I read James Herriot's first four books when I was a child. Now in my 30's, I recently picked up his fifth book. I was struck by how these stories are ostensibly about animals, but say vastly more about their human owners and the need for companionship. Herriot's writing style is appropriately simple and unadorned, which atcually helps increase the impact of his stories. However, his writing can be a bit at times. There really is not a plot, just a selection of stories from his years as a a vet and resident of a small Yorkshire town.

Unfortunately, he jumps around in time a bit too much (from 1947 to the mid-1950s). For example, he includes journal passages from trips he has taken as a vet escorting animals for sale to other countries. These stories are fairly interesting, but don't really belong here and are interspersed between all the other stories, further leading to a lack of context. Overall, a worthwhile, but flawed book that is significantly buoyed by Herriot's obvious love of animals and their owners.

James Herriot once again takes you on a magical journey through his whimsical hamlet of Yorkshire Dales, stealing your heart at every stop along the way. Anyone who picks up this book will be immediately captivated by the depth of love and respect for animals that embodies all of Herriot's books. Every character you meet, be it human or animal, will tug your heartstrings in a manner that you never expected from such a humble book whose clear honesty parallels that of the other books in an unforgettable series. You don't have to be an animal crazed lover like me to enjoy the simple joys of this book- it is definitely a cherished read, you won't regret it!

James Herriot is a remarkable author. He proves this once again in the last of his set of novels, The Lord God Made Them All. In it Herriot tells us maore heartwarming tales of his life as a Yorkshire veterinarian. He writes very down to earth, which allows readers to relate to his stories very well. Especially in this book. Herriot not only writes about his experiences as a vet , but about becoming a father, and experiences he has while his children are young. An old client of Herriot once tells him, "Aye, there's no doubt about it, when your children are young and growin' up around ye- that's when it's best. It's the same for everybody, only a lot o'folk don't know it and a lot find out when it's too late."(369) James also writes about his voyage to Russia on a freighter with a bunch of pedigree sheep. And his journey to Istanbul which was supposed to be luxurous and relaxing. Needless to say, it was far from that. Nevertheless, as in all his stories, Herriot is able to turn them around to make us laugh and fill us with wisdom. After reading the book, I have aquired a better apprecition of life, and high hopes for the future. You can't help but think that way when he ends the book with the words, "....there are great days ahead!"

My oldest daughter, now 10, loved this book when she was small. We read it over and over. In fact, I can still quote passages! We read it so many times it fell apart. I am buying again it so she can give it to her little sister for her first birthday. I am sure my soon-to-be 1-year-old also will love it.

No, you can't tell from the illustrations what these creatures are, but it really doesn't matter. Children's books are about getting kids excited about reading. This helped to do that for my older daughter. And I hope it will do that for my baby as well.

This really needs to be back in print!

...
Million Chameleons is one of the best kids books around. My daughter is just two and we borrowed the book from the local library. In the 2 weeks we had it it was read enough for myself and my wife to commit it to memory word for word. As my little girl then spent a week asking for the book every evening and looking sad when we said it had gone back I have spent the last few days tracking a copy down (Successfully!).
Realistic illustrations? Of Chameleons water skiing and riding on a merry go round? Yeah.. right.. OK so they look like coloured blobs but Maisy loves em and we do too. ...
If your kids are under five buy this book... if they are not... buy it anyway for the grandchildren while you still can. It's a classic.

Out of the thousands of books I read to my two children when they were little, this book is one of the best. The kids LOVED it, wanted to hear it over and over again. It's cute and very clever in its rhyming, having the little chameleons turn different colors with each adventure. Doesn't matter if your kids like chameleons, or even know what one looks like. This book is fun to read, and is one of those rare children's books that is not painful for adults to repeat daily for several years. It's a definite keeper!

This book is based on a high school basketball star going into a college league playing with peers that have skills that match his and some even greater. This book shows determination and ambition can get you far as it did to Sonny, a basketball player that doesn't want fame but wants to play the game of basketball. Although the cursing level is a bit high, this book may be a great book to all readers.

...Sonny Youngblood, a high-school all american shoots 100 free throws after every practice. Thats why he is the best. Sonny Youngblood is a Freshman at Southern Illinois Universtiy. His potential on the basketball floor is amazing. The book is about how his life is in SIU. This book is the best book I have ever read. Its got great excitiment and I can never put it down. If you have not read this book I suggest you do because you'll be on the edge of your chair when the buzzer goes off.

Snell: "Did you shoot free throws after pracice?"

Sonny:"What d'you think?"

Snell: "How many?"

Sonny: "What d'you think?"

Snell: "hundred right?"

Sonny: "Yeah"

Snell: "How many did you make?"

Sonny: "I just told you."

Snell: "So you shot a hundred and made a hundred?

Sonny Youngblood, a high-school all american shoots 100 free throws after every practice. Thats why he is the best. Sonny Youngblood is a Freshman at Southern Illinois Universtiy. He's potential on the basketball floor is amazing. The book is about how his life is in SIU. This book is the best book I have ever read. Its got great excitiment and I can never put it down. If you have not read this book I suggest you do beacause you'll be on the edge of your chair when the buzzer goes off.

I have read nearly every thing that James Lee Burke has written. I like and admire his use of descriptive words. This book, however, was not nearly as good as his Dave Robicheaux books. His discriptions were just as poetic, his intensity just as good, but I guess I just didn't like the story as much and couldn't relate to the characters as well as with his other books. But it was an interesting read and if you are a Burke fan, I would recommend this one.

This book reminds us of what in music is called a "tone poem". The melodies and harmonies swirl in an entertaining, sometimes captivating, pattern; but when it's all over, it doesn't amount to much that's memorable. We wanted to read this novel to possibly cure ourselves of our disappointment with one of Burke's Dave Robicheaux mysteries. Our findings of that one ("Cadillac Jukebox") was that his imagery surely is vivid, but his skills in developing the plot and populating it with just the right number of support characters were lacking. That tends to kill a mystery, which after all must have a story with a somewhat logical structure.

In "Boogie", we do feel the drama category works better for Burke. The mind pictures he draws, especially of the Montana landscape where leading man Iry heads after getting a parole transfer out of his native Louisiana, continue to exhibit's Burke's mastery of descriptive prose. Alas, the plot is still not as strong as we might like, although the sheer drama of his story doesn't require the pace and form of a mystery. We found it difficult to empathize with the beer-swilling, guilt-laden brawlers generally depicted herein. But get by the alcohol content, and there is on display a fair degree of understanding the human condition. Interesting that this book was both nominated for a Pulitzer after publication, but (according to Burke's own web site) was rejected first by over 100 publishers!

After we read the Robicheaux book, we opined: Burke is probably better at drama, and he is. We think he might excel at poetry -- wonder if he's ever tried his hand at that? As with the musical counterpart, we probably wouldn't remember his "melody and harmony" per se, but would settle for the slide show he can create with words to go with our coffee and red wine.

This is a wonderful book-perhaps the best I've read in a number of years. It is powerful and tragic, yet humorous at times. Iry is likeable, in spite of his history and the fact that he has made a cuckold out of Buddy. Buddy is bent on self-destruction, and Iry is concerned with self-preservation. The conflict between Beth and Mr. Riordan is never clear to me, but that is the only weakness I found in the book. This book is haunting and exhausting. The ending is somwhat hopeful, in spite of past tragedies. I strongly recommend this book.

A very entertaining read that caught my eye and I couldn't put it down. Pratt weaves a unique story of love, life in the 50-60's and Vietnam. I found the story to be a real page turner and Pratt's simple but effective prose worked wonders. The life of Levi especially during the war was very well done and the characters were colorful and personable yet also innocent at times. The story itself is a compelling tale yet unrealistic at times the story reads extremely fast. I ploughed through it in a couple hours and I am not a fast reader. Each page kept me going. My only problem with the story was it's Hollywood style happy ending. Filled with grief, mourning, and hardships throughout I was shocked to see that in the end Pratt briefly wraps it all up in a simplistic manner and over the course of only a couple pages. had the ending been more realistic and thoroughly portrayed I would have given it a 5 star rating.

Absolutely a must read for those hopeless romantics that enjoy shedding a tear here and there. As always, James Michael Pratt touched my heart through his story of Paradise Bay. The characters in his stories are so life-like and portray deep emotional feelings, as real-life so often does. He creates his characters and shares their innermost thoughts so that by the time you are just pages into his story you can almost feel yourself as one of the characters themselves. I picked up his first book, The Last Valentine, in paperback at a local store several years ago. . .since then, I anxiously anticipate his next arrival! He goes on my "best reads" list with Nicholas Sparks, Kristin Hannah, and Debbie Macomber. His books are fit for anyone to read--very clean and heartful! Don't miss out!

When I saw this book, I did judge it by the cover, and I thought it would be a pretty good book. So checked it out from the local library and read it. I have to say, I couldn't keep it down, I kept reading till I was done. This book keept me reading from cover to cover. This is an amazingly written book, the idea and plot is unthinkable. This book is worth reading, infact it's worth owning. It would be a pleasure to read it over and over again, which is why I reccomend this book. Rating this book five stars was a mistake, it should be ratied ten stars or a hundred stars, or infinity stars. So if you are looking for a fantastically-great-full of adventure-never put down to stop type of book to read, I more than recommend this book.

This fabulous book is about a kitchen slave named Carrie, who worked in Sam Fraunce's Tavern for as long as she can remember. After Carrie gets kidnapped and almost sold off to the West Indies, she realizes that she doesn't even know her own last name, or who her true family was.When Carrie's long time friend Dan Arabus comes to town, they talk about how Dan has alomost $300 in "notes" because Dan's father Jack Arabus fought in the Revolutionary War. So basically a "note" is an I OWE YOU from the Government.Jack Arabus died fighting in the Revolution so Dan got all of his fathers notes.
After talking to Dan, Carrie decides that she really has got to find out who she is, and if she is a slave or not.Once I finished reading this beutiful Historical Fiction Novel I then realized the hardships of slavery. I would recommend this book to all ages and bothe males, and females because this book was easy to understand, yet it was somewhat hard to read with the old 1800's accents and dialects of the Northern Colonies. Also elders would would probably remeber a little about slavery because this went on until the 1950's, ofcourse it was not as bad as it was in the 1800's but still slavery was indeed around then, so they could have a great time reading this book about how slavery was in the 1800's compared to the 1950's. I had to rate this book a four and one half stars because it was just a mystery until the very end and this just made me want to read it more and more so I could find out who carrie was and if she was a slave or not. Now you know how good of a book this was, and you should read it, and trust me, you will be more than happy that you read this amazing part of American History.

I think this book was great .The author did a wonderful job of adding history to his story. my favorite character was carrie because she was brave and snecky. she was so cool.

James, and Christopher Collier describe this period in history perfectly. This is not like other boring books that the last twenty-three pages of the book you finally start to get into it. This book captures you from the first sentence and doesn't let you go tell the last word. Then you still want to know what happens to her. Although this book is historical-fiction. Alot of it is true.

Well, It was a very extremely interesting
book. But, the only thing that disappointed
me about this book is that There Wasn't enough
Teenage Romance in the Book Between Justine &
Carl To tell you the truth when they were
having a pizza party i thought for starter's
that was pretty lame. They should've had a real party
for Maddie's going away party, with booz & cool music
not that i'm an alcoholic i'm just more in favour of
real partie's u know. Also I think Maddie Shoul've started

going out with Carl as soon as she broke up with Nathan i
think she did break up with him, but never took the chance
to ask Carl if he would go out with her at that time, Carl would've truly cared for her cause that's the kinda guy he is
a Sweet, Caring person that deserved more in life. Carl's mum dying in the novel just ruined the whole story, i think anyway, he should've been able to find her, she should've called more and wrote letter's to at least let her kids know that she loved them, missed them, to see how things were and that she was coming back as soon as she sorted things out for herself and accepted the fact that she had kids to take care of now she can't just abandon them like that it's just terrible. Well
that's just my opinion anyway, i'm in year10, i love reading books especially by 'James Moloney' he's got the gift to just be a writer and goes on with life the way he wants to. I'm only 16 but i've a pretty fair idea what i'm gonna do when i'm a fully

matured adult, so if anyone think's that 'James Moloney' or anyone doesn't have the gift to be what they wanna be then they're just jealous that they have no idea what they're gonna be when their fully grown mature adults, or maybe they're just jealous that they can't be more like the rest of us an plan ahead like we do sometimes. anyway this was a pretty good book so i recommend that anybody that loves or likes books to just borrow it from the library or better yet buy, who knows you might learn something from it about your life and the way your living it!

We are Year 9 students from Essington School, Darwin. We read the book, A Bridge to Wiseman's Cove for English. 99.9% of our class thought it was excellent as it showed us the struggle of a teenage boy who didn't have any family, but he still clung on to life and became independent and responsible within his local community. Our class recommends this book for any year 9 english class, so bribe your teacher.

I read this book in one of my English classes and loved it. The relationships between the characters were just so... real. I recommend this book to any book lover between the ages of 12 and 80.

Believe me, this is a good book. But, I don't feel comfortable with the way Dean is protrayed. Gilmore seems to make James out to be a whore... [...] The only bisexual reference he makes about Dean is the relationship HE had with him. There is a lot more in this book about his career than his sexual life...don't be fooled...its done well. All I can say is, if this is how James Dean really was (and he might have been) I lost just a little respect for him. Nothing to do with his sexual identity just some things he said about people ect... but...the truth hurts and at times, so does this book.

As an avid James Dean fan and bio reader, I pick up most all of his bios and try them out. This one definitely ranks up there with some of the best. It is told by a Very close friend of Jimmy's and goes into exacting detail about character traits of the brilliant star. Though it is absolutely not your "typical" biography in a objective sense-because it can't be-it may be a better insight for that reason. The gritty reality imposed by this book is palpable; literally! You will watch Jimmy through some of the closest eyes ever to reflect his image. A Must Read for true fans.

I loved this book, was not shocked by anything his "best friend" Gilmore had to tell us. It's the sort of stuff I'd heard about for years, and it was fun to finally hear about Jimmy through the eyes of someone who actually knew him. Jimmy was a "bad boy" for sure, I got a kick out of it. It's extremely well written and I'd recommend this to any Dean fan (who isn't a complete prude).

The publisher says that this book is appropriate for grade 6-12. I disagree. While I feel the book is well written and informative - I strongly suggest that educators think twice before putting the book in an elementary school library.
Perhaps have it available in case an advanced 6th grader has a need for detailed information regarding the topics.
My 9 year old - 4th grade son brought the book home from school yesterday. While AIDS is an important subject for him to learn about - I do not feel that the details of specific high-risk sexual contact needs to be available to him at his age.
I feel the book would be more appropriate for grades 9-12.

This book was fun to read and it was really easy to get a book report out of.

We read this book in class and it is an excellent source of information as well as interesting, and offers all points of view on each "plague" as well as the facts. Covers a lot on the little known parts, and victims of AIDS, and a short kind of Bio on Ryan White.

Two disclaimers for this review: 1, this was my first P.D. James novel. 2, I believe that Agatha Christie was the goddess of all mystery writing.
I am used to a body within the first few pages, and letting Hercule Poirot deduce things from there until the solution is provided. However, there are no bodies until 80 pages into the book, and most of the discussion includes things that Dalgliesh brings out later with witnesses anyway, making them redundant.
Also confusing was James's apparent escape from reality with character names. Some are completely absurd, like the characters names "Makepeace" and "Gotobed." Combining words into names detracts from the proposed seriousness of the situation.

This book is much heavier than a true murder mystery, and the decision comes down to this: whether you want a true murder mystery, where you follow facts and psychology in the attempt to deduce the murderer, or whether you want a deeper novel -- a P.D. James novel -- where, along with the murder, time is spent reflecting on life and the world in a more philosophical fashion.

P.D. James' work occasionally collapses under its own weight as the author strains to combine psychological novel with crafty murder mystery--but DEATH OF AN EXPERT WITNESS shows the writer at her best, creating a memorable setting in rural England, a host of very believable characters, and a complex plot, with all aspects of the work coming together in seamless fashion.

Dr. Lorrimer is a forensic scientist employed at a police laboratory, well respected by the scientific community and a bastion of authority in the witness box. Unfortunately, he is also a singularly unpleasant man: bitter at being passed over for promotion, petty in his dealings with underlings, vindictive in his personal relationships. So it is hardly surprising when he is murdered--but the circumstances are something of a shock: he is clubbed to death in the middle of his own laboratory, a situation that seems to indicate one or more of his co-workers is involved. And Chief Inspector Dalgliesh has an abundance of suspects from which to select.

James' detective Dalgliesh is a rather dour creation, and in some James novels he can become a tiresome companion--but here James balances his darkness against the demands of the overall novel to considerable effect. The result is a stylish, atmospheric work with an intelligent plot and a satisfying conclusion--a book to keep mystery fans sitting up all night. Recommended.

P.D. James fittingly wears the crown as "queen of the mystery writers"! And in "Death of an Expert Witness" the title is clearly shown and deserved. Again, James brings in Chief Inspector Adam Dalgleish of Scotland Yard, and once again, this venerable, brilliant, and honorable investigator is in good form. James usually presents a model in human behavior--she's good at this--and gives Dalgleish the full run to work out the inconsistencies, the red herrings, and finally the truth of the case. Dr. Lorrimer is a cold, efficient, dislikeable scientist; now he is a cold, efficient, and dislikeable corpse. Dalgleish must find out why he was killed--and it is more than merely because he was disliked. What did he know that panicked his murderer? After all, he was cold, efficient, dislikeable, and very knowledgeable, "an expert witness," as it were. Bring along a dictionary, as James' vocabulary is challenging--but not distracting--and her works are refreshingly intelligent and worth the effort it may take!(Billyjhobbs@tyler.net)