Hermes

You Shouldn't Have To Say Good-bye. This is a very good book. I think this book really shows you what it's like to lose someone you love the most. But at the same time it give you a message about loving your family, because you don't know when you're going to lose someone you love the most. I really like this book, this book helped me to understand that I am not the only one who lost my mother in the same situation. I was 14 years old when I lost my mother. I recommend this book it's sad, but at the same time it's a good and interesting book.

I REALY LOVED THIS BOOK BECAUSE THE AUTHOR WROTE ABOUT REALITY. A LOT OF PEOPLE LOSE THEIR LOVED ONES AND IT'S VERY HARD TO GET OVER IT. I RECOMMEND THIS BOOOK TO ALL READERS, ESPECIALLY TO SOMEONE WHO JUST LOST A LOVED ONE.IT MADE ME FEEL AS IF I WAS IN THE STORY. I FELT LIKE I WAS IN THE MAIN CHARACTER'S POSITION.

I read this book when it first came out and I was in the 5th Grade. Now, 15 years later I looked it up and found it again; it has stuck with me all this time. I know that when I read it (at age 10) it really made me put myself into the place of the main character and touched me so deeply I can still remember the title and the story today. I would definitely recommend this book to all readers.

The thread that binds cultures is stronger and more firm than most people think. Complicating beliefs in order to make them seem original has nothing to do with their essence. Underneath it all they spring from a common source, with an extraordinary parallelism. God is God, no matter by what name. All of that and more is embraced by this amazing book, beautifully written, thought-provoking, a reference source for a lifetime of consultation. Highly recommended.

This book is apparently complicated but in fact is quite simple: underneath the dogma and ceremony, all religions are the same. They have in common a need for answers but also a need for questions that lend themselves to lessons in morality, cautionary tales, structures of ethics that permit the fine fabric of law and society. And furthermore, the societies we think of as primitive are anything but that. Each culture devises a standard of values and behavior, that is essentially like every other culture. A valuable book, a fascinating and provocative one, as applicable as a textbook as a bedside reference source.

This book is a fantastic read - it's passionate, poignant and well written. The research done to write it is obviously extensive and thorough - Carol Miller certainly did her homework! even though the subject is highly intellectual, it's an easy read - great for a flight or a trip to the beach.

I bought this book in Paris on impulse because Pierre Herme was in the bookstore to sign books. After the initial rush died down, I was expecting to be disappointed when I actually get to read it- but was I in for a surprise. It offered lots of information about Pierre Herme's philosophy and techniques.

Don't be put off by its coffee-table book appearance with its large photos- it gives you lots of ideas in cake design and decorating.

The recipes are very precise with the ingredient list measured by weight and some with their ideal temperatures specified. There is also an illustration of the cakes' components and how they are put together.

Overall, this book is ideal for those with a particular level of skill and knowledge in Pastry and may be a bit too technical for the beginners. But it is balanced by the beautiful whole-page photos.

For some pastry chefs, Pierre Herme is a god. This book is his offering back to us. It contains beautiful pictures and wonderful tasting recipes for whole cakes, tarts and petit fours. No plated desserts are covered.

I love this book and turn to it whenever I am developing something new and seek inspiration. The recipes I have tried are very solid. However, Herme includes little detail in terms of instruction. He assumes the reader knows how to interpret lists of ingredients, assemble the pastries and modern finishing techniques.

The book was written while Herme was still at Fauchon.

I have discovered this book after I bought two other ones by Pierre Hermé. I had tried the Pear & Fig Charlotte as well as the Lemon Tart and I wanted to take it to the next level. This book may be made for professionals but I had no problem making the Cinnamon Buns for everybody's enjoyment. Other more sophisticated creations may require special tools but with Pierre's detailed instructions and hints, it is not difficult to replicate what you see on the beautiful pictures.
My next experiment will involve chocolate. I am gathering the necessary equipment to be able to temper, shape and cut chocolate.
I highly recommend this book. It is the first time that a professional really shares his art with the general public. Just try it you'll be amazed !

The good: If you want to make cakes just like they have at Dalloyau and Fauchon, buy this book. Divided into: fruit cakes, chocolate cakes, tarts, and petit fours. It tells you EVERYTHING there is to know. The pictures are stunningly beautiful, more so than ANY dessert book I have ever gotten, and I have about 12 or so. The desserts are very original - Pierre uses stuff like saffron and violet, and rose, and all sorts of flowers in his mousses for example. Cool combinations: Chocolate mousse/lemon cream chocolate cakes, genoise/raspberry/orange mousse cakes for example. I am not kidding: if you have this book you will know every single decorating technique, every single way of putting together stuff just as they do in the french bakeries. It lists just about every kind of mousse, every cake you could want, which ways to decorate them, and most importantly how to put it together. This is my favorite dessert book.

The bad: You have to know what you are doing already. The explanations are sparse. For instance, the explanations for pastry cream goes like (this is not real but an example) boil milk + vanilla. Add in whisked yolks/cornstarch. Put back on stove at 120C for a few minutes. Cool to 140 F, then put in butter. So the explanations are very sparse. All recipes are made for 2-4 cakes so you have to scale down. Everything is metric, everything is by weights (so you have to know 1 yolk = 20 g, 1 white = 30 g for instance). Gelatin is used in sheets in the book, so don't forget to put in about 1 T water for every 1/2 t of powder you use (if you're american and use gelatin powder) It helps to have "desserts by pierre herme" by Pierre and Dorie greenspan to "convert" back and forth units, since some cakes are in both books. Sometimes you may want to substitute: ie regular genoise for Pierre's genoise, regular puff pastry for Pierre's inverted puff pastry. In these cases it helps to know what you are doing first.

Overall: The best book period, in my opinion. Definitely worth the extra cost - it is worth 3 regular books. You have to know what you are doing first though, not for beginners. Other recommended books in the same French cake style: "desserts by pierre herme" by Herme and greenspan, and "art of the cake" by bugat and somebody else I forget. Both are great books (and a lot easier), though not as great as this one.

Ted McFadden's Hermes' Viper main character, Hera makes the real life California Black Angel look like "Bo Peep." The frightening thing is that although Hermes' Viper is fiction, it could be lifted right from the pages of the national news. This is definately not a book you want to give to your favorite person when they are going in for surgery. Otherwise it is a compelling read.

Hera is one of those otherwise bland people, like Lawrence Sander's Zoe Kohler in The Third Deadly Sin. Hera wouldn't stand out it a crowd, but her deadly deeds are hair-raising.

If you enjoy a mystery with some horrifying twists, this is the book for you.

BRILLIANT WRITER JOINS THE RANKS OF OXFORD, MISSISSIPPI, WRITERS. Susan Harring, Free-Lance Writer ' AP

'Not since Robin Cook has an author kept me up all night reading a medical thriller. Joseph T. McFadden is responsible for a nail-biting, sleepless, scary night of chilling intrigue with 'Hermes Viper' his first novel.'
Hermes is Stuart Holton, neurosurgeon to Chicago's poor, and the viper is a psychopathic murderess stalker suffering from multiple personality disorder and erotomania. Although her disguises are clear throughout the book, the viper's identity remains a mystery until the very end. More than once my smug thoughts of knowing 'who dunnit' were denied, shattered like the villainous viper's illusions of love. The master of disguises starts knocking off patients at an increased rate in her twisted hope of winning the love of Dr. Holton, the object of her erotomania for sixteen long years. Mercy killing her way through the wards of a Chicago charity hospital the viper insanely believes that by poisoning patients she is helping Holton free up beds to further his career and perform more surgeries. His children give him the idea to use virtual reality to solve the high death rate enigma. A computer literate colleague, a forensic pathologist develops a program using fuzzy logic and artificial intelligence to predict the next victim, someone very close to Holton.
The story heats up as the killer goes after his family, friends, and colleagues, people the viper views as standing between her and the man she has been stalking for sixteen years. Another mystery that plagues Holton throughout the book is the puzzling death of his wife from an incurable rare disease. Once you get started you cannot stop until it is over and you discover just who 'Hermes' Viper is and why the abused little girl, rescued from a house fire at the age of five, grew up so warped.
The novel will raise your consciousness of just how life-threatening a hospital visit really is. Fortunately the masses are beginning to wake up to the realization that the medical profession is, indeed, in need of drastic changes and the cause of our maladies need to be treated, not the effect by slapping a bandage on, OR popping a pill as a curative. Excellent, excellent book. It's long overdue. This writer is a pioneer in many ways. God Bless You Joseph T. McFadden for telling the truth in your brilliantly written novel.
Hermes' Viper is sure to be made into a movie, but do not wait, read the book.
McFadden's second medical mystery, 'The Wafer' delves deeply into organ donation and will be released in Spring of 2002.

A POWERFUL FIRST-RATE MYSTERY NOVEL THAT WILL FOREVER CHANGE YOUR ATTITUDE TOWARD MEDICINE, LAW AND JUSTICE. Joseph T. McFadden, professor emeritus of neurosurgery at Eastern Virginia Medical School, has written a powerful novel, Hermes' Viper, set in a huge 3,000-bed charity hospital. "After the first chapter, the 423 page novel had me by the throat. I read through the night and into the next day, " says Guy Friddell, book review editor of The Virginian-Pilot Newspaper, Norfolk, VA, October 30th. More from the review. Idealistic Dr. Stuart Holton is a neurosurgeon in a hospital on Chicago's South Side. He chose that exceedingly active practice out of love of humanity and a drive to save lives. In the reaches of the large hospital wards, terminal patients beyond treatment are routinely found dead, but the dedicated Dr. Holton realizes that the mortality rate among his patients is becoming abnormally high. Then, patients who are not terminal die under troubling circumstances. The guilty party is a staff member, close to him, who is gifted in assuming disguises, ranging from a pink lady volunteer to a minor lab technician. She has sought to get in touch with her own identity since fire scarred and maimed her at age 5. Looking for her true self, she turns to ending the suffering of terminal patients. Armed with syringes and poisons, she flits late at night along dimly lit halls, an angel of death. Obsessed by erotomania, a maniacal fixation on one individual, she stalks Holton and determines to remove all who stand between him and her, whether hospital employees or his family. He can't identify her nor, for that matter, could this reader, even though she records her deadly rounds in a journal. When someone other than my suspect proved to be guilty, I checked and found that the author had played fair in delineating the stalker from the start. I'd been as obtuse as anybody in the book in picking up the clues. They were right there in front of us. One of this book's strengths is its portrayal of the hospital environment, the crises met with team spirit, and the surgeon at work. In depicting the deft motions of the surgeon and his aides in an operation, McFadden comes down close, paring them down to their bare, vivid essentials. Each operation becomes an absorbing vignette, and reading it, one pulls for the patient. The characters are as numerous as those in one of Charles Dickens' novels. McFadden succeeds in making each one believable. The book has two rousing pursuits. When Holton discovers the stalker is on the prowl for his family, he races to find and rescue them. Then, Holton's chase turns to capturing and unmasking the stalker. His second novel, The Wafer, addresses the organ donor dilemma, and he is currently at work on the third, A Hooker In The Choir, set in the nursing home scene of the American landscape. It also deals with HMO problems.McFadden is a brilliant writer.

This is a good book. It is about a girl who is trying to find her place in the world and who she is. Thomas J helps her too. Her mother died when she was a baby.

Its so good... ITs about a girl going through problems and not having a mother because she died.Her father having a girlfriend dosent help her!Then latter in the book she faces the worst thing posible...?

I thought this book was very good and I would recommend it to anyone of any age.Even if u are an adult you will enjoy this book because it is about life and it tells about the kids ife and the adults ife in the story.It took me about a week to read this book because I had school but when Ihad time i would pick it up and read it.I also liked the movie that they came out with and I would definetly recommend it to any person of any age !!

The Starving Time opens up exactly where Elizabeth left off writing in Book One. She is terribly saddened over the departure of her best friend Jessie who is going back to England with her father after the loss of his wife, and Captain John Smith who had also been a good friend. She finds friendship in a girl named Mary, who is in love with a boy named John, who she loathes more than anyone in the whole colony. But that is just the little things. Elizabeth and the rest of the colonists have to endure so many things; the title tells exactly what the book is about. She even sees her mother eatting worms because she is so starved. But most of all what gets Elizabeth through this terrible ordeal is knowing that come spring, her twin brother Caleb will be on the new ships coming to Jamestown with so many good things in tow. I recommend this book to anyone providing you have the read the first though. You will not be disappointed.

Taking place in 1609, Elizabeth Barker, a 9 year old immagrint from England writes about her suffering life in Jamestown, Virginia. After Captain Smith and her old friend, Jessie Bolton return to England, she lives in missery until she meets Mary, a fourteen year-old girl. Everyone is starving terribly. A few have even died. Men are sent out of their town to find food, some do not return... Elizabeth has even caught her mother eating worms!

Life is harsh... Soon Elizabeth's mother dies and almost everyone grows ill, even Elizabeth her self! Many families leave the town and travel into the wild, hoping for more luck. Now, only a few families remain. Soon, Her brother Caleb will come on the supply ship in Spring. Many pray they will survive until then... I recommend this book to any one who enjoys history and adventure!...

When I first got this book I didn't want to let it go . It was so interseting that I didn't want to go to sleep.The part I liked was that Elizabeth's mom had a baby. Also that Elizabeth and Jessie asked Captain John Smith if he can go back to England and say hi to Caleb. I had fun reading this book.If you heard about this book then check it out.

We just added "Westward to Home" and several other "My America" books to our elementary school library, so it remains to be seen how popular this particular title will be.

Author Patricia Hermes does a fine job of telling the story of a nine-year old boy, through brief journal entries, about life on the Oregon Trail in 1848. While we get a kid's eye view of the hardships, the people, and some of the typical events associated with traveling west by covered wagon, I'm not convinced that this is a genuinely BOY'S book.

I have traveled along the Oregon Trail, from Independence, MO, to Walla Walla, WA, and I was once a boy. That makes me no expert, but I think a nine-year old kid on the Oregon Trail would be less interested in the interpersonal difficulties of the adults in the wagon train, and more fascinated with guns, never-before-seen animals such as pronghorns, prairie dogs, snakes, lizards, and buffalo, and some of the amazing landforms that come into view after a monotonous trek across the flat prairies.

There was a brief mention of Chimney Rock, which would be awe inspiring for any kid to see and muse about. And what about Register Rock where a kid would surely stop to scratch in his own name and read the signatures of those who had gone on before? One would think a boy would be more amazed at his first views of the Rockies. And even when Joshua is curious about the Indians he sees in the forts along the way, I'd expect him to be more fascinated with the way they looked and talked, what they wore, how they smelled and how they did things like eat and smoke. This could also be said for the soldiers and trappers he must've seen at these forts.

I also can't imagine a nine-year old boy spending so much time in his journal worrying about a girl who was "sweet" on him. Instead, I would like to have seen his male friendships developed a bit more fully.

Having said all this, I still think this book is a welcome addition to middle grade titles about the Oregon Trail. The overall picture of the life, people and hardships, including many tragic deaths, is realistic. I anticipate that more girls will be reading this than boys, but it fills a need at this level.

Patricia Hermes' account of this dangerous exploration needs quiet time to listen. The young boy's relationship with his grandfather becomes my chief reason for buying and recommending this book to grandparents who often care for children's needs more diligently than birth parents.
The author manifests a unique sense of humor when she creates the name for "ME-TOO". Capturing the surf and the breeze the story, WESTWARD TO HOME renders the journey as nature's spiritual turf. Mary Kelly,Toms River, NJ.

Joshua is excited when he is told that his family is going to be going to Oregon. Joshua is also fortunate because his aunt,uncle and cousins are also coming with him. The only thing he doesn't like is his grandfather isn't coming. However Joshua gets a surprise when his grandfather shows up unexpectantly and decides to come with them. Joshua stares at death many times as many people die in their wagon group. However Joshua also manages to have fun as every young boy should do as goes on a bufflo hunt. However when one of his family members gets into trouble crossing a river will Joshua be brave enough to save her? Will his family ever make it to Oregon safe and sound? This is a great book and I think anyone who is interested in the Oregon Trail should read this book!

I just LOVE this book! A great sequal to the first book. It's mainly about a thirteen year old girl, Vada Sultenfuss, who has been assigned to do a project on someone she admires but never really met. Naturally, she chooses her mother, who died because of birth complications. Her dad's an undertaker, who remarried to Shelly, the lady that does the make up on the...uh, deceased people. Now Shelly's pregnant. It's not one of those fairytale stories, where Shelly's the evil wicked fairy stepmother, or anything. Really. Vada actually likes Shelly, but has mixed feelings about it. She doesn't mind there's a baby, but she feels bad about the fact that she'll have to give up her room, something her mom had chosen. Another thing is that she's afraid that Shelly might die too. In the mean time, she has her new friend Judy to think about, whose currently dating the oh-so-cool-and-totally-snott-faced...(drumroll, please)Kevin Phillips. Soon, she decides to go to L.A., her mothers bithplace, to find out more for her report. Once there, she meets up with her Uncle Phil, his girlfriend, and his almost stepson, Nick. It starts out as a bribery thing, really, with Uncle Phil paying Nick five bucks to take Vada from the airport, and ten to take her around the place. Vada finds Nick incredibly disagreeable and wonders why he tags along anyway, if he dislikes her so much. She finds out more about her mother, though usually dissapointing bits, but eventually confides in Nick pretty many things, such as her mood ring and Thomas J.They become friends, really good friends. Really, REALLY good friends. Dare I say, a little more? Then, she finds out about some guy her mother had already been married to, and begins to worry that this Jeffery Pommery guy could actually be her father. She finds out once she meets him, though, that she's wrong. Totally, completely, embarrassingly wrong. She even got to keep a vidio tape of her mother singing and acting. So, in one little Spring Vacation, she finds out about her mother, gets her ear pierced(barbaric customs, Nick calls it) and gets a sort of couisin, once Phil proposes. Not that they want to be couisins, they'd rather be... well, Vada doesn't say, but you know. Now, at the airport, she gets her first kiss. Second, actually, afterall, Thomas J. kissed her first in the first book, but that's another story. Anyway, guess who does it? Nick, of course. On her way back on the airplane, she finds a tiny box with the chandeleir earrings that she wanted, along with a note saying, "In memory of barbaric customs. Love, Nick." Intrigued by the "love" part? Too bad for you, that's basically the last we ever heard of Nick. Once home, she rushes to the hospital to find that she is now a sister. Stepsister. Whatever, you know what I'm talking about. I'm not about to tell you the end- okay, I already told you most of it, but still, it's REALLY worth reading!! Since most people will probably see how long this review is, they'll probably skip it. Well, there goes twenty minutes writing to a waste. Oh well. Just one last thing: YOU...MUST...READ...THIS...BOOK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I loved this book. It is adventourous,romantic, exciting, and partially sad. It was a 4 tissue story. The book is about a girl who is writing a report and has to find out information about her mother who died after Vada, the girl, was born. It was a great story. I think anyone that likes to search for new things and enjoys a little mushyness would enjoy this story.

I love this book. The minute I started reading it, I could not put it down. Tonight I am renting the movie. I can't wait! I am going to read the first My Girl next. I heard that was really good also. I'll let you know how I like it.

Ocean Blues

Cheat the Moon is a book about two siblings whose mother died and their dad hasn't been home for 21 days. Gabby is the older of two, who is invited to go on a trip to the ocean with her friend in June. She really wants to go for she has always wanted to see the ocean.
The only problem is her dad hasn't been home for a while , and she can't leave her brother home alone.

I liked this book because it made you think it could be a true story, and when I read it I felt like i was standing next to the characters. It had rich description which made me feel that way. I also like that the book was written in first person. So, I don't only feel I'm standing next to the characters, but there also telling me the story of part of their life.

Cheat the Moon is a book about two siblings who's mother died, and their dad hasn't been home for about twenty-one days. Gabby is the older girl who is invited to go on a trip to the ocean with her friend in June . She really wants to go, for she has always wanted to see the ocean, but her dad hasn't been home, and she can't leave her little brother alone for that long.
I liked this book because it was dealing with real life situations, and when I read it , I felt like I was there standing next to the characters because it had rich description. I also liked that the book was written in first person. So I don't only feel like I'm standing next to the characters, but I also feel like there telling me a story of part of there life.
I do recommend this book if you like a book written in first person. Cheat the moon doesn't have much action but it still is a good book. I gave it five stars because the ending turned out good and not so upsetting.

Gabby is a 12 year old girl that has a 6 year old brother named Will. Their mom passed away and their dad is a drunk. He is hardly ever home. Gabby's friend, Mallie, is going on a vacation to the ocean. Gabby was invited to come along, and Gabby wanted to go. Gabby's dad came back from being gone for 22 days. He promised her he would stay for good, so she could go on the trip. Then one day Clara, a lady that helped them out came over and stayed with them. If you want to find out the ending, read the book.