Even though he stands to lose precious income, a young Jamaican boy trusts his feelings of empathy for the helpless crabs who are forced to race at a big resort and takes action. No heavy-handed preaching, just a gentle morality tale where the child is the hero. A lovely book.

The Crab Man is a wonderful children's' book about a young Jamaican boy's dilemma and how he resolves it. Neville has been selling hermit crabs to the crab man to earn money for a new dress for his mother. One day he learns what the crab man does with the crabs and about the consequences of people's actions and feelings.
Ms. Van West skillfully weaves many themes into this tale-familial love, the fragile web of life, economic survival, and societal contrasts. The Crab Man is an excellent choice for the bookshelf, a tale that a child can relate to.

The Crab Man provides a fascinating glimpse at Jamaican life through a child's eyes. Beyond that, it tells a compelling story that children all over the world can understand. As little Neville struggles with a tough decision, readers (and listeners!) have a chance to examine their own values and feelings about the earth's creatures. The writing is graceful and clear; the illustrations bring the story's rich setting to life. It's a perfect book to read aloud, but older children will also enjoy making their way through the pages alone.

Melissa Brayer Hess and Patricia Linderman's indispensable book covers all the practical aspects of adjusting to life in a foreign country. They pay particular attention to factors that can help or hinder an expatriot's adjustment. Every chapter includes short, personal sidebars recounting the experiences of those who've lived and worked abroad, an addition which brings the book to life with insightful, useful and often hilarious detail. We from getAbstract recommend this book to anyone who is considering relocation to another country. To be at home anywhere on the globe, supplement it with a couple of books about the specific country where you are going. Pay attention to the advice about planning ahead, then get your shots, tuck your passport in your pocket and head for the airport. (Don't forget to pack this book; you may need it for re-entry.)

So you got that dream job.... London, Tokyo, New Delhi, Pretoria? When you get there, you discover that you're "Not in Kansas any more." Trust me, I have done it five times, a move abroad is not like moving across the state or across the country. Suddenly you are far fom home, far from the people and things you know and love, and everything seems to work just a little bit differently. And if you think it is bad for you, just ask your spouse and kids....

Nevermind, Linderman and Hess do a great job of helping you with all the concerns that you might have in your move. This book sets forth the good, the bad, the ugly, and the funny in an international move. Even if you are lucky enough to have a corporate move-planner to assist you, this book is a gem to help you get ready psychologically for the move and what comes afterwards.

"The Expert Expatriate" - I wish I had this useful guide when I was planning my first foreign assignment! But even after moving abroad, I found the book to be very helpful. And it is a favorite at home and in the office. A great read and a good reference book.

Robert Davis
Business Executive
Eastern Europe

This book was recommended to me by my dressage instructor, and is one of the most complete equine books I've ever studied. It covers a little of everything, and the information is proper and correct. Once you pick it up, it's hard to put down. As a lifelong equestrian of both English and western disciplines, I have read what seems like a library of books. For some reason though, I keep turning to this one again and again. It contains good solid information for the beginner and advanced equestrian alike.

We found "A Horse Around the House" extrememly useful as new horse owners. All the information you'll need to understand not only the makeup and characteristics of equines is here, along with subtle information about the nuances of horse personalities. We highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to know more about horses.

It is delightful to see the updated return of this compendious and clearly written one-stop shop for the new or experienced horse owner. The book became an almost instant classic upon its initial publication, and Pat Jacobson,a well respected teacher and trainer in the Hudson Valley region, has worked hard to incorporate the myriad advances in horse "housekeeping" that have taken place in the intervening two decades. While probably most useful to the first-time horse owner, the book is still an invaluable quick reference for anyone who does not wish to wade through piles of horse magazines to be reminded of the right treatment for thrush; what to do in hot weather, or the correct proportions of hay to grain. Elegant and humorous illustrations reinforce the readable text.

I loved this book because the characters of August and Gwendolyn were so well developed. In previous books of the series, as I watched their relationship grow, I had hoped they would get their own story. I think everyone who reads romance or historical novels will enjoy this book, but I would recommend reading the other books in The League of the Jewelled Men first.

From the first book in the series, I waited impatiently for August and Gwen to get their own story (as it was obvious they *must*). August is simply one of the most attractive, engaging, interesting, at-times frustrating heroes of a book in recent memory. Patricia Veryan, as usual, has woven a rich tapestry of romance, humor, history and action. I implore any readers of romance who haven't read her novels to give her a try -- you won't be disappointed. She writes with true talent and heart.

I am a great and dedicated fan of Ms. Veryan. I have read a great many Regency and Historical romances and find her my all time favorite author. August Falcon is definitely her best most intriguing and romantic character to-date. I had great hopes for this book which were mostly fullfilled. The story line was well thought out and developed, however I did not think enough time was given to the relationship between August and Gwen. I felt they should have had more time together with more interaction between them and also between her brother and August. I would have enjoyed a less humorous ending to the book, more in line with August's character, showing his kindness, humanity and love for Gwen and his friends. These facets of his personality were allways hinted at in all the previous stories, but were never fully brought to the surface at length. Notwithstanding the above, I still consider this one of my favorite books and look forward to rereading it many times. I hope that Ms. Veryan will continue to write sagas like the Jewelled Men and create such fantastic romantic characters such as August Falcon.

I have read many books about pioneering women who set up homes from scratch and quilted for practical and soul-fulfilling reasons. Usually though, those women are long gone and we are left with rather dry details of their lives. The joy of this book is that the women whose words are recorded in it are living, breathing members of that pioneer group, and, even though their experiences were in the 20th rather than the 19th century,the issues and incidents are the same and they tell a vibrant story.
The book records conversations amongst Texas quilting groups, to which the authors were invited and the ladies seem eager to tell stories of their early days in dug outs and cabins, their families scaping a life from the soil and their role in that. None of them ever sound hard done by or as if they wish their lives had been different. And they are all keen to express the creative and fulfilling role that quilting has had in their lives.
If you are not a quilter, you will still enjoy the strength, friendship and nobility that run through these conversations - they are a link with a passed era, which I felt honoured to share as I read.

This book is facinating with it's history of American pioneer women. It contains real quotes from real people about the lives that they lived. If you have seen or been in the play you will be delighted to see that some of the show's monologues are word-for-word from this book! I't's a moving book and a moving play.

This book is a wonderful tribute to women...quilters or not. The book is filled with interviews, pictures, and descriptions that bring the joy and sorrow of daily living to life. If the simple things in life are indeed the sweetest.... then these women and their quilts tell the sweetest story ever...they tell our story... they are our history.

This was the 1st book I read on my road to recovery 35 years after having been a victim. It helped give me the courage, strength and hope to move forward toward on my own journey towards healing.

As difficult as it was for me to read this book, due to it's similarity to my experience, I found it to be so extremely compelling--I couldn't put it down! Ms.Francisco has an incredible command of the English language and was able to communicate in painful detail, her inner-most thoughts and feelings, before, during and after the rape. As I read this book, I went through and highlighted many many many passages that I felt pertained directly to me.....so that my husband could read it and gain better insight into what I was and still am thinking. This is a wonderful, amazing book, that both rape survivors and non-rape survivors can benefit from.

This was truly a great book. I could identify so well with all that was said. I had all the members of my family read it and have recommended it to many because it is of such high quality.

Blind Reason is the first novel published by Paxil withdrawal suit plaintiff Patricia Griffon. The novel was written during a period of time in the late '90s when the author says she was going through a difficult withdrawal from taking the popular anti-anxiety/depressant drug Paxil. Blind Reason imagines a diabolical plot to reestablish the Third Reich as a political force in the Western world using a German-based pharmaceutical company's marketing of a new Prozac-like "mood brightner" Euphorin. Euphorin is to Blind Reason what Soma is to Brave New World, a drug used to help the masses forget their cares, and any notions of a living in a democratic and free society as well.

Blind Reason's heroine is Maya Warwick, a reclusive investigative journalist and writer who lives in a mountain community west of Denver and suspects there is more to the marketing campaign behind Euphorin than helping heal the emotional suffering of the masses. Maya has broken other stories about the marketing of psychiatric drugs before and her motives for her journalism are more than just informing the public. Her motives are personal. Both her parents had been the victims of a murder-suicide while one of them was under the influence of a older psychiatric drug implicated in dozens of other grisly acts of violence. Meanwhile, a close friend has recently committed suicide while taking Euphorin. Like countless thousands of other family and friends of people who committed destructive acts of violence while under the influence of psychiatric drugs, Maya simply wants to know what role the drugs might be playing the grisly murder-suicides that are likely to dominate the evening news these days.

Blind Reason works best when it sticks to the story behind the diabolical conspiracy to foment a neo-Nazi uprising in Colorado and beyond. The intrigue behind the German-based pharmaceutical giant VB Pharmaceuticals and its American-based subsidiary FetcherBurkeWinslow is what held my attention the most. Maya finds herself recruited, basically against her will, into an CIA mission to uncover the links between VB-FBW and the burgeoning neo-Nazi movement in the U.S. This is interesting material that is fun to read. Furthermore, the author inserts mention of the influence the resistance to the aggressive marketing of psychiatric drug has had on her research into her writing here. In this sense, Blind Reason is more than just another spy novel, but a literature of this resistance to the conventional wisdom of the Prozac-era, which holds that everybody has lived happily ever after since the introduction of Prozac to the market in December 1987.

Far too many words are devoted to a love triangle involving one of Maya's neighbors and an agent she meets before flying off to Germany. Both of Maya's love interests here are the kind of middle-aged male characters who make my eyes roll over. First, there's Blubbering Andrew, Maya's next door neighbor, and Handsome Agent Harry, the agent who trains our heroine in a crash course of German and waltzing. Does Maya throw herself into the arms of our dashing agent before she flies off to Germany? Does our dashing Agent Harry mindlessly abandon his job and run off to Europe to track down his new found love Maya? Does Andrew blubber over the phone about how he's missed out on his last chance to find love with Maya over the phone? Is Maya's decision on who she will ultimately take for a lover in the end conveniently provided for her by way of being seated next to her future amour on her plane ride back to Colorado? Does the sky have stars on a clear night?

After over 550 pages, Blind Reason pants and wheezes and hurls itself exhausted across the finish line. In the end the reader is subjected to a confessional group therapy session we've all seen over and over again on Oprah and all the other talk shows. No wait. Harry tells Maya, "Being with you is as close as I've come in years to feeling any human connection, or emotion. I thought that part of me was dead forever, especially after Annabella died. Thanks to you, I see now that I could feel those things again, and that's the most hope I've had in years." I hadn't heard that before.

Blind Reason is a worthy first effort for Griffon. It is a work of fiction that could have only been concocted in the mind of a person under the influence of a potent and aggressively marketed pharmacueutical drug. I found that it dragged on a little too long and the little love triangle our heroine finds herself in is little too much Harlequinn romance for me.

Rick's Scientfically certain rating: 8 on a scale of 1 to 10.

-Rick Giombetti, Seattle ...

Nobody prepared me for what I would find between the covers of this fantastic book. I had just finished reading King of
Torts when somone suggested Blind Reason, which made Grisham's tale of pharmaceutical corruption look like a comic book. Griffon's attention to detail is astounding; her research into the Third Reich, the Cia and the pharmaceutical industry is meticulous. The plot is fast-paced and the dialogue, on a host of subjects, is brilliant, but I was left with the haunting question of how much of what Griffon wrote is fact or fiction. The lines are definitely blurred. This is a great weekend read. Now, how can I get a date with the heroine, Maya
Warwick?

The Bonfire of the SSRIs or Big Pharma Under Fire
Two contemporary authors have addressed the issues of the wealth and power Big Pharma wields in novel-length fiction - grandmaster John LeCarre in THE CONSTANT GARDENER and Patricia Griffon in BLIND REASON. I've read both. LeCarre is, as ever, admirable, but he himself commented, concerning TCG, that his novel is "tame as a holiday postcard". After comparison to Griffon's BLIND REASON, I absolutely agree. Reading BLIND REASON is like a series of fascinating and sometimes terrifying rides in a top-of-the-line amusement park. Sometimes it feels like a survival training course. When you disembark, both shaken and stirred, you will recognize the real-world players that the characters in BLIND REASON resemble. The masks are off.... Griffon's scope and international intrigue are wider than LeCarre's, and her characters and events arrive and explode with the speed of fireworks. LeCarre has steered clear of the dangers of talking back to Prozac by centering his issues around a fictitious TB drug tested on an unsuspecting African tribe and the diplomatic service - sets and settings both rather difficult for the contemporary reader to identify with. There may be very good reasons for this: as he recorded, a real activist in Nairobi ended up with a bullet wound in his head, and this sort of accident "can happen again". The more courageous writer, Griffon, has personal knowledge of and has researched the Prozac family of drugs and their cousins, and has presented a possible future and it is nasty. The Nazis, resurrected with hidden fortunes from WWII, have a plan for us - and in their hands, and on everyone's lips, will be drugs.... BLIND REASON is one of the few books I have read that I will return to all my life. My copy will need to be replaced in a few months. I am guilty of book-bashing and reference-writing and article-stuffing again - it's the darndest book I've ever read. Why? Griffon's purpose in writing the book - to expose the dangers of Pharma/political connections and corruption - fills in the stories between the lines in today's news reports. Why did the US government vote through a bill that protects *both* Homeland and Eli Lilly from prosecution re Thiomersol (vaccines linked to autism cases)? Because of Patricia Griffon's politically astute BLIND REASON, I think I know the *reason*. I might keep THE CONSTANT GARDENER in my guest bedroom - as a soporific - but poring over BLIND REASON has kept me awake many nights. Want a gentle mare or a sleeping pill, the predictable clockwork themes of Bach? Try LeCarre. For the ride of your life, get Griffon. BLIND REASON rocks - and may rock your world. This is Griffon's first turn as a suspense writer. I believe she will outshine Antonia Fraser, Patricia Cornwell and LeCarre (once again) in her next book, BLIND CHANCE. Break out the champagne - the belle of the ball is here! BLIND REASON is an entry in the 2003 Pulitzer Prize competition.

Also recommended: The Constant Gardener by John LeCarre

this is a ok book for people that have seen the new movie and want to read about it. DON'T READ THIS BOOK IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN THE MOVIE! you want a book to read before you go see the movie read the adult version.[unless your reading abillites aren't high enough to read it.] This book was pretty hard to understand and it made a lot more senes after I saw the movie.

Starwars Episode 2 was an action/lovestory. The setting of the story was were the Jedis tried searching for the bad guys all over the galaxy. The main characters in the book were Obi won Kenobi ,the Queen and all the Jedi masters. My favorite character is Yoda because he was a very good Jedi master.My favorite part of the book was when all the Jedis fight against the clones.I would recommend this book to children betwen the ages of 7-13 because it is very cool and action packed.

This is one of the best Jr. noveliation. It give us a in depth look in what is in the film. I love it because in it it shows us the continuing bond in between Anakin Skywalker & Padme Amidala her real last name is Naberrie. This is a very good book if your a Star Wars fan. Thanks George for the best films ever.

I am almost in 6th grade and it is great for-girls book. Boys can read it to. I had to go to three schools until I came on the inter net and bought it. It is my all favorite book.

Taking place in 1609, Elizabeth Barker, a 9 year old immagrint from England writes about her suffering life in Jamestown, Virginia. After Captain Smith and her old friend, Jessie Bolton return to England, she lives in missery until she meets Mary, a fourteen year-old girl. Everyone is starving terribly. A few have even died. Men are sent out of their town to find food, some do not return... Elizabeth has even caught her mother eating worms!

Life is harsh... Soon Elizabeth's mother dies and almost everyone grows ill, even Elizabeth her self! Many families leave the town and travel into the wild, hoping for more luck. Now, only a few families remain. Soon, Her brother Caleb will come on the supply ship in Spring. Many pray they will survive until then... I recommend this book to any one who enjoys history and adventure!...

I read the book to my mom. It was interesting. I really liked it and I think alot of other peolple would too. I learned alot about Jamestown but I don't think Elizabeth had a very good childhood.

A must-have for a baby's library, this book is one of the best on our bookshelf! Like another reviewer, I too have it memorized! I bought this book for my daughter when she was 2 months old (it was one that she'd actually sit through when she became mobile!). We have read it on a regular basis since and love it! She is now 2 yrs old and still loves it as much now as she did then. The text is a fun rhyme, allowing interaction w/ counting and hand motions without being "teachy". It's just plain fun~ I wonder who likes this book better, my daughter or I!

and so do my toddlers. It has a snappy text, bright colors, and best of all, I don't have to "MOO"! Even if you don't think you're a good story reader, this one reads itself: "Crinkle it, wrinkle it, wear it for a crown. Listen to the paper snap, flap it up and down!" (Sorry, I have it memorized...)

Every adult who I have shown this book to, has laughed out loud. Every parent or grandparent who has watched a toddler "fling" the gift on the floor to obtain the light, colorful, deliciously crinkly tissue paper, will enjoy this romp.