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Toby D. (bookswapper) - Reviews

1 to 20 of 189 - Page:
The 3-Hour Diet: How Low-Carb Diets Make You Fat and Timing Makes You Thin
Review Date: 2/16/2009


I did a weight loss plan that included both grazing and walking. After a few months with some good results of 1-2 pounds every few weeks, I had to increase the intensity of my exercise to get further results. Can also be very hard to limit the individual meals and snacks to low calorie values indicated, with unintended larger snacks. Was hard to maintain this eating style when busy and stressful at work, ie working non-stop and thru meals, and when eating on the road at restaurants without healthy snacks. I've tried to keep fruit bars and nuts etc nearby as backups but was easier to follow when could also take in boiled eggs, yogurts, and other perishables. Good for folks with predictable schedules...


All Girls: Single-Sex Education and Why It Matters
All Girls: Single-Sex Education and Why It Matters
Author: Karen Stabiner
Book Type: Paperback
  • Currently 3.5/5 Stars.
 5
Review Date: 11/8/2007
Helpful Score: 1


Rambling profile of two all-female high schools - a rich suburban prep school in southern California and an poor urban minority prep school in Harlem. Follows several students from enrollment thru college applications, graduation, and some updates from after enrolled in college. Covers the lives of the administrators, teachers, parents, counselors, advocates. More of a moving target, discussing changing opinions of the schools than discourse or study into the topic. An interesting read, but not comprehensive or scholarly.


The Alton Gift
The Alton Gift
Author: Marion Zimmer Bradley, Deborah J. Ross
Book Type: Hardcover
  • Currently 4.3/5 Stars.
 12
Review Date: 5/26/2008
Helpful Score: 2


This book had a satisfying taste/feel of the original Bloody Sun thru Traitor's Sun books, despite the death of the author Marion Zimmer Bradley. I hope that more of her notes and writings survive that can be executed by skilled co-authors such as Deborah Ross. I'd recommend reading the whole series of Terran Second Age books in the order listed on the timeline - The Bloody Sun, Heritage of Hastur, The Planet Savers, Sharra's Exile, World Wreckers, Exile's Song, The Shadow Matrix, and Traitor's Sun. I'd also throw in reading several of the Age of Chaos books - Stormqueen, Hawkmistress, Fall of Neskaya, Zandru's Forge, and A Flame in Hali - as these have direct references to people and motivations in the later books. Also, the forbidden circle is also key to some people in the book - from books The Spell Sword, The Forbidden Tower, The Winds of Darkover, and Star of Danger. ALL the books can be read as standalone novels - many were written out of sequence and from the first person of different characters, but these later books in the Terran Era of the series are more enjoyable if you start with earlier books. Good luck and happy reading - hope you enjoy this whole series. This book is currently the last chronologically in the series as of 2008, and more than I could have hoped for several years after the death of the author!


Around the World In Eighty Days
Around the World In Eighty Days
Author: Jules Verne
Book Type: Paperback
  • Currently 4.3/5 Stars.
 3
Review Date: 1/14/2006


Classic science fiction, masquerading as a classic fiction book. Also turned into movies, so many people familiar with this story.


Ask Dr. Kate (Harlequin Temptation, No 410)
Ask Dr. Kate (Harlequin Temptation, No 410)
Author: Vicki Lewis Thompson
Book Type: Paperback
  • Currently 3.8/5 Stars.
 8
Review Date: 1/14/2006


Psychologist writes a book after a failed relationship that is sensationalized by her publicist. Tale takes place during her book tour. Funny story that has some interesting character development in the main hero and heroine and in the hero's best friend.


At the Duke's Pleasure (Byrons of  Braebourne, Bk 3)
At the Duke's Pleasure (Byrons of Braebourne, Bk 3)
Author: Tracy Anne Warren
Book Type: Mass Market Paperback
  • Currently 3.8/5 Stars.
 117
Review Date: 1/30/2010
Helpful Score: 3


Wow, amazingly well done book. The author shows her skills again in this book which I think are right up there with her Wager series. The characters are all very layered, including a ton of interactions between the families that show off the skills of the oldest brother in dealing with his large number of siblings. The heroine agrees to the arranged marriage but realizes that she doesn't want to be just an ornament in his life, so she sets out to get the Duke to jilt her. She goes to London to have a season and the action picks up in his London home with the clan. This leads her to a ton of high jinx and troubles, some fun, some sexy, some scary. Great read!


Aztecs and Incas (Focus on)
Aztecs and Incas (Focus on)
Author: Chloe Sayer
Book Type: Hardcover
  • Currently 3.5/5 Stars.
 2
Review Date: 12/7/2017


Good drawings and maps, short sections and easily readable but content at good level for various ages. Very short book, oversize.


Azur Like It
Azur Like It
Author: Wendy Holden
Book Type: Paperback
  • Currently 3.7/5 Stars.
 22
Review Date: 1/21/2006


Info from back of jacket:
A witty, winning escapade through the south of France from the internationally bestselling author of GOSSIP HOUND...
The only intrepid reporter in her hometown hamlet, Kate Clegg has dreams of parlaying her dead-end job at the Mercury, or Mockery, as it is affectionately known, into an award winning career with the most celebrated papers in London. But things seem to be going in the toilet, literally, since her biggest break thus far has been investigating a drainage disaster at the local high school. At least things can't get worse...
That is until shady billionaire Peter Hardstone's wildly attractive son, Nat, takes up residence at the Mercury's office with an offer Kate cannot refuse - a chance to cover the Cannes Film Festival on the luxurious Cote d'Azur.
With internationally acclaimed author Wendy Holden's signature verve, intelligence, and originality, Azur Like It is a rollicking ride through parties, haute couture, and glamour of the French Riviera where, behind the glitz, lies a mystery that make even the most jaded journalist salivate.


Bachelor Mother (Harlequin American Romance, No 133)
Bachelor Mother (Harlequin American Romance, No 133)
Author: Elda Minger
Book Type: Paperback
  • Currently 3.9/5 Stars.
 5
Review Date: 12/24/2005


neighbor and friend is a good person to ask when you want to get pregnant as a bachelor mother...


The Bachelorette (20 Amber Court, Bk 3) (Silhouette Desire, No 1401)
The Bachelorette (20 Amber Court, Bk 3) (Silhouette Desire, No 1401)
Author: Kate Little
Book Type: Paperback
  • Currently 3.4/5 Stars.
 11
Review Date: 1/19/2006


Book 3 of "20 Amber Court" series, featuring occupant of apartment 3A Meredith Blair, the jewelwer/sculpter. Has a small supernatural subplot that an older woman in the building is loaning out a small broche that brings women good luck. Meredith falls for a customer that is purchasing some jewelry, appreciates art etc. She gradually recovers from a previous disasterous relationship with an art professor that caused her to focus on her art but left her insecure. Cute story, has a dog, lots of running from stuff that she should face until it is staring her in the face, could have a bit more gumption but improves during the book.


Backroads of Pennsylvania: Your Guide to Pennsylvania's Most Scenic Backroad Adventures (Pictorial Discovery Guide)
Review Date: 8/6/2007
Helpful Score: 1


Well organized book with good maps, pictures, and text. Will hold its value from year to year.


Bad Boys with Expensive Toys: The Fourteen Million Dollar Poodle / The World is Too Darned Big / Anything You Can Do...
Review Date: 8/11/2007
Helpful Score: 2


The first novella in the anthology by Nancy Warren with the poodle story was the best of the three in this book. The second story by Mary Janice Davidson was okay, had a funny scientist/spook theme. The third story was blah, with some made up tension of two people sharing an apartment, but the plot didn't really draw me in, was unrealistic and didn't see what the characters had in common.


Baedeker Austria
Baedeker Austria
Author: Baedeker
Book Type: Paperback
  ?
Review Date: 3/24/2006


This is a travel/tourguide book with color pictures, small color maps, and a giant foldout map, lots of historical/cultural/geographic info about the region.


Battle Cry
Battle Cry
Author: Leon Uris
Book Type: Paperback
  • Currently 4.3/5 Stars.
 11
Review Date: 2/7/2006
Helpful Score: 1


A fine, gripping war novel, November 4, 2002
Reviewer: Judy Lind "jlind555" - See all my reviews

"Battle Cry" was Leon Uris's first novel and it's by far his best. Set right after Pearl Harbor, it's the story of the Marines in the Second World War and of one squad of Marines in particular, led by (and narrated by) Mac, a crusty old sergeant who has seen generations of boys pass through his command. The story moves quickly through basic training to combat, and comes to a shattering climax with an all-out battle against the Japanese forces in the Pacific. As much as the story Uris tells so compellingly, we are held by his characters: Danny Forrester, the all-American boy; Andy the Swede, hating women indiscriminately until he meets the woman of his dreams far from home; Levin from Brooklyn, who knew what he had to do, and did it magnificently; Shining Lighttower, the Navajo, who really didn't want to go back to the reservation after all, and Sam Huxley, their colonel, who wanted glory for himself and his boys at any price, even if the price included all their lives. Technically, Uris isn't a very good writer, but he is one helluva storyteller, and one of his greatest strengths is in plain dialogue between his characters, which shows up to much better advantage here than it did in his later books. It's in the dialogue that his characters come vibrantly alive; we understand how a disparate bunch of 18 and 19 year olds, kids like anybody else, can throw their lives away in battle rather than face the possibility of a defeat which would be worse than death. Uris shows us through his characters the men who made the Marines what they are.


Behind the Scenes at the Museum
Behind the Scenes at the Museum
Author: Kate Atkinson
Book Type: Hardcover
  • Currently 4/5 Stars.
 5
Review Date: 1/21/2006


Info on the book:
1995 Whitbread Book of the Year
In her profoundly moving, uniquely comic debut, Kate Atkinson introduces readers to the mind and world of Ruby Lennox, born above a pet shop in York at the halfway point of the twentieth century, and determined to understand both the family that precedes her adn the life that awaits her.
Taking her own conception as her starting point, the irrepressible Ruby narates a story of four generations of women, from her great-grandmother's affair with a French photographer, to her mother's unfulfilled dreams of Hollywod glamour, to her young sister's efforts to upstage the Queen on Coronation Day. Hurtling in and out of both World Wars, economic downfalls, the onset of the permissive '60s, and up to the present day, Ruby paints a rich and vivid portrait of family heartbreak and happiness.


The Best Man In Texas (Boots & Booties) (Harlequin Temptation, No 989)
Review Date: 2/2/2006


Heroine is divorced by two-timing mayor husband after raising his children from first marriage. Falls for brother of the woman that stole her husband. All takes place in a small town with nosy mother and small town gossip.


Bhagavad-Gita As It Is
Bhagavad-Gita As It Is
Author: A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda
Book Type: Hardcover
  • Currently 3.5/5 Stars.
 13
Review Date: 2/7/2006


Beautiful colored photo book by the founder of the Krishna society on transcendentalism and yoga.


The Billionaire Who Wasnt: How Chuck Feeney Made and Gave Away a Fortune Without Anyone Knowing
Review Date: 5/7/2008


Fascinating biography of how a businessman earned and gave away over a billion dollars. Interesting people, amazing risks and successes, and provides background on the "Celtic Tiger" and other turnarounds that were receiving anonymous major donations. Hopes to inspire other folks to actively target their donations while still alive. Have to wonder how much he has already influenced Gates, Buffett, and thousands of other people that he has worked with and helped to help people help themselves. Well worth reading...


The Black Sheep and the Princess (Unholy Trinity, Bk 1)
The Black Sheep and the Princess (Unholy Trinity, Bk 1)
Author: Donna Kauffman
Book Type: Paperback
  • Currently 3.7/5 Stars.
 91
Review Date: 4/21/2008
Helpful Score: 1


Agree with the other reviewer that the first chapter seemed out of place - it is an intro for the series in general and felt unrelated to this book. The characters were interesting, but this book was filled with one-sided villains and one-sided heroes. All the good folks are giving away their inheritances to rescue people or work with disabled/disadvantaged children, the bad folks are selfish/law-breakers/mean/etc. I read another book by this author so I kept going hoping this book would improve but ended up skimming to finish it, despite some chemistry between the hero/heroine the book was not enjoyable.


The Blind Doctor: The Jacob Bolotin Story
The Blind Doctor: The Jacob Bolotin Story
Author: Rosalind Perlman
Book Type: Paperback
  • Currently 4.5/5 Stars.
 1
Review Date: 5/26/2008


Inspirational story of a boy born blind who wants to become a doctor. Comes from a disadvantaged poor family of Polish immigrants in Chicago, with a blind brother and sister also in his family. He and his brother attend a state school for the blind, then goes on to earn tuition to put himself thru osteopathy training, then later med school. Overcomes the need for developing his own teaching aids, studying and working long hours, he later has to volunteer extensively proving his medical skills over and over. He becomes an advocate for handicap people to become useful/productive members of society. Founded the first boy scouts troop for blind boys. Teaches many classes as professor at medical schools, to dentists, nurses, etc. As famous as Helen Keller during his day, but died young at 36 years old from overwork from heart problems. Quick read, good for people interested in medicine, biographies, disabilities, inspirational, childhood education, immigrants, WWI, education for blind, door-to-door sales, early medical schools, Influenza epidemic, and tuberculosis.


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