As a result of hard schlorship on the part of Smith and Nelson we have a unvarnished and well researched story of what goes on behind the Norman Rockwell postcard towns here in Vermont. It is a bitter lesson that we had all better head and it is one that regional differences is repeated throughout Rural America. With the hindsight of Seattle eariler this month Smith and Nelson might have written an even more forcful tomb. However this is one book that I highly reccomend to every public policy person and citizen when considering development and what it's true costs are. Read it and weep.

Orphaned Jessica has been "a poor relation" living on her Aunt Hettie's largesse at the isolated manor house, Downsview, for ten years. Irascible Auntie's only social visitors are her four nephews, who visit once a year during the holidays to ensure they'll still be recognized in the annual rewriting of her will. This year, however, is different. On the eve of the lawyer's coming Hettie is found murdered, and last year's will must stand -- naming Jessica the sole heir, but only if she marries one of the nephews. Jessica has always loved Otto, and thought Felix and Horatio harmless, but now she begins to suspect everyone as another death occurs and "accidents" begin to happen to her. Is it desperate libertine Gregory, or one of the others? Who will she choose and, more importantly, will she live to marry?

This is not an evil book, even if the plot is rather contrived. Nor is it great literature. It is a Regency Romance, and as such it will provide a few hours' entertainment without taxing your brain. There are lots of typos, which makes you wonder how much even the author and editor care, but the heroine is sympathetic and the mystery is not transparent.

This is one of the best mysteries I have ever read. Not only is it a good romance but you really can't figure it out until the very end. Jessica lives with her Aunt Hetty in a QUIET community. The most exciting happening in her life is when the holidays bring every year Hetty's four nephews: Otto, Horatio, Gregory, and Felix. They are all completely different and all heirs to Hetty's fortune. Therefore, it isn't too surprising when Hetty is found dead. The big surprise is that Hetty leaves all her money to the nephew that marries Jessica. Soon Jessica is beset by suitors and one of them is a murderer! She doesn't find out till the end who the murderer or whom she loves. It is an EXTREMELY good read.

This was one of my first romance novels, and I was disappointed at its quick shallowness.
Grace Farnsworth is fired from her position as governess because her two charges were brats. She travels by herself to a female relative because she has no one else. Being a penniless governess, she masquerades as a child by rolling her skirt up and playing on her very petite stature in order to get the cheaper child fare on the coach down. Enter Lord Wentworth, who sympathizes with poor little Grace because he believes that she is the same age as his little daughter. He soon discovers that she is a bit older than he thought and quite destitute, as her relative is conveniently absent, leaving her homeless. He, however, needs help, too. His dragon of a mother-in-law, Lady Healy, is expecting him to present her with his daughter, who is too timid, frail, and shy for such an ordeal so...he left her behind. He needs a daughter to present, Grace is good at playing the child, and all will work out fine if Lady Healy doesn't see through it.
Well, Grace was a decent heroine and her growing attraction with Whewett is believable, but there was a bunch of capering about which seems to be expected in light romances like this. Lady Healy's no-nonsense demands and quirks are supposed to screech with Grace's strong-mindedness (which had gotten her fired from more than one position), but they just result in one shinanigan after another. ...makes you wonder what might have happened had Lady Healy not been such a sentimental heart.
Oh, and when you put two reasonably young and active people in adjourning rooms...you know the drill.

After losing her latest governess position, Grace Farnsworth --- disguised as a child to save on coach fare --- suddenly finds herself with no money and nowhere to go. Enter Lord Whewett, who sees in Grace's convincing disguise a way out of his own dilemma. He needs a stand in for his daughter on a very important visit to his mother-in-law, Lady Healy. The hilarity that ensues when Grace tries to humour the outrageously eccentric and domineering Grandma Healy is priceless. This is still my favorite Joan Smith regency and I highly recommend it.

Having read the criticism by another online reviewer that "Saint Joan" is misleading, I wondered if we had read the same play. So I had a look at this book and the problem is obvious: no prefaces! Shaw's plays are meant to be read with his prefaces and they shouldn't be separated. Shaw himself intentionally wrote in that mode, noting at one point, "I would give six of the plays that Shakespeare did write for one of the prefaces he ought to have written." That's a little extreme, but the point is taken, and I believe that the general reasoning is valid. Shaw's complete plays with prefaces run to six volumes or so. Take that kind of route if you can; you'll be well rewarded with edification and entertainment.

While Shaw may have been a gifted playwright, his "Saint Joan" did an enormous disservice to the subject: the view it presents of Joan of Arc conflicts with the historical evidence on nearly every point, echoing instead the propaganda of her enemies. In truth, her trial was orchestrated by the English and their clerical allies (and even Shaw admits that the Inquisition overturned the verdict in 1456, shortly after the English were finally driven out of Rouen); nor was Joan a "rebel" except in the minds of her political opponents. By dredging up this fraudulent view of La Pucelle, Shaw's play was among the first popular works to undermine the efforts of countless scholars whose research had brought a more truthful view of the issue to light.

shaw liked nietzsche, ok. as long as you are fine with that read away at MAJOR. it is the retelling and literary covering of the Ubermensch. Hilarious, I can just see the protagonist standing cross-armed throughout the majority of the text while the daught beats away . . .

I received this book as a gift several years ago, and started into it with some anticipation... the topic seemed most intriguing.

While it is well written, it is a book that will spark emotions on all levels. Much of what the author perceives and shares I do not agree with. She writes with an overly-preachy and arrogant air and maybe she has felt compelled to do so.

This book certainly does not speak for my generation (30somethings) and younger generations. Some of the issues Joan Smith deals with in the book are non-issues for women today.

If this title had been written 25-30 years ago, it would have made waves and been highly praised I'm sure. What it does today, however, is rehash women's issues of the 60s that are no longer relevant in today's society (at least here in the western world).

I didn't care for this dissertation and have only scored it a '3' because it was so incredibly provoking at times I wanted to pitch the book across the room. For that it deserves a halfway decent rating.

Buy the book if you want to be provoked... skip it if you'd rather not beat an already-dead horse.

While the premise of this book is interesting, I found the protagonist, Loretta Lawson, unappealing and character-less, and was confused by the anti-American sentiment and blatant stereotyping displayed throughout the book. The various plots within the book seem disconnected, as though one has had to read previous Loretta Lawson mysteries to know what is going on. An odd tie-in at the end to a previous love affair left me confused. Intellectual snobbism seems to run through the book. References to obscure authors and their work have little to do with the plot, and come across as an excuse to self-aggrandize, rather than adding to the reader's interest. I was very disappointed with this book, as the plot description seemed intriguing, but the characterizations bordered on actively unpleasant.

The Loretta Lawson character was still entertaining, with her misguided attempts to be "feminist" that usually backfire. All was well until the end of the book, when the author unaccountably drags in plot and characters from an earlier book, with no explanation. I can recommend the book for a plane ride or something

A must-read for Loretta Lawson fans and lovers of literary thrillers. True, it helps to have read her previous novels in the series. While "Full Stop" is not the strongest entry (its USA location isn't that enthralling) Joan Smith is an interesting writer, and the series is well worth reading, especially if you are involved in any way with academia and literary criticism.