The Cat Who Had 60 Whiskers

Book Description

After dropping a bombshell that was a bestseller, Lilian Jackson Braun brings back James Qwilleran and his famous felines, Koko and Yum Yum, for the twenty-ninth installment of the beloved, bestselling Cat Who . . . series.

Moose County, 400 miles north of everywhere, is in an uproar (good and bad) following vast inheritances from wealthy old families. Only "Cool Koko" knows what's happening . . . and he's not telling. Jim Qwilleran thinks it's because he has more whiskers than ordinary cats, but who's counting?

Meanwhile . . .
Koko meets a piano tuner.
Polly goes to Paris.
Qwill writes a play (an absurdist play titled The Cat Who Got Elected Dog Catcher).
And there's a mysterious death from a bee sting . . .

Customer Reviews:

Good book, but...(BIG-TIME SPOILER ALERT!).......2007-10-01

I picked up this book, and was so shocked at the barn-burning at the end that I had to read it again. And indeed, I had read that Qwill's barn got burned!! (don't you dare say I didn't warn you!!)

BTW, to those of you that say this book is disjointed: I just took the opportunity to read The Cat Who Read Backwards, and that was disjointed too. I think the entire series has a disjointed feel to it, but that's because while Miss Braun likes to make a whole series, she has to make self-contained books for those of us who are disjointed readers (i.e. those of us who read most of the books out of order).

Can y'all tell that my heart's in Polk County, North Carolina?? She is indubitably my favorite writer still living. She creates the most delightful mystery novels, better than Grafton, better than anyone else save for the dearly departed Virginia Lanier.

BJ Wanlund (aka "The Red-Haired sort-of Qwill")

What did I just finish reading?.......2007-09-30

I am saddened and perplexed. What was this book about? Where did it all go? It consisted of odd paragraphs, vaguely connected. Did Qwill's barn burn down? I think it did, but when did he go over to check it out? Did he and Polly break up? She sent him an unfeeling, unbelievably strange letter, given the long-term relationship they had. He took it as a "Dear John" letter but never reacted, on any realistic level. Wow! Please, ghostwriter of this series, whoever you are, put it to bed! Thank goodness I took this thing out at my local library. Had I bought it, I would be very annoyed, right now. Why did Qwill make almost identical entries into his journal, a few days apart? This pattern of repeated paragraphs in the last few books leads me to believe that the ghostwriter is simply "phoning it in," and whatever is sent is printed, without any editor taking any part in the process, whatsoever. Amazing!

Ruined the whole series.......2007-09-09

I have read the series several times, and also have them all as audio books. Over the years I enjoyed re-reading (and listening to) the series once every year or two. After getting this book I doubt I'll ever read or listen to any of them again. In the back of my mind I'll always know what the characters turned out to be, and don't much care about them any more. I believe LJB is still authoring the books, but is dictating and not writing them. The publisher should be ashamed not to have pulled the plug several books ago when her talent faded. The previous book was awful, but this one is so bad it ruined the whole series.

Insult to Cat Who readers.......2007-09-03

This book was like a slap in the face for loyal "Cat Who" readers. I've read and re-read every one of the series, as well as listened to audio versions. This final book was not just a disappointment, it was insulting. Whoever wrote this one obviously never read the previous ones. Nothing makes sense; the characters aren't true to their previous incarnations. There is no warmth, no heart. The publisher made a lot of money from loyal readers. We deserve a better ending. I think they owe us another final "Cat Who."

Do Not Read This Book!.......2007-09-02

Having read all the previous Cat Who... books, I have, as have many readers, noticed a decline in their quality. While the early works are very good stories, this last installment is beyond disappointing. The style is disjointed and the timeline is unclear,and there is virtually no plot. Clearly this was ghost written by someone who has never read the series. Please encourage the publisher to end the series.

Average customer rating:

Really helped my 2.5 year old deal with his asthma
Wonderful Book!
The Lion who had Asthma
Very Cute
Grrr-eat!

The Lion Who Had Asthma
Jonathan London
Manufacturer: Albert Whitman & Company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0807545600

Customer Reviews:

Really helped my 2.5 year old deal with his asthma.......2007-06-06

My son is 2.5 and recently diagnosed with reactive airway disease. He really enjoys this book, and it has helped us talk to him about his breathing. Sometimes we ask him if he feels like the lion or if the lion is scared. It also seems to help when he doesn't want to use his nebulizer.

Wonderful Book!.......2004-08-28

My son developed asthma at 7 months of age after being hospitalized with RSV. He is now only 1 years old, but does enjoy this book as much as a 1 year old can. The reason I bought it was for my 3 year old who had many questions about why his little brother had to have breathing treatments, wasn't feeling well, etc. This book was perfect. Not too medical in it's terms, adorable illustrations, lovely story line about using fantasy to make treatments better. I can't wait until my 1 year old is old enough to really enjoy and understand it. I highly recommend it for parents of asthmatics, or any one with young children who are around other children with asthma.

The Lion who had Asthma.......2002-08-08

This is a great book to help kids with Asthma realize that breathing treatments with a nebulizer are not always fun -- but they can turn it into fun just like the boy in the book. My daughter had a different view of the required breathing treatments after reading this book. We were lucky enough to come across it at our local library but Santa might just have to bring it for Christmas this year!

Very Cute.......2002-03-15

This is a cute story. My son was recently diagnosed with asthma. While he doesn't have to be on an inhaler nebulizer at this time, he does hate what asthma does to him. He has to stop running and wait until his medicine starts to work. We are able to read this book and talk a little about asthma (He's 2) and about what it means for him. This book is a great one for reassuring little kids that they are ok, that others have this, and that soon they can play again.

The only reason I rated this a four instead of a five is that I think the text is a little stilted at times.

Grrr-eat!.......2001-12-30

I was so happy to find this book to read to my 2 year old! He doesn't like the nebulizer mask and any picture with a child wearing one helps. A story of a little boy just like him is the icing on the cake! The simple facial expressions help my son relate to the feelings he has.

The Llama Who Had No Pajama: 100 Favorite Poems

Average customer rating:

Cute!!
A must -have for your child's collection!
Outstanding!
Reading has NEVER been this much fun!

The Llama Who Had No Pajama: 100 Favorite Poems
Mary Ann Hoberman
Manufacturer: Harcourt Paperbacks
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0152055711

Book Description

If you’re sleepy in the jungle
And you wish to find a pillow,
Take a friendly word of warning:
DO NOT USE AN ARMADILLO!

Covering everything from centipedes to whales, from swinging on swings to ice-skating in winter, from eating applesauce to celebrating birthdays, the delightful poems in this extensive collection convey the experiences of childhood with a fresh timelessness.

Customer Reviews:

Cute!!.......2007-08-16

This is a really cute book full of great poems for children. Some of them are written for just fun, but others evoke great imagery and thus great discussion with children. We really enjoy this book.

A must -have for your child's collection!.......2007-05-13

My toddler son and I are so pleased with this book. We discovered this treasure at our local library and just had to add it to our personal collection. The Llama Who Had No Pajama is a perfect way to introduce poetry prose into your little one's life. I could only locate the book in paperback and would prefer to have it in hardback, but apparently it is no longer published as such. This and Where the Sidewalk Ends are essential items for your child(ren)'s home library.

Outstanding!.......2003-03-21

We borrow a lot of books from the library, and not many stand out. But this one is a winner! My 4 year old and I love this one so much that I am going to buy a copy for us. It has wonderfully clever rhymes about topics that interest kids. I highly recommend it.

Reading has NEVER been this much fun!.......2000-12-29

Since first reading "The Seven Silly Eaters" about a year ago, I have become a Mary Ann Hoberman addict, and am thrilled to have recently added "The Llama Who Had No Pajama" to my growing collection. She is a master of silliness, and you and your children will laugh with delight at the poems in this collection. I bought my first copy for my first grade classroom, and have since bought a second copy for my four-year old. My first graders are eating this stuff up - we read some of them together, and they keep going back for more - some of them can even recite the title poem! (And it's long!) This is also a wonderful introduction to poetry for pre-schoolers - if you've got one, and have never really read any poetry with him/her, it's a great way to develop a love of reading, as well as rhyming ability which is a key to early reading development!

Average customer rating:

Entertaining and Light
Someone call the ASPCA!
Mixed bag: some great,some mediocre
Fairly boring
NOT disappointing...

The Cat Who Had 14 Tales (Cat Who...)
Lilian Jackson Braun
Manufacturer: Jove
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0515094978

Download Description

"A courageous Siamese bags a cunning cat burglar...a country kitty proves a stumbling block in a violent murder...and an intuitive feline's premonition helps solve the case of the missing antiques dealer. "

Customer Reviews:

Entertaining and Light.......2005-08-31

Good bed time reading. Short stories for cat lovers only. Since these are short stories, no real depth is created for the charactors. Fans of the Cat Who... series would enjoy this book.

I would read this book again when I want light entertainment and don't want to think too hard.

Someone call the ASPCA!.......2004-01-26

I'll begin by saying prior to this, I never met a "Cat Who..." I didn't like. Ms. Braun is a very entertaining author, and she has imagined some very entertaining cats. I suspect that I'm not the only one out there who's drawn to her work largely because of her highly entertaining cats. If you are like me in this respect, and you prefer your cats alive and well, skip this somewhat disturbing collection.

Some of the stories are a little odd, but that's not unexpected. What is unexpected is the series of cat murders (throttled cats, cats pushed to their deaths), cat suicides (kitties throwing themselves under cars, eating poisonous plants), cat abuse... I was listening to this book on cd in the car and finally had to stop it before it ended-- it was upsetting me too much!

So maybe it's ridiculous of me to care more about feline characters than human ones, but I'd prefer not to see the chalk outlines being drawn around fuzzy little body after fuzzy little body. If you're similarly ridiculous, leave this book on the shelf!

Mixed bag: some great,some mediocre.......2001-11-18

Of these 14 short stories, none are set in the Qwilleran household. The choice of narrator and style of narration vary from story to story. Two styles are prevalent: oral history and cat's-eye view. An oral history is presented in question and answer format, mostly in first-person. Cat's-eye view stories are narrated in third-person, from the viewpoint of one of the cats in the story.

I like some of the stories immensely. The others are noted as I come to them.

"Phut Phat Concentrates" - Style: Narrated from the viewpoint of the Siamese tom Phut Phat, the only witness to a robbery at his home. He's trying to institute his system of communication in the household, but it's uphill work.

"Weekend of the Big Puddle" - From the viewpoint of Percy, a comfortable middle-aged bachelor who "would have been considered somewhat stuffy, had he been a man. Being a cat, he was admired for his good behavior." Being of English extraction, Percy takes ghosts in his stride, provided they are of good breeding. Unfortunately, the dead at his summer home in the north country don't measure up to his standards, and he is unfairly blamed for their more disruptive actions.

"The Fluppie Phenomenon" - The narrator agreed to look after her sister's pedigreed Siamese kitten, a "fluppie" (an upwardly mobile feline, who is obsessed with pulling plugs, flipping levers, pushing buttons, and so on). So here we have a young cat who can open a car's power windows, inflate the water bill if locked in a bathroom, turn on a stereo at full volume if left alone... No real plot, but might entertain someone with a similarly inclined cat.

"The Hero of Drummond Street" - Style: Ordinary third-person. Various local brats have been tormenting the stray known as the Drooler, an unusually agreeable and child-loving cat. Very little plot.

"The Mad Museum Mouser" - Style: first-person narrative, of a woman writing a book on museums in the northeast central U.S. The most interesting is the Lockmaster museum - not only because of the exhibits. A crime has been committed on the premises, but the visitor must exercise immense patience to learn the details. Two elderly, gossipy characters from the Qwilleran stories are on staff: Rhoda Finney and Homer Tibbut. They provide both respectable and spicy bits of the history of the house (with an overused refrain of "of course you won't print that"). The Lockmaster family history is more interesting than the mystery.

"The Dark One" - Style: From the viewpoint of Dahk Won, an unusually dark-furred Siamese. His peaceful kittenhood ended with his sale to Hilda, a former concert pianist whose husband is away most of the week on construction jobs across the state. While weekdays are spent following the shoes with leather tassels (Hilda was left permanently handicapped after a car accident in which her husband was driving), weekends are full of tension, raised voices, and a pair of boots that are careless of his safety.

"East Side Story" - Style: Oral history. Rather than a mystery, the narrator remembers "Cat Canyon", a building site tied up in lawsuits. Intended to be a feline love story.

"Tipsy and the Board of Health" - Style: Oral history, the origin of Tipsy's Tavern. A good story, though not a mystery.

"A Cat Named Conscience" - Style: Oral history. The woman being interviewed remembers the bank cat, Conscience, who could make anyone squirm with a look, as well as the bank manager found hanging in the barn one day long ago.

"SuSu and the 8:30 Ghost" - The elderly narrator lives with her sister in a large apartment with a river view but reasonable rent, but they don't care to associate with their neighbors. However, their cat SuSu doesn't take such a standoffish view. A more sympathetic or interesting narrator might have helped this one.

"Stanley and Spook" - The narrator is visiting an old friend, Jane, whom she met years ago when they were both married to engineers on a dam-building project up north. The project members were plagued with accidents and bad luck, so that the project was eventually abandoned. Jane's son Spook (and even her cat, Stanley) were born on the site, with the assistance of an old midwife whose house was to be torn down to make way for the dam - a woman reputed to be a witch. This story would have worked better as an oral history, or in two parts (the project, then jump to the present).

"A Cat Too Small for His Whiskers" - Style: Third-person, but mainly from the viewpoint of the "just plain folks" Hopple family. (After all, their place isn't very large - just 8 bedrooms, space to land Mr. Hopple's small plane, swimming pool, tennis court...) Donald, the six-year-old, is the only person to notice a very unusual cat hanging around. While I like the continual contrasts of reality with the "just plain folks" opinions of the family, it gets in the way of the plot.

"The Sin of Madame Phloi" - Style: From the viewpoint of Madame Phloi, a Siamese aristocrat who lives with her son Thapthim (and two amiable creatures without names, who come and go a great deal) in a run-down apartment building. The Madame, as sole witness to a crime, can't hope to see justice done - can she?

"Tragedy on New Year's Eve" - Style: A series of letters from the narrator to her son, who is on active duty. (The style of presentation detracts from the story.) She witnessed a fatal car accident on New Year's Eve - but was it an accident?

Fairly boring.......2001-09-10

I was fairly bored by most of these stories, much as I usually adore LJB.

NOT disappointing..........2001-07-08

I AM a fan of The Cat Who series ... a big fan ... and I am not in the least disappointed with this book. I enjoyed all of these short stories very much. I especially enjoyed Phut Phat Concentrates. Very cute and reminds me of my cats. I read this one to my husband and now we joke about our cats when they stare at us. Lilian Jackson Braun is a great writer and it shows in this book because she does not need to rely on Qwill, Koko and Yum Yum to have a hit!

When Hollywood Had a King: The Reign of Lew Wasserman, Who Leveraged Talent into Power and Influence

Average customer rating:

A Pebble in the Pond
When Hollywood was King!
A Respectful Look at Lew Wasserman
A Larger Than Life Horatio Alger
Masterful, gripping nonfiction

When Hollywood Had a King: The Reign of Lew Wasserman, Who Leveraged Talent into Power and Influence
Connie Bruck
Manufacturer: Random House Trade Paperbacks
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0812972171
Release Date: 2004-07-13

Book Description

In When Hollywood Had a King, the distinguished journalist Connie Bruck tells the sweeping story of MCA and its brilliant leader, a man who transformed the entertainment industry— businessman, politician, tactician, and visionary Lew Wasserman.

The Music Corporation of America was founded in Chicago in 1924 by Dr. Jules Stein, an ophthalmologist with a gift for booking bands. Twelve years later, Stein moved his operations west to Beverly Hills and hired Lew Wasserman. From his meager beginnings as a movie-theater usher in Cleveland, Wasserman ultimately ascended to the post of president of MCA, and the company became the most powerful force in Hollywood, regarded with a mixture of fear and awe.

In his signature black suit and black knit tie, Was-serman took Hollywood by storm. He shifted the balance of power from the studios—which had seven-year contractual strangleholds on the stars—to the talent, who became profit partners. When an antitrust suit forced MCA’s evolution from talent agency to film- and television-production company, it was Wasserman who parlayed the control of a wide variety of entertainment and media products into a new type of Hollywood power base. There was only Washington left to conquer, and conquer it Wasserman did, quietly brokering alliances with Democratic and Republican administrations alike.

That Wasserman’s reach extended from the underworld to the White House only added to his mystique. Among his friends were Teamster boss Jimmy Hoffa, mob lawyer Sidney Korshak, and gangster Moe Dalitz—along with Presidents Johnson, Clinton, and especially Reagan, who enjoyed a particularly close and mutually beneficial relationship with Wasserman. He was equally intimate with Hollywood royalty, from Bette Davis and Jimmy Stewart to Steven Spielberg, who began his career at MCA and once described Wasserman’s eyeglasses as looking like two giant movie screens.

The history of MCA is really the history of a revolution. Lew Wasserman ushered in the Hollywood we know today. He is the link between the old-school moguls with their ironclad studio contracts and the new industry defined by multimedia conglomerates, power agents, multimillionaire actors, and profit sharing. In the hands of Connie Bruck, the story of Lew Wasserman’s rise to power takes on an almost Shakespearean scope. When Hollywood Had a King reveals the industry’s greatest untold story: how a stealthy, enterprising power broker became, for a time, Tinseltown’s absolute monarch.

From the Hardcover edition.

Customer Reviews:

A Pebble in the Pond.......2007-07-21

Absolutely first-rate bio-history. It is the story of this remarkable man, but also the story of a great deal more. As I read this well-written biography, I thought of "Once Upon In America," the film about the American Jewish mafia told by the Italian director Sergio Leone. This biography of Wasserman has all of the mythic power of that film chronicle of violence and dreams. Fear played such a role in the way Wasserman weilded power, it is a wonder that our political theorists have not included this book in their reading lists along with Machiavelli and Thomas Hobbes. There is something "Oriental" about the use of power, the willingness to ruthlessly destroy, the seemingly endless, insatiable greed. His connection to the mob and to American presidents, such as Johnson and Nixon, is terribly interesting, as is the continuing fascination of Hollywood with power. I can think of no comparable mix of dread and beauty than that of the relationship between Stalin and Russian poets. This book is haunting and scary. Sleep tight.

When Hollywood was King!.......2003-08-07

When Hollywood was King and MCA ruled through aggressive, imaginative, creative, dirty, underhanded, political ways. This is not my favorite Hollywood book as I found "Showman, the life of David O. Selznick" by David Thomson and Peter Biskind's "easy Riders, Raging Bulls" far more entertaining. But Connie Bruck's book is more epic, covering as it does the business careers of Jules Stein and Lew Wassermann from the 1920s into the 21st Century in addition to telling the history of their company MCA and the industry they "ruled". Note I reference business careers because these individuals did not seem to have a personal life that did not revolve around business. There is not much surprising celebrity scandal that unfolds, except some strong hints that Ronald Reagan was a charming empty suit who received many sweetheart deals from the industry and he gave back in return. In some ways the Wasserman life story told here is one of the rise and fall, the young mans glory being used by younger students against him. And even though MCA associated with the mob and the mob with them Wasserman gave heavily to his industry and charity. A book for anyone interested in the history of Hollywood as a business in the 20th century.
An epic work that I highly recommend.

A Respectful Look at Lew Wasserman.......2003-07-26

Cinema fans of a certain age will no doubt recall the grand films of the 1940s and 1950s with a wry thought of "They don't make them like that anymore." The current boffo box office consists of pyrotechnical sequels starring beefcake (and cheesecake) performers, not matinee idols like Peck, Hepburn, Bogart and Lancaster.

But in the old days . . .

Connie Bruck, a veteran writer for The New Yorker, has compiled this fulsome biography of Lew Wasserman, one of the most powerful movers and shakers of an era when movies were virtually the only form of popular entertainment. The power wielded by Wasserman and his contemporaries could mean the difference between professional (and sometimes personal) life and death. (Bruck often discusses the Hollywood "gang" in terms of organized crime. Indeed, there was a great deal of dubious dealings with labor unions, often considered under the concern of the gangster trade.)

Wasserman was the type of leader who drew a mixture of respect and fear. He was "an entertainment mogul without peer," according to one admirer. To another, "he had an aura. He was my god." And like many such men, "his explosive tirades were legend."

Most of the book concerns the wheelings and dealings of the industry. For such a potentially juicy subject, Bruck dishes very little dirt/gossip. Instead she seems more concerned with the financial aspects, which readers will either find fascinating or tedious. There is often too much background that detracts from the overall sense of entertainment a book like this would seem to merit. In fact, Wasserman isn't even mentioned until well into the first chapter. Even the title is a bit hard to get through.

Another concern is that the author can't quite decide the direction of her book. The depth of research indicates a scholarly tome, but the voice seems more "popular" in nature.

Taken as a whole, however, Bruck offers a respectful look at Wasserman and a homage to the system when, to paraphrase a popular expression of today's younger crowd, "Hollywood ruled."

--- Reviewed by Ron Kaplan

A Larger Than Life Horatio Alger.......2003-07-23

When Lew Wasserman was growing up in his native Cleveland the Horatio Alger books were popular. They traced the rise of often penniless young men to the high pinnacles of economic and social power. I do not know if Wasserman read any of these stories in his boyhood, but he certainly ended up living them.

Beginning as a theater usher and later becoming a musician, Wasserman hooked up with Jules Styne and began booking musical acts. The dynamic duo recognized that the swing era of bands, which was their bailiwick, would have a limited life span. The Music Corporation of America then expanded into the world of motion pictures, retaining the name of an organization that sounds like and began as a company rooted in the movie field. One of Wasserman's clients in the late thirties was a young actor under contract to Warner Brothers by the name of Ronald Reagan. He would later be in a major position to assist Wasserman and MCA both as president of the Screen Actors Guild and beyond that as U.S. President. Reagan would always remain a bit miffed, however, that Wasserman, who developed solid relationships with presidents Lyndon Johnson and Bill Clinton, would retain his reputation as a loyal Democrat and hence supported Reagan's opponents. The firm was crafty, however, in keeping a foot in each camp, with Jules Styne and Taft Schreiber supporting Republicans assiduously. This factor helped when Reagan and Richard Nixon were in office.

Connie Bruck has provided an impressive body of research, including numerous interviews with the late Wasserman as well as those who worked with him and knew him well. Her industry pays off in the form of a fascinating study of a man who rose meteorically through the agent's ranks to become the supreme giant of the motion picture industry, the man others feared and envied, often at the same time.

Masterful, gripping nonfiction.......2003-07-02

This fascinating book is not only a look at Lew Wasserman and the MCA Hollywood empire he created, but a stunning and incisively written piece of business history -- indeed, a look at U.S. commerce, politics, and entertainment in the modern era. Bruck has the great ability to write about complex business issues and deals in a lucid and readable way. This is a must-read book for those interested in business stories, in modern American politics (Johnson, Nixon, and Reagan play key roles in the book), in Hollywood history (the break of the studio system, the movie stars, the move into TV). Bruck's canvas is so wide, yet she manages to combine all these various elements in a dramatic and compelling narrative. It's a brilliant book.

From the Cook's Garden: Recipes for Cooks Who Like to Garden, Gardeners Who Like to Cook, and Everyone Who Wishes They Had a Garden

Average customer rating:

A spectacular treat!
foody heaven

From the Cook's Garden: Recipes for Cooks Who Like to Garden, Gardeners Who Like to Cook, and Everyone Who Wishes They Had a Garden
Ellen Ecker Odgen
Manufacturer: Morrow Cookbooks
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Baking | Cooking, Food & Wine | Subjects | Books

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The Garden-Fresh Vegetable Cookbook
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ASIN: 0060008415
Release Date: 2003-03-18

Book Description

Vermont is the home of The Cooks Garden, America's premier organic seed catalogue. Since 1984, The Cook's Garden has been the ultimate source for kitchen gardeners seeking European-style greens, heirloom vegetables, radiant flowers, and pungent herbs. Each winter more than one million eager gardeners await the arrival of The Cook's Garden catalogue, looking forward to reading about new seed varieties as well as reliable classics.

Successfully growing vegetables, herbs, and flowers is just part of any gardening challenge, but what do you do once they are harvested?

Ellen Ogder's recipes are one of the most delightful aspects of The Cooks Garden catalogue. As Deborah Madison, bestselling author of Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone and Local Flavors writes in her foreword: "These recipes, which are entirely guided by the garden and choice of seeds that grow in it, bridge the gap between a dream on a page promised by a seed packet and how the seeds can be used in the kitchen."

Ellen's recipes are simple yet elegant and speak of freshness whether you harvest ingredients from your own garden or select them at your local store -- flavorful soups such as Zesty Lemon Cucumber Soup and Brilliant Butternut Bisque, salad combinations such as Arugula and Roasted Pear Salad, and Leaf Peeper's Carrot and Red Cabbage Salad, main courses such as Savory Vegetables in Polenta Crust or Herbed Chicken with Cider Sauce. Too many tomatoes or pears? Ellen offers ideas for preserving the bounty of any garden.

Illustrated with full-color woodcuts by Caldecott winner Mary Azarian and packed with topics from Ellen's favorite culinary herbs to favorite autumn vegetables, From The Cook's Garden offers a yearround garden of culinary delights.

Customer Reviews:

A spectacular treat!.......2003-12-19

My husband and I have been customers of the Cook's Garden seed catalog for over a decade. We might be an example of your worst nightmare, or wildest dream--we're foodies who became so fanatical about using only the best, freshest, in-season, organic ingredients that we now have a 10-acre organic farm where we do market gardening. We do all this so we can and do grow vegetables you see in this beautiful publication.

Other than its high production values, what is so special about this book? It presents an extraodinarily wide variety of produce as delectable dinner-time treats. For me, it gives depth to my already broad repertoire of veggie dishes. As an added bonus, I can give this cookbook to our friends and family who are reluctant to try cardoons or don't know that beets and chard come in a rainbow of colors. Suddenly, it's OK to give them strange veggies, because they know what to do with them. For those of you who don't know the joy of strolling through your own kitchen garden to decide what's for dinner, you can now stroll with confidence through the trendiest green grocer or farmers market, pick up what ever is freshest, and in season, and head home knowing you can find a delightful way to prepare and enjoy your find.

We've tried several of the recipes. They're yummy! All are inspiring.

And if you decide to try growing your own, remember there are those who farm many acres that started with a single grow box for fresh salad greens on the deck of their townhouse.

This makes eating your vegetables a joy!

foody heaven.......2003-10-09

As a foody who lives part of the year in Central London with all great restaurants and who also lives in the Dordogne with all its great produce, I have really enjoyed reading and cooking from this book. It's imaginative, easy to use, beautifully illustrated and inspiring. It is quintessentially American, and I will be introducing it and the recipes to all my friends in Europe.

Man Who had Been King: The American Exile of Napoleon's Brother Joseph

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A Great Read about a Fascinating Man

Man Who had Been King: The American Exile of Napoleon's Brother Joseph
Patricia Tyson Stroud
Manufacturer: University of Pennsylvania Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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The Emperor of Nature: Charles-Lucien Bonaparte and His World

ASIN: 0812238729

Book Description

Joseph Bonaparte, King of Naples and Spain, claimed that he had never wanted the overpowering roles thrust upon him by his illustrious younger brother Napoleon. Left to his own devices, he would probably have been a lawyer in his native Corsica, a country gentleman with leisure to read the great literature he treasured and oversee the maintenance of his property. When Napoleon's downfall forced Joseph into exile, he was able to become that country gentleman at last, but in a place he could scarcely have imagined.

It comes as a surprise to most people that Joseph spent seventeen years in the United States following Napoleon's defeat at Waterloo. In The Man Who Had Been King, Patricia Tyson Stroud has written a rich account--drawing on unpublished Bonaparte family letters--of this American exile, much of it passed in regal splendor high above the banks of the Delaware River in New Jersey.

Upon his escape from France in 1815, Joseph arrived in the new land with a fortune in hand and shortly embarked upon building and fitting out the magnificent New Jersey estate he called Point Breeze. The palatial house was filled with paintings and sculpture by such luminaries as David, Canova, Rubens, and Titian. The surrounding park extended to 1,800 acres of luxuriously landscaped gardens, with twelve miles of carriage roads, an artificial lake, and a network of subterranean tunnels that aroused much local speculation.

Stroud recounts how Joseph became friend and host to many of the nation's wealthiest and most cultivated citizens, and how his art collection played a crucial role in transmitting high European taste to America. He never ceased longing for his homeland, however. Despite his republican airs, he never stopped styling himself as "the Count de Survilliers," a noble title he fabricated on his first flight from France in 1814, when Napoleon was exiled to Elba, nor did he ever learn more than rudimentary English. Although he would repeatedly plead with his wife to join him, he was not a faithful husband, and Stroud narrates his affairs with an American and a Frenchwoman, both of whom bore him children. Yet he continued to feel the separation from his two legitimate daughters keenly and never stopped plotting to ensure the dynastic survival of the Bonapartes.

In the end, the man who had been king returned to Europe, where he was eventually interred next to the tomb of his brother in Les Invalides. But the legacy of Joseph Bonaparte in America remains, and it is this that Patricia Tyson Stroud has masterfully uncovered in a book that is sure to appeal to lovers of art and gardens and European and American history.

Customer Reviews:

A Great Read about a Fascinating Man.......2005-07-25

This is a first-rate biography that is an excellent follow-on to Stroud's book about Napoleon's nephew, Charles-Lucien Bonaparte (The Emperor of Nature). Stroud has been a biographer of natural historians (another was of Thomas Say, the first American naturalist), but this sojourn into the American exile of Napoleon's older brother Joseph, an aristocrat and former king of Naples and Spain, proves a good fit for her.

One suspects Stroud was drawn to Joseph's story in part because he made his large estate in southern New Jersey into a vast private nature reserve, in which he enriched the natural stock by introducing species from his much-missed Europe, including hares and Osage orange trees. Stroud throws in amusing
anecdotes about encounters with wildlife: Charles-Lucien, newly arrived from Italy, once gleefully leaps off his horse to grab a beautiful black-and-white creature scurrying along the ground -- only to get sprayed by a skunk.

But Stroud doesn't dwell on the natural history but rather on the rich aristocratic life of Joseph in America, who built one of the country's finest art collections at the time. Stroud makes it clear that the degree to which Joseph influenced the advancement of high European culture in this country, which today reveals itself in great private and public art and library collections, magnificent gardens, and grand estates, was significant. His library, for one, had more volumes than the Library of Congress.

Joseph, a sensitive sophisticate who seems to be the polar opposite of his willful, deeply egotistical younger brother, comes across as a highly likable fellow who is at once an expatriate playboy and a partisan utterly committed to restoring a Bonaparte to the throne of France. His exile in America, which lasts 17 years, makes for a good story, and Stroud tells it with verve, intelligence, and an easygoing yet authoritative style that should appeal to both lay and scholarly readers. I particularly enjoyed her sense of humor: there's one scene of Joseph confronting Napoleon in the bathtub about the Louisiana Purchase that should not be missed.

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The Cat Who Had 14 Tales (The Cat Who)
Lilian Jackson Braun
Manufacturer: Berkeley Publishing Group
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
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Three Complete Novels: The Cat Who Saw Red/the Cat Who Played Brahms/the Cat Who Played Post Office
The Cat Who Had 60 Whiskers
The Private Life of the Cat Who: Tales of Koko and Yum Yum from the Journals of James MacKintosh Qwilleran
The Cat Who Talked to Ghosts (The Cat Who...)
The Cat Who Sniffed Glue (Cat Who...)

ASIN: 073940511X

Product Description

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The Dog Who Had Kittens
Best Kids Book Ever!!!!!!!!!!
The Dog Who Had Kittens
"Marvelous, aren't they?"
Very entertaining!

The Dog Who Had Kittens
Polly Robertus
Manufacturer: Holiday House
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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The Tao of Maggie: The Sound of One Hound Barking
Maggie'S Way
Claude the Dog: A Christmas Story
My Big Dog (A Golden Classic)
My Dog Toby

ASIN: 0823409740

Book Description

A basset hound is miserable until he adopts some kittens.

Customer Reviews:

The Dog Who Had Kittens.......2007-03-30

The Dog Who Had Kittens

The book is an animal fiction story. The story takes place in spring at the dog, boy, and cat's home. And now that there are little paws running around the house things change. First things get worse. Then things turn better for good news. The book is about a cat named Eloise. She is black, white, and grey. She has 7 kittens and 3 of them look like their mom. A dog named Baxter is a basset hound who spends most of his time with the kittens! One day Baxter starts to love the kittens and takes care of them. He has lots of fun with them. There's a boy in the story too and he doesn't let the dog in the kitchen. That's where the kittens are and you know that dogs hate cats.

I really love the book The Dog Who Had Kittens by Polly M. Robertus and published by the trumpet club. It made me laugh finding out that Baxter took care of the kittens cause at the beginning Baxter doesn't want the kittens around. I was excited to see how Baxter fed them and let them use him for their own personal playhouse. I would recommend this book for boys and girls of all ages.

Best Kids Book Ever!!!!!!!!!!.......2006-07-14

I have a Basset, so I am partial to this book anyway.

Adorable, sad, happy, heart-warming story all rolled into one.
Tear jerker for the animal lover.

Brilliant illustrations!

You will not disappointed! I promise.

The Dog Who Had Kittens.......2005-09-12

It gave a true depiction of cats and basset hounds - basically that a male basset hound can be a better mother than a mama cat. Okay, so maybe I'm a little biased about bassets...but I love cats, too! It was a delightful book with marvelous illustrations. Great for the little kiddies (and the bigger ones, too!) who love animals.

"Marvelous, aren't they?".......2003-03-12

In this story, Baxter, a family's basset hound, grows affection for the cat, Eloise's newborn kittens. Once they are born, Baxter is forbidden to go near the little babies, but one day, his curiosity over comes him and he wanders into the laundry room, where the kittens stay. To his surprise, they are tiny, blind, weak, and helpless. Since Eloise is not around, he answers to their mews and feels that he must take care of them. Eloise soon finds him near her babies and makes him leave, immediately.
Soon, Eloise trusts Baxter and he plays with and takes care of the kittens. He is there for the kittens all the time.
When the kittens have grown and are sold to other families, Baxter grows lonely and upset. He doesn't know what to do with out seven little fuzz-balls to look after. Eloise sees how sad Baxter is and comforts him. She thanks him for all of his help in taking care of the kittens.
I think that this charming story, written by Polly M. Robertus, sends a message of love and devotion. It is delightful and enjoyable to read. The illustrations of Janet Stevens are humorous and show a great amount of emotion. This book is great for young children and the parents who read it to them. Enjoy!

Very entertaining!.......2001-12-19

This endearing book is not only a cute story about a dog and cats, but has a deeper message about love and devotion to others not like yourself. Janet Steven's illustrations are humorous! The dog, a Basset Hound, is very expressive, even with all his wrinkles. Anyone who has had to take care of more than a couple of kittens can relate to the picture of Baxter (the dog) spread-eagled on the kitchen floor trying to keep track of the kittens all going separate directions! This book is a present for my 4 1/2 year old son, and I know I'll be reading this story over and over again, to my delight!

STOP YOUR NEXT STROKE: STROKE PREVENTION FOR THOSE WHO HAVE HAD A STROKE OR STROKE-LIKE SYMPTOM

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A Clear Roadmap to Low Stroke Risk
Hands-on guide to stroke prevention

STOP YOUR NEXT STROKE: STROKE PREVENTION FOR THOSE WHO HAVE HAD A STROKE OR STROKE-LIKE SYMPTOM
David Alway
Manufacturer: AuthorHouse
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Self-Help | Health, Mind & Body | Subjects | Books

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Life After Stroke: The Guide to Recovering Your Health and Preventing Another Stroke (A Johns Hopkins Press Health Book)
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A Crusade for Stroke Prevention: A Program for Immediate, Aggressive Utilization of New Knowledge and Technology That Could Reduce Strokes by 90 Percent
The Stroke Recovery Book: A Guide for Patients and Families
My Year Off: Recovering Life After a Stroke

ASIN: 142085612X

Book Description

This is a straightforward guide to stroke prevention for those who have had a stroke or stroke-like symptom. The first chapter reviews, in plain language, the different stroke types and how they cause stroke symptoms. The reader can then turn to the chapter that deals with his or her stroke type. In each section, discussion of the causes of stroke is integrated with stroke prevention recommendations, backed up by scientific citations where appropriate. Prevention recommendations are made in the form of goals which are marked off on an easy to use Goal Chart, included in the book.

Customer Reviews:

A Clear Roadmap to Low Stroke Risk.......2006-07-08

I found this book to be clearly written, easily understandable and fast to read. It's informative to stroke victims who want to reduce their chances of having another stroke, or even to those who are at high risk of having a stroke.

The book provides you with a road map that is tailored to your specific situation, and by which you can track your progress over time. It does so by starting with the broadest categories of types of strokes, and then working toward more narrow conditions within those categories. As you read the book you fill out a chart checking off the conditions that apply to your situation and ignoring those that don't. This way, after you are done reading the book, you will have a set of goals tailored to your situation, and thus will be set on a course to reducing your risk of another stroke. According to the book, you can reduce the risk significantly in most cases.

The book weighs in at about 90 pages and the type is fairly large. The reader will find illustrations, which augment ones understanding of specific conditions.

The book does have medical terminology, but it doesn't overwhelm the reader. What I liked, in fact, was that the writer provided reasons why certain conditions are a problem. For instance, high blood pressure apparently harms the walls of the arteries, which speeds up the process of atherosclerosis. I'd always heard that high blood pressure was bad, but I'd never heard a causal explanation until this book.

Hands-on guide to stroke prevention.......2006-03-07

This book is very easy to understand and to the point. It walks you through all the steps you should take to prevent another stroke, from the medications you should be taking to changing your daily habits. The book encourages and helps you to become proactive in your own stroke prevention care. With the help of a goal chart, you are able to track your progress in attaining a set of personalized goals. Overall, I think this is a great book if you're looking for a hands-on guide to stroke prevention.

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