Duke Books

I fel that the element of homosexuality was ruined by the synopsis on the back cover. Who wants to read a book if the plot is all spelled out? Personally, I would have rather read the book only knowing that it was about a french diplomat who begin a love affair with a chinese opera star. But since I knew the basic plot, it was sadly deflated.

I had to read this for a college course. It was a very quick read and very interesting. It is a great book to write a paper over because of all the gender themes as well. It's a little grotesque at times and definitely not moral, but you wont regret reading it. I would suggest it highly.

I received my order right on time, in good condition, fast and efficient, very satisfactory service.

I recently saw a performance of M. Butterfly at a local theatre, and I was left utterly speechless. The acting was extremely powerful, which brought the story and its themes to life better than any book could. Nevertheless, I'm going to buy a copy of the play!

Reviewers who focus on the inplausibility of the play's premise are missing the forest for the trees. The ridiculousness of Gallimard's situation is the product of his (and through him, the West's) self-absorbed and limited view of the East, evidenced through the overly simplistic dichotomy of East & West. He has been utterly blinded by his preconceptions of gender, culture, and politics. Hwang has written a masterpiece with grace, humor, and wit. Students of literary analysis will find a text rich in archetypes and ritual.

Highly recommended.

It tells you where to start in almost every
important branch of Physics. A lot of colorful
pictures and tables. Answers to the Exercise
problems are provided.

I started using this book after college days to review some physics topics now and then. It is a complete and helpful reference covering the very broad field of physics. The large quantity of topics are logically structured which becomes apparent when one reads the table of contents.

Without trying "making" a mountain out of a molehill - this is the best physics book i've ever read! Well written, easy and understandable, everything a teacher or a student hope for...
I just found it when i was "sailing" in MIT web page and somewhere in between this book pop up! It is proposed as a master textbook for the Physics course at EECS. I don't know what Berkley suggests in EECS but i can't think of anything better!

Rational Presentation
---------------------

Compared to Serway's Text, Giancoli's presentation is a model of rationality. For example, the first 4 chapters are:

Chapter 1 Introduction Measurement, Estimating
Chapter 2 Describing Motion: Kinematics in One Dimension
Chapter 3 Kinematics in Two Dimensions; Vectors
Chapter 4 Dynamics: Newton's Laws of Motion

The order here demonstrates a rational, ordered thought. First, Motion in One Dimesion precedes the chapter on Vectors, unlike in Serway's text. Second, unlike in Serway's text Vectors and Two Dimensions are one chapter not 2.

Good Concept Integration
------------------------

For example, the introduction of Coulomb's law takes advantage of the opportunity to mention that additional electromagnetic forces exist when charges are in motion.

I've been using this book for years. I really like it a lot. There are many god things about it. It shows how calculus is used to derive formulas (remember less formulas, really) and solve many problems... good examples that are worth noting (so important). The calculus is almost a lack of what you'll see in Calc classes because it's seeing what's going on in a problem and describe it with calculus... mainly using integrals (set up equations with infinitesimals and taking the integral to solve for what you need). It'd be nice to find a good book on this, but anyway, I took advantage of getting the information from instructors who could explain it more thoroughly. If you follow the calc stuff in the book carefully you should get it, but be aware that you can integrate with respect to one of the other variables (like limits of integration with arc length s vice angle theta). Overall, I feel it could explain the calculus even more... then it would be very complete!

I think this book is very well written, clearly presented, and has pretty much all the classic examples and problems. I think it needs to clear up some modern physics stuff, though. I felt a little lost and needed to search other books on that stuff. BTW, it appears there is a new 2007 edition coming out with "Modern Physics" in the title... so that might be the one to get.

Anyhow, I love how this one has been around a while and it's a great reference for Univ Phys material. There are answer key/solution documents going around everywhere, but it would have been nice to see one in pdf format (the word one substitutes fonts and isn't in "pretty print" math format... a good version should be somewhere on the web... else I'm going to make one). Overall, I give this book a 4.75. The student solutions manual might be worth checking out (I didn't go that way). Thanks and best of luck.

This is one of the worst books I have ever read! It is billed as a mystery and there is no mystery. It is pure romantic fantasy drivel and only an idiot could believe in this poorly conceived fairy tale.

Unlike the other books in this series, Lori Shepherd, the usual heroine, makes no appearance. Also, Aunt Dimity doesn't show up much, and the mystery is of a bit different tenor and solution than the others! The wit, charm, and wisdom Dimity usually guides with are still to be found, but in this story they're the job of other characters. The American Emma has just suffered heavy loss, and to collect and rejuvenate herself she embarks on a trip to visit the famous gardens of England, where she unknowingly attends a "divine appointment" with the Pym sisters. The eccentric twins send her to the garden of a duke, where a comedy of errors land Emma right where she needs to be. At the duke's estate she meets Derek and his family for the first time, and suddenly her seemingly commonplace skills become very valuable as she's drawn into a mystery that affects everyone at the estate. After introducing us to these characters in Book 1, Atherton does a lovely job of fleshing them out in Book 2, in preparation for the rest the series. I missed Lori and Dimity, but enjoyed this story as much as I did the others!

I started to read this book with avid interest. I was really touched by young Peter's memory of his mother, and I loved the story behind the stained glass window. Some of the characters are a trifle wacky, but I put up with that until the end, when the answers to everything come out. Suddenly all the characters begin acting silly and nasty over nothing! Frumpy Emma bullies and yells at her host, and Kate Cole develops a sharp tongue towards not only the Duke but her mother as well. Kate must've been starting her period and Emma going through the change. And the Duke is SO meek towards these nasty women! Maybe Atherton wanted to cut through the over-sweet atmosphere of the book with this disagreement, but it just didn't make sense to me. It ruined the whole book for me. I am glad now that Nancy Atherton sticks to Lori Shepherd. At least her anger at something or someone makes some sense. Read Aunt Dimity And the Next of Kin to see what I mean. The Duke SHOULD have thrown Emma out!

The Aunt Dimity series is made up of great, light reads that are really fun. No heavy thinking here; just an enjoyable, lighthearted book. As I was reading this one, though, I kept expecting Lori to appear, but she didn't. I really think this book should go before Aunt Dimity's Death, not after. At any rate, it was still a very enjoyable read, and I recommend it.

As I began reading this book I almost immediately found that I was totally confused. Lori and Bill, the main characters from the first book were nowhere to be seen and in their place I found an almost completely different set of characters. The only holdovers that I could find were Aunt Dimity of course, the delightful Pym sisters and Emma Porter. Emma had only a minor role in the first book but in this entry she was one of the main characters along with Derek Harris a recently widowed father of two delightful children. After doing a little research I found that this book, like the first one is introducing characters that will be central to the series later on but I had to figure this out on my own for there were no indications whatsoever within the book as to what was going on.

The author has chosen a grand English estate for the setting of this book as she introduces her second set of characters and a lovely setting it is. Emma Porter is an American who as an avid gardener is touring English gardens and while roaming around a hedge maze she runs into the Pym sisters who seem to be there at the behest of Aunt Dimity. The good sisters decide that Emma is the perfect person to renovate part of the gardens at Penford Hall, the home of their friend Duke Grayson Alexander. From there the story takes off as Derek Harris and his children are also at the Hall while Derek repairs a stained glass window that is a central part of the history and legend of Penford Hall.

As in the first book no one dies in this entry although there seems to have been a very mysterious death at Penford Hall a few years earlier. That death plays a central part in the mysterious plot of this book but that is not the only mystery present so when one mystery is solved there are plenty more to take its place. Amazingly the author is able to juggle all of these mysteries in such a way so as not to confuse the reader any more than necessary and in the end everything is as usual all tied up in a neat little package. A good cozy mystery should never leave its readers hanging after all.

As in the first book this story is very well written, fun and engaging. So much so in fact that I found myself unable at times to put the book down even though the hour had grown very late. The characters are well thought out, believable and quite memorable and the setting is so well described that I could almost smell the fragrant gardens and feel the rich soil in my hands. All in all this is a very good book but I am going to have to deduct at least one star for the confusing way that this book approaches the fact that it is introducing a whole new set of characters without any warning whatsoever. I'm not sure how I would have accomplished this task differently but I just wasn't satisfied with the way that this author did it.

Elizabeth Boyle's romances always deliver a fun read! The surprise in this book is the twists and turns of intrigues by other characters, that trip up the hero and heroine, as well as, save the day.

The events and characters stretch the bounds of miscommunication gone a-muck; for chuckles. The hero and heroine remain determined to let the other stew in their own mistakes, while the reader is in on the joke. The cast of characters, filling out the story, come to life with their own personalities and issues.

This is part of a series, since Felicity is the pivot point and author of "The Bachelor Chronicles", so there are references to other stories in the series, but only lightly peppered through the pages.

Regency romance readers who want high drama and detailed perfection from that time of "the ton" might want to skip this story. This is a- tripping the light fantastic of historical romance- fun. I personally find that stories that use the regency period, for dramatic impact, as dreadfully trite. Ms. Boyle uses the regency setting of scandals and ruin mainly for hairstyle and dress.

"Letters from a Duke" shows Ms. Boyle loves storytelling, loves her characters and loves entertaining her readers. She writes with a style I adore.

Skip this novel if you have not read the novels that precede Letters to a Duke. It was annoying when previous characters popped up several times in the book with little background. This is not a stand alone book.

The premise of the novel had potential. Teen age girl writes letters to a duke telling him she is the perfect mate for him. These letters are intercepted by his Grandfather and a nice little courtship via mail ensues for years with Felicity never suspecting that her dream Duke is not the author behind these love letters.

The Duke, Aubrey Thatcher, has no idea that this courtship has occurred until he comes home from fighting in Spain. He has every intention of calling off this courtship. His plans are put on hold when Felicity mistakes him for their new footman. He plays along and falls in love with her in a matter of days.

Felicity is incredibly haughty, immature and quite frankly rude. She treats her footman, Thatcher like the lowest of servants. I particularly did not like when she told her footman to appreciate his betters, meaning her and her entourage. Really this is beyond annoying to just plain mean spirited. She goes on and on about the importance of marrying a Duke. She is impatient and thinks she knows what is best for her sister and cousin residing with her. Felicity has a great knack for lying both to others and to herself.

Thatcher is an okay guy. He is patient in the extreme with Felicity. I never figured out why he loved her. I think he supposedly liked her gumption. Obviously her treatment of their future servants would never be a consideration of her character.

The ending of this book was nicely written for the Duke and Felicity. Felicity showed more kindness and compassion in the last two chapters than she did in all the previous chapters combined. Her cousin's romance was left hanging, thanks to Felicity's intervention. I guess this is to be the next novel. I hope that Felicity's cousin Pippin, has a kinder and more heartfelt romance with her pirate than Felicity did with her footman.

I loved this!! It was my first Elizabeth Boyle book and I quickly bought her other ones. This is the first mistaken identity book I've read where I thought the author totally pulled it off. From the second Felicity answers the door in her red woolen socks, I was sucked in. And I stayed there until THE END.

I loved the characters. I could so see Felicity's vulnerability under her "I'm going to marry the duke and take care of everyone" facade. This was skillfully done. It's difficult to portray this in a character but Elizabeth Boyle did it splendidly. It wasn't a false bravado that Felicity sported but rather a dogged determination that had a touch of desperation to it.

I loved the chemistry between Felicity and Thatcher and can't understand why a couple of people didn't feel that. I not only felt the physical chemistry, but I felt a genuine liking of each for the other, something that doesn't happen in a lot of romances. It was especially amusing that Felicity didn't want to like him and kept trying not to.

I had not read any of Boyle's other books, yet I had no problem following this one, so for me I would have to say it definitely was a standalone book. Reading the earlier books later was quite a delight, really. I knew what was in store for Felicity and that made me smile. Yes, the supporting characters were sometimes a little whacky, but honestly, no more whacky than my family members (or yours, probably). And anyway, this is fiction. If I want to read something with no imagination, that doesn't demand any leap of faith, I'll read non-fiction.

This story was fast-paced and I never knew what was going to happen next, yet as it happened, it was like, Of course! Why didn't I realize that was coming? I love it when an author surprises me and everything fits perfectly into the story. I laughed out loud several times during this book, and that's important to me. Even if a book has me crying during the dramatic parts, I expect to laugh somewhere along the way, or it's not for me.

I loved it. What more can I say except I'll be looking forward to her forthcoming stories.

With her regal bearing, Felicity Langley has been called `Duchess' since she was a child. Barely making it on her monthly allotment of pin-money, Felicity would do whatever she could to ensure her unconventional family and servant's well-being by providing a season for her sister and cousin and by marrying a wealthy duke. Carrying on a lengthy correspondence with the Duke of Hollingsworth, she is on the brink of finally meeting him and sealing their betrothal. What Felicity didn't know was that the man she'd been corresponding with was not Aubrey, the newly titled duke of Hollingsworth, but his match-making and controlling grandfather.

Aubrey had thought to escape the controlling tendencies of his grandfather years ago by changing his name and joining the army under the name of Thatcher. As a second son, he never dreamed he would have to assume the title. Returning home and learning of his grandfather's mechanisms to again control his life, Thatcher immediately set out to break the promised betrothal. Alas, when he arrived at the Mayfair mansion, Felicity - set back momentarily by the handsome but scruffy looking fellow at the door - assumed he'd come from the agency sending over a footman. Sparks flew between the two and in a case of mistaken identity, both would be torn. Felicity to give into passion for a mere footman, rather than marrying a wealthy peer to protect and provide for her family; and Aubrey into letting his grandfather control his destiny, or giving into his all consuming passion for Felicity.

*** For me, I found this story positively enchanting! Not only does Ms. Boyle write a delectable and fun love story, but populates it with the most engaging set of unforgettable secondary characters that will have you sighing in contentment and laughing out loud at some of their more outrageous predicaments. The author keeps the action level high in this fast-paced and charming romp of Regency England.

The author fashioned Felicity as both an engaging and soft-hearted beauty with just a smidgen of larceny in her heart - willing to do whatever needed to be done to protect and provide for her sister and cousin. Taking on the responsibility of providing for her family after her madcap father had either been killed or disappeared (this point was never fully disclosed) Felicity and her sister were left to the mercy of their penny-pinching solicitor. Neither would gain their inheritance until they turned of age (twenty-five). I loved that Boyle managed to insert humor as Felicity provided HER reasoning as to why a male gained his inheritance at twenty-one and the female at twenty-five - and no, I'm not going to tell you and ruin her very logical and humorous explanation. This you'll just have to read for yourself! As for Felicity's reaction and attraction to a mere footman, and a scruffy looking one at that, well let us just say that Boyle is a master at creating believable chemistry between her leads.

Aubrey/Thatcher who arrived at Felicity's door with the express wish to end his betrothal never got a chance to get a word in edgewise as Felicity barreled right ahead into her assumption of him being a candidate as footman. Not only was Thatcher captivated by her beauty, but observed that all was not as it should be in the Mayfair residence, and as he was not offered an opportunity to explain he fell into the mistaken identity role. Boyle created numerous episodes where Thatcher, in spite of his intentions to tell the truth, felt compelled to save Felicity from herself and those she loved from scandal's that could ruin them all. In so doing Thatcher worked behind the scenes in maneuvering events and trying to sway the Felicity into following her heart and giving into the passion he knew matched his own.

Boyle kept not only the romance between Felicity and Thatcher at the forefront but set up what could possibly be another book of the Bachelor Chronicles featuring the romance between her cousin Pippin and the American privateer Captain Dashwell. Filled with memorable new characters and old friends from SOMETHING ABOUT EMMALINE and THIS RAKE OF MINE Ms. Boyle has kept this fan fully satisfied with her sensual and humorous historical romances that are just the thing to curl up with on a cold winter's day.

Marilyn Rondeau, for www.ck2skwipsandkritiques.com

This is my first book by Elizabeth Boyle and despite the negative reviews, I thoroughly enjoyed it. I won't review the story since it's been done.
Loved the chemistry between H/H and enjoyed the secondary characters of her crazy household too. Some scenes had me grinning, especially the early ones, when Brutus meets the new duke.
The plot may not be very strong, but hey, if you like light-hearted regency read, then this ones worth a try.

excellent type of book-on-tape for those long drives in the car. spenser is great fun.

THIN AIR isn't a great novel, but it's an entertaining book by one of the best crime writers alive. The plotline is simple: Frank Belson's new wife has gone missing and he asks Spenser to help find her. During his investigation, Spenser discovers that Belson's wife has quite a number of skeletons in the closet.

This novel is relatively predictable, but it's a fun read because of Parker's remarkable level of skill with language and dialogue. THIN AIR is relatively original because Hawk isn't in it, and also because Spenser has an interesting new Latino sidekick. The result is a storyline that seems relatively fresh and funny.

If you like Parker's work, you should enjoy THIN AIR, although I would recommend earlier entries in the Spenser series if you're looking for something genuinely great.

When Spenser agrees to help his friend Frank Belson (a cop) when Belson's wife - Lisa St. Claire - goes missing, and try to track her down - do him a favor, so to speak. Among the first things that Spenser discovers is that Lisa St. Claire is not her name. Apparently she has lived a rather checkered past - Spenser worries that telling Belson this will not be a favor at all. Finally following a trail to Proctor, well North of Boston, Spenser calls on Chollo (from L.A.) to come East and lend his assistance, since Proctor is mostly Latino and Spenser hopes Chollo's presence will help grease the wheels, so to speak. Things quickly go from bad to worse and before he knows it, Spenser goes from a simple job of tracking down a missing wife, to overthrowing a local government.

Definitely an edge-of-your seat book, this one alternated between Spenser's POV and Lisa's - the chapters where we hear Lisa's voice are all in italics and, unlike the main body of the book, stated in third person rather than first - which definitely fits in with the concept, as her abductor dehumanizes her by constantly filming her and playing back the films in her room. It was an interesting way to differentiate between the characters and I think it worked nicely.

This was a great chapter in the Spenser series - too bad I didn't get it reviewed in the proper order. It ended up falling in between the seats in my husband's car en route from the hospital one day and I just found it there a couple days back. So, here you go. Enjoy!

This is another installment of private investigator Spenser, who once again rubs elbows with criminals and cops alike. No one can successfully intermingle with good guys and bad for the greater good than Spenser. With my favorite sidekick "Hawk" unavailable because he's in Burma ("What can "Hawk" be doing in Burma?" "Better not to know", says Spenser. "Gives us deniability."), When police honcho Frank Belson's wife disappears into "Thin Air" he turns to Spenser for help. As the mystery unfolds, Spenser needs to call in some favors from some of his acquaintances from the wrong side of the law from Los Angeles to Boston. To fill Spenser's need for a Spanish speaking trigger man, Los Angeles mob boss Vincent Del Rio, lends him cold as ice, deadly as a mountain lion, "Chollo". For local Boston "cred", boss man Joe Broz, authorizes Spencer to use his name.

During the hunt for Mrs. Belson, many surprises come out of the woodwork, such as her name was Lisa St. Claire, or was it? Her resume isn't what it said it was, and this all leads Spenser through a history of prostitution, alcoholism, and more, and leads his associates to a show down in the Hispanic turf wars in the barrio.

Throughout this story, Spenser peppers the reader with his famous snappy banter, such as: "Henry Cimoli had been a ranked lightweight until Willie Pep urged him into the health club business by knocking him out in the first round of both fights. It was a lesson in the difference between good and great." In describing Homicide Commander Martin Quirk: "He was always quiet, except when he got mad, then he was quieter." In describing a lush cop: "with a lot of broken blood vessels in his cheeks, and an ugly red vinyl hairpiece on top of his head. It didn't match his sideburns, but it probably wouldn't have matched anyone's sideburns except maybe Plastic Man's." And in describing himself: "I took a shower and put on one of the terrycloth robes the hotel provided. It fit me like a hot dog casing on a knockwurst."

For the addicted Spenser fan, you can't leave this out of your collection. For the about to be acquainted fan of Spenser, this is a good place to start.

When a great writer dramatizes trapped helplessness, I'm ready to eject. I almost squirmed out of reading # 22 in the Spenser series. But, this being the 27th novel I would have read in this 34 book series, I pushed like a Navy Seal through the first couple italicized segments of the kidnaping and ensuing situation, using the "hang in there" ropes provided by the characters' depth of commitment in returning Lisa St. Claire to the safety she had earned hard, by Frank Belson's side as his wife. I began clutching to hope for Frank to keep faith that Lisa wouldn't have left him willingly. I'm glad Parker didn't push the potential of dark tragedy of a soul drop like that. He worked the question just enough to rush the realism, then allow it to simmer under the diligence of "Keep the faith, baby."

I won't go into detail about why Frank turned over the search to Spenser, and why Spenser went to Chollo instead of Hawk, for the first time in a rescue partnership. And, yeah, I'm asking, "What was Hawk doing in Burma?"

In THIN AIR Pearl had progressed to standing on the dining table during meals, and Susan gave a humanity renewing surprise over a Mexican dinner more suitable in volume to Spenser. Dialogue scenes were evenly effervescent, with just the right amount of fizz to counter the interjections of ongoing Italicized segments. I was intrigued with the subtle shifts in patterns-of-psychosis of Lisa and her captor, as each seemed to be enduring an individual "cathexis" ... New word, probably brought into psychological jargon through the same sewer-line-purge-tank as "catharsis" ... Look up the original meaning of that one! "Cathexis" was brought into the plot by Madeline St. Claire, the current plot's previous psychiatrist for Lisa, as a sample of Lisa's uneven vocabulary expansion through reading a plethora of self-help books (too many, too indiscriminately, according to Madeline).

Lisa's attempts to retain a recently seated kernel of healthy self served as an effective drama for exposing the visceral levels of retention-and-resurgence of psychological growth.

Dictionary entry for Nexus: 1 - a connection. 2 - a connected group or series. 3 - the central and most important point. -ORIGIN Latin, from nectere 'bind'.

A bad nexus would ultimately require a cathexis. Get yours here!

Throughout the plot, I was led by the nose with curiosity about how and if Frank and Lisa would be reunited, hopefully at that central and most important point, which I was guessing would be a clean type of Love (considering Spenser's Romantic soul).

Also found another key passage in THIN AIR, which exposed another appeal of this series:

>> "You big with the bad guys, Spenser. You got Santiago helping you, Mr. Del Rio helping you, now this guy Broz, that I don't know, he's helping you. You sure you are a good guy?" "No," I said. I'm not sure." <<

A nice collection of profound quotes could be lifted out of THIN AIR, from Spenser's ruminations discriminating the good in bad guys. Another collection of artistic quotes could be lifted from Spenser's observations of physical settings, weather machinations, and environmental pathos. I'll speak this softly and with conviction, "This is Good Literature."

After finishing this novel, I saw not only why Parker brought Chollo in as Spenser's partner instead of Hawk: The nationality fit the situation. I also saw Parker, a WASP macho male, chef and sensitive guy, as a literary ambassador for the menage of sub-cultural minorities which came to the fore through Media Massages and marked-up messages, from the mid 1970's to the present time. Purposely or not, Parker evolved and designed Spenser for the job of providing missing links between good and evil, and connecting lines of cultural differences, allowing polarities to cathexis, gradually purifying their "acts." We ain't there yet, but Spenser's a good scout.

This was primely-done detective fiction, with trailing ridges of psychological plummets and literary finesse carefully eased out of Spenser's closet ... Pandora's Box? ... Soap Box?

Whatever. THIN AIR was an emotionally weighty yet magical entry in this series, a fuzzy-wuzzy-wabbit pulled out of a deep and dark, very hard hat. Get it. Breathe, one, two, three.

Who is Alice in Wonderland?

Linda Shelnutt

After her mother's death, Lady Ava Fairchild quickly discovers she must marry. Her step-father, who now controls her mother's fortune, plans to sell Ava, her sister, and her cousin to the highest bidder on the marriage market. That is, he will just as soon as he returns from France and his mistress. With little funds, Ava must find a way to stay in respectable society and snag a rich, but not too objectionable man. Remembering her witty exchange and delicious kiss with the Marquis of Middleton, Jared Broderick, Ava thinks she has found her answer.


As luck would have it, Jared is also looking for a wife. Actually, his father, the Duke of Redford, has decided it is past time for the young rake to settle down and produce some legitimate heirs. While his father already has a proper girl selected, Jared is more intrigued by Ava. More importantly, he will have stronger control over a wife of his own choosing. Of course, it also doesn't hurt that marrying Ava will stick it to his overbearing father.


A marriage of convenience seems like the answer to both problems, yet they quickly find that their marriage is anything but convenient. They are drawn together, but for Ava passion is not enough. She wants a love match, but can she get it?


The Hazards of Hunting a Duke is a lighthearted, sexy romp. Jared is a wonderful hero. He is deliciously wicked, but truly a good man. Although Ava was fun and sassy, she was also frustrating. Early in the story, she was sensible and intelligent, but as she tried to win Jared's love, her choices became extremely childish. Where did the competent young woman go? Much of the conflict seemed manufactured and pointless. Ava had to make stupid decisions, otherwise the story would end too soon. The secondary characters were a mixed bag. Some, like Ava's household staff, were hilarious, but other characters weren't as well developed. I had major problems with Jared's father. His actions throughout the story make his ending hard to buy. While I did have several issues with the story, it was an enjoyable afternoon's sensual escape. This was my first Julia London novel, and I'd love to read more. The first installment in the Desperate Debutants series has an intriguing start, but not without its faults

Cheryl
reviewed for Joyfully Reviewed

I'll start off by saying I really want to read the others in this series - that's the good news. The bad news is that's because the other characters in the book interested me more than the main characters in this one. They were on the edge of being good, but something was lacking. Jared is just a little too cliché of a rake and Ava is almost interesting (an example being the horse-riding bit) but they both get a bit too... emotional and unrealistic. And while the endings of romance novels are a bit predictable, this one seemed to rushed and tied up far too quickly (the sitcom-esque ending), and I felt let down by what had seemed an interesting storyline. There just seemed something a little off, a little missing about this book. It left me feeling unfulfilled, probably partially because the whole mysterious bit about Greer - though that is also what has made me want to read on, so it's a double-edged sword.

The bottom line is it's a decent romance, but not one to bump to the top of your to-read list.

Two things right off: 1. If you are a frequent reader of Julia London, you know that she likes the "redeemed hero" that starts off as a real [...]. 2. This has the typical plotline of woman strikes a deal of convenient marriage, falls for husband, and decides that only love with suit her. Ava needs money, Jared needs an heir. After their marriage Ava falls desperately in love with Jared and the hunt begins!

I liked Ava. She was very much a "historical figure," her preoccupations were those that I would expect from someone in that time period. Of course she had a modern/liberal streak in her and was quite bold and brazen. Her downfall was definitely her immense pride and narrowminded view when it came to getting what she wants... when she wants. I wish she would've outgrown that at some point, but all-in-all, Ava was a delight. (Much more so than Greer, who ruined the sequel for me. I won't even bother with writing a review for that work.)

Jared was a tough nut to chew. A lot was not revealed about his past until the very end, giving the audience a skewed perception of his actions. I don't feel like he was redeemed, but rather, his character was developed. He always had that love in him, he just couldn't put a name to it. Couldn't identify why it was he had those tender feelings where Ava was concerned and at first it scared him... causing him to put up walls between them.

The romance was excellent, as far as I am concerned. There were some points when my heart was just breaking at the desperate and awkward way these two characters clung to their muddled emotions looking for some sort of justification for inadvertently hurting each other at every turn. But, there were sweet tender moments that I enjoyed. Humorous, sweet incidents. Little things that London added to her work. One of my favorite little moments is when Ava is in her room, ignoring Jared the best that she can while trying to get lessons in seduction from Sally, her lady's maid. He hears giggling in her room at odd moments and repeatedly walks by it trying to get a listen of more. He feels stung that he's left out and misses her at dinner! So sweet.

My problem was the ex-mistress that tries to get in the way. Money-grubbing, catty, greedy, little hussy. Shows up at opportune moments, groveling before the hero as the heroine just happens to overlook and misinterpret the entire situation. It's such a played-out convention! Can we retire the use of the ex-mistress from now on? ENOUGH!

I also wish there could be more Jared-Edmond and Jared-the Duke. Such interesting relationships were not allowed to be developed fully. But, I enjoyed this novel none the less. I have hope for Phoebe! Greer was SUCH a dissapointment.

This is my first Julia London book and I enjoyed it completely. Good solid characters, well written. I highly recommend it. The Regency period is one I would have loved to have lived -- as an aristocrat with antibiotics of course!!

"Hazards" was my first experience reading a historical romance by Julia London. It is the first in the "Desperate Debutantes" series, the stories of three girls who lost their inheritance to an unscrupulous step-father. While Ava has some faults as a heroine, it doesn't detract from the story. Jared is a marquis and has a very strained relationship with his father, the duke. The relationship between Ava & Jared is strained at first, but becomes more romantic as the story progresses. I'm looking forward to Ms. London's next book in the series, "The Perils of Pursuing a Prince".

I was interested in every single sentence. This book does what the best memoirs do, which is to allow the reader to judge the characters. For example, Wolff doesn't pretend there's anything charming about condemning a social pretender while simultaneously acting like one, but he also doesn't chicken out and preempt you by saying he was jerk for doing it.

He spent around 75% of this book trashing his dad, for good reason, yet, amazingly, I didn't want to join in. The contempt and love that the author shows for his father are both totally sincere. There are a lot of exciting, Frank Abignale-like adventures in here, but they come across as anecdotes. The real story is, will Duke, after a whole lifetime of hard work and earnest application, finally manage to TRULY disappoint his son? It takes a lot, of course.

I was also impressed with the author for exposing himself as such a snob. To be shocked by your father pretending to have graduated from college when he in fact flunked out is one thing, but for you both to be so aggrieved by the prospect of his having gone to Deerfield/Penn instead of Groton/Yale has to be a symptom of truly advanced superficiality. It can't be easy to admit to that.

Anyway, it was a great book.

It wasn't at all what I expected. I read the first one or two chapters and I thought to myself this book is pretty good--but the memoir fell apart after that.

I don't know how I initially ran into this book, but my son was assigned This Boy's Life by Tobias Wolff in prep school - twice. This is a memoir by Tobias' brother, Geoffrey Wolff, of life with their father - a Jew who went to extreme measures to pass as not Jewish. The real story though is not the fathers' life, but the author's incredible insight into a father/son relationship. I bought this copy to give to my son's prep school - I thought it made, at least in excerpt, critical reading if they were going to thoughtlessly keep assigning This Boy's Life. Brilliant writing. It would be a shame for this to be the lost "twin" as it's so rare to get two angles on a life, so well fitted for adolescent dialog in school.

Some time ago, the American poet Robert Frost remarked in a "Paris Review" interview with Richard Poirier that "you don't have to deserve your mother's love. You have to deserve your father's. He's more particular. One's a Republican, one's a Democrat. The father is always a Republican towards his son, and his mother's always a Democrat." Yet it cannot always be so. Consider "The Duke of Deception", a fine, gritty memoir by Geoffrey Wolff that has proven to have great staying power. In Wolff's book, we have a father who seems to have been a true Democrat of the heart, although-- or perhaps because-- his "sustaining line of work til shortly before he died was as a confidence man." And we have a mother who appears Republican in her affections.

So we have here an unusually frank family memoir. It opens on Wolff's declaration that though he loved his father , he responded to news of his death with "Thank God." He had, he said, watched his wife's brother-in-law cross the room toward him, sure that the phone call just taken concerned the death of one of his own two sons. He'd already decided which boy was lost. "I heard someone behind me gasp," Wolff wrote, after his shocking exclamation of relief. "The words did not then strike a blow above my heart," but later they did, and there was no calling them back, there is no calling them back now. All I can do is try to tell what they meant."

Wolff, former book review editor of "The Washington Post," and "Newsweek,"has created a remarkable book from this effort to tell what those words meant. Of the love:"I had this from him always: compassion, care, generosity,endurance." And the pain: his father is a floater of bad checks, a wrecker of good cars. He charges $1,000 worth of clothes to his son's accounts when the boy is an undergraduate at Princeton University.

The family moves from a small tract house in Southern California, to a mansion in Birmingham, Alabama, to a luxurious honeymoon suite in Niagara Falls, to a cold-water walkup on Manhattan's East Side.

Duke keeps the balls spinning for many years, but toward the end he loses energy. He buys a watch he doesn't need with a check for $248.70 on an account closed more than four years. He goes to jail for the third time. By then" my father looked twenty yeaars older than when I had last seen him on Nassau Street (in Princeton, N.J.) two years back. He had flabby jowls and liver spots on his bare skull. He had lost mass, taken on a pot. He moved awkwardly now, uncertainly. He wore thick-framed eyeglasses like Barry Goldwater's and his clothes-- I couldn't believe this --were on the flashy side... He seemed to have lost more than his youth. He was distracted, coarse, not very bright"....

Duke will jump bail after his son, sadly expecting that he would, refused to make it. "And he was punished," Wolff writes, when the law caught up with him. "They paid him back with interest for the space he had occupied, the airs he had put on, the fictions he had enacted. He had told me he hoped I'd never be a reviewer, a critic. I understand. Out in the real world the critics have teeth, and use them."

Perhaps Wolff kept a diary in his youth, the portraits he paints are so true and detailed. He writes with admirable crispness, and great honesty as he throws light on some of the darker corners of family life. He creates a complex picture of his father, a man difficult to grasp, by design.

"My father was a Jew," Wolff mused." This did not seem to him a good idea, and so it was his notion to disassemble his history, begin at zero, and re-create himself....If I now find his authentic history more surprising, more interesting, than his counterfeit history, he did not.He would not make peace with his actualities, and so he was the author of his own circumstances...."

The family used occasionally to visit a beach on which Duke's family had summered throughout his boyhood, but he chose not to tell his son of this. "We must have been alone on that beach twenty times, perhaps forty. And we walked each time past the house where my father spent every summer of his life, happily, until he thought he would rather be elsewhere, and was old enough to drive himself away from Crescent Beach. And never did my father tell me that we were together near a sacred family place, or point to the house...that had given his father such pleasure and pride. Of my father's serial repudiations I find this the most perverse and sad."

For those who have read Tobias Wolff's memoir This Boy's Life, Geoffrey Wolff's The Duke of Deception fills in many gaps. Where This Boy's Life focuses on a rather short period of a couple years in Tobias Wolff's life, The Duke of Deception covers the life of their father, Arthur. The writing style is much more formal than Toby's book. When he describes his often rocky relationship with his mother, it sounds almost like a psychologist's file than a son talking about his mother. "My mother is not cold, and she is not stiff. She has been infailingly warm and loving with my boys, and with my wife. She laughs a lot, teases, likes to be teased. But neither of us, I think, trusted the other's love" (48). The formality adds greatly to the older and wiser narrator, creating a sense of distance. It takes some getting used to, but as the book progresses, it became clearer that this formality is a way of distancing Geoffrey from some of the more painful memories.
The further you get into the book, the further you want to read on. As Geoffrey gets older and older, he begins to understand his father's cons and note them more carefully. The reader is entrapped, anxious to see when Arthur will finally exploit everyone who cares about him, and even more anxious to see how Geoffrey could possibly forgive his father. Even as Geoffrey despises his father's cons, he finds himself falling into Arthur's ways. "As I liked him less and less I became more and more like him. I felt trapped" (197).
The story's a little slow at first, filled with family history, "My father Arthur was delivered by his father Arthur at home on Spring Street in Hartford, November 22, 1907" (13). This history becomes important as Geoffrey begins to untangle his father's life. Wolff keeps the reader's attention by injecting vivid scenes from his childhood into the narration of dry facts. Overall, this book was a fantastic story of a son coming to terms with his father's crimes and then having the ability to forgive him for it.

Always good reading with Mary Jane Clark. Twists and turns that keep me on the edge of my chair.

I've read all of Mary Jane Clark's books, and this one has to be the best. The insider's view of the network news business is fascinating and priceless. The characters feel so real. I was up all night, guessing the wrong killer, until the last few pages.

This was my third Mary Jane book and I absolutely loved it. I read it so fast because it was so interesting with different plots going and because her chapters are short. I am one of those people that enjoy books that have short chapters. This book also appealed to me because Mary Jane writes about people in distress, like Laura's father who is a hopeless alcoholic and her new boyfriend who has a drug habit. Nice to know that there are authors out there that keep in touch with the real world and know how to work it into a plot line without demoralizing people because they have human weaknesses. I can't wait to read her other books.

I saw this book in a bookstore and bought it after reading the synopsis. It was a good buy and I read it in one day. The book is written sometimes from many different people's viewpoints,but it isn't confusing like some books are when they are written like that. It focuses on the death of a little boy that happened thirtysomething years ago and the more recent death of a reporter who jumped off the roof of the building she lived in. It's ruled a suicide, but Laura Walsh wonders whether it really is or not. Now she begins the journey of going through the reporter's past. But will the past also include of shocking revelations that she wished she never had found out? Will she finally find out what her mother's haunting words meant that she told her father so many years ago? She also soon finds out that somehow the suicide case and the case of the boy who died thirtysomething years ago are tied in someway. How she doesn't know. But she intends to find out what happened that night to the little boy and how he died and why. All the questions and many more are answered in the end. Get this book and find out what the answers are! Good book for summer reading on a vacation.

They say to write about what you know, and CBS writer/producer Mary Jane Clark does just that. In her third mystery novel, "Let Me Whisper In Your Ear," she tackles the cutthroat biz of TV news. Unfortunately, the mystery is a lot less interesting than it sounds.

Laura is a rising star at Key News, with her uncanny ability to create "obits" of people who are either going to die or have just died. Then there is a discovery made -- a young boy who disappeared at an amusement park thirty years before is found, dead, with all his bones broken. And at a party, star journalist Gwyneth Gilpatric is thrown from her rooftop.

Who wanted her dead? A better question would be: who DIDN'T want her dead? Her plastic surgeon, her jilted lover, her lover's angry wife, the coworker whose job she destroyed, even her cleaning lady -- for envy, revenge, and salvaging their careers. Even Laura is under suspicion, having inherited most of Gwyneth's money and possessions. As she begins to unravel both unsolved mysteries, she finds that the murderers may be too close to her...

"Let Me Whisper In Your Ear" falls under the shadow of Mary Higgins Clark. It has pretty much the same sort of elements -- glitzy glamour, a high-powered young professional woman as amateur detective, plenty of motives and suspects. It even has the same short chapters. But Clark can't bring quite the level of suspense and vibrancy to her mystery. "Whisper" just doesn't gel.

Clark tries too hard to evoke a feeling of suspense, throwing out red herrings and clues by the dozen (although one of the deaths is ridiculously easy to solve). Her writing isn't that good; she spends more time describing designer clothes, furs and shoes than she does describing the characters. However, there are some scenes where she blossoms -- the scene where Gwyneth falls to her death is chilling.

Clark's characters tend to be "types" rather than people. Even with Laura's tragic history, she's a pretty boring heroine. The nasty, ambitious Gwyneth is far more compelling. The rest of them -- traumatized guy, catty alcoholic wife of sexy adulterer, cheating lovers, sexy kept girl -- are pretty cliched, and Clark adds nothing to them.

"Let Me Whisper In Your Ear" strains too much to be considered more than a very light mystery read. But Mary Jane Clark has some promise, even if it only pops up now and then. Flat and unengaging.

The Second Mrs. Gioconda grabbed me from the first page and didn't let go. In addition to an intriguing story about Leonardo Da Vinci and his apprentice Salai (there is some good information here, and it's relayed in a very interesting way), this is the story of beauty, both inner beauty and outward (appearance) beauty. I think that's why the story is written as it is, with the discovery of who posed for the Mona Lisa, and why she was chosen, coming at the end ... what we learn from the outward beauty Isabella and the inwardly beautiful Beatrice makes the ending discovery mean that much more, and the ending is very satisfying. Several pages of Leonardo's works following the story are interesting to look at.

I also enjoyed the way Konigsburg pained an in-depth portrait of Leonardo's personality, with all its intrigues and quirks. And the way Salai grew (the story begins when Salai is 10 and the majority of the story covers the next 7 years of his life, though it does briefly continue for a few years more to wrap things up) and showed some genius himself - not in the way he painted, but in the way he listens and learns (mainly from his friend Beatrice, but he also has an intuition for his talent of reading Leonardo's moods and knowing how best to help him) the very best way to assist Leonardo, is well-expressed.

Very glad to have read this book and will seek out more by Konigsburg.

I had to read this for school. Maybe I would have liked it if I had just read it without worrying about the reading analysis that came after. But no matter. The book started off great. I really liked Salai's character in the beginning. His thievery was very funny and I liked how he threw up on the head of the man he was standing on :D because he ate too many cookies. But after that, it got kind of dull. Salai stopped his funny comments "Those scholars could get peed on by a horse and they wouldn't know what had happened without looking it up in a book!". Salai also seemed like a lying cheat, because he was selling Leonardo's private ideas and techniques for drawing to other artists in the area. And all throughout the story, there was no reference to the Mona Lisa! That's what the story is supposed to be about, right? The Mona Lisa was only referred to in the last chapter! What was the whole book for?
And, oh my gosh, there was absolutely no conflict in the story! I heard E.L. Konigsburg was good, but what happened to this book, we'll never know. The book's simply outrageous.
I give it 2 stars only because Salai was funny in the beginning. He actually made me laugh.

This book was a pretty quick read for me. I picked it up because I am a big fan of E.L. Konigsburg, especially The View From Saturday. While I was interested in this story, it did not measure up to some of the author's other books, including The View From Saturday or The Outcasts From 19 Schuyler Place, although those are from a different genre.

The best part of The Second Mrs. Gioconda is the historical details that it incorporates. While it is historical fiction, it does allow the reader to learn a little about the life of Leonardo da Vinci and Italy during the late 1400s. The character of Salai is very entertaining through his mischief and candor, and helps connect the historical figure of da Vinci to everyday people from this time. The self-absorption of some of the royalty is also pretty funny.

Overall, this is a book I would recommend to readers with an interest in history. It is interesting, and provides opportunities to learn or to investigate more.

The basic rules of good fiction are to take an interesting character and plop him into some action, then ask "What if..." and then "And then what..." and finally, "So what?" Konigsburg takes the reader into the brain of Leonardo by way of his Puck-like apprentice, but with little about Mona Lisa the painting or the enigma. Perhaps it will lead young readers to more about DaVinci. Thoughtful, entrancing, but not exciting; I wonder how it would read if Konigsburg decided to write the life and time of Donald Trump.

The Second Mrs.Giaconda, by E. L. Konigsburg, is a book about a poor, dogged, perverse boy living in Italy who stumbles upon Leonardo da Vinci... which changes his life forever. E. L. Konigsburg tells why Leonardo da Vinci painted a portrait of an unimportant merchant's wife when tons of dukes and duchesses wanted their portrait done.

I thought that it was a good book that was thoughtful and well-written, but a bit slow and lacking action. Another book I would recommend by E.L. Konigsburg is From the Mixed-Up Files of Ms. Basil E. Frankweiler.

I listened to the audio version and if I hadn't been stuck in a car for 2 days, I probably wouldn't have finished the story. First of all my biggest gripe is that it is NOT a spy story (which was why I bought it). It is half conspiracy theory and half . . . fake memoir.

Basic plot is: Girl gets strange manuscript as inheritance and proceeds to read it during her trip while missing all sorts of clue that the conspiracy is closing in around her. Big finale is girl and fiancee running around a museum like screaming ninnies while trying to get away from conspiracy thugs.

The fake memoir part is at least interesting and made me want to research it to find out the real vs fake rate. (Haven't done so yet.)

The book (which I flipped through) does have some cool production. The "evidence" that comes with the memoir is put in the book. For example 1/2 of a torn letter is a big piece of evidence and on that page you see a 1/2 of a torn letter in handwriting. That part was cool.

I can't recommend reading this book but if you want to, I feel no qualms about telling you to skip ALL of the 'modern' parts involving the girl. You gain nothing from them.

Not horrible, kind of lengthy in parts of the book that didn't need the extra detail. The author does acknowledge in the afterword that the letter was too long. I was half way through the book and was tempted to move on to a new book. This book needed better plot and character development. The devlin chase kind of drug on for a long time...

The gimmick of this book is that it has two thrillers inside of one narrative. There is a run-of-the-mill modern thriller about a woman with no personality and a manuscript she is bequeathed that is written by Ian Fleming, and the efforts of some modern evil-doers to capture the woman and confiscate her manuscript.

Then there is the engaging and exciting WW2 conspiracy part featuring historical figures such as Rudolph Hess and Winston Churchill. This thriller, purportedly by Ian Fleming, is actually a fictitious non-fiction account of a massive betrayal by members of the English Royal Family. It is fast-moving and the dots are connected very cleverly by Mitch Silver. Luckily, the Fleming thriller takes up a bulk of the book.

Worth reading.

This is an unusual novel. The author has gone to great lengths to include many, if not most, of the conspiracies of the last half century or so in one book, and the conclusion is, to say the least, a bit much. That being said, this is an interesting novel that bears examination.

Our heroine is an American academic from Yale. She is summoned to Ireland to empty a mysterious safety deposit box owned by her father in a bank there, since her dad's dead. When she arrives she discovers a manuscript written by Ian Fleming (the creator of James Bond) and purporting to reveal a conspiracy going back more than half a century, and involving Britain's Royal Family. She reads the book on the plane on the way back to New York, with interludes as people try to kill her or steal the manuscript.

The modern-day half of the plot of the book is at times a bit annoying. Our heroine proves very hard for the assassins to do in, in spite of the fact that she's at times clueless and then incredibly naive. The various characters who try to help her are annoyingly dumb at times, also. Since things are so improbable, the plot's kind of hard to follow. Why then did I like the book as much as I did?

The Fleming book itself, which encompasses maybe half the length of the book, is fun. Peopled with characters as diverse as Anthony Blunt, Prince Philip (Prince Charles' dad), Winston Churchill, and Wallis Simpson, the plot of that book moves right along, and the characters are interesting. The modern day part of the book does by contrast not so well, though it's at least short. The Fleming half of the book is peppered with fragmentary documents from the era: notes written on cocktail napkins, dental records, the title page of a book dedicated to someone, other flotsam and jetsam. It's very clever.

I enjoyed this book. I wouldn't say it's the best I've ever read, but it was interesting and amusing. I would recommend it, especially to history buffs.

"In Secret Service" is a compelling, nail-biting homage to Ian Fleming from first-time author Mitch Silver; a gripping historical thriller which, I am certain, would have pleased the old master himself. Silver has carved himself a vast historical canvas, and has rendered a gripping yarn about a dark secret dating from World War II. A secret ferreted out none other than by Ian Fleming himself, and recounted in a "memoir" that comprises much of the novel. Four decades after Fleming completes his unpublished "memoir", a young American art historian travels to Ireland, and there, claims her odd literary inheritance, which Fleming has bequeathed to her. Soon she realizes that Fleming's unpublished work is not just a compelling memoir that's been hidden deep within the vaults of a Dublin bank, but one whose dark secret will take her on an epic, almost nonstop, relentless journey back home. Pitting herself against secret agents and assassins eager to use every deadly foul means at their disposal towards retrieving that manuscript, she realizes soon enough that her trek home is a desperate struggle to stay alive. Silver's historical research is quite admirable in both its scope and detail; readers will wonder whether many the events described are real, especially when we are introduced to such major real-life figures as Winston Churchill, Edward, Duke of Windsor, and Anthony Blunt. But, most importantly of all, Silver takes his readers on a glorious fictional saga worthy of comparison to James Bond's, and giving us more than a mere glimpse as to what the real-life adventures of former British naval spy Ian Fleming were during the course of World War II.