Average customer rating:
- This one is a winner!
- A must-read
- Fresh Take on an Old Legend
- Why the hype?
- endless description, little to no plot
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The Historian
Elizabeth Kostova
Manufacturer: Little, Brown and Company
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Binding: Hardcover
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Rayovac Reading Light: Pillow Light (Colors May Vary)
ASIN: 0316011770
Release Date: 2005-06-14 |
Amazon.com
If your pulse flutters at the thought of castle ruins and descents into crypts by moonlight, you will savor every creepy page of Elizabeth Kostova's long but beautifully structured thriller The Historian. The story opens in Amsterdam in 1972, when a teenage girl discovers a medieval book and a cache of yellowed letters in her diplomat father's library. The pages of the book are empty except for a woodcut of a dragon. The letters are addressed to: "My dear and unfortunate successor." When the girl confronts her father, he reluctantly confesses an unsettling story: his involvement, twenty years earlier, in a search for his graduate school mentor, who disappeared from his office only moments after confiding to Paul his certainty that Dracula--Vlad the Impaler, an inventively cruel ruler of Wallachia in the mid-15th century--was still alive. The story turns out to concern our narrator directly because Paul's collaborator in the search was a fellow student named Helen Rossi (the unacknowledged daughter of his mentor) and our narrator's long-dead mother, about whom she knows almost nothing. And then her father, leaving just a note, disappears also.
As well as numerous settings, both in and out of the East Bloc, Kostova has three basic story lines to keep straight--one from 1930, when Professor Bartolomew Rossi begins his dangerous research into Dracula, one from 1950, when Professor Rossi's student Paul takes up the scent, and the main narrative from 1972. The criss-crossing story lines mirror the political advances, retreats, triumphs, and losses that shaped Dracula's beleaguered homeland--sometimes with the Byzantines on top, sometimes the Ottomans, sometimes the rag-tag local tribes, or the Orthodox church, and sometimes a fresh conqueror like the Soviet Union.
Although the book is appropriately suspenseful and a delight to read--even the minor characters are distinctive and vividly seen--its most powerful moments are those that describe real horrors. Our narrator recalls that after reading descriptions of Vlad burning young boys or impaling "a large family," she tried to forget the words: "For all his attention to my historical education, my father had neglected to tell me this: history's terrible moments were real. I understand now, decades later, that he could never have told me. Only history itself can convince you of such a truth." The reader, although given a satisfying ending, gets a strong enough dose of European history to temper the usual comforts of the closing words. --Regina Marler
Book Description
If your pulse flutters at the thought of castle ruins and descents into crypts by moonlight, you will savor every creepy page of Elizabeth Kostova's long but beautifully structured thriller The Historian.The story opens in Amsterdam in 1972, when a teenage girl discovers a medieval book and a cache of yellowed letters in her diplomat father's library. The pages of the book are empty except for a woodcut of a dragon. The letters are addressed to: "My dear and unfortunate successor." When the girl confronts her father, he reluctantly confesses an unsettling story: his involvement, twenty years earlier, in a search for his graduate school mentor, who disappeared from his office only moments after confiding to Paul his certainty that Dracula--Vlad the Impaler, an inventively cruel ruler of Wallachia in the mid-15th century--was still alive. The story turns out to concern our narrator directly because Paul's collaborator in the search was a fellow student named Helen Rossi (the unacknowledged daughter of his mentor) and our narrator's long-dead mother, about whom she knows almost nothing. And then her father, leaving just a note, disappears also.As well as numerous settings, both in and out of the East Bloc, Kostova has three basic story lines to keep straight--one from 1930, when Professor Bartolomew Rossi begins his dangerous research into Dracula, one from 1950, when Professor Rossi's student Paul takes up the scent, and the main narrative from 1972. The criss-crossing story lines mirror the political advances, retreats, triumphs, and losses that shaped Dracula's beleaguered homeland--sometimes with the Byzantines on top, sometimes the Ottomans, sometimes the rag-tag local tribes, or the Orthodox church, and sometimes a fresh conqueror like the Soviet Union.Although the book is appropriately suspenseful and a delight to read--even the minor characters are distinctive and vividly seen--its most powerful moments are those that describe real horrors. Our narrator recalls that after reading descriptions of Vlad burning young boys or impaling "a large family," she tried to forget the words: "For all his attention to my historical education, my father had neglected to tell me this: history's terrible moments were real. I understand now, decades later, that he could never have told me. Only history itself can convince you of such a truth." The reader, although given a satisfying ending, gets a strong enough dose of European history to temper the usual comforts of the closing words. --Regina Marler
Customer Reviews:
This one is a winner!.......2007-10-22
I absolutely loved this book. It has so many wonderful historical reference intermingeled with fiction. I can't read to read this one again!
A must-read.......2007-10-16
I am not a reviewer by profession, but I wanted to let all you readers know that this work is a page-turner! I was deeply engrossed into the reading of this novel for all of its 642 pages. Its elegant mix of historical detail, fascinating legend, and insightful character analysis blends modern Europe with Old World traditions and customs that make this work one of the most satisfying 'vampire tales' I have read in a long, long time. Highly recommended for the discerning reader.
Fresh Take on an Old Legend.......2007-10-10
I have to come out and honestly say how much I enjoyed this novel. Which is not to say I consider it flawless, but that doesn't mean it wasn't worth reading. Seems to have engendered some pretty polarized views, from what I read of the many, many reviews, some of which left me wondering if there is a portion of the reading public that reads as a subliminal means of getting really p.o.'d! But actually, I should be very grateful that literature and reading still evoke strong emotions,otherwise it would not be art worth having.
Personally, as someone who is better read than travelled, I very much enjoyed the "travelogue" part of the novel, especially since it dealt with a part of Europe I am little versed in. I thought all that was quite seamlessly woven into the larger tale. Also thought the use of the letter form (a dying art in itself!) served well to take a certain perspective, at once distant and intimate, to convey the pathos and heart of the story. Now then, yes, the multiple perspectives and the long reach of the details to be kept track of should surely have been edited some. The excellent novel _Mortal Love_ by Elizabeth Hand does a much better job of this.
I didn't chafe against the pace of this novel either, I approached it like a long train ride I could muse through, not bored a bit, but maybe this type of book just doesn't jive with the 21st century jeezles we all live with! Certainly felt the Dracula character to have been the most interesting I have ever encountered, because he felt so medieval, and so eastern European, not the suave and sinister Count we find in Stoker, but very a much a creature of his own time. Yes, I would've loved more insight into his motivations, his plans for his future, and how that may involve the rest of the unwitting world. Certainly by the end, there is a very unsettling sense that someone is not through plaguing the third generation of people to have suffered great loss from the machinations of this deadly Impaler Prince.
Lastly, I am beginning to feel some books and authors suffer from the publishing hype they receive, and are billed to the public as something they are not. I am glad I read the book after all that died down and I could just experience it for what I thought it was.
Why the hype?.......2007-10-10
This was an ambitious book that seemed at first to justify the breathless reviews. A third of the way through, I realized that it would a chore to finish. And it was. It devolved into another drawn out vampire story with all the improbable history and invevitable final show-down. I was looking for another book equal to the one I'd recently finished -- "The Shadow of the Wind." This wasn't it.
endless description, little to no plot.......2007-10-05
I borrowed this book, and I'm glad for that. Had I bought it I would have been quite upset. Essentially I had to put it down as its dragging inability to keep a plot going amidst the flowery descriptions of ruins and quaint European towns beat any ability to keep the story going into the ground. Once you think the story picks itself up, it's immediately lost again in the narrator's flighty attempt to recall back story, which itself gets lost among letters and other third party recounting that, naturally, gets pushed further and further off in favor of physical description. I couldn't make it to the halfway point in this book for that reason alone. If one is looking for a romantic travelogue, this just might be your book. If it's plot and storytelling you're looking for go elsewhere.
Book Description
Uncertain where to start, how to coordinate endless double feedings, or how to control the whirlwind? Don't worry -- Elizabeth Lyons and her "multiples" sorority will get you through. For real-world strategies on coordinating endless double feedings, getting the babies on a schedule (preferably the same one), and appearing to have it (and them) under control while out and about, Ready or Not...Here We Come! is the hilarious, tell-it-like-it-is resource no parent of twins should be without.
In her first humor-packed guide to raising twins, Elizabeth Lyons highlights the experiences and strategies of a group of friends who met in a multiples birthing class, and survived their pregnancies and first year with twins together.
Lyons provides the all-important feeling of camaraderie that will keep expectant and new parents of twins smiling and optimistic, and remind them through it all how blessed they are (even when they feel as though they haven't slept in weeks). Ready or Not...Here We Come! combines strategies that Lyons has gleaned from friends, doctors, nurses, and even perfect strangers to form one concise guide that will undeniably prepare those expecting twins as well as new parents of twins to complete that all-important first year.
Topics include:
- Preparing the Lair: Mandatory Gear for Babies and Mom
- Getting Organized: The Key to Success
- Getting Those Babies on a Schedule -- Preferably the Same One!
- Out and About with Twins: Methods of Appearing As Though You've Got It (and Them) Under Control.
"Ready or Not...Here We Come! is the advice you need in the short, funny format your sleep-deprived mind can absorb. Elizabeth Lyons tells it like it is in a laugh-out-loud look at the uncertainty, craziness, and absolute of your first year with twins. An absolute must-have for every mother who wished there were two of her to keep up with the two of them." - Lisa Earle McLeod, author of Forget Perfect
"Elizabeth Lyons' humorous yet realistic perspective provides new parents of twins with a great starting point from which to embark on that all-important first year." - Dr. Bob Covert, Leading Chicagoland Neonatologist
"Elizabeth Lyons tells it like it really is. From helping you survive back-to-back feedings, living with the stereophonic crying, and coping with a double round of diaper rash, she tells you what to do, what to buy, and what to ignore. My twins are now teenagers, and as a woman who felt like she was the only one coping with double Mommying, I would have sold my soul for practical, supportive advice like this. There is a light at the end of the twins tunnel, and Ready or Not will help you find it. Where was Elizabeth Lyons when my twins were little?" - Kristy Lucariello, President of Performance in Practice and mother of teenage twins
"Finally…a humor-filled, solution-packed, tell-it-like-it-is guide to the first year with twins!" - Betty Jean Young, BSN
Look for Elizabeth's second book, Ready or Not...There We Go! this summer.
Customer Reviews:
Good Plane read.......2007-05-29
I think this book is great; I enjoyed all of the anecdotes about the multiple society. Very good read although not very technically informative.
A cute, informative resource .......2007-04-11
I've read several books on life with twins, and they've all been at least a little helpful and funny. But this is the first I've read where the author already had a toddler before the twins came, and so it was nice to get her perspective and understand what that reality will be like for me. I like that the author really did have some good ideas and based on diverse experiences (she did breastfeed, and then switched to formula, so she understands pros/cons and strategies of both), and she has her circle of moms-of-multiples friends whose experience she draws on and shares as well.
One thing I noticed missing from the book was reference to or strategies for handling life with babies while they're stuck for a time in the NICU. I was looking forward to understanding how we might manage NICU visits with a preschooler at home.
I realize that there is no magic answer on how to deal with life with twins, but in my opinion, this book does indeed do a good job. If you're looking for another similar book to read, I'd also recommend Twinspiration by Cheryl Lage, especially if these are your first babies and you don't have other children at home. Also, for general multiples-pregnancy info, I highly suggest buying When You're Expecting Twins, Triplets, or Quads by Barbara Luke.
Loved it!.......2007-03-21
This is a good book that I would recommend to anyone who is expecting twins or more. The author definately has a since of humor. This book gives you some good advise. It is also light hearted and fun to read at the same time. There were definately some laugh out loud moments while reading this book.
Marriage venting not advice.......2007-02-04
The author seems to spend the more time complaining about what her husband doesn't do then giving real advice. I was very disappointed it the book.
more for entertainment than for advice.......2006-12-15
As others have said, I read this while I was pregnant and it didn't mean much to me -- then after the babies were born, I found myself scouring it for anything that would help me cope. I found that it contained mostly comic relief, rather than practical advice, but that's useful too. One of my few memories from the foggy "fourth trimester" is of reading parts of the book out loud to my parents, laughing at how completely she hit the nail on the head. I agree that she gives breastfeeding very short shrift, so if you are already BF or determined to do so, don't follow her advice -- get a good book like "Mothering Multiples" and a good lactation consultant. Contrary to a previous reviewer's claim, she does, however, tell you how to go to the supermarket, though I still recommend waiting till DH gets home and then going by yourself (or napping on the couch while he goes!).
Book Description
The first Navajo woman surgeon combines western medicine and traditional healing.
A spellbinding journey between two worlds, this remarkable book describes surgeon Lori Arviso Alvord's struggles to bring modern medicine to the Navajo reservation in Gallup, New Mexico--and to bring the values of her people to a medical care system in danger of losing its heart.
Dr. Alvord left a dusty reservation in New Mexico for Stanford University Medical School, becoming the first Navajo woman surgeon. Rising above the odds presented by her own culture and the male-dominated world of surgeons, she returned to the reservation to find a new challenge. In dramatic encounters, Dr. Alvord witnessed the power of belief to influence health, for good or for ill. She came to merge the latest breakthroughs of medical science with the ancient tribal paths to recovery and wellness, following the Navajo philosophy of a balanced and harmonious life, called Walking in Beauty. And now, in bringing these principles to the world of medicine,
The Scalpel and the Silver Bear joins those few rare works, such as
Healing and the Mind, whose ideas have changed medical practices-and our understanding of the world.
Customer Reviews:
A thoughtful exploration of Indian culture and medicine.......2007-07-26
Daughter of a full-blooded Navajo father and white mother, Lori Arviso Alvord grew up on a New Mexico reservation in a family that took pride in its native heritage, but followed few of the traditional ways. She attended Navajo schools but never learned the language; she knew her clan relationships and enjoyed the security of tribal connections but seldom attended ceremonies or understood the depth of meaning in the Navajo concept "Walk In Beauty."
Such a person might expect to shed the remnants of tribal culture on leaving the reservation to become a high-powered surgeon, a career that by its very nature flies in the face of Navajo precepts like privacy and self-effacement.
Indeed, throughout her memoir, co-authored by Elizabeth Cohen Van Pelt, Alvord seems to straddle two worlds separated by an uncomfortable gulf. She first looked upon the deepness of that gulf at Dartmouth.
"For a girl who had never been far from Crownpoint, New Mexico, the green felt incredibly juicy, lush, beautiful and threatening." Unable to see the horizon, she felt claustrophobic. But the culture shock was worse. "I thought people talked too much, laughed too loud, asked too many personal questions, and had no respect for privacy." Navajos do not put themselves forward and cooperation is valued over competition. Not a good prescription for success at an Ivy League school.
At Dartmouth she began to feel her tribal identity more strongly and wonder if a kinaalda ceremony (a celebration of womanhood) would have helped empower her in such alien surroundings. But not until after medical school at Stanford, where she was forced to break numerous taboos (Navajo never touch the dead, for instance) and joined a profession where it is essential to ask prying, intimate questions and invade another's personal space at will, did Alvord really begin to explore the philosophical grounding of Navajo culture.
Becoming a surgeon at the Gallup Indian Medical Center, close to the reservation, Alvord notices that her patients do better when they are calm and relaxed, that harmony - even in the operating room when the patient is unconscious - is important for recovery.
She grows more interested in the Navajo philosophy that "everything in life is connected and influences everything else." To "Walk in Beauty" a person strives to live in balance, symmetry and harmony with everything and everyone else.
While this is an ancient precept, held in common with many other cultures and enjoying something of a renaissance in American medicine today, Alvord comes up with a particularly striking example. One of her surgery patients, a young woman, was the first to die of a strange illness that swept through the Navajo nation, killing 11.
A doctor working for the Centers for Disease Control, Ben Muneta, visited a medicine man, a hataalii, who told him "the illness was caused by an excess of rainfall, which had caused the pinon trees to bear too much fruit." There was "a significant deviation from the natural harmony of the world."
The medicine man showed a sand painting of a mouse and said that twice before in years of excess rainfall a similar disease had struck. " `Look to the mouse,' " he said. Weeks later the CDC determined that the Hantavirus was contracted from the droppings of infected deer mice. The deer mouse population had surged due to an excess of pinon nuts. "It was the rain."
Alvord's tone is quiet, reserved. It does not seem easy for her to describe the alcoholism of her charming father or the difficulties and generosity of her (married at 16) mother. Though she takes us to a nightlong ceremony for the sick and celebrates the strength her patients draw from medicine-man visits, she never explains why it takes her so long to visit a hitaalii during her own pregnancy. Or why she never approaches a medicine man to discuss cross-cultural treatments despite her growing conviction of the efficacy of the "whole body" approach.
While most of the book concentrates on her work and her struggle to reconcile cultures, she provides a wide, sad look at reservation life, beset by poverty and "white mans'" diseases. The long grief of history resides in the alcoholism and the self-loathing of so many - a balance that can never be put right.
At last Alvord leaves. Seeing it as the next natural step in her own "life trail", she returns to Dartmouth as a surgeon and a dean of minority and student affairs. At Dartmouth, she hopes, she can teach the Navajo "Walk In Beauty" principles to new doctors as well as working within the established system to bring better care to her own people.
The First Navajo Woman Surgeon........2007-04-09
I am full-blooded Navajo, I was taught to believe in my traditonal ways and it disappoints me that she has talked about very scared ceremonies.
Solid credentials but too abstract.......2003-12-04
--Dr Alvord writes about her journeys as a Native American student and physician. The book seems clearly designed for non-technical readers rather than the professional medical community, and there's little medical jargon. She uses her own difficult pregnancy and the death of a beloved grandmother as case studies in integrating Western medicine and Navajo ideas.
--On the one hand, it's worth reading this book just to hear such an inspirational story from such a role model. Dr Alvord tells her story with dignity and courage and she has many good ideas about listening to patients and integrating Balance and Harmony in our profession (although these ideas don't seem as radical or as rare within the medical community as she seems to imply, and I don't think she does anyone a great service by implying they are).
--On the other hand, the authors remained disappointingly abstract, even given the limitations of confidentiality and space. The stories of Navajo healing barely scratched the surface and the book was pretty scanty with practical advice that would help non-Native healers understand Native American patients. I'd love to have heard her perspectives on the magnitude of Native American health problems, how she handled the constant pressures of time and funding, or how she successfully used traditional Native American methods to help manage serious medical-social problems (i.e. alcohol use, diabetogenic diets, family pressures, basic compliance and responsibility issues, etc). In short, I'd like to have heard more about her successes.
--The book's perspective gives a good counterpoint to those who criticize Western medicine as too impersonal/sterile/uncaring/whatever, while they fail to demonstrate how to predictably improve things and still efficiently deliver technically competent health care to people with different levels of motivation and understanding. Western medicine works beautifully in its own niche, but it will be made to work less efficiently if we mess around with the wrong things. Perhaps medicine will improve if we balance the responsibilities of patients to live a healthy lifestyle with the responsibilities of healers to carefully listen to patients and then help them heal.
--This book did not practically help me to do this, so I cannot give it five stars despite my respect for her credentials. I do look forward to a sequel.
--Other books which may be of interest include Blessings (by Dr. A. Organick), The Dancing Healers, and Primary Care of Native American Patients.
READ THIS BOOK.......2003-05-10
I picked up this book and I could NOT put it down. What a wonderful journey described here....how she interlocks traditional medicine with Navajo, how harmony and positive spirit is such a process in the healing world. You will not be disappointed with this read. I have shared this with all those close to me. Make it part of your list
What We All Want in a Doctor.......2002-03-18
This book was recommended by a friend, and after I read it, I chose it as my selection for my book club. Living in the Southwest, the insight into Native American culture was especially educational. Alvord seems to confirm what so many of us as patients have been saying for years: give us a doctor who will take the time to get to know us on a personal level and treat the whole person. I would recommend this to men and women, young and old alike! What an amazing woman.
Book Description
The Sound of Music endeared Georg von Trapp (1880–1947) and his singing family to the world, and it also showed us how desperately the Nazis wanted Captain von Trapp for their navy. In To the Last Salute we learn why. Trapp’s own story of his exploits as a submarine commander during the First World War is as exciting as it is instructive, bringing to stirring life a little-known chapter in the naval history of that war.
In his many guises Trapp describes life as captain of Austro-Hungarian U-boats in the Mediterranean and Adriatic seas, emerging by turn as the Imperial Austrian naval officer, the witty observer of international politics, and the indefatigable and ultimately heartbroken patriot opposing the Allied enemy. He relates deadly duels with submarine sweepers, narrow escapes and excruciatingly close calls, and the spectacular sinking of cargo and war ships—all the while maintaining a keen sense of the camaraderie of seamen from every corner of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. A picture of a lost time, a portrait of a remarkable character, a window on early submarine warfare: Trapp’s story, in English for the first time, offers a rare combination of human interest, historical insight, and true life-and-death adventure.
Customer Reviews:
U-boats and insights into the geopolitical situation of Austro-Hungary in WWI. .......2007-10-09
This is reasonably light read broken into bite-size chapters covering a variety of experiences surrounding the author's service as a WWI Austrian U-boat captain, the boat technologies of the time and the everyday impact of the politics as Austria's empire unraveled. Austria's relationship with it's wealthy and larger German ally is seen from another perspective as well as the polyglot nature of the many ethnic groups belonging to and participating in the Austrian war effort. A fine military account from the man responsible for "The Sound of Music."
An engaging and moving memoir of life in the Austrian Navy.......2007-09-26
To the Last Salute is Georg Ritter von Trapp's memoir of commanding a U-boat in the Austrian Navy during World War I. While his style of writing does take some getting used to, von Trapp provides an engaging and suspenseful tale of life on a primitive submarine during an oft-neglected period of military history. The book also gives us an insight into von Trapp as a man, more insight than one finds in other books on the life of his famous family. His accounts of the horrors of war and the loss of his beloved navy at the end of the war are especially moving. For those interested in von Trapp, the Austrian Navy, World War I, and the history of submarine warfare, the book will be especially useful; anyone interested in the story of an intriguing, thoughtful, and courageous man will enjoy the chronicle of von Trapp's adventures as well.
Interesting History of the True Life "Captain" from the 'Sound of Music'........2007-08-22
Captain Georg von Trapp's Memoirs were published in Austria in German in the 1930's. One of his Grandaughters (an offspring of one of the real life von Trapp Family Singers)has translated her famous ancestor's work into English and now we can all see why the Evil Nazi's were so set on getting "The Captain" into their Navy when they took over Austria.
The work is very short and von Trapp has a matter of fact writing style similar to that of U.S. counterpart Gene Fluckey in his memoir of the USS Barb. Unlike Fluckey however von Trapp had to go to war in an antequated obsolete gasoline powered Austrian U-boat which was barely a step above the Turtle or the Hunley. A german U boat Captain told him upon going inside the ship that he "was lucky to be Alive". In addition he had to deal with a multinational crew that grew more restless as the war went on and their countries began to break away from the Hapsburg yoke.
The memoir is a good glimpse of a theatre of WWI which is barely mentioned, the Naval War in the Adriatic and the Mediterranean. Very little has been written of the War at sea between the Austrian navy on one side and the Italians and the French on the other. Most I have seen have dealt with the Royal Navy in the Dardanelles.
The book also begins with some von Trapp Family background and reveals many interesting facts such as the Captain's first wife was English and many of 'the children' were a lot older than 'sixteen going on seventeen' when they escaped Austria. Sadly when the Captain died of lung cancer in 1947 it may have been related to all of the gas fumes he inhaled on the poorly ventilated u boat during the war.
Finally!.......2007-08-08
I've wished for this book to be translated into English for a very long time! It was worth the wait.
I've always wanted to know more about Captain von Trapp, in his own words and this book is as close as I am going to get. It did not disappoint as it provided a window to see the Captain, the man.
I could not help but believe this book was more a compilation from a journal he may have kept. I also could not help but believe, if not for his modesty, there was so much more he could have shared.
Perhaps, without realizing it, he showed us many sides, least of which were his tender and compassionate side. How many military captains do you know would allow a rescued kitten to live on board his submarine?
I gave this book five stars, not so much for literary greatess as for the enjoyment received from reading it and having a few more questions answered.
It should be enjoyed by all Sound of Music fans and I believe those interested in history will enjoy it as well. Even though I knew the outcome, I could not help but hold my breath as he told of daring escapades while captaining his u-boats. I found myself, while reading about his experiences, thinking of the movie, K-9, The Widowmaker.
My only complaint, it was only 188 pages log. :-(
Excellent to see in an english translation.......2007-06-27
I had known of this book for many years, and had even thought about seeing if a publisher would be willing to entertain a translation. It was wonderful to see a member of the family lead the effort and have a copy back in print and in english after too many years out of print. It is a wonderful story of a patriotic naval officer, of a now absent navy tell of his adventures as the most successful captain of the Austro-Hungarian Navy. His work with his crew (from all over the empire) dealing with bureaucratic officers, sinking ships in an old sub, that his German peers recommended not taking to sea (they thought it unseaworthy and an antique), and then further adventures in a French sub, sunk then raised to strike again against them is intersting. Those who have read Lowell Thomas' account, or Edwyn Gray's books on the German WW1 submarine service will find this a very different tale and one worth comparing to other efforts.
For those who wondered where the Captain in the von Trapp family singers came from this fills in a void covering elements of his older children and first wife. Through his first wife, he was related to the inventor of the modern torpedo, who had set up a factory in Austra-Hungary before WW1.
The book is well written and reads quickly, and tells the tale of a dedicated and talented patriot in an prior phase of his life, which was later known to the world in song and story.
Book Description
One of our most influential anthropologists reevaluates her long and illustrious career by returning to her roots—and the roots of life as we know it
When Elizabeth Marshall Thomas first arrived in Africa to live among the Kalahari San, or bushmen, it was 1950, she was nineteen years old, and these last surviving hunter-gatherers were living as humans had lived for 15,000 centuries. Thomas wound up writing about their world in a seminal work, The Harmless People (1959). It has never gone out of print.
Back then, this was uncharted territory and little was known about our human origins. Today, our beginnings are better understood. And after a lifetime of interest in the bushmen, Thomas has come to see that their lifestyle reveals great, hidden truths about human evolution.
As she displayed in her bestseller, The Hidden Life of Dogs, Thomas has a rare gift for giving voice to the voices we don’t usually listen to, and helps us see the path that we have taken in our human journey. In The Old Way, she shows how the skills and customs of the hunter-gatherer share much in common with the survival tactics of our animal predecessors. And since it is “knowledge, not objects, that endure” over time, Thomas vividly brings us to see how linked we are to our origins in the animal kingdom.
The Old Way is a rare and remarkable achievement, sure to stir up controversy, and worthy of celebration.
Customer Reviews:
A passionate, thoughtful view of the Bushmen's hunter-gatherer culture.......2007-02-06
Thomas, anthropologist and author of such diverse bestsellers as "The Hidden Life of Dogs," and two excellent pre-history novels, "Reindeer Moon" and "The Animal Wife," began her writing career with the study, "The Harmless People," based on her youthful sojourn among the Bushmen of the Kalahari Desert. The Bushmen may be the only people who ever lived without war. But more on that later.
With "The Old Way," she returns to the subject of that first book - a title that has been in print since 1959. Marshall first encountered the Ju/wasi, one of the five groups of Bushmen, in 1950 when she was 18, on the first of several Kalahari trips with her parents and brother.
Her father, a founder of Raytheon, was a highly organized, take-charge sort of person, with versatile skills. Her mother, a former ballerina turned teacher, became a noted anthropologist over the course of these (and more) trips, and her brother devoted most of his life to the Bushmen.
In the 1950s the Ju/wasi maintained their ancient nomadic culture in near isolation. Except for bits of metal they obtained in trade and used for arrowheads, the Ju/wasi made everything they needed from local material. They did not farm and had no domestic animals, but obtained all their food from hunting and gathering. They were the last people on earth, says Thomas, to follow the "Old Way," a way of life that depends on knowledge handed down one-to-one from generation to generation. The Old Way depends on intimacy between habitat and humanity.
Thomas' book is not a scientific study or a memoir, but a bit of both, as well as a celebration and lament for a culture now gone. It's also a thoughtful reflection on how the Old Way shaped our species from the time we came down out of the trees and stepped on to the Savannah.
Water, says Thomas, controlled the size of human hunter-gatherer groups, and that remained true among the Ju/wasi. Rain was scarce, and water holes passed down through families. Though children were betrothed young, they did not cohabit until the girl reached menarche - about age 17 - and the average age for bearing a first child was 19.
Similarly, though no birth control was used, women bore children about four years apart and seldom had more than four. This was just what could be sustained, without starvation or overburdening the mother or group.
Alliances were complex, all going to foster the strength of the group. Survival depended on group cohesion and the force of their culture went into strengthening those bonds, subsuming, smothering, the desires of the individual.
The sharing of food, for instance, had little to do with who actually killed or gathered the food and the complex system was worked out before the gathering or hunting trip began. Periodic dances also reinforced ties and helped to dispel repressed tensions.
Repression was the usual means of maintaining harmony. Temper tantrums, even among children, were frowned upon - for one thing childish noise could attract predators. Arguments flared, of course, but were almost always settled without violence.
War, to the Ju/wasi, was unknown. Not because they were right thinking pacifists, but because they had developed the perfect weapon to make war - or murder - unthinkable.
The Ju/wasi had only one real weapon - the poisoned arrow. It was all they used to hunt (though they finished off game with a spear). The poison was invariably fatal. A man who settled an argument with a stab from an arrow couldn't take it back - but he would have days to watch his victim die. And the victim, facing certain death, would be perfectly healthy for a day or more and quite capable of wreaking revenge.
The lack of suitable weapons, and even more, the lack of any kind of shield, convince Thomas the Ju/wasi have never known war. She makes a convincing case.
By the 1980s, however, the Ju/wasi were being forced into villages. Many of those Marshall knew as children are now dead - killed in fights, often fueled with drink. Today, alcohol and violence have decimated the Ju/wasi.
While the book's conclusion is wrenching, most of it is a celebration of their intricate culture. Marshall captures the imagination with anecdotes - many from her old journals - that illustrate the matter-of-fact resourcefulness of a people who know the intricacies of all the plants and animals of their desert home.
Some of her anecdotes simply demonstrate the odd commonalities of humanity: "Although I will eventually learn enough !Kung to stumble along in the language...at this point I am at the stage where the Ju/wasi either address me in baby talk or raised voices, or both."
She describes gathering trips that take all day, but don't get going until mid-morning, baffling her own Yankee work ethic. Until she realizes the wisdom of waiting until lions and other nighttime predators are well and truly asleep.
The lion stories are horrifically thrilling. She describes a lioness coming to the edge of their small encampment and roaring threateningly: "The roar was so deep and so loud that it had no direction. It seemed to be coming from anywhere, everywhere." Yet, scary as they were, the lions never hunted or preyed upon the Bushmen.
Marshall does not try to provide answers for all her questions. Some things are "unknowable." This eloquent, passionate book does foster a sense of wonder at our own evolution. Though we've traded much of our intimacy with the earth for modern civilization, Marshall shows how many traces of the Old Way linger on in our blood.
A Treasure.......2007-01-19
I have all her books but two and I have been a fan for years and years. Starting with reindeer moon and then The hidden life of dogs, Tribe of Tiger, Certain Poor Shephards and everything else except Warrior Tribesman and The Harmless People which I plan to order. The books I have ordered or which were bought for me online were ordered by my best friend. I hope Elizabeth Marshall Thomas writes many more books. If I did not already have the most wonderful mother, I would wish that she was my mother. I really love her view of life, people and animals and nature. She is my favorite author of all time and I would'nt even loan her books to anyone else for fear of losing them. Keep it up EMT I'm forever your fan and I will always reread your books.
Beautiful and rare.......2007-01-16
I first heard of the Bushmen through National Geographic's Genographic Project (Spencer Wells "The Journey of Man") which found genetic evidence suggesting Bushmen are one of the oldest, if not the oldest, peoples in the world--a "genetic Adam" from which all the worlds ethnic groups can ultimately trace genetic heritage. Within the face of a Bushmen one can see all the genetic expressions of the world (Asian eyes, African nose, Indian skin, etc..) So I was delighted when this new book appeared by bushmen expert Elizabeth Marshall Thomas who, along with her brother and parents, were one of the first westerners to live with and scientifically document the Bushmen in the 1950s (when Elizabeth was a teenager). Her parents and brother went on to become famous Bushmen experts and proponents in their own careers.
Older members of the Bushmen tribe were valued and respected for their wisdom, likewise Elizabeth is passing down her knowledge and experience for later generations. The Bushman way of life she saw in the 1950s, perhaps as old as 150,000 years, no longer exists - all it took was one generation and the long unbroken chain known as "The Old Way" has disappeared. It is the same sad story told the world over from Native Americans to Tibet to Eskimos. Yet Elizabeth reveals a deeper lesson, which is the "myth" that the Bushmen ever wanted it any other way - they want the comforts of modernization, just as we would prefer not to hunt and gather food each day. Bushmen want to travel, see the world, be a part of wider humanity, and for that we can celebrate and welcome all they have to teach. This book provides that introduction.
Gift.......2007-01-15
After reading the super review on Amazon of this book, we ordered it for our son as a Christmas gift. He is a college senior Anthropology major. He was glad to have it and read it on the way home from FL to AZ. He said the book was very insighful and a good read.
A cautionary tale writ large.......2007-01-12
In "The Old Way: A Story of the First People", Elizabeth Marshall Thomas gives us a compelling tale of how the people of the tribes of the Kalahari have survived in an inhospitable land for some 150,000 years and in doing so, she also gives us vital clues on the survival of the human tribe in general. Thomas takes the reader on a journey with the Ju/Wasi as they live in the Nyae Nyae region and, through her telling of their tale, shows us meaningful and poignant examples of how to deal with interpersonal realtionships and the difficulties that arise therein.
This, her second book about the individuals of the Ju/Wasi, tells of the traditions of hunting and gathering that are vital to their survival, and of the dire consequences that result when they are prevented from pursuing and passing on those traditions to their children. Thomas also reminds us of how, when people from so-called developed countries meddle in the affairs of countries and people we don't fully understand, even the best of intentions can go awry.
Her descriptions of the dances and singing she witnesses moved me deeply, and seemed to stir long-forgotten memories of a time when we all sat huddled in a circle in the night, telling tales and sharing the lore that helped us to survive the spirits and predators lurking in the cold darkness beyond the glow of our small fires. By interweaving and illustrating her study of the Ju/Wasi and the Nyae Nyae region in which they lived with vignettes of the individuals of the tribe, Thomas brings us to a mirror in which we can glimpse our own ancestor's struggles for survival, no matter where that may have been.
"The Old Way: A Story of the First People" is a well-written and passionate book, and one that contains many lessons we would be well advised to re-learn and hold close to our hearts as we sruggle to find a means to continue to survive in an increasingly complex world.
Average customer rating:
- Good book, poor epilogue
- Fun book
- SEP makes it work!
- First Lady - excellent
- 4-1/2 Stars for a Feisty Lady
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First Lady
Susan Elizabeth Phillips
Manufacturer: Avon
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Phillips, Susan Elizabeth
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Kiss an Angel
ASIN: 0380808072
Release Date: 2000-02-08 |
Amazon.com
Setting: Contemporary eastern and midwestern America
Sensuality: 7
Daughter of a powerful politician and widow of an assassinated president, Cornelia (Nealy) Litchfield Case has spent her entire life under Secret Service and media scrutiny. When her father insists that she continue the first lady's social duties for the new bachelor president, she instead resolves to break out of her glamorous prison and live life as a normal American. She knows that she can't elude the Secret Service forever, but every moment of anonymity is priceless.
Mat Jorik is a pushover for a female in trouble. When his ex-wife dies and leaves him her two daughters, he agrees to drive them from the East Coast to their grandmother's Iowa home. They haven't gone far when he takes pity on another female and offers her a ride in return for her care of the baby and teenager. Nealy accepts his offer. Little does she know when she climbs into the Winnebago that she's about to lose her heart to two kids and a handsome man who she thinks is a steelworker. When Nealy discovers his real job, Mat may wish he'd confessed earlier. In the meantime, they're off on an adventure, the likes of which Nealy's never had before. But the Secret Service is hot on Nealy's trail and despite her best efforts, she's bound to be caught. The question is, what will happen to this slapdash family when they're found?
Wonderful characters are what you expect from Phillips, and that's exactly what you get here: a heroine with strong convictions about everything from letting a baby eat cheese curls off the floor to morals in politics; a hero who adamantly denies that he likes females even as he's saving and taking care of them; and two children that will pluck your heartstrings like they've never been plucked before. They spar their way through a wild trip on the road to happiness, making for a book that's funny, romantic, and just plain fun to read. --Lois Faye Dyer
Book Description
How does the most famous woman in the world hide in plain sight? The beautiful young widow of the President of the United States thought she was free of the White House, but circumstances have forced her back into the role of First Lady. Not for long, however, because she's made up her mind to escape -- if only for a few days -- so she can live the life of an ordinary person. All she needs is the perfect disguise . . . and she's just found it.
An entire nation is searching for her, but the First Lady is in the last place anybody would think to look: in the company of a man, an infuriatingly secretive and quietly seductive stranger whose charm, good looks, and sensuous appeal are awakening the forgotten woman within the dignitary. And with two adorable little orphaned girls in need of a family along for the ride, they're heading out across the heartland chasing their own American Dream -- on a wild journey of love, adventure, and glorious rebirth.
First Lady: A star-spangled, richly emotional story of self-discovery, celebrity, love, and family.
Download Description
The beautiful young widow of the President of the United States thought she was free of the White House, but circumstances have forced her back into the role of the First Lady. Not for long, however, because she's made up her mind to escape -- if only for a few days -- so she can live the life of an ordinary person. All she needs is the perfect disguise...and she's just found it. As an entire nation searches for her, the First Lady teams up with an infuriatingly secretive, quietly seductive stranger and two adorable little orphaned girls in need of a family. And all together they head out across the heartland chasing their own American Dream--on a wild journey, adventure, and glorious rebirth.
Customer Reviews:
Good book, poor epilogue.......2007-06-13
SEP offers nice escapism and fun. This implausible story is fun and sparks the reader's imagination. Nealy and Mat were great, but I especially enjoyed Lucy; SEP did a good job of getting the sullen, but loving, teen "just right." The epilogue wasn't believable at all. I doubt a person who ran from the "fish bowl" existence of First Lady would actively pursue the office of President later.
Fun book.......2007-06-08
I was surprised, but I really liked this book (I listened to it). I've been looking for some escapism and I enjoyed the characters (generally) and the adventure. But I really like the author, so I'm probably biased.
SEP makes it work!.......2006-06-25
When I read the back cover of this book, I thought the story was quite unbelievable but SEP manages to make it work in her own way. With her usual crisp dialogues and witty style, she makes the reader not only believe in the story but also that we were reading about a normal family instead of the first lady. Although some parts in the middle felt like a drag, this highly entertaining and fun book definitly deserves 4 stars!
First Lady - excellent.......2006-05-06
My wife and I have loved this book since we LISTENED to it as a book-on-tape a couple of yours ago. Since then we bought it on CD. I am just now finshing listnening to it againg. What and adventure!
Dick
4-1/2 Stars for a Feisty Lady.......2006-03-02
This was a really entertaining story centered around Cornelia Litchfield Case, First Lady of a recently deceased President, and unable to shed her responsibilities at the request of the current widowed President. "Nealy" decides enough is enough, comes up with a disguise and blends herself into a White House tour to escape the confines of her very guarded life (she is the daughter of a former Vice President of 8 years as well). This is where her adventure begins. While enjoying the road to freedom, she meets up w/Mat Jorik who is traveling from Pennsylvania to Iowa in Mabel - a well-worn motor home w/two youngsters - Lucy - age 14, street smart and badly in need of a family as well as her baby sister, Button. Mat too is looking for freedom, delivering the girls to their only living relative, their grandmother in Iowa, to keep them from being put in foster care. Mat was briefly married to their mother 15 years ago, is not the father of either one, however, their mother, Sandy (now deceased), had put his name on their birth certificates, for lack of a better candidate! After raising 7 sisters, the last thing Mat is looking for is a ready-made family. Without giving the storyline away, it is an amusing and extremely entertaining group when they all meet up on the road. We see Nealy, for the first time in her life, enjoying the simple pleasures of the world and Susan Elizabeth Phillip's character and scenery descriptions are nothing short of exceptional. I totally enjoyed this story. SEP is a fantastic author. "First Lady" is pure pleasurable reading.
Amazon.com
"I never thought I'd see the day that the world would want to hear what two old Negro women have to say," says Bessie Delany. But Bessie and her sister, Sadie, born in 1893 and 1891, saw plenty, by eating a low-fat, high-vegetable diet and outliving the "old Rebby [rebel] boys" who once almost lynched Sadie. This remarkable memoir was a long-running bestseller, spawning a Broadway play and adding to their list of seasoned acquaintances (Marian Anderson, Langston Hughes, Paul Robeson, Cab Calloway) such spring chickens as Hillary Clinton. Born to a former slave whose owners broke the law by teaching him to read, the sisters got a solid education. North Carolina was paradise--despite the Rebbies--until Jim Crow reared its hideous head. The girls had loved to ride in the front of the trolley because the wind in their hair made them feel free, but one day the conductor sadly ordered them to the back. The family moved to New York, where Bessie became the town's second black woman dentist and Sadie the first black woman home-ec teacher. They befriended everyone who was anyone in the Harlem Renaissance (their brother won the 1925 Congressional primary there), pursued careers instead of husbands, and lived peacefully together, despite their differences. Sadie was more peaceable, like Booker T. Washington, while Bessie was a W.E.B. Du Bois-style militant.
They're funny: Bessie notes that blacks must be sharp to get ahead, "But if you're average and white, honey, you can go far. Just look at Dan Quayle. If that boy was colored he'd be washing dishes somewhere." And they are wise: Sadie says, "Life is short, and it's up to you to make it sweet."
Book Description
Warm, feisty, and intelligent, the Delany sisters speak their mind in a book that is at once a vital historical record and a moving portrait of two remarkable women who continued to love, laugh, and embrace life after over a hundred years of living side by side.
Their sharp memories show us the post-Reconstruction South and Booker T. Washington; Harlem's Golden Age and Langston Hughes, W.E.B. Du Bois, and Paul Robeson. Bessie breaks barriers to become a dentist; Sadie quietly integrates the New York City system as a high school teacher. Their extraordinary story makes an important contribution to our nation's heritage--and an indelible impression on our lives.
From the Trade Paperback edition.
Customer Reviews:
A Candid Piece of American History.......2007-08-18
The Delany Sisters are simply a spectacular duo of fighters. Their story is one almost every person would find amazing. The way they see this world, and how their past experiences with Jim Crow and being colored in the South before the Civil Rights Movement shaped their perception of humans forever. The book is filled with very warm humor and it is essential to understand part of the complex psyche of 'colored' people in the United States today, which, by the way, is a term prefered by the Sisters over black or even African American to refer to themselves and their people.
The delightful Delany sisters.......2007-06-28
This book was recommended to me by my 95-year-old mother, and I must say it was an excellent recommendation.
Author Amy Hill Hearth must have had numerous conversations with Sadie (age 102) and her "little sister" Bessie (100). The book is written with the words and the spirit of these two special ladies shining through each page. The Delany sisters were born to a father who was a former slave and who got an education and later became the first black bishop in the Episcopal Church. Their mother had white blood, but she chose to marry and socialize among the black race. As the sister explain, if you had one drop of black blood at that time, you were considered a Negro.
The sisters describe their growing-up years and their gratitude for their parents' love, guidance, and the high standards of conduct which they held up to their children. They tell what is was like to be chased by the Ku Klux Klan, discriminated against by teachers and employers, and be the victims of the Jim Crow laws. They mention the illustrious black people, such as Adam Clayton Powell, and Cab Calloway, who were part of their social circle. They tell about their patriotism during WWI and WWII and in one of the most poignant comments in the book Bessie says, "We were good citizens, good Americans! We loved our country, even though it didn't love us back."
This is a look back at American history by two women whose family was prominent in the black community, but mostly unknown in the white world.
It is an eye-opener and is a wonderful story.
The Delany Sisters: Trailblazers.......2007-06-12
Let's just say I fell in love with the sisters so much that I adopted their last name. I am in awe of these remarkable woman, still. After living for more than a century they did not believe they had a story to tell. I am grateful that Amy Hill Hearth was able to convince them otherwise.
Their accomplishments were remarkable not only what the two oldest sisters did but the entire Delany family. Their father Henry was borned into slavery, however, he did not use that as an excuse. All of the Delany children were trailblazers because there were no civil rights for people of color in the early 1900's. They did what they had to do, Bessie was honest and brutal as she felt it was her duty to tell people the truth. Sadie was considered the sweet one, however, she too was a go-getter.
I recommend this book and the two other books that were co-authored by Amy Hill Hearth. Without Ms. Hearth these women and their stories would have never been told, I am thankful to her for bringing them into my life. I expected the sisters to live forever but Bessie died in 1995 shortly after turning 104 and Bessie at 109 in 1999. They are still alive in the hearts of many of us and in the pages of their books.
a terrific book! .......2007-06-01
HAVING OUR SAY: THE DELANY'S FIRST 100 YEARS is simply one of the most engaging, educational and insightful memoirs I have read about two extraordinary women (Bessie and Sadie Delaney) who saw tremendous change and evolution in the world, over the course of (more than) a century. These two fiesty women penned this wonderful book, with an introduction by Amy Hill Hearth, and I remember well how phenomenal it was to see them interviewed together, on PBS, when the book went to press, prior to the release of a made-for-TV-movie version of their memoirs.
This book is great for anyone looking to connect the present with the past; particularly through the eyes of two exceptional women who were born in South Carolina during the mid 1890s, experiencing racism firsthand (as two educated African-American women) and met many individuals who were instrumental in adding art, culture and brilliance to the Harlem Renaissance (a great cultural movement that took place between the 1920s and 1940s, in Harlem, New York, celebrating the cultural achievements of many African-American artists, musicians, dancers, photographers, writers, sculptors and radicals alike). What's more, these two women received college educations at time when it was unusual for Caucasian men to obtain them! Read this and tell two more people to check out the book, when you're through. Great reading!
A Piece of Genuine History.......2007-05-12
This is a real look into the history of a black family from the days of slavery until the present. It gives us personal insight into how life was then, the struggle to overcome poverty, and the closeness of a wonderful family. It's hard to put this one down.
Average customer rating:
- A Fine Debut Heralds Brilliance to Come
- Where's the beef
- Very good first book, but it gets better!
- A solid mystery novel
- Suffer the little children
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A Great Deliverance
Elizabeth George
Manufacturer: Bantam Books
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Binding: Hardcover
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Missing Joseph
ASIN: 0553052446
Release Date: 1988-05-01 |
Book Description
To this day, the low, thin wail of an infant can be heard in Keldale's lush green valleys. Three hundred years ago, as legend goes, the frightened Yorkshire villagers smothered a crying babe in Keldale Abbey, where they'd hidden to escape the ravages of Cromwell's raiders.
Now into Keldale's pastoral web of old houses and older secrets comes Scotland Yard Inspector Thomas Lynley, the eighth earl of Asherton. Along with the redoubtable Detective Sergeant Barbara Havers, Lynley has been sent to solve a savage murder that has stunned the peaceful countryside. For fat, unlovely Roberta Teys has been found in her best dress, an axe in her lap, seated in the old stone barn beside her father's headless corpse. Her first and last words were "I did it. And I'm not sorry."
Yet as Lynley and Havers wind their way through Keldale's dark labyrinth of secret scandals and appalling crimes, they uncover a shattering series of revelations that will reverberate through this tranquil English valley—and in their own lives as well.
Customer Reviews:
A Fine Debut Heralds Brilliance to Come.......2007-06-23
A Great Deliverance by Elizabeth George is the author's well-written debut. There is a good mystery in a small township known as Keldale Abby. The gruesome killing of a man and his dog brings in Scotland Yard Inspector Thomas Lynley and Detective Sergeant Barbara Havers. Lynley hails from the rich upper class, and is a handsome man, while Havers comes from a poor lower class family, and is a plain looking woman. Though this novel has many strong points including a smooth and almost poetic writing style by George, and an evocative small town and its denizens, its real strength comes from the introduction to the two compelling lead charachters. There relationship and how it grows, not just in this book, but in the books to follow, is the real strength of this series.
This is a solid 3.5 star novel.
Where's the beef.......2007-05-13
First a disclaimer: I was drawn to read Elizabeth George after having read 10's of rave comments about her books. I had run out of mysteries on my shelf so decided to give her a try.
Maybe I've been wallowing too long in the Elmore Leonard, Carl Hiassin school of mysteries but I found this to be even more plodding than most british mysteries. There was all this convoluted useless nonsense about the backstories on the oh, so class conscious pair of police colleagues. Then there was the sudden inprobable device to solve the mystery with people related to each other in the most absurd arrangement.
Very good first book, but it gets better!.......2006-07-12
The first book I read in this series was "Misssing Joseph" and I was enthralled. So I thought I'd read the series from the beginning and was quite disappointed with "A Great Deliverance"--there are way too many over-the-top character descriptions, it's much too much black and white, people are not either demons or angels in real life. Also, the author makes an excruciating effort at using unusual, archaic words (is it a tic left over from the old high school teacher to prove that she knows them and wants us to check in the dictionary?). I really appreciated all the literary references to Shakespeare and the Bible, and the story line was interesting, although on more than one occasion, I wondered where she was leading the reader with this plethora of badly defined characters. Thankfully, it all comes together in the end (the last third of the book is much more enjoyable), and I will keep on reading the other books in the series since I had a taste of a much better book in "Missing Joseph."
A solid mystery novel.......2006-02-13
I tend to judge a book based on what it sets out to achieve and to what degree it succeeds. A Great Deliverance sets out, as far as I can tell, to be a great mystery novel. And it is. Hence the five stars. This is one of those great books where you don't, at any point, feel a little 'stuck'. You know that feeling you get with some books where you sigh and think 'I'll just get through this part and it will pick up again'. None here! The mystery within the village is nicely couterbalanced by the tensions in the relationships among the characters (Lynley, Havers, Deborah, and Simon). Waiting to find out how both would resolve themselves made it a great read start to finish.
Suffer the little children.......2005-11-16
This is M/s George's first novel and the reader's introduction to D.I.Lynley, eigth Earl of Asherton, and D.S.Barbara Havers, that unlikely couple of detectives whos careers and lives continue in further stories. Thomas Lynley is an elegant, aristocratic, former Etonian and Oxford man, well dressed, well educated and well connected. Barbara is fat, badly dressed and teetering between extremely homely and just plain ugly, with a consquent lack of self esteem. They have been teamed by Scotland Yard to investigate an horrific murder in Yorkshire, where it is claimed that a farmer's daughter decapitated him with an axe. Initially, Barbara is totally intimidated by Lynley, as much by the division of their social classes and her inbuilt prejudice, as by his reputation, deserved or not, as a womaniser who sweeps all before him, but soon realises that this somewhat foppish exterior is a mask for a shrewd brain. During the story, Lynley is forced to face and to come to terms with his relationship with Deborah, his former fiancee and now the new wife of his oldest friend. The murder story revolves around a most unpleasant subject, but one which is cleverly plotted and written by Elizabeth George with a most satisfactory ending. It's a great read !
Book Description
Fresh from the curious and unsettling matter of Caroline Bingley (as related in Pride and Prescience), Mr. and Mrs. Darcy have every intention of enjoying their still newlywed status at Pemberly until they are confronted with another mysterious situation, .... one ofSuspense and SensibilityElizabeth Darcy and her beloved husband Fitzwilliam are taking on the responsibility of finding a suitable suitor for Elizabeth's younger sister Kitty, thereby assuring her a proper place in society.The angels smile on the young and a perfect match is found, and wedding plans are soon under way. Suddenly a change in personality occurs in Kitty's soon to be model husband-a change so striking as to jeopardize not just the Darcys' social standing, but their lives as well.A mysterious mirror, an insidious reprobate from the past, and matters far beyond the social circles around Pemberly all come into play in a dangerous puzzle, where the consequences may be the exchange of a soul for a soul.Once again the Darcys take center stage as the Regency era's answer to The Thin Man's Nick and Nora, searching for truth between tea times, amid the social whirl of Jane Austen's England.
Customer Reviews:
First think of a story.......2007-07-23
How disappointed I was in Suspense and Sensibility, third of the Bebris continuations of Elizabeth and Darcy written by Bebris which I have read!! The first two thirds of the book seemed reasonable because I couldn't believe Bebris would take the cop-out route and choose to tie up what could have been a very rational, concrete, Austen-style story, with a horrid, implausible, supernatural, uncreative, unreasonable wrap-up! If she tries to continue with Darcy and ELizabeth in future writings I hope she first thinks through a decent story before she bothers picking up her pen.
A mystery and a sequel to Pride and Prejudice in one book!.......2007-07-07
This is a series where the newly married Mr and Mrs. Darcy stumble into these mysteries. This is the second book by Carrie Bebris, the first one is Pride and Prescience. In this book the Darcy's take Kitty to London in hopes of find her a husband. She falls for a Mr. Harry Dashwood, son on Fanny and John Dashwood from Jane Austen's Sense and Sensiblity, I love how the author entertwined the characters from these two beloved novels. However, this author also introduces Sir Frances Dashwood, a real person who lived around the time of Jane Austen and decided to make him related to the Dashwoods from Sense and Senseiblity. He was infamous for his debauchery and bad deeds. How does he become involved in this novel, you ask? Well the young Harry Dashwood, engaged to Kitty Bennet, brings a mysterious mirror and portrait of his infamous relative into his abode. Then he himself takes on a different behavior, is he idolizing his relative? Is her really a blackguard? What does this do to the Darcy's?
What a great page turner. You will be reading about your favorite characters from Pride and Prejudice as well as Sense and Sensibilty.
Sense and Sensibility.......2007-07-04
I'm a Jane Austen fan so this was a nice read and interesting as the characters ring true.
Love this series!.......2007-06-20
Fast read. As hokey as it sounds to read Jane Austen inspired mysteries, this series is remarkably entertaining and well-written. Love the originality of the story and how true the characters are to Jane Austen's originals. Well worth the puchase. Buy one, you gotta buy them all, as you'll be hooked.
Simply wonderful.......2007-01-20
Carrie Bebris has done it again ... better. SUSPENSE & SENSIBILITY is an unputtdownable read until you've devoured the last page. Her use of history -- both the history of the times and the history of Austen's characters -- is inspired. And she keeps the focus precisely where Austen kept it -- on the characters and the fascinating world they inhabit.
Once again, Bebris has blended elements of the supernatural into the story, which only enhances the personalities she is following. The result is gripping, interesting and thoroughly in step with the original Austen.
What I like even more about this second book in the series is that unlike the first, PRIDE & PRESCIENCE, there is much less action than there is interaction. (In P&P, there was a harrowing carriage accident, among other things, much at odds with the usual drawing room comedies.) This one turns on the characters' interactions in ballrooms, teas, and other quiet pastimes of the era -- but you simply can't stop reading.
If Jane Austen is your cup of tea, then drink deeply of SUSPENSE & SENSIBILITY. And when you're done, put it down with a sigh -- and reach for Bebris's third installment, NORTH BY NORTHANGER -- which so far (I haven't finished it yet) is even better!
Average customer rating:
- A good biography of the Virgin Queen by Tudor Scholar Erickson
- Nearly reads like a novel ...
- First Elizabeth a reading pleasure
- Hail Britainia
- Elizabeth the Woman & the Queen
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The First Elizabeth
Carolly Erickson
Manufacturer: St. Martin's Griffin
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
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ASIN: 031216842X |
Book Description
In this remarkable biography, Carolly Erickson brings Elizabeth I to life and allows us to see her as a living, breathing, elegant, flirtatious, diplomatic, violent, arrogant, and outrageous woman who commands our attention, fascination, and awe.With the special skill for which she is acclaimed, Carolly Erickson electrifies the senses as she evokes with total fidelity the brilliant colors of Elizabethan clothing and jewelry, the texture of tapestries, and even the close, perfumed air of castle rooms. Erickson demonstrates her extraordinary ability to discern and bring to life psychological and physical reality.
Customer Reviews:
A good biography of the Virgin Queen by Tudor Scholar Erickson.......2005-12-05
Carolly Erickson has done her homework on the Tudors of England and in her 1984 biography of Queen Elizabeth (1533-1603)
does a fine biographical profile.
Elizabeth's mother Anne Boleyn died at the stake failing to produce a male heir for the cruel HENRY VIII. Her only chld was Elizabeth who ruled Britain from 1558 to her death in 1603.
Elizabeth had a difficult and dangerous life dealing with such
enemies as:
1. The might of Spain and France.
2. Various Catholic groups wanting to assasinate the Protestant leaning queen.
3. Personal enemies include her half-sister Queen Bloody Mary
who at times had Elizabeth imprisoned in the tower. She burned
Protestants at the stake in her short reign from 1546-1553 following the death of her half-brother Edward VI (son of Henry and Jane Seymour). Another enemy was Mary Queen of Scots who Elizabeth had executed in 1587.
4. Elizabeth was very intelligent, crafty and skilled in survival in a dangerous time of civil war, various rebellions and complicated international political and religious warfare.
Erickson is good at writing Elizabeth's story focusing on her many love affairs most notably with the Earl of Leicester.
Elizabeth's reign is well told in this biography which is a good place for a burgeoning interest in Tudor History to bloom.
The book is one of the finest I have read on Elizabeth. I can
recommend it to anyone who enjoys a good story well told about one of the great female rulers in history!
Nearly reads like a novel ..........2002-08-23
I tend to read mostly fiction, but for some reason earlier this year I decided to foray into biographies. This book gives you a peek into Elizabethan life, gives you insight into Elizabeth I's personality, and you learn quite a lot of history, scandals, and rumours-of-the-day along the way.
This book reads more like a biographical novel than a pure biography, which, considering the subject matter is about 500-years old, probably means some license was taken with dialogue, etc., however, I think the style makes the subject infinitely more memorable.
First Elizabeth a reading pleasure.......2002-01-25
The major difference in "The First Elizabeth" by Carolly Erickson and "The Life of Elizabeth I" by Alison Weir is stylistic. Both women are thoroughly versed in the life of their royal subject, and obviously enthusiastic about her as well.
Erickson's style, however, leans more toward novelistic narrative. She seems to be sitting with you, telling you a story about this great monarch with her infamous "virgin" status, her political adeptness, her fearsome temper, her penchant for swearing oaths that made one's blood freeze, and her ability to command deep love and adoration from her subjects.
This style is especially appealing for those for whom this biography is their first foray into Tudor biography. It introduces the major players in the queen's life thoroughly so that one is well acquainted with Robert Dudley, Cecil and Walsingham, as well
