Pleasures and Ponderings: From Nun to Nudist to Now

Book Description

For four years, Moreah Vestan has recorded her fleeting thoughts, intense questions and love of life in a carefree journal that speaks of the essence of living. In Pleasures and Ponderings: From Nun to Nudist to Now, Vestan offers dozens of essays that tell of the need to savor each moment and relish the pleasure in every second while still setting aside time to ponder life's tough questions.

Vestan delights in lilacs and leftovers, shares insights about lost loves and faces the discomfort of questioning her beliefs. The book is a truly inspiring hodgepodge of wisdom, with topics ranging from relationships to aging. The reader absorbs Vestan's enthusiasm for life and her appetite for variety. Her childlike sense of wonder is perfectly conveyed, as are her profound ideas about life.

She writes about finding Mr. Right, dealing with family issues and personal priorities, among many other important topics. Lessons about every aspect of living are offered to the reader. If one is looking for an honest look at life, they will find it by looking through the eyes of an independent, adventurous woman who knows how to embrace life from its most simple aspects to its most mysterious. She also tells of her musings of life from nun to nudist to now.

"You come away agreeing that assumptions can be questioned and that there may be no higher purpose than enjoying everyday pleasures, while pondering the meaning of even the imponderables with grace and/or fortitude," she writes.

Vestan began her young life believing she had a religious calling. She spent one year in a convent, moving on to pursue a career in teaching. She has worked a variety of other jobs and is currently a life coach and a relationship columnist for Seattle's Active Singles Life. She dated frequently after her divorce in the 1970s and had once-in-a-lifetime experiences, such as traveling for three months in Southeast Asia alone and teaching English as a Second Language in Mexico. Pleasures and Ponderings is her first published book.

Customer Reviews:

Searching.......2004-03-18

Moreah's reflections touch a chord with me on my life long search for a perfect partner. I have gone through many, many relationships and have learned from each one. I shared in that process with her.

I'm struck by her writing style. Each vignette is an adventure in itself.

Experiencing life as an art form.......2004-03-18

Ms. Vestan is a connoisseur of experience, pure and simple, which she raises to an art form. She never loses her childlike wonder and delight in enjoying the simplest of things. One minute it is found ingredients in the refrigerator for a meal, the next enjoying herself at a nudist camp and coming up with always intriguing observations. An entrepreneur of the spirit and relisher of all experience!

She has broken the book up into 8 sections, from "Tasting and Savoring Life's Pleasures" to "Family Matters: Pigtails to Gray Hair" to "Figuring it Out". You can read 77 delightful vignettes, like daily meditations, that will have you laughing, bring wonder, share raw honesty, and experience pure joy from events like a wheelbarrow ride. These 2-4 page pieces each draw the reader in as if addressing questions, feelings and delights with a friend. Do one a day for your reminder to openness! The words in her Dedication probably say it about as well as anything: "To all who are nurtured in their pursuit of meaning, who delight in everyday pleasures, who grow from open-heartedness, and who love themselves and others with compassion."

Her work on this book deserves praise for her delight, wonder, honesty, zaniness, and love that she relates beautifully through the stories of daily rituals. As her stories seep into you, you find yourself seeing, living experiences never even dreamed of, but suddenly enjoyed. It is a book of possibility. Are you stymied or stuck in your thinking or your life? Read these pages and be ready for openings into new possibilities! It inspires with its imagination, soothes with its tender care, jolts with its fascination of all that's around us. . I got a chance to experience great depth and breadth of living. Let yourself feel it all! Enjoy yourself on the journey!

Interesting and Inspirational !.......2004-03-18

I read the book Pleasures and Ponderings by Moreah Vestan a few chapters every night before going to sleep and found I looked forwawrd to it each night. While at first it seemed like the book was fun and interesting but "all about Moreah", it soon became evident that she was just as interested in helping others as herself.I'm going to read it AGAIN and this time make notes on many of the books and websites she recommends Her very interesting, enthusiastic and tenacious hold on life and the self-improvement of body, mind and soul is an inspiration to anyone!

Delightful.......2004-03-12

Moreah has an easy, yet interesting array of essays that are a delight to read...it's the kind of book you want to take to bed read and relish in a leisurely fashion.

Relish Life's Small Daily Pleasures.......2004-03-10

As the title suggests, Moreah veston has lived an interesting life. Her candid personal essays celebrate her free spirit and inspire the reader to relish life's small daily pleasures.

Customer Reviews:

Great.......2002-04-11

This book is about the Paleolithic time in what is now North America, the Great Spirit creates Yah-qua-whee (the mastodon) to help the people. But when the mastodons turn against the people, the smaller animals side with the People to defeat them. After hundreds are killed in the great battle, the "creator" sends thunderbolts into the ground, killing the mastodons. The "crane-berries" that grow in the bogs formed during the fighting are a peace offering from the creator to the people. They are also the gift Native Americans give to the Pilgrims at the first Thanksgiving. I found this book to be very interesting. The legend was something that I had never heard of and the way the author told the story really held my attention. The illustrations were beautiful and would be very helpful to a young reader. This would be a great book to use when doing a culture unit in the classroom.

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The Little Red Hen (Picture Mammoth)

Manufacturer: Mammoth
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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A Great Book
The Mammoth Book of Fairy Tales

The Mammoth Book of Fairy Tales

Manufacturer: Carroll & Graf Publishers
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Anthologies | Genre Fiction | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Fairy Tales | Genre Fiction | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Anthologies | Fantasy | Science Fiction & Fantasy | Subjects | Books

General | Fantasy | Science Fiction & Fantasy | Subjects | Books

General | Foreign Languages | Reference | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0786704756

Customer Reviews:

A Great Book.......2002-09-26

This book was truly wonderful. It had Grimm and Anderson, but it also had L. Frank Baum, Robin McKinley (!), Charlotte Bronte, George Macdonald and a lot more. It had old fairy tales and new ones. It is out of print, unfortunately, but it is definately worth tracking down.

The Mammoth Book of Fairy Tales.......2000-05-29

A wonderful collection of fairy tales from throughout the ages. The Grimms of course are represented but many lesser known authors such as Isabel Bellerby,Lord Brabourne,and Netta Syrett. Many contemporary authors are also included,Tanith Lee, Robin McKinley, Jane Yolen. A good collection for anyone with a love of fairy tales, highly recommended.

Annual Mammoth Book: Fairy Tales / Mother Goose / Bed-time Stories / Black Beauty ...

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Annual Mammoth Book: Fairy Tales / Mother Goose / Bed-time Stories / Black Beauty ...

Manufacturer: Whitman Publishing Company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000J0PU4W

Product Description

Contains: Four big Whitman books. Book I: MOTHER GOOSE, illust. by Francis Kirn. 1944 Whitman, 128 pp. contains age-old rhymes that were learned in childhood. Book ll: FAIRY TALES - retold by Jean Gould, illust. by Linda Card. Whitman 1944., Contains: 11 stories; Cinderella, The Traveling Musicians, Rapunzel, The Frog Prince & etc. 128 pp. Book III, BED-TIME NURSERY BOOK, Frances Cavanah & Elizabeth Feiker. 128 pp., 1944 Whitman, Contains 25 stories, includes: Lazy Jack, The Steadfast Tin Soldier, Chicken_Licken, Hot Cockalorum, The Husband Who Minded the House & others. Book IV BLACK BEAUTY, by Anna Sewell, illust. by Dan Muller

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The Three Little Pigs (Picture Mammoth)
Elizabeth Laird
Manufacturer: Mammoth
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Altshuller's Soviet propaganda fiction

Ballad of the Stars: Stories of Science Fiction, Ultraimagination and TRIZ
Genrich Altshuller , and Valentina Zhuravlyova
Manufacturer: Technical Innovation Center, Inc.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
Russian | Classics | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
Anthologies | Science Fiction | Science Fiction & Fantasy | Subjects | Books
General | Science Fiction | Science Fiction & Fantasy | Subjects | Books
Short Stories | Science Fiction | Science Fiction & Fantasy | Subjects | Books
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And Suddenly the Inventor Appeared: TRIZ, the Theory of Inventive Problem Solving

40 Principles Extended Edition: TRIZ Keys to Innovation

Innovation Algorithm:TRIZ, systematic innovation and technical creativity

Innovation on Demand: New Product Development Using TRIZ

ASIN: 0964074060

Product Description

A classic collection of visionary science fiction written by the creator of the TRIZ Methodoloy for problem solving, G Altshuller and his wife, Valentina. Seven different stories that probe the most difficult and rewarding explorations of the mind's search for new theoretical discoveries. These are innovative and poetic tales that create far reaching, visionary fantasy.

Customer Reviews:

Altshuller's Soviet propaganda fiction.......2006-11-16

I bought this book because I had hoped it would shed light on Altshuller's Theory of Inventive Problem Solving (TRIZ in the Russian acronym). I had read that Altshuller turned to writing and publishing science fiction in the 1950's under the pen name G. Altov as a way of getting exposure for his theory at a time when he lacked access to official channels. (He lived in the now defunct Soviet Union, after all.) If the stories and the short novel "Ballad of the Stars" in this volume show TRIZ in action, they do so only obliquely, mainly in the form of interesting ideas Altshuller and his wife throw out in the context of otherwise unremarkable tales. I feel a bit cheated because the stories don't explain Altshuller's reasoning process behind these ideas, much less hold up as science fiction. He would have done better just to explain the ideas without padding the fictional narratives around them.

For example, in "The Donkey Axiom," Altshuller points to the trend towards faster and faster turnover in the useful life of machines because technological progress keeps making them obsolete. (He sounds like a precursor to the Singularitarians, in other words.) Instead of hauling the old machines to the dump and going to the store to buy new ones, what if you could make machines of very fine particles that you can shape into whatever you want through magnetic attraction? Then when you no longer need that machine or it becomes obsolete, you can program the magnetic particles to dissociate and form a new machine more in line with your needs, without the waste. Altshuller anticipates speculations beginning in the 1980's about programmable matter and nanoassemblers, in other words. But the story overall struck me as mediocre.

The stories by Altshuller's wife, Valentina Zhuravlyova, at least fare a little better by showing some psychological depth, though not at the expense of the geek component in science fiction. A character in her story, "To Continue Beyond," wonders how the history of science would have turned out if the alchemists had spent a millennium seeking to acquire and understand magnetic materials instead of trying to make gold. If the alchemists had experimented with one of the fundamental forces of nature instead of trying to transmute materials into a mostly useless yellow metal, physics could have progressed much faster than it actually did.

The husband and wife's joint collaboration, "Ballad of the Stars," shows that combining their talents doesn't necessarily produce a successful novel. A captain of a relativistic starship on the way to Sirius relates his previous adventure there by delayed video broadcasts to a sculptor on Earth (don't ask me why, I couldn't figure that part out). Some gems of Soviet propaganda beg attention: In the time of the story, a single sovereignty rules Earth "under the red flag of United Humanity." The starship captain mentions that only "one-seventh of Earth's population" still believes in gods, about the reverse of the current fraction on nonbelievers. And in an especially egregrious passage, the captain expresses his politically correct credo:

"I believe there is a deep logic in the fact that humanity entered space under communism. It is not simply a question of technology. We could not meet other intelligent beings until we had overcome, once and for all, the evil that ruled the Earth. Otherwise the encounter [with extraterrestrials in Sirius] would have been disastrous. Communism gave humanity not only the technological capacity for distant flights but also the moral right to meet other intelligent beings."

Why, even the universal genius Vladimir Lenin makes an appearance, wearing his Carl Sagan hat. On page 244 we read Lenin's speculation that life originating on other solar systems will develop other senses and think quite differently from us.

Pretty dreadful stuff to encounter these days (well, not the part about the collapse of religious beliefs). I can't tell whether Mr. and Mrs. Altshuller inserted these passages to make the novel pass Soviet era censorship and get published, or if these praises of communism in fact reflected their views at the time. Probably a mixture of both, I suspect, even though Altshuller reportedly spent some time in Stalin's prison camp system for criticizing how the Soviet Union failed to use inventive thinking.

Politically approved Marxist citations also show up in one of Altshuller's nonfiction books about TRIZ translated into English, "The Innovation Algorithm," but at least they make sense in context. On page 91 in this latter book, Altshuller quotes from Karl Marx on a "technical contradiction" (a key TRIZ concept) in the development of mills, and from Frederick Engels on a similar problem in the development of firearms. In the relatively closed world of the Soviet Union, Altshuller had to make do with the cognitive resources he had available, so technological observations by Marx and Engels served well enough to get his point across. In general, Altshuller does much better as a theorist of inventive thinking than as a science fiction writer.

Allan's Lone Star ballads;: A collection of Southern patriotic songs, made during Confederate times (American classics in history and social science)

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Allan's Lone Star ballads;: A collection of Southern patriotic songs, made during Confederate times (American classics in history and social science)
Francis D Allan
Manufacturer: B. Franklin
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

General | Music | Entertainment | Subjects | Books

Allans Lone Star Ballads Collection of S

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Allans Lone Star Ballads Collection of S
Francis D. Allan
Manufacturer: BURT FRANKLIN
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000UD5WXM

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Ballad of Beta 2 & Empire Star
Samuel R Delany
Manufacturer: PENGUIN PUTNAM * TRADE
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000SHBO00

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THE BALLAD OF BETA-2 / EMPIRE STAR
Samuel Delany
Manufacturer: Ace Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000Q8VAGY

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Brilliant, as always.

Ballad of Beta-2 / Empire Star

Manufacturer: Ace
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
ASIN: B000HYZ0J0

Customer Reviews:

Brilliant, as always........2006-11-20

This volume is an Ace Double in another guise. It represents two original works, not readily available in other formats, written when the author was in his early twenties. Both are interesting, pleasant, and thought-provoking novellas after the old school; as always, Delany is exceedingly readable.

Surrender The Stars (Zebra Ballad Romance)

Average customer rating:

Linda Lea Castle is always a good read
Truely enjoyable

Surrender The Stars (Zebra Ballad Romance)
Castle Linda
Manufacturer: Zebra
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Historical | Genre Fiction | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

General | Romance | Subjects | Books

General | Historical | Romance | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0821772678

Customer Reviews:

Linda Lea Castle is always a good read.......2002-08-16

I have to start out this review by stating that I absolutely adored this novel. Linda Lea Castle has been put on the top of my must read list. Ms. Castle has a talent for story-telling that far surpasses many authors today. The characters became like friends and I hope I get to visit them again soon.

Aislinn of Sevenoaks truly wants to be wed. She wants to know love and to have a family, but after four husbands perish on their wedding nights, Aislinn believes she is cursed. Yet the King decrees she must wed, and a fifth potential husband is sent to Sevenoaks.

Baron Desmond du Luc wants a young, nubile wife who will love him and beget him many children. However, he knows he must do as the king decrees and he prepares to wed The Poison Flower, who he assumes after the deaths of four husbands, must be an aging crone. On his arrival at Sevenoaks, his future wife remains in her chambers, apparently still in mourning. But what intrigues him the most is the young beauty he meets in the maze in the garden. Night after night they meet and he wishes that she could be the one he marries.

Aislinn meets her future husband in secret nightly, but never tells him the truth of her identity. She begins to fall in love with him and becomes even more determined not to marry him, for she cannot handle the idea of her curse killing him. When her true identity is revealed, Desmond does not believe he can trust her. After learning more about her previous husbands, Desmond believes that someone had murdered them for a mysterious secret treasure supposedly hidden inside of Sevenoaks. Aislinn in turns believes she cannot trust him because he acts secretive and asks many questions about a treasure. However, their original mutual attraction still holds strong. They have to learn to trust each other, before the murderer of Sevenoaks can strike again.

Aislinn and Desmond's relationship is powerful and very sexy. As their powerful lust for each other turns into caring and love, the reader can't help but fall in love along with them. Ms. Castle has deftly weaved a powerful love story with intrigue, mystery and suspense for a perfect read. I can't recommend this highly enough! I can't wait to read the rest of The Vaudry series!

Truely enjoyable.......2002-07-19

This book was listed as VERY sensual in the Romantic Times magazine so I was expecting a little more sex..sex...sex...It was hot and sizzling at times and had some good sex scenes between Desmond and the Poison Flower.
I was hooked after the 3rd page. It was nice that it had intrigue, suspense, loyalty ,wit and characters that you could really enjoy.
Aislinn was beautiful inside and out; plus Desmond was intelligent and determined to find all the anwers to so many mysteries.
The story is well written; fairly predictable, but fun and you feel good after reading it.
I really enjoyed this book and would recommend it to anyone who enjoyed a romantic romp through castles and gardens with stolen kisses in the moon light.
I'm not used to writing reviews, so pardon my skill at doing this one. I just hope you enjoy this book as much as I did.

TWELVE (12) GREAT CLASSICS OF SCIENCE FICTION: The Top; My Object All Sublime; The Fourth Planet; Earthmen Bearing Gifts; Due Process; The Cage; Things; Immortality for Some; Human Man's Burden; Ballad of Lost C'Mell; Star Crossed Lover; Thirty Days

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TWELVE (12) GREAT CLASSICS OF SCIENCE FICTION: The Top; My Object All Sublime; The Fourth Planet; Earthmen Bearing Gifts; Due Process; The Cage; Things; Immortality for Some; Human Man's Burden; Ballad of Lost C'Mell; Star Crossed Lover; Thirty Days
Groff (editor) (George Sumner Albee; Poul Anderson; J. F. Bone; Fredric Brown; Algis Budrys; A. Bertram Chandler; Zenna Henderson; J. T. McIntosh; Robert Sheckley; Cordwainer Smith; William W. Stuart; Robert F. Young) Conklin
Manufacturer: Gold Medal Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000GVWO5W

4 Titles By Delaney - Babel-17 - City of a Thousand Suns - Ballad of Beta-2 Empire Star - Stars in My Pocket Like Grains of Sand

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4 Titles By Delaney - Babel-17 - City of a Thousand Suns - Ballad of Beta-2 Empire Star - Stars in My Pocket Like Grains of Sand
Samuel R. Delany
Manufacturer: various
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
ASIN: B000RH7ZGS

Product Description

Multiple books shipped as one item for your convenience. Save on Shipping/Handling charges.

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Allans Lone Star Ballads Collection of S
Francis D. Allan
Manufacturer: BURT FRANKLIN
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000PW9RRK

Amazon.com

Animal lovers, relax--"Spotted Dog" is a kind of pudding, not a dalmatian. It is also the favorite pudding of Jack Aubrey, the fictional creation of writer Patrick O'Brian. Aubrey's adventures as an officer of the British Navy--and those of his friend and ship's surgeon Stephen Maturin--during the tumultuous years of the Napoleonic Wars have been masterfully detailed in O'Brian's many novels; now Anne Chotzinoff Grossman and her daughter, Lisa Grossman, take readers on a culinary adventure through the kitchens and cuisine of the early 19th century.

Since food figures prominently in O'Brian's novels, his fans will already be familiar with such names as Skillygalee, Drowned Baby, Soused Hog's Face, and Jam Roly-Poly, but they may wonder exactly what those dishes are. Lobscouse and Spotted Dog makes it all clear: Skillygalee, for example, is oatmeal gruel, while Drowned Baby is similar to Spotted Dog, only without the currants and eggs. And Spotted Dog is...? You'll find the recipe in the Grossmans' book, along with excerpts from the Aubrey/Maturin novels and many other authentic 19th-century dishes to test your sense of adventure, your culinary prowess, and possibly your waistline. Lobscouse and Spotted Dog is more than a cookbook--it's a window into the past, an inspired piece of culinary detective work, and a delightful gastronomic companion to the novels of Patrick O'Brian.

Book Description

Celebrate the joys of Patrick O'Brian's acclaimed Aubrey/Maturin series with this delightful cookbook, full of the food and drink that so often complement Jack Aubrey and Stephen Maturin's travels. Collected here are authentic and practical recipes for such eighteenth- and early-nineteenth-century dishes as Burgoo, Drowned Baby, Sea-Pie, Solomongundy, Jam Roly-Poly, Toasted Cheese, Sucking Pig, Treacle-Dowdy, and, of course, Spotted Dog. Also included are historical notes on the origins of the dishes as well as sections on the preparing of roasts, puddings, and raised pies.

Customer Reviews:

Great cookbook!.......2007-02-20

Lots of fun for cooks. A pleasure for readers of Patrick O'Brian's novel (so you can find out what "drowned baby" consists of).

Highly recommended!

Hearts of Oak, Biscuits with Weevils.......2007-01-12

Lobscouse and Spotted Dog is a lot of fun for those of us who are both fans of Nelson's navy, and part time chefs as well. I sometimes think that a historically accurate dish somehow transports us back to those swashbuckling days when men were men, and walking the plank was not measuring your new hardwood floor at home depot.
The recipes are apparently accurate, and the comments are drole. And if you've got a little time on your hands, there's a theme party waiting for you to create. Get your pals to dress up like Horatio Hornblower and break out the Admiral's Flip. Then the neighbours'll have something to talk about, damn your eyes! Beat to quarters, if you please!

A feast!.......2007-01-10

I made both of the title dishes (and many of the others)and all were great. The writing was both entertaining and informative. The recipe for Millers in Onion Sauce almost makes me willing to try rat for dinner.

Very well-researched and authentic!.......2007-01-10

I haven't cooked anything from this cookbook yet. It's not exactly family dinner fare. But I've flipped through it enough to know that the writers have done a great deal of research into the food, on land and sea, in the times and places of the Aubry/Maturin novels. In several cases, they offer two recipes for one dish, one that tells how it would have been cooked in a ship's galley and one that tells how to cook it in a modern kitchen. My husband has read all of O'Brien's books and has looked through the cookbook to find many dishes he remembers from the books. They're all there. It was everything I hoped it would be. Now if I could just find a good reason to cook this stuff! :)

Jack's Snacks.......2006-03-03

For anyone who didn't read this series or read it only casually, this probably wouldn't be terribly interesting. However, for someone (like my husband) who read and very much enjoyed the entire series, (even the last, unpublished #21)this helped to clarify the day to day routine of the life of a middle class sea captain. All I can say is thank goodness I wasn't their cook.

Lobscouse & Spotted Dog: Which It's a Gastronomic Companion to the Aubrey/Maturin Novels

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Lobscouse & Spotted Dog: Which It's a Gastronomic Companion to the Aubrey/Maturin Novels
Anne Chotzinoff; Thomas, Lisa Grossman Grossman
Manufacturer: W W Norton & Co Inc
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000OM1LMA

Lobscouse & Spotted Dog: Which it's a Gastronomic Companion to the Aubrey/ Maturin Novels [by Patrick O'Brian].

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Lobscouse & Spotted Dog: Which it's a Gastronomic Companion to the Aubrey/ Maturin Novels [by Patrick O'Brian].
Anne Chotzinoff. Grossman
Manufacturer: W.W. Norton c
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000KIV59M

Lobscouse and Spotted Dog : Which It's a Gastronomic Companion to the Aubrey/Maturin Novels

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Lobscouse and Spotted Dog : Which It's a Gastronomic Companion to the Aubrey/Maturin Novels
Anne Chotzinoff; Thomas, Lisa Grossman Grossman
Manufacturer: W. W. Norton & Company, Incorporated
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000PS37HA

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