Bryant Books

Lisa discovers that the horse Samson has true talent as a jumper. Now the Saddle Club has a way of beating Veronica in the Macrae Valley horse show.
But, who will ride Samson in the show? Carole had a special bond with Samson's father, Cobalt who died in a jumping accident, Stevie woul never pass up the chance to beat her rival, Veronica and Lisa discovered Samson's jumping talent in the frst place. Lisa is granted the place on Samson. The Macrae takes place in the next book, "Show Jumper."
This was a good book, but on the cover Samson is a chestnut. Samson is supposed to be a black horse like his father. He has the correct coloring on the cover of "Show Jumper."

Okay, just how long has Lisa ridden? And all of a sudden she's jumping jumps that only the most experienced Pine Hollow riders jump? And she's falling off - anyone wonder if maybe she's overfaced and should wait awhile before jumping such advanced jumps? Also, how could three girls who are only twelve completely train a green horse in time for an A-rated show in just a week? Even a seasoned trainer wouldn't put a green horse in a show that soon, at least not a good one.

THE SADDLE CLUB #86: SECRET HORSE

WRITTEN BY: Bonnie Bryant
COVER ART BY: Paul Casale
PUBLISHED: 1999
PUBLISHED BY: Skylark
PAGES: 152
PRICE: ...
EXTRAS: A summary for The Saddle Club #87: Show Jumper

SUMMARY:
Stevie Lake, Carole Hanson, and Lisa Atwood are hoping to complete in a prestigious horse show. To that end, they're doing everything they can to stay on stable owner Max Regnery's good side - including doing extra chores around Pine Hollow, such as exercising stable horses.
Veronica DiAnegelo is sure she'll be making the trip to the horse show - just as she's sure she'll home a blue ribbon. And of course Veronica has no intention of lifting a finger to help anyone.
The Saddle Club would love to beat Veronica, but how? She and her horse are tough competition. Then Lisa takes one of the horses over a jump, and he's a natural. Now The Saddle Club has to keep their secret weapon under wraps and teach Veronica a lesson she won't forget!

COVER ART REVIEW:
Why is Samson a chestnut?
OVERALL: LIGHT BLUE.

SUMMARY REVIEW:
Aw, Lisa *itchiness all around. She just gets annoying in this book. (And in the next one too actually.) Even Lisa fans have to admit that Lisa is a pain in this book. If you hate Lisa as much as I do, you might want to shelve the book. However, this book does add an chapter to the Carole and Cobalt story. And if you understand the wonderful character of Veronica, and the art of the Stevie and Veronica fighting, you'll love this book.
OVERALL: WHITE. Carole, Stevie, and Veronica are all wonderful in this book. If one was to skip all the Lisa parts, this book would have gotten a blue. Sadly, I had to read the whole book. Just to make sure Samson doesn't change into a chestnut half way though.

Lisa, Carole and Stevie are all best friends. They love horses. They work at Pine Hollow, where they keep their horses. One day Stevie and Carole were not going to be able to show up on time to go on their usual practice ride so, they told Lisa that she can go with out them. So, Lisa decided to just exercise horses that needed exercising. Lisa went to Samson's stale; he is one of the horses that needed to get out so Lisa got him all saddled up. Lisa went to the jumping arena. She figured that Samson's mom was great jumper that just maybe Samson is the same. Lisa started off with a small jump. Lisa shocked decided to go to the next higher jump. Samson did a great job. Then Lisa got an idea that she would try just one big jump. After the big jump, Lisa cooled Samson down and then stops and thought, "wow Samson is such a great jumper". She decided that she would keep it a secret. A few days later she told her 2 best friends wanted to take Samson to the Macrae. The three best friends wanted to take Samson to the Macrae because they all knew that he would be great in the show. They did so many extra chores at the stables so that they can get on Max Regnery's (the stable owner) good side. Finally, the three girls told Max they needed to talk to him. The next day Max met the girls out in the jumping arena, where Lisa was riding Samson, she had to show Max what Samson could do. Max at the end told them that they could take him to the Macrae show. They were so happy that they could go to the show.
I think this book was a great book because it is about horses and about girls that ride just like my best friend and I. I found this book very interesting. If you love horses then these Saddle club books are great for you to read. I like how you can imagine what is happening in your mind when your reading the book.

First of all let me tell you this book is great! Its one of my favorites and it is a fun and exciting book. But what I really wanted to tell you was that Samson is still black! Just because there is a horse on the cover it doesn't mean that that horse IS Samson! It's one of the horses that they are taking in from the paddock.So as you can see samson did not change colors he is still a black horse always was a black horse and always will be a black horse! It even says in this book that Samson is black and there is even a part in the book that is exactly what it is on the cover...taking a horse in from the paddock. And also if you are a real horse person you can tell that the horse on the cover is a mare not a gelding like Samson!

Here is a novel mostly composed of dialogues - hence the Socraticness of my review title - and the main subject is "confidence", or "faith". It all takes place on April 1st, on a boat. The "confidence man" is a sneaky character, as you will not spot him before a few chapters, and critics and readers alike can only guess which character he was hiding as in the beginning. I entirely missed out on him myself, as I am not used to suppose that various characters might just be the same, disguised.

This is not a typical novel, and if you're looking for a sea adventure as with "Omoo" or "Typee" or other of Melville's novels, you will not find it. It is aboard a boat indeed, but that's as far as the similarities go. The "confidence man" mostly argues with other characters on said boat, and their conversations are mighty interesting. This is no adventure novel, but more like a conversational novel, and a good one at that.

Nevertheless, it is a bit bewildering perhaps, because of its obscurity, if any, and you will probably feel like you missed out on much, as I did (feel).

A good read for sure, and good dialogues, and a very important topic: trust, confidence, faith.

"The Confidence-Man: His Masquerade" is, as its title would suggest, a satirical farce. In spite of its wit and the occasional laugh, however, it is the hardest of all Melville's works to follow, in no small part because its lead character keeps changing his identity--and that is assuming, by the way, that there's just one lead character to begin with. If at times the novel feels like a patchwork, it's because it is: Melville merged a number of stories and travel pieces originally intended for magazine publication into a continuous, claustrophobic cyclorama.

Set on the Mississippi River on April Fool's Day, "The Confidence-Man" follows the interrelated episodes and adventures of a stream of passengers who board and disembark a steamboat. Many of the confidence men (and their prophetic counterparts) may be the same person in various disguises. (Melville's deliberate obfuscation on this point has launched a hundred academic papers.)

The various scoundrels, shills, suckers, and shape-shifters are a parade of American types: "men of business and men of pleasure; parlor men and backwoodsmen; farm-hunters and fame-hunters; heiress-hunters, gold-hunters, buffalo-hunters, bee-hunters, happiness-hunters, truth-hunters, and still keener hunters after all these hunters." Everyone on board is trying to sell something or to swindle someone or to raise money for a charity or to find a job or to convince a fellow passenger of his own integrity. A persistent theme is the typically American monomaniacal pursuit of money.

"I am neither prophet nor charlatan," says a peddler of medicine to a sick man. "But again I say, you must have confidence." Yet only a fool would have confidence, and this insecurity leads to an irrational paranoia. Nobody can trust anyone: "it is one of the imbecilities of the suspicious person to fancy that every stranger, however absent-minded, he sees so much as smiling or gesturing to himself in any odd sort of way, is secretly making him his butt."

For obvious reasons, "The Confidence-Man" is considered the precursor of the modernist novel. As an academic exercise, it's both intriguing and (to use a technical term) "mind-blowing." And there is certainly a steady stream of quotable aphorisms and clever anecdotes. Yet I also found the novel to be frustrating: somewhat like entering a labyrinth from which there is no hope of escape or solution--and at the end of the book you're still stuck in the maze. The farce is a lot of fun initially but it becomes a bit maddening and repetitive after reaching one too many of the novel's narrative dead ends.

As one of Melville's contemporary reviewers noted, the novel makes as much sense if the chapters are read in reverse order, and the "characters" are distinguishable not by their personalities as much as they are defined by their wholly predictable actions and reactions. Halfway down the Old Muddy, after meeting the Melville's umpteenth American stereotype, I realized that the novel had no Bartleby or Nippers, nor, for that matter, would readers be introduced to a K. or an Olga. Instead, "The Confidence-Man" is like Kafka without characters.

As I read this book, I didn't catch all the subtleties of it, and could never be precisely sure whether each confidence man was evil or not- it seemed ambiguous, or at least, the author never once allows the reader to find out definitively that the 'vicitms' are being gulled. However, by the end of the book, this becomes more clear as the second half settles into sxome extremely thought-provoking conversations and exchanges. After reading literary reviews online, the book in its totality makes even more sense as in retrospect its sublte points become clearer.
That being said, the writing is absolutely superb. Although far more wordy than Hemingway, one cannot avoid comparing to Hemingway's writing, which, like this, is extremely controlled, restrained and pointed. As you read this, you cannot avoid the feeling that the author spent hours on each sentence.
It is therefore very much so worth reading, but don't expect it to be easy. It's certainly not your verbose, nineteenth century romanctic glop, but it can be difficult, as some readers appear to have found it. But try it.

This is like a precurser to the Beat movement of the 1950's. The sentences are overly long, it's written like a police report so you become overly aware that there is a narrator which takes much away from the telling of the story. The characters are not interesting and the story is boring.

I consider Melville's more famous work, "Moby Dick", to be perhaps the most overrated book in the English language; in spite of that, I decided to try this one on the grounds that perhaps my dislike of that one was a fluke (no pun intended) and that perhaps some other of Melville's works might be more congenial.

This book definitely has some advantages over "Moby Dick". It's shorter, for one thing, and the digressions are both shorter themselves, and less frequent. But they are, if anything, even more annoying; if there's anything I LESS need to read than dissertations on the nuts and bolts of 19th century whaling, it's chapters in which an author steps outside of his story to defend details of his writing. What's more, while "Moby Dick" is 400+ pages of story with about 50 pages of plot, this book is 250+ pages with absolutely NO plot; all it is is episodic recitations of one character (a man of 1000 faces) swindling numerous other characters, some more well-developed than others. And if the writing style isn't QUITE as pretentious as in "Moby Dick", it's still too pretentious for my taste.

Still, the book is not completely worthless. It brings to mind some interesting points for debate; which is worse, the con man himself, or the people who he CAN'T swindle because they're so cynical and untrusting? Is it worth becoming that cynical to avoid being gulled by such a con man? Is it possible to retain a reasonable amount of faith in people, and still avoid being swindled? What would have been the appropriate response in (pick a scene)? I would recommend that if you are going to read it, do so as a part of a literary discussion group, or something similar, so that you will have someone to discuss it with. That's where its value lies, certainly not as an entertaining read.

In this non-fiction novel, Fuller somberly tells the story of an unsung American hero, a young oil drill rig worker; one of many who support this country's oil industry. You might call this a true crime novel--the crime being capitalistic greed and unfair treatment of workers; or you might call it a modern western for all the broad sweeping Wyoming landscapes, and the timeless struggle of its inhabitants ("who appear as tiny dots against the great swell of land") to work and prosper.

Getting into this book was really slow. It was kind of like watching a boring documentary...There is no plot focus at first, just short snippets of people and scenery. And I couldn't get past the pretentious writing. We are told Colton had a walk "like he had never really found the difference between sky and earth." I stuck with it because my friend liked it, and the chapters are short.

I was indifferent to Colton's character for the first half of the book. This is a boy who "put ketchup on his ketchup" and almost froze himself to death--twice. Things started to pick up when his horse runs away and he looks everywhere for her. But mainly I thought he was a goofball.

What saved this book for me is that Colton grew as a person into a responsible husband and father. I liked the last third of the book, and also the descriptions of the weather. But I can't say I liked the whole book since the first half annoyed me so much. It took me six weeks to finish it, because I could only take so much at one time. Even so, I would say that Fuller is a good and effective writer. Even though her writing don't get an enthusiastic "Whee-haw" out of me, it got the job done.

Where's the legend in this book? By standard definition a legend is a story of the past, a myth, a thing that inspires. This book did not qualify on any account. This story of "oil field trash" addresses a young person you don't want to be in a place you don't want to go. It speaks of a class of people that think lightly and feel deeply. The characters have extreme loyalty but not much sense. The protagonist did not reach notable proportions although his demise was touching in an overly sentimental way. His issue of personal success in the light of special needs in school was perhaps the message that stayed with me most. All in all, an average read.

This is easily one of the best books I have read in a long time. Fuller's descriptive prose drew me instantly into the lives of the Bryant family and made me long to see this region of the US. As in her other books, her ability to bring to life the commonalities that exist in places and situations uncommon, is engaging and thought provoking long after the book's end.

I particularly appreciate the way she describes people and situations in ways that do not marginalize or villainize despite pain and culpability.

Excellent read!

I devoured this book. It is an amazing read. Of course, I knew how it ended (by the introduction and also the review in the newspaper) ...still, the end of the story broke my heart into a million pieces.
The reader gets to know Colton and to embrace his sweet and enthusiastic life of dreams and unfufilled hopes. He never gave up and never grumbled about his lot in life.
What really made my heart break though, was the small portrait of Colton at the very end. A sweet faced boy, his face haunted me as I read the book and long afterwards, too.
I can't be sure that Colton wasn't an angel on earth when he lived, but he is certainly an angel now. I heartily recommend this book.

Alexandra Fuller is an extraordinary author who's done it once again. This book tells a story that affects every single energy consumer in America from a painfully human perspective - and does it with grace and amazing talent. Colton H. Bryant walks off the page from the first chapter of this book into the life of the reader; by the end, it's nearly impossible to not want to do something about the state of the oil and gas industry in the American West. Beautiful, touching, moving and inspiring - an absolute read.

I received this as a gift a few weeks ago, and am I glad I did! This is a great resource for anyone concerned/looking at Security issues for Win 2000 Server. Excellent treatment on such things as Kerberos, Security Config Tool Set, IPSec, Smart Cards, etc. Chapter 9 is especially useful (for me at least) as it covers PKI, including enabling domain clients and certificate authorities. This book is really packed with information- a must have for anyone interested and looking for more detail in this all important topic. I'll use my copy often.

It is just a book collecting different material from Microsoft's Technet, how-to and white paper. The difference is that you can get info at MS site free and they offer better explanation. l also regretably purchase another Syngress book titled Windows2000 TCP/IP. l will not buy any Syngress book anymore.

The book is worthless. It was extremely high level and should have been titled "configuring windows 2000 server security for dummies". This book is not for anyone with Security or W2K experience....move one and don't waste your time or money.

Finally had a weekend off to read! I read this book to get up to speed on Win2k security and to prepare for the MCSE exams. This book has some very excellent material, and some not so excellent chapters. For example, IPSec had the best description of the protocol and how to implement it I've seen in any book. But, the explanation of Kerberos was as bad as reading the Microsoft materials. I'll this book a 5 stars becuase overall its the best Security book out there right now

I bought this book after trying to understand the material in TechNet. Since I wasn't able to understand what they were trying to say, I got the Coriolis Win2000 Black Book. That was a mistake. In desparation I got this one, and everything started to make sense. The chapters on IPSec, the Security Configuration Toolset and Distributed Security Services are worth the price of the book alone. Until someone comes out with a better W2000 Security book, this is the book to have.

Lovely book, great for any "yarn addict". Good projects for left over yarn. The book is beautifully made. Makes a great "coffee table" book.
Lot of good ideas for any knitter. Great addition to my library.
carol

I've made the poncho on the front cover and a toboggan hat, using up lots of yarn from my stash, It's a bit time consuming changing yarns and then hiding all the ends when you get done, but the outcome is just beautiful.

This beautiful book is helpful to those of us who love yarns and have many leftovers. I have already finished the mitered pillow and I am
very pleased with it. Well written with great patterns, pictures, and tips, I am glad I bought this book.

I found the Yarn Stash Workbook to be a good source of ideas for using up odd scraps of wool. If you are a knitter and have bags of oddments left over from other projects, then this is the book for you. You are taken through the steps of colour sorting and the different plys of wool. This is an easy book to use and the patterns are rediculously easy giving maximum effect for little effort. Projects range from scarfs, evening bags, tee-shirts, jumpers and ponchos and more, something for everyone. This book is definately an asset in the keen knitters library.

Yes, we all have odd balls of yarn. This book teaches you how to put together colors and textures to make garments. It gives one an explanation and understanding or what colors goes next to what fibers. You end up with a finished, one-of-a-kind project. Great photography, well written and enough information to get you going into that knitting bin.

First off - i don't play checkers, and prior to reading this book, i didn't want to. Second - i do research in game AI (although significantly different than the type of work described here) and even went to a few conferences with the author, though we've never spoken (he had a reputation for being a bit of a jerk). So my review is from the point of view of a non-checkers playing engineer.

First off, the book is incredibly meticulous in keeping track of what happened when. The author apparently asked everyone he knew to email him about various events because he often quotes long passages from other people. For example, he might describe a game he won or lost and then ask the person he played against and the judge of the match to describe it in their own words.

Second, i thought the book was pretty easy to understand. i know computers so maybe i'm not a good judge there but he did a good job explaining checkers (and chess, which comes up) so that i understood what was going on.

Third, he makes checkers seem interesting, or at least as much as i think he can. Apparently normal checkers isn't interesting but in tournaments they play odd varieties like two ballot (explained in the book) which makes for a much more interesting game than i would have expected. He also makes it easy to understand why checkers is a hard game requiring a lot of skill, which i wouldn't have guessed before this book.

Fourth, the author lets you know that he is a jerk. He doesn't appear to do anything to hide his faults or make you like him. In the book he repeatedly apologizes to people for how he's treated them. Honestly, i liked the author a lot more after reading this book. His issue is that he's very focused, driven and competitive and that results in things like snapping at his students and not giving his family enough attention. It doesn't necessarily excuse it but it makes the author easier to understand. It's also a pretty major accomplishment for an autobiography - not once did i get the feeling that the author was lying, exaggerating or trying to tell you how to think (except for his constant effort to convince you that checkers and checkers players are great people). He's just a guy trying to be honest, and i respect that.

Fifth, the book was a great look at how well technology did and didn't work in the '90s (computers were constantly crashing and network lines going down) and how tournaments come into being (sponsors, venues, judging, sportsmanship, personalities, press and a lot of other issues that i thought would be boring but weren't).

Finally, the book isn't quite the success story you might expect. The majority of the story is about how the author failed, quite often because he did something stupid he knew he shouldn't do (like optimizing code so much that he broke it). At the end of the story (and many, many years of research), the computer is maybe finally good enough to be world champion but no one will ever find out because the real champion resigned due to health problems and shortly after that died. i think it's hard to overestimate how much the author respected the guy he could never beat.

This doesn't seem like the kind of book anyone should really enjoy reading. An engineer describes how he wrote a computer program? Even engineers read it because they have to, not because they enjoy it. But i really liked this book. If you aren't a computer person, i honestly don't know if you'll like it, but give it a shot, i think just about anyone would enjoy this book.

I began reading this book and around page 100 realized..... Who cares about a computer that can play checkers. Checkers isnt a real game the way chess it anyways. Now Deep Blue is an achievement.

The evolutionary computation was interesting but come on.... checkers? Why not spend months developing a program that can do something useful... like balance my checkbook.

We haven't seen Chinook on CNN...yet.

The book has an intimate feel, like a diary almost,
but the details about how it was concieved, created,
and, laboriously, debuged, are great for those who
love AI and software creation in general.

The best parts of the book are the comparisions between
Chess and games of chance. Checkers is still not
"solved" but Chinook, and the team working at it,
have created a brute force attack on another board
game thats getting close.

Once I started to read this book I found it difficult to put down. Granted I am addicted to playing checkers against my computer when taking breaks at work, but still.... This is very interesting material for checkers players and computer programmers alike.

However, I do have a couple of problems with the book. First, it is very poorly edited. There are a number of grammatical mistakes, [one right on the first paragraph], the author at times goes into unnecessary tangents and, in general the book is too long and repetitive. In addition, it bothered me that, perhaps because of the author's familiarity with chess, he decided to use chess notation to describe the games. This makes it more difficult for checkers players to follow the games while reading the book. The author/editor should have made the effort to use checkers notation or to provide better diagrams.

Well I never thought that title would describe for a book on a project to create a world champion beating chequers playing program!

I originally read the first half of the book when staying with a friend. When I got home I had - for the first time in my life - to buy a book merely to read half of it, so un-put-downable is it.

The book requires no technical knowledge either or computers of of draughts (and to an extent if one approaches it expecting technical insights in to either one will be disappointed).

In practice it's such a good read as the story is well told and gathers momentum the nearer the author gets to the goal. It is focused on the people and the project and not the technicals. Schaeffer recounts his hopes, feelings and motivations with a brutal honesty - never shying away from an accurate description when authorial licence might have presented him in a better light.

I read the first chapter of this book on Amazon and thought it sounded like a well-written, intriguing story, so I purchased the book. Too bad the rest of the book didn't live up to the promise of the first chapter.

The good parts about this book were that
1. the story is just interesting enough to keep you reading to find out what's going on
2. the descriptions (houses, clothes, etc.) are fairly well written
3. parts of this book really have a spooky atmosphere that befits its setting of a decrepit Southern plantation well.

However, overall I found that the story was full of plot holes and could be quite confusing to follow in places. Sometimes events were brought up in the story that needed an explanation, but with no explanations given I ended up feeling like big pieces of the story were missing. For instance, at the end of the first chapter the heroine says, "That night I dreamed of Eve for the first time in many years." You'd expect that the heroine might then explain who Eve is, or what kind of dreams she used to have about Eve, or why she finds it weird to dream about a woman called Eve, but there is nothing! She doesn't talk about Eve at all, so it's hard to empathize with her when she finds out who Eve really is. These gaps in the background of the story made it hard to know what was supposed to be shocking to the characters, and it made it hard to care about the characters, too.

The best part of the book comes when the heroine explores the house on the hill, but after that the story goes downhill, right to its muddled and confusing ending. Overall, a book not really worth the time.

Because I did not know the author, I took a chance and purchased this book. This new author mesmorized me with the richness of her story and the vivid descriptions. The images stayed with me long after I turned the last page. I look forward to reading more of her work.

Sarah Bryant's, THE OTHER EDEN, is a lovely story...but so sad. I truly identified with the protagonist. As a musician I was thrilled with the musical theme and references. I am also young and romantic. This beautiful novel moved me to tears. I wish the story of Alexander and Eleanor could go on forever.

I found this book intriguing and suspenseful. I liked the changes in time periods and looking at the lives of the families that had been intertwined (at times without even knowing it) over generations. The characters were richly described. I stayed up into the early hours of the morning for several nights because I couldn't put the book down. i hope there is another novel from the author soon.

Sarah Bryant's lushly gothic novel is set at an antebellum home in Louisiana, and despite the size of it (459 pp.) I positively flew through the book.

The book begins with twin sisters Eve and Elizabeth switching identities so that one may marry the man she loves. Having traded identities so often in childhood, with nary a suspicion from their parents, they figure switching for a mere bridegroom will be no problem at all. With lightning flashing and thunder rumbling in the background, they complete the exchange of the wedding dress and the sisters' identifying necklaces.

A generation later Eleanor Rose, the daughter/niece of Eve and Elizabeth, is plagued by recurrent nightmares about her mother and aunt. In all her dreams both women are in dire peril at the hands of a mysterious man, and both call desperately for her help. Strangely, it's her aunt Eve who seems to be appealing to her most desperately in her dreams, a fact she can't quite reconcile. Why is it her aunt Eve and not her mother?

Eleanor, raised by her grandfather, is an indulged and privileged child who's also a prodigy on the piano. Her grandfather takes her to music concerts where she hears the greats play. At one of these concerts she sees Alexander Trevozhov perform. She's immediately smitten.

On the death of her grandfather Eleanor learns she's inherited the family's land and home in Louisiana, so leaves Boston with her companion, Mary, to live on the estate. As soon as she arrives she gets a chill. The place itself is beautiful but menacing, in a way she can't quite understand. Bryant's writing here is lush and lovely:

"Over the years of disuse, the rampant foliage had nearly swallowed the house. Bougainvillea, ivy and kudzu hung in swaying curtains from the roof, tangling with honeysuckle and roses climbing from below. ... Beautiful as the house was - or rather, would be, with some care - I felt repulsion at that first sight of it."

Eleanor moves into one of the smaller houses on the estate, as Eden House is in such a state of disrepair. She is immediately plagued by insomnia. Already pale and wan following the sudden loss of her beloved grandfather, she becomes even more sickly looking. Not long thereafter a man arrives to rent one of the houses on the property. The man is none other than Alexander Trevozhov, arriving with is niece Natalya. Coincidence or orchestration, you may ask? Well, some things are best not revealed!

Trevozhov appears somewhat aloof and mocking at first, but soon warms to Eleanor. He reveals that he, too, has been having strange dreams and their fates seem inexplicably intertwined. He's able to recite specifics from her dreams, a fact that leaves Eleanor baffled. Who, exactly, is this Alexander Trevozhov, and how does he know the details of the dreams that terrify her?

Eleanor begins exploring Eden House. Locked doors become unlocked, and unlocked doors are suddenly fast closed, as she wanders through the big house. Her feeling of unease mounts, despite her vain attempts to rationalize the things happening around her. A piano she originally found under a dustcover, unused for ages, begins playing a familiar piece when there's apparently no one in the house but herself. Eleanor begins to feel she's losing her grip. Is there truly a legacy of insanity in her family?

Enter Dorian Ducoeur, a former friend of the family who knew both Eve and Elizabeth, and things really start to heat up. Dorian, Eleanor discovers, is one of the figures from her nightmares. Alexander's back is immediately up. He doesn't trust this man and makes no bones about it. Who is Dorian Ducoeur, really, and what does Alexander really know? Apparently he knows more than he's at first willing to reveal.

Telling much more would be spoiling the rest of the plot. Suffice to say there are more delightfully mysterious house rambles to come, more lush, beautifully-written descriptions of the wonderfully gothic Eden House, and even a death or two for good measure. There are also more shocking revelations, and many more layers added to the tale of Elizabeth and Eve, before all is said and done.

Heavily influenced by the gothic classic _Jane Eyre_, Sarah Bryant's strength is in her descriptions. She imagines a nicely complex plot, but her slips into melodrama are her weakness. However, with writing so atmospheric and evocative of the steamy Deep South the reader can forgive her the occasional slip into purple prose.

On the strength of this effort I would most definitely read another book by Bryant. Despite its length _The Other Eden_ demands you read it at a gallop. There's no slowing down as each element is revealed, peeling away the layers of the mystery and simultaneously building the suspense to nearly unbearable proportions. You won't want to stop until the last page is turned. As a good summer read I would very highly recommend _The Other Eden_.

This is an excellent literal translation that far surpasses Young's or any other's I've read. If your looking for a easy to read literal translation, this is the one I would recommend.

This version of the Bible is an excellent translation for its day and age. A very fine point is the restoration of the Divine Name - Yahweh or Jehovah - to its rightful place in the Hebrew Scriptures! Also the correct translation of "presence" instead of "coming" in some of the verses of Matthew 24 and 2 Peter 3 is welcome as is the correct use of "gehenna" and "hades" over "hellfire". This is a vast improvement over the usual versions used in the 1800s and up until our day.

Next to the New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures, produced by the Watch Tower Bible & Tract Society of Pennsylvania, I find this to be a fine edition for one to have in their library.

As far as I can tell, this is the best Bible translation I own. A sentence's meaning can change depending on which word is emphasized - and this book makes it clear what the point of the writer or speaker is. (This saves me from making a poor guess and deriving below-average theology from a passage...) By way of example, a sign at a motel in a nearby town with different emphases reads -
TRY restin' at the Creston (I'll bet you can't)
Try RESTIN' at the Creston (as opposed to being tense there)
etc., etc.

The heavy-duty paper used is both a pro and a con. I'd really like to take this Bible to church to reference during sermons, but at 4 pounds and 2 1/4 inches thick it's a bit bulky to lug around discreetly.

Perhaps OCR technology can help out someday with the major shortcoming of this book which is worn-out typsetting. Sometimes a letter doesn't appear in its entirety - for instance, part of the lower curve on an "s" might be missing. A second drawback is having Roman numerals in the page headings for the chapter references.

But for someone like me who hasn't been trained in Hebrew or Greek, it's an unbeatable at-home reference Bible. And the indentations used make it a little easier to read than other literal-type translations (such as NASB), so it could be used as an everyday Bible too.

Great and accurate translation of the Bible. The two major flaws that I found were his mis-translation of God hardening Pharoah's heart, and using an ancient, extremely shortened version of Westcott-Hort.

Sent this Bible back to Amazon ASAP--- gives you a headache trying to decipher all the additions to the text. Stick with a "standard" KJV Study Bible-- you will be much happier!

I like this book because it tells if your looking for a new horse what not to look for. It's easy to relate to problems like this, and not just with horses, but with friends. It's also got a surpising ending. I rate this book five stars.

My parents bought me a horse that I was completely unsuited for -and he scared the you-know-what out of me, so I can really empathize with Lisa in this book. She gets the opportunity to work with a beautiful but aloof and highly unpredictable Thoroughbred named Milky. What I want to know is why Max doesn't notice Lisa is having major problems and is ignorant to the point of ridiculousness - he lets beginners on a horse that bucks, rears and shies, though to be fair he doesn't know the extent of Milky's problems until the end.

Also Carole almost fails French, and has to overcome her fear of public speaking to succeed. Lisa has been shown to be fluent in the language in earlier books, but here she's as clueless as Stevie. Maybe she's just holding out on Carole. Who knows?

This book was boring.It almost put me to sleep trying to read it.

I have an objection.I think Max is to strict.I think the rule he has about how you have to a C-average or you can't ride.Why should he care what your grades are.Plus,why do Stevie and Carole(not Lisa,though)always worry about whether they can ride or not if they get a bad grade?All they have to do is not tell Max if they get a REALLY bad grade.I mean what does do,go snoop in your bookbag for your report card whenever your not looking.That's just plain crazy. If you get a bad grade it's your parents job to handle it, not your riding instructors job.

-sorry to put you put you down like that Bonnie, but I think it's a stupid rule.

Lisa was the one who went on the trail ride with Mr.French and spoke entire conversations, She also helped Stevie with her French when she and Veronica were failing, but they both claim that they have never taken it? Come On!

The Saddle Club is a guilty pleasure for me. I've read and enjoyed the books since I was eight, though buying this one at 17 was a little embarrassing. I don't know why Schooling Horse clicked with me so well. It just does, despite the glaring number of inconsistencies in the book.

Schooling Horse is Lisa Atwood's story. She feels ready for her own horse, and she's sure that her parents are planning to buy Milky, a new horse who has just come to Pine Hollow. Lisa tries to work with Milky, but the horse is unpredictable, scary, and even dangerous. Meanwhile Carole is having trouble in school, with her French class.

I liked Schooling Horse because it presented an entirely new idea to me. It had never, ever occurred to me that a horse might just not want to be ridden. That he might go to any lengths, even rearing, to get a rider off his back. That shouldn't surprise me because horses are as unique and different as people. But it's also a scary, and sad, thought.

I really identified with Lisa, when she told Max that she didn't know that a horse could be like Milky. I think if I had been in her situation, I would have felt the same way. I, like Carole, would have said that any horse could be retrained out of its problems. It's a sobering idea to think that maybe some horses can't.

And it's very, very sad at the end when Max says, "Most of the time, there is no good home for a horse like him ... If no one wants him, he may be euthanized ... Yes, it is [horrible]. But not nearly as horrible as his hurting David, or one of you, or any other person."

The only problem I had with Schooling Horse was that Bryant totally contradicts herself. She makes reference in many, many earlier books to Lisa's being fluent in French and excelling at it. So why is Lisa all of a sudden claiming that she doesn't know "what sounds right and what doesn't"? Also, when Lisa is thinking about renaming the horse, she says that she'd have his name plaque "made out of wood, like the sign on Starlight's door." Bryant clearly says in #13, Starlight Christmas, that the sign on Starlight's door signifying that he's a privately-owned horse is made out of brass.

But I can't fault her too much. I mean, this is a woman who wrote 101 Saddle Club books, 7 super editions, 3 special editions, and 17 Pine Hollow books without passing the baton to someone else. Give her some credit.

Classic Christopher Fowler...always a great read - the bumbling Arthur with his sophisticated sidekick John are always entertaining. Fowler has a way of writing that allows you to picture his main characters and their situations vividly. The 'supporting cast' also come to life and add a welcome dimension to the tale. There is always a twist and you won't be disappointed with 77 Clocks. Do yourself a favour and check out some of his earlier novels - Disturbia and Spanky are two of his best - totally different to this series but you won't want to put them down!

I love these old school detectives- no fingerprints, no fiber evidence here, just two cops bouncing ideas off of each other as they interview witnesses and suspects. Each book is set in London, and the city's rich history and geography play a part in each book.

However, this book is not the strongest in the series. There are a couple of coincidences that don't work for me, and the plot is just so complicated that it strains belief.

Read them in order, starting with Full Dark House. By the time you get to Seventy Seven Clocks, you'll forgive the author of any mistakes he has made.

Although the book is a recent release (relatively), the plot takes place in 1973, which Fowler uses to good effect in creating atmosphere. Bryant & May, the main characters, are old-school English detectives in charge of the Peculiar Crimes Unit - in other words, crimes that are odd or unusual. I enjoyed the book and enjoyed following them as they trailed their criminal and tried to figure out how and why the murders were occurring. A great find for people fond of old-school mysteries and good atmospheric reading.

Yes, this is mostly a wonderful, realistic mystery where members of a family and 1800's guild end up dead for no apparent reason in 1973 England. Some fine characterisations, scenery, and 1970's culture, and classy writing throughout! Not to mention the intriguing interaction between the 2 eccentirc detectives in a new Crimes Unit. There is the by-now customary lack of fear among those linked with the victims,which seems very unrealistic, plus family squabbling that gets to be irritating. My main complaint is the solution,though interesting, seems somewhat over-inventive. Nonetheless, a very pleasant,interesting , and unique whodunnit that aproaches five-stars, but does not quite succeed

Publisher's Weekly indicates that readers may be disappointed by the far-fetched solution, and that's a kind way to put the ending -- tying the Savoy Hotel desk clerk who only happened to witness the first death, back into the heart of the whole murderous mechanism -- that yanks the long arm of coincidence right out of its socket. In a mystery, I like at least a sporting chance to spot the murderer and the mechanism; here, no such luck. What happened to the fabled British sense of fair play?