevents a truly comprehensive approach. Still, a good value overall!

This book is by far the best. it gives thorough information specifically for mastiffs. it has a place for records and gets down to all the particulars about the breed!

Ms. Onu craftily weaves a tale of 3 Nigerian friends that is at once witty, engaging and evocative. While the characters are Nigerian, the issues they face are definitely universal. Invite a few friends to join you as you embark on the journey of Titi,Amaka and Mina.Together you'll discover the secrets to finding what every woman yearns for - love and security.

Okay, I bought this book because it was by a Nigerian author and I had read some excerpts. I also read the reviews and felt I owed it to myself to get a copy and boy oh boy was it ever the best decision I made. I am an avid reader but have not read in a while. I got this book and could not put it down. I read it front to cover in one day! What really intrigued me is that the stories of these ladies are not so disimilar from most of us. We have all at one point or the other been or encountered any one of these women. It is real but not condescending, truthful yet humorous, painful yet hopeful. Well I can go on and on, but seeing is believing, so get your own copy and buy a few for your girlfriends. Start a book club and let us discuss. And to the author, Ekene Onu, thank you for such a refereshing book. Please keep it coming, I look forward to reading more from you.

Let me start by saying i read ALOT of books. At least 1 or 2 a week. I won this book in a contest and it is unforgettable. I read it all in one sitting because i couldnt put it down. It was funny, full of drama, keep you at the edge of your seat anticipation. It was very well written and one of the best chick lit books i have ever read. Like the previous reviewer stated you will relate or know someone who reminds you of each of these characters. Naija babe or not you will love this book and if you pay enough attention learn some life lessons from it. Keep em coming !

Who said this book was just for women! The Mrs Club is a page turner that gives you a peek into the minds of three naija babes. I was struck by how much each character reminded me a bit of somepeople I know. As you read the book, you can relate to the various themes: Mother-daughter relationship, inter and intra-cultural nuances and life in the diaspora.
At the end of the book, you come away reminded that there is a little Mina, Amaka and Titi in every woman, and a little Dele, Obinna, and Jeffrey in every guy. Don't play, cos you might get played! Get a Copy!

I started this book and was surprised at how captivating it is. I have not been able to put it down. It's a real page turner. I love how I can totally relate to the everyday nuances that are just typical 'naija babe'. The book is funny and will speak to something inside you; truth be told, the characters might even remind you of yourself.

Truly a very good book to have on your coffee table.

Barbara Fleming is a master of the set-up. She has a talent for unfolding a story and creating characters and scenarios that capture the imagination. We climb aboard the ride, our hunger whetted for the truth. Murder at the Carousel Club is her newest installment in the Matthew Alexander mystery series. Fleming weaves a third intriguing tale about homicide in Washington, D.C., where Detective Alexander again is elbow deep in crime.

Trouble comes courtesy of Junior Williams, a good-looking man who's used to getting his way. Junior's favorite haunt is the Carousel Club. Keeping it sassy is Suzy Evans, the Carousel's headliner, whose vocal stylings evoke comparisons to Sarah Vaughn. Suzy and Junior are having an affair. Most everyone knows this except Junior's daughter, Diane. Diane has an ongoing flirtation with Frank Porter, whose brother, Ken, owns the Carousel.

When she visits the club to say good bye to Frank, Diane is surprised to find Junior there, too. Junior, enraged about the relationship between sixteen year-old Diane and middle-aged Frank, loudly threatens to kill Frank. When Frank is found shot dead outside the club, and Junior lies unconscious in the parking lot, the sequence of events is obvious.

Or is it?

Detective Alexander quickly labels Junior the murderer. Junior's family insists he was too drunk to aim a gun. And what about charming, handsome Frank Porter? Was he really as popular as everyone said?

Round and round it goes. Just like a carousel. There are questions to ask. People to scrutinize. Memories to stir and resurrect.

Murder at the Carousel Club is a great read for steamy summer nights. Fleming deftly unravels a murder mystery and adds heaps of surprises. Here's to a hearty welcome, again, to Lt. Matthew Alexander. It's fun to have him back on the beat.

The riveted and suspense laden mystery, Murder at the Carousel Club so skillfully written by Barbara Fleming, proved to be a unique and refreshingly different kind of literary experience. It unveils, for the reader, social dynamics that are as educational as they are entertaining. These dynamics pulled my whole being into the mystery with intense curiosity, and just as forcefully, these dynamics provided an objective yet realistic prospective into the urban African American culture: the Black family; and very specifically... the constant threat (and frequent plight) of African American males in America today. Murder at the Carousel Club is a must read!

Murder at the Carousel Club is one of the best books I've read in a long time. Once I started reading it, I was hooked. It's not often that I find a writer who holds my interest from the beginning to the end of the book. The story and the characters in Murder at the Carousel Club were so believable; I could hardly wait to find out if the person charged with the murder actually did it. Although I live in Atlanta now, I used to live in Washington, D.C., so the setting and the place names were so familiar to me. I could just picture the scenes as the characters moved across the city landscape trying to solve the crime. I haven't read the author's previous books, but Murder at the Carousel Club was so entertaining, that I have made it a point to see if the other books are as good. I highly recommend this book to anyone who loves reading a good mystery.

I recently read Barbara Fleming's new mystery novel Murder at the Carousel Club (Silver Maple Publications, 2008) and what a pleasure it was to read. Being a reader who searches for books that both hold my interest and entertain me at the same time, I savored every page of Murder at the Carousel Club. It is such a joy to finally find an author who knows how to tell a realistic, down-to-earth story in a fascinating way. Once I started reading, it was very hard to put the book down. I have read the two previous Matthew Alexander mysteries (Hot Stones, Cold Death (2001) and Murder on the Gold Coast (2005)) and enjoyed them as well, but I think Murder at the Carousel Club is the best mystery in the series to date.

In Murder at the Carousel Club, the playboy brother of the owner of the most exciting and popular night club in the District, the Carousel Club, is murdered in the parking lot of the club. The victim was shot in the head as he sat inside his expensive car. There are no witnesses to the murder and the primary suspect, who earlier that evening had threatened to kill the victim in front of everyone within earshot in the club, is found unconscious in the parking lot not far from the murder victim with no murder weapon. Barbara Fleming has written an intriguing, highly entertaining, hard-to-guess mystery that keeps you glued to your seat and flipping the pages of the novel as you keep reading and trying to guess how it all will turn out in the end. I loved the way she weaved images of the District, then and now, throughout the novel, especially, the descriptions of Anacostia which is on the cusp of being gentrified like the rest of the District.

I'm probably prejudiced because I was born when my parents lived in Anacostia in Washington, D.C.; but I think the author's evocation of the symbolism that Anacostia has held for D.C. residents over the years is very reminiscent of how my family and I experienced the community when I lived there as a child. Anacostia has always been the forgotten stepchild of the District, a beautiful but neglected gem across the river at the end of a very long bus route. In the 1970's when my mother used to ride the bus from where she worked at Hecht's department store on 7th Street to our home when I was a small child, she always complained that she got sick from the heat and fumes of the decrepit buses that were placed on the Anacostia routes--the worst buses in the District's fleet. She said that the District would have never sent buses like that on the northern routes up Connecticut or Wisconsin Avenues.

I hadn't thought about that in years, but as I was reading Murder at the Carousel Club, those wonderful old memories of Anacostia came flooding back. I remembered how my mother used to put me in my stroller when I was a toddler and take me for a walk down Nicholas Avenue to the five and dime on Good Hope Road and how much fun that had been. I remembered my mother taking me to the Smithsonian's Anacostia Neighborhood Museum in the old movie theater on Nicholas Avenue before it became Martin Luther King, Jr. Avenue. Anacostia figures importantly in Murder at the Carousel Club although the plot is primarily centered in the Shaw community of Northwest D.C. where the Carousel Club moved after it was forced to leave Anacostia in the late seventies because of all the drug crime in the community at that time.

Of course Fourth District Police Headquarters is in Northwest as well and Matthew Alexander and his wife Carla have been residents of LeDroit Park in Northwest D.C. since the series began. Unlike the previous books, Murder at the Carousel Club takes a slight detour in that Detective Lieutenant Matthew Alexander and his partner Sergeant Jake Jackson get some uninvited help from a character that made a short but memorable appearance in Murder on the Gold Coast, Frederick Douglass Washington. Fred Washington was both an ex-convict who had spent seven years in Lorton Reformatory for drug trafficking and the uncle of the murder suspect Gary Washington in Murder on the Gold Coast and what a character he was. I think Barbara Fleming made a very wise decision when she reprised Fred Washington because he gives Lieutenant Alexander an able assist and some stiff competition in solving the Murder at the Carousel Club, a great book and a truly memorable story that is well worth your time and effort.

T.K. Washington, D.C.

Murder at the Carousel Club emerges as Barbara Flemings' best to date. It was a great book and I enjoyed observing Matt Alexander's unsanctioned investigator (Fred) at work in trying to get at the truth. It was so clever how Fleming used him in this mystery. Perhaps she will include Fred again when Alexander investigates his next murder.

if you were a kid who's never been to new york city like I was at one point, you'll learn so much about it through the BSC including in this book.

this was one of my favourite BSC super specials. The plots I enjoyed most were how the art classes claudia and mallory were taking turned out, and how jessi met quint. Reading all about new york made me want to go there, the descriptions are well written

If you're interested in going to new york city and wondering what to do there, this book may inspire you. Jessi goes to ballets, claudia and mallory are taking fancy art lessons and get to draw some of the city's well known tourist attractions, stacey and mary anne have a mystery on their hands, and so forth. You also get a taste of how multicultural new york city is, far more than little stoneybrook when they go to chinatown and eat food from different cuisines.

"New York, New York!" starts with a journal entry by Claudia Kishi about her plans to take an art class in New York City during her two-week school vacation. One thing leads to another, and the entire BSC is on their way to New York for two weeks. During their stay, the following things happen: Stacey McGill and Mary Anne Spier baby-sit two British children who they believe are being followed by a mysterious man who wants to kidnap them; Dawn Schafer becomes apartment-bound because of her fear of city crime; Claudia and Mallory Pike enroll at Falny together, but their friendship falls apart when the art instructor plays favorites with Mallory and criticizes Claudia's work on a daily basis; Jessi Ramsey meets a guy who also loves ballet just as much as she does (She receives her first kiss from him!); Kristy Thomas finds an abandoned dog in Central Park and sneaks him into the apartment, despite the no-pet policy.

This is the sixth Super Special in the Baby-sitters Club series, preceded by Baby-sitters on Board! (#1), Baby-sitters' Summer Vacation (#2), Baby-sitters' Winter Vacation (#3), Baby-sitters' Island Adventure (#4), California Girls! (#5), and succeeded by Snowbound (#7), Baby-sitters at Shadow Lake (#8), Starring the Baby-sitters Club! (#9), Sea City, Here We Come! (#10), The Baby-sitters Remember (#11), Here Come the Bridesmaids! (#12), Aloha, Baby-sitters! (#13), The Baby-sitters Club in the USA (#14), and Baby-sitters' European Vacation (#15).

What I liked most about "New York, New York!" (and every other Super Special) is the change in character point of view with each chapter. Although this is primarily Claudia's book (she compiled everybody's diary entries and letters and then included some illustrations--which were drawn by Ann M. Martin's father, Henry R. Martin), everybody in the BSC had a chance to share their fun and excitement in New York. This is definitely a must-read for BSC fans, especially those who love the Big Apple.

Bloomingdales, The Hard Rock Cafe. The Baby Sitters are going to see it all!

Although I wasn't born yet (at the time of the premier), I did in fact grow up seeing the program on syndication, during the early 60s'. Of course, I was one of billions who had a crush on Annette (Funicello).So when I saw the book at a Barnes & Noble store, I quickly purchased it!I must say, it really brought back memories. Not only were the photos great, the personal stories relating tothe mouseketeers (on a past to present experience) was just fantastic. I hope that, maybe, another book will be published in the near future.

The Mickey Mouse Club was the first show my parents turned on to keep me quiet for an hour back when I was a toddler.Disney and his works have a very important significance to me.The Mickey Mouse Club became a classic-and is such a milestone among children's television,it's hard to believe it originaly only ran three years.Yet,it is so fondly remembered by viewers that it will last forever in our minds.And,to Leonard Maltin,I was also one of the many who learned how to spell Encyclopedia from Jiminy Cricket.

If you're a Mousekefan, and I mean a fan of the REAL Club, the 50s Club, you'll love this book. There's so much info, background, and lots of nice photos from behind the scenes. I'd like to have read much more about what happened to the rest of the Mouseketeers, but this is still a delight to read.

This was an excellent book! I couldn't put it down. I read the book in two days. It told about the lives of the Mousekeeters and even about some who didn't make it. I really know more about the Mousekeeters and about the show now. It was exactly what I was looking for.

Although I wasn't born yet (at the time of the premier), I did in fact grow up seeing the program on syndication, during the early 60s'. Of course, I was one of billions who had a crush on Annette (Funicello).So when I saw the book at a Barnes & Noble store, I quickly purchased it!I must say, it really brought back memories. Not only were the photos great, the personal stories relating tothe mouseketeers (on a past to present experience) was just fantastic. I hope that, maybe, another book will be published in the near future.

I love this book! I remember borrowing it from the library over and over when I was young! My siblings and I couldn't get enough of it! Now that I have my own little readers, I wanted to share one of my favorite books with them. Such a shame it is out of print! A true classic - great story!! I ended up purchasing it used because I loved it so much! I wish it was more readily available to the masses - my children enjoy the story so much - it is so sweetly nostalgic to read it to them!

I truly do wish this book would come back in print... We love it at Thanksgiving when we do our family unit. it is so difficult to get it from the library anymore, because there copies were either never returned or they are damaged from so much use. PLEASE REISSUE THIS BOOK

I am 12 years old and have loved this book since I recieved it many years ago. A few years ago I came across it and was so sad to see half of the pages had fallen out and were lost. All I can say is I love this book!

First published in 1978, Peter Spier's story of the well-meaning Noonan children stands up well even after 25 years. The story of the three children who overhear their parents talking about the house needing painting and decide to surprise them will have you and your children turning the pages with bated breath as you wait to see what that house looks like! It's worth the wait -- a laugh-and-a-half for kids and their adults. As you'd expect, the illustrations are colorful and fun. This would be a great companion book with Daniel Pinkwater's 'The Big Orange Splot'.

My copy is tattered and torn and all forlorn but it is still a hit in first grade. We use it as a jumping off point for creative writing...sometimes I copy the text and the children illustrate; sometimes I copy the pictures and we write our own text. We love it! This particular book has set more readers on fire than I can count.

This book is for anyone that wants to escape to his or her youth. It is a great book for a weekend. Cuddle yourself on a feather mattress, with a goose down comforter snuggled around you. Lying your head on a feather pillow that is covered with a soft cotton pillowcase. Are you in heaven? No! You are in the South in the 1950's. You will awake when it is all over. There has to be more to come. Dear Author is there?

A tasty tale to be read with a super sweet iced tea and the smell of homemade biscuits baking in the oven.

D.H. Eaton wrote a lively novel in an engaging style that keeps the reader eagerly flipping pages. The central character, a recently widowed Southern lady, recounts her youth as it relates to recipes in an old fundraising cookbook she finds at a used bookstore in Central Florida.

Do the characters from the narrator's past match the recipes they submitted? Read the book and judge for yourself. The accessible language, varied recipes, advertisements from the cookbook, and quaint drawings make "The Osceola Community Club" a delight to read.

Leslie Halpern, author of Reel Romance: The Lovers' Guide to the 100 Best Date Movies and Dreams on Film: The Cinematic Struggle Between Art and Science.

When I first heard about D. H. Eaton's novel, I thought it sounded like a fantastic idea. The novel wove stories of the residents of a small town by means of recipes culled from a cookbook. The narrator finds the book in a store that sells used books.

I'd met D. H. and through various conversations, felt quite a kinship with her. Our Southern upbringing coupled with the fact that we were both writers made for a broad stretch of common ground. She'd invited me to two different literary events, even featured some of my poetry at one of them. On both occasions, last minute problems with my younger child kept me from attending. My opinion of D. H. was based entirely on a social assessment. She's one of those women who has a natural grace about her. She has an energy that is contagious. She looks good in hats. And she is never, ever dull.

I had no idea what to expect of her novel, however. I'd never read anything she'd written. She'd been kind enough to send me a copy of her book. If the author is known to me, I try very hard to be objective, to look at the work with an even keener eye than I'd apply to the work of a stranger. Of late, I've been preoccupied with a manuscript deadline and other projects. But a few days ago, I was having my lunch and needed something to read. I read a few pages and was immediately put out with myself for picking the book up.

I found I could not put it down. In truth, I had too many things to do to get involved with a book, particularly a novel. But I was drawn into D.H. Eaton's novel in much the same way a bee is drawn to clover.

Within the pages of her book, an entire town comes alive. Each recipe in the fictitious cookbook is listed with the name of the contributor. Using the cookbook as a literary device is very effective. We see Charmaine Mosley's "Banana Salad" recipe, and the chapter it introduces relates the story of the Mosley family. In addition, each recipe builds into a composite whole that draws a picture of a culture, the Southern culture I knew and now recall with the same bittersweet emotions the narrator, Cassandra, carries to the end of the book.

I do not think it an accident, the choice of name for the heroine in the book. Cassandra, in some versions of ancient mythology, received the gift of prophecy from the god, Apollo. In Ms. Eaton's novel, Cassandra offers a historical account of Southern life that begins around 1958 and continues to the present, and within that account, the history of a small town, like so many, that, through growth and change, became quite a different place entirely. Just as the mythological Cassandra's warnings were ignored, so are the warnings of many, including the narrator in the novel, who caution that the culture we value will in time be lost.

As I read the book, each recipe, like the little cakes in Marcel Proust's Remembrance of Things Past, propelled me backwards, to my own upbringing and coming of age in a small Southern town. Food is a primary component in any culture, and using that as a means to move the plot works wonderfully.

D. H. Eaton writes in an unpretentious, staccato style that immediately engages the reader. As each family's story unfolds, there is a flavor of oral history-for what family below the Mason-Dixon line is without this exceptional legacy, from the poorest of us to the richest? She recreates a culture that put women on a pedestal and religion on the table, one that took care of its own, that tolerated those less fortunate and viewed the rich with a cynical eye. A sub-setting in the book is the front porch, that wonderful place where so many of us sat and took in summer evenings and stories spun by our elders, where philosophy and poetry were dispensed in plain language that shaped our hearts and values.

What strikes me about D. H. Eaton, besides her charming personality, besides her abundance of civic contributions to literature and history efforts, involves the fact that she is incredibly endowed with talent as a writer. The book deserves critical attention from serious quarters, and I certainly hope such attention will be given. For a writer to establish such a strong voice with a first novel is quite a feat.

This book is a valuable contribution to history, for it creates a metaphor for all the small, dusty towns throughout the sunbelt that fell on hard times when textile or lumber mills closed and the best and brightest left for big city job opportunities. For anyone doing research on life in the South in the decade after World War II, this novel is an incredible resource.

By the end of the novel, we have bonded to the families in Osceola in a manner that makes us sad the story is over. If we are Southern, we have journeyed to our own childhoods, and recalled the summers, the winter holidays, and the family reunions this author brings to life for us. And as a reader, we come to realize that the real character in the book is the very Southern village of Osceola. In a particularly poignant passage at the end of the book, the author writes:

"And don't forget Nanny Ellie's spices-her lighthearted expletives that mixed with her Confederate cooking smells and traveled from her kitchen outward, making us giggle, causing Mama to feign being shocked.
Nanny's kitchen. Impossible to duplicate. Impossible to recapture."

All I can say is, "Bless your heart, D.H. , you certainly did recapture that kitchen. And the one I grew up in as well. Most splendidly, I might add."

I've read many sensory stories in my time, but I can think of only two that made me hungry: "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" and The Osceola Community Club. Remember all those delectable dishes in Irving's "Legend"? Those "heaped-up platters of cakes"! Those "dainty slapjacks, well buttered, and garnished with honey"!

Well, Darlene Eaton gives us equally tasty fare in The Osceola Community Club. "Hoppin' John," "Bird of Paradise," "Copper Pennies," "Sweet Potato Muggin," "Lazy Gal Brunswick Stew," "Poverty Chili"----just a few of the down-home delights in this novel! No, I won't give away any recipe. Read the book; enjoy the cooking and much more. This much more includes an extraordinary variety of story food served up by Cassandra Burquette, Eaton's main character/narrator.

In 2002 Cassandra arrives in Osceola, Florida, with a group of clubwomen for a day of antiquing. She barely recognizes this time-forgotten village where as a child she spent many hours visiting her grandmother Nanny Ellie and her cousin Della.

In "a hole of a bookstore," Cassandra finds Osceola's Favorite Foods Compiled by the Osceola Community Club, 1958. This "fundraiser of a cookbook" arouses memories of an unforgettable summer when Cassandra was 12 and felt her first womanly stirrings. As she relishes the cookbook, Cassandra also recalls later experiences, like her "Take Us Back" speech at the reunion of her 1964 high school class. Some of her memories stand alone as delightful stories like the "Civil Defense" tale (featured on the Fresh and Ripe page of this web site). Others sparkle as vignettes, like this one: 

"Christmas Eve morn. 1958. And colder 'n bare babies' butts hangin' downside in an outhouse. Granddaddy indulged my Nanny Ellie with the luxury of a nighttime burr pot beneath her bed. But the rest of us had to hustle our shivering butts to the outhouse, flashlight in hand, cold be damned. Don't never let anybody tell you it don't get cold in Florida. There's more to Florida than Miami Beach, folks. Wind could evermore rip snort up and down Nanny Ellie's hill, I'm here to testify...."

Eaton gives us Southern characters we've seen before and endows them with her own fresh vitality: For example, the no-nonsense grandmother, tough and straight-talking on the outside, loving and caring on the inside; the extra special childhood friend you told your secrets to; the stupid, self righteous preacher; admirable eccentrics; snooty girls; horny boys; gossipers; racist Christians; devious aristocrats; segregated blacks with deferential masks for whites; Atticus-Finch-like whites who defend the downtrodden; and others-all of whom give us vivid insights into small-town Florida of the 1950's.

On just about every page, Eaton puts a picture, drawing, or icon. These devices plus the recipes complement and underscore setting, characters, and action.

To my mind, the author's shining achievement is Cassandra Burquette. Perky, loquacious, sensitive, funny, keen, nostalgic, Cassandra shows traces of some of the most memorable women in Southern literature. Mostly, though, she is an original who galvanizes Eaton's vision of Osceola into a microcosm of the last days of the Old South.

Robert B. Gentry, Coeditor, www.writecorner.com

What a tirrific surprise to be invited to come back to Kate's dude ranch, The Bar None!! Only this time they will do more than just hang out, their going on a pack trip with three riders that they don't know. When all was said and done it was time to head for the trail. Moutain trail that is. The bar none's horses(that they had last time) are there and their old friend, Eli, is their wrangler! What can go wrong! But wait maybe something can go wrong. Carol and Stevie have to find a way to save Lisa from her new "friends" fast, but how? While trying to figure this problem out another one quickly pops up. How are they going to make it? how can they get rid of the pesky twosome? and how are they going to get Lisa back? I found it so exciting that I couldn't put it down!! I LOVE THIS BOOK! I've always wanted to write and ride. Bonnie Bryant's books are completely inspirational and I don't even read that much. I pick this up and well let's just say that the overwhelming pile of Saddle Club books, doesn't look like enough any more. I learn quite a bit, have a really great story to read, and I never get bored! These books are great! So, ON YOUR MARKS! GET SET! BUY AND READ!!

The Saddle Club is going on a five day trip with Eli, Jeanne, Kate, Christene, and some others. Amy, one of them, is reckless and dangerous, and her older brother Seth is going down with her. And her "broken ankle" puts them all, the horses, and herself in danger when a deadly forst fire chases them down. A night of a wild trail ride puts them out of danger and a full day ahead of plans. They spend their fourth day enjoying themselves.

This was a pretty good book. I did find it a little far fetched, though. I don't think that jumping in Western was very realistic even if you were caught in a raging forest fire. Also,I found one of their companions portrayed as a little too snobby. I think this book was definently worth reading.

The book I read was very good because it teaches you about horses, and how to take care of them. It's an age appropriate book, and I think other 12 yr. olds interested in horses would enjoy it. The characters in the book are on a pack trip in the mountians. This book also has a moral, which is never try to do a book report, and be in the wilderness at the same time.

The Saddle Club, Stevie, Lisa and Carole are invited on a five night wilderness ride with Kate, Eli, Jeannie, and three others, John. Amy, and her brother Seth. From the beginning of the trail ride, everyone except Lisa can see Amy is dangerous. She gallops a horse down a hill, nearly injuring him, dives into an unfamiliar lake, and more, including almost getting Stevie, Lisa, Seth and herself lost with a "broken ankle". Lisa, however, is convinced that Amy's problem is her parents. Every time Amy does something, Seth comes running, with Lisa on his heels, convinced that she's the one who can make Amy's world right for her. It takes nearly getting killed by a forest fire to put Lisa's mind straight. A night filled with smoke and danger leads Lisa to see how foolish she was acting. A must read. Buy it, and I can guarentee you will love it.

I work with children, after school, and they are excited about painting on rocks. Product is perfect for their projects. thanks

Fun & cute. Have inght eyes to bring the rock to life. Step-by-step detail instruction & ill. Fine publication.

It was in great condition and arrived in a timely manner.

We bought this book for our four year old Granddaughter for Christmas. She absolutley LOVES this book. She loves rocks and loves to paint. It is an excellent family activity also. We got the rocks at our local garden center although, we live in the country and have gathered rocks from the creek too which added to the fun. We've painted on both and they are wonderful. The first time she came over after Christmas is when we used the book. We spent hours painting and she felt really good after seeing what she had created. We even got her Uncles (ages 18 and 19) involved and we all had great fun with this. I would recommend this book for all ages!

This is a great book for people who aren't really very good at painting. Of course the ideas, patterns and methods would work for anyone, but it also shows you step-by-step which color to use, what to draw on the rock, etc. The little rock cars and rock town are darling and the lizards are cute and very realistic. This would be a fun summer project to do with your kids!

Don't sleep on this one or you will regret it. The author is bringing it to you fresh from the Wood, Inglewood, California. If you didn't grow up as an African America Girl in Los Angeles, but you want some idea of the influences, read this piece of work! This author takes you on a journey, visual and verbal through her poetry and essays that is so real, you will be entranced and unable to put the book down. Leave no page unturned as you feel the Passion, Pride, and Politickin of Ms. Shariff, an incredible writer, with a mind STILL developing with fresh new thoughts.

I am scared of you Ms. Shariff aka Supa Sister. I'm out!

Okay people, there's a new Sharif in town -- Jamal Sharif. Anyone caught flipping through the pages of her book "Passion, Pride and Politickin': Homegrown Poetry and Essays," will be sentenced to her 'n-yo-face brand of poetic justice. Ms. Sharif's "Public Service Announcement" about the "Consequences of Pussy Politics," or her insightfulness of "Why Good, Black Women End Up Alone: As Response to Joy Jones," will arrest your metaphoric senses. These are just a few of the titles from her book with powerful messages regarding self-love, self-pride, cultural diversity, and the Black experience seen through the eyes of a Black woman not afraid to speak her mind.

As Ms. Sharif so profoundly states in her Preface: "In every person's life, and especially every woman's, there comes a time when one must have the courage to define herself, herself." Each poem and essay in "Passion, Pride and Politickin'" candidly defines the real Jamal Sharif and the world she lives in. From cover-to-cover, Ms. Sharif holds no punches and makes no apologies for her outspokenness. If you're looking for a reference book of life's lessons, with a touch of inspirational healing messages, then "Passion, Pride and Politickin'" is definitely a must read book for those sentenced to a life lacking confidence and facing one's fears.

I'd like to hire Ms. Sharif to write my life story. Perhaps, she already did!...

Jamal Sharif paints pictures with her poetry that keep you grounded and lift you into a higher mental state all in the same sequence. I enjoyed the essays immensely as well as the poetry. If you don't have this book I'd suggest you do it now!

This past weekend at the 2nd BWRC in Dallas, TX, I heard Ms. Jamal Sharif recite one of her poems from Passion, Pride and Politikin': Homegrown Poetry and Essays, and was impressed by her "in your face", "tell it like it is" manner. Her message was clear, and I was feeling every word she so eloquently delivered. Afterwards, I had the pleasure of meeting this talented young woman and was impressed by her poise and character. That being the case, I purchased Passion, Pride and Politikin': Homegrown Poetry and Essays and read the entire book during my bus ride to and from work a couple of days ago. This sister's gift for expression is to be highly commended. Keepin' it real throughout, Ms. Sharif took me on a trip back to my neighborhood, back to my girlhood, back to relationships that failed because of me and in spite of me. She made me recall games played joyfully as a child, made me ponder the state of our children and the world they're growing up in right now, made me remember friends I've lost through violence and drugs. Her commentary on love-for others and for self-is insightful and will make you think, as well as, incite hours of serious self-examination. For one so young, she has a wisdom beyond her years and I have a great deal of admiration for her and her work.

Take time out of your day to travel with this intelligent and gracious sister. Passion, Pride and Politikin': Homegrown Poetry and Essays is a must read for poetry lovers and truth seekers alike.

This book had me laughing out loud because of the frankness expressed in these poems and essays. It is very refreshing to see written many things I have thought about: romance, politics and the Hip-Hop community. Ms. Jamal and her collection of "in yo face" words make you stand up and take notice.

Ms. Jamal touches on your fears, accomplishments and fantasies. On page 10, she introduces Ghetto Poem, my interpretation of this poem is about how close we all are to being homeless. Looking at someone else's backyard could easily be my own one day. As scary as some of Jamal's work is, it is our reality, and the world we live in. I challenge you to take the plunge and delve into Passion, Pride, and Politickin. It's a wonderful experience.

Reviewed by Missy