Simon & Schuster's Guide to Shells (Nature Guide Series)

Customer Reviews:

Well photographed. Organization needs work........2004-07-11

Simon and Schuster's Guide to Shells is beautifully photographed and the descriptions are top notch and helpful. The species of shellfish listed are admirable and quite a feast for the eyes, especially the "Mediterranean Chiton," which is an unusual rock dwelling shellfish with a 10 inch carapace. Quite amazing. The photographs and descriptions earned this guide a four star rating. Now for the organization details: The shells are organized into groups that explain which type of surface they reside on, which is not as helpful as organizing them in families, genus, or the shape of the shell. This may displease a diver using this guide as a very quick reference, as there is nothing quick about the ID system used here. However, for the person reading this book at a beach, at home, or by a campfire, the organization will not matter very much. This guide to shells is strictly recommended only for the easygoing collector.

Very difficult to use and poorly organized.......1999-04-03

This book is the right size to carry along with you. The pictures are excellent. That is the good stuff. The text is dense, complex and scientifically boring. The arrangement is unusual in that it classifies the shells by the type of surface on which they live. This is no help to someone who wants to identify a shell from a certain family as only one or two are illustrated. The book does not give any indication of abundance, value or availability. It does not contain a bibliography so there is no way to track down a book that deals with a family such as the tropical cones. I was less than pleased with this purchase

Simon and Schuster Pocket Guide to Shells of the World

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Simon and Schuster Pocket Guide to Shells of the World
Kenneth R. Wye
Manufacturer: Fireside
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Nature & Ecology | Science | Subjects | Books

Reference | Outdoors & Nature | Subjects | Books

Book Description

This is volume six of an eight-volume set.

Book Description

In the age of non-stop flights, , high-speed expressways, and the information superhighway, it is necessary sometimes to slow down and take a load off. Afternoon tea is the perfect break for the high speed days of the twentieth century. Gail Greco's Tea-Time at the Inn: A Country Inn Cookbook is a celebration of this ceremony and according to The American Cooking Guild is the "first book that shows how America really takes tea. A must for every cookbook shelf." Although it is a fanciful cookbook, the reader receives the added bonus of experiencing tea at the inn through the enchanting prose of the author and the lush photos of tea-tables and foods taken at the inns. Providing over 200 recipes, Tea-Time at the Inn offers an ample selection for all kinds of teas at home. "Writing in a picturesque style, Greco showcases numerous recipes from each inn and makes imaginative yet practical suggestions for creating thematic teatimes at home," says Publishers Weekly. Some of the themes from the inns include: A Gone With The Wind Tea from Tara; A Country Inn Tea from Pennsylvania; A Low-Fat Herb Tea from Back of the Beyond in New York; An Amish Tea from The Churchtown Inn in Pennsylvania and A Business Tea from the Bailiwick in Virginia. So no matter what the occasion, from an intimate tea with close friends to an elaborate thematic tea, Tea-Time at the Inn has the recipe for a successful spot of tea.

Customer Reviews:

One of the best tea books around.......2007-07-19

This book is great. I own several tea books and this is one of my favorites. The recipes I've tried have all been delicious. This book is also a good read and inspirational to invite friends over for tea and good food.

not really what i wanted.......2007-03-22

i was kind of disappointed in this book. the format was really neat, but i thought i would really love it and it was just okay. there weren't any recipes that sounded good to me or contained nuts to which i am allergic. i returned this book - it just wasn't for me.

tea-time at the inn.......2007-03-15

I love this book, it's one of my favorite. all the stories about the inns make me feel like spending my weekends there. all the photographs are lovely too. I can't get enough reading every chapter and can't wait to try out the recipes.

Thanks.......2006-03-14

Book looked great when it came in. My customer loved it and this of course makes me a very happy camper. Thanks.

Jim Potter
Moonrise Books

One of my favorites.......2004-05-28

I collect cookbooks and I love to host afternoon tea parties, so this book was right up my alley. It has probably the most extensive collection of recipes of any tea book I own.

Every recipe I have tried in this has turned out great, scones, mock devonshire cream, whoopie pies (oh my! they are delicious!),mini eclairs, strawberry puffs, chicken salad, cheese spread. I could go on and on, Ive had this book for years and I use it all the time. I not only use it when I have tea but also for finger foods at dinner parties.

If you are looking for a book with many different recipes and menus than get this one. The recipes are easy to follow, great tasting and you'll never run out of ideas.

tea-Time at the Inn a Country Inn Cookbook

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tea-Time at the Inn a Country Inn Cookbook
Gail Greco
Manufacturer: Rutledge Hill Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000QYIKRU

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Updating Our Recent History

The book presents interesting motives

4th edition is a ripoff

An excellent brief political history of the post WWII period

The Unfinished Journey: America Since World War II
William H. Chafe
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

1945 - Present | 20th Century | United States | Americas | History | Subjects | Books
General | 20th Century | United States | Americas | History | Subjects | Books
General | United States | Americas | History | Subjects | Books
General | Americas | History | Subjects | Books
All Titles | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books
Similar Items:

A History of Our Time: Readings on Postwar America

Major Problems in American History Since 1945: Documents and Essays (Major Problems in American History)

Age of McCarthyism: A Brief History With Documents

Homeward Bound: American Families in the Cold War Era

The Movements of the New Left, 1950-1975: A Brief History with Documents (The Bedford Series in History and Culture)

ASIN: 0195315375

Book Description

This popular and classic text chronicles America's roller-coaster journey through the decades since World War II. Considering both the paradoxes and the possibilities of postwar America, William H. Chafe portrays the significant cultural and political themes that have colored our country's past and present, including issues of race, class, gender, foreign policy, and economic and social reform. He examines such subjects as the Vietnam War, the civil rights movement, the origins and the end of the Cold War, the culture of the 1970s, the rise of the New Right, the Clinton presidency, the events of September 11th and their aftermath, the war in Iraq, the 2004 election, and the beginning of George W. Bush's second term. In this new edition, Chafe provides a nuanced yet unabashed assessment of George W. Bush's presidency, covering his reelection, the saga of the Iraq War, and the administration's response to the widespread devastation of Hurricane Katrina. Chafe also provides a detailed account of the state of the nation under the Bush administration, including the economic situation, the cultural polarization over such issues as stem cell research and gay marriage, the shifting public opinion of the Iraq War, and the widening gap between the poorest and the wealthiest citizens. Brilliantly written by a prize-winning historian, The Unfinished Journey, Sixth Edition, is an essential text for all students of recent American history.

Customer Reviews:

Updating Our Recent History.......2007-03-17

This text is a fine piece of historical work. It provides new historical perspectives on events that many of us have lived through. As our recent past recedes further into history, and as new original historical sources, such as presidential papers, become available, the view of history of any time period is subject to new and revised interpretations by scholars.

Reinterpratation of historical events are evidenced in this book. The book covers that period of U.S. History from the beginning of the Cold War through 9/11 and the Iraq War. This book does a very nice job as well in providing the history enthusiast or an amateur the present schloarly consensus on such major events as the Cuban Missile Crisis, race relations, the Vietnam War, and the women's movement.

It is well written, well documente and highly readable. I would highly recommend this to anyone who wants a good overview of recent U.S. history.

The book presents interesting motives.......2004-08-19

Joe Anguilano

WWII, a Lesson in Realpolitik?

Two powerful nations, the United States and the USSR, were pitted against each other in a power-struggle during and after World War Two. This dangerous power struggle, referred to as the Cold War, at its very core, originated due to the economic needs of the United States and foreign policy rhetoric. Due to an alliance held together by little more than a common enemy, two very different nations were brought together as allies and became entangled in a post-war diplomatic nightmare.
"In December 1940 America had begun its Lend-Lease plan for sending arms to Britain" (J, 3). The motives behind the Lend-Lease program for England are very important in determining the motives for US interests in Europe. In hindsight, the Soviets accused the US of an "economically aggressive...effort to dominate the globe," (Time 1). Similar to World War I, the US had a vested interest in an English victory because "trade lines with England and France, economic and political control over Latin America and South America-all would be best preserved if Germany were defeated" (J, 33). The US Lend-Lease program for England was meant to alleviate Nazi aggression threatening these interests as well as others. Chafe writes "posing the issue [of war] as strictly one of self-interest offered little chance of success given the depth of America's revulsion toward internationalism. [The] Roosevelt [administration] relied [on] rhetoric of American values as a means of justifying the international involvement that knew must inevitably lead to war" (J, 34). Yet, "in June 1941, Germany invaded Russia and Stalin became `Uncle Joe" (J, 32).
Why would the US ally itself with a government that oversaw prison camps and purge trials that killed up to 6 million (J, 32)? "From a Western perspective, there seemed little basis for distinguishing between Soviet tyranny and Nazi totalitarianism" (F, 32). By allying itself with the USSR, the United States decided to put its notion of a "city on a hill" aside to try to retain its economic and political interests abroad. But the rhetoric arguing for the war continued its "city on the hill" ideals. Roosevelt tried to reason with this compromise when writing to General MacArthur saying, "The Russian armies are killing more Axis personnel and destroying more Axis materiel than all the other twenty-five United Nations put together" (J, 36). The incentive for the USSR to take up arms with the US is due simply to the fact that Nazi forces were making advances in Russia and it was taking a heavy toll.
Economic motives and foreign policy rhetoric had a two-fold effect as origins for the Cold War. Motivations that did not stand up to "pure or altruistic" were primary reasons for entering the war and the Roosevelt administration's lack of acknowledgement of these motivations " severely limited the flexibility necessary to a multifaceted and effective diplomacy" (J, 33). Once the power struggle between the two super-powers of the war emerged the US could give little ground or concession because "action...might fall well short of the expectations generated by moralistic visions" (J, 33). After Hitler was defeated the US continued its "city on the hill" rhetoric but realized that the power struggle for Europe would be much more complicated than previously anticipated.

***This is something that I put together based on this book. I found the reading material interesting and wish I had not sold the book back at the end of the semester. I may buy it again for reference purposes although I also hear that "The People's History of the United States" is good as well.

4th edition is a ripoff.......2001-02-22

Only a few pages of the 4th edition are new so if you have the 3rd don't bother with the 4th. The publisher should be ashamed.

An excellent brief political history of the post WWII period.......1999-03-09

Chafe does a good job on selected topics;i.e., politics, civil rights and foreign policy. Weak on economics, technology, farm policy. Heavily dependent on some secondary sources like Doris Kearns Goodwin. Needs updating badly. 4th edition has been delayed for months.

Unfinished Journey: A World War II Remembrance

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What an inspiring young man!
A Voice from the past
Heart-warming glimpse of the All American Boy

Unfinished Journey: A World War II Remembrance
Kerry P. Redmann
Manufacturer: The Lyons Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

Military & Spies | Professionals & Academics | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

General | Military | History | Subjects | Books

Letters & Correspondence | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

ASIN: 1592287611

Customer Reviews:

What an inspiring young man!.......2006-08-08

I throughly enjoyed this book. I gave copies to several friends who also enjoyed it. Through his letters home, it is obvious that Morris Redmann was an exceptional young man. I felt that I got to know him through these letters. Beautifully put together.

A Voice from the past.......2006-07-14

Anyone enjoying reading memoirs of veterans from WWII will find this work compelling. The only difference is this is a memoir from the grave - the thoughts, actions, hopes and dreams of a very young man who died at nineteen in the frozen Ardennes in 1945. He was in law school at eighteen. I had the pleasure to write the forward for this work, and Morris Redmann was indeed special: faithful, humorous, poetic, and patriotic; a man we would all have loved to have known. He left us his letters to do just that.

Ronald J. Drez

Heart-warming glimpse of the All American Boy.......2006-02-07

This book is a labor of love. A younger child's devotion to an older sibling. Morris B. Redmann, Jr. was the eldest of 10 children. He once said that it is a "Noble Obligation to serve one's country..." This book is a compilation of his letters home (V-mail) that were steadfastly kept by his Father and preserved for all time by my Father the author. It was the infamous shoebox full of letters that Uncle Morris wrote home that my Dad kept in the attic and always said he would write a book about them one day. Well, he did! And what we have is a heart-warming glimpse into a young American Boy's life. One that he sacrificed gladly for his country and for the Liberty that we all enjoy. Although he is laid to rest in the Luxembourg American Military Cemetary, his spirit lives on in his siblings and now for posterity, in the words and writing of his little brother, Kerry P. Redmann! Consummatum est!

Man's unfinished journey;: A world history (Houghton Mifflin history program)

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Man's unfinished journey;: A world history (Houghton Mifflin history program)
Marvin Perry
Manufacturer: Houghton Mifflin
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

General | World | History | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0395033667

MAN'S UNFINISHED JOURNEY: A WORLD HISTORY

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MAN'S UNFINISHED JOURNEY: A WORLD HISTORY
M. Perry
Manufacturer: Houghton
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000V10JPY

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Unfinished Journey: A World History
Marvin Perry
Manufacturer: Houghton Mifflin College Div
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | History & Historical Fiction | Children's Books | Subjects | Books

The Unfinished Journey: America Since World War II, 4th ed. and A History of Our Time: Readings on Postwar America, 5th ed.: Two book set

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The Unfinished Journey: America Since World War II, 4th ed. and A History of Our Time: Readings on Postwar America, 5th ed.: Two book set
William H. Chafe , and Alice Mary Baldwin
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Americas | History | Subjects | Books

20th Century | World | History | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0195146956

Book Description

This is a package of two of Oxford's most popular American history texts: An Unfinished Journey, a text on post-World War II America written by William E. Chafe, and A History of Our Time, edited by Chafe and Harvard Sitkoff, which is a collection of documents covering the same time period. Professors who elect to use both books will be able to purchase both together at a discounted price.

Book Description

Obtaining and analyzing samples is challenging in subsurface science. This first-of-its-kind reference book addresses accomplishments in this field-from drilling to sample work-up. A collaborative approach is taken, involving the efforts of microbiologists, geochemists, hydrologists, and drilling and mining experts to present a comprehensive view of subsurface research. The text provides practical information about obtaining, analyzing, and evaluating subsurface materials; the current status of subsurface microbial ecology; and describes several applications that will interest a variety of readers, including engineers, physical, and life scientists.

Book Description

Consider a scaffolding that is constructed by bolting together rods and beams. The ultimate question is whether the structure is strong enough to support the workers and their equipment. This is the problem that motivates the area of mathematics known as rigidity theory. The purpose of this book is to develop a mathematical model for the rigidity of structures. In fact the author develops three distinct models in which the structure under consideration is modelled as a framework. These models are the degrees of freedom model and two models based on quadratic equations and linear equations respectively. The author shows that all three of these models agree except for a very small class of specially constructed frameworks. This is a theory with significant practical applications and will be of interest to a wide range of people including those studying graph theory or mathematical modelling.

Customer Reviews:

Mathematically rigorous introduction to the design of rigid structures.......2007-02-20

In this context a framework is a mathematical model for rigidity. Starting with the basics of graph theory and the concept of the degrees of freedom that edges have when connected to a node, Graver develops rigidity theory. Since his definition of a framework is a graph, the real significance is the definition of a rigid framework, which is one that admits no deformations or equivalently if the only allowed motions are rigid ones.
If you will pardon the pun, the mathematics is rigorous. The author cites many theorems and lemmas with proofs when introducing the background graph theory and then when developing rigidity theory. Polynomials, matrices and vectors are some of the tools used in the process.
The last chapter, "History and Applications" is very interesting. Graver uses some real structures such as the geodesic dome and stick and cable sculptures to demonstrate how the theory can be applied.
This is one of those math books that is mathematical, yet is more of an engineering book than a math book. There is no question in my mind that it would be an excellent introductory text for many engineering courses.

Book Description

Alex Cross is back--and so is the Big Bad Wolf. Terrorists have seized the worlds largest cities. London, Washington, DC, New York, and Frankfurt will be destroyed, unless their demands are met--and their demands are impossible. After a city in the western United States is fire bombed--a practice run--Alex Cross knows that it is only a matter of time before the bombers threats to the other cities are brutally executed.Heading up the investigation by the FBI, CIA, and Interpol, Alex Cross is stunned when surveillance photos show Geoffrey Shafer, the Weasel, near one of the bombing sites. He senses the presence of the Wolf as well, the most vicious predator he has ever battled. With millions of lives in the balance, Cross has to see if the most powerful law enforcement agencies in the world can stay ahead of these two mens cunning.

Customer Reviews:

Big Fan Felt very dissapointed.......2007-09-20

I am big fan of James Patterson. But this book disappointed me so much that this is the first time, I am writing review any book. This book forced me write this review. If you are big fan of James Patterson, please please skip this book. Because this is nothing but big big disappointment. The story takes you to a peak and drop you from 50,000 foot free fall till you hit the rocky ground and felt I have wasted all this time on this stupid book. I am sorry to say this, but it is very true.

Poor Attempt.......2007-07-12

It seems as if the author wrote this while running for a plane at an airport. Short, meaningless chapters, poor pacing, and inferior character development. Does anyone really care what happens to these characters? Not me.

London Bridge Fell Down.......2007-07-08

This book seemed a formulaic labor that Patterson had to get through and be done with. Once he got to the point where Cross was going to capture the criminals he wanted to get, the rest seemed matter of fact. Cross chased these two guys through two previous novels, and this book - where he finally got them - seemed, to me, anti-climactic.

Definitely not his best ...........2007-05-30

I'm a big fan of Patterson's "Alex Cross" series, but this one was just not very good. It was very far-fetched and the ending was like hitting a brick wall. It was also tough to keep up with all the characters that were introduced. It's not the worst book I've read and it does keep you turning the pages ... just don't expect too much, and don't expect to have all your questions answered.

One of the worst books I've read in months.......2007-05-09

As I read through this book with its 4 paragraph chapters, I kept wondering how this book ever got published? London Bridges reads like an outline of a book, a skeleton -- where's the beef? Maybe it was just meant to be a pitch for a summer movie - lots of blowing things up, unbelievable plotlines, and underdeveloped characters. I wish I could be a literary bulemic - purge myself of this book's stupidity and get back my time spent reading it. Now I'm even hungrier for Lee Child's new Jack Reacher book due out in a week.

Average customer rating:

london bridge
Celine's self-parody wears the reader's nerves to a pulp

London Bridge: Guignol's Band II
Louis-Ferdinand Celine
Manufacturer: Dalkey Archive Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

French | World Literature | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

Guignol's Band

ASIN: 1564780716

Amazon.com

A hilarious novel about the dark and devilish London underworld during World War I, London Bridge follows Celine's autobiographical narrator through his tumultuous relationships with London's pimps and whores, a mystical Frenchman, and the narrator's lover: the daughter of an English baronet whose fall from grace is amazingly -- suspiciously -- swift. If you've read Celine, you'll again enjoy his trademark style of brusque observations and short bursts of prose and ellipses. If you haven't, you're in for a wild and wonderful ride.

Book Description

a novel, GUIGNOL'S BAND II, tr Dominic Di Bernardi

Customer Reviews:

london bridge.......2001-11-29

actually the rating is for the translation.

when i saw "london bridge" (guignol's band II), i was ecstatic as i had read all of celine's work available in english before it had come out (even searching out the then-out-of-print "north"-"castle to castle"-"rigadon" trilogy).

to my dismay i did not care for it as much as i had hoped.

for me (and others may have a different experience), i did not like the tone of the translation (but i did not like the translation of guignol's band I either). for me, london bridge felt self-conciously hip.

i much prefer mannhiem's translations of celine's work. perhaps i have come to equate his tone with celine's.

i think that journey and installment plan (both 5-star ratings)are better places to start with celine, then moving on to the afore-mentioned trilogy (4.5 stars each). if completeness is needed, i'd move on to the guignol's band series.

others may have a different viewpoint.

Celine's self-parody wears the reader's nerves to a pulp.......1997-03-26

Louis-Ferdinand Celine has called his prose style 'the little music'. Celine is certainly capable of delicate, ironic, 'musical' writing, and you can find it easily in 'Journey to the End of Night' and 'Death on the Installment Plan'. Take one of his perfect, casual aphorisms in 'Journey': "[He] had the vice of the intellectual: he was futile." 'London Bridge' is the most excessive of Celine's books, flooded with exclamation marks and ellipses. Celine does not so much write as yell prose in 'London Bridge'. This is a book written entirely in italics, managing to sustain a mood of delirious excitement which never once modulates into anything more interesting or musical. It is a story of a youth and his dubious mentor, two Frenchmen, who are travelling abroad, and have found themselves in London. Ostensibly they are in London to get rich on the proceeds of the older man's invention - a revolutionary gas mask that will save the lives of Allied soldiers. But everything goes completely wrong from the start. The book is dominated by the protagonist Ferdinand's careening, drunken tours of the city's filthiest, sexiest precincts, and he has lots of wild violent adventures. No-one makes any money on the invention, of course. Everyone is broke and in a state of physical collapse by the end and the endless exclamations, bangings, crashings and frantic, sweat-slicked pursuits seem to have been calculated to wear the reader's nerves to a pulp. At its best, 'London Bridge' is funny, high-speed, carnivalesque farce. But so is the rest of Celine's output, and this book entirely lacks the backhanded profundity of, for example, his treatments of World War I, the follies of the bourgeoisie, colonial power and madness in 'Journey to the End of Night'. 'London Bridge' is more difficult to read than any work of Beckett. I never thought I would find a writer of whom I could say this. 'London Bridge' is the worst possible introduction to Celine - in it, he parodies himself. This work contains all of Celine's irritations and none of his rewards.

Average customer rating:

Read Margery Allingham instead
Witty, literate and a lovely read
Great Fun -- Perfect For a Rainy Weekend
Can't we just have some fun?
Disappointingly pretentious

London Bridges: A Novel
Jane Stevenson
Manufacturer: Mariner Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Classics | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Literary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

British Detectives | Mystery | Mystery & Thrillers | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 061825773X

Book Description

A superbly entertaining, high-spirited novel, London Bridges gives a very contemporary spin to the classic English detective thriller. Set in 1990s London, the plot centers on a treasure lost in the Blitz and newly discovered by an unscrupulous lawyer, who is tempted by greed into a series of crimes leading to murder. "The true treasure here is Stevenson's motley chorus of characters" (The New Yorker); the main character is London itself, lovingly depicted in all its rich variousness. With elegant wit, keen social observation, and dazzling intelligence, Stevenson explores the ways that people's lives intertwine in a great city, often with startling results.

Customer Reviews:

Read Margery Allingham instead.......2006-05-30

This was a great let down. It is evidently an attempt to write a modern multi-cultural PC version of Margery Allingham's great London detective stories ('Tiger in the Smoke' 'The China Governess' and 'Hide My Eyes') but it fails. One of the child characters in 'The China Governess' is introduced into the novel as an adult and is an assembly of cliches.
The sense of London, so profound and chilling in Allingham's work is lost and the presentation of the city is shallow and indeed journalistic. Worse, there are authorial interventions ventriloquised via certain approved characters which read like op-ed pieces for the Independent newspaper. I'd recommend that readers try Allingham rather than Stevenson.

Witty, literate and a lovely read.......2005-10-22

I thought this book was going to be a mystery, and it borders on being one, however as someone else pointed out it crosses genres and was much more. The story is very engaging, and the plot moves quickly, much as a thriller does. But this is no thriller. It is witty and funny in places -- I laughed out loud several times while reading it. It is intelligent, which is a refreshing change from so many authors today. Plus the characters are well-developed so you start caring about them. And it has a sense of place. I can think of very few "mysteries" I would say all that about. It most reminds me of my favorite mystery writer, Donna Leon, and that says quite a lot. I thoroughly enjoyed the story (which others have outlined and I will not repeat) and hated when it ended. I recommend it highly!

Great Fun -- Perfect For a Rainy Weekend.......2005-03-08

This extremely well-written and entertaining book is a quasi-thriller constructed around an exploration of how people meet and forge their own communities. Set in London, the story is populated by a disparate upper-middle class cast of professionals who are entwined in a plot revolving around some valuable South Bank real estate owned by a Greek monastery. Events are set in motion when two different groups discover the existence of the property, as well as the possibility of the existence of priceless antiques in a safe-deposit box. The story opens with a prologue out of chronological order that foreshadows events to come. Then the reader is taken back a few weeks to meet the villain of the piece, a snobby but poor lawyer who is given the task of wrapping up the affairs of an estate that puts him in contact with the South Bank property and forgotten relics. It also puts him in touch with a cunning Greek businesswoman, and the two convince each other that they might be able to get their hands on these precious items by conning an elderly Anglo-Greek banking agent into assigning the lawyer power of attorney.

Meanwhile (a phrase much used in the book), an enthusiastic preservationist has discovered an old fountain and thinks the South Bank property (currently an ad hoc community garden) is just the place for it. He's comes up with the grand scheme to get the monastary to donate the land for the project, and ropes in his friend Hattie, who works for a foundation (trust in the UK) dedicated to the nebulous task of improving London. She brings on board her friend who is a campy gay classics professor who just happens to know the abbot of the monastary. It all gets rather complicated to explain, but soon these characters all start to cross paths, along with an Australian graduate student in the classics program who moonlights as a pharmacist, an Indian lawyer born and bred in London who works at the villain's firm, and various other minor characters. These are all well-drawn figures that occasionally border on cliché at times, but whenever we see them at work or at home, they are always doing things that give them depth and life, and Stevenson shows a nice ear for dialogue. Of course, everything is pretty much constrained to the well-meaning striving set of law, academia, trusts, art, and so on, but it's still well done.

The story walks that fine line of being literate without becoming pretentious. The "thriller" aspect almost borders on a Scooby-Doo story where the gang starts to put the puzzle together, but a murder keeps things dark enough to avoid tounge-in-cheekitis. There is comedy and wit, and the climax is perhaps a bit over-the-top in the wackiness, but Stevenson makes it work nonetheless. The plot does require one to go along with a heavy dose of coincidence in terms of these people all knowing each other, but if one can get past that, it's vastly entertaining stuff. The book also mainly succeeds as a slice of London life that is a homage to the bonds of friendship. There is perhaps a little too much detail of what people wear and their home decor, but its all within context. Of course, it helps if one is predisposed to books about London and Londoners, but it should appeal to metropolitan dwellers anywhere. A thoroughly fun book that will have me seeking out more of Stevenson's works.

Can't we just have some fun?.......2004-11-13

I am quite puzzled by some of the other reviews here. I picked the book up as a remainder at a local bookshop and read it at the beach. In contrast to some prior reviewers, I found the book a sort of playful romp in the genre of the "lost manuscript". I found the characters quirky in an enjoyable manner and that the setting created a fun sense of some parts of London and environs that I have enjoyed. I enjoyed the writing and found the book overall much less pretentious than Alexander McCall Smith's newest book The Sunday Philosopher's Club(although I have enjoyed his African series). Can't we just have some fun?

Disappointingly pretentious.......2004-07-02

With a potentially interesting range of characters and a complex plot, I had high hopes for this book, but it let me down badly. The characters are little better than two-dimensional stereotypes, and most of them basically unlikeable stereotypes at that. There are pages and pages of useless dialogue about unrelentingly pretentious topics that are totally irrelevant to the plot. Such as it is. During the supposedly dramatic finale I fell asleep several times due to the long-winded and poorly-paced description of events. I got no sense of danger or excitement and amazingly, considering how bad the rest of the book was, the end was an anti-climax. The only thing that would have saved it would have been if one of the obnoxious heroes had been killed. No book has annoyed me so much for years. Not since the equally terrible My Legendary Girlfriend. My advice is only read this if you enjoy the company of excessively smug intellectuals. And one more thing: her knowledge of London geography is patchy at best. Do not use it as a travel guide.

Alex Cross Series: Along Came a Spider, Kiss the Girls, Jack and Jill, Cat and Mouse, Pop! Goes the Weasel, Roses Are Red, Violets Are Blue, Four Blind Mice, The Big Bad Wolf, London Bridges, Mary Mary (Set of 11 Suspense Novels)

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Alex Cross Series: Along Came a Spider, Kiss the Girls, Jack and Jill, Cat and Mouse, Pop! Goes the Weasel, Roses Are Red, Violets Are Blue, Four Blind Mice, The Big Bad Wolf, London Bridges, Mary Mary (Set of 11 Suspense Novels)
James Patterson
Manufacturer: Warner
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
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ASIN: B000S96GMY

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London Bridges (10th Alex Cross Novel )
James Patterson
Manufacturer: Warner Books Inc
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000NXW2XM

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