What began as a pseudonymous attempt to ape Louisa May Alcott became an ingenious reworking of the ideas of Shakespeare's _King Lear_ to fit Baum's personal views. The book is the first in a series of ten, but is a very strong standalone novel. In it we are introduced to Beth DeGraf, 15, the bright daughter of a poor Ohio music teacher, Patsy Doyle, 16, a fiercely independent hairdresser, and Louise Merrick, a flighty near-17-year-old living on life insurance that has her on the lookout for a husband--both of whom are in New York City. Each is alerted that their aunt, Jane Merrick, is dying, and that she wants to meet each niece and see if she is worthy of her fortune. Beth and Louise are each determined to make Jane like them, while Patsy refuses, despite her station, to accept any charity, until Jane sends furhter pleas.

The nieces meet each other for the first time at Jane's mansion, Elmhurst, not expecting to find another. They are informed that the estate will go to whomever Jane likes best. Louise and Beth become enemies for a time being, which makes Jane gravitate toward Patsy, who reminds her of herself. She was given the mansion as the dying wish of her fiancé, on the provision that she care for his family, which consists of a 16-year-old nephew, Kenneth Forbes, who is the ward of attorney Silas Watson. Jane finds Kenneth contemptibly stupid, since he is an artist afraid of girls.

Not only that, but Jane's brother John, who supposedly made money canning in the Pacific Northwest, comes back in tattered clothing and a filthy white tie, and she expects he has come to drain her as well, since none of the family ever did like her.

Patsy attempts to make contact with Kenneth several times, but he has an escape route across the roof and down a tree, and Patsy seriously injures herself chasing after him. This is a major turning point in the relationships of all the characters, who are nowhere near as simplisticly defined or predictable as I suggested in my first paragraph. Strong, real, and heartfelt, with Baum's vivd style transporting you to Elmhurst and its colorful staff (Donald, Misery, Susan, Oscar, and the rest) as easily as he does to Oz. It has plenty of plot twists to keep you guessing, too.

It's no wonder the series was so popular as to spawn nine sequels (in which the characters grew and changed, married, got jobs, and had families) that spread beyond focused the teenage girl readership to boys and adults. Back in print after an absence of nearly seventy years, this book deserves to be revered, and mentioned within the same breath as comparble books of the period like Frances Hodgson Burnett's _The Secret Garden_. That Baum was a strong supporter of women's rights gives this book a startlingly contemporary feel, as if written in the present about the past, despite its distinctively Baumian rhythms and 1906 narrative language and pacing.

I am currently at work on an operatic adaptation, which shows how deeply this work sung to me. I give it my highest possible recommendation to you, too. If your daughters enjoy books about life in the early-20th century, this is an absolute must-read for them. And read it yourself, too, you may be as charmed as I was by the three cousins, their Uncle John, and their dying aunt who wasn't so much mean as an independent, intellect-driven free spirit in a time when that was much more frowned upon.

My 12 year old (who hates math) picked up this book and said "awesome!" My 17 year old, who is taking pre-calculus, was fascinated - exclaiming, "I never knew that about circles!"

This study dictionary defines and explains mathematical terms and functions in a comprehensive, dictionary-style format. The information is geared for students from pre-algebra through college.

This is simply a reference that every student should have. The definitions and illustrated examples are grouped by concept. When you look up a term, you will find it on a page with all the other terms related to the same mathematical function. For example, the word "denominator" will be found under "fractions". In fact, just reading the definitions on any given page is a good introduction to the subject.

A comprehensive 'wordfinder' index at the begining of the book directs you to the right page. This book would be a bargain at twice the price. (It probably will make more sense to your kids than the explanations in their textbooks).

A very concise and practical source of information about medicines and their use.

This is it! This entire series is well organized, thoughtful lessons to learn about God's word in a structured manner. Great fro formal or informal groups, large and small, these lessons take themes from the Bible and arrange study and questions to help anyone think about God'w rod in a veryt positive way.

Robert Lowell, one of the latter 20th century's most popular poets, seems to have recently dropped off the radar. This is probably partially due to a critical point of view which has emerged, stating basically that Lowell was a product of his time and has now beem outmoded.

This book should dispel that feeling.

One need only look back on a poem like 'Memories Of West Street And Lepke' from Life Studies to realize that even if, in a hundred years, someone reads this having no idea who Lepke was, the poem could still be enjoyed. It is the poem itself, as Helen Vendler said in a round-about way, which makes the mark.

Despite the hefty price tag on this volume, if you're interested in Lowell, you should own this book. There's things here which simply cannot be found elsewhere: his first, and never again published Land Of Unlikeness, magazine versions of poems later revised in their book forms, poems in manuscript which Lowell never finished. Aside from the poems (which a dogged individual could track down in their book forms with Amazon and Alibris), it's these bonuses which make the volume special, and change that price tag from wow-that's-a-lot to it's-not-such-a-big-deal.

To say that 'if you're a Lowell fan' you should by this book is wrong. I should say, 'if you're a poetry fan'. This was a man who changed poetry forever. And aside from this historical aspect, they are some of the finest poems ever written.

If your looking for a forms book for construction contracts this is the one. The book is filled with standard AIA documents and includes the typical verbage explaining each section. The cool, unexpected item is the alternative contract language. For example, indemnification terms has the standard AIA verbage and then has 3-5 alternate versions of the same section. Pretty slick.

This was a great book. I am one of the lucky ones and I have a rare hard-back copy of it. It starts out in Kristins dream when she is walking up to Freddy's house. If you can find a copy of this rare book don't hesitate to buy it. Trust me, you won't be disappointed.

This comprehensive research resource contains all information you could possibly want for all waterfowl that appear in the wild on this continent. It is not, and does not read like, a novel. It is straight facts in a logical and thorough layout. This book will be highly prized by hunters, bird watchers and any one else interested in the identification and unique behavior patterns of waterfowl.

Color plates of adults and chicks of both sexes in all color phases, plus juveniles for geese are included. Species identification, migration ranges and patterns, adult and juvenile sizes, breeding territories and behavior, population trends, food habits for all species and major races (11 races of Canada geese - it is incorrect to call them "Canadian") are covered in depth.

I particulary enjoyed the coverage of rare migrating species such as Baikal Teal, Eurasian Green-winged Teal and European wigeon.

I own the 1976 version of this book and will be purchasing the current updated version soon. This has been by far the most valuable waterfowl and wildlife book I own. The main updateable content of this book is current population numbers and trends as these vary widely from year to year.

This book recounts, in meticulous and fascinating detail, the inside, untold story of the famous architect, and the not-yet-famous educators who dreamed of a home of their own that would grow with and around their young family. A wonderful read, full of personalities and the unexpected challenges of this daring young couple's audacious undertaking of building an "outside the box" home in the 1930s. Hanna Honeycomb house underwent careful reinforcement after it was severely damaged in the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, and is once again available for docent tours. Contact Stanford University, where the home, long ago called "a monstrosity" by other faculty, remains a viable part of the education institution that sustained and grew the young homeowners and their infamous architect. The ashes of the writers, Jean and Paul Hanna, remain lovingly buried on the property, near the home they dreamed, built, adored, and shared with the world.

Writing linguistic textbooks is not easy. Given that the intended audience is usually undergraduate students, you are supposed to start from the basics, you cannot assume any previous knowledge of the topics covered and you have to go to extreme lengths (literally) to make sure that the main ideas and issues are clear. All this does not mean that you can be divulgative, on the contrary, the use in university courses prevents you from using an informal, discursive style and requires you to explain all the necessary terminology and the (sometimes very technical) analyses proposed in the literature. In the field of linguistics, then, the textbook is supposed to do what in other disciplines is attained by at least four other books (or courses): explain the foundations and goals of the field, be a technical introduction to the discipline, be a reference book, where you can look up things you have forgotten, and finally also act as an intermediate course, which can enable you to go on to read the specialised literature on your own. Needless to say, the result is often a clumsy 600 pages monstrosity which manages to be dry, shallow, dispersive and incomplete at the same time. Trying to acquire a vast and technical discipline from such a book alone can be a very frustrating experience, as those of us who tried to teach themselves linguistics (or a subfield of it) by reading textbooks on their own know only too well. It is therefore all the more remarkable what professor emeritus Frank Palmer has achieved with this book. It provides a thorough and clear discussion of the notion of Grammatical Relation (such as Subject, Object etc.) and the much more difficult one of Grammatical Role (such as Agent, Patient, etc.), and uses them to analyse a wide variety of typologically different languages. This alone would have been a monumental achievement, but professor Palmer goes on to discuss how Grammatical Roles and Relations are matched in the world's languages, which means discussing vast and thorny topics like Case Systems, and to illustrate the mechanisms, such as the passive, that languages use to switch the identities between Role and Relation. To cover all this material with clarity and in less than 300 pages you have to be very sure of what you want to say, and professor Palmer certainly is, but even if he has his own theory about these topics, and argues it clearly and convincingly, he refrains from imposing it on recalcitrant data. On the contrary, he often quotes alternative analyses, showing the pros and cons of each one. This kind of theory neutral approach to such complicated issues could have produced a confusing and inconclusive comparison of badly summarised theories, but professor Palmer always manages to focus on the relevant issues and clearly show the different consequences of each approach. It is really impossible to understate the richness in ideas and data contained in this book: the reader will learn about fairly exotic languages (some of them not familiar even to professional linguists: I must admit I had never heard of "Awngi" (p. 231) before) and grammatical devices (such as the Antipassive, Active Systems, Split Ergativity etc.) which are discussed only in the most specialised publications. What is more important, she will be able to place all these data in a precise and comprehensive theory, with which the reader can go on to explore these fascinating topics on her own.