I was screened to be a living liver donor to a young woman who was in dire need of a transplant. I was ruled out since the MRI revealed that because of a complexly shaped vascular system in my liver, I was in danger of bleeding to death during the surgery. I continued to support this young woman and watched her slowly weaken to the point where she was near death. Then, at the last possible moment, she got a liver from a cadaver & she is doing great (I pray that her renewed good health will continue). I read this book and enjoyed learning about the author's transplant experience, Despite a writing style that at times I found hard to follow, I nonetheless found this book to be informative. When the author had her transplant in 1994, the system for finding a cadaver's liver was different than now. Under the former system, the author got one long before she was in critical condition. Nonetheless, the surgery took a lot out of her. The details of her wait for the liver, false alarms that one was available, the surgery and her recovery are all well documented. She also writes about the experiences of other recipients in ther support group. From my own experience, I now know that a recipient must be near death to get a cadaver's liver .. i.e. those in greatest need, not those in need for the longest period, get the liver first. Still the details of liver disease and the adventure of such major, life saving surgery is timeless. The book is not overly long; the author tells the story without straying to side issues that clutter the narrative. Nonetheless, I thought the narrative could have been a little more coherently written. All in all, I highly recommend this book to those interested in the subject.

We had some great laughs reading this book with our 7 year old son Joël. He immediately identified with Julia and as parents we saw quite a bit of Julia in him. We have a baby as well so Joël laughed out loud as we read Julia's attempts at bossing her baby brother around. This is a fun, well written and illustrated book that is sure to bring warm chuckles to parents and great laughs to children. Although it does so in a 'fun' way, this delightful book nurtures mutual understanding between parent and child and sheds a playful light on the frustration little children feel with "being bossed around by everyone." It's as much a 'parenting' book as it is a fun child's story.

Four stars because it's been a few years since I read this book, but I remember that I liked it!

What I enjoyed about this book was that the author twisted what we do know to create a great "what if" story. What if Anne Boleyn did this or that? What if Elizabeth I had to do something drastic to protect her position as queen?

Who knows what really happened? Will we ever understand what motivated peoples' behaviour? The fun of it is that we probably ever will!

There are items in this book that a historian could use to make a good argument for as being true, but of course, because the events took place so long ago, there is no way to test their veracity. But supposition is something we historians love to do. Hey, people may not read our journal articles about the truth, but they will read the historical fiction!

This book, by a new author is a very good read! It is a very refreshing change, about love and tragedy, and how the human spirit can cherish the good times, yet triumph over the hard times of life. The foreward hooked me and I read it in two evenings, because it was hard to put it down. A real page turner!

I really enjoyed this book. I taught kindergarten for a semester, and the children seemed mesmerized by this book.

One cannot fully study Elizabeth I without encountering the issues of ceremony and progress. Cole does a wonderful job of exploring the issues and reasons behind Elizabeth's progresses, and why they were crucial to her reign. I highly recomend the book for all interested in the subject, and for any history student.

It's a pretty paper doll book of the "Queen Elizabeth I" but still I saw other paper doll book who were more beautiful, this one lack of little details but it's still a nice book if you like to know what kind of wardrobe Queen Elizabeth was wearing and if you are interest in "Elizabeth I" like I do you will like it!

For anyone wanting to read primary documents of early journey of the English Reformation - this book is it. The book starts with the criticisms of the cleargy and Lollardy. While the impact of Lollardy has been overturned, those like myself find it refreshing to read of its supposed impact. The book continues through the Marian Reaction, yet lacks souces from the Elizabethan or Stuart period. To find the whole history of the Church of England's transition, it is imperative to combine this book with another of the late church and its final transformations. This work, however, gives an excellent background to understanding the Reformation and the Church.

I love the way Garrett writes, and have enjoyed all of his books that I have read, but this book doesn't seem to have much to do with the title. If you are looking for a clever insight into the minds of commoners, messengers, and Catholic Priests (among others) during Elizabeth's reign, then this is the book for you. There is one very interesting chapter on the letters between Elizabeth and James, but most of the rest of the book seems to stray from the subject of the succession.

The particular importance of this book lies in the fact that it is the first edition to include the Tragedy of Mariam into its biographical context, by publishing the text with Elizabeth's Cary's biography written by one of her daughter. The editors include a very thorough introduction in which they strongly claim the richness and greatness of the text, not only because it is the first play ever written by an English woman, but also because of its investigation of paramount issues such as gender, politics, and race. In addition to this, the editors include an appendix where they give the readers a chance to know about the original source that Cary might have used in her play.