House

I recently built a wooden deck in my backyard. For other suggestions and review, check out my 'So you'd like to...' guide.

forget the fancy stain removal items advertised on t.v.
this book tells you how to use simple, available, and common everyday items to clean your clothes and keep them that way.
items like ammonia,vinegar, detergent, pre-wash. items we all have in the house.

and the best part is they work!!. i have removed stains like mustard, tomato sauce, and blood - some of the ...stains in the world.

i give this book as baby gift, wedding gift housewarming gift etc.

although we can do nothing about death and taxes, we can certainly do something about stains. this book is a must buy !!!

I've showed so many people this book over the year's...and still receive a call or two a month asking me "what do I do with this stain?". Now I can refer them to Amazon to buy their own copy.

Great Stuff!

There's no doubt that this book is basic, but it was just what I needed. It demystified the entertaining process, showing me that even I could throw a memorable bash. Sure, the authors say, things will go wrong, but there are ways to handle them.

This book includes sample menus, suggestions on how to have fun at your party by planning and cooking (or buying) ahead, and a step-by-step guide through a variety of parties. At the last page, I felt inspired and excited about throwing a party--entirely a new feeling for me!

You start in a moor and walk through a woods. Then there is a dark castle and you walk up to the door. Once you enter the castle, you are in a dark hall and go up some dark stairs. You are in a fairy tale castle and then you see a dark passage. You are tempted to look behind a dark curtain and then the cat stands looking up at a dark cupboard.

The last page shows a mouse in a box with a rather frightened look on its face. So the only fear in this book is that the cat has found the mouse. Although it does seem the cat leaves the mouse sleeping happily in his little bed with his miniature candle and miniature slippers.

The beauty of this book is in the art. Ruth Brown studied art at the Birmingham College of Art and the Royal College of Art. She has worked on animated films for the BBC.

Meowingly Cute.

Helen's breezy, upbeat style makes for an uplifting read, which can be helpful to clients who are feeling overwhelmed by their stuff.

Helen Volk's book offers the reader more than just helpful advice. Her book serves as a partner and coaches you through the de-cluttering process. She uses humor, support and practical
guidance in order to help you to make progress in your de-cluttering efforts. If you're unable to attend her wonderful groups and workshops you can certainly benefit from this book and gain some valuable tools that are culled from her expertise and personal experience. I highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to learn how to let go of "stuff" that no longer serves you and experience greater peace of mind and a more organized physical environment.

Debra Gugig-Bauer, CRC, CASAC
President,

CATALYSTS FOR CHANGE
COUNSELING AND TRAINING ASSOCIATES

Hyman Schwartz, a Polish Holocaust survivor who has lost his wife and son, finds work as an accountant in New York. Hyman lives an ascetic life and accepts no favors or invitations; he is angry at God and sees himself as uniquely qualified to indict Him. Ten years later a young Hungarian refugee, Shimshon, appears in the accounting firm and demands instruction. Hyman rejects Shimshon's requests as he has rejected all other attempts to involve him in relationships.: his life is on hold and he thinks only of his lost Rachel and David. Shimshon appears every day at noon and asks Hyman to eat with him; every day Hyman tells him he is too busy. But Shimshon has a secret: just as Hyman has lost a son, he has lost a father. In a dramatic moment the younger man reveals this, challenging Hyman's claim to solitary suffering. Shimshon's persistence in spite of repeated rebuffs eventually wins him not only Hyman's friendship and support, but also the knowledge that he has reached the embittered man's frozen heart and thawed it.

Rosenfeld enlivens his story with rich detail. The reader is informed about the concurrent activities of the Brooklyn Dodgers (who win their first World Series), about the history of the Jewish communities in Poland and Hungary between the wars, and about the practice and philosophy of accounting. Doubtless there are many literary parallels to the evolving friendship of Hyman and Shimshon, but this reader was reminded of St. Exupery's Little Prince and his instruction by the fox about how the prince must behave if he wants to tame him. He must come the same day of the week at the same time, and though the fox will run from him at first, sooner or later he will look forward to his visits.

The author's style is often spare and poetic.: a barn whose roof was tilted so low "that it looked like an old stoop-shouldered woman bowing to pray," or Hyman finding his old house in Warsaw destroyed; pressing his forehead to the step "he prostrated himself and cried, 'Please send them back, please,' but the cement did not reply."

Hyman Schwartz's story is memorable. This reader has read the book twice and both times found it compelling.

This collection gets 5 stars, but only because it would be churlish to award less to a book of 22 stories at such a giveaway price.

As an example of the anthologer's art it rates only 2 stars, or 3 stars at most. Which is kind of strange, given that that when he compiled this collection (and at least 2 others) Godfrey was listed as:

"... former editor-in-chief of *Mystery* magazine and a regular columnist for *The Armchair Detective*."

Despite these apparently substantial credentials (I've actually never heard of either of these magazines, but then I don't read many magazines), Mr Godfrey's selection of tidbits from the vast canon of English (note "English") Country House Murders is truly eccentric.

In the first place, his introduction goes at great length into the necessary qualifications for "the English Country House Mystery" - rather than *murders*.
If he'd stopped right there I'd have been beating the drum on his behalf. But he doesn't. On the contrary, he seems to fancy himself as the new Haycraft, because he starts in on a list of 14 qualities needed to justify a story as belonging in this category. The fourteenth quality, by the way, (how to identify "a proper English Country House") is subdivided into no less than a further 11 conditions!

Wow, this guy must really know his stuff.
Right?
Actually, that seems to be in some doubt.

The very first point Mr Godfrey makes is that "Authentic English Country House Mysteries are written by authentic English writers. Americans, even Canadians, may study the form and give it a go, but they invariably give themselves away as pretenders to the tradition."

Well - it's 'Godfrey's rule' - so why on earth does he insist on breaking it?
There's a story by Baroness Orczy (Hungarian), one by Dame Ngaio Marsh (New Zealander), and one by John Dickson Carr (born in Uniontown, Pennsylvania!). To be honest the first two don't accord with Godfrey's rule anyway, but Dickson Carr's story could just as easily be set in Palm Springs, California and all you'd have to do would be change the place names to give it the note of authenticity.
It's a great story, but typical English Country House it is NOT.

There are several other criticisms - some stories don't feature murders, some don't take place in a English Country House - as defined by Godfrey's rules - but my main beef is that all of these criticisms could have been easily avoided by a more judicious selection of stories.

For example, why do we get nearly 70 pages of a tedious Wilkie Collins story (no murder and precious little country house) - yet not a whiff of Ernest Bramah's blind detective, Max Carrados, nor H.C. Bailey's Mr Fortune?
Why Gideon Fell, but no hint of Edgar Wallace's epitome of understated Englishness - Mr J.G. Reeder?
Why the hysteria-ridden offering from Ethel Lina White (with little or no hint of the brilliance of her full-length works) but not a glimpse of a true 'gem' such as an item featuring Max Pemberton's Bernard Sutton (jeweller) as featured in "Jewel Mysteries I have Known"?

All too often anthologies abound in stories that are actually still available from other sources (in this case those by Conan Doyle, Christie, Allingham, Marsh, Rendell, James, etc. all fall into that category), yet fail to feature stories that truly deserve to be anthologised because, though famous in their day, they are now relatively unknown and hard to come by?

Of course there must be some big names in there to help sell the book, but Godfrey, IMO, shows far too little instinct for digging out true gems by less well-known authors.
And just in case anyone thinks it can't be done - check back to the greatest series of them all, in this particular context - the mould-breaking 'Rivals of Sherlock Holmes', 'More Rivels...', etc., all neatly topped off by Michele Slingsby's 'Murder on Her Mind'.

Ah, now those were the days when anthologisers REALLY knew their business!

So yes, you WILL get value for money. But it could have been so, so much better.

This is an anthology of twenty-two English Country House Mysteries. Godfrey begins his book by defining what constitutes an English Country House Mystery. There are rules for everything, you know! He then proceeds to entertain us with the twenty-two selected examples which are, if not the cream of the crop, right up there with the best of them.

As for his rules, some of them are delightful. To wit:

An English Country House Mystery must take place in an English Country House.

To be self respecting, an English Country House Mystery must include a crime.

The nature of the crime must be puzzling. The identity of the perpetrator must be kept unknown for a long time.

The deduction of the identity must involve genuine reasoning ability.

These are but a few of the rules that Godfrey sets forth. These mysteries, to qualify, must truly be British, preferably upper class British.

Having defined the rules of the genre, he goes on to the works of several of the pioneers in the field and of some next generation disciples. It seems that many of Agatha Christie's stories and novels meet the requirements. In this book, we are treated to her "The Shadow on the Glass." Works by such diverse authors as G. K. Chesterton, Dorothy Sayers, and P. G. Wodehouse are also included. Wodehouse and his Jeeves remind me of another rule. There should generally be live-in staff, such as a butler, in these mysteries.

I don't think that any anthology on this subject would be complete without one of Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes adventures. "The Adventure of the Abbey Grange" is the Holmes selection for this anthology.

They're all good, and it's almost unrealistic to pick a favorite story. That said, I particularly enjoyed Robert Barr's "Lord Chizelrigg's Missing Fortune," which did violate one of the rules. It was a puzzle without a crime. Barr's detective, Valmont, was the prototype of the early British fictional detective, and he had a sense of humor. Many people believe that Agatha Christie's Hercule Poirot was modeled on Valmont. Barr was one of the first writers to mix fictional characters with real life people in his stories. In this case, it was Thomas Alva Edison. A piece of advice Valmont had once received from Edison had become a centerpiece of Valmont's approach to solving crimes.

One of the beauties of ENGLISH COUNTRY HOUSE MURDERS, or any good anthology for that matter, is that it serves as a sort of a tour. On a tour, you get a little sampling of a lot of places. The intelligent traveler than uses this information to choose places that he wants to revisit, seeing much more of what the place has to offer. This anthology serves exactly the same purpose. The reader is likely to discover new (to him, at least) authors, whose fiction he likes and whose greater body of works seem worth exploring. It's also fun to revisit authors with whom one is already familiar.

ENGLISH COUNTRY HOUSE MURDERS did both for me. I found a few previously unknown authors who interested me, and I was able to revisit some old friends such as Sherlock Holmes. Other readers will probably have similar experiences.