Sigmund Brouwer's The Little Spider is a wonderful picturebook retelling the classic Christian folktale about the animals who lived in the stable when the baby Jesus was born on a cold winter's night. Here youngsters will encounter a fickle mouse, an easily distracted cat, a fearful dog, and a loyal donkey. But it is with the lowly spider that they learn that even the smallest gift, given in love, will never be forgotten. The accompanying CD offers a multi-cast dramatization of the story, enhanced with "What Can I Give?" an original song written and performed by Cindy Morgan. The Little Spider is a story for the season, with a message that will be enjoyed and appreciated the whole year round.

when you're in the mood for some short whistful escapist romantic stories in a celtic setting, pick up this one. good for a rainy sunday afternoon.

Wonderful stories of magic, romance, and irish lore. If you like to curl up at night with a short story, this is a great book for you. I was delighted with this book and with Irish Magic II.

This book will not appeal to everyone and is reviewed in the context of the intended audience. It is a collection of four novelettes by master storytellers. The first story, "Galway Bay" by Morgan Llywelan, is a change of pace for readers familiar with her full length historical novels. It is set in modern times, and concerns a part-Irish woman on vacation in Galway, Ireland, who encounters the underlying realities of Irish folklore and discovers romance in an unexpected place. The second story, "The Harpers's Daughter" by Barbara Samuel, is set in ancient Ireland and concerns Deirdre, destined to be the bride of a king, but she loves another. Expressed in Deirdre's thoughts (about other women in the king's court), "One of them, one day, would have the warrior who'd snared her heart, while she would lie with the fat, old king. It wasn't fair." Deirdre is cursed with extraordinary beauty that creates uncontrolled lust in the minds of any men who see her. Can she find a refuge with the man she loves, and will magic protect them? The third and fourth stories deal with connections to the spirit world in an ancient Irish setting. The third, "The Trysting Hour" by Susan Wiggs, is about a spirit that can assume a mortal man's shape, and who desires a woman meant to be a king's wife. Can he win her hand while he prevents the king from consumating the marriage? And is she really an ordinary mortal woman? The fourth, "Rarer than a White Crow" by Roberta Gellis, has a man placed under a spell by a shape-changing witch with her own agenda (which can only be guessed at). People are at an interface between the spirit world and the mortal world. Angus must win the hand of Caer and love her til the end of her days in order to be free from the spell, but that is easier said than done. Can they thwart the real agenda of the witch? The book contains explicit sex and violence. It is an excellent set of stories for those interested in this type of fantasy romance.

This is my 5th set of cards and my favorite when doing readings. Its very easy to understand you dont have to focus on the pictures a long time to try to understand its meanings.
The colors are VERY nice. It has an old look to it and the cards are beautiful. This deck is good for beginners or the advanced. This is the deck I would recommend to everyone.

It's difficult to reccommend a tarot deck because everyone is different, and has their own preferences. However, I have 3 other tarot decks, and this one, I am drawn to the most when I do readings. For me, a certain powerful energy is released when I use the deck. The colours on the cards are dark, and not as bright as the Rider-Waite deck. That did take some time to get used to. The book that comes with the deck is a good resource, but is skimpy on some interpretations on the readings. The back of the cards are blue, with white stars. In all, it's an excellent deck, at least in my opinion. If you bought it, I don't feel you would be disappointed.

This is the only deck I actually use. It is based on the symbology of the Rider Waite deck (the standard of 20th century tarot), but it is easier to read. The pictures are wonderful. I recommend it very highly

A good anthology, but flawed by "The Bodyguard," which seemed cobbled together, and suffers from an absolutely terrible ending that had my mouth falling open in disbelief. Not what I expect from the series, at all!
"An Act of Love" is entertaining and steamy, a good contemporary romance that apparently picks up a character from a previous volume. Made me want to get the original!
"Enslaved" was OK, but the heroine annoyed me, which wrecked the story. That's more personal bias than any fault of the author - I need a really strong female protagonist in period romances.
"The Love Slave" was AMAZING, the best story I've read in the Secrets anthologies. I read it twice through in two sittings. The sci-fi premise is similar to another novel I read by a different author but the characterization and romance are so much stronger I found myself thinking, "This is the book the other author was trying to write." Terrible, I know, but honest!
Steamy, steamy, hot erotica - heart-tugging romance - Emma Holly is my new hero. lol I'd recommend this volume on the strength of this one story alone.

Anyone who had read the Black Lace books will recognize Emma Holly's name. She is one of the best writers of erotica that I've come across. On my quest to collect everything ever written by her, I found Secrets vol. 4. Let me say that I was pleasantly surprised by the other stories in this collection.

Each story is based on a romantic premise, so readers of romance novels will enjoy this book. The "steam" factor has been pumped up, so readers who don't like graphic love scenes should avoid these stories. However, people looking for one-handed reading would do well to remember that these stories have PLOTS. That said, I enjoyed every one - but especially Emma Holly's.

Others have done a wonderful job reviewing the contents of this book, so I won't rehash. This review is just to emphasize how much you will NOT regret purchasing Secrets vol. 4. :-)

Romance Comm says, "In ENSLAVED Lindsey adds a unique twist to a classic plot creating a passionate story of love lost and found. Her characters live and breathe in this appealing tale producing a powerful impact not soon forgotten. Exquisite, erotic love scenes sear the senses. ENSLAVED will take your breath away. Hot! Hot! Hot! ~

I picked this book up on a whim at a book fair. I was enormously lucky to find four such gifted story tellers together in one book. This book is a must for those who love the Ireland of yore. This was one of those books I read cover to cover in one sitting. After each story, I was worried that the next would be a disappointment, but that never happened. These tales weave together to give you a sense of Irish Magick as its best.

Wonderful stories of magic, romance, and irish lore. If you like to curl up at night with a short story, this is a great book for you. I was delighted with this book and with Irish Magic.

The introduction to this book is as interesting as the book itself. Anna Leonowens remains a controversial character. The truth of her stories is questionable, her own biographical information may have been selectively edited or changed to reflect a more genteel background than Anna really had. Was she, in fact, an Anglo-Indian? Much scandal surrounds her still.

This book is the source, along with her other book The English Governess at the Siamese Court, for Margaret Landon's better known work Anna and the King of Siam. This book has the story of Tuptim, the concubine who was executed for running away, disguised as a priest. It is written in a typically Victorian elaborate style, so can be heavy going for some people. However, if you are curious about Anna herself, this is a must-read.

Mrs. Leonowens is a fine writer. Though most of here stories have been debated whether they were true or not, it reads as a good book if not a historical novel. Ms. Morgan gives a lot of backround to the author and book and unviels an amazing truth about Anna Leonowens. I like the book because it was like a small door to the world of yesterday that is dead with only a faint memory behind. I also like storiesof history.The book is heavy like most Victorian novels I've read. It takes longer than most but worth the effort. In this copy we see a picture of Anna Leonowens herself. If you enjoyed this you ought to read Anna and the King of Siam.

This book is good, not great. Its to small and many of the illistrations are too small,and hard to see. But for the money its worth it. They have many other books that are a bit better than this one. Here is one that is very good 'Masterpieces of the J.Paul Getty Museum Illuminated Manuscripts'. This book is awesome with easy to read text and wonderful pictures. Happy Reading.

This is one of my favorite illumination books. Being a practicing illuminator, I need photos much more than I need lengthy discussions, historical analyses, elaborate provenance notes, etc. They have to be color photos and they have to be large enough, and at a high enough resolution, that I can learn something from them--and maybe even copy an initial, a diapering pattern, a bit of the border, or more.

This book satisfies all these criteria. In fact, the only thing I dislike about this book is the fact that it's so small, it's really hard to keep open while I paint from it. REALLY hard, because if you get large and heavy enough items to hold both sides down, inevitably the items obscure parts of the page you are painting from!

Its size can be an advantage, though. I purchased this at the National Gallery in Washington, on a midday jaunt during a conference, then went back for the next conference presentation. When the speaker turned out to be droningly boring, I brought out this tiny book and paged through it inconspicuously under the table. Could I have done that with Janet Backhouse's monumental work? I think not...;)

The selections are wonderful, and they're usefully broken down into sections based on content--excellent when you need to find a quick animal or floral image for a border, a rendering of a king or queen, or a picture of a dragon or other supernatural being. Not so excellent when you need to find an example of, say, a late 1400's eastern French book of hours (there are many, just not in any kind of chronological or geographical order). But then, there are other resources that do that. This book is interesting for its variety, its excellent reproductions, and its well-selected and unusual miniatures.

Excellent reproduction of a number of styles, with reasonable commentary. Very valuable for me as a newbie, to provide a sense of medieval style and composition. The size is at once very handy and very frustrating.

Well, now I know why Ffiona Morgan had to start her own publishing company to get this book out on the market. It's a total mess, not to mention the shoddiest editing job I've seen in my life. Within the first few pages, I saw numerous errors--simple typos that should have been caught by even the laziest editor.

Oh, and did I mention that Ms. Morgan can't write? Yeah . . . grammatical errors all over the place. Not to mention sentences that simply didn't make sense at times.

Some of the stuff in the book is nice, like the poetry and artwork, but you have to wade through so much b.s. to find the tiniest bit of useful information. Some of her goddess correspondences were also way off. Her knowledge of mythology leaves much to be desired. It was also SO annoying that she kept on changing the way she spelled 'woman'--womyn, wimmin, womon, wombon, wemoon. If you want to alter the spelling to drop the 'man' association, fine, but choose ONE way to alter it. Not five. It gets on peoples' nerves.

Anyway, if you're looking into Dianic Wicca, please read something by Shekhinah Mountainwater or Diane Stein instead.

This is a great book. The chapter on the Wheel of the year is the best I have ever read regarding the Dianic tradition. Other books just describe how they celebrate it but she describes the theme of each Holyday, exapmles of Goddesses to go with that theme and why. The way she put it makes it easy for you to design your own Wheel of the year. The chapter on Lunar Magic is also great. The only complaint I have is that she listed Oya as a Maiden when actually she is a Crone.

this, text culled from Daughters of the Moon's independently-published tome Wild Witches Don't Get The Blues, is a great collection of information on Dianic Feminist Witchcraft for those already acquainted with the practices. The information on the sabbats, with beautiful rituals included, is worth the price of the book itself. Illustrated throughout with images from the breathtaking Daughters of the Moon and Book of Aradia tarot decks. There is a lack of clear information about the basics of Wicca in this text, but highly reccomended to those already knowledgable about the craft of the Goddess.

Lewis' book is a history and theory of the law of sexual harassment in education. The area has grown since the publication of this seminal work.

...

Since the Lewis book was published Title VII (and state human right acts) remains the cause of action for employees and Title IX has become the cause of action for students.

The book deserves an update.

I just got back from a month in Mexico. The book was probably quite impressive back in the early 90's. However, many of the hotels and restaurants listed in the book have gotten so much business that they have lost what good attributes they originally had. Also, many of the prices quoted in the book were way off. The book prices were frequently one-half what the concierge or waiter quoted. The peso has not changed enough for a 5 dollar hotel room to become 12 or 15. Perhaps that is the risk one finds with any guidebook.

Museum hours were consistently incorrect, especially for Mondays, weekends and evenings.

This book might keep you out of trouble, but it is not the guide for a budget traveler.

Lonely planet guides are absolutely invaluable for the independant adventurous budget-minded traveler, and LP Mexico is no exception. Included are informative sections on pre-departure info, cultural tips, etc. I travelled extensively throughout Mexico with the 5th edition last year, and it really got me to explore some of the remote places I otherwise wouldn't have found- such as the silver towns of Guanajuato, Zacatecas and Taxco. Plus, out of the way beaches, hard-to-find ruins, centotes, you name it. They're covered. Don't borrow you'r friend's old dog-eared copy of the 3rd of 4th edition. Spend the money on the latest edition, because price info is almost always out of date within months after printing, and an older edition is usually hopelessly out of date. I found myself disregarding their accommodations recommendations, because once a place finds its way into the LP Guide, their visitor traffic usually increases exponentially, the staff gets surly, and prices go up. If you're just going to Cancun, Mazatlan, etc, skip this book, but if you're not afraid to venture out into the 'real mexico', grab it.

I have just returned to Norway after backpacking around in Latin America for a year (of course accompanied by the Lonely Planet book). I do not claim to be an expert, but I do know what I am looking for in a travel guide.

The Mexico guide is a good, complete guide. Filled with information, history and beautiful pictures about almost every corner of this gorgeous country. Reading the whole book gives you a good update on your history and geography knowledge! (Something to do if you are trekking around by bus like I did!)

I have always been satisfied with the LP guides. The information given is good, just what you need to get around. The only negative with this book (and the reason I give it 4 and not 5 stars) is that it was completely outdated on prices etc. Another thing (that goes for most of the travel guides) is that many of the hotels that are listed in the book has gotten so much (too much?) business so that the service is down to a minimum. This we found especially in Isla Mujeres where the price was the double of what the book said, and really lousy customer service, if any.