Product Description
Cover: Pen & ink-type drawing of Old California-style young man and woman talking in what looks like a flowered courtyard. Contents: Editorial by Winona Higgins and information on various Santa Barbara area, including Solvang, places, events of interest, activities, accommodations and the like, as well as on about local businesses. ... Read more

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short stories, poetry, literature ... Read more

Product Description
On a summer afternoon, Melba Burns witnesses a nightmare collision. The unknown bicyclist dies in her arms, ending Melba's desire for success at any cost. She settles into her boxy old farmhouse trying to find a simpler peace. But Melba's stunning new roommate JoLee Garry only magnetizes messes and trouble-she brings a series of unexpected guests who transform Melba's fruitful solo life into something different, darker, and better. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (30)

True Love
I enjoyed meeting the unusual but realistic and contemporary characters at the Guest House.Barbara Richardson's lively and challenging plot kept my interest from cover to cover in one weekend.I thought my 86-year-old, native Idahoan, retired-English-teacher mother Naida would also appreciate the story, the people, and the vivid descriptions of familiar Idaho landscapes and vegetation. Naida loved it and commented "How the hell does she know so much?"

on the road, with love and courage
Definitely a book to read again.The writing is lyrical, with jolts of pizzazz, just as this story jolts Melba and Matt into new paths and discoveries.A work of the heart.I was happy at the end to leave JoLee and her ex behind, but wanting a sequel, so I could follow Melba and Matt a little farther into their new lives.

Looking for love
In one fell swoop, Melba Burns, a middle-aged realtor, stops driving, quits her job, and retreats to the farmhouse property she has just purchased in a ramshackle Portland, Oregon neighborhood--all this after she witnesses the tragic death of a cyclist. Then the dysfunctional Garry family enters her life. //Guest House// is the story of one woman's quest to rescue a house, a boy, and herself.

Barbara Richardson's debut novel, largely character-driven, is comprised of the aforementioned Melba, Gene Garry, a likable but pathetic drunk, JoLee, his stunning, narcissistic wife, and Matt, their neglected 10-year-old son. A major weakness of the book is Melba's character, which should be the anchor of the book. She is never fully realized, and her compelling response to the death of the cyclist never fully explored. As a result, I felt detached from all the characters. I don't doubt that Richardson poured much of herself into this story, and she clearly has talent. Unfortunately, in the end, all I felt was relief to be finished with following the self-destructive path of "GeneJoLee."

Reviewed by Diana Irvine

CONNECTED BY CIRCUMSTANCES
A series of events triggers a metamorphosis of untold dimensions when Melba Burns witnesses the hit-and-run death of a cyclist.With the tragedy unfolding before her, she then sets in motion a whole parade of circumstances, beginning with her refusal to drive any longer.She also quits her job and holes up in her old farmhouse.Her uneasy peace is then disrupted by a new roommate, JoLee Garry, who introduces an odd assortment of "guests" into Melba's home.

Before too much time passes, her life is thoroughly shaken up.

We meet these characters one by one, from JoLee to her son Matt and then to his father Gene.JoLee also begins a romance with a man named Bill, and her own games ensue.Manipulation is only the first of these.

I enjoyed getting to know each of these characters and imagining how tranquil Melba's house would have been without them.It isn't easy inviting strangers into one's own home.In fact some might say she has taken leave of her senses.One could speculate that Melba's own identity has been shaken to the core, which leaves her vulnerable to the intruders.But one guest in particular adds something special and unique to her life--JoLee's son Matt.Caring for and nurturing Matt, when his parents fail at this task, somehow creates a layer of strength and richness to her life.

In the end, we can root for how her presence in this boy's life has also enriched his.

Guest House is one of those tales that resonates and lingers in the reader's memory for a very long time.The story reminds us that we are all connected in one way or another, by circumstances or fate.How we react to the events shaped by destiny tells us more about ourselves than almost anything else.The twist of fate can reveal much about our own strengths and weaknesses.

Five stars.

original writer, original characters
Barbara K. Richardson is someone I admire. After a batch of careers (teacher, landscape designer, sailboat refinisher), she taught herself to write, and she's come up with a novel about an unlikely woman and the even more unlikely people she meets once she steps out of her life. Then she found a regional publisher and made a video. I tip my hat. ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (1)

The Captain's point of view
Having been the Captain of a pleasure boat the last 16 years, I found the information contained in Guest Afloat a big help not only to me and my crew, but also to our guests.All too often, my wife and I have invitedguests aboard only to realize that our friends have little or no knowledgeof what to expect during the voyage.By reading Guest Afoat our friendsare introduced to the essentials of cruising so that their apprehension ofgetting involved in the day to day routine is avoided.The book containsinformation for both the guest and crew, and I have found many points thatI have forgotten over the years.The book is well written and wellillustrated and I found the material informative and entertaining.Thisbook should a be "must" for every boats required equipment list. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

good for early readers
Iris and Walter love school and they love their teacher.One day when they arrive they learn that their teacher is sick and they will be having a subistute teacher.The subsitue is Iris's grandfather.This is fun for Iris and her classmates.Iris gets to be the special helper for her grandpa.Then the next day things don't go so well.Iris's classmates get to do the special things that she did the day before.She no longer likes having to share her grandpa.She is glad the next day when her teacher is back and her grandpa is all hers again!


I think that young kids can relate to Iris in this book.If their parents have helped out in the classroom they may have had a hard time "sharing" them with their classmates.This is a great book that can be used to discuss these feelings.


We highly recommend this entire series.They are great for beginning readers.The chapters are short making the reader fell like they have really done well!
... Read more

Product Description
When Alan's elderly mother, an acclaimed novelist with Parkinson's disease, comes to live with Alan and his wife, Gaby, the younger generation is disturbed by Lily's debilitation and reassesses their own lives. 150,000 first printing. $200,000 ad/promo. Tour. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (18)

A Crashing Bore
We read this book for our library book club, and I do this because often it makes me read things I wouldn't normally read, and most of the time I am glad I did, but this one was one of the most tiresome books I have read in a long time. I did not find the people real, the writing was stilted, and Lily herself is a poor excuse for a heroine. What, after all, has she done except have a failed marriage, 3 children from whom she is somewhat if not completely estranged, and an experience of sorts with racial tensions. She writes a book about herself at 72? How did she manage it since she had so little to say and so little accomplishment. Why would anyone have read it? None of this does the author make clear. I had to push myself to read the book about the book, it took me a month, and in the end, why did I bother? I have never read anything else by Sue Miller, and now I doubt if I will.

A Fine Character Study of a 72 Year-old Woman Looking Back on Her Life
At 72 years old Lily has written her memoirs.It is her first attempt at writing and she has become an instant celebrity. She chronicles her life in the 1960's and the differences between herself and her minister husband on race and empowerment that eventually led to their divorce.

Now, frail and unable to write because of Parkinson's disease, she goes to live with her son Alan.Their relationship is conflicted and unresolved.We get to see Lily through the eyes of her assistant, her family and herself.We see her meanness masked as directness and self-expression.We see her as she reminisces abut herself as a naive young bride with a strong social conscience and love for her community.

This book is a great character study and very well-written.

All in the shading ...
The Distinguished Guest was my first, no doubt too long in coming, dip into the work of bestselling author, Sue Miller. Within the first few pages, indeed, first few lines, I had to wonder what had taken me so long to make this discovery for myself. Here was a literary talent, wide and deep, for the discerning reader. The pages turned if not with great speed, then certainly relish, in the manner that one approaches a gourmet meal rather than a buffet.

The novel centers around aging writer, Lily Maynard, having achieved literary fame in her 70s with her frank memoirs of a failed marriage to a priest, along with riveting fiction that explored racial issues. Lily has Parkinson's disease, and we witness how her faculties fail her as her short but bright writing career comes to an end. Her memory no longer holds the threads of plot and storyline, her mind wanders, her hands can no longer hold a pen. She takes up residence at her son's home, what is to be a temporary stay while awaiting an opening at a nursing home, but becomes her final residence. We learn about her through her interactions, strained as they can be, with her son and daughter-in-law, through an on-going interview with a journalist, and various other characters, casual or scholarly, that come in and out of her life in her final days.

All of which are fascinating, and Miller here shows herself to be a master of walking the literary tightrope with admirable balance. Never too much, never too little, always dead center, straight up and on target. Miller understands the concept of "less is more" and uses it to best advantage. Some of Miller's best writing, in fact, I found to be her voice coming through Lily's:

"In those summer Sundays of our new marriage, I could sometimes experience the hour or so in church as a kind of drug, a near-aphrodisiac really. All my senses were dilated by it, by the gradual and powerful accumulation of layers of physical awareness combined with my own spiritual hunger, my greed, really. The Midwest heat outside was always intense by eleven o'clock, and the dark little church was cool and damp by contrast. When you entered the doors, there was a long, dizzying moment of welcome blindness, accompanied, for me, by a near-sexual weakening in my legs. The air inside smelled deliciously of mildew, a mushroomy, earthy odor that changed slowly as the space filled up with people...

"I always arrived early because I couldn't bear the idea of the eyes of the congregation on me as I walked to my place alone. The young minister's new wife..."

Miller guides us with expertise to see the subtle nuances of young growing old, of the slow and frustrating, almost shameful, ravages of disease, of the disconnect between family members, of the limitations of pride, and the sly cruelties between mother and son, and those, too, between husband and wife. Here is family like most families, with truths being hidden and half-hidden, games played and unwound, mild flirtations that hint of ruination, yet hold back just in time. It is as if almost nothing happens--only everything does.

Even the conclusion of this story is laced with nuance, as life often is, so that it can be seen both as tragic and yet right, if one steps just to one side of it. There is good and bad and all the shades between in all that is life and all that is death.

~ Zinta Aistars for The Smoking Poet, Spring 2008

Failed to draw me in
`The Distinguished Guest' reads more like a character study than a novel. It is the story of a proud elderly woman who goes to live with her son's family as her health is deteriorating due to Parkinson's disease, and the impact this has on them.
Miller's skill at bringing Lily's character to life is undeniable, but the end result isn't very likeable. Lily is self-centered, full of herself, and on occasion downright mean, and although the book goes some way into explaining how she got that way, I could not bring myself to feel any sympathy for her.
Remaining characters, on the other hand, have very little depth - they are almost like rough sketches of the characters they would eventually become, but haven't yet been fleshed-out enough.

I'm normally a fan of Sue Miller's work, and was really looking forward to reading this, but this book (possibly in light of higher expectations) was a bit of a disappointment.

A Strong Character Study
Sue Miller is a powerful writer, and although this isn't her most stimulating novel it still has enough to recommend it.

Lily Maynard finds celebrity in her 70's as she writes her memoirs. She and her former husband Paul ran a church that was heavily involved in the early civil rights movement, and it was this involvement that ended their marriage. Lily enjoys her late-in-life fame, but now Parkinson's Disease is forcing her into a retirement home, and as she waits for a unit to become available she moves in with her son Alan and his French wife Gaby.

Lily's relationship with Alan has always been strained, as Alan has 'issues' with his strong-willed mother. These issues come to the forefront as they live together, and as Lily begins to deteriorate. Added to the mix is a writer doing an article about Lily, who brings up issues long-buried and best forgotten.

The novel is a strong character study of these characters: Lily, Alan and his wife and sons, and the lonely free-lance writer. Secrets, (none too shocking) are eventually revealed and issues resolved, but don't expect much in the way of plot or action.Just enjoy Miller's skill at creating these characters and bringing them to life. ... Read more

Product Description
Blue hard cover with silver lettering. Book was published July 2000. There are numerous contributors. Book has pages numbered 625 - 924. There are several black & white illustrations and an index. ... Read more

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Short articles on the care of roses as well as new rose hybrids and exhibiting roses. Contributors: Vincent Gioia, Marge Rehder, Don Marshall, Margaret Balbach, Malcom C. Shurtleff, Dale E. Martin, Paul E> Jerabek, K. J. Nobbs, Rosalyne B. Dobbs, Fred Edmunds, A. t. "Buddy" Harrelson, Jeane H. Rein, Felicitas Svejda, F. J. Crowe, Lily Shohan, Robert M. Skirvin, Mel Chu, John C. "Jack" Walter, Louise Coleman, Ronald G. Schwerdt, William E. McMahon, R. B. Peters, J. F. Knauss, Thomas Cairns, Muriel Humenick. Lists of awards of excellence, ARS Trial Ground Winners, All America Rose selections, gold certificates and honor medals, ARS officers, former presidents, color classifications, index. ... Read more