Guilty Pleasures (Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter: Book 1)

Amazon.com

Anita Blake may be small and young, but vampires call her the Executioner. Anita is a necromancer and vampire hunter in a time when vampires are protected by law--as long as they don't get too nasty. Now someone's killing innocent vampires and Anita agrees--with a bit of vampiric arm-twisting--to help figure out who and why.

Trust is a luxury Anita can't afford when her allies aren't human. The city's most powerful vampire, Nikolaos, is 1,000 years old and looks like a 10-year-old girl. The second most powerful vampire, Jean-Claude, is interested in more than just Anita's professional talents, but the feisty necromancer isn't playing along--yet. This popular series has a wild energy and humor, and some very appealing characters--both dead and alive.

Book Description

Published over ten years ago by Ace, Guilty Pleasures marked the debut of a series that was destined to grow from cult favorite to a major New York Times bestseller. Now, for long-time Anita Blake junkies and newfound fans, Guilty Pleasures makes its trade paperback debut. Readers will learn how Anita Blake started raising the dead-and killing the undead. And how she met Jean Claude, the master vampire destined to become not only her biggest nemesis, but her greatest lover...

Download Description

Published almost ten years ago, Guilty Pleasures marked the debut of a writer who was destined to grow from cult favorite to a major bestselling author. Now, for long-time Anita Blake aficionados and newfound fans, Guilty Pleasures makes its hardcover debut. Readers will learn how Anita Blake started raising the dead--and killing the undead. And how she met Jean Claude, the master vampire destined to become not only her biggest nemesis, but her greatest lover.

Customer Reviews:

Worth Reading.......2007-09-16

I originally picked up this book in order to start to get into the world of Anita Blake, since it seems to be so popular lately. Unfortunately, I think that the writing style is a little too straightforward - there aren't enough plot twists, at least not in this first novel, for me to really maintain absolute interest. That said, it is interesting, and I did enjoy the overall plot. It's worth reading, but definitely not worth all of the hype attributed to the series...hopefully the plots get a little better as the series progresses.

Very Good Speculative Fiction.......2007-08-29

Guilty Pleasures was a very interesting book, a very good example of speculative fiction. It is set in a universe that is similar to ours, but the supernatural aspects are in the open. Vampires, Zombies, and other creatures are an accepted fact.

It is also the first book, at this point both chronologically and in published order, in the Anita Blake series.

Anita is the heroine, an animator (one who raises zombies) who just so happens to be the official vampire executioner of Missouri, and an important part of the Regional Preternatural Investigation Team. Vampires have rights, so she needs a warrant to execute a vampire, and a warrant can only be obtained officially.

Vampires in this world, at least in the United States, have rights, but they are still vampires. They are monsters, but at least they are not one-dimensional monsters, and the book starts with the vampires needing Anita's help.

You see, someone has been killing vampires, and the vampires don't quite trust the police to find out who it is. From there, the action starts. You see the vampires don't quite like Anita either, but since they believe they can coerce her to do so, they set the plans in action. Guilty Pleasures is also a strip club, for vampires, owned by a vampire named Jean Claude, and the site of the true start of the action involving the Master (vampire) of the city.

In the book Anita is bounced between vampires and assassins and voodoo practitioners, and embroiled in the political maneuverings of vampires, all in the effort to protect a friend, protect herself, and solve a mystery that she would rather not have to deal with.

This is a book I would strongly recommend to almost anyone interested in science fiction, fantasy, or mysteries. Fans of horror may find Guilty Pleasures a bit of a light offering. I also think this may be a bit mature for young readers, especially if they tend to follow up on series. Overall I greatly enjoyed the book and think it is one of the better alternate universe settings in fiction today.

Great book...lots of potential.......2007-08-28

So I needed a Vamp fix after Black Dagger Brotherhood (best series I have read so far action, drama, passion, romance ...the works). So I decided to check out Anita Blake, it was not what I expected there has been no romance, or steamy scenes of any kind so far Im on book 3....but I AM NOT disappointed the action and drama is fast paced. I love a cycnical kick @$$ chick. I bought the first 11 and intend to read them all. It's a great series, very gory, gritty, and abit scary I LUV it;)Hard to stop reading once you start!

Super Reader.......2007-08-26

The start of an interesting series. Anita Blake must balance her life between being a vampire hunter, and a legally licensed one at that, a private necromancer, and her own repressed catholic schoolgirl self.

With all this to do she finds it hard to have healthy relationships, but she is good at solving crimes that relate to the supernatural population, and putting an end to their unlives permanently, if necessary.

not for the young or squeemish.......2007-08-24

Imagine a world where vampires,werewolves, and other monsters are real and that they have been given citizenship. That is the world in which Guilty Pleasures thrusts us. Guilty Pleasures is the first book in Laurell Hamilton's Anita Blake series, also the name of a vampire strip club.

This first book follows Anita Blake through some very close and sometimes messy encounters with vampires as she tracks down a serial killer that is targeting vampires. She is tricked into helping the master of the city to hunt this serial killer.

First of all, this world is much like ours but some may say it is an alternate universe, one where vampires, werewolves, zombies, and all manner of other supernatural creatures are commonplace. I try to think of it as the real world.

Anita is a petite yet deadly young woman who makes her living as a zombie raiser and licenced vampire killer (hence her nickname; the Vampires call her The Executioner, a name she wears with pride).

While the book is a bit short in some ways, Hamilton's writing is very nice, and descriptive. While there is ALOT graphic violence and sexual innuendo, it is much more of an adventure story than it is of horror.

I especially liked...

The way you were thrown into it. I honestly thought that this was not the first novel. I looked for one before this but ther was none. There was not a lot of explaining like most first novels tend to do.

I didn't like...

How short it was,it is the shortest of the the series, 14 more books have appeared for a total of 15 I think...

When I finished reading this Book I wanted to...

Read the next book and tell all my friends about it.

This Book made me feel...

Thankful that it was only a novel and not the real world. I would hate to meet any of the characters in a dark alley.

The author of this Book...

Is one of my favorites and has been ever since I read this book. although her recent stuff is just vampire soft porn. but this 1st book is one of the best.

I recommend this Book because...

If you like Buffy the Vampire Slayer and things with a bit of humor in it then this is the book for you.

The New Eighteenth-Century Style: Rediscovering a French Décor

Average customer rating:

Love that shabby chic French style!
Lovely book
Dangerous Liasons
Fabulous Book!
French Flea Market (if you like that look)

The New Eighteenth-Century Style: Rediscovering a French Décor
Michele Lalande
Manufacturer: "Harry N. Abrams, Inc."
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Architecture | Professional & Technical | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 0810954966

Book Description

Whoever said “Everything old is new again” could have been talking about French Pompadour Style. The flamboyant, opulent, refined aesthetic—so characteristic of the eighteenth century—has enjoyed a spectacular revival in recent years. In The New Eighteenth-Century Style, journalist Michèle Lalande and photographer Gilles Trillard, both experts in the field of interior décor, survey 30 examples of this quintessential blending of exquisite detail and ostentatious affluence. From lush velvet upholstery to the emblematic use of turquoise with gold accents, these perfectly captured interiors beguile the reader with well-worn extravagance. In an era of “shabby chic” the more refined, more pristine accents of Pompadour may be just what the world of interior décor needs—and this beautiful book provides an indispensable guide.

Customer Reviews:

Love that shabby chic French style!.......2007-06-01

An absolutely smashing book, full of details. After all, it is the details that make the room finishesd and unique. This is a classic look in my way of thinking, but then again, it is my style! A decorator by trade, I am always open to new concepts, and I found the book to offer many different perspectives on the same style, pages after pages of them. Excellent book layout and design, and wonderful photography.

Lovely book.......2007-04-04

I'm an artist & antique collector and not an interior designer by trade, so I am totally enjoying this book. I find it to be a lovely book full of great photography and many interesting details to spark one's imagination. Regardless of the fact that all the styles are not necessarily my own taste, the book as a whole is great fun to look at and I found it inspiring. Each time I looked at a room, I found some new little detail that I'd missed the first time around. It made me itch to re-vamp a room, stat, and I consider anything that inspires me or makes me feel creative money well spent.

Dangerous Liasons.......2007-02-09

This is a pretty, pretty book with lots of great stuff to look it, lots of interesting vignettes. It's French shabby, chippy _hit, uh, I mean chic. This was a great trend in the mid 1990's here in the USA before Rachel A. made shabby and chic a brand. Big style on a budget using detrius no one wanted. And it was cheap back then. Just took a can of white paint to chic up everything.
These French 18th century and 18th century inspired objets in this book, are not cheap. They are shabby and they are beautiful. The vignettes look like the Broadway stage set for the play Dangerous Liasons - decay, messy, artful, romantic, monochromatic and mad.
Like many decor books, the vignettes are impossible to see as life like - like does anyone really live in these vignettes. Still, they are beautiful to look at. The new 18th century style is a little like the new emperor's clothes. Smoke and mirrors to the highest degree of accomplishment. Get this book for the fun of it.

Fabulous Book! .......2006-11-18

If you're style is that of a Paris flea market, the bazaar in Bombay or a eclectic old shop somewhere in Eastern Europe, you'll love this book. Great photography; the individualism of each space comes through with color and texture. My new favorite. The highlight is more photos of the Stockholm attic apartment, which is a true style icon.

French Flea Market (if you like that look).......2006-11-02

More like Madame Pompadour is probably rolling over in her grave. I hope to goodness gracious that this isn't the new 18th century style. If you like 18th century style on a seriously tight budget then you may enjoy this book. It's full of pages of colorless 'schemes', seriously abused furniture and icy cold lighting. Was it all photographed in rooms with Northern exposure? The editors of Veranda will love this book. I am an interior designer who collects period 18th century furniture and art. I have truly studied 18th century furniture, decorative arts and customs for years and this is a popular look although I find it horribly depressing. On the positive side - the photography in this book is very well done. If you like French flea market 'junk' then you'll love this. I gave it a 4 vs. a 2 because the quality of the book is excellent and the photography is excellent but much of my disdain for this book is from this horrendous & prevalent style that I wish would go away.

The Most Beautiful Libraries in the World

Average customer rating:

Read it first, bought it later
the title says it all
An invaluable book
Beautiful Libraries
Gret serice

The Most Beautiful Libraries in the World
Guillaume de Laubier , Jacques Bosser , and Laurel Hirsch (translator)
Manufacturer: Harry N. Abrams
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Architecture | Professional & Technical | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 0810946343

Book Description

All of the libraries in the world-whether small or large, public or private-serve the same purpose: to preserve, cherish, or show off the riches of human knowledge. Now, for the first time, an internationally renowned photographer takes the reader on a journey to more than 20 of the most historic of these magical places, all architectural treasures. From the dramatic, baroque Library of the Institut de France in Paris, to the splendid Vatican Library in Rome; from the majestic Royal Library in El Escorial, Spain, to the famed New York Public Library, a Beaux-Arts masterpiece-here are some of the most exquisite libraries of the Western world.

Included are national, scholarly, and religious libraries from 12 countries, which have in common a distinguished heritage and an architectural setting that emphasizes art and culture. The accompanying text traces the history of libraries to the present day, and describes how they came to serve famous personalities and men of letters. Libraries must be counted among civilization's crowning achievements; this elegant book is a fitting tribute to that accomplishment.

Customer Reviews:

Read it first, bought it later.......2007-05-29

I had read the book as part of a reading list assignment. Liked it so much, I decided to buy it as a gift for an old friend who is now enjoying it also.

the title says it all.......2007-04-14

The great libraries of history have endured such vicissitudes of fortune through the centuries - destruction by revolution, war and fire, dispersal through pilfering, confiscation, monastic decline, loss of patronage - & perhaps the unkindest cut of all, at one point the sale of its books by Oxford University to pay the librarian's wages. It is truly astonishing that so much has survived. This book is a celebration of 23 of these unique and beautiful cathedrals of knowledge in America and Europe.

At a time when most of his subjects were illiterate, the Austrian Habsburg Charles VI created the Hofbibliothek in Vienna. He decreed that its doors be open to (almost) everyone; they could enter free of charge and as often as they wished, but there were a few exceptions: the library was off limits to "ignoramuses, servants, idlers, talkers and gawkers." Alas, the Hofbibliothek is no longer free and, like many libraries included in this book, it is now accessible only to a favoured few.

Indeed, the closest most of us will ever get to the Hofbibliothek or the 22 other great libraries enshrined in its pages is through this book, and for this reason alone, it belongs in the book-lover's collection. There is a brief history of each library, but the real attraction is the spectacular colour photography, including several "gatefold" pages which open to provide wonderful panoramic views nearly 3 feet wide.

Next to the awe-inspiring magnificence of Hofbibliothek, the white and gold Baroque splendour of the Benedictine Abbey Library of Admont in Austria rivals the gold and marble Rococco opulence of the Monastic Library of Wiblingen near Ulm Germany, although after secularisation the latter lost most of its vast book collection.

Another Baroque wonder is The National Library of the Czech Republic in Prague, with its twisted wood columns and trompe-l'oeil frescoed ceiling which draws the eye upward "to confound the true already impressive scale of the hall". When I had the good fortune to visit nearly three decades ago, ironically, it was as a "gawker", on a bus tour of Eastern Bloc capitals. Whisked in and out, we were prohibited from taking photos; no postcards or souvenir booklets were available; memory faded. I am especially pleased to find this unique library included here.

The Vatican Library might be mistaken for a grand reception hall; gold leaf papal insignia, and biblical-themed frescoes framed by ornate moldings cover its panelled walls and vaulted ceilings - and not a book in sight. All of its books are hidden behind securely locked doors. The Vatican Library is, however, open to authorized researchers and its catalogue of 1.6 million printed works is fully computerized.

The somewhat austere National Palace Library in Mafra, Portugal was modeled after the Hofbibliothek in Vienna, but the money ran out before completion and the Franciscans who took it over in 1792, in keeping with their vow of poverty, declined to gild the woodwork, whitewashing it instead. This has faded to a peaceful but elegant cream, against which the coloured titles of the leather book bindings stand out.

A relative new-comer at barely a century old is the John Ryland Library in Manchester, England, commissioned by the widow of a rich industrialist to commemorate her husband's memory. It was designed to resemble the interior of a Gothic cathedral complete with soaring arches, carved oak panelling and stained glass windows but also was equipped with electricity, air conditioning and millions of dollars worth of rare books.

Less ostentatious, perhaps, but still beautiful and certainly more democratic are University Libraries at Oxford, Cambridge and Dublin and truly public libraries in New York City and Washington, D.C.

If your appetite has been whetted by "The Most Beautiful Libraries in the World" you may want to look for more in-depth treatments. For the Library of Congress in Washington, DC, just such a book exists, the lavishly illustrated "Treasures of the Library of Congress" by Charles Goodrum, Abrams, 1980, 318 pages. It contains views of the interiors and chapters on the building of the Library of Congress and its book collection, but the emphasis is on many other artefacts housed there - its vast collection of music scores, sound recordings, films, Orientalia, prints and historic photographs. "Treasures..." is long out of print, but used copies can be found.

An invaluable book.......2007-02-19

This is a marvelous book to whoever loves books.

It presents many important historic libraries in the world; each library is presented in informative and sober texts and with accompanying photos. These photos try to capture the overall look of the library (even if this is rather difficult) and several interesting details, sometimes including secondary rooms. The texts focus on the history of the library in question, but also give some information about contents.

There is only a minor quibble, and it cannot be taken too seriously: the authors had to chose and that led them to ignore many marvelous libraries. If there is one I particularly lack, it would be the Real Biblioteca da Universidade de Coimbra (Royal Library of Coimbra University, one of the oldest European Universities). It has been stated to be 'the most beautiful library in the world', and I cannot but agree.

But this is probably a question of personal taste. As it is, the book is wonderful and useful.

Beautiful Libraries.......2007-01-12

Great pictures and text depict some of the most beautiful libraries in the world! Gives me encouragement and inspiration for my humble library at home!

Gret serice.......2006-08-28

Book camme immediately - and was brand new, and in beautiful condition. Thank you so much

Chinese Cinderella: The True Story of an Unwanted Daughter (Laurel-Leaf Books)

Average customer rating:

Was it that bad?
I could not put it down
Chinese Cinderella
Great book for a pre-teen
Amazing Efforts

Chinese Cinderella: The True Story of an Unwanted Daughter (Laurel-Leaf Books)
Adeline Yen Mah
Manufacturer: Laurel Leaf
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback

Chinese | Ethnic & National | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 0440228654
Release Date: 2001-03-13

Amazon.com

Chinese Cinderella is the perfect title for Adeline Yen Mah's compelling autobiography in which, like the fairy-tale maiden, her childhood was ruled by a cruel stepmother. "Fifth Younger Sister" or "Wu Mei," as Yen Mah was called, is only an infant when her father remarries after her mother's death. As the youngest of her five siblings, Wu Mei suffers the worst at the hands of her stepmother Niang. She is denied carfare, frequently forgotten at school at the end of the day, and whipped for daring to attend a classmate's birthday party against Niang's wishes. Her father even forgets the spelling of her name when filling out her school enrollment record. In her loneliness, Wu Mei turns to books for company: "I was alone with my beloved books. What bliss! To be left in peace with Cordelia, Regan, Gonoril, and Lear himself--characters more real than my family... What happiness! What comfort!" Even though Wu Mei is repeatedly moved up to grades above those of her peers, it is only when she wins an international play-writing contest in high school that her father finally takes notice and grants her wish to attend college in England. Despite her parent's heartbreaking neglect, she eventually becomes a doctor and realizes her dream of being a writer.

Teens, with their passionate convictions and strong sense of fair play, will be immediately enveloped in the gross injustice of Adeline Yen Mah's story. A complete glossary, historical notes on the state of Chinese society and politics during Yen Mah's childhood, and the legend of the original Chinese Cinderella round out this stirring testimony to the strength of human character and the power of education. (Ages 10 to 15) --Jennifer Hubert

Book Description

A riveting memoir of a girl's painful coming-of-age in a wealthy Chinese family during the 1940s.

A Chinese proverb says, "Falling leaves return to their roots." In Chinese Cinderella, Adeline Yen Mah returns to her roots to tell the story of her painful childhood and her ultimate triumph and courage in the face of despair. Adeline's affluent, powerful family considers her bad luck after her mother dies giving birth to her. Life does not get any easier when her father remarries. She and her siblings are subjected to the disdain of her stepmother, while her stepbrother and stepsister are spoiled. Although Adeline wins prizes at school, they are not enough to compensate for what she really yearns for -- the love and understanding of her family.

Following the success of the critically acclaimed adult bestseller Falling Leaves, this memoir is a moving telling of the classic Cinderella story, with Adeline Yen Mah providing her own courageous voice.

Customer Reviews:

Was it that bad?.......2007-07-24

This is a better written book than Falling Leaves, the author's first book. It detailed the childhood of the unwanted daughter with better mix of "good and bad" and less bitterness came through the book.

While I shared the pain of being rejected and unaccepted by her parents, the author should appreciate and be thankful of what she had....loving Grandparents, Aunt Baba and good education which was the foundation of her success.

Think about tens and thousands of unwanted daughters in China who are abandoned by their parents daily.....they don't know who their parents are and have no sightline of their basic needs. The chance of being sent to prestige schools and study oversea is nil...I bet those unwanted daughters will trade the author's place at a heartbeat.

I could not put it down.......2007-07-02

I simply could not put this book down. I was absorbed the entire time. A story of miraculous courage and triumph, it reminds its readers that the love of human relationships is essential in this life, for without it one does not have much. I am excited to order it as a classroom novel for my 7th grade reading class!!! It is truly worth one's time.

Chinese Cinderella.......2007-05-19

Have you ever felt like you were unwanted? Have you have felt hated like nobody likes or wants you? Well if you know this felling you would have close ties to this book. Also for the record Adeline Yen Mah has felt like that since she was born. So I haven't thought that it couldn't get worse because it really can get worse.
The book is a biography of her life while she was in China. The book covers most of her life but it is more of her childhood not her most recent life. It describes the sadness that Adeline has been through. It in the first chapter It says everyone hated her because three days after she was born her mother came down with a high fever and died two weeks after she was born. So she never got to now her real mother. Her father remarries and all his children didn't like her but they were forced to call her niang (which in Chinese means mother) which none of them think of her as their real mother they all didn't like her. Her stepmother always abused her and never liked her she only liked the kids that she had gave life to. So she always abused her younger and older siblings.
I actually could compare this book a little to my own life. I haven't felt as unwanted or as hated as she has. I also haven't been abused like she has. I haven't actually really been abused all that much. But I have felt unwanted before. I haven't been abused like had been I haven't ever been abused that much.
Over all I would give this book a 10 out of 10. It only has 200 pages altogether so it won't take you a very long time. It is a very good read. It would take you maybe a weekend or two to read it. That is why I gave it a 10 out of 10.
I would recommend this book to anyone but it would be more of an adult book. It has way too much sadness for a young child. Also if it for an adult one of them people that are always happy and peppy and think that nothing can ever happen too them. It will be a real eye opener because they will realize it could really happen to them. So then they won't be going around saying "my life can't get any worse".

Great book for a pre-teen.......2007-04-24

I picked up this book the other week for my 12-year-old daughter after browsing thru the bookstores for something outta the norm for her. I bought it solely on the back-cover synopsis -- mine being an only child and doted on for the most part. I kind of expected her to glance at the cover and half-heartedly browse thru it. I was so wrong! She read it in a few days! She's always been into books -- but of her own choosing: Harry Potter and/or Lemony Snickett, fantasies and the like. After she put it down each night, she would tell me a bit about what she just read. Believe me, she's NEVER done that before. She said it truly was a cinderella story, and wondered why no one would help the little girl more. She showed alot of empathy for Adeline as a child. What I think I'm trying to convey is that it is a book written to touch the soul of the young reader -- something the author succeeded so well at.

Amazing Efforts.......2007-03-29

I strongly recommend the book Chinese Cinderella to people who do not mind a book that might make them cry. This book was a page-turner because while reading it, you just have to find out what happens next. Anyone with a strong heart will enjoy this book because it is so amazing what this little girl went through. While reading this book, there were some parts I felt like I was about to break down and cry, but there were others where I wanted to meet Adeline Yen Mah and congratulate her for her amazing efforts.

Laurel Canyon: The Inside Story of Rock-and-Roll's Legendary Neighborhood

Average customer rating:

Well done
Mixed results for an unevenly written book.
It's the 60's Again
Better than "White Bicycles"
Interesting look at L.A. and Hollywood in the 1960's - 1980

Laurel Canyon: The Inside Story of Rock-and-Roll's Legendary Neighborhood
Michael Walker
Manufacturer: Faber & Faber
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Music | Entertainment | Subjects | Books

History & Criticism | Music | Entertainment | Subjects | Books

Popular Culture | Social Sciences | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

ASIN: 0571211496
Release Date: 2006-05-16

Book Description

In the late sixties and early seventies, an impromptu collection of musicians colonized a eucalyptus-scented canyon deep in the Hollywood Hills of Los Angeles and melded folk, rock, and savvy American pop into a sound that conquered the world as thoroughly as the songs of the Beatles and the Rolling Stones had before them. Thirty years later, the music made in Laurel Canyon continues to pour from radios, iPods, and concert stages around the world. During the canyon’s golden era, the musicians who lived and worked there scored dozens of landmark hits, from "California Dreamin’" to "Suite: Judy Blue Eyes" to "It’s Too Late," selling tens of millions of records and resetting the thermostat of pop culture.

In Laurel Canyon, veteran journalist Michael Walker tells the inside story of this unprecedented gathering of some of the baby boom’s leading musical lights—including Joni Mitchell; Jim Morrison; Crosby, Stills, and Nash; John Mayall; the Mamas and the Papas; Carole King; the Eagles; and Frank Zappa, to name just a few—who turned Los Angeles into the music capital of the world and forever changed the way popular music is recorded, marketed, and consumed.

Customer Reviews:

Well done.......2007-10-10

This is a good choice for anyone interested in the history of 1960's rock music.

Mixed results for an unevenly written book........2007-09-11

In the summer of 1972 forces that had been building for decades coalesced to give us the opening strains of the Eagles' "Take It Easy" and Country-Rock went from being a musical undercurrent to being a pop phenomena that affected music, fashion and the culture of young adults for the rest of the '70s. Strangely, in the early '80s this musical phenomena vanished much more quickly than it had appeared leaving little to mark its passing until the Eagles reunion in 1994. Now, over 30 years later there are any number of books telling the story of how Folk, Country, Rock and (to some extent) Blues all came together in LA's Laurel Canyon to make LA the musical promised land which bred this phenomena. Likewise, these books explain how it all collapsed into a heap as cocaine inflated egos clashed and creativity was overtaken by monetary concerns and other realities.

Of the books I've read on the subject of the LA music scene in the '60s and '70s this one perhaps best explains the poisonous effects of cocaine and other vices on the whole scene yet he seems to resist the conclusion that the absolute freedom of the times opened the door to its eventual demise. Michael Walker refers to the culture of the '50s as if it were a nasty communicable disease and he seems genuinely surprised that the free spirits of Laurel Canyon weren't able to change the world to their liking and eventually they too had to conform to reality just as their forebears did.

This brings me to my greatest problem with this book, it seems to be written from the viewpoint of someone who wishes he was there and feels as if he missed out. While he is honest in pointing out that drug-related crime and prostitution surfaced in spite of the tidal wave of idealism that existed at that time he seems to write from a viewpoint of wistful nostalgia for something he never actually was a part of. He seems to believe in the fantasy even though he is chronicling its failure. Accounting for the fact that the author is a Chicagoan that relocated to Laurel Canyon helps to explain this; at least to me. The author (and this book) seem divided; one foot rooted in the past "glories" of the era he writes about while the other foot cautiously treads the reality of the present. It's as if part of the author is wishing that some of the old crew would show up in his yard and start partying while the other half of him would call the police in a heartbeat if they did.

I wouldn't warn anyone off of buying this book, it is in fact very informative, but it is nonetheless uneven. It is a book I would recommend to a true afficinado of the subject but not as a sole purchase if you want to read about Country-Rock. A few other books you might enjoy are: Desperados: The Roots of Country Rock, Hotel California: The True-Life Adventures of Crosby, Stills, Nash, Young, Mitchell, Taylor, Browne, Ronstadt, Geffen, the Eagles, and Their Many Friends and To The Limit: The Untold Story Of The Eagles.

It's the 60's Again.......2007-09-06

The 1960's music scene in Los Angeles comes vividly alive in this account of the rock world that thrived in Laurel Canyon. This is a must-read for anyone (like me) who grew up listening to CSN&Y, Frank Zappa, the Mamas and the Papas, Joni Mitchell and others. It's amazing to think that all this talent and more converged in one place at one special time. Michael Walker provides a thorough accounting of the birth and death of Laurel Canyon as a rock colony in a captivating and insightful way. You can almost smell the marijuana wafting from the book! These truly were the good old days, probably never to be seen again. A great read!

Better than "White Bicycles".......2007-08-22

Put on your wire-rimmed granny glasses when reading "Laurel Canyon", an affectionate and breezy evocation of the area that virtually birthed the "laid back" California musical sounds of the 60's and 70's.

Author Michael Walker painstakingly constructs a portrait of this sequestered piece of real estate, with its narrow, winding roads, quaint bungalows, and eucalyptus trees. It came to serve as a refuge, salon, and social laboratory for the Western fringe of the Woodstock generation.

A whole rogues' gallery of rock stars, groupies, club owners and passers-thru is recreated, to accurately reflect the milieu of people that interacted, "back in the day." You'll get a ringside seat at Frank Zappa's audition of Alice Cooper, see David Crosby careening down the road, cape flying, on his motorcycle, and find Arthur Lee of "Love" tripping on a hill top.

It's heady stuff. And don't believe the snide comment about "a magazine piece" from Publishers Weekly. Yes, there may be a resemblance to the kind of recreations of times and places that "Vanity Fair" publishes... but I view that as a GOOD thing. The writing in "Laurel Canyon" is crisp--it's juicy and it flows. It has flair, it's not prosaic, and that's what you want in a book about places where great music originated. Grab a glass of vintage wine and enjoy.

***Recommended cds to accompany reading:

"Ladies of the Canyon", Joni Mitchell
"Deja Vu", Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young
"Blues From Laurel Canyon", John Mayall
"Forever Changes", Love
"Permanent Damage", the GTOs
"Jackson Browne" ("Saturate Before Using"), Jackson Browne

Interesting look at L.A. and Hollywood in the 1960's - 1980.......2007-08-12

Laurel Canyon is a good two sitting read that offers the reader an insightful perspective into the world of West Hollywood and LA over a roughly 20 year period. The writing style seemed odd at times, but overall not a great obstacle. For some reason Walker finds it necessary to elevate the importance of the LA music scene and culture while purposely downplaying or omission of the San Francisco Bay Area's colossal influence on 1960's musical and cultural significance with such bands as The Jefferson Airplane, Santana, Grateful Dead, Janis Joplin, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Country Joe and The Fish, Sly and The Family Stone, Blue Cheer, Quicksilver Messenger Service etc.). Walker seems to consider "L.A Citizen" Janis Joplin more of a fixture of LA than San Francisco despite Janis' extended stay and musical development with Big Brother and The Holding Company and shacking up with the Grateful Dead in the Haight. The music scene and draw to LA/Hollywood was largely reciprocal to the movie industry presence there where as the cultural development in San Francisco in the 1960 was he next phase of the 1940-50's Jazz and Beat movements - think Kerouac. From the famous Psychedelic light shows (Glenn McKay and The Brotherhood of Art at the Fillmore and Winterand (The Last Waltz) Cow Palace (Rust Never Sleeps movie), Candlestick Park (Last Beatles Concert) to the 1960's rock art; Stanley Mouse, Robert Crumb (keep on truckin'), Golden Gate Park (first love-ins), Electric Kool-Aid acid test, Purple Haze (Stanley Owsley (bear)) etc.. All roads lead to San Francisco in the 1960's ..

The Solution: For Safe, Healthy, and Permanent Weight Loss

Average customer rating:

I will never get rid of this book
Best Book Ever
The Solution: For Safe, Healthy, and Permanent Weight Loss by Laurel Mellin
A Book Everyone Should Have
Doesn't deliver the goods

The Solution: For Safe, Healthy, and Permanent Weight Loss
Laurel Mellin , and (none)
Manufacturer: Collins
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Health, Mind & Body | Subjects | Books
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Tanita BC533 Glass Innerscan Body Composition Monitor

ASIN: 0060987243

Amazon.com

These days, it's fashionable to look at the problems of overweight people and write them off as too much food and too little exercise. But for many it's more complicated than that, and Laurel Mellin has identified six root causes of the behaviors that lead to obesity. She believes it's never too late to develop the skills to overcome these problems, whether the root is an inability to set limits or a life lived out of balance.

Book Description

You've tried everything : the pills, the shakes, the diets, even the surgery, and it's been a losing battle. But permanent weight loss isn't impossible. Not anymore . . .

Now dietary expert Laurel Mellin offers a scientifically proven, agony–free, breakthrough program for weight loss that doesn't require deprivation or superhuman willpower. The Diet–Free Solution presents a practical six–step plan that succeeds where other diets fail because it identifies the psychological, physical, and lifestyle causes of weight problems : the powerful mind and body drives that lead to overeating and inactivity栮d offers the cure for each. You can change your body, and ultimately your whole life 執ith:

The Nurturing Cure: How to become aware of your feelings and meet your own needs
The Limits Cure: How to control your actions and set appropriate, realistic expectations
The Body Pride Cure: How to turn off negative stereotypes about fat
The Good Health Cure: How to become aware of body health and stay healthy
The Eating Cure: How to eat regular meals and maintain a healthy diet
The Activity Cure: How to maintain an exercise program and find personal time

Until you understand the whole truth about your weight problem, you can't solve it. Whether you're trying to lose those last five pounds, end a compulsive eating problem, or shed more weight than you ever thought you'd carry, let The Diet–Free Solution work for you now and for the rest of your life!

The ability to self–nurture and set effective limits is the root of human maturity, and the foundation for emotional, behavioural, and spiritual balance. Fortunately, the skills to self–nurture and set effective limits can be fine–tuned and readers will learn them via a wealth of practical examples, colourful case histories, and scientific findings that are both fascinating and easy to understand. These skills are effective for a wide range of psychological and addictive problems––from alcoholism and other addictions to overeating, overworking, overspending, and perfectionism.

Customer Reviews:

I will never get rid of this book.......2007-10-10

I absolutely loved this book. I got so much unexpected help from it. The title sounds like it's just an average diet book but it is so much more than that. In fact the book isn't about dieting at all. What it's really about is getting down to the core of why you might eat the way you shouldn't based on emotional baggage. It tries to get you to sift through your emotional history and things that may be bothering you. I found out so much about myself and why I eat and I was so happy and relieved to be able to change my habits. I recommend this to anyone that might eat out of emotions.

Best Book Ever.......2007-04-12

This is the best book I've ever read. It has changed my life. It even helps with issues other than just weight loss.

The Solution: For Safe, Healthy, and Permanent Weight Loss by Laurel Mellin .......2007-01-03

Good information, short and to the point. That said I have to admit I had to think which book this was, as it apparently didn't have any outstanding qualities.

A Book Everyone Should Have.......2006-11-28

This is a very insightful book. Not only did it help me lose weight, but it is a book that can help anyone gain personal power. It teaches you easily how to manage your emotions well and how to manage/handle life as it is. Thank you Laurel for writing this book.

Doesn't deliver the goods.......2006-06-02

This book was hyped as a "simple" solution to weight loss. The concepts may be simple but don't confuse simple with easy. The concept of climbing mount Everest is simple too. Somehow this "simple" set of solutions leads to a seemingly endless trail of products and seminars that will eventually get you where you want to be. I have no patince for a book that is merely a tease and a marketing tool to get you deeper in debt to it's author. Whatever good ideas were in this book got lost in my anger of being shilled.

Average customer rating:

An Interesting and Worthwhile Ride
The Cheese Stands Alone
A Super Novel for Adults and Teenagers
An exciting but crappy book
Sad Story, Ending Out of Nowhere

I Am the Cheese (Laurel-Leaf Library)
Robert Cormier
Manufacturer: Laurel Leaf
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback

General | Literature & Fiction | Teens | Subjects | Books

General | Issues | Children's Books | Subjects | Books

All 4-for-3 Deals | 4-for-3 Books Store | Stores | Books
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ASIN: 0440940605
Release Date: 1991-08-01

Amazon.com

Imagine discovering that your whole life has been a fiction, your identity altered, and a new family history created. Suddenly nothing is as it once seemed; you can trust no one, maybe not even yourself. It is exactly this revelation that turns 14-year-old Adam Farmer's life upside down. As he tries to ascertain who he really is, Adam encounters a past, present, and future too horrible to contemplate. Suspense builds as the fragments of the story are assembled--a missing father, government corruption, espionage--until the shocking conclusion shatters the fragile mosaic. Young adult readers will easily relate to the shy and confused Adam, whose desperate searching for self resembles a disturbingly exaggerated version of the identity crisis common to the teenage years.

First published in 1977, I Am the Cheese provides an exciting introduction to psychological thrillers. This sensitive, emotional, subtly crafted novel by Robert Cormier (author of The Chocolate War) was a New York Times Outstanding Book of the Year, as well as a School Library Journal Best Book of the Year. --Emilie Coulter

Book Description

To commemorate the 20th anniversary of its publication, Alfred A. Knopf is proud to reissue I Am The Cheese in hardcover with an introduction by Robert Cormier. "

An ALA Notable Children's Book

An ALA Best Book for Young Adults

A Horn Book Fanfare Honor Book

A School Library Journal Best Book of the Year

A New York Times Outstanding Book of the Year

Winner of the 1997 Phoenix Award by the Children's Literature Association

Customer Reviews:

An Interesting and Worthwhile Ride.......2007-10-07

I Am the Cheese is a fascinating story about Adam Farmer, a boy in search of his family and the truth. The plot moves back and forth between the story of Adam's journey to find his father and recorded conversations he has with a psychiatrist. During these sessions, Adam slowly remembers and discloses information from his past. As he does, his history begins to make more sense to him and to us. Cormier does an excellent job of drawing the reader into the story. The plot is clear and easy to follow, but interesting enough that we want to continue reading. Like Adam on his bike, the reader rides breathlessly through twists and turns, desperately hanging on to reach the conclusion. Adam is a real human being, with doubts and insecurities. He is constantly searching for love and stability, reaching out to his parents, as well as to his quirky girlfriend Amy. Readers will find themselves wishing that they could somehow shield him from life's horrors. The ending is very surprising. It has finality, yet the reader is unsettled. Although the conclusion is not optimistic, there are many ideas worthy of later reflection.

The Cheese Stands Alone.......2007-09-25

When I bought this book, it was because it was thirty cents in a library sale. I did NOT think I would finish it in just over a day. I did not think I would love it. But somehow both of these things happened.

I AM THE CHEESE is a novel that is hard to review, because without giving away the ending it has a very basic, even boring-seeming plot. (Boy rides bike across several states to visit his father in a hospital. Thrilling.) But between this are psychiatric sessions with that same boy, Adam, with the psychiatrist an unknown man. Is he good, trying to help Adam recall his dangerous past? Or is he evil, trying to learn Adam's secrets and then dispose of him? Who IS he?

The sense of dread and mystery that permeates this novel makes it the finest psychological horror story I have ever read. As Adam slowly uncovers his past -- a past filled with dangerous escapes, corrupt government, murder, and the ever-mysterious gray man -- the reader starts to understand that something very strange is going on, and perhaps the story of the bike journey is not as straightforward as it seems. Perhaps the psychiatrist is far more than he seems at first glance. Perhaps the song that Adam sings -- the Farmer in the Dell -- and its final phrase, The Cheese Stands Alone, has more meaning for him than just a childhood song. Perhaps Adam himself -- the narrator whose thoughts you hear on the page -- is less trustworthy than you thought.

This is one of the best books I have ever read. Highly recommended.

Rating: Masterpiece

A Super Novel for Adults and Teenagers.......2007-09-23

This mystery really grabs you. A boy takes off on his bike to find his father, but his journey is very strange. I don't want to give anything away, but this 220-page novel kept me reading.

Buy on old paperback with the cover of the boy on his bike. In the background is a farmhouse and a man standing in a dirt lane--a wonderful illustration.

An exciting but crappy book.......2007-07-10

First of all, I must agree with some of the others on that the book was indeed an exciting page turner- it took me only 3 days to read, about an hour each day.
But, alas, I found the plot to be confusing- I think a lot of Adam's (or Paul's) trip was only a dream, as he recalled many people he met on the trip that were actually people he knew from the treatment facility in Vermont that supposedly held his dad (i.e. the fat sweaty man who Adam confronted about his missing bike actually showed up as he was entering the facility in Vermont; and the old man with the veins on his face that was a map- he was at first a worker at the gas station at the beginning, and was then a janitor at that same treatment facility).
Was Adam's trip real, or was it just a trip from the pills his "psychiatrist" repeatedly urged him to take? Also, why did a strange man answer Amy's phone and claim he had lived there for three years? And the "romantic" hotel he had supposedly stayed at with his parents the previous summer, was abandoned for about two years!
Was his memory foggy from that treatment facility in Vermont? And what happened to his father? I wish the author had explained more on the demise of his father, and why, when Adam's mother was killed, why was she "terminated?" And, finally, what happened during that fatal crash? Adam's mind of oblivion gave only vague descriptions- leading the reader to believe that they were hit by a car, although on the side of the road.
I think the author spent way too much time letting Adam whine about his headaches and nausea. I wanted answers, and I did not receive them.

Sad Story, Ending Out of Nowhere.......2007-06-07

Adam Farmer's life is somewhat confused. He thought he had everything figured out when he was in high school. He lived in a small town with his parents, he went to school and had a girlfriend. But then he started getting suspicious. Things just weren't quite right. He remembered leaving another place under stressful conditions, almost like they were escaping. Adam's father often meets with a man who comes to their house and seems very strange. His mother locks herself in her room every Thursday to make secret phone calls.

When Adam starts investigating things at his home, his father is finally forced to tell him a family secret that shocks Adam.

Now it is some time later, and Adam's father is not with him in the small town. Adam decides to ride his bike to bring a package to his father; it is very important to him that he complete this task. Interspersed with Adam's very long bike ride are memories of conversations he has with some sort of therapist who seems to be trying to help Adam to remember his life, to fill in all of the blanks that Adam has in his mind. Who is this man? Why can't Adam remember so many things? What is he trying to bring to his father?

This book was an interesting mystery, trying to find out what Adam had been through and why he couldn't remember his life. I really liked Amy; she was a great character who brought Adam out and made him more confident.

I didn't like that Adam couldn't see that this man he was talking to was not his friend, and I didn't like the ending. There were no clues leading to it and I was disappointed.

The New Laurel's Kitchen: A Handbook for Vegetarian Cookery and Nutrition

Average customer rating:

Way ahead of its time
Saved me time and money
I love this book
Helpful and Delicious
Excellent!

The New Laurel's Kitchen: A Handbook for Vegetarian Cookery and Nutrition
Laurel Robertson , Carol Flinders , and Brian Ruppenthal
Manufacturer: Ten Speed Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Cooking, Food & Wine | Subjects | Books

General | Vegetables & Vegetarian | Cooking, Food & Wine | Subjects | Books

Natural Foods | Cooking, Food & Wine | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 089815166X

Book Description

The New Laurel's Kitchen includes plenty of simple, beat-the-clock recipes - who doesn't need them? But it refuses to blur the distinction between natural foods and fast foods. If you need forty-five minutes to bake a potato or cook brown rice, fine. That's good, solid wind-down time, precious in today's hurried world: time to cut up green beans, or prepare a cauliflower curry; time for the children to dry the lettuce and help make an Appley Bread Pudding. Laurel's kitchen has its own pace - a human pace, that lets other things happen besides just dinner. Good health is the first concern here, and foods that support it are rendered irresistible: dishes like Mushrooms Petaluma, Poppyseed Noodles, Lazy Pirogi, and Sebastapol Pizza. These are well-tested and innately manageable recipes, homespun, but with a generous splash of the sophistication that has swept the food world in recent years.

Customer Reviews:

Way ahead of its time.......2007-05-26

This was my first cookbook, bought when it was hot off the press, and even though I now own dozens of books, I go back to this one time and again. But it really was ahead of its time, with an emphasis on complex carbohydrates that's still hard to find. I think it deserves to be updated (ingredients that were were rare in the 80's can now be found in almost any supermarket, and much more is known about nutrition), new recipes added, and marketed for a wider audience than vegetarians.

Saved me time and money.......2007-03-19

I've been using this book for three years. This book's recipes have since then been passed from friend to friend - from family to family. This book is a great gift for anyone, even those who do eat meat. The recipes are easy to understand and fantastic! The soups and nutrition guidelines are inspirational to say the least.

I've met many who were thinking about going vegetarian - I suggested to them this book and they made a lot more healthier choices for the better.

I don't eat tofu, or tvp - and I still simply adore this book.

You can give this to a student just newly out of the home - and they can make the recipes. People with little to no kitchen experience will find this book simply a lifesaver.

I like to make a lot of these recipes for potlucks - when I never know who will eat the food I am going to make.

If my grandmother could have written me a cookbook - this is the one she would have wanted me to have. This definitely was written from the heart - not the commercialized media.

I will continue to make recipes from this book, and pass them along to family and friends. Vegetarian or non vegetarian alike.

I love this book.......2007-03-04

Laurel's Kitchen is one of my favorite books of all time. I've read it just for the sake of reading it. It is not organized in a traditional cookbook style. It reads like a story, is full of nutritional information and it is great for someone who wants to learn how to be a vegitarian as it explains nutrition.

I'm 37 now, but we had this book growing up in the early 80's. Vegitarian eating was such a turn off for me back then, but reading the book was so interesting. It really opened my mind to other's walks of life when a vegitarian life style was very foriegn to me.

I made my first soup from this cookbook when I was only 15 years old. I made the potoato cheese soup and it was wonderful. This book taught me how to make my own salad dressings.

When I got married, my mother bought me my own copy of this book and it is now in tatters I've used it so much.

Not only does this book have a lot of wonderful recipies, it also saves you money: real life recipes from scratch with inexepenive easy to find ingrediants. It is not the traditional boring fare I think of vegitarian fare. We all at times eat meals that do not contain meat. This is full of wonderful meatless down to earth American fare.

I love the soups in this book, of course the breads, but my favorites are: potato poppers, my own version of neat balls, and the eggplant parm.

I also love the shepards pie, but have made my own version of that with different veggies.

I am a working mom with kids that have various activities and I still find the time to use this book. It is called planning my time even though that may mean cooking ahead.

I truly belive this book has something to offer everyone.

Helpful and Delicious.......2006-10-08

Earlier this fall I was swept up into a cooking storm and searched through all of my parent's old vegetarian cookbooks from when they were vegetarians (I'm an almost vegan at the moment). I came upon this cookbook, broken spined and falling apart from years of use. After digging it out I found out some of my favorite recipes were from it (I never knew) and that this book even helped my mom through the horrible illness she encountered during her first pregnancy. For the next two weeks I didn't cook anything that wasn't from this book and I loved it all (with the exception of the bread which didn't live up to my expectations). Buy it now and change your life!

Excellent!.......2006-01-08

When I was first becoming a vegetarian, I discovered this book in my parents' house. Its many recipes and simple, earth-centered approach to cooking was very helpful to me. It contains good food and and good attitudes.

A Midwife's Tale: The Life of Martha Ballard, Based on Her Diary, 1785-1812

Average customer rating:

Midwife's Tale
martha ballard midwife
The Tale of a Woman in Early American New England
Formidable Foremom
Not Just a History Book

A Midwife's Tale: The Life of Martha Ballard, Based on Her Diary, 1785-1812
Laurel Thatcher Ulrich
Manufacturer: Vintage
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Authors | Arts & Literature | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

General | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

Women | Specific Groups | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

General | Women's Studies | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

History | Women's Studies | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

ASIN: 0679733760
Release Date: 1991-06-04

Book Description

Drawing on the diaries of a midwife and healer in eighteenth-century Maine, this intimate history illuminates the medical practices, household economies, religious rivalries, and sexual mores of the New England frontier.

Customer Reviews:

Midwife's Tale.......2007-02-25

Interesting diary of a Maine midwife. Not the easiest read but enjoyable.

martha ballard midwife.......2007-02-11

I enjoyed this book. Though it doesnt read like a "story" It has alot of information about the way of life back then besides the midwife part.

The Tale of a Woman in Early American New England.......2007-01-11

Sometimes we get the idea that women really had it quite bad in Colonial and Early American Society. True, they had secondary status in the eyes of the law and the church. If one, however, reads the diary of Martha Ballard, as presented to us by Professor Ulrich, we catch a glimpse of the kind of empowerment some women could have in that time.

Martha Ballard illustrated just how vital a women was to the existence of the American household during her lifetime. Taking away, for a moment, that she had a very successful midwifing practice, women contributed to the general welfare of the family, and even the economy, by their industriousness. Women's household chores, which seem so mundane to everyone today, actually allowed families to sustain themselves quite well. What a woman produced in the home, hopefully in excess, could then be turned around and traded within their community for other items which would provide for the family. Men, on the other hand, typically worked for wage labor and then came home to do what little they could during the rest of the day. Or, men farmed all day and did not have the time nor energy to do what the women of the household did. So, if the women then did not do their portion of their work, the family would be in serious jeopardy of depravation. Also, you will see how instrumental the children of a home were in the survival of the family and also how children were raised and trained for adulthood.

However, when you couple into the mix Martha Ballard's mid-wifing practice, which as you will read was quite successful at its peak, Ballard was someone who could then exercise greater influence within the family because of her increased earning power.

So, this book can provide a great insight into family life in Early American New England. And maybe, you will understand how women were empowered in other ways.

Formidable Foremom.......2006-12-27

We've heard stories of how our great-great-great-grandmothers rose before dawn, plowed the lower forty, baked biscuits and then raised a barn, all before noon. A Midwife's Tale seems to confirm this. Laurel Thatcher Ulrich draws upon a remarkable document, the diary of a New England midwife, Martha Ballard of Hallowell, Maine, who recorded the details of her daily life between 1785 to 1812. Ulrich deconstructs Ballard's laconic entries to reveal the complex routine of a woman who kept a household for seven people, ran a cottage textile workshop, and served as midwife at the birth 816 infants during her 27 years of practice. (There were male physicians in the community, but they rarely intervened in this woman-dominated ritual unless there was a breech or still-birth to be dismembered.) Ballard's ministrations, in fact, went far beyond birthing to the practice of general medicine. She could apply poultices, lance abscesses, expel worms, induce vomiting, stop hemorrhages, bring down a fever, and - all else failing -- gently close the eyes of the dead. In this way, writes Ulrich, the midwife "mediated the mysteries of birth, procreation, illness, and death."

With the help of collateral documents, Ulrich fills out Ballard's entries to give a more complete view of society in a milling village of the early 1800's. She also tracks Ballard's personal fortunes from the height of her prestige into eventual decline. The author takes pains to point out how much of this misfortune was inevitable (the elderly of any era are of necessity pushed from the center to the circumference of society) and how much was due to the hand dealt by fate: Martha had her daughters before her sons; the girls married and moved out, leaving their mother the care of three rather loutish males. The episode underscores how necessary a reliable pool of labor was to the running of any rural household; southern families had their slaves; northern families had their daughters. Historian John Lewis Gaddis calls this book "an exercise in historical paleontology [that] succeeds brilliantly." Winner of the 1991 Pulitzer Prize for history.

Not Just a History Book.......2006-06-23

I have read "A Midwife's Tale" so many times that it has fallen apart. I went on Amazon to see if I could find a hard copy to replace the one I wore to pieces. When I saw the reviews, I decided to put my two cents in. I was also compelled to puchase the video based on this book. The video did an excellent job of translating the book to video and putting a voice to Martha. Although I was intrigued by the concept of a complete diary of a midwife, I was not prepared for the impact it would have on me. As an alternative health care provider, I often use herbs to help patients and have actually assisted in the delivery of 3 babies. I am an older woman that has raised my children and now have grandchildren. Martha's life parallelled mine in so many ways. She had a hard time finding help, her children were less then obedient, particularily her eldest son. Premarital sex was rampant. Her husband seemed to often ignore her. He was perfectly happy in jail while she froze at home while her children neglected her. Her faith in a God carried her so many times. I began to casually start reading chapters whenever I was having a particularily difficult day, thinking to myself, "I wonder what challenge Martha overcame this chapter?" She touched my life in such a tender, loving, healing way even though our lives were seperated by 100's of years. I wonder if she ever thought who would read her diary in the future and what an inspiration she would be? I offer this book as a gift of a wonderful woman's life.

The 3-Day Solution Plan: Jump-start Lasting Weight Loss by Turning Off the Drive to Overeat [BURST:] Lose up to 6 pounds in 3 days!

Average customer rating:

A smart, doalbe diet
Pie in the sky
Not Impressed
Makes sense but badly written
The 3-Day Solution Plan: Jump-start Lasting Weight Loss by Turning Off the Drive to Overeat

The 3-Day Solution Plan: Jump-start Lasting Weight Loss by Turning Off the Drive to Overeat [BURST:] Lose up to 6 pounds in 3 days!
Laurel Mellin
Manufacturer: Ballantine Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Nutrition | Health, Mind & Body | Subjects | Books
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Accessories:

Tanita BC533 Glass Innerscan Body Composition Monitor

ASIN: 1400063779
Release Date: 2005-04-05

Book Description

The Solution to Dieting!

Almost everyone who wants to lose weight makes a painful discovery: diets don’t work. After following the rules and wrestling with the temptations, nearly all dieters regain what they have lost–and then some. What’s worse, the anger and frustration of constant dieting just make us want to eat more! If only we could turn off the drive to overeat. But that’s impossible, right? Wrong!

Based on the amazingly effective method developed by weight-loss expert Laurel Mellin, The 3-Day Solution Plan will give you a powerful, step-by-step plan to turn off the drive to overeat while shedding up to six pounds! A proven program for lasting weight loss without dieting, The Solution Method was developed by Mellin at the University of California, San Francisco’s School of Medicine. Health magazine named it one of the 10 top medical advances of 2000. But this is the first time The Solution Method has been made accessible to everyone as a results-oriented jumpstart to the program–and it only takes three days.

The life-changing potential of The Solution Method is that it directly addresses the feeling brain, the home of our most primitive urges, like eating. Other weight loss programs are based on knowledge and planning–activities of the thinking brain. The problem is that there is no significant relationship between the feeling brain and the thinking brain. Reason can’t make anyone stop wanting a cookie.

But as Solution participants attest: this program works. Two- and six-year follow-up studies have shown The Solution to produce weight loss without dieting and unparalleled results in terms of keeping it off. In just three days you will get started with the method and

• Lose up to six pounds without dieting
• Learn how to turn off the drive to overeat
• Follow the simple and healthy 1-2-3 Eating Plan
• Find out how fantastic you can feel every day!

With delicious recipes, complete menus, and suggestions for easy restaurant substitutions, The 3-Day Solution Plan is a complete road map that begins guiding you toward the ultimate destination: a thinner, more vibrant you!

Customer Reviews:

A smart, doalbe diet.......2007-01-05

My wife and I got on this diet more than a year ago. We both so instant results and we felt good doing it. You have a lot to do to first week(s), but you see and feel the results, so it keeps you going. I was only a few pounds overweight, but I wanted to find a diet that could get me down to a healthier weight and look a little better in my clothes. Don't be fooled by the title of this book, the best part of this diet is that it gives you tips to run your life from here on in, and I'm still following many of the basic principles. Well done.

Pie in the sky.......2006-07-24

I was hoping this book would address psychological issues that drive us to overeat and offer suggestions to change. Instead it offered a very unrealistic lifestyle change of working only 6 to 8 hours a day, stopping every hour to examine one's feelings, taking an hour to exercise daily and an hour to do leisure activities daily. If only this were realistic.....

Not Impressed.......2006-03-12

While this book did touch on all aspects of life - self-nurturing, healthy exercise, toxic foods, etc., and offered some handy info; it remains a diet book nonetheless. The author's idea of a 3-day plan is to supress or limit the amount and types of food consumed during the 3-day period - i.e., a "diet." While the foods on the plan are "real", the 3-day food plan is typical of Atkins, South Beach, etc. I found other books to be much more helpful resources to overcome the root cause of an eating disorder.

Makes sense but badly written.......2005-12-17

I bought this book about a week ago, and am very excited to get started on it. Even though this is a weightloss book, and I do need to lose weight, I bought it because it talks about a way to get past the addictive behavior, the negative self-talk, all of that, by 'checking in' with yourself several times a day before you go too far down that spiral of self-destructive behavior. I've tried it a couple of times and it works! I encourage people to take a look at this book because the approach IS different than other diet books. But, it is not very well laid out or edited. There are several times where I have to re-read a sentence, because she's written it in such a convoluted way... instead of getting to the point, she gets too wordy, and you lose your momentum as you're reading. Also, there are, as I understand and I can't be sure because the bad format of the book, 3 main components to the 'solution', but then there are several part to each main component. And it's nearly impossible to figure it out, or remember it, unless you take notes. She talks about White Stuff once, and then doesn't mention it until several chapters later, and you have no idea what it is. Same with Masterful Living... This book needs to be re-released in a waaaaayyyyy better format, so that you can easily read about each part to the Solution, and follow it easier. The little cutout cards at the end of the book are helpful only to copy them down on your own piece of paper. Having said all that, I still recommend that people read the book - I think it's a sensible, innovative program, if you can just get through the book.

The 3-Day Solution Plan: Jump-start Lasting Weight Loss by Turning Off the Drive to Overeat.......2005-10-04

I am quite please with this book. It made a lot of sense to me. Laurel Mellin talks about how to come to a solution in your life that assists one with more than a new way of eating. The book speaks about how we can change our thinking on the other things in our life which in turn effects the what, when,and why we eat the things we do.

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