While the author has some good ideas for start-up businesses, she is behind the times. Keep in mind it was most recently published 6 years ago. Read it to get ideas, but don't count on it to reflect current trends. According to the author, typing, word processing, old school computer languages, and pagers are all in hot demand.

I saw that the first two reviews listed here are for the old edition of this book! The new edition, just released last month, is completely updated. Here are just some examples covering virtually every established and emerging field, including the Internet: Internet marketing, designing web pages, ecotourism, gourmet food shop or producer, take-out restaurateur, adult day services provider, play gym operator, home health care provider, personal chef, dating service provider, B&B innkeeper, craft wholesaler, "whodunit" producer, party planner, and the list goes on and on. Each entry gives a complete behind the scenes look and relays success stories from real entrepreneurs, with verbatim comments and must-know secrets about every aspect of running the business. The introductory chapter gives you all the nuts and bolts information about how to succeed as an entrepreneur with topics like the positive character traits of entrepreneurs, and info about generating capital, business plans, finding lawyers and bookkeepers and bankers, marketing, working from home, finding and keeping employees, and more.

lots of fresh item

Kahn's 'Ruby, the Rabbi's Wife'(well, widow) series is a delight! All four mysteries are vehicles for Kahn's wicked sense of humor and sharp descriptions of the Jewish community, and they are plotted simply and entertainingly. In "Kill the Lox", Essie Sue (the Jewish princess)is planning a bar mitzvah for the terrorist twins. Kevin Kapstein, the fumbling and pompous rabbi, stumbles through the plot as well, lurching along behind Essie Sue as they plan the largest celebration Eternal, Texas has ever seen in the Temple Rita.

Plans go astray when Herman, the master lox cutter, is found sliced by his own knife, and Ruby is off on another mystery--one which takes her to Alaska and to New York. She solves the crime--actually, two crimes--with the help of the two men in her love life and her best friend and e-mail correspondent, Nan.

It's all much fun and entertainment. I do hope Sharon Kahn is hard at work on the next installment in this series!

In Eternal, Texas, Essie Sue Margolis persuades Ruby, the widow of the former rabbi, and the current rabbi Kevin Kapstein to host a Bar Mitzvah at Temple Rita for her two "lovable" third cousins, Larry and Lester Levee. Very quickly, Ruby and company find the two "terrible twelve" year olds to be monsters of the first order. However, with Essie masterminding the ceremony, the Bar Mitzvah should prove to be the social event of the season for the small congregation. To add luster, lox cutter grandmaster Herman Guenther will perform his miracle dicing and slicing.

Herman fails to show up at a meeting with Essie and Ruby so the two ladies journey to his home only to find the grandmaster murdered. While Essie bemoans the impact on the twin's Bar Mitzvah, Ruby investigates by back trailing where Herman has been to include Alaska and New Jersey. Ruby finds herself up to her gefilte fish in a lox conspiracy that dates back to the Nazi occupation of Denmark.

HOLD THE CREAM CHEESE, KILL THE LOX is an amusing cozy that provides the audience insight into pre-Bar Mitzvah training. The story line is humorous because of the actions of Essie groaning over the murder's impact on the Bar Mitzvah and the havoc caused by the non-mench twins. Though why Ruby and Essie gallivant to Alaska and New Jersey to solve the homicide seems weak, the motivation for murder is fun to follow. Sharon Kahn serves up a taste of Jewish American life with a few kibbutz to nosh on inside a cozy that is clearly not chopped liver.

Harriet Klausner

Kacy, a sixth grade, usually does not succeed in school. Then she comes up with a science project that gets her interested. She wants to send a plant into space. Kacy has to fight to succeed, but finially she gets NASA to do it. Little did she know her plant would change her life forever.

It is unusual to think of a murder-mystery as fun, but this one is. Ruby is actually the widow of the rabbi of the local, small Jewish community in Eternal, Texas. She cannot abide by the temple board politics, but becomes embroiled in a local murder with links to New York. (Very unseemly for a rabbi's wife. . .) This was a very enjoyable read, and I look forward to the subsequent "episodes."

To be honest, I picked up this book because of the title. I've always had this thing for bagels and the totally twisted title caught my eye. And would you believe, I ended up not only loving the book, but also Ruby Rothman, the rabbi's widow. (Can't figure out why everyone calls her the rabbi's wife since he was killed by a hit and run driver some time ago. Maybe it's a Jewish thing.)

Anyway, widowed Ruby is a computer consultant in Eternal, Texas where the place to go for bagels is The Hot Bagel owned by Lebanese Milt Aboud. While waiting for her weekly bagels Ruby witnesses the death by cinnamon cyadide bagel of a member of her temple's congregation. Naturally, everyone but Ruby thinks Milt did it and she sets out to prove he didn't .

Until she does, you get to enjoy the cowboy-booted congregation of the Temple Rita (Don't ask!), the overly opinionated new-rabbi-to-be (Don't call me Kevin, call me Rabbi Kapstein) who would like to turn ex-rabbi's wife Ruby back into a rabbi's wife and Essie Sue Margolis Temple Rita's self-appointed everything who wants to erect a statue of her murdered sister on the temple steps in the guise of Queen Esther.

Even though I uncovered the identity of the murderer long before Rudy, I thoroughly enjoyed this book. The not very subtle but totally funny combination of the Jewish and Texas cultures is to die for. Try it, I'm sure you'll like it. I'm actually ordering Ruby's next two adventures right now!

This is an excellent first book. It combines unique characters with enough plot twists to keep the reader turning the pages. The heroine, widow of a rabbi, is appealing, spunky, and funny. The villain takes somewhat of a back seat to two other characters - one is the new rabbi who must be met to be believed and the temple "fixer"-in this case a woman who is a steamroller in human form. I hope Ms. Kahn returns to Eternal, Texas, and her delightful Ruby, the Rabbi's Wife, in many books to come.

Silly plot, unlikable characters,lame humor all add up to a not very entertaining mystery. When your main character (Ruby, the Rabbi's widow) doesn't hold your interest, you know a mystery is in trouble. The characters are just caricatures and stereotypes. The story is so farfetched. This is definitely not worth buying. If you must, check it out at the library and save a few bucks. Or better yet, read something by Selma Eichler.

I'm Jewish and I'm from Texas so, I should like this book, right? WRONG! None of these characters is likeable and that includes Ruby, the Rabbi's wife. Since she's the character at the center of this story, that makes it difficult. She's nosy, pushy, snide, and sneaky. That's just SOME of her good qualities. Her friends are even worse. The "mystery" is far-fetched. The blurb on the book's cover is very appealing. It's a shame the book isn't as good as its cover.

Fast, light reading, but not up to her earlier effort, "Fax Me A Bagel". The characters are not as well drawn, almost cartoonish in fact. The emails to friend, Nan, are pointless here, unlike the key roll played in "Fax Me.." Ruby, herself, comes across as less likeable here, and you have to like her to like these books since she is the narrator. Still, this series is a fresh approach to murder mysteries, so "Nosh" gets one additional star for that. Let's hope for a better effort from Sharon next time.