Cliff Swallows are the life passion of Charles and Mary Brown. Every summer for the past fifteen years Charles and Mary have left the University where they are teaching and journeyed to Ogalalla, Nebraska to study these fascinating colonial birds. In his book, "Swallow Summer", Charles Brown gives the reader an insight into the day to day life of a research biologist. This true story of a summer filled with birds and data collection is told in an intriguing and humorous manner.

Brown lets the reader look into not only his life, but also the life of this fascinating small bird. Cliff Swallows nest in large colonies in culverts, cliffs, and other such areas around Lake McConaughy in Nebraska. During the summer Charles and Mary deal with not only the Cliff Swallows, but also a number of young research assistants from all over the world who come to Ogalalla to study research biology with the Browns. Often the antics of the research assistants are as amusing as those of the Cliff Swallows.

I have been a faithful reader since the first issue of "Where to Eat". The reviews are detailed and contain all the pieces of information that make choosing the spot for your next meal easy. Anyone who wants to eat out in the Boston area should definitely pick up this publication. As always, great job ladies!

As usual, Ms. Roberts deals with a contemporary issue while we entertain ourselves. The protagonist Ms. Amanda Pepper teaches more than English and we become her rapt students. The characters are realistic and draw us into this multi-layered tale of the mystery of humanity. Please keep writing Amanda Pepper mysteries!!!

Very solid mystery. While this book is a step below other Amanda Pepper books such as, "With Friends Like These", "The Bluest Blood", or "Caught Dead in Philadelphia", it is miles above "How I Spent My Summer Vacation" and "I'd Rather Be in Philadelphia".

A young Vietnames boy is killed in a drive-by shooting in IN THE DEAD OF SUMMER. Then April Tuong is kidnapped outside a Chinatown massage parlor late one night. Amanda is curious and she starts asking questions beginning with students in her classroom.

The good news for fans of Amanda Pepper is that C.K. MacKenzie, Sasha Berg and Macavity the cat are still very much alive at the end of the book.

First I'd like to tell you who Kit Summers is if you don't know, that right there might make you want to buy the book! I've had some contact with this guy over email. He's like really nice and has alot of motivation! He has a webpage I forget what it is, but you can look it up. He used to juggle and was getting into the extremes of juggling like 7 clubs! Then I believe he was hit buy an automobile. He was I do know in a coma like for a few years. Then he got out of the coma, relearned how to juggle. Now he teaches a juggling workshop called Juggling With Finesse also. It's a really neat workshop teaching you how juggling can benefit in so many areas and the truth it can! But, not only that, man is it addictive! It can benefit musicians, pianists get more grace at the piano, it helps improve-hand-eye coordinaton, motor vascular skills etc. If a football player learned how to juggle three footballs don't you think he would get better at catching during the big NFL game? Not only that it keeps kids out of trouble, relieves stress, the list goes on and on! And his workshop teaches you how to use juggling to help any profession if you know how to juggle or not. He'll teach you. Plus if your struggling in a juggling area he will help you with that.

Now the book: Well I've only checked this out of the library a few times I don't own it. But, since I've read it I can review it can't I? ;) It is full of some really good juggling pictures, some of the top jugglers in the business. It is somewhat outdated however The Raspyni Brothers look so young and the pictures of Anthony Gatto are like when he was 12. What is he now like 25/26? I believe it was printed sometime in the late 70's. The many, many pictures of top jugglers is what makes the book go. And there are some tricks throughout the book quite a few actually of like great diversity, like not just normal stuff juggling things like umbrellas or doing a billiarball trick. But real simplicity descriptions of how to do it, I really think you must have some knowledge of juggling and know how to juggle somewhat. But, because of that it is worth a buy for the countless great pictures and the countless of normal and not so normal ideas. Give it a try!

Kit Summers' book is perhaps the most comprehensive juggling book out there. However, while it contains photos and brief explanations of tricks, it lacks detailed, step-by-step instruction. A beginner or accomplished juggler can read about what can be attained with practice, but how to get there, he must leave up to his own devices. I am a seven ball, five club juggler and use the book as a wonderful reference tool; however, for instuction and guidence, books such as Charles Dancey's Encylopedia of Ball Juggling, Dick Franco's Three Ball Digest or Martin Probert's Four Ball Juggling as essential.

Kit Summer's Book "Juggling With Finesse" covers all aspects of Juggling, Balance, and Manipulation. Included are simple through advanced patterns for ball, club, and ring juggling as well as plate spinning, team juggling, club swinging, booking your act, and much, much more. I think that jugglers of all ages and skill levels will find this book to be extremely helpful.

This book was awesome. It takes place in a little summer town, and it is about a 14 year old girl trying to solve a murder mystery. It has lots of suspense, and surprises, and I would reccomend it for older readers. The main character, Cici, is set out to find the murderer of a 15 year old girl, Zoe, that was strangled to death the summer before. Before she knows it, the killer is after her! Will she find out who the killer is before the killer find and kills her, too? It has very good description and is very easy to understand and read. Try it!

Twisted Summer by: Willo Davis Roberts 6th Grade

Do you like murder stories? Or do you prefer mysteries? Well this new book Twisted Summer, is a mix of both murder and mystery. Don't worry though, it isn't scary for those of you who aren't into scary stories. I know what you're thinking right now what is the book about? And what kind of murder? If I read on will it give the book away? No, I hate when people give away a good story. When fourteen-year-old Cici comes back to Crystal lake after two years everything seems fine at first. Then the new maid tells Cici of a murder that a boy named Brian committed. Cici can't believe that Brian would murder anybody, so she and Brian's brother Jack get together and make a list. This list contains suspects, their opportunity, and why they would desire to murder a mischievous girl in her teens. When they find the list is gone, things start to seem more serious. Cici's grandmother died, the list is gone, and things were definently twisted. This book brings you to a stomach turning ending of truth. Since Cici and Jack had made the list everybody seemed to be a suspect. When Cici snuck into the judges office she found something very peculiar. In the Judge's ( the owner of the house) recordings of cash, she finds that each month for about one and a half years, the judge has been paying one thousand dollars cash to somebody for something. Then she hears the screen door open and hurries out of the office. The next day she remembers in horror that she left the list in the judge's office and hurries to get it only to find it was gone. Did the judge find it? Or was it the maid? This was my favorite scene in the book because it left me on a cliff hanger, and I like cliff hangers. I'm afraid I can't give away anymore because it would give the book away. Believe me the ending is a real surprise.

This book is for all those readers who love suspense! I had been out of touch with reading for a while, but I read Twisted Summer for a class. It is about Cici, a 14-year old girl who is about to have the summer of her life. She and her family missed going to their cabin at Crystal Lake in Michigan the summer before. She is now ready to pick things back up and maybe have a chance at romance with 17-year old Jack. After she gets there, changes have occured and she learns that Jack's older brother, Brody is in prison for murdering another girl at the lake. Jack and Cici both believe he's innocent and they begin to investigate. Cici is playing a dangerous game. Although she came to make Jack see her as one of the big kids, Cici is no longer the girl she came as. I could not put this book down. It had great character description. It definitely lives up to the title with all the twists and turns!

This book is about a boy named Bobby who is very much overweight. He always gets made fun of. He hates the summmer because that's when people wear the least amount of close and he is very self conscious about his body. He hates the fact that he can't cover himself up in sweaters and jackets because the weather is too warm. He gets a summer job at a man named Dr. Khan's house. He has to do lawn work all summer and is constantly afraid that he is going to be beat up by a boy who has problems and thinks the only way to feel better is to try to beat up Bobby. I found this book very interesting and I found that it was very hard to put down because I couldn't wait to see what happened next! I would recommend this book to anyone because I feel that anyone could enjoy this book no matter what their interests in books are.

"One Fat Summer" is about a teen named Bobby. He is overweight and he doesn't like his body. This book can give teens some self-confidence in themselves and can encourage teens to have a great summer and not to let others put them down. I recommend this book to anyone who has a mature attitude and can handle lots of details. This book contains many details. Easy to understand if you're interested!

In this book young Bobby Marks is an overweight kid. Since he is overweight he is always teased and picked on. He is called names like crisco because he is fat in a can. The person in this book that gives him the hardest time is Willie Rumson. Willie picks on him and also threatens his life. He threatens his life all because Bob got a lawn mowing job and he didn't.
This book expresses that you shouldn't make fun of people because they are overweight or have disabilities. On a scale of 1-10 I give it a ten. I reccomend this book to anyone who wants a good laugh. Its probobaly the best book I ever read.

but it had nothing other than a relationship developing with two characters who are so basic. really shows a collector of NR how far she has come ::smile

Very enjoyable early Nora Roberts about a famous pastry chef and the hotel owner who hires her to revamp the tired menu in his restaurant. Great book for cooking fans too! There is also a sequel to this book called "Lessons Learned", which continues the story of Summer's sexy Italian chef friend, Carlo.
Excerpt from the back of the book:
"Chef Summer Lyndon had quite a sweet tooth, though she knew that giving in to her craving for her deliciously handsome boss would be a hazard to her peace of mind. How could she stick to a "no Blake Cocharan" diet when she found him simply too tempting to resist?
Hotel owner Blake Cocharan had always prided himself on his good taste, which was why he hired lovely chef Summer Lyndon. But never had a tough cookie been such a tasty-looking morsel..."

Could a cordon blue chef be a junk-food addict? The more Blake Cocharan learned about Summer Lyndon, dessert chef extradinaire, the more intrigued he became-and the more determined he was to hire her.Blake wanted the best, and Summer looked extremly good to him. Her superb credentials were the icing on the cake. Summeer was accustomed to traveling around the world, creating the pefect ending to perfect meals. But Blake had a unique appeal. Summer found herself responding to the challenge, both professionally.. and personally. For the first time, Summer was creating a meal from start to finish-and creating a perfect ending all her own.

Delhi has laid claim to be the capital of India since the earliest days of Aryan civilisation in the great North Indian plain. Rajput kings and Muslim invaders alike have built large planned cities and strong fortifications. Delhi has attracted many because of its strategic location: defended to the west and south by quartzite ridges that are the last spurs of the Aravalli ranges and to the east by the great Yamuna river, which has also ensured it plentiful water. To the east lies the fertile Gangetic plain and to the west the rich lands of Punjab with its five rivers. From Delhi pressure can also be exerted to the south on Ajmer, the gateway to the Rajput kingdoms. No fewer than 15 cities had been built on this spot beforethe British rulers of India decided to move capital here. By doing so they wanted to lay claim not only to the vanished Mughal empire, which had its brilliant court in the Red Fort in the heart of the city of Shahjehanabad on a site northward of Delhi, but also impress upon the people that they were the legitimate heirs to the great empires which had ruled from this spot. Imperial Delhi, then, was to, from thebeginning, be a city that would awe the beholder. It was to be the expression of British might in India, of its stable policies and enlightened views, and of its respect for law, order, reason and tolerence. It was also to be a city that would in its architecture display a synthesis of Classical and Indian design elements, thereby symbolising the progress and harmony that was to be had out of co-operation with the rulers. This book is one of the finest chronicles of the process of planning New Delhi and its principal monuments. It covers the original vision for the city, several alternate sites and plans, and the eventual outcome of the co-operation between Lutyens and Baker. New Delhi's systematic lay-out is the highest evolution of rational principles. The Vicregal Palace together with the Secretariat blocks occupies the highest point- Raisina hill. In defence of !this site Lutyens quoted from the Bible ' the city on the hill cannot be hid'. A great east-west axis- the Kingsway- proceeds from Raisina to the Yamuna and the oldest city of all Indraprastha. Wide green lawns, straight avenues of trees and long reflecting pools border this principal axis. The Kingsway is cut at right angles by the other axis of the city- the Queensway. At the heart of the city stood a statue of the King-Emperor, while arrayed around the hexagon around it that delineated Prince's Park, were the palaces of the Maharaja's friendly to the British. The whole thus expressed a rational, well-planned city, where the Viceregal Palace symbolised the paramountcy of the British empire over the native rulers, who affirmed their loyalty to the King. With its wide, straight, tree lined boulevards the city has often been compared to Haussman's Paris. The resemblance is strengthened by the enormous All-India War Memorial Arch that stands in Prince's Park, astride the Kingsway. Its proportions and outline recall the Arc de Triomphe and the whole is remniscent of the Champs Elysee. Meanwhile Lutyens evolved a style that could truly lay claim to the brilliance of Indian decorative elements while espousing for its overall form the simplicity and strength of Classical Greek architecture. His sandstone buildings are simple and massive, shunning excessive decoration for a nobler expression. Restrained and fused to these solid buildings are decorative elements from the three principle Indian cultures, Hindu, Muslim, and Buddhist. Lutyens deliberately avoided an ' Indian style' because he felt that there was none such- each ruler had merely imposed his conventions and indeed Indian buildings are modest in their structure and ground-plans. Most cover this up with a profusion of decorative elements, but again Lutyens shunned this over-richness for a more austere and formal style. This was also necessitated by the raging controversy over whether Delhi should have a Muslim or Hindu architecture, which threatened to ! incite communal riots. Insofar as Lutyens borrows form Indian structures it is from Buddhist stupas such as the one at Sanchi, for their bold simple lines struck a chord. For the rest, the wealth of floral and geometric patterns, not to speak of animal carvings that India has produced are subtly woven into the whole. This book covers the entire history of the evolution of New Delhi. I recommend it for the wealth of plans and lay-outs it has, as well as some of Lutyen's original designs for the Viceroy's palace. It should appeal to all those with an interest in city planning or in the architecture that Lutyen's promoted which sadly did not outlive him. It is unique in that it neither gets bogged down in academic discussions of what city-planning ought to be, of the needs of developing nations or of indigenous design requirements, nor is it a glossy picture book of Delhi's 'sights'. It is a well-paced, thorough book that evokes the image that the planner's of Delhi had in their minds- of a grand city, that a nation that considered itself to be the heir to the Roman Empire would be proud to build. Perhaps the only shortcomings of this book are that it does not display all the plans that are discussed nor does it indicate which ones the text is referring to. This means that one has to often read very carefully and try to make a plan fit a description. This difficulty could very easily have been obviated. Secondly, while much of Delhi eventually remained on paper, it would have been worthwile to display and discuss those structures that never got built. The rapid decline of the British Empire meant that Delhi remained an unfinished city, and I was particularly looking for insights into the Delhi that might have been, the institutions, hospitals, libraries, museums, offices that were doubtless intended to fill in the capital and continue and irrevocably establish Lutyen's claim to an imperial architecture for India. While Delhi remained unfinished, this book need not have and from a historical chronicle could! have continued into the imaginary realm of the Delhi that was envisioned, the Delhi that was to be the second city of the Empire after London, the Delhi that might have been.

This is a very interesting book. You're thrown into the story from the first letter and are really not given much background information on who Martin is writing to. What we get instead is an interesting tour through aspects of medieval life. It is told through the viewpoint of Martin, an illustrator and former monk. Martin describes various aspects of his daily life, a trip to a quarry, intrigues at an unnamed medieval court and his early life in a very strange monastery. Martin is a gay man and we do see that aspect of his life but it isn't the dominant focus of the story. If you like a different view told in an authentically medieval voice, this is it.

I always enjoyed Nora Roberts, and I always liked reading an author's earlier works to sort of see how their writing has evolved. This is another one of her reprints, and so it is rather more romancy and straitforward, without the depth of her later works. However, I still found both stories entirely enjoyable, if rather light. Plus I always wondered about what exactly was going on in the kitchens of pricey high class restaurants.
Summer Deserts- When famous desserts chef Summer Lyndon ends up agreeing to run the kitchen of an upscale Philadelphia restaraunt for the charming Blake Cochran, sparks explode as these two headstrong people clash repeatedly. Summer is fun and down to earth, and just what Blake needs. A highly entertaining romp full of bickering chefs and a very interesting set of parents.
Lessons Learned- When publicist Juliet Trent, a goal oriented, practical, modern day, and very ambitious career woman, with a weakness for shoes, lands a three week promotional book tour for Carlo Fanconi's newest cookbook, she just knows hes going to be trouble. Good old Carlo, equally famous as both lover and chef, takes one look at Juliet and is determined to teach her all about loving, and maybe a bit about cooking too! Carlo is charming, Juliet is totally easy to sympathise with, from her weakness for wonderful shoes, to her exasperation with helpless authors, department store workers, and erporters. A thoroughly engaging story.

This is another one of those reprints of early Nora Roberts, so if you are not a big fan of category romance, you might want to skip it. I enjoyed these two books. I thought her writing style was not as solid and polished as it was in later books, but still, I found these books to be entertaining. There is no suspense just the story of two couples falling in love.
In the first, Summer Desserts, pastry chef Summer gets tangled up with hotel owner Blake. I did find the obstacle keeping these two apart a little contrived. The book was interesting and kept my attention, but after it was over, I didn't find myself anxious to read it again.
The second novel is about Summer's friend Carlo. He is also a chef, and he is on a book signing tour to publicize his latest cookbook. He wants to help publicist Juliet loosen up and discover romance. Carlos is definitely a hero worthy of Nora Roberts. He manages to be chauvanistic and liberated, laid back and intense, and of course sexy as well. This book had me laughing. Of the two, I think this one is funnier. I expect to find myself reading it more often, but I am glad to have both to round out my collection.

This is another reprint of two of Nora Robert's older titles, Summer Desserts and Lessons Learned. I really like these books a lot, especially considering a lot of her reprinted stories aren't as good as you would expect them to be considering they come from Nora Roberts. This reissue on the other hand is excellent (in my humble opinion.)

Summer Desserts is the first of the two stories and it involves dessert chef Summer Lyndon. The hero, Blake Cocharan, wants Summer to come work at his new hotel kitchen in Philadelphia. They meet and instant sexual attraction. But of course they fight it, but Blake is willing to concede that he wants Summer, and proposes. Unfortunately Summer has so of her own issues from growing up that have to be resolved first before we see a happy ending. Definitely a good read, and will probably make you want to go and eat something sweet.

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Lessons Learned involves Carlo Franconi, Summer's best friend, and his publicist for his new Italian cook book, Juliet Trent. Juliet knows of Carlo only as a playboy chef, a womanizer in some aspects. She doesn't want to get to know the actual man. But, Carlo, a great male hero in my opinion, shows Juliet that he is much more than the facade that he puts out to other women. He wants her to trust him, but Juliet can't. He falls in love with her, and she with him, but she is still afraid, and in the end, some strife occurs. But, I really liked this story nonetheless.

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Both of these stories are very good I think. I loved the whole romance and food theme. Desserts and Italian food are both very romantic topics, and Nora Roberts writes about them well in these two novels. Definitely a great addition to any romance collection.