I have to agree with Calyndula on this one--and more so. This book shows real talent in creating a sense of place and mood, but I couldn't bring myself to care about any of the characters enough to finish the story. With Perfect Love, her next book, Buchan found a more sympathetic voice--recommended.

This is a haunting and sad book...the writing is skilled and evocative, the characters are interesting. But it is SO evocative that I found myself depressed every time I entered the stark and dreary world that Buchan so skillfully creates. Even the gardening bits failed to offset the general miasma of gloom that permeates this book, at least for me. Buchan is a fine writer, but this book is hard going, albeit beautifully written. It has a Bronte-like feel, but without the passion. And the ghostly elements left me unmoved, which is unusual for me. Read it for the fine writing, but don't expect a quick or lighthearted experience.

stupi

This is an excellent guide, obviously designed to be used in the field. The size of the book is ideal and it contains about the right amount of text. Although the guide covers the 112 known frogs (!) of the Iquitos region, it could be used by anyone working or visiting the upper amazon (and indeed the amazon as a whole, although to a lesser degree). The guide will prove as useful to tourists as well as herpetologists to provide a clear and quick identification guide. Descriptions of each frog species (as well as colour photographs) are given, and also (very brief) notes on ecology, breeding habits and similar species. Some general references are inlcluded, which although very limited, should provide a starting point for anyone wishing to do some further reading. One could argue that the text could have been more extensive although problems of bulk/weight then come into play, as well as price. A key to the species may have been useful.

The only reason I'm even giving this book 1 star is because as a Hamptons regular Brady transports me back to summer evenings at lawn parties and the beaches. Although I do not take these Hamptons books as high-brow literature, just fun casual reading I found this one to be absolutely implausible and preposterous.

It is always interesting how Brady takes the real and mixes it with the fictitous. However, this one was just out of control. It is true there is a huge house being built in Sagaponack ... which most people believe is to be a retreat or compound of some sorts... Brady uses this as his basis for the Kuwaiti backed mansion being erected in the book. But this is the only clever way he mixes it in this one. I'm not even going to get into the plot, but to use Howard Roark, the hero of Ayn Rand's fictitous The Foutainhead, as a character is just way beyond belief. The Fountainhead is not some obscure book that a few people have read. It is highly regarded and continue to sell 100,000 compies a year... Also in light of current events in the U.S. and Middle East it is so unbelieveable to have Beecher's father captured by the Taliban and let go because of some emails going back and forth. Which brings me to another point. How is Buzzy Portofino's character receiving emails over a computer while they are on a boat, running through the woods, in the hospital or wherever? This book was published in 1999 wireless internet services were not that good back then, and you can't even get good cellphone or "Blackberry" reception in the Hamptons in 2002.

All in all I felt as if Brady was taking his reader to be completely ignorant. Brady's other 2 Hamptons books that I have read, Further Lane and Gin Lane, are far better summer reading. This one seems to me to be Brady's way of quickly trying to capitalize on their NY Times best seller list status. I say skip this one.

This is a work of staggering ineptitude.

Too many words, in too flowery language, describe too many characters, engaged in too many irrelevant events, advancing too little plot.

Moreover, there is no attempt at subtlety. Hints of future developments go off like hydrogen bombs ... which is somewhat unfortunate for a "mystery novel".

Next to this, the average Victorian English novel looks like Raymond Carver.

This is a silly story, but it's great escape reading. All the escape elements are there -- the life styles of the rich and famous, an improbable story line, and a pleasant ending. This is a great book to take to a vacation cottage -- and leave behind for the next occupant.

This book as a story is well written, contemporary and for the most part fun to read. My interest in the book was to see how it dealt with the topic of bedwetting. Overall I was disappointed. Lily is described as an occasional but frequent bedwetter. So, while this story might help children to feel more sympathetic towards peers who wet and enable them to empathize with children who share a similar experience, the conclusion does not offer hope to the many children who have never been dry at night and for who bedwetting can be characterized as a chronic problem. In fact Ms. Warner furthers some misconceptions and stereotypes about bedwetting by suggesting that Lily's troubles have a psychological basis (which statistically may be true in about 3% of children who wet) and that withholding fluids might be a viable treatment approach.

The conflict in the story identifies a crucial moment which almost all bedwetters face but the resolution (though not uncommon)does not offer the possibility of a long term solution.

I am happy to see any book which helps raise awareness of the common and often distressing problem of bedwetting. For readers looking for another Lily adventure this book might fill the bill. For readers looking for a book to help their child better understand his or her own wetting or offer some insight or help in resolving wetting, Accidental Lily is not much help.

I am a male who enjoy poetry, especially from the collection of Yellow Silk magazine. This book is gathered and selected to mostly women reader only! It's a pillow book. I recommend other Yellow Silk collections than this one.

I am disappointed with this book. Aside from the promising title, it has nothing new to offer aside from basic cutting techniques, explained in a confusing and inefficient manner. The food therein bears no resemblance to that of any Chinese restaurant I have ever been to.

Perhaps I need to narrow down my criteria for good Chinese restaurants -- I do like authentic restaurants, but I think what I'm REALLY looking for in Chinese food is the type served in typical Chinatown restaurants -- not the stuff you get at over-priced hotel restaurants. The recipes listed in this book are of the latter variety, I suspect. In any case, I have never seen, nor would I ever eat at a restaurant who's menu consists of the following dishes:

Bean Curd and Fish Soup, Beef and Tomato Soup, Carp and Vegetable Soup, Dried Bean Curd with Peppers, Eggplant with Minced Chicken, Sauteed Cauliflower, Stir-Fried Carrots and Turnips, Boiled Wax Gourd with Vegetables, Baby Corn with Green and White Asparagus, Braised Oyster with Garlic and Bean Curd, Fried Fish and Pineapple, Sweet and Sour Fish, Diced Pork with Potatoes, Carrots and Green Peppers, Stuffed Green Peppers, Stir-Fried Liver and Sugar Snap Peas, Kidneys with Sesame Oil, Braised Beef and Turnips, Stir-Fried Tripe and Green Peppers, Stir-Fried Beef with Onions and Ginger, Stir-Fried Giblets with Celery, Stewed Giblets and Liver...

...and so on. Does anything in this list even sound appealing? I have no doubt that they're authentic to some region of China, but the book certainly doesn't grace us with this information.

Maybe I'm just biased towards Szechuan and Cantonese, but that doesn't excuse the book's lack of useful content. It's filled with... er, filler, and redundant/useless phrases like "Ingredients that should be cubed should not be cut into slices; those that should be sliced thinly should not be sliced thickly."

Although it has some nice glossy photos, most of the dishes don't look all that appetizing, and the meat looks dry. This is no surprise, since the recipes don't include proper marination procedures, and list only the bare minimum of ingredients, most of which are adapted for westerners who refuse to go to Chinatown or Chinese grocery stores.

Excuse the ranting, but I am a bit frustrated -- this is exactly the typical type of mediocre Westernized Chinese cookbook that I can't stand.

This novel tries and fails to take the reader on an adventure unparalleled through Afghanistan in the early days of the Soviet invasion. It is written very much in the way of an armchair political scientist sitting in England and musing on the happenings in this far away, exotic land.

Ponderously written and poorly researched, this tale follows a GRU officer and his estranged wife who decided to stay with the Afghan rebels, and her lover, the leader of the tribe, the leader of the tribe, and the action of the invasion and resistance.

Choppy and difficult to piece together at some points and containing more than a few grammatical errors and misspellings, this book is sometimes very difficult to read. Islamic sounding names are giving everyday objects to make the narrative sound authentic and exciting but it falls terribly flat.

The characters are dim, very shallow and terribly predictable. Obtuse dialogue and impossible at best scenes are everywhere to be found. World events are forgotten and the writer concentrates too much on the stiff, story board characters and what he thinks they must be like and less on the flow of the account of what's supposed to be going on.

I was very disappointed with this book. In some places there is a stench of more than a small amount of elitist condescension considering the Soviets and the native Afghans, bordering on offensive.

I am extremely frustrated with having wasted my money on this very expensive 111 page text. It contains less than 10 (!) pages of material relevant to the title. It should have been named, "Intoduction to Traditional Chinese Herb Usage Principles with Seven Not-so-Informative Pages of Herb-Drug Interactions." THAT information is contained in ALL basic Chinese herb texts! GRRRR!

The concept of this book is good, however,it contains outdated and erroneous information. For example, it lists Decubitus Ulcer orders that are dangerous and are no longer practiced. First of all, the term is now referred to as "Pressure Ulcer" and the use of sheepskins, eggcrate mattresses and heat lamps are contraindicated in the treatment of pressure ulcers. In fact, the AHCPR guidelines (N15) clearly warn against the use of such measures for the treatment of pressure ulcers and the exact opposite is true-to keep the wound moist and not to let it dry out (which will inhibit healing). The prescriber could be setting him/herself up for litigation.

Hazel Holt's 'Mrs Malory' books have never been detective stories in the classic mould. That is to say, there has always been a tendency to concentrate on the characters, with the crime element growing out of the interactions of those characters.
Nevertheless, the books, numbering ten (up till now) have usually offered a satisfactory read and a reasonable degree of obscurity as to "who dunnit".

In "Lilies that Fester", however, Mrs Malory - or rather her creator, Ms Holt - seems to have totally lost the plot.

In the first place not only the identity of the murderer, but also the motivation, are clear as soon as the main characters have been introduced. Even the author seems to have realised that all was not well, since a majority of the book simply wanders round and round the same marginally interesting bits of story line and does little or nothing to help in the detecting the culprit.
Indeed, on the final two pages of Chapter Nineteen, Mrs Malory and her son decide that the only reason for bothering to solve the mystery is so that the son's fiancee will feel like agreeing to a date for their marriage.

This feeling that the author has lost all interest in her story is further emphasised in the half-hearted denoument wherein the characters decide not to hand the murderer over to the police, nor even to stop him embezzling a regular £1,000+ per week, apparently for no better reason than ... well, quite frankly for no apparent reason at all!

It's a daft ending to a vacuous story, and totally inconsistent with the central character's typically 'conservative' thinking and behaviour as depicted in the previous books in the series.

On this showing, it's definitely time for Mrs Malory to hang up her magnifying glass and disappear quietly into the sunset.