I love all of Lueth's books, but this one is the best in my mind. Her humorous descriptions and interesting explanations caused me to laugh out loud throughout the entire book. A wonderful book to add a little laughter to you day!!

If you're looking for a pet or looking for what to do with one you've found, this is the resource to use. It has listings of breed rescue groups for dog breeds in every state, plus miscellaneous other domestic species (ferret rescue) and wildlife (bat rescue).

very comprehensive and written by world class scientists in the field.I strongly recommend this for beginers as well as highly skilled researchers

This novel was written in the late 1800's, so I was somewhat leery of its readability, but I found it quite readable, and a highly enjoyable story.

Having been written in the era in which it was set,1880, I felt made it more realistic.

The story centers around a widow, Mrs. Winstanley, and her 3 daughters. They have the lineage to be "ladies" but not the financial means.

In 1880 England, the "new woman" was just emerging--women who wanted other options than marrying for security.

Mrs. Winstanley and two of her daughters, Thomasina and Eva, however, are bent on finding security the old customary way--by marriage to "suitable" gentlemen, foregoing love on the part of the young women.

Perdita, however, is the rebel of the family, she wants to have something useful to do in the way of an occupation until true love appears. Perdita's clumsy honesty threatens her mother, Mrs. Winstanley's carefully laid plans and leds to considerable dissension between this middle daughter, her mother & her two sisters.

The oddest thing about the book, to me, was the fact that Deborah T. Meem, who edited and I assume had a great deal to do with bringing it back into print--severely critiques the author, Eliza Lynn Linton. Ms. Meem claims Ms. Linton did not understand herself. Perhaps Linton didn't understand herself, but I don't think Ms. Meem understood Linton either.

The opinion I garnered was that Eliza Lynn Linton was not necessarily the hypocite and foe of women's rights Ms. Meem accuses her of being, but rather that Ms. Linton did not approve of radicalism, and believed marriage should be based on love.

Although The Road Through the Wall was her first published novel, it is vintage Shirley Jackson. No one ever viewed and/or described human beings in the way Jackson did. Not surprisingly, this novel is terribly maudlin and disturbing. It is also very complex, and I'm not sure I would perfectly understand it had I read it over and over again. There are no heroes in these pages and only one innocent character. The premise of the story is fairly simple: Jackson paints a portrait of a well-to-do middle class neighborhood, shining her blinding light of truth on everyone. The portrait is not a pretty one. A wall separates the community from the well-to-do section of town, a section most of the men and women hope to eventually move to; in the meantime, they are terribly snobbish to those around them--quietly and secretly or brazenly and openly depending on how poor or ill-bred the inferior citizens are seen to be. Eventually, a section of the wall is removed in order to make way for a new road, a road that will expose their isolated community to the world and basically ruin their neighborhood, community, and lives. Well before the road is built, terrible tragedy does indeed strike at the heart of the community. I was quite shocked by the turn of events toward the end.

Some of Jackson's plot points really make little sense to me. While it often seems that Jackson intends to introduce such confusing elements into her fiction, I find it very likely that I am just not understanding the immense subtleties and hidden clues of a masterful writer. This novel is especially hard to comprehend. The cast of characters is quite large, consisting of a number of families. Jackson constantly moves back and forth between the men, women, and children, which makes it hard to really "know" each character. The task of keeping track of who is who is made even more difficult by the fact that many of the girls' names all start with H and that two of the boys have the same initials. There came a point when I just had to stop flipping back through the story trying to exactly remember each character in turn. Perhaps it was a deliberate tactic by Jackson to indicate that all of the characters are basically the same. One family surprisingly moves away right in the middle of the book, much to my surprise, and the family that moves into their rental home seems far less important that the book's back cover led me to expect. The reader should take nothing for granted when reading Shirley Jackson.

All in all, this is a wonderful if idiosyncratic read. The plot is amazingly complex for an author's first published novel. I wish I could talk about the ending, if for no other reason than to pose the questions I have about it. Once you permit yourself to enter Shirley Jackson mode, you may well be lured into a level of comfort, expecting the novel to simply end without any climax or conclusion. I can pretty much assure you that the conclusion is one you will not soon forget.

This book has so many wonderful poems in it. Kaufman's poems draw from so many different sources, making the poems so applicable to so many different poeple's lives. I especially recommend this collection for those who love the retelling of biblical stories!

Enjoyed thoroughly the information on making 2 leather jackets from one and the scarf jackets - ingenius! Shirley knows her stuff. For experienced sewing enthusiasts who dress well only.

This is a great book for fans of the incredible Miss Bassey and vocalist lovers alike. With beautiful reviews of her recordings and stagework and Bassey's own thoughts on picking songs, dresses and performing, this is a superb coffee table book too. But do beware for if you delve too deeply into the text, amazing inacurate facts can be found. For example every one knows that Goldfinger was written by Barry, Bricusse and Anthony Newley, yet Bassey quotes some other non entity? Overview: Great pics, superb presentation but did Bassey really write this? I suspect that it is ghost written but don't let this put you off. The only reason it gains 4 and not 5 stars from me is the occasional gaffes that lies in the text!

This book contains excellent photos and realistic prices for Shirley Temple dolls from the early composition dolls to the 1972 vinyl dolls. Also included are photos and prices for doll outfits, paperdolls, books, the sapphire blue breakfast set, and salts. If a collector wants photos and prices for other types of Shirley Temple items then I would suggest one of Patricia R. Smith's "Shirley Temple Dolls and Collectibles" books.

Very good version of the Emperor's New Clothes. Lively, interesting, somewhat "old fashioned" vocabulary. Too difficult for easy-reading for our seven year olds, but they loved to hear the stories aloud.