Dark Angel is one of my favorite whodunits ever. It's as rereadable as any classic novel, without any of the *yawn*.

It's got all the de rigeur elements to make it nearly perfect: well written, well paced narrative, sympathetic characters, love, suspense, drama, sex, adventure, war, death, real live shock value without too much gore, and a protagonist (or rather, antagonist) heroine so perfectly drawn as a charmingly confused schizoid that you either know or are someone like her.

It's amazing that it all ties together and doesn't overwhelm the reader. I was especially impressed that the book is in no way formulaic and that the ending is not predictable at all, and only seems to have a forgone conclusion, but not solution, in hindsight - reflecting upon all the various elements and characters.

As another review noted, Amazon.com's sometimes screwy touch and go search results do indeed tend to mix this book in with the works of V.C. Andrews, or somehow mishmash those reviews in with this title. That's an unfortunate and inexplicable programming/programmer glitch, as there is really no comparison between the two. Ms. Beauman's body of work is definitely in a class by itself.

I have read other Beauman books but none have captured me like this one. All the others were quick reads that I enjoyed but wouldn't want to put on my bookself. However, this one is on my bookself because I loved everything about it. I was tempted to even peek at the back to see how it ended because it got so suspenseful. I didn't(thank god), the novel flows seamlessly into your neuropathways and leads you to a dark world that makes you want to be part of Constance's glamour she casts on everyone. You never know what is true with her or if she even knows what that word means. Constance has no morals, only urges and she fascinates you as you read about her giving into them.

This is one of my favourite books, and I almost didn't pick it up as the title led me to think that it would be a ho-hum romance. How wrong I was!

It is a complex and detailed murder story, with some of the best drawn characters I have ever read in a book. It is quite unusual in that for, perhaps the first quarter of the book, you are never really sure of the relationships between the characters who are told in rememberance by our narrator, and who is the god-daughter of the chief character Constance. This is not a criticism, it is an interesting plot device which allows us to really get to know the characters before they are put into some other context - that of their relationships with the narrator and the fascinating Constance.

Constance herself is a total enigma, and around her swirl the cast of the novel and the horrendous death which took place in 1910, on a night when many were gathered to see Halley's comet. Was the death a terrible accident, or something more sinister?

It is absolutely engrossing, and sometimes shocking. It will keep you guessing about many things until the very end and you won't be able to put it down.

I have a copy of Desiderata, eighth edition, published by Brooke House, Los Angeles, illustrated by Emil Antonucci. I would like to order copies of this edition. Is that possible? Life's lessons have never been so simply and eloquently stated. So many of us need to be reminded!!!

I can say my favorite author ever. What a statement while at the same time writing a way of life.... I have his first novel ever published from 1898, signed! He was amazing.

One of my favorite poems, a comforting and refreshing perspective on life's big picture. It purports to have been discovered in a church in the seventeenth century, but in fact it was written by a man named Max Ehrmann in the first third of this century. I have kept a copy around since elementary school (ever since I learned that Gene Roddenberry, the creator of Star Trek, kept one in his office), and now keep one in my office at home and one at work.

Flannery is a beautiful person; reading these letters you feel like you are conversing with a personal friend and hope you get the chance to meet her; you can't help but wish you could have had the chance to correspond with her.
After years of loving her fiction, I found that, in these letters, her fiction and her soul unveil their beauty --- just like her beloved peafowl.

This is simply my favorite epistolary collection. Of course, adoring O'Connor and her works helps. But even if you've never read her and simply want to spend an engaging few days in the company of a remarkable and funny woman, this is the place to be. I've gotten rid of a lot of books over the years, but this one has held its place on my shelf. Since you can't borrow it from me, hit that "Add to Cart" button!

THE HABIT OF BEING is required reading for any Flannery O'Connor fan. Nobody can explain Flannery like Flannery. Through her letters the reader has an immediate connection to the writer and the woman, and that connection made me regret even more that I did not know her personally. Sally Fitzgerald includes letters that show Flannery's human side, her cranky side, her funny side, even her arrogant side. I read the letters before the identity of A was revealed, and I was intrigued. I went back and read them again after that identify was made public, and I'm even more intrigued. To understand fully what Flannery was attempting in her stories, one needs to read the letters. To understand fully what she was attempting in her life, one needs to read the letters. No satisfactory biography has been written about Flannery O'Connor, but I'm not sure that one is necessary when we have at least a start at an autobiography with THE HABIT OF BEING.

An Instant American Classic! Required reading for the Masses! 110% percent of a good book! The Best thing since sliced bread! (TBTSSB!) Oprah Book of the Month Selection! Action Man give it two thumbs up! p.s. (TBSTSSB!)

I loved this book, and you will, as well. So to speak. It made my college experience a breeze, and the part on sexual harrasment was especially informative. You have no idea how many gay-dog professors there are out there.

This book is a quick primer on life at college. I spent the whole night absorbing it's lucid prose and found it's clever schemes on beating the pressures of college refreshing and thoughtful. I went from a sorry C grade student to a B- student in two weeks after reading this book and now I'm on my way to the dean's list. Come on in and join the trip... the brain train is here!

Jade is now available from ImageCascade Publishing. New republication! A must read for readers of historical fiction! Sally Watson has a gift for presenting girls as feisty, strong-willed characters. Excellent role models for young readers, ages 10 to 15. Readers must also read Ms. Watson's Highland Rebel, Mistress Malapert, Lark, The Hornet's Nest.

What a wonderful book! I read this one over and over when I was a kid, and now I want to read it to my 5th grade students, as we study the Colonies and the Revolution. I was amazed to find Jade listed as a rare book, and searched for it for 4 years, until I finally struck pay dirt.
Jade struggles to be free of the constraints of her gender and class, and does that with flair and courage. The reader has an inside look at pirates, and gets to know Anne Bonney and Mary Read, both famous female pirates.
Jade's code of honor, and behavior, gives modern kids something to work towards. She thinks of things larger, and more important than herself, and takes the chances needed to change.

Unfortunately, this book is out of print, but as a child it was one of my favorite books, and I read it many, many many times. Jade is a colonial era 17 year old girl from an aristocratic family. She refuses to be constrained by the conventions of her time and learns fencing, frees slaves, and becomes a pirate. Her personal moral code is fascinating and Jade strikes a blow for women and for the subjugated. Its a rollicking adventure story with a wonderful female heroine.

Sure we have beauticians and school teachers and maintenance workers and people who put car handles on for a living in the Davis clan but I have the only writer. Thank you. It was worth the labor pains to rub it in now. I haven't had this much power over the family since I pushed your Aunt Hazel over the hill in the wagon when she was five. It made the trip to the beach so much more fun this year. Who knows, dear, maybe next year if your book does well, I might even invite you to go with me. Love, Mom

I had my heart set on pizza, a large, cheese-dripping pizza with lots of pepperoni but I was short by three bucks, so I bought Little Sallies of the Mind instead. Wow, what a deal. For only 40 cents a story I got everything but gas and didn't have to run the treadmill. Astonishing satire entirely digestible imagery. I couldn't put the book down because it wasn't a heavy read! When is your next book coming out? I say if you can't have literature, let them eat pizza.

The art form of prose poetry did not die with the 19th Century. It is alive and well-written in "Little Sallies of the Mind." It is not often that a sincere and well-intentioned writer is an enjoyable read, but it has been done! I congratulate the author on the skill with which she uses all the literary devices in her bag of tricks. Thank you, Sal.

Great book! I have never quilted before, in fact I just bought a sewing machine for fun 2 weeks ago. Since then, I have made 3 quilts from this book. It is so easy, I am looking for the first 2 in her series.

Easy to follow in structions and great ideas for baby quilts

I bought this book when I wanted to make a quilt for my neice's first baby. The one I chose was fast, colorful, easy to make -- and I got it done before the baby was six month's old! I'm now making another one from the book, using a fabric I loved but didn't quite know what to do with. Great book, full of ideas.

The writers (Lizz & PJ of EMERGE) have taken an unknown, amorphous concept and developed it into the leading organizational management tool and process, Cultural Due Diligence (tm). This book explains the Cultural Due Diligence (tm) process, its importance to all business organizations and its implementation and review. Lizz & PJ of EMERGE are well-known for their seminars on Cultural Due Diligence(tm) and the book is a wonderful desk reference. It has also been picked up by several universities as required reading in business curriculum.

Having endured three acquisitions with one company, two down-sizings with another, being subjected to two subsequent layoffs with two companies, and forming my own consulting business, I found "Getting Your Shift Together" a very accurate outline of what is missed during critical times of change. It is refreshing in that it clearly identifies not only what is overlooked but also why we so often ignore what is squarely in front of us. While the book is actually a quick read, I read it slowly (some text repeatedly), often finding myself pondering its insightful truths. Getting an accurate picture of an organization's culture is critical to its longevity. Reading this book should be anyone's first step in gaining such a focus. The book gives the reader pause as it clearly shows how and why we hide from the truths that surround us. I reflected back to the line in "A Few Good Men" when Jack Nicholson says to Tom Cruise, "You can't handle the truth!" While truth may be hard to handle, in business we can't survive the lies and denial! Honesty rings through this book, moving the reader to examine his/her own world. What are the reigning values? Where is the trust? What's next? Take the Culture Health IndexTM and find out what your organization's culture really looks like. Be advised - this is not for the faint of heart, but it's also for anyone who still harbors any hope for surviving an upcoming change (and emerging as a leader) in his or her organization. "Getting Your Shift Together" is one of the best books I've read in a long, long time.

My favorite part is the point that when change initiatives fail, things never go back to the way they were before. This book makes you think about your blind spots, and how to not let them get in the way of making change work. The authors come off credible, with a "in the trenches" perspective. A good reality check.

Reminiscent of The Twilight Zone and told in both text and graphic novel format, How to Disappear Completely and Never Be Found is a surprisingly fun read. The story is quite complex, but the quirky characters help usher the book along. The one thing this book might have benefited from is a character list as sometimes it's hard to keep track of the story. Nevertheless, HtDCaNBF was very satisfying and fun to read.

I was quick to judge this book by its eirie cover. I am a lover of Sci-Fi and Fantasy, but this book intrigiued me from the moment I picked it up. It is told in 3rd person unlimited formatt, written from the alternating views of both twelve year old Margaret, and Boyd, a boy who lives next to a mansion owned by Margaret's family. Boyd is an avid reader of the Ratt comics, which he picks up from the odd little Library in town. They are based on the life of the main character Ratt, who supposedly resides in the creepy mansion next to Boyds house. It all starts when Margaret and her deeply depressed mother Lizzie and her annoyingly hyperactive sister Sophie arrive at the mansion with a for sale by owner sign in the back of their blue pickup.

"...Just one look inside this strange house--that was all I wanted.

"Do you know that feeling of doing something and at the same time of watching yourself? It's like watching a movie but you are the movie. And you're watching yourself talk and walk, but the whole time you're holding your breath and thinking, What is she going to do next? ...

"Scary" and "exciting" were the adjectives my ten-year-old son, Alex, used in explaining to me why he's read 100+ pages each of the past two days--... The book that's got him totally enthralled is HOW TO DISAPPEAR COMPLETELY AND NEVER BE FOUND. I have to agree with Alex: from the book's opening moments--narrated by twelve-year-old Margaret--we are dropped squarely into an exciting and suspenseful tale:

"Most stories start at the beginning, but I really can't say I know where that is. Is it a falling-down mansion on a small island in the Pacific Northwest, or in the navy blue pickup truck making its way to that mansion? Does it start on a sunny day this year, or on a sunny day twenty years before? Is it with me, or with a young boy who, a long, long time ago, believed he was turning into a rat? I guess the only thing I really do know is where it started for me--in that navy blue pickup heading toward a place I didn't know existed. A place that had already changed my life."

The illustrations are an innovative and integral part of the book. They are snippets of Ratt, a comic series for which there is only one hand-drawn copy per issue. Those issues of Ratt appear regularly and mysteriously at the Island's library--a rather unique institution that carries only unpublished manuscripts, apparently all submitted by the Island's residents:

"Under D was not one novel by Dickens. H had no Hawthorne and F had no Frost. There was no Hemingway or Fitzgerald, no Eliot or Kuo. Instead they found stack after stack of handmade books. Some were typed, some were scribbled, some were printed out on cheap computer paper, some were stapled, some had brads, some were held together with twine.

" 'The unpublished works of Everyman,' exclaimed Mr. Librarian proudly. 'Everywoman and Everykid, too.' "

Boyd, the boy who lives next to that eerie mansion, has long been the devoted fan of Ratt. He and Margaret, who arrives in her mother's navy blue pickup, and the comic book series with a life of its own become entangled in the mysteries of the mansion and of the death of Margaret's father four years earlier. They are surrounded by quirky characters such as Mr. Librarian, Margaret's funny and exasperating little sister Sophie, and their mom, who has been barely coping since her husband's disappearance.

HOW TO DISAPPEAR COMPLETELY AND NEVER BE FOUND is a haunting and fun find for middle grade readers.

...

This book is a very good guide to all sorts of transfer methods on fabric for any kind of fabric work. It is very user friendly because the wording is clear and concise with very good full color examples that go along with the text. Troubleshooting hints are included with each method as well a lot of other useful hints. The examples and pictures of the actual work are very helpful in that they show many different applications of each technique and really help to get you thinking of ways to be able to further play with and modify the methods shown. Also, it is very clearly laid out into categories per chapter that make it very easy to use as a quick reference. A reference chart is included in the book telling the basic overview of each technique with information concerning the permanence of the method, fabric types recommended for each method, as well as many other useful info that really make this book very easy to use and covers the basics of most any kind of transfer method you could need. I originally had to buy this book for a fibers class I was taking but it has been more helpful after the class ended because it really was a very easy to use by being very easy to quickly reference with it's clear layout and detailed description of all of the advantages and disadvantages of each of the methods clearly labeled. It is a very good book and would recommend it to anyone interested in any kind of quilt or fabric work.

After seeing the demonstration today on the Carol Duval Show on HGTV, I am definitely ordering this book! What intersting ideas for quilting fabric! Loved it!

From high tech computer photo transfer to the ancient art of leaf hammering, this book is a comprehensive presentation of fabric manipulation and imagery. Avoiding the "cutesy" trap of so many crafts books, this volume is sophisticated and will be useful to artists and crafters of many styles and sensibilities.

Imagery on Fabric is smartly organized by method, rather than individual project, allowing for much more creativity from the reader. Each process is thoroughly explained and accompanied by fabulous photos of work by professional fiber artists as well as hobbyists. Laury also includes a useful list of resources for the various products and equipment that she discusses in her book.

When I bought this book I was just fiddling with fabric and art quilts. Laury and her book singlehandedly motivated me to fully embrace fiber arts as an exciting means of artistic expression.