Clubs Books

this is an excellent book, by belinda jones, that could easily be read in one sitting, as it is so gripping.
ok, so its not excellent writing, but the plot keeps you wanting to find out what happens next. the characters are all loveable (except elise) and you will want to know how laras life ends up. this book would make an excellent movie.
if only the california club was real!

I read this book in one day, I never put it down. This book is hilarious and fast paced. It makes you want to read it as fast as possible. I only wish you could actually buy this book in America for a reasonable price.

This is such a great book.
The Brighton Beau-Belles, a group formed by 5 friends, travels to California for a 2-week holiday together. Lara, who has been secretly in love with Elliot for almost 10 years, tries to win him back, but...he is travelling with his new fiancee!
The ending is completely unexpected, but it ends happily, which is great.
I really recommend this book, especially for the beach.

When you drive up the "left coast" in California, whether it be along Interstate 5 in the San Diego area, old U. S. Highway 101 or California State Highway 1, you see the familiar mission bells. This book tells the story behind those bells and one of America's great pathways. This road was originally blazed to connect California's mission system, and is a good reference point for a visit to any or all of the missions.

I've always loved el camino since I was a kid so I wasn't sure I had anything to learn about it--boy was I wrong! There is such a wealth of history that I knew nothing about, and this book has it all! Now I can appreciate the road's famous marker bells so much more, knowing how much hard work went into them. I bet a lot of hard work went into this book too, and I am grateful to Mr Kurillo and Ms Tuttle.

California's El Camino Real is the first book to document the growth of El Camino Real and the bells which have marked it for almost a century. Collections strong in California history won't want to miss this coverage: it includes numerous vintage black and white photos, maps, and a smooth coverage of the bells and the El Camino's changing history.

As Mr. Lewyn's former Southern bartender I can attest without having read the book that Michael can suck up more facts and figures than a Hoover Upright! If he has cast his eye on Buffalo then nothing will be missing from this book. The man doesn't miss a thing! Though it will do me little good in Arkansas I will be purchasing this book in the near future to show off to Michael's former friends and associates. Keep up the good work Michael!

I latched on to Mr. Lewyn's fine volume while looking up some reference material on Buffalo. For those of who are familar with that material, you know how incredibly sparse the topic is. Car-Free in Buffalo goes beyond its immediate subject, and does a good job of depicting how urban-dwellers in the late 20th and the early 21st Century strive to exist without the dreaded automobile. Mr. Lewyn has done Buffalo and the rest of us a fine service by writing producing this work and I look forward to his companion work on Atlanta!

As the author of this book, I naturally think it is wonderful. This book isn't just about public transportation -- it is a neighborhood by neighborhood guide to Buffalo. I even mention specific stores and restaurants that you might want to try (though on the negative side, this means some of my information might be out of date).

The Case of the Long-legged Models, by Erle Stanley Gardner

This book is dedicated to Michael Anthony Luongo, M.D. who is a senior member of the Department of Legal Medicine at Harvard Medical School, an associate pathologist for the Massachusetts State Police, and certified by the American Board of Pathology. Dr. Luongo is famous of his desires for Truth and Justice.

A young lady inherits shares in a gambling place at Las Vegas. Her father had refused to sell out, and was murdered. Now the daughter is asked to sell her shares to a stranger. She seeks help and advice from Perry Mason. Perry has another client who also owns a part of this gambling place, and begins to investigate. But his client went out of town and can't be found. Perry locates him by telephone, and carries on a secure conversation; the result is that Perry will protect the young heiress. Perry meets the potential buyer to discusses the price, but nothing is resolved. While sitting outside in his car, he sees his client enter this apartment house, and then leave. Then the young heiress enters, and rushes from the house; Perry picks her up and discusses her visit. The next morning the would-be buyer is found murdered in his apartment.

Read this novel to learn why Erle Stanley Gardner was such a popular author; it is a good example of his work. Gardner was a lawyer who found fame and fortune writing about a heroic lawyer roughly based on the life of Earl Rogers. You will learn a few things about law and lawyers as part of this story. Could these tactics be possible today? The fact of blood clotting after a murder is still relevant today. "The police rarely solve gangster killings" (Chapter 1). The story follows the convention of denoting the villain as one guilty of some other crime.

Erle Stanley Gardner has a way of keeping you guessing up until the very end, and this Perry Mason novel is no exception. Even when you think you know "whodunit," you probably don't. A fun, fast read, and one of Gardner's better ones -- although they're all great!

Erle Stanley Gardner (1889-1970) wrote more than one hundred novels over the course of his long career. A trial lawyer himself, Gardner's best known creation was Perry Mason, a flamboyant criminal defense attorney who earns his large fees by virtue of a remarkable talent for using the law to uncover the truth on the witness stand.

Stephanie Falkner's father was murdered and the crime was never solved. She has inherited the forty percent interest he owned in a small Las Vegas casino and hotel--and now someone is buying up the remaining interest and seems determined to have her share no matter what. It isn't long before murder enters the scene, and once again Perry Mason has to earn his fee the hard way.

Like all the Mason novels, THE CASE OF THE LONG-LEGGED MODELS is essentially genre fiction pure and simple, written in a workman-like manner with an emphasis on staccato dialogue. But Gardner was the peak of his powers in the 1950s, and in this 1957 title he has added a certain sparkle that raises the book above the pack: a combination of twisty plot and twisty legal angles that mix to create a fast and furious read. This one is easily among his best!

GFT, Amazon Reviewer

This story is written using sophisticated rhymes and tells a funny story most kids will identify with. My son asked to have this book read to him every night for weeks, and the clever writing kept it fun for me. I even memorized the book for car rides. It is definately one of my favorite books in his library.

Caterpillow Fight is not only a great bedtime story but is quite charming. Is a tongue-tiwster at times. There is also a lesson at the end of this story which is a great learning experience. My 4-year granddaughter eagerly looked forward to hearing this story and rapidly learned to read it by herself due to the wonderful illustrations. The use of animals in realistic story matters are a great asset for young children. This book delivers all.

I am 4 years old and I like this book the best because they have a pillow fight. I like the pictures very much. The callerpittars are so funny. You should read this book.

This is a great book for anyone who is a fan, but also a real treat for people living in the metro-Detroit area, as a few of the celebrities asked are local TV and radio stars. She wrote to a lot of people over the years and has a great collection of stars' heroes, from Soupy Sales to Les Paul and of course Davy Jones! It's neat to find out who inspired the celebrities to be who they are today.

Mary Guerra is an authority on fandom as she is a member of a fanclub or two herself. I know this since she belongs to the fanclub I run for Davy Jones, Davy Devotees. Though the concept of fandom is normally perceived as being something the nonfamous possess, Mary spent years contacting various celebrities asking them just who they consider themselves a fan of and what fanclubs they would join if they could! She received personal responses from legends in the field of entertainment like RoseMarie and Phyllis Diller to Les Paul, inventor of the electric guitar, Richard Petty, of racing fame, columnist, Liz Smith and "Mr. Hockey" Gordie Howe. Shirley Jones, Peter Noone and Mary's personal favorite, Davy Jones of The Monkees, are just a few of the many other highlighted celebrities. If you've been a fan of anyone at anytime, this book gives you an interesting look at who those we admire actually admire. At times the featured celebrities provide laughs and at other times intriguing revelations. Overall this is a fun read with a lot of heart!

This book is fabulous. My husband and I found it to be a quick, entertaining read. We particularly enjoyed the entry from Mike Clark, our favorite radio DJ. It's interesting to see what people celebrities find heroic, and it conveys more of an inside look into their personality as well.

Mr. Bill Hasbrouck's book The Chicago Architecture Club proves examples of late 19th century architecture are fascinating with their stew-pot excesses of decoration and exotic blends of classic styles. They achieve a unique beauty as they reflect the sensibilities of their time and stand as elegant baroque backgrounds to the more spartan work of Wright and Mies.

His account of the Chicago Architecture Club is a delight, describing how it grew, offered draftsmen a place to hone their skills and have fun in a club atmosphere. All too often, these artists are viewed in their stiff portraits and group photos as a bunch of stuffed shirts. Hasbrouck's descriptions of the hail-fellow-well-met activities contrasted with the sketching competitions that required hours of unpaid time in order to compete and were endlessly conjured up by the senior members of the club add a very human touch. The renderings are excellent and each period is very well visualized to provide a context.

The Chicago Architecture Club is a go-to book at the end of a long day, to pick it up again and see how the fellows are doing after the 1893 Chicago World's Fair and find out who won the club competition for the design of a Gatekeeper's Cottage. This book allows the reader to look into a world we've glimpsed, but never seen with such warm clarity.

A history of a club of draftsmen? You would think such a book would be a slog. On the contrary, Hasbrouck evokes the City of the Century (the 19th, that is) and its astonishing group of architects with grace and verve. The carefully selected illustrations, in their hundreds, let us look into American professional life around 1900, with its human comedy and sadness and joy, tossed by Windy-City puffery. What a sweet and illuminating book, an instant classic in the history of the Chicago School!

Mr. Hasbrouck's detailed and well-written account of the Chicago Architectural Club does more than document the history of this seminal organization. It reveals the architectural and cultural milieu in Chicago during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. This book is exceptionally researched, documented, and profusely illustrated. Mr. Hasbrouck's excellent writing capability is evident on every page and the layout and presentation of the book benefits from his many years as editor and publisher of the Prairie School Review.

More than just a good read, this book will be an important research tool for anyone interested in the history of Chicago, its architecture, and the Prairie School. Your library will not be current without a copy of this book.

Hill is a wonderful writer, and this series just gets better and better. In this book we have a little bit of everything - greed, murder, police politics, and of course the guy who never lets any of that bother him in his efforts to solve mysteries - Andy Dalziel. Hill unfolds his plot like a wonderfully wrapped package - layer upon layer comes off until we get to the surprising ending! One thing about Reginald Hill - he is never predictable and every book is surprisingly different. Enough to keep me guessing, and continuing to read this wonderful series.

Hill is one of the top mystery writers. The world he has created in the Dalziel and Pascoe series is as real as Nero Wolfe's. The interplay between liberal, educated, and sexy Pascoe and gross, vulgar, and brilliant Dalziel is well observed and outrageously funny. Hill has a sly wit, often leading to laugh-out-loud outbursts that can be embarrassing in public places. Read the whole series, spend time with his characters.

I'm flabbergasted that nobody has chosen to review this book before. This is my first exposure to Mr. Hill's writing and I am impressed. Hill is an English writer of detective mystery fiction. This book is one in a series that revolves around the workings of a pair of policemen based in Northern England, one of whom is a Rabelaisian, dyed in the wool Yorkshireman, the other a University educated middle class everyman. Childs Play is a story that evolves around the entwined fates of two families and, of all things, a repressed homosexual cop. When a mystery man appears graveside to claim the heritance of a prodigal son, things quickly spin wildly out of control when he and another complete stranger are killed within a week of each other in apparently unrelated incidents. Complexity is added when an eager representative of a named party in the origingal deceased's will begins to cobble together an alliance in order to overturn the will, which makes any one of the interested parties a suspect in the murders. Dalziel and Pascoe work together to puzzle the pieces and solve this fine mystery in an ending that is sure to have you curling your toes in anticipation and suspense. I am giving this book five stars because it is truly well-written and the suspense becomes wonderfully excruciating as the author proceeds to weave a half-dozen seemingly disparate threads together into Gordian knot before cutting it. My only objections to Mr. Hill's story telling is his penchant for throwing in obscure high culture references that seem oddly out of place and his willingness to place extreme pressure upon his audience's suspension of disbelief. All in all though, this story will have you panting for more, I am quite sure.

As a child, I remember walking down Main Street to New Dollar Lane, holding tight to my mother's hand. Upon reaching the fabled street, I would eagerly search up and down the lane, until I was sure that I had found the right house. "That's the one, mom!" I would shout. I was sure that was the house occupied by none other than Obadiah, the Quaker boy from Nantucket. Of course, there was no real Obadiah, and he didn't actually live on New Dollar Lane, but my mother always agreed with me that the house that I had chosen was Obadiaha's house without a doubt. This particular story chronicles a slice of life for the young Quaker boy Obadiah, who lives on Nantucket. A sea gull befriends Obadiah, much to his consternation, and will not leave him alone. Much like Mary's little lamb, the sea gull follows Obadiah everywhere: to school, to the store, and all over town. Obadiah learns an important lesson about friendship in this book that can be enjoyed by "children" of all ages. It holds a special poignancy for anyone who has spent time on Nantucket, but teaches truths that are universal in their scope, and are not geographically limited. I spent many a rainy afternoon on Nantucket reading "Thy Friend Obadiah", as well as other books about Obadiah. I absolutely loved those books then, and love them just as much now, as I pass on to my own son the tradition of love for the Obadiah books. I can't wait until next summer, when we can go look for Obadiah's house on New Dollar Lane. I just hope it's still there... -Andrew Spencer

Thy Friend Obadiah is a simple but beautiful story about a six-year-old Quaker boy on Nantucket Island who is followed around by a seagull. At first the bird annoys him, especially when his brothers and sisters tease him about his "friend." But when the bird disappears for a time, Obadiah begins to realize how much he misses its company, and when it returns, injured, he takes car of it, and appreciates the friendship it has given him.

IÕve always thought of this as a deeply religious book, although looking it over now I realize there is only one religious reference in the whole book Ñ when ObadiahÕs mother tells him, "I think it is very nice that one of GodÕs creatures favors thee." But the tone of the book is deeply spiritual. It is about love, friendship, and respect for creation. I especially like the fact that ObadiahÕs parents both seem wise, patient and kind. Old-fashioned, maybe, but itÕs a nice contrast to a lot of more current childrenÕs books IÕve looked at.

Although this is the most popular of the series, there are three more books about Obadiah: The Adventures of Obadiah, Rachel and Obadiah, and Obadiah the Bold. All of them are excellent.

I remember some winter evenings by the fire while my mom and I sipped tea and she read Thy Friend, Obadiah to me. Recently, while I was babysitting, I read this to the kids, and they were quite calm and content by the time I was done. A great way to end the evening. I think this book was the start of my interest in the Quakers. Such a lovely story about true friendship and loyalty between man and nature. Great for all ages.

It seems some barnyard cleanup is in order: one cat gossips; another is a bully. When Christopher Cat's mother informs her son that cats need to learn character, but that cats can't be taught, Christopher takes up the challenge. He is sure that if they launch a Character Club, the other barnyard cats - all inquisitive creatures - will want to join it. And they do.

Christopher's enthusiasm is contagious and wins over his mother. Through her character, young readers will hear such gems as: "Character is ... always doing the right thing, even when nobody is watching." And "How can we learn character if we don't know what it is?"

The cats learn that everyone has character traits, "like little tags hanging from your collar, telling everyone what you are." They find out that character isn't something that happens as a result of wishful thinking; it takes effort. They also learn that character means little unless it's put into practice.

This is a delightful and instructive book, good for countless re-readings, and should be on the shelf of every parent, teacher and caregiver. Desirable character traits are listed for easy reference and will make discussion easier. Best of all, in our age of quick fixes, children will learn that building character isn't an overnight achievement but an ongoing process - and that the benefits are priceless.

[...]

Elizabeth Hamilton's Christopher Cat's Character Club is a charming story on how to develop character as told through the eyes of a mother cat to her kittens.Her beautiful illustrations
make the story come alive to her readers.Young readers and children at heart will enjoy this book.
Madeline Frank, Ph.D. author of The Secret of Teaching Science & Math Through Music and Musical Notes On Math, teaching fractions and decimals through the rhythm of Music.

"I am particularly impressed with the beauty and richness of the language of this work. Rich, colorful imagery and warmly personalized narrative combine with natural dialogue to engage and delight the reader. Hamilton's little animal characters romp across the pages with a vibrancy, verve and level of reflection, easily modeled by young audiences. Beautiful illustrations punctuate the margins, providing visual cues for the young reader and prompts for enriched class discussion. (In this latter regard, it is a welcome relief to see beautiful illustrations, rather than the clumsy, often horrific caricatures that currently populate children's literature, cartoons, and even textbooks.) Thank you for the "visual treat"

I can picture the Character Critter series (especially, Christopher Cat's Character Club) taking its place on bookshelves alongside classics such as the Raggedy Ann and Raggedy Andy series, Charlotte's Web, and Winnie the Pooh."