Eyes of a Child (Random House Large Print)

Book Description

Richard North Patterson's thrilling new novel tells a multifaceted story that pierces the public drama of a sensational murder trial to probe the inner lives of the men and women at its heart.

In San Francisco, Ricardo Arias is found dead in his apartment. The evidence might confirm suicide, but it also strongly suggests murder. The police investigation quickly uncovers a maze of conflict that surrounded Arias: an estranged wife, Terri Peralta; an ugly custody fight over their six-year-old daughter, Elena; and sexual abuse of the child. But then the police uncover a murder suspect -- Terri's new lover, Christopher Paget, a high-profile attorney.

Now defense attorney becomes defendant, and we begin to see that what comes to light in the courtroom may be fatefully intertwined with what threatens to remain hidden: by Paget's refusal to testify, by Elena's tangled loyalties, and by Terri's inability -- or unwillingness -- to recall her own childhood trauma.

Customer Reviews:

A Disturbing yet Brilliant Tale..........2007-04-06

Thought to writing a review of this book... something which brought a lump to my throat after a long, long time...

The story is about an estranged child, called Elena, the love child of Teresa and Richie, whose parents don't love each other any more. For adults it is easy to say and accept, but for a child to comprehend that her parents can be separated is almost unfathomable. And it is this very delicate and most intricate feeling that Richard North Patterson sought to capture in this book. It is ostensibly a legal thriller, a murder mystery, a whodunit, a courtroom drama... but above all, it is the story of Elena, who is torn between her parents, both of whom tell her that they love her, but not enough to be able to settle their own differences and live together... even for her sake... imagine Elena's sense of being betrayed when her Mom tells has that her Dad is the cause of their divorce proceedings, and her Dad insists that her Mom's extra-marital affair with her boss, Chris, is the cause of this estrangement...

The book is kind of long, but the length is almost an asset, used well by RNP to make the reader bond with the characters. You end up taking sides, and almost willing for things to happen and fall right... more than once while reading did I realize that I was clenching my teeth, and surprised, I let go... actually, was more than just a little surprised... not since the time I read "Les Miserables" did I experience such plight and pain in a character made solely out of paper and ink and one man's imagination...

Though similar to Grisham in topics and characters, this book certainly qualifies to be way up and beyond the caliber of Grisham's best (with perhaps the sole exception of "The Chamber")! The mystery and whodunit aspect is kind of tolerable and in the end things fall into place so that everything somehow makes sense (or does it?). Though the author has tried to intertwine the story into knots, starting with the murder, and then going a couple of weeks in the past to build a background into the characters, then carrying on with the past, and then finally a jump right into the middle of the fiery courtroom battle. Rarely does one get to see such delicious courtroom scenes... each argument has a counter-argument, and another one there... and just when you think one side comes up with their strongest witness, the other simply breaks through and gets back! It was a treat to follow the proceedings of the court.

A few things I found lacking in the story... at times, the characters are too single-sided... some are too white while others too black. Acceptable, but at times it makes the story that much less plausible. Still, just a nick in the armor... Another point worth making out is that the characters suffer so very much as part of the story, and as a result they take very long to reconcile and come to terms with their lives, but once they are around the bend, they bounce back almost too easily and are able to diagnose their feelings and psychologies a little too easily and objectively... Again, not something that takes too much out of the story or its effect, but I felt the author had just gone overboard a few times in trying to conceive his characters in depth.

Overall, I would rate this book a neat 4 out of 5, primarily for the delicate yet plausible handling of the sensitive topics that are covered in the book, and the way the plot comes together, with everything - every small detail that at times felt nagging and inconsequential - falling into place, while maintaining the acceptability of the characters and situations, at all times.

I have two more of Patterson's books lined up in my bookshelf, and will tell you more once I am through them too!

Powerful eye-opener with realistic, flawed characters.......2006-03-23

I've recently become a big fan of Richard North Patterson's work. My favorite books of his are the ones involving Kerry Kilcannon. I feel Patterson is at his best when he combines politics with law. It is also when I feel his work is the most interesting and most compelling.

However, after reading Eyes of a Child, I've discovered that he also writes a pretty darn good legal thriller. Child abuse is a very difficult and touchy subject to address. I tend to admire Patterson for his research capabilities to ensure that he's putting credible information behind his plots and characters.

The story surrounds the 6-year-old daughter of lawyer, Teresa Peralta. There is a vicious custody battle between Teresa and her extremely manipulative husband, Ricardo "Richie" Arias. Beginning on the outer fringes of the story is the man whom Teresa has come to love and rely upon, Christopher Paget, himself a lawyer and Teresa's boss. Christopher is a single parent raising his 16-year-old son, Carlo.

First of all, Teresa loves her little girl, Elena, more than anything. Christopher Paget also loves his son at the same level.

So, what happens when Carlo is accused of molesting Elena? What happens when Christopher Paget himself is accused of murdering Richie? While these are intriguing questions for the movement of the story, the heart of it lies in this: how does this impact and affect the relationships between parent and child?

Patterson succeeds in creating one of the most unlikeable, diabolical character I've seen in Richie. The man is not above using anyone or anything for his own personal gain, and disguising this behind impressions of compassion and love, two concepts that are totally alien to him.

The story opens with Richie's death. I question whether it would have been more effective to do this later in the story. I almost felt disapppointed to find out from the start that Richie is dead. He is such a despicable character, that I wonder if it would have had more impact had his death been written later in chronological order.

Patterson creates realistic parents in Teresa and Chris who do their best to protect and love their children without compromising them. They are both flawed characters. They aren't perfect parents. They simply do what they feel is best. They will soon learn that, for children, it is not so much what a parent "does" but who a parent "is," that really counts. Sometimes not saying something as a parent can do more harm than good. Besides, as adults, we forget that children aren't stupid and are often much brighter than we ever give them credit for.

One of the most difficult things for a writer to do is to give a little child a realistic voice. It's hard to remember what a 6-year-old sounds like. How do they express themselves and what kind of words do they use. Patterson struggles with this early on with Elena. I work with kids all the time, and I just couldn't see Elena speaking the way she does in this story. As the story progresses, Patterson finally seems to find that voice, thus making Elena much more realistic and believable.

While I still feel that author, Sheldon Siegel writes the best courtroom scenes of any author on the market, Patterson does a great job in this story. The trial is tense and intriguing, and you simply can't put the book down once it gets going. At least he finally put in a judge who isn't cranky and snapping at everything. The judge during the custody hearing is like this which forced me to question: Christ, are all judges like this? Not by my experience, so I was relieved when the trial judge escaped this type of characterization.

This book is very well written. You won't be disappointed. You won't be cheering for Richie. You may start to cheer for Teresa and Chris, but in the end, you find yourself truly cheering for Elena and Carlo because you do begin to see through the eyes of a child.

Good, but lacks hoped for suspense.......2005-06-02

Eyes of a Child is an excellent novel, but it lacked the suspense and thrill I hoped for when I picked it up. It more based on the trial of a murder than the actual murder itself, which I thought it was about. The book does have many twists though they are not resolved until the last few chapters. This book is very good, but do not expect a typical murder mystery novel.

Eyes of a Child -- a great read!.......2005-05-29

This was the first RN Patterson book, and I found it to be very suspenseful. I simply could not put the book down! Like another reviewer, however, I must say Patterson was a bit too heavy-handed in his development of the characters. Richie Arias, the victim of murder or suicide, comes off as too evil, just as Terri Peraltas and Chris Paget are portrayed as angelic parents/people. In addition, they go through a series of dramatic events, after which they are still able to reconcile their relationship -- something that could ONLY happen in this fictional work. However, if you are like me and like books with enough mystery to keep you reading, and a happy ending to satisfy you at the end, Eyes of a Child is perfect for you!!

Eyes Of A Child.......2005-04-21

The story Eyes of a Child by Richard North Patterson is a intence murder mystery. The main characters are Terri Peralta, Richie Arias, Elena, and Christoper Paget. Terri is Elena's mother who is a divorced to her late husband Richie, who was murdered in his apartment by an unknown killer. Christoper is Terri's new boyfriend who helps her out with the case since they both work together as lawyers. The genre for this story is both horror and mystery because of the unknown killer. A major quotation in the story is when Terri yells, "'I didn't do it, why does everyone blame me? '" This affects the story because it is a turning part close to the end. On a scale of one to ten I would give an eight because it keeps you interested but you have to remember what happened or else you will get lost since the length of the book is a little to long by being over five hundred pages. You also have to have a pretty good reading ability since there is a lot of descriptive words. I would highly recommend this book.

A Sight for Sore Eyes: A Novel (Random House Large Print (Paper))

Average customer rating:

Chilling psychological suspense examines beauty
Five stars for a great story I couldn't put down, as usual...
Too much backstory
The most DISTURBING novel I've read in a long, long time--that ending!
Enjoyable but other Rendell Novels were better

A Sight for Sore Eyes: A Novel (Random House Large Print (Paper))
Ruth Rendell
Manufacturer: Random House Large Print
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0375705732
Release Date: 1999-03-02

Amazon.com

Nobody does North London squalor better than Ruth Rendell. Describing in vivid detail the cultural sewer in which a monster named Teddy Brex grows up, she uses hideous furniture, slovenly housekeeping habits, even his mother's diet while pregnant to root us in the setting's hopeless ugliness. In contrast, Rendell introduces people and places of stunning beauty: Francine, a mentally fragile girl who became mute after witnessing her mother's murder; and Orcadia Cottage, scene of a famous painting that is at the center of much of the story's anguish. "It was far and away the most beautiful place he had ever seen," Rendell writes when Teddy--a gifted woodcrafter--first views the cottage. "The proportions of this hall, this room... the windows, the walls, the carpets, the flowers, the furniture, the paintings, all of it dazzled him."

Teddy is another of Rendell's frightening moral cripples, a seemingly ordinary person capable of the vilest crimes. When he becomes obsessed with Francine after meeting her at art school, we know to expect murder--we just aren't sure when, or who will be the victim. Equally vile is Julia, Francine's stepmother, a psychologist of such immense and malevolent ineptness that we would swear she couldn't possibly exist if real life hadn't taught us otherwise. Other important characters are Harriet, a faded beauty who connects the past to the present; Teddy's uncle Keith, who first recognizes the boy's madness; and a bright red, lovingly restored Edsel, which becomes a hearse.

Like all of her books, Rendell's latest is really about the secret acts of insanity that occur behind closed doors. Among her best books available in paperback are From Doon with Death, A Guilty Thing Surprised, The Keys to the Street, and, from the excellent Inspector Wexford series, Kissing the Gunner's Daughter, Road Rage, and Simisola. --Dick Adler

Book Description

A Sight for Sore Eyes tells three stories, and for the longest time, the reader has no inkling of how they will come together. The first is a story of a little girl who has been scolded and sent to her room when her mother is brutally murdered; as Francine grows up, she is haunted by the experience, and it is years before she even speaks. Secondly, we become privy to the life of a young man, Teddy, born of unthinking young parents, who grows up almost completely ignored. Free of societal mores, he becomes a sociopath, who eventually discovers that killing can be an effective way to get what he wants. Thirdly, we meet Harriet, who from an early age has learned to use her beauty to make her way in the world. Bored by marriage to a wealthy, much older man, she scans the local newspapers for handymen to perform odd jobs around the house, including services in the bedroom.

When these three plots strands finally converge, the result is harrowing and unforgettable. A Sight for Sore Eyes is not just the work of a writer at the peak of her craft. It is an extraordinary story by a writer who, after 45 books, countless awards, and decades of international acclaim, is still getting better with every book.

Customer Reviews:

Chilling psychological suspense examines beauty.......2007-07-22

This tale of psychological suspense is not exactly beach reading. Better to curl up with this one in a small, dim room with a reassuring family member close by. Of Rendell's 40-something books, this just might be her creepiest.

Her two main characters, young people, just setting out in life, lead lonely lives. As a small child Francine witnessed her mother's murder. For nine months after she was mute and the threat of recurrence looms at the edges of her life. Growing up she submits to her stepmother's smothering, pathological protectiveness rather than risk confrontation.

Teddy comes from a family devoid of such human characteristics as warmth, self-respect, curiosity and taste. While the family seems exceptionally loathsome and grotesque, Rendell's eye for individual peculiarity keeps them human - just. Natural or nurtured, Teddy is a cold-centered sociopath with one consuming passion - beauty.

Francine's beauty transfixes him and he will go to any lengths to possess it.

Rendell's affinity for damaged souls brings even the secondary characters to vivid, grim life. Harriet's self-centered beauty has earned her a boring marriage and elegant home; now she soothes resentment by orchestrating fleeting seductions of virile handymen. Francine's stepmother embraces martyrdom as a means of power. Her father eases his own life with willful blindness. The squalor of Teddy's upbringing shares a stifling barrenness with Francine's caged life.

Teddy's fledging and early successful forays into the world create a tense ratcheting of suspense. His burgeoning freedom threatens a widening circle of unsuspecting people. Rendell's subtle, cold eye finds menace in every scene; the unwitting victims bring cataclysm upon themselves. Accident, timing, whim - all are weapons.

Totally riveting.

Five stars for a great story I couldn't put down, as usual..........2007-04-01

As usual, Ruth Rendell/Barbara Vine is/are to-die-for storyteller(s). How does she (they) do it? They hit the mark every time. Amazing! This book has a very Joyce Carol Oates-like theme: a horrible event catapults us into the lives (and motives) of the main characters...it shows us how a violent, traumatic experience can shape an entire life, in this case that of Francine, a sensitive young beauty who must carry the burden of having been, as a little girl, present at her mother's murder. Teddy is the gorgeous psychopath, Julia the suffocating stepmother Francine attracts, almost a self-fulfilling prophecy. The story is at once gruesome and fascinating, and impossible to put down. Thank you to the alter-egos of this super-fun writer.

Too much backstory.......2007-01-22

This was my first Ruth Rendell novel. I picked it up after seeing her name appear with very high praise on a list of top psychological thriller reads.

Based on this novel, I'd call her more of a literary fiction mystery writer. The action doesn't really pick up until the half-way point in the book, but then steadily increases to the strong ending.

I rated the book so low because I thought too much of the book (likely half) was superfluous narration to fill in the main characters's history. I think I could have understood the position of both main characters without so much detail.

If it hadn't been for the list of thrillers to read, I might not have finished the book. It began without a "hook", prompting me to read on, but I kept thinking that there must be more if she is such a prominent author.

Some day I might try another Rendell/Vine novel, but I'd make sure it came with plenty of hot reviews and a quicker pace.

The most DISTURBING novel I've read in a long, long time--that ending!.......2007-01-09

I'm never disappointed by a Ruth Rendall novel.

This was more of a character study so it's not really plot driven, but hang in there. Like a tightly wound clock, everything "clicks" together in the end.

And WHAT AN END!

This had to be one of the most disturbing novels I've ever read--extremely creepy ending and you'll never see it coming!

I heard they made it into a pretty bad movie, so stick to this book!

Enjoyable but other Rendell Novels were better.......2006-09-20

This was a very nice read. I started it on an airplane and read it all the way through. It has the usual elements of Rendell/ Vine mystery, but seems more like a Vine novel except it is told by a narrator in multiple points of view. Teddy Brex is a real nasty human being and its a pleasure to see the outcome of this novel. I did not however figure out if there was any connection between the back story of Francine and the present day action. I suspect there is, and that this background is not just a psychological element. Then again, perhaps it is.

Eye of the Storm (The Hudson Family Series, Book 3)

Average customer rating:

just another storm
Much better than Lightning Strikes!
I'm addicted to V.C. Andrews now
Same Ole Same Ole
Hmmmm...let's see....

Eye of the Storm (The Hudson Family Series, Book 3)
V. C. Andrews
Manufacturer: Thorndike Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0783893280

Book Description

In the wake of a terrible loss, Rain is left alone to bear the Hudson family secreets -- as dark and forbidding as storm clouds on the horizon...

After the death of her beloved Grandmother Hudson, Rain found herself caught in a battle for the vast Hudson family wealth. Marked to inherit millions, Rain faced the fury of her unaccepting mother, her manipulative stepfather, and her cold, vicious Aunt Victoria. But no amount of money can keep Rain's world from crashing down when sudden tragedy strikes.

Left helpless after a devastating blow, Rain sinks into despair as her precious dreams are washed away...dreams that cannot be bought with the Hudson fortune. Her only hope for rebuilding her life rests in trusting a stranger who has come into her world -- a man whose generosity and kindness does not appear to come with strings attached, much to Rain's amazement. But just as she opens her heart to a promising new future, her past comes back to haunt her -- and Rain is pulled into a furious whirlpool of bitterness and heartache.

Download Description

In this thrilling new Hudson novel, Rain continues her struggle for her birth family's acceptance, even as she suddenly learns of inheriting the controlling share of her grandmother's vast estate and family fortune. When a tragic accident leaves her paralyzed and in a state of despair, Rain turns to a caring man who helps her rebuild her life. But the past always has ways of coming back to haunt Rain....

Customer Reviews:

just another storm.......2006-08-01

although this book was better than the first two book in the hudson series, it still wasn't great. when grandmother hudson dies, rain is to inherit millions. aunt victoria, on the other hand, has other plans for rain. rain thought her aunt was crazy before, but she never realized just how crazy she was until rain is forced to live her after a devastating accident. rain is just about to give up on life, until she meets austin clarke, a physical therapist. it was love at first site. aunt vicortia doens't like rain hanging out with austin, and she takes drastic measures to keep them apart. just when rain thinks that her life couldn't get any worse, rain finds herself in a situation where she has to fight for her own life.

Much better than Lightning Strikes!.......2003-10-27

After being disappointed with Lightning Strikes i was a bit skeptical with reading Eye of the Storm. This book was much better than the first two, focusing more on Rain than her family members. Alot of people in Rain's life were removed in this book, however, a few new people came into it. I was pleasantly surprised how quickly i read the book and look forward to finishing the series.

I'm addicted to V.C. Andrews now.......2001-12-09

I must say that I was rather fascinated with this novel. I never took the oppurtunity to read any V.C. Andrews books and am glad to have done so. I feel that Eye of the storm is the best of The
Hudson Family Series. I feel Rain is a Heroin. To be as strong and faithful no matter what card she was dealt is so inspiring. Despite all her hardships she pulled thru. This was a real page turner for me. I read it in 3 hours. I was so impressed by this that I would strongly recommend any true V.C. Andrews fan to read this particular series if they haven't already. I'm now in the process of reading The End of the Rainbow. After that i feel that there are many more V.C. Andrews novels i'll move on to reading.

Same Ole Same Ole.......2001-10-19

Some may say that Rain was better than most of the gostwriter series, but seriously ...
The only good series the gostwriter ever wrote were the Logan, Cutler, and Orphans.
The rest ... well lets just say thats a waste of eight bucks ... if you want a book to compare to the sensational My Sweet Audrina, or Heaven go out and buy Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden or Rebecca by Daphne Dumaurier.

Hmmmm...let's see...........2001-09-19

I'm not going to lie, but this was a guilty pleasure. But only a few parts could be considered so. When Allison told off Rain, of course. What I'm getting at is the fact that this book couldn't hold my interest long enough for me to keep reading it. At about page 200, I said, "Ahhh...I'll just put this book down and continue tomorrow." Tomorrow never came. The book is stuffed in my closet under a pile of dirty clothes that I never bothered washing. Maybe that's where it belongs - I don't know. I didn't like it. I suggest that you reread Heaven if you want REAL entertainment and REAL V.C. Andrews. Of course, it's always a cure for insomnia. I fall asleep and sleep like the dead. Heaven help me, but I can't believe I wasted eight dollars on this. I could have bought something more worthwhile. Now I'm going to crawl into a dark corner and bemoan about the fact that there's another miniseries being regurgitated by these people... "sob"

The Botany of Desire: A Plants-Eye View of the World

Average customer rating:

A Fascinating Read
Too much information
Just buy this book.................
We are the world
human psychology in the garden

The Botany of Desire: A Plants-Eye View of the World
Michael Pollan
Manufacturer: Thorndike Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Science | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 0783896417

Amazon.com's Best of 2001

Working in his garden one day, Michael Pollan hit pay dirt in the form of an idea: do plants, he wondered, use humans as much as we use them? While the question is not entirely original, the way Pollan examines this complex coevolution by looking at the natural world from the perspective of plants is unique. The result is a fascinating and engaging look at the true nature of domestication.

In making his point, Pollan focuses on the relationship between humans and four specific plants: apples, tulips, marijuana, and potatoes. He uses the history of John Chapman (Johnny Appleseed) to illustrate how both the apple's sweetness and its role in the production of alcoholic cider made it appealing to settlers moving west, thus greatly expanding the plant's range. He also explains how human manipulation of the plant has weakened it, so that "modern apples require more pesticide than any other food crop." The tulipomania of 17th-century Holland is a backdrop for his examination of the role the tulip's beauty played in wildly influencing human behavior to both the benefit and detriment of the plant (the markings that made the tulip so attractive to the Dutch were actually caused by a virus). His excellent discussion of the potato combines a history of the plant with a prime example of how biotechnology is changing our relationship to nature. As part of his research, Pollan visited the Monsanto company headquarters and planted some of their NewLeaf brand potatoes in his garden--seeds that had been genetically engineered to produce their own insecticide. Though they worked as advertised, he made some startling discoveries, primarily that the NewLeaf plants themselves are registered as a pesticide by the EPA and that federal law prohibits anyone from reaping more than one crop per seed packet. And in a interesting aside, he explains how a global desire for consistently perfect French fries contributes to both damaging monoculture and the genetic engineering necessary to support it.

Pollan has read widely on the subject and elegantly combines literary, historical, philosophical, and scientific references with engaging anecdotes, giving readers much to ponder while weeding their gardens. --Shawn Carkonen

Book Description

Every schoolchild learns about the mutually beneficial dance of honeybees and flowers: The bee collects nectar and pollen to make honey and, in the process, spreads the flowers’ genes far and wide. In The Botany of Desire, Michael Pollan ingeniously demonstrates how people and domesticated plants have formed a similarly reciprocal relationship. He masterfully links four fundamental human desires—sweetness, beauty, intoxication, and control—with the plants that satisfy them: the apple, the tulip, marijuana, and the potato. In telling the stories of four familiar species, Pollan illustrates how the plants have evolved to satisfy humankind’s most basic yearnings. And just as we’ve benefited from these plants, we have also done well by them. So who is really domesticating whom?

Customer Reviews:

A Fascinating Read.......2007-10-07

The Botany of Desire by Michael Pollan challenges the notion that mankind can control the natural world, subjugating plants to the will of the gardener. Through a discussion of four plants closely associated with human cultivation: apple, tulip, marijuana, and potato, Pollan demonstrates that organisms which possess traits desirable to the gardener have been able manipulate humans to cultivate them. Each plant has a different strategy for assuring that humans will continue to include it in their gardens. The apple, for example, is an extremely diverse species whose seeds contain millions of possible variations of both the fruit produced and the tree itself. Whether one is looking to make hard cider or munch on a crisp green fruit, the apple tree has the genetic code to produce the fruit humans look for.
In The Botany of Desire, Pollan focuses on the four plants mentioned above, placing each plant in a category, and explains how plants within that category possess characteristics which make them desirable to humans. The apple and other fruits appeal to our sense of taste, and, if fermented, our desire for inebriation. The tulip appeals to mankind's sense of beauty; marijuana, our desire to achieve an altered state of mind; the potato our need for nourishment and desire to genetically engineer crops. In short, each of these plants is successful in an evolutionary sense because it causes us to cultivate it.
Although Pollan's book is an intriguing read, I found it unsettling that he often rattles off facts and figures without citing a direct source, such as the assertion on page 219: "a potato farmer in Idaho spends roughly $1,950 an acre (mainly on chemicals, electricity and water)." Pollan does include a few pages of sources in the back of his book, but he could make a stronger argument that would stand up to academic scrutiny with the addition of endnotes.
In addition to a vast amount of research and traveling prior to writing this book, Pollan makes The Botany of Desire a quality literary work by using recurring themes to tie the four parts of the book together. Through returning to his garden at many points over the course of the book, Pollan is able to tie all four of his subjects into a common space. Approaching the reader as a fellow gardener gives him or her a sense of connection to Pollan and his garden. By the end of the book, I felt as though I knew Michael Pollan and his garden intimately. Another example of this continuity is Dionysus, the Greek god of wine and revelry. Dionysus appears in both chapters one and three, were Pollan relates him to cider, Johnny Appleseed, and mind-altering substances.
Overall, Pollan's clear style and journalistic narrative flows easily and keeps the reader entertained throughout the book. He makes effective use of descriptive details and personal experiences to relate to the reader as he argues his theme of plants manipulating humans to include them in their gardens. The Botany of Desire is a must read for anyone interested in how plants we encounter on a daily basis cause us to cultivate them around the globe.

Too much information.......2007-09-16

Started out liking the chapter on Apples, less the next and so on. It seemed like I was getting the same story in each chapter only more elaborate and wordy.

Just buy this book........................2007-09-05

I am not a botanist.Yet. But the study of evolution is quite an exciting journey, made more exciting by the mind melting,eloquent ideas posed by Mr. Pollan. Bought the audio book version, and I can't stop listining to it. From the story of Johnyy Appleseed, to Holland in search of the history of Tulips, the Amazing Marijuana Plant, and the control of the Potato. Seemed random to me. Not any more. Incredible book.

We are the world.......2007-08-31

Pollan's book is a vivid reminder of how intricately human society is woven into the ecological framework of the planet and in particular that of plants. His descriptions of how our societies have affected and been affected by just four plants opens up a series of thought-provoking questions to mull over the next time you find yourself in a garden, at the dinner table, or taking a walk outdoors. It's written with sensitivity towards those he disagrees with, and this gentle touch makes the story he's relating much more effective at prompting you as reader to engage. The weakest part of the book is the chapter on Tulips, but that is hard to criticize since the chapters on apples, marijuana and potatoes are so good.

Read this Book!

human psychology in the garden.......2007-08-02

Human psychology from the plant's perspective? Yep. That's precisely the topic of this book. When our ancestors began breeding plants to serve our desires they inevitably laid those desires bare in the phenotypes in their gardens. Pollan is impressively aware of many current themes in evolutionary biology (e.g., the function of sexual reproduction), and admirably willing to tell a story with the patience and breadth it deserves (hence four 100-page chapters instead of the usual one hundred, A.D.D. 4-page chapters). This book is not for everyone, but if you have intellectual curiosity about why some plants have come to dominate our world, this book will give you many answers and even more tools. There's nothing better I can say about a book.

The Cheshire Cat's Eye: A Sharon McCone Mystery (Nightingale Large Print Series)

Average customer rating:

Death inside a "Painted Lady"
Enjoyed the Painted Ladies but not the plot
Another good outing for McCone
Not as good as other McCone mysteries
A thrilling quick read!

The Cheshire Cat's Eye: A Sharon McCone Mystery (Nightingale Large Print Series)
Marcia Muller
Manufacturer: G K Hall & Co
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Literature & Fiction | Large Print | Formats | Books
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ASIN: 081614396X

Customer Reviews:

Death inside a "Painted Lady".......2002-06-10

Private eye, Sharon McCone, receives a frantic phone call from a friend, Jake Kaufmann, who paints houses in the Painted Lady district of San Francisco. When she reaches the Victorian house where Jake asks her to meet him, she finds him dead. During her investigation she discovers that there are many special interest groups in the area who might have a motive for murder. There are purists who want the homes restored to their original look and there are those who want to fix them up to sell them by painting them the gaudy colors which became popular in the 60's. Sharon (and the reader) find out about the different kinds of Victorian houses which became popular in San Francisco and also some of the furnishings which go well in the houses. Against this background McCone finally figures out who in the community committed Jake's murders and some others. This is a good mystery from the reliable Marcia Muller.

Enjoyed the Painted Ladies but not the plot.......2000-11-14

Ah, the San Francisco of the postcard. Alamo Square with Victorian Row houses with downtown in the background. Muller's third Sharon McCone novel has a terrific sense of place and taught me many new things about the Victorian scene in San Francisco.

Still, the pacing seems a bit bogged down. The side characters, often a highlight in Muller's books, aren't very interesting or sympathetic. Who cares if one of them is killed -- just don't wreck the Tiffany Lamp.

A good read if you love the atmosphere of "romantic San Francisco" but otherwise so-so.

Another good outing for McCone.......2000-06-25

"The Cheshire Cat's Eye" is the third book in the Sharon McCone series by Marcia Muller. McCone finds her friend Jake Kaufmann dead in a San Francisco Victorian house that he is restoring by painting it with gaudy colors. The architectural communty is very opposed to these psychedelic houses. There are several suspects, and McCone is one of them. She must investigate, not only to clear her name, but find Jake's killer. Sharon McCone is by far my favorite female PI in detective fiction. Muller's characters are well-drawn, and her books are a pleasure to read. This novel is not as complex as some of her later works, but this is an excellent place to start. If you haven't yet met Sharon McCone, you will be in for a big treat.

Not as good as other McCone mysteries.......1999-08-19

I've read about 5 of Muller's books featuring Sharon McCone. This wasn't one of my favorites.

A thrilling quick read!.......1999-02-11

Yet another great job by Muller. This time, she takes us into the world of San Francisco's famous "painted ladies." Ever wonder what secrets those grand old houses kept? The lives, the loves (and of course, the deaths) of one family are told in fantastic detail and originality. As Sharon is closing in on the killer, she sets an simple yet effective trap, and the pages turn quickly! Even if you've never been to SF, Muller's writing style will still place you right at the scene of the crime!

From the Corner of His Eye (Random House Large Print (Hardcover))

Average customer rating:

Evil gets it in the end
I have to admit, one of my faves!
Lacked details
It happens
Deep Connection Sensed

From the Corner of His Eye (Random House Large Print (Hardcover))
Dean Koontz
Manufacturer: Random House Large Print
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Thrillers | Mystery & Thrillers | Subjects | Books

Psychological & Suspense | Thrillers | Mystery & Thrillers | Subjects | Books

Suspense | Thrillers | Mystery & Thrillers | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 0375430946
Release Date: 2000-12-26

Amazon.com

Horrormeister Koontz looks heavenward for inspiration in his newest suspense thriller, which is chock-full of signs, portents, angels, and one somewhat second-rate devil, a murky and undercharacterized guy named Junior Cain who throws his beloved wife off a fire tower on an Oregon mountain and spends the rest of the novel waiting for the retribution that will surely come. But not before a series of tragedies ensues that convince Junior that someone or something named Bartholomew is out to exact vengeance for that crime and the series of other murders that follow.

Bartholomew's own troubles begin with his birth, which transpires moments after his father is killed in a traffic accident as he is taking his wife to the hospital, and continue with the loss of his eyes at the tender age of 3. Young Bartholomew has visionary gifts, though to his mother, a nice lady who's renowned for her pie-making abilities as well as her sweetly innocent nature, he's just a particularly smart kid who can read and write before his second birthday. Eventually, Bartholomew regains his sight, Junior Cain gets his comeuppance, and fate conspires to bring love into the Pie Lady's life, reward the faithful, and put a happy ending on this genre-bending tale. Koontz will no doubt rocket right to the top of the bestseller list with this inventive, if somewhat slower-paced, read. --Jane Adams

Book Description

Bartholomew Lampion is born in Bright Beach, California, on a day of tragedy and terror, when the lives of everyone in his family are changed forever.  Remarkable events accompany his birth, and everyone agrees that his unusual eyes are the most beautiful they have ever seen.

On this same day, a thousand miles away, a ruthless man learns he has a mortal enemy named Bartholomew.  He doesn't know who Bartholomew is, but he embarks on a search that will become the purpose of his life.  If ever he finds the right Bartholomew, he will deal mercilessly with him.

And in San Francisco a girl is born, the result of a violent rape.  Her survival is miraculous, and her destiny is mysteriously linked to the fates of Barty and the man who stalks him.

At the age ot three, Barty Lampion is blinded when surgeons reluctantly remove his eyes to save him from a fast-spreading cancer.  As the growing boy copes with his blindness and proves to be a prodigy, his mother, an exceptional woman, counsels him that all things happen for a reason, that there is meaning even in his suffering, and that he will affect the lives of people yet unknown to him in ways startling and profound.

At thirteen, Bartholomew regains his sight.  How he regains it, why he regains it, and what happens as his amazing life unfolds results in a breathtaking journey of courage, heart-stopping suspense, and high adventure.  His mother once told him that every person's life has an effect on every other's, in often unknowable ways, and Barty's eventful life indeed entwines with others in ways that will astonish and move everyone who reads his story.

People magazine has said that Dean Koontz has the "power to scare the daylights out of us."  In this, perhaps the most thrilling, suspenseful, and emotionally powerful work of his critically acclaimed career, Koontz does that and far more.  He has created a compulsive page-turner that will have you at the edge of your seat, a narrative tour-de-force that will change the way you yourself look at the world.

Customer Reviews:

Evil gets it in the end.......2007-08-06

My daughter is a Dean Koontz fan so when I asked her for her recommendation as a first read she gave me From the Corner of His Eye, and One Door Away From Heaven. The first read was tempting enough to get me to read both. From these two reads I've identified the aspect of Koontz's writing that appeals to some and frustrates others. Dean likes to engage in multiple parallel story lines that have no discernable connection at first, although you quickly suspect what the connections might be. For a reader like me that may have up to half a dozen books on the go at any one time - fiction and non fiction - if one of those books embeds its own multiple stories, it complicates my life and I get slowed down catching up whenever I return to a Koontz book after it's been closed for any length of time because I've been reading other things. So I find Dean cramps my style by insisting on my undivided attention to his divided parallel story line approach. That's the reason for four stars instead of five from me.
Nonetheless, he provides a great read with quirky and engaging characters and a good deal of suspense. This gets tossed with some supernatural or other-worldly aspects for good measure, and even dollops of humor. The character come alive as you get to know them.
[Warning: Spoiler follows]
I must admit, Dean really tossed me a wallop on page 12 (or was it 14) - and if you've read the novel you know what happens. I wasn't prepared for the nonchalant shove by Cain of his "beloved" wife. Perhaps Cain's unlikely name (names seem to have deliberate meanings in Dean's books, from what I see) and the hint of something unsettling in the climb up the tower would have been sufficient omens for long term Koontz readers. I'd be interested to hear other comments. I suppose this is part of Dean's engaging style. As you get to know Cain you get the sense of someone that epitomizes what some call the banality of evil. Actually, it may be the single mindedness of evil - Cain's focussed obsession - that is both its greatest strength, and the seeds of its ultimate downfall as we are ultimately brought to an expected and satisfying conclusion.

All in all the elements of an enteraining read, and highly recommended.

I have to admit, one of my faves!.......2007-07-16

Now, I am the first to admit that Koontz is NOT the best writer. His style is one that can both frustrate and infuriate a reader. He has the tendency to go off on unnecessary tangents, explaining the way the light reflects off a penny in the main character's ashtray, but then a tragic event receives very little detail. Either this is his way of letting your mind imagine the gory details or he's too exhausted from describing the blade of the knife the killer is wielding, to describe the actual aftermath of the blade repeatedly stabbing someone.

For instance, in the beginning of the book, the hiking scene. I won't go into anymore detail, but if you've already read the book, then you know what I mean.

Why am I giving this book 5 stars? Because of the story it tells. The book takes you a rollercoaster through years and years of life, love and tragedy. As normal Koontz seems to run out of steam towards the end, but the wrap up is nicely done.

Koontz tends to be a somewhat "religious" writer; think TS Eliot. He deals with the supernatural a lot, and this book is no different. If you are a staunch atheist, this book may rub you the wrong way since the presence of the supernatural is quite prevalent in this novel. Even still, the story is an amazing one. In my opinion a very original one.

Definitely worth the read.

Lacked details.......2007-07-02

I have read the following novels by Dean Koontz: STRANGERS, MIDNIGHT, BAD PLACE, HIDEAWAY, DRAGON TEARS, ICEBOUND, STRANGE HIGHWAYS, INTENSITY, SOLE SURVIVOR, FEAR NOTHING, SEIZE THE NIGHT, FALSE MEMORY, and FROM THE CORNER OF HIS EYE. I have also read LIFE IS GOOD: LESSONS IN JOYFUL LIVING by his dog, Trixie. I enjoyed reading all of them but particularly enjoyed the Christopher Snow series. In fact, I promised myself NOT to read any Dean Koontz novels until after he completes the Christopher Snow series (FEAR NOTHING and SEIZE THE NIGHT). I am still waiting for the 3rd novel.

While searching for something to read while giving exams in my statistic course, I found a copy of FROM THE CORNER OF HIS EYE in my office closet. I know I never read it and I don't recall buying it. As his other novels, Koontz takes me away. I forget where I am and move with the characters in the story. Like his other books, his vivid details create pictures in my mind which makes reading the novel more like watching a film. However, the quality of getting lost in a novel ceases when there the storyline becomes disjointed. There is a disconnect toward the end. The lack of adequate details brought me back to reality. That was a disappointment.

This type of disconnect can not be found in any of Koontz novels I have read. All in all, it is a well written novel that can take a person away from reality - except toward the end.

It happens.......2007-06-19

OK, I understand that a lot of you guys liked the book and the thought of how it's possible escapes me, but you are entitled to your opinion and I do respect that a lot. But I am sadly one of the few that do not like it simply because it reminded me of every other book that he's written, with the same plotline, same people (just given different names) and same black and white perspective. OK, I'll stop ranting and explain myself in a clearer light.

The plotline is a three-year-old prodigy named Bartholomew (nicknamed Barty) is born at the night of his father's untimely death. Out there, several hundred miles away, a man named Cain realizes he has a mortal enemy named Bartholomew and goes to the ends of the world to find him and kill him. And somewhere else, a little girl named Angel is born from a teenage mother who dies shortly afterward, a teenage girl who was raped by the same man who hunts for Barty.

Now let me just pull that plot apart and narrow down my opinions.

The book is extremely long and not that I don't mind a 730+ page book, but it dragged way longer than it should, and I mean a lot longer that it should've been.

The bad guy, Cain, who was once a really sweet guy (god, how many times has that word been used in Koontz' novels?) suddenly has the urge to push his wife over the edge of oblivion and kill her. And out of nowhere, he immediately starts to turn into a killer, with no explanation. It just happens.

So, how does Cain find out he has a mortal enemy named Bartholomew? Well, according to Koontz, Cain had a freak attack when a detective who assumes Cain is up to no good, named Vanadium, tells Cain that he had been saying 'Bartholomew' in his sleep. So Cain immediately had a feeling that Bartholomew has to do with babies and that he must find this Bartholomew and kill him. Why? I can't seem to explain that either. It just happens.

And why are all of the good guys in the book so perfect without any flaws whatsoever and the bad guys are bad cause they're bad? It just happens.

Well, I assume the reason why Barty and Angel are so perfect is because they came from perfect parents. Is that even possible? Why haven't I met these people? Angel's mother is so ditzy perfect, Barty's mother is so ditzy perfect as is her entire family and...a three year old prodigy? Are you kidding me? And the way Angel and Barty meet is so painfuly bad that I had to constantly re-read that part over and over to see if maybe I've missed something there, or that the book I bought had a few pages missing. Nope, wasn't the case. It just happens.

Vanadium, is killed, but somehow--somehow--comes back alive. Sorry to say but it just happens.

OK, if you're not upset at this point and wondering if spending money on this book or even checking it out at your local library is worth the pain and torture, then check this out. 2/3 of the book is wasted on 'oh, Barty! He's so wonderfully amazing! He can read and write and do all sorts of things...at age 3! Wow!'. Angel is even more horrible than Barty, who is also a child prodigy because she bears the intelligence of adults and even talks like one. Oh, and did I mention Barty's blind? A blind prodigy with superpowrers. And being blind isn't even a flaw, as you've seemed to notice. I mean, these good guys were simply so perfect, so happy, so utterly stupid that I wished some inhuman force would just kill them and begone with it. Nope, it didn't happen. Barty and Angel beat Cain by sending him to this other place that Barty and Angel can somehow enter. This 'other place' is never mentioned fully so it's immediately uninteresting to begin with, and they get married, have kids, and sooner or later, Barty regains his eyesight. Like a true Koontz book. It just happens.

For the heck of it, I forced myself to read the 32 reviews inserted in my paperback copy. I've noticed that most of these reviewers cannot be skeptics, simply because Global News Wire said, 'This book isn't for skeptics. You have to believe in miracles.' Are you implying that skeptics don't believe in miracles? Are you implying that the only people who read this guy's stuff are not skeptics? I am a skeptic and I do believe in miracles, but this book left me stranded in so many potholes that the only obvious answer in it screamed 'it just happens' and that's what miracles are, right? Things suddenly 'just happening'. No, I want an explained miracle of why this happened, not a bunch of ritzy, ditzy crap. Even miracles are explained. This one just didn't even show.

What made me laugh the hardest is that the reviews always stated that this book shows how people are really like. Have you looked into the mirror recently and said that with a straight face? Maybe the people in the book are just people you wish you were, or people you'd wish came upon in your lifetime. Koontz, do you honestly believe this is how people act? Mary sues and Sarah Lous populate this book by the thousands that it makes me laugh for the sheer stupidity of it, and makes me cry knowing that somewhere, a left-out writer holding the book that explains how savage people are is being left out and made fun of. But what can I say? It just happens.

I will wait for that day when he comes out with another stereotypical good guy character who has all of these good things and a stereotypical bad guy character who dresses all black and associates with the devil. Man, that would be such a classic, I can feel it now.

So what is it that makes Koontz so popular if he's such a sell-out? What makes people go back to the same stuff over and over? Who likes reading about characters with no flaws whatsoever and the bad guy is bad simply cause he's bad? Why doesn't this depress anyone who reads this and goes 'god, why am I not like that'? I can't seem to explain that, folks. It just...happens.

Deep Connection Sensed.......2007-05-05

Maybe it's because I'm physically disabled, but I really connected with the story here. My mother in particular used to tell me that I could do anything the other kids could do. I just might have to find a different way. Barty definitely found a "different way" to live his life.

Koontz, being of sound body and (questionably) sound mind, does a brilliant and accurate job of depicting the life of a disabled person. A person so tragically rendered into this world, facing the horrific set of circumstances with courage he doesn't even realize he possesses.

After the disappointing book that was FALSE MEMORY (it was disappointing to me, despite critical acclaim) I felt that this book was a refreshing "come back" of sorts for Koontz.

I would highly recommend that anyone read this book!

A Dark-Adapted Eye (G K Hall Large Print Book Series)

Average customer rating:

Mystery it is not
"In these circumstances alone, one can know when someone is going to die...the hour, the minute, with no room for hope."
Try as I might, I just couldn't do it.
Elegant and sophisticated psychological mystery
Vine's first of many tour-de-forces

A Dark-Adapted Eye (G K Hall Large Print Book Series)
Barbara Vine
Manufacturer: G K Hall & Co
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Literature & Fiction | Large Print | Formats | Books
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ASIN: 0816143498

Amazon.com

Writing under the pseudonym Barbara Vine, Ruth Rendell departs from her famous detective team of Wexford and Burden to tell a gripping tale of family madness. Vera Hillyard is a domineering and possessive woman who strives for obsessive control over a malicious older son, a youngest son who is--or isn't--illegitimate, and a daughter who is a devoted sister to her younger brother. The daughter secretly seeks to escape Vera's grasp and instead provokes a murder. This winner of the 1986 Edgar Award for best mystery novel belongs to the genre of old murders reconsidered and the question of who did what to whom and why is teasingly left unresolved.

Customer Reviews:

Mystery it is not.......2007-06-28

I expected a good mystery novel, since it got Edgar award, but I did not get it, that is why it gets only 2 stars, otherwise it is reasonably good book. I especially like the inside into the life in England before, during and shortly after the war

"In these circumstances alone, one can know when someone is going to die...the hour, the minute, with no room for hope.".......2007-04-28

From the outset of this powerful psychological novel, the reader knows that someone is going to be executed--in this case, Vera Longley Hillyard, the aunt of speaker Faith Longley Severn. Vera has been found guilty of murder, but this novel, unlike traditional mysteries, does not reveal who the victim is or why the murder has occurred until the end of the novel. Nearly a third of a century has elapsed since Vera's hanging, and it is only at this point, when an investigative reporter approaches members of Vera's family for information for a book, that Faith and the others in her family reveal the small bits of information they have separately kept to themselves for dozens of years.

Set in the middle of the twentieth century, the novel focuses on the lives of the seemingly close Longley family. Faith's father and Vera were twins, and Vera took care of their much younger sister Eden when Eden was a teenager. Though Vera eventually married a soldier and followed him to India, she and her son returned to Laurel Cottage, the family home, to care for her father. There she had a "miracle baby," who could not have been her husband's. Eden, by then, was a young adult, a volunteer Wren during the war and no longer at home, but with Eden's marriage and return to the area of Great Sindon, she and Vera were drawn together once again.

Unexpected conflicts, tensions, jealousies, and resentments evolve through the story Faith tells about the family and through the family's letters, documents, and memories. Barbara Vine, a pen name for Ruth Rendell, is perceptive and realistic in recreating family tensions while keeping key information secret until the end. The mystery is particularly enhanced by the Faith's openness, a sharp contrast to the privacy of Vera. As the action moves back and forth from the present into the past and then into the earlier past, the reader fills in the gaps about life in this family, and as each character, more than thirty years later, now feels free to share hitherto private information, the horror, along with the reader's insights into the characters, grows inexorably.

In the end, the complete interactions of the family have been revealed, pieces of the mystery have been resolved, and Vera's life and the reasons for her crime and execution become clear. Vine's ability to manipulate the reader's own perceptions while creating psychologically believable characters, make this a powerful novel, full of suspense. n Mary Whipple

Try as I might, I just couldn't do it........2006-10-17

Barbara Vine, A Dark-Adapted Eye (Plume, 1986)

Ruth Rendell has always been one of those authors I could take or leave; I pick up one of her novels now and again and read it, find it relatively interesting, and tell myself I'll start pursuing her novels with a bit more fervor in the future. I never do. (This is no fault of Ruth Rendell's. I do it with many authors, because I'm horribly scatterbrained. Half the reason I started writing reviews was so I could remember if I'd read any given book five years afterwards.) I had never tried the Barbara Vine books, however. I decided to rectify that with A Dark-Adapted Eye, which I hear mentioned favorably on a relatively frequent basis. And, well, now I've tried it. And the phrase that kept coming to mind was "textbook dull." Not as in Rendell read a textbook on how to write a dull novel, but as in Rendell actually attempted to write a textbook, and the result was A Dark-Adapted Eye.

I'm all for language as thick as clotted cream sometimes. There are books I've read, and loved, that have required me to have a dictionary sitting next to me so I can look up words that have never crossed my eyes before. (This happens more often than not in translations. Give Toril Moi's translation of Julia Kristeva's phenomenal Powers of Horror a try sometime.) Make me work as hard as I need to for it, but reward me now and again. Wendy Walker sprinkles a new delight every few pages in her work. Gunter Grass makes me laugh myself sick, when he's on his game. With Cormac McCarthy, the difficulty of the language is part of the appeal; he can weave the words in such a way as to hide the things in a scene he doesn't want you to see until he's good and ready simply by painting the scene in the type of language one would expect from a doctoral thesis. Rendell-as-Vine, on the other hand, has produced a thick, ungainly mass of text that never gets beyond the level of simple exposition. Well, actually, I'm sure it must at some point, or no one would have ever finished this book. But I got to the point of frustration long before I actually defenestrated the blessed thing. I kept going, hoping something would actually happen before I got somewhere that actually had an openable window, but such was not the case. And so out it went. From now on, I'll stick with Rendell's own ego. (zero)

Elegant and sophisticated psychological mystery.......2006-06-28

"A Dark-Adapted Eye" was the first of Ruth Rendell's psychological mysteries published under the name "Barbara Vine," and it remains one of her best. Offering brilliantly-realized character studies and a finely-drawn portrait of British social mores and class insecurities in the 1940's, this novel fascinates from the very first page.

Now in her 50's, and spurred on by the inquiries of a true-crime writer, Faith Severn recalls the scandal and tragedy surrounding the deaths of her two paternal aunts: Vera Hillyard, twin sister of Faith's father, John, and Edith (Eden) Pearmain, the twins' beautiful and much younger sister, whom Vera raised. Barely middle-class but "snobbish to the end," as Faith puts it, the sisters' determination to present the best face to a morally-judgmental world causes them to resort to a great deception when wartime freedoms result in disaster. Later, when the shallow and opportunistic Eden marries into the upper class, that deception comes back to haunt not only the two women, but also everyone else associated with them.

Rendell's sensitive prose and talent for limning character have never been on better display than in this book. Readers who prefer plot-driven novels to subtle, psychological exploration may find "A Dark-Adapted Eye" boring or exasperating. However, the slow, meticulous explication of plot via character is what renders this novel so effective. Vera Hillyard -- an entirely unsympathetic, ridiculous, but somehow fascinating figure -- drives the story, while Faith's thoughtful attempts, first as a bewildered child, then a developing adolescent growing towards intelligence, and then as an experienced woman, to navigate and analyze the secrets and lies of her family and the era in which she grew up are compelling. The nature of the "mystery" will be guessed by many readers long before Rendell reveals it, but pages will continue to turn because the reader has been drawn into a world and a family that exert a magnetic hold on the imagination.

"A Dark-Adapted Eye" became an unfortunate television production in which the original story was badly-mangled and distorted. Read the novel; don't bother with the film.

Vine's first of many tour-de-forces.......2006-04-08

This is one a kind books that haunted my mind long after my first reading back in the late 80s. It is also one of the very few books that I have actually reread years later and found it even more interesting the second time around. Plenty of other first rate authors out there--Lee Child, PD James, Reginald Hill, John MacDonald, Donna Leon, Robert Parker, Dick Francis, etc--but only very few whose works have worn well through time. Much less required a second reading.
No need to rehash the plot for Ms. Vine's opus as plenty of others have already done so, however I need to give a nod to her marvellous ability to make these somewhat unsympathetic characters both interesting and fascinating. These characters could be anyone we encounter, so realistically are they portrayed. The nerrative itself should in theory have lost any suspense from the start, since we know from the beginning a great portion of the outcome, and yet by sheer imagination and talent Ms. Vine shrewdly pulls the reader ever tightly into her grasp so that we are actually racing through the end as all the "whys" are answered like rabbits being pulled out of a hat. Even more challenging is her ability of going back and forth from past events to present nerrative; instead of being disruptive Ms. Vine somehow ties these two strands together without ever losing a beat to increase the reader's interest.
It is not necessarily an easy book to start--a great number of characters are introduced in the first few chapters--nor is it a fast paced one; however, once we catch the rhythm of Ms. Vine's nerrative, we are drawn into a world where family love literally kills and destroys, and nothing will matter until we reach the end of our reading journey. Don't expect anything fast paced in the Harlan Coben fashion (not a slight to Mr. Coben). But do read it and savor every moment.

The Bluest Eye (G K Hall Large Print Book Series (Cloth))

Average customer rating:

True Blue
Sad, Disturbing and Unforgettable
This book broke my heart
An Inspiring and moving story
I would give it a million stars if I could

The Bluest Eye (G K Hall Large Print Book Series (Cloth))
Toni Morrison
Manufacturer: G. K. Hall & Company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 0783888155

Amazon.com

Oprah Book Club® Selection, April 2000: Originally published in 1970, The Bluest Eye is Toni Morrison's first novel. In an afterword written more than two decades later, the author expressed her dissatisfaction with the book's language and structure: "It required a sophistication unavailable to me." Perhaps we can chalk up this verdict to modesty, or to the Nobel laureate's impossibly high standards of quality control. In any case, her debut is nothing if not sophisticated, in terms of both narrative ingenuity and rhetorical sweep. It also shows the young author drawing a bead on the subjects that would dominate much of her career: racial hatred, historical memory, and the dazzling or degrading power of language itself.

Set in Lorain, Ohio, in 1941, The Bluest Eye is something of an ensemble piece. The point of view is passed like a baton from one character to the next, with Morrison's own voice functioning as a kind of gold standard throughout. The focus, though, is on an 11-year-old black girl named Pecola Breedlove, whose entire family has been given a cosmetic cross to bear:

You looked at them and wondered why they were so ugly; you looked closely and could not find the source. Then you realized that it came from conviction, their conviction. It was as though some mysterious all-knowing master had given each one a cloak of ugliness to wear, and they had each accepted it without question.... And they took the ugliness in their hands, threw it as a mantle over them, and went about the world with it.

There are far uglier things in the world than, well, ugliness, and poor Pecola is subjected to most of them. She's spat upon, ridiculed, and ultimately raped and impregnated by her own father. No wonder she yearns to be the very opposite of what she is--yearns, in other words, to be a white child, possessed of the blondest hair and the bluest eye.

This vein of self-hatred is exactly what keeps Morrison's novel from devolving into a cut-and-dried scenario of victimization. She may in fact pin too much of the blame on the beauty myth: "Along with the idea of romantic love, she was introduced to another--physical beauty. Probably the most destructive ideas in the history of human thought. Both originated in envy, thrived in insecurity, and ended in disillusion." Yet the destructive power of these ideas is essentially colorblind, which gives The Bluest Eye the sort of universal reach that Morrison's imitators can only dream of. And that, combined with the novel's modulated pathos and musical, fine-grained language, makes for not merely a sophisticated debut but a permanent one. --James Marcus

Book Description

The Bluest Eye, published in 1970, is the first novel written by Toni Morrison, winner of the 1993 Nobel Prize in Literature.

It is the story of eleven-year-old Pecola Breedlove--a black girl in an America whose love for its blond, blue-eyed children can devastate all others--who prays for her eyes to turn blue: so that she will be beautiful, so that people will look at her, so that her world will be different. This is the story of the nightmare at the heart of her yearning and the tragedy of its fulfillment.

Download Description

The Bluest Eye is the story of eleven-year-old Pecola Breedlove - a black girl in an America whose love for its blond, blue-eyed children can devastate all others - who prays for her eyes to turn blue: so that she will be beautiful, so that people will look at her, so that her world will be different.

Customer Reviews:

True Blue.......2007-10-08

I found this novel very difficult to comprehend at first. What helped me was to read the author's "Afterword," and then go back and read the novel again. Parts of the book were so dead-on that it was frightening, but other parts I could not connect with. After Morrison revealed in her "Afterword" why she wrote as she did, the story became clearer and more compelling.
It is a little bit like a puzzle; Mama's ranting on about the three quarts of milk, the description of Geraldine, the affection Mrs. Breedlove sheds on the pink and yellow girl, and her soliloquy of how she and Cholly got together and why they stayed together. You sometimes forget that book is about Pecola, but then, when all the little pieces fit together, you are left with a complete picture. Or maybe it is like Cholly's life, "coherent only in the head of a musician." (p. 159) The Bluest Eye is like a musical composition; each instrument playing their own unique part, but combined, they create a symphony. Definitely worth a repeat read. Recommended for a mature audience.

Sad, Disturbing and Unforgettable.......2007-09-11

I read this book in honor of September's Banned Books discussion that my book club is having. This book has been banned in several places because of its contents, for various reasons. I had thought I read this book way back when in high school ~~ but whatever I read then didn't compare to this book. This book is totally unforgettable and tragic.

This is not just one story. This is a collection of stories of different people in different times of their lives and their stories lead up to the tragedy of poor little Pecola Breedlove, an ugly girl (I suspect that is a metaphor that Morrison is trying to say about the ugliness of poverty and racial tensions) who is not loved. The stories are of her father as a youngster; of her mother who was a totally different person who married for love only to be brow-beaten by poverty; of people around Pecola, and about two sisters who tried to befriend her but got swept away by circumstances created by the adults in their lives. This is a novel that depicts humanity at its worst. This is of a time before civil rights were fought for ~~ perhaps dreamed of but it hasn't been swept to the point where people are actually standing up and taking note of it. This is a story about poverty and how it dehumanizes the characters. This is a story about neglect. Pecola is set in the center of the storm that she has not created herself but is too young to resist and too ignorant to ignore.

This is an eye-opener of a novel because even during my "poorest" days as a student, I never had to worry about finding enough to eat. Pecola is not a sheltered nor were any of the characters coddled (except for Mrs. Breedlove's charge in that fancy house that she's the cook at). Yes, there are crude moments in the book but for some reason, it just emphasized the poverty of the people's lives. Yes, there is rape. That is the tragedy. But it was not explicit like a lot of the soft-porn novels floating around out there. It is a very sad and tragic book ~~ a disturbing look into reality portrayed in a time that I don't know of.

Would I recommend this book to anyone? Yes. Would I "love" this book? No. There is nothing lovable about this book ~~ there's no happy endings. It really should not be portrayed as a novel because most fiction ends with a happy ending ~~ not this one. And this book would definitely provoke thoughtful conversations among friends.

9-11-07

This book broke my heart.......2007-09-09

I read this book for an English class (back in '95) called, "Class & Money in American Literature." Few books have stuck with me like this book has. Caution: if you are depressed, don't read this book. This book shows how people take things out on each other and how destructive this dumping on each other is. I just wanted to comfort Pecola the whole time I was reading the book by reassuring her that she was fine the way she was while exhorting her to no longer internalize her naysayers. Her false conclusion that she wasn't worth much broke my heart. Pecola is scapegoated and victimized by every significant person in her life. In fact, this book reads as a case study of scapegoating/victimization taken to the limit.

This book also reminds us that the media's tendency to push images of idealized (and unattainable) beauty on the public can negatively affect people's self-image, particularly if the way many people look isn't represented positively, if at all. The Bluest Eye is an eye opener about how children internalize messages from the prevailing culture, a phenomenon painfully illustrated by Pecola's desire for blue eyes and how she thinks that eye color will make her happy.

Forgive me for self-indulging in TMI...I gave this book to my brother for Xmas about three years ago. It was a rather pointed gift, as the themes of dumping, projection, and targeting are rampant in the book. Though we're thankfully on better terms (his new wife has managed to "stepfordize" him in a most benefitial way--my sister, who has also experienced plenty of our brother's dark side, is amazed at the transformation), I continue to send him books (in the guise of birthday and Christmas presents) and email articles about inter-sibling conflict, personal growth, bullying, and gingerism. I guess this superimposed "bibliotherapy" may be working, as he's treating me better, and we even on very rare occasion tell each other that we love each other.

An Inspiring and moving story.......2007-08-29

The Bluest Eye is truly an inspiring and a moving story. Through a child eyes, Ms. Morrison takes us on a journey to the most innocent and perverse thoughts every human being has, including violence and despair. This book will make you think and feel. I applaud the author for writing about our misinformed society. This book is a must read for every person that has an interest in our social conditions.

I would give it a million stars if I could.......2007-06-12

Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye, I can safely say, is my favorite novel of all time. It's depressing, complex, and downright tragic as an innocent little girl is destroyed by a vicious society set on convincing her that she is both ugly and worthless. Through a brutal rape by her own father, Pecola's life is ruined as her childhood is permanently destroyed and the one pathetic hope that keeps her alive is her strong desire for blue eyes.

Morrison refuses to depict this story in chronological order, as the narrator explains that it is not the "why" that we are able to answer but rather the "how." With that in mind, Morrison quickly summarizes the story and then dives in to the analysis of how this little girl's tragedy was made possible. We, as readers, are then opened up to a broader explanation of not merely this girl's tragedy on an isolated, individual level. Rather, she is the physical manifestation of the psychological problems faced by African-Americans living in a hostile society that told them they were inferior. Pecola's problems are slightly mirrored from those considered at the high ranks of black society (Geraldine), all the way to black society's most tragic victims (the Breedloves). Morrison refuses to allow the reader to simply pity Pecola's mindset. Instead, she forces us, no matter the background or race, to feel guilty. We, a society that has not yet completely embraced people from all portions of our community, are completely responsible for her downfall. Because, Morrison argues, in a world that continually controls us into believing that all minorities are inferior, we have left her to suffer.

But Toni Morrison doesn't stop there, a point that would already label The Bluest Eye as an amazing novel. Morrison expands the picture from psychological racism into a rarely considered topic of psychological sexism. All of the main female characters in this story are in some shape or form sexually assaulted by the dominant male figures. Morrison brilliantly expands the picture to fearlessly explore sexism and how it has damaged the psyche of our nation's society.

I won't lie, I was initially disgusted by several of the scenes in this novel, the main one being a brutal rape described in great detail. But I realized that this book was meant to horrify me and open my eyes to what Morrison was exposing. The book is incredibly complex, so it deserves your utmost attention. I can not overrate this book; you must read it.

In a Pig's Eye: A Jimmy Flannery Mystery

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In a Pig's Eye: A Jimmy Flannery Mystery
R. Wright Campbell
Manufacturer: Thorndike Press
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ASIN: 1560543507

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Private Eyes
Jasmine Cresswell
Manufacturer: Thorndike Press
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Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0786263474

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A USA Today Bestselling Author

A covert network of secret agents is Colorado's most lethal weapon - and its only hope. Bound by love, loyalty and the law, they are trained to handle the most clandestine and dangerous cases, uncovering secrets that span generations . . . and that someone will kill to keep. In Private Eyes, a former trophy wife must prove her brother's innocence in a kidnapping. She finds herself face-to-face with an old flame harboring a mysterious agenda - will he be her downfall or her destiny?

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