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Book reviews for "Everett-Green,_Evelyn" sorted by average review score:

Spirit of Fear
Published in Paperback by Xlibris Corporation (18 September, 2000)
Author: Evelyn Gale
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Clever, quick, suspense-filled read...
Hungry for a story with an intelligent heroine, characters with depth and an unpredictable plot? This is your book! Evelyn Gale wraps it all in this easy-to-read first novel. Gale accurately and effectively chronicles a woman's spiritual journey from old fears to new freedoms. A must-read for anyone struggling on the leash of abuse or just eager for a well-written mystery. Order it today; you won't regret it!

A Fearfully Good Read

Spirit of Fear by Evelyn Gale wrapped me in from the first to the end. Well written, fast paced, no word clutter--I had a great read.

I loved the reaction of the heroine, Rachel Beckman, when she found her husband murdered. Her grisly smile was understandable; after all, he'd beaten her for the pleasure the beatings fed to his nasty control-hungry appetite.

Finally free of him, Rachel finds she has become so dependent on his control that she must relearn the freedoms she had as a younger woman. Each step, even driving a car, is a brave walk back to finding her spirit.

Couple this journey with the discovery that any one of half a dozen people could have murdered her husband--and someone is after her, and Rachel finds that she must dig even deeper for courage. But from this search, Rachel discovers that she has a mind that can't resist exploring the puzzle pieces of the crime and a spirit to go after the suspects. She is a natural, albeit still somewhat timid, and her thinking is way ahead of the police.

Gale wrote using her farm wife background as a research tool. Her characters spun from the mosaic of rural America breathe with the spirit and life she's given them.

Rachel's search for the murderer, while she, herself, is a suspect forced me to become involved. Perhaps, it was Rachel's lack of grief that sent the police in the wrong direction; or maybe they didn't like her clever logic, which left them in the dust. Even Rachel's connection to Earl Martin and friendship with Jerry Walton made the police suspicious. For whatever reason, Rachel must find the proof to convince the police that she is the victim, not the perpetrator.

I look forward to Evelyn Gale's next book.


The Stock Market: A Computer Simulation: Windows Diskette 3.5"
Published in Hardcover by South-Western Educational Publishing (11 January, 1996)
Authors: Douglas G. Semmer and Linda Semmer-Brown
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Compassionate photos and text about women in prison
This an extraordinary book of photographs and text about women in prison. The title of the book is an apt and ambiguous description of the plight of the women prisoners she describes, for two of her major points are that they generally lead more barren lives than men within prison walls and also are often given heavier sentences than men for comparable crimes.

Jane Evelyn Atwood is a compassionate American who has spent most of her adult life in France, and has become one of the outstanding photojournalists in the world. While other talented photographers earn a lot of money taking pictures of fashion models and high society, Atwood's committed outlook has led her to depict the less-fortunate specimens of the human race. Her subjects have included blind children and Parisian prostitutes. Years ago, she was the first to photograph the terrifying physical decline of a man dying of AIDS, which broke new ground when her reportage was published in Paris Match.

In Too Much Time, the striking and poignant photos, in black and white, are reason enough to buy the book but that would be only half the story because Atwood is one of those rare photographers who can write as well as they take pictures. Indeed, when I became engrossed with the text, not only her own words but also transcriptions of what American women prisoners told her, I almost forgot that it was a picture book.

Jails on pictures
The authors visited about 40 prisons. The pictures she took are of very good quality and very expressive. She interviewed the women in jail. The stories of those prisoners are really moving. It's a moving, respectful book about the life of women in jail.


Two-Bit Dancing
Published in Hardcover by Xlibris Corporation (2001)
Author: Evelyn Schneider
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Two Bit Dancing -- a must read!
Evelyn Schneider has mastered the art of character development. Angela is a good mother who tries hard to keep her life together until she steps into a nightmare. Han is a complex character whose personality is revealed exactly as Ms. Schneider promises -- a layer at a time. And putting them together is an exciting plot that unwinds secret by secret, keeping the reader hanging onto every word. Expect to see more from Ms. Schneider -- this kind of talent won't go unnoticed.

Two-bit Dancing
After I finished reading this book I took my dog on a very long walk because I felt much like Tom Lawson, the investigator character in the book: stunned at what was revealed. This definiately is a story that deserves to be told. Makes you cry. Makes you think. Twists and turns and well developed characters (even the side-characters are interesting and fill the story) make you turn the pages.


Weight Training Workouts that Work
Published in Spiral-bound by Ideal Publishing (01 April, 2000)
Author: James Orvis
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A Treasury of History and Recipes from the Heartland
I read this book after reading Mrs. Birkby's book, "Neighboring on the Air", which was a great pleasure to read and cook from. Once again, Mrs. Birkby has hit a home run!

Mrs. Birkby was one of the 'radio homemakers' who broadcast recipes, tips and news to Iowa's rural housewives as well as writing a long-lived newspaper column. Needless to say, after decades she had a very rich collection of recipes and local history to share. This she has done in a book that is very well organized, easy to read, and involves the reader. Having never read her column, I can assume this style is what endeared the author to generations of Iowans.

This book focuses mainly on the years Mrs. Birkby spent with her husband starting and maintaining an Iowa farm for 10 years following WW II. It is broken up into chapters on topics such as 'Grocery', 'Milking', 'Stoves', etc. Recipes in each chapter follow the narration. I prefer this format for historical cookbooks, as it makes it much easier to leaf through and locate recipes.

I've tried several of the recipes, and all have worked well for me.

This book would have rated five stars for me, even if it hadn't had any recipes. Mrs. Birkby's struggles to make a success of a small farm with her family make a valuable documentation of postwar rural life. Reading her accounts, particularly of laundry, illustrates how far we have come as a nation with housekeeping.

Thank you again, Mrs. Birkby, for sharing your personal and professional history with us!

Welcome to grandma's kitchen circa 1950
I loved this book! It was chock-full of recipes for the kinds of dishes my grandmothers and aunts prepared. It also gave great stories and details on rural Midwestern life during the 1940's and 50's - the kind of details you won't find in history books. Homey and comforting.


The Ways of the Spirit
Published in Paperback by Crossroad/Herder & Herder (1993)
Authors: Evelyn Underhill and Grace Adolphsen Brame
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An Avenue for Spiritual Metamorphosis
This book is a magnificent book that does nothing short of stirr the soul into movement. Her 1927 retreat: " Inner Grace and Outward Sign" is a true gift of grace! I read this book in the midst of a "dark night of the senses" - feeling lost and forsakened it gently and powerfully watered my parched and thirsty soul. Truly this woman must have been a channel of God's Grace and Spirit in her lifetime and her writings a gift to us all. Her retreats reawakened the desire in me to be open to God's ever present Spirit and Love, even, within the dryness and darkness. It made me better understand that the Spirit of God is ever moving and working in each one of us though we may not be able to clearly witness It's movement or hear Its silent murmurs. I recommend this book to all spiritual journeyers and believe that within its pages each will find the particular grace, light and courage needed.

An Avenue for Spiritual Metamorphosis
A magnificent collection of spiritual retreats that captures the soul exactly where it may find itself and stirs it to reawaken. Her 1927 retreat: "Inner Grace and Outward Sign" is grace itself! This book was a special "gift" to me when I found myself in the midst of the "dark night of the senses", felt lost and forsaken and my soul deep asleep. It awoke the desire to re-encounter God's Presence and Love, even within the "darkness" and find the courage that alone is found in Spirit. I recommend it highly to all and believe that within it's pages a "gift" of grace awaits for all who are in search of it.


Would You?: Questions to Challenge Your Beliefs
Published in Hardcover by Villard Books (17 October, 2000)
Authors: Evelyn McFarlane and James Saywell
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A nice way to ease into the "If ...." collection
This book is a fabulous way to ease yourself into the entire "If ..." collection by Evelyn McFarlane. The questions aren't quite as "open ended", so there isn't as much deliberation and/or internal insight required when reading it. But the questions are still great and provoke fabulous converstations between friends, loved ones, etc.

Ethical Questions to Develop Moral Muscles
Many people who have been faced with moral temptation report that they are unprepared to deal with the issue. This sometimes means that they cannot decide, and in other cases makes it easier to choose the wrong way. Educators have found that by thinking about issues before we actually confront them, we are more likely to make good choices in a timely way. I found this book to be an excellent guide to that type of moral learning.

The book is designed to take you into moral areas where you may not have to treat (but who knows what life will bring?). "Most of the questions in this book you will never have to answer. (Unless your life is very interesting.)"

What follows are 250 questions in 125 pairs. "We suggest you answer the first question in each pair before reading the second question." The reason for that instruction is because the first question is often a set-up for a more difficult question designed to help you see any potential hypocrisy (such as a double standard) in your reactions.

For example, one opening question is: "Would you be able to forgive your child anything at all?" Now most parents will probably answer pretty liberally here. We are all familiar with the picture of the Mother crying at the execution of her son, the condemned murderer, protesting that he was a good person.

Then, you get hit with the second question: "Would you forgive your mate anything at all?" From overhearing many people talk about that subject, most people have a long list of things they would not forgive a mate for.

My assumption then is that you are supposed to think about why you would treat your mate differently from your child. Naturally, that might make sense of your child is still very young, with diminished capacity to hew to the straight and narrow. But what if your child is 40? Shouldn't the standard be similar, if not the same? Only you know what you would answer, but that is the sort of thinking that these questions will stimulate.

The subject matters cover stealing, cheating, priorities for your life and society, preferences in family relations, relationship values, relationships to strangers, priorities for character traits, sexual attitudes, sex role attitudes, choices between self-interest and self-sacrifice, racial attitudes, life span versus quality of life issues, faithfulness, trust, law versus morality, and self-interest versus morality and legality.

The questions are short and pretty simple. How you answer them is not so short and simple, especially after you see the second question. Leave yourself the option to go back and rethink your answer to the first question.

I found the experience of reading this book and answering the questions to be a very valuable and rewarding one. I think you will, too.

The only weakness in the book is that the design makes it unnecessarily hard to keep from seeing the second question too soon. You should keep an opaque piece of paper with you to cover the bottom of each page as you go. A better design would have been to have had the first question on a right hand page, and the second question on the following left hand page. That would have increased the cost of the book by making it longer, but it would have worked much better.

I suspect that this would be a good book to discuss with other members of your family. You may be able to add even more moral muscle by thinking some of these questions through together. Certainly, you will understand each other better.

Choose better and choose well!


Adventures of the Rat Family: A Fairy Tale (Iona and Peter Opie Library)
Published in Hardcover by Oxford Univ Pr Childrens Books (1993)
Authors: Jules Verne, Felician Myrbach-Rheinfeld, and Evelyn Copeland
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Another Jules Verne Treasure
Adventures of the Rat Family is one of Verne's most unusual stories, in which he diverged from his usual formula to write his only fairy tale and one of his few pure fantasies. First published in France over a century ago, it is now published in an elegant children's edition by Oxford University Press (72 pp., ...). Included are all 17 original color illustrations by Felician Myrbach-Rheinfeld, reproduced from the January 1891 holiday issue of the fashionable Parisian journal Le Figaro illustre.

Adventures of the Rat Family was not published in book form until after Verne's death, with the
appearance of the 1910 anthology Yesterday and Tomorrow, containing only a few of the engravings and a text revised by Verne's son, Michel, his literary executor. The Oxford edition is
the first time that Adventures has been published in book form in any language with all of the original illustrations.

As Adventures of the Rat Family attests, Verne's writing is far more diverse than his reputation as the father of science fiction suggests. He wrote more than 60 novels, as well as numerous short stories, plays, articles and poems, covering a range of genres and literary forms. He was actually most prolific in the genres of adventure, mystery and comedy.

Adventures of the Rat Family deals with evolution, a problematic and controversial idea when the story first appeared in 1891, and one that was surely prohibitive for American publishers. This was especially true since Adventures of the Rat Family was also one of Verne's few stories accessible to a very young audience. However, like many fairy tales, its larger significance requires more sophisticated adult reading.

Verne portrays a magical movement up and down the evolutionary ladder, as a close-knit family of rats is transformed into various lower forms of life, from mollusks to birds. The instigator of these deeds is a genie, hired by a cruel prince who desires the family's daughter, although she loves another.

Verne both recognizes and mocks the idea of evolution by having his characters change from one species to another, finally making a metamorphosis into men and women. Added amusement is
provided by one cousin who never quite catches up as he makes each transformation, always retaining a feature of his previous incarnation, until finally he has a donkey's tail even after
becoming a man.

Verne had long been interested in evolution and basically accepted the theory. His 1858 play, M. de Chimpanze (untranslated), is of a chimp that readily adapts to high society, and a giant prehistoric man is sighted in Journey to the Center of the Earth. Verne portrays a "missing link" species in his 1901 novel, The Aerial Village, and speculates that the tribe will be incorporated into an imperial colony. "The Humbug" is the story of a P.T. Barnum-like character whose successful hoax convinces New Yorkers that he has unearthed the bones of early man near Albany.

By cloaking his use of the evolutionary theme within the fantasy of Adventures of the Rat Family, Verne hoped to circumvent disapproval of his more serious and controversial subtext. He had first related the story during a European lecture tour in 1887, and he was so delighted with the idea that he enlarged it into a novella. He cleverly imbued it with his satirical expertise, lending it a light touch that concealed much of its bite. Verne was skilled in comedy, especially when it involved bizarre characters in unusual locales, as demonstrated by his treatment of the stuffy British travelers in Around theWorld in 80 Days.

Adventures of the Rat Family is a rewarding, one-of-a-kind story that will be enjoyed in different ways by all ages.


Albatross
Published in Hardcover by Thorndike Pr (Largeprint) (1983)
Author: Evelyn Anthony
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Storyline ....
Since Amazon didn't post an editorial review for this book, here's the description from the back of the book to help you decide if this book is for you: "Who was the mole called Albatross? Was he Brigadier James White, the revered head of British Intelligence, now about to retire after a career of dazzling achievment? Was he Humphrey Grant, his second in command, and a man whose secret sexual life made him an all-too-likely tool in Soviet hands? Was he John Kidson, the perfect technocrat and brother-in-law to the woman assigned to unearth Russia's most deadly mole? Was he Tony Walden, the man assigned to be that woman's cover, and who was turning her into his puppet? British intelligence had to find out -- befoer it was too late for Britain, and for the world ..."


The Dark Elf Trilogy: Homeland, Exile, Sojourn (Forgotten Realms)
Published in Paperback by Wizards of the Coast (2000)
Authors: R. A. Salvatore and Ed Greenwood
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Angels really are forever
In our gift basket business, we specialize in sympathy baskets for people who are grieving. These books have proven so popular, we put one in every gift basket we send out.


Anne of Green Gables: A Musical in 2 Acts
Published in Paperback by Dramatic Pub Co (1997)
Authors: Joseph Robinette and Evelyn D. Swensson
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Brilliant Portrayal!
This play is an excellent view in the wonderful world of Anne. I fell in love with the movie at a VERY young age, so was extatic to find out that it also had it's own musical! This play is impecably written... perfectly portraying the spunk of Anne, critical nature of Marila, and kind heart of Matthew! It even lets you into the world of a few minor characters, such as Lucilla Harris the shopkeeper, whom we all know for selling Matthew Cuthburt the dress with 'puffy sleeves'. It has the perfect balance of emotion and comedy. After reading this play, I actually brought it too my local theater company. It is in the works, and will be performed this fall! The lines are wity, and the songs catchy... what else could you ask for when looking for a musical with substance?! Whether you are looking for a future theatrical project, or simply a fun read, I know that you will find this play to be VERY rewarding!


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