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At one spectacular ball in the height of the holiday season, three couples find the greatest gift of all: their perfect match. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (9)

Not too bad as anthologies go
This is collection of Christmas stories is not too bad - I have read worse. The story "Traditions" by Alissa Johnson is great, and follows the tradition of the old favourite regency romances. "My Lady downstairs" by Emily Byron is ridiculous but I could not help but like it.And "The longest night" by Jennifer Ashley is fine if you follow the Nvengaria saga.Quick and easy to read but not a keeper.

A Christmas Ball
"Although I am not usually a fan of regency romance, the three tales penned by Jennifer Ashley, Emily Bryan, and Alissa Johnson in //A Christmas Ball// are entertaining enough to change my mind. In "The Longest Night," Mary Cameron heals an ailing Baron Valentin in Scotland before leaving him behind.When he appears before her in London, she fights the inappropriate attraction she feels. Only his relentless pursuit allows her to see past their individual flaws.In ""My Lady Below Stairs,"" when her aristocratic legitimate half-sister disappears, Jane Tate is pressed into service.Jane finds impersonating Sybil is easy; falling in love with the head groom Ian MacGregor is not.In "Traditions," Proper Lord William Casslebury sets to woo the prim if somewhat anti-social Caroline Meldrin.Much to his chagrin he finds himself drawn to her unpredictable friend Patience Byerly instead. Yet he soon finds Patience is exactly what he needs.


Reviewed by Lanine Bradley

New Christmas tradition...I will read this every year!
The first story is by far the best! I loved everything about it and could not get enough! I was sad to read the last page. I plan on reading it every year...like I would watch my favorite Christmas movie! Love, Love, Love it!!!!

The other two stories are very good, as well! This book made my Christmas season!!!!!

Pretty lousy
I try to buy an historical holiday anthology every year, although admittedly I have not done so in the past couple of years.However, because I had a little free time before Christmas, I bought this anthology.The first story seemed promising - it is about a young woman born on the wrong side of the blanket, and the hero is a groom.Sounds good - not the usual subjects for a romance novel.Anyway, halfway through the story, I jumped to the next story in disgust.The plot twists are WILDLY unbelievable - I won't say why, but suffice it to say that a scullery maid cannot masquerade as a lady as easily as the story asserts.Add to that a tryst in a MOST unlikely (and, were you the owner of the bed that the characters romped in, cringe worthy) place, and you have the makings of a very subpar romance short story.

The next story interested me not one whit, being about a woman in love with some sort of changeling who has a stilting command of the English language (the hero, not the author).So, on to the next novella, about a woman with a father gone "mad."

Again, it started in a promising manner, although, for the life of me, I cannot understand why the hero is so immediately attracted to a woman who is not described by the author as having any exceptional traits, other than being able to shove a large piece of cake in her mouth in one bite.

Then, to add insult to injury (mine), they become intimate at the same ball as the couple in the first story (it is the ball that ties all of these stories together)!Were I the host and hostess of this ball, I would review my guest list more carefully next time - or at least hire more security.

If I seem harsh, perhaps I am.However, I have read and own several REALLY excellent holiday anthologies, so I feel able to identify those sorts of stories.Unfortunately, none of the stories in this anthology qualify.

A holiday disapointment!
For the last fifteen years or so I've purchased a Christmas themed Regency anthology.For the last few years, they've been hard to come by.This one DID NOT FIT THE BILL.I don't particularly care for gratuitous sex within the first three pages...especially at Christmas....but there it was.Not romantic, just raunchy.I'd swear a man wrote the first story.The third story in the anthology was the only one I enjoyed.I miss the old regency books.They were filled with romance and the Christmas traditions of old. This was not worth the money I spent. ... Read more

Product Description
The 18th century was a wealth of knowledge, exploration and rapidly growing technology and expanding record-keeping made possible by advances in the printing press. In its determination to preserve the century of revolution, Gale initiated a revolution of its own: digitization of epic proportions to preserve these invaluable works in the largest archive of its kind. Now for the first time these high-quality digital copies of original 18th century manuscripts are available in print, making them highly accessible to libraries, undergraduate students, and independent scholars.
The Age of Enlightenment profoundly enriched religious and philosophical understanding and continues to influence present-day thinking. Works collected here include masterpieces by David Hume, Immanuel Kant, and Jean-Jacques Rousseau, as well as religious sermons and moral debates on the issues of the day, such as the slave trade. The Age of Reason saw conflict between Protestantism and Catholicism transformed into one between faith and logic -- a debate that continues in the twenty-first century.
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The below data was compiled from various identification fields in the bibliographic record of this title. This data is provided as an additional tool in helping to insure edition identification:
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British Library

T033329

Anonymous. By Thomas Johnson.With a half-title.

London : printed by J. S. for W. Thurlbourn bookseller in Cambridge and sold by J. and J. Knaptons in St. Paul's Church-Yard; and J. Stephens, at the Bible, near Temple-Barr, London, 1731. [4],83,[1]p. ; 8° ... Read more

Product Description
Chapters: Clarence Ashley, George W. Woodbey, G. B. Grayson, Frank Proffitt, Dave Loggins. Source: Wikipedia. Pages: 24. Not illustrated. Free updates online. Purchase includes a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Excerpt: "Tom" Clarence Ashley (September 29, 1895 June 2, 1967) was an American clawhammer banjo player, guitarist and singer. He began performing at medicine shows in the Southern Appalachian region as early as 1911, and gained initial fame during the late 1920s as both a solo recording artist and as a member of various string bands. After his "rediscovery" during the folk revival of the 1960s, Ashley spent the last years of his life playing at folk music concerts, including appearances at Carnegie Hall in New York and at the Newport Folk Festival in Rhode Island. Clarence Ashley was born Clarence Earl McCurry in Bristol, Tennessee in 1895, the only child of George McCurry and Rose-Belle Ashley. Those who knew George McCurry described him variously as a "one-eyed fiddler, hell-raiser, and big talker." Shortly before Clarence was born, Rose-Belle's father, Enoch Ashley, discovered that George was an adulterer, and George was forced to leave town. Rose-Belle moved back in with her father, and around 1900, the family relocated to Shouns, Tennessee, a crossroads just south of Mountain City, where Enoch ran a boarding house. When Clarence was very young, he was nicknamed "Tommy Tiddy Waddy" (after a nursery rhyme) by his grandfather Enoch, and thus became known to friends and acquaintances as 'Tom'. As he was raised by the parents of his mother, the name "McCurry" was dropped in favour of "Ashley". From infancy, Tom was acquainted with musicians. His grandfather bought him a banjo when he was eight years old, and his mother and aunts taught him to play traditional Appalachian folk songs and ballads. He also learned a number of songs a...More: http://booksllc.net/?id=2930197 ... Read more

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The second edition of this popular title is first published in 2005 and is the first new book on the UK Law of Patents for 25 years. This title is an essential resource for patent lawyers and patent attorneys. Written by some of the most eminent IP practitioners in the UK, "The Modern Law of Patents" offers a fresh and comprehensive exposition of the law relating to patents in the UK and Europe. Extensively revised, the second edition of the book covers the following: conception, initial protection, prosecution, expression, validity, transmission, exploitation and infringement; and laws of patents in other jurisdictions in order to provide guidance as to the laws of those countries in relation to the broad questions of prosecution, validity, competition and infringement.This title offers: detailed coverage of the laws of patents as they relate to computers, pharmaceuticals, Biotechnological inventions and aspects of the laws of competition, criminal and border controls and inventive products and inventive processes as patented inventions; guidance in relation to the law of patents from a prosecution and procedural aspect as well as auxiliary aspects (such as human rights and dispositions arising by mere operation of law); and, materials in paper which provide the statutory and practical basis for the existence and subsistence of patents in the United Kingdom and in relation to prosecution of patent applications in the European Patent Office. ... Read more

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24seven features a who's who of today's best writers and artists from comics, film and animation, telling tales of robots in the city that never sleeps. Following in the tradition of the acclaimed 24seven Volume 1, this second volume's stories run a cross-genre gamut, from crisis in space to bank robberies to gambling robot dogs. 24seven has romance, action, horror - everything you want - told by a cross-section of the most diverse writers and artists in print! ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Fantastic
Excellent continuation of the first volume.This contains fine writing and atristry.This is not, however, for children.

Robotic Redux
In 24seven, Vol. 2, Ivan Brandon has once again gathered a wondeful stable of writers and artists from the comics biz who inhabit our very real world to weave tales about a city-world where robots are its inhabitants and robot sensibilities guide their lives.As before in Vol. 1, the list of contributors reads like a who's-who of talented, soon-to-be and established comic book illuminati who've been given free reign to their imaginations and in many instances, improve on the work that was done in the first offering.

In Vol. 1, the stories often used robots to provide insight as to what it means to be human. In that book, more than a handful of stories could have been played with human characters, but in Vol. 2, we're shown what it might be like to think and live more like robots and to understand a futuristic "robot-ness".By that, I don't mean stoic, unfeeling, homogeneous and mechanical.These robots have very human qualities and foibles but their existence and abilities (and foibles) are enhanced *because* they are robots.Their robot-ness is capably exploited in these stories as we see robots age, deal with broken relationships, become victims and participate in crimes, and very likely work through malfunctioning circuits.

It's easy to relate and equate the experiences of the mechs in these stories, but moreover, we're given more of an opportunity to imagine how we, as human types, could react to the human condition as robots.Losing your memory because of old age? Plug in and reboot from a back-up file.Feeling the loss of former lovers?Bolt on bits of metallic ephemera to your robot wings.Always wanted to be a dancer instead of say, a doctor (thereby disappointing your hopeful parents)?Submit to a kind of robotic genitoplasty to be the diva you've always dreamed of becoming.

And so on.

Some stories rise above the others as with any collected works of this nature, but there is well enough to please everyone.Writing and artistic styles vary from story to story, and that's the way it should be as we are provided a broad, imaginative vision from some very gifted human types.
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Product Description
'Illustrating Empire' tells the history of the British Empire through the ephemeral images used to promote, record, and celebrate its development. The narrative is told through more than 200 striking and original images accompanied by illuminating story captions which unlock the history and meaning behind the illustrations. Following a general introduction which provides an overarching discussion of Empire and its many facets, the book is structured around eight major themes associated with the British Empire and Britain's encounter with non-Europeans: emigration and settlement; imperial authority; exploration and knowledge; trade and commerce; travel and communications; popular culture; exhibitions and jubilees; and politics. Each chapter opens with an introduction which sets the overall context for the visual narrative to follow. The book examines the significance of a range of media in purveying ideas about empire and the non-European world. It also provides a clear summary of scholarly debates regarding the significance of empire in terms of British culture.This book represents a significant contribution to the literature on culture and empire, and will be an engaging and useful source for scholars as well as students and general readers.The Bodleian Library's Visual History from the John Johnson Collection of Printed Ephemera series explores the Collection through themed texts for the general reader, providing the context in which to understand these important images and what they represent. ... Read more

Product Description
This digital document is an article from Pediatric Nursing, published by Jannetti Publications, Inc. on January 1, 2010. The length of the article is 6443 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

From the author: Due to medical advances in surgery and anesthesia and cost of hospital stays, more elective pediatric surgical procedures are being performed in outpatient settings. One proposed advantage of outpatient surgery is decreased anxiety or a shorter period of anxiety for pediatric patients and their families because they are able to go home shortly after the surgery. A literature review was conducted to describe anxiety experienced by pediatric patients and their families in the outpatient surgery setting and to explore ways to decrease that anxiety. Both children and parents reported not feeling emotionally and educationally prepared for outpatient surgery. Developmentally appropriate pre-surgical educational programs and parental involvement in the surgical experience can help alleviate the anxiety of both children and parents during the pediatric surgical experience. Nurse practitioners (NPs) are currently being used in pre-operative outpatient settings to conduct physical examinations and provide pre-op education. Pre-op education programs provided by NPs are beneficial in decreasing the anxiety state among children and parents prior to surgery.

Citation Details
Title: Nurse practitioner role in preparing families for pediatric outpatient surgery.
Author: Ashley M. Frisch
Publication: Pediatric Nursing (Magazine/Journal)
Date: January 1, 2010
Publisher: Jannetti Publications, Inc.
Volume: 36Issue: 1Page: 41(7)

Distributed by Gale, a part of Cengage Learning ... Read more

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Chapters: William Morris, Laura Ashley, Alexander Girard, Charles Voysey, Thelma Johnson Streat, John Henry Dearle, Anna Maria Garthwaite, Helen Berman, Valerie Campbell-Harding, Franco Scalamandré, Lucienne Day, Dorothy Liebes, Mary White, May Smith, Jack Lenor Larsen, Joan Glass, Celia Birtwell, Kvadrat, Ruth Reeves, Marianne Straub, Ada Dietz, Benoit Pierre Emery, William Kilburn, Lily Goddard, Ronan ... Read more

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This digital document is an article from Journal of School Health, published by American School Health Association on May 1, 2003. The length of the article is 3933 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

From the author: The US Department of Education's Principles of Effectiveness require recipients of Safe and Drug-Free Schools and Community Act funds to: a) base drug and violence prevention programs on needs assessment data, b) develop measurable program goals and objectives, c) implement programs with research evidence of effectiveness, and d) periodically evaluate programs relative to their goals and objectives. This paper reports the extent of awareness of the Principles of Effectiveness and plans for their implementation among public school districts and schools in the United States in the year following their announcement. Results showed a greater percentage of public school districts than individual schools knew about the principles and planned for implementation, but baseline levels of awareness for both districts and schools were relatively low. Schools were more likely to know about the principles when their associated school district also knew. Results suggest a need for greater communication about the principles to school districts, and in turn, a need for greater communication between district and school-level substance use prevention staff.

Citation Details
Title: The Principles of Effectiveness: early awareness and plans for implementation in a national sample of public schools and their districts. (Research Papers).
Author: Ashley P. Simons-Rudolph
Publication: Journal of School Health (Refereed)
Date: May 1, 2003
Publisher: American School Health Association
Volume: 73Issue: 5Page: 181(5)

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This digital document is an article from Journal of Psychology and Theology, published by Rosemead School of Psychology on March 22, 2005. The length of the article is 6356 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Being a good neighbor: can students come to value homosexual persons?
Author: Rodney L. Bassett
Publication: Journal of Psychology and Theology (Refereed)
Date: March 22, 2005
Publisher: Rosemead School of Psychology
Volume: 33Issue: 1Page: 17(10)

Distributed by Thomson Gale ... Read more