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This was a really neat look at a different version of the Red Riding Hood story. I like the Asian culture and how it is weaved into the story. I actually found this book to be kind of scary, mostly because of the pictures! They're beautiful, but intense and fit in a bit too well with the story. But as most kids are already accustomed to fairy tales, it shouldn't be a problem.

Dedicated to all the wolves of the world for lending their good name as a tangible symbol for our darkness (Ed Young's own dedication)

Cultural anthropologists tell us there are similar fairy tales all over the world. This retelling of the Chinese version of the Big Bad Wolf certainly is cause for the awarding of the Caldecott Medal for Best Children's Literature in 1990. In addition to his story, Ed Young's shape-shifting art merges tale with sight for a free-flowing, fluid interpretation of the wolf.

The Chinese tale is different. Three little girls are left home while their mother goes to see the sick grandmother. At dark the wolf makes his appearance, blowing out the inside light as soon as possible. The illustrations are murky, like the light in the room, and only glints of teeth and whites of eyes can be discerned. But the oldest girl knows what's up and tricks the wolf into wanting gingko nuts high in the tree outside their house.

No woodchoppers in the Chinese version--only one smart oldest daughter and two thoughtful, obedient younger daughters. How they defeat the wolf is sheer brilliance.

Ed Young's illustrations deserve separate praise. Since most of the story takes place during the cover of night, he must show his scenes in darkness. However, he adds touches and big swaths of reds, purples, greens, blues, salmons, golds, to present the story. Beautiful, eye-popping, and very effective!

This is a beautifully written fairy tale, with a different take on "Little Red Riding Hood." Our six year old granddaughter asked my husband to read it again!

Title- Lon Po Po A Red-Riding Hood Story From China
Author- Ed Young
Do you recommend this book? Yes because it is great.


The book was so good. It's about a wolf and 3 girls. The 3 girls were very scared because of the wolf so they had to figure out how to get rid of the wolf. So they decided to climb up a tree and get a rope with a basket and hang it down and the wolf got on it then they put the rope over on the other side and let go of it and the wolf fell and hit his head the wolf tried this a couple more times until the last time when he broke his heart so he went away forever.

The story goes beyond bad. This is a story of three little girls that torture and kill the wolf in a premeditated way. My 4 year-old son was very sad after someone read the story to him in a school interview to preschool. He said to me that it was a bad story, and the girls have done "bad choices". I can't believe this is in the list of books recommended for 4 and 5's.

Who Stole the Wizard of Oz? by Avi is a good introduction to the literary mystery. Think of it as akin to The Bookman's Promise but for younger readers.

Here detectives are fraternal twins Becky and Toby. Becky has the bad luck of being accused of stealing a set rare books that had been set aside for the library sale: The Wizard of Oz, The Wind in the Willows, Peter Pan, and Through the Looking Glass.

While The Wizard of Oz is the impetus for the mystery, the heart and soul of the mystery is hidden away in Lewis Carroll's works. Avi walks the reader through the key points of each of the missing novels but a basic understanding of the books will make the mystery all the more enjoyable.

This is a very intriguing and exciting story. It is a mystery book that keeps you guessing who actually stole the book. I would definetly recommend it!

Do you know who stole the Wizard of Oz? This story drives you through mystery and excitement. When Becky is accused of stealing the Wizard of Oz book from the library she is determined to find the real robber. With the help of her twin brother Toby, Becky is driven through man obstacles to find the real culprit.
I believe Avi wrote this book to all kid's and grown up's to always go for their goals and never stop. As Toby said, "What if nobody comes"? "Then we will wait as long as we have too". Proving to always go for your dreams not caring for what another person says. I recommend this book to all mystery lovers. Or to people who want to read a good book that makes you wonder.

In Who Stole The Wizard Of Oz Becky is in trouble! The Checkertown libririan has accused her of stealing a rare childrens book, The Wizared Of OZ. Becky has to clear her name, but the only is by tracking down the real culprit.
With the help of her twin brother, she investigates a string of bizare crimes in that town-including the dissapearance of four other children's books.
The twins soon find clues in the stories themselves that point the way to a secret treasure.
Want to know what happens in the end? Can they figure out the treasure map before the thief does? Who knows I guess you will have to read the book to find out.

The main characters are Toby and his sister Becky. Becky was framed for stealing five books, The Wizard of Oz, Wind in the willows, Treasure Island, Winnie the Pooh, and The Other Side of the Mirror. I would rate this book an 8 because of the adventure and it was funny. Becky and Toby ask people about the missing books and then they read the books then they find clues about the books and the last clue pointed to the library. Then after the library closed they went in there and hid. One person they talked to was Mrs. Celestin. At the library they caught her trying to steal the last book.

Readers, this is my favorite young adult ficiton book of all time. From the honest and grabbing confession in the first chapter to the closing scene, the voice of Jake had my full attention. I wanted to cry when Skelly, Jake's Grandpa, becomes the room-mother, carries around Thor, helps Jake overcome his tormentors at school who tease him because he cannot complete the required pull-ups; I lol at so many scenes, as when Jake's Mom says, "There's a pie in your hair." Even the sadly placed pajamas in the freezer bring a smile and a tear. Park handles the difficult problem of Alzheimers just right. And the "villain" cousin James is not deeply evil, but simply underestimates all that Jake is going through. In an age when teens need to understand the many venues of our complex world, Park is a genius at getting us to buy in to the foibles of her lovable hero, Jake. This is a favorite literary circle book in my classes. Best of all, my students love the book and get the message.

If you like funny and heartwarming books you will love this book.
I think kids and adults of all ages will love this book, because it is full of sad but somtimes funny twists.Once you start you wont want to put it down until you finish.

Do you like books with suspense? If you do, then you should read this book The Graduation of Jake Moon by Barbra Parks.

This book is about a boy named Jake Moon and when he and two of his friends were walking home from school. Just before they were about to take off in different directions, they saw an old man doing something in a dumpster at the end of the parking lot. One of the boys started yelling stuff to the old man then the other boy did too. The third one just kept quiet. That old guy was his grandfather, and he was losing his mind. He had Alzheimer Disease. Jake was in 8th grade and he was about to graduate in a few weeks. Jake wanted to take music lessons, but couldn't because nobody could watch Skelly. Finally, a sitter was found. She took Skelly to the nursing home because she had to do something. She let him paint outside while she went in. When she came back, she noticed that Skelly was missing. Once Jake got home, his mother told him what happened, and a cop came. The next day while Jake was walking, a cop came over and picked him up to help him find Skelly. The next day a cab pulled up with a cart on the top, and the man who came out was Skelly, Finally, it was a few days from graduation and Skelly wouldn't get rid of his cart. Jake's cousin was supposed to be watching Skelly, when he walked onto the stage. Read this book to find out what happens on next.

Tim W.

In the book The graduation of Jake Moon he was sad because three boys was making fun of a old man stay in a dumpster.That first they thought the man that some kind of problem.The man had a Alzheimer' disease.But all that time the three boys was making fun of the man it was Jake's grandfather.

If you have not read The Graduation of Jake Moon You need to now. This book is very emotional. This is the best book yet that Barbara Park has written, to me. It will make you cry, laugh, and even mad. If you pick up this book, it will be glued to your eyes and hands, you would not want to put it down. The front cover is so mysterious you would think that the entire book is about school, but it is about a boy going through a lot. He is having to deal with a sickly grandparent, Skelly. If you want to find out more, find the book of "The Graduation of Jake Moon". Then I want You to read! read! read! I promse you will love it!

I never wrote a review for a book before, so im going to keep this short and sweet. The story is a great mix of western and the story of a canadain working the hollywoods film industry. I had to read this at my college and its a great read and will leave you with a new perspective on how history works and how we cannot expect it to remain true to the facts.

By far the boringest most pointless book I've ever read in my life. I seriously don't see how it won this award and I seriously don't see a life in anybody who would bother to read past the first chapter of this pointless novel.

Guy is my cousin and I am very proud to say that. This is the best book that I have ever read and for those of you who say it sucks because it is confusing, clearly you are just uneducated and you don't deserve to read this book.

When I occasionally get to Canada, I always search out the bookstores, as you can find great Canadian novels like this one that are practically unknown in the US. The characters and storylines in this novel ring historically true and are at the same time unique. The book intriguingly weaves together the not so familiar old West of Canada (at least to readers in the US) with prohibition-era Hollywood. The writing is plain, direct, and superb. This is great literature with important things to say, delivered in the form of a compelling and engrossing story.

Guy Vanderhaeghe has crafted a masterful novel about the Canadian WIld West and 1920s Hollywood which starts as a riveting thriller and turns into a meditation on quetions of identity (personal and national), the role of memory in historical reconstruction, and the value (or is it futility?) of remembering and retelling the past.

The book tells two stories. In one, the Swan Hills Massacre looms as Caandian settlers head out into the West, following "horse thieves." Among them is the Englishman, from the point of view of whose servant-- the Boy, Shorty McAdoo-- the action unfolds. The other story tells of Damon Ira LaChance, Hollywood mogul, who wants to make an epic D.W. Griffiths-inspired Western. La Chance's producer seeks out the reticent McAdoo and the narative alternates between the Hollywood and Wild West stories.

ALthought the characters remain opaque, Vanderhaghe is on sure fictional footing here. One of the novel's points is that history ironically becomes less knowable the more it is interpreted. The horror of the events that McAdoo will witness is both the subject of LaChance's film and the simple fact that makes it necessary for the film to "misintepret" the events it portrays. So it is with the characters: we see actions and words, but motivations are strangely absent, as is interior character development. It is as if the narrator knows that his own story is a re-creation (and not recreation) whose limits-- a hundred and twenty years after the "fact"-- are acknowledged in his refusal to make up yet ANOTHER story about the men's interior lives. Perhaps, as some have suggested, this is the flaw in Vanderhaeghe's novel; perhaps it is his subtle nod to the Hollywood tradition within which the novel must work.

The book is an edge of the seat thriller, a philosophical question-poser, and often oddly beautiful, its nostalgia shot through with a bitter self-consciousness. Like all great Westerns (Unforgiven, The Wild Bunch, The Shooting, The Great Northfield Minnesota Gang, High Noon), The Englishman's Boys is about the death of the imagined West and, sadly, the death of the real, complex but strangely opaque people who once lived there.

As the author (and former model) begins in the novel, this isn't the tale of celebrity and supermodel-dom but rather a model in the middle. The star of this novel is modeling enough to bank some cash, flirt on the brink of celebrity, world travel, & drugs. I found the behind the scenes look of a struggling model, the agencies, and the photoshoots captivating. What saved this book from being simply another model story was also the juggling act of balance out college. Yes, like the author, this is a model who is also smart which makes the character's inner thoughts and comments ever so much more snarky and amusing. A fun and smarter choice for a beach read!

By the time I finished reading this book, I felt that Robin was one of
my best friends. She is very candid, hilarious, and paints a vivid picture with her words.
I hated for the book to end! I am giving it to my sister and recommending it to my real life friends! I can't wait for her next book.

I absolutely love Model Student. It's the best book of this type that I've read. So much better than Jane Green books, or even the "Devil Wears Prada". The writing and stories are much more realistic. There are no fluffs when brands and names are dropped. No exaggerated explanations of activities or products used. Robin Hazelwood really does just come out and say it like it is. The book itself and the subject matter is glamorous so it is refreshing that Hazelwood didn't litter it with boring remarks about fashion and empty glittering adjectives.
Hazelwood doesn't intend for this book to be a "how-to" for modeling, but I find that it is almost more effective in this way. She really is giving insider tips that are real truths about the modeling, glamour, and photography industry. She lists real colors, brands, and cosmetics that are still on the market today. I find it so interesting that she has chosen to do this instead of talking circles about an obvious product rather than listing the actual name like most fashion books. Sure, it can date a book to name a current product, but it makes Hazelwood's book all the more real and credible. Model Student is an absolutely delightful read, and anyone interested in modeling, fashion, or the beauty industry will benefit greatly from this book. I myself work within the industry with cosmetics and fashion, and Hazelwood is right on the money when she describes classic fashion/make-up tips. Some of them are even secret make-up tips that my co-workers and I know about but don't openly discuss. You can tell Hazelwood really knows what shes talking about-any real models out there will understand exactly what she means. Model Student is a great read, and you won't be disappointed. I only wish Hazelwood could take this realistic writing on to another book and future topics.

Emily's parents have long hair and wear tie dye and don't exactly approve of their only daughter neglecting her Ivy League studies to strut down the catwalks of Milan. Another great tale of reverse rebellion!

Before I started reading this book, I was put off by the length, and wondering if a narrative about modeling that was so long could be interesting. Well, it was! I finished it the day after I started it.

Emily Woods is a great central character, who's down-to-earth about her great bone structure and has an appealing groundedness and common sense. Her Midwestern parents are hippies who make sweet potato cake on her birthday, but her agent's just told her to lose 10 lbs. 5'10" and 130 lbs is not thin enough (though her mother thinks it is).

Hazelwood, a former model herself, skillfully portrays the glamorous upside and seedy underbelly of modeling. There's a surprising amount of camaraderie as opposed to competition among the girls ("models are usually quite chatty at castings," she notes), but there are also a ton of rejections (models can be "optioned" by magazines and cast aside at the last minute), coke to keep the starving girls "up" and confident, bulimia to trim the waistline and skeevy men, particularly in Milan. Still, Emily clings to her dream of *being* Cindy and Claudia...until things go bottoms up.

I must confess I enjoyed the fluffy, heady parts of the novel more than the darker part toward the end. Overall, this was a compelling look at modeling from an intelligent, likeable person.

I would recommend everyone interested in learning more on dental side effect reading this book.

I made the mistake of allowing a dentist to perform a root canal on my front tooth that want not in any pain whatsoever.
If I had read this book first I NEVER would have let that happen.
This book is well worth the read for humans of all ages.

Dr. Meinig was one of the founders of the root canal society. When he started, everyone was just pulling teeth out. Dr. Meinig and other dentists had a great idea to save teeth rather than remove them if they were infected. His organization used to be on the fringe, and then they worked hard to become mainstream.

At the time of the books writing over 24,000,000 root canals were done yearly. What Dr. Meinig urgently wanted to show people is that in many cases a root canal sets up the body to have chronic and degenerative disease. The reason is because the dentin tubules, the three miles of microscopic tubes in each tooth are not properly sealed in the procedure and basically the tooth can just rot in ones mouth and then leak out toxic material constantly into the body. Approximately 25% of root canals are healthy and don't have side effects. The exact number of root canals causing disease is not clear.

The book is very dense and mostly consists of a summary of Dr. Price's almost 1200 pages of careful research. Its goal seems to convince more the practitioner than the patient. That being said, if you have arthritis or heart disease, a root canal may be the cause. This is an important book.

This review is by Ramiel Nagel author of Cure Tooth Decay: Heal and Prevent Cavities with Nutrition

Root Canal Cover Up

This book describes in detail what can happen to older root canals, i.e. infections, degrading of the material left in the space where the root used to be... It's very thorough.

If you need something else to worry about in your life, and you have root canals older than a couple of years, this is the book for you.

I read it, discussed it with my dentist, and filed it on my library shelf.

It is not a book I would recommend to anyone unless the person is dealing with a root canal problem.

Dr George Meinig DDS passed away in May this year. What a sad loss to the world of health professionals and the general public. Dr Meinig's book is one of the most significant books written in the last 20 years. Root Canals are the cause of much suffering and disease which few people know about. I knew Dr Meinig, I read his work and I believe every dentist, medical, and all natural therapists should have a copy.
He was writing a new book called "Why You Will Never Fully Recover From Cancer If You Have a Root Canal" before he died.
For me 5 out of 5. Get one while its still available. Now becoming very rare.
Trevor Savage ND Kinesiologist, N.O.T. Instructor, Australia +61732644316

Anthony Trollope, like Miniver Cheevy, was born at the wrong time and in the wrong place. Nineteenth century England produced some of the greatest novelists the world has ever known--Dickens, Austin, the Bronte sisters, Hardy, etc. In this company Trollope has been somewhat lost and that is unfortunate. His books are interesting and filled with humor, pathos and the stuff of life. They are also literate (Trollope was especially versed in the Greeks and Shakespeare), full of good humor and provide lessons for life. It is clear from the limited number of reviews on Amazon.com that Trollope is not widely read. It is equally clear from the mostly positive results that he is a good writer who should get more attention.

Barchester Towers is the second of the six books in the Barsetshire series. The books run in historical sequence but can be read independently. The first in the series, The Warden, tells of Mr. Harding and his younger daughter, Eleanor. Rev. Harding is forced to resign as the warden (a kind of manager/minister) of a hospital for elderly men because the salary is too high. He is exposed by John Bold, a reformer, and a local newspaper. But Harding is a good man and he accepts the situation gracefully; his daughter, in fact, marries Bold who then dies but leaves his widow well off financially and with a baby boy.

Barchester Towers picks up the story at that point and switches the focus to another group of largely religious individuals. It should be noted that the novel is not about religion as much as it is about power. On the other hand it would be a good idea to know something about the Church of England, such as what the various religious titles represent (archdeacon, dean, vicar, prebendary, etc.), as well as the attitude of the two political parties (Whigs and Tories) toward religion.

At the start of the novel the bishop of Barchester dies and a new bishop, Dr.Proudie, is appointed in his place. Proudie is a short, indecisive man who is dominated by his wife. He picks Obadiah Slope as his second in command. Slope is reminiscent of Dickens' sly, scheming Uriah Heep. His objective is to be the de facto bishop, a position that Mrs. Proudie aspires to in her own way as well. Set against this trio are the local Barchester clergy led by Archdeacon Grantly. The recently deceased bishop was the archdeacon's father and the son hoped to succeed to the office. The ambitious Grantly takes an instant dislike to the officious Mr. Slope and their rivalry is one of the main focuses of the book

A number of other characters and sub-plots suffuse the novel. The Stanhope family--mother, father, two daughters and son, soon arrive on the scene. This group includes Madeline, a beautiful but physically impaired young woman who toys with men's affections and Bertie, a shiftless but essentially decent young man. Also joining the cast is the Rev. Mr. Arabin, brought in by the archdeacon to help combat Mr. Slope. The other major plot is the efforts of three men to secure the hand of the widow Eleanor Bold. Slope is one schemer who is primarily intent on securing her money. Bertie Stanhope, the irresponsible prodigal son in the Stanhope family is also encouraged to marry her for her fortune. Finally there is Mr. Arabin, a decent man, but inexperienced in matters of love. Early in the book (page 112) Trollope enters the story to reassure the reader that "It is not destined that Eleanor shall marry Mr. Slope or Bertie Stanhope." This tactic, engaged in by other British writers (Fielding for example) can be irritating, but Trollope does it in a good humored way.

The central power struggle involves who shall be appointed to the Warder position which has now been restructured. The archdeacon pulls for Mr. Harding to be reappointed, while Mrs. Proudie pumps for the Rev. Mr. Quiverful who has a wife and 14 children to look after and needs the income the job will provide. Mr. Slope slides between the two contenders, depending on how he sees his advantage. When another position opens up, that of Dean, the stakes get even higher.

The novel reaches a climax at a party given by an elderly matron, Miss Thorne. Eleanor's two ill suited suitors make their pitch, Trollope's caution to the reader comes true, and the novel proceeds to a happy ending for almost everyone.

A final comment. I read a news report recently that president-elect Obama will stop reading novels and spend more time in the gym because of what he sees as the increased demands on his new job. That is, in my view, a big mistake. Novels give us insights into how to live our own lives and we are all better off for reading them. For example in Barchester Towers there is a scene between Archdeacon Grantly and Mr. Williams in which Mr. Williams has received a letter from Mr. Slope for his daughter. Both men object to Slope both as an individual and especially as a suitor for Eleanor. The archdeacon gets very angry and says that Eleanor has disgraced him and that if she marries Slope he will not have anything further to do with her. Mr. Williams, on the other hand, while equally distressed at the prospects of his daughter marrying Slope, says that he will accept that choice and continue his relationship with her. Here we have a clear difference in character. The archdeacon will only have friendship with people who agree with his views--much as George Bush's comment after 9/11, "you are with us or you are against us." But we can't live in a world like that. We have to live as Mr. Williams suggests, by accepting that other people can have different views from our own. So lets hope Obama spends less time on the treadmill and more time on Trollope!

This edition is an adaptation, a fact that is *not* mentioned in the item record *at all*. I ordered it, and when if FINALLY came (6 months after I ordered it), I had to return it because I prefer the real edition of a book, not some dumbed-down "retold" version to go with the TV version of the story.

In Barchester Towers you have the feeling of being in a command center during a war; everyone is in uniform; archdeacons are common, and bishops, far from rare. It is an exceedingly rare perspective of the Church of England's clerical politics, and Trollope brings it to life with Giotto-like realism. Trollope's writing is tension-filled and the protagonists' and antagonists' characters are depicted in black and white, just as their clerical garments would suggest. Barchester Towers, is a love story from start to finish, and if the reader finds the sequence of compound misunderstandings which form the basis of the plot's tension to be incredible in the extreme, Trollope would defend it as the "fog of war," which creates confusion on any battlefield.

The detail with which Trollope portrays his characters is crystal clear, yet economical: "He knows how to say a soft word in the proper place; he knows how to adapt his flattery to the ears of his hearers; he knows the wiles of the serpent, and he uses them." "Why she had chosen Paulo Neroni, a man of no birth and no property, a mere captain in the pope's guard, one who had come up to Milan either simply as an adventurer or else as a spy, a man of harsh temper and oily manners, mean in figure, swarthy in face, and so false in words as to be hourly detected, need not now be told." But it is to Mr. Slope that Trollope devotes particular attention: "If it should turn out to be really the fact that Mrs. Bold had twelve hundred a year at her own disposal, Mr. Slope would rather look upon it as a duty which he owed his religion to make himself the master of the wife and the money; as a duty too, in which some amount of self-sacrifice would be necessary." And of Mr. Harding: "He had that nice appreciation of the feelings of others which belongs of right exclusively to women." And you have to love Trollope's baptism of his characters with names which serve as labels: Farmer Subsoil, Rev. Quiverful, Dr. Fillgrave, Mrs. Lookaloft, Miss Thorne, Mr. Plomacy.

Trollope's craft is apparent throughout: "Olivia Proudie, however, was a girl of spirit; she had the blood of two peers in her veins, and, better still, she had another lover on her books; so Mr. Slope sighed in vain; and the pair soon found it convenient to establish a mutual bond of inveterate hatred." And in describing the henpecked Bishop, "If ever he thought of freedom, he did so as men think of the millennium, as of a good time which may be coming, but which nobody expects to come in their day." And our protagonist: "Mrs. Bold would have given the world not to blush, but her blood was not at her own command."

Trollope's 1857 British usage takes some acclimation, as with his liberal use of compound negatives: "...not unnecessary...quite impossible that he should now deny his love...he could not but know...he was not the last person to hear of it...her state, nevertheless, was not to be pitied...I doubt very much he won't lose his gown." Trollope's liberal sprinkling of Latin and French phrases, as with "nil admirari" and "couleur de rose," are evidence of Trollope's trust in the reader's cultural qualifications. Comic relief is less liberally sprinkled, but it is welcome when it breaks the tension, as when Mrs. Lookaloft crashes the area of Miss Thorne's lawn party reserved for the "quality," which she so ardently strove to emulate.

A significant part of Trollope's craft is also comprised of befriending the reader and confiding in us regularly: "Will anyone blame my heroine for this?" Or "You, O reader, and I, should be angry with Eleanor..." Or "The sorrows of our heroes and heroines, they are your delight, oh public! Their sorrows, or their sins, or their absurdities; not their virtues, good sense, and consequent rewards."

Barchester Towers is a masterpiece of fantasy. Trollope here rivals Austen, some forty years his senior, as a creator of misunderstood and pitiably human characters whose stars we ardently pray will cross. Unlike Austen, however, Trollope gives us the basest and vilest of antagonists, whose downfall we demand. And you, O reader, shall not be disappointed.

Anthony Trollope (1815-1882) has earned his place in the pantheon of great English Victorian authors. His greatest novels are those in the
Barsetshire series dealing with the clergy and the Palliser novels concerned with politics focusing on the Palliser family.
The first novel in the Barsetshire series "The Warden"introduces us to the Rev. Septimus Harding and his charming daughters Eleanor and Susan. Harding gives up his supervision of Hiram's Hospital for elderly men as that novel concludes. His daughter Eleanor weds John Bolt the newspaperman who had criticized Harding for earning too much in a sincecure; his other daughter Susan is wed to Dr. Grantley the son of the Bishop of Barsetshire. "The Warden" introduces the characters in "Barchester Towers" which is a longer and more complicated novel.
In this novel the new Bishop has been chosen by the British government following the death of old Dr. Granley. He is Bishop Proudie the henpecked husband of one of literature's greatest shrews Mrs. Produie. The uxorious bishop must obey his dominant wife or face the consequences!
As the novel opens Dr. Grantley the scion of old Dr. Grantley is upset that he is not chosen to succeed his father as bishop. He is a member of the high church party in opposition to the evangelical wing of the Anglican church favored by the Proudies. It is time for clerical warfare to begin!
The oily chaplain to the new bishop is the Rev. Obadiah Slope who seeks advancement in the church but fights with Mrs. Proudie over who will have the wardenship of Hiram Hospital. He favors the restoration of Mr. Harding but Mrs Proudie wins out when the Rev. Quiverful, his wife and 14 children win the prize of the wardenship.
A love story is told as widow Eleanor Bold is courted by the odious Rev. Slope; Bertie Stanhope an impecunious and fatuous sculptor and the intellectual clergyman the Rev. Francis Arabin. Arabin is a favorite of the Grantley faction in the church feud with the Proudies.
The widow Neroni is Madeline, the daughter of the Rev. Stanhope, who is crippled but a bewitching temptress for all the men in the story. We also meet the Thornes who are an older brother and sister living in the country near St. Ewolds wherin is located Mr. Arabin's parish. They are hilarious!
The novel ends with the social, religious and romantic worlds in a state of calm salubrity. The novel was a bestseller in 1854 and is the bestselling and most humorous of all the Barsetshire novels. Anthony Trollope wrote about good men and women in a realistic, easy to read style which is enchanting 150 years after first being written.
I have read Barchester Towers several times and still enjoy this enchanting classic from the hand of a literary master.

(4.5 stars) Anthony Trollope does, indeed, fill the ending of this delightful social satire with all the "sweetmeats" any reader could desire. Between the introduction and conclusion are so many moments of wry humor, genuine thoughtfulness, and satisfying come-uppances that the extra sweetness at the end is actually a bonus. In this second of the Chronicles of Barsetshire, published in 1857, Trollope continues the story of Mr. Septimus Harding, the gentle and unambitious clergyman who, in The Warden (1855), resigned his appointment as warden of Hiram's Hospital for the poor and became the vicar of a small church, living frugally above a chemist's shop. His daughter Eleanor, who married reformer John Bolt at the end of The Warden, is now a widow with a small son--and considerable inheritance.

Ecclesiastical controversies, many of them linked to the desire for power within the small world of the church hierarchy, still exist in Barchester, and the arrival of Mr. Slope, as chaplain to Bishop Proudie, signals fireworks. Slope, one of Trollope's most unforgettable characters, is one of the slimiest, most sycophantic, and manipulative clergyman ever to appear in English literature, and before long, he is controlling the bishop, clashing with the bishop's wife (who regards herself as co-bishop), using the unfilled wardenship of the hospital as a bargaining tool with Mr. Harding and Eleanor, alienating and even outfoxing Archdeacon Grantly, and seeking a wife with a large fortune.

Far more complex than The Warden, the novel has more fully developed characters acting from more realistic motivations. Victorian England, as we see it here, is a multileveled society which does not allow for much upward mobility, and the entrenched clergy regards itself as second only to the aristocracy. The human foibles, the back-biting, the selfishness, and the one-upsmanship which Trollope includes in his depiction of all levels of society are particularly ironic in the case of the godly churchmen, and the honest and straightforward Mr. Harding is a counterweight to them throughout the novel.

Several courtships and marriages are presented so unromantically here that it is difficult even to imagine the concept of sexuality, but the novel is witty and clever, and Trollope shows his continued development as a satirist. Not a writer of "sensation," like Wilkie Collins, or of social criticism, like Dickens, Trollope has his own quiet style, and his wry observations about his world may resonate with the present reader more than either of those other giants. n Mary Whipple

The Warden
Doctor Thorne (Barsetshire Novels)
Framley Parsonage

I mainly bought this book to see what dishes I can make ahead of time and that doesn't require an inordinate amount of time. I can't say that the few recipes I've tried saved me any time, but they were not difficult to replicate. I tried two chicken slow cooker meals so far and both turned out delicious, even though I didn't have all the ingredients listed. I loved that it told me not to cook chicken in a slow cooker on high or for more than 3-4 hours (in the discussion about slow cookers). Both times the chicken came out moist and flavorful. The directions were easy and thorough...I'm hoping that with this book, my husband would join in the cooking and make me a meal some time. I would recommend this book based on the two recipes I've tried. I plan on trying out some more yummy recipes!

My sister made me a dish from this cookbook that I loved so I just had to have the cookbook for myself. But I didn't realize how involved the recipes are :( I like simple recipes that don't require a huge list of ingredients or take hours to prepare. So this just wasn't the cookbook for me. It's just sitting on my shelf now. But the food is amazing!! So if you truly love to cook, it's wonderful for you :)

In general I think the recipes are good. I have a big complaint about the format. I think it is bad cookbook design to have the ingredient list on the front of the page, and the instructions on the back of that page. You are forever flipping back and forth during cooking, so you can't use a cookbook holder, and will likely get your cookbook wet or stained from "cooking fingers". America's Test Kitchen obviously puts an enormous amount of thought into the creation and writing of their recipes. I hope they will put some more thought into book design next time.

I have made several recipes from this book and they have been great and easy to follow. this is the first cookbook I own from Cook's Illustrated and I'm now adding one more to my collection.

I had two major problems with this book. First is its organization. It's separated into chapters by theme: slow-cooker recipes, skillet recipes, etc. However, there's absolutely no table of contents showing the recipes in each chapter. Nor are the recipes organized one to a page or anything like that. This makes it absolutely impossible to browse. There's an index in the back, but since that's a comprehensive (rather than a recipe) index, it's also not useful for browsing. Other books in this series have full tables of contents; I don't know why they omitted it from this one.

The second problem is that many of these recipes are just stunningly high fat. Now, I understand this isn't a low-fat cookbook, and I wasn't expecting low-fat recipes. However, while they don't give nutritional information, many recipes are well over 100 grams of fat per serving. Heavy cream, butter, and eggs feature heavily in many of the dishes. Others use fatty meats without ever removing the rendered fat. For example, I calculated the amount of fat in the slow-cooker recipe "Asian Spiced Pork Ribs with Noodles." It serves 4-6; if you split it among 5 people, each would get 114 grams of fat!

There are a few recipe gems in here, especially the braised chicken recipes. And while I haven't tried them, I'm sure many of the very high-fat recipes taste great, since, as we all know, fat tastes good. But, overall, this book is a disappointment compared to Cook's Illustrated's usual standard.

12 year old Lucy always thought that Mr. Mortman was just the weird librarian whose hands where always wet and had a fondness for turtles...until the day she forgot her rollerblades at the library and had to return to get them...there she stumbles upon Mr. Mortman talking to himself. Then she sees something she can hardly believe, before her eyes Mr. Mortman begins a strange transformation, eats lives flies and scares her half to death. She runs home to tell her family...but Lucy has always had the unfortunate habit of telling tall tales about monsters and frightening her brother, so they don't believe her. What's Lucy to do? She begins a systematic investigation of the monster problem becoming progressively bolder about spying on Mr. Mortman, who begins to suspect that SHE knows his secret, putting her in even greater danger, because no matter what she does, she simply can't get ANYONE, even her best friend, to believe her!

Overall, the Girl Who Cried Monster is an interesting twist on the traditional Boy Who Cried Wolf story and the added bonus of Stine's usual Twilight Zone-esque ending that the reader KNOWS is coming, yet never expects what we are treated to in the end! I give #8 in the Goosebumps series five stars, it's one of the better stories I've read thus far, it manages to be simple in detail and suspenseful, building to a nice climax and a slightly abrupt, but suitably twisted end.

I WOULD DEFINATLY RECOMMEND THIS TO ANYONE WHO WANTS A GOOD BOOK TO READ. WHAT HAPPENS IS THAT LUCY IS ALWAYS MAKING UP MONSTER STORIES, SO WHEN SHE FINDS OUT THAT THE LIBRARIAN IS AN ACTUAL MONSTER, NO ONE BELIEVES HER. NOW SHE HAS TO PROVE TO HER FAMILY THAT THE LIBRARIAN IS A MONSTER. THE BOOK HAS A SURPRISING ENDING THAT IS REALLY COOL. THE BOOK ISN'T REALLY SCARY IN MY OPINION, BUT I THINK THAT R.L. STINE DID A GREAT JOB WRITING IT. IF YOU READ IT, I'M PRETTY SURE YOU WILL LIKE IT.

Lucy likes to tell monster stories (especially to her little brother Randy to scare him). One day, she left her rollerblades at the library so she had to go back to get them. When she's there, she spots the libriarian. But something is strange about him today. Mr. Mortman (the librirarian) is changing into a monster! Lucy tells her parents, her brother, and her friend Aaron, but no one believes her. While Lucy get some proof, or will she become monster chow?

Before I say anything else, I'd like to warn some of you - be careful about reading reviews here! Some folks don't have the sense to not give away the ending. If you'd like to be surprised, read the book and skip the reviews.

Maybe because it's #8 in the series and Stine's imagination hadn't yet been put to the originality test, I think this is one of the better ones of the series. My opinion could also be colored by the fact that I just read Help! I'm a Prisoner in the Library! and this one is so much scarier!

A take-off on the old "boy who cried wolf" tale, The Girl Who Cried Monster is about Lucy. Facing a summer of boredom with most of her friends away, she indulges in one of her favorite pastimes - scaring her little brother, Randy, with made-up monster stories. Her family and friends are all "monstered out" by the time Lucy comes across a REAL monster, right in her own library, and no one believes her story this time. Can she convince them? Or will Mr. Mortman, the monster/librarian, make her into his next after-work snack?

The ending is a nice twist, the description of the monster actually made me a little queasy (that's a good thing in a scary book!) and the only problem I had with the way it was written was when Lucy's mother said "Stop being dumb." to her. Other than that, it's a great, quick read for young horror fans.

It is an extremely cool book. It is scary and sometimes funny. I REALLY ENJOYED READING IT!!!!

I read Green Grass Running Water almost 15 years ago and, though I'm an avid reader, it remains one of my favorite books. I love the mix of real with surreal, dominant culture meets Native culture, play on words, and the characters rock!

This book is intelligent, satirical, and very thoughtfully written. It weaves the stories of multiple characters from a Blackfoot Indian reserve, but if you look deeper it offers comments on life as a Native American in Canada and the US while playfully comparing native religion to Christianity. Almost every character in the book (even the most minor ones) are named after literary and historical figures, giving the reader plenty to think about. King is a very talented writer, and this book offers a lot to people who are willing to commit to his style of writing. King is a Native American storyteller, so he's not going to give you a "Once upon a time..." straight forward novel with the formula you were taught in grade school (i.e. rising action, climax, falling action, resolution). I'm guessing the bad reviews are coming from people that have never read outside the cannon! I would recommend reading "The Truth About Stories," another King novel, before this one.

Thomas King captures Native Humor as an excellent tool for teaching, for sharing wisdom and as a means to cope when others cannot grasp the meaning of what Natives have to say. The humor of the book and its cyclic rather than linear paterns may be new to Non-Native readers. But, this is the richness and beauty of Native storytelling and liturature at its best.

This is an inventive, magical book for anyone who knows, or wishes to know, American Indian ways of seeing the world. Rather than ponderously attempting to explain the Indian mind, King simply puts it on display: storytelling, puckish humor, memory, quiet persistence and all. Through that Indian lens, the book examines the interactions of men and women, white and Indian attitudes, modern and traditional ways, Hollywood and real history.

It is understandable that those not familiar with Indians might find the book disjointed or hard to follow or less laugh-out-loud hilarious than it is. Much of my enjoyment came from seeing all my Mohican aunts, uncles and cousins -- and the Blackfeet who is married to one of them -- reflected in King's Blackfeet characters.

Nonetheless, for those who know -- or take the time to understand -- Indian ways of thinking, this is a simply wonderful book, a more polished companion to the delightful movie "Smoke Signals" and the Sherman Alexie short stories in "The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven" from which that film is drawn.

Thomas King with " Green Grass Running Water " takes us on a Journey of Spirit and Adventure. Witty , Engaging and Entertaining , this is a must read for those who enjoy Quirky Slice of Life stories. His words flow as if Carried on a Breeze. He plays with Indigenous Philosophy , Christianity and Creationism with Tongue in Cheek. This is a Simple and Sincere , Warm and Charming read that will Entertain and Enlighten.

If you like Talking Coyotes , Women who fall from the Sky , Virgin Births and more than I highly recommend this book. Throughout this Theatre of the Imagination Mr.King proves that he is an Engaging Literary Voice to be Respected and Treasured for Generations to come. In all Thomas Kings writings we are made to Smile and Think while being left with Hope for a Greater Tomorrow.

There is Common Sense Wisdom thoughout as we are Taken on a Journey where Dreams come Alive and the Heart of the Human Spirit is Tested. This is Truly a Delightful Book , Food for the Spiritual Seeker. Green Grass Running Water is an Inventive Interpretation of the Human Spirit. Thomas King is a Writer whose Voice is Unique and his books are Enlightening , Inspiring , Wise and Generous.

Green Grass Running Water is a Literary Tree of Life. To truly enjoy it you must Read Between the Leaves.

I have read this Story and now I will Live my Life differently.