For those who love Secret of the Ruby Ring, love, (relatively realistic) time travel and Yvonne MacGrory, this a the perfect book for you!

Martha and the Ruby Ring is the story of Martha, the grandmother of Lucy, and her story of her dealings with the ruby ring. Martha made her wish on the ring to go to a fancy ball, so be careful what you wish for... But Martha had a much better life when she made the journey back to early Ireland, being presented as a visiting cousin of a well to do family. There she falls in love with a young man named Andrew, and has quite an adventure trying to recover the ring that she lost and get home to present day, as well as enjoying a gand ball. The end is a charming surprise, and very touching. I hope you enjoy this book as much as the first one, and also a well written work of Yvonne MacGrory. Enjoy!!

Pay no attention to the "recommended age" above - this little booklet of stickers is ageless. Most of the stickers are not so "sweet" as Darcy May's fairy drawings, but are comical and charming. I like 'em. Great for sticking on notes to people who take themselves too seriously, as well as for sending to those who simply have a good sense of fun. ...Enjoy!

Juniper Tree Burning is one of those books that I hesitate to praise too much because it is so good, so courageously told--and I don't just mean the subject matter, which includes a poverty-striken childhood among hippies, suicide, and a not-entirely likable main character--but the literal telling of it. Ms. Long weaves back and forth in time masterfully, gradually revealing the reality behind the half-truths that Jennie, the former Juniper Tree Burning, the self-named Ugly Chick, has told us with more than a mere glaze of rosy glasses. The story also blends points-of-view, sometimes in Jennie's own voice, in a third-person storyteller, and often in a stepped-back voice of Jennie, admittedly speaking of herself from the outside.

This is, at its most essential, a book with a beating heart. Let this complicated woman into your life--watch her play pool as a bloodsport, let her husband finally pierce her toughness with how lovingly he makes guacamole for her, and weep for the determined resilence of the young Juniper Tree Burning struggling to make breakfast before school--you will not soon forget her, and her many journeys through these pages.

There are a lot of reasons I like Juniper Tree Burning. Primarily, Goldberry Long presents this story in such a way that I feel right there beside Juniper Tree Burning. I'm with her on that school bus when the kids ridicule her and throw her book bag out the window. I'm also there when Ray whips her in that chicken coop all because of his own shortcomings and frustrations.

I grew up in the era of hippies and I thought a lot about them, then and later. But I never thought about the children of hippies.

Goldberry Long, I want you to know from someone who doesn't know you from Adam's housecat, I loved this book. You are a great
storyteller.

Gripping; I could not put this book down...I love stories that use different timelines which truly enhance each other, and ultimately converge in a meaningful way. Usually when reading fiction, I feel as though I am a spectator watching the characters as they progress through the story, but with Juniper Tree Burning, I felt much more involved... I wanted to somehow jump into the story myself and hug or scream at the lead character; she is that compelling. She is certainly not always likable, but that is part of why I enjoyed the book so much... it is very different from anything I have ever read. I anxiously await more from Goldberry Long!

Bill Gertz shows again why even his adversaries rate him as America's premier intelligence reporter today. Gertz's expose of the intelligence failures that led up to 9-11 is going to shock the nation and cause some much needed soul searching in our intelligence community.

The book is written in terse, fact-based prose that often reads like a suspense thriller. Yet it's based on Gertz's solid news reporting experience on the spy and defense beat with the Washington Times, earning him a reputation as the man with the best top-secret leaker's rolodex in Washington.

Gertz is also a patriot. He takes names, kicks ..., and points the finger squarely at our intelligence agencies' politically correct, risk-averse bureaucatic culture for failing to provide the "human intelligence" necessary to prevent terror attacks. This is a book that delivers. If Gertz's advice is taken, some heads are going to roll, notably that of Clinton holdover George Tenet at CIA. America and the world will probably be a safer place as a result, and our spy networks will get a long overdue new set of teeth.

If you need a Washington journalist with access to CIA and intelligence officials and documents, you need Bill Gertz. He has the access and the knowledge, and the trust of the intelligence community.

The book reads a lot like a Tom Clancy novel, transporting the reader instantly to the rocky hills of Afghanistan, and to the dusty cities of the Middle East, and then back to the paper covered desks of CIA intelligence analysts, and so forth. It names names, and tells stories of all intelligence agencies and intelligence gathering communities. Not just the CIA and the FBI, but the top secret NSA and other bureaus. It talks about the long term degradation of the CIA in particular, intensified by the political machinations of the Clinton administration.

You find out that thanks to Clinton, the last and best of CIA intelligence agents (that's spies) in Iraq, Robert Baer, was yanked back to the US and his cover shattered because it was brought to Clinton's attention that the NSA intercepted a memo within Iran saying they suspected that America was trying to assassinate Saddam Hussein, and they would rather stop Baer in his tracks than trust the CIA. Of course, Baer was simply staying alive and abreast of events in Iraq, doing a job no one else can do right now, nor will anyone be able to do it.

That is, of course, just the tip of the iceberg.

Perhaps we would be able to avoid war in Iraq if our espionage forces were supported these past 12 years. But we have zero "HUMINT" in Iraq and many other places we need it.

When you are done with this book, you'll be sad to know that George W. Bush, despite his sincere efforts in the war on terror, has not fired Clinton appointee George Tenet, figurehead of the CIA and one of its chief problems, and that no one in the CIA has been held accountable for the gross negligence of September 11th, nevermind Coleen Rowley's attempts to bring the issue to light to the tonedeaf liberal media. However, perhaps reform can be accomplished by Tom Ridge, the new Homeland Security Cabinet officer. Perhaps then, as vigilance has been returned to those affected by 9/11, vigilance and an effective organization will be returned to America's FBI, CIA, INS, and NSA.

You have to read Breakdown by Bill Gertz because when you see his documented facts of all the dot's our intelligence failed to connect, when you see how politically correct bureaucracy tied the hands of hard working agents and when you see how two of our presidential administration's (Carter and Clinton), as well as some key congressmen and senators, handcuffed and weakened our intelligence apparatus' your blood pressure may go way the heck up. This book is a must read for all of us, so we can understand what went wrong. It is also important so that we can fix the problems. We all need to get educated after 9-11 and this book Breakdown is a good start.