Hoffman Books

When a house of witches is threatened by a greater power, the group must call in reinforcements from the past and form an even tighter band in order to survive. While familiarity with Hoffman's past titles on the theme will lend a quicker appreciation for the setting here, her fine story will engross even newcomers, filled with imagery and strong characters.

Nina Hoffman is a remarkable writer. Her world and characters will keep you surprised, amazed, and reading. PAST THE SIZE OF DREAMING is a worthy follow-up to A RED HEART OF MEMORIES. Readers who have wondered about Matt and Edmund since the first book will be delighted to find out more; those who have not yet met them will be delighted, too.

I recommend ALL of Hoffman's work. She's one of the most innovative fantasists writing today, and her work has appeal to both adult and teenaged readers, which is no mean feat.

I loved this book. I'd been looking forward to it for a long time and it lived up to my expectations. Filled with transformations and strange magic, Past the Size of Dreaming continues the story begun in A Red Heart of Memories. Having found Edmond's friend Suki and settled (temporarily) in the magical, sentient house which served as the safe haven for Edmond and his friends during their adolecent years, Edmond and Matt attempt to locate Julio and Deirdre. Matt learns of the events that helped to drive the four friends apart fifteen years earlier through dreams which the magical house sends her. When Edmond tries to find Julio with magic he fails. Leaving Suki and her ghostly boyfriend Nathan (who is trapped in the house except on Holloweens and seances) to keep the house company, Matt and Edmond go in search of Deirdre, who is relatively easy to locate. A drive to the desert finds her ensconced as a small-town, small-animal vet. She is happy to see Edmond but reluctant to return with him to the house. Using their very different magics (Edmond can communicate with the natural world, whereas Matt can communicate with human-made objects) and some common sense, they end up finding everyone, including the twin witch sisters Tasha and Terry and the person Julio has become. Everyone has changed, some more than others. As the friends get to know each other anew, an old enemy begins to move against them. I don't want to give away what happens next, as this book is filled with many fantastic surpises. The writing is supurb and fans of Ms. Hoffmans earlier work will not be disappointed. Be prepaired for an engrossing, beautiful read.

Thanks to Matilda "Matt" Black, a witch with the ability to talk with inanimate objects and see into people's dreams, Edmond has regained his memory. Edmund, a passable witch, and Matt go back to House, a living entity, to see their old friend Nathan the ghost. Obtaining House's blessing, Edmund also brings his childhood friends there for a visit.

Most people on intimate terms with House have been transformed into beings with magical abilities that ultimately attract the attention of an evil sorcerer. He wants to bind this group to him. While the witches fight off the magical attack, Houses confesses that it purposely brought them together to defeat for reasons of its' own.

PAST THE SIZE OF DREAMING, the sequel to A RED HEART OF MEMORIES, is a beautiful story where evil tries to triumph over good. Nina Kiriki Hoffman is a wonderful storyteller who makes the written word sing. The characters, including House, drive the story as the motley crew wins the hearts of readers who will anxiously await the next installment in this fabulous series.

Harriet Klausner

All the recipes I've tried so far have been delicious! The crabcakes, the vegetarian paella, the strawberry-kiwi cream tart...I could go on and on. I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys great-tasting healthy food - and I can't think of a reason why anyone wouldn't. I just wish it had a few color photos inside to show how some of the dishes should look; that's always helpful in any cookbook. Nonetheless, it's a handy book I'll be using again and again.

I checked this book out from the library and have decided to buy it for myself. Everything I've made from this cookbook has turned out excellent. I also love how you can search by ingredient, even if the ingredient you want to use up is not the main ingredient, unlike most cookbooks. This is key for me, as I usually buy a lot of whatever produce is on sale that week, such as carrots, and then end up frustrated because I don't necessarily want to make a carrot recipe per se. Sometimes I want to use up the last 2 carrots, the last bell pepper, and the last 2 stalks of celery (the staples for any crisper) before buying a new batch. In other words, the index will point you to all recipes where your tail-end ingredient is used. Lesser known produce, such as bok choy, also have recipes (I buy most of my vegetables from Chinatown markets). Also, I'm generally loose with measuring, whether it'sproduce or spices, but nothing has ended up catastrophically. Finally, my boyfriend is vegetarian while I am not, but this cookbook allows me to cook for both of us, with good vegetable and tofu-based recipes. A positive recommendation.

I have been so impressed with the recipes and information contained in this cookbook. Everything that I have tried has been so delicious. Recipes from this book have become my family's favorites - the ones that are most requested. I particularly recommend the recipes for poached salmon and chicken piccante. There is also very good information and tips about reducing fat, making substitutions, and being more health conscious in your cooking. I definitely recommend this book!

I love this book! It has so many yummy recipies that actually taste good! It also is very informative about preperation of foods It has been a great help to me in my quest for a healthier lifestyle. I use it all the time and they are recipies you can use everyday not just for parties. It's great, I really recommend this book!

This is perhaps the most pleasurable "academic" history I have come across. Although it provides an extensive account of life in the Chesapeake through the lives and business dealings - and there are plenty of those enumerated - of the tenacious Carroll family, I was also struck by Ronald Hoffman's major theme of family continuity, of purpose driven by recollection and ambition that the Carrolls had in spades. The very tightly researched accounts of the family history in Ireland, and of all the other families like them in the chaos of the 17th century, is little short of astonishing. I'll admit to an enduring interest in Irish history, but this one illustrates why Carrolls and others left their broken aristocracy. That continuity touches on my own forebearers, one of whom was a first cousin of Charles Carroll of Carrollton's. She married another Irish immigrant Marylander and set out in 1796 to populate the then frontier in Kentucky with other Catholics, I am sure at direction of one of their neighbors in Upper Marlborough, MD, Fr. John Carroll, first Catholic bishop in America and also Charles' first cousin. A great read on many levels.

Ronald Hoffman is an excellent historian who has brought great knowledge of Chesapeake social and cultural history to this biographical work that places three generations of the Carroll family within their colonial context. It is a wonderful biography that gets the reader into the minds and lives of these three Charles Carroll's. But for me the best thing was the number of times it made me think, "Oh, that's how it was." I have read enough colonial history to know that there were lots of tenant laborers and not just slaves in the region, to know that Catholic Maryland quickly became Anglican Maryland, and to know that the Revolution was not just about ideas but also about social change. Ronald Hoffman's narrative, however, really brings these facts home. His book is not about any one of these issues in particular, but in telling the story of three generations of Carroll's in Maryland he brings home the greater circumstances of the colony better than many historians who have set out to make a case for one of the above arguments, or many of the other fascinating takes on early Chesapeake society contained in this highly readable book. I have not read any book lately that I enjoyed more.

Traditional patriotism demands that we believe that the founding fathers of America were all great democratic idealist. Although this may have been true for some, many others had no problem with the idea of an elite ruling class, so long as they were considered the elite. Thus the victory over England can be viewed as less of an American Democratic Revolution and more of a power transition from the English crown to the new American aristocracy.

A primary example of this American elite class was Maryland representative Charles Carroll of Carrollton. A signer of the American Declaration of Independence, Charles of Carrollton was a wealthy planter and businessman who became such not by his own doings but primarily through the inheritance and molding of his father, Charles Carroll of Annapolis. Ever mindful of his Irish and Catholic roots and the persecution therein by English aristocrats, the elder Charles did everything in his power to equip his son to fend off those who would attempt to cripple him politically and economically. In so doing, the elder Charles created a mindset of elitism within his son.

This irony is highlighted by Ronald Hoffman in his book, "Princes of Ireland, Planters of Europe," in which he examines the Carroll family and traces how a persecuted family from Ireland in 1500 came to be one of the prominent families in America by the time of the American Revolution

I was originally attracted to this book out of a simple curiosity about the last surviving signer of the Declaration of Independence (Charles Carroll outlived Adams and Jefferson by about six years, or about 56 years after 1776!). On a deeper level, I hoped to learn more about the kind of early capitalist that would be attracted to signing on to the American Revolution in general. What this book helped me discover was a family that had over time become focused, almost obsessed, with making a buck under fairly adverse circumstances (namely, continuing in their Roman Catholic faith that made it difficult for them to thrive, even in an enclave as seemingly sympathetic as colonial Maryland, with its relatively large Catholic population). But when the time came for this family to rise above its simple wealth building and to champion the cause of the Revolution, it did indeed rise to the occasion, however brief and painful the process might be. (Hoffman attends to both the private and public lives of the Carrolls.) The history of the Carrolls is a part of the history of the magic that was the American Revolution. It is not surprising that the book ends abruptly with the death of Charles Carroll's father and his wife, about 10 days apart from one another in 1782 (though there is a brief summing up of Carroll's remaining 50 years and the attention attracted by his death in 1832). The story is told, the dynasty pretty much complete.

What's the book like? At times it seems downright willfully prosaic, and the story proceeds much like a carefully written doctoral dissertation - all conclusions fully supported and made in as logical a context as possible, all contentions politically correct for our time. Hoffman's goal is of course to be scholarly and thorough, not to be entertaining or controversial. Thus the sweep of this history must emerge and coalesce in the mind of the reader. Leave being beaten over the head with the broader conclusions inherent in the narrative to more popularly written histories.

Suffice it to say, if you're a municipal library and you need to beef up your Revolutionary War material, this is a prime buy. If you're a true history buff, this would be an excellent choice to work into your reading list. It has the effect of immersing you into the spirit of the times and providing you with detail you could not have imagined you would find interesting (but you do). If you're a casual reader, just be advised - this is heavy stuff. It's not an easy read, but it is ultimately a rewarding one.

I admit it...I'm a procrastinator, and I need help! Thankfully I found this planner. I've looked at other guides and books, and while they had some good content, ultimately they left me feeling flat. But this one is both fun and informative. It is written in a humorus tone yet packed with a lot of facts and figures that I think will be very useful as I plan out the coming year. The book is easy on the eyes, with a retro animated style that I find very appealing. I recommend this to anyone like me who needs a playful nudge to get them off the couch and on to getting things done.

I bought this almost two months ago and just got around to looking at it. It's terrific and I've already started entering items. It's humorous... and definitely useful with good motivating ideas. Wish I'd had this book for 2003... Don Borzak

This weekly calendar is the perfect solution to the quest for original holiday gifts under $20. It's a very funny but still amazingly functional calendar for those of us who can never quite catch up with life's chores. I bought one, gave it to a friend who admired it, and now I need another for me and several for friends and relatives. It fits easily in a purse or briefcase, but has a very sturdy, colorful cover that won't get lost. Don't procrastinate. Get one before you forget.

This charming calendar is not JUST for procrastinators! There's lots of useful information for each week: for instance, June has Father's Day tips, July has packing (for a vacation) tips, August has back to school tips. Good advice throughout and "the ultimate reprieve" on each page -- one is "Call Mom." The side bars on each week are not to be missed. These are great gifts --house presents, stocking stuffers and, of course, one for your own desk.

Paul Thomas Anderson, writer-director of the absorbing Sundance fave HARD EIGHT (1997), the brilliant, sprawling 70s epic BOOGIE NIGHTS (1997) and the utterly enthralling, 3-hour mosaic of pain, sickness, death and loneliness in the San Fernando Valley MAGNOLIA (1999), returns to form yet again with his utterly bizzare and very fascinating sounding 90 minute dark romantic "comedy" PUNCH-DRUNK LOVE (2002). The film stars Adam Sandler and Emily Watson as two nearly insane people. Sandler plays Barry Egan, a lonely businessman (his only friend seems to be a co-worker named Lance, played by Anderson comic relief fave and ensemble lover Luis Guzman) with 7 abusive sisters. Watson plays Lena Leonard, a quirky young Englishwoman who is one of his sister's (Mary-Lynn Raksjub--love her!) friends from work. They get (jokingly) set up on a blind date (I believe they meet first, then go for dinner), and love is in the air. He plans to buy lots and lots (and lots yet again) of pudding for a chance to win frequent flier miles in a contest. This will lead to a Hawaii trip that would go right, but Barry's depressing recent past stands in the way. He was conned upon calling a phone sex line (to a woman named Georgia)--seems she wants more money than he should have to pay and this leads to a dangerous group of Utah thugs coming to the Valley to collect for their sleezy pimp leader (played by the great Philip Seymour Hoffman, the only actor yet to be in all 4 P.T. Anderson pictures). This all combines to what sounds like one of the best new films of the fall season, and possibly one of the best of the year. Ebert and Roeper loved it and it was a hit at many film festivals it attended. Sounds great. Anderson's script is shorter than MAGNOLIA's 194 pages or BOOGIE NIGHTS' 152, and even his debut HARD EIGHT'S (no script published yet--the running time was 101 minutes!). This (literal) change of pace for the Altman-Scorsese-Demme-influenced young auteur promises a "joy ride" of epic proportions, if not length. His scripts (including this) are published as "Shooting Scripts". This means it's gone through some changes since the "Reading Draft(1st draft)", but Anderson thinks visually, directs very much in that vein, and has been known to write very much like that. His scripts contain much camera description and as little scene description as possible. As he said in the BOOGIE NIGHTS script book introduction, "I've come to realize that my function as a director is to be a good writer...My obligation as a director is to deliver the actors a good script, thus making my job as a director describable as 'hanging out' and watching them go. No good actor needs direction beyond 'Let's do another one' and 'Keep it simple.'...There is no flour and sugar...this is a script written for actors. An actor does not need a full description of their character...This is how most screenplays are written... This sort of thing must be written by writers who have no interest in meeting or socializing with actors. If you have written this and you can find an actress to play this part, as described, you will have a bad actress. Actors do not need this, they don't want it. Don't give it to them; they will not read it anyway. This is writing for studio executives. Studio executives do not make movies. They pretend that they make movies. This is a script written for the people who really make the movie, people who physically put it into existence, and all they need are the facts. Pure and Simple." This is a philosophy that is rare and much needed in Hollywood and Independent Cinema nowadays...Scripts rely too much on the "telling" of a story and not enough on the "making" of a story. People who know where their story is going before they pick up a pen, type one letter, or even think of an idea, will never write a great screenplay that way. You have to let it unfold for you and for the audience...

Paul Thomas Anderson, writer-director of the absorbing Sundance fave HARD EIGHT (1997), the brilliant, sprawling 70s epic BOOGIE NIGHTS (1997) and the utterly enthralling, 3-hour mosaic of pain, sickness, death and loneliness in the San Fernando Valley MAGNOLIA (1999), returns to form yet again with his utterly bizzare and very fascinating sounding 90 minute dark romantic "comedy" PUNCH-DRUNK LOVE (2002). The film stars Adam Sandler and Emily Watson as two nearly insane people. Sandler plays Barry Egan, a lonely businessman (his only friend seems to be a co-worker named Lance, played by Anderson comic relief fave and ensemble lover Luis Guzman) with 7 abusive sisters. Watson plays Lena Leonard, a quirky young Englishwoman who is one of his sister's (Mary-Lynn Raksjub--love her!) friends from work. They get (jokingly) set up on a blind date (I believe they meet first, then go for dinner), and love is in the air. He plans to buy lots and lots (and lots yet again) of pudding for a chance to win frequent flier miles in a contest. This will lead to a Hawaii trip that would go right, but Barry's depressing recent past stands in the way. He was conned upon calling a phone ... line (to a woman named Georgia)--seems she wants more money than he should have to pay and this leads to a dangerous group of Utah thugs coming to the Valley to collect for their sleezy ...and leader (played by the great Philip Seymour Hoffman, the only actor yet to be in all 4 P.T. Anderson pictures). This all combines to what sounds like one of the best new films of the fall season, and possibly one of the best of the year. Ebert and Roeper loved it and it was a hit at many film festivals it attended. Sounds great. Anderson's script is shorter than MAGNOLIA's 194 pages or BOOGIE NIGHTS' 152, and even his debut HARD EIGHT'S (no script published yet--the running time was 101 minutes!). This (literal) change of pace for the Altman-Scorsese-Demme-influenced young auteur promises a "joy ride" of epic proportions, if not length. His scripts (including this) are published as "Shooting Scripts". This means it's gone through some changes since the "Reading Draft(1st draft)", but Anderson thinks visually, directs very much in that vein, and has been known to write very much like that. His scripts contain much camera description and as little scene description as possible. ...

One of my new favorites, "Punch-Drunk Love" is a unique and spectacular story about a man who doesn't know how the face the world around him. That man is Barry Egan. He has seven sisters who have verbally abused him since he was little, causing him to, now all grown up, get into violent outbursts. Barry's a quiet and shy guy, but if his button is pushed things can get out of control. He meets Lena, a very strange and peculiar girl herself. Love falls upon these two, but Barry's even facing more problems after being blackmailed by a phone-sex operator. But when all else fails, he knows that he has a love in his life in this very oddball and dark comedy.

I'm glad they came out with a script version of the film that you can buy. Paul Thomas Anderson has written a magnificent picture that's so easy to relate to , it's scary. The stuff that occurs you can see happening in real life. It's realistic and surreal at the same time.

This is the shooting script, on blue, pink, and yellow colored pages that symbolize when the revisions were made. Technical terms such as camera angels are included as well since it is a shooting script. Even little changes are mentioned as well. I love the dialogue that was written and you can tell that P.T. had Sandler in mind for the part, because nobody else would've been able to pull it off. While it's not your typical comedy, I thought it was hilarious. It pretty much follows the movie, although some things aren't there or changed due to changes that occurred during the shooting. It's pretty much all there for the most part.

"Punch-Drunk Love: The Shooting Script" is a great purchase for anyone who loved the film. It may not had been the most popular movie to come out of 2002, but it's #2 on my list. The pages fly by with ease, and when you're done with it you want to read it again. I can't wait for this movie to come out on DVD. I'm counting the days. A spectacular script for a spectacular film.

I love being able to read P.T. Anderson's shooting scripts. His films are fabulous. I believe one of the negative reviewers partially misses the point when harping on the misspellings, the rambling monologues and how PTA's scripts are saved by the actors. The whole point of a script is that it is the first rough draft -- the framework -- upon which a movie is built. Of course there are going to be improvements between the script and the final product. The reason to buy this, or any, shooting script is to see how the project evolved from script to screen. In the case of Punch-Drunk Love -- much more so than Boogie Nights or Magnolia -- it's fascinating to find that almost every important scene was tweaked, sometimes in a major way, before this wonderful film reached the screen. ... It's a great chance to get some insight into the stages of the creative process of one of America's finest directors. ... BOTTOM LINE: Does this book have all the bells and whistles of the Boogie Nights and Magnolia shooting scripts? NOPE. Is it essential for the PTA fan? YUP.

This is simply the funniest and most enjoyable book on theoretical inorganic chemistry I've ever read. Its format is close to your typical bedside table novel, lively informal and packed with the most awesome qualitative insights on bonding with molecular orbital theory without the need to resort to hardcore mathematics. It also has some amusing puns and jokes mixed with the enthusiasm of conveying this knowledge. The more interested reader should also read Jeremy Burdett's "Chemical Bonding in Solids" for a more detailed account of the quantum chemical and solid state aspects involved. All in all 140 pages of pure pleasure.

I'm a Ph D student in physics working on the adsorption of molecules at surfaces, but I didn't really know what I was doing until I read this book. It's easy to understand (because it's so well written), also for physicists although it is written for chemists (I barely know anything about chemistry, but I understood everything). The book teaches you the most important things you need to know to understand bonds qualitatively and also e.g. the related shifts in energy, charge transfers,... However people working in the field of chemistry or physics shouldn't bother to buy this book because they'll probably have access to the papers this book is based upon. The most important of these papers is:

R. Hoffmann, A chemical and theoretical way to look at bonding on surfaces, Rev. Mod. Phys. 60, 601-628 (1988).

This is a very interesting article that you definitely should read.

This book bridges the language gap between chemistry and condensed matter physics. Starting from the language that all chemists are comfortable with - that of molecular orbitals - Hoffman builds up the idea of bonding in extended structures (solids) as if a solid was just a giant molecule. This is done with a minimum of mathematics, mostly using simple and graphical representation. As a primer to the area of solid state chemistry, this book is invaluable.

I'm not sure if physicists, starting from the other end of the language will find it as useful as a chemist, but it should be straightforward for them as well, giving them the chemist's point of view (language).

This is a short book, and wisely does not try to exceed its boundries, that of an introduction/overview. For a more mathematical treatment, I would suggest Burdett's "Chemical Bonding in Solids." If you only want an introduction written in plain language with lots of graphics, this is the book for you.

This book bridges a gap between molecular orbital theory and the empirical/intuitive way chemists think about bonding in molecules. From there, it opens up vistas in extended systems (e.g. solids, conductive polymers) that most ordinary "molecular" chemists think of as foreign and forbidding because the language and tools used to treat them are those of solid state physicists with which most chemists are (regrettably) unfamiliar. Hoffmann brings all this good stuff home to chemists, without the bludgeon of complicated mathematics, inviting us in, showing us how much we already know. My own background is both physics and traditional synthetic organic/organometallic chemistry. Until I read this book, I had struggled to see how the physics and chemistry meet. This book has really bridged the gap.

This book looked interesting. Browsing through, I thought it was well written. I was surprised...Reading it brought peace.

I'm very busy, ride the metro to DC most workdays and often get interrupted. It was easy to read on my commute with the many short stories. It was a healing for me. It gave me good feelings. The stories are from such a diversity and you understand a Special Dream is "normal."

Leslee King, Northern VA

Special Dream - After the Death of a Loved One
It's not very often one can get a stranger to open up long kept secrets. Hoffman has that inate ability to do just that. Perhaps because she herself experienced such a dream, or perhaps he was chosen to confirm the experiences of so many others. A must read! R. Mulholland

I agree that this book would make a thoughtful and comforting gift, especially if the recipient believes in dream-communication such as is covered in Special Dream.
If you have dreamt of a loved one who has passed on, it is recommended you read this.
For skeptics, Ms. Hoffman describes well how she researched this subject, giving all evidence to back up her claims (i.e. how many people were interviewed, from what states, why some stories were debunked, ect...)So, for my own skeptical side, this information proved helpful.

This book is so encouraging to anyone who's lost a loved one... this books shows that there has got to be an afterlife... these bodies of ours are are just earth suits... there is more to come... and they say its beautiful there... :-) This would be a great gift to someone who has either lost a loved one, or has a loved one who is terminally ill, someone who is interested in dreams, or just for anyone who loves life and wants to meditate on the fullness and beauty and awesomeness of life... when we are awake or asleep or gone on before...

A terrific collection of spooky stories from around the state as told by a master storyteller. Can't wait for the next one!

Reviewed by Ellen Hogan for Reader Views (7/06)

This book is full of stories about paranormal happenings around New Jersey. Some of the stories date back to the time of the Revolutionary War. Each chapter is a different story some made to make yu go hmmmmm and some that are quite funny.

The first story is about a couple where the wife indulges in psychic events. When they visit someplace that she is interested in, she attends to finding out more about where they are and he just walks the trails and waits. This time they are in Ringwood State Park. It is said that the ghost of Robert Erskine roams the cemetery. While his wife is in taking a tour of the home, her husband decides that a nice walk is in order. All of a sudden the sky gets dark and rain is surely on the way. The husband sees a man with a lantern and the man tells him that he had better get a move on because it's getting ready to storm. He thanks the man dressed in the Revolutionary War uniform and asks who he is supposed to be. The man tells him that he is Robert Erskine, lightening flashes just at that moment and could be seen though his body. When the wife comes out her husband tells her of his experience and says that from now on she can go by herself.

Another story is about a man who buys an old grist mill. He is told that the previous miller was lured into the millpond by a topielec. He, of course, does not believe it. He marries and he and his wife are expecting their first child, they also have her nephew visiting with them. Each day the wife and boy would walk to meet him and they would go home together. One day the topielec started singing her song and the miller's wife started into the millpond. Her nephew grabs a hold of her and starts crying for her to get out of the pond. Finally the topielec's spell is broken and the miller's wife and nephew run to the grist mill. They tell the miller what happened and they are told that because she was pregnant that the topielec left her alone. The baby and the nephew were innocent so she could not lure them to their death. A neighbor advised them to always wear a cross and the topielec would leave them alone. The next day the miller bought each of them a cross to wear.

Joel had heard rumors of Blackbeard's Treasure and the town drunk Teddy told him he knew where to find it. So late one night the two went to the black walnut tree and started digging. Finally the land gave way and they found themselves in an underground cavern, and there they saw three chests. Joel opened one and started loading his pockets with gold and jewels. Then they heard the ghost of Blackbeard, as they ran out all the treasures that Joel had gotten fell along the way. They emerged from a dark passageway onto the riverbank. The next day they go back to find that the hole they dug is all covered over
like it was never there. Joel keeps trying and finally one day finds the opening where they came out to the riverbank. He goes inside and all the chests are gone, but on the floor he finds one gold coin. He kept it the rest of his life for good luck.

These are just a couple of the stories from the book, there are many more. If you are interested in hauntings and ghosts then this is the book for you. It's a collection of stories to be told over and over again.

Ghosts, hauntings and folk lore as told by someone who treasures the stories and wants to share them.

Spooky New Jersey is a wonderful collection of witty and interesting tales about my home state. As in her other "Spooky" books, S. E. Schlosser includes both folklore and history, and makes the stories very entertaining. This is a book that can be read in its entirety or by selected stories. A great addition to any library, especially for those stormy nights!

Spooky New Jersey captures your interest from the first story to the last. No New Jersey folklore book is complete without a New Jersey Devil story. The author of this book has adventures of the Jersey Devil in a 1909 setting. The Devil's activities are presented in an interesting and straight forward manner. Another story that captured my interest is named Brotherly Love. The setting is in Springfield, N J. The time frame is the Civil War, one brother fought for the north the other brother fought for the south, Lincoln has been assinated and his funeral train has made it to New York City and the brother's pay their respects to the president and interact with each other.
The Ghost in the Storm is a story about George Washington when his troops were wintering in Jockey Hollow.
An entertaining story is The Treasure Trove.
A pirate story involving Captain Kidd is called Dem Bones.
If you want to look for treasure the story Blackbeard's Treasure may hold some helpful clues.
I enjoyed the story of The White Stag, but my favorite was in The Sweet By and By.
I enjoyed reading every story in the book and wish it was longer.

I really loved Spooky Southwest! The stories were short, and some of them were really scary -- like the Death Waltz and Old Granny Tucker. There were also some good laughs -- for example, the story "The Ultimate Stakes" has two Comstock miners making it into Heaven, and they go a little crazy when they realize the streets are made out of gold!

I have read all three books by S.E. Schlosser, and they keep getting better and better. Can't wait to see what's next from this author.

Spooky Southwest was a great read. I love to read about Ghosts and strange things that happen. I want to visit the places I read about and see if these stories are true. I had to read this book during daylight hours only because I'm easily spooked, but that is half the fun anyway. I can't wait until S.E. Schlosser comes out with a new "Spooky" book.

My students have loved this book. It is a quick read of short stories that fill in for any down time we may have in the classroom.

The Southwest . . . land of cowboys, Indians, legends and folklore. Pecos Bill visits the most haunted house in the west, a slave prays for his freedom, gold miners head for Heaven's streets of gold, skeletons, ghosts, treasure and more. This book continues the tradition of exciting tales made famous in the Southwest. Both the well known and less well known tales are equally exciting. Anyone who finds the Southwest interesting will put this book on their definite read list.

The Paperback version of this book was given to me free when I was a medical student in 1985. I practice rheumatology and am an athlete myself. Whenever a question comes up regarding an athletic injury, if I am not immediately familiar with the disorder or can't find information from other sources, I dust off this book. I can't recall a time when this book failed me or the patient. Its conservative approach with a big measure of wisdom makes it the best sports medicine book I have ever seen. With regard to non surgical treatments, it never seems to get out of date. For this reason it is probably the only textbook I still own dating back to my medical school years. The reason I accessed this site was to see if a revised edition exists, which sadly doesn't seem to be the case. This book is not only the best I have seen for a physicians use, but for a therapist or sophisticated athlete as well. I would welcome any information on a possible successor to this edition.

We have owned this book for many years and reference it regularly. It has been loaned to a number of friends and colleagues many of whom purchased their own copies after reading it. The descriptions of injuries are excellent, and, although is was published a number of years ago, the the advice is still sound. I highly recommend it to anyone who plays sports or exercises or has family members who do so. It is also a great reference to have at gyms and company libraries. I highly recommend it.

We have owned this book for many years and reference it regularly. It has been loaned to a number of friends and colleagues many of whom purchased their own copies after reading it. The descriptions of injuries are excellent, and, although is was published a number of years ago, the the advice is still sound. I highly recommend it to anyone who plays sports or exercises or has family members who do so. It is also a great reference to have at gyms and company libraries. I highly recommend it.

I have played just about every sport known to man in my 43 years of life. I bought this book in 1985 after a softball injury kept me from going to a national tournament. IT IS TIMELESS. It is organized by body section, which makes it an easy reference manual for the non-medical folks like me. Leg injury, find it in the leg section, back injury, back section, etc. I came here because I hurt my back this weekend while loading moving boxes into storage and one of the MANY boxes contains my "sports injury bible" (obviously this book). I frantically searched through as many boxes as I could to find it without hurting my back further, but it is KILLING me that I can't find it (killing me MORE than the injury!). It has become a trusted friend over the years and I came here thinking I wouldn't mind having a backup for now. Mine has been leant out MANY times over the years to teammates and other friends, and saved me TONS OF MONEY by replacing doctor and hospital visits. If you are an athlete and endure the typical weekend sportsman's injuries, and HATE going to the doctor only to hear: "Take two of these and call me Monday", find this book and hang on to it! It shows you how to rehabilitate AND strengthen injured muscles, ligaments, etc. My softball injury was a second degree tear of the rotator cuff muscle (I found that out from reading the book and WITHOUT going to a doctor ONE!). The book told me how to figure out what was wrong, how to fix it, when I could go back to playing (both conservative AND agressive estimates), AND THEN how to strengthen the muscle and surrounding muscles so that there would be MINIMAL scar tissue. Within months my throwing arm was even STRONGER than before the injury. Dr. Southmayd has many interesting stories of helping pro and amateur athletes with their rehabilitation intermingled with the why this works and that doesn't. He writes from an understanding of the perspective of the athlete (when can I get back to playing?!?). I consider myself lucky that I have one of these, bought ignorantly as an alternative to seeing a doctor in 1985. Get one if you can, I can't wait to unload these boxes and find mine!