This is not your typical murder mystery. Although the victim, a moonshine making, ginseng picking, illegitimate baby producing mountain woman dies around chapter three, no one will realize that she is dead until about halfway through the book. The first half is taking up with the humorous goings on of the wacky inhabitants of Magoody who seem to include at least one example of every unflattering hillbilly stereotype in existence. When the mountain women goes a missing, her five wild children are dragged into town for their own good. The mystery is as much about who their fathers might be as who is responsible for the booby-trapped dope field that took their ma's life. In the end, or rather long before the end most readers will have figured out the answers to both of these questions. Fortunately, the mystery plays back seat to her large cast of crazed characters. If the authors raunchy sense of humor hits your funny bone you will be turning the pages faster and faster trying to find out what nutty thing will happen next.

Mystery and humor in one package. Great stuff. I hope she keeps writting about Maggody. -Sharice Lee-Author: "The Survivor's Guide."-

I found the Maggody mysteries in a wonderful case of serendipity and now I can't get enough. They have me turning pages as fast as I can to find out what hilarious development is next. One of the few writers that make me laugh out loud, and frequently. Joan Hess has created characters that you would never admit to knowing, but secretly wish you had met. They are at the same time outrageous and very real.

Murder at Conundrum Creek was a quick, good read - or so I thought. But two weeks after finishing it, I still have those characters under my skin! Nicely written mystery with likeable characters.

Fans of David Lynch's Twin Peaks will feel right at home in Murder at Conundrum Creek. Set in a remote valley of Colorado, Magdalena is a tranquil hamlet of quirky people, where the community's matriarch was universally loved yet murdered, where the living commune with the deceased, at least when sleep-deprived and over-stressed, and where heiresses must go on treasure hunts and solve riddles before collecting their bequest.

The convincing portrait of this remote community is rendered in a sparkling, light-footed prose, accompanied by a steady drip feed of humor. The terse, matter-of-fact style is a well-chosen foil for a story with some high-octane plot points. As written, the deadpan delivery and throw-away humor disarmed this reader entirely. The humor is so dry you may have to read it twice to take it all in. A good example is found in the 'about the author' blurb, where Joan Harvey Monroe advises us she 'writes about her favorite persons, who are all fictional.' When was the last time you read an author's blurb that made you laugh?

The heiress in question and protagonist is a young nurse from Minneapolis, a fish out of water in this town where everyone knows everybody. Nika McGuiness seems alternately seasoned beyond her years and more callow than most twenty-somethings, as a result of having been orphaned young, and growing up fast in a predatory but provincial environment. Prone to trust anyone old enough to be a surrogate parent or grandparent, Nikka is much more skeptical of younger adults, and very conflicted about the disastrous sibling she raised while little more than a child herself. Desirable and warm-hearted yet inclined to a prickly rectitude and schoolmarmish ways, this is a heroine in the Katherine Hepburn tradition, and she has not one but two would-be Spencer Traceys vying for her affections. But can she trust either of them?

This is a murder mystery and as such displays the sordid side of human nature. And yet at the end it is a life-affirming story about the power of love and the ability of the individual to make a difference in others' lives. A pared-down subplot involving the mutual devotion of an elderly couple is truly moving, and offers a nice counterpoint to the instant-gratification urges of the younger set. That this story is authored by a nurse who presumably has had plenty of first-hand experience with the inevitable end of life, makes it all the more rewarding. It is a wonderful sentiment to encounter in a grisly post-9/11 world.

I took Murder at Conundrum Creek along as beach reading recently, and mean no disrespect when I say I found it perfectly suited to poolside afternoons ' much better suited for that purpose than the latest best seller I carried along with it. It is a fast read, not too demanding, yet rewards the alert reader with a steady stream of humor, social observations, and insights ranging from client-attorney relations to the state of health care in nursing homes.

This is a highly original book, and as refreshing an alternative as an Indy movie after one too many Hollywood formula features. I recommend it, and expect the author will attract a following who look forward to the further adventures of Nika McGuiness and the eccentric citizens (living and possibly otherwise) of bucolic Magdalena, Colorado.

Great mystery story! Started reading and could not put the book down...the plot thickened with every page I read. The characters were truly delightful and very realistic. Hats off to Joan Harvey Monroe!

This book was used at the local Community College as the text book for an HTML class. I thought the book did a great job of incorporating what the reader learns into real web pages. Other books just say to make text bold do this, to make a marquee do that, but the don't show you how to put that into practice. The reader can do the cases at the end of every chapter and get a solid understanding of how to really use what they've learned. I know it doesn't cover every tag you can use, but gives you a great understanding of the basics.

I intended to use this book as an alternative to taking the course (this was the textbook) at the local community college. My buddy took the course, but the instructor didn't use the book for teaching cascading style sheets or JavaScript; good thing! This book is the bible for HTML 4.0; for that purpose it worked - forget it for chapters 7 onwards (Cascading style sheets and JavaScript). It seems as though the author/publisher thought that adding these chapters would give the book sales appeal - it didn't; it only made me feel very stupid. I bought WROX's Beginning JavaScript - so far it looks very promising.

The book is terrific!!! The tutorials help me to learn the programming syntax, and users can try the case problems to apply what they learned. The case problems downloaded from the book website already contain basic code segment, so users don't have to type everything. Also, excellent references of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript at end of book. As the title implied, the book is primary for learning HTML and DHTML. Reader that would like to learn JavaScript need to get another book, also recommed Beginning JavaScript from Wrox.

This book might be helpful to parents of newborns who have no idea how to play with their children. For everyone else, it has a pretty obvious and unimaginative take on how to use toys to stimulate language development. A typical suggested dialog for playing with legos is: "Yes, Bobby, that is a blue block! Here is another blue block! Now there are two blue blocks and they are exactly the same!" and so on. There are lots of lists of things your child should be doing at various ages; but if you are interested in this book, your child has special needs and you probably already know he/she isn't going to develop in a typical way. To me, this book wasn't worth the money.

I bought this when my son was 15 months and we had concerns with his speech (he was a preemie and fairly ill his first year, so we have always monitored him pretty closely). This book may seem like "obvious" information or ridiculous to a parent of a typically-developing child, but it is a wealth of information to a speech-delayed child.

My son began special education preschool (for daily ST) a year after I bought this, and finally we were able to do more with it (his receptive language prior to that never came above a 6-9 month level). His ST and I would coordinate which activities I was doing with him using what sentence structure. (Right now, we are working on "wh" questions for example, ie "WHere is the ball?" "WHo is in this picture?" Early on, it was more like "Ball up. Ball down. Block up. Block down.").

By being "on the same page" (no pun intended), we believe he has made more progress than he might have made if I was treating him languagewise like a typically-developing child and he was only getting the intensive language therapy at school. I also have been able to transfer the ideas to household chores (shopping: "One apple. Two apples. Two apples in the basket. One, Two.").

I love the charts given of language development - I check off each consonant and consonant blend sound right in the book as he masters pronouncing then correctly. I don't have to use this book as much as I had to before, as now we are basically working with oral hypotonia, some other oral motor issues, and building his vocabulary (which he LOVES to do), but this book was great when he was unable to speak, frustrated because he couldn't make himself understood, and I still reference it at least weekly, either for my own child or to answer another concerned parent's questions. (We also used ASL for my son until he could physically produce the sounds to make words, so I signed a lot of the phrases suggested in this book as well, repeating them over and over until he could at least make himself understood through ASL.)

Just a bit of clarification on the previous review, many of our kids DO develop speech "typically" - they just don't begin until much later, but then many do it in the same order as other kids. The charts and checklists in this book make it easy to track that, which can be hard when other kids the same age are saying complete sentences and you aren't sure if your child's next step will be frontal consonants. It keeps you on track of YOUR child, so you can ignore what the typically-developing kids are doing that your child isn't.

(For a list of toys for kids with fine motor delays, see my list in listmania!)

As a Speech Language Pathologist who works with very young children and a mother of 2 children, I can tell you that this book is great. I loan my book to the families that I work and all the mothers have enjoyed it. There is a lot information on child development, particularly speech and language skills. The authors give suggestions on what are good toys and activites and how to use them to increase your child's language skills. In other words, "how to play with you child". The book is very easy to read and understand. Anyone with a young child, whether they have special needs or not, will learn a tremendous amount.

Good book, easy reading. Reader will learn a big part of Elisabeth of Austria's life. Historical content is pretty accurate although I find that the author is interpreting to much the state of mind of the subject like the French Book by Nicole Avril "Sissi, Imperatrice Anarchiste". No one will ever know exactly was "Sissi" was thinking. The assomptions prevent the readers from making their own mind about this lovable princess. In my opinion the straightforward story of her life and the historical facts will give them a better idea of who she was. Golden Fleece and Sissi by Edgar C. Conti are perfect to learn more on Elisabeth of Austria...

Prior to visiting Vienna last summer, I hadn't known much about Elizabeth of Austria or Sissi as she was often called. Seeing Schonbrunn and the Hofburg made me curious to learn more about her, and this book certainly makes for interesting reading. The author provides details not only about Elizabeth and her family, but also about the politics of the day. Elizabeth comes across as a study in contrasts: on the one hand, she could be very charming and gracious, on the other hand she appears to have been fundamentally self-centered and unsuited for the duties of an Empress. Wrapped up in her own pursuits, obsessed by the thought of gaining weight, growing old and losing her beauty, she was restless, possessive and prone to depression. At the end of the book, I felt much more sympathy for the Emperor Franz Joseph who loved Sissi to her dying day, despite the many separations he endured that were caused by her constant wandering around Europe and despite her unwillingness or inability to perform the duties traditionally expected of an Empress. Overall, this is a well-written biography, and my only caveat would be that Haslip sometimes makes allusions, for example regarding Elizabeth's illness, that are not fully explained which can be frustrating for the reader.

I first learned about Sissi during my senior year of high school when my German teacher had a connection with someone in the international airline biz and could get her students back issues of German magazines like "Der Spiegel" and "Gala." I grabbed an issue of Gala and there was the most enchanting woman on the cover. It turned out to be Romy Schneider and the magazine was celebrating the 100th anniversary of Sissi's death.

I was utterly FASCINATED, reading about her life, her beauty cult, her self-abusive trials with anorexia and bulimia, her marriage to the emperor, and so forth.

A few years later, I got the chance to study abroad in Austria and hat the opportunity to visit actual historical Sissi-related sites.

When I got back to the US for my senior semester of college, I took a women's studies course and did a paper of the Austro-Germanic Beauty Cult surrounding Empress Elisabeth of Austria. This, along with my personal experiences in Austria and Hamann's book, provided me with a plethora of information about Elisabeth.

But what made me truly appreciate this book was the way that the author presented the material. This book read like a novel. I feel that Haslip provided a very well rounded amount of historical material that doesn't feel one-sided (very pro-Elisabeth or focusing solely on how beautiful she was).

If you're interested in a different "princess story," this empress will captivate you!

Although I am a big fan and avid reader of all Joan Johnston's books, this one seemed to lack the pizzaz of the previous three Blackthorne-Creed novels. However if you are as addicted to Ms. Johnston's books as I am then it is still worth the time to sit and read it. Although slow at some points it is still enjoyable.

The saga of the Blackthornes and Creeds continues in this highly anticipated book in the Bitter Creek series. This story focuses on Luke Creed, who has turned away from his family to pursue his career as an attorney for the prestigious firm of DeWitt and Blackthorne. He's on a hot career path, likely to make partner in the firm within the next year, but along the way has sacrificed all other things in his life, including his marriage. The one remaining bright spot is his personal life are daughters, Brynne and Midge, whom he manages to make time for on the weekends.

Luke's current assignment is to settle a wrongful death suit brought against Hyland Pharmaceutical, whom his company represents. The case involves a new miracle drug, D-Free, for Type I Juvenile Diabetes, something close to Luke's heart since daughter Brynne has this disease. Attorney for the opposition is Amy Nash, Luke's old high school sweetheart, also a divorcee raising her daughter Honor. Amy's client lost her child while taking D-Free for her diabetes, and Amy is passionate in her arguments to get this dangerous drug off the market. Amy is having a hard time accepting the fact that the once rebellious Luke is representing the corporate bad guys, along with the feelings that come back to life after not seeing Luke for many years.

As the investigation in to D-Free proceeds, Luke realizes the dangers of the drug that someone has been covering up. Luke also needs to find out for his own peace of mind what the real issues are, since Brynne is taking this drug, against Luke's wishes. Enter an interesting cast of secondary characters to help solve the mystery, a mysterious death of another attorney working on the case in Luke's firm, Luke and Amy's strong feelings for one another, and you have all the ingredients for an impressive story of danger and intrigue. Then, there's Luke's mom Ren, married to Jackson Blackthorne, trying to finagle a way for Luke and Jackson to bury the bitter feud between them, not to mention getting Luke and Amy together again. Fans of the Creed-Blackthorne saga will thoroughly enjoy this latest edition. Note to new readers, this book stands alone too. "The Price" does answer the question of what is too high a price to pay for what's really important in life.

This is the 4th Joan Johnston book that I have read--the present day creed/blackthorne stories--and once again i was not disappointed. This book was as good as the others in terms of telling the ongoing saga/story line and keeping my interest in terms of romance, mystery, murder, and family relationships. I would recommend reading the cowboy, the texan, and the loner first, but she provides enough background to give you the family history as she tells luke's story.

I was looking for a book that would help customers step into the role of a project sponsor, so I thought this book might be helpful. After I received it, I was surprised at the "shortness" of the book, both in number of pages and the size of the margins. This was especially true given the price of the book.

There is some good content here, and it might be helpful. I do believe there are better, less expensive, and more comprehensive alternatives to this book (e.g. Project Management Memory Jogger).

This quick reference guide was written to help important project teams be more successful - especially cross-functional project teams.

Project Sponsors, Project Leaders and Team Facilitators will find the book useful. It clarifies roles, explains the value add of Project Sponsors and provides practical advice for overcoming common project team problems such as - · How to get derailed teams back on track ... · What to do about team members missing important meetings ... · How to handle team conflicts ... · How to create a sense of urgency in slow-moving teams ... How to help a burned-out team leader!

THE PROJECT SPONSOR GUIDE IS A TO-THE-POINT, QUICK READ FOR THOSE WHO WANT TO MAKE PROJECT TEAMS MORE SUCCESSFUL.

This guide, useful for both Project Sponsors and Project Leaders, covers the roles and activities of Project Sponsors thoroughly, from project inception to completion. While covering a lot of ground, there are not a lot of words--definitions are brief, and the book is full of checklists. I found this to be particularly helpful considering how busy most business leaders are. This is a book that can be opened to a particular spot and used in the moment it is needed. No wading through long chapters to find the nuggets--the book is a compilation of nuggets! Another useful section is the one covering common problems that project teams can run into, and how the project sponsor can help. Again, brief and practical sections covering a description of the problem, possible causes, and things to try.

I was expecting something light hearted and fun, a farse about becomming something tbat you aren't, not PORN! Don't even think this book has a plot, what plot there is is totally lost, no character development, like a bad movie where the pizza guy just "happens" to show up. Puh-leeze.

I loved this book. Just steamy enough to make you want to keep reading. A little on the hot side sometimes but worth it. Find a willing guy and use her ideas you will be pleased with the results. And so will your partner. So much fun so little time..

Not only have I read this book once, I've reread several parts of it over and over again, and it never gets dull. This book has a great plot, while maintaining an erotic undertone (and overtone for that matter) throughout. This is the kind of book to either enjoy by yourself, or read passages to your partner at bedtime. I highly recommend it!

I picked up this book because of Nora Roberts' endorsement on the cover. But, what a disappointment. This novel had the same stereotypical romance novel beginning (Alpha male makes man-hating super feminist woman look like a temper-tantrum throwing child) that caused me to take a break from new (at least to me) romance authors for a while. It seemed to redeem itself when the character Meg was introduced and she and Sean connected. Then, out of the blue, Duncan's 15 year old, inexperienced, immature sister appears and Sean's madly in love with her. What? I had to go back to make sure I didn't miss something. I can't understand why the author decided to dump the only strong woman in the book to replace her with a 15 year old child.

The fact that Meg was a prostitute and had such a tough childhood peaked my interest because I wanted to see how the author was going to work through Meg and Sean's relationship. Their storyline was more interesting to me than the main characters'.

I'm afraid that Nora Roberts' and Diana Galbadon's unconventional romances have spoiled me for most romances -- so my search for new authors to add to my short list continues.

Joan Hohl is a new author for me and I find her writing style great! I read the entire book in two sittings. Can't wait to read more of her books. The only hic-up was the development of the relationship between Sean and Heather. That is the only reason I gave it a 4 out of 5.

This is the first historical that I read by Joan Hohl and I really enjoyed it. Usually I read her contemporaries, which I love. This was a pageturner that I read in one sitting.

While the book does have bad grammar...and yes they capitalize words in the middle of the sentence AND explain the more difficult words, the stories are entertaining. I have read it to students in Kindergarten and Grade One, and they seemed to enjoy the stories, in fact they ask for more! I agree that the author isn't perfect, but she is entertaining and I would like to read more of her books.

I'm currently 48, but am looking to buy these books (..for Girls and ...for Boys) for my 2nd grade CCD class. I recall loving this book as a kid. It was my sister's, sent to her by her Godmother for First Communion, I think. I read the book very frequently. I too recall the odd capitalizations, but I was not bothered by it.
This (..for Girls) book is one of my fond childhood memories!

My girls love this book both because of the style and the incidents in the lives of the saints. It is a very friendly book - which is unusual in a 'lives of the saints'. It has the added advantage of not having wretched illustrations!