MR

Even though I have never read this book, I whole heartedly encourage everyone to do so. Reading this book will provide you with (depending on your reading speed) hours of escape from your ho-hum life, as you gleefully tag along on Mocky's Adventures!

I loved this book -- before opening it, I knew very little about Alaska. Now, I know more than I could ever need, unless I got caught in the Iditarod and needed something to eat (Spam doesn't freeze).

I liked the book's format, broken down alphabetically by subject -- Agriculture, Baidarka, Cabin Fever, etc -- and I especially loved Mr. Whitekeys, originator of the infamous "Whale Fat Follies", and his bits of whimsy. For example, did you know....Alaskans rank no. 1 in the consumption of ice cream and no. 2 in the per capita consumption of SPAM?

Books like these contain a lot of infomration packaged in a very clever format...good concept, great fun!

Enjoy!

At the urging of Inspector Field, the three associates decide to investigate the murder of the don. Although they have worked previous cases, Dickens, Wilkie, and Dodgson remain writers/wannabe authors playing amateur sleuths. Their actions soon place their very lives and that of Dickens' mistress in danger from an unknown assailant.

The fourth Dickens-Collins Victorian mystery is a clever who-done-it, populated by literary references and their associated footnotes. The story line is fun although the use of Victorian era dialect makes one wonder if Dickens is heading in the direction of Chaucer and Shakespeare, difficult to read without a translator. The plot belongs to the trio of writers as the audience sees a glimpse of them beyond the classroom and outside their novels.

Harriet Klausner

I personally am a non-shopper. I do not spend my Saturdays going from mall to mall on the quest for the perfect pair of slacks. I rarely enjoy a trip to my corner market unless they are giving out free tastes of their wares around each aisle corner so as to keep the kids busy. And, I am not going to fill up my already-full house with more stuff from garage sales.

But, I am a frugal woman and I enjoy the hunt and fresh kill of a good bargain! Ms. Moore sounds like she truly enjoys her shopping adventures, and her little stories that accompany her tips are quite fun. The meat of this book is written within the stories, giving advice from how to find the diamond in the rough from a re-sale clothing store, to how to buy the best items from the comfort of your living room.

Marlene gives you tips and anecdotes for nearly every imaginable shopping adventure, so there's surely something within the covers of her book for everyone. My husband got a big kick out of the thong advice, and I even caught him repeating it to his mother on the telephone! I shook my head with understanding over the chapter on bras; and 30 years after needing my first one, I have still not found the ultimate comfort supporter. But, I sure have a drawer full of duds!

I recommend you pick up Hunting for Mr. Good Bargain, and enjoy this fun read while you are making out your next 'I want' list. Make sure you take notes, so that you, too, can write some fun stories from your bargain hunt!

With blind dates from hell and other situations that will have you laughing out loud, Roarke tries to help Kat find her perfect man, hoping her path will lead her back to him.

The team that writes as Terry Campbell has created another screwball comedy romance that is sexy as all get out, yet still qualifies as a traditional "sweet" romance in that the sensuality is in the head instead of the bed. The story is fast-paced and very funny. The protagonists are real and the child character speaks and acts like a child her age.

But you don't have to take just my word for it. This book was a finalist for the Booksellers Best Bet Award in contemporary romance, meaning both Mr. Wrong and Fat Chance, both by Terry Campbell, have received this honor in consecutive years.

Whether you read this book in hardcover, trade paperback or electronic format, this book is a great read when you want to spend a delightful few hours with characters who may stumble a bit on the way to true love, but actually find it.

Good, fun stuff.

Its theology is reformed theology, with which I am often in disagreement, however it provides an excellent basis for imparting Biblical values while teaching children to read.

Gerald North lives with his wife Pamela and their three cats in an apartment. He is a typical New Yorker. There is a likelihood of finding him eating eggs benedict in a famous night club. He is a publisher.

A Dr. Preson decides someone is trying to drive him crazy by producing streams of people through want ads--tree surgeons, masons, various kinds of other people. Preson is a curator of fossil mammals, a paleozoologist. Dr. Preson is one of Jerry North's published authors.

A house invader enters Preson's apartment and takes the labels off of the bones there. The labels are on the bones merely as a convenience. Preson's sister Laura drinks some milk from his refrigerator. It is laced with phenobarbital.

Preson's family reports that he is an excitable man. His family has been concerned about him for about a year. Then it is learned that Preson has succumbed to an overdose of barbituates. Orpheus Preson dies of repiratory paralysis.

It is hard for Pam and Jerry North to disentangle the mysteries surrounding Preson's demise. They had believed the paleozoologist to be sane. The Norths set off in search of the manuscript for volume two. The manuscript is located, but it is incomplete.

The decedent had been connected with an institute, a small museum. It is a musty, dusty affair. Pretty soon Preson's family is prepared to contest the will and his brother-in-law turns up murdered at the institute. Needless to say, the North couple is charming.

When Dr. Orestes Preson, distinguished and scholarly mammalogist, found that someone was inserting classified newspaper advertisements in his name, requesting candidates for various unlikely jobs to appear for interviews, he called in the police. They weren't much interested. Their interest became lively when Dr. Preson's sister was discovered drugged in his apartment, and acute when a definite murder attempt was made.
Pam and Jerry North come into the picture since Jerry is Dr. Preson's publisher, a happy publisher, too, for the learned Curator of Fossil Mammals has the touch that converts research into bestsellers. Soon they are very much involved in some strange doings among the cases of ancient bones in the Bradley Institute of Paleontology.

Sergeant Aloysius Mullins and Captain Bill Weigand assist the Norths as they get into full swing in their sixteenth mystery. In a setting reminiscent of cave man days, a strange game of hide- and-seek is played out. The climax is a wild chase in which Pam emerges the heroine.

Pam and Jerry North have given pleasure to hundreds of thousands of mystery fans. Their latest adventures furnish another example of why the Lockridges, through the years, have attracted so large a following.

"Freddy and Mr. Camphor" features two story lines; the primary involves Freddy becoming caretaker of a large estate and facing off against two sets of old enemies, the subsidiary involves insects pitching in to protect Victory gardens from themselves. The two stories are not tied together in any particular way, and do not represent Brooks at his best, but are certainly pleasant. Freddy fans will be pleased to see both Simon and The Winches, and Freddy's new friends, a pair of difficult hoptoads, are most amusing.

The job seemed perfect. Freddy got to live on a houseboat while he guarded the grounds and mowed the expansive lawn. If it hadn't been for a chance meeting with Waldo and Elmo, a pair of dejected hoptoads, Freddy would have thought he was in heaven. But the toads reveal that all is not well. Simon the Rat and his clan have moved into the Camphor attic and, in a fit of random destructiveness, have chewed away the faces on the portraits that are stored there.

Nor is that the worst of it. Mrs. Winch, the housekeeper, turned out to be the estranged wife of Zebedee Winch and his son Horace, whom the reader may remember from Freddy's trip to Florida, where he gave the animals no end of problems. This time is no different. Freddy is locked up, a plot is hatched against him and Mr. Camphor returns to find Freddy accused of vandalism and theft. A dejected Freddy returns to the Bean Farm, determined to undo the damage.

Of course, things are not perfect on the farm either Webb the Spider is on a campaign to convince the insects that they should abstain from eating the Victory Gardens that are providing extra food for the war effort. He is opposed by Zero, the anarchist horsefly, and appeals to Freddy for help. Certainly, a pig's work is never done.

Somehow, of course, all is made right, but it takes all of Freddy's ingenuity, the cooperation of the farm animals, and even an array of militant fleas to bring all the culprits to justice. In the world of the Bean Farm, teamwork, friendship, and an honest determination to do the right thing are the tools that make the difference. As always, Brooks' lessons are painless fun. He displays a touch for gentle yet satirical caricature that cannot help but please both his younger audience and us doddering, older readers who remember the days before noir fiction and, like Freddy, occasionally need to take a break

When her father gives her a beat-up small pinto horse Elizabeth is far from being grateful and sees it as an embarrasment rather than a horse that she should be happy to finally have. Over the course of the book her attitude changes and in the end she values the Ragman much more.

Growing up it is easy to dream of all of the things that a person does not have but this book puts it all in perspective. For this reason it might be a good book for a parent to give their child who is just getting started in riding and is facing the same problems as Elizabeth.