I enjoyed HOME IMPROVEMENT by Ms Daly. I enjoyed this even more. Such characters! Love 'em. And the author really has her own style--creative and refreshing. She's a gem. I've already got Duets #34 on order. Any day now, I know I'll be in for another great Daly tale.

i love barbara's books. so what if the plot is a little on the incredible side, i read romance (and barbara) because i want to be transported into another world. her books are happy and fun. if i wanted a dose of reality, i would turn on cnn.

I would never miss a book by Barbara Daly. Great romance and humor...she keeps you reading.

This easy to read, warm, insightful work is an excellent handbook for anyone seeking to find the way to enlightenment. Those who are just beginning to explore the deeper meaning of life, will find Fast Food For The Soul a delicable morsel to consume. It's lessons will help the neophyte by illuminating the path with the simple, powerful, yet practical methods for human evolvement.

I've been studying metaphysics for over 30 years and I found this book a delight to read. Ms.Burgers refreshing presentation of very complicated issues helped me find easier ways to engage others in powerful conversations. Fast Food's approach puts the LIGHT IN ENLIGHTENMENT. I highly recommend it!

This book is one of the best self-empowering books I have ever read! It has completely changed my life. It's easy to read, you can just dive into any chapter you like. The message is clear and simple and everything just makes perfect sence in this profound book. The techniques presented are very effective and easy to do for anyone. I just love it! I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who wants to live the life of good. Thankyou Barbara.....you go girl!

Fast Food for the Soul is my first step into self-help and self-realization books. I reached for this book as I am currently facing some very difficult life challenges. My scepticism regarding this kind of book evaporated at once. Fast Food for The Soul, in a very easy and clear way, explains how the mind works and offers valuable techniques for solving problems. This book provided me with a path to follow to continue my journey of self-exploration. I take Fast Food with me wherever I go. Just a quick glimpse of a significant passage gives me a sense of well-being!

I found this book to be wonderfully uncomplicated, but completely magickal and a great aide in getting to know the Goddess within and without. The meditations vary from longer and detailed, to shorter, open-ended ones that give you a starting point and then let you find your own way. I recommend this book for anyone who wants to get in touch with the Divine Feminine.
Blessed Be!

All Womyn should read these extremely beautiful, empowering and life-affirming meditations.

I've used some of the wonderful "found Goddesses," in spells I've done and it's been quite effective! My favorite is General Terminatrix! Great for banishing rituals!

Barbara Ardinger, Ph.D., a Witch, teacher, and writer, says her newest book, Goddess Meditations, "presents unique meditations created for women and men to use in their efforts to find a place of centeredness and serenity in their lives, both alone and in groups, either in rituals or informally." Although her book is not a how-to for the beginning meditator, Dr. Ardinger does provide some general information on meditation, breathing, and visualization. Her focus is on assisting those who wish to "follow a spiritual path and practice the presence of the Goddess." She says that "Great Goddesses come from every continent and probably every culture." Dr. Ardinger has created special meditations for love, protection, gratitude, trust, community, creativity, spirituality, wisdom, and priestess power. They may be done with or without the use of altars, shrines, or rituals. Those meditators wishing to use altars, shrines, or rituals will find directions for preparing them. Light work meditations are done "while the moon is waxing." Among others, light work meditations include abundance, compassion, blessings, and celebrations. Dark work meditations are not negative--they're meditations done during the waning moon for the purpose of making changes. They include cutting ties, letting go, setting limits, grief, and divination, among others. Each meditation has an introductory section explaining why individuals might need that particular meditation and a discussion of the various goddesses that can provide help and the form that help might take. Readers wishing to honor the sacred feminine will Goddess Meditations to be an excellent resource and guide.

Sandra I. Smith, Reviewer

Beautiful book in every way - the layout, the artwork, the photographs, the research...and the RECIPES. I've made maybe 10 things from this collector's item of a book. But let me talk at some length about the Moraga Pear Pie. It's fantastic - and here's a favor. There's a way to make it even more superlative with a better crust:
In a food processor, put 2 c flour, 3 T. sugar, and 3/4 cup of butter. Blend till mixed and crumbly. Then add 2 egg yolks and blend just till it forms a ball. With your fingertips, press it evenly into an 11 or 12 inch tart pan. Bake for 10 minutes at 325.
Then proceed with the rest of the Moraga Pear Pie recipe - and serve the tart to the Queen. I guarantee she'll ask for the recipe.

This book combines the culinary with hortoculture, and does it in magnificent publishing style which we've come to expect our of TenSpeed Press. The layout, photos and composition are just excellent and great to look at.

It begins with a history of the fruit, from partridge in a pear tree to its intro in the States by Jefferson and its eventual spread along the Pacific Northwest.

This is followed by a most interesting Q & A section on growing pears in the home garden which is excellent, along with sources in the back appendix of the book.

Each of over 50 varieties is illustrated and discussed, followed by perry (pear cider) and a pear in the bottle liquor.

Recipes complete the book. Almost 50 pages of sandwiches, drinks, condiments, desserts, etc. utilizing pear varieties. Especially see the easy but elegant Poire Belle Helene, a poached pear set on ice-cream or yogurt with chocholate topping.

Gorgeous book. For what is more exhaustive, creative recipe collection, see "Pears: A Country Garden Cookbook."

The Great Book Of Pears is for the fan of the pear who wants a guide to varieties - color pictures of pears are supplemented by history, a description of flavors and uses, and a survey of the pear's usefulness in the garden and on the table. Add recipes and you have an appealing, beautiful guide.

Barbara's new book is awesome! Lots of new information and quotes from "real" folks. Reading the first edition encouraged me to change direction in my business and has introduced my handmade glass beads to an entire new buying public on the internet!
Lots of side bar information to explain concepts and thoughts in detail, and lots of humor. It's a book that will go everywhere with you... to be browsed, read and re-read as you grow your home-based business! Every tool you ever need is in this new, 2002 edition!

If you're serious about wanting to turn your crafts into a successful business, you must have this completely new rewritten edition. Barbara has written a "Bible for the entrepreneur!" The book is a bargain that will save you time and money as it leads you through setting goals, developing and pricing your product, into new opportunities and new technologies for marketing your talents. As an author, publisher, and owner of a crafts business, I have found more helpful advice in this new book for all three of my endeavors than in any other resource on my bookself. You won't be sorry you bought "Handmade for Profit".

Barbara has done it again. This new book has every tool you will ever need to run a profitable crafts business. Every aspect is covered from what products to make, legal requirements, record keeping, how to price merchandise, and how and where to market your products. This new edition also includes excellent chapters on selling on the web. A must read for anyone who wants to sell anything! No question is left unanswered!

When I picked up Barbara and Phil Penningroth's book at a local bookstore it was with a mixture of curiosity and disbelief. How could a book about transforming divorce be anything more than new agey, pie in the sky wishful thinking? Then I read it. The story of how Barb and Phil consciously approached the end of their own 25 year marriage, along with the examples they cite of ending rituals from various cultures, inspired me to use a few of their ideas to honor the dissolution of my own ten year relationship. The effect was powerful and, yes, transformative. Thanks to the authors for this down to earth, clear, helpful guide to honoring our most intimate relationships even as they end.

If you ever suspected deep down that there was another way to get through a divorce, A Healing Divorce will make you rejoice that you were right all along. Thank God for people like Phil and Barbara, who think outside of the box and as they reach for their higher selves during their own heart crisis, are willing to take us along. We become partners in their endeavor to heal, not only our actual parting, but by extension the world around us. This book is a reminder of the goodness and the positive inherent in us all which, even in the deepest of heartaches, is waiting to be honored by being tapped. Success transforms us and touches those around us and the universe smiles. Go it alone, with your X, whatever, this book shows us a noble way through the pain which then births a new kind of love and gentleness within your heart.

When I heard of a book dealing with rituals and ceremonies around divorce, I envisioned a feel-good, "we're all okay" kind of sedative. That's not what I found. Instead, Phil and Barbara Penningroth have assembled a comprehensive collection off rituals, services and other tools that real people can use to cope with the real pain of divorce.

Not only do they present several models of divorce services; they also have included comprehensive checklists to help people plan their own rituals and ceremonies and bring them alive in a personal way. Sprinkled throughout are the stories of people who have sued used rituals as part of their healing after divorce, some after tender, cooperative divorces, and some after bitter, rancorous divorces. Each of the stories, however, seems real. Each in its way is instructive.

I was delighted to see that, although the authors obviously have a sharply defined faith, they have lovingly gathered services, traditions, and perspectives from a wide variety of faith traditions. A great example of this is the chapter that explores the question "Is divorce a sin?" with contributions from Christian and Jewish clergy.

What makes this book so powerful is its consistent practicality. This is not a contemplative, introspective tour through someone else's emotional healing. It's a logical, methodical "How-to." As one example, consider the section for people who have a divorcee service on what to consider doing on the one-year anniversary of that service (return to the place, set aside time for quiet meditation, recall favorite moments, celebrate progress, etc.)

Many people will be smart enough to read this book. A few will be so smart they will actually follow the advice in it. They, their children, and all who care about them will be the stronger for it.

This book would seem to be about a woman rebuilding herself after a trauma. It reads like a mystery, compelling the reader to turn page after page, disregarding the hour or their fatigue, to solve the problem. Yet it is understanding the problem that is the mystery.

This is a book about the power of first love, the love that becomes hardwired into the psyche, and is the standard, knowingly or unknowingly, for all loves to follow. Every testosterone ravaged teenaged male should read this to understand the powerful images that they cast on their first loves. If not, then we middle aged men should read it to understand the hole in our heart that we cannot explain. Every woman should read this to realize the grand oneness they seek is there for her. Both will come to understand the need for acceptance and redemption that comes from a powerful, and everlasting, love.

This is a story that will have reverberations that continue long after the book has been read. Expect great things from this writer of admirable sensitivity and wit.

Loved the book, all the characters, and especially great in the "setting" department. Hated the ending for reasons that would spoil it for others. Would be good for book clubs.

This author's second novel is strong, direct, and flows with seeming effortlessness. I often found myself reading sentences over and over because they are so beautiful. The maelstrom where Zoe and Gus are lost is simultaneously frightening and captivating. One can feel the majesty and the crystalline silence of it. The sexuality, to me, is handled just right - deftly, plainly, delicately, originally - very much better than so many other writers.

In short, I highly recommend this book for the quality of the writing, the intelligence of the story, and the sheer pleasure of watching the evolution of a fine writer.

Barbara Reed weaves an absorbing and entertaining mystery around a glamorous and highly talented jazz singer, Liz Hanlon, who finds herself compelled to solve the shocking murder of her cousin.
The story derives much of its authentic feel from the author's own career as an active - and very talented - vocalist and musician. Those of us in that profession will immediately recognize the witty sarcasms that often pepper Liz's exchanges with her band members (and club managers).
Liz is a sometimes feisty yet sensitive character determined to use her resources, intellect and imagination, to see justice done.
It's an engaging story; if that weren't enough, Barbara offers a CD made up of original musical selections which beautifully serve the story line, and which are terrific music in their own right.
Five stars to the book and five stars to theCD!

Barbara Reed is a Los Angeles jazz musician with twenty years of experience. High Notes Are Murder is accompanied by a CD of music containing Barbara Reed's original songs.

Liz Hanlon has a steady gig at a Brogino's Bar & Grille. It is one of thousands of such bars in America, where the beer swills, sweaty bodies dance to some underpaid hapless musician, who strives to make a living in the underworld of music. Liz is smart, funny, and is waiting for her big break, when she is called back to Germaine's West on Melrose Avenue. Germaine's can make or break a musician's career, and Liz spent one glorious week performing there with her crack band, but was never called back. Tony Perdusian is a famous booking agent who managed many successful musicians in the 1970's and offers Liz a breakthrough gig at Germaine's. At the same time, Liz's cousin Gina, beautiful femme fatale, surfaces as Tony's latest squeeze.

But Liz has been receiving creepy notes from a stalker. When she finds her cousin Gina dead, her big break starts evaporating before her eyes. She decides to play private eye with the help of an unlikely but brilliant investigator who worked with her brother when it is apparent that the police aren't going to be of much help:

"'Lieutenant, I can't live in a bubble, especially in my line of work. What are you going to do?' Lt. Wahlberg's reply was crisp. 'We can't baby-sit you. Stay with friends. I can put a squad car in your neighborhood, but we're understaffed.' 'What about the gun permit?' 'You can have a registered gun in your home. A permit to carry is not possible.'"

Barbara Reed does a marvelous job of describing today's music scene. She spins a fascinating and plausible tale around Liz, which puts her squarely in the middle of the action. Liz must come to terms with the past in order to understand what is happening to her and to solve the murder. Liz herself is an alluring and enjoyable character whose wisecracks are hilarious, even in the midst of danger. As a fellow musician, this reviewer can attest to the veracity of Barbara Reed's commentary on the collapse of modern music venues for musicians. She knows of which she speaks. Keep those Liz Hanlon stories coming...they're great!

Shelley Glodowski, Reviewer

Liz Hanlon is one of the most likable and likely mystery book heroine I have ever known. I met the author, Barbara, at a book signing event where she and her band performed as well. Barbara is such an intelligent, nice and charming lady that I almost felt like I met Liz Hanlon in person. And I loved her music! I definitely recommend the soundtrack as well. I cannot wait till the book two comes out so I'm going to read the book one again.

"Hitched for the Holidays" by Jennifer Drew. Mindy Ryder needs a beau rather quickly because her father is coming from Pittsburgh to spend the holidays with her and her doctor boyfriend. If her dad learns that Mindy is not even dating anyone he will make her his project. Her Corgi's vet Eric Kincaid commiserates with her because his mother is always scheming to get him married and agrees to masquerade as her boyfriend human doctor. His mother gets wind of Mindy and with her father places pressure on the two of them to marry even as they begin to fall in love with one another. Though interfering parents and pretend dating has been often used as plot devices, Jennifer Drew draws an amusing romantic romp.

"A Groom in Her Stocking" by Barbara Dunlop. Lindsey Parker becomes the first person in fifteen years in the Vancouver office to achieve Gold Merit Certification. However, as her professional career attains stratospheric status and potential partnership, her personal life is lower than Death Valley having not dated in what seems forever. She goes away for the holidays only to have Aunt Camellia, known for her accurate forecasting, predict Lindsey will become engaged to Bobby. However, though she goes through a wedding rehearsal with Bobby the bartender, she loves pilot RJ Webster, who believes he is not good enough for her. The secondary characters seem to come out of Northern Exposure as they turn an implausible tale into a humorous romp.

Both tales provide romantic comedy as Ms. Drew and Ms Dunlop deliver delightfully delicious Christmas cheer.

Harriet Klausner

Mindy Ryder organizes lives for a living...but she can't seem to manage her own. She's been caught in a whooper of a lie. She's told her father she's dating a doctor, and now Dad's arriving for the holidays. What's a girl to do? She asks her vet, Eric Kincaid to play the role. Little did Eric know it would be a role of a lifetime, with a woman he could spend a lifetime with...if they can survive the holidays!

Jennifer Drew tells a fantastic story that will brighten your holiday and lighten your heart!

Lindsay Parker's fortune's been told. She's going to marry Robert. Unfortunately, Bobby's a creep who turns her stomach. And speaking of stomachs, she seems to have butterflies in hers every time RJ Webster's around. So how's a girl supposed to fight her destiny?

Barbara Dunlop tells a fun story that will keep you laughing as the jingle bells rock!