This is an easy to read, well-illustrated, book of what the New York Botanical Garden is and does. Gives an insight of how the NYBG was a social necessity for eighteenth century socialites when it came into being, and how today it does social work for plant deprived New Yorkers. Also gives a behind-the-scenes view of the scientific work the Botanic Garden does.

Although this hardly is a must-have-book this book will not disgrace any bookshelf.

(31,2x23,5x2,2cm; 190 pages; color photographs including a classic one of (now sir) Ghillean Prance with his Victoria amazonica)

This book retells eight well-known opera stories. Most are of the fairy tale variety, while a couple, (Carmen, Aida) are more mature in nature. Generally, the stories are told well, in a way that would be understandable to children. Some of the more complicated stories are told in the first-person and I think these are the best stories in the book. I wasn't completely thrilled with the illustrations but I did like very much the small picutres that showed and described characters' costumes. This added an interesting touch to the book.

Through this book, you will meet both Dorothy Day and Oscar Romero, two great figures in the history of the Catholic Church. The book is arranged in 7 days worth of readings - a week long retreat. Each day has an opening and a closing prayer, an excerpt from another work, an imagined conversation between Dorothy and Oscar, and suggestions for further reflection - all relating to the day's theme. Day One's theme, for example, is "Conversion" and Day Five's is "The Radical Gospel". The retreat ends with a bilbiography of other suggested readings that are intended to 'deepen your acquiantance' with these two powerful leaders in the struggle for justice and peace.

Silk by Adele Richardson is a concise overview of the creation of silk fabrics. It contains clear, colorful pictures of lovely silk materials, silk worms, the weaving process and much more. The magnified picture of the silkworm and the cocoons are amazing. This is a good purchase for elementary schools interested in economic topics, industries and just wonders of the world.

This book provides all you need to know to begin making amazing braids. No tools required - just this book and some good thread. Takes a while to follow to begin with, but the diagrams are very useful, and the braiding notation system is very clever.

condenses lots of experience into one book. nice coverage of different methods and techniques for managing projects.

This book is an excellent tool for anyone trying to implement a writer's workshop in their classroom. It takes you through step by step and provides many lessons and reproducibles that make sense. Definately a MUST HAVE for someone just starting a new program or for anyone that just needs a quick refresher course!

This intriguing book makes astonishingly fresh observations on biblical characters as familiar as Adam and Moses, and gave me new insights into stories I thought I already knew by heart. It also brought to my attention characters in less well-known, fascinating and sometimes horrifying tales from Judges and Kings, sparking me to go back and read those books, which I had known only from Bowdlerized Hebrew school versions. Though Why Ask My Name is a scholarly and carefully annotated book, based on close reading of the Hebrew text, it is never pedantic and is fun to read. It makes a strong case for the importance and effects of naming or leaving unnamed and the centrality of this process to to literature in general, and the Bible in particular. It would be a good resource for someone charged with preparing a d'var Torah, and for anyone interested in storytelling.

Having read her magnificent My Darling Caroline which clinched her the coveted RITA award and Winter Garden, Adele Ashworth fails to sustain her trend of creating sympathetic intelligent characters and the sizzling sexual tension usually associated with her past works in her latest.

At least the prequel Someone Irresistible which tells Mimi Marsh's story (the female protagonist's sister) is more textured with stunning revelations and provides dimension and complexity to the characters but When It's Perfect is all too predictible and maudlin with its denouement when it could have been better with such a promising start - a sudden death of to-be bride Christine Longfellow. Her seamstress for her bridal trousseau Mary Marsh seems to hold secrets to her death - and the devastated brother of the deceased Marcus has come back from Egypt to investigate the real reason of her death.

It becomes all too obvious that Mary and Marcus are going to fall in love with their progressive admiration; the viscount whom Christine is intended for is a scoundrel and that Mary is a bourgeois unsuitable for the earl. It is Ms. Ashworth's intention to focus on the central characters and simply neglects the sub-characters. It's not a who-dun-it nor a noir but simply a strait-laced romance. However even the romance has failings. Ms. Ashworth lacks her usual empathy for her characters as she charts their emotions and instead injects an overdose of melodrama.

Harsh the review may be but for a former RITA winner of outstanding talents to be delivering such standard fare, her faithful readers are most disappointed as I am. We are not asking for perfection here but this read is simply way off the scale with its uninspired plot.

When It's Perfect is not "perfect," but I do have to say that it is one of the best and most original books I've read this year. Ashworth places the protagonist, Mary, in Cornwall, isolated within the house of the enigmatic--and absent--Earl of Renn. When the earl's young sister dies mysteriously, however, he returns to untangle the riddles surrounding her last weeks alive.

When It's Perfect has a wonderful, gothic atmosphere. The Renn family is not a happy one, a detail which Ashworth demonstrates with great subtlety and insight that heightens the tension in the story. The novel also has the feeling of a cozy mystery, with Christine's death in the enclosed environment of the Renns' household and the earl, Marcus, who is essentially an outsider, trying to "solve" it.

The best part of When It's Perfect, however, is the relationship between Marcus and Mary. I found it completely believable that they loved each other, liked one another, and should be together--in fact, I thought they were perfect for one another. This is more than I can say for most romance novels, including Ashworth's Someone Irresistible. There was just enough sexual tension in the novel, and both Marcus and Mary were likable and interesting.

Not that this book didn't have problems--the conclusion was lame, and why does Ashworth remind us of the plot to Someone Irresistible, which was so ridiculous it would be better for her to just pretend it never happened and move on. Also, Marcus' attempts at "romancing" Mary occassionally strayed into what I would think of as sexual harrassment, and Mary's revelation concerning what happened to both her and Christine could have been executed A LOT better than it was. Ashworth's prose has also lost a lot of its unique rythym and texture in this novel, no doubt due to the lovely Avon editors who strive to make all writers sound the same.

Beyond that, however, When It's Perfect is truly an excellent romance with a very good story-line. Ashworth is definitely thinking more about her characters and their interactions in the world they live in; I greatly look forward to her next novel.

In 1855 after years searching for antiquities in Egypt, English Earl Marcus Longfellow returns home following the tragic sudden death of his eighteen year old sister Christine. Stunned and feeling guilty for not being there for Christine, Marcus vows to learn the truth while he ponders the note he received from her last year announcing her betrothal to a viscount.

Marcus starts his inquiries with the person who found the corpse, lacy confectioner Mary Marsh. Marcus quickly realizes that Christine confided much more than she should have in the working class lass. However, Marcus obtains Mary's cooperation to assist him in learning what really happened to his sister as he realizes the lingerie maker cared for Christine. As the Earl and the undergarment clothier work together, they fall in love, but she harbors a secret that added to their obvious class differences, and his obsession with his sibling's death that makes it impossible for anything permanent.

The sequel to SOMEONE IRRESISTIBLE stars the sister of the first novel's heroine. The story line of WHEN IT'S PERFECT parallels that of the prequel, but includes an amateur sleuth investigation containing a twist that adds fun to the tale. The story line is enjoyable due to the antics of the lead couple though the all's well ending that both claims seems stretched when a beloved lies still underground. Still fans will relish Adele Ashworth's wonderful Victorian romance that provides a second look at the mid nineteenth century dinosaur craze.

Harriet Klausner