Christie Books

I love Agatha Christie but won't buy any more of these until they print them in a legible format. I am a young person and can't squint through a whole book. Tiny print is going to be the death of the book business. At least on the internet you can enlarge text... you'd think they'd at least make type 12 points at a the very smallest. What's the deal with this tiny type? I won't buy any more.

This is the first collection of Poirot short stories, originaly published in 1924. Christie appears to have been very heavily influenced by the Sherlock Holmes stories while writing these. The relationship between Poirot and Hastings is very like that of Holmes/Watson, the stories in general are reminiscent of some of the Sherlock Holmes stories, particularly "The Veiled Lady" and "A Scandal in Bohemia". While the tone and settings of the stories are somewhat derivative the solutions are pure Christie.

The stories included in this collection are:
The Adventure of the Western Star
The Tragedy of Marsdon Manor
The Adventure of the Cheap Flat
The Mystery of Hunter's Lodge
The Million Dollar Bond Robbery
The Adventure of the Egyptian Tomb
The Jewel Robbery at the Grand Metropolitan
The Kidnapped Prime Minister
The Disappearance of Mr. Davenheim
The Adventure of the Italian Nobleman
The Case of the Missing Will
The Veiled Lady
The Lost Mine
The Chocolate Box

This is a very pleasant collection of short stories;
Although we have a tipical Poirot and the Agatha Christie style is evident, I think it was intended as a sort of tribute to the Sherlock Holmes adventures: the titles, subject matter and general feel reminded me of those. These stories are to be found also in the tv series starring David Suchet.

The book contains Poirot mysteries that were also produced for the television series. Reading the book, I was immediately familiar with several of the stories- but was quickly disappointed completely.

Each mystery is presented as brief as possible, almost in a Cliff Notes fashion-- no, make that in newspaper-article fashion. There is little in the way of atmosphere, almost no character development. The names of faceless characters in each story swim by, surrounded by a brevity of facts and mismash of details, with Poirot incredibly solving each in the final paragraph. In many of the mysteries, Poirot presents the solution with facts from out of nowhere. Each mystery has the feel of a book report written in 200 words or less. I'm halfway through the book, and Poirot's signature moustache has not even been mentioned once!

The book is subtitled "A Hercule Poirot Anthology", and should be treated as such: a miscellaneous assortment of.. not much. If you're looking for a good read, go elsewhere. This one is not worth a look.

Hercule Poirot, Agatha Christie's wonderful Belgium creation, plows through the short stories in Poirot Investigates with somewhat less literary success than he does through the author's delightful Poirot novels. The short story form does not suit the mystery as practiced by Christie as there are always too few suspects and too few clues (or red herrings) and it becomes easier and easier to guess the solution. The author relies too heavily on similar devices, particularly the use of disguises (taken to an unbelievable level in "The Kidnapped Prime Minister" but stretching at the levels of credibility even before then). The stories can still be delightful for Poirot fans and there is even a story in which the great detective gets it wrong. Perhaps on a muggy, steamy day (like today for me) these stories can be fun when one wants to read a mystery but realizes the air is too heavy to concentrate for more than a dozen or so pages at a time. Recommended for those already enamored of the Belgian and his little gray cells. Not so much for readers new to Christie.

This book stands alone as much as any of the 5 Gateways I've read, except that like the others, it says "to be continued" in book 7. However, the story to this point does have some partial conclusion. It is a good Voyager story and involves all the crew, but a lot of focus is on Janeway's dilemas leading the caravan. I must say it isn't totally clear why ships from all over the galaxy would want to follow Voyager the direction they are going, especially since danger lies that way. But once you get past that, OK.

I was greatly disappointed in this book for several reasons. Most significant was the fact that it is only very vaguely related to the others in the series; the action in this book adds nothing to the saga begun by Kirk and his crew in book one. This book and it's concluding chapter in book seven could be omitted with no loss. Add to this the amateurish writing, uncharacteristic action, and embarrassingly poor dialogue, and the reader has little reason to waste the time or money on this installment.

This is a very good book. It has Captain Janeway in a very sticky stitution. She must lead a fleet of alien ships through a dangerous sector of space and most don't trust or even like her! This book is good on how it has Janeway and the crew deal with slavery, greed and just plain rotten people. Seven has some interesting sceens in this book which makes it even better. The books first two chapters are a little slow but it picks up. An all around good Star Trek adventure.

I am usually wary of anything that deals with the Voyager series. The few Voyager novels that I have read though have been superior to the TV series. This is one of those novels. The author captures what was really the best qualities of the series and the characters. Here all the characters have something to do not like the TV series where it became the 7 of 9 show. Nothing wrong with that but variety would have been nice. Here we get to see Janeway as a strong leader. Not someone that sometime became irrational as shown on the show at times. Janeway and Chakotay have a strong bond here which I approve but differed from the series finale. This is more appropriate and logical not the crazy pairing they did at the end. I also liked the fact the author show us all these different alien species and some of the older ones of the TV series. The book has good action and has some cute, light moments. It is not perfect but the Gateway series has definately picked up from book 2 and has done well after that. Hopefully book 6 will be good too.

I don't know what to say about this book. For a Star Trek story, it was good, not the greatest thing but a good book. For a Voyager story it was even better, Janeway's ability to lead and conquer impossible situations shines though in this book. For the Gateways series... this book was useless.

I'm a huge Voyager fan, so this was the very first Gateways book I read. After reading it I thought it was phenominal, Janeway, all alone in the Delta Quadrant, happens upon SEVERAL other ships now also lost with her. Some of them friendly, some of them hostile, some of them at war back on their home planets, and some of them (the Hirogen) who are supposed to be enemies but don't seem to be. And then the end (in book 7) was "WOW."

But, now I've read three other Gateways books (TNG, DS9, and NF), and I have found that the Voyager installation in the Gateways series really had absolutely nothing to do with the Gateways in the other books. The only link is that you find out where the Iconians got the Gateways to begin with. But the Gateways in Voyager were not of the same sort as those in the other series, making this a useless read if you want to follow the Gateways series specifically.

My recommendation here is if you like Voyager and want to see some typical Janeway diplomacy and tough-as-nails leadership read this book. But if you are only getting this book for the Gateways' series skip it.

This novel is the second in a trilogy.
Asimov must be rolling in his grave.
The only fresh thing is is making the idea of dark matter being all around popular?
I have to admit I've read worse Star Trek novels:
this level of sci fi reminds one of serial movies of the 1930's.
The plots aren't original or the content of any quality.

This was the book that sucked me into the Voyager books. Yes, I started with the middle of a series, but why not? It got me interested. The book is wonderfully written, as is the rest of the series with action and adventure. The end of the book bothered me a bit but I have read all three 3 times. I deffinatly recomend them to all Trek lovers out there.

this is great. but you need to read cloak and dagger to understand what is happening.

"Ghost Dance" is the second book in Christie Golden's Dark Matters trilogy and as good as the first one, "Cloak and Dagger" was, "Ghost Dance" is that much better. As "Cloak and Dagger" established the premise in which the author chose the character of Romulan scientist Telek R'Mor from Star Trek Voyager's first season episode of "Eye of the Needle" and the events of that episode and has expounded upon them beautifully in this trilogy; "Ghost Dance" takes the tale much further and gets into the heart of the subject.

The most impressive aspect of this and third novel is where the first novel established the premise of the entire trilogy, this second novel is where the true intrigue and the overall compelling nature of the story as a whole kicks in. As I casually read the first novel, this approach was unacceptable for the second as this trilogy turned into a true page turner!

The cover art for this second Dark Matters novel is on par with the first novel and a cut above the rest of the novels published at that time.

The Premise:

In "Cloak and Dagger" we learned that an individual named Lhiau who claimed to be a member of a race known as the Shepherds established contact with the Romulan Empire of twenty years in Voyager's past and that he more or less brought them an offer "they couldn't refuse." His primary contact with the Romulans was established through Jekri Kaleh, the chairman of the Tal Shiar, the Romulan's super secretive security organization. Armed with "superior" cloaking technology given to them by Lhiau, they intended to open a wormhole to the Delta Quadrant and send thirteen Warbirds to seize control of the technologically advanced Voyager...

"Ghost Dance" easily picks up where "Cloak and Dagger" left off, although there is one minor distraction which is the "cleverly" played retrospective of the first novel, just in case somebody decides to start this brilliant Trek trilogy with the second novel instead of the first one.

With "Ghost Dance," Christie Golden's talents as an author shine even more brilliantly as she takes us even deeper into the political intrigue involving the Chairman of the Tal Shiar, Jekri Kaleh; an extremely well written and developed character that more or less carries the story. Along with the exceptionally well written Jekri Kaleh parts, the author's skill in fast paced, narrative and action driven Trek fiction shine as she takes us through Captain Janeway and her crews steps in solving the many problems caused by the rogue Shepherds release of mutated Dark Matter upon their universe and the wonderfully well told sub plot of Chakotay and Paris's experiences after Chakotay dragged them through a "portal" to an unknown planet...

I highly recommend this and the other two novels in the trilogy as author Christie Golden, with this trilogy once again proved why she is one of Star Trek's premier authors. She is truly capable of some of the most creative story telling in the world of Trek fiction! {ssintrepid}

This is the second installment of a three part series calld Ghost Dance written by Christie Golden.

I found that this book to be just a little under the first book in this series... not that it was bad, on the contrary, but this book brings us into to the shadow or parallel universe. Now, not only do we have the villains and the Romulans, but a new super-being is introduced.

The Voyager crew is split-up and Chakotay and Paris are now in the strange shadow universe leaving Janeway with the "Q-like" being. The Romulans are as treacherous as ever with the allied "Shepards" make an ominous pairing.

There is plenty of action here and the plot thickens. The Dark Matter which is normally at balance between the two universes is now out of balance... sucking one universe into the other.

Now, the story gets interesting, but to understand this you have to read the first book to make out "who's on first."

This book is good, but falls a tad short of the first.

Now, continue on to book three.

This was my first time reading this particular author and I would have to say that although she deserves an honorable mention as a good author that could wind up hooking me for the long haul, she has a ways to go before reaching her full potential. Her breezy, snappy & bold style of writing echoes that of Rachel Gibson who is one of my favorite comedic romance authors of all time. I was entertained by the character of Jay (or Hef Junior as he's known to his friends and former lovers.) I enjoyed the chemistry of Jay and Nikki. I LOL at much of the banter. I felt some of the steam rising from the pages detailing their romantic interludes. I even liked the secondary character of Shanna. The *choke...gasp* Paris Hilton/Tori Spelling of her time. I did find the overall storyline however, to be too "busy", with too many ingredients left unstirred which took away from the overall recipe for success. I'm intrigued enough to pick up the other titles in the Malibu and Ewe series. Intrigued enough to keep faith in this author. She got to first base with this book, but it will take some time and practice to hit a home run that some authors are famous for.

I enjoyed this book. While it is not the best book I've read by Christie Ridgeway, I enjoyed it.

I liked Nikki though I wish she had become more accessible earlier in the book and thought she had fabulous chemistry with Jay.

I also liked Shanna and Jorge but wished more time was spent on Shanna finding herself.

I especially liked Cassandra and Gabe and hope they get their own book. Their relationship can't be done justice as a secondary romance in Unravel Me.

I did not like that Nikki had such emotional scars from sexual abuse though I did like that she dealt with those fears in helping Fern.

Overall, this was a good read and I am looking forward to Unravel Me in November.

I almost did not read this book because of all the reviews - but it was funny and had some interesting twists and turns. The comments about the knitting not being in the story - it was a meeting place for most of the characters. This story was about Nikki who had a bum knee and needed a personaly chef job - she landed one with Hef Jr aka Jay editor of men's magazine. Jay gets Nikki to pretend to be his girlfriend and she pretends to be gay. The cast of characters will continue - check out her next book Unravel Me due out Nov 4, 2008.

Picked this up as light summer reading. I'm not normally a romance (without mystery) or girly book reader. I do enjoy Sue Monk Kidd's work, as she usually shows traces of strength without the need for a varied cast of typified characters.

This book surprised me. Mostly because I get such a kick out of the Charlie Harper character played by Charlie Sheen on Two and a Half Men. If Jay weren't a blond magazine editor and were a brunet jingle writer, he'd BE Charlie. If Nikki were a large and sarcastic maid like the Berta character on TAAHM rather than a leggy, sardonic and sometimes swooning personal chef, this would reek of making TAAHM into a novel with slight character twists.

We even have a Rose (Shanna Ryan,a cast off neighbor who Jay slept with and whose heart he broke), who lets herself in Jay's back door rather than jumping the back deck as Rose would do.

And HO! A Jake-like character, only in the form of a California blonde teenage niece with an attitude named Fern. She's visiting while the parents of Jay and hers are on a cruise.

Since I already liked Jay's character as Charlie, I think this is one of the main reasons that this book was so palatable (no pun intended) for me. It's light reading, sometimes a little heavy in the "daydreamy fantasizing" on Nikki's part, but it's fun.

A good read.

This was a great beach read. I laughed the entire way through and even with the humor, enjoyed the depth built into the characters.

Agatha Christie wrote some astonishing and superb mystery books -- this is not one of them.

Here we have a compendium of "Christie Crumbs," short pieces which never blossomed into larger mystery stories. Herein, you'll find elements of and thoughts from Christie's larger works but none of them seem to manifest into anything significant. A number of the endings just sort of hang you out, reminiscent of some of the stories that you might encounter in "Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine," only not so entertaining as those great little, well-edited tales.

This book would be okay to take along for the morning bus ride or to the doctor's office. But unless you are a totally devoted Christie fan and must read everything that she wrote, I'd take a pass on this one and go with one of her more renowned works.

Very good collection of stories. Lots of fun to read in short snippets.

"The Golden Ball and Other Stories" is a wonderful collection of stories by Dame Christie. Full of charm and written with twists reminiscent of O. Henry, this book is great for anyone who loves Christie's work or anyone who loves a well-crafted short story.

Some of Agatha's most insightful, penetrating writing. The varying tales run the gamut from hilarious, playful, romantic to downright spooky in places. Plus two of them in particular are heart breaking. (I won't reveal which ones.) A really nice addition to her heavy collection, these pieces will stick with you long after you put them down. And yes: one of them even brought me to tears. Here's strong evidence Christie was more than just a one note author. The stories could very well be classified as literary gems.

A collection of 15 short stories, none of which feature any of Christie's recurring characters, not even the small fry like Ariadne Oliver. Although the code of ettiquette that she and her fellow writers such as Dorothy L. Sayers followed for mysteries forbade any supernatural elements, Christie could and did occasionally dabble in such stories outside the mystery format. Several of the stories here have such elements; specifically, those from THE HOUND OF DEATH AND OTHER STORIES. Others are more conventional; several of these feature men who 'seize the golden ball of opportunity' and get something out of their adventures, if only some self-respect. They are sorted by the original publication dates in magazines or story collections.

"The Hound of Death", "The Gipsy", "The Lamp", "The Strange Case of Sir Andrew Carmichael", and "The Call of Wings" are all taken from an earlier collection, THE HOUND OF DEATH AND OTHER STORIES (see). Properly speaking, by the way, "The Strange Case of Sir Andrew Carmichael" is really "The Strange Case of Sir Arthur Carmichael" - it isn't often that the *title* of a story is the subject of a widespread printer's error.

"The Girl in the Train", "Jane in Search of a Job", "The Manhood of Edward Robinson", "The Listerdale Mystery", "The Rajah's Emerald", "Swan Song", "A Fruitful Sunday" - taken from an earlier collection, THE LISTERDALE MYSTERY (see its reviews for details of each). "The Girl on the Train" is essentially similar to "The Golden Ball", although the settings differ. "Jane in Search of a Job" and "The Listerdale Mystery" each involve a woman - one young, one middle-aged - in desperate financial straits answering an advertisement that's too good to be true. "The Manhood of Edward Robinson" and "The Rajah's Emerald" each involve a young man with a girlfriend who's tiresome about money (one is bossy and prudent, the other likes to live higher than her boyfriend can afford) who accidentally gets hold of stolen gemstones and must think quickly to avoid wrongful arrest. "A Fruitful Sunday" starts out on a similar tack, but with a sympathetic girlfriend who *isn't* keen on giving the stones back. "Swan Song", the only story not featuring someone who's struggling, concerns a soprano with a fiendish 'temperament' and her final, definitive performance of _Tosca_.

"Magnolia Blossom" (March 1926) Theodora Darrell and Vincent Easton had fallen in love under the branches of the magnolia tree at her home in London, and now, 2 weeks later, she's prepared to run away with him to his home in the Transvaal - until she sees a newspaper account of the collapse of her husband's firm. She can't leave, today of all days. Then Richard Darrell (who hasn't got a clue) asks her to persuade a man into giving her the evidence of his own criminal conduct: Vincent Easton.

"The Golden Ball" (1934) Nothing to do with the fairy tale of the same name. George Dundas, like George Rowland (see above) has just been fired by his uncle, for taking an unscheduled day off in the middle of the week, and been read a lecture about 'seizing the golden ball of opportunity'. When he encounters society beauty Mary Montressor on the street outside the office, he's in a mood to take whatever adventure comes to him...

"Next to a Dog" - Joyce, left widowed by a beloved husband whose only flaw was that he gambled, is too proud to sponge, but can't take just any kind of job, because she's still got someone to care for: her beloved, half-blind old terrier, Terry, a gift from her late husband. Governesses and companions can't have such dogs; what can she do to keep their heads above water?

Despite the scholarly title, Three-Martini Family Vacation: A Field Guide to Intrepid Parenting, is NOT an expert approved, exhaustively tested, lawyer vetted guidebook for the raising of children. Rather, it is a HUMOR book, one woman's personal reaction to a certain type of parent that we are ALL familiar with while TRYING to be funny. (If you don't know of any parents who fit these descriptions that MIGHT be because YOU do.) Thus, Ms. Mellor makes use of exaggeration, irony, and even deliberately trying to shock. Chances are that if you find yourself getting mad, you are supposed to be laughing instead.

Now does this mean there is NO useful advice contained within? Au contraire! However, you WILL have to glean such nuggets from among the jokes. Teetotalers should not overreact to "advice" to turn every child activity possible into an excuse for drinking alcohol because I think even Ms. Mellor would concede that parents who take nothing else from her book than an excuse to drink more often have missed the point. Conservatives should not overreact to politically correct rants against the commercialization of holidays because I think even Ms. Mellor would concede that the problem is more with overindulgent parents than it is with EVIL corporations.

However, Ms. Mellor's most important advice is more general. First, your children like all children, need to be TAUGHT how to behave, and if you do a bad enough job of it, your children will suffer the consequences all the rest of their lives. Second, while parenting is arguably a lifetime job, the heavy duty work is a temporary one. If you make your children too much of an obsession, you will be totally lost when they finally leave home, and you might not have any friends (or spouse) left by then.

Note: Ms. Mellor begins her parenting course in The Three-Martini Playdate: A Practical Guide to Happy Parenting while Were You Raised by Wolves?: Clues to the Mysteries of Adulthood is a remedial course for children whose parents failed to apply the lessons of the first two books. As for the OOP We Were Here First, Kid and the not yet in print You look fine, Really, your guess is as good as mine.

If you've ever had the back of your seat on a plane or train repeatedly kicked by a child whose parents seem to think that Junior is just "a little active, that's all," this book is for you.

As snortingly funny as The Three Martini Playdate, this book makes for a fun read on the beach while other people's children have temper tantrums until their parents cave in and let them have potato chips for lunch, dammit.

Buy one whether you're on vacation or not. You'll appreciate the laughs.

Every chapter is exactly the same theme--how the author does things the right way [i.e. "her" way] and how every other parent on earth is annoying and wrong. I have a good sense of humor and thought this book would be funny--it's not. Her children's quirks [spicy toothpaste and picky eating] she seems to find amusing. Every other child's quirks, she finds a personal affront. I've met parents like her, and avoid them like the plague. Too bad it can't be rated zero stars.

Probably the funniest book I have ever read on parenting. Mellor doles out wise parenting advice with a side of satire. A real break from other "real" parenting books and a quick read for the ever busy among us. A must for parents who can laugh at themselves and/or others.

I loved Three-Martini Playdate, the Three-Martini Family Vacation did not disappoint either; just as funny, insightful, and intelligently written as the first one, I love these books!

This book has a rather complicated pre-history. From 1976 to 1980, the Swedish writer, painter and bird-watcher Lars Jonsson wrote and illustrated a five-volume work on European birds. The reactions were mixed. On the one hand, Jonsson's paintings of birds were rightly admired, and the entire five-book series was translated into English. On the other hand, many Swedish bird-watchers considered the books difficult to use in the field, and expensive to boot. In 1992, Jonsson tried to remedy the problem by publishing a one-volume work based on the previous five volumes. It was called "Birds of Europe". For some reason, it was first published in English. Several editions of it exists. My review is of the 2006 edition, the one with the owl on the cover. (Amazon may have placed this review at some other product pages as well.)

First, the positives. Lars Jonsson is an excellent artist, working in what I suppose could be called the Classical Realist tradition. His illustrations are quite simply great, and almost make the birds come to life. Often, he places the birds in their natural environment, and paints them as they really look like in the field, pre-occupied with wading, perching, eating, or whatever it is birds do. I'm particularly impressed by his ducks, shorebirds, owls, nightjars, thrushes and finches! This makes the book worth the money, for both bird-lovers and art-lovers, and indeed book-lovers.

But is "Birds of Europe" really a good field guide? Several other reviewers have expressed a large amount of scepticism on this point. I'm not a bird-watcher myself (my idea of bird-watching is strolling down to some local duck pond to watch the Canadian geese LOL), but I tend to agree. Lars Jonsson is either better at painting birds than at editing books, or perhaps his editor is a lazy bum who coldly calculates that everything with the name "Lars Jonsson" on it will sell, no matter what. For every good illustration, there seems to be an ill-organized, spotty page with dozens of identical-looking flying birds, impossible to tell apart from each other due to confusing captions! Even on the good pages, the captions are often confusing. Sometimes the birds are illustrated on the same page as the species presentation, sometimes on the facing page, and sometimes somewhere else entirely. Some species aren't illustrated at all. And the range maps seem to be all over the place! For some reason, the section on raptors seem particularly screwed up.

There is another problem as well. The book is called "Birds of Europe with North Africa and the Middle East". However, many North African and Mideastern species are illustrated with small pictures only, some are only mentioned in the text, and others aren't mentioned at all! It also looks as if the book doesn't cover the Canary Islands, the Azores and Madeira. And our good old friend, the ring necked parakeet, is only partially illustrated (sic). This stingy treatment hardly justifies the sub-title "with North Africa and the Middle East".

Because of the lay-out problems and bad editing, I cannot give this book five stars. However, as a collection of vintage bird art, it's worth buying anyway. It's a book for your bookshelf, rather than your backpack.

I have used this guide in Europe, a region with which I am not (in terms of avifauna) particularly familiar, and I find it informative and useful. I have heard varying opinions on the artwork - some rave about it, others say it is too artificial/unnatural/etc. I align myself with the former camp - intracacies and details of field marks are well illustrated and easily discernible - yes, perhaps more so than they would be in the field, but I have trouble with those who fault a guide for showing features not readily visible in the field - any experienced birder should know this is an eternal pitfall to *any* guide.

The text is excellent - well-written (I of course have only used the English translation, I have seen translations in other European languages as well) and concise. I do have two critiques, however: one, I would like each species description to be subdivided by keywords in boldface to make finding important features such as size, habitat, etc. easier to find in a pinch, and two, the criticisms I have read of the layout are mostly well-founded. It is not always clear to which drawing/painting a given species description applies - range maps are not always on the same page as the text or illustration, etc. This is inexcusable and would have been easily remedied if only by use of large, boldfaced numbers a la Simpson and Day (Aus.) or Grimmett et al. (India/Subcontinent).

As for the size, I almost always carry either a buttpack or daypack into the field - so it doesn't bother me a whit. I can't imagine *not* carrying a pack, in fact, so I disregard this criticism entirely - but those who feel otherwise might want to borrow a copy to see how it works for them. For any birder, however, I would say the use for which this guide is most well-suited is as a prep guide - the book to pore over en route to your birding site, soaking in as much of the extremely informative text as possible. It is by no means without fault as an in-the-field guide, but very good nonetheless.

As a born North-Sea-coast birder and knowing the work of Lars Jonsson since 1977,(his famous five smaler volumes "Birds in the wild" I realised that preparing for North Africa could not be a mistake in buying this book,even if there is the extra weight of all the North European birds described in the book and not to bee seen in Marocco. His marvelous illustrations are a pleasure for all everyone and the book a must for all foreign birders visitting Europe. As a Belgian , I own a big library with a lot of field-guides, especially Petersons' , but this book rivals them all.

Patrick

If ever you feel to publicise this letter,bee free to correct my english .Thanks.

...however, the option of four and a half was not offered, and I'm not sure this guide rates a perfect score. I was very impressed with it. It is well-written (and well-translated, I guess); covering the points of identification well, and very nicely illustrated. The fact that range maps for species on one page are occasionally placed on the following page may be a minor irritation to some, but range maps, in my view, are largely placed in guides for their interest value. Birds fly, and will turn up outside of their normal range, thus, range maps are not important for field identification (at least not during migration of migratory species; and probably as a general rule), and the necessity to turn a page is not a major problem with this guide. This is, overall, an excellent guide, and I can't wait for the opportunity to use it on the home ranges of the species it covers, in stead of on the occasional vagrant.

This is a perfectly viable field guide to the birds of Europe and, if it weren't for the existence of the Collins Guide, it could easily be a top recommendation. One thing marks this book apart from other field guides though: the illustrations are so beautiful that they might have been painted for art's sake alone. I have been fascinated by Jonsson's gulls and shorebirds from an earlier series published by habitat and now to have all the birds together is just wonderful. His paintings capture the feel of the bird better than those of any other artist I know. This book will give great aesthetic pleasure long before (and after) one gets it into the field.

Maybe this book can help some but with the questions and work needed with a spouse even though the book says you can do the excersises by yourself its impossible..Im glad I bought it used..I read it..and tossed it..if you have someone you can do the work with great..but it dididnt do anything for me at all...B.W.

Authors who write about debt and getting out of it, overspending and overcoming it, tend to fall into two categories: there is the P.E. coach who is going to whip you into shape, shout to you that you can do one more crunch, and perhaps throttle you if you screw up.

Then there are the understanding therapists who want to help you understand the source of your compulsion and assemble around you a small team of trusted advocates who will stick with you through your relapses and help you to get well.

Olivia Mellan is a therapist.

Her book declares that upfront, so I am hardly outing a softy with this observation. If you want somebody to threaten your feeble, self-loathing little overspending life with an early demise if you don't cut up that last credit card, this book is not for you. But if you want somebody who understands you or your overspending partner, Mellan's Overcoming Overspending may be the one. You may need to supplment it, however, with something a bit more stern.

Mellan herself is a `recovering overspender', 12-Step language that alerts you to the origin of her interest in this topic and the remedies she'll propose. Where others will begin with lurid descriptions of the living hell that absorbs the indebted masses--I do not intend to make light of this society-wide but deeply personal ill--Mellan's first chapter is entitled `What is Overspending All About?'

In my judgement, her strong suit is probing gently at the scarcity of soul that generates overspending as a futile attempt to fill the void.

Her second section is perhaps even more collegial: `How Spenders' Partners Can Help', followed by `Tools and Techniques You Both Can Use'. Pay attention to these section titles, since Mellan (or her editor) is what I call an `Honest Titler'. The names of her sections and chapters tell you exactly what to expect. Significantly, it is not until the book's fourth of five chapters that we read `How Overspenders Can Overcome', a remarkable postponement--though not an evasion--of the spender's responsibility.

This is a classic therapeutic approach and may well be what you and your partner need. The final section--`The Long and Winding Road'--suggests that you'll suffer relapses along the way but you'll get to your destination if you and your partner keep at it.

Given the sea of get-out-of-debt literature that is available, what ought we to make of Mellan's opportunity. I consider it a valuable tool for those who love an overspender, less so for the overspender himself or herself. Mellan is particularly good on what `hoarders' bring to the mix and how the overspender's partner is likely to change in order to compensate for the compulsion that comes here under review.

The overspender will benefit from reading Overcoming Overspending, but is likely to need some backbone from a supplementary work.

The reader who said the exercises in "Overcoming Overspending" are ridiculous does not want to examine his/her feelings about money. I have worked on many of the exercises and have found them enormously helpful with my own compulsive spending issues. Overspending is such a widespread problem now that a number of useful books have been written on the subject. Olivia Mellan's book shows gives readers the benefit of her years as a professional money counselor. Readers will find it well worth their time and thoughtful contemplation.

I am a compulsive book buyer. When I stop buying books I replace the books with some other obsession. I have bought most of the books that amazon offers on compulsive buying(trying to help myself through my compulsiveness).I have learned something in each one that I have read. This book "Overcoming Overspending" is the worst book on compulsive spending that I have read so far. I actually skipped the entire middle of the book(I did read the chapter headings and skimmed through). In the beginning of the book I had hope that the book was going to be real good but it started talking about doing these ridiculous exercises. I felt that these were things that were a total waste of time and absolutely were not helpful at all. I would like to know if anyone out there that has read this book actually followed the program. I have just started another book called "Consuming Passions" and already in the first few pages of the book I have learned more than I learned in the whole "Overcoming Overspending" book. I hope this helps someone, because now I have a book that I feel was a total waste of my time reading it and the money I spent on it. ...

I can't say enough good things about this book. It has helped my husband and me enormously. But for the book to work, I think you have to truly want to change your spending habits as individuals and as a couple and commit to the exercises. Skimming it (as the reviewer below did, to his or her disappointment) and hoping for magic is not going to bring about change. Let me just give a couple of examples from our experience with the book .... For my wonderful husband (a classic overspender) and me (a chronic underspender aka penny pincher), money was the one thing we argued about. I dreaded Christmas because my husband would buy loads of expensive presents, certainly many more than I wanted--and we'd spend the months after paying off debts. He tended to make impulsive purchases and frequently ate out. Over time, with the help of this wise book, we learned to make changes and capitalize on our strengths as a couple. I took over financial matters, we set up a budget, we commited to savings, we considered purchases carefully and went into stores at Christmas with a list to avoid impulsive purchases. Most importantly we learned how our childhoods, especially the models of our own parents, contributed to our present money woes. Getting a handle on our money issues, helped us move forward in other areas of our lives: having a child and considering adopting another, buying a new car, investing, saving for a house. So the book does work--if you're willing to invest the effort to change!

What a wonderful collection of short stories. These are very different from Agatha Christie's normal fair! All the stories seem to revolve around the occult or other supernatural occurances! A nice change from what I am use to where Agatha Christie is concerned! My favorite story was Witness for the Prosecution!

The short stories are mostly fantasy rather than mystery. I bit disappointed if you are expecting the classic Agatha Christic fictions.

And the stories are too short and fragmented.

Trying her hand at writing into occultism and supernatural subjects, Agatha Christie failed to provoke new insights nor deliver any entertainment value.

Several stories were outrightly occultic, such as the Hound of Death. These have got nothing to do with crimes.

A couple of other stories such as the Blue Jar have some crime involved, and could be considered readable.

What mystery and crime readers would normally expect from Agatha Christie was a thorough investigation of the paranormal, sifting the clues and evidence, and exhaust all possibilities before leaving it as ... unexplainable by known facts. Had Agatha Christie done that, the stories would have been much much more readable.

This short story collection contains 12 stories, most of them having to do with the supernatural in some way. The most famous entry, and one that has no supernatural elements to it, is "Witness for the Prosecution," which was later made into a well-received movie starring Charles Laughton. In it a young man is accused of murdering an elderly woman for her money; he has an air-tight alibi with his mistress, but on the witness stand she turns against him. His lawyer has his hands full, but finally finds a way to prove his innocence. Other good stories include "The Red Signal," about a death warning revealed in a séance; "S.O.S," about a dusty night table and a scrawled message for help; and "The Fourth Man," about a girl with four distinct personalities. Many of the stories were later re-published in a collection renamed after its most famous story, "Witness for the Prosecution." Fans of Agatha Christie's typical crime stories might be disappointed with this story collection, but there are still some interesting selections in it.

Where I know the original magazine publication dates, I have given them. Each story has also appeared in either THE WITNESS FOR THE PROSECUTION AND OTHER STORIES or THE GOLDEN BALL AND OTHER STORIES.

"The Red Signal" (June 1924) Dermot and his uncle Sir Alington West (the famous psychologist) become involved in a discussion of premonitions at the Trents' dinner party. Dermot has had a few in his life - a 'red signal' for danger - while Sir Alington attributes them to subconscious observation. But tonight Dermot feels it again - although the only danger he can see is his love for Claire Trent, his best friend's wife.

"The Fourth Man" (December 1925) An Anglican canon, a psychologist, and a lawyer - all very distinguished representatives of the Church, Medicine, and the Law - fall to talking on a night train journey, ignoring the (apparently sleeping) man who also shares their compartment. While the viewpoint of the man in the street may have some merit, surely their own collective wisdom is good enough for the celebrated multiple personality case they're discussing...

"S.O.S." (February 1926) The Dinsmead family - pompous father, worn-down mother, and their 3 grown children - moved to a lonely country home rather abruptly upon Mr. Dinsmead's retirement from the building trade. Johnnie is suffering a series of running battles with his father, since he prefers chemistry to building, while his sisters are unhappy at being isolated in a house they think is haunted. Then a stranger (parapsychologist Mortimer Cleveland), stranded for the night by a flat tire, finds a mysterious message written in the dust beside his bed...

"Wireless", a.k.a. "Where There's a Will" (1926) Mary Harter's physician was careful to warn both his patient and her nephew, Charles Ridgeway, about her heart condition - that any shock could be fatal, but with care nothing would go wrong. When she then had a lift installed, thoughtful Charles persuaded her to get a radio as well. She enjoyed it at first, until it started giving messages from Beyond...

"The Call of Wings" - Silas Hamer was rich and content, a self-made man who had wanted wealth for material comfort rather than power, who believed in nothing that he couldn't see and touch. Then the music of panpipes, played by a strange, legless beggar with a beautiful face, catches his imagination, and he feels a call of immense freedom and wildness - but his money has turned to chains and shackles.

"The Gipsy" - Macfarlane (a Celt with a touch of second sight) and his best friend Dickie Carpenter were engaged to two sisters, until Esther dumped Carpenter without warning. But when Carpenter, an inarticulate, unsubtle Navy man, unburdens himself to his friend, he keeps getting off track, talking about his fear of gypsies, and how several times in his life he's literally had a gypsy's warning and disregarded it, only to have disaster strike - as in the case of his breakup, in fact.

"The Hound of Death" - Really a science fiction story. Sister Marie Angelique once saved her convent from the Germans by calling down lightning on them, but not through prayer; she has visions of another life, whether future or past, where such powers were understood and disciplined. Alas, Dr. Rose at the sanitarium where she now lives in England not only takes her seriously, but with an eye to turning such powers to his own use...

"The Lamp" - When Mr. Winburn, his widowed daughter Mrs. Lancaster, and his little grandson Geoff take #19 for a ridiculously low rent, she doesn't believe it's haunted, although a little boy starved there 30 years ago (having been ordered never to go out) after his father's arrest in another city. But her father hears the boy crying, and Geoff can see him and wants to help him. The title comes from Widburn's quotation of a poem, since he's convinced Geoff may indeed be able to help: "'What Lamp has Destiny to guide/Her little Children stumbling in the Dark?'/'A blind understanding,' Heaven replied."

"The Last Seance", a.k.a. "The Stolen Ghost" - Raoul Daubreuil takes it for granted that his fiancee Simone will give up her work as a medium after they're married - for one thing, it's destroying her health. But will the work - and her clients - allow her to retire gracefully? Clients like Madame Exe, who is determined to make contact with her lost little girl at any price...

"The Mystery of the Blue Jar" - Jack Hartington lives to reduce his golf handicap. Unfortunately, he's only 24 and far from retired, so he gets up at six every morning for an hour's practice before work. Then he starts hearing cries for help every morning near a small cottage near the course - cries nobody else seems to hear.

"The Strange Case of Sir Arthur Carmichael" - Sometimes titled 'Andrew' rather than 'Arthur' - one heck of a printer's error. The old baronet had 2 sons, and the pleasant Sir Arthur has been content to allow his middle-aged stepmother and little half-brother to go on living with him. She, for her part, is devoted to her own son, and has an uncanny air about her. Then, a month before young Sir Arthur's marriage, he's stricken with an extraordinary form of amnesia, and the narrator (a distinguished psychologist) is called in. Hmm. His stepmother certainly has a motive to see that he has no heir other than her son, but how could she have arranged *this*?

"The Witness for the Prosecution" - See THE WITNESS FOR THE PROSECUTION AND OTHER STORIES.

A investigation of the body found in the home of Dorothy L. Sayers (Fleming) threatens to expose parts of her past life that she prefers to keep hidden. She is about to produce a play that she has written for the Canterbury Cathedral Festival, and fears that scandal would get her dropped from the program.

Her associates in the Detection Club (a real organization) including E.C. Bentley, A.A. Milne, and Anthony Berkeley drag a somewhat reluctant Agatha Christie into investigating the case as a lark. They soon find that real life isn't the same as their books, and an infuriated Sayers sends them packing. Christie returns, however, and the two women begin looking into the case.

Gaylord Larsen tells us that while this is by no means biographical, he has attempted to stay true to the characters of the two women. Sayers is forceful, highbrow, eager to turn to more serious writing and burdened by an unhappy marriage. Christie is mild, modest and self-effacing, but haunted by the publicity of her famous disappearance. (Either Larsen has used Miss Marple in creating Christie's character, or Miss Marple was somewhat autobiographical.) Larsen notes that they knew each other, collaborated sometimes, and had some interesting parallels in their lives, but there is no evidence that they were friends, and little information about their opinions of one another.

The two women are not particularly sympathetic to one another at the beginning, but they respect one another more as they work together. There is a competent mystery at the heart of the story, but it takes second place to the vivid development of their personalities. Now I'm anxious to read biographies of both. The Detection Club and its members make for an interesting subplot and minor characters. A great fan of character-driven stories, I thoroughly enjoyed this and wish that Larsen would do more.

The cover on the hardback is wonderful: in a stylized 30s style illustration, Dorothy and Agatha daintly share cups of tea over a corpse on the floor.

First of all, the writing is execrable - a classic illustraion of why writers are told to "show, not tell".

But what makes this book really awful is that, while the writer seems to have at least a nodding acquaintance with Christie's work. I will eat my copy if the author has read any but the earliest and slightest works of Sayers. She (He?) gets the plot of Gaudy Night so wrong as to contradict the main point of the book, turns the Wimsey motto into something not only wrong but nonsensical. The author has done a decent amount of research otherwise, but the lack of understanding of the books and thus of the authors is going to grate on anyone who's familiar with them.

Dorothy Sayers comes home from a meeting to find a dead man in her house. When a letter supposedly from the dead man to his "Dorothy darling" is discovered in his pocket, she become the chief suspect. But this is not a good time for a corpse. She's right in the middle of writing a religious play and fears the publicity would kill any career she might hope to have in serious religous writing.

So when the Detective Club next meets, her friends all decide to help the police by discovering the identity of the dead man, so the police can find who really killed the man and leave their friend alone. But it doesn't work like that. The evidence all points to a possible connection between the dead man and the writer that even her friends can't deny.

The other writers all give up after Dorothy finds out what they're up to. Only Agatha Christie hangs on, and before long, the two women are in a desperate race to save the lives of the next victims. But as the deaths mount up and the police ask more questions, the two greatest mystery writers of the age are almost outwitted by a determined killer.

I enjoyed this book. I didn't really know much about the life of Dorothy Sayers and I enjoyed finding out more about who she really was. I love Agatha Christie and I liked reading about her. Another thing I loved was reading about their fellow members of the Detection Club. It made me want to read more of their books.

My main complaint is that the identity of the murderer become obvious too early. I couldn't believe that either of the women took that long to figure it out. And the police aren't really that dumb either. It wasn't that believable. But it was fun. If you're a fan of either writer, you will probably enjoy the book, but it's certainly no substitute for the real thing.

A corpse is found in Dorothy Sayers home and Dorothy becomes the prime suspect. Agatha Christie comes to the rescue, and the two most famous mystery writers of the mid-Twentieth Century set out to solve a mystery. If you are already familiar with events in the lives of Agatha and Dorothy, this book will not reveal anything about their lives that you don't already know. The book is worth reading if you are (as I am) a lover of the works of Agatha and Dorothy. But don't expect the plot or the writing to equal the efforts of the real Agatha Christy and Dorothy Sayers.