Dawn reclaims her baby daughter, and then goes to live in Cutler's Cove Hotel, where she will be the new boss lady. She and Jimmy marry, obviously. She should be happy with her life, but she has this weird feeling that new horrors lurk around the corner. There is her brother who still lusts after her, and her baby sister who has grown up with another family who seems to have warped her, Laura Sue, the selfish mother, and of course, the hateful Clara Sue. And Daddy Longchamp pays a visit as well. Interesting enough, right? Yet there is something I find oddly peculiar, if not downright wrong. Dawn is scared to death of Clara Sue coming within even two feet from little Christie, yet she pretty much sends her packing off to Uncle Philip's place every day when she was no more than four or five-years-old. And we all know what dear old Uncle Philip is after. Is Dawn really that naive? Those of you who have read the first two books know that Dawn doesn't exactly trust Philip around herself, so why her young daughter, even when there is Betty Ann and a nurse? In Seeds of Yesterday (Dollanganger), the protagonist, Cathy, broke out into a cold sweat every time Bart or Joel went near Deirdre and Darren, and "Uncle Bart" was not nearly as bad as "Uncle Philip". The ghost writer doesn't seem to portray Dawn as the kind of loving mother we can appreciate. She is so downright neglectful, she makes Corrine Foxworth appear to be a saint. Perhaps her fate in Midnight Whispers was karma. Christie doesn't need that kind of a mother. That said, this is the best book in the series.

I cant put these books down! 3rd one in a week! i guess ive got too much time on my hands. lol. I erally enjoyed this book. I liked how it took different twists and turns. I hate Micheal, but from the last book, i always expected he'd turn up again. Dawn and Jimmy face many problems throughout there marraige. I wish Dawn would tell Juimmy more though, rather than getting him upset with her al the time. But they always seem to fix there problems and relinquish there love for one another. Im glad Dawn could finally become pregnant with Jimmy's child. I can imagine how it broke his heart that they were unable to for a number of years. The way Fern turned out completaly took me by surprise. Maybe she'll improve in the next book. Clara Sue was cut out of the series quit harshly too. But i suppose it was for the best. no more torment. I wonder if Phillip will get over his obsession with Dawn, or will he attack her once again? Will she ever tell Jimmy of the initial rape, and the attack in there own home, or wil Dawn and Phillips encounters remain a secret from Jimmy, one who has every right to know, forever?

After being rescued from the Meadows in the previous book ("Secrets of the Morning") by her longtime sweetheart Jimmy Longchamp, Dawn Cutler is back at Cutler's Cove, this time as the owner of the prestigious hotel. The estate was left in her name when her grandfather's will was read in the previous book, revealing that he was, in fact, her biological father.

Yet Dawn isn't the only one to be lied to about her birth. Clara Sue, Dawn's younger sister, soon discovers another secret kept by both girl's mother: that Randolph Cutler isn't Clara Sue's father either; Bronson Alcott is. In fact, just two months after Randolph dies (which happens during Dawn and Jimmy's honeymoon), Dawn's mother and Bronson intend to marry. All of this is quite a shock, especially for Clara Sue, and she takes it out on Dawn one day by attacking her and causing her to miscarry.

Despite the constant barrage of problems from her dysfunctional family, Dawn tries to take more control of her life and create a new, more stable environment for herself by, first, tracking down her newborn baby, Christie, who had been stolen and adopted shortly after being born in secret at the Meadows. Next Dawn marries Jimmy, who has remained loyal and devoted to her ever since they were children, even after both of her ill-fated relationships with Philip Cutler (her half-brother, who is still obsessed with her) and Michael Sutton (her vocal instructor, who pays her a visit later on). Yet I wouldn't consider Dawn's marrying Jimmy the most "normal" decision she's ever made. It's still slightly incestuous, even though Jimmy is a great guy.

Additional past characters revisit Dawn (and a few more die) over the course of years this book covers, such as her estranged "father" (Daddy Longchamp, the one who had "kidnapped" her) and his new family. Even Fern Longchamp (Dawn baby "sister") makes an unforgettable appearance at the end. Sadly, "Twilight's Child" is the last book told from Dawn's viewpoint, for tragedy strikes again in the following book, "Midnight Whispers", which is the story of Dawn's 16-year-old daughter, Christie Longchamp. The Cutler family series concludes with the fifth installment, "Darkest Hour".

"My War"
Andy Rooney
ISBN 1-58648-010-3

As well as being a humorist, Andy Rooney is an iconoclast, and independent thinkers are rarely plentiful. When Tom Brokaw characterized Rooney's WWII age group as "The Greatest Generation", Rooney wrote that it was probably no more special than the current generation, which had not found the occasion for identifying the same qualities in itself. Mr. Brokaw, however, has written the foreword of "My War" and speaks there of Andy Rooney's book as a gift to those who did not come home.

This book is the best work I have read by Andy Rooney. I admire Mr. Rooney's self-effacing approach to writing. For example, he characterizes his assignment as a reporter for the "Stars and Stripes" as a "bungled assignment" by the army that put him in the midst of reporters who had written for papers such as "The New York Times" while his own experience was as sub-editor of "The Thirteenth Field Artillery Brigade Bulletin".

One of the WWII-era personalities Rooney criticizes in this book is General George Patton, whom he views as overrated. Rooney slyly claims people who admire Patton are confusing him with George C. Scott. To Rooney's credit, he quotes a letter received, after unfavorable Patton comments on television, from the general's daughter in which she wrote that the general would not have liked him either. Ernest Hemingway and Charles De Gaulle are also singled out as pompous egomaniacs. General Eisenhower, on the other hand, Rooney praises for allowing "The Stars and Stripes" to have the editorial freedom of regular American newspapers.

Those who know Andy Rooney mainly from his "Sixty Minutes" segments, once caricatured on "Saturday Night Live", may be surprised at the extent to which he saw action as a reporter in WWII. For example, he flew on a B17 raid over enemy territory and won the bronze star for battlefield reporting in Germany. At one point, he even managed to capture a German prisoner.

Much of what Rooney writes in this book is not pretty, such as seeing dead soldiers whose bodies had been crushed by tanks, watching the revenge that some of the citizens of Paris took on the German prisoners when the city was liberated, and coming upon the charred bodies of the Thekla concentration camp inmates that the SS had massacred as the Americans approached.

There are some light touches in this book apropos to human goodness as well. In France, Rooney writes "every wandering dog was adopted and fed by some GI".

Rooney's books always mix humor and candid observation. The same is true here. However, Rooney has a more serious purpose in mind this time. The young men that he knew, killed in the war, he writes, did not give their lives, but rather those lives were taken. It would seem that this book is a way of reconciling the deaths of so many friends and fellow soldiers with Rooney's own relatively long and comfortable life. The book is dedicated to some of those close friends.

I have long been an Andy Rooney fan and this was an interesting look at his war time experience. As others have said, Andy had a unique perspective in the Army by being assigned to the Stars and Stripes. His primary assignments were England covering the 8th Air force then Western Europe after the invasion. I find it strange that people would disparage him because he was "only" a reporter. The fact of the matter is that the majority of veterans, past and present, were/are rarely in harms way. Andy in no way embellishes his experience and pays due respect to those who fought and died in the war. His observations of the sometimes pettiness of military life ring true even to this 80s peace time vet.

Note this book does read more like a column or a series of essays and Andy is not afraid of blatantly revealing his own opinion. Keep it up Andy!

If you enjoy Andy Rooney, you'll enjoy My War. Even if you don't care for grumpy Andy on Sixty Minutes, you still should read this account for its honesty and tribute to those who fought and died in WWII. In his preface, Andy notes that when he started checking his memory with the historical record, he was surprised at how often they didn't jibe. And that when in doubt, he relied on memory! A person who takes his World War II history seriously will find an error here and there, a misinterpretation now and then. But this is not footnoted history; this is Andy's story--and, as always, he tells it well with admirable brevity of words, dabs of humor, and occasional sentamentality.

Andy has his likes and dislikes--General Patton being one of those he disliked, no despised, the most--and he also snipes a bit at a few of his fellow war correspondents and some of the officers who made life difficult for the enlisted man. But three parts of his book stand out. For nearly two years Andy covered the Eight Air Force and their bombing campaign against Germany and German-occupied France. He is sympathethic to the airmen and the horrendous losses they suffered in those early years. To his credit, Andy volunteered for a mission that turned out to be a difficult target--Wilhelmshaven--in which his plane was damaged and of his own role in reviving a crewman who had had his oxygen supply cut off. As a former WWII AAF navigator [20th AF], his feelings and reactions to air combat ring true. A second section is his account of the liberation of Paris in which Andy chose to enter the city with the French Army. Much of this is mildy amusing, but also poignant, as the liberators argued over who "first" came into the city, of the political aspects of this in dealing with the French and General Charles de Gaulle, and the vast excitement as this momentous event unfolded. No matter who came first, the Parisiens were overjoyed at being at last freed from their oppressors. Finally, Andy's account of Buchenwald and of his own mixed feelings--he had originally thought the stories of extermination camps somewhat suspect--are a tribute to his own candor. He also reminds us with his honest account of own biases of the mindsets of many Americans when WWII descended.

Anyone interested in World War II and the men who fought in it will be enlightened by Andy's account.

The book focus on Operating Systems and includes source code of a mini OS called Minix. Till I read it, I always read rave reviews, but found it to be quite over rated. The pros of the book includes the source for reference, a Micro kernel OS design, while what is not really upto the mark is the language tends to be difficult thereby making a tough subject even more tougher, the author's view tends to spill over and are juvenile with cliches like all students are trying to hack systems, etc and does not cover various aspects of OS subsystems.

My recomendation would be the book by Abraham Silberschatz, Peter Baer Galvin called "Operating System Concepts" incase of you are starting off or just want a very easy to read book or consider various approaches.

This was the text for an OS course that I took for my Masters. We had to implement 11 significant OS features for Minix (e.g. floppy disk cache, VGA driver, interprocess communication server,...) -- bugs were unacceptable (i.e. fail), as OSs must work. This class was 4 times more work that an other class I took for my Masters but I learned so much. I was already a very experienced Unix programmer when I took this, so I found it facinating to finally see what was under the hood (Minix/Unix is surprisingly small an compact -- very elegant). Tanenbaum is a real authority on the subject of operating systems and has a very engaging style. Probably the best computer science text book that I have read (I read this cover to cover, not just scanning but really reading). There is room for improvement though: the format could benefit from being updated, I had to use a lot of high-lighter. Clearer separation and indexing of key theories and sections would help. The OS basics are still relevant today (and could perhaps benefit from some expansion/clarification). I believe Tanenbaum has brought out new books since that go into some more contemporary / more advance areas.

First off, don't be fooled by people who claim this to be an "easy read". It isn't ... reading the entire book will take weeks, as the text is packed with information, not to mention exercises following each section. That being said, I highly recommend the book. It provides a thorough introduction to operating systems basics, from scheduling to terminals, along with source code. Don't expect to absorb it all at once!

Although I truely enjoyed the book, I felt that a little more could have been done to the "hidden past" parts. Melody finds out who her father is, that's great, but then all the talk of "looking in the basement" for the dark truth kinda left me a little put out. It wasn't explained well (I actually had to read the last chapter twice) and really didn't have any real relivence to the future of the story (for those of you who haven't read it, I won't spoil it for you by explaining further...). Something good could have been thrown in there about almost ANYTHING else and made it more entertaining. I sure do miss the real V.C. Andrews. Maybe they ought to get a new ghostwritter...

I am a and always was a great fan of V.C. Andrews. I have been deeply touched and inspired by all of her series that I even named my thrid son after two of the characters in the Flower's In The Attic Series. His name is Christopher Joel. I religiously and with great anticipation wait for upcoming novels. I just finished reading this book, The Unfinished Symphony. I felt a great amount sadness as I closed the book. Sadness in the sense that the book ended. It was a fascinating and inspiring book. I looked forward to opening the book everyday and reading more about Melody's life. The book ended and I felt Melody actually leave. V.C. Andrews' books books always caused an impact like that. I can not wait to read her upcoming novels. She has a special way of taking me into her books and experience what the characters feel. She is truly a legend. Keep up the wonderful work of creating those wonderful novels.

I like this book a lot! I love V.C. Andrews' books so much. This story made me keep reading chapter after chapter. I couldn't put it down. Each event captivates you. The ending was a little unclear though. I wish it would have turned out a little different and I am sure many of you can agree with me. I still rate it as a must read book! It helps to read the 1st (Melody)and 2nd (Heart Song) novel before Unfinished Symphony, so you know more about the characters.

The reason why this is an important book for everyone. Avoiding the usual sectarian complacency, common to many authors, this book rends the matter simple, interesting and stimulating to further readings, which it should be the primary objective of any writer. I would particularly suggest this text to beginners who whish to step forward a scientific approach.

clear text and good arrangement of information made it easy to get a grip of what ent realy is .
great as a companion in your clinical round .
and for speady revision before your oral exam .

For those who haven't seen Andy Rooney's essays on the TV show 60 minutes, this book may or may not prompt you to tune in more. If The text is simply a collection of Andy's columns about life. There is something about his simple style of writing- he is famous for striking a 'universal cord' in us all- that draws you into the book. Some may find it boring- the author tends to repeat himself here and there- but this is nonetheless a great book, not only witty, but interesting as well.

This book is more like 3 1/2. I would have liked it more if Annie did not whine all the damned time! She was nothing like Heaven! She was virtually spineless!All Annie did was complain and complain. When Heaven hit hard times, she straightened her back and dealt with it. It just seemed with age, Tony became more and more demented. This is not the man who helped toughen Heaven into an even stronger young woman. Unfortunately, Tony is a sick, weak, broken man who is caught up in the image of Leigh, Jillian, and then Heaven and Annie. But back to Annie. She just got on my nerves and she was spoiled. I skipped over a lot of passages, unfortunately. Well, since I am a Die Hard V.C. Andrews fan, with the exception of her Wildflower series, I feel I have been generous with my rating. I think I would have liked Annie as a protagonist IF she had a backbone, that's all!

This book is a must read if you are reading the series of books as a whole. It's not the best book, but it's worth sticking out till the end. Annie is not my favorite character, but I liked her better than Christie in the Cutler series.

I've been reading V.C. Andrew's novels ever since I was nine. It is my favorite of all time. Of course I adore all of them, I am a HUGE fan! But there's something magical about this novel that touches me deeply each time I read it. And I've read it five times. Annie is exactly like me; wishing for her prince to sweep her away of to his castle, the eternal optimist. Even when they play their "fantasy game" it stirs something special inside. Luke is a perfect for Annie, they go together like two doves. When they're forced to be seperated by the car crash that takes Annie off to Farthingagle Manor, you feel them longing for eachother. It's so romantic! I don't know why I'm so affected by this book, but I am. If you haven't read it yet, go and read it now! It plays on your heartstrings, makes you fall in love with the characters. I LOVE it, and would read it another five times!

While the idea behind the Friends of Ed series is admirable and useful - that is, to cover the broad and expansive areas of Flash development that are not so well documented elsewhere - the books so far have been spoiled by the inconsistent quality of their ActionScript.

Too often, I get the feeling that authors that have been invited to contribute have simply re-worked a pre-existing project - and this all too often includes (the usual) hacks and workarounds which all of us use when faced with deadlines. Bits and pieces of Flash4 ActionScript creep in every now and again - and occassionally the authors seem to be entirely unaware of new methods introduced in Flash5 that make their workarounds obsolete (the onClipEvent for loaded data is one example - see Chapt 9 of this book to learn how to do it the *old* way).

Furthermore, the tutorials often lack focus - as though the editors can't decide where to pitch the level of instruction: so that some hard-core ActionScript is often mixed-in with superfluous detail about how to build the interface for the tutorial example.

Anyway, my advice if you really want to *learn* ActionScript for yourself - and also avoid the mistakes, hacks and workarounds that plague the Friends of Ed books - put Phillip Kerman's excellent "ActionScripting in Flash" together with Colin Moock's "ActionScript: The Definitive Guide" on your desk - you'll never look back.

If you are a newbie,......their are other alternatives that will get your feet wet, but if you are a practicing Flash developer and have a firm understanding of ActionScript...this book will inspire you to build real dynamic Flash apps. It touches on Flash Javascript methods, Flash and textfiles and goes into server side middleware solutions like, CGI,Perl and PHP. It also introduces you to database integration. This book gives you real world solutions, which maybe a bit elementary, but overall it lays the foundation for you. I found this book to be inspiring and to be the book which pushed me to learn CGI,PERL,PHP and MySQL. If your looking to build real dynamic/interactive Flash applications or websites this is the book.

I've bought numerous books on Flash and the Dynamic Scripting that can be intermingled with Flash.... Flash 5 ActionScript F/X and Design, Flash 4 Creative Web Animation, and different Wrox books on ASP, ASP databases, and ADO. This book ties ALL of them together. It explains motion scripting for beginners, and then it shows how to import variables from ASP, PHP, Perl, and Cold Fusion. These 1000+ pages contain EVERYTHING you want to know about Flash, it it with out a doubt, THE BEST FLASH BOOK EVER CREATED!!!! It even branches out Flash to other programs like Dreamweaver UltraDev and Generator, it explains how to display information from databases using Flash Turbine. If you read this book, you will be a master at Flash.

I have not been able to read all of the books written by V.C. Andrews. But flowers in the Attic was one of the best. But Rain was not as bad as some of the crtics are rating it. It was well worth the time and reading. It was some what realistic compared to some books that have been wriiten by V.C. Andrews. I have to also say that one character in the book did drag on and he really could have been left out. But all in all it kept my attention and it had a fairly descent plot. I guess the book could of used more of a suspense, vigance and mystery. What most of the readers are use to. I think they are just giving the ghost writter a hard time. I think it would be a great movie and it might draw attention considering Rain is bi-racial. I cant wait till the next book comes out I'm definetly going to buy the book.

I had recently read teh book Rain by V.CAndrews. Rain takes place in the ghettos of Washington D.C. where the main character, Rain Arnold, lives. Rain grows up in "The Projects" with her mother, stepfather, sister Beni, and brother Roy where gangsters live,people kill people as an everyday living, and everyone does "pot" there too. Rain is smart and gets good grades; she is always helping her mother around the house and tries to be a good daughter. Her sister Beni on the other hand always gets herself into trouble and hangs with the wrong crowd. Rain tries to avoid the streets as much as she can. Her brother Roy looks over the two girls and warns them to stay away from trouble. In a few situations both Rain and her sister are forced in bad situations that lead her sister,Benji, to death. Their mother is hard working and caring, while her husband is a drunk who loses every job he gets. Rian's mother was so devastated by haering this awful news so one day, Rain's mother decides to tell Rain that she isn't really her real mother. Her real mother is living somewhere else and her mother wants to send Rain to her mother's house.She says that it is too dangerous for Rain to live in this horrible, unnsafe place.So Rain is sent to live with the wealthy Hudson family. Even though Rain always thought that she didn't fit into the place she was raised, she is also out of place living in the big mansion and all the wealthy things given to her that she never had. Rain joins an all girls school and finds a talent in theater and soon finds a guy that she likes too. But bad things happen with her and hte boy and soon she may find out that she is pregnant. Her brother Roy, then calls Rain and tells her that her mother is really sick and has just passed away because of cancer. Rain's life is really depressing yet joyful at some times. I really enjoyed this book and I think that you should read it.
My favorite part in the story was hte part where Rain had found out that her sister had been shot to death by gangster members. But when people try to help her, as soon as she mentions hte name gamgster member, all hte people rann away or walked away like they didn't even talk to her. I thought that was sad because many people nowadays only think about themselves now. The world today is so selfish and yet so cautious.
I would recommend this book for teenagers ages thirteen to adults. Thisbook is a really intersting book that can get you into the book a lot. I liked it because you could imagine yourself as th character itself going through all th pain and suffering Rain had to go through. You would really like this book too if you like depressing yet happy books.You should read this book.Rain never makes you want to put the book down. Trust me........it's really good.

Book Review: Rain

Rain by V.C. Andrews is the first of five in her suspenseful thrilling Hudson series. Rain takes place in the ghettos of Washington D.C. surrounding the life of the main character, Rain Arnold. Rain grows up in "The Projects" with her mother, stepfather, sister Beni, and brother Roy where crime is an everyday occurrence. Rain is smart and gets good grades; she is always helping her mother around the house and tries to be a good daughter. Her sister Beni on the other hand always gets herself into trouble and hangs with the wrong crowd. Rain tries to avoid the streets as much as she can. Her brother Roy looks over the two girls and warns them to stay away from trouble. In a few situations both Rain and her sister are forced in bad situations that may lead to death. Their mother is hard working and caring, while her husband is a drunk who loses every job he gets. But Rain seems to think she is different and doesn't fit into the place she lives. The only place Rain has ever known changes in the blink of an eye when she overhears something that never should have been said. This secret will change her life in ways she never could imagine and everything she has ever loved is left behind. Under the circumstances at home Rain is sent to live with the wealthy Hudson family. Even though Rain always thought that she didn't fit into the place she was raised, she is also out of place living in the luxury she never had. Attending a prestige's all girls school Rain finds a talent in theater that will soon be her ticket to another new life. V.C. Andrews does a wonderful job of making this novel both sweet and aerie at the same time. She also captures your thoughts and pulls you in, keeping the reader reading and never wanting to put the book down. I really enjoyed this book and have already started reading Andres second. Also, she demonstrates well the differences of the two lives styles that Rain lives. I think this is open to anyone who likes mystery and love. This book will defiantly appeal to a young audience considering that Rain is a young girl who you watch grow up. I thought this was a great book and I am looking forward to reading all five.