If you've reached the stage in your garden education where you're a Master Gardener or the self-taught equivalent, you will be ready for "A Garden of One's Own" by Elizabeth Lawrence (1904-85). Ms Lawrence was a landscape architect, botanist, horticulturist, and garden writer who lived and worked in North Carolina. The editors, Scott and Ward have compliled and distilled her writings from many sources (magazines, letters, plant society bulletins) into a useful resource.

Although "A Garden of One's Own" contains a section dedicated to gardeners in the Middle South as well as a nice essay on William Lanier Hunt, it is not just for those living in the Piedmont area of North Carolina. The book is filled with information Ms Lawrence exchanged with plant collectors and gardeners as far away as the northwest coast of the U.S. Many plants that grow well in the Piedmont area of North Carolina can also be viable futher north, in the upper South, and in various higher altitude areas on the Pacific coast. As Ms Lawrence says, the growing zones extend across the country.

I have always found Ms Lawrence's exchanges with folks in Ohio (colder), Missippi (hotter), and other parts of the country quite informative. I do believe she must have been one of the first writers to educate the lay public about the effects of climate and growing conditions on garden plants. As every frustrated rosarian knows, one simply cannot grow everything everywhere. Ms Lawrence informed her readers by sharing the thoughts, concerns, and experinces of her correspondants about some plant, say ground phlox, and well as her own thoughts and experiences concerning the same plant.

Because Ms Lawrence was a botanist, she preferred the Latin names of plants, and always used them in her writing. She included the local coloquial names too -- and on hearing them you understand why the Latin terminology is indespensible. I have find her approach extremely helpful because plants often have dozens of local names, but the Latin identification allows me to know exactly what she's discussing and find it in Hortus. Also, the editors have added footnotes where necessary to update the Latin terminology.

Ms Lawrence loved 'Rock Gardening' and I found the sections addressing this topic most illiminating. She contrasts the mountainous origins of plants growing on rocks, with the efforts of gardeners in the flatlands to build "mountain-like" gardens. You can build a rock garden anywhere, you just have to think about what you're doing, use flora that will survive in your microcosm, and select plants that will not overtake a bed or dwarf other plants with outsized proportions.

On a business trip a few years ago, I visited the Denver Botanical Garden--with the goal of viewing the Alpine Rock Gardens. It was April, the sky was blue and the weather unseasonably warm (70 degrees). Lilacs were in bloom along with hundreds of bulbs, but the thing I will remember the longest are the wonderful Alpine rock gardens. I spent the whole day wandering from plot to plot, and don't recall ever having felt any happier. There are little bits of heaven on earth and the Denver Botanical Garden is one of them.

The book is compact in its format, but as an index it gives very useful information about the individuals listed in this census in North Carolina. In the forward she gives some guidelines for deciphering the manner in which names were spelled. Individuals' names are arranged alphabetically with an indication of the county they appeared in and the number of their household in that county. Names are spelled as they appeared in the census with occasional cross references to alternate spellings of surnames in parentheses. There is no indication of the ages of individuals. There are two tables in the book listing county names, abbreviations for county names used in the text, and the census microfilm roll number corresponding to each county's full census text. The first page of the book has a map of North Carolina's county boundaries as they appeared at the time of the census. This book is a very handy quick reference to the 1810 North Carolina census. I use it quite often in my own genealogical research.

"Remember the Alibi" takes place in a small North Carolina town, where Peaches Dann, the 55-year-old absent-minded sleuth in this series, is trying to solve a potential murder mystery involving her rich, willful father. After somebody poisons his tea with digitoxin, Peaches believes her father is the next target of a con artist who swindles elderly people out of their money and then conceals their murder as a suicide. The suspects range from her young cousin's current and past boyfriends to a few of her father's round-the-clock nurses. With the help of Ted Holleran, Peaches' 64-year-old husband/sidekick, and a few other characters from the previous book ("Who Killed What's-Her-Name?")--such as "Mustache" (aka Lieutenant John Wilson) who helped solve the previous murder case--, Peaches hopes to uncover the serial killer's identity before s/he has a chance to kill again.

Overall, I thought "Remember the Alibi" was quite good, except for the continuous mention of Peaches' memory book, the one she's in the process of writing: "How to Survive Without a Memory". That slowed the book's pace a bit, though some of the memory tricks were interesting. Still, I thought Peaches was a wonderful female detective--witty, resourceful, and intelligent--even though she was a bit forgetful. I'd certainly recommend this book/series to anyone who likes mysteries solved by quirky, older amateur sleuths.

I enjoyed this coloring book. It contains more than 40 detailed drawings of animals, with some surrounding habitat approprite to the animal. Information about each animal is given at the bottom of the page and colored versions of each drawing are included inside the cover for reference. I wouldn't recommend it for small children as the pictures are detailed. It would be perfect for the 8-12 age group. It would also need more information for each animal to be a used solely as an educational tool. For pure pleasure coloring, or as an artists reference it is quite good.

I did not use this book while teaching my child to read. This book requires the child and the teacher to learn a complex system of notation. More than just learning the different sounds letters can make together, this book requires you to number, actually write out and memorize a number, for each letter than can be sounded out in more than one way. So the words you learn to write, spell, and read are diagramed with numbers. It's very complex. I would not even attempt to teach my child using this system. It seems very frustrating. This program also requires the child to be able to write everything that is to be read. My child is beginning to read well and enjoys practicing writing, but he is not required to write the word before he can progress in his reading. I recommend instead Phonics Pathways by Dolores Hiskes and the excellent starter books by Nora Gaydos in the Now I'm Reading series.

We have tried several reading programs, but this is by far the best. Your child will learn handwriting, phonics, spelling, and most of all, reading! After just a few months of using the program my children's reading took off. My first grader can read on a fourth grade level, and my third grader can read on a sixth grade level. Do not confuse this all new book with its predecessor (4th edition). This book is twice the size of the old version and includes step by step instructions for implementing the program as intended by its creator, Romalda Spalding. You can't beat the price either. Other guide books exist to use with the WRTR, but it would be a waste of your money to purchase them. Stick with the original and best! I can't say enough good things about this program. If you're looking for an effective and lasting program to teach your children to read (and spell and write), do yourself a favor and purchase The Writing Road to Reading.

I strongly recommend the Writing Road to Reading (5th edition). It is a godsend for anyone helping a non reader of any age. It is a tremendous asset to home schooling parents. The Writing Road to Reading is a total Language Arts program. The 5th edition has simple instructions for implemetation. There isn't another Language Arts program on the market which is as comprehensive. The Writing Road to Reading begins with the fundamentals of handwriting and phonics and proceeds through spelling, grammar, reading and comprehension. It is modestly priced. The simple paper back book will serve generations. For those who want to understand the reasoning behind the instruction, there is great chapter on current research (Chapter 4-Theoretical Foundations).

There are over a thousand good hiking trails in North Carolina (Allen de Hart's "North Carolina Hiking Trails" describes 968 of them), yet this book only covers fifty. And much of the material simply quotes from trailside signs or visitor information pamphlets that you'll see anyway when you hike the trails. On the positive side, the book contains reproductions of topo maps for each hike listed, so casual day hikers can save themselves the trouble of buying topos. Unless you need the topo maps, Randy Johnson's "Hiking North Carolina" is a much better bet.

Found this book in B&B in Blowing Rock. It was a great help in planning our hikes. We had limited time, and it helped us find the best entry point, and to know, for example, that hiking to the top of Grandfather Mtn. was beyond our time and experience limits. That saved us $20 and no telling how much grief!

Good maps, good descriptions. Definitely will buy if plans to move to NC from Houston pan out.

Storm Brewed in Other Men's worlds is quite a book. It is breathtaking in both size and scope, but it is not necessarily well written. In fact, it often strays far from its goal as a history of the early southwestern U.S. for the layman. The author did a ton of research with particular emphasis on Spanish archives, and the oral tradition of the Comanche, Pueblo, and Apache tribes. It chronicles just about everything that ever happened in the Spanish administration of the southwest, including all of the governors and other administrators. Yet all the exciting stuff going on is buried in the minutuia the author inists on using. Bottom line: this one is for academics only.

The famous Mexican writer, Carlos Fuentes, said, in effect, that the Hispanic world did not come to America, America came to the Hispanic world. No book reveals this with more clarity and accuracey that this one. It represents 400 years of history of what is now the American Southwest. The author writes with the dramatic eloquence of a seasoned novelist creating a history book that is, of all things, a "page turner." It reveals epics, sagas, villans, and both noted and anonymous heroes. It is a shame so many of our educational systems do not teach this history becasue it is the story of millions of Amerians and fully one-third of United States territory. If anyone has ever looked at a map and wondered why so many mountains, cities, villages, rivers, plains, states, and people have Native American or Spanish names, this book will answer those questions and more, it will help them appreciate Mr. Fuentes' insight.

Not half as good as it should have been. The comparison to Jeanette Winterson was based solely on the fantastical ideas and symbols she had going (angels, &c.) but had none of the prose that makes Winterson great! This was straight plot. Winterson's excellence is not only her fuzzy line between metaphor and reality, but that her prose is rich with metaphor, is so flowing and beautiful. This had no beauty; it was just hacked-out plot. There was so much symbolic potential, none of which was explored. I'm very disappointed. Also, the whole issue of lesbianism was treated rather oddly--it didn't add anything to the book--nor did it detract, but it seemed like just a gimmick.

I can see where the previous reviewers had problems with Brownrigg's style. It could've definitely been elaborated upon in places, but I found her magical-realism style rather invigorating. The book of entwined stories, for me, was about trying to let go and find one's creative self again, as well as finding love. It reminded me in places of Persimmon Blackbridge's "Prozac Highway" and Erika Lopez's "Flaming Iguanas".

Wonderful novel! The intertwined stories kept me from putting the book down. My favorite characters were the artist who made scenes in boxes, and the working class millworker but the entire novel is full of surprises and thoroughly entertaining.

This book is at the emotional level of a third grader. There is no concept of suspense, realistic events, or realistic characters. The plot moves like molasses and Peaches Dann speaks to us as if she has no faults (besides her cutesy memory problem). There is no emotion in this story whatsoever. Someone killed my aunt, and is trying to kill me? I'm not going to show any emotion or hide out. I'm going to be stupid and hang around investigating! My latest amazement comes from the fact that it ships in 24 hours from amazon - while reading it, I was somewhat amazed that it was ever published. To sum up, the bright spots of the book were a cat and uhh, the other cat.

Peaches Dann is used to her father's paranoid outbursts, so she only goes out to check the pond to humor him. Much to her dismay, she finds that her father was right this time. Her Aunt Nancy's body is lying face down in the water. But who could have wanted to kill her aunt? Or was Peaches the intended victim, since she and the victim have similar dresses. Then another murder takes place, in a trap most likely meant for Peaches. What does it all mean? Peaches will have to use every memory trick she's learned over the years to figure this one out.

With a title like this book has, I went in expecting a cozy mystery and was not disappointed in that regard. The book could have been better overall, however. The plot moves along at a slow pace and I really struggled to get into it. While there are several likeable characters, I also found myself irritated by many of them. The references to Peaches' poor memory (which I didn't think was nearly as bad as it was made out to be) and excerpts from her "book" on memory techniques were also overdone.

Peaches is certainly a pleasant character. I'll probably give the author another try to see if she developed as a mystery writer. Not my favorite book read this year, but I've certainly read worse.

I was saddened to read the above review about the late Elizabeth Squire's work. The person obviously doesn't like cozies. With her permission, I was happy to include a counter review that was posted on Dorothy L recently. This book begins the absent minded sleuth Peaches Dann series, which includes 6 other books, all of which were reviewed most favorably by numerous literary critics and fans. Why else would there be so many! I hope future readers will not be diswayed by the above review and keep the legacy of Peaches Dann and her author alive for many years to come. Just remember ... these are cozies! Enjoy the ride!