Book Description
Once Ellie Haskell's life was a fairy tale: the one about the overweight, underpaid interior designer who falls rapturously in love with a gorgeous prince and lives happily ever after. But now, four months after the birth of her twins, her worst nightmare has come true: the princess has turned into a frog and the bliss has gone out of the bedroom.
Can a course in the sensual arts, featuring naughty nighties and Peach Melba Love Rub, rekindle the romance she and her adored Bentley once shared? It's a question that leads Ellie straight to an organization called Fully Female.
But before she can say "Marriage Makeover," one fellow vamp becomes a sex-crazed zombie and another meets her end in a fatally frothy bubble bath. Then a third victim of amour turns up dead, and Ellie realizes it's more than ill luck. Can Ellie catch a crazed killer before love gets a bad name.
Customer Reviews:
Not bad.......2000-08-15
Not as good IMHO as the first three, this Ellie Haskell mystery is still a funny and enchanting diversion. With moments of warmth, hilarity and suspicion, this book has the same winning blend that makes Ms. Cannell so popular. When the Chitterton Falls women sign up to join a club that promises to bring the passion back into marriage, with its helpful counseling and incredibly funny handbook of hints, things don't go as well as they should. Not all husbands seem thrilled with the change in their wives. And sudden deaths halt the fun and games when murder makes its dramatic appearance. I must say that a character I had long found irritating and dislikable dies in this book and I wasn't a bit sorry (though I did experience a moment of terror when I feared the evil deed had in fact not gone through). Anyway, this book was entertaining and worth several laughs as well as some puzzled thought as to whom the murderer might be, and how many of the deaths were caused by him/her? A nice addition to the series.
error.......2000-03-18
I just wanted to point out to the reader who thought the title was misspelled, that I'm sure the publisher and the author are aware of the correct spelling. However, I think that the title is supposed to be a play on words. Therefore, the spelling of FATAL is a representation of murder, in order to create a more dramatic effect for the book. I enjoy all of Ms. Cannell's books. I particularly enjoy the humorous aspects. I hope that she continues to delight her readers. Keep up the good work!
P.S. Keep those originals titles coming! :-)
Check your french Dorothy!.......1999-07-06
It always get me mad when a author deciding to use a foreign language doesn't even bother to verify the spelling and grammar. The correct title should be Femmes Fatales for plural or Femme Fatale for singular
Another fun, light who-dunnit.......1998-07-18
After reading Cannell's "The Thin Woman" I had to immediately find the next Ellie Haskell book and this is it. I was not disappointed. Ellie, who has had her share of disappointments and uncertainties, is fighting another battle. Having recently had twins, she's feeling the overwhelming (but welcome) responsibility of having two adorable babies and is trying to regain her self esteem. It is this quest which leads Ellie smack into the middle of another murder mystery. Once again I enjoyed an entertaining few hours with Ellie and, as in the previous book, was really guessing until the very end.
Average customer rating:
- AN IMPORTANT BOOK THAT NEEDS TO BE REISSUED
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The Femme Fatale: Erotic and Fatal Muse
Virginia M. Allen
Manufacturer: Whitston Publishing Company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 0878752676 |
Book Description
This book explores the origins of the femme fatale, women who seduce men to their downfall. This exploration includes the image of the femme fatale in history, literature, art, and feminism.
Customer Reviews:
AN IMPORTANT BOOK THAT NEEDS TO BE REISSUED.......2001-02-12
I read this book when it was a doctoral dissertation and then went back and read it again as a finished book. It is a wonderful, all-encompassing study of the evolution of the femme fatale, in literature and painting. It's truly a massive undertaking that required a massive understanding on the part of the author. This book was foundational in my coming to understand the 19th century and the psychological and artistic environment from which the femme fatales of early Hollywood came. My own book, COMPLICATED WOMEN, would have been somewhat different -- somewhat thinner -- if I didn't have Allen's research to inform it. If Ms. Allen is out there, I'd love to thank her personally for a brilliant piece of work.
Average customer rating:
- Thoughtful analysis of the "Femme Fatale" in key noir films.
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The Fatal Woman: Sources of Male Anxiety in American Film Noir, 1941-1991
James F. Maxfield
Manufacturer: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 0838636624 |
Customer Reviews:
Thoughtful analysis of the "Femme Fatale" in key noir films........1998-07-30
Author does a thought-provoking analysis of the femme fatale in several key noirs 1940-present.Especially interesting are essays on "Double Indemnity","Out of the Past", and "Thelma and Louise".Book does not rehash conventional explications on these films regarding the "fatal women" represented in each.Anyone interested in film noir or the theme of the "fatal woman" in many of these films will find this book hard to put down.This book assumes that the reader have some familiarity with the films it discusses, or else much of the analysis will seem obscure. Recommended for the reader with more than a passing interest in the film noir genre.
Average customer rating:
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Femmes Fatal
Dorothy Cannell
Manufacturer: Bantam Books,
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000LQOZWW |
Product Description
Daudet's classic erotic novel is still quite readable today. It's the story of Fanny Legrand, the mother of all femme fatales. They called her Sappho, which means "forbidden love." Need one say more about this highly collectible, uncut gem from the vintage days of Avon Books.
Book Description
This digital document is an article from Epoca, published by Difusora de Informacion Periodica, S.A. (DINPESA) on January 27, 1997. The length of the article is 3163 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: ¿Existe la mujer fatal? (incluye artículo relacionado)(TT: Does the femme fatale exist?) (TA: includes related article)
Author: María Corisco
Publication:
Epoca (Magazine/Journal)
Date: January 27, 1997
Publisher: Difusora de Informacion Periodica, S.A. (DINPESA)
Issue: n622
Page: p36(5)
Distributed by Thomson Gale
Average customer rating:
- Graphic SF Reader
- Simonson is the Real Thundergod!
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The Mightly Thor in The Ballad of Beta Ray Bill
Walter Simonson
Manufacturer: Marvel Entertainment Group
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Binding: Paperback
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Thor: Stormbreaker - The Saga of Beta Ray Bill (Avengers Disassembled)
ASIN: 0871356147 |
Customer Reviews:
Graphic SF Reader.......2007-09-03
Who would have thought that a funny looking big orange alien guy would have made a good Thor analogue. Only Walter Simonson, it would seem, and when he came up with this, he came up with one of the best Thor stories Marvel had ever done.
Bill showed Thor what it meant to be a hero, and proved himself again and again.
Simonson is the Real Thundergod!.......2000-01-19
In the mid eighties, Walt Simonson redefined the mythos of one of marvel's greatest heroes: the mighty Thor. Revamping the flagging series with not only exceptional artwork and dynamic frame-sets, Simonson brought Thor back to the roots of Norse mythology and legend. Simonson's epic storyline concludes with a fantastic spin on Ragnarok (the final battle of the gods)and ties up every loose end since the beginning of the series' run. The Ballad of Beta Ray Bill collects the first few issues of this amazing moment in comics' history. It is well worth reading for any serious comics fan, fantasy/sci-fi artist or mythological affectionado.
Bill's tragic, yet mighty Ballad is one the coolest stories I've ever read. It's been 14 years since I read it and it still inspires my own work in the computer game field. Thanks Walt. You're the man!
Book Description
Most Americans, when pressed, have a vague sense of how they would like to die. They may imagine a quick and painless end or a gentle passing away during sleep. Some may wish for time to prepare and make peace with themselves, their friends, and their families. Others would prefer not to know what's coming, a swift, clean break. Yet all fear that the reality will be painful and prolonged; all fear the loss of control that could accompany dying.
That fear is justified. It is also historically unprecedented. In the past thirty years, the advent of medical technology capable of sustaining life without restoring health, the expectation that a critically ill person need not die, and the conviction that medicine should routinely thwart death have significantly changed where, when, and how Americans die and put us all in the position of doing something about death.
In a penetrating and revelatory study, medical anthropologist Sharon R. Kaufman examines the powerful center of those changes -- the hospital, where most Americans die today. In the hospital world, the deep, irresolvable tension between the urge to extend life at all costs and the desire to allow "letting go" is rarely acknowledged, yet it underlies everything that happens there among patients, families, and health professionals. Over the course of two years, Kaufman observed and interviewed critically ill patients, their families, doctors, nurses, and other hospital staff at three community hospitals. In...And a Time to Die, her research places us at the heart of that science-driven yet fractured and often irrational world of health care delivery, where empathetic yet frustrated, hard-working yet constrained professionals both respond to and create the anxieties and often inchoate expectations of patients and families, who must make "decisions" they are ill-prepared to make.
Filled with actual conversations between patients and doctors, families and hospital staff,...And a Time to Die clearly and carefully exposes the reasons for complicated questions about medical care at the end of life: for example, why "heroic" treatment so often overrides "humane" care; why patients and families are ambivalent about choosing death though they claim to want control; what constitutes quality of life and life itself; and, ultimately, why a "good" death is so elusive.
In elegant, compelling prose, Kaufman links the experiences of patients and families, the work of hospital staff, and the ramifications of institutional bureaucracy to show the invisible power of the hospital system itself -- its rules, mandates, and daily activity -- in shaping death and our individual experience of it.
...And a Time to Die is a provocative, illuminating, and necessary read for anyone working in or navigating the health care system today, providing a much-needed road map to the disorienting territory of the hospital, where we all are asked to make life-and-death choices.
Download Description
"Most Americans, when pressed, have a vague sense of how they would like to die. They may imagine a quick and painless end or a gentle passing away during sleep. Some may wish for time to prepare and make peace with themselves, their friends, and their families. Others would prefer not to know what's coming, a swift, clean break. Yet all fear that the reality will be painful and prolonged; all fear the loss of control that could accompany dying. That fear is justified. It is also historically unprecedented. In the past thirty years, the advent of medical technology capable of sustaining life without restoring health, the expectation that a critically ill person need not die, and the conviction that medicine should routinely thwart death have significantly changed where, when, and how Americans die and put us all in the position of doing something about death. In a penetrating and revelatory study, medical anthropologist Sharon R. Kaufman examines the powerful center of those changes -- the hospital, where most Americans die today. In the hospital world, the deep, irresolvable tension between the urge to extend life at all costs and the desire to allow ""letting go"" is rarely acknowledged, yet it underlies everything that happens there among patients, families, and health professionals. Over the course of two years, Kaufman observed and interviewed critically ill patients, their families, doctors, nurses, and other hospital staff at three community hospitals. In...And a Time to Die, her research places us at the heart of that science-driven yet fractured and often irrational world of health care delivery, where empathetic yet frustrated, hard-working yet constrained professionals both respond to and create the anxieties and often inchoate expectations of patients and families, who must make ""decisions"" they are ill-prepared to make. Filled with actual conversations between patients and doctors, families and hospital staff,...And a Time to Die clearly and carefully exposes the reasons for complicated questions about medical care at the end of life: for example, why ""heroic"" treatment so often overrides ""humane"" care; why patients and families are ambivalent about choosing death though they claim to want control; what constitutes quality of life and life itself; and, ultimately, why a ""good"" death is so elusive. In elegant, compelling prose, Kaufman links the experiences of patients and families, the work of hospital staff, and the ramifications of institutional bureaucracy to show the invisible power of the hospital system itself -- its rules, mandates, and daily activity -- in shaping death and our individual experience of it. ...And a Time to Die is a provocative, illuminating, and necessary read for anyone working in or navigating the health care system today, providing a much-needed road map to the disorienting territory of the hospital, where we all are asked to make life-and-death choices. "
Customer Reviews:
Be informed.......2006-09-29
Think you or your parent don't need a health care proxy? Think again, and use Sharon Kaufman's AND A TIME TO DIE to help you realize just how important it is to determine the direction you want your life to take at its conclusion, and to have someone who understands your wishes and can speak for you.
It's not a pleasant subject, but it's one that healthcare professionals deal with every day. I can certainly agree that the cases depicted here are unvarnished in their presentations, completely accurate. I've watched some of these same scenarios play out over and over again--only the patients are different.
The text maintains a certain distance from the patients and their families. There is not the in-depth interviews and emotional content of some other books of this type. However, I appreciated stepping back from the patient in order to see how the system had succeeded or failed in each case.
The author does a good job at showing just how we arrived at this current state of affairs, and why dying in America has become driven by treatments rather than by compassion. Medicare reimbursement is at the heart of some of the problem for the elderly.
If you want to change the system, to have compassion for the dying, to practice better medicine, or even to have a peaceful end for yourself when that time comes, this is a good place to start in understanding how we've come to this place, and to think about what we can do to create change.
One of the most valuable books I've read this year.......2006-07-21
I am a medical ethicist, and as I read Kaufman's "And a Time to Die" I found myself thinking back to the hospital case consultations I've been involved in. Her observations and conclusions helped me to piece together a much more detailed picture of what's really going on in those situations. Her discussion of pathways, time pressures, reimbursement concerns, and the use of language all ring true. Those who are familiar with hospital settings will recognize much of what Kaufman has observed (a fact that another reviewer objects to), but I believe that she is able to take a "bird's eye view" of these issues in a way that organizes and extends our understanding.
This book is a must-read for families who are facing end-of-life decisions, and for those in the health professions who try to help families through this process.
Circles, But Never Lands.......2006-05-22
The author of this book goes inside the modern American hospital system as an anthropologist, and reports what takes place there when the system is confronted with a terminally ill patient. She examines what cultural imperatives are being brought to bear there to make this an increasingly problematic and decidedly "unnatural" process.
You will get a few definite insights from this book. The author includes interviews with a variety of patients and their families. And she sits in on hospital conferences as all the people treating and speaking on behalf of a dying patient wrestle with the problem of what measures to take to prolong the patient's life, or less euphemistically, to prolong his dying.
There is also an interesting chapter on specialty care units that are either attached to some hospitals or that are hospital owned, but exist in their own removed compounds. These units maintain patients who only survive with the aid of artificial/mechanical aids. Some of them are in a vegetative state. Some are conscious to varying degrees. Most of the public still isn't aware of the existence of these adjunct facilities, despite the movie Coma - which featured a sinister version of such a high-tech "warehousing" center. The actuality, as Kaufman describes it, is infinitely more benign. The staff at these institutions sincerely care for their patients.
A few good summary points emerge from Kaufman's treatise. Insurance has largely shaped our medical care system by mandating that hospitals treat specific conditions in order to justify a patient's stay there. So generic old age can't be attended to. A patient must receive a diagnosis of something like "superlobar emphysema" and must be put on the pathway of aggressive treatment for that condition, if the hospital expects to be compensated.
Another point: Our system of so-called choice makes it difficult for the dying and their families. People don't know "what to want" in these life-and-death situations. The onus is on them to say when to pull the plug. Choice has replaced nature.
Kaufman explains how our far-reaching, albeit still limited, control over nature has left us without any way to anchor moral decisions. Whereas we could once let a person die "naturally," now we have transformed and become nature, so the decision can't be left outside ourselves. This is perhaps the main thesis of the whole book, and should have been stated at its beginning to orient the reader a little better.
In general, this book is five times longer than it needs to be. It's like a bird that circles and circles, riding the lofty currents of air, without ever swooping down to make a catch. At the end of the book's 300+ pages, we really don't know much more than when we started. Most of what Kaufman writes in between interviews is abstract and obvious.
Kaufman might have considered going beyond her passive role of anthropologist, and might have envisioned some more substantial solutions to the problem of medicalized dying if she had incorporated the works of philosophers such as Ivan Illich (author of Medical Nemesis) in her thinking. Illich approached the problem of our entire medical care system as a problem of glut and hubris. Just as we demand too many goods in this society, so we demand too many services. We insist on being serviced to the hilt, and institutions abound to sell us service, service, service. These institutions then take on a life of their own, and there's nothing any of us can do, client or provider alike, but go along for the ride. Kaufman's need to maintain cordial relations with hospital staff and patient families in order to conduct her research may explain some of her lack of critical perspective in this regard though.
As it is, her book is worth reading as rehearsal for what each one of us might face some day. But I would speed-read it, in order to avoid prolonging the process.
A powerful book for students, caregivers, and families dealing with end of life stages.......2006-03-27
This is an excellent book about a difficult subject: The ambivalent attitudes and approaches to dying in the culture of US hospital settings. Sharon Kaufman is professor of medical anthropology at the University of California, San Francisco.
Kaufman observed that time was the factor which most influenced many of the interactions and experiences of the participants in the drama of dealing with serious health challenges. Institutional pressures on the staff demanded that care be provided in the most efficient and economic manner. The staff were constantly faced with decisions around the timing of interventions and the pacing of the therapies and their effects and consequences. Staff had to deal with obstacles to the most efficient provision of care and with the timing of death. Patients were often unconscious, leaving relatives to have to make extremely important and difficult decisions - ones that they would have to live with for the rest of their lives, and ones that might set them in conflict with other family members who could not be present at the time.
The control that modern medicine has over the timing of death brings the patients, staff and families into discussions and negotiations over physical, psychological, relationship, moral, ethical and religious issues and concerns. When there is no living will/ directive, an urgent situation is created in which decisions of major consequences must be taken.
Much suffering seemed incredibly unnecessary, like octogenarians with living wills discovered after the fact, or aggressive surgeries on debilitated and chronically ill people who had not a fighting chance of surviving these insults.
This powerful book should be read by every student and caregiver dealing with seriously ill patients, and by families with people who are approaching the last stages of their lives. It would make an excellent focus for caregiver discussion groups.
Sobering examination of the "end of life" issues many of us are likely to face.......2005-07-28
"And A Time To Die" is definitely not light summer reading. Instead, it is a serious and revealing look at the way people die in this country. Fifty years ago most people died at home. For a whole host of reasons detailed in this book this is no longer the case. The simple fact is that most folks find themselves ill-prepared when faced with life and death decisions involving themselves or close family members. Author Sharon R. Kaufman has done us all a great service. "And A Time To Die" brings the reader up to speed on the issues, the terminology, the technology and the players involved in various end of life scenarios. Just what is meant by the term "persistant vegetative state"? What are the advantages and drawbacks of CPR? Is hospice care really a better alternative to a conventional hospital for many of these patients? What happens when the patients wishes are at odds with the wishes of the family? And just what role does religion play in the life and death decisions people are forced to make? These issues and a great many others are presented in clear, concise and easy to understand language.
Sharon Kaufman, a professor of medical anthropology at the University of California, spent two full years observing and interviewing terminally ill patients and their families. She also spent considerable time speaking with doctors, nurses and hospital staff who must struggle with these issues on a daily basis. She presents the stories of 27 patients who find themselves in ICU's (intensive care units) or in other specialized hospital units. To be honest, a good many of these stories are downright disturbing. One cannot imagine what many of these patients and their families are forced to endure. And what is so frustrating is that the structural deficiencies of the American health care system are largely responsible for so many of these problems. Reading this book will surely convince you that there is so much that needs to change.
Admittedly the issues are complex and the subject matter is not particularly pleasant. But as a practical matter, it is extremely important for people to get up to speed on many of these issues. I can only conclude that I found "And A Time To Die" to be a very worthwhile use of my time. I would wholeheartedly recommend this book to you as well.
Book Description
For most of us, chocolate conjures up images of candy or sweet desserts. But the ancient Maya knew it as a spicy drink used in religious ceremonies. And to the Aztec, who had to trade for cacao, the coveted seeds served as money. This delectable book—the only pictorial survey of the entire history of chocolate—explores the relationship between this rainforest treasure and human civilization through the ages.
Chocolate's roles in the history of slavery, war, and medicine are also here—in a book that accompanies a major exhibition, originated by The Field Museum in Chicago, that will travel across the U.S. for four years. As they savor this unique, fact-packed treasury, chocoholics will view America's favorite food through the lenses of history and ecology, anthropology and economics, conservation and popular culture.
Customer Reviews:
Yum, yum, yum.......2006-06-20
I purchased this book from the little special exhibit store at the Atlanta Fernbank Museum special exhibit on choloate. I believe that many of the photographs come directly from the exhibit. This is a sensual book with beautiful illustrations. It gives the history of chocolate and has details of manufacturers and particular brands.
What particularly interested me was the discussion of the way that chocolate has gradually been discovered and planted around the world. The largest export was first Central America, now it is Africa.
History and economics of chocoloate without any recipes!.......2003-08-28
Whether you are a chocolate lover like myself or not, you will enjoy this veritable opus on the history and business of this wonderful gift from the New World.
The narrative is bracketed by these two first and last sentences of the book: "The lush, tropical rainforest is home to the cacao tree....It is possible that chocolate may be a critical ingredient in the fight to save the world's rainforests." Written as an accompaniment to a Chicago musuem exhibition on chocolate, this book is full of pictures and photos which complete a well-written text on the historical origins of this major global product, the chocolate business, and even the future of chocolate.
This is a wonderful book for young and adult readers. It will grace any living room bookshelf. Don't be disappointed by its lack of recipes.
Books:
- Ghost Walker
- Good Morning, Midnight
- Great Tales of Terror and the Supernatural
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- Hell's Angels: Three Can Keep a Secret If Two Are Dead'
- In the Moon of Red Ponies: A Billy Bob Holland Novel
- Jane and the Prisoner of Wool House (Jane Austen Mystery)
- Just Left of the Setting Sun
- La Mia Cucina Toscana: A Tuscan Cooks in America
- Last Seen in Massilia: A Novel of Ancient Rome
Books Index
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The Spring Cleaning Murders: An Ellie Haskell Mystery (Ellie Haskell Mysteries)
