Product Description
As resident genealogist, historian, tour guide, and occasional amateur snoop, Victory "Torie" O'Shea can be found anywhere in the historic German town of New Kassel, Missouri-mixing fudge, giving tours, tracing family trees, and even investigating murder...

When shopowner Norah Zumwalt asks Torie for help in piecing together her family lineage to find her missing father, Torie cheerfully agrees. But before Torie delivers her results, Norah is brutally murdered. Now Torie must use her formidable skills at prying into the past-and the human heart-to solve a case of passionate secrets and betrayal. But as the Mississippi floods, she may be in deep trouble when evidence of another killing surfaces-and Torie comes face to face with a family skeleton that will chill her to the bone.
... Read more

Customer Reviews (12)

intriguing to say the least
Here is the first book of a great mystery series about genealogy. For greatest enjoyment the series needs to be read in chronoligical order. The main character of Torie O'Shea is about a young woman who loves genealogy and is a historian by profession. Costumed in period dresses, she gives tours at an old historical home located in a small town in Missouri. The other members of her family add a lot of interest to each story in this series. Mysteries (and sometimes dead bodies) just seem to land at her feet and there's no way she can resist getting involved in the solving of them. I just finished the entire series and thoroughly enjoyed this great set of books. If you like to read about family histories, bloodline connections and surprise family connections, you are certain to be entertained by this author.

A new to me off-beat cozy series
This is the first book in the Tori O'Shea series, and I really enjoyed it.The characters are quirky and off-beat, the setting is small town US where everyone knows everyone else, and the mystery is fun and not that easy to figure out.Torie O'Shea is a genealogist, so she is used to digging deep to get information.When one of her customers is found dead (actually by Torie herself) she can't resist nosing around to try to find out what happened.Things start to get dangerous for Torie and her family the more she uncovers.I enjoyed this book and look forward to reading more in this totally cozy series.

Love this author!
I only recently discovered Rett MacPherson and immediately devoured all of this series starring the geneaological detective, Torie O'Shea. The characters are lively, the setting is small town perfection, and the heroine is fun, flawed, and incorrigible. Family Skeletons is a great start to a really wonderful series.

A good mystery
I really enjoyed reading this book. There is a little geneology, a little Mississippi River flooding, a littlehistory, and a well written suspenseful mystery.

Entertaining, well-plotted, and kind of cozy...
I've read a couple of other in the series and hadn't realized until I was finished that this was the first.The series centers around Torie O'Shea, a woman who lives in a small town on the Mississippi River south of St. Louis.She's married, has a good family life, works part-time in a historical house giving tours in period costumes, and her hobby of genealogy is sometimes done for pay.This story begins when a woman on a tour comes up to her and asks her to research her family tree -- with particular interest in her father, who disappeared in World War II without a trace.For some reason, Torie takes the work, although she hasn't done genealogy for pay for a while.Very quickly, there's a murder that is quite possibly related to her genealogical search.Someone seems anxious to get Torie to just drop it.Which of the people she's been meeting is the killer, and presumably also the person who has been trying to get her to drop it.

This whole series is entertaining -- well written, well plotted, and, well, cozy.But this particularly volume isn't quite the caliber that I'd give five stars to -- but quite possibly, 4 1/2 stars. ... Read more

Product Description
The three skeletons enjoy a holiday on board their little boat. But one night - "Yo-ho-ho" - the pirates come and put them out to sea on a tiny raft, launching them on an oceanful of new adventures. ... Read more

Product Description
A novelty book combining ingenious design with a humorous text. The spooky hero lives in his own cupboard when he's not jumping on the roof, or making the floorboards creak. Then, one night, everything goes quiet and the cupboard is empty. Maybe he's about to pay a visit to. . .you. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Great fun!
My son is 2.He loves this book!We read it at least once, every night.He loves to pull the tabs and watch the figures move. With all the use (not always so gentle) the book has held up very well!

Fun for kids
This book is a favorite of my 5 year son. He's had it for a couple of years and it is one of the books that he likes to read over and over. He likes the rhymes and pulling the popups. It's a fun book and I enjoy it as well every time we read it. ... Read more

Product Description
This book tackles three puzzles of pacted transitions to democracy. First, why do autocrats ever step down from power peacefully if they know that they may be held accountable for their involvement in the ancien régime? Second, when does the opposition indeed refrain from meting out punishment to the former autocrats once the transition is complete? Third, why, in some countries, does transitional justice get adopted when successors of former communists hold parliamentary majorities? Monika Nalepa argues that infiltration of the opposition with collaborators of the authoritarian regime can serve as insurance against transitional justice, making their commitments to amnesty credible. This explanation also accounts for the timing of transitional justice across East Central Europe. Nalepa supports her theory using a combination of elite interviews, archival evidence, and statistical analysis of survey experiments in Poland, Hungary, and the Czech Republic. ... Read more

Product Description
Time to squeeze a skeleton!

It's bath time, and your sponge is actually the skeleton of ananimal that lived under the sea. Read on to find out how sponges use their special holes and tunnels to eat and breathe, and how you use these same holes and tunnels to soak up the water and rinse off the soap.Sploosh! Splash! Dribble! Did you know your bath sponge once lived in the sea? Sponges come in all shapes, colors, and sizes. Barbara Juster Esbensen and Holly Keller have paired an engaging text with funny, kid-friendly illustrations to reveal that a sponge is not just a bath toy.

Sploosh! Splash! Dribble! Did you know your bath sponge once lived in the sea? Sponges come in all shapes, colors, and sizes. Barbara Juster Esbensen and Holly Keller have paired an engaging text with funny, kid-friendly illustrations to reveal that a sponge is not just a bath toy.

... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Nice edition to Lets Read and Find Out series
Very interesting,well explained, and informative book.Definitely one to consider if you like this series.The book explains all about how sponges live,and how they are harvested.It also briefly explains the difference between a natural sponge and a synthetic sponge.

sea sponges .... cool
Very nice book about sea sponges. I use it in my elementary school and the kids love it. Gives great info on elementary level of the science and harvesting of sea sponges. ... Read more

Product Description
Features 12 frightfully fun "pumpkin carols" including the title song and: I'm a Little Goblin * Round and Round The Pumpkin Patch * The Witch's Night Flight * and more. ... Read more

Product Description
A small-town vicar's daughter, Sara Causseley could not be more delighted by her new job as governess to the aristocratic Hallam clan. The children are precociously adorable, the gardens at Hallam House are a dream, and the conversation -- at glittering dinners, at boisterous family picnics -- is as stimulating as she could possibly have wished. But ominous political clouds are gathering over Europe, and as England slips inexorably toward World War II, the Hallams' political views make the family increasingly unpopular. No one, though, suspects the extent of the malice that is percolating in the surrounding countryside until a human skeleton -- and then a human corpse -- are found on the Hallam grounds, sending some kind of ugly message. That message and the source of its hate will remain all but incomprehensible to Sara for some time, until war and its violations have left her with a very new view of those sunny picnics on the Hallam lawns. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Wonderful Sense of Time and Place
At times Robert Barnard, England's fine crime fiction writer, sets his novels in pre-World War II Britain where a strong movement of fascist supporters backed pro-Hitler Sir Oswald Mosley. It's 1936 and in a small village Sarah Causeley becomes a governess for Chloe, the young daughter of the local gentry, the Hallam family. The elder Hallams, Dennis and Helen, are pacifists, and are vilified by Major Coffee, a Mosleyite, and his gang of local impressionable young men. They consider Dennis Hallam a coward. A series of despicable pranks ends up with the murder of one of the local young men on the Hallam estate. It's just about the time of the British king's abdication when he gave up the throne to marry a divorced American woman.
Barnard again shows his great skill at wickedly sharp characterization and shrewd plotting, and demonstrates his ability to recreate a wonderful sense of time and place. The games and movies of the era are featured. Will Hallam goes off to fight in the Spanish Civil War while brother Oliver continues his studies at Oxford.
The villagers blame the murder on the Hallams, and Sarah, the book's protagonist, realizes that the elder Hallams, because of their self-absorption, their lack of caring, and intellectual distance, have created a chasm between themselves and the people of the village. Briefly the story goes forward in time so we see the older Sarah's reaction to her time with the Hallams.
The book has that estimable Barnard page-turning pacing, but he also is able to squeeze in some fascinating details. Barnard's books are full of insightful social commentary. The book features the conventional Inspector Minchip who "was never tempted to buckle a swash."

Death at a Pacifist's Country Home
Sarah Causely comes to be a governess at an English Country Home owned by famous pacifists in the late 1930's.First entranced by the family, Sarah gradually comes to see them less romantically as they deal with a series of malicious pranks by the local fascist organization.The pranks culminate in the death of one of the local boys and only the family has a motive for his death.Barnard's characterizations are unusually well done.Sarah matures as England moves towards war, but her disenchantment with the family is not due to her disagreement with their political views, but a growing understanding of the weakness of their characters.The plot is well done and the mystery keeps the reader guessing.The historical context is particularly fun.The pacifists cannot interest the local MP in the civil war in Spain, for example, because he is utterly fixated by the King's romance with That American (Mrs. Simpson.)Good characters, good story, good suspense.The following review describes another of Barnard's books, not Skeleton in the Grass.

Barnard rattles a few skeletons here!
"Don't kill her!Don't!"The young Simon wakes up screaming!The gentle couple who have taken Simon in are more than a little confused.In Robert Barnard's "Out of the Blackout," the author sets this finely-tuned and suspenseful novel during the blizt of London during the War.Children have been evacuated to the countryside for their own safety, more often than not to live for the duration of the war with complete strangers.Young Simon Thorn shows up in the village of Yeasdon, along with the other evacuated children.However, his name is on on list, his address doesn't exist, and few clues can be found in the few items he possesses. Many questions abound and Barnard, with his accustomed patience and logical thinking, sets out to solve this mystery.He does so in a touching, poignant manner, and he brings vividly to life all the aspects of these dark and dangerous days of the blitz.Barnard deserves his well-earned reputation. (Billyjhobbs@tyler.net) ... Read more

Product Description
In Max Weber: A Skeleton Key, Collins gives a concise and thorough overview of the work of one of sociology's greatest classic thinkers. The many strands of Weber's theorizing and the breadth and scope of his historical comparisons are here brought clearly into focus. Collins' major contribution lies in highlighting Weber's talent for sensing the basic properties of human organization, and demonstrating the multidimensional and often contradictory character of Weber's work.

Examining his contributions to the sociology of religion, to systematic theory, to economics and to theories of social change, this book covers both his famous and lesser-known works. As such, it is the ideal text on Weber for students in sociology and related subjects.

`...a good, short introduction to Weber's life and work...' -- Network, No 35, May 1986

Customer Reviews (1)

well written, but lacks adequate stressing of disenchantment
pleasantly written. offers psychoanalytic insight into the causes of weber's breakdown. does not stress processes of formal rationalization and subsequent disenchantment enough! ... Read more

Product Description
The Scholastic Science Readers series was created especially to bring exciting nonfiction to beginning readers. Each book combines easy-to-read text with outstanding photographs to give kids an introduction to their favorite topics. Nature comes alive within the covers of these full-color books. Special ³Take a Look² boxes give kids a closer look at the natural world, the inside of a wolf¹s den, an X ray of a hand, or a close-up of a bat¹s fur. Each book includes an easy activity that a child can do for further exploration.

SCHOLASTIC SCIENCE READERS: SKELETONS offers an overview of our splendid skeletons. Kids will learn how many bones we have, what they are made of, how they grow, how they can be strengthened, and how they work together with muscles. ... Read more

Product Description
The Skeleton Coast of Namibia, once feared and shunned by seafarers because of its treacherous waters and desert wastes, is now prized as a wilderness, a place of beauty and tranquillity. Although its legendary mineral wealth has attractedprospectors and explorers, few people have had the privilege of visiting this mysterious coast.;This book covers all aspects of the Skeleton Coast's intrigue: its geology and elusive minerals, the plants and animals that are adapted to life in a land without water, the stories of countless ships and planes lost on this shore, and the stories of man's battleagainst this hostile environment. The photographs in the book capture the desert and coastline in all its moods. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

A place where ships are swallowed by the sand.
There is no doubt that the Skeleton Coast of Namibia is bleak and inhospitable.There was a time when Mariners would fear this particular stretch of coastline - and with good reason.Those who's ships ran aground here had little chance of surviving the savage shoreline and those who were fortunate enough to come ashore had little chance of rescue. All they would find on the landward side was a bleached desert waste with few examples of the African wildlife they might otherwise expect to encounter.

Today, of course, we have a wider appreciation of such unspoilt areas and the entire region is now a designated and protected National Park where none may enter without a permit.

Such is the tranquillity of this forbidding region that even something as generally accepted as tyre tracks across the hardened sands are regarded as pollution.Such tracks may take over 100 years to disappear altogether.

In this book, the author produces an excellent insight into what appears to be every aspect of the Skeleton Coast. Geology, climate, rivers, flora and fauna, early explorers, shipwrecks, lost aircraft, fortune hunters and much more besides - they are all explained here. It is an excellent book, easy to read and supported by some first rate photography.

Of course, it is the shipwrecks which are my own main interest but I should also like to visit such a bleak and unspoilt place. Were I to do so, however, it would not remain so unspoilt. It is, therefore, one of those places I shall continue to put off visiting.In the meantime, I shall console myself by reading this book again.

NM

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Product Description
Inspired by the legendary explorers who first crossed the African heartland, Fran Sandham left the daily grind of London to undertake an extraordinary adventure. He traveled on foot across Africa from the Skeleton Coast on the southwest tip of the African continent through Namibia, Zambia, Malawi, and Tanzania, until he reached the IndianOcean. Traversa is the fascinating account of the hardships and hilarity that he experienced during his epic solo journey.

Sandham describes his brushes with lions and snakes, land mines and bandits, his two-month battle with a syphilitic donkey, malaria, cockroaches the size of mice, and the other everyday troubles that arise when walking across Africa. Underpinned with the stories of his forerunners--David Livingstone, Sir H. M. Stanley, and Sir Francis Galton, among others--Traversa is the enthralling account of a real-life modern-day adventure against the elements. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (10)

A Walking Wordsmith
Thursday: 12/24/2009

Fran Sandham is a "Walking Wordsmith".Very good writing about a long walk across
Africa.A good blend of a modern walk and the history of the area.I enjoyed the account of the authors Adventure walk so much that I purchased a 2nd copy for my Grandson.The perfect book to lure him away from his computer screen and into
adventure.

mikeglobaltraveler@hotmail.com

Best travel book I've read
I found Traversa very interesting, informative and funny. Love the way Fran has woven history and your experiences together. The best travel book I've read, very real.

Wonderful Tale of Personal Adventure
Fran Sandham looked ahead at another predictable year and decided to do something different and adventurous.Why not awalk across Africa?Why not indeed, and he did it.Fortunately, he also wrote about it and thus shared his tale with us.With a great sense of humor, Sandham retells his encounters with stubborn mules, demented donkeys, lazy snakes, and annoying bugs.But, beyond the personal story, he also adds depth to the tale with parallel stories from the lives of other explorers in Africa.The historical perspective plus insight into the countries that he traverses enriches the book immeasureably."Traversa" needs to be read slowly to savor the well written prose and appreciate the humor.Also, a slow read prolongs the pleasure of this travel book, which belongs on the shelf alongside Theroux and Bryson.Now if Fran will only decide to cross another continent or even just a country and once again share his adventures.

A man with a plan and a big ruc sack.
This book chronicles the travails of a young English bookseller, enamoured with explorers, who sets out to traverse Africa along the route of the famed Dr. Livingston. He is a man without much money, no support crew, and no friends to travel with - just a big heavy ruc sack and the courage to see it through. Admirable goal. Incredible effort and endurance.

Excellent Book!
I really liked this book!It is the fascinating story of one man who walked across Africa.It is very engaging and I loved hearing about his travels.It made me want to try it! ... Read more

Product Description

Product Description
Tony Boudreaux's family had a saying that "good things happen in threes."

However, instead of three days of rich Cajun food, dancing, and laughing over old times at his family reunion at Whiskey Bend in the middle of the Atchafalaya Swamp, Tony Boudreaux faces trouble. Tony and his family find themselves not only cut off from the rest of the world by Belle, a Category Three hurricane, but also confronted with voodoo wangas, an angry family trying to lynch one of its own and a psychotic killer who has decided to double the Boudreaux and Thibodeaux populations in the family cemetery.

And by the most unique methods.

Which means Tony has to work quickly...before the hurricane strikes and before the murderer kills again. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

weak plot
This book is too scattered to hold my interest. Too many family members, too sketchy, somewhat silly. Maybe it is for the youth readership. After reading half of it, I finally gave up and went on to my next book in the stack. ... Read more

Product Description
An Alex Rider Adventure. Uniting forces with America's own CIA for the first time, teen spy Alex Rider battles terror from the sun-baked beaches of Miami all the way to the barren ice fields of northernmost Russia. Come along for the thrilling ride of a lifetime. ... Read more

Product Description
Bones was originally published in 1936 and is still essential reading for anyone entering bone research. A classic in the field of skeletal development, biology, anatomy and anthropology, the book sets out in clear and lucid prose t experimental basis for our current notions on how intrinsic and extrinsic (largely mechanical) factors interact in initiating differentiation of cartilage and bone, in shaping the skeleton and in regulating its growth. It established the skeleton as a dynamic, responsive system of tissues, not just inert bones. The present edition, in the Cambridge Science Classics Series, includes an introductory essay by Professor B.K. Hall, who was the last of Professor Murray's Ph.D. students and who is himself distinguished for his work in the area. Brian Hall provides an overview of research during the half-century since Bones was first published, on major topics covered in the book - the origin of skeletal cells, cartilage morphogenesis, the formation of joints, the trajectory theory and bone structure, growth of cartilage and bone. ... Read more

Product Description
The "Skeleton Coast", where the Namib Desert meets the Atlantic Ocean in south-western Africa, is named after the bleached bones and shipwrecks that lie on its shores. This is Benedict Allen's account of his thousand-mile trek with camels through the Namib Desert and along the Skeleton Coast. Allen prepares for his journey with the nomadic, goat-herding Himba tribe in the north of the Namib, learning essentials for desert survival. Submerging himself in the community, he comes to understand the everyday fears and aspirations of these extraordinary people. He then travels south to the fringes of the Kalahari, where he undertakes a gruelling three-week period, training his reluctant camels. Escorted by security personnel through diamond areas closed to the outside world, Allen moves north past ghost towns and through some of the highest dunes in the world. The journey continues through lion, rhino and elephant country, where Allen battles to maintain authority over his faithful but nervous camels, until he is reunited with the Himba nomads. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Waste of my money!
For those of you looking for actual forensic science/forensic anthropology books that contain knowledge, do not buy this book. This is a comic book with about a page or two of information (you could probably find more info searching online.)I'm really sorry that I paid money for this book. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (8)

So much inaccurate information, it's disgusting!
Once, I was browsing the library at my church and I came across Skeletons in your Closet. I was curious about what it had to say about evolution, so I cracked it open, and the further I went, the more skeptical I became of the things Parker said. Some of the "facts" he gave sounded highly questionable ("Human milk is more like a donkey's!"), so after finishing, I went online to check. As it turns out, many of the claims he makes are either twisted, confused, or complete fiction. No child should be subjected to such lies. And it isn't just how chock-full of inaccuracies this book is that bothers me; the way Parker equates evolutionism with atheism ("The Bible and evolution are really exact opposites." "Evolution says there is no God who created us!") really rubbed me the wrong way. There are plenty of evolutionist, Christian scientists out there, despite what he might lead you to believe. Also, his portrayal of evolutionists as dishonest liars is like the EPITOME of hypocrisy, considering how he himself handles his facts.

The moral of the story: Don't believe everything you read.

~~LJB

Skeletons in the closet
This is a very good book for children and adults. It tells how this earth was evolved. Its not evolution. All parents should let there children read this book. It answers a lot of questions.

Just look at the evolutionists squeal!
Based on my experience with the work of Answers in Genesis, I bought this book to help innoculate my children against the indoctrination of the public schools. I have not been disappointed and highly recommend this book to all other parents who are concerned that their children know the truth.

The vituperative reviews of the evolutionists bolstered me in my selection of this book, because if they get so riled that they squeal like stuck pigs, then it must be really good!

I want to thank the evolutionists further for the entertaining fashion in which they show their lack of critical thought ...

Fantastic book!
This book should be in the bookcase of every Christian fanatic out there. It fits so perfectly with the well-oiled cycle that the religious have set up for themselves that the author should be named a Saint.

We all know how the ingenious system works: We, the Enlightened Christians, are sent to Christian schools as children, where we learn the Truth about Science without any of the harmful input of science, atheism, and other things not related to Christianity which we will have no use for later in life (with the exception of geometry, algebra, just about every other biological subject, world history, US history, and every other thinkable and unthinkable input of science, atheism, and... You get the idea). Then, when we have kids, we can send them to the same religious schools, where they do not have to be fed with propaganda on how scientists aren't from Hell, evolution isn't a prank devised by Hitler to kill Jewish potted plants, and the Earth revolves around the Sun, not the other way around.

It's downright outrageous that in public schools, students are taught that evolution is a fact just because it's got tonnes of backing and is commonly being observed in laboratories and in the field. Not to mention that we don't learn about Intelligent Falling* as an alternative to the scientific 2nd Law of Gravity. And it's a tragedy that we don't learn any alternatives to Pythagora's Theorem (which is, after all, Just A Theory! Join my lawsuit to either have it removed, or have students get taught about religious alternatives - such as Intelligent Solving). The amount of atheism forced down our childrens' throats is nauseating.

We all know what happens when science wins over religion. The old "if God wanted us to fly, he'd have given us wings"-argument was defeated by the heathens, and now we have planes that give us billions a day and reduce travel and shipping time by weeks or months. We let science mess with electrons and suddenly we have electricty to feed appliances we depend 100% on. They delve into medicine, and all of a sudden countless diseases are nearly gone. It's saddening, indeed, to see the world destroyed this way.

Seriously, though:
For those of you who happen to like children-targetting propaganda, I heartily recommend this book and the comics of Jack Chick. For those of you who want to LEARN something, read up on how Evolution is widely regarded as a FACT. Check Project Steve, which has 700 signatures from scientists in support of evolution. Hunt down all the articles on how evolution HAS been observed. And last, but not least, understand how scientists aren't worse than religious people.

Good hunting!

(...)

The Writer of this [book] and anyone who follows should be....
A rather sad attempt of creationistic moronism.Actually, I don't even know if "moronism" is an actual word, but I used it anyway.That last sentence wouldn't be out of place in this book.I am guessing that he realized his Bible is too weak to do the job, so he wrote this exhilarating book of nonsense for children.Actually, it's really only exhilarating for the people who actually study the creationist point of view and can't stop laughing from the hilarity.It's sad that the author had to come to Amazon.com and give his own book a 5 star review.He would be the only one who could possibly give this (...) 5 stars. ... Read more

Product Description
A collection of poems with an emphasis on the grisly or ghastly, including "If You're Strolling in a Sewer," "Mr. One Leg," and "A Vampire Bit a Ghostly Neck." ... Read more