Eve Elliot fled the Manhattan rat race to join her Aunt Lillian Weber's Magothy, Maryland real estate firm. The former ad exec expected a gentler, more restful lifestyle. However, she appears in court accompanied by her aunt to try to stop their neighbor Carl Rainey from building a huge house on the next property, blocking their view of Chesapeake Bay. Environmental filmmaker and active green panther Lauren DeWitt proves that the zoning laws disallow the building of a new house at that site. A defeated Carl threatens the individuals who thwart his efforts.

Soon someone murders Lauren and sets Lillian's dock on fire. Eve and Lillian wonder will happen next as the war between the tree huggers and the tree cutters heats up with the two women caught in the middle. Eve decides to investigate the murder before she and her relative become statistics too.

DEAD MAN'S FINGERS is a pleasant amateur sleuth tale that centers on the conflict between development and environment, especially at a coastal community. The who-done-it lacks the pizzazz of the two previous tales in the series (see FINAL CLOSING and DEATH IN STILL WATERS). Still, the story line contains a fresh look at a pressing issue. Eve and the support cast are fun characters who add to the enjoyable tale. Barbara Lee adeptly brings the Chesapeake Bay region and its environmental conflict to an understandable, entertaining and thought provoking novel.

Harriet Klausner

Though several years old now (1993), this book is still full of valid, easy-to-read information about every possible aspect of pregnancy. It is set up in such a way that if you are looking just for info on a specific subject, you can turn right to it. There is alot of info here that you will not find anywhere else, like why patterned breathing is not necessarily the best way to breathe during labor, or what the Bible has to say about pain in childbirth (you'd be surprised!)

Oh yeah...another winner by regis and kathie lee. This book is a good addition to your bookshelf if you're keen on entertaining, giving parties, or just looking for holiday tips. While most of their books are good, I foud this especially helpful since it even covered holidays and parties. I came across many new and different ideas, not to mention ones that are economical and REALLY REALLY useful. If you've read all there is to read on this subject, then this book is just another one of them, but if not, then this is a definite addition to your bookshelf. But either way, this book is also a lot of fun,so you'll want to read it anyway.

While I certainly cannot agree that this book, or its principal subject, Robert Hale, present anything close to "one of the best demolitions" of laissez-faire, this book is quite intriguing; and I think that anyone who is in the business of defending the concepts of laissez-faire or present-day libertarianism would do well to ponder upon Hale's arguments. This is not to say that a full understanding of Hale is essential (it may even be stretching it to say useful) for a complete defense of laissez-faire, but he certainly does present an intellectual and philisophical challenge for it's adherants. Fried does an excellent job of documenting and reiterating Hale's approach to legal theory and the early 20th century thought underlying it - but in the end, we are really only left with Hale's analysis which, while intriguing and ingenious, is little more than an intellectual puzzle the ramifications of which even Fried (an evident admirer) expresses some skepticism.

Hale's attempts to defeat the concept of laissez-faire (linguistically) put him in the position of beating up on traditionalists like Thomas Nixon Carver, without giving us any practical reason as to why they were right or wrong. Even if we were to take Hale's central argument as correct, (he essentially contests the idea of a minimalist state as conceptually incoherent) Hale gives litte to no insight as to why the "coercion" he advocates is preferable to the "coercion" of the marketplace. Only once in Fried's book is the antithesis of Hale, Frederich Hayek, mentioned - whose defense of laissez-faire was primarily based on it's efficiency in conveying vast amounts of interspresed and fragmented knowledge as to the opportunity costs of goods and labor, and contantly changing values and preferences throughout complex societies. Yet it is this argument which is (by far) more central to the debate about laissez-faire - and this argument which Hale essentially ignores - preferring instead to defeat classic liberals on their choice of terms. Even if he were right, Hale gets us absoultely nowhere; not to mention, as does Fried, that Hale's expansive notion of "coercion" to include any form of human conduct tends to embarrass the idea of free speech or the civil rights movement - of which his progressive counterparts have been so active in protecting.

The book does not only deal with the so-called "empty" ideas of liberty and property, but also extends to Hale's analysis of "suplus value" of property and rate regulation of monopolies. There are problems here as well - but by far the most important are his idea regarding freedom and coercion. Hale is a intellectual challenge, but really nothing more - and while he clearly rejects the conceptions of liberty and property as they were conceived in the Lochner era, he gives us no good reason to do the same; and at times it seemed that even Fried wanted to pop Hale's balloon - but for some reason could never quite bring herself to do it.

Asking for Hale's rebuttal to Hayek is foolish because (a) it is anacronistic and (b) Hale was writing in the field of law, while Hayek was writing in economics. The introduction and an excerpt (which you can see here on Amazon) describe the laissez-faire rhetoric that Hale was refuting.

Hale clearly explains why laissez-faire is wrong about liberty: all property is a grant of unaccountable private power from the state. Thus, it doesn't matter if liberty is infringed by the state retaining the power or private owners abusing the power (as in the cases of monopolies, public utilities, and opposition to unions.) Those were Hale's primary interests throughout his career. And interestingly, they are also precisely places where Hayek's social calculation arguments fail.

Hale (and Fried) don't bother explaining why they thought their alternative was better: the progressive case was being widely made elsewhere at the time. Hale's contribution was to specialize in kicking out the supports of laissez-faire so that progressive arguments could compete fairly with extremist capitalist arguments.

This is an essential book for understanding the major changes in legal theory of the progressive era. The change from classical liberalism to modern progressive liberalism was profound, and required the abolition of a number of myths presumed by law and the judiciary. These myths have since been resurrected by the libertarians, and it is enlightening to see the satisfying reasons why they were rejected so long ago. It's easy to tell how threatened libertarians feel about this by the vehemence of their attacks.

College-level reading, and not for those with short attention spans.

I didn't even read the book,because I found the projects horrible.I gave it to one of my friends who also gave it to somebody else because she found it also horrible.It shows lots of projects from different people,very modern and abstract.Definetely not what I was looking for.Don't get me wrong,I like modern art and I'm very open-minded.I just found it ugly to my taste.I even feel bad of talking like that about someone else's work.I'm sorry,I really hope someone likes it.

It is extremely refreshing to see a volume that showcases serious fiber artists' work - NOT someone who is doing "crafts" (i.e., Sunbonnet Sue or Quilt-in-a-Day). Perhaps that is why the previous reviewer was so disillusioned. I really am stumped by her view that it was "horrible". She claims to be open-minded and liking modern art, but but I'm not sure I would call someone with that attitude "open-minded".

This book shows a broad range of work from nearly 100 artists from the US and Canada. There are profiles of each one, explaining their technique and motives behind the work. The amazing array of images brings traditional needlework to new levels of interest. I find it to be extremely inspiring.

Barbara Lee Smith does a wonderful job weaving art and technique. The book highlights the work of about a dozen needlework artists. In each highlight is a discussion of the art itself, a review of special techniques used, and collection of tips from the artists on a number of topics (e.g., where they get design ideas, how they proceed from paper to canvas). The book is a wonderful introduction to needlework "art" for needleworkers who know the basics and are just beginning to design their own "serious" work. The best methods book I own.

Cider with Rosie existe-t-il en francais

My mother was recently diagnosed, and I bought this book hoping it would be an informative summary of treatment methods, statistics, and coping strategies. Unfortunately, it is not. It contains pretty much the same general information that can be found on the American Cancer Society web site, and I would recommend the National Cancer Institute's PDQ service for much more comprehensive clinical information. Also, my mother's oncologist provided several pamphlets that were just as good or better on treatment side effects and coping strategies. As far as I can tell, this book's main merit is its case studies, all of which have positive outcomes. These may give patients more hope. However, the price of the book is a little steep if that's all one gets from it. I would recommend that patients and families do their own research: it's more empowering, it's free, and the information is better.