This book includes pertinent topics for nursing students and nurses in practice in the 21st century. Topics such as collaborative practice, conflict resolution, effective communication, managing change within the health care setting are clearly imperative skills that nurses must have. The authors have chosen a writing style that is friendly and easy to read. The importance of humor is stressed through the chapters, but is also present in the form of cartoons/caricatures and delightful illustrations. Nurses often take care of others without tending to their own needs. The authors stress the importance of self-care and nurturing, as well as, assertive communication, strong interpersonal relationships. This is truly an excellent read for nursing students and current nursing practitioners. It is highly recommended especially in today's ever-changing health care environment.

I have read this wonderful novel at least four times. It is wonderfully written and really makes you feel like you know Ms. Laval personally as well as feeling like you are actually in Paris instead of on the bus reading. I keep looking for something similar from Ms. Ellis, but haven't found anything yet. Please keep writing Ms. Ellis.

Carol Simon is born into a wealthy Jewish family who suffers total loss of their money and home in the Wall St. crash of 1929.Her father gives in to despair and suicides, leaving Carol with a lifelong horror of guns.Her selfish,uncaring mother emotionally blackmails her into a teenage wedding to a minor hoodlum who is gunned to death, leaving Carol, who was also shot, a widow while still a girl. She falls in with a group of stage struck young people with whom she bonds closely and also meets Sharon, who is to remain a lifelong friend.After a disastrous love affair with Mat, another of the group, Carol and Sharon spend a year in Paris where they study at the Sorbonne and Carol meets Seth, an aspiring writer whom she'd met briefly in New York.Carol is determined to become an architect despite the setbacks and put-downs she encounters along the way. She succeeds at this and the story continues with the ups and downs of Carol, Seth and the rest of their family.I found this to be one of those big comfy reads where I found myself totally involved with the characters and felt part of a family to the extent that I wanted to give some of them a good push(like you do with family) and tell them to get on with it and stop whining!

Please, I realy need analysis, theme, plot, and character of Maison Jennie by Julie Ellis. Thank's to anybody who wants to send me a data! (sorry,if my English not to good)

I found Maison Jennie to be what I call a cosy novel-an absorbing read that isn't too brain taxing.Jennie Straus is the daughter of a poor,immirant,Jewish shopkeeper who settled in New Orleans, and an overbearing,whining mother who is constantly nit-picking and finding fault with Jennie.After many family traumas,Jennie eventually becomes a successful shopkeeper,selling fashionable clothes to the more affluent matrons of New Orleans society.After her horrible mother literally wears her down on the subject of marriage, she gives in and marries the man of her mothers choice, Mannie, a brutish, uneducated peasant of a man by whom she has 2 children. Earlier, at the age of 16, she met Marc Goldman,the unattainable, educated son of a wealthy Jewish family, who was to be the love of her life.Julie Ellis weaves a fascinating tale of the intertwined lives of Jennie and her family and her eventual emergence as the owner of a chain of stores bearing her name and a highly respected figure in the world of high fashion.

Kathy Marshall is enjoying her settled life style as the owner of a successful health food business when she receives a frantic phone call from her daughter Marcie reporting that her husband Frank has been killed and she is the prime suspect. Lee Ramsey, long lost acquaintance from Kathy's teenage years, is back in town trying to rebuild her life as a newly minted lawyer. Lee, who doesn't realize that Marcie is the daughter of her old friend, Kathy, intends to build her reputation by prosecuting Marcie during her murder trial.

Kathy hires Scott Lazarus to defend Marcie. Scott, a successful big town lawyer who returned to the small town of Madison in upstate New York for the slower pace of life, is sincere and concerned about Marcie and believes in her innocence. He becomes a staunch ally of their family against the ugly allegations and threats from the community, and Kathy feels herself drawn to him and becoming dependent on him.

In an effort to make the main plot more interesting, the author also develops several sub-plots including the marriages of Kathy's best friends from childhood, Angie and her husband Joe, who are still happily married, and Ellen and Phil, whose marriage is falling apart. Kathy's unhappy marriage to Glenn ended years ago, and she remains bitter towards him. Glenn is more concerned about the impact of the murder trial on his career than he is about Marcie. All the subplots and the many characters that are paraded through the book but never well developed make it difficult to keep track of the main plot.

The search for Frank's killer gets ridiculously complicated with allegations that a local secretive militia group is involved, as well as money launderers and drug lords from Miami. It's all rather preposterous and improbable in this small, quiet town. By the end of the novel, I was relieved that the killer was found and all the loose ends were tied up.

This book is about greed, lust, and sex. Those three themes consume the characters's existences. It shows how those born to wealth sometimes abuse their privileged positions and lose all they own. Although these things make most other books interesting, they don't work too well in this book. First, I know that this book is not exactly literature, but as an entertainment piece the three themes above do not enlighten me about the characters until the middle of the book, and by then, I just don't care.

As a romance, I found this book to be sadly lacking in romantic feeling. As a suspense novel, I felt that it was lacking substance of plot. It was an ok story, but left you hanging at the end.

I picked up this book as I was traveling. I found it less than entertaining. Through out the book the author preaches at you. I was not able to bond with the characters because of this. The author takes various time periods in history and uses them as a reason to preach on the dangers of guns and as the reason for gun control. She also preaches about the Vietnam War and I was very upset that she would make such a blanket statement as the soldiers that died, died for nothing. I agree that it was a war that didn't need to be fought by us I draw the line at any such statement about our service personnel. Although I myself do agree with some of what she says I pick up fiction because I want to *get away* from the realities of life instead the book was like being in a one sided debate.