All But Alice Review

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(More customer reviews)All but Alice was a great book to read. It is about when Alice wants a bulletin board, her ears pierced, and even joins two clubs-The Earring Club and the All-Stars Fan Club. She works at the Melody Inn for three hours and wants to be part of the "in" crowd at school.
Alice may act different in this book out of the other books, but I know how that feels. You act different when you are in a different and a snobbier club and then realize of how idiotic you were to people who didn't pick on you at all.
It is not like Alice picks on anyone in this novel, but it was cruel of her to embarrass her friend Elizabeth like that. One of the Three Handsome Stooges likes and picks on Alice a lot. Alice feels different and one of the Popular and the Beautiful people at her school.
But the truth is, Alice gets so sick of Brian (one of the 3 Stooges) picking on her. Even in one of the chapters, he puts her face in the snow for fun like it is funny. And on Valentine's Day, her ex-boyfriend Patrick comes over and gives her a big box of chocolates.
Alice didn't realize that she had to share them with him for some weird reason. So Lester tells her that and she reinvites him over.
Lester has a Woman Situation again! Loretta Jenkins (who works at his dad's store) likes him! Lester just wants to take a break from dating and concentrate on homework. Or, in other words, L-I-F-E. Meaning a "non-female-dating-crisis" life.
And turns out that Alice's dad goes out with her 7th-grade Language Arts teacher Miss Summers. Again. And he gives her a Vivaldi cassette. AND, turns out that Alice becomes herself again, kisses Patrick again (because he threw up on the bus and Brian told Alice to make fun of him when he comes back but she comes to the rescue and they talk and then kiss on the bus. Yep. Just like that!), and quits the Earring Club (I think) and the All-Stars Fan CLub.
The letter Alice wrote to a famous rock-star was very funny. Even though it was a joke, the person in charge of it mailed it to the star!
This was a good book for peoples out there who have trouble fitting in with the right people. Phyllis Reynolds Naylor is a great author and knows how to describe a junior-high girl's life today.
So if you're bored, then I suggest reading All But Alice.

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Chicken Soup for the Teenage Soul: 101 Stories of Life, Love and Learning (Chicken Soup for the Soul) Review

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(More customer reviews)I am 11 years old,a young adolesence boy,My mother (a.k.a Santa Claus) bought me Chicken Soup For The Teenage Soul for CHristmas. I immediately put my other presents away and started reading.It was sad,heart warming,and happy at certain times.I realized how special I really am. It was amazing how other people around and over my age felt.Also very nice to see how girls feel and want in a man. Also,how no matter how hard times get,suicide is never the answer. There was two stories in particular I loved Sparky (in the section "On Learning)you will never believe the ending. Another on of my favorites is about suicide and how everybody deserves a friend it is Always Return Your Phone Calls (in the section "Tough Stuff") It is sad,beatiful,and very inspirational. I suggest this book to every kid my age this book is so good I am going to read it over and over again. Thank-you.

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This first batch of Chicken Soup for Teens consists of 101 stories every teenager can relate to and learn from -- without feeling criticized or judged. This edition contains important lessons on the nature of friendship and love, the importance of belief in the future, and the value of respect for oneself and others, and much more.

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Death of a Doxy: A Nero Wolfe Novel Review

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(More customer reviews)A quarter century ago while I was getting edified in college in Houston, I picked up a Nero Wolfe novel, on the recommendation of some journalist. Being rather methodical in such things, I found out that Mr. Stout had written quite a few novels, that the first Wolfe one was "Fer de Lance," and so I bought it. Start at the beginning; I was studying math after all. I liked the book, which I had gotten at The Book Den on Rice Boulevard, an establishment long gone in the yuppification of the Village and the John, the owner, no doubt gone too of age, had taken a shine to me and had ordered for all of the Wolfe novels, which I went through like a bureaucrat through your paycheck. Not a week goes by that I don't have a warm thought about this dead man. Some of my teachers and professors should be so lucky. Mrs. Schmidt, are you listening?
Wolfe is a hugely fat private detective in New York. He is Montenegrin, which features in the series, and which has given some piquancy to the (ever-constant) Balkan fighting exploding in the last few years. His amanuensis-and I think that I learned that word in this book-is Archie Goodwin, a controlled rakehell from Ohio. Wolfe is a genius and Archie is his legman. The other full-time occupant of the New York brownstone house is Fritz Brenner, the Swiss chef and house keeper. Wolfe grows 10,000 or 20,000 or 40,000 orchids-one of the few slight inconsistencies in Stout's own Wolfiana-on the roof of his brownstone in New York. He fights the police, hates to work, loves to eat, and is generally difficult.
But my God can he talk. Roll in the vocabulary; pluck out the recondite verbs and carpe dem nouns. I damned near wore out Merriam Webster's Collegiate Dictionary-I have found a better dictionary since-looking up such as "demirep" and enjoying the words it's made of. (A denizen of the demimonde, or half-world +a reprobate.) Wolfe is a godsend if you're playing the dictionary game.
A word of warning. Wolfe is what I can best describe as High Tory, and Archie follows, not that I myself mind. Archie is much like a very proud tom cat: perfectly mannered, but on his terms. Utterly trustworthy, like my best friend Ron, but mannered like a good tom cat. Measure up to standards which he sets for everyone, including himself, and he is your ally. Miss Manners would like him, I think.
Had this book come out now, about 2/3 of a century later, people would no doubt have sniggered about "homoeroticism," which in this case means that three men live together in a house and that the emotional relationships are amazingly intense. But very well controlled.
Every Wolfe novel or short novel ends in a confrontation in the office, with Archie setting the stage, arranging seating, providing a bar, and mostly steering people to the chairs that he wanted. He was a control freak before the term was invented. As I said, a cat. Wolfe makes a dramatic entrance, the tableau set, and using nothing but the power of his brain, solves the case, often with so little to go on that it is a true cliffhanger, if you really care. Me, I like the atmosphere.
The series was continued by his daughters' permission by a Mr. Robert Goldsmith, who is pretty good with the details of that particular brownstone universe, but whose essential meanness has revealed his politics. Archie never once said something to wound unless he felt that propriety was lacking. And then he snubbed; he did not want to injure. Mr. Goldsmith's Archie does.
I hope that you enjoy the Wolfe as much as I have. They sit decomposing on the shelf behind me, just as I sit decomposing in front of you.
But I warn you: the gastronomy is seductive. The cooking is of French standards of a hundred years ago but it is intriguing, and set me off. Time to cook a French garlic sausage I made over the weekend. Thank you Mr. Wolfe.

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Kristy and the Mother's Day Surprise (Baby-Sitters Club, No. 24) Review

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(More customer reviews)Okay, you may like it if you're a brainless 10-years-old white caucasian upperclassman. Otherwise no. All BSC books are dull but this one is the dullest. Like parents were going to give their kids to a bunch of 13-years-old. And the throwing up scene in the carousel. How thrilling

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Devising a kid-free day off for all the hardworking mothers in Stoneybrook, Kristy and the rest of the Baby-sitters Club are pleased by the successful day, which concludes with a big surprise for Kristy. Reissue.--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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4th of July (Women's Murder Club, No 4) Review

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(More customer reviews)Wow, what a story! There is a reason why James Patterson sells millions of books and great mysteries like 4th of July are the reason why. In the fourth installment of the popular Women's Murder Club series, Lieutenant Lindsay Boxer (the head of San Francisco Police Department's Homicide Division) is fighting to save her career after she is accused in a wrongful death suit, and at the same time struggling to help solve a series of grisly murders that have shaken the small town of Half Moon Bay, where she has retreated to chill out while on administrative leave from the SFPD.
As the story unfolds Lieutenant Boxer is hot on the trail of a couple of suspects that she and her partner believe are responsible for a recent string of seedy motel murders. Turns out the suspects are two very youthful teenage siblings, and in the process of apprehending these two, Boxer is forced to use deadly force to defend herself and her partner. When all is said and done, Boxer's partner is critically wounded and unconscious, Boxer herself has been hit twice, a 15 year old girl is dead, and her 13 year old brother is paralyzed for life from the neck down. Was it a legitimate use of deadly force? Not in the minds of the parents it wasn't. And the media has already found her guilty without the benefit of trail!
In Half Moon Bay someone is killing local residents in a gruesome fashion reminiscent of an unsolved homicide from Lieutenant Boxer's earliest days on the force. She is supposed to be laying low in the sleepy little seaside resort, gearing up the trail of her life, but when the killing starts, she finds herself hard pressed to remain disinterested and unengaged. Before long she is swept up in the investigation and a target for murder herself!
A great weekend read. The chapters just fly by! Also recommended are the other three stories in the Women's Murder Club series: 1st to Die, 2nd Chance, and 3rd Degree. Be the first on your block to collect all four books!

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A Lady of His Own (Bastion Club) Review

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(More customer reviews)Although I've already read close to 200 romance novels this year (historical, medieval, erotic, contemporary, paranormal, etc.), this is the first book I've ever had the guts to write my personal opinion on...
Girlfriend (SL) is all that AND the bag of chips! I didn't think she could match the sensuality of "Devil's Bride", but she dun did it again with her seductive exchange of Charles' and Penny's pent up sexual desires for each other, which spans 13 years of abstinence for Penny and maturing into manhood for Charles. Although neither will openly admit loving the other, their individual exploration of each other's passions, expresses their love not just physically, but blissfully includes their hearts and souls. Something the two were too inexperienced to understand 13 years earlier when Penny surrendered her heart and virginity to Charles. Now a grown woman, spinster at 29, and him a bachelor, Earl in need of a wife at 33, Penny offers Charles another personal "invitation"; one in which she never extended to any other man since her first and only time with him. By continuously intensifying each kiss and embrace, they are awakened to each other's sensual growth and ripened maturity that only the nurturing of time and experience could hone; they welcome their differences as man and woman vs the experimenting adolescents of their past relationship. Their new relationship gradually develops, which now transcends the physical plane and drives deeper into their hearts. Penny and Charles are satisfyingly surprised by one another when they recognize their coupling isn't quite the same as they remembered that afternoon they tumbled in the barn when they were youths of 16 and 20 years old.
Charles slowly builds his plan of seducing Penny into surrendering her heart to him and becoming his wife. She relinquishes her stubborn attitude of `I am in control and call all the shots of my life' and little by little allows him to be the man in her life; friend, lover and protector. Her fervent moments of passion burst out as he guides her to "heaven" again and again by candle light and moon light; saturate his personal pleasure along slide ensuring hers. SL articulates very well their maturity, as well as the soul satisfying giving and taking of pleasure betwixt the found again lovers. SL had me in Penny's spell when Charles whispered a moan, succumbing to Penny's ravenous hungry eyes and seeking hands, "Whatever you wish, however you wish. I'm yours. Take me." Ohmigod...
The `who done it' murder mystery plot of the story will keep your mind contriving trying to out wit the author between the love scenes. Charles and Penny constantly share their ideas and are basically honest with each in their joint efforts to clear her family name and find a brutal murderer and spy. Therefore, leaving little room for blatant deceptions (lies), allows them to `go hand and glove' in impromptu situations they face during their investigations.
This is definitely a "deep read" - more than the surface of words in a book...mysteries of the heart's desires and yearning for the other half of its soul mate to "complete" the longing to be loved as no other can possibly do. -Nadine "Madame Jazze"


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The seven members of the Bastion Club have served loyally in the perilous service of the Crown. Now they've banded together to support one another through their most dangerous mission of all: getting married.

When Charles St. Austell returns home to claim his title as earl, and to settle quickly on a suitable wife as well, he discovers that experience has made him impatient of the young ladies who vie for his attention—with the exception of Lady Penelope Selborne. Years ago, Charles and Penelope's youthful ardor was consummated in an unforgettable afternoon. Charles is still haunted by their interlude, but Penny refuses to have anything more to do with him.

If controlling her heart was difficult before, resisting a stronger, battle-hardened Charles is well nigh impossible, yet Penelope has vowed she won't make the same mistake twice, nor will she marry without love. But when a traitorous intrigue draws them together, then ultimately threatens them both—will Penny discover she has a true protector in Charles, her first and only love, who now vows to make her his own?

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To Distraction (Bastion Club) Review

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(More customer reviews)I read all of Stephanie Laurens books, and will definitely read the next, but she has done better work and I really hope the next one is better. If I were to catagorize this volume, it would be a bodice ripper. Her hero is "male", "primitive", even "dangerous". To the point that I started counting the number of times she used the words. Eventually even that got old and I would just turn the page to get on with the story. Her heroine is "intelligent", "capable" and "independent", yet justifiably afraid of this dark large Alpha male :shiver:. Yeah right!
I agree with the other reviewers who felt that the book was 100 pages too long, most of it used for the tripe above. It almost felt like she was stretching it.
However, it does wind up nicely with two interesting little cliff hangers at the end. But at least the one about Dalziel seems to be tossed in as if she just remembered it. Apparently we will see the real villian of this place somewhere else as it seems she still has work for him.
If you have read her other novels, including Captain Jack's Woman, then this is one for you. But if you are just starting, I'd start elsewhere.

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The gentlemen of the Bastion Club have proven their courage while fighting England's enemies, but nothing has prepared them for dealing with that most formidable of challenges: the opposite sex.

Deverell, Viscount Paignton, is in desperate need of a wife. Unmoved by the matchmaking "herd,” he seeks help from his aunt, who directs him to a lady she vows is perfect for him. Dispatched to a country house party to look the lady over, he discovers her not swanning about among the guests but with her nose buried in a book in the library.

Phoebe Malleson is tempted to distraction by Deverell, but marrying him isn't part of her plan. Moved by an incident in her past, Phoebe has a secret cause to which she's committed. Unfortunately, telling Deverell to go away doesn't work, and he quickly learns of her secret. But someone powerful has her cause targeted for destruction—and her in their sights. Phoebe must accept Deverell's help…though the cost to them both might be dear—and deadly.

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