This is probably my favorite of Lloyd Alexanders books! Its a hilarious story with a great storyline and fabulous characters! And who couldnt love the cat! Its definitely the funniest and most light-hearted of all of his books. A must read!

Lloyd Alexander is probably the greatest children's author living today. Gypsy Rizka is another great book by the master. Alexander has always brought strong heroines to children's lit. Rizka is yet another great to add to the list: Eilonwy from The Prydain Chronicles, Mickle from the Westmark Trilogy, Isabel from The Marvelous Misadventures of Sebastian, and Vesper Holly from her own books (there are also a few more which I haven't gotten to yet). This novel, besides its excellent characters, has a lot of humor. Alexander displays his unbelieveable imagination with the unusual methods Rizka utilizes to get out of trouble. Nobody mixes high adventure with humor as well as Alexander. The prose in this novel is unbelievably polished also. Gypsy Rizka doesn't have as much depth as some of Alexander's other novels, but there are not very many childrens books that can entertain like this one can. Overall, Gypsy Rizka is an amazing novel.

This excellent, humorous, well-written books tells the story of a young half-Gypsy girl Rizka living in a town with an archenemy, an admirer, and a friend.

The villianous Sharpnack wants Rizka run out of town, so he cooks up devious plots. But Rizka cleverly outwits him every time.

Rizka only stays in this town where she has hardly a friend because she is waiting for her gypsy father to return to get her. Meanwhile, she becomes good friends with the warm-hearted Big Franko, becomes the sole admirer of Sofiya Pumpa, the mayor's daughter, and achieves the status of enemy in the Councilor in Chief Sharpnack's book.

You will laugh as Rizka cleverly outsmarts Sharpnack and slowly wins the townspeoples' trust fairly and squarely. (She even helps two couples get married!) I recommend this book very highly.

P.S. If the person who gave me this book (you know who you are) reads this, I broadcast "Thank you so, so, so much for this great book!"

Molnar's book reads like Grisham...it just burns along...you can feel the action, see the people and feel their pain. A great book. Rhonda Herring, Gulfport, M

An exciting adventure of World War II...would make a great action movie. Mr. Frank Moore, Slidell, L

The realism placed you in the middle of the action, heart pounding, tasting the fear... Christine Kirby, Diamondhead, M

I heard of this book via NPR's show "All Things Considered." They were sharing a list of book suggestions for winter reading. I took them up on Siberia Bound and was enthralled. This book imparted a true sense of Siberia through the eyes of an American. It displayed a sense of reality, not of watered down travelogue writing so commonly found today. Through the eyes of a somewhat skeptical and adventurous entrepreneur, an oppressed Siberian culture embraces both the good and the bad aspects of capitalism. Siberia Bound combines an overview of economic theory put into practice and subtle philopsophical views on the ritual of daily life, with an poignant dose of good old fashioned humor.

What a ride! I was hooked by the first page and the following few hundred pages were no dissapointment! I would ration myself to just a couple of chapters a night so I wouldn't "run out". I'm sending it to my father who is a tough critic in the literary world, I'm sure he'll identify with Alexander's search for living the hard yet simple way of life. Nothing can replace good people, good friendships, a challenge...not even a contact coziness that we have here in the US. Thank you!

Well and justly written. Two thumbs up to the young author.

The view of men through "Charlie Dean's" eyes is an honest, although uncomfortable, reality. Having experienced some eye-opening nights at dance clubs, bachelor parties and bars where ladies perform and dance, I've always wondered why these women sought this lifestyle. The book "Smoking Hopes" has helped to increase my understanding of their needs, and their world. Charlie's descriptions of events can be funny or tender, but brutally revealing. Her need for hope is always very strong as she pursues her relentless search for her evasive lover.

Author Victoria Alexander has given us an insightful story of a woman's struggle in an obscure world. When this moving story was nearly ended, an intense desire overwhelmed me to save and protect the doomed "Charlie Dean" from the ravages of mankind! Share the experience. I was not disappointed.

A re-working of _Waiting for Godot_, _Smoking Hopes_ implicates the contemporary cult of physical perfection in its exploration of the timeless human craving to be loved. This dark tale's incisive and insightful portrayal of the sexual underworlds of New York and Tokyo impels its heroin's quest to its inevitable conclusion. Alexander's prose is finely-honed and bewitching.

I was facinated all the way through the book with Charlie's strategic study and wielding of beauty and sex. There are very funny parts too. I love Charlie's letter to the IRS. I wish I could be so bold, but it is fiction after all.

I bought this book to use as resource for my environmental education and religion/spirituality work. As a musician and songwriter for the Earth Mama projects, I review lots of current music materials. This is the finest I have seen. Notation is clear and accurate. Commentary and notes on the songs and ideas are articulate and thoughtful. The entire volume (over 400 songs)is a rich resource of material from many traditions which I will savour and enjoy for years. References, incidentals, quotes and comments sprinked throughout are the icing on the cake. I have given several of these as gifts to schools, music departments and organizations. They are always delighted to add Songs for Earthlings to their library.
Joyce Rouse, AKA Earth Mama...

This is a great resource for anyone who likes to sing earth-friendly songs. Great selection, well organized, and the hole-punched format fits well with the many notebooks of music I have.

I am a choir director for a small, non-denominational Christian church. We like to do music from a wide variety of traditions. This book has been like a gift from the Gods! It's an amazing resource for music from so many different traditions, organized in an easy to use way. Every time I look through it I find something new.

This is a great book, and a MUST HAVE for anyone who loves the animal friends they live with. Clear, concise, well-organized,and well written, this book leads you step-by-step through the process of protecting your pets. Following their suggestions, I've made sure that my cats will be loved and cared for, no matter what happens to me. Can't recommend it highly enough.

A great resource book of how to protect our pets. Thank you David and Charlotte for the information and insight into this area . We will definitly set up a pet trust for our two cats, that are the light of our lives. We will rest easier knowing we have taken care of those that love us, (with paws!)

Collaboratively written by David Congalton and Charlotte Alexander, When Your Pet Outlives You: Protecting Animal Companions After You Die is a solidly written and "user friendly" resource for pet owners wanting to ensure that their animal companions are taken care of in the event of the death of the pet owner -- especially since pets are legally classified as property under American law and as such cannot lawfully inherit money directly. Setting up a pet trusts and veterinary care contracts, and the wide variety of options to ensure one's pets are taken good care of, and more are all discussed in depth in a "must-read" book for all true pet lovers.

Geoff Schackelford has done a wonderful job of bringing Dr Alister Mackenzie and his work back to life. I could feel the presence of the Good Doctor as if he were sitting and talking with me. I enjoyed walking Pendleton Golf Links as much as Doc's biting humor. Ever read anything and felt like you knew the person? Take a walk or find a good chair and enjoy yourself and learn about golf course architecture from a master architect and master writer!

Craig Lock

This is a lot of fun to read and an interesting story. The ending is a suprise, but I'm not sure if I liked it, but it did not spoil the rest of the book and the creative way Mackenzie is brought back to life. Bringing the Doctor back to Augusta was great fun, and it makes you think about how much he might not like it, especially with all the changes made to the course this year.

Shackelford, through his young hero and his hero's 'reincarnated' mentor, bring the theory and practise of course architecture back to one of its basic tenents - when completed, the course should be a compliment to its beginnings, not a tricked-up monument to a designers ego. Not overly long, it can easily be consumed in one setting. But be prepared to laugh, cry, and be angry, sometimes all at once. If you're a golfer, serious or otherwise, you will enjoy MacKenzie's subtle dressing down of the popular gimmicks and signature styles of many of the popular designers. Enjoy, enjoy.

The book was very interesting and informative. It really opens one's eyes to secretive cults.
I did find it a bit graphic, but maybe it had to be so so that it would let people know how bad some things really are.

A friend let me borrow this book about 4 years ago. Since then I have desperatly searched to find it. It has been an obsession. I found this book to be incredibly dark, and odd. I think this book is incredibly interesting, and I would recommend highly to anyone that is interested in the inner workings of the mind.

i have read this book many times over and i still can't get enough of it, it's amazing. I would highlt reccomend it to anyone, and not just people who are interested in the mind and how it works. This is a very powerful story

This book is a stunning compendium of the range of life forms found on our planet. Margulis and Schwartz describe it as "a catalog of the world's living diversity." It is a vividly descriptive assortment of selected examples from the Five Kingdoms of life formulated by R.H. Whittiker. The authors stress how much new knowledge, particularly in the study of unicellular life forms, has been gained in recent years. They explain how classification identifies organisms and show how modern techniques have led to the expansion of life's kingdoms from two to five. A description of prokaryotes and eucaryotes is given, followed by the body of 92 phyla descriptions. The book is arranged to be either studied as a reference or browsed as an introduction to biological forms. Each entry is carefully organized with the type of information [environment, measurement scales, diagrams] in a consistent location.

However, this is more than simply a collection of illustrative examples of various organisms. The most fascinating chapter relates the authors' proposal to modify one of the standard classifications of life - the Protoctists, replacing Whittiker's Protists. "The Kingdom Protoctista is defined by exclusion," they state. "Its members are neither animals, plants, fungi nor procaryotes." Their common characteristics are nucleated cells, some kind of flagellum and live in an oxygenated atmosphere [unlike many unicellular forms which cannot tolerate oxygen. Their argument contends that many multicellular forms are more
directly related to these unicellular forms than they are to other multi-celled organisms. The new classification "also solves the problem of blurred boundaries that arises if the unicellular organisms are assigned to the multicellular kingdoms." They list 27 phyla [of 36 total]with diagrams exhibiting a range of bizarre structures and life cycles.

Another noteworthy entry is Trichoplax adhaerens. Remember the name of this creature - "it is the simplest of animals." Composed of but a few thousand cells, it is a dull gray body just visible to the unaided eye. In looking at the photo and diagram of this creature invokes a sense of wonder - this is, after all, a distance relative living in the nearest aquarium with the shad.

This book is a delight to browse following one of the authors' intents. Their second purpose, using this book as a reference, is even more admirably met. Clear photographs coupled with excellent diagrams, including typical environments of the selected specimens, add visual support to a readable text base. Any reader interested in the way life is structured and seeking insights into evolutionary development would do well to consider this book. It's not an academic text, but conveys a wealth of meaningful information.

Although this is primarily intended to be an illustrated reference guide, it's a surprisingly fun one to thumb through. Part of that is the delight of looking at pictures and illustrations of some truly strange organisms (science fiction writers should really buy this book to see what genuinely alien creatures are like), but also due to the plethora of interesting facts.

I know that when I was reading through the section detailing the Animal phylla, I was struck by how many creatures -- entire phyllums -- get along without even rudimentary brains (or digestive systems, respiratory systems, circulatory systems, or even organs, altogether, in some cases). Likewise I was surprised to learn that only two phylla (including our own) ever developed winged flight.

The sections comprising the non-Animal kingdoms were of particular interest to me mainly for the simple reason that they invariably get little attention from most texts. At best, you'll usally find a chapter dealing with micro-organisms as a whole, and a brief chapter on plants. To see how much sheer diverity there is in just the Fungus kingdom is eye-opening.

I will note that the book does assume a basic level of biological literacy and that it sometimes throws jargon at the reader with little warning or explaination but, as a whole, this is a very accessible work and well worth having on one's shelf.

At first, a person like myself might seem somewhat hard to convince that all the 100's of thousands of species on the planet can be divided up into just five kingdoms or "Groups." However, by the half way mark I could not only see how this is true--more importantly I could understand--and agree with the author. What this truly gifted scientists has done is to "break down" the walls of convention and show people (even myself) how it all really worls. Lynn Margullis is the worthy sucessor to Charles Darwin. Period.

Secrets of a Perfect Night is the best collection of short romance stories I've read so far.
Stephanie Laurens tells the tale of a rake with a scandalous reputation who finds his life of endless conquests and aimless amusements dissatisfying. He decides to go back to his ancestral estate and start anew. On the way there he gets caught in a snowstorm and seeks shelter at a nearby cottage where to his surprise he finds a young girl, now a woman, that he once seduced and whose heart he broke.
I had read one book by this author before that I didn't enjoy at all so this was a delightful surprise for me and I will be looking for more of her books.

Victoria Alexander's story deals with two young people in love who plan to elope to avoid the wrath of the girl's father. The treacherous father already knows of their plans and hatches an evil scheme that tears the lovers apart.
I felt this story was the weakest of the bunch. I've never read this author before and while the story was well written. The
plot, which starts out nicely, quickly becomes too convoluted and ridiculous to be believed.

Rachel Gibson's contemporary story is the best of the bunch. She tells the story of high school sweethearts brought back together at their ten year reunion. I will not go further into it except to say that the dialogue sizzles and the characters are compelling and completely believable. The story is one that most of us have dreamed of: to attend our high school reunions and knock the socks off every person there. This is another excellent story form the very talented Ms. Gibson.

I give Ms. Lauren's story 5 stars. Alexander's story 2 stars and Gibson's 10 stars! Highly recommended

If you love romantic anthologies then this one is for you. Let's be realistic - most anything that includes a Stephanie Laurens story is going to be great and this one is no exception. Her entrancing tale of rediscovered love is a perfect example of her amazing talent when it comes to blending sensuality and humor. I was less impressed with Victoria Alexander's tale of misunderstandings and rekindled romance - it was considerably more downbeat than the other two, although on its own probably would have been wonderful. Rachel Gibson's contemporary love story is a delight - for all those women who have dreamed of knocking the socks off their high school buddies at a reunion. This book is a great summer read, and the pleasure of anthologies is to be able to put them down and get a little work done in between stories!

The title, SECRETS OF A PERFECT NIGHT, gets you from the start. And the names of the three romantic writers involved help it along. The good thing about a book of novellas is that you can read one whole story at one sitting, and get that satisfied, complete feeling.

SCANDALOUS LORD DERE, is the tale of a young man who wants to leave his well-deserved rakish reputation as "master seducer" and go back to his quiet country home and the girl he left behind. The problem is that he left eight years ago and all indications are that things have changed dramatically. If winning it all back is even possible, it certainly won't be easy. The "master seducer" will have to use all that he has.

THE LAST LOVE LETTER is the story of both selfish and well-intentioned motives gone awry. A couple who've declared their love against the wishes of their parents plan to run away together one night, but they don't make the last-minute connection. Ten years pass before they both receive a letter that lets them know what actually happened that night, and how neither of them was to blame. Now, has too much time passed to rekindle feeling which never really died?

NOW AND FOREVER is a modern story of a high school reunion and of seeing the one who got away and how much they've changed. It's the reopening of possibilities. It's the time to aplolgize and get on (or get it on) with their lives.