Eye of the Beholder

Amazon.com

Setting: Avalon, Arizona, present day
Sensuality Rating: 7

Perennial favorite Jayne Ann Krentz weaves a complicated tale of metaphysics and murder, romance and revenge, in Eye of the Beholder. J.L. Trask--"Trask" to friends and enemies alike--has returned to Avalon, Arizona, 12 years after his father's mysterious death, to not only fulfill his dream of opening a world-class resort hotel but also to hunt down his father's killer. There he encounters none other than Alexa Chambers, stepdaughter of one of his father's former partners, whom Trask suspects of playing a role in the murder. Alexa is biding her time in Avalon, working tirelessly behind the scenes to regain her reputation as an expert in 20th-century antiques and art after having been framed in a forgery scandal that rocked the art world a year earlier. Alexa's best chance to redeem herself is by verifying the authenticity of the Art Deco collection at Trask's new hotel. Thrown together by the project, the two find it difficult to ignore the lasting animosity of a past encounter--not to mention the passionate heat they experience in each other's company. And as Trask grows ever closer to discovering who the true killer is, dark forces conspire against him, endangering not only his life but Alexa's as well. Once again, Krentz combines elements of romance and mystery in a winning union. --Alison Trinkle

Book Description

Jayne Ann Krentz has crafted "romantic suspense of the highest order" (Amazon.com) in twenty-two New York Times bestsellers, including her recent blockbuster, Flash. Now, she unearths secrets at a New Age resort, where a hard-edged businessman and a beautiful art expert make a tantalizing mind-body connection -- and where a killer threatens their piece of paradise.

Alexa Chambers has a flair for style, an eye for art -- and a reputation in tatters. An expert in Art Deco, she blew the whistle on an employer who was selling fakes to wealthy clients. Her payoff? No job and no prospects. Now she runs a shop in her hometown of Avalon, Arizona -- a hot spot for crystal devotees and sunset gazers. But gutsy, energetic Alexa has no intention of sitting still. She's ready to take risks to rebuild her career...and she secretly consults on an exquisite deco collection being installed at the new Avalon Resorts. Her scheme might just work -- if she can steer clear of the resort's owner, the enigmatic and possibly dangerous J. L. Trask.

Alexa was a scared teenager the last time she saw Trask, the man who accused her stepfather of murder. Insisting his dad's fatal car crash had been no accident, Trask vowed one day he'd come back to Avalon for revenge. Now, twelve years later, their meeting is inevitable. Their attraction is immediate. And their chances of bliss are infinitesimal.

Trask wants to piece together the past with Alexa's help -- and get closer to this dazzling deco diva. Alexa wants to protect her family -- and figure out Trask's real motivations. But when a killer emerges from the shadows, they have no choice but to team up to solve a deadly crime from long ago. As they trade sizzling sparks and snappy repartee loaded with sensual suggestion, their trail leads to a trendy spa called the Dimensions Institute, whose flaky denizens and strange atmosphere suggest there is more hidden there than meets the eye. They don't need a crystal ball to see that their survival -- and relationship -- depends on more than tantric breathing or a heavenly passion. They need a little help from a higher power: a true and trustworthy love.

Customer Reviews:

Typical Krentz book.......2006-07-08

I liked this book more than I thought I would. I've read a number of Krentz' books before this, and though they've all been decent, I didn't particularly find anything special about them. I only bought this book because it was $0.50 used.

Eye of the Beholder had an intriguing plot. Nothing earth-shatteringly original, but still interesting. I didn't have any trouble keeping my head in the story. I wasn't bored at all. And Krentz does a nice job of keeping the reader guessing about who is causing all the trouble. She doesn't make it glaringly obvious, nor does it come out of the blue.

The romance fits nicely into the story. The mixture between the suspense and the romance is fairly well done. I liked Alexa and Trask as characters, and they worked well together as a couple. They had good chemistry.

As I've found with the other Krentz books I've read, though, she always stays fairly close to the surface with the characters and the romance. She never really digs down deeper into the emotions, motivations and whatnot. The characters and romance aren't superficial, exactly, but just very basic. Everything is very in the moment in her stories. The characters don't have any deep discussions or talks about their feelings. It's all just kind of...'there it is'. I don't even think the characters out right said "I love you" to each other in this book, yet they got engaged. I just always come away from her books feelings like something was missed.

But overall, it was a decent book. I enjoyed reading it.

Rating: 3.5 / 5

Eye of the Beholder.......2003-03-10

Trask and Alexa have good chemistry. The Eye of the Beholder is a funny, fast-paced mystery/romance. It's just different enough from other Jayne Ann Krentz works to keep the reader guessing and interested. It's one of a few Jayne Ann Krentz novels that doesn't take place in Seattle. I liked the ending showdown between the murderer and the romantic couple. One question though: Why does a woman with a trust fund large enough to ask for a prenup drive a Camry? Was her Mercedes in the shop?

Being led around in circles.......2002-12-16

I felt that the crimes and mystery overshadowed the romance. There was not much character and romance development. I felt being led around in circles by the way the mystery unfolded, the author wrote to lead us to suspect somebody and then gave new facts to implicate another person. Not impressed with the plot and the characters.

I wouldn't read it twice, though.......2001-03-22

The first JAK book I read was 'Trust Me', and I must say I was greatly entertained by the witty dialogue, the fun, the humor. I was totally immersed in the world created by the book itself, like watching a movie.

So, it was with great expectations that I picked up "Eye of the Beholder". While it is not really a great disappointment, I find myself skipping pages. The story did not really give a lasting impression. It's ... okaaay, I guess. Not bad. But not that good either.

The dialogues are not as colorful as in "Trust Me", and the characters a rather 'flat' and 'dull'. The only real character I like is Harriet McClelland, the art forger, and to think she only appears at the end of the whole story.

I wouldn't read it twice, and I'm glad I only borrowed it from a friend, because I think it's not really worth buying.

Well, I'm not giving up on JAK yet. I still have a lot of her books to devour.

...a letdown.......2000-07-28

Dull. Predictable. Disappointing. What a letdown from Ms. Krentz' usual work!

Average customer rating:

A very strange man
Should be labeled "Fiction"
4.5 Rounded up
A thorough book but needs editing
This guy can brilliantly tell a story

Eye of the Beholder
Lowell Cauffiel
Manufacturer: Zebra
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Criminology | Crime & Criminals | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

Murder & Mayhem | True Accounts | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

True Crime | True Accounts | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 0821746146

Customer Reviews:

A very strange man.......2007-06-13

Lowell Cauffiel has done a tremendous job in detailing the investigation of Diane King's murder. Her husband, Brad King, was the main suspect after the initial interviews and crime scene reconnaissance, but with some police errors and departmental territorialism, the forensic evidence that could have tied Brad to the murder was lost or inadmissible. I felt the frustration of the prosecutors and Diane's family during the year after her murder, particularly after learning so much about Brad and what a very strange person he is. I also appreciated that Diane King was portrayed realistically - with both positive and negative attributes. It was very interesting to read the psychological profiles of Brad King and what behaviorists have written on criminals, and at the end of the book Cauffiel noted his own analysis of the man and the crime. It's a sad story, very well written.

Should be labeled "Fiction".......2006-06-30

I came across this book very recently. Although the actual events occured over 10 yrs ago, it still interested me.

As the author presents it, this seems like a very dramatic, compelling story. Unfortunately, the truth exists and this is not it. I was a student of Brad King's at the time these events took place and very obviously, this rendition is off.

The author should be ashamed that he wrote such a sensationalized account to sell books.

4.5 Rounded up.......2004-10-11

This is another of those (in)famous "true crime" books that are a delight to read despite their subject matter. The research was stupendous but best of all was the ability of the author to create a compelling story from the disparate components. True, this is no FATAL VISION or HELTER SKELTER but it is a very good read. My only complaint is one heard often - too much unimportant detail that detracts from the power of the story. Bradford King was almost obscenely compelling as the "average Joe" who went over the top and committed the ultimate crime. Good Read.

A thorough book but needs editing.......2003-06-02

Caulfiel's look at the sensational murder of Battle Creek, Michigan anchor woman Diane King is extremely detailed and encompasses a wide range of issues. To Caulfiel's credit, he avoids overdramatizing events and putting a distinct spin on the story. This is a pitfall some true crime writers fall into but Caulfiel does not. He also paints a vivid picture of the small town atmosphere of Marshall, Michigan. The comments from King himself are also intriguing.

My main complaint with this book is that it is far too long. Much of the more boring mintuae of the investigation is unnecessary and plodding to read. A lot of issues are rehashed several times. Also, very little detail is given about how King's children were faring with her family after the trial. That would have been time better spent.

All in all, it's a good effort but could use some paring down.

This guy can brilliantly tell a story.......2001-11-15

Another masterpiece by Mr.Cauffiel.He has the ability to make me feel I was actually there watching this sick scene play itself out. How could king do this to the mother of his kids?!This guy is actually one of Cauffiel's oddest killer's yet.How did he think he could get away with it? How could he have actually ever become a cop?? Also included in this book are some good family photos,including some unintentionally hilarious pictures of killer king himself,obese and bald in a cheap looking plaid suit.What did these women see in this absolute moron?A MUST READ

Eye of the Beholder (Seaport Suspense #2)

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Eye of the Beholder (Seaport Suspense #2)
Kathy Herman
Manufacturer: Multnomah
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Suspense | Thrillers | Mystery & Thrillers | Subjects | Books

General | Mystery & Thrillers | Subjects | Books

Mystery | Fiction | Religion & Spirituality | Subjects | Books

General | Fiction | Religion & Spirituality | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 1590523490
Release Date: 2005-09-08

Book Description

Things Aren’t Always How They Appear!

Guy Jones is about to burst his buttons. He just won the biggest case of his career and is being hailed by his law partners. But his wife, Ellen, is consumed with her quirky, needy friends and misses his victory dinner. Little does she know that Kinsey Abbott, Guy’s pretty legal secretary, is more than happy to keep him company. Communication between the Joneses rapidly deteriorates when Ellen’s stubborn loyalty to an Iranian couple lands her in the FBI’s spotlight—and Guy’s bad graces. Guy soon discovers Kinsey’s dark side, which inevitably pulls him into a web of danger and deceit. He decides not to tell Ellen. But it’s going to cost him.

Who is my neighbor?

Guy Jones is about to burst his buttons. He just won the biggest case of his career and is being hailed by his law partners. But his wife, Ellen, is so consumed with her quirky, needy friends that she misses his victory dinner—and bright, beautiful legal secretary Kinsey Abbott is only too glad to keep him company.

When a fishing boat full of explosives is seized near Seaport, Ellen’s stubborn loyalty to her Iranian friends lands her in the FBI’s spotlight—and Guy’s bad graces. But when Guy encounters Kinsey’s dark side, a lot more than the Joneses’ marriage is threatened!

Amid danger, deceit, and violence, Guy and Ellen clash over a key issue: Who is worth befriending—and who deserves loyalty under fire?

“As if pulled from today’s headlines, this novel touches on the fear that overtakes a town when rumors of terrorists are afoot. Filled with unexpected twists, Eye of the Beholder held me captive until the very end.”

—Traci DePree

Author of Aprons on a Clothesline

“Eye of the Beholder enticed me from the first page with familiar and beloved people. Then it took a twist that both delighted and convicted me. This visit to Seaport will change your life.”

—Janelle Clare Schneider, Author

Story Behind the Book

“My novels don’t come to me ahead of time; each book flows off the tips of my fingers as I sit down and begin to ‘feel’ the issues deep inside myself. For me, the most intriguing aspect of my writing style is that I don’t plan and outline the stories. I turn my fingers loose and get inside the characters and instinctively know where I need to go. After all the suspense is said and done, my hope is that each story will give us pause. That in the deepest part of our souls, we’ll embrace the depth of what it means to be believers and then be moved to share its powerful simplicity with those who struggle without hope. I want Eye of the Beholder to take readers inside my characters’ hearts and minds so they will take an honest look at whether they show favoritism to people of higher social standing. I want them to realize a person’s intrinsic value has nothing to do with social class.”

—Kathy Herman

Appreciative Leaders: In the Eye of the Beholder

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The Journey of Appreciative Leaders and Help to Get There
Appreciative Leaders: In the Eye of the Beholder
Inspiring, Human and Effective Leaders
On the money
Appreciative leaders: a new breed for a new era

Appreciative Leaders: In the Eye of the Beholder
Marjorie Schiller , Deanna Riley , and Bea Mah Holland
Manufacturer: Taos Institute
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

All Titles | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books
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ASIN: 0971231206

Book Description

Appreciative Leaders: In the Eye of the Beholder

This 200-page volume presents a model of Appreciative Leadership based on twenty-eight interviews, fifteen of which are included in the book. This small but comprehensive sample reveals the outstanding characteristics of appreciative leaders and their predominant behavioral attributes. The ways appreciative leaders engage in their daily practices are outlined in detail. "This is a landmark book, " according to Jane Watkins, an originator of Appreciative Inquiry. "It is an invaluable contribution to the literature that addresses the critically important question: What kinds of leaders will shape the radically different organizations called for by our constantly changing environment?"

Appreciative Inquiry leader, David Cooperrider writes, "Appreciative modes of management may be to our new self-organizing systems what deficit or problem-oriented methods have been to command-and -control bureaucracies."

Customer Reviews:

The Journey of Appreciative Leaders and Help to Get There.......2005-01-07

Appreciative Leader In the Eye of the Beholder

Book review by Dr. Elaine Sullivan, 1998 National Principal of the Year

In this very readable book the editors present the theory and practice of Appreciative Inquiry (AI) for the practitioner to immediately use. The fruitfulness and promise of AI come to life in the unfolding stories from a wide range of organizational fields. The stories each had various aspects that resonate for me in how to lead from the positive frame. For me, the Appreciative Leader creates clarity of theory, principles, and concepts while strongly anchoring and grounding them in the real life work of leading and following from the positive and strengths-based approach. The success and flow of AI as a way of life and leading and doing jump out at you even when the stories get you in the trenches and even into the day-to-day minutiae of work and the hard stuff that drags you down and can move you to that negative place. In reading and re-reading the book, I find myself saying "Oh, I've seen someone do that" or "I do that" which connects the reader to the theory and principles written about in the Appreciative Leader.

The sections on the AI Principles provide one of the strongest explanations of what the Principles are, how they work, and how they relate to the research. The editors' thorough descriptions and explanations of the principles establish a foundation for making them more meaningful. The AI Principles are much clearer to me through reading this section.
The Appreciative Leader is a must have book for your AI library! This book sets the big picture of leading through appreciative inquiry. As a high school principal this book set me on my journey of intentional appreciative leadership and an affirmation of my leadership strengths. I just wish that I had discovered it earlier in my career and met sooner the colleagues who are also on the same journey.

Appreciative Leaders: In the Eye of the Beholder.......2003-01-23

It was inspiring to read the compiled interviews of appreciative leaders. The stories which emerge portray not lofty idols on a pedestal but quite the opposite. The leaders are remarkably human and the kind of people you would like to engage in a conversation. Their authenticity provides a resource for those who wish to develop strengths and abilities as a leader. The editors expand on the interviews by including additional data and developing a Model of Appreciative Leadership which captures characteristics of appreciative leaders.

Inspiring, Human and Effective Leaders.......2001-11-25

A fresh concise readily readable book on the management paradigm of appreciative leadership. A thorough discussion of this management model with a visual construct on page 159, a chapter linking theory and practice, and inspiring interviews with both renown and unsung appreciative leaders from a variety of organizational arenas. Use it to inspire , to train, to teach ,to motivate managers,staff, studentsand others. This book has both wisdom and vision for the future, edited by women of wisdom and vision, themselves appreciative leaders .,

On the money.......2001-11-19

Since Forbes Magazine has chosen Bob Stiller of Green Mountain Coffee Roasters as Entrepreneur of the year, I think the authors, in choosing him as an appreciative leader, were right on the money. The leaders they describe are inspirational people who are enjoying success in business using simple but effective relational skills. These important ideas which support positive and authentic interactions should help shape the leaders we need for the future. I found this book to be a very accessible introduction to the field of Appreciative Inquiry. I'm excited to have discovered this beneficial little book and I've already recommended it to several people. It was well worth my precious reading time.

Appreciative leaders: a new breed for a new era.......2001-11-04

I have to admit that the appreciative inquiry movement is new to me. "Appreciative Leaders: In the Eye of the Beholder" was recommended by a friend and, after reading it, I am eager to learn more. Is this book the best place to start for anyone who wants to get up to speed fast on this exciting process beginning to transform organizational life? I can't imagine why not.

As a member of the Washington Ethical Society, whose mantra is "Elicit the best," I am naturally intrigued by the repeated promise of appreciative inquiry to bring out the best in human beings and their organizations. In this book, a number of leaders achieve this goal with what means are available to them. Apparently they all seek, consciously or not, to join and enhance their associates' strengths while rendering their weaknesses immaterial.

Marjorie Schiller, one of the book's three editors, points out the three core elements of appreciation: acknowledging what is special; recognizing the ordinary or expected; and appreciating what is painful and difficult in many of life's experiences. How these are used by appreciative leaders is examined again and again in the book with leaders whose habitat ranges from large industrial corporations to health care and community support organizations.

The editors invited 110 people to propose stories for this book and chose 15. Each author interviewed and wrote a rich profile of men and women who demonstrate appreciative leadership in action. Appreciative leaders, the book suggests, are a new breed for a new era. We all have the opportunity to be leaders in some fashion; but effective leadership is "in the eye of the beholder." The relationship of leaders to others -- and their mutual appreciation -- define its reality.

As human institutions become more organized operationally from within and from the base to the top, rather than the opposite, successful leaders are those who are and must be appreciative.

Average customer rating:

Eye of the Beholder

Disappointing

Grabs You Thought Processes

"Was an innocent man executed?"

excellent police procedural

Eye of the Beholder
David Ellis
Manufacturer: Putnam Adult
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
General | Thrillers | Mystery & Thrillers | Subjects | Books
Legal | Thrillers | Mystery & Thrillers | Subjects | Books
General | Mystery & Thrillers | Subjects | Books
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Silence Silence

ASIN: 0399154337
Release Date: 2007-07-19

Book Description

Edgar Award-winner David Ellis shifts gears to deliver a stunning new thriller where every character has a secret-and every secret has a price.

David Ellis's In the Company of Liars is an audaciously inventive thriller. In a David Ellis novel, nothing is ever what it seems, and so it is with Eye of the Beholder, a heart-pounding novel filled with dark secrets and the horrific lengths that desperate people will go to keep them.

Renowned attorney Paul Riley has built a lucrative career based on his famous prosecution of Terry Burgos, a serial killer who followed the lyrics of a violent song to gruesomely murder six girls. Now, fifteen years later, the police are confronted with a new series of murders and mutilations. Riley is the first to realize that the two cases are connected-and that the killer seems to be willing to do anything to keep him involved. As the murderer's list of victims becomes less random and more personal, Riley finds himself at the center of a police task force assigned to catch the murderer-as both an investigator and a suspect.

Driven by his own fear that he may have overlooked something crucial during the investigation years ago, Riley must sift through fifteen years of lies in order to uncover the truth-but the killer isn't the only one who wants to keep the past buried. . . .

Customer Reviews:

Eye of the Beholder.......2007-09-24

David Ellis has proven, with this second novel, that he trully has what it takes to be on the top. This book was even better than his first.

Disappointing.......2007-09-01

I was eagerly awaiting Ellis's latest book. His other books were original and had well-developed characters. "In the Company of Liars" was challenging and so much fun to read. But "Eye of the Beholder" didn't stand out from others of this genre. And I was disappointed that, unlike his other books, the latest book has gory details.

Grabs You Thought Processes.......2007-08-24

There are so many ins and outs to this book that I found I couldn't put it down. Great author.

"Was an innocent man executed?".......2007-08-24

In "Eye of the Beholder," by David Ellis, a sadistic assailant murders and mutilates six young women (two students along with four runaways and prostitutes), each in a different manner. One of the victims is heiress Cassie Bentley, the spoiled daughter of influential and wealthy parents. Detective Joel Lighter is the investigator and the prosecutor is First Assistant County Attorney Paul Riley, who quickly realizes that this investigation could launch his career. Much to Riley's relief, the matter is quickly resolved when a part-time handyman, Terry Burgos, who had been stalking one of the victims, is arrested and confesses to the crime. Riley successfully argues for the death penalty and Burgos is executed eight years later.

Another eight years pass, and the Burgos trial is a distant memory. A reporter named Carolyn Pendry airs a documentary in which she argues that Burgos did not belong on Death Row in the first place; he was clearly psychotic and should have been treated in a facility for the criminally insane. A mysterious man watches Pendry's program, someone with a secret agenda and murderous impulses of his own. This individual embarks on a new killing spree that raises a disturbing question: Was the right person put to death?

Fifty-one year old Paul Riley has changed over the years. He now belongs to a large law firm and commands impressive fees for defending white collar criminals. His chief client is Harland Bentley, father of Cassie, one of the six women that Burgos allegedly killed. Riley is in love with the governor's daughter, Shelly Trotter, but she is reluctant to commit to a long-term relationship. Soon Paul starts receiving a series of cryptic notes that appear to have a connection to the Burgos murders. Even more horrifying, additional killings convince both the police and Riley that someone else may have had a hand in the crimes for which Terry took sole responsibility. Detectives Michael McDermott and Ricki Stoletti look into the latest crimes, and they reluctantly work with Riley (whom they don't trust), trying to locate a shadowy figure who kills silently and disappears without a trace.

David Ellis goes back and forth in time between 1989 and 2005. In addition, he frequently changes point of view between the first and third person. As the story drags on for almost four hundred pages, the plot becomes increasingly turgid and confusing. The resolution is so convoluted that it takes many pages of exposition to explain who did what to whom and why. Although "Eye of the Beholder" has its fair share of thrills and moments of suspense and sheer terror, Ellis tries to do too much. He populates his book with a host of underdeveloped characters, creates at least a half-dozen red herrings that go nowhere, and then scrambles to tie up all of his loose threads. What should have been an electrifying thriller is instead an irritating and jarring tale of a monumentally dysfunctional family, a homicidal maniac, and a lawyer caught up in a gothic drama that he doesn't begin to understand.

excellent police procedural.......2007-07-20

In the summer of 1989, six women were found in the basement near the maintenance lockers of Mansbury College. All the women were tortured and each died in a different manner ranging from strangulation to near decapitation. One of the victims, college student Ellie Danzinger had gotten a restraining order out against Terry Burgos, a part time handyman at the college. Whey they went to his home, they found enough evidence to convict him for five of the killings. The case of the sixth girl he killed Cassie Bentley, daughter to a mega-mogul billionaire was never tried to her father's influence. In 1996, Terry is killed but his last words, cryptic though they might be, were to the prosecutor Paul Riley: "I am not the only one".

In the present, a series of murders are linked to the killings in 1989. Paul Riley, now the head of mega powerful law firm, receives strange notes from the killer, has his finger prints on one of the victims and is forced into part of the new case with it evidence similar to the case that solidified his reputation. Looked upon from a fresh perspective with new information, Riley finds that the 1989 case didn't reveal all its secrets and someone wants them to stay buried.

This is one of the most energizing and emotionally satisfying police procedurals of the year. David Ellis makes his characters come alive so that readers will either root for or detest them; no one will remain detached. There is plenty of action and the changing from the eighties to the nineties to the present is smooth so that the readers are never jarred out of the storyline. The protagonist as he ages from a man who sees life as black and white to a person who realize there are subtle greys has to make some decisions as he confronts his greatest success with the realization it is also his greatest failure.

Harriet Klausner

The Boilerplate Rhino: Nature in the Eye of the Beholder

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Essays You Can See
Good stuff!
Dave Quammen does it again!
RIDE A RHINO!
Wonderful nature writing

The Boilerplate Rhino: Nature in the Eye of the Beholder
David Quammen
Manufacturer: Scribner
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Animal Care & Pets | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books

General | Science | Subjects | Books

Nature Writing | Outdoors & Nature | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 0743200322

Amazon.com

David Quammen, a highly regarded popular-science writer (Song of the Dodo) and novelist, brings a range of qualities to his work as an interpreter of nature: a journalist's talent for finding a good story and telling it well, a scholar's conviction that facts matter, and an amateur naturalist's passion for learning about the way things work. For 15 years, Quammen put these qualities to good use in his Outside magazine column "Natural Acts." The Boilerplate Rhino gathers 26 of those columns between book covers, and to good purpose: every one of them is a keeper. Quammen writes of such matters as the entirely reasonable human fear of spiders (which he shares) and snakes (which he does not); of the work of such groundbreaking theoreticians and thinkers as E.O. Wilson and Henry David Thoreau; of the history of American lawns; the life of the durian fruit; the commodification of nature by way of television documentaries; the strange scholarly fortunes of Tyrannosaurus rex; and the landing patterns of cats in free fall. (Really.) A single theme underpins these scattered pieces: namely, how humans "in all their variousness, regard and react to the natural world, in all its variousness." Quammen explores this theme with good cheer and hard-won knowledge, and his essays teach his readers much about the world. --Gregory McNamee

Book Description

In 1981 David Quammen began what might be every freelance writer's dream: a monthly column for Outside magazine in which he was given free rein to write about anything that interested him in the natural world. His column was called "Natural Acts," and for the next fifteen years he delighted Outside's readers with his fascinating ruminations on the world around us. The Boilerplate Rhino brings together twenty-six of Quammen's most thoughtful and engaging essays from that column, none previously printed in any of his earlier books.

In lucid, penetrating, and often quirkily idiosyncratic prose, David Quammen takes his readers with him as he explores the world. His travels lead him to rattlesnake handlers in Texas; a lizard specialist in Baja; the dinosaur museum in Jordan, Montana; and halfway across Indonesia in search of the perfect Durian fruit. He ponders the history of nutmeg in the southern Moluccas, meditates on bioluminescent beetles while soaking in the waters of the Amazon, and delivers "The Dope on Eggs" from a chicken ranch near his hometown in Montana.

Quammen's travels are always jumping-off points to explore the rich and sometimes horrifying tension between humankind and the natural world, in all its complexity and ambivalence. The result is another irrepressible assortment of ideas to explore, conundrums to contemplate, and wondrous creatures to behold.

Customer Reviews:

Essays You Can See.......2004-05-22

Boilerplate Rhino is another collection of magazine columns, like "Natural Acts" (1985), "The Flight of the Iguana" (1988) and "Wild Thoughts from Wild Places (1998). Quammen is an excellent nature essayist, with just the right recipe of fact, whimsy, self-deprecation and seriousness. His ruminations will have you alternately howling with laughter, moaning in anguish, barking angrily and purring with satisfaction -- and along the way you'll add a snootful of useless facts to your cocktail chatter.

His "Song of the Dodo" (1996) was a tough slog due to the weight and mass of four long books rolled in one, but the 20-minute essays here are just the right length.

Good stuff!.......2003-08-24

Quammen has compiled a thoughtful and entertaining collection of his essays for THE BOILERPLATE RHINO. You don't need to be a nature buff or of a scientific mind to enjoy what he's written. This was a bit of an impulse buy due to a bargain price, but I was pleasantly surprised. I look forward to reading more of Quammen's work!

Dave Quammen does it again!.......2003-04-25

There's really little wonder why Quammen is one of the greatest writers of the natural world. He brings out his experiences, and the science of things so eloquently and entertainingly. You'll finish The Boilerplate Rhino - which is really a collection of 25 of his best column articles from Outside magazine - in a few sittings .
Quammen's nose for news keeps him on his toes in discovering the reality of the natural world. He won't rest till he's seen or investigated or read up tremendously (Quammen is immensely well read) on a subject he gets a little keen on. THAT is what keeps the reader hooked onto his writings, experiencing an involvement, thereby taking yet another step into the beautiful world we still know so little about.
You will enjoy The Boilerplate Rhino as Quammen takes you on his journeys into places as far out as the Sundas to as intimate as your very own backyard.

RIDE A RHINO!.......2003-01-22

Reading the fascinating twenty-six essays that make-up this book is the closest I have come to riding a rhino. David Quammen's fantasies are exhilarating; and he knows how to pen them down.
The lives of these essays revolved around those of octopus, beetles, and bats: before assuming a cosmic dimension.
This book is a fine collection of fictions, which will please most fantasy lovers.
However, some parts of it appeared more or less shallow. Still, it's worth the time that any willing reader would like to invest on it.

Wonderful nature writing.......2002-05-03

Reading Quammen is like meeting a fascinating fellow in a bar who is really smart, tells great stories and is fun to listen to. Quammen's area of storytelling is the world of nature, from ants to rhinos. Some nature books are heavy slogging (EOWilson's "Consilience" comes immediately to mind) but Quammen writes page-turners. The chapters in the book appeared earlier as columns in Outside magazine.

Eye of the Beholder: Masterpieces from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum

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Prized possession

Eye of the Beholder: Masterpieces from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum

Manufacturer: Beacon Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Museums & Collections | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

General | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 0807066125

Book Description

During her lifetime (1840-1924) Isabella Stewart Gardner was at the heart of Victorian Boston's liveliest salon. Henry and William James, Henry Adams, Oliver Wendell Holmes, John LaFarge, James McNeill Whistler, Bernard Berenson, and John Singer Sargent all gathered at Fenway Court, in the company of works by Giotto, Fra Angelico, Titian, Raphael, Rubens, and Rembrandt. One hundred years after its completion, the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum remains as intrepid and idiosyncratic as its creator. The embodiment of one woman's vision, the Venetian palazzo turned inside out and its wildly eclectic collection of twenty-four centuries of paintings, sculpture, furnishings, and books nonetheless speak very personally to all who enter. At once grand and intimate, the garden courtyard and the terrazzo galleries invite discovery: every visitor (and there have been literally hundreds of thousands), it seems, has a secret corner of the Gardner. In celebration of its centenary, the Gardner Museum has asked artists and thinkers of our own time to go public with their private visions of the Gardner. In this book, filled with 120 color plates, their voices are joined and juxtaposed with those of Mrs. Gardner's contemporaries, allowing readers to see the Gardner's most beloved works through the eyes of such nineteenth- and twentieth-century thinkers as William James and Bill T. Jones, T. S. Eliot and Henry Louis Gates Jr., Julia Ward Howe and Sister Wendy. Robert Campbell takes as his subject the museum's architecture, while Wayne Koestenbaum offers a homoerotic reading of works in the collection. Beautifully designed and extravagantly illustrated, Eye of the Beholder offers a richly textured exploration of one of the world's great art collections.

Customer Reviews:

Prized possession.......2007-06-10

I have checked this book out of the library twice and realized it meant enough to me to want to own it. I am pleased and proud to have it now.

Average customer rating:

Bone-chilling suspense, almost more than I could handle
Totally Different than the Movie
Tim's perspective on Eye of the Beholder
original story compromised somewhat by mediocre writing...
bizarre masterpiece

Eye of the Beholder
Marc Behm
Manufacturer: Ballantine Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback

Movie Tie-Ins | Genre Fiction | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

General | Thrillers | Mystery & Thrillers | Subjects | Books

Psychological & Suspense | Thrillers | Mystery & Thrillers | Subjects | Books

Suspense | Thrillers | Mystery & Thrillers | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0345427998
Release Date: 1999-12-07

Book Description

The Woman. She's beautiful, and seductive, and as shifting as a shadow. Her name, her appearance, and her victims are forever changing. There is only one constant in the woman's life: her chilling motive. . . .

The Eye. A private investigator, driven and obsessed. A desperate loner with secrets of his own. His job? To follow the woman. But catching her is the last thing on his mind. He likes to watch. And the closer he gets, the more dangerous his fantasy becomes. . . .

Customer Reviews:

Bone-chilling suspense, almost more than I could handle.......2005-05-20

The books is amazing in every way. I wanted to read it after watching the movie, and certainly didn't regret it.
Although, not quite. The author paints a picture of a private investigator chasing after a woman he was paid and instructed to find. He does his job, successfully, but then gets mildly infatuated with her. Then simply obsessed. And he also has a daughter who helps him at it; what is unnatural about this daughter one will have to read to find out.
What I disliked about this book was its coldness, its cruelty. The book throws you into endless feelings of discomfort and fear; until the very end. Though the main character does, in a sense, get what he wanted, the book felt very unemotional to me. I think the author did an outstanding job at providing this feeling, but in the end I wanted nothing more than to read or watch something with a PG rating. Maybe it's just me. Find out for yourself, you certainly have nothing to lose; I'm still fine.

Totally Different than the Movie.......2003-07-24

Since this was a novel that a movie had been based on (not a novelization,) I had high expectations. I (though I have never quite figured out why) have always loved the movie form of Eye of the Beholder, I thought I would love the book as well. However, I was greatly disappointed.

The movie is about as different as possible from the book. The Eye in the book is much more unbalanced. In the book he follows Joanna Eris for purely selfish reasons whereas in the movie he is trying to help her. In the book, he intentionally kills at times where in the movie were totally accidental. Even though most people found the movie to be quite bad, the book was even worse.

Tim's perspective on Eye of the Beholder.......2003-07-20

Eye of the Beholder is a very suspenseful and thrilling book. It will keep your full attention from the beginning to the end. It barely made me use my imagination to put a face on every person in the book, that is how well Behm writes. Not knowing what's going to happen from one minute to the next keeps you on the edge of your seat wondering what the author has in store for you next. Horror has always been my favorite kind of book but this suspense thriller is a welcome change. Behm's style of writing was very interesting to me because he didn't drag the story out,he filled this book with many different interesting events. In other words this book was written about the characters over a long period of time, it wasn't just one event throughout the whole book. It took you along with these characters for many years of their lives and gradually came to a climatic end. This was a great book full of suspense and thrills and I would highly recommend this book to anyone.

original story compromised somewhat by mediocre writing..........2002-10-01

Eye of the Beholder justly deserves its accolades of being "the detective story to end all detective stories". Its strange, sad story is very intriguing if somewhat contrived. Unfortunately Marc Behm's prose, and to a lesser extent his characterizations, is a bit thin. Also the dialogue is, at times, almost laugh-at-loud silly. Fortunately it's the story itself which keeps the reader's eyes glued the page.

As for the story, we have a private detective who becomes utterly obsessed with a homicidial young woman. He follows her from one murder to the next (..this sort book contains literally hundreds of killings), and by stealth helps cover up her crimes. They both eventually find themselves travelling across the USA multiple times over some 30 years. But his love is unspoken, and their relationship is certainly spooky. And Marc Behm concludes the book, and the relationship, in a most satisfactory way.

Bottom line: a very strange story of obsession, murder, and lonely people. Recommended.

bizarre masterpiece.......2001-09-13

Strange and sad, this epic multi-year tale of loss and obsession is one book you will not easily forget. Behm creates a cold and abusive world where his characters drift aimlessly across a dangerous and uncaring American landscape. Crossword puzzles, murder, sex, travel, and desperation all populate this story that will get under your skin. Much more interesting and believable than the movie.

In the Eyes of the Beholder: Critical Issues for Diversity in Gifted Education

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A Gift About the Gifted

In the Eyes of the Beholder: Critical Issues for Diversity in Gifted Education

Manufacturer: Prufrock Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Education | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

General | Education | Professional & Technical | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 1593630042

Book Description

In the Eyes of the Beholder: Critical Issues for Diversity in Gifted Education offers the most extensive look available at how gifted education can rise to encourage a more diverse student population and become enriched by the diversity of those children. This book looks specifically at diversity in gifted education as it relates to race, gender, and socioeconomic status.

Topics include: the identification of giftedness among an increasingly diverse population of students, specific service modification to address diversity, improved counseling and guidance, and specific curriculum and pedagogical methods for supporting the success of every gifted child.

The book features such distinctively different points of view from Donna Ford, Howard Gardner, Linda Gottfredson, Robert Sternberg, Joseph Renzulli, Joyce VanTassel-Baska, and many other important authors whose main work for many years has been with a wide variety of gifted and talented students.

Perhaps diversity discussions can now rest on a broader, more fundamental basis than the usual rhetoric. Maybe educators and gifted-child specialists can come away from reading the book with a somewhat greater sensitivity to the needs of these special populations.

Educational Resource

Customer Reviews:

A Gift About the Gifted.......2004-07-30

These educators have assembled a valuable asset for the teaching community where the gifted student is just as much an anomoly as the slow learner. This collection of essays is sure to provoke much discussion in education departments around the world.

Average customer rating:

A Must Read for Preschool and Elementary School Teachers

Color is in the Eye of the Beholder
Arlene Evans
Manufacturer: CVD Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

ASIN: 0974352012

Book Description

If your life were without color or with reduced color vision, in what ways would it be different? You'll explore the possibilities in this highly informative, user-friendly and practical guide.

Color is in the Eye of the Beholder explores life with little color, a common genetic disorder affecting approximately eight-ten percent of people worldwide.

From learning color names to selecting appropriate occupations, Color is in the Eye of the Beholder covers all facets of color vision deficiency (CVD), or colorblindness, including:

*Differentiating between CVD and colorblindness
*Learning about color
*Adapting to a color-coded world
*Understanding inherited and acquired color vision deficiency and colorblindness
*Negotiating the working world
*Identifying and treating CVD

Customer Reviews:

A Must Read for Preschool and Elementary School Teachers.......2006-05-08

Webster's dictionary gives "colorblind" two definitions: one, the ability to see only black, white and shades of gray, and two, the inability to distinguish one or more colors. In Arlene Evans's book, "Color is in the Eye of the Beholder", we learn that many people use the word "colorblind" incorrectly. Most people are not "blind" to color, but simply don't see as wide a range of colors. The word we should be using to describe this is DVD or Color Vision Deficiency.

One of the stories shared in this wonderful, small book is about a mother who learns about her son's moderate CVD and exclaims, "My husband was so frustrated this morning because he tried to teach colors to our son!" Now she and her husband knew why the small boy was unable to distinguish some of his colors. Ms. Evans goes on to explain the best colors for classroom activities, the different ways CVD is caused (acquired versus genetics) and much more.

This book, written for adults, is a good companion to "Seeing Color: It's My Rainbow, Too" which could be easily shared with children. There is an excellent glossary, bibliography and index in the back. This book belongs in the personal library of every elementary school nurse and teacher.

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